Chapter Text
Chapter 1
It was in the middle of Republic City's worst ever rainstorm when Lin Beifong decided to grace the world with her presence. Her mother, luckily, had agreed to stay on Air Temple Island about a week prior to her child's birth so that, when the time came, Toph could easily reach Katara without taking a boat across the Bay, and wouldn't be forced to – in Toph's own words – "have some strange woman stick her head between my legs." So the process went relatively well. Toph and Katara shut themselves in a previously prepared room, while Aang and Sokka took Kya and Bumi and Tenzin to the sitting room on the other side of the house…which did nothing to drown out the sounds. It seemed Toph was determined to do anything she could to somehow relieve the pains of labor, which included cursing loudly and shaking all of Air Temple Island with her earthbending.
Within only twenty minutes of Toph being in labor, Sokka had created a game. Though Aang had shook his head when Sokka had asked him to play, Kya and Bumi – despite being only three and four years old – had happily accepted the challenge. So as the storm outside raged on, the three of them playfully argued over whether it was the thunder rattling the roof, or Toph's earthbending.
Until, at long last, the storm outside calmed to a drizzle and a baby's first cries were heard. Leaving the kids with Sokka, Aang went to check that everything was all right, and there he met Toph's newborn, a baby girl named Lin who had a thin tuft of ebony hair and bright green eyes.
A little while later, once the new mother and her newborn had rested, Kya, Bumi, and Tenzin were allowed to meet the new baby, which they had excitedly anticipated all day. Kya had squealed, "She's pretty!" Bumi had added, "She's tiny!"And Tenzin, being only a year old, simply stared at the little baby in awe, and then reached out curiously to touch Lin's cheek before quickly withdrawing his hand.
From that point on, a friendship grew between Lin and Tenzin. For the first few years of their lives, when Toph would need someone to babysit Lin, or when the two Beifongs would simply come to Air Temple Island for a visit, Lin and Tenzin would be together almost the entire time due to their closeness in age. Bumi and Kya were much older and more hyper, and always ran around together, while Lin and Tenzin were content to be entertained by their parents or whatever toy they found nearby. Sometimes Lin and Tenzin fought over who got what toy, but usually Tenzin would just hand it over before Lin became too enraged.
However, once they were around seven and eight, they could finally keep up with Kya and Bumi, and their friendship became a bit estranged for about a year. No one was really certain on the reason why. Lin had become distant ever since the year before when her baby sister, Suyin, was born - much to Lin's chagrin - but Tenzin was one of the few people not fawning over the newborn. Perhaps it was because they had finally gotten sick of each other, or maybe it was because they were both in the middle of learning their own bending techniques and therefore much more competitive. Either way, the strain between them eventually resulted in a broken nose – Lin's – and a broken arm – Tenzin's. After their bones were mended, instead of making up, Tenzin had started spending all his time in Air Temple Island's meditation pavilion, while Lin would run off causing mischief with Bumi, and sometimes Kya – though not as often because at that time Kya had a best friend in the city that she spent most of her time with.
In the end, it was Yakone's trial that finally brought Lin and Tenzin back together. The four older children had heard of the man who was supposedly bloodbending people, and while they were horrified, none of them had admitted it, and so had gone about their day as usual on the afternoon they knew Aang, Toph, and Sokka were in trial with the potentially dangerous man. Lin had been determined not to get too worked up over the situation. After all, her mother risked her life all the time, so she was used to it.
However, everything changed when a severely serious-looking Aang returned to Air Temple Island, with a trembling Sokka trailing behind and an unconscious Toph in the Avatar's arms.
The mini explosives Lin held in her arms tumbled to the ground as her arms came to hang at her sides. She did not notice when the explosives went off at her feet, or when Bumi began hopping around and screeching and trying to drag Lin away from the mild danger. Instead the young girl stared at her mother's limp frame in shock. Never had Lin seen her mother look so frail, so weak, so…vulnerable. Not even after Su was born. At eight years old, Lin was convinced her mother was practically invincible, especially after hearing all the stories from when Toph had helped the Avatar and his friends end the Hundred Year War.
When Lin was capable of movement again, she ran as fast as her now blistered feet would carry her, refusing to allow the tears that were stinging her eyes to fall down her face. She chased after Aang and Sokka's quickly moving forms, following them into Aang and Katara's home. When Lin finally caught up to the adults, she was out of breath. Her chest heaved and her throat was raw as her deprived lungs fought for air, but she ignored it and slipped into the room Aang had taken Toph into.
Sokka was standing in the doorway, leaning heavily against the wall, and noticed Lin's tiny frame streak past him. He reached out and grabbed her sleeve, pulling her back and crouching down to be eye level with her as he said, "Lin, you shouldn't be in here."
Lin looked into Sokka's worry-filled eyes, wondering if she had ever seen that look in his eyes before. She couldn't remember, but it scared her. Sokka was like the father she never had, and he clearly cared for Lin and Toph and Su as if they were his family, so in most cases, Lin was inclined to listen to him. But right now she was determined that no one was going to keep her from her mother. Sokka noticed the fire in her eyes, and with a slight bow of his head, he released her.
Lin quickly spun around and focused her attention on the bed across the room, where her mother now lay, with Katara leaning over her. Katara and Aang were speaking in hushed tones, but Lin heard them just fine.
"What did he do to her?" Katara whispered while moving her hands over Toph's unresponsive frame. "No one else is like this?"
Aang shook his head and replied. "No, everyone else is just shaken up. I don't know what Yakone did to her. He had her unlock his cuffs, and then he knocked everyone unconscious, but when everyone else woke back up, Toph didn't."
Lin could take no more of this. With a barely suppressed sob, she rushed over to the bed and crawled up beside Toph, careful not to jostle her mother. Katara gasped. Lin looked up at the Avatar – another father figure to her – with tear filled eyes and desperately asked, "Will momma be okay? She's gonna be okay, right?" Turning to Katara she added, "You can fix her can't you?"
Aang and Katara exchanged a look, and Aang answered, "Katara's doing her best to help your mother, Lin. You shouldn't be in here, why don't I get you some tea?"
"No!" Lin cried, gripping her mother's limp hand tightly and burying her face in the mattress space between Toph's forearm and ribs.
"She can stay," Katara said quietly, and Lin wondered why they were talking in such hushed voices, but she didn't bother to ask.
"Are you sure?" Aang said skeptically.
"Yes, she won't get in the way, and it'll only upset her more if you move her. Why don't you get Sokka some of that tea? He looks like he needs it."
There was a pause, and then Aang said, "You're right."
"Suyin is napping," Katara added distractedly, focused on her task. "You may want to check in on her."
Soon Aang and Sokka had gone, and Lin felt suddenly alone. Katara was there, but she was focused on healing Toph, so Lin did not want to distract her. So the small girl lay against her mother's weak form, while the well-practiced waterbender silently worked on the fallen earthbender. Lin squeezed her eyes closed, biting her lip as tears streamed down her cheeks and she sniffled quietly. She was not sure how long she lay there, or how long she was out of it when she somehow managed to fall asleep, and so she was horribly confused when at last she woke up.
She sat bolt upright, casting her gaze quickly around the room as the memories flooded back to her and she realized that Katara was no longer present. Instead, Tenzin was kneeling on the floor, his hands placed atop one another on the bed and his chin resting on his hands. Besides Toph, they were the only two in the room.
Tenzin looked up at Lin with solemn gray eyes, slowly lifting his head and – somehow even more slowly – rose to his feet. "My mom said yours should be okay soon," he told her.
Lin looked down at her mother, whose eyes were clenched shut and whose complexion was a bit too pale, but her chest rose and fell in a normal pattern, assuring Lin that here mother was simply sleeping at the moment.
Tenzin's voice broke through Lin's thoughts. "Lin? Can we be friends again?"
She looked at him for a moment, thinking about what he said, though not for very long. And then she smiled a little and nodded an affirmative.
Tenzin sighed in relief. "Good. I missed you."
Lin then allowed Tenzin to envelope her in a hug, only for them to spring apart when a weak voice spoke up from beside them. "It's about damn time you two kissed and made up."
Tenzin's cheeks turned red, but Lin merely grinned and crawled further up the bed to hover over her mother's face. "Momma!" she said excitedly. "You're awake!"
"Yeah I am," Toph said. "C'mere, kid."
Lin was only too happy to oblige, laying her head gently atop her mother's chest and reveling in the familiar comfort of her mother's arms around her.
"Focus, Tenzin," Aang murmured, his eyes remaining closed to continue his meditation, all while knowing that his youngest son was notmeditating.
"Huh? Oh! Sorry…" Tenzin sucked in a breath and then slowly breathed out.
A moment later, though, Aang was still very much aware that Tenzin was not meditating. This was normal for Tenzin's older sister, Kya, who had already chased after Bumi long ago, and often argued that as a waterbender she didn't need to be meditating with a couple of airbenders. Tenzin, on the other hand, was usually rather good at keeping his thoughts on meditation. Today, however, the ten year old's mind was elsewhere, and Aang had a feeling he knew why.
Squinting one eye open, Aang quickly observed his son, who was sitting in the proper meditative stance, but his eyes were not closed and his head was turned slightly to the right, his gaze focused on the Bay.
Aang smirked, opening his eyes fully as he asked, "Something on your mind, Tenzin?"
Tenzin jumped slightly, looking back at his father with a sheepish expression as he replied, "I guess so."
"Would you like to share what's bothering you?" inquired Aang.
Tenzin shook his head. "Nothing's bothering me, I'm just…excited, I guess."
"About Lin?"
Tenzin, who had looked back out at the Bay, returned his gaze to his father with an expression of surprise, his cheeks turning pink. "No!" Tenzin said quickly, then he frowned, shaking his head. "I mean…well, yes, I am glad that she and her mother and Su will be here today. It's strange not seeing them for so long."
Aang nodded his agreement, a knowing smile on his face that Tenzin astutely ignored. In truth, Aang was rather excited about the Beifongs' return as well, as they had been gone for nearly a year now. After the disaster of Yakone's trial, Toph had grudgingly admitted to feeling rather weakened, and once everything was squared away and back to normal, she had decided to take a bit of an extended vacation from her sometimes stressful job, leaving her most trusted officer in charge of the Metalbending Police Force while she was away. So Toph and her daughters had set off to Gaoling to visit with Toph's parents, and then moved on from there to get some relaxation away from the bustling streets of Republic City. Aang's family had received a few letters from Lin, discovering that they had stayed a bit longer than planned so that Toph could spend some extra time teaching Lin more about earthbending. Aang could hardly imagine how advanced Lin would be when she returned, considering she was already a nine year old prodigy when it came to earthbending. She wasn't a master yet, of course, but she was a hell of a lot closer than most earthbenders twice her age.
A few days ago Katara had received a letter from Lin and read it aloud to the family at dinner. The letter explained that Lin and Toph had decided it was finally time to return home, and listed the date and estimated time of arrival, as the two of them, along with Su, would be stopping at Air Temple Island to visit their friends for the first time in nearly a year, before they went to their own house in the City. Katara had been cooking all day in preparation, while Kya and Bumi decorated the island in balloons – or rather, went around sneaking up behind people to pop the balloons in their ears and scare them. Despite knowing that Lin, Su, and Toph would likely be arriving within the hour, Aang had decided to get the day's meditation in with Tenzin, but it seemed attempting meditation was futile when Tenzin was too anxious at seeing his best friend.
"We've had enough meditation for today," Aang said, rising to his feet and holding out a hand to Tenzin, who looked up at his father excitedly before taking the proffered hand and jumping to his feet. "How about you be our lookout and let us all know when the Beifongs get here?"
Tenzin smiled and took off, calling over his shoulder, "Thanks, Dad!"
Chuckling and shaking his head, Aang left the meditation pavilion to go find his wife.
Meanwhile, Tenzin positioned himself on one of the higher rock edges of the island, watching Yue Bay anxiously. He had not seen Lin in so long it was almost unsettling. The two of them had grown up together, only a year apart in age, and had become rather close friends. They understood each other better than anyone else, and could spend hours together without running out of things to talk about. They also argued a bit, and Lin never passed up an opportunity to tease Tenzin or kick a rock at him, but he was pretty sure they were best friends now that those few months of estrangement were behind them.
Tenzin didn't have to wait long before he saw the approaching boat that marked the imminent arrival of Toph, Su, and Lin Beifong. Excitedly jumping up into the air with the help of some airbending, he went off to alert the rest of the family before running back out to meet the Beifongs.
Tenzin was the first of his family to arrive at the docks just as the boat came to a stop. Tenzin briefly glanced in the direction of his siblings – who were sprinting in his direction, pushing and shoving one another and cackling wildly – before looking up and meeting Lin's bright green eyes. He grinned up at her and waved. "Hey, Lin!"
Lin smiled and hurried off the boat, and the moment she landed on the dock she jumped straight into Tenzin's arms. He caught her easily, though her tiny frame did manage to make him stumble back slightly. They laughed and embraced, both of them glad to see one another after so long.
Lin pulled back quickly, excitement in her eyes as she said, "Tenzin, watch this!" She held out her open palm, displaying to him what looked to be a normal metal coin. But with an intense look of concentration and a twitch of her fingers, the coin transformed into a triangular shape.
"Wow!" said Tenzin, eyes wide in awe. "You're a metalbender now?"
"She sure is!" Toph answered, stepping up beside her eldest daughter and ruffling the young girl's hair. While normally Lin would cringe at her mother ruffling her hair, today she seemed too excited, and instead smiled up at her mother proudly. Even more surprising, Lin's smile did not waver when she looked over at her baby sister, who was perched in their mother's arms, and whom Lin hadn't had much fondness for ever since she'd been born. It seemed Lin and Toph and Su had bonded while away, and though Tenzin had missed Lin, he supposed the vacation was good for them.
Suyin had gotten bigger since Tenzin had seen her last, but she was still very much a baby in his eyes. She had turned three years old while the Beifongs had been away, and Tenzin wasn't sure the toddler even recognized him.
"LIN!" two voices shouted then, and Tenzin nearly fell off the dock as Kya and Bumi pushed past him and wrapped Lin in a bone crushing hug.
Toph, who had sidestepped just in time, reached out to grab Tenzin's arm before he fell into the water. He gave her a grateful look and then, remembering she couldn't see it, said, "Thanks, Toph."
"Don't mention it, kid," she said, punching him in the shoulder and nearly sending him flying off the dock yet again. With a bit of airbending he kept himself on the dock this time, and stepped back from Toph, Lin, and his siblings so no one would knock him over for a third time.
Toph carefully stepped around Kya, Bumi, and Lin to go greet Katara and Aang. Tenzin stood back for a few moments and watched his siblings attack Lin before he decided to intervene. With Tenzin and Lin in the middle, Kya beside Lin, and Bumi beside Tenzin, the four children walked, arm in arm, up to the Avatar's family home. Aang, Toph, and Katara trailed along behind the children, Su now bouncing in Katara's arms. All the way back up to the dining room where Katara's feast awaited them all, Lin showed off her new found talents while Toph cheerfully gloated about what a great teacher she was and how her daughter was going to be the next greatest earthbender.
Lin and Tenzin spent nearly the entire evening together, catching up and completely resolving whatever estrangement they had had only a year earlier.
But the defining moment in Lin and Tenzin's friendship did not come until a couple years later.
It was Lin's thirteenth birthday, and Sokka and Toph had set up a small birthday party for her in the backyard of Lin and Toph's home. The three of them, Su, and the Avatar's family, were the only people in attendance, which they knew Lin would prefer. The afternoon went great, and Lin truly seemed to enjoy her day despite a few hiccups. Kya had brought along a new boyfriend, and Lin and Tenzin had delighted in teasing the obviously nervous and uncomfortable young man. Bumi and Suyin had accidentally shot some fireworks into Lin's pile of gifts, but she had simply laughed and punched Bumi in the shoulder, thereby saving the older teen from his mother.
Now six years old, Suyin was getting into just as much mischief as the older kids, if not more so, and the relationship she had with her older sister grew more strained every year. Lin was beginning to mature, while Su was acting out, and since Toph often left them together to spend so much of her time at work, tension was growing between the two sisters. Lin was trying too hard to keep Su in line and the younger girl was resisting. It seemed the only thing keeping them together for the moment was Sokka, who looked out for the girls while their mom was away at work, and remained one of the only people both sisters would listen to. Sokka, who somehow managed to drop Lin's cake halfway through the birthday party, which earned him an earful of scolding from Toph, but Katara had simply offered to make a new one and the night of fun continued.
Things went downhill later that evening. Lin and Tenzin were in the middle of an intense, yet controlled argument about something that, once he was older, Tenzin wouldn't even be able to remember. All he really remembered about the night was what happened after the shouting started.
It came from inside, and everyone in the backyard went silent and started casting confused gazes around the yard. It was then Tenzin noticed that Toph was the only one missing. Lin seemed to have noticed too, and as soon as she did, she sprinted inside. Concerned, Tenzin hastily followed after her, ignoring his parents when they told him not to.
Tenzin came to an abrupt halt when he reached the sitting room, eyes roving over the scene before him with worry and confusion. A man Tenzin didn't recognize stood just inside the front doorway. He was a scrawny, ill-looking man, but with worn features that hinted at a once handsome face. The man was currently looking at Lin with a pitiful expression on his face as he begged the teen to forgive him. Forgive him for what? Tenzin wondered.
Toph was standing a few feet from this mysterious man, her fists clenched and a furious expression on her face that Tenzin wasn't sure he'd ever seen before, only heard about. And then there was Lin, who stood in the middle of the room, staring at the man begging for her forgiveness with a completely unreadable expression on her face. Her eyes, though, gave her away completely. She was hurt, and scared, and angry, and the way she dug her toe into the floor beneath her showed that she was uncomfortable.
Tenzin yearned to ask what was going on, but he was much too afraid of what would happen should the occupants of the room become aware of his presence.
"I told you to leave," Toph hissed at the man.
The man looked back at Toph with a venomous glare as he responded, "She's my daughter, and if I want to see her on her birthday I should be allowed to see her!"
Tenzin nearly gasped. Was this Lin's father? Tenzin had never heard anything about him, and he hadn't asked. Yet as he looked the man over once more, Tenzin noticed that he did indeed show some similarities to Lin. While Lin's chin, nose and eyes were purely received from her mother, her high cheekbones had undoubtedly come from this man.
"Then why the hell weren't you here for all her other birthdays?" Toph demanded. "You have absolutely no right to see her whatsoever. Nor do you have any right to be in my house right now. So leave, before I lock you up in jail again."
Seemingly regarding Toph as a lost cause, the man who was presumably Lin's father turned to the young girl and said, in a much nicer voice, "Lin, you know I love you, right? I've just been…out of sorts…confused. But I want to make up for it, I want for you and I to be close again, don't you want that, Lin? I'm your father, please, just give me another chance. Your mother has no say in this, you can decide all on your own!"
"The hell I don't!" Toph shouted, stomping her foot on the floor so that rock shot up from the ground and knocked over a side table. "This is my house and she is my daughter, not yours. You gave up the right of fatherhood when you left us before she was even born, and you stomped on any other chance you had left by continuously manipulating her into thinking you were going to come back and take care of her!"
"I'm not leaving," the man said stubbornly, and Tenzin considered intervening, but he knew it was not his place. "Not until Lin tells me to."
Lin, who had remained unusually quiet throughout all of this, stepped forward and, in a low voice, said, "I want you to leave."
Lin's father looked at her in shock. "Wh-what? You don't mean that, Lin. I know you don't."
"Please," Lin said, and she sounded as if she was begging him. "Just go. Leave me and my mother alone."
"You're the one that manipulated her!" the deranged man suddenly said to Toph while pointing at Lin.
"I haven't been manipulated by anybody!" Lin shouted back, stepping closer to her father and pushing him backwards so that he stumbled out of the door. "Just go! Leave like you always do! I don't want you here anymore!"
Lin's father was furious now, and he stomped forward, reaching out in what seemed to be an attempt to grab Lin's arm. Tenzin went to take a step forward, but the man's hand never reached his daughter's, because Toph slid her foot across the ground and a rock wall came up to intercept the outstretched arm.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Toph seethed, sliding her foot back around in front of her so that the rock wall flew forward with the intention of hitting Lin's father.
But the man formed a fist with his hand and obliterated the oncoming rock wall with an ease that only an earthbender could possess. Tenzin became even more worried about the situation as Lin's father lowered himself into a defensive stance, and Toph went to stand protectively in front of Lin. Tenzin moved to take a step forward, intending to stand beside Lin just in case, but he stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking back, Tenzin saw his father shaking his head at him, a grave expression on his face. Further back the hall, Katara was holding back a frightened Su, while she and Kya were doing their best to placate Sokka and Bumi and keep the two men away from the conflict. Despite the fact that Bumi was the most carefree and less serious person of the family, he was fiercely protective of his family and friends.
Tenzin returned his attention to the scene in the sitting room, which had not changed in those few short seconds that he had averted his gaze.
"Leave," Toph said calmly, but with an underlying threat in her voice that warned Lin's father against any sort of defiance.
Lin's father continued to glare at Toph for a few moments, and then he glanced back to where Aang and Tenzin stood. The man did not seem afraid of the Avatar, but instead, smirked at the two airbenders and looked away from them, his eyes falling on Lin this time as he said, "If you ever decide you want to see me, Lin, you know where to find me."
And before anyone could say anything else, Lin's father was gone.
There was a moment of tense silence.
And then Toph whirled on her daughter. "How do you know where to find him?"
"Does it matter?" Lin retorted, her saddened expression turning to anger in a heartbeat. "It's not like I'm going to go see him."
"Have you gone before?" Toph questioned.
"No," said Lin, but Tenzin knew she was lying, and so did Toph.
"Don't lie to me, Lin," Toph said, her hands coming to rest on her hips.
"Then don't get angry at me for something I did two years ago!"
"How can I not be angry that my eleven year old child was apparently running off to who knows where without me knowing? Do you even realize what could have happened to you? Do you know the kind of people he hangs around with? You could have been killed!"
"I was well aware of the risks, Mother. Besides, I only went twice." Lin folded her arms across her chest with an air of finality, as if this made it all better.
Toph scoffed. "Oh, just twice? Is that all? I guess I shouldn't have been worried at all!"
"No, you shouldn't have," said Lin hotly, completely disregarding her mother's sarcastic tone. "I can take care of myself."
"And where was your sister during all this?" Toph demanded. "Did you drag her along with you?"
"Of course not," Lin said derisively. "She's the reason he doesn't come around anymore!"
Toph opened her mouth to retort, but Lin had already turned and stomped out the front door.
Toph went to follow, but Aang stepped forward and placed a hand on Toph's shoulder. "Just give her some time," he said. "She'll be back."
"It's the middle of the night!" Toph exclaimed.
Whatever was said afterward, Tenzin did not hear, because he rushed outside to follow Lin. At first he stayed a few feet behind her, keeping a distance while knowing that she was completely aware of his presence. He did not tell her to come back to the house, or ask if she was all right, because he knew she just wanted to be alone at the moment, that when she was ready she would talk to him. He was worried about her, but he kept those thoughts inside of him because his concern wasn't what she needed right now. They walked along in silence for several blocks. The sidewalk cracked under Lin's feet, and her shoulders trembled slightly from both anger and the cool night air. Tenzin watched the surrounding area for any sort of threats, while also keeping an eye on Lin. And as they walked he edged closer to her, so that eventually he was walking beside her. He glanced over at her, and he had to look down slightly to really see her face – he had sprouted upwards when he hit his teen years, so that now he was a tall, lanky teenager rather than the short skinny kid he had once been; Lin wasn't much shorter than him though, and for a while, before Tenzin grew so much, the two of them had been competing over who was actually the tallest.
At the moment, Lin's lips were pursed and her eyes narrowed, her fists clenching and unclenching. To most she would simply look angry, but Tenzin knew better. She was very upset, and trying very hard not to let it overwhelm her. Tenzin could not stand the silence much longer, knowing that she was hurting and he wasn't doing anything. And so, even though he knew it might earn him a rock to the face, he reached out and grabbed Lin's hand, intertwining his fingers with hers and giving her hand a quick, reassuring squeeze. He felt her tense, and her hand twitched, as if she was about to pull away, and Tenzin braced himself. But she continued to walk, and she didn't comment on it or pull away from him, or even give him a dirty look. And after a few tense seconds, her fingers curled around his and she squeezed his hand back, as if in thanks. Tenzin allowed his lips to curl up in a small smile and glanced down at the girl beside him again, but she was still focused on what was ahead of her.
Eventually they came to a halt, and Tenzin realized they had arrived at the coast of Yue Bay. Here Tenzin could see the lights from Air Temple Island twinkling in the distance. The water was calm, but intimidatingly dark. Tenzin turned to Lin, who was finally looking at him, the lights from the city illuminating her face, which showed that her angry expression had finally relented and turned to sadness.
Neither of them said anything for a few more moments, though their hands did stay clasped together.
Tenzin was the one to finally break the silence, asking her the obvious. "So…that was your father?"
Lin smirked and rolled her eyes, dropping her gaze to her bare feet. "Biologically," she responded in a strangely thick voice, "yes, he is my father."
She looked back up at Tenzin, who said, "You never told me about him…I didn't even know he was around."
Lin shrugged. "He hardly ever was. He only came around when he needed something. When I was younger he'd come in with some new toys for me to play with and then a week later he'd be asking my mom for money or to get out of trouble with the police. Usually she would refuse, but he always asked when I was around and…well, I was young and stupid and I thought he loved me, and I wanted him to be happy, so I'd beg my mother to help him. I never told you or anyone about him because I was…confused, and embarrassed. My dad didn't live with me like everyone else's did, and he didn't come to all my birthdays or tuck me in at night. He didn't love my mother like fathers do, and I never actually knew if he would ever even come see me again.
"He was nice enough, I guess – to me at least. When he actually was around, he'd always tell me how strong and smart I was, and how great of an earthbender I'd be, and he'd read me stories, which was something my mom couldn't do. He made me…selfish, I think, because I could show him the pictures I drew and he'd say how proud he was, and I knew that he could see what it was. My mom would always tell me she didn't have to see the picture to know it was the best picture ever, but I guess getting the compliment from someone who could actually see made me feel a bit better. Unfortunately, I think my mother always knew that, which was why she let my dad stick around, so that I could make my own opinion of him and at least get some praise from a parent who could see."
Lin sighed, hanging her head in shame. "But then a few years ago he just got worse. He was angry about Su, and his drug problem was only getting worse. He stopped complimenting me. Started insulting my mother any chance he got and saying cruel things about Su. He got good at insulting me too. He'd always wait until my mother was too far away to hear, and then he'd start telling me I wasn't going to amount to anything if I kept following her around. He'd tell me most of her old war stories were lies, and that he was the only reason I was alive, because she hadn't wanted me. I knew he was lying of course. I knew my mother loved me, but it was still painful to hear.
"He used to be handsome too, but he started getting uglier. The drugs made him angrier and annoying. He'd blame all his problems on me and my mom, and I just kept trying to help him. I'd act extra nice so maybe he'd see that somebody cared about him. And then one day, about a year and a half ago, my mom had to run to the station and she left me and Su with him. She couldn't see the crazy look in his eyes, so she thought it'd be okay, and usually it was, but…" Lin looked away for a moment, rubbing her forehead and grimacing at the memories. "Something in him just…snapped. He started yelling and screaming – terrible things – and earthbending in the house. He was destroying my home and there was nothing I could do to stop him. It's not like I'm a master earthbender yet, and he didn't have any defined stance or attack, he was just…going insane. I had to protect Su…we ran down the street, with him chasing after us. He almost hit us with his crazy earthbending quite a few times, but we managed to make it to the police station. My mom had already rushed outside when she heard the commotion and recognized us as being a part of it. She arrested my father, but he promised he'd get off the drugs, so the council let him go a few weeks later. He was smart enough not to come around though, and other than tonight, I haven't seen him since then."
Tenzin had been shocked into silence, and could think of nothing to say. Lin was staring out at the Bay, and when he heard her suck in a shuddering breath, he was sure he saw a tear slip from her eye. Deciding that actions spoke louder than words, Tenzin pulled Lin to him, enveloping her in a tight hug that she fiercely returned. The two of them had hugged before, but not like this. This wasn't the innocent, excited greeting of two young children who had been apart for a while. This was a hug full of meaning. It was a sign of their long friendship that they did not need to speak what was on their minds to know what the other was thinking. From this hug, Lin was assured that Tenzin would protect her and care about her, and Tenzin knew that she, in turn, would be grateful for his efforts and make sure to reciprocate the gesture if ever it should be needed. They were in deep now, because no matter what happened between them, they wouldn't ever forget this moment, this friendship.
And as the wind whipped Lin's hair around the two teens' faces, Tenzin whispered, "I'm so sorry, Lin…I'm so sorry that your father couldn't see what an amazing person you are."
Lin did not respond, but hugged him tighter, and after a few more moments of silence between them, she said, "Thank you, Tenzin, thank you for following me."
"If you need me, I'll always follow you."
Chapter Text
Chapter 2
A person's teenage years are always some of the most awkward and confusing years of a person's life, no matter who they are. The children of Avatar Aang and the daughters of Toph Beifong were no exception to this fact, which was precisely why Tenzin was currently more confused than he could ever remembering being in the last seventeen years of his life.
Lin stood before him, an equally confused expression on her face as she stared up at him, one eyebrow raised and her hands on her hips. "What is it Tenzin?" she asked him, sounding a bit impatient.
"Well – uh – it's just that I – I mean I thought – andyou." Tenzin sighed, his stammering coming to an abrupt halt as he shook his head and rubbed his eyes. Breathe, he told himself, just think back to where this all began…
Tenzin thought about it for a moment, easily pinpointing what had him suddenly becoming incoherent. It had all begun about a week earlier, when Aang, Katara, and Toph had broken the news to Lin and Tenzin that the two of them would have to attend the thirty-fifth annual celebration of the end of the Hundred Year War. Lin and Tenzin had instantly begun griping and complaining.
"But we haven't gone to those since we were little," Lin whined. "I hate dressing up."
"Believe me, kid," Toph said. "I'm right there with you. But if all of us have to go then you two have to go too."
"But why does everyone have to go?" Tenzin asked.
"Because everyone who's considered important to this City is expected to be there," Katara explained. "Kya and Bumi and Su have already agreed to come with us, and Zuko and his daughter will be there too."
Lin frowned. "Izumi will be there?"
"Yes," Aang answered. "She and her parents will be arriving on the Island tomorrow to stay with us until this event is over."
Lin, who was not particularly happy about this news, folded her arms across her chest and turned to stare at the floor. It wasn't that Lin disliked Izumi. It was simply that, every time Izumi was around, Bumi and Tenzin seemed to spend all their time trying to please her. Izumi was nineteen, just two years younger than Bumi and two years older than Tenzin, and so she was "fair game" to the both of them, and Lin hated the way the two of them pined after the spoiled princess. However, even though Lin would never admit it, she was, perhaps, a bit jealous of Izumi. After all, Izumi was beautiful, feisty, intelligent, and graceful – she was always the model of perfection. It was annoying and intimidating all at once.
"It's only a few hours," Katara said.
"It won't kill you," Toph pointed out.
"And we'd really appreciate it," Aang added.
Tenzin sighed, and Lin knew he had given up arguing.
Sure enough, he soon said, "I suppose if we have to go."
Tenzin seemed resigned to his fate, but Lin was not so easily swayed, and being the stubborn teenager that she was, she turned to glare at him. "You're only agreeing now because you know Izumiwill be there," Lin snapped.
Tenzin frowned, his brow furrowing as he turned to face Lin. "Do you really think I'm that shallow, Lin?"
Lin rolled her eyes in response. "Don't try to act all innocent, Tenzin. Maybe if you kept your tongue in your mouth and stopped drooling every time she came around I might be inclined to believe you."
Tenzin looked offended. "I do no such thing!"
"All right, you two lovebirds," Toph interrupted, "enough bickering. You're going, and that's that. Come on, Lin, we're going home now."
Lin and Tenzin merely scoffed at Toph's "lovebird" comment. She was always teasing them about their close friendship, and she wasn't the only one.
With a sigh, Lin rose to her feet and followed her mother out the door and to the docks, where they boarded a waiting boat and headed back to their home in Republic City.
That night wasn't the most confusing part of the situation – though Tenzin had been a bit surprised by Lin's claim that he drooled over Izumi. The real confusion truly began when Tenzin happened on a conversation Lin and Bumi were having.
"Wanna go to the celebration with me, Lin?" Bumi slyly asked Lin, wiggling his eyebrows at her and smirking as if she simply wouldn't be able to resist him.
Lin looked up at Bumi with a raised brow and a lethal scowl. "What's the matter, Bumi? Did Izumi turn you down?" Lin said with a fake sympathetic gaze.
Bumi folded his arms across his chest, clearly not amused, but grinning nonetheless. "I was just trying to help you out, Lin. All the girls would be jealous that you managed to get yourself an older, handsome man such as myself – it'd be good for your reputation."
Lin narrowed her eyes at Bumi and replied, "For your information, Bumi, it just so happens that I already have a date to the celebration, thank you very much. And another thing, I'm not at all concerned about any sort of reputation, nor do I need your pity. So next time you decide to "help someone out," offer your so-called "handsome self" to somebody else."
And with that Lin stormed off, with Bumi calling after her, "Oh come on, Lin! I was just playing around! Don't get all sensitive!"
Normally, at this point, Tenzin would follow Lin, knowing that Bumi had said something that had upset her and she wasn't going to admit to it, or even accept it in her own mind. But this time he was frozen in place, thinking on what she had told Bumi, about how she apparently had a date to the celebration. He didn't even know she was going to go with anyone. Who was this guy that had had the nerve to ask Lin Beifong to a celebration that included dancing? And why hadn't she told her best friend about it? And why was Tenzin so upset about it? She could go with whoever she wanted, and it's not as if it was required by law that she tell him about it. Still, he couldn't deny that he was slightly offended.
Then again, if Lin could have a date to the celebration, then surely Tenzin could go with someone. Otherwise he'd feel horribly left out. He'd be the only one without a date! Kya always had men asking her to these sorts of things, and Tenzin didn't doubt that Bumi would be able find a willing female friend of his own. Of course, as far as Tenzin knew, Izumi hadn't been asked by anyone yet, but that wouldn't last long. What if I asked her? Tenzin thought, only to shake that idea from his mind as quickly as it came. She would never accept, and besides, Lin would be furious…but if Lin already had a date, then Tenzin had just as much right to have his own, and she couldn't be angry at him for it because she had gotten a date first. And why would Izumi have any reason to say no to Tenzin? They were friends, and their parents were even better friends. Tenzin was younger than her of course, but he acted much older than he was, and Izumi had told him that on quite a few occasions.
Eventually Tenzin came to a decision and went to find Izumi, who was exploring the Island despite having visited with her family multiple times before and doing the same thing every time. Tenzin had been a bit nervous, but had somehow managed to ask Izumi to go to the celebration with him as his date, and he was surprised and elated when she agreed.
So with the comforting fact that Tenzin would not be a third wheel at the celebration, he made his way back across the Island to the spot where he knew Lin would be. She always went to the same place when someone upset or annoyed her, and only Tenzin and Toph knew where. That was when the real confusion tripped him up and jumbled his words.
After sitting down on the cliff edge beside Lin, Tenzin told her, "I overheard you talking to Bumi just a little bit ago."
"Oh," she said, looking a bit sheepish as she glanced up at Tenzin from the corner of her eye. "I guess you heard what I said about having a date then, huh?"
"Yes, I did, and I have to say I'm a bit offended you didn't tell me," Tenzin admitted.
Lin turned to look fully at Tenzin now, her brows furrowing in bewilderment. "What?" she said. "You thought I meant I was going with someone else?"
Tenzin was thoroughly perplexed at this point, and he tilted his head to the side and asked, "You mean you aren't?"
Lin shook her head. "No, I just told Bumi that because I figured you and I were going together, you know, as friends, that way neither of us had to go through the mess of finding a date. I didn't want to tell him that though, so I just told him I had a date…I hope you don't mind."
Tenzin's stomach plummeted at this explanation and he began to feel really, really foolish.
"What is it, Tenzin?" Lin asked him, and he began to stammer stupidly, until he sighed and thought back to how it all began. That was when he realized how stupid he had been, and how he should have just waited and talked to Lin before he ran off to Izumi.
"What on earth is wrong with you, Tenzin?" Lin asked him then. "If you don't want to go with me just say so."
She was irritated, and maybe a little offended, and Tenzin felt terrible. "It's not that," he insisted, looking at her imploringly, hoping she would understand. "It's just that…I thought you were going with someone else so…I asked someone else…and they said yes…"
Lin stared at him for a few moments. And then, "Oh," was all she said.
"I can just tell her I changed my mind or something," Tenzin amended, rising to his feet quickly with the intention of canceling his date with Izumi.
"Wait," Lin interrupted, jumping to her feet and grabbing his wrist as he turned to leave. "You don't have to do that. It's my fault, I shouldn't have assumed –"
"No, I shouldn't have assumed –"
"It's fine, Tenzin, really," she insisted, and he couldn't tell if she was lying or not. "I can find someone else to go with." Now she sounded irritated. "I'm not some helpless little girl, you know. There are people who are attracted to me, despite how much this might surprise your family."
Lin turned to leave, and this time Tenzin was sure she was angry. "Lin!" he called after her, trying to follow. "I'm sorry! That's not what I meant and you know it!"
But she did not stop or turn around to respond to him, and even went so far as to erect a rock wall into his path to distract him long enough for her to slip out of sight. Sighing, Tenzin decided to go spend some time at the meditation pavilion, where maybe he could make some sense of this.
Tenzin didn't see Lin for the rest of the week, and by the time he arrived at the celebration that night – all dressed up and with Izumi on his arm – he still did not see Lin anywhere, and he was sure she had somehow convinced her mother not to make her go so that she wouldn't have to find a date. It wasn't that Tenzin thought she couldn't find one – he saw the way some of the boys at the Metalbending Academy looked at her – but he still felt guilty that she would have to accept one of their offers – if any of them were even brave enough to ask her.
Any guilt he felt though, soon began to vanish when Tenzin finally spotted Lin. There she was, in the middle of the room, allowing some guy to lead her around the dance floor in a sort of waltz. Tenzin wasn't sure why he frowned, but he certainly wasn't happy to see the boy's arm wrapped so low around Lin's waist and clutching her hand as if he had no intentions of ever letting her go. Tenzin narrowed his eyes to get a better look at Lin's supposed date, and he was dismayed to see that it was someone he knew had a very big crush on Lin. The boy's name was Deak, an earthbender who was two years older than Lin and a fellow student at the Metalbending Academy. Deak was a tall, very handsome man, with what seemed to be permanently windswept, dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. He was of muscular build, and he was a rather strong earthbender for his age. Despite visiting the Metalbending Academy rather often to meet Lin, Tenzin had not gotten to know Deak very well, but he had noticed the way Deak's gaze lingered on Lin every time he was around her. Also, according to Lin, Deak never passed up an opportunity to ask Lin out.
"Tenzin, what are you staring at?" a voice from beside him asked, and he looked down, remembering then that he was still with Izumi.
The Fire Nation Princess was currently craning her neck in an effort to find what Tenzin had been so intent on staring at, but Tenzin quickly pulled her attention back to him as he said, "Oh, nothing, I guess I was just reminiscing. I haven't been to one of these functions in so long…"
"Really?" Izumi replied. "I would have thought with your father being the Avatar you'd have to come to these things all the time."
"Yeah, well…" Tenzin trailed off, averting his gaze in an attempt to find something with which to change the subject. He hated when people brought up his father's Avatar status. It wasn't that he was embarrassed or angry or anything. He was very proud of his father and considered himself lucky to be his son, but he didn't like that that was all people thought of when they saw him. He wanted to be known as Tenzin, not "The Avatar's Son." But he knew that would likely never happen.
"Are you going to ask me to dance then?" Izumi said, and Tenzin looked back at her once more to see her raising a brow at him as if he was rather foolish for not having thought of this already.
"Oh! Yes, of course." Tenzin was sure he felt his cheeks warming in embarrassment. Sucking in a calming breath, he led Izumi out to the dance floor.
Tenzin and Izumi danced for quite a while, with Tenzin often glancing in Lin and Deak's direction. The young airbender was rather irritated when he noticed how close Deak stayed to Lin the entire time, and even though Tenzin did not like Deak, he was still a bit saddened that Lin seemed to be rather miserable. If only he hadn't been so stupid, he and Lin could have been sitting at a secluded table in a corner of the room making fun of some of the people's ridiculous outfits.
About halfway through the night, sometime after Tenzin and Izumi had returned to the dance floor after taking a break to get some refreshments, Izumi sighed exasperatedly and rolled her eyes.
"Is something wrong?" Tenzin asked.
"Are you going to go ask her to dance or what?" Izumi demanded.
"Huh? Ask who to dance?"
"The person you've been staring at all night!" Izumi exclaimed, and Tenzin's eyes widened – had he really been that obvious? "Honestly, you've got absolutely no tact, Tenzin. I'll take care of her date, if you promise to ask the girl to dance!"
Tenzin was suddenly very nervous and he looked at Izumi with confusion plain on his face. "I don't understand what you're implying –"
Izumi threw her hands up in exasperation, thereby effectively putting a stop to their dance as she stepped back from him. "Go ask Lin to dance or I'll ask her for you, and believe me, you don't want that."
Tenzin looked over at Lin, who was sitting at a table across the room, looking bored out of her mind while Deak prattled on to her about something he seemed to find amusing. Looking back at Izumi, Tenzin finally replied, "I'm sorry. I've been a terrible date. It's just that Lin's my friend –"
Izumi waved a dismissive hand. "You weren't the worst, and I'm not offended…well, maybe a little, but not much, I pretty much expected this to happen. Anyway, I'll go start a conversation with Lin's date and you can ask her to dance with you, all right?"
Tenzin wasn't sure exactly what he was agreeing to, but he did nonetheless. It's not as if he wanted to dance with Lin because he wanted her to be hisdate, he just wanted his best friend to enjoy herself…right? He wasn't even sure at this point, so he didn't dwell on it. Instead he followed Izumi across the room, the two of them coming to a halt at the table Lin and Deak were seated at.
Lin had been hunched over in her seat, her elbow propped up on the table and her chin resting on her hand. She stared at Deak with almost no expression on her face, while he regaled her with stories of his life in which he came out a champion or a hero. She seemed to be in a trance like state, and therefore did not immediately notice Tenzin and Izumi's arrival, until she heard Izumi say, "Excuse me…sorry to interrupt, but I noticed you from across the room and I simply had to come meet you."
Startled, Lin jumped slightly and looked over at Izumi and Tenzin with surprise. Deak looked up at Izumi with raised eyebrows, giving her a quick once over before rising quickly and gracefully to his feet.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Princess," Deak said, taking Izumi's hand and placing a kiss on the back of it.
Lin stayed seated, observing the exchange with a wary expression on her face. Tenzin stood beside her chair, nervously awaiting his moment.
"I noticed your outfit," Izumi said to Deak, who glanced down at his clothes. He was wearing the usual formal uniform a graduate of the Metalbending Academy would wear. It was similar to the Metalbending Police Force's uniforms, but made of cloth rather than metal. "So you're a metalbender?"
"Yes I am," Deak said rather proudly, standing up straighter and smiling broadly. "I just graduated about two weeks ago. I hope to join the police force soon."
"That's very noble of you," Izumi commented. "I'd love to hear more about your metalbending career." By Izumi's tone, it was clear to Tenzin and Lin that she certainly did not care about Deak's metalbending career, but Deak himself did not notice. Lin glanced up at Tenzin with a raised brow, but he simply shrugged and looked back at Izumi.
"Well I'd love to tell you," Deak replied, his voice almost flirtatious, which made Tenzin frown and glance down at Lin, who merely rolled her eyes. Shouldn't Lin's date be flirting with her, not Izumi? "Would you like to dance, Princess?"
"Please, call me Izumi. And yes, I'd love to dance. But I'd hate to take you away from your date."
Deak seemed to suddenly remember that he was supposed to be spending the celebration with Lin, and he jumped slightly as he looked down at her still seated form.
Lin waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about me," she said. "Go on and enjoy yourself, Deak."
Deak almost sighed in relief, and without another word, took Izumi's hand and led her to the dance floor. As she retreated, Izumi shot Tenzin a pointed glance, and he nodded his thanks to her.
"All right, Tenzin," Lin's voice broke into his thoughts and he turned to look at her, "what's this all about?"
"Well, I couldn't let my best friend be bored to death now could I?" Tenzin answered, smiling kindly in an attempt to soften her annoyed gaze.
"So more pity?" she asked, sitting back in her seat and folding her arms across her chest. "I wasn't bored," she lied. "Deak's stories are very…interesting."
Tenzin couldn't help but snort in disbelief. "Come on, Lin, I only stood here for five minutes at the most and I was already bored of hearing his voice."
"Don't insult my date," Lin seethed, sitting up in her seat again. "I'm sure Izumi's stories of living in a palace and never having to work for anything were simply fabulous." The sarcasm in her tone was obvious.
Tenzin frowned. "What is it with you and Izumi, Lin? You used to get along fine when we were kids –"
"Nothing, forget it, I don't have a problem with her," Lin muttered, rising to her feet and turning away as if to leave.
Tenzin grabbed her wrist and turned her around. "Wait," he said, looking at her imploringly. "I'm sorry, all right? I came over here t – to – to ask you to dance…so…will you dance with me, Lin?"
Lin eyed Tenzin suspiciously for a moment, and he worried that she would say no. What would he do then?
But after what seemed an eternity, Lin finally said, "Okay…"
Though a bit surprised that she had agreed, Tenzin smiled and slid his hand down Lin's wrist to grip her hand. And then he turned and led her out onto the dance floor. The song was slow – as most of the music at this kind of event was, because it was not considered appropriate to gyrate at functions such as these – and when Tenzin turned to face Lin again, he slid his arm around her waist and she placed her other hand on his shoulder. They stood a respectable distance apart, and for a moment things were a bit awkward. Other than when they were little and were simply pretending to act like adults, they hadn't ever danced together before. And now that they were so close, and Tenzin was given time to think about the past week, he noticed what Lin was wearing. It was a simple, black, long-sleeved dress with green embellishments along the sleeves and the hem of the dress. It was modest, of course, but form-fitting, hugging her curves and accentuating her waist in a way that Tenzin was surprised he hadn't noticed earlier in the evening. More importantly, he was surprised he hadn't really noticed…ever. He saw Lin almost every day, had seen her in a swimsuit, and yet he had never really noticed that she was almost a woman now, and a beautiful one at that. She was growing her ebony hair out a bit longer than usual, so that it fell in waves just below her shoulders, and it framed her face in a rather attractive way. It was no wonder all the boys at the Academy were always sneaking glances at her.
These new thoughts were making Tenzin's face heat up, and he quickly averted his gaze from her in an attempt to stop the blush that was spreading on his cheeks.
"Are you all right, Tenzin?" Lin asked him, noticing the way his heartbeat had sped up and the pink tint to his cheeks.
"Oh, uh, yeah, I'm fine," Tenzin mumbled quickly and unconvincingly.
"Maybe it's too hot in here," Lin said, sounding a bit concerned. "Why don't we step outside?"
That sounded like a great idea, so Tenzin nodded mutely and allowed Lin to lead him to a nearby balcony. No one else was on the balcony, and so Tenzin and Lin easily moved across it to the railing, which they both leaned against to look out at the city their parents had built. For a while neither of them spoke, though Tenzin noticed Lin glancing at him form the corner of her eye quite a few times, probably wondering why he had acted so strange so suddenly. He still wasn't quite sure what had come over him, but the cool night air had helped him calm down.
Lin was the one to break the silence as she turned to him and asked, "So what was all that in there?" She gestured in the direction of the celebration room they had just exited.
"What do you mean?" Tenzin asked, turning to face her.
"Well I doubt Izumi actually has any interest in Deak, and then you ask me to dance with you, and then you look like you're about to pass out. Now we're out here and you're fine again."
Tenzin shrugged. "It's like I said before, I wanted to ask you to dance, and Izumi offered to get Deak's attention. And I guess I just got a little hot, it's pretty stuffy in there and I'm wearing a lot of clothes right now." He tugged at his voluminous robes and grimaced – he was wearing quite a lot of clothes.
Lin smirked while glancing down at his excessive amount of clothes. Then she looked at him seriously once more. "Why did you want to ask me to dance? I mean, you're here with Izumi. Nobody in their right mind would give up a girl like that to dance with…well, me."
Lin looked away for a moment, wincing at her own words. It wasn't often that she sounded so…unsure of herself, and Tenzin didn't like it at all.
"Enough of this," Tenzin said, turning Lin to face him and looking her straight in the eye. "Tell me what it is about Izumi that has you acting this way."
Lin's cheeks turned pink and she looked away from him. She sighed and mumbled something incoherent.
"What?"
Lin mumbled again, and though it made a bit more sense than her first mutterings, he still had no idea what she was saying.
"Lin," he sighed.
"I said I'm jealous, all right?" she finally answered, looking up at him with a scowl. She stepped away from him, pulling herself from his grip. "And I know it's stupid and self-centered to care so much about looks, but I also know I'm not even close to being one of the prettiest girls here. Normally it doesn't bother me, but…my mother's beautiful and she's blind – she doesn't even have to try, and neither does Izumi, or your mom, or your sister…and then there's me." She sighed and looked back out at the city. "I see the way you and Bumi look at Izumi, and Deak was only too happy to leave me for her."
Tenzin was stunned into silence. How could she think she wasn't beautiful? Especially now, all of a sudden. She hadn't put so much thought into her appearance before, and this sudden lack of confidence was unsettling. Maybe it was simply something that happened when girls got a bit older. Tenzin wouldn't realize until years later that Lin had been acting strangely that night because she had a rather big crush on him.
At the moment though, Tenzin was unsure of what was going on in Lin's head, but knew he had to at least try to alleviate her self-doubt. Turning her to face him once more, he told her sincerely, "Lin, you're just as beautiful as every single one of them, if not more so. And I'm not just saying that because you're my best friend, because believe me, all the other boys have noticed too. You've told me before about how Deak follows you around at the Academy, and I've seen how the rest of them there look at you. As for Bumi, he looks at everygirl like that, even you. And as for Deak going off to dance with Izumi, he's stupid for doing it, but I'm glad he did, because then I wouldn't be able to spend the rest of the evening with you like this."
Lin's cheeks turned an even darker shade of red and she bit her lip a bit self-consciously. But she smiled nonetheless. "Thanks, Tenzin," she said quietly. "I'm sorry I've been acting so stupid lately."
"Not at all," he assured her. And then grinning widely, he said, "So tell me, Lin, how's your evening with Deak been? Since his stories are sointeresting."
Lin groaned overdramatically and covered her face with one hand in pure embarrassment. Then she punched Tenzin in the shoulder. "Shut up," she told him. "It's your fault I had to agree to come to this thing with that hog monkey in the first place! Ugh, he's so full of himself, and I swear he thinks the whole world revolves around him. And he actually thinks he's going to be Chief of Police one day." Lin scoffed. "Not if I have anything to say about it."
Tenzin chuckled. He knew that if Lin had anything to say about it she'd be the next Chief of Police once she was old enough and her mother had retired from the force.
"But let's not talk about him," Lin insisted, obviously very uninterested in Deak. "Now let me ask yousomething. Why'd you ask Izumi to this thing?"
Tenzin shrugged. "I thought you had a date, and I didn't want to be the only one without one. I knew Izumi didn't have a date yet, and she's my friend so I knew I wouldn't have to go through the stress of trying to ask another girl in the city that I hardly knew." He paused, and then smirked as he added, "And it was good for my reputation."
Lin scowled as she remembered Bumi's words from a few days ago. She rolled her eyes. "I can't believe he actually said that."
Tenzin shook his head. "Unfortunately, I can."
Lin opened her mouth to respond, but then she froze suddenly, a panicked expression taking over her features for a moment.
Instantly worried, Tenzin asked, "What is it, Lin? What's wrong?"
"Izumi's dancing with Bumi," she said quickly, casting her gaze around the balcony as if looking for a way out, even going so far as to glance over the edge of the railing.
"So?" Tenzin said, confused.
"So, that means Deak will be looking for me," she explained. "And I cannot sit through another of his stories…oh no, he's coming this way – if he asks, you never saw me!"
And then, quite suddenly, before Tenzin could say another word, Lin had sunk into the stone beneath her feet. Tenzin was a bit worried at first, wondering if she could breathe under there, but he figured she knew what she was doing. And before he could think on it further, Deak entered the balcony, with a satisfied air about him that made Tenzin frown.
Deak noticed Tenzin and, in a pompous sort of voice, said, "Ah, hello there, I've come to retrieve Lin…where is she?"
Tenzin shrugged, leaning back against the railing and folding his arms across his chest. "How should I know?"
Deak narrowed his eyes at Tenzin a bit suspiciously. "Well she was with you."
"Yes, and then she went back out to the dance floor without me," Tenzin lied.
Deak stared at Tenzin for another moment. "All right, well if you see her, tell her I'm looking for her and I don't want to wait the rest of the evening without my date."
"If you insist," Tenzin replied with a sigh and a bored look at his nails.
"I do," was all Deak said, and then he left, shaking his head irritably.
When Deak had gone, Lin suddenly appeared beside Tenzin again, shaking her head at him as she said, "You're a terrible liar."
"It wasn't so much that I'm terrible at it and more because I didn't want to lie to him," Tenzin admitted. "I wish I could have told him you were with me because it obviously annoys him."
Lin smirked up at him. "Whatever you say, Junior."
Tenzin rolled his eyes at the nickname, which was actually short for "Twinkletoes Junior," something Toph had started back when he was younger.
The two friends spent the rest of the evening together on that balcony, talking and laughing and completely disregarding the fact that there was a celebration going on. Deak did not return to the balcony looking for Lin, and Izumi seemed to be content to stay with Bumi the rest of the night. Eventually though – when the festivities were winding to an end and Toph came to find Lin to tell her they'd be leaving in ten minutes – Lin and Tenzin decided to split ways.
"I suppose I should go find Deak before I leave," Lin sighed, pushing herself away from the railing.
"I should probably go thank Izumi too," Tenzin said. "And then find my parents."
Lin nodded. "You'll have to thank Izumi for me too – I don't know what I would have done if I had had to spend the entire evening with Deak."
"Well, next time let's not make this mistake," Tenzin suggested. "I'd much rather come to these things with you than anyone else."
Lin smiled and, rather than simply speak her agreement, she leaned up onto her tiptoes and pulled Tenzin into a tight hug. "Me too," she told him, her voice quiet and her breath on his neck sending a strange tingling down his spine. When she went to lean back, he was surprised when he felt something soft and warm quickly press against his cheek, and then she stepped away from him, gave him one last smile, and then hurried off of the balcony. Tenzin stood for a moment, shocked beyond words as he placed a hand to the spot on his cheek where her lips had been.
Many things happened once Lin turned eighteen. Tenzin, who had been named an airbending master almost two years earlier, was told that he would finally be receiving the same blue arrow tattoos as his father. Lin, who had fully mastered earthbending almost as long ago, graduated from the Metalbending Academy at the top of her class. Aang, Katara, Sokka, Kya, Suyin, and Tenzin attended Lin's graduation, while Toph was the one to hand her daughter her certificate. Bumi had not been able to attend, as he was on a yearlong tour with the United Forces as he finished out his training, however, he had sent Lin a letter of congratulations, and also gave Kya explicit orders to punch Lin in the shoulder for him. After Lin's graduation, the group journeyed to Air Temple Island together to have a feast celebrating Lin and Tenzin's achievements.
After eating much more food than usual, Lin and Tenzin stumbled outside, seeking some fresh air and a moment away from everyone else. The sun had set, and the cool night air was more than refreshing. Together they walked in silence across the island, to the edge of a cliff, where they sat down beside one another, their legs dangling off the edge and the wind whipping their hair and clothes about them.
Lin sighed contentedly and lay on her back, staring up at the starry sky and completely unaware of Tenzin's gaze on her. She was too preoccupied with her own thoughts, thoughts on how wonderful the day had turned out. Not only had she graduated from the Academy and made her mother proud, but she had also received a congratulatory kiss on the cheek from Tenzin. She knew she was probably looking too far into it, and that she shouldn't get so excited over something that had probably not meant nearly as much to him, but she couldn't help herself.
She wasn't sure when it had happened, but somewhere along her early teen years she had noticed things about Tenzin that attracted her to him. She couldn't pinpoint the exact day or even year when it happened, but by the time she was sixteen she had so hopelessly fallen for him that there was no turning back. She had shaken it off as a simple crush at first, but now, two years later, she wasn't quite sure what it was. She did, however, notice that he seemed to at least return some interest in her. She had felt his heartbeat speeding up that night two years ago when she'd kissed him on the cheek, and she noticed it again when he kissed her on the cheek just a few hours earlier. They both seemed to look at each other differently now, and it excited and terrified Lin all at once. She hadn't done much dating in her life so far, nor had Tenzin. A few people had come and gone rather quickly, so even at eighteen and nineteen years old they were both rather inexperienced with the whole "dating" fiasco. So it was no surprise neither had brought the subject up over the years, especially considering the fact that they had been best friends practically since birth, and a romantic relationship could tear that apart.
But Lin shook those thoughts aside for the time being and returned her attention to Tenzin, who smiled down at her.
"I wanted to ask you something," he said.
"You did?" Lin replied, leaning up slightly and propping herself up on her elbows so that she could see him better.
"Yeah, it's about me getting my tattoos," Tenzin explained, looking a bit sheepish as he continued. "It's just that…well, they're kind of painful apparently, and I asked my dad, and he said it was all right if you stayed with me…you know, while I was getting them done, that way I have a friend there. You don't have to if you don't want to, I'd understand, but I thought I'd ask, because I'd like for you to be there…"
He trailed off, and Lin smiled, sitting up fully before answering him, "Of course I'll stay with you, Tenzin."
Tenzin was visibly relieved, and leaned forward to hug Lin in thanks, using a gust of air to propel the two of them upward. Soon they were way too high up in the air for Lin's liking, and her heart raced nervously as she clung to Tenzin with a slight bit of fear. She was used to flying, having grown up with Aang and Tenzin who liked to fly everywhere, but the suddenness of it had surprised her. They were only in the air for a few seconds though, and then they landed gently back on their feet.
"Sorry," Tenzin said with a grin as he released Lin.
She scowled up at him, knowing he most certainly was not sorry.
Lin and Su left Air Temple Island with their mother soon after that, and a few days later Lin returned to the island to be with Tenzin when he received his tattoos.
That whole experience turned out to be rather strange for Lin. She was proud of Tenzin for mastering airbending and for remaining so composed throughout most of the process. Yet another part of her hated knowing he was in pain, which was made obvious to her in the way that he would wince or clench her hand rather tightly. She tried to take his mind off of it by talking to him about pretty much anything she could think of, and she kept his hand clasped in both of hers the entire time, only letting up long enough to switch to his other hand when it was necessary. Even though Lin ended up feeling rather useless by the end, Tenzin assured her that he couldn't have done it without her. She was a bit afraid to hug him, for fear of hurting his now sensitive skin, so she leaned up to place a kiss on his cheek, and congratulated him once again. He surprised her then, by leaning back in to press a quick kiss to her lips, but it was so brief Lin almost couldn't believe it had happened. She went home that night feeling both elated and very much confused.
Chapter Text
Chapter 3
At nineteen years old, Lin became the second youngest police officer to join the force – her mother having been the youngest. Within the first two weeks of her joining the force, she had already made a solid arrest of a prominent leader of one of the city's most ruthless gangs, the Silver Granite Triad – which consisted only of criminal earthbenders. The leader, Kane, was imprisoned for life in a specially made wooden cell. The Silver Granite Triad did not fall apart with Kane's absence, but their presence in the city faltered exponentially. Toph was very proud of her daughter, yet also a bit worried. Lin had made a name for herself in the city as a feared and admirable police officer to some, but also as a nuisance that needed to be taken out to others. However, Toph did not allow these concerns to overwhelm her, and simply trusted that Lin's fellow officers would ensure her safety when they were out working in the city, and when Lin was home, Toph would certainly make sure nothing happened to her.
Lin couldn't have been happier. She had helped the city in a tremendous way, saving countless lives and possibly bringing an end to the Silver Granite Triad. She had earned the respect of her fellow officers, who had been wary to work with her when they realized how young she was. She had also taken a big step towards living up to her mother's legacy, a legacy which Lin was desperate to uphold.
Lin's only regret was that Tenzin was not around for all of this. He had decided to take an extended "trip of discovery" around the world, particularly to visit the four ancient air temples. He had asked Lin to come with him, and though she had seriously considered it, in the end she had decided she would make better use of her time defending Republic City. Not to mention the fact that she couldn't imagine telling her mother that she was taking over a year off from the force to go off on an adventure with Tenzin. So Lin and Tenzin had parted ways almost a year before Lin's victory against the Silver Granite Triad, but she had made sure to tell him all about it when she replied to the next letter he sent her.
It was another year before Lin and Tenzin saw each other again, making it a solid two years that they spoke to one another only through the occasional letter. When Lin realized how long it had been since she'd seen her best friend, she was more surprised that it hadn't been longer, because it felt like it had been nearly a decade. She had to admit that she missed him terribly, and amended that next time he decided to do something like this, she'd do anything to talk him out of it, or she'd have to go with him. These thoughts, though, brought up the feelings Lin had been trying so very hard to forget. She had thought that with Tenzin's prolonged absence perhaps she'd finally move on from her teenage crush, but it had turned out to be the exact opposite of that. Instead she found herself thinking she never wanted to be separated from him for so long again, and that wasn't a feeling she was used to.
When Lin finally did get to see her best friend, she was elated, and more than a little surprised. She hadn't heard from him in almost a month, and hadn't any idea of when he would be returning home, nor had she known he would search her out the moment he got back. She had just stepped out onto the sidewalk outside police headquarters, and started in the direction of her home when she spotted him. She was frozen in shock for a moment, wondering if it was really him standing just a few feet away from her. She almost didn't believe it, but despite the facial hair he had grown and the slightly more muscular build that she could spot under his customary robes, this was definitely Tenzin.
Lin grinned and, forgetting for a moment that she was on a public sidewalk full of people, she ran the few steps to Tenzin and leapt into his waiting arms. "I didn't know you were getting back today!" she exclaimed, leaning back to look at him but not yet letting go.
Tenzin didn't seem inclined to let her go quickly either, his arms remaining wrapped around her waist so that her feet were hovering slightly off the ground. He smiled back at her and replied, "I wanted it to be a surprise. I came here first so I could make sure I caught you as soon as you got out of work."
"So you haven't even been home yet?" Lin asked, surprised – he'd never admit it, but Lin knew Tenzin was a bit of a momma's boy, and he hadn't seen either of his parents in two years.
"Nope, I wanted to see Republic City's best new officer first!"
Lin laughed. "Well I'm not as new anymore; it's been over a year!"
Tenzin sighed, a smile still on his face as he set Lin down on her feet but kept her in his grasp. "I know, believe me. It's been too long."
Lin nodded her agreement, and then there was silence between them…a silence made awkward by the fact that they had both just noticed their close proximity. Blushing profusely, they both took a step back and let their arms fall to their sides. Lin cleared her throat and quickly changed the subject. "So do your parents know you're returning today or are you surprising them too?"
Tenzin seemed grateful for the change of subject and answered, "Oh yeah, they know I'm here. My mother would have had a fit if she didn't know when I was getting back so I sent them a letter yesterday. I'm sure she'll have called everyone and insisted they come to the island, but I made it clear that I wanted to surprise you. I'm just amazed your mother didn't end up telling you."
Lin shook her head and smirked. "Toph Beifong? She loves keeping secrets like this…she also likes telling the secrets, but I think she likes to see me squirm even more. I knew she was keeping something from me, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I never would have guessed, but I'm glad – this is the best surprise I've had in years."
"Then my work here is done," Tenzin said with a smirk, holding out his hand to Lin, which she took without question. "Oogi's waiting up on the roof."
Lin groaned, knowing what was coming next, but she didn't protest. She stepped into Tenzin's arms once again, wrapping her own arms around him in a crushing embrace and burying her face into his chest. The wind picked up around them, and soon they were both thrown up into the air, landing lightly on the roof moments later.
Lin stepped back from Tenzin and absentmindedly ran a hand through her hair. When she locked gazes with Tenzin again, he was staring at her, a small smile on his face. Lin raised a brow in question. "What?"
Tenzin shook his head. "Nothing, it's just that…you look great, Lin, absolutely radiant."
Tenzin scratched the back of his neck a bit nervously, his cheeks turning pink at his own boldness.
Lin had to fight the warmth that threatened to show on her cheeks as she replied, "You aren't looking too bad yourself, Baldy. I see you've finally grown some facial hair."
Tenzin chuckled quietly, reaching up to stroke the small beard on his chin. "I thought it made me look a bit manlier."
Lin had to bite her lip to keep from agreeing with that statement. Whatever teenage feelings she'd had for him seemed to have increased when she saw just how good he looked at twenty-one years old, and she found that her thoughts were now a jumbled mess.
"I'm assuming everyone's on the island waiting for us then, huh?" Lin said, changing the subject once again.
"Probably," Tenzin responded, turning away and leading her across the roof to where Oogi waited. When they reached the flying bison, Tenzin took Lin's hand in his once more and easily floated them up onto Oogi's back. Tenzin took his usual place at the reins while Lin settled down in the saddle. Without delay, Tenzin said, "Yip, yip," and Oogi took off. Soon they were flying over Yue Bay, and not much later they had landed on Air Temple Island.
By the time Lin had clambered off of Oogi's back, Katara had already rushed outside and pulled her youngest son into a bone crushing embrace. Aang was next, followed by Kya, Sokka, Toph, and Bumi. Lin stood off to the side while Tenzin's family greeted him and asked him about his trip, something Lin realized she hadn't bothered to do. She had simply been too excited to see Tenzin that inquiring about his trip didn't even register in her mind. Toph thumped Tenzin on the back, affectionately called him "Twinkletoes Junior," and then went to stand with her daughter. Sokka soon joined the two Beifong women, while Tenzin continued to be smothered by his family.
"So were you surprised?" Toph asked, staring off into the distance with a smirk on her face.
Knowing the question had been directed at her, Lin answered her mother, "Yes, quite surprised, yet I was even more surprised that you managed to keep a secret for a whole day."
"Are you kidding?" Toph replied, folding her arms across her chest. "You're talking to the world's greatest secret keeper."
"I didn't realize that was a thing," Lin commented dryly.
Toph chuckled and flung an arm over her daughter's shoulders, her other hand resting on her hip. "It is now."
Sokka leaned over to ask, "So you're the world's greatest earthbender, metalbender, and secret keeper?"
Toph grinned. "I'm a woman of many talents."
Lin smirked and shook her head, relenting to her mother's embrace and placing her own arm around Toph. It seemed strange that she hardly ever hugged her mother anymore. After all, when Lin was younger, before Su was born, she and her mother were practically inseparable. A tight hug and a kiss on the forehead were the usual, and though that hadn't stopped when Su was born, it had become less frequent. Toph had been a very loving and affectionate mother to her daughters, but also a very carefree parent, with so little restrictions that Lin had already struggled to get much from her mother even before her younger sister was born. Su had been an unexpected new addition to the Beifong family, and despite Lin's best efforts, their family life had become strained. Toph had always been busy, very focused on her career, and as a result Lin and Su ended up fighting for their mother's attention. The two sisters had only drifted apart more and more as they got older, both of them going in two very different directions. Toph either hadn't noticed, or had no interest in getting involved.
Toph didn't appear concerned that Su hadn't bothered to come see Tenzin upon his return, and so Lin didn't comment.
Instead, after a few silent moments of watching Tenzin continue to interact with his family, Lin said, "I'm surprised Bumi could be here."
"Yeah I was too," Toph admitted. "Apparently he had some free time he was allowed to use, and when he got a call from Katara last night he decided to go ahead and use a few days to come see Tenzin. They haven't seen each other in almost four years."
Lin hadn't thought much about it, but it had been a while since the two brothers had seen each other, and even though they spent most of their time arguing or getting on one another's nerves, deep down she knew they still loved each other. Sometimes Lin wondered if Su still loved her.
"Kya has big news," Toph told Lin.
"Really?" Lin said, looking over at her mother in question. "What is it?"
"She won't tell us," Sokka said. "Not until after dinner."
"I think her wimp of a boyfriend finally proposed," Toph added.
Lin and Sokka exchanged an amused glance. "You think so?" Lin asked.
Kya, who now lived in the Southern Water Tribe where her mother and her uncle had once lived, had been dating a man she met there on and off for at least three years now. Kole was a nice enough man, but a bit quiet, which may have been what attracted the normally hyperactive Kya to him, perhaps he kept her grounded. Katara and Aang loved Kole, but Sokka, Toph, Lin, and Bumi loved to tease him. Tenzin hadn't gotten to know Kya's boyfriend as much as the others had, due to his prolonged absence, but he seemed to be caught between liking Kole and wanting to join in on the teasing. Aang and Katara were hoping Kole could convince Kya to settle down, but the rest of them had doubts. Kya seemed too carefree to stay with one man for the rest of her life.
"Either that or he got her knocked up," Toph went on, and Lin elbowed her mother in the ribs while Sokka burst into a fit of laughter.
"Hey now, that's my niece you're talking about," Sokka pointed out, sounding more like he had to remind himself of this fact, which caused him to stop laughing.
"Hey, she's twenty-eight, it's only a matter of time," Toph said.
"Well you never know it could be something completely different," Sokka said. "Maybe she learned a new waterbending trick."
Toph snorted. "Yeah, right, I'm sure that's what it is."
"I'm just saying, it's a possibility," Sokka said, folding his arms across his chest and smirking at Toph from the corner of his eye. After a few moments of silence, Sokka spoke again, this time his tone of voice more serious. "Do you think he'll stay?"
Confused, Lin turned to look at Sokka, who wasn't looking at her, but rather, his sister's family. Toph seemed to have known what Sokka was talking about, because she frowned, and very nearly growled at him as she elbowed him in the ribs.
"Ow!" Sokka exclaimed, clutching at his ribs and taking a step away from Toph. "What was that for?" Toph didn't respond, but clutched Lin closer to her and gave Sokka her best glare. Sokka's face fell and he looked at Lin sympathetically. "Oh…I'm sorry, Lin, I didn't mean –"
Suddenly it dawned on Lin. Why else would her mother have become so protective and Sokka so apologetic? He was talking about Tenzin. Lin hadn't even thought about it, hadn't even thought it was possible that Tenzin would leave again. Yet now that she thought back on, he hadn't said he was here to stay, and in his letters he hadn't said much about how long he intended to continue on his journey. What if he wasn't finished yet? What if he was just going to leave again? Lin remembered telling herself she wouldn't allow it, or that she'd go with him, but now that she was faced with the possibility of him actually leaving again, she realized she couldn't do that – she couldn't force him to do anything, and she couldn't possibly leave the city now to go on an adventure of discovery with him. She felt her heart rate speed up, and she bit down on her lip – hard – in an attempt to calm herself down.
But Toph had already noticed Lin's quickening heartbeat and tried to reassure her. "I'm sure he's staying," Toph said. "Why else would he be here now? Besides, he's much more of a homebody than Kya and Bumi ever were, I think he missed it."
"And he's always expressed an interest in being a part of the Republic City council to represent the air nomads," Sokka added. "He can't do that if he leaves again. I'm sorry, Lin, it was insensitive of me to even bring it up, I don't know why I did."
"You did it because you're a man, and men are stupid," Toph said, shaking her head. "Believe me, Lin, you're better off without them."
Lin couldn't respond, could only stare over at her best friend and wonder if the older they got, the more they'd fall apart.
Eventually everyone moved inside, where Katara had once again cooked a rather large meal. Though Lin was now rather subdued by the thought of Tenzin possibly leaving again, she didn't let it show, but instead decided to enjoy whatever time she had with him. After all, it was possible that he would be staying, and even if he wasn't, it wasn't as if she'd never see him again. They sat beside each other at the dining room table like they always did, and when everyone else moved to the sitting room, Lin and Tenzin went to their usual spot outside.
For a long moment, they were silent. Lin could not help but feel that following Tenzin outside had been a bad idea on her part. Normally she was grateful for these moments between them where it was just the two of them, but with the growing feelings she felt for him, she found herself wishing someone else was around so she didn't say or do something foolish.
It was too late now though, and so Lin turned to face Tenzin fully and said, "So tell me, how was your trip? Are you satisfied with the results?"
Tenzin had regaled the group with amusing tales of his trip, such as being mistaken for the Avatar a few times and being assaulted by a few harried old women, but he hadn't truly responded to whether or not it was an overall successful trip. There hadn't been much time though, what with Bumi's own tales from the United Forces, and Kya's announcement that her boyfriend Kole had indeed proposed to her.
Tenzin seemed to think it over before responding, "Yes, I think I am. It was good to get away from the city and see a more primitive side of the world other than my mother's old water tribe. I was able to hear from other masters of the earth and fire nations rather than just my parents and their friends, which I think was very interesting. It was also fulfilling to truly go off on my own for the first time without any help."
Lin bit her lip, mulling over his words and wondering if he yearned to go do it again, or if he had exhausted any desire to do something like that once more. She decided there was no use trying to figure it out on her own or wait until he told her. She'd just have to ask him.
"So do you think you'll go off on a prolonged adventure like that again, or are you here to stay?"
Tenzin's face was impassive as he looked over at Lin, and for a moment she was a bit nervous about his answer. "I did consider it," he answered truthfully, and Lin held her breath, "but as amazing as the experience was, I think I missed my family and friends too much to leave again."
Lin nearly sighed in relief, a small smile gracing her features as she told him, "We all missed you too…I missed you."
"And I missed you, Lin," he said with a sincere smile. "It's just too bad I missed two of your birthdays! Last time we saw each other we were still teenagers."
"Well the gifts you sent me from Omashu and Ba Sing Se helped make up for your absence."
"I'm glad. I wanted to send you something form Kyoshi Island, but I hadn't made it there yet and wanted to make sure my gift reached you in time for your birthday. I didn't have much money so I couldn't get anything quite as extravagant as I wanted –"
Lin held up a hand to silence him and shook her head. "Believe me, Tenzin, I don't need anything extravagant. Actually, I haven't taken the necklace off since I got it." As if to prove this statement, Lin pulled at the partially hidden chain around her neck and tugged upward, revealing the necklace Tenzin had gotten her for her twentieth birthday – it was a very beautiful and intricately designed necklace shaped into the earthbending symbol.
Tenzin smiled, obviously pleased by this, and said, "I had it specially made by a kind woman I met in the village."
"A kind woman, eh?" Lin questioned, raising a brow.
Tenzin laughed. "She was about twenty years older than me. Don't worry, I didn't meet any women in my travels that I fell in love with and plan to run off and marry. But what about you, any new boyfriends I should know of?"
Lin snorted and lay back on the ground, her arms folded under her head as she stared up at the night sky.
Tenzin was about to ask if that was her way of saying "no," but something caught his eye, and for a moment he was silent, wondering if what he saw was real, or simply a shadow cast by a blade of grass.
When Lin had put her hands under her head, her sleeves had slid down to her elbows, revealing the pale skin of her forearms. But while once the skin had been smooth and unblemished, now there was a jagged, light pink scar running almost half the length of her forearm. Still unsure if it was really there, Tenzin reached out to run his fingers over it, causing Lin to jerk away from him in surprise.
She sat up when she noticed Tenzin's frown. "Tenzin, what –"
He cut her off. "How did you get that?"
"How did I – what are you –?" She lifted her arm to examine it, and then it dawned on her. She looked up at him with an irritated expression. "It's just a little scar, Tenzin, what's it matter?"
"It's not just a scar," Tenzin argued, his voice still light and calm, but his unhappiness clear in his stormy gray eyes. "You were hurt, and by the looks of it, you were hurt pretty bad, and you didn't tell me."
"Because it wasn't important," Lin insisted, her ire growing. "Yeah, it hurt like hell, but it's fine, I'm still alive aren't I?"
Tenzin simply stared at Lin, his expression unreadable. "How'd you get it?" he eventually asked her.
Lin rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. "I was up against the leader of the Silver Granite Triad, within my first two weeks of joining the force. I was lucky to make it out with just this scar. But don't start babying me, Tenzin, I'm fine, and I already got an earful from my mother about how foolish I was for getting involved."
Tenzin sighed and dropped his gaze to the ground. "It just worries me…I don't like to see you hurt."
Lin scoffed. "You're worried about me, yet I wentmonths without hearing from you, not knowing where in the world you were or what you were doing or if you were ever safe?"
Tenzin looked back up at Lin with an apologetic expression, but he did not speak – he didn't need to. They both knew whatever argument they'd been having was over, and they went back to being silent and staring off into the distance.
Four days after Tenzin's return, Lin found herself back on Air Temple Island for the fifth day in a row. She and Tenzin were intent to catch up on all that had happened in his absence, and the two also ended up spending quite a bit of a time with Bumi, since he was to be leaving again soon. Though Tenzin had gone nearly four years without seeing his brother, he found himself wishing Bumi would find someone else on the island to entertain him as much as Lin and Tenzin ended up doing.
Lin seemed perfectly okay with having Bumi around, in fact, she would often suggest they spend their time around Bumi, and Tenzin was becoming increasingly irritated. Bumi was his usual, ridiculously flirtatious self towards Lin – in fact, he seemed worse than usual. Tenzin could probably guess why that was. After all, he too had noticed the change Lin had gone through in just a few short years. No longer was she the awkward, self-conscious teenager she had been. Now she was a confident, beautiful young woman. Whatever curves Tenzin had thought he'd seen when she was sixteen had been nothing compared to now. Her wavy, ebony hair fell just below her shoulder blades now, and though her eyes sparkled with youth, there was also a hidden intelligence there beyond her years.
Tenzin would be lying if he said he didn't have some feelings for Lin that went beyond friendship. He hadn't quite realized it at first, but after almost two years without her and the absolute joy he'd felt at seeing her again when they were reunited at last, he knew he wanted something more. He found himself wanting to hold onto her for longer than what a friendly hug permitted. He would catch himself staring at her for longer than usual when she'd smile at him, or even when she was simply lying on the ground beside him.
At first, Tenzin had thought she was feeling something too, considering he'd known her since her birth and was rather good at picking up signals from her. But with Bumi's near constant presence over the past few days, he was finding it difficult to discern her true feelings on the matter. He often found himself wondering why she kept suggesting Bumi join them, or why she let him flirt with her so relentlessly. Could Tenzin have possibly missed something while he was away? Could Lin have fallen in love with his brother? It seemed impossible and absolutely ridiculous, but still, Tenzin was worried. How could he possibly compete with Bumi? Bumi was older, and had much more experience. So Tenzin had subtly attempted to ask Lin if she had feelings for Bumi, and judging by her fit of laughter that followed his question and her vehement "no way!" he assumed he had nothing to worry about. After this, Tenzin hadn't protested Bumi being around quite as much, and Lin stopped asking Bumi to join them as frequently.
So on that fifth day Lin and Tenzin hardly saw Bumi, and ended up in the training area together.
"I'm guessing you learned a few things while you were away," Lin said, folding her arms across her chest and smirking up at Tenzin, who recognized that glint in her eye that usually meant trouble for him.
Tenzin shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe a few things."
"Care to test them out?" she asked challengingly.
Knowing he wasn't going to get out of it once Lin had set her mind to it, he sighed and relented. "Very well."
Lin grinned and shifted her arms – she was still in her metalbending uniform, having come straight to the island after work – the metal sleeves guarding her arm falling to the ground at her feet. She stretched her now bare arms out further, and her chest and back plating lifted up off of her shoulders and over her head. As she stepped from out of the pile of metal armor, her boots and any remaining metal bits fell off of her legs and into the pile. Now she was dressed only in a tight tank top and a loose pair of pants that stopped and tightened just above her calf muscles.
Lin then turned and walked to the other edge of the training area, and Tenzin had to force himself not to stare at her easily visible form. For a moment, he was sure she was intentionally trying to draw his attention away from the task at hand, and so he tore off the top layer of his airbending robes so that his chest was left bare. And when Lin turned around to face him again, he was pleased to see her eyes drop to his muscled chest first. But she shook it off quickly, biting her lip and looking up at his face.
She smirked and, not wasting anytime, dropped into a defensive stance, her eyes fluttering closed as she sucked in a deep breath of air. Tenzin prepared himself, knowing she was always the first to strike, and he couldn't allow himself to be distracted by how her lips puckered when she blew the breath back out.
The first boulder came flying at him only a moment later. He easily sidestepped before dropping low to avoid the second one that was pelted at his head. When the third one came he sent it flying back at her with a burst of air. She kicked it, easily shattering her rock into pieces, and when she dropped that foot back down to the ground, a rock wave erupted from that spot and sped towards Tenzin, who jumped into the air and kicked a gust of air back at her. Lin quickly brought up a rock wall to shield herself, and then kicked the wall straight at Tenzin.
It went on like this for a while, so that soon both of them were drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. This was nothing unusual. Their sparring always lasted until they were nearly too exhausted to move. This time, though, Tenzin was getting distracted and losing much quicker. He couldn't help but think how beautiful Lin was when she was so focused and in tune with her surroundings, her clothes clinging to her sweat slicked skin and her hair swimming around her flushed face…
He knew he had messed up before it happened, but by the time he realized it, it was too late. He tried to lunge out of the way, but the large rock clipped him in the side and he cried out in pain as he fell to the ground with a thud.
Lin had also noticed Tenzin slowing, but had assumed he was simply trying to give her a false sense of security before striking, and had thought he'd step out of the oncoming rock's path just in time as usual. But when she saw the boulder hit him in the ribs, and heard his cry of pain, she immediately dropped her stance and sprinted to his side.
"Tenzin?" Lin shouted as she ran, feeling his heartbeat practically thudding out of his chest as he moaned and clutched at his side. When she finally reached him, she fell to her knees beside him and reached out to place a hand on his shoulder. "Tenzin?" she repeated. "What is it, what hurts? Can you breathe?" She looked down to where his hand was held against his ribs. After prying his hand away, she gently placed her own over his skin, relieved that he didn't seem to have any broken bones.
"I'm fine," he gasped at last, wincing as he forced himself up into a sitting position.
"Well I'm taking you to your mother," Lin said, her once frantic demeanor now calm and collected despite how worried she was. "Can you walk?"
"Yes," Tenzin replied shortly, gritting his teeth as Lin helped pull him to his feet.
He bent over slightly as he walked, placing his hand back over his injury while Lin placed his other arm over her shoulders and her arm slid around his waist. She guided him the somewhat short distance – though today it felt like miles – to his home, where she then called out for Katara.
Aang entered the room first, and frowned when he saw Lin and Tenzin there, sweaty and dirty – Lin could only imagine how thatlooked considering they were both also wearing less clothing than before – and Tenzin clutching his quickly bruising side. "What happened?" the Avatar asked, going to Tenzin's other side to help Lin guide him down the hall.
"It's my fault –" Lin started to say, but Tenzin interrupted her.
"No it was my fault," he said. "I let myself get distracted –"
"Oh for the love of – don't argue with me, Tenzin," Lin sighed exasperatedly, sliding her hand up her forehead to push back a few errant strands of hair. "We were sparring and I clipped him in the side. I don't think anything's broken but…"
She trailed off as Katara entered the hall then and instantly spotted the three of them. The waterbender gasped and started questioning her son and Lin while ushering them into Tenzin's bedroom, where Aang and Lin helped Tenzin into bed.
After a few minutes of Katara poking Tenzin's side and him responding to her questions, Aang turned to Lin and smiled kindly at her as he suggested, "Why don't you go get cleaned up, Lin? I'm sure you still have some of your spare clothes here that you could change into. I think Katara has everything handled in here."
Lin hesitated a moment, glancing at Tenzin, who was relaxed in bed as his mother tended to his injury, before returning her gaze to Aang and nodding her agreement. She didn't say anything, but turned away from the three of them and walked quickly from the room. She went to the spare room where she stayed when she spent the night on the island, and searched through the dresser there for some clothes that would still fit her. It had been a while since she'd added to it, and most of the clothes were from when she was only ten. Eventually she found a long, dark green shirt and matching pants, and despite being almost positive that this outfit actually belonged to her mother, she took the change of clothes to the bathroom with her, where she scrubbed the sweat and grime from her skin and thoroughly washed her hair before changing.
Though Lin was now clean, she did not feel any better. She felt guilty about hurting Tenzin. It wasn't as if their sparring always went without injury, but excluding the time she'd broken his arm, it had never been very serious, and certainly hadn't happened in a very long time. Of course, a part of her wanted to tell Tenzin to just suck it up, but the part of her that had cared so deeply for him for so long now felt awful.
Shaking her head irritably, Lin blew out a breath of air, which caused a strand of hair hanging in her face to flutter upward and then fall back into place. After throwing her dirty clothes in with the rest of the home's dirty laundry, Lin made her way back to Tenzin's room. Katara was exiting when Lin arrived, and Lin quickly asked, "How is he?"
"He'll be just fine," Katara assured Lin, patting the younger woman on the shoulder. Apparently Lin hadn't hid her worry as well as she'd thought. "One of his ribs was cracked, but no other harm seemed to be done, and I fixed it all right, it'll just be bruised and a bit sore for a week or two. He's resting now, but you can go in and see him if you'd like."
Lin nodded. "Thanks, Katara. Sorry I cracked your son's ribs," she said a bit sheepishly.
Katara chuckled and shook her head, muttering, "Just like her mother," as she walked away.
Lin smirked, and then slowly slid the door to Tenzin's bedroom open. Tenzin was sitting up in bed, propped up by multiple pillows that had been positioned behind him. He was fully clothed again, Lin noted with a bit of dismay, but just as handsome as ever as he turned to smile at her.
She crossed the room to stand at his side, smiling down at him apologetically as she murmured, "I'm sorry, Tenzin. I can't believe I managed to crack your ribs."
Tenzin chuckled and waved a dismissive hand. "It was just one. Don't worry, I forgive you."
Lin sighed and, suddenly realizing how tired she was, sat down beside him on the bed so that they were facing each other and her legs hung off the side of the bed. And then, remembering something he'd said, she asked him, "What distracted you?"
"What?" Tenzin replied, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"You said it was your fault," Lin explained. "That you got distracted. What distracted you?"
Tenzin suddenly looked very embarrassed as his cheeks turned a brilliant shade of red and he coughed before stammering, "Oh, um – well, uh – it's just that –"
"Come on, Tenzin," Lin interrupted impatiently. "Just tell me."
"It was you," he blurted out at last, forcing himself to keep eye contact with her, though it obviously took some effort.
"Wh – what are you talking about?"
Tenzin tilted his head to the side, his lips curling up into a soft smile as he reached out to pick up her hand that was rested on her lap. His other hand reached out to stroke her cheek gently, hesitantly, and Lin quickly licked her suddenly dry lips. "I was distracted by how beautiful you are," Tenzin murmured, as he leaned ever closer to her.
Lin's heart was racing in her chest, and any ability she had to speak suddenly left her as Tenzin's lips pressed softly against her own. He sat back far too quickly, and for a moment Lin simply stared at him with what was likely a dumb expression on her face.
Eventually Lin was able to use her limbs once again, and she slid over the bed closer to Tenzin, smirking at his anxious expression as she slid one arm around his neck and leaned in close to him, hovering her lips over his for a moment as she felt his arm go around her waist. "Maybe I should crack your ribs more often," she quipped, her voice barely above a whisper. And then she finally closed the distance between them, pressing her lips firmly against his. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her free hand clutched the sleeve of his robe as his own free hand moved up to trail through her hair.
Lin could feel her cheeks heating up as her heart continued to thump loudly in her chest. She could hardly think straight, knowing only that this was one of the best feelings she'd ever had in her entire life and she didn't ever want it to end.
"WAAAHOOO!"
Tenzin and Lin jumped apart at the sudden, unexpected – yet horribly familiar – cry of elation coming from the doorway of Tenzin's bedroom. Shocked and completely red in the face, both of them turned to see Bumi standing just outside the room, clapping his hands together and grinning wickedly at the pair of them as he continued, "All right, little bro! Finally! You've done something to make me proud!" Lin slapped the palm of her hand against her forehead and shook her head. "And just before I'm about to leave too!" Bumi continued, undeterred by the death glares he was receiving from both Lin and Tenzin.
"Bumi, what on earth –" a voice from the hallway questioned, and Lin and Tenzin exchanged a glance, instantly recognizing the voice of Bumi and Tenzin's mother, as well as another pair of footsteps that meant Aang was also with Katara.
Lin had the urge to sink into the ground, and for a moment, she considered it, but she supposed it'd be rude to leave Tenzin on his own, and better to get this over with now rather than –
"Lin and Tenzin were finally kissing!" Bumi cackled in response to his mother's question.
…Then again, later was sounding better and better to Lin, but she seemed rooted to the spot, and she covered her flushed face with one hand, staring at the floor so she wouldn't have to meet anyone's gaze.
Tenzin grabbed one of the pillows behind him and leaned forward, burying his face into it and hoping his ears weren't as red as they felt.
"They were doing what?" Aang's voice could be heard asking, and he was obviously almost as amused as his oldest son was.
And then Aang and Katara were standing in the doorway, seeing for themselves proof that Bumi had certainly caught them in the middle of something, as they were both still hiding their bright red faces.
Aang chuckled, and Lin could practically hear the smile on Katara's face as she said, "All right, Bumi, leave them alone. They're two adults after all."
And with that the door slid closed, and Lin could still hear Tenzin's amused family discussing this turn of events as they walked down the hallway together
Chapter Text
Chapter 4
Lin had left Air Temple Island rather quickly that afternoon. She'd mumbled a quick goodbye to Tenzin, and then reminded him to rest before making a hasty retreat. Luckily, Lin didn't run into Bumi on her way out, and even luckier, her mother was still at work when she returned home, so she didn't have to explain why her heart was practically beating out of her chest. Unfortunately though, when Lin and Toph went to Air Temple Island the next day to see Bumi off, as he was due to return to the United Forces, Bumi had made sure to let Toph in on the "big news," and Lin had had to endure quite a bit of teasing from her mother for almost a month afterwards. Katara and Aang weren't any better, as Katara started inviting Lin to dinner a lot more often, while Aang would simply smile broadly at the two young adults anytime he saw them together.
Despite the kiss they shared, Lin and Tenzin didn't end up having a conversation about it until almost two months later. Lin and Toph had had to go back to work almost immediately after they saw Bumi off, and Tenzin didn't see Lin for another three weeks. Having become impatient, and even a bit concerned, Tenzin had journeyed to the Beifong home in Republic City one evening with the assumption that Lin would be home from work. However, when Tenzin reached the door, he was beginning to think Lin hadn't come home yet. Normally when visiting the Beifongs, one of them had already pulled the door open by the time he made it up the stone porch stairs. If for some reason they didn't open the door for him, he'd simply knock once and, as long as he didn't hear any shouts telling him not to, he'd let himself in. He hadn't had to let himself in often though, and usually they had already known of his visit ahead of time, so he was hesitant to do so this time. Nevertheless, he knocked on the door twice, and when there was still no response, he decided to slip in quickly and see if anyone was home.
Tenzin closed the door behind him before walking through the sitting room and down the hall, peaking into the first room there, which was Lin's bedroom. Despite the fact that it wasn't even dark outside yet, Lin seemed to have just woken up when she heard Tenzin enter the house. She must have been exhausted, because Lin never went to sleep before the sun set, and judging by the trail of pieces of her metalbending uniform that lead from her bedroom doorway to her bed, she had hardly made it to the mattress before she'd fallen asleep. She was still dressed in the clothes she customarily wore under her metal uniform, and she looked distinctly disheveled, her clothes twisted around her seemingly thinner than usual frame, and her hair falling in her face and sticking out at all angles – the mess of hair atop her head was very similar to how her mother looked when she woke from a deep sleep.
"Tenzin," Lin murmured confusedly, her voice thick from sleep, "what're you doing here?"
"I wanted to see you," he answered, stepping into her room and carefully avoiding the sharp metal pieces lying around.
"Don't bother coming in here," Lin said quickly as he opened his mouth to continue. "It's a mess," she explained, rising to her feet, tugging her shirt back into place, and running her hand through her hair as if to calm it – which she did not. "C'mon, I'll make some tea."
She stepped past him and led him back down the hall and into the kitchen. "Why don't you let memake the tea?" Tenzin suggested.
Lin looked at him over her shoulder, her eyes narrowed to show that she was not amused. "Very well," she relented, folding her arms across her chest and motioning for him to go ahead.
He inclined his head in her direction and then began searching the kitchen for things to make tea. The Beifong kitchen didn't have much, considering none of its occupants could cook – Lin had picked up a few things from Katara when she was younger, but not enough to be even halfway decent at cooking. Tenzin wasn't sure if Suyin had yet learned at fourteen years old. He still hadn't seen her since his return. According to Lin, Su spent most of her time running around the city with her friends, staying out late almost every night.
Once Tenzin got the water heating up, he turned back to Lin, who had sat down at the kitchen table, her elbow propped up on the table and her chin resting on her hand.
"I didn't mean to wake you," he said, pulling out the chair across from her and sitting down.
Lin waved a dismissive hand. "I was just taking a nap – I've got a double shift again tonight."
Tenzin furrowed his brow, half confused and half understanding. "Double shift? So you worked today and then you have to work tonight?"
Lin nodded, moving her hand to cover a yawn. "Third time this week. Things have been…hectic. That's why I haven't been to see you in…how long has it been?"
"Three weeks," Tenzin supplied.
Lin's eyes widened in surprise. "Has it really been that long?"
Tenzin nodded, frowning in concern. "Have you just been working constantly the past three weeks?" he asked.
Lin still seemed bewildered by the amount of time that had passed and she rubbed her forehead with a slight frown of her own. "Yes," she answered after a few quiet moments. "The Silver Granite Triad has increased their activity, and a new gang – who are calling themselves the Red Monsoon Triad – has surfaced recently. The entire police force is practically in disarray. My mother hasn't slept in her own bed in…well, who even knows how long. She'll get a few hours in a bunk at headquarters and then go right back to work. I've been pulling double shifts, and I'd be working a lot more if it wasn't for my mother insisting I go home and sleep."
Tenzin shook his head, an expression of mild astonishment on his face. "I didn't know it had gotten so bad. I'd overheard my father express some concern to my mother, and Uncle Sokka hasn't been available for our usual meetings, but I guess I just hadn't realized... I thought it was all under control –"
"It is," Lin cut in, sounding a bit offended and sitting up straighter in her chair. "It just takes a lot of time to keep it under control."
"Of course," Tenzin said apologetically, rising to his feet to finish with the tea. Neither spoke again until he had set a steaming cup of tea in front of Lin and returned to his seat. "Do you think the Silver Granite's increased activity is due to a new leader, or do you think they're planning to break the original out of prison?"
Lin didn't respond right away, blowing on her tea and taking a sip from it before looking back at Tenzin and answering, "I think it's a concern that Kane will try to escape, but he's in a pretty secure prison and there's extra security in place around his cell now." Lin yawned again before taking another sip of her tea, blinking rapidly as if to wake herself up more.
Tenzin delayed sipping some of his own tea as he asked, "When do you have to go back to work?"
"Not for another few hours," Lin answered with a shrug.
Setting his tea down on the table, Tenzin rose suddenly to his feet and moved around the table to Lin, gently removing her tea from her hands and setting it down as well.
"What are you doing, Tenzin?"
"Putting you back to bed," he told her, taking her hands and pulling her to her feet.
As he tugged on one of her hands and led her back out of the kitchen and down the hall, she said, "Trying to get me in bed already, are you?"
Tenzin smirked and glanced back at her as he replied, "Don't get too excited, I just want you to sleep."
Lin snorted with laughter. "Honestly, at this point, I think I'm more excited by the prospect of sleep."
Tenzin's laughter echoed down the hallway as the two of them finally reached Lin's room. He looked at her with an expression of mock hurt. "That may have offended me a little bit."
Lin smirked, now leading Tenzin into her bedroom. "You'll get over it." She dropped his hand and plopped down on her bed, and though he seemed about to leave, she asked him, "So why did you come here anyway?"
"I told you, I wanted to see you."
"Yeah, but there had to have been more to it than that."
"Well…I wanted to talk to you, about…you know, the kiss," he told her honestly, sitting down beside her on her bed, his once playful expression now serious.
Lin bit her bottom lip, but didn't seem entirely surprised by this. "Well what exactly –"
Tenzin held up a hand to stop her. "Not now," he told her. "Sleep now, we'll talk later. Maybe I can do something to help decrease your work load and you'll have some free time."
"Anything you could do to help would be appreciated I'm sure," Lin said, yawning behind her fist again. "But I don't know that there's much you can do. As soon as I get some free time I'll let you know and we can have that talk."
Tenzin nodded. "I'll take you to dinner," he promised. "Until then, make sure you get your rest."
He gave her a stern look and she rolled her eyes. "Yes, mom."
Tenzin merely smiled and rose to his feet, bending over slightly to lift Lin's legs and place them atop her bed. Lin smirked as he pushed her back to lie against the pillows and pulled her blanket up to her shoulders. "Sleep," he repeated, leaning over to place a kiss on her forehead. And when he went to pull back, Lin reached out to grip the front of his robes, pulling his face back down so that she could give him a proper kiss on the lips. It wasn't the conversation they both needed to have, but it at least assured him that whatever this was they were getting into, she wanted it too.
"Now go," she murmured when their lips parted. She lightly shoved him back and curled up onto her side, her eyes fluttering closed as exhaustion began to take hold of her again.
Tenzin smiled and, in a hushed voice, said, "Sleep well, Lin. I'll see you again soon."
And with that he left as Lin quickly began to fall back asleep.
As soon as he returned home that evening, Tenzin began devising a plan to help the police. He wasn't sure what he could do – if anything – but he thought perhaps if he joined the force as an ally he could get more inside information and go on from there. With that in mind, he spoke to his father first, since Aang often helped Republic City's police if he was needed. Aang didn't seem at all surprised by Tenzin's desire to help protect the city from the triads, and even offered to talk to Toph for him. But Tenzin refused, deciding to talk to the city's Chief of Police on his own.
So the next day Tenzin journeyed back into the city, and this time went straight to police headquarters. It was relatively simple for him to get inside and be allowed to go back to the Chief's office – being the Avatar's son and known friend of Chief Beifong had its perks. Once he reached Toph's office, he raised his hand to knock, but the metal door opened on its own, and he stepped into…a cluttered mess. One of Toph's officers was scurrying madly around the room, leafing through papers, which were scattered all over. Toph was standing behind her desk, phone pressed against her ear and an expression of obvious irritation on her face.
"Yes, ma'am," Toph was saying, her teeth gritting in an effort to be kind to whoever she was talking to. "I understand, and we're doing everything we can to –" There was a pause, as the woman on the other end started shouting something, and all of Toph's kindness vanished. "I'd like to see you come down here and do my job!" Toph exclaimed. "I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, but do not insult me or my officers when you clearly have no idea what you're talking about! Go back to your knitting and leave the crime fighting to the professionals." With that, Toph slammed the phone onto her desk, thereby knocking over a large stack of papers. "And will somebody get these damn papers off of my desk and out of my office!"
"Right away, Chief!" the scurrying officer said, quickly picking up piles of paper and carrying them out of Toph's office – he had to make a few trips, and Toph seemed to be growing increasingly irritated, her arms folded across her chest and her foot tapping the floor impatiently.
Until at last the officer had cleared the room of all the papers, and Toph collapsed into the chair behind her desk. "I don't know why they bother bringing papers in here – they know I can't read them!"
Toph didn't expect a response to this, and Tenzin didn't give one. He went to stand in front of her desk, his hands clasped behind his back.
"This better be important, Twinkletoes Jr.," Toph said, leaning back in her chair. "If you hadn't guessed, we're pretty busy –"
"That's why I'm here," Tenzin began. "I know you've been busy dealing with the triads, and I want to help."
"Help in what way?" Toph inquired.
She hadn't turned him away, so Tenzin guessed that was a good sign. "Well, kind of like how my father occasionally helps the police force, except I'm willing to be available full time. I expect no special treatment, but to be thought of as one of your officers."
Toph seemed interested, sitting up in her seat and placing her hands atop her desk. "And what makes you think we need your help?"
Tenzin shrugged. "I spoke with Lin last night, and it sounds to me like neither of you are getting much sleep."
"So you want to help so Lin will sleep?"
"Well, I admit that that's one of the deciding factors, but mostly I'd just like to help keep the city safe. If I expect to be a councilman soon I should at least gain some understanding of the inner workings of the city."
Toph was silent for a moment, seemingly mulling it over, though she could have just been trying to get a read on him – he couldn't tell.
And then – leaning forward over her desk – she spoke at last. "If you're serious about this, you'll have to be dedicated. You can't just back out when things start to get tough – this work isn't for the faint of heart, and sometimes it can get pretty ugly out there, but if you can handle it you'd be a great asset. You shouldn't have a problem keeping up with the other officers, but you'll have to respect your commander and do what he tells you to – you can't just go off on your own."
"I understand," Tenzin said. He had already thought about all of this, and his father had reminded him as well. He knew it'd be tough work, but if it meant protecting the citizens of Republic City and helped Lin get more rest, then he was willing to do it.
"Very well then," Toph said, rising to her feet and reaching out to shake Tenzin's hand. "Welcome to Republic City's Police Force, Tenzin. You'll have to fill out some paper work – I'll have one of my officers get it for you – and you'll have to run through a few tests, and then we'll get you on a team. You'll be out in the field in about a week."
"Thank you very much, Toph – I mean, Chief Beifong."
After filling out quite a bit of paper work stating that he was loyal to Republic City, and any injuries he received while on the job was not the City's fault, and also bringing in documented proof of his name and birthplace, Tenzin was then put through rigorous tests to show that he was capable of the sometimes exhausting work of a police officer. After a week of this, he had to appeal to the council, but once they had looked through the paper work and heard his statement, they quickly agreed to allow Tenzin on the force. In fact, they seemed all too eager to allow him to help out – obviously they were just as exhausted as the police were. Tenzin was then assigned to a group of metalbenders, though he was told that his group would likely change multiple times.
For the next month Tenzin worked tirelessly with the police force to bring down the triads. Some nights he was too tired to fly all the way back home on Air Temple Island, so he ended up sleeping in one of the uncomfortable bunks at headquarters. When he was home, his mother spent most of the time expressing her concern for him, but he insisted he had to keep going, and so she eventually sighed and let it go. He hardly ever saw Lin, except a few times when they'd pass each other in the hallways at headquarters – they'd smile at one another and keep walking, unless they were alone and in no hurry, then they'd stop for a quick chat, which always came to an abrupt end.
After that month though, the triads finally settled down enough so that everyone's work hours were reduced. They were still wary of any future problems from the triads, but with a lot of the criminals in prison and the threat of the Avatar's son helping the police, they could all breathe a bit easier.
One day, Tenzin left headquarters after only three hours of work, and had just started down the sidewalk when he heard someone calling his name. He turned around, looking in the direction from where the familiar voice had come from, and saw Lin hurrying towards him. Smiling, he walked quickly in her direction.
"I'm glad I caught you," she said a bit breathlessly. "I heard you have a day off tomorrow."
"Yeah I do," Tenzin replied. "Do you work?"
"No, I have the day off too. If you don't have any other plans I figured we could finally have that talk."
"Sounds great," Tenzin said, and Lin smiled.
"All right, well, I have to get back to work. I'll see you tomorrow then?"
Tenzin nodded. "I'll come get you around six?"
Lin agreed and then hurried back into headquarters. Tenzin took a quick flight around the city on his glider to figure out where he would take Lin to dinner. Then he returned home, where he caught up on some meditation with his father, ate a nice home cooked meal, and then got some much needed sleep. The next day, Tenzin grudgingly admitted to his parents that he wouldn't be able to have dinner with them, because he'd be taking Lin out to dinner instead. Aang then spent nearly half the day giving Tenzin "advice," while Katara had practically burst into tears, seemingly forgetting that her son was almost twenty-two years old.
Toph had thoroughly embarrassed her daughter that night as well. When Tenzin arrived at the Beifongs' home, Toph had been the one to answer the door while Lin was still getting ready. Lin had arrived in the sitting room just as Toph was informing Tenzin that if he broke her little girl's heart, she'd break his legs. Lin had merely rolled her eyes and shooed her mother away, but Tenzin had been a bit rattled.
By the time he and Lin had reached the restaurant, though, Tenzin had forgotten all about Toph's threat. Lin was looking as radiant as ever. She was dressed in a simple tunic and pants, but he was so used to seeing her in her uniform that it was a big change. He liked to see her in her metalbending uniform because it made her look official and authoritative, but he liked it even more when she wore her civilian clothes in typical earth kingdom colors – it made her look more like herself rather than the strict, fearful daughter of Toph Beifong.
The restaurant was simple as well, nothing too extravagant, and once they were seated and their order had been taken, Lin clasped her hands in front of her on top of the table, and leaned towards Tenzin as she said, "So, you wanted to talk…"
Tenzin suddenly felt a bit nervous, and he rubbed his sweaty palms on the sides of his pants. He cleared his throat and replied, "Yes, well, lately I guess I've been feeling something more than friendship for you, and judging by your response to our kiss, I assume you have as well." He seemed to stammer over his words as he continued, "I don't want to be too forward though, so I thought I'd let you know that I'd very much like to – uh – begin a…romantic relationship with you…" he trailed off and sighed. "This is all coming out wrong…it sounds unnatural…I'm sorry. I should have taken you to a nicer restaurant, or flown us around on Oogi, or –"
"Tenzin," Lin interrupted as she reached out to grip one of his hands, a smirk playing about her lips that made his mind go suddenly blank. "You know me – I don't need any of that. The fact that your heart sped up so much I could barely make out any other vibrations in the room is satisfying enough. I don't need a declaration of feelings from you either, and I think you know that, which is why you're so jumbled up. But relax, Airhead, because whatever kind of "romantic relationship" this is that we're getting into…well, I'm in. I want it just as badly as you do, because, the truth is, I've had a crush on you since we were teenagers."
Tenzin's eyes widened a bit. "Really?" he said. "You've liked me for that long? Why didn't you ever say anything?"
Lin shrugged, letting go of Tenzin's hand and sitting back in her chair. "I wasn't entirely sure how I felt. It's confusing, to suddenly having feelings like this for the best friend you grew up with. Plus, I thought I'd get over it and there was no use making a mess of our friendship for some teenage angst."
Tenzin was silent for a moment.
"But you're sure now?" he asked her.
Lin smiled softly. "Yes, I am."
Tenzin smiled widely, reaching out to hold Lin's hand again. "Me too."
So Lin and Tenzin spent the next year or so exploring their new relationship. They took things slow, both unconsciously afraid of messing something up. With all their work they didn't have nearly as much time to invest in one another as they hoped, but it only made the moments they finally got to spend together that much better. Neither of them was entirely sure how far they wanted this to go, and both of them were still a bit in denial of their true feelings. They were unquestionably comfortable together, and certainly cared a great deal about each other, but their biggest issue seemed to be the process of discerning deep feelings of friendship from the feelings of love that a couple felt. They had loved one another since they were children, so now they were caught wondering if they were actually in lovewith each other. The fact that Lin was naturally a bit leery about people didn't help the matter. She would trust Tenzin with her life, but she had never given her heart to a man so fully, and the thought of it was a bit frightening. Beifong or not, she still had feelings, and her father's abandonment still weighed heavily on her even all these years later.
For the most part, the beginning of Lin and Tenzin's relationship was happy and exciting. The newness of it kept them on their toes, so that every glance and every touch was exhilarating. As time went on, the goodbye kisses got more intense and a lot more difficult to end, though there was an underlying fear of going too far. The best part seemed to be that they could simply be walking around Air Temple Island or Republic City and their hands would automatically intertwine. When they sat down at Tenzin's kitchen table for one of Katara's many dinners, their hands would instantly find one another under the table and stay there for most of the evening. And when they sat down beside each other on a bench or couch, Tenzin would wrap his arm around Lin's shoulders, or she'd curl her hand around his arm and lean against him.
The problems came when Tenzin was added to the very same police force team that Lin was a part of. At first they were excited by the prospect, knowing they could work well together and they would also be able to see each other more often. For a while, this was the case. In the beginning, most of their work took place at headquarters, and consisted only of research, theories, and paper work. The other members of their squad were baffled by Lin and Tenzin's ability to either finish one another's sentences, or to argue a point so calmly and fluidly for a ridiculous amount of time. And when at last they moved out into the field, the rest of the team sometimes found themselves simply standing back and watching in awe. Lin and Tenzin had only to exchange a glance to know what the other was thinking, and when in battle, they'd twist and weave around each other as if they'd been doing this their whole lives.
However, the enthusiasm soon faded. Most of their missions had been rather simple and without much danger, so when one assignment went horribly wrong and their commanding officer was rendered unconscious, their working compatibility was tested.
They had raided a suspected hideout of the Red Monsoon Triad. They hadn't anticipated many issues, considering the Red Monsoon was a relatively new triad, and so far they had been rather sloppy and unorganized, and more of a nuisance than an actual threat. So when Lin, Tenzin, five other officers, and their commanding officer, were attacked before they had even entered the hideout, they were all caught off guard. The resulting battle was dangerous and unpredictable, and at some point during the chaos, Tenzin became very overprotective of Lin, who did not appreciate his hovering over her at all. So by the time the battle had been completed – with three officers unconscious and the street in ruins – Lin was too irritated to even glance in Tenzin's direction. When he confronted her about it back at headquarters, they'd ended up arguing in the middle of a hallway. It was the middle of the night, so not too many people witnessed it, but by the next day everyone knew about it, and Tenzin was supposed to be assigned to a new team. However, Tenzin had adamantly refused, knowing that when he wasn't being overprotective, he and Lin were a great pair. So he set his fears aside when they were out in the field and allowed Lin to take care of herself – albeit reluctantly. It was still a sore spot in their relationship though.
Neither was aware that this would be the least of their problems.
It was late.
Toph had not yet returned home, and Su was actually in bed at a semi-reasonable hour for once.
Lin was preparing for bed, and had only just pulled her sleep pants up over her hips when she heard and sensed the vibrations of her mother bursting through the front door.
"Lin!" Toph's voice shouted as the older Beifong hurried down the hall to her eldest daughter's room.
Lin stumbled across her bedroom, cursing her messy habits as she went and kicking aside the clothes and shoes obstructing her path. She met her mother in the doorway with a confused expression as she asked, "Mom? What's going on?"
"You're staying on Air Temple Island for a few days," Toph said while pushing past Lin.
"Wait – what?" Lin spluttered, watching as her mother grabbed a bag lying in the corner of her room and started shoving random articles of Lin's clothing into it.
"I'll explain later," Toph muttered, still packing Lin's clothes.
Shaking herself from her stupor, Lin went to her mother's side and stilled Toph's hands with her own. "Mom, tell me what the hell's going on."
"Listen, kid, it's for your own good, so just do what your old mom tells you to all right?"
Lin removed the bag from Toph's hands. "Not until you tell me what's going on."
"You won't go once I tell you –"
"I won't go if you don't tell me either."
Toph sighed irritably. "Kane has escaped from prison."
Lin couldn't help the momentary lapse in character as her heartbeat quickened and the bag in her hands fell to the floor, spilling her clothes at Lin and Toph's feet. Kane was the leader of the Silver Granite Triad, the man Lin had locked in jail after only two weeks of being on the force, and the very same criminal that had looked her in the eye and promised to ruin her if he ever escaped from prison.
But as quickly as the panic had come, it was gone, as Lin sucked in a calming breath and regained her composure before most people would have noticed that it had even faltered.
But of course, Toph noticed.
"I won't let him hurt you, Lin," Toph promised in a steely tone of voice. "Not again."
Toph bent down to retrieve the fallen bag and started stuffing Lin's clothes back into it.
Lin didn't move to stop her, but told her, "I'm not leaving, Mother."
"I'm not arguing with you about this," Toph said, unfazed. "It's too dangerous. And I know you're an adult now and more than capable of looking out for yourself, but sometimes you just need to stay back and let other people handle it."
"You can't honestly expect me to go running into hiding!" Lin exclaimed. "That's what he'd want, to scare me off, we'd be playing right into his hands! And you know if I'm unreachable he'll just go after you or Suyin. Besides, you can't tell me you'd ever willingly go into hiding no matter how dangerous the criminal is, so how can you expect me to?"
"Su's going with you, and I've been doing this a lot longer than you, Lin. I know what I'm doing, and if he comes after me he'll be in for a rude awakening. In fact I hope he comes after me, so Ican be the one to throw his ass back in prison. You just need to set your pride off to the side for a while and let me handle this."
"This isn't about my pride, Mother. It's about the people of Republic City. They're all in danger now that Kane has escaped –"
"Believe me, Lin, I know that," Toph sighed, and for a moment she stopped packing Lin's bag, her shoulders slumping. There was a long moment of silence, until Toph continued, "He killed four of our men tonight."
Lin was in shock.
Four?
Four.
Four metalbenders had been murdered. Four of her fellow officers, who she'd likely worked with or at least met a few times were now dead. Their families would now be mourning their sudden tragic deaths. And this was only the beginning. Kane had only just escaped from prison and already he had murdered four people. If that was any indication of the chaos he would cause now that he was out of prison, then Lin was truly worried.
But this only made Lin more determined to catch Kane herself.
Lin opened her mouth to tell her mother this, but Toph spoke first.
"And that's not all," Toph said, her voice full of rage now. "Kane escaped and managed to murder those officers because he had help. Help from one of our own. We were betrayed."
Lin was surprised yet again, but this time she was not rendered speechless.
"Betrayed? By who?"
Toph seemed hesitant to respond, but eventually she answered, "It was Deak."
Lin's eyes widened. "Deak? The very same Deak that I went to the thirty-fifth celebration with?"
"That's the one."
"But – he – I –" Lin shook her head in disbelief. She had known that Deak was a bit strange, maybe a bit too power hungry, but she could not believe that he would betray the police that way. She had known him ever since she started attending the Metalbending Academy when she was a teenager. And despite the disaster that was their date to the thirty-fifth celebration, she had ended up going on a few dinner dates with him during the two years that Tenzin had been away. She still hadn't felt anything more than friendship for him, but Deak had certainly liked her, because even after she had told him she wasn't interested, Deak had still not given up on her. Even so, she still wouldn't have thought that he would be a criminal who betrayed his own men, the very men he seemed so intent on being the leader of one day.
"And that's another reason you need to go to Air Temple Island," Toph said, now returning to packing Lin's bag. "That Deak has been obsessed with you for years, and I don't doubt that he has your entire schedule memorized. Kane's out for blood, your blood, and if he has Deak the Freak to help him out then you'll be in ten times as much danger."
Lin was too surprised and angry to bother arguing with her mother at this point. She would go to Air Temple Island as her mother requested, but that didn't mean she'd stay there.
"I'll go," Lin told her mother, "but I want to be kept up to date on everything."
Toph didn't respond. It didn't matter. Lin knew Toph would tell Lin what was going on, or Lin would figure it out on her own.
Lin sighed and crossed the room to take the bag from Toph. "I can pack my own things."
Toph went to wake Su, who was even more enraged than Lin about having to stay on Air Temple Island for an unknown period of time. It took the joint effort of Toph and Lin to force Suyin out the door, and the teenager sulked the whole way across Yue Bay.
When the three Beifongs arrived on Air Temple Island, they were greeted by Aang, Katara and Tenzin, who had been called ahead of time and told that Lin and Su would have to stay with them for an indefinite amount of time. They were not, however, told of the circumstances, and each of them was very curious.
On the walk up to the Avatar's home, Su pouted and Toph explained the circumstances, while Lin walked along beside her, quiet and surly and her eyes focused on whatever was in front of her – she did not want to catch Tenzin's obvious gaze. She was not happy about running away just because somebody wanted to kill her. She wanted to be out there looking for the bastard who had murdered four of her fellow officers. But she knew Tenzin would not see it this way. He would insist on her safety and probably do anything he possibly could to keep her on the island. He hadn't been as overbearing lately when they were at work, and seemed to have realized she was capable of defending herself, but now that there was a ruthless criminal after her that would all change.
When Toph finished explaining the situation to Aang, Katara and Tenzin, the six of them came to a halt, and Katara said, "Well Lin and Su are welcome to stay for as long as it takes for you to recapture Kane. And you're welcome to stay here when you're not working as well, Toph."
"I probably won't leave headquarters much until he's captured," said Toph.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Aang offered.
"Probably not," Toph said. "Just, uh, keep an eye on the girls for me. I'm sure they've both already got plans of running off."
Lin huffed irritably and folded her arms across her chest, still not looking at anyone, fully aware that she was acting like a petulant child but not caring in the least. At least she wasn't on the verge of tears like Su was.
"Well they do take after their mother," Aang said a bit amusedly. His expression turned serious once again though as he said, "Don't worry, Toph. They'll be safe here."
"I know. Why else would I have brought them here, Twinkletoes? I have to be getting back to headquarters though…" Toph turned towards her eldest daughter first, gripping Lin's shoulder and saying, "I know you're pissed at me, kid – I would be too, but you know I only do it because I love you."
To reiterate her point, Toph punched Lin in the shoulder as a sign of affection. But when Lin still didn't respond, Toph pulled her into a tight hug.
Finally, Lin relented, sighing and embracing her mother and muttering, "I love you too, Mom." Lin didn't explain, though, that a part of her said that because she was worried about the outcome of Kane's escape from prison, and what it would mean for the Beifong women.
"I'll call you later," Toph promised, before turning her attention to Su and giving the younger girl a similar farewell.
"Katara and I will walk you back to the docks," Aang said afterwards, making it rather clear that he wanted to talk to Toph without Lin and Su and Tenzin being around.
Su immediately went off to her old room, furious, but not saying another word.
Lin didn't comment either, but started towards her usual room as well, with Tenzin following along behind her. Neither of them spoke until Lin reached her room. Once there she threw her bag into a corner and spun around to face Tenzin.
"I'm going to bed now," she said. "Would you like to sit by the door and watch me to make sure I don't run off, or are you actually going to trust me?"
"Come on, Lin," Tenzin said with an irritated look in her direction, his arms folding across his chest. "Don't get angry at me – I'm not the one that brought you here."
Lin scoffed. "Oh, yeah, because you wouldn't have dragged me over here if you had known about Kane's escape first."
"If I did it would be for the same reason your mother brought you here – because we care about you, and we want you to be safe –"
"Why is it that in order to be safe I have to hide on an island like a coward?"
"This isn't about courage or cowardice, Lin. What if a ruthless criminal mastermind was out to get your mother? Or Sokka? Would you not be concerned for their safety? Would you not want to keep them out of harm's way until the criminal could be captured? He's already managed to kill four metalbending officers with just one other person to help him. Think about how dangerous he'll be once he's reunited with the rest of the Silver Granite Triad."
Lin folded her arms across her chest, her gaze falling to her feet as Tenzin's words soaked in. She knew, of course, that he and her mother were right, it was simply that she hated to sit around doing nothing while knowing people's lives were in danger.
Tenzin seemed to read her thoughts, as he sighed, "I know," and then crossed the room to pull Lin into a hug.
After a few short moments, she wiggled out of his embrace and said, "I really am tired, so…"
"Right, of course," he murmured. "Goodnight." He placed a kiss on Lin's forehead, and then retreated from her room.
Sighing, Lin collapsed atop the bed, not bothering to change her clothes or pull back the blankets. In a matter of minutes, she fell into a restless sleep.
Lin and Su remained on the island for a few days.
With every day that passed, Kane murdered more people – civilians, police…anyone who got in his way. This wasn't simply petty crimes and violence with a few particularly atrocious acts here and there that was custom with triads. This was a man driven insane by his need for revenge against the person who had imprisoned him nearly two years ago. And his thirst for violence only escalated the longer he was kept from Lin Beifong.
It was only a matter of time before Kane was either recaptured or given what he wanted. Lin knew it. Her mother knew it. And Tenzin, Aang, Katara, and Sokka all knew that Kane was not going to give up. The police had to find him and stop him before he took anymore lives, before Lin made a quick escape from the island and sacrificed herself for the lives of the people of Republic City. But Kane was nearly impossible to catch. He always got away from the scene of the crime and he never left any witnesses. He moved constantly, so that he was one step ahead of the police at all times.
And then the threat was made and Kane's true intentions were made clear to the public. There was no doubt that he had planned it. He made sure the city's most ruthless journalist received a letter, which described Kane's desire to have the legendary Toph Beifong's eldest daughter in his clutches. Kane promised to stop murdering the innocents of Republic City once and for all if only he was given this one prize. It did not take long for a mob to form at the door of the now empty Beifong home, and by the end of the day the city was in upheaval, demanding that Lin Beifong bring an end to this.
The mobs need not have formed though, and the people's cries of rage were for naught. Because when Lin heard of Kane's request, she jumped out the window of her room and took off for the docks before Aang and Katara could make it down the hall in time to stop her.
Tenzin, however, had not bothered going to Lin's room, but flew down to the docks to stop her before she could board the boat there. The Air Acolytes had been given strict instructions days ago not to take Lin or Su back to the city, but Tenzin did not doubt that she could persuade them. The two of them arrived at the docks virtually at the same time, and there was a moment in which neither of them moved, both poised and ready for even the slightest of motions from the other.
"Don't do this, Lin," Tenzin pleaded quietly, the crashing waves drowning his voice, yet his words were carried through the air and Lin heard him without having to strain her ears.
"You know I have to, Tenzin," Lin told him, her face set in grim determination and a fire in her eyes that dared him to try and stop her.
Nonetheless, Tenzin shook his head and argued, "No you don't. He won't stop killing simply because you turn yourself in to him. If we just give your mother some more time, soon they'll catch him –"
"There's no use, Tenzin," she interrupted him, drifting slowly in his direction, her stance firm and prepared for him to use his airbending against her in his attempts to stop her. "I've made up my mind."
Tenzin closed the remaining distance between them so slowly, effortlessly, and smoothly that Lin had hardly noticed. She had been so worried about an attack, she had not thought about much else that could come from him. He managed to close his fingers around her wrists, not tightly, but securely, looking down at her with a desperation in his eyes that made her falter.
"Lin," was all he whispered, and yet just saying her name and continuing to stare into her eyes managed to convey to her all that he was feeling.
Lin could not hold his gaze, and for a moment she looked down at the earth beneath them, her thoughts a confused mess of emotions. But when she looked back up at him, she was as calm and unwavering as ever.
"I love you, Tenzin," she told him sincerely, the truth of it plain in her emerald eyes as she spoke it for the first time since they had started their relationship. And this time Tenzin wavered, his eyes widening in surprise and his stance weakening. It was all Lin needed to slide her foot subtly across the ground to trap Tenzin's ankles and wrists with slab shackles that rendered him immobile. "And I truly am sorry."
Tenzin gasped as he realized his folly, and instantly struggled against the rock holding him in place, but Lin stilled him, placing a hand against his cheek to tilt his head up to look at her once more. She pressed her lips softly against his in a quick kiss that seemed to hold a world of meaning in it. And then she stepped away from him without another glance. He called out for her, he struggled against the rocks that bound him, but he could not stop her. She ordered a waterbender to get her quickly across the bay, and by the time Aang and Katara arrived at the docks, Tenzin's voice was hoarse from screaming and Lin had already disappeared from sight, the boat now a mere speck in the distance.
Chapter Text
Chapter 5
Tenzin, like his father, was naturally light on his feet.
But as he walked through the halls of Republic City's Police Headquarters, his footsteps were heavy, loud, and clumsy. He didn't move fluidly between the clusters of officers passing by him. He didn't walk with his usual airy confidence. Instead his shoulders were slumped, his head bowed in defeat. He followed along behind his father in silence, his thoughts filled with sorrow.
The two of them had searched Republic City for over an hour, leaving Katara behind to ensure Su stayed on the island. Aang and Tenzin had not found Lin anywhere. They had been too late. Wherever she was now, Tenzin did not know, but he was painfully aware that at this point she was probably already in Kane's clutches. One terrible scenario after the other raced through his mind. He could not stop worrying about Lin, could not get rid of the guilt that nagged at him for letting her leave the island.
And her last words to him.
"I love you, Tenzin."
She had meant it. She had used it against him so that she could escape, but she had meant it, that much he was sure of. And what he was even surer of was that he loved her too, and he regretted not telling her sooner. What if he didn't have the chance to do so? What if he never saw her again? He could not bear the thought of losing her, could not imagine living the rest of his life without her. All he wanted was to hold her in his arms again, to see her smiling up at him, to know that she was safe.
Instead he and his father were on their way to admit to Toph Beifong that they had not been able to keep her daughter safe. Normally this would scare most people, but the two of them were more terrified by the thought of losing Lin.
They walked quickly through headquarters, and soon enough Aang and Tenzin had reached Toph's office. They entered without knocking, and Toph was out of her chair and on her feet before the two of them stepped inside. The absolute fear on Toph's face gave her away, making it clear to Tenzin that she already knew what had happened without even having to ask.
She asked anyway.
"What are you two doing here? Where's Lin?"
Aang was the one to step forward, and though Toph could not see the guilt on his face, she could hear the solemn tone of his voice as he answered, "I'm so sorry, Toph. Lin left the island. We searched the city for over an hour, but we couldn't –"
"She's been missing for an hour?" Toph exclaimed, seemingly caught between anger and worry. "And you're just now telling me?"
"We didn't want to alert the city to her presence," Aang explained calmly. "We had hoped we'd find her before anyone even knew she was here."
"I asked you to keep an eye on her!" Toph shouted, slamming her fist into her metal desk, which screeched in protest as it bent around her hand. "You promised you'd keep her safe! Where is Su?"
"Katara is keeping her on the island –"
Toph flattened her palm atop the crater she'd created on her desk, and with one fluid, vicious move of her arm, the entire desk slid away from her and slammed into the wall to her right. Now that there was nothing blocking her path, she strode across the room, her fists clenched and the floor trembling beneath her. Aang and Tenzin had been standing in front of the doorway, but when Toph approached they both stepped quickly out of her way.
Aang asked, "Where are you going?"
Toph was one step out the door by now, and did not stop as she responded, "To find my daughter."
And she sure as hell meant it. She was fueled by her anger and worry to go out there and find her oldest child. Tenzin could see it in the way she walked – quick with head held high – and could hear it in the determined tone of her voice. She, like him, could not imagine a life without Lin, and she wasn't just going to sit back and weep when she could be out there tearing the city apart with her bare hands.
It only took Tenzin half a second to make up his mind. He raced after Toph, slowing slightly once he reached her side. "I'm going with you," he told her.
She did not acknowledge him, which indicated that she was not opposed to him accompanying her.
They did not go straight out into the streets to begin their search. First Toph gathered all of her officers that were still in the building, and set up communication with the officers who were already out searching the city for Kane. She explained the situation to her officers, and demanded they bring Kane in before he took anymore lives – police, civilian, or otherwise. The officers were more than happy to comply. They were all taking Kane's chaos personally. He had murdered four of their own, and had now captured another of theirs. Toph was not required to stick around while her officers split up into teams. They knew what they were doing.
Toph's effortless command over her officers was awe inspiring. Aang was almost equally impressive, as he took control of his own search team. Sokka was called, and immediately came in to help as well. Traffic in Republic City had come to a screeching halt hours before Lin had even left the island and the bridges were shut down, so if Kane was moving, he wouldn't be in a vehicle, and no one was getting in or out of the city. There was a lot of chaos in the streets as the citizens protested their immobilization, but there was still a great deal of hope that they'd find Lin in no time, but whether or not they'd find her alive…
"Are you sure this place is safe? Should we move again?"
"No. She'll be awake soon. We'll be safe here for a time."
Lin returned to consciousness slowly…painfully.
"The entire police force and the Avatar are scouring the streets looking for her – staying here is a huge risk."
"Leaving is a huge risk as well – I have this under control."
She had never felt so sluggish in her entire life. Her head seemed too heavy to lift, her chin resting against her chest, and her neck aching from the strain. Her knees were digging into the surface beneath her, which she assumed was wood, because she could not feel the customary vibrations from the earth. Her tingling arms were outstretched, her wrists bound tightly by what seemed to be some sort of rope. Her legs were bent beneath her and her ankles tied together.
"Do you really? Or are you willing to risk your life just so you can take hers?"
"You've destroyed your entire life to help me, yet you worry that you'll be killed because we stay in one place for too long?"
She was sweating. It was too warm. The air was thick. Her hair was almost dripping wet and clinging to her neck and forehead.
"I don't want to die by their hands."
"I'm assuming you mean the officers you betrayed?"
Her muscles ached, and she was sure she now had some bruises marring her skin. Judging by the stinging, she figured she had a few scrapes as well. Nothing life threatening…yet.
"No. They betrayedme. Besides, I helped you escape from prison, you have no right to patronize me."
"Yeah, well, I don't trust you."
The memories flooded back to her then. Of her fleeing Air Temple Island. Of Kane and Deak and some of the Silver Granite Triad appearing almost immediately after she had arrived in the city. Of the subsequent duel that she had been far too outnumbered to win. The smile of absolute pleasure on Kane's face just before she slipped into unconsciousness.
"You're a criminal, do you trust anyone?"
"I did…once. Before your lover here threw me in prison."
Lin forced her eyes open at last, her head whipping upwards, her entire body protesting the sudden movement. She looked around her, taking in the wooden box, the tight ropes…finding no earth or metal with which she could bend. If only she'd had time to put on her metalbending uniform before she'd left the island.
"I am not her lover. The Avatar's son is."
"Ohh, so you're fueled by jealousy? Tell me, did you do all of this so that you could keep the girl for yourself? I admit, she is quite attractive…for now."
She tested the ropes that bound her by yanking her arms towards her body. She was dismayed when her arms barely moved and the rope painfully chafed her wrists.
"No. This isn't just about her. Her looks were not what attracted me to her…it was her power. My desire was to replace her mother as Chief of Police, but whenshe joined the police force, it became clear that she would be the next Chief. In the end, it would always be her. I was the best in my class at the Academy, but then she had to come along and take that all away from me. I want her to suffer just as much as you do."
A hearty chuckle was Kane's only response.
Lin gritted her teeth, shifting her legs around in an attempt to rid herself of the tingling sensation that was starting to become painful. But her shuffling was a bit louder than she had intended, and seized the attention of her captors.
There was a rustling, the sound of wood scraping together, and then the front section of the wooden cell Lin was in swung open. Lin straightened herself up as much as was possible, and stared up at Kane and Deak with an expression that clearly displayed her contempt for the both of them.
Kane smiled widely in a rather unsettling way, his entire face wrinkling strangely at this once normal facial expression due to the scar covering much of his face. Though Lin had received a scar on her arm from her battle with Kane almost two years ago, Kane had ended up with a large, jagged scar running from one corner of his forehead down to the opposite corner of his chin. It had been his own fault really, considering Lin's hand – and therefore the metal cable she had been manipulating – had slipped when he cut her arm open.
Deak, on the other hand, was standing rather still with a stiff, disgusted expression. He looked thin and lanky, and almost completely unthreatening when compared to Kane's thick form. He scowled down at Lin while also managing to look somewhat bored.
Kane was the first to speak. "Ah, it's nice of you to join us again, Miss Beifong. I find it's rather boring when my prisoners aren't awake – it makes it much more difficult to inflict pain."
Kane obviously intended his last words as a threat to scare Lin, but she simply stared him straight in the eye and showed no sign of being the slightest bit afraid.
Narrowing his eyes in obvious irritation, Kane stepped into the wooden cell, pulling from his pocket a rock that was no larger than his palm. "Shall we begin then?" he said, grabbing Lin's hair and roughly yanking her head back. The rock in his hand morphed into a sharp point. Still Lin did not falter, but continued to glare up at him. "Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time to spend together. I'd make you suffer two long years if I could, make you rot in this cell like you left me to rot… But that's okay, I've had plenty of time to plan this out."
"Wait," Deak interrupted, stepping into the wooden prison as well. Both Lin and Kane looked at him confusedly.
"Don't go soft on me now, boy," Kane growled.
"I'm not," said Deak, rolling his eyes. "I want to be involved."
Kane seemed pleased, and Lin couldn't stop her heartbeat from speeding up.
"Good," Kane said. "You can go next."
"I'm going to the back, Commander; let me know if you spot anything."
"Yes, Chief."
Toph stood aboard one of the patrol airships – not her preferred method of travel, but her only option to make it to one of the sections of the city, since all bridges had been shut down and therefore cluttered with traffic and angered citizens – her hands clasped behind her back and her expression unreadable. Tenzin stood to her left, and when he heard that she'd be leaving the main deck, he turned to look at her. She did not turn in his direction, nor speak to him at all as she walked past him and towards the back of the ship. They hadn't spoken much at all the entire time they'd been together, except to discuss tactics or possible locations. There wasn't really anything for them to say. They were both tired and more than upset about Lin's absence, and the longer she was missing, the more dismayed they became. Discussing it would do them no good, and they couldn't possibly hold any other sort of conversation.
But something about Toph suddenly walking off concerned Tenzin. They'd been together almost the entire seventeen hours they'd been searching for Lin, and Toph would always at least mention to Tenzin where she was going, or beckon for him to follow her. He considered that maybe she just wanted some time alone, since the back of the ship was almost always deserted, but something urged Tenzin to follow her. Maybe Toph wanted him to follow her, or perhaps it was simply he who did not want to be alone. Either way, he told the airship commander where he was going, and then journeyed to the back of the ship in search of Toph.
When he found her, he was surprised to see that she was no longer standing tall and confident. Instead she was seated on the floor of the airship, her legs bent, her hands rested on her propped up knees, and her head tilted back against the wall of the ship.
"What do you want, kid?" Toph said, and her voice was not menacing or angry, but rather, quiet and shaky, which was not at all like the Toph Tenzin knew.
"I – uh –" stammered Tenzin, initially unsure of why exactly he had followed her. He knew now though. It was because she needed him. "I came to see how you were doing," he admitted, edging closer to her. He couldn't quite make out her face yet in the darkened lighting, but he saw her shake her head.
"Don't worry about me, Junior. I just needed a minute away from everyone else."
A part of Tenzin thought he should leave her alone with her thoughts – maybe she needed it – but another part of him felt like what she needed right now was a friend, someone who understood. It probably would have been better if Sokka had been there, or even Aang or Katara, but since two of them were somewhere else in the city and Katara on the island, Tenzin was the only one available.
When he reached her, he sat down on the floor beside her, sitting similarly to how she was, but with his legs crossed beneath him. He opened his mouth to speak, but found that there were no words. Nothing he said could possibly make her feel better right now. Her daughter, her first born, one of the people she loved most in the world was missing, was in the clutches of a ruthless murderer. And so, he closed his mouth, and instead reached out to place a hand over one of Toph's.
There was silence between them for a while, broken only when Toph whispered, "She has to be okay."
Tenzin looked over at her, and was surprised to see a tear roll down her cheek – he had only ever seen Toph cry once before, way back when he and Lin were very young and Bumi had pushed Lin into the bay and run off. Bumi hadn't known that Lin couldn't swim, and Tenzin and Kya had both been elsewhere. Toph had immediately heard Lin frantically shouting for her mother to save her, and had sprinted to the edge of the bay with the intentions of saving Lin, but since Toph couldn't swim or see anything when she was in the water, she had practically drowned herself trying desperately to reach Lin. Aang had swooped in to save both of them, but it had been close, and Katara had had to force the water out of Lin's lungs. It had been a very emotional day for the two Beifongs, and Bumi had received one of his worst punishments ever – he hadn't protested either, as he had felt horribly guilty for what he'd done. Tenzin had been a bit too young at the time to understand that Lin had nearly died, but seeing Toph sobbing and clinging to her daughter had been unsettling enough for him to feel the gravity of the situation. Katara and Aang had taught Lin to swim after that incident – though only after spending hours convincing Toph it was for the best. Thankfully, nothing like that had ever happened again, and though Lin had been injured quite a few times throughout her childhood, never had it been that severe.
So it was not altogether surprising – though a bit annoying – that Tenzin's stomach twisted up uncomfortably at the sight of Toph's tears. It was so uncommon, which was what made the situation seem that much worse. Tenzin could think of no response to Toph's words, except to agree, which he did not do out loud. Instead he took the action route once again and reached out to place an arm around Toph's trembling shoulders.
He was even more surprised when Toph turned to bury her face into Tenzin's shoulder, her silent tears soaking through the sleeve of his robes.
"Chief, I think we've got something."
Toph and Tenzin had returned to the deck of the ship not long ago, and at the sound of one of Toph's officer's voices coming over the police scanner, they both turned towards it. Toph reached out to press a button before responding to her officer.
"What is it, Lieutenant?"
"We found a few members of the Silver Granite trying to get out of the city. One of them admitted to having seen Kane and Lin. They aren't being very cooperative, but we thought they might answer to you."
Toph turned her head in Tenzin's direction, her equivalent of exchanging a glance with someone. Tenzin inhaled sharply at this news. Toph told her officer, "Good job, send my airship your coordinates and I'll be there shortly. Do not let any of those criminals escape."
"Yes, Chief."
Toph rubbed her forehead wearily, but said nothing.
"I think this will be the first solid lead we've had all night," Tenzin decided to say, folding his arms across his chest. Despite having caught at least a hundred members of the Silver Granite Triad in the past few days since Kane had escaped, none of them had any idea where he could have Lin.
"Yeah, but Lin's not there," Toph grumbled in response.
Tenzin sighed. "No, but maybe one of those criminals will know where she is."
"Maybe."
And that was the end of their conversation.
When Toph and Tenzin arrived at the coordinates they'd been sent, the airship dropped them on a nearby roof. Tenzin floated down to the ground, while Toph created a sort of rock elevator for herself – the rest of her officers rappelled down the side of the building with their metal cables. Toph, Tenzin, and the three officers accompanying them then walked the short distance down the street, to where seven officers were watching over three captured members of the Silver Granite Triad. It was late at night – dark, with hardly a star in the sky – and the street lights cast an ominous glow upon the officers and the criminals. Shadows danced along the street, while the cold night air howled. A shiver ran down Tenzin's spine.
The commanding officer who had notified Toph of his discovery noticed her arrival and walked quickly to meet her. "Chief," he greeted, hands clasped behind his back as he inclined his head in her direction. Tenzin noticed the officer as one of his previous commanders – Jin.
"Have they given you anything?" Toph asked, not sounding particularly hopeful.
"Nothing," Jin responded regretfully. "All they've said is that they helped Kane capture Lin."
"Very well, we'll take it from here. You and your officers keep an eye on the surrounding area in case this is some sort of trap."
"Yes, Chief," Jin said, bowing quickly and then directing his officers around the block.
Toph then sent her own officers back to the airship to watch the area from the skies, so that she and Tenzin were the only ones left with the three criminals.
However, before the two of them could continue on to the criminals, Toph came to a sudden halt, causing Tenzin to stop and look over to her in question. She didn't seem to be worried, so he assumed there was no danger, but as she spun around in the direction they had come, he whirled around quickly to see what she had sensed.
There was no cause for concern, for the person now approaching them through the darkness was clearly Tenzin's uncle Sokka.
"I heard you had a lead," Sokka said as he approached, explaining his presence before Toph or Tenzin had a chance to ask.
"We aren't sure yet," said Toph, turning on her heel again and starting back in the direction of the captured criminals.
Sokka jogged to catch up as Tenzin turned to follow Toph once more. The three then walked together to the three felons, who were seated on the ground, their bodies immobilized by the metal cords wrapped tightly around them. One of them was scowling up at Toph, another was trembling in fear, and the other was simply staring at the ground.
"So," Toph began, calmly but threateningly, "which one of you is going to tell me what I need to know?"
"We won't be tellin' you nothin'," the scowling criminal spoke up, spitting in the direction of Toph and Tenzin's feet.
"Is that so?" Toph asked, sounding almost bored.
"Yeah!" the surly man confirmed, still glaring up at Toph. "Yer kid's gonna get what's comin' to her and there ain't nothin' yer sorry ass can do about –"
Toph, though not looking at all offended by the criminal's words, kicked the heel of her foot into the ground, causing a small pillar of rock to jut out beneath him and send him face first into the pavement. She then turned her head in the direction of the frightened criminal, who whimpered when the Chief of Police's milky, unseeing gaze fell on him.
Tenzin noticed Toph's lips twitch slightly – she was obviously fighting a smirk. Tenzin also had to clench his fists to contain his excitement. If these criminals knew where Lin was, this trembling one would definitely tell them.
"How about you?" Toph asked the apprehensive man. "Do you agree with what your pal here says? Or are you going to be cooperative?"
"I didn't know this was what we were getting into!" he exclaimed in response, looking practically on the verge of tears.
The scowling man, who had been rolling around on the ground and groveling in pain, sat up quickly. "Shut up, Ryu!"
Ryu continued to tremble in fear, but turned to the angry man on his right and shouted, in a strained and cracking voice, "We could be facing life in prison, Jiro! I won't let Kane put that girl's blood on my hands!"
"Your blood will be on my hands if you don't shut up!" Jiro hissed at Ryu.
Suddenly Toph was no longer keeping a bored façade. She stomped her foot against the ground and Ryu was propelled upwards, so that he was standing on unsteady feet. Just as he was about to fall back to the ground, Toph reached out and grabbed hold of the collar of his shirt, pulling his face close to hers. While giving Ryu her most menacing glare, she growled, "You're headed to prison whether you tell me where she is or not. The question is whether or not I let you get there in one piece."
"She's bluffing!" Jiro spat.
"Enough," Sokka demanded, reaching down to grab Jiro by the shoulder and hold him up in a strong, unwavering grip, his expression intimidating.
Jiro simply smirked. "What's it to you, pretty boy?" he jeered. "Tryin' to defend your bitch –?"
Sokka's other arm shot up quickly, his fist connecting with Jiro's face and instantly putting an end to the criminal's gibes. Sokka then unceremoniously dropped Jiro's inert form back to the ground.
"Thanks, Sokka," Toph said, sounding relieved. She turned her attention back to Ryu, who was still close to her face and still trembling in fear. "Where are Kane and Lin?"
The third criminal, who had remained silent the entire time, his head bowed, looked up at Toph, Tenzin, and Sokka then. Tenzin was then able to recognize the criminal as Botan, a member of the Silver Granite Triad who Tenzin and Lin had been tasked to capture once. They had failed when Botan managed to knock Lin over and Tenzin had turned to ensure she was all right, thereby giving Botan time to escape. Lin and Tenzin had argued over it, and thinking back to the two days they didn't speak afterwards made Tenzin's stomach clench into knots.
Before Ryu could speak, Botan spoke up, "If your kid's lucky, her body'll be floating out in the Bay by now."
Silence descended upon the group as Botan's words sunk in. Tenzin felt his eye twitch, and it took all his self-control to refrain from punching Botan in the face as Sokka had done to Jiro only minutes ago.
Tenzin was snapped from his thoughts when he noticed Ryu struggling and gurgling in Toph's grasp. It seemed Toph had forgotten what she was doing for a moment, and her hand had tightened around Ryu's throat. Sokka put a hand on Toph's shoulder and spoke her name, gaining her attention and bringing an end to her unintended strangling. Ryu gasped in a breath of air, but otherwise seemed fine.
No one commented on Botan's words, and Toph turned her attention back to Ryu as she said, "You were involved in the capture, so where did Kane take her afterwards?"
"I-it was some old guy's house," Ryu stammered. "He's blind without his glasses and about half deaf so he didn't know we were dragging a girl into his house."
"What's the old guy's name?" Toph demanded, and Tenzin was nearly on his toes in anticipation, both he and Sokka unconsciously moving their heads closer to Toph and Ryu.
"I – I don't know," Ryu said. Toph growled at this response and tightened her grasp on Ryu's shirt collar. "But he was that kid's grandfather!" Ryu added quickly, his eyes wide.
"What kid's grandfather?" Sokka asked.
"I – I don't remember his name, but he was that metalbending officer –"
"Deak?" Tenzin supplied, speaking for the first time since this whole interrogation.
"Yeah! That's it!" Ryu confirmed. "I remember, Deak called the old guy 'grandfather.'"
Toph abruptly dropped Ryu, who fell to the ground with a thud and a slight exclamation of pain. Spinning around on her heel, Toph hurried down the sidewalk to where Jin stood, keeping an eye on what had been going on with Toph and the three criminals.
"Did they give you anything, Chief?" Jin asked as Toph, Tenzin and Sokka quickly approached.
"I need my airship back here immediately," said Toph, not bothering to answer Jin's question. "And I need you to get me the coordinates of ex-officer Deak's grandfather's house. Then get your officers to load the three criminals and themselves onto the airship when it gets here."
"Right away, Chief!" Jin responded dutifully, using his police scanner to call his officers and Toph's airship back. Then, using that same police scanner, he called into headquarters, where two officers remained, and requested the location of Deak's grandfather's home. By the time Toph, Tenzin, Sokka, Jin and his officers, and the three criminals had all boarded the airship, Jin had been sent the coordinates to Deak's grandfather's, which he then gave to the airship captain. As the airship took off towards its destination, Toph contacted Aang, who said he'd meet Toph and the others at Deak's grandfather's house.
The ride across the city was almost painfully slow. Tenzin struggled to remain calm and patient, while also thinking about how much faster he could have gone if he'd been flying on his own on his glider. His thoughts were a whirlwind of worry and anticipation. He so desperately hoped that they'd find Lin, but he was also terrified of the condition in which they'd find her. And then what if she wasn't there? Were they to assume her body was floating in the Bay as Botan had suggested? Would they ever find her?
Lin's head lolled forward, her eyelids fluttering closed as unconsciousness fought to take hold of her. Her heart hammered in her chest, and her breathing was heavy and ragged. She couldn't discern what was sweat and what was blood rolling off her skin. Her entire body ached, and she had a pounding headache, but the worst pain came from the stinging gashes on her back. She was sure she had received those wounds hours ago, yet blood still dripped down her spine onto her bound calves. The wounds throbbed and ached nauseatingly.
Then again, she had no perception of time. She had no idea how long she'd been stuck in this wooden crate. What she did know was that she was unbelievably thirsty, and had her head not been spinning dizzily, she was sure she would have been hungry too. Even though she was sure she'd vomit up any sort of liquid she tried to consume at the moment, she still yearned for a glass of water. Her mouth felt dry and unpleasant, and her throat was almost as raw as her wrists. Her wrists, which were still bound by coarse rope, and which had been chafed and torn open as she fought against that rope in an attempt to free herself. She had long ago given up trying to free her legs, which were wrapped in rope from her ankles to her shins, and so they were almost completely numb at this point.
"Damn," she heard Kane mutter from above her. "She's out again."
Lin had to force herself not to smirk at his stupidity. She had only actually fallen unconscious once, but Kane and Deak thought she had at least four times.
Deak sighed in frustration, and Lin thought she heard him clambering out of the wooden cell. She felt Kane move away from her as well, and then heard the wooden door slam closed. She was alone again.
"I'll go upstairs and check on everything again," Deak said. "You stay here with her."
"How many times do I have to tell you," Kane grumbled angrily. "I don't answer to you."
"Fine, do what you want," Deak said unconcernedly. Lin heard his footsteps fading as he walked away and presumably up a set of stairs.
Kane huffed irritably, and then it sounded to Lin as if he simply sat down on the ground outside her cell.
A few silent moments later, Lin slowly lifted her head, peeking her eyes open to ensure that her cell was indeed closed, and Kane and Deak were not inside of it with her. Once she was sure that she was safe for the moment, she gritted her teeth and started wriggling her wrists around once more. Her right hand was almost completely free from her rope shackles, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to tug her hand further, the pain becoming too intense. Still, she kept at it, determined to at least make an attempt at escape. If she could just get out of this wooden box…
"Kane!"
Lin jumped at Deak's sudden shout, the sound of his hurried, pounding footsteps penetrating her ears as the man presumably ran down the stairs and in Kane's direction.
"What the hell are you shouting about?" Kane demanded, his hand thumping against the wooden cell to aid him in climbing to his feet.
"They're here!" Deak exclaimed, coming to a sudden halt.
"Who's here?" Kane asked, but the trepidation in his voice assured Lin that he knew exactly who was here.
Lin had an idea of who it was as well…or at least, she hoped.She was ready to get out of this place, and despite hating the fact that she needed to be saved by anybody, she would be more than grateful to accept the help. More importantly, Kane and Deak would be captured at last, and this time, they'd spend the rest of their miserable lives in prison.
"All of them!" Deak told Kane, his voice panicked. "Her mother and the Avatar and –"
"Well," Kane interrupted before Deak could list off all the others, "it looks like this is it then, kid. You go upstairs and hold them off. Hell, claim I forced you to help me if you want."
"What about you?" Deak asked, though it didn't sound as if he cared very much what happened to Kane. "And her?"
"I'll go in there and finish her off. The mother'll probably kill me when she finds out, which is fine, I'm not goin' back to prison."
Deak hesitated a moment, a moment that Lin used to begin furiously yanking her arms as far out of her rope constraints as she could manage, ignoring the pain and focusing only on freeing herself. She heard Deak say something else, heard the ex-officer retreat once more, and then felt a whoosh of air as the wooden door opened. She looked up, saw a flash of surprise pass over Kane's face, and then saw his expression change to one of amusement as he removed the sliver of rock from his pocket once more. The rock lengthened and sharpened as Kane stepped closer to Lin's struggling form. Despite her jerking movements and her desperation to escape, she kept her expression clear of emotion except for pure and absolute hatred for the criminal before her.
"It's been fun, Miss Beifong," he said with a smirk, his rock spear aimed and ready to plunge straight into her chest. "It's too bad we didn't have more time together –"
When Toph, Tenzin, Sokka, and Aang reached the home of Deak's grandfather, they did not knock on the door. Instead Toph kicked it down and strode straight into the sitting room. Tenzin was surprised to see Deak sitting calmly on the couch, supposedly reading a book.
Deak looked up at the group that stormed into his grandfather's home with an unconcerned expression on his face. The old man who was sitting on the other end of the couch, presumably Deak's grandfather, looked at the group in surprise.
"Oh my," the old man croaked, his large eyes widening behind his thick glasses. He looked over at Deak and said, "Are these more of your friends, Deak?"
"No, Grandfather," Deak replied calmly, setting his book down and rising slowly to his feet. "Don't worry, I'll take care of this."
"Let's not play games, Deak," said Toph – she was ready to spring at a moment's notice. "Tell me where they are."
"I'm afraid you won't find what you're looking for here, Chief," Deak replied, his lips curling up into an annoying smirk.
Tenzin felt his fists clenching, his heart racing. He was getting angry. He had remained so calm throughout this entire situation that now his fear was overruling him and his patience was wearing thin.
And before he could even realize what he was doing, he had lunged forward, his hands grabbing the front of Deak's shirt and his momentum carrying them to the wall, which Tenzin slammed Deak into as he shouted, "Where is she?"
Deak's smirk only widened into a malicious smile as he calmly answered Tenzin, "It's too late – we saw you coming. By now Kane's already put a sword through her heart. But if you want what's left of her, please, by all means, go downstairs to the basement –"
Lin's right hand came free just in time.
With a sharp, downward blow, the side of her recently freed hand hit Kane's wrist, and he dropped his rock spear out of pure surprise. Then Lin stretched upwards to punch him in the jaw as powerfully as she could manage. As Kane cried out in pain and stumbled around, Lin wasted no time in lurching forward to grab the rock, which she used to cut her left hand free. She then leaned down to begin cutting the ropes around her legs, but it was taking too long, and Kane had recovered.
He lunged at her, his weight and momentum knocking Lin onto her aching back. The air left her lungs in a rush, but she did not falter – she couldn't afford to, for Kane had twisted her hands around so that the rock spear was pointed straight at her chest. He perched himself above her, pushing her hands closer and closer to her chest in an attempt to drive the spear through her heart. But with her adrenaline pumping, her teeth gritted, and sweat pouring off of her in waves, Lin pushed back. She could not possibly overpower Kane's huge frame, but she could hold him off long enough to transform the rock in her hands, so that soon the spear began to shorten until it was simply a rock clenched in her hands.
Enraged, Kane released one hand from Lin's to throw a punch at her face. Lin managed to pull her head to the side in time to miss the blow, but Kane used her distraction against her and transformed the rock into a spear once more. Lin felt the sharp point dig into her chest and, without thinking, she flipped her hands and the spear back around. Kane had thrown all of his weight against Lin in that moment, and so he could not stop himself from throwing his own chest against the spear.
Without wasting another moment, Tenzin dropped Deak and instantly took off down the hall in search of stairs. Toph and the others were all right behind him, while Jin and his officers arrested Deak.
Halfway down the hall, Toph stopped suddenly and grabbed Tenzin's shoulder. Everyone slid to a halt and looked at Toph, who did not speak, but kicked down another door to reveal a set of stairs. However, as she took one step forward, she noticed that the stairs were made from wood, and she stumbled, suddenly blind. She would have fallen down the stairs, but Tenzin quickly reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her back just in time.
"Dammit," Toph cursed. She stepped back out of the way, grabbed the sleeve of Tenzin's robe, pushed him forward and simply said, "Go."
Tenzin nodded and took off down the stairs, while Sokka – thinking quickly – lifted Toph into his arms and hurried them both down the stairs, with Aang right behind them.
When Tenzin reached the bottom of the stairs, he cast his gaze quickly around the basement, immediately noticing the large wooden crate sitting randomly amongst the piles of cardboard boxes. He sprinted towards it, noting that the front portion of it was open, but he could not clearly see what was inside. However, as he got closer, he could see two inert forms, and he began to worry that what Deak had said was not far from the truth.
And then Tenzin was inside the wooden cell.
Two people lay on the floor of the cell, neither one of them moving. A stone spear protruded from Kane's broad chest, his entire torso soaked in blood and his wide, unseeing eyes focused on the ceiling. Lin lay just beside him, battered and bloody, her clothes torn in places and her legs bound by ropes. But Tenzin was relieved to see that her eyes were closed and her chest heaving in an effort to breathe – she was alive!
Tenzin went quickly to Lin's side just as Toph and the others reached the crate. "Is she here?" he heard Toph asking. "Is she all right?"
"Yes, she's here," Sokka answered, taking Toph's hand and leading her into the cell, and also whispering something into her ear that Tenzin could not hear.
Tenzin fell to his knees next to Lin, who was curled up on her side, reaching out to gently stroke her cheek after noticing the gruesome wounds on her back. "Lin –" he whispered, and her eyes flew open suddenly, her body tensing and her arms coming up in defense of an assumed attack. "Lin, it's okay, it's me, Tenzin, you're safe."
"Lin?" Toph said, allowing Sokka to guide her to her daughter so that, when she lowered herself to her knees, she could blindly reach out and place a hand against Lin's forehead.
"What took you guys so long?" Lin croaked, trying to smirk but ending up grimacing instead.
"Sorry, kid," said Toph, looking as if she may continue, but instead she carefully trailed her hands down Lin's face, arms, and torso, trying to get a feel for what kind of injuries they were dealing with.
Lin's eyes began to flutter closed, and though they flew right back open once again, Sokka and Tenzin exchanged a worried glance. She was fading, and quickly.
Sokka looked over at Aang, who was carefully cutting the ropes from around Lin's legs. "We need to get her to Katara," Sokka said.
"Is it that bad?" Toph asked worriedly.
"There's a lot to be dealt with," Aang said vaguely. Having finished removing the ropes from around Lin's legs, he continued, "We'll get there faster if we take Appa."
"Then we should get moving," Toph said, a little impatiently.
"I'll get Lin," Tenzin offered – more like insisted – as he removed his outer cloak, wrapping it around Lin's now unconscious form before gently lifting her into his arms.
Chapter Text
Chapter 6
"How is she?"
Katara looked up from the water basin in her hands to discover Toph, Su, Tenzin, Sokka, and Aang standing before her, each with anxious and worried expressions.
"Have you all been standing out here the whole time?" Katara asked, a little bewildered but not entirely surprised. She'd just exited Lin's usual room on the island, having worked on the young woman throughout the night in an effort to heal her numerous wounds. It appeared that when she'd forced her family from the room, they hadn't gone far.
"That doesn't answer the question," Toph said a bit impatiently.
Katara sighed and readjusted the heavy basin in her arms. "She's fine. She'll just need to rest for a few days, a week preferably."
Aang moved forward silently to remove the water basin from Katara's arms. She gave him a small, grateful smile, and then turned back to face the others as they started questioning her further.
"What's the extent of her injuries?" Sokka asked.
Katara hesitated for a moment, deciding on how to word her response. "Well, her wrists were pretty torn up from the rope burn, and there was a pretty deep gash on her chest, but those things have been taken care of and will simply need some time to fully heal. She had some pretty bad bruising around her midsection and a cracked rib, all will heal with time. The worst of her injuries though would be her legs and the wounds on her back. Those ropes around her legs cut off her circulation, and I had to repair some serious damage, so she'll have some difficulty walking for a few days and probably won't be able to on her own at first. As for her back…well, the gashes on her back were deep, so she's going to have some scars."
Silence descended upon the group as they processed this information.
And then Tenzin asked, "Can we see her?"
"No," Katara answered. "I know you're all anxious to see that she's all right, but I don't want anyone in there for a while, especially in the condition you're all in." She paused to glance at each of them and the filthy, grimy clothes they'd been wearing for quite a while now. Su was the only one that hadn't been out on the streets looking for Lin, but she looked like she was about to fall asleep standing up. "She's more susceptible to infection at the moment, and I'd also like to keep her asleep for a few hours, so that her body has time to recover, so I don't want people in and out of her room. Right now you all need to clean up and sleep, like I plan to do. It's been a very stressful and tiring day, and we all need to rest –"
"But Lin –" Toph started to protest.
"Will be fine," Katara insisted. "I'm going to get up to check on her every few hours anyway. There's nothing more to be done at this point, and in order to take care of her when she wakes we'll all need some rest. Now, no more arguments, I want everyone in a bed and sleeping within the next hour."
Four hours passed.
Tenzin did not sleep longer than an hour.
He was so happy that Lin was safe now, but he continued to worry. If only he could see her once, to hear her voice, see her vibrant green eyes, perhaps then he could have slept. But he knew she needed her rest, knew that he could not disturb her sleep for his own selfishness. It didn't make staying in his room any easier though. So he tossed and turned. He did not allow himself to leave his bed, afraid that once he did he'd be unable to stop himself from creeping down the hall to peek into Lin's room, if only to be reassured that she was still breathing. He trusted his mother when she said Lin was fine, but he would feel better once he had seen it for himself.
For the entire time Lin was missing, his mind had been focused only on finding her. Now that he had, his mind was running wild with his newly realized feelings for her. He had finally admitted to himself hours ago that he was definitely in love with Lin Beifong, but now, in the silence of his bedroom, he began to contemplate what exactly that meant. He'd never loved a woman in such a way before. He'd only had a few fleeting relationships throughout his life. He'd liked those other girls well enough, but he had found that he couldn't truly be himself when around them. They were usually too impressed by his status as one of the last two remaining airbenders and as the son of the Avatar, that sometimes they seemed to forget he even had his own personality outside of those titles. They were usually overly excited by his efforts to be charming and gentlemanly; Lin, on the other hand, hated when he fussed over her, and though she accepted it as a part of him, she was not afraid to tell him straight out how she felt about it. And that was another thing; Lin always told him if he was annoying her, whereas anyone else seemed almost afraid to have an opinion that wasn't exactly the same as his. And with those other girls, he had never felt comfortable expressing much of himself, but with Lin he could tell her anything and knew she wouldn't tell a soul whether he told her to keep it a secret or not. When the relationship ended with the others, Tenzin had not been particularly broken up about it, but the thought of Lin ever leaving him, of Lin being in the arms of another man, was almost too much to bear. He could no longer imagine a life without her in it, and that had been made clearer when she'd almost disappeared from his life forever just twenty-four hours earlier.
He knew, of course, that other people didn't quite understand his relationship with Lin. They often questioned its stability, especially since many people had seen the two of them argue quite frequently. How could such a peaceful and flexible airbender be attracted to such a decisive and unyielding earthbender? The answer was simple, and ridiculously cliché – she kept him grounded, and he swept her off her feet. Lin and Tenzin knew they were meant for each other, and that's all that mattered.
And that was what carried Tenzin down the hall after four hours of trying to sleep and failing miserably. He couldn't stand lying around anymore. He just needed to see her, to know that she was okay. He would be quiet, and quick, and hopefully no one would ever know he'd even gone to see her. So he crept down the hall, and when he reached the door to Lin's room, he slowly began to slide the door open…
He stopped.
There was already somebody inside the room with Lin. He was relieved to see that it wasn't his mother or an intruder. Instead it was Toph, who could be just as frightening, if not more so, but it appeared to Tenzin that she was sleeping. She was slouched in a chair right next to Lin's bed, her chin slumped against her chest and one of her hands outstretched to rest atop Lin's chest. It took him a moment to realize that Toph had been lulled to sleep by the vibrations of Lin's heartbeat against her hand. Apparently, Toph had not been able to sleep either.
Tenzin crept halfway into the room, not wanting to wake Toph but determined to at least see for himself that Lin was still breathing. He was distressed – though not entirely surprised – to see that Lin's body was covered almost entirely in bandages or bruises. Both of her hands were wrapped from the knuckles down past her wrists. Her torso was covered in bandages from just below her collarbone down to her navel. The white gauze nearly blended into her pallid complexion. A thin blue blanket covered her from the waist down, but had slipped away from one of her legs, revealing rope burn and large dark bruises that seemed to circle all the way around her calf and ankle. She didn't seem to be in a particularly restful sleep, her brow creased and her hands twitching, and it made Tenzin's heart ache to see her suffer so even in her sleep.
Nonetheless, she was breathing – quite normally in fact – and she was alive, and safe here on Air Temple Island. Kane was dead, and Deak and the vast majority of the Silver Granite Triad were in prison. Katara was the best healer in the world, and she was taking good care of Lin. Everything was, for the most part, okay now. He should stop worrying and get some sleep, so that when Lin awoke he could be by her side throughout her recovery.
With those thoughts in mind, Tenzin was able to retreat quietly from Lin's room without waking her or her mother, slip back under the covers on his bed, and finally fall into a deep sleep.
Keeping Lin on bed rest for the next week turned out to be one of the most difficult challenges Tenzin had ever faced. Despite the fact that, for two days, she couldn't even walk on her own, she was still determined to get up and do something. She had to be watched almost constantly just to ensure she didn't fall when no one was around – Tenzin, Toph, Aang, and Katara ended up breaking the days and nights into shifts in order to keep an eye on her, while Suyin had finally gotten fed up and returned to the city. Lin knew everyone was simply looking out for her well-being and she just needed to rest in order to recover properly, but she was still severely irked by the fact that she was almost never alone, and made sure they all knew.
Toph stayed on the island to watch over her eldest daughter a few hours each day, but returned home in the evenings to check in on Su. Sokka had also returned to the city to help with the Silver Granite trials while Toph was away from work. The previous week's chaos seemed to be behind them, and with Kane dead and most of the Silver Granite Triad in prison, the citizens of Republic City were no longer in an uproar against the police or afraid to go outside. Traffic returned to normal and crime was at a minimum. The council was very busy putting members of the Silver Granite in prison for varying numbers of years, but everything else seemed to return to normal throughout the week that Lin was on bed rest. The deaths that had occurred after Kane's escape had not been forgotten though, and several ceremonies were held in honor of the murdered civilians and police officers - Lin was able to attend the funerals of her fellow officers and pay her respects, but with Katara and Tenzin following her around and forcing her to sit quite often.
Even though Lin was obviously angered by her predicament, she certainly wasn't unhappy the entire time she was forced to stay on Air Temple Island. The four of them – sometimes five if Toph or Sokka were there – spent quite a bit of time together, with Lin being slowly walked out to the sitting room, or everyone simply crowding into her room and sitting around her bed. They'd sit and talk and laugh, as if Lin and Tenzin were little again and content to listen to the tales of their parents' adventures.
After seven days of forced relaxation, Katara finally informed Lin one night that she'd finally let her off bed rest the next day. Early that next morning, Tenzin – who always went to check in on Lin before he joined his father in meditation – was surprised to see that Lin's bed was empty. After a quick search of the rest of his home, he discovered that Lin was no longer inside. Only slightly concerned, Tenzin journeyed outside, where he almost immediately found Lin.
She was standing out in the courtyard, her feet bare and her arms hanging limply at her sides. Her back was to him, but her head was tilted back and he saw that her eyes were closed. A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, her ebony hair fluttered in a light breeze, and she looked more relaxed than he'd seen her in a long time. She was still dressed in her sleep tunic and shorts, so he could see the faint, almost imperceptible scarring on her legs and wrists. There were two deep scars on her back, however, that were currently hidden underneath her tunic, but were unlikely to ever fade as the rest would. Fortunately though, Lin had not seemed particularly bothered by this, and had even laughed when her mother said, "They don't look that bad to me."
Deciding to postpone meditation for another few minutes, Tenzin strode up behind Lin, slipping his arms around her waist and placing a kiss on her cheek. Her eyes remained closed as she leaned back against Tenzin's chest, her hands coming up to rest atop his, which were laced together over her stomach.
"Good morning," he murmured in her ear.
"Good morning," she replied, her eyes opening and glancing up in his direction.
"You're up early."
She shrugged. "I haven't been outside in a week. Plus, once your mother told me I was finally allowed out of bed, I could hardly sleep."
Tenzin chuckled quietly. "You know she'll be looking for you soon, though."
Lin sighed. "I know." She turned in Tenzin's embrace so that she was facing him, her arms sliding up around his neck. She raised a brow. "Shouldn't you be meditating?"
"I wanted to see you first," Tenzin said.
"You mean you wanted to make sure I hadn't gone off and gotten myself injured?" Lin said with a smirk.
Tenzin rolled his eyes, but leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her lips. When he pulled back, he said, "I should go, before my father comes looking for me." He kissed her again, and then, with a cheeky grin, added, "Don't go off and get yourself injured while I'm away."
Lin shook her head and punched him in the shoulder. "Go on, Airhead – go be spiritual. I'll try not to run into any walls on my way inside."
Rubbing his sore shoulder and ignoring Lin's last comment, Tenzin said, "You know, you could come with me."
He was not surprised when she snorted in response. Lin had inherited her lack of spirituality from her mother. "I'll pass. I should probably get back inside before your mother wakes up and realizes I walked outside by myself."
"That's probably for the best," Tenzin agreed, kissing Lin once more – this time on the forehead.
"See ya later, Junior," Lin said before pushing past him and walking back inside.
With the threat of Kane behind them and Lin now almost fully healed, Aang, Toph, Katara, Lin, and Tenzin realized that there were just two weeks left until Kya's wedding, and one week until the five of them, plus Sokka and Suyin, would journey to the South Pole to help finish preparations for said wedding. Despite being released from bed rest, Toph and Katara insisted that Lin take another week off from work, so that when they went to the South Pole she wouldn't be more susceptible to illness in the cold weather. Lin had grudgingly agreed, partially because she didn't feel like arguing with the two older women, and partially because she didn't want to end up back on bed rest.
So Lin remained on Air Temple Island for a few more days, under the pretense that she was there to be closer to Katara to continue her routine healings. However, it soon became rather obvious to Aang and Katara that Lin had stayed to spend virtually all of her time with Tenzin. More often than not, Lin and Tenzin would be seen practicing their bending or swimming in the lake together, or they would disappear to some place on the island after breakfast and reemerge hours later, sometimes not until dinner.
It was on Lin's eleventh and final night on the island when the two of them disappeared together before and after dinner.
Earlier in the evening, when they'd been taking a leisurely walk around the island before dinner, Lin had noticed Tenzin's heart beating erratically for quite a while, and noticed the way he'd stare at her, and then lean closer as if to say something, only to straighten back up and continue walking. She had just been about to tell him to spit it out already when he suddenly walked headfirst into a thick, low-hanging tree branch.
"Ow!" he shouted, reeling back from shock and pain.
Lin came to a halt and looked up at him, folding her arms across her chest as she said, "You know, if you focused as much attention on where you're walking as you do watching me, you might be able to avoid these situations."
Tenzin frowned, still rubbing his aching forehead. The sad part was that this wasn't the first time something like this had happened today. Only a little while earlier he had been so engrossed in the passionate kiss he'd been sharing with Lin that he'd backed into a large stone. He'd immediately fallen on his rear, and almost took Lin with him, except she had reacted quickly enough to save herself from the fall.
"It's your fault you know," he pouted.
Lin raised a brow. "Oh it is, is it? And how is that?"
Tenzin's lips quirked up in amusement as he leaned close to her face and murmured, "Because you're so delightfully distracting." He closed the gap between them, intending to kiss her like earlier.
But Lin took a step back, a smirk on her face as she said, "Well then I guess I'm doing my job right."
Lin turned away then and began walking again. Tenzin hastened to follow, confusion clear on his face and in his voice as he said, "Your job is to arrest criminals."
Lin glanced over her shoulder at him as she responded, "That's just one of my jobs."
"Well then what's the other?" Tenzin asked.
Lin stopped and turned around to face him, an almost childishly innocent expression on her face as she batted her eyelashes at him rather uncharacteristically and answered, "Making sure you're so focused on me you don't notice all the young, pretty new air acolyte girls."
Tenzin smiled. "Believe me, I've only got eyes for one girl." He stepped close to her once more, this time sliding his arms around her waist to keep her there.
"Well, believe me, I don't mind sharing your eyes with the rest of your surroundings, so maybe from now on you can watch where you're going?"
She was making fun of him, and his eyes narrowed and his voice lowered as he said, "You know, I bet I can distract you just as much."
Her expression was one of amused disbelief. "Oh really?" she challenged.
"Yes," Tenzin said, pulling her flush against him and grinning at the quiet gasp it elicited from her, "really."
He leaned in and pressed his lips firmly against hers, fully intending on deepening it, only to be forced to pause when she pulled back ever so slightly, her eyes only half open as she whispered against his lips, "I'm not convinced."
One of his hands remained splayed dangerously low on her back, while the other left her waist to tangle in her hair and pull her lips against his once more. This time he managed to effectively silence her when his teeth bit down on her lower lip. She moaned into his mouth, her hands grasping his bare shoulders tightly in an attempt to pull him closer, his heated breath mingling with hers as his tongue slipped inside her mouth.
Then suddenly she pulled away from him again, smirking at his look of confusion as she said, "Is that the best you've got?"
Tenzin growled, which distracted Lin well enough to spur him on further as he abruptly spun them both around and forced Lin back against a nearby tree. She gasped, unable to contain her surprise as he lifted her up and placed her legs around his waist, holding her up against the tree by pressing up against her, one arm wrapped around her waist and the other hand grasping her thigh. And then his lips were on hers again as tongues met and teeth clashed, their hearts racing and their minds focused only on each other.
And then suddenly, a little girl's voice broke through the sounds of their heavy breathing.
"Excuse me –"
Lin and Tenzin jumped apart. Lin remained back against the tree, but her feet were on solid ground again, while Tenzin had practically flung himself fifty feet away from her. The two young adults swiveled their heads in the direction of the voice to discover a small girl staring up at them in confusion. She couldn't have been older than six or seven, with brown hair and green eyes brimming with tears.
"– can you help me find my mommy?"
Lin and Tenzin exchanged a quick glance, and though Lin's expression seemed rather stoic, Tenzin was sure he saw a bit of trepidation in her eyes, and he wondered for a moment if she'd ever even been around children other than when she herself was a child.
Tenzin turned back to look at the girl, trying to remember where he'd seen her before. She'd have to be one of the Air Acolyte's children, but otherwise he had no clue who she was.
Just as Tenzin was about to approach the nervous looking girl, a woman's voice called out from nearby saying, "Pema?"
The small girl looked back in the direction from which the voice had come and responded, "Mommy?"
And then a woman who was quite clearly the girl's mother came into view. "There you are!" the woman exclaimed in relief, and the girl named Pema ran to embrace her mother. All the while Lin and Tenzin were very much aware of the older woman's gaze on them and their disheveled forms. Their faces were flushed, their lips swollen, Lin's clothes were almost as shifted out of place as her hair was, and Tenzin's entire bare torso was nearly as red as his cheeks.
"Uh – sorry," Pema's mother said. "She got away from me…we'll just be going."
And before Tenzin or Lin could articulate a response, the woman and the girl had hurried back the way they'd come.
Lin and Tenzin looked at one another, were silent for a few moments, and then doubled over with laughter. They closed the distance between them once more and grasped hands, starting the walk back to Tenzin's home for dinner.
When they were half way there, Tenzin gripped Lin's hand a bit tighter, and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Will you meet me at the practice area tonight?"
Lin gave him a strange look, her eyes narrowed and her mind whirring with possible reasons for their late night rendezvous, but she quickly agreed and didn't question him further.
Once they were standing in the middle of the practice area that night, Lin looked up at Tenzin, her arms folded across her chest as she said, "So what's this about, Tenzin?"
"I want to show you something," he said with a reassuring smile, reaching out to take her hand.
Before Lin could question him further, he turned and began leading her out across the training area and into the nearby thicket of trees. They traveled along in silence, their hands still clasped together and Tenzin slightly ahead of Lin. There was no trail to follow, but Tenzin knew where he was going, and though it was dark and the surrounding plant life was thick and unyielding, they managed to traverse the forested area without too much difficulty – Tenzin from experience and Lin by use of seismic sense. Eventually they stepped from out of the tree line on the other side from which they'd come, and Lin was a bit confused to find them standing at the edge of a cliff with hardly any space to move. The wind whipped at their clothes, and suddenly Lin wondered why she hadn't thought to bring a coat for this little excursion. She tried to smooth back her hair with little to no success as it swirled around her face.
"You'll have to hold onto me," Tenzin said then, turning Lin to face him, a smile still plastered on his face.
"For what?" Lin asked.
"We're going down," Tenzin explained, glancing out over the edge of the cliff.
Lin looked over the edge, noticed the waves crashing over the jagged rocks below. "We're doing what?"
Tenzin chuckled despite Lin's clearly unamused expression. "Don't worry, we aren't going the whole way down." When Lin still looked skeptical he added, "Don't you trust me?"
Lin rolled her eyes and sighed, stepping into Tenzin's embrace and clutching him tightly. "Let's just get this over with, Airhead."
Tenzin wrapped his arms securely around Lin's waist, placing a kiss atop her head before throwing them both off the edge of the cliff. He heard Lin inhale sharply, felt her hands tighten the grip on his robes, and then he bent the air around them to slow their descent. After they were about halfway down, and when the time was right, a gust of wind sent the two of them into a small cave.
As their feet settled on the ground, dirt swirled around them, only to drop suddenly back to the floor of the cave when Tenzin released his control on the air. Lin was relieved to be on solid ground again, but she was not entirely sure where they were. She stepped out of Tenzin's arms and looked up at him questioningly. She opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand to silence her and then pulled her closer to the edge of the cave. He pointed at something across the bay, and she was rendered speechless by what she saw.
There before them was Republic City in all its glory, all lit up and glowing as usual despite the lateness of the hour. She had seen the city from places on the island before, but something about this spot made it different. Perhaps it was the angle, perhaps she was imagining things. Either way, the city looked so much more peaceful and magical from here, and she was suddenly reminded of why she spent so much of her time trying to defend it.
Curious, Lin turned around to look at the rest of the cave, finding that it wasn't very large. Most of the caves around the island were occupied by sky bison, but this one obviously had never been used due to its inability to hold a fully grown bison. Lin also noticed that there was a pile of blankets and pillows towards the back of the cave, as well as a small fire that Tenzin must have built earlier, but she did not comment on that yet.
Instead she turned to look up at Tenzin as she asked, in a surprisingly soft tone of voice, "What is this place?"
"Do you like it?" Tenzin asked her in return. "I suppose it's my secret hideout here on the island. I found it years ago, when I was eight or nine. I used to come here to get away from Bumi, and then when I got older it was just a place to be alone. I knew no one else could find me here, other than my father."
"Well if it's your secret hideout then why did you show it to me?"
Lin felt Tenzin's heartbeat speed up slightly, and he looked down at her with a soft smile and pink cheeks as he took both of her hands in his, holding them up against his heart as he told her, in a low voice, "Because I love you, Lin."
She wasn't sure why that made her so nervous. After all, she had been the one to tell him first. Of course, at the time she had thought she was running off to her death, but she really had meant it. Maybe it wasn't nervousness that made her feel this way, maybe it was something else entirely that she'd never experienced before.
Shoving aside any hesitations or fears, but not responding to Tenzin, Lin gestured towards the blankets and pillows as she asked, "So what's all this for?"
His heart was beating faster again, but he kept his expression calm as he responded, "Well, since it's your last night here, and we probably won't see much of each other for the next three days, and then we'll be with our family in the South Pole for nearly two weeks, I figured we could spend the night here."
Lin bit down on her bottom lip in an attempt to hide her smirk as she slowly ran her hands up Tenzin's chest and said, "And what exactly are we going to do in here?"
Tenzin shrugged nonchalantly. "Whatever you want. We can sleep, or talk, or…" He trailed off, leaning down to trail kisses across her cheek, along her jawline, and eventually down the side of her neck.
"I'm guessing you have something else in mind," Lin commented dryly, tilting her head to the side and pulling at the clasp of Tenzin's outer cloak.
"Mmm, perhaps," Tenzin murmured before lifting his head to capture her lips.
Needless to say, Tenzin arrived late to meditation the next morning looking rather disheveled. Aang had the good sense not to ask where he'd been.
"Oh, Kya, you look so beautiful!"
"Spirits, here we go again," Toph muttered, picking her feet up and propping them up on the low table in front of her.
"Be nice, Mother," Lin said, despite the smirk on her face. She looked over at Toph, who was sitting beside her on the small sofa. "It's her daughter's wedding day."
"She's been blubbering and weepy all week," Toph complained, folding her arms across her chest. She leaned closer to Lin, hooking her thumb in the general direction of where Katara was and asked, "You don't expect me to act like this when you get married, do you?"
Lin raised a brow, looked over at Katara, who was repeatedly embracing and crying over Kya, and then looked back at Toph as she replied, "As long as you don't expect me to sit in a chair for three hours letting you style my hair."
Toph grinned. "That's my girl."
"You know, we can hear everything you're saying," Katara sighed, turning to Lin and Toph with an exasperated expression, her eyes still glistening with tears and her voice a bit nasally.
"Well at least the constant sobbing hasn't impaired your hearing," Toph quipped.
Lin and Kya laughed. Katara huffed irritably, but her lips twitched upwards and she turned away for a moment, pretending to dab at her eyes.
When Katara turned back to the three of them, she put her hands on her hips and said, "Come on, Toph, you can't tell me you won't be at least a littleupset when Lin or Su gets married."
"What's there to be upset about?" said Toph. "Other than the fact that I'll have to wear another dress like this…" She tugged at said dress for emphasis.
All four of the women in the room were wearing elegant gowns, though Kya's, of course, was much more extravagant. Lin, Kya, and Katara were in traditional water tribe gowns, and while Kya's dress was a dark blue, Lin's was a very light shade of blue, and Katara's dress color was somewhere in between the two extremes. Since she wasn't part of the wedding party, Toph was wearing an earth kingdom colored gown that Lin had picked out for her.
"Because it means your baby is all grown up!" Katara exclaimed. "It means she's finally leaving the house and going off on her own to have babies of her own!"
"Uh, Katara?" Lin said, leaning forward, her brows furrowed. "Kya left home over seven years ago."
Katara rolled her eyes. Toph laughed and thumped Lin on the back.
Before anything more could be said, there was a knock on the door. Kya, Lin and Katara turned at the sound, and Toph placed a foot back on the floor.
As Katara crossed the room to see who was at the door, Toph said, "It's Twinkletoes."
When Katara opened the door, there stood Aang, dressed in his best air nomad robes and grinning from ear to ear. After complimenting his wife, he entered the room and said, "So are you ladies almost ready? I think we're about to start."
"Oh man," Kya said, placing a hand over her stomach and grimacing. "I didn't realize that'd make me so nervous."
Aang crossed the room to stand before his daughter, while Katara started sniffling and dabbing at her eyes again. "You look absolutely beautiful, Kya," Aang said, looking teary-eyed himself.
"How's Kole?" Kya asked.
"He's pretty nervous too," Aang answered, "but believe me he's really excited." Kya visibly relaxed at this news, but there was a glimmer in her eye that Lin had seen before. She had often attributed it to a sign that Kya's dangerous side was being tamped down, and seeing it now made Lin frown for a moment. Kya was wild and carefree and she didn't like to be tied down, but she had allowed it to happen to please her family at times, and Lin started to wonder if maybe Kya was going to bolt.
Aang glanced around the room a bit confusedly. "Where are the other girls?"
The 'other girls' were Kya's three bridesmaids – the Fire Nation Princess, Izumi; Kole's sister, Akiko; and Kya's best friend from the Southern Water Tribe, Nori. Lin, of course, was also one of Kya's bridesmaids. Su had disappeared with one of Kole's younger cousins long ago.
"They already went out to meet the men," Katara answered while smoothing down nonexistent wrinkles on Kya's gown.
"Ah," Aang said, before turning to Lin and Toph, who had stood and moved away from the small sofa they'd been sitting on. Aang smiled widely at them. "Toph, I don't think I've seen you in a dress since me and Katara's wedding."
"Well take a good look, Twinkletoes because this won't be happening again for a while," Toph replied, folding her arms across her chest, clearly unamused.
"Don't worry, Toph, you look great," Aang said sincerely, and then, turning his gaze to Lin he added, "As do you, Lin."
"Yeah, yeah, we all look just dandy," Toph said dismissively, going over to Katara and grabbing the older waterbender's arm. "Come on, Sweetness, it's time we headed out."
"Oh all right," Katara sighed, hugging Kya tightly and eventually allowing Lin and Toph to drag her from the room.
Chapter Text
Chapter 7
Three years passed in a whirlwind.
About a year after Kya's wedding, Lin was working the streets one day when she got a call about a robbery nearby. She went to intercept the getaway vehicle, only to find Suyin driving the car, her friends the robbers and members of the Terra Triad. Su claimed she'd only driven as a favor and tried to leave the scene. Unconvinced and appalled by her little sister's actions, Lin tried to apprehend Su by snagging her wrist with one of her metal cables. Enraged and exasperated, Su cut the line, and it snapped back at full speed directly into Lin's face, tearing her skin open and leaving two long gashes on her cheek that would later scar.
Lin's growing anger over the entire situation blew into a full blown rage when, later on, her mother tore apart the arrest report, claiming that, as Chief, she could not have one of her daughters in prison. It meant Su could do as she pleased without consequences, just as she had been doing for the last several years.
Suyin was sent off to live with her grandparents in Gaoling, and a year later she ran off to explore the world. Lin didn't bother trying to keep in touch with her sister, and she never asked her mother if she knew what Su was up to either.
Things were strained between Toph and Lin for a while, but the two were forced to reconcile, partially because they worked together every week, and partially because Katara had forced them to.
Two years after the incident with Su, Lin was twenty-five years old and climbing quickly in the police force ranks. Already she was a commander of her own team, which consisted mostly of a bunch of half-baked rookies. They questioned her at every turn and often gave her the urge to punch her fist through a wall, but they had the heart and the energy to become something with the right discipline. Lin knew it was a test, to determine if she was capable of such a challenging group, which she'd have to be if she ever intended to become Chief of Police someday. So far, she handled the rookies just fine, and two of her other officers, at least, were more serious and dedicated, and one of them in particular, named Saikhan, had quickly become her right-hand man. No one was particularly surprised that Lin handled her challenge well, and while her team certainly wasn't unstoppable, under Lin's tutelage they were an adequate force.
Physically, Lin had not changed much. She had cut her hair a bit shorter, but it was still long enough to have to be tied back when she was working. Her muscles were more defined and tantalizing than ever, but only Tenzin knew that. By now the two scars on her cheek were no longer a surprise when she passed by a mirror, but there were still times when contempt for her sister still welled up inside of her. Tenzin and his family had been there for her after the incident, more so than Lin's own family, and she was eventually able to accept the scars as a part of her.
Tenzin had spent the past few years shadowing his Uncle Sokka and the Air Acolyte representing the Air Nomads in council meetings, so that at twenty-six he was now an official member of the council. He was rather busy with his new duties as a councilman, but he still helped out the police sometimes – usually on Lin's team. Despite their rather busy schedules, the two of them were still able to see quite a lot of each other. Often times they were too exhausted to go out into the city together, but they were just as happy to spend time together in either of their homes. Lin had finally moved out of her mother's house and into her own apartment a few months before the issue with Su. Tenzin still lived on Air Temple Island, of course, but he and his parents had set up a more personal living space for him so that he was no longer technically living in his parents' home. And on occasion, Lin and Tenzin made it a point to return to Tenzin's secret cave on the island. Their relationship – though certainly not without its arguments – was at its absolute best…for now.
The newly formed Agni Kai Triad presented themselves to Republic City in a rather bold manner. When the fire nation councilman refused to secretly assist the exclusively firebending gang, the Agni Kai had retaliated by kidnapping the councilman's daughter – Ren. The Agni Kai were seeking payment for Ren's safe return, and though the councilman and his family were more than willing to simply hand out the yuans, the police were intent to capture the criminals and ensure Ren was safely returned to her family all at once. The operation was simple, and Lin's team was tasked with it. The fire nation councilman was to hand the money over to the Agni Kai, while Lin's team would hide nearby and attack at the proper moment.
Unfortunately, the meeting place ended up being on the roof of one of the tallest buildings in Republic City, and things went wrong from the very beginning. When Councilman Zao handed over the money, the majority of the Agni Kai members present took off down the stairs with Zao and the money, while the last two – a man and a woman – remained on the roof with Ren. Lin's officers went to pursue the Agni Kai trying to escape with the councilman, while Lin sprinted up the stairs and onto the roof.
When Lin lunged from out of the hatchway in the middle of the roof, the male criminal shouted, "Don't come any closer!"
Lin stopped, chest heaving and mind focused as she lowered herself into a ready stance, prepared to throw her metal cables out to capture the two criminals. However, just as she was about to strike, the man grabbed Ren by the collar of her tunic and held her out over the edge of the roof. The teenage girl screamed, flailing wildly as she was dangled there.
"One move and I drop her!" the criminal yelled.
Lin instantly relaxed her stance, holding her hands up in surrender while running through options in her mind. She always hated hostage situations – she didn't have the patience for it – but she would do what she had to in order to save the girl.
"All right, let's not do anything hasty," Lin began in a placating tone of voice.
The criminal holding onto Ren shook the girl and shouted back at Lin, "Just get out of here or she's dead!"
Lin glanced over at the woman, who looked ready to strike, her eye twitching in anticipation and a ball of fire circling around her hand. Lin discretely retracted the soles of her metal boots, watching the woman with seismic sense while she returned her gaze to the male criminal.
"I wouldn't drop her if I were you," Lin warned. "There's no escape from here, and if you drop her you'll be facing a murder charge. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life in prison?"
The man visibly faltered. The woman shifted and the ball of fire grew in intensity, but she did not attack yet.
"What makes you think we can't get past you?" the man shouted back at Lin.
Lin had to suppress a smirk. "Do you really want to take that risk?"
These criminals were obviously new to this. They didn't have the guts, the conviction. They were shaken by Lin's words, and hesitated for far too long…long enough for Lin to strike. Lin knew the woman was the most dangerous, so as she threw out her metal cables, she sent one to knock over the woman, while the other cable wrapped around Ren's waist and pulled the girl back onto the roof before the man even realized what was happening.
Lin lunged forward, throwing Ren behind her and bringing both her metal cables back to her person. The male criminal had finally caught on and recovered from the shock, and he shot a burst of flame at Lin, who slid to a halt, instantly steadied herself, and thrust her arms up so that the section of roof just in front of her bent upwards, creating a barrier to protect her from the flames. She then sensed the female criminal lurching back onto her feet and sprinting around the side of the barrier Lin had erected. Lin stomped her foot, and a chunk of the roof jutted out, hitting the woman in the stomach and sending her flying backwards. Pivoting on that foot, Lin kicked out with her other foot, which slammed into her makeshift shield and sent it flying towards the man.
Lin was just about to wrap a cable around the woman when all of a sudden she felt Ren approaching her, and quickly. Turning slightly, Lin saw only a blur of red clothes and black hair as the teenage girl flung herself against the not much older woman, wrapping her arms tightly around Lin's waist and burying her face into the metalbender's shoulder. Startled, Lin stumbled backwards, but she did not lose focus, and she felt the woman return to her feet and strike out once again. Lin spun and dropped with Ren below her, so that she was shielding the teen from the fire shooting through the air above them. Ren looked up at Lin with wide, fearful eyes, but Lin did not spare her more than a glance as she thrust an arm out, sending a metal cable out to wrap around the woman's waist.
Unfortunately, the male criminal chose that moment to recover and shoot a bolt of lightning at Lin and Ren. Lin was so focused on blocking the lightning that the woman was able to catch her off guard by grabbing the metal cable around her waist and tugging, so that Lin and Ren were dragged across the roof, Lin's metal suit screeching in protest and Ren screaming in fear. The moment the man stopped his onslaught of lightning, Lin released her metal cable's hold on the woman, but it was too late. The female criminal shoved Lin and Ren right over the edge of the roof.
Ren's hold around Lin's waist slipped and the teen went spiraling downwards, a bloodcurdling scream emanating from her throat. Lin felt her stomach rise into her throat, and for just a moment she was paralyzed from shock and fear. But in the next moment her mind returned to her and she straightened herself up as best she could while falling through the air, and then thrust both her arms out in opposite directions. One metal cable flew downwards to wrap around Ren's waist, while the other shot upwards, back to the roof, where it latched onto the edge, bringing an abrupt halt to Lin and Ren's descent. They were brought to a sudden, jerking stop and they both swung back to bounce off the side of the building. Their bodies rebounded off the wall, and then drifted back towards it. This time Lin was prepared, and she lifted herself into a sideways position, groaning in effort as Ren's weight below her threatened to throw her off balance, and when she came into contact with the side of the building, she pressed her feet against it, and the stone wall came out to wrap around Lin's feet and ankles and hold her there. Ren was still screaming, but as far as Lin could tell, the girl remained uninjured, though she'd probably have some bruises from the metal cables around her stomach.
Lin looked above her, to the top of the roof, but it seemed the criminals had not bothered to stick around and watch Ren and Lin fall to their death. That was reassuring at least – she wasn't sure she could dodge fire in this position while simultaneously keeping Ren safe. Breathing in deeply, Lin steadied herself against the side of the building as best she could, whipping her head around in an attempt to flip her hair from out of her face. She then looked down at Ren, who had stopped screaming at least, but was whimpering and trembling and staring up at Lin, eyes wide with fear.
"I'm going to lower you to the ground!" Lin called down to the girl, who seemed horrified by such a thing, but did not protest.
Lin slowly began to lengthen the metal cables, lowering herself and Ren towards the ground. Lin was just about fifty feet from safety when she noticed her officers exiting the front of the building with the councilman and the now captured members of the Agni Kai. The two criminals that had been on the roof, however, were not among the group of captured criminals, and Lin glanced back up at the roof, only slightly relieved to see nothing.
Ren noticed her father soon after Lin had, and she started bouncing around shouting, "Daddy!" The sudden movement caused Lin to be jerked around wildly, and she gritted her teeth to contain her annoyance. Dammit, kid, stay still!
Councilman Zao looked up at the sound of his daughter's voice, his face lighting up in elation, but also with a furrowed brow. Lin's officers glanced up as well, looking equally perplexed, until their confusion suddenly turned to worry as they caught sight of something from above her.
Saikhan shouted, "Look out!"
Lin looked up, noticed that the two criminals had returned to the roof, and both were about to strike her from above. Just as the flames shot out at her, she slid her foot across the side of the building, erecting yet another barrier to shield her from the attack. Safe for the moment, she looked back down at Ren, who was flailing around fearfully. Lin hastily dropped the girl the rest of the way to the ground, slowing Ren's descent right before she hit the ground. Lin unraveled the metal cable around Ren's waist, and the teen instantly launched herself into her father's waiting arms.
"Get them out of here!" Lin shouted at her officers, who instantly jumped into action, rounding up the criminals and the councilman and his daughter and ushering them all away.
Lin then turned her attention upwards, to where her stone barrier was slowly beginning to crumble as it was bombarded by decisive strikes of lightning. Crouching against the side of the building, she stomped her foot and the crumbling stone flew upwards, bringing a momentary halt to the two criminals' attack. Lin then sprang into action, still hanging from the roof as she began running across the side of the building. The two criminals started shooting fire at her again, and she sped up when she felt the flames beating down on her shoulder and singing her hair. But she was quickly running out of space and she'd have to figure something out before she reached the end of the wall. She had an idea, but the more she thought about it the crazier it sounded. She didn't have much of a choice though. The criminals above her were still shooting flames at her and if she stopped at the end of the wall they'd surely burn her alive.
And so, as Lin reached the end of the front wall of the building, she leapt right off of it, releasing her hold on the roof of the building and retracting that metal cable. There was a very brief moment during her flight in which memories from long ago flashed before her mind. Memories of when she was only a toddler and Aang had floated her in the air to entertain her. Her mother had hated it, but Lin had loved it…up until the moment her mother started blindfolding her and teaching her to sense things around her with her feet.
Now was not the time for remembrance though. As she flew through the air, she wasn't focused on the adrenaline pumping through her veins or the sickening yet freeing feeling of weightlessness, but her metal cables, one of which she was returning to the circular canister at her waist, while the other was being stretched forward to latch onto a horizontal pole that was protruding a good distance from the nearby building it was attached to. With her cable wrapped firmly around the pole, Lin began to retract the cable, thereby pulling herself closer to the pole, until she was swinging right under it. In one nimble, acrobatic movement, she swung up from under the pole and twisted around, landing – on her tiptoes – on top of it, in a crouched position, one hand gripping the pole for extra support. She was now facing the building she had recently jumped off of, and even from this distance she could see the shock on the faces of the two criminals.
Using the cable that wasn't still wrapped around the pole beneath her, she sent it up towards the criminals, but they seemed to take that as their cue to leave, and they sprinted away, so that Lin could no longer see them. Cursing at having lost them, she retracted the metal cable once again, but instead of returning it to its canister, she wrapped it around the pole as well. Then she hopped backwards, stretching the metal cables as she lowered herself to the ground. Relieved at having her feet on solid ground again, she returned the metal cables to the canisters at her hips and started in the direction in which her officers had gone with the captured criminals and the councilman and his daughter.
Lin hadn't gone far when Saikhan appeared before her. "You made it," he said, sounding surprised.
"Yes, but those two fools got away," Lin said, the irritation clear in the tone of her voice. She glanced up at the roof, and then turned back to Saikhan as she asked, "Where are the captured criminals?"
"In the airship," Saikhan answered, gesturing up and to the right of Lin, who looked up to confirm that the airship was hovering nearby, "along with Councilman Zao and his daughter. Only one minor injury to report – Lee's got a burnt hand, but the healer's looking at it."
Lin nodded. "Good." And then, remembering that she was supposed to be going to Air Temple Island with Tenzin today at five o'clock, she asked, "What time is it?"
"Nearly 5:30, ma'am," Saikhan answered, aware of his captain's need to leave work early, though unaware of the reason.
"Damn," Lin cursed. And then, straightening herself up authoritatively, "Lieutenant, I'll need you to return the criminals to headquarters and get them processed. Start the rookies on the paperwork, make sure they do it right. As for the Councilman and his daughter, they can go home for the evening, but let them know I need to meet with them tomorrow afternoon to get their statements. I can trust you to take care of everything in my absence, correct?"
"Yes ma'am," Saikhan responded, saluting dutifully.
"All right, good work today, Lieutenant." Lin inclined her head in his direction, and then hurried off to call a cab.
"I know, I know, I'm late," Lin said, breathless as she stumbled into her apartment.
Tenzin, who had been standing just by the door awaiting her arrival, looked down at her with concern, noting her disheveled appearance. "What happened?" he exclaimed.
Her metalbending uniform was now covered in scorch marks, and dirt and sweat was smeared across her face. Her hair was dangling wildly around her face, and Tenzin was sure a few strands had been burnt off.
"The Agni Kai Triad," Lin sighed irritably. "I told you about them right?"
"Yes, they kidnapped Councilman Zao's daughter," Tenzin confirmed. "I take it the rescue mission didn't go as planned?"
"Not at all. They took off with the councilman and dangled the girl over the edge of the roof. My team managed to rescue the councilman, but me and the girl ended up thrown off the roof." Tenzin's eyes widened, but Lin waved a dismissive hand. "I managed to save us, and even though two of the criminals got away no one was fatally wounded. In fact I think I discovered something that could help out the police force, but I'll tell you about that later. We should be leaving, before we're much later."
Lin turned, as if to leave, but Tenzin grabbed her hand to stop her. She looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. "You should probably clean up first," he explained.
Lin folded her arms across her chest. "Why, it's just Kya? I think she'll understand that I was working."
"Because it's not just Kya," Tenzin said, ushering Lin down the hall and into her bathroom. "She brought Koda and she really wants you to meet him, and I don't think a one year old baby is going to be comfortable with a dirty, pointy, metal suit."
"Damn," Lin cursed, tearing off her metal armor while Tenzin readied a bath for her. "Does that mean I have to hold him?"
Tenzin smirked. "Well yes, Lin, I do believe that's how you meet a baby."
Tenzin perched himself up on the counter by the sink, and tried not to focus too much on Lin's naked form as she tore off the rest of her clothes and sunk down into the warm water. She began bathing rather quickly – she hated being late.
Lin sighed exasperatedly. "But I'm not good with children. I wouldn't even know how to hold him."
Tenzin chuckled. "Don't worry, Lin, it's not that difficult, and I'm sure Kya will show you how to hold Koda before she hands him to you."
"Well what if he starts crying? Or what if he throws up on me? Or –"
"Lin," Tenzin interrupted, sliding off of the counter and placing his hands on his hips, "you'll be fine. It's not like you have to hold him for the entire evening, just for a few minutes."
Lin looked up at Tenzin, her face screwed up in a grimace. She clearly did not want to be anywhere near a baby, and for a moment Tenzin was going to ask her what her aversion to children was. Instead, he smirked at her and said, "I never thought Lin Beifong's biggest fear was a baby."
Lin scowled. "I am not afraid – ouch."
"What happened?" Tenzin asked, his expression instantly serious as he crouched down by the bathtub.
"Nothing," Lin replied quickly, but Tenzin saw the burn mark on her shoulder. It didn't look too terrible, but it didn't look good either.
Tenzin frowned. "We'll get my mother to look at it when we get to the island."
Lin rolled her eyes. "It's fine, Tenzin."
"It won't kill you to let my mother look at it," Tenzin countered. "Now come on, we don't want to be much later."
"Yeah, yeah," Lin muttered, finishing her bath quickly and then, after crawling out, toweling herself dry. She slipped into some clean clothes – careful not to further irritate her wounded shoulder – and then tied her hair back. "All right, I'm ready, let's get this over with."
As Lin walked towards the front door, Tenzin stared after her for a moment. Her mood had soured considerably at the mention of Koda. He had known before that she wasn't a huge fan of children, but he hadn't realized just how much. Then again, perhaps she simply didn't like other people's children. Some people were like that after all. Maybe she would like to have her own children…but what if she didn't?
When Lin reached the door she seemed to have noticed that Tenzin wasn't following, and she turned back to look at him, her brows furrowed in confusion and her lips quirked up in a small smile of amusement as she asked him, "You coming, Airhead?"
And suddenly the thought of Lin possibly not liking children didn't bother him so much, because that smile right there made his stomach flutter elatedly. He couldn't help but smile in return as he strode over to her, slid his arms around her waist, and kissed her passionately.
When their lips parted, she looked up at him with hooded eyelids, her hands still clenching the front of his robes and her head tilted in anticipation of another kiss. But then she suddenly snapped to attention, shoving him backwards with a scowl on her face.
"We're already late as it is, Tenzin!" she shouted while turning to wrench the door open.
He followed her outside with a grin on his face.
Katara flung the door open as Lin and Tenzin approached. "There you are!" she exclaimed. "We were beginning to get worried."
"Sorry, Katara, I got held up at work," Lin explained.
"Oh, well, that's all right, come on inside, dinner will be ready soon," Katara replied, ushering Lin and Tenzin into the house.
Toph, Aang, Kya, and Kole were seated around the sitting room, and looked up as Lin, Tenzin, and Katara entered.
"'Bout time you two showed up," Toph said to Lin and Tenzin. "What were you two – wait, I don't want to know."
Lin rolled her eyes as she and Tenzin moved further into the room. "I was held up at work, Mother."
Kya rose from her seat to pull Lin into a crushing embrace. When she pulled back she said, "Work is your excuse for everything, Lin. That's why I haven't seen you in over a year!"
"Sorry," Lin said a bit sheepishly.
Kya smiled and shook her head at Lin. Then she looked over at her younger brother, and the two of them nodded in a silent greeting. There was no need for words, considering they had seen each other when Kya arrived earlier that morning. Turning back to Lin, Kya said, "Koda's napping at the moment, but he'll be awake soon and then you can finally meet him."
Kya seemed ecstatic at the prospect of Lin finally meeting her son, so Lin forced a smile in an attempt to convey excitement, while also swallowing in an attempt to wet her suddenly dry throat. Whether or not Kya could see through the façade was unknown, but doubtful, considering Kya was the least perceptive of the Avatar's three children, or maybe Lin was just a lot better at hiding emotions than she knew. After all, growing up with Toph, Tenzin, and Aang made it near impossible to hide anything, so maybe Lin was simply used to their abilities to see past her.
"Oh yeah," Toph spoke up, while Kya went to return to her seat and Lin and Tenzin found their own. "Did you save the councilman's daughter?" Toph asked, though Lin was sure her mother already knew the answer to that question.
"Yes," Lin answered as she settled into a chair barely large enough for she and Tenzin to sit comfortably, "Councilman Zao and his daughter are safe once more and all but two of the criminals involved are in prison."
"Two of them got away?" Toph said, surprised. "How'd that happen?"
Lin was very much aware that everyone in the room was currently looking at her and awaiting her response, and though it irked her to have to confess to her blunder, she did not bother glancing around at everyone, simply keeping her gaze on her mother as she bitterly replied, "They threw me and the kid off the roof."
"You were thrown off a roof?" Kya asked, seemingly caught between amusement and worry.
"Off one of the tallest buildings in the city," Lin confirmed.
"What were you doing on the roof?" Toph demanded.
"It was the only place the Agni Kai would agree to meet for the exchange," Lin sighed, finding it impossible to relax despite the familiar setting and being around the people who were more or less her family. She wasn't sure if the adrenaline from earlier had worn off yet, she was thoroughly embarrassed at having let two criminals escape despite the fact that that kind of thing happened all the time, and the thought of having to interact with a baby in the near future was unsettling her.
Tenzin, being the overly analytical person that he was – and also being one of the few people who could read her like a book – noticed her unease, and glanced over at her worriedly, one of his hands reaching out to gently squeeze her thigh. This simple act was currently no comfort to her, and she did not bother to look his way and acknowledge it, though she didn't pull away from him either.
"Well how'd you survive getting thrown off a roof?" Kya's husband asked, seemingly baffled that such a thing could happen at all.
Lin shrugged. "Being able to manipulate metal cables has its advantages."
Kole seemed rather intrigued, and went on to ask, "How does that work? And the Agni Kai – they're firebenders, right? – so what do you do to doge the fire?"
"Oh, that reminds me," Tenzin cut in, sitting forward slightly in his chair and turning his gaze to his mother. "Lin received a burn on her shoulder, Mother, and I was hoping you could take a look at it sometime this evening?"
Katara's expression was immediately one of concern, and before Lin could properly fix a furious glare on Tenzin, Katara had risen to her feet and hurried to Lin's side. Tenzin leapt to his feet to move out of his mother's way. Lin sighed, rolling up her sleeve without bothering to argue. Katara examined the wound quickly, shaking her head as she told Tenzin to get her some water.
Soon enough, Lin's shoulder was healed, and Katara sighed. "Well, Lin, it looks like you've got another scar. Have you decided to start collecting them?"
"That was the plan," Lin responded dryly.
Katara was not amused by the sarcasm, but Toph snorted humorously.
"You're worse than your mother," Katara said, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
Before anything else could be said, there was the faint sound of a baby's cry coming from down the hall. While rising to her feet, Kya needlessly said, "That'll be Koda."
Lin did not catch whatever conversation resumed between the other occupants of the room while Kya went to retrieve her son. She was too focused on the thought of having to hold the squalling baby down the hall. She felt herself grimacing, and then realized that perhaps Tenzin was right. Maybe she was afraid of babies…
No. No, Lin Beifong, wasn't afraid of hardly anything, and certainly not a child. After all, what could the kid do to her?
Then again, she had never interacted with a small child or infant before, so if anyone had a right be slightly frightened by them then it was definitely her. She knew nothing about them or how to act around them. And children were fragile and needy and…
"Lin?"
Shaking herself from her thoughts, Lin looked up to see Kya standing before her, a baby perched on her hip and a soft smile on the older woman's face. Kya's son, Koda, was rubbing at his dark blue eyes, his thick brown hair tousled from sleep. His tanned skin was a darker shade than his mother's – closer to his father's complexion – but his features were much more like Kya's, and less like Kole's almost dainty bone structure.
Koda turned his bleary gaze to Lin, his head tilting to the side as he stared at her curiously. Unsure of what to do, Lin slowly stood up from the chair she'd been sharing with Tenzin. She smiled uncertainly at Koda, who didn't bother looking at his mother when Kya began to speak.
"Koda, this is Auntie Lin," Kya explained to the infant, who simply shoved his fist in his mouth and continued to stare at Lin inquisitively.
Kya took a step closer to Lin, lifting Koda off of her hip and holding him out in Lin's direction. Sucking in a deep breath to calm herself, Lin reached out hesitantly, gently taking hold of Koda from under his arms and quickly bringing him to her chest. As his tiny legs slid partially around her waist, she slipped one arm underneath him to hold him up on her hip, and placed her other hand on his back. Lin was relieved to see that Koda seemed comfortable where he was, still sucking on his fist and staring up at her with big eyes.
Kya grinned and happily exclaimed, "You're a natural, Lin! When was the last time you even held a baby?"
"Uh, never?" Lin admitted, attempting to relax. Maybe small children weren't so scary after all. Koda, at least, didn't seem to be too – "Ow!"
While Lin had been looking at Kya, Koda had reached up, grabbed Lin's long dark hair, and yanked as hard as his tiny arm could manage, which displayed a surprising amount of strength and caught Lin completely off guard. The pain was not so bad, but her exclamation of discomfort had startled and upset Koda in an instant. So while once he was a quietly content baby perched on her hip, now he was screaming and crying and flailing his tiny fists.
Wincing, Lin immediately held Koda out to Kya, who simply shook her head amusedly and took Koda into her arms, quickly calming and quieting the baby as if it were nothing.
From across the room, Toph was laughing. "Yeah, she's a natural all right!"
Lin sighed and flopped back down into her seat, frustrated and embarrassed. Why had Koda even started crying? It wasn't like she had pulled hishair. She hadn't even scolded him for ripping a fistful of hair out of her head. She would never understand children.
It was late in the evening when Lin and Tenzin finally returned to Lin's apartment. Toph had gone home earlier in the evening while Lin had stayed to catch up with Kya, so Tenzin had insisted on taking Lin home. She knew, of course, that he wasn't so much taking her home out of concern for her safety and more as an excuse to spend the night with her again. It was a drastic change from almost three years ago when she'd first moved out of her mother's home. He had given her some space for the first year, only coming over if he was invited. Then he had started coming over unannounced a few times, so that it wasn't annoying, but rather exciting. Now it was at the point where he basically lived with her, except they'd never discussed it or even really thought much about it. Tenzin hadn't moved any of his things into her apartment, though he had left some clothes and other necessities there "for emergencies," and Lin often bought food to accommodate his vegetarianism. They also spent a good bit of time on Air Temple Island, but they were given a lot more privacy in Lin's home, so that was where they spent most of their nights.
Lin was rather tired by the time she entered her bedroom, with Tenzin right behind her. However, all exhaustion seemed to fade when Tenzin slipped his arms around her waist from behind and started trailing kisses down her neck. Lin turned in his embrace, kissing him passionately while tugging at the red sash around his waist.
Tenzin smiled against her lips, pulling away just enough to murmur, "Not wasting anytime I see."
Lin simply smirked and pressed her lips firmly against his once more. She threw the belt aside, yanked his shirt up and over his head, and ran her hands along his muscular chest. Tenzin was quick to mimic her actions, and then undid her tied back hair.
As he was kissing along her collarbone and running his fingers through her hair, Lin muttered, "Just don't pull my hair and start crying about it."
Tenzin chuckled, removing his hands from her hair to slide down her backside and lift her up, her legs going around his waist as he carried her the few steps to her bed. He lay her down, pulled both of their pants off, and then crawled onto the bed, perching himself above her with a grin on his face. "Don't worry," he said, dipping his head down to begin kissing his way up her stomach, "I'm sure you'll get along a lot better with our baby."
Lin's heart skipped a beat and her stomach flipped as her brow furrowed in confusion.
Our baby?
"Wait, what –?"
She was cut off as Tenzin's lips collided with hers once more, and she found herself lost in the feel of his hands sliding up her thighs and his teeth biting down on her lip.
She regained control of her mind quickly though, and she brought her hands up to press against his chest and push him back slightly. "What do you mean our baby?" she demanded.
Tenzin looked perplexed for a moment, and even once he realized what Lin was talking about, he still seemed confused. "Well, you know, when we have children," he said, as if it was obvious.
He was about to lean down and kiss her again, but she pushed him away once more and responded, in an uncharacteristically shrill voice, "Oh, so we're having children now?"
"Well, not now. We'll get married first of course –"
"Married?-!" Lin exclaimed, sitting up abruptly and shoving Tenzin off of her, so that he was sitting across from her on the bed.
"Lin?" Tenzin said, utterly bewildered by her behavior. He knew she wasn't a huge fan of children, and they'd never really discussed the prospect of marriage, but was she really thatagainst all of it?
"When were you planning on telling me that you and I were going to get married and have children?" Lin shouted, sounding irate.
"I – I just assumed – uh – assumed we would…eventually," Tenzin stammered, looking at her with wide eyes. "I mean, we've been dating for over five years now –"
Lin leaped off the bed, finding her somewhat close proximity to Tenzin suddenly uncomfortable. "And that automatically means we have to get married and have children?"
"Of course not," Tenzin said calmly, turning so that his legs dangled off the side of the bed, "but within these past five years, I've realized that you're the only woman I'd want to spend the rest of my life with. I had thought that you felt the same way about me… I'm sorry if I upset you, I didn't mean –"
"I don't know if I even want children!" Lin interrupted, running her hands through her hair stressfully. "And I'm only twenty-five! I'm not ready to get married!"
She was practically frantic, and Tenzin rose quickly to his feet, placing his hands on Lin's shoulders in what he hoped was a comforting manner as he said, "Lin, calm down, it's okay, I'm not trying to force you into this. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said it, you aren't ready for marriage and children yet, it's fine–"
"Well what if I don't ever want children?" Lin interrupted, no longer shouting but still not entirely calm.
Tenzin was speechless for a moment, his hands dropping to his sides as he stared at Lin with a worry and hurt in his eyes that almost made her regret her words.
"You know I have to have children, Lin," he whispered, so quietly that she almost hadn't heard him.
There was silence between them, as they each stared at one another, neither sure of what to say.
Eventually, Lin could no longer stand the stillness, and she bowed her head, staring at her feet as she said, "Maybe you should sleep in your own bed tonight."
Tenzin stiffened. Was that it? Was that all she was going to say about it? She wasn't going to talk to him about it? He wanted to argue that they should discuss this, but after a moment of contemplation, he decided that she simply needed some time to think this all over herself, and that he should give her some space. Wordlessly, he moved around the room to retrieve his clothing, slipping it on quickly and then striding to the door of her bedroom. There he paused, turning back to look at her. She was not facing him, but instead her gaze was focused on the window on the opposite wall, her arms folded across her chest as she stood there in nothing but her undergarments. She did not turn to face him, or even acknowledge him when he told her goodnight, and so he left without another word.
Chapter Text
Chapter 8
Knock. Knock.
Tenzin awoke slowly, his mind not yet aware of what had woken him. He rolled over onto his side, burrowing further into the warm blankets around him and attempting to fall back asleep.
"Tenzin?"
His eyes immediately opened at the sound of the familiar voice. It was faint, coming from far away, and for a moment he wondered if he'd heard anything at all. He considered that perhaps he had simply been dreaming, but he did not hesitate to jump out of bed and hurry to the front door. He was relieved to find that he had not, in fact, been dreaming, but that Lin had been knocking on his door.
His expression turned to one of surprise. Tenzin had not seen Lin since their disagreement about children that night...which had been over a week earlier.
"Lin?" he said groggily, still not entirely awake, his confusion clear in his voice. Lin was never the one to come to him first after an argument. Usually, she never had to, because Tenzin barely gave her a chance to make the decision to come see him before he had hunted her down and insisted they reconcile. He simply couldn't stand to be away from her for too long. Except this time, he had decided to give her some space, so that the two of them could think over this conflict. Unfortunately, the time apart and the gravity of the situation left Tenzin with an annoying case of insomnia, which was why he had already fallen asleep very early in the evening without even having dinner, and why Lin was not expecting him to be asleep.
"Oh, you were asleep," she said in a strangely quiet voice. Her expression was unreadable, and she seemed very uncertain of herself. "Uh - I'm sorry, I'll just go -"
"No, Lin, wait -" Lin had turned to leave, but Tenzin reached out to grab her wrist and stop her. "Come inside," he insisted, "I'll make some tea."
Lin hesitated, biting her lip and looking down at Tenzin's hand around her wrist. After a tense moment of silence, she looked back up at him and nodded mutely.
Relieved, Tenzin let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, and then gestured for Lin to step inside before him. The two were silent as Lin took a seat at Tenzin's small kitchen table, and Tenzin hurried around preparing tea. When they were sitting across from each other, a hot cup of tea in each of their hands, the silence continued, this time much more uncomfortable. Tenzin fidgeted, trying to think of something to say while simeltaneously watching Lin, who sat very still, staring into her tea as if unsure that it was really there.
Tenzin cleared his throat, intending to ask Lin what was wrong - because something was definitelywrong with her - but she spoke first.
"My father's dead," she blurted out at last, looking up at Tenzin with a muddled mess of emotions swirling in her emerald eyes.
Tenzin's eyes widened, still at a loss for words and unsure of how to react. He hadn't seen or heard anything about Lin's father since the deranged man had crashed her thirteenth birthday party all those years ago. Though a bit curious, Tenzin hadn't asked Lin any other questions about her father, knowing it was something she did not want to discuss. In fact, Tenzin had very nearly forgotten the man even existed. As far as he was aware, Lin had as well, but she was obviously struggling with some sort of emotion. Maybe he was wrong to believe that she hadn't seen her father in twelve years.
He leaned over the table and laid a hand over her wrist, since both her hands were wrapped around her teacup. "I'm sorry, Lin," he murmured sincerely.
"I'm not," she admitted quietly, looking back down into her cup. "Instead I feel...relieved. It's terrible, isn't it?"
Ah, so that's what it is. She feels guilty.
Deciding to abandon his teacup and his seat, Tenzin went around the table and sat beside Lin. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and replied, "No, it makes perfect sense. He wasn't there for you, he doesn't deserve your sympathy."
Lin shrugged, still not looking at him. "I tried to care, to remember the few happy times I had with him, or at least feel sorry for him, for having such a pitiful life, but I just hate him so much for treating me and my mother the way he did. And I know without him I wouldn't be here, but part of me still wishes my mother never had to meet him."
Tenzin nodded silently in solemn agreement. He was so very glad that Lin had been born, but it was unfortunate that she had gotten stuck with such a terrible father. "Ever since that day I saw your father, I've always wondered how your mother even ended up with someone like that," Tenzin told her honestly.
Lin smirked and leaned back in her chair, taking a sip from her tea before turning to look at Tenzin. "His parents were rich and a bit controlling, and he was rebellious...sound familiar? He was a great earthbender, and an even better smooth talker. His sense of humor was a bit dark, not as lighthearted as my mother's, but the things they had in common instantly attracted her to him. Neither of them really wanted anything particularly serious, which was why they never married, and also why he ran off soon after he found out my mom was pregnant. He always had some issues, but he was good at hiding them, and my mother never was very good at relationships, so she didn't realize he was just spiraling downwards. He probably wouldn't have been too terrible a person if he hadn't let drugs take over his life." She sighed ruefully and looked back down at her tea.
Tenzin thought of plenty of consoling things to tell Lin, but he knew she didn't want to hear any of it. Instead he leaned forward and placed a quick kiss on the side her head, rubbing her back comfortingly. There was a comfortable silence between them, and Lin finally released one of her hands from her teacup to intertwine her fingers with Tenzin's.
After a few moments, Tenzin decided to ask, "Have you seen your father at all since..."
He trailed off, knowing he didn't need to explain.
Lin avoided his gaze once more and nodded. "A few times."
She didn't elaborate, and before Tenzin could ask her to, Lin suddenly said, "I'm not ready for children, Tenzin." She looked at him, and he looked at her. "I don't know if -"
"I know, Lin," Tenzin interrupted, not wanting to hear her say that she may never want children. "I'm sorry I brought it up like that. You're right, we're still too young."
Lin hesitated, obviously still a bit concerned about the subject, but then her lips turned up in a slight smile and she said, "Sorry I kicked you out that night, do you forgive me?"
Tenzin smiled softly and answered, "Of course."
Not wasting another moment, he placed his hands on either side of Lin's face, his fingers tangling in her hair as he pulled her head towards him, kissing her passionately in an attempt to make up for their week apart.
Two years passed.
Lin and Tenzin's relationship became strained.
Tenzin never said it, but the older he became, the more he began to desire a family. Despite this, he did not badger Lin on the subject. Of course, he dropped hints any chance he got, and every time Kya visited with Koda and Ashok - Kya's second son, who had been born about a year earlier - Tenzin would offer up himself and Lin to babysit. Lin, on the other hand, did anything to avoid the subject altogether. She'd work longer than she was supposed to in order to get out of babysitting, and anytime Tenzin brought up children or marriage, she'd hastily change the subject. The love between Lin and Tenzin was still there, but there was an obvious tension in their relationship now. In fact, Lin was sure the only reason Tenzin hadn't left her yet was because they were still so very much in love.
Lin was still not entirely sure what she wanted, but she did know that if she didn't make a decision soon, she'd lose Tenzin. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but somewhere in the future Tenzin would get tired of waiting and find someone else. And since she couldn't stand the thought of that, she decided she'd have to figure out what she wanted in life. Did she want to let Tenzin go so he could continue the airbending race and she could focus completely on her career? Or did she want to put her career on halt and start raising children?
The answer was not an easy one to come by, and so, after another rather fierce argument with Tenzin, Lin went to the one person she knew she could alway ask for advice and recieve the honest truth - - her mother.
"It's about time you paid your old mom a visit," Toph said the momnet she opened the door to her home to greet Lin.
Lin rolled her eyes, stepping over the threshold and past her mother, and into the familiar home as she replied, "I just saw you at work half an hour ago."
"I'm not your mother at work," Toph argued, closing the front door and following Lin into the sitting room.
Lin snorted disbelievingly, but did not bother to respond. She was beginning to rethink her reasoning for coming to see her mother. Despite their close mother-daughter bond, Lin and Toph had never really discussed Lin's male relationships, unless Toph's relentless teasing and embarrassing comments were considered discussions. The "sex talk" they had both had to endure almost fifteen years ago had long ago become a repressed memory that neither of them ever brought up. And though Lin was usually comfortable talking to her mother about almost anything, this particular conversation she planned on starting left her feeling distinctly tense.
Toph, of course, noticed Lin's nervousness right away, and the moment she had plopped down onto the couch she said, "So what do you need, kid? Are you finally going to tell me what you and Junior are arguing over?"
Lin sighed, perching on the edge of the coffee table so that she was just across from her mother. "Is it that obvious?"
Toph smirked. "The tension between the two of you is so thick even I can see it." She pointed at her eyes for emphasis.
Lin clenched her hands together a bit nervously, hesitating before she began to explain, "He needs children, but I..."
"Don't want any?" Toph finished, when Lin was silent for a long moment.
"Well..." Lin inhaled...exhaled...rubbed at her forehead wearily... "I don't know. I mean, I thought I didn't want any. I was so sure that the only thing that was really important to me was you and my job. You know that all I've ever wanted since I was old enough to talk was to protect Republic City, and the thought of putting that on hold or losing it altogether is unfathomable. But then...there's Tenzin." She looked away from her mother before continuing, unable to stare into that milky gaze. "He's so very important to me, and I want him to be happy, but in order for him to be happy, I have to give him children..."
Toph was silent for a moment, seemingly taking in what Lin had said and mulling over a response. Eventually, Toph said, "Well let me ask you this, what's your aversion to kids?"
Lin opened her mouth, fully prepared to start spewing out all the reasons why she couldn't possibly have children. However, just as she was about to speak, she realized that she had no good reason - none that she could think of anyway. She closed her mouth and frowned, her brows furrowing as she thought it over. Her mind seemed to have gone completely blank, but after a few moments she began to stammer, "Well, they're messy...and loud -"
Toph snorted. "Yeah, and so am I, but you haven't gotten rid of me yet."
"And they're a lot of responsibility," Lin went on, her voice a bit stronger.
"I've never known you as one to shy away from responsibility," Toph pointed out.
"I'd have to take time off from work -"
"You could use a break, and it's not as if anyone's going to be able to replace you while you're away."
"But what if Tenzin expects me to become a stay at home mother?"
"He would never ask you to do that."
"How could I properly raise a child with the hours I work?"
"Most parents have jobs, Lin. I raised you didn't I?"
"I'd be a terrible mother."
There was a pause, as Toph's brows raised in realization. "So that's what this is about."
Lin sighed, covering her face with her hands in embarrassment. She sounded pathetic, and she was sure her mother would burst out into a fit of laughter any moment now.
Toph surprised Lin, though, because instead of laughing, she reached out and put a hand on Lin's knee as she said, "Lin, listen to me -"
Lin uncovered her face and looked up at her mother in confusion.
"Believe me, Lin, I understand why you're worried," Toph continued when she was sure Lin's attention was focused solely on her. "I felt the same way when I found out I was pregnant with you. I'll admit it, I was terrified by the prospect of having a kid. I thought for sure that my career was ruined, and that I'd be stuck looking after some brat who'd probably hate me for the rest of my life - well, that is, if I could even manage to keep you alive long enough to hate me. I didn't know anything about being a mother - it's not as if my own mother was a good example, and that had me worried too, because I didn't want to be like my parents. But then - prepare yourself, kid, because I'm about to get sappy - you were born and everything just fell into place. I didn't miraculously come by the knowledge of how to be a good mother, but I learned, because the moment you were placed into my arms I knew that no matter what, I was going to love you and take care of you, and I was going to be the best mother I possibly could be. And I know it'll be the same for you if you decide to have kids, so don't let your fear of being a bad mother make your decision for you, all right?"
Lin was silent for a moment, taking in all that Toph had just told her.
"So," Lin began slowly, "you're saying I should have kids?"
"No," Toph refuted, "I'm not saying that at all. I don't want you to do anything you don't want to do. I've always told you to be yourself, and if that means you'd rather focus on your career and not bother with marriage and children, then that's what I want you to do, after all, babies aren't a necessity to life and a lot of people are perfectly happy without them. However, if you truly love Tenzin and wish to stay with him, and you're willing to put your career on temporary hold so that the two of you can have kids, then I just want you to realize that you can be a good mother and a good police officer all at the same time."
Lin was not sure how she felt about this response. She had come here hoping her mother would make her decision easy, instead Lin found herself more confused than she had been when she first arrived.
Toph seemed to read Lin's mind, and she smirked. "I can't make the decision for you, Lin, but I think you knew that. So tell me, did you come here so that I could talk you into having kids, or so that I could talk you out of it?"
Lin sighed. "I don't know. I guess I just wanted your opinon...maybe your approval."
"Sounds to me like you've already made up your mind."
Lin thought it over for a moment, absentmindedly chewing on her bottom lip. After a few moments of silence, she rose suddenly to her feet and said, "I think I have."
And with that, she left.
After leaving her mother's house, Lin went straight to Yue Bay, where she caught the next boat capable of taking her to Air Temple Island. Once she was on solid ground again, she sought out Tenzin. She found him in the training area, twisting and weaving through the airbending gates. He did not notice her arrival, and so she positioned herself just outside the ancient device, silent, with her hands clasped behind her back.
The longer she stood there, the more nervous she became about her decision, so by the time Tenzin stepped from out of the gates, surprise at seeing her and a solemn expression born from their recent argument clear on his face, she found herself completely tongue tied.
"Lin -?"
"Teach me," she interruped, stepping up beside him on the platform.
Tenzin's brows furrowed and he spluttered, "Wait, what?"
"Teach me," Lin repeated, inclining her head in the direction of the airbending gates. "I want to learn how to maneuver through these."
Tenzin shook his head disbelievingly. "I tried to teach you before, remember? You said it was stupid."
Lin shrugged. "I changed my mind."
He stared at her for a moment, studying her face suspiciously. And then he asked, "Why?"
Lin rolled her eyes and sighed exasperatedly. "Must I explain everything to you? I just want to be able to do it. I've learned airbending techniques from you before, but never this. It's part of who you are and I want to understand."
Tenzin seemed more confused than ever, but he shook his head, seemingly deciding that arguing with her was pointless, and took one step to the side. "Fine," he said, "I'll teach you." He cleared his throat, straightened himself up, and then began. "As you know, airbending is a highly defensive discipline. It is essential to learn how to avoid and evade conflict, because in order to get to the other side, you must be able to switch directions at a moment's notice to avoid being hit by one of the gates. You've learned some of this when we were younger, and employed these techniques into your life as a police officer, which should help you with this exercise. Would you like to watch me go through again, or would you like to go ahead and attempt it on your own?"
Eyes focused on the spining gates before her, Lin tore off her coat and threw it aside, kicked her shoes off, and then, without even glancing in Tenzin's direction, she sucked in a deep breath and stepped forward. She took one step...avoided one spinning gate...two steps...avoided another...three steps...BAM.
Lin was hit hard from behind, stumbled forward, was hit from the front, stumbled backwards this time, and after two more blows, finally fell from out of the spinning gates and just barely stopped herself from falling on her rear. Huffing out a breath in irritation, Lin pushed back a strand of hair and went at it again...and again...and again... Over and over she threw herself back into the spinning gates, and every time she was forced back out. Despite her growing frustration, she kept at it, ignoring Tenzin's pleas to stop.
Eventually, Lin fell rather hard on her back, and for a moment, she did not get back up. Tenzin was instantly worried, and knelt at her side before she had a chance to sit up.
When she did attempt to move, Tenzin placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her and said, "Just stay still."
Lin scoffed. "Tenzin, I'm fine -"
"What are you doing, Lin?" Tenzin cut in, his gray eyes full of confusion and concern.
"I'm trying to sit up," she snapped.
Tenzin sighed and shook his head. "You know that's not what I meant, Lin. Why are you doing this to yourself?"
The time had come at last. She couldn't avoid it any longer. She'd have to tell him her decision and face whatever came afterwards. She sucked in a deep breath, blew it back out, and then sat up slowly. She stared at Tenzin for a moment in silence, and then she blurted out, "I want to have kids."
Tenzin's eyes widened and he reeled back in shock. "You what?"
"Don't make me repeat that," Lin grumbled. "I'll marry you and have your kids, under one condition."
Tenzin shook his head and rubbed his forehead, as if he couldn't understand a word she was saying. "Lin," he spluttered, "you don't have to -"
"Yes, I do," she interrupted him. "You want to have kids and get married and I...I want you to be happy."
Tenzin's shoulders sagged and his expression turned solemn once more. "I appreciate that, believe me I do, but I don't want you to do this to make me happy. I would never ask you to do that for me."
"I know you wouldn't, and I wouldn't appreciate it if you did either. But this isn't just about yourhappiness, it's about mine too. And as much as I hate to admit it, you are just about the only thing that makes me truly and unbelievably happy, and if having children will make you happy, then it will make me happy. I realized that maybe having kids won't be so terrible, and you're the only person I could ever imagine myself having a family with."
Tenzin seemed to be at a loss for words, and Lin remained silent in order to give him time to think it all through. At one point he diverted his gaze to the ground, and when he looked back up at Lin he said, "You're sure about this?"
Lin nodded without hesitation. "I've thought about it...a lot. But like I said, there's one condition."
"Anything," Tenzin said, sounding a bit breathless.
"I want one year," Lin said, holding up one finger for emphasis. "After we're married, whenever that is, I want one year for us to just enjoy and get used to the whole married life thing. One year before we start trying for kids."
The corner of Tenzin's lips quirked up, and he seemed to be fighting back a smile. "Absolutely," he responded, reaching out to stroke her cheek gently. "And you're absolutely sure about this? You really want to have a family with me?"
Lin rolled her eyes. "Yes, now quit asking me before I decide to change my mind. And don't expect me to just be your baby making factory. I'm still going to be a police officer."
Tenzin grinned fully now. "I wouldn't want it any other way."
Lin allowed herself a smile, wondering what she was getting herself into but knowing it was all going to be worth it in the end. Tenzin leaned in to kiss her, but she pulled back at the last moment and lurched to her feet. Before Tenzin could ask what she was doing, she had stepped back into the spinning gates, this time with a clear mind and direct focus. And this time, she made it to the other end, where Tenzin was waiting to lift her into his arms and spin her around delightedly, their laughter filling the air.
"Tenzin!"
A frantic voice broke through the excitement, and Lin and Tenzin broke apart to turn in the direction from which the familiar voice had come.
"Tenzin!"
Katara appeared, hurrying across the training grounds in Tenzin's direction. She did not notice Lin at first, but when at last she reached the pair, she focused all of her attention on Lin, her expression grave as she sighed, "Oh, Lin..."
"Mother?" Tenzin said worriedly while reaching over to grip Lin's hand. "What's wrong?"
"What happened?" Lin demanded.
"Your mother," Katara said, looking Lin straight in the eye, "she's in the hospital."
"What?" Lin exclaimed. "What for? I was just with her!"
"She was called in to take care of some trouble in the city," Katara explained. "The Agni Kai are making a mess of things. I'm not sure what happened exactly, all I know is that she's in the hospital. Aang's getting Appa now -"
"Wait," Lin interrupted when Katara turned to leave. "How bad is she? I mean, she's going to be okay, right?"
Katara hesitated, looking at Lin with fear in her eyes - not fear of Lin's response, but fear for the fate of one of her closest friends. "I don't know, Lin. All they told me was that there were severe burns and shrapnel wounds. Now come on you two, Aang will be waiting."
At the moment, Lin felt incapable of movement, her entire body feeling as if it had shut down so that she could hardly breathe let alone walk. However, when Tenzin clenched her hand tightly and tugged her forward, she managed to find the strength from somewhere, and even managed to keep up with Katara's fast pace. She barely noticed when Tenzin lifted her up onto Appa, but she was completely aware of every second that passed during the painfully long flight across the bay and into the city.
When the four of them finally reached the hospital, Lin had pulled herself together, a stoic expression on her face and her shoulders set. She did not, however, relinquish her tight grip on Tenzin's hand.
Entering into the hospital was more difficult than expected, and when Aang, Katara, Lin, and Tenzin made it through the doors, they realized that they had stepped into chaos. Not only was there the usual sick and injured filling the building, but there were also many more injured flooding in than was common. It seemed the Chief of Police was not the only person to require medical assistance due to the Agni Kai Triad's disturbance. The main floor of the hospital was packed with people, injured or otherwise. Healers ran about trying to get everything into some sort of order and save the lives of those most seriously wounded. There was screaming and sobbing, shouting and moaning, and it all made Lin feel very sick. By this point in her life, at the age of twenty-seven, she was mostly used to this sort of thing, yet she was sure the smell and the sight of burnt flesh would always make her queasy, and the thought of her mother enduring the wounds that these Republic City citizens were groaning over made her even more nauseous.
By the time Lin reached the front desk, a very large lump had formed in her throat, thereby hindering her from speech. So instead, Aang stepped forward and kindly asked the older woman at the desk, "Excuse me, ma'am, we're here in regards to Toph Beifong. We were told that she was admitted here nearly half an hour ago with serious injuries and we -"
"I'm sorry, I can't help you right now," the woman interrupted, not sounding at all sorry or compassionate, and not even bothering to look up to see who she was talking to, simply continuing to sift through her paperwork.
Aang seemed a bit taken aback by the woman's harsh tone. Katara's brows furrowed and she leaned forward over the desk. "We understand that your busy," she began to say, "but if you could just -"
"Busy?" the old woman scoffed. "We haven't had this many patients in years. At the moment I'm not authorized to allow anyone to roam around the building looking for friends or family. You can come back once this whole mess is sorted out."
"And how long will that take?" Tenzin asked, sounding incredulous.
"I don't know, a few hours," the woman snapped. "Now unless one of you is about to die, I'm going to have to ask you to leave-"
"Listen here, lady," Lin cut in, reaching an arm over the desk and grabbing the old woman by the front of her shirt, so that she finally looked up to see who she'd been talking to. At the sight of the Avatar and most of his family standing before her, the woman's eyes widened in surprise, and perhaps a bit of fear. "If you want to continue to work in this city I suggest you direct us to somebody who can tell me how my mother's doing, preferably somebody much kinder than you."
"O-of course, Miss Beifong," the old lady stammered. "Healer Yang is with her, on the third floor, in ward thirty-six -"
Lin did not wait for furthur instructions. She dropped the woman back into her chair and started in the direction of the stairs, with Tenzin, Aang, and Katara following along behind her. The four of them trekked up to the third floor in silence, and then walked down the hall until they found the door marked Ward 36. A male Healer was just exiting the room, and judging by the name on his nametag, he was the Healer they were looking for.
Yang noticed the four of them approaching him before they reached him. He recognized Katara, who helped out at the city's hospitals as often as she could, and gave her a kind smile as he greeted her, "Ah, Master Katara, you're here to see my most recent patient I presume?"
"Yes, Yang," Katara replied. "We're all rather worried..."
"Understandably so," Yang said grimly. "our Chief was rather badly wounded, but I feel confident that she will recover."
"Well what are her injuries?" Katara inquired - Lin had once again lost the ability to speak.
Yang sucked in a breath as if preparing for a rather long speech. "There were a myriad of minor injuries, such as scrapes and contusions. Not too many bones were harmed, however, the burns along her arms and torso were severe, as were the shrapnel wounds -"
"Shrapnel wounds?" Lin repeated, having found her voice once more. "What happened to her exactly?"
"According to the reports, everyone's injuries come from the explosions of Satomobiles."
"Satomobiles?" Aang said. "Aren't those a new invention?"
"The release party was today," Tenzin confirmed.
"So the Agni Kai are blowing up Satomobiles?" Katara asked. "What on earth for?"
"To get attention," Lin answered simply. There was a determination filling her, a need to bring those criminals to justice. It bubbled up inside of her, straightening her posture and strengthening her resolve. "That's all the Agni Kai ever wants. Not to mention a bunch of their members were recently paroled, and every time that happens they do something big." Lin turned her full attention to Healer Yang. "What of my mother? Will she survive? Can I see her?"
"She'll be just fine," Yang replied, "but I'm afraid you can't see her right now. When she was brought in, we only fixed the most deadly of her wounds. There are still pieces of shrapnel imbedded into her skin. I was just getting her prepped for another procedure, but the front desk informed me I'd be recieving company. It'll be another few hours before you'll be allowed in to see her."
"Is there anything I can do to help with the procedure?" Katara asked.
"Well an extra set of hands can always be useful," Yang answered. "I'd love to have your help, but are you sure you want to? It might be difficult to see your friend in such a position."
"I've healed Toph a million times, I can handle it," Katara said.
"We should get started then, before her condition can worsen," Yang said, opening the door and gesturing for Katara to enter first.
After a quick nod to her husband, Katara preceeded Yang into Toph's room, the door closing quickly behind them.
Aang, Lin, and Tenzin were now alone in the hallway, and there was a moment of tense silence between them.
Lin spoke first. "I think I'm going to go to Headquarters," she said, "make sure everything's under control and then capture any remaining criminals that may be causing trouble. With the Chief of Police and a dozen other officers out of commission, crime will likely soar. I'll be needed."
"I'm going with you then," Tenzin told her.
"I don't need a babysitter, Tenzin," Lin scorned. "I'm sure the council has plenty of work waiting for you -"
"I won't argue with you about this, Lin. I'm not worried about the mountain of paper work waiting for me at the courtroom. What I am concerned about is the people of Republic City, and I'm going to help you whether you like it or not."
Lin sighed exasperatedly. "Fine."
"I'll stay here and wait for the procedure to be over," Aang said. "To make sure everything goes as planned and maybe help out here if I can. If the situation out in the city gets worse, don't hesitate to come get me. You can take Appa."
"We should get going then," Lin suggested, and Tenzin nodded.
Lin then led Tenzin out of the hospital and back to Appa, who took them to Police Headquarters. This time, Lin was more aware of her surroundings as she was flown across the city, and so this time she noticed the destruction that stretched across five blocks. The streets were ablaze, shrapnel was strewn everywhere, people were running and screaming. There were still a few Satomobiles standing, and the Agni Kai did not seem finished with their attack. The police were too scattered, and so focused on getting others to safety that they couldn't properly take down the criminals. Not to mention the airship they had arrived in had crashed into the ground and was now covered in fire. Acrid smoke filled the air, and if Lin had been wearing her police armor she would have already asked Tenzin to land. As it were, she knew she'd be safer in battle if she had her armor to protect her.
After landing outside Headquarters, Lin took off sprinting across the courtyard and into the building, Tenzin close on her heels. She went to her locker first and bended her backup metal suit onto her body. Then she hurried into the main room, where she was met with a flurry of activity, none of which seemed at all productive. Officers were rushing about the room, talking on phones and hurriedly writing things down. A few of them seemed lost, as if they had no idea what to do with themselves. Toph's second-in-command, who took over in the Chief's absence, was nowhere to be seen.
Lin swore. "The Chief gets injured and the whole damn police force goes into chaos!" she exclaimed. No one in the room noticed her arrival, and Tenzin merely glanced in her direction with a grimace when he heard her words. Lin went up to the nearest officer, snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention, and demanded, "Where is Captain Jion?"
"Uh...huh?" the officer replied, looking at Lin confusedly.
Lin rolled her eyes. "Captain Jion! Acting Chief when Chief Beifong is unavailable! Where is he?"
"Oh!" the officer said in understanding. "Well, uh, he was sent to the hospital as well. Things are a bit frenzied -"
"Yeah, I noticed," Lin snapped. "What is everyone else doing? Running around taking phone calls while the rest of the officers out there are fighting for their lives?"
"Well what else do we do?" the officer asked, sounding offended. "Crime is at an all time high, we're getting phone calls from all over the place. Teams are being sent out across the city but we haven't got the man power to -"
"Enough!" Lin interrupted, a scowl on her face and a fire in her veins as she held up a hand in front of the unhelpful officer's face. She then climbed up onto said officer's desk and shouted as loud as she possibly could, "EVERYBODY LISTEN UP!"
After a moment, in which everyone dropped what they were doing and looked up at Lin in surprise, there was silence, and Lin took full advantage of it, shouting out orders and demanding information. Within an hour, Lin had gained control of the police force and half of the city. The majority of the metalbending police force started working on controlling the last half of the city, while Lin and Tenzin went to the burning streets.
The Agni Kai seemed to have gone by now, but the destruction continued. The fire was spreading, the remaining Satomobiles and other various street objects were exploding unpredictably. Injured citizens and police officers were spread throughout the mess. When Lin and Tenzin arrived, they discovered two officers slowly moving through the wreckage in an attempt to reach one of their viciously wounded comrades. Lin and Tenzin went to them.
After a quick conversation with the two officers, Lin comanded them to go to the hospital. They attempted to aruge, but Lin had a rather demanding presence, and with the promise that she and Tenzin would take care of everything else and rescue their fellow officers, the two of them finally relented and left the dangerous streets.
The cleanup was not altogether difficult. Dangerous and a bit frightening, but with the worst of it over, Lin and Tenzin were able to maneuver through the wreckage and - with their combined efforts - rescue those who had been rendered immobile. First Lin went around putting out most of the fires, while Tenzin swooped down to save any injured he came across. Once Lin had put out the worst of the fires and blocked off the streets, she rejoined Tenzin and helped him save the rest of the officers and citizens. A few carriages were waiting nearby to carry the wounded to the hospital to recieve medical attention.
That finished, Lin and Tenzin then walked carefully through the streets once more, this time putting out the rest of the fires and on the look out for anymore possible explosions. A few times they were forced to quickly defend themselves, but they managed to avoid any bodily harm.
Until they reached the last street.
Lin had sensed the vibrations from fifty yards away.
She stopped, held out an arm to keep Tenzin back, and said, "Stay here."
"What?" Tenzin asked, looking at Lin with furrowed brows. "Why? What's out there?"
"I can feel it," Lin whispered, as if talking too loudly would set it off. "It's...pulsing...just waiting to be released."
Tenzin simply stared at her as if she had grown a second head. "What are you talking about?"
"Can't you see it?" Lin hissed, pointing down the street, where a Satomobile sat, fire slowly creeping around it's metal frame, preparing to engulf it and set off an explosing large enough to reach Lin and Tenzin where they stood.
"What makes you think I'm going to stand here while you get closer to that?" Tenzin demanded.
Lin gritted her teeth, barely containing a frustrated growl. "I can't put out the fire without setting it off, not from here. I need to get closer, but I can't have any distractions, and your air isn't going to be able to protect you this time. So stay here."
Lin began to creep forward, quickly but carefully. Tenzin did not listen to her, but followed along, keeping his distance to ensure he did not distract her.
It didn't work.
She was thoroughly distracted. She worried too much about him in that moment, and that annoyed her. She hated worrying.
Still, she powered through, inching her way closer to the Satomobile, until she was close enough to safely put out the fire.
She was too late.
The fire had already expanded far too much, and just as Lin lowered herself into a stance in preparation of covering the Satomobile in earth, an explosion went off that shook the ground beneath them. Instead of ensconing the burning Satomobile in earth, Lin ended up being forced to cover herself in a protective earth armor, the heat and the shockwave nearly destroying her quickly made barrier.
She remained safe though, and as soon as she was sure that the danger was gone, she dropped the earth armor and surveyed the damage before her. She huffed irritably. "Well, that didn't go as planned. That explosion alone is going to cost a fortune. Sorry, Tenzin, but the council will have a hell of a lot of paper work to -"
She stopped suddenly, fear flooding her veins and heart hammering in her chest. With the vibrations from the recent explosion having settled down, she was able to once again feel Tenzin's heartbeat.
But it was not Tenzin's usual heartbeat.
No, this heartbeat was too slow, too erratic.
Whirling around, Lin's eyes widened at the sight of Tenzin's crumpled form lying on the ground, a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of his side and blood quickly soaking through the front of his robes.
Chapter Text
Chapter 9
Whirling around, Lin's eyes widened at the sight of Tenzin's crumpled form lying on the ground, a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of his side and blood quickly soaking through the front of his robes.
There was a loud, heartwrenching scream that tore through the air, and for a moment Lin was not aware that it had come from her own throat. She threw herself onto the ground at Tenzin's side, her hands hovering over the wound on his side, her mind whirring as she attempted to think of something she could do to save his life, yet it seemed all of her intelligence had left her to be replaced by a paralyzing fear. She couldn't lose her mother and Tenzin in the same day, she just couldn't. Healer Yang had said that Toph would be all right, but what if she wasn't? And what if Tenzin could not be saved?
"Oh, spirits," she moaned, looking over at Tenzin's ashen face, his eyes focused on the gray sky above him. "Tenzin?" she said urgently, placing a hesitant hand on top of his forehead and stroking the blue arrow there with her thumb. "Tenzin can you hear me?"
Tenzin coughed and gasped out, "Lin," seemingly his only way of response, and his body lurched. He managed to shift his gaze, so that his eyes locked onto hers, and the pain she saw there made her stomach churn. She needed to get him to the hospital, but how? The streets were deserted - any one with common sense had fled the area long ago or was taken out on a stretcher. She didn't even have her portable police radio with her because it was in her other uniform, which was in her apartment - miles away. She couldn't even get him onto Appa, who had been sent back to the hospital with Aang -
Wait.
Appa!
Tenzin always carried a sky bison whistle around his neck that was nearly identical to his father's. If Lin used the whistle - and hopefully the distance would not be too great for it to be heard - Appa would come to them.
Lin leaned over Tenzin and said, "Just stay with me, Tenzin, I'll get you some help, I promise." She then carefully pulled back the collar of his robes, so that she could grab hold of the chain there and gently lift the whistle from its confines. Tenzin's breathing was heavy and shallow, and Lin's hands shook as she brought the sky bison whistle up to her lips. The first blow through the whistle was weak and pathetic, and Lin's dry mouth caused her to cough and splutter. Shaking her head and gasping in a ragged breath, Lin tried again, and this time, she put all her effort and a lung full of air into the whistle. She heaved in another breath, and then blew into the whistle once more. Hopeful that this had been enough, she placed the whistle around her own neck and returned her attention to Tenzin. "Help's coming, Tenzin," she told him, stroking his cheek and frowning when his eyelids began to droop. "Come on, Tenzin, stay awake. Help will be here soon, just keep your eyes open a little bit longer."
It was no use. Tenzin was losing too much blood and fading quickly. Cursing under her breath, Lin moved her hands back over his side, and this time she placed her hands around the shrapnel and pressed down on the wound. Tenzin groaned and his body shuddered, but Lin continued to apply pressure. Minutes passed, and she spoke comforting words to Tenzin, trying desperately to keep him awake, afraid that if he closed his eyes for too long they'd never open again. Her hands were quickly covered in his blood, but she did not falter, she couldn't afford to.
When Tenzin's eyes closed for more than three seconds, Lin cried out, "Dammit, Tenzin! You can't do this to me!" Tenzin's eyes flew open once more, and Lin nodded vigorously. "Yes! That's right, you have to stay awake. You have to because - because we're going to get married, right?" Unable to speak, Tenzin attempted to nod and force a smile for her, so Lin attempted to force a smile for him as well, deciding to continue with the marriage conversation, because it seemed to give him incentive to keep his eyes open.
When at last Lin saw Appa hastily approaching, with Aang at the reins, she nearly sighed in relief, knowing that Tenzin was not out of danger yet, but that he was one step closer to being saved. Aang practically threw himself over to Lin and Tenzin before Appa even landed, and Lin almost couldn't bear to look him in the eye. This was her fault. She should have insisted that Tenzin stay back, she should have protected him.
"What happened?" Aang exclaimed, kneeling at Tenzin's other side.
"T-the Satomoblie," Lin stammered, surprised to find that her voice shaky, "it exploded."
Aang's eyes roved over Tenzin's frame, and then he looked up at Lin. "Keep the pressure on that, I'll get the two of you onto Appa."
Lin nodded, and Aang rose to his feet. Soon a gust of wind picked up all three of them and gently placed them on Appa, Aang at the reins once more. Before Lin could fully realize she was in Appa's saddle, Appa had lifted off the ground once more and was flying in the direction of the hospital. Lin kept her gaze locked on Tenzin, speaking to him constantly and blaming the wind for the stinging in her eyes and the moisture running down her cheeks.
"I'll be right back!" Aang called out, and Lin realized that they'd reached the hospital.
"We're at the hospital, Tenzin," Lin told him. "Everything will be okay now, the healers will take care of you."
The rest of what happened was a blur. Lin was ripped away from Tenzin while the healers circled around him and started trying to heal him. She was partially aware that Aang kept a firm hold on her arms for quite some time, but she wasn't entirely sure why. Did he think she'd try to go back to Tenzin? Or maybe he thought she'd collapse. She would have argued with him if she'd had the strength. But she was exhausted, and covered in her best friend and lover's blood. She did not ask about her mother, afraid that she'd be told that something had gone wrong and Toph had not been saved. So Lin sat - where she was not sure, but Aang had put her there - slumped over, her eyes focused on her bloody hands though she was not really seeing them. Somebody asked her if she had been wounded, but she could not answer - besides the lump in her throat, she wasn't sure about the answer, because yes, she was wounded emotionally, but physically no, or at least she assumed she hadn't been. She seemed trapped in her own mind, a million worried thoughts running through her head and driving her insane. She was not used to this, this feeling of fear and helplessness. She was used to saving people in such a condition, not feeling it herself. She felt weak, useless, and yet she could not force herself to move or speak.
The moment Lin was capable of movement again was the moment Katara came rushing down the hallway, repeatedly asking Aang what had happened and staring in horror at the blood Lin was covered in.
"Tenzin's been injured, but he's in with the healers now," Aang told Katara calmly, rising to his feet and pulling her into his arms in an attempt to reassure her.
Katara seemed unable to take her eyes off of Lin, who looked down at herself and suddenly seemed to realize that she was still covered in blood, Tenzin's blood. She felt very light headed and nauseous all of a sudden, and she lurched to her feet, still staring down at herself in horror, her hands shaking and her complexion paling by the second. Without another thought, she took off for the nearest bathroom, scaring off quite a few people when she barged in, probably looking as if she'd lost her mind. She paid no attention to them, but went straight to the sinks, viciously scrubbing her hands clean and tearing off her metal uniform, which she forced into a ball shape and shoved into the trash can.
She retched, her body trembling as she braced herself against the sink. She squeezed her eyes closed, only to open them quickly when an image of Tenzin's bloodied form popped up into her mind. She sucked in a shaky breath, blew it back out, swallowed past the lump in her throat, and stood up straight. She had to pull herself together. Acting like this wouldn't help anyone. And she needed to find out about her mother.
After splashing some water onto her face and pulling her hair back for the third time that day, Lin left the bathroom and found her way back to Aang and Katara. They were huddled together, both looking rather grief-striken.
Aang looked up as Lin approached, giving her a sympathetic look as he said, "We were about to come looking for you. Are you all right?"
"Fine," Lin replied shortly, taking the empty seat next to Katara. "Any word on Tenzin?"
"No," Aang answered, "they're still working on him."
Lin looked over at Katara, who was leaned against Aang's shoulder and not facing her. Lin needed the older woman's attention, so she said, "Katara?" When the waterbender turned to look at the young woman beside her, Lin continued, "What happened with my mother? Is she going to be all right?"
Katara sat up a bit and tried to force a reassuring smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. "It'll take some time for her to recover, but she's going to be just fine. She won't be awake for a few more hours, but you can see her now if you'd like."
Lin nodded and rose to her feet. "I think I'll go do that now actually."
"Would you like us to come with you?" Aang asked.
Lin shook her head. "No, I'll be fine. Let me know as soon you hear anything about Tenzin."
"Of course," Aang complied.
With that, Lin went off to find her mother's hospital room.
When Lin entered, Toph's room was dark, with only a small sliver of light peeking through the curtains of the only window. Toph was curled up on her side, connected to multiple medical contraptions and wrapped in bandages, eyes clenched closed in a troubled sleep. Lin had to look away for a moment, unpleasant memories of the Yakone trial rushing back to her. Shaking her head and sucking in a deep breath, she moved furthur into the room, pulling a chair up beside her mother's bed and settling down for what she was sure would be a long night.
Lin was not sure how long she sat by her mother's bedside, but for however long it was, Toph did not wake, and Lin hardly moved.
When Aang finally entered the room, Lin jumped to her feet and walked quickly to him, her voice hushed as she asked, "How's Tenzin?"
Judging by the small smile on Aang's face, it was good news. "He's going to be just fine," Aang replied, placing a comforting hand on Lin's shoulder. Lin sighed in relief, and did not refuse the tight hug Aang enveloped her into. "He'll probably be in the hospital for a while like your mother," Aang went on when the two of them stepped apart. "Katara's still interrogating the healers about him so I should probably go save them. We're not allowed to see him for another few hours, did you want to come sit with Katara and I again, or do you want me to come get you before we go in to see him?"
Lin hesitated, glancing back at her mother before looking back at Aang and responding, "I think I'm going to stay with her a little longer."
"Of course," said Aang, inclining his head in understanding. He paused, looked over at Toph and heaved a sigh. "Has she woken up at all since you've been in here?"
Lin shook her head mutely, folding her arms across her chest and turning her gaze back to her unconscious mother. The air in the room was suddenly thick, the shift in the mood not going unnoticed by either of them.
Aang squeezed Lin's hand and whispered, "I'll stay with you if you want."
"No," Lin replied, just as quietly. "Go be with Katara."
Her tone was not bitter, but understanding. Katara's youngest child had been in critical condition, surely she'd need her husband right now. Sure, Lin had almost lost her mother and her boyfriend all in the same day, but she preferred to be alone in situations like these.
Aang seemed to understand this, and he nodded. "I'll be back later then," he said. "Let me know if anything changes here."
"I will."
Eventually, Aang left, and Lin was left alone with her mother once more. She returned to her seat by Toph's bed, and stayed there for another few hours.
By the time Toph began to stir, the sun had long since set and the moon had taken its place in the sky. The room was darker, with only an ominous glow from the moonlight peeking in through the curtains. When Toph shifted slightly and let out a quiet groan, Lin slid forward in her seat so that she could see her mother better.
Toph shifted around for a few moments, wincing when she became aware of her numerous wounds. Lin placed a hand on her mother's forehead and murmured, "Mom?"
At Lin's touch, Toph's eyes flew open and her hands fumbled around blindly. Lin moved closer so that her mother's hands could reach her face and be assured that Lin was there.
"Lin?" Toph croaked, smacking her lips together and seemingly realizing that her mouth was dry.
Lin reached over to the stand beside her mother's bed, where a glass of water waited in case Toph awoke when the healers were not around. "Yes, Mom, it's me," said Lin. "Don't move so much. Here, I have some water for you."
Lin cradled her mother's head and guided the cup of water to her lips. After sipping some of the water, Toph said, "Thanks, kid. Now where the hell am I and why do I feel like I've been run over by a herd of ostrich horses?"
"You're in the hospital," Lin explained, setting the cup of water back down and then absentmindedly adjusting the blankets around her mother, remembering those nights when Toph would come home from work with some sort of injury and a teenage Lin would take care of her. "The Agni Kai were blowing up Satomobiles and you were injured in one of the explosions. Do you not remember?"
Toph grimaced. "Oh, I remember," she muttered. "How bad off am I?"
"Well you'll live," Lin sighed, "but pretty bad. I don't think they plan on letting you out of here for a few weeks."
"Damn," Toph cursed. "Don't they know I'm the Chief of Police? I can't lay around in here for a couple weeks. Captain Jion couldn't possibly keep the city under control for that long."
"Well he's in here too apparently," said Lin, reaching back and dragging her seat closer to her mother's bedside.
Toph scoffed. "Of course he is. Who took care of that whole situation while I was out of it then? Wait...how long was I out of it?"
"About half a day," Lin replied. "It's evening now...well, more like very early morning. Things were a mess when I got to Headquarters, but I took care of everything in the city...Tenzin and I did actaully, until..." She sighed. "He's in here too now."
"Well shit," Toph muttered. "You've had a hell of a day then haven't you."
"Might have been one of the worst," Lin admitted quietly. "You scared me, Mom - you know I hate when you get injured like this."
"Yeah I know," Toph mumbled, rubbing her eyes wearily. "Sorry, kid, but I'm getting old. I'm not as quick as I used to be."
"Yeah right," Lin scoffed. "You still kick my ass almost every time we spar."
Toph smirked. "You're exaggerating."
The door opened then, and Lin turned to see Healer Yang entering the room.
Toph asked Lin, "Who's that?"
"Your healer," Lin answered, moving slightly to give Yang room to check over her mother, but staying close enough to hold onto Toph's hand.
"Ugh, great," Toph huffed, obviously unhappy about her current predicament.
"It's good to see that you're awake, Chief Beifong," Yang said to Toph while directing a kind smile to Lin.
Lin merely inclined her head in the healer's direction.
Toph muttered, "Yeah, it's just dandy. When are you going to let me outta here?"
"Oh, not for some time I'm afraid," Yang responded while checking over the monitors around Toph's bed. "You'll have to stay for at least a week and a half so we can monitor you."
"Ah, come on," Toph complained. "That's too long." Toph grimaced then, rubbing her forehead and shifting uncomfortably.
Yang began questioning Toph, asking about her pain and testing the use of her limbs. Toph wasn't admitting that she was in very much pain, but Lin and Yang knew she was. After changing Toph's bandages, Yang gave Toph some medication that quickly had her slurring her words and her eyes drooping. Soon enough Toph was asleep once more, this time a bit more comfortably. Lin then spoke to Yang, who assured her that Toph was recovering well so far.
With the assurance that Toph would probably sleep until late the next morning, Lin left her mother's room and, after a quick trip to the restroom, went to find Aang and Katara. They were in the same spot they'd been since Tenzin was admitted to the hospital, and did not look as if they'd moved much at all, except now Sokka was with them. Aang had tried to call Sokka sometime after Toph was admitted to the hospital, but had not gotten ahold of him. With the confusion of Tenzin being brought in as well, Sokka had not been called for a while. Only after a few hours did Aang remember to call Sokka, who had heard about both Toph and Tenzin and had been trying to figure out which hospital in the city they were both in.
When Aang saw Lin approaching, he rose to his feet and said, "We were just about to go looking for you."
"Is everything all right?" asked Lin.
"Everything's fine," Aang replied. "We'll be allowed to see Tenzin soon, but we thought we'd go find something to eat in the cafeteria first. We were wondering if you'd like to come with us, I'm sure you haven't eaten in a while. How's your mother doing?"
"Sure, I'll come along," said Lin. "I can't even remember the last time I ate something. Mom's doing all right. She woke up for a few minutes and we talked a bit, but then her healer gave her some medication for the pain and she fell right back to sleep. He said she probably won't be awake until late tomorrow morning."
Sokka stepped forward then. "And how are youdoing?" he asked Lin, expression serious as he pulled her into a tight embrace.
"I'm fine," Lin answered, returning the gesture stiffly, because she knew if she relaxed into another embrace she'd likely burst into tears, and she simply could not allow that.
"No you're not," Sokka sighed, releasing Lin but remaining close. He hesitated before continuing, "Go on, go get something to eat, I'm going to go sit with your mother."
Lin nodded, and while Sokka went off to Toph's room, Lin followed Aang and Katara to the hospital cafeteria. After forcing down some unpleasant looking noodles, the three of them returned to their hallway seats. Soon afterwards, a female healer exited Tenzin's room and approached Lin, Aang, and Katara, who all stood in anticipation of news on his condition.
"He seems to be responding to treatment well," the healer was saying. "We won't know anything for certain for a few more days, but he doesn't seem to have sustained any other injuries, which makes it easier for us to focus on the one issue. You can visit him now, but two at a time and immediate family only."
The healer looked pointedly at Lin, who frowned, as did Aang and Katara.
"Surely you can allow Lin to see him," said Katara. "She's basically family."
"I'm sorry, that's the rules," the healer insisted.
"Well how long until she can see him?" Aang asked.
"A few days proabably," said the healer vaguely. "Possibly a week."
Katara looked over at her husband with wide eyes and Aang's brows furrowed.
Thinking quickly, Lin feigned a sigh and said, "We might as well tell her. No use keeping it a secret if it means I can't see him."
Katara and Aang glanced back at Lin with confused expressions, Katara being the first one to catch on as she said, "Are you sure, Lin?"
"I'm sure," Lin replied, clearing her throat and straightening herself up. She then directed her attention to the obviously confused healer and said, "I am Tenzin's wife."
The healer's eyes widened in shock. She shook her head, furrowing her brow as she asked, "And how am I supposed to believe that?"
"It's simple," Lin explained. "Tenzin and I were married in the spring of last year. We decided to keep it a secret for obvious reasons. Neither of us enjoy the attention and I didn't want to furthur endanger him - there are numerous criminals who would like to get back at me somehow. Now, you can choose to believe me, or piss off the Chief of Police's daughter, who is also currently acting Chief of Republic City until her superiors are capable of returning to their positions...your choice."
The healer frowned and looked at the faces of Aang and Katara, who did not give off any impression that what Lin had said was not the truth. Eventually, the healer sighed and said, "Very well, but there can still only be two at a time."
"Thank you," Aang said as the healer left. Then he turned to Lin and smiled. "That was ingenious, Lin. I almost believed you myself."
Lin shrugged. "You didn't think I was going to wait a week to see him did you?"
"You two didn't actually get married without telling anyone did you?" Katara asked, looking at Lin a bit suspiciously.
Lin snorted humorously. "Tenzin couldn't keep a secret like that."
Katara smiled softly. "True."
"Well if you ladies would like to go in first -" Aang began.
"Oh no," Lin interrupted, holding up a hand to stop him. "You're his parents, you two go on ahead. I'll go check on Sokka and come back later."
"Are you sure?" Aang asked.
"Positive," Lin assured him. "Go, be with your son."
Aang and Katara both hugged Lin before doing exactly what she'd told them to do.
A bit saddened that she wouldn't be seeing Tenzin for a bit longer, Lin turned quickly away, hurrying away from his room so that she would not be tempted to break the rules furthur.
Tenzin remained unconcscious for ten hours.
Within those ten hours, Aang and Katara left their son's bedside for only a few minutes at a time, allowing for bathroom breaks, a visit with Toph, and a few moments for Lin to see him as well. Lin and Sokka mostly stayed by Toph's bed, though she only woke once or twice herself in those ten hours.
So when Tenzin finally drifted back into consciousness, the only people around were his parents, who were not the person he so desperately needed to see at that moment. Because he had woken in a panic, his memories of his injury faint and difficult to decipher.
"Lin!" was the first thing that tore from his throat as his body lurched, limbs flailing in a useless attempt to sit up. He was too dazed and hopped up on pain medication to move properly, but that hardly stopped him, as he was convinced that something terrible had happened to Lin.
Katara and Aang tried desperately to calm their son, speaking soothing words and insisting that Lin was just fine, but comforting words were not what Tenzin wanted to hear, not from his parents anyway. Katara looked up at her husband, their gazes locking, the desperation clear in Katara's wide eyes.
"I'll go get Lin," said Aang determinedly, spinning on his heel and dashing from the room.
Despite his constant movement and incoherant babble, Tenzin seemingly managed to hear his father's words and process them enough for him to still. His chest still heaved with effort and he looked ready to spring from his bed at any moment, but he had stopped thrashing around, and for that Katara was greatful.
In the few minutes it took for Aang to return, Tenzin's healer had bustled into the room, insisting Tenzin calm down and trying to force a sedative into the young man's arm. Katara stopped the healer, explaining that Tenzin simply needed to see someone, otherwise he'd just wake up in the same state later. The healer was hesitant to listen to Katara, but he was soon left with no choice, as Lin came bursting into the room, knocking the healer aside as she took her place at Tenzin's side.
Instantly the wildly beeping heart rate monitor at Tenzin's bedside quieted, and Tenzin's breathing slowed to normal.
"I'm here, Tenzin," Lin told him, her voice barely above a whisper as she leaned over him, their foreheads nearly touching and one of her hands sliding down his arm to clasp his hand tightly. "I'm right here, I'm just fine," Lin soothed, wrapping both her hands around Tenzin's now and holding it against her chest, just above her heart.
"Lin," Tenzin whispered, his lips curving slightly in his effort to smile.
"Yes," Lin confirmed, and her voice would have sounded surprisingly soft to anyone who didn't truly know her. "You're gonna be all right, Tenzin," Lin whispered, placing a kiss on his forehead, at the tip of his blue arrow, which now glistened with sweat from his recent panic attack. His eyes fluttered, betraying his exhaustion despite only being awake for a few minutes. "Just rest, Airhead," Lin said affectionately.
"Stay with me," Tenzin pleaded, his voice hoarse as his eyelids grew heavier and his head lolled to the side.
"Of course, I'll be here when you wake up," Lin promised, taking over the chair nearest Tenzin's bed - which Aang had occupied minutes earlier - still holding his hand tightly in both of hers.
Comforted by Lin's words, Tenzin fell once more into a state of unconsciousness.
The next month was one of the most hectic months of Lin's life.
For the two weeks that Toph and Tenzin were confined to their hospital beds, Lin was back and forth between each of their rooms, not to mention frequent trips to Police Headquarters, where she worked endlessly to keep the city under control. At first, many criminals had attempted to exploit the Chief of Police's recent near-fatal injury, but were soon dissuaded from doing so when they came face to face with an exhausted and very unhappy Lin Beifong, who only slept sporadically in hospital chairs. When Toph and Tenzin were finally released from the hospital, it was only because of Katara's promise to keep the two of them on bedrest and under her expert care for another two weeks. Toph had been outraged, and even Tenzin had been annoyed at having to continue laying around for another two weeks. Lin then split her time between protecting the city and staying on Air Temple Island, so that her apartment went almost completely untouched for a whole month.
With only about a week left until they would finally be released from their mandatory bedrest, Toph had somehow managed to convince Tenzin to sneak off the island with her to spend an evening in the city. Aang and Katara had been focused only each other, since they had hoped to have a night alone together for the first time in weeks, and had left Sokka to watch over Toph and Tenzin. But Sokka had ended up encased in stone and unable to move or call out for help, and Toph and Tenzin had hijacked a boat to take them across the Bay. They would have gotten away with it, except Lin had anticipated that her mother would do something foolish like this and drag Tenzin along with her, and so a police officer was keeping an eye on the docks for her. Toph and Tenzin were completely unaware, and were just about to step into a crowded restaurant when suddenly Lin appeared before them, having left in the middle of interrogating a memeber of the Red Monsoon Triad to come intercept Toph and Tenzin. Lin had then dragged them back to the docks - Toph practically kicking and screaming the whole way - and then escorted them back onto the island, where she freed Sokka from his imprisonment and informed Aang and Katara that their patients had escaped.
When Toph and Tenzin were finally given a clean bill of health and allowed to return to work, Toph had demanded Lin take a few days off. Lin had tried to argue, of course, but her mother insisted, and soon Lin found herself bored out of her mind. After receiving some much needed rest and alone time, Lin could think nothing else to keep her occupied.
Knowing that her mother would probably be working late, and that Tenzin was always home before dinner - though he often brought a load of paper work home with him - Lin decided to return to Air Temple Island yet again. She was somewhat relieved when she didn't run into Katara or Aang, knowing that if she did she'd likely end up eating dinner with them again, when all she wanted was to spend an evening alone with Tenzin. After all, they hadn't been intimate in over a month, and now that she was fully rested and Tenzin was healed, she was itching to touch him.
Upon knocking on Tenzin's door three times and receiving no answer, Lin let herself into his home, soon discovering that the reason he hadn't heard her knocking was because he'd been in the shower. And she discovered this after poking her head into his bedroom and seeing him exiting the adjoining bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.
"Well, I see you've managed to keep your figure," Lin commented dryly as she stepped into Tenzin's bedroom, folding her arms across her chest and leaning back against the wall behind her, smirking when he jumped in surprise.
"Lin!" he exclaimed, obviously startled. "How long have you been here?"
"Oh, not long," said Lin, waving a dismissive hand. "Seriously though, how'd you manage to stay so thin after lying around for a month? Last time I was out of commission for that long I gained at least fifteen pounds."
"You're exaggerating," Tenzin argued, folding his own arms across his bare chest and walking closer to Lin. "And you were back to normal after a few days of work. But I doubt you came all this way to comment on my figure..."
He was much closer to her now, so that she could smell his freshly cleaned skin and feel his warm breath on her face. He smiled - perhaps a bit smugly - and reached out to stroke her cheek. Lin's eyes fluttered at the contact, but she didn't make an effort to move closer to him or touch him yet, allowing him to glide his hand across her cheek bone, until his long fingers were tangled in her thick, ebony hair. His hand was firm against the back of her head when he tilted her face upwards, and finally his lips came down to meet hers. Their soft kiss quickly turned heated and passionate, tongues clashing and teeth nibbling. Tenzin's other hand slid around her waist, while Lin's hands grasped his bare shoulders.
When their lips detached, Tenzin pushed Lin back against the wall behind her and began kissing her neck, while her hands slid down his chest, pausing when she reached the towel at his waist. She looked down, fully intending on ripping the towel off, but something caught her eye and distracted her first. While once Tenzin's skin had been completely unmarred - except, perhaps, his airbending tattoos - now there was a distinct, curved scar starting just above his hip bone and ending somewhere below his ribs. Lin had seen the scar before, having been present during most of Tenzin's healing sessions, but seeing it now brought a sudden halt to her previous thoughts. Instead she began tracing the scar with her fingertip, while Tenzin continued to kiss and nip at her neck and collarbone.
Eventually, however, Tenzin noticied Lin's sudden lack of reaction and her fixation on the scar on his side, and he pulled back from her, furrowing his brows in question as he asked, "Lin, are you all right?"
When Lin looked back up at Tenzin, she was frowning. "I'm corrupting you," she said.
"Huh?" said Tenzin, thoroughly confused.
"You're not supposed to have scars," Lin explained, sounding angry.
Angry about what? Tenzin wondered
"Huh?" Tenzin repeated. He shook his head and took a step back from her. "Lin, I have no idea what you're talking about. What's the big deal? I have a scar, so what, you've got quite a few yourself -"
"Exactly!" Lin exclaimed. "Can't you see? This is all my fault. You shouldn't have a scar, you shouldn't have been bedridden for a month, you shouldn't have almost died! If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have even been in that position, and you wouldn't have gotten hurt!"
Lin's eyes were ablaze with fury, while Tenzin's were now filled with understanding and something akin to pity. "Lin," he spoke softly, "this is not your fault. Please stop blaming yourself and realize that no one's going to hold this against you -"
"I'm not worried about people being angry at me," Lin scoffed, brushing past Tenzin so she could go stand on her own in the middle of the room. "I'm wondering why on earth you would ever want to marry me when all I cause is death and pain! You're an Air Nomad for Spirit's sake! You couldn't possibly be okay with the fact that I've killed at least two people in my lifetime! And that scar - how do we even know that's the last you'll receive? Keep hanging around me and you might end up having as many as I do!"
"Lin, stop," said Tenzin, his voice low but the expression on his face serious enough to make Lin bite her tongue. He crossed the room to stand before her once more, this time grabbing onto her arms and holding her in place, his gaze locked on hers as he continued, "I don't want to hear anymore of this. I know that being in a relationship with you comes with some...complications. Believe me, I learned that long ago. You're married to your career, first and foremost, and you're more stubborn and frustrating than any woman I've ever met, but that's why I love you. Do you think I'd still be with you right now if I didn't? Do you think I would have let myself get into a situation where I nearly died and ended up with a scar if I didn't love you so much? And as for the killing, it goes against everything I've ever been taught, but I also know that you had good reason - those men were trying to kill you, and even though I'd have preferred a different solution, I'm also just glad that it's youthat's alive and them dead rather than the other way around.
"I know you like to blame yourself for these kinds of things," he went on, sliding his hands up to her shoulders now, but not pausing in his speech, sure that if he did Lin would interrupt and not let him finish. "I know that's your way of grieving over these kinds of things, by finding something to be angry for, but you're not going to blame yourself for this anymore. You told me to stay back, and I didn't listen. The fault is mine and mine alone. I'm sure if I broke things off with you I might be in slightly less danger, and I wouldn't be kept awake in the middle of the night wondering if you're ever coming home or if I'm going to get an unwanted phone call, but I would be miserable, because I wouldn't have you. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, no matter how many scars either of us end up with, and..."
He paused, turning away from her and hurrying over to the stand beside his bed. He pulled the drawer opened and plucked something out of it, and then came back to Lin's side. He picked up one of her hands, and then placed the object into it. As Tenzin's hand pulled away to reveal that object, Lin looked down at it, face contorting in confusion. It looked to be a choker necklace with a circular stone fastened to it. The stone also seemed to have a design carved into it, a cross between the airbending symbol and the earthbending symbol.
"It is custom," Tenzin began to explain, "in the Water Tribe, for men to give a special necklace to the woman they wish to betroth." He seemed a bit nervous now, his cheeks turning red as he scratched the back of his neck. "I started making this for you a few years ago, before you said you didn't want to get married, and then...well I stopped and kept it safely locked away. But since you said you'd changed your mind about marriage and I've been laying around doing nothing for a month, I started working on it again. I just finished it a few days ago and was wondering how to present it to you. I thought I'd take you out to dinner, something extravagent maybe, but nothing seemed sincere enough. And, well, just now I realized that I don't think it matters how it happens, just so long as it happens. So, I suppose, what I'm asking, Lin, is will you marry me?"
Silence fell upon the room then, as Tenzin twitched nervously, watching Lin anxiously as she continued to stare, unmoving, at the necklace in her hand.
As time passed, the air grew thicker, until finally Lin looked up at Tenzin, her lips quirking up in a smile as she answered, "Yes, Tenzin, I'll marry you." Tenzin's shoulders sagged in relief, and a huge grin spread across his face, betraying his complete and utter joy. "Why don't you help me put it on?" Lin suggested, holding the necklace out to Tenzin, who complied without hesitation and moved around behind her to clasp the choker in place.
Chapter Text
Chapter 10
For the first time in her life, Lin had the desire to run away. She wanted to ignore every rational thought currently trying to force its way to the forefront of her mind and just haul ass out the door, off Air Temple Island, and as far from Republic City as she could manage.
At the moment, though, she was nearly paralyzed with fear. She was standing in the middle of her usual room on Air Temple Island, completely alone, and glaring at her reflection in a full length mirror. Her hair – oh, spirits, my hair, she thought despondently– was done up in an elaborate ponytail, a few ringlets hanging down and framing her face. She tugged at one of the curls while glancing distastefully at the horrendously uncomfortable, high-heeled shoes currently rubbing painfully against her toes. She bit down on her lip to suppress a scream of frustration, grimacing when she tasted the cosmetic gloss that had been put there against her will. In fact, the hair, the makeup, and the shoes had all been chosen without her consent, and the only thing she wasn't entirely appalled by was the deep, verdant green colored gown she was wearing - because she had at least had some say in that.
But the gown could not distract her from her issues, and she could feel panic bubbling up inside her stomach, making her feel suddenly nauseous as beads of perspiration glided down her skin. When her hands began to shake, she balled them into fists at her sides, gritting her teeth and breathing in deeply through her nose in a useless attempt to calm herself. Her heart was beating rapidly now, and she was overwhelmed with the urge to curl up into a fetal position on the floor and just stay there. As much as she wanted to run from this, she wasn't sure she even trusted her trembling legs to get her to the door.
The door.
Somebody was knocking on the door.
Lin tried desperately to swallow past the lump in her throat, but before she could choke out a response, she heard her mother's voice calling out, "It's just me, Lin, I'm coming in..."
The door slid open then, and Toph slipped into the room. For a moment, before Toph closed the door, Lin could hear a roar of activity as various people scrambled around to finish preparations for the ceremony that was soon to take place - the thought of it all only made Lin feel sicker.
"So what's wrong, kid?" Toph asked as she crossed the room to Lin's side.
Lin considered telling her mother everything, but then quickly shook the thought aside. Instead she cleared her throat and forced herself to speak. "I told you, I just need some time alone," she snapped.
Toph raised a disbelieving brow. "Yeah, well I don't think that's workin' out for ya is it? Come on, Lin, I'm the only person on this island who isn't going to burst into tears if you say you've changed your mind about all this, so let's hear it. What's got you so rattled?"
Lin opened her mouth to protest that she most certainly was not rattled, but then her jaw snapped closed and her teeth clicked together, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "I can't do this," she confessed, feeling a weight lifting off of her shoulders at finally being able to tell someone about her reservations. "I just...I look ridiculous. Never in a million years would I allow myself to walk out in public with my hair done like this. And these shoes, they're completely impractical and the most uncomfortable things I've ever worn in my life. I'm fine with marrying Tenzin, and I had adjusted to the idea of having some ridiculously extravagant affair just to make him and his parents happy, but I just...can't. I will not walk out there looking like this." She folded her arms across her chest defiantly to emphasize her point.
Toph was silent for a long time then, and for all the years she'd known her mother, Lin could not decipher the expression on her face.
And then, Toph spun around abruptly, started back towards the door, and simply said, "I'm going to get Tenzin."
"Wha - you're - what?" Lin stammered. She tried to go after her mother, cursing when she started tripping over her own feet - those stupid shoes!"Wait, don't!"
But it was too late. Toph had already slid the door closed behind herself, and before Lin could figure out an escape, there was another knock on the door, this one much more tentative than Toph's had been.
That was when Lin heard the voice of the absolute last person she wanted to talk to right now.
"Lin?" Tenzin called out to her, his voice a bit muffled through the door, but his worry coming through loud and clear.
Lin sighed heavily, rubbing her temples furiously and slowly resigning herself to the coming conversation. She'd have to get it over with eventually wouldn't she? It wasn't as if she could actually run away without telling anyone, and it was probably best that Tenzin was the first to know he wasn't getting married today.
"Come in, Tenzin," she said, loud enough for him to hear through the barrier between them.
There was a moment of hesitation, and then the door was being slid open again and Tenzin slipped inside, not looking over at Lin until he'd firmly closed the door behind him. When he saw her at last, his eyes widened slightly as they roved over her body, taking in her appearance.
She knew what he was going to say before he said it, and it only made her strengthen her resolve.
"You look beautiful," he breathed.
"No, I don't," Lin said through gritted teeth, her hands balling into fists at her sides. "I look absolutely ridiculous. I hate this hair, I hate these shoes, I hate this disgusting face paint, and if you expect me to marry you like this then you are delusional. I'm sorry, Tenzin, I really am," she said sincerely, her resolve wavering a bit when she saw his stricken expression, "but I just can't do this. I was willing to give you marriage and children, to go against everything I thought I wanted, because I wanted it all with you. But this is too much. If I go out there like this I would be part of a sham wedding, because this isn't me, and if you think it is, or you think it's going to be once we're married, then you don't love me, and -"
At some point, Tenzin had started moving slowly across the room to get closer to Lin, but she did not know when. She only noticed it now because suddenly he was standing right in front of her with his hands on her shoulders and his lips pressed against her forehead.
"You're right," he whispered against her skin, and she felt her mouth drop open in shock.
So surprised was she by his quick agreement, that the next words to come out of her mouth were, "I am?"
Tenzin chuckled lightly and stepped back a bit to look into her eyes. Then, without another word, he moved his hands up to her hair and began gently tugging pins from out of it, tossing them carelessly to the floor until her hair came loose and hung in messy curls around her shoulders. He moved away for a moment - Lin was still too speechless to say a word to him - and returned with a brush, which he carefully ran through her hair until it was back to its usual wavy appearance. Setting the brush aside, he then pushed her down into a nearby chair and kneeled on the floor, picking up each of her feet in turn and removing the dreaded shoes.
Lin finally opened her mouth to speak, but Tenzin was pulling her to her feet and into her adjoining bathroom, placing her in front of the sink before wetting a cloth. Only once he began wiping the make-up from her face did she finally recover her voice enough to ask, "What are you doing?"
"Cleaning off this make-up you despise so very much," he answered her simply, not even bothering to look her in the eye. "You do look nice with it on, but I agree that it's unusual for you, and I'd much prefer your natural beauty."
Lin had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. "But why? Why are you doing this? This is what you want isn't it? For me to look like this?"
Tenzin paused in his ministrations for a moment to gaze at Lin with a frown. "I thought you knew me better than that by now," he said, while returning to his previous work of cleaning her face. "All I want is to marry you, and none of the rest of it matters. I guess I just got so swept up in the excitement that I didn't stop to ask if you were okay with this. I don't expect you to be somebody you're not, Lin - I wouldn't be marrying you if I did. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and if that means you're going to walk down the aisle barefoot, then so be it."
Finished, he dropped the cloth into the sink and focused his eyes on her once more, and this time he did not look away for quite some time. There was a war going on inside Lin's head, but it didn't take her long to shove it aside this time. Suddenly running away sounded like the absolute worst idea. And as her love for Tenzin rushed through her at his recent declaration and actions, she reached out and grabbed the front of his fancy robes and yanked him towards her, tilting her head up slightly so that their lips could meet in a frenzied and passionate kiss.
When they pulled apart, Lin suddenly felt unbelievably embarrassed. She'd been acting so foolish this past year, letting everyone else plan the wedding around her and simply fading into the background with annoyed grumbles. She didn't bother to argue because she'd thought that's what she was supposed to be doing, thought the only way Tenzin would marry her would be if she went along with all of it. Yet that had not been the case at all, and instead of talking to him about it, she'd waited until twenty minutes before she was supposed to be walking down the aisle to start throwing a tantrum.
Oh well, what was done was done, and now at least she wouldn't have to walk out there feeling like a stranger, and she could still marry Tenzin without looking so very much unlike herself.
"Sorry," Lin muttered, not quite looking Tenzin in the eye.
"Do you feel better now?" he asked her. She nodded. "Good, so, do you still want to get married then?"
The bit of fear and desperate hope she heard in his voice was enough to make her finally catch his gaze as she gripped both his hands in hers and responded, "Yeah, let's get married, shall we?"
She smirked up at him, and he grinned, pulling her into a tight embrace and twirling around for a moment before setting her back down on her feet.
"I can't wait," he said, kissing her on the forehead and then hurrying towards the door. Lin followed him halfway, and he turned back to look at her before stepping out into the hallway. "I'll see you out there?"
Lin nodded in agreement. "I'm not running off."
With one last smile in her direction, Tenzin slipped out of the room, leaving Lin alone once more. This time, she was not so distressed, feeling a lot better actually as she examined her refined appearance in the mirror. She certainly wasn't going to be the bride everyone was expecting, but she was perfectly content with that.
Things started up rather quickly after that, and though some nervousness returned, Lin was much surer of herself as she began the walk down the aisle. Even though the decorations were much more frilly and extravagant than she would have liked, Lin found that she didn't even notice much of her surroundings, her attention being focused solely on Tenzin standing there grinning at her like a fool - she drew the line, though, when she saw tears shining in his eyes, and discretely whispered a threat to slap him if he didn't pull himself together. She was also very happy with the fact that she'd at least managed to talk Tenzin into a very small ceremony, with only close friends and family in attendance. And by the time Lin and Tenzin were pronounced husband and wife, Lin was sure that - had she been the type of little girl to dream of marriage - this would have been the wedding she'd have hoped for.
Lin couldn't honestly keep a small smile from her face for the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening. She never would have thought that getting married would have turned out to be so...exciting? No, that wasn't really the right word. Nevertheless, she was rather pleased with the way things were turning out. After all, who didn't love a party full of alcohol and great food with your closest friends and family on an island no one else was permitted on for the day? Not to mention the whole honeymoon afterwards, which Lin was convinced was just an excuse for people to take off work for a few days to go on an adventure with their spouse and spend most of their time in bed – not that she was complaining.
Surprisingly, Lin felt no different now that she was officially married to Tenzin. Part of her had expected the world to suddenly come to an end at the mere thought of Lin Beifong going through the entire wedding process with someone, especially considering her agreement to start trying to have children in a year. But no such catastrophes happened, and even more astonishing, everything seemed to be turning out great. Marrying Tenzin did turn out to be a lot better than she originally thought it would - so far anyway - but the thought of children still made her nauseous. She kept those thoughts to herself though. There was no need to have Tenzin thrown into a tizzy just because she voiced a few concerns. Besides, she had a whole year before she really had to start worrying about all that, and for now she'd simply get used to being a married woman, which was strange enough in and of itself.
A full year seemed to fly by far quicker than Lin could have ever expected, and though Tenzin did not immediately point out this passage of time, Lin instantly began to feel trepidation stirring within her, the thought of having children seemingly just as overwhelming as it had been before. It put a serious wedge in her relationship with Tenzin, who, at first, was completely baffled as to why his wife suddenly had no interest in touching him, or even being around him much at all. For a while he struggled with the fear that Lin would soon leave him, and only after spending nearly all his time trying to figure out a way to fix the rift between them did he finally realize why she suddenly shied away from him. With this new bit of enlightenment, Tenzin was quick to assure his wife that he was in absolutely no rush to force her into having children, despite their earlier agreement of a year, and insisted that they just let it happen naturally. Though not completely reassured, Lin did manage to calm herself enough to go back to enjoying her marriage.
After a second year with the absence of pressure to have a child, Lin found herself warming to the idea...slightly. It was only after a rather dramatic false alarm – during which Tenzin's whole family erupted with excitement before anything could even be confirmed – that she began to consider that having a child was not quite as awful a thought as she had previously believed. She was still a bit irritated by the prospect of taking time off of work in order to have children, but she supposed it would be worth it in the end. After all, Tenzin would be happy, his family would be happy, and if her mother could have a child and raise it virtually on her own while still managing to run a school and remain Chief of Police, then surely Lin would have no problems, what with Tenzin practically offering to be a stay at home father most of the time. Not to mention, the thought of creating a life with Tenzin and helping it to grow and learn to bend Earth or Air was a rather nice thought, one she kept to herself.
Lin and Tenzin were able to learn more about the difficulties of raising children on the couple of days they spent caring for Kya and Kole's three children - Koda, Ashok, and Akira - while the two Master Waterbenders were away on Water Tribe business. And though Lin and Tenzin were both exhausted by the time Kya and Kole returned, they had both still managed to bond with their young niece and nephews, and were a bit dismayed to see them return to the Southern Water Tribe. It was soon after this that the two of them began to try having a baby of their own.
Unfortunately, becoming pregnant did not turn out to be quite as easy for Lin as it had been for Kya. Perhaps it had to do with the stress of her job, or maybe they were simply expecting too much too soon. Whatever the reason, another year passed with no success in the baby-making department.
As it were, the issue was not at the forefront of her mind for very long, as tragedy soon struck once again.
Chapter Text
Chapter 11
He came out of nowhere.
From out of the sky.
From somewhere he could not have been detected by seismic sense.
The sword he held in his hand was meant forher, but his feet struck the ground first.
Toph wrenched Lin out of the way and encased the attacker's legs in rock, but the blade still went straight through Toph's chest.
"NO!" Lin screamed, the sound of her own voice foreign to her ears as she caught her mother's crumpling form. She staggered backwards, carefully lowering herself and Toph to the ground, terror engulfing her and seizing her heart and mind, so that she could think of nothing beyond her mother's pained expression.
Toph's milky-green eyes were wide and facing towards the sky, her chest heaving as she fought for breath, blood gushing from the wound there with every exhalation.
"Beifong!" a voice called out from behind. "What the hell –?"
Lin whirled her head around and shouted at the now stunned officer, "GET A HEALER OUT HERE! NOW! "
"D – don't bother…kid," Toph wheezed, and Lin clenched her mother's hand tightly within her own. "I'll be g – gone before they get h – here."
"No," said Lin, shaking her head disbelievingly, her heart clenching painfully in her chest as she too fought for breath, but for an entirely different reason. "No, you're going to be fine, Mother, just stay with me, just a moment longer –"
"Forget it, Lin," Toph breathed, forcing her words out quickly, only to choke and splutter the next moment, blood spraying out of her mouth. "Your old mom ju - just got her a - ass kicked." Toph seemed to attempt to smirk, but it was more of a grimace.
Lin could feel tears building up behind her eyes, creating a pressure rather like a dam that was about to burst, and she choked on a sob, jerking her head away from her mother and looking back at the officers now surrounding them to demand, "Where's the damn healer?! What are you all just standing there for?!"
"Lin," Toph choked, reaching a bloodied hand up to touch her daughter's face one last time.
"Mom," Lin whispered, tears now flowing freely down her cheeks. "Please…"
"I l –l – love…y –" Toph drew in one last ragged breath, her whole body shuddering just before she became very still, her hand on Lin's cheek dropping to the ground and the faint vibrations of her heartbeat vanishing altogether.
Lin stared at her mother's limp form in open-mouthed shock, the tears coming to a sudden halt. She slowly lifted her head, seeing the solemn faces of her fellow officers standing around her. And then there was the face of the man still stuck to the ground and struggling to free himself, the man who had murdered Lin's mother.
Lin heaved in a breath of air, and it was like inhaling fire, her stunned body igniting as rage consumed her, a feral roar tearing from her throat as she clenched her fist and brought it down upon the ground hard enough to break bones. Yet she did not injure herself, because the Earth was still faithful to her, even though it had not protected her mother from death. And as the Earth suddenly seemed to drop beneath the three of them, the ground holding the murderer in place crumbled around him. Upon being set free and finding his feet, the criminal tried to run, only to find himself stuck within a crater with only Lin and her, now deceased mother, the rest of the Metalbending police force scrambling to their feet from above. And if any of the officers got up and looked down into the crater in time to see Lin Beifong strangling the Chief's murderer with her own metal cables…well, then they just looked the other way.
It was late in the evening, yet Lin had not returned home from work.
She had called a few hours earlier to briefly and hurriedly say that she would be late, but had not given an explanation. Somewhat concerned, Tenzin had trekked across the Island to have dinner with his parents, hoping that spending time with them would keep his mind off of Lin. He was not entirely successful, nor was he unsuccessful either. His parents, at least, were a slight distraction, and stayed awake with him to await Lin's return.
Unfortunately, the dreaded phone call came first, ringing loudly and ominously in the sudden silence and causing Tenzin's chest to seize up in panic.
That damn phone call, in the middle of the night - the one Tenzin had never fooled himself into believing he was prepared for, and which left him frozen in his seat, staring off into the distance with an expression of pure terror and his heart thumping loudly in his chest.
Katara jerked upright suddenly, as she had been dozing off just moments earlier. She too seemed frozen in place, so that Aang was the first to rise and rush into the room where the phone was kept.
Tenzin and Katara were on their feet an instant later, hurrying after Aang and coming to a halt just in front of him, each of them awaiting news they were not sure they wanted to hear.
Aang was facing away from his wife and son as he spoke with whoever was on the other end of the line, and Tenzin had missed most of the conversation, only catching his father's solemn, "Yes, I'll let him know, we'll be there soon…" just before he hung up the phone.
Then, Aang turned – agonizingly slowly – to face Tenzin and Katara, who both stared back at him anxiously. The devastated expression on Aang's face spoke volumes, yet the ensuing silence brought only a thousand and one questions that Tenzin could not ask all at once.
All he managed to choke out was, "Lin…?"
Aang sucked in a deep breath of air, and then his shoulders sagged as he turned his eyes onto his wife and said, "It's Toph."
Katara gasped, a hand flying up to cover her mouth and tears filling her eyes as her husband's grave words sunk in.
Tenzin was not at all relieved to hear this. He shook his head in disbelief, his brow furrowed and his voice heavy with emotion as he said, "Toph…she's…gone?"
Aang nodded slowly, keeping eye contact with Tenzin now, but reaching out to pull Katara into his embrace. Then, in a low voice, he said, "Lin…she needs you."
Having gone slack with grief, Tenzin instantly straightened, voice hardened as he realized what this meant. "She was there?"
"And apparently has no intentions of leaving," Aang confirmed, clutching Katara tighter to him, as if afraid to let her go. "It was one of her officers that called. They asked for you, said they can't get her to move away from…" he hesitated, a heavy breath of air expelling from his lungs, "…from her mother."
Tenzin opened his mouth, but Katara spoke first, pulling out of Aang's embrace and wiping tears from her face with trembling hands, "We have to go then."
Aang and Tenzin exchanged a glance, but neither of them argued.
"We'll take Appa," said Aang, his voice sturdy, but his posture belying his trepidation at going to the place where he'd find his murdered friend.
Tenzin could easily see a change in both his parents, and he was sure he was doing no better at hiding his own surprise and distress at Toph's sudden, unexpected death. He could not imagine how Lin was coping, and that thought only spurred him on, moving rapidly towards Appa in an effort to reach his wife's side more quickly.
It wasn't until Appa landed amongst a scene of chaos that it really hit Tenzin. Throughout the entire flight to the City, he had been thinking only of reaching Lin, of taking care of Lin, knowing that she needed him desperately now. Yet when he looked out at the disaster area before him, he found it difficult to breathe let alone move in Lin's direction. The entire street was a mess; water spouting from damaged, underground pipes; the ground ripped apart; homes toppled. A large battle had taken place here, that much was certain. And in the midst of all the ruin, a few police officers stood at the edge of a large crater, inside of which was Lin and Toph. One officer seemed to be trying to coax Lin from the hole, but she remained within, unmoving, her head bowed and her mother's head cradled in her lap.
To see it now, to be certain that Toph Beifong was gone, Tenzin found himself momentarily paralyzed, too many emotions warring within him. Yet when his mother gripped his arm and gestured wordlessly for him to move off of Appa, he knew what he must do. He put aside his own sorrows in order to focus on Lin.
Aang was already stood a few feet from the crater, his fists clenched and his body tense. He did not look up when Tenzin passed him, and he only moved slightly when Katara leaned against him, wrapping his arms around her and laying his cheek atop her head as they sought comfort in one another.
Once he had floated down into the pit, Tenzin was better able to survey the area. It was then he noticed that Lin and her mother were not alone in their crater, but that there was another man lying a few yards behind Lin. He was not moving though, his eyes wide and unseeing and metal cables wrapped tightly around his throat. Toph's eyes were closed and her body relaxed instead of contorted as the dead man's was, and if it weren't for the gaping wound in her torso and the pool of blood beneath her, it may have looked as if she was simply sleeping.
As Tenzin edged closer to the gruesome scene, Lin did not move once, nor give any indication that she was aware of his presence. Even when he kneeled at her side and quietly spoke her name, not one muscle twitched. Her gaze was focused solely on her mother. Reaching out slowly and deliberately, Tenzin gently gripped her chin between his thumb and forefinger, tilting her head up so that, at last, her gaze locked onto his. There were tear stains on her face, but her eyes were currently dry. Yet those once bright emerald orbs of hers were now dim and fraught with so much pain and sorrow that Tenzin wanted to look away. There were three thin streaks of blood down her left cheek, but she appeared to have sustained no injury, leading Tenzin to believe they had been left there by Toph's own bloodied hand. Whether or not Lin had been injured elsewhere, Tenzin could not determine when she remained covered in her mother's blood.
"Lin?" Tenzin repeated after some time, stroking some frazzled hair back from her face and keeping eye-contact.
"Tenzin?" she whispered in reply, her voice cracking.
"Yes, Lin," he murmured, "I'm here." He leaned forward then to place a short kiss on her forehead in the hopes of offering comfort, and when he sat back to look at Lin once more, something in her gaze had changed. While she had once seemed in a sort of trance, now she had hardened into steel, her entire countenance changing in an instant.
Dropping her gaze, Lin slipped her arms under Toph's limp body and rose to her feet, carrying her mother's lifeless form over to the edge of the canyon. Somewhat startled, Tenzin stumbled after her, floating up out of the pit after Lin had risen on a slab of rock and stepped out onto the crumbling street.
Lin paused for a moment then, and Tenzin returned to her side, reaching out his arms towards Toph as he offered, "Here, Lin, let me –"
"No," she instantly refused, "I can handle it."
Tenzin's arms dropped back down to his sides as Lin turned and walked away from him, and he followed her over to where a vehicle waited to take Toph's body. When Lin drew nearer to the transport, the healers and officers surged forward as if about to crowd around her, but Tenzin quickly waved them off, ushering people away as Lin carefully placed her mother's body upon a gurney. He kept his back turned from her for a few moments, allowing Lin a brief period of time alone with her mother. He waited until he heard her ordering the healers to load the gurney into the back of the vehicle before facing her once more. She didn't spare him a glance, but walked right on past him and over to one of her superior officers – if he could even be considered that.
Tenzin followed, but missed the first half of their conversation, the first thing he heard being, "– everything is under control here. Go home, Lin, take some time off. I'll call you when we need your statement but I don't want you back at Headquarters for anything else –"
"Captain, I'm fine," Lin said through gritted teeth, looking and sounding rather agitated. "My time would be better spent –"
"At home," the Captain insisted, "with your family. I don't want to see you at work tomorrow, Commander, and that's an order."
"Apologies, Captain," Lin seethed, her fists clenching and her posture stiffening, "but I do not agree with your orders and I believe it is mydecision to –"
"Tell you what, Lin," the Captain interjected, raising a hand to stall further objections, "sleep on it, and if you can't bear to take a week off from work then come right in. Just remember that you have to meet with the shrink before you'll be allowed to return to the field, and don't look at me like that, it's a policy I can't change." The captain sighed heavily then, his expression softening as he reached out and placed a hand on Lin's shoulder. "I am so sorry, Lin, your mother will be sorely missed."
With that, the Captain pivoted on his heel and left. Tenzin, who had been observing Lin the entire time, noticed her cold exterior waver for just a moment when the Captain mentioned her mother, but in the next moment she had straightened up and turned stoic once more.
Suppressing a heavy sigh of his own, Tenzin wrapped a hand around Lin's bicep and leaned down to murmur close to her ear, "Come, Lin, let's go home."
Lin did not respond, but she did not protest either, allowing Tenzin to lead her over to Appa and lift her onto his saddle. His parents had not returned yet, and so the two of them waited there, both of them silent and Tenzin's arm holding her against him. Lin remained stiff in his embrace, but did not pull away.
Eventually, Aang and Katara clambered up onto Appa without any words of their own, and together the four of them returned to Air Temple Island.
None of them spoke until after they had all huddled together in Aang and Katara's sitting room with their own cups of tea, Lin being the one to break the silence by asking, "Did anyone tell Sokka? What about Kya and Bumi?"
"Yes, dear, it's all taken care of," Katara said reassuringly, reaching across Tenzin to grip Lin's hand. "Sokka was there, he said he'll come by in the morning; and we sent word to Kya and Bumi." Katara hesitated before continuing in an even quieter voice. "We, um, we weren't sure how to find Suyin… but Sokka said he knew how to get in contact with her."
Lin nodded in understanding, not even acknowledging the part about her sister, dropping her gaze back to the untouched tea in her hands. It was then that she suddenly realized she hadn't cleaned herself up yet, and that her skin was still stained red. Everyone else seemed to notice then too, as if they were all suddenly waking up from a comatose state all at once. Lin jerked suddenly to her feet, the teacup in her hands falling from her grip and shattering into a thousand pieces, the dark-colored tea creating a small puddle at her feet.
Katara, Aang, and Tenzin all lurched to their feet in surprise, and Lin quickly began to apologize, "I'm so sorry, I'll clean it up…"
She began to kneel down as if to clean it with her bare hands, but Katara stepped over to her and bent down to grab onto Lin's wrist. "That's all right," Katara insisted. "I'll take care of it, Lin…"
Looking a bit unstable, Lin stood upright once more, flickering her gaze around at the other occupants of the room before stammering out, "I should go get cleaned up." And then she fled from the house, Tenzin following closely behind.
When Lin stumbled through the door of she and Tenzin's home, she went straight towards the bathroom, stripping off her armor and under clothes quickly, leaving them in a pile in the middle of the room. As she began to run the water for her bath, Tenzin reached down to begin gathering up her bloodied clothes and uniform.
"I'll clean this stuff up for you," he told her, only to suddenly have her grab onto his wrist to stop him.
"No, I'll do it," she insisted.
"Really, Lin, I can manage –"
"I said, I'll do it," she hissed, yanking her things from his grasp and throwing them back onto the floor.
Tenzin sighed, taking hold of Lin's upper arms to gain her attention as he said, "Please, Lin, let me help you."
"There's nothing to help me with," she muttered, wrenching herself from his grasp and crawling into the bathtub.
Feeling useless and a bit dejected, but not at all surprised by his wife's behavior, Tenzin went into their bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed, giving Lin some space, but remaining close enough to hear and see her in case she decided she needed him. He doubted she'd even admit it if she did though. She was retreating inside of herself, and Tenzin wondered if she'd ever be the same again.
The night of Toph's death was a horrible, horriblenight.
But the funeral was worse.
Many citizens of Republic City filled the streets as if in a sort of depressing parade to honor their lost Chief of Police and City-Founder; women cried and men drank, and the front steps of Police Headquarters were covered in flowers, so that it looked more like a garden than anything. People from all around the world flocked to the City throughout the week to join in mourning of such a well-known and beloved hero, and a statue of Toph was erected on the outside of Headquarters almost immediately. The newspapers spoke of little else, and neither Lin nor the Avatar and his family could enter the City without being accosted by strangers wishing to convey condolences. While there had been a public sort of ceremony for Toph a week after her death, the actual funeral was a private affair taking place on the outskirts of the Southern Water Tribe.
Lin was practically bedridden for three days, her hardened shell having cracked the morning after her mother's death and leaving her in a lost, desolate state of grief. She didn't shed any tears, but rather, kept her emotions bottled up within herself, so that Tenzin worried fretfully over her health. She didn't break down until the night of the funeral, and Tenzin had stayed awake and held her close the entire night while she sobbed and screamed and cursed in despair. Afterwards, she seemed to return to her former self, yet less so, as if a part of her was missing, and though Tenzin could understand why, he vowed to himself that he would make Lin whole again if it was the last thing he did.
Sokka and Aang turned out to be worse off than Katara, who had likely pulled herself together as Tenzin had so that she could care for her husband and brother. In fact, besides Tenzin and Lin, the men in Toph's life seemed more distraught than anyone else. Kya was emotional but composed, whereas Bumi had been an absolute wreck. Fire Lord Zuko had not been much better off either when he arrived, though his calm and collected daughter – Izumi – was a comforting presence to have at his side.
Suyin showed up, alone but apparently with a ring on her finger according to Kya. Lin didn't even glance in her sister's direction, and made it clear to Tenzin that she wanted absolutely no contact with her. Ever the doting husband, Tenzin made sure his wife's wishes were carried out, informing his family that they were not to let Suyin near Lin, and acting as a human shield for his wife on the one occasion that Su attempted to reach out to her sister. Tenzin had felt some sorrow at the pained look on Suyin's face, but his duty was to his wife, and trying to coax her into reconciling with her estranged sister on the day of their mother's funeral was a recipe for disaster.
After the funeral, Lin, Zuko and his family, and the Avatar and his family returned to Air Temple Island together, while Suyin returned to wherever was home for her. They stayed there for the rest of the evening, reminiscing and seeking solace in one another. The next afternoon, everyone prepared for their departure, intending to return to their homes and their jobs, their hearts heavy but their minds slightly more at ease.
Just before boarding the ships, Zuko had one last discussion with Aang and Katara, while Bumi dragged Tenzin into a conversation with he and Sokka and Kya's husband Kole. Kya and Izumi were saying a tearful goodbye to one another, while Izumi's one year old daughter, Ursa, slept peacefully in her mother's arms. Having already said farewell to her family and friends, Lin had slightly removed herself from the group, preferring to stand and watch from a distance rather than get sucked into anymore formalities. She loved her friends and her family, but she couldn't bear another tearful embrace, or someone apologizing to her "for her loss," or looking at her like she was liable to have a mental breakdown at any moment. And she was sure to get more of that when she returned to the City the following day.
While all of the adults seemed to understand this and left Lin to her momentary solitude, the children were not quite so understanding, and sought her out once more before they were to leave.
Izumi's son, Iroh, who was now eight years old – the same age as Kya's eldest son, Koda – led the small group of four over to where Lin was standing. They each had their hands behind their backs, looking slightly mischievous and possibly a bit shy, which was rather uncharacteristic, considering Lin knew them to be far too brazen for their own good.
As the children came to a halt in front of her, Lin smirked, folding her arms across her chest and raising a brow in question. "What's all this?" she asked, eyeing them suspiciously. "Shouldn't the four of you be getting ready to go home?"
"We wanted to give you something first," said Iroh, looking quite serious, whereas Kya's children were grinning broadly, "to make you feel better."
Before Lin could think of a response, Akira – Kya's three year old daughter – giggled and thrust a fistful of flowers in Lin's direction. Suppressing a laugh at the state of the flowers, which were bent and slightly mangled, Lin knelt down to accept Akira's gift. She was once again unable to speak before Ashok – Akira's six year old brother – stepped in front of her to present Lin with a rather large rock.
"I found the biggest rock I could, Auntie Lin," said Ashok, smiling delightedly.
"And I got you some dirt!" Koda exclaimed. And indeed, his hands were filled with dirt, seeping through the cracks in his fingers, so that Lin was unsure of how to accept. "'Cos Aunt Toph liked dirt a lot, didn't she?"
Lin couldn't help it. She laughed, the first genuine laugh she'd had in weeks. Then, with a twitch of her fingers, she transformed the rock Ashok had given her into the shape of a bowl, holding it out for Koda to place the dirt inside. She then carefully positioned the flowers to stand in the dirt-filled rock-bowl and returned her gaze to Iroh and her niece and nephews.
"Thanks, kids, I appreciate the gifts," she said, still highly amused and silently wondering what she was going to do with said gifts.
"I've got one too," Iroh interjected, holding what appeared to be a metal coin twisted into the shape of a miniature ship in front of Lin's face. "Your Momma made it for me."
"Well if she made it for you then why do you want to give it to me?" asked Lin, genuinely confused by the boy's gesture.
"So it'll help you remember her," Iroh explained confidently.
Lin's eyebrows raised in understanding. She reached out, wrapping her fingers around the small boy's hand and closing her fist around the object he held, but she did not take it from him. Instead she said, "You know what, kid, I think you'll need this more than me. Why don't you keep it, so you can tell your baby sister about the greatest earthbender that ever lived, and if I ever start to forget, I'll come visit you and you can help remind me? How's that sound?"
Iroh smiled, looking slightly relieved that he got to keep his modified coin, and lurched forward to wrap his arms around Lin's neck. Unprepared for the sudden hug, she fell back slightly, catching herself just in time for Koda, Ashok, and Akira to lunge at her as well, so that the five of them all fell to the ground, the children giggling and peppering Lin's face with kisses. Then, as suddenly as their attack had come, they all jumped up and ran off, back to where their parents waited, calling over their shoulders, "Bye Auntie Lin!"
Sighing and chuckling a bit to herself, Lin remained where she was for a few moments, sprawled out on the grass, her gaze focused on the sky above but her senses taking in everything else around her. She couldn't quite figure it out at first, what had changed her mood so drastically, but then it had dawned on her – the children. They had brightened her mood, if only for a few moments, and even though she could feel it darkening again, felt that crushing weight creeping back around her heart and that empty void threatening to shroud her in misery, that little spark of happiness didn't extinguish itself quite so quickly. It was like the only glimmer of light in a dark, endless tunnel, giving her hope that she wouldn't always feel quite so empty. She was sure her mother's death would weigh heavily on her heart and mind for some time to come, but eventually, she would come to terms with it, like she did with everything else, this would just be something that took more time. And hopefully, maybe, sometime soon, she and Tenzin would finally start a family of their own. Having children had never been one of Lin's desires in life – everything that went into it just seemed far too daunting a task with little reward – but marriage had never been at the forefront of her mind either, yet she'd changed her opinion on that, as she was with the concept of children. And if her niece and nephews and little Iroh could make her feel better when she was at her worst, then surely her own children would brighten her days as well, and that tiny little hope helped her to forget all the possible downfalls she'd associated with having children.
Lin was shaken from her thoughts then, as Tenzin's form suddenly loomed over her. She reached up to take the hand he proffered her, and allowed him to pull her up onto her feet.
"They're leaving," said Tenzin, tilting his head in the direction of the nearby docks.
Lin nodded, watching as the boats began to depart, their occupants still waving goodbye to Aang, Katara and Sokka. "The kids gave me some gifts," she said, holding it up for Tenzin to see. He, too, chuckled at the sight of it. "It's to remind me of my mother."
"That was thoughtful of them," said Tenzin, draping his arm over her shoulders as they both watched the ships leaving.
Lin sucked in a deep breath, expelling the air from her lungs a moment later as she said, "I want that, y'know?"
"Want what?" asked Tenzin, looking down at her with furrowed brows.
"A family," said Lin, looking up at her husband to await his reaction.
Tenzin smiled softly, placing a kiss on her forehead and murmuring, "We'll have one, Lin. I promise."
Chapter Text
Chapter 12
After Toph's death, months passed by in a blur. For a while, Lin no longer felt like she had full control over her own body, as if she was simply a puppet being made to go through the motions of her life, her entire persona more stoic and unwavering than ever. Despite this, her job suddenly seemed exponentially harder, every murder or dangerous situation a reminder of the loss she'd suffered. It took quite some time for her to recover and heal and come out stronger on the other side, and even afterwards that extra shell of protection that she'd produced to hide her feelings of grief did not go away. In the end, though, she considered it a good thing, because it enabled her to rise swiftly through the ranks of the Metalbending Police Force and take her mother's place as Chief of Police. While this was a welcome title that she'd been reaching for throughout the majority of her life, it also added quite a lot more stress and consumed much of her time. She often didn't make it home until after Tenzin had already fallen asleep, and would return to work early the next morning without even having breakfast with him. There was an obvious strain put on their marriage, but it was nothing they couldn't handle, and they simply made sure to make the most of their limited time together – though they had put a slight hold on the attempted baby-making, which was more Lin's decision than Tenzin's, but he wasn't given much opportunity to argue.
Due to her frequent absence from Air Temple Island and her focus being dedicated mostly to her duty as Chief, Lin failed to notice Avatar Aang slowly growing more and more ill every day, so that when Sokka suddenly called her in the middle of work to tell her that she needed to return home immediately, she had been completely caught off guard. Sokka had met her at the docks, and quickly explained his fears that Aang's time was near. It was then Lin realized just how distant she'd become in the past year. She had not even known Bumi and Kya had been on the Island for a full day and a half now, and if she had been given any reason to believe Aang was ill over the past few months, she had simply chalked it up to him still coping with Toph's death and perhaps a virus he was having trouble getting rid of. She wondered if Tenzin had expressed his concerns to her and she had simply ignored him, or if he had decided to keep it to himself. Had she even seen him at all the previous day? She didn't remember him being in bed, but she'd been so exhausted that she fell asleep almost instantly, assuming he was just working late. According to Sokka, they'd all been in Aang and Katara's home all night.
And when Lin stepped into the Avatar's sitting room, and looked around at all the somber faces of her family, she felt as if she was not even worthy to be among them anymore. How could she have been so blind? How could she have missed something so important going on, on the very same island that she lived on? Why had she not been there for Tenzin when he had been there for her throughout almost every hardship she'd ever had to face? She was disgusted with herself, and was sure for a moment that she would be unwelcome. But then she was surprised, again, to have Kya and Bumi go to her almost immediately, embracing her tightly and expressing their gratitude for her leaving work to be there with them, as if this was not the place where she was most needed. It only made her feel monumentally worse, especially when Tenzin remained in his seat, staring off into the distance and not even acknowledging his wife's presence.
At first, Lin considered giving Tenzin his space, but ultimately she decided to go to him instead, sitting close to him on the couch and reaching out to lace her fingers through his, the only gesture of comfort she could think to give him at the moment.
However, Tenzin did not return the grasp, continued to avoid Lin's gaze, and a moment later – when Sokka announced he'd make some more tea – lurched to his feet, breaking contact with Lin and hurrying into the kitchen to insist on helping Sokka.
Lin's utter shock and bewilderment must have shown on her face, because Kya was quick to reassure her, "Don't take it personally, Lin, he's been like that all day."
Still focused on Tenzin's retreating form, Lin didn't catch Kya's words at first. "What? Oh…right, yes, of course. No I understand…" Then, quickly changing the subject to divert the attention from herself, "Are Kole and the kids here?"
Kya shook her head. "They left this morning, I didn't want the kids to be here when…if he…" She trailed off, obviously too distraught to continue, bowing her head and blinking rapidly.
Lin shifted uncomfortably in her seat, while Bumi reached over to rub his sister's back comfortingly.
"I'm sorry I wasn't here when you all arrived last night," said Lin, eager to discuss something, anything else.
Kya was still trying to compose herself, so Bumi responded, "That's all right, you were working."
Lin frowned slightly. Why did they all think that was so much more important to her? Did they not realize that Aang had been just as much a father to her as he had been to them? "Still, I should have been here –"
"Oh, don't worry about it," said Kya, sniffling and waving a dismissive hand. "You're here now. How long can you stay?"
"I took the whole day off," Lin replied.
"Will everything be all right while you're gone?" asked Kya, sounding concerned.
"Of course, I've left capable men in charge and they know where I am if they need me, but they're under strict orders not to bother me unless it's absolutely necessary."
Katara entered the room then, looking as if she hadn't slept in days, her eyes darkened by sorrow and her shoulder slumped as if they held the weight of the world. Her hair seemed to have turned white overnight – another thing Lin must have missed – and her face was more wrinkled than ever before. She flashed a small smile at the occupants of the room, but it was forced. "Just coming out to get some more water," she said. "Your father's sleeping again." Her gaze fell on her daughter-in-law. "Lin, it's good of you to be here, Aang will want to see you when he wakes up. I hope it wasn't too much trouble for you to leave work."
"Of course not," said Lin, rising to her feet to go stand before Katara, taking the older woman's hands in her own. "Right here is the only place I want to be, and I'm sorry that I haven't been around much lately. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Smiling sadly at Lin, Katara shook her head, reaching up to place a cool hand on her daughter-in-law's cheek. "No, dear, just being here is enough." She glanced around the room quickly, lowering her voice as she added, "Just…take care of Tenzin for me, please?"
"Of course," Lin breathed, not immediately looking up at the man they spoke of when he reentered the room.
"Thank you," Katara whispered.
And then she turned away to address her son when he asked, "Mother? Did you need something? Sokka and I made tea –?"
Lin accepted a cup of tea from Sokka, and then the two of them stood just a few feet away as Katara spoke to her three children. Afterwards, Katara walked back to her and Aang's room, Kya and Bumi returned to their seats, and Tenzin glanced at Lin once before stalking off to the kitchen. Confused, Lin followed her husband, and found him standing before the sink, his arms folded across his chest and a scowl on his face.
"I didn't think you'd come," he said to her.
Furrowing her brow, Lin carefully responded, "Why wouldn't I?"
"Well you haven't exactly been around much lately," Tenzin pointed out, rather unkindly.
"Is that why you didn't tell me about all this?" Lin asked, doing her best to stomp on the anger bubbling up within her.
Tenzin shrugged. "Quite frankly, I didn't think you'd care."
Lin's eye twitched. "Are you forgetting that Aang is just as much a father to me as he is to you? I may have been distant lately, but –"
"Distant?!" Tenzin exclaimed. "Really? Because to be emotionally "distant" would require you to actually be around enough for a person to notice a change in your behavior."
Lin clenched her teeth, slowly expelling a breath of air from her lungs in a fleeting effort to remain unaffected by her husband's words. "Look, Tenzin, I know you're upset –"
"Do you?" he interrupted. "It's a wonder you remember anything about me."
"I'm just trying to help," she said through gritted teeth, quickly losing her ongoing battle with her temper.
"Oh, now you want to help, do you? Well thank you so much, Chief, but we've got everything under control here –"
"I've had just about enough of your cheek, Tenzin!" Lin burst out, her fists clenching and her eyes narrowing. "I didn't come here to be insulted –"
"Then why did you come, Lin?" Tenzin shot back at her. "Why now? After all these months you've spent pretending I don't even exist? Did you even notice that anything was different, or did you just not care? Is this your way of telling me you regret our marriage?"
"What? No –"
"Because if it is," he powered on as if she had not even spoken, "then why have you been leading me on all this time? Why did you have me marry you and promise me children if you were just going to take it all away later?"
"I told you," Lin seethed, "I just needed some time, and in case you've forgotten, we were trying for a baby for over a year, and the only reason we put it on hold was because I couldn't possibly have a child right now! My mother was murdered right before my eyes less than a year ago, and now I'm the newly appointed Chief of Police –"
"And I gave you your space and your time, but now here we are, almost a full year later, and you don't appear to have any intentions of starting a family anytime soon –"
"Because we aren't ready! Can't you see that?! Could you imagine us bringing a child into the world right now? Could you imagine having to care for a baby when we can't even manage to properly take care of ourselves?"
"The thing is, Lin, I don't think you'll ever be ready," said Tenzin, his voice low and his expression full of rage and sorrow.
Lin rolled her eyes, letting out an exasperated sigh. "I don't know what you want from me. Nothing I'm doing is good enough, so tell me, Tenzin, what is it you want? You really want me to be pregnant right at this moment? You want to conceive our child when neither of us is happy? Well go on then. Do it. Fuck me on your parents' kitchen table for all care –"
"What I want," he interjected, giving her a scathing look, "is for you to want this as much as I do. What I want is for my wife to choose to spend time with me and have a family with me because you want to, not because you think you have to in order to please me."
"And what on Earth makes you think I'd do all this just to please you? I've got a mind of my own, Tenzin, and I certainly wouldn't go to all this trouble with anyone else – and don't try and twist that around either. I know I'm hardly ever home, and I'm sorry for that, but there are things that need to be dealt with. I will not have children until I'm sure I can protect them to the best of my abilities."
"And what if that day never comes?" Tenzin demanded.
Lin scowled, sighing heavily and pinching the bridge of her nose in irritation. "Aren't you the one always telling me that everything will work itself out? That as long as we have each other then our love is all that matters?"
"Yes, but sometimes I think you love your job more than you love me," Tenzin spat.
Lin spluttered, "Well that's just –"
"Er – sorry…" Lin and Tenzin whirled around to face the doorway, where Kya now stood, looking rather uncomfortable. "One of your officers called, Lin. They said they need you at Headquarters…that it's urgent."
Lin practically growled in frustration, muttering a quick, "Thank you, Kya," before turning her attention back to Tenzin.
"You should go," he said, leaning back against the sink and looking as if he couldn't care less.
"This isn't over," Lin told him, realizing then that she still had a cup of tea in her hands and slamming it down onto the table, lukewarm liquid sloshing up over her hand. "I'll be back."
Tenzin looked skeptical, but said nothing, and Lin rushed out the door, intent on finding out what was so damn "urgent" and dealing with it as quickly as possible.
As expected, the urgent call wasn't quite as urgent as Lin expected, and her officers got a proper dressing down for it too. Although, it may have just been Lin's foul mood that made her react so severely, because she had been waiting for months now to gather enough evidence to raid a particularly nasty dwelling in which many drug deals and prostitution had been taking place, and even though she would have preferred to go after the criminals a bit later, when she was calmer and in less of a distracted mood, she also knew those criminals needed to be stopped as soon as possible. After the raid, Lin stayed long enough to ensure everything was going as it should be, leaving most of the interrogations and the mountain of paper work for later so that she could return to Air Temple Island.
She had only been gone for an hour, but things had changed drastically since then. When she reentered the Avatar's sitting room, no one even glanced up at her this time, so consumed were they by their grief. At first, Lin thought the worst had happened while she'd been away, but after clutching Sokka's arm desperately, she was assured that Aang was still alive. His condition had worsened though, and it wouldn't be long before he had passed on.
Although the other occupants of the room didn't pay much attention to Lin's presence, Katara must have heard her come in, because soon after Lin arrived, the aging Waterbender had come to retrieve her, stating that Aang wanted to see her.
Entering the Avatar's room had been a very heart-wrenching moment, one Lin was sure she'd remember for the rest of her life. As with the night of her mother's death, she'd remember everything in startling detail. She'd remember how the setting sun peaked in through a gap in the curtains, setting Katara's white hair ablaze in wavering hues of orange and yellow, her form casting a shadow over the Avatar's frighteningly pale face. She'd remember nearly every word Aang spoke to her with what little was left of his breath, about how he'd always loved her as if she were one of his own, that she was just as good a police chief as her mother so she could relax and stop spending so much time at work, and that he knew she and Tenzin were having difficulties, but that he had faith they'd work it out – though she'd conveniently "forget" the part where she'd had to swipe away a few tears. But most importantly, she'd remember watching Aang breathe his last breath, before his tired gray eyes fluttered closed and his chest stopped moving.
Lin had stayed a few moments longer, gripping Katara's shoulder in a useless gesture of comfort before leaving the older woman to grieve. The worst part was having to tell the others, but they seemed to know as soon as she entered the sitting room. Sokka took a few moments to recover before immediately going to his sister's side, while Bumi held himself together for Kya, as she had done for him after Toph's death. Tenzin left the room rather hastily, so that by the time Lin had followed him outside, she couldn't find him by sight alone. Eventually, she found him hidden away in that secret cave of his, and though she had to use a different method of entering it than his usual Airbending, she instantly went to his side, both of them putting aside their differences as he sobbed against her and she held him close.
The weeks following Aang's death were far worse than it had been after Toph's, if that were even possible. With the Avatar gone, crime rate soared and people's hopes were shattered. Lin had never realized just how much Aang's presence had held the world together. And though Aang's death was certainly no less painful for her than her mother's had been, for some reason she felt as if she had more closure. Perhaps it had been that discussion she'd had with him just before he passed on that helped. She'd spoken to Toph a bit before she died, but not in the way Lin would have hoped, and so much had been left unsaid. Or maybe it was just the fact that Tenzin needed her to be strong, whereas last year she'd been expected to be the weak one.
Although Tenzin had not been coping well at first, he had received much comfort from Lin, a sort of silent comfort that worked out well, because then he didn't have to talk about his pain unless he expressed it to her on his own. Issues remained between them, issues which would need to be sorted through and discussed at some point, but for now they would grieve and seek comfort in one another's embrace.
It was about a month later that Lin finally said something pertaining to their argument. It was late at night, and she and Tenzin were in bed, both of them intending to sleep but only succeeding in staring up at the ceiling, lost in thought.
"You're wrong you know," Lin murmured, her voice so low Tenzin wasn't sure she had even spoken at first.
Then, confused, he mumbled back, "Wrong about what?"
"I don't love my job more than you," said Lin.
There was a long moment of silence, and then the sounds of Lin shifting around, so that she was turned on her side and staring over at her husband. "You don't really believe that, do you?"
Tenzin sighed, turning his head just enough to look at her out of the corner of his eye as he confessed, "Sometimes."
"Well…don't," said Lin, a bit forcefully.
"It's a part of you, Lin, I understand that –"
"Yes but that doesn't mean I love it. Honestly…sometimes I hate it."
Bewildered, Tenzin turned onto his side as well so that he could fully face Lin. "I don't understand…" he admitted.
Lin stared back at him in the dark. "That job took my mother from me, almost took you away from me. It's not love that keeps me there all hours of the night. Don't get me wrong, I want to help the people of the city, I want to bring justice to all those criminals out there, but that's not the only reason I became a police officer. I did it because it's my duty to do so. You have your father's legacy to uphold, and I have my mother's. I vowed to myself a long time ago that I'd keep this city safe and make sure it remained the place of freedom and prosperity that our parents hoped it to be. And…after a while…it became an escape as well, so that when home life got to be too difficult…I'd just work.
"Out of all the time I've spent there though…" she sighed, her eyes fluttering closed briefly. "The city is still in shambles, and it's even worse now that…" She didn't have to finish that sentence, they both felt the pangs of grief in their own hearts without the words being said. "I thought if I could fix it, make the city safer, put things back in order again, then I wouldn't feel so guilty for leaving for a few months to have a kid…but I don't think there's time for that. If I wait any longer…"
Again, she had no need to finish. Tenzin knew what she was trying to say. Knew that if they waited too long, she would be too old for children and he, being the last Airbender, would be required to leave her and find someone else to fall in love with and have children with, so that the Airbending race didn't die out with him. And if Lin and Tenzin were to part ways, Lin would be on her own, and the beautiful friendship they'd been building since birth would be ruined.
Lin opened her mouth to continue, but Tenzin silenced her by reaching out to pull her into his embrace, his arms wrapped tightly around her as he buried his face in her hair. It didn't need saying. He knew she was willing to have children now, and that was all that mattered at the moment. They would have a child, maybe two or three, and at least one of them would be an Airbender, and they would be a family, and they would be happy, and he would have no reason to divorce his best friend and the love of his life.
Or so he hoped.
Chapter Text
Chapter 13
Tenzin and Lin were sat within their kitchen, both of them silent.
The air around them was thick with tension, a tension which had been growing more and more oppressing as time passed. The only sounds within the room were the clinking of their utensils upon their plates and the ticking of a rather large clock. They sat across from one another, heads bowed and gazes focused on their dinner plates. Yet neither of them ate, choosing instead to push their food around on their plates.
Until suddenly Lin let out a cry of frustration, slamming her chopsticks down upon the table and looking over at her husband. "Enough of this," she growled.
Tenzin, feigning ignorance, lazily lifted his gaze and replied, "Is there a problem, Lin?"
"Cut the garbage, Tenzin!" Lin exclaimed, while lurching to her feet. "If I have to sit here in silence for one more night –"
"You'll what?" Tenzin calmly interjected, looking rather unfazed. "Throw me through the roof? Encase me in rock? Arrest me perhaps?" He sighed wearily, slowly rising to his feet and needlessly adjusting his robes. "We've been through this, Lin. If you have no desire to talk to me about our issues, then we have nothing to discuss."
"Oh, you want to talk?" Lin scathingly retorted. "You want to talk? Well then let's talk, Tenzin. Let's talk about the fact that I've spent the majority of the last thirteen months lying on my back. Let's talk about the fact that I'm thirty-four and you still haven't managed to knock me up. And let's talkabout how you went behind my back to try and get your mother to check me over while she was healing me one night to "ensure I was capable of carrying children." Are those the "issues" you wanted to discuss? Or did you maybe want to discuss the possibility that maybe I'm not the problem here, that maybe the problem is you!"
Tenzin scoffed, folding his arms across his chest and looking irritated. "You're the one that's always getting injured at work, I was simply looking out for you –"
"Oh spare me your delusions, Tenzin," Lin spat. "You were only looking out for yourself."
"If you would have agreed to my simple suggestion in the first place, then I wouldn't have had to go behind your back."
"Oh, your, "simple suggestion,"" Lin said, using air-quotes in a rather sarcastic manner. "More like your fucking ticket out of this marriage –"
"Lin," Tenzin warned.
"What, Tenzin? Don't act like that wasn't your intention. If I find out I can't carry children then you can just walk on out of our marriage without any feelings of guilt on your part! Because "the Airbending race is at stake, Lin,"" she mocked him.
"Enough of this," said Tenzin, his eyes narrowed and his fists clenched, anger bubbling up inside him as he strode around the table towards his wife. "You know that's not true, Lin. All I wanted was proof that there was nothing wrong with either of us, so that we could just relax and stop arguing, which is all we've done for the past six months at least!"
Lin snorted humorlessly. "Right, I'm sure that's what you wanted," she said, entirely unconvinced. "And what if you were wrong? Then what? What if I was incapable of having children?"
Tenzin sighed, visibly deflating and looking rather weary as he responded in a low voice, "Then at least we'd stop getting our hopes up."
While Tenzin seemed to be too dejected to carry on arguing, Lin was not yet finished.
"And after a mandatory month or so for a "grieving period" you'd kick me to the curb like you've always wanted!" Lin shouted, pushing Tenzin back a few steps away from her.
Tenzin groaned, rolling his eyes and throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Is that what you want, Lin?" he demanded. "Do you want me to leave you? Is that why you continue to pick a fight? Is that why you're trying to blame it all on me? So that you can come out the victim?"
"I already am the victim, Tenzin! Because while you're out gallivanting around the island with all the young, fertile, little Air Acolyte girls – trying to figure out which one you're going to marry when you finally get rid of me – I'm out protecting our city, or trying to figure out how to get pregnant with your children! And if you had spent more time with your wife in the past couple months, you would have known that I already saw a healer to find out if there was anything wrong with me. And guess what! There is! So congratulations, Tenzin! Here's your way out!"
And with that, Lin stormed out of the kitchen and out of their home, leaving Tenzin standing there looking rather dazed. A moment later though, he snapped out of his stupor and raced outside, propelling himself forward with the help of his Airbending, so that Lin had only made it a few yards away from the house before he skidded to a halt in front of her.
"Lin –" he started to say.
But Lin cut him off, trying to shove past him as she yelled, "Get out of my way, Tenzin!"
Tenzin went to follow, only to find a rock wall erected into his path. "Dammit, Lin!" he cursed, skirting around it quickly. He caught up to Lin once again, and this time gripped her firmly by the arms, forcefully holding her in place, yet his expression soft as he quietly asked her, "What do you mean there's something wrong?"
"What do you care?" Lin spat, wrenching herself out of Tenzin's grasp. And then she whirled on three Air Acolyte girls that Tenzin hadn't even noticed were there, but who he now realized were whispering conspiratorially to one another and watching Lin and Tenzin with great interest. "And what in Spirit's name are you three staring at?! Get outta here! Before I think of a reason to throw all three of you in jail!"
Two of the girls had the decency to look ashamed and scurried off quickly, but the third girl hung around for a moment to scowl in Lin's direction before slowly walking away. Growling, Lin clenched her fists, glaring at the last girl's retreating form with a dangerous look in her eye, which convinced Tenzin to jump in front of Lin's line of sight, placing his hands carefully on her shoulders and looking her in the eye as he said, "Lin, please…"
"What?!" Lin hissed, turning her furious gaze onto him once more.
"Tell me…what did the healer say?"
"What's it matter, Tenzin?" she asked him, her fury beginning to fade, yet she continued to glare up at him. "You obviously have no desire to be with me –"
"Stop it!" Tenzin interjected, shaking Lin slightly as if to shake some sense into her. "I don't want to hear any more of this. I want to help you, Lin, not run out on you the first chance I get. Don't you know that by now? Don't you know that you are the only woman I love and desire? And if there's something wrong with you then I want to be there for you, as a husband is supposed to be. Just forget about my responsibilities for five seconds and tell me what is wrong."
For a moment, the only noises between them was their own heavy breathing, as Lin continued to glower and Tenzin's gaze remained unwavering.
Until finally Lin folded her arms across her chest and, without looking Tenzin directly in the eye – acting as if answering him was the most difficult thing she'd ever had to do in her life – spoke through gritted teeth, "Some women have more trouble getting pregnant than other women…apparently, I am one of those women. I'm not sterile, but trying to conceive a child naturally is a bit more complicated. There's a medicine the healer gave me that's supposedly very successful, but it takes a couple weeks to kick in. I started taking it about a month ago, but considering we've hardly spoken in almost two weeks…"
When she finished, she turned her head away from him, not even bothering to pretend to look into his eyes, grinding her teeth and avoiding his gaze, but not trying to run off at least.
Tenzin sighed, closing his eyes and tilting his head down to rest his forehead against the side of Lin's turned head. "I have been an idiot," he murmured.
"You're just now figuring that out?" Lin muttered.
"Lin, I could never express to you how sorry I am," Tenzin breathed, "but after my father passed last year, I've just felt…pressured and short of time, especially with the White Lotus always on my case. I should never have pushed that onto you. Can you forgive me?"
Lin sucked in a deep breath, extracting herself from his embrace and taking a step back before responding, "I don't know. I feel like the moment I fail to give you an Airbender you're going to run out on me –"
"No," Tenzin interrupted her, grasping her shoulders firmly once more and looking her straight in the eye. "I will not do that, Lin. I didn't marry you simply because I wanted children. And if something happens and the medicine doesn't work and we never manage to have a child, or if we do and they're all Earthbenders or Nonbenders, well…I won't leave you."
While those words were reassuring to hear, Lin knew, in the end, they would mean nothing. If she didn't give him Airbenders, he would leave her. Maybe not at first, and maybe not entirely of his own volition, but she knew that if it came down to that, she would have to let him go, that he would have to let her go. No matter how much she loved him, no matter how hard he held on, they would split ways in the end. Maybe not because they wanted to, but because they had to, and she would just have to prepare herself for the inevitable. Because that was what they did. That was what they always did. They sacrificed their own happiness for the good of the world. For their parents. For Republic City. For now, though, she would allow him to believe that they were fine. She would relax her shoulders and soften her gaze and tell him that she loved him, and he would say the same for her.
And after they embraced, he took her hand in his and, without another word, led her across the island until they reached the very edge. Then he floated them down into that secret little cave of theirs, where they'd first made love when they were younger and without all the complications of their responsibilities and their parents' legacies – some, but not all. And for a while they simply held one another, watching the lights from the distant city flicker on as the night grew darker and listening to the waves from the Bay crashing against the cliffside. Eventually, heated kisses were shared and clothes were shed, and they made love in that cave one last time, each of them secretly knowing that if they didn't succeed this time, then they likely never would. And though they may try again for a few weeks or months afterwards, if their relationship came to an end, it would not be those times that they remembered as their last, but this moment here.
A little while later, when they were both exhausted, they settled down, wrapped in a solid embrace, Tenzin's cloak offering them warmth as they drifted off to sleep. For the first time in months, or years perhaps, they slept peacefully, despite knowing that when they awoke they would have to leave the solitude of their cave, return to the real world, and once again shoulder all their worries and responsibilities.
Approximately four weeks passed.
Despite all that had been going on lately, Lin and Tenzin were getting along better than they had in months. Lin was no longer spending every waking moment at work, and Tenzin didn't bring up pregnancies and babies on a daily basis. There was still that ever-present doubt niggling persistently at the back of their minds, trying desperately to remind them of the possibly inevitable end to their relationship, but both of them ignored it. For now, they were simply content to be together, no matter the complications they may face later. Because after all the heartache they'd suffered in the past two years, they were finally communicating as they had before, and their once dispirited moods had improved significantly.
Though Tenzin had spent a lot of his time with the Air Acolytes in the past year, he had been rather detached and unenthusiastic, working with them only because it was his duty to do so now that his father had passed, and partially to avoid more arguments with Lin. Recently, however, he found it a bit more enjoyable, and was happy to leave City Hall and return to Air Temple Island to teach the acolytes. Although, the best part of the day was when Lin finally returned home, and by that point Tenzin was much more eager to end the lessons and rush across the island to be with her.
One evening, however, he was prevented from doing so.
When he noticed, off in the distance, a ship at the docks – the same one Lin returned home on every evening – Tenzin began to bring an end to that day's lesson. By the time he had finished completely and dismissed everyone for the day, Lin was passing by where he stood, too far away for them to exchange words without shouting, but close enough for him to see a rather smug grin on her face. She was happy about something, that much was clear, and that simple fact sent a thrill through Tenzin's spine.
Even more anxious to get home now, Tenzin intended to stride quickly away from the acolytes and follow after Lin, only to find his path blocked by a rather nervous looking acolyte girl. He recognized her instantly – he was still learning the names of a few of the newer acolytes, but Pema had been on the island since she was a child. She and her parents had moved there almost thirteen years ago, but since Tenzin was a young man at the time, fully engrossed in his career path and his blossoming relationship with Lin, he hardly spared the child much attention, and was therefore surprised one day when he realized she was now a young woman herself.
As she grew older, Pema had attempted to form a sort of friendship with Tenzin. However, he remembered his father teasing him about the young girl having a rather large crush on him, and so he had been leery to talk to her too often, unwilling to lead the girl on and hoping to avoid a possibly hostile or mocking reaction from Lin. Now that Pema was twenty-years old though, Tenzin assumed whatever girlish crush she'd had on him had evaporated, and when things had been rough between he and Lin, he had not minded the young woman's company. After about a year, he began to consider Pema a friend. She was a kind-hearted person, and he trusted her to an extent. Despite this, he had never revealed much about he and his wife's hardships to her, knowing that Lin would not appreciate him discussing their private lives, just as he was not fond of the idea of her sharing those personal details with anyone else.
Of course, almost everyone on the island knew though. How could they not, when the two of them often started shouting matches loud enough to be heard all the way down at the docks? Not to mention the White Lotus's interference, constantly pointing out that Lin hadn't yet had a child. So Pema likely knew all of Tenzin's troubles, but he was grateful that she never tried to point them out.
No one on the island seemed to know how well Lin and Tenzin were getting along recently – not even Pema. In fact, a few people seemed to be convinced that the two of them were getting a divorce, and had likely spread the rumor around. Tenzin hoped that wasn't why Pema was approaching him now.
Upon being startled to a halt by Pema's form, Tenzin said, "Oh! Pema! Did you need something?"
Pema looked away shyly for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip nervously and stammering, "Er – um – well, actually – it's just I – I wanted to – uh –" Suddenly, Tenzin had a very vivid image flash through his mind, of Lin rolling her eyes in obvious irritation and resisting the urge to slap him when he did the same. "Could we talk?" Pema finally burst out.
"Oh…oh, yes, of course," said Tenzin, concerned for the young woman now. Whatever it was she had to say to him, it seemed to be rather important. He directed her to a nearby bench, and once they were both seated, he spoke again, "Is everything all right, Pema?"
The young woman was trembling, struggling with whatever it was she had to say, though Tenzin did not understand why. He reached out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she twitched strangely at the contact, so he pulled his hand back to rest on his thigh. He was rather worried at this point, wondering what could possibly have her so rattled. However, he was not at all prepared for what she told him next.
Sucking in a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly, and exhaling slowly in an effort to calm herself, Pema looked Tenzin directly in the eye and began to speak, "It's just that…there's something I need to tell you, something I've been struggling with for a while now and I think it's best to just get it out there in the open. You see, I really value our friendship, Tenzin, and I've so enjoyed getting to know you this past year. I – I've never felt this way about anyone before…" She paused, gasping in a breath of air and looking a bit pale as she finished, "I guess, what I'm trying to say, is that I…I'm in love with you, Tenzin."
Tenzin was too stunned to breathe properly let alone form words. He had remained oblivious to what Pema was trying to confess to him – not allowing himself to believe she was really about to say such a thing – up until the moment she forced the words out and made the whole thing real.
But before he could even fully register her words in his brain, she began to talk again, this time much more rapidly and a bit high-pitched.
"And I know, technically, you're still married to Beifong, and I never would have said anything if I thought this was just a simple crush! The lastthing I want to do is break up a marriage…but, well, the two of you…I mean, you just seem so unhappy, and I want you to be happy, Tenzin, and I think you and I could be soul mates. I know the term sounds ridiculous but it's not so strange when you actually meet the one. And you must feel something for me, you wouldn't have ever spoken to me if you hadn't. Oh, please, Tenzin, tell me what I'm feeling isn't completely insane!"
For a few long moments, Tenzin could only stare at Pema in shock, while the young woman watched him with fear, hope, and desperation clear in her eyes. At first, Tenzin was convinced that this was all just some practical joke, that this couldn't possibly be happening. But then he thought about, really thought about it. And he realized that he'd been a fool. All this time he'd thought he and Pema could just be friends, that when her eyes lit up around him, it was simply admiration for a man sixteen years older than her. Now he looked back on it, he could not believe he'd been so blind. Had he really led her on in such a way to make her believe that he would leave his wife for her? Had he really seemed that miserable? Would she ever forgive him for being such an idiot? Then again, would Lin? She had been right. He had been spending far too much time with the acolyte girls, not even bothering to think of how he might hurt people close to him.
He sighed heavily, dropping his gaze to his lap, where he then noticed that Pema had grasped his hand tightly within her own. He looked up at her with a regretful expression and quietly said, "I am so sorry, Pema." The young woman frowned, all hope vanishing from her eyes in an instant. "You are a very lovely, kind-hearted young woman, and I consider you a good friend, but…my heart belongs to Lin. No matter the hardships we've faced, she is my wife, and I am so sorry if I mislead you in anyway."
Pema sucked in a shaky breath, slowly removing her hand from Tenzin's and nodding dejectedly, unable to look him in the eye as she responded, "No, of course, I understand…" She looked back up at him, managing to force a dim, watery smile as tears formed in her eyes. "It's strange, isn't it? How love works?"
Tenzin simply stared back at her with a pitiful expression, unable to think of anything to say to the girl whose heart he'd just broken.
Pema continued, "You've just told me that you cannot love me, yet it only makes me love you more, to know how faithful and loving a person you are, even when your wife is undeserving."
Tenzin frowned. What did she mean by that? Lin deserved more than he could ever offer her, how could Pema think otherwise?
"I hear the way she speaks to you, Tenzin," Pema explained in a quiet tone of voice, staring off into the distance now and sniffling occasionally, tear droplets glistening on her cheeks. "We all have. She can never love you the way that I can. She won't give you the family you desire." She looked back at him and sighed. "I'm sorry. I suppose I'm mostly just jealous of her…but we can all see it, Tenzin, and if there ever comes a day that you see it too…"
She rose to her feet, brushing non-existent dirt off of her acolyte robes and looking up at the stars. It was dark out now, and Tenzin thought of Lin, who would be waiting for him, wondering why he was taking so long to return to her. Lin, who loved him so much that she had been willing to go against everything she'd ever believed in by marrying him and agreeing to have children with him. Lin, who had been his best friend since they were children themselves, and who had stood by him through everything. The only person who understood why he was the way he was, understood the difficulties of upholding a legacy. Though she was not always good at showing it, Lin loved him, even if no one else in the world could see it, he could, and that was all that mattered.
Pema turned her gaze to him once more, and he looked back up at her, unable to be angry at the girl, who was too young and naïve to truly understand love, to understand that Lin's brash demeanor was simply a guise. One day, though, Pema would understand why Tenzin did not fall into her arms that night. "You're right, Pema," he said, rising to his feet as well, "love is strange." And one day, she would understand why he walked away from her without another glance to return home to his wife.
Lin was just getting out of the bath when Tenzin finally entered their home. He strode back to their bedroom just as she walked out of the adjourning bathroom, a towel wrapped around her still damp form.
"There you are," she said, sounding slightly irritated as she attempted to run her fingers through her thick, wet hair. "What took you so long?"
Tenzin covered up his hesitation to answer that question by going to Lin's side and gently removing her prying fingers from her hair. "Here, let me," he offered, grabbing a brush off a nearby side table and beginning to run it through her wavy hair.
"Nice try, Airhead," Lin smirked, obviously in too good a mood to really be angry with him, "but why don't you try telling me what's going on?" She wrapped her hand around Tenzin's, stilling his movements so that he could no longer brush her hair.
He gave her a small smile as he replied, "It's not important."
Lin raised a skeptical brow. "It must be, if it kept you out there for half an hour and you come back acting all…" she waved a hand around, looking for the right word, "…strange."
Tenzin sighed, not wanting to ruin his wife's good mood, but knowing if he persisted in keeping this information from her, she'd be even angrier at him later. "One of the acolyte girls stopped me before I could get home."
Lin's eyes narrowed. "Oh? And what did she want?"
Tenzin chewed at his thumb nail a bit nervously before quickly saying, "She confessed to being in love with me."
Lin's eyes widened, and then, suddenly, she laughed. A long, hearty laugh, which left Tenzin feeling rather confused.
"What's so funny?" he demanded.
"Well what's she in love with you for?" Lin asked, grinning up at Tenzin.
He scoffed, folding his arms across his chest in an offended manner. "Why shouldn't she be? There's nothing wrong with me. You love me."
"Yeah but that's different," said Lin, waving a dismissive hand, and Tenzin couldn't help but smirk. "How's she even think she's got a chance anyway? Has she forgotten you're married?"
"She thinks we're soul mates –"
He knew, as soon as he told her, that he really shouldn't have.
She roared with laughter once more. "Soul mates? Really? That's what she told you? Who was it? It was that Penja girl wasn't it? The one that always followed you around when we were younger…wait, that's not her name…"
"Pema," Tenzin supplied wearily.
"Right, yes, Pema. And where do I fit in all this, huh? Did she even mention me?"
Tenzin tried to appear nonchalant as he shrugged indifferently, as if he couldn't even remember. But Lin, being the ever-perceptive person that she was, instantly noticed that he was trying to hide something.
She eyed him carefully, her voice without much humor now as she asked, "So what'd she say about me?"
"Nothing that matters," Tenzin insisted. "I rejected her, told her my heart belonged to you –"
"What did she say?" Lin growled.
Tenzin exhaled slowly. "She said you could not ever love me as she could."
"And what else?" Lin demanded.
"That's it –"
"WHAT ELSE?"
Tenzin rubbed at his eyes so hard that spots appeared in his line of sight, but he kept his gaze on his wife as he gripped her upper arms and told her, "What she says does not matter. Do you understand me, Lin?"
Lin rolled her eyes, yanking herself from his grasp and striding into the kitchen. Tenzin followed, and after she rounded the table, she whirled to face him, obviously rather angry now as she exclaimed, "Who the hell does this girl think she is anyway? Thinks she can just waltz in here like she owns the damn place and try to break up a marriage? I don't care what she spouted off to you about "love" and "soul mates," she's got another thing coming if she thinks she can get away with pulling something like that against me. I should go find her right now and give her a piece of my mind. Better yet! A piece of rock! Perhaps to the face!"
Lin started towards the door, but Tenzin jumped in her way. "Lin, wait, think about what you're doing. You're still in a towel, first of all. This is ridiculous –"
"No! What's ridiculous is her thinking her "love" is more important than your pregnant wife! I want her off this island –!"
"Now, Lin, there's no need to –"
Tenzin stopped mid-sentence, his consoling expression suddenly turning to one of complete and utter disbelief as Lin's words sunk in. His eyes widened, his mouth gaping open and his heart beginning to thump rapidly in his chest. All of this confused Lin for a moment, long enough for her to forget her ire and realize what she'd just let slip.
"Damn," she muttered.
Tenzin stammered, "You – wha – did you just – did you say – p – pregnant?!"
"Not exactly the way I had intended to tell you, you know," Lin sighed.
Tenzin's face split into a grin. "You – you're pregnant?" Lin nodded in confirmation. "Wh – whe – when did you find out?"
Lin shrugged, annoyed at how infectious Tenzin's smile was beginning to feel. "Just this afternoon." Tenzin looked fit to burst, but seemed to be holding his reaction in. Sighing dramatically, Lin said, "Go ahead, let it all out, Airhead, before you pop a blood vessel."
A moment later, Tenzin whooped loudly, swooping in to pull Lin into a tight embrace, whirling the two of them around in a circle and peppering her face with kisses. Despite her best efforts, Lin couldn't help but chuckle at his enthusiasm, stopping him only when he tried to make her dance around the sitting room with him.
Suddenly he exclaimed, "We must tell everyone this wonderful news!"
Lin grimaced. "Er, can we not…just, for a little longer?"
Tenzin bounded over to her, looking crestfallen. "But why would we want to wait? We've been waiting for this for years!"
"I know, but I'd rather you and I get used to this before we start announcing it to the world." Tenzin still looked confused, and Lin groaned. "All right, Iwant to get used to it, all right? I've never had a kid before. And there are certain people I want the two of us to tell before they find out from someone else. There's a whole process we have to go through for this! I'm going to have to find a replacement chief to take over while I'm gone, and you'll probably have to get a few days off from work as well, and –"
"Can I at least tell my mother?" Tenzin interjected.
"She already knows," said Lin dismissively. "What, did you think I was going to go to some healer in the city to find out something like this?" Tenzin moaned unhappily. "Oh, cut it out, you big baby. There will be plenty of people to tell, just give me a few more days, all right?"
Tenzin's bottom lip jutted out in a pout, but Lin simply rolled her eyes and walked back into their bedroom.
Chapter Text
Chapter 14
"Tenzin, get off of me."
"Mmm? What?"
"You're doing it again."
"I'm sleeping, Lin."
"Yes, you are…on my stomach."
"Am I?"
Sighing wearily, Lin pried her eyes open, wincing at the morning light streaming through her bedroom curtains and directly into her line of sight. She tipped her head up slightly to glance down at her midriff, confirming that her husband was indeed lying atop her stomach. The top of his head rested between her breasts, his chin just below her ribs, and one of his hands lay protectively over her lower stomach. It wasn't so much that it was uncomfortable, and more about the fact that Tenzin had been contorting himself into this awkward position far too often lately, and it was beginning to grate on her nerves.
It had only been two weeks since Lin had told him she was pregnant, and already he was driving her insane. He doted on her constantly, asking her a million times in a day if she was hungry or thirsty, or when the last time she had eaten was. If her stomach was too queasy, he'd still try to force some sort of soup broth down her throat, and when she told him to get away from her, he'd insist she was threatening the safety of their child, and then she'd slap him or curse at him, so he'd trek across the island to ask his mother a million questions about proper dietary habits during pregnancy. He didn't believe her when she said she was being careful at work, even going so far as to visit so many times in one day that she'd banned him from headquarters for a year. She was tryingto be understanding. After all, Tenzin had been wanting a baby for over half his life, and she was part of the reason he'd had to wait so long. Still, she could only accept so much before she acted on her desire to strangle him and ended up a single mother.
"This is getting out of hand," Lin muttered, her voice still thick with sleep. She shifted slightly, grimacing when her stomach churned as it so often did lately. Most of the time, she'd been able to go about her day without racing to the nearest toilet, but she was quickly beginning to think she wouldn't be so lucky this morning – she only hoped it wasn't one of those days where she spent the majority of it grabbing the nearest bin every half hour.
"What is?" Tenzin yawned, cuddling closer to her and jolting her slightly, making her head spin.
"I suggest you get off of me, Tenzin," Lin warned, wide awake now as the feeling of nausea began to overwhelm her.
Tenzin noticed the tone of her voice, and he tilted his head up to look at her with concern. "Are you all ri –?"
"Ugh, move," Lin grumbled, shoving his head off of her as she lurched out of bed and went quickly to the toilet.
Tenzin followed, of course, like he always did, holding back her hair and rubbing her back soothingly. And when she'd stopped heaving, he handed her a glass of water – he'd begun leaving cups on the bathroom sink specifically for moments like this. After she'd sipped some water, he said, "Perhaps you should consider taking the day off from work."
Lin swallowed a rather large gulp of liquid before looking up at Tenzin and scoffing. "Yeah right, my men already think I'm dying."
"Well they'll find out what's going on soon enough, and you were planning on leaving early anyway –"
Lin groaned. "Ugh, I can't believe I let you talk me into having a party just so you can tell everyone you finally managed to get me pregnant. In fact," she rose to her feet, swaying slightly, her face still a bit pale, "I should go to work and conveniently get caught up in an interrogation, thereby missing the whole "celebration.""
"Lin," Tenzin sighed, following her as she started towards the kitchen, "it's not going to be that dreadful. It's just our closest friends and family –"
"And the Air Acolytes, including that Pena girl that threw herself at you two weeks ago –" she whirled around to face him, "remind me again why she's invited?"
Tenzin didn't bother correcting the name. "I couldn't invite all the other acolytes and not her, besides she probably won't even make an appearance if she knows you're there, which is exactly why you should come. I can't announce my wife's pregnancy if she's not even there!"
"Sure you can," said Lin, folding her arms across her chest. "The only reason they want me there is so they can hug me for no reason at all and pet my stomach like I'm some sort of animal on display."
Tenzin rolled his eyes. "You're being over-dramatic –"
"No, I'm not," Lin insisted. "I was there for all three of Kya's pregnancy announcements, as well as Izumi's. I know how women react to this sort of thing, and I'd rather not have my ear drums burst when they start squealing.
"You're not getting out of this Lin," said Tenzin with an air of finality. "We've waited two weeks for you, and my mother and I have done our best to keep the secret despite my desire to shout it from every rooftop in Republic City. You will call into work and say you aren't coming in today, that you will explain it to them tomorrow, and then you will come with me to the celebration tonight and at least try to enjoy yourself."
Lin narrowed her eyes, caught between wanting to argue and wanting to be proud of Tenzin for finally showing a little backbone. But then her stomach lurched and she went stumbling back into the bathroom before she could think of a response.
Since Lin ended up basically spending her entire morning with her head in the toilet, she did end up calling off from work, and secretly hoped she'd be too ill to attend her "pregnancy announcement party" that evening. Somewhat unfortunately, the queasiness began to fade around late afternoon, and by the time she and Tenzin were due to meet everyone, she was practically ravenous. With the promise of Katara's cooking, Lin could hardly find a reason to argue skipping the party, and was only slightly annoyed with her husband, who was bubbling with enthusiasm.
It was too cold to hold any sort of gathering outside, so everything had been set up in Katara's sitting room and the dining room. The Air Acolytes were already there when Lin and Tenzin arrived, as they had been helping Katara prepare. Zuko and Izumi, Iroh and Ursa, Bumi, and Kya and her family had all arrived at various times either the previous evening or early that morning, but each of them was somewhere else on the island. Sokka, on the other hand, had gotten caught up with something important in the city, but had promised he'd be there just as the party was to begin. None of them had a clue what the party was even for, nor were they aware that it had anything to do with Lin and Tenzin, as they had all received word from Katara and were given no reason to believe it was anything more than the aging woman's way of bringing them all together for something other than a funeral.
While Tenzin had immediately begun a discussion with his mother upon stepping into her home, Lin had said a quick hello and went straight to the food table that had been set up. Despite the fact that it was probably considered rude to eat before the other guests had even arrived, Lin filled her plate and started devouring the food as if she hadn't eaten in days.
She hadn't gotten halfway through her plate when a female voice caught her attention saying, "Would you like some tea, Chief Beifong?"
Quickly swallowing a mouthful of food, Lin looked across the table to see two acolyte women standing there holding a pot of tea and a few cups. One was younger and easily recognizable as the one who had confessed her love to Tenzin, while the other - the one who had offered Lin the tea - was a bit older, probably closer to Lin's age, and whose name was Nira. While both of them were smiling at the chief of police politely, Pema was looking rather anxious, obviously hoping that Lin hadn't a clue what had gone on just two weeks ago between her and Tenzin.
"No thank you," Lin replied, with a quick glance at Nira before turning a narrow-eyed gaze onto Pema.
Pema's eyes widened in shock and possibly a bit of fear, and she hurriedly averted her gaze from Lin as she turned to follow Nira from the room. However, Lin wasn't about to let the girl get away without a few words first, and she hastened after them, reaching the end of the long table at the same time they did, allowing Nira to continue forward, and then stepping right in Pema's path.
The young woman gasped, almost dropping the teacups in her hands while trying to avoid a collision, and Lin had to hold her plate of food off to the side for a moment so that Pema didn't knock it out of her hands.
Nira turned back around to see what was going on, brow furrowed as she asked, "Is everything all right?"
"Of course," Lin replied, before Pema could speak first, not bothering to look back at Nira. "I just need a quick word with Pema...alone," she added, when Nira hesitated.
Obviously unwilling to argue with the imposing chief of police, and assuming no harm would actually befall Pema, Nira made the wise decision to return to the kitchen without argument, shooting Pema an apologetic look just beforehand.
Alone now, Pema looked at Lin with trepidation in her eyes, her voice low as she said, "Oh, Spirits, he's told you everything hasn't he?"
"Not everything," Lin admitted, stony-faced, "but enough..."
Pema shook her head, looking guilty, "I wasn't trying to -"
Lin held up a hand to silence her. "I don't want to hear it," she interjected. "I get it, you think you're in love with him, hell, maybe you are. And you were either really brave, or really stupid to try and help him out of what you assumed was a loveless marriage. Either way, I'll let it slide this time, because you didn't know -"
Confused, Pema tried to ask, "Didn't know wha -?"
" - but let me assure you," Lin continued, as if Pema had not spoken, "if you ever try to lure my husband away from me again, I will throw your ass in jail...is that understood?"
Pema gulped, dropping her gaze to avoid looking Lin directly in the eye and nodding forlornly. It was then that the younger woman noticed it, something Lin hadn't even realized she was doing. Because while one hand held on steadily to her plate of food as if afraid she might lose it, the other hand had unconsciously drifted to settle atop her lower abdomen, underneath which she and Tenzin's child was slowly beginning to grow. There was no outward sign that Lin was pregnant, but that simple gesture apparently tipped Pema off right away, and the girl gasped yet again, this time sounding much more surprised as her wide eyes jumped back up to meet Lin's gaze.
Although rather annoyed that the acolyte knew she was pregnant before her own family and friends, Lin did not bother to deny it or act at all mysterious, nodding briefly in confirmation when Pema spluttered, "You mean you're..." Pema inhaled sharply, and for a brief moment, an expression flitted across her features that Lin was somewhat surprised to recognize so instantly. Even more startling, that one expression actually caused Lin to feel some sympathy towards the girl, averting her own gaze quickly as if to pretend she hadn't seen it. Because for a moment, Lin saw all the hope and joy and naivety leave the young woman's eyes in just one heartbeat. Because what chance did Pema have with her soul mate now? If there was one thing people close to Tenzin knew, it was that he wouldn't leave his wife and unborn child under any circumstance, and certainly not to pursue a relationship with someone so much younger than himself. Even if he hated Lin, he would have stayed, for as long as he possibly could, for the child's sake if for no one else.
So with Tenzin's earlier declaration of love for his wife, and the new-found knowledge that Lin was finally carrying his child, Pema knew for sure now that Tenzin would not be hers, and she would not be his, and despite how hard she tried to hide it, Lin could see that the girl was heartbroken, and just like that, Lin's anger towards the younger woman began to slowly disintegrate...just a little. After all, it could have been the other way around. If Lin had not agreed to having children with Tenzin, or if she had not been able to conceive any, so that the only viable option for the two of them would have been that they split ways in the near future, then there was a very real possibility that when Pema confessed her love to Tenzin, he would have been more receptive to it, would have opened his heart to the young woman if it had not already been so for her, and the two of them would have likely married and had children of their own, and Lin would have been left heartbroken as Pema announced her pregnancy at this party. In an alternate universe, perhaps Pema and Tenzin were soul mates, or maybe the girl was just required to lose her first love so that she'd find true love some time later.
Ugh.
Lin nearly scoffed at that thought alone. What, were they living in fairy tale land now? True love and soul mates were nothing but pretend, just a fantasy, and Pema was going to learn that the hard way. And why should Lin feel sorry for someone who had tried to steal her husband from her? A girl who had not bothered to think about Lin's feelings at all, how it might affect the woman whose husband she was trying to steal. Lin didn't know the whole story - she'd given up interrogating Tenzin about it days ago - but she didn't figure Pema was concerned with what kind of problems her words may have caused, only thinking about her need to confess her feelings.
It was with that in mind that Lin found the ability to simply walk away. No more words were needed, both women knew were they stood. It was likely they'd never speak again, not for a very long time at least, but there would be no ridiculous fight involving screaming or hair pulling, because neither of them was that petty, no matter how much they might love the same man. Still, if Pema was ever stupid enough to try something, Lin was sure she'd keep to her promise to throw the acolyte in jail.
The party ended up being just as ridiculous as Lin had expected it to be. Once everyone had arrived and Tenzin had been about to announce her pregnancy, she had tried to hide in the kitchen, but some acolyte boy had ratted her out even after she threatened to arrest him. So Tenzin had dragged her out to the main room where everyone waited, and she'd grimaced in anticipation of their reactions. She had not been wrong at all to believe that they'd immediately started hugging her and petting her stomach despite the fact that there was hardly any sign she was even pregnant, considering her child was only about the size of a peanut at the moment. Tenzin, of course, enjoyed the whole thing far too much, but she was thankful, at least, that he'd saved her from the worst of it, allowing everyone to ask him all the questions while she'd tried to sneak back off to the food table.
In the following days, Lin and Tenzin told yet more people of the news, such as the White Lotus, Lin's police officers, and Tenzin's fellow councilmen. Within the week, news had spread throughout Republic City, so that Lin had to deal with a lot more attention than she was comfortable with. The worst part was when it hit news stands, because it wasn't as if her life wasn't far too public to begin with. She'd expected it though, and so had not been very surprised, but she was definitely annoyed, and vowed that the next random person to try petting her stomach would get a metal boot to the gut.
After about a month, news of Lin's pregnancy wasn't quite so new anymore, and life continued on as it was before; the Chief of Police was simply gaining a few pounds and becoming a bit more irritable. Tenzin, while still ridiculously over-protective and worrisome, had toned it down a bit, and refrained from touching Lin's stomach at every available opportunity. Well...until she was about four months along.
"I don't know why you insist on doing this," Lin sighed, swiping some hair off her face and reclining back against her pillows. She was sat on she and Tenzin's bed, rather tired from a long, boring day of paper work at headquarters, and rather than the foot massage she had been hoping for when she returned home that evening, she once again had to endure Tenzin running his hands all over her protruding stomach. "When the kid finally moves I'll make sure you're the first to know."
"I won't feel that initial kick though," Tenzin explained a bit absentmindedly, his attention focused solely on Lin's growing stomach. "At least this way I have more of a chance of that happening."
"Would you like to carry this child for me?" Lin offered. "I'd be more than happy to transfer the feeling of nausea and lack of bladder control onto you."
Tenzin ignored her. "How much longer do you think it'll be?"
"Until what? I regain control of my body? A few more months at least, I'd say, certainly not until after the baby's born -"
Tenzin finally pulled his gaze from her baby bump, giving her that look, the one that showed he was not amused but he wasn't particularly irritated either. "I mean until she starts kicking."
"Oh, so it's a she now?" asked Lin, raising a brow.
"Well it's better than calling her "it,"" Tenzin replied, sitting up now and scooting back across the bed a bit, yet still keeping one hand splayed atop Lin's belly.
"Not if she turns out to be a he and then he grows up with a complex and we have to make a conscious effort to stop ourselves from calling our son a she. That's how identity crises are caused, Tenzin."
Tenzin rolled his eyes. "Fine, then we'll just say "he or she.""
"No way," Lin refused. "I am not saying all that when "it" is a perfectly good pronoun -"
"That is not a good pronoun, Lin," Tenzin argued. "It makes it sound like our child isn't human."
"Well for all you know it might not be. I could have been impregnated by a spirit -"
"Back to the point," Tenzin ground out, ignoring his wife's sarcasm. "When do you think he or she will move?"
"Well I guess when it's damn well ready," said Lin. "How should I know? You're the baby expert." Tenzin flopped back against his own pillows, exhaling dramatically as he did so. "Doesn't matter to me. I'm not looking forward to being kicked in the ribs on a daily basis, and besides, I can pretty much already feel it."
Intrigued, Tenzin turned on his side to face Lin. "You can? What do you mean?"
"Seismic sense, remember? I can feel the vibrations. Mostly it was just it's heartbeat, but after a while I started feeling slight movements, nothing major, but, well..." she trailed off, averting her gaze to something across the room from them, her hands unconsciously coming up to rest on her abdomen.
Tenzin shifted closer, laying his head on Lin's shoulder and placing his hand over hers as he murmured, "I'm rather jealous of your gifts at the moment."
Lin snorted. "That's a first."
Tenzin shrugged, but did not offer up any more words, and the two simply lay together in silence. Both of them at peace.
Chapter Text
Chapter 15
Lin despised pregnancy.
That so-called "glow" was only a sheen of sweat, and the excitement of the child kicking inside of her wore off in a matter of days. Lately, if she was not overheated, then she was chilled to the bone. Her muscles ached more often than not, whether she spent all day at work or laid in bed for several hours. She was always tired, no matter how much she slept or how little she worked. She was gaining a tremendous amount of weight, yet mentally she was only half of her former self. Everything she did now had a question mark at the end of it, a hesitation that hadn't been there before, and she hated it. Her entire world had been turned upside down, her daily routine had been shattered. She was being commanded and controlled by the tiny being growing in her womb. She could not eat, sleep, or work without the baby's permission. Six months into it she was ready to tear her hair out.
Pregnancy was Lin's very own personal hell. The only joy she could find from it was that the child would be out of her in just a few short months and she could go back to walking instead of waddling. Although, she did suppose it was nice to feel that flutter of a heartbeat, the one that had become such a part of her by now that she wondered what it had even felt like before she'd had it. The kicking to the ribs and the bladder was not so welcome, but she couldn't help feeling a tad bit proud that her kid was already strong enough to nearly make her piss her pants.
It was still strange to even think that it really was her kid. She was going to have a baby, someone who was a part of her and a part of Tenzin, someone that she would raise and care for and who would someday call her Mom. It was a startling realization, one that she had come to long ago, but which still frightened her to think about at times. She had never been so responsible for another person's life before, and she was so determined not to screw it up.
Tenzin was more nervous than he let on. He'd been so sure that he was going to have children someday that, now that he actually was, he seemed almost at a loss. He was not nearly as irritating to Lin as he had been in those first few months of her pregnancy, but he still doted on her more than was necessary, as if hoping that the baby would be thankful for the foot rub or the warm bath. For all Lin knew, maybe it was.
However, Lin and Tenzin's lives were not destined to be at all easy. After one of her routine check-ups with Katara, Lin learned that her child lacked the one thing she'd been expecting it to have, the one thing required for it to have a chance at expanding the nearly non-existent airbending race. Katara's water healing abilities were based on a person's chi, and apparently she could tell if one's unborn child was going to be a powerful bender or not, and so far it appeared Lin and Tenzin's first child was not.
Upon receiving the news that her child would almost certainly be a non-bender, Lin was even more frustrated than before. Had she been having a child with anyone else, it might not have mattered to Lin. After all, she knew two non-benders personally who were some of the best men she'd ever known. But the fact remained that Tenzin was still the last airbender and expected to have children of his own who were also airbenders. Lin knew that her husband would not be so vain as to love his child any less simply because it had not been born as such, but what it meant was that Lin would be expected to have another child, and considering the fact that her child-bearing years were nearing their end quicker than she'd have thought, she'd have minimal time to prepare for a second child. Already she felt like she was about to turn into the baby making machine she had refused to become, but at this point it was very difficult to turn back. She was married to Tenzin and about to have his child. Leaving him now so that he could find someone else to give him many airbending children would be messy and terrible. Not to mention the fact that Lin wasn't about to give up on her own happiness that easily. She'd suck it up and have another kid or two, and afterwards she'd have a family and she'd never have to deal with this pregnancy nonsense ever again.
Nevertheless, telling Tenzin that his child had a very slim chance of being a bender at all was not something Lin had ever wanted to do, and she almost had Katara do it for her...almost.
They had all spent so much time hoping and assuming that Lin and Tenzin's first child would be an airbender, and finding out that it was now a near impossibility was not easy for Lin to accept. When she returned home that evening she was in a foul mood that Tenzin picked up on right away. She'd hardly taken two steps into the doorway when he accosted her, although that might have been due to the fact that she was much later getting home than he'd been expecting.
At that moment, Lin was not at all in the mood to tell Tenzin her somewhat disheartening news, so she walked right past him without a word of explanation. She stripped off her clothes as she went, and when she reached the bathroom she slammed the door in Tenzin's face. Thankfully, he didn't bother her at all when she filled the tub with warm water and sank down into it. He let her relax in peace rather than banging on the door and demanding an explanation. When she stepped out into their bedroom, however, he had a bowl of food waiting for her, and she scowled when he presented it to her, looking hopeful, as if the only thing that put her into a good mood these days was food. And although that was somewhat true, Lin was not about to take his desperate offer just to make him feel better. She was content to simply continue her brooding and let her husband worry, until eventually she would grow weary of keeping the secret to herself. By then, perhaps Tenzin would simply be too relieved that it wasn't worse news, and therefore less upset with Lin for being wholly inadequate at producing an airbender for him.
After a long, tense moment of silence, during which Lin laid down in bed without sparing her husband a glance, Tenzin sighed, placing the bowl of food on the nightstand before sitting himself down on the edge of their bed, beside his wife. "Lin," he said, grasping her chin between his thumb and forefinger and gently turning her head to face him, "please tell me what's wrong."
"I don't feel like talking about it right now, Tenzin," Lin replied irritably, jerking her head away from him and focusing on the wall across the room.
"Did something happen at work?" Tenzin persisted.
Lin let out an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. "Didn't I just say I didn't want to talk about it?"
"Yes, but, I'm worried. Just tell me what's going on, Lin," Tenzin pleaded. "Is it the baby? Is something wrong? I know you saw my mother this evening, is that why you were late?"
"No," was all Lin muttered, but Tenzin didn't believe her, and she could practically hear his thoughts going into a frenzy at the mere thought that something could be wrong with the baby.
"You're lying," he whispered, terrified now, of what he might be told. "There is something wrong...the baby...is she..."
"The baby is fine, Tenzin," Lin insisted, sitting up to look him straight in the eye. "Sprits, don't have a heart attack on me, health-wise it's fine. I promise."
Tenzin visibly relaxed, his shoulders slumping as a heavy breath of air expelled from his lungs in relief. But a second later he was looking at her in confusion again. "What do you mean health-wise? Does that mean otherwise something is wrong?"
"No, it means your baby is alive so leave me alone," said Lin, moving as if to lie back down, only to have Tenzin grip her shoulders and stop her.
"Lin, just tell me," he said.
"Oh for Spirits' sake!" Lin exclaimed, slapping Tenzin's hands off of her and pushing herself off of the bed - rather ungracefully, considering the extra weight attached to her front now. She stomped a few steps away from the bed and then rounded to face Tenzin once more. "Fine, you want to know what the problem is? For your information, I did go see your mother today, and yes, the baby is healthy, but there's almost a one hundred percent chance that it's going to be a nonbender, so there. Are you happy now? I finally give you the child you've always wanted and there's no way it can be an airbender." Lin huffed in aggravation and left the room then, leaving Tenzin to sit in stunned silence.
"Lin!" he called after her, but she continued onward, wanting desperately to get away from him all of a sudden. But he raced into the kitchen, placing himself in front of her. "Lin, listen to me." He put his hands out to stop her but knew well enough not to touch her just yet. "There is nothing on this earth that could possibly make me less excited about our child. I don't care if it's a boy or a girl, an earthbender, airbender, or nonbender. Any child of ours will be cherished every second of everyday I can promise you that."
Lin stared straight at her husband with narrowed eyes and a furrowed brow. Her muscles were tense and her body ached and she felt so damn unsure and out of control and the baby was doing somersaults inside her womb. And maybe things were not destined to run smoothly for the two of them, but for some reason she believed him when he told her that everything would work out just fine.
"Chief?" the voice that spoke to her seemed to come from far away. The world was spinning on its axis and she wasn't certain that her feet were still settled on solid ground. One minute she'd been walking in the direction of one of her Lieutenants - intent on settling an issue she'd discovered while in the midst of completing some long overdue paper work - in the next she had been suddenly and unexpectedly overtaken by a wave of intense dizziness. She felt her knees buckle underneath of her and the floor came rushing up to meet her. Everything was a blur, and she could hardly make sense of anything going on, of anything being said. There was commotion all around her but nothing was distinct and she couldn't get a grasp on her bending. Without it she could not sense danger. Without it she could not know whether or not the child within her was well.
But she knew that she herself was not well and it was all she could do not to panic.
And then the darkness came.
And when she next awoke she had not been moved farther than a few feet from where she had collapsed. The officers that had been surrounding her were close by but no longer in a tight, suffocating circle around her. They still murmured but less frantically. Her senses were returning slowly and she gasped in a ragged breath, laying her hand on the floor and reaching out. Searching, searching...
There.
The baby was fine.
Heartbeat normal, no unusual movement within her womb.
The baby was fine.
She was fine.
But Tenzin was going to lose his head.
Katara's diagnosis was that Lin wasn't taking good enough care of herself. Not enough food or sleep.
Tenzin had a fit, of course, and began to hover over her the way that he had in her first few weeks of pregnancy. She could not distance herself from him no matter how hard she tried - and she tried very hard. Yet, as luck would have it, he was nowhere to be found on the day she went into labor.
It had been a tiring day at work. Boring and frustrating because she had been forced to sit behind a desk with her large stomach protruding from her body, a nuisance that would not allow her to sit close enough to her desk to be comfortable. Instead she was forced to lean forward, back hunched and eyes straining to follow the words she wrote. And when her day was over her back ached worse than it had throughout her whole pregnancy and she must have eaten too much food for lunch because her stomach was beginning to cramp up as well.
It wasn't until she was seated on the boat to take her home to Air Temple Island that she recognized a contraction tearing through her.
She might not have even known that was what it was if it weren't for the false alarm she'd had just two weeks earlier. She should have known earlier in the day, with the back pain and the stomach cramps. She should have seen it coming. Should have gone home sooner. But it was only a little less than a month away from her due date and she hadn't wanted to send up another false alarm.
Now she was paying for it.
By the time she reached the island she could hardly stand, her legs trembling as she was escorted off of the boat by a terrified dock worker, hunched over and gritting her teeth. She managed to make it all the way to Katara's door before she remembered that the waterbender who was supposed to deliver her baby was actually in the city visiting her brother, Sokka. Upon coming to that realization, Lin collapsed with a loud groan, back pressed against the front door, her head falling back against it with a dull thud. She knew her husband was still in the city as well, having called her at work earlier to inform her that one of his council meetings was running over and he was unsure when he'd be home.
It was just her luck, to be alone on an island and in labor with her first child. Her husband and her mother-in-law halfway across the bay, out who knows where for who knows how long. She had already sent the squirmy dock worker away when his fidgeting had begun to irk her. There were always Air Acolytes and White Lotus around the island, but of course they were nowhere to be found in Lin's time of need.
To make matters worse, the first person who stumbled across Lin was the exact last person on the planet that she would have ever wanted to find her.
"Chief? Chief Beifong? Ma'am, are you all right?"
Lin, who had risen to her feet in a valiant effort to make it inside to the phone, and who was hunched over breathing steadily through another contraction, let out a miserable groan. Mistaking Lin's irritation for pain, the source of the voice came rushing to her, an unwelcome hand coming to rest on Lin's shoulder.
Lin jerked away from the contact, turning her head to scowl at Pema, the young Air Acolyte that had tried to steal her husband just eight short months ago. Her body was trembling and aching and she would have punted that little girl fifty feet into the air if she had been able. Instead, all she managed was to pry a slippery, sweaty hand off of the door frame to shove the girl out of her personal space.
"I'm sorry!" Pema stammered, holding her hands out in front of her. "I didn't - I was just - are you all right? Do you need help -?"
"Not from you I don't," Lin barked, slowly attempting to straighten her spine and stand back up to her full height. She only held strong for a few moments before hunching over once more, her muscles coiled too tight. She muttered a curse under her breath, gripped the door frame ever tighter. She wouldn't be able to hold that position for long, eventually she would fall to the ground. She was adamant, though, that she not take Pema's help. She did not need it. She would not take it.
"Can I get someone for you?" Pema offered, sounding very much like she hoped Lin would decline the offer and send her on her way.
"Do you know what you can do for me?" Lin said exasperatedly. "Get lost."
Pema fell back a step, swallowing loudly in apparent discomfort and then promptly pivoting around on her heel. She took three steps forward, in the opposite direction, and Lin thought she had gotten rid of the girl. But then Pema came to an abrupt halt, was still for several moments as if considering something, and then she came rushing back to Lin's side.
Lin cursed once more, and would have told Pema to get lost again if it weren't for the fact that her water broke.
Pema must have recognized it for what it was immediately, because her eyes widened and she gasped, "You're in labor?"
Lin rolled her eyes. "What could have possibly given you that idea?"
"Where is Katara?" asked Pema. "And your husband?"
"In the city," Lin grumbled, resigned to her fate now as she grabbed onto Pema's arm to steady herself. "Just help me inside to the phone and you can be on your way."
Pema did as she was told, but she stuck around - standing off to the side, just close enough to catch the police chief if she were to collapse - while Lin made multiple phone calls around the city in an effort to get in touch with Tenzin or Katara. Her first few attempts were useless. The woman at the desk where Tenzin worked had only argued with Lin and then hung up the phone, and in the end she had to call into her own office and ask some of her officers to go find her missing family members. It was a complete waste of resources, but Lin had run out of options.
By the time Tenzin and Katara returned to the island, over an hour had passed and Lin was murderous. She had been forced to put up with Pema, who had refused to leave Lin alone in the state that she was in. Truthfully, Pema was not so much a bother, seemingly aware that keeping her distance from Lin was best for the both of them, only coming near enough to hand Lin a cold, wet cloth and some ice chips. But it didn't change the fact that Lin despised the girl and she really, really didn't like to be kept waiting. Especially when she was in labor with her first child. It wasn't so much the pain that was a problem. Lin had dealt with pain before, although labor pains were definitelysome of the worst. More importantly, though, she was terrified. She didn't know the first thing about being a mother and she was just a few hours away from becoming one. She had never given birth, never held a newborn infant that was her own flesh and blood in her arms. What if she didn't know how to take care of the kid? What if she hated being a mother just as much as she hated being pregnant? What had she been thinking when she had agreed to raise children with Tenzin?
When Tenzin came barreling into the room Pema had set Lin up in, it appeared that he was just as terrified. His face was pale white and he looked frantic. Part of that, of course, was concern for his wife, but even upon seeing that she was doing just fine he didn't stop trembling. He went right to her side, taking her hand in his and spewing out apologies.
Lin was beyond forgiveness at that point, terrified and wracked with pain as she was.
It was several hours before their baby was finally born, and afterwards Lin collapsed against the pillows behind her, on the verge of tears and so damn relieved that it was over. But as quickly as the relief came, she was panicked in the next moment, suddenly realizing that there was no sound besides her harsh, ragged breath.
Wasn't the baby supposed to be making noise?
She lifted her head up, her neck muscles weak and straining, peering up over her knees to find out what was going on.
And then she heard it.
There was a soft whimper, and then a loud wail, and Lin collapsed again, tears rushing silently down her face.
"It's a boy!" Katara announced.
Tenzin wept, grasping at Lin's hand so tight and kissing her repeatedly on the side of the head, on her cheek, on her forehead, and eventually on her lips. "A son..." he murmured into her hair, his voice shaky but full of so much joy. "We have a son, Lin."
When the baby had been wiped clean, Katara came to the head of the bed, and Lin felt a brief moment of panic. She had held babies before, but never a newborn, not her newborn. What if she could not soothe him? What if her son hated her?
"Would you like to hold your son, Lin?" Katara asked, a wide, tearful smile on her face. "He's beautiful."
Lin thought he looked like an alien, with his red skin and puffy eyes, and he was so, so tiny. But she thought he was perfect. So perfect and so delicate that she was afraid to touch him.
Yet she could not resist.
She held her arms out, not making a sound, biting down hard on her lip. Sweat dripped from her brow and she hurriedly wiped it away before accepting the tiny bundle her mother-in-law presented to her.
When the baby boy had settled into her arms, he whimpered for a few moments, and Lin held her breath, holding him close against her chest as he squirmed. He was still kicking his legs, like he had been for half of her pregnancy, and a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. He calmed in his mother's arms quicker than she could have ever hoped, apparently soothed by her warmth, and Lin finally allowed herself to breath steadily as the infant relaxed against her.
Tenzin was pressed up close against her side, peering down at the bundle in her arms with tears still racing down his cheeks. When Lin met his gaze, he slipped his arm around her shoulders and pressed his forehead against hers, not caring that she was drenched in sweat, so much love shining in his eyes that he didn't have to say a word for her to simply know everything he wanted to express. She knew because she felt it too. She could never express to Tenzin just how grateful she was to have him, how happy she was that he had given her their son. Technically, she had done all the hard work, but without Tenzin she never would have had a kid in the first place, and she was so glad he had chosen to spend his life with her. She had married her best friend, the only man she ever loved, and now they had a little boy. She loved them both so much in that moment that she thought her heart might burst.
Their son was not going to be the airbender Tenzin had wanted, but he was the child Lin hadn't known that she wanted. She had spent so much time thinking that she would never want children, that her duty was to Republic City, that she could not possibly have enough space in her life and in her heart for more than her city and for Tenzin. But the longer she held her son in her arms, she came to realize that she had already made space for him. She loved him so much already, even though he had only just been born. She also realized then, that she had spent her entire life looking for her own mother's approval, only to understand now that she had probably already had it. Lin could think of nothing that could diminish her son in her own eyes, and if Toph had loved Lin even half as much, then she had been proud of Lin, even when Lin was not proud of herself.
Thoughts of Toph, however, made Lin's chest constrict, disheartened by the fact that her mother would not know her own grandson. Nor would Aang, for that matter.
But Katara was there, and Sokka was waiting just down the hall, and Tenzin was at her side.
She was not alone.
His hair turned out to be the same color as his father's, tiny tufts of soft, brown hair that stuck straight up no matter how many times they smoothed it down with a gentle hand. His eyes, though, were bright and emerald like his mother's.
They named him Ronen.
He was a surprisingly quiet baby. He kept them awake at all hours, but he was not loud when he fussed. Tenzin thought they had gotten lucky, but the quiet made Lin worry. She had only known babies to be noisy, and as a first time mother she was paranoid that something would go wrong.
She realized very quickly that she probably should have done some research on how to care for an infant during her pregnancy. Tenzin had read so many books, and had tried to get her to read them as well, but she hadn't thought it was necessary. She thought she'd just figure it out as she went along, but she often found herself sneaking over to the bookshelf in the middle of the night, rocking Ronen in one arm and flipping through a baby book with her free hand. There were just so many things that could wrong with a baby, and after a few months of worrying herself sick, Lin stopped looking at the books. It was no wonder Tenzin had been so freaked during her pregnancy. If she had read those horror stories she would have spent her whole pregnancy in a state of panic.
As it turned out, Tenzin ended up being the relaxed parent, and Lin was the one who worried. She woke with Ronen every night before Tenzin even heard him crying. On the rare nights when Ronen would sleep for longer than four hours, Lin would wake up anyway and go to check on him, just to make sure he was still breathing. She was exhausted all of the time, especially on the days Tenzin worked and she was home alone with their son, although Katara and Sokka did come around to help out whenever they could, and Lin was used to sleepless nights.
The real issue arose when it came time for her to go back to work. Part of her was more than ready to get out of the house and go back to doing what she knew how to do best, but another part of her would miss Ronen, would worry about him all day. She trusted Tenzin and Sokka and Katara, but she hated the idea of not being there if something happened. She had grown attached to her son so quickly that her head was reeling. She knew that if she went back to working the crazy hours she had to pull as Chief she would have less and less time with him. Not to mention the fact that she would somehow have to divide that time between her son and her husband, because she didn't intend for her marriage to suddenly die just because they had a kid. What if she wasn't a good enough parent to balance her home life and her work?
Surprisingly though, her first couple weeks back at work went well...or rather, as well as they could when her job was to apprehend and interrogate criminals. She felt guilty leaving Ronen, who cried every time she left for the day, but as much as she loved him, it was freeing to finally get back to some sense of normalcy and have some time alone in her office. She didn't despise being a mother like she thought she might, but it was still exhausting at times.
Everything seemed to be working out just fine.
Until Su came to town for a visit.
Chapter Text
Chapter 16
Lin awoke to the sound of Ronen's wails around two o'clock in the morning. Considering she had only gotten home from a stressful day at work an hour earlier, she had only dozed off just a short time beforehand. Rather than rise immediately as she usually did, she took a moment to stretch, turning over onto her back and groaning quietly. She struggled to open her eyes, still halfway asleep, her body feeling sluggish and limp. She forced herself up onto one elbow, rubbing at her face with her other hand.
Before she could roll out of bed, she felt a hand on her shoulder, easing her back down onto the mattress. Tenzin's soft voice, rough from sleep, murmured to her through the darkness, "I'll get him, Lin, go back to sleep."
"You had him all day," Lin muttered, trying to argue, but relaxing back against the pillows anyway.
"Sleep," was all Tenzin said, kissing her briefly on the forehead before rising from the bed.
She waited until she heard Ronen's whimpers die down, Tenzin's soothing voice in the next room lulling her back to sleep.
She woke again a few hours later feeling as if she hadn't slept at all. When she noticed that Tenzin had still not returned to their bed, she thought she must have only dozed off for a few seconds. However, before she let her eyes slide shut again, she glanced at the clock and saw that it was a little past five a.m.
Only mildly concerned, Lin rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up, flinging the covers off of her and turning to dangle her legs over the side of the bed. She shivered slightly once exposed to the cold morning air, rising quickly to her feet and going to retrieve her robe. She shrugged it on and tied a knot in the front as she walked out of her room and down the hall. She paused halfway to peek into Ronen's bedroom. Finding it empty, she strode the rest of the way to the sitting room, where she found the two people she was looking for.
Tenzin was slouched on the couch, clearly exhausted and dozing in and out. He was watching Ronen with hooded eyelids, his head lolling forward as if it was too heavy for him to continue to hold up. Ronen was secured in his playpen, wide awake and contentedly playing with a toy ostrich-horse that Sokka had gotten for him.
Lin went to Ronen first, and when the infant spotted her, he gave her a toothless grin. "C'mere, kid," she murmured, her lips curling into a smirk as he offered his toy to her, oblivious to his parents' plight. Once he was settled onto her hip, Lin returned his toy to him, and he promptly placed part of it into his mouth. She went to Tenzin then, stroking his cheek gently and whispering his name.
He awoke with a start, eyes widening briefly before settling onto his wife. "Lin," he sighed, blinking rapidly and still half asleep. "I was watching him."
"I know," said Lin, "but I've got him now, go back to bed."
"You need your rest," he mumbled, letting the weight of his head fall against the back of the couch.
"So do you. Have you been awake this entire time?"
Tenzin nodded mutely, quiet for a long moment before finally responding through a yawn, "I think he's teething."
Lin looked down at Ronen, who was still gnawing on his toy ostrich-horse. She couldn't see much beyond a mouthful of slobber, but if he was teething, it would explain why he was so cranky lately. He was almost six months old already, meaning half a year had gone by and Lin couldn't believe how much time had passed.
"I'll take him to your mother before I go to work today," Lin decided, nudging Tenzin forward in an effort to get him onto his feet. "She can watch him until you get some rest."
"I'm all right," Tenzin insisted, although his whiny tone of voice said otherwise. "I can manage."
"Sure you can," Lin said with an eye roll, grasping one of Tenzin's arms and tugging him onto his feet. "C'mon, airhead, back to bed. I'll be home early tonight so I expect you to be well-rested and have dinner on the table."
"Yes, dear," Tenzin relented, finally allowing her to lead him back down the hall to their bedroom. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow, and Lin threw a blanket over him before returning to the living room, where she settled down on the couch with Ronen on her lap.
"So what's the matter, kid?" Lin asked him, knowing full well he wasn't going to respond. He stared up at her with those big green eyes, wheezing out a laugh as if his mother had just told a funny joke. "How come you're keepin' your dad up all night? You know he isn't like us. He needs his beauty sleep."
Ronen blinked.
Lin sighed. "Y'know, I'll probably regret saying this, but I can't wait until you start talking. I get enough of the one-sided conversations at work."
Ronen still said nothing, but continued to smile up at his mother, and Lin supposed that was good enough. He might not be able to carry a conversation with her, but he probably loved her more than anyone else did, even if he didn't know what that word meant yet. She could quit her job, become a bum, and leave the city in ruins, and he'd still look up at her like she was the reason the earth kept spinning on its axis. Maybe that was why most women dreamt of motherhood. Because it gave them a purpose, someone to live for. Someone who would love them unconditionally.
Lin had never craved motherhood, had even loathed the idea of it once upon a time. Spending time with her niece and nephews had swayed her opinion slightly, convinced her that not all children were a nightmare. She still had not had the desire to have any of her own, and if it weren't for Tenzin she likely never would have. When she found out that she was pregnant with Ronen, she had worried, at first, that she had done so for all the wrong reasons. But after a few months of seeing Tenzin's face light up at the sight of her, of feeling the tiny flutter within her womb, she might have changed her mind completely. And if that had not been enough, seeing Ronen at last, feeling him, warm and soft in her arms, had changed a part of her. She was still the same Lin Beifong, hard as steel and the best at what she did, but she knew now that she didn't have to compromise any integral part of herself in order to make room for motherhood.
She wasn't a conventional mother. Most people gawked in horror when they discovered that Tenzin was more of a stay at home father while Lin worked. Women could not understand how Lin could leave her son so often in order to focus on her career. Men could not grasp why Tenzin would ever volunteer to spend most of his days tending to an infant, while his wife put herself in harm's way to protect the city. Yet, if the roles were reversed, there would have been no surprise or disgust.
Lin was fully aware of the downsides to being a working mother. She often worked odd hours, so that by the time she got home some nights, Ronen was already fast asleep, and if Tenzin tended to him throughout the night, sometimes she would even leave for work again without seeing Ronen awake. She knew she might very well miss her son taking his first steps or saying his first words, but that was not something that kept her awake at night. She knew that Tenzin would be most disappointed to miss those milestones, that Tenzin would be heartbroken if he did not get to witness every hair that grew from Ronen's head.
Lin had not been raised to be quite so sentimental, and while she loved to watch her son grow, she yearned for the little things most of all. She didn't mind watching Ronen sleep for a bit after a long night at work. She secretly enjoyed the days when she came home early and found the house in disarray, Tenzin looking disheveled but happy, Ronen giggling at his father's antics and then lighting up even more when he saw his mother enter the room. Tenzin would regale her with stories of their day and it would start to feel as if she had been there with them, and that was what she loved most. Coming home from the drudgery she faced at work to see her husband and son happy and healthy was rewarding enough. Her job was a part of her that could not be replaced, but so too was her family. She had spent so much of her youth competing with Su for her mother's attention that she had never really allowed herself a chance to enjoy it. She wouldn't make that mistake twice.
Lin softly stroked the hair atop Ronen's head, still messy and growing longer everyday. It reminded her of her mother, who seemed to have thought that hairbrushes weren't really a necessity. Lin still had memories from her youth of Katara swooping down upon her every time they visited the island, with a smile and a hairbrush, ready to spend ten minutes trying to untangle the knots in Lin's hair. It had happened so often that Lin had started to suspect that Katara carried a hairbrush around in her pocket at all times. By the time Su was born, Lin was old enough to know how to do it herself, but she would occasionally "forgot" to help her little sister, just so Su could experience Katara's fussing as Lin had.
Thinking of Su was never pleasant for Lin, but it did not bring the same sort of pang that remembering Toph did. Su was dead to Lin in a different sort of way. Thinking of Su only made Lin angry.
And if Ronen happened to have the same wide green eyes that Su did, Lin pretended not to notice.
"All right, kiddo," Lin sighed, suppressing a yawn, "you ready to go back to bed yet?"
Ronen squirmed in her lap, flinging his ostrich-horse to the floor and beginning to fuss and whimper. He was clearly tired and cranky, rubbing at his eyes but too uncomfortable - or perhaps too stubborn - to sleep.
"Guess not," Lin muttered, rising to her feet and bouncing Ronen on her hip. She bounced over into the kitchen, rubbing Ronen's back as she went. She warmed some milk for him, but he refused it, wrenching his head away and screaming his discontent. "All right, all right, no milk!" Lin said quietly, mindful of Tenzin sleeping down the hall. "I'm sorry, shh, Daddy's sleeping. Mama's here," she soothed as Ronen wailed, "I've got you..."
It took a few minutes, but Ronen soon quieted down, whimpering softly and burrowing his face in his mother's neck, rubbing at his eyes with his whole fist. Lin twisted her torso from side to side, still not understanding why motion seemed to calm infants, but she wasn't about to question it now. She'd do whatever worked.
While she worked on putting Ronen to sleep, she decided to make herself some tea, thinking about the long day yet ahead of her. Her only consolation was that she would be leaving work relatively early that day.
By the time she settled back down onto the couch, steaming hot cup of tea in hand, Ronen had finally drifted off to sleep. Lin held him against her chest with one arm, his head rested atop her shoulder, lips parted so that she could feel his steady breath against her neck and a bit of drool soaking through her shirt.
As she began to contemplate the day ahead of her, she considered not going into work at all. She would much rather stay home, cuddled up in her warm bed with Tenzin and Ronen. She did not wish to spend another day at work, considering it would be the ninth day in a row. If it weren't for the triple homicide and a string of robberies that had occurred three days ago, Lin wouldn't have had to work at all today. She was used to the unpredictability of her job, but having a family made it much more difficult.
As always, though, she somehow found the strength to get up, and journeyed across the island to Katara's home. She left Ronen with his grandmother, after expressing to the older woman her concerns about Ronen's teething pain. The infant had not let go of his mother to allow her to get ready for work, and he wailed when Lin left him with Katara. Despite knowing that Katara would sooth him, Lin still felt her heart clench inside her chest, feeling guilty over something she could not control. Or perhaps she felt guilty because she knew there was a way to stop Ronen from missing his mother so much, but the alternative was unthinkable. Lin could not imagine a life where she was not Chief of Police, and she certainly would never make it as a stay at home mother. The Earth kept on spinning whether Ronen missed her or not, and criminals swept through the city like spider-rats. Someone had to clean up the mess they left behind, and Lin had accepted that role long ago. She would simply have to accept the pain and move on. She only hoped Ronen would not grow to resent her when he was old enough to decide for himself. She remembered sometimes being very much of an afterthought in her own mother's life, and she swore to herself that she would not do the same with her child.
So she kissed her son goodbye, darted home to change for work - careful not to wake her snoring husband - and boarded the boat that was waiting to carry her across the Bay.
She journeyed across the city in a bit of rush, remembering a council meeting she had to sit in on in a few hours and hoping to finish up some work before she went. When she stepped into headquarters, she was greeted by the usual flurry of commotion, people rushing in and out, officers huddled together and laughing. The further she went into the building, the more somber the atmosphere became. Detectives were hunched over desks, looking as if they had been there all night staring in frustration at the scrolls and evidence laid out before them. There were a few citizens there as well, sobbing victims and scared witnesses. An officer's wife was imploring him to return home.
When finally Lin reached her office, she settled in behind her desk, quickly sorting through the mess she'd left there the previous night. The criminals behind the string of robberies had been caught and imprisoned just twelve hours prior to Lin returning to work. The case was solved, but left with it a mountain of paperwork, as well as several court dates Lin would have to remember.
The triple homicide had turned into a cold case. With little to no evidence left at the scene of the crime and no witnesses, Lin and her forces had arrived at a dead end. The families of the deceased had not been given closure, and the victims did not receive justice. It left a sour taste in Lin's mouth, and part of her considered staying late to comb through everything again with a closer eye. But she knew it would only drive her crazy, and she had promised Tenzin she'd come home, and she couldn't get the sound of Ronen's cries for her out of her head.
Still, she resolved to look back at it at the next opportunity she received. She couldn't take the file home with her, because Tenzin had banned her from doing so after the last time she'd let a case get to her. It had been a cold case too, in which a four year old boy had been murdered and left in an alleyway. Lin hadn't been able to sleep or eat right for days. Even when caring for Ronen she'd had one eye on the case file, her thoughts moving a mile a minute. It was too unsettling a case to let go. Gruesome acts like that weren't too frequent in Republic City, but they did happen, and Lin had never been able to stomach them, but she certainly never let the killer get away with it either.
Except none of the evidence was lining up and Lin couldn't narrow down the suspect list, and she needed to find the kid's killer. Maybe it had simply hit too close to home, or maybe she just hated letting cold cases go like that. Whatever the case, one evening she'd been home, with Ronen on her hip, making dinner for Tenzin and reading through some evidence files at the same time. She was so focused on the case file that she hadn't noticed the dinner she'd been making catching fire. Tenzin had entered the kitchen just in time to save the house from burning down, but Lin had gotten an earful for it.
And when Tenzin insinuated that Lin had been putting Ronen in danger by obsessing over the work she'd brought home with her, Lin, being as strung out from stress and lack of sleep as she was, had given Tenzin hell. It had been one of their worst fights since Ronen had been born, and Lin had stormed out into the night, only to return, exhausted and emotionally drained, a few hours later, apologizing to her worried husband and agreeing not to bring work home like that again. Some work was fine, but she couldn't pour all her energy into cases the same way she used to now that she had her son to think about. It was a balancing act that Lin was still trying to get a handle on.
So Lin decided instead that she'd read over the cold case during her meeting with the council that day. It was just an annual meeting that was the same every year. She, along with about fifty other high ranking officials, was required to attend, but she often used the hour to get a quick nap in or to skim through a book she'd been meaning to read. Since Tenzin was no longer on the council for the time being, it would be twice as boring, and though Lin's eyelids felt heavy, she decided to forgo the nap this time.
It was nearly ten hours later when Lin finally returned home to Air Temple Island. She had made no headway in the cold case, and she regretted not using the council meeting to get in a quick nap. She dozed off once or twice on the boat ride home, and upon arriving, was awoken by one of the older Air Acolytes. She trudged up the hill, exhausted despite it only being 4 o'clock and eager to get home. She waved to Katara as she passed by the garden, deciding to ask Tenzin what his mother had said about Ronen's teething.
At last she arrived at the front door of her home, and she sighed with relief as she turned the knob and stepped inside. She felt a rush of warm air, but she was not greeted by the smell of dinner she was hoping for. Instead the house was quiet, and Lin carefully pried off her armor to leave in the entryway, assuming that Tenzin and Ronen had decided to take a late nap and not wanting to wake them. She considered joining them, but she hadn't eaten since lunch and she'd be famished by the time she woke, if she woke at all before the following morning. She started to creep down the hall, only to be intercepted by Tenzin.
He placed a finger over his lips, motioning for her to be quiet as he stepped out of Ronen's bedroom and pulled the door halfway closed. He then beckoned for her to follow him the rest of the way down the hall to their room, where he shut the door and immediately pulled her into a passionate embrace.
Lin's eyes widened, but she didn't stop the kiss her husband had initiated. She was startled, to be sure, but she was always rather weak for an eagerly insatiable Tenzin.
His hands were tugging at her shirt before the kiss had even broken, and when his lips began to move across her jaw, Lin sucked in a desperate lungful of air. "Well, this wasn't the greeting I was expecting," she murmured breathlessly.
"Are you complaining?" Tenzin muttered against her neck in a heady voice that sent a thrill through Lin's spine.
"Well, I was hoping for food," Lin gasped when he nipped at a spot behind her ear.
"Mmm, after," Tenzin replied distractedly.
"There better be," Lin warned, though her voice did not hold much of a threat behind it when her knees were so weak. "Or there'll be hell to pay..."
Tenzin didn't respond, instead grasping the backs of her thighs and lifting her up off her feet. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her over to the bed, where her thoughts were focused more on her husband and less on dinner.
Sometime later, Lin playfully shoved Tenzin out of the bed, leaning over the edge to grab his clothes and throw them in his direction.
"Lin!" he sputtered, using a burst of air to cushion his fall before being pelted with his own clothes.
"You promised me dinner," said Lin, folding her arms across her bare chest while still lying comfortably in bed.
"Can't I just lie with my wife for a few moments longer?" Tenzin beseeched her.
"We've been lying here long enough, now get to it." When Tenzin continued to hesitate, she added, "Go on! I won't wait all night."
Tenzin muttered irritably under his breath while gathering up his clothes. It was only after he had started tugging on his pants that he noticed Lin chuckling softly.
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" he accused her.
"Very much so," Lin confirmed.
Tenzin scowled at her, but it held no malice. He grabbed her shirt off the floor and chucked it at her. Lin caught it in one hand, still smirking at him amusedly.
"You make it too easy, Airhead," Lin laughed, tugging her shirt over her head. She climbed out of bed and went over to the dresser to find a pair of shorts.
Tenzin came up behind her as she was pulling them on and slipped his arms around her waist, kissing her neck before muttering, "I'm sorry for not having dinner ready for you when you got home." He didn't sound sorry at all, his fingers creeping up under her shirt again.
Lin sighed, allowing herself to lean back against his chest, her eyes fluttering closed for a moment. "That was quite the unexpected welcome."
"You've been so busy lately," Tenzin explained, stroking her stomach and pressing his cheek up against hers. "And I knew Ronen would be out for a little while..."
No sooner had he said it than they heard a quiet cry from the next room. Ronen was awake, and Lin smirked. "Guess our time is up. I'll get him, you start on dinner."
"Yes, dear," Tenzin complied with a contented smile, pressing a kiss to her cheek before releasing her.
They journeyed down the hall together before parting ways.
As soon as Lin entered Ronen's room, the infant quieted, grinning up at his mother in excitement. He struggled to push himself up onto his feet, holding onto the bars of the crib to steady himself. When Lin reached him, he stretched his arms up towards her and wobbled unsteadily, but Lin caught him before he could tip over, lifting him easily up into her arms.
"Hey, kid, did ya miss me?" she said needlessly, stroking his back and placing a kiss on the side of his forehead. He gripped her shirt with tiny fists, babbling nonsense to her as she carried him from the room.
They joined Tenzin in the kitchen, where Lin fed Ronen, while Tenzin worked on dinner for the two of them.
"Figures," Lin said to Tenzin. "The kid gets a nap and he eats before I do."
"I find it funny," Tenzin distractedly replied, bent over a steaming pot of vegetables, "that he's the baby, but you're the cranky one."
Lin scowled at Tenzin's back, returning her attention to Ronen as she said, "Your daddy thinks he's funny, don't let him fool you, Ronen."
Ronen grinned, and Lin gently wiped away the mashed vegetables that dribbled out onto his chin.
"Your mother is a liar, Ronen," Tenzin said as he turned and bent down to be eye level with his son. "She thinks I'm hilarious."
Lin shook her head. "Wow, Tenzin, telling my son that I'm a liar. That's low."
Tenzin merely smiled and leaned over quickly to kiss Lin on the mouth. She shoved him away, but there was a smile on her face as well.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and Lin looked up, confused. She tried to get a sense for who was there, but the heartbeat was not Katara's or Sokka's, although it did have a sense of familiarity to it that made Lin's palms sweat. Judging by the look on her husband's face, he hadn't been expecting anyone either, and though there were plenty of people who might find it necessary to contact them, usually they called first. The Acolytes and the White Lotus living on the island knew better than to knock on the door, except for in the case of an emergency, after numerous incidents where they had either woken Lin or Ronen.
"I wonder who that could be," Tenzin mused, looking as if he was about to go and find out.
Lin rose to her feet, placing a hand on his arm to stop him. "I'll go, you finish dinner." She didn't tell him that she chose to go mostly so he wouldn't invite someone unwanted inside. Her husband was far too generous, and Lin didn't want anyone ruining a perfectly good evening.
Ronen cried out when she went to leave the room, probably thinking she wouldn't come back, so she doubled back and lifted him out of his high chair. "All right, kid, guess you're comin' with me."
When Lin reached the front door, she pulled it open, Ronen propped up on her hip -
- and then she slammed it closed a second later, hand pressed flat against the solid wood as she sucked in a sharp breath of air.
The person outside began to pound on the door, voice terse as they called out, "Lin! Let me in! Please! I came all this way -!"
Lin felt fury rise within her, and if it weren't for the infant on her hip she would have kicked the person outside all the way out into the Bay. She wrenched the door open long enough to growl, "You shouldn't have bothered, now get the hell away from my home!"
Lin went to slam the door closed once more, but was prevented from doing so by a short slab of stone that came up just in time to intercept it.
Lin's eye twitched, the only sign that she was holding back the urge to punt her sister fifty feet into the air. Suyin Beifong stood before her, dressed rather well considering the last Lin had heard she was travelling with a circus. She was taller than Lin remembered her being, but beyond that she hadn't changed much besides aging thirteen years.
At twenty-nine, Suyin was rather pretty. She still had that perfectly innocent face that, in her youth, had fooled everyone except for Lin. It appeared that life had been good to her, her hair and clothes sleek and shiny, her eyes wide and bright, and her slightly tanned skin aglow. It made Lin sick, to know that, while she had been struggling the last thirteen years, her sister had been off gallivanting around the world, happy as can be despite the fact that she had singlehandedly ruined a part of her older sister's life.
Actually, it wasn't all Su's fault, and Lin had had it pretty good recently. She was married to a man that she loved and who loved her in return, and she had given birth to the most perfect little boy. But she had been holding in all of the hatred she had for her sister for so long, had let it stew inside of her until she could no longer recall any good memories she might have had of her half-sister.
Having heard the commotion, Tenzin came rushing into the entryway before Lin had time to decide on a reaction. "Lin?" he called out to her, voice full of concern as he propelled himself forward with a burst of air. "Lin who is it? What's wro -?" His frantic questioning ceased when he finally came to stand in the doorway and caught sight of their visitor. He did not relax, however, his eyes widening as his hand clutched at Lin's arm. "Su?"
"Hey, Tenzin," Su softly replied, giving her old friend a small smile. She and Tenzin had never been particularly close. He was too serious for her, and he was always hanging around the older sister Su was trying to escape, but he was still like family. And she would never forget the time she had come home a drunken mess in the middle of the night when she was far too young. He had taken care of her that night, and then hid her from Lin's wrath, and as far as she was aware he had never told his then girlfriend about the incident.
"Su, wh - what are you doing here?" Tenzin spluttered.
"I..." Su paused, looking unsure for a moment. Perhaps she had no idea what had brought her back home. "I was - I mean I wanted to see you, both of you."
"Well we don't want to see you," Lin cut in. "Thanks for stopping by, good luck on your trip home."
Lin tried to slam the door in her sister's face yet again, but Tenzin squeezed her arm tighter, catching her attention just enough to still her motions.
"Lin," he said carefully, though he was not looking at her, his shocked gaze still focused on Su. There was something in his eyes that gave Lin pause. "I think you'd better let your sister inside."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Lin rounded on Tenzin, only to stop when Ronen - who had been quiet throughout the entire altercation - suddenly cried out, tears coming to his eyes and his bottom lip trembling, clearly disturbed by his mother's anger. Lin blew out a breath of air through her nose, rubbing Ronen's back to try and soothe him and fighting to hold in her frustrations. She looked back over at her sister, examining her features once more as if trying to find some kind of explanation as to why Su was at her doorstep.
That was when she saw it. The reason Tenzin had likely suggested letting Su inside. It was subtle, but pretty clear to Lin's eyes now that she had seen it. Su's clothes were loose and wavy, but the fabric around her abdomen was stretched out further than the rest.
Su was pregnant.
"So that's why you've come?" Lin sneered. "You got yourself knocked up and now you're looking for help?"
Su frowned, brow furrowing in confusion. "What? No, that's not..." Despite the obvious tension, Su let out a short laugh. "No, I don't need help. I'm married, actually, and this is number four and five." Su rubbed her belly, a smile gracing her features.
Lin raised a brow, a little shocked that Su was apparently married and had three children with two on the way. She faintly remembered someone telling her something about Su being married when she had been at their mother's funeral, but Lin had hardly been in a state of mind to care. Of course Su would have five kids, probably without ever having to try, meanwhile it had taken Lin years just to have Ronen.
"Twins?" Tenzin said in surprise. "And a husband and three children? Well, I suppose, congratulations, Su. I'm glad you've been doing so well. It's been a long time since we've seen you. We weren't sure what you might be up to."
"Meaning you could have been dead in a ditch somewhere and we would have never known," Lin growled. "I don't know what you're doing here, Su, but if you think you can just show up here and pretend like the last thirteen years never happened -"
"I'm not trying to pretend anything," Su calmly interjected. "I had heard that you and Tenzin finally settled down and had a child and I...I realized that I wanted to know my nephew, and that I wanted my sister to know my children. We've been estranged for so long, Lin -"
"And whose fault is that?" Lin exclaimed. She settled a moment later when Ronen began to whimper again, and turned to her husband. "Tenzin, take Ronen for me, I'll handle this."
Tenzin took the proffered child, but didn't move away from the door. "Lin, you can't just send her away. It's getting late, she probably has a long way to go -"
"That's not my problem," Lin said through gritted teeth. "She should have thought of that before she came here. Besides, I'm sure your mother would love to have her."
"You know," Su spoke up, "I can look after myself. I'm not asking for a place to stay I simply want us to talk."
"Well I don't want to talk to you," Lin reiterated. "I want you gone... now."
Su sighed wearily. "Lin, we're adults now, don't you think we can speak rationally? Don't you think this feud has gone on long enough? Mom wouldn't have wanted -"
"Don't you dare!" Lin exploded, pointing viciously at her sister. "Don't you dare try to tell me what Mom would have wanted! You have no idea what she would have wanted because you weren't here! You got to leave while Mom and I had to stay behind and clean up your mess. She never forgave herself for what she did for you."
"Mom and I reconciled Lin!" Suyin shot back. "I asked you to come! But you're so hard headed. You wouldn't even speak to me at her funeral! Our mother died and you can't even look your own sister in the eye?"
"I know full well what happened, Su," Lin spat. "I was there when it happened. Our mother died in my arms. Talking to you wasn't going to make me feel any better and I sure as hell wasn't concerned about comforting you. Not as if you stuck around long enough for anyone to talk to anyway."
"I knew I wasn't welcome," Su sighed, rolling her eyes and folding her arms across her chest, her ire having deflated. "You and Tenzin were married, you were part of the family and I wasn't. No one had seen me in so long I'm not even sure they recognized me. I paid my respects to our mother and I went home to my family, same as you. But it would have been nice to see you. I was a childwhen all of that happened, Lin. Do I have to pay for that for the rest of my life?"
"You have to live with your mistakes, Su, just as I've had to."
Lin slammed the door closed once more, and this time Su did not intercept it. She pivoted around on her heel and began to storm away, pausing mid-step when she felt Tenzin shuffling towards the door. She did not turn around, but called out a warning, "Tenzin!"
"I'm just going to make sure she has somewhere to stay tonight," Tenzin calmly explained. "I won't invite her inside."
"Whatever!" Lin huffed, continuing her former stride.
From behind her she could hear her sister telling Tenzin, "My family and I have a place in the city. We'll be here for two more days. I'd love for you to meet them, even if you can't convince Lin. You're my brother now, I suppose. And my Opal is only two years old, I'm sure she'd love to meet...meet your son -"
"Ronen," Tenzin supplied. "His name is Ronen."
"He's beautiful..."
Lin fell out of earshot as she stomped past the kitchen - having lost her appetite - and went into the bathroom, where she locked the door and began to fill the tub with hot water. She had just settled into the scalding water when she heard Tenzin tapping lightly on the door.
"Lin?" he called out, voice muffled by the wood. "Would you like me to bring you a plate of dinner?"
"I'm not hungry!" Lin shouted back, sucking in a deep breath and then sinking under the surface of the water, so that she could not hear if Tenzin responded.
Chapter Text
Chapter 17
"Absolutely not."
"Lin -"
"No."
"You're being irrational."
"I said no, Tenzin. Now drop it."
"I don't see what the harm -"
Lin let out an exasperated sigh, throwing down the towel in her hands, her hair still dripping wet from her bath. Ronen was asleep in his room and Lin and Tenzin's dinner was growing ever colder on the stove.
"Don't you understand?" Lin exclaimed. "Trouble follows my sister wherever she goes, and I do notwant my son anywhere near her."
"She has three children of her own, Lin," Tenzin argued. "It's not as if she'll drop him, and I'll be there the entire time. You must know that I'd never let any harm come to our son."
"I don't know why you're pushing this." Lin rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "You and Su never even got along."
"Whatever I felt for Su before is in the past. We're all grown adults now. I think you're just having a hard time accepting that she's no longer a misbehaving child. She seems to have made something of her life and turned it around for the better, and I'm genuinely glad that she did so, otherwise you and your mother's sacrifice would have been for naught. I'm pushing this because I want Ronen to know his cousins, and because she's your sister."
"And I'm your wife, and I'm telling you that I don't want her around our son."
"And I understand why you feel that way," Tenzin said in a low voice, chancing a step closer to his irate wife, reaching out carefully to place his hands on her shoulders. "I really do, Lin. You'll never forget the damage she caused, but people can change. You've seen it before. You've changed some over the years too, and look at where we are now. We're happy, we have a wonderful son. Su being here and seeing Ronen won't change any of that. In two days time she'll go back home and we'll continue to live our lives just as we have been. If you aren't ready to speak to Su yet I understand completely, but this is a step in the right direction. Shouldn't we be able to show our children that we can be better people than we once were?"
"That was an impassioned speech, Tenzin," Lin deadpanned. "It doesn't change my mind."
Tenzin sighed, dropping his hands and, more to himself than to Lin muttered, "Well, can't say I didn't try."
Tenzin went to visit Su and her family the following day.
Lin stayed home with Ronen.
Tenzin was only gone for a few hours, and when he returned home he found his wife and son having dinner at his mother's house. Tenzin joined them, and though Lin asked no questions about his earlier meeting, he noticed her listening as he answered Katara's queries about Su's new life. He told her about Su's wacky but kind husband, Bataar. About their quiet but surprisingly intelligent seven year old, Bataar Jr. He didn't have much to say about their second son, Huan, who was five years old and had not spoken the entire time Tenzin was visiting, had instead sat on the floor and splattered paint on numerous scrolls. Opal, despite only being two, was the most talkative once she had gotten used to Tenzin and decided not to be afraid of him. Most of her questions had actually been about her Aunt Lin, and Tenzin had been happy to regale the small girl with as many tales as he could come up with. Lin only showed surprise when Tenzin told his mother that Su and Bataar had built their very own city called Zaofu.
Tenzin had not spoken of his regret at not being able to bring Ronen with him, but he knew that Lin had likely gotten the hint.
When they returned home that evening, they did not discuss Su.
Lin went back to work the following day, and Tenzin did not see Su and her family again before they left, though she did send him a letter of farewell and promised to write again soon.
Lin had made clear that she did not wish to discuss Su, and Tenzin did not press the issue further. He realized that he needed to understand his wife's reservations, even if they were not wholly logical. In a perfect world, perhaps Lin and Su would have reconciled, or never even become estranged in the first place, but they were not living in a perfect world, and there was too much past resentment built up in Lin for that to suddenly change the first time Su reached out. Lin could hold a grudge better than anyone Tenzin had ever known.
And besides that, who was he to say whether or not his wife should forgive her sister? It's not as if he could boast a perfect relationship with his own siblings. In fact, he rarely even spent time with Bumi and Kya unless circumstances required it. When he looked back upon his childhood, he remembered them mostly as bullies, but there had at least been some boundaries. Kya and Bumi had mocked and teased and tormented their little brother, but they had not left him with visible scars like Lin's.
It was true what Su had said, about being young and making mistakes. Should she have to pay for that moment of foolishness for the rest of her life? For Su, the last altercation with her older sister was likely a very faint memory. One brief moment in her teen years when she had made one of many mistakes. She had reconciled with her mother before her passing, had improved herself despite the path she'd been headed down. Su had changed for the better, and now had a family that she clearly loved and cared for.
And yet Lin could not simply banish the past so easily. She had been an adult already at the time, mature beyond her years, just as Tenzin had always been. She could not understand her younger sister's misguided choices because she never would have done them herself. Lin and Tenzin had both felt forced to grow up far before they were meant to, while their siblings had felt no such urge. Kya and Su and Bumi had been carefree and full of life and abhorred Lin and Tenzin's stiffness. It was one of the similarities that had attracted Lin and Tenzin to one another in the first place. Perhaps they could have been as careless as their siblings – even their parents had often lamented the fact that they were so rigid – but they had felt compelled by duty or perhaps by fate to go in the opposite direction.
Lin could not understand Su's viewpoint anymore than Su could understand Lin's. Not only that, but Lin had been the one forced to bear the marks of her sister's thoughtlessness rather than Su herself. Su had been sent away from Republic City and away from all reminders of what she had been, while Lin had remained, with two marks on her cheek that would never fade and a torn up police report that sat heavily on her conscious. Every time Lin saw her own reflection she was reminded of that day, reminded that her own flesh and blood had been so reckless that she had caused irreparable damage. Lin may have reconciled with herself and accepted that the scars were a part of her, but she had not accepted the actions that had caused them. Her face was damaged, ripped apart by Su's mistakes, and just as the scars would never truly fade, nor would the emotions any reminders of how she received them would evoke.
Tenzin still held some hope that the sisters might one day lay their feud to rest, but he understood that it would take time. Lin still loved her sister even if she could not admit it to herself.
So Tenzin apologized to his wife for pushing the subject, and Lin accepted it, even apologized to him for being so harsh with him. Because, unlike Su, Tenzin had never wronged her. Despite their arguments and frequent disagreements, she trusted her husband fully. Even when she was angry with him, it never lasted particularly long, and it never chipped away at the love she felt for him. They were two halves of a whole, opposites in a lot of ways, but similar in many others. They butted heads and tempers would flare, but it was never with the same animosity they'd had with their siblings, and Tenzin would not give it up for anything else in the world.
Lin was in the midst of the longest phone call of her life when Tenzin and Ronen appeared suddenly in the doorway of her office.
She hadn't been expecting them, but neither of them was weepy or missing a limb so she didn't assume the worst right away. In fact, they both looked rather cheerful, perhaps too cheerful judging by the grin that was threatening to split Tenzin's face.
It wasn't common for Tenzin and Ronen to show up in her office unannounced, but it wasn't unheard of either. They were boys, after all, which meant that they were restless and grew bored very quickly waiting for Lin to return home. However, Tenzin usually called ahead to make sure she wasn't too busy for visitors, or they'd show up closer to the end of her shift to escort her home or take her out for dinner.
That particular afternoon, no plans had been made in advance, and Lin really, really needed to stay on the phone. She had already been on the line for over an hour. Half of that time she had spent on hold, being bounced from one secretary to another, until finally she got a hold of the Head Councilman, who had been evading her calls for weeks. She then spent the remaining time arguing with him over the law enforcement budget for that year, and if she let the line go dead, she'd be forced to start the whole process over again.
Hoping to convey to Tenzin that she was in no position to talk at the moment, Lin gave him a brief smile and an expression that was meant to be apologetic, but must have looked more like desperation. She couldn't help the part of her that wished her husband was still a more active member on the council so that she didn't have to deal with the council at all outside of court hearings. Tenzin had always handled most of the politics so that Lin didn't have to. The other council members had certainly preferred it that way too, but with Tenzin taking an extended leave to be Ronen's primary caregiver, Lin was forced to deal with policies and regulations that she had rarely paid any mind to before.
Tenzin seemed to understand to some extent, remaining silent and carefully closing the door to her office to block out the noise coming through. He really should have left though, and Lin shook her head, pressing a finger to her lips in the hopes that he would get the hint this time. Ronen was mostly a quiet kid, but he'd squeal for his parents' attention if he needed to, and Lin wasn't about to give the Head Councilman a reason to hang up on her.
Tenzin still didn't seem to understand Lin's gestures though, or he was simply ignoring them, because he didn't retreat from the room or even huddle in the corner keeping Ronen quiet. Instead, he bent over and set Ronen onto his feet, still grinning widely up at his wife.
Ronen wobbled, not yet able to walk at ten months besides a single lurch that usually didn't take him far. Lin didn't know what age kids started walking so she wasn't concerned, but Tenzin had been working with the boy a lot lately, insisting that if Ronen didn't learn soon he'd be far behind.
Tenzin steadied the toddler, and then leaned down even further to whisper something in Ronen's ear. Lin looked away for a brief second, responding to something the Councilman said, and when she looked back over at her husband and son, she saw Ronen lurch in her direction.
Tenzin was holding his arms out in case he needed to stop Ronen from falling, but Lin still cringed, resisting the knee jerk reaction to leap across the room and catch him. Sometimes she thought her new motherly instincts had made her even more uptight than before. The first time Ronen had ever fallen she had nearly had a heart attack. Once, when Tenzin had gone out to tend to some Air Acolyte business, Ronen had bumped his head on an end table and Lin was certain she had cried more than her infant son had. Of course, she had never told Tenzin that, and she was glad Ronen was too young to tell him either.
Lin fully expected Ronen to either fall to his knees, or for Tenzin to have to grab him before he did, but when Ronen lurched towards her, he didn't immediately fall. He still swayed and his short chubby legs looked unsteady, but he managed to keep himself balanced and swing his other leg around in front of him as well.
Lin smirked, understanding now that Tenzin was clearly impressed by their son's ability to walk maybe three steps, and she fully intended to congratulate them both just as soon as her phone call was over...
Except Ronen didn't tip over after three steps…or four…or five…
The boy just kept walking, slow and awkward and a little precariously, but he was walking. He would look down at his feet a few times just to make sure they were working properly, but mostly he was focused on his mother, grinning and proud, likely having heard so much praise from his father already today that he knew he was doing a good job.
Lin felt a strange feeling coming over her as she watched her son toddle over to her, a sudden tightness in her chest that didn't hurt, per say, but made her breath shaky for a moment. Her eyes felt oddly moist and Tenzin's and Ronen's grins must have been infectious because then she was smiling too.
The Head Councilman was saying something in her ear but she was no longer paying attention, and without a moment of thought she gruffly said, "Councilman, I'm going to have to call you back."
And without another word she hung up the phone, dropping down into a crouch beside her desk and holding out her arms just as Ronen reached her. He lunged the last few steps, and Lin caught him, sweeping him up into her arms as she straightened back up.
"Mama!" Ronen exclaimed cheerfully, flinging his arms around her neck and kissing her on the cheek.
That word still sounded foreign to Lin's ears. Ronen had only started saying it a few weeks prior, just a few days after squealing his first word, which was "Dada." Lin had come home from work that night to find Tenzin weeping happily and Ronen crawling around the house jovially declaring "Dada" to every inanimate object in his path. A few days later, Lin had been teasing Tenzin, who had then looked at Ronen, shook his head and said, "Mama is silly." Ronen had mimicked his father's action of shaking his head and simply repeated, "Mama," and three weeks later Lin still wasn't used to hearing it, but she had to admit it had a nice ring to it.
"Hey, kid," Lin murmured in response while pressing a kiss to the side of Ronen's forehead.
"Walk!" Ronen cheered.
"Yeah you did! Good job, Ronen," Lin praised him, clutching him ever closer and wondering when he had gotten so big, "Mama is very proud of you."
"Daddy is very proud of you too," Tenzin added, standing before the pair of them now. He was stroking Ronen's messy hair, but he was looking straight at Lin, his love for her and for their son so bright in his eyes that she almost had to look away.
Instead she said, "I love you," her gaze flickering between her husband and her son. Tenzin wrapped his arms around her and Ronen and she thought she'd never felt so secure in her life. Looking down at Ronen she wondered when she had gone so soft, except she hadn't really. She was still herself at work. She still commanded her officers with an iron fist and was harsh on crime, but her son brought something out in her that she hadn't really explored since she was much younger.
Unbidden, her thoughts went to Su, her heart still filled with rage for the sister she once loved. It was difficult to even remember a time when she and Su had gotten along. Those moments had been so rare that sometimes Lin wondered if they had ever even happened at all. Somehow she knew she had loved her sister once, but it didn't change what she felt now. Su's visit had rattled her but she couldn't allow that to go on. She had her own family now. She didn't need Su. She knew Tenzin wanted them to reconcile but she didn't have the time to deal with her sister's guilt when she had Ronen to think about. She was perfectly happy just the way she was.
Two more months passed, and Ronen turned one year old. Katara and Tenzin planned out a large party for him, and Tenzin decided to push his luck and asked Lin if he could invite Su and her family. She did not argue with him as he thought she would, but she was clearly furious as she threw her hands in the air and exclaimed, "Whatever, Tenzin! Do what you want!"
He considered not inviting Su after seeing Lin's reaction, but ultimately decided that it would be good for Ronen.
However, about a week before the party, Su wrote back her deepest regrets that she could not attend. Her twins, Wei and Wing, were only a few weeks old and still too young to travel so far. She promised to visit once they were older, and sent what was clearly a very expensive gift for Ronen. When Lin had seen it she had scoffed, and then ridiculed it or complained about it for the following three days.
Ronen's birthday party went off without a hitch...up until Lin got called into work on a case.
Tenzin tried to stop her leaving, and ended up causing a scene in the middle of the party. The couple had gone outside to argue, but the guests heard it anyway. Lin left in a huff, and Tenzin went back to the party embarrassed and disgruntled.
Lin went to work in a fury, snapping at her officers, cursing under her breath, and wearing a permanent scowl, even when alone in her office. She had been called in because of the suspicious death of the Earth Kingdom Councilwoman's trainee. It had initially been ruled an accident, but it turned out to be murder, and the Chief of Police was needed to keep the highly sensitive case under wraps and in order. The aspiring Councilwoman had been very young, barely twenty years old, and Lin wanted nothing more than to put away the bastard who had ended the young girl's life so soon.
Lin worked for the rest of the evening and well into the night. Normally she would call Tenzin to let him know she'd be late, but considering the way they had parted she decided not to. He didn't call to check in either.
She returned home around two o'clock in the morning.
Ronen was in bed but Tenzin was still awake, seated on the couch in the living room, a book he clearly wasn't reading on his lap and the radio turned down low. At the sound of Lin's return, he rose to his feet slowly, looking agitated as he turned to face her.
"I wondered if you'd be coming home tonight," was all he said.
"Spare me the lecture, Tenzin," Lin muttered, too exhausted to fight him. "You could have called if you were worried about it."
Tenzin folded his arms across his chest. "I wasn't going to lecture you, it's just nice to know that you're okay."
"I'm fine," Lin murmured, walking away from him into the kitchen to prepare herself something to eat. He followed, as she knew he would. "How was the rest of Ronen's party?"
"Fine," Tenzin replied shortly. "It came to an end soon after you left."
"So I didn't miss anything then," Lin said idly, turning on the stove to heat some leftover noodles.
"Oh no, nothing at all, just your son's first birthday party," Tenzin said dryly.
Lin sighed heavily, dropping her head and closing her eyes. "I guess you want to do this now."
"Actually, you know what? Yes, I do. I want to do this right now, because apparently arguing is the only thing that gets through to you."
Lin spun around, but there was no more anger in her expression and she was calm as she stated, "I don't want to argue with you, Tenzin. I know full well why you're angry at me. What I can't understand is why this is still an issue. You knew all of this was bound to happen before we ever married, before we had Ronen. Did you expect me to lose my credibility at work over a party I never wanted to attend in the first place?"
"You didn't want to attend the first celebration of your child's birth?" Tenzin said in disbelief.
"Not like that I didn't," Lin confirmed. "I would have much rather the three of us did something together, or even the three of us and your mother. I didn't need all of those other people around, I didn't want them around."
"Well why didn't you say -?"
"I did say something, but you were so concerned about showing him off to the world that you didn't listen. I know you love Ronen, but don't you think you're doing exactly what our parents did to us? You're parading him around the island as if he's the greatest thing to ever grace this Earth, and while you and I might believe that, it's going to be difficult for him to live up to everyone's expectations. They don't know that he can't be a bender. He doesn't know that he can't be a bender. They're all anticipating the moment he becomes an airbender, a moment that can never happen."
Tenzin scoffed. "He's a baby, Lin, no one is expecting anything from him. It was a birthday celebration, to celebrate our son's birth. You are the one who missed it, so don't turn this around on me. Besides, we don't even know for a fact that he won't be a bender. My mother could be wrong -"
"See!" Lin exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at her husband. "That attitude right there, that's what the real problem is. You can't accept the fact that our child is going to be a nonbender, that he isn't going to be the airbender you were so desperately hoping for. I knew this would happen -"
"Now you're just making things up!" Tenzin shouted in exasperation. "Maybe you should worry less about how our child might feel about me and more about how he's going to feel about you when he gets older."
Lin scowled. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that he's going to wonder why his mother is so absent in his life. He's going to wonder why she would rather spend every waking moment at work rather than with him. I understand that you have to work, but you could say no just once! If your officers can't handle one case without you then what's the point of having them at all? How are we supposed to have more children if you're never even around for the one that we have?"
Lin froze, caught suddenly between a blinding rage and deep hurt. Tenzin must have seen the emotions playing out on her face, because he faltered for just a moment before straightening his back and puffing out his chest, as if preparing for an outburst from her.
But none came. Lin could not find the strength within her to defend herself. It had been such a tiring day. And maybe Tenzin was right after all. Maybe she was a terrible mother. She was so focused on her career, and for what? She was mostly overlooked by the council, hated by at least a quarter of her staff. She had a husband and a son at home, waiting for her each and everyday, and she was too busy trying to be her mother. She wasn't necessarily wasting her time as a protector of the city, but she wasn't doing any favors for her family either.
"I'm going to bed," Lin decided after a long moment of stillness, remembering to reach back and turn off the stove but not bothering to put away the food she'd been about to prepare.
As she started back down the hallway towards their bedroom, Tenzin called out to her, "So that's it? We aren't even going to discuss this?"
He hastened to follow her, and Lin waited until they were both inside their room before responding to him, not looking him in the eye as she changed into her bed clothes. "There's nothing to discuss, Tenzin. You've told me how you feel and I have nothing to say. Maybe you're right and I spend too much time at work, but I'd appreciate it if you stopped telling me what a terrible mother I am every chance you get." She finally turned to look at him and it appeared as if he felt rather guilty. "I'll work on it, okay? It's just that I've got this idea in my head that my mother was a saint, and if she could do it then why can't I? Somewhere along the way I forgot that she and I rarely even got along, that I felt neglected and pissed off all the time and...I don't want Ronen to feel that way." She turned away again, pulling back the blankets and climbing into bed. "But I'm tired, I've had a long day, and I'm going to bed now."
Tenzin was silent for several seconds before deflating, striding to his wife's side, but not reaching out to touch her. "I'm sorry, Lin. I didn't mean...you're a wonderful mother, I just... I shouldn't have said that."
"Then why did you?" Lin demanded, despite her exhaustion. "Why are we still arguing about the same thing we've been arguing about since we started this relationship?"
"I don't know," Tenzin said, shoulders slumping. "I guess...I guess I just let my emotions get the better of me. Perhaps I need to work on that, but it's hard, you know? To watch you risk your life everyday, to see how dispirited you are after a long day at work. You're so happy here, with me and Ronen, and then you leave and all I can do is worry, and sometimes you come back so despondent... I know your work is important, but I wish..."
He looked at a loss, and Lin finished for him, "But you wish I was different?"
Tenzin shook his head. "I...no. I wish you had chosen a less dangerous career, but I know why you couldn't have. And Republic City wouldn't be as safe as it is today if it weren't for your leadership. I just don't want either of us to make the same mistakes as our parents. They loved us, sure, but Republic City was their first baby and we inherited it. I don't want Ronen to feel second best like we did. It's part of why I still haven't made any plans to go back to work."
Lin nodded in full agreement. "I don't want that to happen either, but I'm not my mother, and youaren't your father. We can work and still care for our kids. Parents have been doing it for centuries."
"Yes, but most parents don't have the demanding jobs that we do," Tenzin argued lightly.
"So we have to be more careful," Lin conceded, hiding a yawn behind her fist. "But can we worry about that later? I really am tired."
"Of course...can - can I make you those noodles first? When was the last time you ate?"
"I'm fine," Lin muttered, sinking down into the mattress and resting back against her pillows. "I'm too exhausted to eat. I have to be back up in a couple of hours anyway. I managed to get a hearing first thing in the morning to put away the bastard that killed that girl. I'll just eat something before I go in. I'll be gone before six, but I'll come home as soon as the trial is over. He confessed so it should only take a couple of hours."
Tenzin nodded a bit sadly, clearly still concerned but letting it go for now. "If you're sure."
"I am, now shut out the lights."
Lin rolled over onto her side, back facing him as she finally let her eyes slide closed. She heard the shuffling of Tenzin's feet as he moved about the room, shutting off the lights and removing his robe. He slid carefully into bed beside her, but did not reach for her, likely assuming she did not want him to. But Lin scooted over the short distance to curl into his side and his arms automatically came up around her shoulders and waist. He sighed wearily and then they were silent.
Lin broke the silence a few minutes later, halfway asleep as she quietly murmured, "It was her boyfriend that murdered her, y'know?" Tenzin didn't need to ask who she was referring to. "Sometimes...sometimes I wonder if you could ever hate me as much as he hated her."
Tenzin startled slightly, tightening his hold on her as he promised her, "Never, Lin. I could never hate you."
Lin sighed heavily. "I know you wouldn't murder me, but...it doesn't mean you couldn't hate me. I know I'm not around as much as you'd like me to be -"
"Never," Tenzin reasserted, cutting off her current train of thought and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I could never. Now hush, get some rest. I love you."
She managed to mumble, "I love you too," against his chest just before she finally relaxed and fell asleep.
Chapter Text
Chapter 18
It was nearly eight months later when Lin discovered she was pregnant for the second time.
They hadn't been actively trying, but they hadn't necessarily been avoiding it either. Lin was staying home from work more often and things were going well. Her schedule was still hectic, her work hours still crazy and nearly unmanageable, but they got by.
Lin was nervous about the prospect of having another child already, considering Ronen would only be two years old by the time it was born, but she didn't have much longer before her child bearing years were over. Tenzin, of course, was over the moon with delight at the idea of another child.
Unfortunately, all did not go as well as they might have hoped.
Lin was pregnant for approximately fifty three days.
She didn't suspect until day forty-two, about eight days before it was confirmed by Katara.
She told Tenzin about it on day fifty-one.
She lost it two days later.
She hadn't even been at work when it happened, and therefore was not wearing her protective armor, nor did she have a battalion of officers with her. She was alone, or rather, with Ronen, when a foolish kid trying to make a name for himself in the Triads attempted to kidnap the son of the last airbender and Republic City's Chief of Police.
Lin had had the day off, and had been striding through the city with Ronen on her hip. They were on their way to greet Tenzin, who had been called to sit in on a council meeting. Although Tenzin was on an extended leave of absence in order to dedicate his time to caring for his infant son, he was occasionally asked to help out with important meetings or tough court cases. Lin and Ronen were in the city waiting for him for just two hours, stopping at various stalls along the way to buy ingredients for the night's dinner.
Lin's hands were full and her mind focused elsewhere when the boy approached them. She did not sense anything out of the ordinary. He was just another person on the crowded sidewalk. Ronen was babbling away and looking around the city with wide eyes. He hadn't been off the island more than a handful of times since his birth for the very reason that things went awry on that day. Ronen was not even two years old and yet he was already well-known, and therefore susceptible to the threats that came with popularity.
The boy walked casually towards them, inconspicuous, hands in his pockets. He did not lash out until they were side by side, passing one another with no immediate concern. Her senses did not catch the small blade clutched in one of his concealed hands until it had been plunged into her abdomen.
She had seen it just in time to turn, moving Ronen out of the way of danger and dropping the groceries in her other arm. She gripped the assailant's wrist in a bone-shattering grasp, but it was too late. Her blood was spilling over onto his hand as he reached out with the other, intending to take the startled infant on her hip. Even as pain tore through her, Lin found the strength to kick her heel into the ground, summoning a rock wave to knock her attacker off his feet. Another stomp of her foot encased him so tightly in rock he began struggling for breath.
Ronen was screaming, her body was on fire, but she held onto him, hunching over in agony yet still searching for any further threats. The handle of the blade was protruding from her abdomen, her mind was fading away from her too fast for her to catch. She backed herself against a brick wall and slowly lowered herself down, holding onto consciousness by sheer force of will. For Ronen, for her son. She had to protect her son.
Lin's own officers came, healers following shortly after, and when they tried to take Ronen from her she held on tight, keeping him pressed against her side even as her blood was soaking through her shirt.
Tenzin was pulled from his meeting a few minutes before its end and rushed to the hospital to be at his wife's side.
It wasn't until Ronen was safe in his father's arms that Lin finally let herself slip into darkness.
When she came to, she discovered that she would live, but the baby had not.
Tenzin was certain that he had never felt fear quite like he had on the day that Lin and Ronen were attacked on the streets.
His assistant had come barreling into the meeting that had been slowly coming to a close, and he knew right away that he was not about to hear good news. Assistants did not interrupt meetings, especially not in such a manner as his had.
Jun had spluttered apologies while rushing over to Tenzin's side, out of breath and eyes wide behind her glasses by the time she reached him. He had lurched quickly to his feet at the sight of her, and she looked up at him with fear on her face as she gasped, "Master Tenzin! Deputy Saikhan has just called. It's your wife and son, they were attacked on the street and are in route to the hospital -"
"Attacked?!" Tenzin exclaimed. "By whom?"
"I don't know, Sir," Jun confessed, still gasping for air. "He says that he does not think Ronen was harmed, but it was a kidnap attempt."
Tenzin did not address the council, merely thanked Jun for informing him and then darted out of the room, his heart thumping wildly in his chest, dread and worry creeping into his senses.
The council chambers were not far from the hospital, so Tenzin arrived around the same time that Lin and Ronen did. When he spotted them, he called out to his wife, just before noticing her shirt, which was once a light tan color, was dark red, soaked with her blood, the hilt of a blade protruding from her lower abdomen. She was ghostly pale and clearly hanging on to consciousness by a thread. Despite all that, she kept a firm grip on their son, who was weeping on the gurney beside of her, but looked unharmed.
Tenzin rushed over to them, grasping onto Lin's hand and being startled by how weak her grasp was. He stopped himself from questioning her on what happened, focused more on her health in that moment than the reason she was there.
She turned her head to look up at him with glassy eyes, and even that simple movement looked like it took a large amount of effort. "Ronen," was all she muttered, just as Tenzin was reaching out to lift the child up into his arms.
"Daddy," Ronen whimpered, grasping onto his father's cloak with a surprisingly strong grip. A few months ago, that word had been Ronen's first, and Tenzin had never thought the sound of it would make him feel so sick. He should have been with them that day, should have protected them. He could have lost Ronen and never heard that word again, could still lose his wife, whose eyes closed the second he had a hold on their son.
"I've got him, Lin," Tenzin murmured to her against her skin, his lips pressed to her forehead. "I've got him. I love you –"
Everything else happened so fast. The healers started moving quicker, Lin's heart rate slowed, and Tenzin and Ronen were directed to a waiting room while Lin was rushed to an operating table.
Then everything slowed down, and Tenzin and Ronen were left to wait for hours. At first, Tenzin did not move much at all except to stroke Ronen's back and whisper soothing words to his son, kissing his cheek and the top of his head and thanking the spirits that Ronen had not been taken from him. When it became apparent that they would not be seeing Lin anytime soon, Tenzin rose to his feet to stretch, and when his mind came out of the haze it had been in, he noticed that Ronen's gray pants were stained red by his mother's blood.
Unsettled, Tenzin went to the gift shop in search of something suitable to change Ronen into. He then took Ronen to the bathroom, where he cleaned the child off as well as he could in the sink and threw away his soiled clothes.
Soon after Tenzin and Ronen returned to the waiting room, one of Lin's healers, Ming, arrived with news of her condition. Exhausted from the day, Ronen had fallen asleep in his father's arms just a few minutes prior, so Tenzin and Healer Ming spoke in hushed tones.
Before Ming could even finish his explanation, Tenzin had collapsed into his seat, mindful of Ronen but too taken aback to stand a moment longer. He felt so very weak, his whole body trembling. His thoughts were conflicted in so many ways. He was so very, very relieved that Lin would survive, that she would be fully recovered within a few weeks.
But their baby.
They had lost the baby.
It was so very new, too fragile to survive something so severe, especially when the blade had been so close to snuffing out its life upon impact.
Tenzin knew that the fetus had not yet formed much at all at only seven and a half weeks, but the loss hurt all the same. Lin had just felt the first quiver of a heartbeat only twenty-four hours before the child was taken from them. Now it would not grow inside her womb for the next seven months. Tenzin would not be able to place his hands on her belly and feel it kicking against his palm. They would never know if it was meant to be a boy or a girl, if it would look like Lin or Tenzin. Their baby never got the chance to become their baby at all. Tenzin had thought that it would be their miracle baby. It had been so hard for them to conceive Ronen, and this one had been so unplanned that the surprise of it had been the best surprise Tenzin had ever been given.
Now all of that was gone.
Tenzin could feel the weight of it all on his chest, the heartbreak crushing and all-consuming. He thought of Lin and the grief she would feel and the tears began to slide down his cheeks. He needed to see his wife, he needed to know that she was okay.
Ming allowed him to see her right away, informing him that she had only just woken and therefore did not know of their loss.
Tenzin entered Lin's hospital room with slumped shoulders but a grateful smile, so relieved to see her alive.
The first thing she asked him about was Ronen, whom he assured her was just fine. The second was the person who had attacked them, which Tenzin admitted to knowing nothing about. Saikhan had spoken to him briefly to check in on Lin, and had only said that the criminal was being held in custody, and that he would let Tenzin know once he had discovered more. Lin even questioned Tenzin about his meeting, clearly avoiding the thing she really wanted the answer to.
Until finally she asked him about their unborn child.
She did not weep when he solemnly informed her of their loss. She did not even seem wholly surprised. But she went very quiet afterwards, and Tenzin knew that she was suffering in her own way. All that he could do was reach out and take hold of her hand, and he refrained from wincing when she squeezed too hard. He knew that there were no words to say, none that she wanted to hear, so he stayed quiet and let her slip back into an uneasy sleep.
He knew the pain of losing their unborn child would not fade quickly, but he knew also to be grateful for what he still had. Lin was alive, Ronen was unharmed, and they would get through this heartache together. As a family.
"How is she doing?"
Tenzin let out a weary sigh as his mother set a fresh cup of tea in front of him. He was silent for a long moment, watching as steam rolled off of the hot beverage before him and considering the question Katara had asked him. His mother had made the short trek across the island to join her son and daughter-in-law for dinner, only to find that Lin was not home and Tenzin was busy with a fussy Ronen. Katara had taken the cranky toddler from her exhausted son, and Tenzin had collapsed into a chair at the kitchen table. When Katara had finally settled her grandson and put him to bed, she returned to the kitchen to find that Tenzin had not yet moved. She'd started on making him a pot of tea, and the two had not spoken until it was ready.
Finally, Tenzin answered her with, "She's...Lin."
"So she hasn't been talking about it to you either?" Katara deduced.
"Not at all," said Tenzin. "If I bring it up she changes the subject immediately, or snaps at me for insinuating that she might need to talk about it. She's acting as if it never even happened! Sometimes I wonder if she cares at all."
"Don't say that," Katara reprimanded, seating herself across from him with her own cup of tea. "Of course she cares, she just copes with things a certain way. You have to remember that things were dealt with much differently in the Beifong household. I rarely got Toph to open up about anything, and Lin is very much like her mother in more ways than one."
"I know," Tenzin sighed again. "Of course I know that it's just...frustrating. I want to be there for her in anyway that I possibly can, but with Lin I can never tell if I'm doing enough. I know her so well and yet...sometimes I don't. Does that make me a terrible husband?"
"Of course not," Katara assured him, reaching out to grasp one of his hands on top of the table. "Marriage isn't easy, and Lin is difficult to read at the best of times. It doesn't mean you aren't doing enough. It might be good for her to talk about it, but she may also need more time to get to that point. All you can do for her now is be supportive in other ways. As long as she knows that you're there and she is loved then she'll open up when she's ready.
"It's an awful, devastating thing, to lose a child like that," Katara went on, "even if it was not yet grown. She's probably trying very hard to pretend that it had never even existed because it's easier for her to cope that way. It may not be healthy, but it's Lin's way. She'll come to you when she needs to, I'm sure of it. Until then, you have me if you need to talk. I'm sure you felt the loss just as deeply as she did, but it's different being the mother. She won't be able to support you in the way you might want. She loves you, but she can't grieve if she feels like she needs to be strong for you too."
Tenzin took a slow sip of his tea, tensing slightly when the hot liquid burned his mouth. He swallowed quickly, and then placed the cup back down onto the table as the tea seared its way down his throat and set his chest aflame. He rubbed at his tired eyes before responding, "You're right. Of course you're right, Mother. I'm just so...angry. Not at Lin, of course, but rather, angry at the man who did this to us. I don't think I've ever hated someone so much before and I don't like feeling that way."
"I know you don't, dear, but it's perfectly normal to feel angry, and you won't feel that way forever, not really. It will fade with time as the wounds heal. Speaking of which, Lin has been avoiding her last few healing sessions with me. Have you noticed if the scarring has gone down at all?"
Tenzin slumped forward, his head feeling too heavy to hold up any longer as he rested his chin in his hand. His eyes fluttered closed for half a second longer than a blink as he recalled the slight mar on the skin of his wife's abdomen. It had looked a lot worse two weeks prior when the incident had taken place, and now it was hardly visible at first glance. But Tenzin saw it every time that portion of skin was visible. Every time he was reminded of what they had lost. Not just the baby, but their peace of mind about Ronen's safety, and maybe even a part of themselves they would never get back. There were some things you couldn't come back from.
"It's looking better," Tenzin murmured, tracing the rim of his teacup with the tip of his finger. "She doesn't seem to be in pain any longer either, unless she's simply gotten better at disguising it, but I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. I'll ask her to check in with you one more time."
It was not uncommon for Lin to hide her pain, but Tenzin could usually see through her facades. She could not even stand up straight for the first few days after she had been released from the hospital. She had tried to go right back to work, but neither Tenzin or her healers would allow it. After five days she had appeared to have gotten better, but two days after that she had come home from work earlier than expected. She had been doubled over and pale white, and Tenzin knew the pain must have been immense if she had chosen to leave work on her own. She had gone to bed and not risen again until nearly forty hours later. Tenzin had had to help her to and from the bathroom, and brought her soup and tea that she hardly touched. Katara had said it was an infection caused by the wound she had suffered. Katara had healed the infection, but between that and her body's reaction to the loss of the fetus, the pain had lingered.
A few days later she was back on her feet and returned to work once more. She had hardly been home since. When she was home, she spent every second with Ronen, neglecting meals and sleep to be with him. She began working nights so that she could stay up during the day with her son. Tenzin liked to see her home, but he missed her sleeping beside of him, and he knew she was wearing herself thin with so little sleep. He could hardly sleep himself most days, and it was beginning to take a toll on him. They could not continue this way much longer, but he did not wish to burden his mother with just how bad things had become.
"I'm sorry that dinner wasn't ready," Tenzin apologized, sitting up straighter in his seat. "Lin called to say she'd be working late and Ronen wasn't cooperating and I didn't realize it had gotten so late already -"
"That's all right, Tenzin," Katara interrupted him. "Why don't I make you and Lin something?" She was already rising to her feet and searching through the cabinets before Tenzin could protest. "When it's finished, I'll stay here with Ronen and you can take the food into the city to make sure Lin gets something to eat. I take it she hasn't been eating much lately so I'll make sure it's something that won't upset her stomach. Does that sound all right?"
Katara was already placing pans onto the stove when Tenzin spluttered out a half-hearted protest. "No, really, Mother, you don't have to, it's far too much an inconvenience -"
"Nonsense," said Katara. "You aren't an inconvenience. You are my son, and Lin is practically my daughter and Ronen is my grandson. Let me do this for the three of you."
Tenzin could not find it within himself to argue further. He continued to sip at his tea - much cooler now that he had neglected it for so long - in silence while his mother worked. When dinner was nearly finished, he went to check in on Ronen, who was still sleeping peacefully, safe and content. He stayed to watch him sleep for a little longer than he intended, thinking on how he needed to remember how blessed he was to have his son.
When Tenzin returned to the kitchen, his mother had made up two plates of dinner for him, and packed them up to keep warm on his journey into the city. He thanked her with a grateful hug, and then set off into the night.
He found Lin in her office, hunched over her desk and surrounded by paperwork. She rubbed wearily at her temple and there were dark shadows under her eyes. She hardly glanced up when Tenzin entered.
"What is it?" she muttered, still writing on the scroll laid out before her.
"My mother made us dinner," Tenzin carefully explained, stepping quietly into her office and closing the door behind him. "I see you're busy so I won't take up too much of your time, but I was hoping you could take a short break. I'm assuming you haven't had dinner yet."
Lin stilled, finally looking up at her husband with tired eyes. She did not seem inclined to stop for food, and grimaced at the sight of the containers in his hand, but she surprised him when she gave a short nod. "Very well," she murmured, rising to her feet and stretching her muscles.
They met at a small table in the corner of her office. Lin settled into the slightly more comfortable chair there while Tenzin dispersed their food.
They began to eat in silence, and Tenzin wondered when the last time it was that Lin had eaten. She hardly touched her food, only taking a few small bites and pushing the rest around on her plate.
"Is the food all right?" Tenzin inquired. "For your stomach, I mean?"
"It's fine," Lin mumbled. "I'm just not very hungry."
"When was the last time you ate?"
Lin only shrugged and did not respond.
Tenzin suppressed a sigh and did not push her further. He could only eat half his meal, partially because he could not eat when Lin was not, and partially because he was too exhausted.
"Well," he eventually sighed, when they continued to spend countless minutes playing with their food rather than consuming it, "this was not an entirely fruitful endeavor."
"Sorry," Lin sighed, rubbing at her forehead and setting her chopsticks down on her plate. She looked paler than she had when he'd first entered her office, and if she was apologizing to him for no reason she obviously wasn't feeling well.
Tenzin dropped his own utensils and reached out to grasp one of Lin's hands, squeezing it gently so that she would look up at him. "You should come home with me," he carefully suggested. "You could use some rest. You'll feel better tomorrow."
Lin snorted humorlessly, retracting her hand and rising to her feet. As she began clearing away the table, she replied, "I'm gonna feel terrible tomorrow whether I sleep or not, might as well get some work done in the meantime."
Tenzin frowned, standing as well. "You should see my mother again. She told me you've skipped the last few healing sessions -"
"I don't need to see your mother," Lin growled.
"Then someone else," Tenzin implored her. "Any healer, just see someone, maybe they can help -"
"There's nothing to be done, Tenzin!" Lin exclaimed, and he was almost relieved to hear it as opposed to her quiet solemnity. "I've seen the healers, they've all said the same thing. They can't simply magic away the fact that my body expects me to be pregnant right now."
Tenzin's chest constricted, and Lin's shoulders slumped a moment later when she saw the look on her husband's face. Remembering what his mother had said, Tenzin tried to change his expression, but Lin was already looking worried and he only managed to look more guilt-ridden than before.
"I'm sorry," she repeated. "I shouldn't have...that was insensitive -"
"No, no, it's fine," Tenzin interjected, but his throat was tight and the words came out strained. "You don't have to be worried about me, Lin. I'm f - fine...I'm fine."
"No, you're not," Lin argued, looking uncomfortable as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "It's okay, Tenzin, you don't have to be fine. You're allowed to be devastated. Do you...do you need me to come home? I thought staying at work was better for you, so you wouldn't have to see…so you wouldn't have to remember…but if you want me to come home I will."
Tenzin was confused. Was she trying to comfort him? As if it was his loss and not hers? He simultaneously felt a rush of love for her and a stab of irritation. Love, because she was so selfless and sacrificed so much for him without thought, and irritation because she was still pretending not to be affected when he could see plainly that she was suffering. Physical pain had never stopped her from eating so much before, not the way that it was now. Even taking into consideration all of her current ailments, she should not be exhausting and starving herself as she was. He knew when emotional stress became too much for her, and in that moment it was sending her over the edge.
Tenzin's frustrations won out. "For Spirit's sake, Lin, be reasonable! Do not act as if this doesn't affect you. As if it is my loss and not ours. If anything, it's more yours than mine, and yet you act as if you're afraid of me falling apart. I'm heartbroken, yes, but I'm also worried about you. I can't move on from this if you're going to continue treating me like I'm broken, and I can't help you if you aren't willing to admit that you're hurt by this too. I admit, part of it must be my fault, because I've been so focused on my own pain, and I'm sorry for that…"
He suddenly leaped the distance between them to stand before her, grasping her biceps and looking deep into her eyes despite her efforts to avoid his gaze. "I'm so sorry, Lin, for making you feel like you couldn't grieve. For letting you believe that I was too fragile to carry the weight of your sorrow. But I can assure you now that I'm not. Despite my anger and my heartache, do not forget that I am still so very happy that you and Ronen are alive and that is all that matters right now. That we are together and a family and I wouldn't trade that for anything."
Lin still could not look him in the eye, her gaze darting anywhere around the room that did not include him. Her head was turned to the side and she was leaning as far away from him as possible when he held her in his grasp. He could see that her jaw was clenched so tight that a muscle was jumping in her neck. She was trembling and her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, as if to protect herself from her own emotions, to protect herself from feeling. She was so tense that it looked painful.
"Lin," Tenzin breathed, consoling but desperate. He wanted to help her but it hurt to see her that way. So uncomfortable, so lost.
And then suddenly she dropped to the floor, heaving out a lungful of air as if she had been holding her breath for a long time. She hadn't collapsed from lack of consciousness as Tenzin first feared. She did not sit on the floor or lay on her side, merely crouched down as if searching for something lost.
After a moment of surprise, Tenzin dropped down beside her, placing a tentative hand on her back and jerking away again when she flinched.
"I should have seen it coming," Lin forced out through gritted teeth, her eyes tightly closed. She was clutching at her stomach, but Tenzin thought it was less from pain and more from misery.
Tenzin shook his head abruptly, instantly asserting, "No, Lin. This is absolutely not your fault. You could not have known –"
"I should have!" she gasped, hunching over further, huddling deeper into herself. "I should have been paying better attention. He could have gotten Ronen. He got…he got…our kid."
It was as if she hadn't realized it before, or perhaps only just accepted it as truth. She lurched back up to her feet so quickly that it nearly gave Tenzin whiplash when he jerked his head back to attempt to follow her movement. He jumped to his feet just in time for Lin to crash into him, nearly sending them both sprawling, but despite their emotional turmoil they were still light on their feet. They spun around in a seemingly practiced move that saved them from a crash, and then Lin spun out of his protective grasp and retreated to the other side of the room.
Tenzin watched for a moment as she picked up a potted plant by the window and threw it to the floor with all of her considerable strength. The glass vase shattered loudly in the silence, the sound echoing jarringly around the room. The action must have been satisfying, because a moment later Lin grabbed something else and threw it at the opposite wall, where half of it lodged into the wooden wall and the other half broke off to clatter to the floor. She took two big steps over to her desk and swiped her arms across it, and the papers and plaques and writing utensils flew into the air.
Lin let out a feral cry somewhere between rage and despair, raising both arms up above her head, fists clenched, clearly about to smash them through her desk.
Tenzin got his wits about him just in time, flinging himself to the front of her desk and reaching out to catch her wrists as she brought her fists down. The momentum brought his hands down close to the desk, and it might have hurt had he been in any state to feel, but he managed to stop the motion from it's intended purpose.
Lin seemed confused for a beat when her fists did not crash into their intended target, and she looked up into her husband's eyes for one brief moment.
And then she whirled away, crossing her arms back over herself and her hands clutching the opposite biceps. She took a few jerky steps to stand before the window behind her desk, staring out at Republic City and heaving in a desperate breath of air. She held the breath for several seconds before letting it back out, slowly, deliberately, her shoulders sagging afterwards as the fight left her just as quickly as it had come.
Tenzin took his time going around the desk to return to her side once more, but before he could even reach out he was halted by a stiff hand held out to stop him.
Tenzin was not wholly deterred. He grasped desperately at the hand she'd used to stop him, clutching at it with both of his own hands. He would give her anything, he would give her the world if he could, but in that moment it was the only comfort he was allowed to offer her. He kissed her knuckles and breathed steadily through his nose to hold back the emotions welling within him, blinking away the moisture brimming in his eyes.
Lin's eyes were closed again, her free hand rubbing roughly against her face as if it were clay and she was trying to shape it into the expression she wished to portray. A few agonizing minutes passed where she continued to keep Tenzin at arms length, her chest shuddering as her breath quickened to near panic, just on the brink but not quite over the edge.
And then she responded to Tenzin's touch by tugging him in her direction.
He got the hint immediately, going directly to her side at last and sweeping her up into his arms. Her arms ended up smashed between their bodies, and she wrapped her fingers tightly around his robes. Her head came to rest on his shoulder, so that her warm, shallow breath blew against his neck with every shaky breath. He thought he must have felt a few tears leak out to dampen his robes, but she did not weep heavily, and he felt some relief at being able to have her in his embrace at last. He ran one hand up and down her back in a soothing manner, while the other gently stroked her hair. He held her as tight as he could without causing her stomach further pain.
They were silent for a long time, simply clinging to one another for comfort before Tenzin mustered the courage to murmur against her forehead, "I'm sorry I pushed you. You weren't ready to talk about it and I pushed you."
Lin shook her head slowly, the movement so subtle Tenzin almost missed it. "I never would have been ready," she admitted in a whisper. "I didn't…I couldn't face it. I couldn't face you."
"Why not?" he pressed. "You must know by now how much I love you, Lin. You must know that nothing will diminish you in my eyes."
"But I failed you," she said with clear disgust, not for him, but for herself. "I know how hard it's been for you to look at me since…I know the scar must remind you of my failings...that you feel disgust..."
She trailed off and heaved in a breath of air.
"No!" Tenzin said, aghast, clutching her ever closer. "No, Lin, not with you, never with you. I was just…so full of hatred for the man that did this, to us, to you, to our unborn child. I never thought you responsible in anyway, not at all. I'm so sorry I ever made you feel that way, that I didn't realize what you were seeing. I swear to you, I swear I never blamed you, not once."
"But I should have been paying better attention," Lin moaned, going limp against him. "Especially with Ronen there and the...I should have...I should have anticipated the danger before it ever got that close."
"No one could have seen that coming, Lin," Tenzin said firmly. "No one should have to anticipate something like that. All of the fault lies with that monster. You are not to blame, do you hear me?"
Lin nodded against his chest but did not respond.
Tenzin held her for a while longer, until she had relaxed enough for him to convince her to return home with him. By the time he got her into bed, she was asleep before her head even hit the pillow, having gone so long with so little sleep that their emotional moment had completely sucked the life out of her. Katara returned to her own home, and Tenzin went to check in on Ronen, standing vigil by the boy's crib for a few long moments before returning to his wife. He settled into bed beside her, wrapping himself around her and falling asleep nearly as quickly as she had despite all that was on his mind.
They slept soundly that night for the first time since the incident, intertwined both physically and spiritually, at peace together. The tragedy would not be forgotten, but they would navigate through their grief together. Though their dreams were marred by unsettling nightmares for another few weeks, they were able to return to some sense of normalcy. Lin did not avoid her husband or sleep, and Tenzin could relax knowing now that Lin would open up to him. Lin and Ronen's attacker was sentenced to a lengthy stay in prison, and Lin's health improved shortly after.
A few months later, long after the family of three had recovered as much as they were able and returned to their regular routines, the White Lotus interrupted them during dinner one evening to inform them that the Avatar had been found at last.
Chapter Text
Chapter 19
A few months later, long after the family of three had recovered as much as they were able and returned to their regular routines, the White Lotus interrupted them during dinner one evening to inform them that the Avatar had been found at last.
It was a four year old girl from the Southern Water Tribe.
Her name was Korra, and when Lin heard the news she felt her stomach drop. She had known, of course, that such a day would come, but she had never realized just how soon. Aang's death felt like a memory from a lifetime ago, and yet it still evoked feelings of despair that Lin was hopeless to avoid. To discover that Aang's spirit now lived in the body of a child only brought back all those memories. Many of them were good memories, and all of his family had moved on from their grief over his passing, but the sorrow of losing him had never really faded.
Lin knew that Tenzin must be feeling a mixture of emotions, but he did not show them. He was calm and collected when they were given the news, and even managed a smile that made him look genuinely pleased. Then again, perhaps his excitement was sincere. After all, he would be seeing his father again, in a sense, and he was no longer the last airbender. Finally he would have someone to teach all of the things he had learned from his father all those years ago.
Lin, on the other hand, was not even remotely thrilled. She had little desire to meet the child who had taken Aang's place, regardless of whether or not his spirit lived on inside of the girl. Lin was simply glad that her own mother hadn't been the Avatar, because there was no way she would train some snot-nosed kid walking around with her mother's spirit inside them. It sounded to Lin like torture, to have to be reminded constantly of a person you once loved by watching someone young and naive misusing their talents and disregarding the spirit that lived on inside of them.
Meeting Korra did not make Lin feel any better.
She had taken off a few days from work to travel to the South Pole with Tenzin, Ronen, and Katara. She really hadn't wanted to, but she knew that she was needed to support her husband and Katara, whether they admitted to needing her there or not. Both of them had seemed excited about the news, but they must have been feeling just as much fear as Lin was. After all, what if the kid was a nightmare?
The two of them had been prepared for this moment though, whereas Lin really had not. She had known that it would happen, but she had never really put much thought into it. Aang hadn't discussed it with her like he had Tenzin and Katara. Lin was not meant to play a pivotal role in the new Avatar's life, so what did it matter what her opinion on the whole issue was? She would not be training Korra or taking on any real responsibility for the girl. However, she was Tenzin's wife and Aang had been like a father to her, so it seemed only logical that she would be interacting with the new Avatar on some level. Not to mention the fact that Korra would likely come to Republic City one day, and as Chief of Police, Lin was an important figure that had to maintain relations with other important figures. Regardless of her feelings for the kid, Lin would have to accept her role and support her family. Besides, it was too soon to tell what kind of person the Avatar would grow up to be. She was only a child now, and Lin could not hate a child no matter her misgivings.
Korra was a spitfire of a girl, and Lin's first thoughts upon meeting her were that she was nothing like Aang had been. Her parents, Tonraq and Senna, were kind and seemingly mild-tempered, whereas Korra was brash and impatient. Lin was wary of how the young girl might turn out, but Tenzin and Katara were apparently thrilled. Lin could understand her husband's joy at the possibility of training an airbender, since she had so far been inadequate at providing him with one, and so she kept her reservations mostly to herself.
Even Ronen seemed to have taken a liking to the Avatar as well, and spent most of their stay at the South Pole following the older child around. Although that might have been more about the fact that he hadn't been able to interact much with other children in his two years of life. Kya's kids; Koda, Ashok, and Akira, were much older than him at thirteen, eleven, and eight years old, and there were only a handful of young children on Air Temple Island, and all of them were in the wrong age range too. Izumi's kids were around the same age as Kya's kids, and Lin and Tenzin hardly ever made a visit to the Fire Nation anyway. Some of Su's kids were the only ones even close to Ronen's age, and Lin still hadn't allowed any visits from them since the birthday party invite that they had thankfully declined.
However, seeing Ronen with Korra made Lin realize that maybe she was sheltering him too much. Lin still wanted nothing to do with her sister and it was doubtful that would change anytime soon, but she could admit - begrudgingly - that perhaps she was being selfish in denying Ronen a chance at happiness. Lin would really do anything for her son, which is why, about a month after returning from the South Pole, she finally overcame her stubbornness and told Tenzin that he could invite Su and her family to the island to meet Ronen. She remained firm that she would speak very little to Su, but she could stand to put up with her sister for a little while if it meant that Ronen had some company.
She pretended not to notice that it had already been nine months since she'd lost what was meant to be her second child. If Tenzin had noticed he didn't say anything, but he spent a lot more time meditating.
Tenzin had written to Su and her family a few days later, and it was as he was preparing the letter to be sent off that his mother came knocking at their door.
Lin had just settled Ronen down for a nap, and she walked out into the kitchen to find her husband making tea. Katara was seated at the table, looking at peace but perhaps slightly nervous. The reason for her hesitation became clear when she told Lin and Tenzin why she had come to visit.
"You're what?" Tenzin spluttered, when his mother had finished speaking. "You want to move to the South Pole? But why?!"
"I think it's time I moved on from here," Katara gently explained. "Ronen's getting bigger now so you don't need much help from me anymore. I know you intend to expand your family too at some point, and you'll need more room than just this place to raise children in. I have no need for such a large home anymore so I'd like the two of you to have it. I think my time would be better spent training Korra."
"But why move there?" Tenzin questioned. "You could travel -"
"I'm getting too old to be traveling back and forth," Katara interrupted. "And Korra is going to need all the help she can get. Training the Avatar is something I'm good at, and there's not much keeping me here anymore. You have your own family now, Tenzin, and so does Kya, and Bumi's life revolves around the United Forces. I've done all that I can for you, and now I'm needed elsewhere."
Tenzin opened his mouth, no doubt prepared to argue further, but Lin placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Your mother is right, Tenzin. She should go to the South Pole to be with Korra."
"You agree with this?" Tenzin said, aghast. "But what if something goes wrong down there? Or if things go wrong here? Ronen -"
"Ronen will be fine," Lin interjected. "We'll make do. And your mother can take care of herself. It's not as if we'll never see her again. I'm sure she'll come to visit as often as she is able, and we can go see her anytime we want."
It took a long time for Tenzin to come around.
He was angry at his mother, and at Lin for agreeing with her. Lin had never realized how much of a momma's boy her husband was, but rather than irritate her like she thought it would, it mostly just amused her. She knew he'd come around eventually.
After work each night for the following weeks, Lin and Ronen helped Katara pack. Although Ronen mostly made a mess rather than actually help, he was entertained at least. Tenzin refused to be a part of it, up until Lin threatened him with bodily harm. Once Katara's things had been packed, stored, or given away, Lin and Tenzin began to move their own belongings across the island to what would be their new home.
The letter Tenzin had meant to send to Su had been all but forgotten in the midst of Katara's imminent departure, until Tenzin happened upon it one evening while packing some of he and Lin's belongings. He sent the letter the day before Katara was due to leave, so that by the time Su responded, Katara would be settled in at the South Pole, and Lin and Tenzin's old house would be available for Su's family to stay for a few days.
Kya and her husband, Kole, who also lived in the South Pole, volunteered to come to Air Temple Island to retrieve Katara and the few possessions she decided to take with her. Kole's family was watching the kids while he and Kya were helping Katara, so the couple spent that night on Air Temple Island with the intentions of making the journey back to the South Pole the following morning.
The last evening with Katara put Tenzin in a mood, so after dinner that night Kya coerced Kole into entertaining her little brother. Katara had gone to bed early, and Kole took Tenzin out into the city to get drinks. Tenzin had initially protested wholeheartedly, and Lin hadn't been particular fond of the idea either. Tenzin didn't drink, but on the few occasions that he had, Lin had always been there with him. It wasn't as if she didn't trust her husband, but she definitely didn't trust other women - especially after the whole Pema incident - nor did she know for certain how much she could really trust Kole. Kya and Kole might have been married for longer than Lin and Tenzin had, but Lin still didn't know him very well. Then again, if he could tame Kya, she figured he must have some sense. Besides, Tenzin needed to loosen up about his mother's departure, and perhaps a guy's night out would be good for him. She couldn't remember the last time either one of them had been out with other people. Not only that, but Lin didn't believe that Kya had sent Kole away simply to shut Tenzin up. There was clearly something going on between her and her husband, and Lin thought Kya needed the time away from her spouse more than the rest of them, so she wisely kept her mouth shut on the matter and prodded Tenzin to go out with Kole.
Once the two men had gone, Lin settled down on the couch - one of the few items left in their home - in she and Tenzin's living room, Ronen half asleep in her arms. Kya disappeared for a while, claiming to have forgotten something at her mother's house across the island, and Lin used the time to rock Ronen to sleep. The boy was cranky, having been awake far too late due to the company and all the excitement. His Aunt Kya loved to play with him and spoil him on the very few occasions he got to see her, and she'd had him laughing so hard at one point Lin was afraid he wouldn't catch his breath. It was great to see Ronen so happy, but Lin was still a bit selfish with her son and, of course, overprotective, so she'd made excuses about changing him before Kya could start another round of tickling him until his face turned bright red. Lin didn't think Kya would ever do anything to harm Ronen, unintentionally or otherwise, but she was still a bit overly cautious. She wondered if that would fade as he got older or only grow progressively worse.
By the time Kya returned, Ronen had fallen blissfully asleep against his mother's chest. Lin continued to rub his back in soothing circles, and when Kya walked into the sitting room, she motioned for her sister-in-law to be quiet. Kya dutifully zipped her lips while Lin rose and carefully carried Ronen down the hall to his bedroom, where she kissed him on the forehead and gently lowered him into his crib. She waited a few moments, rubbing his chest to keep him calm and at rest and watching him breath steadily. Then she slowly withdrew, shutting his door only halfway and returning to the room where Kya waited, sprawled out on the couch with her feet propped up on the coffee table.
Lin noticed then that Kya was nursing a dusty bottle of sake that looked like it had been stowed away, untouched, for several years. There were two short glasses, one on the coffee table and one in Kya's hand, both of them filled to the brim.
Lin let out a heavy sigh as she dropped down rather ungracefully beside Kya, reaching out to pick up her own glass and scrutinizing the contents. "How old is this stuff?" Lin questioned warily.
"Not as old as you'd think," Kya snorted, holding her glass out to clink against the rim of Lin's before taking a large gulp. Lin followed suit, forcing herself not to cough when the harsh liquid burned her throat and scorched a path down her chest to settle warmly in her belly. Her eyes watered, but she blinked the moisture away and breathed in steadily through her nose. Kya sighed contentedly, settling down even further into the couch cushions. "Bumi and I try to replace what we drink every time we visit," she explained. "But we've got a couple back up bottles hidden around the island too. This one isn't the oldest. I think it's from you and Tenzin's wedding if I'm not mistaken."
"Sounds old then," Lin muttered, taking another sip. She didn't dare gulp it down like she might have in the past. Ronen was sleeping in the next room and she'd need to stay alert.
Kya had no such reservations, and drained her glass before bitterly responding, "I've been married a lot longer than you, Lin." She chuckled afterwards, as if to bring some levity to her words, but it sounded forced.
"Is that what this is about? You're sick of being married?" Lin questioned, going straight to the point. Lin had never been one to tiptoe around a subject, nor was Kya, and the two women had known each other long enough to speak frankly with one another even if they had not seen much of one another in a long time. Idly, Lin considered the fact that she thought of Kya as more of a sister to her than her actual sister. Lin and Su had never had deep personal conversations even before their feuding.
Kya tensed up at Lin's words, wincing and quickly refilling her glass with sake. She took another long draw from it before murmuring, "You're so good with Ronen, Lin." The complete change of topic nearly gave Lin whiplash, but she didn't protest. Kya clearly had a particular train of thought she wanted to divulge before getting to the heart of the matter. "I can tell that you love him very much."
"Yes, I do," Lin admitted easily, taking a bigger sip of her own drink, silently thinking that she was going to need it if she was reading correctly into Kya's carefully chosen words.
"So you don't regret it then?" Kya asked, just as bluntly as Lin had been only moments ago. Lin looked over at her sister-in-law sharply, and Kya quickly clarified, "I don't mean that you wish he wasn't born or anything like that just...do you ever wish your life had turned out differently? That you hadn't been forced to create this life in order to be with Tenzin?"
"I love Tenzin," Lin said firmly, draining the last of her glass and holding it out for a refill.
"I know you do," Kya said, dutifully refilling Lin's glass.
"And Ronen is…" Lin struggled to find the right words. "He's…well he's everything."
Kya nodded in understanding, staring into the clear liquid in her glass as if it contained all of life's secrets. "Of course," she conceded, "but you never wanted this life before. You still struggle with it, even now. It eats away at you sometimes, doesn't it?"
She turned her searching gaze onto Lin, who would have squirmed under Kya's scrutiny if she had been the type of person to be easily unhinged. As it were, she was very adept at containing her own feelings on an issue, a skill honed through years of interrogating criminals. Not to mention growing up with a blind mother who somehow managed to see everything.
"I didn't know what I was missing out on before," Lin said, instead of the first thought that had come to mind, the thought of the baby she'd lost several months ago.
Kya saw right through her., a sorrowful look overtaking her features. "I'm so sorry, Lin. When I heard about what happened I…that must have been hard, for you and Tenzin. I was glad to hear that bastard is gonna be in prison for a very long time, but I know it doesn't bring back what you lost."
Lin shrugged and took a long drink from her glass, still not particularly comfortable with the whole subject. She didn't know how she was supposed to react and she hated when people apologized to her for things they hadn't done.
"I lost one too, you know?" Kya said plainly. Lin struggled to contain her surprise, but still said nothing. "Between Ashok and Akira… I didn't…it was my fault. I didn't want a third baby. I thought having my two boys was enough and…I was already feeling so…suffocated. I loved my family, of course, but I was never so tied down before. I was so tired all the time, and you'd think I'd have been used to that, but being a wife and a mother is much different from drinking and partying every other night of the week. It's a sort of bone deep exhaustion that just feels so…useless. You slave away all day and for what? The house is always a wreck, dinner is never done on time and the kids do whatever they want no matter how good a parent you are…"
She sighed heavily, and Lin remained silent, suspecting she wasn't finished.
Kya refilled her glass a third time and drained it in one shot this time. She shuddered, and then continued, "Anyway, I was having trouble coping and I started drinking, going out with friends… trying to relive a past that wasn't available to me anymore. I didn't know I was pregnant until I woke up from a night of drinking and…" She swallowed forcefully and refilled her glass, but did not drink it yet. "I never told Kole. He knew something was wrong but I couldn't face him. I couldn't tell him what I'd done. I sobered up again and he thought I had finally taken his words to heart. I let him believe he had fixed me.
"And then about a year later Akira came along and I thought it was a sign. Maybe being a wife and a mother was my path in life and I just needed to accept it instead of chasing glory days that were long gone. Except, I didn't realize that it wasn't the old days that I was chasing, not really. It wasn't that I missed drinking and staying out all hours of the night. What I missed was the freedom to do it. As a mother you have to be there for your kids. As a wife you have your duties to your husband. As a Healer your patients rely on you to keep them alive. There isn't anymore room for you to be yourself. I don't even know who I really am anymore."
After she was finished, Kya drank half of her liquor and Lin finished her second glass in one swallow. She didn't ask for another refill despite the urge to purge this whole conversation from her mind. She could feel a warmth spreading through her body and her mind was blissfully fuzzy, but clear enough for her to remain coherent.
Kya finally looked over at Lin again, her gaze imploring. "Please tell me you understand some of this. I'm not completely crazy, am I?"
Lin considered her next words carefully before answering. "I don't think you're crazy," she said.
"So you feel it too then?"
"No," Lin admitted. "It isn't like that for me, but I think I understand some of it."
Kya's shoulders slumped slightly, but she smiled wryly. "I kind of figured. You're too good with Ronen to have any doubts. Funny how it works, isn't it? Neither of us wanted kids or a family, yet here we both are… I may not have it together, but you've clearly thrived, Lin. I'll admit I'm a little jealous."
"Do you think it can't be the same for you?" Lin asked, sincerely curious. "Is it really so impossible for you to thrive? Perhaps you're looking at this all the wrong way. You act as if having a family is a prison sentence, but you love them, don't you?"
"Of course," Kya said, but with little conviction. She just sounded weary. "But they deserve better than me. They deserve someone like you, someone who is there one hundred and ten percent."
"I'm not perfect," Lin argued. "I can't even count the number of times Tenzin and I have argued over my dedication to my work."
Kya simply waved that away. "So you're flawed, but despite your flaws you still manage to be there for your family. You still manage to give them all of you, while simultaneously dedicating yourself to a service that defines you. You can do both and not lose part of who you are, whereas I can't. I don't even know what defines me. I don't like being a wife. I love my kids but I don't love being a mother. I love to help people, but I don't love being a healer. None of those things defines me. I'm forty-five years old, Lin. I've lived half my life already and I still don't know who I am."
"But is it really necessary to know?" Lin countered. "Why do you need to be defined by anything? You are who you are. I know your father liked to preach about spiritual paths but you and I always thought it was a bunch of nonsense right? So who cares what you're meant to do? What do you want to do?"
"That's just it!" Kya exclaimed in clear frustration. "I don't know what I want. I just know that it's not this. Every night I go to bed hoping I'll wake up in another life. Every morning I consider running away. And I know it's awful. I know I'm a terrible mother for thinking it, but…I get closer and closer to doing it with every passing day."
Both women were still and silent for a long moment, both wearing grim expressions. And then Lin reached over and grabbed the bottle of sake, drinking two huge gulps straight from the bottle.
Eyes watering and chest aflame, Lin passed the bottle back to Kya and croaked, "Have you talked to Kole about this?"
"Kole knows it," Kya confirmed. "We fight all the time. I told him I wanted a divorce last month."
Lin's eyes widened. "Really?"
"He won't accept it," Kya shrugged. "That's why he came with me to get Mom. He thought I'd run off if I came alone. I can't honestly say with certainty that I wouldn't have."
"Spirits, Kya," Lin said in astonishment. "You're serious about this?"
"I don't think I've been so serious in all my life," Kya laughed, but there was no humor to her voice.
"But what about your kids?" Lin pressed. "If you want to divorce Kole then you have to do what you think is right. I'd never tell you to stay in a marriage you aren't happy in, but your kids need you."
"I know," Kya sighed, looking weary beyond her years. "They're the only thing that's kept me around this long. But I can't help feeling they'd be better off. How can I teach them to be true to themselves if I'm not even true to myself?"
It was a tough question, one that Lin wasn't sure she knew the answer to. She couldn't imagine leaving Ronen for anything, but if Kya truly was miserable, was it fair of her to subject her children to her indifference?
Silence descended upon them again, and Lin began to wonder how she had failed to notice any of this. She had always known that Kya was a free spirit. She had been surprised, all those years ago, when Kya had agreed to marry Kole, but she had simply thought that Kya loved him enough to change. After all, hadn't Lin done the same thing for Tenzin? She hadn't yearned for marriage or children either, but she loved Tenzin more than she loved anything else, so that marrying him seemed the only logical choice. The only choice she wanted to truly consider. She didn't want to imagine a world without him so she had made sure that there was no life without him.
Ronen had only strengthened her resolve to hold onto her family until her very last breath. Losing what would have been her second child had been a shocking blow more devastating than she could have imagined, and she had struggled to come to terms with it. Even now it still made her stomach turn, but it hadn't made her reject the idea of having more children. If anything it only made her more certain that having more was the right thing to do. Not just to continue the airbending race or to make Tenzin happy, but because it was something she truly desired. Ronen made her so happy that surely another child would only add to that.
It seemed that Kya did not feel the same about any of that. Kya hadn't wanted more children. It almost seemed as if she hadn't ever wanted children at all, but had done it because Kole wanted them, because everyone had expected her to settle down. Despite her independence, Kya had always been a people pleaser, that Lin had always known, but had she really taken it as far as she had simply because it was expected of her?
Then again, could Lin really judge her when she had essentially made the same decisions herself? Except the crucial difference was that Lin had been driven by other factors, most notably her love for Tenzin, the kind of love Kya might never have had for Kole. Lin had been fortunate to have a fiercely independent mother that had never impressed on Lin an importance to get married or have kids if Lin had not desired it, and so it hadn't been a choice of duty, only a decision on what Lin could or could not live without. While Aang and Katara had never pressured their children to live traditional lives, they hadn't exactly exposed them to much else. Nearly all of the children of "Team Avatar" had dreamed of having a love like Aang and Katara, and everyone of them had felt some sense of duty to honor their parents' legacies in some way or another.
Lin and Tenzin had felt it most strongly, and had followed almost directly in their parents' footsteps for their chosen careers. Izumi was now the Fire Lord of the Fire Nation, and there had never been any doubt when they were children that she would be. Even Bumi, despite being wild and unchained, had joined the United Forces as soon as he came of age and had risen swiftly through the ranks. Perhaps that was part of why Su had acted out so much as a child. She was the youngest of all of them, and therefore had a long way to go before she could even catch up to her sister and the Fire Nation Princess and the Avatar's kids. She hadn't been as much a part of the group because she was too young to join them. And yet, in the end, despite all her mistakes and nearly getting thrown in jail, she had gotten married, had five kids, and built an entire city.
So then what options were left for Kya? She was not the Lord of a Nation, nor the leader and creator of an entire city. She was not a Commander in the Army or the Chief of Police of Republic City. She was not the only living airbender or a distinguished politician of Republic City, and though she was an exceptional healer and just as much a master of her bending as the rest of them, she still wouldn't be considered "the best" so long as Katara was around.
Her parents had not insisted on her being married and having children, but they had wanted her to settle down, under the pretense of it giving them a better piece of mind. They had fostered their older children's free spirited personalities, but they had also worried that their wild sides would be dangerous or get them into serious trouble. Su had been a perfect example of how wrong things could go back in those days. If Kya could not be contained by a particular work ethic like Bumi, then marriage seemed the only other logical choice.
It couldn't have helped that single women were still not recognized as prominently in society. Toph had paved the way for some social acceptance in Republic City at least, but even she had faced judgement. Having two children out of wedlock with two different fathers was not unheard of, but it typically wasn't something that was applauded either. Even Lin and Su themselves had been treated differently on a few rare occasions, as if they were lesser because they were "bastards." They might have faced more ridicule if it weren't for the fact that people typically didn't mess with Beifongs if they didn't want to get their teeth knocked out.
Kya had been doomed from the start, and now she felt trapped in a life she didn't want and didn't fit into. Was it understandable for her to want out? Or should she have to face facts and accept her fate, at least until her children were grown?
Eventually, Lin asked, "Are you really so miserable that you couldn't possibly stand to raise your children for the remaining years until they're of age at least?"
Kya shuddered, but whether it was from Lin's question or the liquor, Lin did not know. "Akira is only eight years old," Kya replied in a near whisper. "That's at least ten more years, Lin."
"So take a vacation then," Lin suggested, her voice gruff now, and not from the liquor this time.
"That'll only delay the inevitable," Kya said forlornly, refilling her glass yet again.
"Then take a couple vacations," Lin pressed, sitting forward and turning slightly to face Kya more fully. "Take some time for yourself, but come home to your kids. Maybe you just need to get away from Kole for a little while."
Kya shook her head and took a drink from her recently filled glass, and Lin noticed that her eyelids were starting to droop. "It isn't just Kole," Kya said.
"How can you know that if you haven't had the opportunity to get away from him?" Lin's irritation was growing steadily, and she snatched the bottle of sake out of Kya's hands while saying, "Give me that!"
Kya looked offended by Lin's actions, eyes widening as she instantly reached back out for the bottle. "Hey! I'm not finished with that."
"Yes, you are," Lin countered, swatting Kya's hands away. "You've had enough."
"Don't mother me, Lin," Kya warned, sitting up slowly, her muscles tensed.
Lin was not deterred in the least. "Someone ought to because you're acting like a child."
"I didn't come here to be talked down to." Kya rose unsteadily onto her feet, swaying slightly.
"Why did you come?" Lin demanded. "Were you hoping I'd run off with you like when we were kids? We aren't kids anymore, Kya –"
"I came here hoping for some understanding!" Kya burst out, thrusting her arms out wide and nearly tipping over. "I thought you were my friend, Lin. I thought that I could confide in you."
"Well you thought wrong," Lin said with some genuine regret. Kya was like a sister to her, but she couldn't sit by and let Kya make what could be the worst mistake of her life. "I can't understand why you would want to abandon your family, your kids. Have you even thought this through? Have you considered the repercussions?"
"It's all I've thought of for months!"
"Well think harder!" Lin fired back. "Think of what this will do to your kids. Think of the heartache you'll cause all on a whim that you're not living the right life. Who gives a damn what your path is in life? The fact of the matter is that you have kids and you're responsible for –"
Kya made a noise of disgust in the back of her throat, loud enough to cut Lin off. "I'm so sick of hearing that word. For Spirit's sake we've been hearing that word all our lives! We have to be responsible with our bending. We have to be responsible for our actions. We're responsible for maintaining a good public image. We're responsible for carrying out our parents' legacies –"
"It's called being an adult," Lin fumed. "Nobody likes being an adult, Kya, but that's life. You can't just decide to start acting like a child again because you're bored."
"That's not what this is about," Kya argued.
"Then what is it?" Lin exclaimed. "Please explain to me what could possibly be so important that you're willing to give up everything. Have you even considered what this will do to your children?"
"Of course I have."
"I don't think you have! Because I'll tell you what's going to happen. They're going to hate you. If you really think you need to go running off on some adventure of discovery right now, fine, but don't expect any of us to be here waiting when you get back."
Kya reeled back as if she'd been slapped, and an uncomfortable silence stretched out between them. Neither woman was prone to backing down and neither of them blinked.
Until Ronen cried out for his mother from down the hall, and Lin instinctively turned in that direction.
She looked once more at Kya, who's face showed resolve and a stubborn determination that never boded well for anyone who disagreed with her. "I think I should go," Kya said.
"Yes," Lin agreed, "I think you should."
Lin said no more and did not stick around to see if Kya had anything left to say. She placed the bottle of sake down on the coffee table and went to console her son. When she returned to the living room, bouncing a cranky Ronen in her arms, both Kya and the bottle of liquor were gone.
Tenzin walked through the front door ten minutes later, by which time Lin had already managed to soothe Ronen halfway back to sleep. The kid was too tired to fight it, and he barely stirred when his father entered the living room.
"He's still awake?" Tenzin murmured, his voice low to keep from waking Ronen again and concern on his face. Lin was somewhat surprised that he didn't appear to be drunk, but then again, it was Tenzin after all. He was always the responsible one.
"He was asleep," Lin whispered gruffly, still bothered by her conversation with Kya. "He got woken up when I was arguing with your sister."
Tenzin joined Lin and Ronen on the couch, and it was then that she saw that his eyes were a bit glassy. He seemed mostly sober though so she didn't comment.
"Why were you arguing? I ran into Kya on my way here," he said. "She seemed…agitated."
Lin snorted, and was relieved when Ronen didn't stir. "Yeah, well, she didn't like some of the things I had to say to her."
"I'm assuming she told you about her desire to divorce Kole?"
"Among other things," Lin replied wearily, not surprised that Kole had seemingly divulged that information to Tenzin while they were out. "I take it Kole discussed it with you?"
Tenzin shrugged. "He was too drunk to make much sense. I practically had to carry him back to the island. He just said Kya wanted a divorce, that she was leaving and he didn't know how to stop it. What did she say to you?"
Lin sucked in a deep breath, unsure where to start or how to tell her husband that his sister was planning on running out on her own kids. "She's unhappy," Lin began carefully. "Not just with Kole, but with everything. She hates her life and claims she doesn't know who she is anymore. She wants to run off and find herself I guess."
Tenzin's brows drew closer together as his lips formed a frown. He must have been catching on, but still he asked, "What about the kids? Is she trying to take them from Kole?"
Lin merely shook her head, and Tenzin's expression rapidly morphed into disbelief and then outrage. "She wants to leave them?" he hissed, somehow still mindful of Ronen.
"That's what I gathered, yes," Lin bitterly confirmed. "I think she came to me looking for support, but I basically told her she was being an idiot." Tenzin suddenly leapt to his feet, and Lin quietly demanded, "Where are you going?"
"To find Kya," he answered in a voice of deadly calm. He was clearly enraged, something rare in Tenzin despite the fact that his temper nearly matched his wife's, and Lin really shouldn't have found it as alluring as she did.
"You can't go now," Lin protested.
"Why not?"
"Because it's the middle of the night, and you won't make a difference right now anyways. She heard what I had to say on the matter and now she needs to think it over. She's probably too drunk right now to even understand a word you say. We'll wait until morning, when we're all more rational."
Lin's clear headed approach seemed to soothe Tenzin, because he didn't continue walking to the front door, but began pacing instead. It wasn't often that she was the rational one when it came to arguing a point, but she could be when she needed to be.
"I just can't believe this," Tenzin spluttered, and if he had any hair on his head he probably would have been tearing it out. "How can she be so irresponsible? She's forty-five for Spirit's sake! What is she thinking?"
"She's not, apparently," Lin muttered, looking down at Ronen. He was deeply asleep now, lips puckered so that his steady breaths puffed against the side of her neck. Even in sleep he clung to her shirt with a slack grip, at peace and safe there in his mother's arms. For a brief moment, Lin allowed herself to imagine what it would be like to leave her son, now or further down the road, and she was instantly struck by an immense sorrow that would have made her sob if she hadn't shut that image out of her head immediately. It simply wasn't something that she could ever do. Ronen was old enough by now to know that he trusted her, that he loved her, that he needed her, and the thought of leaving him to fend for himself in this world was unthinkable. Only a few months ago he had cried nearly every time she left him just to go to work. For her to leave him and not come back…
Tenzin must have sensed the stormy thoughts swirling through her mind, because he suddenly rejoined her on the couch, and scooted closer until she could feel the entirety of his warmth against her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. He didn't say anything, but his presence was enough to soothe her troubled thoughts. Whatever Kya was feeling, Lin could not understand it. There was no risk of her abandoning her own son. And perhaps Kya would not act on her desire to leave. Perhaps, once she was home with her children again, she would see reason.
The following morning, Lin, Tenzin, and Ronen walked across the island to what would soon be their own home to see Katara off. Lin was relieved to see that Kya had not snuck off in the middle of the night while no one was watching, although she did look as if she'd finished off the entire bottle of sake after leaving Lin. Kole didn't look any better, and there was a stiffness between the couple that made the whole encounter awkward. It didn't help that Tenzin was astutely ignoring his sister and Kya wouldn't look Lin in the eye.
Katara must have caught onto the tension, but she didn't comment on it. She focused most of her attention on Ronen, who didn't have a clue what was going on, but must have understood that his grandmother "going to a new house," as his father had explained to him, meant that he would not be seeing her as often, because he was clinging to her more than his parents for once. Ronen had spent nearly as much time with his grandmother in the last two years of his life as he had his parents, and Lin worried what it would be like a week from now when he decided he wanted to visit Gran Gran.
Eventually, Lin was able to coax Ronen out of Katara's grasp so that the older woman could board the waiting ship to start her journey. Kya and Kole were already there waiting, on separate ends of the ship, to allow Tenzin to have a moment with his mother and also to get away from the uncomfortable atmosphere.
Tenzin and Katara exchanged tearful goodbyes, and even Lin was a bit choked up. It would be odd not having her mother-in-law around after so many years of sharing the island with her, and she knew it must be difficult for Katara to leave the place that had been her home for so long.
After Katara boarded the ship, Lin, Tenzin, and Ronen watched it take off. They stood there at the docks, wrapped around one another in silence, until the ship had vanished from sight. It was only then that Lin realized they had never bothered to say anything further to Kya about her desires to run off. Lin could only hope that her sister-in-law wouldn't act on whatever urges she was having. She hoped Kya would do the right thing. And she hoped, too, that she would find that happiness she was so desperately looking for.
Chapter Text
Chapter 20
Almost two weeks after Katara had moved to her new home in the South Pole, Su wrote back to Tenzin saying that she and her family would come to visit in just a few weeks. When Lin was first told the news, she was busy with work and she simply cast the thought aside, unwilling to accept the idea of dealing with her sister without becoming outrageously angry.
Katara wrote to say that she was settling in well at the South Pole, and there was no news of Kya running off so Lin hoped that maybe she had seen reason. Either that or she was plotting a day in the future. Lin wondered if it was her place to track Kya down and beat some sense into her if the older woman did decide to take off. Considering the rant Tenzin had gone on about his sister shortly after she had left, Lin wouldn't be surprised if he went and tracked her down himself to drag her back home. Hopefully that day would not come.
It wasn't until two days before Su's arrival that Tenzin reminded Lin of her sister's upcoming visit. Dread set in immediately, and the thought of Su and her family coming to the island weighed heavily on Lin's mind for the following two days. Part of her considered spending the three days they would be visiting at work to avoid her sister, but she wanted to be around to keep an eye on Ronen and the five other kids that would be running around the island. It was still so very strange to think that her little sister was married and had so many kids. Lin never would have guessed in a million years that Su would ever settle down, but she could admit that it was probably the best thing Su had ever done. At least Su wasn't trying to run off like Kya anyway…yet.
The days flew by and, sooner than Lin would have liked, she was down at the docks with Tenzin and Ronen, watching her sister stride off the ship that had brought her to the island. She had a baby boy on either hip, her eldest son trailing behind her. Her husband had a hold on a small girl's hand, and their second son was the last to step off the boat. Tenzin greeted each of them, with a hug for Su and a short bow for Bataar and Bataar Jr. Lin made sure to commit their names and faces to memory, but did not speak. The family was content not to acknowledge her at first, the children seemingly afraid and Su simply knew better. Ronen hid his face against his mother's neck, suddenly shy with so many strangers around.
Tenzin led the group up to the main house, where he and his family lived now that his mother had left. Su's kids and Bataar were in awe, and Tenzin was enjoying telling them all about Air Temple Island while Lin and Ronen lagged behind the group. It all just seemed so unreal, and Lin could not fathom how she had gotten to this point. She was feeling queasy and she wanted to hold on tight to Ronen and run away while the others weren't looking, but she had gotten herself into this and she would have to see it through. Lin Beifong ran from nothing.
Once they all made it to the house and crowded together in the foyer, Lin had no choice but to join in on the ensuing conversation. She stayed close to the outer wall, moving quickly around the group until she had slipped past Su's family and took her place at Tenzin's side. It meant that she was facing them all now, but it was better to be with Tenzin.
"Hello, Lin," Su said first, locking eyes with her older sister for the first time, and everyone else went very quiet.
"Su," Lin said shortly.
There was a long silence, and then Su's husband stepped forward and gave a low bow. "Hello, Chief Beifong," he said kindly. "I'm Su's husband, Bataar. It's nice to finally meet you. Your husband and sister have told me a lot about you."
Lin hesitated, but eventually tilted her head in acknowledgement. "Call me Lin. And I'm afraid I haven't heard much about the man who managed to tame my sister."
"Lin," Tenzin admonished quietly.
"That's all right," Su interjected with a short laugh. "Bataar did have his work cut out for him when we first met. More importantly, though, I'd love to finally meet this handsome boy on your hip. Ronen..."
Su transferred Wei and Wing over to their father's arms, while Lin looked down at her own son, feeling her stomach coil at the thought of her sister taking him from her arms. She knew it was irrational, she knew she was being slightly crazy, but she had never had such a forceful need to protect someone as much as she did her son.
At the sound of his name, Ronen lifted his head slightly to peek at the grinning woman coming towards him. He smiled shyly in turn, looking up at his mother for a sign as to whether or not the stranger could be trusted. Lin forced a tiny smile of her own to show him that Su was safe – for now – and he straightened up with a bit of excitement.
"Ronen," Lin said softly, readjusting him on her hip so that he didn't have to strain his neck, "this is your Aunt Su." The words sounded strange coming out of her mouth, and she suddenly started to wonder if inviting Su had been the right choice. But she reminded herself that it was for Ronen, and it wasn't as if Lin had a lot of friends in the city with young kids, except for maybe some of her officers at the station, and she wasn't about to try and plan a play date with one of them.
"Hello, Ronen," Su said, still grinning broadly.
"Su," said Ronen shortly, testing the name out as only a two year old would, but sounding so much like his mother in that moment that the adults in the room burst out laughing.
Even Lin could not suppress a small chuckle of her own. "That's my boy," she murmured, pressing a kiss to Ronen's cheek as Tenzin's arm slipped around her waist, likely having sensed her discomfort.
Oblivious to the adults' amusement, but excited nonetheless, Ronen giggled and clapped his hands. Su's twins squealed delightedly and Opal bounced up and down on her tiptoes. Some of the tension had been broken at least.
"Well, Lin," Su said, "I admit, I almost couldn't believe you were actually a mother, but there's no doubt that he's yours. I think he's got my eyes though." Su smiled wickedly, but there was no real malice, and Lin couldn't very well deny it when she had already decided that for herself a long time ago.
Still, she scowled at her sister and half-heartedly muttered, "He's got my eyes, actually."
"Nah, they're definitely mine," Su said idly, no longer looking at Lin but focusing her attention back on Ronen. She held her hands out to him and asked, "Can I hold you, Ronen?"
The toddler looked up at his parents before deciding, only holding out his own arms when he saw his mother nod her head slightly. Su plucked him from Lin's grasp carefully but with excitement, immediately cooing and fawning over the boy once he was in her grasp. Lin could hardly understand half the things her sister said, and rolled her eyes at the display. She had never understood people and their "baby-talk." Ronen seemed confused, but he was enthralled nonetheless, watching Su intently and nodding along with a serious look on his face, like Tenzin did when he got trapped in a conversation he preferred not to be in.
Su was stunned, turning to Lin and Tenzin and saying, "Spirits, is he two years old or forty-five? He's so polite! Figures the two of you would give birth to a grown adult."
Lin scowled, but Su missed it, returning her attention to Ronen, and Tenzin pinched her arm to keep her from saying something rude.
Lin was so busy carefully watching Su interact with her son that she didn't notice the small girl approaching her until she was tugging at the leg of her pants.
Lin looked down to see Opal smiling shyly up at her. She raised a brow, wondering why on Earth the kid had approached her of all people.
"Are you my Aunt Lin?" Opal asked in a near whisper, looking timid.
Lin's stomach tightened up again as she realized what was happening around her. She had been laughing earlier, with Suyin. Su was in her house, holding her son. And now she was Aunt Lin? Technically, Kya's kids called her that already, but they were around so little, and with them it was different. They were her husband's family, and Kya had been more like a sister to her than her own, but Su's kids... Su's kids had the Beifong blood running through them just like Lin did. It was a startling feeling, one that Lin didn't really understand.
Opal was so tiny though, with her short black hair tucked neatly behind her ears, and her eyes so big and bright and green just like Ronen's. She looked so very scared but also in awe, and Lin remembered Tenzin saying how interested Opal was in hearing stories about her aunt.
Without much thought, Lin kneeled down to be eye level with the girl, trying to soften her features as she just as quietly replied, "Yeah, I'm your Aunt Lin. You must be Opal. Your Uncle Tenzin told me a lot about you."
Opal beamed, glancing up at Tenzin, who gave her a soft smile of his own. She looked back to Lin, her hands clasped tightly together. "I hope when I grow up I'm as pretty and smart and good at metalbending like you and Mama are."
"'Course you will be, kid," said Lin, giving Opal a light tap on her shoulder before wondering if Su's kids were all earthbenders. "You've got Beifong blood in ya."
Opal seemed very pleased with her aunt's response, and without warning she leapt straight at Lin, wrapping her tiny arms around her neck in a quick hug. Lin nearly fell backwards in surprise, but caught herself just in time to pat Opal a bit awkwardly on the back. Then the kid was on the move again, running back to her mother's side to ask if she could play with Ronen.
Opal and Ronen became best friends in a split second, and Lin had a feeling it was going to be difficult to separate them later. She kept a close eye on the two of them as she was introduced to the rest of Su's kids. She liked Bataar Jr. simply because he was quiet and polite. Huan was quiet too, but he was odd for an eight year old. He seemed so very bored, too much so for a child that age. A hatred for life wasn't supposed to come that early, but Lin thought to herself that she might have been a bit like that at his age too. Wei and Wing were rambunctious and likely a handful. They were still a little quiet while they were getting used to their new surroundings, but Lin had a feeling that, once they were comfortable, they would tear the place apart.
Lin eventually struck up a conversation with Bataar, while Su and Tenzin went to the kitchen to make some tea. She quickly decided that he was a decent man, if not a little eccentric, and she didn't have to wonder how someone like him had attracted her sister. He was just crazy enough to understand whatever went on in Su's head these days, but also reasonable enough to keep her on course. It seemed to Lin like his mouth couldn't keep up with his thoughts sometimes and he went off on long winded tangents and asked too many questions, but he was kind and brilliant so she couldn't really hate him.
Lin wondered what Su and Tenzin could be discussing while getting the drinks, but she didn't want to go and find out. She kept an eye on the kids while Bataar rambled and she was relieved to see that Ronen was already having a great time. At least the visit would not be for nothing. Bataar Jr. was entertaining his youngest brothers, Wei and Wing, who quickly decided to toddle over to where Opal and Ronen were playing. Huan seated himself away from everyone else, pulled a tiny sketchpad from his pocket, and began to doodle.
When Su and Tenzin returned with a tray of tea and juice, there was some commotion as the adults helped the younger kids sip their juice. In the excitement, Ronen ended up spilling his all down his front, and Lin excused herself to carry him down the hall and clean him up. It was made more difficult by the fact that he was still very hyper from having made new friends and anxious to get back to them, as if they might disappear if he was away for too long. Lin decided to give him a proper bath later, and simply wiped him off with a warm washcloth and changed his clothes.
The kids squealed when he returned and went right back to playing. Lin sat herself down beside Tenzin, who smiled and took her hand, holding it in his lap. It was a rare display of affection that he usually reserved for when they were alone, and especially not when they had company, which was more her preference than his. However, Lin could see how happy he was, and so she allowed it, leaning ever slightly against his shoulder. Tenzin spoke avidly to both Su and Bataar, and Lin was content to mostly tune it out. She'd allowed Su and her family into her home, but that still didn't change the tension between her and her sister.
Lin's attention was instead focused on the kids when Su suddenly exclaimed, "Oh! Lin!" Lin looked over to see her sister brimming with joy. "I suppose I ought to congratulate you both!"
"Congratulate us?" Tenzin asked.
"For what?" Lin added.
"Oh please!" said Su. "Did you think I wouldn't notice?"
"Notice what?" Lin snapped, utterly confused.
"You're pregnant! Duh! What did you think I was talking about?"
"You're what?!" Tenzin spluttered, rounding on his wife with wide eyes.
Lin's brow furrowed, still not catching on to what her sister was saying. "What are you talking about, Su? I'm not preg -"
Lin went very still, trailing off as she slid her foot across the floor, noticing all of a sudden that her heartbeat was irregular. Or rather, her heartbeat was just the same as always, but there was another one thudding along nearby, too close for it to have been Tenzin or one of the kids. It was just like it had been ten months ago before she'd lost their baby, just as it had been when she was pregnant with Ronen.
Suddenly the nausea she'd been feeling all day made more sense. She had thrown up once earlier that week, but she thought it had just been something she'd eaten, or that a stomach virus was going around...
But it hadn't been the food and it wasn't a virus.
She was pregnant.
Lin lurched to her feet, feeling dizzy and nearly tipping over. She didn't look at any of the others as she muttered a quick, "Excuse me," and rushed from the room. She locked herself in the bathroom and hovered over the sink, feeling like she was about to be sick and wondering why she suddenly felt so worried.
Tenzin did not have time to react before his wife was on her feet and already disappearing down the hall. Everything had gone quiet after Lin's abrupt departure, and he was initially too stunned to move. Confused but undeterred, the children went back to playing, but the three adults were left to mull over this turn of events. There was a war going on inside of Tenzin, between elation and intense worry. He wanted to be excited by the prospect of a new baby, but his daydreams were marred by the memories of how the last pregnancy had ended. He could not forget the fact that, if all had gone well last time, Lin would not even be pregnant right now, and they would already have another son or a daughter.
Then again, perhaps last time had not been the right time for them to have a child. Perhaps this time things would be different. After all, it couldn't possibly go so horribly wrong the second time, could it?
Su's voice broke him from his musings, careful but fierce as she punched him lightly on the shoulder and said, "Tenzin!"
He realized then that she had been repeating his name and he had yet to respond, so he turned to her with a blank expression to reply, "I'm sorry, Su, as you might have guessed this news is quite a surprise. I should go check on Lin, if you'll excuse me -"
Tenzin attempted to rise to his feet, but Su grabbed him by the arm and yanked him back down onto the couch. "Now wait just a minute, Tenzin. That was not a normal look of surprise. She looked horrified! And you don't look quite so thrilled yourself. I thought this was a good thing. Didn't you say the last time I was here that you were hoping to have another child soon?"
"It's just a shock, that's all," Tenzin said evasively. "Of course I'm thrilled, I'm just...worried about Lin that's all."
"But why?" Su pressed. "She's been pregnant before. What's the worry now?"
"Nothing," Tenzin lied. "Lin just isn't very fond of pregnancy -"
"Of course she isn't," Su scoffed, unsurprised, "but that doesn't explain the concern." She narrowed her eyes at him, and Tenzin began to sweat underneath his robes. He had never been adept at lying to the Beifong women. "What aren't you telling me?"
"Su," Bataar gently interjected, placing a hand on his wife's arm, "perhaps you shouldn't pry. I'm sure they'd tell you if it was something important."
"If it concerns my sister's well-being then I ought to know," Su argued, only glancing once at her husband before refocusing her searching gaze onto Tenzin. "Were there complications before? With Ronen?"
Tenzin glanced around to make sure the children weren't listening in, but they were too young to really know what was going on, and Su had had the sense of mind to lower her voice.
He tugged at his collar and cleared his throat uncomfortably. "No, no, nothing like that," he murmured. "But I don't think Lin would be comfortable with me sharing..."
"Fine," said Su, rising abruptly to her feet, "then I'll just ask her myself."
"Su, wait, don't..."
But Tenzin's pleas went unheard, and soon she too was disappearing down the hall. Tenzin considered following her, but he knew once Su had set her mind to something she wasn't about to let it go.
He looked helplessly over at Bataar, who merely shook his head and muttered, "I've never met a pair of women so stubborn in all my life."
Tenzin sighed. "You don't know the half of it."
Lin remained hunched over the sink for a few minutes before she was able to regain control of her breathing. Her legs felt weak and her hands were shaky, so she splashed some cool water onto her face, and then gripped the edges of the basin, sighing heavily and letting her head fall forward. She focused on breathing steadily through her nose in an attempt to calm both her racing thoughts and her churning stomach. The new heartbeat inside of her was fluttering wildly, so distinct now that she wondered how she had ever missed it.
She should have known. After Ronen and the baby that never was, she should have recognized it. But she had been focused on so many other things. She had only just started retaking the herbs that would make it possible for her to conceive a few months ago, hadn't even told Tenzin that she was. She wasn't even sure why she had started when the loss from nearly a year ago still felt so fresh inside her mind. She supposed she had been hoping to get over it, to replace the thought of pregnancy and babies with something positive rather than something so terrible. She hadn't wanted to look back on she and Tenzin's life together and only see the worst thing that happened to them.
But now she was pregnant, and she was worried, and she hated being worried.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Lin?"
At the sound of her sister's voice, Lin froze, caught between surprise and irritation. She could not imagine why Su had come to check on her and not Tenzin. She assumed Tenzin had tried to stop Su, but her poor, even-tempered husband really was no match for a Beifong woman. Even when they were children he had bowed to Su's will, even though the girl was easily seven years younger than him. So Lin could not totally fault her husband for failing, but she definitely did not want to talk to Su.
"Go away!" Lin called out, not bothering to open the door.
"I'm not going away, Lin!" Su called back, and Lin's hands tensed around the edge of the sink. "Open the door or I'll do it myself."
Lin let out a feral grow, stepping over to wrench the door open and glower at her sister. "Go. Away."
Su was undeterred, folding her arms across her chest and giving her older sister a reproachful look. "Come on, Lin, your husband won't talk and I know something's going on. So out with it."
"Why don't you mind your own damn business?" Lin spat.
"You're my sister," Su countered, "you are my business."
"Oh please," Lin scoffed, "don't bother feigning interest now. I should have never invited you here. I don't know why you suddenly think you're entitled to know anything about my life, to know my son.You've been gone for over a decade!"
"Don't you think I know that?!" Su exclaimed. "I've already missed so much, Lin! I didn't even knowabout Ronen until he was nearly a year old. I got married and had five children and none of my family knew about it except for Mom. And even she only met Junior and Huan before she passed. I don't want to waste anymore years with this feud. Can't we just try to fix this, Lin, please?"
It wasn't going to be that easy. Lin couldn't just forgive and forget and move on. She had suppressed a lot of emotions from that time. And since Toph had been murdered, the feelings of hurt and anger Lin had felt for her mother had been transferred onto Su as well.
But if Su were to die, where would all that rage go? Who could she blame if the only two blood relatives she had left - besides Ronen and, technically, Su's kids - were both gone?
Lin could not forgive and she definitely could not forget, but perhaps she could set it aside, just for now. Ronen already seemed to love his cousins, and Tenzin appeared to enjoy Su's family just as much, and she couldn't just take that away from them. Perhaps she couldn't take it away from herself either.
"What do you want from me, Su?" Lin muttered. "Do you want some heartfelt confession? Some impassioned speech?"
"I just want some camaraderie. Is friendship too much to ask for?"
Lin could not find a response, could only turn away and stalk back over towards the sink, rubbing her forehead and sighing heavily.
"What happened, Lin?" Su whispered, sounding fearful of the answer now. "Why are you and Tenzin so afraid of this pregnancy?"
"You mean you didn't hear?" Lin sneered without thought. "It was all over the Republic City papers."
"I'm afraid I'm not as up to date on world news as I should be. We had some shipment delays and...it was in the papers?"
"Well, not all of it... I believe the headline was "Chief of Police and Two Year Old Son Attacked in the Streets of Republic City."
Su gasped, and Lin bitterly thought, serves her right for asking.
For some reason, Lin continued, "He was trying to abduct Ronen. He didn't accomplish it, but he did manage to stab me through the stomach. The reporters didn't know that I was pregnant at the time." Lin whirled on her sister. "Are you happy now?"
Su looked on the verge of tears, and it made Lin's stomach turn. Although, whether it was from rage or unconscious feelings for her sister that had long laid dormant, Lin could not say. Part of her didn't give a damn. It was Su's fault for prying.
"Lin..." Su's voice cracked, but the tears did not escape her eyes. "I'm so sorry. I - I can't believe...I can't imagine... Can…can I hug you?"
Lin's initial reaction was the desire to scream NO, and she took an unconscious step backwards. She gave Su a look halfway between incredulity and revulsion. Did she really think it would be that easy? That Su could come here to her home and things would suddenly fix themselves? That Lin and her sister would go skipping off into the sunset, best friends at long last?
It wouldn't be that easy at all. It couldn't be. Well…technically it could be, but Lin wasn't ready for it. She wasn't ready for Su to suddenly be an important part of her life. Then again, hadn't she already started down that path? Hadn't she invited Su here, met her family, and urged Ronen to become friends with his cousins? She had already opened the floodgates and now she would have to deal with whatever came afterwards. She couldn't take it back now. Ronen was already attached and Tenzin appeared to like Su's family and Lin couldn't just give them a path to happiness just to snatch it away.
She had a second child on the way to think about now too, and Tenzin's words about being a good example for their children was circling irritatingly through her mind. Not to mention she couldn't be stressing herself out over her sister's past stupidity. She had enough things to worry about and it wouldn't be good for the baby if she sat around brooding. What was she supposed to do? Could she really allow Su and her family to visit but remain rigid and unapproachable every time just to avoid her sister? She would have to get over it eventually right? But how could she? How did she forgive someone she'd spent half her life hating?
She realized suddenly that the hug Su had requested wasn't for Lin, it was for Su. It would make Su feel better to know that she had hugged her sister. Su had spent nearly as much time as Lin had hating her sister. After all, if Lin hadn't caught Su that day and threatened to arrest her, Su would never have been sent to their grandparents in Gaoling. Clearly Su had turned out better for it, and she probably didn't regret it one bit, but it still must have been painful for a teenager to be shipped off by her own mother and nearly arrested by her older sister. Su had been alone, cast out from her family, not just from Toph and Lin, but from Sokka and Aang and Katara and the others. Lin couldn't really feel much sympathy for Su, but she could understand, to an extent.
Su didn't really want a hug to comfort Lin. She wanted one because it was the only way she knew how to apologize after over a decade of loathing between them. She would think that it had helped Lin in someway, to reconcile with her sister and receive condolences for her lost child. It wouldn't help Lin at all, not really, but if Su believed it then maybe Lin would too.
So when Su began to approach without waiting for a response, Lin allowed it to happen, albeit grudgingly and with a lot of complaining. She didn't wrap her arms around Su but she didn't yank herself away either. At least, not right away, only once she thought the hug had gone on too long. She didn't want Su to think she'd gone soft.
Spirits, were the pregnancy hormones getting to her already?
"All right that's enough," Lin grumbled, wriggling out of her sister's embrace and shoving Su away. She could feel a headache coming on and it wasn't because of the pregnancy. She was going to have to take a long hard look at her feelings on Su and decide what to do about all this before her head exploded.
They returned to their husbands a few minutes later, before Tenzin could get worried and come looking. He didn't say anything about the pregnancy while they still had company, and Bataar didn't ask Su why she was wiping at her eyes. But there was relief on Tenzin's face when he saw his wife at last, and when Lin took hold of his hand he held on for dear life.
The kids were still having fun and the adults were content to sit back and watch. Ronen was excitedly showing off all of his toys, dragging them out of his toy boxes one by one, so that the children had an armada of animals and toy soldiers set up that nearly took up the entire living space. Even Huan had set aside his drawings to join in.
It was noisy, but Lin was not bothered. Ronen had always been a happy child, but she had never seen him so talkative before. She was suddenly very glad that he'd have a new brother or sister one day to share his toys with. She would do whatever it took to make sure the child within her womb saw the light of day. She would not lose another one.
When the afternoon began to morph into evening, Lin and Tenzin went to make dinner. Su and Bataar offered to help, but Tenzin insisted they relax and stay to watch the children.
It was when they were finally alone that Tenzin felt comfortable enough to say, "It's going to be different this time." He was in the midst of chopping vegetables when he spoke, and he said it in such a low tone of voice that it almost seemed as if he was saying it to the vegetables.
Lin turned her head to look at him briefly before returning her attention to the hot stove. She replied, "I know."
"We aren't going to lose this one."
Tenzin looked up this time, and Lin could feel his eyes on her so she glanced at him again, holding his gaze just long enough to agree, "No, we aren't."
Tenzin sighed, and there was silence for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. Eventually he asked her, "Are you happy about this?"
"I will be," said Lin, "when I know that everything is okay."
"With my mother gone, we'll have to find you a healer in the city. But maybe...maybe when it gets closer to the due date we could go to the South Pole for a few months. You could give birth there, have some time to relax. An extended vacation of sorts."
"You want me to give birth in a frozen tundra?" Lin snorted, but she was not entirely opposed to the idea.
Tenzin chuckled lightly. "It's not so bad. My mother would be there for the delivery and Korra will be a good distraction for Ronen. We don't have to decide right now, of course. Merely food for thought."
"It's not a bad idea," Lin admitted. "It's too early to decide anything for certain, but I'll see about putting someone in charge of the force."
"Well good," Tenzin said happily. "I'm glad you're considering it." He sat down his knife and went to give his wife a kiss on the cheek. He settled his hands on her waist and stepped in closer as he murmured, "I love you."
"I love you too, Airhead, now get back to work before you make me ruin dinner." Lin swatted at him with her spatula, and Tenzin ducked out of the way with a grin on his face. Lin had a hard time keeping a smile off of her own face, and she titled her head down so that her hair would hide it. She didn't need him thinking she'd gone soft either.
Chapter Text
Chapter 21
Su and her family ended up staying for three extra days longer than they actually intended. Lin had to return to work after only two days, but when she returned home every evening for the following four, she found dinner waiting for her and a house full of rambunctious children. Normally she'd be quite annoyed, but the pregnancy hormones must have kicked in and messed with her brain already because she found herself almost enjoying it. Su was annoying, but she was a much better cook than Tenzin despite the fact that she apparently had a personal chef in Zaofu. Bataar and Tenzin talked for hours about things Lin could hardly understand let alone care about, but seeing the two grown men giddy with excitement was rather amusing.
Tensions ran high if someone was not around to distract Lin and Su from one another, but with their husbands and all the kids around they managed to avoid anymore direct confrontations, and anytime they got close to having an all out brawl in the middle of the house someone managed to intervene just in time. They had not really reconciled despite that first conversation and half a hug they'd had, but they could be civil so long as their families remained happy. Besides, Lin knew that Su wouldn't fight her knowing that she was pregnant, and where was the fun in that?
On the bright side, Ronen loved his cousins. He was often too distracted by them to pay his mother much attention. However, Lin could not find much time to be offended by it, because Opal began to follow her around the moment she returned home from work everyday. Lin wasn't sure why Opal seemed to like her so much while the rest of her siblings remained indifferent towards their new aunt. Huan seemed afraid to approach her, and Wei and Wing squirmed anytime she picked them up. Su said it was because Opal was the only girl and, besides her mother, didn't really have anyone else to idolize. Tenzin thought it was the cutest thing he'd ever seen and started insisting they'd soon have a girl of their own. Whatever the reasoning behind it, Lin decided that Opal needed a good mentor - she was a Beifong after all, and Su was hardly adequate- and so she took it upon herself to teach the girl. Teach her what exactly, Lin did not know yet. Opal was a bit young yet for any real training, but in Lin's opinion it was never too early for a girl to start learning self-defense. Su disagreed, of course. Lin pretended to listen while her sister ranted about turning her four year old into a soldier.
Eventually, Su and her family returned to Zaofu, and Lin's house got a lot quieter. Part of her was relieved, while another part of her was strangely saddened. Maybe it was Tenzin and Ronen's gloomy moods wearing off on her. Surely that had to be it.
On the other hand, Tenzin was suddenly insatiable in the bedroom and Ronen went back to cuddling with his mother every night when she returned home from work, and Lin wasn't about to complain about either of those things. Although, she did worry a little that Ronen would grow up to be a thirty year old mama's boy like his father, and if Tenzin didn't cool down she'd have to start beating him off of her with a stick. For now, though, she'd enjoy the attention.
About a week after Su had gone, Tenzin insisted Lin see a healer about her pregnancy. So far, all was well, and Lin was relieved to hear it. She had been worried that her previous injury and subsequent loss would affect her ability to reproduce healthily, but the healer insisted the baby was just fine and very powerful. The chances of him or her being a bender were high, and Lin hoped this time Tenzin would get his airbender.
Lin and Tenzin waited a while before announcing the news, and Lin was on high alert anytime she was walking through the streets of Republic City. She wore her armor everywhere for those first few months. Tenzin was just as paranoid, and often made excuses to go into the city with her even when he had no reason to, or insisted upon flying her to and from work. Thankfully, though, no fools tried to attack her this time around.
After only a month or so of deliberation, Lin quickly decided that Tenzin's suggestion of going to stay with Katara around the time the baby was due was actually a good idea, and so she began to make plans to have Saikhan take her place for a few months so that she could give birth in the South Pole. When Tenzin wrote to his mother about the news and their idea, Katara wrote back to express her excitement and to agree to the idea of them staying with her. By the time Lin was going on five months pregnant, Katara was already getting things set up in preparation for their eventual arrival.
It was around that time that Lin received the news that, in just four short months, she would be giving birth to twins.
Her initial reaction was one of disbelief, which then morphed immediately into stress. How could she possibly care for twins when she had barely managed one infant before? And Ronen was still very young and needed a lot of attention of his own. He turned three just a few months before his siblings were due to be born, but he was still very much a baby. Even Tenzin, despite his excitement, was rather anxious about the whole ordeal, especially considering that he would be the stay at home parent. When Su found out, she was overjoyed, and insisted that having twins was the most exciting moment of a parent's life. She wasn't very amused when Lin responded with, "I thought the most exciting moment for a parent was when the kids moved out?"
Lin didn't have a clue what it'd be like to care for two newborns at once, but she did know for certain that carrying them in her womb was the most uncomfortable thing she'd ever experienced. She had already hated pregnancy, and being pregnant with twins just made the entire ordeal ten times worse. She blew up to twice the size she'd been with Ronen, so quickly that she couldn't even fit into her armor. Her metalbending could only do so much, and there wasn't enough material to stretch over her growing abdomen. She ended up wearing Tenzin's clothes around the house because none of hers fit, not even her old pregnancy clothes.
By the end of the sixth month, she hardly ever went to work. If she wasn't sick or in pain, then she was too tired to go to the effort of putting on clothes that were too tight and sitting in her terribly uncomfortable desk chair all day long. Her detectives thought it was hilarious, to see Chief Beifong huge and cranky and not at all intimidating. Her feet were often too swollen for shoes and it took her at least two full minutes to stand up after sitting down. Once, she'd gotten herself stuck on the couch in her office and couldn't find the leverage to get herself back up. Asking her officers for help had been mortifying, and when she noticed them snickering she couldn't even chastise them - it would have taken her too long to reach them, and her waddling towards them with a red face would have only added to the embarrassment.
Luckily, Saikhan was a better leader than she could have hoped for, and he handled things well on the days she was away. She felt confident that he would be able to take full control of the force while she was staying in the South Pole. A time which would likely come sooner rather than later.
According to Su, Katara, and Lin's healer in Republic City, expecting mothers often didn't carry twins to full term. Add onto that the fact that Ronen had been born nearly a month early, it was very likely that the twins would be born prematurely as well. Katara had said that as long as Lin and the babies could make it to week thirty three, then there shouldn't be complications, but Lin worried anyway. She already felt as though she couldn't breathe properly, as if the added weight was crushing her, and if she hadn't already been physically fit before the pregnancy she was certain that her muscles wouldn't have been able to take the strain. Giving birth to twins was not only difficult on the infants, but it took a toll on the mother as well, and though there were many exceptional healers in the world, a woman or infant dying in childbirth was not at all uncommon. However, Lin decided that if her baby sister could handle it, then surely she could too.
Eight weeks before her due date, Tenzin insisted that they head for the South Pole. Lin was wary about leaving so soon, but if it was possible that the twins could be born seven weeks early, then she wanted to be with Katara when it happened. Her healer in the city was phenomenal, but Katara was the best, and Lin wasn't going to take any chances.
Lin left the police force in Saikhan's capable hands with strict instructions and told him how to contact her should the need arise. She would be little help in her current state, but she could give him advice at the very least. Tenzin packed their things onto Oogi and the family of three set off for their destination. They stopped halfway in Zaofu, to stay with Su and her family for a few days so that Lin and Ronen could rest, but being in Zaofu put Lin in a mood. So they cut their visit just a bit short and traveled the rest of the way to where Katara was waiting for them.
Lin was terribly bored in the South Pole despite Tenzin's efforts to entertain her, and she despised the snow so much that she actually considered going back to the city to have the twins, but within only a few weeks of being there she had already gone into labor.
At just thirty five weeks, the twins were born.
The labor did not last quite as long as it did with Ronen, but it was still rough. By the time the first baby was born, Lin was already exhausted and ready to give up. She could not fathom pushing another child out of her, and if it weren't for Tenzin and Katara's words of encouragement she might not have been able to.
Their second child to come into the world was another boy, and Katara assured them that, despite being five weeks premature, he was still healthy and strong. They named him Yunjin.
Before Lin could even acknowledge that she had a second son, she was being forced to push again.
It took almost an hour, but eventually their third child was born. This time it was a girl, and they named her Sora. She was smaller than her brother, but she was screaming at the top of her lungs from the moment she was free of her mother's womb, and Lin took that as a good sign.
Katara spent a lot of time with the twins after they were born, checking to make sure their breathing was not impaired and their tiny bodies were strong enough. Exhausted beyond belief, Lin slipped in and out of consciousness, her eyelids too heavy to keep open but her mind abuzz with worry.
When Katara had finished checking the twins over, she insisted that there was no cause for concern, and Lin allowed herself to sleep at last. She had hardly seen either of her kids, but she knew that they were healthy and that was all that mattered. She could not keep her arms up long enough to hold either of them anyway, so she had only seen them from where they rested in their father's loving embrace.
When she awoke several hours later, she was not certain on whether she had dreamt the entire thing up. That is, until she noticed the pain radiating throughout her body and the memories came rushing back.
In the time that she had been asleep, she had been moved to a different bed with clean linen, but thankfully she was not alone. Tenzin was still at her side, sitting right beside her on the edge of the bed, with Ronen on his lap and one of the twins nestled in his arms. Their other newborn was with Katara, who held the infant against her chest while they listed lazily back and forth in a rocking chair.
Still tired but eager to meet her son and daughter, Lin forced her eyes to open the whole way and shifted herself halfway up into a sitting position. Her muscles strained and her whole body was screaming in agony, but she bit down on her lip and forced it from her mind as best she could. She couldn't sit up straight, and it irked her to feel so weak, but she knew she would simply have to grit her teeth and bear it.
Tenzin greeted her with a bright grin and teary eyes. Ronen leaned over to kiss her on the cheek, heeding his father's warnings to be careful of his Momma's sore stomach.
"I can't wait to play with my new brother and sister, Momma," Ronen said cheerily, half in a whisper. "Daddy says I has to wait till they're bigger, but I'm glad they isn't in your belly no more."
Lin chuckled lightly and replied, "I'm glad too, kid."
Ronen had had a lot of questions when his parents had told him that he was going to have new siblings, and that they were residing in his mother's stomach. He couldn't fathom how it had happened or how they would get out, and he didn't seem to believe that he had come from his mother's belly too. Lin had only laughed at his questions and was at a loss as to how to respond. She told him he'd have to ask his father, and Tenzin had told him that the spirits put babies there until they were big and strong and then the healers removed them from their mommy's belly. Ronen had only seemed more confused, but he didn't question his parents further. He had been too excited about having siblings one day, and often complained about it taking too long.
He had been very helpful towards Lin, though, in her last few months of pregnancy, when she found it difficult to move. He had brought her pillows and blankets and cups of water he had filled up from the sink. A lot of times Lin was already too warm or the cups were dirty ones that had been left on the edge of the sink, but she hadn't had the heart to deny any of his gifts. He had especially enjoyed laying half his body on top of her large stomach to feel his brother and sister kicking. After Tenzin had told him that the babies could hear them talking, Ronen often spoke to his siblings when he thought his mother was sleeping, and Lin had had a hard time holding in her laughter when he promised to share his toys with them if they promised not to break them.
Lin had quickly realized over the past few months that Ronen was a lot more grown up than she gave him credit for, and he loved his siblings before they were even born. Perhaps caring for three kids would not be so bad after all. Although somehow Lin doubted both twins would turn out as well-behaved as Ronen.
"How are you feeling, love?" Tenzin asked of her.
"I've been better," Lin sighed, "How are the kids?"
"They're just fine," Tenzin assured her. "Mother says everything went perfectly. I've got Sora here if you'd like to hold her?"
Lin's arms still felt like jelly, but they were stronger than before and the babies didn't weigh very much. She held out her hands to take Sora from Tenzin, letting most of her daughter's weight rest against her chest. She waited for some rush of affection, some emotional moment like when she had first been presented with Ronen, but the whole thing was rather lackluster. She loved the kid of course, but something felt off. She thought that she should have felt something more than just acknowledgement, but she was coming up short on any real emotions. She was only momentarily concerned about it before she brushed it off and refocused on her daughter.
Sora was stunning, and Lin could tell that Tenzin, at least, was already enamored. He had been hoping for a little girl even before Ronen, and now he had his wish. However, she wasn't going to look like Lin as he had dreamt of. She was her father's daughter already, with lighter hair and greying eyes, but Lin knew it wouldn't make a difference. She'd have her father wrapped around her finger in no time.
Lin wasn't yet certain on how she felt about having a little girl. Despite being a woman herself, raising girls was different from boys, and twenty-four hours ago she had only been the mother of a little boy. Twins, three kids altogether, and one of them a little girl? Lin was going to have her hands full, that was for certain.
She held onto Sora for a few moments that felt slightly awkward before quickly returning her to Tenzin. Lin had only been awake a few minutes and she was already beginning to feel too tired to even keep her eyes open. The left over pain was mounting and she wanted desperately to go back to sleep, but Ronen was doing his best to keep her awake and she knew they were all expecting it of her, so she forced herself to be engaged.
Katara brought Yunjin over, and Lin was startled by how much he reminded her of Aang. She felt no breathless awe with him either, and she wasn't sure whether to be relieved or more worried. He was just as perfect as his siblings, but fussy, and began squirming the moment he was placed in his mother's arms. Lin tried to soothe him, but after several minutes of no progress she began to grow weary again. She was just about to give Yunjin back over to Katara's experienced hands when Tenzin suggested she feed him.
Lin's hands shook as she attempted to readjust Yunjin, who struggled and fought and refused to latch on. So they switched, and Sora suckled greedily at her mother's breast. Lin had to slide down onto her back so that her arms would not have to hold the weight of her five pound daughter. She could feel herself dozing off again, but Tenzin jostled her awake when Sora was finished. She tried with Yunjin again, and this time he eventually managed to latch on, but his tiny fingers had sharp nails, and when he grasped at her chest he tore through her skin. It took all of Lin's will-power not to snap. He was a baby, he didn't know any better, but he was definitely giving his mother a hard time, and Lin was feeling a strain that hadn't been there with Ronen. All she could think about was sleep and the pain coursing through her. She just wanted to start the day over. Surely she would feel better once she had gotten a full night's rest.
Once Yunjin had been fed he started screaming, and Lin quickly passed him off to Tenzin. Katara asked her if she wanted Sora back, but Lin - shivering from the cold - waved her away and sank beneath the covers. Her eyes slid shut and she was back to sleep before Tenzin or Katara could say another word.
When Lin curled up under the covers and fell right back to sleep in just a few seconds, Tenzin thought nothing of it. The labor had been long and hard and even he was beginning to feel tired and he hadn't done half as much of the work. He was certain that once Lin awoke the second time she'd be much more alert and receptive to the twins.
Six days later, Tenzin was not so certain anymore.
Lin was not herself, and Tenzin could not figure out what was wrong.
Ever since the twins were born, there had been a disconnect that was unusual. After Ronen she had been so present, so obsessed over his well-being and loving and protective. Tenzin had never seen her so enamored before, and she and Ronen had grown such a close bond so fast.
Lin had formed no such bond with Sora or Yunjin. When she was presented with the twins she reacted only logically, not lovingly. She wasn't about to start neglecting their health, but she wasn't being very nurturing either. She wasn't excited to see them, or anyone else for that matter. She wasn't happy anymore. She pretended, of course. She forced a smile now and then and she went through the motions, but Tenzin had known her since she was born and he knew something was seriously off.
If her odd mood was not enough to go by, there was the fact that she hardly ever got out of bed anymore. She was clearly suffering, but unwilling to admit it. A week after giving birth she was still in too much pain to walk farther than the bathroom. They were bringing her meals in bed...if she even ate that is. She was so well-practiced at pretending to be fine that neither Tenzin nor Katara could figure out what was going on with her. They knew something was wrong, but asking got them nowhere because Lin didn't think there was a problem.
Tenzin didn't want to think that there was problem either, so he didn't. He wanted to believe that his wife was healthy and happy and their family was whole, and so he ignored the signs.
Three weeks after Sora and Yunjin were born, Kya brought her kids over for a visit to meet the twins. Being around Kya was still uncomfortable after their last meeting over ten months earlier. Tenzin hadn't reached out to her in almost a year except to tell her about Lin's pregnancy and the birth of the twins, which wasn't wholly unusual for him and his siblings. He was glad to see that his sister hadn't abandoned her kids, but he knew Kya, and he knew it didn't necessarily mean anything. When Kya set her mind to something she wasn't easily swayed, and she could hold onto a plot or idea for as long as necessary before she finally snapped and did what she wanted in the first place. Tenzin didn't trust her, and he knew Lin was feeling much the same, so he was not very surprised when she locked herself in the bathroom upon Kya's arrival. He assumed she simply wanted to avoid her sister-in-law for as long as possible, and he was instantly jealous that he couldn't do the same.
Kya's sons, Koda and Ashok, had little interest in the twins, and upon arriving merely greeted their grandmother and wandered off. Ronen hesitated only a moment before racing after them. Tenzin was concerned for a moment, considering how much older Koda and Ashok were and that they were likely to get into mischief, but he also knew that Koda was a good kid despite being a reckless teenager, and he would watch out for Ronen.
Akira was a little closer to Ronen's age than her brothers, but she was too enthused about seeing the twins to pay the boys any mind.
Kya was only mildly interested in Sora and Yunjin herself. She held Sora for a few minutes before passing her back, and only observed Yunjin from Tenzin's arms.
"Wow, Mom was right, he really does look like Dad," Kya said upon seeing Yunjin, a little in awe. "But fortunate enough to get Lin's ears instead of yours."
Kya guffawed loudly and slapped her brother on the back, clearly proud of her joke. Tenzin frowned but said nothing. He was too enamored with his kids to be bothered by Kya's teasing.
"When will the five of you be going back to Republic City?" Kya asked then, seemingly out of the blue. "I bet Lin is going stir crazy."
Tenzin instantly tensed up, bewildered to find that he didn't have an answer to that question. Like anyone else who knew Lin, Tenzin had been expecting her to be begging him to go home two hours after the twins were born.
Except they still hadn't gone back to Republic City in the past three weeks, and Tenzin was starting to wonder if they ever would. After nearly a month Lin still hadn't brought it up herself. When Tenzin mentioned it she acted like she couldn't hear him. He knew she must want to go back. He could see her getting restless, but she seemed afraid, which was impossible because Lin wasn't afraid of anything.
After a while, Tenzin had stopped asking about going back home, had forced the concerns from his mind to focus on Sora and Yunjin. But with Kya visiting his thoughts seemed to be shifting, because he realized then that he could no longer remember the last time he had actually had real a conversation with his wife. He remembered speaking to her, but he couldn't remember her talking back, and all of a sudden it hit him.
Something was wrong.
Something was really, really wrong.
Still, he could not admit it, least of all to his sister.
So he simply said, "Probably sometime next week."
"Where is Lin anyways?" Kya asked, looking around as if expecting Lin to be lurking in the shadows.
"Resting," Tenzin lied without even a moment's hesitation, wondering a second later why the answer had flung so effortlessly out of his mouth. He could feel his mother's eyes on him, but he didn't turn to face her.
"Is she still in pain?" Kya continued to question. "It's been a while now. She should be feeling better right?"
"She's fine," Tenzin said shortly, exasperated for no reason.
Kya noticed his irritation and she instantly became defensive. "I was just asking, Tenzin," she huffed. "I'm just concerned –"
"Well don't be," Tenzin snapped.
"All right you two," Katara cut in before Kya could snap back. "That's enough."
"All I did was ask a question!" Kya said defensively.
"I said enough," Katara said firmly, giving Kya a warning look.
"Why are you guys fighting?" Akira asked, wrinkling her nose in confusion. "You're scaring the babies."
Kya stroked her daughter's hair absently, glaring over top of her head at Tenzin as she said, "Sorry, honey, your Uncle Tenzin is an idiot."
"You know, Kya, I think you've overstayed your welcome," Tenzin practically growled. "The children are welcome to stay, of course, but I'd prefer it if you left."
"Excuse me?" Kya scoffed. "Have you forgotten this isn't your home?"
"It isn't yours either," Tenzin argued. "I don't know why you're putting up a fight anyways. You want to leave, don't you? It is your specialty after all. Don't you have some sake to drink?" It was harsh and he knew it, and part of him instantly regretted saying it, but Kya was pushing buttons and he wasn't in a forgiving mood.
"Tenzin –" Katara tried to admonished.
"How dare you!" Kya exclaimed in a rage, rising suddenly to her feet. Sora began to whimper from her place half in Katara's arms, half in Akira's. "How dare you speak to me like that in front of my daughter? I don't know what the hell is going on around here, but whatever your problem is Tenzin, it isn't with me. Why don't you go take care of your sick wife –"
"Lin is not sick!"
"Then stop acting like a lunatic! Spirits, you have the nerve to judge me, when you and Lin have apparently lost it –"
"Don't you dare compare us to you! We'll never be like you!"
Yunjin and Sora were both screaming now and Akira looked on the verge of tears herself.
Katara, on the other hand, was fuming. "Both of you stop this right now!" she shouted over the noise, cradling Sora in one arm and using her free hand to grab Kya by the shoulder and turn her away from Tenzin. "This is ridiculous. You are adults, squabbling like toddlers!"
"He started it!"
"Me?!"
"I don't care who started it!"
"…Tenzin?"
Everyone suddenly went very still, and Tenzin watched as Kya's entire countenance changed in a heartbeat. Her anger turned to a mixture of shock and sorrow, and she was staring over her brother's shoulder with wide eyes and a frown.
Tenzin whirled around to see his wife standing in the doorway, but she was hardly recognizable as such. It was no surprise that Kya had looked so startled. In the past three weeks, Lin had gone from her normal imposing self, weighing twice the size she once had, to looking pale and worn down. She was losing weight too rapidly and she was starting to look gaunt. She was hunched over and heaving from the effort it had taken her just to walk out to the sitting room.
Tenzin didn't know how he had missed it all before.
Lin didn't talk, she didn't eat, she hardly moved. She cared for the twins only when forced, although she continued to try breast feeding both even though he could see it sucking the life out of her with every failed attempt. Avoiding Kya's visit seemed only natural, but it wasn't the first time she had done it. Hiding away had quickly become a trend anytime someone came to see the twins. When Tonraq and Senna had brought Korra over a week earlier, Lin had feigned sleep the entire time.
Lin was there, but she wasn't really there. He could see her sitting there, standing there, hear her breathing, but eventually he noticed that her mind was in some far off place that he couldn't reach. If he tried to have a conversation she would only nod along, or shrug, or sigh wearily and say, "I'm tired, Tenzin."
The twins were about to be a month old and Lin had hardly spent any time with them. He'd be worried that she was about to run like Kya wanted to, but he knew her better than that and he knew she wouldn't no matter how strung out she got. Besides that, she wasn't even trying to go back to Republic City, to the job that had nearly ruined their relationship countless times because of her dedication to it. She wasn't really eager or willing to do anything. She was simply existing.
"Lin?" Kya whispered into the silence, clearly in complete disbelief.
"Kya," Lin said shortly, her voice rough from disuse. She looked embarrassed, awkwardly patting at her hair, which might have been a wild mess if it weren't hanging so limply around her face.
"Lin," Tenzin spoke up, finding his voice at last and remembering that she had said his name when she had entered the room. "Do you need me, love?"
Lin opened her mouth and then closed it, hesitant, oddly fearful. Then she stammered, "I…um…I heard…the kids..."
It made little sense, but Tenzin wasn't going to let her flounder even longer in front of everyone else. She must have heard the twins screaming and assumed something was wrong. He passed Yunjin over to Kya without looking her in the eye, and now Kya was suddenly willing to take him without question.
Tenzin hurried over to where Lin waited, and he ushered his wife back to bed before she collapsed.
As he was settling her down into bed, she shrugged him off, looking irritated for just a brief second, and for a moment he thought perhaps she was still in there, perhaps all was not as dire as it seemed. But as soon as she sat down it was as if a switch had been flicked and her face became emotionless once more.
She looked up at him with tired eyes and asked, "Why are they crying? Is it your sister? Are they hungry? I heard you yelling."
They. Not Sora or Yunjin or even the twins. Just They.
"I'm afraid Kya and I were in a heated argument of sorts and it unsettled the kids," Tenzin explained briefly.
"About what?" Lin continued to question. "Is she trying to leave again?"
"I don't know," Tenzin sighed. "She made no mention of it."
"I can do something," Lin offered. Upon seeing Tenzin's confused look, she added, "For them. If they need fed or…or something."
"No, no, just rest, love," Tenzin insisted, perturbed by how exhausted Lin looked after doing next to nothing all day long, as well as the fact that she didn't seem to want to speak their children's names. "Sora and Yunjin will both be fine."
Lin frowned. "Are you sure? I feel…"
Useless.
That's what she clearly wanted to say, but she didn't voice it. Tenzin heard it though, and if she didn't look so sickly he might have let her help. He wanted her to bond with the twins, but forcing them on her only made her more distant, and he was worried about making her do too much. He wasn't sure what was wrong with his wife, but he figured it was left over effects from giving birth to the twins. Women dying a few weeks after childbirth was a very real possibility, and while his mother insisted that Lin would not be one of those cases, Tenzin thought it best not to tempt fate. He would care for the twins until Lin was feeling better. Surely in another week or so she'd be back to her old self…
In the time it took for Tenzin to complete his task and ensure that Lin was okay – well, as okay as she could be these days – Kya had rounded up Akira and Ashok and Koda and left in a hurry. Tenzin could not say that he was sorry to see her go.
Two more weeks passed.
Tenzin was officially worried.
Over a month had gone by since the twins were born and Lin seemed to be slipping further and further away.
A few days after Kya's visit, Katara and Tenzin had had to leave Lin alone with the twins, and the sight they had come back to had not been heartwarming.
Kole had shown up at Katara's doorstep asking after his wife, only to discover that Kya was not at her mother's home as he had hoped. Apparently, soon after her visit with the kids, Kya had taken them home to their father and then vanished. Kole had been asking around and waiting for her to come back, but so far there was no word of where Kya could have gone or if she ever planned to return.
Tenzin was furious, but Katara was worried. She didn't believe that Kya would leave her family and she wanted to go out searching. At first Tenzin refused to help, more concerned with taking care of his own family, but eventually he was dragged into it for a few hours. Saikhan had been calling asking for advice on a case, and since Lin was still not herself, it was up to Tenzin to help Saikhan out as best as he could. Typical mail was slower in the South Pole and the phone calls were too unreliable for Tenzin to try to explain it to Saikhan, and so Tenzin had to go into town to ensure the letter was sent more quickly to Republic City. Since he was already going out, Katara begged him to help look for Kya, and eventually he had relented. The twins were too young to be dragging them around in the cold, so Tenzin put them to sleep and promised Lin he'd be back as quick as possible. He dropped Ronen off at Korra's on his way, thanking Senna and Tonraq profusely for their help.
By the time Tenzin and Katara returned home that evening with Ronen, Lin had been furious. Apparently, at one point, the twins had been inconsolable, and Lin hadn't known what to do and she cursed at Tenzin for leaving her there alone. Both Sora and Yunjin were sleeping peacefully and looked well, so Lin had clearly not neglected them, but she acted as though the entire situation had been dire, so Tenzin decided then and there that he could no longer leave them alone with their mother. At least not until Lin was better. He would make sure she got her rest and was not forced to do anything she wasn't ready for. He could not concern himself with Kya's stupidity.
It was around that time that things began to spiral even further out of control. Being around Lin was suddenly like walking on eggshells, her temper flaring immeasurably, more at random than ever in her life. However, that phase only lasted a few days before Lin's ire turned completely to depression.
It was only then that Tenzin realized his mistake.
He had waited too long, and rather than everything mending itself, it only grew worse.
Lin was exhausted all of the time, to the point that she didn't leave her bed. On the few occasions that Tenzin managed to coax her onto her feet and out into the living room, she seemed to quickly be sapped of all energy. She would sit, looking weary and lifeless, while her family interacted around her. She did not seem to want anything to do with the twins, and when it came time to feed them she would complain that it was too painful and that she didn't want to do it anymore. She was hardly eating either, and often times Katara had to force broth down her throat.
Those days, however, were the easy days in comparison to some of the others. The worst being the days when she was unexplainably enraged. Something so simple and harmless would set her off and she'd turn into something Tenzin hadn't seen from her in their entire thirty-eight years together. He had seen her agitated and temperamental a thousand times before. They had screamed and fought one another and she'd curse worse than a sailor. But he had never seen her act with so little care towards a child, especially not her own. She referred to the twins as "them" and "they" and "those" but never by their actual names. If she was not feeding them she refused to hold them. She still seemed to tolerate Ronen, but she snapped at him when she got into her low moods and the toddler was often fearful of approaching his mother.
Katara said that it was likely something called postpartum depression. Tenzin had heard of it before, but it was something that was spoken of mostly in whispers, and he did not know much about it at all. His mother had seen it a few times before, but it was difficult to treat. Especially with Lin being as stubborn as she was. Nothing they did seemed to get through to her.
One day, Katara had taken Yunjin, Sora, and Ronen over to Kya's home to spend the night with Koda, Ashok, and Akira, in the hopes that Tenzin might be able to coax something out of Lin if she was free from stress for a while, and also to attempt to cheer up Kya's kids, who were mostly in the dark about their situation with their mother, but knew enough to be upset.
Tenzin had made his wife dinner and was gentle about prying into why she was so unlike herself lately, but Lin had only shut herself in the bathroom and cried for hours, and by the time Tenzin had gotten her out of there, she had shut down. She went straight to bed, and no progress was made.
After that night, Tenzin decided to write a letter to Su and beg his sister-in-law to come to the South Pole. He knew his plan could backfire terribly, considering that part of Lin still loathed Su, but at this point it couldn't hurt to try. He was running out of options. His mother had told him they needed to be patient, but how long was he expected to sit back and watch his wife wither away while she and their children suffered? The twins could not even bond with their mother, and Ronen's moods were beginning to reflect his mother's. Something needed to be done before the damage became irreparable.
Su did not even bother to respond to Tenzin's letter. As soon as she received it she headed straight to the South Pole. Tenzin was surprised to see her so soon, but he was relieved the moment he set eyes on her. She had Opal with her, but the rest of the kids must have been at home with Bataar. He ushered them both inside, out from the cold and into the mad house. His mother had one of the twins in each arm, bouncing around the room as they wailed. Ronen was splayed out in the middle of the floor, sobbing because his father had left him for three seconds to go answer the door. Lin had decided not to join them and was still in bed.
"I'm so glad you came," Tenzin sighed, pulling Su into a tight hug.
Su patted him comfortingly on the back. "I left the same night I got your letter," she said breathlessly, likely exhausted from her trip. "I'm sorry it took so long, we got caught in a storm -"
"You came sooner than I could have hoped for," Tenzin interjected, pulling back to look at her.
She looked so much like her sister then, with a warm hat pulled down over her ears and her cheeks red from the harsh wind. It reminded Tenzin of a time when they were all younger and without all the pain, and it made his heart clench in his chest. He missed his wife so very much. She was physically close, but so mentally far away that he could not be with her. What if she could not recover? Would they ever be able to go back to how they were before?
"Thank you, Su," Tenzin said, his voice cracking over the words. "Thank you so much. I know it couldn't have been easy for you to come down here -"
"Nonsense," Su interrupted him this time. "You and Lin need me, there's nothing better that I could be doing. Bataar will be fine with the boys while I'm gone. I brought Opal because I thought she might be good for Ronen, and maybe for Lin too. Lin needs to know that she has all the support in the world."
"Have you seen this before?" Tenzin asked.
"Once," Su admitted with a haunted look. "But this situation is entirely different. We'll get her through this, Tenzin. Let's start with Ronen, shall we?"
Tenzin swallowed thickly, nodding dumbly at Su's suggestion and letting her take the lead. She walked Opal over to where Ronen was throwing his tantrum.
At the sight of his aunt and cousin, Ronen instantly went quiet, sitting up slowly and rubbing at his red rimmed eyes. He sniffled and murmured, "Opal? Aunt Su?"
"Hello there, Ronen," Su said carefully, crouching down to smile at him. Opal waved at him excitedly. "How are you doing, sweetheart?" Ronen only shrugged. He missed his mother as much as Tenzin did. "I'm gonna go take care of your mommy for a little while. Would you like to play with Opal?"
Ronen nodded mutely. Then he asked, "Will you make Momma better?"
"I'm going to try very hard, Ronen," Su said sincerely. "I promise." She glanced around the room, caught sight of Katara bouncing the twins, who were finally settling, and then focused back onto Ronen and Opal. "Why don't the two of you help Katara start dinner?"
"Okay," Ronen and Opal readily agreed.
Su gave them both an encouraging smile and straightened up. She turned to Tenzin. "Why don't you take the twins? I'll go check in on, Lin."
Tenzin wasn't sure when Su had become so rational and grown up, but he was thankful for it nonetheless. He was happy to take her lead, to finally feel like he was being useful. His mother had tried her best, but she was so busy helping him with the twins and Ronen. With Su there with them maybe they had a better chance at helping Lin.
Tenzin nodded and replied, "She's in the back bedroom, on the left. The twins should fall asleep soon, so if you need me come and get me."
"I will," said Su, "but I think we'll be just fine. Let us know when dinner is ready?"
"Of course, but she hasn't been eating much lately..."
"We'll work on that first then," Su decided, shedding her coat and hat and going over to hang them on the hook by the door. She patted Tenzin on the shoulder on her way back through. "Baby steps."
Chapter Text
Chapter 22
Su was not sure what she was expecting when she stepped into Lin's temporary bedroom in the South Pole, but she was definitely not prepared to find Lin as she was. Su had never seen her sister so broken before. So empty and lifeless. To think that she had been that way for over a month. It was chilling.
She was in bed despite it being only around five in the evening, curled up on her side and staring at the opposite wall. Her hair was in tangles and it looked like she hadn't bathed in days. She did not stir when Su entered the room, she hardly even blinked.
"Lin?" Su said carefully, walking slowly over to her sister's side.
Lin was still for a long time, but when Su crouched down in front of her, her eyes flickered over to her sister's face at last.
"Su?" Lin croaked, her voice hoarse from disuse and a glimmer of surprise in her eyes.
"Yes, Lin, I'm here," Su replied, slowly reaching out to place a hand on Lin's shoulder. Her skin was cold to the touch. "How are you doing, Sis? Tenzin says you aren't feeling well."
"Is that why you're here?" Lin accused, but there was no fire in her tone. "Did he make you come here?"
"No, that's not why I came. I came because you're my sister and I love you, and if you're sick I want to help you."
"You can't help me," Lin murmured solemnly. "I can't be fixed. I should have let Tenzin marry that Acolyte girl."
Lin whispered that last sentence so quietly that her words were hardly decipherable, and Su didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Maybe she'd ask Tenzin about it later, because if he had been screwing around with an acolyte girl while he was with her sister, there'd be hell to pay. But Su didn't know all the facts so, for the time being, she disregarded it.
"You don't need to be fixed, Lin. You're unwell, but you can get through this. You've been through hell before, and you've got all of us here to support you. You just take your time, okay? And don't be afraid to ask for help. You don't have to do this all on your own."
Lin squinted her eyes at Su, as if she was suddenly seeing her little sister for the first time. They were both seeing sides of one another they had never seen before. Su only hoped that Lin would heal and she'd never have to see her in such a state again.
"I brought Opal with me," Su continued when Lin said nothing. "She and Ronen are helping Katara with dinner. I'm famished myself, will you join me at dinner?"
"Not hungry," Lin muttered.
"Well I won't force you to eat," Su sighed, "but could you maybe just have a little something? For me? I'd hate to have to eat without you. It's rude for a guest to eat when the host is not. I suppose I could go without dinner..."
Lin groaned. "You're so full of it, Su. I'm not hosting you. I didn't even invite you. Besides, what the hell kind of etiquette did we learn from Mom?"
"Absolutely none," Su answered plainly. "Which is why I've made it my mission to turn that around. You'd be amazed at how proper table etiquette can shape an entire evening. It's very important, and might have saved my life quite a few times. You must always be prepared for anyone and everyone to show up, and as a courtesy –"
"If I go to the table for dinner will it get you to shut up?!" Lin interjected, sounding hostile but still looking rather unfazed.
"Yes, I will," Su agreed.
"Fine then, I'll eat with you, happy now?"
Su was happy, actually. There was still a long way to go, but they were headed in the right direction. She smiled kindly. "Good, let's get you cleaned up then."
Without waiting for an answer, Su rose swiftly to her feet, holding out a hand for Lin to grab hold of. Lin hesitated, but when faced with more of a command than an actual question, she seemed to find it difficult to refuse. She placed her hand in Su's, sitting up slowly in bed, her muscles trembling from the effort. She rose onto wobbly legs, and Su gripped her by the elbow to subtly help her the short distance to the bathroom. However, Su was surprised when Lin leaned heavily on her younger sister for support without question. Lin did not normally accept help so readily.
Su guided Lin to the bathroom, where she filled the tub with warm water and helped lower Lin onto the edge of the tub, so that she could get in without too much effort. Su then stepped out of the room to allow Lin some privacy, and went back out into the living room, where Tenzin had managed to get the twins to sleep. Sora was lying peacefully in her bassinet, while Yunjin was nestled in his father's arms.
"How is she?" he immediately asked in a whisper.
"I got her into a bath," Su whispered back, joining him on the sofa, "but I've never seen her like that. Has she ever been like this before? When Mom passed? Or with the miscarriage?"
Tenzin shook his head. "No, she's never been this bad. Of course during those times she was distant and difficult to reach, but she was still...Lin. She was moody, but at least she showed some emotion, whereas now...now it's as if she's not even in there anymore. I just don't understand, Su...I don't know what happened. I don't know how to help her."
Su nodded solemnly in understanding. "I know, it's painful to see her that way, I can't imagine how you're feeling, and with the twins just born... Depression is not a pretty thing, and nobody has any idea what the cause is or why it happens to some and not others... It's all very confusing and painful, but I think it's a good sign that this hasn't been an issue before. It means that she can come back from this with a lesser chance of a relapse. I can only guess that the hormones affect a pregnant woman so much, and when you add in the stress of twins and all that pressure she puts on herself at work and at home, not to mention the worry from how things ended the last time...it was all just too much for her and she shut down. We just need to pull her back. It can be done. This isn't forever, Tenzin."
Tenzin inhaled a deep breath of air, looking down at the twins briefly and then back to Su. "I hope you're right," he murmured.
"So these are the twins?" Su promoted, changing the dismal subject to something more cheerful.
"Oh that's right," said Tenzin. "You haven't properly met them yet. Would you like to hold Yunjin?"
"Of course," Su agreed, eagerly reaching out to take the bundle in Tenzin's arms. Yunjin squirmed at being shifted, but settled back to sleep a moment later. "Wow," Su breathed, "he looks just like your father, Tenzin."
Tenzin smiled fondly. "That's what everyone's been saying. He's got Lin's temper though."
Su laughed quietly, gingerly caressing Yunjin's black hair. "Maybe he'll turn out to be an earthbender then. Although I guess you're still waiting for an airbender."
"I just want them to be healthy," Tenzin said idly, leaning over the bassinet to stroke Sora's cheek. "But I think Sora will be an airbender for sure."
"She takes after you," Su observed.
"She's calmer than Yunjin, but when she's upset she can scream twice as loud. Ronen was such a quiet baby. Perhaps that's part of what set Lin off. She wasn't prepared for all of this."
Su noticed a hint of despair in his voice that had less to do with Lin and more to do with the twins. "It might have been a factor, but you said it happened so soon after they were born...I don't think she'd blame them."
"She hates them," Tenzin muttered, so quietly Su almost did not hear him. He seemed fearful that the twins would hear him. "She doesn't call them by their names. She won't even go near them. Anytime I bring them up she gets angry or scared. She tried to feed them at first, but she cried so much that we had to look for alternative methods. They aren't getting the nutrients they need, and she hasn't bonded with either of them."
"Tenzin, listen to me," Su interrupted before he could go on. "I know this whole situation seems hopeless, but the way Lin is acting right now...that isn't her. She loves Ronen, and I'm sure she loves Sora and Yunjin just as much. I think she loves them so much that she feels like a failure for not being able to provide for them the one thing a mother is created to do. She is not well, and she knows it, and maybe she stays away for fear that she'll ruin them somehow. We don't know what's going on in her head right now, but we know Lin, and she doesn't hate her children. And besides, mothers forgo breast feeding all the time these days, Sora and Yunjin will be just fine. And they'll bond with their mother too, just as soon as she's ready."
Ronen scampered into the room then, stopping in the doorway to say, "Dinner's ready, Daddy."
"Th - thank you, Ronen," Tenzin stammered, clearing his throat mid-sentence. "We'll be in soon."
Ronen ran back into the kitchen, and Su rose to place Yunjin in the bassinet. "I'll go check on Lin," she said. "Hopefully she'll be done with her bath and we'll see you in a few moments."
Tenzin stood quickly. "Oh, Lin doesn't eat at the dinner table -"
"She will tonight," Su told him. "We've already discussed it."
Tenzin only gaped at her.
Su left without another word, striding quickly towards the bathroom. She was surprised to see Lin already clean and wrapped in a towel, the bathwater sucked down the drain. She hadn't made it any further than that though, her hair dripping wet and making her shiver. She sat on the edge of the tub, her fingers holding onto it with a tight, white-knuckled grip.
"Are you okay, Lin?" Su asked of her. Lin nodded mutely. "Come on, sweetheart, let's get you into some warm clothes."
Su had to help her sister dress and brush her knotted hair, but she looked much better now that she was clean and refreshed. She was still pale though, and her legs wobbled, but she allowed Su to guide her out of the bedroom and into the kitchen.
Tenzin, Katara, Ronen, and Opal were already seated and had begun to eat, likely assuming that Lin would not be joining them despite what Su had said. They had, however, left a plate for both her and Su on Tenzin's side of the table. When the two Beifong women entered the kitchen, the others were stunned.
Tenzin leapt to his feet, nearly knocking his own plate off the table in his excitement. "Lin! I'm so glad to see you, darling. Here, let me get your chair..."
Tenzin hastily pulled a chair out for his wife and helped Su guide her into it. Su seated herself beside Lin and instantly began dishing food out onto her plate. She really was famished.
"We left you a spot, Momma," Ronen piped up timidly. "We always save your spot."
Lin looked confused, as if she couldn't remember how to function in a dining room, but after a few moments she cleared her throat and forced a tiny smile for Ronen. "Thank you, Ronen," she murmured hoarsely.
The young boy grinned, clearly pleased, and went back to shoveling food into his mouth.
Tenzin only filled Lin's plate halfway, and hesitated as he did so, as if afraid she'd bolt if he gave her the wrong thing. Lin did not protest, but sat very still and said nothing.
Once everyone had gone back to eating, Lin remained motionless for many minutes, staring at the plate in front of her and worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. She seemed to be considering whether or not eating was a good idea. Until at last she reached out to pick up her utensils, and everyone in the room released a quiet breath of relief. She poked at the food experimentally, her hand trembling slightly and her fingers fumbling as she finally took a very tiny bite. One that turned into two, that turned into three, and then suddenly became heaping mouthfuls. She was ravenous, but her stomach had been without real food for a long time, and Su reached over to place a gentle hand over Lin's.
"Slow down there, Sis. The food isn't going anywhere, don't want to make yourself sick."
"I know how to eat," Lin grumbled, but she did slow down.
The atmosphere in the dining room was tense. No one spoke, and everyone was peeking at Lin out of the corners of their eyes, waiting for something to happen. She must have noticed them all looking at her, but she kept her own gaze downcast, focused on the task before her.
Eventually Su grew tired of the awkwardness, and she began to speak amicably with Katara. The two women had not seen much of each other ever since Su had left Republic City at sixteen, and they had a lot to catch up on. Su had never had the same sort of connection with Katara that her older sister had, but she had still idolized the elder woman as a child. Su had also harbored resentment for Katara, thinking that she had loved and believed in Lin more so than Su, but she had put all that aside a long time ago. At thirty-one years old, she could not understand why she and Lin had been so desperate for affection that they had fought for it and ruined the relationship they could have had with each other. Whatever the case, things would be different now. Su would make sure of it.
It was in the midst of Su and Katara's conversation that Lin suddenly spoke up, turning her head to face her husband as she asked, "Where are Yunjin and Sora?"
Judging by the mixed look of elation and pure anguish that morphed onto Tenzin's face, Su guessed that it was the first time Lin had referred to the twins by their names, maybe even the first time she'd asked about them in a while.
Taken aback, Tenzin stammered over his words as he responded, "Th - they're asleep. In their bassinets. In the living room."
"Is that where you sleep?" Lin continued to question. "With them?"
The topic was straying to dangerous territory, and Tenzin swallowed loudly, tugging at the collar of his robes. "Yes, I sleep on the couch. I - I didn't want them to wake you at night."
Lin returned her gaze to her half-eaten plate of dinner, but she was not yet done speaking. "Do they wake up a lot?"
"Not as much recently," Tenzin carefully replied. "The first few weeks were difficult, but I think I've got them onto a schedule of sorts. Yunjin wakes every time Sora does, but luckily she somehow manages to sleep through his fits."
"Are..." Lin trailed off, her voice catching in her throat. She swallowed and tried again. "Are they eating okay?"
Tenzin's shoulders slumped at the sound of his wife's voice, so clearly full of guilt. "They are now," he reassured her. "Yunjin didn't like it so much at first. He's...well he's stubborn like his mother."
Tenzin chuckled lightly, but then abruptly flinched, afraid he'd said too much and worried that Lin would snap.
Surprisingly, however, she did not. Instead she teased her husband, "At least he's not an airhead like you."
Katara and Suyin laughed, and Tenzin pretended to pout.
Ronen and Opal giggled too, and Ronen cried, "Daddy you're an airhead!"
The rest of dinner went better than the first half had. Lin did not speak much more, but the others were not so frightened to talk. Lin did not finish her plate, but considering she had hardly eaten more than broth and noodles in the past month, it was a huge improvement.
When everyone was finished eating, Su and Opal helped Katara clear away the dishes, while Tenzin went to check on the twins.
Ronen approached his mother, who was still sitting in her chair. "Momma?" he murmured to gain her attention, placing his little hand over top of hers. Su watched them interact from the corner of her eye.
"Yes, Ronen?" said Lin.
"Is you feelin' better now?" he asked.
Lin frowned, brow furrowing. She did not seem to understand the question, or perhaps she understood too well and could not bring herself to give Ronen an honest answer. She reached out a hand to stroke his soft, dark hair, which had grown long and messy over the past few months. It was almost hanging over his eyes now, and would need to be cut soon.
"Ronen," Lin sighed, smilingly at the young boy with so much love in her eyes, but there was sadness too. A deep, heart-wrenching sorrow that must have physically hurt her, because she bent over slightly and her shoulders hunched forward, as if her chest was aching. Her hand moved from his hair to caress his cheek, and her other hand grasped on tightly to his smaller one. "Ronen, I...you know that I love you, kid...right? I love you so much."
Ronen nodded. "I love you too, Momma."
"Just remember that, okay?" Lin begged, desperation in her eyes. "Can you do that for Momma? Promise me you'll always remember how much I love you."
"I promise," said Ronen, confusion on his own face now.
He looked so much like his mother. Su wasn't sure why she had never really noticed it before. His hair was the color of his father's and his eyes more closely resembled his Aunt Su's, but Lin and Su's eyes were practically the same and everything else about the young boy was Lin. The high cheekbones, the small ears, and the pointed chin. If Lin had ever wondered what she'd look like as a boy all she'd have to do is look at Ronen.
But something about Lin's words and the way in which she said them made Su's stomach coil and her chest constrict. It almost sounded as if Lin did not expect to be around much longer.
Su looked over to Katara, who was looking back at Su with the same worry in her eyes.
They would have to keep a better eye on Lin.
After dinner, Lin surprised everyone by going out to the living room rather than returning to bed. And when Sora woke, Lin went to soothe her, and Yunjin too, who woke a few moments after. She even fed them both their bottles and changed their wet diapers. Suyin had to pinch Tenzin's arm to stop him from weeping at the sight of it.
But while it all seemed like wonderful progress, Su was not convinced. The interactions between Lin and her children, while genuine, also made Su very anxious. She could not figure out what it was, but it left a sour taste in her mouth.
Tenzin thought that Su had fixed everything. That soon Lin would be well again because of Su, and that night he showered her with thanks. It only made Su more nervous. She could not shake the feeling that something was very wrong, but Tenzin was too overjoyed to see it.
Katara agreed with Su, to some extent, but she did not for one second believe that Lin would ever do anything to put herself in harms way. Su could hardly believe it herself, but Lin was not herself. Lin could not control what her diseased mind was telling her to do. Katara did not fully understand. She had seen the disease before, but she held too much faith in Lin.
Su loved her sister, but she was not blinded by her affections as the rest of the family was. Tenzin and Katara did not want to set Lin off, had been tip-toeing around her for the past month, and Su was going to put an end to that. Lin did not recover from anything by being babied, not when she had had Toph Beifong as a mother. She needed a good kick in the rear, and Su could handle whatever Lin had to throw at her. Although, Su figured she should probably make sure the children were out of the house first.
She did not get a chance to speak to Lin before bed, but she resolved to do it first thing in the morning. Lin had been much more active in just a few hours that evening than she had been in the past month, and it had quickly exhausted her. She went to bed earlier than Ronen and Opal, around the same time the twins settled down. Ronen hadn't wanted to leave her so soon, so he cuddled up with his mother and stroked her hair until she fell asleep, like she used to do for him. While waiting for Ronen, Opal politely asked Katara to teach her how to sew, less interested in actually learning the skill and more intrigued by having a new "family member." Katara wasn't technically related to Opal, or even Su for that matter, but Katara had introduced herself to Opal as Su's "Aunt Katara," which was much more complicated a term now that Lin and Tenzin were married, but Opal wasn't about to pass up an opportunity at having another aunt.
While everyone else was preoccupied, Su remembered her sister's words from earlier, and decided to confront Tenzin about the "acolyte girl" Lin had referred to. Considering how clearly in love Tenzin was with his wife, it was doubtful he had had an affair, but Su wouldn't be able to rest until she knew one way or another. Maybe she was prying, but she couldn't properly help Lin if she didn't know all of the details, and if her husband had been having an extramarital affair then Lin would certainly be more susceptible to depression.
"So," Su said to Tenzin the moment he collapsed onto the couch beside her, "who's this acolyte girl?"
Tenzin's brow furrowed and he turned his head to scrutinize Su's features for clues, looking genuinely confused by her question. "What acolyte girl?" Tenzin asked.
"Lin mentioned her soon after I arrived," Su responded vaguely, sitting up straighter, her back stiff and her muscles clenched, ready to stop Tenzin if he became defensive and tried to walk away from her. "I just want to know why my sister brought up some acolyte girl."
"Su," Tenzin sighed wearily, "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Can you get to the point already? What did Lin say about an acolyte girl? There are several on Air Temple Island. Surely you can't expect me to know which one you're referring to."
"How many have had such an impact on Lin that she would feel inclined to say that she should have let you marry the acolyte? I know the White Lotus must have been pressuring you to have kids and the two of you certainly waited a while to start having them. So what happened in between?"
"Wait a minute," Tenzin spluttered, shaking his head. "She said what? Marry the acolyte? Who? Why?"
"I don't know, Tenzin," Su said, narrowing her eyes at him. "Why would Lin think such a thing? And don't try to lie to me, Tenzin. You must remember that my mother was a human lie detector."
"Lie about what?" Tenzin exclaimed, sounding frustrated. "I assure you, Su, I have no idea what acolyte Lin could possibly be – … wait…no, she couldn't be –"
"So there is someone!" Su accused with undisguised revulsion, reeling away from him in shock. "You have got to be kidding me!"
"No! There isn't someone!" Tenzin refuted, and he was either sincere or very much in denial, because Su could detect no lies. "I don't like what you're insinuating, Su, and keep your voice down."
Tenzin looked pointedly at the twins, who where asleep across the room, but neither of them stirred.
"Tenzin, I swear on all that is spiritual if you cheated on my sister I will murder you," Su growled. "I know Lin is difficult at the best of times but she doesn't deserve –"
"Enough!" Tenzin hissed, and he looked rather angry. "I would never cheat on Lin. I never have cheated on Lin. She is my wife, and there is no one else in my life besides her. The acolyte girl she's referring to harbored feelings for me years ago, before Ronen was even born, but I turned down her advances and that was the end of it. I didn't even know that it still bothered Lin. The girl left the island over a year ago."
"And you're certain nothing happened between you and this girl?" Su persisted, studying him carefully. "Why would the girl try something with you if she knew you were a married man?"
Tenzin sighed, slumping back in his seat as he muttered, "It's complicated."
"Well spell it out for me then," Su demanded. "Who is this girl and what did she want? Why did she think she could break your marriage?"
"I really don't want to discuss this with you, Su -"
"Well suck it up, Airhead, because I'm not leaving this alone until you do."
Tenzin rolled his eyes and let out a huff of frustration. "Fine. If you must know, the girl's name is Pema. She was one of my students, barely twenty years old, and she thought we were soul mates. I thought that we were merely friends, but at the time Lin and I were going through a rough patch and I suppose Pema picked up on it. Well, everyone on the island picked up on it. We were struggling to get pregnant and we were fighting more than usual and the White Lotus was breathing down our necks. My father and your mother had died and Lin's way of coping was to bury herself in work."
Tenzin rubbed his face tiredly with both hands and breathed in deep before continuing. "I may have unintentionally misled Pema and I'll forever regret that, but there was never any desire on my end. One day Pema confessed her feelings for me, insisted that we were meant to be and that Lin was not right for me. I told her I could not be with her, that my heart belonged to Lin whether she was my soul mate or not, and I went home to my wife. I told Lin what had happened and she told me she was pregnant. It was one of the happiest days of my life and it had nothing to do with an acolyte girl.
"Perhaps Lin believes that she should have let me go before she got pregnant so that I could pursue a relationship with Pema instead, but that thought never once crossed my mind. I knew, of course, that if Lin refused to have children we would be forced to split, but I was determined to hang onto her until the very end. I don't know why she said something like that. Maybe she regrets having children with me, but it is not because I had an affair."
Su stared at Tenzin for a few moments longer, waiting patiently for any sort of flicker that might indicate that he was not telling her the whole truth, but nothing of the sort came. She began to relax just a bit, her tense muscles slowly unraveling. She breathed in deeply and then finally nodded in acceptance.
"Okay," she said, "I believe you. Sorry about that, but I had to ask. And you should know that Lin didn't say that you should marry the acolyte girl out of some desire to rid herself of this life. She said it because she believes herself useless. She believes you would all be better off without her. We must make her see the truth. We must remind her that she is still wanted and needed."
"Of course she's wanted!" Tenzin stressed. "How could she think otherwise? I tell her everyday that I love her, that I need her –"
"But she's sick, Tenzin," Su reminded him. "Mentally she is not well and she needs more than just your words. But we can't simply baby her either like you and Katara have done. I understand why you have, but Lin doesn't recover by being coddled. It's never been that way and it never will be. You of all people must know that."
Tenzin sighed heavily, shaking his head and looking frustrated. "You're right. Why didn't I discover this on my own? She's my wife, and yet you come in for a few hours and see everything with so much clarity –"
"Because you've got a lot on your plate right now," Su easily explained away. "You've got a three year old and newborn twins that can't survive on their own. Sometimes you have to be a parent first, and between that and your worry for Lin, the stress of not knowing what the problem is…well, it's difficult to see anything clearly in such a position."
Tenzin dropped his gaze shamefully, and Su reached out to place a hand on his shoulder. "Tenzin," she said to regain his attention, "this is not your fault."
He nodded, but he did not seem convinced, and Su could only squeeze his shoulder reassuringly and hope that, in time, he would come to see it as truth.
Chapter Text
Chapter 23
Tenzin awoke with a start, sitting straight up, eyes darting around the room. He was not sure what had woken him, but his heart was thumping loudly in his chest and there was a feeling of dread creeping up on him. He scrambled up off of the couch, going first to the twins, who were both still sleeping peacefully, both of them breathing, both perfectly fine. He breathed a sigh of relief and strode to the other side of the room, where Ronen and Opal shared a cot. The two toddlers were just fine as well, and Tenzin fixed the blankets they had kicked and tangled around their legs in their sleep.
Deciding that he must have just had an unsettling dream, he returned to the couch. He sat down for a moment, rubbing at his tired eyes and trying to get his heart rate under control.
Then he remembered that he was forgetting one person.
He leapt to his feet once more, heart hammering in his ears as he crept down the hall to the room where Lin and Su were staying. The door was ajar when he reached it, and he poked his head through the crack to peer inside. He saw Su first, asleep on her cot, arm draped over her face and her chest rising and falling in time with her quiet snores. The bed where Lin was supposed to be, however, was empty.
Trying not to panic, Tenzin went first to the bathroom, and found it unoccupied as well. He checked the kitchen and his mother's healing room too before coming to the conclusion that Lin was definitely not inside the house. He raced back to the bedroom, sweeping his gaze over the expanse of the room one last time before urgently shaking Su awake.
"Su!" he exclaimed in a breathless whisper, worried beyond belief but mindful of the children sleeping just down the hall. "Su, wake up!"
Su jolted upright, eyes bleary and panicked as she slurred, "What, what is it, what's the matter?"
"Where is Lin?"
"Where is Lin?" Su repeated, turning to look over at the bed and discovering what Tenzin had moments ago. Her eyes went wide.
"I've checked everywhere," he said frantically. "Lin is missing!"
"Oh no," Su gasped, leaping to her feet and stumbling around in the dark, presumably looking for her shoes.
Tenzin did not wait for her, whirling around and darting out of the room, a gust of air following in his wake. He propelled himself down the hall, through the living room, and then out the front door, coming to a sudden stop when the first burst of cold air hit him in the face. A dusting of snow swirled up around his ankles and flurries fell from the sky into his eyelashes. He blinked rapidly, scanning the area around him for footprints.
But he did not have to look for long. Lin had not gone far from the front step, but she was face down on the ground, limbs sprawled out around her and covered in a thin white blanket of snow.
"Lin!" Tenzin cried, rushing to her inert form and falling to his knees at her side. He turned her over, lifting her limp body into his arms and checking desperately for a pulse. It was weak, but it was still there, and he could feel short bursts of warm air coming from her lips. But she was freezing cold and her lips were turning blue.
Su arrived then, and before she could say a word, Tenzin was shouting at her to wake his mother. She spun around in a circle, nearly losing her footing on the slippery ground, and darted back inside.
Tenzin rose to his feet, bringing Lin with him and carrying her back into the warmth. He went straight to his mother's healing room, where Su and Katara met him a moment later.
Katara did not ask questions despite her obvious confusion. She went straight to work, while Tenzin held on tight to Lin's frozen hand, as if returning some warmth to that one appendage could somehow help her.
"Tenzin," Katara said urgently, "help me get her clothes off. Su, get her some dry clothes and as many blankets as you can find."
Su raced off to do as Katara said, and Tenzin lifted Lin up into a sitting position to begin helping his mother peel the wet clothes off of Lin's form. When Su returned, Katara sent her off again to begin heating tea and soup on the stove. Tenzin hurriedly replaced Lin's clothes, while his mother pulled as much water from Lin's hair as she could. They wrapped a blanket up around her ears and down over her shoulders, another around her legs, and another wrapped around her torso.
It was around that time that Lin came to, shivering and confused, her bleary eyes scanning the faces of her husband and mother-in-law.
Tenzin felt the air return to his lungs in a rush and the weight on his chest eased. He held Lin tightly to him, running his hand up and down her arm to create further warmth. He was so, so relieved, but a part of him was also angry. Why was she doing this? Why was she trying to hurt herself when so many people needed her? When he needed her? He knew that she could not control it, that she was sick, that she needed love and comfort, but he needed it to stop. He needed his wife back. Was that so selfish of him? Was he not being sensitive enough to her plight? He was so hurt and confused and spirits he loved her so much.
"Why, Lin?" he gasped out, tears already streaking down his face and choking his words. "Why did you go out there? What were you thinking? How could you do that to yourself? To us?"
Lin tilted her head back against his shoulder, looking up at him with a delirious smile and hooded eyelids. "I - it's o - okay, Tenzin," she slurred, shivering violently. "I wanna live."
She said it with so much conviction, such pride, but also with some surprise, as if she had only just come to the conclusion herself. Tenzin didn't know whether to be more worried or relieved. All he could do was bury his face in the crook of her neck and weep.
Lin was not sure what had prompted her to sneak out into the cold, wintery night. She hated the cold, hated the snow. But at that point in time she hated everything.
She wasn't sure when it happened or why. She could hardly even remember if there was ever a time when she hadn't felt so broken and miserable. The fact that she had a loving husband and three beautiful children only made her feel guilty, which made her feel worse for feeling so bad in the first place. She was trapped inside her head, trapped in the South Pole. Away from her job and her city and her home and everything else that made sense.
She wanted so desperately to be with her children, her family, but she could not find the energy within her to join them. The twins seemed so unhappy all of the time, so surely they did not want her. Surely she must have been the cause of their fussing. She could not even feed them, it hurt so much. She had such a high tolerance for pain, could handle so much, and yet nursing her children suddenly made her feel as if she would die.
She wanted to die.
At one point, in the midst of lying in that room, broken and alone, she found herself thinking it. She did not want to kill herself, but she wanted to die. She wanted to stop wasting Tenzin's time, stop ruining her children's lives, stop being a disgrace to her mother's name. She could not rid herself of the misery that had overtaken her. She could not remember what it felt like to be happy.
When Su came she thought it was a sign. If Su could handle twins and three other kids, then what was Lin's excuse? She had none, and rather than give her incentive to change, it had only fueled the self-hatred deep inside herself. She resolved to see her children, to try one last time.
It had helped, in a way, but it had also hurt. She had already missed out on a month of their lives, had already put into Ronen's head that his mother was sick. Would he ever remember her as anything else? Would she ever be able to overcome it? Sora and Ronen and Yunjin deserved a better mother. Tenzin deserved a better wife.
She could not sleep. She was overwhelmed with guilt and anxiety and she wanted so badly to fight it, to force herself to keep going and be the mother and wife her family deserved. But there were still doubts, and with Su there she had so many conflicting emotions.
Somehow she ended up outside, no shoes on and hardly any clothes to shelter her from the cold. The wind was harsh and it whipped at her skin ruthlessly. She did not care about the cold. She could hardly recognize herself anymore. So she did the one thing that had always brought her comfort before.
She sunk her feet deep into the snow, twisting and turning until finally the soles of her feet found solid ground and the energy hummed through her. The Earth was hidden, but it was all around her, ready to bow to her will, to breathe life into her.
She was too weak to bend, and the cold was harsher than she remembered. She could not move though. The feeling was too great. She needed to remember her roots, remember herself.
But it was so cold, and she was so tired and so frail.
She didn't remember falling. Didn't remember when she stopped shivering and slipped into unconsciousness.
She did, however, remember seeing her mother.
It was probably just her delusional mind that summoned a vision of her dead mother. She doubted Toph could descend from the spirit world to kick some sense into her. Regardless of the how or the why, it was the feeling of the earth beneath her, and Toph's voice ringing in her ears that reminded Lin of who she was and what she had to lose.
"How long was she out there for? How did she even get out there in the first place?"
"I don't know, Mother."
"I knew this would happen."
"Su -"
"No, Tenzin, I should have seen this coming. I should have paid closer attention. Spirits, why did I let myself go to sleep?"
"Su, this isn't your fault -"
"If you hadn't found her out there in time -"
"All right, enough!" Tenzin exclaimed, tired and exasperated and rubbing wearily at his eyes.
Su ceased pacing, which might have saved the carpet she was wearing a hole through.
Katara sighed, exhausted as well, and collapsed into a nearby chair.
"Listen," said Tenzin, more calmly this time, "I don't know how she got out there or why, but I think...I think it might have helped -"
"Are you kidding me?" Su interjected. "Helped her get pneumonia maybe -"
"I know it sounds crazy," Tenzin spoke over her, "but she said she wants to live."
"She was delirious, Tenzin," Su pointed out.
"But it was the most assured thing she's said all month!" Tenzin persisted. "I'm not saying that this is over or that she's magically cured, but... I think something has changed. Something shifted, I could see it in her eyes. She wants to live."
Katara and Su exchanged a glance, both still looking doubtful, but Tenzin could see the hope in their eyes. They wanted to believe him.
Katara rose to her feet, slowly, but with purpose. "I hope you're right, son," she said sincerely, "but it's probably best we keep a closer eye on her for now. I contacted Sokka a few nights ago. He should be here by tomorrow night and he's bringing the best acupuncturist in the city with him. I've heard he can work miracles, and having Sokka here will be a big help, I'm sure of it. I'm going to try and get Lin to eat some of the soup Su made, and then I'm going to get some sleep before the twins wake up. One of us should probably stay with Lin -"
"I'll do it," Tenzin easily volunteered, "and don't worry about the soup, Mother, I'll take care of it."
"All right, kid, enough of the whimpering. Get up."
"Mom?"
"Don't Mom me. Quit your yellow-bellying and do what I said!"
"I...I don't think I can."
"You don't think you can? Did I raise a Beifong or a coward? Don't give me some lame ass excuse, kid, I've heard 'em all before."
"You don't understand -"
"Oh I understand just fine. You're being weak. You were always like this y'know? Always lookin' for someone else to blame."
"Shut up!"
"Ooh, pinched a nerve I see. Well good, it's about time I got through to you. Even in the afterlife I gotta be takin' care of you two. Can't your old mom get some peace?"
"I didn't ask you to come."
"Nah, you never did. That's half your problem, too proud to ask for help. I guess that's partially my fault -"
"Ya think?"
"Hey now, don't be criticizin' your dead mom. I'd come down there and kick your ass if I could."
"You always were a show off."
"I was sharing my gifts with the world. Besides, I'm the one that taught you everything you know, so you should be a little more grateful."
"Grateful for the mother who comes down from the Spirit World to remind me of what a failure I am?"
"Hold it right there, Missy. I never called you a failure. The only thing that ever held you back was you. You can fix all this, you know? It all starts with you, Lin. No one's gonna be able to hold your hand and walk you there. Although, you've got a hell of a lot of people willing to try."
"They don't need me. They'd be better off without me. All I've done is drag them down. I can't be what they need me to be."
"Are you kidding me? You think somebody else could do better? Have you taken a look around lately? They're all fallin' apart without you. They need you just as much as you need them."
"Then why do I feel like this?"
"I never said it'd be easy, kid. But I didn't teach you to just give up when the going got tough. You were handed a raw deal, I'll give you that, but that doesn't mean you can't come back from this. Just means you gotta try a little harder."
"That's easier said than done."
"'Course it is, but it can be done. You're not gonna make it anywhere though if you just keep coming up with excuses. Now pull it together, kid. I don't wanna see you up here anytime soon."
Lin came to slowly, the cold registering first. It sunk down deep into her bones and it was all encompassing. But when she opened her eyes she saw the face of her husband, and a warmth spread through her.
Maybe her mother was right. Maybe she could pull through this, not just for herself, but for her family.
And just like that she came to a decision.
Just like that, she knew.
She wanted to live.
It took another month before Lin was almost back to her old self.
She was sick for a few days after they found her out in the cold, but she finally started to fight to get out of bed. She was eating better and talking more. She began to interact with Sora and Yunjin. Her moods still wavered, but they were not quite so extreme.
That was not to say that she was instantly cured. There were still days when she retreated so far into herself that she could hardly carry a conversation. There were moments where Tenzin would look over at her and she would be sitting so very still, her eyes glazed over and an expression of pure anguish on her face for seemingly no reason at all. Sometimes she struggled to get out of bed in the morning, or she would grow so frustrated within minutes of being awake that she would have to lock herself away from the kids to blow off some steam.
The difference now was that she was trying, and the others were learning how to help her when she wasn't sure that she could help herself.
Sokka arrived with the acupuncturist one day in the midst of her recovery, and though Lin was initially against the idea, she allowed the strange man to poke her with needles. She was not expecting much of anything, so when she began to have flashbacks from her tumultuous past, she'd put a halt to the session before it was even over, despite the stranger's protests. When she began to feel worse, she demanded he finish the session, but ended up arguing with Su immediately after.
It was possibly the worst fight the sisters had ever had, and despite being at one of her weakest moments, Lin had goaded Su into a legitimate fight. They ended up outside Katara's house, in a snowstorm, bending rocks and boulders and various other earthly objects at one another as if they were in a common street brawl. Neither was entirely certain what exactly they were fighting over, but after more than a decade of built up aggression, they had plenty of old wounds to take a stab at.
However, Lin was still far too weak to be exerting any type of profound effort, and Su was too far provoked to really hold back. Lin was holding her own just fine, but she had been out of commission for over two months and no one could bounce back into a duel without any repercussions.
In the end, Tenzin had to intervene, dangerously placing himself between the two riled women and blowing away their attacks. For anyone else to get in the middle could have been disastrous, but Tenzin was a master at airbending and pacifism, and he would have done anything to save his wife from any unnecessary strain. He had allowed some of the fight at first, because he knew the sisters needed to blow off a lifetime of steam, but as soon as he saw the fatigue wearing on Lin he had to put a stop to it.
He was barely quick enough in rushing to his wife's side to catch her as she very suddenly collapsed, immediately unconscious after her fight with Su. Tenzin was out of his mind with worry, but Katara and the acupuncturist both stated that she needed a good rest.
Over twelve hours later she'd awoken, in a much better mood and suddenly feeling as if things were turning around for the better at long last. She apologized to Su, who was far more understanding than Lin would have thought. Su herself finally admitted her own wrong doing, and apologized to her older sister for all the physical and emotional scars she had inflicted. Su was not the reason behind Lin's depression, but it helped to finally have some closure on that part of her life. The two sisters wouldn't become best friends any time soon, but it was more progress than they'd made so far.
Su and Opal stayed for nearly two weeks before Tenzin convinced Su it was okay for her to leave. He also promised to write her everyday about Lin's progress. Yet before she left, she managed to "pick up another stray," as Lin put it, and somehow convinced the acupuncturist Sokka had brought for Lin to return to her city of Zaoufu with her.
Soon after Su had gone, Tenzin and Lin discussed their own options, and decided that going home would probably be best for her and for the family. Lin needed to be back in familiar territory to properly heal, and the five of them needed to be in their own space to come together as a family. Katara worried about them leaving so soon, when Lin was only just beginning to recover, but Tenzin convinced her it was for the best, and promised to write to her as well.
However, before they could leave, things went awry elsewhere.
A few nights before Lin and her family were meant to head back to Republic City, Tenzin and Sokka had taken Ronen and gone to visit Korra. They had heard that Zuko was in the South Pole to visit the young Avatar as well, and were hoping to catch up with him and the young girl before they were to return to the city. In the midst of their small get together, a group of four assailants attempted to kidnap Korra, each of them aggressive and dangerous and willing to kill for what they wanted. Tenzin, Sokka, Zuko, and Tonraq were thrown into a vicious battle, the four men fighting desperately to protect Korra and Ronen from harm.
Soon after the fighting began, Senna had taken Ronen and Korra and ran off into the blistery cold night, to shield them from the explosive battle and further prevent their capture. There hadn't been time to grab shoes or coats, so she had hastily wrapped the two toddlers in a single blanket and rushed off into the night, carrying each of them on her hips. Even from afar they could see and hear the battle that was raging, and Senna feared the worst would happen to the men she'd left behind. She wanted to weep along with Ronen and Korra at the thought of what might happen to her husband, to Ronen's father, to Sokka and Zuko, the heroes that she'd grown up hearing about in bedtime stories. Yet she kept going as fast as her legs would carry her, focused on her task. She had to protect the children at all costs. Her daughter the Avatar and Ronen, the son of the famous leaders of Republic City. They were two of the most important people in Senna's life regardless of the titles and they were the only ones that mattered in that moment. She hadn't known Ronen awfully long, but he was Korra's best friend and he had already wormed his way into Senna's heart, and she'd never think of facing Lin Beifong without having done everything she possibly could to protect her son.
The journey was long and hard, and there were times that Senna thought they might not make it, that one of the attackers might break free from the battle and hunt them down, or that the cold would take them before they reached safety. Korra and Ronen were inconsolable, and her limbs were so stiff and frozen she could no longer feel them. She worried that she might collapse, that her burning muscles would no longer be able to take the strain, but by some miracle, she eventually made it to her destination.
She hadn't wanted to go to Katara's, for fear of leading the kidnappers straight to Beifong and her infants, but she hadn't known what else to do, where else she could have gone that would have been half as safe. She kicked the door in without bothering to knock, collapsing on the threshold in a flurry of snow and limbs, both Korra and Ronen scrambling out of her grasp. Korra remained by her mother's side, somehow having the sense of mind to push the door closed to protect them from the howling winds, while Ronen rushed across the room to his own mother, who had lurched to her feet in surprise at their sudden entry.
Heaving for breath and shivering from the cold, Senna caught Lin Beifong's startled gaze, and in those steely green eyes she saw a whirlwind of emotions. Surely the woman must have guessed at what could have happened, and though there was fear and anguish in her eyes, there was also a glimmer of hope and strength, and Senna was in awe of the Chief's resolve.
"Momma!" Ronen cried out, still in tears, running and leaping straight into his mother's arms before she even had time to fully bend down to catch him.
Lin was jolted, but straightened up with her son wrapped securely in her arms. She frowned when she felt his cold limbs that could not have been fully protected by the single blanket, and she rubbed his chilled skin soothingly in a double effort to calm him and warm him back up.
"Ronen," Lin breathed out, sounding nearly as breathless as Senna felt. "Sweetheart, are you okay?"
"They try to take Korra, Momma," Ronen wailed, tightening his small arms around his mother's neck and pressing his cheek against hers.
Senna could hardly move, but she instinctively grasped onto her daughter, feeling as if she should do something, as if she should better explain or insist on moving elsewhere in case the attackers had followed. Yet her gaze was locked onto Lin's penetrating stare, and the thought of what might have happened to the woman's husband and family – the thought of her own husband – left her speechless.
"Who tried to take Korra?" Lin asked, eyes twitching, but it was clear she expected no real answer. She was avoiding the one question she wanted to ask.
"They hurt Daddy, Momma," Ronen continued to whimper. "They hurt Daddy. We have to go back. We have to get Daddy."
Senna wasn't sure what Ronen had seen of the battle. She had been so focused on getting the kids away, of getting Korra and Ronen to safety that she hadn't allowed herself to look back. She hadn't allowed herself to wonder at who could be most seriously harmed. Had something terrible happened to Tenzin? Could Ronen have seen his own father go down?
Katara entered the room then, clearly having heard Ronen's cries, and there was so much sorrow on her face already from his words that Senna had to look away.
On the other hand, a hardened resolve had washed over Lin, and Senna could hardly believe the woman's strength. She was steady and firm as she reassured her son, "It's okay, Ronen. Momma will go get Daddy now, okay?"
"You can't go, Momma!" Ronen protested, suddenly rethinking his earlier statement. "What if they hurt you too?"
"They won't, Ronen," Lin assured him, finally snapping her gaze away from Senna to kiss her son on the cheek, preparing her goodbyes. "Momma will be right back, and Gran-Gran is going to keep you safe until I return."
"Lin," Katara started to protest, shaking her head with wide eyes. "You are not yet well, you shouldn't…you can't –"
"I must," Lin asserted without further explanation, leaning over to sit Ronen on the couch. The boy was still afraid of letting his mother go, and he clung to her sleeves, looking up at her with fear on his face. "I'll be right back, Ronen," she told him again. "I promise. But I need you to do something for me. I need you to keep your little brother and sister safe, all right? Can you do that for me?"
Ronen sniffed loudly and wiped at his face, still looking distraught, but suddenly determined now, nodding tersely in confirmation as he said, "Yes, Momma. I'll take care of 'em…and Korra too. I won't let the bad people take her."
"I know you won't, kid," Lin murmured proudly, giving Ronen a small smile and stroking his hair. "Don't worry about me and Daddy, okay? Just stay with Jin and Sora and do what Gran-Gran tells you, got it?"
Ronen nodded again. "Got it."
"Okay good, I love you." Lin kissed Ronen on the forehead and then straightened back up, spinning on her heel and striding quickly down the hall.
Katara looked briefly at Senna before turning around too and going after Lin. Senna suddenly felt another rush of adrenaline surge through her and she scrambled to her feet. She ushered Korra over to Ronen, promised to be right back, and then rushed after the other two women.
She found them in one of the bedrooms, where Lin was hastily pulling on scraps of armor and a coat while Katara insisted she not leave.
"Someone has to go, Katara," Lin said gruffly, not swayed at all by her mother-in-law's argument. "I'm not going to leave them out there on their own facing Spirit's knows who, and I can't send you out there to face it either."
"I'm just as worried as you are, Lin," Katara persisted. "That's my son and my brother out there, but I can't have you running off and getting yourself killed either. You've only just begun to heal and to do something like this, win or lose, could be detrimental to your recovery –"
"Listen to me, Katara," Lin interrupted, buttoning up her coat now. "None of that matters right now. Either Tenzin and the others need my help or it's too late and the people who tried to take Korra are heading this way. If that's the case, I'm going to have to do everything in my power to slow them down, and you have to get the kids out of here. Senna can't just smuggle Korra out by herself, and I doubt these people would pass up an opportunity to take three more potential airbenders." Lin turned abruptly to Senna then and asked, "How many of them are there?"
"F – four," Senna stammered in response. "I think there were four."
"Were they benders? All of them?" Lin questioned.
"I think so," Senna said, shaking her head slightly and shivering. "They were…I'm not sure what they were exactly, but they were powerful. I couldn't get a good look before I grabbed the kids, but there were explosions and…I don't know how –"
Senna stopped to heave in a shaky breath, and Lin asked no more questions. "All right," she said, looking at both Senna and Katara now. "Both of you should get the kids ready to go just in case. Give me thirty minutes, and if I'm not back just leave. It'll be better to have to come find you than to have them get to you first."
"Lin please," Katara tried one last time.
Lin looked her straight in the eye but did not acknowledge the plea. "Take the kids to Su in Zaofu. She'll be able to protect you while you get in contact with Saikhan and the White Lotus. Once you get back to Republic City my men will protect you, and the White Lotus will lay down their lives for the Avatar and the last of the potential airbenders. Even if we can't stop them here they'll never make it through the city."
"Why don't you take the children," Katara continued to argue, but Lin was already striding back down the hall, the other two women hurrying after her. "You can get them to safety while I hold them off."
"This isn't a debate, Katara," Lin called back without turning to face her. "I'm going and that's final. Take care of the kids."
They had reached the living room, and Lin stopped for only a second to hug Ronen goodbye one last time, and then she was out the door and disappearing into the night.
Chapter Text
Chapter 24
Within only two minutes of leaving Katara's home, Lin could already hear the sounds of the battle taking place just over a mile away. She took it as a good sign, at least. It meant that someone was still alive, someone was still fighting. She wasn't sure what that meant for her family and Tonraq, but at least one of the men, if not all of them, were still fighting back. She had no idea of their condition, but she had to hope that they were okay. Ronen had said that Tenzin was hurt, but was it dire? Was it merely a small battle wound or was he gravely injured? Lin could not fathom something happening to him, or to Sokka or Zuko either.
She sprinted a few yards from Katara's home before coming to a halt, digging her feet into the snow until they met solid ground, and then stomped with her right foot. She was lifted up onto a rock wave that propelled her forward much faster than she could have made it on foot. Within just a few minutes she was on the edge of the battle, and it didn't appear to be winding down.
It was difficult to see in all the chaos, the fire and explosions and snow spray, but she spotted a torrent of wind spiraling in the direction of one of Korra's would-be kidnappers and she knew that Tenzin was alive. She heaved in a relieved breath and then bore down, throwing herself into the thick of the battle without a second thought.
Her instinct was to go to Tenzin first, but before she could get there she saw Sokka hunkered down on one side of what remained of Tonraq and Senna's home. He had his trusty boomerang in one hand and was shuffling away from blasts of energy that were being directed at him. Lin scanned the area quickly and spotted a female combustionbender striding ever closer to Sokka's hiding spot. She had to shake her head to quickly rid herself of her surprise.
Using the element of surprise – the only opportunity she'd get – Lin kicked a sheet of rock in the woman's direction. She never saw it coming until it was too late, and the sheet of rock hit her straight on, knocking her back several feet to crash into the ground. It wouldn't keep her down for long, but Lin used the distraction to run for Sokka, sliding into place beside him.
Sokka startled upon first seeing her, and then a wide grin split his face. "Linny!" he exclaimed, sounding breathless and strained. She noticed that he was clutching his left side, and while she could see no blood, his wheezing breaths didn't sound good. "What are you doing out here, kid? The weather is a bit chilly this evening, wouldn't want you to catch a cold."
Some people might have been astonished by Sokka's ability to make jokes in the midst of such a disastrous situation, but Lin was far beyond accustomed to it after growing up with him and her mother. There had been a time when she was more likely to snap at her own men for cracking jokes on the job, shortly after her mother's passing, but she'd come a long way since then, and understood now that for some it was a coping mechanism. For Sokka and – formerly – Toph, it was a way of life.
"Well you know me," Lin responded to him with equal sarcasm, "couldn't sit by and let you boys have all the fun."
Before she could go on, there was a loud cracking sound, and Lin peered carefully around their hiding place to see the nearby, snow-packed earth beginning to crumble. She watched, momentarily mesmerized, as the ice cracked and an orange glow boiled up from the ground. It took her a moment to realize that lava was rising to the surface, melting the ice and turning the snow into steam. It was as if a volcano had erupted beneath the ground, and the molten cracks were growing ever closer to Lin and Sokka.
Was that lava?! Lin thought with some incredulity, deciding a second later that it wasn't a good idea to sit around and wait to find out.
"I think the weather is getting a bit too warm for my tastes," Lin lamented, grabbing hold of Sokka's arms and hauling him onto his feet. He let out a quiet groan and hunched over almost instantly, and Lin had to grab him around the waist to keep him from falling over. She threw his arm over her shoulder, and with one arm still around his waist, she kicked her heel into the ground and propelled them away from the expanding lava.
They only made it a few yards away before their earth wave was wrenched out from under them, their momentum causing both Lin and Sokka to go flying forward to crash into a snowbank. Both of them bounced once and then rolled down the short embankment, coming to a rough stop a few seconds later.
Lin had just enough time to wipe the snow from her eyes before she saw a second attack coming in the form of a very large boulder. She threw her arms up in an effort to stop it, but she was saved the trouble of having to react.
A wall of fire came flashing in from the side, crashing into the boulder just in time to intercept it. Smoldering chunks of rock sprayed in all directions, and Lin quickly shielded her face from the debris. When she looked up again, Firelord Zuko was standing above her, holding out a hand to help her up.
Lin lurched to her feet, dusting snow and embers off of her coat as she said, "Firelord Zuko…it's good to see you."
"It's good to see you too, Lin," Zuko replied with a small smile and a brief nod. "It's been too long."
"That it has," Lin concurred, as both of them turned their attention back onto the earthbender that had thrown the boulder. He was gearing up to throw something else their way, or so she thought…
Instead he hunkered down and, with a sly smile on his face, thrust a wave of molten lava in their direction. He was an earthbender, that was lavabending? First combustionbending, now this? Who were these people?
Lin and Zuko worked together to repel the lava, which was a massive task considering that lava basically was earth and fire combined. Lin had battled all sorts of benders in her lifetime, but never one that could wield lava.
She was beginning to think that neither she or Zuko would be able to stop it, when all of a sudden, from out of the sky came a whirling object, one that the lavabender never saw coming. The object struck him directly in the middle of his forehead and then spun away, back in the direction of Lin and Zuko, who stepped apart just in time for it to whirl between them. The lavabender swayed on his feet for just a moment before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed. Meanwhile, the object that had struck him landed in Sokka's waiting hand.
Lin and Zuko looked back to see Sokka sitting up on his knees, still hunched over in obvious pain, but smiling broadly and triumphantly holding his boomerang high above his head.
"Nice work, Sokka," Zuko commended him with a small smirk.
Lin wasted no time with thanks or congratulations, striding right over to the lavabender and using one of her metal cables to bind him. It may not hold him long if he were to wake, but without anything else she figured it to be better than nothing.
She then cast her gaze around the battleground to see that one other man had been taken out and was currently unconscious as well. Lin wrapped him in cable too before finally looking around for her husband.
She spotted him several yards away, in the midst of dodging and leaping over rays of explosive light directed at him by the combustionbender. Just a few feet from them, Tonraq was engaged in a tense battle with another woman with no arms but powerful waterbending skills. Tonraq appeared to be losing, and Tenzin was trying to avoid getting hit, while simultaneously throwing sharp blasts of air at both women.
Lin ran straight into the mix, adding her own powers to her husband's and Tonraq's and briefly startling the women. But then they began to fight back twice as hard, and even with three against two, Lin and Tenzin and Tonraq were barely able to hold them back. Katara had been right about Lin still being in recovery, and she was not at her best despite the effort she was putting into the fight. Tenzin was clearly injured, as Ronen had said, with blood running all down his left side, and he was fighting through the pain but tiring quickly. Tonraq wasn't in much better shape either, obviously not accustomed to such strenuous battles.
However, Sokka and Zuko joined the three of them a moment later, and though the two dangerous women fought long and hard, they were severely outnumbered without their male counterparts, and soon they too were taken down.
It was only after the four attackers were bound and several other authority figures had arrived on the scene that Lin was able to go to Tenzin.
He was busy giving strict instructions on the dangers of the male earthbender/lavabender, but the moment he sensed Lin approaching he turned in her direction. He looked at her with an expression of relief and released a weary sigh, his shoulders sagging as if all the strength had left him in that very moment.
She went straight to him, not acknowledging the person he had been speaking to and simply engulfing him in an embrace. The arm on his injured side hung limply, but he wound his other arm tight around her waist, pressing her against him as tightly as he could and burying his face in her neck.
"You shouldn't have come," he murmured against her skin, just before placing a quick kiss there.
"Ronen said you were hurt," she muttered in response, clutching the back of his robes in both hands, afraid to tighten her hold when part of him was so clearly injured.
"Nothing my mother can't fix," Tenzin replied, but he must have been in considerable pain because his voice was strained. "How is Ronen? And Korra? They're not hurt are they?"
"They're both fine," Lin assured him. "Senna took care of them. She might have some frostbite herself but I'm sure your mother is looking after her."
Tenzin lifted his head from the crook of her neck then, slowly, as if it pained him to do so. He looked pale and drained and his skin was clammy. His whole left side was stained red with blood and the sleeve of his robe had been singed off, revealing a nasty burn the whole way down his arm.
"We need to get you to your mother," Lin told him, eyeing his wounds with a concerned frown, and he complied without argument.
Now that the fighting was over, the adrenaline was wearing off and Tenzin looked unstable on his feet. Lin, too, was feeling some exhaustion, but not nearly to the same extent as her husband. Not only was he far more injured than she, but he had been fighting longer than she had. Beyond simply that, there was something about being in such a familiar role that had awoken something inside of Lin that had lay dormant for many months.
Throughout the later stages of her pregnancy with the twins she had been mostly inept, too large and weary and focused wholly on keeping her unborn children safe to really be effective. She had left her job and Republic City a month before the twins were born, and afterwards she had been in a state that made it nearly impossible for her to return to her normal self. Her body was not quite as used to the exertion of a battle while she was still recovering and regaining her strength, but being a part of one reminded her of her worth outside of her family, reminded her of the abilities she possessed that made her such a formidable leader. It was so invigorating that she almost forgot to be tired.
However, she felt some guilt that she felt so alive in that moment when her husband was clearly suffering, and so she tamped down on any inner relief and focused on getting him back to his mother's home. Sokka was already on his way there with what surely must have been cracked or broken ribs. Zuko and Tonraq were both worn out and would need to see a healer, but both of them stayed behind to ensure that Korra's attempted kidnappers did not escape. There was already talk of preparing specific prison cells in separate locations for each of them, and Lin knew that Tenzin and Sokka would not rest long before aiding in the formation of such prison cells. Lin resolved to help as well, determined that the four extremely dangerous criminals never escaped to cause any problems ever again.
Upon arriving at his mother's home, Tenzin was practically dead on his feet, but he stopped Lin from opening the front door, grunting when the sudden stop jolted him. Lin looked up at him with eyes narrowed in confusion and he shortly explained, "Don't want Ronen to see me like this."
Lin looked down at the blood and the burns and the shredded robes and decided that he was probably right. "Let's go around the back then," she said, leading him around the small house to a side door that would lead more directly to Katara's healing room, and not pass through the living room where Ronen would likely be.
As suspected, Sokka was already there receiving treatment for his own wounds. Despite his clear exhaustion, he was teasing his sister and cracking jokes in a strained voice, which was likely more for Katara's benefit than his own. Her brow was furrowed and there were deep lines of concern etched into her face. Her hands trembled as she concentrated on healing her wounded brother, but her lips were twitching ever so slightly, on the verge of smiling thanks to Sokka's antics.
But the ghost of a smile faded completely when she caught sight of her son being half carried into the room. He was leaning heavily on Lin now, his breaths coming out in short pants and his whole body trembling. It took all of Lin's strength to haul him across the room and into the healing pool, and her weakened muscles screamed as she strained in an effort to keep from dropping him too quickly.
The moment she got him settled, she went to move aside, only to have him grab her hand and stop her with a weak grasp.
He looked up at her with hooded, red-rimmed eyes, his voice coarse as he muttered, "Don't leave."
He wasn't begging, and it wasn't the whimper of a child, merely a request from her badly injured husband, yet it stirred something in Lin that compelled her to stay right by his side. She would have done just that, but she was naturally logical most of the time, and she knew there were things she needed to do before she could oblige him.
She hesitated anyway, reluctant to leave Tenzin's side so soon after a battle that could have taken him away from her. But in the end she knew that she would only be a few feet away for just a little while, and then she could return to his side.
She grasped his hand in both of hers, squeezing briefly and leaning over to kiss him on the forehead, just at the tip of the arrow tattooed onto his skin. Then she told him, "I'll be right back, Tenzin, I promise. I've got to check on the kids and then I'll come right back, okay?"
Tenzin looked at her with bleary eyes, and she wondered if he was lucid enough to even comprehend what she was saying. He nodded in understanding though, and did not protest as she scrambled back up onto her feet.
Katara and Lin switched sides quickly, the elder healer going to her son, while Lin automatically went to Sokka, where she finished wrapping a tight bandage around his ribs. He attempted to jest with Lin as well at first, but she merely raised an eyebrow at him, and he sighed.
"Good to see you haven't changed, Linny," he said to her, his voice somewhere between exasperation and affection.
"I told you not to call me that," she replied without looking up from her task.
"You tell me a lot of things," Sokka flippantly responded. Then he hissed softly when Lin pressed a bit too firmly against his ribs.
"Sorry," she muttered, squinting her eyes as if it would help her focus. She had plenty of experience in tending to wounds, but didn't have the delicate hands of a healer. She could keep a man alive long enough to get him proper help, but there was no gentleness to go along with it.
"By the way," Sokka said through gritted teeth, "thanks for the backup out there."
"Just doing my…" she trailed off before she could say job, because that wasn't what was doing. She hadn't done her job in over three months, and quite frankly she would have fought to protect her husband and Sokka and Zuko anyways, not to mention her kids and Korra. Yet the fact remained that she really missed her job.
Lin shook her head as if to clear her thoughts, and then tried again. "I mean, I'd come to you boys' rescue any day of the week."
Sokka started to chuckle and then winced, hunching over just as Lin finished securing the bandage. "I have no doubt of that," he said, and she noticed he was blinking rapidly as if fending off sleep.
"Why don't you lie down," Lin suggested. "You've done enough hero work for today."
"I should check on Korra and Senna," Sokka tried to protest, even as his body rebelled against him, causing him to slump against the pillows nearby. "And Zuko and Tonraq will need my help."
"The authorities are helping Zuko and Tonraq, and I'm sure Zuko has called in plenty of reinforcements," Lin assured him, doing her best to readjust the bedding to make him more comfortable. Tenzin had done it a thousand times for her, but she felt like she was only making a mess of it. "And I'll take care of Korra and Senna. You won't be much help in the state you're in. Just rest."
"You're right," Sokka murmured faintly, his eyes already closed as his body began to relax. "Too much excitement for one day."
Lin watched him for a moment as his breathing evened out, troubled, suddenly, by how old Sokka looked in that quiet moment. She was even more stunned that she hadn't noticed until now. It seemed like only yesterday she had been a teenager, and Sokka and all the adults in her big, extended family were young and bright and ambitious, despite spending so much of their youth in the midst of a war. They had all seemed so invincible back then, as if they would live forever in that state of peace and happiness and security. Lin had felt pressured to succeed even then, but looking back, it was almost nothing compared to what she felt now with three children and a whole city to protect.
Everything had been so different back then that Lin could hardly believe those memories had actually been part of her life. She hadn't allowed herself to really appreciate what she had. An obnoxious, rebellious little sister and a hardworking mother that sometimes forgot to be a mother, but still loved her two daughters fiercely. Sokka and Aang, who had both been father figures in her life, both so full of life and energy that they seemed to practically glow when she was around them. And she'd had so many friends, more family than she knew what to do with. Kya and Bumi were her partners in crime, and like two extra siblings before she'd even married Tenzin and made it official. And then there was Katara, a doting mother-in-law long before Lin and Tenzin figured out their friendship turned romance. And Izumi and Uncle Zuko and Aunt Mae, who used to come around the island all the time instead of once every couple years.
Then, of course, there had been Tenzin himself, her best friend throughout all of life's dramas and hardships. And though that part had remained the same, now everything else was suddenly so different. Her mother and Aang and Mae were gone. Katara had moved to the South Pole and Bumi traveled the world leading Army forces into battle. Kya had disappeared, leaving behind her husband and three kids without so much as a goodbye and nobody knew where she could have gone. Izumi and Zuko were busy leading the Fire Nation, while Izumi simultaneously raised two children without their father, who had tragically perished just before little Iron's baby sister had been born. There was a new Avatar now, that was already five years old and had nearly just been kidnapped by four powerful zealots. Sokka was still a part of the Council in Republic City, but who knew how much longer he would keep that up when he already delegated half of his tasks to his much younger staff? Lin and Su had recently called a truce on what had practically been a lifelong feud, with over a decade lost from not speaking to one another.
And rather than being a teenager, Lin was now a wife and a mother to three kids. A woman in her thirties that had excelled in her career and embraced the family life she had feared in her youth. She was married to the only man she'd ever loved, a man that loved her so much he had nearly given everything up just to have a chance at being with her.
Tenzin himself had grown into the man he always wanted to be, even if he hadn't realized it yet. Of course, he may not have planned to become a stay at home father, but he truly seemed to love it. The work he did on the council was more out of a sense of duty anyway, although he did have a passion for politics that Lin would never understand.
Both of them had fretted for so long over whether or not they were making the right choices, wondering if their parents were proud of them, striving to be the greatest, working around the clock to prove their dedication. They had spent their whole lives focused on legacies and pride and missed everything else.
But their lives weren't over yet. It was as if they were starting over now, with an entirely different family and everything the opposite from before. They were raising their three kids instead of being raised themselves, and they would do everything in their combined power to ensure that Ronen and Yunjin and Sora never felt any sort of pressure to be anything other than whatever they wanted to be. It would be enough just to see the three of them happy and healthy and safe. Lin and Tenzin would not regret a single moment of their past so long as their children's future was bright.
It was with that thought that Lin remembered Ronen and Korra and Senna, who were still waiting on details of the ominous battle they had run from not long ago. Certain that Sokka was resting now, Lin rose to her feet and looked over to where Katara was still tending to Tenzin. He appeared to be okay, exhausted and in pain but conscious and responsive to his mother's inquiries. So Lin allowed herself to leave the room for just a few minutes.
She found the three of them in the living room, with Sora and Yunjin there as well now. The twins were laid on a blanket on the floor, squirming and cheerful, with Senna and Ronen and Korra surrounding them. Senna was keeping all of the kids close, clearly still tense but putting on a façade for Korra and Ronen. Despite being only five and four years old, the kids weren't fooled, but Yunjin and Sora, at least, were far too young to have a clue what was going on.
Lin had barely taken two steps into the room when the whole group spun to look at her. Ronen didn't hesitate for a moment, leaping to his feet and running over to her.
"Momma!" he breathily exclaimed, jumping into her arms the moment she bent down to catch him. She straightened up with Ronen securely in her arms, and his legs wrapped tight around her waist. "I knew you'd come back," he murmured against her cheek, gluing himself to her in apparent relief.
"Of course I did," Lin confidently replied, as if she had been sure of it all along. She kissed Ronen on the cheek and held him close, indulging in her own relief that the entire situation had not turned out worse.
"Where's Daddy?" Ronen demanded, leaning back just enough to look into his mother's face. "Did you find him? Is he hurt?"
"Daddy's just fine," Lin reassured him. "He's with Gran-Gran now, but you can go see him after he gets some rest, okay?"
Ronen seemed dejected by this, dropping his gaze and fiddling with a strand of Lin's hair that had fallen loose into her face. Her hair had grown long in her last few months of pregnancy, and with everything else that had happened she hadn't had a chance to cut it shorter. She'd had to start pulling it back to keep it out of her face and also to protect it from the twins' grabby hands.
"Mrs. Chief Lin?" a tiny voice spoke up from below, and Lin looked past Ronen to see that Korra and her mother had risen to their feet as well. Both of them were looking at her with hopeful expressions, and she wondered if Sokka had even had a chance to tell them anything before Katara had rushed him to the healing room. "Is my Daddy with Ronen's daddy too?"
Lin shook her head, but kept her tone light to assure the girl that her father was okay. "No, he's not back there. He's still with Firelord Zuko, but I'm sure as soon as he's finished he'll come straight here to see you."
The young Avatar nodded sagely, as if she were someone much older. "Is he hurt?"
"A little," Lin admitted, "but he's tough, kid. He'll be all right."
Korra looked up at her own mother and said, "See, Mom, I told you he'd be okay."
"Yes you did, love," Senna replied with a small smile, stroking Korra's hair before nudging her back over to where the twins sprawled on the floor. "Let me just talk to Chief Lin for a few moments okay?"
Korra looked over at Ronen expectantly, who was still in his own mother's arms, and Lin kissed him on the cheek one last time before setting him back on the floor. "I'll let you know when you can see Daddy, okay, Ronen?"
Ronen nodded and followed after Korra, and Senna and Lin retreated to the other side of the room.
"He's all right," Lin muttered quickly, as soon as she and Senna were out of ear shot. "He's banged up and I only talked to him for a minute, but your husband is fine. What I told Korra wasn't a lie."
It was exactly what Senna wanted to hear, and she closed her eyes briefly, breathing out a long sigh of relief. When she looked at Lin again, she had wet eyes, but her shoulders no longer slumped. "And the others?" she asked.
"They'll make it," Lin replied. "Sokka and Tenzin are safe with Katara. Tonraq and Zuko are ensuring Korra's attackers don't get loose. I'll help them, but I needed to make sure I got Tenzin here first."
"Of course," Senna agreed without argument. "Did you learn anything about them? Why would they try to take a child?"
Lin shook her head in bafflement. She had been a cop for over a decade and she was no closer to figuring that out. She would never understand why anyone would want to steal or harm a child. She also couldn't think about the subject for very long without painful memories resurfacing. She had put the whole ordeal to the back of her mind, but she'd never forget that day when she and Ronen had been attacked. She'd never forget Ronen's terror filled cries as his mother's blood soaked into his clothes. She'd never forget the crushing sense of loss she felt when she awoke to discover that her unborn child had not survived.
She had the twins now, though, and Ronen was okay…Korra was okay. Despite their best efforts, the criminals had not been capable of kidnapping or harming the Avatar. However, they had seriously wounded Lin's husband and her surrogate father, not to mention probably traumatized Ronen and Korra. They would truly suffer if Lin had anything to say about it.
"Whatever the reason is we don't know it," Lin told Senna. "They weren't really conscious when I left and we're trying to keep it that way for now. They probably won't talk, but they also won't be free to try it again."
"Why do you think they won't talk?"
"Just a feeling," Lin grumbled, far too accustomed to criminals and their distorted loyalties. "This was too organized. They only failed because they must not have known that Zuko and Tenzin and Sokka were visiting. Or maybe they thought they could manage two old war heroes and a pacifist. Whatever the case, they were spewing some nonsense about the Red Lotus and "ushering in a new era,"."
"The Red Lotus?" Senna questioned, brow furrowing in confusion. "What is that?"
"No idea," Lin responded. "But I'm assuming it's a religious group of anarchists that are going to be a real pain in the ass."
"So you think there are more of them." Senna looked worried, glancing over at where Korra and Ronen and the twins were huddled together.
"There typically are," Lin admitted. "But maybe we'll get lucky," she added upon seeing Senna's stricken look, "and this was just an isolated incident."
It was clear that the young Avatar's mother didn't believe that for a single second, but considering the fact that her child was the Avatar, of all things, she might as well understand the dangers now. Korra would never be normal and her life would always be at risk. In a way, the same was mostly true for Lin and Tenzin's kids, except Lin and Tenzin had known all along the consequences. They knew firsthand the struggles their children would face, as well as the challenges they themselves would have to conquer. Senna and Tonraq, on the other hand, had not signed up to be the parents of the Avatar. Surely they had never even considered it as a possibility. Yet now they were being forced to come to terms with this new element of their life, forced to learn how to be parents and the parents of the Avatar all at once, a task few had ever had to face. Not to mention the danger they faced, protecting not only Korra but also themselves. Whoever the Red Lotus were, even if there weren't more of them, there would be others like them. The news of Korra being the Avatar had barely been public knowledge for less than a year and already there were people trying to kidnap her. Already Tonraq and Senna had come very close to losing their own lives in an effort to save their daughter's. It wasn't fair, but it was the life they now had.
"Look," Lin sighed, when Senna appeared too distraught to speak, "we learned something today. We know that this Red Lotus cult exists and that there are people out there that want to do Korra harm, but that doesn't mean they're going to succeed. We'll get your family some better protection and if someone tries something again we'll be better prepared. All right?"
"Yes," Senna breathed out slowly, finally turning her fearful gaze away from Korra to look at Lin once more. "Yes, you're right."
"They won't catch us off guard next time," Lin asserted, even though she technically had little say in the whole matter. They weren't in Republic City, so her title of Chief was little more than a formality in the Southern Water Tribe. She had the status of a foreign diplomat perhaps, but no real authority. However, she had no doubt that Sokka and Zuko would do everything in their power to ensure the young Avatar remained protected, and Tenzin was a respected enough politician that he might hold some sway as well. And if the three of them were allowed free reign to create a sanctuary for Korra then they would likely be willing to take Lin's advice.
"Thank you, Lin," Senna said. "I know you'll all do everything you can. I appreciate it more than you know."
"Actually, it's me who should be thanking you," Lin said gruffly but sincerely. "You protected my son even though it could have hindered your chances at saving Korra. You could have left him with Tenzin, but you didn't, and I can never repay you for that."
Senna shook her head vigorously, reaching out quickly and grabbing hold of one of Lin's hands. "You don't have to thank me for anything, Lin," she breathlessly exclaimed. "It never even crossed my mind to consider leaving Ronen there even if Tenzin could have kept him safe. No child should have to see any of that or be in that kind of peril. And besides that, we love Ronen. Korra misses him so much when you're all in Republic City. All that you and Tenzin do for Korra… Tonraq and I would do the same for Ronen."
The sincerity of Senna's words were simultaneously encouraging and uncomfortable. While Lin certainly appreciated it, she was still not wholly at ease with such blatant kindness and affection from people who were not Tenzin or her kids. Nevertheless, she felt relieved to know that Ronen was as important to the Avatar's family as Korra was to Ronen's.
"Yeah, well, hopefully none of us has to prove our loyalty in a situation like tonight's anytime soon," Lin joked uneasily, relieved to see Senna crack half a smile.
"Agreed," Senna said.
Lin looked over at where the kids still played, even more relieved to see that Ronen and Korra did not appear to be too traumatized and the twins were content for now. She ran a hand through her thick, messy hair and sighed guiltily, "I hate to ask this of you –"
"Don't," Senna interjected, apparently reading Lin's thoughts. "Go check on your husband. I'll look after the twins."
"Are you sure?" Lin asked, turning to look Senna in the eyes. "I know it's a lot, and after all you've done –"
"It's no trouble, Lin," Senna interrupted once again. "Really. Now go, the kids will be fine."
Lin thanked the Avatar's mother profusely before returning to Katara's healing room, where Sokka still slept and Tenzin was on the verge of doing the same.
Katara was still hovering over him, but upon seeing Lin she took a step back, as if preparing to leave.
"How is he?" Lin asked without preamble.
"Still conscious," Tenzin answered wearily, before Katara could respond. "Are the children okay?"
"The kids are fine," Lin assured him as she reached his bedside. She instantly took hold of his hand – the one that wasn't badly burnt and now wrapped in gauze – and held it against her chest. "How are you?"
"Don't worry, dear," Tenzin murmured, his words slurring slightly, clearly fighting sleep just to speak to her. "I'm much better now."
Lin looked over him, with skepticism on her face, to meet Katara's gaze.
"He needs rest," Katara said without prompting. "He'll need a few more healing sessions, but right now he's at high risk of infection. Burns can also cause serious nerve damage, but so long as he is careful I can maintain the injuries until they're fully healed."
"I need to help Zuko and Tonraq," Tenzin protested, but his eyelids were so heavily hooded there was no risk of him actually making an attempt to go find them.
"You will help them," Lin promised him, reaching out to stroke his forehead gently, silently thanking the spirits that he hadn't been taken from her. "After you've rested."
Tenzin snorted. "As if you've ever followed that advice, my love."
"Only when you make me, dear," Lin shot back with a small smile.
Tenzin tried to look up at her, opening his eyes wider for just a few moments, just long enough to nearly take Lin's breath away. She wasn't usually one for dramatics, but there was still something to her husband's loving gaze that made her feel as if she was the center of the universe. Even after all their time together he could still boost her confidence tenfold with a mere look, because what else mattered in the world so long as he was looking at her like that?
"I love you, Tenzin," Lin murmured, leaning over to give him a brief but poignant kiss. "Sleep now. I'll be here when you wake up."
And with that Tenzin drifted off, a slight curl to his lips and contentment on his face despite the evening's troubling events.
When he next woke he was surrounded by his family. Ronen had curled up on the bed next to him, not asleep, but watching over his father protectively. Lin was on the other side of the bed, sitting up, with Sora asleep in her arms and Yunjin tucked safely between one of her legs and one of Tenzin's.
On the other side of the room, Sokka was sitting up, still holding his ribs but looking less pale and appearing to be having a serious conversation with Zuko while Katara patched up the Firelord. In another corner of the room, Tonraq was bandaged and exhausted looking and holding his own family close.
Tenzin looked at his wife for a long moment, watching as she stroked their daughter's hair while smiling down at him. She looked radiant despite her exhaustion and worry, and it was a complete change from how she had been a few short weeks ago, when depression had crippled her and stolen her warmth. None of that time had made him forget though. None of it had lessened her in his eyes. She was still the love of his life and he could have watched her forever. But there were three other beings that deserved his attention, three others that had won his affections just as easily as their mother had. Sora and Ronen and Yunjin were just as much a part of him now as Lin was, and he wouldn't have changed anything about any of them. The four of them were his light and he would cherish every moment with them.
During Lin's depression, he had worried that everything would change, that Lin would be lost to them and they would never be the same again. He had spent a lot of time wondering where he had gone wrong, wondering what he could have done differently, wondering how he could raise three kids without her. He had thought about those blissful years with Ronen, before the twins, but even those times had been marred by loss and sorrow. When the twins had been born he had been so thrilled, so enamored, and yet every time he had looked at them he was afraid that they would grow up without their mother.
Even now, knowing that Lin was returning to her old self, he still worried that she would relapse and then what would they do? He knew so little of postpartum depression and that fact made him feel even more useless than he already did. His wife had been sick and weak and he hadn't been able to do anything to help her. She had been lost and he hadn't been there to help her find her way back. He needed to know how to help, in case it happened again. He needed to be able to do something. He wouldn't lose his wife like that again. They had been through too much already to be taken down by this.
He would protect his kids, too, because they would be returning to Air Temple Island soon, and Republic City was more hectic and dangerous than most places. If their entire lives could be turned upside down in a remote village in the South Pole, he could only imagine what it would be like back home. It was familiar territory, though, and it would be good for Lin. Good for all of them.
There was also the matter of Korra, too. They couldn't bring her to the city and they couldn't leave her where she was. There would need to be better protection, some sort of sanctuary. Tenzin would not allow the recent events to happen again, to come so close to losing the Avatar. He owed it to his father to protect the child that now harbored his spirit. He also felt a connection to the child that was not dissimilar to the one he felt with his own children. Besides all that, she was a child, and no child deserved the attack that had nearly taken her from the Earth. Tenzin would do everything in his power to keep her safe.
Once Tenzin was back on his feet he did just that. With Lin's help, he and Zuko and Sokka began preparing prison cells for Korra's would-be kidnappers, Zaheer, Ghazan, P'Li, and Ming-Hua, each of whom refused to talk. They were questioned mercilessly, but they did not give anything away about why they were trying to capture the Avatar or who they might be working for. Worried that there might be more like them, as Lin had suggested, Tenzin and Tonraq decided that Korra would need better protection, and should therefore be secluded in a Southern Water Tribe compound with members of the White Lotus as her guards. Lin and Tenzin decided to stay until Korra's family could be relocated to help out, and also because they had plenty of previous experience with the White Lotus that would be moving to the South Pole in the following days.
It was a few weeks before Korra and her parents could be moved, along with the several White Lotus guards and Katara, who insisted on following. It was tedious work, but it kept Lin busy while they waited to return home, and Tenzin didn't mind her grumbling if it meant she was acting more like herself.
Eventually, Lin and Tenzin, along with their three children, packed their things onto Oogi's back and left the South Pole at long last. Finally ready to embark on the next chapter of their lives.
Chapter Text
Chapter 25
On their way back home from the South Pole, the family of five stopped off in Gaoling for a few nights. The Beifong estate, though mostly abandoned, was still standing despite Toph and her parents' passing's. Neither Lin nor Su had had the heart to sell it, and even had a few workers check in now and again to keep the place standing. Lin hadn't been particularly close with her grandparents, but she had visited with them a few times when she was young and they had seemed rather fond of her. Toph's relationship with her parents had improved slightly from what it had been when she had first met Aang, and Poppy and Lao Beifong had been eager to know their granddaughters. Su, of course, had spent some time with them in her teens after Toph had sent her away from Republic City, and despite having run away from them soon after, she had apparently harbored quite a fondness for them. She had brought her family to Gaoling on a few vacations, but Lin hadn't visited the estate since Poppy and Lao died, and even then she had only stayed for an hour before sneaking out with Tenzin.
As a result, Ronen had never seen the place his grandmother had come from, and Lin was surprised to find that she rather enjoyed regaling him with tales all about his Grandma Toph. Sora and Yunjin were too young to understand, but they seemed to like the sound of their mother's voice, and Lin resolved to someday bring them back to Gaoling. She may have had a tumultuous relationship with most of the Beifongs, but she didn't despise any of them, and some strangely sentimental part of her wanted her kids to know about the grandmother they would never meet.
Lin still could not understand what exactly had happened after the twins' births. She could not figure out what had caused her to feel so low, but she vowed to never let it happen again. She loved her family more than words could express and she was so relieved that they still felt the same for her. Even after all the heartache she had caused, they still loved her. They still did not hold any resentment, and she would never be able to tell them just how much she loved them for that. Everyone was insisting that it wasn't her fault, but she couldn't help feeling as if she should have done something different, should have tried harder. But Tenzin wasn't letting her blame herself. He was more than she thought she deserved and she would never stop trying to make up for the time they lost.
It was on their final night in Gaoling that Tenzin and Lin finally spoke about all that had gone on.
Ronen was in bed asleep, Tenzin was placing Sora into her bassinet, and Lin was close to soothing Yunjin to sleep as well. She paced the floor with him nestled in her arms, humming softly, until finally his eyes slid shut and he drifted off. Lin placed him beside his sister, and she and Tenzin crept out of the room. They went together to the kitchen, where they went about making a pot of tea. When it was finished, Tenzin suggested they take their tea outside, and Lin readily agreed.
They sat together in comfortable silence beneath the moonlight, breathing in the fresh air and looking up at the stars. Lin kept her bare feet flat on the cobblestone, simultaneously listening for and keeping her senses on the kids.
Tenzin broke the silence first, his voice a quiet murmur as he asked, "What did it feel like?"
Lin looked over at her husband, but his gaze was still focused on the sky above. She knew what he was referring to, and though she did not particularly revel in the idea of discussing that dark time of her life, she knew it would have to happen sooner or later. She looked down into the murky liquid within her teacup, wishing that it was something stronger, and drew in a calming breath of air before responding in a whisper, "It felt like drowning."
She heard him suck a breath of air in through his teeth, but she kept going. "Sometimes…sometimes I felt like I was already dead. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't function. My mind was telling me that I had no reason to go on, that the world might even be better off."
"But how could you think that?" Tenzin couldn't help but interject. "How could you believe something like that when we all love you so much?"
He was looking at her now, but Lin could not hold his gaze, so she kept hers on her tea. She shrugged helplessly. "I don't really know the why or the how. I think part of me knew that I was wrong. That I had you and the kids and I needed to get my shit together, but all I could think about was how I should have done something, should have…I don't know, been better. I couldn't bring myself to look at any of you, to see in your eyes the disappointment, to know that I had failed you. The guilt only fueled the hatred I was already feeling for myself and I just got...lost. I couldn't remember how to go back, I couldn't even remember what it was like before."
She finally looked over at her husband then, and there was more understanding there in his eyes than she could have hoped for.
He reached out to remove one of her hands from where it was braced around her teacup, and held on tight. He squeezed gently as he quietly asked her, "Was it because of the twins? Because you couldn't nurse them and you were overwhelmed?"
"I imagine that was part of it," Lin admitted. "But it isn't their fault. It isn't yours either. This one's on me. But like I said, I've got no idea what set it off. I've seen people like that before and I've never understood… I didn't know how crippling it was."
"It wasn't your fault either," Tenzin asserted for the hundredth time. "You aren't the only person to experience something like this after childbirth. Some people can't even recover from it, but you did."
"I wish that it never happened," Lin sighed.
"Of course you do," Tenzin said empathetically. "We all wish it hadn't happened. It killed me to see you suffer and know that there was nothing I could do. But we cannot turn back time, nor can we erase the past. I don't know what reason the universe has for sending us down that path, but we made it out okay. You made it out, and I'm so very thankful for that. If I hadn't found you that night...out in the snow...I shudder to think what might have happened. Did...did you got out there to...to die?"
Lin shook her head. "I don't know, Tenzin. I think I went out there looking for a sign. Something to convince me one way or another if I was meant to keep going or not, if I should – or if I even could – fight back against it. I...I never told you this, but...I saw my mother out there that night. I'm sure it was just a figment of my imagination, a fever dream, maybe, considering I had collapsed, but it was as if her spirit was there with me, and she told me not to give up. She reminded me of what I had. I never imagined that I'd be a wife and mother one day, but that night I realized that I wanted it. I wanted this life with you and the kids and I wouldn't change it for anything else."
"Do you really mean that, Lin?" Tenzin's eyes were watery but there was a smile on his face. "Sometimes...sometimes I worry I forced you into this."
"Yeah, well, you can't force me into anything, and even if you had, I'm glad that you did. Sure, the kids are noisy and you're a pain in my ass, but...I love you, Tenzin."
"I love you too... Spirits, Lin, I love you so much. Please don't ever do that to me again."
"Believe me, I have no intentions of ever going back to that again." She squeezed his hand lightly. "I'm sorry you had to put up with me."
"Just so long as you're happy now...and healthy...then it was worth it. You'll always be worth it, no matter what we face."
Brimming with love and affection for the man and also eager to change the subject, Lin stroked the arrow on the back of Tenzin's hand, following the line she'd memorized with the tips of her fingers, up underneath the sleeve of his robe and along his forearm. There was some light scarring left over from the burns he'd received during the battle against Korra's attempted kidnappers, but it grew fainter each day. Lin didn't consider what could have happened if she had let the depression suck her in deeper, destroy her irreparably. If she hadn't been there and something worse had happened when those Red Lotus freaks had shown up… but she wasn't thinking about that.
She focused instead on her husband, on refamiliarizing herself with the feel of his skin beneath her fingertips, with the way he shuddered at that simple bit of intimate contact they'd been without for so long. She let her hand drift down to his thigh and he inhaled sharply. Lin smirked, glad to see that she still had such an effect on him.
She rose smoothly to her feet, placing her cup of tea on a nearby table and plucking Tenzin's from his grasp to do the same with his. She then settled herself onto his lap, her legs straddling his and her hands resting on his shoulders. Tenzin bit down on his lip to stifle an eager moan, settling his hands on her hips, and she leaned in to kiss him more passionately than she had in what must have been at least two months. It soon turned heated, their hot breath mingling and tongues clashing. Teeth collided once or twice but they were not deterred. Impatient hands tugged at clothes and there was a mutual sigh of relief when their naked bodies joined together at last.
They did not make it inside, but the Beifong estate was private and the kids would sleep for another few hours yet. However, when their bodies were limp and sated, Tenzin declared that they were getting too old to sleep outside and ushered his wife to bed, where they rekindled their love one more time before falling into a deep sleep.
Upon returning to Air Temple Island for the first time since before the twins were born, Lin could feel herself come alive.
With Sora on her hip and her feet on solid ground, she closed her eyes and breathed in deep. She reveled in the familiarity all around her. The sound of waves crashing against the shore. The scent of salt water in the air. When she opened her eyes, she looked out across Yue Bay, to where Republic City continued to thrive. It had not collapsed while they were away. The city lights still shone and ships still traveled to and fro. The Air Acolytes bustled around the island as if nothing had ever changed, along with the few White Lotus that had not been moved to the South Pole to protect Korra.
This was where she belonged. Here was where she would recover. Where she would make up for all the time she'd lost with her family when she had been in that dark place. And when she was able she would return to work, where nearly everything was a nightmare but somehow it made her feel useful.
Everything made sense here. She could feel the earth beneath her, see her bustling city and her island home all around her. This was where she was meant to raise her children, alongside her husband. This was where she thrived.
Sometimes she could feel the darkness creeping up, poking at her mind, trying desperately to sneak back up on her and overshadow her life once again, but it would not succeed this time. She would never allow it to take from her again. She was already gaining some of her strength back, and if it ever came for her again, she would be ready. She would fight back, and she would win. It would not bring down Lin Beifong.
Within a week of being home from the South Pole, after the twins were settled into their new home and the family of five had gotten back into a comfortable rhythm, Lin returned to work.
She was pleased to find that Saikhan had kept things in order during her extended absence, and was only partially surprised that he was more than willing to return the position of Chief back to her. Her job was not an easy one, and though he was proud to have done it, he was relieved that not all the responsibility would fall to him any longer. He did, however, agree to work alongside her as Deputy Chief, so that they could share some of the responsibility and neither of them would have to devote all of their time to their jobs. Tenzin was thrilled to hear it, because it meant that Lin would be able to spend time at home with the family without worrying so much that things at work would fall apart in her absence.
It turned out to be a very good thing that Lin had a slightly less busy work schedule, because Tenzin needed all the help he could get.
In comparison to his siblings, Ronen had been a freak of nature. He had been fussy at times, sure, and woke at all hours of the night, but he had also been quiet and mostly calm.
Yunjin was the exact opposite. Even when he was happy he was loud, squealing and giggling and running around the house from the moment he learned how to walk. He was not content to sit in one place for longer than a couple of seconds, and his parents could often be seen chasing him around the island. They feared ever taking him into the city where they could easily lose him, and on the few occasions that they did, Lin would not allow his feet to touch the ground, keeping him perched on her hip and firmly pressed to her side. He hated it, and made sure his mother paid dearly for it, but it was better than him jumping out into the street and getting ran over by a Satomobile.
When he was angry though, he was even worse. He kicked and screamed until his face turned bright red. He had given his father a bloody nose at least three times, and once Lin even received a black eye in the midst of one of his tantrums. When the guys at work found out her two year old was the reason behind her black eye, Lin had had to endure days worth of snickering and jokes at her expense.
Sora, on the other hand, had the potential to be a perfect, innocent little girl if it weren't for Yunjin's influence. She was just as hyper as him, but well-mannered and sometimes sickeningly sweet – Lin figured she must take after her father, because she sure as hell hadn't gotten that from the Beifongs. Unfortunately, she was also easily swayed by her twin brother. Anytime he tried to get into mischief he'd pull her along, and she was too nice and too curious to try and stop him. The fact that she followed Yunjin might not have been so daunting, if it weren't for the fact that Sora also had the loudest scream Lin had ever heard. She swore one day it'd shatter the windows in their house. Sora was not at all opposed to utilizing her extensive vocal chords at any and all times, whether she was inside, outside, at home, or in the city. Tenzin sometimes worried that when other people heard Sora's screams they'd think she was in danger or that she had cruel parents. Lin was more concerned about losing her hearing before she turned forty.
Both parents feared the day the twins would start bending. Whether they be airbenders or earthbenders, Sora and Yunjin were going to tear the island apart.
Poor Ronen could hardly keep up with his baby brother and sister. He was torn between wanting to play with Sora and Yunjin and wanting to avoid getting into trouble with Mom and Dad. He tried to stop his little brother from causing too much mayhem, but Yunjin could not be tamed. Lin could see Ronen getting frustrated at times, especially when his parents were too busy trying to contain his siblings to give him the same amount of attention he was used to receiving. However, he seemed to understand, too, and Lin figured he was too smart for his own good.
Despite their differences, all three of Lin and Tenzin's children seemed to get along just fine. They fought over toys and argued over nonsense, but they weren't like their parents had been with their own siblings. They weren't spiteful and competing for their parents' attention like Lin and Su had. They didn't taunt or torment each other as Kya and Bumi had Tenzin. When they were causing mischief they looked out for one another. And during the few quiet moments, they were kind and affectionate towards one another.
Lin wasn't sure how she had gone from being intent on never having children or being married to the life she had now, but she had no regrets. Her three kids might have been a pain in the ass sometimes, but they were still pretty perfect in her eyes. Nevertheless, she made it clear to Tenzin that she was shutting down the baby making factory. She was throwing out the concoctions that helped her conceive and they were going to be more careful because she wasn't going to endure another pregnancy. Tenzin didn't argue with her. In fact he seemed partially relieved. He loved his children of course, and he did not regret his choice to mostly be a stay at home father, but three was plenty. He wasn't sure that he could keep up with anymore, especially when the twins started bending...
Sora was first.
Lin was working overtime after being called in on her day off to oversee a triad raid. The bust went well, all things considered, but the captured weren't talking and her officers were getting frustrated.
She was in the middle of an interrogation that was clearly going nowhere when she heard a short knock on the door. A signal that she was needed outside.
Lin gritted her teeth, her annoyance skyrocketing at the interruption. Her officers knew not to interpose between her and an interrogation unless the building was about to collapse. She gave her prisoner a heated glare and then stormed from the room, slamming the door and giving her officer the same narrow eyed scowl.
"This better be good," she snapped.
"Sorry to interrupt, Chief," the female officer responded, straight backed and hands clasped behind her back. She was a new recruit, but appeared unintimidated, which Lin couldn't help but respect. "But Councilor Tenzin is on the line for you. He said it was important enough to interrupt you."
Lin's stomach dropped, her initial reaction one of fear and concern. It hadn't always been that way, but with three young kids at home she was more paranoid than she'd ever been. All she could see now were all the dangers surrounding them. It wasn't particularly difficult for a kid to get hurt, and one wrong misstep could be disastrous. And the twins were wild, if Tenzin had turned his back for even a second…
"Did he say what was wrong?" Lin demanded, already striding quickly in the direction of the phone.
The petty officer hastened to follow, calling after Lin, "He wouldn't say, Chief, but he didn't sound worried."
That hardly placated Lin, but she did allow herself a calming breath. It was entirely possible that Tenzin was simply overwhelmed and eager to know when she'd be home. It wouldn't be the first time he had interrupted her at work for something that wasn't all that dire and worried her for nothing. But she had given him hell enough times that he should have known better by now.
She was still slightly panicked when she finally reached the phone, and she nearly knocked it off the table in her haste to grab it. "Tenzin?" she questioned instantly. "What is it? Is it the kids? Who's hurt?"
"Nobody's hurt," Tenzin reassured her, and though he sounded sincere, there was a breathlessness to his voice that still concerned her. "But can you leave work yet?"
"I'm pretty busy, Tenzin," Lin snapped, growing irritated now that she was beginning to think that Tenzin had worried her for nothing. "What's going on?"
"I think you should come home," Tenzin vaguely explained. "There's something here you won't want to miss…"
"Tenzin," Lin growled, "you know how I hate these games."
"It's Sora," Tenzin blurted at last. "She's bending."
"Bending what?" Lin asked hurriedly, excitement bubbling within her in an instant, causing her to forget for a moment that she was supposed to be angry at her husband.
"Y'know," Tenzin chuckled, "I'm not really sure."
"You're not sure?" Lin repeated, confused. "How can you not be sure?"
"Well she's floating small rocks in the air," Tenzin explained, "but I'm pretty sure she's using the air to do it. I can't get her to do anything else yet. I was hoping she might try something else if you came home."
"You're calling me away from interrogating triad members because you wanna find out which element our kid is bending?" Lin sought to clarify.
There was a moment of silence on the other end, and then Tenzin slowly replied, "Yes?" He sounded hesitant but also unashamed.
Lin bit down on her bottom lip, looking briefly around the area to ensure no one was close enough to overhear her. And then she said, "I'll be home in ten minutes."
Tenzin practically squealed into the receiver, and Lin jerked her ear away instinctively with a scowl.
"We'll see you then," Tenzin said exuberantly. "We love you."
"Yeah me too," said Lin. "See you soon."
Lin wrapped up the phone call and then went to find the officer that had called her out. "Have Lieutenant Ru finish my interrogation," she told the younger woman, "and let Saikhan know I'm leaving for the day. Also, tell him to call me if anyone talks, got it?"
"Yes, ma'am," the petty officer said with a sharp salute.
Lin expressed her thanks and went to leave, only to stop and turn back, calling back to the officer, "By the way, what's your name, kid?"
"Jeia, ma'am," she responded.
Satisfied, Lin said no more, simply inclining her head and leaving at last, hastening back home to the island and her family.
She was restless the whole ride across the Bay, anxious to see the kids and Tenzin, simultaneously excited and worried about Sora's new-found abilities. She knew how important it was for at least one of the kids to be an Airbender, and she hated that the pressure existed.
When she finally reached the island she practically ran up to the main house, nearly running right past Tenzin and the kids in the courtyard. She skidded to a halt and strode over to them. Tenzin was standing back watching the kids while they played, and when Lin approached all four of them looked over at her and grinned.
"Mama!" all three kids exclaimed, dropping their toys and sprinting over to her.
Lin caught Sora in her arms while Yunjin wrapped himself around her leg. With Sora settled on her hip, she put her other arm around Ronen, who wrapped his arms tight around her waist.
They cuddled with her for a minute, maybe two, chattering and fidgeting, talking over one another, telling her about their days. Then childhood energy took over and they scampered off, back to playing, rambunctious but not particularly noisy.
Lin and Tenzin watched the kids for a few moments before Lin turned to face her husband at last.
Sensing her eyes on him, Tenzin tilted his head and smiled at her again. "How was work, darling?" he asked first, laying a hand on her lower back and leaning over to kiss her by way of greeting.
"Fine," Lin snorted, not prepared for small talk to be the first thing out of his mouth. "How were the kids today?"
"Good," Tenzin replied, and then, finally getting to the heart of the matter, "They were playing and I had turned away for a moment to help Yunjin when Ronen started yelling…" A very brief expression of horror passed over his face and he shivered. "At first I thought the worst, but then I saw Ronen grinning and Sora was floating a few small rocks in the air. She only sustained it for a short time and I was wary to push her into trying more too fast. That's when I called you, and the kids went back to playing as if it never happened."
"Let me talk to her," Lin suggested, and Tenzin nodded, agreeable. So Lin called Sora over to her, her youngest, technically, her little girl. She seemed like just a baby still, not even two years old, and yet she was bending already. Soon she would be in control of an element that could possibly change the entire course of her life. Lin wasn't as excited as her husband, but there was still a part of her that was delightedly anxious.
Sora skipped over to her mother without hesitation, bouncing on her short legs and smiling broadly. The boys watched with some curiosity for a few moments before returning their attention to their game. Lin hadn't sounded hostile so there was no cause for concern, and besides that, the kids were often frustratingly unafraid of their mother. Lin was deeply offended that they actually seemed more afraid of Tenzin than they were of her most of the time. She was used to striking fear into hardened criminals and new recruits, and while she didn't want her kids to truly fear her in such a way, she still thought that she had to be at least a little intimidating. It made it very difficult to dissuade them from getting into mischief when her "mad face" only made them giggle.
Lin crouched down to be more eye level with Sora when the girl reached her, flashing a smile and then getting straight to the point. "Daddy says you were bending today."
Sora's smile widened and she nodded vigorously. "Uh huh!" she exclaimed. "Is I a earthbender like you, Mama?"
Sora looked positively delighted, clasping her little hands together and bouncing on her toes. But Lin was surprised to feel a swoop of dread. She didn't know how to train kids, only knew how to bark orders at the young recruits at the station and even they were usually in their twenties. She especially didn't know how to train her own kid. Her sweet, mild tempered, bubbly little girl. Toph hadn't trained Lin to be a "sissy," and Lin couldn't imagine trying to tone down her childhood memories of rough, aggressive training for her two year old. Not that Sora was a delicate flower by any means, but more like Lin was too fragile to bear pushing her kid into the Beifong mold. Clearly the Beifong women had some issues, and Lin had no desire to pass that onto Sora.
Nevertheless, she forced her smile to hold, even if it did droop slightly, and encouraged, "Why don't you show me what you did?"
Sora's smile didn't fade, but it did change slightly. She stared back at her mother with a fierce determination that looked frighteningly familiar. A part of Lin regressed back to her own childhood, of standing before her mother proudly, bold and overly confident and so certain in that moment that she was destined for greatness, certain that she would make her mother proud. Toph had scoffed at her self-assuredness, and then spent the following years of Lin's childhood tearing her down to size. It was Toph's way, and Lin had eventually come to understand it, love it even, but she also didn't want that same relationship with her own daughter.
Lin scooped up a couple rocks and held them out in her hand, offering them to Sora but not insistent. The toddler scrunched up her face and focused hard on the proffered gravel, her bottom lip puckering out slightly, the same way Tenzin's did when he was thinking about something particularly obstinate. Several minutes passed by and the rocks didn't budge. Sora was becoming increasingly frustrated, frowning fully and clenching tiny fists, face red as if she were holding her breath, looking more like her mother than her father now, and Lin was just about to put a stop to the whole thing...
And then Sora let out a breath of air with an irritated huff, and the rocks leapt from Lin's palm so fast she hardly saw them leaving her grasp before they disappeared. A gust of wind washed over her, blowing her hair back as she lifted her gaze to the sky. The rocks had flown high, were still rising when Lin caught sight of them, going up, up, up…
The rocks seemed to hover in midair for a split second, before they were dropping back down, straight towards Lin. Sora let out a gasp and then a frightened squeak, tugging on her mother's sleeve, clearly no longer in control of the gravel and worried it might hit her mother.
But Lin twitched a finger at the last second and the rocks came to a sudden halt an inch above her hand. She allowed them to drop into her palm before stealing a quick glance at Tenzin, who was looking back at her with the same understanding she had come to, a peacefulness having washed over him all of a sudden and a bright smile forming on his lips. Both of them knew now.
Sora was an Airbender.
Lin allowed herself a few moments to watch Tenzin's expression swell with pure joy, and then she looked back at Sora, who was smiling guiltily at her mother, as if she had done something wrong, apparently misinterpreting her parents' exchanged looks. The toddler ducked her head, long dark hair swinging into her face. Lin reached out to gently tuck it behind her little ear, and stroked Sora's cheek with her thumb.
"Sora," Lin said without preamble, "you're an Airbender, kid."
Sora's eyes went wide, and then, for a split second, she almost looked disappointed, saying, "Not a Earthbender like Mama?"
Lin winced briefly, expecting Tenzin to be offended that his first child to turn out to be an Airbender wasn't immediately over the moon about it.
But she needn't have worried, because Tenzin merely laughed, crouching down beside her to speak to Sora himself.
"Unfortunately not, sweetheart," he said to her, "but you do get to be an Airbender like Daddy."
And just like that, Sora's face lit up with delight. It didn't matter to her either way. She leapt into Tenzin's arms and began to question him mercilessly, while idly reaching out to hold onto Lin's hand, keeping her mother close even as she focused her attention on her father.
The three of them ended up sat on the ground while Tenzin cheerfully told Sora about Airbending. Soon, the boys joined them, both Yunjin and Ronen vying for space on Lin's lap.
And that was how the family of five spent their evening before clambering inside for dinner.
Lin wasn't sure if she had ever seen her husband so thrilled before in all her life. Finally the pressure of being the last airbender had been removed from his shoulders and he could breathe easier, which meant that she could breathe easier.
Tenzin did not, however, relax, but rather, spent most of his time for the following weeks planning out the best way to begin his daughter's training.
Lin was relieved when Yunjin started bending a few months later, and turned out to be an airbender too. While she would have loved to bond with one of her children over their connection to the earth, she wasn't sure that she would have been a very good teacher. She had resented her mother's approach for most of her life, even if it had taught her more than she could have learned from anyone else. She had a few good memories of training with her mother, but also a lot of bad ones, and she didn't want the same thing to happen with her own kid.
Not only that, but it kept Tenzin from fretting over their training too much. Lin suggested he teach all three children together, even though Ronen would never develop the same abilities, and it allowed him to let go of his worry about neglecting one of the kids. Airbending practice gave him something to bond with all three of them, and it kept them busy while Lin was away at work. There was no taming the twins, but keeping them occupied helped.
Even more thankfully, the fact that all three children carried the Airbending genes meant that one of them would not feel pressured to have children of their own. They were free to live their lives as they chose, something that had not been quite as simple for their parents. Lin and Tenzin may not have been forced into their fates, but they had been shoved in a particular direction and they did not wish the same to happen to their own children. If one of them wished to abstain from having children they would not be singlehandedly erasing the Airbending race. The White Lotus would not interfere in their love life. Lin would never treat the Toph Beifong legacy as something that her kids needed to live up to. Their lives would not be perfect. Their parents were still celebrities and Sora and Yunjin were two of only three Airbenders left in the world, but they would have more freedoms than Lin and Tenzin had. Lin would make sure of it.
Chapter Text
Chapter 26
It was around the time that the twins were half past two years old when Tenzin noticed Lin getting…well…strung out.
He wasn't sure what exactly the right term was, but something was…off.
She was trying to balance work and the kids and, while she was a great mother and a master juggler, she seemed to become more tense all of a sudden.
It had been tough for her when Ronen was a baby, separating work stresses from home, but with two more infants it was nearly impossible. Tenzin tried to do all that he could to make it easier on her, considering he only had to worry about work a few times a week, but it was difficult to soothe three kids on a good day, and Lin wasn't about to make him do it on his own.
When the twins woke in the middle of the night or Ronen crawled into their bed after a nightmare, Lin was often the first one to wake. Sometimes she'd already be down the hall soothing the twins back to sleep before Tenzin even managed to roll out of bed. As a mother, she was thriving, but as Chief of Police she was clearly wavering. She still did her job better than anyone else, but there was too much weight on her shoulders and Tenzin worried she might collapse. He was terrified that the depression that had plagued her for several months would return, perhaps worse than before, and he wasn't sure if they'd make it out a second time.
For a while he thought it was simply the lack of sleep that was getting to her, that the strain of working and being a mother to three young children was sapping the energy from her. He thought for sure that she would be fine so long as Tenzin continued as he was, being the best father and husband that he could be, sharing in the exhaustion and doing all that he could to help when Lin needed a break. They had always been a good team and he felt certain they would be now too. Raising three children was sometimes scarier than some of the things they had faced, but they always came out on top when they did things together.
But then Tenzin noticed that Lin didn't appear tired. She wasn't distant or weary as she had been when she'd first had the twins. She almost seemed to thrive off of the sleep deprivation, and she never once refused to do something for the children. Instead, she was almost overbearing, which was so unlike Lin that Tenzin was perplexed, even considering how protective she had been of Ronen.
She was so adamant that she take care of the kids that she was sometimes shirking her duties at work, so that Saikhan had started calling Tenzin to ask why Republic City's Chief of Police was an hour late to work. Tenzin had tried asking Lin about it, but it had nearly caused a fight between them.
"All these years you've been harping on me because I spend all my time at work and now you're nagging me because I'm late?!" Lin had shouted at him, and Tenzin had immediately dropped the subject. After all, she wasn't wrong.
But something was off about her. He knew her too well to think otherwise. She had been overprotective when Ronen was first born, but after the twins and returning to the island and whatever had gotten to her over the last few days, she was…well…stifling.
Tenzin was hesitant to say anything about it, though, because he wasn't about to piss off his wife for being cautious about her children's well-being, even if it did mean he had to keep answering phone calls all day while she was at work to reassure her that, yes, all three children were still breathing, and yes he was looking directly at them as he told her that. Except it was taxing on her, and she was going to snap if she continued to stress herself out so much. Although, Lin had been stressed since birth, so perhaps it was simply natural.
Fortunately for Tenzin, he didn't have to broach the subject himself. Surprisingly, it was Lin who brought it up.
After a few weeks of strange behavior, Lin had returned home from work one evening after being gone nearly twenty-four hours, and Tenzin had known instantly that something was wrong. She hadn't even paused to look at him, her expression weary and heavy-hearted as she strode straight past him. She went to where Ronen sat, playing with Sora, and gathered both children into her arms with what appeared to be great relief. Yunjin was in Tenzin's arms a few feet away, as he had been intending to get the toddler into a clean pair of clothes after spilling some juice onto his shirt. But after seeing Lin's entrance and sensing that something had gotten into her, Tenzin carried the boy back over to join his siblings in their mother's embrace.
Lin remained in that spot with their children for most of the evening, playing with them until it was time for supper and then bath time and bed. Tenzin waited patiently, concerned, but also certain that his wife would explain once the children were in bed.
Ronen and Yunjin fell right to sleep, but Sora was fussy and clinging to Lin, perhaps sensing her mother's troubled thoughts and reacting accordingly. Tenzin ensured the boys were all settled in, while Lin went for a short walk to soothe their daughter.
A few minutes later, Tenzin found them outside in the middle of the courtyard, Sora fast asleep and Lin starting up at sky. It was a sure way to get Sora to sleep during the warmer seasons. Something about the fresh air and the soft moonlight calmed her down every time. It appeared to have also soothed Lin, who was still swaying on the spot and rubbing Sora's back, her head tilted back and her eyes closed.
Tenzin approached quietly, careful not to disturb either of them as he sidled up next to them. They stood in comfortable silence for a few minutes, and Tenzin let his mind wander as he gazed up at the stars.
Lin broke the silence, her voice a gruff murmur as she said, "Don't worry. I know I'm being crazy. I'll be fine soon I just…"
She trailed off, and Tenzin guessed, "Work has been particularly bad the last few weeks?"
Lin heaved in a deep breath, her eyes still closed. Sora didn't stir. "The worst," she whispered.
She opened her eyes at last, and though they were fixated on the moon above, Tenzin could see the haunted look in her gaze. He frowned, reaching out to rub the knot he knew would reside between her shoulders, and was briefly surprised at how tense she was, even after being home for several hours.
Tenzin knew that his wife's job was sometimes dangerous and always unpredictable. She encountered some of the greatest and some of the worst parts of life nearly everyday, and though she tried very hard not to bring any of it back home with her, she did not always succeed. Lin had built a wall around herself from a young age, and that wall had only grown taller and thicker over the years to protect her from some of the horrors she was faced with as Republic City's Chief of Police. However, some things were harder to shut out than others, and every once in a while something would slip through a crack.
"It isn't crazy to be affected by your work," Tenzin soothed in a low voice, his mouth close to her ear as he came to stand directly behind her, hovering by her right shoulder. Both hands kneaded her tense muscles, mindful of Sora's little head resting on her other shoulder. "It would be crazier not to be affected. You're only human, Lin."
She sighed heavily, no doubt used to his usual spiel and also aware that he was right. She turned her head slightly and rested her forehead against the side of his jaw, breathing in his scent and then letting out a shuddering breath. Tenzin wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and held her tight against his chest when he felt her trembling slightly.
Whatever had occurred that day and over the past several weeks must have been particularly bad. Considering that one of the worst nights of work had been the night her mother died, then whatever was on par with that must have been awful. He wished that he could protect her from such things, even though he knew his wife was more than capable of taking care of herself. It still provoked in him a primal burning in his gut that would spurn him to move the spirit world and earth to keep her from such horrors, if he only possessed the ability to do so.
When Lin next spoke, she was so quiet that Tenzin almost didn't realize she was speaking. "We'll never be able to protect them," she was saying. "No matter what we do, no matter how hard we try…we can keep it from them for a while, sure, but one day they will be forced to face the horrors of this world…I fear that day, Tenzin, more than anything else. It'll come too soon, like it did for us."
She was talking about their children, who were so young and carefree and full of life. They did not yet know of the tragedies of the world. They did not know how cruel life could sometimes be, and Tenzin had every intention of keeping it that way for as long as possible. Lin's own mother had not felt the same. Toph had never sugarcoated anything, and Tenzin's parents had tried to some extent, but Kya and Bumi hadn't hid the truth from their younger brother, and being one of two Airbenders in the world didn't allow for much sheltering. Both Lin and Tenzin had known the world and all its flaws as soon as they were old enough to understand it. It was an eventual part of life, but children that grew up too soon often had a more cynical view of the world and, if they were like Tenzin and Lin, were too serious to relax.
"Please don't fret over this, Lin," Tenzin implored her, squeezing her tight against his chest, the side of his face against hers. "Whatever happened today, don't let it cloud your vision. We'll keep the children as safe as we possibly can, for as long as we can, and that is all we can do. No matter what, they will know that they are loved, and that the world is not so bleak all of the time."
Lin heaved a heavy sigh, too proud and accustomed to heartbreak to cry, but struggling to hold it back nonetheless. She swallowed and took a deep breath, and then she muttered, "A kid died today…along with one of my men." She seemed hesitant to tell him, but she knew he had seen the same horrors in his own work and when he had spent time working with her under Toph's police force. He shuddered at the thought, but otherwise kept his emotions in check. "I wasn't able to stop it, and I know it isn't my fault, but…dammit I just wish I could have done something. Seeing that…it makes me sick."
"I know," Tenzin said sympathetically, more understanding than most. "I know. It isn't fair, and it's scares me too, to even imagine for a second that something like that could happen to our kids…but if all we thought about were the could be's we'd be living in fear."
"I know," Lin murmured with a heavy sigh. "Of course I know that. Like I said…I'll be okay, I just…need to be with them."
"Take all the time you need," Tenzin soothed, pressing a kiss to the back of her head and getting a faint whiff of odorous smoke in her hair. He was careful not to let her see his frown as he thought back to something he'd heard on the radio the day before. Something about rapid spreading fires and the Agni Kai Triad setting the homes of their foes ablaze in retaliation for testifying against some of their members.
Tenzin had known that Lin would be in the thick of it, but had hoped she was directing her officers from a safer distance. It was fruitless for him to ever hope for such a thing. Most leaders sent their troops into battle, coordinated from a distance, so they might better understand the situation, and also to not get themselves killed, so that they might continue to lead. But Lin had never been like that. When a call came in she was one of the first on the scene. Her mother had been the same, so it was of no surprise that Lin had followed that path.
With age and wisdom and a family waiting for her at home, Lin had at least cut back on throwing herself into every dangerous situation presented, but she was still not content to sit back in her office while her officers risked their own lives. It was one of the things Tenzin simultaneously loved and disliked about his wife. He'd never want her to change, but he worried so much, even while knowing how strong and capable she was. Accidents could happen so quickly, so easily. The idea of her running headlong into a raging fire was…well…entirely unsurprising.
"Would you like to put Sora to bed?" Tenzin suggested, voice still low. "Or do you need this a bit longer?"
"Just a few more minutes." Lin breathed in deep and relaxed back against her husband's chest, holding one of her kids close, her senses on the other two in their beds.
Tenzin held on tight, pressing soft kisses now and then, silent as they stood there together beneath the moonlight, a solid presence to numb her worries and fears for the time being. In the morning she would return to work and to being a stern, courageous leader. But for tonight, Tenzin would be her strength, would hold her up and make her feel secure.
Ronen was six years old when he came to the realization that he would never become a bender like his parents and his siblings.
Lin was so busy juggling work and a family that she almost didn't notice the change in her son. It was so subtle that Tenzin never even caught on until his wife pointed it out. Ronen's inability to bend hadn't been an issue they'd discussed in so long they almost forgot that it was an issue. It wasn't an issue, not to Lin and Tenzin anyway, but it eventually became one for Ronen. His parents had always been very open on the subject with him. They had gently informed him, from the day he started asking about it, that he would not be able to bend like a lot of the people in his family did. He did not seem particularly bothered when he was younger, but when he finally grew old enough to understand completely what it meant, he became withdrawn.
When Sora and Yunjin began manipulating air and asked why their older brother could not, Ronen stopped attending lessons. At first, Tenzin had forbid Ronen from quitting, insisting that the boy needed training regardless of whether or not he could airbend. When Lin found out, however, she went to talk to Ronen herself. It was then she noticed just how upset the young boy was, but he did not wish to discuss it with either of his parents. That was when Lin told him he did not have to attend lessons with his father if he did not want to, and when Tenzin found out he was not particularly happy with her.
He woke his wife at an unsavory hour the following morning, having been awake early for morning meditation with the kids. Lin thought it was barbaric to wake their three year olds before the sun, but she wasn't an Airbender so she let Tenzin handle it as he chose to. If nothing else it put the kids into a routine and they were always ready for a nap by lunchtime, which allowed Lin and Tenzin the alone time they so rarely received. Normally, Lin would wake to the sounds of Tenzin and the kids returning home around six a.m., or on a good day they stayed out a little later so she could get some extra sleep on her days off.
On that day, Lin awoke to her husband stomping through the house and calling her name before he even reached their bedroom. Lin squinted in the darkness, one eye only half open and her surroundings blurry. She could see no sunlight shining in through the windows, and a quick peek at the clock informed her that it was barely half past five. She groaned, snuggling deeper into the blankets that were already half-covering her face and praying her husband would leave her alone.
No such luck.
Tenzin stormed into the room and yanked the blankets off of his wife's form, apparently too angry to fear for his life.
Lin's eyes went wide, the force of the blanket being ripped off of her rolling her onto her back, so that she was staring up into Tenzin's narrowed eyes. Once recovered from the shock, she let out an outraged huff, sitting upright and reaching out to grab hold of her blanket. She pulled on it, but Tenzin tugged back just as strongly.
"What the hell is your problem?" she hissed, voice still hoarse from sleep.
"Did you tell Ronen he didn't have to attend meditation any longer?" Tenzin demanded, cutting straight to the point.
"So what if I did?" Lin muttered, yanking on the blanket again with no results. Tenzin could be irritatingly strong when he wanted to be.
Tenzin looked aghast. "So what? Lin, not only did you go behind my back and singlehandedly ruin my relationship with my son, but you never even bothered to inform me!"
Lin rolled her eyes. "Don't you think you're being a little over dramatic, Tenzin? I didn't ruin anything, and I didn't see you long enough to tell you about it yesterday. Your relationship with your son hasn't changed just because he no longer wants to rise at the ass crack of dawn -"
"Oh come on, Lin!" Tenzin cut her off, throwing the blanket back down onto the bed and folding his arms across his chest. "You cannot seriously think this has anything to do with the early hour."
"No, it doesn't," Lin conceded, "but it hasn't got anything to do with you either. This is Ronen's choice, and he can have whatever reason he likes." With that, she flopped back down on the bed, curling up on her side and recovering the blankets that had been stolen from her. She could feel Tenzin's hand near her shoulder again, and she clenched her fists tight around the fabric covering her as she warned, "I swear, Tenzin, if you rip this blanket off of me one more time there will be one less Airbender on this Earth."
Tenzin stilled, but let out an irritated huff. "This is a serious conversation, Lin, and I'd appreciate it if you'd treat it as such."
Lin growled, throwing the blanket from herself and rolling off the bed, sensing she wasn't going to be getting anymore sleep. She turned to face her husband, teeth gritted and scowl in place. "What do you want me to say, Tenzin? I've just told you my reasoning, what else is left? Tell me, why is it such a big deal to you that Ronen doesn't want to train with you anymore? Would you rather he suffer than be honest with us?"
"Of course not," Tenzin scoffed. "And quite frankly I'm insulted that you think I'm making our child suffer."
Lin sighed, rolling her eyes again and walking away from her husband, in the direction of the bathroom. "This isn't about you," she said as she went. "Why are you not understanding that?"
Tenzin hurried to follow her, arguing from behind her. "If it's about our son then it's about me too. He's going to feel left out if I continue to train Jin and Sora but not him."
"He already feels left out," Lin countered. She had reached the bathroom, but did not turn to face Tenzin as she spoke. She turned on the sink and splashed water onto her face in an effort to wake herself up. While dabbing the moisture from her face with a towel, she continued, "He can't bend like his little brother and sister can. How do you think that makes him feel? If the kid doesn't want to learn the same as them then what's the harm?"
"You and I both decided he needed some sort of training," Tenzin pointed out, while Lin was tying her hair up. "Why has that changed all of a sudden?"
"Because he doesn't want to anymore," Lin responded, finally turning to face him again. "I agree that he should have some kind of training, but maybe turning him into an Acolyte isn't the right choice. We said we weren't going to force our kids into doing anything they didn't want to, and Ronen isn't an Airbender so he'll be just fine without it. We'll try something else, maybe let him decide."
"So that's it? We just let him quit?"
"I still don't understand why you're so upset about this!" Lin exclaimed, exasperated now. "Don't you want your son to be happy?"
"Of course I do," Tenzin sighed, looking deflated. "I just didn't realize his happiness meant spending less time with me."
"Is that what this is about?" Lin said in disbelief. "He isn't doing this because he wants to get away from you, Airhead! He doesn't love you any less. He's finding his way. He needs space. Something we were never granted as kids. You don't want Ronen to feel suffocated like we did, do you?"
"No," Tenzin relented, leaning heavily against the door frame. "I just don't want to lose him already. He's still so young. He doesn't know what he wants."
"You aren't losing him," Lin reassured him a bit impatiently. "What you should really be concerned about is Ronen's feelings right now. We thought this might be a problem someday but we never discussed how to handle it. I don't want him thinking he's less because he can't bend."
"You're right," Tenzin murmured, looking guilty. "I never even asked him why he didn't want to train with me anymore."
"He probably wouldn't have given you an answer," said Lin. "He wouldn't tell me, but I have a feeling he'll want to talk about it soon."
"Then we'll be ready," Tenzin asserted.
"We should invite Sokka over for dinner tomorrow evening," Lin suggested.
"That's a wonderful idea, but why not tonight?" Tenzin said eagerly.
Lin shook her head, covering a yawn with her fist. "I've got a court hearing this afternoon and I'll have to stay late tonight at the station to finish some overdue paperwork."
The transition was instantaneous. Lin coming home late from work was not as often of an occurrence as it had been in the past, but still frequent enough for Tenzin to know the drill. "Should I wait up?" he asked.
"Nah, better you get your beauty rest," Lin replied with a smirk, reaching up to teasingly pat the side of his cheek. "You're a bit of a grouch in the morning when you haven't gotten enough sleep."
"Oh, very funny," Tenzin deadpanned. "That's very much the pot calling the kettle black, Lin."
"I'd be much happier in the morning if my dear husband refrained from tearing the blankets off of me before I've even had my morning tea," Lin muttered.
Tenzin rolled his eyes but didn't argue the point. "I'll leave dinner in the oven for you."
"Give the kids a goodnight kiss for me."
"Of course. How much longer do you have before you go?"
Lin checked the time and replied, "About an hour or two."
"The kids are with the bison," said Tenzin. "Should I bring them in?"
"No, I'll go out," Lin told him, brushing past him to return to their bedroom, where she changed out of her night clothes. When she went to leave the room, Tenzin tried to kiss her, but she gave him a light shove and snorted, "I don't think so, Airhead. I still haven't forgiven you for the way you woke me."
Tenzin pouted, but conceded, "I suppose I deserve that."
"You deserve a good backhand," Lin countered as he followed her down the hall. "If you were anyone else that's what you would have gotten."
"Being married to you does have its advantages," Tenzin muttered, sarcasm dripping from every word.
Lin whirled on him, eyes narrowed and lips pursed into a scowl. Tenzin nearly ran straight into her, but sucked in his gut and flung his arms out to balance himself when he lifted up onto his tiptoes to avoid crashing into her. He smiled sheepishly while settling back down onto his feet. Lin poked a finger into his chest and said, "And don't you forget it, Twinkletoes Jr."
Tenzin frowned at the nickname he had essentially inherited from his father, but on instinct only. He had hated that nickname as a child, but he hadn't heard it in so long he had nearly forgotten the slight rush of warmth he felt when one of the Beifong women affectionately called him that. It had always been more Aang's name than Tenzin's, and Toph said it more so than Lin, so neither Lin nor Tenzin wanted to hear it spoken much after their deaths, but it had been long enough now that it no longer brought with it a pang of pain or sorrow. Idly, Tenzin wondered, if Toph were still around, if she would have called Ronen or Yunjin Twinkletoes the Third. He liked to think that she would have.
"Yes, dear," Tenzin said at last, smiling brightly despite the argument they'd had first thing in the morning.
Lin let out a long-suffering sigh, as if her husband was the most exhausting human being she'd ever had to deal with. That might have been the case, if not for all the people she interacted with in her line of work…or their children for that matter.
"How you can be so cheerful at this unholy hour I'll never know," Lin said with exasperation, turning her back on him and continuing off in the direction of the kids. Tenzin followed close behind without saying another word, a smile still plastered to his face, one that grew as he watched Lin go to their children.
Tenzin knew he'd never tire of watching his four favorite people interact. Lin had worried about being a mother, but she was a natural and the kids truly loved her. They hated when she had to work, but she always devoted the rest of her free time to them. She made them feel so loved and cherished that Tenzin did not foresee any of them holding any resentment for her in the future as Lin sometimes had with her own mother. Even as young as they were, all three kids seemed to understand that their mother's work was important.
Sora so clearly admired her mother, always clinging to her as if worried that Lin might float away if she were to let go. Sometimes she spoke rapidly without stopping for breath, eager to tell her mother everything about her day. Other times she was quiet, eyes wide and bright, staring up at her mother in awe, her tiny hands wrapped tight around one of Lin's bigger ones.
Even when absorbed in whatever one of the boys was saying, Lin would idly stroke Sora's hair, or lift the girl into her arms and hold her tight. Lin had been so concerned about having a daughter, worried that somehow she wouldn't be as good a mother to a girl as she had been with Ronen. She had never really had female friends in her youth, had never cared for the sort of typical things girls did. She'd had a horrible relationship with her sister and a tumultuous one with her mother, and therefore had little experience to pull from when raising a girl, yet somehow she made it look easy.
Lin and Sora had a bond that Tenzin didn't think would ever be broken. It probably helped that Sora was less like her mother and more like her father in many ways. She wasn't brash and stubborn, but mild-tempered and sweet. Tenzin thought that might have been the problem with Lin and her sister and her mother. The three Beifong women were too much alike for their own good, and had subsequently butted heads over everything. Sora and Lin likely would not face that problem quite as often.
Yunjin, on the other hand, was as obstinate as his mother. He was brazen and independent and, despite being only three years old, could argue with Lin for hours if she'd let him. He was wild and carefree and could not be tied down long enough to pay attention to anyone, but he sought his mother's advice for nearly everything, rushing back and forth between her and whatever new adventure he was in the midst of. He would bring Lin bugs and dirt and rocks to examine, asking her opinion, sometimes scoffing at her opinion, but eager to hear it anyways.
Yunjin liked to regale his mother with stories of his day like Sora, but his were always told with far more drama. He often acted out moments for her, and most of the stories were extreme exaggerations of the truth. Lin never discouraged him from dramatizing his stories, but she'd told Tenzin once that if their son turned out to be a liar when he was older she was blaming it on him.
The twins were still young and learning to use their bending properly, but they were both making quick strides. Sora was far more advanced in airbending when it came to meditation and discipline, but Yunjin had accomplished more physical feats, which included his proclivity for leaping up onto his mother's back, a startling thing for Lin that she had taken in stride far more easily than Tenzin could ever have guessed. The first few times it had happened, Tenzin worried she might become severely irritated, but she had only gently requested to Yunjin that he not fly into her so fast, out of fear that they would both end up hitting the ground if she was caught off guard. Yunjin had given into her request without much of a fight, and now when he perched himself onto his mother's back she didn't even flinch.
Ronen had struggled at first, when his brother and sister had begun demanding his parents' attention. He and Lin had always been close, so much so that Tenzin had even felt some jealousy over the bond the pair had. It was part of the reason he had reacted as he did when he discovered that Ronen no longer wanted to learn airbending. He was slowly coming to terms with the fact that his bond with his firstborn was always going to be different than the one he had with Lin, but still just as meaningful.
Lin always made a concerted effort to include Ronen even when her attention was so clearly divided by the twins. She did it so effortlessly at times that Tenzin had made it his mission to observe and learn from her.
Lin might not have wanted children before, and if she'd never had them Tenzin would have loved her just the same, but he also couldn't deny that seeing her become a mother only made her more radiant in his eyes. With other people's children she was sometimes stiff and awkward. Never cruel, but clearly uncomfortable. With her own kids, however, she absolutely glowed. Pregnancy had not suited her, but once her children were born she had cherished every moment with them. There had been difficulties immediately after Yunjin and Sora were born of course, but once Lin had recovered she had jumped right back into motherhood as if she had never left.
Tenzin was enthralled by her abilities. Despite the fact that he stayed home with the kids far more than Lin, he was still navigating his way through parenting just as she was. They were both great at it in some ways, but they were not perfect. There were still moments where they doubted themselves, moments when everything seemed to go wrong.
Some mornings Sora refused to get out of bed, screaming and flailing and crying until they left her alone. In the evenings, Yunjin often refused to goto bed, sneaking out after his parents left his room and getting into so much mischief that Lin had suggested locking him in his room at bed time – Tenzin's only response to that was to roll his eyes. Ronen was less of a troublemaker but he still had his moments, as any child did. He'd been a bit spoiled by his parents as the first born, and sometimes he thought he was entitled to more than his younger siblings. The house was always a mess and Tenzin couldn't remember ever being so disorganized in all his life. Lin and Tenzin had always been so structured and clean and meticulous about everything. Now there was chaos and uncertainty and there was hardly ever a quiet moment in their house.
Parenthood had forced them out of their comfort zones, but Tenzin couldn't imagine going through it all with someone else. He was still so glad every single day when he woke, knowing that he was married to his best friend – a woman he still loved and longed for with every fiber of his being – and that they had three perfect, beautiful children that he was so very proud of. Despite all the sorrows they'd faced and the people they'd lost, they had gained so much, and Tenzin would do anything to protect his family.
He hated that Ronen felt left out because of his lack of bending. It made him feel like a failure as a parent, even though it was something mostly beyond his control. It made him suddenly think of Bumi, and Tenzin wondered if his older brother had ever felt left out or discouraged by the fact that he wasn't a bender like Kya or Tenzin. If he had, he had been very good at hiding it, because Tenzin only remembered Bumi as a force to be reckoned with. He had strutted around the island like he owned the place, and now he was leading soldiers into battle. Tenzin thought for a moment that perhaps he should keep in contact with his brother with more than a stray letter twice a year, but Katara had always made sure he knew what was going on with his siblings, and Tenzin had too many not so fond memories of his childhood. While he loved his siblings, his interactions with them sometimes felt forced, and he vowed to never let his own kids ever feel the same about one another.
So he would stop lamenting the fact that Ronen no longer wanted to learn Air Nomad customs from him, and accept that his son had his own wants and needs. And that did not mean he wanted nothing to do with his father, only that he had his own personality. Like how Lin and Sora were polar opposites in most ways, and yet it did not diminish their closeness. Tenzin could bond with Ronen in some other way. It might be challenging, but it was a challenge worth facing. For his son.
Chapter Text
Chapter 27
After Lin had gone to work that morning, Tenzin made the kids breakfast. Then, while the children ate, he called Sokka and invited him to dinner the following evening. He briefly informed his uncle of the feelings Ronen seemed to be having lately, and his hopes that Sokka might talk to the boy. Sokka had not even hesitated, had readily and happily agreed. And so that was settled.
Lin didn't return home that night until after 3 a.m.
Tenzin, who had been sleeping fitfully without her beside him, had woken to the sound of her tiptoeing down the hallway. Her footsteps faltered and went quiet before she reached their bedroom – she was likely checking on the kids – and then she was creeping into their room.
Tenzin lay still, half asleep and eyes closed, his body limp and warm beneath the covers. He could hear the rustle of fabric as Lin quietly shed her clothes on her way to bed, dropping them carelessly on the floor as she went. When she slipped beneath the sheets beside him, she let out a long, weary sigh of relief, the whoosh of her breath tickling his cheeks. At first she did not move another muscle, and Tenzin squinted open a heavy eyelid to peer at her in the darkness. She was laid out on her stomach, eyes shut so tight it must have hurt, mouth askew and yet still twisted halfway into a frown. The moonlight creeping in through the curtains created a halo around her head. She looked already asleep, and Tenzin might have chuckled if his vocal chords hadn't still been constricted by sleep, thinking she had fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. But then she breathed in deep through her nose, her back lifting as her chest expanded, and scrunched up her face in consternation. She twitched, and then lazily shuffled across the bed, closer to the middle, closer to him. It looked as though it took all of the strength she had left just to shift a few inches towards him, so he jumped at the chance to help her – not literally, ofcourse, because his muscles still felt like jelly. But somehow he managed to move his own body towards his wife's, and when he was close enough he reached out an arm to wrap around her waist, tugging her to him until she was pressed firmly against his chest, her head tucked up under his chin. She moaned, half in contentment and half in exhaustion, her breath evening out even as he dropped a kiss in her limp hair. With his wife's warm body snug against his, Tenzin had no troubles finally falling asleep.
The whole family woke later than usual the next morning.
Tenzin slept through morning meditation, and without him there to wake them, the twins hadn't risen either. Ronen woke before anyone else, but was careful not to disturb the rest of his family when he tiptoed to the kitchen to scavenge for breakfast.
When Lin and Tenzin finally woke, it was to the sound of their three children trying – unsuccessfully – to creep silently into their parents' room.
As Lin felt herself slowly drifting back into consciousness, she focused on the sounds that were coming from the doorway of her room, sounds that might have been concerning if she wasn't accustomed to kids running around the house at all hours. At that point in her life, she could hardly even remember what it had been like before, when it was just her and Tenzin in her tiny apartment in the city, or even in their small house on the Island after they'd first married. Every thing had been so quiet then, the stillness sometimes peaceful, sometimes unnerving. She'd had nothing but time to think back then, when she woke in the mornings. Nothing but the sound of Tenzin's steady breath, often not even that if he had already risen for the day. Sometimes she did yearn for that old quiet, but most days she was grateful for the distraction from her own thoughts. Most days she felt more secure with her kids noisily tracking through the house than she ever had when it was silent.
She wasn't sure how late she had slept that morning, but she could feel the light of the sun burning into the backs of her eyelids, and felt the warmth of it on her face. She must have been facing towards the window then, with her back to the door, and she could feel Tenzin's whole body wrapped around hers, his steady breath blowing against her hair, his chest rising and falling against her back, his arm a heavy but soothing weight over her abdomen. He didn't wake as the same moment that she did, and for second she thought he might sleep through the kids clambering into their bedroom. However, soon after she'd thought it, and if the stuttered rhythm of his breathing was any indication, it seemed like he was beginning to wake as well.
Somewhere over by the doorway, the kids were having a heated argument over something, trying to speak in what they considered a whisper, but which was more similar to a quiet shout. Ronen and Sora were much better at speaking in a low tone of voice than Yunjin was, but quite frankly, neither of them were very good at it either. They were arguing over who got to do what, and then suddenly there was a noisy clatter that made Lin's heart skip a beat, and a muscle in her leg jerked in an instinctive attempt to lunge forward and catch whatever was about to spill or shatter on the floor.
"Stop it!" Ronen hissed, presumably steadying whatever had nearly tipped over. "I'm gonna drop it!"
"But I wanna carry it!" Yunjin pouted.
"Shhh!" Sora loudly commanded. "You'll wake 'em up!"
"Ro' won't let me carry!" Yunjin complained.
"'Cause I'm the oldest!" Ronen half whispered, half yelled. "Here, carry the spoons."
Lin could hear Yunjin whining over this offer, and she began to shift, sighing heavily and preparing to discipline kids first thing in the morning. But Tenzin squeezed his arms, which were still wrapped tight around her torso, and instantly stilled her. "Wait," he urged.
He whispered it so quietly she was certain she wouldn't have heard him if his lips weren't directly next to her ear. Now that was how you whispered. She'd certainly have to teach their kids that…but maybe when they were older. After all, she didn't need them having private conversations that she couldn't actually hear. They got into enough mischief as it was. For now she'd let them believe they were actually too quiet for her to understand.
Yunjin continued to complain about not being allowed to carry whatever it was, but eventually he gave in and, just like that, the kids quit fighting. Lin was still tense, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but she was also relieved, and a bit proud of them for working it out on their own. If it had been her and Su when they were kids it would have ended a lot worse.
The three kids started shuffling across the room, still shushing one another, something metal clanging against metal, and it sounded to Lin like the tray they put the tea pot on, and Spirits help her if they had somehow made tea on a hot stove she was going to have an aneurysm…
And then two small bodies were clambering onto the bed, one on either side, and it was by sheer force of will that Lin managed to keep her eyes closed long enough not to ruin whatever surprise they'd cooked up. A tiny hand landed on her shoulder and began to shake, surprisingly gentle for a three year old, but bony. She waited half a second, heard Yunjin whisper, "Mama," at the same time Sora said, "Daddy," and then Lin peeked one eye open. Her youngest son was perched on the edge of the bed in front of her, grinning crookedly just like his grandpa Aang had, and he was clutching spoons in one hand as if they were the most important things he'd ever held.
"It's morning time, Mama," Yunjin told her, and then she heard Sora somewhere behind her add, "You sleeped late!"
"Mmm, yes, it appears we did," Tenzin murmured, voice groggy as he rolled onto his back. Upon moving, the warmth ensconcing Lin left her as he did so, but he put a hand on top of her hip beneath the blankets to keep contact. "Did you complete your morning meditations?" he asked the twins, looking at each of them directly with squinted, sleepy eyes. He didn't include Ronen in the question, apparently as a gesture to the boy that he had accepted that Ronen no longer wished to participate.
Lin turned her head to look over Tenzin's chest, to where Ronen was standing on his side of the bed, a tray clutched in his hands, looking too heavy for his small grip. It was laden with breakfast foods and, as Lin had feared, the hot tea pot.
Sora was clutching a teacup in either hand as she gave her father a guilty look, and then an impish smile spread on her face as she replied to his question, "Yes, Daddy."
Tenzin raised a disbelieving brow and said, "Are you sure about that?"
He looked over at Yunjin, who was staring at his twin sister in obvious confusion, only to smile a second later, his eyes widening as he nodded vigorously. "Yes, Daddy," he assured Tenzin, "We meditationed."
"Meditated," Tenzin corrected gently, "and it isn't very nice to lie to Daddy, you know?"
The twins protested against their father's claims for a few minutes, while Lin focused on Ronen. He was smiling fondly, but he looked slightly uncomfortable too, and she was certain it wasn't simply because he was carrying a too heavy tray.
Tenzin sat up, remaining in the middle of the bed and still looking dubiously between the twins. Lin sat up too, settling back against the headboard and reaching out with her metalbending to lighten the load in her eldest son's hands. He gasped as the tray left his grasp, scrambling to catch it, only to realize a second later that it wasn't falling to the floor. He looked straight at his mother, who smiled fondly, but he didn't reciprocate. Instead he frowned a little, and Lin realized too late that she had made the wrong move. Typical, she thought, wanting to kick herself, only I would use bending to take something from my kid when he's having a crisis about being a nonbender.
"Sorry, kid," Lin said quietly, setting the tray back into his arms, gently. "Looks a little heavy. Why don't you sit it on the nightstand?"
"I can carry it," Ronen pouted, and that was different. Ronen didn't pout much these days. He was six going on sixty, like his parents had probably been at that age. But he did do as his mother suggested and placed the tray on the nightstand after Lin had quickly cleared space for it.
"I know you can," she told him sincerely. "I just wanted to help. I know you're getting to be a big boy and all, but please tell me you didn't heat that tea up yourself."
Ronen rolled his eyes, something he'd probably picked up from his mother. He shook his head. "No, the Acolytes helped."
Lin nodded in approval, but internally she was planning what she was going to do when she found out which Acolytes let her six and three year old kids walk off with a scolding pot of tea. It was a relief they hadn't made it alone, but they could have spilled it on themselves during the walk to their parents room and the burns would have been horrific. She was going to destroy whatever idiots…
Lin's rage turned to confusion when she touched the pot, prepared to have her rage intensify upon feeling how hot it was, but instead it was surprisingly cold. She opened the lid a bit to inspect the inside, and saw that the pot was only half full, and she could just see the remnants of a few ice cubes melting away inside. So the Acolytes were spared her wrath this time it seemed. She would have to suffer through disgustingly lukewarm tea, but at least her kids had not suffered third degree burns. She'd suffer much worse to keep her kids from harm.
"I – I mean we – wanted to bring you breakfast in bed," Ronen explained timidly, perhaps sensing his mother's previous displeasure.
Lin smiled to alleviate his concerns, and also because it was very thoughtful of them to bring their parents breakfast in the morning instead of the other way around. Tenzin and Lin had started a tradition where they brought the kids breakfast in bed on each of their birthdays, and though it was neither Lin nor Tenzin's birthday, it seemed the kids wanted to reciprocate.
"Thanks, kid," Lin said to Ronen, and then holding out a hand to him. "Come up here with us and let's eat. I'm starving."
"I already ate," Ronen admitted as he allowed his mother to help him clamber onto the bed. "Can I eat again?"
"A little," Lin agreed. "If you're still hungry."
Ronen nodded and settled right next to Lin. "I ate forever ago," he exaggerated.
Lin smirked, throwing an arm over Ronen's shoulders so that he could settle more comfortably against her. "All right, but don't keep eating until you get a belly ache okay?"
"I won't, Mama," Ronen promised.
"Is we eating?" Yunjin suddenly exclaimed from the foot of the bed, where he and Sora had perched while trying to convince their father that they had done meditation without him.
"That depends," Tenzin answered, before Lin could get out an emphatic yes. "Did you learn your lesson?"
Sora and Yunjin both scrunched their little faces up into what they must have thought were serious expressions, looking weirdly like their mother as they nodded tersely and replied, "Yes, Daddy."
"And what did you learn?" Tenzin prompted.
"Lying to Mama and Daddy is bad," Sora dutifully returned.
"Meditates is good," Yunjin added, his grammar still off at three years old, and Lin thought she could detect him forming a lisp. She was blaming Su for that one. Lin's little sister insisted on talking to the twins in baby talk still, as if she was desperate for more babies now that her youngest was getting too old. It was bad enough that Su had picked up some kid off the streets about a year ago and adopted her as her own, and despite the fact that the young girl – Kuvira – was in desperate need of a parental figure, Lin had had a lot of things to say about that. As if five kids wasn't already enough, now she had six. Lin loved her kids, but she figured if there were six of them she'd probably tear her hair out. When Su came to the island with her family to visit, it was like the fucking circus had come to town. Nine kids and a sister that Lin could still barely tolerate was enough to send her running straight to work, for no reason other than to get as far away from it as possible.
"Very good," Tenzin commended the twins. "Now, let's eat this lovely feast you've brought us!"
The kids insisted that their parents eat first, and so Lin and Tenzin dug in.
The food was just as awful as the cold tea. Apparently the Acolytes that made it had let the kids help, and it tasted as terrible as one might expect a three or six year old's cooking to taste. But Lin and Tenzin suffered through every bite with smiles on their faces. It wasn't as difficult as it should have been. They were both used to sub-par meals from their time in the police force when they had worked together raiding Triad hideouts. Lin was still used to some of that on occasion, but it was a lot less frequent now that she ran the place. Only rookies got the tasteless meals. Nevertheless, Lin and Tenzin ate as minimal an amount as they could without making the kids suspicious.
After Lin and Tenzin were "full" the twins began to get stir crazy sitting still on the bed. As soon as they started jumping on the mattress and using their airbending to propel themselves higher, Tenzin rose and began to dress quickly for the day before ushering Sora and Yunjin outside to do late morning meditation.
Lin and Ronen stayed behind, cleaning up the mess from breakfast and then settling down on the couch together. Lin read the newspaper while Ronen read a book about animals, pausing now and then to share a random fact with his mother or to ask her how to pronounce a word. Lin got up halfway through to make hot tea, leaving behind enough for Tenzin in case he wanted some when he returned with the twins.
Lin was rather distracted while trying to read the paper, thinking perhaps that it was the best time for her to have a talk with Ronen about his nonbending before Sokka showed up later in the evening, but she couldn't think of the right words to say. She didn't know how Ronen felt or what he might need to hear, only speculations and what little she could make out from observing her son over the years. She didn't want to stick her foot in her mouth so she just kept quiet for now. She'd wait until Sokka talked to him first, and then she'd intervene later if need be.
It was nearly lunchtime before Tenzin returned with the twins, looking exhausted and low on patience, but he smiled wearily at his wife and asked, "Is it almost nap time?"
Apparently Tenzin had let Sora and Yunjin run off all their early morning energy after failing to get through meditation. He'd kept a careful eye on them as they attempted some airbending moves they had coerced him into teaching them. He'd been going slow with their training, teaching them more about proper footing and meditation, but the twins were trying new things whether he said they could or not, so he had made them promise instead to only attempt them when he or Lin was close by.
Since Tenzin had dealt with the twins' energy all morning, Lin recruited Ronen to help her make lunch for everyone. Sora and Yunjin must have been tired because they could hardly get through their soup, and when Lin ushered them down the hall to their room for nap time, they fell right to sleep before Lin even got halfway through the story they had begged her to read.
Tenzin spent the following hour in his study working on some paperwork from the Council, while Lin got in some quick exercises. She offered for Ronen to come with her, but the young boy had declined, both exercises with his mother and the idea of a nap, deciding instead to play with his toys for a bit, while his siblings weren't around to mess with him.
The twins didn't sleep long, and just as Lin sank down into a nice warm bath, she heard the pitter patter of little feet toddling in her direction. Tenzin was still likely in his study, so there was no hope of him ushering the kids away for her. Besides that, Tenzin had been alone with the twins all morning, so it was only fair that Lin allowed him some quiet time as well.
She quickly began to soap up and rinse off. She was well practiced in taking quick baths so it wasn't a particular problem for her. Between work and babies she was used to being rushed. So by the time the twins came to a stop outside the bathroom door, whispering back and forth before tapping on the door, Lin was already rising back out of the tub.
She was toweling herself dry when Sora called out, "Mama?"
"I'll be out in a minute, baby, hang on," Lin called back, glad she had brought her clothes into the bathroom with her. She dressed quickly, and then pulled the door open, still drying her hair with the towel. "Hey there," she said to Yunjin and Sora, who had settled down on the floor to play with the miniature firebender figures that Yunjin had taken to carrying around with him at all times.
"Mama!" Sora brightly exclaimed, leaping to her feet.
"You was in there forever," Yunjin complained.
"Sorry, kid," Lin replied, not bothering to argue. "Mama needed a bath."
"I like baths!" Sora said cheerfully. "Can we have a bath, Mama? Pretty please?"
Lin thought about the hot water that would go to waste otherwise and looked down at Yunjin, who frowned, but asked, "Can I bring my toys?"
"Sure, kid," Lin agreed.
And that was how she spent the following hour, supervising the twins while they played, running their firebender figures along the edge of the tub and splashing them in and out of the water, creating their own sound effects as they did. Lin rolled up her sleeves and washed their hair for them while they played, and when the bath water began to turn cold, ushered them out despite their mild protests.
Lin then took Yunjin and Sora down the hall to their room and helped them put on clothes, Sora insisting on wearing a dress Katara had sent her, since Great Uncle Sokka was coming to dinner that evening. Sora also begged her mother to put a few braids in her hair, which then made Yunjin decide that he wanted braids too. So Lin ended up fumbling awkwardly with long dark hair, trying not to pull too tight for fear of hurting them and not a hundred percent certain on what to do. She could manage simple braids but not much more beyond that. She'd never been concerned with knowing how to do anything besides brush her hair, considering her mother certainly never taught her anything else. Katara might have tried a few times, but Su had always been better at it and more interested than Lin. Tenzin did Sora's hair more than Lin did, partially because he was home with them more and partially because he used to watch his mother do her hair. He was also infinitely more patient and gentle.
Sora must not have cared that the braids didn't turn out as well as they did when Tenzin did them, because she hugged her mother tight and squealed her appreciation.
Yunjin, on the other hand, said, "Daddy does better, but good try, Mama." He even patted her on the cheek with a precious little smile that almost stopped her from rolling her eyes at his unintended condescension.
Clean and dressed and content, Lin took each kid by the hand, and the three of them went to find Tenzin and Ronen. They found the two of them out in the courtyard tossing a ball back and forth, and as soon as Yunjin recognized what they were doing, he took off running to go join them. Sora was clearly just as eager, but she restrained herself, holding tight to her mother's hand and fiddling with a bow on her pretty blue dress.
When the two of them reached the boys, Tenzin smiled widely at them and said, "There's my two beautiful ladies." He winked at Lin before sliding his gaze to Sora, making the little girl beam proudly with pink cheeks when he added, "You look magnificent, sweetheart. That's a very lovely dress."
It was the kind of praise Lin wouldn't think to give, and she was grateful that Tenzin did. Lin's childhood hadn't consisted of a whole lot of praise, and certainly never in terms of outfits or appearance, so she was still learning the type of things she ought to say to her daughter especially. The boys didn't care if she complimented their outfit, but Tenzin had been calling Sora his 'little princess' since she was a baby, and the girl was taking that role seriously. She didn't care how far she threw a ball, but if someone didn't compliment her dress she was liable not to wear it ever again. Lin figured it was simply lucky Sora took after her father's side, because if she had been anything like Toph she probably never would have worn a dress in her life. Then again, Su was sometimes fond of frilly things, and their grandparents had certainly been extravagant, so maybe it was just Lin and Toph that were the strange ones.
"Thank you, Daddy!" Sora replied to her father, and it was no wonder Tenzin called her 'princess', because the dazzling smile she flashed him would probably let her get away with almost anything.
"Why don't you two join us?" Tenzin requested, and Lin and Sora easily agreed.
The five of them began to toss the ball around, with Tenzin and Yunjin on one end and Sora, Ronen, and Lin on the other. It started out okay, but Yunjin soon started using airbending to propel the ball so high that only another bender could have caught it, and Lin could see Ronen's shoulders drooping slightly.
"Yunjin!" Lin called out to the boy, when he kicked the ball so high into the air that Tenzin had to fly up into the air to stop it from landing on someone's head or crashing through a window. "No bending!"
"Aww," the boy whined, "but why?"
"Because I'm not an airbender and I said so that's why!"
Yunjin still tried to argue, "But you can use your rocks and –"
"I said no, Yunjin," Lin scolded, "and that's final!"
Tenzin landed a few feet away, jogging back to where he had stood before and then telling his youngest son, "Listen to your mother, Yunjin. No bending."
Yunjin folded his little arms over his chest and let out a huff, still pouting, but not arguing with his parents further.
The rest of the game went okay, until Yunjin got too excited and elbowed Sora right in the face. He'd been running back and forth between his parents for several minutes, and at the moment when Tenzin tossed the ball to Sora, Yunjin jumped in to try and intercept. He had done it with Lin earlier and she hadn't minded, but a three year old bumping into her knees wasn't likely to knock her over. Sora on the other hand, was two inches shorter than her twin brother, and when his hands came up to grab the ball in front of her face, he yanked his arms down too fast and too close and his elbow came crashing down onto his sister's mouth.
Sora recoiled from the blow and then tipped over, the whole thing seeming to happen in slow motion, so that she landed on the ground in a sitting position before anyone else managed to react. Sora seemed in shock for a long moment, holding a hand over her mouth, and Yunjin was too, holding the ball tensely, no longer looking triumphant, but looking up at his mother with guilt and a little bit of fear on his face.
Lin took two steps in Sora's direction, giving her youngest son a scolding look and starting to say, "Yunjin, how many times –"
But then Sora pulled her hand away from her mouth, and there was blood on her little hand, and she took one look at it and let out a loud wail.
Lin quickened her walk to more of a jog with a lurch in her gut, concern consuming her thoughts over scolding Yunjin. She wasn't unused to the sight of blood, but seeing it on her kids was a lot more unpleasant. She hadn't had to deal with much more than skinned knees and scraped palms with the kids before. Ronen had always been so careful and Sora had a knack for rolling out of the path of danger in the knick of time. Yunjin was the accident prone one, but even he had never been too badly hurt, except for one time, and Lin hadn't been around to witness the accident. She'd received a call at work from Tenzin that Yunjin had hit his head and there had been a lot of blood so he'd taken him to the hospital. By the time she'd arrived at the hospital, breathless and in a panic, the healers had already taken care of the wound and her little boy was smiling and leaping into her arms, only a small cut on his forehead as evidence that anything had even happened. So seeing blood on her little girl's face was nearly enough to send her mind down a very dark path, full of nightmares and flashbacks of watching people bleed out…but she was also accustomed to pushing those horrific memories aside in order to focus on the present. So that was what she did.
Lin dropped down next to Sora at the same time Yunjin did, and the little boy had tossed the ball aside to pat his sister's arm saying, "I sorry, Sora! I didn't mean it!"
Sora just continued to sob, and Lin reached out to carefully hold Sora's chin still as she calmly said, "You're okay, Sora. It's all right. Let Mama see, okay?"
Sora looked up at her mother with big watery eyes full of terror, and her tears were mixing with her bloody lip and dripping down Lin's wrist, and it tore Lin's heart apart. The split lip didn't look too bad, but it was hard to tell without cleaning it up first. There wasn't a whole lot of blood, but enough to make Tenzin panic when he dropped down beside Lin.
"How bad is it?" he asked his wife first, looking slightly frantic and breathing heavy from sprinting across the courtyard.
"I don't think it's too bad," Lin assured him. "We'll need to get her inside and cleaned up so I can get a better look at it."
Tenzin nodded once and then began to scoop Sora up into his arms saying, "Come here, sweetheart. Daddy's got you."
Tenzin rose to his feet and began carrying Sora inside, the little girl still crying heartily. Lin looked at Ronen and Yunjin, who were both nearby, looking at her with worry. "It's all right," she assured them. "Come on, inside."
Yunjin's bottom lip was wobbling, on the verge of tears, and Ronen looked wide eyed and worried.
"Is Sora gonna be okay?" Ronen asked.
"She'll be just fine," Lin told both her boys. "I promise."
She ushered the boys inside and then went to where Tenzin and Sora were in the nearest bathroom. Ronen and Yunjin followed, hanging back to keep out of the way, but close enough to see what was happening. Tenzin had sat Sora up on the counter by the sink, and was dabbing gently at the blood on her lip.
Sora was still crying and whimpering, "It…it hurts…Mama…it…it…"
"I know," Lin sighed, stroking Sora's long hair back from her face. "I know, kid. Daddy will fix it. You're okay."
"It doesn't look bad," Tenzin murmured, more to Lin than to Sora.
Lin leaned in to inspect Sora's lip for herself, and decided that Tenzin was right. Sora would be fine.
"Ronen, can you get us some ice?" Lin requested, and the boy nodded quickly before running off to get the ice.
Yunjin was still looking horrified and on the verge of tears himself, so while Tenzin tended to Sora, Lin crouched down to talk to her youngest son.
"Your sister is gonna be just fine, okay?" she told him, but Yunjin did not look convinced. "I promise she's okay. Have I ever lied to you?"
Yunjin shook his head no, but a tear streaked down his cheek and his little bottom lip wobbled. "I sorry, Mama," he mumbled. "I's bein bad."
Lin gently wiped the tear away and said, "It was an accident. I know you didn't mean to. I'm not mad, but this is why you have to be careful, right? When you're not careful, people can get hurt. And your Dad and I don't won't you or your brother or sister to get hurt. Do you understand?"
Yunjin nodded and swallowed audibly. "I be careful," he replied.
"Good." Ronen had returned with the ice, and Lin thanked him as he handed it to her. Then she said to Yunjin, "Why don't you and your brother go get cleaned up for dinner? Uncle Sokka should be here soon." She looked up at Ronen. "Can you help your little brother get some clean clothes?"
"Yes, Mama," Ronen agreed. "I'll help him."
Ronen ushered Yunjin down the hall and Lin stood back up, returning to Tenzin's side to see that Sora's face had been cleaned up. Her lip was no longer bleeding, but swollen and red. She had stopped sobbing, but was still sniffling and looking miserable, and Tenzin was doing his best to cheer her up. Lin handed him the ice, deciding that if it required a very gentle touch he'd probably be better at it.
Sora looked over at her mother and then down at her dress and whimpered, "My dress not pretty no more."
There was dirt around the bottom trim and a little blood on the collar, and Lin was useless at getting stains out of clothes so she really had no idea if it was salvageable. She also didn't know the proper way to soothe a girl over an article of clothing, so she found herself momentarily speechless.
Thankfully, Tenzin did the soothing for her, petting Sora's hair and saying, "We can get it clean again, sweetheart. You can wear it for Uncle Sokka next visit, okay?"
Sora looked like she desperately wanted to pout, but she sucked in a big shaky breath and nodded glumly, a few stray tears still leaking out.
Tenzin began to wrap the ice in a cloth, and Lin held her arms out to Sora and said, "Come here, kid. We'll go find you something else to wear."
Sora let her mother lift her up off of the sink and instantly laid her head down on Lin's shoulder as she began to carry her down the hall. They passed Ronen and Yunjin, dressed in clean clothes, hands washed, and Lin told them to play in the living room until Sokka arrived.
It was a pain getting Sora into clean clothes, and Lin had to fight back against her instinctive frustration. Kids were typically a hassle, even at the best of times, but when they were sick or hurt it was ten times worse, and as much as Lin loved them she still had a low level of patience. But it wasn't Sora's fault that she got accidently elbowed in the mouth, and it was understandable that she'd be upset about the pain and the ruined dress she'd been so excited to wear. So Lin let the girl fuss over what she was going to change into, because the first six things Lin had picked out were just not right. And she was patient even when Sora was as uncooperative as possible, gently changing the girl's clothes while she squirmed and refused to move three inches off her mother's lap.
Tenzin tried to help when he entered the room with a makeshift ice pack in hand, but he was more of a hindrance, so he waited for Lin to finish, until finally Sora was back into clean clothes.
Sighing lightly in relief, Lin looked at Sora and asked, "Do you wanna help Mama cook dinner or do you wanna sit with Daddy for a while?"
Sora looked up at her parents with sad eyes and pitifully replied, "Sit with Daddy, I guess."
"Okay," Lin said easily enough, shifting Sora over to Tenzin's arms.
The girl looked at her with concern and asked, "But who's gonna help you?"
"I'll get Ronen to help me," Lin assured her, and Sora seemed placated by that.
So for the next hour or so, Lin and Ronen cooked dinner, while Tenzin sat on the couch, holding ice to Sora's swollen lip, while the small girl remained curled up in his lap and leaning against his chest. Yunjin was playing quietly for once, just in front of his father's feet, throwing furtive glances at Sora all the while and occasionally offering her a toy. The boy was clearly remorseful, so Lin didn't see a reason to punish him over it. He was only three years old, and accidents happened with kids.
Sokka arrived shortly before dinner was finished, and Lin allowed Ronen to run off to greet him while she finished up. Yunjin was once again his chipper self at the sight of Sokka, and even Sora managed to lift herself up from her father's embrace.
Upon seeing Sora's busted lip, Sokka exclaimed, "Spirits, kid! How'd you get that? You been out fighting crime with your Mama already? I thought you had to be at least four to join the Academy!"
Sora giggled, and just like that her lethargic mood had been lifted.
Sokka riled up the kids in a matter of minutes, so that, as the family gathered around the table for dinner, the kids couldn't sit still or stop chattering away, and Lin scolded Sokka for getting them so hyper. Sokka merely laughed, and Lin gave each of her children a stern look until they finally settled down to eat.
Sora's lip started to hurt as she began eating, and her cheerful mood turned sour again. She ended up crawling into Lin's lap, so that she was forced to hold the toddler with one hand and reach the other around Sora's body to eat her own dinner, occasionally coaxing the girl to try a few small bites. The last thing she needed was for Sora to starve herself. Lin idly thought about how nice it would have been if Katara still lived a few yards across the island. Then Sora's lip would have been healed already.
It was nice to have dinner with Sokka, though, and Lin couldn't figure why they didn't invite him over more often. He was her family even if he hadn't been Tenzin's uncle. He'd been around for her for as long as she could remember, more so than her biological father had been, had practically raised her in a lot of ways. He came over for dinner and visits on occasion already, but he was getting older and who knew how much longer they'd have him around? Everything was just so hectic, between Lin and Tenzin working and raising three kids, sometimes it was amazing they got dinner on the table at all, let alone think to invite guests. But Sokka wasn't difficult to please and he wouldn't mind if the house was a wreck or the dinner was sub-par. So long as he didn't have to cook it he'd be overjoyed. Lin resolved to invite him over more often. Not just for Ronen, who had smiled more since Sokka had shown up than he had in the past week, but for all of them.
Chapter Text
Chapter 28
After dinner, Lin suggested that Ronen show Sokka the miniature building set Lin and Tenzin had been helping Ronen put together for the past several weeks. The boy had always liked creating architecture with his building blocks, and now that he was a bit older, his parents had bought him a proper set. He still needed some help with some of it, but he was putting it together mostly by himself. It was also a project that was all his, and something that allowed him to spend time alone with one of his parents, because Yunjin and Sora couldn't be trusted around the delicate structures. Sokka would appreciate the boy's hard work and dedication to his project, and they'd have plenty of privacy to have a conversation.
So while Ronen scampered off, holding Sokka's hand and chattering exuberantly, Tenzin and Lin recruited the twins to help clean up the dinner mess. Yunjin tried to protest that Ronen didn't have to help, and Sora complained about her lip hurting too much, but Lin was feeling the strain of the past two days and she shut it down before it could continue. Both twins pouted a bit, but Tenzin must have noticed Lin's tension and promised them each a treat if they behaved. Lin wanted to protest that they shouldn't have to be bribed to be helpful, but she held her tongue. She had learned over the years to pick her battles, and she was in no mood to have it out with her husband on how to parent their kids.
When the kitchen and dining room were both clean, Tenzin went to get the treats he'd promised the twins, and Lin chose that moment to sneak outside.
She didn't have to go far before she was within earshot of Sokka and Ronen, who had journeyed away from Ronen's building project and wandered by the Airbending gates. Lin positioned herself at just the right angle to hide herself in plain sight, halfway behind a tree, arms folded over her chest and casually leaning against the tree that covered her.
Another person might have felt guilty about eavesdropping, but Lin had no such qualms. Her son was six years old and struggling with something she desperately wanted to understand. If that meant she had to listen in on some of the things he had to say then so be it. Either she would gain some insight on how Ronen was feeling or she would learn a thing or two from Sokka about how to handle the situation. It wasn't often that Lin felt so utterly out of her depth. She was an expert in her field of work, and when she wasn't an expert at something, she at least learned enough to be passably good. Her skills at parenting were always being improved or changed, but she usually had a pretty good grasp on it. However, lately she felt very much uninformed, and she very much did not like feeling that way.
It took a few seconds before Lin caught onto what Ronen and Sokka were saying, and then it was Sokka's voice that said, "I know it must feel like a handicap at times, but it doesn't make you any less than the people who can bend. In fact, it can give you a unique perspective on life that benders will never have. A waterbender, for example, when faced with a challenge, will look for every bit of water nearby that could be of use, because they believe it is their only strength. You, however, will be able to look at a crises from every angle. You'll be quicker, because you have to be, and I know you must worry…"
Sokka reached out to squeeze Ronen's shoulder, smiling comfortingly, and the boy was listening attentively.
"You must worry about being able to protect your little brother and sister," Sokka continued. "but they'll need you just as much as you need them. You know, your Gran-Gran, my sister, she wasn't always the world's greatest waterbender. Without me, she would never have even found your grandpa, Avatar Aang."
Lin figured that was probably a bold faced lie, but Sokka and Katara had argued so much over the years, about who was really responsible for finding Aang frozen in ice, that none of their descendants really had a clue what the real answer was.
"I know it'll be hard," Sokka went on. "Your siblings will have abilities you'll never understand. I used to feel just like you did. I worried, sometimes, that I wouldn't be able to protect my friends and my sister. That I wouldn't be able to keep up. But then I learned that I could be strong too, just in a different way. And you'll learn that too. Your mother and your father, they know a lot. I taught them at least half of what they know. And they can teach you how to fight, but more importantly, how to be smart and make the right decisions. Not everything in life is about strength and abilities. We've all fought so that you and your brother and sister hopefully won't have to."
"Mama fights a lot," Ronen said then, a little glumly, and Lin felt a very slight twisting in her guts. She didn't feel guilty for doing her job, but she wished it didn't affect her kids the way that it did. The twins mostly only missed her when she worked late, but as Ronen got older he started worrying, too aware that there were dangers to her job, even if he didn't fully know what they were. Soon the twins would be the same, and there wasn't much Lin could do to reassure them. Kids weren't stupid, and Lin didn't often lie to them anyways. There was danger in her job, and that wasn't about to change.
"Yes," Sokka agreed, "she does, but she also does a lot of other things. She's in charge of making good decisions and directing her officers. She can't get by with fighting alone, and she even has some police officers that aren't benders."
"She does?" Ronen asked, sounding surprised, and Lin's stomach churned at the bit of excitement in his voice as well. The last thing she wanted was for one of her kids to become a police officer. It was an admirable profession, and absolutely necessary to keep the public safe, but she had been hoping her own kids would be interested in something less dangerous.
"Of course!" Sokka replied. "And at least half the people working with the Council are nonbenders. There's nothing you can't do, Ronen. So you can't throw rocks or splash water on people, who cares? There's no one else like you, and you're a smart kid. Don't ever doubt that you are incredible, all right?"
Ronen nodded, but seemed at a loss for words, mulling over what Sokka had said, frowning just a bit, the way his father did when he was thinking hard about something.
"I actually want to give you something," Sokka continued, before Ronen could come up with a response, or perhaps so Ronen wouldn't have to give a response. He crouched down to be eye level with the boy, and then Sokka was pulling his trusty boomerang right off of his back. Lin very nearly gasped, her eyebrows rising high instead. "This boomerang has gotten me through a lot of scuffles. Rescued almost every member in this family in fact! I've kept it close at hand for most of my life, but I'm getting older now and I want to make sure it's properly taken care of. Now, this is no toy, Ronen, I want you to understand that, but I know I can trust you to be responsible and take good care of my trusty boomerang. Can I trust in you, Ronen?"
Ronen's eyes had widened in surprise, but he nodded vigorously, staring in awe at the boomerang Sokka was holding out to him. "Yes," he said without hesitation. "I promise."
Sokka smiled warmly and placed the boomerang in Ronen's hands. "Then I officially declare this your boomerang. May it serve you as well as it has me."
Ronen's grin was wide and gleeful, and he lurched into Sokka's arms, squeezing his Great Uncle into a tight hug and thanking him profusely.
Sokka laughed and hugged Ronen tight, and when they parted, he said to the boy, "It's also good for attracting the ladies." He winked, and from her hiding place, Lin rolled her eyes with a suppressed scoff. "Or the guys, whichever you prefer," Sokka added with a shrug, rising to his feet and clapping Ronen on the shoulder, turning to lead the boy in the opposite direction from where Lin stood.
Before Lin could hear the rest of what their conversation would entail, she was distracted by movement behind her. She felt the light, nearly non-existent footsteps first, faintly heard a leaf crunching underfoot, and then felt her husband's warm breath on the back of her neck.
"I thought I might find you here," he murmured, quietly, so that Sokka and Ronen wouldn't hear them. "Eavesdropping I see."
"It's not eavesdropping," Lin replied in an equally hushed tone. "It's motherly concern."
Tenzin half chuckled under his breath. "Oh, is that what it is?"
Sokka and Ronen were striding away from the Airbending gates, and only after they had rounded a corner and disappeared from sight did Lin turn to face Tenzin.
Before she could respond, he asked, "Did you hear anything good?"
Lin smirked. "I thought it was eavesdropping."
"It is," Tenzin asserted, "but now that you've heard, you can't take it back. Might as well share it with me."
Lin rolled her eyes and changed the subject, simply because she knew it would frustrate her husband. "Where are the twins? Did you leave them by themselves?"
Tenzin scoffed, looking offended. "Of course I didn't. I wanted them to be alive when we returned. They're with Nira."
Nira, the Air Acolyte that watched the kids the most frequently when Tenzin and Lin were working at the same time or simply needed a night out from the kids. She was the only babysitter Lin fully trusted with the kids.
"You called poor Nira in the middle of the evening so you could come find me eavesdropping?" Lin questioned.
"Of course not," Tenzin said, looking as though he very much wanted to roll his eyes. "I took the twins over to the kitchens to get them their sweets – you know we don't keep them in the main house – and I saw Nira there. She offered to watch them for a short while so that I could come find you."
Lin snorted, not wholly convinced. "Sure she did."
"She did," Tenzin persisted.
"Whatever you say, dear…"
Tenzin sighed dramatically. "It's a good thing I love you."
"Isn't it just," Lin said, with a sickeningly sweet smile that was clearly meant to convey her sarcasm.
"Will you please tell me what you heard?" Tenzin requested, while reaching out to ensconce her in his arms, trapping her against his chest as his fingers began to draw circles low on her hips.
"I don't know," Lin said a bit breathlessly. "I'm distracted now."
"Oh?" Tenzin said, not sounding surprised. "Do I distract you?"
His palms were sliding ever lower, and Lin had to swallow back the urge to push him up against the nearest tree. Now was hardly the time to try messing around with her husband practically out in the open. The trees might hide them mostly from sight, but the sun hadn't quite set yet, and it was harder to get away with that kind of stuff now that they had three kids running around the island, not to mention a lot less appealing than it had been when they were younger. They certainly weren't boring in that department, they weren't that old yet, but there were better ways to make their intimacy exciting than up against a tree, which had been painful when they were twenty-three, let alone now that they were in their early forties.
Tenzin's thoughts must have strayed in the same direction, because before Lin could think of how to respond, he said, "Do you remember when we were younger, and we tried so hard to fool around out here, but someone was always showing up at the wrong times. Except for that one night, when our parents thought we were cleaning out the bison stables when really we were…"
Lin snorted, running her hands up and down his back as she recalled the memory. It was a good memory, and her whole body was tingling just thinking about it. "They were stupid if they thought we were really cleaning the stables. We were, what, twenty-four? Twenty-five? We hadn't cleaned that thing out since we were twelve."
Tenzin chuckled. "They wanted to believe we were still innocent, but they must have figured it out when they saw that the stables weren't clean the next morning."
"Nah," Lin said, shaking her head, "I paid an acolyte to do it."
Tenzin tipped his head back and let out a hearty laugh, his chest shaking against Lin's. "Do you think it worked?" he asked when his laughter had died down, a bit breathless, his body still shaking with humor.
"It might have," Lin said wistfully, "if I hadn't run into your mother the next morning."
"Oh?" Tenzin inquired. "I don't think you told me about that…"
"I was too mortified to repeat the experience," Lin muttered. "And you probably would have had a heart attack if I had told you back then."
"Well what happened?" Tenzin questioned impatiently.
Lin batted at a bumble-fly buzzing around her head before responding, "Well, do you remember that shirt I was wearing, the one with the buttons all down the front?"
Tenzin shook his head, brow furrowed, looking thoughtful. "Barely. I'll admit I was focused on other things at the time. Like removing the shirt."
"Oh, you removed it all right." Lin smirked. "When I left in the morning it didn't have buttons left."
Tenzin smiled slyly, appearing to revel in the memory for a moment, and then suddenly it dawned on him, and his eyes widened. "Oh!" he said. "Oh…you're saying my mother saw you and…ohhh."
"I couldn't look Katara in the eye for a week," Lin admitted. "She didn't say anything, of course, but she looked as mortified as I did, and it wasn't difficult to assume what we had been up to. Out all night, alone, and then sees me trying to sneak off the island holding my shirt together with one hand? It was hell trying to get through the city like that."
Tenzin continued to laugh, turning and releasing one of his arms from around Lin's waist as he did so, tugging her close into his side. Then he began to pull her back in the direction of the main house, and Lin slipped her own arm around him, both of them walking at a leisurely pace.
After a few moments, Tenzin's chuckles had faded, and he leaned down so that his mouth brushed lightly against Lin's ear, his breath hot as he murmured, "That shirt your wearing right now? I'd like to rip it apart too."
Lin choked on a snort and murmured back, "I bet you would. I'm tempted to let you."
"Soon, my darling," Tenzin promised. "Soon."
"Don't make promises you can't keep," Lin warned, thinking suddenly of the children and how she and Tenzin often were so exhausted in the evenings, after getting all three kids to sleep, that they passed out half on top of one another, whispering dirty thoughts to one another and exchanging lazy kisses. One of them would pass out before their intimate caresses could become anything meaningful, and the other was often so relieved they'd simply follow the first into slumber. They usually only managed to be intimate when they had Nira babysit the kids or if they were together during the kids' naptime. Lin had started taking long lunches from work just so she could go all the way home during naptime to sneak in a quickie with Tenzin and then run back to the city, but it was difficult to hide how disheveled she was upon her return to the squad room and she didn't like the idea of her men knowing what she was up to at lunch.
"I am an honest man," Tenzin said with a noncommittal shrug, straightening back up to continue their casual walk. "I don't break my promises."
"I'm holding you to that, Airhead," Lin warned with a sly grin.
They turned a corner together, and then they were in view of the main house. Nira had the twins outside on the front porch, not far from the door, and Sokka and Ronen appeared to have just returned as well, Sokka's boomerang…no, Ronen's boomerang, now strapped to the young boy's back.
"Is that Sokka's boomerang?" Tenzin whispered to his wife, voice full of shock.
"It's Ronen's now," was all Lin said in response.
Ronen already appeared more like himself, running right up to meet his little brother and sister when they cheerfully called his name and went toddling in his direction. The sight warmed Lin's heart. She wasn't sure what she and Tenzin were doing right, but she was always amazed by her children and how they were just so good. Seeing how much their three kids loved and protected one another was enough to put Lin in a happy mood no matter what else was going on. She could fight the worst people all day long at work, but when she came home to her family she was reminded that it was all worth it. All the danger, all the misery, it was all worth it to protect her family.
The three kids were still babbling at an impossibly rapid rate when Lin and Tenzin nearly caught up to the group. Nira was closest to the kids, smiling and nodding along and occasionally participating in the conversation. Sokka hung back with Lin and Tenzin for a moment, crossing his arms over his chest and watching the children interact.
Lin waited a few seconds, counting down in her head, hoping the kids wouldn't come running over to their parents and great uncle. Nira appeared to have them well occupied though.
All three of them loved Nira, particularly Yunjin, who clung to the woman's skirts at least seventy-five percent of the time that they were together. Nira was only a few years younger than Lin, but she was still youthful and pretty, so Lin wasn't particularly surprised one of the boys had a crush on her. Whether or not the other two kids had a crush on Nira, Lin couldn't tell.
Ronen was always a lot more subtle in his actions than Yunjin would ever be, and though Lin could often read him quite well, she couldn't yet figure out if he had a romantic bone in his body. He was always sweet and kind, but there never seemed to be any special intent behind it, it was simply his normal state of being, and when he gave people gifts he never made a big to-do. He would often bring his mother and father a flower for each of them, and he would simply smile and walk away without a sound. So when Lin had seen him give Nira a flower she hadn't been sure if it was simply something he did for everyone out of kindness, or if it had a deeper meaning.
Sora was very similar to Ronen in that way, but the girl also wore her heart on her sleeve. She stuck closer to Nira than even Yunjin did, and she would suddenly become very angry with her twin brother if she felt he was getting more attention from Nira. It was odd, because Sora wasn't like that when her parents were focused on one of her brothers, and Lin didn't know if it was simply Sora being thrilled over having another girl around or if she had as much of a crush on Nira as Yunjin did.
Not that any of that mattered, because the twins were three and Ronen was six and none of them probably even knew what they felt about their caretaker. But Lin had learned a lot more about kids over the years, and the way they acted when they were young was very telling of how they would grow up to be. Kya's oldest son, Koda, for example: Lin had always know the boy would be wild, even from the time when he was a baby yanking at her hair, or when he was a toddler and he'd thrown things at her to get her attention. She'd never forget him splashing cold water down her back once he'd started bending, and apparently the boy had still been doing that at fifteen years old to girls he liked. Lin hoped he had grown out of that by now, at age seventeen, but it was hard to tell what the boy had been up to since his mother had left.
While lost in her own musings, Sokka began to speak before Lin could even ask, saying, "Ronen is a good kid. You have nothing to worry about."
"I know he's a good kid," Lin replied, watching the boy they spoke of. "I just want him to know that, and to know that he doesn't need bending for anything."
"I think he knows," Sokka assured her. "He's just struggling to accept it at the moment. I think we had a good talk, and he knows he's welcome to contact me anytime. I also reminded him that the two of you were there for him as well, that just because you were benders didn't mean you wouldn't understand him. I'm certain that you shouldn't have to worry about him too much."
"We'll probably still worry," Tenzin said, turning to face his uncle and then smiling softly. "But thank you, Uncle. We're grateful that you can be here for him. I'm afraid it's one thing we don't really have first hand knowledge of. I never thought to discuss it with Bumi, and with the age difference I don't think I ever noticed anything."
Sokka chuckled lightly. "I remember having a very similar talk when Bumi was around that age. It was a bit like déjà vu having it again with Ronen. I never imagined in all my life that one of the most important things I'd do as a nonbender is comfort my nephews. But I was happy to do it. I only wish I could be closer while Ronen is going through all this."
Lin frowned and turned to face Sokka. "What do you mean? You live right in the city?"
Sokka nodded and then smiled warmly at both Lin and Tenzin. "I'm afraid I won't be staying there much longer. I wanted to speak with you both about it this evening. I've been making plans to retire."
"Retire?" Lin said in surprise, shocked at how saddened she felt by such a simple, normal statement. "Meaning what exactly?"
"I think I've passed on as much knowledge as I can to my staff," Sokka said, sounding a bit wistful, "and it's time for someone new to step in. I'm not as spry as I used to be and, quite frankly, I'm tired. There is good in what we do, but there is a lot of evil to be seen, and a person can only take on so much in one life time."
"I understand that," Lin sighed, "but why will you be leaving? Where will you go?"
Sokka grinned. "Home, of course. I love Republic City, I helped build Republic City, but the Southern Water Tribe is my birthplace, the place that I grew up, before Aang and Toph and everything else. My sister is there, and the young Avatar, whom I'd like to impart some wisdom on before I pass. I think I'll do some brief traveling, on my way, explore some old memories, but ultimately that is where I will go."
"Maybe while you're headed that way you can track down Kya and talk some sense into her," Lin muttered, avoiding, for the moment, the crux of the matter.
Sokka sighed heavily, and Lin felt a twinge of guilt. Sokka and Kya had always been close. It must have been difficult for him to see her making such poor decisions in regards to her family.
"I've seen her a few times since she left," he admitted. "She's been visiting with her kids when Kole allows it. I haven't been able to influence her decisions much, but she does still want to be there for her kids."
Tenzin scoffed quietly in disbelief, but said nothing on his feelings towards his sister.
There was a long moment of silence, during which Lin could only watch her own children from afar, unable to look Sokka in the eye for fear of becoming emotional over his decision to leave. She was happy for him, truly, and understood his decision, but the man was like a father to her and it was difficult to reconcile that he too would be leaving. She knew that she could visit him, that surely he would keep in touch, but it all felt so final.
Tenzin broke the silence, his voice low and full of emotion as he said, "We will miss you dearly, Uncle, but we can certainly understand your decision."
"Don't worry, kids," Sokka teased, "I'm not down for the count yet, just want to spend my remaining years in relaxation."
"You deserve it," Lin said at last, voice a bit rough with suppressed emotion.
"Don't ever hesitate to ask me for help," Sokka said sternly. "You know I'd do anything for you two. And though Republic City has fallen into a bit of disarray since Aang passed, I know you two are the perfect people to put it back in order."
Lin could feel Tenzin shifting uncomfortably beside her, and when she glanced up at him, he had an expression of guilt on his face and a tight frown. Sokka did not notice, his gaze once again focused on Ronen and Sora and Yunjin.
"I'll tell the kids," Sokka said.
"You don't have to," Tenzin tried to protest.
Sokka interjected, "It'll be better coming from me."
He walked off without another word, and after he was several paces away, Lin turned to her husband. She studied him for a moment, and when he remained silent, stroking his beard with a thoughtful look on his face, she said, "You should go back."
Utterly confused, Tenzin turned to face her, brow furrowed as he asked, "Go back where?"
"To work," Lin explained. "I know you miss it, and with Sokka leaving they'll be in need of good help. You can go back to working full time and whip those councilors back into shape."
Tenzin did not immediately disagree, seeming to mull it over before glancing at the kids with Sokka and Nira and saying, "What about the children?"
"They're older now," Lin said dismissively, "less needy…sort of. I'm sure Nira wouldn't mind babysitting full time, we'll pay her better, and there are plenty other Acolytes around that can help out if need be."
"I suppose you're right," Tenzin conceded. "But are you certain? I know you weren't particularly fond of some of your childhood, how you were mostly unsupervised."
Lin swallowed back her instinctive anger, thinking of her mother's lax parenting, her addict birth father's absence, of parenting a little sister that had only rebelled at every turn. But she had also loved her mother, and Sokka had been her real father, and Su had turned out okay even if she had been an absolute pain in Lin's ass.
"It won't be like that," Lin declared. "We can arrange our schedules to make it work, and the kids will be fine. Parents have been working since the dawn of time, they'll manage without us for a few hours each day. Besides, they'll have people to watch them. Ronen won't get stuck raising Jin and Sora."
"You are right, of course," Tenzin murmured, folding his arms across his chest and looking pensive. "As always, dear. And it would be nice to really get back to work."
"Then that's settled," Lin said without further ado. "Sokka will return to the Southern Water Tribe and you will go back to work. We'll adapt to the changes, as we always do."
"Together," Tenzin added, tugging his wife back into his side.
"Together," Lin agreed.
Chapter Text
Chapter 29
Sokka left Republic City two weeks after he had expressed his plans to retire that night on Air Temple Island. Lin and Tenzin were sad to see him go, and Ronen and the twins were devastated, but the family of five were sure to give Sokka a proper goodbye, with a small party Ronen had insisted on and staying up past bedtime the night before Sokka left. In the morning, three tired kids stood by the docks and waved until the ship carrying their Great Uncle Sokka disappeared from view. Sora cried from Tenzin's arms and Ronen buried his face in his mother's side.
Lin couldn't be certain how she felt herself, but it suddenly seemed like the end of an era. Aang and Toph were both gone, and now Sokka and Katara had moved back to the South Pole, where they intended to spend the last years of their life. Republic City no longer had it's creators, and Lin worried that, despite all that she and Tenzin had done to hold up the legacies their parents had created for them, that ultimately they would fail now that all of them had moved on in some way or another. Kya and Bumi and Suyin had little interest in Republic City, so it was up to Lin and Tenzin now to keep it afloat.
Two years after Sokka had left, there was still a relative amount of peace in Republic City. Things were not perfect, but the city hadn't erupted into chaos so far. Tenzin was happy to be back at work full time, even if he did disagree with the majority of the council on an outrageous amount of issues. He often butted heads with the representative for the Northern Water Tribe, Councilman Tarrlok, who's lust for power had only increased since Sokka had left the Council.
Lin, on the other hand, was busy butting heads with the Triads. Despite her best efforts, they seemed only to be expanding. Every time she turned around she had a new problem with another Triad member from at least one of the gangs. She fantasized about quitting some days, of taking Tenzin and the kids and hiding somewhere that no one could find them, just so she'd never have to look at a Triad thug ever again in her life. But alas, those dreams were not to be.
The kids were growing by leaps and bounds. Ronen was eight and starting to sprout up fast. He wasn't tall yet, but he was getting there, with long, skinny arms and legs, just like his father had at that age. But his facial features were looking more and more like his mother's with each passing day. He'd gotten into the habit of reading in various nooks and crannies around the island, partially in an effort to hide from his siblings. He was still building things, but on his own now instead of with his parents help. Nevertheless, Lin and Tenzin still took turns offering to help the boy, knowing that Ronen appreciated them showing an interest, even if he didn't think they were actually any good at helping him. He always looked as though he were straining to hold in frustration when he wasn't entirely in control of the building process, so Tenzin always avoided getting too swept up in helping, while Lin would insist on doing as much as possible just to see Ronen get frustrated. Tenzin claimed she was being sadistic, Lin reasoned that she was teaching her son patience and getting a good laugh at the same time. It was so rare that Ronen got riled up, especially towards his mother, and when he scrunched his face up the same way Tenzin did when he was frustrated, but with Lin's features, she found it highly comical.
At five years old, Sora and Yunjin hadn't changed much. Yunjin was still a wild animal, and even worse now that he was a little bigger and smarter. He was getting better at slipping away from babysitters and causing a whole lot of trouble. He reminded his parents of his Uncle Bumi around that age, and Lin very nearly prayed to the spirits everyday that he would grow out of it. She remembered teenage Bumi all too well, and she had zero desire to repeat that portion of her life.
Sora, at least, wasn't following her twin brother into trouble as much. She seemed to be maturing already, berating her brother when he got into mischief around her and all too often giving her parents exasperated looks when they said things she seemed to find rather dull. Nowadays she preferred to spend her time playing with dolls instead of her brothers, and begging Nira to put makeup on her. The latter was a point of contention between Lin and Sora, who could compromise over nearly everything except the makeup. Lin wasn't sure how she'd managed to raise a girl obsessed with dresses and makeup, but the next time she saw Su she'd be sure to blame her.
Life for the family of five was certainly never dull, but they'd been fortunate enough not to be involved in any disasters. Lin hadn't been injured on the job beyond some scrapes and bruises in a record breaking stretch of time, and the kids hadn't broken any limbs so far. Katara and Sokka were both well, as were Lin and Tenzin's siblings, and Avatar Korra hadn't been discovered or attacked in the secret compound that had been built to protect her. Republic City still had its issues, but no major hysteria had ensued anytime recently. Tenzin thought they had found peace at last, but Lin wasn't going to hold her breath. Nevertheless, she was starting to relax, lured into a place of contentment with family and work…
And then suddenly terror struck to remind them of their mortality.
Lin was at work when it happened, seated casually at her desk, while Jeia rattled off facts and figures pertaining to the budget meeting coming up. Lin was trying very hard to pay attention, focused instead on how great of an idea it had been to promote Jeia to first Lieutenant.
Jeia was the youngest person besides Lin to ever be promoted so quickly. The girl had only joined the metalbending police three years prior, at the age of eighteen, but she had proven herself time and again. She was every bit like Lin in terms of grit and determination, and she persevered through every obstacle until she had risen to the top. She had been a simple rookie at the beginning, taking phone calls and doing grunt work, but the girl hadn't complained or even looked unhappy, and Lin had seen the potential in her from early on. Soon enough Lin had decided to take Jeia on as a protégé, and the girl hadn't backed down from a single challenge Lin presented her with. So Lin had made the girl first Lieutenant, one of the highest ranks in the force, behind only Lin, Saikhan, and two other senior officers. Jeia now worked directly with Lin on a plethora of issues, and it made Lin's life a whole lot easier. Jeia was just as good at doing paper work as she was at catching bad guys.
It was as Lin was mulling this over that the door to her office flung open, nearly slamming into the wall, but stopping only a hairs breadth away when Saikhan's hand just managed to stop it. Lin rose halfway up out of her seat in surprise, as Saikhan slammed the door closed and strode straight to her. When he reached the front of her desk, he paused for half a second to glance at Jeia, seeming to just realize that the girl was there, and then his focus was back on Lin and his expression was grim.
Lin could feel her jaw tighten as if awaiting a blow to the face, knowing that whatever Saikhan was about to tell her wouldn't be good news.
"Chief," he said gruffly, "I just got a call from Song. He's on his way to the courthouse. Was your husband at work today?"
It was so specific and so out of the blue that Lin's stomach immediately dropped to her toes, her mind racing with all the possible scenarios that could have put her Deputy into such a state. If Officer Song was headed to the courthouse where Tenzin worked then something had happened, and if something had happened and no one knew where Tenzin was, then it was simple to assume that he'd been caught up in the mess.
"He was," Lin confirmed, her voice strained and her muscles clenching up, her whole body preparing for one huge punch. "What's happened?"
"Agni Kai," Saikhan grumbled bitterly. "They orchestrated an attack on the Air Acolytes division of the Council. Things are still hectic there, but…" Saikhan paused, looking hesitant to continue, and it was all Lin needed to know that things were bad. Saikhan didn't hesitate.
"Tell me," Lin demanded, clenching her hands around the edge of her desk.
"There are two bodies," Saikhan said at last. "Unidentified. They're getting the fire under control so they're still recovering people."
Lin flinched, but otherwise did not react. Internally, her thoughts were screaming and her gut was constricted, but she held it all in for now. She had other things she needed to do, and she vowed not to lose her mind until she knew one way or another what had happened to her husband.
She turned to Jeia first, composure of steel as she told the young Lieutenant, "Get two officers you trust most and go straight to Air Temple Island. In case this was just a decoy for something bigger and something did happen to my husband, I need someone protecting our kids. They're the last three people that carry the Airbending gene. Keep in contact. You know what to do if things go sour here."
"Yes, Chief," Jeia responded dutifully, nodding once and then hastening out of Lin's office without needing to be told.
Lin turned to Saikhan then, and ordered, "Put all our officers on high alert. Send out patrols and shut down the docks. If this isn't an isolated incident I don't want anyone getting in or out. If anything else happens we'll need to call in support." By now Lin was striding around her desk and in the direction of the door. As she was passing Saikhan she said, "I'm going to see what's going on at the court house, you can handle things here?"
"Yes, Chief," Saikhan called out to her retreating form, "go find Councilman Tenzin, everything will be under control when you get back."
Lin kept going then, and she didn't stop until she was out of the building, three blocks down the road, and just feet away from the charred section of the building that had once housed her husband's office. The fire had been contained to that one side, so that most of the building still stood, but waterbenders and earthbenders alike were still working to snuff out the last of the flames. Some of Lin's officers on the scene were helping, while others stood with a few detained members of the Agni Kai Triad. Lin recognized a couple of the criminals as repeat offenders, but she bypassed all of them, going straight to where a few wounded were surrounded by healers.
She scanned the faces of each of them as she drew closer, but she didn't see Tenzin, and off to the side she could see two bodies being tended to by a single healer. Both bodies were covered by sheets, but she could see the charred remains of Acolyte clothes on one of them, and Lin's feet faltered for just a moment. She couldn't tell if it was Tenzin from a distance, and the one limb sticking out from under the sheet was too charred to determine whether or not there had been those distinctive arrow tattoos there or not.
Part of her didn't want to look, but she also wanted – no, needed – to look. She needed to know one way or another. Either her husband was dead or she was going to be fighting her way through fire to try and find him. So she forced her legs to move even though they had seized up, and she swallowed down the bile rising in her throat as the scent of burnt flesh hit her nose. She nodded once to the healer that was crouched by the other body, the body that wasn't so charred, the one that Lin could clearly see was not her husband. And then she knelt down next to the body dressed in Air Nomad garb, and she hesitated long enough to force back the anguish brimming at the surface, threatening to tear her apart, eager to cripple her should Tenzin be dead.
She ripped back the sheet and instantly collapsed the rest of the way to the ground, her whole body sagging. It was not the face of her husband beneath the cloth, and she felt simultaneous relief and guilt. Someone's family had lost a loved one that day, and Lin didn't know what she would have done if it had been Tenzin lying beneath that sheet. She thought of their three kids, who were still so young and loved their father so very much, and how grief stricken they would be to lose him. She thought of what her own grief would be, to lose her life long best friend and husband and father of her children, and of caring for those children without him, suppressing her own emotions for their sakes. Of all the things she'd overcome in life she didn't know if she'd overcome that.
She inhaled a shaky breath, and then carefully replaced the sheet over the body. She rose on unsteady legs, straightening up and pulling back her shoulders, recovering a sense of calm and collectedness. It wouldn't do for her to be losing her mind.
She went to the spot where rescue crews were rushing in and out of the smoldering building. Officer Song was there, ensuring no one out of the ordinary was going in, and keeping track of who came out. Lin strode straight to him and asked him about Tenzin.
"I haven't seen him so far, Chief," Song said regrettably. "There are a couple of people still in there. He could be helping the rescue teams."
Lin wanted to believe that, that her brave, noble husband was simply refusing to leave the burning building until he knew that all of his people were out and safe. It was something that Tenzin absolutely would have done, but she was a pessimist, or a realist, and she really couldn't bear to think too much about it one way or another.
She attempted to go inside, to search the fiery building until she found her husband, but Song stopped her saying, "I'm sorry, Chief, but you really can't go in there."
Lin narrowed her eyes at him, disbelief on her face as she replied, "Are you going to stop me?"
Song gulped audibly, shifting uncomfortably under her penetrating gaze, but he stood his ground. "I have to, Chief. You wouldn't allow one of us to endanger our lives to go in there after our own family members. You'd tell us to leave it to the professionals, to think of the people we've got waiting for us at home."
Lin had thought about that, about her three kids that needed protected at all costs, but she also thought of how much they needed their father.Tenzin was the glue that held them all together. Without him, Lin wasn't certain that her parenting would ever be enough for them. It could very well be too late for Tenzin, but if there was any chance that he was alive and he hadn't yet been found then Lin had to at least try.
"That's noble of you, Song," Lin muttered, "but get out of my way."
"Chief –"
There was movement just behind Song, and the sound of deep, hacking coughs. And then three soot covered figures were emerging from the smoke, and Lin squinted, searching for recognizable features.
The first person to emerge was one of the rescue squad, a male waterbender, by the looks of him, and he was between two others, supporting both of them, half carrying one while the other leaned heavily on him.
And then the three of them stepped out into the sunlight and Lin could see exactly who they were. On the right was a short woman, dark hair and glasses askew. She was Jun, Tenzin's secretary, half unconscious, feet dragging the ground, chest heaving with every wheezing breath. And on the left was a tall man, bald, with an arrow tattoo up his forehead and across his scalp, down his neck. He was coughing and limping and his eyes were half shut, but he was alive.
Tenzin.
Lin pushed past Song and rushed over to the three figures. She nodded at the waterbender and called over the noise, "I've got him," just as she swooped underneath Tenzin's other arm to steady his weight against her. The waterbender was able to take Jun's full weight then, and promptly lifted the injured secretary into his arms, carrying her quickly over to the healers. Lin ushered Tenzin away from the blaze before he came to a stop.
"I'm okay," he gasped out, coughing immediately after. Lin looked him over, and he wasn't bleeding or broken as far as she could tell, simply covered in ash and his clothes charred around the edges. He was heaving for air, but he went still for a moment, closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and when he exhaled a small cloud of smoke was forced from his lungs and out of his mouth. When he breathed again it sounded much more normal, and he was able to straighten up, his eyes opening. "See?" he said. "All better."
Lin scowled and thumped him on the shoulder.
Tenzin flinched. "Ow," he said, rubbing at his shoulder. "What was that for?"
"For scaring the shit out of me, Airhead!" Lin admonished, thinking now of how she had foolishly jumped to the worst conclusion, of the dead body she'd feared to be her husband's. She forgot sometimes that Tenzin was an Airbending Master, trained by Avatar Aang himself. It was doubtful that he would be taken down by a couple of Agni Kai thugs. Then again, her mother had been a renowned fighter and she'd been taken down very suddenly by similar foe.
"I am sorry, my love," Tenzin said sincerely, reaching out without another word to pull her into his embrace.
Lin allowed it for a second or two, but disentangled herself from it quickly, despite wanting to tug him closer and hold on for a while. Now wasn't the time for this, especially when she was the Chief of Police.
"What happened here?" she demanded of him. Not "are you okay?" "how did you survive?" "I love you so much."
Tenzin was unfazed, just as much accustomed to putting facts before emotions as she was. He sighed heavily, though. "Agni Kai extremists," he explained. "Think the world would have been better off without Aang or the Acolytes, or any Airbender for that matter."
Before he could go on, the two of them were surrounded by officers and media and Council members. Councilman Tarrlok pushed his way to the front, all full of ego and false charm, loudly saying, "Give them some room!" He puffed out his chest, postulating, his expression false sympathy as he looked at Lin and Tenzin. "Chief Beifong, Councilman Tenzin, please forgive the intrusion, but we must know all that we can about this disaster. Tenzin, it is so good to see you alive and well. We were all so very worried…" Lin had to bite the inside of her cheek very hard to keep from snorting her disbelief. Tarrlok cared for no one but himself.
Lin ignored the Northern Water Tribe man and turned to one of her nearby officers. "Get the media back," Lin ordered. "I'll give a statement after we sort this mess out."
"Yes, Chief," her officer replied, and he and two others went to round up the media elsewhere.
Lin returned her attention to Tenzin and Tarrlok. The Fire and Earth Nation representatives and one Air Acolyte were there as well, all of them watching, waiting, listening.
Tenzin was telling them about the extremists, while Lin was eyeing Tarrlok with barely concealed distaste, and then Tenzin said, "I had been receiving some death threats –"
"Wait," Lin interrupted, turning her scowl on her husband. "What? What death threats? The Agni Kai were sending you death threats? When? Why wasn't I aware of this?"
"It was just a few times," Tenzin said, waving a hand dismissively, as if it wasn't a big deal, as if death threats were an ordinary thing. "There was no reason to concern you over insignificant threats –"
"Clearly they weren't so insignificant!" Lin fired back, riled up even more by Tenzin's blasé attitude on the whole thing. How could he have kept such a thing from her? How could she not have known that her husband was receiving death threats? How, as Chief of Police, had she not been made aware that a Councilman's life was being threatened?
"Dear, oh dear," Tarrlok tsked, and suddenly Lin realized that they had an audience while she was coming to the realization that she had missed a very important thing. She was immediately both enraged and humiliated.
"Oh forget it," Lin huffed, waving both arms to halt whatever garbage was about to come out of Tarrlok's mouth. She pivoted on her heel and stomped away from the group before she could give the media anymore fuel, calling over her shoulder as she went, "I've got work to do."
And so she did.
She went first to the dying flames, finally under some semblance of control. She spoke with several of her officers and a couple of the rescue personnel, ascertaining the situation and doling out responsibilities. She then went to the Airship standing by, where there was a higher frequency radio that she used to check in with Lieutenant Jeia, who was on Air Temple Island with Lin and Tenzin's children. There had been no attacks so far, and the kids were fine, but worried, apparently not believing Jeia's reassurances. Jeia wasn't good with kids, but she was great at protecting them, and Lin knew that Nira would take care of the three of them. Lin talked to Ronen and the twins for a few minutes to reassure them that she and their father were all right, but she had to say goodbye sooner than they wanted. She would make it up to them later, but she couldn't simply tell them over the radio that their father almost burned in a fire.
Afterwards, Lin radioed Saikhan, who reported that there had been no further disturbances from the Agni Kai or any other Triads. Lin told him to stay alert, that she would be back later to relieve him, after she'd helped out with the rescue efforts and made a quick trip home.
Tenzin was still busy giving his report when Lin went to give support in smothering the residual flames and searching for anyone that hadn't yet gotten out. In the end, there were three fatalities – one of them Agni Kai, one an Acolyte, and the other a civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time – and several severe injuries, but everyone was accounted for. There still hadn't been any further attacks, and it appeared as though the extremists had been working alone. Lin wasn't relaxing yet, but she considered it less of a catastrophe than it could have been.
Once assured that the scene was being examined, the injured and dead had been transferred to the hospital, the Agni Kai were at the prison, the flames had petered out, and everything else was under control, only then did Lin start the trip back to Air Temple Island to check on the kids. She trusted Jeia and Nira, but she had to know for herself that the Island and her kids were secure.
Tenzin must have finished with his reports and interviews and saw her leaving the scene, because she hadn't made it far before he caught up to her. They went in silence to the docks, and were silent still during the boat ride across the Bay.
It wasn't until they set foot on the Island that Tenzin demanded, "Are you going to tell me why you're angry with me or am I meant to guess?"
Lin didn't hesitate for even a second, whirling on him with fury as she spat, "You made me look like a fool out there! You completely blindsided me!"
Tenzin seemed about to roll his eyes, but thought better of it and simply blew out a breath through his nose before responding, "In what way? Because I didn't tell you about some baseless threats? In case you've forgotten, Lin, we've been receiving death threats for most of our lives."
"We've also been honest with one another our whole lives, and we used to tell each other everything," Lin countered. "Instead, my husband survives an attempt on his life and I had no idea he was even in more danger than usual. Not to mention the fact that I'm the Chief of Police, who failed in her duty to protect a highly important political figure!"
"Is that what this is about?" Tenzin scoffed. "You're embarrassed that your career image might suffer?"
Lin did roll her eyes, a growl forming in the back of her throat as she shoved past Tenzin and stalked away.
"So that's that then?" Tenzin called to her retreating form, sounding disgruntled.
"I'm going to check on our kids," Lin barked. "You know, to make sure my career is intact!"
Lin said no more, and Tenzin followed her back up to the main house at a distance, just as silent.
Lin reached the house first, passing one of her officers on the way and sensing another close by, but out of sight, both of them keeping an eye on the area in case of outside attack. Jeia, of course, would be with the children and their babysitter Nira, in case of attackers from within. If someone were to infiltrate the Air Acolytes and pose as one of them, they could more easily get to the children. It was unlikely, considering all the fail-safes Lin had put in place back when Ronen was just a baby, but it was still possible. And Jeia would be the one to get the kids off of the Island if ever things went sour.
Lin didn't even fully make it to the front door before Yunjin came barreling out, Sora right on his heels and Ronen trailing close behind. Jeia came sprinting after them, calling them back into the safety of the house, several weapons drawn and her eyes rapidly scanning their surroundings. Upon seeing her Chief, she did not relax, keeping her guard up and staying close by, only further proving herself as the best one suited to protecting the three descendants of the only living Airbending Master.
Satisfied, Lin turned her attention to her kids, who were calling for her, just in time to catch Yunjin and Sora as they slammed into her knees.
"Mama!" the twins chorused.
"You're back!" Sora cried tearfully.
"Why is Jeia here?" Yunjin demanded.
"What's going on?" Ronen questioned in a softer tone, finally catching up and not crashing into his mother.
"Everything is fine now," Lin told them, wiping a tear from Sora's cheek – the girl was tearful over everything, her heart so full of love and compassion –, patting Yunjin on the back, and briefly locking gazes with Ronen. "Some bad people started a fire in the City and I was worried, that's all."
"Started a fire where?" Ronen asked with suspicion, always the perceptive one.
"What bad men?" Sora added.
"Did you kick bad guy butt, Mama?" Yunjin questioned with wide eyes, too full of interest for Lin's liking. The boy would be a fighter most likely. The Airbending pacifism wasn't rubbing off on him so far.
"The bad men have been taken away," Lin confirmed. "They won't be setting anymore fires."
"Why did they set the fire?" Ronen persisted.
"They were trying to hurt me," a deep voice said from behind Lin, and she ground her teeth together to keep from snapping at her husband. The kids were too young, in her opinion, but if Tenzin thought they needed to know then she wasn't going to counter that, even if she was pissed at him.
The kids lit up at the sight of their father just as they had for their mother, and they detached from Lin to go running into his embrace as well. Lin remained where she was. If Tenzin wanted to tell them what was going on he would do it himself.
"Why were the bad men trying to hurt you, Daddy?" Sora asked with a frown.
Despite the fact that the twins were getting too big to be held, Tenzin still bent down a bit to lift Sora up into his arms. The girl was still rather tiny, so it wasn't too difficult for him considering his height, but he must still have been aching from the attack because Lin could see him straining, where before he never had. Nevertheless, he managed to keep Sora in one arm and used the other to bring the boys close to him, sighing quietly as he explained, "There are some people in the world that simply want to cause problems for everyone else, to hurt other people even, and then there are a few who are even worse than that. The bad people that started the fire today wanted to hurt me because I am the last Airbending Master. However, there were people that helped keep me safe, very good people, and that is why your mother sent Lieutenant Jeia, to make sure all of you were safe. You do not have to worry. The bad people will go to jail now and I am unharmed, and your mother and I will always keep the three of you safe."
"I can keep you safe too, Dad!" Yunjin proclaimed, looking very serious.
Tenzin smiled, but Lin could see the furrow in his brow. "I'm sure you can, son," Tenzin said softly, "but let your mother and I do the protecting for now, okay?"
Yunjin neither agreed with nor denied his father's request, simply shrugging in response.
"You sure you're okay now, Daddy?" Sora mumbled, cuddling as close to him as possible.
"Absolutely," Tenzin assured her. "Everything is all right now, Princess, nothing to worry about."
"Are you staying home the rest of the night?" Ronen asked, looking between both parents. All three kids looked at Tenzin and Lin with hopeful expressions.
"Stay!" Sora frantically insisted.
Tenzin looked as if he was about to say no, but Lin cut him off, answering for him as she said, "Your father is, but I have to run back into the city to make sure everything is being taken care of. I should be back by dinner." Tenzin seemed unhappy with her making such a decision for him, but he didn't argue, and Lin astutely ignored his piercing gaze.
All three kids instantly went back to Lin, hugging and kissing her goodbye. Sora was still crying, clinging to her mother now and fearful of letting her go. After several minutes of Lin and Tenzin reassuring the girl that Lin would be safe, Ronen still had to bribe Sora with playing her favorite game while Lin was gone.
Eventually Lin escaped, and she took Jeia with her back to the city, leaving behind the two other officers Jeia had brought earlier. Saikhan had most everything in order, and after some investigations, talking with the media, and a ton of paperwork, Lin finally made it back home. She relieved the two officers for the rest of the night and was back at the main house just in time for dinner. Sora was waiting close by the door and ran outside to greet her mother.
It wasn't until after dinner and putting the kids to bed that Lin and Tenzin finally spoke to one another.
It took forever to get the kids to sleep after the day they'd had, especially Sora, who hadn't wanted to part from her parents. They were worried, having known all along that Lin and Tenzin were often in situations that might be dangerous, but never having had to experience a situation where they ever really needed to be concerned about it. Sora begged to sleep in their bed, but after some coaxing and Yunjin promising to protect her, the little girl settled for just having Lin and Tenzin sit by her bedside until she fell asleep.
After creeping out of the twins' room, Lin took her time readying for bed, and then took another lap around the house to make sure everything was as it should be, and checked that the two White Lotus night guards were in their usual place, until finally she was forced to face her husband.
Tenzin was already in bed when Lin settled beneath the covers, but he was sitting up, bedside lamp on, clearly waiting for her.
He waited until she was sitting beside of him, arms crossed tight over her chest and the silence oppressing before he quietly said, "I am sorry, Lin. I know I must have worried you. You were right. I should have told you."
It was what she had wanted to hear and yet it didn't soothe her as she'd expected. Not because she wanted him to beg forgiveness longer, but because it didn't change the fact that she had almost lost him. It didn't change the fact that she had spent several minutes of her day thinking that he was dead, thinking that the fire had consumed him. And she hadn't had any inkling that the Agni Kai extremists were even threatening him in the first place, and everyone else knew she hadn't either. But she didn't care that the newspaper was likely to report on the story tomorrow and point out that the Chief of Police hadn't known her own husband was in danger. She had been dealing with ridiculous press most of her life. What she cared about was that, if it was so easy for something like death threats to slip under her nose, then what else could she have missed? What else would she miss in the future? What if it was Ronen or Yunjin or Sora one day? What if they, too, decided not to tell her their lives were in danger and were not as capable of surviving an attack?
Lin said none of this, and yet, somehow, Tenzin managed to read the entire thing on her face. He reached out without words at first, tugging her close so that she was pressed against his chest, one of his hands stroking her back and the other curled around the back of her neck in a loose but soothing grip. He still smelled like smoke and ash and fire, but underneath all that, he was still distinctly him. That comforting scent that she'd known for so long, airy and light like a cool summer breeze. For her it brought love and light and joy.
"I'll never keep anything like that from you again," he swore, in such a low voice she hardly heard him, his chin bumping into the top of her head and his breath hot against her skin. "There may be other attacks, we can't ever fully stop those, but we can be more vigil, stop them before they can happen, be better prepared for it. And nothing and no one will ever get to our kids so long as I live. I'll leave this city with all of you before I'll let anyone hurt them. I swear it, Lin."
That probably wasn't entirely true, considering that Lin and Tenzin always had the terrible habit of fixing everyone else's problems first and worrying about their own later, of sticking to a certain course because their parents had wanted it, because their parents legacies were at stake, because they wanted the world to be safe for their children and they worried what would happen if they left everything behind. Nevertheless, it was still strangely comforting to hear, and Lin decided there was no reason to stay mad at him, no reason to say anything else on the matter. She simply unfurled her folded arms and wrapped them tight around her husband's form, grateful beyond words that he was still very much alive.
Chapter Text
Chapter 30
Two years later..
When Sora and Yunjin turned seven, there was a small celebration on Air Temple Island with just Lin, Tenzin, Ronen, and a few Acolytes with young kids of similar age. Suyin and her clan hadn't been able to make it, but promised to visit in a few months, and sent a mountain of gifts that Lin was tempted to send back. She argued that the kids didn't need more than what they had already received, but Tenzin insisted that it would be rude to both Su and the twins. Lin didn't particularly care if she was being rude, and fully intended to send everything back to her show off of a sister, but Yunjin had spotted the loot before she'd even had a chance. He and Sora had swooped down upon it and that was the end of that. Trying to pry the gifts from their tiny hands would have been too cruel for Lin, not to mention a headache she had no desire to receive. So the twins kept the gifts and Su received two very different letters. One from Tenzin that was full of gratitude and love from the children, and talk of how much the twins loved everything. And then one from Lin, which essentially said, "Fuck you."
Nevertheless, Lin would have taken Su's extravagant gifts twenty times over Kya and Bumi's.
The twins' party had started to spiral down around late afternoon. The Acolytes and their children had left, and the family of five had a quiet dinner together before going back out to enjoy the warm evening outside.
A few yards out in the courtyard, Yunjin was sharing some of his new toys with Ronen and Tenzin. While the boys played, Lin lay reclined in an outdoor chair, eyes closed, Sora curled up against her side. Lin idly stroked her daughter's long, silky brown hair – a lot like Katara's had been when Lin was little – and Sora played quietly with two of her new dolls. It had been a long, exhausting day, and Lin was happy to feel so relaxed and at peace.
Until suddenly she heard one of the boys cry out something from a distance. She thought for certain that it must be Ronen, but he did not sound in peril or hurt. Though she could not make out what he said, he sounded gleeful, so there was no immediate cause for concern.
And then Sora lurched up, the chair creaking loudly with the movement. A rush of air washed over Lin as she felt Sora propelling herself away from her mother's side, shrieking as she did so, "Uncle Bumi! Aunt Kya!"
Lin's blood ran cold, and she lurched upwards too, just in time to see Tenzin looking straight at her, so much anger and surprise in his eyes that she knew at once that he hadn't an inkling that his siblings would be showing up.
Ronen, Yunjin, and Sora rushed to greet Kya and Bumi, while Lin went straight to Tenzin, who was staring at his siblings with poorly hidden displeasure, teeth gritted as he seethed, "What are they doing here?"
"Making it impossible to get the kids to bed," Lin muttered, almost equally annoyed. At least Suyin had the decency to warn them before showing up. Kya and Bumi liked to pop up at the most inopportune times, wreak havoc, and then leave a mess behind to move onto whatever else it was they did.
Tenzin kept in touch with his brother mostly regularly these days. As for his sister, Tenzin had been doing a very good job of avoiding her for years, ever since the twins were born. Lin had allowed a few brief visits when Kya was in town. She would take the kids into the city to see their aunt so that Tenzin didn't have to get all riled up about seeing his sister. Lin didn't particularly care for Kya's life decisions either, but she wasn't as angry over it as Tenzin. And if the kids wanted to see their aunt, well…Lin had reconciled with the sister she'd loathed for over a decade for Ronen's sake, so she wasn't likely to deny the three of them much else.
"I want her off of this island," Tenzin spat, and Lin was surprised by just how angry he sounded. "How dare she show up here, unannounced, as if time has forgiven everything? Who does she think she is?"
Lin couldn't help it when faced with such irony. She snorted, half laugh, half irritation. "She must have gotten some pointers from Su."
Tenzin only looked confused, too full of rage towards his own sister to think of Suyin trying to come back into Lin's life after more than a decade without contact.
Lin sighed and grasped his elbow tightly. "Look," she said, "we can't kick them off the island right this second, now that they're here. The kids would throw a fit. We'll let them spend the next hour or two with the kids before bedtime. Then, in the morning, after breakfast, they can go stay somewhere in the city."
"Bumi can stay," Tenzin muttered. "I want her gone tonight."
Lin suppressed her frustration, thinking back to all the times Tenzin had had to deal with her outbursts towards Su. "Don't be spiteful, Tenzin," she told him. "That's my job. It doesn't look right on you. I'll take care of it, all right? You won't even have to speak to her while she's here."
"She abandoned her own family," Tenzin continued to argue, still glaring at his sister from afar. "I don't want her in and out of our kids lives. She can't just come and go as she pleases. It's been more than a year since she's even bothered to ask about them."
"I know," Lin said, "but the kids want to see her. She doesn't have to stay long."
Tenzin said no more on the matter, but Lin could hear him grinding his teeth. He was clenching his fists and shifting his weight restlessly from one foot to the other. He looked like he was about to either storm off in a huff, or stomp straight up to his sister and give her a piece of his mind.
Thankfully, he did neither. He stood back while Lin ushered the kids and Kya and Bumi inside, but as Kya was about to pass him, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. Bumi was busy trying to carry all three kids inside at one time and kept going. Lin, on the other hand, tensed up, skidding to a halt just a few feet from her husband and sister-in-law.
She had to strain to hear Tenzin hissing, "I want you off of this island by morning."
Kya hesitated when confronted with her brother's very real fury, but then she laughed, wriggling her arm free as she said, "Relax, Tenzin. I'm here to see my niece and nephews, not steal your wife." She turned her head to wink at Lin before adding, "We got that out of our systems a long time ago." She yanked her arm completely free and hurried to catch up with Bumi and the kids, slapping Lin directly on the ass as she passed by.
Tenzin stared at his wife in wide eyed astonishment, looking ready to blow a gasket as he spluttered, "What is she talking about?!"
Lin rolled her eyes. "She's trying to get a rise out of you. And it's working. Don't listen to her nonsense, just relax. It's one night. If I can put up with Su for a week at a time you can handle Kya for one night." She walked up to Tenzin to place a soothing hand on his cheek, forcing him to look her in the eye. "Come on, Tenzin. Don't do it for me, do it for the kids."
Tenzin seemed ready to argue – she was using the kids against him and he knew it – but then his shoulders slumped, all of the fight draining out of him. "Fine, but I want them gone tomorrow."
"Of course, dear," Lin said with a fake, sickeningly sweet smile. She patted him none too gently on the cheek and then dragged him into the house.
Tenzin only managed to stand being around Kya and Bumi for about twenty minutes before he made an excuse to go to his in-home office and finish up some "very important" work. Lin didn't call him out on it because it was better than him sulking around muttering snide comments about Kya under his breath.
So Lin kept an eye on the kids while they happily reconnected with their aunt and uncle, and Tenzin hid in his office reading a book. The kids stayed up an hour past bedtime before Lin insisted it was time to sleep, and she still had to force Kya and Bumi to go elsewhere. Yunjin kept trying to climb up Bumi's back and Sora was playing with Kya's hair and Ronen kept asking questions that would send Bumi into a retelling of the longest most extravagant tales Lin had ever heard. Even once Kya and Bumi had kissed the kids goodnight and traveled into the city for a night of drinking, the kids didn't want to settle. They were hyper and excited and chattering rapidly, and Lin endured it up until they started jumping on beds.
She was on the verge of losing it, because she loved her kids more than anything, but when they were being loud and rambunctious and totally non-compliant her stress levels shot through the roof. Normally she could have them run the energy off outside, but it was the middle of the night and they really needed to go to sleep. It wasn't often she ever had to put them to bed on her own, let alone when they were like that. She wanted very badly to curse Tenzin out for abandoning her so he could hide from his sister like a child, but she thought of all the times she'd gone to work and left him with the kids when Su came to town, and she forced herself to breathe deeply through her nose, praying for patience.
The kids were normally very compliant, so Lin did not often have to raise her voice when putting them to bed. So when she finally had enough and demanded they settle down, that Kya and Bumi would still be there in the morning, they dropped back down on their beds without further argument. They looked at her then with such guilty expressions she almost felt bad about it. She kissed them each on the tops of their heads and warned them not to be up all night chattering. All three kids wanted to sleep in the same room that night, so she would let them, but they would not be up all night causing a raucous. She could hear them whispering rapidly to one another as she left the room, but they didn't start squealing again so she considered it a win.
She found Tenzin in his study, half asleep in the chair behind his desk, and ushered him off to bed too. She made certain to sleep well that night, knowing the next day would likely be just as exhausting.
And she wasn't wrong.
The kids were up before dawn, the twins rousing Tenzin for once, eager to get morning meditation over with so they could be back in time for breakfast with Kya and Bumi. They were sorely disappointed when neither their aunt or uncle were awake by the time breakfast was served, but Lin, being the caring mother that she was, allowed them to go wake Kya and Bumi so they wouldn't sleep until noon. Lin even told them they could be as loud as they liked to get Tenzin's siblings out of bed, although she acted surprised when Kya and Bumi came stumbling into the dining room looking severely hungover and sleep deprived, not to mention glaring daggers at Lin and Tenzin for letting Ronen and the twins wake them in such a manner. Lin, at least, was better at hiding her amusement than Tenzin was.
Shortly after breakfast though, Tenzin was back to being unhappy about Kya's presence, and Kya was still ignoring his desire for her to leave, so Lin decided enough was enough.
She approached Tenzin, who was standing by the window inside, watching Kya and Bumi playing with the kids out in the courtyard. He was glaring again, as if he did it long enough his sister might disappear.
Lin simply told him, "Why don't you go to work?"
Tenzin startled, too busy with his own thoughts to notice her approaching. He turned to look at her with confusion, although he clearly hadn't misheard her. "What?" he asked.
"Go to work," Lin repeated. "I'll handle everything here."
Tenzin looked tempted, but he shook his head and refuted, "I don't want to leave you stuck here with them."
He looked back out at Kya and Bumi, disgust plain on his features.
"Go," Lin insisted, even making a shooing motion with her hands. "I can handle Kya and Bumi for a day. I've dealt with them plenty of times. Besides, they like me better."
She smirked at him teasingly, but it was a testament to how unhappy he was to have his siblings there when he could only grimace slightly in response. They had joked about it before, but it was rather close to the truth. Tenzin had almost never gotten along with Kya or Bumi except for a few moments in their younger lives when they really needed each other. There was a lot of resentment among the three of them, and Tenzin had been even more serious as a child than Lin, which was the exact opposite from how his siblings acted.
There had been a period of time, shortly after Suyin was born, that Lin had been acting out and getting into a lot of mischief with Bumi, so she'd bonded with him in a way Tenzin never had. As for Kya, she and Lin had at first come together because they were the only two young girls in the "family" – Izumi was too far away and Su was too young – and girls had to stick together, especially two girls from popular parents with more legacies than they cared to have. Not to mention that Toph was atrocious at having serious conversations most of the time, and Lin hadn't had much in the way of friends outside of Tenzin and his siblings, so she had to get information on being a teenager from someone. Kya had looked out for Lin, had been only too happy to impart her wisdom on the younger girl. Perhaps that was why Lin could not be as enraged by the sight of Kya as Tenzin thought she ought to be. She was angry with Kya's choices, but she couldn't simply forget the years that had come before. Yet she could understand her husband's inability to forgive and forget in this instance. So she would let him go to work and escape his siblings, and she would try to talk Kya and Bumi into making themselves scarce before Tenzin got home.
"Are you absolutely certain?" Tenzin asked her, reaching out to squeeze her arm, a gesture of thanks, even if she didn't mean it.
"I'm certain," she promised. "The island will still be in one piece when you return and you won't have to work yourself into a frenzy over this."
"You're sure you won't have to go into work today?"
She shrugged, unconcerned. "I doubt it. Between Jeia and Saikhan I could probably take a month off and no one besides them would even notice I was gone. There hasn't been anything major in a while."
"Still no sign of concern over the nonbender meetings?" Tenzin questioned, all business, seeming to forget his sulking for a moment.
There had been a few reports of underground meetings between some nonbenders, and a few small incidents that the police had broken up without serious injury. So far there appeared to be no real threat or concern that the nonbenders would form their own malicious triad. It seemed that they were just ordinary, frustrated people getting together to complain, but Lin was keeping an eye on the situation all the same.
She shook her head. "Nothing more so far. If anything changes I'll be the first to know. Now, go to work. I've got this covered."
Tenzin sighed, relenting at last. "Very well. I shall see you tonight then?"
"I'll be here," Lin confirmed. "I'll see what I can do about getting them to leave the island tonight."
"Thank you," Tenzin said, with a wealth of sincerity.
He hurriedly kissed her goodbye and then went outside to say goodbye to the kids, who barely reacted, too enthralled by Kya and Bumi's antics.
Lin spent the rest of the day chasing Kya, Bumi, and the kids around the island, mostly to keep an eye on them, but she also got dragged into the chaos a few times. When the twins begged to take a ride on one of the sky bison, Lin had put her foot down. She had never been entirely comfortable with flying when Tenzin or Aang weren't around or she didn't have her metal cables strapped to her back. She could fly Oogi if necessary, but she avoided it most of the time, and she knew Kya and Bumi had grown up on the backs of bison as much as Tenzin, but she wasn't sure she trusted their old skills with her children's lives.
However, Kya and Bumi overruled her, each of them picking out a bison and taking a twin each, and then beckoning Ronen and Lin to pick a winner. Lin had still been protesting when Ronen started climbing onto the bison with Bumi and Yunjin, clearly none of them listening to her. Frantic and concerned, Lin scrambled onto the second bison just before they all took off. She had barely settled into the saddle when the bison lifted and her stomach dropped to her feet.
Bumi whooped and yelled over the rushing air, "Girls versus boys! Losers clean out the bison stables!"
Before Lin could even catch her breath to argue, Kya was exclaiming, "Two laps around the island!"
"Three laps!" Sora cried jubilantly, standing straight up in the middle of the saddle in a way that made Lin's stomach churn, her arms spread wide as if she was a bird. Sora was at ease up there among the clouds, the wind rushing through her hair, happy and at peace as her element engulfed them. Lin, however, was not.
From the other bison, Lin could hear a faint shout from Yunjin saying, "Four!"
"None!" Lin commanded, finding her voice at last, even if it was lost in the wind when Kya abruptly swooped downward.
With one hand wrapped tight around the edge of the saddle, Lin stretched her other arm out quickly to grab the back of Sora's robes and yank the girl down into a sitting position. The young airbender simply looked over her shoulder at her mother and grinned. Lin frowned.
Four laps turned to five, turned to six, until finally the two bison went rushing down towards the ground, coming in hot, still racing towards the finish line. The girls' bison touched down a second before the boys', skidding to a dangerously fast halt and throwing dust and dirt and rocks up into the air. Sora and Kya laughed and cheered while Lin coughed and clambered blindly off of the bison, dropping gracelessly to the ground in a heap. She stayed there on all fours for several minutes while the boys disembarked from their own bison and began arguing with Kya and Sora over the results of the race. Lin didn't know how they could even stand upright considering how dizzy and off-kilter she felt.
With the earth beneath her again, though, she was beginning to feel better. She didn't think she'd ever been so frightened of flying in her life, but she absolutely never wanted to repeat that experience, nor did she want to see her kids doing it. Every time Kya had turned so abruptly that Lin and Sora had been forced to hang onto the saddle to keep from falling out, and when Yunjin had jumped out of his bison and went flying through the air as a distraction to the girls, Lin's heart had nearly leapt out of her chest. Sora had laughed the whole race and Bumi dove fast enough to catch Yunjin out of the air, but Lin still felt she'd lost years of her life in those moments. Even Ronen, who was usually so quiet and rule abiding had been cackling the whole time, gleeful and unafraid despite his inability to bend. He might not have been born with the same abilities as his father and siblings, but he was clearly an airbender at heart. Otherwise he would have been on the verge of throwing up like his mother and not insisting they go again.
Despite her shaky knees, Lin rose steadily to her feet and swallowed her unease. She swiped some dirt from her clothes, as if she hadn't just been on her knees, pressing herself as close to the comfort and familiarity of solid earth. Then, with the practiced ease of a mother of three and the chief of police, she strode casually to the group planning their next race and said, in a falsely cheerful voice, "Who's ready for lunch?"
The children and Bumi cheered and went racing towards the house, and Lin sighed heavily in relief. She wasn't in the least bit hungry, but if it got the kids to forget about racing bison then she'd gladly choke down a lunch, although it was doubtful the kids would even notice if she didn't eat in their current state.
It wasn't until Lin started walking back to the house that she noticed that Kya hadn't run off with the others, but was falling into step with Lin.
"Don't you ever do that again," Lin growled to her sister-in-law.
Kya chuckled and reached out to squeeze Lin's shoulder as she said, "Sorry, Lin. I forgot you don't like flying."
"I like flying just fine," Lin argued. "Whatever that was… that was not flying. That was a death wish. I don't want my kids put in that kind of danger."
Lin could see Kya frowning out of the corner of her eye as she replied, "You know Bumi and I would never let anything happen to those kids, right? We've been racing those bison since we were little. We had it under control."
"It didn't look under control to me," Lin asserted. "It was reckless. Accidents happen all the time, especially in that kind of environment."
"You seem to be forgetting that I've raised three kids myself and Bumi has six nieces and nephews he loves like their his own. We know all about accidents and how to prevent them. We also think that everyone should live life to the fullest and not be afraid of every possibly bad scenario. We're just having fun."
Lin wanted desperately to say a few things that she knew Kya wouldn't like to hear, but they had reached the house and the kids were there waiting, their smiles so bright and happy. Their hair was windswept and their cheeks bright red and they were breathless but buzzing with energy. They looked carefree and were clearly enjoying every second they got to spend with their aunt and uncle they saw so rarely. So Lin kept her mouth shut for now, holding in her thoughts for later and putting on a bright smile for the kids. She would argue with Kya when the kids were in bed. Until then she'd suck it up and let her kids be kids.
After lunch, the kids asked about another bison race, and before Lin could sternly dissuade them, Kya suggested a less dangerous activity that sounded exciting enough to distract them. Lin shot Kya a grateful look and was finally able to relax ever so slightly.
The rest of the day went easier, and all three kids were so exhausted after dinner that they went straight to bed with minimal protest. Tenzin had called to say he would be going out to dinner with a few colleagues, and Lin hadn't tried to dissuade him. She had been relieved to hear him sound far more at ease than he'd been in the morning, and she was hoping she'd be able to convince Kya and Bumi to stay in the city for the rest of their stay before he got home.
Once assured that the kids were resting peacefully, and after changing into something more comfortable, Lin went in search of Kya and Bumi.
It didn't take her long to find them. They were lounging outside, just beyond the courtyard, three bottles of liquor and four glasses between them. They had set up some makeshift benches and built a small fire pit in the middle, flames crackling and smoke flitting through the air above. It reminded Lin of nights from long ago, before marriage or children or work. When Suyin would curl up against her big sister's side and fight sleep to be around the big kids, and Bumi would wait until the little one had fallen asleep before revealing the alcohol he'd bought from one of his friends in the city. Tenzin would protest sharply every time, threaten to tell Aang and Katara, and receive merciless teasing or reproach from both his siblings. Lin would come to his defense, but still elbowed him in the ribs to tell him he was being ridiculous, and Tenzin would blush and stop arguing only because Lin had asked him to. Tenzin would rarely join in on the rule breaking, instead throwing Lin and his siblings disapproving looks all throughout the evening, and on the few occasions when Lin decided to join in he'd take Su and put her to bed, carrying the little girl so lightly she never even stirred. He almost never left the three of them alone, though, claiming he was only there to make sure they didn't catch themselves or anything else on fire, but he watched out for them all throughout the night, even when he was clearly fighting exhaustion and annoyance. He hadn't held much sway over his siblings, but he had always made sure Lin didn't drink too excessively or, if she did, took care of her afterwards. A lot of times she wouldn't drink at all, or only a small amount, and when Kya and Bumi were too hammered to notice, she and Tenzin would slip away together.
Their past was full of rough times and hard decisions, but those quiet moments away from their parents and responsibilities had been an escape for the four of them. Lin had always suspected that their parents knew half of what was going on, but had allowed it simply for that reason. Or maybe they had been too wrapped up in their own worlds to notice.
As Lin approached the familiar setting, Kya set her own full glass down to quickly pour some liquor into one of the empty glasses, holding it out to Lin as soon as she reached them.
Lin raised a hand to reject the offer, but then her mind began to reflect on the day she'd had and her muscles were beginning to ache and she changed her mind. She instead reached out to accept the proffered glass and settled down across the fire from Kya and Bumi. She blinked, and for a moment she felt the phantom press of little Suyin against her side, felt the heat of the fire warming her face, smelled the heady scent of the liquor in her hand and Tenzin's natural musk. When she opened her eyes Kya and Bumi were still across from her with big smiles on their faces, as if nothing had ever changed. Except Su wasn't there and Tenzin was in the city having dinner with his colleagues and Kya and Bumi's faces were lined with age.
Lin allowed herself to savor the familiarity for a little while, sorely missing her husband in that moment and consuming a little more alcohol than she normally would have allowed herself when she was probably only the responsible adult nearby in case her kids needed her. That wasn't entirely true, because Kya and Bumi were great with the kids even if their methods gave Lin heart palpitations. Nevertheless, she didn't want Tenzin coming home and giving her that disapproving frown.
So, on her third refill, she forestalled indulging in the liquor for a moment to look Kya straight in the eye and say, "You know he doesn't want you here."
Kya laughed without a second of hesitation, throwing her head back in the same dramatic fashion she always had. "You mean my dear baby brother?" she chuckled, wiping at an imaginary tear. "Yes, I had noticed that something was a bit off. With all the squinted staring I thought maybe age was messing with his sight."
Bumi laughed at that, and Lin shot him a reproachful look before refocusing her attention on Kya. "You knew coming here without warning would upset him. Why even bother?"
It was a genuine question and Kya recognized that, so she didn't immediately grow hostile. She simply shrugged. "You mean why did I come to see my niece and nephew on their birthday? And see my other nephew I haven't been allowed to see in ages? I didn't come here to play with Tenzin's emotions. I love those kids."
Lin gave her a disbelieving look. "Come on, Kya," she said. "I'm sure you love them, but you barely even know the twins –"
"And who's fault is that?" Kya shot back.
"Well, yours actually," Lin stated plainly. "You're the one that ran off to spirits knows where –"
"Listen," Kya interjected, "I already apologized to my own kids I don't have to apologize to Tenzin."
"Really?" Lin asked. "Because he seems to think you should. Frankly, I have to agree with him on this one."
"Apologize to him?" Kya screeched. "For what?"
"You abandoned him just as much as you did your kids."
Kya leapt to her feet, the liquor in her glass sloshing up against the sides. "I did not abandon them!"
Lin raised a brow in question, but before she could say another word Bumi was on his feet too, calmly saying, "Ladies, ladies, come on! Cut it out! Can't we all just get along? How often are we together like this anymore? It's almost like old times! All we need is Suyin to come sleep in Lin's lap and Tenzin to come ruin our fun!"
Bumi's gaze suddenly flickered to something behind Lin, and his eyes lit up as he exclaimed, "There he is! Come join us, little brother, you're just in time!"
Lin whirled around to see her husband standing just behind her, blank expression on his face. He wasn't glowering at Kya yet so he must have relaxed while he was away, but he certainly wasn't thrilled that she was still there.
Kya flopped back down onto her seat, as if making a statement to Tenzin that she would not be leaving, taking a deep gulp of her drink and staring straight at her brother challengingly.
To Lin's surprise, Tenzin said nothing and merely sat down beside of her, and he even accepted the glass of liquor Bumi hastily poured for him.
Bumi seemed just as taken aback, because he stood still for a moment, staring at his brother with an expression of bewilderment. But then, after a moment, he laughed and settled back down onto his own seat as he said, "I knew being married to Lin would change you, Tenzin. Being married to a Beifong can't be easy!"
"It's the easiest thing in the world actually," Tenzin said plainly, with an almost bored tone. Lin couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or simply refusing to rise to the bait. It wasn't the first time someone had said that to him since they'd been married. Lin didn't take offense, because she'd grown up with the other two hardheaded Beifongs and knew firsthand how difficult they could be, but Tenzin often considered the statement an insult. Maybe because she was his wife, or maybe because all three of his kids were technically Beifongs too.
"That's too bad," Bumi lamented. "I was hoping you'd grow tired of her by now. I'd be happy to take her off your hands."
Bumi gave Lin a rakish grin and a wink, and Tenzin turned to study his wife as she made a rude gesture and told Bumi, "Only in your perverted dreams."
"You know," Tenzin said thoughtfully, pausing in the middle of his sentence to take a sip of his liquor and then make a face as he swallowed it, "that's both of my siblings now that have essentially propositioned you or hinted at a past encounter. I'm beginning to worry they're not entirely jokes."
Before Lin could respond, Kya cut in, "Well, you were gone for two years, brother. You remember, when you went on that spiritual journey with Dad? And Lin was here...all alone… A lot can happen in that time."
Tenzin's eyes widened ever so slightly, just enough for Lin to notice that he was legitimately growing concerned now.
Lin rolled her eyes and snapped at Bumi – she could see a mischievous spark in his eye as he opened his mouth to continue – and Kya, "Knock it off! I wouldn't have let either of you touch me with a ten foot pole. I know all your past escapades, in horrifying detail thanks to your oversharing."
"We would have let you in on all the fun if you had only asked," Bumi snickered. "Su tried to tag along a few times, you know? She was always the fun one, but unfortunately too young. Also terrible at keeping secrets. She would have ratted me out to Toph and my own mother would have wrung my neck!"
"I would have wrung your neck," Lin growled. "You don't know how hard it was not to strangle some of the friends she used to have."
"Even I wouldn't have hung around some of the people she was friends with back then," Bumi agreed, turning his gaze to Kya to add, "You would have though."
Kya scoffed and clumsily shoved Bumi, nearly knocking his glass out of his hand. "Please," she said with disdain, "only Suyin was dumb enough to hang out with Triads. I'll always regret not having taught her better."
Lin sensed it coming before Tenzin even finished the large swallow of liquor he'd hastily and uncharacteristically knocked back, her whole body tensing up in preparation. She felt the sudden desire to cover her ears so she wouldn't hear it, her skin crawling at just the thought, but instead she tipped her own glass back and drained all the liquor down her throat as fast as she could, wincing as it burned it's way down her throat and chest.
Tenzin snorted, "Really, Kya? What could you have taught Su? After all, she turned out better than you did. She hasn't abandoned her family, you know?"
Kya's hand squeezed the glass in her hand so tight it burst and shattered into several pieces. Blood instantly began to drip from her hand, but she seemed not to notice, too busy working her jaw trying to find the right words to spew out and glaring murderously at her brother.
Lin tried to say something to defuse the tension, but she choked on the liquor she'd just gulped down instead, eyes watering and throat burning, her whole body tingling.
Bumi tried too, reaching out to grab Kya's arm as if afraid she'd lash out at their younger brother as he said, "Come on, you guys. Can't we all just get along? We've all made mistakes in our lives. Isn't that what family is for? To accept us anyways?"
"It would be," Tenzin muttered, "so long as one doesn't abandon – "
"I did not abandon my kids!" Kya spat, leaping to her feet once more. Water suddenly came rushing out of nowhere, turning to shards like knives. Lin lifted her arms and shifted her feet, prepared to defend herself and her husband if need be, but the ice daggers didn't come flying at them…yet. It was more out of instinct than anything. She didn't expect Kya to actually try and seriously harm them, but she was clearly fully intoxicated, swaying slightly on her feet and eyes glassy. Accidents happened, and flared tempers never mixed well with alcohol and growing animosity.
"Are you threatening me?" Tenzin asked, sounding outraged. "In my own home?"
"Put those things away," Bumi hissed, batting at one of the ice shards and shaking Kya lightly to distract her from bending.
"This isn't just your Island!" Kya shouted at Tenzin. "It's just as much Bumi's and mine as it is yours. Mom and Dad only let you have it because you're the baby and you're spoiled!"
"Excuse me?" Tenzin said shrilly. "The island is mine because our parents knew I was the only one among us responsible to take care of it!"
"Oh, sure," Kya said with an eye roll, dropping the ice shards at last and folding her arms across her chest. "Because you're the only responsible one. Bumi and I have done absolutely nothing with our lives."
"I wouldn't say nothing," Tenzin offered. "Bumi is doing quite well for himself and you…well, you are rather good at running off."
"Come on!" Bumi exclaimed, before Kya could protest. "Enough of this, from both of you!"
"Who's side are you on?" Kya demanded.
"Yours!" Bumi said automatically.
"There's a surprise," Tenzin said with a humorless chuckle.
"But I also think this needs to stop," Bumi continued. "We're only in Republic City for a few days and who knows when we'll all be together again? Don't you guys remember all the good times we had? Back when we were young and beautiful? Come on, Lin, help me out here! You and Su hated each other and now look at you!"
Lin rose to her feet, but before she could respond, Kya cut in with, "Oh, please! She's the queen of holding grudges! Why do you think she and Tenzin are so perfect for each other?"
"She has experience," Bumi reasoned. "She can help –"
"Yeah right," Kya scoffed. "It's her fault she and Su didn't speak for half a century! She would have happily ignored Su until they both died –"
"Excuse me!" Lin exploded, before Tenzin could. "Suyin made her own choices that isn't on me! You're just like her! Blaming everyone else for problems you created for yourself!"
"The only problem I have is you two acting like you're superior to the rest of us!" Kya shot back.
"We don't have to act," Lin muttered, exchanging a look with her husband, who nodded in solidarity.
Kya laughed loudly, wildly, and completely disbelieving. Her laser focus was on Lin now, as if her rage towards her brother had been entirely forgotten. There was something manic in her eyes that gave Lin a sense of foreboding, if only because this sort of anger was so rare in Kya. If Lin had to guess, something else was probably going on, and Kya was taking it out on Lin and Tenzin now because they were poking at raw wounds. It was too late to stop now, though, when everyone was beyond riled.
And then Kya struck the first real blow, looking Lin straight in the eye as she said, in a strangely calm voice this time, "Oh, please. Like you're a model parent? At least I don't lie to my kids. You have been pretending your whole life. You pretended to love police work so your mother would love you, you pretended to be a mother to Su, and you pretended to want kids and marriage because you were too selfish to let Tenzin go, and now you only want to be around your kids when they're being perfect, so you run off to work everyday to avoid them and you pretend you love them more, but they'll soon realize that you love your job more than anything else in the world and they'll resent you more than you resented your own mother!"
Lin had faced a lot of horrors in her life: she stared down serial killers and promised to end them; saw her mother nearly die at eight years old by Yakone's hands, held her mother as she died more than a decade later; she had looked into the bleak eyes of a six year old boy who had watched his father kill his mother and had known that she might very well see the boy again someday, behind bars like his father; she had seen the grief in her husband's eyes when she'd woken up in the hospital to learn that the infant in her womb was gone; she watched her younger sister spiral day after day until finally she snapped, along with Lin's own metal cable, which had struck her across the face and through the heart all at once; she watched her father destroy his body and his life and essentially leave her by the wayside; she had held Tenzin as he bled out and nearly died. She had been through grief and pain and persevered through it all with a few setbacks, but her family with Tenzin still mostly in tact.
But Kya's words cut through her in a way even Su's betrayal had not. Perhaps because Kya was just as much Lin's family as her biological sister. Perhaps because it was all the fears Lin had ever had, brought to life by Kya's harsh words. All the times she'd secretly blamed herself for Suyin and worried that she might fail her own children the same way. Even if Su had turned out okay in the end, she could have gone another way, she could have turned out a hundred times worse. Lin would have been partially responsible for that. She already knew that she worked too much sometimes, that she had missed parts of her kids' lives because she wasn't sentimental and she didn't know how to be and she preferred the familiarity of work to the chaos at home. Because she loved her kids more than anything else in the world, but she couldn't change her lifelong distaste for disorder and sticky hands. She had improved far more than she ever could have hoped, but she still feared it wouldn't be enough, that her kids would sense her unease, that maybe Tenzin wouldhave been better off with that Pema girl from years ago. She would have been the right type of mother. Soft and kind and patient, with gentle caresses and sweet words of encouragement. She would have been the stay at home parent, would have let Tenzin work as much as he wanted and cared for the children and cooked and cleaned everyday. She wouldn't have been confrontational and difficult to deal with. She wouldn't have been very exciting, but she would have been predictable, something Tenzin would have loved to have, something structured. But Lin hadn't wanted to see him with someone else. She hadn't wanted that girl to take the only person she'd ever truly loved. Kya was right about that part at least. Lin had been too selfish to let him go.
Kya's words had stunned her so fully that Lin could only stare at her sister-in-law for a long moment, her gut twisting with guilt and fear and shame, the alcohol coursing through her veins doing nothing to quell the emotions raging within her. She felt light headed.
Tenzin, on the other hand, took a threatening step towards his sister, nearly catching his cloak in the fire, his eyes burning similarly with rage as he said, in a low, menacing tone, "How dare you! How dare you come into my home and disrespect my wife like that? I want you gone! Both of you! Now!"
"You can't kick us off our Island," Kya drunkenly tried to argue, but Tenzin had lost all patience.
"NOW!" he practically screamed, a harsh wind curling around him like the beginnings of a tornado. Even Bumi, the bravest – or perhaps most reckless – of them all, took half a step back, watching Tenzin closely and tightening his grip on Kya's bicep.
Lin had rarely seen her husband on the verge of losing control, and for some reason it made her more rational when a large part of her yearned to lash out. She reached out carefully, touching his shoulder, firm yet non-menacing, in a way only she could, and Tenzin's shoulders relaxed a fraction, looking down at his wife with something akin to apology, for her only. That was something Kya couldn't take away from her. Lin could calm Tenzin better than anyone else ever had. It worked when the council was frustrating him or the kids were too unruly or life was simply not working out.
"They're too drunk to go out to the city," Lin said to her husband, all rational and calm, the opposite of how she wanted to be, and maybe being a parent was teaching her something. She knew that she was too drunk, and she hadn't had half as much to drink as Kya and Bumi. "They can sleep it off and leave first thing in the morning. We'll even have the acolytes –"
"Don't bother," Kya interjected, turning her fury back onto her brother to tell him, "I don't want to stay here another second if it means being around you. You're spoiled and entitled just because you're an Airbender –"
"Kya," Bumi pleaded, tugging on her arm. "Enough, you've made your –"
Kya merely spoke louder, wrenching her arm from Bumi's grasp. "Dad wouldn't have spent half as much time with you if you weren't an Airbender. That's the only reason you got attention, it wasn't because you were special or better than us!"
"Kya!" Bumi snapped.
"You're a fake!" Kya screeched. "You'll never live up to his standards!"
Lin felt Tenzin's heart skip and his shoulders slump beneath her fingers and something inside of her finally snapped. Kya's harsh words were being pointed at Lin's husband now, and that was far more enraging than anything Kya had to say about Lin.
So she did what any short-tempered, over-protective, half-intoxicated, overworked mother of three would do when she's been provoked.
Without thought, she leapt straight at Kya, using the earth beneath her feet to propel her further faster. Kya didn't even see it coming until it was too late, and by that time Lin had crashed right into her. They smashed into the ground in a tangle of limbs and spewing curses, neither of them coordinated enough in that moment to be remotely graceful about it. They were both typically experienced fighters, but they were too drunk to be swift or calculating and simply rolled a few feet, thrashing and flailing against each other until they came to a stop and rolled apart.
Still lying on the ground, Kya kicked her foot out and landed a sharp blow against Lin's hip, and Lin sprang to her feet to avoid a second hit. She kicked her heel into the ground and bent the earth to propel Kya up as well. She may have been intoxicated and angry but she wasn't going to kick someone while they were down. As soon as Kya was up though, Lin threw a punch meant for Kya's face, but her vision was slightly blurred and Kya was still wobbling and it landed on her shoulder instead. Kya still spun around from the force of it, but she had regained her footing well enough to use the momentum to spin the whole way back around to face Lin, bringing half a dozen shards of ice with her. Lin stumbled back a step and erected a quick barrier to shield herself from the impact, and then kicked her rock shield back in Kya's direction. Kya leapt out of the way just in time and sent a hurricane spiraling at Lin, who, in her slightly drunken stupor, hesitated too long to avoid it. She was swept up in the torrent of water and began to spin in a lazy circle – Kya was apparently too intoxicated to give it much momentum – and she had to hold her breath while trying to fight her way out. She couldn't find the earth very well though when she was trapped slightly above ground in a sphere of water, and what earth she did yank up only got trapped inside with her. She couldn't see Kya to throw anything her way either.
By the time a blast of air sliced through the bubble and freed her, she was struggling not to suck in a lungful of water, her body kicking desperately in a panic, hands clawing at nothing, chest burning so hot she thought her lungs might burst. She fell to the ground like a flopping fish, coughing up water and heaving in painful breaths, soaking wet and shivering, still blinded by the water rushing down her face. But she was on all fours on the ground now, connected once again to the earth, and she could pinpoint Kya's heartbeat nearby. She slapped a hand on the ground and Kya's left leg sunk down to the knee. Tenzin was shouting something, maybe Bumi too, but Lin's ears were too water logged to decipher what they were saying.
Lin took a moment to wipe the water from her face and catch her breath, and then she scrambled to her feet and went running to where Kya was trapped in the ground. Except Kya had turned the surrounding dirt to mud and was yanking her leg free, and when Lin dove at her they both went crashing to the ground again. This time, though, Lin landed two punches in Kya's ribs before Kya grunted and threw Lin off of her.
Lin lost her breath for a second when her back hit the ground, but she did not let that deter her. She rolled right back over and clambered over top of Kya, who was still lying on the ground clutching her ribs. Lin took the advantage and lifted a large rock up out of the ground behind her, holding it high above her head, both arms raised, and for one crazed second all the rage and alcohol and whatever else boiled over the surface and she had every intention of bringing it straight down on Kya's face. Granted, she had sparred with Kya so many times in the past that she knew her sister-in-law could block it, had blocked it several times before. Except Kya was drunk and this wasn't sparring and Lin should have put an end to the whole charade long ago, should have never started it in the first place.
And then, a small voice cut through the ringing in her ears, cut straight through to her soul, made her rethink her entire existence with a simple, "Mama?"
Lin froze, her breath leaving her for a whole new reason, her fingers twitching above her head as she jerked her gaze up to where her daughter stood, not far from the whole spectacle taking place between her mother and aunt. Lin tossed the rock away without a second of thought, overwhelmed by the look on Sora's face, the fear and confusion and concern. Kya was wrong. Lin cared more for her children than anything else in the world. She wasn't a perfect mother or a conventional mother, but she would have moved the spirit world and Earth for those kids.
Kya didn't hear Sora's whisper, or maybe ignored it, but either way she took advantage of Lin's distraction and sat up to punch Lin directly in the solar plexus.
Lin made a strained, agonized whine, her body bending in half and seizing up, and she flopped onto her side. She heard Sora screech and there was a scuffle nearby. Bumi was cursing and Tenzin was clearly trying very hard not to curse in front of Sora, and Kya was all of a sudden sounding apologetic, apparently having noticed Sora now. Lin couldn't quite tell what they were discussing, and she didn't have the will to pay attention when she couldn't hardly breathe again and her stomach was lurching and her head was spinning, and she barely had time to sit up and crawl over to some bushes to puke up the alcohol swirling in her gut.
She dry heaved a few times before her stomach stopped pitching, and when she collapsed onto her ass everything around her was suddenly clear again. She actually felt a lot better, except for the parts of her body that would surely be bruised in the morning and the sour taste in her mouth. But her head was clearing and she no longer felt nauseous and her other senses were not so dulled. She inhaled deeply and wiped sweat from her forehead, and then she carefully rose to her feet.
Tenzin was already headed towards her looking worried, Sora held in one arm. She was getting to be too big to be carried, but she still looked tiny in Tenzin's arms. Kya was standing just behind looking remorseful, as if all her senses had suddenly cleared too, and Bumi was trying to usher her away, succeeding this time where he had not earlier, their forms disappearing into the night.
When Tenzin reached Lin, he grasped her elbow with his free hand. "Are you all right?" he asked breathlessly.
Lin nodded slowly. "Yes, I'm okay." She turned her attention onto Sora, who looked close to tears, and reached out to squeeze the girl's hand. "I'm sorry, kid. I wish you hadn't seen that."
"Why were you and Aunt Kya fighting?" Sora demanded in a tiny voice.
"We got carried away," Lin admitted. "It won't happen again, I promise."
"You both looked really mad," Sora said with a sniffle. "You said never to use bending when you're mad unless it's an emergency."
"You're right," Lin agreed. "I shouldn't have done that." She paused for a moment to muse on how strange it was to explain herself to her seven year old, and then she sighed. "I'm really sorry, Sora. Can you forgive me?"
Sora nodded without hesitation, reaching out to curl her arm around her mother's neck in a half-hug. "It's okay, Mama. People make mistakes." She kissed Lin on the cheek, and when she pulled back she was all smiles again, back to the normal Sora that Lin could never get enough of. Something about seeing that girl's smile was enough to brighten even the darkest days.
Getting Sora back to bed was tricky, but not altogether difficult. The girl felt better after both parents had tucked her in, and was still clearly very tired because it didn't take long for her to pass right back out.
Afterwards, Lin went straight to the bathroom to quickly wash up, rinsing her mouth out several times and spending two minutes in hot water slathering soap all over her body. When she returned to her room in a fresh set of night clothes she felt much better, despite all that had gone on in the last hour. Tenzin had changed too, and was waiting for her, their bed lamp still on and him sitting up in bed pretending to peruse some paperwork. Despite the bone deep exhaustion they were both feeling, he looked to be just as wide awake as she was in that moment. Perhaps adrenaline was still pumping through their veins, or maybe the slight buzz she still had was to blame. She knew Tenzin, light weight that he was, had to be feeling at least a little something from the glass of liquor he'd had.
When she joined him in bed, he immediately tossed the paperwork aside, frowning as he stroked the light bruise forming on her cheek bone. "Have I told you lately how much I love you?" he asked her.
"Probably," she replied, drawing circles on his thigh with her fingers. "Sorry I started a fist fight with your sister."
He kissed her before she could say anything more, pouring all of his passion into it, and when it began to turn heated, Lin didn't hesitate a single second to reciprocate. She still felt a little light headed and she was certain Tenzin did too, but she didn't know if that was from the alcohol or just everything else. They probably should have just gone right to sleep after the day they'd had, but they both had other things in mind and their slow caresses turned frenzied too fast to follow. By the time her shirt was off Lin could hardly remember the fight with Kya, and she nearly snickered at the recollection that it was a lot like when they were younger. Lin and Tenzin would fight with Kya or Bumi or both and then go blow off steam with each other in more…pleasurable ways. All four of them really should have learned by now, but there was some truth to the saying that old habits die hard, and siblings always fought anyways, especially ones as short-tempered as the Beifongs and the Avatar's kids. Lin would hold a grudge until Kya – surprisingly less stubborn as she was – would apologize for getting carried away, and Tenzin would drag his feet in forgiving his sister because Kya's apology to him would barely be half as heartfelt as it was to Lin, and he would only come around once Lin did because she would be the factor to convince him. Bumi, of course, would laugh as if nothing had ever happened, blaming the booze and misunderstandings, and he wouldn't waste a single second being angry at any of them. Lin often envied his ability to be so carefree, and it was the one thing she hoped her kids might inherit from their uncle, one thing she wished she could have.
But there were a lot of other things Lin had that she wouldn't trade for anything. Her family, for one, even Kya, truth be told.
And in the moments where her husband's warm lips and soft fingertips were lavishing her body she felt like the luckiest woman in the world. She'd spent most of her younger years hating being touched, nearly snapping the wrists off of a few boys that tried their luck with her, but Tenzin had always been different, and his touches were like fire in her veins, every nerve ending bursting with each stroke. She knew that she was the same for him, knew it in her soul, but could also see it in the uncensored lust and adoration on his face when she took control. They went together perfectly, two halves of a whole, an unbreakable rhythm.
And afterwards they crashed as one, sated and spent and so drowsy that they fell asleep within seconds of collapsing atop of one another.
Unfortunately, Lin did not wake the next morning feeling warm and comfortable and content, ensconced in her husband's arms. Instead, she woke with a throbbing pain behind her eyes and an achingly dry mouth, the sun shining through the open curtains she hadn't thought to close the night before and directly into her face, her whole body sticky with sweat. Tenzin was sitting on the edge of the bed in front of her, gently rubbing her arm to wake her and murmuring softly. She had to blink several times before her blurry vision cleared, and then she saw that he was fully clothed and much more awake than she was. She assumed he'd been up for a while, though there were dark shadows under his eyes. He was holding a steaming cup of tea in his other hand, and she noticed that his expression was unexplainably solemn. She was instantly on alert, but her body was sluggish to react.
"I brought you some tea," Tenzin told her, once he saw that she was awakening. "It should help."
"Wha's wrong?" Lin slurred, coughing briefly and trying to sit up. She groaned when her muscles screamed in protest, feeling every bit of the bruises she'd received the night before.
"Take it easy," Tenzin soothed. "Here, drink…"
He held the tea out to her, but she batted it away – gently, so as not to spill it all over them – and demanded, "Tell me what's happened. Is it the kids?"
Tenzin shook his head. "No, the kids are all right."
"Kya and Bumi?" Lin tried again, worrying all of a sudden, about where the two of them had gone off to the night before.
But Tenzin shook his head again, sighing wearily as he leaned forward to set the tea cup down on the nightstand. He took both of Lin's hands in his, and she tried to swallow back the lump that immediately formed in her throat, steeling herself for whatever was about to come.
"It's Sokka," Tenzin whispered softly, and Lin flinched, knowing now what he was about to say. "Mother sent word. He went peacefully in his sleep."
Lin felt like she should have said something meaningful, but the words didn't come to her, and even her half-baked response got stuck in her throat. She felt sick, could feel the blood draining from her face, and when Tenzin hastily handed her the tea she accepted it this time. She took a tentative sip and it was like trying to swallow thick mud, but she forced it down. Her fingers were shaky and the tea nearly spilled over, but Tenzin clasped his hands around hers again to steady her.
She took a few more slow sips and soon her stomach began to settle a bit and she regained control of the tremors. She set the tea aside as Tenzin was saying, "I'm so sorry, love. I know he was like a father to you."
Lin reached out to grasp his hands this time, looking him in the eye to see the same heartbreak she felt mirrored in his eyes. Sokka had been his uncle after all. They were sharing their grief, and finally she spoke. "He meant a lot to all of us."
Tenzin nodded his sorrowful agreement and leaned forward to rest his head against her shoulder. Lin wrapped her arms around his back while his went around her waist, and she leaned into him, breathing in his scent and taking comfort in his embrace.
After some time she leaned back, concerned once more, to ask, "Have you told the children?"
"Not yet," Tenzin said. "I thought we should do it together."
"What about Kya and Bumi? Do they know?"
Tenzin shrugged, looking halfway annoyed upon remembering the previous night, but there was no longer a heat to his gaze, as if all his rage at Kya had burned away. "I don't know. I haven't seen them since last night, but one of the Acolytes said they had crashed in the dormitories. I haven't gone to see if they're even out of bed yet. They're going to be devastated."
"Yes," Lin agreed, while clambering out of bed. "I'll go see if I can find them before they leave. Why don't you round up the kids and we can talk to them when I get back?"
"Sure, but are you certain you don't want me to go with you to tell Kya and Bumi?" Tenzin questioned. "It's unfair to make you do it alone."
"It's all right," Lin asserted, striding across the room to hastily put some clothes on. "I know we've all got drama going on right now and if they see you coming they might think you're coming to start it back up."
"As opposed to you?" Tenzin pointed out incredulously. "You are the one that got into a brawl with Kya last night."
Lin paused in her search for socks to look at her husband and ask, "What's your point?" Tenzin blinked several times in bafflement and Lin waved a dismissive hand. "It's not like that's the first time she and I have gotten into a scuffle. It'll be fine. Unless you want to go talk to your hungover siblings."
Tenzin hurriedly shook his head. "I'll get the kids."
Lin nodded once and slipped on some shoes, in practical mode now, not allowing her grief to bubble over just yet. But before she could slip out the door, Tenzin came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, squeezing lightly and pressing a kiss to the back of her head, murmuring into her hair, "I'm going to miss him."
Lin's shoulders drooped and she closed her eyes for a moment, fighting back the instinctive emotion and breathing in deeply through her nose before whispering, "Me too."
She reached up to squeeze one of Tenzin's hands and he wrapped the other arm around her, so that her back was pressed firmly against his chest. They stayed that way for several more minutes before kissing slowly and then going their separate ways.
Lin went first to the dorms, only to find out that both Bumi and Kya had recently left, and she raced down to the docks to catch them just before they boarded the waiting ship. They both looked a little tired and disheveled, but relatively fine despite the previous night, which shouldn't have been a surprise considering it was almost a normal night for them. When they caught sight of Lin hastening towards them calling out, "Hey! Wait up!" they exchanged a look.
Bumi stepped in the path of Kya as Lin neared, raising both hands peacefully to say, "Listen, it's all right, we're leaving now. No more cat fight fights, okay, ladies?"
That earned him a scowl from both women, and Kya swatted him aside just as Lin breathlessly said, "It's not about last night. We just got some bad news…" she trailed off for a moment, the words getting stuck in her throat again. Seeing Kya and Bumi's worried faces made her chest constrict and she suddenly wished she hadn't decided to do this on her own.
"What happened?" Kya demanded.
Lin sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. It's Sokka. He…" Kya gasped, a hand coming up to cover her mouth and tears already welling in her eyes. Bumi's shoulders slumped and the look on his face was stricken. Lin sucked in a deep breath and powered through. "Katara said he went peacefully, in his sleep."
Lin waited then, watching solemnly as Kya and Bumi embraced and comforted one another over the loss of their uncle. They had all known that Sokka's time was growing near, but that didn't make it any easier to accept.
"Come on," Lin said after a few minutes, clasping each of their shoulders. "You aren't going anywhere right now. Come back to the house. The Acolytes can bring up your things."
"Tenzin won't want –" Kya started to say.
"He'll be fine," Lin interrupted. "We're family."
Kya looked skeptical, but Lin didn't waiver in her surety, and so the three of them journeyed back to the main house together, arms wrapped around one another. And when they reached Tenzin and Sora and Ronen and Yunjin, there was no more animosity. Kya and Bumi both hugged Tenzin, and the three adults worked together to tell the kids. As predicted, Ronen and the twins were devastated, but there were four of their favorite people there to soothe them, and the next morning they would travel to the South Pole to be with Katara, all of them together, just as Sokka would have wanted.
Chapter 31: Chapter 31
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 31
By the time Lin, Tenzin, their kids, and Kya and Bumi arrived at Katara's home in the South Pole, Zuko and his daughter Izumi, along with her two children, Iroh and Ursa, had already arrived.
After spending some time with her mother, Kya went out to make the journey to the nearest village where her three children lived with their father, Kole. Lin and Bumi had offered to go along, but Kya had insisted on going alone, only to return an hour later in a barely contained rage, none of her kids with her.
"Kole's bringing them later," Kya had briefly explained through gritted teeth, and what Lin guessed was meant to be a forced smile of reassurance.
Very shortly after, Kya slipped away down the hall, and when Bumi went to follow, Lin stood abruptly to halt him. "Let me," Lin insisted, inclining her head towards the sleeping Yunjin in his arms.
Bumi hesitated, but eventually nodded his assent, and Lin looked around the room to ensure the rest of her family would be all right while she was gone. Sora was cuddled up with Katara in an effort to comfort her Gran-Gran, sweet girl that she was, and Tenzin was right there with them. Ronen appeared to be having a very serious conversation with Zuko and Iroh, and Izumi was with Ursa in the kitchen making more tea.
Satisfied, Lin followed Kya's route, and found her sister-in-law in the guest room, on her knees on the floor. Kya was rifling through her bag, cursing under her breath and sniffling back tears at the same time. When she heard Lin enter the room, she hastily swiped the moisture from her cheeks and cleared her throat, avoiding eye contact as she tipped her bag over and dumped the contents onto the floor to sift through the items.
"Looking for something?" Lin asked with a raised brow, perching herself on the bed, just a few feet from where Kya was crouched.
"I know it's in here somewhere," Kya muttered, half to herself. She was tossing clothes around and suddenly Lin realized it was Bumi's bag, not Kya's. "A-ha!" Kya exclaimed a second later, triumphantly brandishing a bottle of liquor in the air. Without further ado, she twisted off the cap and took a large gulp from the bottle. Afterwards she sighed and let her eyes flutter closed, her body visibly relaxing as she said, "That's better."
"What the hell is going on, Kya?" Lin immediately asked, getting straight to the point. "Where are your kids?"
"With their father," Kya grumbled. "I told you, he's – "
"Bringing them later," Lin finished. "Yeah I got that, but why? Why couldn't they come back with you?"
Kya laughed bitterly, and she had to rub at her red-rimmed eyes before responding, "I'm not allowed to see them."
Lin was baffled for several seconds before she sought to verify, "Not allowed to see them? You mean your kids? Why the hell not?"
"Kole won't let me and I don't want to start a brawl in my kids' house," Kya said plainly, picking at the label on the liquor bottle.
"He won't let you?" Lin repeated, an anger growing in her that she couldn't quite explain. Just the thought of someone telling her that she wasn't allowed to see her own children, and to know that Kya, her sister and friend was suffering such a fate…
Kya, however, did not seem surprised, simply forlorn.
"How long has this been going on?" Lin asked, gently as she could, but still terse.
Kya was silent for several minutes, focused intently on the bottle in her hands. She eventually sighed and knocked back another gulp of liquor before abruptly confessing, "He found out I've been seeing someone."
Lin frowned, confused, but she couldn't read anything from Kya's expression, because she was astutely avoiding Lin's gaze. "Um," Lin struggled to respond, "haven't you two been split up for over six years now?"
Kya cleared her throat awkwardly and then mumbled, "I've been seeing a woman."
Lin's mouth opened, ready to voice her surprise, but she stopped herself just in time. In truth, she wasn't really all that surprised. Kya had always been very free and open minded when it came to relationships and intimacy. Nobody in their family had been judgmental of it, and Lin had always known far more about Kya's nights out than she'd cared to. Besides that, the first time Kya had taken Lin out for a night in the city, while Tenzin was away for two years on his spiritual journey, they had ended up in a seedy underground party full of only women. Whatever happened that night was a secret Lin was taking to the grave, what she could remember of it anyways.
So Lin wasn't surprised, nor did she have any negative opinions on the matter. In fact, she hoped that maybe Kya had finally figured out what she was looking for all along.
However, what she was disgusted by was the fact that it was sounding like Kole had a problem with it, and was now using it as leverage to keep Kya from her kids. Lin had to fight hard not to go storming across the South Pole to give Kole a piece of her mind. She knew things were a little different in the Water Tribes than it was in the Earth Kingdom or Republic City, but she thought the whole argument was nonsense. Same-sex relationships weren't prohibited, but they were expected to be kept quiet. More of a "don't ask, don't tell" kind of policy. It was an outdated tradition that neither the North or South Pole had gotten rid of yet.
"So what's that got to do with anything?" Lin said at last, tamping down on the internal rage but still sounding slightly hostile. "He doesn't want to let you see your kids because of who you're sleeping with? Really?"
"He doesn't think I'm a good influence on them," Kya muttered bitterly. "I took the kids to the Earth Kingdom with me a while back, and I wanted them to meet her…meet Yumae. But Ashok is still angry with me for leaving, so when he saw her he freaked and demanded I take him home. Now Kole is claiming I should have told him about Yumae first, and he doesn't want my "bad habits" to rub off on Akira."
It was half of the story and Lin felt like she was missing crucial information, but she was still outraged. "Bad habits?" she repeated disbelievingly. "He really thinks being gay is just a bad habit?"
"Apparently," Kya confirmed, snorting humorlessly. "You, um…" she hesitated, looking slightly uncomfortable, "you don't care? I mean, you don't think he's right? About Yumae I mean…"
"You mean do I care if you're dating a woman?" Lin asked incredulously. "Of course not! What do I care who you're dating? So long as she's not a criminal or abusive or something. Are you happy with her? Have you finally figured out what you want in life?"
"I think so, yes," Kya said with a soft smile, and there was a radiance in her eyes as she looked up at Lin that left no room for doubt. "She's helped me figure out a lot these last few years. I don't know what I would have done without her. I finally figured out why everything was so wrong with Kole. It wasn't because I wanted to run away from responsibilities or because I was too selfish to think of him first. It was because I couldn't love him the way I thought I did.
"When he and I were dating I was still pretty young," Kya went on to explain, back to picking at the label on the liquor bottle, "and I didn't know as much as I pretended to and I thought my preference for women was just a phase or something. I never thought it would be okay for me to just…be with a woman. I know no one in the family was really judgmental about it, but…I don't know. It still wasn't widely accepted by everyone and I thought I loved Kole. I did love Kole, just not the right way. I just figured something was wrong with me, that I couldn't love anyone right...
"But with Yumae…" Kya looked back up at Lin, her smile growing wider. "Everything seems right, and part of me wishes I had met her sooner, but at the same time I don't regret all of my time with Kole. I love my kids, really, I do. Leaving them was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I just…when I saw you that day, after the twins were born…" Kya shuddered, and Lin grimaced at the memory of those couple months after the twins were born when she'd suffered from postpartum depression. "It scared the hell out of me, Lin. I thought that was what I'd turn into, and I know that makes no sense because you were clearly suffering from something else, but still… I had to go. I had to do something."
Kya heaved in a breath, but she didn't seem to be finished so Lin remained silent, listening attentively, letting Kya get her thoughts off her chest and finally explain to Lin her decision to leave.
"I didn't just abandon my kids though," Kya asserted. "I talked to all three of them before I left. I told them I loved them and I wasn't leaving forever. I just needed to figure some things out. I know that doesn't make it much better, and I felt horrible for finding happiness with Yumae while they were wondering if I'd come back. I wrote to them, and Akira and Koda wrote back, but I knew Ashok was angry with me. Yumae was the one that encouraged me to come back and see them, to try and make things right, to get back into their lives. It started out okay, but…like I said, once I introduced Yumae into the mix everything changed. Kole never wanted to keep them from me before that, even if he was wary about me. Now…now everything is just a mess."
Lin was quiet for a long moment, digesting all that Kya had said and considering what her next words should be. Eventually she suggested, "Why don't I go talk to Kole?"
"No, Lin, you don't have to –" Kya tried to protest.
Lin interjected, "There's no reason you shouldn't be allowed to see your kids, especially if you've made amends already. And even if you hadn't, this is about Sokka, not you and Kole. Kole shouldn't be keeping your kids away from you when your Uncle, a man who did quite a lot for those kids, has just died. And don't even get me started on his judgmental bullshit just because you're with a woman."
"I appreciate the desire to defend my honor, Lin," Kya said with a fond smirk, "but you'll only make things worse. Kole will only be angrier and won't let the kids come over at all, and then what? Believe me, I know Kole. I was married to the guy for over a decade. I can talk sense into him, I know I can. I just need more time."
"And what if he doesn't bring the kids? What if you can't talk sense into him?"
Kya sighed and took another swig of liquor. "We'll cross that bridge if we come to it. The kids are old enough to make their own decisions anyway so I doubt he can fully forbid them if they want to come. For now I'm trying not to rock the boat."
"That's enough metaphors," Lin huffed. "When are you gonna let me beat some sense into this guy?"
"What guy?"
Lin and Kya abruptly turned their heads as one, startled by Tenzin's frame suddenly filling the space in the doorway. He nearly had to duck just to get through, and then he crossed the small room to stand by the edge of the bed where Lin still sat, eyeing his wife with curiosity in his gaze and looking down at the liquor in Kya's hands disapprovingly.
"Kole," Lin explained without preamble. "He won't let Kya see her kids because she's dating a woman."
"Lin!" Kya admonished, glaring at her sister-in-law and shooting a troubled look at her brother standing over her.
"What?" Lin responded, unabashed. "He doesn't care who you're dating. Isn't that right, Tenzin?"
The man in question appeared surprised, but after a beat he shook his head and answered, "No…no, of course I don't care that Kya is seeing a woman. It explains a lot actually."
"Exactly," Lin agreed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kya demanded.
"Nothing," Tenzin said evasively, tapping his fingers together casually and averting his gaze.
Lin rolled her eyes and told Kya, "That's his way of saying we're happy for you."
"Ah, yes, that," Tenzin mumbled unconvincingly.
"Where is this Yumae anyways?" Lin asked. "Is she on her way?"
Kya shook her head and dropped her gaze back down to the bottle in her hands, looking embarrassed as she confessed, "I haven't told her what happened yet. She thinks I'm still on Air Temple Island."
"What?" Lin exploded. "Why? Why haven't you told her? If she means that much to you she should be here. No one here is going to care if that's what you're worried about."
"Kole will," Kya muttered under her breath. She looked back up at Lin imploringly. "I want nothing more than to have her be here, but I knew it would upset Kole and Ashok and the kids have to come."
"Why would this upset Kole?" Tenzin asked with a furrowed brow. "Haven't you two been separated for several years?"
"Kole's a homophobe, dear," Lin briefly explained.
"He's what?" Tenzin exclaimed. "Well that's just preposterous, how can he be so… hang on…" He squinted down at Kya. "Why did he marry you then? Didn't he know about any of your past escapades? Everyone else surely did."
Kya groaned, rubbing wearily at her eyes. "I kept most of that from him, and besides, he thought it was just me being an unruly child. He figured I'd grown out of it."
"I don't think that's how sexuality works," Lin commented.
"Of course it's not," Kya agreed, "but he was raised in a conservative household –"
"Don't make excuses for that asshole," Lin admonished. "He's keeping your kids from you because you're a lesbian. That's wrong."
"He's doing what?!" Tenzin yelped.
"Hush!" Kya hissed, at the same time Lin said, "Keep up!"
"Well we cannot let this stand," Tenzin said indignantly. "He has no legal right to keep your children away from you, nor a moral one for that matter. I will go speak to him myself. Our uncle just died, how can he do this? He knew how much Sokka meant to you!"
Kya's brows rose high up into her hairline in surprise, and even Lin was a little stunned. Two days ago they'd been at each other's throats, on the verge of never speaking again, and now Tenzin was ready to storm out into the night to defend his sister's honor. It was endearing and hilarious all at once, and though there was still some animosity left between them, it seemed that it was at least being put aside for now.
"I appreciate that, Tenzin," Kya said softly. "Really, I do, but I don't want –"
Just then there was a loud commotion from the front of the house that distracted all three of them, as what sounded like several people clambered in the front door. Kya perked up for just a second, but Lin had to burst her bubble by saying, "It's Suyin. Sounds like she brought the whole damn clan."
While Tenzin went out to greet Suyin and her family, Lin convinced Kya to stuff the liquor bottle back into Bumi's bag and return with her to the main room where everyone else was.
Just before they stepped through the doorway, Lin grabbed Kya's arm to still her for a second and said, in a low voice, "You should contact your girlfriend, tell her she's welcome to come, or at least let her know what's going on. I know you've got things you need to work out with your kids, but they'll come around, and keeping this woman hidden away won't help any of you. Now come on, we'll say hi to the kids and then sneak out when my sister turns into a blubbering mess."
Kya laughed and followed Lin out to greet Suyin, Bataar, and their six kids. Bataar Jr., Huan, and the adopted Kuvira were all teenagers now, sprouting up as tall as Suyin. Even Opal was twelve now, and when she went to embrace Ronen, who was only ten, she was a whole head taller than him, much to the boy's chagrin. Lin could see him trying to stretch himself out for the rest of the evening to appear taller, puffing out his chest and balancing half on his tiptoes when interacting with the older kids, while Wei and Wing followed him around trying to mimic him. Izumi's daughter, Ursa, was only a year older than Opal, and though the two girls had never met before, they became fast friends, glued to each other for the rest of the evening, whispering in each others ears and avoiding most of the others. Yunjin and Sora were too young to fit into any of the age groups, but they had each other and seemed to be just old enough to get along with Su's twin boys. Ronen was getting to be at an age where he didn't want to hang around with "babies" anymore, and was torn between wanting to be with the older kids and playing games with Wei and Wing, who were barely younger than him, but were much more rambunctious than Ronen tended to be.
Kya's ex-husband Kole didn't appear with Koda, Ashok, and Akira until late in the evening, by which time Kya was pacing around the house in frustration and muttering under her breath.
Akira burst through the front door first, the youngest of Kya's three kids at sixteen and the only girl. She went straight to her mother, eyes tearful and arms wide, nearly knocking Kya over before she even realized Akira was there. Koda came through next, and Lin was startled by how grown he was now as a young man at twenty-one years old. She remembered babysitting him once upon a time, and she regretted that she hadn't seen him or his siblings much as of late. Koda went to his mother as well, expression solemn but composed as he joined the embrace with his mother and sister.
Kole and Ashok entered next, but stayed in the doorway, only closing the door to keep out the howling winds and both of them looking unhappy and uncomfortable. After a few moments, Kole went to Katara, squeezing his former mother-in-law's hands and quietly offering his condolences. Ashok remained stiffly at the door, arms folded across his chest and glaring at his mother. He must have been around nineteen now, but still every bit a stubborn teenager if his countenance was anything to go by.
Lin and Tenzin exchanged a glance, but kept their mouths shut, watching intently as Kya went to greet her middle child.
"I'm so glad you came," Kya said first, leaning in to hug Ashok, but the boy didn't unfold his arms and return the gesture.
"I'm here for Grandmother," Ashok said shortly. "Not you."
Kya's face fell and Lin winced, imagining for a second that same look of scorn on her own son's face and not liking it one bit. She knew Kya needed to make amends for leaving her kids, but now didn't seem like the right time to make remarks that couldn't be taken back, not after Sokka had just died.
"Come on, Ashok," Koda quietly reprimanded, his voice so deep Lin hardly recognized it. "Uncle Sokka has just passed. Can we not come together for this at least?"
"I've got nothing to say to her," Ashok hissed. "I'm sorry about Sokka, of course I am, but she means nothing to me."
"You're such a brat," Akira spat angrily at her brother, shifting closer into her mother's side as if to shield Kya from the nasty words. "Why did you even come? Just go away."
"Gladly," Ashok muttered, turning towards the door.
"Hang on," Kya interjected desperately, reaching out to grab her son's sleeve. "Ashok, please. I don't want you to leave. Please, please stay, if not for me then for the rest of your family."
Ashok snorted. "What family? I don't even know half of these people and some I haven't seen in years. Dad's family is my family. They were there for me when you weren't."
Kya dropped her head in shame and quietly said, "I'm so sorry, Ashok. I can't tell you enough…I can never make up for it… I know I'm terrible for what I did to you, and I'm not asking you to forgive me yet. Just…please, let me try to make it up to you somehow. Anything you want, please…"
"I want to leave," Ashok fired back, unwavering.
Lin felt guilty for watching the display, but it was difficult to look away, painful as it was. Less than two days ago she'd attacked Kya, throwing fists and rocks and spitting furious words meant to cut deep. Now…now everything was different. Sokka was gone and what reason did they have to fight anyways? Kya had made some poor choices, but she was trying, and wasn't that more than Lin's father had ever done? Even Toph had hardly been around to parent Lin and she hadn't been that bitter about it…well, maybe a little, but most of that was her anger towards Suyin, the sister that Lin now saw more often than they had in over a decade. But Lin knew, too, that it would take time for Ashok to come around, because he was still fairly young and he had been wronged by one of the people that was supposed to protect him from such sorrow. His anger, though, showed that he still cared for his mother deeply. He wouldn't have been so angry if he didn't care anymore.
Lin could understand both sides, but she still felt a pang of dread watching the scene unfold. She hoped her kids never looked at her with such animosity. She hoped that she never gave them a reason to.
Ashok did end up walking out the door, but Koda followed, and whatever he had to say eventually convinced Ashok to come back, even if the younger boy did avoid his mother the entire time.
Kole exchanged terse words with Kya, who grew more and more enraged as their hushed conversation went on in the kitchen away from everyone else. And afterwards, Kole left, promising to pick the kids up in a few hours, even when Akira heartily protested. Lin wasn't sure why Kole needed to babysit two grown adults and a sixteen year old, but she didn't let herself get swept up in the family's drama, even if she did glare daggers at Kole while he astutely avoided her gaze.
When Kole returned, Ashok was the only one that went home with him. Koda was old enough to make his own decisions, and Akira threw such a fit that Katara intervened and Kole was apparently wise enough not to argue with the aging waterbender that had just lost her brother.
All of them slept at random throughout the tiny house that night, most of the kids huddling up in the living room, while Kya, Bumi, Izumi, Iroh, and Akira took the guest room. Katara and Zuko didn't really rest much, both of them speaking in hushed voices to one another in the dimly lit kitchen for most of the night. Suyin and Bataar and Lin and Tenzin were offered Katara's room. Though Suyin and Bataar fell right to sleep, snoring in sync throughout most of the night, Lin and Tenzin were halfway awake, lying together and occasionally murmuring softly to one another. All three of their kids came to visit them at different points in the night, so that, by morning, the family of five was asleep in a tangled mass of limbs. Lin's head was on Tenzin's shoulder, but her body was stretched out at an angle, so that Sora could fit between them. Yunjin was halfway on top of Tenzin's chest, and Ronen was curled up close to Lin's side. When Suyin woke and cheerfully called for them to wake up, yanking the bedroom curtains apart to let the sun glare in, all five of them groaned in unison, burrowing deeper under the covers and closer together.
Su's cheerful mood did not last, however, as the time for Sokka's funeral grew nearer. After a chaotic breakfast and a constant stream of quick baths, the mood had turned entirely solemn, most of them quiet as they shuffled through the house, readying their children or cleaning up messes that would be replaced minutes later.
That afternoon, they all went together to the burial site, where a few others had gathered, including the young Avatar and her parents, and they all wept as one when Bumi went to the front to speak of Sokka's courage and kind heart, and his ever lasting ability to put a smile on their faces. Afterwards, they all huddled together in Kya's home once again, with Korra and Senna and Tonraq joining them for a few hours. Everyone had several stories to tell about memories they had had with Sokka, and they laughed and cried while they reminisced.
In the evening, Zuko, Izumi, Iroh, and Ursa had to leave, but not before inviting – or rather, insisting – everyone to join them in the Fire Nation for a vacation in two months time. Partially, Zuko had said, because they never got together for anything besides funerals, and partially because it had been so long since they'd been together he feared they would no longer remain as close as they'd once been when Aang and Sokka and Toph were still alive, and that it was a smear on their memories if they all lost contact. That last part alone was enough to convince them of the necessity for a vacation, even if it was going to be an absolute pain in the ass. Kya was still having a hard time getting one of her kids to speak to her and their father was making it difficult for her to see the other two when she wanted. Suyin had far too many kids to look after and a whole city to keep standing. Lin had Lieutenant Jeia and Deputy Saikhan to look after Republic City, but with the Triads growing lately she was hesitant to leave for an extended period of time, and she and Tenzin both had court dates and various other commitments that were difficult to work around. Bumi had the United Nations to get back to and it was doubtful he'd get more time off so soon, and Katara was in the midst of training an eleven year old Avatar.
Nevertheless, two months passed and Zuko was sending daily reminders to each of them, as well as highly trained and trusted assistants that would remain at their homes and send immediate notice if they were required to return. And so, eventually, all of them finally gave in.
Bumi couldn't get the days off, but his platoon just happened to be stationed in the Fire Nation for a routine inspection for that week. Tenzin had several court dates that were suspiciously pushed back, and Lin's own officers were threatening to lock her out of the building if she didn't take a proper vacation.
The Triads were practically running the city, though, and Lin had very little desire to leave work behind for a full week, even if it did mean spending time with her family. On the day they were set to leave, she dragged her feet the whole way, grumbling and frustrated and tired. Ronen and Yunjin and Sora were too excited to pay attention to their mother's foul mood, but Tenzin picked up on it right away and it quickly wore off on him, so that both of them were snappy and irritable.
The long flight made Lin air sick for what must have been the first time in decades, and she spent the last half of the trip either bent over the edge of the saddle or trying to sleep curled up on her side. When they finally touched down on solid ground, she felt better but still queasy, and went straight to bed in the middle of the afternoon while the others reconnected.
She woke a few hours later finally feeling recovered, and went to join her family for the rest of the evening. She was glad to see that the twins were having a blast, and Ronen was loving learning all about the Fire Nation capital. Tenzin had spent most of his time keeping an eye on the two sets of twins and conversing with Bataar. The eldest of Su and Bataar's kids were off exploring with Koda and Iroh, with strict instructions to be back in time for dinner, and to take good care of Ronen, who had politely asked if he could tag along. Kya had brought her girlfriend, Yumae, along this time, since Ashok had refused to come. Kole hadn't wanted Akira going either, but Akira apparently wasn't getting along well with her father and had proclaimed she was moving out anyways, and with her big brother Koda going, Kole didn't have a whole lot of say in the matter. So Akira, Ursa, and Opal were spending all of their time together, when Akira wasn't latched to her mother's side. Suyin had apparently decided to get to know Yumae and reconnect with Kya in a way the two women never had before. Su had always been too young to be close to Kya, and afterwards, when they were all adults, Kya was strictly loyal to Lin. It was funny how they had all grown up together, and yet it was as if Kya and Su had barely known each other.
When Lin first found Tenzin, he was in the middle of listening intently to one of Bataar's long-winded explanations, but he smiled up at his wife as she entered.
"There you are," Kya called first, and Su and Yumae abruptly brought a halt to their conversation.
The kids looked up, and Yunjin waved and said, "Hi, Mama!"
Wei and Wing went back to playing with Yunjin, but Sora ran from the three boys and straight up to Lin, all full of concern as she gently took Lin's hand and asked, "Are you feelin' better, Mama?"
"Much better, sweetheart," Lin assured her, squeezing Sora's little hand and patting the girl's newly braided hair – she must have convinced her Aunt Kya to do it for her the minute they landed.
"Good," Sora said with a broad grin, the worry on her face disappearing. "Do you want some tea? Auntie Su made some."
Lin made a face and joked, "Well if Aunt Su made it then I definitely don't want it."
It had the desired affect, and Su yelled, "Hey!" while Sora giggled. "No, Mama. Auntie Su makes good tea. Auntie Kya makes bad tea."
"Excuse me!" Kya exclaimed, and Sora laughed harder. Kya rose and started after her niece, hands on her hips, obviously fake outrage on her face. "You know what's going to happen now, little one?"
Kya raised her hands and wiggled her fingers in a tickling motion. Sora squealed and ducked behind Lin, grabbing onto the back of her mother's shirt and pleading, "No! Mama! Don't let the tickle monster get me!"
"No one can save you from the tickle monster!" Kya said ominously, edging closer.
Sora buried her face in her mother's lower back, and Lin said, "Don't worry, Sora. Mama will protect you from your mean Aunt Kya."
"You're not strong enough to defeat me," Kya teased in a deep voice, and then lunged dramatically.
Lin sidestepped, holding Sora against her to shield the girl, and the young girl was nearly breathless with laughter.
"You can't hide forever!" Kya warned.
Yunjin, Wei, and Wing came running over, shouting, "Get the tickle monster! Save the princess!"
Eyes widening, Kya took off running from the boys, and Sora quickly hugged her mother before chasing after them.
Lin didn't join the slow-paced run, but went over to where Su and Yumae were sitting, smiling as they watched the kids chase Kya around.
Lin had not met Kya's girlfriend so far, only heard a few things from Kya. All she knew was that Yumae was an earthbender that Kya had met while traveling through the Earth Kingdom. Everything else was a mystery.
As soon as Lin had sat, Su was already asking her, "What's this I hear about you being airsick? Don't you fly on a regular basis?"
"All the time," Lin grumbled, still irritated by her sudden stomach discomfort. She felt perfectly fine now that she'd gotten some extra sleep and was on the ground, and at that point she was starving. "Guess maybe I was just coming down with something."
"Maybe," Su said skeptically, eyeing Lin carefully.
Lin ignored her sister's searching gaze and turned her attention onto Yumae, saying, "I don't think we've been introduced."
Yumae had dark brown hair and green eyes so light they were nearly another color altogether. She gave Lin a vibrant smile and replied, in a rich, feminine voice, "We certainly haven't. It's such a pleasure to finally meet you Chief Beifong. You're practically a celebrity where I'm from."
Su scoffed good-naturedly and told Lin, "She wasn't nearly as excited to meet me." She turned back to Yumae and added, "You do know that I'm the better Beifong, right?"
"Oh be quiet, Su," Lin said with an eye roll. "Nobody wants to hear about your dance troupe."
"I'll have you know –!" Su began to indignantly exclaim, only to have Lin interject, "We know. You built the city yourself, blah, blah, blah. We get it. It's amazing you found the time to have half a dozen kids in the middle of that…"
Yumae laughed and Su told her seriously, "Don't encourage my sister."
"Be quiet, Su," Lin repeated, "I'm trying to have a conversation here." Su threw her hands up in exasperation and sat back, promptly shutting up.
Lin spent the next several minutes learning about Yumae and she quickly discovered what it was about her that Kya would like so much. Yumae was friendly and carefree. It was clear by her posture, her demeanor, and simply the soft way in which she responded to Lin's persistent questions. She was an artist, with no kids except for a sister much younger than her that she mostly raised. She had only ever been with women, and was married for two years once when she was young, but not since then. She and Kya met three years earlier, and a few months later they began dating.
And then Yumae shrugged and, with a small but genuine smile, simply said, "I love Kya. I promise I won't give you any reason to doubt that."
"Yeah," Su said to Lin, "so stop giving her the ninth degree."
"I'm just being thorough," Lin muttered.
"Thorough about what?"
Lin looked up and saw Kya standing over her, Yunjin perched up on her back.
Yumae responded before Lin could open her mouth. "Nothing, dear. I'm just getting to know Lin."
"How's that going?" Kya asked, looking a little nervous, apparently caring about what Lin's opinion was.
"I think you finally made a good decision," Lin said succinctly, rising to her feet and casting her gaze around for her husband. She didn't have to look far. He and Bataar were headed over to where the women sat. Sora was chasing Wei and Wing now, and Yunjin slid off Kya's back to go running off to join them.
Kya smiled when Lin returned her gaze to her and said gratefully, "Thanks, Lin."
Lin gestured to Yumae and said, "Try to keep this one around, would ya?"
She started in Tenzin's direction and squeezed Kya's shoulder as she walked by, to show that she was teasing, and Kya laughed, "Oh I plan to."
As Lin approached the two men, she and Bataar nodded to one another in greeting. He then passed by her, going to join Su and Kya and Yumae. Tenzin, on the other hand, stopped mid-stride and turned to the side, waiting for Lin to reach him before falling into step with her. They walked together in the opposite direction from the others, back towards their room, Tenzin reaching out to place his hand low on Lin's back.
"I'm glad to see you're looking better, love," he said first.
"I'm glad I'm feeling better," Lin agreed, looping her arm around his waist.
"I take it the nap helped?" Tenzin inquired.
"I guess so," Lin answered, shrugging slightly. "Not sure what happened, but I'm starving now."
"Dinner should be ready soon," Tenzin assured her. "Zuko and Izumi said they would meet back up with us then."
"Ronen and the others aren't back yet?" Lin asked nonchalantly, trying to hide some of her worry and failing.
"No, but don't worry, dear. Koda and Iroh are responsible young men, they won't let anything happen to him."
Tenzin pulled Lin closer into his side, leaning down to kiss her reassuringly on the side of the head, and Lin begrudgingly accepted his reassurance.
"I think this trip will be good for him," Tenzin went on to say. "For the twins too."
"I hope so," Lin sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if we did the right thing by having their schooling on the Island. I know I'm the one that said it was too dangerous to leave them unattended in the city, but I worry we're sheltering them too much."
"I know, I have those concerns too, but they're good kids, and well-rounded despite the home-schooling. And we have moments such as these where they can bond with their extended family."
"Unfortunately these moments are pretty few and far between," Lin muttered, inevitably thinking about the mess waiting for them back in Republic City. "I'd bring them here all the time if I could, but sitting around here for a week is going to be difficult knowing what's going on back home."
"Agreed," Tenzin tersely admitted, seemingly just as unhappy thinking about the city. "But we'll get things back on track there, and then we'll be free to bring them here a little more often. And please try not to stress the entire trip. This could be good for us too. Some peace and relaxation before we return to our busy lives."
Lin stopped walking, and Tenzin with her, and she turned in his embrace, so that both their arms were wrapped around the other. She ran her fingers up the back of his spine, making a quick glance down either side of the long hallway to make sure no one was around to see them. Then she turned her attention back onto her husband with a sly grin and said in a sultry voice, "Did you have something in mind?"
Tenzin pressed the length of his body closer to hers and leaned down to murmur against her ear, "Oh, I have several things in mind."
Lin didn't waste another second, tilting her head so that she could catch Tenzin's lips and bracing her hands on either side of his face to draw him into a deep, passionate kiss. Tenzin didn't hold back either, and even after all the years they'd been married he still lit a fire deep inside her that could not be quelled.
Both of them were too wrapped up in one another to be fully aware of their surroundings, but they fumbled as one in the direction of their room, which they knew wasn't far from where they stood. Lin found the door first, her hand brushing against the solid wood from around Tenzin's back, but their hurried momentum took them too far and they bumped into the door rather loudly.
They both jumped a bit, breaking their long kiss just enough to check the hallway again. Then, chuckling under their breath, they went at each other again, Tenzin moving his lips down to latch onto Lin's neck, kissing and nipping, his hands roaming all over in a way that sent sparks shooting through every nerve ending. She desperately reached out again to grab the door handle and, when she finally turned it the whole way, they stumbled into their room as one, barely getting the door closed and locked again behind them.
Their lips came together again, and it was as they were kicking off their shoes that Lin's heel scuffed the ornate stone floor. She felt her sysmic sense pulsating, and for a moment she hardly paid it any mind. It wasn't until she felt Tenzin's and her own rapid heart beat that her mind suddenly switched track. Something felt…off, and not in the typical way that it did when they were both aroused. She knew that feeling all too well, but this…this…
Lin lurched back with startled gasp, shoving Tenzin away from her in a state of panic. She could feel herself breaking out into a sweat even as she grew colder and colder without Tenzin's body heat pressed against her. Her chest was heaving, her lungs desperate for air, but no matter how much she gulped in she still felt out of breath, her heart thumping so loud now that she wouldn't have needed sysmic sense to hear it.
Her eyes were wide and her mouth was half open in shock and she wasn't aware of much more than the vibrations emanating from her body and the startled concern on Tenzin's face.
After a long moment of silence except for their rapid breath, he tried to approach her, his expression growing more and more worried as time went on. "Lin," he said carefully, as if he were approaching a wild animal. "Lin, my love, what is it? What's wrong?"
Lin shook her head violently, the only words escaping her mouth in a strangled whisper being, "No."
"I'm sorry, love," Tenzin said calmly, confused, with a shake of his head, his hands raised in a gesture of peace. "I don't understand. "No" what?"
"No, no, no!" Lin repeated hoarsely, voice growing stronger, even as her body felt weaker.
"Lin…please, help me understand," Tenzin pleaded. "What do you need? What can I do?"
He reached her at last, slowly, delicately placing his hands on her shoulders, holding her still, but leaving her free to get away if she felt she needed to. She thought idly that he must have thought she was having a breakdown or something, that she was in the throws of a random flashback. She had experienced some PTSD in the past, but it had been so long ago now…
Lin couldn't get it out of her mouth, could only bite down hard on her lip and press a hand to her stomach, feeling sicker than she had earlier that day.
"Are you going to be sick?" Tenzin asked, apparently reading the feelings on her face and she was probably deathly pale by now.
He started to steer her in that direction, as if deciding to take her to the bathroom just in case, but Lin stopped his movements, clutching desperately at his sleeves and still very much in shock as she finally told him what she had just discovered.
"Tenzin…I'm pregnant."
Notes:
Surprise! What do you guys think? Can they handle another Linzin baby? Also, wow, drama that isn't theirs lol. Hope you all enjoy. Until next time!
Chapter 32: Chapter 32
Chapter Text
Chapter 32
"Tenzin…I'm pregnant."
Tenzin blinked, a million thoughts running through his head in one instant, but only one of them so pressing it expelled from his mouth without thought.
"What?"
"Please don't make me repeat that," Lin begged, still clutching at her stomach, looking more and more ill by the second. She was trembling minutely, and Tenzin's thoughts went off on a tangent thinking of ways to comfort her.
And yet the only thing he could do was reiterate his first thought of, "What?!"
"For Spirit's sake, Tenzin!" Lin exploded, squeezing her fists closed and stalking away from him in an outrage, shaking her head as she began to pace the length of the room.
Tenzin opened his mouth to speak yet again, but when the same question bubbled up his throat he clamped down on it, swallowing forcefully and tugging at the collar of his robes, idly wondering when the room had gotten so warm.
There was a long moment where Tenzin could only stand there, stunned silent, watching his wife pace in agitation, looking ready to tear her hair out.
Until suddenly she whirled on him, a fire in her eyes that never boded well for whoever was on the receiving end of that vicious stare, pointing an accusatory finger at him as she exclaimed, "This is all your fault!"
"Mine?!" Tenzin spluttered, hand to chest in shock, but having found his voice at last. "How is this mine?"
Lin was stomping towards him but he held his ground even when she jabbed her finger into his chest and accused, "We both knew we were too drunk that night and you let me have sex with you!"
"I let you?" Tenzin repeated her words, growing more and more offended himself with every second that passed. "What did you expect me to do? Turn down my wife? You forget that I was hardly in a position to be rational that night either! Why didn't you stop me?"
"Because you're supposed to be the responsible one here!" Lin fired back.
"Don't blame me for your carelessness! Better yet," he amended, "our carelessness. It was a joint effort. And besides, isn't it supposed to be difficult for you to get pregnant? How could we have known one night would make a difference?"
"Because we have an incredibly ironic sense of luck apparently," Lin muttered, grinding her teeth in frustration. She whirled away from him again, scrubbing her face with both hands in aggravation. "This wasn't supposed to happen!"
The more frantic Lin became, the more Tenzin began to quiet the chaos inside his own mind. He was still mostly in shock, no more prepared for Lin's discovery than she was, but his immediate reaction of fear and panic was simmering down the longer he thought on it. Having a baby certainly hadn't been on their list of things to do, but there was hardly a way to change that now. And he loved his other three children so much, how could he possibly deny a fourth being that would come into their lives in a few months? Lin tended to look at the worst end of the spectrum, but Tenzin much preferred the bright side, and though he was struggling to stay there, he managed to compose himself into some semblance of control while his wife continued to mutter angrily under her breath.
"This certainly wasn't planned," Tenzin finally said, letting his concerns blow out of him with a steady exhale. "But this is not the end of the world."
Lin snorted humorlessly, hurling an exasperated look in his direction. "That's easy for you to say. You're not the one that has to fight strengthening Triads and try to grow a kid inside of you at forty-five years old. I mean come on, Tenzin! How do you really think this is going to play out? How many women just have a kid at this age? How many turn out perfectly fine?"
Well, okay, he hadn't considered that, and Lin's last pregnancy had been problematic enough for a lifetime, let alone if she had been forty-five, but what else were they supposed to do?
"It isn't going to be easy," Tenzin granted, rubbing wearily at his forehead at the mere thought of the coming months. "But it's only a few months, a miniscule amount in the grand scheme of things, and once we get through that we'll have another son or daughter and I have no doubts that we'll be glad to have them."
"Okay, fine," Lin half-conceded, bracing her hands on her hips and still glowering at him. "Let's just say, for arguments sake, that it all goes perfect. I somehow make it to term and me and the baby survive the birth and there are no postpartum complications. Then what? We'll have four kids, Tenzin. We already stress about finding the time to be with the three we've got so they don't feel neglected, or so one doesn't feel like they get less one on one time with us. What the hell are we going to do if there's another baby in the house? Especially considering the mess that is Republic City. You were just saying the other day that you should have already started training Korra, but with everything going on and the kids we couldn't possibly spend that much time in the South Pole. How much longer will that get pushed back if we've got a baby to raise and two extremely important full time jobs?"
She was raising some valid points, but Tenzin still wasn't on her level of stress. He was panicking internally, of course he was, but maybe it also hadn't fully sunken in yet. They were having a baby, and while they were hardly prepared for that he couldn't find it within him to be entirely upset by it.
"So what's your point, Lin?" Tenzin demanded, growing nearly as frustrated by her ire as she was by his lack of concern. "What other alternative do we have? We were careless and now you're pregnant, and while we weren't at all ready for this –"
"Understatement of the year," she scoffed.
" – we can't simply erase what's been done," Tenzin continued as if uninterrupted. "There's no sense in losing our minds. What's done is done. Now we must discuss this reasonably and plan our next steps."
"You're not getting it!" Lin exclaimed in frustration. "There can't be any next steps. This isn't going to work. We can't do this, I can't do this."
"What are you saying?" Tenzin asked quietly, not liking where her thoughts were headed. "Are you saying you want to get rid of our child?"
Lin rolled her eyes and blew out a heavy breath through her nose, pacing away a few steps and then pacing back, rubbing her forehead wearily. "I'm saying…" she struggled to find the right words, avoiding his gaze all the while. "I'm saying I don't know. I don't want to suffer whatever this pregnancy is going to bring. I don't want our family to suffer. I mean for Spirit's sake look at what happened the last time I was pregnant! What if that happens again? Or what if something goes wrong and I'm too old and I lose it? I still remember that look on your face when we lost the kid-that-never-was between Ronen and the twins. What if you look at me with the same disgust you had for the guy that took that kid from us?"
"Lin," Tenzin tried to interject, to convince her that he would never blame her for something like that.
But Lin kept going. "There are just too many things that can go wrong, more than before, and I really don't like the idea of bringing another kid into this world in its current state. Isn't it selfish of us? To have another kid when we're already so paranoid with the three we have?"
Tenzin had to take several measured breaths before he could respond, his own stomach feeling ill at some of the things Lin was saying, his chest constricting at the mere thought. He knew she wasn't saying any of it to be cruel or because she simply hated the idea of them having a child. It wasn't as simple as that. It was a complex issue that would require serious thought, even if some of those thoughts were difficult to bear. It was the harsh reality he was trying to avoid.
"I hear you, Lin," Tenzin replied in a low tone. "Really I do. If it was as simple as flipping a switch and forgetting it ever happened that'd be one thing, but this isn't so simple a choice. It's…it's…" He sighed heavily. "Is not having this child your only desire? Is bringing another child into the world something you're going to regret for the rest of our days? Or is it simply fear, as I believe you are feeling? Then know that I'm afraid too. I'm absolutely terrified, but we've always been afraid when we're about to bring a child into the world, and look how well they've turned out so far?"
Lin blew out a heavy, exhausted breath, scuffing her feet as she moved the three paces to a small desk and chair set, and promptly plopped down in the seat, her elbows crashing down on top of the desk and her head going into her hands. "This is different," she muttered, her voice muffled while she was essentially talking into her chest. "This isn't like before. We planned for those kids, we wanted those kids. We knew what we were getting into. The twins were a surprise, but we almost saw it as a relief that we didn't have to put up with me being pregnant another time. This kid..." she lifted her head to look over at him, her entire countenance one of pure dread, "what would we even do with this kid?"
Before Tenzin could even garner a response, there was a tentative knock on the door, and a small voice calling through, "Mama? Daddy? Are you in there?"
It was Ronen, apparently having returned from his trip with the older kids, safe and sound. But one glance at Lin's panicked expression convinced Tenzin that now wasn't a good time to ask Ronen about his day.
"I wanna tell you all about my trip!" Ronen excitedly yelled through the door, after the silence went on too long. "I promise I won't exaggerate like Uncle Bumi!"
"We'll be out in a little bit, Ronen!" Tenzin called back. "You can tell us about it at dinner!"
"Oh," Ronen's voice said, sounded dejected, and Tenzin felt a pang of guilt. "Okay, Daddy."
There was a quiet shuffle, no doubt Ronen turning away from the door, but before the boy could get far, Lin seemed to have a change of heart, and she darted to her feet, the desk chair clattering noisily behind her as she went hastily to the door and wrenched it open.
"Hey, kid," she said out into the hallway, "come here." Ronen came shuffling back, and Lin ushered him inside saying, "Come in, come in. Tell us all about your day."
Ronen's face lit up, but he looked at his father uncertainly, and Tenzin forced a broad smile, happy to see his son, but still so focused on the conversation he'd just been having with Lin that it was difficult to be as fully present as he wished to be.
"Sorry, son," Tenzin apologized, "I was just, uh, making sure your mother was feeling all right."
Ronen looked back up at his mother and asked with concern, "Are you still sick, Mama? Sora said you were feeling better."
"I am feeling a little better," Lin assured him, squeezing his shoulder and encouraging, "Go on then, tell us about your day. Did Iroh and Koda take good care of you?"
She would have their heads if they hadn't, but Ronen nodded exuberantly and said, "Uh huh. It was a lot of fun! Iroh showed us all kinds of neat stuff, and I tried fire flakes!" Ronen made a face and shook his head. "I won't try them again."
Lin and Tenzin chuckled, and then listened raptly as the boy went on, rapidly detailing all that he had seen and done, his cheeks bright pink and straining with his constant smile, so much enthusiasm left in him even as his voice cracked over some of the words from a clearly dry throat. And when his mother offered him a glass of water he gulped it down fast and rambled on some more. Ronen hadn't seen much of the Fire Nation in his ten years of life, or much else of the world for that matter. When the family went on vacation they were typically always in the same places, never getting to explore far. Lin didn't like to be anywhere that didn't have several easy exits in case of emergency, and Tenzin abhorred the crowds when they were away from the city trying to relax. Perhaps they had been sheltering their kids, and wouldn't the same certainly happen with a fourth child? Would they not be even more pressed for time, more stressed than ever, more cautious than they already were? But Ronen was still quite young, and when he was of age, he could travel the world as his father had, and see all of the things he hadn't seen before. What rush was there in growing up and seeing everything? Ronen was just as enthralled by new books and watching his grandmother sew and the first snow fall of every year. And on the occasions when Lin decided to cook dinner he was the first one at the dinner table, body wriggling with his excitement. So what did it matter if they had another child and their world was turned upside down? Could a fourth child possibly turn out the wrong way? How could it, with Ronen as a big brother?
It was as Tenzin was reaching that conclusion that Kya stuck her head in the doorway and declared, "Dinner is served." Upon seeing Ronen her face lit up and she added, "There you are kid! Come here! You can sit next to me at dinner."
Ronen grinned and nodded excitedly, making sure to hug both of his parents and promising to finish his story later before following his Aunt Kya down the hall.
And then Lin and Tenzin were alone again, and Lin was silent for a breath before suddenly cursing violently under her breath. Tenzin rounded on her with raised brows, far used to her foul expletives, but usually not so surprised by them.
"My sister!" Lin growled in explanation. "She'll know the second I walk into the dining hall. If she opens her big mouth everyone here will know!"
Tenzin was assuming she was referring to the pregnancy, and a brief chill ran down his spine as he asked, "You don't think she would say it with everyone around, do you?"
Lin gave him a disbelieving look, and Tenzin didn't have to wait for a response before deciding that, yes, that was exactly something that Su would do.
"I'm gonna go track her down, shut her up before she says something stupid," Lin decided.
"Do you need back up?" Tenzin offered.
"No, go ahead to dinner, I'll meet you there," Lin promised, but she could hardly look him in the eye and he could tell that she was still tense and maybe a little unhappy with him.
He decided not to push it right that second and conceded, "Okay, good luck with Su."
Lin managed to reach the entrance to the dining hall at the exact time that Su was about to walk through the doorway. Lin rushed forward and grabbed the back of Su's clothes, yanking her sister back before her foot could cross the threshold, and clamping her free hand over Su's mouth when she started to let out a startled yelp.
Lin whirled Su around and shoved her halfway down the hall, away from the dining room and safe from anybody overhearing.
When they finally came to a halt, Lin removed her hand from her sister's mouth and Su angrily demanded, "What the hell, Lin?"
"I need you to keep your mouth shut," Lin said without preamble. "I know you know, or are about to know, and I don't want anyone else finding out, got it?"
"What on Earth are you talking about?" Su huffed. "Have you lost your mind?"
"Listen," Lin seethed, and then she was silent, waiting impatiently for her sister to catch on.
Su waited a beat and then spread her arms in a helpless gesture, looking up and down the corridor as she asked, "Listen to what? Seriously, Lin, you've really got to –"
Su stopped abruptly in the middle of her sentence, eyes going wide and her mouth gaping open as she gasped. One hand flew to cover her mouth, while the other reached out to clasp onto her older sister's shoulder as she looked rapidly between Lin's face and down at her abdomen, as if the baby would magically appear.
"You're – !" Su started to screech, only to have Lin clamp down over her mouth again, Su's hand trapped in the middle.
"Quiet," Lin growled. "Nobody can know about this!"
"But – !" Su started to protest.
"But nothing! I mean it, Su! If you so much as breathe a word of this I'll make your life a living hell!" Lin warned. "Don't even glance at me! You got it?"
Su floundered for words, still glancing surreptitiously at Lin's stomach.
And then, as if out of nowhere, suddenly Kuvira was standing next to Lin and Su, and Lin nearly jumped out of her skin, startling only minutely as the teenager planted herself halfway between them.
"Everything all right here?" Kuvira asked brightly.
Lin took a step back, folding her arms over her chest protectively and shortly replying, "Fine."
But Su wasn't being very convincing, mouth still half agape and her eyes uncommonly wide and she was trying to force a reassuring smile that just made her look constipated. Lin grinded her teeth to refrain from biting her sister's head off and glared straight at Su, willing her sister to fucking relax.
Su eventually caught sight of Lin's narrow eyed gaze and she clamped her mouth shut, swallowing audibly into the awkward silence while Kuvira eyed each of them suspiciously.
"Everything is fine," Su eventually got out, sounding strained, her voice squeaking towards the end.
Lin slapped the palm of her hand against her face in utter frustration and shook her head.
When she looked back up, Su's lips were still twitching in a forced smile and Kuvira was tilting her head to the side and scrutinizing Lin's form.
Then Kuvira smiled softly and said, "Oh, I suppose congratulations are in order, Chief. I didn't realize you were –"
"Shhhhh," Su loudly interjected, placing her own hand over Kuvira's mouth to silence the girl. "It's a secret."
"Oh, for Spirit's sake," Lin muttered, giving Su a dirty look. "Did you teach all of your kids how to do that?"
"Of course!" Su replied, sounding half-insulted that Lin would think otherwise. "Why wouldn't I?"
"You know what?" Lin decided. "I'm not feeling hungry anymore. Let Zuko and Izumi know I'm sorry for not attending, but I'm going to go lay back down and pretend this day never happened."
Lin took one whole step, ready to storm off and do precisely what she just said, but Su grabbed her arm and tugged her back saying, "Hang on a minute! First of all, the rest of the kids probably won't even notice. Second of all, Huan won't say anything, and Wei and Wing are probably too young to even know what it means! Come on, Lin. I promise to keep my mouth shut. Come to dinner."
"Why is this such a big secret?" Kuvira cut in curiously, before Lin could decide one way or another. "Isn't this good news?"
Lin snorted. "Depends on what your definition of "good news" is."
"Well a child should be a happy thing," Kuvira said haughtily, going on the defensive suddenly, and Lin was reminded of why Su had taken the kid in. She'd been abandoned by her parents and now she thought Lin was trying to do the same thing.
It instantly made Lin defensive, and she rolled her eyes. "Spare me the lecture, kid. Until you're an adult you've got no idea what you're talking about –"
"I know what it's like to be unwanted," Kuvira fired back.
"This thing isn't even alive," Lin countered, gesturing carelessly towards her abdomen. "It's not like I'm selling my other three kids off to the highest bidder. I'm not arguing morality with you right now. I've got bigger concerns –"
"Bigger concerns than the well-being of your child?" Kuvira interrupted again.
Lin groaned irritably and whirled on Su. "Are you gonna get control of your kid, or what?"
"Well, she does have a point," Su started to say, looking contemplative.
Lin squeezed her eyes shut and breathed in deep through her nose, squeezing the bridge of her nose between her thumb and middle finger as if to contain the pressure mounting in her head. "Spirit's sake," she muttered in aggravation. "Is anybody on my side here? Does nobody else see the ridiculousness of me having a fourth kid at forty-five? Does no one else see the problem with that?"
"That is true," Su conceded, "and I certainly wouldn't try to persuade you one way or the other, but I really don't think you need to –"
"Hey!" a voice called from nearby, and all three of them whirled around to see Bumi hastening towards them. "What's going on out here? You guys coming to dinner, or what? We're starving in there! And Mom says we can't eat until everyone's together. I haven't got much time you know!"
"Oh, we're terribly sorry, Bumi," Suyin said genuinely, back to her old self and more than capable of acting more surprised by the passage of time than she actually was. "We were just chatting. You know us girls. Come on, come on, let's eat!"
Su ushered the still irate Kuvira ahead of her and then hesitated long enough to make sure Lin was following too. With no other option besides bringing unwanted attention on herself, Lin begrudgingly followed the three of them into the dining hall. She really was starving, and the second she caught a whiff of the food her stomach growled impatiently. Putting aside her worries and frustrations for the moment, she hastened over to the long table and settled down in a seat Tenzin had left open for her beside him, immediately shoveling food onto her plate.
Wei and Wing were seated next to her, with Yunjin between the two boys, and halfway through dinner, Wei looked up at her in confusion and asked, "Aunt Lin, how come your heart sounds funny?"
"Mind your business, kid," Lin told him in response, ignoring Suyin's admonishing look from across the table. Thankfully, it was too noisy for anyone to have heard Wei besides people that already knew, or were too engrossed by their own conversations to notice, and the boy did as requested and didn't press the issue.
Dinner went fairly well, with laughs all around and more time spent with Zuko and his family than Lin had had in a long time, but she was tense all throughout the evening. When all of them moved to the large sitting room to continue their conversations in more comfortable seating, Lin was completely on edge. She couldn't stop thinking about how foolish she and Tenzin had been, like two teenagers unbothered by consequences, getting pregnant at their age, exactly far too old instead of far too young. Lin had started out as a beat cop, and grown up with Katara and later Kya as healers, so she had seen women around her current age having babies or not having babies because of complications. A lot of things were at risk at that age, not just the health of the baby, but the mother too, and everything else in between. There were times when it worked out and everything was fine, but there were a lot more where it didn't, and Lin had enough troubles with pregnancy as it was. Her uterus was barely stable as it was, having remained unpregnant for several years before she'd been able to conceive Ronen, and both times she'd remained pregnant she'd gone into labor at least four weeks early. Her kids had been lucky enough to be healthy, but what were the odds of that happening a fourth time? Not to mention she couldn't imagine raising another kid with Republic City in its current state. She was afraid to even take Ronen or the twins into the city, let alone another baby. And Tenzin couldn't take an extended leave this time around to raise a baby, nor could Lin. They were both responsible for too much. Not only could they be dooming the innocent people of Republic City, but by abandoning the city they would also be leaving themselves open to attacks. If the city was overrun by Triads, they'd certainly come for the island next.
Even if, by some miracle, the baby was born without either it or Lin suffering too terribly, and the kids' nanny, Nira, was kind enough to care for the newborn infant as well, then the kid would end up half-raised by an Air Acolyte than by its actual parents. The first few years of a kid's life were crucial, and while they didn't remember much before a certain age, they still knew who they trusted most, and Lin couldn't bear it if her kid went running to Nira instead of its own parents. Not to mention the heartbreak she'd have to witness from Tenzin if they missed all the big milestones, like first words and steps and possibly bending. They could balance three kids and work now, but could they balance a newborn on top of that without neglecting the kids they already had? And Ronen and the twins were old enough to understand that their parents had to work, but a toddler wouldn't. Lin certainly hoped the chaos would have settled down over the next three or so years, but she had learned by now not to hold her breath.
But what options did they have? Adoption was certainly out of the question and didn't solve the pregnancy issue. Lin couldn't imagine Tenzin giving up their child to anyone else, and quite frankly she could hardly accept the notion herself. Maybe if there was absolute certainty that the kid would be better off, then she would be more willing to consider it, because when it came to her kids she wanted the best for them, but she had no way of knowing for sure. Not to mention it would be too messy and confusing to explain to the twins and Ronen.
Abortion then? But Tenzin would likely never forgive her for that, even if he told her that he did. Lin would know that he didn't for the rest of their lives. While Lin wasn't opposed to the concept as a whole, she wasn't certain it was a choice she could still reconcile with herself. Maybe when she was younger and too incompetent to be a mother, back when she wouldn't even consider marriage or children, then she probably would have acted without question, but things were different now. She knew what it was like to have Tenzin's kids and she loved them so fully. The thought of any one of them never existing was unbearable now. She knew life might take its course and end the pregnancy anyways, because miscarriage would be a high risk, but she didn't want to cause it herself, no matter how much she feared all the possible outcomes, no matter how bad an idea she thought that it was.
So she had no options, basically.
She was pregnant and she was too old and too busy and there was too much danger in the world to bring such an innocent, fragile, precious being into it. She had always prided herself on being brave above all else, brave to the point of self-sacrifice and rational leadership and the ability to remain calm in some of the most dire of situations. But when it came to her family, to her kids, it was uncharted territory that she feared more than anything. She had fought hard to resist the absolute uncertainty she had about being a mother, had mostly overcome her fears on that count. But with having kids came the fear of losing them, of something happening to them, of failing them in some irreparable way. When Lin had had Sora and Yunjin, she had been so paranoid about two being too many, about the risks involved and the loss she'd so recently suffered before she'd gotten pregnant with them, about Ronen feeling neglected with two baby siblings in the house, about not being able to balance work and three very young kids. Everything had worked out fine, but Lin still felt that familiar suffocating pressure mounting, like a weight on her chest, dragging her down into a pit of fear she was unaccustomed to. She was clambering and clawing and fighting her way back up, desperate not to let it consume her this time.
There was a buzzing in her ears and her vision was spotty. She could no longer follow the conversations going on around her, and she felt a growing need to escape. So she forced herself to rise to her feet, her legs feeling weak but holding, and she took careful steps back out of the room, away from the chaos and noise. She was close enough to the door that nobody really noticed her leaving, except for Tenzin probably, and Suyin maybe, because both of them had been casting her twitchy, not at all subtle glances all night.
She stumbled down the hallway and eventually made it outside, nodding at the palace guards in what she hoped was a convincingly normal greeting. She made her way to one of the gardens and settled herself down in the grass, centering herself by breathing in deeply and blowing out the tension still building within her, connecting to the earth beneath her and allowing it to console her. Her chest still felt tight, but the nausea was slowly fading and her thoughts were less frantic. She forced herself to focus on the feelings all around her rather than her own torturous thoughts, listening to the wind whistling through the trees, the animals darting across the ground or up into trees, the splash of something wading in the lake. She could feel her own heartbeat slowing to a more natural rhythm, thumping through the earth and so familiar to her senses that it was merely an extension of herself. And right next to that familiar patter was the rapid fluttering of another, still so young and new and gaining strength as it morphed into the shape of a child, her child, that might very well be alive and nestled in her arms in seven short months. Seven difficult months that would simultaneously drag on and fly by. How could she do it? How could she make all of this work? How would they all cope – her and Tenzin and Ronen and the twins – if something terrible happened instead?
Her anxiety levels were rising again, but she was still in tune with the earth and her senses, and so she didn't miss the approaching form of her mother-in-law coming across the garden towards her. She had been expecting Tenzin or Su, or maybe Kuvira to tell her off, perhaps even one of her kids simply looking for her, but she hadn't thought Katara would be the first.
Nevertheless, Katara was the one that settled down next to Lin on the ground, shifting a few times until she was comfortable. Lin's eyes remained closed for several moments, and she thought she felt Katara relaxing and doing the same next to her.
Neither of them spoke for a while, as if meditating together, the way Aang and his family used to, something Lin – and Bumi for that matter – had never had the patience for. She wasn't capable of quieting her mind, of relaxing into the moment when there were so many other things to be done. She wasn't the type of person to sit still or draw out a moment unnecessarily.
So Lin spoke first, not yet peeking her eyes open as she asked, "Which one of them told you?"
There was a slight ruffle of fabric as Katara shifted, and then a soft chuckle just before she answered, "All of you."
Lin cracked one eye open, squinting side-eyed at Katara to see her mother-in-law smiling gently back at her. Lin opened both eyes and straightened up. "Were we that obvious?"
Katara shrugged. "A little. I knew something was remiss when I happened to see you drag Suyin back out into the hallway. At first I thought maybe you two were arguing about something again, but then I saw Tenzin –"
"I knew it," Lin grumbled. "He always gives it away."
"I also saw you and Suyin when the two of you came back in," Katara added. "By the way the three of you were acting I knew something was going on. I started thinking about the rest of the day, about you being sick and…well, I knew there were only a few things on this Earth that got you so upset.
"Not to mention," Katara reached out, and from the lake a small amount of water came floating into her hand, which she then placed directly over Lin's abdomen, and Lin flinched minutely despite herself, "this one is very powerful. I could sense it from across the table."
Lin felt frozen to the spot, mind racing again, heart thumping loudly in her ears while Katara gently examined the child growing inside of her. Katara had said the fetus was powerful, but what did that mean? Did it mean that the infant had a fighting chance? Or did it mean nothing at all? She was too afraid to ask.
But Katara knew Lin better than most and she answered softly, "I think this little one is going to be just fine, so long as this is what you want."
Katara returned the water to the lake and eased back, watching Lin with understanding and compassion on her face that made Lin's throat tighten up. She had to blink several times and avert her gaze, breathing hard through her nose before she regained control of whatever emotion had suddenly swept over her. She stared at the lake for a few moments, wondering what it was like to be a waterbender, to be a healer like Katara was, to feel the infant and its strength. Lin could only see an outline, as if she was trapped in a dark room and could only see things that were directly in front of her. She could hear the heartbeat, steady and normal, and she could see that the fetus was there, technically, but unless the heartbeat slowed to a stop she would have no inkling of whether or not the child was strong or capable of living inside her womb.
"I can understand your fears, Lin," Katara said softly. "I'm not here to convince you one way or another. But if you need support, no matter what for, I am here."
Katara did not reach out to take Lin's hand, far too accustomed to Lin's natural reaction to tense up or become uncomfortable. Not because she didn't trust and love and respect Katara, but simply because it had always been that way. With Tenzin and the kids it was different, she was more open, but even with a woman that had helped raise her there were still times where she was feeling too vulnerable and exposed to allow physical contact. Katara knew that, understood that, and respected it.
The surety of it gave Lin the resolve to look her mother-in-law in the eye and ask, "You really think this is possible? You think that I can have a kid at forty-five and one of us won't die or, or something?"
"There are definitely more risks at your age," Katara admitted truthfully, "but that does not mean it is impossible. You're still very healthy, surprisingly enough, despite your job. You eat well and you're in good shape. I know there's been added stress lately, but stress fades and overall you and Tenzin seem to have your lives in order. I don't see a reason why you shouldn't be able to carry this child without too many difficulties. However, if you intend to go that route then you're going to have to be smart about it. You can't simply go about your life as usual and expect everything to turn out fine. Your doctor will have to keep a close eye on you, and you will have to be observant as well. If any thing seems wrong then there is no shame in seeing a professional to make certain that it isn't something serious."
"And what if none of that works?" Lin demanded. "What if I do everything right and it still fails?"
Katara sighed, but her expression was not without sympathy. "Then you will find strength in your family and you will endure, as you have always done, as we all do."
Lin was still not convinced of anything, but Katara's self-assuredness was oddly comforting in other ways. She was Tenzin's mother, but she was also a healer with decades of experience that understood what challenges came with nearly every situation.
Lin mulled over her next words for a while before she forced herself to ask, "And if I don't want this kid?"
"You have to do what you feel is right," Katara softly replied. "If you're certain that this is the wrong time and the risks are too great then you are free to make that choice. Only you can know for certain what your mind and body can endure."
Lin swallowed thickly and then whispered, "He'd never forgive me."
Katara didn't have to ask who Lin was referring to, and she even smiled a little reassuringly. "Tenzin has always been the sensitive one. Part of me always knew the two of you would end up together, because you were the perfect balance, opposite but the same. And yet another part of me also worried that your differences would be too great, that you were more likely to end up with Bumi or even Kya before you'd marry Tenzin. Or maybe no one at all, considering your massive independence – you never let me help you when you were little, even when you desperately needed it," she added with a fond smile, but a little bit of sadness in her eyes, as if Katara's heart had ached all those years ago when a young Lin had been too stubborn to let anyone in. To admit defeat was weakness in Toph's eyes, and Lin hadn't ever wanted to appear weak. So much so that when Lin had gotten herself stuck up in a tree at the age of six, she had latched on and refused to let Aang or Katara help her down, and she had remained up there for hours, trying desperately not to cry and thinking about how disappointed her mother would be and pretending she wasn't as afraid as Aang and Katara knew that she was. Both of them had sat with her nearly the entire time, while Toph was gone for three days straight, working the entire time and never once calling to tell Lin when she'd be back. Eventually, Aang managed to teach Lin how to summon the earth up in order for her to save herself, and the whole taxing ordeal had been over, but Lin had overheard Toph and Katara fighting over it a few days later, because Katara blamed Toph for Lin being too emotionally stunted to seek help, and Toph insisted Lin had learned something valuable. Lin hadn't been allowed back on the Island for weeks before Aang forced the two women to reconcile.
Katara's eyes were sort of glazed over, trapped in her thoughts for a moment, and Lin thought she must have been thinking about the same memory, or perhaps one similar.
Then Katara continued, "But then I noticed something about you, something I hadn't seen before. As it turned out, you were just as sensitive on the inside as Tenzin, too mature for Bumi and too soft for Kya. You were just a lot better at hiding it than Tenzin. You learned how to build a wall…no, a fortress, so tightly around yourself and your heart so that no one would know, but I saw it. I see it now, as you're considering what to do next, and I see it every time you're with Ronen or Sora or Yunjin. You worry that Tenzin will be upset with you for the thoughts your having, but you're also upset with yourself."
Lin felt an unexplainable desire to laugh, as if all that Katara had said was one great big joke. And yet there was some truth to her mother-in-law's words. Lin had always struggled when she was younger to hide away the parts of her that she knew her mother would scoff over. Because Toph was just as much a mess of contradictions and hidden feelings, and together they were two stubborn, terrified people encased in rock and metal and bottled up emotions. They had rarely been able to speak frankly with one another, Toph too busy cracking jokes and Lin too busy pretending to be unbothered by anything and everything. Suyin had been the emotional one and so she and Toph had gotten along better, because Su could get through to Toph while Lin could only get angry. Lin had been jealous of how Toph and Su could talk through things when tensions ran high, instead of screaming or blocking each other out like Lin and Toph. Lin had tried to emulate Su, at first, but by that point her strict attitude was too deeply embedded into her core for her to comfortably transition.
As a mother, Lin had strived to be different. She never stressed upon her kids a specific sort of attitude or way of life. She let them make their own decisions based on what made them feel comfortable, only insisting that they have a good set of morals and empathy. She didn't care about legacies and bending prowess. She only cared that her kids were happy.
So maybe Katara was right. Maybe Lin was a giant sap just like her husband.
Her emotions were all over the place today, and she wasn't sure if she could blame it wholly on the pregnancy yet, but she was probably going to anyway. She could feel her chest tightening again and she looked at Katara desperately, hoarsely admitting, "I don't know what to do." Her voice cracked over the words, but she didn't let herself feel shame. She had never been able to ask Katara for help when she was young, but she was asking for it now.
Katara reached out this time, carefully taking Lin's hand into her own, softly caressing in an odd, motherly gesture that Lin had never been a part of before.
"You don't have to decide right this second," Katara assured. "And you don't have to do it on your own. Trust your feelings, Lin. Don't overthink this."
Lin snorted shakily. "Too late for that."
Katara squeezed her hand and smiled reassuringly. "I know it'll take time. And I may not be right across the island anymore, but you're welcome to contact me anytime, you know that right?"
"Of course," Lin said without hesitation.
But Katara was not convinced. "I mean it, Lin. Whatever you need. You don't have to wait to tell me something about the kids or about Tenzin. You and I can have our own conversations, about them or just about you, or work."
Lin smiled at last, squeezing Katara's hand back fondly. "Thank you, Katara. I don't know if I've ever told you how grateful I am for all that you've done for us."
"I would do anything for my family," Katara said, "just as you would."
Lin nodded her understanding and the two women were quietly contemplative again. No one else disturbed them out there in the gardens, and after a while spent in peace, they decided to go back inside to return to the others.
Lin was not wholly surprised to see that everyone was still awake, even though the night was growing later. The younger kids were clearly struggling to stay awake and a few of the older ones had gone off elsewhere, as had Bumi, who must have returned to the United Forces. Wei was asleep in his mother's lap despite the fact he was getting far too big for that, while Wing and Yunjin were quietly playing a few feet away. Ronen and Sora were off in another corner of the room, and it appeared that Ronen was helping his little sister read a complicated book. Tenzin was talking quietly to Zuko, while Izumi was chatting and laughing with Kya and Yumae. Kuvira and Bataar Jr. were playing cards with Huan and Bataar. Opal, Ursa, and Akira were playing a much more elaborate game in the middle of the floor. Most of the room's inhabitants glanced up when Lin and Katara entered, but most of them simply smiled or nodded and looked away.
Tenzin did not look away from his wife, and Lin inclined her head towards him reassuringly before striding past him to sit down in the empty seat next to Su. Lin didn't say anything to her sister at first, instead watching as Katara went to sit by her daughter.
"How are you feeling?" Su quietly asked, hushed enough that no one in the room had probably heard, but Lin still shot her sister an annoyed look.
"Fine," Lin said shortly, in an equally quiet tone. "Katara figured it out."
"I kind of figured," Su admitted, "when she followed you out of here. She always seems to know. When we were kids I used to wonder if she had some sort of seismic sense for waterbenders. Sometimes it was as if she knew things before even Mom did."
Lin bit back the instinctive retort that their mother wasn't actually around enough to notice everything, feeling guilty an instant later for even thinking it in the first place. Toph had been a fairly good mother, in her own way. Lin still missed her, even if her parenting had often been frustratingly lacking.
"Oh, uh, by the way," Su started to say, and Lin looked over to see that her sister was wearing a guilty expression of her own.
"What did you do?" Lin immediately growled, prepared for the worst.
That was when Lin noticed Su watching something from over top Wei's head. Lin followed Su's gaze and saw Sora coming towards them, dragging Kuvira along behind her. The teen had a slightly fond smile on her face, but Sora's grin was blinding.
Lin furrowed her brown in confusion, and then Sora was there, clapping her hands on her mother's legs once and rising up excitedly on her tiptoes as she exuberantly asked her mother, "Hi, Mama, did Auntie Su tell you about tomorrow?!"
"Not yet, sweetheart," Su answered before Lin could. "I was just about to."
"What's tomorrow?" Lin questioned, confused and unable to read anything from their expressions.
"Auntie Su is taking Kuvira and me to a Fire Nation dance show!" Sora burst out, looking absolutely thrilled.
Lin didn't have the same level of excitement, but she smiled at her daughter, happy that Sora was so looking forward to it, and happier still that Su would be taking her.
But then Sora added, "You can come too, Mama! It can be a mother-daughter day! We can finally do somethin' without the boys!"
Lin cringed a little internally. The dance troupe was Su's thing. Lin didn't even really know how to dance, and she could think of a million other things she'd rather do than sit and watch such a performance.
Except her only daughter was staring up at her with such hopeful eyes and brimming with joy at the mere thought of sharing the experience with her mother, of having some bonding time with Lin that she didn't often get any other time. Lin tried to give each kid individual time, but Tenzin was usually the one that took Sora to the theater in the city and Lin was the one that taught Sora how to fight off an attacker without bending. It was the perfect balance, and Lin never had to be bored to tears watching nonsense.
But it wasn't nonsense to Sora. Lin had a little girl that was her opposite in most ways, and while that often aided in their close bond, there were times like now that it became difficult for them to agree. But it was even more difficult to deny her daughter something she clearly wanted, and if there really was going to be another baby in the house in a few months then who knew when Lin and Sora would get another chance to have a mother-daughter outing?
If anyone else had asked Lin to go see a dance performance she would have responded with a resounding no, and perhaps a scoff for good measure. But when it came to her kids, Lin was weak, and when faced with Sora's pleading gaze, she found herself saying, "If you want me to, I can come."
Sora squealed and leapt into Lin's arms, nearly knocking the air out of her. Then she bounced back on her toes, too excited to hold the hug for longer, and said, "Yes, Mama! I really, really, really want you to come with us!"
"Then I'll be there, sweetheart," Lin promised, idly wondering what the hell she'd just gotten herself into and astutely avoiding Su's incredulous gaze.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Sora excitedly repeated, squeezing her mother into one last hug and kissing her on the cheek. "It'll be lots of fun, I promise!"
"As long as you're happy," Lin said with a small, sincere smile.
"I am so happy," Sora asserted with a grin. "I love you, Mama."
"I love you too, kid," Lin said fondly, gently squeezing Sora's little bicep.
"I can't wait till tomorrow," Sora trilled, before being distracted by Yunjin and Wing calling her over to their game, which Ronen had joined in on too. She flashed her mother one more brilliant smile and then skipped off to join the boys.
"I can't believe that just happened," Suyin suddenly said, and Lin looked up to see that her sister was slack-jawed and full of surprise.
"Don't start," Lin grumbled.
But Su was not deterred. "If I had know it was that easy to make you so amicable I would have started poking holes in your contraceptives when I was a teenager."
"That's my cue to leave," Kuvira muttered, more to herself, as she pivoted on her heel and hastened back over to where she had been before Sora had pulled her away.
"You're an idiot," Lin told Su, but the insult didn't hold much fire and Su wasn't offended.
"I never thought I'd see you of all people agreeing to see a dance performance," Su went on. "Are you sure you're feeling all right?" She leaned in close to whisper, "Are the hormones getting to you already?"
Lin rolled her eyes and begged, "Please shut up."
"I'm serious!" Su persisted. "Are you the real Lin? Or have you been replaced by evil spirits? Blink twice if you need help…"
Su leaned in even closer as if to peer directly into her older sister's eyes, and Lin shoved her away and said, "Get away from me."
Su only laughed, eyes sparkling with amusement, and she shook her head in bewilderment. "It's truly amazing what motherhood has done for you."
"It's even more amazing that after all these years you still don't know when to shut your fat mouth," Lin countered, rising to her feet and starting to walk away before Su could tease her further.
Suyin tried to follow, enjoying the whole thing far too much and continuing to crack jokes, but she was forced to remain in her seat when she realized her nine year old son was still sprawled asleep across her lap.
Instead she called to Lin's back, "You win this round, Lin, but I'll finish this tomorrow!"
Lin didn't bother with a response, rolling her eyes in exasperation and hastening away from her sister. She didn't know which group to join at first, but eventually decided to go sit with Tenzin and Zuko, who were probably discussing work when they were supposed to be on vacation, because they always did. But before she could reach them, Yunjin was calling her over to join in on the kids' game, and so she went that way instead, internally grateful for the excuse to avoid Tenzin a bit longer. She still wasn't thrilled about the pregnancy issue and she didn't love the idea of him throwing her anymore concerned looks.
And when the two of them finally got the kids to bed that night and crawled into their own bed together, Lin stopped Tenzin from pushing the issue with a simple, "Not tonight, Tenzin," and then rolled over onto her side, where she spent the rest of the evening barely sleeping, too busy thinking about the baby growing inside of her and wondering what the hell she was going to do.
Chapter 33: Chapter 33
Chapter Text
Chapter 33
The following morning, Lin awoke barely rested and slightly queasy. She knew from her past pregnancies that she would feel marginally better if she had a very light breakfast, and that it might tide her over until the nausea faded later in the afternoon. So long as she didn't skip breakfast and sit on a sky bison for several hours she would likely avoid a repeat of the previous morning. However, she was sleep deprived again, and that never did anything to ease her stomach, let alone when she was pregnant.
So Lin didn't spend long getting ready before hastening to the dining hall, where most of her extended family had already gathered. Tenzin was close on her heels, looking just as exhausted as she felt, neither of them exchanging very many words within the short time between when they woke and when they went to breakfast. They were both still on edge and uncertain of what to do next and Tenzin clearly didn't want to push Lin into a hasty discussion. They would have to find time, and soon, but right now all Lin was concerned about was quelling her mild stomach discomfort and maybe getting a nap.
She managed to make it a few steps past the threshold when the smell of food wafted over her. She noticed the meats first, and though her stomach wasn't growling in anticipation, she knew immediately that was what she – and by extension, the fetus – wanted to eat. So she turned her head back and forth, scanning the food items placed out and looking for what she desired, only to have Yunjin and Sora appear suddenly before her.
She smiled sleepily down at them in greeting, and as she opened her mouth to speak, they thrust a plate full of food up towards her. Yunjin cheerfully said, "Here, Mama! We made you a plate!"
It was truly sweet and Lin would have been massively grateful if it hadn't been for the fact that the plate contained a heaping pile of scrambled eggs. There wasn't much that could turn Lin's stomach most of the time, but when she was pregnant there was a list of things to avoid. Unfortunately, the list was different with each pregnancy, and while eggs had never bothered her when she was carrying Yunjin and Sora, they really bothered her now. Which, of course, she discovered while standing in the middle of the dining room, when the smell hit her nose and her stomach immediately lurched.
Panicked, she reeled back from the stench, covering her mouth and trying to think, fast, about where she could throw up without making a mess or a scene. The bathrooms were too far away, because the Fire Nation palace was huge and everything took forever to get to, so she knew she would never make it in time. She also realized very quickly that there were no trash cans nearby, because why would there be an eye sore like that in such a lavish room? All she could do was make a miserable noise in the back of her throat and spin away from the food and the smells and her kids' confused looks, stumbling back out into the hallway and praying that she'd find something there, or at least get away from where people were about to eat.
But the hallway was barren and she was running out of time. She wasn't even wearing any metal that she could have morphed into a bucket and fuck…she really hated being pregnant.
All of a sudden, Tenzin was there in front of her, a bag he'd procured from somewhere in his hands, and he held it open in front of her just in time for her to retch. There wasn't much of anything in her stomach besides some water and stomach acid, so the heaving was relatively short, although still wretched. Her hands, which had wrapped around Tenzin's and the edges of the bag to better hold onto it, were clammy and shaky and there was a cold sweat running down her spine. Her legs were trembling and she needed to sit, but her stomach had stopped pitching so she wasn't completely miserable. She desperately wanted to crawl back into bed, though, and pretend the morning had never happened.
When she finally got her breath back and opened her watery eyes, she looked up at Tenzin, who was giving her a sympathetic look. She straightened up and wiped the moisture from her face and tried to act as if she hadn't just done that, while he quickly twisted the top of the bag into a knot to close it, and then reached out with his free hand to squeeze her bicep. He opened his mouth to speak, but Lin never found out what he was about to say, because at that moment his gaze flickered to something behind her, and she whirled around to see half their family peering out at them from the dining hall.
Lin groaned and cursed violently under her breath before loudly saying to the group, "Can't a woman puke into a bag in the middle of the hallway in peace?"
"I thought you were feeling better?" Ronen said first, with confusion and concern. Sora looked close to tears beside him, while Yunjin was eating off of the plate they'd made for her, looking slightly concerned but mostly uninterested.
Suyin was trying to usher her own kids – Wei, Wing, Opal, and Kuvira – back into the dining hall and admonishing them for being nosy. Yumae, despite never having had any kids of her own, was looking at Lin with far too much understanding in her eyes.
Bumi was the one to blurt out, "What are you? Pregnant?" He laughed afterwards, as if he had only been joking about something impossible, but the way Suyin froze and Tenzin tried to force a scoff that made him sound hysteric and Lin simply glared gave them away. Bumi's laugh died down and his eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. "You're pregnant?!" he exclaimed, at the exact moment that Izumi, Katara, and Kya came out to see what was going on.
"Who's pregnant?" Kya demanded, looking straight at Suyin first.
"Not me!" Su said immediately, almost sounding offended.
Lin wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. Unfortunately she was forced to stand there as Kya's incredulous gaze finally landed on her and the recognition began to dawn on everyone else's faces. They all knew now, including her extremely confused kids, and that had to be the worst part. Lin and Tenzin should have been the ones to tell them, not have them find out like that. Not to mention Lin's reservations on whether or not she'd even be having the baby. She would have certainly waited until the risk of miscarriage was lower before she started announcing it.
"You're having a baby?" Ronen squeaked, the first of the three to catch on.
"Mama's having a baby?" Sora squealed.
"Where's a baby?" Yunjin asked through a mouthful of food.
With anger rising within her, Lin gave Bumi a scathing look and growled, "Thanks, Bumi."
Bumi's expression instantly turned to regret and he cursed, "Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't know –"
"It's a bit late for that," Tenzin interjected, his own rage towards his brother clear in his tone. "Once again you have shown your complete lack of tact."
"How was I supposed to know!" Bumi tried to defend himself.
Tenzin looked ready to explode, but before he could retaliate, Ronen pleaded, "Don't fight. I hate it when you guys fight."
Tenzin instantly deflated and Lin clenched her teeth in an attempt to reign in the scowl on her face, but it was difficult.
Katara and Suyin hastily began ushering everyone back into the dining room besides Lin and Tenzin's kids, who stood very still, watching their parents and waiting for more of an explanation. Izumi called one of the palace caretakers over to take the bag from Tenzin and also bring Lin a glass of water.
Afterwards, Izumi went over to squeeze Lin's shoulder and said, in a quiet tone, "Just let me know if you need anything."
And then everyone was gone except for Lin, Tenzin, Ronen, Sora and Yunjin.
"Are you really having a baby?" Ronen asked first, when Lin and Tenzin had moved the kids back to their room to sit down and talk.
"It is possible, yes," Tenzin replied, sounding unsure and looking to Lin for help.
Lin could hardly figure it out herself. How did they explain to the kids that they might be having a sibling, but that they might not if things went wrong? It wasn't possible. Not without scaring them unnecessarily. And Lin hadn't even come to terms with it herself, how was she going to explain it to a ten year old and two seven year olds? Lin was well-practiced in navigating such situations, but typically not with her own kids. With them she would simply have to be even more gentle. So she swallowed down all the worries and frustrations and doubts and sucked in a deep breath.
Then she looked at each of them in turn and simply said, "Look, kids, the thing is, your Dad and I don't know for sure how this is gonna turn out, meaning we don't really know if I'm going to have another baby. So I don't want you to go getting your hopes up just yet. We'll both be honest with you from now on, and let you know how things are going, but for right now you've just got to be patient, okay? Can you do that for me?"
All three kids nodded sagely, but Lin could tell that Sora and Yunjin barely knew what she was talking about. They didn't wholly understand the concept of pregnancy yet, let alone the uncertainty of one. They had seen a couple of pregnant Air Acolytes on the Island so they'd already asked a million questions about it before, but Tenzin and Lin had only given them a watered down version of the truth.
Sora scooted forward a little, curiously staring at her mother's stomach as if looking for answers and then asked, "Is there a baby in your tummy right now?"
Lin had barely been able to admit it to herself, but she could feel the heartbeat still thumping away next to hers and so she nodded slowly. "Yes, there is," she answered.
"It's in your tummy?" Yunjin exclaimed, looking appalled. "How's it gonna get out?"
Sora rolled her eyes at her twin brother and exasperatedly told him, "The healers take it out, Jin. Like Acolyte Mala."
"Does it hurt?" Yunjin questioned.
Lin wasn't sure if he was referring to being pregnant or giving birth, but she decided to go with the easy answer of, "No, it doesn't hurt. It's why I've been sick, but that will go away soon." Hopefully.
"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" Ronen piped up, looking like he was trying to hide his excitement, and Lin felt a pang of guilt over how he would feel if she didn't have the baby for some reason.
"Not yet," Tenzin answered. "It will be a few more months before we know anything like that."
"I hope it's a girl!" Sora squealed delightedly. "I can show her how to braid her hair and – and –"
"Slow down there, kid," Lin interjected. "Like I said, I don't want any of you getting too excited yet. Having a baby is hard work, especially at my age, and sometimes it doesn't always go the way it's supposed to."
"Which means your Mama is going to need our help for the next couple of months," Tenzin added. "She's going to be tired a lot and she might not be able to do as much as she usually does, but you three don't have to worry. She'll soon back to her normal self. If she does have the baby though, are you all okay with that?"
"Of course," Ronen immediately answered.
Sora nodded and said seriously, "We'll take good care of Mama and the baby."
"Yeah!" Yunjin agreed with his twin. "I'll be the best doctor ever!"
Lin felt her chest tightening up with emotion at her kids' declarations, marveling at how lucky she was to have such loving kids. They could have been mad that they had to have another sibling, or upset that she wasn't going be able to do as much for them as they were used to, but instead they were excited and more than willing to help out. Granted, that could easily change when the time came, but she didn't think it would. There might be some fussing while they adjusted, but she and Tenzin had raised some pretty good kids. Maybe…just maybe...a fourth wouldn't be so bad.
The kids had a few more questions, but eventually were content to simply wait until their parents had more information to give. Besides, they were far too hungry to pay full attention, and so Lin and Tenzin took them back to the dining room to eat their breakfast. Yunjin immediately went looking for eggs, demanding they all be removed from the room, but Izumi had already done so, for which Lin was grateful. Her stomach was still a little unsettled, but she hoped some food would calm it down.
Everyone was still in the dining room, eating or just talking, and it was clear that half of them had been discussing Lin being pregnant, because they immediately went quiet when they saw her enter the room.
Lin and Tenzin exchanged a look, and then nodded as one, coming to a nonverbal decision and going together to the table before the got their own food.
Tenzin spoke first, telling everyone, "By now I'm sure you all know that Lin is pregnant. However, we do not yet know how we'll be handling this or if all will go as well as we might hope, so we would appreciate it if you all could keep this to yourselves for the next few months."
There was an instant chorus of, "Of course we will," and "Absolutely," and "I won't tell a soul."
Satisfied, Lin and Tenzin both thanked their family and friends and then went to get breakfast without another word. They made no effort to explain it to them further. That could come later, when the two of them had figured some things out.
Lin managed to eat a few bites without getting sick again, and with a small amount of food in her stomach she was slowly beginning to feel better.
Shortly after breakfast, Kya accosted Lin, but surprisingly didn't badger her too much about the new baby. Kya's main concern was for her own children, particularly Akira, who had decided that she wanted to live in the Earth Kingdom with her mother and Yumae. Kya was more than open to the idea, and apparently Yumae was also agreeable, but Kya was worried about Kole's reaction and was seeking outside help. Lin couldn't do much more than offer support, and even that was limited to what little Lin could accomplish from Republic City. She figured, though, that Kya mostly just wanted someone else to tell her it wasn't a horrible idea, and while Lin could see some obvious downsides to the whole fiasco – mainly Kole's reaction to the decision – she could also understand why Akira, at sixteen years old, would want to be closer to her mother. And with the way Kole and Ashok were acting towards Kya, it was no wonder that Akira would want to get away from her father and brother's negativity. She was old enough to make her own decisions, and if she wanted to spend the rest of her teen years with her mother then the girl would accept nothing else. Fighting her on it would only make things worse. Lin knew that, if for some reason she and Tenzin split up and one of their kids wanted to stay with their father, then Lin would certainly miss them and it would hurt like hell, but she would also want them to do what made them happy. She didn't think Kole would be so understanding, but she hoped, with time, he would do what was right and not ruin the relationship he had with his only daughter.
Once she was finished talking to Kya, it was time for Lin, Sora, Suyin, and Kuvira to head out to the dance performance. Lin was trying very hard to hide her displeasure, but Sora was giddy with excitement. She was clinging to her aunt's hand the whole way and peppering Su with questions.
They had decided to fly to get to the theater, and Tenzin, who was going into the village with Ronen, Yunjin, Katara, and Zuko, offered to take them on Oogi. Lin started feeling a little dizzy just looking at the sky bison, and she froze while everyone else was clambering into the saddle. She had to wonder, was she ever going to be able to fly during the rest of the pregnancy? She had never had a problem with flying when she was carrying Ronen or the twins. She'd been flying on Oogi for most of her life, to suddenly be ill every time was a huge inconvenience, even if it was for only a few months.
Katara must have seen the indecision on Lin's face, because she sidled up to her with a knowing look and asked, "This little one doesn't care much for flying I take it?"
Lin shook her head, lips turned down into a frown. "Not at all," she replied.
Katara looked thoughtful for a moment, and then she walked a few feet away to bend over and pick something up off of the ground. She returned to Lin with a rock, which she placed in Lin's hand. It was just big enough to fit in her palm, so that when she closed her fist over it she could hold it comfortably.
Confused, Lin asked, "Uh, thanks, Katara, but what's this for?"
"It helped your mother a lot when she was pregnant with you," Katara explained with a fond smile. "Toph was never much for flying, but she was even worse when she was carrying you. We tried everything, and eventually figured out that some attachment to the earth was enough to calm her stomach. Metal didn't have quite the same affect for her, but it may be different with you if you'd like to try that too."
Lin squeezed the rock tightly in her hand, using her senses to reach out and connect to it. She tried to let the feel of it soothe her as Katara suggested, loosening her grip to let the rock float up and then back down a few times. "Guess we'll find out," Lin said, going with Katara to clamber up onto Oogi's back.
She was uncommonly nervous, situating herself on the far end of the saddle and holding onto the rock so tightly it dug into her hand. Tenzin looked poised to ask her if she was okay, but she threw him a warning look and he promptly shut his mouth, turning back around to take the reigns.
When they took off, Tenzin was very obviously trying to be extra gentle, and they weren't as far off the ground as usual, only as high as they needed to be. But he needn't have bothered, because, surprisingly enough, by focusing on the earth in her hand, Lin's stomach was staying blessedly calm. It could have been coincidence, but Lin wasn't going to push her luck to try and find out.
When they landed, Lin thanked Katara profusely before disembarking with Sora, Kuvira, and Suyin. Oogi took off with the others after a chorus of goodbyes, and Lin took Sora's hand as they followed Su and Kuvira down the street.
The dance performance was predictably boring, but Lin could at least admit that the dancers were highly skilled. Even though she didn't entirely enjoy the show, she did enjoy watching Sora's face light up with awe. And afterwards, Sora skipped and danced along the sidewalk, happy and carefree, and Lin would gladly endure hours worth of dance shows for that.
Su and Kuvira loved the show too, and teasingly berated Lin for her lack of artistic appreciation the whole way back to the palace.
By the time they arrived at the front gates, it was late afternoon, just a few hours before dinner time, and the sun was at its highest point in the sky. The four of them were talking and laughing and Lin was feeling much better than she had in the morning.
But the joy was not to last, because as they were just about to enter the palace grounds, one of the palace aids rushed forward to meet them. It couldn't have been good news, and Lin steeled herself for what was to come.
"Chief Beifong," the male palace aid called breathlessly, sliding to a halt before her. "A letter just came for you. It's an urgent message from Republic City. The messenger says it's for your eyes only. He's waiting in the entrance hall."
"Do you know who it's from?" Lin asked, hastening to follow the aid back inside.
"Deputy Saikhan, Ma'am," the aid answered. "That's all I know."
Su, Kuvira, and Sora hurried after Lin, and Su asked her sister, "What do you think it's about?"
"No idea," Lin muttered, quickening her pace.
She found the messenger waiting right inside, just where the palace aid had said he'd be. Lin immediately took the letter from him and quickly read through it.
The letter was short, but not sweet.
The Triple Threat Triad was gaining serious momentum, and one of the police's spies had reported that they were gearing up for something big, that they may even be teaming up with some of the members of the other major Triads. Saikhan also wrote of concerns he had about possible infiltration within the police force's own ranks, and by the end of the letter, Lin was starting to feel queasy again.
"What is it, Mama?" Sora asked, picking up on her mother's tension.
"Just a letter from work," Lin evaded. "Why don't you go find Daddy for me and tell him to meet me in our rooms?"
Sora hesitated, but Kuvira stepped forward and said, "Come on, Sora, I'll help you find him."
Sora let Kuvira lead her away, and Suyin instantly asked Lin, "How bad is it?"
"Just Triads causing problems again," Lin grumbled vaguely. She started walking in the direction of the room she shared with Tenzin, the letter clutched tightly in her hand, and Su followed. "I'll have to go back to the city earlier than planned."
"It's that bad?" Su persisted.
"It could be," Lin admitted. "I'll feel better if I'm there to keep an eye on things."
Which is exactly what she told Tenzin after letting him read the letter.
"Well then I'm going with you," he immediately said.
"No, you're staying here," Lin corrected.
"I don't like the idea of you going back into that alone, especially knowing that you're pregnant," Tenzin countered. "I'm going with you –"
"I don't need a babysitter," Lin interjected. "Besides, we can't make the kids leave now, and I'm not comfortable leaving them here without one of us, even if they are with family. They love it here, and who knows when they'll get another vacation like this?"
"You're right," Tenzin conceded, "but I'm still not convinced. You don't know what you're walking into. It's dangerous."
"Life is dangerous," Lin argued. "I'll just be in the office, with Saikhan and Jeia and all of my other officers surrounding me. Or are you forgetting that I've been doing this job for over twenty years?"
Tenzin sighed heavily, very clearly seeing her point but still not wanting to admit it. "I still think it's a bad idea," he said.
"I know you do," Lin said, trying to soften her voice to sound less harsh and probably failing, but Tenzin would see the attempt, "but I have to do this. I need to make sure everything is okay and I need time to myself to think about this whole pregnancy fiasco too. It'll be good for us to have a few days apart to really consider this. And if I leave tonight I'll only be gone three days and then we'll all be back home together."
"Except you can't leave tonight," Tenzin reminded. "We promised to take Yunjin to see the play about the One Hundred Year War."
Lin groaned and muttered a curse under breath. "I forgot," she grumbled. "But do I really have to go to that? Can't we just distract him with something else? We've seen that play and heard that story a thousandtimes."
"But Yunjin hasn't," Tenzin reasoned. "He'll be very disappointed if you back out now. Besides, work will still be there tomorrow."
"Maybe," Lin muttered, but she eventually sighed in resignation. "Fine, but I'm leaving first thing in the morning."
Tenzin didn't argue the point further, even though Lin knew that he desperately wanted to. He simply knew that she had already made up her mind and there would be no persuading her.
By that evening, Yunjin had somehow managed to coerce everyone into going to the play together. Lin wasn't sure how he'd done it, but it was highly comical to see all twenty-three of them casually strolling into a small theater with Zuko's guards flanking them. The citizens of the Fire Nation that witnessed the spectacle gawked unabashedly, and the other theater goers watching the show were more preoccupied with watching the two war heroes and their families than the actual show.
The show was atrocious and mostly inaccurate, and Lin was getting seriously irritated by the people staring at them, but the younger kids laughed and applauded, and the older ones argued over the inconsistencies. Tenzin, Bumi, Lin, Su, Kya, and Izumi were fairly amused, but had also heard the story so many times already in so many different ways that there wasn't much they hadn't already heard. Zuko and Katara were the most entertained, sitting next to each other and laughing endlessly, lamenting that Aang and Toph and Sokka and Mai would have loved the show. It was heartbreaking to consider that they were the last two of the group left, but also heartwarming to see them both together.
Overall, Lin was glad to get to spend an evening with the entire family, even if she was anxious to get back to Republic City, worried about what might happen the longer she was away.
After watching the play, all of them ordered dinner from various street vendors and walked through the village as they ate and laughed and talked. Lin helped her kids with their food, making sure they got something they'd like and then holding drinks and napkins at the ready. Seating in the area was limited, so she let them eat first to ensure she had enough hands and could stop them from dropping something when they were so distracted by all that was around them. Tenzin helped too, of course, but had to spend most of the time hastily trying to mend Yunjin's shoe, which the boy had somehow managed to tear halfway off the sole. Tenzin could barely keep the shoe together though, so he ended up taking Yunjin straight into a nearby store to get a new pair as soon as the kid was finished eating.
When Sora and Ronen were done with their meals, Lin left them under Katara's protection to go get some food of her own. It was as she was striding back to join the group that Zuko caught up to her, smiling warmly at her and carrying his own snack. It was fairly amusing to see the Fire Lord cradling street food in his hand, dressed as regal as ever, yet acting as though he were a normal citizen and not the leader of a nation and a hero of the last war.
Lin smiled back and fell into step with Zuko, slowing her stride to match his.
"Tenzin tells me you're leaving early," Zuko said first, his disappointment showing on his scarred face. It was something the two of them shared, a facial wound inflicted by a member of their own family, their own flesh and blood. A scar that could never be forgotten or hidden away, on display for all of the people around them and themselves every time they looked in the mirror. A constant reminder of a time in their lives they'd much rather forget. Granted, Lin's had been something more of an accident and she had, for the most part, forgiven her younger sister. Yet there were times when she was at her worst and she'd see her reflection and feel that same burning hatred boil up within her, feel phantom pains arching across her cheek as terrible as the day it had happened. Or an ache would develop in her chest when her kids would reach up to gently touch the slightly raised flesh on her cheek, so delicate and caring as if the wound still hurt and they wished to soothe her. She wondered sometimes if Zuko ever felt that way when he saw his own face, if he still hated his father with every fiber of his being, or if, with age, he had learned to move on in a way that Lin still struggled to do.
Shaking the distracted thoughts from her head, Lin nodded at Zuko and finally answered his question, "Yes, I feel I'm needed back in Republic City sooner rather than later. I hate to cut the vacation short, but hopefully once this Triad mess is better sorted out we can come back and visit without interruption."
Zuko nodded his understanding and asked, "Is there anything I can be of help with? I know it's difficult getting the United Forces to come in without a national emergency, but I'd be happy to offer my own services. I also have a lot of contacts left in several nations, people that owe me favors, if you would prefer the Fire Nation not be directly involved."
"I appreciate the offer," Lin said sincerely, "but I think this is something Republic City has got to deal with on its own. If we can't beat back the Triads without outside help then the city will never make it. Besides, getting the Council to approve of an outside militia would be damn near impossible. Tenzin's voice barely even holds any weight anymore, Tarrlok's got them all under his thumb."
"Hmm," Zuko mused, "perhaps I should have a private word with the Fire Nation representative. She's a competent woman, I'm sure that if I spoke with her she would remember to keep the best interests of the Fire Nation's people in mind. She should not be so easily swayed by Tarrlok."
Zuko was only half joking, judging by the very real concern in his gaze, but Lin snorted as if it were a joke because even such a seemingly harmless act would be blown out of proportion. "I'd advise against that," she told the Fire Lord truthfully. "You go out of your way to invite such opinions on a Republic City representative and you'll be accused of treason. Word always gets out in those kinds of cases, and then Tarrlok will be crawling up all our asses."
"Fair enough," Zuko sighed, "but I do want to help. If there's anything legal and lacking in scandal that you can think of, even if you're uncertain of the Council's opinion, please don't hesitate to ask. I still have some sway of my own, and if it requires me making the trip to Republic City to make a personal request to the Council myself then I'll gladly do it. Republic City means as much to me as it does you. I don't want all of Aang and Toph and Sokka's hard work to fall to the wayside because of some legal concerns."
Lin opened her mouth to thank Zuko, but a thought occurred to her and instead she said, "Actually, there is something you can do for me."
"Name it," Zuko instantly agreed.
"We've been getting feedback that there are some influential people here in the Fire Nation that are Agni Kai Triad sympathizers, and that some of these people may be funneling money and resources to them in the city. We've also got reason to believe a few criminals have fled the city and been given refuge here by those same people. It's outside our jurisdiction, so all we've really been able to do is send word of our suspicions to local authorities and ask that anyone with outstanding warrants be returned to us, but either the local cops are getting paid off or the sympathizers are really good at hiding people away."
Zuko nodded slowly, a thoughtful look on his face, along with the disdain he felt for such people. "I received a few reports of those myself, but the information was incomplete and we were uncertain of the severity. If you can have the reports sent directly to me I'll look into it personally. I certainly don't want Agni Kai sympathizers harboring criminals."
Lin did thank Zuko this time, and shortly after, Sora came running up to them, presenting Lin with a gift. It was a rock about the same size as the one Katara had given Lin earlier in the day to help her overcome the ill feeling she got while flying, but Sora's rock was less plain and "much prettier," the girl claimed. Lin promised to hold onto it every time she flew and Sora ran off again with a gleeful smile.
Zuko chuckled beside Lin and told her, "Your kids are spectacular, Lin. Have I told you that?"
"Yeah," Lin easily agreed with a fond smile, "they're pretty special."
"They take after you and Tenzin so much it's almost like déjà vu. Sometimes it makes me forget how old I am. Ronen takes after you physically, but he's got Tenzin's temperament and thirst for knowledge. Sora is such an enchanting little girl, the nicest I've ever met, and clearly naturally brilliant and quick-witted like her mother. Yunjin is…well, he looks so much like Aang it's almost frightening." Zuko laughed, but Lin could see a wistfulness in his gaze, the same look Lin sometimes caught Katara giving her youngest grandson. Lin had never seen Aang as a child, so it was easier to forget that Yunjin looked so much like his grandfather, but she could imagine how strange it must be for Zuko and Katara, to almost see Aang in Yunjin, young and carefree and healthy again, as if the last sixty years or so had never happened.
Zuko went on, "But I also have no trouble believing that Yunjin is Toph's grandson. I can't even imagine what sort of mischief your mother could have gotten into with him."
Lin snorted at the thought. "Spirits, can you imagine? My mother in her sixties, with more tricks up her sleeve and even less cares? Those two would be a terror."
"Indeed they would," Zuko said, still grinning.
He went quiet then for several minutes, while he and Lin finally began to pick at the food they'd ordered. Neither of them was big on unhealthy street food, so they were probably quite the sight, examining every facet of their food before taking measured bites. They would both probably only eat half of it before pawning the rest off onto one of their family members.
Then Zuko suddenly stated, "She would be proud of you, you know? Your mother."
Lin stopped chewing and slowly swallowed the small bit of food left in her mouth, forcing it down even as a lump formed in her throat. She wanted to say "I know" or "thanks" but all she managed was, "You think?"
Zuko nodded emphatically. "I know. Toph wasn't spectacular at compliments or affection, but she loved you and Suyin more than anything else. I didn't always understand Toph, but she loved her friends and she loved her kids and she was one of the most supportive people I've ever known. I know she wasn't always as present as she should have been, but it was her way of letting you be whatever you wanted to be, to find happiness wherever you wanted."
Lin cleared her throat in an effort to choke down the emotion rising within her. Being around so much family and remembering times from her youth and the people she'd lost was really starting to get to her.
"And I understand your hesitance to have another child," Zuko quietly added, "and it's absolutely none of my business, but in case you didn't know, you and Tenzin are exceptional parents. I haven't seen anything that the two of you couldn't handle."
Lin struggled to find the right words, touched by Zuko's confidence in her and still uncertain of the whole thing.
"But enough of all that," Zuko said, so that Lin wouldn't have to think of a response. "Let's return to our family and enjoy your last night with us, shall we?"
"Let's get rid of this food first," Lin suggested, holding up her half eaten dinner and making a face at it.
Zuko laughed heartily, taking her food out of her hands and promptly dumping both hers and his into the nearest trash bin as he said, "I couldn't agree more."
The two of them returned to their large group then, around the same time that Tenzin returned with Yunjin proudly showing off his new shoes. They all continued to walk and chat and explore, until it grew very late and Tenzin was carrying a sleeping Sora, while Bataar was toting Wing on his back. Ronen and Yunjin were both leaving heavily against Lin, but Wei was still relatively lively and chasing his older brother Huan. The teens were grumbling about being tired and the adults were just as exhausted, so they all finally headed back to the palace. Shortly thereafter, everyone went straight to their beds and fell asleep. Except for Lin and Zuko, who went first to the kitchens to have a proper meal, before they too crawled into bed.
First thing in the morning, Lin rose early and went to get breakfast before anyone else, desperate to quell the morning sickness before it happened and also wanting to be alone just in case her efforts were for naught. She managed to keep breakfast down without incident, and returned to her room with Tenzin to begin packing her few belongings. Tenzin was still unhappy about her going, but went to retrieve their kids so that she could say goodbye.
They hadn't had a chance to tell them that Lin was leaving early yet, and it went predictably unwell.
Sora was immediately upset, demanding that Lin not leave.
"It'll only be for three nights and then we'll all be back together," Lin soothed, letting the small girl nestle in her arms for a few moments. "And when you get back you can tell me about all the stuff you did."
"But I want you to stay here, Mama," Sora persisted.
"I know you do," Lin sighed, "but Mama has to work. I have to make sure the city is safe when you guys get back. You just have to be brave for a little while, can you do that for me?"
"I can be brave, Mama," Yunjin proclaimed, always the most courageous of the three of them. "And I'll take good care of Sora."
"See?" Lin told Sora. "Your brother will watch out for you. And Daddy and Gran-Gran and Aunt Su will still be here. You'll be just fine."
Sora sniffled, unconvinced, tugging on her mother's sleeve as she mumbled, "But who is gonna take care of you?"
"Lieutenant Jeia and Deputy Saikhan will take care of me," Lin assured her. "I'll be okay, you don't have to worry about me."
"But I do," Sora whimpered.
"Mama will be very careful," Tenzin intervened, gently rubbing Sora's back. "She's a very good police officer. She'll be safe."
"I'll go with her," Ronen spontaneously offered, having been mostly silent throughout the whole exchange.
"I appreciate that, kid," Lin said, "but you'll stay here and have fun. I'll be just fine, I promise."
"I know, but I want to come with you anyway," Ronen persisted. "You shouldn't have to travel alone, and I've done all I wanted to here."
"I doubt that," Lin said with a fond smile. "Really, I don't want you ruining your vacation."
"It's not," Ronen insisted, unwavering. "I really want to go with you. That way Sora will feel better and you won't have to go alone. I want to help."
Lin looked to Tenzin for help, but he seemed just as much at a loss as she was.
"I'll be working most of the time," Lin tried again. "There won't be anyone there to watch you."
"I've gone with you to your office before," Ronen argued. "I won't get in the way, I promise. Or I can stay on the Island with one of the Acolytes, there's plenty of them there."
"Help me out here, Tenzin," Lin requested, turning to look at her husband again.
But Tenzin was looking contemplative and instead of helping Lin, he ended up saying, "Actually, I think it's a good idea."
"You what?" Lin demanded.
"If this is really what Ronen wants to do then I don't see the harm in it," Tenzin explained. "I'd certainly feel better knowing you weren't entirely alone. Ronen's old enough now to start making some of his own decisions. And you may need him if the pregnancy makes the boat ride difficult, or to remind you to take care of yourself the next couple of days."
"Yeah," Ronen agreed, "what he said."
Lin could see that she was clearly outnumbered, and while she could put her foot down, there wasn't really any harm in letting Ronen tag along. She wouldn't have to chase him around or worry about him getting into mischief, and it would be better than traveling alone.
She huffed out a breath of resignation and conceded, "Fine, but there are going to be some ground rules. You'll have to listen to everything I say without argument, got it?"
With a broad smile forming on his face, Ronen easily said, "Got it."
After Ronen had hurriedly packed up his belongings, he and Lin went to say their goodbyes to the rest of their family members. All of them were disappointed that the two of them would be leaving the vacation early, and Zuko tried offering again to send more of his staff to keep an eye on the situation in Republic City if it meant they'd stay. But Lin couldn't accept, and wouldn't feel comfortable staying on vacation while the city was in such a precarious state. She trusted Jeia and Saikhan implicitly, but she still needed to take care of some things personally.
It took a while to get through all the hugs and well-wishes and promises to write and meet up again soon, but eventually Lin and Ronen were ready to go and Tenzin and Sora and Yunjin flew them to the train station. Lin clutched tightly to the rock Sora had given her the night before, and the short flight went without incident.
Before boarding the train, Lin and Ronen had their private goodbyes with Tenzin and the twins, with more hugs and kisses. Sora cried, but Lin and Tenzin both assured her it would only be a couple days and Yunjin held tight to his twin sister's hand, while Ronen hugged his father goodbye and promised to take good care of his mother. Finally, Lin and Tenzin embraced, with a short kiss full of meaning, and then Lin and Ronen boarded the train to begin their journey back to the city.
Tenzin and the twins waited until the train had left the station and disappeared around a bend before climbing back onto Oogi and returning to the Fire Nation Palace. They were only solemn for a few hours before they were swept back up into the joy of being with their extended family members, content in knowing that they would only be apart from Lin and Ronen for a few days.
It was a few hours after lunch that a palace aid came rushing into the room where Tenzin, Su, Kya, Yumae and Bataar were sat. All of the kids were with Zuko, Izumi, and Katara in the village and Bumi was back with the United Forces again. The remaining adults were finding peace in the quiet and having light discussions when they weren't busy reading through newspapers or books they'd been meaning to peruse. The palace aid disturbed their peaceable moment, clomping frantically into the room, gasping for breath and casting wide eyes around the room before landing on Tenzin.
Tenzin's stomach dropped, thinking instantly of Lin and Ronen and wondering how things could have gone wrong so soon. Could they have even made it all the way back home yet? At most they should have been about to board a ship, but they couldn't have reached Republic City already.
"Councilman Tenzin!" the palace aid wheezed. "An urgent letter for Chief Beifong has come from Republic City."
Tenzin rose abruptly, hoping that if the letter was meant for Lin then it meant she and Ronen were still safe…for now.
"I informed the messenger that she was not here," the aid went on, "but he will not leave until either you or her take the –"
A loud commotion from out in the hallway interrupted the palace aid, who spun around to face the entrance just as a man in Republic City Metalbending Police gear barged into the room, batting aside several palace guards that had followed him with a discomforting amount of ease.
"Sir!" the palace aid squeaked in alarm. "I told you that you could not come in here! I have already informed –!"
"And I told you that this was time sensitive," the police officer barked, shoving past the aid and casting his gaze quickly over the room. When he spotted Tenzin, he stomped right up to him, what Tenzin presumed to be the letter intended for Lin held aloft. When the officer reached Tenzin, he bowed quickly and said, in a slightly calmer tone, "Councilman Tenzin, forgive me for intruding like this, but I was given strict orders from Deputy Chief Saikhan. This letter must be placed directly in the hands of either Chief Beifong or yourself. This clown –" he gestured back towards the palace aid, who huffed indignantly, " – claims that the Chief is already on her way back to Republic City."
"That is correct," Tenzin replied, reaching out impatiently to take the letter and hastily tearing it open as he added, "Thank you for bringing this to me."
Tenzin had opened the letter by then, and his eyes roved over the words there as if his very life depended upon him reading it as quickly as possible. As expected, he didn't like what he saw, and he felt his chest tightening in response to his ever growing concern. He had to force himself to swallow, his mouth having suddenly gone dry, before he could speak again, looking back up at the metalbender to ask, "Do you require transport back to Republic City? I can offer you a place on my sky bison."
"I would appreciate that, Sir," the police officer answered, "if it's not too much trouble."
"Allow me five minutes," Tenzin said. "I'll meet you in the front entryway."
The officer snapped a salute and turned abruptly, striding right past the befuddled palace aid and annoyed guards.
Kya was suddenly stood directly in front of Tenzin, Su not far behind, and his sister immediately demanded, "What the hell was that? What did that letter say?"
"There's been a prison break," Tenzin explained shortly, his concern palpable. "Three inmates have escaped, and one of them is Deak."
"Deak?" Su said with a furrowed brow. "Why does that sound familiar?"
"Because about twenty or so years ago he aided in the escape of Kane, leader of the former Silver Granite Triad, and then conspired to capture and murder Lin. Kane was killed during the rescue attempt, but Deak has been in prison ever since."
"That Deak?" Kya nearly shrieked.
"That Deak," Tenzin replied tersely. "I need to catch up to Lin and Ronen now, before he does."
"You really think he would try something again?" Su questioned. "He's been in prison a long time, and if I recall, his plans didn't go so well last time."
"He's been in prison a long time," Tenzin repeated. "Plenty of time for him to sit on all that rage and concoct a new plan. He has to be going after Lin."
"She'll tear him to shreds," Kya asserted.
"Not if she doesn't know he's coming," Tenzin countered. "He could take her by surprise, or she could be weakened by the pregnancy, or too worried for Ronen to think of herself. I must go, in case she needs help."
"Then I'm coming with you," Su proclaimed.
"No," Tenzin refuted. "I need people here that I trust to look after Jin and Sora while I'm gone. The more the better, in case Deak comes looking for Lin here. With you and Kya and Mom and Zuko, that should be enough. I don't know if he's bringing friends or not, but I can't risk it."
"And what about you?" Kya pointed out. "What if you find Lin and Ronen and this guy's got too many for you to deal with?"
"Lin and I can handle ourselves," Tenzin asserted, "and we'll have a metalbending officer with us. It's the kids I'm most worried about. I'll send a message back when I reach Lin and Ronen. Please tell Jin and Sora not to worry, that I'll be back as quick as I can."
"We'll take care of them," Su sighed, reluctant to let him go alone but resolved to protect the twins. "Let us know you're all safe the second you can."
"I will," Tenzin promised, "and thank you."
And then he left, running right out the door and down the hall without bothering to pack any of his belongings. He went straight out to meet the metalbending officer, and they promptly went to find Oogi, clambering atop the sky bison and taking off into the sky. It wouldn't take long for them to reach Lin and Ronen by air, but Tenzin prayed that they would make it in time.
Chapter 34: Chapter 34
Chapter Text
Chapter 34
The train ride from the Fire Nation was long and uneventful.
Lin spent the first half hour of their journey telling Ronen all of the rules she expected him to follow over the next three days. He wasn't to leave her side unless she explicitly told him to, and if she did tell him to go elsewhere, then he was required to listen and not protest. She rattled off numerous safe places for him to go to in the case of emergency, depending on whichever was closest at the time. The boy listened intently, taking in every word that she said, too much his mother's son to arrogantly assume that they would be perfectly safe at all times. Even once they reached the city, the rules did not change. With Tenzin too far away and Lin busy working, Ronen's safety depended upon his obedience and his own smarts. Lin reminded him to trust his instincts and never let his guard down. If he was with her in her office, then he would need to be okay with the fact that his mother's attention would be focused more on work, but not hesitate to interrupt her if something was truly suspect, and if he was on the Island with one of the Acolytes then he needed to be vigilant and suspicious of anyone he didn't recognize.
It was possible that Lin was being overly cautious, but she wasn't taking any chances. She had no idea what they'd be walking into when they returned to the city, and accidents could happen so easily on a long journey too. She was paranoid, too used to seeing all the horrors of the world, but she was also a very good cop and a mother dedicated to her child's safety. Besides, with herlife experience she had learned never to expect things to go as planned. It was like she'd told Ronen: "Never stick to the plan, kid. The enemy always knows the plan, and if you try too hard to follow it then they'll catch you every time. Gotta make the plan up on the fly, catch 'em off guard."
And, of course, things went spectacularly wrong before they even made it to the city.
After a boring train ride during which Lin and Ronen both struggled to stay fully awake, they walked about a mile to the next point of their trip, both of them grateful for the fresh air and the excuse to stretch their muscles and bring feeling back into their legs. When they reached the docks of the nearest ship port, they were forced to stand in line for an extended period, inching forward every few minutes but mostly standing still. The ship port was small and busy, packed full with far too many people. Lin kept a secure hand on Ronen's shoulder the entire time, her gaze always moving and her seismic sense focused fully on their surroundings. They bought their tickets without incident, and then quickly boarded the next ship headed to Republic City.
While waiting for the ship to take off, Lin and Ronen did a thorough sweep, striding casually up and down the deck, peeking in any hatches that weren't fully restricted and too difficult to gain access to without drawing unnecessary attention. They examined the faces of the other people aboard, and Lin quietly introduced herself to the main security officer on board, who was named Jao. Just in case something happened, Jao would surely let the Chief of Police know what was going on. Any public transport headed into Republic City was considered to be under her jurisdiction, and therefore allowed her to make any necessary arrests while she was on board. It also gave her some control over the Captain of the ship if she decided for some reason that docking in the city would be dangerous for the citizens of Republic City. It was a power she'd never had to enact, and hoped she wouldn't have to today.
But Lin's hopes for a quiet trip were dashed within the first hours of the ship leaving port.
They were about halfway back to Republic City, and Lin and Ronen were in the middle of cracking jokes with one another when one of the security officers approached them looking panicked. The officer was young and currently very pale, quaking with obvious fear and stumbling over shipping crates and his own feet as he hurried in their direction. He was about to cause a scene, Lin could feel it, and she abruptly jumped to her feet, frowning as she strode casually but hastily to meet the officer, Ronen dutifully pacing her a step behind.
"Ch – Ch – Chief Beifong," the young man stammered, and up close Lin could see the sweat dripping from his brow.
"Not here," Lin hissed at him through clenched teeth, before nodding reassurance to the nearby civilians that were eyeing the nervous security officer with concern. "Rookies these days," Lin snorted, hoping her lack of concern would placate the ship's occupants. "Act like they're meeting a celebrity or something." Lin shook her head with a forced chuckle and the nearby civilians laughed a little, or at least lost interest. Still keeping up the act while some of them continued watching, Lin swiveled the officer around, so that the anxiety on his face was now hidden from view, and slapped him on the back in a gesture that would appear friendly, but was actually an effort to snap the rookie out of it. "What's your name, kid?"
The officer stared at her with wide eyes and struggled to swallow, but when faced with Lin's death glare, he hastily answered, "Hiru, Ma'am."
"Let me tell you a little story, Hiru," Lin said, unnecessarily loudly, while leading the boy as far from everyone else as she could, glancing sideways to make sure Ronen was beside her. "When I was about your age, my mother told me a little secret about being an officer. Do you know what she said to me?"
Hiru shook his head jerkily and croaked, "No, Ma'am."
They were far enough away from the crowd now that Lin dropped the act a bit, lowering her voice and scowling as she said, "She told me to 'never let the public see you sweat'. The people trust you to look out for them, and if you're nervous, then they're nervous, and when people are nervous, pandemonium is imminent. You understand me, Hiru?"
Hiru seemed to be catching on, nodding dumbly before shaking his head as if to clear it and saying, in a steadier voice this time, "Yes, Ma'am."
Lin pushed Hiru through the hatchway that would lead them back the way that Hiru had come from, and once Ronen had closed the door behind them, Lin demanded, "What's going on?"
"Captain Jao asked me to find you," Hiru explained, his worry then returning full force so that he struggled to continue. "There's a – a – a situation –"
"Take me to him," Lin commanded, cutting off the kid's stuttering. Hiru nodded quickly and then took off, practically running down the compact corridors, his light armor banging off the entryways every time he rounded a corner. Lin and Ronen hastened to follow, and as they were jogging, Lin sternly told her son, "Stay close."
The boy nodded dutifully, but she needn't have bothered, because he was already sticking as close to her as he possibly could and his face was set in determination. She could see him out of the corner of her eye, casting repetitive glances over his shoulder to ensure they weren't being followed. It was an admittedly small act but it still made her unexplainably proud.
Hiru led them to the main engine room, where most of the controls for the ship were contained in a small office space, with large windows instead of walls that allowed the Chief Engineer to see the inner workings of the ship. Several dozen workers could be seen down below, but instead of doing their jobs as they typically did, each of them was standing stock still and staring up at the engine room, awaiting orders rather than continuing to keep the ship going.
Inside the small room were more people than it was meant to hold, including Jao, two other security officers, the Chief Engineer, and several other various workers. All of them were huddled around a crate in the center of the room, grim faced and quietly arguing. Lin told Ronen and Hiru to stay out in the corridor, and then squeezed her way through the group to get to the front and see what it was they were all staring at.
When Lin finally laid eyes on the contents of the crate, her stomach immediately dropped and she thought for a moment that she was about to be sick. She swallowed forcefully, willing away the sudden nausea and silently pleading with the fetus not to make her sick at a time like this. It took her several moments and carefully measured breaths, but eventually she was able to calm her stomach enough to speak.
"Please don't tell me that's what I think it is," she said first, still unable to take her eyes off of the bomb sitting two feet away from her face, primed and capable of going off at any moment. There was a timer counting down from twenty-seven minutes. That's all the time they had to get everyone off of the ship before it was blown apart.
"Chief Beifong," Jao sighed, almost sounding relieved, but the tension in his voice was still palpable. "I'm glad you're here. We were hoping…well, I've never seen anything like this. I wasn't sure if maybe you had some training…"
He trailed off, uncertain, and Lin finally looked up to meet his worried gaze as she replied, "Hoping…what? That I had training on how to disable a bomb on a mostly wooden ship out in the middle of the ocean? I'm sorry to disappoint, Captain, but this is something beyond my capabilities. Any attempt to disarm that thing is too great a risk to my life and the lives of everyone else on board. Our only option here is to get everyone off of this ship as quickly as possible and pray that thing doesn't go off anytime soon. Does the Captain of the ship know?"
"Not yet," the Chief Engineer answered. "I went to Jao first and he immediately suggested you."
"I'll head up top to let her know," Lin said. "Meanwhile, we need guards on this room, in case whoever planted that thing comes down to try and set it off early. Everyone else, sweep the entire ship for anyone left down here, make sure everyone gets up top as quick as possible."
"Should we set off the alarm?" Jao suggested. "Everyone will know to get to the life rafts."
"Not yet," Lin disagreed. "It'll send everyone into a panic and alert the person – or persons – that put that thing here that we're onto them. If they're still on board, they're not going to let everyone escape before it goes off. We do this quietly, and quickly. Once I talk to the Captain I'll keep the peace up there, you keep the peace down here. When that thing reaches five minutes, don't bother guarding it any longer. Then we'll set off the alarm and everyone who's left needs to evacuate immediately. Everyone understand?"
All of them nodded, either looking terrified or determined. Lin didn't waste anymore time, and left the rest of the orders to Jao as she hastened out of the room, grabbing Ronen in the doorway and pushing him along with her as they began sprinting back down the corridors. She idly heard Jao telling Hiru to go with them, and she could hear him pelting down the corridor to catch up.
"Mom," Ronen panted as they ran, his voice raised so that she could hear him over their heaving breaths and pounding footsteps, "did I really hear you say there's a bomb in there?"
"Yeah, kid," Lin admitted grimly, not letting herself think about what that meant for her son. If she thought about the danger he was in she would lose it, and she couldn't afford to panic. She would simply have to make certain that he was one of the first people onto the life rafts. She would stay behind long enough to help everyone else off, but she wouldn't risk Ronen.
"How are we supposed to stop a bomb?" Ronen questioned.
"We can't," Lin told him, looking over her shoulder briefly to make sure he was right on her heels. "We just need to get everyone off of this ship as quick as possible."
"Can we do that in time?"
Lin didn't answer for several more steps, waiting until they came sliding to a halt at the hatchway that led to the top deck. Then she turned to Ronen and braced her hands on his shoulders, ducking her head slightly to look him in the eye. "I don't know what's going to happen out there, but you promised to listen to everything I said, and I need to know that you're going to keep that promise. When I tell you to get on a life raft, you need to do it. No heroics out there, got it? I can't do my job and keep these people safe if I'm worried about you."
Ronen frowned. "You don't have to worry about me," he asserted. "I can help. You need my help if we're going to get everyone off the boat in time."
"What I need is for you to be safe," Lin corrected, glancing briefly at Hiru, who had just reached them and was standing a few paces away, panting and looking impatient.
"I'm not leaving without you," Ronen declared, reverting Lin's gaze to him. "Who's gonna keep you and the baby safe?"
Lin was taken aback for a moment, unable to counter, remembering suddenly that she was pregnant, and the baby's life depended wholly on her survival. Not only that, but even if she made it off the boat – and she very much intended to –, if she wasn't careful, she could have a miscarriage from overexerting herself. It was the dilemma that she knew all along would become a problem now that she was pregnant, half the reason she was against the whole idea in the first place.
Her job required sacrifice, something she'd done without question for so many years, always throwing herself into the line of fire to protect the public, always saving someone else's life before thinking about her own. But things were different now that she had a family, they had to be. Because she wasn't just risking her own life anymore. If she stayed on the boat she wouldn't just be endangering the fetus, but also Ronen, who she knew would not listen to her now that there was real danger. He wouldn't leave the boat until she did, even if she threw him in a life raft, he'd find someway to get back to her. And even if she got Ronen to safety, endangering her own life for the sake of others would tear her family apart just as much as anyone else's. If she died, she'd be leaving behind a husband and three kids, and while she knew they were strong enough to get by without her, she also knew firsthand what their anguish would be, and she did not wish that on her children, especially at such young ages.
But how could she choose to protect herself without abandoning all the principals she had instilled in her children? If it came down to it, and she had the chance to get to safety, but it required leaving others behind to find their own way, how could she live with herself if something happened to them because she wasn't there to protect them? Then again, was it up to her to save every single person without regards to her own life? How many of them would do the same for her? Did that even matter?
Lin closed her eyes and shook her head as if to rid herself of the thoughts. She was nowhere close to having the answer to any of those questions, and she didn't have time to think on it. Nor did she have time to argue with Ronen. She would simply have to be quick and smart and hope that they had enough time to get everyone to safety. It could be done, she knew that it could, with only a hundred or so total people onboard, and she would simply have to believe in herself and in the other passengers and workers on the ship. And if she had to push Ronen off the deck of the ship to get him to safety then she'd do that too. The boy was a phenomenal swimmer, so she knew he'd make it.
"Fine," Lin relented through gritted teeth. "We do this together, but we do it my way. And when I tell you it's time for us to get off the boat you better damn well listen to me. Got it, kid?"
Ronen nodded soberly, and without further discussion, Lin released him to turn and open the hatchway.
The three of them ran straight to the Captain of the ship, barging into the room and ignoring the demands of the other two security officers standing guard. Hiru began to explain the situation to his fellow officers, and Lin motioned for Ronen to stay with them by the door while she went up to the woman piloting the ship.
"Chief Beifong," the Captain said in surprise as she turned to face the sudden intrusion. "Jao told me you were on board. I was hoping we wouldn't have to meet. What can I do for you?"
"Captain," Lin said without preamble, "there's a situation. We need to start loading people onto the life rafts. There's a bomb in the engine room and we've got maybe twenty-four minutes or so before it goes off."
The Captain's eyes widened and she stared at Lin in shock. "A bomb, you say? Are you certain?"
"Very certain," Lin confirmed. "And unless you've got an expert on board our only option is to abandon ship. I don't know if the culprit behind it is onboard, but just in case I'd suggest that in lieu of setting off the alarm we claim it's a practice drill before –"
Lin's words were cut off as several loud thumpsand an 'Oof' sounded behind her. She watched the Captain's gaze shift to the doorway where the three security officers and Ronen were stood, and then saw it immediately turn fearful.
Lin felt her heart clench in her chest just as Ronen called to her, the fear in his own voice making it quake as he simply said, "Mom."
Lin whirled around, body already tensed with trepidation at what she would find, and when she saw her son at last, she nearly collapsed from the weight of the absolute terror that engulfed her.
There in the doorway stood the ghost of a man from far in her past, a man she'd nearly forgotten had existed, a man she hadn't thought of in over a decade. He was no longer the man he'd once been, but she still recognized that sneering face. His once perfectly sculpted hair was no longer short, but long and untamed, streaked with gray. His once muscled physique had turned thin and brittle, and the pallor of his skin was pale and sickly. His face was lined with age and hatred, no longer the handsome, arrogant metalbending officer full of pride and ambition.
It felt like a century had passed since she'd seen him last. It had been over thirty years since she let him take her to the 35th Anniversary Celebration of the end of the Hundred Year War. She still remembered his dull stories and hiding from him for half of the night so that she could stay with Tenzin. She faintly remembered dating him while Tenzin was away on his two year sojourn. She remembered that he was a terrible kisser but a cunning warrior and he wanted to be Chief of Police someday.
But she also very clearly remembered the day he broke the leader of the Silver Granite Triad out of prison. Kane, who Lin had personally arrested within her first few weeks on the job, a ruthless criminal that killed several other officers during his escape, and countless others throughout his reign. Kane and the man standing before her had kidnapped Lin and tortured her for over a day, both of them eager to make her pay for all the supposed wrongs she'd done them. Lin had killed Kane during her rescue, but his accomplice had survived and was sentenced to life in prison.
Yet somehow he was standing before her, malicious smile on his face the same as it was all those years ago, the two security officers and Hiru at his feet, either dead or unconscious. And in the man's arms was one of the most precious things in Lin's life, her son Ronen, trapped against the man's chest with a knife held to his throat.
Lin felt her entire body go numb, and her vision went red for a moment, so much fear and rage consuming her in that moment that she thought she might explode. He had her son, her first born, and there was nothing she could do but freeze, desperate to react, to go at the man and tear him to shreds, but any wrong move and he could easily slice Ronen's throat before she even took a step.
She fought for control of her tense muscles, squeezing her fists closed and swallowing down the whimper that tried to escape her throat. Her face twitched, but her voice was steady when she finally said, "Deak."
"Hello, Lin," Deak casually responded, as if they were two old friends greeting one another, "or should I say Chief Beifong? Are you happy to see me again, after all this time?"
"Can't say that I am," Lin said slowly, her eyes flickering as she examined every facet of the situation and trying to think. "Surprised, mostly."
"Ironic, isn't it?" Deak said airily. "I was imprisoned for helping a man escape prison, and now here I am, having finally succeeded in my own escape. It's more difficult from the inside, you know? Requires more patience, but I had all the patience in the world."
"And this is where you chose to come?" Lin asked. "A free man at last and you go to the one person that will certainly put you right back where you came from?"
Deak's smile widened into a vicious grin, rotting teeth bared. "No, no, no," he denied, "you won't be walking away from this one, Lin."
"So what's the plan then?" Lin questioned, growing impatient, desperately trying to think of a way to save Ronen. "We all stand around here and get blown up? Doesn't give you a very satisfying win if you're not alive to revel in it."
"I'm willing to die for my cause, Lin," Deak eerily replied. "Are you willing to die for yours?"
"Depends on the cause, but if you're talking about my son then I'm yours to do with what you wish, so long as you let him go. I won't even put up a fight."
Deak glanced down at Ronen for half a second, one hand still holding the knife to the boy's throat and his other hand coming up to briefly stroke Ronen's hair, an awkward gesture that made Lin's blood boil. "He could have been ours, you know?" Deak chuckled. "But I remember you telling me on one of our first dates that you hated kids, that you never wanted to have any of your own. So imagine how surprised I was to hear that you stayed with that obnoxious airhead and decided to procreate. Tell me, how did he coerce you into having three of his kids?"
Lin didn't bother to answer. She was done with the small talk. "Let my son go, Deak," Lin demanded. "Do whatever you want to me, but let him off the ship. He's an innocent, someone you would have protected during your policing days."
It was a long shot, but Lin was becoming increasingly desperate.
Deak was unfazed. "Not quite innocent if he's your son, is he?" And then, when Lin snarled without thought, he laughed heartily. "Oh, I'll let your boy go," he claimed, "but I want you to do something for me in return."
"Name it."
If Deak's smile grew any wider his cheeks would surely split. "I'll personally escort your boy off of this ship, so long as you and everyone else remains until the bomb goes off."
"Don't do it, Mom!" Ronen instantly exploded, lurching against Deak's arm as if to break away, only to be jerked right back against the man's chest.
"Be quiet, Ronen," Lin snapped, giving the boy a warning look and hating herself for it. She returned her attention to Deak. "How do I know you'll let him go after you've left the ship? How do I know you won't just kill him the second I turn my back?"
"I give you my word," Deak swore.
"Forgive me," Lin snorted, "but I can't say I trust your word."
"If I wanted to kill your boy I would have already," Deak countered, a bit impatiently. He was probably eager to get off of the ship that was about to explode. "I wouldn't waste such a satisfying moment, to see the anguish in your eyes when the blood came pouring from your son's throat, to see the recognition dawn that it was all your fault, that you failed him. I'm tempted do it anyway, purely for the satisfaction of it all, but I have bigger plans in mind, and I need you dead for that. You give me your word not to save a single soul on this boat, definitely not yourself, and I give you mine that your boy will live to see another day."
"Will you let him go afterwards?" Lin sought to clarify. "My husband will hunt you down if you don't."
"I expect I'll be seeing the Avatar's son regardless of whether or not I let the kid go," Deak said, and he didn't sound at all concerned, "but yes, I will leave him at the nearest ship port. I have no further use for him. Now, do I have your word?"
"Yes," Lin said without hesitation, not letting herself think about anything else. He might still be able to sense it if she was lying so she had to be convincing. She would figure something out, she had to, but arguing with Deak would only waste more time, and time was running out.
"No!" Ronen screamed, fighting against Deak's grip. "Mom! You can't! I won't go!"
"Ronen," Lin growled, giving the boy a very long look, hoping that he would see in her eyes what she was doing, that he would understand. "It's going to be okay, kid, I promise. I've never lied to you, have I?"
Ronen was glaring at her, and he still struggled in Deak's grasp. "You're lying right now," Ronen spat, and her heart clenched at the hurt in his voice and the tears forming in his eyes.
Lin sucked in a deep breath, still maintaining eye contact with her son. "Ronen, what have I always told you about sticking to the plan?"
The boy's brow furrowed and he stopped fighting for a second. She watched as he struggled to remember, and then the realization dawned on him. His expression hardened with resolve, and he straightened up, nodding minutely at his mother.
"To follow the plan, no matter how much you hate it," Ronen lied, sounding just bitter enough to be believed.
The ship captain stepped forward then, speaking for the first time to angrily say, "I'm sorry, Chief Beifong, but I cannot allow you to do this."
Lin turned to face the captain without concern and asked, "And how do you intend to stop me?"
"I have command of this ship," the captain started to say.
"I outrank you, Captain," Lin interjected. "Now step aside."
"I will do no such thing," the captain asserted, holding out her palm, upon which a ball of flame burst to life.
Lin twitched a finger, and a sheet of metal tore from the wall and ran straight into the captain's chest, throwing her flat against the opposite wall and trapping her there. "I'm sorry, Captain," Lin said genuinely, and then she turned to begin striding towards Deak and Ronen. "Now, let's get my son off of this ship."
Deak stepped to the side, out of the hatchway, pulling Ronen with him as he happily said, "After you."
Lin gritted her teeth, stomping past Deak and Ronen, examining everything as she did so, calculating all of the possibilities. She led the way back out onto the main deck and over to the nearest life raft. As she walked, she was hyperaware of everything, taking stock of everything available to her, and it was then that she noticed something in her pocket thumping against her thigh.
The rock. The one she'd been using to fight back any nausea brought on by the baby's dislike for flying. She reached out with her senses, cradling the rock with her earthbending, shifting it minutely, testing it out. She morphed it into the shape of a dagger, forcing herself not to wince when the sharp tip jabbed her leg.
Once the three of them had reached the edge of the ship, Deak circled around Lin, ushering Ronen along, so that the two of them were directly in front of the life raft, their backs to it, with Lin facing them.
"This is where we part ways," Deak said triumphantly. "It was a pleasure to see you again, Lin."
"Before you go," Lin pressed, stalling for time. "Since I'm about to die, can you at least tell me why?"
Deak's smile was still unwavering, but it twitched slightly. "You don't think you deserve it?" he asked of her, with a curious tilt of his head. "You really believe that you're a good, innocent person? Even after you've chosen to doom over a hundred lives to simply save your own son?"
"I wouldn't say innocent," Lin admitted, "but if I recall, you're the one that broke a hardened criminal out of prison and then came after me. Why? Why weren't you content to be a cop all of a sudden? You loved your job."
Deak snorted patronizingly. "There was no being a cop with you around. I had no chance at being Chief, just another one your lackeys, forced to submit." His knife hand flinched against Ronen's throat as a result of his anger and the boy grimaced, reeling back from it. Lin jerked forward instinctively, catching herself when Deak took a step back. She swallowed down the growl that was forming in her throat and took several calming breaths.
"So you were jealous that I was better than you?" Lin eventually asked skeptically.
"You weren't better," Deak scathingly replied, his smile finally curving downwards. "You were privileged. You only got where you are today because of who your mother was. You never had to work for anything a day in your life."
"That's a bit of a stretch," Lin said with a raised brow. Meanwhile, the dagger in her pocket had cut its way through the inner fabric and was sliding down the inside of her pant leg. She knew that the only way to get Deak away from her son without Ronen coming to harm would very likely result in Deak's death, but if it was the only way to save Ronen and the hundred other people on the ship, she was willing to do it. She didn't revel in killing and she avoided it when necessary, but with her son in danger she wasn't taking chances. Deak was clearly crazed and would not be reasoned with, certainly not before the bomb went off.
"It's no surprise you sold out," Deak went on, as if she hadn't spoken at all. "You thought you might lose some of your power if you weren't the wife of the Avatar's son and the last living Airbender. So you whored yourself out and had some brats you didn't want to keep your status, but at the end of the day everyone knows you're just an uptight bitch that only cares about being at the top and –"
It all happened so fast that if Lin had chosen that moment to blink she would have missed it. One second she was focused intently on angling the dagger so that, when she threw it, it would hit Deak directly in the eye before he ever knew what had happened.
In the next, before she could even do that, Ronen let out a feral growl and bit down hard on Deak's hand, the one that was holding the knife to his throat. Deak didn't drop the knife, but his hand did spasm, and Ronen used the distraction to stomp down even harder on Deak's foot, and then promptly elbowed him right in the gut.
Deak staggered backwards with a grunt, clutching at his ribs, and Ronen instantly went sprinting to his mother. The dagger shot out of Lin's pant leg and came up into her hand instead of her original plan, as she too began to run to meet her son. When Deak, still slightly hunched over, let out a roar and threw his own knife straight at Ronen's back, Lin easily swatted it away with metalbending, and then she had Ronen colliding against her and she thrust him behind her, shielding him with her body. At the same time, Lin sent her own dagger flying at Deak, who was too disoriented to notice the small weapon before it struck him directly in the chest.
Deak took one step back in surprise, dropping his gaze to look at the rock-formed dagger sticking from his chest, blood seeping through his shirt and forming an ever growing stain around the wound. Amazingly, he laughed for half a second, only to choke on the effort and spit blood from his mouth. He looked up at Lin with a red smile and rasped out, "It…isn't over…Lin…. More…will come…"
He coughed up more blood and it dribbled down his chin as Lin said simply, "Goodbye, Deak."
She gave the dagger in his chest a shove, and Deak easily toppled over the side of the ship, plummeting to the ocean depths below with a loud splash, gone in an instant, as if he had never even been there.
Lin instantly whirled around and tugged Ronen into a crushing embrace, heaving in a deep breath of air for the first time since Deak had shown up and allowing herself a moment to feel relieved. She peppered her son's hair with kisses and murmured, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, are you okay?"
She pulled him out to arms length and the kid somehow managed to give her a smile as he assured her, "I'm okay, Mom. I'm okay."
Lin tipped his head up to check his neck, just to make sure, blinking back the emotion trying to fight its way out of her. She didn't think she had ever struggled so much to catch her breath, had ever felt as much true terror as she had at thinking something horrible could happen to her son. She crushed him against her again, desperate to feel his heart still beating and his lungs still breathing, to know what he was still alive.
They didn't have time for a proper reunion, though, not with the bomb still ticking away beneath them. They were probably getting close to the final minutes by now, and she squeezed Ronen one last time before taking his hand and saying, "Come on, we've got to get everyone off this boat."
She and Ronen sprinted back to the captain's room first, and upon entering, Lin immediately released the furious woman from the metal slab she was trapped behind.
"Sorry, Captain," Lin said again, "but the terrorist is dead. We've got to get everyone off of this ship now."
The captain looked down at Ronen, then back at Lin and sternly commanded, "Don't ever do that again, Chief."
And then the captain took off, and Lin could hear her shouting orders as her feet pounded across the deck. Lin hoped that Jao and the others had already begun evacuating everyone from below. If they were quick, they might still make it.
Before joining the others, Lin crouched down to check on the three security officers Deak had felled. Two of them were dead, but Hiru was still breathing…barely. There was a knife lodged in his side and he was losing a lot of blood. Lin hastily ripped some of the young man's clothes and wrapped the wound as best she could. Then she had Ronen help her carry the kid back outside, and they carefully placed him in the nearest life boat.
The civilians on the ship were panicked but following the captain's orders so far, clambering into the life rafts with haste, some shoving, but most of them being relatively calm. Lin didn't think they knew exactly what was going on, which was probably for the best. Lin and Ronen began helping people offload quicker, and Lin didn't force the boy into the first life raft to descend. He had proven himself capable, to some extent, and she would let him help for just another moment or two.
Half of the occupants of the ship were being lowered into the water when Jao and the rest of the people left below deck came sprinting up to Lin and the captain.
"We've got maybe three minutes," Jao wheezed, heaving for air and hunched over trying to catch his breath.
"ALL RIGHT, PEOPLE!" the captain shouted over the noise. "WE'VE GOT THREE MINUTES TILL THIS WHOLE THING BLOWS! IF YOU CAN SWIM, JUMP IN AND WE'LL COME FOR YOU. EVERYONE ELSE, IN THE LIFE RAFTS NOW!"
Lin winced, and sure enough the panic escalated. Screams rang through the air and several splashes could be heard as people leapt off of the ship. Others began to shove their way into the life rafts, knocking other people down, piling too many into one, and leaping into rafts that were already beginning to descend into the water.
Lin began pushing Ronen in the direction of one of the remaining rafts, shoving her way through and holding him tight against her chest.
But it was taking too long, and she was counting down the seconds in her head and they weren't going to make it.
There were a handful of people left on the ship when Lin decided that time had run out.
She grabbed onto Ronen's hand and held on as tight as she could, yelling to everyone left onboard, "JUMP! JUMP NOW!"
Everyone went running, Lin and Ronen among them, and when they reached the edge of the boat they jumped up on the ledge and catapulted themselves off of it. Lin let go of Ronen's hand so that both of them could stretch out their arms and dip their heads down to dive safely into the water.
Lin hit the surface hard and plummeted several feet down before regaining control and frantically kicking her way back up. The water was cold and the salt stung her eyes as she burst to the surface, looking frantically around her for Ronen, who surfaced a few feet away a second later. The boy instantly sought her out before beginning to swim away from the ship, and Lin did the same.
They hadn't made it far when the boom sounded, and Lin kicked harder and faster, glancing over her shoulder once to see flames beginning to engulf the ship, but no shrapnel was headed their way yet. She could see a few other people bobbing along nearby, all of them desperately swimming away from the crumbling ship, in the direction of the escaping life boats.
And then Lin heard the sharp cry of a small child, and she followed the sound to her right, where she could just barely see a small boy splashing and flailing and coughing up water, struggling to keep his head above the surface. "Mommy!" the boy screamed, clearly unable to swim and panicking. "Mommy!"
"TAI!" a woman's voice screamed back, and Lin whirled around again, to see who she presumed to be the boy's mother. The woman was still close to the crumbling ship, also flailing and incapable of swimming. "HELP!" the mother pleaded. "HELP MY SON! SOMEONE SAVE MY SON! I CAN'T SWIM! PLEASE!" her head disappeared under the water for a few seconds, and she came back up coughing and spluttering, still screaming, "MY SON!"
Lin realized very quickly that she could only save one. She wouldn't be able to reach them both in time, and she probably wouldn't have been able to carry both of them either. She was strong, but even if she hadn't been pregnant, she wasn't a very experienced swimmer. She could keep her own head above water, but tugging others along with her was more difficult than that.
She hated to do it, to leave a child motherless, to basically let a women drown, but she had no choice but to save the child, to save Tai. It's what she would have wanted, if the choice was between her and one of her own kids.
But before she could move, Ronen was calling to her, "I'll get her!"
"Ronen, no!" Lin forbade, but the boy was already swimming back towards the burning ship, and Lin had a choice to either go after him and waste precious time, or go and save Tai, who couldn't swim, who would certainly die if Lin didn't help him. Her heart felt like it would tear in two, like she was abandoning her son if she turned her back on him, but she knew what she had to do and so she swam hastily in Tai's direction, forcing herself to trust Ronen to be careful. He was a very good swimmer. Sokka had started teaching him when he was just a baby, and after Sokka had passed, Ronen had spent nearly everyday in the water, perhaps to feel closer to his late Great Uncle, perhaps because he simply loved to swim. Whatever the case, the boy was a natural, and could swim laps around both his parents. He would easily be able to rescue the drowning woman, so long as he did it before the ship completely fell apart. If burning pieces of the ship fell onto him…well, she couldn't think like that. She couldn't. But she had just come so close to losing him only minutes ago, and it felt like she was about to lose him again.
Lin swam hard and fast, frantic to save the younger child and also to free herself to go back for Ronen. She managed to scoop Tai up just as he was sinking deep below the surface, and he spewed ocean water everywhere as she lifted him halfway out of the water. She paused to let him catch his breath, glancing back over her shoulder to seek out Ronen, but it was difficult to see with all the smoke pouring from the ship now. She would need a better vantage point.
She swiveled around and saw one of the life rafts coming towards her, and she told Tai, "It's okay, kid, I've got you. Hold on tight, we're almost out now."
Tai whimpered, "Want Mommy," but wrapped his little arms around Lin's neck and held on as she paddled them over to the raft. Jao was on the boat, and he reached down to accept the child as Lin held him up out of the water. Then Jao and another passenger grabbed Lin's arms and hefted her into the raft with them. She shivered once exposed to the open air, but refused the blanket they offered her. Instead, she rose onto her feet and squinted into the distance, scanning the area where Ronen and Tai's mother had been, searching for something, anything. Any sign that they were still swimming.
She had to look for a long time before she caught sight of them, and at first she had to blink several times to be sure her eyes weren't betraying her. But there they both were, still bobbing above the surface, Ronen using one arm and both legs to propel them away from the bombed ship, dragging the woman along behind him. They weren't moving very quickly, because Ronen was a strong swimmer but still a ten year old boy trying to pull a grown woman along with him, but they didn't look like they were any extra distress.
"Over there!" Lin instantly commanded the people operating the paddles, pointing in Ronen's direction. "They're over there!"
The two men dutifully began to paddle back in the direction of the ship, in the direction of Ronen and Tai's mother, and Lin's heart clenched with every second that passed. She kept her eyes on Ronen the entire time, flickering her gaze just enough to check the state of the ship a few times, willing it to just stay together until Ronen was far enough away, just until Ronen was safe.
She should have known it never worked out so easily.
Ronen and Tai's mother were three-quarters of the way to the life boat where Lin waited when the ship let out an awful groan. Fire burst forth from somewhere in the middle of the ship, and with a screeching crack, it split almost directly in two. Both ends began to tip backwards into the water, and wood and shrapnel flew out from all sides, raining down upon the few stragglers left wading in the water.
Lin screamed before her brain caught up to her. Her instinctive reaction was to shout a warning, to plead for her son's safety, to refuse the reality that was playing out before her, but it was too late. Ronen and Tai's mother were already lunging beneath the surface of the water as burning wreckage came hurtling straight at them.
Lin grabbed the edge of the boat and got one leg up onto the edge, prepared to leap back into the ocean and go after her son, but Jao grabbed her arms and yanked her back.
"Chief, wait!" he shouted.
"Get off me!" Lin screeched, fighting violently against Jao's grip. She managed to wrestle him off of her and scrambled back to the edge of the raft.
But several other people on board grabbed her and held her back, and she would have fought all of them. She would have fought all of them and won to get to her son, but then Tai stepped in front of her, a little boy no older than five, drenched and shivering and wiping his persistent tears from his cheeks.
He sniffled and pleaded, "Don't go, Chief lady."
"I have to," Lin muttered through gritted teeth, controlling herself in front of the kid, but still determined to go after her own boy.
"They can still make it," Jao insisted, crouching down to meet her gaze, and that was when she noticed the bleeding cut on his lip she'd likely just given him. "But if you go out in that you'll just get yourself killed."
"I won't leave him," Lin growled. She knew looking for Ronen was foolhardy and dangerous, that she could end up doing more harm than good, that she could die for nothing if he managed to make it out on his own. But what else was she supposed to do? Was she expected to just sit there and wait for a sign? To do nothing?
"We're not going anywhere," Jao soothed. "We'll wait a few more minutes –"
"He could be dead by then!" Lin protested, and then went quiet, shuddering at the mere thought.
"Hey, look!" one of the paddlers suddenly cried out, pointing off into the distance, and Lin immediately scrambled to her feet, unimpeded this time. "Over there! Is that them?"
Lin frantically searched the sea in the direction the man had pointed, and the fire was burning so hot and bright now that it made her eyes water, but she didn't stop staring.
And then she saw them, only a few short meters away, paddling desperately. They were alive. Tai's mother was bleeding from a head wound, but she was still conscious, trying to follow Ronen's lead, and Lin knew that something wasn't quite right, because Ronen was barely kicking his legs, but he was alive.
When the life boat finally reached the pair, Jao and two others reached down to grab Tai's mother and lift the exhausted woman on board, and she immediately reunited with her son.
Lin reached down herself, with the help of one other stranger, to grab Ronen's hands, heaving him up into the raft, and then she immediately pulled the boy into her arms yet again, demanding, "Don't ever do that to me again. Do you hear me, kid?"
Ronen chuckled breathlessly against her shoulder, still gasping for breath, and said, "Sorry, Mom. I'm okay."
Lin couldn't get any other words out, her throat constricting, so she merely squeezed Ronen tighter against her, aware that she was probably holding on too tight considering the boy was still trying to catch his breath.
And then he winced and she lurched back slightly, examining his features and searching for the source of his pain, worrying that it was her, until she saw the blood on his leg and had what must have been the eighteenth heart attack of the day.
"It's just a scratch," Ronen said hastily, trying to appease her.
Lin scoffed, "It's more than a scratch, kid."
He was shivering violently, moving too much for her to get a good look, and she demanded somebody hand her a blanket, which she promptly wrapped tight around his torso. She then inspected the wound thoroughly, deciding that it wasn't too bad, but he'd definitely need a healer or stitches. It wasn't deep, but long and seeping blood and Lin had to tear up someone else's dry clothes to wrap tightly around Ronen's injured thigh. Somewhat satisfied for now, she joined Ronen under the blanket, wrapping her arms around him and holding onto him for dear life, swearing she'd never let him go again – or, at least, not anytime soon.
Chapter 35: Chapter 35
Chapter Text
Chapter 35
Tenzin and the metalbending officer – Yuuto – did not fly along the same course Lin and Ronen took. By now, they would have disembarked from the train and probably already have boarded a ship. With any luck, Tenzin would catch up to the ship just before it docked in Republic City, giving him plenty of time to warn Lin about Deak's escape from prison. Tenzin didn't know whether or not Deak had remained in Republic City since his escape, perhaps lying in wait for Lin's return, or if he would have fled the city to go in search of her, or maybe even to live out the rest of his life free from his shackles.
Tenzin very much doubted the latter. If Deak had escaped, he'd done so for a reason, and he had help for a reason. No criminal could possibly care enough to risk their own life and freedom to break Deak out of prison just so he could go live on a farm somewhere. Whoever had freed Deak and the other two criminals would have done so for a reason, and whatever that was, it had to be something to do with Lin, perhaps the police as a whole. Deak wouldn't have gotten in on the deal otherwise.
So Tenzin expected that things would go very wrong very fast, but what he did not expect was to spot a plume of smoke rising up from the middle of the ocean.
He had been flying low, waiting to happen upon the ship that Lin and Ronen would be on. He didn't know, of course, which specific ship they would be on, but he knew it's course and he had a general idea of how far they would have made it in the hours that had passed since they left the Fire Nation Capital. He had only seen one ship heading in the right direction and it had been too close to port to have been them.
If his calculations were correct, he knew he'd happen upon them soon, and that was when he saw the smoke filling the horizon. He bent low over the reigns and ushered Oogi to go faster, panic swelling in him anew. Could he have been too late? Could Deak have caught up to them already?
Somewhere during his approach, the cloud of smoke and ash became recognizable as the remnants of a burning ship. It looked faintly as if it had once been a passenger ship, like Lin and Ronen would have been on, but split in two now, somehow torn apart from the middle, and slowly beginning to sink, fire still blazing but dying down as more and more of the ship sunk below the surface of the water.
Tenzin circled the burning wreckage several times, looking for clues or bodies or survivors, holding the reigns so tightly his fingers were starting to cramp, a trepidation filling him so fully that his head was spinning. He was desperate for answers, to know if Ronen and Lin were aboard that ship, and if they were, where were they now? But the smoke was thick and whatever had happened to the ship had occurred a while before he'd gotten there, and so most of the evidence was sinking to the ocean floor. They were in the thick of the smoke, so he couldn't see very far, his throat clogged and his eyes starting to burn.
Tenzin tried looking over his shoulder at the dark form of Officer Yuuto and called back, "Do you see anything?" He instantly regretted speaking, because opening his mouth sent him into a racking coughing fit.
When Tenzin had regained control of himself, breathing carefully this time with a little help from his bending, Yuuto finally answered, shaking his head as he cast his own gaze out over the wreckage and trying to wave smoke from his face. "No," he shouted back, "I don't see anyone. I don't see many life rafts either, though. Could have sunken with the ship, but they might have gotten away in time."
Tenzin considered their options, still scanning the area, but becoming more and more frustrated as he struggled to see. He tried to get closer, but Oogi was fighting against him, just as bothered by the thick smoke, if not more so, and Tenzin had no choice but to pull back out of the fog.
It was as he breathed in a breath of fresh air that he came to a decision. He steadied Oogi and then called for Yuuto to join him at the front, handing the young officer the reigns and saying, "Keep him steady. I'm going to go in on my glider to get a closer look."
Yuuto looked shocked. "You can't really be thinking of going in there," he exclaimed. "If there are any survivors you won't find them in that. You're putting yourself at too much risk."
"I have to be certain," Tenzin asserted. "I can't leave here until I know one way or another."
"Until you know what?" Yuuto demanded as Tenzin began clambering back into the saddle to grab his glider. "You won't find a manifest in there to tell you if the Chief was on that ship!"
"No," Tenzin admitted, "but if there are people down there that didn't make it…" he shook his head grimly at the thought, feeling sick just considering it. "Their bodies will likely be floating near the surface."
"Not if they got dragged under," Yuuto continued to argue. "Our best plan is to head East, towards land, that's where the survivors will be headed if –"
But Tenzin was no longer listening, as he had already extended his glider and leapt off of Oogi's back.
Gliding back into the thick of it was painful, and he put a considerable amount of effort into trying to blow the smoke away from him to keep it out of his lungs. So much so, that his glider bucked and swayed the less attention he paid to actually flying it. He had to divert his senses between the two, not quite equalizing, but close enough that he didn't go crashing into the ocean or start choking on the acrid smoke again.
He made a few more laps around what was left of the ship, going lower each time, eyes moving rapidly to take it all in, looking for any kind of clue. He didn't see any bodies floating in the water, nor very many lifeboats, as Officer Yuuto had said, but he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. If there had been people that perished in the fire, then surely there would have been bodies in the water. There always were, even if some of them had been dragged down. There should have been survivors too, though. Surely someone would have leapt off of the boat at least.
Tenzin was just starting to think that whoever was aboard the ship must have made it into the life rafts and potentially to safety when he finally spotted a body.
It was a little further out from the wreckage, and therefore not in his previously focused line of sight. He immediately glided over to it, skimming so close to the water below that his hanging robes dragged across the surface. When he reached the body he dropped right into the ocean, wincing at the chill and kicking his legs frantically for a moment, keeping a tight hold of his glider all the while. After he had become more adjusted to swimming, he bobbed the few feet over to the body, his stomach clenching. All he could see of it was long, dark hair, their face submerged and the waves constantly moving over it. Tenzin reached out at last to grab onto the shoulder and hastily flipped them over.
Tenzin felt simultaneous relief and guilt when he verified that it was definitely not Lin. He had known what little of the frame he could see was all wrong, but his paranoia had gotten the better of him and he'd worried for a moment.
It took him several seconds before he realized that, though the body did not belong to Lin, he did know who it was. He was much older and haggard looking than Tenzin remembered, but the now unseeing eyes were still the same and the features fairly recognizable.
It was Deak.
And, upon further examination, it appeared that Deak had likely died sometime before the boat had burst into flames, or perhaps during. There was a makeshift dagger protruding from the criminal's chest, clearly forged from stone by an earthbender, the edges rough and uneven, and no hilt on the end. And as the rock suddenly shimmered in the sunlight, a distinctive streak of dark orange glowing across the surface, Tenzin came to a haunting conclusion that it was Lin's rock that had ended Deak's life. He knew that it was hers, because Sora had specially picked it out for her mother and had asked her father's opinion on whether or not Lin would like it. It could have been a simple coincidence, but Tenzin didn't think so. If Deak was dead, with a dagger in his chest made from a rock strikingly similar to Lin's, next to a burning ship that was in nearly the same spot that Lin and Ronen's would have been by now, then surely Lin and Ronen had been there. Meaning Deak had caught up to them before Tenzin could. As to where Lin and Ronen were now, though, Tenzin did not know. Nor did he know how the ship had been blown apart. However, upon seeing that Deak was apparently out of their lives for good this time, he was beginning to think it was a good sign that Lin and Ronen were okay. If they had been able to stop Deak then they should have been able to flee the ship.
It was about the time he began contemplating how to get back to Oogi when he felt something float across his foot.
Only mildly concerned, Tenzin kicked at whatever it was and tried swimming backwards slightly, leaving Deak's body behind. But at some point he made a wrong move, and something began to tighten around his ankle. Tenzin kicked and swiveled, trying to make himself a more difficult target, except he was fighting the wrong way. It wasn't an ocean dwelling creature trying to gnaw on his leg, but rather, some sort of roping or net that must have fallen from the ship. One end was now wrapped tight around Tenzin's legs and getting tighter, while the other end must have been caught on something else, something that was sinking.
Tenzin called out for Yuuto, remembering belatedly that the officer probably wouldn't be able to hear him, but that he still had a bison whistle dangling from his neck.
While trying to keep himself afloat without further wrapping up his legs, Tenzin reached inside his cloak in search of the bison whistle, and as he did so, his head sunk beneath the surface. He stayed below for a few seconds, trying not to panic until he finally found purchase on the whistle and ripped it from his neck.
He kicked back up to the surface to gasp in a desperate breath of air, but his actions had readjusted the rope again, and his whole body was straining not to be pulled the whole way under.
He only managed one short, desperate blow into the whistle before he was dragged back down into the water. With the whistle still held in his mouth, he tried to reach for the netting, fighting to pull it off of him. Except, the harder he fought, the more entangled it seemed to become, and he was quickly running out of air.
Tenzin tried to peek at the mess from under water, but the ocean depths were dark and the salt water burned his eyes so he forced them shut again. He thrashed his arms, trying desperately to get back to the surface, but even when he did, he only managed to get his mouth out for half a second to heave in a short breath, and then he was underwater again.
He had what felt like a very long moment then, during which he thought about how foolish it had been of him to dive into the water without much thought to the risks involved. He had been thinking only of Lin and Ronen, of finding them, somehow, someway, of knowing for certain what their fate was. He had felt unable to leave the place of the burning ship until he had some proof that they were alive or…well, not. If they were still somehow alive among the wreckage, he needed to save them before it was too late, and if they weren't alive…well, he would still never forgive himself for leaving them there. He also wanted very much not to find them, to have some further proof that they could have gotten away, and while Deak's body might have provided that, it seemed now that his whole plan had been for nothing. He should have simply listened to Officer Yuuto and headed east in search of the life rafts. What if they were floating out there, still waiting for rescue? What if they were badly injured? Would he ever reach them now, or would they possibly die because he was here and not there?
He was worried more for them than he was himself in that moment, but he was also quite concerned about how he was going to get out of the water. The net was still dragging him down and he was no closer to getting his legs free. His lungs were on fire, feeling as though they might burst, and the pressure in his head was otherworldly. He knew if he didn't get back to the surface soon he would certainly drown, and that simply wasn't an option, not while Lin and Ronen potentially still needed him in that moment. Not to mention, he really wasn't ready to die. He thought of his beautiful wife and his three amazing kids, of the baby that might soon join them, and he fought and he fought with all his strength, desperate to get out.
When something hard wrapped tight around his middle and began to yank him in another direction, he thought for sure that he was a goner.
It took him several seconds – his oxygen deprived brain sluggish – to realize that he was being pulled upwards.
Upon bursting from the surface at long last, Tenzin spewed ocean water from his lungs, choking and heaving in air all at once. His chest hurt and his eyes still burned, and the rope was digging into his legs, but he could breathe and he wasn't sinking anymore. When he finally regained his sight, he looked up at the shadow covering part of the sunlight and easily recognized Oogi. There atop the sky bison, with his arm outstretched and a metal cable extended, stood Yuuto, which explained whatever was around Tenzin's waist holding him half out of the water.
The rope was still trying to drag him down though, and he called up to Yuuto, "Could you throw down something sharp for me to cut this rope from around my legs?" His voice was hoarse but ridiculously casual considering he had nearly just drowned.
Tenzin couldn't see the scowl Yuuto was giving him, but he knew it was there as the metalbender grunted and tossed down a sheathed knife, which Tenzin promptly used to cut himself free.
When Yuuto had lifted Tenzin back up onto Oogi, the officer gave Tenzin a scathing look and demanded, "Don't ever do that again. Do you know what the Chief would do to me if her husband died on my watch?"
Tenzin really shouldn't have been grinning, but he had just survived what was almost certainly a brush with death and that seemed like something worth smiling over.
Yuuto was incensed, but Tenzin clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Thank you, Yuuto, for saving my life. I will surely let Chief Beifong know of your incredible work. Now, let's go find her and my son, shall we?"
Yuuto huffed, but didn't protest, and settled back down in the saddle as Tenzin retook the reigns. He realized that at some point he must have lost his glider, but he wasn't too particularly upset by it. He had much bigger concerns to deal with. Like how to find where a dozen or so life rafts had gone. The only land close enough for them to reach was due east, but there were several Fire Nation islands to choose from and Tenzin had no idea which one they could have ended up on. If they had had time to send out a distress signal, they may even have been picked up by a ship large enough to take them the rest of the way to Republic City, assuming that no one needed immediate medical attention.
After conferring with Yuuto, they decided to head east, following the ocean current and staying at the perfect spot in the sky to see for a long distance, but low enough to spot even the smallest raft.
Tenzin wasn't sure how long had passed before they finally spotted several dots in the distance, but when they did, he raced towards them, thankful to see that the life boats, at least, weren't smoking with flames. They were, however, quite empty. There were signs that they had once been occupied though, paddles strewn about, first aid kits ripped open, a handful of blankets left abandoned, and a few sickening splotches of what must certainly have been blood. There was no one left, though, meaning the survivors of the ship must have been picked up by a passing ship.
After thoroughly examining the life rafts – Yuuto went down to check this time, his metal cable latched onto Oogi's saddle as he hovered just above them – Tenzin and the officer took off again, continuing on their previous course of simply east.
Before they reached land, they spotted a fisherman's boat bobbing along and decided to check it out. After a brief talk with the fishermen aboard, they discovered that there had been a distress signal sent out from a burning ship, and that the fishermen had heard over the radio that the survivors had been recovered and taken to the island of Shu Jing. As to whether or not Chief Beifong of Republic City was aboard, or if there had been casualties, the fishermen did not know.
So, upon getting their bearings, Tenzin and Yuuto took off again, hastily now, no longer bothering to cautiously watch the water, though they did still keep an eye out. Tenzin was tense the whole way, praying he would find Lin and Ronen in Shu Jing and that they would not be harmed.
When they landed on the small island, Tenzin ran straight to the dock workers, hastily questioning them about any shipwrecked survivors. Someone eventually was able to tell him that they'd all been taken to the small hospital on the island to be looked over.
Breathless with anticipation and some fear, Tenzin ran back to Oogi, barely allowing Yuuto time to clamber back into the saddle before taking off again. He set down just outside the hospital and, without waiting for Yuuto, ran straight inside.
Upon arriving on Shu Jing; Lin, Ronen, and the other survivors were sent straight to the island's small hospital. Many were deemed uninjured, but the Captain of the decimated ship used the time to do a head count, having apparently had the foreknowledge to bring the manifest from the ship with her. She also got in contact with Republic City, and another ship was headed to Shu Jing to pick up everyone and take them the rest of the way.
Somewhat surprisingly, there had been no fatalities besides Deak and the two security officers he had killed. Hiru was still in critical condition, and Tai's mother was being carefully examined. Seven others had been seriously wounded during the escape from the ship, either during their desperate attempts to board the lifeboats, or when shrapnel had come flying at them from the exploding ship, but so far the number of casualties was thankfully low. The passengers were traumatized, to be sure, but alive. Lin only wished that she could have protected the two security officers before Deak got to them. She also hoped that Hiru would pull through. He was just a kid, and it would be a tragedy for him to die in such a way. He had apparently stepped in front of Ronen to guard the younger boy when Deak had attacked the other officers, and though Ronen had still been snatched, the effort Hiru had gone to was more than admirable, and Lin would never be able to express her gratitude towards him.
Ronen's leg wound was not good, but ultimately not life threatening so long as infection was avoided. One of the doctors stitched it up, which Lin detested purely because it would leave a scar, but there weren't many healers on the island and two of them were busy helping people who were much worse off, so Lin didn't protest too much. So long as Ronen was no longer bleeding or at risk of further harm then she was vaguely content. She was still on edge, but keeping calm. Being observant, but trying to relax a little bit, for the baby at least.
Lin didn't have any visible injuries, and normally she never would have even bothered asking for a doctor, but at some point she seemed to have decided that it was important, and she pulled Ronen's doctor aside after he had finished with her son and said, "Listen, I might sound crazy here, 'cause I didn't really get hurt, but I'm about two months pregnant and I figure maybe I should…you know –"
The doctor had smiled reassuringly and nodded without hesitation. "Of course," he said. "I'll get Doctor Mai Lee for you."
Lin thanked the doctor and then returned to Ronen's side.
"How are you feeling, kid?" she asked him, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder.
"Kind of funny," Ronen admitted, wrinkling his nose and glancing down at his leg, which was likely still numb. They had him on some very light pain meds, but considering the kid had barely had medicine in his life it was no surprise he felt slightly off.
"It'll wear off," Lin assured him. "I'm just glad it wasn't worse."
She looked down at his injured thigh and couldn't suppress a grimace. The skin was red and inflamed, dark stitches holding either end of the wounded flesh together, and though she'd seen much worse before, it was a thousand times worse seeing it on her ten year old son.
Ronen shifted uncomfortably, avoiding his mother's gaze as he murmured, "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you, Mom. I wasn't trying to break our promise I just…"
Lin sighed, "Look, kid..." and she waited for him to turn his gaze back onto her before continuing, "I'm not mad, all right? I wish you had listened to me, but…well, you did good out there. That doesn't mean I want you to ever do that again, but…I'm proud of you."
Ronen's face lit up and he smiled hesitantly. "Really?" he asked.
Lin nodded with a small smile of her own. "Really. You've got one hell of an elbow, you know that?"
Ronen's smile turned into a broad grin, excitement rushing through him as he said, "Did you see the way I stomped on his foot too? I did it just the way you showed me. I was really nervous, but you always said that if I was brave, when the time comes I wouldn't mess it up."
"You did good," Lin idly agreed, stroking her son's hair and thinking about just how glad she was that he was there in front of her, mostly unharmed. The entire day could have turned out a lot worse, and she could only be thankful that Ronen was okay. She was a little surprised to find herself hoping, too, that the growing infant inside her womb would be all right.
Lin wasn't quite sure what else Ronen said, too lost in her own thoughts, torn between a deep sadness and immeasurable happiness. On the one hand, Ronen was safe and Deak was gone from their lives and Lin might very well be having another child soon. On the other hand, she had very nearly lost Ronen and she'd had to kill a man and she was admittedly worried about what all the recent stress could have done to the baby that was still so fragile.
The trouble with Deak should have made Lin even more certain that having a baby at that time in her life was a terrible choice, and yet, at some point, she had only grown fonder of the idea. Perhaps it had something to do with seeing Ronen, only ten years old and yet so smart and brave. On her own, Lin would never have been able to save both Tai and his mother, but with her son's help, both mother and son had been reunited, and nearly everyone on the doomed ship had been saved as well, and Ronen had certainly helped there too. While she didn't love her kids being in harms way, she also had to admit to herself that it was probably inevitable in their family, and she and Tenzin could only hope that they were teaching them well. Ronen had proved that day, to some extent, that they were.
It was all about the next generation, wasn't it? Korra was around Ronen's age, and also currently the same age that Aang had been when he had started on his journey to save the world. As the new Avatar, Korra would one day bring in a new era of peace and prosperity, which had begun to dwindle since Aang's passing, and she would need help, just as Aang had. If Lin's children could also be a force for good in the world, whether as politicians like their father, or police like their mother, or as friends to the Avatar as their grandparents before them, or something else entirely that had nothing to do with the three, then Lin could not help being hopeful. Even if they were dancers or probenders or security guards on ships, they would still have the morals and the teachings to succeed in life, and to possibly help others in some small way, because the small acts were sometimes just as important as the big ones. If the new baby was as compassionate and thoughtful as Ronen and Yunjin and Sora, then its birth could only be a good thing.
Ronen's voice eventually broke through her troubled thoughts, quiet and introspective now, cautiously curious as he said, "Mom…who was that man anyways? Uh, Deak? You knew him?"
Lin's gaze jerked back onto Ronen's face with a slight frown, and she swallowed uncomfortably before slowly admitting, "Yes, I knew him."
She had been afraid the questioning would come, and Ronen was a curious boy, so it was no surprise when he continued, "And…did you really...y'know, date him?
Lin sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly before answering, "I wouldn't say Deak and I dated. I went to dinner with him a few times." Not that that would make a difference to a ten year old. "He used to be a police officer, like me, but he decided to become a criminal instead."
"But haven't you and Dad been together, like, forever?"
"Pretty much," Lin said with a shrug. "But we weren't together then. Your father was off traveling the world. Can I let you in on a little secret, though?"
Ronen nodded eagerly, and Lin cast a surreptitious glance around their small space, covered only by a curtain barely wider than the bed Ronen lay on. She leaned in close and lowered her voice as she whispered conspiratorially, "I was already in love with your father, I was just waiting on him to make the first move."
Ronen looked shocked, his eyes widening slightly. "Really?" he gasped in a low voice. "You mean you didn't tell him you loved him? Why not?"
Lin leaned back with another shrug. "I was afraid."
"You were afraid?" Ronen exclaimed disbelievingly. "But you're never afraid!"
That was so far from the truth that Lin could only laugh shortly in response. She was afraid of a lot of things. She had spent the last several hours more afraid than she'd ever been in her life. She was still afraid, truthfully. Scared for the baby she was slowly starting to want despite her near certainty that it would be taken from her the second she relaxed. Scared for Ronen, who had been through so much that day and, though kids bounced back quickly, she knew that once the dust settled the trauma would set in and Lin wasn't sure what she could do to stop it. She was also scared for Tenzin and Sora and Yunjin, back in the Fire Nation still with no idea of what had happened, and who could potentially be in danger themselves if Deak had set something else into motion. Deak's mentions of 'plans' and "More will come" were haunting her, making her wonder if her family was still at risk, if there were truly others that would come for them. She had already determined that she wasn't leaving Ronen's bedside for anything. She wouldn't risk leaving him unattended even for a second.
Ronen went quiet when Lin could not garner more of a response, and she averted her gaze to the small gap in the curtain surrounding them and watched the movement outside. There was a lot of commotion and too many people packed into the small hospital, the noise so loud that no one would be able to hear what anyone else was saying unless they were standing right next to each other. Unfortunately, that also meant Lin would not be able to hear anyone approaching either, and she could rely only on her seismic sense to watch her surroundings.
"Mom?" Ronen said again, still hesitant to say what he was thinking, and Lin wasn't sure if it was because he was afraid of her reaction or if he just didn't know the right way to ask it.
"Yeah?" Lin encouraged, when Ronen didn't immediately go on.
"How come Deak wanted to hurt us so bad?" Ronen asked in a rush. "Why was he saying those mean things to you? And about Dad?"
Lin sighed again, no closer to understanding that herself, other than whatever she had pieced together from Deak's short explanation just before she'd killed him. "I don't know, kid," she tried to explain. "Jealousy can be an ugly thing, and he wanted to be Chief of Police. Instead of actually trying he just gave up and resorted to being a criminal. He was angry at your father and me because we were happy while he spent the last twenty or so years in prison, that's all." There was probably more to it than that, but anything else would probably be more than a ten year old could – or should – understand.
Ronen seemed to be digesting what his mother had said for a moment, and then he looked down at his lap, twiddling his thumbs and biting down on his bottom lip before quietly murmuring, "And is it true what he said? That you didn't want us?"
Lin felt like she had been punched in the chest, all of the air rushing from her lungs in a pained exhale, and she felt an uncontrollable burst of rage at Deak for ever putting that thought in her son's head. She reached out to grab Ronen's hand firmly, shaking it slightly as she said, "Hey, look at me."
Ronen was unable to do as she asked for several seconds, flickering his gaze all along the bedsheet before finally lifting his head and meeting her eyes.
"Listen to me," Lin said sternly, but softly. "Don't ever think that your father and I didn't want you. We tried for years to have you and your brother and sister. The three of you are the most important things in our lives, and we love you more than anything else in this world. Don't ever doubt that, you hear me?" Ronen nodded slowly, and Lin wasn't wholly satisfied that he was convinced. "Deak is an idiot," she growled, "and he knows absolutely nothing about us. I want you to forget everything he said today, because none of it is true. He's a bad man, right? And bad men never tell the truth."
Ronen nodded again, more certain this time, and he solemnly said, "He is a bad man. He killed those guards."
Lin had to suppress a wince, wondering how much it was going to mess up her ten year old to have witnessed such a horrific thing at such an age. She squeezed Ronen's hands again and sadly said, "Yes, he did, but I don't want you to worry about that too much either, okay? Instead, think about all the lives that were saved, the lives you saved. We got every single passenger off of that ship and all the other workers. But if it does bother you, that's okay, it's normal, and if you wanna talk about it you've got me and your Dad whenever you need us. Hell, you can send Bumi or Zuko a letter too, they'll understand."
"I know, Mom," Ronen said appreciatively, giving her a small smile. "I think I'm okay."
Lin wasn't so certain, but she let the matter rest for now. She knew Ronen would seek out someone if he needed to. He was far more open with his feelings than Lin had ever been. And she would keep a close eye on him too, just in case. She was mostly dreading having to tell Tenzin all that had transpired that day. His head was probably going to explode.
It wasn't much longer after Lin and Ronen's talk that Doctor Mai Lee arrived to check over Lin and the baby. Mai Lee was a healer that specialized in obstetrics, and she used both waterbending and regular doctor's tools to examine the fetus that Lin was carrying. After the examination, Mai Lee assured Lin that the baby was so far still strong and healthy, but that a few days of taking it easy would not be remiss. Lin didn't know how she'd manage 'taking it easy' with all that had so recently transpired and whatever was waiting for her back in the city, but she resolved to try, for the baby at least.
As Mai Lee was leaving, the healer was nearly knocked over by someone else trying to duck through the curtain at the same time.
Lin tensed up for half a second, relaxing immediately after when she recognized a familiar voice saying, "My apologies, Ma'am. Are you okay?"
"That's quite all right," Mai Lee said, sounding flustered and readjusting the bag she'd nearly dropped. "I'm okay. Excuse me, I was just leaving."
"Of course…"
Lieutenant Jeia stepped back, holding the curtain open so that Mai Lee could step through, and then Jeia entered the space where Lin and Ronen were, the curtain swinging shut behind her.
"Lieutenant Jeia," Lin said in surprise, rising swiftly to her feet, idly making sure her shirt was fixed after the healer had been examining her abdomen. "What on earth are you doing here?"
"Forgive me, Chief," Jeia said with a swift bow, "but after identifying the other two escaped criminals we decided it might be best that I come and escort you back to Republic City. On the way here my ship overheard your ship's distress call and went in search of your life rafts. I didn't know at the time that you had been on board, but there was some chatter over the radio that the survivors were carried to Shu Jing, and I decided to check it out just in case. I hitched a ride straight here and when I found the ship's captain she told me you were here. I'm glad to see you seem in good shape, and…" Her eyes slid onto Ronen, who perked up and smiled delightedly at her.
"Hi, Lieutenant," he greeted with a cheerful wave.
"Hello there, Ronen," Jeia replied with a kind smile, frowning minutely when she caught sight of his leg. "Are you hurt?"
Ronen shrugged and said, "Just a scratch."
Lin rolled her eyes and told Jeia, "He's being modest, but I think I'm missing something here." She turned to give Ronen a stern look as she ordered, "Stay here while I talk to the Lieutenant. Don't you dare get off of that bed unless your life is in danger."
"Aw, but, Mom," Ronen tried to protest. "I can handle it –"
"No buts," Lin interjected. "I mean it, Ronen."
The boy slumped down dejectedly and sighed, "Fine."
Lin led Jeia just outside of the curtain surrounding Ronen's bed, far enough that the boy wouldn't overhear, but close enough to still be able to see him through a small gap in the curtain.
Lin had guessed that Deak had broken out of prison – she certainly hadn't signed off on an early release – but she had no idea about the circumstances or who the other two were that Jeia spoke of. So the first thing she asked was, "What the hell happened in the city? How did Deak escape and end up tracking me down?"
"You ran into him then?" Jeia questioned in turn. "I was worried that might have been the cause of your ship troubles."
"Yeah, he blew up the ship," Lin confirmed, and Jeia's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "We discovered the bomb about twenty minutes before it was set to blow, and as we were about to start evacuating, Deak showed up, killed two security guards, and critically wounded another. He grabbed Ronen and tried forcing me to choose between my kid and the rest of the people of the ship."
Jeia raised a brow and lowered her voice to say, "I take it he's dead now?"
Lin averted her gaze for a moment before responding, "Yeah, well…he didn't leave me much choice."
"I'm sure you played it by the book, Chief," Jeia replied with certainty.
"Maybe," Lin muttered. "Now tell me how the hell he escaped."
Jeia shook her head wearily. "He had plenty of help, including, we suspect, from one of our own. The entire prison was nearly in shambles by the end of it, but we did manage to get it back under order. The only escapees were Deak and two others we hadn't identified yet when we first sent you the message about Deak."
"You sent another message?" Lin asked. "When?"
"Earlier today," Jeia answered. "A few hours later we discovered the identities of the other two prisoners that had escaped and I immediately left the city to come find you. I thought you might have left the Fire Nation, but I didn't know you'd made it so far, or how you'd be traveling."
"I left before I ever got your message about Deak," Lin explained, thinking of Tenzin and wondering if he had gotten the letter instead. If he had, he was no doubt on his way to look for her and Ronen now, which meant he might very well find the remnants of the burning ship and think the worst. "I was planning on coming back as soon as I got the first message. I had no idea to expect Deak would show up. But you say you know who the other two were now? Who are they?"
"The first was essentially a nobody," Jeia tentatively began, as if uncertain of how to break the news. "Just a known lackey of several different Triad leaders in her lifetime that evaded death and punishment a hundred times before she was caught. The second…the second, as it turns out, is claiming that he is the son of Kane, former leader of the all but extinct Silver Granite Triad."
Lin grimaced. Of course he was. Why wouldn't it be another criminal out to get her? Because any kid of Kane's would certainly want to get revenge against her for killing their father. "Does his claim hold any weight?" Lin sought to verify.
"It is looking that way," Jeia grimly admitted. "His name is Chen, and he apparently lived in Ba Sing Se with his mother until about two years ago when he moved to Republic City. Kane had a history of visiting Ba Sing Se fairly regularly, which the police assumed at the time was to recruit new members. But he also had all of his assets sent there just before he kidnapped you twenty years ago. Saikhan says they thought it was so he could hide there after he finished with you, but turns out it went into a woman's account, a woman who happens to be Chen's mother."
Lin rubbed wearily at her face with both hands, wondering how she'd gotten herself into this mess and, more importantly, how the hell she was going to get out of it with her family intact.
"Sorry to bring bad news, Chief," Jeia said sheepishly. "Rest assured that we've got everyone on the look out for these guys and Saikhan is assessing the –"
A commotion from far across the room diverted their attention all of a sudden, cutting Jeia off as both she and Lin turned to seek out the source of the noise. There was some distant shouting, incomprehensible above the rest of the noise and too far away, but it grew closer with every second, and Lin reached out to touch the curtain behind her, prepared to go in and remain by Ronen's side if necessary. She tried reaching out with her seismic sense, but there were so many other bodies she couldn't pinpoint anything distinct.
And then one of the shouts became more discernible as a deep male voice and a word that sounded faintly like, "Lin!"
Lin frowned in concentration, focusing on the sounds and waiting for it to come again. When it did, the shout was very clearly, "Ronen!"
Lin knew that voice well, and as it drew closer, she knew for certain that it was her husband, apparently having found them already and frantic with worry.
"Lin!" he cried again. "Ronen!"
"Stay with Ronen," Lin told Jeia hastily, and the Lieutenant immediately responded, "Yes, Ma'am."
And then Lin took off, weaving through the crowd of people and curtained beds in the direction of Tenzin's voice. He was still repeating his wife and son's names, and eventually she could spot the top of his tattooed head bobbing amongst the sea of chaos.
When they finally reached a point where they were standing only a few strides away from each other, both of them froze, eyes locking onto the other with a similar expression of surprise. Lin had not been expecting him to find them there, and Tenzin had not been certain he would find them there, but neither was upset over the outcome.
They went to one another with haste, Tenzin leaping the last few steps and Lin speed-walking. They crashed into one another ungracefully, arms scrambling for purchase and legs knocking together. Lin craned her neck to settle her chin on his shoulder, and Tenzin ducked his own head to bury his face in her neck. They were ensconced in a nook between two separate curtained off beds, a heavy looking piece of machinery, and an empty gurney, mostly hidden from view from the others around them, and all of the chatter that had died down with Tenzin's shouting slowly began to return.
They breathed one another in for several long moments, Tenzin peppering Lin with kisses while she clutched at his robes and held him tight. Then Tenzin lurched back just enough to see her face again, all the worry and fear magnified there in his stormy grey eyes. She noticed that his clothes were slightly damp and smelled of smoke and seaweed, and she wondered idly if he had purposefully jumped in the ocean looking for them.
When he spoke, his voice was a breathless exclamation. "Are you okay? Where is Ronen? Are you hurt?" His voice was gaining strength and velocity, and Lin quietly cut him off before it could turn frantic.
"Ronen's okay. We're okay," Lin asserted, letting him see the surety in her gaze. Despite her better judgement and the scores of people around that could possibly witness the action, she decided to clutch Tenzin's hand and place it carefully over her abdomen where the baby resided. "We're all okay."
They were so close together that it was possible no one would notice the meaning behind where their hands rested together, but Tenzin understood, eyes brimming with emotion as he dropped his gaze to her abdomen and then pulled it back up to her face again. "You're certain?" he choked out in a whisper, his other hand coming up to stroke her cheek.
"Just saw the healer," Lin confirmed, in an equally hushed voice. "The baby is strong."
Tenzin breathed in deeply, and as he exhaled slowly, he murmured, "So this is happening then… We're having a baby?"
Lin nodded, her chest constricting with the thought, but her heart swelling with something akin to happiness. "Yes, we're having a baby."
Tenzin was very clearly pleased, a smile spreading wide across his face and his eyes alighting with joy.
Lin's expression turned seriously stern as she added, "But this absolutely the last one. I mean it this time. No more." Not that there should be much risk of an accidental pregnancy by the time she was forty-six, but she had thought there wasn't a chance at forty-five and look where that had gotten her.
Tenzin chuckled softly and nodded rapidly. "Of course, of course," he agreed. "Four is perfect."
"Four is too many," Lin groused, "but we've come this far, might as well round it out to an even number. Although there goes my plan for making them into a probending team."
Tenzin scowled, half-joking, half-serious. He hated probending, and Lin found it amusing, so she continued to tease, "They would have been Republic City's first and only team to consist of two airbenders and a nonbender. They would have kicked some serious ass."
Tenzin rolled his eyes skyward and said, "I will not even entertain a thought so terrible as my beautiful children making such a mockery of themselves and their abilities."
"Speaking of children," Lin interrupted before he could go on. "Where are Yunjin and Sora?"
"Safe," Tenzin immediately assured her. "I didn't bring them. Su and the others are looking after them." He frowned in thought. "Should we return to Ronen? Where is he?"
"He's with Lieutenant Jeia," Lin answered.
"Lieutenant Jeia is here?" Tenzin said in surprise.
"She was headed to the Fire Nation shortly after they sent the message about Deak's escape, which I'm assuming you received?" Tenzin nodded his confirmation, and Lin continued, "Apparently they figured out who the other two escapees are and she wanted to make sure I made it back to Republic City in one piece. But about Ronen…I don't want you to freak out, but he needed some stitches. He's gonna be fine –"
"Stitches?" Tenzin predictably exclaimed, voice going shrill. "For what? What happened out there, Lin? I saw the ship, the fire…and Deak – I – I was so worried –"
"It's a long story," Lin muttered. "Short story is, Deak showed up, planted a bomb on the ship, tried to take Ronen, and he's dead now."
"I saw that much," Tenzin sighed, "but I'm still missing a crucial piece of the story."
Lin folded her arms over her chest and cast a suspicious glance around, wondering about the other two people that had escaped from prison and whether or not they were among them. She couldn't see or sense anything, and she wouldn't recognize them anyway, so she had to quit looking for excuses and explain to Tenzin what had happened. She didn't know how to break it to him gently, so she was her usual blunt self.
"A security guard onboard alerted us to a problem below deck," she began, talking quickly to get it over with. "That's when we found the bomb. Ronen and I went back up to alert the captain of the ship, and when my back was turned, Deak arrived. He killed two guards and gravely wounded another before grabbing Ronen and putting a knife to his throat." Tenzin's hands, which were resting lightly on Lin's shoulders, squeezed hard, a rare flash of anger darkening his face. Lin hastened to finish. "Deak offered to take Ronen off of the ship if I let myself and everyone else remain onboard to die. I agreed, and then followed them to the life rafts.
"Ronen was the one that broke free, and once he was safe, I put a dagger in Deak's chest. We started evacuating the ship, but there wasn't enough time to get everyone into the rafts, so we started jumping off the side. A young boy and his mother were separated, both of them drowning, and Ronen and I were forced to split up to save them both. When the ship began to break apart, Ronen's leg got nicked by some shrapnel. It's not as bad as it looks. The doctor said he'll be fine."
Tenzin heaved in a deep breath, and then tugged Lin back into his arms, holding her close again. He murmured into her hair, "I'm so sorry that I wasn't there. I should have been. I shouldn't have let you two go alone."
"We couldn't have known Deak would show up," Lin muttered against his chest. "And we're fine. We made it. You don't have to worry anymore. He's gone."
"There were two others," Tenzin said after a pause.
And Lin blew out an irritated breath just thinking about it. Would they ever catch a break? "Jeia was just telling me about them," Lin said, leaning back to look up at him. "Why don't we go see Ronen and then she can fill us in?"
And then hopefully she wouldn't have to be the one to tell him that one of the escapees was likely Kane's son.
Lin led the way back to where Ronen and Jeia were, and the boy nearly lurched off the bed when he saw his father walk through the curtain, excitedly shouting, "Dad! You're here!"
Tenzin went straight to Ronen and engulfed the boy in a hug, and then fretted over the wound on Ronen's leg. Once with his son, Tenzin seemed to forget all about discussing the issues at hand, preferring to stay right by Ronen's side for a bit longer, and Lin didn't interrupt them. Lieutenant Jeia went to find Officer Yuuto, who Tenzin admitted to having lost track of, and Lin settled down in a nearby chair, glad to be off of her feet for the first time in a while. Meanwhile, Tenzin listened with rapt attention as Ronen explained his version of what had transpired that day, proudly telling his father how he had helped protect his mother and the baby and then saved a woman from drowning. Tenzin looked pale at some parts, but still commended Ronen for a job well done and expressed his relief that the boy hadn't been more seriously harmed.
By the time Jeia returned with Yuuto – both of them having gotten sidetracked taking statements from the captain of the ship and several passengers to corroborate Lin and Ronen's accounts of the events – Ronen had fallen asleep, exhausted from such a trying day. Yuuto stood guard by his bed while Lin, Tenzin, and Jeia stepped just outside the curtain once again so as not to disturb the sleeping boy.
"Kane has a son?!" Tenzin shrilly exclaimed the second Jeia repeated what she had already told Lin.
"How old is he?" Lin questioned Jeia, while her husband floundered in shock.
"Around twenty-nine now I think," Jeia answered.
"So he was only about five when Kane died," Lin contemplated aloud. "Odd. He probably barely even remembers him. Why bother doing all this now?"
"Perhaps that's precisely why," Tenzin sighed, sounding weary. "He put his father on a pedestal and never got to witness the atrocities that Kane committed. All he knows is that his father was taken away from him when he was young. How did Chen end up in prison?" he asked Jeia.
"Just petty offenses. He would have been out in a month probably, maybe less with good behavior. He got caught up in a Triad scheme, aiding and abetting, and we didn't have much evidence against him."
"Maybe he wanted to go to prison," Lin mused. "Did Deak or Chen have contact with anyone on the outside before the breakout?"
"No, but we figure someone was passing them information, or they already had a plan in place, which Chen could have passed along to Deak."
"How about the woman that escaped?" Tenzin offered.
"She had a lot of visitors," Jeia admitted. "We're still sorting through them to see if there's anything helpful. She has a lot of connections, been in and out of prison most of her life. Every time she gets out she goes right back to the Triads. We can never keep her for long, always manages to get off on trumped up charges or lack of evidence. She's even got people willing to take the blame for her if she gets caught. Somehow she manages to slide under the radar, parading as a nobody. Now she's aligned herself with Kane's son."
With a sudden swooping dread, Lin narrowed her eyes and, fearing she already knew the answer, asked Jeia, "What's her name?"
"Her name's Shira."
Lin clenched her jaw, grinding her teeth and blowing out an irritated breath through her nose.
Tenzin looked at her with a concerned frown. "What is it, Lin?"
"She's not a nobody," Lin muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "She's my father's oldest daughter."
Chapter 36: Chapter 36
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 36
Tenzin blinked several times, looking bewildered, and then shook his head and said, "Wait a minute. Go back a step. Are you saying that you have another sister?"
"She's not my sister," Lin grumbled. "We're related by blood only. I barely knew her, but yes, she is my father's daughter so…in essence, I guess, she's my half-sister, if you insist on calling her that."
"Why was I not aware of this?!" Tenzin exclaimed. "You had another sister all this time and never thought to mention it? Least of all to your husband?"
Lin sighed her exasperation. "It didn't ever really come up, and frankly, it was something I much preferred to forget."
"But a sister?" Tenzin said breathlessly, in total shock. "I didn't know your father even had other children."
"He could have had more for all I know," Lin muttered with an unconcerned shrug. "I don't think I saw him again after I turned thirteen, besides maybe once or twice. I only know of Shira because she was older than me. She was, I don't know, maybe ten when I was born? Maybe older. She was a teenager by the time I could remember her so she wasn't around much, and we hated each other anyways. I remember my mother helped her out of some trouble a few times when she was younger, and I really haven't heard much of Shira since, except for when her files end up on my desk."
"Your mother helped her?" Tenzin queried. "As a favor to your father?"
"No, it was mostly after he died. I think she felt some sympathy for the girl. Her mother abandoned her shortly after she was born and her father was an addict. I never bothered to argue with my mother over it. In my opinion, Shira made her own choices and she deserved punishment either way, but arguing with Toph was pointless."
"Do you think that's why Shira joined up with Deak and Chen?" Jeia proposed. "As some age old vendetta against you?"
"Anything's possible I guess," Lin admitted. "Might as well add another person to the list of people with a revenge fantasy. Seems like a growing theme."
"How dangerous is she?" Tenzin huffed. "Is this something that's going to be a serious problem?"
Lin shook her head, unsure. "I don't know, I've never faced off with her, but I doubt it. She clings to the Triads because she isn't capable on her own. She has a lot of people to back her, but so do we."
"And Kane's son can't be that affluent either," Jeia added. "He only came to the city two years ago and what was left of Kane's loyal followers won't be enough for him to hold much weight. The triads won't respect an outsider enough to be their leader."
"That's probably why he joined up with Shira," Lin concluded. "She has the connections, he has the royal blood. Which triad was she aligned with when she was arrested? Do we know?"
"Triple Threats," Jeia said regretfully. "They're gaining momentum in the city with their anti-police campaign, and they've got wider coverage than some of the other triads since they're willing to accept different benders. They're also causing a lot of problems with the nonbender organizations that have been springing up. It's certainly a good time to orchestrate chaos."
"What about the leak?" Lin inquired. "Any idea who that could be?"
"There are a few people we've been looking into, but no good leads yet."
Lin frowned in thought and looked up at Tenzin. "How many people did we tell that we were going to the Fire Nation?"
Tenzin seemed to think it over for a moment, and then replied, "Not many, but Zuko left his aides behind for us, maybe they gave us away."
"We'll have to look into it," Lin decided, "but in the mean time, we need to get Jin and Sora. If Deak knew where we were, then Shira and Chen will too. They could be headed straight to the Fire Nation."
Tenzin blanched. "They should be safe, with Su and Zuko and everyone there, but we should leave soon."
Lin considered it, and then insisted, "You should go. Take Yuuto and bring them back here. If you leave now you'll make it by nightfall and you'll be back here by morning."
"No," Tenzin instantly refuted. "I'm not leaving you two again. We go together –"
"Ronen can't leave until morning," Lin interjected. "I don't like the idea of leaving the twins until tomorrow afternoon. I know they're safe where they are, but I've got a bad feeling about this and I'll feel better when we're all back together."
"I agree," Tenzin conceded, "which is why I want to wait until you and Ronen can come with me. If I thought the twins were in serious danger, I'd go, but they're with family, a very powerful and trustworthy family, and –"
"A family that doesn't know what's coming," Lin countered. "I know they're all more than capable, but we need to act now. Lieutenant Jeia will stay with Ronen and I, and you and Yuuto will be back with the twins by morning. Then all of us will return to the city together."
"I still don't like this," Tenzin continued to argue. "Look at how things went the last time we split up."
"Except we know what we're up against now," Lin persisted. "And I'm getting the twins back tonight whether you stay or you go. Would you prefer to get them while I stay here with Ronen, or would you rather I try to fly Oogi when I'm incapable of doing so without getting sick?"
She realized belatedly that Jeia was still standing there and that she had no idea about the baby, unless she had discovered it through seismic sense, but it was too late to take back. She would have to be more careful when they returned to the city. The less people that knew of her pregnancy, the better.
Tenzin blew out a loud, frustrated breath, grinding his teeth for several moments before finally giving in. "Fine, but I'll be back before you know it, and we're doing a thorough sweep of this hospital before I go, and I want to speak to the doctor about Ronen, and –"
Tenzin rambled on a while longer, and Lin indulged him, nodding along to his demands and promising to be careful. After scouring the hospital for any signs of danger and checking the manifest the ship captain had brought for any suspicious names, Tenzin felt slightly less concerned that Shira or Chen were around, but more concerned that they were halfway to the Fire Nation. It was doubtful they'd make it through Zuko's security, let alone all of their family surrounding Jin and Sora, but that didn't mean it wasn't somehow possible. So, after saying another reluctant goodbye to Lin and Ronen, Tenzin hopped on Oogi, with Yuuto clambering back into the saddle, and the two of them took off back to the Fire Nation capitol.
Lin and Lieutenant Jeia settled in for a long night by Ronen's bedside, with each of them taking turns checking out the hospital every few hours.
About halfway through the night, Jeia glanced briefly at Lin and quietly murmured, "This may not be any of my business, Chief, but are congratulations in order, or shall I pretend this conversation never happened?"
Lin mulled it over for several seconds, pursing her lips and shifting uncomfortably in her hard plastic chair before finally answering, "You may congratulate us, but I'd appreciate it if you kept this to yourself for now. At my age…well, it's best to wait until it's further along before announcing it."
"Absolutely, Chief," Jeia said without hesitation. "You don't have to worry, I won't tell a soul." And Lin believed her. She trusted Jeia unequivocally, maybe even more than Saikhan. "And congratulations. I hope all goes well for you and your family. If there's anything you need from me…"
"I know," Lin said. "Thank you, Lieutenant."
Jeia said nothing further on the topic, and the two of them resumed a companionable silence. That was another thing Lin liked about the young detective. She always knew when to stop talking.
Thankfully, no further disturbances occurred, and just before dawn, Tenzin and Yuuto crept into Ronen's curtained room, each of them carrying one of the twins. All three kids were sleeping soundly, and the four adults assumed hushed conversations about the last several hours. Jeia dragged a bed into Ronen's small room so that they could place the twins on it.
Tenzin and Yuuto reportedly experienced no trouble either, except for two cranky seven year olds that had no idea what was going on and were unhappy leaving their extended family. Although they were worried about their mother and brother, despite Tenzin's assurances that they were just fine. Yunjin and Sora were also still a bit peeved with Tenzin for having left them without a goodbye, and they hadn't yet forgiven him over the journey to Shu Jing. Su and Katara and the others were all extremely worried after Tenzin gave them a brief overview of the events that had recently transpired, many of them offering to go with Tenzin and the twins to Shu Jing, others insisting on coming to stay in Republic City for a while in case Lin and Tenzin needed help. Tenzin spent nearly an hour convincing them that it was unnecessary, promising to write to all of them the progress of what was happening, and that if he needed them he would certainly let them know. None of them were satisfied, but they let it drop for the time being. All except Su, who claimed she'd be checking in on them soon.
After the update, Lin and Jeia did another sweep of the hospital, and then went to track down Ronen's doctor. Just as the sun was creeping over the horizon, Ronen was awake and the doctor declared him free to go, and Tenzin began to rouse the twins. Upon waking, Yunjin and Sora greeted Ronen first, expressing drowsy concern and surprise over his injury. Yunjin wanted to know all the heroic details, and Ronen was happy to oblige. In contrast, Sora fretted over her older brother like a second mother, and forbade him from ever doing anything so dangerous again.
When Sora and Yunjin were certain that Ronen was all right, they looked around for Lin, and upon finding their mother, they went straight to her. The three of them exchanged hugs and happy greetings. Lin ruffled Yunjin's hair and Sora discreetly petted Lin's stomach while quietly asking after the baby. Lin was so pleased to have her family back together, safe and sound, that she forgot for a little while what was waiting for them back home.
Just before Lin and her family left the hospital, Tai and his mother arrived outside of Ronen's curtain – open now, as they gathered what little belongings they had. Tenzin had brought some clothes for Lin and Ronen to change into, since they had lost whatever luggage they had on the ship, and Ronen had just finished tugging on his shoes when Tai came rushing in to hug the older boy.
"Thank you for saving my Mommy," Tai exclaimed, disengaging quickly from the hug to bounce on his toes and grin up at Ronen. Tai was hardly recognizable as the little boy that had nearly drowned the day before, his amber eyes alight with cheer and his energy levels just as high as would be expected from a boy of his age. Lin was always surprised by how easily children bounced back, while she still felt slow and tired, her muscles aching and sore, as if she needed reminding of the previous day's events.
"Oh," Ronen said, in a surprised response to Tai's thanks, "um, it was no problem, really."
Still a bit bewildered by the kid's sudden appearance, Lin blinked, and then looked over at Tenzin, who was watching the scene with an expression part way between pride and dismay. He hated that Ronen had been in danger, had been forced at the age of ten to enact a daring rescue for a drowning woman amidst a sea of fire and chaos. Yet he was also very proud of his son for being so strong and brave in the face of such a trial. Lin felt much the same about the whole matter.
Tai's mother poked her head into the enclosure, embarrassed smile on her face as she said to Lin, "I'm so sorry to intrude. We heard you were leaving and Tai insisted on saying goodbye."
Tai's mother looked better than she had the day before, but still as exhausted as Lin felt. There was a clean bandage covering the gash that had been on her forehead, and another wrapped around her arm, assumedly to protect a wound that Lin hadn't noticed the previous day. The hair framing her round face was wildly tousled and curly from air drying after the sudden swim. She had a warm smile and bright eyes, but her face was still a bit unnaturally pale and there were dark shadows under her eyes.
"That's all right," Lin forced herself to say, not pleased with the delay, but glad to see Tai and his mother were doing well. "How is Tai?"
"He's good," the woman beamed. "Because of you. I can never repay you for saving my little boy, Chief Beifong. I just want to thank you, so much, for what you did."
Lin never got used to the praise, and she stiffened uncomfortably, nodding curtly and saying shortly, "No thanks necessary." Desperate to take the attention off of herself, she gestured to where Tenzin stood behind Tai's mother and added, "This is my husband, Tenzin."
Tai's mother whirled around, delighted as she exclaimed, "Of course! The Avatar's son! It's an honor to meet you, Master Tenzin. You've raised a fine son, the both of you. He saved my life."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Tenzin replied, smiling kindly at the woman. "I'm glad my wife and son were able to help you and your boy. I hope your injuries were not too severe?"
He inclined his head to gesture to the bandage on her head, and she reached up to touch it with the tips of her fingers as if she'd forgotten it was there. "Not too bad, no. They want to keep me for observation another day, but they expect I won't have long term effects besides a scar. What about your son?" She looked back and forth between Lin and Tenzin for the answer. "How is his leg?"
"Much better," Lin answered. "The doctor stitched him up and he says it doesn't hurt too bad. He'll have a scar too, but it didn't cut too deep so he won't have to worry about future problems."
"Good, good, I'm glad to hear that," Tai's mother said. "I hoped –"
The woman's words were cut off as Tai came scampering over, lunging straight at Lin and crashing into her legs, nearly knocking her off balance.
"Tai!" the boy's mother reprimanded.
Tai ignored her, wrapping his arms right around Lin's waist while she regained her balance. "Thank you for saving me, Mrs. Chief," he called up to her.
"Er, no problem, kid," Lin said awkwardly, patting the boy on the back.
Ronen wandered over and was immediately engulfed in a hug by Tai's mother. His cheeks instantly turned red, and he smiled shyly when the women began thanking him profusely.
Lin let it go on a bit longer before not so subtly hinting that her family really needed to start their flight if they wanted to make it back to Republic City by mid-afternoon. Tai and his mother got the hint, and after another round of thank you's and well wishes they returned to their own curtained room.
While Tenzin and Yuuto were loading the kids onto Oogi's back, Lin and Jeia went to speak to the ship captain one last time. They would need a more thorough report from the woman once she returned to the city, and the harried-looking woman agreed to contact them. Jeia took the captain's contact information and, with a curt bow, turned to leave. Lin went to do the same a second later, but was stopped when the captain requested, "Just a moment, Chief Beifong. I have something I need to ask you."
Jeia stilled, looking back at Lin for orders, but Lin shook her head, and the Lieutenant glanced once at the captain before nodding and wandering a few steps away. She slowed her pace to stay within the vicinity, close enough to return if needed, but far enough not to eavesdrop on the conversation.
Lin returned her attention to the ship captain and asked, "What do you need, Captain?"
The slightly older woman stepped forward until she was standing toe to toe with Lin, and she narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice as she replied, "Just one question, Chief. When that man offered to take your child to safety…would you have really done it? If there had been no way to stop him…would you have really doomed all of those people on that ship to save your son?"
Lin felt her stomach twist uncomfortably at the clear accusation, but she didn't let a single emotion flash on her face. In an equally low voice, Lin gruffly responded, "He would have never let my son live, even if I had agreed to it."
"You're not answering my question," the captain persisted, looking agitated.
"Does it matter?" Lin fired back with her own irritation plain in her voice. "Can anyone ever say what they would have done in the heat of the moment until it happens? How could I have planned for an old nemesis to break out of prison, plant a bomb on the ship I happened to be on with my son, and then take that son hostage, offering not to slit my ten year old's throat in exchange for letting every other occupant of the ship die? I don't know about you, Captain, but even my extensive training didn't involve that scenario. In the end, we got nearly every person off of that ship and I'm not going to waste my time with 'what-if's'."
The captain scowled. "It matters if the Chief of Police would be willing to let the world burn to attempt saving one of her children." The captain's hardened features softened before Lin could manage a growl, and she sighed wearily before adding, "I understand why you would consider it, Chief Beifong. If it were my daughter…I don't know what I would have done, but I think, if this is something that could happen again, that could have such long-reaching repercussions, then perhaps you should reconsider some things. You're responsible for a lot of people in that city, Chief –"
"I'm well aware of my responsibilities, Captain," Lin snapped, cutting off the woman's words before she could go on. "And I don't like what you're implying. I've been doing this a long time, I think I can handle it. If that's all, I've got a family to get home and a city to protect."
Lin didn't wait for the captain to respond. She spun on her heel and stormed off, frustrated for all the wrong reasons. And when she reached her family, she was still fuming. The kids were already on Oogi's back with Yuuto, and Jeia clambered up into the saddle with them, but Tenzin was still waiting for Lin on the ground. When he saw her heated approach, he strode quickly to meet her.
"What happened?" he called to her before they even reached each other.
Lin was too angry to speak at first, but then Tenzin was directly in front of her, and he grasped her shoulders in his hands, giving her a meaningful look. All of a sudden, with a long, over-exaggerated exhale, she relaxed, shaking her head and responding, "Nothing, nothing, I'm fine."
"Did the captain say something?" Tenzin persisted, unconvinced.
"Later," Lin promised. "We need to get going."
"Okay," Tenzin conceded. "Later then."
He leaned in to kiss her forehead, and then they went to join the others.
After Lin had climbed onto Oogi, Sora sidled up to her mother and held out her hand. There in the young girl's palm were several shiny rocks, and she smiled widely as she explained, "Here, Mama. I got you more rocks since Daddy said you lost yours."
Lin smiled softly, accepting the rocks and then squeezing Sora into a one armed hug. "Thanks, sweetheart," she murmured, squeezing the stones tightly in her fist as they lifted off the ground.
The flight back to the city was shorter than their original trip to the Fire Nation, but it was still too long. Though Lin did not get sick this time around, she still felt tired and fairly nauseous for the last half of the trip, and she was beyond relieved when they finally landed on Air Temple Island.
Yuuto went straight into the city, but Lin waited until the kids were settled back in before going to the police station with Jeia. Tenzin remained on the Island with the kids, but had his assistant meet him there to go over all that he had missed while he was away.
There had been no sign of Chen or Shira since they had escaped from prison, nor were there any further leads on who the leak – or leaks – might be in the police force. Basically, there was nothing to go off of, and Lin spent several hours at work growing more and more frustrated as the day wore on.
By the time Lin arrived home again, it was very late. The kids were asleep together in the living room, apparently having tried to stay up waiting for their mother. Tenzin was sitting nearby, working on a stack of paperwork and looking like he was struggling not to fall asleep himself. When he saw Lin walk through the door, he was clearly relieved, and as exhausted as Lin was, she didn't protest at all when he suggested they go straight to bed. They carried the kids to their beds and then collapsed into their own.
It wasn't until several days later that Tenzin remembered Lin's promise to explain her bout of anger from speaking with the ship captain. Between work and the kids and trying to secure Air Temple Island so that the kids would be safe if the two of them were at work in the city at the same time, Lin and Tenzin hadn't had much time to talk about anything else.
When they finally had a minute to relax, they spent it with the kids first. Lin made dinner for the family, and after the five of them had eaten, they spent the last hours before bed talking and playing games.
Lin was beyond exhausted by the time she and Tenzin were tucking the kids into bed. In part because she had been working around the clock, and also, she assumed, because of the pregnancy. Tenzin was haranguing her about seeing a healer, and she knew he was right if they wanted to stay on top of it. She would require extra attention – which she hated – if she wanted to keep the baby healthy and alive. Being pregnant really was one of her worst nightmares, but she was making an effort to try and relax this time around. She had spent her entire pregnancy with Ronen wondering how the hell she was going to be a mother and hating every second that she grew larger and weaker. With the twins, she had worried about literally everything, to the point that she had spent several months after their births in a catatonic state, so far into her own head that she couldn't figure out how to dig her way back out. This last pregnancy should have been the one she worried about most, between the trouble in the city and the people trying to harm her and her family, and the greater risks that came with a pregnancy so late in life, and yet she had resolved not to fret over it so much this time. Of course, that was easier said than done, but rather than fight back against every inconvenience, she was going to give in and allow herself to maybe even enjoy some of the next few months. It was going to be her last pregnancy after all. She could at least be happy about that.
So Lin had made an appointment with her healer, who had been proven capable of being discreet and wouldn't let a word of her pregnancy leak to the public. She wasn't even three months along yet and she wasn't planning on telling anyone until she absolutely had to. Her armor was bulky enough to hide her growing abdomen until it least 20 or so weeks, and by then they should have more certainty over whether or not the baby would make it to term. Lin and Tenzin had had to have a sit down with Ronen and the twins to impress upon them the importance of not talking about the pregnancy when other people were around. The kids were happy to oblige even if they didn't fully understand why, mostly because they loved keeping secrets and they didn't have a whole lot to keep. Lin only worried that the three of them were getting too attached to the idea of another sibling before she even knew how it would turn out, but she was trying to stay positive for once so she didn't fret over it. No sense in panicking when the future was wide open with possibilities.
Lin was dismayed, however, to find that of all the things she was letting go, the one thing she couldn't seem to forget was the accusation the ship captain had hurled at her. So when Tenzin brought it up days after the incident, it didn't take her more than a second to catch on to what he was talking about.
Lin sighed wearily while trying to plan out her response, remaining silent for several moments after Tenzin had questioned her. She climbed into bed and settled into a comfortably seated position, resting her head back against the headboard and purposefully arranging the blankets over her lap.
Tenzin sat down on his side of the bed, legs still hanging over the edge and his torso twisted to face her, and then she answered, "She asked me if I really would have sacrificed everyone on the ship for Ronen."
Tenzin's expression remained neutral and he said nothing in response, waiting patiently for her to go on. But he did reach out to place a soft hand over hers, so gently she almost couldn't tell that it was there.
Lin went on, "I didn't have an answer for her and she told me I needed to reevaluate my current profession if I couldn't be certain that I would protect the citizens of Republic City."
Tenzin waited a beat, and when Lin didn't continue, he carefully asked, "Why was it that you didn't have an answer?"
Lin blew out a frustrated breath and shrugged. "I don't know," she huffed. "I protect the people in this city everyday. My efforts have always been for the greater good, and when I had the choice between my son and everyone else I...I hesitated, all right? I mean! – if I don't protect my own kids then who will?"
She silently acknowledged then, that the reason the captain's words had bothered her so much wasn't because they were wrong, but because she worried that they were right. What if she really would let hundreds of people die just to save her kids? She couldn't say with certainty that she hadn't considered, for one fraction of a second, letting everyone else fend for themselves so that she could save Ronen. She knew now, of course, how wrong that decision would have been, knew that she would have doomed little five year old Tai and his mother, the captain and Jao, and Hiru and all the other occupants of the ship. They could have possibly made it off without her of course, but more probably would have died, and who was to say that Deak wouldn't have killed Ronen the second he stepped into the life raft anyway? She knew all of the possible outcomes now, had known most of them even while she was in the midst of it, but hindsight was always 20/20, and people were prone to making the wrong decisions in the heat of the moment. Lin was trained not to make such costly mistakes, but when her kids were involved she became an entirely different person. A person that couldn't be trusted.
"I considered it," Lin admitted at last, her voice a quiet whisper and filled with self-loathing. It was a secret she didn't want to even give voice to, but which she needed to come clean about. There was only one person in the world she trusted with her secrets and he was sitting right in front of her. So the truth spilled out before she could catch it and stuff it back down into the dark place it had come from. "I actually considered his offer. Even though it must have been a lie, and even if it wasn't, it would have killed everyone else. I considered it. What kind of Chief does that make me?"
"It makes you human," Tenzin murmured, his voice quiet but strong, soothing, and he gripped her hand tighter than before. "You were thinking of protecting your son and that was all that you thought of in that moment. There is nothing wrong with that. Any other parent in the world would have done exactly the same. The difference is that you didn't go through with it. You didn't let everyone die and you still saved Ronen. You got all those people off of that ship without any further loss of life."
"Except Deak," Lin muttered bitterly. She was somewhere between glad that he was gone and feeling guilty for ending his life. "I killed him, but I didn't have to. Ronen was already behind me. I could have captured Deak. I could have put him back in prison instead of…"
She trailed off and swallowed forcefully, not upset that he was dead – because he really was a terrible person – but unhappy that she had done it out of revenge and anger. Not out of necessity or in the heat of battle, but simply because she never wanted to see him holding a knife to her son's throat ever again. She was no less of a murderer than anyone else.
"No," Tenzin said vehemently, stony faced and stern now, as if he had read her thoughts. "You are absolutely not any less of a person because of that. He held a knife to our son's throat, killed two innocent guards and gravely wounded another, and rigged a bomb to kill a hundred innocent people. Feeling guilt over killing is natural, but do not let it weigh you down for a single second longer. Not for him. You had few choices, and if you had tried taking him prisoner he could have broken free and killed others, or made it impossible for you to help people in need if you were too busy watching him."
Lin nodded slowly. He was making valid points, but she still didn't feel right about the whole thing.
"Lin, look at me," he urged, when she continued to stare silently at the blanket spread across her lap. She dragged her gaze up to meet his, and he scooted closer to her until his hip was pressed against the side of her thigh and she could feel his breath on her face. He lifted both of her hands and held them against his chest, his long fingers wrapping tight around hers. "You are a great Chief of Police, and a wonderful mother, and the best wife. Don't let one person's words make you second guess that."
Lin snorted softly. "You have to say that because you're my husband."
Tenzin chuckled and shook his head. "No, I don't. I meant every word, and I know several others that will agree. What happened that day, on the ship, was just one incident, and we're both going to do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen again. Deak is gone now, and soon we'll figure out this mess with Chen and Shira. Then things will go back to normal…well, as normal as they can be. It did take ten years before one of our children was in serious danger, though. I'll consider that a win."
Lin smirked and admitted, "True. How old were we when we had the first kidnapping attempt?"
"Well, there was that one before we were born, when Kya and Bumi were babies, but I believe we were four and five for our first," Tenzin guessed, looking contemplative as he no doubt counted the years backwards in his head. "I can barely remember it."
"A sign of old age," Lin teased. "All I remember about it was that Bumi nearly bit the one guy's finger off, which made you throw up, so the other guy dropped you."
Tenzin made a disgusted face as the memory faintly returned to him. "That's right, and then you were screaming and kicking so much that they eventually just gave up on us. I don't think Kya was around for that one, was she?"
Lin shook her head. "Not that I remember. She was the only one of us that would have been able to use her bending so I guess they came when she wasn't around. Or it was just coincidence."
"The kidnappings did stop very soon after we started getting more efficient at bending," Tenzin mused.
"I always wondered what our parents did to the ones they caught. I know what I would do, and it wouldn't be in accordance with the law."
"Well, either they scared them so badly that even today no one dares going after our kids, or we're simply better at deterring kidnappers," Tenzin said.
"How about we just assume we're better parents?" Lin suggested with a cocky smile.
Tenzin laughed lightly. "Yes," he agreed, "let's go with that."
It was nearly two months after the ship explosion before Ronen began to show signs of trauma.
The first inkling came when Lin arrived home from work in the middle of the night to find the boy still awake. He was propped up on the couch, book in hand, but when his mother walked through the door, he leapt to his feet, and before he realized that it was her, there was fear on his face.
"It's just me, kid," Lin placated him, carefully shutting the door behind her, but not breaking eye contact with Ronen.
Ronen let out a short, relieved breath, smiling a little at Lin and rubbing the back of his neck with a bit of embarrassment. "Right," he said, "I knew that. Hey, Mom. How was work?"
"It's late," Lin said with a raised eyebrow, ignoring his question. "What are you still doing up?"
"Oh, um, just got caught up reading," Ronen stammered.
"Really?" Lin said disbelievingly, standing directly in front of him now and folding her arms across her chest as she eyed him skeptically.
Ronen sighed, body seeming to deflate as he admitted, "Couldn't sleep."
"What's keeping you up?" Lin asked.
Ronen shrugged and noncommittally responded, "Nothing, just a nightmare."
"You wanna talk about it?" Lin offered.
Ronen shook his head. "Nah, I'm okay."
"Has this been going on for a while?" Lin questioned, letting concern creep into her voice.
"No, not long," Ronen assured her. "Only started a few nights ago. I'm okay, Mom, I promise."
Lin eyed him carefully for a few moments, trying to ascertain whether or not he was being entirely truthful. Eventually, she could only concede, "Okay, kid, but if this keeps going on, you'll tell us right?"
Ronen nodded his consent, and Lin nodded too.
"All right, good," she said, squeezing his shoulder briefly. "Think you're ready to go back to bed? I can sit with you until you fall asleep."
Ronen hesitated, seeming to want to accept her offer, but not sure how. He was getting to be the age where kids started thinking they shouldn't need their parents so much anymore. "Oh, um, you don't have to," he responded uncertainly. "It's late, you're probably tired…"
"Nonsense," Lin refuted, even though she certainly was exhausted. "I'm starving, can't sleep yet." That wasn't a lie either. She had just eaten two hours before, but the pregnancy nausea had recently been fading into more frequent hunger. "Why don't you go get in bed? I'll scrounge something up and meet you there."
Ronen agreed and gathered up the book and blanket he had hastily discarded on the couch. Then he trudged down the hall to his bedroom, and Lin watched him go before going to the kitchen. She found a bowl of rice and chicken Tenzin must have had made for her, and she took the bowl and utensils with her into Ronen's room.
The boy was sitting up in bed and staring at the far wall when she walked in, his eyes droopy but stubbornly open while he refused to sleep. Lin sat down on the edge of his bed and quickly ate her second dinner, letting Ronen talk her ear off about something Yunjin had done to annoy him that day. He didn't talk about his nightmares, and Lin didn't press. When she finished eating she sat the bowl on his bedside table and stretched out further on the bed. Ronen waited a few heartbeats before carefully curling up against his mother's side, his forehead pressed against her ribs. He placed a hand on her stomach, rounded now and protruding slightly from her waistband, and he whispered a few words to his baby brother or sister, like he had all those years ago when she was carrying Yunjin and Sora.
Lin hadn't let him do it at first, still uncertain that the pregnancy would stick and not wanting any of the kids to get too attached. They had all basically spent the last two months pretending she wasn't even pregnant. Except Lin had seen the poorly concealed excitement on the kids' – and even Tenzin's – faces the whole time. After about sixteen weeks and constant reassurance from her healer, Lin decided that the pregnancy was a little more likely to stick, and even if it didn't, at that point they were all going to be crushed anyways. So when Ronen requested to lay a hand on her growing belly and say hello to the baby, she had finally allowed it, and when Sora had seen, she had been insistent on doing the same. The girl had nearly been brought to tears, but then again, nearly everything brought Sora to tears. They were happy tears, though, and now everyday the first thing Sora did was kiss her mother's stomach and tell the baby good morning.
Yunjin was very blasé about the whole thing, rolling his eyes when Sora talked to the baby because, "It can't hear you! Babies don't have ears!" Inevitably, it caused an argument between the kids more often than not, because Ronen and Sora were over the moon about a new sibling and Yunjin couldn't care less. He was very protective of Lin, more so than usual. He kept trying to carry her dinner plates for her and offered to get her water so many times she'd had to promise to tell him first if she needed a drink just so he'd stop asking her. But he wasn't thrilled about the baby, and kept eyeing Lin's stomach with distaste. When the bouts of morning sickness were particularly bad and Lin had to spend half her day in bed or in close proximity to a trash can, he would get frustrated and complain that the baby was mean and he didn't like it very much. Tenzin had spoken with him about it, insisting that it was perfectly natural and it wasn't really the baby's fault that Lin was sick, but Yunjin remained unconvinced.
Sora always ran and hid when Lin was sick, but Ronen would often beat his father to holding back her hair for her. Overall, the kids were more than helpful, and while it might have been the riskiest pregnancy Lin had had, it was also turning out to be the easiest. With four people around to help her out she wasn't dreading the later months of her pregnancy so much. It would still be tedious to walk around with several more pounds attached to her front, but after carrying twins she figured she'd almost feel small this time around.
It was a good thing that her pregnancy was not so arduous this time, because the city was a mess. Lin hadn't run into Shira or Chen since she'd returned, nor had she received any threats, but they hadn't exactly been idle. She started to wonder if it had just been Deak with the vendetta and the other two just wanted freedom to cause mayhem, or if they were waiting to strike until she had left her guard down. There had been sightings of both of them, usually together, so Lin knew they hadn't left the city. They were often sighted in various places with the ever-growing Triple Threat Triad, striking at random and causing all kinds of chaos. When the Triple Threats weren't robbing shop owners or terrorizing various police and citizens, they were making pointed strikes against the nonbender groups. The more damage the Triple Threats caused, the angrier the nonbenders became, and the two groups were constantly clashing, so that the police force was stretched thin. People like Lin and Tenzin were starting to worry that if it wasn't contained they'd be on the verge of a civil war. Tarrlok, of course, wanted to go to extremes, and Tenzin was struggling to keep the rest of the council members from being persuaded.
Overall, Lin and Tenzin were stretched to their limits, but it had long ago become second nature to them. They'd probably be more worried if the city wasn't in chaos.
While thinking about everything else that needed done the following day and trying to map out a plan in her head, Lin let her eyes drift shut for a moment and rested her head back against the wall. Idly, she stroked Ronen's hair, and considered how she might help him with his recent nightmares. She wasn't sure how long it was before she dozed off, whether it was four minutes or forty-five, but she woke shortly after with a stiff neck and numb legs.
A hand was gently caressing her cheek, and she recognized Tenzin's hushed voice against her ear saying, "Lin."
Lin's eyes shot open and she looked blearily around the room, slowly remembering where she was and glancing down to ensure Ronen was all right. The boy was fast asleep and turned away from her now to lie sprawled on his stomach. He looked peaceful.
"Come to bed, Lin," Tenzin whispered, holding his hand out to help her up.
Lin had to shake the pins and needles from her legs, and she winced when she put her weight on them, but after a few steps she was slowly regaining feeling in them. By the time she reached her own room, part of her felt wide awake, mind racing with all the things she could get done if she just stayed awake for a few hours. But the second she laid down in bed and her head sunk into her familiar soft pillow, she decided everything else could wait. She relaxed with a sigh, and when Tenzin curled around her back, his arm draped over her waist, she drifted back to sleep without another thought.
It was another two weeks before Ronen's occasional nightmare turned into a full blown panic attack.
The kids were in the courtyard, enjoying one of the first warm days of the season, while Lin and Tenzin cleaned up the mess left behind from lunch. Lin had the day off and the windows were wide open to let in the breeze and the sunshine. Tenzin couldn't wipe the smile from his face every time Lin turned to the side and he caught a glimpse of her growing belly. In just a few short weeks it would be impossible for her to hide.
Tenzin's hands itched to reach out, and even though he was covered in soap suds, he slipped behind Lin and wrapped his arms right around her, palms splayed atop her abdomen and chin resting on her shoulder.
She had just settled back against his chest with a sigh when they heard Sora screeching out in the courtyard.
"DADDY! MAMA! HURRY!"
Lin tensed in his arms, and there was a quarter of a second where neither of them reacted.
Then the both of them were disengaging from one another and sprinting out to the courtyard. It could have been nothing, could have just been that Sora wanted to show them something or that she was angry with one of her brothers. With her it was hard to tell sometimes, but with all that had been going on lately and the threat of Chen and Shira and the altercation with Deak, Lin and Tenzin were on high alert and expecting the worst.
When they made it outside, they saw Yunjin and Sora first, both of them running in their parents' direction, Sora slightly ahead of her twin brother. They didn't look like they were hurt or petrified, but Yunjin did look worried…and angry?
As she ran, Sora called out to Lin and Tenzin, "Yunjin hurt Ronen!"
"I did not!" Yunjin immediately shrieked. "I didn't hit him! I didn't! I swear!"
Yunjin put on a burst of speed to catch up to his sister as she skidded to a halt in front of their parents. He came to a stop too, and shoved Sora's shoulder angrily as he demanded, "Quit lying, Sora!"
"Hey!" Lin barked, grabbing both twins and yanking them apart before Sora could retaliate. "Quit that! Where's your brother?"
But she needn't have asked, because Tenzin had already caught sight of him, his gaze somewhere far over her head as he quietly said, "Lin…"
"I'm not lying!" Sora yelled over her father. "You hit him with the explody thing!"
Yunjin continue to argue with his sister, but Lin followed her husband's gaze across the courtyard, in the direction his eyes were focused on. After a quick sweep she spotted her eldest son too and immediately muttered, "Shit."
Ronen was squatted down on the ground, back pressed against a wall and his arms wrapped tight around his bent legs, which he had crushed against his chest. It looked like he was trying to curl in on himself or become a smaller target. His bright green eyes were wide and full of terror and he stared, stricken, at a blackened scorch mark on the ground a few feet in front of him. There in the center were the remnants of a miniature explosive. Meant for children, it only emitted short sparks when it hit the ground, and a loud popping sound. Yunjin loved throwing them to surprise people on the Island, and even though Lin and Tenzin never bought them for him, he always managed to find some from somewhere – they suspected Bumi.
They were a mostly harmless toy, but for Ronen, who had leapt from a ship just a few short months ago only moments before it blew up, the explosives must have frightened him. Lin recognized the signs, and she suspected that when Yunjin had thrown the fire cracker, the sharp sound must have been too familiar and sent Ronen into a panic.
Releasing Yunjin and Sora, Lin rushed past them to cross the courtyard to where Ronen sat. She slowed down when she was close, approaching him slowly and softly calling, "Ronen? Ronen, hey…kid, it's Mom…"
Ronen twitched, his jaw clenching, but his gaze remained riveted on the scorch mark and he didn't acknowledge his mother.
Lin squatted down a few paces in front of him, blocking his view of the blackened ground and forcing his gaze to land half on her instead. She slowly reached out her hand and he jerked back, one of his own hands going up to his throat as if to claw at something, but when he found nothing, his fingers froze in midair.
Lin pulled her hand back hastily and tried again, "Ronen. Listen to me. It's your mother. You're safe. You're on Air Temple Island. You're home. You're safe."
Ronen blinked, and then finally looked his mother in the eye. Though his were glazed over slightly, he recognized her after only a few more blinks. "Mom?" he said, sounding uncertain.
Lin nodded. "Yes, it's me. You know where you are?"
Ronen's eyes widened again and he lurched forward this time, grabbing onto Lin's biceps and gasping, "Mom! Are you okay? Is the baby okay?"
"I'm fine," Lin reassured him with a slight frown. "The baby is fine. We're all fine. Tell me where you are, Ronen. And breathe."
Ronen shook his head in confusion, rubbing at his forehead and taking in a few deep breaths. Finally, he released a long exhale, and looked curiously around them. Lin watched the recognition dawn on his face as he took in their surroundings.
"Oh…" he breathed, apparently coming back to himself. "What happened?"
Lin sighed wearily, relieved, but more worried than before. "I think you might have just had a bit of a flashback to the boat incident. You remember where we are now?"
"Home," Ronen said without hesitation this time, looking embarrassed now and dropping his hands from her arms. "On the Island. I thought…it sounded like there was an explosion and…sorry."
"Don't be sorry," Lin said. "Your brother threw one of those fire crackers is all. You think you can stand?"
Young and spry, Ronen didn't test his legs. He simply unfurled and leapt to his feet. Lin was slower in rising, and by the time she was standing straight up again, Tenzin had hurried over to them, having kept his distance while Lin tried to pull Ronen out of it. Though Tenzin was no stranger to such things, Lin was quite a bit more experienced, and he trusted her implicitly to handle it. But the worry on his face was severe. He swept Ronen up into a crushing hug the moment he reached his son.
"I'm okay, Dad," Ronen insisted, voice muffled by his father's voluminous robes.
Ronen repeated that for the rest of the day, but Lin and Tenzin weren't fully convinced. It was possible that the incident had been a one time thing, but it was also entirely possible that Ronen was experiencing some PTSD. Lin figured he was young and would bounce back in no time so long as they maintained a ban on fire crackers, which Yunjin was suddenly only too happy to oblige. Tenzin, however, was not so optimistic, and decided that they needed to take Ronen to a therapist. Lin had initially rejected the idea, because they were a family and they would figure it out without involving strangers.
Ronen vehemently protested the idea too, at first, but out of Lin and Tenzin's three kids, Ronen was often the biggest pushover. Eventually, after a long meditation session together and a private talk Lin wasn't privy to, Tenzin convinced Ronen that just talking to someone a couple times would be good for him. Tenzin also made it clear that Ronen was free to talk to either of his parents too, if he preferred, but even Lin had to admit that the two of them wouldn't be able to provide as much help as a professional. They had plenty of experience in trauma, but Lin wasn't exactly a model of perfection when it came to properly dealing with it, and she only wanted the best for her kids. If that meant hiring a specialist to come to the Island once a week to talk to her son then she would do it. She thought they might be overreacting a little too, but she ultimately decided that was better than a repeat of Ronen going into a catatonic state and scaring the life out of her. Not to mention, Lin had briefly considered what her own mother would have done for her in the same situation, and immediately decided that yes, Ronen would get all the help in the world, even if he didn't need it. She'd be damned if she let her own kids turn into an emotionally stunted wreck like she had. Lin didn't know precisely how to smother her kids with love, being the awkwardly unaffectionate person that she was, but nothing would stop her from trying to figure it out.
Notes:
Well, folks, we're winding down to the end of the prequel half of this story and then, after about forty chapters, we'll finally reach the part where Korra comes to Republic City! I certainly never expected this story to go on this long! That being said, with the final major showdown coming up for the Linzin family before Korra shows up and everything that that entails, I wanted to offer this moment to take some requests. I've been inspired by your reviews in the past, and once this part is over I'm probably going to skim right through the next four years before Legend of Korra begins, so if there's anything you want to see play out in those couple years then I'm open to ideas. If you want to wait until you see what happens in the next couple chapters that's fine too since I usually write these chapters on the fly. Likewise, if there's anything you want me to maybe focus on from the actual show I'd be happy to hear requests for that too. I'm going to try and stick as close to canon as possible, and I won't make you guys reread the entire show nor make myself type it out! But I will focus on major points like Lin losing her bending, how the Linzin family reacts to the crazy goings on, stuff like that, so if you've got any ideas let me know sometime over the next couple chapters! I can't promise I'll be able to incorporate everything, but I'll try my best. I look forward to hearing from you, thanks so much for all of your fabulous support, and until next time!
Chapter 37: Chapter 37
Chapter Text
Chapter 37
At twenty-two weeks, with no complications, Lin finally began to accept that she really was going to have another baby.
Which was precisely when the panic began to set in.
She was good at hiding it from her family, pretending that everything was perfectly fine, but internally she was having a very slight meltdown. What on Earth were they thinking? Having a baby at their age? In the middle of a triad crisis?
Then again, when had they ever done anything properly? Lin could hardly remember a time when their wasn't an impending turf war or triad expansion. Even before Aang and Toph had died, there had always been tension in the city. And Lin might not have been quite as young as she'd once been, but she was no less strong or capable. She was still just as spry as the new recruits and a lot wiser. Carrying a baby was tedious, but not the worst thing she'd ever done.
So she panicked for three days before she convinced herself that everything was mostly fine again. Being optimistic wasn't a typical trait of hers, but the older she got the less time she had to waste on worrying over every little thing.
She still wasn't about to let her guard down, though, which meant taking every precaution to ensure that all four of her kids were protected. She wore her armor everywhere she went when she was in the city, and Tenzin often flew her to work on Oogi, despite the baby's ever persistent hatred for flying. Ronen and the twins weren't taken into the city for anything, and Lin and Tenzin had mapped out several plans for escape should something happen on the Island. They had relayed those plans to the kids' babysitter, Acolyte Nira, who was responsible for getting the kids to safety if Lin and Tenzin were not around to do so themselves. Until Chen and Shira were recaptured, Lin considered them a threat to her family's well-being, and they had to be prepared for anything.
Ronen began to talk with a specialist shortly after his panic over the fire cracker explosion, and the boy seemed to be better off for it. His nightmares had mostly diminished and only one other panic attack had occurred. The therapist came to the island once a week, and after only a few sessions, the man had confidently told Lin and Tenzin that Ronen's recovery would likely be short. The boy was young and optimistic, and he had a support system large enough to sustain him. The therapist had only to provide Ronen with the tools to manage any remaining trauma. Tenzin and Lin were still on the lookout for any unusual behavior, but they quickly surmised that Ronen was going to be just fine.
Suyin, along with about half a dozen of her metal clan guards, showed up on the Island, unannounced, shortly after Lin and Tenzin had revealed to the appropriate people that they would be having a fourth child soon. Their families already knew, so they only had to inform a few people on the council and in the police force. Unsurprisingly, the news had spread through the city fast, so that even Su heard about it out in Zaofu, and she had chosen that moment to check in on her sister and her family. Su was apparently worried about an attack now that Lin had revealed a possible weakness, but Lin suspected that her little sister was more interested in finding out who Shira was. Su had still been very young when Lin had stopped speaking to her father and Shira, so she had little to no memory of Lin having another half-sister, and she questioned Lin incessantly about it. When Lin and Tenzin were at work, Su divided her time between checking and rechecking the moderate security on Air Temple Island – she harassed Lin for days about how beneficial it would be to install a metal dome –, and scouring the city as if she expected to find Shira herself. Lin knew Suyin would never find Shira, but she didn't dissuade Su from trying. The mental image of her two half-sisters battling it out was admittedly quite hilarious.
After about a week and a half, Su must have decided that she'd been away from her own family long enough, and that she wasn't going to solve the Shira problem as easily as she'd hoped. She announced to Lin, Tenzin, and the kids at dinner one evening that she would be returning to Zaofu the following morning. All three of the kids went to engulf their aunt in sad hugs, but Lin struggled not to cheer in delight – she could only handle her sister in small doses, and nearly two weeks of being badgered was more than enough. Su did insist on leaving behind her metal clan guards as extra security, and begged that Lin and Tenzin keep her up to date on the goings on in Republic City, which Lin considered a small concession to make to get rid of her suffocating sister. But then, Su had ruined it by promising to return when Lin was close to having the baby, despite Lin's vehement protests to the contrary – the last thing she wanted was Suyin around when she went into labor. Lin had very nearly begged her sister not to bother, but Su could not be reasoned with once she had made up her mind – and she had the nerve to say Lin was the stubborn one.
About a week after Su's departure, Lin was ironically wishing her sister had stuck around a bit longer, because it was around that time that a flu epidemic swept through Republic City. The hospital was filled to the brim and the city's leaders had to call in extra doctors and healers from around the world to help out. Within a week, they were running low on medical supplies too, and Lin had to delegate several officers – ones that weren't out sick with the flu – to the task of coordinating mass shipments and ensuring the medical supplies made it safely to the hospital. Criminals must have been affected by the flu too, though, because there was a noticeable decrease in major conflicts for a few weeks.
Lin was nearly ordered into seclusion by her doctor during the whole outbreak, but Lin was confident in her immune system and, by the time the wave of illnesses had finally begun to slow down, she had managed to go the entire time without so much as a sore throat.
Tenzin, however, was not so lucky. The flu snuck up on him and hit him hard. He was bedridden for two days, and generally unwell for over a week afterwards. Lin did her best to make him comfortable, while stretching herself thin trying to be everywhere she was needed at once, but Ronen, thankfully, was a lot better at caring for his sickly father, and helped Lin tremendously on that front.
Ronen, too, managed to avoid getting sick, but shortly after Tenzin began feeling more like himself, both Sora and Yunjin started coming down with what appeared to be the beginnings of the flu. Neither of them were as bad off as Tenzin had been, but he and Lin didn't waste time in calling the kids' doctor.
Unfortunately, the doctor couldn't get to the Island for a home visit for at least three days, and Lin and Tenzin didn't want to wait that long, in case the twins got worse. So they made the decision to risk traveling into the city with Sora and Yunjin for an appointment. They left Ronen on the Island with Nira and Suyin's metal clan guards, promising to return shortly. Then Tenzin flew Lin and the twins on Oogi to the city, landing safely atop the building that housed the kids' doctor's office. Lin did a precautionary perimeter sweep, while Tenzin went to check the twins in.
Upon seeing the doctor, both twins were diagnosed with the flu as expected and given medicines to counteract the affects. As the four of them were about to leave to head home, both Sora and Yunjin began pleading for a frozen treat they'd seen one of the vendors selling down the street. Lin thought it was a bad idea, but both kids were looking up at her with such pitiful expressions, their noses red and eyes watery from the illness. She knew they were feeling pretty awful, and if a frozen treat would cheer them up for a little bit then she wanted to do that for them. She tried offering to have Tenzin go and get the treats while they waited on Oogi, but the twins were insistent that they go to choose their own flavor.
With a long, drawn out sigh, Lin relented, and the twins cheered briefly before it diminished into coughing fits.
Lin was on high alert the whole way across the street, but none of the other passerby looked particularly menacing so she forced herself to breathe. She watched their surroundings while Tenzin ordered the treats for the twins, as well as something for Ronen that wouldn't melt on the way home, and then the four of them started the short trek back to where Oogi waited for them.
They were halfway there when Lin sensed something happening, and she came to an abrupt stop, throwing her arm out to halt the twins and shouting, "Stop!"
Lin started backing up immediately, pushing the twins with one arm and holding the other at the ready to deflect an attack. Tenzin seemed to catch on even though he had no idea what Lin had sensed, and mirrored her movements, so that both of them were shielding the twins.
From out of the alleyway just beside the family of four, a figure stepped out of the shadows and halfway into the sunlight.
It was a woman, with long grey hair, dark green eyes, and sharp cheekbones. She wore a tight, custom fitted black suit and was bedecked in shiny gold jewelry, some etched with Earth Kingdom symbols, and one bulky bracelet with the official emblem of the Triple Threat Triad on it. She smirked at Lin and Tenzin's surprised faces as she strutted out to meet them, and casually slid her hands into her pockets as she looked straight at Lin and said, "Hello, Sister. Long time, no see."
Lin didn't waste time with a response, pushing Yunjin back against Tenzin, who had already clutched Sora to him, and lashing out with one of her metal cables.
Shira kicked her heel into the ground without concern, and a rock wall erected to intercept Lin's cable. The metal whip shattered the rock into pieces, but lost its forward momentum and flopped to the ground.
Shira swiped the crumpled stone aside and held both hands up peacefully, "Hold on there a second! I'm not here to fight."
"Sure you're not," Lin snorted, retracting her cable in preparation to strike again. "That's why you brought eight people with you."
Shira glanced around with a shrug, and Lin could see Tenzin's head swiveling to take in the other figures that were now surrounding them. Two up on the roof above them, two across the street behind them, two lingering in the shadows right behind Shira, and one to the left and one to the right of Lin and Tenzin and the twins. None of them lashed out or stepped too close, but they were waiting, ready to attack at a moment's notice. Lin didn't want to give them that chance.
"They're only here for security purposes," Shira said with a dismissive wave. "They won't attack so long as you don't."
"We can take them," Lin said to Tenzin, who nodded resolutely and adjusted his stance in preparation.
"Perhaps," Shira interjected, "but do you really want to risk it?" Lin whipped her head back around to scowl at her half-sister, who gestured to Yunjin and Sora and added, "Do you really want to risk them when I'm not even trying to start a fight? I just want to have a quick chat, Lin. One I think you can benefit from. And then we'll all be on our way."
"On your way back to jail," Lin growled. "I'm taking you in."
Lin ignored the dizzying déjà vu that statement gave her while Shira laughed. "Putting me back in jail won't solve your problems, Lin."
"It'll solve one of them," Lin proclaimed. "Enough talking –"
"Oh just wait," Shira huffed in annoyance, rolling her eyes. "Spirits, you're just as impatient as you were when you were five. You know, we haven't spoken in decades, can't you give your sister five seconds to speak?"
"You're not my sister," Lin spat. "And I've heard enough."
"So you're not at all worried about what Chen might do to your family?" Shira questioned, folding her arms and looking skeptical.
That got Lin's attention, and she stilled for a second, glancing quickly back at the twins and Tenzin. Sora was holding onto her melting treat – Yunjin had dropped his – and both were staring up at Shira; Sora with wide eyes and confusion, and Yunjin with a narrowed gaze and angrily pursed lips. Tenzin held both of them tightly against him, ready to yank them out of danger if necessary, and he met Lin's brief gaze with a furrowed brow.
"I think we should let her speak," Tenzin quietly suggested.
Lin squeezed her hands into tight fists and suppressed a growl, glaring at Shira as she demanded, "Speak."
"Finally," Shira said with an exasperated sigh. "Look, I just want to give you the heads up. Somethin' big is coming, and if you don't want you and your great big happy family caught up in the middle, you'd better get out while you can."
Lin barked out a humorless laugh. "Thanks for the warning, but I already figured you and your new buddy Chen wanted to finish the job after Deak failed."
Shira scoffed. "Deak was an idiot. I had to escape prison just so I would never have to hear his voice ever again. I spent months listening to him go on and on, about how you ruined his life. I would have killed him myself if you hadn't. We used him as a pawn, nothing more. Whatever he did once he was out was his business. Chen has more…ambitious plans."
"But they still involve me," Lin said with an eye roll. "What's the difference? Why are you even bothering to tell me this? Does your boyfriend know you're here?"
Shira smiled slyly. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him. And I've got nothing against you, Sis…well, other than your unfortunate lifestyle choices."
"Then why bother to team up with Chen? He is trying to get to me, right?" Lin questioned, deciding that if she was going to entertain this conversation she might as well try and get some information out of it.
"He's not as obsessed as Deak, but yeah, he wants revenge," Shira freely admitted. "Personally, if you had killed our father, I would have thanked you, but you know men. They can't handle their daddy issues like we can."
"Cute," Lin muttered, deadpan. "So then what do you get out of all this? Why go behind his back to warn me?"
"I'm just here to settle a debt," Shira said. "Your mom helped me out a few times back in the day and I never got to pay her back before she died. So here I am, giving you a warning, in honor of her. Our plans will go through whether you're here or not, so it doesn't affect me, and once we're finished, Chen will have more important things to do than go ransacking the world looking for you. If I were you, I'd take my advice and get yourself and your family out of the city."
Lin snorted and shook her head bemusedly. "You know we aren't going to do that. You can't run us out of here that easily."
Shira shrugged, unconcerned. "Suit yourself. As far as I'm concerned, my debt is paid. I told you what was coming. What you decide to do with the information is your choice."
"You've told me next to nothing," Lin argued. "How can I judge whether or not your threats are serious without more information?"
Shira tipped her head back and laughed. "Do you really think I'm that gullible that I'd tell the Chief of Police our plans?"
Lin shrugged, unsurprised by Shira's response. "It was worth a shot."
Shira looked past Lin to where Tenzin stood with Sora and Yunjin, and then she dropped her gaze to Lin's abdomen, which was covered by her metal armor, but still clearly rounded to accommodate her growing stomach. "I gotta say, Lin, I never saw you as the family type."
"Are we done here?" Lin snapped.
Shira grinned. "Same old Lin. Well, hey, since I know you won't do the smart thing, I guess we'll see each other again soon. I look forward to finally putting those skills of yours to the test."
Shira didn't wait for Lin to react, winking at her half-sister and then stomping her foot into the ground to propel herself upwards with the earth. Lin threw her cables up in an effort to stop Shira, even though she knew it was for naught. Her half-sister was already sprinting across the roof tops in the opposite direction. The eight others had scattered and were escaping from different directions, and the blast of air Tenzin directed at two of them didn't stop them either.
Lin didn't bother trying to chase any of them, but she did use the radio in the doctor's office to briefly notify her officers of the altercation. Shira and her minions were probably long gone, but the police could still search the surrounding area just in case. Lin would have to go into the office now to make a report, and with the twins sick she was even more unhappy about that fact.
After Lin had talked to Saikhan over the radio, she and Tenzin ushered the twins back up onto the roof.
As soon as they were all stood beside Oogi, Lin crouched down before the twins and said, "Listen, I'm sorry you guys had to see that. I don't want you to worry about what that crazy lady said, okay?"
"Is she your sister?" Yunjin asked. "I thought Aunt Su was your sister? Do we have another aunt?"
"No," Lin said firmly. "That woman is not your aunt. She's a criminal that we're trying to arrest."
Sora rubbed her eyes, teary and cranky now as she sniffled pitifully. "Is the bad lady and her friends gonna hurt you, Mama?"
"Of course not," Lin assured her. "I have a lot of very good police officers. We're going to catch them."
Tenzin was right behind her when he added, "We're all being very careful, sweetheart. You don't have to worry. We're all safe."
"The lady made us lose our treats," Yunjin complained, folding his arms across his chest grumpily. "I don't like her."
"I have to go into work for a little bit, but I'll be home for dinner. How about I bring you guys something for dessert?" Lin offered.
"Why you gotta leave?" Sora whimpered.
"I have to, Sora, to try and find the bad lady, but I'll be home early, I promise."
"But you're never home early," Sora pouted.
Lin sighed, feeling guilty but not seeing any other option. There was no easy way out of this.
"I'll go pick Mama up," Tenzin interjected, reaching out to squeeze Sora's hand. "So she'll have to come home early, okay?"
Sora shrugged, but started crying anyways, and Lin had to spend the short trip to the police station consoling the girl. Detaching herself from her upset daughter wasn't easy, and she told Tenzin to pick her up in two hours whether she was ready to return home or not.
She stood on the roof to watch her family depart, a hand coming to rest over her abdomen without conscious thought, and then she shook her head, dropped her hand to her side, and went inside to work.
Most of Lin's pregnancy flew by in such a whirlwind that, by the time she was at twenty-nine weeks, she began to wonder where the last seven months had gone. Soon she would be giving birth for the last time. She would have another son or daughter, and despite the fact that she had been a mother for ten years already, the whole experience of it felt just as new and foreign as it had the last two times she'd been pregnant. She could hardly remember the person she'd once been, back when she was twenty and full of ambition, but with little to no desire to have a husband or children at all. She had been so laser focused on work and achieving greatness and pleasing her mother that having a family never even occurred to her.
But then she had fallen in love with Tenzin at twenty-one years old – though she suspected that she had loved him long before she ever realized it – and suddenly marriage hadn't seemed like such a bad idea. She had still been opposed to kids though, because kids were wild and unpredictable, messy and annoying. She couldn't fathom putting her career on hold to let her body be warped into something unrecognizable, not when she had so much work left to do, a city to protect, her mother's legacy to uphold. Back then, that was what it often came down to; whether or not her mother would approve.
Toph hadn't wanted Lin to follow directly in her footsteps, but she also hadn't deterred Lin from doing so. Toph had always boasted her legendary greatness, had proudly declared that she would pass all of it on to her daughters, so that the world would always have some form of Toph Beifong. Lin had taken that to heart, had done everything exactly as she expected she should, exactly as she thought Toph would want her to. She had thought that Toph wanted her to be exactly like her, to become the next Chief of Police. But Lin's life choices hadn't made Toph happy, and it had taken a long time for Lin to realize that and, also, to come to terms with it.
Lin had loved her mother despite the neglect and the pressure to excel, but she had hated her mother's methods. She hated even more that the responsibility of raising Suyin had mostly fallen onto Lin's shoulders. Others had helped of course. Sokka and Katara and Aang had been around when Toph was busy with work, but they weren't Lin or Su's parents and they had their own lives to live. Once Lin became old enough to take care of herself and Su without an adult present, it had mostly just been the two sisters left to fend for themselves. Lin had hated every second of it. Had hated raising a little sister that rebelled at every turn. Hated being trapped at home watching Su and then being teased later in life by her mother and sister because she hardly had any friends to speak of. It hadn't been Su's fault, but Lin had resented her for it anyway. And Su had resented Lin for trying to be her mother. And then, of course, in her final act of defiance, Su had broken the law helping some triad thugs, Lin's face had been forever scarred, and Toph had torn the arrest report to shreds. Su was sent off to Gaoling and Lin remained behind to deal with the aftermath, as per usual.
In truth, part of Lin had felt somewhat responsible for how Suyin had turned out back in those days. Before Su got her head together, built a whole city from the ground up, and started a family, it had been anyone's guess what she would do with herself, if she would succeed somehow or end up in a different prison. So while Su was off playing pirate and circus freak, Lin had been raging…and mourning. In the span of one day, she had lost a sister, her face had been forever damaged, her relationship with her mother had become strained, and there was a shredded arrest report laying heavily on her conscious. She had considered herself a failure. If she could not even keep her sister in line then how would she ever be a good mother?
However, that day had also been a wake up call for Lin. It had shown her, once and for all, that everything she'd once believed about her career and legacies and pleasing her mother had all been a lie. A lie just like the one they'd been forced to carry to protect Su. Lin had started evolving that day, even though she hadn't yet realized it.
She still hadn't wanted kids, but she had wanted Tenzin more than anything else in the world and so she had tried to consider it. Because she knew he needed them, because she wanted him to have them. She would never have tried to persuade him against having kids, because she knew that it wasn't an option for him, and she knew also that him not having children would be devastating all around. He would die as the last Airbender, and then none would ever walk the Earth again, and he would have been miserable with grief at having failed his father and his people. So Lin had always known that, if she wanted to marry Tenzin and be with him forever, then she would have to bear his children. And if she could not accept that, then she would be forced to let him go.
She had almost let him go once or twice, had considered it the only logical course of action for a million different reasons. Except she had been selfish and in love and, in the end, it was scarier to consider her life without him than it was to consider having children. Even then, though, she hadn't wanted to have kids for that reason alone. She didn't want to have them out of obligation, or because she simply didn't want to have to break up with Tenzin. To have them for those reasons would not be fair to any child, and she certainly couldn't do it to her own. Kids always knew when they weren't their parents' main focus.
Lin had always known that she was not Toph's first priority – she definitely wasn't her father's –, and even at forty-five years old she had barely come to terms with that old neglect, because it was so deeply embedded into who she was. But Toph had loved Lin – in her own way – and Lin had been given some of the sort of love and acceptance she hadn't always gotten from her mother, because Sokka and Katara and Aang had never let Lin go without. They had loved her with abandon, showering her with the type of affection that her mother loathed and which, by extension, made Lin extremely uncomfortable. Yet she had appreciated it more than the three of them could ever have known.
So, somewhere along the way, the stars had aligned and Lin had given the topic a great deal of thought until, finally, she made up her mind. And when Lin made up her mind about something there was no changing it. She had been terrified at the thought of being a mother, of failing her kids like she failed Su, of being too distant like her mother had been, of generally not knowing what to do and simply ruining her kids – Tenzin's kids – in some unfixable way. She also was supremely uncomfortable with the sort of affection kids needed and with the mess that would come with them. And yet she was also determined, to have the life with Tenzin that part of her had always wanted, to give him the family he'd always dreamed of, to be a better mother than her own. Determination and a great yearning to be free of the restrictions she'd placed on herself were what helped her to move past her reservations and create a life with Tenzin.
The journey there hadn't been easy, of course. Getting pregnant with Ronen had been next to impossible, which was incredibly ironic now that Lin had managed to somehow accidentally get pregnant at forty-five. Then there had been the baby that never was, its life snuffed out before it was ever truly theirs. And then the twins had come shortly after, and Lin had been trapped in a depressive state, tormented by her own mind and unable to care for her two newborns or the rest of her family.
But in the end, everything had worked out, and Lin did not regret any of her children for a single second. Where before she could not fathom being a wife and a mother, now she could no longer imagine what her life would be like without her family. Everything could have turned out so differently, but she was so glad that it hadn't. She had panicked a few times about having a fourth kid, but in the end she was not worried. She was going to love that kid like she did the other three no matter what age she was. Yes, there would be days where the four of them drove her nuts, and days when she would disappoint them because she wasn't a perfect mother and she never would be. But at the end of those days she would still go to sleep knowing that she loved them with all her heart and they loved her too, and that was really all that mattered.
Of course, the last pregnancy was no easier than the first two, and perhaps the worst of all. It had started out so smoothly, and Lin had been uncommonly optimistic, but as with everything, there were eventually complications she could not prevent.
With every week that the baby grew inside of Lin, the Triple Threat Triad grew along with it. With the triad growing strength, the nonbender organizations were growing too, with more and more citizens enraged by the damage benders were causing to the city and to their lifestyles. The Triple Threats were stoking the flames too, organizing strikes against the nonbenders nearly as often as they spread their own propaganda against the police of Republic City. Anti-police sentiment was at an all time high, and with all the turf wars and civil unrest going on, the police were already stretched dangerously thin.
Kane's supposed son, Chen, had still not been caught, nor had Lin's older half-sister, Shira. But they had been spotted several times fleeing the scene of a crime, and it was no secret that the two of them were at the head of the pack of Triple Threats. Several of the triad's members had been captured, but all of them so low on the food chain that they didn't even have a clue about what Chen and the others were planning. Lin had the police force on high alert, but without proper foreknowledge of what might take place, it was difficult to plan for Shira's vague warning. All they could really do was prepare for the worst and wait it out. A few of their undercover operatives had infiltrated the Triple Threats, but most had to be pulled before they made it anywhere, and even the ones that remained had not gotten high enough access to be privy to the triad's mystery plans. Whatever they were gearing up for, they were keeping closely guarded.
There was also the matter of the leak somewhere inside the police force, which was another barrier they had yet to topple. There had been a few suspects, but no substantial evidence to confirm one way or another. That part was the most frustrating for Lin, because to know that one of her own officers was betraying the entire force made her sick to her stomach, and it wasn't because of the pregnancy for once.
As for the baby, Lin had been doing everything she could to ensure its continued survival. Even when she worked long hours she always made sure to hydrate and eat properly, and if there was a chair nearby she'd sit even if she didn't want to. It wasn't equivalent to the bed rest her doctor was straining not to put her on, but she really was trying her best. Jeia and Saikhan were a tremendous help, pulling even longer hours for the time being, which she swore she'd make up to them for after the baby was born. A day which would likely be much sooner rather than later.
At only twenty-six weeks, Lin had experienced a moment of sheer panic, during which there had been some abnormal bleeding and sharp pains in her lower abdomen that felt an awful lot like contractions. She had gone immediately to the doctor, who had put her on an IV drip that stopped whatever was happening, but made Lin feel like her chest would explode. She hated being drugged, but she endured it for the baby, terrified that it would be born too early for it to survive. But whatever treatments the healers and doctors had used on her had worked, and the pain had subsided along with the bleeding. The baby's heart rate returned to normal and its chi remained strong.
Lin had been kept overnight for observation, which worried the kids a little, but Tenzin had told them it was just to get the baby ready for when it would be born and that there was nothing to worry about. Ronen and the twins had been too thrilled about the prospect of a sleepover with Nira to worry much more after that. Tenzin had been pale and shaky the whole night, staying dutifully by his wife's bedside, and Lin hadn't been much better off. The medications made her feel awful, and also made it difficult for her to retain her thoughts for longer than a few seconds at a time. She felt like she was going crazy the whole night, watching her thoughts vanish and desperately reaching out to try and catch them. Tenzin told her later, when she was feeling more like herself, that she had laid very still the entire time, eyes wide open in what appeared to be an expression similar to fear, her body twitchy and restless and her mouth clamped shut tight. She thought she remembered him holding her hand and stroking her hair the whole night, while murmuring reassurances he could hardly believe himself, but it was mostly a blur so she couldn't be certain.
Lin ended up being held for another night, but they took her off the medication so she was slowly able to come back to herself. By the third day, she was able to think straight once again, and her heart no longer felt like it was beating out of her chest. She went home with a prescription to aid in the baby's growth, in case premature labor was unstoppable next time, and was ordered into bed rest for at least a week, which Lin maintained for about two days before she started going insane. Tenzin had been too afraid that her anger would be more harmful to the baby than her walking around, so he didn't protest as much as she thought he would. After six days, she went back to work, despite Tenzin's clear misgivings and her doctor's concerns. She simply wasn't capable of sitting around doing nothing, and she also feared she might be replicating her last weeks of being pregnant with the twins, when she'd sat at the South Pole bored out of her mind and ended up with postpartum depression. She knew that being idle couldn't have been the leading cause, but she didn't want to take any chances either.
Nevertheless, she was careful at work, and she tried to take it easy. The city was still a disaster most days, but her officers were working diligently to put it back into order. She knew whatever Chen and Shira were planning with the Triple Threats would be coming soon, and she had an increasingly bad feeling about it. She and Tenzin had spoken after Shira had cornered them to give her so-called warning, and had considered sending Ronen and the twins to Zaofu until the whole thing was over. They'd be safe there with Su's family, but ultimately they were safe on Air Temple Island too, and could be swept away in plenty of time if someone tried to attack. Besides that, Lin doubted that the Triple Threats would really try anything against her kids. They seemed much more concerned about antagonizing the nonbenders and attacking the police. Going after three harmless children would be a waste of resources. While that didn't necessarily mean the kids were in no danger, it at least meant that Lin felt okay leaving them on the Island for the time being. She didn't like the idea of sending them away from home for an unknown, extended period of time, nor did Tenzin, and they both knew the kids wouldn't like it at all either. So they decided that they were a family and they were going to stick together.
On the sixth day of the twenty-ninth week of Lin's pregnancy, Tenzin had early morning meditation with the twins, and then settled them into the kitchen with a groggy Ronen and a quickly prepared breakfast. While the kids began to dig in, Tenzin wandered back to the room he shared with his wife, intending on waking Lin. It had become a routine of sorts since Lin had become pregnant. She was often too tired to wake on her own in time for work, but too irritable to put up with the alarm, so Tenzin would wake her gently nearly every morning for breakfast once he had finished with meditation.
On that day, however, when Tenzin opened the bedroom door, he found the bed empty.
Lin was already awake and dressed in her work clothes, minus the metal armor. She stood before the window, one hand resting on her protruding stomach, and the other grasping a cup of what he presumed to be tea, heat still emanating off the top and forming a small pocket of steam on the window. It was a dreary day outside, foggy and cloudy, and damp even though it had not yet rained so far. Lin's gaze was riveted to the grey, muggy outdoors, but Tenzin could tell that her mind was elsewhere.
He approached her carefully, softly calling her name before settling his hands on her shoulders from behind.
Lin startled slightly, almost imperceptibly had he been anyone else, and she blinked away whatever thoughts were troubling her.
"Tenzin," she said in a quiet voice, husky from disuse so early in the morning. She cleared her throat before continuing, "Meditation over already?"
"Yes," Tenzin murmured, lightly massaging her tense shoulders. "The kids are eating breakfast. Would you like some?"
Lin shook her head. "No, tea is fine for now."
She was still staring out the window, and he could see her furrowed brow in the reflection of her face. "What is it, Lin?" he asked her in a hushed tone, as if afraid that raising his voice would send her running.
Lin shook her head and breathed in deeply, blowing the breath out on a sigh as she muttered, "Nothing."
"It's clearly something," Tenzin carefully argued.
Lin was silent for several moments, seeming to mull it over, and Tenzin waited patiently. Eventually she said, "It's just a feeling."
"And what feeling is that?" Tenzin encouraged.
Lin chewed on her bottom lip for half a second before admitting. "I'm not sure. Something just feels…off."
Tenzin was instantly on high alert, one of his hands sliding down to lay over Lin's stomach, searching for a sign that the baby was all right and wishing that he had seismic sense to feel its heartbeat. "The baby?" he questioned, almost frantic. "Is something wrong?"
"No," Lin assured him hastily. "Not that."
"So the baby isn't what's troubling you?" Tenzin sought to clarify, still not entirely relaxed.
"No," Lin repeated, but she shook her head again a second later and added, "I mean…not entirely. I think…I think it's bigger than just that, but…it could include the baby."
Tenzin was more than a little confused now and not at all placated by Lin's words. "Lin, what are you talking about?"
"I don't know," she huffed. "I just have this bad feeling…"
Tenzin let her words sink in for several seconds before firmly suggesting, "Perhaps you should stay home today."
Lin snorted half of a laugh, which was not at all an unexpected reaction. "Yeah, right. Too much needs to be done before the baby gets here. Besides, if something is going down today I need to be at the station to coordinate at least."
Tenzin knew a losing battle when he saw one, and he sighed in resignation without bothering to fight his wife on the issue. "Can you at least promise me that you'll take it easy? And call me if it gets to be too much. Please, Lin."
Lin turned finally to face him, giving him an annoyed look as she asserted, "I know what I'm doing. I'm not taking any unnecessary risks. I'll be at headquarters all day."
Tenzin relented, "I know, dear. I just worry is all."
"I'll be fine," Lin gruffly promised, and he knew that was all that he would get.
Even so, after he had dropped Lin at work and arrived at City Hall, he directed his secretary, Jun, to keep an ear on the police scanner and notify him if anything came up. Jun obliged without question, and Tenzin buried himself in work to keep his mind off of worry for Lin and the baby.
After only maybe two and a half hours, Jun entered Tenzin's office with news from the scanner.
"There are reports of a major Triple Threat Triad attack in the Dragon Flats borough," Jun told Tenzin grimly. "Nonbenders are being rounded up, along with several police officers that tried to intervene. Numerous reinforcements are being sent there now."
So Lin had been right to have a bad feeling about today, Tenzin thought grimly. He considered going straight to police headquarters, just in case the situation worsened, but as Jun gave him the details, it sounded like the police had the situation mostly under control. Not to mention that Lin would very much not want him there, getting in her way while she tried to coordinate a defensive strategy. So he would wait just a bit longer, and have Jun inform him if things changed.
It was hardly thirty more minutes later before Jun came rushing back into his office, looking stricken this time and beyond terrified. Tenzin did not even have time to rise out of his seat before she breathlessly exclaimed, "We've lost nearly all contact with police headquarters. No transmissions are getting through, but short wave radio chatter has confirmed that there were several explosions nearby or possibly even inside the station. Numerous reports of heavy triad activity in the immediate vicinity. I'm afraid…Councilman Tenzin, I'm so sorry, but…I'm afraid that police headquarters have been compromised."
Acolyte Nira had been the caregiver for Lin and Tenzin's three children for nearly a decade.
Before that, she had been born in a small, remote village in the Fire Nation that few had ever heard of. She had been the only child of two loving parents, both of whom were firebenders, like ninety-five percent of the rest of the villagers were. Nira had been a late bloomer…or so they thought. She was eight years old before her family started to realize that she would likely never bend, and it was two more years after that before they were forced to accept it.
Growing up assuming that she was a firebender, it had been a crushing blow for Nira to find out that she was, in fact, a nonbender. She was one of only maybe three others in the village, and because it was such a small village, everyone knew everything about all of its occupants, and so everyone knew that she was inadequate. Nonbenders in Nira's village were often mocked and ridiculed, because the majority of its citizens were old fashioned and still lingering in the time of the Hundred Year War, when firebenders were considered far superior. Even before Nira discovered her lack of bending, she hadn't always felt like she fit into her home village, and afterwards she felt like a complete outsider.
By the time she was sixteen, Nira had dropped out of her schooling and snuck away in the dead of night, leaving behind only a brief note for her parents as an explanation. She promised to write them, but she needed to get out and seek her own path, to find her place in the world, because she would not become stuck like all those others that never left her village for generations.
Nira had been determined to find great success and travel the world like she'd always dreamt of. Except she had been raised in a tiny village and the great big world was just that…huge, and scary and completely foreign to her. Basic necessities were also much more expensive than she imagined, considering that in her home village people had purchased things mostly by use of an outdated trading system. So Nira had quickly run out of money and essentials and was forced to settle down after only a few months, getting a job as a bar maid somewhere in the southern part of the Earth Kingdom. She had ended up back in a small village not unlike her old one, and it was a source of great frustration for her.
Nira scrimped and saved for over a year before a small group of people with shaved heads swept into her tavern. They were dressed in oranges and reds, the typical Air Nomad robes that she had only ever seen in school books. She had instantly been drawn to them, and studied them from afar all throughout her shift. They were quiet and serene, sipping water from dingy glasses without a care in the world. One of them caught her staring, and had beckoned her over to them.
Later that night, Nira left a note of resignation for her boss, gathered up her few belongings, and set off into the night once more, this time with a purposeful direction. The Air Acolytes had invited her to join them in their journey to the Eastern Air Temple, promising that she too could learn the ways of the Air Nomads if she wished. Nira had been eager to do something worthwhile and had jumped at the chance, even if she hadn't known then what it truly meant to be an Air Acolyte.
Shortly after arriving at the Eastern Air Temple, Nira was assigned a teacher, along with a handful of other new aspiring acolytes. She quickly discovered that she was far behind the other students, who had arrived at the temple with former knowledge of the Air Nation. She had been taught only from outdated textbooks and old propaganda from the war. Nevertheless, she was determined to succeed, and put all of her effort into catching up.
Within a few short months, Nira had fallen in love with both the Air Nation and her instructor, Azu. Finally she had found her place in the world, the place she truly belonged.
After two years of living at the Eastern Air Temple, Nira married Azu. The first year of their marriage was blissful, and they quickly decided that they desperately wanted to have children and grow their family. It was two long years of no results before they were forced to conclude that something was not right. They discovered shortly after that Nira was barren, and would never be able to provide her husband with children. Yet Azu was not deterred for a single second, and soon they began to talk of adoption.
But then tragedy struck.
Azu fell ill during their fourth year of marriage. Within eight weeks he was dead.
Grief stricken and lost, Nira fled the Eastern Air Temple the night after her husband's funeral and ran straight back to the small village that had been her home for sixteen years. She moved back in with her parents and spent the next year cut off from nearly everyone and everything. She hid from the world and from her grief, wondering how she would ever go on. She had had everything, and in an instant it had been taken from her.
It was Nira's mother that convinced her to go to Republic City and try for a spot on Air Temple Island. Nira's mother hadn't wanted her only child to go again, but she knew how much the Air Nation meant to Nira, and that it might very well be the only thing to pull her out of her grief.
Nira had been skeptical, but after so long in solitude, she craved some connection with her dearly departed Azu, and she still loathed her home village. So she packed her things one last time and made the long journey to the infamous Republic City.
Arriving on Air Temple Island was overwhelming for a number of reasons, not least because it brought back so many memories of Azu. But meeting Avatar Aang and his son Tenzin, the last two Airbenders, was everything she and Azu had ever dreamed of. They were the reason that the Air Acolytes existed, and though her heart had burned at the agony of Azu not being with her, it was still one of the most fulfilling moments of her life as an Acolyte. She had known instantly that she had found her new place in life. She still missed Azu desperately, but she could at least find some sense of fulfilment once again.
Tenzin had been only a few years younger than Nira when she joined the Island, and she had instantly seen in him the same spark of unbridled love in his eyes that she had once possessed. The entire time he and Avatar Aang had been introducing the new acolytes to the old, Tenzin's gaze had been darting off in a different direction, his serious face twitching with the effort to hold back a radiant grin. Nira had curiously glanced over her shoulder to find what – or rather who – he was so besotted with, and found the young Lin Beifong lingering nearby. Nira hadn't recognized her as such at the time. She had seen only a young women with dark hair and bright green eyes, naturally beautiful and physically very fit, with a confident air that Nira had always aspired to possess. Lin had worn on her face the same impatient joy as Tenzin, a smirk curling her lips as she leaned casually back against a large, conveniently placed rock.
Nira had spent the next two decades dedicating her life to Air Temple Island, the Acolytes, and the Avatar's family. Simultaneously, she had watched Lin and Tenzin's love grow and change, until it was so blinding a force that Nira could hardly reconcile it with the first glimpse she'd seen when they were young and uninhibited. She had seen their early relationship at its highest point, had been at their wedding and prayed that their marriage would outlast all of time, as she had imagined her own would when she'd married Azu. She had watched from afar as first Lin's mother and then Tenzin's father had died and sent the two of them spiraling. She had witnessed the all too familiar struggle the young married couple had faced when trying to conceive children, and Nira's heart had ached for Lin.
Nira had struggled not to intervene when she observed a young Acolyte named Pema becoming steadily more infatuated with Tenzin during the time that his marriage with Lin was on uncertain ground. Tenzin had been aching in his own way and desperate for a friend and Pema had gladly offered herself up. Nira did believe that the girl had approached him innocently in the beginning, but Nira also knew that a schoolgirl crush could expand rapidly into something much more complicated. When she saw just how close the situation was to becoming disastrous, Nira had warned Pema against getting any closer to Tenzin. Pema had not heeded the older acolyte's advice, and had gotten her heart broken instead. Nira had wanted to be relieved that it wasn't the other way around, that it hadn't been Lin whose heart was shattered, but in truth she had been sympathetic to all sides. She did not think Pema was right to confess her love to a married man, but she could understand what it was to be young and in love and unfettered by consequences.
Nira had hardly been more pleased than she was when she heard the announcement of Lin's first pregnancy. She hadn't quite been such good friends with Lin and Tenzin then, but she had become a close confidant of both of them shortly thereafter. A few weeks after Ronen had been born, Tenzin had brought the boy to meet some of the acolytes, and the beaming pride and sheer joy on his face had been heartwarming on its own, but holding Ronen had been otherworldly. Nira had been besotted with him from the first moment she met him.
Ronen was two years old before Lin and Tenzin approached Nira to request that she be their son's caregiver when they both needed to be away from the island. Katara was moving to the South Pole and, though Tenzin was still working mostly from home back then, they would still need someone they trusted to look after Ronen and the babies Lin was carrying in her womb. Nira had instantly agreed without one iota of hesitation. She loved Ronen and, if she could never have children of her own, then spending time with Lin and Tenzin's would be rewarding enough.
It had taken much longer than planned for Tenzin and his family to return from the South Pole, after traveling there so that Lin could give birth to the twins. When they had returned, something had been different, but Nira hadn't wanted to pry. She only learned of Lin's postpartum depression when Lin herself revealed it to her several months later.
It was a few more years before Tenzin returned to work full time, and both he and Lin had worried that Nira would not wish to care for all three children for such long periods of time. Nira had scoffed at their concern and insisted that there was absolutely nothing she would rather do. She loved Ronen and Sora and Yunjin as she would her own family.
Even from the beginning of her time as caregiver, Nira had always been given a basic game plan in case there was a kidnap attempt or some other attack that endangered the kids. She hadn't thought much of it, because she knew Lin and Tenzin were planners, and they were popular and sometimes hated, so it only made sense that they were prepared. The plans had changed often over the years, so that now the main thing Nira had to focus on was getting the kids to their Aunt Su in Zaofu, by any means necessary. However, Nira had never considered that something might actually happen that would require her to whisk the kids to safety.
But ever since returning from the Fire Nation vacation that had been cut short, Lin and Tenzin had been even more paranoid about attacks. They strengthened security on the Island and gave Nira a list of things to look out for. They told her that it was possible that she may not be given a warning and would be forced to make the evacuation call herself, which gave her immense anxiety. She wasn't a fighter and she had no idea what she would do if it ever came down to her to decide what to do with the kids. She only hoped that it would never come to that. She was certain after all those years that no one would dare come after Beifong's kids.
So when the phone rang in the middle of the afternoon, she had not expected anything dire. She had assumed Lin or Tenzin just wanted to check in – which both of them had been doing more frequently lately – and had not imagined that the words spoken would be as scary as they were.
She had been playing a game inside with the kids when the phone rang, blaring and shrill in the relative quiet, and it took her several seconds to detach Yunjin from her arm before she could get up and go get it.
"Hello?" Nira eventually answered, slightly out of breath from rushing to catch the phone.
"Nira?" an equally breathless Tenzin replied.
"Tenzin," Nira said cheerfully, not immediately recognizing the tremor in his voice. "I told Lin earlier that things were fine he – "
Nira's words were cut off when Tenzin interjected, "Nira, listen to me, where are the kids? Are they all with you? Can you see them?"
Tenzin sounded frantic and, as a result, Nira's heart rate sped up in concern. She stretched her head around the wall to peer down the hallway, and confirmed that all three kids were still playing in the living room.
"They're fine," Nira said, a bit defensively, before amending, "I mean, yes, I can see them. All three. Tenzin, what is going on?"
"Nira, I need you to listen to me very carefully, because I can only say this once," Tenzin said rapidly, and Nira could faintly hear some sort of commotion coming from his end of the line. It sounded like someone was shouting some kind of orders. "I need you to gather up the kids right now. When you hang up, do not hesitate for even a moment. Do not stop to pack any belongings. Get them coats and shoes as fast as possible and get them onto a bison. Take them straight to Suyin. Do not allow anyone near you and do not tell them where you are going. Trust no one until you reach Su. Do you understand me?"
Nira's pulse was thumping so loud in her ears she could barely hear him, and she had to swallow forcefully before she could croak out a frightened, "I understand."
"Tell Su that police headquarters have fallen," Tenzin said briskly, and Nira nearly dropped the phone in shock, "and that the Triple Threats have the area blockaded. I'm going there to search for Lin, can you get the kids to safety?"
"Y – yes," Nira stammered. "I will, but Tenzin, please be careful!"
"I'll contact you in Zaofu once I've found Lin. Leave now, Nira," Tenzin said shortly, and then the line went dead.
Nira could only stare down at the phone in her hands in shock for a second, and then she slammed it back down onto the receiver as if frightened it would bite her. Or rather, she tried to slam it down, but her hands were slick with sweat and her aim was off and it clattered noisily before flopping off and hanging by its cord. But Nira didn't give it a second thought, because she was already sprinting down the hallway, slowing to a less frantic pace when she reached the kids in an effort not to frighten them. It would be much easier to get them off the island if they thought everything was okay.
"Who wants to go for a bison ride?" she exclaimed, trying to sound cheerful and clapping her hands as she walked briskly to the entryway where their coats and shoes were. She gathered all three coats and six shoes in one armful and turned back around to return to the children. All three of them were staring at her with similarly perplexed expressions, and she realized belatedly that she had probably sounded a little too chipper. That, and a quick glance out of the living room window reminded her that it was pouring down rain.
"It's raining," Sora said, face scrunched up in displeasure.
"Mom said we can't fly the bison in a thunderstorm," Ronen added.
"I'll go," Yunjin chimed in after a brief moment of thought, jumping to his feet and smiling delightedly.
"You can't," Ronen said with some annoyance. "Mom said –"
"Actually," Nira interrupted him, while handing Yunjin his coat and shoes, "I was just on the phone with your mother. She said it was all right this time."
"She did?" Sora asked skeptically.
"Yep, she sure did," Nira confirmed, crouching down to start helping Sora into her shoes without bothering to ask.
"You're lying," Ronen said with a frown. "Why are you lying?"
Sora and Yunjin stilled at their brother's accusatory tone, but Nira flashed them both a soft, reassuring smile, and it was a testament to how much the kids trusted her that the twins decided not to side with their older brother this time.
Nira let Sora put on her own coat while she took Ronen's things to him, bending over slightly to be eye level with him and lowering her voice so that Sora and Yunjin would not be able to make out what she was saying. "It's an emergency. Your parents called. Have to get your brother and sister to safety."
Ronen's eyes widened with surprise and some fear, and Yunjin loudly asked, "What did you say?"
"Just told Ronen that the first one on the bison gets a treat!" Nira declared, spinning around to force another bright smile for the twins. "But don't run off yet!" Sora and Yunjin went still, both of them stretched into a runner's pose and shaking with laughter and anticipation. "We have to be fair. Let Ronen get his coat on –"
"I'm ready," Ronen cut in, and Nira turned to see that he had already pulled his shoes on too. "I just need one thing."
Ronen took off running down the hallway, and Nira gasped, "Ronen, no! We have to go now!"
Nira took one of each of the twin's hands and started pulling them in Ronen's direction, but they had hardly made it halfway down the hall when the boy came sprinting back with an old knapsack in his hands.
"Let's go!" he cried, and the twins let go of Nira's hands to go racing after their brother.
Nira whirled around and followed the three of them, realizing too late that she hadn't bothered to grab her own coat, though she thankfully still had shoes on. The rain was biting and cold from the moment the four of them went stumbling out the door, and it was coming down hard. Nira could hardly see through the fog and the heavy downpour, and she hastened to keep up with the kids, grabbing onto the backs of Yunjin and Sora's coats to keep contact. Ronen had fallen back just enough to keep pace with his siblings, still leading the way to the bison stables, but not running nearly as fast as he probably could have. The boy must have understood the necessity of staying close together. The twins were still laughing and treating the whole thing like the game they thought it was, but Ronen looked grim with determination.
Because of the dreary weather, nearly all occupants of the island were indoors, so the four of them managed to make it almost all the way to the bison stables before they ran into anybody. The did pass two of Suyin's metal clan guards, but Nira had waved them off and shouted an excuse about getting the kids lunch. Su's guards might have been helpful, but Nira would have trouble telling if they were imposters or traitors, so she didn't risk asking for their help. Tenzin had told her not to trust anybody.
Nira and the kids had just stumbled through the fenced in stables when two men stepped directly into their path, and all of them were forced to slide to a sudden stop, mud sloshing up over their shoes, though they hardly noticed at that point. They were already covered in splashes of mud and soaked to the bone.
The two men were dressed in acolyte clothing, but Nira didn't recognize them, and Nira knew all of the acolytes on the Island. Heart hammering in her chest, but outwardly portraying what she hoped was an attitude of unconcern, she wrapped one hand around the necks of both twins' coats and pushed them to the right, where one of the bison still wearing a saddle was stood, its head tilted up towards the sky and its long tongue lapping at the rain water.
She gripped Ronen's shoulder tightly with her other hand and shoved him in the same direction as she smiled warmly at the men and said, "Hello there, gentlemen. What are you doing out here in this rain? Better get inside and get warm."
The taller of the two men simply stared unnervingly, while the shorter smiled slyly, his eyes tracking the kids, but Nira had all three of them behind her now and she'd die before she let either men get near them. She had never considered such a thing before, but now that she was faced with the situation she knew it was true with all her heart. She would do anything for those kids, no questions asked.
"Could ask the same of you," the short man replied casually, as if they weren't all standing in the middle of a torrential downpour. "Where you's headed? Can't be thinkin of going out in this…hey, kids!" Nira looked quickly over her shoulder, relieved to see that Ronen had already ushered the twins over to the bison, and they were about to start climbing atop the saddle. "Why don't you get away from there and come inside? Your parents wouldn't want you flying in this weather, eh?"
Ronen said something to the twins, but Nira couldn't hear it over the roar of the wind. Afterwards, Sora and Yunjin exchanged troubled looks, but used their Airbending to float up into the saddle, while Ronen began walking slowly back towards Nira. She tried to shake her head at him, to tell him to go, but the boy's gaze was focused resolutely on the two imposters. He was pulling something out of the knapsack he'd had to grab, but Nira didn't see what was inside before he shouted a startled, "Look out!"
Nira whirled around just in time to dodge the large rock coming straight at her head. She dropped to the ground and landed hard on her stomach with a soft splat, and despite the adrenaline and fear pumping through her veins, she still grimaced at the feel of mud soaking through the front of her robes and splashing into her mouth.
The tall man had been the one to lash out at her, and he was gearing up to send a second boulder flying, this one in Ronen or the twins' direction. Nira screamed in distress, hastily trying to lift herself out of the sticky, slippery mud, cursing the rain and her inability to bend, knowing all the while that she would be too late…
Except she needn't have worried, because something went whirling around the stone lightning fast, barely visible in the mist and headed straight for the earthbender. The object struck the tall man directly in the forehead, and a second later he dropped, landing on his back in the mud and not moving again. The rock he'd sent hurtling lost its momentum and went slamming into the ground a few feet from Ronen, sending up a blinding spray of mud in all directions, which hit the shorter man in the face and sent him stumbling away spouting curses. Ronen was momentarily blinded too, but he still managed to hold up a hand in preparation to catch the object that had hit the earthbender, and which was now hurtling back in Ronen's direction. That was when Nira realized that it must have been the boy's boomerang, and she afforded herself a short moment to be glad that he had gone back to get it before they left.
Nira was finally able to rise to her feet in the brief stillness, and went practically skating over to Ronen, who was still wiping the mud from his eyes with one hand and holding his boomerang aloft with the other. The short man was still spitting mud from his own mouth, but Nira knew that they wouldn't have long before he came for them, and she had no idea what bending he might possess.
Nira had just grabbed Ronen's hand when the twins came running up to them, their footsteps too light to hear over the cacophony of sounds, and she had a hard time stifling the curse that rose on her tongue. They must have been worried for their brother and Nira and leapt off the bison to offer their assistance, but they really should have stayed where they were. Sora looked petrified and Yunjin looked determined, but Nira was certainly not about to let them duel with a fully grown man.
"Back on the bison!" she shouted at the twins, while pushing Ronen in the same direction.
But the twins didn't listen, and before Nira could force them, the second man had recovered.
"Nobody's goin anywhere!" he shouted over the storm, and Nira turned just in time to see flames hurtling straight towards Sora.
Nira didn't think about it for a single second. If she had, Sora might very well have been caught in the blaze. But Nira stepped in front of the girl, and directly into the fire ball's path. She had half a moment to consider the irony of it all before the fire was whirling in front of her face, hot and bright and unforgiving.
But the flames never reached her, because a small, muddy orange blur leapt in front of her just in time. Before she could even register what was happening, the flames were being blown back in the direction of the firebender. And there Yunjin was, waving his arms and letting out a deep bellied roar, his airbending saving both him and Nira from the attack.
Ronen threw his boomerang again, having finally regained his sight, but the firebender dodged it. The short man turned his attention onto Ronen, and it was all the distraction needed to take him down. Sora leapt out from behind Nira, and aided her twin brother as they both blasted their attacker backwards with sharp, purposeful bursts of air. The man went splashing into the mud, but was still conscious. However, as he was scrambling back up onto his knees, Ronen's boomerang came spiraling back the way it had come, and hit the firebender in the back of the head with an audible clunk.
The man went face first into the mud and did not move again, and the boomerang landed safely in Ronen's palm once more.
"Onto the bison, children!" Nira immediately urged, her voice coming out strained. She felt like she was going to be sick with fear, but she swallowed down the bile rising in the back of her throat and pushed the kids back towards the bison. Nira made sure all three kids were settled in the saddle before taking the reigns, squeezing her fists tight in an effort to stop the tremors. "Yip, yip!"
As they were taking off, the earthbender rose unsteadily to his feet and started pelting boulders in their direction, but by that time they were already too high in the air, and Nira flew them high above the clouds until they could no longer see anything below.
Nevertheless, Nira didn't breathe a sigh of relief until they were miles from Air Temple Island, and even then it was a choked sigh. Her chest was still tight and her breath short, and she kept throwing surreptitious glances back at the children to ensure they were still there. They had found a blanket in one of the saddle packs and had huddled up together underneath of it. Their cheeks were pink and their hair still dripping wet, but they were alive and unharmed and smiling as they discussed their get away. Nira was shivering violently in her soaked clothes as the wind whipped around her, but she didn't let up on the reigns for a single second. She would be warm when they reached Zaofu. As long as she made it to Zaofu with the children intact, that was all that mattered.
Chapter 38: Chapter 38
Chapter Text
Chapter 38
Lin was called into the communications room about two hours into her shift.
Lieutenant Jeia and Deputy Saikhan were already there, both of them leaning over one of the operators to listen in on whatever discussion the operator was having with someone.
"What's going on?" Lin demanded as she strode into the room, ignoring the twinge in her back and the tightness in her lower abdomen that had been plaguing her for the last hour or so. The baby was restless that day, very likely picking up on the foreboding its mother had been feeling all day.
Jeia and Saikhan straightened up and turned to face Lin as she entered, both of them looking grim.
"We've got several reports coming in of a situation in the Dragon Flats Borough," Saikhan explained.
"What kind of situation?" Lin questioned, coming to a stop before her two head officers and folding her arms over her chest.
"Triple Threats," Jeia answered. "Apparently they started rounding up nonbenders earlier this morning as a show of force. We sent an airship out to see what was going on, and they reportedly saw nothing like what we had been told. Except…"
Jeia trailed off and looked sideways at Saikhan. Growing impatient, Lin snapped, "Except what?"
"Except we've had no contact with them since," Saikhan grumbled. "We just sent another airship to –"
"How long has it been since we lost contact?" Lin interrupted.
"About forty-five minutes, ma'am," the female operator chimed in. Lin thought her name might have been Aska.
"What was the last thing they said?" Lin pressed, directing her question at the operator this time.
"They reported all clear," Aska said. "They advised that they would be dropping several officers to the ground to get a better look and would radio in when they got back. We've been hailing them since then, but either nobody is onboard or they're incapacitated…or their radio is simply down."
"Which is doubtful," Jeia said plainly. "And they should have left at least one or two officers onboard the airship."
"How close is our second airship to the borough?" Lin inquired.
"Less than five minutes out," Saikhan replied.
"Let me talk to them," Lin ordered, and Aska leapt out of her seat to offer it to Lin.
Lin settled down in the chair and began conversing with the captain of the airship that was approaching Dragon Flats. Captain Shin gave her a running commentary the rest of the way there.
When they reached the borough, Shin said, "We've got the first airship in our sights, Chief. It appears to be undamaged and hovering steadily. No suspicious activity in the area. Doesn't even look like there's anyone in the streets. Trying to get in contact with the airship now…waiting for a response…
"Still waiting…waiting…waiting…...
"Looks like we're getting nothing, Chief. You want us to go in?"
"Send three officers with a portable radio," Lin decided. "Maintain contact, and keep your distance. Better watch the streets too. Doesn't seem right that there's no civilian activity."
Captain Shin did as he was told, and soon he relayed to Lin that there were three metalbending officers rushing across rooftops to the second airship. Shin continued to tell Lin what was happening, until suddenly there was a long pause and nothing but the sound of a crackling radio in her ear.
"Captain? Captain Shin, do you read me? Captain, are you there?" Lin persisted. "Can anyone hear me?" Several long seconds passed, where Jeia, Saikhan, Aska, and Lin all held their breath. Lin tried to make contact again, but still nothing came through. She swore under her breath and muttered to herself, "Come on, dammit."
And then the radio crackled to life and the captain's voice came through, gruff and harried, "Hang on, Chief. The officers on the first airship are – hey, wait…"
There was another pause, and Lin's hand clenched around the receiver.
"Wait, is that –" Shin's words dissolved into a panicked curse, and then he could distantly be heard shouting, "INCOMING!"
The rest of the captain's words became mostly intelligible as he began shouting orders to his crew, and then there was a loud crash, followed by the screeching groan of metal and the radio turned to static, and then silence.
"Captain?" Lin shouted into the receiver. "Captain, come in! Shin! What's happening?"
But there was no reply, and she didn't really expect one.
Without waiting a second longer, Lin surged to her feet and turned to face Saikhan. "Take two airships out there and find out what the hell is going on," she commanded. "Find Sergeant Ping and have him take three foot patrols, six officers each, approaching Dragon Flats from different vectors."
"Yes, Chief," Saikhan complied, saluting briefly and then spinning sharply on his heel. He left the room at a brisk pace, and Lin turned her attention onto Jeia next.
"We need to remain in constant contact with them while they're out there. Somebody has to be able to tell us what's going on. Get on a radio and patch into Sergeant Ping's unit when he reports in." Jeia dutifully went to do as she was told and Lin directed her final command to Aska, "Get a message out to all our street units. Tell them to be on high alert for any triad activity, and don't wait to report it. If they're near Dragon Flats, steer clear of there, but keep civilians out until we get this under control. Then send word to the Council, let them know we have the situation under control."
They might have the situation under control anyways. They had lost contact with two airships and had no idea what was even happening in the Dragon Flats Borough. But two more airships and three foot patrols would be enough to hold back a triad assault – probably. And they could always send more reinforcements once they knew what was going on. Normally, Lin might have gone straight there herself instead of sending Saikhan, because she hated not knowing what was happening, but in her current state she'd just be a liability, which was another thing that she hated. She would be glad when she never had to be pregnant again.
Lin took a seat at one of the operating stations again and waited impatiently for Saikhan and Ping to report in. Then she waited some more while the Deputy and the Sergeant began their trek to the borough. Saikhan gave Lin regular updates throughout, reporting no other unusual activity the whole way to Dragon Flats. Lin was becoming increasingly impatient and there was a knot in her back that would not loosen no matter how she shifted in the metal chair.
Until finally Saikhan's voice crackled through the radio to report, "I've got eyes on the first airship. It's still hovering with no activity, just like our second ship reported."
"Keep your distance," Lin warned. "Don't investigate until you've swept the surrounding area."
"Copy," Saikhan said shortly.
"Chief," Jeia called to her from behind, and Lin turned in her seat to give the Lieutenant her attention. "Ping's eastward team says they've got the second airship in their sights and –"
Saikhan's voice crackled in Lin's ear saying, "We've got a plume of smoke coming from the east," at the same time Jeia finished, "it's been downed. Not sure of the cause, but it's engulfed in flames."
"Tell them to check for survivors," Lin told Jeia first, "but to keep an eye out for an ambush." She looked to Aska next, "Get a fire and rescue team over there." Finally, she twisted back around in her seat and spoke to Saikhan over the radio. "Ping's team found the second airship. It's down."
"I'll have one of my airships watch the area for them while they check for survivors," Saikhan replied, without having to be prompted.
It was nearly thirty more minutes of back and forth and still little to no explanations as to what had happened. There was a suspicious lack of civilians in the Dragon Flats Borough, and the few that remained weren't offering up any information. It wasn't a surprise, though, because the borough was notorious for triad dealings and nobody there was going to risk ending up on a triad's hit list. Either that, or they were part of one of the triads, which was more likely the case.
The burning airship had been obliterated, and if there had been anyone on board, it was impossible to tell. Fire and rescue was quickly getting the blaze under control, but they could not yet figure out what had caused the crash.
Since Saikhan and the others didn't fall under attack in the time they were scouring the borough for triad members or clues, Lin finally permitted them to check out the still ominously hovering airship that they had originally lost contact with. It was another ten minutes or so before Lin received any further communications, just enough time for her to start grinding her teeth in tense anticipation.
Finally, Saikhan's voice returned in her ear to say, "Looks like nearly all of the original crew and most of the second airship's crew are alive, Chief. We've got some badly wounded, but the rest just appear to be unconscious. We've swept the airship and no sign of the triads. Some of the officers are coming to, but all they can say is that they were ambushed. I think whoever did this is already gone."
Lin deliberated over what Saikhan had told her for a few seconds, still not certain what exactly had transpired in the borough, but at least she was starting to piece some of the puzzle back together. Saikhan seemed certain that, if the Triple Threats were behind it as they'd originally been told, then they were no longer lying in wait. But why take down an airship and incapacitate a few officers and then leave? Something wasn't right, and Lin felt a swooping sense of dread in her already taut stomach.
"Finish up there and get back to headquarters," Lin eventually decided, confidant in Saikhan's ability to properly handle the rest of his mission without specific instructions. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Me too, Chief," Saikhan admitted. "You think this was just a distraction?"
"Maybe," Lin muttered thoughtfully, "but if it was, then where's the real action happening?"
Saikhan was quiet for a moment, likely thinking on that question, and Lin began to rise steadily to her feet, still holding the receiver to her ear, but her mind racing with all the things she needed to do as soon as she finished talking with her Deputy.
"I don't know," Saikhan finally said, "but, Chief, I think we should consider –"
All off a sudden, Saikhan's words broke off into a shrieking crackle of static, and Lin wrenched the receiver away from her ear with a sharp intake of breath.
It wasn't more than half a second later that the entire building rocked beneath her feet, as if it was held together with rubber bands and not stone.There was a loud boom, like an explosion somewhere beneath them, and Lin was so wobbly she had to reach out and grab onto the desk in front of her, retracting the soles of her boots to dig her toes into the floor, trying to sense what was happening, trying to quickly analyze the shifting infrastructure.
Something had exploded somewhere beneath them, near to the front entrance, if Lin had to hazard a guess, but in all the chaos and shifting rubble it was hard to tell. It wasn't enough to send the whole building crumbling to the ground, but it had been knocked off its axis and gravity could sometimes be a cruel mistress. If nothing was done to stop it, the damage would only spread further out, like the delicate veins of a spider web, until it was too late.
So Lin reached deep down into herself, to the core of her earthbending, and quieted her mind, centered her Chi, despite the noise and the disruption all around her. She delicately shifted essential structures back into place, trying her best to steady the building. She was relieved to sense some of her officers doing the same, joining their strength to hers or spreading their own reconstruction out into different directions.
It was not a simple feat, and Lin tired even more quickly than usual, the baby inside of her restless beyond measure. She startled out of her connection to the framework, surprised to find that her hands were shaking and she was perspiring heavily. Her legs were tingly, weak, and it took all she had left in her to collapse into the chair behind the work desk and not onto the floor. Her breath was coming in quick, short pants, her chest seizing up and a fuzzy darkness blurring around the edges of her vision. She blinked rapidly and hunched over, bracing her trembling hands on her knees and praying she didn't puke all over herself. Nausea was rising up the back of her throat and she clutched the cloth of her pants in her fists, curling over further.
And then suddenly it passed, just as quickly as it had come, and she let out a shaky, relieved breath. She still felt dizzy though, and weak, and too far away from the floor even in the chair, so she slid carefully off of it, settling down behind the desk. She leaned against the cool metal supports and purposefully drew in deep breaths of air, slowly exhaling out of her mouth. All she could hear was her heart thumping in her ears, and she scrambled to connect a hand to the earth to ensure that the baby's heartbeat was unchanged.
It was hard to tell with how untethered her mind was at the moment. She thought it felt erratic, but frankly, it always felt at least slightly erratic, and she didn't think she'd be able to tell with all the vibrations still rattling through the building.
"CHIEF!"
She noticed then that someone had been calling her name, and as her eyes fluttered open, she saw Jeia squatted down in front of her, expression full of concern and surprise.
"Chief?" Jeia repeated, quieter once Lin had started looking at her. "Can you hear me?"
Lin nodded slowly, swallowing forcefully and swiping a shaky hand across her sweat-slicked forehead. She breathed in deeply, and as she exhaled she replied, "I'm okay. Just got dizzy is all."
Lin tried to stand, but Jeia pushed her back down, and it took little effort because Lin still felt weak.
"Hold on a second," Jeia commanded. "Your heart rate is going crazy. Relax. Take another deep breath. You put quite a lot of strain on yourself and that could knock the wind out of anyone, let alone with you being pregnant."
Lin balked at the accusation despite it's harmless intent and firm basis in fact. She was weaker because of the pregnancy, but she didn't admit to weakness under any circumstance, and especially not in front of her officers, even if Jeia was one of her most trusted detectives. She was the Chief of Police, and pregnant or not, she had a duty to the city and to her officers. Headquarters was almost certainly under siege, and she needed to be the strong, unwavering leader that she was meant to be.
So she took a few deep breaths, reached deep down inside of herself to find the strength she needed to get up, and then carefully began extending her legs. She even allowed Jeia to take one of her hands to help her rise, and once she was standing straight once more, she rolled her shoulders and got down to business.
Everyone in the communications room was unharmed, but the long range radio had gone down with the explosion. They couldn't call for help beyond their immediate radius, although Lin doubted it would take long for word to spread across the city. If the Triple Threats had launched an attack as she suspected they had, they hadn't exactly been subtle about it. An explosion would have been heard from miles away and City Hall was only a few short blocks down the road.
However, with that realization came the worry that the Triple Threats might have hit City Hall too. If they were willing to attack police headquarters of all places, they might be going after all the leaders of Republic City. There was also the matter of Chen's vendetta against Lin, and that might very well have led him on a crusade to directly attack Tenzin as well. Spirits help him if he had sent anyone to Air Temple Island to grab her kids, because if she made it out of this alive and a single hair had been harmed on their heads…well, Lin would be hard pressed not to put him in the ground with his father.
But she couldn't think about any of that right now. If she thought about her family she would be distracted and now was the worst time to be distracted. She needed to be of sound mind and lead her officers to safety.
It was a seemingly insurmountable task, considering half of her officers were elsewhere throughout the building and communications were limited. Seismic sense wasn't telling her a whole lot and she had no idea how many members of the Triple Threats could have infiltrated the building after the explosion.
Lin was back to having little to no information to go off of and she was finding it increasingly irritating. She wasn't about to just stand around and wait to find out, so she went with Jeia and the five communications officers out into the hallway, all of them cautious and slow at first. They made a tight circle so that every direction was being watched, and Lin strode straight across the hall to the window to carefully peer down at the street below.
The communications room was on the third floor and close to the middle of the building. Therefore, it was almost directly above the front entrance, from which a dark plume of smoke was now billowing out of. Fire was flickering up the side of the building and out onto the front steps. But the more disconcerting of a discovery was the overwhelming number of triad thugs lined up in front of the building. There were firebenders creating walls of fire along the front sidewalk, as a deterrent for the police to try jumping out of a window. Earthbenders were blockading both ends of the street and waterbenders built towers of ice to keep any outsiders from interfering. Two groups of a dozen or so Triple Threats each were breaking their way into the first floor on either side of the burning entrance.
One of the firebenders below noticed Lin standing at the window and sent a blast of flame flying up at her. Lin jerked backwards shouting, "Incoming!" and ripped the stone floor up in front of her as a barrier, just before the fireball crashed through the window. The glass shattered, and superheated fragments sprayed into the hallway. The communications officers scrambled backwards, and Jeia wrenched her fists downwards, metalbending the wall above the windows so that it came down like shutters the whole way down the hall. With the sunlight blacked out, the corridor went dark, and Lin had to blink rapidly to readjust.
Several metalbending officers came pouring out of various doorways, apparently having been waiting after the initial explosion to decide what to do. In the dim emergency lighting, Lin did a quick headcount and found that she had about fourteen more officers on this floor with her now.
"We need to move," Lin said loudly, over the sound of glass still shattering behind the metal shield Jeia had created as the firebenders continued their assault. The fire was starting to heat the metal and Lin could feel the warmth radiating off of it.
"How are we gonna get out of here, Chief?" one officer asked as he jogged over to join Lin's huddle.
"We need an escape plan," Jeia answered first, directing her gaze onto Lin. "Do you think the back windows are being guarded too?"
"I think we have to assume that they are," Lin replied. "If they're smart enough to blockade the street they've surely got all the windows covered."
"The roof?" someone suggested.
Lin shook her head. "No, they'll be watching that too. We'd just be making ourselves easy targets up there, and there's no way to get an airship safely above us for a rescue. But we know this building better than they do. We can hold them off until word gets out to our officers in the streets."
"And what if we can't hold them off?" one of the communications officers fretted.
Lin opened her mouth to respond, but another worried officer added, "We'll be overrun if we stay here."
"They can't send everyone in here without opening up their outside defenses," Lin argued. "There's still enough of us here to take them. We'll split up, send a group upstairs, and another down to the second level for reinforcements. Once we're all back together we take these bastards on and recover any survivors from the first floor."
"The first floor is going to be overrun, Chief," Jeia interjected. "It's the worst spot for us to be."
"Do you suggest we leave our officers on their own then?" Lin inquired testily.
"No," Jeia admitted, "but we need to consider our approach here. Say we go down there and recover our officers, but we still don't have a way out. Where do we go? Up to the fourth floor? Then what? Wait there and hope they don't collapse the floor beneath us?"
Lin sighed in frustration. She knew Jeia was right, but they needed to think fast and get as many officers to safety as possible. There weren't a whole lot of options open to them, each one with a downside, and there wasn't time to debate all of them.
"If only we could just tunnel our way out of here," Aska muttered, half to herself.
Lin ignored the operator's comment, still trying to think, but a nearby officer overheard too and snorted, "Yeah, we could, if we could get to the first floor."
Another metalbender chimed in, "Except it would take forever to burrow out of here and they'd be right on our tails."
Suddenly, Lin had an epiphany, and she gasped, snapping her fingers and pointing at the three officers that had spoken. "That's it!" she exclaimed. "That's how we get out of here."
"What?" Jeia asked, confused. "Tunnels?"
"Chief, we'd never make it," one of her officer's told her with a wince. "It takes time to build a tunnel –"
"Not if it's already built," Lin interjected. "There are two tunnels hidden on the first floor, both leading to different places in the city. I can't believe I didn't think of it first. My mother was adamant there be extra escape routes out of this place. I just thought she was paranoid, but I think those old tunnels might finally be of some use."
Jeia perked up, grim expression brightening just slightly. "You think they're still useable?" she questioned. "It's been a while since this place was built, could they have started to collapse?"
"I don't know," Lin admitted. "I haven't been down there in over a decade, but I know my mother frequently inspected them while she was still Chief."
"Tunnels built by Toph Beifong?" one officer's voice emanated from out of the group, his voice quivering with excitement. "They'll hold for sure!"
"I'll need volunteers to come with me to the second floor," Lin called above the ensuing murmurs, getting straight to business. "The rest will go with Lieutenant Jeia up to the fourth floor and bring reinforcements to meet us back here. Once we're all together we can go for the first floor tunnels and our people downstairs."
Several metalbenders came forward to join Lin, and only one of the operators. But before they could storm off downstairs, Jeia stepped directly in Lin's path and, in a voice lowered so as not to be heard by the others, said, "Chief, I think I should stick with you." She glanced pointedly at Lin's burgeoning abdomen, and Lin had to make a concerted effort not to grind her teeth and roll her eyes.
"I need you leading the other team," Lin said calmly instead. "You're the only senior officer I have right now."
"Then let me go downstairs and you lead the other team up," Jeia continued to argue.
Lin's eyes narrowed in warning, nearly all patience lost as she asked, "Are you questioning my judgement, Lieutenant? I've given you an order, so are you going to do as I say, or do I need to find someone to do it for you?"
Jeia cringed, but reluctantly relented, "No, Chief. I can do it."
"Good, then go," Lin ordered, expression softening just slightly as she added, "and be safe."
"You too," Jeia said.
Before Tenzin could go and find his pregnant wife, he was forced to meet with his fellow Council members to discuss the situation.
After Jun had told him about the attack, he had immediately called Nira to ensure that his children were taken somewhere safe. Preferably as far from Republic City as possible, and there was no place they would be safer than with their aunt in Zaofu. Suyin would protect her niece and nephews by any means necessary, Tenzin had no doubt about that. He also trusted Nira to get them there, and his only regret was that he could not be there for them himself.
But someone needed to look for Lin and their unborn child. While Tenzin knew that Lin was more than capable of taking care of herself, even while pregnant, he still wasn't going to wait around for her to get herself to safety. He only hoped she hadn't already been wounded in the initial attack. All he knew was that there had been an explosion, but the building hadn't toppled so perhaps the damage had not been so bad.
By the time Tenzin arrived at the blockade in front of police headquarters, Saikhan and several patrols of officers had already set up their own perimeter nearby. Tenzin scanned the scene through a downpour of rain as he descended on Oogi, searching for a gap in the Triple Threat's defenses, but he was forced to abandon that objective when the waterbenders started hurling ice shards up at him. He was forced to dodge and evade and came to a dramatic landing just behind Saikhan's front lines. The ice barrage slowed as the metalbending officers thrust shields up to intercept it, and then petered out completely.
Tenzin leapt off of Oogi and floated right over to where Saikhan was turning to face him. Behind Tenzin, Tarrlok and the other three Council members were disembarking Oogi's saddle. Tenzin had argued the logic of all of them going into a potential danger zone together, but Tarrlok insisted that all of them find out what exactly was going on so that they could determine what their next steps would be. Without contact with the Chief of Police, it was partially the Council's responsibility to make the crucial decisions about how to proceed. In such a terror attack, it was typically expected of them to call on the United Forces, but it would take several hours for them to arrive and some of the councilors weren't certain the military was necessary to end the conflict.
"What happened?" Tenzin demanded of Saikhan, having to raise his voice slightly to be heard over the thundering of rain.
"They fucking played us," Saikhan cursed, uncharacteristically showing his unfiltered rage. "They staged a conflict in the Dragon Flats Borough so I went out there with the rest of our available airships and several foot patrols. By the time we got there they were long gone, and shortly after, we lost contact with headquarters. We got over here as quick as possible, but they've got the place surrounded. We tried staging an attack, but they threatened to level the whole place if we didn't back off. It's not just the Triple Threats either, they've teamed up with some of the other triads too."
"When was the last time you heard from Lin?" Tenzin asked next, mostly as a concerned husband, but also as a defender of Republic City. Without contact with the Chief, Saikhan would be in charge of the police force until further notice.
"From what we've pieced together it was right before the first explosion," Saikhan answered. "I was in contact with her while we were in the borough, and then all of a sudden the connection cut out. I'm assuming that's when the bomb went off. The explosion was on the first floor and she was on the third floor in the control room talking to me when it went off so we're thinking she wasn't injured. We're in close enough range to pick up short range radio, but there's a lot of interference between us and them, so we haven't been able to coordinate very well with our people inside. There's too much static."
"You've been in contact with them?" Tarrlok interjected before Tenzin could ask it himself. The other Council members had finally reached them and were huddling around Saikhan and Tenzin.
"I spoke briefly with Lieutenant Major Ikuro," Saikhan confirmed. "I think he was on the fourth floor, trying to round up everyone there before they made any plans."
"We need to contact the United Forces," the Fire Nation Council woman fretted. "Half our police force has been incapacitated and there's no telling what could happen to the city if the triads are allowed this free reign."
"Let us not be hasty, dear," Tarrlok said in a patronizing tone. "We still have plenty of capable officers at our disposal, and we can certainly beat these thugs back into whatever holes they crawled out of."
"For once, I agree with Tarrlok," Tenzin begrudgingly admitted. "We cannot wait for the United Forces to get here. Headquarters could be demolished by then. We need to think of a way to end this on our own."
"And what would you suggest?" the Earth Kingdom representative demanded. "What can we do now, besides have an all out battle with these triads?"
"I'm certain that Councilman Tenzin has a wealth of ideas," Tarrlok said confidently, but with a very obvious smirk that belied his true doubt. Tenzin struggled not to roll his eyes. "After all, his wife is the Chief, surely he would have some idea of her next moves."
"I'm sure that Chief Beifong is doing everything she can to gather all of the remaining officers together and coordinating a counter strike," Tenzin said through gritted teeth, not letting Tarrlok's attitude affect his response too badly despite how stressed he was in that moment. Losing his temper wouldn't help anything. "And there's plenty that we can do out here to be prepared to help them when the time comes. Deputy Chief Saikhan can handle all of that, so I would suggest we follow his lead. In the meantime…" Tenzin returned his full attention to Saikhan to ask, "have you had any contact with the triads besides their earlier warning?"
"Not much," Saikhan said. "I asked for a word with their leader, but they seemed confused on who that was. I spotted the two escapees over by the entrance; Kane's son and his female counterpart. They haven't done much so far besides supervise, but they don't appear to be giving all the orders either."
"We need to determine their chain of command," Tenzin decided. "If we can negotiate with the leader we may be able to find a peaceful resolution to –"
"Councilman Tenzin," Tarrlok rudely interrupted, "while I certainly admire your dedication to your pacifist nature, I think we have gone beyond peaceful resolutions. These criminals have seized the stronghold of our city's protectors and clearly have no intent on backing down. They hold this entire city in the palms of their hands, they hold your wife hostage, if they have not already disposed of her, and if we do not strike now we will be at an even larger disadvantage."
Tenzin's jaw and left eye twitched with the effort it took him not to wipe the arrogant look off of Tarrlok's face. It was not a common urge Tenzin would have, despite his frequent disagreements with Tarrlok. But the Southern Water Tribe representative had crossed a line and Tenzin was already tense beyond measure. The fact that he was using Tenzin's concern for his wife was bad enough, let alone that he was using it to try and goad Tenzin into what would undoubtedly be a bloody battle.
Tenzin breathed in a calming breath through his nose before telling Tarrlok, "Your concerns are valid, Tarrlok, but your solutions are lacking sense. Deputy Saikhan has already stated that any offensive action by us will result in the total destruction of headquarters and, by extension, will cause the slaughter of every single one of our police officers and any other civilians inside. I don't know about you, but I would be hesitant to order such a strike myself." Tarrlok was scowling at Tenzin by the time he finished talking, and Tenzin had nothing left to say to him, so he turned back to Saikhan. "With your permission, I'd like to attempt to negotiate with them myself."
Tarrlok tried to argue, "You don't have the authority to –"
"I'll allow it," Saikhan spoke over Tarrlok. "We'll cover you, in case they try to attack."
"Thank you," Tenzin said, "but don't immediately retaliate unless I'm in serious danger. If they take me as prisoner, do not attempt a rescue until we've recovered our people inside."
Saikhan and Tenzin discussed negotiation methods quickly, and then the officers on the front line of the perimeter parted to let Tenzin through.
After separating from Jeia and her team of officers, Lin only made it down one flight of steps towards the second floor before a stabbing pain shot through her abdomen and forced her to come to an abrupt stop. She managed to hold in a groan by biting down on the inside of her lips, but her feet faltered and everyone behind her was forced to stop. Her hand had tightened around the railing in a crushing grip, but she repressed her instinctive metalbending reaction to mangle the metal in her hand.
She breathed carefully and remained very still until the pain had subsided, and shortly after, one of her officers leaned forward to whisper, "You sense somethin', Chief?"
Without responding, Lin retracted the sole of her boot to simultaneously check on the baby and what her officers thought she was checking on. She could hardly sense what was happening on the second floor, but the baby's heart was still thumping and she had felt it shifting around in her womb so she decided not to panic. Although, it did seem…distressed, the heartbeat slightly faster than usual…or maybe she was just overreacting.
She had shaken her head and ordered her officers onward, leading them the rest of the way to the second floor. The baby continued to stir, but she didn't feel any further pain besides the tightness she had been feeling all day anyways. She focused instead on the task at hand, scouring the entirety of the second floor for the rest of her officers. They were all mostly unharmed, except for a few that had been directly above the explosion that had some scrapes and bruises.
They didn't meet any resistance until they started to make their way back upstairs with everyone. It was about that time that a small group of the triad thugs came rushing up from the first floor throwing fireballs and stones and ice shards. Lin and her officers far outnumbered them, though, and soon the criminals retreated back downstairs, no doubt to get reinforcements. Lin didn't bother having anyone chase after them. Instead, they continued upstairs to meet with everyone else back on the third floor.
Lieutenant Jeia and her group, along with everyone from the fourth floor, including Lieutenant Major Ikuro, arrived shortly after Lin and the second floor occupants. Ikuro had a radio strapped to his chest, and informed Lin that he had spoken briefly with Saikhan, who was right outside the barricade with several other officers. Lin tried to contact Saikhan herself, but the connection was shoddy and she had more pressing matters to deal with than to waste time messing around with the radio. She decided to wait until they were in a better position to attempt contact again.
Lin, Jeia, and Ikuro quickly devised a strategy to get everyone out through the tunnels in two separate groups. Jeia once again insisted on going with Lin, and since Ikuro was technically Jeia's superior and more than capable of leading a group to safety, Lin didn't have much reason to argue. She would be glad to have Jeia with her anyways, especially when another cramp shot through her middle while they were in the midst of splitting everyone into two evenly distributed groups. Once again, she was able to shake it off and avoid anyone's scrutinizing gazes, since they were all preoccupied elsewhere, but she was beginning to worry that something was seriously wrong with the baby.
After Lin had explained to Ikuro where the tunnel on the left side of the building would be and how best to get to it, she and Jeia split off with their own group to begin the trek back downstairs on the right side of the building. Ikuro took his group in the other direction.
This time, Lin's battalion met resistance as soon as they got to the second floor.
The triad usurpers had returned with reinforcements, just as Lin had suspected, and the ensuing battle slowed them down tremendously. If Ikuro's group had not run into any opposition of their own, they would probably have already made it within meters of their own escape tunnel. Meanwhile, Lin and the others were forced to evacuate the cramped stairwell to find better cover in the second floor corridor. The criminals followed them, and several people on both sides started to drop from injuries or lost consciousness.
Lin started out at the head of her group, but had to fall back when another startling pain ripped through her abdomen and put her in danger of being struck when her reaction time was too slow. She might have been struck down anyway if Jeia hadn't stepped forward to take the blow herself. For a moment, Lin worried that Jeia had compromised her own safety and would be seriously wounded, but the young lieutenant simply shrugged it off and continued to protect Lin from further harm while she was incapacitated. Lin recovered quickly, though, and powered on through the fight, pushing her way back towards the front, where the battle had turned mostly to hand to hand combat in such close quarters. Lin's team still outnumbered the triad's at first, but with limited space to move and airborne attacks coming in through the windows from the triad criminals outside, the metalbending officers and their civilian charges were being forced into a retreat path.
"This isn't working!" Jeia called to Lin at some point in the battle, and Lin had no choice but to agree. If they remained where they were, they would be pinned down and probably lose half or more of their capable fighters.
"FALL BACK!" Lin began to shout to her officers behind her. "DIVERT TO PLAN B! PLAN B! RETREAT!"
Lin's officers didn't hesitate long before they started repeating her orders down the line, until the people in the back finally got the memo and started sprinting in the opposite direction of the fight, carrying some of the wounded with them. The triads would think they were trying to find somewhere else to hide, but plan B wasn't as simple as that. The officers had a destination in mind. They were headed towards the tunnel on the left side of the building, where hopefully Ikuro and his group had not run into as much opposition. Many of Lin's officers had protested against plan B, had wanted instead to fight hard against the triads for as long as possible, but Lin wasn't allowing that just yet. Their mission was to escape, and Lin had made it clear that they were to prioritize that mission above all else until they had all made it to safety together. Once they were reunited with their officers on the outside, it would be far easier to take down the triad usurpers.
Lin, Jeia, and several other officers held the front lines while the rest of their battalion made a quick getaway down the hall. The triads tried to stop them, but couldn't get past the front defenses to do so. Lin could see several of the criminals disengaging to go running back towards the stairwell, but she had little idea as to where they were going. She suspected, at first, that they would be running up to the third floor or down to the first, either searching for Lin's fleeing officers or seeking out more reinforcements. She only began to worry when the remaining triad members abruptly broke off the engagement and darted away from Lin and the five other officers that remained with her.
It was about that time that someone from far down the hallway behind her screamed, "BOMB!"
Lin spun around just in time to see someone hastily placing some contraption in the middle of the hallway, and then promptly leaping out of the second story window. From that distance, Lin couldn't fully make out what the package was, but if it was a bomb like her fleeing officer believed, then they were all in serious trouble.
"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" Lin began to shout, ushering the five officers with her into the nearest room, which turned out to be a simple office space.
Lin had just slammed the door shut behind them and dove for cover when the bomb went off. The blast was loud so close to its center, and everything in the office space rattled violently, the floor trembling beneath them and the door Lin had closed blowing off its hinges with a screech of metal. Heat and smoke came rushing in, and Lin huddled closer to the cabinets she'd chosen to hide behind.
Her ears were ringing and she could feel a dull headache pulsing behind her left brow, but a quick check confirmed that she hadn't been harmed by the explosive. She cast her gaze around in the smog to count her officers and was glad to note that all five of them appeared to be intact as well. Upon placing her hand on the floor, she sensed that the infrastructure was wobbly, but holding for the most part still. The place where the blast must have originated was obliterated though, and she could faintly hear the floor crumbling out in the hallway. She twisted a finger in her ear, but it did nothing to relieve the uncomfortable feeling of trying to listen to things underwater, and she resolved that she would simply have to put up with it for now.
They couldn't remain where they were if they didn't want be cut off by the growing fire, so Lin rose quickly to her feet and went first to check on her officers. Once confirmed that they were all fine, Lin found herself edging towards the window, which had shattered somewhere in the midst of the blast. Glass crunched underfoot as she bent down slightly to peer out of the sharp-edged hole in the window. Rain sprayed her face and clanked against her armor, and she thought she heard a gust of wind whistling through the room.
Outside she could still see the triad's barricade, and now she also saw, just beyond that, a wall of her own officers. If Ikuro's group and the rest of Lin's team that she had sent off just before the blast had made it out of the left tunnel, they'd have more than enough to overpower the triads and end the whole thing. The only complication would be the captured metalbenders that the triads were currently herding out of the front of the building. Each of them had been stripped of their armor and their hands bound together with rope. Most of them must have come from the first floor, while a few had been dragged away from Lin's group during the battle on the second floor. If her original group had made it down the right stairwell, they would have attempted a rescue on their way to the tunnel, but it was clearly too late for that now. She could only hope she didn't see Ikuro and the others show up among the hostages. Someone had to make it out and help Saikhan and the others put an end to the fiasco.
Someone below spotted Lin once again and pointed up, but no fire attack came at her this time. Instead, Shira and a younger man that Lin assumed was Kane's son, Chen, stepped into her line of sight, waving off any attacks their triad cronies wanted to attempt.
"You can end this now, Lin!" Shira called up to her, having to shout over the rain, and her voice was still slightly garbled by the second floor distance and Lin's damaged hearing. "Surrender now and your people may yet survive!"
Lin sneered, and she could feel Jeia and her four other officers coming up behind her, backing her as she told the criminals, "We don't surrender to terrorists. You think you've beaten us, but you've only strengthened our resolve."
Some of the captured officers below looked up at her and shouted their support, raising their bound fists and struggling against their captors.
"We're with you, Chief!" one of them cried.
Lin replied to her officers, "And I'm with you. We won't rest until each and everyone of you has been rescued."
"You're making a mistake, Beifong!" Chen shouted over the noise. It was the first time Lin had heard him speak, and he sounded meeker than she had expected. He was frowning up at her and there was a look of concern on his face, but she wasn't sure what for. Perhaps he knew that the triads would be no match for the full force of the metalbending officers once they were reunited. "You cannot let this bloodshed go on."
"You're responsible for whatever happens here today," Lin argued. "Make no mistake of that. If you stop this pathetic attempt now, perhaps your people will live to see another day. If not, then we have no choice but to stop you by any means necessary."
Lin felt someone tapping her arm, and she turned to Jeia as the Lieutenant muttered, "We gotta go, Chief. That fire is about to reach us."
Lin cast her gaze out across the horizon once more, and in the distance she spotted Oogi's distinct form just beyond the barricade. She searched quickly for those familiar red and yellow robes, but she could not see her husband anywhere. She wasn't worried though. If Oogi was there, then Tenzin was too, and between the rain and the barricades it was difficult to make out much of anything. If Tenzin was there, it also meant their children must have been safe, because he wouldn't have come to headquarters until he was certain that their lives were not in danger. It was even possible that he would remember her mother's tunnels like she had and could be leading a team into the building.
With that assurance and the knowledge that her captured officers were alive and still fighting, Lin was able to turn away from the window and return to the depths of the building. She led Jeia and the four men with them – Sergeant Raizo, Captain Kaito, and petty officers Sanji and Tosuki – out into the hallway. They eased past the raging fire and used their bending to attempt to snuff some of it out, but the floor was crumbling and the corridor was filling with acrid smoke, so they couldn't stay long. It would be too dangerous to try going through the wreckage to attempt a rendezvous with their people that had been on the other side of the blast, heading towards the left tunnel, and since the way to the right tunnel would surely be blocked, they had no choice but to go back the way they came.
However, instead of taking the stairs, where they'd been ambushed twice before, the six of them climbed up into an air duct and started crawling their way up to the third floor. It was a tight squeeze, especially with Lin being seven months pregnant, and by the time they started dropping out of a vent on the third floor, they were all sweating profusely and feeling claustrophobic. But they had made it without incident, and decided to try their luck with taking the stairs on the left side of the building to see if they could make it to the tunnel Ikuro had taken his group to. It was a long shot, considering that the triads had probably already started blocking that side as well, but they were running out of options and none of them wanted to be trapped inside the building for much longer without backup. There were only six of them left, after all.
Except they were right to be concerned that the other stairwell would be just as treacherous, because they hadn't even made it halfway down the hall when twelve criminals came rushing at them in the direction they'd been going.
Lin and her five metalbenders started backing up as the attack was starting, dodging projectiles and blocking fireballs. The stairs were just a few meters behind them, and if they could make it up to the fourth floor they might be able to blockade themselves somewhere until they thought of a better plan.
But they'd only taken down two of the twelve criminals when another five came running up behind them. They were forced to divert their attention in two different directions, and now there were five people blocking their escape route. Raizo and Sanji focused on the five behind, while Lin and the rest continued fighting the ten in front of them.
It all seemed to happen so fast. The triad members were starting to drop like flies and Lin's team was really holding their own. Until, inevitably, it all went horribly wrong.
There were six in front and three behind when Captain Kaito failed to block a firebender's attack. The right side of his body was engulfed in flames, and he screamed in agony as he dropped to the floor and began to writhe. Jeia, who was closest to him, knocked the arrogant firebender unconscious with a powerful strike from her metal cable, and then dropped to Kaito's side to begin frantically snuffing out the flames. Distracted, she missed the shard of ice that came hurtling in her direction and struck her in the side. Jeia cried out in shock and hunched over, but didn't stop putting out the fire still flickering in places on Kaito's body.
Lin lunged in front of Jeia and Kaito to block any further attacks sent against them, and managed to take down two more criminals just before an agonizing pain shot through her abdomen and her body folded over against her will. At first, she thought she'd been struck by something, but there was no blood or puncture wound and she quickly realized that it was another contraction-like pain.
There was no room for hesitation, and Lin's cost her dearly. A firebender sent a bolt of electricity straight at her, and though she managed to throw up a last minute defense, the force of it knocked her off her feet. When her back hit the floor, it sent shockwaves of pain radiating through her middle, and she curled up on herself in an instinctive effort to protect the baby. Her ears were ringing again, but that was hardly her biggest concern. She was beginning to feel panic welling up inside of her, but she tamped down on it, gritting her teeth and resolving to get up, to move, to fight back. She had to do something.
Before she could move, someone was grabbing her by her arms and hefting her up off of the floor, and for one startled second she thought it was the triad criminals. She was relieved when it turned out to be Sergeant Raizo, who wrapped his arm tight around her waist and held her own arm over his shoulders as he began dragging her towards the stairwell. The remaining attackers were already down, and Lin could see Sanji limping hastily just ahead of her, blood trailing down his leg. A quick glance over her shoulder showed Jeia and Tosuki half carrying Kaito between them.
By the time the six of them made it up to the fourth floor, Lin could walk on her own again, even though every step made her feel as though her uterus was tearing in half. They chose an interrogation room to hide away in, because the rooms had specific locks that would at least slow the triads down if they tried to get in, and because most of the criminals wouldn't even know how to bend metal. The room was also soundproof, which was fortunate because Kaito was still groaning in agony from his burn wounds.
Lin walked into the interrogation room and immediately collapsed into one of the chairs. She felt clammy and weak and like she might very well pass out. She noticed her hand trembling as she brought it up to push back her hair, and quickly closed it into a fist as if afraid someone would see.
The others were huddled over Kaito, and Lin asked, "How is he?"
"Not good," Jeia answered in a strained voice of her own. "There's not much we can do for him. He needs a healer."
"What about you?" Lin questioned.
Jeia looked up at Lin with a furrowed, sweaty brow, and despite her immediate denial of, "I'm fine," her face was sickly pale. "I'm more concerned about you, Chief. How's the baby?"
Lin opened her mouth to speak, but had to clamp it closed again when another contraction tore through her. She clenched her fists and her jaw and tried not to hunch over again, but the pain only grew worse the longer the day wore on, and being thrown to the floor certainly hadn't helped matters.
She needed to think of a solution for their predicament, but they were pretty much trapped up on the fourth floor until help came, if it came at all, and that didn't bode well for most of the occupants of the interrogation room. Jeia had a hole in her side, just above her hip, and blood had already soaked the waistband of her pants and was spreading further out. Kaito was covered in serious burns that would no doubt send him into shock in a very short amount of time. Sanji had a long, deep gash running the length of his upper thigh. Tosuki and Raizo had only scrapes and bruises, but they'd never be able to drag their three wounded officers and Lin to safety.
Frustrated and enraged by the whole situation, Lin forced herself back onto her feet, still not answering Jeia's question and trying to pace the small room. She needed to think, and she needed to walk off the pain in her abdomen, but thirty seconds later she was forced to abandon all that.
She came to a sudden halt when she felt it happening, dread and embarrassment washing over her all at once. She was afraid to look, but forced her gaze to tip downwards to confirm that her water had just broken and, besides that, her pants were also soaked with an uncomfortable amount of blood.
Her mouth went dry and she could only stare for a few moments, unsure of what to do and assuming the worst. She heard Jeia mutter a curse and then she and Raizo were in front of her, easing her down onto the floor and asking her a million questions she couldn't answer.
Lin snapped out of it eventually, looking up at her two worried officers and stating the obvious that she'd been trying to deny all day, "I'm in labor."
Jeia looked horror stricken, as did Tosuki, who was staring at Lin with wide, petrified eyes from across the room.
Raizo, on the other hand, was calm and collected as he turned to the nauseous looking Tosuki and demanded, "We need blankets. A lot of them. Towels too, if you can find them, maybe some flashlights. And whatever first aid kits you can find, or something we can fashion into a bandage for Kaito and Sanji."
Tosuki's whole body twitched as he blinked and finally focused his gaze on Raizo. "W – what?" he stammered.
"Snap out of it, kid!" Raizo ordered.
Sanji limped over to Tosuki and said, "I'll go with him. We'll get everything we can. Come on, Tosuki…"
Sanji clasped Tosuki's shoulder tightly and shoved him in the direction of the door. They took their time stepping out into the hallway, and Lin half expected to see them get ambushed the second they stepped out of the room, but then the door closed behind them and they were out of sight.
"How far along are you, Chief?" Raizo asked of her next.
"Twenty-nine weeks," Lin answered with a grimace. It was too early. And there were no healers or doctors and nobody to even deliver her baby. The triads could show up at any second, and then what could she do?
"I'll need to take a look," Raizo told her, "to see how dilated you are."
Lin looked at Sergeant Raizo with the same startled look that Jeia did, a hundred thoughts racing through her head and each of them ending with absolutely fucking not.
Seeing the clear discomfort on Lin's face, Raizo insisted, "Look, Chief, my wife and I have five kids and I helped birth two of them. I know what I'm doing here, for the most part, and you haven't got a whole lot of other options at the moment. And my mother was a midwife, so you won't be the first woman I've seen give birth. It's completely natural, no reason to feel uncomfortable, right?" When Lin could only stare at him with a grimace, he added, "Would it help if I just talk Lieutenant Jeia through it?"
"What?" Jeia shrieked, sounding truly fearful for the first time in all the years that Lin had known her.
Frankly, Lin didn't want Jeia down there either. She didn't want anyone other than a licensed physician, preferably Katara, who had birthed her first three children, but she no longer had that option available to her. Katara was in the South Pole and Lin was trapped in a war zone. She would have preferred to try waiting it out in the hopes that they'd somehow get free before the baby was actually born, but judging by how close the contractions were getting she didn't think she'd have such luck. It would be maybe thirty minutes tops before the baby was born, if she had to guess, and there would be no stopping it this time.
So she swallowed down her pride and her mountain of discomfort and finally said to Raizo, "No, I trust you Sergeant. We don't need to scar the Lieutenant just yet. She's still young."
Raizo cracked a smile despite their situation, and even Jeia huffed out a short laugh.
"Sorry, Chief," Jeia said. "All that pregnancy stuff just freaks me out a little bit."
"No kids of your own then?" Raizo asked Jeia.
"No way," Jeia exclaimed. "Never, if I'm lucky."
Lin snorted as another contraction tightened her middle, and spoke through gritted teeth while she said, "Yeah, that's what I used to say, now look at me."
Jeia grabbed one of Lin's hands when she noticed that she was having a contraction, and Lin couldn't help but squeeze it gratefully. It wasn't Tenzin's hand, like it was supposed to be, but she was glad it was Jeia at least. "Thankfully," Jeia replied, "my wife is just as averse to kids as I am."
"Kids aren't so bad," Raizo insisted, while tapping Lin on the knee and gesturing in what she knew meant he wanted her to take her pants off, but she really wanted to delay that as long as possible. She did trust Raizo, but there was something about letting her subordinate officer help her give birth that she just couldn't wrap her head around.
So Raizo and Jeia argued lightly about the greatness of children in an effort to distract Lin from the contractions and her discomfort. It didn't really work, but she appreciated their efforts.
However, when Sanji and Tosuki returned to the room with armfuls of supplies, Lin was forced to accept that this was really going to happen.
She felt a little better when a blanket was draped over her lap, and was finally able to ease out of her ruined pants and the armor stretched over her torso. Raizo ordered Jeia to sit behind Lin to support her back, while Sanji and Tosuki busied themselves with tending to Kaito in an obvious effort to avoid seeing whatever was going on with their Chief.
It was mortifying, but the contractions were so close together now that Lin was beginning to care less and less. It didn't matter that she was trapped in a room with five of her officers about to give birth to her fourth child, or that one of her Sergeants had his head between her legs to examine the progress, or that her Lieutenant was holding her up and clutching both of her hands in support. All that mattered in that moment was getting the baby out of her so that the pain would stop and the baby would be safely ensconced in her arms and she would know one way or another if it would be all right despite being born too early.
"It won't be much longer now, Chief," Raizo informed her.
Lin was too busy panting and bracing herself against the pain to respond. She couldn't help but wish that Tenzin was with her, like he had been for the first three. He had never left her side when she had Ronen or Yunjin or Sora. He had coached her through every breath even when it annoyed her, because he knew it helped soothe her even if she was outwardly irate. She knew, too, that he would be devastated that he hadn't been there for the birth of their last child. Even to Lin it seemed wrong to do it without him, as if a crucial part of her was missing.
Wherever Tenzin was, she hoped he was faring better than her.
Tenzin managed to speak to the Triple Threat Triad's leader for all of five minutes before being thrown back across the barricade. It had taken ages before the man had even agreed to talk to Tenzin, and even then he had only laughed in Tenzin's face and essentially refused to negotiate. In the middle of the pointless conversation, Tenzin had noticed some of the criminals attacking the second floor of the building where, presumably, some of the officers were putting up a fight. And then another bomb had gone off inside the building, and Tenzin's concern for Lin had risen to new heights. What if she had been involved in the fight and had not been able to escape the explosion in time?
But he needn't have worried so much, because he saw her up in the window a few moments later. He could hardly make out her features from that distance, but he saw the golden Chief badge shining there on her metal uniform and he thanked the spirits that she was still alive. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but he thought he saw Chen and Shira at the front of the building and there was a very brief back and forth between them and Lin.
Then Lin was gone again and the Triple Threats leader was telling his people to capture Tenzin, who blasted back their initial attacks and then threw himself as far from their lines as he could. Once he was within range, Saikhan and the rest of the police officers were able to help fend off the attack until he was safely behind his own people once again.
Tarrlok, of course, had plenty to say about Tenzin's inability to strike a deal with the triads, but Tenzin ignored the man in favor of discussing their next move with Saikhan.
They were no closer to figuring out a solution when, all of a sudden, their answer came to them.
It was in the form of Lieutenant Major Ikuro and an armada of police officers that hadn't been there before. Saikhan saw them first, his eyes bulging as he looked past Tenzin and exclaimed, "Lieutenant! You made it out!"
Tenzin whirled around, saw Ikuro and the other officers, and scanned the crowd desperately for Lin. But he knew already that she wouldn't be there. He doubted she would have made it out in the time that had passed since he'd seen her in the second story window. Still, if Ikuro had made it out, then maybe Lin would be able to use the same escape route.
"How did you get out?" several voices asked at once.
Ikuro looked as if he'd been in battle, but was mostly unscathed. He smiled very slightly as he breathlessly answered, "Some old tunnels Toph Beifong created decades ago. There was one on either side of the building, so we split into two groups."
"The tunnels!" Tenzin gasped. "Of course, I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier!"
Ikuro nodded and continued, "Chief Beifong took a team to the right, while I took mine to the left." Ikuro's expression turned grim, and he looked to Tenzin with remorse on his face. "The Chief's group was ambushed in the stairwell before they even made it to the first floor. She sent them all in our direction, and most of them caught up with us, but the explosion… it cut the rest of them off. I'm sorry, I…I'm not sure what became of her."
"Lin was still alive after the explosion," Saikhan told Ikuro. "She and the rest of our people must still be in there. They'll probably have barricaded themselves somewhere, maybe on the top floor. We can use those tunnels to enact a rescue. Once we get them out, the triads won't have much leverage besides the hostages we can see out here. We can stage an assault and finally put an end to this."
"I'd like to accompany you into headquarters," Tenzin insisted.
"Of course," Saikhan easily agreed.
But Tarrlok argued, "This hardly seems like a good idea. If you go back in there you could be trapped or killed, and then we would be without a councilman and our Deputy Chief. Not to mention that this charade has gone on long enough. We have the manpower now to arrest these criminals and end their reign of terror. We can worry about a rescue afterwards."
Tenzin was aghast and, frankly, quite enraged. "You would suggest that we abandon our Chief of Police and several other officers to their own fates?"
"We have to consider the many over the few," Tarrlok countered. "You are letting your concern for you pregnant wife cloud your judgement. What if it was me in there instead of Chief Beifong? Would you risk the citizens of this city for just one person?"
"Lin and our unborn child aren't the only people in there," Tenzin seethed, shaking with rage as he fought to contain it. "And if leaving you in there would result in your death, then yes, I would attempt a rescue, even for someone as detestable as you. Besides, this is not your decision to make. If Deputy Saikhan sees fit to send in a rescue team, then he has every right to do so. And either way, I am going inside, whether you agree to it or not."
Tarrlok looked ready to continue the argument, and Tenzin was prepared to ignore him, but Saikhan cut in, "We aren't leaving any of our people behind. I've got a plan that will ensure that the group inside and all the hostages outside are recovered, and after we're all together, we finish this. Councilors, this is going to get dangerous very soon. If you aren't going to help, I suggest you get clear of here until this is all over."
With that, Saikhan began doling out orders, and Tarrlok fell blessedly silent.
Saikhan's plan was to use the tunnels to strike at the triads by sending a team of officers into each one and attacking from behind, while the rest of the officers outside – led by Lieutenant Major Ikuro – would work on destroying the barricades and creating a distraction. Meanwhile, Saikhan, Tenzin, and three others – along with one of the healers that had been on stand by for any injured – would use one of the tunnels as well to sneak into headquarters and find Lin and the others.
Tenzin didn't know what condition Lin would be in when he found her, but he hoped the stress had not harmed her or the baby too much. If she could hold on for just a little bit longer…
Lin couldn't hold it in any longer. When the next contraction hit and Raizo told her to push, she couldn't stop the long, agonized groan that escaped her. She'd been pushing for several minutes already, and though she knew it was never a quick process, she felt frustrated that she'd made little progress. She needed it to be over. She had thought giving birth to twins had been difficult, but she'd been seven years younger then, and she'd had Katara easing her pain with waterbending. Now she was forty-five, in premature labor, with nothing to relieve her pain except for crushing poor Jeia's hand. Besides that, she felt certain that whatever had sent her into labor early was making the whole thing even more miserable than usual. She knew she was losing too much blood. She felt faint and dizzy, and Raizo kept exchanging grim looks with Jeia, even though he'd told Lin that it was manageable. But he was a terrible liar, and shortly after, he had asked everyone what their blood types were as if he was going to do an impromptu blood transfusion. But Lin had snapped an assertive, "No way." Her officers were already injured and losing blood of their own. Only Raizo and Tosuki were well enough to even consider it, and since Raizo was busy delivering Lin's baby, that would leave Tosuki, but the young man didn't even know what his blood type was. Not to mention that somebody needed to be in good shape if the six of them ever wanted to make it out of that building alive. Lin knew she'd barely be able to fight back after giving birth, Kaito was unconscious, and Jeia and Sanji were getting weaker every minute.
Sanji and Tosuki had done their best to tend to Kaito's burn wounds, but there was little they could do with a first aid kit. The man needed a healer, and soon. Tosuki had wrapped Sanji's gaping leg wound, but blood had already soaked through the bandage. Packing Jeia's wound seemed to slow the bleeding, but she was still in rough shape. Overall, the group was practically useless. If help didn't come, Lin wasn't sure if they could make it out.
While searching for blankets and first aid and whatever else, Sanji and Tosuki had come across a portable radio, and they were both hunched over it waiting for something to come through or sending out very short messages of their own. Lin suspected that they were also using it as an excuse to avoid watching her give birth, which she was completely fine with. It was bad enough Sergeant Raizo was delivering her baby, it would have been even worse if two young officers had watched the entire process.
Lin felt a bit guilty for letting Jeia be dragged into it, because as helpful as the young Lieutenant was trying to be, she was very clearly uncomfortable with the whole thing. But despite all that, Jeia didn't waver. She kept Lin's back supported and never complained when Lin began to crush her hands in the midst of a contraction. Lin had even tried letting go of Jeia's hands to wrap her fists around the blanket on her lap, but Jeia had taken Lin's hands back without being prompted. It only served to remind Lin of why she was so fond of Jeia in the first place, and after collapsing back against the lieutenant once again, she panted, "I…never said…thank you."
Lin turned her head just slightly so that she could peer back at Jeia, but sweat dripped from her brow and stung her eye, forcing her to blink rapidly and look away just as Jeia was responding, "Thank me? For what, Chief?"
Lin took a moment to catch her breath before answering, "I would have never made it this far today without you, kid."
Jeia scoffed, and Lin felt the movement against her back. "Me?" Jeia said incredulously. "You handled yourself incredibly considering you were probably in labor the whole time, and we all made it here because of each other. You don't have to thank me. I would do it all again in a heartbeat."
Lin nodded and swallowed forcefully, wishing desperately that she had some water. "I know," she croaked, raising her voice to address the others in the room too. "You all did incredible today. No matter what happens after this, I want you all to know how –" her words stalled for a second when she had to grit her teeth through a wave of pain, and she hastily finished, "how proud I am. My only regret is that I wasn't strong enough to get you all out of here. I can never repay you for all that you've done for me when you could just have easily saved yourselves."
"We're just doin' our jobs, Chief," Tosuki said almost bashfully.
"There was never a question of leaving you behind," Sergeant Raizo told her firmly, leveling her with a serious look over her knees before ducking his head back below the blanket that was keeping her somewhat modest in front of the others.
"You helped us too, Chief," Sanji insisted. "You might not have made it without us, but maybe we wouldn't have made it without you either."
"Listen, you name this kid after me and we'll call it even," Jeia joked, chuckling quietly against Lin's back.
Lin managed to snort half of a laugh before pain shot through her, and she told Jeia quite seriously, "You get us all out of this hell hole and I'll change my other three kids' names to Jeia too."
Jeia laughed loudly at that and pointed out, "Don't you think your husband will have something to say about that?"
Lin fought not to grimace at the thought of Tenzin. It was more difficult doing this whole thing without him than she had thought it'd be, but she wasn't alone. She could be grateful for that at least.
Before Lin could respond to Jeia, Raizo interjected, "I think this next push might be the beginning of the end here, Lin. The head is almost out, and the rest will be easy."
Lin half scoffed, half whined, feeling her abdomen clenching up for another contraction. She felt like she was being torn in half at that point, but she consoled herself with the knowledge that soon her baby would be born and she would never ever have to endure that torture again. She was still immensely worried that the baby might not survive once it was outside of her womb, but she couldn't let herself think too much about that. She wouldn't know until the baby was born anyway, so there was no use fretting.
Lin inhaled a deep breath and then pushed with all her might, squeezing Jeia's hands and clenching her jaw. Raizo continued to encourage her, coaching her through it until finally he exclaimed, "I've got the head! Just one more big push, Lin!"
Lin wanted nothing more than to sleep for the next century, her head lolling back against Jeia's shoulder and her eyelids so heavy she didn't know if she'd ever be able to open them again.
Jeia jostled her slightly and urged, "Come on, Lin. You can do it. You're almost done."
Lin stifled the whimper that was working its way up her throat and forced herself to lean forward again, breathing shakily and then pushing one last time.
Shortly after, Jeia began repeating several curses, her voice a combination of awe and incredulity as she leaned over Lin's shoulder to watch the baby that was coming into the world. Lin thought she saw Tosuki and Sanji staring with gaping jaws and wide eyes too, but she couldn't be bothered to care in that moment.
And then, finally, Raizo proclaimed, "I've got her! I've got her! It's a girl, Chief! It's a baby girl!"
Lin's whole body went limp, her chest convulsing with suppressed sobs of relief and joy. It was finally over. Her baby was born and it was a girl. She had another daughter. It was over, and her baby was alive.
"Holy shit," Jeia kept saying, half laughing, half crying, "holy shit, Chief."
"Congrats, Chief!" Sanji and Tosuki joyfully exclaimed while clapping one another on the back, chuckling with the same amazement that everyone else seemed to be feeling. Lin figured the two rookies and Jeia were young enough not to have witnessed child birth before, and she forgot for a moment to feel uncomfortable that she'd just given birth in front of several of her officers. It was almost endearing to see them so impressed by the whole thing… almost.
But then Lin realized something that made her chest seize up, and all joy seemed to evaporate in a heartbeat. She hadn't heard a single cry out of the baby yet, not even a whimper. And when she let her gaze fall onto Raizo, she saw his face scrunched up in a frown, gaze focused intensely on the unmoving infant he'd laid on the floor at Lin's feet as he began checking the baby's airway.
Lin had to look away immediately, forcing her gaze onto the ceiling and clamping down on the emotions threatening to destroy her all of a sudden. She held her breath and refused to let the stinging tears fall from her eyes. She was shivering violently, at once cold when before she had been sweating from the heat. She couldn't wrap her head around a single thought besides no. She had fooled herself into thinking that everything would be fine and now…now she might have to hear instead that the baby had not made it and…NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!
Lin couldn't hear what went on in the following seconds or minutes or however long it was that passed. All she could hear was her heart thumping in her ears and her agonized thoughts screaming inside her head. All she could think was that she had lost the baby. She had lost the baby and how could she ever recover, how could she ever face her family, how could she –
But then a piercing cry cut through the breathless silence, emanating from her newborn, and it cut through everything else and restored all feeling to her limbs in a sudden rush. She snapped her gaze back onto Raizo to make sure she wasn't imagining it, and he was grinning in tearful relief as he cleaned the infant as well as he could before swaddling her in a clean blanket. Lin immediately reached out for the baby with desperation, needing to hold her little girl in her arms, to feel the baby's warmth against her own skin, even though her hands were still shaking and she wasn't certain she had the strength to hold up even a few pounds.
She needn't have worried, because Jeia's arms shot out beneath Lin's from behind, supporting Lin as she accepted the bundle from Raizo, so that Lin would not drop the newborn.
"Congratulations, Lin," Raizo murmured, fondly stroking the newborn's cheek with his thumb before he retracted his arms.
Lin looked at him with the utmost gratitude as she breathlessly wheezed, "Thank you."
Raizo smiled and shook his head. "You did all the work, Chief."
Lin looked down at the bundle that fit just right in her arms and felt her heart swell with love and relief and so many other emotions she couldn't name. The baby girl was tinier than even the twins had been, but she still looked perfect, still felt warm and soft and alive. Lin could already tell from the tuft of thick, black hair atop her head and the sharp, little chin that the girl was going to be a Beifong through and through, and for some reason that thought didn't terrify her like it used to. Somewhat ironically, Lin had been born in a thunder storm, and now her youngest daughter had been too.
There was an instant connection with her littlest girl, like there had been with Ronen, like she still regretted there not being with the twins until months after they were born. Lin silently vowed to protect the newborn in her arms until her very last breath. Whatever she had to do to get her to safety, Lin would do it.
It was going to take some effort though, possibly more than her body could handle at that point in time. They were trapped in an interrogation room, on the fourth floor, with triad thugs surrounding them. Lin was still bleeding heavily, if her severe lightheadedness and Raizo's concerned frown were anything to go by, and three of her five officers weren't in much better shape.
But the baby needed to get to a hospital, and soon.The slight wheeze in her tiny breaths was a source of great concern for Lin, and she couldn't rest until she knew for certain that her little girl was safe and healthy. Yet the question still remained: how were they going to get out?
Chapter 39: Chapter 39
Chapter Text
Chapter 39
Suyin had just sat down to begin eating lunch with her family when one of her metal clan guards barged into the dining room unannounced.
The young male guard was out of breath, his chest plate askew and hair in disarray. He slid to a startled halt two meters past the doorway and gulped hastily. He was still panting when he gasped, "Madam Beifong! So sorry to interrupt…"
"Is something the matter?" Suyin inquired, one thin eyebrow raised and with an air of nonchalance. She was not overtly concerned by the boy's frantic entrance. New guards were often overly dramatic. Zaofu was a safe and prosperous place. It was rare that anything truly bad happened.
"A – a sky bison requested permission to land, Ma'am," the guard sputtered. "I – I mean, a woman on a sky bison," he amended, upon seeing Su's doubtful look. "She refuses to leave the landing pad until she sees you."
There was a long pause, during which Su waited and the boy continued to heave for breath without further explaining himself.
Until Su grew impatient and she asked, "Well…who is this woman on a sky bison? I doubt it's my sister. She would have simply barged in and made her presence known."
"She claims to be Nira," the young guard responded, "of the Air Acolytes. She brings Chief Beifong's children with her. She won't say anything more, not until she sees you. I was sent to ask you how you would like for us to proceed, Ma'am."
Now, Su was beginning to worry, and she rose straight to her feet. "Was it just Nira and the children?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Okay, Su was definitely worried. Nira wouldn't have brought the children to Zaofu on her own unless something had happened. If Lin and Tenzin had been worried enough to send their children to Su without any prior warning, then it was something bad.
Su didn't waste another moment, hastening around the table, but still smiling reassuringly to her children as she went. "I'll be right back with your cousins, my darlings," she told them brightly, patting Wei on the head as she passed him. "Finish your lunches!"
She shot Bataar a look, and he nodded soberly in understanding. He would ensure that their children stayed together until Su figured out what was going on and just how serious it was.
Su followed the young metal clan guard out into the hallway, still forcing cheer as she asked, "Which landing zone are they on?"
"Zone C, Ma'am," the boy answered.
And then she was out of sight of her family, and she let her true concern show on her face as she took off at a run down the corridor.
When she finally came hurtling out onto the tarmac of Landing Zone C, Su immediately spotted a sky bison out on the edge of the space, still perked up and ready to take flight again at a moment's notice. Su was halfway across the landing pad before she could see other shapes and movement atop the bison, and shortly after she saw three small forms leaping to their feet in the saddle. Nira was still at the reigns, but slid off of the bison when she finally noticed Su headed their way.
Su's niece and nephews leapt out of the saddle as one, Sora and Yunjin using their Airbending to cushion their own falls, along with their older brother's. Ronen stayed close to Nira as they began striding to meet Su, but the twins immediately took off sprinting straight to their aunt. As they approached, Su looked them over quickly for injuries, but besides the fact that they looked like they'd been dunked in water fairly recently, they appeared unharmed. She wasn't going to relax though until she knew for certain.
Sora reached Su first, tearfully exclaiming, "Aunt Su!" just before she jumped right into her aunt's open arms. Sora was taller than her twin brother at eight years old, but she was still light as a feather, and Su barely reacted to the impact. Sora wrapped her legs around Su's waist and her arms around her neck and Su held the girl close. Sora was sniffling and tears were sliding down her cheeks and she buried her face in Su's short hair.
"Sora!" Su greeted belatedly, a bit breathless after running to the landing pad and from the chest seizing fear that something terrible had happened to part of her family. Yunjin crashed into her knees next, and Su removed one arm from Sora's back to wrap around Yunjin. "Oh, my darlings, what a lovely surprise…"
Ronen and Nira rushed over, and Su reached out to ruffle Ronen's damp, windswept hair when he reached her. She smiled in greeting, and the eleven year old gave her a little half smile in return. His subdued response was proof enough that something had gone terribly wrong.
Before she could ask, Yunjin tipped his head back to look up at her with wide eyes and a vibrant grin as he exclaimed, "Aunt Su! You shoulda seen it! We fought the bad guys and we whooped their butts! Didn't we, Ro?"
Yunjin glanced over his shoulder at his big brother, clearly enthralled by the whole thing, but Ronen was not quite as thrilled.
Suyin gasped, clutching the twins closer to her as if to protect them from harm that no longer existed. "You were fighting?" she questioned in an uncommonly high pitched voice. "Who? Why? What happened?"
"The bad men were mean," Sora whimpered into Su's shoulder, voice so muffled that Su didn't think she would have heard it if Sora wasn't so close. "They tried to catch us on fire."
Su felt her pulse pounding more rapidly at the mere thought. She couldn't imagine something happening to one of her sister's kids anymore than she could her own. It broke her heart to know that someone had come after them, and enraged her too.
"It was awesome!" Yunjin proclaimed, clearly not deterred by his siblings' somber attitudes. "I used my Airbending kick just like Dad showed us! I didn't get to use my fists like Mama taught us, but I bet she woulda been happy anyways. Ro used the boomerang a – and it knocked those bad guys out. There were, like, nineteen of 'em, and we –"
"Yunjin!" Ronen admonished, while Su's eyes nearly bulged from her head. "There were only two. Don't lie to Aunt Su."
Su relaxed ever so slightly, relieved that Yunjin had been exaggerating, although even two was too many. What despicable, cowardly men would go after children?
"Sorry," Yunjin sighed. "But we did beat 'em."
"Well!" Su interjected, before the boy could go on. "I want to hear all about it. But first, why don't we get you all into some dry, clean clothes, hmm?" She looked pointedly at their muddy, ruined outfits. Then she exchanged a brief look with Nira, knowing that she would have to ask the Acolyte woman about the attack to get all the real details, and also to find out where her sister and Tenzin were. Nira looked harried and exhausted – and cold – but she didn't look grief stricken so Su wasn't going to jump to the worst conclusion yet.
"That sounds like a great idea," Nira agreed with Su, putting her arm over Ronen's shoulders.
Su took Yunjin's hand in her own and, while still carrying Sora, began leading the way back inside. "Is everyone okay?" Su asked the four of them as they walked. "You're not hurt are you?"
"Nope!" Yunjin denied.
Ronen shook his head and replied, "No, Aunt Su, I think we're okay."
Nira shook her head too, sounding slightly baffled as she said, "None of us were hit. There were some close calls, but…the children were very brave."
Yunjin beamed with pride and Sora perked up a little, but she slumped her shoulders again a second later before mumbling, "My tummy hurts."
Su frowned and quickly asked, "Did you get hurt, or were you just a little afraid?"
Sora glanced down at her twin brother fearfully and indignantly proclaimed, "I wasn't scared!"
The girl was very clearly lying, but Su didn't press her. She would wait until Yunjin and Ronen weren't around to have a talk with Sora.
Sora laid her head back down on her aunt's shoulder, and Su gave her niece a reassuring kiss on the forehead.
They were all quiet most of the way to Su's main house, with Yunjin intermittently going on a tangent about their fight with the two bad guys that had tried to snatch them. Little of his chatter made sense, and Ronen kept interjecting to correct him, but what Su could make out made the whole thing sound pretty awful.
Su took them first to one of the guest rooms the kids stayed in when they were visiting, where she had started keeping a few spare outfits for them, because she knew firsthand the struggle of packing enough clothes for three rambunctious young kids. They were always getting them stained or torn, and after the third time of Lin and Tenzin asking if she had any spare clothes their kids could wear, Su had practically purchased whole new wardrobes for her niece and nephews.
It was as Su and Nira were helping the kids change that the two women realized that the mud wasn't just covering the kids' clothes. Their skin was marked by streaks of dirt and Yunjin had started to develop a rash on his leg where his soggy, gritty pants had started to chafe. Su decided that a warm bath was necessary for each of them, including Nira, who's teeth were still chattering and her lips were starting to turn blue. After running a bath for Ronen, Nira was directed to another bathroom where she could clean herself up, and Su went to find the acolyte woman a clean set of clothes. Su then helped Sora and Yunjin, and when the twins were all cleaned up and in fresh, dry clothes, she quickly re-braided their long hair for them. Ronen's hair was cut short and tidy, and it took him half as long to get washed up. Sora and Yunjin, however, both loved their long hair and balked at any mention of getting it cut, so it took Su a while to get the mud and knots out for the two of them. When Nira had finished up, she came to help, and soon the three kids were all sorted out.
As they were walking in the direction of the courtyard, where Su suspected her own kids might be, she asked them, "Are any of you hungry, darlings? Your cousins just had lunch, and I'm sure there's some leftovers if you'd like them."
Yunjin immediately answered in the affirmative, but Sora shook her head vehemently and Ronen shrugged indifferently.
"They did miss lunch," Nira said. "Perhaps a small bite to eat is a good idea."
So Su switched directions slightly to take the children and Nira to the kitchens, where she had her chef whip up a quick lunch for them. Su hadn't gotten to eat her own lunch either, so she tried forcing a few bites down, but she was sick with worry and the food stuck like glue to the roof of her mouth. Swallowing was difficult, and if it weren't for the fact that Sora and Ronen were also hesitant to eat, she wouldn't have bothered. But she didn't want the children going hungry, and with Sora curled up on her lap and Ronen watching her with a careful eye, Su could not get by with pretending to eat. Nira appeared to be having the same struggle as Su, but was able to play it off by paying more attention to Yunjin, who was not at all deterred and was making a mess of himself as he shoveled food into his mouth.
After several long minutes of everyone else pretending to eat, Yunjin finally finished, and the five of them went to join Su's husband and children.
When Wei and Wing spotted their cousins, they whooped with joy and went rushing over to meet them. Huan was busy with his art and barely glanced up. Kuvira and Bataar Jr were almost too far away to even see, but did wave at their cousins. Opal and Bataar Sr struck a slower pace than Wei and Wing, and were just joining the group as Yunjin ran off to play with the twin boys. Ronen looked about to follow, but stayed behind instead. Sora made no effort to detach herself from her aunt Su.
Bataar and Opal greeted Ronen, Nira, and Sora, and then Su nudged Sora as she said, "Don't you want to go play with your cousins, sweetheart?"
Sora shook her head and nuzzled further into Su's neck.
Su didn't want to force the girl after the ordeal she'd been through, but she needed to know the full details of what had happened and Nira wouldn't speak freely with the kids around.
"I promise that Nira and I will stay right here," Su coaxed. "You won't be far, and I'll be right here if you need me. I won't let you out of my sight."
Sora shifted, but said nothing.
Opal stepped forward with a soft smile and reached out to take Sora's hand as she asked, "Sora, will you come sit with me while the boys play their game? They're bending so I can't join and I don't want to sit all alone. You'll sit with me, right?"
Sora began to perk up, apparently intrigued by the prospect of spending time with her older cousin. Sora was surrounded by boys most days – and Lin hardly counted considering her total aversion to all the frilly things Sora was interested in – and she very much admired Opal. Since Opal was about four years older than Sora, the two girls didn't often bond as much as Sora might have liked.
Sora was still hesitant though, until Ronen stepped up and said, "Come on, Sora. I'll come with you too. Let the grown-ups talk."
Sora looked at Su uncertainly. "And you promise you won't leave?"
"I promise," Su said sincerely.
"Me too," Nira added, reaching over to squeeze Sora's hand.
"And you'll tell us what's going on?" Ronen questioned. "After you talk?"
Su and Nira exchanged a glance, and then Nira responded, "Yes, we'll tell you what we know."
"Is Mama and Daddy okay?" Sora murmured teary-eyed.
"I'm sure they're just fine, sweetheart," Su said when Nira hesitated. "I'll make sure they are, okay?"
Eventually, Sora was able to detach herself from Su and both Ronen and Opal held one of her hands as they led her away from the adults.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Su whirled on Nira and demanded, "What the hell happened? Where is my sister?"
Nira sighed heavily and admitted, "I don't know much. Lin and Tenzin went to work this morning, just like any other day. I was inside with the children when Tenzin called a few hours later. He told me I needed to grab the kids the second I got off the phone and bring them straight to you. He said not to stop for anyone or anything. So I took the kids to the bison stables and that's when two men dressed as Acolytes appeared. I didn't recognize them, so I knew they were imposters, and sure enough they attacked. I…I've never felt so helpless in my life. All I wanted was to protect those kids, but they ended up protecting me. We got away, barely, and now we're here."
"And Tenzin didn't say anything about why you needed to leave?" Bataar questioned.
Nira hesitated, gaze flickering to Bataar before settling on Su with a sorrowful expression. "He didsay that police headquarters had fallen, that the triads had barricaded the area, and that he was going there to find Lin."
Su took a startled step back, hand coming up to her chest to settle over her heart as the shock and worry tightened her chest. She imagined her sister, pregnant and under siege and in who knows what kind of condition. Could Lin have been hurt in whatever attack that had been strong enough to bring down police headquarters? Could Lin be dead? With the supposed vendetta that Chen person had against her, and the long lost half-sister that was a career criminal, and the simple fact that Lin was chief of police and the triads hated the police, it was entirely possible. It might have been a huge jump to a dark conclusion, but her niece and nephews had nearly just been kidnapped or murdered so was it really that far of a stretch to assume the worst? Tenzin had said that he was going to look for Lin, but what if he was too late? Or what if he only managed to get himself in serious trouble in the process?
Su looked out across the courtyard, at her own children, who were so sweet and smart, and they were her whole world. She couldn't imagine someone coming after them, someone turning those kind faces into fear and anger and sorrow. And she looked at her niece and nephews, who she loved so much, who she would do anything for just as she would her own children. She saw the brightness dimmed on their own sweet faces, and thought of how absolutely destroyed they would be if something happened to one or both of their parents. She imagined herself having to be the one to tell them, and then just as quickly shook off the thought.
She would not be so morbid, that was Lin's job. Su was the optimist and the dreamer, and she would not give up so easily on her sister or her brother-in-law. Both of them were renowned fighters and exceptional leaders. They had persevered through so much already, and if anyone could make it out of their current situation it would be them.
Nevertheless, Su decided that if they didn't hear from anyone soon she would need to go to Republic City herself. If her sister needed her, then Su was going to be there.
Saikhan and Tenzin's group of three other metalbenders and a healer waded through murky, ankle deep water as fast as they could. The tunnel Lieutenant Major Ikuro's group had used to escape headquarters had flooded over the years of disuse, and left behind a putrid stench. The floor and the walls were slimy and slippery, and it took a concerted effort for them not to fall into the sludge beneath them.
Tenzin didn't want to think about whatever was scurrying around his feet, but otherwise the trek was well worth it. He'd swim through six feet of the vile stuff to get to Lin. He had no idea where she was or how she was faring, but his lungs were constricted with worry and he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
When the portable radio Saikhan carried with him finally crackled to life, Tenzin's heart leapt into his throat. It was too soon for it to have been any of the other three groups that were getting into position and waiting for Saikhan's signal. They were on a strict radio silence until Saikhan's extraction team was in place. Which meant it had to be someone else, possibly someone inside the building. They had received a few static transmissions before they'd set off into the tunnel, but they hadn't been able to decipher the messages and the attempts had ceased abruptly shortly after.
Now that they were in the tunnel beneath headquarters and edging closer to the main floor, the transmission came in clearly enough to understand a few words.
"A..one copy? Come i – … Repeat, d – anyone copy?"
Tenzin and the others came to a sudden halt, and Saikhan reached down to snatch the radio from his waist.
"This is Deputy Saikhan," he said into the receiver. "I copy."
"Deputy Sa….n!" came the enthusiastic response. "We a.. in need of assist..ce. Repeat…assistance. This is petty off…r Sanji. I – here wi.. Chief Beifong."
"Lin!" Tenzin gasped quietly, breath quickening in anticipation. He sidled closer to Saikhan's side to better hear the radio.
"What's your status, petty officer?" Saikhan calmly asked. "Is it just you and the Chief?"
There was a long moment of silence on the other end, and then a familiar voice – albeit more gruff and tremulous in the shaky connection – came through. "Saikhan…Lin h – re. Three wounded, two –" The radio fizzled into nothing but static, but Lin's voice returned a second later. "Fourth floor… – quire help."
"We're headed your way, Lin," Saikhan quickly assured her. "Can you meet us halfway?"
There was another long pause, and then, "Negative. Th…'s a, uh…complication."
"What kind of complication?" Saikhan asked, while simultaneously picking up a quick pace through the muck once again, gesturing for the others to follow him.
"Is my husband w… y..?"
Rather than respond, Saikhan handed the receiver over to Tenzin, who was practically at a full on run to keep up with the Deputy Chief now.
Tenzin hastily took the radio and brought it up to his mouth as he said, "Lin? Lin, it's me. It's Tenzin. Are you all right?"
"For now," came the not so reassuring reply. "T..zin… you're a f….. again."
Confused by the unintelligible words, Tenzin shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Lin, the connection isn't very good. Can you repeat that?"
They must have been getting closer to the end of the tunnel and therefore experiencing less interference, because the following transmission came in loud and clear.
"I said, you're a father again. We have another daughter."
Tenzin was still confused and the words didn't quite sink in at first. But when everyone else in his team began to slow down from their own surprise, each of them staring at him with wide eyes, his footsteps began to falter, until eventually he came to a grinding halt, no doubt spraying sludge up onto his pants in the process. But he wouldn't have noticed if the retched stuff had gone straight into his mouth, because his brain had almost completely shut down. The only thing racing through his mind was the complete and utter disbelief that his wife had apparently given birth.
His jaw was gaping when he practically screeched into the receiver, "What?! You mean you…you…you had the baby?! It's a girl?! We have a baby girl?!"
"Yes, but she needs…..doctor."
"We've got a healer," Tenzin said absentmindedly, his breath coming in short pants and his pulse pounding in his ears. He couldn't believe that Lin had had the baby. And he had missed it. And it was too early. And were they okay?
"Hurry," Lin urged. "And be careful."
Suddenly regaining feeling in his legs and spurred on by the haunting image of his wife and newborn trapped and in need of a doctor in the middle of a burning building under siege by triads, Tenzin took off at a sprint down the tunnel. He faintly heard Saikhan and the others splashing along behind him trying to catch up. He held the receiver up again and said desperately, "Hang on, Lin. We're coming. I love you. I love you both so much. I'm coming."
"We'll be….." There was a long garbled interruption, and then a muffled, "Shit…they're coming through the –"
The rest of the connection cut out completely, and no amount of shouting his wife's name brought Lin's voice back through the radio.
Lin was obviously not thrilled when the floor of the interrogation room began to crumble beneath her, but she was, at least, glad that she had had the time and the foresight to redress in the downtime before the triads found them.
Sanji and Tosuki had been thoughtful enough to grab some clothes they'd found while they had been searching for various other supplies. Lin had no idea who the pants and shirt had once belonged to, but she was grateful for them nonetheless. Unfortunately, the pants were too tight on the hips for someone who had just been pregnant twenty minutes earlier, and the shirt was itchy and smelled a bit like fish, but it was better than still being covered in nothing but a flimsy blanket and a sweat soaked undershirt. She had her armor back on, which made her feel slightly stronger in her moment of total weakness.
Between giving birth and blood loss and all the fighting she'd done earlier in the day, her body was starting to give up on her. When Jeia and Raizo hauled her to her feet for the first time since giving birth, she thought her abdomen was going to rip in half. It took everything in her not to scream, and she was frankly surprised she didn't bite her tongue in half. Every step she took was torture, but with the triads coming through the floor and her newborn infant in her arms, she really had no choice but to keep going.
They were all slower getting down the hallway then they should have been under the circumstances. Sanji's limp was so bad at that point that his injured leg was nearly useless. Jeia was hunched over, but probably could have powered through if she wasn't so intent on covering Lin and the baby. Raizo and Tosuki were the only two uninjured, and were bogged down trying to drag Kaito along between them.
Their attackers, however many there were, would surely catch up in no time, and Lin felt a swell of panic in her gut. Not for herself, but for the helpless, fragile infant in her arms. How could she protect her little girl? An innocent child that had been brought into the world at the worst possible moment, too young to know what was even going on. Its entire life depended upon Lin, upon a mother who was nearly too weak to fight.
When the triad members finally managed to climb through the hole they'd created in the floor and came bursting out of the interrogation room in chase of the others, Lin chanced a glance over her shoulder to see what her odds were. There were three criminals she didn't recognize and two that she did. Shira was leading the group, a manic grin on her face and a crazed look in her wide eyes. Chen lagged behind the other four, looking small and uncertain among the career criminals he followed.
Raizo and Jeia began pelting obstacles into the path of the triad group while still trying to run, but Lin knew with absolute certainty that her own group wouldn't outlast the criminals', and they definitely wouldn't outrun them.
Making a split second decision, Lin came to an abrupt halt, stomping her feet into the floor and, while clutching her daughter close to her chest with one arm, used the other to make a yanking motion from above her head down to her waist. The ceiling began to crack and crumble, and Lin pulled with all her might. Jeia, realizing Lin's plan, stepped in to help, and soon a large chunk of the ceiling came crashing down to the floor midway between Lin's team and Shira's. Lin and Jeia continued to pull until the rubble had filled a section of the hallway on either wall and from floor to ceiling, effectively blocking off Shira and the others. It wouldn't hold them off for long, but it would buy Lin's team a few precious moments.
Rain water from outside began to trickle in through the gaping hole in the roof, and despite the fact that the sun was covered by clouds, the light coming through from outside was nearly blinding in comparison to how dark it had been in the building a few seconds earlier. Lin briefly considered climbing up top, to see if there was a spot to climb down onto the street that wasn'tcovered by the triads. But if it turned out that the way was still blocked and guarded then she would have wasted time and they would all end up trapped and surrounded up there.
So Lin went with her initial plan, whirling on Raizo and Tosuki and stating firmly, "Take Kaito and the baby and get them out of here anyway you can. Find Saikhan and Tenzin, if you can. If not, go for the tunnels."
"Chief," Tosuki tried to argue, "we aren't leaving you here –"
"There's no time to argue," Lin snapped, just as the rubble began to shift ominously behind her. "I won't make it much farther and they'll catch up in no time. Kaito and my daughter need a doctor now, and these fools will stop chasing you once they have me."
"I'll stay with the Chief," Sanji offered, his voice strained and his complexion pale. "I can't keep running on this leg anyway."
"I'll stay too," Jeia asserted.
"No," Lin tried to protest.
But Jeia interjected, "No time to argue, Chief." She stepped over into Lin's space, but her expression was soft as she leaned down and pressed a light kiss to the baby's forehead, smiling down at Lin's daughter as she quietly murmured, "You're a fighter, Little Jeia." She winked up at Lin before finishing, "It was a pleasure to meet you." Jeia then turned to Raizo and Tosuki. "You two be safe." Without another word, she half-jogged over to the now violently shifting pile of rubble and thrust out her arms to attempt holding it in place just a few seconds longer.
Sanji slowly went to help Jeia, wincing with every step, while Raizo hefted the unconscious Kaito into Tosuki's arms and asked, "You got him?"
"Yeah," Tosuki said, looking sorrowfully over at Sanji and Jeia as he grunted and heaved Kaito up onto his shoulders.
Raizo approached Lin, looking grimly at her and the baby, and Lin bit down on the inside of her cheek as she suppressed her instinctive reaction to jerk away from him. She felt even more protective of her littlest girl than usual, and it took nearly all of her willpower to find the strength to hand her baby over to someone else. The two of them hadn't even really had a chance to be together before they were being pulled apart. One second the baby had been safely ensconced within her womb, and then all of sudden she was being laid in Lin's shaky arms. Now, less than an hour later, Lin was already being forced to give the baby up. She wanted to hold the infant close and never let her go, at least not for a while, but she knew that wasn't an option. The only chance her baby girl had at surviving was if Lin handed her over to a stronger officer, someone that hadn't been severely wounded or just given birth.
Lin didn't know if she herself would make it out of the day alive, but she knew that her little girl must. She looked down at the infant's face one last time, memorizing it and hoping that it would bolster her own strength and allow her to get through the rest of whatever she had left to face. She placed a kiss on the baby's forehead just like Jeia had moments ago, and whispered softly, "Stay strong, kid." Then, locking gazes with Raizo, she handed her daughter over without further fuss.
"I'll take good care of her, Chief," Raizo promised sincerely, carefully accepting the tiny bundle. "I'll get her out of here, I swear it."
"I know you will," Lin replied. "Get yourself safely back to your own family too, would ya?"
Lin then nodded once to Tosuki, who hastily said, "It's been an honor to fight alongside you, Chief. We won't let you down."
"Thank you," Lin told him and Raizo both. "And good luck. Now go."
Raizo and Tosuki did not need to be told twice. They took off running down the hallway, each of them carefully carrying their fragile charges.
Lin watched them go, and waited until they were a safe distance away before repeating her earlier move. She began yanking down the ceiling directly in front of her, so that soon her baby, Raizo, Tosuki, and Kaito were no longer visible through the smog and the rubble. Lin and Jeia and Sanji were now enclosed between two piles of rubble, the triad group steadily breaking through one side.
After turning away from her second mess, Lin had little time to defend herself when the first pile finally blew through. Rocks and dust and shrapnel went flying through the air. Lin threw up her fists, crossing her arms into an X and using her bending to block the worst of it, but grit still got into her eyes and a few sharp pieces scraped across her face, cutting jagged lines into her skin. The rest pinged off of her armor, while a large chunk of rock hit her thigh and nearly collapsed her already shaky leg. She regained stability just as she saw the first form leaping through the open hole, and she didn't hesitate to lash out immediately with her metal cables to wrap around the criminal's waist.
Lin then yanked her arms hard to the right, and the figure was flung into the wall so hard that, when they slumped to the ground, they were already completely unconscious. Unfortunately, it wasn't Shira that Lin's cables snagged, but it did get one of the five attackers out of the way.
Two others came through as Lin was retracting her cables. Jeia and Sanji engaged with them, but they had both been closer to the blast and were not fully recovered yet. Sanji was close enough to throw a punch at the long-haired triad member nearest him, but he was half blinded and off balance from his leg wound. As a result, his aim was a centimeter off, and what would have likely been a knock out blow skimmed off of the other guy's cheek. The thug barely flinched, and kicked out his leg to sweep Sanji off of his feet. The criminal dropped to his knees over top of Sanji and punched the young officer in the face hard. By that time, Lin was able to react, and sent a stone hurtling at Sanji's attacker. The triad member was struck in the chest and flung backwards. However, he was not so easily taken down, and managed to scramble back to his feet before even Sanji could.
Sanji was only halfway up when his attacker lashed out with a water whip, and Sanji went flying...straight towards Lin.
There was no time to move very far, and Lin was struck on her right side, metal scraping metal as Sanji's body collided with her. The back of his head hit her chest plate, and when they both crashed into the floor, he slumped against her side and did not move. Lin's already pain wracked body seized up upon impact with the floor, and it took her several seconds to recover her breath.
Meanwhile, Jeia disposed of the second attacker that had come in with the long-haired waterbender shortly after Lin and Sanji were thrown to the floor. As the waterbender went stalking over to Lin and Sanji's prone forms, Jeia attacked from behind, swiping his legs out from under him with one metal cable. She attempted to bring the second cable down on top of him, but he rolled out of the way and simultaneously shot four ice shards back at Jeia. One shard went wide, another she managed to swipe away from her face just in time with her metal wrist guard, and then she ducked, bringing her arms up to shield her face. The third ice shard clinked off of her shoulder guard, but the fourth slipped past her defenses and struck her in the gap between her shoulder and chest armor.
Jeia dropped to one knee, but just as her attacker was leaping to his feet, she punched her fist and sent a large stone careening through the air. The waterbender dodged the oncoming attack, but Jeia had predicted that, and a second stone just below him shot up from the floor and hit him directly in the chin. The waterbender's head snapped back with a sickening crack, and then he dropped to the floor face first and did not move.
Focused as she was, Jeia did not notice Shira coming up behind her.
Lin noticed a second too late. She had just shifted Sanji off of her and begun sitting up, one hand pressed to her aching abdomen. She saw the waterbender flop down limply, blinked, and then watched in abject horror as Shira stepped up behind Jeia and plunged a dagger into the exposed part of her upper back just above her armor.
Jeia's mouth gaped in shock, eyebrows furrowing in pain, and Lin cried out a strained, desperate yelp of, "No!"
Lin surged to her feet, too numb from surprise and outrage to feel the stabbing pain or to register the way everything spun around her in a dizzying circle. She moved without thought, sprinting straight for Shira and belting out a ferocious roar as she went. Lin lunged just after Jeia dropped to the floor like a stone, and managed to take Shira off guard. Lin's shoulder connected with Shira's middle and they both went careening to the ground. Shira made an "oof" sound, and then began to laugh hysterically, completely unbothered by Lin's assault and finding a sick humor in the whole situation.
Lin hauled herself up, feeling half-nauseous and filled with so much agony – both physical and emotional – that she could hardly breath. She still hovered over Shira menacingly, face twisted into a spitting rage as she brought her fists down onto Shira's face twice.
That was all she managed before Shira stopped laughing and hurled Lin off of her. Lin clattered to the floor again, but scrambled back up at the same time Shira did. Lin was disappointed to see that the worst her punches had done was bloody Shira's nose, and she went at her criminal half-sister again with a thirst for vengeance.
Lin remembered to use her armor this time, shifting her wrist guards into a sharp point and jabbing at Shira, who dodged the first swing and blocked the second. Lin kicked with her left foot and caught Shira in the side of the knee. Shira's leg folded and she dropped halfway to the floor before she caught herself, but Lin's attack had actually given Shira the advantage. Before Lin could readjust her stance to compensate for the older woman's drop in height, Shira formed a fist made of hard stone and punched at her new line of sight, which happened to be Lin's stomach.
Lin's metal chest plate absorbed most of the impact, but the stone fist managed to dent her armor and struck her stomach anyway. Her already sensitive abdomen recoiled instantly, and Lin folded over with a strained whine. Shira extended her legs again and, as she came up, kneed Lin beneath the chin. Lin was lifted up slightly by the impact, her middle exposed once again, and though she knew what was likely to come, she was powerless to stop it. She flailed both arms, trying to swipe at Shira with one metal dagger and using her other arm to whip out a metal cable, but Shira still kicked Lin as hard as she could in the stomach. Lin's attacks missed, and the force of Shira's kick sent her flying back down onto the floor yet again. This time, the combined impacts were so much that she could not even attempt getting back up, her whole body shaking violently in agony as she curled up into a fetal position. She needed to get up, she wanted to get up, but her body was no longer cooperating. It seemed like it might have finally given up on her, but it didn't stop her from trying.
Lin's hands scrambled for purchase on the rubble strewn floor, gritting her teeth and straining every aching muscle in her body. She wriggled her legs and sunk her nails into the dirt, but before she could so much as sit up, Shira was striding over to her, boots crunching noisily through glass and rocks and shrapnel. And when the toes of Shira's boots were directly in Lin's line of sight, she felt a force tugging on her hair.
Lin grabbed onto the hand tangled in her hair as Shira yanked her up forcefully onto her knees. Lin struggled, jabbing her wrist blade at Shira's middle, but Shira managed to weave out of the way and grabbed Lin's wrist, deftly dismantling the mechanism there so that the metal guard clattered to the floor. Lin was surprised for a second too long, giving Shira the time to break off Lin's other wrist guard too. Lin was not entirely unarmed yet, but her cables were jammed and her mind was so untethered she could hardly focus enough to bend a pebble let alone fix the cables.
The blood loss and the exhaustion must have been getting to her because she didn't even bother desperately pelting anything at Shira. The older woman would have dodged or blocked it anyway. She was in far better shape at the moment than Lin. And although Lin was not one to simply give up, her body apparently was.
Shira pulled Lin's head back further so that she was forced to look up and meet her gaze. Shira was grinning, blood trickling down her mouth and chin. She held firmly to Lin's long hair as she began to speak. "Hello again, Sis. I was hoping to find you here today, and now here we are, reunited at last. I've got someone I'd like you to meet." Shira looked over her shoulder and called, "Come on in, Chen. The fighting's over."
There was the sound of shifting rubble, and then a thin man clambered through the gap in the makeshift wall Lin had created earlier. He looked shaky and pale as he cast his gaze rapidly over the scene laid out before him. Judging by the look of nausea and dismay on his face, Lin was beginning to suspect that Chen had not been the mastermind behind the attack on police headquarters as Shira might have suggested. He looked too weak and too timid to stomach all the violence that had gone on that day. She hadn't seen him fight at all either, evidenced by the fact that he had hidden while the most recent battle was taking place and only came out at Shira's command. It made Lin strangely hopeful. Perhaps this wasn't over yet. If Lin could get lucky and take down Shira, then Chen would probably run cowering in the other direction.
Except Lin's gaze fell on Sanji, unconscious and barely moving, and then Jeia, twitching slightly, dagger protruding from her back. Even if Lin got free, what could she do? She probably wouldn't even be able to drag herself to safety, let alone take Sanji and Jeia with her, and how could she leave them there? Although, she did have her family to think about. Her newborn girl and Ronen and Sora and Yunjin. She had four kids depending on her to make it out of there. Could she hold on until Tenzin and Saikhan arrived? Would Shira let her live that long?
"You know, I always wanted to test my skills against yours," Shira said to Lin as Chen came to stand next to her. Up close, Lin could see the sweat dripping from his temples. "I gotta say, I'm a little disappointed in how easy it was, but then, I guess we caught you at a bad time, didn't we? Was that a baby I saw you carrying?" Shira looked down at Lin's abdomen as if that would reveal the answer. Lin said nothing. She was too busy seething with rage and considering escape plans. "I suppose congratulations are in order, although I wish you hadn't sent the little one away. I would have like to meet it! Besides, don't you want it to be with its siblings?"
Lin froze, not liking the manic smile on Shira's face or the pointed question. She studied Shira for several long moments before she grew panicked and impatient and growled, "What did you do?"
"I just wanted to make sure your kiddos were safe," Shira said brightly. "You didn't heed my warning about the dangers coming, so I sent some people to make sure my niece and nephews were taken somewhere to be looked after. Don't worry, I'll take good care of them once I dispose of you. Maybe I'll even find the little one to reunite it with its siblings. Perhaps it'll come to call me Mommy."
Lin's strength returned to her in a surge of rage. She brought her arm up fast and jabbed the curved point of her armored elbow directly into Shira's stomach. Chen leapt backwards in fear, while Shira bowed over with a groan, releasing her hold on Lin's hair. Lin didn't trust her legs to lift her up in time, so she remained on her knees. She elbowed Shira again, this time across the face, and it flayed the skin along Shira's cheekbone. Lin then punched Shira's knee and upper thigh in rapid succession until Shira collapsed to the floor. Once they were on the same level, Lin was able to gain the upper hand, punching without pause until her knuckles were bloody and her arms aching. Shira managed to land a few of her own blows against Lin, but most of them hit armor or air.
Until Shira shouted out in aggravation and hurled a boulder at Lin from the side. Lin dropped, pressing her back flat to the floor and avoiding the blow. She grabbed a rock off of the floor and morphed it into a point before throwing it at Shira. The makeshift dagger struck its target in the stomach, but Shira was hardly deterred. She crawled forward hastily, straddling Lin's hips, and, before Lin could react, wrapping her hands tight around Lin's throat.
With her airway suddenly closed off, Lin reached up desperately, clawing at Shira's face and forgetting for a moment all of the training she'd had to get out of such a situation.
After a few long moments without breath, Shira stopped choking Lin long enough to grab both of Lin's wrists and hold them down onto the floor in a strong grip. Lin flailed, but all of the adrenaline had left her as fast as it had come, and she didn't even manage to lift her back a millimeter off of the floor. There were spots dancing before her eyes and she blinked lazily, gasping for air and wincing with every breath. She knew one thing for certain: she wouldn't be doing that again.
Shira chuckled and then dissolved into a hacking fit, recovering a few seconds later to exclaim, "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"
"You, bitch," Lin spat in a gravely voice, her throat sore. "What did you do to my kids? I'll kill you. Do you hear me, I'll –"
"Linny, Linny, Linny," Shira sighed. "Listen, they're just fine. As long as they cooperated they'll be safe."
If Lin knew anything about her kids it was that they were anything but cooperative, and she resolved to get out of Shira's clutches purely so that she could rip apart any vile, pathetic thugs that had even attempted to harm her children. Including Shira.
"You better hope they are," Lin growled. "You better hope they –"
"Spirits," a male voice interjected shrilly. Lin and Shira both turned to see Chen pulling stressfully at his hair and looking horrified. "You went after kids? Dammit, Shira! I told you I didn't want them brought into this. I told you. I – I mean this whole...fiasco is just…this isn't what we were supposed to do!"
"Chen!" Shira snapped. "You're spiraling out here, and why? We're winning! We did this! Relax, would you?"
"You call this winning?" Chen scoffed. "What have we won here?"
"Everything," Shira replied emphatically.
Chen looked away from Shira, turning a pleading gaze onto Lin as he demanded of her, "Why did you kill my father? That's all I wanted to know! I just wanted to know why. Why did you take him away from us? I know he was in a triad and I know I don't know everything he might have done, but…but I just don't understand."
Lin could barely see him with how dizzy she was in that moment, but she gave him a piteous look anyway, shaking her head slowly as she told him truthfully, "Your father was a murderer, kid. He killed countless police and civilians during his reign, and before I killed him, he had kidnapped and tortured me for over a day. He was trying to kill me. I'm sorry your father was a monster, but I'm not sorry I stopped him from killing anyone else."
Chen shook his head, looking devastated. "No, he…he couldn't have…he wouldn't…you're lying…" He looked desperately at Shira. "Is she telling the truth? Is she?"
Shira rolled her eyes. "Listen, Chen, you need to get over your daddy issues. We've got bigger goals here, and who cares if she's right or wrong? You've got your revenge! If you would just come over here I might even let you help me finish her! We've won."
Now Lin laughed, half hysteric, feeling a bit like she was losing her mind. "You think you've won? Really? Where do you think you go from here? You kill me, and then what? You think my husband just lets you stroll out of here? You think the triads just, what? Take over the city? Even if you managed to take down every single one of my officers, the United Forces will come in here and obliterate every last one of you. Did you even think this through?"
"I've thought of everything," Shira postulated. "All those back up plans you had? I had a backup plan of my own for each of yours. Cause you see, Lin, we're more alike than you think. I didn't realize it at first either. Couple of months ago, I couldn't figure out why you would have those kids, not after what I saw of you when we were young. But I get it now. It's because you're like me."
"I'm nothing like you," Lin refuted.
"Except you are," Shira persisted. "See, our father was weak, and we both learned from him how to be strong. We learned to fight back, to take what we want, to climb to the top no matter what the cost. We would never be as pathetic as him. And now we've both succeeded. We stepped on anyone who got in our way and we deceived those who we could use to our advantage. You took this police force as your own while I took the triads. I used countless men and women to insert myself into the hierarchy. You married the son of the Avatar and the last Airbender left on Earth and had those kids because it benefited you."
Lin shook her head and immediately regretted it, but still opened her mouth to mutter, "You're insane."
"Only as insane as you." Shira let go of Lin's wrists at long last, and placed her hands back around Lin's throat. Lin tried to squirm away again, but her body truly had given up on her now. She could hardly move her arms let alone anything else. Shira's hold began to tighten slowly as she spoke, "It's only logical that our paths would have crossed at some point, Lin. There's only room for one at the top, and one of us has to go. I've won, Sis. It's over."
Lin's airway was choked off again, and her mouth gaped in a desperate bid for air, her weak hands clawing at Shira's hands. It made no difference, of course, and she felt her lungs constricting and burning in her chest. Most of her surroundings were a blur, so that all she could really see was Shira's form above her. And for one jolting second, Lin could no longer see Shira there scowling down at her, but Suyin instead.
Lin blinked and the hallucination was gone, but even while being strangled, the feeling still stuck with her. Because, in theory, it could have been Su there instead of Shira, in another life. It was something Lin had often wondered about. She had been so furious about Su getting off without punishment for what she had done that day when she'd scarred Lin's face, but what would have happened if Toph hadn't torn up that police report? What would have happened if Su had not been forced to leave Republic City and its bad influences? Surely she might never have met Bataar and built Zaofu or had a family. It was very possibly that Lin's younger half sister could have been exactly like Shira. If Su had remained a lifelong criminal since she was a teen, with a general dislike for Lin and the police as a whole, she could have risen in the ranks of the triads and the two sisters would have faced off at some time down the road. It was startling for Lin to think that it could have been Su hovering over her, that if Su had been evil enough and influenced enough she could have been the one setting police headquarters ablaze. But what was even more startling was the epiphany that perhaps what Toph had done had actually been the only thing she could have done. Perhaps Toph tearing up that arrest report and sending Su to Gaoling really had been the best thing to do. Had Toph known all of that back then? Had she known what her youngest daughter's future could become if she stayed? Had Toph sacrificed Lin's piece of mind in that one moment of her life to spare both sisters further suffering down the road? Or had it all simply worked out for the best? It figured, of course, that Lin would suddenly accept the choice her mother had made over twenty years after the fact and while she was probably about to die.
Except Lin was apparently not out of luck just yet, because a shadow welled up behind Shira, and that shadow was not a hallucination, but Jeia. Shira was too laser focused on strangling Lin, and Chen was shaking his head and backing away in distress despite his supposed thirst for vengeance. Jeia had nothing in her way to stop her as she raised a dagger in the air and plunged it into the side of Shira's neck. Warm blood sprayed across Lin's face and the tight grip around her throat immediately loosened. Lin heaved in several desperate lungfuls of air as Shira clutched at her own neck in horror and surprise.
Shira leapt to her feet and staggered away, a horrible gurgling sound in the back of her throat as she fought for breath. She collapsed to the floor a few meters away, still wheezing, still gushing blood. Lin grimaced at the sight and looked away, turning her gaze onto Jeia instead.
Jeia did not look much better, all three of her puncture wounds seeping blood. She wobbled unsteadily and dropped to her knees with a loud clang. Lin forced herself to sit up halfway despite the excruciating pain of it, just in time to catch Jeia as she fell the rest of the way to the floor. Lin cradled Jeia in her arms, like she'd cradled her newborn not so long ago. Jeia's eyelids fluttered rapidly, her face deathly pale and her breathing ragged.
"Hang on, kid," Lin urged, her voice a hoarse whisper, vocal cords straining to work after being choked out. "Help is on the way. You just –" Lin coughed twice, " – you just hang on."
Jeia tried to crack a shaky smile, as if they weren't both sitting there bleeding out. Her voice was a tremulous murmur, nearly incomprehensible as she said, "Th-th-thanks, Chief. F-for everything."
Lin shook her head, fighting back the moisture that welled up in her eyes. "No, Lieutenant Jeia. Thank you. It's been an honor to have you on my team. Now, you just conserve your breath, all right? Help will be here soon. I'm gettin' you out of this."
"Thank you, Lin," Jeia sighed, at peace, her heartbeat waning with every breath, and Lin wanted to scream in protest despite how useless it would be. It wouldn't save Jeia. Nothing could, and Lin could not feel anything but helpless anguish. "T-tell m…my wife, I…I…"
"I will," Lin promised instantly. "I will. I swear."
Lin could feel her own body going limp too now, and she managed to erect a small stone from the ground to slump back against, still holding Jeia to her, still silently pleading for help to arrive just in time. She knew that, even once it did, it would likely be too late for Jeia, but she clung to the hope anyway. For once, she held onto hope, because Jeia couldn't go, not now, not ever.
Whatever happened next, Lin would not know for sometime to come, because her own wounds caught up to her a second later. She didn't know if it was her eyes or Jeia's that closed first.
Sneaking out of the tunnel and up through three floors of a building under siege was taking much longer than Tenzin could bear. They were on radio silence to avoid detection and he probably wouldn't have heard from Lin anyway. Whatever had happened on the fourth floor had caused them to abandon the radio and he doubted they'd have time to get to another one. His pulse was pounding in his ears at a rapid rate just thinking about what might become of his wife and their newborn. He still couldn't believe that Lin had given birth already, that he had missed it. He had never missed the birth of one of their children, not until now. And now they were both in serious danger and he wasn't certain that he would make it to them in time. How could he ever forgive himself if he failed them?
Saikhan and Tenzin's team managed to sneak all the way to the third floor before they were alerted to a scuffle nearby. Hopeful that it was Lin and her group, Tenzin raced ahead of the others and straight into the small fight taking place.
Tenzin had come out just behind the three triad thugs that were giving two metalbending officers grief. Tenzin didn't see Lin down the corridor, but she could have been hidden somewhere nearby. He disposed of the three criminals easily, having taken them by surprise, and then sprinted down to the two relieved officers.
As Tenzin drew closer he noticed another officer unconscious and heavily bandaged curled up on the floor against one wall. And there was a blanket tied around the chest of the older of the two standing officers.
"Where's Lin?" Tenzin gasped out first, recognizing Raizo as the older officer next.
"Upstairs still," Raizo admitted grimly. "We ran into Chen and Shira and a couple others. We weren't gonna be able to outrun them, so Lin and Jeia and Sanji stayed behind to hold them off. She ordered us to get Kaito and the baby to a doctor."
Raizo touched the bundle against his chest then, and Tenzin's eyes widened with realization. His baby was there, strapped to Raizo's chest in the blanket. His daughter.
Tenzin stammered, "That's…that's my…?"
Raizo stepped closer to Tenzin, unraveling the blanket as he did so and nodding. "Yes, this is your daughter, Councilman," Raizo said, while carefully holding the infant out to him.
Despite the desperate desire to do so, Tenzin did not take the baby into his arms just yet. He did look down at her face and stroked her soft cheek, in breathless awe as he whispered, "She's beautiful." She was perfect, and so tiny, and she was going to look just like her mother, he knew it. Tenzin allowed his heart to swell with affection before he returned his gaze to Raizo. "Can you get her to the hospital?"
Raizo hesitated, but eventually nodded in understanding. "Yes," he agreed. "I'll get her there."
"Thank you," Tenzin gushed. "Thank you so much." He forced himself to turn away from the baby, eyes landing on Saikhan next. "Get them safely to the hospital and give the signal to begin the assault. I'll go upstairs to help Lin and the others and hopefully smuggle them out in the chaos." Tenzin wasn't in charge, but Saikhan wouldn't turn down a logical plan.
"You can't go on your own," Saikhan began to protest.
"I'll go with him," the younger officer with Raizo hastily volunteered.
"Tosuki," Raizo started to argue, frown curling his lips downward.
"Sorry, Sergeant," Tosuki said, "but I won't leave them behind." Tosuki looked to Tenzin. "You're going to need help if the three of them are injured."
"I appreciate it," Tenzin said sincerely.
A few minutes later, Tenzin was saying a tearful goodbye to the little girl he'd only just met, quietly promising her that he would bring her mother back. Saikhan had the healer they'd brought along check on Kaito and the baby before they all parted ways to stabilize them both. The healer hadn't been entirely positive about the baby's health, and it made Tenzin's heart ache to think that she might be unwell. He resolved to return to her as fast as possible, but first he needed to find his wife.
It wasn't difficult getting to the fourth floor, and Tosuki was able to point Tenzin in the right direction to where he had last seen Lin and the others. They came upon a collapsed section of the ceiling, just as Tosuki had said they would, and Tenzin clambered through the rubble in haste.
What he found was not any less heart wrenching than he imagined. There were three unconscious bodies dressed in plain clothes that must have been some of the triad members spread out across the space. Directly in front of Tenzin when he stepped through the gap of stone and metal was Shira, Lin's older half-sister and one of the top leaders of the Triple Threat Triad. Shira was clearly no longer among the living, her eyes wide and unseeing, her mouth still frozen agape, and a dagger protruding from her neck, with a large pool of blood beneath her head. Tenzin swallowed forcefully at the disturbing sight, and carefully stepped around the blood. Tenzin did not spot Chen among the wreckage, but he wasn't certain that he knew the man's face well enough to anyway.
Tosuki raced over to a prone male form that Tenzin assumed to be Sanji, and then Tenzin's gaze finally landed on the body he sought.
Lin was slumped halfway to the floor, a rock holding her back up slightly, and her arms wrapped loosely around Lieutenant Jeia. Both of them were at least unconscious, but also sickeningly pale and surrounded by so much blood that Tenzin feared he was too late. He raced over to the two of them, placing his fingers on both of their necks to check for pulses. He let out a short sob of relief when he felt Lin's blood still thumping in her veins. It was faint, but it was still there.
Jeia, on the other hand…he could feel nothing, and he lowered his head and closed his eyes for a moment, sorrow filling his being. Jeia had been so young still, had been a kind, noble woman as long as Tenzin had known her, and he knew how much she had meant to Lin. Losing her protégé would be a devastating blow for Lin.
That is, if Tenzin could get her to safety before he lost her too.
Tosuki was able to create a makeshift stretcher from stone for Jeia and Sanji – who so far was also still alive – which Tosuki then floated in front of him while Tenzin carried Lin. The two men beat a hasty retreat, and made it all the way to the second level before the police began their assault against the triads. The ensuing battle was loud and chaotic, and Tenzin and Tosuki managed to slip back out of the building with little to no interference. The struggle came in trying to go around the battle to get their charges safely to the hospital, and it took longer than Tenzin would have liked.
By the time they finally reached the hospital, Tenzin's legs were shaking with a mixture of fear and exhaustion. He handed his wife over to a team of healers and doctors, and she was immediately whisked away. He desperately chased after them at first, demanding to know if she was still breathing, if she would survive, but there was little they could tell him so soon.
Sanji and Jeia were also taken away, and then it was just Tenzin and Tosuki. They stood in a state of shock for a few long moments before deciding to go in search of Raizo and the others, to ensure that they had made it safely to the hospital themselves.
They found Raizo in the neonatal unit, guarding Tenzin and Lin's newborn as the doctor's examined her. When Sergeant Raizo saw Tenzin and Tosuki, both of them looking worn and covered in blood that was not their own, he briefly embraced them both with some trepidation and relief. Tenzin told Raizo that Lin and Sanji were with the doctors. And when Tenzin told the Sergeant that Jeia had not made it, he squeezed Raizo's slumped shoulder in some small effort of comfort for the man's grief.
According to Raizo, Kaito was in with the doctors as well and it would probably be a while before they heard anything. Saikhan and the others had stayed at the front lines to help with the assault once certain that Raizo and one other officer could get Kaito and the baby the rest of the way to the hospital. Tenzin could see that both Raizo and Tosuki yearned to join their fellow officers, but had been given orders by Saikhan to stay put after being trapped in headquarters for so long.
Eventually, Raizo and Tosuki went to wait for news of Kaito and Sanji, and Tenzin went to be at his daughter's side. The doctors told him that she would need help breathing for a little while, that her lungs had not fully developed and she was struggling to do so on her own. Tenzin's heart clenched at the mere thought of his little girl fighting for breath, and she looked so tiny and fragile laid out on the infant sized hospital bed. It physically hurt him to see them put a tube inside of her, even though he knew it was necessary for her to breathe. His first three children had been blessedly healthy, and it had been rare to ever see them in such a position. Seeing his littlest suffering so, and knowing that her mother suffered too in a different room somewhere else in the building, was some of the most agonizing pain he'd ever felt. He wept over her for several minutes after the doctor's left them, promising to never leave her, to make up for missing her birth, to make sure she had the best healers so that she would get better as fast as possible.
A short while into his vigil by his daughter's bedside, Tenzin requested that one of the nurses find Sergeant Raizo for him. The nurse was kind enough to oblige, and eventually, Raizo returned to the neonatal unit with Tosuki in tow. Tenzin hated to ask more of Raizo, after all that the man had already done for his family, but he needed to contact several people to make sure his other three children were okay and to call in help from his family. Raizo was more than happy to oblige, and he and Tosuki set up camp at the newborn's bedside until Tenzin could return.
Tenzin went first in search of news from police headquarters. So far it seemed that the police had gained the upper hand, and several of the triad members were either captured or had fled. Next, Tenzin contacted Air Temple Island, and was informed by one of the Acolytes that Nira and the children had indeed escaped on a sky bison, but that some of Suyin's metal clan guards had witnessed a scuffle beforehand. The guards Su had insisted on leaving behind claimed to have been too far away to help the children and Nira when the fight broke out, but that they had been able to capture the two Acolyte imposters after the fact. As far as Su's guards were aware, the kids and Nira had not been grievously wounded, if at all. It still sent Tenzin into a panic.
Trying to remain calm, Tenzin asked Su's guards to remain with the two prisoners at all times, and had one of them contact Su in Zaofu to give her a message from him. He also had the same guard contact his mother in the South Pole to request that she return to the city for a little while. If his newborn needed healing then he wanted his mother there to do it.
Afterwards, Tenzin contacted City Hall to get a situation report from his secretary, Jun. Then, finally, he went in search of Lin, hoping that enough time had passed for one of the doctors or healers to have some new information for him.
Chapter 40: Chapter 40
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 40
It was nearly dinner time before Su heard anything from Republic City, and she had spent the last hour pacing restlessly and fighting an internal battle with herself on what her next steps should be.
On the one hand, she did not want to leave Zaofu for fear that someone would come after her niece and nephews again. Besides the fact that they were her family and helpless children, Su was also feeling a pressing responsibility to protect the last remaining hope for the Airbending race. She knew that Zaofu was secure and nearly impenetrable with the domes closed, but if someone tried hard enough, her sister's kids and her own kids could be injured anyway. She didn't have enough of the facts to know one way or another just how much danger the kids were in, or if they were no longer in harms way so far from the city. She didn't want to risk the children just so she could go to Republic City and see for herself what was going on. Then again, if the children were in no further danger and it was her sister and brother-in-law that really needed the help, then how could she stay behind and do nothing?
The kids were restless too, she could see that plainly. Sora had hardly stopped crying, Ronen was demanding answers every thirty minutes, and Yunjin was finally starting to catch on to the severity of the situation. Su wished that she had reassurances for them, but all she knew was what little Nira had told her and that was hardly anything to go by.
The overall mood was such that Su's kids were beginning to show signs of gloom too. Opal was extremely worried about her aunt and uncle, and almost became as persistent as Ronen with all the questions she asked. Wei and Wing had stopped running around for once, sitting placidly with their cousins and watching their mother with some concern. Kuvira and Bataar Jr kept on suggesting they go into the city to check for themselves what was going on, which Su had adamantly forbade.
Su, Bataar, and Nira were unable to communicate much between each other or with Su's radio communications staff, because the younger kids wouldn't let them leave the room. The three adults were forced to have rushed, whispered conversations on the few occasions when one of the kids wasn't attached to them.
Until, finally, one of Su's guards came rushing into the room with news at long last.
"There's a message for you, Madam," the guard told Su, "from Republic City."
Su promised the kids that she would return as quick as possible and then raced off before they could protest. She went sliding into her communications tower a few minutes later and answered the long distance radio transmission she was receiving.
One of her metal clan guards that she had left behind in Republic City was on the other end of the line. It was Ozu, who reported to being on Air Temple Island, and gave Su a brief rundown of the fight she'd seen transpire from afar when two people had tried to snatch Lin and Tenzin's kids earlier in the day. Ozu assured Su that the would be kidnappers were in custody on the Island and being watched closely by Su's other guards. Ozu then revealed to Su the main reason for the call, which was to give Su a message from Tenzin.
"He says that the fighting is dying down now," Ozu told Su. "The police are regaining control of headquarters and many of the triad usurpers are fleeing or being arrested. The building took a lot of hits and won't be habitable for a while yet, but there were very few casualties on either side. Shira is dead and the Triple Threats leader is in custody, but Chen hasn't been spotted so far. They think he must have escaped in the commotion."
"And my sister?" Su pressed impatiently.
There was a pause, and then Ozu replied, "Chief Beifong was trapped in headquarters until the end with a few other officers. Nearly all of them are now in the hospital in various surgeries, including the Chief. Councilman Tenzin said that he would explain to you her injuries when you return to the city, that he didn't have much information so far besides that she is still breathing."
Su felt as if she'd been punched in the stomach, and she was breathless as she asked, "And the baby? Did he say anything about the baby?"
"No, Ma'am," Ozu admitted. "He didn't mention it."
Su sunk into the chair just behind her legs, her heart aching for her sister and Tenzin. She didn't know if the worst had happened, how bad off Lin was, or what her sister and brother-in-law had even gone through in the last several hours, but she was imagining the worst.
"He did say that you could return the children whenever you felt was prudent," Ozu added, breaking through Su's tumultuous thoughts. "He doesn't think the triads will try anything else now that they're on the run, and he would like to have his kids close by. He asked me to contact his mother too, so she'll be here to help care for them."
Su wasn't particularly comforted by that news either. If Tenzin had called in his mother then he must have been truly worried about Lin or the baby or both. And if he wanted the kids close rather than safely hidden in Zaofu, then he must have been longing for comfort, which was understandable under the circumstances. If Lin was unconscious and the baby was unwell or gone…it only made sense that Tenzin would want to hold his children close.
Su and Ozu exchanged a few more words, until Su was certain she had gained all of the answers that she could from the metal clan guard and said her goodbyes. Then Su allowed herself a few moments to crumple, her shoulders slumping as she rubbed wearily at her face and fought back the few tears forming in the creases of her eyes. But she only let it go on for a few moments before straightening up and pulling herself together.
She was slow in returning to her family, and when she re-entered the sitting room where they waited for her, all six of the youngest kids ran to her. Sora and Wei wanted held, while Ronen and Opal wanted answers. Bataar and Nira joined her, helping her settle the kids so that she could speak.
"I just heard from your father," Su told her niece and nephews with a forced smile. They didn't need to know that she hadn't spoken to him directly. "He is perfectly fine and with your mother now."
"Is Mom okay?" Ronen immediately questioned. "And the baby?"
"I'm afraid your father was in a bit of a hurry so I still don't know exactly what's going on," Su admitted, "but he wanted me to tell you not to worry. The doctors are looking after your mother and the baby so I'm sure they're getting the best care."
"Why is Mama with the doctors?" Yunjin demanded. "Is she sick again? Is it cause of the baby?"
"She's not sick," Ronen muttered, looking sullen. "She's hurt."
"Mama is hurt?" Sora exclaimed with a look of horror.
"It's okay, my sweet!" Su rushed to assure Sora, even though she didn't actually know what state Lin was in. She pulled Sora to her and stroked the girl's hair. "Your Mama will be just fine. Don't you worry. Your Daddy said that your Gran-Gran will be going to the city to check on your Mama and she's the greatest healer in the world!"
"When can we go home?" Yunjin whined.
"I want to see Mom," Ronen added.
"Soon, sweethearts," Su replied, "I promise. Your Dad said I can bring you back so we'll leave first thing in the morning, all right?"
"Why not now?" Sora pouted.
"It's getting late," Su reasoned. "It'll be bedtime by the time we reach the city so your Mom and Dad will be asleep anyway, right?" Although, Su doubted Tenzin would be sleeping that night and Lin…well she didn't know about Lin. She was hoping that by the time she got the kids home the following afternoon that there would be some good news in store for them. She almost considered waiting longer to take the kids back until she knew one way or another about Lin and the baby. It didn't seem right that she take them back so soon if their world was about to be shattered, but then again, if the worst were to happen, they should be with their father.
The children eventually agreed, but Su could tell that they weren't happy about it, and she couldn't blame them. She didn't want to wait either.
Getting the children to bed that night was an ordeal. None of them wanted to sleep despite how exhausted they clearly were. Sora wanted to sleep in Su and Bataar's bed, but ultimately conceded to sleeping in the same room with both her brothers and her cousins Opal, Wei, and Wing. All of the kids piled together on a mountain of pillows and blankets, and Bataar Jr offered to stay with them so that the adults could finally get some rest without so much worry.
Except Su spent the following hour discussing what Ozu had told her with Nira and Bataar and deciding on a game plan for the following morning. And even once she was in bed with her husband, Su could not get comfortable enough to sleep. She drifted off a few times, but her mind kept forcing her awake, reminding her of all of her worries, causing her to tense up and stop breathing for long seconds. Her brain was conjuring up imagined scenarios that could have taken place, filling in the gaps in Tenzin's stories, causing her to assume the worst. It was torturous, but probably nothing compared to what her sister had gone through. When she woke before dawn to the sound of Sora's quiet footsteps, she was not at all rested and suffering the drowsy consequences.
Nevertheless, Su powered through breakfast and getting the children prepared to leave before corralling them back onto the sky bison that Nira had brought them on. Bataar stayed behind with he and Su's kids, with Zaofu still on alert for potential danger, just in case. Su did decide to bring Opal along with her, because the girl was a calming presence for her cousins and because she was very insistent on finding out how her aunt and uncle were. Wei and Wing were not thrilled to be left behind, but Su couldn't justify taking them. It would be too much work to look after so many kids when the city was in such a state and her sister's fate was unknown.
A few hours later, the sky bison landed safely on Air Temple Island, and the children – having fallen asleep at some point during the flight – began to rouse. Some of Su's metal clan guards and several acolytes approached the sky bison and its passengers shortly after it touched down. The children and Nira were greeted by the acolytes with exclamations of relief and tearful embraces. Su's guards approached her with serious faces and expressing guilt over not having protected her niece and nephews better. Su waved off their apologies, simply relieved that they had captured the would-be kidnappers so that she could exchange words with the two despicable men herself.
According to the acolytes and guards, there still hadn't been word from Tenzin since the previous evening, but Katara had arrived sometime before dawn and went into the city to be with him. The acolytes also received some news from Republic City. Police headquarters had been reclaimed and one fleet from the United Forces was on its way to help with rebuilding efforts. Saikhan was working tirelessly in the absence of Lin and Lieutenant Jeia. The acolytes had heard rumors that Jeia had been killed in the fight for headquarters, but nothing had been confirmed yet. Until the dead were identified and their families informed there was a tight lock down on information.
Su figured that if Jeia was gone, then Tenzin would know, and purposefully wouldn't have told anyone until he had a chance to tell his children himself. Su remembered meeting Jeia once or twice, and while the two women hadn't spoken much, Su had seen that her niece and nephews very much admired the Lieutenant, and Lin certainly cared a great deal for the young woman. It would be a devastating blow for the family if the rumors of Jeia were true.
Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin were eager to go and see their parents and their Gran-Gran, but Su was hesitant to simply show up at the hospital without prior warning. Tenzin had said she could bring the children back to the city, but he hadn't said whether or not he wanted them at the hospital just yet. So Su insisted that the kids go with Nira to get a bath and a bite for lunch while she called ahead to the hospital.
It took a while for Su to get through, and even longer to wait for someone to go and find Tenzin, but eventually, she finally heard her brother-in-law's voice coming through the receiver for the first time since the whole ordeal had begun.
She could hear how exhausted and forlorn he sounded, even through the phone lines, as he answered, "Councilman Tenzin speaking."
"Tenzin," Su breathed out in relief. "It's Su. I'm so glad to finally hear your voice. The children and I just arrived on the Island, with Nira."
"Su!" Tenzin exclaimed with relief of his own. "How are the children? Are they okay? I heard about the kidnapping attempt."
"They're doing just fine," Su assured him. "Just a little shaken up, and worried about their parents, but no injuries sustained. They made it to Zaofu okay and no other problems since then. But Tenzin…how is Lin? I've heard almost nothing since this whole thing started and I'm beginning to panic a bit here."
"I'm sorry," Tenzin murmured sincerely, "I did not mean to worry you, but I really had so little information myself. I only recently pieced together what happened inside headquarters and she was unconscious when I found her… She's still unconscious, but the doctors say that she's stabilized now. It was a long night. She…she lost a lot of blood."
"The baby?" Su half-whispered, expecting the blood loss to have been due to some kind of miscarriage. After fighting for her life in headquarters, and considering that Lin's pregnancy was already high-risk, it seemed only logical that the baby would not have been able to endure the stress.
There was a strangled sort of laugh that came through the receiver, half amazement, half joy, and Suyin was terribly confused until Tenzin explained, "The baby was born yesterday, in the midst of all this. It's a little girl and she's…well, she's small and she needs help breathing right now, but she's strong. Mother says she's strong and I know she'll make it. She's a miracle, truly."
Su gave out a tearful laugh herself, clamping a hand over her mouth in an instinctive show of surprise. She breathed out, "Oh, Tenzin, that's such wonderful news. I can't believe it. With everything I've been hearing, I…well I feared the worst!"
"So did I," Tenzin admitted. "From what I've been told from the other officers that were trapped in headquarters, Lin went into labor shortly after the initial attack. The triads set off an explosion in the entrance hall and blockaded the streets. They started sending in teams to attack the officers inside, but most of them managed to escape through the tunnels your mother had built as a precaution years ago. Lin and five other officers were blocked from getting to the tunnels and hid away in an interrogation room on the fourth floor for a while. Lin gave birth there, with the help of one of her officers, Sergeant Raizo."
"Wow," Su gasped. "She gave birth in there? That's insane! How did she and the baby get out?"
"Saikhan and I were leading an extraction team into the building, while the rest of the officers outside began to get into position for a counter strike. Unfortunately, it was around that time that Shira and Chen and three other criminals found Lin and the others. They began to flee, but most of them were too badly wounded to run. Lin gave the baby to Raizo and had him and Officer Tosuki run ahead with the baby and another injured officer. Lin stayed behind with Lieutenant Jeia and Officer Sanji. Whatever happened there, we have no idea. Lin and Sanji are both still unconscious and Jeia…"
There was a long pause, during which Tenzin sighed heavily, and Su knew what was coming even before he quietly confirmed, "We lost Jeia."
Su felt her stomach drop, sickened and dismayed even if she hadn't truly known Jeia all that well herself. It was still a tragedy, and Su's sister and her family would suffer for it. Not to mention whatever family the young Lieutenant may have had. "I'm so sorry to hear that, Tenzin," Su murmured.
"The children will be devastated," Tenzin said. "And Lin. I…I don't know how to break it to them."
"You won't have to do it alone," Su assured him. "I'll help in anyway I can."
"Thank you, Su. For everything. Without you and Nira I, I don't know what I would have done."
"We're family, Tenzin," Su pointed out. "You would have done the same for my kids. No need to thank me. Now…how bad is Lin? You said she lost a lot of blood, but not how. She's going to recover, right?"
"The doctors are optimistic," Tenzin said hopefully, but his voice sounded strained. "Something happened when she went into premature labor and she never stopped bleeding. In the time it took for us to find her and get her to a hospital, she had already lost so much, and they still couldn't get it to stop once she was here. They had to do an emergency supracervical hysterectomy to remove the uterus and stop the bleeding. She's still being monitored closely, but her blood has been restored and the operation went fairly well. My mother has seen her and the baby both and she seems to think they'll pull through."
Su finally breathed in a deep breath of air after being short of breath for the last twenty-four hours. "Then they will," she said with conviction. If Katara believed it, then so would Su. "I want to see them, and so do the kids. They haven't been able to truly relax without seeing that you and Lin are all right. I don't know how much longer I can placate them."
"You can bring them here," Tenzin decided after a moment of thought. "If they see me, that will reassure them some, and I'll take them to meet their new baby sister. I would rather wait until Lin wakes, though, before they see her. They may be a bit upset by the sight of her right now."
So that was what Suyin did. After getting off of the phone with Tenzin, she went to find Nira and the kids. She found them having a subdued lunch and decided to wait in the doorway until they were finished. Partially because she knew the kids would never finish eating if they knew they could go and see their father now, and partially to avoid having to eat lunch herself.
When Su finally told the kids that they would get to see their father, they were expectantly overjoyed. They went straight to the sky bison with Opal without fuss. Su didn't tell them about their baby sister yet. She knew that Tenzin would enjoy telling them.
As they flew into the city, the children were blessedly distracted, but Su didn't miss the small plume of smoke still floating up from the building where her sister had been trapped the day before. Police headquarters was crumpling in the middle, scorch marks across it's face and most of the windows shattered along either side. There were two gaping holes in the roof and two more down the front, from which a few embers still flickered with weak flames. Several teams of police and rescue personnel were still gathered around the building carrying out various rushed tasks.
It took a lot of Su's strength not to make a distressed sound in the back of her throat, which would certainly alert the children. She simply couldn't stop imagining her sister in there, heavily pregnant, facing off against ruthless criminals. Going into labor while explosions rocked the building, having to give birth in the middle of a war zone without her husband or even a proper healer. Of her nearly bleeding out after having to hand her baby over to someone else. Of her protégé dying and some long lost half-sister probably trying to kill her.
Su could hardly believe it was reality, and she just wanted to do anything she possibly could to help her sister and her family through this whole thing. It was ironic to think that, once upon a time, Lin and Su had been at odds, both of them too stubborn and self-righteous to admit fault on their own part to ever be as considerate of one another as they were now. They had been torn apart by circumstance and misunderstandings, by both of them being too strong-willed and unmoving. Lin had felt forced to parent Su and Su hadn't wanted to be parented. They were both allowed too much freedom and not enough structure, and so they'd tried to figure it out themselves and done it all wrong.
Su had long ago reconciled with herself over her own actions in the city on that fateful day when Lin had tried to arrest her for aiding the triads, but Su still regretted what she had done to her older sister. She hadn't intended to strike Lin across the face, but the scars would remain there forever, always a reminder to both of them, a reminder of all the pain they had caused one another. And for what? They were close once, Su could remember that much, but they were faint memories, and tainted slightly by the two of them vying for Toph's affections. Su loved Toph, and she still missed her everyday, but she knew also that her mother had not been perfect and there had been a lot of issues with their family structure. Issues that Su now tried to amend with her own family, by loving them with her whole heart and making sure they knew it, by dividing her attention between all five kids as equally as possible so that they always felt loved exactly the same. She provided them with boundaries and structure, but enough freedom to express themselves and be whoever they wanted to be. They would never feel compelled as Lin had to follow strictly in their mother's footsteps, or be given so much lax that they end up driving a getaway car for a bunch of thieves.
Su also wanted to make up for her troubled childhood with Lin, by being a better sister than she ever had been. Even though the two of them had been at odds for half of their lives and lost a decade of being estranged, Su still loved Lin just the same as when she'd been little and in awe of her big sister. Su may not have done it right in the beginning, but she would now. They would be the close sisters they were meant to be.
But first, Lin had to recover from the ordeal she'd just been through, and Su had no doubts that she would. If there was one thing Su knew about her big sister, it was that she was too stubborn to give up.
Upon arriving at the hospital, the kids' glee at seeing their father had become a bit more subdued. Hospitals had that affect on everyone, and it took quite a lot of effort for Su and Nira to force some cheer into their voices. Su and Opal held Sora's hands as they all began the trek into the hospital together. Yunjin latched onto Nira, and Su settled her free hand onto Ronen's shoulder.
Su spoke to the nurse at the front desk, and then the six of them stood off to the side to wait for Tenzin to be called down to the front.
The kids were antsy by the time he arrived, but when they saw him, their faces lit up and all three of them went running to him in tearful joy. Tenzin immediately dropped to his knees in the middle of the hall to better engulf all three of them in his arms. Su and Nira watched the display with affection and some sorrow over what the family had had to endure. Su noticed that Tenzin looked as though he must have bathed and changed recently, because his robes were not rumpled and creased as they should have been for someone who had spent the entire night in the hospital. Su figured he must have been a sight, after having been in headquarters and carrying a bloody and battered Lin back out. It wouldn't have been good for the kids to see him in that state, and truthfully, Su was grateful she wouldn't have to see it either. It was churning her stomach enough just to know that it had happened.
Tenzin did look haggard and worn out though. There were dark shadows under his eyes and a seemingly permanent crease in his forehead. Su very much doubted that he had slept a wink, and there was a deep seated sorrow in his weary eyes.
After Tenzin had properly checked each of his children over for injuries and questioned them mercilessly after their health, he finally accepted that they had not been harmed in their fight against their would-be kidnappers. Ronen gave Tenzin a brief rundown of his version of the altercation, and Yunjin actually refrained from belting out his own excited exaggerations, though Su could see the effort it took him to hold it in. He was bouncing on his toes and staring down his older brother as if waiting for Ronen's permission to add to the story. But when Tenzin turned his head to listen to something Sora was saying, Ronen shook his head at his younger brother and reached out to squeeze Yunjin's shoulder. Yunjin bounced a few seconds more before rocking back onto his heels and finally relaxing slightly at his brother's silent request. Su was surprised to feel a light sense of Déjà vu, faintly remembering Lin's firm hand on her shoulder several times in their younger years. Lin had always been the stern one, the focused one, and now Ronen was becoming like his mother in many ways, but with his father's more peaceful temperament.
Eventually, Tenzin rose to his feet, Sora settled on his hip and Yunjin clinging to his pant leg. Su and Nira –along with Opal – strode the last few steps to close the gap between them, and Tenzin spent the next several minutes thanking them both profusely. Nira was blushing by the end of it, insisting the same as Su that the children were family and there was nothing she wouldn't have done for them.
Then Sora impatiently asked, "When can we see Mama?"
Tenzin's expression remained neutral, but Su noticed his shoulders slump just slightly. "Not just yet, sweetheart," Tenzin told Sora. "She had a long day so she's still sleeping, but I saw her a little bit ago and there's no need to worry, okay?"
Sora was distressed by that answer and Ronen immediately protested, "But we won't wake her up. We can be quiet."
"Yeah!" Yunjin agreed. "I'll be good, Daddy, I promise. I'll tiptoe so Mama won't hear, and the baby in her tummy won't either."
Tenzin looked at Su with a questioning look and she explained, "I thought you might want to tell them."
"Tell us what?" Ronen demanded, looking stricken. "What happened to the baby?"
But Tenzin smiled broadly in reassurance and genuine joy as he replied, "Your new baby sister is just fine. Your Mama had the baby yesterday."
"Mama had the baby?!" Yunjin shrieked as Ronen gaped, speechless.
Sora delightedly exclaimed, "I have a sister?!"
"Yes, would you like to meet her?" Tenzin asked.
All three children shouted an uninhibited chorus of "yes!".
"You'll still have to be very quiet, though," Tenzin cautioned. "Your baby sister is very tiny, and she was born a little early so she needs some help from the doctors. But I don't want you to worry when you see her. She's getting the best care, and your Gran-Gran is looking after her."
"We'll be good!" Yunjin swore.
"What's her name?" Sora questioned.
Tenzin faltered, looking suddenly downcast, but he shook it off quickly to quietly respond, "Your Mama and I haven't talked about it yet. We had a few ideas before, but we haven't picked the right one yet."
"Well what do we call her?" Ronen asked.
"How about just 'little sister'?" Su suggested, in an effort to help Tenzin out. "She won't mind for now."
The kids agreed easily enough, and then they were all following Tenzin to the neonatal unit. Suyin, Opal, and Nira waited outside, while Tenzin took Ronen and the twins inside to meet their new baby sister.
A while later, the three kids emerged with bright smiles, quietly giggling and whispering to one another about their new sibling.
"She's so little," Ronen told Opal, half in awe. He was excited about his baby sister, but his enthusiasm was a little more subdued than Sora and Yunjin's. Ronen was old enough to understand that something wasn't quite right, even if he didn't know that much about premature babies.
"I can't wait 'till she gets bigger," Sora said, voice still a hushed whisper. "I told her I'll share all my dolls with her."
"When can she talk?" Yunjin asked impatiently.
Tenzin chuckled. "Not for a while yet, I'm afraid."
Nira then offered to stay with Ronen and the twins, while Tenzin took Su and Opal in to meet the baby. When Su saw her new niece, her heart simultaneously soared and clenched. Her sister's youngest girl was so beautiful, so perfect, but there were so many tubes and wires attached to her, so many monitors. And she looked so small and so fragile. It was heart wrenching, but also amazing, that the premature newborn was there with them, having survived such odds so far.
Katara was there with the infant, looking nearly as exhausted as Tenzin. Apparently, she had left the South Pole as soon as she received her son's message and traveled all night to Republic City, and had been at the hospital ever since. She had also spent some time with Lin, and squeezed Su's hand to reassure her that her older sister was very likely to pull through. The baby, on the other hand, was uncertain until more time had passed.
Opal was too in awe of her new baby cousin to pay the adults any mind as they stepped a few feet away to discuss the newborn. Katara then told Su that it was impossible to tell if the little one would continue to develop properly outside of the womb. It was possible that she could still be taken from them, or survive, but face health problems later on, and Su's heart was back to aching again.
When Su and Opal said goodbye to the new baby, Tenzin and Katara followed them from the room. Katara insisted on Tenzin getting something to eat in the cafeteria, suggesting that the kids go with him. Even though Ronen and the twins had already eaten, all three of them agreed to go with their father to make sure he ate. Su insisted that Opal go with them and Nira, while she claimed to want to stay with Katara and the baby a bit longer. Once they were all gone, Katara agreed to take Su to see Lin instead.
Seeing her sister, lying pale and still in her hospital bed, was a startling sight. Lin was attached to nearly as many wires as the baby, and she didn't move a muscle the entire time Su stood by her side. Su couldn't bear the sight of it for long. She retreated after only five minutes and went to the cafeteria to find everyone else.
Three days passed before Lin awoke.
Keeping the kids away from her hospital room beforehand was nearly impossible. The first day was not too bad, because Tenzin finally agreed to go home that evening and stay with his kids, which went a long way to calming them. By the second day they were beginning to throw a fit, but Opal and Su and Katara were a big help. As was Nira, when Tenzin and Katara returned to the hospital. Tenzin wouldn't let the kids come to the hospital at all on the second day, because Lin needed surgery again and he was too stressed and worried to reassure them that both their mother and sister were all right.
Lin's surgery was the result of having half woken with such a severe jolt that she had inadvertently torn something that restarted the bleeding. She had immediately fallen back unconscious and her monitors went wild. However, the surgery was relatively quick and there were no complications. The doctors insisted that the incident would not occur again and Lin had not lost much blood that time, but Tenzin was still concerned about leaving her side, so he spent the rest of the night in the hospital.
On the third day, Su arrived at the hospital in the early morning, before the kids awoke, leaving them in Nira's capable hands. She insisted that Tenzin leave Lin's side long enough to get something to eat, despite his protests. They visited the baby and Katara on the way, satisfied to see that there had been no bad news for the little girl.
It was as the two of them were heading back in the direction of Lin's room from the cafeteria that it happened.
They heard the commotion from the other end of the long hallway. There were raised voices and a loud clatter and screeching metal. The rest of the hallway went quiet, and then a shouting voice could be heard that sounded an awful lot like Lin.
Tenzin and Su exchanged a knowing glance and then took off sprinting down the hall. They burst into Lin's room as one, and came to an abrupt halt.
There in the center of the room stood Lin, awake and moving, but Tenzin could tell from the moment he saw her that she was not fully aware. Her eyes were wild, moving frantically to take in every inch of her surroundings. Her arms were outstretched and she was bent halfway into a crouch, several metal objects and surgical tools floating around her head, ready to be sent flying with just a twitch of her finger. Her hospital gown was askew and her hair was matted. The monitors and IVs were still hooked to her and she had no idea where she was. She was frantic and afraid and she must have thought that she was still in headquarters and needed to defend herself.
A doctor, a healer, and two nurses stood in a semi-circle around her, each of them wary, trying to placate her but not succeeding. Another nurse was on the floor at Lin's feet, unconscious but still breathing just fine as far as Tenzin could tell, with a syringe sticking midway between their shoulder and neck. They must have gone at Lin with a tranquilizer and had it turned back on themselves.
Lin startled at the sound of the door banging open, and instinctively sent half a dozen sharp tools flying straight for Su and Tenzin without even glancing in their direction. Before Tenzin could react, Su outstretched her own hand and halted the attack just inches away from their faces. Su dropped her hand, and the instruments clattered to the floor. Tenzin stepped over them and pushed forcefully through the semi-circle to bring his wife's attention onto him.
He held up his hands in a peaceful gesture as he calmly but loudly said, "Lin."
Lin's eyes were still crazed when she turned their laser focus onto him, but she froze upon catching sight of him, squinting as if trying to remember who he was.
Several long seconds passed in silence, where all that could be heard was Lin's heavy, stuttered breathing. And then she blinked and said warily, "Tenzin?" Her voice was hoarse and quiet, but he heard the hope and the disbelief in it all the same.
"Yes, Lin," Tenzin spoke softly. "It's me. Do you know where you are?"
Lin looked around, but nothing else seemed to register. "The baby," she told him in a panicked voice. "They took the baby."
Tenzin shook his head and, despite the situation, a teary smile curled on his face. "The baby is safe, Lin. I was just with her. She's with my mother now. She's alive and she's safe. You are safe now."
Lin still looked desperately confused, but her shoulders were relaxing just slightly, slowly…slowly…
But one of the nurses had decided to approach Lin from the side with another syringe, and when Lin noticed the movement out of the corner of her eye, her expression turned dangerous again. Before Tenzin could tell the nurse to back off – more for her own safety than for Lin's – Lin snapped her head to the left and scalpels went hurtling straight at the nurse.
But the surgical tools suddenly switched directions in mid-flight and hit the wall instead, and Tenzin glanced over his shoulder to see Su holding up one of her hands again. Su then gave the nurse a murderous expression of her own and seethed, "Get back!"
"Everyone out," Tenzin demanded, his voice thunderous. "Let us handle this."
The medical staff began to retreat after a few hesitant seconds, none of them moving until the doctor nodded in agreement. One of them stooped to grab the unconscious nurse, and Lin skittered away, pressing her back to the wall.
When the medical staff were out in the hallway, Tenzin began to approach Lin slowly, his voice a careful murmur again as he explained, "It's okay, my love. You're in the hospital. You're no longer in that place. You do not have anything to fear from these people. You are not under attack."
Lin rubbed furiously at her forehead, and then persisted, "The baby. She's safe? You're sure?"
"I'm positive," Tenzin confirmed. "Sergeant Raizo brought her here, just as you asked him to."
Lin's eyes went perilously wide. "And the kids? Ronen and Sora and Jin? Are they okay? She said…she said that she…that they –"
"They're okay too," Tenzin interjected, before Lin could become irreversibly frantic. "They're just fine, they're back on the Island. I called Nira as soon as headquarters was attacked and she got them to Zaofu, to Suyin." He gestured behind him in the vague direction of where Su stood, but Lin didn't take her eyes off of him. "There was a kidnap attempt, but none of them was hurt and the men responsible are in our custody."
Lin blinked several times, seeming to take this information in, still staring straight at her husband. Then her face scrunched up into a grimace and she asked, "Why does it feel like they cut me in half?"
She placed a hand over her lower abdomen, and Tenzin understood. "To stop the bleeding," he told her gently. "They had to perform a partial hysterectomy, removal of the uterus."
Lin's brain seemed too sluggish at that moment to fully comprehend what he was saying, but she accepted it with a curt nod anyways. "How long have I been out?"
"Three days," Tenzin replied, beginning to edge closer to her again. She didn't startle or back away, but watched him carefully, as if half expecting him to turn into someone else. "You woke up for just a second yesterday, but tore some of your stitches and they had to go in for surgery again. That's probably why they were so worried about you being up this time."
As if to highlight his point, Lin suddenly wavered, her legs trembling and her body swaying as the pallor of her skin turned even paler. She looked as though she were about to pass out. Tenzin reached her just in time to catch her under the arms and steady her, careful not to bump into her no doubt aching abdomen. She clutched at his robes and leaned heavily against him, staring steadily at his chest and trying to breathe in deeply.
"That's it, deep breaths, love," Tenzin soothed in a low voice. "You're all right. Just breathe."
Lin was still shaking and her breathing was still rapid when she tentatively asked, "Jeia?" She avoided his gaze and her brow was furrowed, as if she already knew the answer and was steeling herself for it.
Tenzin couldn't suppress a weary sigh, closing his eyes and pressing his forehead to Lin's, his voice nearly at a whisper and full of sorrow as he admitted, "I'm so sorry, Lin…I'm so sorry…she…she didn't make it."
Lin let out a pained sound in the back of her throat and Tenzin pulled her flush against him, gentle still, but holding her close. Lin, however, did not return the embrace. She remained stiff in his arms, as if frozen solid, her own arms dangling awkwardly at her sides. They stood there a while, but she didn't break even for a second, resolutely tense and taking in measured breaths.
It took some time convincing her to get back into bed and let the doctor look her over, and even longer to convince her to wait before going to see their little girl. She hardly acknowledged anyone besides Tenzin, her gaze either resolutely on the blanket spread over her lap or on him as she numbly answered the doctor's inquiries. She didn't cry or fidget or express much emotion at all. Tenzin knew that she must have been feeling so many, but she had locked them all behind a steel wall.
When the doctor had finished examining Lin and reassured Tenzin that she hadn't torn anything this time around, he left, and an uncomfortable silence fell over the room. Tenzin and Su exchanged glances, and Lin didn't look at either of them. Tenzin tried coaxing Lin into a conversation, but she wasn't interested in anything other than news. She asked about headquarters, and casually commented that she would need to return soon to oversee repairs, as if she hadn't just been fighting for her life in there a few days prior. She also asked after Raizo, Tosuki, Kaito, and Sanji, all of whom Tenzin was glad to be able to inform her were mostly well. Kaito and Sanji were still hospitalized as well, but Kaito was stable and there was already talk of Sanji being able to leave in another day or two. Raizo and Tosuki had both reunited with their own families and returned to the hospital regularly to check on their fellow officers. Tenzin had been keeping them both informed of Lin and the baby's progress. He had also been in frequent contact with Saikhan and the council, both of whom were working tirelessly to right the city after the triads' attack.
Lin listened with half of her attention, the rest of her mind elsewhere, somewhere that Tenzin could not yet reach. She was slowly beginning to accept that she was no longer in danger, but she still startled when someone came too close or something clattered too loudly. Tenzin stayed resolutely by her side, holding her hand in a tight grip and stroking her matted hair in what he hoped was a soothing gesture. Suyin seemed uncertain of what to do, and when Lin did not acknowledge her besides a brief, uncomfortable look, she excused herself hastily under the pretext of going to tell Katara that Lin was awake.
A little while later, Katara arrived in Lin's room to check over her daughter-in-law herself, only to confirm that Lin's doctor hadn't missed anything. Somehow, Lin had not ruptured or torn anything in her panicked state, and would even be permitted to walk later in the afternoon. Until then, though, she had been ordered to rest, but Lin was adamant that she see the baby one way or another. Katara agreed that it would be good for her, and commandeered a wheelchair, which Lin immediately turned her nose up at, but allowed Tenzin to lower her into it anyway. The three of them went to the neonatal unit together, and found Su at the baby's bedside, watching her niece with a sad smile on her face. Su perked up at the sight of Lin and the others, though, and moved aside to let them through.
Lin was still mostly expressionless while watching the baby sleep, but she seemed distressed at the sight of all the tubes and wires attached to the newborn. Tenzin could understand why, and squeezed her shoulder in comfort, quietly assuring her that their baby was doing well all things considered, and the monitors were just a necessary precaution. After some hesitation, Lin finally lifted a shaky hand to gently reach out and stroke the little girl's cheek, releasing a heavy, but relieved sigh.
Lin hadn't wanted to leave the baby's side at all, but she was hunching over more and more the longer she remained in the wheelchair, and eventually conceded to let Tenzin return her to her room. In an effort to cheer her up, he had suggested bringing their eldest three children to see her later that day, expressing how desperate they all were to see her, but Lin had adamantly refused, stating, "I don't want them to see me like this."
So Tenzin settled back in at Lin's bedside, so relieved to have her awake, and yet not certain how to truly reach her. He knew it would take time. He knew she had just been through something horrific and lost someone she cared a great deal for, and it would take time for her to recover. She had only been awake a few hours, but he just wanted to take away all of her pain, if only he could. He was honestly surprised that she hadn't wanted to see the rest of their children. She was always cheered by them, but he supposed she did look rather worn down, and perhaps she was concerned that they would be frightened by the sight of her. Tenzin thought it over for a while, and finally decided on a course of action. Whether or not it would work, he had no idea, but he had to try something to help Lin feel even remotely better. So he went in search of Su after Lin had dosed off into a restless sleep.
He didn't recognize the tightness in his chest for what it was until he was already halfway to the neonatal unit. All the emotions of the past few days were brimming over the edge, and now that he wasn't holding it together for Lin or the kids, he wasn't holding it together at all.
He made it all the way to the hallway just outside the room where his youngest daughter was before it hit him and he collapsed under the pressure. He managed to press his back to the wall and slide down into a squat before he fully broke down, covering his face with his hands as tears of sorrow and relief began to spill from his eyes. He curled up into as small of a shape as he could, praying that no one stopped to try and comfort him. He just needed to release all of the anguish and worry that he had been feeling for the last four days. He hadn't allowed himself to fully react until now, and his body shuddered with each new wave.
Someone did end up finding him there, having a breakdown in the middle of the hallway, but it was Suyin that crouched at his side and pressed a firm hand to his shoulder. She didn't speak, but her presence was more comfort than he would have thought. It seemed strange, still, to think that before, they had just been brother and sister-in-law, joined only by Lin and a childhood where they'd hardly interacted unless Lin was also there. But now, as their families grew closer, and the two sisters grew closer than ever, Su and Tenzin began to grow closer too, friends now, and family, both of them on the same page. It was no longer Su vs. Lin. Now, Tenzin and Su had something more in common. Not just Lin, but their love for her, a sister and a husband, both ready and willing to do whatever they could for Lin. Tenzin knew that Su must have been feeling much of the same emotions he was, to have been so worried for her sister and niece during all that time, to feel so helpless, and it was a comfort to know that she understood.
Eventually, he regained control and wiped the moisture from his face, avoiding Su's eye at first with a little embarrassment. But then she cracked a joke, like Lin would have, and his laugh took him by surprise. He thanked his sister-in-law and let her help him to his feet, taking a moment to regain feeling in his legs, which had gone stiff as he crouched there. Then he told her his purpose for coming to find her, and Su readily agreed. Swapping places, Tenzin went in to see his baby girl again, never tiring of seeing her precious face, while Su went in the direction of her sister's room.
When Su arrived at Lin's room, she found her older sister in a restless sleep. Settling down to wait, she allowed herself to relax in the chair at her sister's bedside and, at some point, dozed off herself.
Lin awoke bleary and confused again, but less so than before. She knew, this time, that she was in the hospital, that she was no longer under attack, and the baby was safe, if not totally healthy. She expected to find Tenzin at her bedside, but was a little surprised to see her younger sister instead. It struck Lin, then, that she couldn't remember the last time she'd ever seen her sister in such a relaxed, vulnerable state. Lin could faintly remember watching Su sleep when she was very little and still in awe of her big sister, as she had often curled up against Lin's side to sleep. But that admiration had turned to resentment in the blink of an eye and the two sisters had been careful to never get so close again.
Things had been changing between them in recent years, ever since Lin had allowed Su back into her life, but it had been slow going. Lin had asked Su return, but she hadn't fully accepted her. She had still been harboring resentment and wasn't very open to letting her sister in. They were amicable, for a while, but not close. After Sora and Yunjin had been born, though, and Lin had been pulled out of her postpartum depression mostly with Su's help, things had begun to shift between them again. They were still wary around each other at times, but more comfortable with being together and no longer waiting for the other shoe to drop. They could argue without an underlying tone of bitterness, and they could laugh and joke as if nothing had ever happened between them. They didn't do emotions though, not really. Lin's depression had been a momentary exception, but even then they hadn't really discussed the enormity of the situation. Su had helped drag Lin out of her self-induced exile, but they hadn't talked about it.
Lin hadn't been bothered by any of that before, though, because she never liked talking about the real stuff anyway. Tenzin sometimes forced it out of her, because he was a feelings guy and because that was how his family worked things out. Aang and Katara talked about their feelings and they fixed their problems as soon as possible. The Beifongs didn't discuss anything. Everything was an argument. The louder, the better. The more violent, the better. They'd yell and scream and slam doors and three days later, when they'd all cooled down, they'd pretend like it never happened. It worked for them, sort of, but it was only a temporary fix and it never solved anything. They held grudges because they never talked it out, and it had become so normal for Lin that it had taken a lot of time for her to become comfortable enough with being the opposite with Tenzin. He'd commented later that it had been like pulling teeth, but eventually they had worked it out. She was still herself, still the first to shut down and get angry and suppress her feelings. But she always gave in now, always wanted to resolve it with him the right way, even if it took her a little time to do so. And she was teaching her kids the right way too, like Suyin was with her own kids. Both of them were different people with their families, but still, somehow, mostly the same with each other.
Lin hadn't given it much thought until just then. It was as she was lying there in a hospital bed, watching her little sister trying to curl up in a chair that just wasn't big enough to sleep in. It was then that she realized that they could be different too. It didn't have to be like before, and it especially didn't need to be like it was with Shira.
Lin could remember everything that had happened in headquarters before she had fallen unconscious and ended up in the hospital. She remembered in achingly vivid detail; Shira stabbing Jeia in the back, Shira hovering over Lin and squeezing her throat so that no air could get through, Shira briefly morphing into Su and giving Lin's heart a terrified jolt, and Jeia stabbing Shira in the neck and ending the whole thing. Lin remembered, and she knew that Shira had never been and never would be her sister.
Lin and Shira hadn't ever been close because they didn't live together as children and they were far apart in age and they just never really acknowledged that they were technically siblings in the first place. Lin didn't know if a relationship with Shira would have changed anything about the way things had transpired in headquarters four days ago. She didn't know if they ever could have been sisters, if it was her own fault for never trying and never accepting Shira as family, or if it had already been too late for the older girl. Shira had already been a teenager by the time Lin could really talk, and she'd been raised by a narcissistic father and abandoned by her mother. She was influenced by the triads from a young age and had no one to turn to. And when they'd been forced together, there had never been any affection between Lin and Shira.
With Su, on the other hand, everything had been different. The two sisters had had different fathers, but they had still accepted each other as full sisters because that hadn't seemed to mattered. Toph was their mother and they had no clue who Suyin's father was and Lin's father was nothing special. Sokka was a father figure for both of them and it had been like they were a family, even if they had fought all the time. They had still loved each other, deep down. And when Su scarred Lin's face and was sent away from the city to live with their grandparents, it had been a devastating blown. Lin didn't even remember the last time she had spoken to Shira before the two half-sisters never spoke again.
Part of Lin thought she should have felt something other than relief that Shira was dead, but in actuality, that was all she could feel. After all that Shira had done – trying to kidnap Lin's kids, invading police headquarters, trying to strangle Lin to death, and killing Jeia – part of Lin was very much glad that Shira was dead. But she also found that she really couldn't think about it that much, because remembering Shira made her remember too many awful things, particularly Lieutenant Jeia. And Lin couldn't stop to think about Jeia, not now, because it hurt too much. It hurt so badly that Lin could have screamed, because it wasn't fair and she was too young and it wasn't fucking fair! But when was life ever fair? Jeia had fought with her very last breath to ensure that the rest of them had ample opportunity to escape, and she had died because of her selflessness. She had died so that Lin's daughter could survive, so that Lin and Raizo could make it back to their kids, so that Kaito could have a fighting chance, so that Sanji and Tosuki – both even younger than Jeia – could live out the rest of their lives.
Every police officer signed up to defend the lives of others, even sometimes at the cost of their own, and Jeia had been proud everyday to be a part of it. She was one of the good ones, one of the best ones, because she always put others first without question. She genuinely cared for everyone that she helped. It made her death more painful, to lose someone so pure, but Lin knew that Jeia would have been glad to do it. It didn't make it hurt any less, but it made it slightly more bearable. She just couldn't think about it, not yet. She couldn't fall apart over the loss of her protégé, the young woman she would have gladly groomed to take her place someday – there was still Saikhan of course, but he was the same age as Lin and he likely wouldn't stick around much longer than her. Lin would cherish every moment that she'd had with Jeia, but the loss would be difficult to overcome, especially when she felt partially responsible. Lin knew, of course, that it was Shira's fault, and the triads for mounting the attack, but if Lin had just been stronger, had thought quicker or forced Jeia to go…something. But it was too late for that and she would only go insane thinking about it.
So she focused on her little sister again, on Suyin, slumped in her chair looking uncomfortable, but peaceful. Lin may have lost Jeia, but she still had her husband and her kids and her sister, not to mention Katara, who was just as much a mother to Lin as Toph had been. She would make it through this because of them, because they loved her and needed her and she would not let Jeia's sacrifice be for nothing.
It was as Lin was considering this that Su began to stir, clearly unable to sleep for long in such an awkward position. Su must have been exhausted to even dose off that way, and Lin resolved to thank her sister later.
As Su's eyes fluttered open and she caught sight of Lin staring at her, she jolted slightly, sitting up carefully and rubbing her eyes. "Spirits, Lin," she muttered drowsily. "How long have you been awake?"
"I don't know," Lin answered truthfully, not bothering with her usual façade.
Su frowned, and probably for good reason. Losing time wasn't a good sign in any situation, but to be expected after what Lin had recently endured. "How are you feeling?" Su asked, wincing as soon as the words came out of her mouth. "I mean, other than…well…never mind." She waved a dismissive hand before Lin could formulate a response and pushed against the arms of the chair to haul herself to her feet. "I came to see if you wanted me to try and sort out your hair."
"My hair?" Lin asked in confusion, reaching up to pat at the untamed mess atop her head. She grimaced slightly. It did feel knotted and greasy.
"I know you don't care about appearances and all that," Su granted, "but I think it might make you feel a little better, physically anyway. And it'll be easier to fix now than later. You won't have to do a thing."
Lin shrugged. "I guess if you want to. Is that really why you came in here and made Tenzin leave?"
Su smiled softly. "Actually, it was Tenzin's suggestion, and I thought it was a very good one. He's with your little girl now, I think." Su turned away to gather up the supplies Lin only now noticed at her bedside. As Su was sorting through the shampoos or whatever it was, she added, "She's a fighter, that one. I still can't believe you gave birth in the middle of all that, and two months early on top of it. But that little girl hasn't given up for a second. She must be even more stubborn than Mom."
Su went to fill a small bowl with warm water, and Lin waited until she returned to respond with, "You know, now that you say that, this kid might be even worse than Mom."
"Why do you say that?" Su inquired, while soaking a cloth in the water.
"Well, Mom always had to be the center of attention, right?" Lin pointed out. "And my girl just had to be born at the exact moment when everything was going to shit, just so we didn't forget I was carrying her."
Su stilled, biting down on her lip to suppress what Lin figured was going to be a wide grin, and then she snorted, "Oh no. You're right. You're totally screwed."
Lin and Su stared at one another for a moment, and then both of them burst out laughing. Lin shook her head. "I can't believe I'm going to have to raise Mom… Oh, wait, I already did have to raise Mom."
Su laughed harder, ringing out the cloth some as she did so and then gesturing for Lin to sit up. As she began to squeeze some of the water into Lin's hair she agreed, "That woman was a mess. I don't know how she would have made it without you. Who would have reminded her to eat?"
"Certainly not you," Lin teased. "You were too busy eating us out of house and home. It's a wonder you didn't end up five times heavier. I hope you pay that chef of yours well. Can't imagine what it's like cooking for you thirteen times a day."
Su made a face, but the small curl of her lips belied her amusement. "Be careful there, Sis, I do hold your hair in my –"
Su broke off as Lin inhaled sharply at the memories flooding her at the word sis, forever tainted now thanks to Shira.
"I'm sorry," Su immediately started, "what did I do? Did I pull your hair?"
Lin shook her head and pleaded, "No, just…just don't call me that, okay?"
"Don't call you…" Su trailed off as it dawned on her and apologized again, quieter this time. "I'm sorry, Lin. I didn't know. I won't say it again." She went back to tending to Lin's hair and an awkward silence fell over them.
It was as Su was lathering some kind of conditioner into Lin's hair that Lin finally spoke, sounding a little uncomfortable as she muttered, "Listen, I uh, I never told you I was sorry."
Su stilled for a moment, but went back to what she was doing as she warily asked, "Sorry for what?"
Lin cleared her throat, fidgeting slightly as she said, "You know…for everything. That day that we…when Mom sent you away…" Lin sighed, rubbing at her forehead for a moment while she rethought what she was saying. "I wasn't a very good sister, trying to arrest you, even if you were being an idiot. And afterwards…I could have tried harder. You wanted to reconcile and Mom died and I wouldn't even hear you out. Shira and I, we were never really sisters, but you… you've always been my little sister and I should have been a better sibling, so… I'm sorry, for not telling you I love you."
Su had gone completely still, her fingers still tangled in Lin's knotted hair, and Lin was afraid to look at her. She wasn't great at the heartfelt confessions and she was distinctly uncomfortable. She chewed on her bottom lip as the silence ensued, finally getting fed up and glancing up at her sister.
Su was staring at Lin, slack-jawed, tears brimming in her eyes and then spilling over as she choked out, "Oh, Lin…"
Lin looked at Su with an expression of horror, frantically demanding, "Why are you crying?"
Su half laughed, half sobbed, lurching forward to crash into Lin, engulfing her older sister in a tight embrace. Su's hands were soapy and wet, but she clung to the back of Lin's hospital gown anyway. Lin awkwardly patted what she could reach of Su's back, and even allowed herself to lean into the embrace ever so slightly.
Su sniffled, her tears dripping onto Lin's neck and shoulder as she confessed, "I love you too, Lin. And I'm sorry." Su finally leaned back to look at Lin with red-rimmed eyes. "I'm sorry I was such a brat, and that I never really told you I was sorry for scarring your face, because I am sorry, really sorry. If I could go back in time and fix anything it would be that. I just had all my own grudges and I never wanted to admit you might be right and I could have tried harder too."
"Let's just say we were both idiots and call it even," Lin suggested.
"Sounds perfect," Su agreed.
Su smiled broadly then, and it was so infectious that even Lin began to smile a little too.
Su ended up having to cut Lin's hair shorter – nearly all the way up to her chin – just to get the knots unraveled without pulling unnecessarily at Lin's scalp for several hours. Lin wasn't particularly attached to her long hair, so she wasn't bothered, and she felt ten pounds lighter after it had been cut off. Lin's nurse wasn't thrilled to see the mess Su had made of the area around Lin's bed, but Su offered to clean it up if they gave her a broom and all was forgiven.
Lin was finally starting to feel morel like herself by that evening, and she felt even better when Tenzin took her down the hall to use the phone and finally talk to her kids. They were all so excited to hear her voice – and her theirs – that all four of them started crying. Lin thought she hid hers pretty well, but Tenzin was eyeing her knowingly no matter how hard she tried to hide her face from him. Yunjin protested that he absolutely wasn't crying, but Sora and Ronen weren't shy about their feelings. Lin was just so relieved to confirm that they were okay, despite everything that had happened recently. She could have listened to them ramble and fight over the phone all night long.
Talking to the kids lifted another huge weight from Lin's shoulders, but, as much as she wanted to see them, she knew it had been the right thing not to let them come to the hospital to see her just yet. She figured she wouldn't have been able to control her emotions so soon if they were standing right in front of her, and she didn't want to scare them by being too much unlike herself. And even though Su fixing her hair had gone a long way to helping Lin's disheveled appearance, it didn't change how sickly she looked, and she didn't want the kids to ever have to remember seeing her that way.
Of course, none of the three would understand this, and Lin didn't know what to tell them besides, "I promise I'll be home soon."
They protested, because they wanted to see her now, but talking to her on the phone must have really helped, because they eventually relented. Lin never wanted to hang up, and she could tell they didn't want to either, but she was feeling tired and sitting up in the wheelchair did nothing to make her sore abdomen feel better. By the time she finally got the kids to hang up and Tenzin returned her to her room, she was in agony, and the nurse gave her enough pain medication to knock her out within minutes.
She awoke the next day feeling a little less pain, but still exhausted. She had woken a couple times in the night, usually to the sound of her nurse entering the room, but she'd been too worn out to fight sleep. During one brief moment of wakefulness, she had insisted that Tenzin, Katara, and Su return to the Island to both relieve Nira and finally get some real rest themselves. All three of them argued with her, but she hadn't accepted no for an answer, so they eventually acquiesced.
Lin's doctor had decided that, as long as she was very careful and was sure to get plenty of rest, she would be permitted to return home that afternoon. Eager to get out of the hospital, Lin immediately agreed to everything the doctor insisted upon. But as soon as she was released, she did not go straight home. First, she was finally permitted to get a bath and change into a real set of clothes that Tenzin had brought for her. Then, she made a few calls until she got in contact with Saikhan. He gave her a brief report as to the goings on in her absence and expressed his relief that she was recovering well. Headquarters was still under construction so the police had temporarily relocated to a nearby office building. The United Forces had arrived to help, and the triads were being blessedly silent, half of them having gone into hiding to avoid arrest. There had been no sign of Chen, and there were rumors that he had escaped the city to return to his wife and daughter in Ba Sing Se. Based off of what she'd seen of him during her final battle in headquarters, Lin doubted he'd be showing his face again if he had any sense at all. Lin told Saikhan that she would be in touch and promised to return to work as soon as possible, despite Tenzin's pointed look.
Lin then went straight to visit her little girl, lamenting that she would not be so close to visit the newborn as easily once she was sent home. The infant would not be permitted to leave for another few weeks yet, and Lin hated the idea of leaving her little girl alone there. It wouldn't be for long, of course. Between Katara, Tenzin, Lin, and Su, the baby had plenty of visitors, but it was still disheartening.
Lin eventually left Tenzin with their baby while she insisted on going alone to visit Kaito and Sanji. Sanji was meant to be released the same day as Lin, but infection had spread through his leg the night before and he'd been taken back into surgery. The young petty officer brightened up when Lin poked her head into the room, and eagerly invited her in, introducing her to all the family he had there with him. Lin met Sanji's parents, who both looked half star struck at meeting her; his little brother that was barely older than Ronen and purely uninterested; and his girlfriend, who gave Lin a terse smile that showed that the younger woman wasn't Lin's biggest fan. Lin figured the dislike was more for Sanji's dangerous job than for Lin in particular, though, so she let it slide. Tosuki, surprisingly, was there too. Apparently, he and Sanji had struck up a friendship in the days since headquarters had fallen and had barely been separated since.
Lin was glad to see the two young officers doing so well despite all that happened. She knew there would still be obstacles for them to face – PTSD was possible, and she was getting the feeling that Tosuki was experiencing some survivor's guilt, and no one knew for sure if Sanji would even be able to return to work or regular activities with his leg as it was – but they were young and surrounded by family and friends and she felt certain they would recover. She told them both to come to her if they needed anything at all in the meantime, and thanked them for all that they had done, not just for her, but for everyone in headquarters that day. Both of the young men were practically blushing by the time she shook their hands and left.
Sanji had said that Raizo had come to visit him frequently too, but he wasn't there that day, so Lin resolved to call him later when she was settled back in to her own home. She would have to invite Raizo and his family over, and also figure out the proper way to thank the man that had birthed her baby in the middle of a war zone and then carried that baby all the way to the hospital. She knew that Tenzin had already expressed his gratitude to the Sergeant, but they would need to do more.
Kaito was still in rough shape when Lin arrived at his room. He was sleeping when she entered, but his wife stepped out into the hallway to speak with her. Kaito's wife looked tired and worried, but her smile was genuine as she greeted Lin. She expressed her gratitude for Lin coming to check on her husband, and insisted that Lin feel free to come back another time when she was able. According to his wife, Kaito was in fairly stable condition, but the burns had caused a lot of nerve damage and he still had a long recovery ahead of him. He would need physical therapy and reconstructive surgery, but he had been lucky to have survived. Lin asked Kaito's wife to let her know if they needed anything, and even allowed the woman to hug her, despite how strange it felt.
By the time Lin returned to the neonatal unit, she was nearly ready to drop. She settled into a soft armchair in the corner and let Tenzin fret over her for several minutes while she allowed herself a brief moment of rest.
It was as they were watching a nurse tend to their daughter from across the room that Tenzin murmured, "We'll have to pick a name for her."
He turned to look at Lin, crouched down at her side with one of his hands holding one of hers, and she nodded. "Any thoughts on that?"
"Well, I know we liked the names Arya and Skai," Tenzin began, "but I'm not certain Skai feels right when considering how much she seemed to hate flying."
Lin smirked. "Or it's perfectly ironic."
"Or that," Tenzin conceded with a smile. "I also thought of Rai, a cute name, and, coincidentally, short for Raizo, the man that helped bring her into the world."
Tenzin looked away for a moment, and Lin knew he was still feeling a lot of guilt and bitterness over not having been there for the baby's birth. She squeezed his hand and agreed, "I like that name." She thought on it for a moment, and then quietly murmured, "There's also Jeia." Tenzin looked at her with puzzlement and concern, but she met his gaze without wavering. "I know we always said we wouldn't name the kids after the dead, like my mother or your father, but I feel like this is different. Jeia is a strong name, and she fought so our girl could live."
Tenzin seemed to consider it for a moment before gently saying, "That is true, but would it be too painful for you? To have to call our baby Jeia?"
Lin shrugged, not entirely certain. "Maybe at first, but…it would be honoring her, I think, and it would be a happy reminder, after the grief has faded."
"It's certainly something to consider," Tenzin decided. "So we have four possibilities?" Lin nodded. "Skai, Jeia, Arya, or Rai."
"So we've made little progress," Lin said with a short laugh.
Tenzin chuckled too. "Seems that way. How about we sleep on it, maybe ask the children their opinions?"
Lin was almost afraid to ask, but she did anyway. "How did they react? When you told them about Jeia."
Tenzin sighed. "As was to be expected. They were upset of course, but I did it while Su and my mother were there and I think it helped some. I hate having to give them such awful news like that."
"Yeah," Lin sighed in agreement. "I hate everything about this."
Tenzin bent his head down to kiss the back of her hand, the closest part of her that he could reach in his current position, and then said "Me too, but we have our little girl. She's the one good thing to come from this."
Lin almost said that the kid could have done them all a favor and waited a few more weeks to come into the world, but decided to just bob her head in mute agreement. She was glad to have her little girl, she just wished she could take the newborn home.
After a few more minutes, Lin and Tenzin finally rose up onto their feet and strode back over to their baby's cot. They said a sad, albeit temporary, goodbye to their youngest daughter, and then left the hospital to begin their journey home.
Notes:
Nearly six years into this story and I still haven't picked a name for the fourth Linzin baby. It's changed a lot in my mind until I was certain it was going to be Jeia, or spelled Jaya, but then I created Lieutenant Jeia, who became a bigger part of the story than I realized and now here we are. If anyone would like to vote on the names Lin and Tenzin discussed in this chapter I would appreciate the feedback. A name will be chosen for next chapter, and after that chapter we'll have another time jump, and soon after that we'll finally be into season one. Hope you all enjoy, until next time!
Chapter 41: Chapter 41
Chapter Text
Chapter 41
The two criminals that Shira had recruited to kidnap Lin and Tenzin's kids were finally being transferred to prison on the same day Lin returned home, but before they went, Lin indulged herself in a confrontation with the two men with the help of Su. The sisters didn't harm the men of course, but scaring the hell out of them and threatening certain death should they ever come after Lin's kids again was more satisfying than either Beifong woman was going to admit.
The triads were still quiet in the aftermath of the siege, and the police force was recovering quickly under Saikhan and Ikuro's command. All the loose ends were starting to tie themselves up nicely, and Lin thought maybe her recovery would not be so bad.
She was home for all of four days before she started going stir crazy. She had been so happy at first to be home, to be back in her own bed and surrounded by family. In particular, reuniting with her three eldest children had gone a long way to soothing Lin's broken heart. But as life began to normalize, her head began to spin, struggling to readjust when she had so recently been in survivor mode. Su and Opal were still helping out in the first week of Lin being home, and Katara was around when she wasn't at the hospital with the baby, so Lin was surrounded by support.
But then the nightmares came.
She knew when everything had settled she was likely going to experience some trouble with sleeping, but she hadn't thought it'd be so soon. Her body had been too exhausted to fight sleep in the first few days, but now that she was beginning to recover, all bets were off. At night she would stare at the ceiling, begging her mind to shut up long enough for her to fall asleep, only to wake an hour later feeling like there were hands wrapped tight around her throat. She'd lurch upright, heaving for air and clawing at invisible hands, and Tenzin would roll out of bed and begin trying to calm her from afar. The first night, he had tried to stay in bed and gently take her into his arms, but she was still half asleep and panicked and she started fighting him as if he was the person trying to strangle her.
That was the night that she had finally broken down, when she'd seen the bruise she'd caused to form on his cheek. She'd curled up on herself and wept, for Jeia and for everything else. Tenzin had held her close and refused to let her go and she had sobbed harder because he was more than she ever deserved. Neither of them really slept the rest of the night, but they did use the time to decide to name the baby Jeia Rai. It only seemed right to honor both Raizo and Lieutenant Jeia in some small way, and Lin had said she would name the baby after Jeia if the Lieutenant got them out of headquarters and, in a way, she had. If Jeia hadn't stayed behind then Shira likely would have lived to cause more terror and Lin would have almost certainly died. Ronen and Sora and Yunjin didn't know all of the circumstances behind Lieutenant Jeia's death, but when asked, Ronen and Sora had agreed that their baby sister's name should be Jeia. Yunjin, on the other hand, had preferred Rai. Sora had then suggested both, and the five of them had tried it out. Jeia Rai appeased all three kids and made both Lin and Tenzin happy.
However, there was one person that Lin had been avoiding seeing since she had been released from the hospital, and one that she needed to talk to before the birth certificate was filled out.
So Lin made a call to Lieutenant Jeia's home. The person that answered was Jeia's mother-in-law, and it took a lot of convincing before Lin managed to persuade the woman to bring her grieving daughter to the hospital to meet with Lin. Jeia's wife, Ailyn, had secluded herself in her home since the loss of her wife, and was being looked after by her mother. Lin didn't want to bother either of them, but she had promised Jeia and she wouldn't go back on her word.
So Lin had Tenzin fly her to the hospital, and then asked him to wait while she went inside to meet with Ailyn. Lin waited for nearly half an hour outside the neonatal unit, and she was starting to think that Ailyn wouldn't show when she finally spotted the younger woman shuffling down the hallway. An older woman that Lin presumed to be Ailyn's mother led the way, looking distrusting and uncomfortable, but ushering her daughter along anyways. Ailyn looked as sorrowful as expected; her wavy, short-cropped hair disheveled, her face plain and splotchy, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen, and it looked like she'd gotten dressed in the dark.
When Ailyn and her mother reached the neonatal unit, Lin outstretched her hand and said to Ailyn's mother, "A pleasure to meet you." Then, addressing both women, "Thank you for agreeing to meet me."
Ailyn's mother nodded stiffly and shook Lin's hand for half a second, foregoing greetings as she said, "I still don't know why you insisted on us coming here, of all places. This really isn't a great time –"
"I know," Lin interjected, understanding and apologetic. "I'm sorry to bother you during this time, but I was hoping to introduce you to someone, and perhaps give you some piece of mind over your loss, if possible."
Lin turned her full attention onto Ailyn, who, despite her obvious grief, stood tall and unwavering before Lin, expression severe and lips pursed. The two of them had only ever met once or twice before, but Lin had known even from those few encounters that Ailyn may have been even more formidable of a force than Jeia. She was a lawyer, and a very good one; ruthless, but kind, fair, but persistent. Ailyn was already well known among the criminal justice world, despite having only just begun a few years prior.
Before Lin could continue, Ailyn flickered her gaze onto her mother and firmly requested, "Why don't you wait over there while Chief Beifong and I have a talk?"
Ailyn's mother frowned. "I don't think that's such a good idea –"
"I don't need you to hold my hand, Mother," Ailyn sighed. "The Chief isn't going to hurt me, and she clearly wants to discuss Jeia. I'll be fine."
"I'm just worried, darling," Ailyn's mother explained a bit defensively. "I don't want you to have to carry more grief so that the Chief can have closure."
Lin winced, but Ailyn hastily argued, "You're being ridiculous, Mother. Jeia loved the Chief, and I will listen to what she has to say." Ailyn blew out an irritated breath and rubbed at her eyes, lowering her voice to add, "I appreciate what you're trying to do for me, Mom, but I am a big girl. Give the Chief and I a moment, please."
Ailyn's mother looked at Lin one last time with pursed lips, but left without another word. Lin met Ailyn's eyes again, and it was obvious then that both women were extremely uncomfortable. They shared a connection to a woman both of them had cared about, but other than that, they were practically strangers.
Lin straightened up, steeling herself for what was to come, and then stepped up to the door of the neonatal unit, asking Ailyn, "You mind coming in here with me for a minute?"
Ailyn eyed the door warily, wrinkling her nose very slightly, and Lin remembered Jeia saying how neither her or her wife ever wanted kids. Bringing Ailyn to a ward full of babies probably wasn't going to make her feel any more comfortable, but Lin couldn't give up now. Eventually, Ailyn nodded and followed Lin into the room.
Lin lead the way to baby Jeia Rai's bed – although it looked more like a box – and despite having been there several times to see her baby, she was still unnerved by the tubes and wires and everything else keeping her daughter alive. Lin and Ailyn stood across from one another, the baby between them, and Lin took a moment to reassure herself that Jeia Rai was still breathing and responsive, while Ailyn shifted awkwardly, looking unsure of what to do with herself.
Lin breathed in deeply through her nose and, with her gaze still on the infant before her, she quietly told Ailyn, "I can never express how sorry I am for your loss, or how much Jeia meant to me and to all of us on the force. I know that nothing can make this easier, that no words will bring her back or make your pain any less, but I wanted you to know that she didn't die for nothing." Lin forced herself to look up at Ailyn, whose gaze was focused resolutely on Lin's baby now, her lips pressed so tightly together they nearly disappeared and her eyes beginning to water. "What Jeia did for us in there…she shouldn't have died, but she saved so many. Our group that made it out of the tunnels to safety, and those of us that were trapped inside. Kaito and Sanji and Raizo and Tosuki. Me, and, more importantly, my daughter." Lin caressed the baby's cheek, felt her own emotions welling up, and tamped down on them. "Jeia helped me give birth to this kid in the middle of a nightmare and she stayed behind with me to hold off the people that might do her harm. And at the end…"
Ailyn inhaled sharply, squeezing her eyes closed and clearly fighting back tears, though a few did escape to roll down her cheeks.
Lin forced herself to continue, "At the end, I was with Jeia, and she wanted me to tell you how much she loved you. She was at peace with her decision, and all she wanted was for you to know how much you meant to her." Jeia hadn't actually had enough breath to tell Lin what she wanted Ailyn to know, but Lin had known, because she had been thinking of her own husband the same way. "She loved her job, but she loved you more than anything else in the world."
Ailyn still could not speak, openly crying now, but quietly, her eyes open and staring straight at Lin, taking in every word that she spoke.
"I know that you and I don't know each other very well," Lin went on, determined to finish the whole thing, "but Jeia meant a great deal to me. She was one of the best officers I've ever had and…and I saw a lot of myself in her. I could never repay what she did for me, during the siege and before. She and the other officers are the reason my daughter is alive today, and for that reason and many others, my husband and I would like to name our daughter after Jeia."
Lin paused, and Ailyn's eyes widened slightly, her gaze falling onto the infant between them again. Finally, she spoke, her voice cracking as she said, "You mean…you want to name her Jeia?"
Lin nodded. "Jeia Rai Beifong. Your wife actually started it, back in headquarters. She was joking about me naming the baby Jeia, and I told her if she got us all out of there I'd name all four of my kids after her."
Ailyn choked out a short, tearful laugh, wiping at her eyes as she said, "Of course she'd want you to name the baby after her. That was her only complaint about us not having children of our own, was that we wouldn't get to name them Ailyn and Jeia Jr. I told her that was another reason we could never have kids, because I would not let her name them that."
Lin managed to crack a smile of her own, even through the sharp stab of pain she felt at remembering Jeia's laughter. "That sounds like her," Lin agreed.
Ailyn inhaled and exhaled shakily, meeting Lin's eyes again before quietly admitting, "You meant a great deal to Jeia too. She wanted to be just like you. I think she would have been pleased that you were going to name the baby after her."
"And you?" Lin asked, because it mattered to her what the grieving widow thought.
Ailyn looked down at the tiny newborn again, reaching out a hesitant finger to stroke the soft skin on the baby's hand before murmuring, "I think she looks like a Jeia."
With Ailyn's blessing and Lin's promise to Lieutenant Jeia fulfilled, Lin felt just a bit lighter. There was still a lot to overcome in the coming months, but at least some things could be put to rest.
In that same vein, a ceremony was planned, to honor the four other fallen police officers and Lieutenant Jeia. There had already been the private funerals for the officers' families, but Lin and Tenzin and Saikhan had all agreed that something more should be done. Tenzin discussed the creation of a small statue with the council, who readily agreed so long as the families of the fallen consented. The city could not afford one as spectacular as Toph's or Sokka's or Zuko's, but it would be better than nothing. Since she was still technically ordered to avoid anything even remotely strenuous – including walking for extended periods of time – Lin used her down time to plan a memorial service. Tenzin ended up doing most of the work, though, because it turned out she was truly awful at such things.
The memorial was planned to take place on the day that police headquarters was to be reopened. The United Forces and private contractors had helped speed the process along, and within three weeks of the triad attack, headquarters had been mostly repaired. There was still some construction going on, but it was stabilized again.
The ceremony took place outside on the front steps, where five portraits of the fallen officers were placed for the memorial, and hundreds of Republic City citizens gathered to pay homage. A few family members spoke of their lost loved ones, as did several officers that were close with those lost, and afterwards, the statue was unveiled. The statue of Jeia and the four officers would be placed in the front lobby of headquarters, a painful reminder and a necessary tribute all in one. Lin spoke a few words at Saikhan's insistence, and was given an ovation she didn't feel she deserved. To the public, who had little knowledge as to what really went on in headquarters, Lin must have looked something like a hero. The pregnant, noble Chief, daughter of the famous Toph Beifong, valiantly leading nearly all of her officers to safety even after giving birth. Two of the officers that had died had been taken in the initial explosion, and the other two had gone in the final battle to reclaim headquarters under Saikhan and Ikuro's command. There remained a lot of ambiguity surrounding Jeia's death, and even though Lin had not led any of her officers out of the tunnels herself, many of them reported that she had practically sacrificed herself to give them a head start, and that they wouldn't have made it to the tunnels without her leadership. To the public, Lin had done everything right and no one had died on her watch. Lin remembered the whole thing differently, though, and made sure that every officer was commended for their own bravery, particularly pointing out the leadership of Deputy Saikhan and Lieutenant Major Ikuro, as well as petty officers Sanji and Tosuki, Captain Kaito, and Sergeant Raizo. And, of course, the late Lieutenant Jeia and four officers who had needlessly lost their lives because of the triad siege.
The ovation that followed for those officers was well deserved, and Lin left it at that, stepping off of the steps to return to her family that waited for her in the front row. Suyin and Opal were both still there, with plans to finally return to Zaofu and their family the following day. Katara was also there, having returned to the South Pole for a week, but come back to the city for the ceremony and to check on baby Jeia's progress. Nira was also in attendance with one other acolyte and two of Suyin's metal clan guards. Then there was Tenzin, with Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin right in front of him. The kids were dressed in their best outfits and looking solemn, and Lin felt an aching need to put smiles back onto their faces. So she ignored her normal discomfort for public displays of affection and, despite the journalists and photographers and the hundreds of citizens, she kissed all three kids on the forehead and then pulled them into a long embrace. When they parted, all three of them were smiling a little, and Lin thought she'd never stop being amazed at how much she loved them.
Only days after the memorial and the reopening of headquarters, Lin insisted on returning to work early. Tenzin protested and her doctor was wary, but Lin promised not to do any field work and she wasn't asking their permission anyway. She had already made up her mind. Saikhan and Ikuro needed her help and things were still a mess from the triad attack. The United Forces had left and, even though the triads were still keeping mostly quiet, there were other crimes going on and open cases from before the siege. A lot of evidence had also been lost due to the damage the building had sustained, and there was a lot of catch up work that needed done.
However, Lin had not accounted for how difficult it would be for her to return to the building after only about a month. She had been in the new front lobby after the memorial, but hadn't gone farther than that. On her first day back to work, she took six steps up the stairs before her legs started shaking of their own volition. By the time she reached the third floor, her whole body was trembling and her skin was clammy. She was short of breath and feeling sick the closer she got to the fourth floor. She only made it three steps into the hallway before the memories became too much for her to bear, and she retreated back down the stairs. She found an empty interrogation room on the third floor, but that didn't help her catch her breath either, so she stumbled to the bathroom and locked herself in a stall.
She spent the rest of the day finding any excuse not to go to her office on the fourth floor. She wasn't thrilled with the second floor either, kept expecting a bomb to go off in her face, for the floor to start crumbling beneath her. By afternoon, she had to go home for lunch just to try and get her head on straight. Tenzin tried convincing her to stay home when he saw how pale she looked, insisted that it was too soon, but Lin was determined. She would have to get over it at some point anyway. She couldn't be having a mental breakdown every time she went to work, or avoid ever going on the second and fourth floors. So she let her kids comfort her for an hour and then went back to work.
Upon returning to headquarters, Lin forced herself to go straight to the fourth floor. She strode forward with abandon, back straight and head held high, straight through the spot where she had handed her baby off to Raizo and Shira had nearly strangled her to death and Jeia had died. She felt like her knees might buckle the whole way, and sweat was dripping from her brow and stinging her eyes, but she made it into her office that time. Saikhan was already there, and he gave her a concerned look when he noticed her disheveled appearance, but didn't comment. They went straight to work, and Lin started feeling slightly better the longer she was distracted. She kept half expecting Lieutenant Jeia to walk through the door, carrying three cups of tea and blaming her wife for her tardiness, but that would never happen again.
The stress of returning to work was such that Lin only managed two days before she needed to take two off. Saikhan was more than understanding, but Lin felt like a total failure, and nothing Tenzin said could convince her otherwise.
After several weeks, though, she managed to gain control of herself. It still hurt sometimes and she was having flashbacks on most days, but she stopped waiting for the floor to collapse or for Shira to stab her in the back, and she didn't see Jeia staring back at her every time she walked down the fourth floor hallway. It was slow progress, but progress nonetheless.
After four weeks of being in the hospital, baby Jeia's forward progress took several steps backwards.
Lin and Tenzin were called in the dead of night with an urgent request to come to the hospital as soon as possible. An infection had spread through Jeia's intestines, a not wholly uncommon disease in premature babies, and the doctor's were uncertain that she would make it to morning.
Lin and Tenzin spent over thirty hours at their baby's bedside, begging the little girl to pull through and pleading with Katara to tell them that Jeia would be all right. When no such reassurances were forthcoming, Tenzin broke down, collapsing into Lin's arms for what might have been the first time since his father had died. Of the two of them, he'd always been the more emotional one, but because of that he didn't often have huge meltdowns. He released his emotions in a healthier, more frequent way, instead of collapsing under the strain by bottling it up for an extended period of time like Lin was prone to do. However, there were exceptions, and the possible loss of their youngest daughter was one of them. This time, it was Lin that needed to be strong for him, despite her own heavy agony.
After three days, the initial danger seemed to have passed, and though the doctor's were still unsure, their reports were more optimistic. Jeia was responding well to treatment, and if there were no more setbacks, a full recovery was almost a sure thing.
After over a week of worry and full-fledged terror, a tired Katara finally reassured Lin and Tenzin that their daughter was going to survive.
Three weeks after that, Jeia Rai was finally released from the hospital. She had been breathing on her own for several weeks, and had been able to drink milk again for twelve days since the infection had begun healing. Lin and Tenzin would still need to keep an eye out for any changes, and Jeia would have even more frequent checkups than a typical newborn, but they could finally take her home and have her with them every night.
Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin were also thrilled to have their baby sister home. All too aware of all the stress their parents had been under, the three of them were insistent upon helping with every little thing. Katara had gone back to the South Pole at long last, with plans to visit again soon, and Suyin and Opal had been gone for several weeks. Nira helped where she could, but Lin and Tenzin tried not to make her watch all four of the kids at once, despite the acolyte woman's insistence that she didn't mind. Since Lin was back at work already, Tenzin was taking time off to be with Jeia for her first few weeks at home, and Lin took a few days as well just until Jeia was settled.
Having a new baby in the house was exciting for all of three days before the older three kids began to see the downsides to having a baby sibling. The crying was never ending and Lin and Tenzin were tired and cranky most of the time and Jeia required full time care. They had changed as a family all of a sudden and they were all experiencing some growing pains. Despite some discontent though, the kids did try their best to be helpful and didn't complain too often.
The twins weren't old enough to be trusted to hold Jeia just yet without total supervision from an adult, but Ronen begged to be taught how to hold her right away. As it turned out, Ronen was a bit of a baby whisperer, with his sister at least. When Lin and Tenzin couldn't get Jeia to calm down, Ronen would plop down on the nearest chair and hold out his arms expectantly. Within seconds of being handed Jeia, he managed to calm his baby sister almost every time.
Jeia clearly took to her oldest brother, but when she was upset, she was not a fan of Sora or Yunjin. When Jeia was calm and content, she was always thrilled by her twin siblings, her eyes widening in amazement every time they played peek-a-boo with her. But when Jeia was cranky, the twins did not come close to soothing her, and Sora took personal offense to the whole thing. Yunjin was happy to simply run as far away from the screaming baby as possible, but Sora was very frustrated that her sister wasn't as calmed by her presence as Jeia was Ronen's. As a result of lack of sleep, discontent over not immediately bonding with her sister, and less attention from her parents, Sora started throwing tantrums more than she ever had before.
Ronen, who was desperately trying to keep everything together, became frustrated with Sora's attitude and the two siblings were suddenly at each others throats, where before they had been nothing but nice. Yunjin was usually the one causing problems, but he was so intent on putting distance between himself and the baby that he was suddenly the good one. Good, of course, being a relative term. He was good in the sense that he was no longer antagonizing his siblings or complaining about the baby, but he was still getting into mischief elsewhere on the Island. Lin couldn't count the number of times she'd turned around to see that Yunjin was nowhere to be found. Then someone would have to drop what they were doing to go find him, or he would turn up on their doorstep a few hours later with an irate looking acolyte and a guilty expression on his face.
Overall, their household had turned into a nightmare, and while Lin loved Jeia Rai and didn't regret having her, she couldn't refrain from frequently telling Tenzin, "I told you so." She had known, from the moment they found out she was pregnant, that raising four kids was going to be too much. When the twins were babies, Ronen had been too young to be too bothered by them, and he was such a good boy that he wouldn't have said anything if they had. Now, though, Ronen was eleven, about to be a preteen, which was already a difficult age, and adding on a new baby to already having two younger siblings was going to test his patience. Sora and Yunjin had been vying for attention since they were babies themselves, and while it wasn't as spiteful as it had been when Lin and Su were young, they would not be pleased to have a baby sibling that would take away from them. Lin and Tenzin and their three eldest had settled into a harmonious rhythm in the past eight years, and Jeia threw everything out of sync.
The first few months of Jeia being home were not great. Lin and Tenzin were just going through the motions, both of them exhausted at all times and wondering about their sanity. Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin alternated between being helpful and being complete terrors, but more often just being difficult. Lin was terrified that her good kids were about to turn into the type that never listened and made her life a living hell, and she was powerless to stop it.
But then, one day, something began to shift.
Around the time Jeia was five months old, everything started to settle into place. Jeia was not waking at all hours of the night as often, and the family had finally started into a new routine. Jeia seemed to have finally accepted her home and all three of her siblings and wasn't nearly as fussy. As a result, Ronen and the twins were better rested and less cranky themselves, and it was almost as if the past few months had never happened. There were still days when everything was a disaster and the whole family was in a mood, but they almost always settled down by the evening and apologized for any arguments that had ensued. Lin stopped snapping at every little thing and Tenzin stopped dozing off at meal times. Yunjin didn't run off as much, Sora had come to an understanding with Jeia, and Ronen finally accepted that it was okay to continue being a kid and that he didn't have to feel responsible for helping his parents with his siblings all the time.
By the time Jeia was seven months old, things were actually good. And then Tenzin was the one saying "I told you so." Lin shouldn't have doubted her family. They always surprised her and they always went above and beyond anything she could ever hope for.
There were times when she still woke feeling like Shira's heavy weight was pressing down on top of her, or when she'd spot an officer at the end of the hallway at work and for half a second her heart would jump as she swore she saw Lieutenant Jeia. And both she and Tenzin still went to check on their kids randomly in the dead of night to make sure they hadn't been snatched away, and they always checked to make sure Jeia Rai was still breathing. Sora was plagued with nightmares for a time too, and started crawling into her parents' bed in the dead of night. Yunjin denied any nightmares, but was wetting the bed all of a sudden. Ronen, though, had been given several suggestions by the therapist he had been seeing to endure such things after the incident with Deak, and he gladly began teaching some of them to his siblings. And if Lin happened to listen in, it was purely for parental concern, not because she needed any extra help...
Overall they were healing, together, as a family, all six of them.
When Jeia Rai was ten months old, they were almost back to normal, or as close to normal as they could be now.
Since everything was relatively calm once more, Lin and Tenzin finally decided to invite several people to the Island that they had been meaning to thank for several months.
The first person invited to arrive was Nira, close family friend and main caregiver for Lin and Tenzin's children. Nira was welcomed into the main house by Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin, as if she didn't spend half of her time there with them throughout the week. All three kids were dressed in their best outfits, and while Ronen and Sora looked comfortable and content, Yunjin was already tugging at his collar and wrinkling the fabric of his tunic. Ronen took Nira's coat to hang in the foyer, Yunjin handed her a flower, and Sora took her hand to lead her into the dining room.
A larger table had been set up for the occasion, with several more seats than usual. Tenzin was carrying large bowls of steaming hot food in as Nira and the kids entered, and he brightened up at the sight of her.
"Welcome, Nira!" he said cheerfully. "So glad you could make it."
Nira snorted, amused by the family's antics considering she had just seen them the day before. "Where else would I be?" she replied, smiling down at Sora and Yunjin and then giving Ronen a wink.
"How was your journey here?" Tenzin asked distractedly as he carefully placed the food on the table.
"Short," Nira answered. "You do remember that I live five meters away, right?"
Tenzin began to adjust some of the cutlery as if discontent with the arrangements, glancing briefly up at Nira with a smirk. "I remember, yes. The others should be arriving shortly. Lin is in the kitchen with Jeia… Yunjin, why don't you take Nira to get a drink?"
"Okay, Daddy!" Yunjin agreed, but he sounded strained, and Nira looked over to see him struggling to scratch his back. "Daddy, when can I take this thing off?"
"Not until after dinner," Tenzin sighed, as if he'd been asked that question several times already. Knowing Yunjin, he probably had been asking ever since he'd been told to put it on.
Ronen and Sora returned to the front door to wait for the other arrivals, while Yunjin needlessly led Nira down the hall to the kitchen.
Lin was there, as Tenzin had said, baby Jeia on her hip, and sneaking what looked like tiny bites of dessert cakes.
"Mama!" Yunjin exclaimed when he spotted what Lin was doing. "You're gonna spoil your dinner!"
Lin jolted slightly in surprise, dropping the last dessert she had picked up and hastily swallowing the one already in her mouth. "I was just making sure they tasted okay," Lin blatantly lied, acting as if she had not been caught doing what her son thought she had been doing.
Yunjin wasn't fooled for a second. "Then how come I'm never allowed to test the dessert?" he demanded, hands on his hips.
"Because you're not a grown up," Lin said plainly. "What are you doing in here anyway?" she deflected. "Aren't you supposed to be welcoming people inside?"
"Daddy told me to bring Nira to get a drink," Yunjin explained with a shrug.
Lin made a confused face and glanced at Nira. "But she's been here a thousand times. I think she can find the kitchen."
"I know that!" Yunjin said defensively. "Tell that to Dad!" Yunjin threw his hands up in the air in exasperation and then tugged at his dress clothes again. "Mama, when can I take this off?"
"After dinner," Lin promised, "now quit asking me that."
Yunjin sighed heavily and then darted out of the room without another word.
Nira chucked as Lin rolled her eyes, and strode over to greet the Chief of Police and mother of four. She made sure to give Jeia Rai a smile and a kiss on the cheek too. "Looks like you're going all out for this dinner," Nira commented, examining the food items that hadn't been moved to the dining room yet.
"You know Tenzin," Lin muttered, idly popping another small cake into her mouth. "He wants everything to be perfect, like we're hosts at a fancy restaurant or something. He's been slaving away in here half the day. Even tried to get me into a dress, but I put my foot down there."
"You still look nice, though," Nira said, admiring Lin's fancy long tunic and pants and carefully curled hair. "Did you do your hair?"
"Sora did," Lin admitted with a smirk, offering Nira a dessert, which the acolyte gleefully accepted.
"She did good!" Nira exclaimed through a mouthful of cake.
"Be sure to tell her that," Lin said, "she'll be pleased." As Nira nodded, Lin looked around conspiratorially before breaking off a very small piece of the soft cake and feeding it to Jeia. "Shhh, don't tell your Dad."
Jeia munched happily, grinning at her mother and showing her two bottom teeth. "Da – da – da," she babbled.
"Yes, don't tell da-da-da, or you'll get mu-mu-mu in trouble," Lin told Jeia very seriously. Lin looked back to Nira. "That goes for you too."
"I won't tell a soul," Nira swore.
"Won't tell a soul what?" Tenzin inquired as he suddenly strode into the kitchen.
"I was sharing the liquor with Jeia," Lin lied smoothly, completely deadpan. "What can I say, the kid really likes it. She's been taking shots all afternoon."
Nira couldn't hold back a laugh when Tenzin did a double take. He blinked incredulously, and then narrowed his eyes with an unamused look. "Ha-ha, very funny," he muttered. He began gathering up two more platters of food and gave his wife an annoyed look, ruined by the telltale twitch of his lips that meant he was holding back a smile.
"Can I help you with those?" Nira offered.
"Absolutely not," Tenzin declared. "You're our guest this evening, no work for you."
"I think I can handle carrying a single plate," Nira argued.
"I'm sure you can," Tenzin conceded, "but not tonight."
Tenzin left with his arms full of food again, and Lin asked, "You want a drink?" She was already pulling a bottle of pink colored liquor out of ice. "We've got this fruity stuff you like."
"A drink sounds excellent," Nira agreed.
With Jeia still perched in one arm, Lin poured a drink for Nira, and then a drink for herself from a dusty old bottle that was half-filled with a dark, amber colored liquor. It was stronger than what Nira was drinking, so Lin only filled her cup about a third of the way. Lin then handed Nira her pink drink before taking a sip of her own.
When Lin brought her cup down to chest level, Jeia leaned forward with her lips puckered, trying to latch onto the glass, but Lin pulled it out of reach and said, "No, no, Jeia, this is Mama's special juice." Jeia looked up at her mother with wide-eyed confusion. Lin shook her head. "You cannot have it. Preferably not ever, but I'm sure you'll start stealing it from me about the time you become a teenager. You're going to be a pain in Mama's ass, aren't you? Aren't you?"
Jeia laughed at her mother's half-playful tone, clapping her chubby little hands together and bouncing a little on her mother's hip.
Lin turned to Nira with an exasperated look. "I guess that's a yes."
Sora came spiraling into the kitchen a few seconds later, all cheerful in her sparkly dress as she proclaimed, "The other guests are arriving, Mama!"
She left in a whirlwind immediately after, and Lin and Nira went out to greet the others.
Raizo and his wife, Cho, were the first through the door, their five kids gathered around them. They had two girls older than Ronen, a boy just a year younger than Ronen, a girl two years younger than Sora and Yunjin, and another boy that was only four. Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin didn't meet a whole lot of other kids outside of their cousins, so they were instantly enthralled by the newcomers. Once the three of them had been introduced to Raizo's kids, they essentially abandoned their posts as greeters. It was just as well, because Lin and Tenzin had already said that the kids could go outside together once they'd all had their dinner.
Sensing their impatience, Tenzin told the eight kids that they could go ahead and eat dinner in the kitchen while the adults were talking, and all of them ran off without protest.
"They're really thrilled to be here," Raizo told Lin and Tenzin with a chuckle, watching his kids race after the Beifong kids. "Wouldn't stop asking me questions ever since I told them we'd be coming here. You guys are something of a big deal, did you know that?"
"Who? Us?" Lin said skeptically, exchanging an amused glance with Tenzin. "They'll be disappointed, I'm afraid."
"I think if you threatened to arrest them they might want to move here," Cho said, only half-joking.
Tenzin laughed and turned to Lin with a pleading expression, "Please contain your temper this evening, love. I don't know that we can handle nine children."
"You sure you don't want a couple more?" Raizo teased. "We've got plenty to spare."
Cho elbowed her husband in the ribs, and then turned a bright smile onto Jeia. Cho and Raizo had met Jeia Rai a handful of times, and had nearly been moved to tears by Lin and Tenzin's decision to partially name her after Raizo and Lieutenant Jeia. Cho was the type of mother that often lamented that her kids were no longer babies, and she immediately began fawning over Jeia Rai.
Once Cho and Raizo were finished grinning and cooing at Jeia, who stared at them both with a nonplussed look, Tenzin introduced the couple to Nira. Shortly after, Tosuki and Sanji arrived.
Sanji was still walking with a cane and a limp, his leg having not fully recovered from the injury he'd received during the battle for headquarters. He was no longer able to be a part of his original task force or do much outside of desk work, but Lin had allowed him to stay on as a detective anyway. Tosuki had been promoted as well, because the kid had guts and Lin wasn't about to let that go unnoticed. They were both young still, but competent, and she'd paired them each with a superior that would properly teach them what they didn't yet know. She didn't know all of what the two young men had been up to since the siege, but she knew they were at least best friends now, which she was glad for, because they had each other to get through whatever struggles they might have had in the aftermath. It was a shame about Sanji's leg, to have lost most normal function already in his life, but he seemed to be accepting it better than most. She did notice, however, that the girlfriend she'd said he could bring along was not there. Whether or not they were still together or if the girl simply didn't want to attend, Lin didn't know.
Tenzin's secretary Jun was next through the door, and she'd brought along her boyfriend of several years, a skittish looking guy with wire-rimmed glasses. They were probably the smartest two people in the house and the most quiet, but both of them were outrageously polite and Lin decided she liked them. She had spoken to Jun a hundred times, because she was Tenzin's secretary and the only way to get in contact with her husband some days, but outside of transferring one another to Tenzin, the two women had never bothered to properly get to know each other.
Last to arrive was Saikhan, looking a little uncomfortable in his dress clothes, but toting a bottle of liquor with a messy bow tied around the neck that he handed to Lin. "Figured you'd like this better than flowers," he explained, looking a little sheepish.
"You were right," Lin assured him, but she raised a brow at the bouquet of exotic flowers in his other hand.
Saikhan averted his gaze to Tenzin and held out the flowers as he said, "Good to see you again, Councilman."
Tenzin turned his attention from Jun and smiled brightly at the sight of the bouquet. He accepted the flowers with a delighted, "Thank you so much, Deputy Saikhan. These are marvelous."
Lin's resultant grin was amused, but not mocking, full of adoration for her beautiful, compassionate, ridiculous husband.
Tenzin noticed her eyes on him and, as Saikhan turned to greet some of the others, Tenzin met Lin's gaze. He cocked his head to the side and asked, "What is it?"
"Nothing," Lin murmured, low enough so that the others likely wouldn't hear her over the noise. "I just love you is all."
Tenzin beamed, bringing the bouquet of flowers to his nose to inhale the scent and subtly glancing around them to see if anyone was watching. Either reassured or uncaring, Tenzin leaned down to press a kiss to Lin's cheek. Before moving back, he brought his lips to her ear, and she shivered at the feel of his warm breath as he whispered, "Remind me to show you how much I love you later tonight."
Lin snorted despite the thrill it sent through her, glancing down at the baby on her hip and thinking, "Yeah right." But she played along and coyly asked, "Is that a promise?"
"Have I ever lied to you?" Tenzin replied, while leaning back. He gave her a wink before whirling away from her, back in host mode in the blink of an eye as he ushered their friends into the dining room.
Just as the adults were all finding seats around the table, the eight kids came barreling out of the kitchen. As they were all running past, Sora hurriedly called out, "We finished dinner, going outside now!"
Cho started yelling out warnings to her kids about being careful and good, and all five of them barely turned to look at her as they rushed onward and briefly replied, "Yes, Mom!"
Lin was halfway into a seated position when she spotted Yunjin trying to blend into the group, and she straightened back up so fast she thought she heard her back snap. "Yunjin!" she exclaimed. "Put a shirt on! NOW!" she added, when the boy acted as if he were about to ignore her. She didn't care if he changed out of his dress clothes, but he had to wear something.
"Yes, Mom," Yunjin sullenly obeyed, veering off from the other kids when they exited the kitchen to go grab a shirt.
Ronen came to a sudden halt in the doorway, as if he had forgotten something, and he told Sora to lead Raizo's kids out to the courtyard and he would meet them there. Lin had just sat down, Jeia settled on her lap, when Ronen came up next to her. He held out his hands with a cheery smile and said, "Here, Mom. I'll take her."
Lin glanced down at Jeia, who was already holding her hands out and making a grabby motion for her brother. Lin looked back at Ronen, uncertain as she asked, "Are you sure? You'll really have to look out for her. That means not leaving her for even a second, and you probably shouldn't take your eyes off of her either, you know how she likes to stick rocks in her mouth when she thinks we aren't looking."
"I know, Mom," Ronen persisted. "I'll take good care of her."
Lin still wasn't sure. She trusted Ronen, but Jeia was still so little and the boy should be having fun with his new friends, not watching his baby sister.
"I'll bring her back when you're done eating," Ronen offered. "That way you can have fun with your friends at least."
Lin felt an odd emotion squeezing her chest, but she shook it off and smiled gratefully, finally letting Jeia go into Ronen's arms. Lin thanked him several times, as did Tenzin, and the boy rolled his eyes at them as if they were being ridiculous. Then he carefully carried Jeia outside to join the other kids.
"You've got a good set of kids, Chief," Raizo commented. "Make my kids look like a bunch of wild animals."
Raizo chuckled and Lin smirked. "It's their father's fault they're so polite," she said. "They sure as hell didn't get that from me."
Everyone laughed, and Tenzin started dishing food onto plates for everyone.
Conversation started out light as everyone dug into the food Tenzin had spent all day preparing. Typical small talk about work and the weather and how delicious the food was. Lin's officers began to get to know Jun and her boyfriend and Nira.
Midway through the meal, Tenzin rose, a glass of water in his hand, the only one among them without a glass of some sort of liquor besides Cho. "You don't have to stop eating," he assured them. "I just wanted to say a few words."
Lin gulped down her own food and took a sip of the amber liquid in her glass to wash it down, hoping Tenzin didn't call her to finish the speech. He was better at that sort of thing than she was.
"Lin and I invited each of you here as a simple thank you," Tenzin began, placing his free hand on his wife's shoulder. "This dinner can in no way make up for all that we owe you, but we hope that it can be the start. We could not have made it where we are today without the support of all of you. Each one of you has helped us in someway over the years, or more recently. We cannot express how grateful we are, whether it's help with our children or help at work or just being there as a friendly ear. It means more to us than you know. And we also want to insist that if any of you need anything from us, please do not hesitate to ask. I know that sometimes we appear to be losing our minds, but we have no qualms taking a pause to help a friend in need."
Nira was the first to respond, teary-eyed and emotional as she said, "You and your family mean the world to me. Thank you for letting me be a part of it."
"It's an honor to work for you, Tenzin," Jun concurred. "I've never met a politician so caring in all my life."
"And she's met a lot of politicians," Jun's boyfriend, Haruto, quipped.
Sanji said to Lin, "You're the best Chief a wounded detective could ask for."
"And the best a non-wounded detective could ask for," Tosuki joked, bumping shoulders with Sanji.
Raizo's round cheeks were starting to turn a light shade of pink as he waved a dismissive hand and teased, "It was my pleasure to help deliver your baby, Chief." Lin nearly choked on the drink she had taken to avoid responding to Sanji and Tosuki's praise, and several people spluttered a laugh.
"I didn't prepare a speech," Saikhan muttered with a shrug.
"That's okay," Lin said, rising to her feet to join her husband. "No speeches necessary. Eat your fill, enjoy yourselves, stay for as long as you like. Oh, and we've got plenty of extra beds in the dorms and we'll watch your kids for free, so feel free to drink as much as you want."
"Now it's a party!" Sanji exclaimed.
Lin raised her glass as Raizo belted out a delighted, "Here, here!"
"To Lin and Tenzin!" Tosuki declared, raising his own glass.
"To Lin and Tenzin!" the others shouted in unison, raising their own glasses.
"To all of you!" Tenzin corrected.
"To all of us!" they all said with a laugh, each of them taking a gulp from their beverages.
And then Saikhan lifted his glass again and said, "To Lieutenant Jeia."
Lin's body seized up for a second, a hundred different emotions coursing through her in an instant and memories flashing before her mind's eye. Everyone else around the table went quiet, and for some reason, most of their eyes fell directly on her. Tenzin's hand landed on her back, and it gave her the strength she needed to smile softly and, in a quiet, subdued voice, concurred, "To Lieutenant Jeia."
Lin lifted her glass even higher, eyes set on Saikhan, and she could see everyone lifting theirs again in her peripheral vision. All of them chorused, "To Lieutenant Jeia," and then took long drinks from their glasses this time.
Lin tipped her head back and swallowed the rest of the liquor in her own glass in one go, reveling in the warmth that spread through her chest.
After Lin had clinked her empty glass onto the table, she went around the table refilling everyone else's cups. She gave herself a little more, but she didn't want to push it much further. She hadn't had much of any liquor since she had conceived Jeia Rai nearly two years ago, so she was already feeling lightheaded.
As Lin settled back down into her seat, conversation continued, and Tosuki quietly asked, "Has anyone talked to Jeia's wife lately? Ailyn was her name, right? I've been wondering how she's doing…"
Everyone around the table shook their heads except for Lin and Tenzin, who cleared his throat and spoke up, "We have actually. She's doing okay, all things considered. She has her mother, and Jeia's brother came to the city to be with them too."
"She had a brother?" Sanji asked with a wince. "I didn't even know."
"He traveled a lot," Lin muttered. "Wasn't around much. He was the only family she had besides Ailyn. Don't know what happened to their parents, but they'd been long gone for a while."
"We invited Ailyn to come tonight," Tenzin added, "but I think it was too much too soon for her. She's been over a couple of times. She and baby Jeia seem rather fond of one another."
"What about Kaito?" Raizo asked, and Lin winced slightly.
Saikhan spoke first, saying, "He's still in a bad way. Physically, he's mostly healed, but mentally…"
The mood was quickly turning somber, and Lin cleared her throat, desperate to change the subject as she said, "Captain Kaito is being well taken care of. He's got a wife and his young son so...he'll be back on his feet in no time. Now, does anyone have any happy news?"
There was a moment of hesitation, in which Sanji and Tosuki exchanged an odd look that Lin couldn't read.
But it was Jun who said, "We do actually." Everyone turned to look at her and Haruto expectantly. "We're going to have a baby!" Everyone around the table began to explode into congratulations, and when it died down, Jun was beaming as she added, "She'll be here next week!"
Lin's eyes narrowed in confusion, glancing down at Jun's flat stomach as the others around the table exchanged glances and did the same as Lin.
It dawned on Lin a second before Jun explained, "We're adopting. A little girl from Ba Sing Se."
There was another chorus of congratulations, and then Tenzin happily said, "That's wonderful news, Jun. I'm so happy for you and Haruto. You'll be wonderful parents, and if you have any questions about child rearing, do not hesitate to ask. Lin and I were a disaster when we first had Ronen." He chuckled fondly at some random memory, and Lin nodded in confirmation. They really had been a mess. Granted, they hadn't been at their finest when they brought Jeia Rai home either, but they had at least known what they were supposed to be doing.
The mood had been adequately uplifted, and Lin relaxed once again while Jun and Haruto started telling everyone about their soon to be daughter. Lin noticed Nira was the one asking the most questions, and Lin wondered idly if the acolyte/caregiver had considered adoption herself since her husband passed all those years ago, or if she hadn't wanted children without him.
The conversation eventually veered off into Sanji telling a long-winded tale about his now ex-girlfriend and…something about a turtle-seal? Lin wasn't sure. She'd zoned out halfway through and went to get the desserts while everyone else listened to his story.
The adults decided to have desserts outside to enjoy the warm evening air, and they all ended up settled in a circle as Tenzin began to light a fire in the middle. Lin went briefly to check on the kids and retrieve Jeia, who was cranky and about ready for bed. The rest of the kids were wired, still running around with the same exuberant energy, and it didn't look like they would settle down anytime soon. They were having a good time, though. Lin could see the pure elation on Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin's faces as they said goodnight to Jeia and ran back to join their new friends. Lin watched them for a few minutes with a fond smile on her face before returning to her own group.
Jeia was half asleep by the time Lin settled down beside Tenzin, and the baby astutely ignored the conversations going on around her. She fussed a little in Lin's arms, but as soon as Tenzin took her into his own grasp, she settled down fully and finally dropped off to sleep. Lin leaned up close against Tenzin and sipped at the liquor still in her glass.
Later, Tenzin took Jeia inside to settle her into her crib, and an acolyte was on stand by to keep an eye on her, and to bring her to her parents if she woke.
It didn't take long for Lin's officers and, surprisingly, Nira, to become well and truly drunk. Jun seemed to be fairly tipsy, but controlled, and Haruto and Cho were as clear headed as Lin or Tenzin. Saikhan was trying very hard to pretend that he wasn't affected by his own alcohol consumption, but Lin could see him loosening up some.
Cho, Jun, and Nira had drifted together at some point and joined a conversation with Lin and Tenzin, while Raizo had sidled up next to Haruto and was imparting fatherly wisdom on the younger man whether he wanted it or not. Saikhan, Sanji, and Tosuki were swapping stories about bad dates and reminiscing old relationships. Which was what led to Tosuki abruptly shouting, "Hey, Nira!"
The woman in question turned, blinking slowly as if unsure she'd actually heard her name, eyelids heavy from the late hour and the alcohol. "Me?" she asked, squinting at Tosuki.
"Yeah!" Tosuki confirmed. "You're single right?"
Nira stared, and then laughed uproariously for seemingly no reason at all. She was wiping tears from the corners of her eyes when she finally replied, "I think I'm a bit old for you, kid."
Tosuki startled and blushed, shaking his head rapidly before chuckling briefly and explaining, "No, no, not for me. For my brother! He's older, totally cool, and I think you two would really hit it off."
"Oh, um, I don't know," Nira stammered. "That's, um, nice of you, but I don't think I could."
"Well why not?" Tosuki persisted. Everyone else was paying full attention to he and Nira's conversation now, and Lin exchanged a glance with Tenzin, wondering if they should shut it down before it made Nira uncomfortable. "He's a great guy, I promise, and I'm not just saying that because he's my brother! He's got a little girl, but you like kids, right?"
"I believe you, but I don't really date," Nira admitted, squirming a little in her seat.
"Well neither does my brother since his wife passed a few years back, so it's perfect!" Tosuki slurred.
Saikhan plucked the half-empty glass out of Tosuki's hand and interjected, "All right, enough for you. Leave the woman alone."
"I'm just trying to help," Tosuki complained, reaching out for his glass, but Saikhan easily held it out of the younger man's range. Something seemed to dawn on Tosuki, and he whirled back on Nira. "Oh! Do you prefer women? I have a sister too! Although, she is married to a man, so that may be trickier to set up…"
"Shut up, 'Suk," Sanji said, punching Tosuki lightly on the shoulder. "We get it, you've got a crush on Nira."
Tosuki made a disgruntled noise, but before he could protest, the eight kids suddenly came clambering over to the adults. Lin had been keeping an eye on them from a slight distance, having asked them to come closer to the adults as the night grew later. It was past her own kids' bedtimes, but she had known they were going to be up late and she didn't mind it happening from time to time.
The kids all look exhausted now, their footsteps a little sluggish as they stumbled into the circle. Raizo's youngest collapsed into his mother's arms, snuggling up to her and looking ready for bed. The oldest two girls sat cross-legged on the ground in front of their mother, while the other two kids went to sit with their father.
Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin, however, were on a mission. Instead of cuddling up to their parents, they positioned themselves in front of Lin and Tenzin with stern looks and hands on their hips. They were a united front, and Lin and Tenzin shared a confused look.
Sora was rubbing sleepily at her eyes, but she was demanding as she asked, "Mama, Daddy, how come we don't get to go to school like normal kids?"
Lin frowned, and Tenzin shifted uncomfortably next to her.
"You do go to school," Lin deflected.
"Sergeant Raizo's kids go to school in the city," Ronen pointed out.
"Yeah!" Yunjin added. "We're stuck here with the acolytes!"
"You like the acolytes," Tenzin countered, sounding a little appalled. "Why would you want to go into the city when you get such exceptional schooling here?"
"There are no people here," Sora argued.
"There are no kids," Ronen corrected for her. "We don't get to meet any new people or learn what it's like other places. We're trapped here on this island all the time and the only time we get to experience anything new is on our short vacations that we always have to leave early."
Sensing that this was about to turn into a full blown argument, Lin stood abruptly, clasping Ronen's shoulder and saying, "You make some good points, kid. Why don't we talk about this in the morning?"
"Then we'll never talk about it," Ronen sulked.
"Talk now!" Yunjin insisted through a yawn.
"We will talk," Lin promised. "After we all get some sleep. I don't know about you, but I'm really tired."
That wasn't a total lie either. She was tired, and not really in any shape to argue the necessity of safety with her children. She could understand their frustrations though, so she would hear them out.
"I'm beat too," Raizo said loudly, probably wanting to escape and also thinking of his own sleepy children. "You kids ready for bed?" Raizo's kids all nodded their ascent, except for the youngest girl, who protested very briefly despite her drooping eyelids. Raizo and Cho rose to their feet, their kids with them, and Raizo asked Lin, "You sure you don't mind us staying here tonight, Chief? It's a bit late to catch a boat…"
"Of course not," Lin replied. "I'll show you all to the dorms."
"Well can you show me to the kitchens?" Sanji grunted, struggling to rise and shaking out his stiff, injured leg. "I'm starved again."
The guests began thanking Lin and Tenzin and saying their goodnights, and Ronen and the twins said goodnight to their new friends.
While Tenzin ushered Ronen and Sora and Yunjin into the main house to their own rooms, Lin showed their guests to the rooms they could use for the night. Raizo and his family appeared to be the only ones ready for bed, though, and Nira offered to lead Sanji, Tosuki, Jun, and Haruto to the kitchens. There, they would not disturb any other acolytes sleeping in the dorms while they stayed up a bit later, and Sanji could get the food he requested.
As Nira was leading her group away, Lin started in the opposite direction, intending to head back to her house, but Saikhan called out her name to stop her.
Lin turned back around to face her deputy as he strode the short distance to reach her. He hesitated once he was standing before her, scratching the back of his neck and looking uncomfortable.
"Spit it out," Lin told him, not unkindly. She and Saikhan shared a different sort of relationship than most, borne from twenty years together doing some of the most daunting work. They had been on a team that Lin had led when they were both fairly new to the force, and there had been an understanding between them from the beginning. Neither one of them sought to undermine the other to get ahead, and they always had each others backs. Their conversations were always straight to the point, and they didn't really talk about the real stuff, the emotions and the hardships. They had families and friends for that, and they were both more comfortable keeping their friendship mostly professional. They didn't socialize outside of work much, so him being there on the Island for a night of dinner and drinking was far out of the norm. However, they did know a lot about each other, simply from knowing each other so long, from overhearing conversations they probably shouldn't have, and late night rants when they were working instead of somewhere else they wanted to be. Nonetheless, both of them would have done quite a lot for the other, even if they were often too stubborn to ask.
At Lin's demand, Saikhan seemed to snap out of his delay and he nodded shortly, straightening up and dropping his hands back down to his sides. "Just wanted to say thanks, for tonight, but I've also got a favor to ask."
"Go ahead," Lin prompted.
"I hate to ask so soon, but the offer about helping us out…I'm gonna need to cash that in. See, my daughter is getting married."
Lin's eyes widened slightly, almost imperceptibly so, but she was massively surprised. She didn't know a whole lot about Saikhan and his only child. She knew that he had been in a very brief relationship when they were in their twenties that resulted in a child he hadn't been ready for. He had struggled between his demanding job and his responsibilities as a father, and he hadn't seen the girl as much as he probably should have. Then, when she was around eight or nine years old, her mother had decided to leave the city and move to the fire nation with her new husband, taking Saikhan's daughter with her. Saikhan had been angry, but understanding, and he had struggled to travel to the fire nation for visits. The mother, at least, had been agreeable to bringing the girl to the city on occasion as well, but Saikhan's relationship with his daughter had still been strained. There has been some tension between them when the girl got older, but Lin didn't pry and Saikhan didn't share much so she wasn't certain how it had turned out.
Imperceptible as it was, Saikhan still noticed Lin's slight surprise and agreed, "Yeah, I was surprised to get an invite. She came to the city a few months ago, told me she wanted me there and…well, I wasn't sure what to say other than yes. Everything was still a mess after the siege and everything though, and I kind of expected to have to tell her I wasn't going to make it. It's some week long thing, waste of money if you ask me, but she wants me there for all of it and... Anyways, I said I'd talk to you. It doesn't have to be the full week, though. I know you've got a lot going on with the kid and –"
Lin immediately shook her head and held up a hand to forestall whatever else Saikhan was about to say. "Go," she told him without hesitation. "The whole week. Don't worry about work or me or whatever. Go be with your daughter, enjoy yourself for once. The city will still be standing when you come back."
"You sure?" Saikhan asked. "'Cause I won't be easy to get in contact with and if something happens –"
"Nothing will happen," Lin interjected again. "And if something does, I've got Ikuro and plenty others that can fill in while you're gone. Seriously, you've gotta go. That's an order, Deputy."
Saikhan smirked and finally relented, "Thanks, Chief."
"Give Nori my congratulations," Lin said. Saikhan nodded his assent, and then the two of them went their separate ways. Saikhan to the kitchens with the others that were still awake, and Lin to her home, where she hugged her own kids tight and kissed each of them goodnight before crawling into bed and into the loving arms of her husband.
Chapter 42: Chapter 42
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 42
Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin pitched a fit for several weeks after learning that Raizo's kids got to go to school in the city. Lin and Tenzin had tried to explain that it was dangerous for the three of them, but Ronen pointed out that Lin, Su, Kya, and Bumi had gone to school in the city and they had turned out just fine. Lin thought "fine" was a relative term, but the kid did have a point when considering how much more famous Toph and the Avatar were. So Tenzin then argued that he had chosen to be home schooled and enjoyed it just as much, but the kids weren't swayed. They were adamant that they be as normal as they possibly could while still having famous parents and being the only descendants of the last remaining Airbending Master.
Tenzin outright refused to even consider it, convinced that it was an unnecessary risk. Lin thought that if the kids went to public school for a couple weeks they'd be begging to be home schooled again, and she was worried about the possible dangers too.
Then again, the triads were back to fairly petty crimes and no more extravagant plots had been enacted. That could change, of course, but Lin was also fairly confident that no one would be foolish enough to come after her kids again. Everyone that had tried was either dead or in prison, and the school in Republic City was well guarded. There were other students there that were children of popular figures, and none of them had been snatched despite a few attempts. Plus, Lin and Tenzin worked within walking distance of the school. If something were to happen, they could probably show up in plenty of time. And if Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin were in school for half of the day, it would make things easier on Lin, Tenzin, and Nira. Jeia Rai was a handful on her own some days.
So Lin somehow convinced herself that maybe it was a good idea for the kids to go to public school. They were a little sheltered, and she had always been concerned about that before. She didn't want them to grow up with little understanding of the real world. Nevertheless, convincing Tenzin was an ordeal. He wouldn't even listen to Lin's reasoning at first, and when he finally did, he argued every point. Lin grew so frustrated she didn't speak to him for nearly two days.
In the end, Tenzin finally came around, but he became overly paranoid. While Lin and Tenzin were going through the process of enrolling the kids into school, Tenzin asked a million questions and insisted that he post White Lotus members throughout the school as extra guards. The head of the school hadn't been thrilled, but relented to some of Tenzin's ridiculous demands. And when the kids finally started classes, Tenzin made innumerable excuses to show up at the school for the first several weeks to check on them. He was forced to stop when the kids started complaining to Lin, who hadn't even known that it was happening, and she insisted that he relax.
Ronen and the twins were beyond thrilled to start school, and even Lin had to admit they were pretty cute with their new uniforms and their backpacks. Tenzin, Lin, and Jeia had walked Ronen and the twins into school on their first day, and Tenzin had gotten teary eyed the second the three kids walked away. Lin felt a little emotional too, but it was mostly pride. Her kids were growing up so well and so fast, and she had no doubts that they would excel in public school.
The following two years were filled with all kinds of new things for the family.
Ronen turned thirteen, an official teenager, and both of his parents were thrown far out of their depths. It seemed they had only so recently conquered babies and toddlers, and now suddenly their first born was closer to being an adult than a child. He was older than Aang and Toph had initially been when they'd set off to save the world, and while Lin had no intentions of him ever doing anything even remotely similar to what his grandparents had done, it was still a reminder of just how old her baby was. He was the kid that had first made her a mother and turned her world completely upside down. He had taught her so many things about herself and about love and she didn't think she could ever convey to him what he meant to her.
Ronen being a teenager was truly testing her, though. The boy was still himself, still sweet and helpful and smart. However, his hormones were controlling him and the whole family had to be more careful about what they said around him sometimes. He no longer wanted to play with his younger siblings, much to Sora and Yunjin's chagrin. He much preferred being alone in his room or in some hideaway on the Island where he would not be disturbed, reading and drawing and whatever other things teenagers did that Lin didn't want to think about. He still helped out with Jeia when his parents asked, but often with a heavy sigh, and he sometimes protested having to join family time if he was in a particular mood. He kept asking to go into the city with some of his friends, and Lin wasn't afraid to admit that it scared the hell out of her. She trusted Ronen to make good decisions, but teenagers were historically stupid and she didn't want him getting roped into anything because his friends took advantage of his helpful nature. So there were strict limits to where he could go and how long he could be out, and if the boy noticed the occasional White Lotus guard or Air Acolyte strolling nearby he never mentioned it.
Lin dreaded the next several years and the time when Sora and Yunjin would soon become teenagers as well. They were already ten years old, meaning in just three short years there would be three sulky teenagers, and Lin couldn't even imagine what that was going to be like, especially when considering that the twins had always been more dramatic and exuberant than Ronen anyway.
Jeia, at least, was still a baby, although technically a toddler now at two years and eight months old. Time was flying, and while Lin felt relieved to not have to change diapers and wake at all hours of the night as much, part of her still missed when the kids were little. Although, she was definitely more comfortable with the kids being older. As they became more self-sufficient, there was less anxiety about them being out of her sight. She no longer had to worry so much about them eating something they shouldn't or falling and seriously injuring themselves. If she didn't have the energy or the time to cook lunch or wasn't around for breakfast, they could scrape something together for themselves. But she particularly liked that she could have a real conversation with them now rather than just nodding along to their babbling baby talk.
Despite the fact that Ronen was the teenager, it was Jeia that was the most obstinate. The girl only knew a handful of words and phrases, but she never failed to get her point across. She was stubborn and brash and so much like Lin sometimes it was scary. She didn't take no for an answer, but she used the word herself quite a bit. "No" had been her first word, in fact. But despite her boldness and her fiery temper, she was the least exuberant of her siblings. She didn't excite easily and she was more content to laze around with her parents than chase after the energetic twins. Lin and Tenzin sometimes worried about her lethargic nature, but the doctors didn't seem too concerned.
Thankfully, Jeia had not experienced many more issues from her premature arrival. She was sick more often than her siblings had been, though, and one or two times Lin and Tenzin had panicked and taken her to the hospital. There had also been a minor surgery that had been necessary, but otherwise Jeia was mostly healthy. She seemed to be developing on track so far, with limited delay. She hadn't begun bending yet, but Lin and Tenzin were mostly relieved about that. If their suspicions were accurate then she was likely to be an earthbender, and an untrained earthbender would only invite further chaos into their home. Not to mention that it would mean Lin was in charge of teaching Jeia how to control her bending, and that was one thing she'd dreaded most about having children of her own. As far as Lin was concerned, Jeia could wait as long as she wanted to start bending.
The turmoil of two years before seemed like a distant nightmare – though nightmares of that time did still plague Lin on occasion – and Lin had once again regained a comfortable balance between her work life and her family. Lieutenant Jeia was still supremely missed, but between Lin and Saikhan and some of the other high-ranking officers, they were keeping police headquarters on track.
Two weeks after Sora and Yunjin had turned ten years old, Lin decided to leave work early for no reason other than that she wanted to be with her family. It was the end of the week, so the older kids were out of school, and Tenzin had the day off. Lin didn't call ahead to tell them, preferring to surprise them, and so she was wholly unprepared for the sight that greeted her upon entering her home.
Lin had entered the house with a bright smile – well, bright by Lin's standards, more of a smirk to others – expecting her family to come rushing to greet her. Instead, she strode the whole way into the living room without anyone noticing that she was even there. When she finally saw the reason why, she immediately spun on her heel, smile vanishing as she desperately attempted to sneak back out of the room as if she had never been there, praying that no one would spot her…
Too late.
"Lin!" Tenzin's voice cried, confusion and relief in his tone. Lin froze, eyes rolling skyward as she sucked in a calming breath and tried to steel herself.
"Linny!" another voice exclaimed with too much excitement, followed by the chorus of, "Mom!" and "Mama!"
Lin turned back around to face her family at last, forcing a small smile for her kids. They didn't run to her like they used to, which she hadn't yet decided if she preferred. Ronen and Yunjin nodded at her in greeting and Sora waved with a cheerful smile. Jeia did get up and start toddling over to her mother, looking disgruntled about something, and Lin bent to pick up the toddler and settled Jeia on her hip.
"You're home early!" Tenzin said nervously, at the same time Bumi leapt from his seat on the couch and came hurtling straight towards Lin.
Lin had received no warning that Bumi would be visiting, and judging by the terse look on her husband's face, he hadn't had any idea about it either. It wasn't uncommon for Bumi to show up unannounced, but he typically stuck to the kids' birthdays, and he had sent a letter to tell them he wouldn't make it to the twins' two weeks ago, but had given no indication that he would arrive later on.
The most disconcerting thing about his unplanned visit, however, was the uniformed woman currently lounging on Lin's couch, next to where Bumi had just been. The woman wasn't familiar in the slightest, but clearly a friend of some sort of Bumi's from the United Forces. She wasn't young, per say, but she had to be much younger than Bumi, who was in his fifties now. Besides that, she looked utterly joyless, her expression one of boredom and a tinge of annoyance. She barely glanced at Lin, and did not even bother to get up to introduce herself. She simply continued to sit, arms folded across her chest and eyeing Yunjin with a look of distaste. Granted, the young boy was staring, but he was ten for spirit's sake.
Lin hated the woman on sight.
Bumi crashed into Lin while she was still glaring at the strange woman in her home, and she was nearly knocked off her feet. Caught in the middle, Jeia huffed irritably and squirmed until Bumi finally let her and Lin go.
"It's great to see ya, Linny," Bumi cheered. "What's it been, fourteen months?"
"Something like that," Lin muttered, patting Jeia's back in an effort to get the girl to relax. "What are you doing here anyway? I thought you couldn't get time off?"
"Well, I couldn't get time off at first," Bumi confirmed, "but I could get time off for my honeymoon!"
Lin blinked, confusion settling over her for a split second as she took in Bumi's beaming smile and his sweeping gesture in the strange woman's direction. The woman still didn't move or speak or even nod, but her lips did curl into some semblance of a smirk. Lin's confusion began to trickle into horrified realization, and the expression of displeasure on Tenzin's face seemed to solidify her fears.
"You didn't," Lin begged, unable to wipe the mounting dread from her face as she watched Bumi carefully, waiting for him to break into laughter and tell her it was all a joke.
Instead, he exclaimed, "I did! I am officially a married man! Lulu and I married two days ago. We were close to the city so we thought we should swing by and tell my favorite brother and sister-in-law the good news!"
"You thought we should come," the woman – Lulu – corrected in an unsurprisingly monotone voice. "I said we should go to Ember Island."
"We will, love!" Bumi promised, "but first I want to shout my joy from the rooftops!"
"You can't be serious," Lin tried again.
"He's very serious," Tenzin spoke up, striding across the room to stand at Lin's side, squeezing her shoulder in what she assumed was a gesture of comfort…or maybe restraint.
"I know what you're thinking," Bumi said, and Lin raised a disbelieving brow. "You're upset that we didn't invite you!"
"Riiight," Lin drawled. "That's what I'm thinking."
"It all just happened so fast," Bumi explained, "but don't worry, we'll have a big wedding with the whole family."
"Uncle Bumi!" Sora squealed. "Can I be in your wedding? Please, please, please?"
"Well of course!" Bumi approved without hesitation. "I couldn't have a wedding without my favorite niece now could I?"
Tenzin suddenly became offended on behalf of Jeia and Akira, the other two nieces that Bumi had, but Lin grabbed her husband's arm to stop him from protesting. There wasn't even going to be a wedding, as far as Lin was concerned. There couldn't be. Whatever stunt Bumi was pulling was insane.
"I wanna be in the wedding too!" Yunjin complained.
"You can have the wedding here!" Ronen suggested, and Lin had to rub viciously at her eyes to avoid giving her son a disgruntled look.
"I'm going to go change into something more comfortable," Lin announced, before the fiasco could go on. Her head was spinning and she needed an escape.
She spun on her heel before anyone could suck her back into the conversation, and heard Tenzin hastily saying, "I'll come with you."
"Woah," Bumi spluttered, sounding shocked. "Don't take the kid with you if you two plan on getting frisky!"
Lin rolled her eyes so hard she thought they might get stuck in the back of her head. She grinded her teeth to keep from saying anything she might regret and continued onwards as Tenzin snapped, "Bumi!"
"What's frisky mean?" Yunjin questioned.
"It means sex," Ronen deadpanned.
There was a chorus of "ewww" from the twins and Tenzin gasped, "Ronen!"
And whatever else was said, Lin blessedly did not overhear. She was already too far down the hallway, walking rapidly towards her bedroom, where she shut the door and immediately sat down on the bed. She let out an annoyed groan and a weary sigh and settled Jeia comfortably on her lap.
The little girl looked up at her mother with an expression that was almost understanding, as if Jeia, too, felt the way that Lin did. Considering how much they seemed to have in common, Lin wouldn't be wholly surprised.
"Your Uncle Bumi is an idiot," Lin muttered, just before Tenzin swept into the room and hastily shut the door behind him as if he were being chased.
"Bumi is an idiot," Tenzin seethed the moment he whirled to face Lin, only to soften his tone and his gaze as it landed on Jeia. "I'm sorry, my sweet. Daddy is just very unhappy with your uncle today."
Jeia seemed unbothered, sticking her thumb in her mouth and not saying a word. She was a lot less talkative than Sora or Yunjin had ever been.
"What in the –" Lin covered both of Jeia's ears long enough to finish, " – hell is he doing? Married? To whoever that woman is? And then bringing her here?"
"I know," Tenzin sighed, pacing the length of their room and stroking his beard thoughtfully. "He just showed up an hour ago and my head has been throbbing ever since! Does he really think we'll be happy about this? That we'll just go along with it as if it's not all a sham?"
"How long has he even known this woman?" Lin asked.
Tenzin snorted. "Three months, if that. He was vague when I asked the same question, but I deduced it pretty quickly."
"Who is she? Is it safe to have this stranger in our home with our kids?"
"I don't know," Tenzin admitted, "but they won't be sleeping in our house, if that's what he thinks. I don't care if she's a stand up citizen, she's barely spoken a word since she got here. And I don't like the way Yunjin is staring at her."
"You're gonna have to talk to him about that," Lin pointed out.
Tenzin was still too focused on fretting over Bumi to acknowledge Lin's demand with more than a noncommittal grunt.
"And you need to talk to your brother," Lin added. "Whatever he's trying to pull, someone's got to talk him out of it."
"And why on Earth must that be me?" Tenzin complained. "He never listens to a word I say!"
"He will about this, otherwise he wouldn't be here."
Tenzin groaned. "Bumi does what Bumi wants. Nothing I tell him is going to convince him that this is a horrible mistake. In fact, he would be even more likely to go through with it if he knew I disapproved."
"Well don't start an argument over it," Lin advised. "Just…I don't know, ask him why he's doing this, and if he's sure he knows what kind of commitment it is. If you reason with him for once –"
"I'm always reasonable," Tenzin protested immediately. "He's the one that can't be serious for five seconds in a row."
"That's the attitude that causes him not to listen to you," Lin muttered. Tenzin opened his mouth to argue further, but Lin stood abruptly and cut him off. "Listen, we can't stay in here long. Spirits knows what that woman is doing out there and we left the majority of our kids with her."
Tenzin blanched and took Jeia so that Lin could quickly change. Then the three of them went back out to the living room, where they found Lulu still planted firmly on the couch, but Bumi and Yunjin in the middle of a wrestling match. Bumi had Yunjin in a headlock and the boy was grinning and turning bright red all at once.
"Bumi!" Tenzin screeched the moment he entered the room. "Stop that at once!"
"We're just havin' some fun!" Bumi protested, not easing his grip on Yunjin. "Aren't we 'Jin?"
The boy tried to nod and say "Uh-huh," but it came out as more of a strained gasp. It stirred something in Lin that made her feel suddenly sick to her stomach. She blinked and the horrific image that flashed across the inside of her eyelids made her blood run cold. It took a concerted effort and several seconds for her to remind herself that she was safe, her family was safe, Yunjin wasn't being strangled for real, Bumi was not a threat, Shira had not come back from the dead…safe.
"Just use your bending!" Sora urged her twin, as sound came roaring back to Lin's ears. "You can beat him!"
"He's not allowed!" Ronen admonished, looking just as invested in the impromptu match as Sora was. "It would be cheating."
"It's not cheating," Sora argued. "Bumi is bigger so he has the advantage. If 'Jin can't use his bending then they're unevenly matched!"
Ronen started to say, "That doesn't make any –"
But Lin would hear no more. She strode right over to Bumi and Yunjin, stepped behind them, and reached around to grab the arm that was wrapped around her son's throat. Bumi's grip was fairly loose, and it didn't take much effort for Lin to pull his arm out straight and then twist his wrist. Once free, Yunjin rolled away, coughing and inhaling rapidly all at once. Bumi yelped as Lin yanked his arm behind his back and attempted to roll out of her grip. It was a smart move, but one Lin was expecting, and she placed her knee in his spine to collapse his body flat to the ground before he could execute his defensive maneuver.
"Enough," Lin said dully, releasing Bumi only seconds afterwards and rising back onto her feet. She went over to Yunjin and checked his throat, but besides a red mark, the boy looked unharmed, and he was frowning at his mother.
"You ruined it, Mom," he said petulantly. "I wasn't in any danger."
"Yeah, Lin," Bumi confirmed, sounding insulted. "You know I wouldn't hurt him."
Lin could feel everyone's eyes on her and she could acknowledge now that she might have overreacted just a little. But she was still reeling from overwhelming emotions she'd felt so recently and pissed at Bumi for showing up the way he had, and now a bit embarrassed, so she snapped a little. She whirled on Bumi and scoffed, "I don't know what to expect from you right now."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Bumi demanded, struggling to his feet.
"It means," Lin harshly replied, "that you show up here, unannounced, with some strange woman we've never even heard of and you apparently barely know, claiming she's your wife, as if that's not the most ridiculous thing you've ever said in your entire life. Then you act like we're just supposed to accept it, meanwhile you're strangling my son –"
"MOM!" Ronen loudly interrupted, while Lin was pausing for breath, and she wondered for a moment if he had been saying her name the entire time she'd been ranting at Bumi. Lin turned to look at him, trying to school her features into a more neutral expression, but she doubted she managed it in her current state. "Don't be mad at Uncle Bumi. Yunjin goaded him into it –"
"Hey!" Yunjin protested.
" – and they were just playing around. Yunjin and Sora wrestle all the time."
"And I tell them to stop every time," Lin countered. "And besides, Bumi is a grown adult, he shouldn't be goaded into anything by a ten year old. He has no restraint –"
"Why are you freaking out?" Ronen interjected, eyeing her with a mixture of irritation and concern. "You're being rude to Uncle Bumi for no reason. Did something happen today? Is that why you came home early?"
Lin huffed irritably. Actually, she had been in a particularly good mood earlier, before Bumi and his wife had shown up. "Nothing happened, and I'm always rude to Uncle Bumi when he's being an idiot."
"Hey!" Bumi protested this time.
"Ronen, Sora, 'Jin," Tenzin said loudly, before anyone else could continue, "why don't you three go outside for a bit so that the four of us can talk?"
"Awww," Sora whined, "but we always miss the good stuff."
"We won't miss anything good," Ronen told her. "We've heard Mom and Dad yell at Uncle Bumi before."
"I still wanna hear," Sora muttered as Ronen began pushing her towards the exit.
Yunjin noisily dragged his feet and pouted while he followed his siblings. As the three of them neared the living room entryway, Tenzin asked Ronen, "Can you take Jeia with you?"
Jeia immediately shook her head before Ronen could respond. "No," she said firmly. "I no take. No take."
Before Tenzin could think up a good reason to convince the toddler otherwise, Yunjin stepped forward and held out his arms saying, "C'mere, 'Rai. We'll go down to the docks and you can bury me in the sand."
Jeia seemed to deliberate this for several seconds before reaching out for her brother. Yunjin took her into his grasp and all four kids disappeared down the hallway, Tenzin calling after them, "Be careful!"
"What's this about?" Bumi demanded once they were gone, and Lin struggled not to roll her eyes again.
"I think we need to have a discussion," Tenzin began.
"Actually," Lin decided, "why don't you two have a chat and I'll get to know Bumi's, uh, friend."
"Wife, you mean," Bumi corrected.
"Right," Lin lied, turning her gaze to Lulu, who had been unsettlingly quiet the entire time. Clearly she didn't talk much. "Why don't we go outside and you can finally introduce yourself?"
Lulu smirked at Lin's hostile tone, as if amused by the whole situation. She rose to her feet without argument and said, "My friends call me Lue. You can call me Lieutenant Commander."
Lin raised an unimpressed brow, striding for the exit as she replied, "And you can call me Chief."
"An admirable title," Lue admitted, while following Lin out of the house. "For a cop anyway."
Lin bit back a scathing remark and waited until they were outside to whirl on the other woman and demand, "So who the hell are you and what do you want?"
"Well, lunch would be a good start," Lue – or Lulu, or whatever the hell her name was – deadpanned.
"Very funny," Lin scoffed, "but I'm not laughing. I don't know what you've said to Bumi to get him to do this –"
Lue suddenly made a sharp sound that Lin guessed was supposed to be a laugh, but it was just plain weird. "What I said to Bumi?" Lue cackled. "He practically begged me to marry him. I said no at first…and the seventeen times after that, but what can I say? He wore me down."
"That's comforting," Lin muttered, growing more and more agitated by the second. "I don't know what your game is, but I'm warning you. You're in my city and my home –"
"And what?" Lue interrupted. "You'll arrest me? Listen, lady, I don't want to be here either. As soon as I convince Bumi, we're out of here."
"That moment can't come soon enough."
Lin didn't really want to be a part of the drama anymore so, with that, she turned away and started in the direction of the docks. She had journeyed home that day wanting to see her family and had gotten roped into a whole lot of nonsense instead. The kids were annoyed with her because she had snapped at Bumi and Tenzin was strung out because of Bumi and Bumi was just…well, Bumi.
Lin needed to break away and focus on the brighter things and ignore the fact that Lue was following her.
The two women found the kids down by the water's edge. Jeia Rai was indeed piling sand deliberately on top of her brother Yunjin, who was uncommonly still, eyes shut as he basked underneath the warm sun. Ronen and Sora were wading in the bay, pant legs rolled up as high as possible, but still getting soaked the further they wandered out, splashing water onto one another playfully. If Yunjin had joined them they would have all been soaked to the bone already.
Lin felt a warmth flowing through her that had nothing to do with the temperature of the day, and she smiled softly as she drunk in the sight of her kids being cheerful and normal and themselves. This was what she had wanted to come home to.
Lin crouched down by Jeia and Yunjin, examining's Jeia's work and then instructing the toddler in where to pile more sand. Jeia nodded dutifully and set to work.
Yunjin peeked an eye open, pulling his hand up to use as a shield from the glaring sun. The movement disturbed a lot of the sand on that side of his body, and Jeia chirped a distressed noise and began berating her brother in a nearly incoherent babble.
Yunjin ignored her, saying to Lin, "Hey! No cheating. You can't tell her how to do it, or she'll never learn."
"How will she learn if no one ever teaches her?" Lin countered.
Yunjin propped his head up a bit to better see Lin, but something behind her must have caught his attention, because his eyes went suddenly very wide. His jaw dropping, Yunjin lurched up into a sitting position, sand flying through the air and his movement nearly knocking Jeia over. Lin caught the toddler, who immediately began flinging sand at Yunjin and protesting belligerently.
Lin turned her head to follow Yunjin's gaze, picking out the shapes of Ronen and Sora first, to ensure they were both all right. Neither looked like they were drowning or about to be swept out to sea, but they were both throwing surreptitious glances at…
Lue.
While Lin had gone to Yunjin and Jeia, Bumi's so-called wife had apparently decided to wade into the water. On her way, she had stripped off her shoes and clothes all the way down to her underwear, leaving a trail of clothes in the sand and her body almost on full display.
Lin could feel rage boiling up inside of her so hot that she thought her own body might burst into flames. If only the heat of her glare could have caught Lue on fire.
Lin leapt to her feet, one hundred percent prepared to start hurling admonishments and maybe some insults in Lue's direction, but she changed her mind a split second before. Instead, she shouted out to Ronen and Sora, "Come on, kids! Time to go inside!"
Ronen and Sora snapped their heads in Lin's direction as if they had been in a trance, and at the look on her face, they made the wise choice to do as she said. As the two of them came sloshing back out of the bay, Lin bent down to pick up Jeia, who was still complaining to Yunjin. But Yunjin was still staring at Lue with his mouth half agape.
Lin scowled, pushing the boy's chin back up, gently despite her anger, but enough to make his teeth click together. "Stop staring," Lin snapped.
Yunjin blinked and turned to look at his mother in surprise, scrambling onto his feet just as Ronen and Sora were running over. Lin ushered them back up the hill, in the direction of their house, anywhere that wasn't where Lue was.
Halfway up the slope, Sora asked, "Mama, what time is it?"
"I don't know," Lin answered, only half paying attention, still fuming silently.
"We have to find out!" Sora squealed impatiently. "We have to be at the docks when my best friend gets here!"
Lin continued walking for several paces before Sora's words sunk in and she groaned, coming to a sudden halt and causing Ronen to bump into her back. "Sorry, kid," Lin told him distractedly before turning her gaze onto Sora. "Listen, Sora, I didn't know your Uncle Bumi was going to be here today and now he's brought that…that woman. It's just not really a good time to have a friend over –"
"No!" Sora shrieked, stamping her foot and balling her little hands into fists. "You promised! You can't take back a promise!"
Lin gave her a warning look. "Come on now, you know throwing a tantrum won't get you your way."
Sora's bottom lip began to tremble and tears started filling her eyes. "But you promised," she repeated, much quieter this time, more heartbroken than petulant.
Lin instantly felt uncomfortable, both at the sight of tears and the fact that she had caused them. The water works came naturally for Sora, and she was certainly good at playing her parents when she wanted to get her way, but Lin also knew that the girl was genuinely distressed.
"And I promise she can come as soon as your Uncle Bumi leaves," Lin placated.
But Sora wasn't having it. She turned away from her mother with a stifled sob and started walking off in the opposite direction, her shoulders shaking. Lin instantly felt like the worst mother in the world. Maybe it would be okay to have Sora's friend come over, but everything was such a disaster right now and throwing a fifth kid into the mix…
Ronen suddenly sighed heavily and offered, "I'll help watch them, Mom." Lin was hesitant to agree, but Ronen insisted, "I don't mind. Really."
"Are you sure?" Lin asked uneasily.
"I'm sure," Ronen confirmed. "She's been talking about her friend coming over all week. Or I can watch Bumi instead."
Lin snorted. "That's too much to ask of you. Why don't you go tell Sora the good news?"
Ronen nodded and went chasing after Sora, who hadn't made it very far, likely hoping Lin would change her mind. After Ronen informed Sora that her friend could still come, the girl squealed and hugged her older brother tight. Then she ran over to Lin and hugged her too.
With that resolved, Lin trudged back to the house with the kids just in time for Tenzin to come storming out of the house. Lin hurriedly told the kids to go entertain Bumi, who was storming off in the opposite direction, knowing that Bumi would fake enthusiasm for the kids, but Tenzin was about to go on a rant about his obstinate older brother.
As Tenzin began to vent, Lin listened patiently, nodding along in understanding, waiting her turn so that she could then complain about Lue. Telling Tenzin about the woman's inappropriate decision to strip down in front of their kids only angered him more.
Lin was phenomenal at ranting, and she truly enjoyed blowing off steam, but she quickly grew tired of talking about Bumi and Lue. She wanted them gone, or Lue at least, and for Bumi to not be married to the strange woman anymore. She didn't want to have to deal with the whole thing anymore. Tenzin's conversation with his brother hadn't gone well though, and Lin had no idea how they were going to sort the mess out. She also didn't know why they always felt responsible to pick up after their siblings. Shouldn't they have just let Bumi figure out his own life? But Lin had a feeling that something else was up. Bumi was impulsive and hardheaded, but he wasn't reckless. He didn't make giant mistakes like marrying a woman he barely knew and parading her in front of the two people that would almost certainly disapprove of such an action. Which was why Lin had wanted Tenzin to have a level-headed discussion with his brother, but she should have known better. They both turned into total children when they were together. It was like watching Yunjin and Sora fight.
Lin sighed in exasperation when Tenzin told her that he refused to speak to his brother on the matter again. It meant that Lin would have to be the one to make Bumi see reason. "Do I have to do everything around here?" she grumbled. "Why don't I just give the boys the sex talk, too, while I'm at it?"
"Would you?" Tenzin asked hopefully.
"No!" Lin snapped. "And you need to do that soon, by the way. Ronen's getting older and Yunjin needs to quit the staring."
"One nightmare at a time, Lin," Tenzin begged.
Lin rolled her eyes and said no more on the matter, saving her thoughts for later. Now, she wanted to see what the kids were up to and figure out how much time they had before Sora's best friend came to the Island. Tenzin wasn't thrilled about having a guest over either, but decided maybe it would be a good distraction.
It took Lin and Tenzin a while to seek out the others, but eventually they found all of the kids with Bumi and Lue – thankfully fully clothed again – at the sparring ring.
Yunjin and Sora were on the edge of the circle, each of them holding one of Jeia's hands as the three of them intently watched what was happening in the center. Ronen and Bumi were there, circling one another. Ronen was in a perfect defensive form and deeply concentrating, every one of his steps deliberate and calculating. Bumi was light-footed and sporadic, making him look wild and uncertain. But Lin knew better from decades of watching Bumi spar, or from being on the receiving end of his right hook. Every move he made was purposeful, appearing reckless to confuse his opponents.
Lue was standing halfway towards the center like a referee of sorts, bent over with her hands on her knees and watching Bumi and Ronen carefully. Her uniform jacket was unbuttoned, revealing a damp tank top underneath that came down so low it was doing a poor job of covering any cleavage. Lin grinded her teeth together and strode straight over to Yunjin, unsurprised to find the boy openly staring yet again.
Lin grabbed Yunjin's chin between her thumb and forefinger and turned his head to face her. She bent over slightly to be eye-level with him, and in a soft but demanding tone, she told him, "You need to cut that out. I'm serious, kid. Staring is rude and it's creepy and it's going to get you a well-deserved fist in the face if you keep it up. Girls don't like when you stare and that's not how you treat a woman, got it?"
Yunjin nodded with a guilty expression and apologetically murmured, "Sorry, Mom."
Lin moved her hand to squeeze his shoulder and assured, "I get it, you're curious, but think about other people's feelings, and also try not to grow up so fast."
Lin left it at that and returned her attention to Ronen and Bumi as they began. Bumi was the first to strike, charging at Ronen with his arms open wide and an exaggerated battle cry. Ronen sidestepped and kicked with his left foot at the last second, hitting Bumi in the ankle and causing him to trip. Bumi flailed, but dived into a roll and came up directly behind Ronen. The boy's back was completely exposed, but he spun with another kick, this one much higher and nearly hitting his uncle directly in the face. Bumi bent backwards to avoid the blow, Ronen's foot passing mere inches from his face. Ronen's next move was a practical one-two punch and a knee to the stomach, but Bumi anticipated each one and suddenly dropped to the ground and started rolling in Ronen's direction. Taken aback, Ronen skipped backwards, but as he came down on his feet again, Bumi's frame crashed into his ankles and he was knocked forward off of his feet. Ronen crashed into the ground, but was not deterred. He rolled right onto his back, just in time for Bumi to come up on his feet and lunge at where Ronen lay prone on the ground. But Ronen was ready, and he brought his knees up to his chest, kicked straight up, and shoved Bumi backwards. Bumi's weight was a bit much for Ronen's smaller frame though, and the boy had little time to catapult himself into a crouch before Bumi had stabilized himself. Ronen struck at Bumi's middle with his right fist, Bumi caught Ronen's wrist and swung his own fist down. Ronen used his left arm to block Bumi's swing and then straightened his legs, attempting to bring his knee up into Bumi's stomach as he did so. But Bumi shoved the arm he still held and Ronen toppled backwards. As a last resort, while flailing and unstable, Ronen came down on his right foot and kicked his wobbly left leg out at his uncle. Except Bumi had already anticipated Ronen's intent and was positioned to catch the leg. Bumi put a hand to Ronen's neck and the match was over.
Yunjin cheered and Sora clapped. Ronen's shoulders slumped in defeat, but he smiled and shook the hand that Bumi extended to him.
"You did good, kid," Bumi commended him, while heaving for breath. "Perfect form, but a little too perfect. Your moves are too predictable, gotta get crazier with your offense, take 'em by surprise."
"Will you show me some moves?" Ronen requested.
"Of course!" Bumi agreed. "But you're gonna have to give your Uncle Bumi a rest first."
"I can show you a few things," Lue offered, stepping up to Ronen, "if you think you're up for it."
Lin took a step forward, intending to put the whole thing to an end, but Tenzin grabbed her shoulder and held her back. She looked over her shoulder at him with a scowl and he shook his head silently.
In the middle of the circle, Ronen excitedly exclaimed, "Yeah! That'd be great. What kind of stuff do you know?"
Bumi chuckled and patted Ronen on the back saying, "Good luck, kid," before hobbling out of the center to where Lue had been positioned a few minutes earlier.
Lin felt her hackles rising, watching the scene play out with tension in every muscle, waiting for Lue to make one wrong move. It was one thing for the kids to spar with their uncle, quite another for them to face off with some strange woman Lin didn't know or really like.
It started out harmless enough, with Ronen and Lue exchanging blows and blocking punches, each of them being careful and methodical. Then Ronen struck out with his right hand, which Lue blocked with her left forearm before bring her right hand up underneath of Ronen's outstretched arm to jab two fingers swiftly into two points on his bicep. Ronen's arm went limp, and he staggered backwards in surprise, barely managing to dodge the leg Lue aimed at his head.
Lin suppressed a growl in the back of her throat and started marching forward, unimpeded by Tenzin this time.
Ronen recovered swiftly, all things considered, but he was thrown off and his next attack fell short. Lue jabbed his leg and he collapsed to one knee. Ronen tried to use his still functioning arm to fend her off.
By that time, Lin had reached the pair, and as Lue was about to chi block Ronen's other arm, Lin grabbed the other woman's wrist in a firm grip and twisted it down. She stepped in front of Ronen and said, "Enough."
Lue frowned and Bumi protested, "That's cheating, Lin."
"No more sparring," Lin told Bumi with a glance, and then turned a threatening gaze on Lue. "And no chi blocking."
"But, Mom," Ronen interjected, struggling to rise to his feet. Lin held out a hand to help him and he wobbled slightly on one leg before stabilizing. There was sweat dripping from his brow, but he was grinning. "That was awesome." He looked to Lue. "Can you teach me how to do that?"
"No," Lin immediately said.
"The boy should learn," Lue said. "Chi blocking is no longer the secret it once was. More and more nonbenders and benders alike are learning its technique. If he wants to stand a fighting chance against them he must learn."
"He won't be fighting anyone, he's just a boy," Lin argued.
Lue snorted. "If you believe that then you are a worse Chief than I thought."
Lin squeezed her hands into fists, and this time the growl escaped her unbidden. "Listen, lady," Lin started to say, but Bumi stepped between them.
"All right, all right," he placated, "let's take it easy here. As much as I would love to see this cat fight…" He chuckled and seemed to lose his train of thought imagining such a scenario.
"Come on, Mom," Ronen pleaded, "let her teach me."
Tenzin and the rest of the kids had come to the center of the circle, and Tenzin interrupted before Lin could speak, "We can continue this discussion later. Sora's friend will be here soon and we have a lot that needs done before we welcome a guest into our home. Ronen, Bumi, you best get cleaned up."
"Fine," Ronen relented, "but this isn't over."
Ronen went off to get cleaned up and Bumi led Lue in the opposite direction, giving his younger brother a dirty look before he went. Tenzin rolled his eyes and Lin sighed internally. Apparently she was going to have to be the one to talk sense into Bumi.
Tenzin began coordinating Yunjin and Sora to chores that needed done, and Lin took Jeia to the kitchen because the toddler was complaining of being hungry again.
Within an hour, Ronen and the house were clean and Bumi and Lue had so far kept their distance. Lin didn't know where they were on the Island and frankly she didn't care. Jeia was fed and ready for a nap, curled up in her father's arms and dozing on and off but refusing to be away from everyone else.
The whole family of six went to the docks together to meet Sora's friend. Yunjin already knew the girl from school and was nearly as excited as Sora was, but taking measures to stifle his enthusiasm. Sora was bouncing on her toes in anticipation by the time the boat came to a stop and the few occupants began to disembark.
Two acolytes came down the ramp first, nodding to the family as they passed. And then a small girl with short brown hair and matching eyes popped up at the top of the ramp. Her and Sora both squealed simultaneously and Lin winced, exchanging a look with Ronen, who made a face but smiled a little too.
"Sora!" the girl cried delightedly before springing down the ramp and into Sora's waiting arms.
"You're here!" Sora exclaimed as the two girls spun around in a circle.
A man hastened down the ramp after Sora's friend, and Lin assumed the man was the girl's father. He waved to Lin and Tenzin and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off before he could.
Sora had turned to her parents with a radiant smile and one arm slung over her friend's shoulders and introduced, "Mama, Daddy, this is my best friend in the whole world, Jinora."
The young girl named Jinora smiled shyly and bowed. "It's an honor to meet you both, Chief Beifong, Councilman Tenzin."
Unlike her first impression of Lue, Lin's first thoughts about Jinora were that she was pretty certain she would like the girl. Jinora looked the part of a kind, well-behaved kid. Granted, she could have just been putting on a front for the adults, but she seemed genuine and if Sora liked her then Lin had little doubts.
"Jinora," Tenzin said, a thoughtful look on his face that Lin couldn't read, and then he smiled kindly at the girl. "That's a very pretty name. It's great to finally meet you, Sora has told us so much about you. And please, do not feel the need to use our titles, Lin and Tenzin will do just fine."
Jinora beamed, and Yunjin suddenly inserted himself between her and his parents. "Hi there, Jinora!"
Jinora startled slightly and blushed. "Oh, hello, Yunjin."
"Welcome to my Island," Yunjin boasted. "Shall I take you on a tour?"
He held his arm out to Jinora, but Sora scoffed and knocked it away. "Cut it out, 'Jin. I'll show Jinora around."
Sora grabbed her friend's hand and started tugging Jinora across the docks, Yunjin following close behind.
Jinora looked over her shoulder and waved as she went, shouting, "Bye, Daddy! I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Be good!" Jinora's father yelled back hastily. "I love you!"
"Dinner is in an hour!" Lin called after the kids.
"I've got 'em," Ronen assured her, before racing after the twins and Jinora.
Lin returned her attention to Jinora's father, who was shaking Tenzin's hand. "An honor to meet you, Councilman. I'm Jinora's father, Anil."
"Welcome, Anil," Tenzin greeted. Then he gestured to the half-sleeping toddler in his arms that was adamantly refusing to participate in the greetings. "Please excuse Jeia Rai, I'm afraid you caught us at nap time."
"Give Jeia Rai my apologies," Anil said with a smile.
He turned to Lin, who shook his hand and said shortly, "Lin. Nice to meet you."
"Likewise," Anil agreed. "I admit, I was a little nervous when Jinora told me her best friend was the daughter of the two most famous people in Republic City, but at least I know she should be in good hands with the Chief of Police here. This is her first sleepover so we were a little worried."
"This is Sora's first as well," Tenzin said, "so we understand your concerns. But rest assured, your daughter is in good hands. We'll make sure she's comfortable here, and call you straight away if she needs anything."
"That's a relief to hear," Anil said. "My wife really wanted to be here too, but she's home with our other two. Our youngest is just getting over being sick so she didn't think it was a good idea to bring him. And I hate to run off on you so soon, but I'm afraid I need to go into the office this evening."
"Oh, we take no offense," Tenzin assured. "We understand the challenges of work and children. Please, do not worry about Jinora. We'll care for her like one of our own."
"I'll call later tonight," Anil said, "just to make sure she's doing all right. Shall I pick her up same time tomorrow?"
"That'll do just fine," Tenzin replied.
The two men exchanged phone numbers and then Anil clambered back onto the waiting ship to go back across the Bay.
Notes:
I want to start with a huge thanks to Constipated Genius for helping me come up with some of the ideas for this chapter and the next, as well as the previous one. And a shout out to Kuvira Jr for mentioning chi blocking, which gave me the idea to have Ronen learn it. I appreciate everyone's reviews and I try to fit in all of your requests as we go along. This story is as much for you guys as it is for my own enjoyment so I take all of your feedback seriously.
Next chapter is part two of Bumi's visit! Lin and Bumi will have a nice chat, Jeia throws a disastrous tantrum, and Lin and Tenzin go on a long overdue date night, but things go awry when they run into an "old friend." I'm sure you can all guess who Jinora's mother is, but how will Lin react when she finds out? Hope you're all still enjoying, thanks so much, and until next time!-
Chapter 43: Chapter 43
Chapter Text
Chapter 43
After Anil had left, Lin and Tenzin – along with Jeia – went in search of the rest of the family.
They eventually found all four kids – as well as Bumi and Lue – in the bison stables. Sora was busy introducing Jinora to the two bison milling around inside, with Yunjin following the two girls closely. Ronen was watching them from afar, trying to appear casual while talking to Lue, but no doubt asking her about chi blocking again.
Bumi had his back to the entrance and did not hear Lin and Tenzin enter as he suggested, "Hey, Sora, why don't we take your friend on a fun bison ride before your dad shows up and –"
Tenzin cleared his throat loudly, and Bumi froze mid-sentence.
"Bumi," Tenzin said through gritted teeth. "A word, please? Outside?"
"No thanks," Bumi tossed over his shoulder, with barely a glance in his younger brother's direction. "I'm happy in here, in the shade."
"It'll only take a moment," Tenzin insisted, with a concerted effort to contain his agitation.
"Well I want no words with you, for a moment or otherwise," Bumi said petulantly, arms folded across his chest.
Lue let out an aggravated groan and snapped at Bumi, "Would you just go? I'm tired of listening to you two act like five year olds."
Lin would have snorted if she hadn't despised Lue so much.
Bumi sighed as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders and relented, "For you, my Lulu love, I will endure it." He turned with an exaggerated flourish and strode out of the stables, purposefully bumping shoulders with Tenzin as he passed by.
Lin took Jeia from Tenzin as he begrudgingly went to follow.
Then Lin wandered towards the middle of the stables, intent on corralling the kids back to the house for a little while so she could better keep an eye on all of them. Jeia was still in desperate need of a nap and dinner would be soon. Sora and her friend could play outside afterwards, she reasoned.
With all the excitement, Jeia had completely given up on sleep and was extremely cranky, pouting and muttering incoherently while trying to wriggle out of her mother's grasp. Lin set the agitated toddler down on her feet, and Jeia went instantly to one of the metal beams, plopping straight down on the ground and wrapping her little arms as far around the beam as they would go, which wasn't very far.
"No fly," she said, hugging the pole tight.
Lin almost laughed. Jeia's hatred for flying hadn't gone away upon being born. On the few occasions when the family had gone to visit Suyin or Katara, Jeia had screamed nearly the whole way. She now associated all sky bison with terror and she sometimes ran if she was taken anywhere near one.
"I know, Jeia," Lin placated, nodding in understanding. "No fly."
"No fly," Jeia repeated desperately, her emotions already heightened from her missed nap and sky rocketing from fear of the nearby bison.
"I know," Lin said again. "We'll go in a minute, okay?"
Jeia just kept shaking her head, and Lin turned her attention to the twins and Jinora, even more determined to usher them inside to get Jeia to her nap.
Jinora was tentatively petting one of the bison under Sora's instruction, eyes wide and mouth agape. "I've never seen one up close before," she whispered in awe. "They're beautiful."
"And smelly," Yunjin quipped.
Sora was smiling fondly at her friend and Yunjin was making an obvious effort not to stare at Jinora, per his mother's scolding from earlier.
"I'm sure my Dad will take us for a ride on Oogi later," Sora told Jinora. "If you want to, that is."
"Is it scary?" Jinora asked Sora timidly. "I've never flown before."
"It's loads of fun!" Yunjin answered first. "And you don't have to be afraid because I'll be there to protect you."
Sora rolled her eyes. "Nobody said you were invited, 'Jin. And Jinora doesn't need you to protect her."
Sensing an impending argument, Lin chose that moment to interject before Yunjin could get in a comeback. "Sora," Lin said, "why don't you go show Jinora the main house and your room and then get cleaned up for dinner? Yunjin, you can set the table tonight and help me with dinner."
Yunjin's shoulders slumped in disappointment. "But, Mom," he protested.
"You can bother your sister and her friend later," Lin interrupted. "Now come on, Jeia needs her nap."
"Fine," Yunjin relented with a heavy sigh.
"Do you think Daddy will fly us on Oogi after dinner?" Sora asked.
"I'm sure he will," Lin replied. "And if not tonight, then definitely tomorrow before Jinora leaves."
Satisfied, Sora took Jinora's hand and the two girls started slowly for the exit, Yunjin trailing right behind.
From her spot a few meters away, Jeia howled, "Maaamma, no fly! No fly!"
"I know, Jeia," Lin sighed, turning back in the toddler's direction. "You don't have to fly."
But Jeia was kicking and fussing and banging her fists against the metal beam, in full on meltdown mode and apparently not understanding, or not believing, her mother about not having to fly. She kept on repeating the same phrase, chubby little face turning redder as she clung to the beam, and she shook her head so fast she nearly smacked her face off of the very thing she clutched at for safety.
Concerned that the toddler would hurt herself punching her fists and swinging her head around like that, Lin quickened her pace, rushing over to Jeia saying, "Jeia, don't do that you're going to –"
But her warnings had come too late.
There was a loud screech of metal that hurt Lin's ears so badly she flinched and nearly clamped her hands down over her ears. Jeia froze in surprise, fists hovering over the beam that now rattled violently against her. And Lin went still too, but out of a sudden brief, paralyzing fear, knowing what had happened but not wanting to believe it, not knowing how she could. She looked up quickly at the ceiling, already suspicious of what she would find and also praying that she was wrong for once.
She wasn't.
Somehow, amazingly, impossibly so, Jeia had unknowingly shifted the metal beam in the midst of her meltdown. It was no longer attached to the framework, but tilting ominously out of its moldings, scraping its way across the ceiling.
Lin instinctively reached out and grabbed it with her bending, but the damage had been done and a domino effect began, and she watched it with growing horror as if time was moving in slow motion.
One of the rafters was damaged during the shift and a section of the ceiling began to cave in, creaking and groaning, but not falling completely just yet. The two bison were spooked by the noise and the small bit of rubble that clattered to the ground nearby, and immediately began to stamp their heavy feet and mewl their discontent. Lin could feel the structure shifting more and more in her grasp, and when one of the bison staggered fearfully into another one of the metal beams, it jostled the building even further out of alignment.
"EVERYBODY OUT, NOW!" Lin shouted, stretching out both arms and planting her feet firmly as she held onto the swaying building for dear life.
Stricken, but understanding a serious situation when they saw one, the kids leapt into action. Ronen and Sora began herding the two bison out of the building, trying to calm the frightened beasts and prevent them from causing further damage. Yunjin grabbed Jinora and used his airbending to hurtle the girl and himself out of the stables before running back in to help his siblings. In all the chaos and confusion, Jeia had crawled up against Lin's legs, and the older kids must have though that she was safe there with their mother. But Lin could tell that she wasn't going to be able to let go of the building without it collapsing on top of her and Jeia soon after. Even now her hold was tentative, too much for her to handle on her own, keeping her focus dedicated only on the crucial structures that would hold the framework intact just a little bit longer.
Fearing that no one would think to help Jeia in time, Lin cast her gaze around frantically, wondering how far away Tenzin and Bumi were, wondering if Sora or Yunjin would have time to come back for their sister, or if they would even hear Lin over all the noise that was now hammering down around them as more and more of the ceiling began to cave in. Lin wondered, if she dropped her hold and focused only on keeping a safe perimeter around herself and Jeia, would it be enough? She didn't think that it was. It was a risk she wasn't willing to take. To endanger herself was one thing, to endanger Jeia was too much.
Lin looked down at the toddler and calmly said, in a strained voice, "Jeia, I need you to run outside with your brothers and sister, okay? Can you do that for Mama? Can you run outside as fast as you can?"
Jeia shook her head emphatically, looking terrified and still clinging to Lin's legs. Her hands were bunched into fists around Lin's pants, her hold impressively strong. The girl was strong in so many ways, ways Lin had never known before, and it was frightening and amazing all at once, to see it today, so suddenly. Jeia had never shown signs of bending before, had never so much as disturbed a pebble, and in her first time she had already brought a metal structure near to collapse.
"You've got to go, Jeia," Lin insisted, not trusting her own strength or that of Jeia's to protect them both. She put some forcefulness into her tone this time, the sort of tone that made the kids listen even when they were at their worst behavior. "You have to run now."
But Jeia still wasn't budging, and Lin let out a desperate huff, hunching her shoulders as if the weight was literally on top of her, considering her options, calculating the odds in her mind all in a matter of seconds. But she need not have bothered, because a blurred shape suddenly leapt in and grabbed Jeia around the middle, yanking the girl off of Lin's pants so forcefully that Lin was nearly wrenched forward herself. But her footing was solid and firm and she only wobbled a little before stilling again. Jeia flailed and screeched a protest, reaching for her mother, kicking her airborne legs. But Lue cradled the toddler safely to her chest and did not let go.
"I've got her," Lue told Lin firmly, a sureness in her eyes that Lin could not help but trust. And then Lue was sprinting from the bison stables, hunched over and using her body to shield Jeia's from the falling rubble. Once Lue was out, she shouted, "CLEAR!"
Not one to miss an opportunity, Lin instantly began to back up, slower than she would have liked, but as quickly as she could. Her muscles were clenched and it was difficult to concentrate on her footing and holding the structure together at the same time. She heard Tenzin shrieking her name from just outside, but it sounded even further away. She was laser focused on her task, sweat streaking down her face and dripping from her clenched jaw. She began methodically releasing some of the roofing further back in the building, letting it fall now that there was no one there to be harmed by it. Without her kids to worry after she could ease her way just outside of the danger before letting the whole building fall. But she was only halfway out and her breath was coming in short pants, and she was beginning to feel dizzy. Her arms shook as she held them aloft, afraid that to drop them would be to drop her hold on the whole structure. She blinked and stars flashed before her vision, and all that she could see, all that she was, was the earth. The fragments inside the metal frame, vibrating and shifting at her command, morphing to maintain a false stability.
So focused was she on her task that Lin did not notice when she finally emerged from the dark, wavering bison stables and into the warm sunlight and safety. She barely felt the solid presence behind her when she bumped into it, but she recognized the soft voice in her ear saying, "Let go, Lin. I've got you. Let go."
Lin would have trusted that voice in even the most dire of situations. Would have dropped off of a cliff if he had told her to, and she forced her arms to drop, finally. Her limbs were so stiff they almost didn't listen to her command, but when she let her hold release from the building, she collapsed alongside it with a relieved, pained gasp .
Metal and wood crashed to the ground with a loud clatter, a cloud of dust blowing out in a shock wave that struck Lin full on in the face. She could taste the grit and clenched her eyes closed when it stabbed at her irises. She held her breath and shielded her face, but her arms had turned to jelly and her shield flopped listlessly back to her sides. But Tenzin's arms were tight and strong around her waist, catching her as she fell, and he spun her around to face the opposite direction. She could not see the movement, but she felt it, and he was hunched over her back, no doubt taking the worst of the debris. But the building was not overtly large and it settled shortly after, or perhaps Tenzin had used his airbending to divert the volatile cloud, she couldn't be sure.
She was still wobbling when she blinked her eyes open, and the world spun around her for a few seconds. She squinted carefully, breathing in harshly through her nose, only to sputter out a hacking cough to purge her lungs of the dust that was coating the back of her throat. She spat dirt from her mouth and wiped her eyes with Tenzin's sleeve, because her own was too grimy to make a difference. He rubbed her back soothingly as she recovered, one of his arms still wrapped around her waist, keeping her upright and probably as a measure of comfort for himself as well.
It was only a matter of seconds before the kids were on her too, tugging and grabbing at her clothes, seeking contact, reassurance. Sora had teary eyes and Ronen looked grimly pale. Yunjin was half in shock and Jinora was clinging to his sleeve, the girl shaking like a leaf and looking petrified.
Lin straightened with an extraordinary amount of effort, but sustained the pose, patting the kids in as reassuring a manner as she could manage, kissing Sora on the forehead because the girl wouldn't stop crying. Ronen hugged his mother with fervor, but Yunjin was glancing sideways at Jinora latched to his side and he wouldn't do anything so embarrassing with a pretty girl right there, as if she would care, as if it would be unusual for him to display such feelings for his own mother. Despite the recent events and the bone deep exhaustion wearing on her, Lin found a moment to think about that and wondered if Yunjin was old enough to already be thinking so much about girls and being embarrassed by his mother. It should have been Ronen that was leaning in that direction first, but despite his teen hormones and his occasional attitude, he hardly ever shied from his parents. He still hugged Lin goodbye every time she dropped him off at school. But Yunjin had been trying to escape his mother since he was born, always on the run from the moment he could toddle away, always seeking adventure and excitement and mothers were no good at such things with their rules and their warnings.
Lin snapped her gaze from Yunjin to search over top his head for the last of her children, the one that had accidentally kick-started the chain of events that had caused the building to collapse. Jeia had not meant to do it, but the girl was powerful, had to be extraordinarily so, to have been metalbending before she ever even showed any sign of earthbending. She hadn't just tossed a rock or morphed a coin, she had shifted an entire metal beam out of its molding in the middle of a tantrum, and how was Lin ever going to teach the girl to control such power? Could Jeia be stronger than even Toph if she could accomplish such feats at only two and a half years old? And Lin almost laughed, imagining her mother offended and incensed, because how could her granddaughter, how could anyone be greater than the mighty Toph Beifong?
Tenzin's arm was still around Lin's waist, which she realized when he squeezed her briefly, his breath hot against the back of her neck as he questioned, "How? What happened? Are you okay?"
It was too many questions at once and Lin ignored them. She finally found Jeia, in Lue's arms still, and it was a bitter pill to swallow because Lin had felt nothing but pure hatred for Lue and now… Lue had saved Jeia, had swooped into the center of danger without concern for herself, without waiting to be asked. She had seen the little girl and Lin's struggle and she had leapt in and taken the toddler to safety. Lin shouldn't have been surprised. Lue was in the United Forces for a reason, and Bumi was an idiot for marrying her, but he wouldn't have brought a woman to the Island where part of his family resided if he didn't trust her.
Lue stepped between the twins to get closer to Lin. Jinora had detached herself from Yunjin and was wrapped in an embrace with Sora. Jeia was settled on Lue's hip, face buried in Lue's shoulder, and the woman looked uncomfortable, but her grip on the toddler was strong. Lin reached out her arms for the child, but her limbs were still shaky and she glanced over her shoulder at Tenzin with a grimace and a silent request on her face. Tenzin slowly removed his arm from her waist, his hands stilling on her hips for a moment to ensure that she would not fall over if he let her go. Lin remained upright, and Tenzin stepped halfway around her, still close enough for his shoulder to press against hers as he reached out to take Jeia from Lue's uncertain grasp. Lin stared hard at the younger woman, and when their eyes met, Lin mouthed, "thank you."
Lue shrugged, betrayed no emotion, and hastily stepped back several paces from the family, arms coming up to cross over her chest. Bumi had rushed through at the same time, and Lin hadn't noticed, too busy watching Lue, until suddenly she was wrapped up in a crushing embrace that brought all feeling back to her limbs just so she could fight her way out of it. Bumi was sweaty and too warm and his arms were constricting, and she would have used her bending to knock him on his ass if the simple thought of bending in that moment didn't make her feel light headed.
"I'm so glad you're all right, Linny!" Bumi declared, directly in her ear, and Lin flinched from the sound. "I didn't know if you were gonna make it out of there!"
Lin finally managed to shove Bumi off of her and she huffed, "Why not? Think I can't handle a measly building held together with toothpicks?" She was lying, the damn thing weighed a ton, but her kids were watching her and they were still a little pale.
Lin's tone worked on Yunjin, at least. He finally cracked a smile. "That was wicked cool, Mom," he proclaimed. Coming from him, that was quite the compliment.
Lin looked over at Tenzin, who cradled Jeia to his chest, and the toddler had crushed her face against his sternum and her hands were clenched tight around the front of his robes.
"What happened?" Tenzin asked again, more persistent that time, and Lin sighed, reaching up to place a hand on Jeia's back.
Lin didn't answer for several long seconds, trying instead to coax Jeia to look at her, but the toddler was ashamed – if someone so young could even feel such a thing – and she wouldn't budge.
Lin met Tenzin's gaze at last, and she could see all of the fear and the worry there in those expressive eyes, what he must have felt when he had seen the building collapsing, seen his children fleeing from it and his wife still inside. She was fine and the kids were fine and nobody had even a scratch, and the entire thing couldn't have lasted more than a few minutes at most, but she knew what he would have felt in that short span of time. She was hesitant to speak her own fears, did not want to add to his already heightened emotions, but she would not lie to him, she never had.
"It was Jeia," Lin finally answered. "She was upset and she accidentally shifted one of the metal beams. We were right. She's an earthbender."
Bumi chuckled and cheered and patted Jeia on the back as if it was some of the greatest news he'd ever heard. "She's certainly got that Beifong blood in her!" he declared.
Tenzin's face scrunched up in confusion and shock and he looked down at the girl he was holding as if perplexed. "A metal beam?" he repeated. "She shifted a metal beam? Collapsed the whole building?"
"The bison were spooked and helped the situation along," Lin replied, "but yes."
"She was metalbending?" Tenzin gasped. "But, but, is that even possible? Has it ever happened before? Metalbending before earthbending?"
Lin shrugged because she had no answer for him, and the older kids were listening intently, understanding some of the concern on their parents' faces now.
"I've never heard of such a thing before," Ronen admitted, looking thoughtful, "but I'm sure it's not impossible. Bending seems to manifest in all kinds of strange ways."
Tenzin nodded like he believed it, but Lin could see the disbelief in his eyes and he wouldn't stop staring straight at her and she stared right back.
"It's okay, my sweet, Jeia," Tenzin told the girl in a hushed tone despite his worries, pressing short kisses atop her head, and it was a testament to how spooked the girl had been by the whole thing that she didn't react. She usually protested some of her father's affections, and he would laugh and kiss her cheek or her tummy until she was shrieking with delighted giggles, and it was the only sort of fight they ever had, when Jeia would try to give him her own sloppy baby kisses, as if it was a contest. But Jeia was still hiding her face, probably afraid of herself and what she had done, and Lin realized then that she should have been teaching Jeia from the time she could comprehend, or maybe even before. They had known she would be an earthbender, and Katara had been staggered by how strong the baby's chi was when she was only a few months old, and Lin should have prepared better. But she had been too frightened of herself, of the teachings her own mother had given her and not wanting to pass them on to Jeia. Because Lin never wanted to teach Jeia the way that Toph had taught Lin, because Lin knew that she was too much like her mother and she would slip. She would slip up and snap and Jeia would resent her for it.
There was nothing more horrific a thought than having her children look at her the way Suyin had, with hatred and loathing, or to find herself looking at her children the way her own mother had looked at her, with disappointment and chagrin. Lin could endure anything but that, and so she had shied away from doing what a mother was supposed to do. She was meant to be Jeia's guide and she had already failed.
Dinner was served late, and most of them ended up sat around the table in pajamas with wet hair. The dust and grime had coated all of the kids, Lin, and Lue, and a simple change of clothes had not been sufficient. Lin couldn't remember the last time she had eaten dinner in her night clothes, but it was making her feel extra sleepy, or maybe it was the strain from earlier catching up with her, leaving her eyelids heavy and her shoulders slumped.
Jeia had finally been coaxed out of Tenzin's chest and she had clung to Lin instead for a while, whispering apologies into the crook of her mother's neck that Lin shushed and soothed away with a caress of Jeia's dark, messy hair. They had stayed wrapped together, mother and daughter, as Lin bathed them and Tenzin sat on the edge of the tub under the pretext of helping with Jeia, but Lin knew he just didn't want them out of his sight so soon.
While Tenzin and Lin – Jeia still clinging to her mother – were preparing a hasty dinner, Jinora and Sora had swept into the kitchen bright and cheerful again, as if nothing had ever happened. Their moods shifted, though, when Tenzin told Jinora that he would be calling her parents to let them know what had happened. Jinora had immediately protested, suddenly braver than Lin had seen her the entire time she'd been on the island that day, her face turning bright red and her eyes wide in dismay. She had begged both of the adults not to tell her parents, insisted that her parents would make her go home, that they were afraid of everything and they would panic and make her go home. At that declaration, Sora had begun protesting too, backing up her friend and pleading with Lin and Tenzin. But Lin would have wanted to know if one of her own kids had been in such a situation and she wasn't budged by the girls' desperation in the slightest, nor was Tenzin.
Jinora had eventually relented under the pretext of telling her parents the story herself, so as not to worry them further, and Lin had agreed but stayed in the room while the girl dialed her parents' number just to be sure. Sora had stood nearby and sulked, and Lin felt badly that the night might end swiftly for the two best friends, but Jinora's parents had a right to know. No one had been hurt and Lin had been there, but still, it had been a dangerous situation.
Jinora's mother had answered, and the girl gave the woman on the other end of the line a very watered down version of the truth. Lin gave Jinora a look and the girl sighed heavily, offered up a little more of the truth. There was an argument, then, and the girl had nearly wept as Lin listened to the one-sided conversation between mother and daughter. She didn't know what Jinora's mother was saying, but the kid was upset and pleading to stay and Lin felt guilty, so she offered to talk to the girl's mother. Jinora had told her mother that Lin was there and wanted to talk and thrust the phone into Lin's hands with hopeful brown eyes, but when Lin held the receiver to her ear she heard nothing but the dial tone. Jinora called back, but her mother was suddenly singing a different tune, insisting that she didn't need to talk to Lin, and Lin didn't know what had changed the woman's mind but the kid's mother was quick about saying goodbye that time.
Sora and Jinora were elated that Jinora got to stay and spent the whole rest of the night giggling away into all hours of the night. Lin, on the other hand, was feeling a bone deep exhaustion so heavy that she fell to sleep seconds after her head hit the pillow, Jeia curled up against her back because the girl had refused to sleep in her own bed that night and Tenzin had weakly given in.
When Lin woke the following morning, it was closer to afternoon. Tenzin was already gone from the bed, and when she asked him why he hadn't woken her, he explained that she needed the rest, and she had grumbled but knew that he was right. It happened, sometimes, when she used too much of her bending in one short span of time, and holding a crumbling building all together, every bit of it but for some wood she could not fully control, had taken it out of her. She had not rested fully with Jeia in the bed either, the girl had kicked and rolled and muttered and Lin was not unused to little ones sleeping in her bed, but it was rare and Jeia was particularly fussy after the whole ordeal. So Lin felt better having had a couple extra hours with the bed to herself, even if it had come at the cost of missing breakfast.
According to Tenzin, she hadn't missed much. Jeia had nodded off in his lap and Ronen had snatched a bread roll off of the table and hastened out of the house. Jinora and Sora had both slept in too, had Tenzin make them a late breakfast, and then ran outside to play, with Yunjin hesitating only a moment before racing after. The girls wanted a bison ride, but Tenzin told them they had to wait for Lin because putting Jeia on a bison was out of the question and Ronen was with Bumi.
Bumi, who was still not speaking to Tenzin, was still stubbornly married to Lue, and who was planning on leaving later that afternoon already just so he could get away from Tenzin. Lin decided she would have to speak with Bumi before he left, but first she had to eat and then talk to Jeia finally about the day before.
Jeia didn't seem to comprehend most of what Lin said and only shook her head, adamantly refusing to start training. The girl was petrified now, and Lin tried to explain, tried to assure Jeia that bending didn't have to be scary, that Lin would teach her and she wouldn't have an accident again. But Jeia was not accepting and Lin had to give up before she upset the toddler further. She resolved to talk to Jeia again later, when the incident was not so fresh.
Lin moved onto Bumi then, hopeful that her talk with him would go better, but not fully believing that it would.
Lin found him back at the training ring, with Ronen and Lue, and they all stilled when they saw her step into the circle. Ronen looked guilty, Bumi concerned, and Lue had narrowed eyes and pursed lips. Lin knew what they thought, knew that yesterday they would have been right. Because Lue was teaching Ronen chi blocking, with Bumi watching from the sidelines, and yesterday Lin would have snapped because Ronen was her son and she decided what was prudent for him to learn. Except it was different today. Lue had saved Jeia's life and Lin owed her for that. And Ronen was more than just her son, was his own person, and in some instances, he could decide to do things she wasn't one hundred percent pleased with. Besides, learning a new skill set was good, and Lin didn't dislike the idea of him being able to chi block, just the idea of him needing to use it to protect his life.
So Lin nodded at Ronen reassuringly and glanced sharply at Lue without words and no malice, only a warning. The tension in Ronen's shoulders loosened, when he realized that his mother was not there to rebuke him. Instead, her eyes landed on Bumi, and she gestured with a tilt of her head for him to come to her.
Bumi looked hesitant, but nodded at Lue and Ronen and strode to Lin's side. They walked away from the training circle in silence.
They were well out of hearing range of anyone when Lin slowed her pace to a stop, turning to look fully at her brother-in-law with her arms crossed over her chest as she asked of him, "So what the hell is going on with you? Are you in trouble? You get kicked out of the United Forces or accrue some gambling debts or something?"
Bumi blinked, taken aback, then scowled, and the expression looked all wrong on his normally cheerful face. "Is that what you two think of me? That I only show up when I've got a problem?"
"No," Lin replied easily, "but I'm assuming something's got to be bad to get you to marry some stranger."
Bumi huffed irritably. "Lulu is a perfectly wonderful woman, and any man would be lucky to have her. I just happen to be the luckiest guy in the world, and you and Tenzin are both too high up on your sky bison to accept that."
Lin raised an unimpressed brow. "I couldn't care less who you fall in love with, Bumi, but I can't abide by whatever this is. You've known her for, what, three months?"
"Time is just a social construct," Bumi countered, and Lin laughed out loud, a great guffaw that took even her by surprise. Bumi was not deterred, if a little incensed. "How long did you date Tenzin before you two knew you were in love?"
Lin rolled her eyes. "There's absolutely no comparison there. I've known Tenzin since birth. I've known you just as long, and I know you don't just go jumping into a marriage that makes no sense."
"Dad was in love with Mom the moment he met her," Bumi continued to argue. "He used to tell us all the time. It was love at first sight –"
"He just said that to make your mother swoon," Lin scoffed. "It wasn't real. And besides, it took them years before they got married."
"But if he would have married her the moment he met her they would have stayed married and been perfectly happy. And what about Sokka and Yue?"
"You mean the spirit girl he pined after for decades?" Lin said with a grimace. "That's hardly a good relationship model. Besides, all the arguments you're coming up with haven't got anything to do with you. That stuff our parents told us were just stories –"
"Well I believed them!" Bumi interjected, and therein lay the problem, Lin realized.
She squinted up at him, not certain if she believed him, but what other explanation was there? "Are you really in love with Lue, or are you just in love with the idea that you could be in love?"
Bumi's nose wrinkled in confusion and he opened his mouth like he was about to protest, but he was looking at Lin and her gaze wasn't judgmental or annoyed and it was Lin, and they had always been honest with one another, brutally so, more than he could ever be with Tenzin. Bumi's shoulders slumped in the face of her question, the fight leaving him.
"I never do anything right," Bumi said tiredly, and it was the most open she thought she'd ever heard him be.
"Sure you do," Lin said with a shrug, "but I wouldn't put this one on the list of good decisions."
"I just don't know what I'm doing anymore!" he cried in distress, tugging briefly at his thick hair. "How can I ever live up to what Dad was? I know I never made him proud when he was around. I've been trying, honest! But I'm not an airbender like Tenzin and I love all women, how can I choose just one? But y'know, Lue really is a good gal, and one of my best friends now, and she's still young enough to have kids. I thought, maybe if I had the airbending genes in me, maybe if I had kids of my own they would be –"
"Wait, wait, wait," Lin spluttered, eyes nearly bulging out of her skull from everything Bumi had just said. "First of all, you want to have kids too? You don't even like babies!"
"Sure I do!" Bumi insisted, indignation in his tone.
"Please," Lin scoffed, "you can't even stand to be around Jeia."
"That kid is a Beifong through and through and she just collapsed a building yesterday!" Bumi shrieked in defense. "And I'm pretty sure she doesn't like me. I'm not messing with her till I know for sure we're on good terms."
"Regardless, you don't like babies, and you drink too much, and you are a big baby half of the time. How do you plan on taking care of one of your own? Not to mention I'm pretty sure Lue isn't the type to want kids."
"You didn't want kids either and now you've got four!" Bumi pointed out. "Lue will come around, and my drinking clears my head –"
Lin snorted disbelievingly. "Sure it does, but are you telling me you haven't even talked to her about mothering your airbending babies?" Bumi cast his gaze around in avoidance of the question and it was all the response Lin needed to know his answer to her question. "Bumi, please don't knock somebody up just because you all of a sudden think you've got a responsibility to have kids that may or may not even be airbenders. Tenzin and I already had two."
"Think of how many more there would be if I had some of my own!" Bumi persisted. "It's such a burden on those two anyways. It nearly tore you and Tenzin apart. Do you want that for the twins too?"
Lin scowled, because it was something she had already fretted over herself before. "They'll be fine. And don't use that tactic on me. You don't want to be a father. Don't force a child to endure your parenting just because you feel guilty."
"Isn't that what you did?"
"No," Lin said emphatically. "That's not –" she shook her head in frustration. "I'm not going to go into a long winded explanation. This is about you. Now listen, your Dad was proud of you, okay? You weren't an airbender, so what? You didn't fall in love two seconds after meeting a woman, who cares? He loved you just as much as he loved Tenzin, even if he was an idiot sometimes about how he showed his affections." It was a testament to how adamant Lin was about it that she would say Aang was an idiot in anyway. She'd idolized the man more than anyone else, had loved him as family to her before she ever married in. They had gotten along famously. But Lin could recognize that the man had had flaws, just as her own mother had.
"You can't know that," Bumi murmured, but there was little conviction behind it.
"Of course I can," Lin asserted. "I was here all those years you were away and I saw it with my own eyes. I saw him weeping at your graduation from United Forces training, and when we got back to Republic City he would tell anyone that would listen about his son Bumi in the military, about how you graduated top of your class, and he kept retelling that stupid story about how you blew all your superiors away when you used a shoestring to get your whole battalion across a river.
"And when you were overseas fighting, he was worried and he missed you and we listened to him tell the same six stories about you over and over again, a thousand times, and we only endured it because it made him feel better. And Tenzin rolled his eyes once and it was one of the only times I ever saw your father frown at him so deeply. And he would put your picture all over the house when you were gone for months at a time as if he was afraid he would forget what you looked like, or maybe to pretend that you were there with him."
Bumi's bottom lip puckered out and his eyes looked suspiciously wet. His voice was choked when he asked, "He did all that?"
Lin nodded. "All of it," she confirmed. "He never complained that you weren't married or lamented that you weren't an airbender. He never expected you to have kids to carry on his legacy. You've spent all this time being jealous because Tenzin got special treatment when you were kids, but I think Tenzin only got it because Aang knew what responsibilities your brother was going to have. Aang knew that Tenzin didn't have much choice as to the direction of his life, but you had all the choices in the world. You chose to be a soldier, and even though it scared the hell out of your parents, they certainly weren't unhappy with you."
Bumi swiped hastily at his eyes, leaking tears now, and he sniffled once before giving Lin a look and she knew what was coming so she tried to duck out of the way. But Bumi was faster and he wrapped her up in a crushing embrace, face buried in her hair and arms curled the whole way around her shoulders. Lin made a resigned face of discontent and blew out a puff of air, relaxing into the hug but not really participating, patting Bumi on the back twice before muttering at him to let go.
"Thanks, Lin," he said with a beaming smile when he finally pulled away to look at her. "You're right. I was silly to think otherwise. Obviously Dad was proud of me, I mean come on! Look at me!" He was still half faking it, Lin could tell by his exaggerated effort to look perfectly happy, but her words had moved him and she had to believe it was a step in the right direction.
"Does that mean you're going to drop this whole fiasco with Lue?" Lin half begged.
"What fiasco?" Bumi replied, and she could have slapped him. "Oohh! You mean the wedding," he finally caught on. He waved a dismissive hand. "That's no biggie. We didn't plan on staying married long anyway. Lue thinks marriage is an institution created by men to enslave women. She agreed to help me out because she's adventurous and likes to try new things. I think, if we didn't both dislike marriage, she might actually be my soul mate."
He grinned that beaming smile of his despite the shocked scowl on Lin's face, and his flippant attitude really got underneath her skin, because he had thrown everything into chaos for seemingly no reason at all. Typical Bumi behavior.
As he was strutting away, she called to his back, "You're an idiot!"
He waved without turning his head and shouted, "Love you too, Linny!"
Watching Sora say goodbye to her friend Jinora was like watching a child being yanked from its mother's grasp. There were tears and whispered promises and never ending hugs. The girls clung to each other like they'd never lay eyes upon one another again, and it took a concerted effort for Lin not to roll her eyes. She loved Sora, obviously, but the girl was ridiculously dramatic. But then again, Lin had never had a best friend like that, not really, not besides Tenzin, and she had rarely been separated from him without knowing they would be reunited in hours or days at most. There had been a few times when they had been apart for months or years, but they had spent so many seconds and minutes and hours together before that there had still been a deep-seated knowledge that they would find their way back together. Sora was young and Jinora was her first best friend that wasn't related to her, and judging by how awkward and quiet and shy Jinora was, Lin suspected the girl hadn't had many close friends like Sora either. Jinora appeared to be a bit of a loner, if Lin had to guess about her from the twenty-four hours she'd known the girl, and the more Lin saw of the girl's father, the more she began to understand why. Jinora's father, Anil, was twitchy, fearful, and he had looked as if he would faint when Lin explained further to him what had happened the day before at the bison stables. Jinora telling him with excitement that she had gotten a ride on a sky bison hadn't calmed him, had turned his face so pale and his legs so weak that Lin had to literally reach out and grab his bicep to stop him from collapsing. Lin hadn't forgotten the strange phone call with Jinora's mother either, and Jinora had been in tears convincing her mother that the island was still safe, and then when Lin had tried to talk to the woman herself the line had gone dead and the woman had very abruptly had a change of heart when Jinora called back.
It wasn't any of Lin's business how skittish they were, though, and she pushed the questions to the back of her mind.
Anil had been the one to pick up Jinora, the mother still hadn't been present, and it wasn't until several weeks later that Lin figured out why.
Bumi and Lue had stayed an extra night now that most of their conflict with Lin and Tenzin had been resolved, and then left the day after Jinora had gone, on their way to Ember Island to finish out their honeymoon and their marriage altogether. Lue had left Ronen with instructions on how to continue his chi bending training and a promise to come back soon to see how he was doing, to which Lin had raised a brow at the woman's self-invitation, but Lue had smirked at her and waved and Ronen had looked so thrilled that Lin couldn't say much.
Then it was three weeks after Jinora, Bumi, and Lue had been on the island and it was date night for Lin and Tenzin, something neither of them had ever put much importance into until they had Jeia. They'd always been busy with three kids, but they'd found time to be together, had met up for an hour or two after work if they had to or spent lunch together or stayed up late after the kids went to bed. With four kids, though, it really had become a major issue that they didn't notice at first. They had thought sending the older kids off to public school would give them more time, but it actually gave them less between dropping them off and picking them up and extracurriculars and never ending homework. Nira helped, of course, was still there with Jeia most days, but there was only so much they were willing to ask of the woman and she had a life of her own.
Nevertheless, Nira was still adamantly available and she refused to take more time than necessary away from the kids when she loved caring for Ronen and the twins and Jeia so much. Nira had been the one to tell Lin that she needed to get a night out from the kids and work and be with her husband, and Lin had scoffed at the absurdity of leaving all her worries behind, but Tenzin had loved the idea and she had relented under his pleading gaze.
So she'd let Sora braid her hair and forcefully tugged on a dress she had purchased back before Ronen was even born. It was way too tight, but she had no desire to go searching the city for a new one so she tried to make do. She was still in great shape considering her age and the fact that she'd birthed four children – she had to be for her job – but her hips were still wider than they used to be and the fabric was stretched to its limits. And even though her breasts had shrunk some after having Jeia due to the rapid weight loss from the stress of Jeia's premature birth and all the tragedy that had surrounded it, Lin still felt like she was liable to pop out of the scoop neckline if she twisted the wrong way. She hated wearing it, but she suffered through it with the hopes that Tenzin would give her the satisfaction of ripping it off of her later, because honestly it was the only way she was going to get out of it. Judging by the dropped jaw and the lust filled gaze Tenzin scorched her with when he saw her emerge from the bedroom, she didn't think she'd have any problems getting him to agree to her plans.
Nira arrived and her eyebrows shot straight up her forehead, and she had been laughing and Lin had scowled, but the acolyte woman had insisted, " You look amazing, Lin. Spirits, I can't remember the last time I saw you in a dress."
"Well take a mental picture," Lin had replied, voice strained against the tight corset around her ribs, "because it won't happen again anytime soon."
Lin had gone off in search of the three eldest of her kids then, slower, so as not to start breathing heavily in fabric that was liable to snap at any moment. Jeia was still inside with Tenzin and Nira, still fiercely refusing to even discuss bending nearly a month after the incident, let alone learn anything from Lin when offered.
Lin found the rest of the kids by the airbending gates, but they weren't practicing with the gates. Sora and Yunjin were taking turns attacking their older brother from all sides, not vicious in anyway, but focused, holding back on their bending but not afraid to use it to block Ronen's counterattacks. The boy was practicing the chi bending he'd learned so far, hadn't hardly stopped since Lue had left with Bumi, and he was teaching Sora and Yunjin how to evade such attacks. The twins were frustrated every time they lost feeling in one of their limbs, so much so that sometimes they refused to try again, but they always went back, always eager to learn from Ronen and to succeed where they hadn't before. Lin was proud of their determination and hard work, but she was also fearful of what it could become.
"All right you, three," she interrupted, when none of them seemed to notice her standing before them, "enough sparring for tonight."
Yunjin turned towards Lin's voice and Ronen used the distraction to jab his brother softly in the shoulder. Yunjin's arm went half limp and he whirled on Ronen shouting, "Hey! Not fair!"
Ronen just smirked and Sora reprimanded, "Never let your guard down!" She floated out of Ronen's reach before turning around to fully settle her gaze onto her mother, and when she finally laid eyes on Lin, she gasped before letting out a delighted shriek. "Mama! You look so pretty!"
"You look weird," Yunjin said with a grimace, while trying to punch feeling back into his arm.
"You look nice, but I would suggest a sweater," Ronen commented.
"I'll keep that in mind," Lin lied. "Come on, Nira is here and your father and I are about to leave. And don't even think of sparring in the house. I want you all on your best behavior this evening. If we get called from the restaurant because one of you broke an arm you're all grounded."
The kids grumbled the whole way back to the house, but lit up at the sight of Nira, and Lin knew she had nothing to worry about.
There was a flurry of hugs and kisses and hurried goodbyes, and then Lin and Tenzin were free of it all, and Lin breathed in a deep lungful of fresh air as if she never had before. It was a warm evening, and the sun was only just setting as Tenzin guided Lin to the docks with his hand low on her back, and it still sent a thrill through her when he looked at her with a heated, adoring gaze nearly seventeen years after they'd married. They took the boat across the Bay because it was a little more inconspicuous than landing Oogi on the roof, and she was glad that it was mostly dark as they were walking, arm in arm, the short blocks to the restaurant, because it made them less recognizable.
There was a line all the way down the sidewalk when they reached the restaurant, but they skipped past all of it and went straight to the host that stood at a podium just outside. Their identities came in handy now as the host scrambled to go find their reserved table, promising to be back as quickly as possible. There were two other couples standing just inside the door, likely waiting for their own waiters to guide them to their tables, and Lin noticed one of the men tilt his head to peer out of the doorway. It took her a second to recognize Jinora's father, and seconds more before his eyes landed on her and Tenzin. Anil's face lit up in a delighted grin and he began to wave. Lin inclined her head in silent greeting and nudged Tenzin's arm to get his attention. When Tenzin saw Anil, he smiled kindly and ushered Lin the few steps over to the doorway to better greet the man.
The restaurant was crowded and noisy and Lin could barely hear the two men, so when Anil cheerfully said, "I want you to meet my wife," it didn't even register in her mind. She felt Tenzin tensing up beside her, and she looked up at him in confusion as he suddenly squeezed her arm tightly, his gaze wide-eyed and focused on Anil. Lin turned back, and then she understood why. Anil had just tugged a meek looking woman into the doorway for Lin and Tenzin to see, and despite all the years that had passed, Lin still recognized the woman that had tried to steal her husband from her thirteen years ago.
Pema had certainly aged, no longer the wide-eyed youth she'd been over a decade ago, with streaks of grey now in her brown hair, but she still had those soft, round features, the shy smile that Lin now realized that Jinora had inherited, the kindly eyes that drew people in. She would have drawn Tenzin in, too, if Lin hadn't borne him children, if things had been different. In that scenario, Lin's children would never have existed, and Jinora would have been Tenzin's.
Another memory surfaced all of a sudden, of thinking of baby names back when Lin was pregnant with Ronen, before they knew it was a boy, and if it had been a girl Tenzin had offered up the name Jinora. Lin had even been agreeable to it, but they had had a boy instead and the name was forgotten, but Lin had met Jinora, a girl only three years younger than Ronen, borne from the woman that had so been in love with Tenzin, and maybe it was a coincidence, but Lin was skeptical.
A fiery rage long snuffed out began to spark again inside of Lin, and her eye twitched with the effort it took not to explode in the middle of a crowded restaurant. It was a good thing she wasn't a firebender because she would have been breathing fire just then, could feel it consuming every part of her, burning a path through every extremity. She could feel the pavement cracking beneath her feet and she had to grind her teeth together to quell her body's instinctive reaction.
"Pema!" Tenzin said, before Anil could even say her name. "What a…nice…surprise!" His struggle to find words was too obvious, his gaze flickering from Lin to Pema and back again.
"It's good to see you, Tenzin," Pema said carefully, eyes on her husband and occasionally Lin, who she turned to briefly to add, "And you, Chief Beifong."
All Lin could manage in response was a disgusted noise in the back of her throat, and Tenzin pinched her arm.
Anil seemed confused. "You know each other?"
"My parents were acolytes," Pema said hastily, a harsh gaze landing on Lin that looked all wrong on her dainty, round face. It would have made Lin laugh at the absurdity of it all if she hadn't been so repulsed. Of course Pema wouldn't have told Anil that she had once been in love with the only remaining airbender, and had confessed that love to the man who was at the time married to the chief of police. Of course she wouldn't have told her husband then, when thirteen long years later, their daughter Jinora came home pleading to spend the night on Air Temple Island with her new best friend, Sora Beifong. Had Pema honestly never told her husband that she had once been an acolyte, had once lived on the Island herself, but had been forced to leave to escape watching her soul mate live out his life with someone else? Based on how uncomfortable Pema was looking, Lin was willing to bet that Anil had no clue.
"Really?" Anil asked, shocked and clearly uninformed, and yet somehow he was still smiling brightly, still entirely unsuspecting of his wife. "That's amazing. So you've met the Councilman and the Chief before? Why didn't you say so, darling?"
"Oh, well, it's been so long," Pema deflected, smiling that pretty smile, and Lin could have puked. "I'm sure they hardly remember me."
If only, Lin thought. If only she could forget that stupid woman and her stupid actions. She had, for a time, of course, but fate clearly would not allow her to escape it fully.
"Who could forget someone as lovely as you?" Anil flirted with Pema, and now Lin really needed to get away.
Anil was still speaking, but Lin had no idea what he was saying, could not take her eyes off of Pema, who looked rightfully embarrassed, but the younger woman held her chin up high and kept her own smiling gaze on her husband, refused to be intimidated by Lin's no doubt hostile stare.
Tenzin must have felt the tension in Lin's spine because he was holding her arm even tighter now and it felt like he was trying to restrain her and it only made her anger grow. She would have yanked her arm from his grasp if she hadn't known what it would look like to Pema, to the woman that had declared Lin unworthy of her husband, the child that had said Tenzin was miserable with Lin and how could he ever be with someone with such sharp edges?
Lin needed to escape Pema and Anil and escape Tenzin and so she tuned back into the conversation that was taking place right in front of her, but which she hadn't heard a word of.
"…had so much fun," Anil was saying. "We'd be happy to have Sora over sometime."
Lin snorted without thought, because over her dead body was she letting her daughter go anywhere near Pema. Anil looked at her with a bewildered expression, and Pema flinched but still did not meet Lin's gaze, and Tenzin hastily replied, "I'm sure Sora would love that."
Anil beamed, and Lin thought then that he must have been the most oblivious man in the world.
She was positive that he had no understanding of social cues when he mused, "I wonder if we could get a table together –"
Three voices rang out in unison with a vehement, "No!" Lin's came out in a growl, Tenzin with surprise, and Pema with a forced chuckle as if the whole thing was a joke.
Anil looked beyond confused, and Pema patted him on the arm and smiled reassuringly as she explained, "No, dear, we don't want to bother the Chief and Tenzin on their night out."
"Oh," Anil said with a jolt, comprehension dawning, even if it was the wrong thing he was coming to understand. "I'm so sorry," he told Lin and Tenzin, looking embarrassed, and Lin felt pity for the oblivious man. "I didn't mean to intrude. Perhaps we can get together another time, though, get to know each other better? Maybe over lunch? Since our girls seem so fond of one another, I think we'll be seeing a lot of each other."
Lin desperately hoped not.
In a strained voice, Tenzin said, "That would be…"
Luckily for Tenzin, he didn't have to find the right word to finish that sentence, because the host came back to tell them their table was ready, and Lin took off without so much as a goodbye, dragging Tenzin along with her as he craned his neck to say a rushed farewell.
Once they were out of sight of Pema and Anil, Lin finally shoved Tenzin off of her and stormed ahead, and the further through the restaurant she went, the angrier she became. By the time the host left them at their table, Lin was fuming, sliding into the booth with quaking limbs, and she wasn't even fully certain what she was angry over, just that she was.
"Did you know?" Lin hissed at Tenzin the moment he sat down across from her, and his eyes narrowed at her tone and it only fueled the fire.
"Know what?" he hissed back, leaning over the table and casting his gaze around to make sure no one nearby would overhear them, because he cared what people thought of them, because he was worried about her making a scene. "Did I know that our evening out would end up with us running into Pema and Anil?"
"No," Lin scoffed, as if he was an idiot for asking it, "did you know that Pema was Jinora's mother?"
Tenzin looked bewildered. "Of course not. How could I have… hang on. Are you angry at me? What did I do?"
"Don't play stupid," Lin growled, leaning closer to him over the table because there were people eyeing them and it was really none of their damn business what she was saying. "Give me a good reason why that woman named her first born Jinora, when that was exactly the name you wanted to give our own first born."
Tenzin sat back as if in shock, shaking his head and looking at her in disbelief. "Do you really think…" he trailed off and leaned heavily onto the table again, lowering his voice so much that she had to strain to hear him in the noisy restaurant. "Do you really think that this is some conspiracy? That I knew all along that Pema was going to be that girl's mother? That I somehow had a hand in the naming of her child? Or is it something worse than that? Tell me, do you think I was unfaithful? Do you think, perhaps, that Jinora is mine? Because surely that would have to be it, for her to have named her child the very same name I once favored."
He was mocking her, his voice dripping with sarcasm, and if it wouldn't have made front page news Lin would have flipped the table on top of him and stormed out. Instead, she narrowed her gaze and pursed her lips, voice dangerously low as she warned, "I'd watch the way you speak to me. I'm not an idiot, Tenzin. She knew you liked that name, somehow, she knew, and despite marrying another man, she named that kid for you."
"I have no control over what Pema decided to do with her life," Tenzin muttered. "I haven't spoken to her since she left Air Temple Island over a decade ago."
"And she never reached out to you afterwards?" Lin questioned skeptically. "You were the love of her life and she never once tried to speak to you? And after Ronen, you never tried to name our daughters Jinora, even though before you liked the name. But why? Unless you knew Pema had already used the name."
Tenzin sighed heavily, but before he could respond, a cheerful waitress showed up asking for drink orders, and Tenzin ordered water with a forced smile and Lin demanded a glass of liquor that made Tenzin frown.
When they were alone once more, Tenzin placed his palms flat on the table and leaned forward again, staring straight into Lin's eyes as he told her, "I didn't know that Pema had a daughter, or had any kids for that matter. We never spoke, and I never went looking. If you'll remember, I had a wife and three children by the time Jinora was probably born. I don't know when I could have reached out to her. Perhaps when you were pregnant with the twins? Or maybe when you were suffering from postpartum depression? Could I have been going behind your back then? Is that what you think of me?"
Lin said nothing, could only continue to glare, could not understand how all of this could be a coincidence, because that wasn't how life worked. She was a cop and she saw the worst of people everyday and there were no coincidences. She didn't think Tenzin was ever physically unfaithful, she didn't think that Jinora could somehow be his, but seeing Pema had brought back all of those old feelings, all those insecurities she had apparently never discarded, only buried deep within. Now they were all rushing back, even though it made no sense, even though she had given Tenzin four children and he had no reason to leave her now unless he had suddenly fallen out of love with her, but that couldn't be so. He had looked at her with so much affection only an hour ago, when they'd left the Island together…
"I told Pema," Tenzin admitted in a whisper, and the fight had left him and there was only sorrow in his gaze. "I told her that I liked the name Jinora. It was during the time when you and I were struggling to get pregnant and fighting all of the time and I thought that she was a friend and we discussed futures. Not futures together, not for me anyway, but I remembered telling her that I liked the name. And after she confessed her love and I saw how angry you were and I remembered telling her… I didn't want to name our child that anymore. It felt…wrong. Because I told her first and not you and it didn't seem right to name our daughter that, because it wasn't a name that you and I discovered together. So, yes, I told Pema about the name, but I had no idea that she would choose to use it herself and I have no idea why she did."
Lin forced herself to breathe deeply through her nose, but the tension in her shoulders wasn't easing. It was as if she had been transported back in time, the sight of Pema stirring such emotion inside of her that she could not think straight, that she could not think anything but anger and fear, the same emotions she'd felt all those years ago. She could have lost Tenzin that day. He could have become fed up with her and taken Pema's offer and she would have been alone.
"I don't want Sora going over there," Lin bit out, averting her gaze from Tenzin's because there was too much emotion there and she was still struggling to keep a lid on her own. "I don't want any of our kids anywhere near that woman."
Tenzin sighed wearily and, unsurprisingly, did not immediately agree with her. "I understand that you're angry right now, but Jinora is Sora's best friend and they're going to want to see a lot of each other."
"Jinora is welcome to come to the Island so long as her mother never brings her," Lin acquiesced, arms folded over her chest. She wouldn't punish Sora…or Jinora for that matter. The girl couldn't help that she had an awful mother.
"That isn't a sustainable solution," Tenzin said plainly. "How can we explain that? The girls will suspect something, and Anil won't always be available to –"
"I don't give a rat's ass about how Pema or Anil feel about it," Lin spat, "and the girls are children, they'll get over it."
Tenzin huffed and the waitress returned with their drinks. "Are you ready to order?" the young woman asked.
"Not now," Lin spat, waving the woman away, and Tenzin shot the waitress an apologetic look and asked for a few more minutes.
When they were alone again and Lin had downed half of the straight liquor in her glass, Tenzin asked her, "Don't you think you're being a little unfair? It's been thirteen years, Lin. It's long over, all of us have moved on. Pema is married, you and I are still happily married as far as I am aware, and what use is there to continue this feud? I'm sure that Pema feels badly for what she did, and frankly I hadn't even thought of it, or her, in years."
"This wasn't a simple feud," Lin argued. "She tried to steal my husband and what's to stop her from trying again? I don't want my daughter near the type of woman that thinks that sort of thing is okay, and I really can't believe you aren't backing me up here. Why are you on Pema's side?"
"I'm on your side," Tenzin said impatiently. "Honestly, Lin, why did you even marry me if you think so poorly of me? Do you really think I would run off on you so easily? Do you think I would do something to betray you or our vows?"
"It's not you I'm worried about, it's her," Lin persisted, but that wasn't the whole truth because sometimes she still waited for the other shoe to drop, for her too perfect life to crumble to pieces around her, and no, it wasn't entirely perfect, there had been tragedy and loss and trauma, but she had a wealth of love, four beautiful, healthy, intelligent children and a doting husband that loved her more than she could ever dream of someone loving her, and wasn't that too much? Shouldn't something be waiting just around the corner to snatch it all away from her? Because she hadn't wanted that life, had been kicking and screaming and refusing marriage and children both, and yet now she loved her life and her family, but did she deserve to keep them when she'd thought so poorly of the idea before?
"Well I don't think you have to worry anymore," Tenzin countered. "I highly doubt Pema is going to leave her family to come after me again when she must see that I'm perfectly happy with you. She was young and foolish back then, but she's an adult now, and we must –"
"She was an adult then!" Lin interrupted shrilly, and she could see the people turning to stare out of the corners of her eyes, and Tenzin shrunk back and smiled as if it was all perfectly normal. Lin lowered her voice, but did not stop, she did not care if they were watching. "Why does everyone always make her the victim in all this? Yes, she was younger than us, but she was a fully grown adult capable of making competent choices and understanding consequences and she ignored all of that. She ignored all of it because she was selfish and she wanted you, and she didn't think it was fair that I had you, because you were unhappy at times, and yeah, our marriage was a fucking mess then, but it wasn't her place to insert herself. If she really thought you were soul mates then she should have waited until you came to her yourself, until you left me of your own free will and were free to be with whomever you wished. Instead, everything is my fault, because I got angry that some girl tried to steal my husband when I was at my most vulnerable. As if it wasn't just as painful for me to –" she swallowed and stopped abruptly because she couldn't go there. She couldn't bring all of that back up and throw it out into the open because she had kept it all well within her walls and that was where she would keep it. She drained the liquor that was left in her glass and slumped back in her seat. The fight had left her, all that rage sizzling out into exhaustion, and she thought idly that this wasn't how their evening was supposed to go.
Tenzin sat back too, but he was watching her carefully, his eyes too full of something that looked suspiciously like pity and Lin couldn't stand to look at him.
Until all of a sudden he reached across the table and took her hand, and when she met his gaze he just looked sad as he asked, "Do you want to get out of here?"
Lin didn't need to be asked twice. She nodded tersely and Tenzin tossed some money on the table to cover her liquor and they swept out of the restaurant without another word. However, when they stepped outside into the slightly cool night air, Tenzin steered her away from the direction that would lead them back home, instead nudging her down the sidewalk in the opposite direction until the restaurant was out of sight.
After several blocks walking in silence, Tenzin stopped, reaching out with both hands to still Lin as well, turning her to face him, his hands on her biceps, and she couldn't look him in the eye but he spoke softly to her anyway. "You're right," he said. "You're absolutely right. I've been making excuses for Pema all these years, because I needed to rationalize it, because I didn't want to see you angry and I suppose I thought that if I explained it away you would not care so much anymore. But I understand now. It is not something that can be tossed aside. It hurt you deeply and she was not a simple child that made a mistake. She thought that her happiness depended on me and she did not consider what that might do to you. I am sorry that it took me so long to understand."
Lin shrugged because she had no idea what to say now and she hadn't expected him to so readily agree, but her shoulders finally loosened some and she locked gazes with him. And there wasn't pity there, just love and compassion and he really was the craziest man she'd ever met, but she considered herself lucky that he was crazy enough to put up with her. To love her and care for her and he understood her better than she understood herself sometimes. And yet she had snapped and taken out her anger on him because of one interaction with a woman long forgotten and it wasn't fair to him, she could see that now.
"This was supposed to be a good night, you know?" she said to him, face half twisted into an apology she couldn't yet voice.
"It still can be," Tenzin said easily, slipping an arm over her shoulders and leading her further down the sidewalk. "Why don't we find a food vendor that's still open and sneak into the park?"
"You do know it's illegal to break into the park after night has fallen?" she asked, and of course he knew.
"Well then I guess it's a good thing I'm on good terms with the Chief of police then, isn't it?" he replied, teasing, but he looked down at her with a searching gaze, his question posed with some uncertainty, asking if he really was on good terms with her, after all that had transpired.
Instead of answering directly, Lin played along. "You think she would let her affections get in the way of her duty?"
Tenzin chuckled lightly. "On the contrary, I think she'd be delighted to finally have a reason to throw me in jail."
"As thrilling as that sounds, I think we can find other means of role play," Lin muttered.
"Oh, you'd like to try role play?" he murmured, and his voice was so close to her ear she startled a little. "But not the cop and the inmate?"
Lin shuddered in very real disgust, because that scenario did happen sometimes, and she shook her head with a vehement, "Absolutely not."
Tenzin chuckled, but continued to joke, "How about the Water Tribe Warrior and the Moon spirit?"
Lin grimaced. The last thing she wanted to imagine was the man that had been like a father to her when discussing intimate role play with her husband. "Stop."
"What about the banished daughter of an earthbending legend and the architect?"
Lin groaned and shoved Tenzin away from her, but lightly this time, without much heat. "I'm never having sex with you again."
Tenzin laughed and rushed to keep up with her hastened strides, curling himself back into her side and wrapping his arm tight around her, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. "Fine," he easily relented, "how about we just stick to the councilman and the chief of police?"
"Sounds boring," Lin teased, beginnings of a smirk trying to form on her features, but her emotions were still raw and her facial muscles twitched with the effort.
"Well then I suppose I'll just have to think of a way to… spice things up," he whispered in her ear.
"How about you spice things up by replacing that over priced meal we walked out on," Lin suggested, half joking, half bitter, and she knew that it was partially her own outburst to blame for Tenzin's suggesting they leave, but she was starving, had been anticipating that meal all day.
Tenzin was in full agreement, and they went in search of an old vendor they used to frequent in their twenties, neither one certain if it even still existed, having not sought it out since before they started having children. The vendor, surprisingly, was still there, a woman that had been in her late forties before, but was now upwards of sixty, graying and weathered, but still with that familiar half-smile and the scar across her chin. She recognized Lin and Tenzin with little effort, of course, but beamed and handed them their old orders without needing to be asked, having remembered their usual despite all the time that had passed. She asked after their kids and told them of her own daughter, who had been younger than Ronen was now back when Lin and Tenzin frequented the vendor, but was now an adult in the United Forces.
Afterwards, Lin and Tenzin walked in the direction of the park, munching on their food and mostly contemplative. It wasn't until they had snuck into the park and settled together on a park bench that Tenzin spoke. He had pulled Lin into his side again, arm over her shoulders, and she was still a little unsettled after she'd so recently been desperate to get away from him and from Pema and the past. Nevertheless, she melted into his side, let her eyes drift closed as he pressed his lips softly against the side of her head, inhaled a deep breath through her nose and tried to relax.
His voice floated along the breeze that blew through her hair, his breath warm in opposition to the chill night air. "What will it take," he murmured, "to convince you that my love for you can not so easily be swayed?"
Lin sighed, turning her head to bury her face in his neck, lifting her arm to put on his chest, her hand settling over his heart. "I know you do," she breathed. "Now. Back then, though…I wasn't so sure. Seeing her…it brought all that back."
Tenzin's head shifted against hers in a nod, but she could practically hear the frown in his voice as he replied, "We were married at that time and you doubted my love for you?"
Lin half shrugged in his embrace, still avoiding his gaze while she admitted, "I suppose part of me did, yeah. I knew what was at stake. I knew what would happen if we didn't have kids."
Tenzin's other arm came up around her, tugging her ever tighter, ever closer, as if melding their bodies would somehow heal her past soul and its wounds. "I'm so sorry," he said in a rush, kissing the top of her head, rubbing every bit of her arm, her back, her hair. "So sorry. I'm sorry you ever felt that way, Lin. If I could go back in time… We were fools, both of us. Look at us now! Happy, together, four wonderful children. All that sorrow from before, all of the fights and the heartache…"
His musings trailed off as Lin finally lifted her head, finally looked into those soulful eyes she knew so well and her breath cut out before she could speak. What could she say to him? To the man she had known her whole life, the man that had fathered her children, and whom she loved more than she ever thought possible. What could she say that could explain how she felt for him, the phrase 'I love you' somehow just not enough, and how could she ever put it into words more meaningful than that? She wanted to tell him that it was all worth it, all the fighting and discontent, all the heartache and insecurities. If she had to do it all over again, if she had to endure every bit of pain, she would do it without question. For him and for their children she would.
He was looking at her with unabashed adoration that seemed to betray the same thoughts, one hand rising to sweep tenderly across her cheek. His thumb stroked the twin scars there and his voice was hushed as he promised, "I'll never let you feel that way again. I swear it. You are my love and my life and I will never let you doubt it again."
As if to illustrate his point, he leaned in to press his lips firmly to hers, engaging her in a passionate, toe-curling, breathtaking kiss. One of his hands tangled in her hair and she gripped the front of his robes in both fists, tugging him ever closer, tilting her head just so, his other hand drifting down her back, lower and lower, until it was so low on her waist it was nearly touching the bench beneath her. She felt a rush of love but also possessiveness, remembering in the midst of a lust filled haze why he felt the need to convince her of his love in the first place, remembered Pema and the girl trying to steal Lin's husband, but Tenzin was hers, just as she was his, and no girl was going to swoop in with her pretty, kind face and her soft voice and take what was Lin's. No one would ever again make her feel the way that Pema had, no one would shake her so far to the core.
Filled with new determination and love and pride and everything else in between, Lin felt a surge of need, to feel her husband's warm body pressed against hers, to feel all of him surrounding her and she would drown in his kiss before she would ever come up for air. She moved without thinking, shifting one knee onto the bench and then lifting herself up to settle on Tenzin's lap, straddling him as best she could in the too tight dress. She could feel the fabric straining against her hips, but she ignored it, ignored the biting chill of the wind the later it became, ignored the hard bench digging into her knees, ignored the fact that she was trespassing in the park in the middle of the night trying to rip her husband's tunic out of his pants.
Tenzin groaned as her fingers gripped his waistband, but he pulled his head back and grabbed her wrist before she could go any further, breathless and wide-eyed as he gasped, "Not here."
"Why not?" Lin muttered, undeterred, wriggling against him and moving her unrestrained hand slowly down his chest. "No one should be in here 'till morning," she reasoned, just before leaning in to capture his lips once more.
It seemed to take a monumental effort for Tenzin to pull away again, but he eventually wrapped his arm around her waist and stood, dropping her carefully on her feet and, with both hands on her hips, put some distance between them.
"Let's continue this at home," he insisted, placing a quick kiss on her forehead and then moving back so that she could not drag him back in, holding out his hand for her to take.
Lin sighed, "Twenty years ago you would have done it," but she took his hand anyway and let him begin leading her out of the empty park.
"No I wouldn't have, nor would you. Besides, twenty years ago we didn't have children," Tenzin pointed out. "If some nosy journalist followed us from the restaurant we'd be in the paper tomorrow morning, and with three of our children in public school there would be no way of hiding it from them."
"Fair point," Lin admitted, grimacing at the thought. "Can we at least go to your secret cave?"
Tenzin's eyes were twinkling with desire and amusement when he turned to her, smile curling his lips as he asked, "Are we trying to relive our twenties?"
"Not exactly," Lin replied with a shrug, "just don't want to worry about being interrupted…or too loud."
The sultry look she threw him was far from innocent and Tenzin's whole face turned red, all the way to the tips of his ears, which was really what Lin had been going for and she struggled not to laugh at the way he tugged at his collar.
It was a very, very long trip home, between walking several blocks back to the docks and then waiting to cross the bay. Lin was suddenly regretting not taking Oogi into the city, but she enjoyed spending the boat ride discretely sliding her hands all over Tenzin while he half-heartedly protested, lightly batting her hands away and throwing her irate glances in the dark.
When they finally reached the Island, they were quick in striding across to the opposite cliff edge where Tenzin's old hiding space resided. There was no denying the anticipation boiling over in either of them, and when Tenzin hurled them both over the edge, Lin wasn't afraid for a single second, too trusting in him after all the years she'd been with him. She was at ease floating through the air so long as she had Tenzin to support her. And when they were together in the cave, secluded at last, away from work and kids and responsibility, out of view of anyone else, with the Republic City skyline a beautiful backdrop in the distance, they were free to be who they once were, who they had always been, best friends and lovers still.
While earlier in the night they had been impatient, once secluded they were slow to start, with soft kisses and gentle caresses, all careful affection and whispered love. But it wasn't long before slow kisses turned to nibbling and sucking and teeth raked over sensitive skin. Lin ended up with her back against the wall of the cave, Tenzin's fingers teasing at the back of her knee in an effort to lift her leg up over his hip. She obliged without hesitation, and he thrust his hips against hers immediately, and the resulting sound was more than a moan of pleasure from the back of his throat or a desperate whimper spilling from her lips, but also the familiar sound of tearing fabric as her too tight dress finally split the whole way up her thigh to her hip. They both paused for a moment, looked down at the shredded fabric, laughed, and then resumed. Tenzin gripped both ends of the dress and ripped the rest of the way, all the way up to a point underneath of her breasts, and then dropped to his knees to kiss his way down her stomach and up her inner thighs, hooking her leg over his shoulder instead, until soon her knees were shaking and she was gasping his name.
She was nearly too weak to stand when she pushed him onto his back and clambered on top of him, deftly removing his clothes as quickly as possible, their bodies melding together at long last, ecstasy and passion in every move, every touch, breath short and heavy. There was nothing foreign or new between two people that had been together as long as them, but the excitement and desire was still there, still as strong as it was twenty years ago.
Nevertheless, they were getting older, and after they were sated and sweaty and exhausted and curled up together on top of Tenzin's cloak, Lin groaned in pain, rolled out of his warm, strong grasp and complained, "I hate to say it, but we're too old to be sleeping in this cave."
Tenzin let out a relieved noise and immediately sat up, rubbing his shoulder and his neck with a grimace as he easily agreed, "I'm so glad you said it. Let's go back to our bed, where it's warm and soft. Whatever made us think sleeping out here was a good idea?"
"Youthful ignorance," Lin said with a shrug, already pulling her clothes back on half-hazardly. "And getting away from your parents."
"Probably more the latter," Tenzin mused, just before his entire train of thought left him at the sight of Lin, staring down at her torn dress as if she had forgotten and clearly wondering what on earth she was supposed to wear to get back across the island and into their house. He chuckled once, and then his whole body began to shake with laughter, and Lin glared at him, throwing her ruined dress straight at him. He tried belatedly to catch it, but half of it ended up wrapped over his head and he only laughed harder.
"You won't be laughing when I strut across the island completely naked," Lin huffed, folding her arms over her exposed chest, in nothing but her underwear and nude stockings.
The image must have amused Tenzin to no end, because he was practically in tears and incapable of speech as he tossed her dress to the side and went to wrap his cloak around her. It was still impractical, because she had to shuffle carefully to keep from kicking it open in the front, clutching it tight in both fists from the inside, and it dragged the ground the whole way and hung so low on her shoulders it was obvious to anyone with eyes she probably wasn't wearing clothes underneath. The only saving grace was that it was late, too dark for anyone to see much and doubtful that anyone would be out at that time anyway.
They managed to make it all the way to their house without running into anyone, and all four kids were blessedly asleep, piled up together in the living room as if they'd been waiting up for their parents or had fallen asleep in the middle of playing. Nira, however, despite being half asleep herself, was not even remotely fooled. She didn't say anything directly, but raised an eyebrow in question, a quirk of her lips belying her effort to hide her amusement.
"I was cold," Lin deadpanned, knowing with certainty that Nira wouldn't believe it for a single second.
"Mhm," Nira murmured, predictably unconvinced.
"Should probably go put on a sweater," Lin muttered, shuffling past.
Nira's shoulders shook with the effort it took her not to laugh as she replied, "Yes, some pants might help too."
Lin scowled half-heartedly, said a quick goodnight, and hastened to the bedroom to clean up and put on some clothes. By the time she returned to the living room where her children slept, Nira had left and Tenzin had changed too. He wordlessly handed her a glass of water, which she sucked down greedily before going to check on the kids.
Only Ronen, the only light sleeper among them, stirred at all, and he merely peeked open one eye to peer at his parents, smiled sleepily in greeting, and then burrowed deeper into his blanket. Lin crouched down to readjust the blanket over Yunjin, who was splayed out on the floor with his arms and legs wide and mouth agape, and he had somehow kicked the blankets off and twisted them around his ankles. Then Lin placed a hand on Sora's back, checking to see if she felt warm or too cool, because the girl was always cold, and one blanket was hardly enough for her to share with Jeia, who had curled up against her sister's chest, head resting on Sora's outstretched arm and part of the pillow they shared.
Lin's gaze roved over each child once more, and the longer she looked the more enraptured she became, the harder it was to look away. The evening had veered off into uncertainty with the revelation that Pema was Jinora's mother, that Pema was once again present in Lin's life against her will, but now that Lin had had time to cool off, and had been given reassurance from the man that was her husband and not Pema's, now that she was once again among her family and her home and safety, Lin wanted to stay in that one precise moment for eternity. She didn't want to move away from the kids, didn't want to return to work or everyday life, did not want to send them out into the cruel world to see what she had seen. Her family was perfect right then in that moment, even if other things were not. Ronen, on the precipice between childhood and adolescence, so smart and bold and full of wonder, and he questioned Lin at every turn, made her a better person for it. Sora and Yunjin, so bright and energetic and full of life, and they were a reminder to Lin to have fun, to relax, to see the good in life. And little Jeia Rai, just a baby still, but strong and willful, and she would be everything that Lin could have been, if Lin had not been so focused on pleasing her mother and fighting her sister.
Then there was Tenzin, who squatted down beside her, his hand warm and familiar and soothing against her spine. He was the one that had made it all possible for her, had given her the chance at a life she'd never wanted and showed her everyday that love didn't have to be conditional, love didn't have to be all heartbreak and loss and bitter words. And she could never express all of that to him, in her emotionally stunted way, but he knew her well enough to see it in her eyes as she gazed over at him, and a smile formed on his lips just before he leaned in to kiss her. It was soft and slow and short, but she had never felt more loved.
"We could sleep out here tonight," he proffered in a whisper, glancing at the kids.
And it was a terrible, because the couch was barely big enough for the two of them and they were getting too old, and in the morning they would be in pain and probably sleep deprived. But she still found herself nodding and murmuring, "Can we?"
"I'll get us a blanket," Tenzin said, squeezing her bicep as he rose back onto his feet.
"Bring an extra one for Sora," Lin told him, and he nodded in agreement.
He returned a few minutes later, arms loaded with blankets and a pillow, and after covering Sora and Jeia with the extra blanket, Lin and Tenzin carefully positioned themselves on the couch, mindful of the children sleeping just meters away. It took some maneuvering, and they were so close together it was difficult to determine where one of them ended and the other began, but they eventually settled into a comfortable position. They wouldn't be able to move much at all, and there was a risk of Lin rolling right off of the couch in her sleep, but she wasn't worried. Ensconced in Tenzin's warm embrace as she was, she had never felt more safe. She watched her kids sleep peacefully for a while, committed the sight to memory, and drifted off to join them with the feel of Tenzin trailing his fingers through her hair.
Chapter 44: Chapter 44
Chapter Text
Chapter 44
They received word that Korra was ready to begin her airbending training a few months after antibender sentiment suddenly rose sharply in Republic City. It had been there for a couple of years already, brewing just under the surface, causing small scuffles and drunken brawls, but never amounting to anything that required sharp focus. Lin had the police keeping an eye on the situation, waiting for it to fester and expand, but she hadn't been overtly concerned.
Until the issue began to escalate.
Violent altercations between benders and nonbenders were becoming more and more frequent. There were, at the very least, weekly protests and gatherings of nonbenders, above ground now instead of below, acquiring a larger base for the Equalists, stirring dissent among Republic City citizens. It was the equivalent to having a new triad emerge, with even more dangerous possibilities, and there were already several triads that Lin and the police had to war with nearly everyday. Even with Saikhan and Ikuro's help, Lin was strung out trying to coordinate the police force, with new calls coming in at all hours of day and night. She was pulling all-nighter's again and catching naps when she could in her office instead of going home, because when she did return to the Island to get some rest, she was often called back in shortly after settling down.
The other leaders of the city, particularly those on the council, were not much better off. Their work didn't wake them in the middle of the night very often, but they were swamped with paper work and meetings and court hearings all day long.
Tenzin and Lin were busier than they had been since before Ronen was born, and as a result they were calling on Nira for help quite often. Nira didn't complain, and it wasn't very difficult for her to keep an eye on the kids nowadays. Ronen was fifteen and just as uncommonly mature as his father had been at that age, so there was little concern of him getting into anything he shouldn't. He also helped with his younger siblings, particularly Jeia Rai, who at four years old was as stubborn as ever. She didn't get into a lot of mischief like Yunjin, but she would put up a fight for seemingly no reason at all, other than that she didn't like to be told what to do. Sora and Yunjin were still the most difficult, because Yunjin only grew bolder and cooked up even more elaborate schemes the older he got. And even though Sora was maturing and less likely to run amok with her twin brother, she was also becoming a teenage girl, and her transition into her teens was not going as well as it had with Ronen. Her mood swings were far reaching and never ending, and her adherence to rules and responsibilities was swept to the side in favor of pleasing some of her classmates instead. She went above and beyond to impress a new group of friends that she had acquired at school. So much so that she was taking advantage of her parents being busy to try sneaking around the city into places that she shouldn't be, and skipping classes simply because her friends had said it was a good idea. The girl had cut her hair recently too, her long hair that she had adored so much, but her friends had convinced her that short hair was better, and so she had let one of them cut it off, and it wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't done it purely to gain favor. Her uncommon actions had been a mild concern at first, one that Lin and Tenzin had thought to have handled rather well, with a long conversation with Sora and a punishment not too horrific, but enough to get the point across. The matter had seemed all but resolved, until one of Lin's officers brought Sora into her office in the middle of the school day, after having caught the girl trespassing on private property. Lin's head had nearly exploded, and she was certain that every officer on the fourth floor had heard the shrieking rant she went on while Sora stared guiltily at her feet. And in that already harrowing moment, Sora had looked a little like Su had at that age, with the new short hair and soft features. And maybe Lin's panic at that realization had escalated her already high-strung emotions, but she had not been able to stop the confusing whirlwind of harsh reprimands and desperate pleas for Sora to see reason.
Lin had practically begged Sora to dump the gaggle of friends she had made and go back to her former best friend, Jinora. Sweet, quiet, sensible Jinora, who had had a falling out with Sora nearly a year before. Lin still didn't know all of the details, only knew that Sora had come home weeping one day and Yunjin had sadly informed his mother that Sora had been in a fight with her best friend. Lin had tried coaxing Sora into talking about it, but the girl was surprisingly tight-lipped about the whole thing, and Lin had the sinking feeling that the fight between the two girls was partially her fault. Lin hadn't gone back on her word about allowing Jinora to visit the Island despite who the girl's mother was, and she had even eventually caved into letting Sora go to Jinora's house once or twice, but no matter how hard Lin tried to act calm, it had to have been obvious that the girls' mothers hated each other. Pema was a horrific actress, and Lin couldn't fake a cheerful expression to save her life anytime she was in the younger woman's presence. Sora had asked Lin about it, but Lin had made an excuse and, despite her usual honesty, refused to explain. She didn't see any benefits to giving her kid all the gory details of a feud she'd much rather forget. Sora would have had a million and one questions and Lin didn't want to have to lie or tell the truth.
Whether or not Sora and Jinora could restore their friendship, Lin did not know, because she had no idea why they had fought in the first place, but she had seen some spark hope in Sora's eyes when Lin suggested it, despite the girl's vehement protest, so Lin wasn't going to count it out completely. She intended to ask Sora about it further later on, when the girl wasn't in such huge trouble, but they had received word from the South Pole about Korra's training the following day. There hadn't been time after that to discuss Sora's choice in friends.
Lin was too busy at work to get a day off, but two days after reading the letter, Tenzin piled all four kids onto Oogi and made a day trip to the South Pole to give Korra the bad news himself. Lin and Tenzin had discussed Korra's training at length, but both of them had known it wasn't the right time for them to uproot their family and their lives to abandon their responsibility to the city. They had always considered going to the South Pole as a family so that Tenzin could properly train the Avatar, but had also known it would only work if the city was in a peaceful state and if the kids would not be badly affected by it. Considering the problems with antibenders, Lin and Tenzin felt duty bound to remain in the city until it was resolved.
Despite the confidence in their decision, Lin could see that Tenzin felt guilt and shame over not being able to train the new Avatar. Korra was the reincarnation of his father and he was the only Airbending Master in the world, and she needed him to reach her full potential as the Avatar. It was one of the things his father had spent most of his life preparing him for, and yet he could not do it. Lin felt guilty in turn, because she had let the city fall into chaos over the years since her mother and Aang had passed, and she had failed to maintain all the peaceful progress they had set into motion. For them and for Tenzin, she was determined to get the city back under control as quickly as possible. It seemed an insurmountable task, but she felt confident that so long as she could tactfully tamp down on the antibending sentiment, before it could be sparked into something even worse, she would have a chance at reasoning with the nonbenders who were not so hell bent on a fight and put the whole matter to rest.
The very moment that Oogi's feet landed with a soft thump on the icy ground, Jeia went scrambling for the edge of the saddle and slid down Oogi's tail before anyone could so much as blink. The girl had been clinging to her eldest brother, Ronen, in terror for the entire flight, clutching at the metal coin her mother had gifted her with over a year ago to attempt to ease her anxiety over flying in a white knuckled fist. She still hated flying with a passion, but she had at least stopped collapsing buildings over it.
Yunjin and Sora eagerly leapt off of Oogi next, using their airbending to see who could propel themselves the highest before floating down to the ground a few meters ahead of Jeia, who had plopped down in the snow with a frown and was digging in search of the earth below. Tenzin and Ronen disembarked with less haste and went straight to where Katara waited for them, while Sora and Yunjin argued over who had won their contest.
"Hello, Mother," Tenzin said in greeting as he reached her, "I can't tell you how happy I am to see you."
Katara smiled brightly, accepting the exuberant hug that Ronen gave her, chuckling joyfully as she exclaimed, "I'm so happy to see all of you."
Ronen towered over Katara's short frame now, and he had to bend over slightly to wrap his arms around her. He pulled back with a grin saying, "It's good to finally see you again, Gran-Gran! It's been too long."
"It has – look at how big you've grown!" Katara proclaimed, looking the boy over and squeezing his cheek affectionately. "You're becoming such a handsome young man."
Ronen blushed but perked up proudly. He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, his left shoulder was shoved forward as Yunjin barreled through to hug Katara. A second later, Sora bumped into Ronen's right shoulder, knocking him the other way, to excitedly join the embrace with her twin and their grandmother.
Tenzin, meanwhile, had gone to pick Jeia up off of the ground, brushing snow off of the toddler and frowning at her now damp pants. He wrapped her up in his cloak as he strode back to the others, concerned that she would fall ill in the cold. The girl was extra susceptible to such things, and he didn't intend to bring a toddler with pneumonia back to Lin – she would kill him.
"I missed you sooo much, Gran-Gran," Sora was saying.
"I missed you too," Katara said, stroking the girl's short hair. "You cut your hair."
Instead of responding, Sora tugged at her tunic and averted her gaze with a little anxiety, digging her toe into the snow beneath her feet.
"She got in trouble!" Yunjin exclaimed without preamble, looking almost gleeful, clearly having no qualms with ratting his sister out to their grandmother. Yunjin lied to Lin and Tenzin all the time, but he would tell Katara anything and everything without even being prompted.
"Shut up, 'Jin!" Sora shrieked, glowering at her brother.
"In trouble for what?" Katara asked with concern.
"Nothing!" Sora said hastily, looking half close to tears.
"I'll explain later," Tenzin told his mother with a sigh before shooting Sora and Yunjin a look. "Enough you two."
"He started it," Sora pouted.
"No Lin?" Katara interjected, before the twins could go on. She frowned, looking disappointed and peering over Yunjin's shoulder, as if expecting Lin to still be hiding on Oogi.
"I'm afraid not," Tenzin confirmed. "She's very busy with work and couldn't get the time away, but she sends her love…" Tenzin trailed off as he suddenly recognized someone waiting behind Katara, and it had been so long since he'd been to visit the young Avatar that he almost didn't recognize her. He brightened and said in surprise, "Korra?" The girl grinned and rushed forward, and Tenzin placed a hand on her shoulder, his other arm still holding onto Jeia. "Look at you. So big and strong. You've grown into quite the young Avatar."
Before Korra could respond, she was ambushed by the kids. Ronen interjected first, too excited to be polite as he engulfed Korra in a tight hug. They were almost the same height, despite Ronen being two years younger, and Tenzin was taken aback for a moment by how much the two of them had grown. He still remembered the two toddlers that had become so close so quickly, chasing after one another on short legs and building snowmen together. Korra had been Ronen's first real friend outside of his cousins. Even now he hardly had any close friends from school and exchanged frequent letters with Korra, always racing to get the mail the second it was delivered. Secluded as she was in the South Pole, Korra didn't have much in the way of friends either.
Sora and Yunjin had interacted with Korra far less than their older brother, in part because of their age, but mostly because, by the time the twins came along, Lin and Tenzin weren't able to make the trip to the South Pole as often with three young children and the twins being as wild and untameable as they were. However, they were still delighted to see the Avatar. Both of them looked up at Korra with stars in their eyes as if enraptured. Yunjin gave her a look that was borderline flirty and would have made Lin roll her eyes if she was there to see it, while Sora smiled bashfully and toyed with her hair nervously. Korra greeted both of them in turn, and then, with her arm looped through Ronen's, returned her attention to Tenzin.
"Master Tenzin," she said at last. "I'm so glad you're here. I can't wait to get started."
Tenzin felt the guilt wash over him and he cringed slightly as he stammered, "Ah, yes, well…" he sighed heavily, struggling to admit what he knew would crush the girl. Making the decision with Lin was one thing, having to face Korra was another thing entirely.
Ronen squeezed Korra's arm in comfort, sympathy on his face. Korra frowned and asked, "I don't understand. What is it?"
Katara had caught on quicker, and she sounded sad as she guessed, "You're not staying, are you?"
Seeing the sorrow in his mother's eyes was painful, and Tenzin bowed his head with a heavy breath, shaking his head regretfully as he admitted, "I'm afraid not. We're only visiting for the night, and then I have to return to Republic City."
Korra shook her head, brow furrowed as the disappointment and confusion washed over her. "But, no, you're supposed to move here." She huffed out a distraught breath. "You're supposed to teach me."
"I'm sorry, Korra," Tenzin said sincerely, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder again. "Your airbending training is going to have to wait."
Korra was very clearly upset, and Sora piped up, "I can stay and teach Korra until you're ready, Daddy."
Tenzin knew the girl was just trying to be helpful, but Yunjin had no such delusions as he reminded, "You're grounded, Sora. You can't get out of it by moving to the South Pole."
Sora let out a frustrated sound that was faintly reminiscent of her mother's irate growl and stomped her foot. "I wasn't asking you, 'Jin."
"I can train Korra," Yunjin postulated, ignoring his twin's glare.
"You begged to be put into public school," Tenzin pointed out. "You aren't dropping out now. And you aren't masters. Neither of you is training Korra."
Korra interrupted, "I still don't understand why you can't teach me."
Jeia shivered in Tenzin's arms and murmured, "Daddy, it's cold."
Tenzin rubbed Jeia's back soothingly and suggested to the group, "Why don't we all go inside to discuss this further?"
Lin wasn't home when Tenzin and the kids returned from the South Pole. Tenzin called her at work to inquire as to whether she had been home at all the entire time they had been gone, to which she had reassured him that she had gone home to sleep for a few hours. She didn't tell him that the silence and alone time wasn't as amazing as she had hoped it would be, or that it was a little unsettling after so long of it being the opposite. Instead she asked how Korra took the news and was unsurprised to hear how dejected the girl and Katara had both been.
Lin returned home that night in time to see the kids before bed, and then stayed up late to soothe Tenzin's remaining guilt over delaying Korra's training.
The following morning, Tenzin went to work before the sun had fully risen in the sky, so Lin took Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin to school after Nira had stopped by to retrieve Jeia.
After dropping the oldest kids off, Lin went to work as well. She was only there for maybe two hours when she received word that some of her officers had arrested a teenage girl and her polar bear dog, and Lin felt dread building in the pit of her stomach before they even confirmed that it was in fact the Avatar.
Upon being given a run down of the events that had led to Korra's arrest, including all the damaged property and an officer that had been hospitalized for a broken arm, Lin was seething. Not only had Korra disobeyed Tenzin's wishes and endangered herself by traveling on her own outside of the compound, but she had created a huge mess that Lin would be required to clean up and no doubt alerted the entire city to her presence. By nightfall, nearly everyone would know that the Avatar was in town, and Lin didn't think the girl was going to receive a very warm welcome.
Lin stormed into the interrogation room where Korra had been placed with her shoulders back and nearly every muscle in her body clenched, trying to keep her anger under control and failing miserably. The girl had aged since Lin had last seen her, nearly a woman now, but still very much a child, still all wide eyed innocence and naivety.
Korra perked up at the sight of Lin, her wrists clinking against the cuffs that restrained her to the table and a bright smile blossoming on her face. "Chief Lin!" she exclaimed, as if she was still four years old and uncertain of how formal or informal she wanted to be with the imposing woman. "I'm so glad to see you. I told them that you knew me, but they wouldn't listen. Could you get these things off?" she asked, gesturing to the handcuffs and rattling them against the table again. "They're really starting to chafe."
"You've got some nerve, kid," Lin growled, and Korra slumped slightly in her chair, her smile vanishing in the face of Lin's very clear anger. "I'm certain that Tenzin told you that you had to stay put. So, please, explain to me how you ended up here, thousands of miles from the South Pole."
"Well," Korra stalled, "I was on my way to see you! And Tenzin, at the Island, but the ship let me off in the city and –"
"And what?" Lin snapped, before the girl could fully explain, Korra's mouth still hanging open mid-sentence after Lin's interruption. "You thought you'd try your hand at playing detective?"
Korra started to protest, "I wasn't trying… I mean it wasn't my fault!"
"Not your fault?" Lin scoffed. She looked down at the clipboard in her hand as she strode around behind Korra, but she needn't have bothered because she had already memorized every detail. She began to tick off, "Multiple counts of destruction of private city property, assault on a police officer, not to mention evading arrest…" Lin slammed the clipboard down on the table next to Korra. "You're in a whole mess of trouble, young lady."
"But there were some thugs threatening a helpless shop keeper!" Korra defensively cried. "I had to –!"
"I don't want to hear it!" Lin interrupted, shaking her head and swiping up the clipboard again, striding back around the table. "You should have called the police and stayed out of the way instead of endangering yourself and everyone else."
"But I couldn't sit by and do nothing," Korra reasoned. "It's my duty to help people. I'm the Avatar."
"Oh, I'm well aware of that," Lin scoffed, sliding into the seat across from Korra, "but that doesn't excuse what you did. You can't just waltz in here and dole out vigilante justice like you own the place! There are laws, and –"
Lin's rant was cut off abruptly as a viewport to the side opened up and a voice rang out, "Chief." Lin turned her head to glare at one of her officers peering into the room as he hastily told her, "Councilman Tenzin is here."
Well, that was fast, Lin thought. Apparently news had already traveled to the council, which meant every influential person in the city was going to be up her ass in about five minutes, if she had to guess. Asking her what the Avatar had done, asking what Lin planned to do with the girl, asking why Korra had been arrested, why Korra had been released without punishment. Because Lin was going to have to release her. She was already well aware of that fact. It didn't mean she had to be happy about it.
"Let him in," Lin said impatiently, thinking idly that maybe it was a good thing that he was there. Better Tenzin deal with the kid than her. Although, upon seeing him stride into the room, he looked nearly as angry as his wife.
"Tenzin," Korra said with relief at the sight of him and only a miniscule amount of guilt. "I'm sorry, I got a little sidetracked on my way to see you."
"Why is she here?" Lin demanded, before Tenzin could get in a word edgewise. "I thought you told her that you couldn't start her training right now."
Tenzin breathed in deeply through his nose to compose himself, containing his own frustrations better than Lin, as per usual, before calmly responding, "I did. And Korra will be heading back to the South Pole immediately, where she will stay put."
"But –!" Korra tried to argue.
Tenzin spoke over her. "Once you drop the charges against Korra, I will take full responsibility for today's regrettable events and cover all the damages."
Lin folded her arms across her chest with a quiet snort and a muttered, "Great, meaning I have to cover the damages."
"I will use my own personal income," Tenzin muttered back, sounding annoyed that she was even complaining about it.
Lin raised a thin brow, both at his attitude and his reply, tilting her head as if it would help her understand him better as she pointed out, "There is no 'personal income.' Our money is combined into one account. Do you even know how much money you're offering up for all the damages she caused?"
"I'm not concerned about money," Tenzin tried to dismiss.
Lin nearly laughed in outrage. "Well you should be! Or have you forgotten that we've got four kids and an island full of people that don't pay to live there?"
"We're not exactly hurting for money," Tenzin scoffed, "and why are you fighting this? What are you going to do, ask the girl to pay it off herself?"
"That's exactly what she should do!" Lin exploded, astonished that he didn't think the same.
"That's preposterous," Tenzin exclaimed. "She's the Avatar!"
"Who cares?" Lin growled. "She needs to be held accountable!"
Tenzin rolled his eyes before he replied, and in the brief moment of silence, Korra piped up from behind Lin saying, "Ummm, do you two need a moment alone? 'Cause I could just take Naga and –"
Lin whipped her head around to shoot the girl a hard glare and, almost exactly at the same time, she and Tenzin both barked, "NO!"
Korra slouched further in her seat, looking chastened as she tapped the tips of her fingers against one another, eyes flickering back and forth between both Lin and Tenzin. "I was just trying to help," she murmured weakly, looking more and more uncomfortable the longer Lin and Tenzin stared at her. "This seems like a private husband and wife type conversation…don't want to intrude…"
Korra's voice tapered off as she tried desperately to avert her gaze to anything other than Lin and Tenzin, the floor, the ceiling, the table…
Her words, though, had sparked some sort of realization in Lin, and it dawned on her that some of her officers were probably still listening through the intercom system in the next room that was used to monitor interrogations. It was just another thing to add to the growing list of things that were pissing Lin off.
She whirled on her husband once more, moving her hands to her hips as she demanded, "Did you really come here just expecting me to hand her off to you? Do you know how that'll look on me? Doing favors for my husband and paying off people with my money to stop them from pressing charges against her?"
Tenzin released a weary sigh, clearly aggravated that the argument was still going on, making that pursed face he always did when he thought she was being particularly maddening. "Throw her in prison then," he offered with such a noncommittal shrug that he almost sounded serious.
"Hey!" Korra squeaked from behind Lin, but neither adult turned to face her that time.
"If you truly believe that'll work out better," Tenzin went on, as if Korra hadn't interjected.
She didn't think it would, but it was the principle of the matter, and she really hated when he was so apathetic over something that was so valuable to her. "You know I can't throw her in prison," Lin grumbled, arms folding across her chest again, "but if she walks out of here with nothing more than a reprimand then she learns nothing."
"She is a child," Tenzin continued to argue, but with less heat to his words now. "Children make mistakes. I will stress to her the seriousness of her actions, and then she will be on her way back to the South Pole to further contemplate what she has done. Now, will you release her into my care, or would you like to wait for Tarrlok to come sniffing around?"
Lin sighed loudly, blowing out her frustrations in a heavy breath, the threat of Tarrlok showing up enough to kill any last vestigial of fight left in her. "Fine." She flicked her fingers without turning, and the hand cuffs around Korra's wrists opened. "Get her out of my city."
"I'll see you at dinner?" Tenzin inquired, sounding weary.
Lin nodded curtly.
As Korra was shuffling from the room, rubbing at her wrists, she shot Lin an apologetic look.
"Stay out of trouble, kid," Lin requested, half pleading half warning.
And as Tenzin and Korra trudged out of the police station, Lin bitterly thought to herself that if she never saw another kid in handcuffs it would be too soon.
When Lin returned home that evening, she strode hastily into the dining room without even stopping to shed her armor, calling out as she entered, "I know, I know, I'm late. There was a –"
Lin's words died in her throat as she caught sight of who was sat at the table with her family. She slid to a sudden halt, narrowing her eyes, wondering for a moment if she was seeing things, even though there was no denying it. There beside Ronen sat none other than Korra, who was supposed to have been on a ship back to the South Pole.
Korra looked nervously up at Lin with a tiny, tentative smile, and the rest of the kids froze in the middle of consuming their dinner, utensils hovering with food halfway to their slack-jawed mouths. Lin's squinted gaze landed on Tenzin, who wore a timid, guilty looking expression himself, and Lin knew what he was going to say without him even having to speak.
Korra was staying.
Tenzin rose swiftly to his feet, opening his arms in greeting as if everything was perfectly normal and saying, "Lin, so glad you could make it home to join us. You're looking radiant, my love. I'm sorry we started without you, I wasn't certain how long you would –"
"What's going on?" Lin snapped, undeterred by whatever sort of flattery he was desperately trying to woo her with, as if it had ever worked on her before. "I thought you were sending her back to the South Pole."
"Well, I was," Tenzin said slowly, tugging at the collar of his robes, uncomfortable, face turning slightly red, even though it wasn't overly warm in the house. "However, I have had time to reconsider, and I decided that it was more important that Korra –"
"You decided?" Lin scoffed. "And when were you planning on discussing this with me?"
"It was a last minute decision," Tenzin defended, "and I'll happily discuss it with you now. Why don't we go to our room?" He was already striding around the table in her direction, telling Sora as he passed, "I want to see your homework as soon as you're finished, Sora, and make sure you help 'Jin with his math."
Korra scrambled halfway up onto her knees, hastily adding, "Look, Lin, er, Chief, Ma'am, um, Iwas the one that convinced Tenzin, and I wasn't trying to go behind your back. But I am ready, and after what I saw of the city, you clearly need me to – "
"Okayyy," Ronen interjected, before the girl could go on, tugging Korra back down into her seat. "I'm sure Dad will explain it all. No need to get involved right now."
The boy shot the Avatar a look, but Korra just seemed confused. Lin, on the other hand, recognized what he was doing. Korra's assertion that the city needed her was perhaps an unintended insult to Lin and Tenzin, because they had let the city fall apart in the first place, and it implied that they could not put it back together on their own. The fact that it was close to the truth only made it sting more.
Tenzin had reached the doorway then, blocking Lin's view of the kids, and he ushered her back out of the dining room and down the hallway to their bedroom, where he shut the door before turning to her and saying quickly, "Let me explain," holding up a placating hand.
Lin folded her arms across her chest and wordlessly raised a brow, waiting for him to start.
"As it turns out, Korra was right," Tenzin admitted, apprehension still in his every move even though he seemed very certain of his decision. "Republic City has been steadily getting worse since my father passed, and while we've handled all that's happened so far, I think there could be an advantage to finally having the Avatar here to help restore balance."
"She's a child," Lin instantly objected, "and she has no official capacity in law enforcement or politics. The validity of everything that she does can be called into question because she has no technical legal right to do any of it. She's protected by the obscurity of the Avatar status, but what happens if someone brings it to court? Antibender sentiment is already at an all time high. If we send the Avatar out there, a bender of all four elements, to counteract it, it's going to blow up in our faces."
"We don't know any of that for certain," Tenzin argued. "Perhaps Korra is exactly what this city needs."
"She's a hothead," Lin said plainly. "She's not exactly a master of negotiation…or tact."
"You're right," Tenzin acquiesced. "She isn't ready just yet, but with our teachings she can be. She must learn airbending, and once she has connected to her spiritual side and learned how to free her mind, she will be better at dealing with the issue at hand."
"And in the meantime?" Lin questioned. "You think she'll be content to sit around the Island all day?"
"I've made it clear to her that while she is here she is in our care, and therefore will abide by the same rules as the rest of our children. She will not be allowed free roam to repeat the events of today."
"I don't like this," Lin persisted with a shake of her head. "I don't think Korra being here is going to fix the city's problems. If anything, it's going to make it worse. If she's not careful, she'll be the spark that lights this whole equalist movement ablaze. And we can't expect to fully stop her from doing what she wants. She's practically an adult."
"We will keep a close eye on her," Tenzin promised, "and I can't imagine she'll get into too much trouble with Ronen around. They seem to be getting on as well as they did when they were toddlers. We can trust Ronen to talk her down if she gets any wild ideas."
"Or she'll drag him into it," Lin muttered.
Tenzin stepped closer to her, bracing his hands on her shoulders and squeezing lightly. "I know you're worried, but I think we should be optimistic. This can be good for the city and for our family. Sora and Yunjin can help me train Korra, which will give them some responsibility and an extracurricular that may help keep them busy and out of trouble. Ronen will have a friend here, and I think he and Korra can really help each other. And maybe even Jeia will be inspired by the Avatar and finally let you start teaching her how to control her own bending."
Lin sighed wearily, in part because he had a point and partially because Jeia's continued lack of interest in bending was a point of great concern for Lin and Tenzin. Ever since the girl had accidentally collapsed the bison stables, she had been horrified by her own power and, two years later, still refused to learn how to wield it. Lin and Tenzin had tried almost everything they could think of to convince her, but nothing was strong enough to overpower Jeia's stubbornness. There had been a few more small incidents of her bending over the years, nothing as dramatic as the first time, but each new accident only served to frighten Jeia even further. Hoping that Korra's presence might sway Jeia was probably a long shot, but they had nearly run out of options.
Lin studied her husband's features carefully for a moment, considering all that he had said and still not pleased with it, but sensing that she had to let him make this decision regardless. "And you're absolutely certain this is what you want to do?" she inquired. "Right now, when we're swamped with work and the kids and everything else?"
Tenzin sucked in a deep breath before nodding firmly. "I am," he asserted. "I thought that honoring my father's legacy meant keeping my commitment to this city, but then I realized that Korra is my father's legacy. The only way to truly honor him and return balance to Republic City is by making sure that the new Avatar is ready and able."
Lin put both hands over her face, ran them back into her hair – tangled mess that it was – and stressfully kneaded both sides of her temple. "If this is what you think you have to do, then I won't stop you," she told Tenzin at last, "but I can't promise I'm going to be much help." She thought of the Equalist threat, the tension rising to a boiling point in the city. She thought of Sora acting out and Yunjin being Yunjin, of Jeia needing guidance and refusing at every turn. She would make room for Korra in her life, in her home, but Lin already had so much that needed her focus. She and Tenzin had both agreed before that Korra needed more than they could give in that point in time, but if he felt it necessary to train the girl now, then Lin would do her best to support him. When it came to teaching the twins airbending and mentoring the Avatar, Lin took a step back, just as he did when it came to her decisions with work.
Tenzin let out a breath in relief, smiling as he tugged Lin into a brief hug. "Thank you," he murmured against the top of her head, before pulling back to meet her gaze. "I promise, you don't have to worry. This will all work out, I just know it."
Tenzin was singing a different tune about a week into Korra's training.
The girl hadn't managed a single bit of airbending, and she rebelled against every one of Tenzin's teachings. She didn't sit for meditation and she ran headlong into the airbending gates like a bull antelope in a porcelain shop.
Lin wasn't home during the day to witness Korra and Tenzin's spats, but she always came home to an irate husband and a moody teen. Dinners were quiet affairs, which was just as well as far as Lin was concerned, considering the noise and the chaos she experienced all day at work, but the tension was palpable and, quite frankly, annoying. Tenzin would make passive aggressive comments unprovoked in the middle of passing the rice, and Korra would mutter something under her breath that was entirely aggressive and not passive at all, and Tenzin would say, "what was that?" and Korra would harshly respond, "nothing." And after dinner, when Lin would go to her room to relax or take a bath, Tenzin would follow and spend the next hour or more ranting about how stubborn and difficult Korra was.
And on and on it went for over two weeks, so that Lin began to feel like her life had been caught in a never ending loop. She wanted desperately to say "I told you so," but didn't want Tenzin's ire directed at her, and frankly there was no joy in her being right. Not when it meant listening to the same feud every single day. If it was any indication of how Tenzin and Sora would act in a few years, Lin decided that she might just have to run off and live out the rest of her days in the desert.
The back and forth between Tenzin and Korra might not have been such an issue if it weren't for the fact that Tenzin was clearly smothering the girl. Lin had been desperate to keep an eye on the young Avatar to make sure she stayed out of trouble, but confining her to the Island with the White Lotus tracking her every move was a bit much. Not to mention the ongoing argument over pro-bending. Despite Ronen's warnings, Korra had obsessed over the game in front of Tenzin, and as a result, he was on full lock down mode. He considered the sport a mockery and a distraction, and faced with his ire, Korra had unwisely pointed out that he was a hypocrite because Yunjin had pro-bending magazines, so why couldn't she listen to the games on the radio?
The whole family had been in trouble then, including Lin, who had been the one to sneak the magazines to Yunjin in the first place. She had known Tenzin's aversion to the game and purposefully kept the kids quiet on the matter. She didn't consider it a betrayal, but Tenzin very much did. Lin had come home dreading Tenzin's usual frustrations over Korra, and had instead been accosted before she even set foot in the door. The ensuing rant had been never ending, and, okay, maybe it had been wrong of her to keep secrets from him about the kids, but really, if it wasn't hurting them, then what did it matter? She had only let the four of them listen on occasion, and besides, Sora thought it was boring, Ronen only half-liked it, and Jeia didn't really understand.
Rather than fight him on it for once, Lin simply apologized for going behind Tenzin's back, agreed with all that he said about the kids being too impressionable, and relented to letting him decide whether or not Korra should be allowed to listen to pro-bending matches.
She just hoped the decision to take his lead on the matter didn't come back to bite her in the ass.
Ronen wasn't sure when he, the nonbender, had suddenly become an airbending master, but he was spending an awful lot of time mentoring the Avatar in the ways of airbending.
Sora and Yunjin and their father were often there too, of course, but Ronen was apparently the only one that Korra would listen to. After years of remaining pen pals and faint childhood memories of being friends, the Avatar trusted him in a way she hadn't yet warmed to the rest of his family. Tenzin's restrictions on the girl were more of a hindrance to her trust in him than the help that he thought it was, and when Ronen mentioned that to his father, Tenzin had merely insisted that he knew what he was doing. Sora was entirely consumed in the beginnings of puberty and school friend problems and being grounded until further notice, so she had little time or interest in getting closer to Korra. Not to mention the fact that Sora turned suddenly shy and skittish anytime Korra was around. Sora's adoration of the Avatar was sometimes cringe worthy in Ronen's opinion. As for Yunjin, well…he really had the least amount of patience, and if anyone thought that Korra and Tenzin's frustrations were out of hand, then there would certainly be no sense of calm between Korra and Yunjin. Especially since the boy was still peeved at the Avatar for accidentally ratting him out to his father for having pro-bending magazines.
Ronen's mother, of course, was busy with work, and it was painfully obvious how wary she still was of the Avatar, so the job of reasoning with Korra fell mostly onto Ronen's shoulders. She ended up rejecting most of what Tenzin told her the moment it didn't work, so that, after school each day, Ronen spent hours reworking Tenzin's teachings into something that might work better for Korra. So far, his efforts seemed to have been for naught, because Korra was often too frustrated to get past whatever it was that was blocking her from airbending. She was trying too hard to force it when airbending was meant to be gentle, and Ronen was certain that once she eased up some and relaxed it would come to her just as naturally as the other elements had.
Despite its ineffectiveness, Ronen still looked forward to helping Korra each day. Talking to Korra in person was just as easy as it had been when they'd been exchanging letters, and he was confident in saying that she was quickly turning into his closest friend. He had friends at school, of course, but some of them he disagreed with on nearly everything and others were simply too immature. Ronen had been both blessed and cursed to have inherited his parents' advanced sense of self, and the sort of things his classmates were interested in seemed too childish for him to truly relate. Somehow, despite being mostly sheltered with only a polar bear dog for a friend and little interaction with the outside world, Korra was generally well rounded and levelheaded, if not a little naïve.
Ronen would have wanted to help the Avatar regardless, but being friends with her certainly helped. However, Korra was still a teenager, and one that had been locked away for far too long, and the city was simply too enticing for her to ignore as Tenzin expected her to.
Ronen had no idea the craziness she had in mind when she first snagged his sleeve after dinner one evening. They'd been on their way out of the dining room, everyone else having already gone their separate directions, the two eldest teens lagging behind, too busy snorting over a joke Ronen had heard at school earlier that day. So when Korra's fingers suddenly curled around Ronen's wrist and yanked him further back into the room, he couldn't help the surprised yelp that escaped his lips before she hastily shushed him with a frantic gesture that he barely understood the meaning of. She had a ridiculously strong grip, and even though he knew she hadn't done it on purpose, he thought her brief hold on his wrist would certainly leave a bruise.
Immediately upon shushing him, Korra leaned in to whisper close to Ronen's ear, "Meet me in my room at nightfall."
When she pulled back, her eyes were sparkling with mischief, and she had a look on her face not dissimilar to Yunjin's when he was preparing a particularly outrageous scheme.
Ronen frowned, but Korra was already flashing him a grin and hastily gliding from the room before he could get in a word edgewise.
Ronen remained in the dining room for several seconds, alone, frozen stiff and wondering what on earth Korra was planning. When he finally regained control of his legs, he went quickly in the direction of his bedroom, a million thoughts running through his mind. If Korra was about to drag him into something reckless, he was at least going to finish his homework, and then maybe change into something more suitable to rule breaking, whatever that meant. On his way back to his room, he passed his mother, and she raised a suspicious eyebrow at his twitchy, forced smile, and he very nearly confessed right then and there, because dammit her eyes were boring into him like she could see straight through to his soul. But he bit down on his lips and he didn't let the words escape, and they passed each other with little more than a, "going to finish my homework before bed, goodnight, Mom," and a gruff, "'night, kid," from Lin. Ronen figured it was just fortunate that his mother had so many other things on her mind.
Ronen's mind was too awash with questions and concerns to fully focus on his homework, his gaze flickering to the window to check the light in the sky every few seconds. When night finally fell, Ronen leapt to his feet, eyes wide, wondering how long the sun had been missing from the sky. He hastily slammed his textbook closed and spun on his heel, instantly tripping over the strap of his backpack strewn carelessly on the floor. He cursed under his breath, both at nearly falling and at the unnecessarily loud noise he had made shutting his book and stomping his foot on the floor. He went very still, holding his breath and watching his bedroom door, waiting for one of his parents to suddenly burst through the door, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to keep his mouth shut this time.
But several moments passed and Ronen heard no approaching footsteps, nor raised voices asking if he was all right.
Ronen sucked in a deep breath, blowing it out slowly, shakily, trying to quell the nervousness in his stomach. He carefully extracted his foot from his backpack, and then crept over to turn off his light. He fumbled through the dark, with only the moonlight peeking in through his curtains to guide him, and when he found his coat, he blindly slipped into it, idly wondering why he hadn't put it on before he turned off the lights. He had stuffed some pillows under his blanket earlier at least. It wouldn't fool his parents if they did more than glanced into his room, but he doubted they would come storming in if they thought he was sleeping.
He held his shoes in one hand as he carefully slid his door open, just a crack barely wide enough for him to slip through. He froze in the hallway, waiting again for a sound, but when neither of his parents came storming towards him, he eased his door closed and began to tiptoe down the hall. He knew just where to step to avoid creaky floorboards, thanks to sleepless nights or early mornings when he needed to get to the kitchen or the bathroom and didn't want to wake the rest of his family. He had to hold his arms out wide to keep his sleeves from brushing noisily against the sides of his coat, and when he was passing Jeia's room he had to move at a glacial pace to avoid the slightest sound. He could hear his parents just inside, their voices soft and soothing as they coaxed Jeia to sleep, and it was lucky that Lin always laid down in bed with Jeia until the toddler fell to sleep, because if her feet had been touching the floor she likely would have sensed Ronen creeping down the hall.
He made it the whole way to the front door before he went still again, trembling as he reached for the door handle. If anyone caught him at that moment, he would have very little that he could say to explain himself. But the house was just as quiet as ever, his family still awake, but winding down, doing their nightly rituals and giving one another space. After a certain time, they always stopped arguing, stopped discussing anything important so long as it could wait until morning. They spoke in hushed voices and walked lightly through the house. Part of that had been borne from the need to be quiet when Lin worked insane hours and crashed into bed before dinner, because the slightest noises could wake her, and part had been to keep from waking Jeia when she'd been a baby and every second of her being asleep at night was precious. It came in handy for Ronen as he snuck outside in his bare feet and then sprinted straight for some bushes.
He crouched down there and tugged on his shoes, and then, after checking that the coast was clear, he made a beeline for the women's dorms where Korra resided. Getting past the White Lotus sentries outside was a little trickier, but he managed it, and as he sprinted through the corridors, he prayed he wouldn't run into any acolytes that might rat him out.
Somehow, Ronen made it all the way to Korra's room without a single hiccup, and he crashed into her room with barely a knock, out of breath and frantic as he very, very carefully – but quickly – closed the door behind him.
Korra was squatted nearby the window, peering down at the White Lotus guards below, and she turned at the sound of him entering her room, cocking her head to the side in silent question as he panted against the door.
"Did you run into anyone?" she asked, and all Ronen could do was shake his head, still gasping for breath. Korra glanced back out the window, and then tossed over her shoulder, "Hey, you can swim right?"
Ronen sucked in a deep breath and blew it out shakily, nodding even though Korra wasn't looking and finally regaining some semblance of control of himself. "Yeah," he answered with ease, "of course I can. I'm the best swimmer in Republic City." That was a slight exaggeration maybe, but he was at least the best in his school.
Korra looked over at him again, and there was that same mischievous grin that he couldn't decipher. "Good," she said. "You ready to go?"
"Where are we going?" Ronen questioned, lurching off of the door behind him and striding closer to Korra, his legs steadier now. "What have you got planned?"
"We're breaking out of here," Korra replied without hesitation. "We're going to the pro-bending match tonight."
Ronen gaped, eyes and mouth wide, brows furrowed into one. "What?!" he hissed, still somehow mindful of the guards below. "Are you crazy? My Dad will kill you. And my Mom will kill me."
"They'll never know!" Korra argued, waving a dismissive hand, as if it was preposterous for him to even think so. "We'll be back in a few hours and they'll never even know we were gone."
Ronen snorted humorlessly. "Right," he said sarcastically, "because they're such naturally oblivious people."
"You made it all the way here, right?" Korra pointed out. "Why would they suspect anything?" She sighed heavily when Ronen continued to stare at her skeptically. "Come on, Ronen," she pleaded. "I've got to get out of here. I'm going crazy. Your father has me on lock down and I'm not even learning anything. I need a break, I need to have fun. I need to see this match, and even if you don't come with me, I'm going."
Ronen grimaced in the face of Korra's begging, feeling sympathy for what she had to put up with, and also knowing full well that she would absolutely make the trip without him if she had to. His mother had told him to look after Korra, so going with her was the right thing to do, wasn't it? He didn't figure his mother would see it that way if she found out, but what Lin didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
"Fine," Ronen finally relented with a long-suffering sigh, "but when I say it's time to go, we've got to go, okay?"
Korra's entire face lit up like a star and Ronen felt a swell of affection for his friend. Perhaps going with her wasn't such a bad idea, though he knew he'd be singing a different tune if his parents caught him and grounded him for the rest of his life.
"I promise!" Korra gushed. "Now, c'mon, stick close to me…"
Ronen went to stand at Korra's side by the window, and as she watched the White Lotus guards shifting formation, she began to silently count down with her fingers. When her pointer finger closed down into her fist, she leapt out of the window without wasting a single second and landed lightly on her feet on the ground below. Ronen muttered another curse, said a prayer to whatever spirit might be listening, and then followed Korra out of the window. The bottom of his feet stung when they struck ground and his knees buckled slightly, but otherwise his legs remained steady. He glanced quickly to make sure the White Lotus guards hadn't heard him, and then he took off sprinting in the direction that Korra was going.
He caught up to her right before she dove straight off the cliff side, and before he could second guess himself, Ronen did exactly the same. Before they even reached the surface of the bay, the ocean water rose up to meet them, no doubt thanks to Korra's waterbending, swirling up towards them, dark and ominous. Ronen gasped in a huge breath of air and then held it in as he was swallowed up by the inky black depths. It was shockingly cold as his whole body was consumed by it, and he plunged fast, water rushing by his half-closed eyelids so fast he couldn't make out his arms stretched in front of him let alone anything else. It took him several seconds to realize that he wasn't sinking to the bottom like a stone, but that Korra was propelling them both far from the Island where his home resided. He was able to hold his breath for a rather long time, but eventually he began to squirm and his lungs started to strain against his chest, and Korra brought them up above the surface, both of them spitting salt water from their mouths and gasping for air.
"You okay?" Korra spluttered, once she had caught her breath.
Ronen looked around as he nodded, noticing that they were already nearly halfway to the city. "Yeah," he answered breathlessly, taking a few more moments to recover before allowing Korra to sink them back under the surface.
After only one other stop, Ronen and Korra finally reached the shore, and Korra hurtled them both up out of the water and straight into the corridor of the great golden building that was the pro-bending arena. Once there, Korra removed most of the water from their clothes and bodies, but Ronen still felt vaguely damp and water-logged, though the warm building was quickly easing his shivers at least.
Ronen peered nervously up and down the corridor as he followed Korra, and she was grinning and bouncing on her toes, full of excitement, while Ronen kept looking over his shoulder half expecting his mother to round the corner. He knew it was impossible, knew he had just left her at home and even if she had immediately noticed his absence, it would have taken her a bit longer to figure out where he was, considering he and Korra had only left the Island minutes ago. Nevertheless, Ronen was still faintly paranoid. He wouldn't put it past Lin to magically find him. The woman always seemed to know everything.
But Lin didn't show up fuming, and Ronen forgot to be worried when he and Korra happened upon what appeared to be a training room. It was full to the brim with work out equipment and objects to bend. Korra went still in the doorway, her head tilting just so, her expression one of curiosity and intrigue.
"Come on," she told Ronen in a voice breathless with excitement.
"We shouldn't stay long," Ronen whispered to her back. "Let's just go watch some of the match and get out of here."
Korra didn't listen, simply kept walking further into the room, head turning in all directions, eyes trying to take in every feature before her.
When a gruff voice barked, "Hey! What're you doin' in my gym?" Ronen nearly jumped out of his skin, whirling wide-eyed on the muscular old man that was approaching.
"Uh," Korra said, surprise morphing quickly into a very convincing lie of, "We were just looking for a bathroom and we got lost."
"Ah, the old I had to pee excuse," the rough man huffed, unconvinced. "You know, I'm sick and tired of you kids sneakin' in without payin'. I'm takin' you to security!"
Ronen winced, vividly imagining his mother being called in the middle of the night, having to come and pick him and Korra up, and she would give him that frown that was usually reserved for Yunjin.
Korra was truly startled now, her whole body jolting. "No, wait – !" she shrieked, at the same time Ronen tried to reason, "Actually, Sir, we were just –"
But a fourth voice rang through the training room and cut them both off, all three heads swiveling to face the newcomer that was staring straight at Korra as he said, "There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you." He was a boy somewhere around Korra and Ronen's ages, if Ronen had to guess, with coiffed hair and a chiseled jaw. He was dressed in pro-bending gear, but Ronen didn't know the teams well enough to guess which one he belonged to. He looked at the old man and added, "It's all right, Toza. She's with me."
Ronen cleared his throat loudly and peered around Korra to glare at the pro-bender, but the guy didn't seem to notice Ronen, too focused on invading Korra's space.
Korra was too delighted to have been saved to notice the pro-bender's slip, and she smiled haughtily at the old gym man as she boasted, "Yeah, I'm with him."
"So, you see, we're together," the pro-bender said suavely, and Ronen snorted in disbelief, rolling his eyes in what must have been a perfect imitation of his mother.
"No you're not," Ronen protested, at the same time Korra corrected, "Well, not together, together, more like friends."
The pro-bender finally looked embarrassed, cheeks turning slightly pink as he hastily amended, "Right, friends, no, no, I didn't mean to imply…"
"Oh, you implied it," Korra said, unconvinced.
"I don't care what you are!" the old man named Toza snapped, wrenching the towel from around his neck and wiping at the sweat on his brow as he turned away from the three of them. "I've got work to do!"
"Right this way, Miss," the pro-bending boy crowed, as Toza began moving around weights scattered about the floor.
Ronen cleared his throat again, stepping half in front of Korra, partially to get the guy's attention and partially to block her from what was obviously the pro-bender's attempt at wooing her.
The pro-bender startled slightly upon seeing Ronen, but smiled easily as if undeterred. "And, Sir," he added kindly, and either the guy was a great actor or nicer than Ronen first thought. Either way, Ronen was keeping both eyes on him.
"We thank you, Sir," Korra said to the pro-bender, leaning around Ronen to whisper as Toza grunted in the background, "Seriously, thanks."
The pro-bender lead Ronen and Korra out of the training room and down several corridors before stopping at a door, swinging it open and ushering them inside. It turned out to be a sort of locker room for his team, and the open balcony looked out onto the whole stadium, stock full of screaming fans, bright lights, and an amazing view of the platform upon which the teams would soon be battling upon.
"What do you think?" the pro-bender asked with a sweeping gesture. "Best seats in the house, huh?"
Korra gasped, eyes wide and drinking in the sights, rushing to the railing as if to be closer, taking it all in with childlike glee. Ronen had to admit that it was rather stunning, and for a moment he felt a twinge of guilt for Yunjin, who would have been just as enraptured as Korra was, if not more so. Ronen resolved to one day bring his brother to the stadium somehow, probably after their father had calmed down over the whole thing, and assuming that Ronen wasn't caught later tonight and grounded for life.
"Unbelievable," Korra whispered beside him, still in awe, "this place is more amazing than I imagined."
"Names Bolin, by the way," the pro-bender said from Korra's other side, watching her as Ronen was with a fond smile on his face, but Bolin's gaze sought more than friendship.
"Korra," the girl absentmindedly supplied in turn.
Bolin looked at Ronen expectantly, and for a moment, Ronen almost said his name, but after some brief deliberation, he settled on, "Ryu."
Korra was too enthralled by her surroundings to make a comment, but she did quickly give Ronen a funny look of confusion. He didn't know whether or not it was necessary to be secretive about who his parents were, and who he was, but he thought it was better to be safe than sorry. Famous kids got snatched up for ransom money all the time, and Ronen had nearly been kidnapped twice in his life already. He really wasn't looking for a third time.
Bolin was studying Ronen now though, squinting his eyes and tilting his head, and Ronen silently cursed the newspapers for making his face recognizable just because of who his parents were.
"Do I know you?" Bolin asked.
Ronen shrugged, making a concerted effort to be casual as he replied, "I doubt it."
Ronen was saved the trouble of arguing the point further when another voice in the room whispered, "Psst, Bolin!"
Bolin turned to the other pro-bender that was over by the lockers pulling on gear. That one looked like he might be older than Bolin, with messy hair and the typical sort of face that girls Ronen's age swooned over. Ronen had been taught by his mother how to listen to and observe a conversation without being obvious, and he utilized that skill to listen in on Bolin and the older boy that turned out to be called Mako. They were arguing over whether or not Bolin should have brought Korra and Ronen, and Bolin was insistent that Korra was special. Ronen felt distinctly uncomfortable, both in concern over being found out and from Bolin's persistence at pursuing Korra. The Avatar, of course, was oblivious to everything.
Bolin tried introducing Korra to his brother Mako, but Mako breezed past Korra and Ronen as if they weren't even there. Which was just as well in Ronen's opinion. He had no interest in getting to know the guy with such an obvious attitude problem.
Bolin rushed off to join his brother and their third teammate on their platform as they went out to begin the match, and then Ronen and Korra were alone once more.
"Can you believe this?" Korra gushed, nearly bouncing up and down in her excitement as she squeezed Ronen's arm in both hands, her gaze focused resolutely on the main platform. "This is so cool! I can't believe we're actually here…"
"You know that guy is totally trying to pick you up, right?" Ronen asked, but Korra either ignored him or was too captivated by the match that was about to start to hear him.
By the end of the match, Ronen had to admit that both Mako and Bolin were incredible players. In the beginning, it had seemed as if the other team would come out victorious, but the Fire Ferrets had come back just in time to secure the win, with an awe inspiring save by Mako. Now that he was older, Ronen didn't often lament his lack of bending anymore, but caught up in the exhilarating hype of the pro-bending match he had felt a small twinge of jealousy that he would never be able to participate himself. He was mostly intrigued by the distinct differences in bending styles between a typical bender and a pro-bender. Ronen's mother, though agile when utilizing her metal cables, was never as light footed as Bolin had been, and Mako's style of defending was far less flamboyant than what Ronen had seen from the Firelord's family, though that could have been more to do with them being royalty.
Ronen was definitely eager to learn more, and apparently so was Korra, who immediately asked Bolin to show her some moves.
"Actually," Ronen interjected, as Mako was rebuffing his brother for agreeing, "we really should be going, Korra."
"No way," Korra disagreed, "we just started having some real fun."
"I can show you the basics," Bolin boasted, ignoring his brother and Ronen both. "I'm just not sure how my earthbending will translate to your waterbending, but we'll figure it out…"
"Won't be a problem," Korra started to say. Sensing what was coming, Ronen cleared his throat noisily and gave Korra a look she ignored. "Korra," he tried to interject, but Korra was already finishing, "I'm actually an earthbender."
"I'm sorry," Bolin hastily apologized, "no, no, I didn't mean to assume…I was just figuring, you know, with your water tribe get-up, that you are…a water tribe…gal…"
Ronen tried again to say, "I really don't think you should –"
But Korra did not heed his warnings. "No, you're right. I'm a waterbender, and a firebender."
Ronen sighed heavily, wondering idly if that was how his mother and father felt every time Yunjin did something reckless despite their warnings.
Bolin's face scrunched up and he made a noise in the back of his throat as if he understood, but a moment later he admitted, "I'm very confused right now."
It was Mako, with his back still turned to the rest of them, that said, "You're the Avatar, and I'm an idiot."
"Both are true," Korra delighted in saying.
Bolin was in total shock at the reveal, while Ronen covered his face with his hands. Perhaps it was not so dire to tell the two pro-bending brothers about who Korra really was, but until Ronen knew them better, he was highly suspicious of their motives.
When Bolin had settled enough to speak coherently again, he led Korra and Ronen back to the training room where they had first met, with Mako trailing along behind to observe.
Ronen was still protesting the importance of getting home sooner rather than later, before one of his parents noticed they were both gone, but Korra was having the time of her life and she wasn't about to stop. Ronen resigned himself to his fate, deciding to relax some. Either he wouldn't get caught or he would be grounded for life, there was no turning back time now.
Bolin showed Korra how to stay light on her feet to shoot the earth discs into the net across the room, while Ronen stood close by and Mako lingered a little ways behind. Ronen kept both pro-benders in his sights, curious about them as much as he was wary.
Mako wasn't much of a talker, and Korra was clearly bothered by his lack of enthusiasm. It seemed as though Mako was nearly just as suspicious of them as Ronen was of him.
Bolin, on the other hand, appeared to be very trusting, the opposite of his brother, and perhaps that was why Mako was watching them so closely. Mako seemed to be easing up just a bit, though, even told Korra "not bad," to which the girl had huffed and exasperated, "what's it take to impress this guy?"
The two of them were starting to bicker and, Bolin being either oblivious or intent on changing the subject, turned to Ronen and asked, "Hey, Ryu, you wanna try too?"
It took Ronen a moment to realize who Bolin was talking to, forgetting for a moment that he was Ryu. "Oh, no," he quickly denied with a wave of his hand, "I'm not an earthbender."
"Darn it!" Bolin exclaimed. "Sorry about that, the clothes again…"
"My Mom's an earthbender," Ronen vaguely revealed, glancing down at his dark green coat with the Earth Kingdom symbol etched into the cloth over his shoulder. "I'm a nonbender."
"Oh!" Bolin cried, comprehension dawning. "Sorry, dude. That's a bummer."
Ronen shrugged, unbothered, maybe a little annoyed, and Korra chuckled. "Don't let him fool you," she said to Bolin, hooking a thumb in Ronen's direction. "He might not be able to bend, but he can knock you flat on your ass, no problem."
Bolin looked intrigued, and Ronen puffed up a little proudly.
"Go on, Ro – er, Ryu," Korra urged with a sweep of her arm and a step back to clear the space between him and Bolin. "Show him what you've got."
"Oh, no," Ronen said again, shaking his head adamantly, "that's probably not a good idea."
"Why not?" Korra whined, practically bouncing with excitement again, and she wanted him to show off, or maybe confirm that it wasn't just her he could go toe-to-toe with in sparring. But Korra had knocked him flat on his ass just as many times, and Ronen had never faced off against a pro-bender.
"Oh, please, oh please," Bolin begged, looking nearly as excited as Korra. "I want to see your moves! Maybe I can learn a thing or two."
Ronen had the distinct feeling that it was a bad idea, but that was probably just his overprotective mother talking, and frankly, he was still a teenage boy, and maybe a small part of him did want to impress the older teens in the room. He noticed Mako glaring a few feet away, but Ronen ignored the guy and finally nodded to Bolin.
"Okay," Ronen relented, removing his jacket and doing a quick stretch while Bolin and Korra squealed, "but no blows to the face or the groin. You can throw as much as you want at me, but please, nothing hard enough to break bone."
"I promise!" Bolin swore. "But, uh, how are you gonna, y'know…"
Ronen smirked, adrenaline coursing through him now. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."
Mako said, "I don't know about this…" but the other three all ignored him.
Korra had backed up a respectable pace, still close enough to intervene if Bolin went off the rails, but far enough to be out of the line of fire. She cheered, "Woo! Go Ryu!"
"Hey!" Bolin admonished, but he was grinning at Korra without any real displeasure. "What about me?"
"Good luck," Korra taunted with a smile. "You're gonna need it."
Bolin's eyes widened slightly and he quickly refocused his gaze on Ronen across from him, raising his fists and taking up a fighting stance.
Ronen lowered himself into a runner's pose, all serious now, intently watching Bolin's every move, every little muscle twitch. He took a moment to calm his breathing, and then he called to Bolin, "Whenever you're ready."
"I'm ready," Bolin announced, which was his first mistake, because when he started bouncing on his toes and readying his aim, Ronen was already on the move, dashing across the space that divided them.
Bolin threw three earth discs at where Ronen had been standing only a moment ago, but they crashed into the floor without even coming close to hitting Ronen, who had already cleared half the space to Bolin. Catching on quick, Bolin hastily threw four more stones more precisely, accounting for Ronen's sprint now. The discs were pelting straight for him, and Ronen had to slow his run to evade them. He dodged two, then turned to the side as if flattened against a wall to avoid the third, and then caught the fourth in both hands, skidding back a space or two from the force of it. As he began running again, he pelted the disc back in Bolin's direction, but Bolin easily swatted it aside and began his next attack. When the following earth discs came flying at him, Ronen dropped to the ground and rolled several feet before Bolin could adjust, going right under the attack and edging closer and closer to Bolin.
Ronen came up on his feet and kicked at a stone coming for where he had been on the ground. Bolin was backing up in retreat to regain the upper hand, but after a few long strides, Ronen was close enough to throw his first punch. Bolin easily blocked it with a swat of his hand, bounced back two steps, and then he flipped a disc at Ronen's shoulder. Ronen leaned backwards out of the way, and then twisted the other way at the last second to attempt avoiding another disc, which ended up clipping him in the side.
Ronen hunched over instinctively, clutching at his ribs, but then used his forward momentum to dive into a roll. As he was coming up onto his knees, he was just underneath Bolin's outstretched arm, and he managed to jab two fingers into Bolin's muscular tricep before the pro-bender yanked his arm back. But Ronen had the upper hand now, and he jabbed Bolin's thigh and his other arm, which Bolin had attempted to bring down to knock Ronen back from him.
Bolin let out a surprised yelp and jumped backwards, his right arm hanging limply at his side. He tried to use his left to throw a disc at Ronen, but his bending had been momentarily paralyzed.
Ronen came up onto his feet at the same time he heard some sort of shout nearby, followed by a roaring sound that caused him to whirl in the direction of the noise. He had to drop to the ground immediately to avoid the ball of flames screaming through the air towards him, and he felt the heat scorching across his back. Stunned, he remained there on his stomach for seconds too long, and watched as Mako's fuming form came storming out of the flame.
Hearth thumping wildly in his chest, Ronen jumped to his feet, aware that he was a sitting turtle duck on the floor and still likely to get blasted by fire the moment he stood up. He was only halfway up when fire came roaring at his head again, and he bent over backwards until his hands were braced on the floor and his stomach parallel to the heat screaming by over top of him. Worried that it was about to catch his jacket aflame – or worse, his face – he dropped back down onto the ground again. He moved as if to begin rolling away, but before he could, the flames began to whirl unnaturally just in front of him, and then there stood Korra, looking wild and vicious as she blasted the attack back at Mako.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Korra shrieked, seemingly every muscle in her body clenched and rage on her face.
Mako was undeterred, stomping his way over to her and Ronen and snarling as he pointed at Ronen and spat, "Do you know what he is?! He's one of them!"
"One of who?!" Korra shouted, holding out an arm to warn Mako against coming any closer.
"He's an Equalist!"
"A what?!"
Bolin suddenly came hurtling in to the group, placing himself in front of Mako and urging his brother to back off. "It's okay, Mako, it's okay, I don't think he's –"
"He's a chi-blocker, Bolin," Mako continued to argue. "How many of those do we know –"
Ronen's whole body was trembling, very real fear having run through him and now he struggled to rise, forcing his limbs to cooperate.
"He's not an equalist," Korra huffed, "whatever that is. He's Ronen Beifong. Do you have any idea who you just attacked? He's the son of Chief Beifong and Councilman Tenzin."
Ronen was on his feet now, still half blocked by Korra's body, but he could see the realization dawning on Mako's face, realization and denial.
Mako shook his head, voice quieter as he said, "No, no, he…he said his name was Ryu."
"I lied," Ronen confessed, wiping sweat from his brow with a shaky hand. "I didn't know if I could trust you."
"No. Way." Bolin gasped, eyes and mouth wide. "You're Ronen Beifong?" He turned and swatted his brother. "Mako! He's Ronen Beifong!"
Mako deflated, sighing heavily. "I'm so sorry, I didn't…please don't tell your mother I did that. I wasn't really trying to hurt you, I just… I thought my brother was in danger… I thought you were…" He trailed off with a curse, and Ronen could see the panic blossoming on the older teen's face.
Ronen folded his arms across his chest, feigning contemplation. "Well, I don't really keep secrets from my parents…" Which was normally true, but considering he had snuck out of the house to go to a pro-bending match he would probably be in more trouble if he told his parents about the altercation with Mako than if he kept it to himself. He didn't fully understand why Mako had been so flustered, but Ronen had heard about the equalists and their antibending rhetoric. His parents were pretending that it wasn't a big deal, but he saw them sometimes, stressed and whispering heatedly, only to stop when Ronen or his siblings rounded the corner. Some of the older teens at school were recruiting, too, mostly secretly, but anyone that paid attention had to have noticed, and Ronen definitely paid attention.
"I just freaked," Mako stressed, pulling at his already messy hair. "I saw the chi-blocking and I thought… I was wrong, okay? I shouldn't have –"
"No, you shouldn't have," Korra snarked, still pointedly blocking Ronen.
"Mako is very sorry," Bolin insisted, hands clasped together, pleading.
Ronen sighed, exasperated and tired now and frankly he just wanted to go home. "Listen," he told Mako, "no hard feelings, okay? Just don't try that again." Ronen was trying to be authoritative but he wasn't sure that he pulled it off.
"Yeah," Korra chimed in, "or I'll take you down myself, pretty boy."
"I won't," Mako said to Ronen, and he looked sincere, "I promise."
"I double promise," Bolin added. "And those were some killer moves, Ronen Beifong!"
"Just Ronen is fine," he insisted, before turning his attention to Korra. "We should be getting out of here."
"Yeah, okay," Korra agreed easily enough, narrow-eyed gaze still focused on Mako.
There was a flurry of slightly awkward goodbyes and Korra promised Bolin that she would be back sometime soon. Then Ronen and Korra used the same method of travel to get home as they had to get to the pro-bending arena.
Once they had arrived on the Island, the two squatted down behind some shrubbery and said a whispered goodbye before going their separate ways, and Korra questioned, "Same time next week?"
Next week, when the Fire Ferrets would be playing their next match in the tournament, and Ronen looked at Korra as if she were insane. "Are you serious?" he hissed.
Korra shrugged, and Ronen could see a small smile playing about her lips in the moonlight. "Yeah, why not? Things got a little weird at the end, but you had fun right?"
Ronen wasn't sure that he would use the word 'fun,' per say, but it had been interesting to see the arena and a real pro-bending match, and he was still curious about learning more. He still wasn't sure how he felt about Mako or Bolin, but they probably weren't so bad, Mako's harsh reaction aside. Ronen could at least give them a second chance, and Korra's eyes were practically begging him to say yes, which meant she would go without him anyways.
Ronen sighed again and relented, "Fine, so long as I don't get caught sneaking back inside."
It appeared to take a concerted effort for Korra not to squeal, and she knocked into Ronen to give him a tight hug. When she pulled back, she said, "Good luck."
"You too," Ronen replied. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Ronen and Korra peered out from behind the bushes and, when the coast was clear, darted off towards their separate rooms.
Ronen, by some miracle, managed to make it the whole way to his bedroom without waking any of his family, and considering that everything was still and quiet, he assumed his parents hadn't noticed his absence.
Adrenaline finally fading to bone deep exhaustion, Ronen hastily changed into sleep clothes and crawled into bed, curling up under the covers contentedly. Relieved to be home and still reminiscing the exhilarating events of the evening, Ronen fell to sleep with a smile on his face.
Chapter Text
Chapter 45
One week later…
When Saikhan showed up in Lin's office five minutes before she was about to head home for the night with a grim expression and an apology in his eyes, Lin sighed heavily and flopped back down into the chair behind her desk. She tossed her keys into her desk drawer before slamming it shut with a little more force than was probably necessary. Then she picked up the phone and dialed her home number.
Tenzin picked up after several long rings, and he already sounded annoyed before Lin even spoke.
"Hey," Lin greeted gruffly, "it's me. Listen, I'm not gonna be home for dinner."
Tenzin sighed just as wearily as she had only moments ago. "Of course not," he muttered, almost to himself. "Can this day get any worse?"
Frowning in concern, Lin glanced up at Saikhan, who was dutifully busying himself with some paperwork across the room while waiting for her to finish, no doubt hearing every word she spoke but pretending that he couldn't. Lin turned her chair around to face the expansive windows behind her, as if that would make a difference as she lowered her voice and asked, "Is everything all right?"
"The children are fine," Tenzin said shortly, "but Korra is…well, she is just impossible, Lin. I am at my wits end with that girl and I really just do not know what to do. She destroyed the airbending gates today, a two hundred year old historic relic! And she destroyed it! Simply caught the whole thing on fire as if it meant nothing! And then she had the nerve to say that the reason she hasn't been able to airbend is because I am a terrible teacher! Honestly, Lin, I just…" She could hear him breathing out his frustrations, deflating as he finished in a near whisper, "I feel like I am failing her…like I am failing my father."
Lin's heart truly ached for him, and she wished that she was not so swamped with work, that she could be with him when he was obviously feeling so down. She had often had similar feelings of her own when it came to maintaining her mother's legacy as chief of police, and also with regards to being a mother and worrying over whether or not she was doing the right things for her kids. She knew that training Korra was as important to Tenzin as his family and his job were, and she knew that he cared very much for the girl, despite all the frustrations she was causing him. And to feel as though he was failing his father must have been crushing for him. Lin wished that there was someway for her to help, but even after years of knowing each other and several weeks of existing in the same space, Lin and Korra had done little bonding. In part because Lin's schedule barely allowed her time with her own kids, and also because Lin and Korra were still on unsteady footing after their first reunion. It had taken Lin years to figure out how to adjust her parenting to her own kids and their individual personalities, let alone understanding a seventeen year old Avatar.
"I'm sorry, Tenz," Lin murmured, rubbing at her exhausted, itchy eyes. She had gone into work at four that morning, hoping to get some extra work done and maybe even go home early, but it was nearly seven in the evening now and judging by Saikhan's entrance she wasn't leaving anytime soon. "I know you're frustrated, but you're not failing. We'll figure it out. You just gotta remember you're working with a teenage girl and airbending is the most difficult of the elements for her to learn. It's going to take some time. And don't worry about the gates, we'll get them fixed. It'll give the acolytes something to do."
"You're right," Tenzin breathed, but she could still hear the melancholy in his tone. "I'm sorry, I don't want to keep you any longer, I know you must be busy."
"I can call you back," Lin offered, feeling guilty.
But Tenzin insisted, "No, no, it's okay. I'll be fine. We'll talk when you get home?"
"I'll be home before you go to sleep," Lin asserted, "I promise."
"I'll see you then," Tenzin said.
"I love you," Lin reminded.
"I love you too, please be careful."
"I will," Lin assured before saying her goodbyes.
After hanging up, Lin schooled her features into something more neutral, putting aside her concerns for her family for the moment to finally acknowledge Saikhan.
"Everything all right?" he asked her, having noticed her finish her phone call and already striding over to the front of her desk.
"Fine," Lin said shortly. "What's the bad news?"
"Couple of things," Saikhan admitted. "We've been running the numbers and it's like you thought; Equalist activity has increased tenfold since the Avatar arrived in the city. In addition, we're getting reports from some of our informants, and the rest of the bending triads are following suit. Looks like they're all gearing up for something. Something big."
Lin was more than used to hearing bad news, and Saikhan's words weren't anything she wasn't already expecting to hear, but they still caused her stomach to twist up into knots.
"The last time the triads started gearing up they took down headquarters," Lin needlessly said. The grimace on Saikhan's face was a clear indicator that he had no trouble remembering that day four years ago, and Lin's heart started thumping faster just thinking about it. Her nails scratched against the top of her desk, fingers itching to pick up the phone and call her husband right back, to have him remind her that it was all over, that she was safe, that the walls weren't caving in on her.
"That won't happen again," Saikhan stated firmly, and his voice sounded far away, even though he had bent over her desk to fill her vision, and she thought it might have been purposeful on his part, because focusing on him centered her in the present. He must have seen her breaking out into a sweat and, even though he wouldn't comment on it, he had to have known where her mind had gone.
Lin nodded as if she agreed with him, but her voice wasn't working yet so she left it at that. She hated that she was still so badly affected by those events, that even just a simple reminder could sometimes send her into a spiral. It didn't happen all that often those days, but it did still happen.
"I hate to have to stay on that topic," Saikhan continued when Lin still did not speak, and he did look regretful, "but there's something else we need to discuss. It's not about the triads. It's about Chen."
Lin inhaled carefully and focused on her breathing, focused on the fact that it was four years later and she no longer had to be so consumed by that horror. Her half-sister, Shira, who had killed Lieutenant Jeia and nearly did the same to Lin was long dead; Deak, the obsessed, power-hungry, former police officer dead with her; and Chen, the son of Kane, Deak's dead former partner and the leader of the all but extinct Silver Granite Triad, had disappeared without a trace as soon as the siege on headquarters began to tilt in the police's favor. From what Lin had seen of Chen, she hadn't been convinced that he was much of a threat. He had been consumed by a need for revenge, to understand why Lin had killed his father, and he had allowed Shira to sweep him up into her grand plan. Lin and her officers had interrogated countless captured triad members that had taken part in the siege, and every one of them had been questioned about Chen's involvement, and nearly every single one of them had laughed. None of them had been impressed or fond of Chen, had called him pathetic and weak, and said that the only reason they let him tag along was because Shira liked to keep him around like a pet. Even the criminals that had cut deals hadn't implicated Chen, had named Shira and the leader of the Triple Threats as the true masterminds behind it all. Because of his seeming lack of involvement besides aiding and abetting, Lin hadn't made searching for Chen a priority. There had been so many other things going on that were far more important. Several of her officers were injured or dead, headquarters was in ruins, and the police were busy searching the city for some of the known criminals that were involved that had escaped the final battle. There had also been the matter of finding the traitor, the metalbending officer that had aided the triads and Shira in their plot and fed them information. They had found that man, an officer of eight years that had lost his brother in a Red Monsoon Triad assault and began to obsess over finding his brother's murderers. The officer had gotten fed up with due process and the lack of results and secretly defected to the Triple Threats in the hopes that they might help him enact his revenge. He had fed the triads information about the police in exchange for information of his own, and now he was spending the rest of his life in prison. Chen was one of the few people that hadn't been captured or pursued, but Lin had tasked two officers with searching for him when there were not other more pressing jobs at hand and they had the time to do so. They knew that Chen had a family in Ba Sing Se, but by the time the police went to inspect, they were long gone, and Lin had thought that the trail had gone cold. She had thought that Chen would keep his head down and not seek further revenge.
She tried to swallow past the lump in her throat before she inquired, "What of him?"
"We found him," Saikhan declared, pulling photos out of an envelope and laying them out on the desk before Lin. She studied the photos carefully, looking for signs of criminal activity, for signs that she had been wrong to not make finding Chen a priority. If he had been causing anyone harm in the past four years then that was on Lin for believing that he had abandoned a life of crime. But the pictures did not show anything untoward. They showed only Chen with his family, his wife and daughter, seemingly living a normal life. It felt…wrong, somehow, considering that Lieutenant Jeia and several others had lost that right, that even some of the officers that had survived the events of that day would never lead normal lives again, like Captain Kaito, who had never returned to the force. Even though there was no evidence that Chen had directly killed or harmed any of those people, he had still been on the opposite side of the siege. Was he guilty by association, or just another one of Shira's victims, warped by her ideologies?
"How long have we been tracking him?" Lin asked next, still staring hard at the photos.
"Couple of weeks," Saikhan replied. "They're in a small Fire Nation village a few miles out from the capitol. Doesn't seem to be in contact with anyone of note and there's been no suspicious activity. He works at a restaurant as one of the cooks. Goes to work, goes home, and that's about it. If he goes out for anything besides work he's usually got the wife and kid with him. Looks like the wife stays home with the girl and homeschools her."
"Any signs that he's still leading a life of crime?" Lin inquired.
Saikhan shook his head. "None that we can see so far. Two of our officers are still there checking it all out, but I wanted to bring it to your attention. We've got reason enough to charge him for his involvement, if that's what you want. Say the word and our guys will bring him in."
Lin looked back down at the photos before her, eyes focusing on the one on the far right. It appeared to have been taken at a park, and it showed Chen seated on a bench next to his wife, their daughter ensconced in Chen's arms, and the girl was barely older than Jeia Rai, couldn't have been more than a toddler when Chen was involved with the siege. She was smiling in the photo, unaware of what her father had almost done, unaware that he could still be given a prison sentence for it. All Lin had to do was say the word and her officers would arrest Chen on the spot and drag him back to Republic City. But was it the right thing to do? Chen's daughter was around the same age Chen had been when Lin had killed his father, and it had set him on the path to revenge. Would it be the same for Chen's daughter? If her father was imprisoned, would she be forever scarred, would she seek her own revenge? Lin remembered vividly some of the thoughts that had gone through her head on the day of the siege, when Shira had been in the middle of strangling her to death. She had thought about her own kids, about what they would do without her and if they had even survived whatever attempt Shira had made to kidnap them, but she had also thought briefly about what they would do when they learned that their mother was murdered. Would they have grown up to be like Chen or even worse, desperate for revenge? Would they have continued the spiral that had begun with Lin and Kane, by going after Chen? And would that, in turn, make Chen's daughter go after them? And would the spiral ever end?
"No," Lin eventually decided, voice low as she pushed the photos back across her desk towards Saikhan, "leave him. We've got too much going on to keep watching him and not enough evidence to convict."
"We may not need that much evidence," Saikhan countered, shuffling the photos back together to stuff them into the envelope. "The public might demand a conviction when they get wind of his arrest."
"Most of the public has all but forgotten about the siege," Lin argued. "They aren't outraged enough anymore to press for a conviction like they would have years ago, especially when there's no sign that he's continued to cause harm. The local authorities will take care of him if he's up to something. I want my men back here, where they can be of use. I have a feeling we're going to need everyone for what's coming."
Saikhan didn't seem pleased with her decision, frowning and clutching the envelope in a tight grip, but he didn't press the issue. "If you say so, Chief," he muttered.
"I do," Lin asserted, and left it at that. "Now, tell me about the increased triad movement."
Neither Korra nor Ronen were present at dinner, and both Sora and Yunjin pleaded to be excused within five minutes, having scarfed down their food with undue haste. Tenzin had left them go with a sigh, and then it had just been him and Jeia, who wasn't much of a conversationalist. Tenzin found himself really missing his wife, and he knew that she was needed at work, but he sometimes wished that she wasn't such an important figure. Their earlier phone call, while very brief, had still helped him some. Hearing her voice and her reassurances and her confidence in him released a small bit of the weight from his shoulders. Nevertheless, he was craving her presence and was counting down the hours until she got home.
He had tried reading to Jeia to take his mind off of everything, but the toddler didn't care much for his stories, and when he continued talking, she looked up at him with pursed little lips and told him, "Daddy, you is talking a lot."
"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Tenzin responded, stroking her dark hair and saying no more.
Ronen had breezed through the room shortly after, not bothering to stop to speak to his father or his sister, and when Tenzin tried to ask what he and Korra had been up to, Ronen had vaguely answered, "Just hanging out, Dad, but I'm tired, I'm gonna head to bed early. We can talk tomorrow, right?"
"Oh," Tenzin said, a little disappointed, "of course. I love you, goodnight."
Ronen was already halfway down the hall, but he called over his shoulder, "Night, love you!"
Tenzin lasted only a few more minutes before he decided that he needed to talk to Korra. He had been debating on how long to give her, but he thought enough time had passed, and frankly he didn't think he would be able to sleep without putting the matter to rest. If Lin wouldn't be home anytime soon, and his children were too busy to distract him, then his only option was to find Korra.
So Tenzin gathered Jeia up despite the girl's protests and went out in search of Korra. He went to her room first, but she wasn't there, so he began a sweep of the island, searching the obvious places first. When that tactic turned up nothing, he widened his search, thinking perhaps Korra was hiding away in some alcove, still brooding over their earlier fight. He did find Sora and Yunjin sparring, and he ushered them back home to clean up for bed, distracted for a time while he asked after their homework and chores. Neither of the twins had seen Korra in a while either, so Tenzin went knocking on Ronen's door. There was no answer, and Tenzin peeked inside, whispering his eldest son's name, feeling guilty for waking the boy when he had said he was tired, but Tenzin was starting to grow concerned.
When Ronen did not so much as stir, Tenzin frowned and entered the room, adjusting Jeia on his hip before striding over to Ronen's bed. Tenzin knew, before he had even touched the covers, that Ronen was not beneath his blankets. There were some pillows arranged to vaguely resemble a body, but no Ronen, and Tenzin felt surprise and anger growing within him all at once. It was not like Ronen to pull such a stunt, and yet the boy had clearly lied to his father in order to sneak out of the house, and gone where? Tenzin had not found Korra anywhere on the Island, nor had he spotted Ronen at anytime, meaning both of them were missing, very likely together, and if they weren't on the Island, they were almost certainly in the city.
Fuming slightly and also fighting a mounting wave of panic, Tenzin went immediately to call for Nira, who came rushing over at his behest. She looked desperately worried when Tenzin briefly told her what he knew, and the look on her face was what stayed Tenzin from calling Lin immediately. If he told her that Ronen was missing then she would be even more panicked than Nira, and he did not want to add more stress to what she already had. He would wait until he knew more before he called her.
Assured that Nira was keeping a close eye on Jeia, Sora, and Yunjin, Tenzin went in search of the White Lotus, wondering why they even bothered staying on the Island when they were very clearly useless. They must have let Korra slip out of their sight, and now she was no doubt off gallivanting in the city with his son. Letting them come to the Island had seemed the only logical choice, despite Lin's protests, but Tenzin was beginning to rethink that choice. He had thought that perhaps the new, younger White Lotus members would not be as useless and annoying as the ones that had come before them, the ones that had badgered Lin and Tenzin at every turn about creating offspring so that the airbending race would not go extinct, but it seemed that they had learned to be exactly the same as their masters.
Tenzin found a large group of them outside huddled around a radio listening intently to a pro-bending match, despite his insistence that they do so privately if they really felt it necessary. He was restricting Korra and his own children from listening to the games, and he could hardly enforce that if the White Lotus were so blatantly disobeying Tenzin's desires. They were so enraptured by whatever was happening that they ignored Tenzin's arrival and seemed not to even hear him when he impatiently asked after Korra and Ronen.
None of them responded, but Tenzin found his answer anyway as the announcer on the radio exclaimed, "You've gotta be kidding me! She's the Avatar, folks! Playing in a pro-bending match! Can you believe that?"
Tenzin felt like his head might explode, eye twitching and face burning red, anger consuming him so swiftly he could have cursed more violently than Lin. He stormed off from the useless White Lotus and went straight to Oogi, lifting off from the Island with haste. The whole brief trip across the Bay gave him ample time to fume and seethe, thinking about Korra blatantly disobeying him, of Ronen aiding the Avatar by sneaking out of the house and going into the city without an adult. They were both in big trouble when he reached them, of that he was certain. He could not even believe that Ronen, his sweet, smart Ronen had done such a thing. If Yunjin or even Sora had snuck out of the house, he wouldn't have been all that surprised, but Ronen had always been the good one, always the one that listened to his parents the best. It seemed that all of that had changed with Korra's arrival, which only served to anger Tenzin further.
He landed Oogi just outside the pro-bending arena and practically sprinted inside. He had to stop to ask for directions, and was delayed while arguing with one of the security guards that didn't want to let him past without paying, but eventually he found an opening into the arena. He walked out onto the platform just in time to watch as Korra was thrown off of the ring to splash into the water below. He waited there, arms folded over his chest, as she swam over to the platform and emerged from the pool.
He watched the surprise bloom on her face as she looked up and noticed him, hovering there still half in the water with her arms braced on the platform as she said, "Oh, heyy, Tenzin…I thought you didn't like coming to these matches." She chuckled awkwardly before hauling herself up onto the platform to stand before him.
He didn't acknowledge her words, but tamped down on his boiling anger as he said, "Once again you have flagrantly disobeyed my orders. You were to stay on the Island, and instead I find you here in this, this…" He gestured flippantly. "And you dragged my son into your grand scheme." He turned away from her in a huff. "Let's go."
"No!" she immediately rejected. "I'm kinda in the middle of something."
Tenzin sucked in a deep breath trying to calm himself, slowly turning back around to face Korra while saying, "I have tried my very best to get through to you by being gentle and patient, but clearly the only thing you respond to is force. I am ordering you to come back to the temple right now!"
"Why?!" Korra demanded. "So I can sit around meditating about how bad I am at airbending? You know, I've been thinking maybe there's a reason I haven't been able to learn it, because maybe I don't even need it!"
"What?!" Tenzin barked, in shock that she would even think such a thing. "That is a ludicrous suggestion! The Avatar needs to learn airbending, it is not optional!"
"No," Korra continued to argue, "this is what I need to learn," she gestured back towards the pro-bending ring, "modern styles of fighting!"
Tenzin scoffed at such a predictable Korra response. "Being the Avatar isn't all about fighting, Korra! When will you learn that?"
But Korra was very clearly done with the argument, he could see her face closing off, and she turned away from him with a curt, "I have a match to go finish."
"Where is my son?" Tenzin called to her back, frustrated beyond belief and knowing full well that he would not be convincing her to return to the Island at that point, but he was at least going to retrieve Ronen.
"He's in the locker room," Korra answered without turning to look at him, still striding to the lift. As she stepped onto it, she turned to face Tenzin and added, "And I didn't drag him here. He wanted to come. You shouldn't treat him like a five year old."
Tenzin did not even dignify that with a response, but turned and went in search of the locker rooms, which were more difficult to find than they ought to have been. He did eventually come across the right locker room, spotting the familiar dark, wavy hair that his son had inherited from his mother. Ronen's back was to the door, gaze focused on the match still going on, but he whirled around at the sound of Tenzin striding into the room.
Ronen's expression immediately turned sour, shoulders slumping in defeat and face twisting up with guilt and chagrin. "Dad…" he said cautiously.
"Ronen," Tenzin thundered as he approached his son, fists clenching at his sides, his patience all but lost after his altercation with Korra. "What on earth were you thinking?! Sneaking out of the house, coming here of all places? Letting Korra be distracted like this when you know that I am trying to train her. I expected better from you. I don't know what has gotten into you –"
"I'm sorry, Dad," Ronen interjected, but he didn't sound as apologetic as Tenzin thought necessary and his expression still screamed defiance, "but I tried to tell you that you were smothering Korra and you didn't listen. She's been caged nearly her whole life, and airbending is about freedom. You can't expect to get through to her by restricting her."
"I am the airbending master," Tenzin countered, "I think I know what she needs to learn."
"You do," Ronen conceded, "but you don't know how she should learn it. You're too focused on structure and history and you aren't adjusting your teachings to Korra's personality –"
"I'm not going to argue this with you," Tenzin spluttered in frustration. "This isn't about Korra, it's about you sneaking out of the house and coming into the city when you've been told countless times how dangerous that is. Do you have any idea how your mother is going to react to this?"
Ronen did look slightly fearful at that, but he still shook his head. "I've been with Korra, and it's not like I don't know how to take care of myself by now. You and Mom have taught me how. And besides, I wouldn't have to sneak around if you would trust me, and if you weren't so adamantly against pro-bending. It's not like I'm going to be a pro-bender."
"You are fifteen," Tenzin reminded. "This isn't a matter of trust. You are not old enough to be doing whatever you please. Now come along. We are going home to wait for your mother."
Ronen sighed heavily, casting his gaze out at the arena one last time. Tenzin followed his line of sight, and grimaced when he saw Korra taking hit after hit, being pushed back so far she was nearly shoved right off the ring yet again.
The announcer was saying, "Looks like the Avatar's pro-bending debut is going to be cut short. She's been pushed back to zone three and the water is calling her name. It's only a matter of time before –"
All of a sudden something seemed to shift in Korra's approach.
" – hold the phone! Stop the presses! She's still in the game, folks!"
Korra's feet were moving light and swift, her hands centered before her, and she was twisting and weaving, slipping between attacks.
"She's moving like an entirely different player! Suddenly the Platypus Bear's strikes are only striking air!"
"Dad!" Ronen gasped in astonishment. "Are you seeing this?!"
Tenzin was watching, and he couldn't believe it. All of the teachings he had been trying to impress upon Korra in the past few weeks had suddenly manifested in that moment, had finally, finally, sunk in, all because of pro-bending, of all things.
"How about that," Tenzin murmured, in awe.
Korra's swift movements saved her from elimination, and also tired out the other team, so that Mako and Bolin could make it out of the corner they had been trapped in, and together the three teammates brought a swift end to the Platypus Bears.
So caught up in the tension and the hype, Tenzin unconsciously let out a delighted, "Woo-hoo!" at the same time Ronen boisterously cheered louder than Tenzin had ever heard. Father and son turned to one another and embraced in a celebratory hug, forgetting for a moment that they were in the middle of a disagreement.
However, the spell that had fallen over them vanished the moment they pulled apart, and Tenzin cleared his throat and adjusted his robes. "You're still in big trouble," he told his son.
Ronen nodded in acceptance and murmured, "Yeah, I know."
By the time Lin was heading home it was well past her kids' bedtimes, but early enough that Tenzin would likely still be awake. She didn't hear about the Avatar participating in a pro-bending match until she was halfway out the door and overheard a group of her officers at the front desk discussing the events. She had frozen at the news, but instead of backtracking to question her officers, she quickened her pace in an effort to get home faster, where she knew her husband was no doubt losing his mind. If Korra had been in a pro-bending match, Tenzin must have found out by now, if not on his own then from the White Lotus that listened to the games every week without fail.
Lin was impatient the whole trip across the Bay, but eventually she arrived home and went straight to her bedroom, where Tenzin was, unsurprisingly, waiting up for her. The rest of the house had been dark and quiet, but their bedroom was lit by a glowing lamp on Tenzin's side of the bed. He looked weary, his eyelids heavy even as they followed the words across the page of the book he was reading. When Lin entered, he snapped the book closed without bothering to mark his place and set it down on the end table as he straightened up to meet her gaze.
"I heard," she said, before he could speak, carefully closing their bedroom door before striding the rest of the way into the room.
Tenzin nodded, as if not totally surprised, but then asked, "Heard what, exactly?"
Lin stilled at the edge of the bed, looking down upon him as he swung his legs over the side but remained seated. She frowned slightly at the implication that there was more to the story than what she had heard, and answered, "Korra was in a pro-bending match. Is there more?"
Tenzin nodded regretfully. "That's the gist of it," he admitted, "but Ronen was there with her."
Lin's eyes went wide, and then confusion took over. "With her?" she questioned. "How do you mean?"
"He snuck out of the house this evening," Tenzin explained, and he reached out to latch onto her wrist, which she thought was less for comfort and more to warn her against storming off to their son's room, which was her first instinct. "He was watching the match when I arrived. He's apparently done this once before."
"I'll kill them both," Lin growled, pulling her arm in an effort to free her wrist, but Tenzin's grip was strong and she had no real intent on killing either Ronen or Korra, but she was severely pissed off. "What the hell was he thinking? What was she thinking? She shows up here, unannounced, causing problems everywhere she goes, coercing our son into such dangerous, foolhardy –"
"I know," Tenzin interrupted her rant, "I know. But Ronen was adamant that she didn't force him into anything, that he thought it would be good for Korra to get off of the Island and he wanted to keep an eye on her. He could be covering for her, of course, but he seemed satisfied with his decision. That doesn't make it right, of course, and he is aware that you will be speaking with him tomorrow. He is also grounded, which he did not protest."
"I told you this would happen," Lin huffed. "I told you she would drag him into her schemes."
"I know," Tenzin repeated, "but while I am not pleased with their actions, I have to admit…I think it was necessary."
"What?" Lin snapped.
"Pro-bending turned out to be the perfect teacher for Korra," Tenzin explained hastily, his thumb rubbing soothing circles on the inside of her wrist. "She was airbending today, Lin. Well…in a manner of speaking. She finally found her footing, finally was able to move like the wind. I couldn't get her to do that in all the weeks she's been here."
"She disobeyed you again," Lin countered.
"Nobody was hurt this time," Tenzin pointed out.
"This time," Lin emphasized. "What about next time, huh? What if someone notices Ronen following her to those matches and decides to snatch him up?"
"I have the same concerns as you," Tenzin soothed, "but he's hardly a child anymore. It's going to take a lot more than someone trying to snatch him up on a whim. He's been in the city without us before."
"Barely. And don't tell me you're okay with this. Wasn't it just a week or so ago when you reamed me out for letting the kids occasionally listen to matches on the radio?"
Tenzin made a face of discontent and conceded, "The sport is a mockery, I haven't changed my mind on that, but…if it helps Korra, and it is not causing anyone any true harm, then who am I to deny her this? It's as you said, she's practically an adult now, we cannot totally control her."
Lin rolled her eyes and finally yanked her wrist free of his grasp to fold her arms over her chest. "Oh, please," she scoffed, "don't throw that back at me as if that'll let her off the hook. You do realize that if you allow Korra to be a part of this then you're going to have to let Yunjin have his magazines back, right?"
Tenzin frowned. "I don't know if that's entirely accurate –"
"No, it is," Lin insisted. "You can't be a hypocrite, and you can't give Korra special treatment."
"Perhaps if Yunjin doesn't know –"
"He'll know."
Tenzin sighed heavily and reached out to place his hands on Lin's hips, squeezing lightly and tugging her closer, into the space between his legs. "If I must…then I will. In turn, can you also accept that Korra will be going into the city for practice and matches?"
Lin scowled, arms still folded tight, not giving into his soothing touch despite her desire to revel in it all day. "It's just one thing after another," she huffed, displeased but not sure how to get her way. She couldn't force Korra to do anything and wasn't it sort of a win for her and the kids if Tenzin was easing up on his opposition to pro-bending? "How many times are we going to have to compromise so that Korra can get her way?"
"Don't think of it that way," Tenzin murmured, his voice a deep, soothing rumble now as he leaned forward to kiss her knuckles, the only part of her he could gain access to when she was still shrouded in metal armor. "Think of it as you getting your way about pro-bending, and Korra out of your hair from time to time. And, perhaps, she and I may even have less to disagree upon if she is not feeling so frustrated."
Lin deliberated his words for several minutes, slowly beginning to pry her armor off so as not to have to look him in the eye yet. She already knew she would have little choice but to agree without causing an upheaval, but she was still unhappy about Ronen sneaking out of the house with Korra and that wasn't about to go away. If the boy had done it twice already, then he would do it again. He would want to see Korra compete and he would think it was better he be there with her rather than letting her wander off alone. Korra didn't know the city like Ronen, and while Lin could admit that having him with Korra gave her some piece of mind about Korra causing further damage, it also made Lin worry more for her son. She knew that he was smart and strong, but he was still just a boy.
"I need to talk to Ronen," Lin eventually said, armor almost entirely stripped away, and avoiding Tenzin's initial point.
"In the morning, love," Tenzin suggested, grasping at the back of her thighs as she tried to move away from him. "Come to bed. It's late, you've been working all day, and you look like you're about to drop. He's probably sleeping anyway."
"I'm fine," Lin said, straining to swallow back a yawn, "and if he wants to act like an adult he can be woken up like an adult."
With that, Lin turned on her heel, and Tenzin sighed but let her escape his grasp and did not follow.
Lin crept quietly down the hall and into Ronen's bedroom. His door was open, likely Tenzin's doing, to keep an eye on the boy so that he could not sneak out again. Ronen was curled up on his side, back facing the door, and Lin knew instantly that he was awake because Ronen always slept on his stomach. He was doing a good job of pretending though, his breathing almost even, and Lin stood over him for a few seconds, waiting to see if he would acknowledge her.
When he still refused to drop the ruse, Lin tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Come on, kid. I know you're awake."
Ronen let out a heavy breath through his nose and turned onto his back, eyes fluttering open to look at her. "Hey, Mom," he mumbled cautiously, scrambling up into a sitting position and pushing his hair back out of his face. It wasn't long, like Yunjin's was, but longer than Ronen had ever had it before.
"I'm not gonna yell because I don't want to wake your sister," Lin said first, because waking Jeia in the middle of the night would be a nightmare and nobody would be getting any sleep then, "but I'm seriously pissed."
"I know," Ronen said with a nod, dropping his gaze guiltily to his lap. "I'm sorry."
"I just don't get it," Lin huffed, "You know better than this, and yet you did it anyway."
"I wouldn't have done it without good reason," Ronen said, lifting his head to peer back up at her. "I wasn't just trying to break the rules or go on an excursion. I wanted to help Korra."
"There are other ways you could have helped," Lin argued, "and following her into the city and into her dangerous schemes wasn't the right way."
"We stayed together except for when she was playing in the match and that place is covered in security," Ronen reasoned. "And I tried helping her the right way, but she was going to go whether I followed or not, and you know Dad was being unreasonable about the pro-bending. Even he admits that now…sort of."
"The reasons why don't matter," Lin waved off. "The point is that you put yourself at unnecessary risk and you lied to us."
"How can you say that?!" Ronen exploded, his voice raising in pitch high enough that he and Lin both glanced warily in the direction of the hallway, waiting with baited breath. When no sound came from Jeia's room, Ronen continued, his voice closer to a harsh whisper, "How can you say something like that? How can you say that the reasons don't matter? Why else do we do anything? Why else do you do your job everyday? You put yourself at risk because people need help, and that's what I did, in a way. Obviously your job is harder, but the reasons matter."
"Except, in all your reasoning," Lin said in a voice of deadly calm, a silent rage filling her from head to toe, her muscles coiled tight, "you forgot one of the main reasons that my job is so necessary. Because people reason that they need to do this and they need to do that and they go against the laws or against their own humanity to succeed. And sure, you had good intentions, like Korra did when she faced off against a triad, but her help did more harm than good, and what if the two of you got wrapped up into something like that? Or what if the worst happened and one or both of you ended up dead in a ditch somewhere? If your father hadn't been looking for you two we wouldn't have even known you were gone until morning, and we wouldn't have had a clue of where to look for you. By that time, it would already have been too late. By that time you could have been halfway across the world. Why do you think we harass you so much about where exactly you're going in the city and for how long and who's going to be there? It's not because we can't let go, it's because we can't help you if we haven't got clue where you'll be."
Ronen appeared to think her words over, absentmindedly rubbing his chin in a way not dissimilar to when his father would stroke his beard thoughtfully. Finally, Ronen replied, "You can't know my every move for the rest of my life. At some point you have to trust that you taught me how to take care of myself and call on you when I need you."
"Yes, some day," Lin admitted, undaunted, "but that day is not today. You're still young, even though you seem to forget. Stop trying to grow up so fast."
"I can be a kid and still be safe and helpful," Ronen pressed. "My grandparents were younger than I am now when they were fighting in a war."
"That's hardly the same as you sneaking out of the house," Lin snorted humorlessly, "and besides, those were special circumstances. Your father and I never did those things."
"But you were allowed to wander the city," Ronen still fought.
"Because my mother didn't know how to parent and the city was a safer place back then. Listen, I'm not going to keep arguing with you about this. We've asked you to be smart about this and you've refused. Now I'm ordering you not to pull such foolish stunts again. You're grounded until further notice, no more pro-bending matches with Korra. Now, go to bed."
Lin spun abruptly on her heel and did not wait for further protests from her son, ignoring the spluttered complaint that spilled out of him as she was striding from the room. Tenzin was in the doorway, having observed but not intervened, and he wordlessly moved aside to let Lin pass.
Neither of them spoke until they were settled in bed together, arms and legs lazily intertwined, Tenzin half on top of Lin, who lay on her back staring up at the ceiling. It was then that Lin muttered, "He's never going to listen to us again, is he?"
Tenzin's breath was heavy and warm as it blew across her chest before he confessed, "I don't expect him to see his punishment through to the end. Have we ever grounded him before?"
"No," Lin answered, and left it at that, because all of a sudden she was feeling choked up for some reason. She swallowed past the lump in her throat and squeezed her eyes shut tight. She was so tired, mentally and physically, but she thought sleep might elude her that night, at least for a little while. Her mind was too abuzz with worries for the son that was apparently no longer a child. She still remembered the day he had been born. It was a fuzzy memory, but more vivid than the other two times she had given birth. Ronen's had been the only one not fraught with misery, but it had been terrifying, becoming a mother so suddenly, holding that little boy in her arms and not knowing what to do. But her heart had swelled with so much love and she had vowed to never let him come to harm. If the rest of her parenting would have flaws, that part would not. She would protect that little boy until her dying day, and yet fifteen years had already gone by and he was striking out on his own, as teenagers were desperate to do, and she could not find room for pride when all she could feel was fear.
Ronen spent the first week of his punishment being sullen and annoyed. He would barely speak to his parents except to make sarcastic remarks like, "are you sure it's okay for me to wash the dishes on my own? I might get hurt," and "tell Sora I'm sorry I can't make it to her dance recital, but the city is just far too dangerous and I'm on house arrest."
Yunjin thought it was hilarious, though probably only because it was his siblings who were in deep trouble for once instead of him. Sora, surprisingly, was handling her grounding better then Ronen, but instead of being argumentative, she just looked sad and Lin didn't think that was any better. As annoying as it sometimes was, she preferred when her kids fought back a little. It showed they had a backbone and let her know exactly how they felt about something. When they were sad and quiet they were closed off and she didn't know how to get through to them. Sora was still tight-lipped about whatever was going on with her and Jinora and apparently she wasn't even telling her twin about it, and she definitely wasn't telling her father. Sora went through phases where she wouldn't even speak to Tenzin, where before they had been thick as thieves. Tenzin was taking it personally, but Lin just assumed it was a teenager thing. It was the opposite for her though, because Sora was suddenly clinging to Lin as if the girl was four years old again and desperate to be at her mother's side.
Sora and Ronen spent most of their time sparring while they were both confined to the Island, which Lin was all right with so long as it helped them work out some of their frustrations. Korra, on the other hand, faced no punishment for her own disobedience, because she wasn't really their kid and Tenzin was paranoid now about pushing the Avatar away. Lin still insisted that Korra assist in chores around the island, but the girl seemed almost happy to do it, either because she was still wary of Lin and seeking to get on her good side, or simply because Ronen was stuck doing chores too. Every evening when Korra returned home from pro-bending practice, she and Ronen could be found huddled together discussing how it had gone. When Lin would happen upon them, Ronen would give her a disgruntled look, because he wished he could have been there to witness it instead. However, Ronen's mood did shift after the initial displeasure of being grounded had worn off. All of a sudden he was back to his kind, helpful, obedient self, but Lin could see straight through him. He was hoping that if he was good for the next couple of weeks he would be allowed to attend the championship tournament that Korra and the Fire Ferrets would be participating in.
Jeia Rai, at least, was not nearly as much of a pain in the ass as her siblings were. She was still stubborn and she had started to roll her eyes in a perfect imitation of her mother, but she didn't try to get away with mischief and she didn't give her parents much reason to be displeased. Sometimes Lin would suppress her frustrations over dealing with her two teenagers – because Korra was a part of the family now whether Lin liked it or not – and two almost teenagers by scooping Jeia up into her arms and squeezing the toddler close, begging the girl to never, ever, ever grow up. And Jeia would squirm and squeal, but eventually promise, "I won't, Mama." And Lin desperately wished that were so.
Ronen had been grounded for two weeks, three days, and seventeen hours and, frankly, he was sick of it. All things considered, he wasn't completely confined to his room. He still went to school during the week and he had the whole island to explore so long as he finished his chores and checked in with an adult every thirty or so minutes. But he was used to having more freedom, even with his parents' paranoid restrictions, and he felt the loss of such simplicity keenly. He knew that what he had done was wrong. He hadn't wanted to lie to his parents or sneak out of the house, but he had done what was necessary, and he had not regrets. Well…he did regret being caught.
He was still hopeful that his parents would ease up and let him go to Korra's championship tournament in a week, but he wasn't going to hold his breath. His mother only became more and more paranoid with each passing day. So much so that there had been a White Lotus guard assigned to escorting Ronen, Sora, and Yunjin home from school on the days that their parents could not pick them up, which was most days. Although, Ronen wasn't certain if this new rule was because of the dangers of the city or because his parents no longer trusted him to go straight home. Whatever the case, it hardly mattered because Ronen was confident he could easily slip past the White Lotus guard undetected. But he was trying to behave himself of late so he wouldn't push his luck just yet.
The Equalists were certainly causing far reaching problems though. Ronen could tell just by walking the halls at school. There was an animosity between benders and nonbenders that hadn't been so glaringly obvious before. There had been occasional altercations and the usual bullies, but for the most part, bending wasn't very important. The school didn't allow it outside of the amateur bending team, for one, even though it was a rule often broken. There were moments where someone felt the need to show off or test their skills against someone else in the school yard, but the school wasn't responsible for teaching kids how to control their bending so it wasn't something that most bender kids thought to bother with while they were there.
The Equalist movement had changed that. Nonbenders were picking fights with benders, and bending children of police officers were seeking out nonbenders with the assumption that all of them were the reason that their parents were so busy or injured at work. Even the nonbenders who had not chosen to join the Equalist ranks were beginning to side with the recruiters, either for self-preservation or in angry response to being targeted by irrational benders. School was already a rough place for kids, with pressures to succeed but also to fit in, with bullies and misunderstandings between friends. The looming threat of a civil war certainly didn't help matters. Kids didn't know as much as their parents, but they overheard and observed enough to jump to their own conclusions.
Ronen was beginning to think he was going to have to start watching his back. The other nonbenders were wary of him because of who his family was, and the benders were wary of him because he wasn't like them. He was stuck somewhere in between, and while he didn't think he was going to get lynched in the hallway, he still didn't want to be the object of some blundering idiot's rage. He pointedly wasn't picking a side, but he feared that would only make him an enemy of both.
His concerns seemed to be validated when, at the end of school that day, he was intercepted by a group of older kids he had never spoken to in his life. He knew who they were though. The three nonbenders weren't as sneaky about their Equalist recruiting as they liked to think they were. Further evidenced by the fact that they had accosted him at his locker with everyone else around to see them.
The leader of the pack was Tonzu, a smirking, belligerent teen with poor grades that probably would have joined a triad anyway if he had had bending. He sold things out of his trench coat to kids around school before the Equalists gave him a higher purpose. He sneered down at Ronen with pointed teeth and shaggy hair, and he wasn't even remotely quiet as he began to speak. "Ronen Beifong," he crowed, arm stretching out to brace against the lockers behind Ronen's head, effectively trapping the younger teen there while Tonzu's two friends closed the gaps on either side.
Ronen sighed, looking carefully at the three teens, two of whom were taller and bigger than him, wondering if he could escape them if necessary. Their approach wasn't exactly friendly, but he wasn't certain they would try harming him, not in the middle of the hallway. He felt trapped, but he tamped down on his need to escape, thinking about how his parents would react if they found out, on top of him sneaking out of the house, he was now fighting with kids at school. "Do we have to do this?" he asked Tonzu, just wanting to go home to finish out his punishment and regain his freedom.
"I'll make it quick," Tonzu snickered. "You know what we want."
"A haircut?" Ronen deadpanned, eyeing the greasy mane hanging over Tonzu's eyes with distaste.
Tonzu looked over at the girl to his left, Asuka. Ronen had noticed her before because she was smart and pretty, with silky, long hair, and her nose was always in a book. He had wanted to get to know her but had been too afraid to approach her since she was two years older and probably out of his league if his brother Yunjin's opinion was anything to go by. Plus, she always had a scowl on her face so he wasn't sure she'd appreciate being bothered. He had been surprised to see her with the likes of Tonzu and the oaf Bora, who followed Tonzu around like a great, hulking bodyguard and had never uttered a single sentence as far as Ronen was aware. But, if the rumors were to be believed, Asuka's father had been killed by one of the triads and she was probably using the nonbender revolution to get her revenge, even if it meant dealing with Tonzu and Bora.
Tonzu gestured towards Ronen and told Asuka, "I told you he was gonna make this hard. Kid's got no respect." Tonzu turned to scowl at Ronen, still leaning too close, and his breath was just as putrid as Ronen had imagined it would be.
"Couldn't you have sent Ryku?" Ronen complained, affecting a tone of boredom and trying to relax his muscles enough to appear unthreatened. Ryku was the real leader of the Equalist recruiters, but he had the common sense to be a little less obvious about his involvement. He let Tonzu run around like an idiot bringing people into the fold, but Ronen assumed that Ryku was the brains of the operation and told Tonzu what to do behind the scenes. Ronen would have much rather had a battle of wits with Ryku than flinch away from the spittle flying from Tonzu's mouth.
"Ryku doesn't know we're here," Asuka said, speaking for the first time and sounding just as unaffected as Ronen, but her eyes betrayed her. They were too hopeful. "He thinks you're a waste of time, but I think you're just the person we need."
"Pretty girl's got big ideas in that head of hers," Tonzu sneered, as if Ronen would find it funny.
He didn't.
Ronen frowned and turned his head to put his focus entirely on Asuka, preferring to deal with her. "I don't know what you think I'm going to do, but I'm not going to join a bunch of fanatics that want to hurt my family and friends. Being a bender isn't wrong."
"We aren't trying to hurt anyone," Asuka countered, but Ronen didn't believe it. "We want equality. We want the benders to know what it is to be us, to be knocked down a peg, if needs must. Don't you want that? Don't you want your family to see the world through your eyes?"
"My family doesn't treat me differently because I'm a nonbender," Ronen argued. "I'm sorry if you've had a different experience, but not all benders are terrible people, just like not all nonbenders are good people."
Ronen glanced pointedly at Tonzu, but the idiot didn't catch onto the slight. Bora continued to stand silently on Ronen's other side, arms folded across his chest and looking grumpy.
Asuka was undeterred. "But would we even have this feud if we were all equal?"
Ronen shrugged. "I don't know, but there would be some kind of feud. There always is."
"Always between benders," Asuka persisted. "They're the ones that bring chaos. They're the ones that endanger your mother's life."
Ronen scowled. "Don't bring my mother into this. Besides, of late it's been your people that have been endangering my mother." Ronen pushed off of the locker at his back and used his momentum to shove Tonzu away from him. "Please get out of my face," he said as Tonzu stumbled backwards with a huff.
Ronen turned to leave, but Tonzu barked, "Bora!"
And Bora snatched Ronen up by the back of his shirt and held him in place, Ronen's feet hovering just slightly off of the floor.
Ronen looked directly at Asuka with rising anger burning in him. "This isn't going to sway me to your side."
Asuka turned a narrow-eyed glare onto Tonzu and snapped, "Let him go."
"Hey, you're the one that wanted to talk to him," Tonzu taunted.
"Talk, not fight," Asuka hissed.
Tonzu rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Women," but he waved his hand and told Bora, "Let the golden boy go."
Bora grunted and dropped Ronen without care, and Ronen's knees buckled slightly in surprise. He didn't waste another second in slipping past Asuka and heading for the door. But before he made it halfway down the hall, he felt a small, cool hand slipping into his, and he came to a stop, turning back to see Asuka standing just behind him.
"You know where to find me," she said, voice hushed, perhaps in the hopes of Tonzu and Bora not overhearing. "I can tell you more. I can make you understand."
Ronen did feel a moment of sympathy for her, for whatever reason she felt it necessary to join the Equalists, but it was fleeting, and he pulled his hand free from her grasp. "I doubt it," he said, before turning for the door once again. Nobody stopped him that time, and he hastened out to the meeting point where he usually found his siblings and the White Lotus guard.
The guard was there, but Sora and Yunjin were not, which really wasn't much of a surprise. Ronen always felt like he was waiting on the two of them. They were always slow to leave school, still chatting with friends or being held after to be scolded by a teacher.
Ronen nodded to the guard with unfiltered annoyance, and leaned back against the stone wall, arms folded over his chest to wait.
Apparently, though, it was the day of ambushes, because he wasn't waiting for longer than a minute or two when he spotted a familiar face weaving through the hoard of students leaving for the day, going against the tide and squinting as they skimmed the crowd, obviously searching for someone. Ronen groaned and tried to shield his face, nudging the confused White Lotus guard in front of him, but it was already too late.
"Hey! Ronen!" the shout came. "Ronen Beifong! Hey, it's me! Ronen!"
The White Lotus guard glanced down at Ronen with a frown, adjusting his stance halfway into a defensive position as he gruffly asked, "You need me to take care of this guy?"
Ronen rolled his eyes and shoved the guard's extended arm back down to his side as he stressed, "No, jeeze, not everything is a threat, you know?"
"Ronen!" the voice called again, unmistakably closer now, and Ronen forced a half smile onto his face as he turned to face Bolin.
Bolin hastened over, gently pushing kids aside and apologizing the whole way, looking totally out of place among them despite the fact that he was still young enough to attend school if he'd been inclined to. He was, however, dressed in some ridiculous costume, with a garish vest and an overly large mustache that he must have glued to his hairless upper lip. There was some sort of rodent-like creature crawling all around his shoulders and up on top of his head, and Ronen assumed it was the fire ferret Bolin claimed to own.
Bolin was breathless when he finally came to stand before Ronen, but grinning brightly as he panted, "Hey there, Ronen! How are you? Korra told us you were grounded, total bummer, I hope you can still make it to the tournament, that is, if we can even still go to the tournament, I'm guessing Korra told you about the championship pot, you don't happen to have thirty thousand yuans laying around, do you? Nah, that's okay, we'll get it, I'm sure of it, but that's not why I'm here, I wanted to ask you something, are you busy?"
Bolin finally stopped for breath and Ronen blinked, stunned for a moment, still trying to process what Bolin had just said. Ronen and Bolin had only spoken the two times that Ronen had gone to the pro-bending arena with Korra, and once when Korra had snuck Bolin onto the Island for a visit one weekend when Lin and Tenzin were both at work, so Ronen still wasn't sure how he felt about the earthbender. The guy seemed genuine enough, and Korra had taken a liking to him, but the concerns were still there. Ronen really had no idea what Bolin could possibly want from him.
"What's on your face?" Ronen asked first, raising an eyebrow at the mustache Bolin was wearing.
"Huh?" Bolin said, before realization dawned and he touched the fake mustache on his face. "Oh! It's part of my costume. I'm trying to raise money for the championship pot so I've been taking Pabu to perform circus tricks around the city." He patted the fire ferret on the head, and Ronen noticed then that Pabu wore an outfit similar to Bolin's. "We're headed to Central City Station next, hopefully we'll have better luck there, but on our way I thought we'd stop here."
"What do you need?" Ronen asked, curious and cautious all at once.
Bolin looked a little embarrassed all of a sudden, scratching the back of his neck and glancing down at his shoes as he shifted from one foot to the other. His cheeks turned faintly pink as he confessed, "Well, see, I was hoping to get some advice from you, about Korra…I mean I know, I know, she's my teammate and I don't want to make things weird, but that's why I came to you, because you're her friend, and it seems like you guys are really close, so you must know her pretty well, and I just think she's really great, really awesome, actually, but like I said, don't want to make things weird, so I thought, I don't know, maybe you could give me some pointers, on how to impress her, and then, you know, maybe she'll like me too…maybe…"
Ronen couldn't help the slight frown that curved his lips, feeling a rush of protectiveness for Korra, who was so new to the city and to people outside of the compound and the South Pole, and Ronen knew she didn't need his protection, but he worried for her anyway. Bolin didn't seem to have foul intentions, wouldn't have come to Ronen probably if he did, but what did Ronen know about the pro-bending brothers really?
Bolin noticed Ronen's face and apparently misinterpreted it for something else, gasping and looking horrified as he rushed out, "Oh no, I didn't mean to…are you two…I wasn't trying…if you and Korra are a thing that's totally…that's uh, cool, I didn't mean to come in the middle –"
Ronen actually laughed at the stricken look on Bolin's face, shaking his head and quickly reassuring, "No, no, no, it's nothing like that. No, Korra and I aren't a thing. No way. I'm sorry I, um, I guess I'm a little protective, but I'm not sure what advice I could offer you. Korra kind of just does what she wants, not sure what could impress her, you know?"
Bolin nodded in understanding, sounding a little glum as he replied, "Oh, yeah, of course. I totally get it."
Ronen felt a little sorry for Bolin, who really did just seem like a guy infatuated with the Avatar and insecure about how to woo someone seemingly so larger than life. Despite his continued wariness, Ronen tentatively reached out to awkwardly pat Bolin's shoulder, saying, "Look, just be yourself, all right? You don't have to try so hard to impress her. She obviously likes something about you, or else she wouldn't be friends with you, so, I don't know, maybe one day she'll be interested in you like that too. But she's new here and everything so, just give her time, be a good friend."
Bolin perked up, smile returning a little as he exclaimed, "I can do that! I can be the best friend ever!"
Bolin's grin was infectious and Ronen found himself smiling too. There was something oddly endearing about Bolin, but Ronen wasn't about to just let his guard down.
"We can be friends too," Bolin offered casually, "if you want."
It was Ronen's turn to look embarrassed now as he stammered, "Oh, uh, yeah, okay, sure."
Bolin beamed. "Cool! Thanks for the advice, friend. I'll see you around?"
Ronen nodded without much conviction, wondering what he'd gotten himself into and also whether or not he'd ever not be grounded. "Yeah," he said anyway, "I'll try to make it to the tournament."
"Can't wait!" Bolin declared, already backing away. "Pabu and I have only gotten ten yuans so far, so we've really gotta get to work!" He looked over at the furry pet on his shoulder and said, "C'mon, buddy, only 29,990 to go!" He waved as he was hastening away, calling a brief, "See ya!"
Ronen waved back, but didn't raise his voice. He watched as Bolin practically ran straight out into traffic and then darted down the sidewalk.
Sora and Yunjin joined Ronen a second later, and the reason for their tardiness became apparent almost immediately. Sora was storming away from her twin brother, short hair flying behind her, face twisted up into a scowl full of so much rage that Ronen took an unconscious step back as she approached. He didn't think he had never seen Sora so angry before, and it looked all wrong on her face.
Yunjin was racing after her, looking guilty of something but also annoyed as he demanded, "Come, on, Sora, quit being so crazy! It's not that big of a deal!"
Sora's face registered a brief amount of shock before she slid to an abrupt halt, whirling on Yunjin so fast that the boy used his airbending to halt his own steps and hurl him back a few steps to a safer distance. "Not a big deal?!" Sora shrieked in disbelief. "You're a traitor! Don't come anywhere near me again!"
Yunjin huffed irritably, "You can't keep this up forever."
"I can, and I will," Sora spat.
Ronen had regained his wits and interjected himself between his siblings then, holding a placating hand out to each of them and quickly asking, "Hey, hey, what's going on here? What's up with you two?"
"Yunjin is a traitorous, no good buzzard-wasp," Sora snapped, taking a vicious step in her twin's direction, only to be stopped by Ronen's hand against her shoulder.
"Hey!" Yunjin squeaked. "I'm much better looking than a buzzard-wasp!"
Ronen rolled his eyes, because that was hardly the thing to be offended over. There were some stragglers still wandering nearby, and the students were all watching the scene with great interest. Ronen tried to give them the sort of scowl his mother used on people, but he doubted he got it right. He had more important things to focus on though, and he turned his attention to Sora, squeezing her shoulder and, in a calm voice, inquiring, "Sora? What is it? What did he do?"
"It's stupid," Yunjin scoffed, and Ronen whirled on him briefly with a terse, "Quiet."
Sora was glaring straight at Yunjin still, but her bottom lip trembled and her voice was shaky as she began to answer, "He's been sneaking around behind my back with Jinora. He's been friends with her this whole time."
Ronen turned an inquisitive look on Yunjin, who frowned, squirming under his older brother's gaze and insisting, "It's not like that. Look," his eyes flickered back to Sora, "neither of you would tell me what happened, and she was really upset about it. How am I supposed to hate her just because you all of a sudden tell me to? I like her, and if you don't want to be friends with her, fine, but you can't tell me what to do."
Ronen winced, because that wasn't at all the right thing to say, and he could feel Sora vibrating with suppressed rage.
"You chose her over your own sister," Sora seethed, eyes shining with unshed tears and betrayal. "Your twin sister. How could you?" Her voice wavered and she stopped abruptly, clearly trying to reign in her emotions.
Yunjin appeared to be a little remorseful, but he didn't apologize, only looked helplessly at Ronen, who really had no idea what to do.
"Listen," Ronen said to both of them, "why don't we go home, okay? Nira can –"
"I'm not going anywhere with him," Sora declared.
Ronen bit down on his frustrations and said, "All right, how about we go to Dad then?" Tenzin was always a good mediator, and he knew how to get the kids to talk about their feelings.
But Sora immediately shot it down, all full of rage again as she vehemently protested, "No, I don't want to be anywhere near him either. Men are loathsome, traitorous –"
"Okayyyy," Ronen cut her off before she could go on a tirade. "Well I don't know what else to do, Sora."
"I want Mom," Sora said, half in a whimper.
"Mom is gonna be really busy at work," Ronen gently reminded. "She isn't going to be happy about us barging in there."
The White Lotus guard that had been standing nearby, completely useless as he watched the scene play out, suddenly stepped in to interject, "I need to get you three home, right now. No detours."
Sora rolled her eyes and Ronen shot the guy an annoyed look.
Not even bothering to acknowledge the guard, Ronen said to Sora, "The Island is big, you'll be far enough away from Yunjin that you won't have to see him, and maybe Nira can help. Mom will be home later tonight."
It looked as though all of the fight had left Sora, her shoulders slumping as she stepped out of Ronen's hold and muttered, "No she won't."
She turned and started walking on her own, but in the direction of home, at least, and Ronen hastened to follow her, nudging Yunjin along with him. The White Lotus guard trailed behind. The four of them were all uncomfortably silent.
Ronen had ample time to observe his surroundings though, and as he was walking he noticed Bolin across the street, apparently having not made it to Central City Station yet. The pro-bender was squatted down to better talk to what was clearly a homeless man that sat on the sidewalk, and Bolin was all smiles, chatting away even though Ronen couldn't hear what he was saying. Ronen slowed his pace to try and watch the scene, his curiosity getting the better of him, just as Bolin looked down at the tin he was carrying around to collect the money he needed for the championship pot.
Ronen was stunned when Bolin suddenly dumped all ten measly yuans into his hand, and then, without hesitation, offered the winnings to the homeless man, who's eyes lit up as he gratefully accepted the offering. Bolin patted the man's shoulder and appeared to say some reassuring words that made the man nod emphatically. Ronen knew that the Fire Ferrets were struggling to come up with the money they needed to compete in the tournament, and that the pro-bending brothers hardly had money of their own, and yet Bolin had just given away all that he and Pabu had earned to what was likely a stranger.
Ronen didn't notice that he had come to a full stop until the White Lotus guard began nudging his shoulder, urging him to keep moving to keep up with the twins. Ronen wrenched his gaze away from Bolin and continued onwards, but he had a lot of things to contemplate as he walked. Perhaps Bolin wasn't so bad after all...
Ronen didn't realize then that it was the last time Bolin would be seen that day. Not until Mako showed up on Air Temple Island late that evening, having looked everywhere else and asking after his brother. Lin and Tenzin were still at work, both of them having missed dinner, and even though Ronen knew he'd be in a world of trouble, he insisted on going with Korra and Mako to look for Bolin. Yunjin protested when Ronen asked him to tell Nira where he was going, but didn't stop his older brother from leaving. Ronen had a bad feeling about the whole thing, and he really hoped that Bolin was okay. He also hoped that his parents wouldn't kill him when they found out that he had left the Island without their permission yet again. He really was going to be grounded for the rest of his life.
Chapter 46: Chapter 46
Chapter Text
Chapter 46
It was shortly after arriving at the headquarters of the Triple Threat Triads that Ronen began to rethink his life choices. If his parents had known where he was, they would probably shackle him to his bed and never let him leave the house again. Besides that, Ronen knew how dangerous the Triple Threats were, and the world of trouble he'd be in for if one of them recognized him. He still remembered the Triple Threats leading the siege of headquarters four years prior that had nearly gotten his mother and baby sister killed, and resulted in the death of Lieutenant Jeia, whom Ronen had admired. He knew that the triad was not to be trifled with, certainly not by a teenage boy, regardless of the training he had received over the years.
Ronen didn't understand why Bolin would have gone anywhere with the so-called Shady Shin, as they'd been told, but whatever the reason it could not have been a good one. The fact that Mako knew exactly where to find Triple Threat headquarters was telling, too, but Ronen couldn't focus on that now. Not when he was about to break into a triad dwelling.
The Triple Threats, however, turned out not to be the greatest threat that evening. It was as Korra, Ronen, and Mako entered the suspiciously empty building that they heard an engine revving to life in the alleyway, and they rushed outside just in time to see a masked group making off with captured Triple Threats, Bolin among them. The kidnappers wore nothing to indicate who they could be, but Ronen had the unsettling feeling that the masked figures were Equalists.
Korra, Mako, and Ronen leapt atop Naga and raced after them. Ronen had to hold onto the saddle so tight to keep from falling off that he thought his fingers might never unclench again. That concern, however, was proved to be an unnecessary one when one of the masked figures threw a bola at them, which wrapped around Naga's legs and sent her crashing to the ground. Her three riders were thrown forward several meters, and Ronen smashed into the ground with excessive force. It took him a moment to catch his breath, and his body was radiating pain, but he didn't think anything was broken. He struggled to his feet as quickly as he was able, just in time to see three masked figures racing towards him. One veered off to take on Mako, another to Korra, and the last came straight at Ronen.
Ronen shook off the instinctive fear and the shock of having so recently fallen and tried to remember all that he had been taught about defending himself. He wasn't fully prepared when the Equalist struck the first blow, but after a few frantic sidesteps, he managed to reign in his jerky movements and started blocking the incoming attacks instead of stumbling out of the way. With adrenaline coursing through him and a desperate need to survive, all other thoughts flew from Ronen's mind, his only focus on countering the chi-blocker's strikes. It was difficult, to say the least, considering that the only chi-blocker Ronen had ever faced off against was Bumi's former bride, Lue. Knowing the art and using it on others was one thing, having to defend himself from the same attacks he was trying to use against the Equalist was quite another. He did, however, manage to land a strike that paralyzed the Equalist's left arm, and if his opponent hadn't been wearing a mask, Ronen thought for certain that he would have seen utter shock on their face from the surprise of facing off with another chi-blocker. The Equalist was frozen long enough for Ronen to land another blow against their leg, but he had also let his own guard down, too confident that the masked figure was all but finished.
When the Equalist dropped to one knee from the kick Ronen had landed, their fist shot out immediately to punch him directly in the gut. Ronen folded in half with a breathless groan and did not immediately evade, too used to being in sparring and half expecting it to all end at his loss, but this was not sparring. It was a real fight, and the next fist went straight into his cheek. He collapsed to the ground with an irrepressible whimper, and while he would have been content to lie there forever, he was fearing now that if he didn't move he would be done for, captured or killed or severely wounded. Whatever the case, none of those options were good, so he did the first thing he thought of.
His mother would probably be dismayed that the first thing he did was not something she had taught him, but rather a trick from his Uncle Bumi. Ronen clenched his teeth and ignored his pain and rolled as erratically and quickly as he possibly could manage, rolling straight into the Equalist's ankles. They were too surprised to avoid Ronen's roll altogether, but agile enough to turn their trip into a flip that brought them back onto their feet. But the distance between the two of them allowed Ronen time to get back onto his own two feet.
Not for long though. Just as Ronen thought he was getting somewhere, the Equalist that had been fighting Mako came sprinting over to help their pal, and Ronen was too thrown off and outnumbered. He managed to knock one of them flat, but the other took him down a second later with another blow to the head that nearly knocked him out.
His ears were ringing and spots were dancing across his vision, but he was marginally aware of a hand at the scruff of his neck, fingers twisted up in the back of his shirt and knuckles against his spine. He felt boneless as he was dragged across the ground, the heel of his shoe striking a divot in the ground and pulling right off of his foot. He reached back, blindly, trying to claw at the hand that held him, but he was clumsy in his dizzy state and the hand was covered in cloth that didn't give into his efforts.
He could see through his blurred vision, Korra struggling to rise, punching her fists viciously in the air, roaring in frustration, but nothing came from her. No firebending, no waterbending, no nothing. She and Mako were both without their bending and about to be wrapped up in bolas by the third Equalist. Meanwhile, Ronen was probably going to be dragged to wherever the Equalists had taken Bolin and the Triple Threats, maybe Korra and Mako too.
Except, at that precise moment, Naga managed to break loose of her restraints at long last, and leapt straight at the Equalists, roaring mightily as she swiped her huge paws at the attackers and stopped them from incapacitating Korra and Mako. Ronen had never been so happy to see the polar bear dog in all his life.
However, the Equalist was still attempting to flee with Ronen in tow.
The third Equalist snatched up their fallen comrade and exchanged a look with the one that was holding Ronen before barking, "Leave him!"
Ronen's captor tried to protest, "But he's –!"
"NOW!" the other one demanded, and Ronen was dropped back down to the ground with a heavy thump.
Then the Equalists were gone in a puff of green smoke, leaving one of their motorcycles behind but still speeding off into the dark.
Korra was still desperately trying to shake off the effects of the chi-blocking, growling in frustrating, cursing as the Equalists escaped. Mako looked battered and annoyed, but not surprised, grimly watching the motorcycles disappear into the night, his brother with them. Ronen felt a twinge of regret at having been so useless, of having nearly been captured himself, but Korra and Mako had not fared much better and, all things considered, none of them were too badly injured. Ronen was determined to go on, to find where the Equalists were taking Bolin, despite the throbbing in his head and ache in his gut. He knew that he had gotten off easy, and wondered if the Equalists were holding back or just more tricky than strong. Yunjin had hit Ronen harder than that before, but then again, Yunjin had airbending to back him up.
"How are we going to find my brother now?" Mako despaired.
"There's someone we can look for," Korra suggested. "He should know where they've taken Bolin. I met him on my first day here. If he sticks to his routine he'll be in the park in the morning."
"Morning?" Mako echoed incredulously. "What if it's too late by then? Or what if this guy isn't even there?"
Korra shrugged helplessly. "What other option do we have?"
Ronen, who had been deliberating the same question, reluctantly admitted, "Maybe we should call my Mom. The police can –"
"No," Mako immediately disagreed, barely sparing a heated glance for Ronen. "No cops. I'll find my brother myself."
"You don't have to do everything alone, tough guy," Ronen scoffed. "Believe me, the last person I want to admit defeat to right now is my mother, but she's a good cop –"
"She's a cop," Mako emphasized, as if that should have made his meaning clear. "You really think she's gonna jump at the chance to intervene in a turf war? Those Equalists took Triple Treat leaders. In her eyes, they're doing her job for her. She'll probably say good riddance."
Ronen scowled, offended on his mother's behalf. "She's not like that. She won't leave Bolin to the fate of the Equalists just because of who he's with. He's a kid, barely older than me, and if I ask –"
"Isn't she gonna be too busy grounding you for another lifetime to listen to anything you have to say?" Mako scoffed, folding his arms over his chest and raising a pointed brow. "Besides, it doesn't matter how old my brother is. He chose to be with the Triple Threats tonight and that makes him a thug in the police's eyes. He's no different than the rest of them and they won't care. If you haven't got any real suggestions then maybe you should just go home. You shouldn't be out here anyway. It's dangerous."
"Hey, hey, hey," Korra cut in, placing herself between Ronen and Mako before Ronen could make his own cutting remark. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Mako, you need to back off. Ronen is just trying to help." Korra turned her gaze onto Ronen and softened her expression just slightly, the corner of her lips almost quirking into half a smile as she told him, "You've got the right idea, but I think Mako is right. We shouldn't bring your mother into this. She'll be too angry at the both of us to listen and Bolin was with a bunch of criminals. Maybe, if it gets to be too dangerous, then we'll call her, but for now, I think we should figure out what we're dealing with."
The three of them started trudging back in the direction of the park, with Naga and Pabu by their side. They weren't eager to climb back onto Naga yet, preferring to stretch out their aching muscles even though it probably hurt more to walk. Eventually, they were about to climb onto the saddle, but Ronen had a thought just as he was perched halfway up onto the beast's back.
"I know a better way," he said, sounding half startled at his own realization. "We won't have to wait until morning. I know someone we can go to right now. I know where she lives."
"Who?" Korra asked eagerly. Mako just looked skeptical.
"A girl from school," Ronen supplied. "You two can't come, though, or it'll scare her off. You'll have to hang back."
Mako rolled his eyes and looked ready to argue, but Korra said, "Tell me where."
Mako complained the whole way there, not understanding how a girl from Ronen's school was going to help them find the Equalists and, quite frankly, Ronen wasn't even certain that it would work, but their other option was to wait until morning and that seemed too far away.
Naga stopped a few blocks from the foster home where Asuka lived, and Ronen disembarked on his own, with a frantic warning from Korra and a stern one from Mako. Either they thought that he was putting himself at unnecessary risk by going alone or that the whole idea was a fruitless endeavor. Either way, neither of them was thrilled about staying behind, but Ronen insisted that they do so or the whole thing would be ruined.
Ronen jogged the first two blocks, still panting from his earlier exertion against the Equalists. His face still stung where he'd been punched and he wondered if it would leave an obvious mark. He hoped Asuka wouldn't notice.
He slowed his pace as he neared the foster home, trying to affect an air of nonchalance, stuffing his hands in his pockets and shuffling casually down the sidewalk, just in case someone saw him coming. Finding Asuka was a lot less difficult than he imagined, as she was perched on the stone steps outside of the building, half of her body bathed in shadow but the other half illuminated by the soft glow of light beaming out from the front windows. Ronen could hear the commotion of sounds filtering out of the building, could see shadows of people moving to and fro. It sounded chaotic, and Ronen was grateful that Asuka was outside away from it all.
She appeared to be attempting to read underneath the street lamp, but she immediately turned her head when she heard Ronen's boots scuff the pavement. When she saw him, her eyes went wide and she scrambled to her feet, book dropping to the steps and flopping over.
"Ronen?" she said in surprise, sounding almost disbelieving. "What are you doing here?"
"Heyy," he hedged, approaching her slowly with a sort of half smile, ducking his head shyly.
She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What are you doing here?" she repeated.
Ronen paused in his steps, scratching the back of his head and shifting his gaze uncomfortably. "I don't know," he half admitted, half lied. "I needed to get away and I…I just sort of ended up here."
When Ronen met Asuka's gaze again, she was raising a brow looking skeptical. "You just ended up here?" she scoffed. "Where did you come from?"
Ronen shrugged, started walking towards her again. "From home. I got in an argument with my parents and…well…I guess I was thinking about what you were saying earlier today and…I don't know, it's stupid."
He hoped he was acting well enough to make Asuka think he was affected by his made up argument.
She was still leery of him, but he could see that she was softening slightly, eyes a little less distrustful as she questioned, "Argument with your parents?"
Ronen grimaced, in part because his parents were going to throw a fit when he finally went home, and also for the sake of his story. He nodded glumly. "I got into a fight with my brother and…well, they took his side, as usual." He wasn't sure he pulled that lie off well enough so he powered on, feigning frustration. "I know they love me and all, but it's like…they don't get it, you know? And I thought they did…or hoped, maybe." He kicked at the ground and stuffed his hands back into his pockets.
Asuka eased back down onto the stairs, still eyeing him carefully, but more at ease, folding her arms over her chest and leaning back. "So, what?" she said. "You suddenly decided to come here? Are you finally interested in hearing what I have to say, or just trying to be rebellious?"
"I'm no rebel," Ronen denied, leaning against the cold, stone banister. "Curious, I guess. Why did you come to me, anyways? If Ryku said I was a lost cause, what made you think otherwise?"
"Because we need more people like you," Asuka easily admitted. "You're smart, and you care more about finding logical solutions to problems than turning everything into a brawl like Tenzu and Bora. Those two idiots are just pawns. The real Equalist movement is about more than that. We have a real leader, someone wise and strong. He can show the world the right way to live, and people will listen. People are listening. It's only a matter of time before his plans come to fruition. The only question is, what side of history will you choose to be on? Those who seek justice, safety, and equality, or those who wish to adhere to the oppressive norms? Besides, who better to have on our side than someone so famous for being a nonbender among some of the most powerful benders? The grandson of the last Avatar, the son of two of the most influential benders on earth."
Ronen whistled, outwardly impressed but internally very worried, ignoring the part about his fame. "You've seen this leader before? He's got good ideas?"
Asuka nodded eagerly and there was a bright sort of wonder in her eyes. "Only once, but it was…amazing. And I will again…very soon. You know…you could come with me, if you want."
Ronen tamped down on his enthusiasm and slowly said, "Oh, well, I don't know. I mean, would it be okay? If I went, I mean? Is it for the higher ups or something?"
Asuka shook her head with a laugh and leaned down to pick up her book, extracting a flyer from inside and holding it out to him to examine for himself. "A lot of people will be there," she assured. "It's the Revelation. Anyone who's invited can come. The backs have a map, if you put enough of them together, so not just anyone can figure it out."
Ronen didn't think that was necessarily true, sounded like anyone that was looking could figure it out, but he tried to look impressed. "When is it?" he inquired.
"In an hour or so," Asuka answered. "What do you think? You wanna come?"
Ronen knew that he had to, that Bolin was likely to be there if the Equalists had so conveniently kidnapped the Triple Threats on the night of their big revelation. But he also needed to get the information to Korra and Mako.
He paused for a moment, pretending to deliberate, and then asked, "Could I think about it, maybe? I just…I need some time to clear my head and then… maybe I could meet you there?"
Asuka looked suspicious again and Ronen feared he had just blown it. "It'd be easier if you just come with me, unless you're thinking about going to tattle to your Mommy."
Ronen frowned. "I'm not going to do that. I promise. I can't go home right now anyway. They're already pissed that I'm gone. But, I guess you have no reason to believe me. Maybe I shouldn't go, if you're worried. I don't want to cause any problems."
He made as if to hand the flyer back, but Asuka sighed heavily and shoved it back in his direction. "Keep it," she said, "but if the cops show up I'll let Tonzu and Bora know that they have free reign to do whatever they like to you."
Ronen gulped at her biting tone, wholeheartedly believing the warning. "They won't hear a word from me. I promise."
Shortly after, Ronen made his escape, flyer clutched in hand and the location of the revelation in his memory. He kept up his casual, lackluster stroll until he knew for certain that he was out of Asuka's sights, and then he took off at a run.
He found Mako and Korra sitting on the ground beneath a tree, their backs against Naga. They seemed to be having some kind of serious discussion, and startled when Ronen called to them. They both leapt to their feet as he was skidding to a halt in front of them, panting heavily.
"Did you get anything?" Mako immediately demanded.
"Are you okay? Did it work? Is she chasing you?" Korra questioned rapidly.
"I know where they'll be," Ronen gasped, still breathless, hunched over with hands braced on his knees. He waved the flyer with one hand and inhaled deeply before continuing, "Less than an hour now. Something called the Revelation. The leader of the Equalists will be giving a speech."
"That has to be it!" Korra exclaimed. "How do we get there? Is it far?"
"I can show you," Ronen assured, finally catching his breath. "We should make it in time."
Mako actually looked impressed as he admitted, "I gotta say, kid, I didn't know what to expect, but…thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," Ronen said, shifting uncomfortably under Mako's gaze. "But, um, before we go… I need to make a phone call."
"A phone call?" Korra echoed, confused. "To who?"
"I ran off without telling my parents anything," Ronen muttered reluctantly. "I don't intend to tell them where we're going, but…I owe it to them to at least explain myself, so they aren't so worried…and so they don't come looking for me."
"Have we got time for that?" Mako said impatiently.
"I'll make it quick," Ronen promised.
Nira called Lin immediately after Yunjin had come shuffling into the house to tell the children's caregiver that Ronen had left the Island.
Lin left work shortly after in a barely suppressed rage, and went straight to the pro-bending arena to where she knew the boys Mako and Bolin supposedly lived. When she found their apartment, she let herself in, which, in hindsight, probably wasn't something the Chief of Police should be doing, but her son had run off to Spirit's knows where – while still grounded, no less – and she wasn't exactly thinking straight. And breaking in had all been for naught anyway, because nobody was in the apartment, nor had they left behind any clues as to where they might have gone. So Lin went home to meet up with Tenzin, whom she had called before leaving work.
Tenzin had checked a few places in the city that Ronen sometimes frequented, but came up empty handed as well. He arrived on the Island around the same time as Lin, and they went straight to Yunjin to interrogate him on what his brother had said. But Yunjin knew very little, only that Mako had shown up, told Korra and Ronen that his brother was missing, and the three teens ran off shortly after. Ronen had only told Yunjin to let Nira know that he was going to help find his friend, and then he was gone before Yunjin could protest.
Lin wanted to immediately return to the city to search for her oldest son, but apparently it was the night when all hell broke loose, because everything else began to quickly spiral out of control. Unbeknownst to Lin and Tenzin, Sora and Yunjin had been bickering all day, and their arguing exploded into a screaming match not long after their parents returned home. It might have turned into an all out brawl if Lin and Tenzin hadn't intervened and sent them to their separate rooms. And then, before Lin and Tenzin could even find out what the twins were fighting over, Jeia started puking and Lin just about lost her mind. She dealt with blood and gore and all manner of disgusting things at work, but sick kids still sent her running in the opposite direction.
Tenzin went about cleaning up Jeia and soothing the inconsolable toddler, while Lin was left to clean up the mess the kid had made in the living room. It did nothing to calm her already queasy stomach, which had been twisted into knots over worry for Ronen, and it certainly didn't quell the agitation rising to a boiling point inside of her. Nira had tried to help, but Lin had insisted the acolyte go home and not be roped into the pandemonium that was their household at that moment.
After thoroughly sterilizing the living room, Lin felt the desperate need for a shower. Once she was bathed and dressed in a clean set of clothes, she went to talk to Sora and Yunjin, but neither of them were forthcoming about their fight. Sora was firmly tight-lipped, stating only that Yunjin was a terrible brother. Meanwhile, Yunjin insisted he had no idea why Sora was even angry with him, only that he spoke to Jinora sometimes and his twin had suddenly freaked when she found out.
Lin left Yunjin's room with no more answers than before, feeling frustrated and off-balance. It was around that time that the phone began to ring shrilly from down the hall. Lin felt her heart skip a beat, dreading what she might hear on the other end, her mind racing with all sorts of terrible scenarios as she ran to catch the phone.
She was completely surprised when, upon answering, Ronen's voice came through the line with a tentative, "Mom?"
"Ronen!" Lin nearly shrieked, half relieved, half angry still. "I don't know what on earth you were thinking, but you'd best come home right now if you ever want to see the outside world again!"
"I'm sorry, Mom," Ronen sighed, "but I'm not coming home yet. I just wanted to let you know I'm okay. We know where Bolin is and we're going to get him as soon as I hang up. I'll be home later –"
"Don't you dare!" Lin growled, clenching the phone in a tight fist, frantic over what Ronen might be getting into. "I mean it Ronen, if you don't come home right now –"
"I can't do that," Ronen interjected, huffing impatiently. "I don't have time to argue, I just wanted you to know that I'm safe. I know you don't trust me, but Bolin may be in trouble and we have to help him. He's my friend, and nothing you threaten me with will stop me from helping him."
"If he's in trouble you call the police!" Lin shouted into the phone, growing desperate, trying to think of a way to stop Ronen from whatever foolhardy quest he was about to embark on. "Don't do this, Ronen. Come home –"
But Ronen wasn't listening, was paying more attention to some other voice on his end that Lin could barely make out. He said quickly, "I have to go." And then the line went dead.
Lin looked down at the phone in her hand in shock, her fist squeezing so tight and a blinding emotion mixed with rage and fear surging through her, her mind going all but blank for what felt like only one single second. But when she blinked, she heard Tenzin's concerned voice in her ear, and upon looking down, the phone in her hand had been snapped in half in her crushing grip. Lin loosened her hold and let the pieces clatter to the floor, staring impassively at the slight smear of blood on her hand, not registering any of the pain that should have accompanied it.
Tenzin was at her side, gripping her wrist in too firm of a hold while trying to examine the cut on her hand, snatching a nearby cloth off of the counter and pressing it to her wound.
"Lin," Tenzin pressed, and she thought he might have been saying her name for a while now. "Lin, answer me. What is going on? Was that Ronen? What did he say? Lin?"
She shook her head as if to clear it, as if the motion alone would shake the tumultuous thoughts right out her ears to evaporate into thin air. But no such thing occurred, and it took a concerted effort and a deep breath of air to finally persuade herself to snap out of whatever stupor had briefly taken hold. She looked up at Tenzin, at his wrinkled frown and worried gaze, and answered, "It was Ronen, yes. He says they know where the other boy is, that Bolin. They think he's in trouble. They're going to get him."
Tenzin sighed heavily, dropping his gaze to Lin's hand again, and she was starting to feel some of the ache now, but it wasn't all that bad. She doubted she'd done much damage. "We raised a very good son," Tenzin murmured, almost to himself. "He sees someone in need and he goes."
Lin snatched her hand away from him, anger returning in a flash. "He's a child, and he's disobeyed us yet again, going off on some stupid adventure. I thought I could blame Korra for this, but he isn't simply following her around. It's clear that he just has no regard for rules anymore."
Lin whirled away, ready to storm straight out of the house, but Tenzin snagged her wrist and demanded, "Where on earth are you going?"
"To find him," Lin snapped, assuming that it should have been obvious.
Tenzin all but scoffed. "And how will you do that? Are you going to scour every inch of the city?"
"If I have to," Lin said plainly.
"That will take an eternity," Tenzin protested.
"What else am I supposed to do?" Lin countered. "Wait until my officers call me in to identify his body?"
Tenzin flinched back as if she'd slapped him, but his hold on her wrist was still tight. "That's not going to happen. Ronen is with Korra, and besides, you've taught him nearly everything that he knows. That's why he's doing this, you know?"
"Oh, so it's my fault?" Lin exclaimed.
"No, I mean that he wants to help people because he admires you so much for doing the same," Tenzin amended, voice softening. "I know you're worried, I am too, but we can't control him forever. He is still young, yes, and there should be boundaries, but…maybe we need to start letting him make his own decisions, his own mistakes."
Lin shook her head, heart beating fast, and she didn't know why it hurt so much, why she felt so panicked. All she could say was, "It's too soon."
Tenzin smiled softly, understanding in his eyes. He stepped closer, dropping her wrist to cup her face in his hands, his thumb stroking her scarred cheek. It was soothing, sure, but it didn't really ease her worries. "That's what kids do," he murmured. "They grow up. And it's terrifying and we don't want it to happen, but if we push too hard we'll push him away."
"He thinks he knows too much," Lin continued to argue, but the fight was leaving her. "He's arrogant. He doesn't know the real world as well as he thinks."
"He'll never learn if we don't let him," Tenzin countered gently. "I know it seems too early, but he was right about one thing. Our parents were younger when they set off to save the world, and it's not as if he's doing anything like that."
From the moment Ronen had learned about the heroic deeds of his grandparents and their friends, he had thought that they were the coolest people to ever live. He had aspired to be like them, to be like his mother, to be strong and resourceful and fearless. He had desperately wanted to help people, had felt it like something pulling at his heart, trying to tear it from his chest every time he saw injustices in the world. It was part of why he was always so respectful of his parents wishes, even when he didn't fully agree with them, because he knew what they dealt with at work, and because he never wanted to be the cause of anymore distress in their lives. He went out of his way to help the ones that he loved when he could, his extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, or even those not directly related by blood; his brother and sisters; and the acolytes that had been a big part of his life growing up. Ever since he had started at public school, that helpful nature had extended to friends, as well as other students that he didn't even know, but who seemed in need.
But something Ronen was beginning to learn about emulating his heroic family, was that their actions came with costs.
In order to help Korra realize her potential as an airbender, Ronen had snuck out of the house and worried his parents. To find Bolin, he was breaking the rules they had set for him, disappointing them where before they had been so proud, and causing them more distress. He had no doubts that going with Korra and Mako to find Bolin had been the right thing to do, but he still regretted upsetting his parents.
And now he was setting out on an endeavor that was sure to be dangerous. He was lying to Asuka, who he believed was just a confused kid that had been manipulated into believing the Equalist's propaganda, and he was about to walk into a secret Equalist meeting with the Avatar and a hot-headed firebender that was desperately searching for his brother. After fighting some of the chi-blockers that had taken Bolin and the other Triple Threat members, Ronen was convinced that the Equalists were not to be underestimated, and he doubted they would be very forgiving if they discovered him and Korra there. The Avatar was enemy number one in their eyes, and Ronen's parents' fame and their positions of power wouldn't help his case either.
Besides all that, nothing called "The Revelation" could be anything good. He didn't know what he and his friends were in for, but he doubted it would be simple.
Getting through the door was stupidly easy though. Ronen held out the flyer Asuka had given him and the guy let them right in, called them 'brothers and sister'. But the immensity of the crowd they discovered inside was overwhelming. Ronen had known that the Equalists were obviously gaining favor, but to see it with his own eyes was disconcerting.
Even more unsettling, though, was the leader of the Equalists, Amon. He was a masked man, who told a chilling tale of losing his family and his face to a firebender, and then went on to declare bending the cause for all suffering in the world, all the wars and tragedies and exploitation of the poor.
When Amon began to say that the spirits had chosen him to usher in a new era of balance, Ronen felt his stomach clench with mounting dread, and then the revelation came.
Amon claimed that he had the power to take a person's bending away permanently, and even though Ronen had nothing to fear for himself from such a power, it still struck terror through him at the implications as it did Korra and Mako, who could not believe such a thing was possible. Ronen was not inclined to believe it either, but he had also seen and read about a lot of unbelievable things in his life, and he couldn't imagine that Amon would make such a bold statement if there was not some truth behind it. Ronen immediately thought of his little brother and sisters, of his father and his mother. They were benders, and by extension, targets of the Equalists no matter what they did. And Ronen's father was the last remaining airbending master on earth, his twin siblings the last hope for the continued existence of the airbending race. What if Amon somehow got hold of them? What if his power was real and he snuffed the airbenders out of existence?
Ronen could feel a steady rage filling him, rage and fear that nearly made him tremble with the strength of it.
And then the bound members of the Triple Threat Triad were forced onto the stage, Bolin among them, and Ronen's anger only mounted. Admittedly, he cared little for the thugs that caused his mother and other police and citizens frequent trouble, but Bolin was barely older than Ronen, just a kid that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ronen had just started to consider Bolin a friend, knew that Korra cared for him and that Mako loved his brother. Bolin was not a bad person deserving of whatever Amon had planned.
Korra immediately tried to storm up to the stage, but Mako and Ronen agreed that they needed a plan. They watched in horror as Amon offered Lightning Bolt Zolt the opportunity to defend himself, only to see the Triple Threat leader bested by Amon, his firebending petering out into nothingness as Amon placed his thumb against Zolt's forehead. Ronen watched it with his own eyes and yet he could hardly believe that it was so simple, that someone's bending could be snuffed out so easily.
Amon was not finished with his display either, and the next Triple Threat member was shoved across the stage to meet his fate.
Mako, Ronen, and Korra thought up a plan then and sprang into action. Mako remained in the crowd but began edging closer to the stage, preparing to grab Bolin, while Ronen and Korra headed in another direction, set on destroying some pipes to let out enough steam to cause a distraction.
However, just as Ronen and Korra were shuffling through the crowd, there was a delighted whisper of, "Ronen! There you are!"
Ronen recognized the voice and immediately whispered to Korra, "Keep going! Go! I'll catch up!"
And then, without waiting to see if she would comply, Ronen whirled around with a forced smile to face Asuka. "There you are!" he gasped, feeling out of breath for some reason. "I've been looking for you."
"I didn't think you'd show," Asuka admitted as she sidled up next to him. She could barely look at him though, gaze riveted to the scene playing out on the stage. Her eyes were wide and bright and she was smiling with satisfaction when all Ronen could feel was disgust. "Can you believe this?" she said distractedly. "I never thought… I mean, this is amazing! Amon is incredible."
Ronen bit down on his tongue to stifle his instinctive response. Nevertheless, he was still a bit aggravated as he replied, "I thought you said you guys didn't want to hurt anyone."
Asuka seemed too enthralled to look at him or notice his discontent. "This isn't suffering," she murmured. "This is justice."
Ronen shook his head, but said no more. It didn't seem wise to argue when surrounded by enemies. He couldn't have bending taken away from him, but he could be used to lure his loved ones into a trap of their own demise, and he wasn't about to let that happen. He only hoped that Korra could manage with the pipes without him. Even with how distracted she was, Ronen didn't think he was getting away from Asuka that easily.
He was sure that Korra could handle it, but it was taking a while, and Ronen was getting antsy the longer he had to watch Amon take people's bending. It was down to just Bolin before the pipes finally exploded with a loud clang, and a hundred screams rang through the building as hot steam began to billow into the crowded room and obscure everyone's sight.
Asuka shrieked and grabbed onto Ronen's arm with both hands, knocking into him so quickly he nearly lost his footing. He had to pry her crushing fingers off of him to even turn his body in the direction of the exit, and he forced her in front of him, shouting into her ear above the din of noise, "GO, GO, GO! I'M RIGHT BEHIND YOU!"
Ronen shoved Asuka forward, took two steps with her, and as soon as she disappeared into the fog, he spun on his heel and began fighting his way back through the crowd, which was rushing straight in the opposite direction from which he wanted to go. He was knocked into and nearly bowled over several times before he reached the stage, but managed to get a hand into the small satchel on his back and wrench out the boomerang his Great Uncle Sokka had gifted to him years ago. Ronen could still see the faint outline of Amon up on stage, and threw the boomerang with all the force he could manage while still fighting against the crowd.
But Amon seemed to sense it coming, turning his head just as the boomerang came hurtling at his head, and taking a step back to avoid it. Ronen was just paces away from the edge of the stage then, and he swore that Amon locked eyes with him somehow from behind that mask, but in less than a second it was over, and Amon was disappearing into the steam.
Ronen clambered up onto the stage, caught his boomerang as it came sailing back to him, and then ran over to where Mako was just saving Bolin from one of the masked Equalists.
The three boys ran out one of the back doors, but were quickly stopped by one of Amon's henchman, who, rather than just using chi-blocking, had two metal rods that sent currents of electricity into anyone that got too close. Without bending, all Ronen could manage was to evade the attacks, ducking and weaving and hissing every time one of the electric rods came too close. He tried to get in a few jabs, but when his opponent was using electricity to block his attacks, Ronen could not sustain it for long.
When the Equalist jabbed Ronen with one of the rods, he couldn't help the scream that escaped him as electricity burned its way across every nerve in his body. He dropped like a sack of potatoes, still convulsing, tears coming to his eyes and the sickening stench of burnt flesh filling his nostrils. He curled up and gritted his teeth, remaining there on the ground until the initial shock had subsided. He had never been electrocuted before, and he never wanted to be again. But he thought the voltage might not have been high enough to truly damage him, or perhaps adrenaline was sustaining him, because he managed to get back up onto his feet in time to see Korra show up to save them. Mako and Bolin had been felled as well, but Mako and Ronen were both able to jump onto Naga's back with Korra, and Bolin was picked up by the back of his shirt as the polar bear dog began its run to safety.
The Equalists did not pursue them for some reason, but Ronen did not relax until he finally stepped foot onto Air Temple Island once more. He and Korra had taken Mako and Bolin home first, and made sure that both of them were all right before they returned to their own home.
Ronen and Korra were quiet as they crossed the bay, both of them tired and lost in their own thoughts, and Ronen could tell that Korra had been shaken by Amon. He had been too.
They trudged up the slope towards the main house, and found Ronen's parents already outside and halfway to the docks, either somehow aware that Ronen and Korra had returned or on their way out to look for them. Ronen felt apprehension fill him again, thinking back to the phone call with his mother earlier, which seemed a lifetime ago now, of hanging up on her and disregarding her demands that he return home immediately. She had every right to be angry with him, but he was in no condition to fight her on it tonight. All he wanted was to crawl into his bed and sleep for the next twelve hours, if his dreams did not keep him awake anyway.
When Ronen saw his parents coming towards him, he could tell that his mother was furious as she stormed over to them, while his father was exclaiming a relieved, "Thank goodness!"
Tenzin stopped before Ronen and Korra, a hand on Korra's shoulder and his gaze flickering between the two teens. Lin was a pace behind, but she didn't stop at Tenzin's side. Instead, she crashed straight into Ronen, and it took him half a second to realize that she was trying to hug him and not strangle him. Her arms were tight around his shoulders, and he winced a little as she squeezed his sore muscles, but he melted into the embrace with some relief. After everything that had transpired that evening, after all that he had seen, he almost felt like crying at the sheer amount of comfort that he was able to derive from his mother's arms around him. He hugged her back with a fervor, and he was glad that she was not wearing her metal armor so that he could feel her warmth and that familiar smell that was uniquely her.
The embrace did not last long, however, and when Lin stepped back, she did not seem able to look Ronen in the eye, a scowl etched into her face. She turned her attention onto Tenzin as he said to Korra and Ronen, "We were just thinking about sending out a search party. Are you two all right?"
Ronen looked at Korra, who dropped her solemn gaze to the ground and shook her head.
"Korra," Tenzin coaxed in a soothing tone. "What happened? Did you find your friend?"
"Yes, but…" Korra hesitated, looking at Ronen, who nodded minutely. They would have to tell his parents what they knew, regardless of whatever sort of trouble he might be in for. "We…were at an Equalist rally. We saw Amon."
"What?" Lin and Tenzin seemed to gasp as one, though Tenzin's was not nearly as harsh.
"He can take people's bending away," Korra hastily continued. "For good."
Tenzin reeled back, disbelieving, and Lin was glaring, though Ronen could tell her displeasure was more for Amon than Korra.
"Th – that, that's impossible," Tenzin stammered. "Only the Avatar has ever possessed that ability."
"But I saw him do it," Korra said.
"It's true, Dad," Ronen added. "He did it to four different benders. He would have done it to Bolin if we hadn't intervened."
Tenzin looked between Korra and Ronen's grim faces and acquiesced, "I believe you."
"Did Amon see you?" Lin demanded, looking more at Ronen. "Did he know it was you two that stopped him?"
"I don't think so," Korra answered.
"The room was filled with steam," Ronen added. "I doubt he could have known it was us." But the henchman that had electrocuted him had seen them both clearly and there was little doubt that he would tell his leader immediately.
Tenzin and Lin looked to one another at the same time, and it was as if they were having a silent discussion between the two of them. "I don't know how Amon has achieved this power," Tenzin began to say.
"But this changes things," Lin finished. "This revolution is more dangerous than we could have imagined."
"No bender is safe," Tenzin concurred.
Lin sighed wearily, and suddenly Ronen noticed how…well, old, his mother looked. Her hair had been graying for years, but now that he looked there was no trace of the dark color it had been only a year or so ago. There were dark circles under her eyes, which he knew had to have come from the fact that she barely got a good night's rest those days. He knew that she was still strong and resilient as ever – she still knocked him flat every time they sparred, rare though that was – but he could see the affect that the Equalist revolution was having on her.
Lin's focus suddenly snapped back onto Ronen and Korra. "It's late. You two should be getting to bed."
Ronen and Korra both nodded without complaint, but neither of them moved.
Korra said, "I know you're probably mad that Ronen left with me, but he was a lot of help tonight. I don't know if we could have found Bolin without him. So…maybe take it easy on him?"
"Go to bed, kid," Lin advised, not as harsh as Ronen would have expected.
Korra looked over at Ronen, who inclined his head, assuring her nonverbally that he was fine. She gripped his shoulder and tried to force a small, tired smile, but he could tell there was too much on her mind for her to make it genuine.
"I'll see you in the morning," he told her, briefly squeezing her hand as she dropped it from his shoulder. He wanted to thank her for probably saving his life earlier in the evening, but he held it in for now. He would talk to her when the exhaustion and concern had worn off some, when they weren't being watched by his parents.
Korra nodded and then she began to wander away, in the direction of her room. Ronen remained rooted to the spot, certain that his parents weren't going to let him off that easily.
Lin eyed him for a few moments before muttering, "Lectures and grounding clearly had no affect on you, so I'm not going to waste my breath. You know how I feel about all this, about what you've been doing."
"I do," Ronen replied, carefully, quietly. "And you know that I cannot stop, especially not now, not when I know what could happen if we don't all work together to make sure Amon is stopped. But I don't want it to be like this. I don't want to go behind your back or lie to you."
Lin and Tenzin looked at each other, but Ronen couldn't tell what they were thinking, he never could. It was something only the two of them understood.
"It's late," Lin repeated, sounding resigned. "You should get some rest."
It wasn't the fight Ronen had been expecting and it threw him off balance for a moment. He should have been grateful, but his mother's pointed silence only made him feel worse.
"Okay," he murmured, shuffling past them in the direction of the house, glad, at least, that he could crawl into bed very soon.
As he was leaving his parents behind, he faintly heard his mother saying, "I need to go into headquarters."
"Now?" his father questioned, sounding disheartened. "It's late, and you only just got home a few hours ago. You haven't eaten or slept –"
"This can't wait," Lin persisted. "This is no longer just a protest in the park or a turf war between triads. Amon is getting bolder, and if his idea of equality is taking away everyone's bending, then my officers need to know what they're up against, and I need to figure out how to stop him before he makes Korra or you or the twins targets."
Ronen couldn't make out his father's response, but his mother's grim determination sent a chill through him. He knew, now, some of what she would do to ensure that Amon never came near her family, because he was feeling the same way. His family and his friends were the most important people in his life and, much like his mother, he wouldn't rest until Amon was stopped.
There were some days, when Lin would fall asleep in the chair behind her desk at work, and she would dream of happier times. Of times when the city was not such a disaster, not on the precipice of a civil war, when she was not pulling such long hours or stressing over whether or not her officers could handle the threat they faced. Of times when her children were little, old enough to walk and talk, but still loyally glued to her side, when they ran to greet her at the door every day when she came home instead of sneaking out of the house or skipping school. Of times when she could spend her moments with her husband being happy and in love, ensconced in his embrace, when they didn't have to spend their few precious minutes together discussing work and the revolution and whatever insane thing was going on with their kids that day that they had missed because they were working.
Lin dreamed of those peaceful times and she yearned to take them back, to go back in time and relive it all. Instead, she woke every time with a crick in her neck and an ache in her back, her whole body numb and contorted. She woke to reality, where the Equalist revolution was not simply going to go away and her kids were just getting older. Once awake, she no longer indulged herself in such fanciful daydreams, did not even allow herself to linger on the dreams of the past, but went straight back to work as if she had never slept in the first place.
When she got to go home to sleep in her own bed, her dreams, rare though they were, were vastly different. There she dreamt of suffering and loss, of a future that she feared she could not stop. Of the Equalists succeeding in their mission to take control of the city, of Amon capturing her family and taking their bending, of failing her mother and Aang so spectacularly that the city fell to ruin and the airbending race was extinguished.
Those dreams, Lin could not so easily ignore. Those dreams stuck with her everyday and only made her more determined than ever to take control of the situation, to take down Amon and end the revolution before too many came to harm.
Doing so, however, came at a price. The more focus she placed on work and the Equalists, the less time she had to be at home with her kids and with Tenzin. She kept telling herself that she would have all the time in the world to be with them once the revolution had been snuffed out, but she could recognize the fallibility of that way of thinking. She had used that excuse to delay having children with Tenzin all those years ago, and though everything had turned out all right in the end, she had almost lost him because she had placed more importance on trying to make the city a safer place. She should have learned by now that it was never that simple, but what else could she do? If she left the fate of the city to chance and did nothing more than the bare minimum, wouldn't it be partially her fault if the Equalists took control of the city?
Nevertheless, the desire to take her family and run only grew with time. Especially when she came home one morning around breakfast time and discovered that Ronen had been suspended from school for the past two days and she hadn't even known.
"I was attacked by a waterbender and I was defending myself," Ronen had explained.
"I thought I told you," Tenzin had defended, looking genuinely confused. "You weren't here the day they called me, but yesterday…I know I told you."
"I know that you didn't," Lin had countered. "Why did I not know this?"
And then Yunjin had muttered, "It's not like you're ever here to notice."
That comment alone had cut Lin to the core, and she had not seen fit to speak further. Had sat at the breakfast table, unresponsive, for a long time. The kids ate and Nira came to pick up Jeia and take the twins to school, the twins that were still barely speaking to one another. Ronen excused himself to go do some homework he'd been assigned while he was out of school, and Korra was supposedly in the city for her early morning pro-bending practice, but Lin was pretty certain she'd seen the girl hiding by the docks.
Tenzin was supposed to be leaving for work, but he scooted closer to Lin's side, reaching out to place a hand over top of hers. "He didn't mean it, love," he murmured softly.
Lin snorted, gaze focused resolutely on the plate of half eaten food in front of her. "Yes he did."
"No, he's just upset about his fight with Sora and he's projecting –"
"He's right," Lin interrupted. "I haven't been here."
"There's a lot happening," Tenzin reasoned. "He knows that. He'll understand."
Lin shook her head. "No, he won't. Believe me, if there's one thing a kid never forgets, it's neglect. I loved my mother, but I hated her for never being there, and now I'm doing the same thing. This is what I always feared. That I would turn into her. That I would give them reason to resent me."
Tenzin suddenly took hold of her chin, turning her face so that she would look at him, and his expression was stern as he told her, "That is absolutely not true. Those kids love you more than anything else in this world. We're all going through a tough time right now, but it will pass. You won't be working like this forever."
"Maybe," Lin conceded, "but what about when the next revolution comes up? And the one after that? How many times will I choose my job over them under this pretense of making the world a safer place?"
"But you are," Tenzin insisted. "How many others could do what you do? Who else is capable of keeping the city together as you've done all these years? I know you're frustrated right now, and the kids are too, but they know as well as us that Amon must be stopped."
"And if I can't stop him?" Lin muttered, voice a near whisper, fearful of admitting it out loud.
Tenzin did not immediately answer, instead pulled her into his arms and crushed her against his chest, one arm wrapped the whole way around her waist and his other hand curling into her hair. She allowed herself to lean into him, muscles still tense, burying her face in his neck and inhaling deeply, thinking idly that she probably reeked from being in her metal armor all night, but he didn't complain. He never would. So she let him comfort her because she was too tired to protest. She was just so tired.
"Maybe we should just run away," she mumbled against his neck. "We'll take the kids and Korra, and Nira if she wants to come. We'll find somewhere secluded and you can teach Korra airbending and I'll finally figure out how to get Jeia to learn earthbending."
"Where would we go?" Tenzin inquired, indulging her in her fantasy as he stroked her hair.
Lin shrugged. "Anywhere," she said. "Everywhere. Why settle on one place? We'll go to each of the air temples at some point, swing by the South Pole to see your mother. Su has been badgering me to move to Zaofu, we could stay there for a little while. Then go to my grandparents' place in Gaoling, we haven't been there in forever. There's a lot of the Earth Kingdom I've never even seen. There's the Fire Nation too, I'm sure Zuko would be happy to have us."
"I'm sure he would," Tenzin concurred. "It sounds lovely. You know there's nothing I'd rather do than spend everyday with you and the children and Korra, traveling together, discovering the wonders of the world as a family, being free of our tethers to this place."
"But…"
Tenzin sighed, his regret palpable. "But, we cannot simply leave. The children are in school and Korra has just begun to settle in. Then, of course, there is the threat of Amon, which I would be happy to pass on to others, but I'm afraid that if we were to leave then the problem would only catch up to us later."
Lin knew all of that, but it didn't make it any easier to swallow.
"Maybe someday," she murmured, even though she had no delusions that that day would ever come.
"Definitely," Tenzin asserted. "We will. I promise you."
Lin wasn't sure if she believed him, but she hugged him harder all the same, turning her head to press her face against his shoulder in the vain hope that he wouldn't notice her tears.
When Lin arrived home from work the following evening to discover Tarrlok at her dinner table sucking up to Korra, she struggled not to drag the man by the ear the whole way down to the docks. He had looked surprised to see her, and clearly about as pleased as she was to see him, which was not even remotely. She had only managed to give him a single scowl and an irate, "What the hell are you doing here?" before he was making his excuses to leave, telling Korra, "you'll be hearing from me soon," to which Lin had snorted, "I don't think so."
According to Tenzin, Tarrlok had been there attempting to recruit Korra to his new task force, which the Council had voted into existence just that morning, overruling Tenzin's opposition to the idea. Lin was exasperated by the whole thing, particularly that she hadn't even been notified of its inception, considering she was the chief of police for spirit's sake, but frankly, she couldn't be bothered to care about whatever scheme Tarrlok had up his sleeve. She had more important things to worry about than his petty power plays.
However, she wasn't going to sit back and let him try to manipulate a teenage girl into something that she had already – surprisingly – said no to. Lin was as surprised as Tenzin that Korra had denied Tarrlok's request, but Lin could also sense that the young Avatar was still shaken up from seeing Amon only days before. Ronen was too, and Lin wished that they hadn't been there, but she was slowly beginning to accept that maybe they could handle themselves a little, and maybe it was a good thing they had been there to figure out some of Amon's plans. She hadn't bothered trying to force Ronen into being grounded again. Clearly it hadn't even worked the last time, so why bother? She had to admit that Tenzin was at least partially right. Forcing Ronen to obey would only push him away, and the kid was pretty good at taking care of himself. He had proven that much.
Lin had even started to warm up to Korra a little, but it was still a bit awkward between them. Mostly, Lin had just gotten used to the girl being around, and Korra seemed to be good for Ronen – when she wasn't dragging him into her escapades anyway – and the twins and Jeia were pretty fond of her too. Lin and Korra weren't exactly close, but they were comfortable occupying the same space now and Lin considered that enough. She didn't know whether or not she should try harder with the young Avatar. She still felt as though it wasn't her place to be involved in whatever Tenzin decided. He insisted that she had just as much right to have an opinion, but she didn't know the first thing about training a teenaged Avatar so she tended to keep her distance. However, Tarrlok's sudden interest in Korra made Lin waver, a sudden protectiveness coming out of her on Korra's behalf.
There was nothing that would convince Lin that Tarrlok was not a slimy, good for nothing weasel. She had hated him for years and the hatred only grew with time. She maintained her usual decorum when she was forced to be around him, because he was a member of the council and she needed the council's support in a lot of her work, but otherwise she was not eager to be in the same room as him or even hear his name spoken. When he started sending Korra extravagant gifts to try coercing her into joining his team, Lin had them all sent straight back before they even reached the girl, and eventually threatened the acolytes with expulsion from the Island if they let a single one of Tarrlok's ridiculous gifts onto the Island, and that included his nasally secretary.
Tarrlok's response to Lin's buffering was to invite Lin, Tenzin, their family, and Korra to a gala in the Avatar's honor. A gala they could not refuse to attend without making their division obvious. And in a time of near civil war, it was not a good idea to show even a hint of weakness in the governmental structure, nor was it possible for Lin and Tenzin to make excuses not to attend such a public event without stepping on the toes of all the influential people in the city. While normally Lin wouldn't care about that at all, she knew better than to ostracize the people that indirectly controlled a lot of what she was allowed to do, not to mention her budget and, by extension, her own salary. She wasn't naïve enough to believe that the majority of the council was not swayed by whoever lined their pockets. And Tenzin had no choice but to play nice if he ever wanted to be taken seriously in politics. It was a vile game that Lin hated to play, but a necessary one.
So she and Tenzin dressed the kids in their finest clothes and demanded they be on their best behavior. No pranks, no sarcastic remarks, no telling rich old people that they smelled funny. The one good thing to come from the whole fiasco was that Sora finally appeared to be excited about something again. She loved to dress up, and was happy to take on the task of coordinating her family's outfits as well, including Korra's – though Sora was displeased that Lin insisted on wearing her armor. The boys didn't mind Sora's nitpicking and Korra almost seemed delighted by it, but Jeia threw a fit and refused to wear the dress Sora and Tenzin had picked out for her. It took so long to calm Jeia down and get her into a presentable outfit she found acceptable that they were some of the last people to arrive at the gala.
Korra entered first, eyes alight with wonder at the expansive party, Ronen on one side and Sora on the other. Yunjin stayed back a step, but eventually went to his brother's side, still mostly avoiding Sora. The twins were almost on speaking terms, but they still weren't as close as they had been since birth – or before, for that matter. Jeia hated large gatherings of people and had latched herself onto her mother's hip and refused to be let down.
Shortly after arriving, before the family went their separate ways, Tarrlok tried to usher Korra off, but if he thought it'd be that easy he was sorely mistaken. Sora backed off when Tarrlok squeezed his way in between her and Korra, but Ronen remained resolutely by his friend's side, giving Tarrlok a dirty look that the older man either didn't notice or completely ignored. Yunjin, too, was the most protective kid Lin had had, and though he was probably a bit young to understand the politics or the real reason his mother despised Tarrlok, he still tracked Tarrlok's every move as if waiting for the man to lash out. Lin and Tenzin stayed back to see how Korra handled herself without them, but stayed close enough in case they felt the need to intervene. Lin was on high alert, just waiting to see what kind of scam Tarrlok was going to pull.
He introduced Korra to Hiroshi Sato first, a man that Lin had little opinion on. She hadn't had to deal with him much and he didn't ask for favors so she liked him for that at least. He seemed genuine enough, but Lin didn't know him well. Korra seemed pleased to meet him, at least, until his daughter showed up and joined the conversation, hanging off of the arm of one of the pro-bending boys, Mako.
Asami Sato had delightedly greeted Korra, but the Avatar had been standoffish from the beginning. And when Ronen blushed a little at Asami's kind greeting, Korra had possessively latched onto Ronen's arm. Even the news that Hiroshi was sponsoring the Fire Ferret's so that they could play in the pro-bending tournament didn't cheer the girl up, and Lin had to walk away to escape the teenage drama she wanted nothing to do with.
As she was forcing herself to mingle, Lin found it incredibly difficult to scare people away with her usual scowl while she had a toddler on her hip and Sora attached to her side. For some reason, people seemed to take it as an invitation to talk to her, as if using the girls as a buffer in the hopes that Jeia and Sora would make the unapproachable Chief more amicable. If they thought Lin would just roll over and relent to their ridiculous requests just because her daughters were there, they were sorely mistaken. She tried seeking out the few people she could stand to be around and avoided the ones that always had some cousin or other that was "a really good kid that just got mixed in with the wrong crowd." Lin didn't trust people that asked her for favors like that, and while she couldn't simply tell them to screw off, she wasn't going to kiss their asses either. Most had learned not to bother asking by that point, others would ask it of Tenzin, as if he had control over who his wife released from prison, and some were just stupidly bold. But Sora was a people pleaser, and chatty, and Lin was content to let the girl talk people's ears off until they all but ran away.
Tarrlok's scheme became clear around the end of the gala. Lin had just begun to think that maybe Tarrlok was saving his plans for another day when he shoved Korra straight into a crowd of reporters. The girl was obviously unprepared and totally clueless about what to say or do. She was training to be an airbender, not a politician, and considering she'd had about one interaction with the press, she wasn't at all well versed in the art of avoiding pointed questions. Lin could do nothing but seethe silently and uncomfortably watch the train wreck happen as Korra was backed into a corner by the unrelenting journalists demanding why she wasn't doing more to stop Amon. Until, as predicted, Korra snapped and finally relented in her frustration to join Tarrlok's task force.
Tarrlok had been obnoxiously gleeful, smiling wickedly for the cameras, and something had come over Lin that could not be stopped. Tenzin was not around to make her see reason, and so Lin had nothing to stand in her way. She passed Jeia off to Sora and simply said, "Watch your sister."
"Where are you going?" Sora spluttered, struggling to hold onto Jeia as she stumbled after her mother for a few steps, but Lin's strides were long and sure and Sora was forced to give up.
Tarrlok abandoned Korra to make his leave, and it was just as he was about to slip out of a back door that Lin cornered him, hand slamming down onto the door to stop it from opening any further.
Lin was snarling, but Tarrlok was not alarmed, smiling benignly as he slowly retracted his hand from the door knob, unperturbed that Lin's outstretched arm and the wall behind him was effectively trapping him in. "Chief Beifong," he said in that rich, fake voice. "Did you need something? I'm afraid I was just about to leave. If you have business with the council you know you must bring it to –"
"Cut the garbage," Lin snapped, curling her hand into a tight fist to stop herself from hitting him right in that smug face. "That crap you just pulled? That was low, even for you. I don't know what you think you're going to accomplish, but I can assure you –"
"Chief, please," Tarrlok interjected, frown marring his features, even though he was clearly trying to hold back a smirk. "I have no idea what you are referring to. Listen, it is getting rather late. I'm sure you've had a very trying day, what with all your hard work on the police force and trying to keep track of all those children. Why don't we have this discussion when you're not so…tired?"
Lin snorted, but it came out harsh, and the smile she flashed him was not even remotely amused. She took a step closer to further invade his personal space, her face so close to Tarrlok's she could see the little bit of makeup he thought nobody noticed him wearing and smell his reeking cologne. "Funny you mention my kids," she said in a low, menacing tone. "'Cause, you see, I'd do just about anything for those kids, and that extends to Korra now, since she's pretty much family, and maybe you don't know, because you haven't got a clue what it's like to have a family, but I'm gonna go ahead and give you fair warning. You come for my kids, you come for me, and I don't think you want me on your bad side. That little stunt you just pulled? That was strike one."
Something turned dark in Tarrlok's eyes when she mentioned his lack of family, and his glee finally seemed to fade into a scowl as he asked, "Is that a threat, Chief Beifong?"
Lin took a step back and feigned ignorance. "Of course not, Councilor. I would never do anything to jeopardize our professional relationship. Would you?"
"If I were you, I would watch how you speak to me," Tarrlok warned, eyes narrowed. Apparently she had struck a nerve, which really only served to amuse her. "You might be able to get away with that sort of attitude with your weak-kneed husband, but you'll show me some more respect. You seem to be forgetting who controls your paycheck."
"And you seem to be forgetting that you're in the middle of a revolution," Lin countered, biting back her instinctive reaction to Tarrlok's jab at her husband. She didn't need to defend Tenzin's honor to a sleaze ball like Tarrlok. "You might have yourself a pretty little task force to throw a few extra punches at the Equalists, but alienating the entire police force isn't exactly in your best interests."
"You think they'll choose you over a paycheck?" Tarrlok snorted. "My, my, Mrs. Beifong, you've got quite the ego."
"Unlike politicians, police are little more loyal to the people that they trust, and your empty threats don't scare us. You can't take away our pay without starting another revolution. So you do whatever you gotta do to make yourself feel like a man, but you leave my family and my officers out of it."
Tarrlok's nostrils flared and his lips pursed. He grabbed the doorknob again in a crushing grip, stepping into Lin's space as he yanked it open, and she let him this time, but did not back down from his attempt at intimidation. On his way out, he muttered, almost off-handedly, "I suppose, if you insist on being difficult, perhaps I'll have to find a Chief that is more suited to the position."
Lin only smiled with an unperturbed, "Don't threaten me with a good time, Councilor."
Tarrlok sneered at her before slamming the door in her face, and the moment he was gone her easy smile dropped back into a scowl. She really hated that man.
Chapter 47: Chapter 47
Chapter Text
Chapter 47
Korra spent nearly everyday of the following week striking Equalist hideouts with Tarrlok's task force. She begged off all other responsibilities, whether it be chores around the island, learning airbending with Tenzin, or even practicing pro-bending with her teammates. The girl was intent on proving that she was not afraid of Amon, that she was a capable Avatar that would save the citizens of Republic City that grew more fearful of the Equalists everyday.
It all culminated in Korra challenging Amon to a duel between just the two of them. Both Lin and Tenzin were adamantly against it, but the girl wasn't listening to anyone, not even Ronen's desperate pleas for her to reconsider. The girl was too headstrong and stubborn and she took off for Aang Memorial Island all on her own. The police were on standby – which Lin had already planned before Tarrlok started throwing out demands at her as if he ran the police force – but it would make little difference if Amon managed to get the upper hand on Korra. Tenzin could do nothing but pace fearfully and watch the island with a fierce, unwavering gaze.
Predictably, Amon showed up with several Equalists and ambushed Korra before disappearing into the night, and Tenzin was the first one to race to the girl's aid. He had been relieved to find that Amon had only threatened her rather than taken her bending, but dismayed to see how distraught Korra was. He had known that she was holding in her true feelings on the situation, and they all came rushing out in that moment between just the two of them. Korra broke down and wept, finally admitting to her fear, and Tenzin held her and soothed her.
That evening, Tenzin admitted to Lin that he too was feeling an overwhelming sense of fear; for her, for their children, for Korra, and for the city as a whole. He feared, as Lin did, that Amon's reach would extend so far that they might very well lose. It seemed almost unthinkable, considering what would happen if the revolution swung in the Equalists' favor. Lin could not fathom what she might do if Amon took her family's bending, if he took hers. But it was only in those quiet moments alone that Lin and Tenzin could allow their fears a voice, because at work and with the children they had to be strong.
Once freed of the burden of her own fears, Korra was not so determined to be a part of Tarrlok's task force, and she told the unhappy councilman that she would be taking a leave of absence to focus on pro-bending. The first match of the tournament was only days away, and Korra spent every last one of them at practice with Mako and Bolin – and, occasionally, with Ronen, who liked to come to watch them practice when he got out of school. Lin was allowing it so long as Ronen checked in now and then and didn't simply run off without telling anyone where he was going. The boy was only too happy to comply if it meant he got to be with his friends.
However, a rift began to form between the four of them in typical teenage fashion. Lin missed part of the drama, because she really couldn't be bothered to care about it, but she somehow managed to get wrapped up in it anyway.
Apparently, Bolin had feelings for Korra, but Korra had feelings for Mako, but Mako was with Asami Sato. Ronen, meanwhile, was torn between trying to ensure Korra didn't do something stupid while also trying to be supportive of her wishes. The only reason Lin knew any of that was because she had asked Ronen how his day went and had been treated to a long winded rant about how ridiculous his friends were being, and how he didn't understand why they were so obsessed with being in a relationship anyway and why couldn't they all just be friends? He was worried that they would all end up on opposing sides if they weren't careful.
Lin hadn't had much wisdom to pass onto Ronen, considering she had been in exactly one serious relationship in her life and had not done much dating beyond that. She also hadn't had a whole lot of drama herself in terms of friends and boyfriends, though she had heard a lot from all the drama Kya had caused when they were younger. Lin wasn't at all inclined to get involved in the whole mess, and told Ronen as much, suggesting that the boy go to his father or maybe Sora if he wanted advice, but Ronen had said that simply getting it off his chest was helpful enough.
Lin had been satisfied with that response and assumed that that was the end of her involvement.
But then, of course, somehow Ronen and Korra's drama intertwined with Sora and Yunjin's, and Lin was unlucky enough to arrive home just in time to step right into the middle of it.
The kids were all gathered outside, except for Jeia Rai, who Lin assumed was inside with Nira, safe from the cold and the light bit of snowfall that had started halfway through Lin's journey across the Bay. Ronen was bundled up and sitting cross-legged inside the pavilion, his focus entirely on some sort of book or manual that was splayed out on the floor before him as he tinkered with some hand held contraption he must have put together himself. Sora was hovering nearby, perched up on one of the pavilion ledges and scribbling into a journal, throwing her older brother surreptitious glances, clearly intrigued by whatever he was doing but not wanting to interrupt. Yunjin and Korra were only a few meters more away, helping one another fill a hovering feeder with apples and pears for the winged lemurs.
Lin strode over to the pavilion first, poking her head in to better see the two kids inside just as Sora delightedly said, "Mama! You're home early."
Sora scrambled off of her perch with a bright smile, hastily stuffing her journal into the deep pocket of her outer cloak before surprising Lin with a hug. The kids didn't greet her with hugs much anymore, not since they had gotten older, but it was a welcome embrace and Lin decided not to think too much into it. Sora had been struggling over the last year or so as the dreaded teen years edged closer, and her moods and behaviors shifted so frequently that Lin didn't even try to understand it. She simply adjusted to whatever mood Sora was in each day and took the changes in stride.
"Hey, Mom," Ronen greeted from his place on the floor, not sparing her a glance, too busy with his project to take his eyes off of it for even a second. "How was work?"
"Long," Lin answered shortly, tilting her head to try and get a better look at whatever Ronen was reading. It looked old, whatever it was, the pages frayed and crinkled, and it might have been written in a different language, but she couldn't be certain without a closer look. "What are you working on?"
"It's an interesting tool that was used by chi-blockers from centuries ago," Ronen said animatedly. "I'm trying to replicate it and see if I can get it to work."
"Oh?" Lin inquired. "And where did you find this old manual?"
"Lue sent it to me," Ronen explained. "She found it in her travels and, once she was finished with it, sent it to me. She says it's an ancient manuscript written by some of the first chi-blockers."
Ronen looked up at her then, excitement brightening his green eyes and a broad smile on his face. Lin wasn't sure she believed anything that Bumi's former wife said, but if it made Ronen happy she'd go along with it.
"Just be careful," Lin advised. "Don't go testing that stuff on your own. Who knows what crazy contraption that thing is meant to be."
Ronen nodded sagely, but Lin knew he'd probably ignore her warnings.
Lin put an arm over Sora's shoulders as the girl pressed up against her side, and Ronen refocused his attention onto his tinkering.
Lin's ears perked up at the sudden sharp sound of Korra making a sound halfway between a laugh and a scoff, and she turned her head just enough to see what Korra and Jin were up to.
"You're crazy," Korra was telling Yunjin, making an obvious effort not to meet the younger boy's eye. "I mean, it's not like I'm interested in Mako, or any of that romantic stuff. Besides, he's all into that prissy, beautiful, elegant rich girl." Lin wasn't sure if the young Avatar was trying to insult the Sato girl or not, but the kid needed to work on her wording if she was.
Either way, Lin would have been happy to never know, but Yunjin persisted, "Oh, come on. Every time that guy shows up you go all starry eyed. I don't know why, because obviously you'd be better suited for a guy like me, but…"
Jin gave Korra a wink, which made the older girl laugh and shake her head in amusement.
Ronen and Sora had overheard the conversation too, and both of them snorted at their brother's ridiculous statement.
"Keep dreaming, Jin!" Ronen called over to his brother without looking up from his manuscript.
"Don't underestimate me, Ro!" Yunjin shouted back. "Give me a couple years… Anyways," he said, turning his attention back onto Korra, "let's just say, hypothetically, that you've got feelings for Mako."
"Okay," Korra said slowly, warily, fiddling with her fingers and looking uncertain. "If I was into him…then what? I mean, what could I do about it?"
"What do you do about it?" Yunjin exclaimed. "You're the Avatar! You can do whatever you want. You tell that guy how you really feel and he won't have a choice but to fall into your waiting arms!"
Sora suddenly jerked out of her mother's embrace with an irritated huff, stomping over to Korra and Yunjin to snap at her brother, "Don't tell her that! She can't just demand that Mako date her. What about Asami?"
"I humbly accept the responsibility of giving Miss Sato a shoulder to cry on," Yunjin joked.
But Sora was not in a joking mood. She scoffed. "You're an idiot. You could be breaking up true love by intervening in Mako and Asami's relationship. It's no wonder you and Jinora like each other, neither of you has any consideration for others, you must be such a happy, ignorant couple."
Yunjin went very quiet, which was unusual for him, and he crossed his arms protectively, dropping his gaze to the ground and looking embarrassed as he murmured, "I'm not dating Jinora."
"You definitely won't be once she realizes what a jerk you are," Sora spat.
Lin strode over to the three kids quickly and interjected herself between the twins, frowning at Sora as she said, "That's enough. I don't know what's gotten into you, Sora, but you don't talk to your brother like that. Apologize to Yunjin."
Sora looked appalled. "Apologize to him?" she exclaimed. "He's the one that –"
"Now," Lin demanded.
Sora exhaled loudly through her nose before rolling her eyes and muttering an unconvincing, "Sorry."
"Try again," Lin said staunchly, folding her arms over her chest.
Sora glared at her mother for a few seconds, but Lin was undeterred, and eventually Sora sucked in a deep breath, looked straight at her twin brother and, in a forced measure of calm, amended, "I'm sorry."
Yunjin shrugged, still avoiding Sora's gaze, and Lin had had just about enough of whatever feud was going on between them. Jin and Sora were always butting heads, but they also used to be incredibly close. Their twin bond had been something of a wonder to Lin, and she had enjoyed watching them communicate as if they shared one mind. Now, though, things were so strained that they mostly only spoke to bicker.
"I'm sorry too," Korra piped up, looking as though she felt out of place even though everyone had accepted her into the family by now. "I didn't mean to cause problems."
"I think this is something that's been brewing for a while," Lin said gruffly, looking between the twins with narrowed eyes before settling her gaze onto Korra. "It isn't your fault." Korra still looked unhappy, clearly about more than just Jin and Sora's fight, and Lin took pity on the girl. "Listen, kid, you want some advice about relationships?"
Korra's discomfort only seemed to rise and her cheeks turned pink as she hastily said, "Oh, you don't have to –"
"Maybe I don't," Lin conceded, interrupting so as to get the whole thing over with as quickly as possible. She wasn't anymore comfortable about it than Korra. "But I just want you to know that you don't have to grovel for anybody. If this Mako is interested in you, then let him come to you. Besides that, he is in a relationship, and regardless of how you might feel about him, it isn't your place to intervene. It isn't fair to the Sato girl, and you don't want to be the reason they split up."
Korra nodded glumly. "Yeah," she said, "you're right."
Lin sighed, scratching the back of her neck and wondering when her motherly duties had expanded to include dating advice. "Look, kid, I know it's not the hopeful answer you were looking for, but it doesn't mean you haven't got a chance. Tenzin and I were best friends our whole lives but even we didn't get together until we were in our twenties, and now look at us. You've got your whole life to worry about dating and Mako's the first guy you've really been interested in, doesn't mean he's the one."
Korra's lips turned up just slightly, almost into a smile as she sheepishly said, "Thanks, Chief. You're probably right."
"I'm always right," Lin teased. "Now, you kids go get cleaned up for dinner."
"Are you cooking tonight?" Yunjin asked hopefully, and when Lin nodded in confirmation, he and Korra both whooped in delight and went together to the main house.
Sora went to follow, more subdued, but Lin gripped her shoulder to stop her and said, "Not you."
Sora sighed but went still.
Lin turned to look over at Ronen, giving him a meaningful look until he hastily gathered up his things and went after his brother and Korra.
Once they were alone, Lin rounded on Sora and said, "All right, no more giving you space. I need to know what's going on that's got you acting like this. So spill it. What happened between you and Jinora?"
Sora kept her gaze riveted to the ground, her arms crossed as she dug the toe of her shoe into the snow flecked ground. "It doesn't matter," she murmured, so low that Lin had to lean in and strain to hear her.
"Clearly it matters to you," Lin pointed out. "So tell me. Whatever it is, I won't be mad at you. Statute of limitations, right? If you were doing something you weren't supposed to I'll give you a pass, just so long as you're honest with me."
"I wasn't doing anything bad, not really," Sora mumbled. "It's just…I don't want to say."
Lin bent down slightly to better meet Sora's averted gaze, lowering her own voice and calmly inquiring, "Why don't you want to say? Are you worried I'll be upset, or is it something embarrassing?"
Sora shrugged, glancing at her mother as she admitted, "I don't want you to be upset."
Lin sighed a little. "Sora, whatever it is, you don't have to worry about what I think. I'll be more upset if you don't tell me."
Sora heaved in a deep breath, squeezing her hands together so tight that her knuckles turned white, and then, with her head turned down so far her chin was practically against her chest, she muttered, "I know why you and Jinora's mom don't like each other."
Lin jolted slightly, frowning in surprise, having not expected that to be the answer. She took a few moments to let Sora's words sink in before she asked with some trepidation, "What do you mean you know? What do you know exactly?"
Sora shifted uncomfortably, and Lin had the sinking feeling that the girl knew everything. And then, suddenly, Lin grew angry at the thought that Pema might have said something with Sora around, and she demanded, "Did Pema say something to you? Or did she tell Jinora and that's why you two fought?"
Sora shook her head, looking guiltily up at Lin. "I overheard Jinora's mom and dad talking about it…I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, I promise, but…I heard them saying something about you and then…"
Sora rubbed at her eyes, looking like she was trying to hold back tears, and Lin bit down on the inside of her cheek trying to quell her instinctive anger at Pema and Anil for having had such a conversation within close proximity of her daughter. She couldn't explode with rage though, not without further upsetting Sora, so she swallowed her frustrations and forced herself to remain calm.
Lin placed her hands on Sora's shoulders and squeezed lightly. "Tell me what they said, Sora."
Sora raced down the hallway searching for the bathroom. She sort of remembered where it was, but she had only been to Jinora's house once before and it had been several months since, and frankly, Sora didn't pay much attention, was too busy having fun with her best friend.
Jinora and her sister Ikki were waiting for Sora's return so that they could play dress up, and they had discussed roping Meelo into it as well, because Ikki thought it was funny to put her brother in dresses even if the boy vehemently protested every time. Sora was eager to get back, and so she made a wrong turn in her haste, but she recognized her mistake shortly after and spun back around in the direction she was almost certain would lead to the bathroom. However, before she could get there, she passed by Jinora's parents' room, and their door was ajar, and Sora overheard something that made her pause.
"…and Chief Beifong?" Jinora's dad was asking. "I can see that there's some kind of history there, that you aren't being entirely truthful with me. Whatever it is, you can tell me. I can see that it still bothers you."
Jinora's mom made a sort of sighing noise, and there was a squeaking sound like the springs of a mattress, and then she was saying, "It was all so long ago… I never told you because…well, it's a part of my life I sometimes would rather forget, and because…I don't want you to look at me differently."
"You know I won't," Anil said reassuringly. "I love you, Pema. Whatever you did before we met…it doesn't matter. I just don't like feeling like I'm missing something."
"I know, and I'm sorry, I guess…I guess now is as good a time as any to come clean…"
Pema took a long time to continue, and Sora thought that she should really go find the bathroom, that Jinora and Ikki were waiting, but she was frozen to the spot. She had noticed, too, that her mother and Pema clearly weren't fond of one another, but she didn't know why, and curiosity had gotten the better of her.
"I told you that my parents were Air Acolytes," Pema began to explain, "but what I didn't tell you was that I was too."
"You were an Acolyte?" Anil asked in surprise, as Sora fought to contain her own gasp. "On Air Temple Island?"
"Yes, my parents moved us there when I was very young, maybe four or five. We lived there until Mom got sick a few years later, and then we moved into the city, to be closer to the doctors. My father and I stayed for a while after she passed, but when I was seventeen I couldn't stand it anymore…you know how he was…and so I went back to the Island, alone, and began training as an Acolyte myself. Everything was such a mess in my life then, and the Acolytes were there for me, as was Tenzin. He was so helpful and caring and…we grew close. He was already married to Lin at the time, but their marriage was…well, we could all see that it was unstable. They fought all over the island, screaming in the middle of the night, snapping at each other in the corridors, throwing themselves into their work. He was so miserable with her, and when he was with me…we had a real connection. I guess part of me knew that it was still wrong, but I ended up falling in love with him. I kept it to myself, waiting, hoping, until one day I decided to take control of my own life for once and I confessed my feelings for him.
"As I'm sure you can guess, Tenzin turned me down. He felt he had an obligation to his wife and I understood that even if I could not totally accept it. Lin ended up pregnant shortly after, and he must have told her everything, or at least, what I said to him, so she hated me, threatened me at the party they had to announce the baby. But I loved the island and I still loved Tenzin even though I could not be with him and so I stayed for a while, up until Lin gave birth, and then…it was just too painful. I couldn't bear to see him with his family so I returned to the city. I hadn't seen Lin since then, not until Jinora ended up being friends with Tenzin's daughter of all people. I hadn't thought of her much either, to be honest. When we ran into her at the restaurant, I suppose all those old feelings came back, and I can tell she still loathes me. I try not to be too obvious, for Jinora, but it's difficult to be myself when Beifong is standing there scowling at me."
Sora felt suddenly sick to her stomach and she slumped against the wall in a state of surprise. Her palms were sweaty and her head was spinning. Jinora's mom had been in love with Sora's dad? But that couldn't be right. What about Sora's mom? Why would her dad get close to Pema when he was already married to her mom? It just didn't make any sense.
"Wow," Anil was saying in a hushed voice. "I would never have thought…you and Tenzin? It's no wonder you and Beifong don't get along. Does it bother you still? To see them together?"
"I suppose it does bring back painful memories," Pema admitted softly. "He was my first love, you never really forget that, but if he hadn't broken my heart I would never have found you."
Sora could not listen to anymore, but stumbled away down the hallway in a daze, back to Jinora's room, realizing belatedly that she hadn't even gone to the bathroom. Jinora smiled upon her return, and normally that smile sent a swoop of joy through Sora, but everything felt tainted now, and Sora struggled to maintain a sense of normalcy for the rest of the evening that she spent with Jinora and Ikki.
The discomfort in the pit of Lin's stomach only grew the longer Sora mumbled all that she had overheard. There was anger boiling too, just under the surface, but she tamped down on that for fear that Sora would misinterpret it as directed at her.
When Sora finished, she finally looked up at her mother, and her voice trembled as she asked, "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"Because I didn't want you to know," Lin said plainly. "It all happened so long ago, and it shouldn't affect your friendship with Jinora."
"But her mom tried to get Daddy to leave you!" Sora exclaimed in distress, grabbing at Lin's wrists and squeezing tight. "Why did Daddy do that to you? Why would he even talk to Pema? You were married."
Lin grimaced. "It wasn't like that, it…it was complicated –"
"He cheated on you, didn't he?" Sora spat in a harsh whisper, lurching back out of her mother's grasp, jumping to the worst possible conclusion.
Lin frowned and hastily shook her head, reaching out for Sora again, squeezing the girl's hands tightly in both of hers as understanding suddenly dawned on her. "Is that why you've been acting so strange lately? Sora, kid, listen to me, please. Look, your father did not, absolutely did not cheat on me. You hear me? Whatever you're thinking, it wasn't like that. Spirit's, you've been thinking that this entire time?"
Sora shrugged, looking uncertain now. "I…no...I didn't want to believe it…but how she said it…why else would she fall in love with him? Why else would you hate her so much? She said that...that you guys were always fighting."
"The way Pema tells it is all wrong. Your father was kind to her, like he is everyone, and she misconstrued it for something more. She fell in love with him, but he had no feelings for her. When Pema confessed her supposed love for him he told her no and he came home to me. And yeah, okay, so we fought a bit back then, but everyone fights sometimes. What matters is we sorted it out, and I knew even then that he would never do something like that to me. Do you really think I would have stayed with your father if he had?"
Sora bit down on her bottom lip, looking up at her mother with hopeful gray eyes that were so much like her father's, and she looked more and more like a female version of him everyday, and she had his heart too, his kind, fragile heart. She had no walls surrounding her emotions like her mother. She loved passionately with her whole being, without fear. It was one of the things that terrified Lin most when it came to her eldest daughter, because Sora's compassion was such that she was prone to heartbreak. Even the smallest things moved her to tears, sent her careening into a depressive state, and if there was one thing Lin did not know how to mend it was a broken heart.
It made Lin's own heart ache to know that Sora had been struggling on her own with the knowledge of a history she should never have known existed. It had been nearly a year since Sora had had a falling out with Jinora, and in all that time she had been too worried about her mother's feelings and her father's assumed transgressions to admit what was bothering her. It must have been torturous for the girl to carry such a burden that she could not even share with her brothers for fear of upsetting them too.
Lin placed a hand on either of Sora's cheeks, framing the girl's face to ensure that she held Lin's gaze and saying very firmly, "Sora, please don't ever keep something like this from us again. If I had known…" she shook her head with a sigh, "it doesn't matter now, but from now on I don't want you to worry about hurting my feelings, or your father's. If there's something that's really upsetting you then you have to tell us or else we can't help. I'm sorry that you had to hear what Pema said, but I promise you that it isn't at all like what you thought. You know your dad would never do anything to hurt us like that, right?"
Sora nodded mutely, lip quivering, tears finally spilling over onto her cheeks. Lin wiped the moisture with her thumbs and swallowed back the lump that formed in her own throat. Seeing her kids cry always made her feel like she'd been punched in the gut.
Unsure of what else to say, Lin pulled Sora against her chest and hugged her tight, letting the girl cling to her and regain control of herself while Lin stroked her hair.
When Sora pulled back with a loud sniffle, her tears had dried and she rubbed at her eyes before telling her mother, "I'm sorry. I should have asked, but I…I guess I didn't want to know if it really was true."
"Well you can rest easy now knowing that it's not," Lin soothed. "Is that why you and Jinora had a falling out?"
"Something like that," Sora mumbled. "After I heard her mom saying that stuff…it was hard to keep it a secret, especially from Jinora. She was my best friend and…" Sora sighed. "I told her what I had heard, we had different opinions and…well, we haven't spoken since. And now she's best pals with Yunjin. They've been sneaking behind my back. They both lied to me. My brother and my best friend."
Lin frowned in thought. "You know, I'm sure Jinora is just as upset about your fight as you are. And Yunjin doesn't know why you were so upset. They're just confused is all, and they both love you. You know your brother would never purposefully do anything to hurt you. He didn't exactly have the best judgement, but if you hear him out you two might be able to reconcile. And I don't know if you can resolve your issues with Jinora or not, but if you're only hesitating because of what happened between me and Pema, then don't. Like I said, it's ancient history. Maybe it's about time I get over it too. And besides, I don't want you to let myfeelings come between you and something that makes you happy. If you want to be friends with Jinora again, I won't be the thing that stands in your way."
Sora still wasn't entirely certain whether or not she would reconcile with Jinora, but when Lin ushered her back to the house, Sora went straight to her twin brother and engulfed him in an impromptu hug. Yunjin was completely and utterly confused, if his expression was anything to go by, but he accepted Sora's olive branch, and that was enough to satisfy Lin. Not all was resolved, but it was a start. So long as Sora and Yunjin were back to some semblance of themselves, she could withstand anything else.
Amon cultivated his first big strike against Republic City just before the pro-bending finals.
Lin awoke to the unfortunate sound of his voice crackling out of the radio on her night stand. She'd been working late the night before and hadn't gotten home until near dawn, and therefore was the only one left in her house to listen to the chilling warning. Amon wanted the pro-bending arena shut down, threatening consequences if the final was left to go on.
Lin hadn't wasted time in leaping out of bed and dressing for the day before racing into the city. She burst into the council meeting just in time to stop Tarrlok from banging his gavel and finalizing the council's decision to go ahead with Amon's demand. Lin was not surprised to see Korra, Mako, and Bolin already there too, pleading their case and insisting the show be allowed to go on. For once, Lin agreed with Korra, and told the council as much. It was time for benders to show some unity, to have a little backbone and stand up to Amon and his Equalists. Tenzin argued that it would only further divide benders and nonbenders, and while Lin wasn't naïve enough to believe what Korra and her friends thought – that pro-bending would unite both sides – she also didn't think running away with their tails between their legs would serve them any better.
Tarrlok was only too eager to let Lin set herself up for potential failure, changing his mind all of a sudden when she offered to accept full responsibility for security around the pro-bending final, but she was confident in herself and her officers. Amon would be foolish to take on all of them.
Tenzin was still upset with her, and the second they were alone out in the hallway he demanded, "What were you thinking? Tarrlok is playing you."
"Of course he is," Lin said unconcernedly. "But I know what I'm doing, and the risks that come with it. This is the right thing to do and you can't change my mind. It's like I said, it's high time we made a concerted show of force against Amon. We stood back and let this psycho run free because we were afraid of sparking the revolution, but no more."
Tenzin sighed heavily and grasped one of Lin's hands, holding onto it for dear life. "I just don't want to see you get hurt," he said quietly.
"Amon would be a fool to show his face there with all the officers I'm going to have swarming the place."
"Perhaps, but even so, I want to be by your side during the match."
"You don't need to babysit me," Lin grumbled, glancing around the empty hall as if embarrassed that someone could have overheard. "I've done this before, you know?"
"I don't intend to babysit you," Tenzin explained calmly. "I simply want to watch your back, just in case something goes wrong. I want to keep both you and Korra safe. We're better together, you and I. It'll be like old times."
Lin folded her arms over her chest, looking defiant still, but a small smirk curled her lips up just a bit. She shouldn't have been as thrilled by such a simple prospect as she was, but she and Tenzin really did make quite the pair, and it had been a very long time since they had last stood side by side against a common foe. They often were separated when tragedy struck, but when they were younger they used to capture criminals together everyday of the week. Back when she was just a beat cop and Tenzin was only in the very early stages of learning politics, before they married and had four kids. That all seemed like a lifetime ago, and it was sorely lacking their four incredible kids, but Lin still remembered most of it fondly. She sometimes missed the days when it was just the two of them, although even then their careers had taken up huge portions of their life.
"I suppose it would be nice to have you by my side," Lin admitted. "Especially with the kids there."
Tenzin's brief smile at her admission immediately dropped, his expression turning to dread. "Oh, that's right, the kids… You don't suppose there's any chance they might agree to sitting this game out?"
Lin snorted in disbelief. "You mean the final pro-bending match that Korra is playing in and that they begged us for weeks to go to? No, I don't think they will. We could fight them on it, but it's the last match of the season and they haven't gotten to see any…well, except for Ronen. Besides, I'll feel better knowing they're with us and about a hundred police officers instead of somewhere else on their own. Especially if Amon is using the match as a ploy to strike elsewhere."
Tenzin sighed, but relented, "I suppose you're right."
Before he could go on, Korra joined them in the hallway, striding straight up to Lin to say, "Thanks for the help in there, Chief Lin. It really means a lot."
"Don't mention it, kid," Lin muttered, "but I didn't do it so you could play your game. Just remember that when the match is over, Amon will still be here."
Korra nodded solemnly, understanding in her gaze. "I know," she said, "and when the tournament is over, I'll be right by your side to take him down. Until then…I'm really glad that you'll be at the final."
Lin nodded curtly, silently hoping that she wouldn't come to regret her decision.
The excitement in the stands of the pro-bending arena was electrifying on the night of the final show down between the Fire Ferrets and the Wolf Bats.
Ronen couldn't contain the grin that formed on his face shortly after arriving. Even with his dad's repeated warnings to be on the lookout, his mom's cops swarming the place, and Amon's threat still fresh in his mind, he felt nothing but unbridled excitement. Though his joy was practically dull in comparison to Yunjin, who had dreamed of seeing a pro-bending match for most of his life, and who's dreams had finally come true. Ronen's little brother was literally bouncing with enthusiasm, eyes wide and alight with glee, moving rapidly to take in every little detail of his surroundings. Even Sora, who did not care much for pro-bending, was smiling with wonder and feeding off of her twin's energy. Jeia was nonplussed, of course, and looking a little annoyed at the noise and the crowds, but she toddled along next to Ronen without complaint, her little hand ensconced firmly in his bigger one. Since their parents were busy maintaining security around the arena, Ronen had been tasked with keeping a close eye on his younger siblings. They hadn't even insisted on Nira coming along, so Ronen was taking great pride in the fact that they were trusting him with such a huge task. Granted, his parents would only be right at the end of their row, but Ronen knew that they would be busy and he was determined to show his worth by keeping his brother and sisters safe and in line.
As the four of them settled into their seats, anticipation for the match was killing Yunjin, and Ronen struggled to keep him from tipping right over the railing. They had the seats closest to the edge of the balcony, front row and nearly in the center, some of the best seats in the house, but it only made Ronen nervous. The railing wasn't very high and it would only be too easy for someone to fall right over top of it. He'd never live it down if he let one of his siblings take an impromptu swim.
But once the match had started, all worries seemed to vanish. Ronen still wasn't all that into pro-bending himself, but he was amazed by his friends' team work and agility, and incensed by the Wolf Bats' underhanded tactics and outright cheating. He and Yunjin were on their feet for most of the match, screaming and cheering at every turn of events. Ronen noticed his father in the distance becoming just as fired up a few times, arms waving madly, while his mother stood by, impassive as ever but probably fighting amusement. Even Sora quickly caught onto the hype, or maybe she just loved to have a reason to put the unnaturally high decibel of her voice to use. But the most surprising of all was the way that Jeia seemed to come to life. Ronen's youngest sister was the quietest of his siblings and only really became hyperactive when she was throwing a nasty tantrum. But something about pro-bending must have sparked an interest in her, her eyes alighting with wonder and her mouth gaping as she watched the match. She didn't understand the rules, but she bounced on the tips of her toes the whole time, not heeding Ronen's warnings to stay back from the edge, too enthralled by what she was watching and shouting either encouragements or rebukes, Ronen wasn't entirely certain which one. Jeia was a little delayed and not much of a talker anyway, so Ronen couldn't always tell what she meant. It usually required one of their parents to decipher her babble, though often times Yunjin could understand it too. Which was why Jeia would turn and look at Jin every few minutes, tugging on his hands or his sleeves or his pant legs – whichever was closest – to point and jabber incoherently about whatever had excited her. And Yunjin would nod and agree or explain what was happening, only ever so patient for Jeia Rai.
Despite all the excitement and the warm joy of seeing most of his family so happy, Ronen had not forgotten what was at stake that evening. He had no clue whether or not Amon would really attack the arena, but he wasn't foolish enough to underestimate the Equalist leader. Amon had done everything that he'd said so far, and Ronen was on edge. He knew that his mother had the place surrounded, and she was the best at what she did, but even the best could be taken by surprise. So Ronen allowed himself to indulge in the excitement of the match, but he periodically scanned the crowd for anything out of the ordinary as well.
It was in the midst of one these scans that he noticed movement on the stairs a few rows up from where Ronen and his siblings stood. It could have simply been someone returning to their seat, but they were wearing a suspiciously bulky coat with sleeves so long it covered both hands, and they didn't appear to be headed for a particular seat, just strolling too casually down the steps and casting furtive looks back and forth. If they were planning something, they were being stupidly obvious, even though no one else in the nearby crowd seemed concerned, apparently trusting that Ronen's mother and the police would truly keep them safe.
However, it wasn't so much the twitchy behavior that heightened Ronen's sense of alarm, but rather the fact that he recognized the girl shuffling down the stairs.
It was Asuka, a non-bender and known Equalist sympathizer, not to mention one of Ronen's classmates. She was too young and too eager to be much more than an errand girl and a recruiter, but she was devoted to the cause and to Amon. Ronen didn't know if the Equalists trusted her enough yet to be a part of any big plans, but it seemed a bad omen that she was there, watching a pro-bending match when she blatantly despised all benders.
Ronen and Asuka had been on awkward footing ever since the night of the revelation. She had been convinced, at first, that he was behind the attack that caused the building to fill with steam and for the rally to abruptly come to an end. She made good on her threat to send Tonzu and Bora after him at school the following week, but he must have been a better actor than he thought, because, while Bora was dangling him upside down about to drop him three stories off of a ledge, he managed to convince Asuka that he hadn't been involved. She didn't know that Korra was behind the disruption, or that Ronen was close friends with the Avatar, but she knew that the cops hadn't raided the place, since no one ended up in jail, so Ronen was able to feign innocence. He had pled with her to believe him, and though she was still clearly wary of him, she had mostly relented. She was being more cautious than before, careful about what she revealed to him about the Equalists and their plans, but she wanted him on her side so badly that she was letting it cloud her judgement.
Ronen had no such delusions. While he did not believe that Asuka was inherently evil, or that she could not be swayed to his way of thinking, he wasn't about to give her ammunition to use against his family. Everything he told her about his home life was mostly a lie, and he let her continue to believe that he was unhappy with the state of things. He felt fairly confident that if he played his cards right he would be able to gain Asuka's trust and infiltrate the Equalists should the need arise. He hadn't told Korra about his plans, and he definitely hadn't told his parents, but he was keeping his options open in case they needed him in the future.
On any other day, Ronen would have been happy to keep up the charade with Asuka, but on that night, in the middle of the pro-bending finale, he was less than pleased to see her. She brought with her the threat of an Equalist disruption, if her nervous manner was anything to go by, and if she had been able to sneak easily into the crowd, then so too could any other Equalist.
Frowning as concern washed over him, Ronen glanced to his left, ensuring that his parents were still in the spot where they had been all night and unharmed, at the end of the row and a step up from where their kids were. Then, he looked at his siblings, all three of whom were still pressed against the railing and watching the match intently.
Ronen began to squeeze between them and the bleachers, patting Sora on the shoulder as he passed by and saying loudly over the roar of the crowd, "Watch Jeia for a minute, okay?"
Sora barely glanced at him, too enthralled by the match, but she clasped a firm hand on Jeia's shoulder and nodded. So Ronen continued down the row, easing between the crowd and the railing, apologizing as he stepped on a few toes, and stumbling into the open aisle just as Asuka reached the next to last stair in front of him.
Asuka lurched backwards in surprise as Ronen appeared before her, staring at him with eyes widening in horror as recognition dawned.
"Ronen!" she gasped first, voice nearly drowned out by the noise in the tightly packed stadium. "What are you doing here?!"
"I was about to ask you the same thing," Ronen deflected, feigning nonchalance, even as trepidation filled him. "I wouldn't expect to see you at a place like this. You're not exactly a fan of bending."
Ronen tried to force a chuckle to lighten the mood, but the fear on Asuka's face did not waver.
She was harsh when she leaned in close to his face and frantically hissed, "Get out of here, Ronen! Now!"
"Why?" Ronen demanded, taking half a step back from her, his gaze flickering to the hands that were still suspiciously covered by the too big coat on her tiny frame. He glanced down the row to make sure his siblings were still okay, and was relieved to see them together and unharmed, still enraptured by the game.
Ronen whirled on Asuka again, mouth open to question her further, to get to the truth of her cryptic warning, but at that same moment, the whole arena suddenly erupted into an even louder cacophony than before. Ronen spun around to get a glimpse of the playing field, just in time to see Korra, Mako, and Bolin hurled into the pool one right after the other.
And just like that, the match was over.
The Wolf Bats had won the championship again.
Ronen frowned and shouted his discontent along with many other fans in the stadium, forgetting, for a moment, that he should be worried about Asuka.
When he remembered himself and what was at stake, he began turning back around to face her. As he pivoted, he scanned his surroundings, and noticed something odd happening. There were several people scattered throughout the stands that, rather than joining in on celebrations or outrage, were impassively pulling matching masks up over the bottom halves of their faces. A few were also dawning some strange sort of gloves that they retrieved from unnatural places, like an untouched bucket full of popcorn. He didn't realize, at first, what it meant, but he felt a lurch in his stomach when he noticed the masked figures moving with purpose, reaching out with their gloved hands, malice in their eyes. The other people in the stands were focused on the middle of the arena, they wouldn't notice the danger surrounding them. Nor would Ronen's family, his brother and his sisters that he had left down at the other end of the row, whom he would not reach in time, and his mother and father, even further away, and completely unaware of the masked attackers approaching them from either side.
Ronen tried to shout a warning, but his voice was drowned out by the already high noise level in the stadium, and it wouldn't have mattered anyway, because he barely got one word out of his mouth before an agonized scream rang through the air.
It came from his mother, just as vibrant electricity crackled across her metal armor, and he thought he had never heard such an awful sound in all his life, watching in stunned horror as she convulsed before dropping heavily to the ground, his father following soon after, only managing to blast back Lin's attacker before being taken down by another.
By that time, Ronen had stuffed his hand into the satchel on his back, extracted the boomerang inside, and stretched his arm back behind his head in preparation to hurl his boomerang at the Equalists he could see moving straight for his siblings. It was too late for his parents, but he could not let Jin or Sora or Jeia come to harm.
However, before he could manage his throw, he heard Asuka mutter, "I'm sorry, Ronen." And then his veins were alight with liquid fire, his world nothing but electrifying pain, his hand spasming and losing its grip on his boomerang just before his legs collapsed and everything went dark.
Despite the Wolf Bats' blatant cheating all throughout the match, it seemed at first as if the Fire Ferrets might actually be able to come out on top, that their perseverance would save the game just in the nick of time. Yunjin had total faith in Korra's abilities, had seen enough of her moves in the sparring circle and heard the commentary of her other matches. The girl was truly awful at airbending, but she was an amazing waterbender, and if the Wolf Bats hadn't been a bunch of lousy cheaters, he thought the match would have been over already. It was a tense game, and his voice was hoarse from screaming, but he had never been so exhilarated in his life. Nearly everyone in the crowd was on the edge of their seats, biting their nails, brows sweating, until all of a sudden the match came to a bitter, nasty end.
The Wolf Bats had won the final by using yet another illegal move to knock all three Fire Ferrets into the pool below. The Wolf Bats were the pro-bending champions once again.
Yunjin immediately threw up his hands and started shouting expletives at the injustice of it all, and Sora slumped back down onto the bench in disappointment. Jeia frowned at the shift in mood and the abrupt end to the match, whirling on Yunjin and demanding something he couldn't understand over the din of the crowd and his own shouts of displeasure.
"Well, folks, it's a controversial call," the announcer was saying, "but the Wolf Bats notch a nasty knockout to win the match. For the fourth year in a row they'll be crowned tournament champions."
Yunjin made a noise of disgust in the back of his throat and slapped his hand against the railing, his palms tingling and stinging at the contact. He could do nothing but glare as Tahno and his teammates basked in their victory on the middle platform, as if it had been deserved or hard-earned.
"Can you believe this?" Yunjin scoffed, folding his arms across his chest and shaking his head. It was absolutely despicable, and yet totally unsurprising considering the Wolf Bats' history.
Yunjin turned his head to further complain to his twin, but at that very same moment, a strange sound crackled nearby that raised the hair on the back of his neck, followed by a shrill cry of pain that sounded sickeningly familiar. Before he could even whirl back around, Jeia was screaming, "MAMA!" and Sora's face was contorting into terrified shock before his very eyes.
With trepidation rising, Yunjin tried pivoting back around to see what had happened to his mother, just as Sora shrieked, "Daddy!"
When Yunjin had finally finished his spin, he found that both his parents were already on the ground, unconscious, or worse, for all he knew.
Stricken with sudden fear, Yunjin reacted purely on instinct, shoving both his sisters as far back against the railing as he could and throwing his arms out to either side, shielding them both with his whole body. He looked frantically about, noticing several people with identical masks covering the lower halves of their faces, and odd looking gloves on their hands that lit up with electricity all around the stadium. His mother's police officers started dropping like bumble flies, and a quick glance to his left confirmed Yunjin's fear that his older brother had been felled down at the end of the row too.
Five of the masked figures were coming straight for Yunjin and his sisters, their electric gloves raised, and Yunjin did not hesitate to blast one of them back with a sharp burst of air. The would-be attacker that he assumed to be an Equalist went flying up into the stands, and then it was just four of them racing towards him. Suddenly Yunjin could not suppress the smirk that curled his lips, excitement filling him as adrenaline began to course through his veins. This was one of the moments he'd waited all his life for, the moment he trained for day in and day out. He knew the scuffles his mother and father had been in at times during their past, knew that the Beifong name alone made them all targets, and remembered the days four years ago when danger had been around every corner. He remembered his parents' paranoia and Ronen nearly being killed by some escaped convict, and Yunjin and Sora and Ronen nearly being kidnapped or worse while his mother and baby sister had been trapped in a headquarters under siege. Yunjin knew the risks of being who he was and the dangers of life, and he had vowed to be prepared, to train as often as possible, to consume every bit of fighting knowledge his parents and Uncle Bumi passed onto him. His father was always preaching about non-agression and peaceful solutions, about airbenders being pacifists and nature loving and spiritual, but Yunjin was not fool enough to try taking the so-called high road. He was a fighter, like his mother, and when the time came for him to defend himself and his family, he would be ready.
And he was. He knew that the Equalists were more dangerous than they appeared, but he had little doubt in his mind that he could take down four nonbenders before they ever reached him and his sisters. As long as he didn't let them get close, their electric gloves would be ineffective, and with the power of air at his fingertips, it should only take seconds to finish each of them off. They had taken his parents by surprise, but he was ready for them, and he beckoned with one hand, at total ease, inviting them to come at him.
Watching one of their members get blown backwards did not slow their pace, and the remaining four Equalists were gaining ground. Yunjin had to be quick, and he hopped up onto the bleacher he had been sitting on at the beginning of the match, hovering there on tip toes, feeling light as a feather as he became one with his element, as if he was nothing but air molecules himself. He smacked his hands together in front of him to send a shock wave straight for the two Equalists in front of him, and then pivoted gracefully to the side on one toe and bent over backwards, his other foot kicking air in one direction and one outstretched arm blasting some in the other. From that position, he kicked up his other leg and rolled through the air slashing the leg and then both arms in the direction of the first two Equalists, who had evaded his first attack, but struggled to dodge the next. They were still coming towards him, but slower, and he turned away from them long enough to punch gusts of wind at the Equalists to either side of him. He managed to knock one over the edge of the railing to go flying out across the pool, and then sent another staggering sideways before they went rolling down the bleachers. Yunjin struggled not to hit some of the civilians in the stands, shouting for them to get out of his way, and most of them lunged out of the way, but he thought he might have caught a couple on accident. He was too focused to pay them any mind though, too determined to take out the Equalists and keep his sisters safe.
It was down to just two Equalists when Yunjin made a tactical error.
He began to pivot on his right foot, throwing wind at one Equalist but turning his back on the other because he assumed he had the upper hand. But in the midst of his turn, a bola wrapped around both his ankles and tripped him up before he even knew what was happening. He went crashing to the floor, only just managing to get his hands out in front of him in time to save him from smacking his face right off of the bleachers above him, too unprepared to use his bending to soften his fall. When he made sudden contact with the bench, one of his wrists made a horrible cracking sound, and then there was nothing but a burning, agonizing pain shooting the whole way up his arm. He opened his mouth in a tortured scream, rolling over to crash onto his back, cradling his arm against his chest but too afraid to look at it to see how bad the damage was. It felt almost as if his hand had been amputated, even though he knew that was too dramatic, even though he could feel the throbbing limb laying against his chest. The pain was such that he lost several precious seconds, his mind all but ineffective and his body unresponsive. All he knew was pain and an overwhelming sense of defeat.
It was the sound of his sisters screaming that forced him into action, the upper half of his body lurching upwards even though his legs did not yet heed his command. The whole arena spun around him and he thought for a moment that he might be sick, but when his vision calmed a moment later, he was able to see his surroundings once more, although it was as if he was in a haze.
He saw Jeia in the arms of one of the assumed Equalists first, little fists flailing as she fought the grip of her would-be kidnapper. Sora was between them and Yunjin, prancing back and forth, desperately trying to keep her twin brother covered, while also attempting to get in a shot at the Equalist that held their sister without harming Jeia in the process. The Equalist was holding the toddler directly in front of him though, and any swipe of his legs would cause him to drop or land on top of Jeia, and the girl had no airbending to soften her fall. Sora might have been capable of catching Jeia herself, but with Yunjin momentarily incapacitated and a second Equalist still hurling bolas and various other attacks at her, her concentration was too divided.
Yunjin forced himself to lurch unsteadily onto his feet, and he nearly screamed at just the simple jostle of his arm, and his knees threatened to give way immediately. But he held the pose with a concerted effort, and used what was left of his waning energy to kick a sharp blast of wind at the second Equalist.
Spurred on by Yunjin's assumed recovery, Sora leapt straight at the man that held their little sister, screeching a furious battle cry and looking like she might claw the guy's eyes out, face warped with fury and hair blowing straight back behind her.
Except Yunjin's attack on the second Equalist was weak, and they easily evaded his strikes, not even bothering to run for him, but on an intercept course for Sora.
Yunjin felt his chest seizing up with panic then, fear choking off his air supply as he stumbled forward, hurling air at the Equalists that threatened to take his sisters, ignoring the pain in his wounded arm even as spots danced before his vision. He knew that his attacks were too far off their mark, or too weak to do much damage, so he took off at a wobbly sprint, intending to simply barrel straight into the Equalists and hope that he struck them with enough force to knock them off their feet.
He was still a few paces away when he realized he would be too late.
Sora, on the other hand, appeared to have everything under control. She dropped to the floor just as the second Equalist reached her and swiped their gloved hand through the air, missing her by mere centimeters as she suddenly dropped several meters. Balancing crouched down on one foot and with one hand on the floor, Sora swiped her other leg out in front of her and knocked the Equalist that held Jeia off of their feet. As that Equalist began to fall, Sora pushed air into the face of the second Equalist that was about to grab her by the hair, and then caught Jeia when the toddler went flailing towards the floor.
With her arms full, Sora could manage little more than rising to her feet and kicking out at the Equalist still standing. The masked figure fell back between the stands, but was back up moments later, only giving Sora enough time to set Jeia down on her feet and shove the toddler in Yunjin's direction as he continued to trip his way forward.
Sora's moment of hesitation spent pushing Jeia out of harms way cost her dearly. The Equalist came up on their feet almost directly in front of her and slapped their gloved hand against her shoulder, activating whatever caused it to shoot electricity into its victim. Sora let out a short shriek as she was zapped backwards, the force of the sudden blow and her momentum throwing her against the railing, and Yunjin could only watch in abject horror as she folded over backwards at the waist, eyes fluttering closed and body going limp as she tipped over the railing and went careening to the water below.
Yunjin fell to his knees, half in shock, half exhausted beyond measure, his shaky limbs finally giving up on him. But he had strength enough to grab Jeia's arm and force her behind him, hastily ordering her, "Run, 'Rai! Run!" If he could not protect his sister, then he would at least give her the time to possibly get away. He didn't know where she could go, or if she'd be any better off outside the arena, but Jeia was tiny and could fit into small spaces and was great at hide and seek. Yunjin had confidence that she would be able to find safety until someone could come to her rescue.
Except Jeia clung to his arm, and when he tried to push her away, she pushed back, overpowering him in his weakened state with her stubborn insistence on staying. Yunjin could have wept with the overwhelming sense of hopelessness that began to consume him, thinking that he would have to watch the Equalists take down his entire family before they finished him off too.
He was surprised, then, when all of a sudden, the metal railing to the left of them snapped in half with a loud screeech, tearing itself from its moldings to curve up into the air and strike like a snake straight at the Equalist coming towards them. The metal rail curled right around the Equalist's gloved hand, yanking them off balance and squeezing so tight that it triggered the activation, sending bolts of electricity through the rail and, by extension, through them. The metal pole continued to wind its way up their arm and then their chest, until they were dragged down onto the floor and trapped there. They struggled and screamed against their restraints, but the railing did not budge.
Yunjin's mouth gaped in shock, because Jeia refused to use her bending and only ever did on accident, but she must have acted on pure instinct. He could see her little shoulders trembling with the effort or maybe from fear, and when she turned to look back at him, her face was scrunched up in a rage that looked all wrong on a kid so young.
"Good job, Jeia," Yunjin gasped out, sweating profusely and short of breath as his wrist continued to throb and the adrenaline began to trickle out of him.
Jeia's face relaxed at the sound of his voice, and her tiny balled fists loosened slightly, along with the metal bar that was holding the Equalist fast to the floor, just enough for them to breathe.
But then, of course, the other Equalist had gotten to their feet in the meantime, and made it all the way over to Jeia and Yunjin before either one of them could notice, and Yunjin thought for sure that they were done for then.
And yet, once again, he was proven wrong.
A boomerang came careening through the air and struck the back of the Equalist's head with a thunk, and they dropped to the floor and did not move again. A second later, Ronen came racing over to Jeia and Yunjin, falling to his knees in front of them, his eyes wide and hair messily sticking up in all the wrong places.
"Are you okay?" he demanded of them, taking Jeia into his arms and holding her tight against his chest. He looked as terrified as Yunjin had felt only moments ago.
Yunjin nodded out of habit, but then shook his head immediately after when he recalled the arm that was no doubt broken, which he was still cradling to his chest, and when he remembered that Sora had fallen to the pool below, and that he had no idea of her fate, knew only that he had failed his sister.
Ronen grimaced at the sight of his brother's arm, and still Yunjin could not look at it. "That's okay," Ronen tried to soothe his younger brother, even as his face paled slightly. "A healer can fix that up in no time. We just gotta get…" Ronen trailed off when realization suddenly dawned on him that one of his siblings was missing. He looked stricken as he demanded, "Where's Sora?"
"Ro," Jeia whimpered then, interjecting before Yunjin could respond, arm outstretched and pointing at something further up in the stands.
Both boys turned their heads to see what had disturbed her, and were dismayed to see more Equalists coming towards them. Yunjin knew for certain that time that they would surely not be able to best them all.
Ronen seemed to come to the same conclusion, and he scrambled to his feet, gathering Jeia into his arms and hauling Yunjin up all at once. He glanced over the railing and asked Yunjin, "Can you swim with that arm?"
Yunjin winced at the thought, but nodded, casting his gaze out over the arena one last time, wondering to himself if jumping into the pool would even save them. He could see electric gloves still lighting up around the arena, citizens herded into place by the Equalists, and there on the bending platform in the center was another group of Equalists, who were in the process of shoving the Wolf Bats' limp forms into the pool over on the other side of the stadium. Yunjin noticed a masked man that he presumed to be Amon, and his stomach clenched at the implications. He knew what Amon could do to benders, and Yunjin feared what would happen if he or his family were to fall into Equalist hands. He glanced regretfully over at his parents, still unconscious and unguarded, helpless in their current state, but he knew that he and Ronen would never be able to reach them in time and carry them both to safety without being overrun by the Equalists. He had no choice, knew that his parents would prefer that he leave them behind, but it still sent a wash of shame through him as he followed his older brother's lead and launched himself off of the edge of the railing.
Chapter 48: Chapter 48
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 48
Lin woke with a dry mouth and a throbbing ache behind her eyes. Her muscles felt coiled and tense and her chest hurt. Her mind was too fuzzy to register anything besides the pain and discomfort, and it took her several seconds to even remember what had happened, why she was laying on what felt like a concrete floor, why she was struggling just to swallow.
And then it all came back to her. The pro-bending final, the Fire Ferrets losing to the Wolf Bats' cheating, watching Tenzin rage over the injustice of it all, and then seeing his expression turn to wide-eyed shock and concern, and a warning that came too late. Of sensing movement behind her just before agonizing, electrifying pain coursed through her veins, alighting every nerve ending and seizing every muscle.
Several thoughts occurred to her all at once in her state of half-wakefulness, eyes still glued shut despite her very best efforts to open them. It occurred to her that it must have been Amon, that the Equalists had attacked the arena and she had been taken out before she could even put up a fight. And that her children and her husband and Korra, as well as the citizens all packed into the arena, were in untold danger.
Lin struggled to open her eyes and push herself up onto her knees, her whole body still cramping and her limbs trembling. Her vision was a little cloudy, her eyelids still trying to stick themselves back together, but she blinked rapidly, held a hand against her throbbing head, and cast her gaze around her immediate vicinity. She quickly spotted Tenzin right next to her, and a moment of panic swelled in her as she saw him contorted and unconscious there on the floor. But he started stirring before she could even react, and she called his name breathlessly as she crawled to him. She clung to him as he groaned and tried to sit up, and held his hand against her chest even as her own hands spasmed and tried to jerk back open.
They only had time enough to share a brief look of distress before an explosion rocked the building. Lin looked up at the sound, but had to shield her eyes as fiery light momentarily blinded her, and when the loud, booming noise had subsided, her ears were ringing. A gaping hole was left behind in the middle of the glass ceiling of the arena, and just below it Lin could see Amon and some of his henchman rising up towards a hovering airship. A quick glance around the stadium confirmed Lin's fear that all of her officers had been taken down by whatever electricity had knocked out her and Tenzin, and if Amon's airship was floating without disruption, then that meant her own airships and the ships in the bay must have been incapacitated as well.
Lin needed to go after Amon, needed to put an end to this monster's reign and get justice for all those that had been hurt in the Equalist attack. She needed to help Korra, who she noticed hurtling out of the pool in an effort to chase after Amon as well, because it seemed clear that Korra would never make it the whole way to the ceiling without running out of water.
But Lin also had four kids that were missing, that could have been captured or injured and who knew what had happened to them while their parents had been unconscious? She needed to look for them, to make sure they were okay, to make sure that they didn't need her.
Tenzin must have seen the indecision on his wife's face as they scrambled to their feet, because he clasped a hand on her metal-clad shoulder and told her firmly, "Go, I'll find them."
There was a fiery determination and a promise in his gaze, and Lin trusted him unequivocally. She nodded once before running the few short steps to the railing, hurtling herself off of the edge, and shooting her metal cables up as far as they could go.
Lin did end up having to catch Korra just as the girl began to plummet back down into the arena, and she used her metal cables to throw the young Avatar up through the hole in the roof. Lin followed close behind, and the two of them fought together against the Equalists, yanking them off of the airship and trying to get to Amon before he could escape. Despite the fact that Lin and Korra were outnumbered, they seemed to be holding their own, and Lin felt strength surging through her anew as she landed each blow. She felt confident that, between her and the Avatar, they could take down one measly airship and capture Amon.
But then Lin was electrocuted again, and her strength began to wane. It was a briefer moment of contact with the electricity than earlier, so she remained conscious at least, and was saved from an even worse strike immediately after by Korra. She continued to fight, still determined as ever, and eventually managed to pull herself up to the bottom opening in the airship, ready to start a duel with Amon and hopeful that Korra would join her soon. However, it was not to be, because at that same moment, more of the glass ceiling of the stadium shattered beneath Korra's feet, and the girl went hurtling back down with a frightened cry. Lin had no choice but to let go of the airship and her chance at taking on Amon, hurtling herself back into the stadium to catch Korra before the kid could crash straight into the pro-bending platform.
They dropped back down into the stands, completely empty now except for the few unconscious police officers still scattered about.
Lin rushed over to help Korra to her feet, concern showing through her voice as she quickly asked, "You all right?"
"Yeah," Korra assured, heaving in a shuddering breath of air, "thanks to you."
Korra looked so immensely grateful, and she squeezed Lin's hand in the only show of affection the two had ever really shared in all the time they'd spent together over the last couple months. And Lin nodded with a soft, "Don't mention it, kid. And thanks for saving my ass from another electrocution up there."
Something seemed to pass between them then, an understanding of sorts, and Lin thought that maybe Tenzin was right. Maybe she and Korra were rather alike, at least in some ways. They might not have the same sort of closeness that Korra and Tenzin shared, but they had gained a level of camaraderie and kinship. They made a good team too, even if they had just gotten their asses handed to them.
Lin looked up at the smoking hole in the roof, sighing heavily as Amon's airship disappeared into the night and muttering, "Looks like we lost this one."
Korra's teammates, Mako and Bolin, showed up then, running straight over to embrace Korra, both of them grinning with relief. Lin watched the reunion with a pang, thinking about her own family, hoping that Tenzin had found the kids, wondering what shape they were in, wondering where she should go looking for them first.
She need not have worried so much though, because only seconds later she heard a familiar cry of, "Mama!" and she thought she had never been so relieved to hear it in all her life.
She spun around to face the origin of the sound, and in that brief time she already felt an overwhelming emotion filling her being that choked her up before she could even get a word out in response. The sight of all four of her children and Tenzin walking rapidly towards her, all of them conscious if not a little worse for wear, was almost enough to make her cry tears of joy. Almost.
She held it together as she rushed to meet them, smiling, at first, but frowning as she got closer and saw just what kind of shape they were in. All four of the kids were drenched from head to toe, clearly having been in the pool at some point very recently. Sora was leaning against Ronen, looking dazed and sluggish as her brother wearily pulled her along. Jeia was ensconced in Tenzin's arms, clinging tightly to her father and shivering violently, teeth chattering and her father's cloak wrapped tight around her. And then there was Yunjin, who looked sickeningly pale and was grimacing as he clung to his father's sleeve with one hand, the other held against his chest. Lin could see almost instantly that Yunjin's wrist was bent the wrong direction, and the thought of someone breaking her son's arm made rage fill her entire being.
Lin didn't know who to go to first, awash with indecision and wanting to somehow encapsulate all of them into her arms at once. She stopped before them and reached out to squeeze Sora's shoulder and then Ronen's with one hand, using the other to touch the back of Jeia's head and then Yunjin's cheek.
Ronen and Sora shuffled the rest of the way to hug their mother, and she squeezed them tight, but carefully, and kissed the side of Ronen's head and the top of Sora's. Sora was trembling, but had no visible wounds. Except there was a scorch mark on her shoulder and Lin felt sick just thinking about one of the kids being electrocuted the way that she had been. Had all of them been taken by surprise as their parents were and suffered the same fate? Could she have failed them all so spectacularly in one single moment? They were all so young still, and Jeia…Jeia was practically just a baby. Were the Equalists cruel enough to electrocute a four year old? Lin wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, but whatever those monsters had done to her children, she would make them pay. She wasn't certain how she could contain the fire burning inside of her in that moment.
There were little words spoken between the family of six. It seemed that all of them were struggling with their own thoughts and questions and worries, and there was no sense in asking anyone if they were all right because it was clear that none of them were, not fully. They would survive, of course, but the night was not over yet.
A trip to the hospital was their first course of action, because Yunjin's arm was definitely broken, and who knew what the other three might need checked out – Lin didn't get the full explanation until later. Yunjin was barely able to walk at that point, and Lin had swooped him up into her arms despite his weary protests. She carried him the short trip to the hospital, and he wasn't all that heavy, but she was still shaky from the events of the evening and, by the time she laid him on a gurney, she could no longer feel her arms. But considering that her arm wasn't broken she didn't even consider complaining, even in jest. All that she could feel was worry for her kids. Whatever wounds she might have suffered were of no consequence. Tenzin suggested she get checked out, but she refused until she knew about the kids, and he wasn't about to leave any of them either.
Yunjin seemed to be the worst off, but his arm was an almost easy fix. The healers filled him with meds and popped the bone back into place, and Lin stood at his side holding his other hand the whole time, distracting him in anyway she could. The arm would have to be in a sling for a couple of weeks and he was ordered to take it easy the next few days, but otherwise the head doctor seemed unconcerned, and so Lin allowed herself to breathe at long last.
Sora and Ronen were trickier to mend. They had both suffered electric shocks, just as Lin had feared, and Sora had apparently been temporarily submerged underwater afterwards, unconscious, and had to have Ronen perform CPR on her when she was dragged from the pool to force the water out of her lungs. Korra had helped briefly, before taking off to go after Amon, and it was her efforts combined with Ronen's that saved Sora from a worse fate. The girl had not been submerged for long, but when Lin heard the truth she nearly collapsed, certain that she had never felt so weak in the knees in all her life. But Sora was fine, besides being shaken up and sore, and the healers did their best to mend any internal damage that might have been caused. Lin and Tenzin were meant to keep an eye on her and Ronen for any signs of adverse reactions to the shocks, but the overall physical damage appeared not to be too severe.
Jeia, fortunately, had been protected by her siblings and therefore did not have to endure any electrocution. The only shock she received was being thrown into the pool, but Ronen had held onto her the entire time and pulled her to safety, keeping her head above water after the initial leap into the pool that could not be helped. The toddler was beyond upset, but improving now that they were all back together, and eventually dozed off in her father's arms as she waited for her siblings to be tested and re-tested by the doctors and healers.
Lin was, admittedly, a little paranoid. She knew exactly what being zapped by electricity felt like now, and her whole body still ached from it. She couldn't imagine how it felt for the kids, who might have had youthful endurance on their side, but had never faced such a brutal attack before. The healers were all insistent that the kids were fine, and once the initial shock wore off they all did appear to be their normal selves, but Lin wished desperately for once that she was a healer so that she could see the truth for herself.
The doctor did want Sora and Yunjin to stay overnight for observation, so the family settled into a private room together and hunkered down for a restless evening. Korra was there too, having been insistent on coming to ensure Ronen and his siblings were okay, while her teammates went in search of the Sato girl. Yunjin and Sora had their own hospital beds, but the rest of them had only chairs and a single cot. Ronen and Korra had attempted to share the cot at first – their heads at different ends as per Lin's command, despite Ronen's mild glare and Korra's eye roll – but after a few hours of no sleep and shifting uncomfortably, Tenzin insisted the two teens go home to get some rest in a real bed. Both of them had been hesitant, but eventually their exhaustion won out, and Lin had an officer accompany them to the Island just in case. Tenzin had tried getting her to go with them, but she wasn't going anywhere, not while half of her family was still in the hospital. Ronen had Korra and the White Lotus would protect them both. And although Lin had been fool enough to underestimate the Equalists before, she thought that they were probably done causing havoc for the night.
So Lin remained in a stiff chair at Yunjin's bedside as the boy tried to sleep, so unbelievably uncomfortable in her armor, her skin sticking to the inside in places, from dried sweat and maybe some slight burns if she had to take a guess. She hadn't pried it off yet to find out if the electrical current through metal had left behind any marks on her skin, but judging by the stinging pains in certain places she felt fairly confident that it had. She knew Tenzin must have had the same concerns, but until he saw a healer, she wasn't either, and they were both too focused on the twins. As well as Jeia, who hadn't left her father's arms the entire time, except for a brief period where she had been safely ensconced in Lin's.
While the three kids slept fitfully, Lin and Tenzin spoke to one another in a whisper. Tenzin's back was to Lin's, his chair turned to face Sora's bed, but they were close enough in the small room to reach behind and clasp hands. Lin was still reeling from all of the intense emotions she was feeling, and just the firm grip of Tenzin's hand around hers went a long way to soothing her battered emotional state. Even once he dozed off in his chair and his fingers went slack, she still held on a bit longer, reassured by the warmth and familiarity, as well as the comforting rhythm of his pulse. She had failed her family and the city and her officers in more ways than one that night, but she had not lost them. All the reports she had been given so far boasted no casualties. The Equalists had not really harmed any of the citizens so long as they did not attempt a fight, and many of Lin's officers had suffered only as much injury as she had. A few citizens had been injured during the stampede to escape the arena after Amon blew a hole in the ceiling, but the worst injuries came mostly from the officers that had been in the airships. Some of them were in critical condition, but so far none had been lost.
Nevertheless, Lin felt an inordinate amount of shame, and her racing thoughts did not allow her to rest as her husband and children did.
However, it also became apparent that Yunjin was not doing much resting of his own either. Lin watched him fidget and sigh and shift around in frustration for some time before the boy finally seemed to give up and opened his eyes to turn his gaze onto his mother.
Before she could even make a comment, Yunjin immediately told her, "I'm sorry," the apology spilling out of him in a rush, as if he had been holding it in his mouth most of the night.
Lin raised a confused brow, voice low and slightly startled as she asked, "For what?"
"I failed you," Yunjin muttered in shame, averting his gaze, unable to look her in the eye. "I failed all of you."
Lin surged forward immediately, the chair creaking noisily beneath her as she leaned all of her weight on the very edge. She grasped at one of Yunjin's hands, squeezing it in both of her own, her brow furrowed in concern. "What on Earth are you talking about?" she demanded. "You didn't fail anyone." If anything, she was the one who had failed him.
"Of course I did," Yunjin scoffed, glancing guiltily over at where his twin sister lie. "I wasn't good enough. I couldn't protect my sisters. I couldn't protect you or Dad. I was useless, all because I tripped like an idiot and broke my arm."
"Hey," Lin interjected with a frown, "don't do that. You can't blame yourself for any of this. The Equalists took all of us by surprise. You did the best that you could and probably saved your sisters from a worse fate. This is the first time you've ever been in a real situation like this. You can't expect –"
"It isn't the first time," Yunjin interrupted, pulling his hand out of her grasp. "I did just fine when those Triple Threats tried to kidnap us and I was younger then."
Lin grimaced, still not happy to hear any reminder of that fateful day four years ago. "That was completely different," she argued. "There were only two stupid thugs as opposed to however many Equalists you had to fight today. This was a well planned attack. Even your father and I were overpowered before it even started. And we're the ones that are supposed to protect you. Do you think that we're weak because we went down first? Has it lessened your trust in us?"
Yunjin dropped his gaze to his lap, clenching his uninjured hand into a tight fist around his blanket. "No," he admitted quietly. "But they took you by surprise. What's my excuse?"
"Your excuse," Lin huffed, squeezing his tense wrist even while he refused to meet her gaze, "is that you are human, just like the rest of us." And a child, but she didn't say that part because she knew it would only upset him more. "You aren't invincible. It doesn't mean that you are any less brave or strong or capable. The only question is, what are you gonna do now? Are you gonna let this eat away at you and give up? Let the bad guys win even after the fact? Or are you going to dust yourself off, hold your head up high, and say fuck that? Cause they might have broken you arm, but they haven't broken your spirit. One bad outcome can't be the end all be all of your entire life."
Lin could see and feel Yunjin's tense muscles begin to unravel just a little as he peeked over at her from the corner of his eye. He deliberated her words for several seconds, his deflated posture seeming to straighten ever so slightly, until he was looking straight at her with determination in his gaze, a fire in those eyes that were so much like his grandfather's. But he didn't look like an Air Nomad in that moment. He had the sort of stubborn, hot-headed rage that plagued the Beifongs instead.
"You're right," he told his mother, voice unwavering now, devoid of guilt. And she had a moment to reflect on what it might be like if only it were so easy to convince Ronen of something. "Next time, I'll be ready. Those Equalist scum won't know what hit 'em. I promise, Mom. I won't let you down. No one is gonna get near Sora or Jeia again, not on my watch. And I've got your back too. You and Dad."
"All right, all right, slow down," Lin eased. "You aren't fighting anyone anytime soon. That arm has got to heal, and besides that, you've got other things to worry about. Your grades, for instance. Don't think I've forgotten about those math scores –"
Yunjin's disbelieving scoff cut her off. "Who cares about math scores when there's a revolution going on? I should be helping you, and the police –"
"I care," Lin countered with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. "I'll let you know if we start hiring twelve year olds, but until then, you can't slack off just because other things are going on. Life will always be messy, but you can't ignore the normal things or you'll just be a failure in other ways. Let me worry about the Equalists. In the meantime, you worry about being a kid. You only get to be young once. And besides, you have to know at least some math to be a cop, so you're argument is invalid."
"Adults really know how to ruin a good time," Yunjin muttered testily, with a barely suppressed eye roll.
"Don't I know it," Lin said sympathetically. She glanced back at her husband, still slumped in the seat directly behind her, his breathing even and Jeia snuggled up against his chest. "Listen," she whispered conspiratorially to Yunjin, "do me a favor and don't mention to your father that I said the f-word in front of you."
"My lips are sealed," Yunjin swore, grinning a little too cheerfully at the prospect of having a secret with his mother.
But then Tenzin's voice rumbled through the silence, not even bothering to lift his head or open his eyes as he mumbled, "Too bad my ears aren't."
Lin winced, and Yunjin hastily defended, "You're just having a dream, Dad. You didn't hear anything. Go back to sleep."
Lin gave Yunjin an impressed look and a nod of approval, adding, "Yeah, Tenzin, go back to sleep."
Tenzin shifted in his seat, and Lin could see his mouth opening wide from the corner of her eye, no doubt preparing for a tirade, but Jeia spoke first, still half-asleep, her voice more of a quiet whine as she blearily mumbled against Tenzin's shoulder, "Mama said fu –"
Tenzin jerked upwards so suddenly that it startled even Lin, who had to clamp down on her jaw to keep from laughing as Tenzin hastily put his hand over Jeia's mouth to stop the swear word from spilling out. Yunjin, meanwhile, began to snicker uncontrollably.
"No, no, Jeia," Tenzin balked, "that's a no-no word. Mama is very bad."
Jeia glared blearily at her father and batted his hand away, but was apparently too tired to berate him, as she immediately laid her head back down on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
Tenzin shot Lin a glare of his own while rubbing Jeia's back to soothe her back to sleep. Yunjin was still laughing and Tenzin gave him a warning look too. The boy's chuckles petered out and he bit down on his lip to stifle anymore that tried to erupt from his throat. He exchanged an amused look with his mother, and it was such a change from the gloom that had befallen all of them earlier in the evening, after the arena had been attacked, that Lin almost forgot where they were.
It was no comfort to remember that they were spending the night in the hospital, to remember Yunjin's broken arm and his unnecessarily guilt-ridden conscious, to remember the sickly pallor of Sora's face and the way her whole body still trembled from the after effects of electroshock. The only solace that Lin could take was that they were all still alive, still together, even if Korra and Ronen were back on the Island. In the morning the rest of them would go home too, and when she was certain that the children were okay, then she would return to work and hunt down Amon. She would put an end to his reign and seek revenge for what he had his henchmen do to her children if it was the last thing that she did.
Sora and Yunjin were still weary and groggy when they were finally permitted to leave the hospital late the following afternoon. Upon arriving on Air Temple Island, they only stayed awake long enough to have something to eat besides the hospital food they'd refused to ingest, to chat with Korra and Ronen for a short period, and to be doted on by Acolyte Nira, who had been told of the previous night's events by Ronen, and had rushed over to see the twins the moment they returned home. Afterwards, both Jin and Sora were encouraged to rest, and neither of them protested.
Nira stayed to talk with Lin and Tenzin about all that had been going on for a little longer, while Ronen and Korra entertained Jeia. Lin was exhausted from spending the night in a hospital chair and everything else that had transpired beforehand, but she wouldn't let herself sleep yet when there was so much to be done. She could tell that Tenzin was just as worn down, but he was making the same effort to remain coherent for as long as possible. They needed to discuss with Nira their next steps, because both Lin and Tenzin were going to need her in the coming weeks. Both of them were going to be at work together more often than not, tracking down leads and seeking out anyone aiding in the Equalist revolution. There had to be someone wealthy and influential involved, for the Equalists to have their own airship and a plethora of weapons that had never even been seen before. If Lin could find the person that was supplying the Equalists and stop the production flow, it would be a massive blow to the Equalists.
But first, she needed to make sure her kids were really okay. She felt some of her own guilt from not having protected them better, but she had told Yunjin that it wasn't his fault for not preventing it, and she figured maybe she should take some of her own advice. It was Amon and his thugs who were to blame, and she would not rest until they were apprehended. The so-called revolution had gone on too long already.
However, it seemed Lin was to have even more on her plate than she already did, because that night, as she was tucking Jeia into bed and struggling to even stay upright after so long awake, the four year old had a request.
Tenzin and the rest of the kids had fallen asleep an hour earlier, but Jeia had still been refusing bed and Lin had insisted that she was okay to stay awake with the toddler so that Tenzin could rest. Despite how tired she was, she wasn't even sure her racing mind would allow her a good night's rest anyways. Nevertheless, she was eager to curl up against her husband's side and finally close her burning eyes.
She was relieved that Jeia was finally ready to pass out, but just after Lin had kissed the girl on the forehead and said goodnight, Jeia tentatively murmured, "Mama?"
"Yeah?" Lin replied, praying the kid didn't ask for a story. Not that Jeia cared much for stories, not like how Sora and Ronen used to plead for them, but she did ask for them on occasion, and Lin wasn't sure she could stay awake through the first three pages without nodding off.
"You can teach me," Jeia said vaguely, followed by a wide mouthed yawn.
Lin was too tired to understand, and she furrowed her brow as she asked, "Teach you what?"
Jeia turned over onto her side, snuggling further under her blankets with a contented sigh as she murmured in response, "Bending."
Suddenly Lin was wide awake and her heart was racing. It was a day she'd simultaneously craved and dreaded, and now it had come in the middle of an already uncertain and harrowing time in all their lives. She would already be so busy with work and the Equalists and everything else, and she was so worried about failing the kids in so many other ways.
But Jeia was ready, and Lin was not going to let her down. She knew that much for certain.
"Okay, Jeia," Lin whispered, as the four year old closed her eyes, having said her peace and ready to sleep. Lin stroked Jeia's cheek and pressed another kiss to the side of her head. "I'll teach you. We'll start as soon as I get home from work tomorrow."
"Okay, Mama," Jeia mumbled, sounding already half asleep, her breathing evening out. "Love you."
"I love you too," Lin promised, waiting until the little one had completely fallen asleep before finally getting up and going to her own room.
She lay awake for a little while, thoughts a mess, just as she'd predicted, but it was as if Tenzin could hear them, because he woke up long enough to roll over half on top of her, press a kiss to the corner of her mouth, and murmur, "Sleep, love."
And so, sandwiched between the mattress and her husband's warmth, Lin finally slept.
Lin rose early the next morning and went straight to work before the kids even woke, Tenzin in tow. She started the day thinking about Jeia and worrying about how she would train the girl, but those concerns were soon forgotten when she arrived at headquarters.
Lin had informed both Saikhan and the council that she would not be readily available on the day after the attack on the pro-bending arena due to her kids being injured. Saikhan had been understanding, and promised to handle the investigation while she took a day to look after her family. Tarrlok, however, had been appalled that she would even consider taking time off, and in the single day that she had been gone, had managed to turn the entire Council against her and Tenzin, as well as possibly the whole of Republic City. In their absence, Tarrlok had held a press conference to address the Equalist issue and the attack on the pro-bending arena. He spent half of it smearing Lin and predictably placing all of the blame on her. He stressed the importance of finding new leadership for the police force, claiming that Lin was no longer capable.
Tenzin was furious, but Lin was not bothered. Tarrlok's political agenda was the least of her worries, and without something drastic, he wouldn't be able to remove her from her position anyways. It would require all five of the council members voting on her removal, which wouldn't happen with Tenzin there, and Tenzin couldn't be removed considering he was the only real Airbender in existence. Her officers or the citizens of Republic City could petition to remove her as well, but she didn't foresee that gaining any traction. The majority of her officers were still loyal to her, and even though some of the citizens would be fooled by Tarrlok's tactics, others knew her well enough from her decades of service not to be swayed so quickly. She had failed them this time, but she would not allow it to happen again.
By the time she returned home that evening, after spending all day altering between damage control and seeking out answers to how the Equalists were getting their resources, Lin was exhausted again. She would have rather laid around with the kids and done absolutely nothing, but she had made Jeia a promise and she wasn't going back on it. So while Tenzin started on dinner, Lin took Jeia outside to begin her earthbending training.
Lin had almost no idea where to start, considering that her own bending training had happened so early in her life that she could barely remember it. And what she could remember was nothing that she would be using with Jeia. Lin wasn't going to start hurling rocks at her kid or blindfold her anytime soon. She wanted Jeia's training to be more like how Tenzin had taught the twins airbending, calm and a little spiritual, focusing on movements and senses first and foremost.
It wasn't until Lin and Jeia sat down on the ground across from one another that Lin began to wonder how Su had gone about teaching her own kids. Lin had never thought to ask her sister about it, and it was a bit too late now, but perhaps Lin would make a point to reach out. It had been a while since she'd had much of a conversation with Su. Ever since Korra had come to the city, everything had been such a mess, and Lin hadn't found the time to so much as send Su a letter. She knew that Tenzin had occasionally been in contact, and that Ronen probably kept his cousin Opal up to date, but Lin resolved to talk to her sister just as soon as things settled down. If that day ever came.
For now, Lin was on her own.
She told Jeia to close her eyes and try to sense the earth surrounding her, and the girl tried for all of four seconds before she professed to being bored. Lin pursed her lips and tried another tactic. She picked up a rock and placed it in Jeia's hand, curling the girl's tiny fingers over top of it, and holding both of her own around Jeia's hand to keep it closed.
"Try to sense this then," Lin encouraged. "Tell me, what do you feel?"
Jeia scrunched up her nose and plainly said, "It's hard."
Lin nodded. "Okay, what else?"
Jeia stared at her mother for several long seconds, and then shrugged, huffing irritably as she complained, "It's just a rock."
Lin sighed and tossed the rock aside, taking both of Jeia's hands in her own and placing them flat on the ground. "Close your eyes," Lin commanded, and Jeia did so after what looked suspiciously like an eye roll. "Just listen," Lin went on, releasing her hold on Jeia's hands to place her own fists on the ground. She knocked on the packed earth twice with her right fist. "Did you hear that with your ears?" Jeia nodded, and Lin tapped the ground with her pointer finger, too quiet to really be heard by the human ear, but simultaneously using her earthbending to send vibrations through dirt that an earthbender would be able to sense. "How about that?"
Jeia frowned and didn't answer, so Lin caused a couple more vibrations, barely even twitching her fingers, her breathing slow and quiet, waiting patiently for Jeia to show signs of comprehension.
And then, all of a sudden, Jeia lurched backwards, snatching her hands off of the ground as if she had been burned, and sounding distressed as she squealed, "Stop it!"
Lin immediately lifted her own hands in a placating gesture, confused and startled, wondering what she could have done wrong, worried by how distressed Jeia looked as she clamped her little hands down over her ears.
"Too loud," Jeia complained, as if she had been listening to the earth with her ears and not sensing the movement.
"So you could feel it then?" Lin inquired, eager and concerned and everything else in between. She had no idea what she was doing, but she wanted to do it right. She wanted Jeia to be strong and capable, not simply scared as she had been every other time she'd accidentally used her bending. It was Lin's job not only to protect her kids, but to prepare them to protect themselves, for the times when she could not. Jeia needed to be comfortable with her bending rather than fearful, or else she would fail to use it when she needed it most, or would be terribly traumatized by whatever she did on instinct. The Equalist that Jeia had struck down in the pro-bending arena had nearly suffocated under the force of the metal bar she had placed over top of them, was still recovering in the hospital from broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Jeia would never know what she had caused, because Lin was certainly never going to tell her four year old such a thing, but it was just another reason that Lin needed to be successful in training her youngest daughter. For Jeia's protection and for others.
Jeia shook her head rapidly with a frown. "Too loud, Mama."
"Okay, okay," Lin placated. "It's all right. It's just new, that's all. You aren't used to it." Lin picked up the rock again and placed it in Jeia's palm, but didn't close the girl's fist. Instead, she placed her own hand underneath of Jeia's smaller one and began to move the rock up and back down to hover just a short centimeter above Jeia's palm. Jeia watched with a bit of wonderment, and Lin asked, "Can you sense that?" Jeia shrugged, looking uncertain, and Lin let the rock drop the rest of the way to Jeia's palm. "You try it."
Jeia's face scrunched up in consternation, and she glared hard at the rock in her hand, willing it to move. But after several seconds of her face turning a darker and darker shade of red, the rock still hadn't budged, and Lin tapped her on the shoulder and ordered, "Breathe."
Jeia blew out a heavy breath and her shoulders slumped. She heaved in a lungful of air and then pursed her lips into a pout as she continued to stare glumly at the rock.
Lin snatched it up and placed it on the ground next to her own knee before leaning back to better get a hand inside her pocket. She rooted around for a couple of seconds until her fingers grasped the metal coin she had placed there earlier. Then she placed it in Jeia's palm and said, "Try this."
Jeia straightened up instantly, a new wave of confidence filling her as she examined the metal coin. She stared for several long moments again, and when nothing happened, Lin thought perhaps her assumptions had been wrong. It had seemed that Jeia had a particular proclivity for metalbending as opposed to the regular earthbending from which metalbending got its start, but perhaps the girl was simply thinking too hard, or maybe bending did not come as easy as it did to her in high-stress situations.
However, almost as soon as Lin started to think it, Jeia proved her wrong.
The coin shot up off of Jeia's palm and hovered in front of her face, and the girl looked scared for all of three seconds before her expression morphed into a smug grin. Before Lin could commend the girl for a job well done, the coin began to shift and change before her eyes. Lin was silent, letting Jeia experiment, the coin morphing into a few shapes that were recognizable and a few that were not.
It wasn't until the coin stretched and curved and meshed into a particularly familiar symbol that Lin felt surprise.
Jeia snatched it out of the air and held it up to her eye to examine first, before holding out to her mother for approval. "Like your necklace, Mama!" Jeia proclaimed, and Lin idly touched the betrothal necklace around her throat.
She wore it so often that she sometimes forgot that it was even there. It fit beneath the collar of her armor and wasn't affected by water, so she hardly ever felt the need to take it off. She almost couldn't even recall the moment that Tenzin had given it to her all those years ago, but she knew that he had spent a lot of time carefully crafting it to her tastes, had used metal for the pendant and a thin black cord that was unobtrusive and far from flashy. He had wanted to marry her so badly that he had created it long before he even proposed, and in the beginning of their engagement she had liked to look at it simply as a reminder that both terrified and delighted her. It had still felt strange around her neck back then, almost suffocating and slightly annoying for someone that never wore jewelry, but after several years of marriage and four kids, she no longer even noticed it was there, except for when she wanted to. During the days when she worked such long hours that she never even got to see Tenzin awake for longer than a few minutes at most, she took comfort in feeling the metal pendant against her skin. And when their lives were thrown into chaos and turmoil, she looked to the betrothal necklace to remember that not all was so dire.
Lin was not typically sentimental over particular objects, but there were a few that she treasured. She still had the mini boomerang that Ronen had crafted when he was five – it didn't work, but she remembered him toiling away at it for hours and then presenting it to her with such a proud, beaming smile. She also had a small box that Tenzin had bought her when they were dating to hold the very few pieces of jewelry that she owned, and while the box itself could have – and probably should have – been replaced, inside she kept a frayed blue ribbon. It was one that Sora used to insist on being tied into her hair nearly everyday, but which she would hastily untie the moment she spotted her mother trying to pull back or braid her own hair. Sora would selflessly present the bow to Lin, letting her meticulous hairdo fall out of place in favor of helping her mother, and so they had shared it for at least two years before Sora stopped wearing it, and Lin kept it in the jewelry box for safe keeping.
Ronen's mini boomerang sat propped up behind the jewelry box, and next to it was a painting that Yunjin had made many years ago. Tenzin always kept the kids' artwork, no matter how atrocious, but Lin had never felt any particular connection with any of them before, though she could recognize that Sora might have a real talent for art. However, when Yunjin was three, he had come down with a terrible virus, one that left him sweating and shivering with fever and with a horrible, hacking cough. The healers had all told Lin and Tenzin that Jin would make a full recovery with the antibiotics, but every time the kid breathed it had sounded like something was rattling around in his lungs, and Lin had stayed up through the night to sit by his bed while he slept fitfully, paranoid that if she left him he might stop breathing. That memory was not a fond one, of course, but the first sign that Yunjin was beginning to feel better and recover was when he made the painting. In the beginning of the illness, he had been too weak to even sit upright, and after a few days of worrying, one day he suddenly sat up and wanted to color. Lin had gathered up as many supplies as she could find, and then spent several hours painting with her son, even though the three year old's drawings were better than hers. The painting she kept was basically just stick figures of the two of them, but Lin had been so relieved at the time that he was getting better that she hadn't been able to part with it.
Lin didn't have anything of Jeia's yet, except for a stuffed armadillo-lion that the late Lieutenant Jeia had secretly bought while Lin was pregnant, intending to give it to her Chief when the baby was born. Lieutenant Jeia's wife, Ailyn, had remembered the stuffed animal a few months after her wife's death, and presented it to baby Jeia on one of the few instances where she had visited the island at Lin and Tenzin's behest. Jeia hadn't played with the stuffed animal much, so it stayed safely up on a shelf. Lin and Tenzin sometimes told Jeia Rai about her namesake on the occasions when she did play with the armadillo-lion, but she was still too young to know anything other than that Lieutenant Jeia had been a brave police officer that was a friend of Mama's and, according to Tenzin, was living with the spirits now.
The betrothal necklace, though, was the reason that all of those things existed. It was because Tenzin had asked her to marry him, and because she had said yes. Their marriage had been raked across the coals, along with their emotions, even in the first few years, and yet they had always made it work. They had succeeded in making a life together, and later in creating four amazing children. If there was a starting point to their relationship it was most likely many, many years ago, before the engagement, but the proposal had started them on the right track, even if there were bumps in the road. Lin didn't need the necklace to love her husband or to be grateful for their children and their life, but it was still essentially important to her. Their kids knew that, and had tried to recreate the necklace themselves at times, whether in drawings from Jin and Sora or crafts from Ronen, because they knew just as well that it was a symbol of their parents' love, and perhaps even the symbol of their family. It was just a combination of the earth and air symbols, and yet so much more to them. And now four year old Jeia had easily recreated it almost perfectly in just a few seconds, while her father had painstakingly tried to carve through metal over several months.
It was funny and endearing and incredible, and Lin smiled as she accepted the proffered gift from Jeia. The girl couldn't budge a rock, and trying to listen with her hands splayed on the ground was "too loud", but apparently she could detect the subtle bits of earth inside of metal to shape it to her will with little effort. It had taken Lin until she was seven years old to conquer metalbending, which had been an amazing feat back then, considering most earthbenders were grown adults before they ever mastered it, if they managed it at all. But then Suyin had started metalbending at five, and all of Lin's pride had vanished, replaced with bitter resentment as she watched Toph parade Su around, boasting that her youngest daughter was a prodigy.
Just the memory of it turned Lin's stomach sour even all these years later, but the anger and hurt was no longer really there. She was proud of her sister now, in so many ways, and they were both fully capable benders. It didn't have to be a bitter competition. Besides, Jeia Rai had been two when she first started metalbending, and she had never even been given any lessons, and she had toppled an entire building, so Lin's daughter had beaten both of them. Lin remembered the talk she had had with Su shortly after Jeia's first accident had happened. She remembered asking her sister if any of her own kids had been able to bend so early, if they could ever have caused such accidental destruction. Lin had been worried and looking for Su to reassure her, but Su's response hadn't been that soothing. Wei had spontaneously started bending at three, but all he did was nudge a rock. Huan had picked up on metalbending the fastest, but Su had been training him and he was around eight years old before he managed it. So Lin was still uncertain about why Jeia could bend metal so well so young, but Su seemed to think it was nothing to worry over, and also impossible to really find an answer for so why bother fretting?
Lin was a perpetual worrier though, so she probably wouldn't stop anytime soon.
"That's very good, Jeia," Lin told the proud girl, examining the altered metal coin with both sight and her bending senses. She felt her own swell of pride and a spontaneous urge to hug her daughter. It wasn't what Toph would have done, certainly not for something seemingly so miniscule of a feat, and part of Lin balked at the idea of doing something so touchy-feely when they were in the middle of a serious training session.
Except it wasn't so serious, not like it had been when Lin was learning bending, and Toph wasn't there, and Lin could do whatever the hell she liked. She wasn't going to keep Jeia at arms length just to try and toughen her up, or whatever it was that Toph was trying to do. So Lin opened her arms and beckoned Jeia forward, and the girl didn't hesitate to leap into her mother's embrace.
The rest of the training session went differently than Lin originally planned. Since it was clear that plain earthbending was not Jeia's strength, Lin switched tactics and decided to teach the toddler how to control metalbending instead. Jeia picked up on those lessons much easier, though her control over the element was still very tentative. She could move metal rods and plates with relative ease, but aiming was another story. Lin spent over an hour working with Jeia, trying to get a four year old to focus and maintaining a forced patience that she had had to master long ago, even before she had kids that tested it at every turn.
It was a relief when Tenzin came out just as dusk was falling to tell them that dinner was ready. Lin took Jeia to get cleaned up, and then they joined the rest of the family in the dining room. Upon entering the room, Lin took a moment to look upon her family and feel relief that they were all looking better already after that awful night in the arena. The color had come back to Sora's complexion, and she was no longer trembling for no reason or grimacing at the sight of food. She was helping her twin brother with filling up his plate, his arm still wrapped tight in a cast, but no longer causing him as much pain after the healing session he'd had earlier in the day. Tenzin was swamped with work and worries just like Lin, but he had gotten a good night's rest the night before and it had at least lessened the dark shadows under his eyes. He smiled broadly when Lin and Jeia entered the room, bending to catch his youngest daughter as she went running to leap into his arms. He settled down at the table with Jeia in his lap and listened with rapt attention as she somewhat uncharacteristically babbled on about all that she had learned from Mama.
Ronen and Korra were both smiling again too, chattering away excitedly about something, as per usual, and Lin sometimes wondered if they would ever run out of things to talk about. Both of them went silent though, when they noticed her approaching the table, and she had barely sat down when the two teens turned innocent, pleading looks onto her. They greeted Lin as one, and she eyed them suspiciously as they began to rush through a brief explanation, finishing each others sentences and speaking over each other before finally getting to the point. Lin was watching them with some impatience as she pieced together their request. Apparently their friends, Mako and Bolin, were staying with Asami Sato in her father's mansion after the pro-bending arena where the two boys lived had been closed down. Asami had invited Ronen and Korra to visit the following day, and the two teens had asked for permission to go from Tenzin, who had answered that they would have to run it by Lin first. Lin was so surprised that they were actually asking instead of just running off that she didn't know what to say at first. She pretended to deliberate it for longer than necessary, just because she enjoyed making them sweat for a little bit while she slowly and methodically began to fill her plate. Ronen and Korra were nearly bursting with anticipation when she finally answered, "I suppose that's all right."
They were both so excited by her response that they thanked her by lunging at her simultaneously to give her a wholly unexpected hug. It nearly knocked her over, but it was so brief that they were back in their seats before she even had time to register what had just happened. Ronen and Korra immediately put their heads back together to go back to their own conversation. Once the surprise had worn off, Lin narrowed her eyes at them a bit suspiciously, wondering if they were just sucking up to her now so that she might be less rigid later when they did something she wasn't happy about, but she went back to her dinner and decided not to think on it too much.
Lin only managed to swallow a few bites of food before the shrill ring of the telephone echoed down the hall. She and Tenzin exchanged exasperated looks, and he shifted as if about to rise and get it himself. But he was still holding Jeia, and Lin put a hand on his arm to stop him. "I got it," she said, before standing up from the table with a sigh.
She hastened down the hall and answered the phone with a gruff, "Beifong."
"Chief," a familiar voice replied, "it's Saikhan."
"This better be good," she warned. "I told you I didn't want to be disturbed tonight, and I was in the middle of dinner."
"Oh it's good," Saikhan assured. "We just got an anonymous tip that Cabbage Corp is supplying the Equalists."
"Cabbage Corp?" Lin echoed in surprise. "How did we get this tip? Do you think it's credible?"
"We got a call, wouldn't say who they were," Saikhan explained. "Just that they worked closely with Gan-Lan and they were horrified to find out that he's working for the Equalists. Says he's setting up a shipment to go out to Amon tomorrow night. We'll find all the evidence we need in Gan-Lan's warehouse."
"Have we got people watching the warehouse?" Lin demanded.
"Ikuro has got a team over there," Saikhan said. "They're just waiting on you to arrive and give the go ahead."
Lin considered her options for a moment and the implications of what it would mean if Cabbage Corp really was supplying the Equalists. If it were true, then it was just the breakthrough she was looking for, but it also seemed far too convenient.
"Tell them to hold off," Lin decided. "Keep a –"
"Hold off?!" Saikhan interjected, with unabashed ire. "My apologies, but are you kidding me, Chief? We need to make a stand against these hostile nonbenders. They can't just side with the Equalists and not expect retribution, and if Gan-Lan is really supplying them, we can't let that shipment go out. We've been twiddling our thumbs long enough, trying not to step on anybody's toes, but this isn't politics anymore. This a threat to our very way of life."
Lin waited a beat after Saikhan's tirade, listening to his harsh breath over the phone, and then she asked, "Are you finished?"
Saikhan cleared his throat and testily replied, "I think that about sums it up, yes, Chief."
"Good, then allow me to finish," Lin said, not without her own irritation. She knew that Saikhan was under nearly as much stress as her, but they had usually been of one mind when it came to these situations. He was a little more 'arrest first, ask questions later,' but typically he was respectful of her decisions and often understanding. The Equalist revolution was affecting everyone in so many ways. "As I was saying, tell them to hold off for tonight. Keep Ikuro's team there to watch the warehouse, but not to interfere unless there is an absolute need. That means definitive, undeniable Equalist activity. If the source is to be trusted, then the shipment isn't going out until tomorrow night. That means tomorrow morning we raid the place. I'll go to Gan-Lan first thing, request that we have a look in his warehouse. This could be a false report, and until we have further proof or permission I'm not going to go busting down doors of prominent, influential citizens because of an anonymous phone call, especially not in this political climate, because the politics do matter, to an extent. That doesn't mean I'll hesitate to get to the bottom of this, but wrongly accusing nonbenders isn't the way to go about it. We are just as much their protectors as we are benders'. We want nonbenders to know that we are on their side too, so that more of them don't flock to the Equalists by default. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Chief," Saikhan muttered, but he didn't make it sound very convincing.
"Good, then I'll see you first thing in the morning. Until then, call me if anything happens at the warehouse, but do not instigate."
"Copy," was all Saikhan said before the line went dead.
Lin sighed wearily and placed the phone back on the cradle. She didn't know whether or not the tip was good, but she did know that she would be up all night wondering, and no matter the outcome, she was going to be under a lot of public scrutiny now more than ever. But she felt certain that the Equalists' supplier was one of the biggest keys to taking down Amon, and she would do whatever necessary to find them, no matter the cost to her job.
Notes:
-My apologies for the long wait this time, my lovely readers, hopefully this chapter makes up for it. Next up, Hiroshi Sato's secrets are revealed, Lin resigns after another loss, and Tarrlok imposes a curfew on nonbenders. As always, looking forward to hearing your thoughts, and until next time!-
Chapter 49: Chapter 49
Chapter Text
Chapter 49
Ronen's first impression of Asami Sato was probably the same as nearly any other teenager of fifteen years. He felt simultaneous emotions of awe and intimidation and some unexplainable attraction.
He was seldom star struck, considering who his family was, but he had seen Asami in the public before, at gatherings his father was obligated to attend, and he had admired her for a while now for more than outward appearances. He had never spoken to her before the gala held in Korra's honor, but even from afar he could tell that there was more to her than the pretty rich girl persona that others often saw. Ronen did not know much about Asami, but he could tell that she was intelligent and charismatic, and likely just as inventive as her father. Several of the new features outfitted to recent Satomobiles had been attributed to Asami's contribution. Ronen had seen her speak at one of the unveilings, and had been blown away by her clear knowledge of the subject. He didn't know much about Satomobiles himself, considering he had only ever been in his mother's police car once or twice and never any other vehicle of the sort, but he had curiously studied a portion of a manual once before. The engineering was astounding, and he wished to learn more. However, he had never dreamed of meeting Asami Sato in person, and certainly never imagined being invited to her home.
Despite his interests, Ronen had initially kept a bit of distance between himself and Asami when she first began dating Mako, just as Korra was. He knew all too much about the drama of Mako dating Asami and Korra liking Mako and Bolin liking Korra, and he hadn't wanted to get in the middle anymore than he had to. And any intrigue he had for Asami was of little consequence, because Korra was his best friend, and he was loyal to her first and foremost.
When Korra had begun to admit her feelings for Mako to Ronen – shortly after Asami and Mako began seeing each other – Ronen had advised her against going after Mako for fear of her getting hurt. But he also wanted Korra to be happy and he wasn't in charge of her so he didn't try to control her decision on the matter. His mother's advice, though, had resonated with Korra, even if it hadn't been the thing she wanted to hear, and she had decided against pursuing Mako for now, and later let Bolin down gently when she realized his intentions. It had all been a little awkward at first, and Asami seemed rather oblivious to the Fire Ferret's drama, but otherwise they all managed to maintain a level of friendship and civility, and for that Ronen was grateful.
Despite the fact that the Fire Ferrets had lost the pro-bending final and Amon had tragically attacked the stadium, it had only really served to bring the five teens closer together. Korra and Ronen had initially advocated to Ronen's parents for Mako and Bolin to stay on Air Temple Island now that they were out of a home, but while Korra and Ronen had been with his siblings and parents after the events of the arena, Asami Sato had already offered up her own home to the two brothers. Korra had been dejected by the news, but Ronen had admittedly been a little relieved. While he certainly enjoyed Bolin's company nowadays and wouldn't have minded having a male friend around, he was also aware that his parents were under a lot of strain already, and adding two more teens to the five kids they were already responsible for would likely not have helped that. He knew they had only agreed because they didn't want to abandon two fairly young boys to the streets, as Korra pointed out that Bolin and Mako had already been forced to live that way before when they were even younger. Ronen's father was far too good hearted to say no to such a request, and his mother was the same, but she was also practical, and especially uncomfortable with people unknown to her being so close to her family and potentially seeing her when she was not as closed off and professional as she was in public. Throwing two mostly unknown boys into their family dynamic would certainly make her uneasy, even if she denied it.
Ronen wasn't even certain that he fully trusted Mako himself. While he had definitely warmed to the older boy a little as of late, and forgiven him for their first harsh encounter, he was still uncertain of Mako's intentions. Ronen could tell that Mako was fully aware of Korra's feelings for him, and seemed to be wavering between her and Asami. Asami would be fully ensconced in his arms and he would still be casting furtive glances at Korra. Ronen could understand the indecision, to an extent, but he didn't think it was fair to either girl. If Mako could not make up his mind then he shouldn't be with either of them. Ronen had tried to hint to that on the one occasion where he had been alone with Mako, but the firebender was fully in denial and they weren't close enough yet for Ronen to really get a good read on him. He was worried that Mako would play on Korra's feelings for him, and possibly hurt her and Asami both. Ronen didn't personally understand what either girl saw in Mako. He was mature and decent looking, sure, but he was moody more often than he was charismatic, and his protection of his younger brother, while admirable, was sometimes borderline controlling. If given the choice between the two, Ronen would have given Bolin a chance first, though he could also see how the boyish naiveté could be less appealing than someone who seemed as level-headed as Mako.
Nevertheless, Ronen could acknowledge that much of his feelings against Mako stemmed from his own desire to protect Korra and perhaps some small adoration of Asami. Ronen did not like the idea of Korra and Mako together, it just didn't seem right to him, but what did he know about relationships really? He had never been all that interested, and his mother had certainly advised against it, which he knew was only because of her over-protective nature, but it had still influenced some of his decisions, as had the fact that he had been sheltered on the Island for the first decade of his life. Besides that, he honestly was just interested in so many other things that he could hardly find time for friends at school, let alone maintain a relationship. He had been on maybe two 'dates' of sorts, and there had certainly been interest from several of his classmates, but with his family's fame status he was suspicious of most people's intent. He was treated differently because of who his parents were, and it was easier to just avoid the fiasco altogether. He much preferred reading or tinkering, and lately he had so much going on with Korra and his family and the Equalist threat that he was amazed Korra even had the time to think about boys. But she had never had much exposure to a relationship either, which he believed was part of the reason he felt so protective, besides the obvious fact that he cared a great deal for his friend. His brother, Yunjin, teased that Ronen had feelings for Korra himself, but Ronen didn't think that was a factor. He was intellectual enough to acknowledge that it wasn't impossible, but overall he was certain that he saw Korra as more of a sister, and he was confident she viewed him much the same. She was brilliant and beautiful and exciting, and they had certainly maintained a level of friendship over many years, but he had grown up with stories and clear evidence of how enamored his father was by his mother, and that was not the way that he felt about Korra. He lit up when she entered a room and was happy to spend most of his time with her, but his heart did not leap and his mind did not race. He did not desire to be intimately close to her. He could fully see himself spending his life at her side, but as a close friend and advisor, nothing romantic.
Asami, on the other hand, Ronen was not so confident of his emotions. He was fairly sure that it was just a schoolboy crush. After all, she was two years older, beautiful, intelligent, and mostly unknown to him. He was intrigued by the mystery, and few could say that they too were not initially drawn in by Asami's spell. He thought that he was also a little enamored because of the way that Asami treated him on the few occasions when they'd been able speak for a short period. She was always so kind and respectful. She never treated him differently because of who his parents were, and she seemed to view him as an equal rather than a child like Mako did. But Ronen was fully aware that she was in a relationship and he was a bit too young to be on her radar anyways. He didn't know her well enough to really understand his feelings for her yet, and he wasn't sure that he even wanted to. What good could come from him discovering feelings for Asami?
Nevertheless, he wouldn't let any of that stop him from getting to know her and perhaps becoming her friend. As much as he enjoyed Bolin and even sometimes Mako's company – and of course he cared a great deal for Korra – it would be refreshing to engage with someone he might have a little more in common with. Asami was a nonbender famous for her father's contributions to the city, and that was something Korra, and especially Mako and Bolin, could not understand. Ronen was more than a little excited to spend the day at the Sato mansion with Korra and the others, in part to discover what Asami was like outside of the public view, and also because it would be nice to enjoy a day with friends without the pressures of school or family or the Equalist revolution. He had been out of school for two days after the attack on the arena, and he had not been thrilled to go back. Despite being the one that had pushed to get his parents to let him attend public school, it was becoming increasingly more of a burden now with everything going on. He genuinely enjoyed most of his classes, but he cared less and less about completing his homework when he could be spending his time reading up on ways to better protect himself. He had been working to recreate some of the gadgets that he had discovered in the ancient scroll that Bumi's former wife Lue had sent him, and so far he had only been successful with one, but he was fairly certain that he was close to a breakthrough on a second. He was hoping that, if all went well, perhaps Asami might be open to helping him complete it, but he didn't want to get too far ahead of himself just yet.
At first, Ronen was certain that the visit was going perfectly well. Korra was predictably standoffish at first, still uncertain around Asami and harboring jealousy, but that all changed fairly quickly. Asami took them down to her father's private racing track where they tested future Satomobiles. Korra's attitude had rapidly begun to turn to excitement, and Ronen was relieved. He loved seeing his friend happy and relaxed after so frequently enduring such trying times, and he was glad that she and Asami appeared to be getting along so well. He had been hopeful that the two of them would find a way to get to know each other outside of the Mako shadow.
When Asami offered to take Ronen and Korra on a lap around the track, they both jumped at the chance. Asami took Korra in one car, and they raced Ronen and another of the test drivers. It was the first time Ronen and Korra had experienced anything like it, and they were both equally exhilarated and breathless. Asami and Korra beat Ronen and his driver, but it was a close race and he still had a lot of fun. As did Korra, who was beaming afterwards and admitted to Asami that she may have unfairly judged her. Asami and Korra were able to laugh it off and strike up a genuine conversation, and Ronen could only smile as he watched them bond.
Everything was going well, and Ronen was inordinately pleased. When the five of them returned to the mansion, Bolin and Korra went off to find bathrooms, and Ronen stayed back to talk to Asami. Mako was there, but Ronen sort of forgot, his attention too focused on asking Asami about what sort of projects she was working on. He started to think that maybe he was gushing too much and apologized, but Asami insisted that she enjoyed a lively discussion with someone that was seemingly as excited about it as she was.
Ronen thought he could have talked to Asami for hours more, but Korra returned from the bathroom acting strange shortly after. She grabbed Ronen's arm in a vice grip and said, "We told your parents we'd babysit Jeia, remember?"
Ronen knew he and Korra had promised no such thing, knew that Nira was with Jeia and intended to be all afternoon until his parents returned home, but there was a frantic look in Korra's eyes, and he knew that she wouldn't have lied like that unless it was something serious. So he nodded and feigned surprise as he replied, "Oh, you're right! I completely forgot. We were having so much fun…" He turned to Asami as Korra was dragging him out the door and added, "Thanks so much, we had a great time, sorry to run out like this…"
And then he and Korra were outside and racing down the mansion steps. He asked what was going on, but Korra insisted they wait until they got back to the Island where it was safer before they discussed it. That was when she finally explained to him that she had overheard a phone call from Hiroshi Sato that made it sound as if he was working for the Equalists. Ronen could hardly believe it, and he certainly couldn't believe that Asami could have any involvement even if it weretrue, but then again, he hardly knew the Satos. And besides that, he trusted Korra implicitly, and if she said that Hiroshi was working for the Equalists then he was going to believe her until they found evidence saying otherwise. His mother had only just arrested the head of Cabbage Corp that morning on the same charge, but if what Korra had overheard was exactly as it sounded, then it was Hiroshi that planted the evidence against Cabbage Corp.
So Ronen and Korra went into the city again that night to meet in secret with his parents. Ronen had said they should wait until his parents got home, but he had no idea when that would be, considering how late his parents worked recently, and Korra was insistent that it be done as soon as possible. Ronen was just as eager to get to the bottom of the whole thing, so he agreed to set up the meeting. The four of them met on the roof of police headquarters, and Korra revealed what she had heard to Ronen's parents.
His mother and father took the accusation seriously, and agreed to have another talk with Mr. Sato, citing that the business man had the means and a motive. Ronen was surprised to hear that Asami's mother had been killed by a firebender in a robbery many years ago, when he himself was only a few years old. He had never asked after Asami's mother, and he was glad now that he hadn't, considering what a painful reminder it might be for her. It would make sense that Asami's father had a vendetta against benders, but Ronen was a little hopeful that Korra's assumption was somehow wrong. If Hiroshi was working with the Equalists, then either Asami was too, or she was oblivious to her father's treachery, and Mako and Bolin were both living in a home that could prove dangerous for two benders.
Ronen insisted on accompanying his parents and Korra upon their return to the Sato mansion, despite the queasy feeling in his stomach, and the nervous nausea was not quelled in the following hours. When his parents confronted Hiroshi about what Korra had overheard, the businessman had a quick excuse, and agreed to allow the police to search his warehouses with little to no concern. Asami was enraged by the accusations, but Hiroshi appeared unbothered. And when the investigation yielded no results, Ronen could understand why. Either Hiroshi had hid his involvement with the Equalists very well, or he had no ties to them at all.
Ronen could tell that neither his parents or Korra were convinced by the lack of findings, but there was little to be done with no other evidence available to them. It was just as they were discussing Hiroshi's apparent innocence when Mako and Asami approached the four of them.
"Okay, you did your search," Asami spat, eyes narrowed in a striking rage. "Now you all can leave."
Ronen's mother made an unimpressed noise in the back of her throat and carefully observed Asami with a narrowed gaze of her own. Ronen wanted to assure Asami that what they were doing was not a slight towards her family, but simply a necessary evil in such times when a revolution was at hand and everyone was a suspect. But he noticed Korra following Mako a few steps away out of the corner of his eye, and his concern for his friend won out over his desire to console Asami. Mako had been just as furious at Korra's accusation as Asami, and Ronen did not trust the guy, especially in such a high strung emotional state.
Sure enough, as Ronen caught up, Mako was demanding of Korra, "Why are you doing this? Are you that jealous of me and Asami?"
Korra gasped and spluttered, "What?! No! This has nothing to do with that!"
"If you do this, consider our friendship over," Mako threatened, arms folded haughtily over his chest.
Ronen interjected then, his mother's fury shining through as he stood toe to toe with the firebender, his hands balled into fists as he warned, "Back it up, pretty boy."
"Or what?" Mako scoffed, unruffled by Ronen's ire. "Y'know, I expected better of you. Accusing the Satos just because they aren't benders? You must know how crazy this is. If you were really Korra's friend, you'd be talking some sense into her."
"Some friend you are," Ronen countered, "abandoning her the second she says something you don't want to hear, and then making it all about yourself. You really think this is some petty jealousy? Or incompetency on my parents' part? Just because you're afraid of the implication that your girlfriend's rich father might not be all he appears, doesn't mean you should just abandon your friends."
"You're no friend of mine," Mako fired back.
"Likewise," Ronen conceded, "but Korra is, and I'm not about to stand here and let you –"
"Hey," Korra suddenly interjected, placing herself between Ronen and Mako, arms outstretched to push them apart. She gave Ronen a pleading look to stop, and then turned on Mako, downcast but determined as she said, "I'm sorry, but Hiroshi is not the man you think he is. I'm not letting this go."
Mako harrumphed and spun on his heel, turning back towards where Asami waited for him. Korra's shoulders slumped, but she didn't watch Mako go. She squeezed Ronen's shoulder and gave him a grateful look, despite the sorrow clear in her eyes, and then she walked away too, to seek solace from Naga. Ronen was left standing alone between the two teammates that were once friends, and his anger faded as quickly as it had come. His shoulders slumped too, and he watched Mako turn Asami away with some dismay of his own. Despite his feelings for Mako of late, the older boy had started to grow on Ronen just a bit, and he had only just started to really get to know Asami. And Korra cared deeply for Mako even if Ronen could not understand it, and it was all just so…sad.
Asami glanced over her shoulder as Mako was pulling her away, and her gaze locked with Ronen's for just a second. She must have seen something there in his eyes, because she was suddenly shrugging out of Mako's grip and motioning for him to stay put, and she strode over to stand face to face with Ronen.
Ronen straightened up a bit nervously, but stood his ground as Asami stood before him.
"You have to know that my father is innocent," Asami said first, voice low.
"I know only what I've seen so far," Ronen refuted. "There is no evidence yet, but until it's been proven beyond a reasonable doubt –"
"Don't patronize me," Asami interrupted, looking annoyed. "I'm not stupid. What my father said might have been suspicious at first, but this has gone on long enough. Your mother has searched all of Future Industries and found nothing. What does that tell you?"
"I hope it means he's innocent," Ronen admitted, "but until we know for sure –"
Asami snorted in disbelief. "And what will it take then? Where else could he be hiding Equalist weapons? Ronen…" Asami reached out suddenly and snatched up one of his hands, and for a moment he flinched, ready to go on the defensive, but she simply held it there in a tight grip, her gaze imploring. "You know that this is prejudice. If my father were a bender, none of you would have thought twice about this."
Ronen sighed heavily. She had a point, but it didn't change what Korra had heard or believed. It didn't change that Hiroshi's behavior was suspicious, no matter how much Ronen wished it to be otherwise. "I don't know what you want me to say," he told Asami truthfully. "It isn't my decision to make, and I want to –"
"They'll listen to you," Asami persisted. "Your parents and Korra…call them off of this search. Make them see reason. If anyone can do it, it's you. You're a nonbender too. You know what it's like to be misjudged, especially in times like this."
Ronen frowned, because she was sounding an awful lot like Asuka from school. Asuka, who had tried to sway him into joining the Equalists, who had electrocuted him at the pro-bending arena and left him, and who hadn't been back to school since. She was always pointing out how Ronen must understand what it was like, how he must know why the Equalists fought for what they did. Everyone thought that just because he was a nonbender that he would forsake his family and that was as far from the truth as anything had ever been. He had problems that none of his parents or siblings or Korra would ever face, sure, but it was nothing he could not handle, and it didn't mean that there was anything wrong with them or the way that they thought. The Equalists were vicious and Amon was power hungry, and every possible link to them needed to be taken seriously. Ronen did not like to think that Asami was somehow involved, and he did not truly believe that her words were meant as a sort of manipulation tactic like Asuka tried on him, but it made him uncomfortable anyways.
He carefully pulled his hand out of her grasp and spoke softly as he said, "I'm sorry, Asami. I know that this is difficult, and I hope that your father is innocent too, but until we know for certain, I won't try to intervene. No matter what happens, I hope that perhaps, one day, you can forgive us for this, but for now, I have to do what is right."
Asami took a step back, shaking her head sadly and pursing her lips. "If that's how you feel…" She straightened up and her features hardened, all steel to her voice now, devoid of any hint of pleading from before. "It was a pleasure getting to know you, Ronen Beifong. It's a shame that it must end like this."
She spun on her heel before he could respond, and he watched her stride away with a pang in his gut, hopeful that he had made the right decision. He was being honest when he told Asami that he had little say in the whole matter, but it was also true that his parents and Korra respected his opinions, and would have at least heard him out if he tried to dissuade them from pursuing Hiroshi. However, he also trusted their instincts, and if they were suspicious of Hiroshi, it was for good reason. He had no doubts about that.
As it turned out, Ronen was right to side with Korra and his parents. No sooner had Asami and Mako left than a message was slipped into Korra's hand. It was from one of Hiroshi's employees and a self-confessed Equalist, who urged them to meet him under the Silk Road bridge if they wanted to know the truth. It was there that Ronen, Korra, and his parents learned that Hiroshi's secret factory was supposedly under the Sato mansion. His mother immediately gathered an airship full of officers to take back to the Sato mansion, while Ronen's father urged him to return home. But Ronen was not sitting this one out. He was already involved, and he was going to see it through to the end. He needed to know one way or another if Hiroshi was working with the Equalists, and he needed to be there in case his family or friends needed him. He wasn't going to let either of his parents talk him out of it, and Korra advocated for him to stay too.
So the four of them went together to the mansion, despite the clear discontent that Ronen could see on his mother's face. She was making an attempt to give him space and freedom to grow, but he could tell that it was tough for her. In truth, it was tough for him too, to suddenly feel such a pressing need to help, where before his worries had been so insignificant in comparison, but he felt that he had a duty to his family and to Korra and he would not turn his back on that. He might have been a nonbender, but it did not make him incapable, and his family needed him. His mother, while fully capable and a badass in her own right, was reckless, and his siblings were too young to fight, even if they were capable of it, and his father lived by the rules of pacifism, and Ronen could tell that it was a strain on him to keep up this fight. Ronen needed to protect all of them in different ways and he felt no burden from that.
Asami was not happy to see the police bursting through her door, but begrudgingly led them to her father's workshop, where she asserted that he was not doing anything wrong. Hiroshi, however, was not there, much to Asami's surprise, and Ronen's mother soon discovered a hidden tunnel running underneath of the workshop. With each moment that passed, the tightness in Ronen's chest did not abate and his constricted stomach only worsened. His palms were sweating and he was terrified of what might occur, convinced that everything was about to go horribly wrong, that Asami was going to learn some difficult truths about her father, and Ronen's parents were going to walk into a trap. Why else would Hiroshi have an underground tunnel in his workshop? Why else would some anonymous source have led them straight there? He could see the tears welling in Asami's eyes and it tore at his own emotions. He could not imagine what it would be like to find out that one of his parents was possibly aiding such a violent cult. He could also see, by the grim look on his mother's face, that she knew exactly what she was walking into, and she was going to do it anyway, because it was her job, because she would never turn her back on the city to save herself possible harm.
Ronen protested vehemently when his mother ordered that he stay behind with Asami, Mako, Bolin, and Officer Song.
"No way in hell!" he yelled at her, raising his voice in an uncharacteristic display, in a way that he had never spoken to his mother before. His nerves were on edge and he was afraid of what might befall his parents and his best friend, and he could not stay behind while they risked their bending or their lives. "No way in hell am I staying up here while you throw yourself into a possible ambush."
Surprise showed on his mother's face for a single second, shocked at his tone, but she recovered a heartbeat later, as always, as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. She glanced briefly at her nearby officers, but each of them was dutifully averting their gazes to anything else but their Chief's family spat. All of them but Tosuki, one of Lin's prized officers, a man that had been present for Ronen's youngest sister's birth on the day that headquarters fell, a man that had practically been just a boy on that day, but had risen to the rank of detective in the past four years. Tosuki was a family friend now, to an extent, and he stared hard at Ronen, a warning in his eyes that Ronen all but ignored.
Ronen's mother took a step closer until she was toe to toe with him, but instead of arguing with him or demanding that he stay, or even berating him for taking such a hostile tone with her, she placed a hand on his shoulder and looked at him with pleading eyes. Her voice was low as she implored, "Please, I need you here. In case something goes wrong. If your father and I don't make it back up, you need to get back to the Island. You need to get to your brother and your sisters and you need to protect them. If all of us gets taken, they'll have no one, they won't know what's coming. They must be protected, at all costs, do you understand?"
Suddenly Ronen deflated, his mother's words sinking in fast, and he knew that they were true. She was not simply being overprotective or obstinate – though he was certain there was still some of that to her demand. She was thinking of Jin and Sora, the last hope for the airbending race, and Jeia Rai, who was just a baby still. If something happened to their parents, they would need someone that would unquestionably protect them at all costs. They had Nira, of course, and the Acolytes and the White Lotus were willing to help, but they needed more than that. They were just children and they needed their brother. Ronen wanted to argue that they needed their parents too, that he needed to go with his mother and father to make sure they came back, but he knew that the risk was too great. He didn't know if Amon was a killer, but he wouldn't hesitate to capture and extinguish his parents bending at the very least, and that would absorb so much of their strength they would hardly be a threat. They may not be useless without their bending, but when someone had such a gift their entire life, it would be like losing a limb for it to suddenly vanish. It would take time to rehabilitate and learn to live without it, and there seemed to be less and less time granted them in this revolution. It was almost comical to think that only about twenty-four hours ago he had been laughing and joyful and making friends. But the revolution had not stopped while he was being a kid. He had only just ignored it for a little while.
Ronen closed his eyes and bowed his head, certain of the choice he had to make, but miserable even as he promised his mother, "I'll stay. And if the worst happens…" He looked up at her with fierce determination. "I will protect them. And I will finish this. You can trust me on that."
Ronen's mother nodded curtly, but her lips puckered up and her brow creased and she looked so very sad. She did not dwell on her emotions, she almost never did, and she began to pull back, to retreat inside of herself to focus on what needed to be done. But Ronen stopped her for just a second, darting his hand out to grab her metal-clad bicep in a grip that might have been strong if it wasn't fighting against unyielding metal.
He waited until his mother met his gaze once more before he told her firmly, "I love you. I'll be waiting here when you get back."
When Ronen's mother nodded this time, it was with firm resolve, and she responded, "Me too, kid, be strong."
Ronen thought that he had never felt so weak before in his life, but he kept his head up and his shoulders back and his focus on the present.
He squeezed Korra's hand as she passed by him, and she paused long enough to give him a strained smile of reassurance. He didn't smile back, but he murmured, "Be careful down there. Don't forget, you still owe me a rematch in Pai Sho."
Korra snickered, but it was shaky. "Don't worry. I'll be back to kick your butt again."
Ronen watched mournfully as his parents, the metalbending officers, and Korra descended into the tunnel. After they had disappeared, he heaved in a heavy breath, and then turned to Asami, sorrow on his face.
"Asami," he said quietly, "I'm so sorry."
Asami continued to stare down the tunnel, arms folded tight over her chest, expression miserable. "I just don't understand," she whispered. "My father can't…he just can't be…"
Ronen could not think of the right words to say, could only reach out and softly squeeze Asami's shoulder, while Mako wrapped his own arm around her waist. The four teens stood there in silence, watching the tunnel, waiting impatiently for something to happen, worried and uncertain. They could not speak with the weight of so much upon them.
After only a few moments though, Bolin scooted over to Ronen's other side and leaned in to ask, in a hushed voice, "We're still good, right?"
Ronen couldn't quite manage a smile, but he did try as he replied, "Of course we are."
But that conversation came to an abrupt halt too.
Korra and Ronen's parents and the others were not gone for long when a loud clang reverberated up through the tunnel.
Bolin gasped, "What was that?"
"We need to get down there and see what's going on," Mako said definitively.
"Absolutely not," Officer Song immediately objected. "You're staying put until the Chief comes back."
Mako and Bolin exchanged a look, and Mako unconvincingly conceded, "All right, well stay put."
Ronen sighed in anticipation of what was to come, half-heartedly protesting, "Listen guys, we really should wait…"
"Can we wait outside or something?" Mako asked Song, without even bothering to acknowledge Ronen, who was torn between wanting to go see what had happened and wanting to honor the promise he had only just made to his mother. "It's so dusty in this workshop."
"No, we're waiting right here," Song refuted.
Mako faked a sneeze then, and with it came a burst of fire that startled Song long enough for Bolin to trip him. The two brothers tied Song up and apologized, and Ronen began to grow agitated.
"My mother wanted us to stay here for a reason," he protested. "We don't know what we'd be walking into down there. We could just be making it worse for them."
"Look, kid, you're welcome to stay here," Mako said, "but Bolin and I are going to check on Korra whether you like it or not. In fact, you should stay here, with Asami."
Before Asami could protest her own lack of involvement, Ronen sneered, "Do me a favor, Mako, and stop treating me like a child. I care about more of the people down there than you do. This isn't a matter of not wanting to help them, it's about understanding that you can't always go rushing into a dangerous situation just because you have some delusional hero complex. You think they can't handle themselves? You think you're going to be the tipping point that saves them?"
Mako rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to argue with you."
Ronen scoffed, "Of course not."
"There are more important things at stake," Mako said haughtily. Ronen was grinding his teeth together, and so Mako turned to Asami to convince her to stay behind while he went to see what the truth of her father was. Asami gave in far easier than Ronen, and despite his growing ire, Ronen still felt a slight pang at the lost expression on her face.
As Bolin began to descend into the tunnel, he turned back to look at Ronen and asked, "Are you coming?"
He sounded hopeful, whereas Mako was very clearly crossing his fingers that Ronen would decline.
Ronen sighed in annoyance and resignation before relenting, "I suppose if there's a chance of you two mucking this up I ought to be there to prevent it."
Bolin grinned and said, "That's the spirit."
Ronen followed the two brothers into the tunnel, reaching back to check that his boomerang was both secured on his back and ready to be released at a moment's notice. He felt some guilt about going down there after having told his mother that he wouldn't, but as important as it may be for him to protect his siblings, how could he abandon both his parents and Korra? His mother would never abandon him, nor would Korra or his father for that matter. If they were in trouble, perhaps he and Mako and Bolin could make a very slight difference. Perhaps they could at least make sure the others got out.
There were some faint sounds of a battle taking place as the three boys descended further down the tunnel, and by the time they reached the end, the sounds had died off ominously. Where there should have been an opening, instead there was some sort of metal wall that blocked Ronen, Bolin, and Mako off from the others. Ronen assumed that the wall must have been made of platinum, otherwise, why would his mother or one of the other metalbending officers not have simply opened it? Unless they had kept it closed for a reason. Perhaps they believed that keeping whatever it was inside was more imperative. Ronen just did not have any idea, and Bolin was not a metalbender, so there was little way to find out in that moment.
Bolin suggested he make a tunnel in the floor to get inside the room, but Ronen stopped him with a tense, "Wait…this doesn't feel right."
"Look, if you're just going to argue at every turn," Mako heatedly began.
"I said wait," Ronen hissed, cutting the older boy off. "That doesn't mean we run off, but there has to be another way to go about this. If we just pop up in the middle of the floor we could be opening ourselves up to an attack."
"Then what do you suggest?" Mako asked impatiently.
"Think about it," Ronen urged, "there has to be another way out of that room. Hiroshi isn't an idiot. He wouldn't spring a trap down here and then leave only one exit point. What if my mom had brought more officers? He would be at a distinct disadvantage trying to fight his way back up the stairs with a bunch of prisoners in tow. So I say we go back outside and find the exit point, and then spring a trap for them."
Mako looked uncertain, but Bolin nodded enthusiastically and said, "Yes, I like that plan, let's do that."
"You better be right about this, kid," Mako growled in warning before stalking past, back up the way they had come.
Ronen rolled his eyes, but hastily followed. The three boys raced back up the tunnel and ran into Asami midway. They all paused in surprise, but Ronen ushered her up as they began to question each other.
"What are you doing down here?" Mako demanded unnecessarily.
Asami ignored him and pressed, "Where is my father? What happened?"
"We don't know what's going on down there," Ronen explained breathlessly, still running at a steady pace and urging the others on, "but there was obviously some sort of trap. We need to find the other exit point and stop them when they try to leave with my parents and Korra."
"Other exit point?" Asami questioned. "How do you know they'll try to leave?"
"Well, I don't," Ronen admitted, "but unless Amon himself is down there I'm assuming they're going to want to take prisoners out of here."
"We wanted to just go in through the floor," Mako complained, "but the kid thinks it's a better tactic to surprise them while they're on the move. Sounds risky to me. We should have tried sneaking Korra out."
"We'd be going in blind," Ronen huffed, "so either go back down there and see how that works out for you, or get on board with the plan we've got."
They had reached the workroom then, and Ronen ignored whatever Mako muttered in response. He went first to Officer Song, who was trying to free himself from his restraints and boiling mad.
As soon as Ronen had removed the gag over the man's mouth, Song spluttered, "You kids are in big trouble –!"
"No time to argue, Officer Song," Ronen interjected, while cutting the rope off of him. "The Chief is in trouble. We need to get outside and find the other exit out of this tunnel and stop them from escaping with her and the others. Can you radio the guys in the airship to get us some aerial support?"
Ronen didn't wait for Song's response, leaping up and sprinting straight outside, where Mako, Bolin, and Asami had already gathered. The four teens ran around to the other side of the inconspicuous workshop, Song stumbling along behind and speaking rapidly into his radio. They began to search the surrounding area for some place that could house a secret exit, but they were coming up empty and Mako was getting angrier and Ronen was getting more worried.
Ronen spun on Asami and desperately asked, "Asami, is there anywhere you can think of that might house a possible tunnel?"
"I don't know!" Asami exclaimed sorrowfully. "I'm sorry, I don't know, I just…I don't know."
"It's okay," Ronen soothed, trying to catch his breath and calm his own heightened emotions. "It's okay. I know this is difficult, but you know your father and these grounds better than the rest of us. Is there anything? Anything at all that you can think of? Another garage nearby maybe, a random hill –"
Asami suddenly perked up, realization dawning. "I know a place," she said. "I'm not really sure, but…"
"Take us," Ronen insisted, before she could over think it.
Asami took off through the grass, and the boys and Officer Song raced after her. She led them to a ramshackle shed out on its own in the field that looked out of place when compared to the opulence of the rest of the estate. It was built into a small hill and surrounded by tall weeds and rusted Satomobile parts. No one else would have looked at it twice, but if Ronen had to guess he would be almost certain that the shed housed a secret much like Hiroshi's workshop.
No sooner had the four teens and Song begun to approach the shed from the east that the ground began to rumble beneath their feet. They all skidded to a stop and scrambled to hide behind some nearby shrubbery as the entire shed began to lift up off the ground, taking several inches of grass and dirt and whatever else with it. As the shed rose further into the air, Ronen caught a glimpse of some sort of metal struts on each corner that whined and groaned as the mechanism lifted the wobbly wooden structure.
Blinding light burst suddenly from the gaping hole left behind, and then the roar of an engine could be heard as a truck began to trundle out of the opening. The truck barely cleared the gap between the ground and the shed, but it managed to crawl out without incident, and was followed closely by three other similar vehicles.
"We've got to stop them now!" Mako whispered harshly, while leaping to his feet.
Ronen grabbed his sleeve and tried to stop him, saying, "Hold on, we should –"
Mako shook himself free and spat, "No! We've heard enough of your ideas. It's time to finish this."
Mako took off sprinting towards the emerging vehicles, and Bolin shrugged helplessly at Ronen before following. Ronen sighed in exasperation and ran after them, snatching his boomerang off of his back as he did so. His heart was thumping too loudly in his ears to know if Asami and Song were following.
By the time Ronen reached the two brothers, Bolin had kicked up stone barriers that sent all four trucks veering off course. One truck was struck so hard it tipped over and smashed onto its side, and Ronen winced, hoping there weren't any of their people inside of it. Another truck swerved and crashed into an embankment, while the other two frantically avoided the obstacles in their paths and kept going. Mako was spewing fire at the two escaping vehicles, but he needn't have bothered, because they both spun around and started back in the direction they had come from.
Both trucks were headed straight for where Mako, Bolin, and Ronen were standing, and Bolin shouted, "Incoming!" just as the three of them threw themselves over the embankment so as not to get run over.
Ronen rolled several meters down the hill before crashing into a group of thorny bushes. He rolled back out, hissing as the thorns and twigs pulled at his clothes and exposed skin, stabbing him in several places but not causing any worrisome damage. He blundered around in search of his boomerang, expelling a breath of relief when he found it still in one piece. Then he began to clamber back up the hill to where the truck had come to an abrupt stop to avoid careening down the embankment after the boys. The headlights were obscuring his vision, and he slowed down as he began to crest the hill in preparation for a surprise attack.
As expected, an Equalist appeared directly in front of him the moment he got close to the vehicle. Ronen reeled back to avoid the electric glove that swung straight for his head, and he flung his boomerang with a sharp flick of his wrist at the same time that he crashed back down onto the ground on his back. At such close range, the boomerang did not have much punch to it, but it was enough to surprise the Equalist and knock them back several steps. Ronen lunged up onto his knees, caught the boomerang as it came careening back towards him, and then threw it again. This time, it hit the Equalist in the head and they went down without another sound.
Ronen scrambled back onto his feet, saw Song on the other side of the vehicle engaging with the Equalist that must have been driving, and then raced around to the back of the truck. He wrenched the doors open after flipping the heavy lock that was in place, and then hid behind one of the doors for a moment, not peering inside until several seconds passed without an attack.
Ronen was dismayed to see that the truck did not have either his parents or Korra, or even his mother's officers. Instead, he saw only several huge suits made out of some sort of metal, and which were no doubt the new weapons they had been warned about by the person that had tipped them off to Hiroshi's involvement.
Ronen stifled a curse and leapt back out of the truck, running instead in the direction of the next closest vehicle, which happened to be the one that had been tipped over by Bolin's assault. Getting one of the doors opened was much more difficult when the vehicle was on its side, but Ronen eventually managed it, only to find that the contents of that truck were the same as the last. The two Equalists in the front seats, as well as three in the back with the suits had been injured in the crash and barely paid any mind to Ronen. He considered stopping to help them, because they were still human and they were bleeding and in pain, but he needed to find his family first. It didn't make the decision that much easier, but it was the only decision he could make. His parents and Korra needed him, and he needed them. He would help the Equalists when he knew that his family and friends were okay.
He still said a genuine, "I'm sorry," before leaving the wrecked vehicle behind.
There were two trucks left, which meant that at least one, if not both had to house the prisoners. The truck that had slipped down one of the embankments was reversing steadily up the hill and spraying grass and mud everywhere. The other was still veering wildly around trying to hit Bolin and Mako, who were both sending earth and fire at it while simultaneously trying to avoid getting ran over.
Ronen took off in the direction of the other truck, which was just beginning to crest the hill, and he put on a burst of speed, nearly tripping over his feet as he strained to keep up with the pace he had set for himself. As he ran, he slipped both hands into his pockets and grabbed onto the gloves inside. He hastily put both of them on, checking briefly to ensure that he had donned them correctly and activating the mechanism he had put together himself, praying that he had done it correctly. He had only tested them twice so far, and the first time had been a disaster and the second had only been marginally better. He hadn't been able to test the gloves since he had tinkered with them the last time, but it was imperative that they work now and he had no time to waste hesitating. He didn't reach the truck before it swung back onto the dirt roadway, but he was close by when it came hurtling towards him, and he began to jog back the way he had come, lining himself up until…
The truck zoomed past and Ronen leapt, arms outstretched and reaching after it. The grappling hooks attached to his gloves collided against the metal doors on the back of the truck and screeched as he scrambled for purchase, legs flailing and muscles straining. He couldn't help but let out a desperate, agonized roar as he dug his nails in along with the hooks, terror consuming him at the thought of not only falling off of a moving vehicle, but also at losing his parents and Korra because he could not stay rooted in place. The grappling claws screamed the further he slid down the back of the vehicle, but just before his toes scraped the ground rushing by below, the hooks finally dug in and latched, and Ronen was jolted to a stop.
There was a moment in which he could do nothing but heave for breath as air whipped him in the face, in shock that he had even managed to stay attached. And then his wits returned to him and he swung his legs up onto the ledge in front of the doors. He pulled himself the rest of the way up until he was half crouched on the ledge, and then pressed himself as close against the back of the truck as he could manage, heart beating rapidly and eyes watering. He watched the ground move rapidly beneath him for a few seconds, gulped, and then forced himself to look away, to focus on the task at hand.
He spent a few moments hyping himself up before he could accept the decision to remove one of his grappling gloves from the door, afraid that only one arm wouldn't hold his weight while he was being bounced around on the back of a moving vehicle, but hanging onto the door for dear life wasn't getting him anywhere either. So he clung to the truck with his left hand and yanked his right fist back out. Once his hand was wrenched free, he immediately reached over to frantically grab the locking mechanism. He made sure to steady himself before flipping it open, and then stretched his arm up to the handle of the door he wasn't still clinging to. He twisted and pulled, and the door came flying free with little effort thanks to the wind. It swung all the way around to bang into the side of the truck, which unfortunately meant that it had probably alerted the Equalists to his presence, but he didn't have time to worry about that.
Ronen threw one leg up into the truck and grasped the inside of the closed door with his right hand. He pulled himself up straight and peeked inside, and could not help a relieved smile from forming on his face at the sight of his parents and Korra. They were all three tied up so tight they could hardly move and there were gags over their mouths, but they were conscious and seemingly not too badly harmed. They all looked up at him with wide eyes, Korra's with glee, but his parents' with fear. As glad as he was to see them, he forgot for a moment the danger he was likely in, and he moved as if to step right into the truck and remove his grappling hold from the door.
No sooner had he moved than he heard a vaguely familiar voice angrily shouting, "Throw him off!"
Ronen had time to glance up at the origin of the sound to see a small opening at the end of the truck bed that opened into the driver's cab, where Hiroshi Sato and two other Equalists sat. Ronen recognized the driver as the Equalist with the two kali sticks that had first electrocuted Ronen when he had gone with Korra and Mako to rescue Bolin – he was called Lieutenant, according to Asuka, and was Amon's right hand man. Ronen and Lieutenant made brief eye contact in the rearview mirror, just before the man violently yanked the steering wheel to the right.
With one arm and one leg still outside of the truck and the rest of his body twisted only slightly inside, Ronen was in too precarious of a position to save himself from what was to come. It seemed to happen in slow motion, the inertia lurching his stomach to one side before the rest of his body moved with it. One second he was halfway inside the truck, fearfully locking eyes with his mother, who strained against her bindings and appeared to be screaming something from behind her mouth gag. And in the next, he was being flung off of the edge of the truck and flying through the air. The ground was rushing up to meet him, and he barely had time to tense against the pain he knew would come.
Except, his body never hit the ground that was hurtling beneath him. His left hand was still inside of the glove and the grappling hooks were still embedded into the door of the truck, and even when his whole body weight fell, the hooks held. Nevertheless, he did slam his back against the ledge and twisted his arm around and the hooks slid further down until his feet were skimming the ground. The friction was painful, even with his shoes on, and Ronen hastily tried bending his knees to keep them off of the ground. Before he could do anything else, the truck swung sharply in the other direction, but while it was certainly terrifying, it actually served to help Ronen. He was flipped back around to face the back of the truck, his abdomen crashing into the ledge. The truck veered again, but Ronen was ready that time, and managed to hold onto the closed door with both hands to keep from being flung back around. Unfortunately, the second half of the doorway that he had opened early had also been wrenched around during the maneuvering, and though he managed to move the rest of his body out of the way, when it swung back at him, it smashed the fingers of his right hand. Ronen howled in pain, but did not let it deter him. He swung his legs up onto the ledge as the truck lurched slightly again and the door flew back open. And then, with a deep breath and a silent prayer to the spirits, he yanked his left grappling hook out of the door and threw himself into the back of the truck.
He rolled head first and came up onto his feet somewhere in the middle, letting out a shaky breath and wobbling slightly, taking a moment to feel relief at having made it. He wasn't out of the woods yet though, and the fact that the truck was no longer veering left and right was not necessarily a good sign.
Ronen looked up at the window into the front seat again, and this time, Lieutenant had something else up his sleeve. He had one hand on the steering wheel, but the other held one of his kali sticks, and he was pushing it between the metal bars over the window. Considering the fact that nearly the entire structure of the vehicle appeared to be made from metal, it seemed a risky move to make, but Ronen could tell that the Equalist thought that one strike of his electrified kali stick would subdue all four of the people in the back of the truck in one foul swoop.
Without stopping to think on it further, Ronen reached behind his back, grasped onto his boomerang, and flung it as hard as he could in one swift movement. The boomerang sailed over his head and across the short distance before smacking right into the back of Lieutenant's hand. He let out a yelp in surprise as his hand spasmed and the kali stick clattered harmlessly to the floor, and Ronen lunged forward into another roll. On his way back up this time, he snatched the kali stick up off of the floor, fumbled for the activation switch, and then jabbed it inside the cabin where the three Equalists sat. Electricity crackled throughout the front section of the truck and the three men cried out. Ronen did not hold it for long, in part because he did not wish to seriously maim them, and in part because he feared the electricity would soon start spreading out along the rest of the truck and harm his parents and Korra. He could already feel some of it shooting up his arm. He yanked his hand back and shut the weapon off, but stuffed it into the pack over his shoulder for safe keeping. Then he braced himself as the truck began careening out of control now that the driver was slumped against the steering wheel.
Luckily, the truck had already been slowing down when Lieutenant had begun trying to throw Ronen off of the back, and they were still out in an open field, so there was not much for them to run into even without a driver. They slowed to a harmless stop after running halfway up an embankment and then drifting back down, and Ronen rushed to begin freeing the others before the vehicle had even fully stilled.
Korra was closest, so he went to her first. He carefully retracted the claws on his gloves so that he didn't accidentally jab himself or her, and pulled out the pocket knife that his Uncle Bumi had gifted him with on his thirteenth birthday. He pulled the gag from Korra's mouth first before setting to work on the rope that was tied tight around her body.
"Ronen!" she gasped when her mouth was free. "Boy am I glad to see you!"
"I told you I wasn't letting you off of the hook for that Pai Sho match," he teased, focused intently on his task and perspiring heavily, but still grateful to be back with his best friend and his parents. "You aren't getting away from it that easy."
"After this, I'll let you win every match from now on," Korra joked back. "I owe you one."
"How about you make it up to me by just never getting captured again?" he replied, half teasing still but mostly serious.
"I'll do my best," Korra promised.
Ronen finished cutting her free and she instantly leapt to her feet. As Ronen shuffled over to his mother, Korra knelt in front of his father, using small bursts of flames to carefully burn through the rope that held him.
As soon as Ronen had removed the gag from his mother's mouth, she began to huff, "Didn't I tell you to stay put?"
"Would you rather I left you to get taken to Amon?" Ronen countered. "Besides, I tried to stay, but Mako and Bolin were going to attempt a rescue whether I went along or not."
"You should have gotten yourself to safety," his mother muttered half-heartedly. She was breathing a bit strangely and her eyes were glassy, her hair a dirty, disheveled mess and scrapes along her face. Ronen frowned in concern, wondering what he had missed in between the time that his parents had disappeared into the tunnel and gotten captured.
Before he could ask, his father chimed in from a few meters away, "What your mother is trying to say is thank you."
"Yeah, that," his mother agreed, and then the rope came loose, but she did not leap into action as he expected her to. Instead, she held her hands out to him and asked, "Give your mom a hand, would ya?"
Ronen obliged without question, taking both of her sweat-slicked hands into his own and pulling her onto her feet. She immediately hunched over with a frustrated groan, hand pressing against her shielded abdomen, and Ronen grabbed at her shoulders in fear of her falling over. She was looking awfully pale and it was making him sick to his stomach to imagine what might be wrong with her.
Ronen's father, who had been freed shortly after, must have seen the concern on his face, and interjected with a forced measure of calm, curling an arm around his wife's waist and telling Ronen, "She was hit pretty hard earlier, but she'll be right as rain, just as soon as we get her to a hospital." Ronen wasn't really soothed by the words when he saw the same concern he was feeling mirrored on his father's face.
Ronen's mother tried to straighten up a little, but he could see how heavily she was leaning into her husband's side. "Any chance that you managed to take out the rest of the Equalists with that boomerang of yours?" she questioned, almost sounding hopeful.
"Not all," Ronen responded regretfully.
"The others?" Korra inquired from the other end of the truck, peering outside carefully. "Mako and Bolin?"
It was then that Ronen noticed what Korra apparently already had, that Hiroshi, Lieutenant, and the other Equalist were no longer in the front of the truck.
"They were trying to stop the other truck last I saw," Ronen hastily replied. "I don't know how far away we got from them in this thing."
"Best go find out," Tenzin suggested.
"Maybe they managed to find my officers," Lin added hopefully.
Korra leapt out of the truck first, arms raised in preparation to fend off an attack. Tenzin and Ronen carefully helped Lin off of the truck, and it was a testament to how much pain she must have been in that she didn't even protest their overcautious gesture. Ronen held his boomerang at the ready, tensed and prepared for an attack, knowing that the three Equalists couldn't have gone far.
As predicted, the four of them only went a few steps before they were accosted.
Hiroshi and Lieutenant and the other Equalist leapt into their path, electricity emanating from gloves and one kali stick. Tenzin threw his body in front of Lin and Ronen to shield them, staring down the Equalists with a fury Ronen wasn't sure he had ever seen on his father before.
"Not so fast," Hiroshi commanded menacingly.
Lieutenant took a step in Ronen's direction and seethed, "You've got something that belongs to me."
"One more step and you'll be eating that stick," Lin warned.
"It's over, Hiroshi," Tenzin said in a loud, commanding tone, the wind picking up around his frame. "Surrender now and we can end this."
Hiroshi snorted. "You benders are so arrogant. What makes you think you've won? We captured you once before and we can do it again."
"Except you're losing," Lin spat from behind Tenzin's arm. "I don't see any of your precious mechatanks around now to save you."
"Careful, Chief," Hiroshi said patronizingly, "you might want to conserve your strength. You're looking a bit pale. Why don't you just make this easy for all of us and we won't be forced to hurt your son."
Lin lurched against her husband and growled, "You touch one hair on his head and you'll wish you were dead –"
Ronen interjected before his mother could injure herself further, stepping out from behind his father's shadow and telling Hiroshi, "You've got an opportunity here yourself, Mr. Sato. Think about Asami."
"Don't you speak of my daughter," Hiroshi spat.
"She knows everything," Korra continued before Ronen could. "She might be able to forgive you, but only if you turn back now and –"
"You know nothing!" Hiroshi interrupted heatedly. "Asami can make her own decisions, and she'll see that mine is the right path, that befriending the likes of you two and those street rats is just something she'll soon forget. Now surrender, or we will be forced to take you down again."
Korra and Lin both snorted, clearly unconcerned about their odds. Tenzin was a bit more serious, gently nudging Lin back even further and setting himself up to repel an attack, obviously worried about the injuries she already had. Ronen shifted his own stance and held his boomerang aloft, ready to spring into action.
Hiroshi and the other two Equalists began to approach with electricity crackling ominously around them, but they hadn't even taken two steps before a familiar voice called out from behind the three men, "Dad! Stop!"
Hiroshi spun around at once to face Asami, who came sliding to a stop a few meters from him. Mako, Bolin, and Officer Song could be seen running to catch up with her, but each of them hung back while she approached her father.
Hiroshi appeared to be shocked and dismayed by the look of betrayal on his daughter's face, but the man was not deterred. He simply gave her a brief, impassioned speech about why he had joined the Equalists, and then offered over one of his electric gloves to Asami with a hopeful, "Join me."
Asami wordlessly accepted the glove, and Ronen was uncertain for a moment if she was truly choosing to join Hiroshi. Part of him could not believe her capable, but it was her father, and he could understand the need to maintain that relationship even if it meant going against all of her previous ideals. He knew that even he would waver if one of his parents was asking him to do something they wholeheartedly believed in. Mako certainly thought that Asami had turned, judging by his shocked exclamation, but they need not have worried.
Asami said, "I love you, Dad," and then promptly used the glove to electrocute him into unconsciousness.
Lieutenant and the other masked Equalist lunged at Asami immediately after Hiroshi dropped, but she took them both down just as fluidly, and they collapsed next to Hiroshi.
A stunned silence followed, in which Mako, Bolin, and Korra all stared at Asami with gaping mouths. Ronen, on the other hand, could not spare a moment of surprise, as he noticed movement from the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see better just as he heard his parents begin muttering to one another with audible concern. They too had noticed the huge metal weapons that were heading straight towards Ronen and the rest of them – he thought he remembered someone calling them mechatanks. Whatever they were, he didn't like the looks of them, and he figured they were probably what had gotten his parents and Korra captured in the first place, which meant they were not to be trifled with.
"We need to move," Lin called to the group, shaking the teens from their own thoughts on Asami and her father. "Otherwise this rescue mission will have been for nothing."
Everyone else turned to observe the mechatanks coming towards them, and they were all reasonably concerned.
Officer Song stepped forward to address Lin, pointing up into the sky as he said, "Chief, the airship is almost over top of us, getting into position for a retrieval."
"Good," Lin responded. "Tell them not to land, just hover low enough for us to get onboard. If they touch down we'll never get back up in time to avoid those mechatanks, and I don't want to know what damage they could cause to the airship." As Officer Song relayed the Chief's message into his radio, Lin went over to Mako and Bolin just before they could reach Asami. "Ronen said you were trying to stop the other truck. Did you find my officers?"
Bolin looked uncomfortably over at his brother and Mako shook his head with an apologetic frown. "Sorry, Chief, but the last truck got away."
Lin nodded as if in understanding, but when she turned back towards Tenzin and Ronen, her expression shifted for a brief moment to reveal her sorrow at the news. She stumbled just slightly on her way back over to them, whether from exhaustion or turmoil Ronen did not know, but he lurched forward to catch her under the arms, his voice soft as he soothed, "I've got you, Mom."
She nodded briskly and straightened back up, as if nothing was the matter, and Ronen let her because he knew better than to try coaxing feelings out of his mother, especially with others around. Besides, the mechatanks were gaining on them and there were more important things to worry about before he tried comforting her over the loss of her officers.
"We'll have to jump onto the airship when it gets close enough," Tenzin told the group, while discreetly grabbing hold of his wife's hand in a gesture that often made her scowl in public, but in that moment she seemed not to mind. "It isn't going to be close to the ground so it will require bending." He looked at Asami and Ronen and Mako, who did not have metal cables or could not propel themselves up into the ship with air or earth. Mako might be able to manage some height with firebending, but it wouldn't be enough. At least, that was what Ronen assumed. He had no experience with a quick getaway like that, but apparently his father did.
As the airship came to hover over top of the group, each of them sidled up with a partner that had the appropriate bending. The mechatanks were only a few meters away by then and gaining fast. They had only seconds before they were overtaken, and Lin shouted for everyone to jump. Bolin grabbed onto his brother, while Korra offered an arm to Asami, and the four of them were hurtled upwards by slabs of earth that jutted out of the ground at Bolin and Korra's command. It still looked as if they would barely make it, but one of the officers remaining in the ship dropped some metal cables for them to grab onto and helped them the rest of the way up. Officer Song and Ronen's mother also shot up with a kick off from the ground, and then used the metal cables on their backs to latch onto the ramp of the airship and pull themselves inside. Tenzin took hold of Ronen and, with a torrent of wind, hurled them up towards the ship. Ronen's stomach dropped, but he was not nervous in the air and especially not in his father's capable hold. They were the only two to land softly atop the ramp without any exertion of effort.
Apparently lifting herself into the airship had exacerbated Lin's wounds though, as Ronen and Tenzin found her crouched on the edge of the ramp clutching her middle and panting. When they both tried to help her, she waved them off and barked at Officer Song, "We need to get up higher! Now!"
Song shouted commands at the officers up top that were flying the ship, and Lin began to clamber further up the ramp as it slowly began to rise in preparation to close.
No sooner had Ronen begun to follow her when he heard a surprised grunt from his father, and both he and his mother looked back in time to see one of the clawed hands of a mechatank digging into Tenzin's back and yanking him back out of the ship.
"Dad!" Ronen shrieked, at the same time his mother yelled, "Tenzin! No!"
They both scrambled back to the edge of the ramp on their knees – Lin shouting at Song to stop it from closing – and then watched in abject horror as Tenzin was dragged back down to the ground and out of their reach, where he was surrounded by no less than four mechatanks.
"Put us back down!" Lin started screaming at Song. "Tell them to lose altitude now!"
"Chief," Song gasped with a shake of his head, looking mortified at both her suggestion and her turmoil. "We can't. If we go any lower those things will rip us out of the sky!"
"I don't care!" Lin snapped, looking slightly crazed. "We aren't leaving him! We have to go back!"
Song was still shaking his head fearfully and Lin was probably on the verge of doing something really stupid, and all Ronen could do was watch it all happening, feeling sick as his guts clenched with his own fear.
Korra rushed forward in the brief moments that had passed, eyed the distance to the ground, and then said with fierce determination, "I'll get him."
But before she could leap out of the airship, Mako grabbed her arm and demanded, "Are you insane? You'll just get yourself captured with him!"
"Well someone's got to do something!" Korra fired back.
Lin wobbled as she rose suddenly to her feet, and there was a murderous look on her face as she stepped up to the very edge of the ramp and proclaimed, "I'm going."
Suddenly Ronen's wits came back to him, and he lunged to his feet faster than his mother could move, grabbing her hand and yanking her back three steps before she could do something stupid like jump out into open air.
"Wait!" he commanded, giving her a pointed look even as she directed fiery eyes onto him. He waved his boomerang before her face and insisted, "Let me try."
She blinked once at the sight of it, seeming to come back to herself all of a sudden, and then she locked gazes with him, understanding there as she nodded and replied, in a calmer voice, "You've got this, kid."
Ronen nodded once back, and dropped his mother's hand before taking the few steps back to the edge. He looked down at the scene, and was relieved to see his father still flailing, still fighting against the grasp of the mechatank that held him. The other tanks were not paying attention to Tenzin, their focus on putting all their efforts into bringing down the airship before it could escape. Ronen breathed in deeply and quickly calculated the approximate distance in his mind from him to the mechatank holding his father, accounting for the altitude and the windspeed that would affect his throw, trying desperately to remember all that his Great Uncle Sokka had taught him years ago.
Ronen stretched his arm back behind him, his whole body leaning backwards, and then snapped forward until he was bent in half and his arm was extended in front of him and the boomerang was hurtling through the air at lightning speed. Ronen dropped to his haunches to watch its progress, clenching his jaw in anticipation and grinding his teeth, willing the boomerang to hit its target, watching it twist and weave through the air.
The boomerang veered off to one side, and Ronen muttered desperately under his breath, "Come on, come on…"
Korra and his mother were on either side of him, watching with bated breath too, their shoulders touching his, the three of them crowded together for support.
And then the boomerang sailed over top of Tenzin – still held aloft in the mechatank's arm – and struck the tank's faceplate with a sound so low that it could not be heard up in the air above the roar of wind and the airship. The strike caused little to no damage, but it still caused the Equalist operating the mechatank to flinch, lurching back and loosening it's hold on Tenzin's cloak.
Tenzin did not waste a single second as his body was dropped halfway to the ground. He tore himself free from his torn cloak and fell the rest of the way to the ground. Then, he rolled onto his back, kicked his feet up towards his would-be captor, and sent a spiral of wind into the confused mechatank's faceplate. The tank staggered backwards, and Tenzin leapt to his feet in the brief seconds available to him and went sprinting back towards the airship. The other mechatanks didn't notice him until he was already spiraling back up towards the ramp, but the airship was too high this time and he wasn't going to make it quite so smoothly.
Lin must have realized that herself, and immediately stretched out her arms, shooting her metal cables out to wrap around her husband's waist. She nearly went falling out of the ship herself when the full force of his weight yanked her forward, but Ronen grabbed her around the middle and pulled her back. They both went crashing to the floor with pained grunts, and then promptly began to slide closer and closer to the edge, bogged down by Tenzin's weight.
But then Korra wrapped her arms around Lin from the other side and added her own strength to theirs. And then Mako and Bolin and Asami and Song were all there too, all grabbing hold and pulling and straining, until, finally, Tenzin was lifted up into the airship and rolled himself to safety.
Song immediately slapped his hand down on the mechanism to close the ramp, even though they were too high by now for the mechatanks to snatch anyone else. Ronen's boomerang came hurtling through the gap at the last second, clanging against the ceiling and the floor before clattering to a stop. When the hatch sealed, the roaring in Ronen's ears disappeared with a pop.
He and his mother both went crawling straight over to his father with haste, and Tenzin smiled wearily as he sat up on his knees and opened his arms to them. The two of them crashed into his embrace, clinging to him with relief, and Korra hesitated only a second before joining them, trying to wrap her arms around all three of them.
Ronen hadn't been ensconced in both his parents arms at one time in so long he had forgotten what it felt like, but in that moment he believed that it had never felt so good before. It didn't matter that his mother's armor was jabbing him in the side or that Korra's hair was in his face or that his father was drenched in sweat. He never wanted to let go of any of them, his heart swelling with such sweet relief. He had been harsh with Mako earlier for wanting to attempt a rescue, but now that they were all reunited, Ronen could recognize that perhaps he had been wrong. As loathe as he was to admit it, he resolved to apologize to Mako later. Saving the others from Amon had been the right thing to do.
His mother was the first to break the embrace, leaning back just slightly to frown at his father and say, "You're hurt."
Ronen peered over his father's shoulder to where his mother was gently skimming her fingers over the flayed edges of his clothes. Beneath the tears were scrapes along Tenzin's back, but though some blood was seeping through, the cuts did not look too bad.
"They barely sting," Tenzin said with an unconcerned wave of his hand. "I'm fine, thanks to all of you." He smiled gratefully at Korra and Lin, and then turned his focus onto Ronen. "That's twice you've saved me tonight, son. I admit, I never wanted to see you have to fight like this, but you've proven you're more than capable. You really have grown into quite the young man. Your mother and I are very proud."
Ronen could feel his cheeks turning a little red, and he shrugged with feigned indifference, trying not to laugh when he saw Korra beaming from just behind his parents' heads and giving him two thumbs up. "I didn't do anything you guys wouldn't have done," he deflected.
His mother gave him a fond look, leaning heavily against Tenzin and looking very tired as she insisted, "Nah, you did good today, kid." She reached out to ruffle his hair and he squirmed, but he felt a warmth fill him at her words. When she called him 'kid' it did not cause the ire he experienced when Mako used it to patronize him. Instead, he knew that it was said with affection, and not to point out a flaw on his part.
"I'm just glad we're all together now," he said, looking at three of the most important people in his life in turn, all of whom agreed with solemn nods.
It had been a very long night, and it was beginning to catch up to all of them. Ronen was suddenly beginning to feel all the aches adrenaline had allowed him to ignore and he knew that tomorrow he would probably be considerably sore. Although, his bruises were nothing in comparison to what some of the others had to contend with. He still had no idea what had happened to his mother, but she didn't look good and she had clearly damaged her abdomen, probably her ribs if he had to guess. Tosuki and her officers had not been freed and would likely lose their bending that night, possibly face some other sort of tortures until someone located and freed them, if they were ever found. And then there was Asami, who had just attacked her father after discovering that they were on different sides of what was undoubtedly a war now.
Ronen had a lot to be grateful for, not just his family and Korra, but the three friends he still cared for despite the tension that had grown between them. He held no grudge against Mako and Asami, and he knew that Korra wouldn't either. All of them had wanted Hiroshi to be innocent. But he was not, and time moved on, and they were at war. Ronen would see to it that his friends did not turn on each other again anytime soon, and he would continue to fight back against Hiroshi and Amon and the Equalists. He wanted to protect the ones that he loved and cared for and he would let nothing stand in his way. With his parents' blessing now, he would stand by their sides and fight until Amon was brought to justice.
Chapter 50: Chapter 50
Chapter Text
Chapter 50
Despite the cracked ribs and the fractured spine, Lin demanded to be discharged from the hospital within hours of arriving. The healer in charge of her care had cringed and stated that it was better to at least keep her over night for observation, but Lin was not to be argued with that night, and shortly thereafter, she had signed out against medical advice.
Tenzin had tried to reason with her, because as much as he wished to be home, he wished even more to know that his wife was all right. He wanted assurance that she would not suffer irreparable damage. Spinal injuries were not to be taken lightly, and yet she could not be swayed. She wanted to be home with the children and he could not blame her for that. After everything that had transpired that evening, it only made sense that she would want to hold their children close. Nevertheless, Tenzin was not going to allow any exertion on her part, and that included picking up Jeia. Lin was to be on bed rest for the foreseeable future, and it was a testament to how much pain she must have been in that she did not protest that. Then again, she had resigned from her position as Chief of Police the very next morning after the raid on the Sato mansion went sour, so there was little for her to do. She had no work to get to, no responsibilities besides the kids.
Tenzin and Ronen had both protested vehemently when Lin had first spoke of resigning on the airship as they left the Sato mansion far behind. Her assertion that Tarrlok was right about her, that she had failed as Chief, was pure blasphemy, plain and simple. Ronen in particular could not understand why his mother would ever believe such a thing, why she would give up when the city so plainly needed her. But Lin had asserted that she was not giving up at all, that she was, instead, going to find Tosuki and her officers and take down Amon, but do it on her own terms, without the restrictions of the law to hold her back. Ronen had still been upset, had still been concerned that her decision would only insight further mayhem in the city, but Tenzin had begun to understand in a way that his son could not. Tenzin had known Lin for a very long time, and he knew that when she made up her mind about something there was little chance of swaying her. He worried about what she might do running amok through the city seeking out Amon, but he knew also that she was the strongest person he had ever known and he would be right by her side every step of the way.
He did not know what their future would hold, but he knew that they would endure. No matter how strange it might be to no longer see her leading the police force. She had been a cop for so long, had been the Chief for nearly two decades, and while he had always feared what could happen to her on the job, he also feared what might occur when she no longer had it. He knew that there were other more important things to her, their family in particular, but Lin had always believed that being a cop was necessary for her, had considered it one of her most defining features. Tenzin did not think that retirement would suit her so soon, but then again, considering the war that was underway, it wasn't as if much would change. The only difference would be that she was no longer restricted by rules or politicians.
Tenzin could see that Lin was very clearly distraught after the Sato mansion failure, but he believed that it had more to do with her captured officers. He remembered clearly the downcast look he had seen on her face when she had insisted on going to tell Sanji that Tosuki had been taken to Amon. Lin had grown fairly close to three of the four living officers that had been with her during the end of the siege on headquarters four years prior, and she had felt a sort of responsibility for Sanji and Tosuki in particular, considering how young they had been at the time. She had mentored them to become detectives, and had brought Tosuki with her to the Sato mansion because she trusted him implicitly. Sanji could not participate in most police work outside of the office due to an injury that had never fully righted itself after the siege, and so had not been there to stand alongside Lin and Tosuki, and it was plain to see that the man felt some responsibility for that, even though, if Sanji had been there, he would have only gotten himself captured too.
Despite how guilt-ridden Lin was over losing her officers, few others at headquarters believed her responsible. When she proclaimed her plans to turn in her resignation, many of them had protested just as Tenzin and Ronen had. Sanji had decided that her decision must have been coerced, that Tarrlok had forced her out and that he would not continue to work for a corrupt system. Sanji had led several of the other officers in declaring their allegiance to Lin, and they planned to walk out and the leave the job behind until she was reinstated as Chief. Lin, however, had rebuffed their decision and demanded that they remain to help the newly instated Chief Saikhan through the transition. She asserted that Republic City needed good police officers more than ever, and that all of them must stay and fight until the Equalists were brought to justice.
The entire event had been extremely taxing on Lin, emotionally and physically, considering it was only hours after she had been discharged from the hospital, and Tenzin knew that she had not slept a wink in the predawn hours beforehand, because he had lay beside her the entire time, also wide awake and lost in his own thoughts. Tenzin had ushered her home immediately after her resignation to finally sleep, and she had remained unconscious for most of the day. When he had to go back into the city again that afternoon, with Korra this time, to stand alongside the rest of the council and police as Saikhan publicly accepted his new role as Chief, Tenzin had tasked Sora and Yunjin with keeping their mother in bed and tending to any needs she may have, like coaxing her to eat something. Ronen asserted that he would help as well, but he was fairly busy getting Mako, Bolin, and Asami settled into their new rooms on the Island. The three teens had moved in that morning, and Tenzin was too exhausted himself to put much thought into what that might entail.
Saikhan's acceptance speech was surprisingly fraught with only more disturbing news. Much to Tenzin's chagrin, Saikhan more or less declared his allegiance to Tarrlok, and vowed to aid the councilman's task force in anyway possible. Tenzin and Korra could not imagine what Tarrlok had on Saikhan to persuade him into such a deal, but it did not bode well for anyone on Tarrlok's bad side. Tarrlok essentially controlled the entire police force now, and it made Tenzin sick to his stomach.
The council meeting that followed the next day did nothing to quell Tenzin's misery. Tarrlok was on a roll, and dug his claws in deep until he had goaded the rest of the council into imposing a curfew on all nonbenders. It was absolutely ludicrous to imagine punishing any innocent citizen based simply on such discriminatory ideals. Tenzin's own son was a nonbender, and could face harsh treatment simply for being within city limits after nightfall. If Tenzin were to take his family into the city one night for dinner, would the police be allowed to go after his teenage son simply because he was a known nonbender? How did such foolish fear mongering makes sense to the rest of the council? It was enraging, and Tenzin had had to spend several minutes alone in his office afterwards in an effort to calm down. Even when he returned home to his family, he was still fuming internally, even more so when he caught sight of his sweet Ronen and was reminded of the prejudice the boy would now face.
Upon entering the bedroom that he shared with his wife, Tenzin had found Lin awake but half slumped in bed still, with Ronen sitting on the bed next to her and Jeia on his lap. All three of them looked up at his arrival and greeted him with smiles, but Lin's was brief and vanished quickly when she caught sight of Tenzin's face. She could read him so well that she must have seen the slump to his shoulders or the strain it took for him to attempt a smile of his own.
"Where are the twins?" Tenzin had asked first, after kissing both Lin and Jeia on the forehead and squeezing Ronen's shoulder.
"With Korra and the others," Ronen explained. "I offered to give them a little break while I sat with Mom."
"More like give me a break," Lin countered, looking slightly exasperated. "I swear those two could talk for a century and never get tired. I wish I had half their energy. Although, I did learn a lot about what they're up to at school these days."
"Oh?" Tenzin inquired with interest, settling down on the edge of the bed and trying to relax after such a trying afternoon. "And what did you learn?"
"Too much to even remember," Lin admitted, "but Sora and Jinora are friends again, and Jin and Sora have completely made up. Apparently their three peas in a pod, can't be separated. They keep begging to let Jinora come over, but I told them they'd have to wait."
"Perhaps soon," Tenzin murmured, but he knew it was wishful thinking. It was doubtful they'd be able to have another child on the Island with everything going on. The twins and Jinora were a bit too young still to really be trusted on their own without supervision, in part because of Yunjin's mischievous behavior, and in part because Jinora's parents would likely not be pleased to know their daughter was given free reign of the Island while Lin and Tenzin were elsewhere. They certainly didn't want to ask Nira or Ronen to take on anymore responsibility either, and they were already at full capacity at the dinner table with the three guests that had recently joined them. Tenzin did not like disappointing his children, but it simply was not a good time. He and Lin didn't even know how much longer they'd be keeping the kids in school with all that was going on, but they were saving that argument for another day.
"Speaking of the twins," Tenzin continued, "Ronen, why don't you take Jeia and ask them to watch her for a bit? Then bring Korra in here. I want to discuss the council meeting I had today with the three of you."
Ronen frowned slightly in concern. "Is everything okay?"
"There is simply some news you should be aware of. I'll explain as soon as you return."
Ronen nodded and did as requested, lifting Jeia up onto his hip as he rose off of the bed and hurrying out of the room. Tenzin turned to his wife as two of their children left, and stroked her hair while asking, "How are you feeling?"
"Like hell," Lin said bluntly. "What's going on, Tenzin?"
Tenzin answered her question with a question of his own. "What could Tarrlok have on Saikhan?" She hadn't been awake long enough the day before for him to tell her about the press conference, so she didn't yet know that Saikhan was bowing to Tarrlok's wishes.
Lin groaned with an eye roll and sunk further back against the pillows propped up behind her. "Why does it always have to come back to that hog-monkey? What's he done now?"
"Well, in just a few short hours he convinced Saikhan to essentially turn the entire police force over to his disposal. So it begs the question of how? We've known Saikhan for decades. I never imagined he would so easily defer to a politician of all things."
Lin sighed heavily. "I'm afraid some of that is my fault. Saikhan was telling me that we need to squash the anti-bender sentiment long before it erupted into this, but with all the troubles we already had with the triads, I didn't see it as a top priority. It was just protests mostly, political bullshit, and I figured if we stopped the triads from antagonizing the nonbenders some then it wouldn't even be a problem. He must have seen what I didn't and was frustrated by my lack of action. We've been butting heads over how to handle it the past few weeks since it started escalating, among other things. I don't know what Tarrlok offered, Saikhan isn't exactly power hungry, but he did used to have that problem with gambling. Maybe he has some new debts he needs paid off."
Tenzin stroked his beard thoughtfully and nodded stoically. "I suppose that would explain some of it. I just never wanted to believe that Saikhan could be so easily swayed, and by the likes of Tarrlok. Especially with what the council is pushing now. The fact that the police will actually enforce it…"
Lin frowned. "What is it they're trying to do?"
Tenzin wasn't sure that he could stand to say it twice, as he could already feel the anger growing in him anew. He thought of all of the children like Ronen and adults like Nira and he knew so many nonbenders that were better people than some of the benders he knew, and yet all nonbenders would not even be allowed to leave their houses after nightfall.
Luckily for him, Ronen and Korra entered the room shortly after Lin's question, and then he explained what went on in the council meeting and the repercussions to Tarrlok's new proposed law. As expected, all three of them were as outraged as he had been, though Lin seemed wholly unsurprised and was a lot more subdued in her displeasure.
Tenzin had implored Ronen to adhere to the new law, despite how ridiculous it was, but he doubted that his son would listen. Ronen was too headstrong and he wouldn't sit on the sidelines just because of a little risk. Tenzin feared that Tarrlok would just be looking for an excuse to arrest Ronen on trumped up charges, but Ronen was not fearful of such a thing. He was too incensed by the insanity of the revolution and Tarrlok's prejudice. He would fight back against it no matter the cost to himself. Tenzin understood that, but struggled to accept it. He had seen firsthand that his son was becoming a very capable fighter, but it didn't make him any less of a concerned father.
Korra had said that she would look out for Ronen, and Ronen had insisted that he wouldn't go looking for trouble if he could help it, but Tenzin and Lin expected everything to go sideways eventually.
Tenzin just didn't expect it to happen so fast.
It was late the following evening when he received the call. It was almost bedtime for the kids, but he was letting them stay up just a bit longer because they were with their mother. Ronen, Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami were off together somewhere, and Tenzin was forcing himself not to fret over where. They had been out together a lot lately and he knew that it was mostly to do vigilante work he was pretending not to be aware of. He himself had been in his home office most of the evening fielding phone calls and the like.
Until one of the phone calls turned out to be Korra, who frantically and vaguely began explaining how she and Ronen and the others had gone into the city, and then something about Tarrlok arresting innocent nonbenders and Bolin, Mako, Asami, and Ronen being arrested too when they tried to intervene. Tenzin had been absolutely mortified and enraged all at once, and promised Korra to meet her at the police station as quickly as possible.
He went into his bedroom first, and found Lin nestled in the middle of the bed, eyes closed but still half awake. Sora, Yunjin, and Jeia were all on the bed with her. Jeia was curled up against her mother's side and definitely asleep. Yunjin was on Lin's other side with his back against the headboard, quietly reading a story that he must have started for Jeia. Sora was painting Lin's nails, of all things, which might have been hilariously cute under different circumstances.
Tenzin approached his family quietly, forcing reassuring smiles for them that made the twins narrow their eyes suspiciously. "I have to run into the city," he murmured to them, mindful of Jeia. "Can you two stay here with your mother and Jeia until I return."
"Of course, Daddy," Sora easily acquiesced.
Yunjin added, "Sure. How long will you be gone?"
"Not long," Tenzin assured, even though he really had no idea.
Lin cracked open a bleary eye, squinting up at him with a sleepy frown as she croaked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, love," Tenzin lied, leaning down to give her a quick kiss. "I'll explain as soon as I return."
He wasn't going to tell her that their son was in prison, not before he had more news to give her besides whatever confusing explanation he'd gotten from Korra over the phone. He didn't want to worry her anymore in the state that she was in. She was improving a lot after the healing session she'd had that morning, and most of her bones were almost completely mended, but she was still worn out and in some pain. He didn't want to add onto that.
So he left without further explanation and rushed into the city. By the time he had reached police headquarters, he was boiling mad. At Tarrlok, at Saikhan, and at Amon, for starting the whole mess that had gotten his son into such a precarious position in the first place. Tenzin stormed into headquarters with a gust of wind swirling around him, clenching his fists under his cloak and trying to maintain his patient civility in the midst of his ire.
He found Korra at the front desk, frustrated and arguing with a clerk that made a hasty retreat the moment he saw Tenzin approaching.
"Korra," Tenzin said as the girl was slamming her fists down on the counter in agitation, "I came as fast as I could. Where are your friends? Is Ronen okay?"
Korra spun around to face him, looking simultaneously relieved and wary at the sight of him. "Tenzin," she sighed, "I don't know. These knuckleheads won't tell me anything!"
"I'll take care of this," Tenzin vowed. It was at that same moment that Saikhan tried sneaking by, and Tenzin called out to him, "Saikhan! A word, please."
"Councilman Tenzin," Saikhan said through gritted teeth, as if they hadn't known each other on some level since they were in their late twenties. "I'm pretty swamped at the moment, can this wait?"
"You know that it cannot," Tenzin fumed. "Three of Avatar Korra's friends and my son were wrongly arrested tonight. You will release them to me immediately."
"They're not going anywhere," Saikhan disagreed, pressing his palms flat against the countertop. "They were interfering with police business."
Korra heatedly interjected, "Your so-called police business is rounding up innocent people and claiming they were Equalists. They should be released too."
"All Equalist suspects are being detained indefinitely," Saikhan said flippantly. "They will be released if and when the task force deems they are no longer a threat."
"Those people are entitled to due process under the law," Tenzin fired back.
"You'll have to take that up with Councilman Tarrlok," Saikhan replied flippantly.
"Oh I plan to," Tenzin promised, "at the council meeting first thing in the morning. But until then, I will not have my son sitting in prison over night." Tenzin slapped a hand down on the countertop in his fury, but Saikhan hardly flinched.
"You know I can't give him preferential treatment," Saikhan grumbled. "Would Lin release my daughter from prison just because I asked?"
"Don't you dare!" Tenzin seethed. "You know that Lin would never condone such foolishness in the first place, and if your daughter was fifteen years old, Lin would absolutely release her into your care. I don't know what Tarrlok has on you, but I hope all this is worth it."
Tenzin's voice had raised enough that people were starting to watch, and Saikhan glanced around with an uncomfortable frown. He did not have the sort of feared respect that Lin did, and some of the officers still loyal to her would rally behind Tenzin if given enough reason to. Saikhan was respected as Lin's right hand man and a veteran on the force, but that could all shatter if they thought Saikhan was selling them out for his own personal gain. Some of the officers must already be opposed to Tarrlok's new rule, but were trusting their new Chief's decisions for now, and Saikhan must have known he was walking a thin line.
"Listen," Saikhan muttered, giving Tenzin a warning glare, "Ronen is still technically a minor, so maybe I could release him to you, but I can't do anything about the others."
"They are also minors and I am currently their guardian," Tenzin tried to argue.
"They're hardly minors," Saikhan snorted. "Do you have any paperwork to back up your claims?" When Tenzin could only purse his lips, Saikhan nodded. "That's what I thought. So why don't you take what I'm offering you before I change my mind?"
Tenzin gritted his teeth, but knew better than to gamble Ronen's freedom. Asami and Mako and Bolin would be okay to spend a night in prison. They would not come to harm, and in the morning, Tenzin would do everything possible to ensure their release. Technically speaking, Ronen might have been able to withstand the same, but Tenzin wasn't about to return home to Lin to tell her that he had left Ronen in a cell. She would leap out of bed and tear headquarters down herself to free him. And as strong as he may be, Ronen was still just a boy, and a famous one at that. Tenzin didn't think any of the guards would allow harm to come to the boy, but they were living in uncertain times.
"Very well," Tenzin acquiesced. "You will bring Ronen to me now?"
"I'll have someone bring you the paperwork and send an officer to the tombs to retrieve him. Now if that's all, I really do need to be going."
Before Tenzin could get a word in, Korra leaned up over the counter and grabbed Saikhan's chin as she told him, "You are officially the worst Chief of Police ever."
"Now, now, Korra," Tenzin soothed, pulling the girl back. "We'll get this sorted out. We just need to be patient." Which must have been extremely difficult for her considering how incredibly impatient Tenzin himself felt.
Nevertheless, as Saikhan turned his back on them to go and carry out his task, Tenzin called to his back, "But you really are the worst! Ever!"
Saikhan hardly flinched, and Tenzin spent the next several minutes pacing until someone finally brought out a mountain of paperwork for him to fill out. And afterwards, he and Korra were forced to wait even longer, to the point that Tenzin began to wonder if something had gone wrong, or if Saikhan was just purposefully being obstinate.
Tenzin was just considering going down to the prison level himself when Korra thumped him in the arm and said, "Hey! There he is! Ronen!"
Tenzin spun in the direction Korra was darting off to, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his son emerging into the entrance hall. He appeared to be unscathed, and he smiled as Korra enveloped him in a crushing hug. Tenzin rushed over to join them, and as soon as the two friends had pulled apart, Tenzin tugged Ronen into his embrace.
"Thank goodness," Tenzin said, before holding Ronen out at arms length to look him over with concern. "Are you all right, son?"
Ronen nodded and assured, "I'm fine, Dad, just a little tired. Thanks for getting me out of there."
"I wish you hadn't come into the city," Tenzin admonished lightly. "I told you to adhere to these new rules, that Tarrlok would be looking for reasons to punish you."
"I know, Dad," Ronen sighed. "I'm sorry, but Tarrlok is an idiot." Well, Tenzin could hardly argue with that. Ronen turned to Korra to question, "Where are the others? Are they coming too?"
"I'm afraid not," Tenzin answered instead as Korra shook her head in frustration. "Saikhan would not release them to me, but I will be meeting with Tarrlok first thing in the morning to get this figured out."
"You weren't with them?" Korra asked Ronen.
Ronen smiled bitterly, no amusement to his expression as he admitted, "No, they put me in solitary confinement. Said it was for my own safety."
"They what?!" Tenzin spluttered in outrage. "I can't believe – how could they just – you're a child –"
"I'm okay, Dad," Ronen interjected, raising his voice to be heard over Tenzin's tirade. "Really, I'm fine. I wasn't in there long… Can we just go home?"
"Of course," Tenzin murmured, half-apologetic, squeezing Ronen's shoulder and ushering him and Korra out of headquarters.
As they were descending the stairs, Ronen glanced back over his shoulder with a frown as he admitted, "I hate leaving Asami and the others in there."
"Yeah, me too," Korra muttered. "I really wish your mom hadn't quit. That Saikhan is a coward."
"Speaking of Mom," Ronen said, turning his head up to look at his father again. "I'm assuming you told her I was in jail? I'm surprised she didn't storm down here herself."
Tenzin winced just imagining the reaction Lin was going to have when they got home. "Actually," he confessed, "I haven't told her yet. I didn't want to worry her, and she was half-asleep when I got the call from Korra."
"Oh boy," Ronen cringed. "She's gonna be mad."
Ronen was not wrong.
When Tenzin, Ronen, and Korra returned to the Island, the two teens went separate directions, Korra to her room to attempt sleep, and Ronen to a shower to wash away the grime of prison that he felt was on him. Tenzin went to his bedroom, and found the rest of his family right where he'd left them. All three of the kids were asleep in various spots on the bed, but Lin was awake, still looking bleary, but clearly waiting on him.
"You said you'd be back soon," she accused, and Tenzin could only apologize and promise to explain as soon as he got the kids into their own beds. Lin was obviously frustrated, but did not argue as he carried Jeia off to her room. When he returned, he woke Sora and Yunjin, and guided them as they stumbled sleepily down the hall to their own rooms. On his way back to Lin, he peeked into Ronen's room, and found the boy sprawled atop his bed on his stomach, already asleep, his hair still soaking wet.
When Tenzin finally revealed the truth to Lin, it took a concerted effort to keep her from blowing the roof off of the house. She wanted to storm right into the city and give both Saikhan and Tarrlok a piece of her mind. Tenzin then made the mistake of quirking his lips up just a little into a very tiny smile, because he just couldn't help but be captivated by his wife's beautiful fury – so long as it was not directed at him. Which it then was, because she began berating him for not having told her before he left. He knew she was mostly just angry that she hadn't gotten to tell Saikhan off herself, but he wasn't fool enough to say that to her face.
It took a while to calm Lin down, but eventually, she did settle with a harrumph and a tired, muttered promise to take care of Tarrlok just as soon as she was back to full strength. And Tenzin kissed the side of her head and laid his arm over her waist, careful not to jostle her healing wounds, and murmured, "Yes, dear, of course, dear."
He fell right to sleep with his face buried in his wife's hair, only to be disturbed from his peaceful slumber a few short hours later by the sound of the phone ringing shrilly in the early morning hours.
Lin was grumbling and lazily rapping her knuckles against his shoulder as she croaked, "Shut that thing off."
Tenzin rubbed at his eyes as he sat up to answer the phone, still half-asleep and slightly confused. However, he was wide awake a moment later.
Korra had been captured.
Tenzin scrambled to get dressed as he informed Lin of what little he had been told. He implored her to remain in bed while he went to city hall to find out more, and he should have been suspicious of how easy it was to convince her, but he was so consumed by worry for Korra that he raced out of the house without another thought.
Tarrlok was there, looking disheveled, covered in minor injuries of his own, and claimed that Korra had come to confront him about imprisoning her friends in the middle of the night, and that was when the Equalists had attacked them both. Tarrlok had been electrocuted and the Equalists took off with Korra. Tenzin then spent some time looking over the evidence left behind and calling in a few favors to see if he could find out anymore information as to Korra's possible whereabouts. He realized at some point that he had not bothered to check if Ronen was still in bed before he had left the house, and even though Tarrlok had said nothing of Ronen's involvement, Tenzin still raced home to the Island just to be certain.
Tenzin hadn't even landed when Ronen came racing out into the courtyard, and he allowed himself to breath deeply in relief, the panic in his chest abating slightly. He was still extremely worried about Korra, but at least it was not the both of them that were missing, and perhaps Ronen might know more.
As it turned out, Ronen knew only what Lin had told him before she had left the house on a mission of her own. Korra had not come to him before leaving the Island the night before, nor told him anything of her plans.
Tenzin was beyond frustrated when he learned that Lin had gone off into the city to break Asami, Mako, and Bolin out of prison. While it might help to have Korra's friends involved, Lin was only just healing from the fight at the Sato mansion days before, and running off to break a couple teens out of jail was foolhardy under normal circumstances. Nevertheless, he didn't go rushing back into the city to try and stop her. He didn't think he could have even if he wanted to.
So he and Ronen waited for Lin to return with the others by discussing their next steps and trying to figure out where to look for Korra first. Tenzin also went ahead and called Nira over to the house to look after Jeia and the twins, since he had no inkling of how long they might be out searching. Jeia sensed the tension and was practically inconsolable, and the twins demanded to know what was going on, and then tried to insist on helping, but Tenzin shut that down immediately. It was bad enough that Korra was missing and Lin was still healing and Ronen was going to be involved. Tenzin could not add worrying over Jin and Sora to the list.
Thankfully, Lin returned to the Island looking none the worse for wear; Asami, Mako, and Bolin in tow and no police airships pursuing them across the Bay.
"You're supposed to be resting," Tenzin still admonished when she entered his study.
"I've rested enough," Lin waved off. "You're gonna need all the help you can get looking for Korra."
"Do you have any leads?" Mako immediately questioned.
"None so far, I'm afraid," Tenzin admitted.
"We need Naga!" Mako insisted.
Ronen, who was leaned back against the front of his father's desk, arms folded over his chest, said, "We already thought of that, but Naga is missing too."
"Well where were you when she left?" Mako demanded. "Why wouldn't she have told you where she was going? Why did you let her go alone?"
Ronen pushed off of the desk with a scowl as he fired back, "She went in the middle of the night without telling me anything. What was I supposed to do, sense her leaving the island while I was dead asleep?"
"You're her best friend aren't you?" Mako scoffed, as if that should make a difference.
Before Lin or Tenzin could intervene, Bolin inserted himself between his brother and Ronen. "Hey, guys, this isn't gonna help anything. Let's focus on Korra, right? Where should we start looking?"
He directed his question to the rest of the occupants of the room, and Lin was the first to answer, "My guess is the Equalists are hiding underground, in the maze of tunnels beneath the city."
"Underground," Asami muttered, mostly to herself, "just like my father's secret workshop. Figures."
"That makes sense actually," Bolin commented. "When I was taken by the Equalists it sounded like we drove into a tunnel."
"I know where to start looking!" Mako declared, and the teens went running from the room.
Lin and Tenzin stayed behind for a moment to share a look, and Lin said, "Wherever Amon is keeping Korra, I bet that's where Tosuki and my officers are too."
"Let's bring them all home, Lin," Tenzin said with determination, reaching out to squeeze her hand in his.
They turned to follow the kids, hands still entwined, but Lin paused in the doorway, looking up at him to add, "Oh, and another thing. Before I went into the city, I contacted Su. Amon is getting bolder, and this war doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. I think it'd be best if she took Jeia and the twins to Zaofu for a little while. I'd send Ronen too, but I know he'll never agree. I'm sorry, I know I should have talked to you first –"
"No," Tenzin cut her off, "you were right to call her. When is she coming?"
"She said she would leave right away," Lin replied. "She should be here by nightfall."
Lin found Tosuki and her officers in a prison in the tunnels beneath the city, just as expected. Unfortunately, she was too late to save their bending, and it tore at her heart to know that she had failed them, that they had lost an integral part of themselves by that monster Amon's hands while she had been lying in bed trying to recover. She knew that it was not truly her fault, but she still felt some responsibility. She didn't know how she could ever make it up to them.
Korra, however, was not in the same prison, or in Equalist hands at all. As it turned out, Tarrlok was a damned blood bender and had been playing them all along. He had Korra, and when they confronted him about it, he bloodbent all six of them, plus Saikhan and the three other members of the council. Lin had been bloodbent a time or two before, because every once in a while one of the members of the Red Monsoon Triad would start wreaking havoc on a full moon, but it was basically an automatic sentence of life in prison, so few ever risked it within city limits. Nevertheless, it was still just as jarring and horrific as it always was, and the agony was such that she was almost relieved when she passed out.
She woke stiff and angry though. Tarrlok was long gone and they were no closer to finding Korra. They tried to follow Tarrlok's trail once everyone was back on their feet, but there wasn't much to follow.
They searched well into the night with no further progress, and were flying Oogi over top the city when they heard the familiar howl of what could definitely have been a polar bear dog.
Tenzin swooped down to where Naga was walking along the abandoned street, and there atop the saddle was Korra. She didn't have any visible injuries besides a few scrapes, but she was draped over Naga's back on her stomach, only half-conscious when they all approached her.
Tenzin, Lin, and Ronen reached her first, but they had only managed to get out a few short words that Korra could not muster the energy to respond to before Mako pushed his way through them. The boy had been acting insane ever since Korra's capture, snapping at the rest of his friends and threatening Equalists. It was obvious that he cared a great deal more for Korra than perhaps anyone else had first realized, and Lin could tell that it was annoying Ronen, who kept glaring at Mako's back and throwing sympathetic looks at Asami. When Mako picked Korra up off of Naga and began carrying her towards Oogi, Ronen lurched forward, expression pinched in anger, but Lin grabbed him by the sleeve and tugged him back. She didn't know what drama was going on with the teens, but the last thing Korra needed right then was for the two boys to be arguing over top of her.
Tenzin flew Korra, Mako, and Bolin back to the Island on Oogi, while Ronen and Asami offered to take Naga back on a boat, and Lin went with them because she wasn't about to let them get abducted after they'd just found Korra.
The two teens started whispering to one another shortly after the boat took off from the harbor, and Lin did her best to tune it out, but she picked some of it up anyways.
"Bolin says I'm probably imagining things," Asami huffed, "but I'm not stupid. I see how he looks at her. What do you think? You see it, right?"
"I don't know Mako all that well," Ronen deflected.
"Great, so you're lying to me now too?"
"What? No! Asami, look…I just don't want to say something that could mess things up with you and Mako. I don't know what's inside his head, just what I see, and I could be wrong. I could be imagining things too."
"So you do see it! He has feelings for Korra, doesn't he?"
Ronen sighed heavily. "He seems to, yes," he finally admitted, "but it doesn't necessarily mean anything. He likes you too, he's just, I don't know, confused I guess. He hasn't acted it on it –"
"Yet," Asami muttered bitterly.
"And I know Korra," Ronen continued. "She wouldn't do that to you."
"So what, they'll just yearn for each other until I get sick of it and break up with him? And what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Just accept it? Hope that he changes his mind and chooses me? I think I deserve better than that."
"You do," Ronen murmured after a long pause. "I'm sorry, Asami. I wish that I could make this better somehow. I don't want to see anyone get hurt. Mako's an idiot if he doesn't see how amazing you are. I hope for your sake that he gets his act together, but if he doesn't, well…that's his loss."
Asami and Ronen stared at one another for a few long seconds that made Lin extremely uncomfortable. Spirits, had she and Tenzin been that awkward as teenagers? And what the hell was she witnessing?
Then Asami sniffled and wiped a stray tear, smiling a little as she mumbled, "Thanks, Ronen. You're a good friend."
The boat was just about to dock at the Island then, and Lin leapt up with a gruff, "We're here," before anything more could be said between Ronen and Asami. She inserted herself between them none too subtly and nudged Ronen along saying, "Why don't you help the Acolytes with Naga?"
Ronen shot his mother an annoyed look but went to do as she asked.
Once the four of them were on the Island at last, Naga ran off on her own, Asami said a quick goodnight to retreat to her own room, and Lin and Ronen went together to the main house.
Suyin was waiting outside for them, leaning forward with her forearms resting on the railing, the right side of her body cast in shadow.
Ronen, who had not known that his aunt was coming, squinted at her form and then gasped in surprise, looking up at his mother to see her lack of shock, and then exclaimed, "Aunt Su! What are you doing here?"
He rushed over to greet her, Lin lagging behind, and they embraced with gusto.
"I'm here to see all of you, of course!" Su replied, pulling Ronen out to arms length to look him over in the light of the nearby lanterns. "Look at you! You've grown so much! You must be as tall as your mother!"
Ronen grinned and said slyly, "Taller actually."
Lin snorted as she joined the pair and parried, "Keep dreamin', kid. You haven't outgrown me yet."
Ronen nodded, but then whispered conspiratorially to his aunt, "She's sensitive about it."
Lin rolled her eyes and Su said seriously, "Your mother is very sensitive."
"Are you two done?" Lin asked blandly, while Ronen and Su chuckled.
"For now," Su teased, before turning her attention onto her nephew. "Why don't you go see how your friend is doing so I can catch up with your mom?"
"Sure," Ronen easily agreed. "I'll see you at breakfast in the morning?"
"Absolutely," Su confirmed. "And I want to hear about everything that I've missed."
"Good night, kid," Lin added.
"G'night, Mom, Aunt Su."
Ronen walked briskly into the house, and the two sisters waited until he had crossed the threshold before turning to one another. Lin expected to see a serious expression, but Su was still smiling brightly, and before Lin could warn her off, she was lunging at her older sister and engulfing Lin in a crushing hug.
Lin sighed dramatically, but wrapped her own arms around Su's back and allowed herself to relax into the embrace. It had been a while since she'd seen sister. Lin found herself longing for the day when Amon was brought to justice, because – besides for the obvious reasons – she intended to take an extended vacation in Zaofu, to relax for once maybe and spend time with her sister that did not feel rushed or impeded, to see her niece and nephews and how much they must have grown, and to spend time with her own family before her kids grew up completely. She thought Korra might like Zaofu too, and maybe she and Ronen could bring their friends if they could keep the teen drama to a minimum, and even if they couldn't, Zaofu was fairly large, and Lin could easily avoid them if need be.
It all seemed like such a distant, unobtainable future in that moment though, and too much like optimism for Lin's tastes, so she pushed the thoughts aside for now.
"It's so good to see you, Lin," Su exclaimed, still squeezing tight and twisting Lin from side to side.
Unfortunately, the movement caused a stabbing pain to shoot through Lin's still healing spine, which was particularly stiff after the long day of searching and fighting and being bloodbended. She sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth and strained her arms to halt Su's movements saying, "Easy."
Su lurched back with a startled gasp, frown marring her features. "Oh, Lin, I'm so sorry," she rushed out. "Tenzin told me you were hurt, I wasn't thinking–"
"It's fine," Lin interjected, waving her hand dismissively. "It's getting better. Really," she added, when Su looked skeptical.
"You wouldn't admit it even if it wasn't," Su pointed out.
Lin shrugged. "Maybe not. What else did Tenzin tell you?"
"Not much," Su admitted. "We only had a few seconds to talk. He was seeing to the Avatar, poor girl, and then the kids woke up so he's trying to get them back to bed now. I tried to help, but he told me to make sure you and Ronen made it back safe."
"But he had time to tell you I got hurt?"
"Well he said the Sato girl was with you," Su explained, "and that she was staying here on the Island now. I was confused as to why the heiress to the Sato fortune wasn't living in her mansion with her father, so he gave me a brief summary of Hiroshi Sato's involvement with the Equalists."
"You've missed a lot," Lin said.
Su snorted. "I'd say. You don't write for three weeks and it's like the whole world shifted out of balance in the meantime. There's a madman running around the city that can take people's bending permanently, Satomobiles are funding the bad guys, and you have four more kids than you did the last time I was here."
"Ugh, don't remind me," Lin grumbled, folding her arms across her chest.
"And you said I had too many kids. You have eight."
"Hey, they're not my kids," Lin argued. "They're just guests staying on my island."
"Sure, whatever you say, Lin," Su said, unconvinced and smiling knowingly.
Lin rolled her eyes and gestured towards the door. "Can we take this reunion inside? Should probably see if my actual kids are in bed." Su nodded wordlessly and fell in step beside Lin, who then asked, "Did you tell them why you're here?"
"No," Su answered, "I thought I'd leave that nightmare to you."
"Thanks," Lin scoffed.
"I just told them that you called me and things sounded crazy so I thought I'd come visit. I don't know if the twins totally bought it."
"That's the trouble with kids getting older," Lin lamented, holding the door open for Su. "They stop believing the lies we tell them."
After the children had gone back to bed and Korra was settled into the guest room with Ronen and Mako looking out for her, Lin and Tenzin and Su convened in the kitchen with a pot of tea. The sun would rise in just a few short hours, but the three adults were still wired from recent events and it seemed imperative that they have a discussion before the kids woke the following morning and made it next to impossible.
Lin and Tenzin gave Su a detailed explanation of what had been going on in Republic City and with their family as of late, filling her in on all the little details they might have forgotten and more information than they could have fit into a letter. Su had a lot of questions and was baffled by half of what she was told. She nearly fell off of her chair when she heard that Lin had resigned from the police force. She also decided that, as soon as she took the twins and Jeia back to Zaofu, she would then return to Republic City to help her sister and brother-in-law defeat Amon, and no amount of protesting from Lin would change her mind.
"I've got enough things here to worry about without adding you to the list," Lin argued, and her fists were clenched on the table top in a frustration that was coursing through her with more and more strength. "That's why I'm having you take the kids away from here."
Su was undeterred, smiling in that annoyingly knowing way as she replied, "I know that's your way of saying you love me, Lin, but I can handle myself. The kids need protection, not me. You can argue all you want, but I won't change my mind."
It was shortly after that when the three of them finally went to bed, Tenzin inserting himself between the two sisters wearily and begging that they argue over it in the morning when he wasn't so exhausted. Lin was still muttering under her breath when she crawled into bed with him, but then Tenzin pulled her fully into his arms and pressed a firm kiss to her mouth that distracted her long enough to relax into his embrace.
"I'm still mad," she mumbled against his chest afterwards, but she was breathless and her eyelids were too heavy to hold open any longer, and she drifted off seconds later.
The whole house slept late the next morning, so that it was nearly lunch time before they all gathered in the dining room to eat. Korra, who had taken a long, hot bath after her extended slumber, joined the rest of them at the table a little later, and spent the next several minutes shoveling food into her mouth as quickly as she was able.
When she finally paused for breath, she spoke through a mouthful of food to say, "The food is delicious."
"I would hope so, the way you're eating it like you're starved," Yunjin commented, still helping himself to any stray food he could find as well. The table was crowded with everyone there, and he kept knocking into various bowls and cups, so that Su, who was on his left side, had to keep darting a hand out to catch whatever he was about to spill.
"Jin," Sora hissed at him, "you're an idiot."
"Why?" Yunjin scoffed, shoving rice into his mouth that he had snatched off of Ronen's plate.
"It's okay, Sora," Korra interjected with a little smile. "I know what he meant, and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again."
"That's good to hear," Su said, not even turning to look as one of her arms darted out behind her to catch Jeia, who had been toddling over, and tripped over Yunjin's leg as he extended it behind him to better reach across the table towards Mako's half-eaten plate.
"Yunjin!" Lin snapped, giving the boy a warning look that caused him to slump back into his seat with a disgruntled pout.
Mako slid his plate across the table to Yunjin and said, "Here, kid, you can have it."
Jeia plopped down in the tiny space between Jin and Su and simply stared up at her aunt with a judgmental gaze. It had been nearly a year since Jeia had last seen her aunt, and what little she could remember was obviously not enough to warm her to Su just yet, but she was keeping a close eye on Su anyways, and Su was trying very hard to win Jeia over.
Korra squinted her eyes at Su, gulping down the food in her mouth before saying, "I'm sorry, you're, um, Lin's sister, right?"
Su smiled kindly and answered, "You can call me Su. You were pretty young the last time we met, and I'm assuming Lin doesn't talk about me much."
Su shot Lin a teasing glare and Korra chuckled, "Lin doesn't talk much."
"She likes to act all mysterious, but we all know she's a big softy under that metal contraption," Su teased.
Lin made a face, but didn't bother with a rebuttal. Korra laughed and Lin figured that had been Su's real goal anyways. Su was always better at trying to cheer people up and had a knack for sensing when someone was in need of a good laugh.
"So are you here to help fight the Equalists then?" Korra asked Suyin.
Su shrugged as if she hadn't just admitted to such a desire to Lin and Tenzin the night before. "I'm not sure yet," she hedged. "I go where I'm needed, and I had a feeling I should be here."
Yunjin scoffed in disbelief and asked Lin and Tenzin, "Okay, sure, what's the real reason Aunt Su is here?" And Ronen and Sora both turned questioning gazes onto their parents too in anticipation. "Are you ever gonna tell us?"
Lin exchanged a glance with Tenzin, who nodded and cleared his throat before answering, "Your Aunt Su is here because we asked her to come. She is going to take the three of you to stay in Zaofu until this revolution has been dealt with."
"Without you?" Sora exclaimed.
"No way!" Yunjin protested hotly.
"No go!" Jeia added.
"This isn't up for debate," Lin told them plainly. "You're going and that's final."
"You expect us to run and hide like cowards?" Yunjin persisted.
"We expect you to understand that we know what is best for you," Tenzin countered calmly. "This is not your fight, and your mother and I want to ensure your safety."
"But what about Ronen?" Sora inquired in a quiet whisper that was nearly overpowered by her twin brother's loud, "So it's everyone else's fight but ours?"
"Ronen is older," Tenzin began.
Lin finished, "And he understands the seriousness of this revolution. He isn't just looking to pick a fight." She gave Yunjin a pointed look, but he only glared right back. "Look, kid, maybe next time we have a civil war you can help, but you're gonna have to sit this one out. You and Sora are the last hope for the Airbending race, and if Amon takes your bending, that's it. Everything we've done to protect you will have been for nothing. Is that what you want? Besides, Jeia is a baby still and she needs her brother and sister to keep her safe while your father and I deal with this."
"No baby," Jeia muttered petulantly, but she must have recognized the severity of her mother's tone and said no more.
Yunjin, too, had been subdued a little by his mother, but after a beat, he still smacked his hands on the table and sat up onto his knees, opening his mouth to no doubt go on another tirade. However, Sora reached out and grabbed his bicep, squeezing tight and giving him an imploring look as she quietly begged, "Come on, Jin. Don't start a fight. Mom and Dad are right. We can't risk getting our bending taken and we gotta look out for Jeia."
Yunjin was still scowling, but he slumped back down into his seat without further complaint, folding his arms over his chest and looking bitter but complacent.
Lin was grateful that when she had had Yunjin, she had also had Sora, because as much as she loved the boy, he was too much like her for his own good. He was sweet and loving in his own way, but he struggled with an inner rage that might even be worse than his mother's, and Lin worried about him in ways she didn't worry about his siblings. But thankfully, Sora was the yin to his yang, and she was better than any of the rest of them at calming him when necessary. She could make him agreeable when the same words out of his parents' mouths only angered him. Likewise, Yunjin could help Sora see reason instead of devastation when her emotions consumed her. They fought like any other siblings, but one without the other was not fully whole. While they might have recently been fighting and avoiding one another, they could never truly be separated. If Sora was going to Zaofu, Yunjin would follow regardless of the rest of his beliefs.
A still silence had fallen over the table, and Su sought to break the uncomfortable tension by softly telling the twins, "Wei and Wing are very excited to see you again, and Opal started getting your rooms ready as soon as she heard you were coming. I know you're very worried, but once this all gets sorted out you'll be back home in no time."
"Your father and I will meet you in Zaofu," Lin proclaimed, even though she had told Tenzin nothing of her plans and she had no idea how long it might be before she even saw her three youngest kids again after she sent them away. "Once we can leave here, we'll all spend some time with Aunt Su and your cousins. Korra and her friends can come too and we'll all have a nice long vacation."
Sora smiled a little at the thought, and Asami nodded exuberantly as if in total agreement, until Korra and the two pro-bending boys and Ronen caught on and were all nodding along too.
"If you'll be leaving soon, I've got some stuff I want to give you before you go," Asami chimed in all of a sudden, looking at Yunjin and Sora. "If you guys wanna help me clean up the dishes first, then I can show you."
Asami rose and started gathering dishes, and Yunjin and Sora exchanged a look before nodding enthusiastically and jumping to their feet to help. Ronen smiled gratefully at Asami and squeezed her hand briefly as she passed by him, and the girl smiled back in a way that made Lin narrow her eyes despite her own feelings of gratitude. Then again, Ronen did the same sort of thing with Korra, so maybe Lin was just jumping to all the wrong conclusions about the two teens. She just didn't care much for the idea of her son being old enough to be interested in relationships. Wasn't fifteen too young? Or was Lin just a late bloomer? After all, Su had started dating at twelve and Lin had probably been closer to seventeen before she'd even kissed someone.
Ronen seemed about to offer Asami his help, but instead he stayed planted firmly at Korra's side, ensuring that his best friend was really okay after all she'd been through. Mako was on Korra's other side, and he hardly even glanced in his girlfriend's direction, so there was no chance of him following her. Bolin stayed too, seeming to pick up on the impending conversation that was about to happen once the younger kids were out of the room.
Asami stopped by Jeia on her way around the table and held out her free hand, the other full of dishes, and asked, "Will you help me, Jeia?"
Jeia didn't seem all that interested, but she looked over at Lin, who inclined her head in response, and then Jeia was clambering to her feet and accepting Asami's hand.
Once the four of them had left, Tenzin turned his gaze onto Korra and said delicately, "Korra, I realize you've been through a lot, but I need to know everything that happened after you were captured."
"Well, first off," Korra began, "Tarrlok isn't who he says he is. He's Yakone's son."
Lin and Tenzin both gaped in shock, but Suyin looked confused as she said, "Yakone…why does that sound familiar?"
"A ruthless triad leader from a long time ago," Lin explained. "You were just a baby when he went on trial. He had the ability to bloodbend people without a full moon, used it against everyone in the courthouse that day, including Mom and Aang and Sokka. It messed Mom up so bad that she took us on vacation for nearly a year, but Aang stopped Yakone from fleeing the city and took his bending. Nobody knew what happened to him after that. But it makes sense that he would have had a son. It would explain how Tarrlok was able to bloodbend us."
"But how did you escape?" Tenzin questioned Korra. "And where is Tarrlok?"
Korra looked down at the table for a moment before admitting, "Amon captured him…and took his bending."
"What?" Tenzin gasped in surprise.
"Yeah, he showed up out of nowhere," Korra confirmed. "He almost got me too."
Seeing the sorrowful look on Korra's face, Ronen reached out to squeeze her shoulder, keeping his hand there in a gesture of support.
Lin felt her own hand moving to brace itself against Tenzin's thigh underneath of the table, feeling a weighted concern pressing against her own chest and certain that Tenzin was feeling much the same. She exchanged a glance with her sister too, and Su seemed to have grasped the severity of the situation just as well.
Tenzin was the one to voice what they were all thinking, his expression pinched with concern as he said, "This is very disturbing news. Amon is becoming emboldened. Taking out a councilman, almost capturing the Avatar." He looked over at Lin, and squeezed the hand she had on his leg so tightly she felt her knuckles cracking under the pressure. "I fear Amon is entering his end game."
Chapter 51: Chapter 51
Chapter Text
Chapter 51
Lin's goal was to get the kids on their way to Zaofu as fast as humanly possible, but she was very quickly reminded of how absolutely impossibly children were.
Tenzin had to go into the city for an urgent council meeting to discuss the disaster of Tarrlok and Amon's rising power, but getting Sora to unlatch herself from around his legs was proving to be difficult. Yunjin was no help, too busy standing to the side with folded arms and pursed lips as he sulked silently. And Jeia had her legs locked around Lin's waist and her arms so tight around her mother's neck that Lin was struggling just to breathe. She could let go of the toddler and hold her arms out at her sides completely and Jeia would not even budge. Lin began to consider that perhaps telling the kids last minute that they would be leaving soon hadn't exactly been the best idea. Only minutes ago at lunch, Sora had been convincing Yunjin not to argue, that leaving was their best option, but something about the finality of it all had set her off.
"No go," Jeia was repeating in a fierce mutter, jerking away with a screech anytime Su came near her.
Sora was weeping into Tenzin's cloak and pitifully whimpering, "We're supposed to be a family. We're supposed to stick together. Bad stuff always happens when we split up."
"It won't be for long," Tenzin soothed. "And you'll be with family. Think of how much fun you'll have with your cousins, and I bet Uncle Bataar has some new inventions to show you –"
"I can't have fun without you!" Sora wailed, and Lin grimaced at the shrill tone. She thought Sora was getting a little old to be throwing such a fit, but she figured it had more to do with the girl being scared.
"Of course you can!" Tenzin cajoled. "And when your mother and Ronen and I come join you, we'll all have fun together. I promise, sweetheart. Everything is going to be just fine."
"You're lying," Sora mumbled miserably.
Tenzin sighed and looked helplessly over at Lin, who had decided that enough was enough. She knew the kids were mad or scared or upset, but clinging to their parents wasn't going to help anything. They had to learn to let go and do what they were told, to do the hard thing even if they didn't want to. Their very lives might well depend on it.
Lin strode the few steps over to Tenzin and Sora, Jeia still holding on just as tight, and gently but firmly squeezed Sora's shoulder. "Come on, kid," she said, in a no nonsense tone that only worked on her kids half of the time. "That's enough. I know you're worried, but your father and I have done this before. We're gonna be fine, and so are you, if you quit this blubbering and go to Zaofu with your Aunt. It's time to toughen up." She turned her gaze onto Yunjin to add, "And if you want to be treated more like your older brother, then you need to earn it. That doesn't just mean learning how to fight. It means following orders and accepting that you can't always be in the thick of it. There are other jobs that are just as important, and right now yours is protecting your sisters and yourself in Zaofu. Are you gonna straighten up and do it, or give up just because you're pissed at us?"
Yunjin scowled at his mother for several seconds, but she could see her words sinking in as his face slowly began to relax, and his slumped form straightened just a tad. He was trying not to be too obvious, to not let her know so quickly that she had won, but the spark in his eye was more like determination now than anger, and she knew that she had gotten through to him.
Sora, on the other hand, only continued to sob, and Tenzin was giving Lin that look he always gave her when he thought she was being too harsh. Lin could only shrug.
"How about this," Su interjected after a beat, looking at all three kids, but moving over to place a hand on Sora's back, "instead of leaving right now, we'll leave when your dad gets back from his meeting. Your mom can help you pack up some of your things in the meantime, and then when your dad gets back we can all have one last dinner together as a family before we have to go."
Yunjin shrugged in offhand acceptance of the suggestion, and Jeia loosened her grip around Lin's throat just a little to peer over at her father.
Sora's whimpers slowly petered out into occasional sniffles, though she kept her face buried in her father's robes for several long minutes, drawing the moment out like the drama queen that she was. Until finally, she turned her head slightly and mumbled so quietly that they all leaned in to hear her better, "I guess that's okay."
Lin sagged with relief, and held out her hand to Sora so that the girl would finally detach herself from her father.
But Yunjin intervened before Sora could make up her mind, offering his own hand to his twin sister as he said, "Come on, Sora. I need you to help me find my glider."
Sora squeezed Tenzin tight one last time and said, "Be careful, Daddy," before lacing her finger's through Yunjin's and letting him lead her away. As they passed by, Yunjin locked gazes with his mother and nodded firmly.
Well, at least I can still get through to one kid, she thought.
Tenzin watched the twins walk away, some sorrow of his own on his face. He was just as upset about them leaving as Sora was, but he knew the importance of getting them somewhere safe. He would not jeopardize them for the sake of his own emotions.
Lin moved the hand that she had offered to Sora and held it out to Tenzin instead. He accepted it, and they shared a brief moment of solemnity, hands squeezing tight, and then, a second later, they disengaged and the moment was over.
Tenzin straightened his spine and cleared his throat, and then told Lin, "I'll be back as soon as I can."
Lin frowned as a thought occurred to her. "You shouldn't be going alone," she said.
"The children need you here," Tenzin pointed out.
"I'll go with him," Su volunteered.
Tenzin seemed to find that agreeable, but Lin felt her stomach curl at the thought. She opened her mouth to argue, but snapped it closed immediately after. It was a fight she wouldn't win, and she didn't want to alienate her sister when Su was doing so much for her.
Instead, Lin decided to trust that the two of them together would be a formidable force, that they would watch each others backs. She reached out to squeeze Su's shoulder and sincerely said, "Thank you, Su."
Su smiled warmly. "Don't worry, I probably won't get to do anything fun. I'll just be sitting in City Hall, bored out of my mind, listening to politicians bicker."
"I hope so," Lin said seriously, not finding it within her to laugh at the moment.
"Relax," Su implored. "We'll be back in no time. Go be with your kids."
"Be careful," Lin urged, "both of you."
"We will be," Tenzin promised, leaning in to give her a short kiss on the mouth. Then he kissed Jeia's cheek and added, "Be good for Mama, I'll be back soon. I love you both."
"Love you, Dada," Jeia murmured, laying her head down on Lin's shoulder.
Tenzin was already backing away, blowing kisses at Jeia as he went, and the toddler reached her hand up to 'catch' them and bring them down to cradle over her heart. It was all very depressing, considering Tenzin and Su were only going into the city and would be back in a little while, and despite knowing that they would more than likely be fine, Lin still felt her chest tightening with something akin to fear.
But she sucked in a deep breath and forced the worries aside. She took Jeia back into the house, where the twins had already begun to pack their bags, subdued but cooperative now. Lin went to do the same for Jeia, making sure to pack her favorite toys and plenty of clothes, and debated for a solid minute before deciding to add the stuffed armadillo-lion that was a gift from Lieutenant Jeia.
Afterwards, Lin went to help Jin and Sora, who were taking a lot longer to decide on what was essential to take and what wasn't. They didn't have a whole lot of possessions, not with Tenzin's teachings of simplicity and non-materialism, as well as Lin's own distaste for clutter after years of living with her mother and Su, the two most cluttered people she'd ever known. However, what the kids did have were objects that were very important to them, and the uncertainty of their current situation was making it difficult to leave anything behind. They had no idea how long they would be gone or what might happen while they were away, and it took a while for Lin to convince them that the rest of their stuff would be right where they left it when they returned home.
It was just as Lin was replacing some of the things Sora had needlessly dragged out of her closet that Ronen came running into the room, breathless and grim-faced as he skidded to a halt, followed by a cacophony of distant sounds from outside that sounded an awful lot like explosives. And Lin felt her stomach drop, while the shoes in her hands fell from her suddenly slack grip to clatter to the floor.
"Mom," he said urgently, "you better come see this."
Lin raced out into the courtyard with all four of her kids in tow, and found Korra and the other three teens already there, already staring out at the city with similar expressions of surprise and dismay, and when Lin saw why, she felt the weight of the world come crashing down around her shoulders.
Republic City was under attack.
Su and Tenzin were subdued as they clambered atop Oogi and took off into the sky, but they were only silent long enough to level out. Then, Su immediately began questioning Tenzin about the Equalists and how they fought. She knew a little, from what Tenzin and Lin had said about the electric gloves and the chi blocking, but she wanted to know everything that he could tell her before they reached City Hall. He did his best to accommodate her, thankful for the distraction and also glad that she was taking it seriously. They may not even face an attack, but it never hurt to be prepared. Considering that she had never faced the Equalists or their weaponry, Suyin was at a distinct disadvantage, but she was not to be underestimated either. She was a Beifong after all, and even though she had not had reason to participate in a true battle in many, many years, she had still been raised a fighter. Tenzin did not doubt that she would be a great asset to have should he need one.
As it turned out, he could have used quite a few assets that afternoon.
The two of them had only just disembarked from Oogi when the first strike came. Tenzin was still talking as he walked, focus on Su striding beside of him and not on the window washers just above them.
He sensed the unnatural buzz vibrating through the air before he saw the cause, and he hurled Su out of the way first while shouting, "DOWN!"
Tenzin dodged and then leapt into a mid-air spiral to avoid the three electrically charged bolas whirling towards him. He heard Su grunt and the clink of metal, but she did not cry out in agony, and so he felt certain that she had avoided the attack as well. He did not have time to look for her as he landed on his feet and immediately blasted his own assault at their attackers. But the moment he stretched out his arms, his wrists were snared, luckily not by electric bolas this time, which would have spelled the end for him. Instead, he side-stepped to avoid the Equalist flying at his head with an outstretched leg, dodged and evaded several jabs, and would have hurtled up into the air in a tornado spiral to shake off the two still holding his wrists if he had not caught sight of Su out of the corner of his eye. She was too close, and if he was not careful, his counterattack could inadvertently harm her too.
Luckily, Su wasted no time in joining the fight. She hurled sharp metal pieces like knives at the Equalist giving Tenzin trouble, and the man was momentarily distracted trying to avoid being struck. In the same motion, Su stomped her left foot into the stone roof, and two pillars erupted beneath the feet of the two holding the cords around Tenzin's wrists. One of them went hurtling up into the air, their grasp on the cord yanking free, and came crashing back down onto the roof a second later and moved no more. The second was able to stumble back a step, just enough to avoid the same fate as his companion. He was knocked onto his back by the assault anyways, but kept a tight hold on the cord, and yanked Tenzin forward a few steps. But Suyin was sprinting to the other side of the roof, in the direction of the third Equalist, and Tenzin used the opportunity to spiral up into the air, controlling the whirlwind enough to keep it from spreading across the roof to where Su was, but taking the Equalist still holding his wrists with him.
The cords came free from around Tenzin's wrist, and his attacker went flying away to land atop the roof of another building. Tenzin settled down gently on his feet a few moments later, and was relieved to see Su still standing, the third Equalist unconscious at her feet.
Her hair had become a little disheveled, and she jerked her head back to flip it out of her face as she said, a little breathlessly, "Well that wasn't so bad. I was expecting more. I barely broke a sweat."
Before Tenzin could advise her not to get too arrogant, Tarrlok's squirrelly aide came rushing out onto the rooftop to join them.
"I'm so relieved to see you!" he said.
"The other council members?" Tenzin immediately questioned. "Are they all right?"
"I'm afraid not," the aide responded. "I just received a call from Chief Saikhan. They've all been captured!"
Tenzin exchanged an alarmed look with Suyin. "This can't be happening," he murmured, thinking of his family on the Island, who were in more danger than he'd first imagined, and of his sister-in-law standing beside him, who he had inadvertently brought into danger with him.
Tarrlok's aide said, "The leadership of Republic City rests in your hands now."
Suyin snorted in disbelief. "Well, no pressure there. Who the hell is this guy?"
But Tenzin could not respond to Su's attempt at a joke, because he had just felt the weight of the world fall upon his shoulders, and he knew that it was up to him to coordinate a defense against Amon and his Equalists. There was no one left but him and Saikhan and the police, perhaps Lin and Su, even though they had no real authority. But what did authority matter when Amon was on the verge of taking hold of the city?
A fact that became even more certain a moment later, when the sounds of explosions began to erupt all throughout the city. The building upon which they stood shook beneath their feet, and Su and Tenzin rushed to the edge to look out at the destruction taking place. There were also over a dozen Equalist airships that could be seen in the distance floating through the skyline. Tarrlok's aide wailed in dismay, and Su shook her head rapidly in disbelief. "I can't believe this," she gasped. "I can't believe… What do we do Tenzin?"
"Come on," Tenzin told her, beckoning her to follow him back across the rooftop to where they had left Oogi. "We need to get to police headquarters."
Upon arriving at headquarters, Tenzin was no more hopeful than he had been before. The police were doing all that they could, according to Saikhan, but they were spread too thin, and things were getting out of control. It was clear that all of the city's efforts would not be enough, not yet anyways, and Tenzin had one of the communications officers send out a wire to General Iroh in the United Forces. It would take a couple of days for them to arrive, but it was the only solution he could see. In the meantime, he would get his family to safety, and then return to aid the United Forces in fighting back.
"Send a wire to Zaofu as well," Su insisted, and the haunted look on her face made clear that she understood what Tenzin was thinking without him having to say it aloud. He supposed it must have been rather jarring for her, coming into the revolution only last night, to suddenly see the place she'd once called home being demolished before her very eyes. He would have sought to comfort her had there been time. "I have a few airships to spare and my Metal Clan is trained to fight."
"Is it safe?" Tenzin asked with some concern. "Will you have enough left to defend Zaofu?"
"There will be plenty, don't worry," Su assured, "and the domes will keep anything out."
It was immediately after Tenzin and Su's messages had been sent that the phone lines went dead, followed by the emergency alarms, and then the lights and everything else in the building went out too. After that was noxious gas that came billowing in through the vents and the cracks in the door, and Tenzin had to use his airbending to surround the communications officers, Saikhan, and Suyin in a protective bubble as they rushed outside.
Being outside, however, turned out not to be much better. The gas had hardly cleared from in front of them when Tenzin spotted no less than six mechatanks in a semicircle around them. He could have cursed at the sight of them, remembering how unwell he had fared against them the last time, and wondering how he would ever get back to his family now. He only hoped that Lin had the forethought to escape the island with the kids while she had the chance.
"These guys don't look friendly," Su muttered, sounding as frustrated as Tenzin felt.
Tenzin started to warn her, "Watch out for their –"
But he never got the chance to say it, and the weapon he had been most concerned about turned out not to be the biggest problem. Instead, there was a new feature, one that Tenzin didn't recognize and which hadn't been there the last time. One of each mechatank's arms ended in a rounded shape that turned out to be large magnets, which pointed straight at Tenzin's group and sucked up the two metalbending officers right off the ground, along with Saikhan and Suyin a second later. Tenzin had just enough time to make a decision between saving Saikhan or Su, and then directed his gust of wind straight at his sister-in-law, wrapping it around her metal-clad form and tugging with all his might. But the magnets were strong, were holding the two officers and Saikhan without effort, not allowing them to budge even an inch, and the one Tenzin fought against was winning too. He could feel Su beginning to slip from his grasp, because air was not meant to be used as a rope, and Su was covered in too much metal, had wrapped her torso in it before they left the Island in an effort to protect herself. And now her protection was about to be her downfall, and Tenzin was too weak to stop it.
The magnet won, and Su cried out in shock and outrage as Tenzin's grasp broke and she clanged face first against the mechatank's magnetic hand.
"SU!" Tenzin cried, reaching out for her, but was forced a second later to evade as the rest of the mechatanks came rolling straight at him. He blasted two back and evaded several attacks, all while, out of the corner of his eye, he could see Su and Saikhan and the others being loaded into the back of a truck. Tenzin fought fierce and hard, but was slammed into the side of the building and barely managed to slow his plummet to the ground. He crashed to the earth and his body erupted in agony, but still he tried to sit up. The world was blurring around him and his vision began to darken at the edges, and his muscles did not comply with his demands, but still he tried to get up, to move, to fight back, breathless as he mumbled a desperate, "Su….no….no….Su…."
But she was already in the back of the truck and the truck was speeding off, disappearing around a bend, and just like that, Su was gone. She was gone. And Tenzin lost consciousness shortly after.
Upon seeing the devastation taking place in Republic City, Lin had wanted nothing more than to go and find her husband and her sister, and then take her whole family as far from Amon's reach as she could possibly go.
But she could not leave Sora, Yunjin, and Jeia unprotected. So Korra, Ronen, and their friends immediately volunteered to go and find Su and Tenzin and ensure their safe return to the Island. While Lin certainly didn't revel in the idea of Ronen going out there in that mess, to possibly lose three of her loved ones to Amon's grasp, she could not dissuade the boy, and there seemed little point in trying. They were fully at war now, and Ronen would not be able to avoid a fight regardless of whether or not he ran headlong into it.
So Lin begged him to be safe and stayed behind with her three youngest. She told Jin and Sora to go inside and hide, to protect Jeia, and that, if things went wrong, to jump on a sky bison and get themselves to Zaofu by any means necessary. It seemed a monumental burden to place on the shoulders of two twelve year olds, but there was no time for delicacy in war.
Two Equalist ships came to the island's edge shortly after, and Lin stood alone in the courtyard, waiting, while the White Lotus battled the first wave of foot soldiers. It wasn't long before Amon's Lieutenant crested the hill, surrounded by his own battalion of Equalists, and Lin wasted no time in lashing out. She was quick and harsh and unrelenting, thinking of her children just inside, of the family she had out in the city, and she poured all her rage and worry and power into her bending.
She took out most of the Equalists in the first few minutes, but it was one against fifteen and, eventually, her cables ended up wrapped around the Lieutenant's kali sticks – he had apparently replaced the one Ronen stole from him – and then electricity was coursing through her body and she dropped to the ground with an agonized cry. She fought to pick herself back up, but her muscles were twitching and refusing to cooperate and she could barely grunt her frustrations let alone bend. Lieutenant was coming at her and she knew, once he reached her, she'd be done for. She would not rise again and they would take her straight to Amon, probably her kids too, and she just needed to move!
"Hey, asshole!" a familiar voice rang down upon the courtyard, and Lin and the Equalists all looked up to see Yunjin swooping down upon them on his glider – and off in the distance, Sora was not far behind. "Get away from my Mom!"
Yunjin kicked his feet out in front of him and a blast of wind struck the Lieutenant full on in the face. The man went flying away from Lin, and Yunjin brought his feet down just in time to land softly on the ground. He immediately closed his glider, and then swung it like a club, sending a sweeping arc of air at the two Equalists rushing toward him. Sora landed directly next to him, but kept her glider open as she hurled it straight at one of the Equalists like a giant paper airplane. The wooden point of the glider struck the Equalist in the forehead and they went down.
"Kids! Get back inside!" Lin demanded, fearful of the harm that might befall them should they remain to fight. She was still struggling to gain control of her own body, her muscles twitching as she struggled to simply form a fist. She could not get up off of her knees, she could not help her children if they needed it.
But both of the twins ignored her command.
Sora and Yunjin turned to each other and clasped both hands, spreading their arms out into a circle. Then, with a nod, they kicked off up into the air, spinning together in a spiral, creating a tornado that petered out once they were several meters up in the air, and it looked like they would simply fall. Instead, they began to spin once more, racing towards the ground this time, but in the direction of the Equalists. The twins barreled through the Equalists at lightning speed, the torrent of wind surrounding them hurling masked figures every which way. When the twins landed, they separated to stand back to back, and kicked sharp air attacks at any Equalists still standing.
Then Lin felt a hand on her shoulder, and she was dismayed but not surprised to see Jeia standing at her side. "Jeia, go back into the house this instant," Lin half ordered, half begged, but Jeia only shook her head.
The toddler looked out at the battle taking place, squinted her eyes in concentration, and then raised her hand. There was a metal pipe wrapped around her little arm, the one that Lin had been using to teach Jeia how to aim at targets when they had time to have their bending lessons. The pipe unraveled, and then shot out to smack against the back of one of the Equalists charging towards Jin and Sora. The Equalist only fell to their knees, but the pipe wrapped around their torso, locking their arms down at their sides, and they flopped to the ground without anyway to get free.
Lin sighed, but couldn't help but praise, "Good aim, kid."
By that point, the White Lotus had come to join the fight, and with their help, Jin and Sora took down the last of the Equalists. And then finally Lin could rise to her feet without shaking, and she went to help capture the subdued Equalists, until all of them were tied up and relieved of their weapons.
"Take these Equalists and lock them in the Temple's basement," Lin ordered the White Lotus, before turning to face her kids, softening her tone just a little. She told them, "Y'know, I hate when you don't listen to me, but…you did good, kids."
"So you're not mad?" Sora asked hesitantly.
"No, I'm not mad," Lin assured, tugging Sora against her side in a one-armed hug. She beckoned Yunjin to her other side, and Jeia toddled forward to hug her mother's knees. "And I'm sorry for being so harsh with you guys earlier. I know you're all strong and smart. I don't make these decisions to hurt you."
"I'm sorry too," Yunjin admitted in a quiet murmur, as if it pained him to say it. "I know you just want us to be safe."
Sora added, "We don't wanna go to Zaofu, but we will. No more arguing."
Lin opened her mouth to respond, but all of them were distracted by the sound of a sky bison swooping down to land just behind them, and they all whirled around to see.
Lin felt relief lift some of the weight from her shoulders when she saw Tenzin at the reigns. She had been so worried, when she had seen the city under attack, that it would be too late for him. And then she saw Ronen leaping off of the saddle too and she thought that maybe she had been worried for nothing. Her family was safe, and though the Equalist threat had not been vanquished entirely, they were together now, and they would be able to figure out a plan to get the youngest to Zaofu and then mount their own attack against Amon.
Jeia and the twins immediately went running to Tenzin, who enveloped them in a crushing embrace, expressing his relief that they were all okay. He looked over their heads at Lin, and there was something in his eyes that she could not fully understand. He appeared…regretful? Ashamed? But why? she wondered. Perhaps it had something to do with the city falling. It would be just like him to blame himself.
Lin would ask him, but first, she went to her eldest son, who was rushing towards her, an unnamed sorrow in his own gaze, and she frowned as he came crashing into her chest, squeezing her tighter than she thought was normal when they had only been apart for a brief period. Perhaps he had been worried for her and his siblings when he saw the two Equalist airships hovering over the island.
But then Lin realized what the problem was, why Tenzin and Ronen were looking at her so strangely. She could see Tenzin and Ronen plainly, and watched Korra and all three of her friends disembark from Oogi. But there was someone else that had gone along that was not in the saddle. Someone else whose pointed absence was more telling than the look on her husband's face as he came striding carefully towards her.
Lin stepped out of Ronen's embrace and took two steps back, because she felt like the world was about to come crashing down around her and she didn't want anyone else getting caught in the maelstrom beating down on her. She looked directly at Tenzin, because she didn't want to lock gazes with Ronen when her emotions were so raw, and she thought her voice might have cracked when she demanded, "Where is she?"
"I'm so sorry, Lin," Tenzin murmured, stopping a few paces from her, either uncertain of what she might do if he got too close or simply assuming that she wanted the space. Part of her wanted him to hold her, but another part didn't want him to even breathe the same air as her. "I'm so sorry. The mechatanks showed up, we were outnumbered, they have magnets now, and she was wearing metal and –"
"Where is she?!" Lin repeated shrilly, even though she knew it was a stupid question. Even though she knew where her sister would be.
"They took her, Lin," Tenzin confessed at last. "I wasn't strong enough to stop it. I would have been captured too if the kids hadn't shown up when they did. I…I'm so sorry."
She couldn't look at him anymore, so she tried to look away, but nowhere else was better. Sora was weeping softly into Yunjin's shoulder and Ronen was holding Jeia, and Korra and the other teens were all staring at her, and everyone was staring at her, and they all wore the same expression of pity or sympathy or something else that she despised. She thought that maybe they were waiting for her to snap, but she wasn't going to. She could feel her chest tighten up in the way that it did when she was about to cry, but what would crying do? It wouldn't bring Su back, it wouldn't save Su's bending. So she tamped down on the emotion trying to crawl its way up her throat and swallowed back the tears. She could not allow herself to indulge in such emotion, not now. She had the rest of her family still to think about, and she could not be permitted to grieve anyways. Not when it was her fault. She was the one that had asked Su to come to the city. She was the one that let Su go off with Tenzin when she knew that it might be dangerous, when she knew that Su had no prior experience with the Equalists. It was Lin's fault that her sister had been captured and so it was guilt that punched her in the gut.
But Su's sacrifice would not be without reason, Lin would be sure of that. Tenzin had made it back, the last three airbenders were still free of Amon's grasp, and Lin would ensure that her family made it to Zaofu. And then, she would return to the city, and she would tear the fucking city apart until she found her sister and destroyed Amon for all that he had done.
Ronen was never more baffled by his mother than when he saw her deal with grief. In all his life he had only really seen it a handful of times, but every time the rapid change in emotions was so jarring it nearly gave him whiplash. It was like she was experiencing all the stages of grief in the span of a few seconds. He could only catch the brief astonishment and the barest hint of heartbreak before she shut down completely, her face closed off into a mask of acceptance and calm, and he could not understand how she did it. How she could hear such devastating news and simply reject it, as if giving into her emotions would reduce her to ash. She embodied the mentality of an earthbender in every way, stubborn and unmoving as a rock wall, unflinching and impervious to any stones flung her way. Only the largest boulders could make her crumble, but only if she let them, only if she could not erect a new wall to take the other's place.
That was how his mother reacted to the news of her sister being taken by the Equalists. By barricading herself off from her emotions and everyone else. Ronen watched her straighten her spine and lift her chin up high, and in an instant her face was set in determination. She did not weep or rage, she did not even seem to acknowledge that there was a problem at all.
"We need to get going," she said decisively, turning her head in her husband's direction, but Ronen didn't think that their gazes locked. "There will be more airships where those came from and we need to get the kids to Zaofu."
Ronen's father accepted the sudden change in topic with practiced ease. He must have been dealing with it since before Ronen was even born, and it seemed not to even faze him.
Tenzin nodded and turned around to face Korra as she approached him asking, "What should we do?"
"I want you to leave this island and go into hiding for now," Tenzin said.
"I'm not giving up!" Korra immediately protested.
"I'm not asking you to," Tenzin retorted. "I sent word to the United Forces and Su's Metal Clan guards. They will be here soon, and once our children are safe, Lin and I will return. With the reinforcements, we can turn the tide of this war."
It seemed such an easy solution, and yet Ronen knew that there was nothing simple about it at all. He looked down at the little girl in his arms, and Jeia Rai looked back up at him with those dark green eyes they both shared with their mother. But his little sister did not share his fear or sorrow as he thought a four year old should have. Instead, she stared hard at him with their mother's eyes and their mother's resolve. If she felt any concern at all it was locked down behind a metal shield. It was possible that she simply could not understand the magnitude of what was taking place, but Ronen did not think that was the case. Jeia was delayed in some areas, in terms of speech and development, but Ronen suspected that her comprehension skills were above reproach. Even when she did not speak, he could see her calculating gaze taking in everything around her.
Ronen desperately hoped that his siblings would be safe in Zaofu. It seemed unlikely that Amon would have the means to launch an attack on Zaofu for three children when he was in the midst of taking control of Republic City, but Ronen also wasn't willing to underestimate him. Amon had already done far more than Ronen had originally thought possible. In the span of a few months his world had been turned upside down, and he was still struggling to catch up.
Nevertheless, he was his mother's son, and he knew exactly what he was going to do next.
He went inside with his family and Korra and the others, and all of them worked together to hastily grab a few things they might need for their various travels. They loaded the twins and Jeia's things onto Oogi, while Nira and a couple other remaining acolytes prepared a second sky bison. Nira and Tenzin would fly off in opposite directions in the hopes of confusing the Equalist airships that were fast approaching the Island. Someone had suggested taking Su's airship that she had brought, but Lin and Tenzin were certain that Oogi would be faster and capable of more abrupt maneuvers.
Soon Ronen was hugging his family goodbye, telling the twins and Jeia to be careful, that he loved them, and assuring them that he would be safe with Korra. When his mother came to stand before him, she studied him for a second before pulling him into a crushing embrace, and he hugged her back with the same fervor, closing his eyes and allowing himself to feel a moment's sorrow for himself, for his family, for his Aunt Su. They had faced so much already and yet there was more still to come. None of them had any idea what would happen next, if they would make it out the other side intact.
So Ronen reveled in the feel of his mother's arms around him and the strength of her presence, and in a fierce whisper he vowed to her, "I'll find Aunt Su, Mom. I promise."
If possible, she hugged him even tighter and begged, "Be careful, kid. Don't do anything I would do, yeah?"
Ronen pulled back just a little too look at her, to memorize her face as if he would never see it again, even though he knew she would return, even though he had absolute faith in her. And he laughed at her joke that was almost serious, and he wasn't surprised when he felt tears streaking down his face even as he smiled.
His mother wiped the tears from his cheeks and then held his face in both hands, locking his gaze onto hers as she said, "I love you. I'll be back soon."
Ronen nodded, all seriousness again as he said, "I love you too. I'll be waiting for you."
She stared at him for a few seconds longer, perhaps trying to memorize his features too, and then she patted his cheek and walked away before any emotions of her own could spill out. She joined her three youngest children on Oogi, and called to her husband, "Tenzin, if we're leaving, we'd better do it now."
Only a few steps away from Ronen, Tenzin was hugging Korra and telling her to, "Stay safe." He turned away from her to stride over to Ronen and ask, "I suppose there's no chance of convincing you to come with us?"
Ronen quirked his lips up just a little and replied, "I'm afraid not, but I'll be here when you get back."
Tenzin hugged him more carefully than Lin, but no less desperately, and when father and son pulled apart, Tenzin's eyes were shiny with unshed tears. "Be strong, son. Lean on your friends for help while your mother and I are gone. I know that you can do anything you set your mind to, but please remember to be careful. I love you so much."
Ronen felt his throat closing up with emotion again and he choked out a tremulous, "I love you too, Dad. I'll be fine, don't worry. You guys be safe."
"We will," Tenzin promised, and then a blast of wind was hurling him up onto Oogi, where he took the reigns and said, "Oogi, yip-yip!"
Ronen went to stand beside Korra as they watched the two sky bison take off into the sky, and he reached out to clasp her hand in his. She squeezed his hand tight and they turned to regard one another with similar expressions of worry, but there was solidarity too, and he felt better knowing that she was there with him. He felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder, and he turned his head the other way to see Bolin there beside him, giving him a small smile of encouragement, and Asami just behind him with understanding in her gaze, and even Mako said, "Don't worry, kid, we've got your back, and they're gonna be fine. Your parents are pretty tough." And for once the moniker of 'kid' did not sound so much like an insult.
"Thank you," Ronen told them sincerely, never more grateful than he was in that moment for having those four as his friends. It had been a tough road getting there, and there were still some bumps in the path, but over the last few weeks they had created a sort of family of their own. His parents and his siblings might be leaving for now, but he was not alone.
He was, however, in the middle of a war zone.
Two of the three airships approaching the Island veered off to chase after the escaping sky bison, and Ronen prayed that his family could outrun them. The third airship, however, came to a stop directly above where Ronen and the others stood. Equalists immediately began to spiral down to the ground, and the White Lotus rushed forward, telling Korra and the rest of the teens, "Go, we'll hold them off."
The five of them all clambered up onto Naga's back, and it was a tight squeeze, Ronen and Asami were barely holding onto the back of the saddle, but they made do, racing down the side of the island and eventually leaping into the Bay, where Korra created a bubble around them so that they could remain underwater the whole way to the city.
Once they reached the city's edge, they climbed into a large drainage tunnel, and they stayed there for a little while, each of them watching in silence as the sun began to set, streaks of fiery orange painted across the sky. Air Temple Island was the only thing to be seen from their vantage point, and Ronen felt his heart breaking at the sight of it, his home, surrounded by Equalist airships, his family fleeing for their lives, and anyone else left there no doubt being taken prisoner. All the White Lotus and some of the remaining Air Acolytes whom he had grown up with would be bound and thrown into cages simply for being benders, or for being aligned with his family and Korra. He was glad that Nira and some others had escaped with his parents and siblings, but he still thought of some of the other people that had stayed behind. He thought of Jorri and Kun, the two White Lotus guards that had taught him how to play cards and gamble in secret until Tenzin found out and had them scrubbing the bison stables with a toothbrush for months. He though of Rina, the woman who had been old for as long as Ronen could remember, and he used to sit with her as she washed clothes and she would tell him stories of all that she had seen in her long life. And he thought of Wa, one of the Acolyte cooks that would always make Ronen or his siblings their favorite snacks if he saw that one of them was having a bad day. Ronen knew nearly all of those people that had remained on the Island to make a final stand, to ensure that he and his family and Korra and their friends were able to escape. And Ronen felt a weight pressing on his chest at the thought of them and the punishment they would face, but he had not given up on them. He knew that they were strong, and they would endure, and when the fight against Amon was over, he would return for them and for his home.
It was the sound of feet sloshing through the drainage pipe that broke Ronen from his solemn reverie, and then Mako's voice could be heard saying, "Korra, we should get moving."
Ronen looked back at the others, and saw Korra's downcast expression as she allowed Mako to wrap his arm around her and lead her deeper into the tunnel, Bolin and Naga falling into step with the pair. Ronen's gaze instantly flickered to Asami, out of habit mostly, still too raw and weighted down by his own emotions to be mindful of the relationship drama that was occurring in their group. Asami watched Korra and Mako with a bitter expression on her face as they strode past her, but kicked off of the wall to follow.
Ronen struck up a slow pace, glancing back at the Island one last time before forcing himself to look away, ducking his head and stuffing his hands in his pockets. He could sense Asami walking beside him, and after a few meters of sloshing through the muck in silence, she quietly asked him, "What will we do now?"
Ronen heaved in a breath of air that got caught in his throat, and had to pause for several second before he was able to answer with the only truth that he knew in that moment, "Now, I find my Aunt Su."
Tenzin felt incredible shame over having lost Suyin to the Equalists, of having been too weak to save her or Saikhan or the other metalbending officers. It was a guilt that he would have to live with for the rest of his life, but it also left him with a chance that he would not take for granted. He had been saved from the Equalists' grasp just in the nick of time, and had been given the opportunity to see his family to safety. He was more determined than ever to ensure that his three youngest children reached Zaofu, that they be safe from harm even if Suyin and Ronen were not. Once Jeia and the twins were safe, then he and Lin would return to the city and take it back. It wasn't just about their parents' legacies anymore, but about their children's futures, and their futures were in jeopardy.
So Tenzin pushed Oogi to his limits, urging the bison to fly faster than ever, even as the two Equalist airships drew ever closer. Tenzin could not let his children be captured. He could not let those airships catch up. He was focused solely on that task, of outrunning them, of reaching Zaofu, of keeping his children safe.
After a short time, he heard Lin behind him slashing at an extended net with her metal cables, only glancing back long enough to see the net being torn to shreds before reverting his gaze ahead.
But then his wife's voice rang out again, carried across the wind to ears that he prayed were betraying him as she shouted, "Tenz, whatever happens to me, don't you dare turn back!"
Tenzin whirled around, his heart thumping wildly in his chest, his stomach leaping into his throat as his mind repeated the mantra, 'No, no, no!' Out loud he cried a desperate, "Lin! What are you doing?! Stop!"
"I love you," she said, to him, to the children, and it sounded so final, and it raised the hairs on the back of his neck. It reminded him of a time from long ago, from a lifetime ago, before marriage or children, when they were just young and in love and she had kissed him goodbye and told him she loved him for the first time before running off to sacrifice herself to Kane, the murderous leader of the Silver Granite Triad that had wanted her head for imprisoning him. She had been willing to give her life for the unknown citizens of Republic City that continued to die while Kane ruled, and Tenzin should not have been surprised that she would willingly give herself over to the Equalists to save her own children. He was not surprised, but he was consumed by grief in an instant, because whatever she had planned would certainly not end well for her, whether it be death or loss of her bending or something equally horrific. And he had only just lost Su to those monsters, had left his eldest son behind in a war zone, and now he was about to lose his wife.
"Please, Lin!" Tenzin begged, even though he knew his words were futile, just as they had been decades ago. "Please don't!" He wanted to let go of the reigns, to climb back into the saddle and forcibly stop her, but she would be gone before he even stood, and Oogi would slow without Tenzin's constant guidance.
Sora must have caught on too, and she was close enough to leap up and throw herself at her mother, crashing into Lin's knees and holding on tight, her voice carrying as she screeched, "No, Mama!"
But Lin looked at Yunjin, and something must have passed between the two of them, because the boy lunged forward and grabbed his twin sister, dragging her back even as she screamed and fought against his grip. And then Lin was sprinting the length of Oogi's tail and leaping into the air, using her metal cables to pull herself onto the closest airship. And Sora continued to scream, and Tenzin felt his soul tearing in two, leaving his body to go and be with Lin, his lifelong best friend and his wife, the mother of his children, his other half. She had been his whole world for so long that he wasn't even certain how he could function if she no longer was.
He urged Oogi on faster despite the agony that stabbed through him, because he would not let her sacrifice be in vain, because even though he wanted nothing more than to turn back and join her, he had their children to think about. He could not sacrifice them, no matter the cost to his own soul, and Lin would never forgive him for it if he tried. But even as he directed Oogi onwards, he found himself watching over his shoulder, holding his breath, while Sora continued to scream at him to "Go back! Go back! We have to go back! Mama! Mama!" and Yunjin held her thrashing form, and Jeia curled up on herself and covered her face and her ears.
Meanwhile, the first airship went down in a plume of black smoke, the metal roof having been torn the whole way back, and Tenzin bit down hard on his tongue as he watched a vague shape hurling through the air to land atop the second airship. Tenzin prayed and he prayed that the second one would go down too, that it would erupt into flames and go hurtling towards the ocean. Even though it would mean Lin was falling to her death, it also meant that he could go back. If both airships were downed, he could save her without harm coming to the children and they could keep on going to Zaofu as they were meant to.
But the second airship didn't go down.
Instead, there was a brief flash of what could very well have been electricity, but which Tenzin could not be totally certain of from a distance. And then the airship was turning back, going in the direction it had come, leaving Tenzin and his children to fly to safety, but without Lin, who was no doubt a prisoner aboard the ship now, and lost to them.
Sora stopped screaming but she wept loudly, slumped in her brother's arms, and Tenzin wept too, turning back around to face the direction of safety, to focus on the task at hand, because to focus on anything else would tear him apart. His children needed him to be strong, to get them to Zaofu, and so that was what he would do, but it did not mean that his heart did not shatter in the process.
Lin woke to the startling feeling of someone kicking the toe of their boot into her thigh.
She jolted, and then immediately stilled, hissing through clenched teeth as her entire body erupted into agony, every nerve ending still throbbing with the memory of her most recent electrocution. It took her fuzzy brain a moment to connect the dots and remember which time she was waking from, considering how many times she'd been knocked unconscious in the last couple weeks, but her memories came flooding back fairly quickly.
Amon taking Republic City, Suyin being captured, fleeing with her family, being pursued by Equalist airships, and then leaping off of Oogi as Sora screamed and Tenzin pleaded, and she had torn apart one of the ships, but the other had resulted in her downfall.
"C'mon, get up," a gruff voice commanded, and Lin felt several hands grabbing at her body, pulling her up into a half-seated position, and she fought back on instinct despite her sluggish state. She kicked her feet out, and even though her legs were bound by rope, they still made quite an impact when they connected with the shins of the man at her feet. Her arms were useless as she tried to flail them in front of her, her wrists too tightly bound, so she threw her head back instead when someone grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. The pain was torturous, but totally worth it when she heard the sickening crunch of bone as her head hit somebody in the nose.
But then the person in front of her struck the side of her face with a brutal backhand, and she flopped back down onto her side with a grunt, blinking stars from her vision and grimacing as her head, which had already been sensitive, began to throb in time to the beat of her heart.
Someone was spewing curses at her, and then there was a foot flying at her face that she barely managed to get her arms up in time to intercept. The force of the kick knocked her battered forearms into her face anyways, but the blow was far less horrific than it could have been had she taken a boot to the face.
"Hey, hey, enough!" the gruff voice was shouting at someone, and there was a brief scuffle close to Lin's head but her vision hadn't quite resolved yet. "The boss wants her conscious. We haven't got time for this."
"Bidch broke m'nose!" someone spluttered, and Lin probably shouldn't have chosen that moment to choke out half of a laugh, but, well…
She looked up in time to see a now unmasked Equalist, blood spurting from his nose and fury on his face, come rushing toward her with his platinum glove curled into a fist, but the gruff guy stopped him once again saying, "Get ahold of yourself! She's trying to get a rise out of you. Now go on, get yourself cleaned up."
"I don'b wanna miss d'is," the angry Equalist proclaimed, and he looked down at her with a wicked, bloody grin.
It occurred to her then, where they were trying to take her, why she needed to be conscious for "the boss." She was being taken to Amon, and it should have struck some amount of fear through her, but she could only really feel numb at that moment. She was still trying to wake up from what felt like a nightmare. The Equalists surrounding her were bickering, but she only kept one ear on the conversation, using the brief moment that she had to take in her surroundings and ensure that Tenzin and the kids weren't shackled somewhere nearby. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw no sign of them, certain that if they had been captured, then the Equalists probably would have kept them together, if for no other reason than to torture them all with having to watch one another lose their bending. Amon's twisted way of making a point. However, Lin did notice that she was tied up in her living room, of all places, and she nearly rolled her eyes at the absurdity. She hoped the idiots had been guarding her well while she was unconscious, because if she had woken and been able to take them by surprise, they would have never found her again. She knew the Island like the back of her hand, and she silently lamented that it was too late for her to take advantage of her location. There were too many Equalists surrounding her, with more pouring in through the door at the sound of the commotion, and she was in too precarious of a position to put up a decent fight, evidenced by her last attempt.
Nevertheless, she was a stubborn Beifong that wasn't about to take her fate lying down, and she fought tooth and nail the whole time they tried to drag her out the door. She bit and clawed at anything she could reach and flailed her legs and even managed to bend a few metal objects to come flying at her captors. But they tired of her antics quickly and started giving her short zaps with their electric gloves. Brief though the shocks were, they were no less painful, and every bit of electricity vibrated through her metal armor and coursed along her skin and burnt through her clothes and the hair on the nape of her neck.
By the time they dragged her out into the rain and across the courtyard, she had stopped fighting, and maybe it actually was fear that stilled her, or perhaps she was simply resigned to the fact that she couldn't fight her way out of this one. At any rate, she was calm as they hefted her across her own damn yard, stilling for a moment so that one of them could carefully bend down to untie her legs, apparently having tired of trying to carry her weight, which on its own might not have been a problem if it weren't for her metal armor. As they untied her legs, another held a shock glove to her chest, and she considered trying it anyways, because what else did she have to lose at that point? But she was just so tired and everything already hurt.
When they shoved her forward she nearly collapsed, her legs barely able to hold her up, numb and tingly and burnt slightly as they were. But they caught her under the arms and hauled her forward, and she forced her muscles to cooperate as best she could, if only to get them to stop touching her. They dragged her out in front of the main temple building, it's glowing lights from inside the only source of light in the dark of night.
The Equalists threw her down at Amon's feet, her metal-clad knees colliding with the stone pavement with a loud clang, and she groaned as pain radiated throughout her body. She was battered and beaten, and she was ashamed to have lost, to finally be brought to Amon's hands after evading it for so long, but she lifted her head and met the monster's expressionless mask unflinchingly, perfectly mustering a scowl with little effort. Despite knowing what power he had, she found that she really was not afraid of him. He might have been able to rip apart her soul, but he was still just a coward behind a mask, and cowards always lost in the end.
He gazed down upon her, but whatever emotion he was feeling Lin could not tell. Was he smiling behind the mask, gleeful at having caught such a prize? Or was he still maintaining that air of nonchalance, as if what he did was simply prophecy, as if it had no emotional purpose behind it?
He was monotone when he finally spoke saying, "Tell me where the Avatar is, and I'll let you keep your bending."
Lin didn't entertain the thought for a single second, practically spitting her response at him as she said, "Fuck you. I won't tell you anything, you monster."
"Very well," he said, unfazed, and then Lin did feel a twinge of fear as he strode around to stand behind her.
Her stomach flipped and her heart rate sped up, she could feel it thumping in the throb in her head and in the quiver of the stone beneath her legs. If her hands were not so tightly bound they might have trembled, but she clenched her jaw and tamped down on the anxiety rising within her. She would not allow any emotion to show through, not in front of all of them.
She breathed in deep and closed her eyes, and she thought of the reason that she was there, not simply because she had lost, but because she had chosen to leap off of Oogi's back and give herself to whatever fate she was dealt. She had done it for Tenzin and for their children, because they were the most important things in her life. Not her bending, not her job, but the people in her life that she loved above all else. She had failed to protect her sister, but she would not fail her children, and so she would gladly lose this piece of her so that they did not come to harm. She envisioned them behind her closed eyelids, but she did not remember them as they were when she last saw them. She remembered them as their true selves, when they were not bogged down by tragedy and turmoil. She remembered Ronen's eager thirst for knowledge, and Yunjin's mischievous smirks, and Sora's bright, compassionate smiles, and Jeia Rai's indomitable will. She remembered Tenzin's warm embrace and his unwavering love for her and for their children. She remembered that her bending was of little consequence, that her children were her heart and Tenzin was her soul.
And then, Amon's hand clamped down on her shoulder, and she took one last desperate moment to expand her senses, to breathe in the earth and feel its soothing presence all around her. And as she reached out, the earth reached back, consuming her, burying her, until she knew not where she ended and it began, until her heartbeat was simply one amidst a hundred million more. She was reminded of her mother, of those big blank eyes and cocky grins, of Toph's easy laugh and stubborn scowl, of the way she used to knock Lin on her ass over and over and over again until she learned how to stand her ground. And it was because of Toph that Lin was able to become the renowned bender that she was, Toph who had drilled into her head that she was a Beifong and she was as strong as stone and sharp as metal. Toph who had forced Lin onto her knees in the rocks and the mud and taught her to feel with more than just normal human senses.
Lin Beifong had been born in a rainstorm, screaming and flailing and red in the face, and she had been placed in her mother's arms, placed into the calloused hands of the greatest earthbender, where she was shaped and molded like clay over several years. And now, some fifty years later, as the rain beat down upon her face and snuck through the cracks of her metal armor, Lin was quiet and still and pale, her mother's touch all around her, in the metal wrapped around her skin, in the earth alive and pulsing beneath her. Lin the earthbender was born in the rain, and on that night, Lin the earthbender died in the rain.
Amon's thumb pressed against her forehead, and it was an almost gentle touch, but the feeling that overcame her next was even worse than she had imagined. She remembered clearly the haunted looks on the faces of those she had interviewed after losing their bending. She remembered Tosuki shuddering and telling her it was like ice in your veins. She had thought that it would be jarring, but she hadn't expected it to be so painful. Amon's thumb on her forehead was like molten lava burning through her skull, and her eyes opened wide and her mouth gaped, and she would have screamed if the air hadn't been ripped from her lungs. It was like ice so cold that it burned, lancing through her veins in white hot agony, and it was as if a fist had buried itself in her chest and it was tearing her soul right out. Only three seconds passed but it felt like an eternity, and then she was falling, falling, falling, watching her spirit float from out of her body and turn to ash before her eyes.
And when she struck the ground, her head collided with unyielding stone, her ear pressed flat against the earth, and she didn't move a muscle, waiting for it to speak to her, to tell her what to do, to tell her that she was not alone.
But for the first time in all her life, the earth was silent.
Chapter 52: Chapter 52
Chapter Text
Chapter 52
Lin awoke feeling as if a suffocating weight was pressing down upon her chest, pinning her in place against a surface that was vaguely reminiscent of a mattress, butwas definitely not her mattress. The smell, too, was off, something particularly unpleasant, like body odor and decay. She was too disoriented and confused to remember where she had been recently or where she could be now, but she knew that it was wrong. Her head was throbbing and her muscles ached and her mouth was bone dry.
She had only just begun to contemplate her predicament when she heard movement nearby, sensed something – or someone – coming near her, and then felt something damp and soft running the length of her forehead.
She immediately leapt up, despite the fact that her body rebelled against the movement, despite the fact that it felt like every muscle was shredding, and she flung her arms wide and strong, until her left elbow connected with something. A voice cried out in shock and pain, and then Lin's eyes snapped open at last, just in time to see a blurry figure staggering away. Heart hammering and breath short, Lin flung her hand up, surprised by how heavy her arm felt, but unconcerned about why, and reached out with her bending to command her metal cables to apprehend the masked figure that was becoming clearer and clearer the more she blinked away the sleep from her eyes.
Except metal did not come shooting out of her wrist, and she frowned in confusion as she looked down at her arm, wondering why she couldn't sense her metal armor, wondering if maybe she wasn't wearing it at all.
And then it all came rushing back. Amon taking the city, the Equalists pursuing her family, sacrificing herself so that her children could escape. The pressure of Amon's thumb on her forehead and the agony of her bending being ripped from her very soul. She remembered it all clearly now, and no amount of waving her arm was going to do her any good. The metal cables on her back would not budge without bending. She could not retract the soles of her shoes and feel the stone floor beneath her, could not track the movements of the people around her, could not do anything that she had done so easily before.
Her metal armor felt like it weighed a ton, pressing her shoulders down so that her back bowed and it was cold. Her armor used to make her feel warm and safe and dangerous. Now she just felt slow and clumsy and she was shivering so badly that her teeth were chattering. She felt sick, like she'd been in bed for three days with the flu, and all she wanted in that moment was to lie down and not get back up.
But she wasn't dead yet, and there was someone in her room – in her prison cell – and she was not about to go down without a fight. The Equalists wanted equality, and so they would have it, but Lin would not be bested even without her bending, not up against a single opponent. She knew how to fight without bending, and even if the armor did weigh her down, it also gave her a weapon in some form. So long as she could avoid any electric gloves.
The masked Equalist had stumbled all the way back to the bars of Lin's closed cell, holding their stomach and gasping for breath. Apparently Lin's elbow had connected even better than she thought. Lin considered rushing them while she had the advantage, but she would accomplish very little afterwards considering she had no way out of the cell, and she might be in for a world of pain – well, more pain – if someone else found an unconscious Equalist in her cell. She knew that she needed to exercise that patience Tenzin was always going on about, and wait until she had more information before striking out again.
"What are you doing in here?" Lin exclaimed, clearing her throat when the words came out hoarse and staggered.
The Equalist took several seconds more to recover, heaving in a stuttering breath before straightening up ever so slightly, still clutching at their abdomen but finally turning to face Lin and croaking, "You're hurt."
Lin laughed harshly at what clearly must have been a pathetic excuse for a joke and said, "No shit. Why are you here?"
"Just trying to help," the female sounding voice defended, bending over to pick up what she had dropped, which Lin now saw was a damp cloth. A few meters away from the supposed woman was a tray with a pitcher of water and food, and Lin's mouth watered at the sight of it.
"I'd die before I took help from the likes of you," Lin spat, despite how desperately she craved that cup of water.
"You mean someone seeking equality for all?"
"Spare me the propaganda, lady," Lin sneered, idly thinking to herself that the woman's voice sounded vaguely familiar, but it was hard to tell with it being muffled behind the mask. It wouldn't be all that surprising if she did know the woman, considering how many people Lin met in her line of work, but it was unsettling to think that someone she knew would ever join ranks with the Equalists.
"Stubborn to the last," the woman muttered, carefully striding a few steps over to drop the cloth into a small pail of water, watching Lin with those creepy goggles trained on her the whole way.
"Do I know you?" Lin demanded, certain now that she must.
The masked woman stilled, staring down at the pail to avoid Lin's scrutinizing gaze. She had crouched down close to the floor in order to rinse off the cloth, and she stayed squatted there for several seconds, and Lin thought it was particularly stupid not to watch a dangerous prisoner while in such a precarious position. But then again, most people didn't think like that if they were not either police or the danger themselves, and many of the Equalists, though trained to fight, had just been ordinary citizens before. That was why Lin could take ten on at one time when she still had her bending and wasn't being electrocuted half to death. Not simply because they were nonbenders, but because they weren't fighters, no matter how many underground classes they attended.
When the woman finally responded, her voice was faint and she still hadn't risen to her feet while she murmured, "In another lifetime."
Lin rolled her eyes. "Great, so we're being cryptic now. How about you either tell me who the hell you are and what you want, or get the fuck out of my cell and leave me to rot in peace."
"You mean you haven't recognized my voice yet?" the Equalist inquired, sounding genuinely surprised as she finally stood back up to face Lin. "Perhaps you're not as good as everyone thought. I tried to tell Jeia that our heroes never do quite measure up, but she had absolute faith in you until the very end."
Lin's stomach sank at the sudden realization of who she was speaking to, and she took a step back, either out of shock or horror, probably a bit of both. She shook her head as if that would make it untrue, and she continued to shake her head in adamant denial as the Equalist woman pulled off her mask to reveal the face underneath.
The late Lieutenant Jeia's widow, Ailyn, was standing across the cell from Lin, dressed in Equalist garb, an electric glove on her left hand, and she was staring back at Lin with a haunted, grim look. Lin tried to think back to the last time she had seen Ailyn, but she was coming up blank. She and Tenzin had tried to invite the woman to the Island a few times, but Ailyn had only agreed twice. Lin hadn't been very concerned, because she figured it had to be weird trying to befriend someone simply because your dead wife had admired them. Lin had only agreed to it at Tenzin's behest, and because she had felt an enormous amount of guilt for not getting Lieutenant Jeia out of that nightmare alive. But, in truth, she had almost been relieved when Ailyn stopped showing up, and frankly, she thought that the young woman had enough of a support system between her mother and Jeia's family that she didn't need Lin or Tenzin to fill any gaps.
Apparently, at some point during her grief, something had gone horribly wrong with Ailyn, considering who she had aligned herself with, and Lin found herself silently hoping that maybe there was more to it, maybe Ailyn had turned to vigilantism and had infiltrated the Equalists to destroy them from the inside.
"This is a joke, right?" Lin said, caught halfway between laughing and scowling and uncertain of which one to go with.
"I don't know if Jeia ever got the chance to tell you, but I'm not good at jokes, Chief," Ailyn replied, and her voice was completely monotone, like Amon's had been when he had ripped out her soul a few hours ago – or, at least, she assumed it had been a few hours. There was no way to tell time in a prison cell. But Jeia had, in fact, told Lin as much about her wife. Lin hadn't been surprised at the time because Ailyn was a lawyer and Lin hadn't ever known a lawyer with a sense of humor.
"So you've suffered a head wound then," Lin deduced. "Why else would you have joined these fanatics?"
"I've joined this cause because it is what I believe," Ailyn argued. "It is time for the age of benders to end."
Lin snorted, a broad grin stretching across her face, because what she was hearing was absolutely ridiculous. "You do know you're a bender, right?" she questioned. "Is that what happened? You made a deal with Amon to keep your bending? Or do they not know?"
Ailyn suddenly began to stride quickly over towards Lin, who instinctively grabbed the metal framed bed behind her and hastily dragged it in front of her to use as a shield. Her head began throbbing so hard from the loud screeching that her movement caused that she thought for a second she might throw up.
Ailyn skidded to a halt just in front of the mattress, her knees bumping into it as she leaned over, one hand braced against the bed frame and a crazed look in her eyes as she furiously told Lin, "I asked Amon to take my bending. I begged him to rip out this flaw and let me join the Equalists to help bring an end to all benders."
Lin had finally decided on a facial expression, and it was pure disgust. "You're insane," she told Ailyn, shaking her head, still in disbelief. "Do you even hear yourself? Did losing Jeia really shove you right off the deep end?"
"Don't you understand?" Ailyn stressed, hand clenched and shaking around the bed frame and causing the whole thing to rattle against the floor. "I'm finally thinking clearly for the first time since I lost her! This is what she would want me to –"
Lin loudly and angrily interjected, "Don't you dare finish that sentence! Jeia would never want this! She was good, and she hated conflict, and she would never attack benders –"
"Benders are the reason she's dead!" Ailyn fired back, spittle flying from her mouth as she jabbed a finger against Lin's metal chest. "You're the reason she's dead. So don't you claim to know what she would want. The triads are a scourge on this city and they need to be purged from the earth! If that means that bending be extinguished entirely, then so be it."
Ailyn spun away before Lin could muster a reaction, which was probably for the best, because being blamed for Lieutenant Jeia's death was still like a punch to the gut even four years later. Ailyn stalked over to the tray of food and water, and Lin pursed her lips, deciding that no other words were necessary. Nothing would change Ailyn's mind now.
Ailyn bent down and began pouring a cup of water as if she hadn't just been screaming in Lin's face. Ailyn's back was turned and Lin considered her chances of rushing the younger woman and fighting her way out of her cell and to safety. Except Lin had no idea where she was or how many Equalists she would have to fight on the way out and she felt like she'd been run over by a herd of sky bison. So she stayed where she was, the bed in front of her, and watched with a scornful gaze as Ailyn returned to her.
"Whatever my feelings for you," Ailyn said, sounding slightly calmer now, "Jeia admired you and so I will not leave you to suffer. I don't know the last time you had water before you were brought here, but you're probably very dehydrated. Drink."
She held the cup of water out to Lin, who wanted nothing more than to snatch it out of Ailyn's hands and gulp down every last drop, but her rage was apparently stronger than her self-preservation, and instead of taking the cup, she slapped it right out of Ailyn's hand. The cup clattered noisily to the floor, water splattered across the stone, and Lin felt a moment of regret, but she stood her ground and started stubbornly back at Ailyn.
The younger woman rolled her eyes. "Suit yourself, but if I were you, I'd think about setting your stubborn stupidity aside for a moment, unless you'd like to die in here. You were asleep so long they thought you might have stopped breathing, but no one was willing to check. You've got a fever, maybe from infection, maybe just a side effect, I don't know, but I'd rather not carry your rotting corpse out of here so…eat something."
With that, she turned and left, called for several Equalists that were posted along the corridor just out of sight, and they let her out of Lin's cell with their gloves crackling in anticipation, just hoping Lin would try to escape.
She was happy to disappoint them, and she waited until night fell – which wasn't very long – when the guards stopped pacing by her cell, before she crawled over to the tray and drank straight from the pitcher of water until she nearly puked. Then she collapsed on the floor right there, too weak to move, and before she fell into unconsciousness once more, she thought of her family and hoped that they were safe.
Ronen, Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami trekked a short ways through the city's underbelly before they found a place to settle down. They were fortunate enough to stumble across an underground dwelling, where an entire village of homeless people had created their own living space. Most of them were asleep when Ronen's group arrived, but there was a kind vagabond named Gommu – whom Korra had apparently met on her first day in Republic City – that invited them in with open arms. Korra and the others were all filled with relief after fighting Equalists all day and then wading through the muck, happy to settle down into some sleeping bags on the ground and finally rest.
Ronen, however, could not sleep, not when he was still worrying over whether or not his family had made it to safety and wondering where his Aunt Su was. It didn't help that his clothes were still damp and he couldn't remember the last time he'd had to sleep on the hard ground. His mother and Jeia could lay on the ground all day long, but Ronen, like his father, had never much enjoyed camping out. He wasn't about to complain about his situation, because there were much worse things happening, but it certainly didn't help him shut his mind off long enough to sleep.
After a while of tossing and turning, it dawned on him that he might know of a way to find his aunt, and after that, sleeping was the last thing on his mind. He laid still for several minutes trying to convince himself to wait until morning, that he would be better able to fight and think more clearly once he had rested. But he could also think of several reasons why he should go now rather than later.
In the end, he came up with more reasons not to sleep, and with that decided, he immediately clambered up onto his feet and began checking his bag to ensure that he had all the things he would need, making sure to be careful so as not to wake his friends.
He had only just risen to his feet when Asami's hushed voice called out to him, "Where are you going?"
Ronen froze, backpack half slung over his shoulder, and slowly turned to look down at Asami, who was sitting up in her sleeping bag and rubbing her eyes.
"Just need to clear my head," Ronen lied. "I'm not going far. Go back to sleep."
Asami frowned and, much to Ronen's dismay, began to climb to her feet. "You're lying," she said. "You're going to find your aunt, aren't you?"
Ronen sighed. "Yes, but we can't all go, and I'll be fine –"
"So just I'll go," Asami volunteered, immediately bending down to gather up her own meager belongings.
"No, I don't want to drag anyone else into this," Ronen protested.
"You're not dragging me into anything," Asami pointed out. "I can't stand to lie here either –"
"Hey, where are you guys going?" Bolin suddenly asked, yawning noisily and causing Ronen and Asami to both shush him hastily. Bolin looked chastened and tried to lower his voice into some semblance of a whisper as he repeated, "Where are you guys going?"
"I'll be right back," Ronen assured. "Go back to sleep, Bolin."
Bolin seemed about to comply, still half-bleary eyed, and Ronen turned away in the hopes that simply leaving would convince Bolin to give up.
No such luck.
Ronen had only taken a few steps, Asami right on his heels even as he waved her off, before he heard a sleeping bag rustling around, and then Bolin was racing after them.
"Hey, wait up," he whispered. "If we're going on a mission, shouldn't we wake the others?"
"I didn't want to wake anyone," Ronen hissed, whirling around to glare half-heartedly at Bolin and Asami. "Besides, Korra can't come no matter what. If I get captured, Amon can't take any bending from me, I'll just be locked up, but the Avatar needs to be free for when Iroh and the others get here."
"Well Amon can't take any bending from me either," Asami said, "and you can't go alone."
"Errr, I don't wanna lose my bending," Bolin squeaked, "but I'm coming anyways."
"I don't want you guys getting hurt trying to help me find my Aunt Su. I need to do this myself."
Asami scoffed and folded her arms stubbornly across her chest. "My father tried to capture you and your parents, I think I owe you one."
"And you helped save me from Amon," Bolin eagerly added. "Come on, Ronen, we're a team, remember? We help each other."
Ronen knew that they were making good points, and he couldn't deny that it would be nice to have at least some of his friends with him, but he was afraid of what might happen to them. "Someone really should stay behind to tell Korra and Mako where I've gone," he tried one last time. "We can't wake them or they'll never let us leave, and if they wake and we're not here, they'll freak out."
"We'll just leave them a note!" Bolin said without concern.
"Did you happen to bring writing utensils along when we were fleeing the Equalists?" Ronen inquired.
Bolin's shoulders slumped. "Well, no…oh! I know!"
Bolin was suddenly racing across the open space to where Gommu slept, and before Ronen or Asami could stop him, Bolin was shaking the old vagabond awake. There was a brief conversation between the two of them, too quiet for Ronen to make out from meters away, but it looked very lively based on the hand gestures and arm waving.
And then Bolin was running back to join Ronen and Asami, and Gommu flopped back down on his back and began snoring as if he had never been awake in the first place.
"Gommu is gonna tell them," Bolin explained upon his return, "but if we're going, we'd better hurry. Mako is starting to mutter in his sleep and that usually means he's about to wake up."
With his window of escape narrowing, Ronen had no choice but to allow Bolin and Asami to come along, and he nodded wordlessly before gesturing for them to follow him.
The three of them went deeper into the maze of tunnels beneath the city, in the opposite direction from which they had come to find the homeless dwelling. They kept a relatively quick pace, mindful of the fact that Mako and Korra could still catch up to them if they woke up and noticed three of their group were gone.
They remained silent for a while too, until Asami asked, "Do you have any idea of where to start?"
Ronen nodded. He knew exactly where to start, had not been able to sleep because he couldn't stop thinking about it. "We need to go back to the prison where we found my mom's officers."
"We need to go where?" Bolin exclaimed. "Why would we go back to a prison? Oh…unless you think they're keeping your aunt there?"
"Could it be that easy?" Asami said skeptically.
"No," Ronen replied, "I don't think they're keeping Su there, but I know someone there that might be able to help us figure out where she actually is."
"Wait, wait, wait," Bolin said, looking terribly confused. "You know someone there? Like an Equalist?"
"Yeah, you remember, I told you about her. The girl from my school, Asuka."
"You mean the crazy girl that electrocuted you at the pro-bending final?" Bolin asked in bewilderment. "How do you even know she's there? Do you keep in touch? Please don't tell me you're still friends with this girl. Talk about a toxic relationship –"
"I heard her voice when we were there looking for Korra," Ronen explained with some exasperation. "I haven't spoken to her since the arena, but I definitely recognize her voice."
"That doesn't sound like such a good idea, Ronen," Asami said warily. "If she was willing to turn on you once, she'll do it again."
"Not this time," Ronen asserted, "because this time I'm going to make her an offer she can't refuse."
"And what is that?" Asami demanded.
But Ronen ignored the question to ask, "Bolin, do you think you can remember how to get back there?" Ronen's sense of direction was reasonable, but he had spent the first decade of his life sheltered on Air Temple Island, so he had more confidence in Bolin's, who had been living in the streets since childhood.
"Me?" Bolin squeaked in surprise. "Oh, well, I think so, if we can get above ground and figure out where we are."
The trio eventually found an exit that took them above ground, and from there it was a fairly easy trip to the Equalist prison they had recently infiltrated. They had to go halfway across town, with several stops to duck behind cover to avoid being seen by passing Equalists, but besides the random patrols the streets were empty. The city was unnaturally quiet, all citizens apparently hiding away in their homes, uncertain of what to do now that the Equalists had taken over.
There was, however, some celebration amongst a group of nonbenders that Ronen could hear a few blocks away from where he and his friends were creeping through, and raids on the houses of a few benders. The whole thing made Ronen sick to his stomach, and if he could have, he would have tried to help those benders, but he could not save everyone, and he had his aunt to think about. It was, perhaps, a very selfish ideal, but he had promised his mother that he would find his aunt and he did not break his promises.
Getting into the prison tunnel was even easier than the first time – after getting past the metal gate anyways, which required a lot more ingenuity than his mother simply lifting it with bending. Ronen assumed the lack of activity was because most of the Equalists were out helping take control of the city, and after journeying deeper into the hideout, he could see the other reason. There were only maybe twenty Equalists gathered in one of the open rooms, and not one of them was doing anything particularly important. They were all laughing and drinking and celebrating their victory, their masks off and hands glove-free. Their guard was down, and Ronen had every intention of taking full advantage.
He and Bolin and Asami hid in the shadows for a while, silent and observing. No other Equalists came to the party and none of them left, nor did it appear that it would be slowing down anytime soon. After a little while, Ronen spotted Asuka, and was slightly surprised to see her doling out drinks rather than really participating in the festivities. The adults in the room treated her with little regard, barely even acknowledging that she was there.
When Asuka was told to go get more drinks, Ronen saw his opportunity, and turned to his companions. "Bolin," he whispered, even though the din of noise would have covered the sound of his voice anyways, "do you think you can get us over to that room?" He pointed to where Asuka was disappearing behind a door across the way, and Bolin considered it for a few seconds before nodding firmly.
When the celebrating Equalists erupted into cheers over someone chugging a drink, Bolin created a hole in the ground and crawled down into it, waiting until Asami and Ronen had followed before closing it back up. Once underneath the ground in the dark, Ronen felt a crushing panic consuming him that he worked hard to ignore, hastily following right on Bolin's heels and struggling for breath. He was absolutely not comfortable within the earth as his mother and Bolin were, but he trusted Bolin to get him out as quickly as possible, and it was important that Ronen get to Asuka before she rejoined the party.
The second his head was above ground again, Ronen gasped for air as if he had just been submerged underwater for too long. He crawled up out of the hole and desperately clambered away, afraid that it might swallow him up again. He was just scrambling to his feet when he heard a noisy clatter behind him, and he whirled around in preparation of scolding Bolin, only to see Asuka standing across from him, an expression of open-mouthed shock on her face. A tray she must have been holding was laying at her feet, and a few glasses had shattered on the floor.
"Ronen?!" Asuka shrieked, moving her hand menacingly, only to realize she was not wearing her electric glove.
Ronen raised his hands in a placating gesture and hastily said, "I'm not here to hurt you, Asuka. Just hear me out –"
"Don't think you're gonna fool me into thinking you're on my side again," Asuka spat. "I know you've been fighting alongside the Avatar."
"Hey, you're the one that electrocuted me," Ronen pointed out. "What was I supposed to do? Go looking for you?"
Asuka looked slightly chastened, but she scowled and warned, "One scream and they all come rushing in here. You and your friends better go while you've got the chance."
"That sounds like a good idea," Bolin murmured close to Ronen's ear.
"I'm not leaving until I get what I came for," Ronen asserted. "Asuka, I need your help, and if you do it, I give you my word that I'll give you something equally helpful."
Asuka snorted. "Right, and I should help you why?"
"Well you haven't screamed for help yet," Ronen noted. "Is it maybe because you're afraid they won't care? Or maybe because you're sick of being stuck here fetching them drinks when you could be out there, joining in on the real action."
"You think you're so smart, don't you?" Asuka sneered, folding her arms across her chest. "You can't psychoanalyze me, Beifong. You have no idea what I do here. It's important."
"Is it?" Ronen asked skeptically. "Because they've been keeping you underground to be their errand girl, and I think it's punishment."
"You've got it all wrong," Asuka growled, but Ronen could tell that he was onto something.
"Do I?" he said. "Or was there another reason you took such an interest in recruiting me? Is it possible that Amon specifically gave you the task of convincing me to join the Equalists, but when you attacked me in the arena you failed your mission? And when Amon found out, he must have been very displeased with you. That's why you're here and not out doing something more important."
Asuka's nostrils flared and she was clearly grinding her teeth and Ronen knew that he had stumbled upon the right answer. He had suspected for a while, but now that he was standing before Asuka accusing her, it seemed that he had been on the right track.
"It doesn't matter why I'm here," Asuka finally fired back. "Helping the likes of you certainly won't improve my situation."
"Except I can offer you a solution," Ronen persisted.
"And what's that?" Asuka scoffed.
"Me."
There was a weighted silence that followed, wherein Ronen could feel the three other occupants of the room staring at him in confusion, and then all three voices said, "What?"
Ronen never once took his gaze off of Asuka as he explained, "You help me find what I need, and if you keep your word, then I'll let you hand me over to Amon, personally."
"What?!" Bolin and Asami both repeated, shrilly this time.
But Asuka looked intrigued, eyeing Ronen up and down and then encouraging, "Go on."
"I'll tell him whatever you want. That I've joined the Equalists or that you captured me, whatever you think is best. All you have to do is help me rescue my Aunt Su."
Asuka's eyes went wide. "That's what you want? Are you kidding? She's a celebrity prisoner, they don't let those out of their sight until Amon takes their bending."
"So you think he hasn't taken hers yet?" Ronen asked excitedly.
"He's been busy taking over the city!" Asuka exclaimed, as if it should have been obvious. "He's going to start taking everyone's bending tomorrow sometime."
"So we have plenty of time! Do you know where they'll be taken to meet Amon?"
"Are you not hearing me?" Asuka demanded. "You'll never get her out of there!"
"You let me worry about that," Ronen said with an unconcerned wave of his hand. "You just point me in the right direction and I'll figure out the rest. So do we have a deal or not?"
Asuka shook her head in bewilderment. "You're insane. How am I supposed to hand you over to Amon if you get yourself caught trying to free your stupid aunt?"
"I won't get caught," Ronen insisted, "and if I do then I'll tell them I was looking for you and I want to join up or something."
"Ronen," Asami interjected, "you can't seriously be thinking of going through with this. Turning yourself over to Amon? Your aunt wouldn't want you to risk yourself to free her."
"Yeah," Bolin chimed in, "I'm with Asami on this one. This is bad news, Ro. I can't let you do something that crazy. Korra would kill me. And then your mom would kill me again."
"It's not your decision to make, it's mine," Ronen told them. "And I told you two not to come with me. Now…" he turned his attention back on Asuka, "are you in, or not?"
Asuka frowned and glared at Ronen for several seconds, seeming to deliberate her options.
"Hey, girl!" a drunken voice called from outside the door. "Where's those drinks?!"
Asuka scowled and rolled her eyes as she shouted back, "Just a minute!" She locked gazes with Ronen and sighed, "Fine, I'm in, but if you turn on me, so help me, I'll –"
"No threats necessary," Ronen cut her off. "I'm a man of my word. However, I do need to add one other thing to the deal."
Convincing Asuka to accept Ronen's alteration to the deal was difficult, but not impossible. It seemed that she was rather fed up with the Equalists she'd been forced to spend all her time with underground, and when Ronen refused to leave with her until he freed the prisoners there, she eventually accepted it, under the condition that they made it look like she was attacked along with the rest of the Equalists so that, if word got back to Amon, no one would have sold her out as a possible traitor. So she gathered up her tray and grabbed a few drinks and went back out to join the celebration taking place.
Ronen, Asami, and Bolin concocted a quick plan, and then donned Equalist masks they found in a supply closet before going out to slip into the festivities. Once the three of them were spread apart amid the twenty drunken Equalists, they began to lash out, and with the element of surprise and the advantage of being sober, they took down all twenty with little issue. Afterwards, Asuka begrudgingly led them to the prison cells and made irate comments under her breath as they freed the prisoners.
When everyone was above ground once more, Ronen turned on Asuka and said, "Okay, so where are the celebrity prisoners being held?"
She shrugged in response and answered, "I have no idea. I just know that all prisoners that still have their bending are to be taken to Amon on Air Temple Island tomorrow morning or afternoon."
"Air Temple Island?" Ronen echoed, his disgust plain in his voice. "Amon is using that as his base of operations already? But why?"
Asuka shrugged indifferently again. "How should I know?"
Ronen shook his head as if to clear it. "It doesn't matter, we'll worry about that later. Right now we need to get to the docks and wait for Aunt Su to arrive."
"It's still several hours till morning," Asami said. "We should take these people back to where Korra and Mako are and think up a plan."
Ronen didn't want to wait, but it seemed he had little options open to him. It would be a whole yet till morning.
Before he could respond, Bolin interjected, "Er, there's just one problem with that. We can't lead her to our hideout." He held up his hand to cover the finger that was pointing over at Asuka, as if she couldn't hear every word he was saying.
"As long as I keep my end of the bargain she'll have no reason to sell us out," Ronen said confidently, even though he knew he was putting a lot of trust into someone that had electrocuted him in the back. "And she knows we'll all move locations after she leaves anyways. Isn't that right, Asuka?"
"I can't very well tell Amon that I was inside the Avatar's camp and let her go," Asuka muttered bitterly. "You let me take you to Amon and we'll call it even."
So the four teens and about twelve disoriented former prisoners went together in search of the entrance into the tunnels where Ronen and his friends had come out of earlier. It was a little bit trickier to get through the city with such a large group, and a couple of the freed prisoners ran off on their own to seek out family members, but eventually they made it back without further complications.
Korra and Mako were both awake when they arrived, and went storming over to the group with unabashed anger.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Mako immediately spat. "You went out there in this chaos, in the middle of the night, without even telling Korra and I where you were going?"
"No offense, Mako," Ronen responded with irritation of his own, "but you're not my keeper."
"You took my brother," Mako growled. "He could have lost his bending, or worse, but what do you care, right? You're the invincible Ronen Beifong, you aren't a bender so what does it matter to you if anyone else is? All you care about is what you want, never mind who gets hurt in the process –"
"Hey!" Ronen practically roared, lunging into Mako's space, no idea what his intention even was, but knowing that everything that Mako said was wrong, and he was admittedly sleep-deprived and worried sick about his family, and he needed to take out all that rage on somebody. But Korra and Bolin both saw it coming and interjected themselves between the two, Bolin warding off Mako, who looked only too happy to engage in a fight with Ronen, and Korra shoving Ronen back several steps.
"Enough!" she shrieked. "We are not going to fight amongst ourselves. This is stupid. You boys are so stupid. How about we talk about this like reasonable people?"
She looked back at Mako, who had calmed a little at his brother's behest, and Bolin told him, "I'm sorry we went without telling you, but Ronen needed help and I wasn't about to let him go alone. He told me not to go, Mako. I chose to anyway."
"That doesn't explain why you couldn't tell us," Korra said before Mako could, and she turned her gaze back onto Ronen, and the hurt in her eyes made him sick. "Why couldn't you tell me?"
"Because you can't help me with this," Ronen said solemnly. "You need to be available when the reinforcements get here, and you can't be captured by Amon because he'll take your bending. It doesn't matter if I get captured."
"It matters to me," Korra said in a hushed voice, half angry at him, half upset.
"I know, I'm sorry," Ronen sighed, "but I need to get to my aunt before Amon does. According to Asuka, she should still have her bending, and I know where to find her."
"Asuka?!" Korra exclaimed, looking appalled, and only just noticing the girl standing a few meters behind Ronen. "You've got to be kidding me."
"You brought her here?!" Mako raged. "Are you completely insane?"
"We also freed a dozen prisoners," Asami said hotly. "And she didn't stop us. She and Ronen made a deal. I don't agree with it, but she's stuck to her end so far."
"What deal?" Korra demanded.
"She's going to help me find my Aunt Su, and then I'm going to help her," Ronen said vaguely. "Listen, we only came back to bring the prisoners somewhere safe and plan our next move. I need to be down at the docks ready to grab Su before they take her to Air Temple Island. That's where Amon will be and he plans on taking a lot of people's bending."
"We know where he is?" Mako asked, sounding excited. "Maybe we could sneak onto the Island and end this now. With Amon out of the way –"
"We can't," Ronen immediately argued. "There will be too many Equalists there, we'd never even get within ten feet of him. We'd just be setting ourselves up for failure. Believe me, I want to save everyone too, but it's just not possible until we have the reinforcements."
"Fine, so we wait," Mako huffed, "but don't you think rescuing your aunt is too risky? You're doing all this just for one person. Even if you pull it off, you'll be saving her and abandoning everyone else to their fate."
"I know it's selfish," Ronen conceded, "but she's family. I'd do the same for any one of you. And if I could liberate everyone from the Equalists I would, but I can't. I can save my aunt and so that's what I'm going to do. Don't worry, I'm not bringing Bolin for the next part."
"Hey, I told you I wasn't letting you go alone," Bolin insisted. "I'm seeing this through to the end."
"I appreciate it, Bolin, really I do, but I can't lose anyone else. If this goes sideways, my aunt loses her bending and I end up in prison, I can't add any of you to that list. And I won't be alone. Asuka is coming with me."
"I am?" Asuka said in surprise, speaking for the first time since they'd entered the tunnel.
"If you want me to uphold my end of the deal then we need to stick together and see this through to the end. You're going to help me get onto whatever ship they put my aunt on, and then help me get her back here. Once she's safe, I go with you."
"You do what?" Korra shrieked.
Ronen turned to her, stubborn, unwavering determination set into his features as he told her plainly, "Korra, I'm doing this, no matter what you say to try and talk me out of it. You can help me, though. I'll probably be jumping overboard with Asuka and my aunt halfway out in the Bay. If you go out to the drainage tunnel we came in at, you can watch for us there, and help us swim back once we're a safe distance from the Equalist ships."
Korra looked extremely displeased, but giving her a small task to help seemed to appease her enough to where Ronen eventually convinced her to accept his decision. She understood that saving Su was of the utmost importance to him, and that trying to stop him would be futile, and trying to join him was too risky.
Asami, however, was insistent that she come along. "I don't trust this Asuka," she said, giving the girl an apologetic look and adding, "no offense." Asuka shrugged, nonplussed, and Asami turned back to Ronen. "You'll need someone to watch your back."
Ronen didn't figure he was going to be able to go on his mission without at least one of them insisting on going along, so he begrudgingly agreed to let Asami accompany him. He laid out the plan he'd formulated in the time it had taken to walk back to the homeless village from the Equalist prison, and although his friends were all openly against his decision to go with Asuka afterwards, they decided that, for now, they needed her help for Ronen to get Su back, and they would contest that agreement later.
Somewhere between trying to evade the Equalist airships on their tail and Lin sacrificing herself to give them more time, Tenzin had gone completely off course. Consumed as he was by the ache in his chest, he did not immediately notice his folly until he had flown for several hours in what was essentially the wrong direction. The trip to Zaofu was typically about a day long by air, but it was going to take even longer now. It was also cloudy and the middle of the night and he couldn't quite get his bearings, so he knew that any course alteration he made could possibly only make the situation worse.
So the moment he spotted land in the distance, he turned Oogi in that direction and swooped in for a landing. Oogi was as exhausted as Tenzin felt, and eagerly collapsed in a nearby cave entrance the moment that Tenzin ushered him inside, with the intent of hiding the obvious sky bison from anybody that might fly by the area. The kids were still awake, but didn't acknowledge their father's decision to set down in the middle of nowhere. They all seemed too stunned still to react. Sora was no longer crying, but only just, and she had pushed her brother away from her to curl up on her own at the edge of the saddle. All three kids seemed to be lost in their own thoughts and Tenzin's heart broke at the sight of them.
Jeia immediately clambered off of Oogi as soon as they entered the cave and pressed herself into the ground, curling up there despite the chill she must have felt from the cold earth, and Tenzin was worried about her for a moment. But then he remembered how Lin used to tell him that the ground wasn't really cold to her, that the earth kept her warm, just as the wind did not chill him way up in the sky as it did her. He supposed that Jeia likely felt much the same as her mother, and after several hours up in the air, which she hated, she would no doubt be seeking solace in the comforting embrace of her element.
Tenzin tried desperately not to think about the fact that, if Lin had been taken to Amon already as he assumed she had, she might never feel warmth from the earth again.
"I'm going to check the area, make sure it's safe, and then we can sleep for a little while," Tenzin told the children, but only Yunjin showed any sign of having heard him. The boy floated down to stand before his father, and Tenzin reached out to squeeze his shoulder, lowering his voice to murmur, "I'm not going far. You'll look out for them while I'm gone?"
Yunjin nodded with grim determination, and Tenzin wasn't sure how the day could possibly become anymore heart wrenching. He needed to hold his children close and comfort them after what had happened with their mother, but first he needed to ensure that they were safe in their hiding place.
Tenzin searched a wide perimeter from the shore to the cave where Oogi and the children were, and into the nearby canopy of trees. He checked the skies every so often too. He didn't think there were any other airships on their tail, but one could never be too careful. Besides for some native animals, there was nothing within the vicinity of their cave that gave Tenzin any cause for concern, so he gathered up some wood for a fire and hastily returned to his children.
He found them around the same spots he had left them in. As he entered the cave, Yunjin came to meet him and helped him with the bundle of wood. They set up a small fire at the far end of the cave, even though Tenzin knew that he would have to put it out soon, before he slept – if he could sleep. Sora finally came down off of Oogi to silently warm herself by the fire, and Tenzin went to scoop Jeia up off of the ground and into his arms. He then settled down between Jin and Sora, with Jeia in his lap curled up against his chest, and when he opened his arms, both twins fell against his sides without him having to say a word.
"I'm so sorry," he murmured, stretching his arms to hold onto all three of them, the twins clasping hands over top of Jeia's back. "I'm so sorry that I could not protect you from this. We should have sent you to Zaofu sooner…but it does not do to dwell on the past," he reminded himself as much as them. "I know that you're worried about your mother, and I am too, but you know that she is so strong, and she is going to be okay. Once all of you are safe I will return to the city and I will find her. I promise you that I will find her."
"We should have went back," Sora whimpered, crying in earnest again. "We shouldn't have let them take her."
"I know," Tenzin sighed, stroking Sora's hair. "I wanted to go back too, but then your mother's sacrifice would have been for nothing. It would have accomplished nothing if all of us were captured."
Yunjin looked up at his father, not tearful, but clearly sad as he said, "Amon is going to take her bending, isn't he?"
Tenzin grimaced, because it hurt him to think that Lin would lose that part of herself. He knew more than anyone else how much her bending meant to her and to see her without it…he could not imagine what it would do to her. "It is possible, yes," Tenzin admitted, seeing no point in lying to the children. Jeia might have believed him, but the twins wouldn't have. "But I don't want you to worry about that. She will still be your mother, still as strong and bold as ever, and she will be content with the knowledge that each of you is safe."
"Why Mama go?" Jeia whispered, looking up at her father with those eyes that were so much like Lin's, and Tenzin found himself unable to speak for a moment, emotion clogging his throat.
"She went for us, Jeia," Yunjin answered instead. "She went so that we didn't lose our bending and so we didn't have to go somewhere bad."
Jeia considered this for a few moments, and then she asked, "If I let them has my bending, Mama can come back?"
It was such an innocent question from a little girl that just missed her mother, and Tenzin could not stop the tears that rolled down his cheeks. He leaned down to kiss the top of Jeia's head, his heart so full of love and sorrow, for his children, for his wife.
"I will bring your Mama back to you, Jeia," Tenzin whispered into her hair. "I promise."
First thing in the morning, when he could see where he was going, he would get back on track, get the kids to Zaofu, and then return to Republic City, where he would rendezvous with his eldest son, and then do everything in his power to find Lin and never let her go again.
Ronen, Asami, and Asuka boarded the Equalist's ship with relative ease. Being dressed and masked as they were, nobody even paid them any mind, which Ronen thought was a rather arrogant mistake to make considering that anyone wearing the right mask could get through, but he was happy to exploit the opportunity. He had seen his Aunt Su being carted from the back of a truck to the boat, and it had been too distant for him to get a good look, but he had known it was her, and she hadn't looked good. They had her wrapped in chains that must have been platinum, and they were anything but gentle as they hefted her across the docks. It made Ronen furious, but he kept his cool and reminded himself to focus on his task.
One Equalist did stop them as they were walking up the gangplank, but only to ask why they weren't helping with the prisoners, to which Asuka had assured they were on their way to guard some of the problematic ones on board. Finding where Su was being held was a bit trickier, but after some casual conversation with some of the other Equalists on board, they learned that she was given her own personal room with guards inside and out. Apparently she had been causing them a lot of problems since her capture, which really did not surprise Ronen at all. However, it did create quite the challenge in figuring out how to get her out of her cell and off of the ship without trying to fight through every Equalist on board.
In the end, Ronen decided to just wing it. He had no other choice at that point. He had gone there to save his aunt and he wasn't giving up until he exhausted every option possible. If that meant trying to fight through a hundred Equalists than so be it.
He waited until the ship had taken off from port and had traveled a quarter of the way across the Bay before leading Asami and Asuka down to where they had been told they would find Suyin.
The room where she was being held was midway down in the ship and at the end of a long, dim hallway. There were two Equalists positioned at the start of the hallway and two at the end in front of the door. Ronen whispered a quick plan to Asuka and Asami, and it took some convincing before Asuka begrudgingly agreed, but once they were all on the same page, they strode casually up to the first two guards.
"We've got a message to give the guys inside," Ronen told the guards, trying to exude confidence in the hopes that the Equalists wouldn't question it.
No such luck.
"What message?" the one on the left asked.
"Was told to give it to them personally," Ronen deflected. "Came from the Lieutenant. He says it's important that the special guest in there is ready when we get to the Island."
The two guards exchanged glances, which were impossible to decipher behind their masks. Then the one on the right asked Ronen, "You talk to the Lieutenant?"
"Yeah?" Ronen answered, sounding perplexed as to why that was such a surprise. "Don't you?"
"Hang on a minute," the one on the left advised before hastening down the hall to the two in front of the door. There was a brief conversation that Ronen could not hear and it made him anxious. He could feel his palms sweating under his gloves and his fingers flexed on instinct, prepared to react should the guards not buy his story.
One of the guards by the door poked their head into the room where Su was being held, and Ronen held his breath until the guard came jogging back.
"Okay," he said, "you can go ahead in."
Ronen breathed out in relief and said, "Thanks."
But he had only taken three steps before the guard said, "Not you two, just him."
Ronen turned around to see Asami and Asuka being stopped, and Asami complained, "No fair, you said we were going to get to see the celebrity."
"Maybe next time, hon," Ronen played along. "Listen, I'll only be five minutes, all right?"
Asami and Asuka nodded, and he hoped it meant they understood what he was implying. Then he turned and strode down the hall, casually, but with an impatience that couldn't be helped.
He entered the room and immediately began to take in his surroundings, counting six Equalists and noting that the space was fairly cramped. Two of the guards weren't wearing masks, and none of them seemed all that concerned about Su causing trouble, which became clear as to why when Ronen spotted her. Her legs were bent up to her chest and her wrists were linked to her ankles, and there was a collar around her neck that was chained to the wall behind her. Her mouth was covered and the left side of her face was mottled with bruises and there was dried blood streaked the whole way from her nose down to her chin. She looked fierce, but bleary-eyed, like she wasn't totally sure where she was.
Ronen was simmering with barely suppressed rage when one of the unmasked men spoke. He was leaning against the wall next to Su, arms crossed and an easy smirk on his face. His hair was dark and long and he flipped it out of his face before asking Ronen, "So what's the message?"
Ronen's mind went blank for a second, and it was probably a good thing that the others couldn't see his face, but he quickly recovered to answer, "Probably nothing new, but the boss is real excited about her. Wants to make sure she's the first off the boat when we reach the island."
The unmasked Equalist on Su's other side had a bruised and lopsided nose that looked like it had recently been broken, and he scoffed at Ronen. "That was your big news?"
"Well, the Lieutenant heard she's been giving you trouble," Ronen stalled.
"We've got her under control now," long-hair said, "as you can see. Isn't that right, darlin'?" He reached over to stroke Su's hair, and she yanked away from him with murder in her eyes, the chains clanking noisily as she strained against them and roared something that was muffled by the gag over her mouth. The Equalist only chuckled.
"Looks like you roughed her up pretty good," Ronen tried to say without the anger that was boiling up within him. "She give you that broken nose?"
The guy with the busted nose scowled, and Ronen thought maybe he was pushing his luck, but the long-haired Equalist laughed even harder and answered without care, "Nah, Xiang got that from her sister."
"Listen," broken-nose – Xiang – said heatedly, "the bitch got the jump on me –"
"Wasn't she tied up?" one of the Equalists off to Ronen's left chimed in with humor in their tone, and Ronen felt his stomach churn at the sudden realization of what they could be saying. He had thought, at first, that his mother could have broken the Equalist's nose during the battle on the Island, before Ronen had returned with his father and the others but not Su. However, as far as he was aware, his mother hadn't been captured or tied up during that battle, which could only mean one thing…
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Xiang sneered as the other Equalists in the room all snickered. "Doesn't matter, bitch got what was comin' to her. Next time I see her I'll be sure to repay the favor. Would have done so already, but she made such a spectacle of herself it woulda been like kickin' a cripple."
"You mean you guys caught the other Beifong?" Ronen asked with forced excitement, while internally he felt as though he might actually be about to puke. "I thought she flew off before we could catch her?"
"I thought you were in good with the Lieutenant?" long-hair pointed out, sounding a little suspicious now, but Ronen could hardly care about that.
Thankfully, Xiang was eager to gloat, "Of course we got her. Would've got the whole rotten family, but she took down one of our airships and the second was damaged. We had two more airships on the way to follow those air-brats though, so it's only a matter of time 'till we get them too. Bet she won't feel so noble then. It's just a shame she won't be there to watch her sister get her bending taken too. I'd have paid good money to see that reaction."
"So she's not on the Island anymore? We still got her in our prison right?" Ronen questioned, trying to sound casual, but he knew he was asking too many questions at that point.
Long-hair frowned and took a step forward. "What'd you say your name was again?"
"I didn't," Ronen answered truthfully, gaze flickering quickly around the room to calculate who would reach him first when they inevitably realized he was not who he was pretending to be.
Luckily for Ronen, the door swung inwards at that moment, and in strode Asami and Asuka as if they had every right to be there. Out in the hallway, Ronen could just make out the slumped forms of the four guards strewn along the floor.
"Hey!" Xiang cried in surprise at the girls' entrance. "What are you –"
"Funny you should ask about my name," Ronen interjected, directing his glower onto long-hair as he yanked the hot mask off of his face. "It's Ronen Beifong."
Long-hair lunged and Ronen pulled the kali stick off of his back, the one that he had stolen from the Lieutenant, and which he now used to smack long-hair's electric glove away, and then jabbed it into the Equalist's ribs, activating the electricity that quickly knocked long-hair unconscious. The rest of the Equalists had leapt into action by that point, but Ronen, Asami, and Asuka took the remaining five down in a matter of seconds. Only one was left conscious at the end, and Ronen crouched down to grab Xiang by the front of his tunic and demand, "Where did you take my mother?"
Xiang shook his head, looking fearfully at the kali stick Ronen held against his side and sputtering, "I don't know."
"Don't lie to me," Ronen fumed. "Tell me where she is and I won't use this on you, you have my word."
"I really don't know!" Xiang cried. "I wasn't there for the transfer. After Amon took her bending, a group took her into the city, that's all I know."
"Well think," Ronen growled. "What prison are they likely to have taken her to?"
"I have no idea, please, please don't electrocute me, I've got a heart condition, please, I don't know which one, there's five, maybe more –"
"Ronen," Asami's voice interrupted, her hand softly grabbing his shoulder, "we need to go now, before someone finds us down here."
"They've got my mother, they took her bending and they've got her, he needs to tell me where," Ronen said, eyes still focused intently on Xiang, studying the man's fear after he had so recently been vile and arrogant, and the things Xiang had said about his mother… Ronen hated him, and besides Amon and the man called Deak that had once held a knife to his throat to torture his mother, Ronen hardly hated anyone.
But Asami's hand was squeezing his shoulder tighter, and there was sympathy and some fear in her own voice as she exhaled a ragged breath and said, "I'm so sorry, Ronen, I'm so sorry, but if we don't go now, your aunt will be no better off than your mother. And Ronen she…she's not looking too good. We came here to rescue her, right?"
They had, yes, but everything was different now…his mother.
But Asami was right. Xiang either really didn't know where Lin was or he was a very good actor, and either way, Ronen wasn't getting anything out of him on her whereabouts. He had to focus on his original plan, to get his Aunt Su to safety. Afterwards, he would ask Asuka about where his mother could be, but for now, he knew that his mother would want him to free Su.
It didn't stop his heart from breaking or tears from streaking down his face unbidden, and Ronen tried one last time, pulling the kali stick away just slightly and letting the electricity crackle close enough to strike fear through Xiang as he asked, "Where is my mother?"
But Xiang only whimpered, and Ronen shut the weapon off and jabbed two fingers into a pressure point that effectively knocked Xiang unconscious without the brutality of the electricity. And as he rose to his feet, he left the kali stick on the floor. He no longer wanted to use it. Even though he wanted to burn the Equalist revolution to the ground in that moment, he also did not want to fight fire with fire, and he would not sink to their level. He had other ways of fighting back, and it sickened him to think he might have harmed anyone the way that his mother and his aunt had no doubt been harmed.
Ronen didn't know what sort of state his mother was in after what she must have endured, but he prayed that it was better than her sister, because his Aunt Su looked even more dreadful up close. Ronen ungagged her mouth first, but he had to be careful with all the dried blood underneath that was now acting like glue and tearing at her skin.
"Ronen," she breathed in surprise and relief when her mouth was finally free, and he noticed then that her breathing was uneven, "what on earth are you doing here? Shouldn't you be somewhere safe?"
"I'm here to get you somewhere safe," Ronen said, hastily wiping at the tears that had run down his face. "I'm just sorry I couldn't get here sooner." Asami found the keys to Su's chains in the long-hair Equalist's pocket, and Ronen quickly unlocked the collar around his aunt's throat.
"That's okay," Su replied with a sigh, rolling her neck around, "you're here now. I'm still royally mad that they got me in the first place." Ronen began undoing the rest of her chains as she spoke. "I just kept thinking, after they had captured me, that if I had just slipped off my armor, if I had just been a second faster, but I've never faced such things before. Your mother had said I wasn't prepared for it, and she was right. I didn't know what they were capable of until then."
"It's annoying when she's right, isn't it?" Ronen tried to joke, despite the grief that consumed him at the thought of her.
Su chuckled, but winced at the effort it took before responding, "It really is. She loves to lord it over me." She was free from her shackles now, and she rubbed at her raw wrists before lifting one hand up to squeeze Ronen's shoulder as she told him seriously, "We'll find her, sweetheart. I know that we will."
Ronen nodded along because it was the only thing he could do and he wasn't certain that he could speak. When he found his voice again, he asked, "Are you okay to walk?
"I think so," Su said with determination.
Asami went to Su's other side without having to be asked, and she and Ronen helped Su carefully rise to her feet. Su couldn't fully hold herself upright, and she nearly yelped when Ronen put pressure on her shoulder, but her legs seemed to be the least injured part of her body at least.
"How do we get her out of here?" Asami inquired, and Ronen thought for a moment before he made a decision.
"We need to get her into Equalist clothes. Asuka, can you…"
Ronen trailed off when he spotted Asuka standing directly across from Su, her mask off now too and dangling from her fingertips, and she was staring at Su with open-mouthed shock and a bit of horror. "What did they do to you?" Asuka asked Su in a whisper.
"It's not as bad as it looks," Su tried to joke, but Ronen thought she was lying. She turned to him to ask, "Who is this girl? I don't remember her being on the Island."
"She's, uh, just helping out," Ronen said quickly, before refocusing his attention on the Equalist girl who was apparently surprised that one of the Equalist's prisoners had been mistreated. "Asuka, the clothes? I need your help."
Asuka seemed to snap out of it then, and she and Ronen hastily stripped the outerwear off of one of the Equalists. It felt wrong to do it to someone who was unconscious, but the Equalist was still mostly clothed underneath of their tunic, and Ronen didn't take their pants, hopeful that his plan would work well enough that no one would notice Su's slightly different colored pants. Once Su and everyone else had donned their masks once again, Ronen had Asuka help him with Su, while Asami raced slightly ahead, staying just close enough to them so as not to lose track of them.
As soon as they passed the first group of Equalists halfway up to the deck, Asami went into hysterics, saying that the prisoner was escaping and she and some of the others had barely gotten out in time to let the others know, and that they needed to send everyone down there now.
The Equalists started yelling out commands and then dozens of them were abandoning the upper deck to go racing down the stairs. They ran right past Asuka, Suyin, and Ronen, who called out a warning, "Be careful! She's dangerous! Nearly took us out!"
Su groaned for effect, and once the Equalists had made it past, Ronen and Asuka half carried Su to get her the rest of the way up the stairs faster. The four of them raced across the deck, and Ronen asked his aunt, "Do you think you can swim?"
Su did not respond for several seconds, panting loudly before admitting, "I don't know. I'm pretty sure my shoulder is out of place and my ribs…"
"That's okay," Ronen assured her, "I'll help, and we only need to go a little ways before Korra can come get us."
Once the four of them reached the edge of the ship, they looked out over the edge to judge the distance and to ensure they weren't going to hit anything on the way down. Ronen also noticed that they were halfway to Air Temple Island, and the Equalists downstairs would only be fooled for so long. It was now or never.
"You two go first," Ronen told Asuka and Asami. "We'll be right behind you."
After double checking to make sure there was no one in the vicinity that could see them about to jump overboard, the two girls removed their masks and then hurled themselves over the edge. Ronen turned to his aunt to help her remove her mask too, and once they were looking each other in the eye, he told her, "Just hang onto me. I'll keep you above water."
Su smiled at him, looking unconcerned as she said, "I trust you."
Ronen took his aunt's hand in his, helped her up onto the ledge, and then sucked in a deep breath before diving straight into the Bay.
After Zaofu had received Suyin's message, Kuvira had worked tirelessly through the night to prepare over half of the Metal Clan guard for their mission.
Kuvira did not know much about the Equalists or the situation in the city, and it killed her not to know all of the facts, but she still felt confident that she could strike the Equalists where it hurt. She was a metalbender after all, and while she did not doubt the capabilities of a nonbender, she would never let them get close enough to cause her any harm. Whatever toys they had were of little consequence. Su's Metal Clan were a formidable force, even if they rarely saw any action besides for some occasional pirates. They were all trained well and Kuvira was proud to lead them. Su had only promoted her to Captain a few months prior, and Kuvira took her role very seriously. She did have a lot of boring days though, and despite the seriousness of the situation, she could not help but feel a little giddy at the prospect of a real fight.
So first thing in the morning – after a quick power nap to re-energize herself – Kuvira boarded one of the eight airships she was bringing with her, and commanded her squadron to take to the skies. Junior insisted on coming with her, and she allowed it only because he was a little closer to Chief Beifong and Councilman Tenzin's family than she had ever been, and if there was any interaction with the kids, she would happily delegate that task to him. She knew that the real reason he had come along was to keep an eye on her, and she spent half of the trip deliberating to herself on whether or not she found that endearing or annoying.
She still hadn't decided, nor had she reached the city when the first signs of trouble came.
Kuvira didn't recognize the symbol on the two airships on the horizon, and came to the conclusion that they must be Equalist ships, an assumption that was almost certain once she saw a sky bison ensnared on the underbelly of one of them. She had wondered why Chief Beifong's family or Su hadn't shown in Zaofu before Kuvira left, and it appeared that she now knew the answer. There weren't very many sky bison being flown around those days, let alone in the exact direction of Zaofu. Kuvira felt certain that it must have been Tenzin's.
Keeping her cool, Kuvira hailed a channel to the unknown airships, who had the audacity to tell her, "Unidentified airships, turn back now."
"This is Captain Kuvira of the Metal Clan," Kuvira responded casually, "I have business in Republic City. I've never seen markings like yours. Are we to assume that you are pirates operating illegally in this sky zone?"
"This is Captain Cho of the Equalists," was the reply, and Kuvira could already tell that this Cho was both annoyed and inexperienced. "We have taken control of Republic City and bending has been made illegal. Unless you wish to face the ultimate power of Amon, I suggest you return home."
Kuvira rolled her eyes. "Captain Cho, I'm afraid I cannot give into your demands. I know nothing of this Amon you speak of, nor do I operate within Republic City's jurisdiction. I have been given strict orders by my own leader, just like you. Perhaps you could help me with my mission and this need not escalate."
There was a long pause, and Kuvira told her airships to be ready in case the Equalists tried to strike or run.
Neither happened. Instead, Captain Cho finally said, "I cannot comply with your request. We know nothing of your mission. Turn back now or we will be forced to open fire."
"Well that would be quite unfortunate," Kuvira said, sounding bored even to her own ears, "considering that we outnumber you by six airships. This is not a fight that you will win, Captain Cho, but I have a proposition for you that will perhaps end without unnecessary bloodshed. I see that you have a sky bison in your clutches. The family that I assume was on it, am I to believe that they are now your prisoners?"
"I cannot reveal any of that information to you," Captain Cho spluttered, giving away the answer in his heated response.
"Captain Cho, I don't think you understand me. If you do not give me reason not to fire upon your ships, I will obliterate both of them in a matter of seconds. So tell me, are Suyin and Lin Beifong aboard either of your airships?"
"They are not," Captain Cho sneered, sounding far too pleased with himself. "They are both already in the clutches of Amon, no doubt cleansed of their impurities by now. We do, however, have the former Chief's children and husband onboard, so if you do not wish to kill them, I suggest you stand down."
Kuvira sighed while Junior gasped, no doubt worried about his mother and the rest of his family, and Kuvira was too, but her mission was not complete. She would worry over Su's fate later.
"It appears that now we are at an impasse," Kuvira told Cho, before removing her finger from the transmitter button and switching over to another channel, which she then used to order all eight of her airships, "Fire upon the airship to the left, the one without the sky bison. Destroy it completely."
"Kuvira!" Bataar Jr exclaimed. "What if the kids are on that one?! You could kill them!"
"They aren't," Kuvira said with conviction, not bothering to look back at Junior, but watching as sharp metal weapons struck out at the Equalist airship and obliterated it in a matter of seconds, just as promised. "They're on the same ship as their bison. These fools aren't intelligent enough to think of separating the prisoners." Kuvira then switched back to the channel she had been using to speak with Cho and asked, "Would you like to discuss a deal now, Captain Cho?"
Cho's voice came through the speaker loud and full of rage. "You good for nothing benders are all the same! Violence is in your blood!"
"You seem to be forgetting," Kuvira interrupted impatiently, "that it is you who holds innocent children prisoner. That was merely a warning, Captain. Now shall we discuss a deal or will I be forced to send my people over to tear your ship apart until we find the children?"
"If you send even one person over here I will kill the Councilman."
"I don't think you have the stomach for murder, Captain."
"If I don't, I'm sure I have plenty on board who do."
"Release the children and the Councilman to me and I will turn back all of my ships," Kuvira bargained. "You will be free to return to your boss in Republic City. We will not pursue you."
"And return empty handed?" Cho scoffed. "I think not. You seem to forget that we have the upper hand. Any action you take will directly affect what we do to the prisoners."
"You're right, Captain," Kuvira conceded. "Give us the children then and we'll call it even. I mean, think about it. Do you really want to be known as the Captain that kidnapped innocent children and kept them chained up?"
There was another lengthy pause, and Kuvira watched the Equalist airship closely, waiting for a reaction, wondering if she was really going to have to chase it the whole way to Republic City.
Then Captain Cho's voice crackled through the radio saying, "We'll give you the little one. She's been giving us trouble anyways. We keep the Councilman and the airbender twins, and you turn back and do not pursue us to Republic City."
Kuvira frowned, because it was far less than she wanted and the last three airbenders keeping their bending was of the utmost importance, but Jeia Rai was also very young. Kuvira could not remember how old the youngest Beifong was, but she knew the kid couldn't be any bigger than a toddler.
Undecided, Kuvira looked over to Bataar Jr, whom she trusted implicitly, and asked him, "What do you think?"
"I hate to leave my Uncle and the rest of my cousins," he said solemnly, "but I think we're lucky to even get Jeia. She's only four, she shouldn't be in prison."
Kuvira nodded and begrudgingly accepted what she was being offered. She didn't know how serious Cho was about having Tenzin killed, but Kuvira couldn't imagine that Su would be too pleased with her if she let Su's brother-in-law die. Not to mention what Lin would do to her.
Kuvira told Cho, "We accept, but I also want to speak to Councilman Tenzin before we make the exchange."
"And then you will return to where you came?" Cho insisted.
"We will," Kuvira agreed.
It was maybe five minutes later when Cho's voice came over the line again saying, "You've got three minutes while we get into position to make the exchange."
Then it was Tenzin's voice, sounding weary and sad saying, "Tenzin here."
"Tenzin, it's Kuvira, and Bataar Jr is here with me. Has Captain Cho told you of our deal?"
"He said only that you're taking Jeia," Tenzin said.
"I tried for all of you, but he would only permit the youngest," Kuvira explained quickly. "I could try advocating for one of the twins if you think it better…"
Tenzin sighed heavily, and his regret was palpable even across the radio. "No, neither of the twins would ever wish to leave the other behind, or Jeia. We'll all feel better just knowing she is safe. She's been causing a lot of problems and its taken all of the negotiating power I have left not to let them put her to sleep. Thank you, Kuvira, for doing what you could, and for taking Jeia. She's very scared, she may not be comfortable with you at first, but if you're patient with her…they, they wouldn't let me say goodbye. Could you…could you tell her that I love her?"
"Of course, Tenzin," Bataar answered for her, leaning over Kuvira to speak into the microphone. "We'll take good care of her, Uncle. I promise."
"Tenzin," Kuvira said when she took control again, "can you tell me what happened to Su and Lin? How you and the kids were caught?"
"I'm afraid Su was captured when the city fell, shortly after she sent her message to you. Lin and I took the children on Oogi, to get them to Zaofu, but we were pursued and Lin sacrificed herself to let us get away. In all the evading and confusion I got turned around. I set down for the night, and sometime after we left in the morning, we ran into these ships. Kuvira, were there any other terms to your deal?"
"I'm sorry to say that we must return to Zaofu and cannot bring aide to Republic City as promised. It seems that metal can only be forged in flame this day." Kuvira hoped that Tenzin understood what that meant and that the brainless Equalists that were no doubt listening in did not.
"All right, that's enough," Captain Cho intervened. "We're in position for the exchange. Two of my people will bring down the girl. One wrong move and the Councilman is dead, understand?"
"Perfectly, Captain," Kuvira said through gritted teeth.
Kuvira and Bataar Jr went up top to wait for the two Equalists, who came repelling down from the underbelly of their airship on two separate wires, Jeia held between them. The kid was tied up and her mouth was covered and she was flailing so much that Kuvira thought the Equalists would surely drop her. But they made it onto the roof of Kuvira's ship before tossing the toddler away from them like she was a rabid animal.
"Tying up a four year old?" Kuvira scoffed as she and Junior strode quickly across the roof, having to raise her voice to be heard over the wind whipping at them. "Is that what you people do?"
"As much trouble as she caused she's lucky we didn't zap her," one of the Equalists shouted back.
"You must be even more pathetic than I thought if a toddler strikes so much fear into you," Kuvira fired back.
"She's not just any kid she's a damn bender," the Equalist argued, but Kuvira was done with the back and forth. She kept a close eye on the two of them, but turned most of her attention onto the toddler.
Bataar was approaching Jeia carefully, crouched down and slow as he said, "Hi there, Jeia. Do you remember me? Your cousin Bataar? And Kuvira?" He motioned behind him in the general direction of where Kuvira stood. "It's okay, little one. You're safe now. We're going to protect you. Can I take that thing off of your mouth?"
Jeia stared hard at Junior, but did not acknowledge his questions with a nod or a shake of her head, and Kuvira wondered if the kid could even comprehend what was going on. When Bataar finally reached out to remove the cloth tied around her mouth, Jeia watched him warily, but did not yank away.
One of the Equalists spoke into a portable radio as Bataar Jr began untying Jeia's wrists and ankles. "Package has been delivered. We're all good here, boss."
"Okay, come on back up," Cho's voice replied.
The two Equalists went to step back onto the small platforms they had rappelled down on, but before they could, Jeia all of a sudden whirled around to face them on her hands and knees, only half free from her shackles. And Kuvira watched in surprise as thin metal strips ripped off of the roof of her airship and began to slither up the ankles of both Equalists. The two masked figures froze and gasped their surprise as they were forced to remain in place, while the metal wrapped the whole way around their bodies from ankles to throats, and then began to constrict. Both Equalists were choking and gasping for breath and the metal was beginning to cut through their clothes, and Kuvira would have been content to let it go on a bit longer, impressed by the four year old's abilities and curious to see how far the kid would go.
But ultimately, Kuvira knew that to let it go on would probably mean death or at least certain punishment for the girl's father. Cho's voice was echoing out of the radio, asking what the hold up was, and Junior was pleading with Jeia to stop.
Kuvira strode around to block the toddler's line of sight and knelt down to face her. Jeia's expression was more fierce and determined than some of the elite guard members in the Metal Clan, and Kuvira smiled. "Jeia," she said sternly, working the muscles in her face to push back some of her glee, "I'm afraid you must stop this. I promise you that I will do everything in my power to help you seek revenge for what these people have done to you and your family, but it cannot start here. If you harm these two, then your father will suffer, do you understand?" Jeia didn't nod, but Kuvira could see the comprehension, and the girl scowled before dropping her hold on the two Equalists, who immediately began hacking and gasping for air.
Kuvira spun back around and stood to better block Jeia from their wrath, and when they came at her with gloves crackling with electricity, she warned, "One more step and I throw you both off of this airship. Go back to your ship and tell your captain that everything is fine or the deal is off. I stopped the kid. She won't touch you again. But I suggest you go before she changes her mind."
The two Equalists exchanged a glance, and apparently decided not to press their luck, hastening back to their repel lines and yanking on them until someone began to pull them back up.
Kuvira watched them go before ushering Jeia and Bataar back down into the ship. Kuvira hastily ordered her ships to turn back towards Zaofu so that Captain Cho would have no reason to doubt them.
It was only once they were a safe distance from the Equalist airship and there were no further threats from Cho that Kuvira turned to regard Jeia again. The girl was standing uncomfortably at her cousin's side, and no amount of gentle coaxing from Junior was getting her to relax.
Kuvira called to a nearby guard named Zo and commanded, "Get the kid something to drink and a ration bar."
Zo went to do as ordered, and Kuvira held her hand out to Jeia saying, "Would you like to be my co-captain, Jeia?"
The kid seemed skeptical, but after a moment of thought, she began toddling over to Kuvira, who lifted the girl up and settled her down in the captain's chair. "So what do you think our next move should be, Jeia?" Kuvira asked, even though she already had plans of her own. "Should we go back to Zaofu?"
Jeia shook her head.
"Then where should we go?" Kuvira questioned.
"Iroh," was all Jeia said.
"General Iroh?" Kuvira clarified. "You think we should meet up with the United Forces?" When Jeia nodded, Kuvira turned to the pilots and said, "You heard Captain Jeia. Set course for the United Forces base. They're likely already on their way to Republic City, so keep low, we want to be sure we spot them."
"Copy that Captain…and Captain," the pilot, Shuri, replied.
"Shouldn't we return Jeia to the safety of Zaofu before we set off for a war zone?" Junior asked quietly, as if hopeful Jeia wouldn't fully hear.
"Would you like us to take you to Zaofu, Jeia?" Kuvira asked the girl, and was not surprised when she shook her head vigorously.
"No go," Jeia said stubbornly.
"Then you shall stay," Kuvira granted, ignoring Bataar when he tried to argue further.
Zo had returned with water and the ration bar then, and Junior helped Jeia with the canteen as she greedily began to suck down its contents as if she had not drank in days.
"Careful, Jeia," Bataar warned, gently removing the canteen from the girl's mouth and rubbing her back as she heaved in a breath of air. "You don't want to make yourself sick."
Kuvira, meanwhile, had ripped open the ration bar, and tore off a small piece to offer to Jeia, who wrinkled her nose at it, but took the proffered piece anyways and popped it in her mouth.
After Jeia had swallowed two bites, Kuvira tore off another piece, but before giving it to the kid, she asked, "Jeia, do you think you can tell me about the Equalists and what they've done to Republic City?"
Jeia deliberated Kuvira's question for a few moments before murmuring, "They is bad." She then reached up and snatched the piece of food out of Kuvira's hand and stuffed it in her mouth.
Kuvira smirked. "Do you know how to count, Jeia?"
The toddler nodded and, through a mouthful of food indignantly said, "Dada taught me. And Nira."
"And did you happen to count how many airships the Equalists had before you left the city?"
Kuvira wasn't expecting a helpful answer, was simply following her gut that Jeia might be a little more observant than one would normally give credit for a kid so young, and so she was a little surprised when Jeia immediately said, "Twenty-seven."
"Twenty-seven?" Kuvira echoed.
"Are you sure, Jeia?" Bataar asked skeptically.
"You and Mama blowed up two," Jeia told Kuvira, and for whatever reason, Kuvira believed her. Twenty-nine was an odd number to have, but it was possible that Jeia had missed one or that the thirtieth had gone down during the initial attack on the city.
Wanting to test her sudden theory further, Kuvira continued to question, "And how much did you see of the airship you were just on? Did you see the top and the bottom?"
"Bottom," Jeia replied, holding out her hand for another piece of the ration bar, and Kuvira handed it to her.
"Do you remember how many Equalists you saw on the bottom half where you were being held?"
"Eleven."
Bataar looked at Kuvira in bewilderment, and she could tell that he couldn't fully believe what he was hearing.
To convince him, Kuvira asked Jeia another set of questions. "Do you remember Zo? The one who brought you the food and drink?"
Jeia nodded, and started to move as if to turn around to see where Zo was sitting behind her out of sight, but Kuvira stopped her.
"And do you remember how many earrings he had?"
"Seven," Jeia said plainly, squirming until Kuvira let go of her shoulders.
Everyone else in the cockpit of the airship was astonished, but Kuvira was pleased. Jeia would be very helpful.
"One last question, Jeia," Kuvira said. "Would you like to become an official member of the Metal Clan guard?"
Jeia nodded, eyes brightening in excitement, and Kuvira reached out her left hand to summon a spare metal chest plate from the wall across the room. Kuvira modified the armor, shrinking it to a smaller size and ridding it of any extra pieces that wouldn't quite fit right on a toddler. Then she placed it onto Jeia and adjusted it until it sat right on the girl's small shoulders.
"You are now a member of the Metal Clan guard," Kuvira told the girl seriously. "We serve your Aunt Su, but above all, we serve the people of Zaofu. Today, we set out on a mission to rendezvous with the United Forces, to bring aide to Republic City, so that these Equalists do not come knocking on Zaofu's door, and so that we can recover the Beifong family members that need our help. Jeia Beifong, do you accept the responsibility to protect and serve those in need?"
"And we find Mama and Dada and Jin and Sora and Su?" Jeia said rapidly.
"Yes, Jeia," Kuvira assured. "We'll rescue all of them."
Appeased by this, Jeia said firmly, "I serve."
Kuvira smiled brightly, and then advised everyone in the cockpit to welcome Jeia to the clan, and she astutely ignored the displeasure she could see on Bataar Jr's face. She knew that he was worried about his little cousin, but Kuvira wasn't about to waste such a valuable asset. With Jeia's eidetic memory and the help of the United Forces, the Equalists would not know what hit them when the Metal Clan arrived in Republic City.
Chapter 53: Chapter 53
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 53
When Lin awoke on the floor of her cell, she was no less confused than she had been the first time she woke there. The difference, however, was that she had not forgotten why she was in a prison cell, nor did she think for a single second that she still had bending. With her ear pressed flat against the stone floor, the silence was deafening, and the weight of her metal armor around her torso only seemed to grow heavier with every hour that passed without her bending. She was, however, confused as to why she was asleep on the floor and why she had woken when it was very clearly the middle of the night based on the darkness of the halls. There were no windows in any of the cells, but she assumed there was one at the end of the corridor, based on the way sunlight had been filtering through the dimly lit hallway when Ailyn had been in her cell sometime earlier. Lin did not know how long ago that had been, had no real concept of time besides knowing whether or not it was night or day, and it was already beginning to mess with her head. She threw people into prison all the time and she had never thought about the effect it had on the mind. Although, to be fair, most prisoners got to leave their cells for meals and recreation and the guards never ignored them for such lengths. Lin had spoken to nobody since Ailyn had been there, except for when one of the Equalists passing by her cell had felt the need to spit at her, and she had laughed because considering her line of work she was spit on more often than not, both literally and figuratively. And frankly, what was a little scorn compared to the heartache she suffered? Not only had she lost her bending, but her family was separated and she had no idea as to any of their whereabouts or if they were okay. She had no idea if Ronen and Korra and their friends were still safe, or how Su was faring in what was probably a situation similar to Lin's, or if Tenzin and the kids had made it to Zaofu okay. It was torture not knowing how all of them were, and not being capable of being there for any of them. She missed them, she missed her bending, and she really fucking hated prison
She was not pleased, however, when one of the answers to her questions came stumbling down the hall. She had just started to pry herself up off of the floor and was eyeing the pitcher of water, wondering if it was still safe to drink after she had left it unguarded in sleep. That was when she heard a nearby commotion, one that was growing closer with each second, and Lin grabbed onto the bars of her cell to help pull herself up onto her feet, gritting her teeth with the effort it took and trying not to cry out in pain. She shuffled closer to peer out into the hallways through the gaps in the bars, but it was too dark at first for her to see who was being hefted down the corridor.
Until suddenly a large group of Equalists passed underneath of a dim light, and within the huddle, Lin caught a familiar flash of yellow and red, and her stomach sank.
It couldn't be! It couldn't be!
But then they were passing right in front of her and there was no denying who the Equalists held in their grasp. It was Tenzin, her husband. And not far behind him were Yunjin and Sora. All three of them were tied up, wrists and ankles bound and cloths tied around their mouths, and Lin felt an insurmountable rage growing inside of her, her hands squeezing so tight around the metal bars of her cell that, if she had had bending, would have turned the metal to ash in her hands. If she had still had her bending, she would have ripped the entire room apart in that moment, would have stabbed the metal bars through the chests of every Equalist manhandling her kids, and she would have caved the roof in and ripped the walls open and her fury would have been uncontainable.
But she did not have her bending, and tearing them apart with her bare hands was impossible when she was locked behind bars. So she screamed her rage, punching the bars with her metal clad wrist so that it rang loudly in the otherwise quiet night, and she was spitting with rage as she cursed and threatened every Equalist in the vicinity, and she took great joy out of seeing some of them flinch when she hurled herself against the bars and reached out an arm to try and grab them. If she could just get one, if she could just wrap her arm around their throat and squeeze, maybe then they would know some of the suffering that she felt in that moment. Because she had failed. She had sacrificed her bending and her freedom and it had all been for nothing. Her children were in danger and Tenzin was in danger and they would lose their bending, if they hadn't already, and it had all been for nothing. She hadn't just failed her children or Tenzin or her sister, but she had failed everyone. She had failed her mother and Aang and Sokka, and what would they have thought of her if they could see her now? Republic City and the whole airbending race was about to be obliterated under her watch. And her children would now face the horror of having their souls ripped out just as she had.
The Equalists tossed Tenzin and the twins into the cell across from Lin, removed the gags from their mouths but left them bound and locked them in. And Lin slumped to her knees, face pressed against the bars of her own cell, wishing that she could reach out to them, her rage turning to heartache that was so consuming she had to swallow a sob before it could escape her throat. It wasn't until the Equalists had locked the cell and moved off to the side, not going far, but no longer blocking Lin from view, that Tenzin and the twins finally locked eyes with her. They had to have heard her voice and they were looking for her desperately, scrambling to the bars and calling for her. "Lin! Mom! Mama!"
"No," Lin choked out, fighting her emotions harder than ever, desperate to wake up from this nightmare and see the cell across from her still empty. "No, you got away." And one of them was missing. Lin had noticed it earlier, but she had thought maybe she just couldn't see right or maybe they were lagging behind or the girl was so tiny that maybe she was just being blocked from view, but Lin could see clearly now and Jeia was not there. Panic swelled within her, because Tenzin wouldn't have left Jeia somewhere without also leaving the twins, and if Jeia was not somewhere safe then she was with the Equalists and she was alone and she was only four and Lin couldn't breathe. "Jeia," she gasped, "Jeia, where is Jeia?"
That was all the further she got because Tenzin was speaking over her, that serious tone that demanded that she listen and he was telling her, "She's safe. She's okay, Lin. She's safe. Jeia is safe. I promise."
It took a few extra seconds for the words to sink in and then Lin heaved in a breath of air to refill her burning lungs. "Where?" she demanded. "Where? Why are you here? How are you here? This wasn't supposed to happen. They weren't supposed to get you."
Tenzin looked so ashamed, so heartbroken and guilt-ridden, and how many times had he soothed that same look off of her own face? But she could do nothing for him. They were separated by metal she could no longer bend and there would be no escape this time. "Jeia is with Kuvira," Tenzin said first, because that must have been the easiest part.
"Kuvira?" Lin echoed in confusion.
"And Bataar Jr," Tenzin added, as if that made it any less confusing. "After we were captured, the Metal Clan ran into the Equalist airships that had us and Kuvira negotiated for an exchange. She tried for all of the children, but the Equalists would only give up Jeia. I spoke with Kuvira briefly and told her to agree to it, so that at least Jeia would be out of harms way.
That made more sense, and Lin was at least grateful that her four year old wasn't going to have to spend anytime in prison. "But how did you get captured? Were there more airships right behind us that we didn't even see?"
Tenzin hung his head in shame and he was quieter as he admitted, "In all the confusion of evading and you being gone and then…it got dark and I was turned around and I didn't know where we were. So I set down for the night to care for the children, and in the morning we headed for Zaofu, but the Equalists had sent two more ships and they caught up. I'm so sorry, Lin. I'm so sorry. I should have just kept going. I should have never stopped."
He should have kept going, true, but would it have made a difference? He would have had to set down at some point. Oogi couldn't fly forever and Jeia couldn't handle long flights and nobody could fly for a full day without a break. The Equalists probably would have caught up anyways. So that was what she told him, because it wasn't really his fault. It was Amon's fault and the Equalists' fault and Lin hated all of them and she couldn't even talk about it for a second longer without seething with rage.
So she turned to her kids, the one thing that really seemed to ground her if only because she didn't want them to see that side of her. "How are you?" she asked the twins. "Are you hurt?"
"We're okay," Yunjin assured her, and Sora nodded glumly, but they both looked exhausted and harried and Lin was still struggling not to try strangling one of the Equalists standing guard.
"When was the last time you had anything to eat? Or water?" Lin questioned.
Yunjin shrugged and Sora said, "Yesterday maybe?"
She looked over at her father questioningly and Tenzin answered Lin, "Nobody was really hungry this morning, but they did have water before we were captured. It took us hours to get here though. I think it's the middle of the night now."
"Hey, assholes," Lin barked at the Equalists just standing around, "you hear that? They're hungry and they need water. Why don't you do something about it, or are you gonna let two kids starve?"
The Equalists exchanged glances that Lin thought were pointless because they were wearing masks and couldn't even see each other's facial expressions. Most of them appeared unconcerned based on body language, but two of them muttered to one another for a few seconds, and eventually one of them went to get something.
"Lin," Tenzin said quietly, and she stopped glaring at the guards long enough to turn and look at him. There was another sort of sorrow on his face now, and she had a feeling it was directed at her and what had happened while they had been apart. He must already know that she was half of what she once was. "How are you?"
"Me? I'm –"
"Fine," he finished for her. "I know. But…"
But what? What did he want her to say?
She glanced over at the twins, hoping that would be a clear enough answer for him, and he must have understood, of course he did, because he nodded and dropped it.
And to deflect from the searching gazes on her children's faces, Lin said to Jin and Sora, "It's all right, kids. The Equalists are gonna lose, and you're gonna be just fine. We'll all be together soon. It's like your dad always says, we just have to be patient."
"It only took twenty years of marriage for your mother to admit I'm right," Tenzin told the twins with a smile that was only slightly forced.
"Will Mom finally say I'm right when I'm twenty?" Yunjin asked his father.
"Probably not," Lin teased, before Tenzin could answer.
"Come on, Jin," Sora said, "you know –"
And then, simultaneously, Jin and Sora said, "Mom is always right."
"And don't you forget it," Lin advised.
"How could we when you're always reminding us?" Yunjin countered.
Tenzin chuckled faintly and it almost felt like a normal interaction, except for the tension in everyone's voices and the fact that Tenzin and the twins were tied up and that all four of them were trapped in prison cells.
Eventually, the one Equalist guard returned with food and water for Tenzin and the kids. It was a meager ration that the guard claimed was the only thing they could find, stumbling over their words until Lin understood that the Equalists hadn't bothered to consider basic accommodations for their prisoners. They had been letting most of the people who's bending they took go afterwards, as they no longer considered them a threat, and they were so focused on taking over the city they hadn't bothered to consider all the little things. It was just another reason that the Equalists were going to crumble, but Lin had no idea how long that would take and she was becoming increasingly impatient.
Lin insisted that the guard give her own tray of food – the one Ailyn had brought in for her earlier and which she hadn't touched – to her kids. Tenzin didn't eat either, despite Sora not so subtly trying to save some for him. But both twins were ravenous and let their father convince them that he wasn't hungry at all. Lin was so hungry that she wasn't hungry anymore and her stomach was twisted in knots so she didn't figure she would have been able to truly keep anything down anyways. She figured that Tenzin was feeling much the same.
After eating, Jin and Sora were obviously tired, but fighting sleep because they were scared and uncomfortable. Lin snapped at the Equalists to at least untie their hands, but the guards didn't budge.
What must have been an hour passed by with little more interaction. All of them sat on the floor rather than the mattress in their cells, because it somehow felt like they were too far away from each other if they went all the way back to the beds. Lin and Tenzin had their backs pressed to the wall and their heads turned to face each other. Sora was leaning up against Tenzin's side, her back against him so that she could be turned to face her mother's cell across the hall too. Yunjin was propped up against the bars of their cell and still fidgeting with the empty wrapper of a ration bar.
Jin only turned his head to look at his mother when Sora quietly called to Lin, "Mama?"
"Yeah, kid?" Lin replied.
"What's it like?" Sora asked hesitantly. "Not having your bending?"
Lin swallowed forcefully, not wholly surprised that the topic had come up, but uncomfortable all the same. She could feel Tenzin's eyes burning a hole in the side of her head as she turned to face the wall, uncertain that she could look them in the eye. She didn't want them to see the emptiness inside of her now that part of her missing.
"It's…strange," Lin admitted, voice cracking slightly, and she had to clear her throat before she could continue. "It's like…everything is a lot more quiet now."
"I'm sorry," Sora murmured, and she was probably slightly teary eyed, but Lin still couldn't look. "I'm sorry you lost your bending and I'm sorry we got caught. I love you, Mama. You're still my hero."
Lin snorted and then had to bite down hard on her upper lip, hastily wiping at the single tear that had streaked down her cheek and thankful that it was too dark for the kids to see. "I love you too," she told Sora, finally turning to face the girl. "And don't worry about me. Everything is gonna be okay." She didn't know why she kept saying that, maybe because she thought she might start to believe it, or it might even be true if she said it enough. She felt an urgent need to comfort the twins, even though she was powerless to help them, even though it probably wasn't going to be okay at all.
"Does it hurt?" Sora asked, even quieter that time, so that Lin almost didn't hear her.
And Lin's first instinct was to lie. To tell Sora that it didn't hurt at all, that she wouldn't even feel it, that it wasn't even going to happen, because something else had to happen first, because the twins and Tenzin couldn't lose their bending. Lin wanted to promise them that they were going to be just fine and she wasn't going to let anything happen to them. But it wasn't the truth and she didn't lie to her kids, especially not now, when all of their futures were so uncertain.
"Only for a second," Lin finally answered, voice stronger this time, because she had to be strong for them. "Only for a second and then it'll be over."
"And I'm not letting them take you anywhere without me," Tenzin added. "You won't be alone."
"Who cares if we're benders anyways?" Yunjin said with an annoyed huff. "Ronen's not a bender. We can all be nonbenders together…well, except for 'Rai."
Lin and Tenzin exchanged a look, because they both knew how much Yunjin prided himself on his bending and it must have been difficult for the boy to even say something like that. And as nice as it might have been to imagine that he would be so accepting, it was more likely that he was trying to be strong for Sora and maybe for his parents too. It was crushing Lin's heart into ash to watch her children grow up the way she never wanted them to, too fast and by force. If Amon and the Equalists and the whole damn revolution had never happened, her kids would still be happy and bright and unfettered and not trying to reconcile in their minds the tragedy that had become their lives. She just hoped that Korra and Ronen were fairing better and that the United Forces were getting closer. It had been about two days by now so it shouldn't have been much longer. And Jeia was safe at least, and Lin doubted that Kuvira and the Metal Clan would actually stay in Zaofu. The reinforcements would certainly take down the Equalists. Lin had to believe that. She just hoped it was soon.
The twins dozed in and out of sleep, but one was almost always awake and the Equalists were still milling around close by, so Lin did not really exchange many words with Tenzin. That was torture too, when the one person capable of easing her mind was being blocked by bars and a hallway full of enemies. She had been freezing cold ever since she had lost her bending and the only thing she could think of that might warm her up in the slightest was his arms wrapped around her. And that wasn't the type of person that she was. She didn't like to be touched when she was emotional, but he had always been the exception and especially now when her soul was in tatters. But she couldn't even hardly have a conversation with him until they were out of their cells, and spirits only knew how long it would be before they were freed – if they were freed. Considering how unorganized the Equalists were they might starve to death if it took too long.
Lin dozed off a few times too, because she only felt worse and worse the longer she sat in that cell and it was impossible to keep her eyes open at times. She always startled awake shortly after though, with a crick in her neck and pain that would not abate. Tenzin kept whispering at her to lie down on the mattress, his brow so furrowed with worry that it looked as if both eyebrows had merged into one. But he wasn't lying down on his bed either, and quite frankly, she didn't think the thin mattress was really going to be any better than the floor. That, and the bed smelled, and she didn't want her face anywhere near it.
She wasn't sure if she was relieved or not when daylight began to trickle into the prison corridor. On the one hand, she could stop pretending to sleep. On the other, she had to accept the fact that she was still in prison and had nowhere to go. She got up off of the floor to stretch, but it required both hands wrapped around the bars of her cell and took a lot longer than it should have. She paced around like a caged animal, even though it felt like her knees would buckle with every step. She had to move though, because sitting hurt even worse and she was so cold she needed the exercise to warm her up.
It was late afternoon before anyone bothered to feed them, but the Equalists at least brought enough food that time so that Lin and Tenzin could finally eat too. As hungry as Lin was, though, she only managed a few bites before she felt like she was going to throw it all back up. She wasn't sure if it was an after effect of losing her bending or from all the electrocution, but she was getting really sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.
The whole day was an uneventful waste, for which Lin was simultaneously grateful and anxious. She didn't know what Amon was waiting for, and no amount of badgering the Equalist guards got Lin any answers. Her only solace was that Tenzin and the children still had their bending, but for how long? And what would she do when Amon inevitably came for them?
The answer, as it turned out, was absolutely nothing.
It was early the very next morning when the Equalists came for them. Jin and Sora were still asleep curled up on the single mattress in their cell. Lin was pacing again and Tenzin had just teased that she was making him dizzy. Ten more Equalists strode in to join the ten guards that surrounded their cells, and Lin instantly knew what was about to happen. She lunged against the bars of her cell and begged and pleaded to no avail, and then started spitting threats as the Equalists began dragging her husband and children out of their cell. Tenzin and the twins tried to fight them off, but they were still tied up and all it got them was eventual electrocution that made Sora scream so shrilly that Lin thought her eardrums might burst right alongside her heart. And Lin screamed and raged, because they were taking her family and she would never forget that awful sound. And when one of the Equalists was knocked back against the bars of her own cell she jumped at her chance. She wrapped her arm as tight around their neck as she could and squeezed them between the bars and her arm. She squeezed and held on even when the Equalist reached back to electrocute her for several long seconds, longer than she'd ever been electrocuted before, until her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her arm spasmed just enough for the Equalist to jolt free. And she was dead to the world long before she crashed to the floor.
Ronen wasn't sure how long he paced back and forth in front of the healing tent used by the underground vagabonds, but it felt like an eternity passed. Korra and one of the homeless healers were in there with his Aunt Su, who had barely been conscious by the time they swam across the Bay from the Equalist ship on which she was being held. Korra had made the trip a lot quicker, but Ronen had still had to carry his aunt most of the way down the drainage tunnel, and by the time they reached the healer's tent, Su was looking even more miserable than when they first found her.
Korra and the elderly lady named Mala had been working tirelessly ever since, and Ronen had been waiting restlessly just outside. He had been plenty close enough to hear his aunt scream when they popped her shoulder back into place, and waved Asami and Bolin off when they tried to drag him away. He wasn't leaving his spot until he knew that his aunt was okay, even though another part of him yearned to run off again in search of his mother. He still couldn't believe that she had been captured, that she had lost her bending, and he wanted to go find her and save her like he had saved his aunt. But he had no idea where to start looking and Asuka claimed not to know what they did with the other prisoners. She only knew about Su being transferred because all of the benders captured during the fall of Republic City were scheduled to be taken to the island around the same time. She didn't know how they decided where prisoners went afterwards, especially since Amon just let most of them go once they were no longer a threat. Ronen highly doubted that Amon was letting his mother go. Bender or no, Lin Beifong was very much a threat that would need to be watched.
So Ronen spent a lot of time fretting and worrying, for his Aunt Su and his mother, and also for his father and his siblings, as he had no idea if they had actually made it to safety or if they were later captured like Xiang had said they'd be. He felt helpless waiting there underground, comforting himself only with the knowledge that the United Forces would arrive the following day and perhaps then they would put an end to Amon and the Equalists' reign.
Asuka approached him at some point in the midst of his pacing, and for a second he thought she was going to harp on him about not leaving with her immediately to turn himself in to Amon. Instead, she still had that horrified look on her face that she had had after seeing Su on the ship. And her voice was tense and tentative when she told him, "What they did to your aunt…that's not how all of us are. That's not what the Equalists do."
Ronen was exhausted and upset and he snorted mockingly at her. "Really?" he said with scornful doubt. "You really think that's the first time the Equalists have mistreated somebody? Are you forgetting all the harm you've done? Are you forgetting that you've ripped out people's souls and then left them like garbage? Are you forgetting that being electrocuted is literal torture, that it can cause all kinds of damage to a person's insides, that it can permanently destroy somebody's brain function, and yet you treat it like a slap on the wrist? Like no amount is too much? You think you're better than those guys because you didn't beat a woman who was chained up into submission? Come on, Asuka. You're smarter than that. It's people like you that hand people like my aunt and my mother over to guys like Xiang, and guess what? You're just as much responsible for every bit of agony they suffer. So don't tell me that the rest of you aren't like that. Because you're all like that."
Ronen whirled away, because he couldn't stand to look at her a second longer. Because he was fuming and it wasn't like him to lose his temper like that. He needed to cool off so he went back to pacing. He heard Bolin and Mako and Asami nearby, but his ears were ringing and he couldn't quite make out what they were saying. He noticed Bolin ushering Asuka away, somewhere else, and Ronen didn't care where. Mako followed them after briefly squeezing Ronen's shoulder and telling him to "Hang in there," and Ronen idly thought how strange his relationship with Mako was. Either they were trying to rip each other's throats out or they were clambering to support each other.
Asami stayed, and waited a few moments before stepping into Ronen's path to cut him off with an insistent, "Ronen."
"What?" Ronen replied with a bewildered blink.
"Why don't you come sit down?" Asami suggested.
Ronen shook his head. "Can't sit," he muttered.
"Well talk to me then," Asami persisted. "Tell me what's on your mind." Ronen scoffed and Asami amended, "Something different then. Anything. We can talk about anything."
"I don't want to talk," Ronen denied before resuming his route.
Asami sighed, but didn't leave. She simply stood and watched him for a while, occasionally making comments like, "Your aunt will be okay," and "I'm sure your family is safe."
But all of it was just assumptions and Ronen wasn't the assuming type.
He did start to slow his pace after a while, until his pacing was mostly just shuffling back and forth at a glacial pace. That was when Asami said in a whisper, "I broke up with Mako."
Ronen didn't still, but he did lift his gaze to look at her in surprise. "What?" he said numbly. "When?"
"Before we left earlier this morning," Asami mumbled, folding her arms over her chest and looking awkwardly down at her shoes, as if she regretted telling him. "I just know he cares more about Korra now and…well, I can't compete with that. I don't want to compete with that. It's better this way."
Ronen wasn't sure she wholly believed that, considering the lack of conviction in her tone, but it made sense from a logical standpoint. "I'm sorry, Asami," he said, scuffing his feet. "If I were you, I wouldn't worry though. You'll find happiness with someone, that someone just isn't Mako."
Asami forced half of a smile, looking almost teary eyed, but he might have imagined it. "I know."
"How did Mako take it?" Ronen inquired, mostly just in an effort to keep his mind busy elsewhere.
Asami shrugged. "Fine, I guess. He didn't say much, but he seemed to understand."
Ronen couldn't think of anything else and they fell into an awkward silence, thankfully interrupted a few minutes later when Korra and Mala finally exited the healing tent.
Ronen rushed over to them, heart hammering in his chest again as he demanded, "How is she?"
"Better," Korra said with a tired smile as she reached out to squeeze Ronen's shoulder reassuringly. "Mala is quite the miracle worker, and your aunt is strong. A few more healing sessions and she'll be good as new."
Ronen breathed a sigh of relief, sagging visibly.
"That's great," Asami said from beside him, squeezing his other shoulder. "I'll go tell the others the good news."
She made a hasty retreat, and Ronen turned his attention back onto Korra. Mala was still there too, but according to Gommu, she never spoke besides grunts and hand motions. Something about a stroke, if Ronen recalled correctly. But Mala was apparently a phenomenal healer and he thanked her profusely. She waved him off and then hobbled away.
Ronen asked Korra, "Can I see her?"
He inclined his head towards the tent, and Korra nodded, but warned, "She's asleep now, though, and she needs her rest."
Ronen nodded rapidly and hurried to follow Korra back into the tent. Aunt Su was curled up on her side, and half of her clothes were in a bloody, shredded pile in the corner, but she was wrapped in enough bandages and blankets to keep her modest. She was breathing evenly, no longer the staccato, rapid inhales from before. Her face had been cleaned of blood and looked slightly less gruesome, but was still quite bruised. There were welts on her back that he hadn't seen earlier, and some of them might scar, but they were not as bad as the marks on her wrists and ankles and neck, from where the chains had chafed her skin and the reaction of electricity on metal on flesh had left nasty burns. Ronen wished that she could open her eyes just long enough to assure him that she really was okay, to smile at him in that way only his Aunt Su did, but he knew that her rest was important. Once he saw that she was breathing normally and looking even slightly better than when he'd found her, he leaned over to place a light kiss on her forehead and then retreated from the tent.
Korra silently accompanied him, waiting until they were a few steps away before telling him, "She's gonna be okay, Ronen."
"I know," he sighed, nodding even though he hardly believed it. Were any of them going to be okay? "I know."
Silence fell between them, but it was comfortable, both of them now accustomed to being together in trying times and understanding the occasional need for quiet. But, as always, Korra was the first to break it, never one to prolong a moment, especially if it kept her trapped in her own thoughts. "So…" she started hesitantly. "Asami broke up with Mako?"
"You heard?" Ronen asked, not wholly surprised, stuffing his hands in his pockets and casting his gaze out over the vagabond dwelling to where Asami sat with Bolin and Asuka. Mako was milling around close by, but keeping an obvious distance from Asami.
"Yeah, those tent walls aren't very thick," Korra half-heartedly joked. "You don't think…I mean, could I have done something to cause it? I know she thinks Mako is interested in me, but…I swear I haven't been trying to pursue him."
"It isn't your fault," Ronen assured her, turning his gaze onto her finally. "I think Mako just needs to figure out what he wants and Asami didn't want to wait around." Korra nodded sagely, and her gaze drifted over to where Mako stood. Noticing her prolonged stare, Ronen asked, "Do you think you'll go for it now that he's single?"
"What? Who? Mako? No," Korra stammered, her cheeks turning slightly pink. "I mean, it's too soon…right?"
Ronen nodded. "Yeah, I'd give it some time. Are you even sure you still want to? You said before that you thought you might be changing your mind about him."
Korra shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not really certain of anything right now. Except that I hate being patient."
"It can be pretty challenging," Ronen said, and he intended to finally tell Korra about his mother, since he hadn't had a chance yet, but Korra spoke first.
"What about you?" she questioned. "You like Asami right?"
Ronen was actually surprised by the laugh that tumbled out of him, so much so that he nearly choked. When he recovered, he gave Korra an incredulous look. "Come on, you know that'll never happen," he said, still smiling lightly. "I'm fifteen.She's eighteen."
"That doesn't mean it can't ever happen," Korra argued. "Besides, you'll be sixteen soon. Actually…" Her eyes widened suddenly, and she looked very concerned as she exclaimed, "We didn't miss your birthday did we?!"
"No, no, I've got another week," Ronen quickly assured her.
"Good," Korra said with a sigh of relief, her whole body relaxing.
"Asami and I are just friends though," Ronen insisted. "I don't know about you, but I'm too tired to even think about anything else."
Korra nodded in understanding. "There's a lot we need to finish first. The United Forces should be here tomorrow. How long does it take to get to and from Zaofu? Do you think your parents will get back tonight?"
Ronen tensed up at the reminder, thinking of his mother all alone in prison somewhere and the rest of his family…well, he had no idea where they were. He grimaced as he finally told Korra, "My mom isn't going to show up, and I have no idea if my dad will or not. One of the Equalists we ran into while rescuing my aunt said that my mom was captured while they were trying to escape. Amon's already taken her bending."
Korra looked stricken, reeling back and gaping in horror as she gasped, "What?! No! No, we saw them get away. Your mom can't…I can't believe… I'm so sorry, Ronen, I can't even imagine… But the others…the Equalist didn't say anything about the rest of them?"
"He said that more airships were going after them, but the Equalists hadn't caught them so far. I don't know where they are, but if they made it without interruption they should have been in Zaofu by now. If they made it, anyway."
Korra looked upset, and tried turning her head so that Ronen wouldn't see it, probably thinking that she should be comforting him. But he could understand why she would be just as worried and angry as he was. She was part of the family now, and he could see that she cared a great deal about his siblings and his parents.
He reached out to take her hand, and she squeezed his hard as she turned to face him again. "Will you go looking for her?" she inquired.
"No," Ronen murmured sadly. "I don't want to leave Aunt Su just yet, and I have no idea where to even begin looking. Not to mention that they'll be waiting for me to come looking for her now that they know I've saved Su. I'll stay to help you finish this when the reinforcements arrive tomorrow, and then when Amon is defeated, I'll find my mother."
"I'll help you," Korra promised. "We all will." She tugged on his hand and gestured in the direction of their friends and Asuka, and started pulling him in that direction.
It was as they approached the others that Ronen remembered his promise to Asuka, and he sighed heavily. "I forgot," he said, just as the others turned to greet him and Korra. "I can't stay and help here. I have to fulfill my end of the deal. I have to go with Asuka."
"Yeah, about that," Korra began, dropping his hand to fold her arms across her chest and give him a firm look. "Mako and Bolin and I discussed it while you were away. We're not letting you go anywhere with her."
Ronen looked over at Asuka, who was easing carefully to her feet and watching the group warily, looking like she was about to make a run for it.
"I gave her my word," Ronen told his friends. "I know you don't want me to go, but this might be good. Maybe I can infiltrate and figure out a way for you to get to Amon."
"We'll find another way," Bolin countered. "No way we're losin' you to that guy. He may not be able to take away any bending from you, but he's crazy."
"I can't go back on my word," Ronen wearily protested. "I won't be a liar."
"You're not," Mako said, folding his arms over his chest too and giving Ronen a look that weirdly reminded Ronen of his mother for half a second. "Your honor will be just fine, because you're not breaking your promise. We're breaking it for you. And you're not gonna fight your way through your own friends, are you?"
Asuka chose that moment to try and break off into a sprint while everyone's attention was focused elsewhere, but Asami must have been watching Asuka out of the corner of her eye, because she lunged to intercept the other girl. Asami grabbed Asuka's arm and swung her around, and then dodged when Asuka swiped at her with an electric glove. Asuka cried out in surprise when Bolin erected a stone shackle out of the ground that wrapped around Asuka's elbow and made it impossible for her to move, her electric glove all but useless.
Asuka struggled for a moment, and then turned pleading eyes onto Ronen as she swore, "I won't tell anyone you're here. Please, just let me go. I promise I won't tell."
Korra snorted in disbelief. "Yeah right, like we believe that. You're staying right here where we can keep an eye on you. You're our prisoner now."
Ronen considered his friends' decision for a moment, but he couldn't see another way out of his situation. Not without waiting until his friends slept that night and trying to sneak out with Asuka, but he didn't figure they were going to let that happen either. They would be watching him, and he was both annoyed and thankful all it once.
He turned to give Korra a look, because he didn't like to be told what to do, but the look she gave him in turn was resolute. "I need you here," she said. "I can't finish this without you."
Ronen acquiesced, because what other option did he have? Mako was right, he wasn't going to fight his own friends. So he nodded and relented, "Fine, but we don't chain her up. She's not an animal. We'll just keep an eye on her."
"Works for me," Korra agreed easily.
Ronen looked over at Asuka with an apologetic expression and said, "I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay for now."
Much to his surprise, Asuka did not try to fight or argue or even spit insults. Once they had removed her electric glove and other various weapons, and Bolin had freed her arm, she slumped back down on the floor with a dejected expression and turned away from them all. Ronen began to wonder if perhaps she really had been affected by the gruesome sight of his Aunt Su, or if she was simply biding her time. Whatever the case, he would be keeping a close eye on her.
When the Metal Clan finally spotted the United Forces ships in the ocean below, Kuvira got on the radio and arranged a meeting with General Iroh. Then, once the Metal Clan's airships were oriented in the same direction as the United Forces, and all ships – both air and sea – were moving in tandem towards Republic City, Kuvira descended from her own airship to board General Iroh's battleship. She brought Bataar Jr and Jeia Rai along with her, and they waited on the main deck for Iroh to greet them.
One of Jeia's hands was up against her face so that she could suck on her thumb, while the other hand was holding tight to Kuvira's. The toddler was getting cranky, probably in need of another nap and missing her family, but she hadn't burst into tears yet, and for that Kuvira was grateful. Keeping Jeia busy with other tasks kept the girl calm, but that was only part of the reason that Kuvira had brought her along to the meeting. The other reason was because they would be fools not to use Jeia's eidetic memory to their advantage. (And maybe there was another very small part of Kuvira that was growing a little fond of the kid.)
The trio waited only a few seconds before General Iroh came striding across the deck to meet them. "Kuvira, Bataar, it's good to see you," he said, but his expression was subdued. "It's been a long time since I last saw you. How long's it been?"
"Close to five years, I'd assume," Kuvira replied with a short bow. She vaguely remembered going on a trip to the Fire Nation capitol with Su and her family, along with Lin and Tenzin's and Zuko's and basically the whole gang, but she had been a teen at the time and had little recollection of how long ago it could have been. She only knew that it had been the trip where Lin had discovered she was pregnant with Jeia, and considering the girl was now four years old, Kuvira could only assume it had been nearly five years since she'd last seen Iroh.
Iroh began to say, "That sounds about ri –" but his words trailed off when he finally noticed Jeia peering out from behind Kuvira's legs, and he frowned slightly. "Jeia?" he said in surprise. "Is that you?"
Jeia nodded, but did not remove the thumb from her mouth.
"Now, Jeia," Kuvira scolded lightly, nudging the girl in Iroh's direction, "that's no way to greet a General of the United Forces."
Jeia looked up at Kuvira with some annoyance plain on her face. Nevertheless, Jeia stopped sucking on her thumb and bowed before Iroh with a murmured, "General." The title was a little garbled coming from a four year old, but close enough.
"Good," Kuvira praised, flashing Jeia a small smile.
Iroh appeared bewildered, turning his questioning gaze onto Kuvira as he asked, "Are Chief Beifong and Councilman Tenzin aboard your airship?"
"No, they are not," Kuvira responded. "They have both been captured, along with the airbender twins and Suyin."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Iroh said grimly. "And Ronen?"
Kuvira looked down at Jeia for the answer, and the toddler said, "Ro stay. With Korra."
"In Republic City?" Kuvira clarified, and Jeia nodded.
"I received word from the Avatar the night after the city fell," Iroh told Kuvira. "She said that Lin and Tenzin and the children were fleeing and that she was hiding underground until reinforcements arrived. How did you come to acquire Jeia?"
Kuvira briefly explained the previous day's events and the bargain she had made with the Equalists that kept Jeia out of prison, but resulted in the airbenders being taken to Amon.
Afterwards, Iroh sighed sorrowfully. "It will be a heavy loss. Our only hope is that Amon is too busy taking over the city to take their bending just yet."
Kuvira had no such hopes. Tenzin and the twins had to have arrived in the city sometime the previous evening, and she doubted Amon would forget about such important benders, unless he intended to put on a show. Kuvira didn't know enough about Amon to hazard a guess.
Iroh turned to Bataar and added, "And my sympathies to you, Bataar. You must be worried about your mother."
"My mother is strong," Junior said quietly, far less hostile than Kuvira would have been. "I have faith that she will endure. But thank you, Iroh."
"We'll be arriving in Republic City in just a few hours," Iroh said, gaze back on Kuvira. "We should discuss strategy."
"I agree," Kuvira said easily. "Lead the way, General."
But Iroh hesitated, glancing pointedly down at Jeia. "If you need someone to watch Jeia, I'm sure that we could arrange something –"
"No," Kuvira immediately objected. "Jeia stays with Bataar and I. She is fine to attend the meeting. She won't be a disturbance, if that's what you're worried about."
"My concern was actually with the subject matter," Iroh said slowly, clearly perturbed by the idea of Jeia sitting in on a discussion of battle plans. "She's a bit young to hear some of what might be said. I'm not certain that Councilman Tenzin would be thrilled to hear that I let his toddler listen to talks of war."
"I assure you that Jeia has endured much worse over the past few days," Kuvira countered, unconcerned by whatever was bothering Iroh. "And she deserves to know what we're doing to help her family and her city. Bedsides, I have a feeling she's going to be an asset."
"An asset?" Iroh said skeptically. "You can't seriously be thinking of taking her to Republic City with us."
"What would you suggest I do with her?" Kuvira scoffed. "Drop her in the middle of the ocean with a life raft?"
"We have a second wave of reinforcements on the way," Iroh said in frustration. "Her uncle, Commander Bumi, will be leading them. You can drop her off at Red Sands Island with them."
"And then what?" Kuvira demanded. "Designate the Commander as babysitter? Leave him out of the fight? Listen, General, I understand that you're concerned for the girl, but as I said before, she stays with us. She'll be safe aboard my airship, and I won't argue this further with you. Her parents are out of commission, and as such, the responsibility of her care falls on her only available family, which is Bataar and myself. Bataar agrees with my decision, don't you?"
Kuvira turned on Bataar, who startled at being called out, and frowned slightly, because he didn't want Jeia being involved either. But he also had Kuvira's back, and he would not side with Iroh over her. So he nodded reluctantly and responded, "I do."
"Now that that's settled," Kuvira said, ignoring the narrow-eyed glare on Iroh's face. "Shall we get started? I don't know about you, but I'd like to be prepared when we arrive in Republic City."
Shortly after it was decided that Ronen was not going with Asuka, he had gone to check one more time on his aunt, who was still sleeping relatively peacefully, and then he collapsed atop his sleeping bag and finally fell asleep. After a whole day without it, his body had begun to hurt all over, and he was too exhausted to fight it any longer. Sleep dragged him under easily, and it was several hours before he moved again.
When he woke, it was the middle of the night, and everyone else was asleep, except for Mako, who had apparently suggested they take shifts to watch over Asuka and he was going first.
"I can take next," Ronen offered, still rubbing his eyes blearily.
"Are you sure?" Mako questioned carefully. "I know you and her were sort of friends…"
Ronen looked over at Asuka, who was turned on her side and facing away from the group, and while it appeared as if she was asleep, Ronen got the feeling that she was faking. He wondered then if he had ever really been friends with her. He remembered having a bit of a crush on her, back before he found out that she was an Equalist, but that felt so long ago now.
He turned back to Mako and replied, "I'm sure. I know what's at stake here. Letting her escape could compromise Korra and I won't do that."
"You sure you aren't gonna run off to fulfill your promise to her?" Mako asked, still looking concerned about leaving Ronen to watch her.
"The United Forces will be here tomorrow," Ronen reasoned. "If they take back the city, my offer to give myself up would be for nothing anyway. And the last time I tried to sneak off without anyone noticing didn't work out well for me."
"All right," Mako conceded. "I believe you."
Ronen snorted. "Well that's a first."
Mako stared at Ronen for several long seconds, until Ronen began to fidget uncomfortably under the weight of his stare. Then Mako glanced down at the ground with a sigh before locking gazes with Ronen and saying quietly, "Look, kid...Ronen, I know you and I…we've kind of been at each other's throats more than not. I know part of that's my fault, so I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry. You're a good fighter, and a loyal friend. I'd like for us to be friends too, maybe without all the animosity."
Ronen felt a swell of comfort at Mako's words, and he managed a tired smile as he replied, "We are friends, and I'm sorry too. What even made us dislike each other in the first place?"
Mako shrugged and smirked. "Probably because I threw a fireball in your face the first time we met."
Ronen chuckled a little. "Oh yeah, that's right. Y'know, if you wanted to spar, all you had to do was ask."
"Why does the idea of sparring with you give me a vague image of your mother pelting me with rocks before hurling me off of the Island?"
"She leaves a strong impression," Ronen joked, even though Mako's words unintentionally made his stomach curl. He very much doubted that his mother would be hurling rocks at anyone ever again.
"You know she threatened me and Bolin our first night on the Island?" Mako said, apparently amused by the whole thing judging by his grin.
Ronen groaned in embarrassment. "Of course she did. You see now why I didn't really have much in the way of friends before you guys came along? I certainly never invited them to the Island."
"She just cares a lot about you guys," Mako defended, tone one of admiration now. "I can understand that."
"She's protective," Ronen agreed, averting his gaze as his smile began to fade the longer he contemplated his mother's fate. He wished that he had known she had been captured sooner. He wished that he could have saved her.
"Hey," Mako said in a hushed tone, "as soon as this is over and we've stopped Amon, I'll help you find her. I won't rest until we do."
Ronen looked back at Mako and said, "Thank you. I know she would want me to stay here, to not run off in search of her, but it's torture knowing that she's out there somewhere and I'm not doing anything about it."
"You're not doing nothing," Mako argued. "You're helping put an end to this war. It won't be much longer now. This time tomorrow, the United Forces should have taken back the city."
Ronen nodded, wanting to be optimistic. "We have another long day ahead of us. You should rest."
Mako agreed easily, apparently rather tired, and he added, "Wake Bolin next. You'll need your strength tomorrow." And with that he laid down atop his sleeping bag and rolled over onto his side, falling to sleep within minutes.
Ronen found himself wishing he had a book to occupy his mind, rising to his feet to stretch and wander around their small circle. When he reached Asuka, he sat down a few meters away from her and quietly said, "You can stop pretending to sleep now."
Asuka didn't budge, but her breath did hitch slightly, so Ronen knew that she was definitely awake. She waited several long seconds before finally sighing in annoyance and rolling around onto her other side to face him. She didn't say anything at first, and they simply stared at one another.
"I'm sorry for breaking my promise," Ronen eventually told her, "and I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier. I've had some time to think about it and…I think I believe that you don't really want to hurt anyone. And even though I'm glad I had your help when I needed it, it wasn't really right of me to use you. I should have tried harder to help you."
Asuka frowned at him in disbelief, pushing herself up into a sitting position as she scoffed, "Help me? What, you think I need saving? You think perfect Ronen Beifong can heal my soul? Well I don't need you to fix me."
"That's not what I meant," Ronen said. "I think you needed a friend, a family, and the Equalists gave you that, or some version of that anyway."
Asuka snorted. "Of course. The orphan girl can only ever join a cause because she's still looking for a mommy and daddy. Is that what you tell yourself? That I can't make decisions for myself because I'm broken?"
"Maybe you're right," Ronen admitted. "Maybe I let my feelings for you cloud my judgement. I used to really like you, and maybe that was wrong. I know some people are just evil, but I don't really think that's you. I think you're smart and incredibly strong willed, and I wouldn't say broken. You've endured a lot. I can't imagine losing my family. They're everything to me and I don't think I could be half as put together as you. But maybe I did misjudge you. Maybe nothing will change your mind about the Equalist's goals. Either way, I'm still sorry. Once we leave here, you'll be free to go."
Without waiting for Asuka to formulate a response, Ronen rose to his feet and put some distance between them.
The following morning, the first wave of the United Forces and the eight Metal Clan airships arrived in Republic City, and Kuvira knew from the start that something was off. There was no sign of the Equalists anywhere, even though they had to have known that the United Forces were coming. There wasn't a single airship or foot soldier in sight, and Kuvira knew that there must be some kind of trap, but she could not think of what.
And then the United Forces ships triggered mines beneath the surface of the water that began exploding all along the bay. Kuvira's airships were safe from the mines, but somewhere amidst all that chaos, a set of smaller, more agile aircraft came flying in from the mountainside and started dropping bombs.
Kuvira immediately ordered her airships to pull up, to try and get above the aircraft before they could drop their bombs on them, but the bulky airships could not climb as fast. One of Kuvira's airships went down in a ball of fire, and another was so badly damaged that the occupants of the ship began leaping out before it too could crash. Two of her other airships were occupied with rescuing Metal Clan and United Forces soldiers alike, which left Kuvira with four airships to fight back against the Equalist's new aircraft. The United Forces were all but out of commission by now, their ships sinking and smoking and some of them splitting in half. There were a few fighters left, but Kuvira knew that it would make little difference. No matter the result of this battle, they would not be taking Republic City back this day.
Frustrated and angry, Kuvira slammed her palm down on the control panel and shouted into the radio to her remaining airships, "Rip those fucking aircraft out of the sky by any means necessary!" Then she turned on Jeia, who had to stand on the captain's chair to see out the viewport, and the girl's eyes were studying everything going on outside. "How many of those aircraft are left, Jeia?"
The toddler deliberated for a moment, and then, without turning to look at Kuvira, answered, "Eight."
"I'm going up top," Kuvira said, already turning away. "Shuri, give the order to retreat once we're down to four aircraft, you and Jeia are in command."
"Up top?!" Bataar exclaimed, racing after her. "You can't! It's too dangerous!"
"I told you never to question me in the middle of a battle!" Kuvira called down to him as she clambered hastily up the ladder. He was still trying to argue, but she tuned him out as she climbed outside, and then the roaring of the wind in her ears deafened her anyways. "Protect Jeia!" she shouted at him before slamming the hatch closed in his face.
Kuvira went out as close to the edge of the roof of her airship as she could, planting her feet halfway inside the metal to keep from sliding off. Then she watched, and she waited, and when the next aircraft came whizzing by, she shot shards of metal into several points, until the damage finally caused the aircraft to nosedive into the Bay.
There were only seven left, and two of her remaining airships took out three, and then there were four. Kuvira took down another by grabbing hold of whatever metal she could sense within it and yanking until the whole thing ripped in half. Her own airship that she stood atop of destroyed the sixth one before Kuvira could get a shot at it.
Two left, and both of them had determined their biggest threat. Most of Kuvira's airships were focused on search and rescue or retreating now that they had the chance. Only Kuvira's airship was continuing to give the small aircraft hell. Both of them soared high above Kuvira and dropped one bomb each, which she managed to divert so that they did not strike her airship, but one of the bombs exploded in the air, near enough that the shock wave rocked the airship halfway onto its side and knocked Kuvira onto her knees with what felt like a burst ear drum. She squinted through the pain to see both aircraft diving and then swooping in for a closer run, so that when they dropped their bombs, it would be too close for her to stop them.
Kuvira desperately reached out and grabbed hold of the aircraft on the left, straining with the effort it took to find just a tiny amount of metal that she could use within it to shove it into its partner's path. The two aircraft collided and began to spiral out of control, but they were too close to the airship now, and Kuvira screamed a desperate, useless, "NO!" just before the aircraft smashed against the side of her airship, right where Jeia and Bataar and Shuri and Zo had been. The mangled aircraft skidded across the outer framework of the airship, and then burst into flames and crashed straight into the Bay. Kuvira's airship was left with a gaping hole all down one side that was belching black smoke.
Kuvira was far enough away not to be struck by the blast, but she was still thrown off the roof by the impact, and frantically flailed through the air for a few brief seconds before she remembered to metalbend herself back onto the side of the airship. She immediately ripped a hole in the ship big enough for her to crawl through, because at that point, what would it matter if there was another hole? The airship was already plummeting towards the Bay, and Kuvira had limited time to enact a rescue for any survivors left on board. She hastily dug her way through the framework and then pelted down a mangled corridor that was tilted so far to the left that she had to use metalbending to keep herself upright. She instructed the few Metal Clan that she passed during her desperate run to save themselves and grab any unconscious on their way. The entire ship was filling rapidly with fire and acrid smoke that burned her eyes and her throat. She felt like she was coughing up a lung and she was gasping for air, but she continued forward until she reached what was left of the cockpit.
The cockpit had clearly seen the most damage from the aircraft crash, and had been all but obliterated, the glass viewport shattered and the right side of the wall completely torn open. Seeing the total ruin made even Kuvira's stomach turn sour, and under normal circumstances, she would have expected to see bloody carnage or charred remains of the people that had been inside.
But there was something peculiar about the damage that Kuvira noticed in the midst of her slight panic. The aircraft had ripped a whole section of the airship open from one side of the cockpit all the way down the right side of the airship. On the left side of the cockpit, the floor had been torn open and was currently melded to the far wall. It made no sense for the crash to have caused such an odd thing to happen. The only logical explanation was that somebody had metalbended the floor in order to provide cover from the blast, and Kuvira felt the stirrings of hope growing within her.
Kuvira raced over to the makeshift shield and banged her palm against it while shouting, "Bataar?! Jeia?! Are you in there?!"
She tried to metalbend it away herself, but whoever held the shield up was keeping a firm hold on it.
"Jeia?!" Kuvira called again. "Bataar?! We need to get out of here! Now!"
It was another long second or two, in which Kuvira began to grow both worried and frustrated, and then the floor came back down so fast that she had to lunge out of the way to avoid being struck. As she had hoped, Jeia and Bataar Jr were both there, along with Zo and Shuri and three other Metal Clan.
"Kuvira!" Junior exclaimed in relief, rushing forward to embrace her, and she allowed it for a second, because frankly she had thought him dead, but then she pushed him away. "I'm so glad you're alive!"
"I'm glad to see you too," Kuvira said honestly, "but we've got to get out of this ship before it hits the Bay. Jeia…" Kuvira held out her hand and the toddler came barreling forward to wrap herself around Kuvira's knees. Kuvira bent and picked Jeia up, because it would be easier than trying to make the four year old run through wreckage, and she held on a little extra tight, not even letting herself think of what she would have done if Junior and the kid had perished. With Jeia on her hip, she led the others down the corridor to a section of the hole that wasn't yet on fire. Shuri grabbed onto Bataar and Kuvira told Jeia to hang on, and then the five metalbenders repelled down from the airship until they were close enough to the water to drop down without risking more serious harm.
Kuvira still hit the water hard, and she nearly lost her hold on Jeia, but the toddler held on tight and Kuvira kicked them up to the surface. She immediately began swimming backwards, ordering the others to follow suit as they began to emerge from the water gasping for air. The airship was moving forward as it plummeted, but Kuvira still didn't want to risk being hit when it finally struck the Bay.
The only problem with paddling backwards was that they were only getting further and further away from the shore, which hadn't been all that close to begin with. Kuvira wasn't sure how they were going to make it all the way to shore, and even once they did, where would they go in a city held by the enemy?
As it turned out, Kuvira was once again worried for nothing, because shortly after her airship had crashed into the Bay, Jeia pointed ahead and screeched, "Korra!"
Kuvira squinted her eyes and scanned the direction in which Jeia was pointing, and eventually she noticed a figure rocketing across the Bay with obvious use of waterbending. Kuvira hadn't seen the Avatar since she was little more than a child, so she didn't recognize the waterbender, but she believed Jeia would know if it was Korra or not.
As the Avatar came to an abrupt halt just at the edge of Kuvira's group, she began to say, "I'm Korra, I'm here to help –" and then broke off into a gasp of, "Jeia?!"
"Korra!" Jeia repeated delightedly, holding out her arms until the Avatar swam over to take her from Kuvira.
Korra looked at Jeia in bewilderment as she stammered, "How are you, why are you…never mind. Let's get you out of here, and then we'll talk."
Korra transported all of them across the Bay to a drainage tunnel at the edge of the city, where a couple of teens stood waiting, along with a slightly wounded General Iroh and, much to Kuvira's surprise, Suyin Beifong herself.
Ronen was among the teens, and he appeared shocked and worried by the sight of his baby sister in Korra's arms, but he also looked a bit glad to see her as he rushed over to take her from the Avatar.
Bataar, meanwhile, spotted Su and gasped, "Mother?"
Su seemed confused but happy as she exclaimed, "Junior! Sweetheart, what on Earth are you doing here?"
She rushed over to hug him and then look him over for injuries, which was almost laughable in Kuvira's opinion considering how rough Su looked. She was covered in bruises and welt marks and dressed in dingy, ill-fitting clothing that obviously didn't belong her.
"Looking for you, of course," Junior responded to his mother. "And trying to bring aid to Republic City, though it appears that we failed."
"Not entirely," Kuvira interjected. "Some of our airships escaped and there's the second wave of reinforcements still to come."
"Kuvira," Su said with a smile, ignoring everything Kuvira had just said to embrace her, "it's good to see you. Thank you for coming. You did well out there considering. We had no idea about those aircraft either."
"I have to say, I'm surprised to see you," Kuvira commented. "We were told you'd been captured. We assumed the worst."
"Well I was captured," Su admitted, "but Ronen rescued me before I was taken to Amon. Who told you I was captured?
Ronen interrupted before Kuvira could respond, sidling up next to his aunt with Jeia in his arms and the Avatar at his side. "I don't understand," he said. "Why is Jeia with you? Where are Jin and Sora and my Dad?"
Jeia buried her face in her brother's shoulder, obviously not wanting to be the one to tell him and probably not totally capable of explaining it well. Jeia was smart, Kuvira had no doubts about that, but the kid's speech was stilted.
Kuvira looked over at Bataar, because now that she was faced with the concern on Su and Ronen and even Korra's face, Kuvira did not feel herself capable of an explanation. Not one that was compassionate anyway.
Junior must have realized that before Kuvira did, though, because even as she looked at him he had already begun to say, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but I'm afraid your father and the twins were captured by the Equalists."
Su gasped and took a step back as if she had been physically struck.
Korra shook her head in disbelief. "No," she said desperately. "No, they couldn't have. They got away. We were told Lin was captured so that they could escape."
Ronen was the only one who barely looked surprised, just terribly sad as he demanded, "How did you find Jeia then?"
Ronen directed his question to Kuvira, who understood that the boy needed the truth, not coddling, so she obliged him. "On our way to Republic City we ran into two Equalist airships," she told him. "We discovered that your family was onboard one, and destroyed the other as a show of force. I tried to bargain with the Captain, but he would not allow me to take either of the twins and threatened your father's life should we attempt to board their airship. He did, however, agree to give us Jeia, and demanded that we turn back for Zaofu. Once we had Jeia, we went in search of the United Forces instead."
"I'm sorry, Ronen," Bataar said, turning his gaze onto Su as he added, "We did everything that we could, Mother."
"I know you did," Su said quietly, sorrow clear on her face and her shoulders drooping. She went over to Ronen and Jeia and put her arms around them, pulling them close, kissing the top of Ronen's head and stroking Jeia's wet hair. Ronen was not ashamed to lean into his aunt's embrace and accept her comfort as she murmured reassurances to him that were surely useless, but they were the only thing to say when so many of their family had been captured by the enemy. It was a sad, tender family moment that Kuvira felt she was intruding upon, despite technically having been adopted into Su's family a decade ago.
No one else in the tunnel seemed to want to disturb the three of them either, and it fell uncomfortably quiet as everyone seemed to hold in a collective breath.
It was the Avatar who eventually broke the moment to softly suggest, "We should be getting back. We can plan our next move there."
Korra appeared to be as heartbroken as Ronen and Su were, and she leaned against Ronen's other side as the group began to trek down the tunnel. Kuvira had no idea where they were going, but assumed that it was a hideout of some sort.
As it turned out, the Avatar and Ronen and their friends had been hiding out in an underground village with a bunch of vagabonds. One of them, called Gommu, was apparently pretty handy with a telegraph machine, and was able to get out a message to the second wave of United Forces that were on their way, as well as to the remainder of the Metal Clan that had escaped.
Once everyone was caught up on what they had missed over the last three days, they discussed their plans to go after the Equalists the following day. Iroh and two of the teens, Bolin and Asami Sato, were going to go in search of the airfield from which the fast moving aircraft had come from.
The Avatar, on the other hand, was adamant about going to Air Temple Island to take on Amon, and the other teen, Mako, insisted on going with her. Ronen said that he would go too, not just to help Korra, but to go directly to the source to find out what Amon had done with his family. Su then decided to accompany the teens, to look out for Ronen and find her sister and her family.
Kuvira wanted to get back to the Metal Clan, and decided to wait for their return with Jeia, Bataar, Zo and Shuri, but she ordered the other three Metal Clan guards to go with Iroh and the teens to the airfield. Kuvira didn't want to miss out on the action, but she needed to be available to lead the airships when they returned, and somebody needed to look out for Jeia, and Kuvira wasn't about to leave the kid in the hands of the vagabonds.
Su, however, protested Kuvira taking Jeia again, especially after the last airship incident.
"The girl is strong," Kuvira argued, "and she will be safe in the airship once that airfield is taken out and we have the reinforcements."
"It's true, Mother," Bataar agreed, surprising Kuvira, who had been certain he would side with his mother. "It was Jeia that saved the rest of us in the cockpit when those aircraft crashed into us. If she weren't there, we would likely be dead."
Su grimaced, but continued to object, "As glad as I am that you all survived, it could have ended very differently even with Jeia there and then…I shudder to even think of it. Jeia's abilities are certainly astonishing, but they're instinctual, not measured. She could just as easily cause an even bigger problem as she could solve one. And I know Lin would not approve of her being in a war zone."
"She's already been in a war zone," Kuvira countered, "and she isn't going to escape it now. We are at war, and the airship is the safest place for her to be. I don't see you or Ronen volunteering to stay out of the fight to watch her."
Su sighed heavily, and Kuvira did feel some regret at giving Su more worries than she already had. "Junior should stay here with her," Su suggested. "He isn't part of the guard anyways."
"My place is at Kuvira's side," Bataar immediately protested, his tone tinged with annoyance. "I am as much a part of the guard as any other member, I simply lack the bending. Should that mean that I am only useful as a babysitter?"
"Of course not," Su said with a frown. "You know that's not what I meant."
"Jeia is more intelligent than you know," Kuvira interjected. "She has an eidetic memory, which helped us during our assault. She is useful and she will be safe and you will be free to look for her family. And she isn't going to agree to staying behind. I have a feeling she would run off the moment we all left here."
Su shook her head and sighed heavily, looking over to where Jeia was sitting with her brother. She smiled sadly while gazing upon her niece and nephew and murmured, more to herself, "She is her mother's daughter."
Bataar stepped forward to squeeze his mother's shoulder – the one that hadn't been dislocated recently – and said firmly, "We'll keep her safe, Mother. I promise you."
Making the decision to go with Korra and Mako to seek out Amon was not an easy one for Ronen. He wanted to help all of his friends and all of his family at the same time, but there was only one choice that he could make. He could not help Iroh and Asami and Bolin in the airfield at the same time that Korra and Mako went after Amon, nor could he stay behind with his baby sister to ensure Jeia remained safe, while also searching for the rest of his siblings and his parents, who were all probably sitting in prison cells at that moment, if not enduring something worse. But one thing that Ronen knew for certain was that Amon needed to be stopped, and if Korra was going after him, he wasn't letting her go without him. He and Korra had been together from the start of the whole revolution, and he felt it necessary that they ended it together. Whatever support he could lend her seemed the most important. He knew that Iroh and the others could manage the airfield, and Kuvira and Bataar Jr had assured Ronen that Jeia would be safe with them. Ronen was worried about Jeia being in an airship in the middle of a war zone again, but she wouldn't be truly safe anywhere until the Equalists were stopped, and at least she would be with family that were willing to go to lengths to protect her. Not only that, but Jeia seemed to have found some confidence somewhere in the midst of being Kuvira's "co-captain." Jeia was a child of few words, but after being reunited with Ronen she had babbled at length about her recent adventures.
Their Aunt Su was the most concerned about letting Jeia go, but she was also adamant about going with Ronen, so there was little she could do to stop it. Su was still healing from the beating she'd suffered at the hands of a few nasty Equalists, but she was ready and able and she wasn't about to sit out of the fight. She wanted to find her sister and she wanted redemption for being caught so early on, and she wanted to stick close to her nephew if he was going to face down the leader of the revolution.
So plans were made and few of them slept without some difficulty that night. All of them were up before the sun fully rose, and there was a flurry of grim goodbyes and well-wishes before all of them were splitting off into their separate groups.
Bolin, Asami, and Iroh, along with the three Metal Clan guards, Naga, and Pabu, left first. Bolin hugged Mako, and then Ronen and Korra too; Iroh spoke briefly with Su and Kuvira; Mako and Asami had a heartfelt goodbye; and then Asami was wishing Ronen and Korra luck.
After they had left, Ronen went over to Asuka and told her she was free to go. She had appeared as if she wanted to say something to him, but decided not to and took off after only a few moments of hesitation, as if afraid someone might change their mind if she lingered too long.
Ronen didn't watch her go, but turned instead to his little sister, whom he hugged tightly. He promised her that he would find their family, and told her to be careful, and that he loved her. It was vaguely reminiscent of the first goodbye they had exchanged a few days ago, when his family was trying to flee for Zaofu. He had been so certain back then that all of them would be safe, but that hadn't been the case at all. Making Jeia such a promise now seemed foolish considering how unwell things had gone before, but Ronen had every intention of fulfilling it this time.
Korra and Su came over to say goodbye to Jeia too, and the more hugs she was given, the sadder the girl seemed to become, suddenly clinging to all three of them as if afraid to let them go.
But then Kuvira stepped over, back ramrod straight and expression severe, and she clicked her heels together and said, in a commanding tone, "Captain Jeia, are you ready for departure?"
In an instant, Jeia snapped to attention, finally releasing her brother and her aunt and Korra as she attempted to imitate Kuvira's stance. The four year old saluted Kuvira, all serious now too, and Ronen didn't know whether to be amused or disheartened by it. His only consolation was that at least Kuvira knew how to distract Jeia from all the turmoil, and when the war was finally over, his little sister would no longer have to pretend to be a soldier.
Ronen bent down to kiss Jeia on the cheek one last time and said, "Good luck, Captain Jeia."
Then he left, before Jeia could become distraught again or his own emotions got the better of him, and set out with Korra, Mako, and his Aunt Su.
Korra took them across the Bay to Air Temple Island, where each of them donned their stolen Equalist masks before striding across the familiar landscape. It was particularly strange for Ronen to be forced to sneak around his own home as if he had no right to be there, but he pushed those thoughts aside to focus on the task at hand.
They spotted Amon boarding an airship that was taking him into Republic City, and decided to sneak into the main temple and wait for Amon to return to ambush him. On their way there, they were stopped by Amon's Lieutenant, who asked them why they weren't at the rally at the pro-bending arena, where apparently everyone was supposed to be. Korra lied and told the Lieutenant they would be there, and then when he left, the four of them snuck into the Temple a different way to avoid further detection.
It was as they were climbing into the attic at the top of the tower and after removing her mask that Su said, "I wonder what that rally is all about. If it's important enough for everyone to be there, do you think that's where Tenzin and Jin and Sora will be?"
"You think Amon would want to show them off?" Ronen asked, both skeptical and hopeful all it once.
"He did wipeout all of airbending," Su said with a bitter, sorrowful scowl. "Seems like something he would want to gloat about, but I don't know his tactics well enough."
"It does sound like something that arrogant jerk would do," Korra muttered.
Suddenly Mako interjected, "Uh, guys, we're not alone up here."
Ronen whirled around, and there in a cell was none other than Councilman Tarrlok, who said sardonically, "I don't suppose you're here to rescue me?"
After a few questions, it was quickly revealed that Tarrlok was the only prisoner on the Island, and the reason why shocked all four of the other occupants of the room.
Tarrlok was Amon's brother.
Ronen and the others then listened with rapt attention as Tarrlok began to explain the sorrowful tale.
After being bested by Aang and having his bending taken, the crime boss and notorious bloodbender, Yakone, had escaped and undergone reconstructive surgery. He left Republic City for the Northern Water Tribe, where he married a woman and had two sons; Tarrlok and his older brother Noatak, who now went by the name of Amon. Yakone had harshly trained his sons to become bloodbenders like their father, so that they could one day return to Republic City and avenge him. The weight of their father's expectations fell mainly on Noatak, while young Tarrlok protested his father's teachings. It all culminated when the two boys were teenagers and Yakone ordered them to bloodbend each other. After experience being bloodbended himself at his brother's hand, Tarrlok refused to do the same to Noatak, and when Yakone lashed out, Noatak stopped their father and told Tarrlok to run away with him. Tarrlok did not wish to leave their mother behind, and so Noatak went off on his own. Tarrlok had thought his brother dead, until the night when Amon took his bending and Tarrlok recognized his brother's bloodbending grip from years ago.
It was a heart wrenching tale, but one that shed some light on Amon's abilities, and also destroyed the entire basis for the Equalist revolution in the first place. Their own leader was a waterbender that was using bloodbending to somehow take away other people's bending. With that revelation, Korra decided that a better way to defeat Amon would be to go to the rally and expose him for what he truly was to all those who were there to witness.
Ronen and the others were all in agreement, and Tarrlok urged them to leave him behind, so that Amon did not learn of his brother's escape before Korra was able to get to the pro-bending arena. So the four of them raced off back to the city, but just before they entered the arena, Ronen urged them to wait a moment.
"I think we should split up," Ronen told them.
"No way!" Korra immediately protested.
"We do this together," Mako agreed.
"Of course we do," Ronen assured them, "but I think it'd be more advantageous if we have a backup plan. You and Mako go onto the balcony as planned, reveal Amon for what he truly is, and make a quick escape in case things go wrong. Meanwhile, Aunt Su and I will go in through the front, blend into the crowd, and keep an eye on things from there."
"That does make tactical sense," Su agreed with Ronen, "and if Amon does decide to show off your dad and the twins, we might get a chance rescue them."
Ronen nodded and looked to Korra, who sighed, but relented, "You're right, it makes sense, but if Amon brings out Tenzin and Jin and Sora, I'm not leaving either. We're not leaving anyone behind." She moved forward to pull Ronen into a crushing embrace. "Be careful," she told him.
"You too," he said. "And good luck."
Mako clapped him on the shoulder, and then the four of them parted ways. Mako and Korra went around to sneak into the arena, and Ronen turned to his aunt to ask, "Are you ready?"
Ronen couldn't see her face, but he had a feeling Su was smiling as she squeezed his arm and replied, "Let's go get our family back."
Ronen nodded, and the two of them strode right through the front door of the arena, which was packed full of regular citizens and Equalists alike. It was loud and hot and disorienting inside, but Ronen did not let any of it distract him, knowing that one misstep could doom him and his aunt. He and Su slowly eased their way through the tight crowd, sticking close to one another so as not to be separated, and moving carefully to avoid suspicion from other Equalists. They weaved through the mass of bodies until they reached the front, and Ronen was sweating heavily from both the exertion and some fear. He was panting behind the mask, his breath hot, and he was getting really sick of dressing like an Equalist. He didn't know how they endured wearing those masks all the time. His peripheral vision was compromised, he could barely breathe, and there was sweat dripping from his chin.
Nevertheless, he endured the discomfort, because he had little choice and because it was imperative that they pull this off, even though his muscles were coiled tight and his heart felt like it was beating out of his chest.
He wasn't certain if his aunt had sensed his anxiety, or if she simply had good timing, because she leaned over then to mutter next to his ear, "I think my eyeballs are sweating."
And Ronen laughed, some of the tension evaporating as his aunt's voice centered him and gave him strength. He was not alone, and he had faith that soon, Amon would be no more, and no matter the state of his family, they would all be together again.
He was no longer nervous once Amon finally rose dramatically from the stage floor, with Lieutenant and six other Equalists, and he remained calm even as the crowd cheered and screamed for the leader they so adored.
Amon thanked the crowd and began his usual speech, of how his family had been killed by a firebender and left him scarred.
That was when Korra interrupted from up in the balcony, shouting down at the stage, "That's a lie, Amon!" She removed her mask as the crowd gasped their surprise. "Or should I call you Noatak?"
"Everyone calm down," Amon urged the suddenly restless crowd. "We have nothing to fear from the Avatar. Let us hear what she has to say."
Korra told the crowd the truth about Amon being a bloodbender and one of Yakone's sons, and Ronen observed the immediate reactions of the people around him. It seemed that they were all in shock, but not total disbelief, and for a moment he thought the plan would work, that the citizens' faith in Amon would be shaken, that they might even turn against him.
But then Amon removed his mask to reveal what looked like burn scars across his entire face, and then the crowd once again turned on Korra. They thought that she was lying, and Ronen looked up into the balcony to see Mako and Korra beginning to retreat as Equalists surrounded them. Ronen agreed with their decision to leave, but knew that he and his Aunt Su would have to stay, knew also that even if they could slip out, he wasn't leaving until he found his family.
He didn't have to wait long for that, because just before Korra and Mako could make their escape, Amon called up to them, "I wouldn't leave yet, Avatar. You'll miss the main event."
Another section of the stage began to rise then, and from out of it came his father and Sora and Yunjin. All three of them were chained to posts and their mouths were covered, and Ronen felt both relief and rage filling him. His sister looked fearful, but his brother was spitting mad as he fought uselessly against his chains. His father was a combination of the two, fear in his eyes as he looked over at his two children that he was powerless to save, and fighting against his own shackles in a last ditch effort to do something about it.
"Tonight, I rid the world of airbending, forever!" Amon declared, and the crowd cheered.
Despite his disgust, Ronen felt himself smiling a little under his mask as he turned on his aunt and declared, "He hasn't taken their bending yet! We can still stop it!"
Su nodded emphatically. "You got a plan?"
Ronen looked back up at the stage, considering, as Amon was saying to Korra, "You're welcome to come down here and try to stop me." Amon turned and began striding towards Tenzin and the twins. "The Avatar needs to be reminded of the power I possess."
Ronen shoved his aunt in the direction of the side of the stage, hurriedly telling her, "Once I've got his attention, get them out of here! Go now!"
Su went willingly enough, but looked over her shoulder to demand of him, "Ronen, what are you doing? Don't do something foolish!"
But Ronen was already racing up to the front of the stage, carelessly knocking people aside, and he heard his aunt cursing behind him, but she did not try to stop him.
Ronen climbed up onto the stage and tore off his mask at the same time that he shouted, "Amon!"
Amon froze in the middle of his stride, turning slowly to face Ronen as the crowd went still, straining to hear what was about to take place.
"If you wanna take their bending, you're gonna have to go through me," Ronen declared, striding across the stage to stand directly across from Amon. Lieutenant stepped forward eagerly, but Amon held up a hand to still him.
"Ah, the famous Ronen Beifong," Amon said. "I wondered when we might meet."
"Sorry it took so long," Ronen replied with a careless shrug. "But now that I'm here, why don't we settle this once and for all?"
"You wish to fight me," Amon said, sounding amused.
"We're equal, are we not?" Ronen pointed out. "Unless it's true what the Avatar says, that you really are a bloodbender."
"The Avatar's tale was a lie, but I feel no need to prove myself to you. While you may be a nonbender, you are a privileged one, benefiting from the bending prowess and fame of your family. You are no better than a bender."
"Then prove it," Ronen persisted. "My powerful family can't save me now. It's just you and me."
"I don't need to waste my time on you, boy," Amon said without concern.
"Why not?" Ronen demanded. "Because I'm a nonbender? Or because you're afraid I'll actually beat you?"
Amon chuckled. "Your arrogance is amusing. No power that you possess can match mine."
"Well then, if you have nothing to fear from me, then why won't you just fight me?"
Before Amon could respond, a familiar voice rang out through the arena snarling, "Because he's a pathetic coward."
Ronen whirled around in bewilderment, not believing his ears until he caught sight of the figure striding across the stage towards him, and even then he was in disbelief.
It was his mother, and she looked pissed.
When Lin woke on the floor of her cell – again – she wanted to leap up immediately to assure herself that what she thought she remembered happening to her family had just been some awful nightmare.
Unfortunately, she could barely move, her muscles too tortured and her skin so raw from all the electricity, and that alone should have been enough of a clue to resign herself to the fact that it hadn't all been a nightmare. Nevertheless, she still lifted her head and looked across the hall to the cell where Tenzin and Sora and Yunjin had been held, and she knew then that the nightmare had been real. Tenzin and the twins weren't there and there were still signs left behind of their struggle.
It was also eerily quiet in the prison corridor, so silent that Lin's heavy breaths seemed to echo. There weren't any Equalists standing around guarding anymore, and why should they? Lin was no threat to anyone. She could never get out of her cell. She could do nothing to save her family. And it was that crushing realization that caused her to slap her hand on the floor over and over and over, while letting out an agonized, enraged noise that was barely human, because what else could she do? She was useless and her family was doomed and when tears pricked her eyes this time, she did not bother to hold them back. What did it matter now? There was no one around to see her, and she was a failure anyways. She had failed her mother and Aang and Katara and Sokka and Zuko. She had failed her husband and her children and her sister. She had failed the entire airbending race.
So she sobbed, because the rage she felt for Amon was all-consuming and she could still remember Sora's awful screams and she was in pain both physically and mentally and she was so damn tired.
She exhausted herself quickly, once the tears had run their course, but she wasn't going to continue to just lay there, because her mind was racing and she needed to do something. She managed to pick herself up off of the floor finally, and she stretched until her muscles stopped feeling like they were going to snap. She desperately checked the locked bars of her cell, as if she could find someway to free herself, but shoving a shard of glass that she'd broken off of the water pitcher into the key hole did nothing but cut up her hand, and there was nothing else within the cell that could be used. She even tore open the mattress and tried to rip out a bedspring, but that didn't work either.
And then an Equalist suddenly came rushing down the empty corridor, startling Lin into stillness for just a moment.
The masked person raced past Lin's cell, then slid to a stop and came stumbling back with a shocked, "There you are!"
Lin's first reaction was to lunge at the bars – even though it hadn't helped her the last time – and try to grab them by the throat. But the Equalist leapt backwards in surprise, just out of Lin's reach.
"Coward!" Lin spat at them, uncaring of who it was or what they wanted, knowing only that it couldhave been one of the spineless idiots that had taken her family. "You're a coward! You better hope I don't ever get out of this cell because I'm going to –"
"That's why I'm here!" the Equalist suddenly interrupted, ripping off their mask, and underneath was a teenage girl. "I'm going to let you out of there, but you gotta promise you're not gonna kill me."
Lin frowned, because even if it was an Equalist, she couldn't beat up a kid. And whatever the girl had just said really made no sense at all.
"Why are you here?" Lin growled.
"It's like I said, I'm here to rescue you," the kid answered plainly. "I'm Asuka, a friend of your son's, Ronen."
Lin felt a pang at the mention of her eldest son, but she snorted in disbelief. "Yeah right," she said. "You're no friend of my son's. I've never met you and I've never heard him mention you either."
The supposed Asuka shifted uncomfortably. "Okay, so we're not exactly friends. I actually tried to get him to join the Equalists and he used me to find his friend and then his aunt, but that's besides the point. Look, do you want out of here or not?"
Lin blinked in confusion. She had a feeling she was missing a lot of information and she resolved to ask Ronen about it if she ever saw him again, but that was only if what the teenager said was true at all. It could have been some Equalist trick.
"I get it," Asuka said suddenly, "you don't trust me. I'm not even sure why I'm doing this… Your son is with the Avatar and his aunt and they're going after Amon. I don't know if they've figured out yet that Amon is at the rally in the pro-bending arena. Everyone is at the rally, I only had to knock out three guards on my way in here, and I'm betting that's where the rest of your family will be. If you go now, you might make it in time."
Asuka pulled a set of keys out of her pocket and watched Lin carefully as she began unlocking the cell door. Lin was still very much confused, because wasn't Su captured, and what had happened to the United Forces, and who the hell was Asuka and why was she helping Lin? And maybe it was all some elaborate trap, but Lin wasn't about to pass up an opportunity of escape.
Asuka opened the cell door and stepped back several paces, watching Lin warily, and Lin was careful as she began walking out into the corridor, waiting for something to happen. But no one came rushing towards her, and there was a single Equalist unconscious at the end of the hallway. Lin was still suspicious of the girl, but she told Asuka, "Thanks, kid," before taking off at a sprint down the corridor.
Stumbling outside for the first time in days was both energizing and disorienting. The sunlight burned her eyes, but it also warmed her a little after spending everyday shivering with cold. She only paused long enough to get her bearings, and then took off down the street. She was lucky that nearly everyone apparently was at the rally – or hiding indoors at least – but she was still rather conspicuous in her metal armor and her easily recognizable face. So she broke into a clothes shop and stole a coat and a hat that she would have to remember to come back and pay for some other time. Then she went running down side streets and alleyways just to be certain. It would have been particularly stupid to escape prison only to get locked up again.
The pro-bending arena wasn't far, but getting inside was a little trickier, because she wasn't quite confident enough that she could walk straight through the Equalist guards outside without detection. Nothing short of a scarf covering the entirety of the lower half of her face could hide the twin scars on her cheek, and it was a pretty defining feature that would at least arouse suspicion. She had long ago ridded herself of the anger she felt towards her sister over the scars, but in that particular moment, when time was of the essence, she was a little annoyed.
Luckily for Lin, though, she had learned the arena's every nook and cranny when she was providing security for the pro-bending final – fat lot of good that had done her – and knew just the place to slip in undetected.
Once she finally reached the main floor where most everyone had congregated, she merged her way into the crowd seamlessly, forcing herself to clap along as the crowd cheered Amon's entrance. She kept close to the edge of the crowd, but not close enough to draw the attention of the Equalist guards along the walls as she started shuffling forward. She had come into the arena somewhere around the middle, so she was not too terribly far from the stage, but it was going to take some time to get there with as slow as she had to go. People were not happy about her shoving forward, and she had to wait for gaps to open to slip through so as not to make a scene. She didn't know what she was going to do when she reached the stage, or if there was even a point to being stealthy when she was probably just going to end up jumping on stage anyways. Unless she could get underneath of it, in which case she might find Tenzin and the twins. She didn't actually know where the Equalists had taken them, but if Amon was having a huge rally and the last of the airbenders still had their bending, well…Lin couldn't see why Amon wouldn't make a big show of wiping out the airbending race in front of everyone. Amon and his lackeys had emerged from beneath the stage, so it seemed only logical that Tenzin and the kids would too, or at least be behind it, so Lin needed to get closer to the stage regardless, and she needed to not get caught in the meantime.
Apparently it was her lucky day, because she was given the perfect opportunity to advance more quickly when Korra showed up and distracted the crowd. Lin continued to hasten forward, but kept one ear on what Korra was saying, and was almost just as surprised as the rest of the crowd when the Avatar revealed that Amon was a waterbender, son of Yakone, and brother to Tarrlok. Amon, of course, denied everything, and briefly pulled off his mask to reveal what appeared to be a badly burned face. And just like that, the crowd turned on Korra again, and Lin idly wondered if the kid had any plans beyond calling Amon out. After spending days in prison, Lin felt like she had probably missed a lot, and she didn't know if Korra's tactic was simply to distract Amon while the United Forces got into position to attack, or if the United Forces had been beaten back and Korra was just throwing caution to the wind at that point. Lin noticed that Mako was with Korra, but none of the other teens were, and she remembered the girl that had helped her escape prison had said Ronen was with the Avatar, but where were he and the others now? Lin could have screamed she was so frustrated, not knowing what she could do to help her family, not knowing what had been going on the last few days. Although, she was out of prison, so she at least had that going for her.
Lin had finally reached the stage by the time Tenzin and Jin and Sora were being lifted out from underneath of it. All three of them were bound and gagged, and the sight of them made her heart skip and her fists clench. Anger was boiling up her throat like bile, and if she had had her bending still, she would have thrown every shard of metal she could grasp at Amon until several pierced through flesh. But she didn't have her bending, and she'd need a better plan than just leaping on stage.
She darted around the side of the stage instead, to hide in an alcove just behind, watching from an angle and trying to think. There were only seven Equalists and Amon on stage, which wasn't terrible odds, but wasn't terribly good either.
Amon was goading Korra to try and fight him, and then he was turning in the direction of Tenzin and the kids, and Lin decided that there wasn't time for plans. She would just have to throw caution to the wind and do her best to distract Amon.
It was as she was racing back around the stage that Lin noticed another Equalist climbing up the front of it. They removed their mask and angrily shouted, "Amon!" and Lin's stomach swooped with dread.
It was Ronen, of course, her wonderful, ridiculous, brilliant, foolish son, who strode across the stage with his head held high and ferocity in his gaze as he challenged Amon to a one-on-one duel.
Lin forced her battered muscles to propel her towards the stage faster, even though she still didn't know what on earth she was going to do, but she knew that she needed to get onto that stage before Amon laid a hand on any of her children, and exhaust every last bit of strength left within her to protect her family.
Focused as she was, she didn't notice an Equalist running towards her until they had slammed right into each other.
Lin stumbled back a step, and her hat flew off her head, but the collision didn't affect her quite as bad as the Equalist, who fell to the floor with an "Oof!" and rubbed at their sternum with a slew of muttered curses.
Lin frowned, because that voice was awfully familiar, and she prepared to defend herself if necessary, but first asked in disbelief, "Su?"
The Equalist looked up, did a double take, and then exclaimed, "Lin!"
Su pulled off her mask and jumped to her feet, and before Lin could even get over the surprise or delight at seeing her sister, she was being engulfed in a hug that might have crushed her if she hadn't still been wrapped in her metal armor.
"I'm so happy to see you," Su gushed, before pulling back to look at her older sister with teary eyes and a beaming smile, and Lin noticed that Su's face was badly bruised, which only fueled Lin's boiling hatred for Amon. "No time to talk, though. We've got airbenders to save."
Lin was still reeling a little from the overload of surprises in the past twenty minutes alone, but she was well trained in not letting any external factors get in the way of a mission, and she nodded in agreement. "You get them out of those chains," Lin told Su, "I've got Ronen."
Su squeezed Lin's hand, worry showing through on her face, but she knew that time was running out and didn't argue. "Be careful, Lin," she said.
"I'll see you on the other side," Lin promised, and then the two sisters were racing off in opposite directions.
Lin climbed up onto the stage just as Ronen was saying "Well then, if you have nothing to fear from me, then why won't you just fight me?"
"Because," Lin called out as she began to stomp across the stage, "he's a pathetic coward."
She still had no plan besides distract, and she kept up a rapid pace as she crossed the stage, not stopping to even nod at Ronen, her narrow-eyed rage focused solely on Amon, the monster that had ripped out her soul and intended to do the same to her husband and two of her children. She may not have had her bending, but she fully intended to fight with everything that she had to stop him, and Amon would have to kill her with his bare hands if he wanted to get anywhere near her kids again.
"Did you not learn your lesson when I took your bending?" Amon asked Lin, not budging an inch as she stormed towards him and looking wholly unconcerned. "I don't know how you escaped your cell, but I doubt it was by your own prowess. What makes you think you can defeat me now? I've already bested you once."
One of the Equalists on stage rushed Lin from the side, and she could have rolled her eyes at their arrogance. Did they really think it was that easy to stop her? When the Equalist swiped their electric glove at her, she sidestepped out of the way, grabbed them by the forearm in a crushing grip to hold the glove away from her, and then stepped into their space to slam her knee directly into their gut. The Equalist groaned and bent in half, and Lin punched them in the side of the face with her free hand.
They dropped to the stage and moved no more, and Lin turned on Amon again, shaking off the stinging in her hand as she responded, "You mean when you had about fifteen of your lackeys holding me down and electrocuting me to keep me subdued? I wouldn't say you bested me. Come to think of it, have you bested anyone on your own? Or do you need your lap dogs to do all your dirty work for you?"
Two Equalists came for Lin next, but they never even got close to her, because a boomerang came careening towards them, struck the first Equalist on the side of the head, spun a few meters away, and then came hurtling back to thunk into the back of the second one's head.
Lin was only a few feet from Amon as that point, but the Lieutenant stepped in front of his leader, both kali sticks held at the ready and crackling with electricity. Lin pretended to be unfazed, internally hoping that she wasn't about to get zapped with those damn things again, and peered around Lieutenant at Amon. "Are you gonna face me like a man or not?" She swept her arm out to indicate the murmuring crowd as she added, "These people deserve to know if their new leader is as capable as he claims. So prove it. Tell your guards to stand down and take me in a fair fight."
Amon really had no choice but to accept Lin's demand when he was surrounded by the citizens of Republic City. To deny her would imply that he had something to fear. Denying Ronen could be brushed off as simply ignoring a child's delusions, but Lin had been the Chief of Police of Republic City for decades, and she was still more or less one of its leaders, and before a new leader could take over, all others needed to be forced out. And if Amon could not stop Lin even without her bending, then what power would he have over anyone else? So Amon begrudgingly stepped out from behind Lieutenant and, with irritation plain in his voice, said, "If you truly wished to be embarrassed in front of your own children, then so be it."
Lin did not bother to respond, centering herself in the moment and bending her knees, curling her hands into fists and rolling her shoulders. She ignored all of the aches and pains that were like needles stabbing through her skin, and tried to imagine that she was lighter than she felt with the heavy armor over her shoulders. It didn't matter if she won or not, so long as her family got free, but she had to at least get a few good shots in.
Amon struck first, and second, and third, and fourth, and fifth, and Lin blocked every jab and kick in a flurry of motion, but she was knocked back a few steps and started to lose her footing. When Amon's sixth strike came, she miss-stepped and took the blow directly in the side of her knee, and then her leg was folding in half and she was falling. As she descended, she swung her fist and connected with Amon's side, directly above his hip. He grunted and flinched, but still kicked out at Lin, and his boot hit her in the chest. Lin was knocked the rest of the way to the floor, but managed to reach out and grab hold of Amon's ankle with both hands before he could pull it back, and she held on tight as she fell, bringing him careening forward, and then twisting his foot in the wrong direction. Amon rolled his body with his ankle to avoid a break, and spun through the air overtop of Lin to land chest first on the stage next to her. Lin and Amon both sat up at the same time, but Amon's back was to her, and she lunged, wrapping herself around him from behind, crushing his legs with the weight of her own and squeezing her arm around his throat. He grabbed her constricting arm with one hand and reached the other back to grab hold of a fistful of her hair, and then bent over and pulled, so that Lin was thrown over top of his shoulders. She came down on her back and immediately rolled several paces to the side to avoid his chopping hands. Once she had put enough distance between them, she stopped on her stomach and pushed herself back up onto her feet, just in time for him to come running at her.
They exchanged blows, punches and kicks and jabs that weren't enough to deter either of them, and then Lin swung a fist at Amon's face, and he caught it in his hand. He twisted her wrist and used his other hand to grab her shoulder, spinning her around until he had bent her arm up against her back, and she opened her mouth to inhale sharply in surprise at the pain, but she had one arm free still. She leaned into Amon's pull on her so that her weight was dragging him to the side, and simultaneously swung her free arm back as hard as she could until the curved metal point on her armored elbow struck the side of his head. Amon cried out and dropped his hold on Lin, stumbling back away, and when Lin spun around, she saw that his mask had been knocked off and there was a bloody smear of shredded flesh along his cheek.
Lin felt a moment of satisfaction, but now that the mask was off she could also see Amon's fury, and even though she might have gotten the upper hand for a second, she was tiring fast. Between all the stress and losing her bending and the malnutrition and lack of sleep and being electrocuted into oblivion, she wasn't exactly at full strength in comparison to Amon. And he was raving mad now, and she knew the inhuman strength that came with fury and desperation, but Lin still had the strength of her own rage and stubborn will, and she continued to fight back even though her body protested every move.
Amon came charging towards her, and his punches were faster and his kicks were harder, but Lin was still holding him at arm's length. That is, until her leg suddenly seized up without reason, and the agony was such that she screamed as she fell to her knees. It was only after the pain stopped abruptly that she realized that she had just been bloodbent. It was subtle, and nobody else would know what had happened, but Lin knew what it felt like to be bloodbended.
Amon punched her in the side of the face before she could recover, and she flopped to the stage floor as her whole head began to throb and her mouth filled with blood. He dragged her halfway back up by her hair and knelt down to wrap his arm around her throat, squeezing until she was choking and gasping for breath. Her vision was still blurred from the blow to the head and her ears were ringing, so Amon's voice sounded far away even though she felt his hot breath against her ear as he murmured, "You cannot even begin to fathom the power that I posses."
"Fucking...coward," Lin choked out, her hands clawing feebly at his arm and squirming in his hold. "Spineless…bloodbending…" His hold on her throat tightened and her airway was cut off completely, and she wondered if he would kill her in front of everyone or just wait for her to lose consciousness.
But she was saved by the Lieutenant's sudden shout of, "The airbenders! They're getting away!"
Amon almost immediately threw Lin carelessly to the ground, and she stayed there for several seconds as a noisy battle exploded around her. She was too busy wheezing for breath and spitting blood from her mouth, and she barely startled when a bolt of lightning struck the stage a few meters away from her. The crowd started screaming and people were yelling, and she had no idea what was going on, but she could hear firebending and airbending and electricity crackling in the air.
Once she had caught her breath, Lin rubbed the stars from her eyes and carefully pushed herself back up onto her feet, waiting for the dizziness to abate before looking around at the chaos that had ensued. Tenzin and Sora and Yunjin were free and fighting alongside Ronen and Su, and Korra and Mako had descended upon the stage to join the fight as well.
Amon and the Equalists were between Lin and her family, so she took a few steps back to sidle up next to Korra, who kicked a roaring flame at one of the Equalists at the same time she asked, "You all right, Chief?"
"I've been better," Lin grumbled, silently lamenting that she couldn't offer much to the fight without her bending besides hand-to-hand combat. "It's good to see you, kid."
Korra flashed Lin a smile and said, "You too, Lin."
And then the girl was racing off, with Mako at her side, and they were throwing everything they had at Amon, who was already busy fending off attacks from Tenzin and Su, who Lin was glad to see still had her bending. At least that was one thing Lin didn't have to feel guilty about.
The Equalist guards in the arena were frantically trying to race towards the stage to aid their leader, but they were fighting against the crowd that was fleeing in the opposite direction, as well as Sora and Yunjin, who ran up to the edge of the stage and blasted back anyone that got close. Lin felt adrenaline surge through her anew, and she followed Korra and Mako closely, hoping she'd get another shot at Amon, who was surrounded now, all of his guards on stage already out of commission thanks to Ronen and the twins' efforts, and Lin felt a swell of pride.
"It's over, Amon!" Korra shouted to him over the din of the frightened crowd. "We have you surrounded."
Amon was casting his gaze about frantically, looking for an out, but he really had no place to go. The six of them; Korra, Mako, Lin, Tenzin, Su, and Ronen, were closing in around him from all sides. Sora and Yunjin were still keeping his Equalists at bay. He had nowhere to run, no way to beat them with simple agility.
Lin really should have seen it coming, but it did not immediately occur to her that he would do it in front of an arena full of his followers. However, desperate people were known to do desperate things when they had nothing left to lose, and she noticed the look on Amon's face a second before it happened.
She only had time to mutter a disgruntled, "Shit," just before Amon took hold of all eight of them with his bloodbending.
This time it encompassed her whole body, and she could feel her limbs contorting and her body convulsing, and she tried to fight against it even though it was futile, even though she no longer had control of her own body. She couldn't hear whether or not the crowd had noticed what was happening on stage or if they were still running, could only hear a rushing in her ears as if she was submerged underwater, and every breath was a painful struggle. But Lin could still see despite the fact that it felt like her eyes were bulging out of her head, and she watched the horrified recognition dawn on Amon as he looked past Lin and the others to the crowd that must have noticed by now what he was doing.
And just like that, Amon dropped his hold on them and took off running, leaping off of the stage and darting through a side door. Lin hit the stage harder than expected, not having realized how high up into the air they must have been. She tried to move, to get up and follow Amon as Korra and Ronen and Mako were, but the bloodbending must have exacerbated every other wound she had sustained, because the second she lifted her throbbing head, her vision went black and she slumped to the floor.
When she came to, she was just so glad not to be lying on the floor of her prison cell she almost didn't care that she had passed out for the umpteenth time. Judging by the noise in the arena, she must not have been out for long, but long enough for someone to have picked her halfway up off of the floor, so that her head was resting in the crook of somebody's arm. Exhausted as she was, part of her just wanted to keep her eyes closed and revel in the warm embrace she was ensconced in, but she could recognize the voices of the ones she loved saying her name, and it was their pleas that convinced her to force herself the rest of the way into consciousness.
As her eyelids fluttered open, she caught sight of Tenzin first. He was hovering over her, holding her against his chest while his other hand stroked her cheek. Su was right next to him, her hand braced against Lin's knee as she peered worriedly over her brother-in-law's shoulder. Jin and Sora were on Lin's other side, and when they saw her open her eyes they cried, "Mom!"
"I'm up, I'm up," she said groggily, like she used to when they were younger and trying to drag her out of bed at an unsavory hour.
She tried to sit up, and was grateful that Tenzin had his arm around her back to ease her up, and then she opened her arms and the twins crashed into her. Lin hugged them close, nearly breathless with how relieved she was to have them in her arms, to see that they were okay and that they hadn't lost their bending. Tenzin wrapped his own arms around all of them, his chest a solid presence against Lin's back to help keep her propped up, and he peppered whatever bit of her he could reach with kisses, the side of her head, the top of her hair.
Lin looked over top of the twins' heads to where Su watched with a teary smile, and beckoned her sister over with a wave of her hand as she said, "Get over here."
Sora shifted so that there was room and Tenzin opened his arm, and Su laughed incredulously before shaking her head and squeezing into the huddle. With one arm still holding onto the twins, Lin held her sister tight with the other arm, and this time she was able to revel in the embrace, unlike the quick, surprised hug from earlier. Lin didn't know how Su had escaped the Equalists before her bending could be taken, but she was beyond grateful that she had. There was still an aching hole in her own chest from the loss of her bending, and she was so damn glad that her loved ones would never experience the same.
That is, assuming that Amon was captured, which she began to worry about now. She remembered seeing Ronen, Korra, and Mako chasing after him, but Amon was a powerful bloodbender and it would probably be a good idea for Lin and the others to follow. Lin could not do much, not now that Amon was no longer pretending to be a nonbender, but Tenzin and Su could.
So she wriggled until they all shifted enough to look at her, and she told Tenzin and Su firmly, "Go, help Korra. Jin and Sora and I will be right behind you."
Tenzin and Su both hesitated, but understood the importance of capturing Amon and not letting him take Korra's bending. So they nodded and eased out of the embrace, and then took off running for the door Amon and the kids had disappeared through.
Sora and Yunjin helped Lin rise carefully to her feet, and she still felt horrible, but after a few moments of shaking feeling back into her legs, she was steady enough on her feet to walk. Running was out of the question, but she managed quick long strides. The twins kept pace with her, their heads swiveling around rapidly to keep an eye out for danger. But no one bothered to come after them. The Equalists didn't seem to know what to do, having just witnessed their leader bloodbending, and were either following the rest of the alarmed citizens out of the building or standing around in confusion.
By the time Lin and Jin and Sora found Korra and the others, Lin could tell that Tenzin and Su had been too late, judging by the expressions on everyone's faces. They were standing around a shattered window, out of which Amon had apparently escaped, but also further revealed his waterbending abilities to the crowd of people outside.
Lin was disheartened by the news, but distracted for a moment at the sight of her eldest son. Ronen had a deep gash on his forehead, and he walked with a limp as he hobbled over to reunite with his mother, but she was so glad to see him after days apart that she decided not to fret and simply be glad that he was okay. It was as Lin was hugging him close that she noticed Tenzin and Mako trying to comfort a depressed looking Korra, and Lin's stomach sank at the realization.
Su came over to confirm Lin's fears, that before his escape, Amon had taken Korra's bending, and though the girl had unlocked her airbending afterwards, it was the only bending she had left. Lin couldn't believe it, that the Avatar could be without three of the four elements, and the joy she had felt at being reunited with her family dwindled in the face of such despair. She knew that there was nothing she could do for the girl in that moment to ease her suffering, because she knew all too well the agony of losing that part of her soul, but she found herself moving forward anyway. And maybe she had been hit on the head harder than she thought, or maybe she was getting soft with age, but Korra was certainly surprised when Lin tugged the girl into a hug. But after the initial shock had faded, Korra returned the embrace with fervor, shuddering in Lin's embrace. And the two of them shared a moment, these two women who had barely gotten along when they were first forced to live together, but who had grown to admire and care for one another, and who were now the only two among their group to understand fully the loss they had suffered. There were no words, only a shared grief.
Lin did not know how they could recover, Korra most of all, but looking around at the family surrounding them, she had to believe that it was possible.
Notes:
So this chapter was almost 40 pages in Word and I probably should have broken it into two chapters, but I promised you all the final showdown and I didn't want to break it up! Hope it wasn't too difficult trying to read all that in one sitting lol.
Up next! More reunions and some deep conversations, and a trip to the South Pole to see if Katara can restore Korra's bending. Then season one will be all wrapped up, which was initially going to be the end of this story (considering none of the other seasons existed when I started this), but don't you worry, I've got all kinds of ideas in the works to keep this going through the rest of the series. Unless you guys are totally done and want me to wrap it up? Lol. Thank all of you so much for the reviews, hope you enjoyed this ridiculously long chapter, and until next time!
Chapter 54: Chapter 54
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 54
Before journeying to Air Temple Island; Lin, Tenzin, Su, and the kids made the trek back to the prison where Lin and Tenzin and the twins had been held to find Oogi. The city was a bit chaotic as they emerged into the streets, but any citizens or Equalists hastening along gave the group a wide berth and did not engage. Nevertheless, Lin and the others were all on high alert, and did their best to move as quickly as possible despite injuries and exhaustion.
On the way, they all began to catch each other up on what had happened while they had been separated. The mood was still subdued, but keeping a conversation going was better than silence, and despite the sorrow that many of them felt for Lin and Korra, they were all still happy to be reunited. There were a few missing from their group, but they knew that they would be back with them again soon.
Lin first asked Su how she got free, and Su skipped all the details of what had gone on between her capture and when she was rescued, but Lin did not press, not with the kids around. She would ask her sister for the full story later, and she could guess at what had probably gone on anyways.
It was Mako that ratted out Ronen as having made a deal with the Equalist girl he knew from school, promising to let her hand him into Amon if she helped him find and rescue his Aunt Su. Tenzin had gasped his shock and Lin had given Ronen a look, but he had just shrugged and said, "Hey, I got Aunt Su back, didn't I?" and Lin couldn't really argue with that.
But then everyone wanted to know how Lin had gotten free, and she snorted and said, "Same person that helped Su escape, I think. She said her name was Asuka."
Ronen, Korra, and Mako had all been shocked, and Korra muttered, "Wow, I wouldn't have thought holding her prisoner would make her want to help us."
"You must have made her feel pretty bad when you told her off, Ronen," Mako teased, and Korra almost smiled.
Ronen just shook his head and said, "Girls make no sense."
Sora scoffed in offense and looked up at her Aunt Su as she countered, "Boys are just dumb."
Tenzin suddenly slipped his hand into Lin's then, and she glanced up at him to give him a small smile as she squeezed his hand back. They had still barely had a chance to be properly united, and she wanted nothing more than to burrow into his embrace and maybe kiss him senseless. She could tell that he was itching to hold her too, but they were both waiting until they didn't have an audience and their family was completely whole. Not to mention the fact that they weren't exactly eager to let the kids out of their sight just yet.
Tenzin then asked about what had happened with the United Forces, and Ronen explained how the first attempt to take back the city had gone horribly wrong, thanks to some new aircraft invented by Hiroshi. He told his parents that Asami, Bolin, Iroh, and three Metal Clan guards had gone to the airfield to stop them from destroying the second fleet.
Su also chose that moment to hesitantly admit to her sister that Jeia had still been aboard one of the Metal Clan airships during the first strike on the Equalists.
"So Kuvira didn't return to Zaofu then," Tenzin guessed, not sounding at all surprised, and Lin had expected as much too.
"No," Su confirmed. "She went straight to rendezvous with the United Forces, and then came here. Three of her airships were destroyed in the battle, but five of them retreated to Red Sands Island to meet up with the second fleet."
"Is that where Jeia is then?" Lin questioned, not sure what Su seemed so timid about. She knew Jeia couldn't have been seriously hurt, or else Su and Ronen would have already told her.
"Not exactly," Su admitted. "Kuvira's airship was struck by two of Hiroshi's aircraft and they were forced to abandon it. Korra brought them out of the Bay to where the rest of us were waiting at the edge of the city."
"Wait," Tenzin spluttered, his grip on Lin's hand tightening. "Are you saying that Jeia was on Kuvira's airship? The one that was blown out of the sky?"
"Technically, yes," Su said, quickly adding, "but she's fine! Jeia wasn't hurt at all. In fact, she saved everyone else in the cockpit!"
"She saved everyone?" Lin repeated with growing concern, eyes narrowing halfway into a glare. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Su sighed. "Look, I wouldn't even mention it, but I know Jeia could bring it up and rather than be surprised –"
"Will you just spit it out?" Lin demanded, growing frustrated.
"The aircraft hit the cockpit where Jeia and Junior and some of the other guards were," Su said rapidly, "but Jeia shielded them and they were fine, not a scratch on them. So see? Nothing to worry about."
Lin blinked.
Tenzin exploded. "WHAT?! You're telling me that my four year old was in the cockpit when it was obliterated? And where is she now?! Do not tell me that she is back on an airship with Kuvira…"
"Okay," Su said, averting her gaze from Tenzin's with a wince, "I won't tell you."
Tenzin immediately began spluttering nonsense, clearly uncertain himself of what he was even trying to say, just knowing that he was displeased. Lin wasn't sure what she felt. Concern, obviously, but according to Su, Jeia was just fine, and fretting now seemed pointless after the fact. It did make her stomach turn to imagine what her little girl had been through lately, but she couldn't go back in time to change it. Not only that, but Tenzin was already having a meltdown and she and Tenzin never panicked at the same time. It was some unspoken rule they had adopted long ago. One of them overreacting over something was bad enough.
"Dad!" Ronen interjected, when Tenzin finally had to pause for breath. "I was with Jeia this morning and I promise you she's fine. Kuvira is taking very good care of her."
Lin snorted, "That's a surprise." And Su shot her an annoyed glare, because the two of them had never seen eye-to-eye on the Kuvira adoption. That wasn't to say that Lin wished ill on the kid – now woman – or thought that Su should have left an eight year old to fend for themselves, but Lin and Kuvira both had strong personalities that tended to clash, and they only put up with each other because of Su.
"So then where are Jeia and Kuvira now?" Tenzin demanded, huffing his frustration, but stopping his tirade.
"They should be meeting back up with the Metal Clan airships, whenever they get here," Su replied.
"We'll radio them once we get back home," Lin assured Tenzin, and that seemed to appease him for the time being.
It wasn't much longer before they managed to find Oogi, and then spent some time soothing the poor animal that had been mostly abandoned for the last two days. Once Oogi had stopped licking Tenzin and the kids and had been given some water, they herded the great beast outside and made the quick flight home.
Immediately upon landing, and after everyone had disembarked, Oogi went off to find food and a place to rest. Lin and the others stuck together, going as a group to check the entire Island for any Equalists that might have remained behind. But the Island was devoid of all human life except for the eight of them. According to Ronen, Tarrlok was being held in the main temple's attic cell, but by the time the group clambered up to check, the cell door was wide open and Tarrlok was long gone, leading them all to assume that Amon had stopped by to retrieve his brother after his escape from the arena.
After sending out a message to Kuvira asking her to bring Jeia home, the group finally went to the last place they had yet to check – the main house.
The moment she crossed the threshold, Lin sighed, but not the sigh of relief she had hoped for. She had hoped that the house would be just as they left it, that the Equalists would not have had time to mess with it, but of course that was not the case. Half of the place had been ransacked, and there was damage from when Lin had woken and started fighting her captors just before her bending was taken, and while it didn't appear at first glance that much had been stolen, there was still a giant mess to clean up and a few things had been broken beyond repair.
"Great," Lin muttered to Tenzin and Su, as the twins raced off to check their bedrooms, and Korra and Mako and Ronen started picking up furniture that had been tilted over. "As if we didn't have enough shit to deal with today."
"With all of us it shouldn't take long to clean up," Su soothed, placing a hand on Lin's still metal-clad shoulder, which only served to remind Lin that she felt heavy and awkward with her armor on now.
"You wouldn't happen to know how to get blood out of the carpet, would you?" Lin asked her sister.
Su frowned, and Tenzin whirled around from the end table he was carefully sweeping glass off of. "Blood on what carpet?" he exclaimed. "Who's blood?"
"One of the Equalists bled all over the living room," Lin said casually, even as Tenzin's eyes widened in alarm. "They brought me back here after I jumped off Oogi. When they tried taking me to Amon I broke a guy's nose. Might have stabbed another guy in the arm, but not too sure, my aim was off."
She talked about it like she would the weather, but internally she was cringing at the memory. Not the injuring the Equalists part, but the having her soul ripped out in her front yard part.
"Oh I met Xiang," Su told Lin, as if they were discussing a mutual friend. "The one whose nose you broke. Nice guy."
"His name is Xiang, is it?" Lin asked, narrowing her eyes at the bruises marring her sister's skin. "Did you happen to get any other names?"
Su noticed Lin's pointed gaze and demanded, "Why? What are you gonna do, hunt them all down?"
"For starters," Lin said in half of a growl. She felt like she was ready to keel over after the last few days – and the last hour in particular – but she also felt angry enough to go out and hunt down the bastards that had hurt her sister. The rage was just simmering under the surface, and every time she caught a glimpse of another mark it threatened to boil over. Lin had no delusions of what those people had done to Su. Lin had been half-tortured a time or two in her life, and it wasn't something one forgot. She still had some scars from when Kane and Deak had kidnapped her three decades ago, and now Su would have scars because some psychos had decided that imprisoning her and taking her to get her bending taken away hadn't been punishment enough. Granted, Su still had her bending, thankfully, but she should have never been beaten into submission either. Su kept using that as an excuse as if it would make Lin feel better, saying that she had fought back too much and that was why they had struck her across the face and kicked her in the ribs. But Lin knew better. Lin knew the kind of people that got off on that sort of thing, and Su could have been perfectly complacent and they still would have went overboard on the beatings. Because it wasn't even so much about anger towards Su for being who she was, but rather, about the power and control they had over her in those moments when she was their prisoner. Xiang and whoever else had reveled in their newfound power and made certain that Su knew who was in charge. Lin thought that they deserved severe punishment for what they had done, and she was more than willing to be the one to dole it out.
"You're in no state to go off looking for a couple of thugs you'll never find," Su said, folding her arms across her chest. "Why did we let you talk us out of taking you to a healer again?"
"Because I'm fine," Lin scoffed. "All I need is a shower and a twelve hour nap and I'll be good as new. Speaking of," she turned to Tenzin, who was frowning at a shattered picture frame and carefully trying to extract the family photo within, "I'm gonna check the bedroom and try to rip this armor off."
Tenzin and Su both suddenly lurched forward, so quickly that Lin actually flinched, and then scowled as they worriedly asked her, "Do you need help?"
"No," she immediately snapped, glaring at the both of them. "I'm not an invalid!"
They began stammering apologetically and saying that wasn't what they meant, but Lin was already stomping away and ignoring them, glass crunching beneath her boots at she went. She was fuming as she strode down the hallway, but she reigned in the instinctive reaction, trying to relax her hands, which had balled into fists. She knew they just wanted to help, but she wasn't going to have someone basically undress her when she was fully capable of doing it herself. It would be a pain without bending, but there were clips on the armor in case of emergency, so she wasn't trapped.
On her way to her own room, she stopped in to check on Sora and Yunjin, whose rooms had thankfully gone untouched. Their rooms were still a mess though, from all the chaos of trying to pack in a rush when the plan had been to send them to Zaofu, so she advised them both to shower and then clean their rooms. She didn't really want them helping with the clean up in the living room and the entryway, because she didn't trust them around all the broken glass and metal shards. They had proven that they were pretty tough kids over the last few days, but that didn't make them any less careless as young kids were prone to be. Not that getting nicked by a piece of glass would be the end of the world, but Lin had seen them suffer enough lately.
Lin was relieved to find that her own bedroom had not been destroyed either, and if she hadn't still been coated in a layer of grime and blood she would have sank right down into her bed. Instead, she sighed as she gazed longingly at it, and then walked past it to the bathroom. She began inspecting her armor, seeking out the little clasps that she had never used in all her life, and tried not to think too much about the fact that she would likely never wear the armor again once she had it off. It had been like a second skin to her for the majority of her life, and now it just felt like a burden. Her shoulders and her back hurt from the weight and the inner part of her arms were beginning to chafe. She wanted to tear it off and never look at it again, because it was only a painful reminder now.
Except her life was utterly ridiculous, and she barely managed to get half of the armor off before she ran into a problem. The boots and knee pads came off fairly easily, and her left wrist and arm guards unclasped with only slight difficulty, but the right arm only came halfway undone and the chest plate was almost impenetrable. Considering that the clasps had never been used in the functional sense, they were already finicky to begin with, but add onto that the years of abuse to her armor and the fact that she'd been electrocuted several times over the last few weeks, and they were completely stuck. No amount of wiggling and prying could change the fact that part of the metal had been melted and smashed, and nobody's fingers were going to be strong enough to tear them apart. Within only a few minutes, Lin was overheated and sweating from the exertion, and frustrated beyond belief. She only grew more and more aggravated the longer she was trapped, and the idea of having to go and ask her sister for help was so mortifying that she wanted to just crawl into a hole and never come out again. In her anger, she growled through her gritted teeth and slammed her still metal clad wrist down on the nearest surface, which happened to be the sink, which cracked under the force of her blow. Lin immediately began spewing even more curses, because now she had broken the sink and her arm was throbbing, and she was still trapped in metal.
She dropped down onto the edge of the tub with a huff and put her head in her hands, scrubbing her palms against her eyes, and then curling her fingers through her hair and kneading the sides of her temple with the heels of her hands. She tried taking a deep breath, but she was so overheated and panting at that point that it was going to take more than that to calm her down. She was probably overreacting, and she knew that, but she wasn't exactly in a mood to be patient.
Of course all the noise she was making had caused Tenzin and Su to come running, and with how fast they made it to the bathroom, Lin almost wondered if they had been standing out in the hallway just waiting for her to accept she needed help. She hadn't been able to sense them coming though, and it nearly made her jump when Tenzin was suddenly squatted down in front of her, and she hoped that instinctive reaction would go away soon, because she couldn't be panicking every time someone unexpected appeared. It was going to take some getting used to, all those little things she had just automatically done with her bending and could no longer do.
Tenzin put his hand on Lin's knee and peered up at her, squeezing gently and gazing at her with those all too knowing eyes of his. "It's okay, Lin," he said softly. "Let us help you."
"It's stuck," Lin muttered pathetically, as if they hadn't already assumed as much.
Tenzin nodded patiently, like he did when the kids were having a meltdown and he was trying to assure them they weren't insane. He reached up to grasp her right hand, and delicately pulled it away from her hair before examining the armor. He skimmed his fingers across the metal over her forearm until he found the clasps, and he tugged for a few seconds, until coming to the same conclusion Lin already had.
"Is it okay if Su removes it?" Tenzin asked her, as if she even had a choice in the matter.
It wasn't okay, because Lin was supposed to be strong. She was supposed to be the big sister that helped and protected Su, not the other way around. But then again, Su was a grown up, and she did just fine with protecting herself, and maybe Lin had to get over her own ego for five seconds and just let her sister take the armor off so she could finally breathe.
But it was a hard pill to swallow, and it look Lin a few seconds before she begrudgingly nodded, finally looking up to acknowledge Su, who was hovering in the doorway. "Just try not to hit me in the face," Lin warned.
Su snorted and stepped into the small space. "I think I can manage it," she said.
Lin noticed that Tenzin didn't back up to get out of Su's way as she stepped in front of Lin, but shuffled over just slightly to allow her to stand next to him, his hand still firmly braced against Lin's knee. Lin knew he was trying to hold her hand without her getting insulted.
Thankfully, Su didn't wait to check on Lin's state of mind. The moment she grabbed her sister's metal-clad arm, she effortlessly stripped it all off, and Lin tried not to cringe at how easy it looked and how easy it used to be for her. The metal clattered noisily to the floor, and then Su flicked her wrist, and the huge armor over Lin's chest and back finally came free to settle next to the tub.
Lin immediately felt a hundred pounds lighter, and she sagged in relief, a heavy sigh falling from her lips as her eyes slid closed for a moment, and she slumped so far forward she started sliding off of the edge of the tub. Tenzin and Su both reached out to hold her in place, and when she opened her eyes to look at them, both were staring at her body with grim expressions on their faces. Lin looked down too, and saw what had probably alarmed them, but honestly she thought it looked better than it felt. There were various burn marks and dark bruises all along her bare arms, and the tank top she wore was singed through in places and saturated in days worth of sweat.
"It's not that bad," Lin deflected.
"I really wish you'd let me call a healer," Su murmured, clearly aware that it was for nothing, but still giving her sister a look halfway between a scowl and worry.
"We're going to see Katara tomorrow," Lin reasoned. "After she's done with Korra, I'll let her take a look." She didn't want anyone else poking and prodding at her just then, even if it would bring her some relief. She felt too raw and vulnerable as it was.
"Nevertheless," Tenzin said with a frown, "I'm going to clean those burns up some." He looked up at his sister-in-law and added, "Thank you, Su. I'll take it from here. Can you let us know if Jeia gets back?"
Su nodded, but before she left, she bent down to pull Lin into a gentle hug, whispering next to her ear, "I love you."
Lin swallowed most of the emotion that simple statement caused her to feel, but she hugged Su back fervently and replied, "I love you too…and thank you." It had been decades before they had been able to say that to each other with any sort of ease, and even though it was still difficult for Lin to admit weakness, it give Lin immense comfort to have Su there for support. And besides, Su had brought her out of crippling postpartum depression before, so what difference did it make if Su saw her crippled without her bending?
Su squeezed Lin one last time, and then hastened out of the bathroom, and Lin turned her gaze onto her husband, but he had risen to his feet too, and was busying himself pulling salves out of the cabinet. He couldn't find what he was looking for though, and he started muttering under his breath, his annoyance growing until he looked about to snap. Lin pushed herself up off of the tub and closed the short distance between them, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to turn to face her. They were alone now, finally, and when he looked down at her it wasn't just with sorrow or concern, but with deep, unabashed love.
Tenzin put his hands on Lin's hips, and at first she assumed he would pull her into a hug, but she decided herself that that wasn't enough, and before he could move, she reached up to frame his face in her hands. Then she dragged him down until their lips met in a frenzied kiss. It didn't take but a moment for Tenzin to respond, moving his lips against hers with the same desperation, the same gut-wrenching emotion. It wasn't exactly their best kiss, considering how disgusting they both were, the bitter taste of blood and sweat on their mouths, but it seemed one of the most important. They had been separated for days, and in that time they had faced never ending turmoil, but now they were reunited, and just the feeling of their bodies pressed together at long last was an unimaginable relief. Lin in particular had been struggling to feel anything besides heightened emotions since the loss of her bending, and Tenzin's fingertips grazing across her exposed hips and his lips moving against hers was electrifying – but in the good way. She wanted all of him surrounding her and she kissed him with such passion that all else faded away for just a few moments. She did not feel the sting from the marks on her skin or the emptiness of her missing bending or anything else that wasn't him. She reveled in the familiarity and the warmth and the fact that he was clearly just as enraptured by her.
They were both too exhausted to keep it going for long, and the heated kisses soon turned soft and lazy, until they were mostly just leaning into one another, foreheads pressed together, and Tenzin murmured in between kisses, "You are…the most amazing woman…in the entire world…and I love you…so much…don't ever doubt that." And when he said it like that, she certainly did not doubt it for even a second.
The sun had begun to set by the time one of the Metal Clan airships came to hover over the Island.
In the city, the United Forces and the rest of the Metal Clan airships had taken control and were still working to instill order.
On Air Temple Island, everyone had bathed and changed into clean clothes, and ate their fill of whatever food they could find that did not require cooking. The front of the house had been cleaned up and most of the damage was repaired or set aside to deal with at another time. Su had sent a message to Zaofu, to assure her family that everyone was okay, and that Nira and the other Acolytes that had escaped the Island could return. Tenzin wanted to go looking for the rest of the Acolytes and White Lotus that were likely imprisoned, but resolved to wait until the United Forces had done their sweep. They were working on freeing anyone imprisoned by the Equalists, so it was likely they would find the Acolytes before Tenzin could.
Lin was beyond ready to sleep, but would not rest until she saw Jeia Rai. When they spotted the airship approaching from across the Bay, she and the others all went outside to wait. Once it finally arrived, Asami and Bolin were the first two to disembark, and Ronen, Mako, and Korra went racing over to embrace their friends. The teens remained in a huddle, swapping stories and expressing relief, but also sorrow for Korra's lost bending. Sora and Yunjin went to join in after a moment, and Bolin hugged them both with excitement, lifting them halfway up off of the ground and causing the twins to laugh.
Lin observed the kids, but kept her gaze mostly on the airship, waiting impatiently and wondering if she should just barge onboard.
However, soon after she considered that option, three figures could be seen descending from the boarding ramp. She saw first the two adults – Kuvira and Bataar Jr – and in the middle of them, the toddler Lin had been so impatient to see.
Jeia was shrouded in a metal chest plate that closely resembled the one that Kuvira wore, and there was a bit of dirt smudged on her face, but she appeared unharmed and otherwise healthy. She was holding tight to Kuvira's hand, which Lin found strange considering Jeia's animosity towards most people that weren't immediate family. But she couldn't be bothered to think about Jeia's apparent trust in Kuvira, simply too happy to see the last of her kids at long last and to know that Jeia truly was okay. She didn't even realize her feet were moving until she had already crossed half the distance to the airship, and when Jeia noticed her and excitedly called, "Mama! Dada!" Lin forced her aching muscles to run one last time, and she could see Tenzin out of her peripheral vision doing the same.
Jeia dropped Kuvira's hand and went running towards her parents too, and Lin and Tenzin fell to their knees just in time for Jeia to leap into their arms. Lin and Tenzin held their littlest girl close and Tenzin peppered her face with kisses until Jeia was squirming, and then Lin playfully pulled the toddler onto her lap and teased, "Let the kid breathe."
Jeia wiped at her face and agreed, "Yeah, Dada!"
Tenzin just beamed, scooting closer until he could wrap his arms around both Lin and Jeia again, and told the toddler, "I'm just so glad to see you, my sweet girl. How are you? Did Kuvira and Junior take good care of you?"
Jeia nodded and, much to Lin's surprise, actually grinned, which wasn't unheard of, but certainly a rare thing for Jeia. "I is Metal Clan now!" Jeia declared, tapping the metal plate covering her chest, and she looked so damned proud of herself that Lin couldn't help but smile a little too, despite the slight discomfort at the four year old's proclamation. It did bring another pang of awareness too, that Lin would never be able to really bond with Jeia over bending again, or show the girl how certain things were done in her lessons, but Jeia was shaping up to be an incredible metalbender, and Lin thought that maybe seeing her daughter flourish would be enough to ease the ache.
"Oh you are, are you?" Tenzin asked Jeia seriously. "Does that mean you're too grown up for Mama and me now?"
Jeia nodded regretfully. "Uh huh."
"I suppose you'll be moving off to Zaofu then," Tenzin said with an overly dramatic sigh, looking at Lin and lamenting, "We'll surely miss our little girl, won't we?"
Lin shrugged and played along, "Hey, if she's gotta go, she's gotta go. We can't stand in her way."
Jeia made a face and looked at both of them with discontent, suddenly shaking her head vehemently. "Uh uh," she denied, grabbing each of her parents shirts in her tiny fists. "No go. I stay. I is still you's little girl."
She burrowed into Lin's chest and held on for dear life, and Lin squeezed her tight, kissing the top of her head as Tenzin said, "Well I'm glad. I'd like to keep you around a bit longer."
"I stay forever, Dada," Jeia soothed, before her mouth opened in a wide yawn.
"Oh, good," Lin said with utter relief. "You're tired too. Can we please sleep for eternity now?"
Tenzin chuckled and acquiesced, "Anything for you, my love."
It took a while longer for everyone to get settled, but eventually Lin finally got to lie down in her own bed and it had never felt so good in all her life. Kuvira and Junior had decided to return to the city, despite Su's insistence that they stay and rest. The older teens piled around the living room, apparently still young enough not to care that they weren't in beds, or simply wanting to stay together a while longer. Jeia insisted on sleeping in her parents' bed, and Sora and Yunjin both seemed torn between wanting to act more mature and wanting to simply stay with their parents too. In the end, Sora pointedly lamented that Su had to sleep in the guest room all by herself, and Su had pretended to be a little distraught, so that both the twins immediately offered to stay with her. Su had acted like she was the one that needed them nearby, so that the twins could feel soothed by their aunt's presence without admitting to any sort of concern for being alone on their own parts.
With all that settled and the United Forces working tirelessly to right the city, despite the nightmare that had been her life only twenty-four hours ago, Lin fell easily into a blissful slumber and did not stir.
Ronen did not feel wholly refreshed after a single night's sleep, but he was beyond relieved to wake in his own home surrounded by family and friends.
He was not surprised to find that Korra was already lying awake, despite everyone else still being asleep, and he went to his friend and simply lay beside her, supporting her in anyway that he could. He knew that there was nothing he could do to bring her bending back, that he could not fully understand the loss, but he wanted nothing more than to help his best friend and his mother if at all possible.
He felt some guilt at not having been able to stop Amon from taking their bending. Even though he knew it was not his fault, even though he knew that he had done all that he could. He hadn't even known that his mother had been captured until it was too late, and when he and Korra and Mako had chased Amon into one of the unfinished rooms in the arena, things had gone awry from the start. The three of them had separated to search, and Amon had grasped Korra in his bloodbending grip as she passed by his hiding place. Ronen and Mako had immediately begun throwing fire and boomerang attacks, and had succeeded in distracting Amon for a short time, but Ronen had ended up propelled into some wooden planks, causing him to hit his head pretty hard. He didn't fully black out, but he had still struggled to pick himself up, his eyes blurry and obscured by blood. In the time it took him to get up and back across the room, Amon had already taken Korra's bending. In his fury, Ronen had sprinted straight into Amon, tackling him into the ground and getting in a few short jabs before he was being bloodbended again. Amon had twisted his leg around so badly it had nearly snapped, but he was saved from further injury when Amon had been blasted back by a lightning strike from Mako. The three teens had tried to escape, only to be chased down the hall by Amon, but when he tried to take Mako's bending, Korra had unlocked her airbending just in time to stop it. Amon ended up blasted out of the window and escaped across the Bay, and Ronen had been struggling ever since to reconcile all that had happened in such a short span time. He imagined it was even harder on Korra.
They had all been through so much, and none of them could fathom how the Avatar could be without her connection to three of the elements, but Ronen held out hope that his grandmother would put it right, somehow. She was a miracle worker that way, always a steady presence in his life despite the distance. He didn't get to see her as often as he would have liked, but he knew that she was always there if he ever needed her or simply wanted to talk. She sent him and all of his siblings letters fairly regularly, telling each of them separate stories that she knew they would like based on their different personalities. And when tragedy struck, she would often travel the distance to Republic City to be with them. He knew that she would have made the trip to see Korra in the city if asked, but Ronen's parents hardly ever requested it of her if they were capable of simply going to the South Pole. Since none of them were too unwell to make the flight, they agreed to fly there together on Su's airship.
Everyone else slept fairly late that morning, but Su was the first to make any real progress, going to the kitchen to start on breakfast, and Ronen ushered Korra up and convinced her to go with him to help his aunt, in part to distract her from her tumultuous thoughts, but also simply because Su was a terrible cook, and Ronen didn't quite trust her to manage an edible breakfast for eleven people – fourteen, actually, because Kuvira, Junior, and Bumi showed up looking exhausted and harried, but bearing not so bad news.
The United Forces and the Metal Clan had completely taken control of the city, demolishing what was left of Hiroshi's aircraft and the Equalist's airships. Anyone still causing trouble or dressed in Equalist garb were arrested, and many of the imprisoned benders had been found in various prisons and freed. There were several domestic disputes still going on, as some still believed in the path of the Equalists even if their leader was a fake, and some that had not been at the rally did not fully believe that he was. Some of the disputes turned particularly violent, but the United Forces were doing their best to smother the flames of the revolution. The captured council members and Chief Saikhan had been recovered, all of them mostly unharmed, but without their bending. The council was apparently talking of disbanding, and Saikhan wasn't sure what to do without being a metalbender and having lost the majority of his officers when Amon took their bending too, but most of the police were still willing to help out as much as they could. It would take time before the city was righted, but things were looking up at least.
People had been requesting that Lin and Tenzin return to help with the effort, but Bumi had shut them all down until such a time as the two of them were willing and able. Considering how dedicated they had been to the city in their lives, Ronen was surprised that his parents weren't trying to jump right back in, at least in some capacity, but his Aunt Su had explained to him that their longevity in city matters was precisely why they were not rushing to return to service. She told him that his parents had dedicated their lives to Republic City, and in the process their family had been threatened, and their priority now was their children and Korra first and foremost. Ronen had no problems understanding that. He did not doubt the lengths his parents would go to for the five of them.
The trip to the South Pole later that morning was subdued, but thankfully more comfortable aboard Su's airship than it would have been on Oogi, who they brought along so that he would not be alone on the Island. They left very soon after breakfast, while Bumi, Kuvira, and Bataar stayed behind to continue their work in Republic City.
When they arrived at the compound, all ten of them, plus Korra's parents, crowded into the small sitting room in the healing hut to begin their wait as Katara took Korra into the adjoining room. Ronen sat with his family, his leg bouncing with nerves as he cast surreptitious glances at the door to his grandmother's healing room. Jeia began drifting off in Tenzin's arms, exhausted by the long flight and unnerved by the obvious tension in the room. Ronen's father was doing his best to play a card game with Jin and Sora and Aunt Su, while also holding onto Jeia and frequently reaching out to squeeze some part of his wife's arm or knee or hand.
Ronen's mother had reached out to grab Ronen's knee at some point, to stop him from shaking it, but when he looked over at her to apologize, her gaze was set firmly on the same door he was watching. Ronen realized then how much the outcome meant to her, not just on Korra's behalf, but because it would also determine whether or not she would ever be able to earthbend again. It made Ronen's heart ache, and before his mother could pull her hand away from his knee, he snatched it up in his own hands and held on tight. His mother didn't really react, but she squeezed his hand back gratefully. On Ronen's other side, his Aunt Su rubbed his back in a gesture of comfort, and when he glanced over at her, she gave him a reassuring smile.
Ronen was trying to be optimistic, and thought for sure that everything would have to turn out just fine, but when his grandmother stepped out of the healing room, he could tell instantly by the expression on her face that it would not be so.
Everyone immediately surged to their feet, after sitting impossibly still for so long, looking to Katara for good news, but instead she said solemnly, "I tried everything in my power, but I cannot restore Korra's bending."
Ronen's mother's hand slipped from his grasp as she beseeched her mother-in-law, "But you're the best healer in the world! You have to keep trying."
"I'm sorry," Katara said, "but there is nothing I can do. Korra can still airbend, but her connection to the rest of the elements has been severed."
Ronen watched his mother deflate, and then Korra emerged, looking no better, her grief palpable.
Ronen's father soothed, "It's going to be all right, Korra."
But Korra shook her head and quietly said, "No, it's not."
Korra immediately went to escape outside, and Ronen's first instinct was to follow, but he paused for a moment, looking at his mother as she sank back down into her chair. But his Aunt Su squeezed his shoulder and tilted her head in the direction of the door, motioning for him to go after Korra. Ronen took a hesitant step back, and watched for a moment as his father, Su, Jeia, Jin, and Sora crowded around his mother, and although he still wished to join them, he knew that his mother would be okay while he went to be with his friend.
By the time Ronen made it outside, he saw Korra already taking off on Naga, and Mako calling uselessly after her.
"She needs time," Ronen told Mako, when the older boy looked crestfallen and hopelessly after Korra. "Let me talk to her."
Mako seemed to want to argue his own lack of involvement, but Ronen didn't stick around. He took off in the direction Korra had gone, wishing he had his own polar bear dog to catch up and hoping Korra didn't run for long. The last time she had been given bad news in the South Pole she had run the whole way to Republic City, and while Ronen didn't think she would go back there of all places, it certainly didn't mean she would not consider going elsewhere. However, things were different now. Korra had a room full of people to go back to, and she was in a raw emotional state that probably made her too weary to do anything drastic.
Ronen was relieved when he finally spotted Naga and Korra at the cliff edge in the distance. She had not gone far, but clearly in the time it had taken for Ronen to get there, something completely impossible had happened. Ronen had expected to find Korra crying or raging or both, but what he saw instead was a miracle.
Korra was hovering several meters above the ground, and though it was airbending that held her aloft, Ronen could see that she was bending all of the other elements too, as first a ring of fire emanated from her, and then a rock wall, and then a wave from the ocean below came rushing up the cliff side. And Ronen stood back in amazement, until the elements calmed back down to stillness and Korra settled her feet on the snow packed ground.
Then Ronen went rushing to her, smile broad even as he questioned, "What? How?"
The two of them collided and embraced, spinning around in a circle as Korra laughed gleefully, and when she pulled back, she explained, "I finally connected with my spiritual self, with Aang."
Ronen shook his head in bewilderment and could only manage to say, "Wow…I mean…wow…I'm so happy for you, Korra."
"And there's more," Korra told him excitedly. "I think I can restore your mom's bending too."
Ronen grinned from ear to ear, his heart lifting with joy at the news, fully believing her when she said it, knowing that it must be possible if Korra had gotten her own bending back. He told Korra, "Please be sure to give Grandpa Aang my thanks."
Korra did not respond, as her attention was suddenly diverted by something over Ronen's shoulder, and he spun around to see Mako standing a few meters away, watching Korra with a fond smile.
"Give me a minute," Korra said, and Ronen waited while she rushed over to Mako. The two of them embraced, and then exchanged some words that Ronen couldn't quite decipher. Then Mako nodded slowly, gaze downcast as he squeezed Korra's shoulder and then turned and began the walk back to the compound. Korra came jogging back, and before Ronen could even ask, she explained, "He told me he was in love with me earlier."
Ronen's eyes widened, his eyebrows shooting up into his hair, even though he really shouldn't have been surprised. "And what did you say?" he asked.
"That I had to think about it," Korra replied with half a shrug. Ronen winced with a sharp inhale, and Korra frowned. "What?" she demanded. "What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing, nothing!" Ronen placated, fighting the smile playing about his lips. "Just not exactly the thing a person wants to hear when they bare their soul to you."
Korra scoffed. "Oh, come on! It's not like that. He totally gets it. He told me so."
Ronen nodded. "I'm sure he did."
Korra whacked him on the shoulder and he couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out as she persisted, "It's a perfectly reasonable response!"
"Uh, huh," Ronen continued to tease, striding past Korra to climb aboard Naga, and she was still ranting as she took the reigns and darted across the landscape. When they reached Mako, who was striding slowly back to the compound, Korra stopped Naga, and Ronen held out his hand to help Mako climb onto the polar bear dog as he said, "Come on, lover boy."
Mako nearly slipped off of Naga in surprise, and then gave Korra an annoyed look as he recovered and asked, "You told him already?"
Korra glared at Ronen and deadpanned, "I hate you."
Ronen just smiled and looked back and forth between his two friends, telling Mako, "Listen, if you want a shot at Korra you gotta go through me."
Mako rolled his eyes and Korra scoffed as she began guiding Naga forward again. "Now you're just reusing the same lines," Mako said.
"Hey, when it works, it works," Ronen defended. "Never throw away something you can reuse."
"I wouldn't say it worked," Mako countered, fighting amusement but folding his arms over his chest petulantly. "Your mom saved your ass."
"Yeah, well, what can I say? She's always stealing my thunder," Ronen lamented with an exaggerated sigh. He could feel Korra's back shaking with the silent laughter she was trying desperately to hold in, and Ronen finally knew that everything was going to be just fine.
Shortly after Korra raced out of the healing hut, Lin too began to feel as if she was suffocating in that tiny room. It was so damn hot in there, with all those bodies and the heat from the fire. She was grateful for her family trying to give her the comfort she couldn't help but crave after such solemn news, but she couldn't stand to be surrounded for long.
So she hugged her kids and indulged Su and Tenzin in their empty words of reassurance, and then she made an excuse to go outside and rushed out the door before anyone could protest.
She stumbled out into the snow feeling breathless, like she had been punched in the gut, and she nearly bent over in half the feeling was so great, but she had to get further away, and so she powered through. She didn't go far from the hut, only far enough not to be directly in front of a window. Just being outside in the biting cold was already cooling her down and, as a result, calming her racing heart. She knew that panic was trying to set in, but she pushed it aside, because it wouldn't help anything. It certainly wouldn't improve her current situation in anyway. There was nothing to be done about her bending, and so that was final. It was really gone, and she would have to accept it and adjust. She was no longer an earthbender or a metalbender, no longer the Chief of Republic City, and even though she knew that she should be grateful that her children and Su and Tenzin were okay – and she was – she also had no idea what she was supposed to do, who she even was. And Spirits she missed her mother, because Toph wouldn't have let her sulk, and Toph would have said something that wasn't wholly helpful, but it would have made sense, because Lin and Toph had always been on the same page even when they were at odds with each other. They had been a mess when Toph was alive, but they had loved each other and supported each other. Toph probably wouldn't have followed Lin outside, but she would have made a ridiculous comment the moment she stepped back inside, and the ache of losing her mother suddenly seemed fresh and raw, perhaps because Lin felt as if she had lost the one connection she had left of her mother aside from Su.
Tenzin, however, was no Toph, and he did not wait for Lin to return to the hut. She heard him traipsing noisily through the snow, and considering how light on his feet he usually was, she figured he was purposefully being loud to alert her to his presence, which she found more annoying than comforting. Was that how everyone was going to treat her now?
She knew he was just trying to be considerate though, that he was just as much on uncharted territory as she was, and so she didn't snap at him when she turned to face him.
"I'm sorry," he said first, and she was getting really tired of hearing that too. "I know you probably want to be alone right now, but…I just wanted to check."
"Don't worry, I'm not planning on face planting in the snow this time," she said in a poor attempt at a joke, as if he needed reminding of her postpartum depression.
As expected, he didn't laugh, but furrowed his brow in concern and reached out to tentatively grasp her hand as he questioned, "Is that how you feel? Like how you did then?"
Lin shook her head and sighed. "No, I don't know…I don't think so. I don't really know how I feel. I don't know where I go from here."
"Well you don't have to decide all of that right now," Tenzin soothed. "I know it's easier said than done, but you cannot let yourself be lost in a sea of worries. We will all help you through this in anyway you need us to, and when the time comes to decide on your next move, I'll be with you every step of the way. Everything will be okay."
Lin bobbed her head in agreement, even though she didn't fully feel comforted. Not because his words weren't genuine or wholesome, but because she simply lacked the ability to find optimism at the moment. She knew that she would surpass it, that she would eventually move on, but when everything was so fresh she could hardly stand to speak. She folded her arms across her chest because now the cold was starting to get to her, but she was spared from having to say anything when she noticed Naga approaching at a hasty speed. Tenzin turned with her to watch the approach, not so subtly slipping his arm around her shoulders so that his cloak fell over her back.
As the polar bear dog skidded to a halt in front of the healing hut, Korra, Ronen, and Mako leapt off. Mako went in the direction of the front door, but Ronen and Korra spotted Lin and Tenzin and came running.
Ronen shouted, "Mom!" and as he and Korra drew closer, she could see that they were both smiling broadly.
Lin and Tenzin exchanged a look of confusion, and then the two teens were upon them. Korra crashed into Tenzin's arms and Ronen excitedly embraced his mother. Lin scrambled to hug him back, her surprise slowing her response time, but then Ronen and Korra were already taking a step back.
Tenzin questioned, "What's this all about?"
"We've got good news," Ronen said breathlessly, slipping his arm through Korra's and still beaming with delight. He nudged his friend and encouraged, "Tell them."
"I've got my bending back!" Korra exclaimed.
Lin felt her breath leave her chest, and she was too stunned to respond, but Tenzin stammered, "What? Really? Are you sure? How?"
Korra demonstrated by summoning a ball of flame in the palm of her hand, and Lin's eyes widened. It was true!
"I finally connected with my spiritual self," Korra explained. "I connected with Aang. He restored my bending. He said when we are at our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change."
Tenzin smiled softly, shaking his head in bewilderment. "Well how about that."
Korra finally turned her bright gaze onto Lin, who gave the girl a small, genuine smile as she said, "I'm happy for you, kid."
Korra's expression turned suddenly more serious, as she reached out and grasped hold of Lin's forearm, staring her dead in the eye as she said, a little more calmly, "There's more. I can mimic what Aang did. I know how to restore your bending too."
Lin could have collapsed from the overwhelming emotions that single statement brought on. Her knees started to buckle, but she tensed her muscles and forced herself to remain upright, to control the reaction her body wanted her to have. She wrapped her own hand around Korra's wrist and breathlessly asked, "Are you sure?"
Korra nodded emphatically. "First thing in the morning, you'll have your bending back, I promise. I'm gonna go meditate on it now!"
"You're going to what?" Tenzin spluttered in surprise, because every attempt he'd made to get the girl to meditate had been useless.
But Korra was already running off back towards the hut, and Ronen grinned at his parents before racing after her.
Lin watched them go, still in a state of shock, and when Tenzin turned her to face him, she could only look up at him in astonishment. He was smiling just as broadly as the kids now, and he placed his hands on either side of her face, gazing at her with adoration as he murmured, "I told you everything would be all right."
Lin snorted, and feeling came rushing back to her limbs. "Really? That's what you're going with? 'I told you so'?"
Tenzin chuckled and leaned in to give her a short kiss, and then he teased, "Well, if you would listen to me the first time."
"You'd better watch it, Airhead," Lin warned. "This time tomorrow I'll be able to kick your ass again."
"Oh, darling," Tenzin said seriously, slipping his arm around her shoulders to begin leading her in the direction of the hut, where their family waited, "I never doubted that you still could."
The following morning, everyone rose before dawn and made the short trip to an earth temple nearby, where Lin knelt down before Korra and held her breath. The young Avatar placed one hand on Lin's shoulder and another on her forehead, and when Lin closed her eyes this time, she was not consumed with terror and grief. Her family was safe and close by, and she was not tied up and surrounded by enemies about to have her soul ripped out.
Unlike when Amon had taken her bending, Lin did not feel any pain when her bending came rushing back. It was so subtle at first that she almost wasn't sure it was even happening, but then a warmth began to course through her veins for the first time in days, and her heart was thumping faster, and the cool stone beneath her knee began to throb in time to the beat of her heart, and the stone began to feel soft, comforting, and warm.
By the time Korra's hands slipped away and Lin opened her eyes, the throbbing was spiraling outwards, until suddenly she could feel all of it, the smooth stone beneath her, the frozen earth beneath the snow, the pillars of stone surrounding the temple, the bodies of family and friends standing nearby. It brought with it an exhilarating rush of adrenaline, and she rose to her feet with all the confidence in the world, and when she shifted her stance and raised her arms, the earth spoke back to her again, and bowed to her command. Twelve stone pillars rose up out of the ground, and she let them hover there for a moment, let herself revel in the feel of it, and if she had wanted to, she could have thrown every one of those pillars off into oblivion. Instead, she breathed in a refreshing lungful of air, and then she dropped the pillars back down into their original place.
She turned to Korra with a soft smile of relief and gratitude, and said, "Thank you."
Korra bowed formally, and then grinned and surged forward to pull Lin into a brief hug. The moment Korra stepped back, Lin was nearly tackled to the ground by Jin and Sora. Over the twins' cheers of glee, she could hear Tenzin telling Korra, "I'm so proud of you, Avatar Korra."
Ronen, Jeia, and Su came rushing up the stairs too, and Katara soon after, and Lin was fending off hugs from all of them, but she was smiling and laughing along with them, and she felt truly whole. Her bending had been restored, and everyone that she loved was there with her, and everything that had been shattered had been made right again.
There had been a time, long ago, when she believed that love brought only pain, and that creating a family was not the right path for her life to take, but in that moment, consumed by love and family, she had never been more glad to be so wrong in all her life.
Notes:
Some exciting news today! The wonderful jv2en3 drew the four Linzin kids as they look at their current ages, and it turned out AMAZING. Be sure to check out the link below and give some love! Thanks again jv2en3, you're awesome.
Hope you guys enjoyed, and until next time!
jv23.tumblr.com/post/176338782512/heres-my-take-on-leia-rayn-storms-linzin-kids
Chapter 55: Chapter 55
Chapter Text
Chapter 55
Lin and her family, Korra, and the teens stayed in the South Pole for another three days to celebrate Ronen's sixteenth birthday with Katara. Su's family journeyed to the compound too – minus Kuvira and Junior, who were still busy in Republic City – the day after Korra restored Lin's bending. Ronen's birthday celebration started first thing in the morning, when Sora and Yunjin woke him at dawn by leaping on top of his bed and noisily jostling him awake. Lin, Tenzin, and Katara cooked a giant breakfast for everyone, and when Ronen sat down at the head of the table, both his parents leaned down to kiss him on either cheek, mainly because Lin wanted to remind him that he would never be too old for her to embarrass him in front of his friends. Lin and Tenzin hadn't been able to get much in the way of gifts for Ronen, with everything that had been going on, but when Su had sent word to Bataar about coming to the South Pole, she also had him pick up a few things that Lin had requested so that the boy would not have to wait until they returned to the city.
Su always went all out for her kids' birthdays, and tried to do the same for her nieces and nephews, but Lin and Tenzin liked to keep it simple, and for once, Su actually listened to her sister's pleas and didn't purchase anything overtly extravagant for Ronen. Instead she gifted him with an old pocket watch that had once belonged to his great-grandfather, Lao Beifong. Lin never had much of a relationship with either of her grandparents, so she hadn't been in the habit of discussing them much with her own kids, but Su had been fond of them, since they had taken her in for a time after she had been sent away from Republic City, and she had kept most of Lao and Poppy's belongings when they passed away. Ronen seemed to love the pocket watch, and was interested to hear what Su had to say about the great-grandparents he never knew. The Beifong family seal was etched into the watch too, which was about as close as he would ever get to owning something that was linked to his Grandma Toph, who had never been one for keepsakes.
Thanks to Bataar's last minute shopping, Lin and Tenzin were able to gift Ronen with a brand new sheathe for his boomerang, as well as a new pair of boots. Tenzin also promised his eldest son that, as soon as they were able, they were going to take a father/son bonding trip, just the two of them, like Tenzin's father used to do for him. Since Ronen didn't really need to visit the Air Temples as Tenzin had, Tenzin was leaving it up to Ronen to decide where they would go, and the boy seemed to find that gift the most exciting of them all. Ronen always expressed a desire to travel, as Lin and Tenzin didn't often get to take the kids on trips outside of the same few locations where their relatives lived. It was simply too difficult for both of them to get time off from work for long stretches of time, or to convince Jeia to endure a flight, or to feel comfortable taking the unpredictable twins somewhere unfamiliar. So it was a rare treat for Ronen to get some time alone with his father and a trip to anywhere of his choosing.
Asami, Korra, Mako, and Bolin all gave Ronen some sort of gadget they claimed to have made together, but Lin figured it was more like the Sato girl put it together while the other three stood around and watched. It turned out to be some kind of grappling hook that was retractable, not unlike how Lin's metal cables could be used, but without bending. Lin wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of Ronen using it to climb things, but she only frowned and kept her opinion to herself. Ronen had just fought in a war so she figured complaining about how dangerous that thing could be was rather pointless. Apparently Ronen had been trying to perfect the retractable grappling hook himself, but had run into some troubles with it and had all but given up. He was beyond thrilled that his friends had got it working, but demanded to know how it was done, which led to a long, complicated conversation between Ronen and Asami that everyone else eventually tuned out of to discuss more important matters. Like the cake, which was being guarded by Bataar and Su after Lin had had to keep slapping Yunjin and Wei's fingers away from the icing.
Ronen also received various little crafts from his siblings and his cousins. Jeia had given him a metal coin that she'd morphed into a shape vaguely reminiscent of a dragon, simply because the girl was going through a dragon fascination stage. Ronen had praised Jeia's craftsmanship and immediately asked Lin to put a small hole through it so that he could put the coin onto a thread and wear it around his neck. Jin and Sora had tried to paint a picture for their brother together, but had argued so much over how it should be done that they ended up making separate pictures. Huan had created some small metal sculpture that Lin didn't understand, but Ronen raved over anyways. Opal was the only one that didn't make anything, but instead gave Ronen a series of books she thought he might enjoy. Wei and Wing had made a simple card that was covered in a ridiculous amount of craft materials, and inside was a haphazard collage of cut up pictures from when the kids were younger. Most of the pictures were from when Ronen was around eight, Wei and Wing were seven, Opal was ten, and Jin and Sora were five, because that was the time when Su went through her photography phase, and the little kids were the only ones that actually wanted their pictures taken constantly.
Katara had made a set of clothes for her eldest grandson and gave him some ancient looking books too, and then she presented him with one of Aang's old wooden necklaces with the Air Nomad insignia carved into it. She explained that, even though Ronen was not technically an airbender, she knew he was capable of taking good care of the memento of his late grandfather's, and that she believed Aang would have wanted Ronen to have it. She went on to say what an admirable young man he was turning out to be, and how much Aang would have loved him and his siblings, and by the end, everyone in the room was teary-eyed – or, in Bolin's case, outright sobbing about how beautiful it was, while Korra patted him on the back.
After everyone had eaten their share of cake and snacks, the kids all ran outside to try out Ronen's new grappling hook, while the adults stayed inside to clean up. Jeia, too, chose to remain indoors, as she had spent most of the trip complaining about the cold. She was happier to stay close to the fire where it was warmer, and where she could lounge on her grandmother's lap, while Katara softly told her all kinds of fascinating stories from decades before Jeia was ever born.
Shortly after the adults had finished cleaning up the mess, they went outside to check on the kids, who then suggested they all play kuai ball. Katara, Jeia, and Bataar – who was not at all athletically inclined – sat out as referees, and Ronen and Korra were proclaimed as team captains. Ronen's team consisted of Mako, Wei, Tenzin, Sora, Su, and Opal. Korra had everyone else – Bolin, Asami, Wing, Huan, Lin, and Yunjin. The game became extremely competitive very fast, with siblings pitted against siblings and the fact that almost all of them were already competitive by nature to begin with. There was a lot of shouting and occasional cheating from some of the younger kids, and Su tried bribing her husband to call scores in her favor, until Lin stomped her foot into the ground and propelled Su back across the playing field, snapping at her sister to quit flirting with the referee.
Every time one team would win, the other would demand a rematch, until they had played eight matches, plus a fake one between the third and fourth game, because Jeia had wanted to play and everyone was being purposefully gentle and let her team win. The toddler had been satisfied after that and rejoined her grandmother and Uncle Bataar on the sidelines. By the time they all called it quits it was nearing nightfall, and Katara ushered them all back inside for dinner. Korra's team had won five games, while Ronen's had won three, and Ronen had jokingly complained that they hadn't even let the birthday boy win the most matches.
Despite how exhausted all of them were, most of them stayed up for a while even after dinner, swapping stories about Ronen and playing much more relaxed games of cards or Pai Sho. And when they finally decided they couldn't keep their eyes open a second longer, they all crawled into beds and sleeping bags and were asleep within seconds.
Returning to Republic City after relaxing in the South Pole for four days was a bit of a bummer for Lin. After she and Korra had had their bending restored and the fog of sorrow had lifted, her days had been mostly stress free for the first time since the whole revolution had started. It had been nice to simply enjoy being with her family and not have to worry about everything else for once, and she was not looking forward to returning to the real world.
Su and Bataar and their kids had gone back to Zaofu at Lin and Tenzin's behest, despite Su's attempts to come back to the city to help with the clean up. Lin promised her sister that it wouldn't be long before she and Tenzin and the kids all came to Zaofu for an extended vacation, but that there were things that needed done before they could truly take so much time for themselves.
Tenzin had been dodging the council ever since he had left with his family to go to the South Pole, and they were all rather irritated with him by the time he returned. There was a lot of work to be done, and with Tarrlok gone and the whole mess that was left in his wake, the council was struggling to keep up. Some of the United Forces leaders were helping, like Iroh, but most of them were not bureaucrats and were better at the physical clean up than the political one. A lot of Equalists had been imprisoned, while a lot more had shed their masks and electric gloves to hide their involvement and feign innocence. The police were questioning bending victims and witness, but they were unlikely to ever find all of the people that had been involved in the revolution. As a result, tensions still ran high between benders and nonbenders, all of them uncertain whether or not their neighbors had been plotting against them. The United Forces had contained most of the disputes though, and with the way the military was marching through the streets everyday, the citizens were starting to calm down, either from fear or simply because they cooled off as time passed.
Korra wished to begin restoring everyone's bending right away, but considering how many had lost theirs, Lin insisted that it had to be a meticulously planned and coordinated effort so that the girl wasn't being overwhelmed by everyone coming to her at one time. To appease herself while she waited, Korra started with the benders on Air Temple Island: the White Lotus members that had been recovered from prison cells and had returned to the Island to await their next orders. The rest of the Air Acolytes had been found as well, and Nira and a few others had returned from Zaofu, and Tenzin had spent his first few hours back home hugging and thanking and asking after all of them.
Later that same day, Korra went into the city with Tenzin and Lin, who was also being asked to return to service even though she had resigned as Chief. Lin wasn't sure if the council expected her to return to the police force full time, and she wasn't wholly certain if she wanted to either, but she still went because the city was a mess and she wanted to support Tenzin and look after Korra. She knew that Tenzin would be busy with the council, and even though Korra was a perfectly capable Avatar, she was also still a teenager and Lin wasn't about to leave her on her own while she set out on her task to restore everyone's bending. Korra did so for the council and the metalbending police first, including Saikhan and Tosuki. Then Lin helped coordinate a message to get out to the rest of Republic City for the former benders to register for separate time slots on different days, so as not to overwhelm Korra. The girl was insistent that she could do it all at the same time, but Lin wasn't having it any other way.
Lin and Korra eventually returned to the Island later that evening, without Tenzin, who was with the council well into the night. When he returned, Lin was waiting up for him, and he wearily explained the council's plans to disband and their inability to find some other way for the city to function. After everything that had gone on with Tarrlok and the Equalists, the city and the United Forces were no longer confident in the council's ability to maintain order, and the council members themselves were not exactly eager to go on after all that they had endured. Tenzin agreed with the council's reasoning, but was also struggling to imagine himself being without the career he had had for the last several decades. Lin was torn between thinking it was amusing that they were both going to be out of a job now, and wondering what the hell they were going to do if they retired already. What on Earth would they do with all that free time?
The following morning, a Fire Nation ship docked at Air Temple Island, distinctly royal and not the typical look of the United Forces, which concerned Lin a little, considering that they'd had no idea anyone from the royal family was coming to the city. Bumi hadn't said anything about it when he had been at dinner the previous evening, but Bumi had also been rambling on and on about some mission he had supposedly been on a few months ago.
Tenzin had already gone into the city with Korra to help her maintain peace as she began returning bending to some of the citizens, while Lin stayed home with the kids until the afternoon, when she would relieve Tenzin so that he could go to another council meeting. So there was no way Lin could escape dealing with whatever royal diplomatic bullshit she was probably in store for. When one of the Acolytes reported the Fire Nation ship's arrival, she sighed heavily and hastily finished dressing a grumpy, sleepy Jeia before going down to the docks to greet whoever it was.
She had Jeia propped on her hip and the twins insisted on joining her, and Ronen and the other three teens had been outside and went to inspect what was going on too. So all eight of them were standing at the dock when the ship drifted to a halt, and Lin stepped in front of the boarding ramp that was lowered to await her guests. She half expected Zuko to appear and begin berating her for letting the city go to hell, and she doubted it was Izumi, because the Fire Lord must have been far too busy leading the Fire Nation to pop in for a visit, but she certainly didn't expect to see the princess at the top of the ramp.
Several royal guards descended first, and then Ursa was floating down the gangplank with a radiant smile and confidence to her gait. Lin almost didn't recognize the girl that was now nearer to a young woman, but she looked so much like her mother that she couldn't have been mistaken even if she hadn't been dressed in lavish royal wear.
When Ursa reached the bottom of the ramp, she said formally, "Chief Beifong."
And Lin bowed, bringing Jeia with her, before responding with plain surprise, "Princess Ursa."
Before Lin could get another word out, the twins leapt in front of her with excitement.
"Hi, Ursa!" Sora said delightedly.
"Remember us?" Yunjin questioned.
"You're hair is so pretty," Sora gushed.
"Those are some nice robes," Yunjin noted. "Mom, why can't we have robes like that? Are we too poor?"
Lin stomped her heel into the ground, and the twins were suddenly sliding halfway down the docks with a simultaneous, "Hey!"
"I'm sorry," Lin said to Ursa, not acknowledging the twins' exclamations. "This is quite a surprise, Your Highness. We had no idea you were coming."
It was still strange to Lin how she greeted Zuko like an uncle and treated him like family, and yet with Izumi and her kids, she was often more formal and restrained. She supposed it might have been because of the fact that she and Izumi hadn't really been all that close as children, and while they had no contempt for one another, they were both rather guarded individuals and had not been given much time to open up to one another. Izumi had always been the epitome of Fire Nation royalty and strictly focused on her duties, and considering the age difference between them and the fact that young Lin had been a chaotic mess, they hadn't found any common ground until they were much older and barely saw one another.
"It was a bit of a last minute decision," Ursa explained. "Mother thought it prudent that the Fire Nation send a diplomatic envoy to support Republic City during this transition of power. For all my brother's talents, he is a General first and foremost, and the United Forces are bearers of military might more than diplomacy. I volunteered to come lend my expertise, as well as learn more from the city's council. I do hope you don't mind the intrusion. I realize it is rather rude to show up unannounced."
"Oh, uh, not at all," Lin assured, "but I'm afraid we don't have anything prepared. We're still in a bit of disarray and the girls dormitories will need more time before we can have a room ready for you –"
"Oh that won't be a problem," Ursa interjected. "A room in the main house will do fine."
Lin blinked, a little startled, but quickly recovered. "Of course. You can have Ronen's room."
Lin tilted her head in the boy's direction, and was glad to see him nodding along without argument. She hadn't expected him to put up a fuss like one of the twins might have, and his room was the most well taken care of out of the four kids.
Ursa's gaze finally fell upon the four teens standing nearby, and her eyes instantly locked on Ronen, her eyes widening ever so slightly as she said with some astonishment, "Ronen? Is that you?"
Ronen stepped forward with a kind smile and a cordial bow before responding, "Princess Ursa, it's good to see you again. It's been quite some time."
"I'll say," Ursa agreed, looking Ronen up and down. "We were just children then. I must say, you're looking quite handsome these days."
Lin's eyes went wide and Ronen's cheeks turned bright red. The boy began to stammer, "Oh, um, thank you, Princess. So are you…I mean beautiful, that is…uh, I mean, have I introduced you to my friends?" He whirled suddenly on the teens that stood just behind him, all three of them watching the exchange with great interest and fighting amused grins. He cleared his throat and told Ursa, "This is Mako and Bolin, and Asami Sato. Korra is in the city right now, but you'll be able to meet her later."
Asami took pity on Ronen's uncharacteristic rambling and stepped forward to say, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Princess Ursa."
"The pleasure is mine, Miss Sato," Ursa said with a contemplative tilt of her head. "I've heard about some of your contributions to Future Industries, though I'll admit I'm not very knowledgeable of such mechanical things. I was terribly sorry to hear of your father's involvement with the Equalists. I take it you'll be running the company in his steed?"
"Oh, um, yes, yes I believe I will be," Asami replied, starting out unsure, as if she had not even thought about it until Ursa asked, but growing more confident towards the end, by which time she was standing straighter.
Mako said shortly, "Nice to meet you, Princess."
"Hi there, Princess Ursa, Ma'am," Bolin interjected next, sidling up next to Ronen and throwing his arm over his friend's shoulders. He looked rapidly between Ronen and Ursa with a sly grin on his face. "Name's Bolin, pro-bending aficionado, Captain of the Fire Ferrets."
Mako snorted and Ursa said with interest, "Oh, you're a pro-bender? That's fascinating. I've always wanted to see a match."
"You'll have to come back to the city when they reopen the arena," Bolin suggested. "At least, I'm assuming they'll reopen it. Ronen can bring you to one of our matches. He's a big pro-bending fan too, aren't ya, buddy?"
Bolin whacked Ronen on the chest, and Ronen looked at Bolin in confusion and said, "Uh, right…"
"Yep," Bolin continued haughtily, squeezing Ronen ever tighter around the neck so that Ronen was slumped awkwardly against Bolin's shoulder, "Ronen here is quite the genius. He could talk your ear off about all kinds of interesting stuff. He's practically royalty himself, you know, and –"
Lin rolled her eyes and kicked her heel into the ground again, before Bolin could go on, and the teen went flying backwards with a yelp. He flailed through the air and landed in the Bay with a splash, and Ronen straightened up and adjusted his skewed tunic.
Jeia burst out laughing, in that ridiculously adorable toddler giggle, pointing as Bolin came spluttering out of the water and exclaiming, "Bo! You is all wet!"
"I'm okay!" Bolin called to the group, still spitting water from his mouth.
But Lin had already refocused her attention on Ursa saying, "Tenzin and Korra are in the city trying to restore some people's bending. Tenzin's got a council meeting in a few hours so you can come with me if you want to attend."
"That sounds just fine," Ursa said distractedly, shaking her head in amusement as she watched Bolin clambering back up onto the docks. Then she seemed to snap herself out of it, and turned her attention back onto Ronen. "In the meantime, it's been quite a while since I was last on the Island. I'm afraid I can hardly remember it. Ronen, if you aren't busy, would you mind showing me around?"
"Of course," Ronen said, a little too eagerly for Lin's tastes. "Right this way, Princess."
"Please, just Ursa is fine," the girl insisted, completely bypassing Lin without another word to step up next to Ronen, slipping her arm through his as if she needed help traversing the terrain.
Lin frowned and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, and when Mako, Bolin, and Asami pointedly did not follow Ronen and Ursa, she shoved Jin and Sora forward and commanded, "Go with your brother."
The twins seemed confused, since Lin was usually telling them not to do something, but they were only too happy to obey, and took off racing after Ronen and Ursa. As hoped, Lin could hear them jabbering away the moment they reached the older pair, hopping around and incessantly asking Ursa questions, and Ronen would be too polite of an older brother to try and quash his siblings' curiosity. Lin thought for a moment that perhaps she was being a little overbearing, but very quickly decided that, as a mother, it was her job to be so.
Mako looked at Lin with a raised eyebrow and a smirk and said, "That was just cruel, Chief."
"Yeah!" Bolin agreed, shaking the water off of him like a polar bear dog. "You're totally killin' his vibe!"
"Don't you three have chores or something to do?" Lin grumbled.
"Nope, not a thing," Bolin said obliviously.
"Sure we do," Asami corrected him, shooting Lin a short smile, and then telling the two brothers, "Come on, boys. Let's go…um, clean something."
Lin watched the three of them wander off, and then she turned her head to look at Jeia, who was still perched on her hip, and simply said, "Please don't ever become a teenager."
Ronen had known Ursa for most of his life, but in all the years they had known each other, he had never really known her. She was around two and a half years older than him, and the distance between them and the never ending demands of their parents' leadership roles had never allowed them time to properly get to know each other, or even take much of an interest. Their families would spend a couple of days together every few years, and they had both known that a friendship was probably pointless outside of having someone to send letters to. Nevertheless, there were some characteristics of Ursa's that he had picked up on during those brief times, or within the first week of her staying on Air Temple Island. She was stunningly beautiful, for one, and the epitome of class and royalty. She was also incredibly intelligent and a force to be reckoned with.
But all of those were things that anybody with eyes could have noticed. What Ronen hadn't known about Ursa was that she was an avid reader and had a passion for archery. Her bending prowess was purposefully lacking, according to her, because in Ursa's opinion, training was a waste of time that could be better spent doing much more interesting things. She also loathed destruction of any kind, and she was so disgusted by the actions of her ancestors that she aspired to spend nearly every moment of her life making it right. While her brother, Iroh, preferred the simplicity of military might, Ursa thrived on political discourse. Finding common ground with politicians was a puzzle to solve and one that Ursa delved into head on.
Ronen had a chance to see Ursa in action, when he used his name and status for once to worm his way into being allowed to sit in on a council meeting. It was a more open meeting, that included both his parents, the other three council members, Chief Saikhan, the newly instated Deputy Chief Ikuro, Korra, General Iroh, and Princess Ursa. Ronen could not participate, but being that he had helped the Avatar save the city from Amon and that his parents were the established leaders that they were, he was granted an opportunity that most normal citizens would not have been allowed, and he did not take it for granted. Ronen was not enthralled by politics, but it was intriguing in its own way, and even more so to see Ursa in her element.
The council had been talking of disbanding for several weeks since the city had fallen to Amon. They believed that Tarrlok had aided in fueling the fires of discord between benders and nonbenders, purposefully leaving out their own involvement, even though Ronen knew for a fact that, outside of his father, the entirety of the council had voted in Tarrlok's favor at every turn. Ronen's father was too good a politician and too forgiving a man to point that out. Ursa, on the other hand, had no qualms in making the council members squirm when she very calmly and articulately slammed them for letting Tarrlok fool them. Ronen's mother, of course, did much the same first, but with far less tact and in such a blunt way that her shaming of the council members only angered them and caused them to fire back with insults of their own against her failings during the beginning of the revolution. Ronen had seen his father's face growing redder until he was sure to burst and leave his calm, placating nature behind to defend his wife's honor, even though she appeared entirely unfazed by the council's words, so much so that she almost looked as if she was struggling not to take an impromptu nap. However, before Ronen's father could explode, Ursa had intervened with her swift take-down of the council, and then promptly turned the topic back to the matter at hand.
By the end of the meeting, Ronen was on the edge of his seat, watching Ursa's every move, and also wholly vested in the entire proceedings. Once he had sorted through the bickering and pointed insults so veiled by political jargon that an outsider might have missed them, Ronen sorted out what he had learned from the whole thing. That is, aside from Ursa's incredible bearing, his mother's and Korra's total lack of diplomacy, and the fact that the voice his father used to pacify agitated council members was the same one he used to quell Ronen and his siblings. General Iroh had also announced at the meeting that Ronen's Uncle Bumi would be retiring from the United Forces as soon as Republic City was no longer in need of the military's role. Ronen could tell from the shared look of surprise on his parent's faces that they hadn't heard anything about Bumi's plans, despite the fact that he had been on the Island nearly every evening for dinner, much to Tenzin's chagrin. The one thing the council did manage to accomplish was to finally come to an agreement about how to maintain peace in the city, while also taking the weight off of the council that had already been stretched thin to begin with. Relying on the council to hold all responsibility with no checks was how Tarrlok had been able to manipulate control, and the entirety of the city was calling for the disbandment of the council whether they wanted it or not. The council had let the revolution explode, and the council was believed to be unjustly skewed in benders' favor after the fiasco of Tarrlok's task force and the nonbender curfew. So the ten of them at the meeting that day decided upon holding an election, wherein all the citizens of the United Republic, bender and nonbender alike, could vote to decide who their leaders would be. Not based off of one nation or a biased political appointee. The chosen leader would need to speak for all of its citizens. An election would also help divert the city's attention to something more productive to focus their energies on, rather than the uncertainty they all faced only weeks after the revolution.
Overall, Ronen was pleased with the end result, but had grown a bit of a distaste for the way politics often played out and how long it took to come to such a simple conclusion. Nevertheless, seeing Ursa had still been awe-inspiring, and he was sure to commend her on how easy she made it look.
It was later that same evening, after another hectic dinner in the dining hall, because there were too many of them to fit around the dining table in the main house, that Ronen snuck Ursa away from the two royal guards that followed her everywhere. He took her hand and they raced across the island, and when they'd found an adequate hiding spot, they had turned to each other with bright smiles and breathless excitement, their cheeks pink and hair windswept. Ursa had leaned in close, and Ronen had felt his heart leaping into his throat, found himself captivated by her hazel eyes and the way the setting, orange sun shined upon her hair. And then she closed the distance between them, and Ronen experienced his first real kiss – because he wasn't counting that awkward fumbling with a girl from school named Gia when he was thirteen – and in that moment he was certain that it was a life changing experience he would never forget.
From that point on, Ronen was completely enraptured by Ursa, and he would not allow himself to think about the fact that she would soon have to return to her own home in the Fire Nation, but would simply enjoy what time he had.
It had already been three weeks into Ursa's visit when she and Ronen shared their kiss, and she was meant to leave in just a few short days afterwards, but the Fire Nation Princess claimed that she was not yet finished with her work in Republic City, and advocated to her mother for permission to remain a bit longer. Izumi had granted it for the time being, and while Ronen was glad that Ursa would be staying a bit longer, he was dismayed that he would have even less time to spend with her. Since it had been nearly four weeks since the war had come to an end, school had been reinstated, and Ronen's parents were allowing him and his siblings to go back. The twins were both ecstatic, mostly so that they could finally be reunited with their friend Jinora. Ronen, however, was no longer as interested in attending now that he had so many other things he could be doing. He did not want to miss time with Ursa now that he was having such a good time being with her, especially considering how far away she would be when she left. He had also been accompanying Korra as she attended to some Avatar duties that his father thought might help her gain back some of the support she might have lost from the people of the city during Amon's reign. Plus, he always made time to tinker around with some new gadget and discuss ideas with Asami, who was taking over Future Industries and trying to figure out how to turn it around after her father had tarnished its reputation by aiding the Equalists. Not to mention all the fun he had with Bolin and the arguments he could have with Mako, which admittedly were more habit now than a display of any real aggression between them. There was also the matter of finding time for his family when balancing his own schedule with his parents', or even the twins, who seemed to think up new extracurricular activities that they wanted to be involved in every other day.
Nevertheless, Ronen only had a few short months before he would graduate and be done with school altogether, and it seemed foolish not to obtain his diploma after having gone so far already. He had entered into public school far later than anyone else at nearly twelve years old, but he had already been advanced enough to progress ahead of people his own age in most subjects. Ronen had put a lot of work into school and he wanted to finish what he had started. So he ignored the part of him that would have rather spent all day with his friends and went back to school. He tried to seek out Asuka the first few days, but she was nowhere to be found, and he wasn't wholly surprised that she had decided not to return. He worried a little, about what might have become of her, but he didn't have much time to think on Asuka. Considering how much school he had missed when the revolution started to spiral out of control, since his parents had decided it was no longer safe for him and the twins to attend, Ronen had a lot of catching up to do. He thrived on a challenge though and he mostly enjoyed school, so it was not all that much of a burden. Ursa, too, would sit with him most evenings when he was doing his homework and would help him study, though she was also very much a distraction so it varied on whether or not he finished the work in a timely manner.
Seven weeks after Ursa had arrived in Republic City, Izumi finally demanded that she return home at once. Ursa had important work still to do back in the Fire Nation, and her mother probably missed her, and Ronen had always know that it was inevitable, but the news that she would be leaving the following morning still made his heart ache. After his family and friends had thrown her a small going away party, Ronen and Ursa had snuck off on their own once more. It was as they kissed and hugged and lamented their parting that Ursa urged Ronen to leave with her.
"Come with me," she told him in half a whisper, her hands framing his face.
Ronen snorted, looking at her incredulously and saying, "Right, because my parents would let me."
"You're old enough now to make your own decisions," Ursa insisted. "You fought in a war and people younger than you have gone off on their own. Besides, it doesn't have to be forever, not yet. Just come and stay for a few weeks. I don't want to part with you already when I've only just gotten to really know you."
"I don't want you to go either," Ronen admitted, taking one of her hands into his own and kissing her knuckles. "But I have another two months left of school, and I want to continue helping Korra with her new role in the city."
"I admire your dedication, truly. You never break a commitment and you're always wanting to help, but let's face it, you're too smart for school anyways. You don't need it, and Korra has so many people here willing to help her. It doesn't always have to be you."
"I know that," Ronen said, shifting a little uncomfortably, "but I want to. She's my best friend and she needs all of us, not just me or our friends or my family, but everyone working together. And you know it isn't just her. If I can help the city at all, even in some small way, I feel I should, for the same reason you came here to help. Besides, you try telling my mother I'm old enough to go off on my own for a few weeks. She might be giving me a little more freedom than before, but she's still not gonna go for that. She's still sending Jin and Sora to find us every time we walk across the island alone."
"I will tell her," Ursa volunteered, all too eagerly. "If you want me to. She can't order you around forever."
"No," Ronen instantly refuted, "I don't want to give her a hard time. Listen, we can do the long distance thing for a little while, it won't be forever. My father said as soon as the election is underway that we can finally go on our trip. He said we can go anywhere that I want, and if I choose somewhere near the Fire Nation, then I'm sure I can convince him to spend a few days in the capitol."
Ursa sighed heavily, looking slightly annoyed not to have gotten her way, but she seemed to understand that Ronen wasn't changing his mind, and so she relented, "Fine, I suppose I can wait a little while longer for you. You promise you'll come and see me as soon as you can?"
"I promise, Princess," he told her with a bright smile, and she leaned into his chest and let him hold her for as long as they had left.
Lin had spent nearly everyday of Ursa's seven week long visit wishing that the princess would leave, and she didn't feel remotely guilty about it.
Okay, so she felt a little guilty about it, because Ronen was old enough to date even if she didn't like it, and she didn't want to control every aspect of his life, and Ursa wasn't all that bad, but still… Ronen was her first kid, and she could still barely believe he was sixteen years old already let alone interested in dating. She had been suspicious of Ursa from the first day she'd come to the Island, and she had tasked the twins with keeping an eye on their older brother when the princess was around him, even though Tenzin told her she was being ridiculous. She had backed off a little after the first two weeks, but once it was confirmed that Ronen and Ursa were definitely romantically involved now, she had become a little overbearing again. They were still teenagers and she was not stupid enough to let them be alone together for any extended period of time. She did trust Ronen, and she knew the boy wasn't really hormone-driven like most boys his age, but she still wasn't risking it.
To Ronen, Lin kept her mouth shut about her feelings on him and Ursa, because she could tell that the boy was smitten and she didn't want to push too hard, but to her husband she insisted that it was a disaster waiting to happen. In Lin's opinion, Ursa was too old and she lived too far away and it would only end in Ronen's heart getting broken. Tenzin, on the other hand, pointed out that Ursa being eighteen wasn't really that big of an age difference and that Lin was just assuming the worst. He seemed to find the whole thing rather cute.
However, Tenzin was not quite as charmed by Ronen and Ursa's relationship a few months later.
It had been over four months since the revolution, and Republic City was finally back to some semblance of normal. Ursa had returned to the Fire Nation two months prior, much to Lin's relief, and though Ronen was still exchanging frequent letters with the princess, he was still very much himself, still spending most of his time with Korra and their friends. Although, he could be seen with Bolin and Asami more so of late, because Korra and Mako had apparently decided to give a relationship a shot and had been, for lack of a better phrase, up each other's asses ever since. All the teen romance was making Lin sick, and she knew it must have been grating on Jin and Sora, because Lin wasn't letting Korra slip off on her own with a boy either, and the twins were just too good at butting in. Besides, if Lin couldn't kiss her own husband in her own damn house anymore without one of those blasted teens walking in and telling her to get a room, then she sure as hell wasn't going to let them get away with it either. But of course, her intervening quickly began to backfire, because all the teens seemed to think it was funny and started treating it like a game.
Lin couldn't wait to be in Zaofu, where she would have ample space to have some relaxation time to herself for once. They were all set to leave in just a few days, now that the election was in full swing and Tenzin had finally convinced the council to let him leave again for a couple weeks. Since Lin still didn't technically have a job, she didn't need to clear it with anybody, but she had been helping with the clean up in the city so much that a lot of people seemed appalled that she was going. A few fleets of the United Forces were still in the city though, and would stay until the new president was elected, after which time they would go wherever the president decided, so the city was in capable hands.
The only decision left to make was where Tenzin and Ronen would go on their trip while the rest of the family went to Zaofu. Two days before they were set to leave, Tenzin had gone to discuss it with Ronen, and when he returned to the bedroom he shared with his wife, Lin had known instantly that something was up.
She immediately asked Tenzin what was wrong, but he just looked at her with a blank expression and asked, "Hmm?" as if he had been lost in his own world and hadn't heard her.
"What's wrong?" Lin repeated impatiently. "I thought you and Ronen were planning your trip. Did you have a disagreement or something?"
"Oh, no, nothing's wrong," Tenzin said unconvincingly. "We decided on where we're going. The trip's all planned."
Tenzin went hastily over to the connected bathroom to begin preparing for bed, but Lin was not easily put off, and she clambered out of bed to follow after him. "So where are you going then?" she demanded, folding her arms across her chest and leaning against the door frame.
Tenzin took his time brushing one side of his teeth for entirely too long, before meeting her eyes in the reflection of the mirror and saying through a mouthful of toothpaste, "We're going to explore the Fire Nation islands."
It took a second for Lin to realize the issue, and when she did, she scowled. "Let me guess," she said disdainfully, as Tenzin refocused all of his attention on vigorously scrubbing his teeth, "he wants to swing by the capitol while you guys are down there?"
Tenzin shrugged, and then leaned down to spit into the sink – fixed now, after Lin had broken it a few months ago while trying unsuccessfully to tear off her armor – and only once he had rinsed out his mouth several times did he finally respond, "Maybe for a day or two."
Lin scoffed and stomped a few steps away from the bathroom door, only to stomp back a few seconds later, as Tenzin was drying his mouth and hands. "This is unbelievable. I can't believe Ronen, of all of our kids, would do something so completely selfish. Why didn't you tell him no? You can't seriously be thinking of doing this. I'll tell him –"
"No," Tenzin finally interjected, whirling around to grab Lin by the shoulders before she could storm off. He turned her back around to face him and he squeezed her arms briefly as he stressed, "Don't do anything. I don't want you interfering. This is my trip with Ronen and we agreed –"
"He manipulated you," Lin corrected, "and you're letting him get away with it. It won't be your trip anymore, not once your in the capitol. He'll be with Ursa the entire time."
"I'm no fool, Lin," Tenzin said with an insulted frown. "I know he wants to go there so that he can spend time with his girlfriend, but we'll still have a few days together exploring the other islands, and if that's what he wants then I'm not going to fight him on it. It's his birthday gift, and his decision on where we go."
"This is bullshit," Lin insisted, growing ever more furious. "This could be the last time you two have to really bond before he's an adult that wants nothing to do with us anymore, and he wants to spend half of it with a girl –"
"Which is precisely why I'm going along with this," Tenzin exclaimed in frustration. "I don't know how much longer we have until Ronen leaves the nest, and I won't ruin what time we have left together by refusing to let him spend time with his first real girlfriend. He could end up resenting me for it, and besides that, I know what I would have done if my father had tried to keep me from you."
"Please," Lin muttered mildly, her anger simmering down in the face of Tenzin's sad speech, "you worshiped your father."
"And I worshipped you," Tenzin pointed out. "If we had lived further apart, I would have been heartbroken if he had tried to stop me from seeing you whenever I had the opportunity."
"Ronen isn't in love with this girl," Lin continued to argue. "He'll get over it."
"We don't know that for sure," Tenzin sighed, "and I'm not going to risk my relationship with my son to find out. Please, Lin. I'm asking you not to make this into a big deal."
Lin gritted her teeth and pursed her lips, and she wanted so badly to jerk out of Tenzin's hold on her shoulders and go tell Ronen how she felt about his plainly selfish decision, but Tenzin was pleading with her not to, and angering or upsetting Ronen and Tenzin wasn't really going to solve anything anyways. So she shook her head with a huff and acquiesced, but she wasn't happy about it.
Nevertheless, when they crawled into bed that night, she instantly took up the role of supportive spouse and curled herself around Tenzin's back, her hand coming around to rest on his chest, just over his heart, and she pressed kisses to his neck and did not comment when he shuddered against her with suppressed emotion.
Lin was somewhat glad that Ronen was not around much the next day, too busy with Korra and his other friends for him to notice the way his mother was looking at him with barely suppressed disappointment.
But on the following day, when all of them were about to leave, Lin could hold it in no longer. Su had sent an airship for Lin, Jeia, Jin, Sora, Mako, Bolin, Asami, and Korra to take to Zaofu, and everyone but Lin had already boarded after saying their goodbyes and were settling in. Tenzin and Lin had embraced with a warm hug, and a kiss that was far more tame than the goodbye they'd exchanged the night before while in the privacy of their bedroom. Then Tenzin had gone to ensure that Oogi was ready for the trip to the Fire Nation, and before he could join his father, Lin had snagged Ronen's sleeve and pulled him back.
"Before you go," Lin murmured in a low voice, so as not to be overheard, and watching Tenzin more than she was looking directly at Ronen, "I just want to make sure you realize what this trip means to your father, and what it might mean to you in a few years time. He told me not to say anything to you, because he wants you to be happy, and so do I, but I just want to make sure this is really what you want to do. If it is, then fine, ignore me, but if not…don't waste this opportunity, all right?"
Now that she had gotten that off of her chest, Lin turned away from her eldest son and strode into the waiting airship before he could respond. She could only hope that her words would bring clarity rather than disdain, and that regardless of what Ronen chose, that he and Tenzin would have a good trip.
Halfway through their flight, during which Ronen had been even more quiet than usual, Ronen had crawled to the front of the saddle and asked his father if they could go to the Fire Nation capitol first. Tenzin had been wary for a moment, concerned that if they did that, they would end up spending all of their time in the capitol, but he reminded himself that it was Ronen's decision to make, and so he agreed.
As expected, within moments of arriving at the royal palace, Ronen had gone off with Ursa, glancing over his shoulder as he went to give his father a hasty promise to join him for dinner.
Tenzin had felt a bit awkward at first, left to his own devices. Izumi and Zuko were perfectly happy to have him, but due to the spontaneity of the visit, they were both busy with other things and could not meet with him until dinner either. Considering he had spent the better part of his life as a husband and father, he hadn't had much opportunity to be alone unless he was working, and even then he was rarely alone for long. Tenzin had never found issue with that, because he adored his family and would gladly send every moment of his life with one or all of them, but it did make being alone very strange. He wasn't sure what to do when he did not have to consider the opinions of everyone else. He could eat what he wanted without wondering if Sora would complain or Jeia would refuse it. He could go where ever he wanted without making sure to stuff his pockets with napkins for when Yunjin inevitably made a mess, or a handful of metal coins in case they were in the air or on water and Jeia was feeling sick. He didn't have to contemplate if his wife would grow frustrated by a venue that made her uncomfortable or bored her to tears. He didn't have to wonder if Ronen had already read so much about a place beforehand that he would spend the entire trip pointing out every little thing the book had gotten wrong.
But then again, Tenzin loved those little quirks, and they actually made decision making a lot easier, because he had restrictions and narrowed choices. Left to his own devices he had for too much freedom, and he spent the first hour fretting to himself and wondering if he'd ever manage to move away from Oogi.
After that first bit of panic though, Tenzin finally made a plan to not make a plan for the first time in a long time, and he simply went out into the capitol on foot. He strode past various food vendors and picked the first thing that looked appetizing. Then, as he wandered down the street munching on food that Lin would have loved, he discovered a museum and strode right in. It was fascinating, and Ronen would have been enthralled by it, but he would never have been able to take Yunjin into it without the risk of having to shell out a small fortune to pay for damages. Afterwards, he watched a street show that would have made Yunjin and Jeia laugh, and then wandered off in search of a theater. The next show playing was a dance performance, which reminded Tenzin of one of Sora's dance recitals he had been to recently.
By the time the show was over, it was getting closer to dinner time, and Tenzin decided to head back to the palace. He stopped at a few vendors along the way to buy some trinkets for the kids and Lin, even though he wasn't very certain that he would be able to convince them to wear the matching bracelets he'd gotten for all five of them – six including himself.
Once he returned to the palace, he was still early for dinner, so he took a lap around the familiar, expansive grounds, and was surprised to find his son sitting alone in the gardens. Tenzin looked around in confusion, expecting Ursa to emerge from somewhere, but Ronen was very much alone, eyes closed and sitting in a perfect meditative pose.
Tenzin wasn't sure if it was the nature of their intended trip or simply a delayed reaction to the passage of time, but seeing Ronen there, nearly all grown up and practicing some of the teachings Tenzin had passed onto him, caused an emotion to sweep over him that he had not expected.
He knew that he was being a little silly by becoming emotional over such a simple thing, but there had been a time when Ronen had refused to participate in any of his father's training, and Tenzin had feared that their relationship would suffer for it. When Jin and Sora had shown signs of airbending, Tenzin had begun teaching all three of the children, even though Ronen would never be able to accomplish the bending aspect, because the boy could still benefit from the rest and he would not have to feel left out. But once his siblings had begun to surpass him, young Ronen had no longer wanted to participate. When the boy had asked his mother if he could stop attending meditation and lessons, Lin had allowed it, and Tenzin had been furious with her for making the decision without him. He had been so afraid that he would somehow lose the bond he had with his firstborn son, that Ronen might even someday resent Tenzin for all the attention he gave the twins. But Lin had reminded him that Ronen had not stopped loving his father and that there were other ways for them to bond, and Tenzin's worries had turned out to be for nothing anyway. Once he was a little older and less concerned about his inability to bend, Ronen had returned to lessons, had simply strode into meditation one morning and settled down between his siblings, and Tenzin had struggled to stop grinning for the rest of the day. Ronen was now just as agile and light-footed as the twins, could weave his way through the airbending gates with ease, and practiced meditation as often as he was able. The boy also had several other gifts he had picked up from other teachers, the defensive maneuvers he'd learned from his mother, boomerang throwing from Sokka and Bumi, and chi-blocking from Bumi's former bride Lue. And he managed to connect all of that back to the original practices that Tenzin had instilled in him.
Tenzin wondered then, if perhaps that was how he should approach his current situation with Ronen. He had been excited by the prospect of having a solo trip with his eldest son, and had therefore been rather disappointed when he learned that Ronen wanted to spend that time with his long distance girlfriend. However, Tenzin had also known that it was a perfectly natural teenage reaction, not any sort of purposeful malice on Ronen's part, and frankly, Lin and Tenzin had gotten lucky with Ronen, considering they were just now having to adjust to such a thing. So Tenzin was admittedly a little forlorn, but seeing Ronen in that meditative pose, and remembering the journey the two of them had been on over the last sixteen years, Tenzin no longer feared that he might be losing his son, or that the opportunity for them to take such a trip would never come again. Because Ronen was still Ronen, and though he may need time to strike out on his own and try something new, he would still return, like he had done before. Tenzin had absolute faith that he would.
Content with that assurance, Tenzin turned away, and had every intention of giving his son the space that he needed, but before he could slip back out of the gardens, Ronen called to him, "Dad?"
Tenzin turned back to meet Ronen's eyes, and the boy's lips curved halfway into a smile as he asked, "You gonna stand there all day or come join me?"
Tenzin shook his head with a soft smile of his own as he strode across the grass and teased, "I suppose I could spare some time to join you."
As Tenzin settled down on the ground next to his son, he noticed then that something was off. Now that Ronen was no longer maintaining his meditation, his shoulders were slumped, and the boy was still trying to smile, but he had his mother's eyes, and they gave him away just as hers always did.
But Tenzin did not press just yet. Ronen asked after his day, and Tenzin obliged, giving a thorough explanation of what he had done with his afternoon. When he reached the end of his short tale, he remembered the gifts he'd bought for the family, and reached into his pocket to extract two of the six bracelets, presenting one to Ronen and slipping the other onto his own wrist. They were just simple Shamballa bracelets, with brown thread woven over metal beads in alternating colors of dark green, blue, orange, and a smoky gray, and yet Ronen held his with reverence, and when he looked back up at his father, his expression had fallen and he just looked sad.
"I'm sorry, Dad," he said.
"Whatever for?" Tenzin asked, brow furrowing in concern.
"For making you come here," Ronen explained guiltily. "For sabotaging our trip. I just thought that I could do both and make everybody happy, but instead I've just made a mess of everything."
Tenzin frowned and reached out to squeeze Ronen's shoulder as he said, "Ronen, I told you that this is your trip. Wherever you want to be, that's where we'll be. I'm not upset that you wanted to come here. I know you and Ursa have been apart for two months and you don't get a lot of opportunities to come all the way here to see her."
"It isn't just my trip though," Ronen said. "It's our trip. That's why I told Ursa that I'll have to visit her some other time. This trip with you is too important. I don't want to waste another second."
Tenzin was shocked, his eyes widening with the confession, but he was also deeply touched. His voice was soft and low when he replied, "You didn't have to do that."
"I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to. Who knows if we'll ever get a chance to do something like this again? I wanted to spend time with Ursa too, of course, but I figured if she really cared about me then she would understand how important this is to me."
"And does she?" Tenzin inquired. "Is she okay with you leaving so soon?"
Ronen dropped his gaze to fiddle with the bracelet in his hands and murmured, "Well…no, actually. She, uh, broke up with me."
Tenzin gasped, "What? But why?"
Ronen shrugged, still keeping his gaze averted. "She said it was too hard, being away from each other for so long, and that she didn't think I was willing to put in as much effort to see her. That I always had an excuse not to come here. And you know…" he looked up at his father then and admitted, "she's not wrong. I could have tried harder. She kept offering to have a ship bring me here the last two months, but I always told her I couldn't. I don't really know why. I really do like her, a lot, but…I felt like what I was doing in Republic City with Korra and the others and our family was more important. And I know it wasn't really fair to her, but I guess…I guess I just thought it would all work out."
Tenzin sighed and squeezed Ronen's shoulder comfortingly as he said, "I'm sorry, son. Relationships can be confusing, and difficult, especially long distance. If you and Ursa are meant to be together then you'll find your way back to one another, and if not, then that's okay too. You have all the time in the world to figure out what you want most."
"How did you know?" Ronen asked, tilting his head curiously. "With Mom I mean. How did you know that you loved her and only wanted to be with her?"
Tenzin looked off into the distance as he considered the question, idly stroking his beard in contemplation before responding, "I don't believe there was any one particular moment, but rather, a combination of many. We had been friends for a very long time, so I already knew that I cared about her, and I was hesitant, at first, because if a relationship failed, then our friendship would suffer for it. But one thing I knew was that your mother was worth the risk, because I couldn't bare the thought of being without her. Every minute without her seemed a minute wasted, and I was happiest when she was with me. Even if we were simply sitting in the same room doing separate things, it was better with her there. And thirty years later, I still thank the spirits everyday that she is the one I've been able to spend my life with."
Finished with the speech he hadn't known he'd had in him, Tenzin turned to face his son again, and Ronen was smirking fondly. "That was beautiful, Dad, but you know if Mom was here she'd be rolling her eyes."
Tenzin chuckled and agreed, "She certainly would be."
They shared a laugh, but then Ronen became subdued again, looking a little sheepish as he asked, "She was mad that I asked you to bring me here, wasn't she?"
"Your mother is the most sensitive of all of us," Tenzin sighed, only to hastily add, "Don't tell her I told you that. But why would you think she was mad? Did she say something to you? I told her not to. If that's why you've decided to change your mind –"
"No, no, it's not," Ronen interjected, and when Tenzin looked skeptical, "really. I mean, yeah, she mentioned that I should think about what I want, but I had already been having second thoughts. And she was right anyways so…don't be too hard on her."
"I'll keep that in mind, but she's not getting off the hook that easy. You're certain that this is truly what you want? It's probably not too late to fix things with Ursa if you would prefer, and I promise you won't hurt my feelings."
Ronen looked out across the garden, in the direction of the palace, and he gazed wistfully for a few moments, but when he turned to face his father again, there was absolute certainty in his eyes as he said firmly, "I'm positive. Ursa and I just weren't meant to be, and there's nothing I'd rather do right now than go exploring with my dad. Forget the Fire Nation, I want to go someplace you'vealways wanted to go back to, or somewhere you've never been."
Tenzin couldn't help the giddy excitement that filled him, and he was hard pressed to suppress the grin spreading across his face. "You get Oogi ready, I'll go let someone know that we're leaving."
Ronen nodded once, finally slipped the matching bracelet onto his wrist, and then leapt to his feet with a smile on his face. Even though he had just experienced his first break up, the prospect of spending time with his father was enough to cheer him for now, and Tenzin could not have been more pleased.
A short time later, Tenzin and Ronen took off into the sky on Oogi's back to finally begin their father/son journey. They had no set destination in mind, only the certainty that they would be experiencing all of it together, and that was enough for them.
Chapter 56: Chapter 56
Chapter Text
Chapter 56
The first week in Zaofu that Lin had so been looking forward to turned out not to be so relaxing.
With Tenzin and Ronen off on their own trip, everyone else seemed to be spiraling out of control. Mako and Korra had started bickering at some point during the flight from Republic City, and in the five days since they had been in Zaofu, they hadn't stopped. One minute they'd be all loving and mushy and disgusting, and in the next they'd be storming away from each other in a huff. They kept trying to drag everyone else into their arguments, snagging whoever was nearest and ranting until whatever poor soul managed to escape. It had gotten to the point that, in order to avoid the drama altogether, Lin would immediately leave whatever room she was in if Mako or Korra entered.
Asami was not so much of an annoyance, but she was obviously feeling put out by Mako and Korra's relationship, and would make snappy comments under her breath when they were bickering that made Lin snort water out of her nose. After the third day in Zaofu, the Sato girl started following Bataar around, intrigued by his tinkering, and while they mostly remained in Bataar's workshop, they'd occasionally come out to test some invention that Su would find endearing and Lin would just find irritating.
Bolin, though, was shaping up to be the worst of the older teens. He had apparently taken notice of Opal when they had both been in the South Pole for Ronen's birthday, and ever since he had arrived in Zaofu, he had spent nearly every waking minute trying to pursue her. Opal seemed to think Bolin was sweet and funny, and while she hadn't yet given into his "charms," she hadn't exactly rebuffed him either. Lin was finding the wooing very unsettling to witness, considering that Opal was her niece and she could still remember a time when the girl could barely string a sentence together, and how she used to wet the bed every time Su's family came to the island for a visit. Even the ever patient Su was beginning to tense up the longer she had to watch some boy tripping over himself to try and romance her only daughter, though Lin found great joy in seeing her sister's calm façade slipping more and more. That is, until Su snapped at Lin for Bolin and Korra and Mako's behavior, and told her older sister, "Get control of your kids, Lin!" To which Lin had angrily snapped, "They're not my kids!" before storming away, and she had all but ignored Su for nearly two whole days afterwards.
The younger kids, unfortunately, were no better. Kuvira and the Junior, along with Shuri and Zo and the other Metal Clan guards, were back in Zaofu now, and as soon as Jeia had spotted the familiar faces, she had been trying to follow them around. Jeia had glued herself to Kuvira's side, and at first, Lin had allowed it, because she assumed that the toddler would be safe, considering that the guards didn't see action ninety-eight percent of the time that they were in Zaofu. That is, until the day Lin found out that Kuvira had let Jeia go along with them to get into a tussle with a bandit gang, and then Lin had been beyond furious. Keeping Jeia close by on an airship during a time of war where things inevitably went wrong was one thing, but actively taking a four year old to face off with dangerous criminals was unacceptable, and Lin had threatened Kuvira within an inch of her life if she ever did something like that again. Kuvira, of course, had been nonplussed, and arrogantly insisted that Jeia had not been in any danger, and that Jeia was dangerous herself, but Lin still forbade Jeia from spending anymore time with Kuvira. The toddler was not happy, and made sure her mother knew it, and she kept trying to slip away anytime she thought Lin was distracted.
Then there was the matter of the twins, both sets. Within hours of being reunited, Yunjin, Sora, Wei, and Wing had started acting insane, and they had only gotten worse with everyday that passed. They were having the time of their lives, and were determined to terrorize everyone other person in Zaofu. Between the pranks and the challenges they made up for one another to test their bending abilities, the four of them were tearing the city apart. Lin and Su could hardly pause for breath before someone came running to tell them what the two sets of twins had just done. Su had wanted to let the kids have their fun at first, but they started causing such a disruption that the citizens of Zaofu were getting annoyed. Not to mention the slight property damage and the fact that Lin and Su's families could barely get through a meal together without dealing with the twins' pranks. Lin and Su were too aware of their surroundings to be the victims of whatever their kids plotted, but the rest of the teenagers were too far into their own worlds to avoid them, and were taken by surprise nearly every time. Lin was starting to get tired of listening to the startled shrieks and shielding herself from flying plates of food nearly every time she sat down to eat. No amount of disciplining the twins' was stopping them, and there was no way to keep track of them at all times, because they would just split up when they knew they were being tracked, and as vexed as she was, Lin wasn't quite cruel enough to tie up her own children.
By the time Tenzin and Ronen arrived in Zaofu, Lin was on the verge of losing all patience. She was the first one outside waiting to greet the pair just as Oogi became visible on the horizon. Jeia was on her hip, so that she couldn't attempt to run off, although the excitement of seeing her father and Ronen had apparently distracted her from her escape attempts. Jeia had never had to be without her father for so long before, and the toddler had started getting emotional the longer she had to go without him. She didn't even really like having a story before bed, but she demanded one on their third night in Zaofu, and then complained because Lin didn't do the voices right like Daddy did. By the fifth night without Tenzin, and with Lin still being a lackluster story teller, Jeia was throwing an outright tantrum and refusing to sleep until her father returned. Luckily, though, Su and Bataar had come to the rescue, putting on an over the top performance and acting out the entire children's book for Jeia, replete with surprisingly accurate animal noises and some bending from Su thrown in for effect. Even Lin enjoyed watching her little sister act a fool, and the display succeeded in distracting Jeia enough for her to go to bed without further complaint. The sixth day required Jin and Sora joining in on the show to get their baby sister to stop crying. Lin almost considered joining in herself, desperate to comfort the inconsolable toddler, but Jeia was firmly latched onto her arm, and she was already making a very concerted effort to hold back all the metal in the room that Jeia was inadvertently rattling out of place in her discontent. Even with as many lessons as Lin had been giving the kid, Jeia still struggled to maintain control when her emotions were frayed.
The seventh day was, mercifully, the day that Tenzin and Ronen were due to arrive, and when Oogi finally set down on the landing pad Lin and Jeia stood atop of, Jeia wriggled down out of her mother's hold and went sprinting in their direction. At the sight of Jeia, Tenzin leapt off of Oogi at once, and caught the toddler just as she was jumping into the air with her arms outstretched, wholly confident that he would not let her fall. With Jeia wrapped up tight in his embrace, Tenzin began peppering the side of the toddler's face with kisses and telling her how much he missed her and how happy he was to see her. He grinned at Lin as she approached, but she waited to join them, allowing Jeia the time she had so craved with her father.
Lin went first to Ronen, who disembarked more slowly, but with no less enthusiasm. He was beaming as he approached his mother for a hug, and Lin was glad to note that both father and son at least appeared to have had a good time on their trip. Their skin was sun-kissed, they were both happy and light on their feet, and they looked refreshed. She also thought Ronen looked a bit taller than he had been when they left, but maybe she was just imagining things.
Tenzin moved over to join Lin and Ronen just as they were parting, and Jeia stopped clinging to Tenzin long enough to lunge at her brother with a delighted, "Ro!"
Ronen laughed as he caught his little sister, and Lin didn't have time to even turn to face Tenzin before he was lifting her halfway up off of the ground and into a crushing embrace. After a week of being apart, having his arms around her was an incredible relief, and she could already feel herself relaxing. Lin Beifong was perfectly independent, of course, but even she could admit that she dealt better with stress when Tenzin was around. Even though a week wasn't really all that long, she had still missed him immeasurably so, and not just because the kids were being a pain.
They kissed briefly, but with a glance that held a promise to pick up where they left off later on. Then they turned their attention onto Ronen and Jeia again, and Lin finally asked, "So, how was the trip?"
Tenzin and Ronen exchanged a grin, and Ronen answered, "It was excellent."
Lin looked up at Tenzin, who still had his arm draped around her, and judging by the wide smile on his face, he clearly agreed with Ronen's assessment.
"The islands were interesting then?" Lin inquired, when they said no more.
"Oh, we didn't go to the islands," Ronen said.
Lin frowned and looked between them both again. "You didn't? Then where –?"
A sudden excited cry from behind interrupted with, "DAD! RONEN!"
And then the twins were there, crashing into their father and brother, and Lin hastily rescued Jeia from getting crushed between Ronen and Yunjin. Wei and Wing were close behind, followed shortly after by Su and Opal, and then Bolin and Korra.
After a flurry of greetings, Tenzin and Ronen were ushered inside. Jeia was back in Tenzin's arms, Sora was latched to his other side, and Su was talking his ear off. Ronen was surrounded by the rest of the kids, who were asking him too many questions for him to answer at once, or trying to tell him everything that he had missed. Lin was happy to stand off to the side and wait her turn for as long as it kept the kids from getting into trouble.
They all crowded together in the family room so that Tenzin and Ronen could tell everyone about their trip. That was how Lin learned that the two of them actually spent three days in Omashu and two days on Kyoshi Island. They didn't mention what they did on the first day or how they ended up changing plans, but nobody else asked and Lin decided to wait until she was alone with Tenzin to get the full story. Tenzin started talking about all the interesting, historical things they had seen and learned about in Omashu, and when the younger kids started getting bored, Ronen told them about how he and Tenzin raced down the mail system like Aang and Sokka and Katara had years and years ago. That got the kids much more excited, and Ronen went on to describe some of their other misadventures, including a run in with some bandits that had tried to steal their stuff, and how Tenzin had spent a brief stint in jail in Omashu after a disagreement with one of the locals, and had had to be bailed out by his own son.
It sounded, though, as if the pair had the most fun in their last two days on Kyoshi Island. Tenzin had taken Ronen there to ride the elephant-koi, just as Aang had done for Tenzin when he was young. It had made twelve year old Lin frown when Tenzin had told her the story of his attempt at the dangerous water game, and it still made her frown thirty-some years later when her son told a similar tale. Nevertheless, Ronen and Tenzin had clearly had a lot of fun and hadn't been eaten by the unagi, so she didn't complain…much. Ronen had also managed to convince the Kyoshi Warriors to give him some brief training in their unique method of fighting while he was there. They didn't typically like to train outsiders or men, but the fact that he was Avatar Aang's grandson and Sokka's great-nephew apparently gave him some leeway.
Tenzin had been pleased to see that Suki was still alive and well too, and had introduced Ronen to the old member of Aang's Team Avatar, former leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, and former girlfriend to his Great-Uncle Sokka. Suki and Sokka had already been broken up by the time Lin and Tenzin were born, but they had both met her several times over the course of their young lives when she came to visit Republic City and her old friends. Lin and the rest of the kids had also suspected that Suki and Sokka still rekindled their old flame every time she came to town, but Sokka never gave any of them a straight answer when asked. Ronen and Suki had apparently gotten along marvelously, and the aging warrior had told him that she would be happy to host him and the Avatar and his friends if they ever desired to visit Kyoshi Island.
The twins were jealous and started asking when they would be allowed to get a trip with their father, to which Lin had replied, "Maybe when you start being good kids."
And then Tenzin said, "Uh oh, were you two not being good for your Mom and Aunt Su while I was gone?"
He gave Jin and Sora a disappointed look, and they both dropped their gazes guiltily.
"We weren't that bad," Sora defended.
"Wei started it!" Yunjin tried to deflect.
"Did not!" Wei immediately protested.
And Lin scolded Yunjin, "Don't try to pull that with me. You think I don't know your signature pranks by now?"
"All four of you have had an equal hand in it, I'm sure," Su said, giving her twin boys a pointed stare.
"In our defense," Wing said, "we're all getting along very well."
"Yeah," Yunjin piped in. "At least we aren't arguing like Korra and Mako everyday."
"Hey!" Korra squeaked, looking embarrassed. "We don't argue everyday."
"Yes, you do," Bolin muttered, sharing an exasperated look with Opal.
Ronen looked concerned. "Arguing?" he asked Korra. "But why? I thought you two were doing well?"
"We were – I mean we are," Korra defensively stammered, giving Ronen a look that he must have understood for what it was, because he didn't continue to question her in front of everyone else.
"More to the point," Tenzin interjected, perhaps to come to Korra's rescue as well. "What have you kids been up to that's gotten your mothers so riled up?"
Lin and Su scoffed and said at the same time, "What haven't they been up to?"
"Y'know, I bet Dad would like to know that Ronen and Uncle Tenzin are back," Wei said suddenly, lurching to his feet, his twin rising with him a heartbeat later.
"Yes," Wing agreed, "we should go tell him."
"Well if you're going, I'm going too," Yunjin insisted, leaping halfway across the room before either of his parents could stop him. "To, uh, find Asami."
"Hey," Sora squealed, "you'll need my help too if you want to find Asami!" Which was not even remotely true, considering Asami was probably with Bataar, but Sora was clearly eager to escape along with the boys.
Lin didn't bother trying to keep them. Tenzin could scold them later and frankly she was tired of chasing them. However, when Jeia started wriggling out of her father's hold, Lin gave the toddler a stern look, and Jeia huffed irritably and went still again.
"Where is Asami anyways?" Ronen asked.
Bolin and Korra both shrugged and Bolin said, "Who knows?"
"I've barely seen her since we got here," Korra admitted.
"She's been helping Bataar," Su explained. "She's got a real knack for tinkering."
Ronen nodded with a fond smirk and turned his attention back onto Korra and Bolin to say, "Why don't we go find her and Mako and I can give you guys the stuff I got for you on my trip?"
Ronen was already rising to his feet before either one of them could answer, but Bolin eagerly jumped up and squealed, "Oohh! Presents!"
Korra laughed and clambered up to join them, and then the three teens were racing from the room. Just before he crossed through the doorway, Ronen looked over his shoulder to assure the rest of his family, "We'll be back in time for dinner!" And then added, "You coming Opal?"
Opal looked surprised for half a second, but happily leapt to her feet and hastily followed after her cousin. Aside from fending off Bolin's advancements, Opal had mostly been keeping to herself since her extended family and the Avatar and her friends had arrived in Zaofu. Sora occasionally took time out of harassing people with the boys to spend time with Opal, but Sora had always been too rambunctious to sit still for long if she wasn't getting anything out of it. She could sit and watch a dance or listen to her father drone on about airbending, but reading didn't interest her like it did Opal. She was a lot like both her aunts that way – Su and Kya couldn't be bothered to pick up a book either. Sora had also taken to keeping Korra company when the young Avatar was trying to avoid Mako, and with Ronen not around, Opal had seemed to be feeling a little left out. Lin had tried to give the girl some attention, because at least Opal wasn't giving her a migraine like her three youngest were, but Lin was better at being the reliable aunt more so than the fun aunt. If Opal was having troubles with a bully or needed to bury a body, Lin was the person to go to, but she was otherwise fairly useless to an introverted teenage girl, except to keep quiet company by sitting in the same room and saying nothing to each other. Lin still wasn't sure why her niece found her interesting, but she was mostly glad for it, because Opal was her favorite of her sister's kids, even though Tenzin kept telling her she wasn't allowed to have favorites. Frankly, Lin didn't see why not. It wasn't as if she had a favorite amongst her own children.
Su stood then too, once the kids had run off, and she smiled at her youngest niece as she offered, "Why don't I take Jeia Rai to teach her some of that bending you've been neglecting this week?"
She winked at Lin, who rolled her eyes, but saw the gesture for what it was, to give Lin and Tenzin some time alone before dinner with the whole family.
Jeia nodded eagerly, and held her arms up for Su to pick her up off of Tenzin's lap. When she wasn't trying to run off to find Kuvira, Jeia was loving the city of metal, and Su had been trying to help distract the girl from dangerous escapades with the Metal Clan guards by offering her own entertainment with some of the rare meteorites she had acquired over the years. Lin and Su were both crossing their fingers that getting Jeia interested in the meteorites would help the toddler get in tune with the actual earth, more so than just her natural affinity with metal.
Lin shot her sister a grateful look, and as soon as She and Jeia had disappeared down the hall, Lin stood too. She strode over to the doorway, calling over her shoulder to Tenzin as she went, "I assume you'll want to freshen up after the long flight?"
"Oh, absolutely," Tenzin exclaimed, catching up with his wife so quickly that she wondered if he had used airbending to accomplish it. He put his hand low on her back as they strode together to their usual room, and Lin slipped her arm around his waist, annoyed that he had so many layers of clothes in the way that she could barely feel his warmth. "How is Jeia doing, by the way?" he asked after a beat, fully aware that once they reached their room, all talk of the kids would be off the table.
Lin knew he was concerned most about their youngest lately, because Lin was still struggling to get Jeia fully interested in earthbending outside of high stress situations. Then there was also the matter of Kuvira having told them that Jeia had an eidetic memory, and neither of them knew what to do with that information. They had tested it once or twice, just to confirm that it was definitely true, but they didn't want to push Jeia to keep doing it, and they were mostly hiding the gift from everyone else. It hadn't been something they had really planned on doing, but they worried about what someone might do with the information. Ronen, Su, Kuvira, and Bataar Jr. knew, as well as a handful of Metal Clan guards, but that was it for now, and Lin intended to keep it that way as long as possible. She was proud of Jeia, truly, and honestly a little in awe of her, but she was still a paranoid mother that worried about all the ways someone could exploit Jeia's talents.
Lin sighed heavily and admitted to Tenzin, "She was following Kuvira around and ended up in a fight with some bandits." Tenzin's eyebrows shot high up on his forehead, and the concern on his face was plainly evident. "She's fine," Lin assured, before he could voice his shock, "but Su and I have been keeping a closer eye on her. No more running off with Kuvira. She's not happy about it, but I think she'll be better now that you're here. She missed you."
"I missed her too," Tenzin murmured, pulling Lin closer into his side. "I missed all of you. But spending some quality time with Ronen was…well, it was wonderful."
"How did you guys end up in the Earth Kingdom anyways?" Lin asked, desperate to finally know what had happened. "I thought he was dead set on the Fire Nation?"
"We went to the capital on the first day," Tenzin explained, "per Ronen's request. As soon as we got there, Ronen and Ursa ran off on their own, and I had the afternoon to myself. Unfortunately, by the time I returned, they had broken up."
"Hang on," Lin said, with a shake of her head. "You let them go off alone?"
Tenzin looked bewildered for a second, and then he laughed. "That's what stuns you the most? Not that our son had his first heartbreak?"
"Okay, well yeah, that sucks, but I totally called it," Lin defended. "Wait, that sounds horrible. I didn't want it to happen." Tenzin gave her a disbelieving look and she rolled her eyes. "Only a little. I didn't want him to get hurt, obviously. I just didn't think Ursa was right for him."
"Is anyone right for Ronen in your eyes?" Tenzin inquired with a skeptical brow raised.
"Not really," Lin answered with a smirk. But then she turned serious again. "What happened with them anyway?"
"I believe that they were simply not quite as invested in the relationship as they first believed," Tenzin explained. "Ronen preferred to spend time with his friends or the family, and Ursa wanted him to put in more effort. She decided that it would be best for them to part when he told her that he was rethinking his decision to spend time with her during our trip. Even though he was saddened by the break up, he was certain that what he wanted most was for he and I to have our time together. He had apparently decided that even before you went behind my back to say something to him."
He gave her a disappointed look, and Lin just grumbled, "The kid ratted me out?"
"You know that Ronen is a terrible liar," Tenzin said, "but even so, I specifically asked you not to do that."
"I know, and I tried not to," Lin defended. "I waited until right before you two left."
"Oh, because that's better," he scoffed.
"Well, no," Lin admitted, "but clearly I was onto something, and I just wanted you two to have a good time. You did, right? So no harm done."
"Not this time," Tenzin sighed, "but it could have turned out differently. And besides, it's very hurtful when you do that sort of thing. It makes me feel as though you don't respect or trust my own judgement when it comes to our children."
Lin frowned and came to a sudden halt, interrupting Tenzin's stride too so that he was forced to go still and turn to face her. "That's not what I was trying to imply," she said firmly. "I just didn't want either of you to look back on this trip with regret, and if that meant giving Ronen a nudge in the right direction then I didn't think it would cause any harm."
"I know you had good intentions, and you weren't entirely wrong to do so, but this isn't the first time you've done this. I know there are times when one of us is wrong, or we have to make a decision about the children when the other isn't around, but I didn't want Ronen to make this decision because one of us pushed him into it. How would you feel, if you explicitly asked me not to try coercing Jeia into earthbending, but I went ahead and did it anyway?"
Lin sighed. "Okay, yeah, you're right. I shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry. Next time I'll keep my mouth shut, okay?"
Tenzin started moving them both back down the hall and said, "I would appreciate that." After only a few more steps, they had reached their room, and only once he had pulled her inside and shut the door did he speak again, tugging her closer against his chest as he added, "Don't think that I want to stifle you, though. I love your passion and your concern. You are the most magnificent woman, and I could not have ever found a better wife or mother to our children."
"You're just saying that because you've been celibate for a week," Lin teased.
Tenzin chuckled, reaching up to tuck her hair back behind her ear, and then keeping his hand there half entangled in her hair, his thumb stroking her cheek bone. "I did miss you very much," he murmured. He leaned in to kiss her, but it was all too brief, and she found herself leaning further into him to try and recapture his lips, but he pulled back just out of her reach.
"So, you got yourself arrested, huh?" she asked him, forcing herself to stop staring at his mouth long enough to look him in the eye with a smirk on her face.
"It was completely unfair," he huffed, clearly still frustrated by the injustice of it all. "I was just trying to help meditate a conflict."
"Mmhmm," Lin hummed skeptically. "Y'know, you are married to a cop… well, former cop. If you wanted to be handcuffed all you had to do was ask."
Tenzin gave her a roguish smile. "As tantalizing as that sounds, I would hate to lose the use of my hands." As if to emphasize his point, he began to trail his hands up her sides, his thumbs brushing briefly against her breasts, and then back down to her hips in a way that made her spine tingle and her whole body come alive with anticipation.
Too impatient to keep up the flirting, Lin reached up to frame Tenzin's face in her hands, and then dragged him down the short distance to crash his lips onto hers. She could feel him smiling against her mouth at first, but once she sucked his bottom lip between hers and bit down just a little, his mood shifted swiftly to something more akin to hers. His arms wrapped securely around her back and waist as he leaned further into her. His hands began skimming along the bottom of her tunic, slowly slipping underneath and teasing her bare skin with his fingertips.
Shortly after he began trailing kissing down her neck, she started maneuvering him in the direction of the bed, and when they were close enough, she shoved him backwards onto it. He landed on his back with a surprised oof, and then propped himself up onto his elbows to watch as she hastily tore her shirt off. They both kicked their shoes off at the same time, and then she crawled up on top of him, straddling his waist.
"Wasting no time, I see," he said with amusement as his hands grasped onto the backs of her thighs.
"Yeah, well, we've got twenty minutes at most before someone comes banging on the door," she replied. "I don't want to be interrupted."
She kissed him briefly once, twice, three times, and then lifted her head a little just to gaze down upon him for a second. It wasn't something she usually did, but she had missed his dorky face. It was the first time they had been apart for so long since the revolution, and after all the horror they had been through in that time, the separation seemed to hold more weight than before.
She didn't have any profound words to convey what she was feeling, but he seemed to be drinking in the sight of her too, and she wasn't surprised when he managed to speak, his voice one of breathless awe as he told her, "You are truly stunning."
She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling like an idiot, and because she could not formulate an adequate response, when she leaned in to kiss him again, she poured all of her passion and adoration into that instead. If she could not tell him, then she would sure as hell show him.
It was fairly close to the amount of time Lin had predicted when the two of them were finally disturbed. They were still curled up together in bed, Lin draped across Tenzin's chest as he stroked the length of her spine and she struggled not to take an impromptu nap.
That was when a frantic knock rang through the easy silence, breaking the spell and confusing them all at once as Asami Sato's voice called from the other side of the door, "Er, Tenzin? Chief? Are you in there? I'm sorry, but something happened and Ronen asked me to come get you…"
Lin and Tenzin exchanged a concerned frown and instantly leapt up, both of them rolling off of opposite sides of the bed to begin seeking out their clothes. "Just a minute!" Tenzin called back, hastily tugging on his pants and nearly tipping over.
They dressed in record time, and Lin was pulling her hair up as they stumbled out into the hall. Asami was standing there waiting, looking awkward and carefully avoiding both their gazes once she spotted their disheveled forms, clearly not at all naïve to what they had been up to.
"I'm sorry," she repeated, smiling uncomfortably down at her feet.
"What happened?" Lin demanded.
Asami seemed to snap out of the initial discomfort quickly, finally looking up at their faces and explaining, "I'm not sure exactly. There was a fight, the twins were involved, all four of them, and some other boys I don't know. Su and Ronen are there trying to figure out what started it –"
"Where are they?" Lin interjected.
"This way," Asami said, pointing and beginning a quick pace down the hall.
Tenzin and Lin followed close on her heels, and Tenzin asked, "Are they hurt?"
"Jin and Sora are okay," Asami assured, "just a few bruises maybe. Wei's nose may be broken, but the other boys are worse. I think one of them may have a broken leg. Su is freaking out a little."
Lin muttered a curse under her breath, fists clenching slightly, shaking her head as she said to Tenzin, "What the hell were those two thinking? They know better than to do something like this."
Tenzin sighed and shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea what could have come over them."
There wasn't much else to be said between the three of them until Asami had led them outside to the others.
Lin sought out the kids first, and saw all four of the twins off to one side of the open yard, huddled together with varying degrees of injuries and facial expressions. Wei and Yunjin still looked angry and ready for a fight, but subdued enough to remain seated on the ground with Sora and Wing. Sora had a split lip that was bleeding down her chin and there were tear tracks on her cheeks, but she also looked like she was trying to contain as much rage as her brother. Wing was curled up on himself and staring at the ground, but he appeared to be the only one of the four that wasn't disheveled or injured. Wei was holding a blood soaked cloth to his nose and Yunjin appeared to have sustained a black eye. Ronen was standing firmly in front of his siblings and cousins as if he needed to protect them, keeping a watchful eye on the situation going on with his Aunt Su a few feet away. He was holding Jeia's hand, and the toddler was pressed tight against his side, cringing with every raised voice.
There were three other boys further across the yard, and they did look worse off. One of the boys was wailing and clutching his leg, a healer bent over him, but the leg wasn't contorted at an angle or gushing blood so Lin was relieved that it didn't appear to be too dire. The other two boys sat nearby and were clutching at their own wounds, albeit without all the noise. There were two adults with the boys that Lin presumed to be somebody's parents, and Su and another woman were midway between the two groups. The unknown woman was screaming her head off at Su, gesticulating wildly and spitting with rage. Su looked on the verge of losing her patience, her face screwed up with the effort it was taking her to remain halfway calm.
It wasn't until they were closer that Lin could make out what the two women were saying.
"As I've told you the last fifteen times," Su said through gritted teeth, "my boys would never have done something like this unless provoked, and until I get to the bottom of this, I'm not jumping to any conclusions –"
"They maimed my boy!" the other woman spat, gesturing at the wailing boy behind her. "He could be crippled forever! Your boys have been terrorizing this village for the past week, and now they've gone too far! There needs to be real punishment here."
"They've been playing harmless pranks," Su scoffed. "It's not as if they've burned the place down."
Lin and Tenzin reached their kids then, and Lin said incredulously, "What the hell?" giving the twins a narrow-eyed scowl.
Upon spotting her parents, Jeia went running over to them, and Tenzin bent to scoop her up in his arms. She was clearly perturbed by the whole thing, and wrapped her arms tight around her father's neck.
"It wasn't our fault, Mom!" Jin immediately protested.
"It wasn't," Sora added. "Honest!"
"You'd better have a damn good explanation for this," Lin warned, before turning her attention back onto Su and the belligerent woman. She would get to the bottom of what had happened once they had corralled the kids back inside, but she figured she might need to help her sister out first.
Su was saying, "The healer says it isn't even broken! But if it makes you happy, you won't be charged a single yuan for any medical expenses. I'll take care of it personally. And believe me, Cho, if my kids truly attacked your son for no reason, then they will be adequately disciplined, but as I said before, they don't have a mean bone in their bodies, and I'm not going to assume –"
"Then what of the other two, huh?" Cho interrupted, pointing viciously over at Jin and Sora, and Lin felt her hackles rising. "They come here and suddenly all hell breaks loose and my son ends up with a broken leg. One of those little monsters must have used their bending on him and –"
Lin wasn't sure when she started moving forward threateningly, but she only noticed when Tenzin grabbed onto her arm and yanked her back. She gave him an irritated look, but he frowned at her and glanced pointedly at the twins, and she had to force herself to reign in the instinctive rage that was boiling within her. She couldn't very well discipline them for being involved in a brawl if she went off and started her own. Although, to be fair, she mostly just wanted to threaten the woman, not hit her.
But nobody was holding back Yunjin, who suddenly exploded, leaping to his feet and shouting across the yard at Cho, "We did not! Mom said to never use our bending on the weak! My little sister can metalbend better than him!"
"Yunjin," Tenzin hissed, urging the boy to sit back down, and Lin was torn between face-palming in exasperation and biting down on her lips to suppress a smirk.
"You need to get control of your kids!" Cho shouted at Lin and Tenzin.
"Listen here, lady!" Lin started to respond, but Tenzin suddenly pushed Jeia into her arms, probably as a deterrent to keep her from doing something stupid, and then he was giving her a look that plainly said, "Stay here," and went striding across the grass to where Su and Cho stood.
As he approached, Su heatedly said to Cho, "I assure you that that my niece and nephew are no more likely to have purposefully done anything to your son than my boys, and your insults are not helping matters in the slightest. If your son runs his mouth half as much as you do then it's no wonder –"
"Excuse me," Tenzin intervened, before Su could finish or Cho's head could explode. "I'm sorry, Ma'am, Cho is it? I'm Councilman Tenzin. I regret that we must meet under such circumstances, but I assure you that my wife and I, as well as Suyin, would very much like to amend this in anyway we can. We will be speaking with our children in depth on this matter, and each of them will apologize to your son, as well as the other two boys involved. If there is anything we can do to aid in the recovery of your son's leg, we would also like to contribute. Our children are certainly not in the habit of engaging in fist fights, and I'm sure yours isn't either, but I'm afraid children can be rather unpredictable that way. I'm sure this is simply a misunderstanding that spiraled out of control, but I don't think any of us adults wants it to continue to escalate either, do we?"
In the face of Tenzin's calm and collected demeanor, Cho seemed at a loss as to how to respond. She continued to scowl, and huffed in irritation before begrudgingly admitting, "No, we do not."
"Excellent. Well, I'm sure that you wish to be with your son during this time," Tenzin said sympathetically. "Perhaps we can meet to discuss this matter again tomorrow, after we've all had time to cool off and get the full stories from our children?"
He hardly gave her a choice on the matter, and Cho bitterly acquiesced, shooting a glare at basically everyone else across the yard before going to her son. Su seemed as if she wanted to say something more, but Tenzin quickly ushered her in the direction of Lin and the kids before she could.
"All right everyone, let's discuss this inside," Tenzin said to the group, in a tone that brooked no argument, and the twins all shuffled to their feet and led the way back to Su's home.
Halfway into the house, Su asked one of the housemaids to bring them bandages and antiseptic, and when they all congregated in one of the family rooms, the conversation was delayed a bit longer to check over the twins' injuries. Nothing seemed serious enough to warrant immediate attention by a healer, only a proper cleaning and some ice to stop the swelling. Wei's nose wasn't fully broken, and Lin had dealt with the same injury among her officers so many times at work that she offered to pop it back into place herself. Su seemed wary, but Wei said he trusted his aunt, and Lin wouldn't have attempted it if she hadn't been certain that she could do it. The boy did curse when she did it and Su winced at the sound it made, but he thanked Lin with watery eyes and sat back in his seat with a bag of ice clutched against his face.
It was about that time when Korra came stumbling into the room, breathlessly spluttering, "I heard there was a fight! And the twins –!" She caught sight of Jin and Sora and rushed over to them, examining Sora's busted lip and Yunjin's black eye and the cut on his eyebrow. "What happened?!"
"That's what I'd like to know," Lin said, folding her arms across her chest and eyeing all four of the twins in turn. "So who's gonna explain?"
Sora and the three boys exchanged glances, and then averted their gazes, avoiding Lin's stare and not one of them saying a word.
"Now you know that's not gonna work in your favor," Lin said impatiently. "You've got five seconds to spill or I'm going to have to assume you're all guilty and you'll be grounded for the next six months."
"That's no fair," Yunjin protested.
"It wasn't our fault," Sora insisted.
"Mom wouldn't ground us for that long," Wei said with certainty.
But Su countered, "You really wanna take that bet? Because you're in serious trouble, mister. That boy's leg might have only been severely bruised, but it could have been a lot worse. You could have seriously hurt him, and for what? It isn't like you four to do something like this. I'm very disappointed." Wei hung his head shamefully. Meanwhile, Wing had never even lifted his to speak, and Su noticed the boy's pointed silence. "Wing? You're being awfully quiet, and you're the only one that came out unscathed. You mind telling me what went on out there?"
Wing glanced furtively up at his mother, and then hastily looked back down at his lap, wringing his hands uncomfortably.
Tenzin sighed and stepped forward to crouch down on the floor midway between the four twins, who were sat together on the couch. His voice was soft as he told them, "We want to be on your side here. We do not want to punish you if you do not deserve it. You can tell us what those other boys did, no matter what it is, and we will not be angry so long as you are honest with us. Was it a simple prank gone wrong, or did they provoke you?"
The four kids shifted and exchanged looks again, and eventually Yunjin said to Wing in exasperation, "You should just tell them."
But Wing shook his head rapidly in wide-eyed terror, and then Wei suddenly shifted in front of his brother as if to shield him and blurted, "It was all my fault. I thought it would be funny to mess with those guys. I started it. Jin and Sora were just trying to protect me."
Lin looked skeptically over at Su, who frowned at her son and clearly was not convinced either. "Don't lie to me, Wei."
"I'm not," Wei defended. "I just told you what you wanted to know."
"You just told us a bunch of crap," Lin corrected. "You think your mother can't tell when you're lying?"
"You don't have to believe me if you don't want to," Wei said haughtily, slouching back down into the couch.
Sora rose to her feet, but before Lin could snap at her that she wasn't free to go, the girl merely walked the two steps to the other end of the couch, where Wing was sat, and she dropped down on the tiny space left on the edge. She plucked one of Wing's hands up out of his lap to clutch between both of her own hands, and then she looked at her mother and father with steadfast resolve and said simply, "I like girls."
Lin blinked, and then blinked again, and her brow furrowed, and the longer she tried to make sense of Sora's words, the more confused she became, until eventually she managed to say, "Huh?"
"I like girls," Sora repeated. "Like Aunt Kya and Yumae."
Lin was still confused for all of five seconds, until it finally clicked in her brain what Sora was talking about and her eyes went wide.
Tenzin reeled back and nearly toppled over, Su gasped, and Korra exclaimed, "You what?!"
The other three kids on the couch, however, looked wholly unsurprised, and Ronen, too, murmured, "I feel like I should be surprised, but I'm really not."
Lin recovered first, and she immediately scoffed, "Nice try, kid, but you can't distract us from the fact that you four beat up a bunch of other kids for seemingly no reason."
"That is the reason," Sora persisted. "Those boys attacked us because they think it's wrong that I am the way that I am."
Lin still wasn't convinced. "How would they even know that you liked girls? Have you got a girlfriend I'm not aware of?"
"No, I told them," Sora replied.
"You told some random boys before you told us?" Lin asked skeptically, and maybe with a little offense.
"I did tell you," Sora said succinctly.
"No you di –" Lin began to say, only to stop abruptly as a memory suddenly shot through her mind.
They had been in the Fire Nation visiting Zuko and his family, and Kya had brought her girlfriend, Yumae, and Sora had run up to her mother and proclaimed, "Mama, I like girls like Auntie Kya likes Yumae!" And Lin had just patted the girl on the head and distractedly given some mechanical response, because she had only recently found out that she was pregnant for the third time at forty-five, and she had been in the middle of trying not to freak out. She hadn't given Sora's declaration another thought since then, and even though Lin knew that what Sora was saying in the present couldn't be the whole truth to what had happened with those boys, she could also see the sincerity in her daughter's eyes about the confession itself.
"Shit," Lin cursed. "You're serious?"
It was Tenzin that answered, "Yes, I believe she is." He hadn't taken his eyes off of Sora, and he reached out then to squeeze her knee, because her hands were still wrapped around Wing's, as he said softly, "I'm sorry that we didn't pay attention before. You know that your Mom and I love you very much, don't you, sweetheart?"
"Of course," Sora said with a sweet little smile, and Lin wondered how she and Tenzin had managed to raise their own kids so well. They and their siblings had all been a complete mess half of the time. So much so that Kya hadn't even admitted to preferring women until she was in her forties and had been married to a man for nearly twenty years, and yet Sora was not even remotely concerned about how her family would react to her own admission.
"You know I love you," Ronen told his sister.
"Hey, me too!" Korra chimed in, and Sora beamed.
"Me three," Asami said with a warm smile, and Lin noticed then that Jeia had apparently fallen asleep in the Sato girl's arms at some point during the discussion.
"I love you too," Su said last, looking a little misty-eyed as she squeezed her niece's shoulder. "I'm so sorry that those boys were nasty to you. The people of Zaofu are meant to be tolerant. I can't believe such a thing would happen, but I promise you I will take it very seriously. I don't ever want you to feel like you're not safe here."
"That means a lot, Aunt Su," Sora said sincerely.
"What were those boys saying to you anyway?" Korra asked, sounding like she wanted to go rough them up herself and cracking her knuckles.
Sora frowned then, and exchanged a glance with Yunjin, who was scowling. "I don't want to repeat it," she said.
Wing suddenly cleared his throat, bringing the focus onto him as he looked timidly up at his mother, and his face contorted in discomfort as he very quietly mumbled, "They weren't just harassing Sora. They would have never said anything to her if it weren't for me."
Su frowned at the perturbed look on her son's face and inquired, "What do you mean?"
"Wing," Sora whispered softly, "you don't have to if you aren't ready."
Wing shook his head and then swallowed forcefully. "I want to," he said, and he and Sora shared a look that no one else except for maybe their twins could comprehend. He looked back up at his mother and his expression hardened with resolve. "Those guys started picking on us because of what they saw me doing yesterday. I was…I was holding hands with Haruto."
"Haruto?" Su repeated.
Wing nodded, and Lin noticed that his hands were shaking in Sora's grasp. "He's a boy I like."
Su went very still for a moment, and everyone seemed to be holding a collective breath, although Lin could not understand why, considering the way Su had just reacted to a similar confession from Sora three seconds earlier.
As expected, Su's response was no less heartfelt, as she dropped down to her knees in front of her son, clutching his hands and Sora's all at once, and she looked as if she was about to start weeping, but she held it together as she smiled and said, "Thank you for telling me, sweetheart. I love you somuch. I hope you don't ever doubt that. I hope you know that you can tell me anything. You're a wonderful, sweet boy, and I can't believe how lucky I am to be your mother. I look forward to meeting Haruto, whenever you're ready."
Wing smiled in relief and lunged forward to hug his mother, and Wei hesitated only a second before joining in.
Yunjin sighed heavily, "Finally. Do you know how hard it is for me to keep a secret?"
Wei and Wing and Su chuckled and detached from one another, but Sora reached around behind the twin boys to punch her brother in the arm and say, "You dummy. How hard do you think it was for him?"
"I told him that nobody would care," Yunjin scoffed, rubbing his arm and sticking his tongue out at his sister. "You guys never listen to me."
"We listened to you today and ended up in a fist fight," Wei pointed out.
Yunjin gave his cousin an insulted look and exclaimed, "Hey! Those guys deserved it. We were just minding our own business when they came after us."
"That doesn't mean you can just go around punching people," Su said, before Tenzin could respond with a no doubt similar retort. He almost looked disappointed as he snapped his mouth back closed. "However, I will let it slide this time, since there were extenuating circumstances."
"And because the little jerk got what was coming to him," Lin muttered, thinking about all the sort of foul things that brat could have been spewing at her daughter and her nephew. She had heard it all in her line of work, but knowing that similar treatment had been given to her family made her blood boil even more.
"Lin," Tenzin said reproachfully, before looking to the kids and amending, "What she means to say, is that we must not give into bullies, or we are no better than they are. To resort to violence is to lower yourself to their level, and we must practice patience and peaceful resolutions. I understand that those boys provoked you and hurt your feelings, but there will always be bullies in life, and fighting cannot be the only solution."
"The Equalists were bullies and you let us fight them," Yunjin pointed out, which caused his parents to exchange a concerned look.
"You do understand the difference between the Equalists and those rude kids, though, don't you?" Lin questioned.
Yunjin just looked confused though, and Tenzin very carefully began to explain, "The Equalists were not simply bullies. They were inciting a war and violently attacking innocent people. We had no choice but to defend ourselves from them. Those boys that taunted you today, they were cruel, but did they throw the first punch?"
Yunjin shifted uncomfortably and admitted, "No."
"Even if they had," Tenzin continued, "you should have only used enough force to defend yourself. These boys are not terrorists, simply misinformed, and no one ever learns anything by being beaten over the head with it. Does that make sense?"
Yunjin shrugged, and Lin figured by the way he was fidgeting that he had barely been paying attention. "I guess so."
"This is actually a good thing to meditate over," Tenzin said with some excitement, looking over his shoulder at Korra as well. "Have the three of you been practicing your meditations while I've been away?"
Jin and Sora exchanged a guilty look and Korra pointedly avoided Tenzin's gaze, which was an answer in and of itself. Tenzin did not make a fuss though, nor did his excitement wane. "That's no matter," he said. "Ronen and I missed a few days as well." Tenzin did not notice his eldest son behind him, shaking his head and struggling not to laugh at the absurdity of his father's claims as he silently mouthed, "No he didn't." The twins and Korra bit down on their lips to keep from laughing at Ronen, and Tenzin obliviously suggested to Jin and Sora, "How about you two go get cleaned up and meet Korra and I outside, and we'll get a quick session in before dinner?"
"Sure, Daddy," Sora agreed with a soft smile, and Yunjin relented, even though he clearly didn't seem all that interested. Korra didn't either, but she was either more amicable after a week off, or she didn't want to disappoint Tenzin if she refused.
As Jin and Sora were about to leave, Lin felt something come over her, and she reached out to snag Sora's arm before the girl could escape. "Hey, kid," she said gruffly, "you know I love you, yeah?"
Sora smiled brightly and nodded. "I love you too, Mama," and then she and Yunjin were scampering out of the room. Lin watched them go with a mixture of pride and concern, wondering how she had been so blind, and how she simultaneously wasn't all that surprised.
Tenzin stood and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Korra folded her arms across her chest, and smirked as she advised, "You'd better go freshen up too, lover boy. Did you get dressed in the dark?"
Asami was standing directly next to the Avatar, one arm still holding onto the snoozing Jeia, but the other hand pressed over her mouth to try and hide her own quiet laugh. Lin suspected that the Sato girl had said something to Korra about what she assumed Lin and Tenzin had been up to when she'd been sent to retrieve them.
Lin pursed her lips, but looked Tenzin over more closely, and saw what the girls must have seen. The back of his shirt was completely untucked over the back of his pants and his sash was askew, and though that was a typical look for the much rowdier Yunjin, Tenzin was always much more put together. He looked down at himself and noticed what everyone else had, and his whole head turned red as he whirled on Lin and demanded, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Lin scoffed. "I'm sorry, was I supposed to be staring at your ass?"
"You do any other time," Su muttered under her breath, looking far too pleased with herself when Korra and Asami giggled in response.
"I so don't need to hear this," Ronen said as he shuffled hastily out of the room. "I'm gonna go find Bolin or something."
"I'll come with you," Asami offered, sharing one last look of amusement with Korra before she went.
She still had Jeia in her arms, and Lin called after Ronen, "Please don't let your sister out of your sight. If I have to kill Kuvira for taking her on another bandit hunt it's gonna make the rest of this vacation real awkward real fast."
"I will," Ronen promised before disappearing into the hallway with Asami and Jeia.
Tenzin was hastily trying to stuff his shirt back into his pants when Wei and Wing both stood.
"We should go too," Wei said.
"To get cleaned up for dinner," Wing finished.
"Hang on," Su said quickly. "I'd still like to talk about all this."
"Can we talk later?" Wing half begged.
Su sighed reluctantly, but conceded, "Okay, after dinner then? With your father?"
Wing and Wei both nodded and said, "Okay, Mom."
She kissed them both on the sides of their foreheads, and then the boys left, Korra following close behind. She stopped in the doorway to grin at Tenzin and say, "You'd better be out there in three minutes. No fooling around, young man."
She could still be heard cackling halfway down the hallway, and Tenzin's shoulders slumped as he pouted at his wife. Lin simply raised a brow, because it so wasn't her fault, and he released an overly exaggerated sigh before muttering, "I'll be back for dinner."
He left the room with a flourish, and then Lin and Su were alone, and they looked at one other with twin expressions of bewilderment.
"What the hell just happened?" Lin demanded.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Su replied.
Lin asked, "Did you know that Wing –?"
"No," Su immediately answered. "Did you know that Sora –?"
"No," Lin echoed just as quickly.
"Does that make us terrible mothers?" Su fretted.
Lin shrugged, still trying to wrap her head around the whole thing. On the one hand, she wasn't all that surprised, so she must have had some inkling, and she certainly didn't view the kids any differently, but that didn't make her any less worried. What they had endured earlier with those brats bullying them, that wouldn't be the last time, nor would it probably be the worst. Acceptance was expanding in the world, but there were still those that would try to tear them down and Lin wished that she could protect her daughter from that. But then again, Lin wished she could protect her kids from a lot of things, and they were a lot tougher than she sometimes gave them credit for. Sora had Tenzin's rational head on her shoulders and she wasn't so easily goaded by bullies, not like her twin was, with his Beifong temper. Sora would be just fine.
"Spirits," Su suddenly said, breaking the brief silence between them, "can you imagine what Mom would say if she were here?"
"You mean besides telling Wing that men are trash?" Lin snorted.
"Or telling Sora that women are over-emotional saps?" Su added.
"It's a wonder that we managed to maintain any sort of meaningful relationship with her influence," Lin mused.
"We almost didn't," Su laughed. "Do you remember how many boyfriends I went through in my teen years alone?"
"Oh I remember perfectly," Lin assured.
"Yeah, well, I didn't grow up with the love of my life," Su defended.
"Did part of you still try to sabotage your relationship with Bataar because you thought love was for suckers?"
"Of course," Su said without hesitation. "I take it you did the same with Tenzin?"
"Several times," Lin replied with a smirk, and Su grinned. It was absolutely ridiculous to be amused by, and yet they were bonding over an old insecurity they had never even confessed to having before, but which they apparently shared, and it felt…good?
"Gosh, I miss her," Su said breathlessly.
Lin nodded. "Yeah, me too. She was a mess, but, she was our mess, y'know?"
"Definitely," Su agreed. "I still wonder sometimes, if she would be proud of who I became. I know it's silly, but…there was nothing better than seeing that cocky grin on her face when she was genuinely impressed with something we did."
"We spent a lot of time trying to impress her," Lin said, with a partially regretful sigh. "We were too needy, just like the men she couldn't stand."
Su sputtered out half of a laugh and admitted, "That's…unfortunately true."
"I don't think you have to worry about her not being proud of you though," Lin added. "I was there the day someone told her you were building your own metal city. I'd have thought you cured world hunger with the way she was gloating." Lin was impressed that the admission didn't come out bitter like it would have all those years ago.
Su smiled brightly, and her eyes looked suspiciously damp again. "Thank you, Lin. That's…surprisingly comforting. You know, she cried the day you graduated from the academy."
Lin scoffed. "You don't have to go making stuff up to make me feel better."
"I'm not!" Su insisted. "Seriously, I know she didn't really want you to join the force, but she was proud anyways. I distinctly remember because I was jealous. But instead of emulating you I decided to go the opposite direction."
"The complete opposite direction. Spirit's sake, I still can't believe you were running around with the triads. I can't believe Mom barely even reacted aside from shipping you off. If I ever caught one of my kids driving a getaway vehicle I think my head would explode."
"Oh absolutely! And yet, I don't believe for a single second that any one of our kids would even come close to being that reckless. How on earth did we manage to raise good kids when we were such brats?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Lin warned. "Some of them did almost break a kid's leg today."
Su waved a dismissive hand. "Let's face it, those hog-monkeys deserved it."
Lin glanced over her shoulder, to check that her husband wasn't right behind her, and then freely admitted, "Yeah, they definitely did, but if you tell Tenzin I said that I'll end you."
"What's to tell?" Su said, feigning ignorance. She smiled as she looped her arm through Lin's. "We're just two sisters having a conversation about our children. Nothing more, nothing less. But after today's events I could really use a drink. What about you?"
Lin sighed with palpable relief. "I thought you'd never ask."
"I know one thing's for sure," Su went on, as she was tugging Lin in the direction of the liquor cabinet. "Mom would certainly have never believed that you, of all people, would birth four kids and then adopt four strays."
Lin groaned dramatically and snapped, "Those four are not my kids!"
Su just patted her sister on the arm and, with a smug grin, said, "Whatever you say, Lin, whatever you say."
Chapter 57: Chapter 57
Chapter Text
Chapter 57
It wasn't until after dinner with the whole family on his first night in Zaofu that Ronen found a chance to really talk to Korra.
Ever since he had heard that she and Mako had been arguing all week, he had been worried about how his friend was feeling and wondering what on earth could have happened. Having only recently suffered a heartbreak himself, he knew all too well that she must be hurting, even if she and Mako were technically still together. One thing he had learned during his brief romance with Ursa was that relationships really were a lot more difficult and confusing than they looked. He had watched his parents argue for years, and yet they had always reconciled so seamlessly that he assumed it would be just as easy for most others, but clearly that was not the case. He supposed it had more to do with the fact that his parents had been together for so long and therefore had to learn how to adjust in a way new couples could not. His Aunt Su was always saying that his mother had mellowed out over the years, but considering the temper his mother had even at fifty, Ronen shuddered to imagine what his parents might have been like before he and his siblings were even born.
Korra and Mako both had tempers too, something that Ronen and Ursa hadn't had to work around, but arguing was almost necessary sometimes, and Ronen and Ursa's problem was that they had only ignored the problems in their relationship. Maybe if they had bickered they might have discovered the flaws sooner and figured out a way to fix them, but Ronen didn't regret what time he'd had with her, and he didn't really think that they would have ever worked anyway, no matter how much he missed her. Ronen didn't know what Korra and Mako's issues were, but he was determined to find out.
Shortly after dinner, he urged Korra to slip out of the family room with him while everyone was distracted by some new invention of his uncle's. They went outside onto one of the balconies, and Ronen felt an instant wave of calm come over him. He leaned against the railing and gazed out at his aunt's city, sucking in a deep breath of fresh, cool air. He loved Republic City and Air Temple Island – they were his home and always would be – but there was something about Zaofu that filled his heart with warmth and peace. Perhaps it was simply that he had most of his extended family so near, but whatever the case, he could certainly understand why it was becoming increasingly difficult for his mother to turn down his aunt's persistent requests for all of them to move there permanently. He knew it would likely never happen, not with how seriously his parents took their responsibilities, even though they were no longer technically going to be employed in Republic City anymore, but he couldn't deny that he had considered the possibility himself a number of times.
Ronen had hoped that Korra would find the same sort of peace in Zaofu, but it sounded as if she hadn't had much of a chance. He was eager to question her, but he waited a few moments, leaving her to her own thoughts as they stood in comfortable silence, but Korra was rarely one to stay quiet for long.
She was the first to speak, exhaling a long sigh before saying, "I know what you're going to say."
Ronen turned to looked at her, genuine expression of puzzlement on his face that she didn't see at first, too busy staring resolutely up at the stars. "Oh?" he asked. "And what am I going to say?"
She tilted her head in his direction, just enough to give him a skeptical look as she answered, "I told you so."
Ronen frowned. "Since when do I say that?"
"Well today's a good day to start," Korra muttered bitterly. "You were right, okay? Mako and I weren't really meant to be."
Ronen opened his mouth, but shut it for a second longer, watching with sympathy and a lot of understanding as Korra dropped her head glumly. He sucked in a deep breath again, and then murmured, "I'm sorry, Korra. Are you sure there's no way to fix it? I mean, what happened? You guys were pretty close when we left the Island."
Korra shrugged and didn't look up. "I don't know. I guess…I was so busy in the city, and then we came here, and we were, well…free, for the first time in…for the first time since we even met really. Between everything with Amon and then the aftermath. I didn't have much time to think about what I want. I still don't really know, but... Spending time with Mako started feeling like a chore and we keep arguing over nothing. You were gone and Asami won't talk to me much anymore and I've been having more fun with Bolin than I have my own boyfriend. That's not right, is it? And yet, I just keep thinking how great it was when Mako and I weren't dating."
"I can definitely understand that," Ronen admitted. "I really cared a lot about Ursa, still do, but being in a relationship with her didn't feel as important as it should have."
"I still can't believe you two broke up," Korra said, finally turning to face him, so that he could see the look of bewilderment on her face. "You seemed so happy on the Island."
"We were, in a way," Ronen confirmed. "I don't regret any of the time I had with her and I'll always remember it fondly, but something just…wasn't right. Whatever you're supposed to feel when you're with the person you love…I didn't feel it with her. And if it's the same for you with Mako there's no shame in that. If you truly love him and want to be with him and make it work, then you can, but don't force yourself to keep it going if it doesn't feel right."
Korra sighed in exasperation and laid her head down until her forehead thunked against the railing. "It's so confusing," she groaned, voice slightly muffled. "I wanted him so badly before, but now it's like, why did we want to be together in the first place?" She turned her head to rest against her arm and looked up at Ronen. "I don't know what to do. I don't want to hurt him. Mako's a great guy, but…I don't know if I want him to be my guy."
"Well then you have to tell him that," Ronen said with a sympathetic frown, reaching his hand out to place on Korra's back in support. "It'll be hard, but it's better you talk to him about what you're feeling now than to wait until later. Don't drag this out if it's only going to end in disaster, y'know?"
"Ugh, why do you always have to be right?" Korra complained.
"I must have inherited it from my mother," Ronen replied with a cheeky grin.
Thinking of Ronen's mother must have awoken some memory in Korra's mind, because she suddenly lifted her head with a grin and said, "Speaking of your mother. Let me tell you how crazy she's been while you and your Dad were gone. First off, I don't think I've ever seen her eye twitch so much, I'm afraid it's going to get stuck that way. And the other day, Su started harping on her about having not taught me metalbending yet, so when Su announced she was gonna start teaching me, your Mom got all defensive and now she claims she's teaching me. She made me sit in on her lesson with Jeia this morning, where I learned nothing by the way, because Jeia already knows how to metalbend, and your mother was way nicer to Jeia than me. Even my old firebending instructor wasn't that aggressive. So now Su is trying to teach me behind Lin's back, which I just know is going to end in a brawl, but I think that if I just..."
Suddenly Korra trailed off, distracted by movement across the balcony, and Ronen turned to see Mako stepping halfway through the doorway.
Mako didn't approach the pair as he said, "Sorry to interrupt, but can I talk to you Korra? When you get a second?"
"Well, I'm talking to Ronen right now, but –" Korra started to say.
Ronen interjected, pushing himself away from the railing and insisting, "No, no, you two talk. I'll, uh, go find Bolin." He was already hastening across the balcony while Korra weakly protested, "But…" He nodded at Mako as he shimmied past him in the doorway and escaped with, "I'll see you guys later."
Ronen did go in search of Bolin, who he found a little while later out in one of the courtyards of Su's estate. Both sets of twins were also there, along with Opal and Asami, and Huan was not far away from the group creating some sort of sculpture. Opal was sat far up on the steps reading a book, while Sora, Wei, and Asami played a game against Wing, Yunjin, and Bolin. Ronen wasn't sure what they were playing, his twin cousins were always making up some type of game, but it looked a bit like a calmer version of kuai ball.
Bolin was barely paying attention, his gaze flickering frequently over to Opal to see if she was watching the game and occasionally shouting commentary to her. His teammates were growing frustrated the more they had to shout at him to focus, and the game eventually came to a sudden stop when the ball hit the ground a few feet from Bolin as he turned to regard Opal again. Yunjin grew so frustrated that he stomped over to the ball, snatched it up off of the ground, and hurled it at Bolin's back. The older boy was caught off guard and stumbled forward several steps from the impact, flailing his arms as he struggled not to face plant into the ground.
"Ow!" Bolin screeched, whirling around to face Yunjin and demanding, "What'd you do that for?"
"Quit ogling my cousin and pay attention, or quit playing!" Yunjin snapped.
Ronen reached the group then, and he frowned at his little brother as he intervened, "Relax, Yunjin, it's just a game. You can't just go around hitting people like that."
"I didn't hit him hard," Yunjin muttered, looking chastened.
"Well apologize anyway," Ronen requested.
Yunjin scoffed, "You're not Mom."
"Do you want me to tell Mom?" Ronen inquired, raising a skeptical brow.
Yunjin's shoulders slumped and he sighed heavily, turning on Bolin to say, "I'm sorry, Bolin."
"That's okay," Bolin said with a dismissive wave. "You're right, I wasn't paying attention. Sorry, little dude."
Yunjin shrugged and murmured, "That's okay. I get a little competitive sometimes."
Wing snorted. "Sometimes?"
"Oh hush," Yunjin said with a playful shove.
"We gonna keep playin or what?" Wei asked as he and Sora and Asami joined the others.
"I don't know," Sora said before anyone could answer, "I'm getting kind of tired."
"Me too," Asami admitted.
"Me three," Wing concurred.
"I'm not tired at all," Yunjin denied.
"Me neither," Wei said.
"Well you two stay out here all night then," Sora sassed. "We're going to bed."
With that, Sora led the charge across the lawn, Wing at her side and Asami lagging behind long enough to smile and say goodnight to Bolin and Ronen.
As they were walking away, Sora asked, "Do you think Mom'll let us have hot chocolate before bed?"
"Um, I don't think that's going to help you sleep," Asami reasoned.
"Oh, but it sounds very good," Wing said. "Let's do it. No need to ask your mom. She'll never know."
Sora guffawed incredulously, but agreed, and Asami conceded, "Hot coco does sound good."
Ronen turned to Bolin and asked, "Are you tired?"
"Not in the slightest," Bolin answered.
"You wanna play, Ro?" Yunjin asked, picking up the ball and tossing it between his hands.
"Nah, I think I prefer something a little less active," Ronen replied. "Bolin, you wanna go find some cards or something?"
"Yeah!" Bolin agreed.
"Just us then," Wei said to Yunjin, and the two boys went off to toss the ball around between them.
Ronen and Bolin began to stride across the courtyard, and Bolin asked, "Can Opal come with us?"
"Of course," Ronen answered easily.
Bolin said, "I thought you were with Korra. She go to bed already?"
"She and Mako are having a talk," Ronen explained.
Bolin winced. "That doesn't sound good. You think they're gonna break up?"
"No idea," Ronen said truthfully.
"Mako's havin' a tough time with the ladies. You too, now I think about it. I hope all that bad luck isn't contagious." They had reached the top of the stairs, and Ronen watched in bewilderment as Bolin held out his hand to Opal and suddenly changed the entire tone of his voice as he said to her, "Milady, you're looking radiant as ever. Would you like to join Ronen and I for a game of cards?"
Opal smiled and nodded, marking the place in her book and allowing Bolin to help her up. "Why don't I get us some snacks?" she offered, and Bolin nearly swooned.
"Gosh you're so smart!" Bolin gushed. "You are amazing, Opal."
Opal blushed and laughed a little, tucking her hair behind her ears, and then started in the direction of the house.
As she retreated, Bolin watched for a moment, and then sighed dreamily and murmured, "Isn't she gorgeous?" Ronen made a face, and when Bolin turned to see it, he asked, "What?"
"Dude," Ronen said with a shake of his head, "that's my cousin."
Bolin still appeared bewildered, and he blinked. "Yeah? I know she's –" suddenly he gasped, looking horrified. "Oh my gosh, are you mad? I'm sorry, I didn't know cousins were off limits. Is that like a bro-code thing? I swear I wasn't trying to –"
"Woah, woah, woah," Ronen interrupted, lifting his hands to placate Bolin, "slow down. Listen…I know you're a good guy, Bo, and it's not really my place to say what Opal does or doesn't do, but…it's weird so…maybe don't flirt so much when I'm around."
He smiled and patted Bolin's shoulder to assure his friend that he wasn't upset, and Bolin sagged in relief, smiling broadly back. "Copy that, buddy. Although, I did have to watch you suck face with Ursa for a month, soooo –"
"We did not suck face!" Ronen exclaimed defensively. But Bolin was already running away, cackling as he went, and Ronen raced after him with a, "Get back here!" But he couldn't suppress the laugh that bubbled out of him either.
Jeia Rai turned five years old in Zaofu, and she couldn't have cared less. She hated cake and she gave her aunt an annoyed look when she insisted that all seventeen of their family and friends sing some awful rendition of Happy Birthday. But Jeia also smirked when her mother placed her hands over Jeia's ears to shield her from the song, and Jeia loved the secondary dessert that Su had waiting in the wings, because Su remembered that Jeia hadn't eaten the cake at Ronen's party. Jeia didn't care much about her new clothes and she only seemed to like one or two of the toys that she received, but she kept all of the gifts close anyways, lining up the little stuffed animals in front of her on the table and not letting anyone shift them out of their carefully determined place. She spent most of the party on her mother's lap, while the two of them shared commiserating looks at some of the older kids' antics. Lin and her family would be leaving Zaofu the following day to return to Republic City, so Jeia's party was more of an excuse for everyone to spend time together before they had to return to reality.
Kuvira and Bataar Jr approached Lin and Jeia sometime after everyone had had dessert and moved into the family room together. Junior apologized for taking Jeia on such a dangerous escapade the previous week, and Kuvira begrudgingly agreed at Junior's behest. The pair then asked if it would be all right if they took Jeia for a ride on the airship to test out a new weapon they'd recently added to its features. Lin's immediate response was a resounding no, but she looked down at Jeia's sad little face, and considered the fact that it was the girl's birthday and their last night in Zaofu, and then reluctantly conceded, under the condition that she went along with them just in case.
Tenzin insisted on going too, so the three of them told the rest of their family they'd be back soon and then followed Kuvira and Junior out to the landing pad. Once they reached the airship, Lin allowed Jeia to run ahead with Kuvira and Junior, while she and Tenzin stayed back and observed from a distance. Inside the cockpit, Jeia greeted Shuri and Zo and a couple other Metal Clan guards with salutes, and they all welcomed 'Captain Jeia' back with excitement.
From her place in the doorway to the cockpit, Lin folded her arms across her chest and muttered to Tenzin, "Figures the first friends she would make outside of her siblings would be a bunch of adults. Never mind the fact that they're an elite group of fighters that go out looking for trouble when they've got nothing better to do."
"Well," Tenzin said mildly, peering down at his wife with half a smile, "we did always know that Jeia would be trouble."
Lin snorted. "She did try to kill us both the day she was born, as if there wasn't enough already going on. She loves to scare the shit out of us."
"She's like her mother that way," Tenzin teased, "very headstrong."
"Sure, blame it on me," Lin complained, but she was fighting a smirk too.
"But she also has your beautiful smile and your fiery compassion," Tenzin soothed, unfolding his own arms to trail his fingers down her spine.
"Remind me again why I married such a sap?" Lin inquired.
Tenzin just gave her a dorky grin as he curled his arm around her shoulders, and then the airship was lifting up off of the ground. The two of them watched in silence for a bit as Jeia – now ensconced in the metal chest plate Kuvira had crafted for her during the revolution – stood on the captain's chair to see up over the control panel, leaning forward against it to better look out the viewport. Shuri piloted the airship per Jeia's orders, with occasional advice from Kuvira, and it was clear that the toddler was having a great time.
Once they had flown out of range of Zaofu, Kuvira ordered her people to begin testing the new weapon, which caused the airship to rock slightly, and knocked Tenzin back into a metal cabinet attached to the wall.
He hissed slightly in pain and rubbed at his arm, frowning as he muttered, "As great as it has been to be here in Zaofu with family, I will be immeasurably pleased when we return home. Everything is so sharp here, and I much prefer Oogi to this metal deathtrap."
Lin scoffed, "Of course you do, because on Oogi you're surrounded by air. Now you know how it feels when Jeia and I have to endure a flight on the back of a sky bison. At least here we've got enough of our element around not to feel like we're gonna plummet to our deaths."
"True," Tenzin conceded, "but you know I'd never let you fall off of Oogi."
"I'd hardly let anyone else fly me around. I still have nightmares of the time Kya and Bumi decided to race sky bison with the twins and Ronen. I've never been so glad to kiss the ground in all my life."
Tenzin groaned slightly. "Ugh, that reminds me, Bumi is going to be on the Island when we return and Spirits only knows if he'll ever leave. I don't know why he had to choose now to retire. Just when you and I were about to have a chance to devote our time to each other and the kids, without work always getting in the way, now he has to come along and ruin it."
Lin grimaced at the thought, but placated, "It won't be that bad. He'll get bored of tormenting us quickly enough, and if all else fails, Ronen is pretty good at diverting his attention."
Tenzin wasn't convinced, shaking his head and still looking annoyed as he insisted, "We'll never have a chance to be alone. He's always turning up to interrupt us at the worst possible times."
"We already don't have a chance to be alone," Lin pointed out. "Not with our kids plus the four other blasted teens we've got running around. But we'll figure it out, we always do. And Bumi will learn real quick that it isn't a good idea to interfere in our love life if he doesn't want a metal boot up the ass."
Tenzin sighed heavily and conceded, "You're right, dear, of course. Besides, I also had an idea that might get us away from him for a while."
"Oh?" Lin inquired, intrigued. "What did you have in mind?"
"I was thinking we might take the children and Korra to visit all of the Air Temples, once the council is officially disbanded and the new president has taken office. Korra has come a long way, but she could use some more training to grasp the depths of her spiritual connection, and I think it would help her and the twins delve more deeply into their studies to fully master airbending."
Lin considered it for a moment. "Hmm, it would give us something to do now that we're out of jobs. And I know you've been wanting to take Jin and Sora for a while. I think we should do it."
"I'm so glad you think so," Tenzin said, bubbling with excitement now. He even leaned in to kiss her cheerfully on the mouth, pulling back from her slightly surprised expression with a broad smile. "It'll be so nice to finally relax with our family too. I know you're worried that we'll get bored now that we don't have our old responsibilities, and it'll be a bit of an adjustment after so long, but I think it'll be excellent. No more demands from the city, no more late nights or badly timed phone calls. Just you and me and the kids, off on our own new adventure."
It sounded almost too good to be true, but Lin could not help the infectious little smile that spread across her own face as she admitted, "That sounds pretty damn good."
After a while spent on the airship, Kuvira finally declared that it was time to turn back for Zaofu. Jeia was a little disappointed, but also so pleased about the time she'd had that she didn't complain. She was chatting away with the pilot, Shuri, until they touched down on the landing pad. She didn't hug any of the Metal Clan on her way out, but she waved and smiled and saluted and that was more than Jeia gave most people. Kuvira commended her for a job well done, and then Jeia toddled to her parents at last, grabbing one of her mother's hands and then one of her father's and walking along between them. Night had fallen, though, and Jeia only made it a quarter of the way back to Su's estate before she was rubbing her eyes and suppressing yawns and eventually asking to be carried. Tenzin scooped her up into his arms and she very quickly began to doze off against his shoulder.
When the trio returned to the family room, everyone else was still there, all of them crowded around in a semi-circle around Ronen, who appeared to be telling them a story. He paused in the middle of his sentence when he heard his parents and Jeia enter, and he smiled at the sight of them.
"There you are," he said. "Come join us. I was just starting to tell everyone the legend of Qinggan."
"Oh!" Tenzin exclaimed, brightening with excitement as he turned to Lin. "That's a good one. Ronen and I learned of it when we were in Omashu. I had heard some of it before, of course, but not quite the full story."
Confused, Lin stammered, "Qingga – who?"
"Qinggan!" Sora supplied, perking up from her spot right in front of Ronen, clearly eager to hear the rest of the story. "We just got to Yoji! Come listen, Mom, it sounds awesome already! Ro, start from the beginning."
Lin was still bewildered, and Ronen began to explain, "Qinggan is the spirit mother of emotions, said to be as ancient as Raava and Vaatu. From the core of her being, she began to create –"
"Oh," Lin interrupted with sudden disinterest, "it's spirit crap. Forget I asked."
"Quit being a buzz kill and get over here!" Su demanded, patting the spot on the couch next to her and Bataar. "It won't hurt for you to learn something besides how to punch people for once."
Lin rolled her eyes and sighed with undisguised irritation, but she followed Tenzin over to the couch and sat down next to her sister. Jeia had woken and was watching Ronen blearily from her resting place against her father's chest. Lin was beginning to feel a bit tired herself, her head so heavy that she let it fall against Tenzin's shoulder as Ronen delved back into his tale. Jeia reached out to grasp her mother's sleeve, and Lin lifted her hand to take the toddler's smaller one into her own. Before she even knew what was happening, Lin dozed off ensconced in her husband's warm embrace, with her little sister at her side, her youngest daughter's hand in her own, and the sound of her oldest son's voice lulling her to sleep.
Leaving Zaofu felt infinitely more difficult the following morning than it usually did, but not quite as difficult as it had been for Lin to part with her sister in the South Pole so soon after the Equalist revolution. Everything had been so raw then, and four months later the emotional scars had only so recently begun to heal. Some of the physical scars had not left at all, and Lin still frowned every time she caught sight of one on her sister's once unblemished skin. Lin couldn't analyze why it was so difficult to leave her sister for a few months, when before she had cut her off completely for over a decade. She already knew what it meant, that she cared about her sister like she should have all along, that she would actually miss Su. Despite their frequent disagreements and annoyances and bickering, they actually enjoyed each other's company most of the time, and while time apart was certainly necessary to keep them from killing each other, parting for an unknown period was a little unsettling.
Nevertheless, Lin would not let the emotions get to her, and she hugged her sister tight and left it at that. She promised to write even though they both knew she probably wouldn't half as much as she should. She promised to come back to visit as soon as she could, even though they both knew it would probably be a while. Then Su hugged her one last time and Lin turned away before her sister could start getting weepy.
The kids were struggling to part too. Sora was clinging to Wei and Wing, while Yunjin poorly feigned indifference close by. Asami and Bataar were exchanging last minute notes, with Ronen leaning over Asami's shoulder to get a look at what they were. Once Lin had parted with her sister, Su and Korra immediately started talking in hushed voices, as if Lin didn't already know that Su had been secretly teaching the Avatar bending behind her back. Bolin was wrapped around Opal, who, as of just a few days ago, had finally admitted to having feelings of her own for Bolin, and the two were about to embark on a long distance relationship that Lin thought was even more destined for failure than Ronen and Ursa's had been. Mako was the only one mostly removed from the group, his arms folded across his chest as he watched from afar and occasionally exchanged words with Huan, who always purposefully removed himself from the goodbyes. According to Ronen, Korra had broken up with Mako around the same time Opal and Bolin got together, and while the two teens had been blessedly argument free ever since, there was also a clear awkwardness between them. Lin felt like she was getting whiplash with how fast the teens were getting into and out of relationships, and she longed for the days when their hormones would stop driving them into stupid relationships. Although, the moment they stopped would probably be the moment Jin and Sora started doing the same thing, and Lin wasn't sure how much more of it she could take.
On the bright side, the trip back home was a lot quieter than the flight to Zaofu had been. Korra and Mako were on separate ends of the airship, and Ronen, Asami, and Bolin were split up between them. A bit surprisingly, Ronen was with Mako while Asami and Bolin were with Korra, but Lin figured it was in part so that Mako wouldn't have to listen to his brother gush about Opal, which was what drove Lin to move as far from Bolin as possible. Tenzin had taken Jin and Sora on Oogi, so Lin was content to mostly nap throughout the trip with Jeia happy to curl up on her lap and do the same.
The family wasn't back in Republic City for longer than an hour when the council sent a summons to ensure Tenzin came in for a meeting right away. Tenzin had sighed wearily and rushed into the city, and Lin was left to entertain all of the kids and Bumi. Thankfully, Nira was there to help, excited to see the children, but also eager to get away from Bumi, who had been following her around half the time that his family had been away in Zaofu. Lin got a call a few hours later to give advice on some security measures for the upcoming election day, and just like that the vacation was over.
Within the first week of being back home, Republic City elected their first president, a nonbender named Raiko.
The council disbanded two weeks later, after having passed on all that they could to the new president, and Tenzin was officially out of a job.
The following evening, Lin and Tenzin left the younger kids with Nira and went into the city to celebrate, and to have their first date night since before the revolution. But, as always with their lives, they were interrupted halfway through the appetizers.
Their server came to the table, but instead of inquiring as to whether they were ready to order, he said, "My apologies for interrupting, Councilman Tenzin, Madam Beifong, but the President would like a word."
The server gestured to his right, and Lin and Tenzin followed his gaze across the restaurant to a secluded corner, where President Raiko could be seen sitting alone in his booth, a few guards flanking his table. When his gaze locked with Lin and Tenzin's, he waved in a beckoning motion.
Lin scoffed, turning her back on the president to look at her husband with incredulity. "He couldn't go two days on his own without bothering you already?"
Tenzin seemed at a loss. "I'm not sure what he could possibly want. I just spoke with him last night."
"Actually," the server cut in nervously, "the President requested Chief Beifong."
Lin and Tenzin shared a look of surprise. "Me?" Lin said in bewilderment. "Did he say why?"
"No, ma'am," the server confessed, "just that he would very much like to speak with you. I…I don't think it was a request."
Lin clicked her tongue and shook her head with clear disdain. She was supposed to be retired, no longer at the beck and call of politicians that thought they had any right to order her around. As Chief, she had been forced to play nice most of the time, because she needed the council on her side, but she hardly cared about that anymore. She had gone with Tenzin and Korra when the president was inaugurated to show her support, but she had hoped that would be the last of it. Apparently, that was not to be so.
Sighing heavily, Lin told her husband, "Go ahead and order, this won't take long."
She slapped her palms down on the table and hauled herself up out of her chair, sliding past the server and striding over to Raiko.
She slid into the booth across from him just as he was beginning to stand and say, "Chief Beifong…" He was stood halfway up and holding his hand out for her to shake, but he retracted it quickly and dropped back down when he saw that she clearly wasn't going to pause for a formal greeting.
"So what's this all about?" she demanded, cutting right to the chase. "Not that I don't love to be interrupted in the middle of dinner on my one night out without the kids, but I'm pretty adamant about eating my meal while it's still warm."
"Of course, my apologies, Chief," Raiko said humbly, but the quirk of his lips was suspicious. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, this should only take a moment of your time."
"A phone call couldn't have sufficed?" Lin grumbled.
"I did try to call you, actually," Raiko claimed. "Several times, in fact, over the last few days. Every time I asked after you, I was told that you were very busy and could not be bothered."
Lin considered the last week and then asked, "That was you?"
Raiko inclined his head. "Indeed. I would have simply asked your husband to set up a meeting, but he must have been given the same message, because he hardly let me speak your name and, frankly, I was quite busy discussing other things when he and I were in the same room. When I saw the two of you across the dining room, I thought that it must be a sign. Buttercup is in the powder room, she'll be in there for quite some time, the perfect opportunity to nab you while I could."
"Okay, so you've got me," Lin said impatiently. "What did you want me for?"
"I want you to return to your position as Chief of Police," Raiko said simply, interlacing his fingers in front of him on the table.
Lin sat back in the booth, momentarily stunned. She furrowed her brow and shook her head and asked, "You want me to what?"
"Don't be so surprised. Did you think I would go to someone else first? Who better than Lin Beifong herself?"
"What about Saikhan?"
Raiko scoffed, his pleasant demeanor wavering for just a second so that Lin could see disgust on his face before he regained control of his features. "Come now, Chief," he said, "do not pretend as if you are at all naïve. You know as well as everyone else – if not more so – how disastrous it would be to keep Chief Saikhan in charge. He allowed himself to be bribed by Tarrlok, and he betrayed the nonbenders of the city by mistreating them during a time of strife. He stood idly by while Tarrlok essentially took control of the police, and may have been part of the reason the revolution spiraled out of control. His leadership was appalling, and I would have fired him the minute I took office if I could have."
"That doesn't fully explain why you want me though," Lin pointed out, not even bothering to argue on behalf of her former deputy. Saikhan had really blundered up his role as chief, and there was no refuting that. "What about Deputy Ikuro? He's a fine officer, one I would very much recommend."
"But he was promoted to deputy by Saikhan in the midst of the revolution and I don't want ties to that," Raiko explained. "It's all about the optics. The people will see Ikuro as an agent of Saikhan. You on the other hand, are familiar, and dependable, and even if you weren't, you're the daughter of Toph Beifong, and the people love a celebrity."
"So you want someone that'll make you look good," Lin stated, not even bothering to question it.
"That, and someone dependable," Raiko admitted. "It would take too long for me to find someone suitable, and I want Saikhan out now."
"Y'know, I'm hearin' a lot about why you want me to come back, but what reason have I got to oblige you? Retirement is treatin' me pretty well."
"Oh, I'm sure that it is," Raiko conceded, "but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that it's where you'd like to stay. You are a woman of action, not one that sits idly by, anyone with half a brain can see that. And if you're lucky, you could live another forty or more years. How long before retirement begins to bore you? Not to mention the manner in which you left. I highly doubt that was how you envisioned your hard-earned career ending, with failure and shame. How many decades did you give yourself to this city and its people, only to have them turn their backs on you because you were duped and scorned by two tyrants? I am giving you the opportunity to come back and redeem yourself, to redeem the Beifong name, and to retire again at a later time, on your terms."
Lin scoffed, because her reputation hardly mattered to her and she hadn't only left because of Tarrlok and Amon. She had left to protect her family, to find her captured officers by whatever means necessary, to take the fight to the Equalists without having to adhere to whatever laws Tarrlok would have still put into effect whether it had been her or Saikhan in charge. Lin didn't want to play politics anymore and so she had left. Raiko wanted her to return to that world, to play the part he had created. He might not have been as self-serving as Tarrlok, but he had his own motives just like the rest of the politicians did.
Nevertheless, Raiko did make some good points. Lin still wasn't sure how she felt about being retired already. She was enjoying not having so much stress on her plate and more time to spend with her family, but she was also sick of watching teen drama unfold all across the island because she had nothing better to do. She was loving all the time off now, but would she be loving it a year from now? Two years from now? Six years from now?
She couldn't say for certain one way or another, and it was also true that she hadn't really wanted to resign the way that she had, even if she didn't regret it, even if she was still positive that it had been the right thing to do. She had always envisioned that, when she handed over the reigns of Chief, it would be because she was ready to leave, and that she would have someone ready to take her place that she trusted to ensure the continued stability of the police force. She had trusted Saikhan to handle things when she was absent for extended periods, but she had always known he would never be the one capable of fully taking over. He was a good man, and a good officer, but he had his flaws like anyone else, and some of his were simply too much for such a powerful position. Lin had wanted the position to go to Lieutenant Jeia, but that dream had died with the Lieutenant, and she hadn't been able to bring herself to take on another protégé, not when she ran the risk of losing them too, not when it felt like a betrayal to Jeia's memory.
Even with the revolution over and the new president in charge, Republic City was in need of good leadership elsewhere as well, and Lin was struggling to say no when the fate of her city and her mother's legacy hung in the balance. She was sick of following the same old tired excuses, legacies and responsibilities that should have never been hers to begin with, but there was still some legitimacy to them, and she felt the pressing need to act.
Lin pursed her lips and folded her arms across her chest, leaning further back into the booth seat and glancing back across the restaurant, to where her husband sat at their little table, blatantly watching the interaction between his wife and the president with a mixture of curiosity and some concern. She knew that it might crush him if she made the decision to return to work, but she also knew that, if that was what she wanted, then he would not stand in her way. She thought of him and their children and the trip they had planned to visit the Air Temples coming up. They had only just told Korra and the kids about it that morning, and all of them had been overjoyed, even if Korra did protest that she was already a master of airbending and didn't need more training. If Lin returned to work, she wouldn't be able to go on the whole trip with them, but she couldn't let them not go either.
But the Air Temples would still be standing in a few months. Could she say the same for Republic City if she left the police force to fend for themselves?
Lin turned her gaze back onto Raiko, face twisted into bitter regret even as she told him, "I have some conditions."
Raiko looked far too pleased as she replied, "I'm sure we can negotiate the terms of –"
"No," Lin interrupted, leaning forward over the table, with her hands curled into fists over top of it. "No negotiating. You want me to come back? Fine, but we're doing it my way. I can start next week, but in three weeks I'm leaving again for nine or ten days to go on vacation with my family. Deputy Ikuro will run things while I'm gone. Afterwards, I'll begin grooming my replacement, someone you and I can both agree on. In a year's time, when my replacement is ready, I will resign for good."
Raiko smirked and shook his head. "They told me you'd be difficult. The rest of the council, they insisted I'd be better off looking for someone else."
"Then why didn't you?" Lin questioned with a shrug.
"I guess I like a challenge," Raiko said, but Lin didn't believe it. She thought he just liked to get his way. "How about this… You start in three days, and stay two years."
"How about we stick to my terms and I don't tell you to go fuck yourself?" Lin countered, and if Tenzin had been beside her she knew his head would have exploded long before he managed to reprimand her for her complete lack of tact.
Somewhat thankfully, Raiko chuckled good naturedly, and his wife suddenly chose that moment to appear at Lin's side of the booth.
"Oh!" Buttercup said in surprise. "I'm sorry, darling, I didn't realize you were in a meeting."
"That's all right," Raiko said, without looking up at his wife, stare focused on Lin as he rose to his feet. "Chief Beifong and I had just finished." Lin rose too, and Raiko told her, "I accept the terms of your offer, Chief. I look forward to seeing you next week." He held his hand out again, and this time, Lin forced herself to reach out and shake it. "It was a pleasure."
Lin nodded curtly, but did not directly agree, and she slid out of the booth without another word, edging past Buttercup and going back to her own table.
Their food was there already, and Tenzin had clearly waited to touch it until she had returned. He leapt up when he saw her approach, and hastily move around the table to pull her chair out for her. She flopped down into it with a huff, and immediately began shoveling food into her mouth, even though she had all but lost her appetite. Tenzin watched her for a few seconds from his seat across the table, and then decided to begin picking at his food as well. He was vibrating with anticipation, but he waited for her to speak, knowing that she would as soon as she was ready.
After only a couple of overly large bites of food, Lin set her utensils back down and took a large gulp of water to swallow what was left in her mouth. She could see Tenzin stilling his own motions in preparation, and when she sat her cup down, she had no choice but to look him in the eye as she revealed, "He asked me to return to work. He wants me to be Chief again."
Tenzin gaped for a moment, and Lin forced herself to hold his gaze. Before he could even splutter out a question, she confessed, "I told him that I would."
Tenzin appeared stunned, and he shut his mouth with a click, blinking several times and staring at her in silence for several long moments. She did not let herself look away.
Eventually, he recovered, and he straightened his back as he inhaled deeply and then exhaled slowly. Only then did he say, "If that is the decision you feel is right, then I support you."
Lin nodded, because she had expected as much, even if she knew he was not wholly pleased. "I told him I would stay for one year," she explained. "Only long enough to prepare my replacement. I know we had all these plans for retirement, and I want all of it, I do, but I didn't exactly leave the force in a good place, and I think I owe it to my officers and myself to make sure it's in good hands. Otherwise, Raiko will pick the first person that fits into his political narrative just to get rid of Saikhan."
"I understand," Tenzin said with a sigh, reaching across the table to take one of her hands and rubbing soothing circles against it with his thumb. "I am a little disappointed, but a year isn't so long. We never thought we'd be retired this early anyways, and I would want to be sure that the career I dedicated my life to was in good hands if I were you too."
"It does put a damper on our plans," Lin lamented, "but we can make it work. We always do."
"Of course," Tenzin agreed. "We'll simply wait to go to the Air Temples until you've finished with –"
"No way," Lin interjected, squeezing his hand tight. "It'll crush the kids and I don't want all of you stuck on the Island with nothing to do while I'm working."
"We can't go without you," Tenzin protested, looking appalled.
"Of course you can," Lin argued. "I already told Raiko I'd be taking a week and a half off soon. That'll give us time to go to the South Pole for the Glacier Spirits Festival, and then I can spend a few days with you all at the first Air Temple. Then I'll come back to the city for work, and you can come visit on your way to the next temple."
Tenzin frowned. "I don't know. It doesn't feel right. It was supposed to be a family vacation."
"It was supposed to be so that you could teach Korra and the twins more about airbending and spirit nonsense. What good would I be in that department?"
"I still don't like the thought of you being here all alone," Tenzin insisted. "Or of being apart from you for so long."
"It'll only be a couple weeks at most," Lin reasoned, "we've been apart longer in the past, it's just been a while. Besides, I won't be alone. Nira is on the Island, along with all the other acolytes, and probably Bumi."
Tenzin still looked uncertain, and he suggested, "How about we discuss it with the children tomorrow and see what they think?"
Lin nodded. "Fine, but until then, how about we not discuss this anymore? This was supposed to be our night out."
"It still can be," Tenzin insisted, switching tone easily enough and squeezing her hand one last time before releasing it. "No more talk of work or the kids. Eat up, and afterwards we'll find someplace secluded where no one can interrupt us."
"You think we can manage to sneak across the island to the cave without any of the kids spotting us?" Lin inquired.
Tenzin gave her a roguish smile and replied, in a sultry tone, "Oh, darling, we are two masters of our elements and we spent the first thirty years of our lives trying to sneak past your mother. I think we can manage it."
Lin shook her head at him, but grinned, relaxing the longer she was back in her husband's presence. She didn't know for certain what their future held, but as long as they were together, she knew they'd be just fine.
Chapter 58: Chapter 58
Chapter Text
Chapter 58
Returning to police headquarters as the newly instated Chief of Police was rather bittersweet for Lin. On the one hand, that building was like a second home to her, even after all the strife she had endured within it over the years. She had been raised in those halls, had grown as an officer from rookie to Chief, she had bled in those halls, and all the memories left behind were either warm or still haunted her at night when she tried to sleep.
In a way, it was as if she had never left, because she had still been doing what she always did over the last few months, both in fighting against the Equalists and then picking up the pieces at the end of the revolution. She hadn't been leading the police force, but she had been working nearly as hard and answering numerous pleas for help. Being Chief wasn't just a job, it was in her DNA, and that would never change, so part of her was glad to be back.
Another part of her felt awfully ill at ease. Everything had shifted in the short time she had been away, and it was difficult to catch herself up. No longer did she have her husband on the council or Saikhan as her Deputy, two things that had made her life a hell of a lot easier. President Raiko was also a lot more hands on than the council had ever been. While the council had always been complaining about something, they had mostly left her to her own devices, but Raiko wanted regular reports and was showing up at her office at random times throughout the week. She could admire his dedication to the citizens of Republic City, but he was also being a giant pain in her ass. She knew how to do her job, and she certainly didn't need Raiko, of all people, telling her how to do it.
Deputy Ikuro, at least, was a good deputy. Lin had always liked him and trusted him, and he was no less of a valued officer than he had been before. Upon her return, he expressed his relief at seeing her, and confessed his own complicity in not trying hard enough to reign in Saikhan and Tarrlok in the early stages of the revolution. He offered to resign, but Lin would hear nothing of it.
Saikhan, unfortunately, would have no more of a future as a metalbending officer, and despite the mistakes he had made, Lin felt deeply saddened for him. She and Saikhan had started on the force around the same time, had worked as partners and later as Chief and Deputy, and she knew that being an officer was essentially all that he had in life. His daughter was grown and halfway across the world, and his love for the job had never allowed him love elsewhere.
Lin could not offer Saikhan anything that would better his situation, but she still found herself journeying to his house one evening after he had officially been removed from his post. Saikhan was not pleased or unhappy to see her, and invited her in with little more than a grunt. The following few minutes were fairly uncomfortable, because neither of them was good at small talk or discussing emotions. In the end, Lin offered her apologies, even though they were of little good, and Saikhan revealed that he had decided to move away from the city. He was going to retire to the Fire Nation, close by to where his daughter and her husband lived. His daughter was pregnant, he would be a grandfather soon, and he had nothing else keeping him in Republic City. Lin congratulated him and wished him well, and they shook hands and parted ways, and she had the sinking feeling she might never see him again.
Tosuki and Sanji, at least, were both still on the force, Tosuki with his bending restored and Sanji still on desk duty due to his leg injury from five years ago. Lin had already promoted them both to detective before she resigned, but apparently they had been demoted during Saikhan's time as Chief. Both of them had been too vocal about their disdain for Saikhan and Tarrlok's methods, and both of them had been too open about their continued support for Lin even in her absence. Once reinstated as Chief, Lin promoted Tosuki and Sanji once more, but it required approval from Raiko, much to Lin's complete and utter surprise. Raiko did grant her request, but in response, urged her – or rather, forced her – to also promote two hog-monkeys that she was certain he had only suggested to see how she would handle the challenge. Lu and Gang were both imbeciles and Lin loathed every minute she had to spend in their presence, but she was happy to give them the less important cases to blunder up just so that Raiko could see how incapable he was of choosing candidates for detectives.
Even after only three weeks of work, Lin was beyond ready for another vacation, and she let nothing stand in her way as she raced from headquarters the evening before she and her family were to set out for the South Pole. She left Deputy Ikuro in charge, and ignored every not so subtle attempt that Raiko made to try and get her to stay.
The following morning, they all split up into two groups again, with Tenzin taking a few kids on Oogi and Lin taking the rest on one of Su's airships. At some point in the days prior to the Glacier Spirits Festival, Opal had apparently convinced her mother to fly her to Air Temple Island so that she could visit Bolin, and also so that she could attend the festival with her cousins and boyfriend. Lin had returned home to work one evening to find her sister casually lounging in her living room, but when Lin had expressed her surprise, Su had just swooned about young love and completely lost Lin's interest.
So Su and Opal were along for the ride, as was Jinora, per Jin and Sora's request. Lin and Tenzin had initially denied the twins when they asked if their mutual best friend could come along to both the festival and their first stop at the Southern Air Temple. Lin didn't like the idea of Tenzin having to look out for so many kids on his own once she was back in the city for work, nor did she want to be responsible for someone else's kid so far from home, especially when that kid was Pema's. But the twins had begged and pleaded, and Tenzin had given in because he fully expected Pema and Anil to tell Jinora no. Both of Jinora's parents were rather skittish about what they let their kids do, and it seemed like a no brainer that they would deny Jinora such a potentially dangerous request.
Somewhat unfortunately, Pema apparently decided that it would be a very good thing for Jinora to see the world outside of the city, and that she would very much like her daughter to experience the Air Nomad culture as she once had. Once Jinora was granted permission, there was no way to deny the twins their excitement, and so Lin and Tenzin had begrudgingly allowed it, with several rules put into place in an effort to control the trio. On the bright side, Jinora tended to be more of a calming agent though, because the girl was not even remotely rebellious and she was good at keeping Yunjin from going off the rails, so Lin hoped that she wouldn't come to regret her decision.
Nevertheless, Lin still asked Nira if she wouldn't mind coming along as back up. Lin felt guilty, at first, because when Lin and Tenzin and the kids went on vacation, that allowed Nira time to have her own vacation, or stay-cation, if she so chose, but Nira had been thrilled by the invite. She apparently hadn't been to visit the Air Temples since she had moved to Republic City, nor had she ever been to the Glacier Spirits Festival, and she loved the kids so much she didn't even care to have a vacation on her own. Plus, she knew if she needed a break she could just tell Tenzin and he would jump through hoops to oblige her. Lin did not know how they had gotten so lucky to have Nira as such a good friend and a wonderful caregiver to the kids, but she was immeasurably grateful for it.
Asami and Mako were the only two besides Lin that actually had to take time off of work to go to the South Pole, but it helped that Asami ran her own company and Mako lived on the same island as his boss. Mako had joined the police force shortly after they had returned from their trip in Zaofu and Korra had broken his heart. Lin had advocated for him, but was also keeping a close eye on him. She thought he had a lot of potential, and might even promote him to detective someday, but he would have to go through the same process as any other officer. Just because he had helped the Avatar save the city and was living on her island didn't mean he was going to get special treatment.
Asami had been working tirelessly to repair her company's damaged image since her father's incarceration, but she was struggling to find funding and support. Half the reason she had agreed to go to the festival was because she was planning to seek out the help of Varrick, the billionaire businessman that would also be in attendance. She spent most of the flight prepping Bolin and Ronen, as she intended to take them with her in an effort to make herself appear more stereotypical business-like. Bolin was going to pretend to be her assistant, while Ronen had the double use of being both a slight celebrity due to his parents, and the fact that he knew nearly as much about Future Industries at that point as Asami did. He had been reading up on and observing the ins and outs of the company ever since Asami took over in an effort to help his friend. The two often spent hours discussing possible strategies and brainstorming new products, or configuring how to improve upon what she already had. Most of the tech-talk went over the rest of their friends' heads, but Mako was good with numbers and was trying to help Asami with that aspect when he wasn't at work himself.
Things had been a bit awkward between the five friends after Zaofu, with Ronen and Bolin – when he wasn't daydreaming about Opal – trying to act as buffer. Asami was still hurt over the way Mako had handled his relationship with her, Mako was bitter over his breakup with Korra, and Korra was just unsure where she stood with the two of them. Lin was happy that returning to work meant she didn't have to witness all the drama, and then one day, the problem appeared to have fixed itself. All ten of them had actually sat down at dinner together one evening, and Lin eventually noticed that the teens were acting normal for once, actually laughing and getting along the same as before, if not better. Lin did not care to ask what had changed, but was grateful that it had.
Bumi was also along for the ride to the South Pole and, despite Tenzin's assertions to the contrary, probably to the Air Temples as well. Now that Bumi was retired and living on Air Temple Island, he was making it his mission to drive his baby brother up the wall. Tenzin and his siblings no longer shared the same animosity that they once had, but Tenzin still preferred them in small doses. Bumi simply loved to torment anyone that was easily bothered by his antics, which was normally just Lin and Tenzin, and sometimes Jeia, but Bumi was still keeping a bit of a distance from his youngest niece. He admitted that he admired and adored the kid, but she still scared the crap out of him. That didn't stop him from showering her with affection when he thought she was in a rare good mood, or challenging her to sparring matches, which she loved, but that Lin and Tenzin kept begging him to stop doing. Jeia was strictly only allowed to spar with her parents or occasionally her Aunt Su while her bending was still so unpredictable, but Bumi protested that he was more than competent enough to handle it. Tenzin, of course, did not hesitate to say, "I told you so," anytime Jeia accidentally caused her uncle a minor injury.
All of the kids had been disappointed when they found out that Lin would be returning to work, and therefore unable to fully participate in the Air Temple trip, but none more so than Jeia. The toddler had tried to protest that she shouldn't have to go either, and Lin almost considered letting her stay behind since she knew how much the toddler despised flying and great heights. But in the end, Lin thought that it might actually be a good opportunity for Jeia to finally adjust some to those things that made her so uncomfortable. Lin hadn't liked flying much as a child either, but trusting Aang to keep her safe went a long way to calming her instinctive reaction to being in the air, and Jeia was already on her way to that same acceptance. Perhaps a little more immersion into Air Nomad culture would help her along. Even though she lived on an island full of Air Acolytes, Jeia preferred to avoid anything that didn't interest her, and Lin and Tenzin often made the poor decision to give the girl her way. Lin never wanted to pressure her kids in anyway, but she also didn't want to overcompensate and let them do whatever they wanted. It was always harder when they were little and took everything so personally, and the circumstances of Jeia's birth and the complications afterwards probably contributed, but Lin knew she had to start putting her foot down a little more with her youngest. Not just because she didn't want the kid to turn out to be a spoiled brat, but also because Jeia was very much a Beifong, even more so than the rest of her siblings, and a Beifong never learned anything by being coddled.
So Jeia pouted and complained about having to go on the rest of the trip without her mother, but Lin and Tenzin stayed firm and made it clear that she wouldn't be throwing a fit about it any longer. Lin knew that, once Jeia got over the initial displeasure, the kid was bound to have a good time. She would have ample time to spend with her father, and when he was busy with Korra and the twins, she would have Nira as company.
Though Lin did feel slightly guilty about missing out on the trip, she wasn't worried that her absence would diminish any of the family's fun. They would miss her, sure, and she would probably start missing them too the longer she had to sit around the Island by herself, but they would be experiencing so many new things that they would probably not even find the time to be upset about her absence.
And she would at least be present for the first half of the trip, which thankfully started off better than the trip to Zaofu had. The flight was peaceful and none of the kids were bickering. Jin, Sora, Jinora, Bumi, and Korra were on Oogi with Tenzin, and the twins were on their best behavior because they didn't want their Mom taking Jinora back home to the city early. Lin would have liked to take a nap on the long flight, but Su was talking her ear off the whole way instead, which wasn't so bad.
Nevertheless, Lin was relieved when they landed at the South Pole. There was already a large group of people congregated at the docks, but they were there waiting for the chief of the Water Tribes to arrive. Lin and her group sought out the only people they cared to greet, which were Katara, Kya, and Korra's parents.
According to one of Katara's regular letters, Kya had moved back to the South Pole as of a few months ago, supposedly to be closer to her mother and her kids, but Katara suspected that something had happened between Kya and her long-term girlfriend, Yumae. Kya was refusing to discuss it, even with her mother, and Katara was hopeful that Lin might be able to get something out of her while she was visiting for the festival. Lin didn't know when she had become the Kya whisperer, but she had promised Katara that she would try, even though the last timeKya had gone through a crisis, Lin hadn't done a very good job at quelling the situation.
Upon spotting their grandmother, the twins went running, dragging their friend between them to introduce Jinora to Katara. Ronen lifted Jeia as she was toddling in the same direction, and carried her over to join in on the hug. Jin and Sora quickly moved over to their Aunt Kya next, giving Ronen and Jeia time to speak to their Gran-Gran in soft tones, as opposed to the twins' rapid, breathless chatter. Bumi rushed over to greet his mother and sister too, and Lin and Tenzin stood back for a moment and watched the scene, content to see their family reunite with such joy. Not for the first time, Lin wished that all of them lived closer together, like when she was a kid, but that would probably mean everyone living on Air Temple Island, including Su and her whole clan, so maybe not so much.
Korra and her friends went over to greet Korra's parents, while Su and Opal waited their turn to greet Katara and Kya.
When Chief Unalaq and his two kids, Desna and Eska, arrived, the reunions ground to a halt. Unalaq approached Korra and her parents, exchanging a pleasant greeting with his niece, and then sharing a not so subtle look of displeasure with his brother, Tonraq. Lin and her family and the rest of the teens watched awkwardly from the sidelines, until the Avatar suggested they all get settled in for their stay before the festival began.
Almost immediately after dropping their bags in their huts, the kids all ran off in separate directions – even Jeia went to explore with Katara –, with Lin hastily calling out warnings to their retreating forms that no doubt went unheeded. Su went to not so subtly follow Opal and Bolin, while Kya and Bumi went after the twins and Jinora, assuring Lin that they would keep an eye out for them. Lin wasn't sure that she felt comforted by that, considering some of the antics Kya and Bumi got into when they were together, but Nira went too, and it did mean that Lin got more time alone with Tenzin before they were to be separated for so long, and she would never be ungrateful for that.
Before the festival truly kicked off, Ronen spent the first part of his trip to the South Pole meeting Varrick, along with Asami and Bolin. The businessman was even more exuberant than Yunjin on a sugar high, and his methods made no logical sense, but he agreed to make a deal with Asami to help her company, and seeing her face light up with joy made Ronen's heart swell. The negotiations were short and Ronen was almost disappointed he hadn't gotten a chance to boast about Future Industries, but it left them with the rest of the evening to do whatever they liked and the assurance that Asami's company still had a fighting chance. The three of them disembarked from Varrick's ship with confidence and jubilation, commending one another on a job well done. They spent almost an hour wandering around the festival together, until Opal appeared and dragged Bolin over to one the games she had been struggling to win.
That left Ronen and Asami alone before it was time to go to the feast being held in Unalaq's honor, and Asami spent the time they had urging Ronen to play all the different carnival games with her. She kept insisting that she could kick his ass, and it turned out that she wasn't wrong. There was only one game that Ronen managed to beat her at more than once, and the mediocre prize of a junky plastic bracelet was hardly enough for him to boast about. Nevertheless, he still slid it onto Asami's wrist and told her that he'd won it just for her, and she rolled her eyes at him but promised to treasure it for the rest of her life. He was pleased, but still called her a show off when she strutted over to the next game and casually won a huge, stuffed flying bison, which she then gifted to him in turn.
They were having so much fun they almost forgot to go to the feast, but Yunjin and Jinora came racing over to Ronen and Asami just before the feast was about to start.
"Mom said you have to come to the feast right now," Yunjin told his older brother, almost looking pleased that for once it wasn't him that was in potential trouble. "She said if she has to go, then we all have to go, and I'm supposed to make sure you get there right away." Yunjin then took Jinora's hand and beamed, and the girl blushed a little when Ronen scrutinized the gesture.
"All right, all right," Ronen acquiesced, tucking his stuffed sky bison under one arm and gesturing with the other. "Lead the way."
Yunjin and Jinora took off without further delay, linked hands swinging between them and casting surreptitious glances over their shoulders to make sure Ronen and Asami were close behind. Ronen and Asami hastened to keep up at a less dramatic pace.
However, just before they reached the feast, Ronen noticed a familiar figure out on their own nearby, and he came to a quick stop, Asami gliding past him a few steps before stilling too.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
Ronen shook his head and answered, "Not sure. Why don't you go ahead? I'll meet you in there."
Asami nodded and said, "Of course."
But as Ronen was trotting off to the side, Yunjin noticed from up ahead and yelled, "Hey! Where do you think you're going?!"
"Tell Mom I'll be there soon!" Ronen called back.
"But Mom said," Jin tried to protest.
Ronen interjected, "Just cover for me, Jin! Please?"
Yunjin released an over exaggerated sigh, but relented, "Fine."
Ronen continued onwards, trotting the short distance to where he could see Bolin plopped down in the snow, staring glumly up at the night sky. Last he had seen his friend, Bolin had been cheerful, so Ronen was not sure what could have happened to make him look so downcast now.
Bolin didn't seem to notice Ronen's approach until he had dropped down beside him, and even then he only murmured, "Oh, hey, Ronen."
"Hey, buddy," Ronen replied, "you okay? What are you doing out here? Aren't you excited for the feast?"
"I'm fine," Bolin assured, but his tone didn't convince Ronen. "I just wanted some air, you know, after all that food at the festival, a guy can only eat so much, but I'll meet you in there maybe, or even if I don't you don't have to worry, 'cause I'm okay, just thinking, just…"
Bolin finally trailed off from his rambling, and Ronen watched his friend carefully before asking, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Yes, I mean no," Bolin said rapidly. "It's nothing, it's fine, I'm just crazy is all."
"Clearly it's not nothing," Ronen said gently. "You don't have to tell me, but I'm here, if you want to."
Bolin seemed about to do just that, but then shook his head sharply. "No, nope, I shouldn't, definitely can't."
Ronen tilted his head curiously. "Why can't you? Are you worried about my reaction or something? You know you can tell me anything, right?"
Bolin glanced at Ronen and then hastily looked away again, fidgeting nervously as he admitted, "I don't want you to be mad."
Ronen smiled and joked, "Come on, Bo, you know I only get mad at Mako."
Bolin tried to chuckle briefly, but it sounded forced. "Yeah, well…that could change."
"How about if I promise not to get mad, no matter what?" Ronen offered. "It can't be that bad, and if you need to get it off of your chest I want to help. Unless you think you'd rather tell Korra or Mako?"
Bolin nearly shook his whole body back and forth with how vehemently he protested that last suggestion with a, "No, no, no, no, no. No way. Definitely not them."
"You could tell my Dad," Ronen offered instead. "He's a pretty good listener."
Bolin scoffed at first, but then he seemed to actually consider it, before deciding, "No, I don't think that'll work either. I guess…I guess I could tell you if you really promise not to be mad."
Bolin looked imploringly at Ronen, who nodded without hesitation. "I promise, Bolin."
Bolin sucked in a deep breath as if steeling himself, and then, in one long exhale, very quickly confessed, "I think I still have feelings for Korra but I don't want to hurt Opal because she's really great but I know it isn't fair to stay with her just because she's awesome but it's stupid to even think about Korra like that when I know she doesn't feel that way which is totally fine and I totally get it but I've just been having all these confusing feelings and I'm sorry I know Opal's your cousin please don't hate me."
Bolin stopped finally to gasp for air, and it took Ronen that long for his brain to catch up to all that had just spilled out of Bolin's mouth. Bolin was watching nervously as Ronen blinked and tried to piece together a response.
When he had finally recovered, Ronen said first, "I'm not mad." Bolin sighed in relief, and then Ronen continued, "When did all this come about?"
Bolin shrugged. "I don't know. I guess between when we left Zaofu and when we came here. I could've sworn I was over Korra, y'know? I was happy for her and Mako, really, and I was sad they broke up, and I really, really, really like Opal, but… Isn't the saying, 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'? But that wasn't what happened. I wanted to see Opal, but then when she got here… All of a sudden I started thinking about all that time I spent with Korra after Zaofu, and how much fun we had, and…I know, it's stupid."
"It's not stupid," Ronen insisted. "You and Korra are really good friends. It isn't strange that you would have feelings you can't totally control."
"But you're really good friends with Korra," Bolin pointed out, "and you don't have feelings for her, do you? What's your secret? How do you do it?"
Ronen chuckled lightly. "It's not really something I planned. I love Korra, and I'd do anything for her, but…I don't know, it's different, I guess. Love is weird that way. I'm not sure we have a whole lot of control over it. Otherwise, I'd probably still be with Ursa and Korra might still be with Mako and you wouldn't be having doubts about Opal." Ronen had a moment then to idly wonder to himself when he had become the relationship guru among his friends, considering he had the same limited experience as the rest of them, but he supposed it might have had more to do with the fact that he was the only neutral party, since he was the only one in the group of five that had yet to fall for one of his friends.
"Love really is weird," Bolin agreed, "and a total bummer! Here I have this perfect gal who laughs at my jokes and she's super sweet and pretty, and all I can think about is Korra! And I tried to ignore it, and maybe it'll go away soon, but I remember how upset Asami was when she found out how Mako felt about Korra, I remember how upset I was, and I don't want Opal to ever feel that way."
Ronen nodded in understanding. "That makes total sense, Bolin. I'll be honest, I don't really know what you should or shouldn't do, but I think whatever you decide will be right. You know your feelings better than anyone, and you clearly care about Opal and Korra. You gotta do what your gut tells you."
Bolin sighed heavily. "Yeah…yeah, I've got a lot of thinking to do. Thanks for listening, Ronen. It's good to get that off my chest."
"I'm always here for you," Ronen assured, rising to his feet and dusting the snow off of his pants before holding his hand out for Bolin. "We'd better get in there, though, before my Mom hunts me down. You coming?"
Bolin allowed Ronen to help him up and replied, "Free food? Of course I'm coming."
Ronen smiled and began leading the way back to where the feast was being held. "You sure it won't be too weird with Opal right now?"
"Oh, I don't think Opal will be there. Turns out she isn't quite as much of an avid eater as I am, because she had one too many cotton candies and had to go lie down."
"Oh my gosh," Ronen laughed, "I told you that normal people can only eat a third or a quarter of what you do."
"Well, she said she had never had it before and that she thought it was delicious so I just kept getting her more!" Bolin defended.
Ronen could only continue to laugh, but he settled as they neared the feast and he noticed three people already emerging from the entryway. Two of them were staggering and giggling, while the third was stomping along behind. Even in the dim lighting, Ronen could tell that the third figure was his mother. He'd notice that irritated posture anywhere, but he was a bit surprised to realize that the other two were his aunts. Kya and Su were stumbling off in the opposite direction from which Bolin and Ronen were coming, and didn't notice their nephew, but Lin spotted Ronen shortly after he had recognized her.
She veered off for a moment to rapidly say to him, "There you are! Where have you two been? Never mind. Do me a favor, would ya? Go keep an eye on Jin and Bumi. I can only handle two lunatics at a time." She sounded annoyed, and Ronen wondered what he had missed, but then again, his mother always sounded annoyed when his aunts and uncle were involved, so it really wasn't all that alarming to him.
"Sure thing, Mom," Ronen agreed, his gaze sliding past her as he spoke to witness his Aunt Su slipping and falling directly onto her ass in the snow.
Su and Kya both erupted into raucous laughter, and Ronen's mother sighed heavily and muttered, "Spirits give me strength," before storming over to her sister and Kya. Ronen and Bolin could hear her berating the pair as they hastened inside to the feast the three women had just left.
Bolin sounded concerned as he questioned. "Do you think they're okay? You sure they don't need help?"
"Nah, they'll be fine," Ronen assured. "This is pretty much standard when all of them get together. I'm surprised Uncle Bumi hasn't set something on fire yet."
"Well, there's still time," Bolin mused, "but do we stop him like your Mom would want us to, or do we just let it play out and see what happens?"
Ronen looked over at Bolin, who was now sporting a mischievous grin, and Ronen could feel his lips curling up into a smile even as he shook his head and said, "You're going to get me into so much trouble."
Shortly before the feast that was being held in Unalaq's honor, Lin and Tenzin wandered down to the festival to get a look around and make sure none of their kids or siblings had destroyed anything. They spotted the twins and Jinora running around, but being mostly good. They saw Mako – with Bolin and Opal – refusing the food his brother was shoving in his face, and Ronen and Asami playfully arguing over who was better at some carnival game they were stood in front of. Bumi was with Katara and Jeia now, Nira was in an avid conversation with one of the carnival vendors, and Kya and Su were suspiciously missing, but Lin wasn't about to go track them down.
Lin and Tenzin decided to stop wandering when they found Korra accompanied by Tonraq and Unalaq. Tonraq shot Tenzin a pleading look, and so he and Lin both fell into step with the trio. Lin, however, could not stand to be with the group for long. Unalaq was bitching about how the festival used to be a time of fasting and meditation, and how it was just an excuse now for people to eat excessively and play foolish games. Then, to make matters worse, he started making passive aggressive comments about Tenzin, for apparently not having kept Korra informed on all things spiritual, expressing his shock that the Avatar wasn't aware of angry spirits attacking ships in the ocean. Korra, of course, was eating all of it up, annoyed by her father's protectiveness and enthralled by her uncle's spiritual knowledge. Lin could feel her ire growing the longer Unalaq boasted and insulted her husband, and she knew that she was on the verge of saying or doing something that might very well get her banished from the North and South Poles, so she excused herself from the group and urged Tenzin to do the same. Tenzin, however, seemed to want to keep a close eye on the conversation, and told Lin to go on without him, that he would meet her at the feast.
So Lin struck out on her own, fuming silently and trying to regain control. She'd only met Unalaq maybe twice before, and she hadn't liked his attitude then, and she definitely didn't like it now. Whatever he was trying to pull with Korra wasn't yet clear, but he was obviously trying to pull something, of that Lin was certain. She didn't trust the guy, and she didn't like his superiority complex. Luckily, she wouldn't have to deal with him much longer. They were only in the South Pole for another day after that evening, and hopefully she wouldn't see Unalaq again after that for another ten years. He was too haughty to come to Republic City, so she had no concerns there.
Strolling through the festival on her own got boring fast, since she had little to no interest in anything going on. She tried to find Jeia and Katara and Bumi, but they were nowhere to be found, and she figured they had probably gone back up to the huts because Jeia often couldn't endure too much exposure to the cold. Upon checking the time, though, she discovered that the time for the feast was growing near, and she decided to start rounding up the kids, because that would take twice as long as it was.
She found Yunjin and Jinora easily enough, but was confused as to why Sora was no longer with them. As soon as she reached the pair, she asked Yunjin, "Where's your sister?"
It seemed to take a concerted effort for Yunjin to tear his eyes off of Jinora, and he blinked up at his mother as he clarified, "Sora? She said she had one of her headaches, so she went to lay down."
Lin frowned, but nodded her understanding. Along with all the other misfortunes of puberty, Sora had also been unlucky enough to begin receiving fairly frequent migraines. Lin and Tenzin had fretted at first and taken her to the doctors, but it was apparently normal for some teens to experience and she would likely grow out of it. It still made Lin anxious at times, though, because seeing her kids in pain wasn't normal for her.
"Well, it's almost time for the feast," Lin told Jin and Jinora. "Why don't you two come with me to get cleaned up?"
"Okay," Jinora easily agreed, before Yunjin could protest, and the boy decided to follow his friend's lead and nodded.
As Lin led them back up to the huts they were staying in, she searched the festival for Ronen, but they didn't cross paths. She did see Bolin and Mako – sans Opal this time – and barked a short warning at the boys about the upcoming feast. She really didn't care one way or another if they made it on time, but they were part of her group now and she never left a man behind. She would never go so far as to say they were her kids, no matter what Su said, but her family had amassed some extras over the last year and she really hadn't had a say in the matter, but she was starting to adjust.
Lin didn't see anyone else until she reached the huts, where Katara, Jeia, and Bumi were. Jeia was napping in her grandmother's arms, but according to Katara, would be due to wake up soon if they had any hope of getting her to bed that night. Katara also told Lin that Opal was sleeping off a stomachache, but that she hadn't seen Sora come or go.
Lin left Jin and Jinora to get cleaned up for dinner and went in search of Sora, who she found alone and curled up in a ball on her cot. The girl could be heard sniffling when Lin tiptoed into the dark room, and she hastened over, softly calling, "Sora?"
Sora shuffled slightly, hastily rubbing at her face and sucking in a deep breath, but not turning to face her mother.
"Hey, kid," Lin murmured, gently placing a hand on Sora's shoulder and squeezing lightly. "You okay?"
"Mmhmm," Sora mumbled in response, but it came out as more of a whimper and Lin's frown deepened.
"Is it that bad?" Lin questioned. "You want me to get Gran-Gran? She could probably help –"
"No," Sora instantly refuted, too quickly, her voice still thick and crackling with the emotions she was trying to hide for some reason. She also shook her head, which seemed an odd move to make if her head hurt so bad. "I'll be okay. I just don't think I can go to the feast, I'm sorry."
"Yeah, of course," Lin agreed, "but you're sure everything else is all right?"
"M'fine," Sora mumbled unconvincingly. "I just wanna be alone."
Lin knew that Sora wasn't fine and that she probably didn't even have a headache, but Lin also knew that pushing Sora to talk never worked. So she sighed a little and her frown never wavered, but she gently stroked Sora's hair behind her ear and kissed the side of her temple before rising to her feet. "Get some rest, kid," Lin said. "I'll come back to check on you in a little bit."
Sora didn't respond, and Lin forced herself to turn away and stride from the room. She didn't like to leave her kids when they were clearly upset, but she had learned over the years not to push them into talking if they weren't ready.
When Lin went to join the rest of the family, she found that no one else had yet to return from the festival. She knew Tenzin and Nira would make it to the feast, but she wouldn't put it past Ronen or Kya or Su to try and skip out on it. Lin didn't even care about the feast, but if she had to go, then she wasn't letting anyone else get out of it. She had tried to convince Tenzin earlier that she didn't need to attend, but he hadn't gone for it.
She tasked Yunjin and Jinora with finding Ronen and Asami, and then asked Bumi when he had last seen Su and Kya, to which he had guffawed and simply said, "Oh, I know just where to find them." He had then raced out of the door with a cackle before Lin could question him, and she hadn't liked the implications of his response, but she didn't care to look into it. She had given up trying to keep track of those three long ago.
Thankfully, Jeia woke from her nap without being prompted, so there was no struggle of having to deal with a cranky toddler. Katara went to check on Opal, who was feeling better, but still not up to a feast, and the girl offered to check in on Sora while the rest of them were gone. With a drowsy Jeia on her hip, Lin went with Katara to the feast. Tenzin and Nira were there, already seated at their table. Lin flopped down next to Tenzin, and when he asked where everyone else was, she muttered, "Don't ask."
Yunjin and Jinora eventually arrived, Asami in tow, but no Ronen. Asami went to join Mako at the table next to Lin's – Korra was up front with her family –, while Yunjin settled down with Jinora as far across the table from his parents as he could get, and the two kids immediately put their heads together.
"Hey, where's your brother?" Lin demanded, and then had to add, "Yunjin," when the boy didn't even glance up.
"He's outside with Bolin," Yunjin answered distractedly. "He'll be here in a minute."
It was about the same time that the food was being passed around that Lin noticed a commotion in the entryway. She looked up to see Bumi corralling Su and Kya into the room, and even before they reached the table, Lin could tell that something was off. Su and Kya looked far too cheerful.
Su carefully lowered herself into the chair next to her older sister, and she was trying way too hard to act natural. On the other side of Su, Kya looked almost normal, but the smell wafting off of the both of them was extremely potent. Even Jeia wrinkled her nose and scrambled off of her mother's lap to go sit with her grandmother four seats down.
Su fumbled with her utensils and gave Lin a dreamy smile as she made a valiant effort to say, "Good evening, sister. How are you?"
"You're drunk," Lin deadpanned.
Su's smile broadened as she shook her head and insisted, "No m'not."
Lin leaned forward to better see Kya around Su's form, and she gave her sister-in-law a heated look as she asked, "Did you seriously get my little sister trashed in less than an hour?"
Kya shrugged and bit down on her lip to attempt to suppress a grin. "She was so busy stalking Opal, I wanted to help her loosen up," Kya confessed. "In my defense, I didn't realize how easy it'd be. Turns out she's a bit of a lightweight."
"I am not!" Su protested. "I outdrank youuu."
Lin groaned. "Please tell me you didn't," she beseeched her sister. "For normal people, out drinking Kya or Bumi is alcohol poisoning."
Su wriggled in her chair, straightening her spine to sit up further and haughtily slurring, "I excel at all that I do, thank you very much."
"She'll be fine," Kya said with an unconcerned wave of her hand. "She walked in here just fine, didn't she? And if you can walk you're not too drunk."
Lin scoffed. "Yeah, I've heard that before, usually right after someone gets dragged into the drunk tank for disorderly conduct."
"You know, Lin," Su interjected airily, clapping her hand down on Lin's shoulder and nearly missing, "you should really practice some relaxation techniques, you're always so tense. If you'd like, I could show you some – oh! – and dancing can be very relaxing. I would lovvve to get you onto my dance troupe. We would have to start you in the children's class, but I'm sure you could work your way up pretty fast."
Lin just pursed her lips, but Bumi snickered and said, "I like drunk Su. Looks like we need to be spending more time in Zaofu, don't you think, Kya?"
Tenzin shifted his seat closer to Lin with a scowl as Bumi pressed up against his side. "Please," Tenzin muttered, "feel free to spend the rest of your retirement in Zaofu."
"Aww, come on, little brother," Bumi cajoled, "you know you love seeing my bright, shining face everyday."
"You're welcome in Zaofu anytime, Bumi," Su said brightly. She was talking far too loud, as intoxicated people were won't to do, and Lin and Tenzin exchanged a look.
"You sure your husband would be okay with you bringing your childhood crush home?" Lin asked her sister.
Su gasped, both hands coming up to cover her mouth and eyes widening dramatically. "Lin!" she chastised. "I did not have a crush on Bumi."
"Sure you didn't," Lin said sarcastically, wholly unconvinced.
"Su!" Bumi exclaimed, looking hurt. "How come you never told me? We could have gotten married and had beautiful babies and we would have been the more fun version of Lin and Tenzin!"
"Would you please lower your voice?" Tenzin hissed.
Bumi paid Tenzin no mind, but turned in his chair to face Nira as he added, "But of course, my heart belongs to Nira now, I'm afraid."
Nira was nonplussed as she sweetly said, "It's still a no, Bumi."
"I'll convince you one of these days," Bumi swore.
"I told you," Tenzin grumbled irritably, "to stop hitting on Nira."
"Uh oh," Kya said, "Tenzin's got his cranky face on. Must be time for a nap." She winked at Su, who tried very hard not to giggle, but ultimately failed. Then Kya turned in her chair and craned her neck to look around the room. "Where's the alcohol in this place? What kind of a party is this?"
"It's a party for boring people," Bumi lamented. "I had to sneak in my own flask."
"You've been holding out on me," Kya accused.
"You know," Su interrupted, turned halfway around in her chair now and squinting her eyes up at where Chief Unalaq sat. "That Unalaq fellow seems very unhappy about something. His whole energy is very off putting."
"It's just because of that stick up his ass," Kya muttered.
"Kya," Katara warned from across the table.
"Sorry, Mom," Kya mumbled.
"Maybe I should go talk to him," Su said, still staring at Unalaq, and then she was suddenly lurching to her feet.
She wobbled and nearly fell over top of the chair, saved at the last second by Lin, who leapt to her feet just in time to catch her. "Okayyy," Lin drawled, "time to get you to bed."
"I'm not tired," Su protested, staring down at her feet now as she struggled to find her balance, her hands braced against Lin's biceps. "And I didn't get to finish my dinner."
"It's probably just going to come back up anyways," Lin muttered. "Come on." She turned Su in the direction of the exit and looked down at Kya. "You're coming too."
"Me?" Kya asked, hand held to her chest. "What did I do?"
"You did this," Lin replied, gesturing to Su, who had to throw her arms out wide to keep herself balanced now.
Kya sighed, but relented, "Fine."
She stood and began helping Su out of the hall, and Lin looked over at Tenzin, but he reached out to squeeze her hand before she could speak and said, "Go ahead, love. I'll make sure the kids get to bed."
Lin squeezed his hand and nodded, and then went to follow Su and Kya. Outside, she ran into Ronen, and asked him to keep an eye on Jin and Bumi. She didn't like the way Yunjin was cuddling up to Jinora and Bumi was always a wild card.
Of course, by the time Lin finished talking to Ronen, Su had fallen on her ass in the snow, and she and Kya were cackling like lunatics. Lin went quickly over to shut them up, and dragged Su back up onto her feet. Whatever amount of alcohol the pair of them had consumed must have been sinking in deeper, because Su was only becoming more incoherent the further they walked from the feast. By the time the three of them reached the huts, Su was loudly singing words that made no sense and was being carried between Lin and Kya more than she was actually walking.
Upon stumbling into Su and Opal's hut, the trio found both Sora and Opal out of bed and sitting across from one another at a small table. Opal was looking better, but Sora was slumped over the table and still looking downcast.
"Opal!" Su cried delightedly at the sight of her daughter. "And Sora! Two of my favorite people. Come here, darlings."
Su shrugged out of Lin and Kya's hold and nearly face planted into the floor, but she somehow managed to keep herself upright.
Opal rose to her feet with confusion and the beginnings of a smirk on her face as she asked, "Mom? Are you drunk?"
"Very much so, yes," Su admitted, staggering over to wrap her arms tight around Opal's shoulders. "Have I told you lately just how much I love you, my sweet, sweet, Opal? You and your brothers are my most precious gifts."
Opal laughed, sounding half strangled by her mother's hold as she replied, "I love you too, Mom."
While everyone seemed distracted by Su's drunkenness, Sora tried to slip out of the room, but Kya snagged her sleeve as she passed by and asked her quietly, "Oh, hey, so how'd it go with Jinora? Did you tell her?"
Lin then watched in astonishment as Sora yanked her arm out of her aunt's grasp and scowled at Kya with an anger Lin had rarely seen on her sweet Sora's face. "Yeah, I told her," Sora spat, "and you were wrong. She doesn't like me back, she likes Yunjin, and now everything is weird, because I took your advice. I should have never listened to you! You ruined everything!"
Sora then took off out into the night, leaving everyone else in the room in a stunned silence for several seconds afterwards.
"What the hell was that about?" Lin demanded of Kya, although she probably could have guessed based on what Sora had said.
Kya sighed heavily. "She has a crush on Jinora and I thought… I just didn't want her to feel like she had to hide it just because Jinora was a girl, and I…" Kya sighed again. "I'll talk to her –"
Lin grabbed her arm before she could go after Sora and said, "Sounds like you've done enough already. And you reek of booze."
Kya looked insulted as she shook off Lin's hold. "You know I'm not too impaired to talk to my niece, and I want to fix this, not make it worse."
"I can talk to her myself," Lin insisted.
Kya snorted. "And how much experience do you have with rejection? Or relationships with women? I can handle this, Lin. Do you seriously still not trust me?"
Lin scowled, but Kya did have a good a point, and Lin also knew that Kya cared a great deal about her nieces and nephews, and that she would do anything she could to help Sora.
"I'll go with you," Opal offered, extracting herself from her mother's hold to stride over to Kya. "Sora had just started to open up to me about it before you guys got here. It might help if we both go."
Kya looked at Lin in silent question, and Lin finally relented with a brief nod.
"I wanna help Sora," Su said as Kya and Opal were leaving, trying to stumble after them, but Lin stopped her.
"I think they've got it covered," Lin told her. "Why don't you sit down and I'll get you some water?"
"But I want to dance," Su lamented, as she whirled out of Lin's grasp. She managed a few spins before she dropped down onto the floor, and Lin rolled her eyes and went to fill a glass with water.
As she crouched down in front of her sister, who was just giggling for no reason now, Lin coaxed, "Here, drink up."
Su drank the water greedily, and afterwards she blinked dazedly and said, "My tongue is numb."
Lin just shook her head, half amused. "You're gonna feel terrible tomorrow, you know that right?"
"I don't live my life in the past or the future," Su replied sagely. "I live in the here and now."
"Yeah, well, you're gonna wish you were living in the future after you wake up tomorrow," Lin countered. "I don't know why you thought drinking with Kya was a good idea. You're not depressed or something, are you? Everything still okay back home?"
"Why on Earth would I be depressed?" Su asked, sounding genuinely confused. "I have the most perfect family and a wonderful city of people, and I have you and those precious nieces and nephews." She reached out to grab Lin's hand in a tight grip. "Have I told you lately that you're my favorite sister ever?"
Lin rolled her eyes. "I'm your only sister."
"That we know of," Su pointed out. She blinked and squinted, looking at something over Lin's shoulder. "Are you making the room spin?"
Lin snorted. "No, that's a result of you trying to out drink Kya."
Su grimaced, and her face steadily began to turn unnaturally pale. Lin knew what was coming even before Su groaned, "I think I'm gonna be sick."
When she had gone to retrieve the water, Lin had also brought a small trash bin back with her, and she hastily reached over to grab it, shoving it into place just as Su leaned forward and wretched. Lin got up to move behind her sister, pulling back Su's short hair with one hand and patting her back with the other.
Once Su had finished purging the majority of the liquor from her stomach, Lin had her rinse her mouth and drink a few sips of water, and then coaxed Su to lie down in bed. Exhausted now, Su almost immediately closed her eyes tight, curling up onto her side and looking as though she might fall right to sleep.
Lin went to get rid of the trash bin and retrieved another to put by Su's bed just in case, and also refilled the glass with water. Afterwards, Lin intended to slip out of the room to let Su rest and come back to check on her later, but Su apparently hadn't completely fallen asleep yet, because before Lin could escape, Su croaked, "Lin?"
"Yeah?" Lin half whispered, turning back to look at her sister in the dim lighting. She could see that Su's eyes were open, but when she didn't immediately continue, Lin asked, "You think you're gonna be sick again?"
"No, it's not that," Su assured, sounding a little more sober now, her voice low, and it looked as if she was struggling to say something. "I just wanted…I wanted to ask if…how are you doing? I mean, after Amon and everything. I don't know if I…I can't remember if I asked lately."
"I'm fine, Su," Lin said, and when Su appeared unconvinced, she added, "Really. I'm okay, I promise. You don't have to worry about me."
"But I do," Su persisted, reaching out to grasp at Lin's hand and holding it tight. "You've endured so much for that job. I don't know how you…I don't know how you can stand it. After Amon…once you got your bending back, it was as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. It was like you were so used to trauma you didn't even feel it anymore."
Lin frowned. "Su, are you doing okay? You never said much about what went on when you were captured, you kept insisting it was no big deal, but you've never been in that kind of situation before. Have you talked to anyone about it?"
Su seemed to consider it for a moment, and then she responded, "There really isn't anything to tell. They kicked me around a little, but that was it."
"You make it sound like it's normal," Lin scoffed, growing frustrated with Su's passivity. "It wasn't normal and you didn't deserve it and you don't have to pretend like it didn't matter."
Much to Lin's surprise, Su nodded and didn't argue. Instead, she admitted in a whisper, "I have dreams sometimes…nightmares, I guess. I wake up thinking they're in my bedroom with me, that I'm back in that cell."
Lin's frown deepened, and she shifted closer to the side of the bed, clutching Su's hand tighter. "Have you told Bataar? When I…if something like that happens to me, it helps if Tenzin is there."
Su shook her head. "I don't want to worry him. He wouldn't understand that sort of thing like Tenzin does. It doesn't happen so often now, anyways, and I've read up on ways to cope."
Lin snorted, but it was weak and almost closer to something weepy she was trying to suppress. "Of course you have."
"I'll be just fine," Su assured. "I didn't want to worry you, I just thought…well, maybe you might have experienced something similar."
Lin didn't really like to discuss it, but if it would make Su feel better… "Yeah," she admitted with a shrug, "of course. It happens, and it sucks, but it'll go away eventually."
Su nodded, and Lin noticed that even though Su was listening intently, she also seemed to be struggling to keep her eyes open.
"Listen," Lin said gruffly, "if you wanna talk about it sometime, we can. Just…get some rest, all right?"
"Thank you, Lin," Su mumbled, eyes already sliding shut and her voice barely coherent. "I love you."
"Yeah, love you too," Lin murmured eventually, mostly to herself, certain that Su probably wasn't even awake anymore. She gently extracted her hand from Su's limp grasp and rose to her feet. She watched her sister sleep for a second, and then retreated from the hut.
On her way out, she nearly ran straight into Tenzin, who lurched backwards just in time to avoid a collision.
"Sorry," Tenzin said quickly, reaching out to grasp Lin's elbow to steady her. "How is Su?"
"Unconscious," Lin answered. "I think she threw up most of the liquor in her stomach, but I'll check on her in a little bit. How was the rest of the feast?"
"Uneventful, thankfully," Tenzin replied, "although Bolin was asking Bumi quite a lot of questions about pyrotechnics, so I've been keeping an eye on that."
"Have you seen Sora?" Lin asked next.
Tenzin nodded and frowned. "Kya told me what happened. Sora is still with Opal, but I told them they need to start getting ready for bed soon. Sora seems to be okay, but I thought maybe we should talk to her tomorrow sometime."
"Yeah," Lin agreed, "and Yunjin too. They're both too young to be thinking about relationships anyway. Spirits sake, of all the kids they go to school with and they've both got a crush on Pema's kid."
"I know," Tenzin empathized. "When Sora told us that she liked girls, I never even considered that she and Yunjin might be vying for the same girl's affections. As if teen relationships weren't already complicated enough."
"Ugh, I'm so sick of teen relationships," Lin grumbled. "When will this part of our life be over?"
Tenzin chuckled and draped his arm over his wife's shoulders, telling her exactly what she didn't want to hear. "Oh, my love, considering Jeia's age, I'm afraid it'll likely be another fifteen or so years."
"That's it," Lin huffed, "we're never letting those kids off of the Island again."
Lin hadn't been settled down in bed for long when she was abruptly jolted back awake.
First, she registered the sound of Korra's blasted polar bear dog howling into the night, and at first, she simply grumbled under her breath and burrowed deeper into Tenzin's side. However, a second later she recognized the sound of a battle taking place, the ground trembling, and some of the kids shouting.
Wide awake, Lin and Tenzin both snapped up at once, lurching out of the bed so quickly that Lin's head spun a little. She stuffed her feet into her shoes and was pulling on her coat as she raced out the door, Tenzin right on her heels. Jeia tried to follow, but Lin snapped at her to stay put.
Lin and Tenzin clambered outside just in time to see Bolin, Mako, and Ronen rolling down a nearby embankment after being swatted off of it. Korra was still at the top, and with her was…
Well, Lin wasn't sure what the beast was, but it was big and glowing purple and misshapen and she could only assume that it was a spirit, of all things. She could hardly believe her eyes, and as she watched it dart around at impossible speeds, she sighed heavily.
While Tonraq went racing up the slope to his daughter, Lin and Tenzin quickly checked on the three boys, who seemed to be okay, if a little dazed. By the time Lin and Tenzin leapt up to face the spirit themselves, Tonraq and Korra had both been hurtled off in different directions.
Before Lin could lash out at the beast, Tenzin stopped her, approaching the spirit ahead of her and calling out to it, "Spirit! Why are you angry with us? What have we done to offend you?"
The spirit turned to face Tenzin, it's glowing yellow eyes narrowing in what appeared to be anger, and Lin shifted her stance, asking her husband with concern, "Uh, Tenzin, are you sure –"
No sooner had she started to speak that the spirit decided to slash an appendage at Tenzin, who went flying off the embankment. Lin immediately thrust up an earth shield to save herself from the same fate, and then rolled away from it as the spirit's writhing tentacle slashed through it. She came back up on her feet and stomped twice, causing the ground to dip beneath the spirit, throwing it off balance for a split second, long enough for her to kick two slabs of stone directly at what she assumed to be its face. But the spirit barely flinched from her attacks, and though she managed to dodge two more swipes of its spindly arms, she was eventually caught around the waist and thrown across the landscape.
Lin crashed into the ground and went still, groaning in pain and taking stock of herself, trying to figure out if she had broken anything before she attempted to move. The thick snow, at least, had broken some of her fall, even if it was now seeping, cold and wet, through her clothes. She blinked open her eyes and could faintly see Korra off in the distance, in the Avatar state, facing off with the spirit one on one again.
"Mom!" two voices called out, distracting her for a moment as Sora and Yunjin dropped down next to her.
She let them help her sit up and reassured them, "I'm fine. Where's your father?"
Both twins pointed, and Lin could see Tenzin's robes flashing through the night as he and Tonraq raced down the slope in the direction of the deserted festival, where Korra appeared to be losing her battle with the spirit.
Lin clambered to her feet and told Jin and Sora, "Watch Jeia," before running straight after Tenzin and Tonraq.
By the time Lin caught up to them, the spirit had already been handled, but not by Korra. Unalaq had shown up and done some weird waterbending trick that Lin had never seen before, and the spirit had suddenly been calm. It turned and begun to walk away before vanishing into thin air.
Korra was in awe of her uncle, and frustrated with her father for still not acknowledging Unalaq's gifts, and when Lin slid into place next to Tenzin, the ensuing argument had already boiled over. Korra was declaring that Tonraq and Tenzin no longer knew what was best for her, that neither of them could fend off the spirit attack, and that she needed to go with Unalaq to reach her full potential.
"Now, Korra," Tonraq began to say.
But Lin interjected with, "Really," unable to contain herself as she pointed at Unalaq, "this pretentious asshole?"
Korra gave Lin an exasperated look, just as Tenzin was beseeching, "Please, Korra. I know that you're angry, but think of how far we've all come together."
"I'm sorry, Tenzin, Lin," Korra said to them both, looking a little regretful, pausing to glance guiltily over at Ronen, who Lin noticed now was standing a few meters back, just close enough to hear what was going on, "but this is as far as we go."
Lin shook her head and turned away with a huff. She could understand Korra's frustrations to an extent, and Unalaq clearly had some spiritual knowledge that could be helpful, but abandoning Tenzin's teachings altogether, Lin could not understand that, nor could she bear the hurt it would cause her family, Tenzin in particular. All the time they had spent with Korra over the last year and a half and this was how she repaid them? Lin was too angry to say anything else.
Tenzin, of course, said, "It has been an honor serving you, Avatar Korra."
And then he too followed Lin, and together they returned to their family, who had all congregated at the foot of the hill now that the danger was gone. Lin and Tenzin trudged past Ronen, but he didn't turn to follow them just yet. Lin expected him to try talking to his friend about her decision and she didn't try to stop him.
When Lin and Tenzin joined the others, Sora went rushing into her father's arms in an effort to comfort him, and Jeia wriggled out of Kya's hold to toddle over to Lin. Jeia was cranky and belligerent from being woken, but she wrapped herself around her mother and relaxed, and Lin felt her own anger sizzling out just like that. Now she could feel only aches from the short battle with the spirit and exhaustion. The mood was solemn as the rest of the family crowded around her and Tenzin, but Lin was not going to let herself become dismayed. She had a feeling that Korra would return to them eventually, and if she didn't…well, they would be just fine. Lin would make sure of it.
Chapter 59: Chapter 59
Chapter Text
Chapter 59
"I know what you're going to say," Korra said, before Ronen could even process his own emotions. His parents had walked away to join the rest of his family, Korra's father seemed too much at a loss to move, and Unalaq had slithered back to whatever hole he had crawled out of. Korra had gone to Ronen's side, because as frustrated as she was with his father, Ronen was still her best friend and she seemed to want to provide him with an explanation.
"Do you?" Ronen replied. "Because I'm not even sure what I'm going to say."
"But you're upset," Korra deduced. "You don't want me to train with my uncle instead of your dad, but you have to know it isn't personal."
"Isn't it?" Ronen countered, feeling a flash of irritation he didn't usually have for his best friend. "You're mad because you feel like my dad and your dad are sheltering you too much."
"Yeah," Korra admitted, "but it's not just that. Unalaq knew how to stop that spirit. He knows more about spirits than Tenzin or even you do. Real knowledge about how to fight them, not just stories he's read in a book."
Ronen winced a little at the unintended insult and argued, "Not everything is about fighting, Korra. I'd have thought my father would have drilled that into your head by now. I'll admit that I don't have all the experience that your uncle does, and I don't know why there are angry spirits attacking people down here, but you know I'd do anything to help you figure it out."
"And I still want you to!" Korra exclaimed. "I just also need to learn from my uncle. I know we were all supposed to go to the Air Temples, but come on, you know it was just going to be a long vacation with Tenzin forcing me to meditate all day long. Your mom isn't even going to be there half of the time, so why should we be? Stay with me here, learn what Unalaq knows. Don't you want to know more about the spirits?"
"It isn't about that," Ronen said with a shake of his head. "My parents have done a lot to help you over the last year, and I'm not saying that you owe them a life debt or something, but a little more consideration would be nice. Have you even thought about how your decision makes the rest of us feel? You all but told my father he's useless to you now –"
"You're blowing this way out of proportion," Korra interjected, looking frustrated now. "I'm not trying to be insulting. Of course I'm grateful for all that Tenzin has taught me, but Aang had more than one teacher, and so should I. Your father doesn't know everything."
She had a point, but Ronen still insisted, "I think you could have been a lot more mature about it. I understand that you want to learn from Unalaq, but you can't seriously think he's got your best interests at heart. I'm sure if you had just talked to my father he would have been okay with you dividing some of your time with him."
"I don't need to ask his permission to do what I think is best for me," Korra huffed. "That's the problem with him and my dad! They think they know what's best and they don't let me make up my own mind. How am I supposed to be the Avatar if everyone else is making my decisions for me?"
"It isn't that they're making them for you," Ronen tried to say.
But Korra persisted, "Yes they are, and I can't believe that you of all people can't see that. What about when your parents wouldn't let you come with me to pro-bending or to face the Equalists? You snuck out because you knew what was best for you, even though they were telling you differently."
Ronen opened his mouth, but hesitated, considering Korra's words and not thrilled that she was partially right. "Well, they weren't completely wrong," he hedged. "I was pretty young, and we were doing some really dangerous stuff, so it makes sense that they were worried. Just like I'm worried about you now. I'm sorry, I know he's your Uncle, but I don't trust Unalaq."
"This isn't about whether or not I trust him," Korra reasoned. "I'm sure he's got his own motives, who doesn't? But he seems genuine about the spirit stuff, and I need to learn it regardless. Your parents were worried about you last year, but everything turned out fine. Same as now. Everything will be just fine. You know I can handle myself, and I want you here with me. We're better together, you and I, and with Bolin and Mako and Asami. We're a team. Please, Ronen, don't you trust me?"
It was a loaded question, one that Ronen already knew the answer to, but which still made him pause. "Of course, I trust you," he eventually sighed, "but I'm still not happy about this."
"You don't have to be," Korra said, smiling a little tentatively, hoping he would do the same. "Just trust me, that's all."
It should have been the hardest thing in the world to do after he had been so upset with her decision, but he found that it really wasn't. He was still peeved about how she had handled everything, and he had every intention of making sure she knew that, but she was right about one thing. They were a team, the five of them, and they were always better off together.
The following morning, Lin, Tenzin, and their four kids, along with Opal, Asami, Bolin, Mako, and Jinora, crowded together in Katara's home to have breakfast with her, Kya, Bumi, and Su. The lack of Korra's presence was keenly felt, but all of them were so groggy from being woken in the middle of the night that there wasn't much room for solemnity. Even after the spirit issue had been resolved, nearly all of them had struggled to get settled back to sleep, and when the sun had come up, Lin hadn't been certain if she had actually slept at all.
Suyin, though, was the worst off of all of them. All she managed of breakfast were two miniscule bites of plain toast and a never ending supply of water, plus a little tea Katara had pressed into her hands. She looked dreadfully pale and there were dark shadows under her eyes, and every time someone spoke above a whisper, she hissed at them to "please, for the love of all that is spiritual, can you be a little less loud?". Lin was torn between feeling sympathetic and being far too amused. Part of her wanted to make an excessive amount of noise, just to remind Su what an awful idea it was to drink with Kya. But then Lin remembered that she had also fallen into that trap before, and so she could understand how Su could have easily made that blunder without even realizing it.
Ronen, too, was not his usual cheerful self, but was slumped in his seat and poking at his breakfast more than he was eating it. The night before, Lin had waited up partially to ensure he returned to his own bed, and whatever conversation he'd had with Korra had gone on for a long time. He hadn't spoken of it all morning so far, and no one had tried to pry yet. Whatever he had said to her clearly hadn't changed her mind, but Lin was more concerned about what that meant for her eldest son. Ronen had been focusing most of his energy on Korra ever since she first came to Republic City, and the boy was extremely loyal to his friends. Even though he likely was not pleased with Korra's decision, there was still a chance that he might try to follow her, especially considering Mako, Bolin, and Asami were destined to do the same. If Ronen were to decide to skip the visits to the Air Temples, Lin did not think there was anything she would be able to do to stop him besides physical force. He was already closer to seventeen, more a man now than a boy, and even though she could hardly reconcile that fact in her mind, it was irrevocably true. She didn't want to see him miss out on a family trip to all of the Air Temples, especially when he was one of the kids that would probably get the most out of it, but she couldn't decide his life for him anymore. If there was one thing being a mother had taught her in the last seventeen years, it was that at some point she had to learn to relinquish control.
Because of Korra's decision to take Unalaq as her mentor, Tenzin had tossed and turned through the night, and then decided that he didn't want to stay in the South Pole for another day as originally planned. He wanted to head straight to the Southern Air Temple, and Lin was not inclined to disagree.
After breakfast, but before they were due to set off, Tenzin pulled Sora aside to talk about the previous night. According to Kya, Sora had forgiven her aunt after their talk, and apologized for blaming her in the first place, but Tenzin still wanted to make sure that Sora was okay. The girl was sensitive to begin with, let alone with the added confusion of a girl about to turn thirteen that had feelings for her best friend. Tenzin was better at handling that sort of thing, so Lin left it to him, while she sought out Yunjin instead.
Apparently Sora confessing her feelings to Jinora had spurred Jinora to confess her own feelings for Yunjin, and the boy was oblivious to his twin sister's plight. Normally he was more in tune with Sora, but she had been trying very hard to hide her true feelings for Jinora – she only divulged the information to her Aunt Kya up until it all went wrong – and he was very much a preteen boy that was oblivious to a lot of things. Sora begged her parents not to tell Yunjin about how she felt about Jinora, but Lin still thought the boy was too young to be thinking about that sort of thing anyways. Besides, the last thing she wanted was Pema crawling up her ass worried about her daughter's innocence. Tenzin did argue that thirteen year olds were bound to have fleeting relationships, and that they couldn't exactly force Yunjin not to "date" Jinora – whatever the hell that meant for two kids, Lin did not know – so Lin had the arduous task of simply trying to persuade Yunjin not to. Considering that Yunjin never did what he was told, Lin would probably be talking for nothing, but she hoped she could scare him off by explaining all of the responsibilities that came with a relationship.
Tenzin had given Yunjin "the talk" already a year or so ago, which had horrified him a little, but Lin's talk with him didn't appear to alter his opinion much. Yunjin seemed to struggle not to roll his eyes at his mother the entire time, and their conversation ended with both of them mostly just frustrated, and Yunjin still intending to take Jinora as his girlfriend. Tenzin's conversation with Sora, at least, had gone better, and the girl insisted that she would be fine. Lin didn't totally believe that, but Sora knew she could talk to her parents about it at least.
A short time later, just as they were packing up to leave, Ronen initiated a conversation of his own with his parents, and Lin had known the second she saw him approaching what he was going to say.
Sure enough, he stood before them with his hands behind his back and his expression both solemn and regretful as he said, "Mom, Dad, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I think I'm going to stay behind with Korra."
Lin just stood stock still, tilting her head enough to get a glimpse of Tenzin's face. He didn't appear wholly surprised either, but she could see the hurt in his eyes. Yet he still replied, "If that is what you feel you must do."
Ronen swallowed, looking a little startled by his parents' lack of reaction. Then he continued, "I really wanted to go to the Air Temples with you, but I don't know if I trust Korra's uncle and I want to make sure she has all the support she needs here. And maybe once she calms down she might change her mind about the Temples. I don't think she wants this to be permanent, she's just looking for more and, well, you know Korra. Once she's made up her mind about something..." He shrugged and made a little half smile, but Lin and Tenzin couldn't quite manage the same.
Tenzin said, "Just as I cannot force Korra, I can no longer force you either." He stepped forward suddenly to stand directly before Ronen, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders. "You have grown beyond my teachings, stronger and wiser than I ever could have hoped. We will miss you, of course, and you are welcome to join us at anytime, but if you feel that your place is with the Avatar now, then I must accept that. Perhaps that is how it is supposed to be, perhaps you can help Korra in ways I never could. I admit, I never expected it to be this way, but I am so proud of you, my son, do not ever doubt that."
It was a lot deeper and more emotional than Lin had been expecting, and she had to catch herself to keep from reacting to the short speech.
Ronen, on the other hand, was taken aback for a long moment, and tears shone in his eyes as he nodded with fervor. "I won't let you down, Dad," he said. "I promise."
"I know that you won't," Tenzin said with certainty, and the two of them embraced.
Admittedly a little moved by the whole thing, Lin dropped the bag in her hands and strode over to the pair. When Tenzin and Ronen parted, she gruffly said, "Come here, kid," and then pulled Ronen into her arms. He was taller than her now by just a couple of inches, and it hurt her chest a little to think about it. She remembered Tenzin bringing him into her office over fourteen years ago to show her his first steps, and he had toddled right to her with his bright, happy face, and when she bent to pick him up he had fit perfectly in her arms. For years after that he had run to greet her nearly every time she got home, always growing, but only enough to crash into her knees, then her waist, and then one day it had stopped altogether. She hadn't really noticed him getting older until he already was, and now the days of him being her sweet little boy were long gone. He would be striking out on his own for the first time, not just popping into the city for a few hours and then coming back home to the Island. He would be on an entirely different continent than both of his parents, and part of Lin wished that she could go back in time and spend just a little more time with baby Ronen, when he didn't scare her half to death by facing off with untold evils.
Instead, Lin was forced to let Ronen go, impassive as her arms dropped back down to her sides. She had to let him go, to choose his own path, and hope that he would find his way.
Leaving the South Pole was a much more somber affair than originally planned. There were nine of them on Oogi as opposed to the original fourteen, and only Ronen and Katara came to see them off. Su and Opal had already left on their airship to return to Zaofu, because Bolin and Opal were apparently in the middle of a disagreement, and Su was desperate to get home to sleep off the rest of her hangover. Korra did not make an appearance, and according to Ronen, Mako and Bolin were with her. Asami was in a meeting with Varrick.
Katara, meanwhile, insisted upon Tenzin taking his brother and sister with him to the Air Temples, and though Tenzin initially protested, he eventually relented to his mother's reasoning. So Kya and Bumi were along for the ride, which helped ease some of Sora and Jeia's discontent that Ronen and Korra weren't coming. Tenzin was very clearly distraught at the change in plans, and Lin, for once, was trying to be the optimistic one. They would still have family time and the three youngest of their kids would get to see the temples. She would have preferred Ronen to be there too, but she was accepting of the boy's decision, unlike Korra's. At least Ronen would be around to keep an eye on Korra while she was being belligerent.
Even though Lin wasn't thrilled by all the ancient history at the Southern Air Temple, or the altitude, for that matter, she was still hopeful that her short week there would be a good one. However, she was not quite so fortunate. Halfway through the flight, Jeia Rai began coughing and sniffling, and by nightfall, she was dreadfully ill. In just the brief time that they had been in the South Pole, she had come down with pneumonia, and Lin spent the following four days trying to nurse the toddler back to health. Jeia got far worse before she got any better, so much so that Lin and Tenzin very seriously considered taking her back to Katara or the hospital in the city. Thankfully, though, Kya was taking good care of Jeia, and there was enough improvement to appease Lin. Nevertheless, the poor kid could hardly breathe, and she was too miserable to sleep through the night. All five adults were taking shifts caring for Jeia, but Lin didn't want Tenzin to lose too much time at his father's temple with the twins, and Bumi was too frantically worried to be with Jeia on his own, so most of it fell to Lin, Nira, and Kya, while Tenzin and Bumi were with the twins and Jinora. Lin was thankful to have an occasional break when Nira or Kya took over, but she couldn't bear to be away from Jeia for long, so she mostly only napped as long as Jeia did, with the toddler sprawled across her chest, both of them exhausted, but too sick or fretful to relax.
After four days, Kya finally managed to chase the infection from Jeia's body, and the toddler seemed to spring back to life. She was soon chasing her older siblings around the ancient Air Temple, and Lin happily collapsed into bed and slept the first full night since they had arrived.
The following three days were much more relaxing, and Lin made sure to spend every minute with her family that she had left. Yunjin, though, was rather invested in Jinora, and didn't seem to have much time for his mother. Sora, in contrast, seemed to be struggling to be around her best friend and brother, and was spending more time either with her father or wandering the grounds on her own. While Lin was still there, she made sure to include Sora as much as possible, so as to avoid any repeats of the depressive state Sora had been in during her falling out with Jinora only a year or so ago. Lin was at least relieved to see that Sora seemed to have truly reconciled with her Aunt Kya, because it meant the girl would have someone besides her father to talk to while Lin was back in the city.
Leaving her kids and her husband, and even Nira and Kya and Bumi, was a lot more difficult than Lin thought it would be. She hadn't been apart from the kids for longer than a few days since they had been born, and she and Tenzin hadn't been apart for much longer since they had married. She had also gotten very used to seeing Nira on the Island even when the kids weren't around, and aside from Tenzin, Nira was probably the closest thing Lin had to a true friend. And despite all their past drama and their vastly different personalities, Lin had sort of started to enjoy Kya and Bumi being around. If Lin hadn't been so adamant about keeping the commitment she had made to the city, she would have gladly begged off all responsibility to stay with her family. But alas, she had given her word, and she would not go back on that, nor could she abandon the city to its fate. She would return to Republic City, groom her replacement so that they were undoubtedly ready to take up the mantle of Chief, and then she would be free to spend as much time with her family as she wanted. In Lin's opinion, that day couldn't come soon enough.
As much as Tenzin loved being at the Southern Air Temple, he found that he was struggling a little to really enjoy himself and relax. Nothing had gone as planned, and everything seemed to be spiraling out of control. First, Korra had renounced him as her teacher in favor of her Uncle Unalaq, and that had been a crushing blow for a number of reasons. Then Ronen had decided to follow her, to help his friend and keep an eye on her, because the boy was loyal to a fault and would not abandon Korra even when he disagreed with her. Then Tenzin's own mother had forced him to bring along Kya and Bumi, which was okay, to an extent, but his siblings more often drove him insane than anything else. Having Lin there with them for a little while was nice, but she spent most of her time taking care of poor Jeia, and afterwards the days seemed to pass by so quickly that it was soon time for her to leave. Having to say goodbye to his wife was particularly difficult, and he might have begged her to stay if he hadn't known how much it was tearing her apart already to go. He could tell that she didn't really want to return to the city either, but that she knew it was the right thing to do, even if she would miss her family, so Tenzin did not try to pressure her into making a decision she might regret.
Still, the first few days after Lin had gone were a struggle. Tenzin tried to take his mind off of it by spending time with the children, which proved to be more effective than he thought. With the way Yunjin had been disregarding everyone else to be with Jinora, and the way Sora was avoiding being around her twin and best friend, Tenzin had thought that they would continue to be difficult. However, Jinora was apparently fascinated by the Air Temple and eager to learn from Tenzin, and her enthusiasm was enough to get Yunjin a little more interested in the historical concepts he had typically balked at before. With some coaxing from Kya, Sora was also less reluctant to be around her brother and Jinora, and was making a concerted effort to rise above what ever jealous or hurt feelings she was struggling with. Jeia couldn't care less about anything spiritual or Air Nation related, but Nira and Kya kept her entertained when Tenzin was busy elsewhere, and she was always pleased when he let her practice a little metalbending. He didn't let her do much with Lin not being there, because if there was an accident there weren't any earthbenders around to help, but he and Lin had agreed on a few things that would be safe.
Their two weeks at the Southern Air Temple without Lin seemed to fly by once they got over the initial discontent, and Tenzin was simultaneously excited and dismayed when he realized it was their last night there. The following morning they would be flying back to Republic City to spend a day or two with Lin before moving onto their next destination at the Eastern Air Temple. Tenzin was delighted that he would be seeing Lin again, and hopefully getting an update on Ronen, whom he had only heard from once in the three weeks since Tenzin left the South Pole. However, he would be sad to leave the Southern Air Temple, which for him, held a more significant connection to his father than even the Island did. Leaving would be bittersweet, and he spent the last evening taking one more leisurely stroll around the temple on his own after he had gotten the kids to bed.
At some point during his walk, Tenzin wandered down to the statue room, with the intent of getting one last glimpse of Aang's statue. It seemed a little silly to visit his father's statue, but apparently he hadn't been the only one with that idea, because as soon as he entered the room, he stumbled upon both his siblings.
"Oh!" he said in surprise, as Kya and Bumi turned to face him. "What are you two doing in here?"
"Oh, you know," Bumi replied, casually throwing his arm over the shoulders of their father's statue, "just having a chat with dear old Dad. What brings you down here so late? I thought you'd be in bed by now. Isn't it past seven-thirty?"
"Ha, ha," Tenzin said sarcastically, "very funny. I just wanted to look around the Temple one last time before we leave tomorrow."
"Oh, sure," Bumi said flippantly. "Well, we'll leave you to it then. Try not to have too much fun wandering these dusty old hallways."
Tenzin rolled his eyes as Bumi began to stride towards him and the exit. "Don't be up all night," Tenzin told his older brother as he passed by. "We leave first thing in the morning, with or without you."
"Yes, drill sergeant," Bumi scoffed, with an eye roll of his own.
"I'm actually gonna talk to Tenzin for a minute," Kya told Bumi. "I'll come find you after?"
Bumi sighed and relented, "Fine, but you'd better not use it as an excuse to get out of our rematch. I'm takin' you down, Sister!"
Kya snorted. "In your dreams!"
"My dreams always come true!" Bumi called as he was backing down the hallway.
Kya just shook her head, and once Bumi had disappeared around the corner, she turned her attention onto Tenzin.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" he asked curiously.
"I just wanted to ask about Sora," Kya explained. "She seemed to be doing better when I talked to her today, but I figured you might know a little better than me. Has she seemed okay to you?"
"Yes, actually," Tenzin answered honestly, "she's been much better. I can tell that she's still a little sad, but I don't think we can really get around that. They feel so much at that age, and Sora especially."
"She's a good kid," Kya said with a soft smile. "Much smarter than I was at that age. It took me decades to get my head on straight, but Sora knows exactly what she wants and she isn't afraid to go after it."
"She's like her mother that way, but that's where the likeness stops," Tenzin said with a chuckle.
Kya laughed too and agreed, "She's Lin's polar opposite in so many ways. It's hilarious to watch the two of them sometimes. I've never seen Lin strain so hard to feign interest in dance."
"She enjoys it when Sora is involved, anyone else and you can forget it." Tenzin could have discussed Lin and the kids all night, they were his favorite subject, but he turned serious for a moment to tell Kya, "I want to thank you by the way. For everything you're doing for Sora. Lin and I don't want to treat her any differently, but we're also aware that we can't fully understand all that she's going through. You've been a lot of help, and I'm glad that Sora has you to talk to about all this."
"Hey, what are aunts for?" Kya said, looking a little uncomfortable as she smiled sheepishly. "You don't have to thank me. I'd do anything for those kids."
"I know you would," Tenzin said, and he fully meant it. He had been critical of Kya for a long time, and he didn't often agree with much of her life choices, but she had shown him over the last few years just how much she cared about her nieces and nephews. Every time she came to visit the Island, she spent nearly all of her time with the kids, and when she didn't get a chance, she still sent little gifts and letters for them. After the revolution and being captured by Amon, Kya had come rushing to the Island to check on all of them. Even though she must have been uncomfortable around Tenzin half of the time when the two were often feuding, she still came through for the kids.
Kya stared up at him for a moment, eyes glistening a little with emotion, and sucked in a deep breath before saying, "Look, I know you and I have kind of been at odds for a while, and things got a little better, but we didn't really talk about it and…well, I just want to say that I'm sorry. You were right to be upset with me before."
Tenzin was surprised by his sister's apology, but also grateful for the acknowledgement. "Thank you for that," he said softly, "and I'm sorry too. Perhaps if I had been more understanding and helpful, you might not have felt so alone. I don't know if it would have changed your mind about leaving, but…perhaps I could have done more."
Kya sighed heavily and shook her head. "I don't know if anyone could have changed my mind. I wish that someone could have, I wish I would have handled things differently. It's too late for that now, but…for what it's worth, I do want to try to make amends, if I can."
"Is that why you left the Earth Kingdom?" Tenzin asked carefully. Lin hadn't been able to get anything out of Kya, but she also hadn't wanted to press. Tenzin didn't have much confidence that his sister would confide in him, of all people, but it was worth a shot. "Why you left Yumae?"
Kya hesitated, folding her arms protectively over her chest and pressing her lips together, her gaze dropping to the floor as she heaved in a shuddering breath. "Something like that," she murmured, glancing guiltily up at Tenzin before dropping her gaze once more, as if she could not look him in the eye. "She wanted to get married," she confessed, in a whisper so low Tenzin had to strain to hear her.
Tenzin's eyes widened slightly at the admission, but he blinked rapidly to regain control of himself, and waited a second before calmly questioning, "And you didn't want to?"
"Of course I wanted to," Kya said miserably. "I love her, so much, but…" She shook her head and looked up at her brother resolutely. "I destroyed my last marriage. Who's to say I won't do the same thing to her? I thought I loved Kole, not the way I loved Yumae, true, but still, I couldn't live with myself if I hurt her like that. And besides, I felt guilty enough being happy with Yumae after what I did to my kids. Getting married would be like rubbing salt in their wounds. I know Ashok would never agree to come to the wedding, and what's the point in getting married if the people I love most aren't there with me?"
Despite all the years Tenzin had spent being angry at his sister, hearing her confession now made his heart ache for her, and he felt some of his own guilt for being one of the people that had put it into her head that she didn't deserve happiness. He didn't think it was right for her to have left her children, but she clearly regretted it, and he was too forgiving a man to think that she should suffer the rest of her life for it. He was stunned that she was confiding in him in the first place, but he supposed that if she had told Bumi or their mother, they would both have tried to convince her to be with Yumae. Even Lin probably would have told Kya she was being an idiot for giving up. But Kya likely assumed that Tenzin would agree with her, and he wondered at how much their sibling relationship had devolved for her to believe that he would just nod and say that she didn't deserve happiness.
"Kya," Tenzin eventually said, his voice quiet and gentle, and he reached out to squeeze her shoulder, "no amount of suffering can change the past. What you did was wrong, but you have paid for it. I think it is time for you to move on, to accept what you cannot fix and simply strive to be better from here on out. You can spend the rest of your life in misery, but it won't mend your guilt. Ashok may not want to see you married, but I'm sure that Koda and Akira would, and Ashok is a young man now, I'm sure that he'll come around eventually. Mother said that he was visiting sometimes, that's progress, right?"
Kya shook her head again, hastily swiping at her cheeks to stop the tears building in her eyes from streaking down her face. "It'll be backwards progress again if I tried marrying Yumae, and Ashok has every right to be angry. Why should I deserve to be married to someone else after I abandoned my marriage to his father? I destroyed Ashok's life in so many ways, it's only fair that I destroy some of my own. But I'm happy here, with Bumi and you and and my nieces and nephews. And when I go home, I feel better knowing that Mom isn't all alone in the South Pole, plus it puts me closer to my own kids. I'm not completely miserable. I'm not seeking to punish myself, I just don't think another marriage is right for me. I have to take responsibility, and this is just part of that."
Tenzin frowned, because it sounded like self-destructive behavior to him, but wasn't that what Kya was known for? He shouldn't have been all that surprised. "But what about Yumae?" he tried one last time. "Won't you miss her? Won't she miss you? How is it better to leave her when she clearly wants to be with you?"
"Look," Kya huffed, growing agitated now, "I didn't tell you this to get a lecture, although I guess that's what you're good at, so I should have known. Can we just drop it, please? I've already made up my mind. I'm putting my kids first, I would have thought that you would understand that."
"I do!" Tenzin exclaimed, "I just don't think it requires you destroying every other aspect of your life. Your kids are grown adults, there's a lot of time to fill between when they come to see you, and you shouldn't have to be alone forever. But I won't push you anymore. Whatever you decide I…I will support you."
Kya looked shocked by that, reeling back slightly and giving her brother a long look. She slowly began to relax, apparently taking the compliment for what it was, and then she murmured, "Thanks, Tenzin, I…I really do appreciate that."
"You're my sister," Tenzin said, "and we've spent too long at odds with one another. I would like to have a better relationship with you, if you're interested."
Kya half smiled, half smirked, lightly punching Tenzin's shoulder. "You really are a big softy," she teased. "But I would like that too."
"Good," Tenzin said shortly, with a curt nod. "And if there is ever anything I can do to help with Ashok, please don't hesitate to ask."
Kya's smile faded, but she replied, "I appreciate it. I'll let you know."
It felt like real progress between them, for maybe one of the first times in their lives, and Tenzin felt suddenly at ease. He glanced over at his father's statue, and for once there was no pang of guilt or loss or the suffocating feeling that he had somehow failed Aang. Instead, Tenzin felt only peace and love for his family, and he was grateful for all that his father had given him, both siblings included.
Returning to Republic City on her own was very strange for Lin.
The first two nights, she actually let herself enjoy the peace and quiet on the Island, as well as the ability to sprawl across her entire bed without Tenzin or a toddler pressed up against her. On the third night, she struggled to fall right to sleep, staring up at the ceiling while her ears rang in the silence. She spent the next three days tossing and turning, reaching across the bed in her half-asleep state and displeased to find a cold space where her husband should have been. Returning home from work was no longer quite as exciting as before, because without all the kids and Bumi and Tenzin, it was far too quiet. The Acolytes were a quiet bunch themselves, and typically went to bed rather early. Lin had no one to rant to after a rough day at work, nor did she know what to do with herself. She cleaned the house top to bottom and rearranged the living room and wrote down some lesson plans for when she next saw Jeia. She tried reading a book for the first time in a decade and finished it in a single afternoon. Work wasn't particularly busy at first, though she did spend a lot of time deliberating who her replacement would be. In fact, the city was so peaceful she was starting to get antsy.
However, about a week before her family was due to return to the city for a visit, she received news from the South Pole that made work suddenly a lot busier.
Apparently there was a civil war brewing between the Northern and Southern Water Tribe and Korra was, unsurprisingly, right in the middle of the conflict. Sometime after Lin and her family had left the South Pole, Unalaq had brought his troops from the North. According to reports, Unalaq was trying to further cleanse the South to reconnect them to their Spiritual roots, but he had locked down the harbor and tensions were running high between the two tribes. The South felt that their independence was being infringed upon, and Unalaq wasn't backing down. As a result of the conflict in the South, members of the Water Tribes living in Republic City were growing restless as well. There were protests and civil disputes, and Lin was so exhausted from all of it that she slept without issue.
When her family finally returned to the city, she gave herself a short reprieve, putting Tosuki and Ikuro in charge with the intent of testing Tosuki's capabilities as a possible replacement for her. Raiko protested her taking two days off from work at such a time, but she wasn't worried about it. What was he going to do? Fire her?
Seeing Tenzin and the kids come running to greet her on their first day back was enough to put a broad smile on her face. Even Yunjin left Jinora's side long enough to greet his mother, and all three of her youngest crashed into her so hard that they ended up sprawled on the ground in a heap. Jeia's arms were so tight around her neck that she could barely breathe, and the twins were crowding her on either side, but she was too happy to have them there to feel any discomfort. Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi all joined the heap too, and they all embraced as if she had been apart from them for months as opposed to two weeks. Nira waited off to the side, until Bumi grabbed her sleeve and dragged her down with them.
Jinora's parents arrived soon after, their other two kids in tow, and the young girl went rushing to her family in much the same fashion. After some long goodbyes with Jin and Sora, Jinora returned home with her family, and then it was just the eight of them.
They spent the next few hours catching each other up on what had gone on over the last two weeks. All was fun and lively as the kids told their mother about what they had learned or done, and Lin was happy to curl up against Tenzin's side and listen to their tales. But then they had started asking about what she had been up to on her own, and Lin had to reveal what she knew about the Water Tribe dysfunction. Tenzin was instantly concerned, and wanted to head straight to the South Pole. Kya and Bumi wanted to go too, because Kya's kids and Katara were there, and Lin had to persuade the three of them to think more rationally. Lin was worried about Ronen being in the midst of all that too, but she didn't think it would help for them to go storming into the middle of it. Their presence would likely only exacerbate the situation, and besides that, Korra was the one that had chosen to follow Unalaq, and they couldn't clean up the girl's messes every time she made a wrong decision.
Ronen was smart, and he would figure a way out of danger, if there was any for him, and Korra would keep him safe too, even if she was busy inadvertently spearheading a war. Katara, as well as Kya's kids, knew better than to insert themselves into any conflict too. The reports coming out of the South Pole weren't all that dire yet anyways, and Lin promised to alert Tenzin the second that changed. He was still reluctant to move onto the Eastern Air Temple when so much was going on, but Lin would hear nothing of it. All of them had clearly had a great time at the Southern Temple, and the Water Tribes' spat shouldn't keep them from the rest of their exploratory trip. She played the "It wouldn't be fair to the kids," card, and only felt moderately guilty for it. It was true, anyways. If Tenzin refused to keep the trip going, the kids would be stuck in Republic City while both their parents went back to trying to solve other people's problems. They wouldn't get to continue their trip and they wouldn't have the time with Tenzin and Kya and Bumi that they were so enjoying.
So Tenzin agreed to keep the trip going, but insisted that Lin keep him posted should anything become worse, because he would come straight home. Lin agreed, and then begged that they didn't discuss work or civil wars for the rest of the time that he was in Republic City. She spent the following two days with her family, Nira included, and each night she reveled in the familiar comfort of Tenzin's body wrapped around her. She didn't even kick him off of her halfway through the night, and she slept better than she had the past two weeks.
Saying goodbye was no easier the second time than it had been the first time. The kids were eager to keep the fun going at the Eastern Air Temple, but they wanted their mother there with them. Lin had to promise that if she could get some time away from work, she would meet them there for a few days, but with everything going on she doubted she would be able to. Nira offered to stay behind to keep Lin company, but Lin insisted that she go, especially considering that Lin would be spending most of her time at work anyways. Although, it seemed like Nira was mostly just nervous about going back to the Eastern Air Temple, which was where she had first become an Acolyte, and also where she had fallen in love and lost her husband within just a few years. Nira wanted to go, but she was probably looking for an excuse to avoid it too.
Lin watched Oogi lift off with nearly all of the people she loved most with a heavy heart, the kids waving the whole time, and she waited there until the sky bison had disappeared among the clouds. She then went straight to work, more determined than ever to groom her replacement so that she would never be parted from her family for so long again. She wondered everyday if she was doing the right thing or not, but she did what she had always done best, and threw herself into work so that she did not have to linger on any of her emotions.
It was only two days after Tenzin and the kids had left that Ronen suddenly arrived in the city with Korra and the other teens.
Lin was in the middle of observing an arrest when she was notified of one of Varrick's ships docking in the harbor. She was near enough to watch its approach, and when she spotted Ronen disembarking, she went striding hastily over to the docks without another thought. When she reached her son, whom she had not seen in nearly a month, she crashed into his frame and wrapped her arms tight around him with no shame. He held her back just as tightly, releasing a relieved sigh of, "Mom."
"It's good to see you, kid," Lin murmured as they reluctantly pulled apart, and she framed his face in her hands for just a moment to get a good look at him. He looked healthy and unharmed, but also harried and exhausted.
"I'm glad to see you too, Mom," Ronen said with that soft smile that was so much like his father's.
Lin turned her head as Korra stepped hesitantly up beside of Ronen. "Welcome home, Korra," Lin muttered. "Thanks for starting a war."
"I didn't start a war!" Korra immediately exclaimed, only to amend, "Well, okay, I sort of did, but it's more complicated than you're making it seem."
"Uh huh," Lin hummed, unconvinced, looking at Ronen to say, "I thought you were supposed to be keeping an eye on her."
"I don't need a babysitter," Korra heatedly interjected.
Ronen sighed, and he looked truly annoyed as he responded to his mother, "See what I have to deal with?"
Korra harrumphed and folded her arms across her chest, and Lin wondered what on Earth had gone on in the South Pole. Ronen and Korra were best friends, but the tension between them was palpable.
Eager to change the subject and pressed for time, Lin turned her gaze onto Mako next, telling him, "Mako, I want you back on the beat. There's going to be a Southern Water Tribe peace march tonight, I need you there in case things get out of hand."
"I'm all yours," Mako easily agreed.
"I'll go too," Korra said firmly. "The people of the South need to see that the Avatar is on their side in the fight against the Northern invaders."
"Great," Lin drawled sarcastically, "that should calm them down." She turned her attention to Ronen once more. "I gotta get back to work. You wanna get dinner before the peace march?"
"Absolutely," Ronen eagerly agreed. "I'll meet you at your office later."
Satisfied with that, Lin turned away and left the teenagers to bicker.
Ronen Beifong had always prided himself on being extremely patient and level-headed in times of stress. He had a lot of Air Nation mentalities that even his airbending siblings had not mastered yet, and the Beifong temper did not really plague him the way it did his mother and Yunjin and Jeia. But the last few weeks with Korra had really been testing his patience.
He had forgiven her for her slights against his family when she had forsaken his father as her mentor, and he had tried to be understanding as she blindly followed Unalaq's lead. Things had gone sideways very quickly though, within days of his family departing from the South Pole. Ronen, Mako, and Bolin had gone along with Korra, her uncle, and her two creepy cousins as she set out on a quest to the Southern Spirit Portal. Korra's father had insisted on going along as well, much to Korra's chagrin, and on the first night of their trek, the teens all learned that Tonraq had been banished from the North after destroying a sacred spiritual forest. Korra had been enraged that her father never told her about it, but Ronen could understand why Tonraq wouldn't want to share such a shameful moment with his daughter. Things had only gone down hill from there, with a horde of angry spirits attacking the group several times throughout their journey, and culminating in a irate Korra demanding that her father return home on his own, after he insisted they turn back from such danger.
Ronen had been frustrated by Korra's obstinacy, but continued to help her to the spirit portal. He wasn't sure if Unalaq was right about the portal needing to be opened to bring balance back to the South, but he didn't have reason to believe otherwise, so he didn't protest when Korra went in alone to do just that. She emerged victorious, and the energy around the Southern portal had rapidly changed, turning bright as vibrant green light danced in the sky, and no more angry spirits emerged to harass them. However, upon returning to the Southern Tribe, Ronen had been shocked to see Unalaq's troops from the North arriving in droves and locking down the harbor. Unalaq told Korra that it was all for the South's benefit, that its people needed more spiritual guidance to be fully balanced, but Ronen thought it was all a load of ostrich-horse shit. The Southerners were – rightfully, in Ronen's opinion – very displeased with the North's presence, but Korra was on Unalaq's side. She thought that her uncle had no foul intentions, and that Varrick's threats of war were uncalled for. Ronen and Korra fought over how she should handle the situation, and the two of them barely spoke for the rest of their time in the South Pole.
Ronen had spent the majority of his time with Asami, still discussing how to save her company with Varrick's help, but also venting about how Korra was driving him insane. Asami was very patient despite the fact that he figured he must be driving her a little nuts too, and even though she was staying stubbornly neutral, she was sympathetic to his plight. To make it up to her for having to deal with him, Ronen took Asami on a few excursions around the South Pole to try to have some fun. As many times as he had been to the South to visit his grandmother, he knew all the best places to go.
Mako was getting a little frustrated with Korra too, but bounced between all of his friends, as unwilling as Asami to choose a side. Bolin, on the other hand, was very much Korra's advocate, agreeing with nearly all of her decisions and trying to aid her with calming down the enraged Southerners. He and Ronen were slightly at odds as a result, but trying to move past it. Ronen didn't want to be in conflict with any of his friends, but nothing he said was getting through to Korra and he really didn't want to fight with her anymore, so avoidance seemed to be his best option.
However, when a kidnap attempt on Unalaq got Korra's parents arrested, because of the meeting that took place in their home to discuss frustrations over the North, Ronen returned to his friend's side, because how could he not when her parents were facing imprisonment or worse for a crime they didn't commit? Unalaq still seemed to be playing Korra, insisting that he was giving her parents a fair trial, and when Tonraq and the other arrested men – the ones who had actually made an attempt on Unalaq's life – were sentenced to death, Unalaq "pled" for their lives. Tonraq and the others were sentenced to life in prison instead, while Senna was deemed innocent, and Korra had gone after Judge Hotah in a rage. It was then that she learned the truth about her uncle, and she rushed to find Ronen and the others to tell them what she knew.
Apparently Unalaq had hired the barbarians that invaded the North, knowing that his brother would destroy the sacred forest and be banished, so that the mantel of Chief would be passed to Unalaq instead. Unalaq also staged the trial to once again get Tonraq out of his way.
Once Korra was finally seeing her uncle for what he truly was, she resolved to break her father and the others out of prison, and then break through the blockade to escape the South. Ronen was fully onboard with that plan, and went with Korra, Asami, and Mako to help free Tonraq. Bolin, meanwhile, went with Varrick and his assistant, Zhu Li, both of whom had been hiding away in a stuffed platypus-bear to dodge Varrick's own arrest warrant. The three of them went to board Varrick's yacht and prepare for a hasty departure. But Ronen and the others soon found that Korra's father and the other prisoners were being shipped to the North, and there was an altercation between them and Unalaq that they barely escaped.
Once all five of the teens, Varrick, and Zhu Li were aboard Varrick's ship, they broke through the blockade, hunted down the prison ship, freed Tonraq and the others, and then returned the freed men to the South Pole. Once Korra had revealed Unalaq's deceptions to her father, Tonraq had urged her to go to Republic City and seek help from the United Forces, while he and the other men waited in the South.
Ronen had been hopeful then, that Korra was finally seeing the error in some of her judgement lately, but halfway to Republic City, he realized that that was not the case at all. She was now more determined than ever to rally against the North, despite Ronen's assertion that not all of the North's people were to blame for her uncle's actions. The tribe's people did not have the information about Unalaq that Korra did. They could not know the evil within their leader. But Korra still wasn't listening.
Ronen was relieved to see his mother upon his arrival in the city, and after so long apart, he could hardly stand to have her walk away so soon. He knew she had work to do, and he would see her again in a few hours, but it was the first time he had been away from her for so long, and he was just so exhausted with trying to be an adult. Part of him wished that he could just leave the whole Water Tribe conflict behind and join the rest of his family at the Eastern Air Temple, but he was no more capable of such inaction than his mother. He may not have had her temper, but he did have her stubborn resolve.
As soon as his mother had left the group of teens and Varrick and Zhu Li, Ronen and Mako had implored Korra to rethink her earlier assertion about joining the Southern Water Tribe peace march. It wasn't right that she was choosing sides like that, when Unalaq was the real issue, but her emotions were controlling her. Ronen could see that she could not be reasoned with when she was taking the whole thing so personally. He had often been fond of Korra's emotional investment in her duties as the Avatar, because she really cared about helping people, and she would sacrifice anything to do so, but now that her family and her tribe were involved, her emotional investment was manifesting in all the wrong ways.
Later that evening, when Ronen finally sat down to dinner with his mother, he went on a long-winded rant about all that had transpired, and she sat in attentive silence as he vented his frustrations.
And then afterwards, he couldn't help but laugh when she simply said, "That's rough, kid."
He wished his father was there to give him some sage advice, but he also wasn't displeased with his mother's lack of advice. Sometimes it was nice to just get some sympathy and a good laugh.
"You know I'd help you out if I could," Lin went on, her mouth half full of rice. She had been complaining about the restaurant taking too long to bring their food earlier, and had wasted no time in shoveling as much into her mouth as possible when it finally arrived. She was hardly pausing for breath, let alone to swallow before speaking. Ronen wasn't bothered, and he must have really been missing her because he almost found it ridiculously endearing. It was such a Lin thing to do, forgoing food all day in favor of working, and then acting like a ravenous animal when she finally took a break. He hoped she had been taking care of herself while she was alone for the last two weeks. "But if Korra won't even listen to you, then she sure as hell won't listen to me."
"You shouldn't sell yourself so short," Ronen argued, picking at his own food rather than consuming it. "She respects you, at least. Maybe that's half our problem. She knows me too well. And she knows I'm loyal to her when it matters. She isn't entirely wrong, I just wish she'd stop reacting before she thinks."
Lin snorted, and paused for half a second to wash down a mouthful of food with a huge gulp of water. "You'll be waiting a long time for that."
Ronen sighed heavily. "I know, but Dad said you were just as impulsive back in the day. What changed?"
Lin scowled at him, but he knew it was without any real heat. "Your father needs to stop telling you that stuff. First of all, I wasn't impulsive." Ronen had to bite down on his lip to contain the disbelieving smile trying to work its way across his face. Thankfully, his mother missed it as she scooped more food into her mouth. "Second of all, I don't think anything can stop Korra right now but Korra. She has to figure this out on her own. She's an adult now, mostly, and the Avatar, so we know she has to be impartial. But she's also still young and she's only been at this Avatar gig for a little less than two years, so she hasn't fully adjusted. We can try to help guide her, but she has to figure out how to make these decisions on her own too. I think she knows that, which is why she's acting out, because she wants to make the right decisions on her own, but she hasn't quite figured out how. You badgering her probably just makes her shut down."
"Hey," Ronen weakly protested, "I thought you were on my side."
"I'm always on your side, but let's face it, kid, you're too smart sometimes. Makes the rest of us look bad."
Ronen rolled his eyes. "I'm not always right. Korra knows that just as well as you should."
"Yeah, but Korra's like me," Lin said, wrinkling her nose a little as she did, as if she didn't want to admit it, "and people like us don't like to receive sage council. Even when I know your father's right, I still don't want to hear his wise advice. You and him like to get an explanation about why you're wrong, because you think it makes you smarter, that next time you won't make the same mistake. But people like me? It just makes us feel dumb, or like we're being patronized. That's the difference, son. That's why you and Korra are butting heads right now."
Ronen slumped a little in his seat, but even as he took in his mother's words, he was already realizing that she was right. He was feeling better about getting an explanation from her, and he did feel like he better understood his struggle with Korra now. But if someone had tried to tell Korra the same thing, she probably would have scoffed. It didn't make Korra wrong and him right, it just made them different. His parents were opposite in a similar sort of way, and they must have had to figure out how to argue with each other without letting those differences destroy their relationship. Ronen would simply have to try harder to understand Korra's point of view, and maybe she would start to understand his.
"Thanks, Mom," Ronen said gratefully, "that does make me feel a little better."
"Told you," Lin said, pointedly raising her brow, and then smiling a little to let him know she was teasing him.
Ronen smirked and shook his head. "That's why we always have to tell you that you're right."
"No, that's because I always am," she corrected with a wink. Then she dropped her gaze to the plate full of food that sat mostly untouched in front of him. "You gonna eat that or just poke at it all night?"
Catching on quickly, Ronen slid the plate across the table to her and said, "Take it. I'm looking forward to finally getting some fresh fruits and vegetables from home anyway."
Lin shook her head in bemusement as she pushed aside her own empty plate and began to dig into Ronen's dish. She stuffed her mouth full before jesting, "Sometimes I really can't believe you're mine."
Chapter 60: Chapter 60
Chapter Text
Chapter 60
Ronen was happy to be back home in the city for all of six hours before things went awry yet again. The disaster of the South Pole seemed to have followed him back to Republic City, and things between he and Korra only grew worse.
After having dinner with his mother, he had decided to go along with her to the Southern Water Tribe peace march. Korra was there, as promised, and she led the Southerners in their march from atop Naga's back. Many of the citizens of the Northern Water Tribe had come out to counter protest as well, and were shouting their own discontent at the Southerners and Korra. The police were holding the line to keep the two tribes separate, and luckily no altercations occurred. That is, until bombs began to detonate within the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center.
After that, everything was chaos, and it took some time for the police to direct the panicked crowds to safety, and for the fire department to put out the resulting blaze. The assumption was that the Northern Water Tribe was behind the bombing, but Mako had intercepted some of the men running from the blast, and according to him, at least one of them was a firebender, who had left behind a detonator that directly tied them to the explosions. Mako didn't think the North had been involved, but Korra was emphatically certain that they were, and would not hear any other opinions on the matter. Ronen's mother, at least, was always impartial when it came to her work, and she was looking into all possible leads.
The following morning, Korra had her meeting with President Raiko, but it hadn't gone well. Raiko refused to send aid to the South Pole, and Korra had been frustrated and ready to take matters into her own hands. Ronen had been present at the meeting, and he wasn't thrilled with Raiko's stance on the matter either, because Republic City was supposed to be the very place that brought together all nations and was a center of peace for the world. If Republic City would not dispatch the United Forces to help in such trying times, then who would?
That, however, was where Ronen's agreement with Korra ended once again. After her initial failure to convince Raiko, she and Varrick plotted another way to get help to the South. Varrick suggested that Korra convince someone in the United Forces to take the troops without Raiko's permission, and then told Asami to send her mechatanks to the South to aid them in their fight against the North and finally make some money for her company. Ronen was concerned about both actions, but decided not to intervene. Korra wouldn't have listened to him anyway, and the more he thought about it, if it was his family, he probably would have been doing much the same.
Bolin had also been brought into Varrick's fold, and was apparently about to become the star of some propaganda movers – as Varrick called them. Ronen felt as if he was the only one not really doing anything useful, and decided to spend some time at police headquarters, trying to help Mako follow his one lead on the bombing.
Therefore, Ronen was present when everyone just outside of his mother's office heard her getting reamed out by Raiko for not having found the culprits in the bombing yet. When Raiko exited the Chief's office and strode up to Mako, Ronen struggled not to give the president a disgruntled look, and pushed past Raiko and his guards to go talk to his mother. She was in a particularly foul mood though – justifiably so – and even Ronen's reassurances weren't quite enough to calm her down. Raiko was the one that had urged her to come back as Chief, and now he was threatening to find someone else, as if she wouldn't have rather been with her family instead of being talked down to by politicians. Ronen could understand her frustrations, and did his best to reassure her that she was doing the right thing, even if Raiko was making her life difficult. Lin desperately wanted to quit, to go to the Eastern Air Temple and be with her family, but Ronen insisted that the city would only fall apart in her absence. He could tell that his mother wasn't wholly convinced, but she hadn't started writing up her resignation just yet.
Ronen had only just left his mother's office later that afternoon when Korra suddenly came storming into the precinct in a fury.
She kicked down the door and went straight to Mako shouting, "You ratted me out to the president?!"
"Korra," Mako tried to placate, "let me explain."
Ronen looked between the two of them in confusion as Korra slammed her hand down upon Mako's desk and countered, "Explain why one of my friends stabbed me in the back?!"
"Look, the President of the Republic asked me a direct question," Mako said, maintaining his composure in the face of Korra's anger, and Ronen was stunned that what Korra was saying was apparently true. "What was I supposed to do?"
"You betrayed me!" Korra raged. "And my family!"
Suddenly, Ronen and Mako were forced to lurch backwards as Korra kicked out her leg and, with a rush of airbending, sent Mako's desk flying across the room to slam into the floor.
"Korra!" Ronen exclaimed, half in shock, half in admonishment.
Mako had lost his control on his temper, and yelled back at Korra, "Enough! I have a job to do. I can't constantly be worried about you making another huge mistake!"
"I have a job to do too!" Korra fired back. "Only it seems like you're always standing in the way of me getting it done! This is because I broke up with you, isn't it?!"
"Oh, please!" Mako scoffed. "I'm not the one that's acting like a child!"
"You're the child!" Korra countered, leaning threateningly into Mako's space.
Ronen shoved his way between the two of them, probably unwisely, and pushed them apart saying, "Come on! Both of you stop this! What is this solving?"
Speaking was apparently the wrong thing to do though, because Korra immediately whirled on Ronen then, directing her ire at him as she demanded, "Were you in on it too? You were, weren't you? You've been working against me all month!"
Ronen recoiled as if he had been slapped in the face. "Working against you?" he echoed breathlessly, stunned by her words.
"You were mad that I left your father and you're still not over it," Korra proclaimed. "I asked you if you trusted me and you lied right to my face! Why else would you have done this to me?"
Ronen just shook his head, anger and hurt welling up inside of him. "First of all," he scathingly replied, "I didn't tell Raiko anything, but judging by how you're reacting, maybe Mako was right to do it."
Korra scoffed, "So you are taking Mako's side. I can't believe it."
"I know, I'm just as surprised as you," Ronen tried to joke but it just came out bitter. "You talk about trust, but you're no better. You haven't listened to anything anyone has tried to tell you –"
"Yes, of course," Korra snidely interjected, "because spirits forbid someone question the all-knowing Ronen. Y'know, I'm getting really tired of you always telling me what to do!"
Ronen took a step back, his face burning and his chest tightening up. For once in his life he was utterly speechless, with no idea on how to respond.
Mako had no such inhibitions as he heatedly asked, "Why are you alienating all of your friends? We're just trying to help you."
"I'm not the one that's betraying my friends," Korra spat. "The lives of my tribe and my family are at stake and you don't even care! What kind of friends are you?"
"Maybe we need some time apart," Ronen finally managed to say, monotone even though it was crushing him inside, and the words felt like ash on his tongue. "We clearly aren't helping each other by doing this together. Maybe it's time we figure things out on our own.
Korra looked stricken now, a brief flash of something like sorrow passing across her face before she pursed her lips and schooled her features. "Fine," she said, her voice lower now, more subdued, and then she turned and strode straight out the door without another word. Ronen almost considered going after her, but he didn't let himself do it. Everything had gone eerily still all of a sudden, the rest of the officers in the precinct too stunned to speak, and Ronen's ears were ringing in the silence.
But then his mother burst out of her office, breaking the stillness to exclaim, "What the flameo happened here?"
Ronen sighed and went over to Mako's desk to try and pick it up off of the floor, muttering in response, "Korra happened."
Lin and Mako both converged on the desk to help him, and Lin ducked her head to catch Ronen's gaze as she quietly asked, "You okay, kid?"
Ronen almost nodded, but he knew his mother would see right through him, so he just shrugged instead. Once Mako's desk was back in place, Ronen decided, "I'm gonna go home for a bit. Mako, let me know if you come up with anything."
"I will," Mako agreed, giving Ronen the same sort of sympathetic look that Lin was. "And, hey, I'm sorry you got dragged into that. You shouldn't have gotten the blame for it."
"Things have just been tense lately," Ronen waved off, "for all of us. Don't worry about it."
"Where do you think she'll go now?" Mako inquired.
Ronen could only shake his head and admit, "I really don't know."
Ronen only managed to spend about an hour on the Island before he felt the pressing need to leave again. With his mother still at work and his father and his siblings and Nira at the Eastern Air Temple, it just didn't feel the same. Home was not so warm and comforting for him when he felt so alone. He spent some time with a few Acolytes he came across, and then meditated for a little while, but he was still reeling from his fight with Korra and he needed something more distracting. So he traveled back into the city.
He went first in search of Bolin, whom he found deeply entrenched in the making of one of his movers with Varrick. Ronen waited patiently until Bolin was available, watching the mover being made with little interest, and even once Bolin had time to talk to Ronen, it was only a short break so that Bolin's co-star, Ginger, could get her make-up freshened up. Ronen quickly gave Bolin an abridged version of what had happened with him and Korra and Mako, and Bolin had looked deeply concerned.
"Should we go after her, do you think?" Bolin asked. "I think she said she was going to the Fire Nation to ask for help."
"No, I think we should just let her do what she feels is right," Ronen answered. "She wants to make her own decisions, so maybe we all just need to take a step back."
"I hate when we're all fighting like this," Bolin lamented. "And I want to help Korra however I can. That's why I'm doing this crazy thing. If it helps convince someone to give the South aid, then it's worth it."
"I'm sure she appreciates that," Ronen said numbly. He still couldn't fully decide on what emotion he was feeling.
"I don't want her to feel like she's alone though," Bolin persisted. "What if she needs help with the Fire Lord?"
Suddenly Varrick's voice interrupted, shouting, "Bolin! We need you back on set!"
"Just a minute!" Bolin called back.
As Varrick began to splutter a protest, Ronen told Bolin, "Go ahead, you've got work to do. I'll talk to you later."
"Are you sure?" Bolin questioned, frowning with concern.
"Positive," Ronen confirmed. "Maybe we can get lunch tomorrow?"
Bolin agreed, and then Ronen left hastily before Varrick could start throwing a fit.
He went in search of Asami next, and as soon as she saw him, her smile faltered. She rushed over to him and immediately asked, "What's wrong?"
Ronen shook his head. "Nothing," he said. "Just another fight with Korra. This one was just…worse, I think. But I don't want to bother you with that again. I just didn't want to sit alone on the Island. How are things going here? Have you heard anything about whether or not your shipment made it to the South Pole okay?"
As it turned out, Asami hadn't heard anything about the shipment of mechatanks she'd had shipped to the South Pole, nor did she wish to discuss it further. She didn't consent to letting Ronen simply distract himself in her presence, but urged him to open up about what had happened with Korra and how he felt about it. For someone like his mother, it would have been annoying, but for Ronen, who admittedly felt better discussing what was bothering him, it ended up being a great relief. He was so grateful for Asami's friendship, and for her ability to understand what he needed when he was upset.
The two of them had been growing closer over the last few months since Amon and the Equalist revolution, even before Ronen had any disagreements with Korra. Ronen very much enjoyed helping Asami with the task of repairing Future Industries, but he loved even more when he could help her forget the pressures of the company for a while and speak freely about miscellaneous inventions and life in general. Getting Asami to open up about herself was sometimes a little difficult, especially after the hurt she had endured between her relationship with Mako and the betrayal of her father. Ronen was mostly an open book, though, and gently coaxed Asami into speaking her mind more often instead of trying to hold in her emotions. They had learned to read each other in much the same way that Ronen and Korra could, and they also had each other to discuss their passions that the rest of their friends didn't quite share. They could rave for hours about inventions and mechanics, and stay up all night trying to put something together. They were less prone to frustration, because they could laugh it off together, and it was just altogether better when the two of them worked as a team to create something.
Going to Asami after his fight with Korra did alleviate some of Ronen's hurt feelings, but more bad news soon followed.
Asami's shipment of mechatanks had been intercepted just outside the Bay, in the same location that several of Varrick's other shipments had been stolen, and some unknown bandits had taken over the ship and sent the original crew back to Republic City. Ronen was there when Asami received the phone call, and both of them went straight to police headquarters, where Ronen's mother was questioning the ship captain. Ronen and Asami joined Mako in the other room to listen in, until the captain began to explain how the bandits had taken the ship. They had used some sort of detonator to set off explosions, possibly like the ones used to destroy the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center, and Mako went hastening into the interrogation room to point out the similarities. Ronen's mother was not pleased with the intrusion, and the captain didn't know one way or another if the detonator Mako showed him was the same that was used when the ship was taken. Lu and Gang were there too, and they sneered at Mako's ideas and mocked him, and Ronen could see his mother growing more and more irritated at everyone in the room, until she snapped at all three of her officers and told Mako to get out.
So Mako left, and Ronen and Asami went with him, discussing plans on how to try and catch the people that had stolen Asami's shipment. Eventually, Mako went to seek Bolin's help, while Ronen went back to headquarters to try and convince his mother to order a sting operation.
His mother, however, would not agree to any such action. Though she felt sympathy for Asami, she could not justify the resources it would require for such an operation, nor did she have a substantial amount of information for something so risky. Raiko was breathing down her neck and there were issues going on in the city that took precedent over whether or not Future Industry's war machines made it to the South Pole. Ronen grew frustrated with his mother's lack of action, and she, in turn, grew frustrated with him for trying to guilt trip her, and for his lack of faith in her. Ronen did feel a little bad about that, but he was also very unhappy with how things were being handled. He knew she was doing her best to figure out what was going on with all the high jacked shipments lately, and that she was under a lot of pressure, but it bothered him that the police were so bogged down by politics and budgets now that Raiko was president. His mother was the Chief, and yet she could barely make a decision without getting it approved in advance or risking repercussions.
Ronen had to return to Mako and Asami empty-handed, but Mako, at least, had convinced Bolin to help. However, that was when everything went sideways. Mako thought that they needed more muscle to pull off a sting operation than just the four of them, and without the police's help and Korra out of the city, their options were limited. Mako suggested they recruit the help of the Triple Threat Triad, and Ronen immediately balked.
"You've got to be kidding," he said to Mako. "Are you insane? The Triple Threats cannot be trusted, and they tried to kill my mother and my sister for Spirit's sake. I'm not teaming up with them for anything."
"I know you've got good reason to hate them," Mako said carefully, "but that was a long time ago, and most of the people that attacked headquarters are in prison. They've got new leaders now. I don't trust them either, but if we give them a good offer, they won't have a reason to double-cross us."
"They've always got a reason," Ronen contested. But he was so sick of arguing with everyone that he cared about, so he didn't bother to continue as he abruptly decided, "I won't be a part of this. If you feel the need to do it this way, then count me out."
"Ronen," Asami interjected softly, before Mako could protest, "I know why you don't want to team up with the Triple Threats, but I'd really like your help. We're all stronger together."
"Yeah, come on, Ro," Bolin added. "We're a team. We're already one woman down. We need you too."
But Ronen still shook his head. He told Asami sincerely, "I'm sorry, Asami. I want to help, but…I just can't. Not like this. And I don't think any of you should either."
Asami and Mako exchanged a glance, and then Asami sadly said to Ronen, "I understand. But I have to think about my company. I'll do whatever it takes."
Ronen nodded glumly, and then he left without another word. Maybe he was being too prideful by not helping his friends because of the Triple Threats, perhaps he should have gone along just in case his friends were double-crossed, but it was just too sickening a thought for him to justify. Besides, his presence would probably only hurt his friends' chances of getting the Triple Threats to cooperate. Those thugs blamed his mother for any inconveniences they suffered, and for any of their people they had lost during the siege of headquarters. They wouldn't take kindly to a Beifong in their midst.
Nevertheless, Ronen still worried for the rest of the night, wondering if he had done the right thing, wondering if his friends were okay.
He found out many hours later, when Asami showed up on Air Temple Island in the middle of the night.
He hadn't been able to sleep. His mother still wasn't home and he had been pacing around outside aimlessly for half an hour. That was when he noticed Asami cresting the hill, from the direction of the docks, and he could tell even in the dark, by the way she was carrying herself, that things had not gone well.
Ronen hastened over to meet her, and when he was finally able to make out her features, he could see a deep-seated sorrow and tear tracks on her cheeks. Before he could even ask what had happened, she had crashed into him, and it only took him a second to recover from his surprise before he was wrapping his arms tight around her. She wasn't quite weeping, but her shoulders shook and she was sniffling periodically. Her hair smelled like the ocean, her face was buried in the crook of his neck, and her hands were clenched tight around the back of his shirt.
He tried to soothe her as best he could, waiting patiently but with growing concern before she finally mumbled, "It's gone. It's all gone. They took everything. My whole warehouse…it's empty. I'm ruined."
"Who?" Ronen questioned, anger burning in his chest and boiling up his throat. "Who took everything? The Triple Threats?" If so, he wanted to make them pay. He should have long ago, for what they did to his family, and now Asami… He had seldom felt like a hot-headed Beifong more than he did in that moment.
But Asami shook her head against his shoulder, before finally lifting her gaze up to meet his, and it tore at him to see her so heartbroken. "I don't know," she admitted. "Somebody hired them to keep us busy. Mako overheard them and we escaped, but by the time we got back to the city, everything was already gone."
Ronen's anger began to simmer a little, because he could see that Asami was hurting, and she needed him to be comforting now, not confrontational. He would make it his mission to find out who had stolen from her, but first, he would be a good friend to her, as she had been to him.
"Come on," he said softly, "let's go inside. I'll make some tea."
Asami nodded glumly and slowly eased out of his embrace, tilting her head down and looking almost a little embarrassed. Ronen took her hand and squeezed lightly to reassure her, and then led her inside to the eerily quiet home he had been desperate to escape from earlier. He pulled a stool out for Asami to sit on when they reached the kitchen, and then busied himself with making them a pot of tea. She sat at the kitchen island in silence until he joined her, carefully placing a steaming cup of tea in front of her, and then sliding into the seat across the table with his own.
"Thank you," she half-whispered, wrapping both hands around the cup he had given her and bringing it to her lips to blow on the hot liquid.
"Did Mako and Bolin go back home?" Ronen asked, curious as to why all of them hadn't come, but he shouldn't have been that surprised. With everything going on, and the older they got, they were all drifting apart a little.
Asami went very still, and she stared at Ronen for a few long seconds through the steam rising before her face. Then she swallowed and slowly sat her cup down before answering, "Bolin did, I think. Mako wanted to stay at the warehouse to collect evidence. I told him not to bother, but…" She winced and dropped her gaze to the table top before confessing, "I kissed him."
Ronen felt his eyes going wide in surprise, but more than that, there was a sudden and uncomfortable twisting in his gut that he didn't wholly understand. He blinked rapidly and all he managed as a response was, "Oh, I didn't know you…that you two…"
"We're not," Asami said hastily, still avoiding his gaze, her cheeks turning red. "I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't thinking. I just… He was doing so much for me, wanted so badly to help me when all I wanted was to give up, and I got…caught up, I guess. I know, it was stupid."
"Hey," Ronen interjected, reaching across to grasp one of Asami's hands, and he waited until she finally met his eyes. "You're not stupid. You were upset, and you reacted. Maybe you still have feelings for Mako? There's nothing wrong with that." He thought of Bolin, who was struggling with his own reawakening feelings for Korra. Maybe Asami was experiencing the same thing.
But Asami shook her head and insisted, "No, no I definitely don't have feelings for Mako. I…" she stopped abruptly, and then sighed heavily. "It's been a long night. I should probably get home."
"You don't have to go," Ronen said as she was rising hastily to her feet. "You can stay here. Your old room is still empty."
Asami smiled a little sadly and said, "Thank you, Ronen, but I think I need some time to myself. Thank you for the tea."
Ronen frowned, but he didn't argue. "Well, be careful," he urged, following her to the doorway. "I'll come by tomorrow."
"Okay, goodnight," Asami said quickly as she was slipping down the hallway, and Ronen watched, feeling baffled as her retreating form disappeared around a corner.
Ronen was not sure what exactly was going on with Asami, or with his reaction, or who had stolen her shipments, but what he did know was that being an adult was very confusing.
For Nira, waking up each day at the Eastern Air Temple left her with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, even after all the years since she had left, it still felt like home. The tiny Fire Nation village where she was raised had never felt like home. Even though she loved her parents, and still visited her mother there from time to time, it was never a comfortable space for her. The Eastern Air Temple had been her first real home, the first place where she had felt safe and happy, the place where she had found her true love. But after losing Azu, she had fled, leaving behind all of the painful, wonderful reminders of him. Even once she had grieved and found a new home on Air Temple Island, she had never been able to convince herself to go back for even a short visit. She had been wary about going with Tenzin and his siblings and the kids, but she couldn't bare to tell the children that she wasn't going with them, and so she had forced herself to overcome her fears. All of them had gotten into a sort of routine at the Southern Temple, and she knew it was hard enough for the children to be away from their mother for so long that she didn't want to cause them any further distress. She truly would do anything for those kids.
Nira and Azu had always wanted kids of their own, had been planning to adopt shortly before his death, but after he was gone, Nira had never looked into adoption again. Part of her had still craved motherhood, but it didn't seem right to do it without Azu. When Lin and Tenzin had asked her to become their children's caregiver, she had been overjoyed. She loved all four of them with her whole heart, was deeply invested in raising those feisty, stubborn, intellectual kids. It required a lot of patience, which she thankfully had in abundance, but even though she still deeply missed her late husband, she loved her life with the Beifong kids. Most days, her time with them and with the Air Acolytes was more than enough. But some days, she regretted a little that she had never sought a child of her own, and that she had never allowed herself more than a few brief flings with men she barely knew. Tenzin and Lin were her closest friends, and she had several friends within the Acolytes, but she had seldom let herself grow a deeper connection with anyone. And while she cherished every minute that she had with the kids, and knew that they cared very much about her too, she was not their mother. And that was perfectly fine, because Nira would never consider a single negative thought about Lin or Tenzin, and they were truly some of the most caring parents she had ever seen, but it did remind her that she would never be a parent in the same way that they were.
Being back at the Eastern Temple brought all of those feelings rushing to the surface, and Nira could not help but feel some melancholy mixed in with all of the joy. She found herself smiling at memories of Azu, and laughing along with some of her old friends that still lived there, but she also found herself close to tears on more than one occasion and being far more reflective than she thought was healthy.
However, Tenzin and his family seemed to have picked up on her emotional turmoil, and were doing their best to lighten her spirits and keep her distracted. There was a surprising amount to be done, even on vacation, and Nira was typically busy from the moment she woke each day. For starters, the twins came to Nira and Kya to get their hair done bright and early every morning, after meditation with their father. Yunjin always wanted whatever water tribe styles Kya could think of, and Sora typically wanted some sort of braids, which Nira had long ago become an expert in for the sole purpose of doing the twins' hair. Ronen's hair had always been short and Jeia hated when people touched her hair, but both Jin and Sora had always cherished theirs, which was ironic considering they were the "nation of bald heads," as Lin so eloquently put it. Yunjin had been so horrified to learn that his head would need to be shaved in order to acquire his airbending tattoos that he had nearly renounced airbending altogether. Except the boy was far too in love with his bending and beyond eager to receive tattoos like his father and grandfather before him, so he was slowly coming to terms with it.
Midway through their time at the Eastern Temple, Tenzin had actually told both Jin and Sora that they would probably be masters very soon, and Nira had seldom seen the two of them so exhilarated, which was saying something considering how hyperactive they usually were. Tenzin had technically been a master at their age, but with all the pressures he had on his shoulders already, plus the truth of how daunting a process it was to receive the tattoos, his mother hadn't wanted him to have them until he was a bit older. He and Lin had been back and forth on when they wanted to allow the twins to receive theirs, but Nira could tell that being immersed in the Air Nation culture so much recently was softening Tenzin's thoughts on the matter.
However, there was just as much pressure on the twins as there had been on Tenzin, and he and Lin were understandably hesitant to finalize Jin and Sora's training and inadvertently give them that last push to grow up too quickly. Before, they had been relieved that they had two airbenders, because it meant that the entirety of the Air Nation did not fall on only one of their shoulders, because they could share the burden and that was at least slightly better. But then Sora had told them that she liked girls, which was perfectly fine, but probably meant that she wouldn't have children of her own, which meant that the responsibility would fall to Yunjin, and the whole situation seemed too mature of a topic to really impress upon the twins at that point in time. The two of them were a few weeks away from turning thirteen, and years away from thinking about marriage or children, and all of the adults were happy to pretend for now that it was just a non-issue. Tenzin was simply elated to see the twins showing more interest in the other aspects of airbending that they had been too hyperactive to sit still for before. Sora was actually enjoying meditation, and Yunjin was listening and asking questions when Tenzin went on a historical or philosophical lecture, and that was enough for now.
Challenges with Jeia were much the same as before, but even she was improving with time. When Tenzin was focused on his teachings with the twins, Nira and Kya were working on teachings for Jeia. Even with her amazing eidetic memory, the toddler's speech and a few other areas had always been below the average for her age, but Nira and Kya were devising lessons to help her.
The adults were experiencing some of their own changes too. Ever since the beginning of the trip a little over a month prior, Kya, Nira, and Bumi had been spending a lot of time together. They were all devoted to the kids, but also fully aware of how much of a handful they could be and eager to help one another out. There were also the quiet moments, when Tenzin would take all three kids to have his own time to bond with them, and his siblings and Nira did not wish to intrude on that. Sometimes Bumi and Kya would do their own thing and Nira would find an Acolyte or a quiet space to herself, but more often than not she got roped into whatever Kya and Bumi were doing. She had always had a sort of camaraderie with them from the times they visited the island, but being together so frequently lately had seemed to solidify a level of friendship between them. Bumi, of course, was often flirting with her, and when he wasn't, he was just being his usual off the wall ridiculous self, but Nira had been the caregiver to four Beifongs over the past fourteen years so she really was not at all bothered by Bumi's antics. She found him endearing, in his own way, and he never failed to make her laugh, even against her will. Kya, too, was an amazingly fun person to be around, but also extremely sweet, particularly with her nieces and nephews. Bumi's rapid-fire speech and Kya's sharp wit together were sometimes difficult to keep up with for some people – annoying, maybe, to their brother and sister-in-law – but Nira greatly enjoyed their presence.
There was one afternoon in particular, just before everything went horribly wrong, when Nira felt beyond grateful for the family she had become a part of.
The day had begun poorly, though, with her waking up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat, the nightmare she'd had still fresh in her mind, even fresher still because it was more a memory than a figment of her imagination. She had been reliving her beloved Azu's death, and then his motionless body had begun to morph into the figures of people she held dear, and she had woken feeling sick to her stomach. She had struggled to get any sleep after that, and started the morning feeling dreary and unrested, but had tried to pull herself together before she had breakfast with the others. Except she soon realized that she would be spending the morning alone. Jin and Sora had gone to early morning meditation with their father, and then he had taken them on a journey to some spiritual location. Jeia had been up late the night before and was sleeping in, and Nira knew better than to wake the grumpy toddler. Bumi and Kya were probably still sleeping off their previous night of drinking, surprisingly the only one they'd had since leaving the South Pole.
So Nira was on her own, and it was difficult to pull herself out of her head as she wandered the mostly empty corridors full of memories. She eventually ended up at the site where the ceremony for Azu's funeral had taken place all those years ago, and she was uncertain how long she remained there, wrapped in a cocoon of aching emotions and staring at the tiny memorial that had been placed there. Azu's body had been burned to ash and let loose on the wind, but Nira had wanted a stone inscribed too. He had been a mentor to so many people at the temple, and he had been everything to her, it seemed wrong to let his name be forgotten.
It was there that Tenzin found her, in a field of flowers with a short stone pillar all but blocked from view. He stepped up beside of her and said nothing at first, silently paying his respects and giving her time to speak on her own.
When she could not formulate her own words, Tenzin softly murmured, "I met him once, a long time ago, probably before you came here. I wish that I had taken the time to get to know him better. It was such a short time and I was so young. But he was an incredibly kind and spiritual man, I do remember that much. And if he was good enough for our dear Nira, then he must have been an extraordinary fellow."
Nira snorted, even as a tear streaked down her cheek, and she hastily swiped it away. "He was quite extraordinary. I think the two of you would have gotten along well."
Tenzin nodded, and she could feel his eyes on her, but she didn't turn to meet his gaze just yet. "It must be difficult for you, being here, surrounded by all these memories."
Nira nodded too, because it was plainly true, but she sighed, "It all happened so long ago. It's high time I pull myself together. Today was just…difficult. Tomorrow will be a better day."
She finally looked up at him, and was surprised to see him frowning. "I hope you don't think that you're acting irrationally," he said. "Even after all of these years, there is no shame in feeling sorrow. If I ever lost Lin…" he shuddered at the mere thought, and Nira did a little too, "I don't think I would ever recover. But you are incredibly strong, and I am in awe of you. You do so much for our family, and I know I've said this before, but if there's anything I can do…"
"I know," Nira said sincerely. "Thank you, Tenzin. I am okay, it's just easy to get swept up in the memories here."
"Of course," Tenzin said quietly, and though he opened his mouth again to say more, he did not get a chance to continue.
Kya and Bumi were noisily approaching, swinging Jeia along between them, her tiny hands clasped in one of each of theirs. Jeia would toddle halfway into a run for a few steps before leaping into the air, and her aunt and uncle would lift their arms and swing her up higher for a few extra seconds before bringing her softly back down to the ground. Kya and Bumi were laughing along with Jeia, and Bumi was making sound effects.
"There you two are!" Kya exclaimed from a few meters away, sounding half breathless as she lifted Jeia up once more. "We've been looking all over."
Bumi chimed in, "Well, we've been looking for Nira, actually." He gave his brother a wink and Tenzin just rolled his eyes. Nira had never seen Tenzin roll his eyes as much as he did when Bumi was around. "My sweet, precious, Nira, we've been apart for so long!"
"You've been awake for two hours," Kya snorted.
"Two hours of loneliness!" Bumi lamented, just as they came to a stop before Nira and Tenzin. "Lunch will be soon and I'm starved from missing breakfast! Nira, won't you join me?" He held out his hand to her, and normally Nira would roll her eyes or laugh, and sometimes she'd take his hand and let him drag her wherever, but at that particular moment she was not feeling quite as at ease. She hesitated, glancing down at Azu's headstone, and even though it was terribly silly, she still felt a little guilty about letting Bumi flirt with her when she was all but standing over her dead husband's grave.
"Join!" Jeia echoed, bouncing delightedly, and Nira turned back to give the little girl a smile, because how could she deny that sweet face?
Thankfully, she was saved from an immediate decision when Tenzin interjected. "Actually, Bumi," he said, "I was hoping to talk to you. Perhaps you and I could discuss it on the way, and Nira can meet us there?"
Bumi looked a little miffed as he cautiously replied, "Look, if this is about the itinerary, I told Yunjin that you take it very seriously, but the boy had some good ideas about how to change it, and who am I to stifle his imagination – ?"
"No, no," Tenzin interrupted, "it's nothing like that. I actually wanted your help with something."
Bumi scoffed in disbelief. "You want my help?"
"I have some more tests I want to give Jin and Sora before we leave in a few days," Tenzin explained. "Since you have so much practical field experience, I was hoping you'd help me with my plans. I want to be sure that they know everything they possibly can before I make any decisions about them becoming masters, and a fresh set of eyes wouldn't be remiss either."
"Well, if it's for Jin and Sora," Bumi said, and then he went very rigid, saluting seriously and adding, "Commander Bumi, at your service. We'll whip those recruits into shape in no time."
"Unka Bumi!" Jeia exclaimed, tugging on Bumi's pant leg to get his attention. "I is your Captain?"
"Of course!" Bumi cried, bending down to pick the girl up and hold her out in front of him. "I only take the best on my team! I've heard great things about you, Captain Jeia. Will you help me on my mission?"
"Yes, Sir!" Jeia proclaimed, saluting Bumi proudly, and then dissolving into giggles as he hefted her up onto his shoulders. She squealed and held on for dear life as he began to trot away.
Nira gave Tenzin a grateful look, and he squeezed her shoulder briefly before hastening after his brother and Jeia. Kya watched them with a fond smile, and once they were far enough away, turned on Nira to say, "Sorry about that. Bumi's social cues are sometimes a bit lacking."
Kya glanced down at Azu's headstone pointedly, but Nira insisted, "It's okay. I don't mind. I suppose I was just having a moment. It's like I was telling Tenzin, this place is just…overwhelming at times."
Kya nodded, understanding in her gaze. She shifted a little uncertainly, but then quietly admitted, "That's how it is at the South Pole sometimes. All those memories from my life before... It can be…suffocating. This trip has been a great help." She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, you want some more time alone?"
Nira looked down upon the memorial of her husband one more time and inhaled deeply, and on the exhale she felt the knot in her stomach finally begin to loosen, and when she looked back at Kya, she smiled and replied, "No, I've had enough time alone. Let's go back to the others."
Kya smiled brightly, in that captivating way that could probably endear her to anyone, and stepped forward to slip her arm through Nira's. They began walking together back towards the temple where they would have lunch, and about halfway there, Kya said, "I know this isn't really any of my business, and feel free to refuse to answer, but…after you lost your husband, did you think that you could never love anyone as much as him again, or did you feel like it was a betrayal to try? I'm sorry, that's probably way too personal –"
"It's okay," Nira assured with a short laugh, "I'm not offended. I suppose it was a bit of both. It took me a while to figure out that I could open my heart to others without betraying my love for him."
"I get that," Kya said, and then shook her head. "I mean, not completely the same way, of course, but…I get it."
Nira could see the rest of their family up ahead, and just before they reached them, she told Kya, "I know this is none of my business, but that woman you love? You aren't betraying your children by loving her too. Take it from me…if you love her as much as I think you do, then you always will, and you shouldn't let her go. I know you've got your reasons, but…don't waste anymore time than you have to."
With that, Nira squeezed Kya's arm and gave her a soft smile, and then she glided forward as Kya went still for a moment. Nira rejoined Tenzin and Bumi and the kids, and Kya arrived a few minutes later looking thoughtful, but thankfully not angry.
Nira settled herself down between Yunjin and Sora, and the twins immediately began vying for Nira's attention to tell them what she had missed that morning. Sora wanted to talk about their spirit lesson for the day, but Yunjin wanted to tell Nira all that he had learned about Guru Pathik. Tenzin and Bumi were across the table discussing their plans for the twins still, with Jeia in between them stuffing her face with food. When Kya plopped down beside Sora, the girl was happy to turn her attention onto her aunt so she wouldn't have to compete with her brother on who got to talk first.
It was a nice lunch, the last nice meal that they would have at the Eastern Air Temple.
Shortly after all of them had finished their lunch and moved out into the courtyard together, the Avatar arrived.
All of them had been shocked to see her, but the kids had been delighted, and even Tenzin looked glad, but they all wanted to know why she was there.
A lot had apparently happened to Korra in the time that she had been apart from all of them, and she gave them a brief version of the story that mostly just left them all baffled. Tenzin had taken the girl elsewhere to sit down and discuss the most pressing issue, which was her Uncle Unalaq's plans to open the second spirit portal and free the dark spirit Vaatu, who would bring evil and destruction upon the world. Nira, Kya, and Bumi stayed with the kids, until Tenzin and Korra returned and revealed their plans to meditate into the spirit world. Tenzin would be Korra's guide, and Nira and the others all followed the two of them around for the rest of the afternoon as they attempted to find a space that was relaxing and spiritual enough.
However, it soon became clear that Tenzin was having a very hard time trying to accomplish what he had set out to do, and he was only growing more frustrated the longer it took him to get into the Spirit World. All of them were starting to think that maybe he couldn't, but Tenzin was adamant that they keep trying.
Eventually, though, he confessed to everyone that he had never been able to meditate into the Spirit World before, despite all the time he had spent practicing over the years, and Nira had been shocked. She was not, however, all that surprised when Sora stepped forward at her father's confession and said, "Daddy, I can help."
Tenzin had immediately balked. "Sweetheart," he said, "I know that you've learned quite a lot about the spirits lately, but I haven't spent nearly enough time teaching you the proper techniques."
"I don't think it's all about technique," Sora said carefully, mindful of her father's feelings. "I, um…I made some friends while we were here." Sora looked up at a point above her head and smiled prettily, and then suddenly several colorful spirits began to pop into existence all around the group.
Everyone gasped in surprise, and Nira and Kya exchanged a glance. Both of them had suspected Sora was a little more in tune with the spirits than she let on, but they hadn't been entirely sure. Now there was irrefutable proof.
"How long have you been able to do this?" Tenzin asked, in awe.
Sora shrugged. "I think I've always had a connection with the spirits, I just didn't fully realize before. Not until we started coming to the Air Temples."
"Hey!" Yunjin chimed in, looking a little offended. "How come you never told me?"
"Well, if you'd stop talking about Jinora for five seconds," Sora countered, and surprisingly she didn't sound as bitter as she usually did.
"Fair point," Yunjin conceded.
The spirits were fluttering away, and everyone followed them out of the temple to watch. Korra asked, "Are they trying to help us?"
"I think so," Sora replied. "They want us to go down there." She pointed to where the spirits were floating down a nearby cliff.
"I don't know," Tenzin said, still sounding in disbelief. "The spiritual energy is historically strongest closer to the temple."
"No offense," Korra responded, "but I'm guessing the spirits have actually been to the Spirit World, so I'm gonna follow them."
Bumi teased his brother, "If we need to go to the Tenzin World, we'll call you."
Yunjin snickered, and then hastily cleared his throat to cover up his amusement. Then he loudly proclaimed, "Well come on then. Let's go follow those spirits and get Korra to the Spirit World. We haven't got all day, people."
Yunjin started marching forward, and Bumi and Korra followed. Sora hesitated, glancing up at her father with some concern before drifting towards her Aunt Kya, waiting for Kya to join before she went.
Jeia, however, had been clinging to Kya's skirt since the spirits had appeared, and she shook her head and said firmly, "No spirits."
Tenzin crouched down before his youngest and soothed, "It's okay, Jeia. You don't have to be afraid of the spirits. They won't hurt you."
Jeia still shook her head with a pout, and Nira stepped forward. "Why don't Jeia and I stay here while the rest of you go on ahead?"
"Are you sure?" Kya asked. "I can stay with her…"
But Nira could tell that Kya was very much intrigued about what was going on, and she also had a close relationship with Sora that could be helpful, and Nira was perfectly content to take care of Jeia instead. "I'm positive," Nira insisted. "You go ahead with Sora. Jeia and I will have fun here, won't we sweetheart?"
She held out her hand to the toddler, who deliberated for a moment before releasing Kya's skirt and going to latch onto Nira instead.
Tenzin kissed Jeia on the forehead and said, "We'll be back soon, Jeia." Then he stood back up to his full height. "I suppose I'll get Oogi ready."
His tone was more resigned than eager, and Sora watched her father with dismay, but let her aunt guide her in the same direction as Tenzin was going. It was clear that Tenzin was feeling a little sad and probably jealous that his daughter had a spiritual connection he had worked his whole life for, but Nira hoped that he would get out of his funk quickly for Sora's sake. Nira and Jeia watched the others leave on their quest to follow the spirits, and Nira hoped even more that they would find what they were looking for so that Korra could accomplish her mission.
Nira was admittedly a little worried when night fell and the others had yet to return, but she decided to take it as a good sign, that maybe everything was finally working out. Jeia was upset and fussy, though, and refused to sleep. Even though she was clearly exhausted, she was fighting to stay awake, half delirious as she dozed in and out, crying for her Mama and Daddy, and Nira's heart ached for the girl.
When morning came and the others still hadn't returned, Nira was a ball of nerves, but was staying positive for Jeia, who was beyond displeased that everyone was gone, as if worried that they had abandoned her.
It was only a few hours later when Nira finally spotted Oogi in the sky, and she and Jeia rushed out to the open courtyard in excitement, all smiles and eager to ask the others about all that had happened.
Except Nira knew, from the moment Oogi came to a soft landing in front of her and Jeia, that something was not right.
For starters, Korra was flying Oogi as opposed to Tenzin, Sora was not visible in the saddle, and the faces of everyone else were plainly full of some sort of sorrow. Nira stopped dead in her tracks, smile vanishing and heart stopping all at once.
Jeia rushed forward with an elated, "Daddy!" but then she noticed the somber mood, and she slid to a stop, glancing back at Nira in confusion, but Nira could not find it within her to speak. Instead, she forced her legs to move her forward to pick up Jeia and held the toddler close, preparing for whatever terrible news they were about to hear.
Tenzin stood up in the saddle then, and in his arms he held Sora's limp form, and Nira felt like she was going to be sick.
Everyone seemed to disembark from Oogi in slow motion. Kya was holding tight to Yunjin, who looked a wreck. He was pale with shock, and there were signs of tear tracks on his cheeks. The boy looked worse than Nira had ever seen, walking as if in a daze and leaning heavily on his Aunt Kya. Tenzin, too, looked awash with grief, but there was also a spark of grim determination in his steely gray eyes.
"What happened?" Nira finally choked out, and the words sounded sharp in the ringing silence.
"Her soul is trapped in the Spirit World," Tenzin admitted in a murmur, looking down upon Sora with guilt plain on his face, "but I'm going to get her back." He looked up at Nira again, and his expression hardened. "We need to return to Republic City at once."
Nira nodded numbly, looking down at Sora's motionless form, and the girl was so pale and still, and Nira could have wept, but even as her heart was tearing in two worrying about the little girl she had been a caregiver to for the last thirteen years, one of the most prominent thoughts in her mind was, how were they going to tell Lin?
Chapter 61: Chapter 61
Chapter Text
Chapter 61
If there was one thing Sora Beifong understood above all else, it was the vast, undulating spectrum of human emotion.
She had always been good at school, but never quite as book smart as her older brother. She could keep up with Yunjin's fast wit and mischievous tricks, but she had never reveled in the excitement like her twin. She preferred to be moving than sitting still, but she liked soft, smooth movements as opposed to Yunjin's fast, choppy pace. She never felt more at peace than when she was dancing, gliding through each step with contentment and grace. Her favorite part of airbending was that she could incorporate some of those same movements from her dance, that the air was freeing and soothing and everywhere. She did not like to fight, as Yunjin did, but she understood the necessity of knowing how, of being able to defend herself and her family. Especially after all that had happened with the Equalists during the revolution. She still had nightmares of that awful time on occasion, still woke some nights in a panic thinking she was in that dank prison cell, still reliving her mother leaping off of Oogi, imagining that awful moment when her mother had lost her bending, remembering the seizing pains of electrocution and the agony on her parents' faces that they had tried and failed to hide. She didn't tell her parents about the dreams anymore, because she didn't want them to worry. She always just went to Yunjin instead, and he would move over to make room for her in his bed without question.
Her bond with her twin was unshakeable at its core. Even when they fought they could hardly stay too far apart and never for very long. They had their spats and their personalities often clashed, but there was an understanding between them that no other could breech. That was why it hurt so much when they truly did fight, and why it was tearing Sora apart to see him with Jinora. Mustering the courage to confess her feelings to Jinora had been one of the hardest things Sora had done, but it had been harder still to hide it from Yunjin. She hadn't even wanted to say it out loud at first, but then Aunt Kya had noticed, and Sora had felt relieved to be able to get it off of her chest. She had thought that her Aunt Kya was right, that it was better to try and fail than to always wonder, and so Sora had tried and failed and then found out her best friend had feelings for her brother instead. Sora had always suspected that Jinora and Yunjin meant a lot to each other, but she never knew how much. She had just thought it was extraordinary that she could be with two of her favorite people and the three of them could be happy and together for all of time. But the reality was not so. Once Yunjin and Jinora knew of each other's feelings, they had been tied ever closer, and while they never neglected Sora, and certainly never purposefully ignored her, it was still difficult for her to be with them most of the time.
Yunjin had asked Sora if she cared more about Jinora than she was letting on, had said that he would rebuff Jinora's advances if it made Sora uncomfortable, and so Sora had lied to her twin for one of the first times ever. She had lied because she could not bear the thought of ruining Yunjin or Jinora's happiness because of her own feelings. It hurt to see them together, of course it did, but it would hurt even more to see them parted because of her. So Sora was still coming to grips with the whole situation, was trying to look beyond herself, to grow and change on her own for once, without relying on the comfort of having her twin by her side at all times. She had always been her own person, but it was easier to advance through life with Yunjin at her side. Perhaps, as she turned thirteen, she had to be more dependent on herself than him.
It was proving tricky to overcome, because Sora often reacted based off of the feelings of others. She didn't tell her parents about her nightmares because she didn't want to upset them. She didn't tell Yunjin that it hurt her to see him with Jinora because she didn't want him or Jinora to feel the same hurt that she felt. She always praised Ronen for every little invention he created, even when she didn't understand it, because she wanted to see that beaming smile on his face. When Jeia was in a mood, Sora always did whatever she could to make her little sister feel better, even if it meant giving in to Jeia's demands, because she would rather Jeia be happy. She could always tell when her mother had a bad day at work too, and never bothered Mom on those days no matter what was going on. When her father raved about some sort of ancient airbending thing that all but put Sora to sleep, she always feigned interest no matter how long she had to sit and pretend.
It became a problem sometimes, because Sora didn't really stand up for herself. At least, that was what her Mom would say, that she needed to stand up for herself, to not let people walk all over her. But Sora didn't see it that way. She stood up for herself when it mattered. Otherwise, why start an argument or make someone unhappy just for the sake of her own opinion? All that Sora wanted was for everyone to feel happy and safe and loved and she would go to the ends of the Earth for the ones that she loved.
Seeing that her father was upset, partially because of her, made Sora feel terrible. She knew that it was more about his wounded pride, that he felt like a failure for never managing to enter the Spirit World in all his life, let alone commune with spirits as Sora could, but she still felt some guilt. As much as she adored the spirits and was fascinated by them, she would have gladly given her gift to him if she could. She had kept the knowledge of her abilities to herself partially for that reason, because she had hoped that her father would be able to enter the Spirit World and it would not seem as if she was overshadowing him. However, when it became clear that she had knowledge the others needed, she knew that she had to confess. Korra needed to get into the Spirit World, the fate of the world depended upon it, and Sora knew she had to put aside her own fears of hurting her father in order to help.
Still, seeing her dad so glum was disheartening, and Sora was sticking close to Aunt Kya as a result. Sora always felt better with Aunt Kya around. She seemed to be the one that understood Sora best, and she was usually a lot better at calming Sora down. Of course, Sora loved her parents more than anything and she wouldn't trade them for anyone else in the world, but sometimes it was easier to talk to Aunt Kya than it was Mom or Dad. Sometimes, Sora felt like her parents cared too much, and they became emotional before Sora ever finished explaining her dilemma. She still felt comfortable talking to them most of the time, but Mom got so mad about people that upset her and Dad sometimes gave more wisdom than practical solutions. Plus, because of her ridiculously vast empathy, Sora's parents could not always understand her sorrow, and Aunt Kya was a lot better at making Sora feel like her emotions made sense, even if Kya herself did not understand them. She either understood, or was a much better actress than Sora's parents.
Kya could tell that Sora was feeling saddened by her father's reaction to her spirit connection, and was quick to reassure her. They had all gathered atop of Oogi – Yunjin, Uncle Bumi, Korra, Aunt Kya, and Dad – and were slowly drifting down the cliff side in the direction that the spirits had gone. Sora had pressed herself against Aunt Kya's side, and Kya squeezed the girl in a one-armed hug and quietly assured, "It's okay, sweetheart. Your Dad isn't mad at you. His pride's a little bruised, that's all."
"I know," Sora murmured sadly, "but he's right to be upset. He's the one that's put so much work into all this and I just…have it. It isn't really fair."
"You have a natural gift," Korra said with a smile, and Sora had a moment to think about how glad she was to have Korra back. Visiting the Air Temples had been great, and Sora cherished the time she had with the people that were with her, but it hadn't felt totally right. With Mom and Ronen and Korra and the others all gone, it wasn't the same.
Yunjin looked back over his shoulder from his spot next to Uncle Bumi further across the saddle, and he must have overheard the conversation, because he scrambled back to squeeze next to Sora and add, "Don't worry, Sis, Dad'll get over it. Your abilities are wicked cool. I'm jealous too, but I guess I can't be the best at everything." He winked and nudged her shoulder, and Sora rolled her eyes and managed a small smile. "Plus," he continued with a mischievous smirk, "think of how much you can mess with Mom now! Gosh, I can't wait until we get back to the city and you use that trick on her, just make spirits appear above her head. She's gonna flip."
"I'm not gonna torment Mom," Sora said with a shake of her head. "I'm not you."
"But you gotta do it, Sora," Yunjin insisted. "It's a golden opportunity. I would do it, but I can't, so you gotta do it for me."
"Y'know what would be a nicer trick?" Aunt Kya chimed in, leveling Yunjin with a teasing look. "How about showing your mother that you actually learned something while you were here? I'm sure that'll be even more of a shock to her."
Yunjin waved a dismissive hand and said, "Nah, she doesn't wanna hear about that philosophy stuff. I'd bore her to tears…although," he perked up and his eyes brightened, "that could be fun too. See how long she can feign interest before she finds an excuse to get away."
"Or you could try not tormenting your mother," Aunt Kya said with a chuckle.
"Where's the fun in that?" Yunjin countered with a grin.
From up front, Uncle Bumi suddenly exclaimed, "We're here!"
Sora heaved in a deep, calming breath, and Aunt Kya squeezed her shoulders one last time before asking, "You ready?"
Sora nodded firmly. "I'm ready."
They all leapt down off of Oogi, and Sora hesitated for a moment in consideration before striding over to her father. She was nervous as she sidled up next to him, but when she slipped her hand into his, he looked down at her with a fond smile, even if it did look a little sad too. They marched into the forest together, following the spirits as they floated onwards, the others trudging along behind.
"Are you sure these spirits are leading us to the right place?" Dad asked impatiently after they had been walking for several minutes through thick, ominous vines and trees.
"Of course!" Uncle Bumi cried in answer. "I'd trust Bum-Ju with my life." Bumi had taken one of the dragonfly-bunny spirits as his own and affectionately named it Bumi Junior, or Bum-Ju for short, and he had apparently grown attached already. It was one of the similarities that Sora had observed about her father and his siblings. They all acted like they were completely different, but there was at least one thing they had in common. When it came to matters of the heart, they were all three the same. When they loved, they loved hard.
Eventually, the group came upon a clearing, where tall stones imbedded with ancient carvings formed a circle. The platform and pillars were covered in moss and vines, plainly in disuse for a very long time.
Tenzin looked in awe as he stepped onto the raised platform, and said with clear astonishment, "This is an ancient airbender meditation circle."
As Sora stepped into the circle, she felt a shiver run down her spine, and the air around her seemed to grow thick. It felt…static-y, like a buzzing in her ears. She could sense the spiritual energy vibrating around the circle, particularly in the center, but it felt…off. It was not clear and sure like it had been for her before. There was not a warmth spreading over her, like when she had discovered the other spirits, but rather, a hair-raising chill.
"The spiritual energy is strong here," Sora told the others as she came to a stop, looking around her with a frown, "but something isn't quite right."
"We'll have to perform a spiritual cleansing ceremony," her father said.
And Uncle Bumi questioned, "What are you talking about?"
"Dad taught it to me," Tenzin replied, "This place has been neglected for many years. A spiritual cleansing will help strengthen its connection to the Spirit World."
So that was what they did, all of them settling down in a circle around the center of the platform, while Tenzin began to perform the ritual. His efforts seemed to be working at first, but ended up scaring off the dragonfly-bunny spirits, and then awakening a hoard of dark spirits that came spewing out of the opening in the center of the platform. All of them went rushing for cover, Aunt Kya grabbing onto Jin and Sora and trying to shield them. But Yunjin wriggled out of her hold to help his father and Korra as they began blasting attacks at the angry spirits diving towards them. Their efforts were for naught, because the dark spirits were unfazed by the attacks, and Yunjin shouted over the screeching and flapping of wings, "How are we supposed to stop these things?!"
With face set in determination, Korra suddenly went rushing back into the center of the platform, and Sora was confused for a moment, until the Avatar began performing a familiar form of bending that Sora had seen only once before. She remembered seeing Unalaq use it in the South Pole, on the night that the evil spirit attacked, and Korra used it just as her Uncle had, to encircle the angry spirits in a ball of blinding light. Everyone else watched in amazement as the spirits seemed to evaporate into thin air, and as they vanished, the moss and vines also began to disperse, until the platform and its ancient pillars appeared brand new.
Tenzin stepped forward to join Korra first, looking around as he observed, "Your spiritual training has come a long way."
"Unalaq may be a horrible person," Korra said, "but his spirit powers are no joke."
"He taught you how to transform dark spirits, I can't even get you into the Spirit World," Tenzin said with shame.
"Everything Unalaq taught me was to help himself," Korra immediately argued, turning to better face Tenzin, her voice soft. "Everything you taught me was to help me. I am so sorry for turning my back on you as my mentor. I need you now more than ever."
"I won't let you down," Tenzin promised.
Korra smiled softly, and then stepped forward to embrace him, and Sora felt a tightness in her chest, but it was not from sorrow. A few tears pricked at her eyes and she let them flow, her heart filling with joy for her father and Korra for having resolved their parting. Sora knew how much it had hurt her father when Korra chose to stay behind with Unalaq, had felt a deep sorrow herself, because she had come to consider Korra as part of the family. Even though the task at hand was an arduous one, even though Unalaq's plans threatened their entire world, it felt to Sora as if things were beginning to look up. She had always believed that they were stronger together, and if they all helped Korra, then how could anything go wrong?
Of course, not all was as simple as hoped. Even in the right spiritual space with cleansed spiritual energy, Sora's father still could not make it into the Spirit World, and as night fell, the rest of the group had to convince him that it was not his path to take.
"I can do this!" Tenzin still persisted to the last.
But Aunt Kya reprimanded him, "Quit being so stubborn! It's not your destiny. Sora was meant to guide the Avatar."
"Sora will not enter the Spirit World!" Tenzin snapped. "She is not ready for the dangers of the other side. I spent years studying, training, and mastering everything there is to know about the Spirit World."
"Tenzin," Korra beseeched him, "we're running out of time."
"If everyone would just be quiet and let me focus," Tenzin huffed, turning his back on them once more.
"Oh, come on, Dad," Yunjin scoffed. "You know Sora can do it. She's the most cautious person in the family. If anyone can go traipsing through the Spirit World without getting into trouble, it's her."
Tenzin all but ignored Yunjin, and Sora steeled herself for what she had to do. She sucked in a deep breath and stepped up next to her father, wrapping both her hands around one of his and saying, "Daddy, I know you're worried, and I know you really want to do it yourself, but I think this is one of those times where you have to go with the flow of the wind, to let it guide us to where we're supposed to be. I'm supposed to lead Korra into the Spirit World."
Tenzin gazed down upon her with so many emotions flitting across his gaze, and he glanced over at the others that stood nearby, and then he finally acknowledged, "Perhaps I will never have the connection with the spirits that I always wanted to have, that my father wanted me to have."
Sora's heart broke for him, and she said softly, "I'm sorry, Daddy, but if you think about it, I can only do this because of you, because you gave me this gift and this knowledge, even if you didn't mean to. And you don't have to worry. You taught me everything I know. Korra and I will be okay. I promise I won't let you down."
"I know you won't," her father said, smiling a little as he wrapped her in a warm embrace, and Sora held onto him tightly for a long moment, listened to his heart beating close to her ear. "I'm proud of you."
Sora was beaming as she pulled back, eyes shining with tears again that she hastily swiped away this time. Before she could speak, Yunjin had pushed his way between them, and was pulling her into a crushing hug.
"You'd better be careful," he told her, practically squeezing the air out of her. "And come back soon. Don't do anything I would do."
"I don't have a death wish," Sora wheezed, heaving in a desperate breath when Yunjin finally released her.
He was frowning as he looked at her, and admitted, "I know you'll be fine, but I don't like you going in there without me."
"I don't always need you to save me, y'know," she teased, thumping him on the shoulder.
"I know," he said seriously, and then shrugged because they were getting too close to discussing emotions now and there were too many people around for him to do that.
"We'll be back in no time," Sora promised.
Aunt Kya and Uncle Bumi came to engulf her in an embrace next, and then there was no more time to waste.
Sora settled down across from Korra, and together, their souls entered the Spirit World at last.
But of course, things went awry from the moment they arrived.
Entering into the Spirit World was dazzling at first. Sora was in awe and completely stunned by the magnificence of the place. Everything seemed brighter there, more colorful. The spirits were beautiful and sparkling, and for the first few minutes, she felt at peace and joyful. She smiled almost tearfully as she watched flowers blossom into butterflies, and she had to remind herself not to get swept up in the moment. She would have liked to examine everything that she could, but time was of the essence and they needed to find the spirit portals.
Korra, however, was extremely wary of everything within the Spirit World, and the spirits began to react to her tense energy. Sora's warnings to relax went unheeded, and soon the two of them were being sucked down into a hole in the ground. They landed deep in some sort of dark pool of water, only to be swallowed by a massive spirit sea creature a few seconds later. That was when the two of them were separated. Sora had clung to Korra's arms in an effort to stay together, but they were knocked apart and sucked down two different paths, and Sora screamed, reaching desperately even though she knew it was futile.
Instead of being drawn down into the belly of the beast, however, Sora was fully submerged in water once more, so dark this time that nothing could be seen, and then, just before panic could set in, she was dropped out into a field much like the one she had been in before. She crashed into the ground heaving for air, disoriented and squinting against the harsh light shining in her eyes. She clambered hastily to her feet, arms held out before her as if preparing to defend herself, but as she whirled around to take in her surroundings, she quickly realized that she was completely alone.
The vast stretch of greenery seemed to go on forever in each direction, and the landscape was still. There was no breeze, no stirring of creatures, no sign of a single spirit. Sora felt an overwhelming sense of dread and isolation filling her, and she gulped down a deep breath of air as her chest seized with panic.
"Relax," she told herself in a whisper, closing her eyes and forcing her breaths to even out, practicing the meditation techniques her father had taught her over the years. She reminded herself what was at stake, and that she would need to remain calm if she ever wanted to find Korra or the spirit portals. She focused on her breaths, and on the spiritual energy vibrating around her – it was quieter than before, but still there, still like a warm blanket around her, and she took comfort in it.
After a few minutes, she managed to calm her racing heart and clear her mind. She began taking careful steps across the grass that wasn't quite grass, mindful of the possibility that anything could be a spirit, and not wanting to disturb any of the spirits like Korra accidentally had earlier. As she walked, she softly called, "Hello? Are there any helpful spirits out here? Can anyone help me? I promise I come in peace. I just need somebody to point me to the spirit portals. Hellooooo," she drawled, when no answer came. She looked around her and felt as though she had barely moved from her original spot despite how long she had been walking. She sighed heavily, lamenting, all of a sudden, that she had never shown as much interest in all those historical texts like her big brother Ronen. He would have known what to do. Dad would have known what to do, but neither of them was there with her. She had to figure it out on her own, and she had seldom been more terrified of failure in her life.
Sora felt an overwhelming sense of frustration, irritated that she did not know what to do and that the Spirit World had separated her from Korra. But then, just as quickly, some despair began to fill her instead, as she worried that she would not fulfill her task, that she would fail Korra and her family and maybe the whole world. However, she knew that she couldn't get all emotional and weepy, not again. She was always emotional, but she didn't have time for that now. She just needed to think.
Sora whirled around to check her surroundings again, and nearly crashed right into something directly behind her.
She leapt backwards with a startled gasp, fear taking hold of her, and the presumed spirit standing right in front of her mimicked her movements. Sora spluttered out a curse that would have made her father frown, hand flying up to her chest as if to stop her heart from leaping straight out of it. The sudden appearance of the spirit had frightened her for a moment, but now that she had a moment to examine it, she had to force herself to relax.
The spirit appeared to be a humanoid woman, beautifully featured and ethereal. There were markings on her face that hinted at elaborate face paintings, but it was difficult to tell, because the woman seemed to be shrouded in gray tones. Her complexion was pale, her eyes dull, her hair a flat black, and even her flowing gown with complex stitching was a lifeless hue of imperceptible colors. It was a sharp contrast to their vibrant surroundings, and Sora was momentarily perplexed. The spirit's entire form hinted at an ornate, stunning beauty, but it was as if her color had been washed away.
Upon reeling away in fear, though, the spirit lady seemed to flicker, a light hue of purple pulsing in tiny waves across her face, as if there were veins underneath the surface trying to break free. Sora's instinctive reaction seemed to have terrified the spirit, who was cowering now, and Sora hastily tried to reassure, "It's okay! I won't hurt you, I promise!" And as Sora's fear faded, so too did the spirit's, as well as the purple markings, so that Sora began to wonder if they were ever there at all, or were merely some sort of reflection from the colors all around them.
The spirit lady was still regarding Sora warily, but she was relaxing just a little, no longer looking as if she might flee, and Sora softened her tone and her features. "I'm sorry," she said. "You just frightened me, is all. I'm Sora Beifong, what's your name?"
The spirit tilted her head, regarding Sora curiously, eventually responding with a melodious lilt, "I have been called many names."
When the spirit of many names said no more, Sora smiled patiently and coaxed, "Well, which name was your favorite?"
Adopting a far off look, the spirit lady seemed to consider, and then replied, "I believe Mother was my favorite, though I have not been called that in a long time."
Sora thought it was a sweet answer, but she couldn't really call the spirit that. She didn't even refer to her own mother that way. Deciding to forgo the name exchange, Sora instead asked hopefully, "Are you here to help me? I'm looking for my friend, Avatar Korra. Do you know how I can find her? Or maybe the spirit portals? She could be there already. I would really appreciate it if you could help me out."
The spirit mother smiled softly in turn, a soft glimmer of yellow spiraling along the markings on her face, and nodded as she answered, "I would like to help."
She held out her hand, and Sora sagged in relief, thanking the spirit profusely and taking the proffered hand. The spirit began to guide Sora across the landscape, and within moments their surroundings started to morph and change. Soon they were standing in the midst of a dense forest overgrown with moss and vines. Up above their heads, where the spirit lady was gazing, Sora could make out some sort of elaborate, upside down building that looked as if it was simply part of the canopy of trees.
"What is that place?" Sora asked curiously, hopeful that the spirit mother had brought her there for a reason.
"This is Wan Shi Tong's Library," the spirit explained. "It was built thousands of years ago to preserve all the world's knowledge. It is no longer accessible to humans, but I think you may find what you are looking for here."
Sora blinked, looked up at the suspended library again, and sighed heavily. "Great," she muttered with unsuppressed displeasure, "a library."
Suddenly the spirit lady bristled, facial markings flashing red as she folded her arms across her chest and huffed, "If you don't want my help, then fine. I'll go –"
"No, wait!" Sora cried, grasping the spirit's expansive sleeve. "Don't leave me. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to seem ungrateful."
The spirit mother stilled, and her expression softened, flushed of color again. "I'm sorry too," she said, grasping Sora's hand and desperately imploring, "I just want to help you so badly."
"You have," Sora assured, relaxing now that her new spirit friend wasn't trying to run away. "I'm sure Wan Shi Tong's library will help me find the spirit portals. I'm just not all that great with books."
She shrugged, and the spirit mother shrugged too and said, "That's okay."
"But how do we get up there?" Sora inquired.
No sooner had she asked it than a familiar spirit came floating down from the sky. It was one of the firefly-bunny spirits that Sora had bonded with at the Eastern Air Temple, and her previous concerns turned to delight. The firefly-bunnies had led her in the right direction once before, so she had to believe they could do so again.
"Banī!" Sora cried excitedly, bouncing on her toes in anticipation as he swooped down to land directly in front of her. Banī was much larger in the Spirit World than he had been in the Mortal World, stretching taller than Sora now, but still with that warm, blue glow and kind nature. Sora surged forward to hug him, and told him as she pulled back, "I'm so glad to see you! I lost Korra, but I made another friend." She gestured back towards the spirit lady, whose face was lit up with excitement, as well as swirls of pink and yellow, and her hands were clasped in front of her as she watched Sora interact with Banī.
"Hello there, beautiful one!" the spirit lady said animatedly to Banī, who trilled in response.
Sora chuckled a little at the spirit woman's antics and then told Banī, "She's a spirit mother. She brought me here to this library. She's going to help me find Korra. Can you fly us up there?"
Banī nodded and turned to the side so that Sora could clamber up onto his back. Then she held out her hand to the spirit mother and said, "Come on. We can both fit. Banī is a friend."
The spirit lady was still beaming, but she shook her head as she brightly said, "Oh no, I cannot go with you to the library."
Sora frowned. "Why not?" she asked. "You said that humans aren't allowed, and I don't know what I'm doing. I need your help."
The spirit mother frowned too. "I cannot go. I do not think I would be welcome."
"Well I'm not welcome either," Sora pointed out, growing a little frustrated.
"You do not understand," the spirit huffed. "Wan Shi Tong and I are no longer friends. I would rather spend half an eternity in my daughter's lair than make nice with him."
Sora could have argued further, but she could tell that it likely wouldn't get her anywhere. If the spirit lady did not wish to go, then Sora would not force her. The spirit had at least gotten Sora this far. So she released her irritation, and then sincerely told the spirit woman, "Okay, I understand. Thank you for all of your help."
The spirit mother gave Sora a half smile and replied, "It was a pleasure to meet you, Sora Beifong. Good luck in your travels. I hope that you find what you are looking for."
"Me too," Sora murmured, turning away and patting her friend. "Let's go, Banī."
Banī immediately hopped off of the ground, and then flew her straight up into the ancient library. It was a vast space that smelled like mold and dust, and it was stuffed to the brim with books and artifacts. Sora felt overwhelmed as she leapt off of Banī's back onto the platform and looked around. The bookshelves seemed to go on forever, and there were several floors below her too.
She sighed in exasperation, wondering how she was ever going to find the answers she need in that place. "You could spend an eternity in here just reading," she muttered to herself.
A nearby disturbance broke through the ringing silence, and Sora's ears perked up at the sound of rushing air, and then a huge beast was swooping down upon her, landing with a loud thump, and Sora had to shield her face from the onslaught of wind buffeting her form. When the dust had cleared from her eyes, she looked up at the creature to see an oversized black owl with a white face and sharp eyes. The spirit was off-putting, and his booming voice and attitude turned out to be no better.
"The last human who said something like that is still here," the spirit owl said, as if they had been having a conversation, turning his head, and Sora followed his gaze to where she could see the shape of a human propped against one of the nearby bookshelves, though it was more bones than flesh now. She shuddered at the sight, and her heart went out to whoever they were. She hoped that they had not died a painful death. She hoped that the spirit owl had not been the one to kill them.
Inside, she was a little timid, but Sora did not show signs of fear as she tilted her head up to meet the spirit's piercing gaze. "I take it you're Wan Shi Tong," she said mildly. And as soon as she said it, something finally clicked in her mind. The library, Wan Shi Tong, a huge owl spirit… "Hey, I know you!" she exclaimed, before Wan Shi Tong could respond. "My Great-Uncle Sokka used to tell me and my brothers about the time he came here with Gran-Gran and Grandpa! I thought he was just making it up." Sora laughed a little at the memory, and then abruptly stopped, clearing her throat as Wan Shi Tong's already narrowed eyes narrowed further, and hastily amended, "He said that you were very, um, smart, and um, that's why I'm here, because I need some knowledge myself."
"If your foolish uncle told you correctly, then you should know that humans are no longer allowed in my library," Wan Shi Tong said, bending down and leaning in close to Sora's face threateningly. "Get out."
"Come on, Wan, I just need a few minutes," Sora implored. She didn't like the guy's attitude, but she knew upsetting him further was probably a bad idea. "I won't stay long, I promise. I don't wanna be here forever like that guy. I don't even like to read."
Wan Shi Tong scoffed in offense, and Sora winced, realizing that she had said the wrong thing. "You dare to enter my library, and then you insult me and my wondrous collection? I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows ten thousand things, and I do not need to waste my time on a foolish girl like you."
Sora looked around the vast, silent library, and then raised a skeptical brow as she said, "I mean, no offense, but it doesn't look like you've got a lot going on here. If I were you, I'd be happy for the company."
Being snarky to a giant spirit probably wasn't the smartest move, and Sora immediately began to backpedal as Wan Shi Tong reared back in supposed anger. "I'm sorry," she said quickly, her speech coming out more rapidly and maybe a little frantic, desperate to find her answers before the owl spirit threw her out a window. "I didn't mean to offend. Look, I feel like we got off on the wrong foot here. Can we start over? I'm Sora Beifong, granddaughter of Avatar Aang. You remember Aang? Anyways, I came here looking for my friend, Avatar Korra. Could you just tell me if you've seen her? Or do you know how to get to the spirit portals maybe?"
Wan Shi Tong tilted his big feathered head to the side, and Sora braced herself to either be berated or swatted off the railing by one of those massive wings. Instead, Wan Shi Tong surprised her by saying, "Oh, you came with the Avatar? Well, why didn't you say so? Fine, you may look around, but don't break anything." He leaned in close to Sora's face to add, "I'll know," and then he flapped both wings at once and took off into the air, nearly bowling Sora over with the force of the wind.
She allowed herself a little bit of a proud smile, stunned that it had been that easy, but thinking nothing of it. She was simply pleased that she had managed to make it through that interaction, but as she turned around to examine the books ahead of her, she felt dismay filling her again. There was so much to look through, and it seemed doubtful that she would manage to find what she was looking for in a short amount of time. But she had no other option, so she sighed heavily again and trudged forward, and as she passed by the skeleton, she bitterly muttered to herself, "That'll be me in a week."
She stopped halfway down the aisle to examine the books directly in front of her, trying to determine if there was some sort of order to their placement. After a few minutes of pursuing she thought that she had picked up on a pattern, but how would she even know what book to look for? Unless the book was called Here's a Map to the Spirit Portals, and she doubted it would be that easy. "Where's Ronen when ya need him?" Sora lamented, glancing over at Banī, who had hopped back over to her side and was following her through the rows. Banī only tilted his head at her, and Sora decided to flip through a few books.
It only took her a few minutes to get bored and frustrated and worried all at once. She slammed the last book closed with a groan and stuffed it back into its place. She cast her gaze about, trying to think, trying to channel her older brother or her father, wondering what they would do, wondering why she had a connection with the spirits when she was clearly out of her depth.
But then she noticed one of the fox-like spirits darting past, and a thought occurred to her. She rushed after the creature, and approached it with a soft smile. "Hello there," she said, as it turned to regard her. "Can you help me? I'm looking for a map to the spirit portals. Could you show me where I can find it?"
The little spirit fox took off without further prompting, and Sora and Banī hastened to follow. When the fox presented Sora with a book, her excitement grew, and she thanked it profusely while stroking its head. Afterwards, she flipped the book open and scanned the pages until she found what she was looking for.
"A-ha!" she cried, only to scoff a second later. "Figures, all I had to do was ask the fox." She shook her head and hurriedly continued to read. She learned about the Tree of Time, where Avatar Wan had imprisoned the dark spirit Vaatu, and that as long as the spirit portals both stay closed, then Vaatu could not escape. However, during Harmonic Convergence, spiritual energy would be greatly amplified, and if the portals were also opened, then Vaatu could break free from his bonds.
At the end, Sora rolled her eyes and complained to Banī, "Why do the bad guys always feel the need to destroy everything? Come on, we need to find Korra and get this over with."
"Leaving so soon?" a familiar voice called out just as Sora was taking a step forward. She lifted her gaze from the book and recognized Unalaq's foul, smirking face down at the end of the row. She froze in her steps. "When Wan Shi Tong told me he had a visitor, I had to see it with my own eyes. I can't believe Tenzin sent his daughter here instead of coming himself. What kind of a father is he?"
Sora felt instant anger. Anger at Unalaq for speaking ill of her father, at Wan Shi Tong for selling her out, and at herself for not having been more suspicious of Wan Shi Tong's abrupt change in demeanor when she mentioned the Avatar.
"He's a much better father than you, jerk face," Sora spat at Unalaq, ire rising within her and a little fear. She scowled at Wan Shi Tong too and added, "So this is the human you choose to ally with? Maybe you're not as smart as you claim."
"Unalaq has proven to be a true friend to the spirits," Wan Shi Tong countered. "Unlike the Avatar."
"You must be going delirious down here with all these musty old books," Sora sneered, trying to channel her inner Lin Beifong despite the tremor in her knees. "You do know that Vaatu will destroy all of this if he escapes, right?"
"Don't believe everything you read," Unalaq interjected as he began to stride down the aisle towards her. "Why don't you come with me, so you can do some firsthand research?"
"No thanks," Sora said. "I've got other places to be."
Sora took two steps back, intending to make a run for it, but she bumped into Banī, and when she looked back at her spirit friend, she watched in horror as he began to morph into something sinister and unrecognizable before her very eyes. He was no longer the cute firefly-bunny he had once been, and his paws grew into claws that clamped down over her shoulders like vices. Sora turned a heated glare back onto Unalaq, infuriated that he had caught her, and angrier still that he had turned her friend into something evil. She felt tears pricking her eyes, more from the rage than sadness, but that was definitely there too, and she held them back by sheer force of will.
"Bravo," she mocked Unalaq, careful not to let her voice shake, "you caught a little girl. You must be so proud of yourself."
"It would have been more satisfying if it were your father," Unalaq admitted, "but you'll do."
"Haven't you got anything better to do than destroy the world?" Sora persisted, struggling against Banī's grasp and getting nowhere. "You really couldn't think of a better hobby?"
"It is time to finish this," Unalaq said, sounding bored and completely disregarding Sora. "Perhaps, if all goes well, I may let you keep your soul, though I cannot account for the state it will be in."
Sora shook her head, all her mixed emotions of shame and rage and fear and sorrow bubbling to the surface, and she fixed Unalaq with her most threatening glare as she simply snarled, "My Mom is gonna kick your ass."
In the first week after Korra had left Republic City, Ronen found himself somewhat at a loss as to what to do. He spent time with his mother when she was available, and tried to help Mako with his off the books investigation into who had stolen Asami's shipments, but the rest of his time was spent mostly alone, which might have been fine two years ago, but he had gotten used to always having his family and friends around, and it was strange to have lost some of that. He no longer had school and he didn't have a job. Most of his family was at the Eastern Air Temple, and everyone else had real jobs now. Bolin was occasionally available, but his schedule as a mover star was busier than even Mako's job as a beat cop. And Asami was back to trying to build up her company now that Varrick had bought a controlling interest in an effort to save it. Technically, Ronen could help Asami, but she was acting a little odd after that night when she had come to the Island to see him, and he had never been given an official position in Future Industries to justify being there.
So Ronen spent a lot of time fairly bored, but did his best to occupy his time with something useful. He tinkered with a few inventions and helped some of the Acolytes around the island. He also did some people watching in the city, mainly to listen in and try to gather some knowledge about how ordinary citizens felt about the civil war going on in the water tribes. He wrote a few letters to Korra that he ended up shredding. In part because he had no idea where she even was, and partially because the subject seemed too big to express through a letter. Now that he'd had time to reflect, he felt as though he had handled the situation with Korra all wrong. He had just been so frustrated by her impulsiveness that he had let his own emotions guide him too. He worried about the fact that none of them, not even Bolin, had heard from her since she left, and he wondered where she could possibly be, if she was in trouble. He wished that he could be with her, that he could help her take down Unalaq.
However, the situation in Republic City was no closer to settling either, and Ronen was soon swept up in the drama there. It began escalating one afternoon, when Ronen went to meet Bolin for lunch. He found Bolin on set of one of his movers, but before the two of them could leave, Asami showed up.
"Oh, hey, Asami," Bolin said to her first. "What are you doing here?"
"Varrick invited me to watch some of the filming," she explained.
And then, before she could go on, Mako appeared a second later, calling, "Asami! There you are." He spotted Bolin and Ronen and added, "Good, you two are here too. I have something I've got to tell you all."
"What is it?" Ronen asked with concern, sensing the seriousness of Mako's tone.
"I found out who's been stealing from Future Industries," Mako revealed. "Varrick."
"Whaat?" Bolin said in disbelief. "Nooo."
"He attacked his own ship?" Asami questioned skeptically.
"Yes! It was a ploy," Mako stressed. "He wants Republic City to go to war, and he wants control of the businesses that stand to profit from it. He already had the shipping. All he needed was Future Industries."
"Varrick saved Future Industries," Asami argued. "He's my business partner now, not an evil mastermind. Mako…you seem stressed."
"I am stressed!" Mako exclaimed.
"Hang on a minute," Ronen interjected, before they could go off topic. "Mako, are you sure about this? Accusing a guy like Varrick…you've gotta have some substantial proof."
"I do have proof," Mako insisted. "The detonators he uses in his movers are exactly like the one I found at the cultural center attack. And those explosions were exactly like the ones the captain reported when Asami's shipment was attacked."
"Anyone could have gotten their hands on one of those detonators," Asami reasoned.
"It is a little circumstantial," Ronen agreed, "but I still think we should hear Mako out."
"I don't know," Bolin said with a shake of his head. "It sounds crazy to me."
"I'm telling you, Varrick is up to no good!" Mako huffed in frustration. "He can't be trusted."
"Just let it go, Mako," Bolin said flippantly. "Let it go."
"No!" Mako burst out, patience lost. "I'm not going to let it go!"
Before anyone else could say another word, he had stormed out of the room, and Ronen gave Bolin and Asami a disapproving look. "Come on, guys, you know he wouldn't make a claim like that unless he was sure."
Asami and Bolin exchanged skeptical looks.
"He seemed pretty agitated," Asami said.
"Wouldn't you be if no one believed you?" Ronen countered, one eyebrow raised.
"You know," Bolin observed, "you've been taking Mako's side a lot lately. It's weird."
Ronen deflated with a heavy sigh. "You're tellin' me."
It took a while for Ronen to convince Bolin and Asami to reconsider Mako's claims, but eventually they agreed to go with him to visit Mako at his apartment later that evening, so that they could hear more about what he had to say.
But the trio had only just arrived when there was another knock at the door. Ronen was surprised to see his mother on the other side, along with the bonehead detectives, Lu and Gang. According to his mother, they had been given information from some Triple Threats, who had told Lin all about Mako hiring them for his sting operation on Asami's ship, but they also claimed that Mako was the one that had stolen all of the product from Asami's warehouse. Ronen, Asami, and Bolin all protested the absurdity of such a claim, but Lu and Gang were searching Mako's apartment in the meantime, and Lu came up with a bag full of cash and explosives. With evidence that damning, it was impossible for Lin to let Mako off the hook, and Gang all too eagerly began cuffing Mako's hands behind his back.
"None of that is mine!" Mako objected. "I've been set up."
"That's what they all say," Gang scoffed. "Should have known you'd hook up with your old pals. Once a Triple Threat, always a Triple Threat."
"Mako would never!" Bolin defended. "This is crazy, Chief."
"Yeah, come on, Mom," Ronen implored. "This is wrong."
"This has to be some kind of mistake," Asami asserted.
"Sorry to break it to ya, sweetie," Lu said patronizingly, "but your boyfriend's just a crooked cop. That sting operation was just a way to lure you away from your warehouse."
Lu and Gang actually laughed, as if they found it amusing that Asami had supposedly been duped, and Gang chuckled, "He was usin' you the whole time."
"Oh, piss off," Ronen spat, beyond irritated by Lu and Gang acting all high and mighty when he knew exactly what kind of cops they were. He could see it for himself, but his mother had told him enough too, and he couldn't believe those two idiots were even allowed to be on the force. They were all too happy to arrest Mako, and they were talking to Asami like she was a naïve child, and Ronen felt his blood boiling. "You two have some nerve. You're a witless, pathetic bunch of –"
"Ronen!" his mother snapped, cutting him off, her face pinched in anger. "Cut it out."
"Your boy's got quite the mouth on him, Chief," Lu observed with a twirl of his stupid mustache and a condescending smirk. "Looks like he's been mixin' in with the wrong crowd too. I don't wanna tell you how to raise your kid, but –"
"So don't," Lin interjected with a warning scowl, and Ronen could see her eye twitching with the effort it was taking her not to tell Lu off...or worse. "You two take Mako down to the car, I'll meet you there."
"All's I'm sayin," Lu muttered as he shuffled forward, "is that we may need to be lookin' into your boy too."
"He has been hangin' around headquarters with Mako quite a lot," Gang concurred, before shoving Mako roughly out the door.
"Ow, take it easy," Mako hissed. "I didn't do this! Varrick set me up! It's him you need to be talking to. This is all Varrick's fault!"
Mako's tirade continued down the hall, along with Lu and Gang's amused cackles, and it was probably that which saved Lu and Gang from whatever rage Ronen's mother had been about to unleash on them when the pair accused Ronen of cavorting with criminals.
When Lin slammed the door of Mako's apartment closed, supposedly to keep Lu and Gang from hearing whatever she was about to say, it made a loud bang, and rattled the whole wall around it. She was shaking a little, teeth clenched together so hard that Ronen worried she might crack them with the pressure.
Bolin made a frightened squeak in the back of his throat, and though Ronen did not fear that his mother would do something awful to him, he still flinched a little and hastily told her, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lose my temper with them."
"Fuck those hog-monkeys," his mother interrupted, waving a dismissive hand, and if she had been a firebender she probably would have been breathing fire out of her flared nostrils. "First things first, please tell me you were not on that sting operation with the Triple Threats."
"Of course not," Ronen scoffed. "I couldn't do it, but I understand why Mako did. Mom, you have to know this is crazy. You have to know Mako would never steal from Asami, nor would he even have the means for that matter."
Lin sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of her nose and squeezing her eyes shut for a second, looking as if she was fighting a headache. "Look," she said after a moment, "I know Mako isn't good for this, but Lu and Gang are reporting my every move back to the president, and if I disregard this, or treat Mako with favoritism, we're all gonna be in trouble. So why don't you kids do me a favor, and keep your noses out of it? I'll get Mako a good lawyer, I've still got a few favors I can call in, and he'll be out by morning. I'll get to the bottom of this, but you gotta be patient with me, all right?"
"Okay," Ronen agreed, and he turned to see Asami and Bolin nodding along. "We'll follow your lead. What can we do in the meantime?"
"Do you think Varrick is the one that set this up?" Lin asked. "I gotta admit, I didn't think the guy was that devious, but I can't say I'd be all that surprised if he is. He's got plenty of money to pull it off."
"I didn't want to believe that it was him," Ronen admitted, "but this has got to mean something. Mako came to us today to tell us about his suspicions against Varrick, and now tonight he gets arrested for planted evidence?" He looked over at Asami and Bolin, who were both frowning in thought. "What do you two think?"
Bolin and Asami exchanged a look, and Asami looked upset as she replied, "I can't believe this is happening again. I trusted Varrick, and he betrayed me."
"You really think Varrick did this?" Bolin asked Asami, looking shocked. "He's been so good to us. I can't imagine…I mean, it just doesn't make sense."
"He's a smart guy, Bolin," Ronen said, "there's no denying that. He knew how to play us. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but why else would anyone plant evidence if Mako wasn't even onto them?"
Bolin shifted uncomfortably, appearing to think it over with a grim frown.
"Listen," Lin interjected, "I gotta get downstairs. If Varrick is good for this, I'm gonna need real proof, not just a hunch and a coincidence. Find me enough evidence to bring him in and I'll do it. But be careful. And meet me at home for dinner tonight. I want to know everything that's been going on, everything Mako told you earlier, all right?"
"All right," Ronen agreed, and then his mother was sweeping back out the door.
The next few days flew by in a flash.
Mako got out on bail, but he was on house arrest until further notice. Ronen, Asami, and Bolin visited him frequently to keep him company – and from running off – and to discuss ways to prove Varrick's involvement in his framing. However, they were all coming up blank outside of Varrick's detonators, which Lin was certain would not be enough for her to even get a warrant to search his ships let alone arrest him. The longer it took to prove Varrick's guilt, the more Asami was struggling to maintain face when in Varrick's presence. She was furious at being duped and understandably hurt, and Ronen had to accompany her anytime the two were forced to meet just to keep her from revealing what she suspected.
Bolin, on the other hand, was not wholly convinced yet that Varrick was the culprit, desperate as he was to not believe it. He continued filming his movers, but Ronen could see that he was getting antsy. With no word from Korra still, Bolin was worried about her, and he was worried about Mako going away to prison, and he was worried that a man he had begun to admire had played him and his friends and framed his brother. The night before the big finale of Nuktuk, Hero of the South, which was to be played in the pro-bending arena to a stadium full of people, Bolin had apparently had enough.
He told Ronen, "I'm going to find Korra."
"But what about your big premier?" Ronen asked.
"What's the point of fame and fortune if I don't have anyone to share it with?" Bolin lamented. "Mako is on house arrest, Korra is gone, you and Asami are all busy with the business stuff, Varrick is apparently the enemy. Everything was going so well for me, but now I don't know who's right and who's wrong, and it feels empty anyways without my friends. Team Avatar is falling apart."
Ronen considered Bolin's words for several seconds, and then reached out to grip Bolin's shoulder, assuring his friend, "I know what you mean. I feel it too, and I understand why you want to do this. I've been considering going after Korra myself, but with everything going on here… How about this, tomorrow, we'll go to the premier – you, me, and Asami? Mako and my mom are worried that Varrick will have something planned for the big night, so we can have a secret operation going on, y'know, be on the lookout for any bad guys. If Varrick – or whoever – tries something, the three of us will be there to stop it – as a team – and if not, we'll get to watch your big show and pretend everything is normal. Then, afterwards, no matter what happens, I'll go with you to find Korra. How does that sound?"
Bolin deflated, still looking glum, but after some deliberation, he nodded. "Okay," he murmured, "I guess that works. I suppose it would be fun to catch some bad guys again, if that happens anyway."
"Exactly," Ronen enthused, staying optimistic for Bolin's sake. "It'll be just like old times."
After another three weeks without seeing the rest of her family, Lin felt like she was on the verge of some kind of meltdown. The more time she spent with Lu and Gang and the less she spent with her kids, the more bitter she became. On the one hand, there was so much going on that she almost didn't notice the passage of time. On the other hand, she was almost getting used to this way of life and she did not like it. Having Ronen around helped, but it still wasn't right. She just felt frustrated all of the time and uncertain of her purpose when she didn't have her kids or Tenzin around to remind her.
She only had two days left until her family came back for another visit, had been counting down the hours for the past week, but it seemed like they'd be walking back into a madhouse. She had been planning to ask them to stay longer than intended, but now she felt like it was selfish to ask it of them when they would clearly be better off elsewhere. She was the one that had chosen to return to work, and she should be the one to deal with the city's new messes without dragging the rest of them into it. She just needed to be grateful for the time that she would have.
Finding out that Varrick was likely the one behind all the attacks recently was not difficult for Lin to comprehend, but certainly difficult to swallow. It meant that she had been tricked right alongside everyone else. She hadn't even really been watching Varrick, even though she probably should have been, considering his role in the civil war. But of course, hindsight was always twenty-twenty, and there wasn't time to waste on feeling stupid. The night of the big premiere was coming up, and she had a bad feeling that something would go wrong. She still had no proof against Varrick besides what Mako and Ronen had told her, and no way to get Mako out of the mess he was in without a new suspect. Raiko was still on her case, and Lu and Gang were driving her up the wall. She would have much rather spent her days working with Tosuki and Sanji, or even Ikuro, but the three of them actually knew what they were doing without her breathing down their necks, and she felt like she needed to watch Lu and Gang, because they were idiots and also reporting everything back to President Raiko. She felt like she wasn't even running headquarters sometimes, and she wondered why Raiko had wanted her back in the first place. She still had no idea who her replacement would be either, because she and Raiko couldn't agree on anyone and she was pretty adamant that sheknew what was best. She was aware, though, that it was partially because Raiko didn't trust her at the moment. She needed to prove her worth, and find the culprits that had bombed the cultural center and who were attacking shipments leaving the city.
Luckily for her, she caught a break the night of the premier of Varrick's mover finale.
There was a kidnap attempt on the president and his wife in the middle of the show, and although Lin and her officers were not made aware until it was halfway into effect – thanks to Lu and Gang getting themselves tied up and locked in a closet – she was still there to catch Varrick and Zhu-Li just before they tried to make their escape. Ronen, Bolin, and Asami had been on high alert during the show, and managed to save the president and take down all twelve of Raiko's attackers. One of them immediately confessed, before the whole stadium full of people, that it was Varrick that hired them, and that was all Lin needed to arrest him on the spot.
Afterwards, she was feeling rather pleased with herself. The president was congratulating her on a job well done, Mako would be cleared of all charges, Varrick was going down for all the crimes he had committed, and she was finally allowed to fire Lu and Gang.
But then, of course, her world was turned completely upside down.
As she stood outside of the arena with President Raiko, her ears caught a familiar sound, and she tilted her head upwards in time to spot Oogi speeding across the night sky. For a moment, she felt excitement fill her, thinking that perhaps her family had gotten tired of being without her too, that perhaps they had simply decided to come home a little early. She was already descending the front steps as Oogi swooped in for an abrupt landing, the President following her a step behind, but when she saw Korra leaping down from Oogi before the beast had even fully landed, she knew that she was not about to receive good news. She searched the saddle for her kids, but they must have been with Nira, on the Island maybe, because only Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi were there with Korra.
Korra came racing over first, calling, "President Raiko!"
"Avatar Korra," Raiko responded with surprise, "what's wrong?"
"Sir, I know I've asked for your help before, but things have changed. Unalaq doesn't want to just take over the South now. He wants to destroy the whole word."
Figures, Lin thought to herself. Couldn't they go six months without someone trying to take over the world?
Bolin, Ronen, and Asami had rushed over when they spotted Korra too, but Korra did not halt in her explanation, hastily telling the surrounding group, "Unalaq is trying to release a powerful dark spirit during Harmonic Convergence, which is only a few days away. If he succeeds, the world as we know it is over. Sir, we desperately need your help."
Lin looked over at Tenzin as he came to stand behind Korra, trying to get a read on his thoughts on the matter, but he wasn't meeting her gaze, despite the three weeks they had spent apart, focused astutely as he was on Raiko and awaiting the president's response. She could see that it was weighing heavily on him, based on his haggard face. It looked as if he hadn't slept in days and Lin worried about what else she might have missed. And then she noticed Kya, who was looking at Lin with some sort of guilt or grief or both, and Lin frowned. Was there something worse than Unalaq and some dark spirit destroying the world?
Raiko answered Korra then, diverting Lin's attention for half a second as he said, "I'm sorry, Korra, but my answer is still no."
That was when Tenzin suddenly seemed to explode, in a way wholly uncommon for him. Lin had only seen it a few times before, and she felt a jolt of shock run through her as she saw him surge forward, voice coarse and loud as he practically growled at Raiko, "There are lives on the line! And my daughter is one of them! President Raiko, you must reconsider!"
Raiko calmly replied, "I understand that lives are on the line, which is precisely why my troops will remain here. If the world is going to be thrown into chaos as you said, then I must protect my citizens."
But that was all Lin heard before what Tenzin had said fully registered in her head. She felt her heart leap into her throat, and she stomped forward a step to shove her way into Tenzin's space, interrupting whatever else was going on to demand, "What did you just say?!"
Tenzin finally turned to look at her then, as did everyone else, and the expressions of guilt and fear and shame and despair were such that she reeled back the second that Tenzin tried to reach for her. "Lin," he whispered delicately, and his grief was so palpable she felt like she was going to be sick. She didn't even know what had happened, or which daughter, but the unknowing was probably what was making it worse. Her mind was going crazy with all of the possibilities, Tenzin's pointed words echoing in her head, "Lives on the line…my daughter…!" Not my children as a whole, but specifically my daughter.
"What happened?!" she wheezed, breathless already, her voice coming out strained.
"It's Sora," Tenzin revealed, taking a step closer again, carefully, as if she was a wild animal about to snap. "Her soul is trapped in the Spirit World."
Lin was waiting for something normal to come out of his mouth, so it took her a moment to comprehend what he had said, and then then she spluttered, "Her soul is…what? What do you mean her soul is trapped? Trapped how? How did it even get there?"
Tenzin reached for her again, and she was too stunned to move this time so he tentatively grasped her hands. "I'm so sorry, Lin," he told her, sounding like he was about to weep, "I'm so sorry, it's all my fault. Korra needed to get into the Spirit World to stop Unalaq from opening the second portal. I tried to get her there, but you know that even with all of my attempts before, I never could get there, and…once again I failed." He hung his head in shame. "I should have never let Sora go, but she has an amazing connection with the spirits." He met her gaze again, tears shining in his eyes with both pride and sorrow. "If you had seen…and she was so adamant…she wanted to help…"
"I'm sorry, Lin," Korra added, her guilt-ridden gaze flickering to Ronen for a moment too. "We got separated and Unalaq captured her. I tried to save her, but I wasn't strong enough. He had his bending and we didn't and I barely made out, and…one of the dark spirits dragged her away."
Lin snorted humorlessly, shaking her head in disbelief, snatching her hands out of Tenzin's grasp. "So you're telling me that you don't even know where in the Spirit World she is? And she can't just meditate herself back into her body the same way she left it?"
Tenzin and Korra exchanged a look that basically answered Lin's question with its absence of an answer.
"We'll get her back, Lin," Tenzin still insisted. "I promise you. I will find her. I will not rest until I bring our little girl home."
"Right," Lin snorted scathingly, "because I'm sure it's real easy to just pop into the Spirit World, based on your previous inability to do so." He winced and she almost felt guilty. "And more importantly, how the fuck are you supposed to find a single person in a place that's foreign and never ending?"
Tenzin's face hardened as he asserted once again, "I will find her. If we go through the spirit portal in the South Pole, we will still have our bending, and the Spirit World has been known to guide people where they need to go. I will not fail her again."
Lin could see the determination and the fire in his eyes, in the way he set his shoulders and pushed his grief aside. But her heart was consumed with pessimistic worry, and the thought of her baby – her fragile, sweet-hearted Sora – trapped all alone in a place Lin did not even understand…it was crushing her.
"Where is she now?" Lin asked, looking at all four of them – Tenzin, Kya, Bumi, and Korra – and she might have given each of them an accusatory look, even though she didn't totally mean to. They were supposed to keep her daughter safe. She had trusted them, and they had let her down in the worst way. "Her body, I mean."
"On the Island," Tenzin answered. "Nira is with her, and Jin and Jeia."
"I want to see her," Lin said gruffly, even though she wasn't certain that she did. What did someone look like without their soul?
"Of course," Tenzin said, trying to grasp her arm, and she let him now, because frankly she wasn't sure her knees wouldn't buckle.
But she only managed to take one step forward before Raiko's voice was halting her in her tracks again. "Chief Beifong," he said, and she almost ignored him, but turned her head to regard him instead as he feigned sympathy. "I understand that this is a trying time for you, and that you must be with your family now, but I'm going to need the police's help in securing the city. When you can return –"
"I won't be returning," Lin interrupted, before he could say anything further. She thought that she should have felt angry, but she didn't have the energy to feel anything for Raiko anymore. "Tosuki and Ikuro can help you coordinate."
"B – but, Chief," Raiko stammered. "We had a deal."
"Yeah, well, not anymore," Lin told him blandly. "I quit."
She ripped the badge off of her chest plate and threw it at his feet, and then she turned and walked away before he could try and protest a second more. She should have done it months ago, should have never let herself get dragged back in. But none of that mattered anymore. The only things that mattered were her children, Republic City be damned.
Chapter 62: Chapter 62
Chapter Text
Chapter 62
The short trip to the Island was not silent, but Lin registered little that was going on. After she was given a brief rundown of the events she had missed, about Unalaq's plans with Vaatu and Sora's affinity for all things spiritual that had led to her capture, she had closed herself off from the others. She had seated herself at the very front of the saddle, and thankfully, everyone else gave her a wide berth of space. Ronen did crawl up next to her midway through the flight, but she didn't acknowledge him and he didn't press her to talk. Internally, she was seized with panic, her mind racing with all sorts of horrific ideas, about what Sora would look like, about how long she could survive without her soul, about whether or not they would ever make it into the Spirit World, and if they could possibly find Sora in there sometime this century. Externally, of course, she was doing a rather good job at keeping herself together at first. It was what she did best after all, feigning indifference when her emotions were too heavy to bear.
However, even from the moment Oogi first landed on the Island, she could feel her façade cracking. The more she pondered the state her little girl was in, the more distressed she became, and if she had not been so determined, her body might not have obeyed her command when she leapt off of Oogi's back. She did not wait for anyone else, did not stop to consider, but stomped forward on her own, straight into her home. The house had been so uncomfortably quiet while her family was gone, so much so that she had been craving the chaos and the noise, but even now that they were all back, the house was still eerily quiet when she stepped inside. Tenzin hadn't said where exactly Sora's body was, but Lin made the assumption that he would have taken her to her bedroom, and so that was where Lin went.
Her presumption proved to be correct, and she instinctively began to slow her footsteps and quiet her approach as she neared the room. The door was open, but the lights were all off, except for a dim lamp so far off in a corner that it barely shed any light on the four occupants of the room. Lin halted in the doorway when she spotted the familiar figures, and the scene she came upon was nearly enough to send her running in the opposite direction already. Sora's prone form was laying on one side of the bed, and right next to her was Yunjin, curled up on his side to face his sister and one of his hands draped over both of hers that had been folded over her chest. The boy was sleeping, but fitfully, and Lin figured that he probably hadn't left his twin's side since the moment Sora's soul was lost. Lin could not fully understand the connection the two of them shared, but she had always known it went deeper than any other sibling bond, and she did not know if Yunjin could ever recover if…
But Lin could not think that way, had to shake her head to clear such heavy thoughts from her mind. Her gaze shifted next to Nira, who was the only one of the four awake, slouched in a chair next to Yunjin's side of the bed, her expression pinched into a grievous frown. Jeia was sprawled across Nira's chest, and did not stir even when Nira surged suddenly to her feet at the sight of Lin.
"Lin," Nira gasped in a whisper.
But Lin waved her hand in a downward motion and urged, "Sit, sit."
Nira hesitated, but dropped back down, carefully cradling Jeia so as not to add any further distress to the toddler. She was watching Lin carefully, but Lin had eyes only for Sora now as she finally crossed fully over the threshold and moved further into the room.
When Lin came to a stop at the edge of the bed and saw Sora at last, she sucked in a sharp breath that got caught somewhere in her chest. She had been keeping it together ever since Tenzin had told her about Sora's soul being trapped, had been a little in disbelief and not wholly certain what it even meant, but now that she could see it with her own eyes, she was struggling just to breathe.
Sora's whole complexion was frighteningly pale, her chapped lips all but blending into her face. And she was so still. There was no flicker beneath her eyelids, no twitch of a finger, and her chest barely moved to show signs of breath. Lin even reached out to check, and was not relieved by the short puffs of air that she barely felt, nor the unhealthily slow beat of Sora's pulse. Maybe she was being dramatic, but Lin had seen a lot of dead or dying bodies in her life, and the fact that her daughter looked so eerily similar to some of those…
It was like a punch to the gut, and Lin pressed her hand over her mouth and nose, imagining, all of a sudden, that awful scent of decay, imagining Sora's slow breaths just petering out to nothing. She felt her head spinning and her vision darkening around the edges the longer she stood there and imagined the worst, and she knew it was the wrong thing to do, knew that Sora was not actually dead and they had a chance to save her still, but… But she didn't know that, not really. Who was to say how long Sora's body could survive without her soul? Who was to say how long it would take for Lin and Tenzin to find Sora's soul and return it to her body? Would they be too late? Would they ever find it? Could the last words that Lin had said to Sora before the girl left for the Eastern Air Temple have been the last words she ever said to her little girl?
Lin felt her stomach pitch and she whirled away, no longer able to stand there and stare at Sora that way. That body…it wasn't her little girl, it wasn't Sora. It was an empty body that looked like Sora, but Sora was bright and loving and beautiful. Sora had a smile that lit up a room and eyes like her father's and an all-encompassing compassion. She never stayed still, even in her sleep she kicked and rolled and murmured, and Lin used to get so frustrated when toddler Sora would climb into bed with her parents. Now, Lin would have gladly let Sora kick her in the spine every night if it meant seeing that little face alight with life once more.
Lin staggered forward, frantically heading for the exit, trying to get out. She felt like she was suffocating, like she was about to pass out or be sick or both. She knocked into several people as soon as she stumbled into the hall, but she couldn't comprehend who it was or what they were saying. There was a ringing in her ears and all of the sounds were coming to her from far away, muffled as if she was underwater. She pushed them out of her way as her stomach flipped over again, and she raced down the hall and back outside. The cool night air smacked her in the face and she heaved for breath, hoping it might lend some calm, that it would chase away the sweat that had broken out across her skin.
Instead, her stomach heaved, and she gagged, bending over with her hands braced on her knees, her arms shaking so badly she nearly pitched over. Nothing came out – she couldn't even remember if she had eaten yet today aside from breakfast – and when her stomach simply clenched into a knot instead of heaving again, she let herself collapse onto the ground. She scrambled to find her way, wondering why her vision was so blurred and then realizing that her eyes were filled to the brim with tears. She let her seismic sense guide her instead, crawling over until she could lean against the siding of the veranda, trying not to totally collapse in on herself, but too weak to stay upright without some help. She felt her emotions begin to consume her, to a point that she knew she would not be able to control if she did not put a stop to it now, but it seemed too little too late. Pressing her fist into her chest and squeezing her eyes closed and biting down so hard on her lips that she tasted blood did not stop the wave of grief. The tears came pouring out of her, along with a low whine that wanted to turn into something a lot more guttural, but she managed to hold that back at least.
She knew she was being stupid, over dramatic, that Sora wasn't dead, and she wasn't going to die, because Lin would go to the ends of the Earth for her kids, and she would tear apart the whole damn Spirit World for them too. She would find Sora's soul, she had to, but there was still that ever present doubt niggling at the back of her mind, and the image of Sora so silent and still…
She had a moment to think that maybe it was better that she get all the heartache out now anyways. Maybe it was better that she dealt with her pain instead of stuffing it down deep inside to explode at another time. So she allowed herself to sit there like a sniveling idiot and weep, so that when she got ahold of herself, she could focus all of her energy on getting Sora back.
She did not track the time, but it seemed as if little of it had passed before she noticed someone next to her. She expected it to be Tenzin, but the arms that slipped around her shoulders were not his and the natural smell was distinctly something else. She couldn't see, but she knew that it was Kya. And the appearance of her sister-in-law should have caused her to seize up, to clamp down on her outpouring of sorrow, but she was in too deep to stop herself now. So she leaned into the embrace and let herself be held, and despite herself, she took some solace from it. She had known Kya all her life, they had been through so many trials together, and Kya was the one that was closest to Sora in some ways. Kya and Lin shared their grief and their worry for that little girl as Lin wept and Kya trembled.
It took some time, but eventually Lin managed to stutter her sobbing just enough to choke out, "How long?"
"It's only been two days," Kya soothed, misinterpreting the question, running her fingers through Lin's hair.
"No," Lin immediately croaked, sitting up enough to look Kya in the eye, and her tears must have been abating because she could actually make out the features of Kya's face. "How long can her body live without her soul?"
Kya looked stricken and overwhelmed as she shook her head and regretfully admitted, "I don't know. She is weakening, but I've been able to sustain her so far. We should take her to Mom, she'll be able to help."
That wasn't a good enough answer, in Lin's opinion. If Sora was weakening already, after just two days, then what would she be like after two more? It would take them that long at least to prepare a plan and start heading for the South Pole. It could take them longer still to punch through the blockade that Unalaq had apparently set up around the spirit portal. Lin wasn't often prone to panic, but she was well on her way now. To lose one of her children was an unbearable thought. She would rather have both her arms cut off, would rather lose her bending for good this time. If she lost Sora…she didn't know that she could survive. Sora and Ronen and Jeia and Yunjin were her heart, and to take one of them away would be like ripping the organ from her chest. She had always known that she would do anything for them, that seeing them come to harm was agonizing, but she hadn't quite realized just how dependent she was upon them now. She had always prided herself on her independence, on her unwavering fortitude in the face of sorrow, but even the simple image of Sora without a soul had brought her to her knees. Anything worse and she might as well bury herself six feet under.
But if there was one thing she had not lost, even in the face of such agonizing turmoil, it was her pointed determination. She would not accept that Sora was gone. She would not lie down and let fate work itself out. She would wipe away the snot and the tears, and she would rise on stronger legs, and tonight she would begin to plan. She would seek out Tenzin and Korra and maybe Ronen too, and she would learn all that she could about the Spirit World, about what they might face. She would have walked in there blind, if need be, but she worked better with some sort of plan in place. She had avoided all things spiritual for most of her life, had smirked when Tenzin beseeched her to try, but today she would set all of that aside. For Sora, she would learn, and she would be ready, so that when she walked into that nightmare, she would have a fighting chance.
So that was what Lin set out to do, pushing herself up on trembling legs, allowing herself a moment to use Kya's arms to steady herself. Then she took a breath and centered herself in the now, and she stepped back from Kya's embrace. She cleared her throat and implored, "Do me a favor and keep Sora alive until I get her spirit back, yeah?"
Kya did not hesitate to nod firmly. "I swear to you, Lin. I swear I won't let her go."
Lin just hoped that was enough. She acknowledged Kya's promise and then strode away, in search of a husband she wasn't sure she could look in the face.
She didn't want to go back to Sora's room, but she poked her head in just to check. She saw Ronen now at his sister's bedside, and the others still in their former place, and Lin hastily left before they could notice her in the doorway. She didn't have time to break down anymore, and looking the rest of her children in the eye right now would be too tough. Part of her wanted to hold all of them in her arms, to cherish every second that she had with them considering that she hadn't done it enough before and the world was on the verge of collapsing into darkness, but if she wanted to save Sora she had to focus.
She found Tenzin in his home office, which had been left immaculate and untouched the entire time he was away, but when Lin stepped into the room it had drastically changed. Various books and ancient writings were strewn about the room, in piles on the floor and cluttered on the desk. Tenzin was in the midst of it all, looking terribly stressed, tossing things aside and muttering under his breath. He didn't hear her enter, nor did he react when she cleared her throat, so immersed in his own thoughts as he was.
It wasn't until she loudly called, "What are you doing?" that he registered her presence at all.
He looked up at her with a start, surprise and guilt coloring his features the moment their eyes met and he gasped, "Lin…"
"What are you doing?" she repeated, carefully stepping further into the room.
"Oh, um," Tenzin stammered, looking around with his brow furrowed a little in confusion, "looking for some more information on the Spirit World. I wanted to give myself a refresher, for when I go in there."
"You think you can get me up to speed?" Lin asked.
Tenzin seemed bewildered. "You want to know about the Spirit World?"
Lin snorted disbelievingly. "Might help to know what I'm doing, or did you think I'd just sit around here and cry about it?"
"Oh, no, no, that's not what I meant," Tenzin immediately backpedaled. "I'm sorry, I just thought…you hate all that spirit nonsense."
"Now more than ever," Lin grumbled, "but I'll do anything to get Sora back."
Tenzin nodded and then he just stared at her, and they looked at each other with a distance between them, and not just a physical one. Lin felt like maybe she should have been nicer, and maybe she should have been more understanding, but for a moment she let her anger target him as she accused, "How could you let this happen? You were supposed to protect them."
His shoulders deflated and she could see the misery in his eyes, the tears he was still fighting to hold back. He shook his head and murmured, "I'm so sorry. I know it doesn't change what happened, but I don't know what else to say. I'm already kicking myself for letting her go in there without me."
Lin looked away, because the longer she looked at him the more she felt like she was going to get emotional again. She had a bad habit of needing someone to blame when things went terribly wrong, and she knew it wasn't right, and it wasn't his fault, but it was easier than admitting her own fault. Because it was just as much her responsibility to protect Sora, but she hadn't been there, she hadn't been with her family at a time when they needed her. And maybe she wouldn't have been able to change anything, but maybe she could have done something. She didn't know the first thing about spirits and meditation, but she would have damn well tried if it kept Sora safe. Or maybe she could have helped Tenzin calm down so that he could make it into the Spirit World. When he had struggled to connect to the Spirit World before, she had just told him not to worry so much, that it didn't matter that he couldn't get there, that he wasn't a failure and that it was a waste of time to fret over it. Maybe she should have been doing the opposite, maybe she should have encouraged him to try in different ways.
But it didn't matter now because it was too late. Lin had not been there and so she had failed her family. She had stayed behind in Republic City again, always trying to do the right thing and neglecting what was most important. If anything worse happened to Sora it was just as much her fault as anyone else's. Well, aside from Unalaq, whom Lin was determined to bury alive if she ever got the chance.
All of a sudden, Tenzin was striding around the desk, kicking aside all those important books as he went. He walked right up to her, but stopped a few steps back. "I know that you are angry with me," he said in a near whisper, "and you have every right to be, but is there anyway you can forgive me? I know that I failed you, and I failed Sora, but I…I need you, Lin." The tears finally escaped his eyes then and went racing down his cheeks. "I don't think I can do this on my own. I don't want to fail our little girl again."
All of the anger seemed to leave Lin in a rush as she felt her chest tightening again, and it was probably a good thing she had already wept her fill, or she would have been blubbering along with him. Instead, she reached out and grabbed his wrist and dragged him towards her, and when he crashed into her chest he slumped so heavily against her that she had to latch her metal boots to the floor to help hold them both upright.
"Don't be stupid," she muttered, as he buried his face in her neck and struggled not to outright sob. "We're in this together. I'm sorry I'm being an ass I just…" she sighed harshly and rubbed his back roughly with one hand, the other cradling the back of his head. She wasn't sure how to voice why, but she knew that he knew. "We both screwed up, but we're gonna get her back. We're gonna fix this. We've been in these kinds of messes before. And Sora has to know we're coming for her. She'll wait for us. She isn't the type to give up."
Tenzin nodded against her, but he couldn't speak yet and she said no more either. She didn't know what else there was to say. She was still floundering between being angry and distraught and being determined and sure. Not getting Sora back wasn't really an option, but it was a huge concern. She had to stop blaming Tenzin though, maybe even stop blaming herself. It was Unalaq's fault and Unalaq who would pay, she would make certain of that.
She allowed Tenzin his own time to seek comfort in her embrace, soothing him as best she could in her current state, and then, when he managed to catch his breath and settle down, she cradled his face in her hands and took a moment to finally look at him without being angry or in shock. They had been apart for nearly three weeks and it had been killing her, and now they were reunited and they couldn't even find a moment to be happy because their daughter's life was hanging in the balance. The fate of the whole world was at stake. If they failed to stop Unalaq and that dark spirit, they might very well be wiped from the Earth in a few days.
Tenzin leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers, and they both closed their eyes and released heavy sighs. Lin allowed herself another moment to breathe him in, to revel in the touch of his hands on her waist, and then she murmured to him, "Come on, teach me everything you can about the Spirit World."
For Ronen, seeing Korra for the first time in so long was overwhelming for a number of reasons. At first, when he had seen her arriving with his father and aunt and uncle, he had been both worried excited. On the one hand, something must have gone wrong if she had gone back to his father and his family had returned to Republic City a few days early, but on the other, he was just so thrilled to see her again, and better that she seemed unharmed.
However, before the two of them could even speak to one another, he had listened as she told President Raiko about Unalaq's plans to unleash Vaatu on the world. And if that wasn't bad enough already, then his father had revealed that Sora's soul was currently trapped in the Spirit World. Ronen had been too stunned to move at first, too troubled to speak, and so he had stood there as his mother demanded answers and his friends' eyes all turned to him. He noticed Korra's guilt-ridden gaze, but he didn't blame her for what had happened. He could tell that his mother was struggling not to blame everyone else, that she was on the verge of a meltdown but seemingly in a state of shock. He considered it a miracle that she didn't start tearing apart the street in rage. When she threw her badge at Raiko and told him she quit, he had not been all that surprised, but he did feel his gut twist for a moment with regret. He was the one that had coerced his mother into staying as Chief a few days ago when all she had wanted was to quit. She had wanted to go and be with the rest of the family, but Ronen had insisted the city needed her more. But he had been wrong, and now Sora was lost, and he knew his mother would never stop beating herself up for it as if it had been all her fault.
Ronen was numb as they started moving back towards Oogi, because his mother wanted to see Sora and Ronen did too. Before he could climb atop the sky bison, however, Korra stopped him long enough to tell him she was sorry and envelop him in a tight hug.
Once he had recovered from his initial surprise, Ronen hugged her back and murmured, "It's not your fault. And I'm sorry too."
Korra pulled back to look at him in confusion as she asked, "Sorry for what?"
"You know," Ronen answered with a shrug, "for our fight. Before you left. I'm sorry I said what I did. I'm sorry I didn't support you well enough. You were right to be upset."
Korra frowned. "Oh, we had a fight?"
Ronen frowned too. "Yeah, you showed up at headquarters to yell at Mako and I got involved and…you don't remember?"
"I'm sorry, I don't," Korra said with a shake of her head. "I sort of got swallowed by a dark spirit and lost my memories and met the first Avatar." Ronen's eyes went wide. "But that's a long story. I'll tell you later. Whatever we fought for…it doesn't matter. I forgive you, or I hope you can forgive me, if it was my fault. It might have been. I know I've been acting kind of crazy lately."
Ronen shook his head. "I was being an idiot. I should have understood where your actions were coming from. Can we talk about it later?"
"Of course, I'm sure you wanna go to the Island…" she trailed off, looking guilty again.
Asami and Bolin converged on them then, with Asami hugging Ronen with sorrow and Bolin hugging Korra with delight.
"I was so worried about you!" Bolin told Korra. "I was gonna come looking, but Varrick turned out to be a bad guy and things got kinda crazy here. I wanna know everything that happened…when you're ready! You don't have to tell me now. I just wanted to tell you how happy I am to see you. It hasn't been the same here without you."
"I missed you too, Bolin," Korra said softly. "I'll tell all of you what happened, just as soon as I can. Where's Mako?"
"Uh, currently on house arrest awaiting trial," Bolin answered, "but the charges should be dropped now!"
"What charges?" Korra exclaimed in surprise.
"Oh, well, you know, Varrick just framed him for stealing all of Asami's business stuff –"
"Stealing Asami's what?"
"A lot's happened here too," Ronen said as he forced himself to disengage from Asami. As comforting as the embrace was, there was a lot to be done, and his family was waiting for him on Oogi. "Why don't you three go let Mako know the good…and bad…news? You can meet me on the Island later."
"I'll go with you now," Asami insisted, her hand coming up to squeeze his shoulder.
"Yeah, you shouldn't have to go alone," Korra added.
"We can call Mako when we get to the Island," Bolin suggested.
"I appreciate it, guys, but I won't be alone," Ronen reasoned. "I think I need to be with my family right now anyway. Go get Mako, and we'll talk when you get to the Island."
All three of them still seemed about to protest, but he turned away before they could and jogged over to Oogi. He hastily scrambled up onto the saddle, and his father instantly took off. On the way, Bumi and Kya gave a brief rundown of what they knew about Unalaq's blockade around the Southern spirit portal and Vaatu. Neither of them knew much, but enough to get the point across to explain what Ronen and Lin had missed. Also, they talked about Sora, how she had a connection with the spirits and was the only one that could get Korra into the Spirit World. Ronen was proud of his little sister, for having such an amazing gift and for being so brave by volunteering to take Korra, but he also felt very scared for her. He could not imagine what she could be enduring in the Spirit World on her own, nor did he know how long her body could live without a soul inside of it.
Ronen could see his mother shutting down once she had the information she needed, her gaze straightforward and her body hunched as far from everyone else as possible. Ronen went to her side, feeling as though he should do something, wanting desperately to comfort her, but he did not reach out. He left her to her own thoughts, but remained a solitary presence at her side.
She did not move an inch until they reached the Island, and then she went hastening into the house so quickly that Ronen almost missed her movements. He descended from Oogi a lot slower, and he and his father and Aunt Kya and Uncle Bumi dawdled a little, to give Lin some time with Sora on her own. Or maybe it was Ronen that was hesitant to go inside and the others were just waiting on him.
By the time Ronen and the three adults made it to Sora's bedroom, Ronen was feeling a little overwhelmed, only taking a deep, calming breath when he felt his father's arm around his shoulders. The comfort of his father's support felt like enough to get him into Sora's room, but he had barely taken a step towards the threshold when his mother suddenly came hurtling out of the room. She looked pale and panicked, her hand pressed to her mouth as if she was going to be sick, and her eyes were wide but she seemed not to see anything in front of her. She crashed into all four of them and barely reacted, fighting her way through to get past them, seeming not to hear any of their words as they called after her.
Then she was racing down the hall and back out the front door, and Ronen's father moved as if to follow, but Aunt Kya pressed a hand to his shoulder to stop him. "No, I'll go," she said. "Stay with Ronen."
She went rushing after Lin, and Ronen felt his own stomach jolt. Was it really that bad?
His Uncle Bumi was staring after Lin and Kya with a sad frown, but he turned back to face Ronen and forced a weak smile, squeezing his nephew's shoulder reassuringly.
Ronen swallowed past the lump in his throat and turned to look into Sora's room. He forced himself to enter, to walk up to the bed without further hesitation, and seeing his sister lying there so pale and lifeless was jolting. The sad sight of Yunjin curled against his twin's side was no better. Unlike his mother though, Ronen felt the pressing need to stay rather than run, at least for a little while. He settled himself down in a chair next to Sora's bed, and he told his father that he could go, because he could tell that Tenzin was struggling to just stand there and endure the miserable situation, despite his very best efforts to pretend otherwise. Tenzin hesitated to go, of course, but eventually admitted to wanting to read through a few old books before they went into the Spirit World. He urged Ronen to come find him in his home office if he needed him, pressed a kiss to Sora's forehead, and then swept from the room. Uncle Bumi stayed, taking up a rigid stance by the window as if he was keeping guard on all of them.
Ronen just sat there at Sora's bedside for a while, watching over his little siblings as Yunjin and Jeia slept fitfully and Sora's body remained still. He sniffled back a few tears, and saw Nira struggling not to come to his side to comfort him, her arms filled with Jeia, but Ronen shook his head to assure her that she needn't disturb his baby sister just for him. He was worried and saddened, for Sora, for his parents, and it was all very emotionally daunting, but he also had the utmost faith that they would figure it out. They would find Sora's soul and they would stop Unalaq and Vaatu. Ronen still believed that his family and his friends could achieve anything when they worked together, even if all of them could not yet believe it themselves.
It wasn't much later before Ronen turned at the sound of movement in the doorway, and he watched as Asami came hurrying into the room. She stopped at his side, gripping his shoulder and giving him an empathetic look, and he reached his hand up to squeeze hers gratefully. Her gaze shifted to Sora, and she flinched a little.
Ronen rose to his feet, Asami's hand still in his, and asked in a whisper, "Are Korra and the others all here?"
Asami nodded mutely, wrenching her gaze from Sora at last.
"Let's go," he said.
"Are you sure?" Asami asked.
Ronen nodded firmly. There was little he could do for Sora by sitting at her side. He needed to get the full story out of Korra and figure out their next moves.
Asami must have seen that in his eyes, because she did not press further. She stepped forward for a brief moment to lightly touch Sora's shoulder, and then she turned back and let Ronen lead her from the room.
As they were leaving, his Aunt Kya entered, and Ronen stilled in the doorway for a moment to watch his aunt run healing waters over Sora's form. The girl did not so much as shudder, and Ronen forced himself to swallow his grief and turn away.
Lin spent several hours listening to Tenzin tell her all about the Spirit World, and though it did not lull her to sleep as it had in the past, it still severely frustrated her. She just didn't understand, and it was all so weird. And it didn't make her very optimistic when Tenzin began listing all of the terrible places that the dark spirits might have taken Sora to. There was also the matter of hunting Sora down, which couldn't be done in any normal way and in a place so vast was nigh on impossible. Apparently, Korra had been guided through the Spirit World by Iroh, a man Lin hadn't seen since she was nine years old, but still remembered fondly, and she asked why they couldn't just find him and let him guide them to Sora, but Tenzin wasn't certain that it worked that way, which made Lin huff in annoyance. The Spirit World was stupid, and Lin was no closer to understanding its illogical nature.
She was eventually given a welcome reprieve, when she heard a toddler voice sleepily calling, "Mama!" followed by Yunjin's much louder, "Mom!" which caused Lin to wonder to herself, Had Yunjin's voice gotten deeper? How much have I missed?
She whirled around just in time to see Yunjin sprinting into the room, a gust of wind hurling books and parchments every which way, and in the wake of his storm came Jeia toddling at a slightly slower pace, and Nira raced after the children further behind.
Lin caught Yunjin as he barreled into her stomach and chest, and had to whirl around in a full circle to keep them from crashing into the floor. She squeezed him so tight, reassured by his warmth and his steady breath, stroking his long hair and telling him over and over, "I love you, I love you…" as if she needed to make certain to remind him. She felt him shudder once, and the shoulder of her sleeve grew damp, but the boy was too proud to outwardly weep, and he kept his face pressed against her until he could regain control.
In that short time, Jeia Rai had reached them, and Lin bent over just enough to grab hold of the toddler and lift her up. Then she held both of them to her, as Jeia wrapped her little arms around her mother's neck and Yunjin's remained wrapped around her waist. She peppered Jeia's cheek with kisses and repeated the same mantra she'd given to Yunjin.
Lin looked over at Nira with a questioning gaze, and Nira softly answered without further prompting, "Kya and Bumi are with her. When Jin and Jeia woke they wanted to see you."
Lin nodded and mouthed a, "Thank you," and Nira pressed a hand to her heart in a gesture of support, Lin supposed, and then departed.
Lin just held Jin and Jeia after that, reveling in their nearness, and she swore to herself then and there that they would never be parted for so long again. There was nothing in the world more important than them.
Across the room, Tenzin seemed to hesitate, until Lin beckoned him over with a jerk of her head, and he came rushing over to join the embrace. He enveloped all three of them in his arms, and Lin was grateful, even if she did silently lament that Sora was not with them. They would get the girl back, and they would be whole again, and Lin would never forget to cherish them ever again.
Lin did not sleep that night. Instead, she let Jeia cling to her while Tenzin continued to educate her on spirit nonsense. She also spent a while heatedly arguing with Yunjin, who was adamant about going through the spirit portal to find Sora himself, but Lin would shackle him to a post before she'd let that happen. As inhumane as it may have sounded, she wasn't losing anymore kids in that horrific place, and she would do whatever it took to keep Yunjin and Jeia safe. She couldn't do much in the way of keeping Ronen out of it, but he was at least closer to an adult and had more experience. There was no way she was letting Yunjin into that portal though.
She didn't visit Sora again until morning, and in the harsh light of day the girl looked no better, but Lin didn't go running out of the room at the sight of her so there was progress at least. No one else in the house really seemed to sleep – or on the Island for that matter, because even many of the Acolytes were distraught when they heard about Sora – and most of them skipped breakfast. There was, at least, some excuse for that, because first thing in the morning, Lin went into the city with Ronen and Korra and the other teens to get some answers out of the imprisoned Varrick.
When Lin first stepped into headquarters, she expected to have to put up a fight, but was instead invited through the door as if she had never left. News had apparently spread fast, because everyone she passed was giving her a hard look and a clap on the back – the police way of giving sympathy without pissing someone off for giving pity or false assurances. Lin felt a little overwhelmed by the outpouring of support, considering her current state of mind, but managed to make it up to the Chief's office without having a breakdown. Raiko had begrudgingly instated Tosuki as temporary Chief, since he was the only one Lin had really been training for the position, aside from Ikuro, who remained on as Deputy.
Tosuki was happy to help Lin in anyway he could, and took her and the kids straight to Varrick's holding cell, which, of course, was immaculately decorated, as if he was just on a weird vacation with his secretary. Surprisingly, Varrick didn't try to withhold any information, and easily told them that he had put all of Asami's stolen things onto his battleship called the Zhu Li, and that they were welcome to take it to the South Pole. It wouldn't have the same punch as the United Forces would have had, but it was a start, at least.
As soon as they obtained Varrick's battleship and returned to the Island, Lin and the others began preparing to leave. There was a long discussion about what to do about Jin and Jeia first, which then turned into an argument about whether or not to involve Su.
They had all been congregated in the dining room, Kya having finally convinced all of them that they needed to sit down and eat a proper meal. Most of them had complained about not having time, but between Kya and Bumi harassing them and corralling them away from whatever they were doing, they all eventually ended up around the table together.
As they were hastily shoving food in their mouths, Tenzin had asked, "Should we take Yunjin and Jeia to Zaofu first?"
And Yunjin immediately exploded, "No way! I'm not leaving Sora's side! If you won't let me go into the Spirit World, fine, but I'm not letting her body go to the South Pole without me. She needs me. What if you find her soul and she gets lost or something trying to get back? I need to be there. She'll recognize me first."
Lin wasn't certain that was how it worked, but then again, what did she know? Still very little despite Tenzin's best efforts.
"All right, calm down," Lin told Yunjin tiredly. She knew why he was acting belligerent, but she was too exhausted to argue with him.
Then Ronen suggested, "Hey, why don't we ask Aunt Su for help? I'm sure she could lend us a few airships and Metal Clan fighters –"
Lin immediately interjected with a firm, "No."
"Hang on," Korra chimed in, "that's not a bad idea. Let's face it, we're gonna need all the help we can get, and I bet Su would be happy to –"
"I said no," Lin reiterated vehemently. "We aren't dragging Su into this."
"Why not?" Ronen demanded. "Shouldn't Aunt Su decide?"
Lin was growing increasingly frustrated, lips pursed and back hunching forward, and then she felt Tenzin's gentle hand on her shoulder, squeezing until she turned to face him. His tone was softer as he asked, "Don't you think Su would want to help?"
Lin thought about the last civil war she had dragged her sister into, the scars Su still bore, the fact that Su still had nightmares of that time…and she scoffed. "Of course she would. If she knew about Sora she'd be on the first flight to the South Pole to probably get herself captured or killed. I won't let that happen."
"Vaatu could destroy the whole world if we don't stop Unalaq!" Korra argued.
"Which is precisely why I won't involve her in this," Lin said stubbornly, folding her arms across her chest. "If the world's about to end, then let her live out the rest of her days happy and oblivious with her family. It's bad enough the rest of us could be spending our last moments like this. We leave my sister out of it, and that's final."
Lin's harsh words seem to subdue everyone else around the table, and they dropped the subject and their gazes all at once. Ronen stared at his mother with a slight frown for a few seconds, but she stared right back, and eventually he nodded and looked away.
They all turned their attention back to their plates to hurriedly finish, and after everyone else had left the dining room, Lin and Tenzin finished their initial discussion. They decided to take Jin and Jeia with them to the South Pole, and leave the two youngsters with their grandmother and Sora's body, despite the risks it may pose. It was unlikely that anyone would attack the secluded compound where Korra once lived, and it felt better to keep all of the children close at the current time, with everything that was at stake. Lin and the others would hopefully be doing a good job of distracting the Northern troops anyway, and Unalaq had more on his mind than carrying out an attack on a healing hut. At least, that was what Lin and Tenzin hoped anyway.
That evening, they all climbed aboard Varrick's battleship and set out for the South Pole, with Oogi and Naga onboard as well. Nira also came, despite Lin and Tenzin's assertion that she had done more than enough for them and did not have to feel obligated to help further. But Nira was adamant that she be there to take care of Jeia and Yunjin once they reached the South Pole, and for Sora too, when the girl's soul returned, in case it took Lin and Tenzin some time to get back. Honestly, Lin couldn't help but feel relieved, because it was already next to impossible for her to get Jeia to detach from her ever since they had returned to the city. Then again, Lin wasn't exactly protesting much; she wanted Jeia close too. But hopefully having Nira there along with Katara would make it easier to get Jeia to let her parents go.
Lin was exhausted enough to finally get some sleep on Varrick's ship that night, despite the anxiety of what was to come and the general discomfort of trying to sleep on an unfamiliar bed on a rocking ship. The next morning, everyone was up early, with Korra doing some airbending practice with Tenzin, Bumi solemnly playing the flute, Kya carrying out another healing session to keep Sora's body going, Ronen meticulously putting together something that looked like it was probably a weapon, Asami controlling the ship, Mako and Bolin doing whatever, and Lin spending what time she had left with Yunjin and Jeia. She had been apart from the kids for so long, and now everything was so bleak and she would be parting from them again soon, and she couldn't bring herself to leave them for any extended period of time.
Eventually, though, Yunjin returned to his twin's side, and Jeia acquiesced to going with Nira while Lin went to talk with the others about what they intended to do when they reached the South Pole.
Tenzin's plan was to go crashing and blasting through the blockade to rendezvous with Tonraq's Southern Water Tribe Forces, and under different circumstances, Lin might have found his fierce determination attractive. As it were, she found the plan a little too aggressive for their lack of means. Bumi agreed with Lin, voicing a necessity for strategy, and then going on a long-winded tangent about some battle with pirates and molasses or something. Tenzin had then exploded at his brother for not taking their situation seriously, and Lin had to calm her husband with a firm squeeze of his arm and a slightly irritated, "Relax, he's just trying to help in his own weird way."
That was right about the time when Asami showed up to tell them that she had received a distress signal from the southern troops, which destroyed their plans for a rendezvous and probably lowered their chances of getting through the blockade around the Southern portal. They continued to make a few hurried plans just before they reached the shore, but Lin figured those plans would be useless when it got down to the actual fighting. They were way outnumbered and short on time.
They took Oogi the rest of the way to the compound, and when they landed, Korra's mother came out to tearfully greet her daughter. According to Senna, Unalaq and the North had wiped out the entire Southern resistance and captured Tonraq.
When Tenzin asked where his mother was, Senna shook her head and gravely answered, "In the healing hut. So many injured…"
Tenzin led the way inside, Sora in his arms, Yunjin and Ronen on his left, and Lin on his right with Jeia on her hip.
The scene inside was grim, and Lin unconsciously tried to turn Jeia's head away from the sight of it, but the girl had already seen and the sounds and the smells could not be hidden from her. There were an untold number of injured troops clustered together in the small space. The place reeked of blood and various other stomach churning smells, and some of the men were groaning in pain. Lin began to wonder if bringing Jeia and Yunjin had been the wrong decision to make, but there was no taking it back now, and unfortunately, it wasn't as if this was even their first civil war. She just wished she could have shielded them from the world's disasters for a little while longer. Jeia was so little…
Lin swallowed forcefully and wrenched her gaze away from the gruesome scene just as Katara came rushing over, her face awash with concern as she gazed upon Sora's limp form in Tenzin's arms and exclaimed, "What happened?"
"Her soul is trapped in the Spirit World," Tenzin murmured sadly.
"Oh my goodness," Katara said grievously. "How long has she been away?"
Kya stepped forward from behind Lin to solemnly answer, "Almost a week. I've been trying to keep her energy flowing, but I can feel her slipping away. You're the only one that can help her now, Mom."
Katara hastily ushered all of them into the private healing room – except for Korra and the other teens, who remained outside of the cluttered hut –, where Tenzin gently lowered Sora into the healing waters and asked, "How much longer can she survive like this?"
As Katara sat down and began to work on Sora, she grimly answered, "I don't know, but she's very strong to have lasted this long."
Katara's words felt like a punch to the stomach, and Lin could hardly bear to look at Sora's pale form shimmering in the small pool. She buried her face in Tenzin's shoulder and hoped their little girl was strong enough to hold out just a little bit longer.
Then came the difficult part…leaving the kids behind.
Katara was still working on Sora and Yunjin was on the other side of the pool, watching his twin closely. Jeia was clinging to her mother, and Lin looked pointedly over at Nira, who nodded wordlessly and came right over to Lin's side. Lin stroked Jeia's back and murmured softly to the toddler, "Jeia, listen to me, kid…" Jeia lifted her head to look her mother in the eye. "Your Dad and I gotta go find your big sister. You're gonna stay here with Gran-Gran and Nira and Jin, okay?"
Jeia immediately protested with a shake of her head, "No, you can't go. You can't leave. Yous always leave."
Lin flinched, but shook her head too. "No, not anymore, not after this. As soon as I get back, I promise, I'm never leaving you again, okay? But I gotta find Sora. You want Sora to get better right?"
Jeia glanced over at her sister's body with a pout and then muttered stubbornly, "Yous can't leave."
"I've got a mission for you too, though," Lin coaxed, remembering the way Jeia responded to Kuvira when she treated Jeia like an honorable member of the Metal Clan guard. "I need you to take care of your brother and sister while the rest of us are away. Sora is very sick and Yunjin is scared and they need you now. Can you do that, Jeia? Can you protect them?"
As predicted, Jeia perked up a little, looking torn for a moment, but eventually deciding, "Yes, Mama, I'm a big girl."
Lin nodded, but clenched her jaw to hold back the emotion Jeia's words evoked. The girl was five and she'd already seen more horrors than she should have. She was already trying to grow up before she even really got to be a kid and it broke Lin's heart. Ronen and the twins, at least, had gotten to their teens before their lives started spiraling out of control, but Jeia had been born into a war, and it seemed that she was destined to keep enduring the same insanity for years to come. "You are a very brave girl," Lin told Jeia, "and I love you very much."
"I love you too, Mama," Jeia assured, leaning in to hug her mother tight around the neck again. "Yous better come back."
"I will," Lin swore, even though it could have been a lie. She had to believe that they would make it back, with Sora's soul returned and Unalaq's destroyed.
Tenzin joined in then to give Jeia his love too, and then he and Lin were passing the toddler over to Nira, who hesitated a moment before surging forward to hug them both briefly as well. "Come back soon," she urged, voice choked with emotion.
Afterwards, Lin went over to hug Yunjin and told him, "Hang in there, kid. Sora will be back soon. Make sure she sticks around until we get her soul, yeah?"
Yunjin nodded firmly and then turned to embrace his father. Lin looked down at Sora and thought, We're coming, Sora, please just be strong a little bit longer. She reached out to gently touch the top of Sora's head, and then wrenched her gaze away and sucked in a deep breath as she rose to her feet.
She strode out of the healing room without looking back once, switching her focus to what it needed to be now. She couldn't worry about her kids right now. She needed to be in battle ready mode in order to fight through the Northern troops, Unalaq, and some crazy dark spirit. Not exactly her usual Wednesday, but close enough.
All nine of them regrouped outside – Lin, Tenzin, Kya, Bumi, Ronen, Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin.
Korra first said, "I talked to the rebels. They said Unalaq's still got the southern portal surrounded. And Harmonic Convergence is only a few hours away."
"Then we need to break through the enemy lines ourselves and get to the portal now," Tenzin said fiercely.
"There's no use in talking anymore," Korra agreed, "We know what our mission is."
"A suicide mission," Bolin sing-songed under his breath.
"You got any better ideas?" Lin snapped. She could see the flaws in their plan – or lack thereof – but they were running out of time and they weren't about to come upon any help anytime soon. Their only hope was to take the Northerners by surprise.
Suddenly Bumi chimed in with a, "This reminds me of the time…" and then proceeded to go on another long tale about some desert mission he had been on, with no water for a week, and when they found the only oasis around, it was surrounded by angry sandbenders. Lin could see Tenzin's eye twitching and felt her own scowl forming and her eyes rolling into the back of her head the longer Bumi went on. They were wasting time, if Bumi would just get to the point.
When Bumi started ranting about dropping in from above with a catapult and some well-trained hog-monkeys, Lin groaned, "Would you cut it out?" at the same time Tenzin exploded, "Enough of your ridiculous lies! Can't you see that the fate of the world and Sora's life depends on what we do here today?!"
Bumi looked chastened, and Ronen stepped forward to interject, "Hang on, Uncle Bumi might be onto something."
Asami nodded her agreement and added, "Not the hog-monkeys or the catapult, but we do have a flying bison and there's a plane on Varrick's ship. Maybe we can attack from above."
Lin frowned a little, because jumping out of the sky wasn't exactly an earthbender's dream, especially in a place of ice and snow where she couldn't really latch her metal cables onto anything. But she didn't voice her discomfort, because it was the only real plan they had and she'd do anything for Sora.
So after a few more moments of discussion, they all agreed that Asami would fly the plane, with Mako and Bolin latched onto the wings to create a distraction and scatter the Northern troops, so that the rest of them could fly into the portal on Oogi when there was an opening. It seemed like a perfectly good plan, but ended up being ultimately useless.
They had been hoping to have the element of surprise on their side, but it became clear very quickly that the Northern troops had been expecting them. Asami, Mako, and Bolin still put up a good fight and caused some destruction, but it didn't help the others on Oogi much, because aside from the troops, the portal was covered in dark spirits.
Tenzin had tried to guide Oogi around the other side, but they hadn't even gotten close when the spirits converged on them, latching onto Oogi and immediately beginning to drag the sky bison down. Lin, Korra, and Kya blasted some of the spirits back with metal, fire, and water, but every spirit they managed to blow away was only replaced by another. They were quickly losing altitude, and Lin was only growing more furious with each dark spirit that stood in the way of her getting her daughter back. She got sloppy in her rage, and frantic, and when she saw Bumi, another member of her family, getting dragged off of Oogi by the dark spirit he had been fighting, she lashed out with both metal cables and a roar, intending to pull Bumi back, but instead, was promptly yanked off of her feet.
She went sailing through the air, but had just enough sense of mind to twist her body around and direct one of her cables back up to wrap around Oogi's saddle. Then she was hanging there, in midair, with Bumi and the other spirit dangling further down wrapped in her left cable, and her right arm stretched upwards to keep them attached to Oogi. Through her muddled vision, blurred by wind and snow, Lin could see Ronen scrambling over the saddle to try and help them, throwing his boomerang at the spirit still attached to Bumi and trying to reach for his mother. His efforts weren't quite enough though, and in his distraction, Lin saw another spirit coming for him. She tried to call out a warning, but everything was chaos and it was too loud, and Lin was forced to make a choice. She could either drop Bumi to save Ronen, or let herself and Bumi fall. Neither option sounded good, but she didn't have time to debate and saving Ronen was of the utmost importance. Not simply to save him from harm, which was paramount on its own, but also because somebody needed to make it into the Spirit World to find Sora and stop Unalaq, and Korra and Tenzin probably couldn't do it on their own.
The dark spirit collided with Ronen, and the boy flopped to his stomach, hands and feet scrambling for purchase. He managed to stop himself from sliding right off of Oogi's back, but the spirit was still trying to yank him off of the sky bison, and he had no way to defend himself with his muscles straining just to keep himself from falling.
So Lin decided, unlatching her metal cable from around Oogi's saddle and slashing it off to the side to grab hold of the spirit attacking her son. The spirit came loose with a screech, as the weight of Bumi, the other dark spirit, and Lin began to drag it downwards. Without a hold on the saddle or Oogi, all four of them went plummeting towards the earth, and Lin felt her stomach rising into her throat and a brief moment of paralyzing fear. She heard Bumi yelling below her, watched Oogi and the others hurtling onwards, and had just long enough to mutter a violent curse before she went crashing into the snow-packed ground and her whole world turned to darkness.
Chapter 63: Chapter 63
Chapter Text
Chapter 63
Lin awoke to unfortunate feeling of suffocation. When her eyes flew open, she saw only darkness, and there was a heavy weight on her back, pressing her face further into something cold and wet and she couldn't breathe.
Frantically, she flailed, rolling over and kicking her arms and legs, until a hole appeared above her and light shone through. She scrambled upwards towards the light, arms coming out first and then her face finally breaking through. She heaved for air, and then calmed her panic. Now that she was more conscious and less confused, she came to realize that she had just been buried in some snow. She hurriedly stood up straight, groaning when her bruised body protested the movement. She whirled around to take in her surroundings, wiping away the snow still sticking to her eyes and pushing her wet hair back behind her ears. At first, she saw nothing but the never ending stretch of frozen landscape before her, but after another spin, she caught sight of the very thing that had put her in her current predicament.
The dark spirit was hovering a few meters away, waiting, watching, its soulless eyes – or what she assumed were its eyes – seeming to stare right through her. It did not immediately pounce, and Lin did not know what it was waiting for, but she certainly wasn't about to waste anymore time. She struck out with both metal cables, and though one missed when the spirit dodged, the other slashed through it at the waist. The spirit let out a shrill shriek, and then it was pissed, darting towards her with impossible speed. Lin leapt off to the side and rolled awkwardly through the thick snow. When she came back up on her knees, she was facing a different direction, and could now see Bumi a few meters away facing off with his own dark spirit.
Lin turned her attention back to the spirit coming for her, and tried pelting some stones at it, but kicking rocks out from underneath of layers of ice and snow was a lot slower than she would have liked for it to be, and the spirit was moving strikingly fast. It reached her before she had a chance to hit it again, and she pivoted to take the strike of its claws across her back. The air left her lungs in a rush, and she went careening through the air to crash into the ground once more. She rolled onto her back just in time to see the spirit hovering menacingly over her, and she reacted instinctively, slashing both metal cables again and thrusting the beast backwards to allow her time to get back onto her feet.
All of her strikes were doing next to no damage to the spirit, though, and she was beginning to wonder how she was ever going to take the thing out. She glanced quickly over at where she could still hear Bumi shouting as he had a similar back and forth with his own spirit, but he didn't seem to be faring any better. Lin huffed in aggravation and lunged forward, throwing everything she had into the spirit, whether it be stone or metal, her fists flying and mud spraying from the earth. She bombarded the dark spirit with powerful force, and still ended up getting a punch in the gut that sent her flying backwards again. She hit the ground once more with a frustrated and pained groan, and for a moment she laid still, wondering if it was possible to play dead with a spirit. It hadn't attacked while she was briefly unconscious the first time, so maybe it would just get tired of her and float away.
Apparently not, because soon the spirit was hovering over her again and it still looked pissed. However, just at that exact moment, a musical sound began to float across the air, and the spirit and Lin both turned their heads to see what it was. Lin had to lift up a little to see over the snow, but soon she caught sight of Bumi standing before his own dark spirit and playing his flute. Lin rolled her eyes and flopped back onto the ground, figuring they were done for and her only hope now was to bury herself under the earth and try to tunnel away. Getting Bumi was going to be tricky though, especially since he was probably about to get swatted into oblivion.
But then, all of a sudden, the spirit hovering over Lin began to lighten in color, turning more to a light blue than the dark, ominous purple it had been a second ago. Its sharp scowl also began to soften, and Lin watched in complete and utter disbelief as the spirit began to bob to the music, and then floated over to where Bumi and his own spirit were doing the same. Lin scrambled onto her feet and rushed over to Bumi, still in shock as she skidded to a stop next to him.
"What the hell?" she demanded, still watching the spirits warily. "All it takes to calm them down is you playing the flute?"
"I guess so!" Bumi exclaimed, smiling cheerfully. "Music makes everyone happy!" And even when he stopped, the spirits remained subdued. Lin could hardly believe it.
"Did you see if the others made it into the portal?" Lin asked next, looking off in that direction, but unable to spot anything that would answer her question. They would have to get closer, and luckily they weren't too far from the portal when they had been thrown off of Oogi.
"No idea," Bumi admitted, "but with the way those spirits were dragging Oogi down, I think it's safe to say they were captured. Looks like it's on us to save the day! Come along soldiers!"
With that, Bumi began marching forward, the two calmed spirits in tow, and Lin just shook her head in total bewilderment before following behind. She gave the spirits a wide berth, just in case, and as they trekked through the snow, she scanned the area for any signs of any of their family. They didn't run into anyone on the way to the blockade, but shortly before they reached it, they saw a huge indentation in the snow that looked to be about the size of Oogi, and signs that the sky bison had been dragged into the encampment.
With their suspicions confirmed about where their family was, Lin told Bumi, "We need to take out two of the troops near the edge of the encampment, and sneak our way through disguised as one of them until I can find the others. My seismic sense is so blurry with all this damn snow that I'm gonna need to be closer to figure out what tent their in, but it's probably closer to the center. Once we find the others, we can sneak the rest of the way to the portal."
"That's a good plan," Bumi said with a nod, "but I've got a better one."
"We haven't got time to debate this," Lin snapped. "We're running out of time."
"No debate!" Bumi assured. "We will sneak in posed as Northern troops, but while you're looking for the others, I'mgoing to use my new favorite weapon to convert the rest of the spirits." He held up his flute, with a wild look of determination and glee on his face, and Lin had seen that look on his face too many times to believe that she had any chance of convincing Bumi otherwise.
Still, she tried, "It'll be better if we stick together, and you haven't got a clue if that little trick will even work on the other spirits. You could be fluting your way into your death."
But Bumi was adamant. "Even if we managed to sneak the whole way to the portal, we've still gotta get past those angry spirits somehow. This is the perfect plan."
Lin opened her mouth, still feeling as if she should protest, but was interrupted by the sound of something fast approaching them from behind. She whirled around, ready to defend herself, only to spot Naga and Pabu hurtling towards them. With his arms thrown up in the air, Bumi cried with elation, "A-ha! Reinforcements!"
Naga slid to a stop just in front of them and licked both Lin and Bumi directly on the face. Lin frowned and wiped the slobber from her face. Then, she conceded, "Fine, do whatever you want. Can we just get this started?"
"After you!" Bumi acquiesced with a wide sweep of his arm, and Lin huffed and led the way to the blockade.
Knocking out two of the troops and taking their uniforms went off without a hitch, though Lin's looked fairly odd with her metal armor underneath, and she had to keep her head tilted down to better hide the fact that she was a woman with fairly recognizable scars on her face. Luckily, the troops had other worries, and paid her no mind when she began to stroll casually through the encampment.
Before she parted ways with Bumi, she grabbed his sleeve and hastily urged, "Hey, be careful, would ya? Don't get yourself killed."
"Don't worry, Linny," he replied, using that awful nickname from their younger years that she'd warned him not to call her a million times. "I plan to stick around to annoy you for a longtime yet." He winked. "And I love you too."
With that, he was off, and Lin could only huff and mutter under her breath before going her own way. She focused on finding her family, on getting them into that blasted spirit portal to find Sora and end Unalaq's reign of terror. She eased past the Northern troops with confidence, because to be anything else would alert them to her presence, and at the moment they were being ridiculously oblivious. She was always amazed by the complacency troops felt immediately after winning a battle, as if no others would come against them. The Equalists had done it, and as a result she had been able to be freed from prison and slip right into the rally that had all but ended the war. Now she was strolling casually through the Northern troops' encampment, stopping every now and then to use her seismic sense in search of her family, and not a single person so much as glanced at her. Perhaps she still had some luck on her side, and she wasn't going to question it. The longer the troops left her alone, the more likely she would be able to find Tenzin and the others and get into the Spirit World to look for Sora.
She had just begun to feel a familiar stirring nearby when the chaos erupted.
Lin had heard a vaguely musical tone that she suspected to be Bumi playing his flute, but shortly after, there was a cacophony of those distinct angry spirit noises, and then all hell broke loose. Lin was worried about Bumi for all of ten seconds, until she spotted one of the mechatanks barreling through the encampment, half ablaze and seemingly out of control as it tore through tents and troops and various other supplies. Lin had to dive out of the way to avoid being run over herself, and just before she leapt, she was fairly certain she saw Bumi's terrified face inside the mechatank. She practically had to bury herself in the earth for a brief moment to protect herself from some of the destruction going on all around her, but once the mechatank went past her, she rushed towards the center of the camp, her way clear now that Bumi had obliterated everything in his path. As she struggled to comprehend how Bumi was pulling off such a ridiculous stunt, she stomped her foot into the ground and scanned frantically with her senses. Everything was vibrating out of control, but one of the few tents left standing had some very familiar shapes, and Lin went sprinting straight towards it.
Lin barreled into the front of the tent without further hesitation, saw Eska and Desna standing just inside, and immediately wrapped both of them in her metal cables before they could react and threw them to the floor. They writhed and fought, but they had no way of using their bending when their bodies were constricted by metal. Lin looked over to the rest of the occupants of the tent next, relieved to see Tenzin, Kya, Ronen, Korra, Tonraq, and the other three teens were all there. But before she had a chance to express her relief, she felt something stirring just behind her, and leapt out of the way just as Bumi came careening into the room on a chair he must have ejected from the mechatank.
"All right, guys, rescue time!" he delightedly proclaimed with a cheerful smile, while the others looked on in shock.
Lin dusted herself off and went straight over to begin untying everyone from their bonds. Ronen grinned at his mother, looking disheveled and a little bruised, but otherwise just fine as he said, "I knew you'd find us."
"It'll take more than a few lousy spirits and a fall from a flying bison to take me out," Lin joked, though her expression remained grim. She looked between Ronen, Kya, and Tenzin and asked them, "You guys okay?"
Kya nodded and Tenzin answered, "Better now that you're here. I believe that I would like to impose a new rule for our marriage though."
"Oh?" Lin inquired, finishing with the ropes around Ronen and going to free Tenzin next. "And what's that?"
"Well," Tenzin began, "I think it's fair to say that you've reached your quota for leaping off of sky bison, and unless you'd like for me to suffer heart failure, I would very much appreciate it if you never did that again."
"Sorry," Lin muttered with a wince, "but it worked out okay. Look at me, I'm fine."
"And I am truly grateful, dear," Tenzin sighed. "Nevertheless…" she freed his arms and he reached out to grab her hands, squeezing them tight and gazing at her imploringly. "Please don't do it anymore."
Lin nodded, even though it was a useless promise to make when she could not foresee the future. Certainly she did not want to jump off of Oogi. It made her feel sick to her stomach every time and she was amazed she had managed it twice without worse results, but when needs must, she was the first to do what was required. Despite the audience and her usual aversion to public affection, she decided that with all that was going on and the possible end of the world on the horizon, she deserved to kiss her husband briefly before she told him, "I promise not to leap off of Oogi anymore, okay?" It might have been a lie, but she would do her best to uphold the promise.
Tenzin nodded and, before she could step away, he pulled her forward to hold her against his chest, and she allowed herself a second to breathe him in. She let her eyes flutter closed for half a second, uncertain how the day would turn out and where they would be at the end of it and desperate to hang onto him for just a moment longer.
"I hate to break up the love fest," Kya interrupted, and Lin rolled her eyes, "but I'd like to be untied sometime today."
"Always so needy," Lin huffed as she leaned out of Tenzin's embrace. She turned to oblige Kya and freed her from her bonds.
By then, everyone else had been untied, and the group clambered out of the tent together, Bolin and Mako hefting the wounded Tonraq between them.
They looked around at the destruction Bumi had caused, and Tenzin asked in astonishment, "How did you two manage to take out this entire encampment on your own?"
Lin begrudgingly admitted, "Wasn't me. It was all him."
She gestured to Bumi, who pulled out his flute and boasted, "I did it all with my trusty flute and…" he trailed off and slumped his shoulders, "ah, forget it, you wouldn't believe me anyways. Let's get moving." He began marching forward towards the spirit portal, and all of them followed close behind.
It was time to finish this.
Despite everything that bad been going so tragically wrong, Ronen was doing his best to remain optimistic. Seeing his mother and Uncle Bumi fall from Oogi had been terrifying, but he had been certain that they would survive the fall, and so they had. When Oogi had crashed into the ground, taking the rest of them with him, Ronen had been in a little pain and worried, but he had been hopeful that his mother would free them from captivity, and she had not disappointed. The initial attempt to get into the spirit portal had not gone well, but none of them had been severely wounded and they still had a fighting chance. When they had been captured and Unalaq had revealed his intentions to fuse with Vaatu upon Harmonic Convergence, Ronen had been horrified, but he had every faith that Korra and Raava would stop them. He did not doubt that his parents and his aunt and uncle would find Sora, and he would do everything he possibly could to help Korra and the others stop Unalaq. Sora had always said they were all better together, and Ronen wholeheartedly agreed.
In the midst of all the drama and the fighting and the dark threat looming over the Earth, Ronen also somehow had time to consider a few other matters close to his heart. He had been thinking on it a little just before Korra returned to Republic City with bad news, but it had gone to the wayside for a moment while he grieved and worried for his little sister and the rest of his family. During the long boat ride to the South Pole, he spent most of his time working on a new weapon of his, but it also left him a lot of time alone with his own thoughts, and he had come to a realization he hadn't quite been able to accept before.
He had intended to wait to act on his feelings, to truly consider the matter and plan everything out, and to wait until the threat of Vaatu was no longer hanging over all of their heads. However, something about the apprehension of the pending battle spurred him to act before it was too late. Even though he was confident that they would all make it out the other side – he had to believe that they would – he still felt the weight of what they faced and he was not fool enough to waste the precious time he was given. He already knew what he felt, and waiting to consider it further was not wholly necessary. His feelings would not change tomorrow, regardless of today's outcome, and sometimes, it was better to act than to overthink.
So he took his chance just seconds before he was about to enter the spirit portal. All of them were gathered at its base, and Korra's father stumbled out of Mako and Bolin's hold to assert that he would hold anyone off that tried to come after them. Korra immediately protested, telling her father plainly that he was too injured and he needed to get to a healer. She asked Asami to take Tonraq on Oogi back to Senna and Katara, and as Korra was exchanging a heartfelt goodbye with her father, Ronen jogged over to help Asami prep Oogi. He guided Naga and Pabu up onto Oogi's saddle, and then slid down to hang right next to Asami as she seated herself at the reigns.
"Hey, question for you," he said casually, even though his palms were sweating and his heart was racing in his chest. He was nervous about facing Unalaq and Vaatu, of course, but it was more than that. "When this is all over, you wanna get dinner sometime?" Asami blinked, looking a little bewildered, and Ronen considered that maybe it wasn't the right time, but he powered on, "You know, like a date?"
Thankfully, Asami's lips quirked up a little, and she raised a brow in amusement as she teased, "Really? You're asking me out now? When the world is on the verge of descending into darkness?"
"Seemed like the appropriate time," Ronen said with a smirk and a shrug. Asami shook her head in bemusement and he added, "For what it's worth, I would have asked you out even if we weren't about to go do this crazy thing. Also, regardless of what happens in there, I won't change my mind. Even if we have to spend eternity fighting evil spirits I'll still figure out a way to take you to dinner. If you want to, that is. If not, no worries." He was probably rambling now and he hastily shut up.
Asami smiled softly and said, "I'll tell you what. You come out of there in one piece and the answer is yes."
"So if I'm missing a leg it's a no go?" Ronen asked.
Asami rolled her eyes, but then turned very serious. "What I mean is be careful, and don't get yourself killed, all right?" She hesitated, and then leaned forward to briefly kiss him on the cheek, and despite himself, Ronen felt his whole face turning a little red.
"Don't worry," he assured her, reaching out to squeeze her hand briefly before dropping the rest of the way to the ground. He tilted his head up to hold her gaze. "I have every intention of coming back." He opened his mouth again to say more, but ultimately decided that anything else would be better left until after he knew for certain whether or not the world would be saved. "I'll see you later," he still promised, "and you be careful too." And then he turned away before either of them could start rethinking the decisions they had already made. He knew Asami must have been hating the idea of leaving her friends to face Unalaq without her, and Ronen was feeling a little guilty about leaving his siblings on their own. If something happened in the spirit portal, to where he and his parents and his aunt and uncle could not escape or did not survive, then Jin and Jeia would have lost the majority of their family in one foul swoop. But Ronen was still maintaining that optimism, hopeful and sure that good would prevail over evil, and that was what sustained him as he rejoined his family and his friends. They watched Oogi take off, and then, they entered the spirit portal together, nothing but their mission in mind.
Stepping into the Spirit World for the first time was surprisingly lackluster, in Lin's opinion. Everything looked vaguely normal at first and she barely felt more than a shiver as she stepped through the portal.
Leaving Ronen, Korra, Mako, and Bolin to face Unalaq on there own was difficult, but she needed to find Sora so she pushed down her concern, and decided to have faith that the four of them could handle themselves. And if she came back to find that Unalaq had hurt Ronen too, well…all the more reason for her to rip out his evil heart with her bare hands. She would have liked to stay and get in a few hits of her own, but Sora was running out of time and that had to be her priority now.
As she went deeper into the Spirit World with Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi, things got a little less normal and a whole lot weirder. The colors were too bright and Lin felt itchy. Everything looked ominously beautiful and there was no telling where to go, or where to even begin looking. The four of them started arguing fairly early on, with Bumi trying to track footprints that didn't exist, Kya trying to meditate in order to feel Sora's spiritual energy – despite the fact that there was nothing but spiritual energy around them – and Lin trying unsuccessfully to use seismic sense. Tenzin claimed that they needed a spirit guide, but when he called upon one to help, they ended up being chased off of a cliff by some freakish, giant, spider-looking thing.
They landed in yet another strange place, and wandered around a bit longer, and the more time they wasted, the more anxious Lin became, and the more anxious Lin became, the angrier she got as well. She was snapping at all of them and charging ahead even though she had no idea where she was going. She just kept repeating Sora's name under her breath like a mantra, kept envisioning the girl in her mind's eye in the hopes that the Spirit World might somehow hear her request and send her where she needed to go. Wasn't that how Korra said it had worked? That she had looked upon the mountain and suddenly appeared atop it? Why could Lin not do the same? She really did not understand the Spirit World, and when she realized that they were wandering through a dark forest in circles, she came to an abrupt stop with a violent exclamation of curses.
"We've passed that spirit mushroom three times!" she spat.
"No we haven't!" Bumi argued.
And Tenzin huffed, "She's right, we have."
Even the spirit mushroom agreed, but Bumi still protested for half a second.
That is, until his words were cut off by a rustling sound nearby that caused Kya to insert herself between the three of them and frantically ask, "What was that?"
Lin whirled around, arms raised and at the ready to face whatever came at them. It sounded like someone was crashing through the underbrush with haste, and then an all too familiar face came stomping out of the dark depths of the spirit forest.
When Lin recognized who it was, she nearly had a heart attack, lurching backwards so fast that she crashed into Tenzin and almost knocked them both over. He caught her under the arms and managed to steady her, but she still felt faint as the air left her lungs in a rush and her stomach climbed up her throat. She somehow managed to croak an incredulous, "Mom?!" without passing out, and considering how shaky her knees were and the way her head was spinning she considered it a miracle.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my first born," Toph said, and hearing her mother's voice for the first time in twenty years was one of the weirdest sensations for Lin. For a moment, it was as if nothing had changed, as if they had gone back in time. Toph sounded exactly the same, and Lin felt like she was thirty years old again and about to be berated by her mother.
But first, Bumi went rushing forward with an elated, "Toph!" He pulled her into a hug that made her scowl, but she didn't shove him away and even patted his back for a second, and Lin could see her lips quirking a little in that way she always had when she was trying to suppress a smile.
"I don't know what in spirit's name you kids think you're doing here," Toph said harshly when Bumi had finally stepped back, "but you better get out of here. This ain't exactly a hot vacation spot at the moment. That Vaatu is about to make this place a whole lot darker."
Lin opened her mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't come out. For once in her life she was utterly stunned. She felt a hand squeezing her shoulder and an arm strong around her waist and realized idly that it was Kya and Tenzin, supporting her while a thousand different emotions swirled through her in an instant. She could hardly believe what she was seeing, she didn't know how it was possible, but part of her didn't want to leave. She wanted to stand there and talk to her mother for the first time in decades, to say all the things she hadn't been able to before, but the words were stuck in her throat and, frankly, there just wasn't time. Sora needed her more.
Tenzin spoke for her as she was trying to muddle through her thoughts, telling his mother-in-law, "I'm afraid we cannot leave. We are looking for our daughter. Her soul is trapped here somewhere. We are running out of time."
Toph's face showed some surprise as she questioned, "So you two finally had a kid, eh? What'd you let her go traipsin' around the Spirit World for?"
"She has a natural connection to the spirits," Tenzin explained, "and she was trying to help the Avatar stop Vaatu's escape. It is good to see you, Toph, after so long. I wish that we could stay longer, but I'm afraid –"
Lin finally found her voice enough to interject as she suddenly blurted, "How the hell are you here? You're the least spiritual person I ever knew!"
Toph scoffed as if insulted. "I'll have you know that I excel at everything I do, kid, even after death. What did you think Iroh and I talked about during our visits back in the land of the living? I'll admit, it all sounded like malarkey at first, but you know I never back down from a challenge."
Still bewildered, Lin spluttered, "B – but…but you…"
"Back to the point," Toph interrupted. "Who's this kid of yours? How many airbending Beifongs you got runnin' around?"
"Her name is Sora," Tenzin answered softly. "She and Yunjin are both airbenders. Our eldest, Ronen, is a nonbender. And then the youngest, Jeia Rai, is our earthbender, but she has an incredible affinity for metalbending. She's very much like you."
Toph chuckled. "Four kids? I gotta say, I didn't expect that out of you, Lin."
"Well, Su had five," Lin muttered defensively. "Six, if you count the adopted one."
Toph's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Keepin the Beifong blood going strong! Excellent. Did you two bozos ever make up then?"
Lin cleared her throat and finally managed to calm her racing heart, the shock wearing off enough that she could speak to her mother. "Yeah, actually, we did. About sixteen years ago, maybe. Haven't been able to get rid of her since."
"I'm glad to hear it," Toph said, voice a little softer. "As stubborn as you two are I thought you might never manage it."
"Well, we learned from the best," Lin said, and then she stepped forward, knowing that this was her last chance, and she had to go and find Sora, but first she needed to say one last thing to her mother. "I'm sorry. For everything. For all the years we spent fighting, and for…well, for letting you die. That night…I should have been faster –"
"Hey," Toph interrupted with a frown, "don't sweat it, kid. It was my time, that's all. You don't need to live with any guilt. I choseto take the hit, 'cause you were meant to live. To have all those babies and reconcile with Su and help the Avatar and whatever other nonsense you've been getting into. My death's not on you. So forget about it. And listen…I'm sorry too. I know you weren't fond of my parenting style, but I love you girls. Tell your sister that, would ya?"
Lin nodded, forcefully swallowing the lump in her throat and blinking away the moisture welling in her eyes. "I will," she croaked through the emotions. "I love you."
"You be careful," Toph urged, reaching out to touch Lin's cheek, and Lin closed her eyes for a moment, relishing in her mother's touch and her presence for what little time she had left. "If you go too far in here, you'll end up in a place only the lost can find you, and believe me, you don't want that."
Lin could feel Toph fading away then, but with her went the remaining guilt and whatever else Lin had been carrying for so many years. It was as if she finally felt like she had closure, and when she opened her eyes, her mother was gone, but she felt at peace.
Breathing in deeply through her nose, Lin turned to face the others, who stood together now, all of them watching her with mixed emotions of their own. She strode back towards them and shook her head with a huff. "Great, even my mother is just giving me more cryptic spiritual bullshit. A map would have been nice."
Tenzin gasped all of a sudden, just as Lin came to a stop in front of him, and his eyes were wide as he exclaimed, "A place where only the lost will find you! I know where Sora is!"
"Well then what are we waiting for?" Bumi cried. "Lead the way!"
"Let's get our girl," Kya agreed.
"We need to go back to where we were earlier," Tenzin said, pointing back in the direction from which they had come.
Kya and Bumi set off, and Tenzin held his hand out to Lin, smiling softly as he asked her, "Are you all right, love?"
Lin nodded as she took the proffered hand and replied, "I'm good. Let's go get our daughter back."
The four of them returned to the clearing where they had run into the spider-like spirit, which was when Tenzin revealed his plan to be captured by said spirit. Lin immediately balked, but when he insisted that it was their best plan to get to where they needed to go, she sighed and relented. She would do it for Sora.
Being wrapped up tight in a spirit web with Tenzin and his siblings and then being dragged across the ground was notideal though, and she complained about the Spirit World the entire way. She was truly sick of the place, and would be beyond relieved once they had escaped with Sora's soul.
She hadn't realized that it was about to get a whole lot worse.
The spidery spirit brought them to a deep gorge filled to the brim with fog, and then tossed them into it.
"I thought you said we'd be taken to a prison," Kya said to her brother as she brushed herself off.
"This is a prison," Tenzin assured. "The Fog of Lost Souls."
Lin grimaced. With a name like that, it certainly soundedominous.
"What kind of a prison doesn't have bars or walls?" Bumi scoffed. "We could walk right out of here."
"It's a spirit prison for humans," Tenzin explained grimly. "I read about it in an ancient text. The fog is a spirit that infects your mind and slowly drives you mad, imprisoning you in your worst memories."
"How long can you be trapped in here?" Kya gasped.
It was at that time that a man passed by, dressed in old Fire Nation garb and looking crazed as he muttered, "I am Zhao the Conqueror. I will defeat the Avatar. I am Zhao the Conqueror. I am the moon slayer!" And then he spotted Tenzin, and his eyes went wilder, if that were even possible, and he lunged, snatching up the front of Tenzin's robes. "You! You're him! The last airbender! You've grown, but I will still defeat you!"
Lin and Bumi both grabbed Zhao by the shoulders and threw him away from Tenzin before any harm could be done. Lin and Kya pelted some water and earth at him for good measure, knocking him back several steps. Then the four of them turned and hastened away, while Zhao yelled after them from behind before disappearing somewhere in the fog.
"We need to get out of here as fast as possible," Lin muttered needlessly, a shiver running down her spine as she imagined what their fates could be if they lingered. "I don't know if I've told you all this, but losing my mind is a pretty top tier fear of mine."
"If we stay together, we'll find Sora and make it out of this fog," Tenzin assured, turning to face the three of them now that they had escaped Zhao. "Here…" He began to unravel the belt tied around his waist, and used the strands of cloth to tie Lin, Kya, and Bumi to him. "This way, we won't wander too far and lose each other."
It seemed a practical plan, considering that the fog was so thick Lin could hardly even see her own hand if she held it right in front of her face. However, it proved to be quite useless when things began going wrong.
The four of them had been walking briskly, calling out Sora's name, keeping their eyes peered in every direction. Lin felt paranoid and itchy, but she kept her focus on thoughts of Sora and her fists clenched so tight that her nails dug into her palms. She tried to center herself as best she could, as Tenzin had advised, but the worries she had for Sora – and frankly, for the rest of them – were weighing heavily on her mind. She couldn't imagine what Sora had been suffering in the last few days while she had been trapped in the Fog of Lost Souls. It made Lin sick to her stomach to even think of it, and if something went wrong, if she and Kya and Bumi and Tenzin all lost their minds in there… None of them would ever make it out, and neither would Sora.
And then, of course, her concerns became a lot closer to reality.
Bumi stopped them with a tense hand on Lin's shoulder, his grip so tight that it might have hurt if she hadn't been wearing metal armor. "Wait…" he said, sounding breathless, and Lin turned to look at him as he was casting his gaze around furtively.
Tenzin whirled on his brother, excitedly asking, "Did you hear something?"
"Yes," Bumi said quietly, and Lin noticed sweat coursing down his face and his eyes going unnaturally wide. "They're all around us. The cannibals. They're everywhere…"
Lin groaned just as Bumi began panicking, his head whipping back and forth as he fearfully gazed upon dangers that existed only in his mind.
"Bumi!" Tenzin snapped. "You must focus your mind, right now. There are no cannibals!"
Bumi shouted in hysteria, "Yes there are! They're gonna eat every last one of us!"
Lin tried smacking Bumi on the back and harshly commanded, "Snap out of it! Think about Sora!"
But it was too late for Bumi, and then, while their backs were turned, Kya had slipped into some dark place of her own. She screamed, so loud that Lin's eardrums nearly burst, and she and Tenzin both whirled around expecting to see her being murdered with how petrified she sounded.
Instead, Kya simply pointed at all of them accusingly and demanded, "Who are you three?!"
"Kya!" Tenzin beseeched, lurching forward to grab his sister's shoulders as she began fumbling with the belt tied to her waist. "We're your brothers and your sister-in-law. You must remember, before the fog infects you."
"No!" Kya refuted. "You are just a vision. I have no family. You can't tie me down!"
Bumi's frantic panting and Kya's shrill screaming was thundering in Lin's ears and she clenched her jaw, focusing intently on Sora, on finding Sora, on rescuing Sora, but her thoughts were getting messy and she had to shake her head to clear it. The panic and the screams were too much like situations she had been in before, and she knew that she had plenty of dark memories for the fog to feed off of, and the tension was rising within her, the fear that she would snap like Kya and Bumi.
"They're closing in!" Bumi cried, tearing the belt off of him and taking off sprinting. "I gotta get outta here!"
Kya removed her restraint at the same time and went running in the opposite direction, and Tenzin frantically called after both of them, but Lin still had enough sense of mind to reach out, sending both of her metal cables shooting after them just before they both disappeared into the fog, and she yanked them back towards her.
"Enough!" she shouted. "Bumi! Kya! Get it together! Remember why we're here! Remember Sora!"
But neither Kya nor Bumi were coherent, and they fought so hard against the metal restraining them that Lin worried they might hurt themselves. They truly believed that they were in danger, and they were still screaming.
Images and sounds flashed across Lin's mind, of other people screaming, of people suffering, her people, the people she loved, not just Kya and Bumi, but Tenzin and the kids and her sister, and people she had lost, and they were all swirling in front of her, looking at her with big, fearful eyes, with accusation and with terror, with blood dripping from their faces. They were calling her name, blaming her, begging her –
Tenzin's form filled her vision, blurring all the others for a moment, and it felt as if she was being shaken violently, and he was staring at her with worry, was saying her name desperately, and she blinked rapidly several times, tried to remember who she was, why she was there, what was happening.
She had just a second of clarity. She was still holding onto Kya and Bumi with her cables and they were still fighting, and Tenzin was standing right in front of her, his hands braced on either side of her face, trying to ground her, pleading with her to, "Stay with me, Lin. Stay with me, love. Focus. Focus on me. Focus on Sora. Remember. Remember, Lin…"
But the images were still there, the sounds like a cacophony in her mind, overriding the reassuring sound of Tenzin's voice, overpowering her reason and replacing it with a bone deep fear. She couldn't hear herself speaking, but she forced her mouth to move and hoped that her throat obeyed her command as she said through gritted teeth, "Tenz…go…you must…go…" She wouldn't make it. Bumi and Kya wouldn't make it. Only Tenzin could find Sora now. The three of them would just hold him back, would just be a distraction to his own focus. So she begged him, "Go…find her…find Sora." Tenzin was responding, but Lin's eyes flickered to something behind him, where she saw Shira, her dead half sister creeping up behind him, a vicious sneer on her face, her face with a shredded cheek and flesh hanging from it, from where Lin had wounded her, and there was a dagger still protruding from Shira's neck, but she was walking strong, walking straight towards Tenzin, a dagger of her own raised, like the one she had used to stab Lieutenant Jeia in the back, and she would do the same to Tenzin, to Kya, to Bumi, to Sora and Ronen and Yunjin and little Jeia. Lin screamed at Tenzin, "GO! GO NOW!" She released Kya and Bumi, let them run to safety, and she lunged past Tenzin, lunged at the specter come to destroy her life.
And the rest…
She would not remember the rest.
When her mind returned to her, she felt as if she was being roused from a deep sleep, her eyes heavy and her body sluggish. She looked up in confusion, uncertain for a moment where she was or where she had been before, and she saw the back of Tenzin's head, felt his hand strong and warm in hers. Lin could not understand what had happened, and she cast her gaze over her shoulder to check. Kya and Bumi were right behind her, looking just as confused, but also relieved, and sane now, and all of their hands were linked as Tenzin pulled them further from the canyon of fog where they had been what felt like a second ago.
Lin turned back to face Tenzin, mouth open to question, and then she heard a familiar voice softly saying, "Dad…"
"It's all right, sweetheart," Tenzin murmured, "I've got you."
And then Lin gasped, "Sora!"
Sora was in her father's arms, her chin resting on his shoulder now as she hugged him. She blinked slowly and, when she saw Lin, smiled sleepily at her mother. "Mom…what happened? How are you guys here? The last thing I remember was the dark spirits taking me away."
Tenzin came to a stop and turned so that he could look at Lin, still holding Sora to him and reaching out with his other hand to caress Lin's cheek, his relief apparent in his eyes. With his gaze locked on Lin, he answered Sora, "You were trapped in the Fog of Lost Souls, but we weren't going to leave you in there."
"I'm so happy to see you," Sora said, snuggling into her father's chest and reaching out a hand for her mother, and Lin finally felt a weight lifting from her shoulders. They had done it. They had found Sora and saved her from an eternity of madness, and Lin and Kya and Bumi had not been left trapped in the fog either. Tenzin had saved them all, and Sora would live, and Lin could have wept with joy if she were prone to such displays.
Instead, she smiled and said gruffly, "We're glad to see you too, kid," and stepped forward to wrap herself around both Sora and Tenzin, to hold them both close and take a deep, calming breath. She felt Tenzin kiss the top of her head, and then, two more warm bodies pressing in close, Kya and Bumi joining in on the embrace with their brother and sister-in-law and niece. Lin caressed Sora's hair and listened to the beat of Tenzin's heart against her ear and felt Kya's breath on her cheek and Bumi's hand on her back, and she allowed herself a moment to close her eyes and feel peace.
Their mission was not over yet though. They still had to get Sora's soul back to her body, and who knew what was happening between Korra and Unalaq and Ronen and the others?
"Listen, kid," Lin said to Sora as Tenzin was setting the girl back down on her feet, "you pull something like that again and you're grounded for life, yeah?"
Sora chuckled. "Come on, Mom. I didn't do anything youwouldn't do."
"Yeah, well, stop tryin' to scare the life out of me," Lin insisted, reaching out to squeeze Sora's shoulder as they began walking, not wanting to let the girl go more than a foot away from her, not wanting to release her for fear of her slipping away. "I'm gettin' old you know? Can't take the stress."
Sora rolled her eyes with an amused smile. "You're hardly old. Besides, I knew you'd come for me. And don't worry, I don't intend to get captured by dark spirits again anytime soon."
"Thank goodness for that," Tenzin said, putting his arm over Sora's shoulders on her other side so that his hand came to rest over Lin's. He looked briefly at her over Sora's head, and she could see the love that he was trying to express after their recent ordeal, and she nodded to ensure he knew that she understood. "You were very brave, sweetheart. I'm sorry it took us so long to get here."
"How long has it been?" Sora inquired.
"Almost a week," Bumi chimed in, "but don't worry, you didn't miss much."
"Jeeze," Sora winced. "A whole week? Is Yunjin okay?"
"He'll be just fine once we get you back to your body," Kya assured, smiling sweetly at Sora. "He's waiting with you in case you need help finding your way back."
"And Unalaq?" Sora questioned with concern. "He used me to get Korra to open the second spirit portal. Were you able to stop him?"
"Ronen and Korra are working on that now," Tenzin answered. "I'm not sure how it's going."
Sora nodded mutely, and the group hastened onwards, eager to get Sora back and to check on the others and to find out what had happened with Unalaq and Vaatu.
However, before they could make it out, Sora went still, causing the rest of them to come to an abrupt halt as well. She looked back over her shoulder at nothing, and her expression was grim as she murmured, "The world is in trouble."
Lin did not like the sound of that.
"How do you know?" Tenzin asked.
"I can feel it," Sora said, "it's Korra…" And then she turned back to face them, and she lifted one of the butterfly spirits that had settled on her shoulders earlier. She held it out to her father. "This light spirit will help guide you out. I have to go help."
"No way!" Lin immediately snapped. "Don't even think about it, young lady –"
But Sora was already fading away, turning translucent before Lin's very eyes, and Lin swiped out her hand to grab the girl, but she struck only air, and even though she and Tenzin both called out to her, and begged her not to go, Sora continued to fade until she disappeared into thin air. They had only just gotten her back, and now, she was gone again.
Ronen entered into the pivotal battle against Unalaq knowing full well that he was far outmatched.
While Ronen had a few tricks up his sleeve and he was fairly clever and he was not entirely useless in combat, there were simply times when being a nonbender worked very strongly against him. Unalaq was too powerful to be overtaken by a boomerang, though Ronen certainly tried. Ronen also used one of his newer mechanisms, which was a sort of crossbow that hurtled smaller, boomerang shaped weapons at its target. But even most of those were knocked down or completely missed their mark, and Ronen was forced to do a lot of frantic maneuvering to avoid being struck by Unalaq's powerful assaults. Bolin and Mako and Korra could defend themselves far better than him, and he did not want any of them distracting themselves too much about protecting him either, so he stayed further back in the beginning.
However, the longer he stood by and watched his friends take a beating, the more restless he became, and when Unalaq began to merge with Vaatu, Ronen charged forward with little regard for himself. He managed to come very close, sneaking up on Unalaq from behind, intending to punch a few points to cut off the madman's Chi, but two jabs was all he managed before he was being struck so hard across the chest that he lost his breath for several seconds. He was also hurtled through the air for what must have been quite a distance, and he struck the ground so hard that he lost total consciousness from the moment of impact.
He woke with a throbbing ache in his head and pain radiating through half of his body and the other half ominously numb. He laid still for a moment, and watched from a distance as Unalaq continued to fight and eventually gained the upper hand against Korra and Mako and Bolin, but when Ronen tried to roll over, he moved too fast, and his head swam and he collapsed into darkness once again.
The next time he woke, Ronen knew that something was very wrong, with the world and with his body. It took his hazy eyes time to seek out what he was looking for, but when he finally found it, he had to blink several times before he could accept it as real. Unalaq/Vaatu had grown into a massive red beast, towering over everything, his booming voice thundering across the landscape as he said, "Now, ten thousand years of darkness begins."
The beast reached up his hand to touch the arc overhead where the two spirit portals merged, and then he was evaporating into thin air, his massive body going somewhere else, and it filled Ronen with dread. Where could Unalaq/Vaatu be going? What destruction would he cause? How would they stop him? Where was Korra?
With the great beast's disappearance, a shock wave exploded outwards with a loud BOOM, and Ronen spotted his three friends in the distance – Mako and Bolin holding Korra between them – just before they were all swept off of their feet and thrown backwards. When they struck the ground, they did not move again.
Since he was already laid out on the ground and much further away, Ronen avoided the worst of the shock wave, only feeling a heavy vibration across his chest that made him flinch, but did not wound him further. Afterwards, he took stock of himself, moving his head slowly, experimentally, and though it still throbbed, he did not think that he would knock himself out by sitting up. He needed to get to Korra and the others.
However, there was another issue. When he had been struck by Unalaq earlier, most of his left side had been encased in ice, and it was such a frigid temperature that it hadn't even melted from his body heat in the time he had been unconscious. He began to grow concerned as he looked down at it, wondering if frostbite had set in already, wondering how he was going to remove the ice when the only waterbender around was unconscious and too far away.
Ronen could barely move, and when he struck the ice in an effort to chip it off of him, it sent shockwaves of pain coursing through him. He was shivering, and everywhere that the ice touched his skin was stinging like burns, and the way it clamped around the left side of his chest and over his ribs made it difficult for him to draw breath. He tried to sit up or roll over or shimmy towards his friends, but he was panting and his body wasn't cooperating and panic swelled within him. So he forced himself to go still again and took measured breaths, trying to calm his racing heart. He cast his gaze around desperately, as best he could when his neck was half frozen, and he prayed that his friends would wake soon, or that his parents and his aunt and uncle would return. He wasn't giving up hope, not yet. He couldn't anyways, not when hope was all that he had left.
Chapter 64: Chapter 64
Chapter Text
Chapter 64
Watching Sora vanish left Lin feeling both worried and angry. She had just gotten her daughter back, only to have her run off into danger again, and Sora's reasoning…
"The world is in trouble. It's Korra…"
That didn't bode well for any of them. If Unalaq had fused with Vaatu and defeated Korra…well, then they were all screwed. Lin's only hope was that maybe Sora's connection to the spirits could somehow help, that maybe Sora rushing towards the danger would save them from ten thousand years of darkness instead of just getting her killed. Regardless, Lin, Kya, Tenzin, and Bumi went sprinting for the exit, following the butterfly spirit, desperate to get back to the other kids and see what had happened, to see if they were okay.
They found Mako, Bolin, and Korra unconscious and lying close together on the ground, and Kya urged Tenzin and Bumi to help her get the teens into spirit water so that she could heal them. Lin, meanwhile, felt panic growing within her as she frantically searched the surrounding area for Ronen. If another of her kids was missing she would surely lose her mind. Although, technically, she had already lost her mind once that day. She was just glad that the longer she was out of that blasted fog, the less she remembered about all the blood soaked faces that had haunted her.
When she finally found Ronen lying on the ground several meters away, she was not wholly relieved. He was conscious, at least, but as she slid to her knees at his side, she could tell that something was very wrong. He was shivering violently, his teeth chattering and his lips turning blue, and his eyes were glassy and hooded as he looked up at her. His left side was encased in ice, from his neck down to his hip, and while such an occurrence was not always very dangerous, there were times when a waterbender got too overzealous and turned the ice to such freezing temperatures that it could cause serious damage. It appeared to be the case with Ronen now, and Lin did not even stop to breathe or to ask him any questions. She took one look at his pale face and his frozen body and she scooped him up into her arms. He groaned at the abrupt movement, but she kept going, carrying him straight over to Kya and sloshing into the water where Korra and the other two boys were, gently lowering Ronen next to them.
Tenzin gasped when he saw Ronen and came over to Lin's side, crouching next to her and Ronen, putting a hand on each of them, squeezing Lin's wrist too tight, but his hold on Ronen gentle.
"How long has he been like this?" Tenzin asked, as if Lin would somehow know the answer.
"How should I know?" she snapped. She looked down at Ronen and softened her tone just a little. "How long you been like this, kid?"
Ronen struggled to answer, his muscles sluggish even in his face as he slowly slurred, "I dun – n – n – nnnno. Wassss unc – c – c –"
"All right," Lin interjected, before he could hurt himself trying to say unconscious. "Just take it easy, kid."
Ronen looked around blearily and frowned. "Ssssora?" he questioned.
Lin sighed heavily, and Tenzin answered instead, "Don't worry, we found her, but she sensed that the world was in danger and went to help. I'm not certain where she went…" Tenzin seemed to want to ask Ronen about what had happened, but it was clear that it would take too much for the boy to answer, so he stroked Ronen's hair and soothed, "Rest, son. We'll take it from here."
Kya's ministrations soon woke Korra, Mako, and Bolin, but lulled Ronen to sleep. Lin and Tenzin were concerned, but Kya told them with a grimace, "It's for the best. He needs to stay still. The frostbite is pretty bad."
"How bad?" Lin demanded. "You can fix it can't you?"
"For the most part," Kya not so reassuringly answered. She moved closer to Ronen as the other three teens were jolting awake, to focus her attention on him now. "Some of the outer skin and deeper tissue were badly damaged. He won't lose a limb, but there will be some scarring, joint pain… I'll know more in a little while."
Lin and Tenzin exchanged frowns, but ultimately had to leave Ronen in Kya's hands. There was nothing either of them could do to help him. For now, they went to Korra as she and the other two boys were leaping up out of the pool of water. Unfortunately, there was no more good news to be had from Korra either. According to her, Unalaq and Vaatu had fused together, and then Vaatu ripped Raava right out of Korra and destroyed the light spirit. As a result, Korra lost her connection to all of the past Avatars, and the girl was devastated, bursting into tears and utterly despondent.
Lin's general thoughts were simply, we're doomed, but she wasn't about to just sit back and watch the world fall into darkness. She still had her family to think about, and if there was still a chance of stopping Vaatu or Unalaq or whatever crazy spirit shit was going on, then she had to believe that Korra could do it. The girl was dispirited, but Lin knew that she just needed some support. Lin didn't have any good advice of her own, not when she barely even understood what they were up against, but she knew someone that always knew exactly what to say in such situations.
She turned to Tenzin, who was looking rather distraught himself, and she clasped his hand to gain his attention. When he tipped his head down to meet her gaze, she told him, "Now's a good time for some of that sage advice of yours."
Tenzin glanced hesitantly over at Korra for a moment, as if unsure that he could really help, but then he squared his shoulders and nodded firmly at Lin, squeezing her hand in thanks before going over to Korra.
Lin watched for a moment as Tenzin spoke softly to Korra, trying to get through to her as the girl continued to argue that she no longer had any use. When Tenzin coaxed Korra onto her feet and over to the Tree of Time, where Vaatu had been imprisoned, Lin returned to Ronen's side, sitting with her unconscious son and watching silently as Kya worked. Lin felt fairly useless, her kids spread out in different directions and the world on the brink of never ending darkness. The Avatar cycle had been all but vanquished, Ronen was suffering, Sora was spirits knew where and still detached from her body, and Jeia and Yunjin were out in a world that was about to collapse without half of their family. Lin did not know what to do, but she itched to do something. She considered taking Ronen and going back out into the real world, to race back to the compound and be with her children. If the end was upon them then she needed to be with them, needed to fight tooth and nail to protect them until her last breath. But she knew that Tenzin would not leave without Korra, and Korra was their last hope at stopping what had already begun, and Korra needed all of them to help her now. Lin's only hope of really saving her children was by helping Korra. Otherwise, the darkness would consume all of them anyways.
Lin had expected Tenzin to get through to Korra, to reassure the young Avatar in a way only he could as her mentor, but what she had not expected was to see a massive, blue, ethereal version of Korra grow from out of the Tree of Time and latch onto the arc where the spirit portals converged. Korra disappeared in a blinding flash, presumably to go after Unalaq and Vaatu, wherever those two had gone, and Lin and Bumi and the others all looked on in shock. Bumi turned to his younger brother as Tenzin returned to the group and asked with concern, "Uh, what exactly did you say to her?"
They didn't have long to discuss anything else. Shortly after Korra had gone, a horde of dark, seething spirits came racing towards them, hissing and squirming and amassed so close together that it looked like a massive, dark cloud coming to consume them. Lin groaned at the sight of it, but raced forward to join Tenzin, Kya, Mako, and Bolin as they all began to shoot attacks at the oncoming spirits, desperately trying to hold them back, to protect Korra's body that remained in the Tree of Time. Korra's cousins, Eska and Desna, appeared at some point to join in, surprisingly enough, but even with the seven of them, they were severely outnumbered.
Their efforts, while valiant, were really quite useless. They were forced to retreat all the way back to the tree, Bumi carrying Ronen over his shoulder and occasionally throwing the boy's boomerang in an attempt to help. When all of them were inside of the tree with Korra's body, the spirits crawling around the edges and shooting in from above, Lin expected that they were all truly done for. The dark spirits would be upon them in a matter of seconds, and she didn't even know what sort of pain they would suffer, and Korra would surely be thrust out of whatever spiritual battle she was off fighting in.
But then, just in the nick of time, the giant blue form of Korra exploded into being once again, light bursting outwards with a loud boom, and just like that, the dark spirits vanished, as if they had never even been there. Lin blinked rapidly, spots dancing in front of her eyes, feeling as if she had been hallucinating, as if she had been fighting something invisible that had only just been upon her, and she shivered thinking about how she had so easily lost her mind not so long ago. But they were no longer in the Fog of Lost Souls, and the dark spirits had been there, everyone had been fighting them, it was simply that Korra had maybe, hopefully, just done something useful that had saved them all at the last second.
Lin and the others all went scrambling out of the tree, looking around to ensure they were no longer under attack, and then up at Korra as the blue form opened her hands. A white, shimmery spirit that Lin assumed was Raava hovered before Korra, while another ball of light came floating down to where Lin and Tenzin stood. Lin recognized Sora within, smiling peacefully, her eyes bright, her whole body consumed by light, radiating off of her. She looked beautiful, and ethereal, and Lin felt warm pride alongside a chest constricting concern. Judging by Korra's reappearance, the disappearance of the dark spirits, and the happiness on Sora's face, Lin had to believe that Vaatu had been defeated, that the world had been saved, and she felt relief washing over her, just before Sora began to fade.
Lin and Tenzin both reached out again, unconsciously, unsure of what was happening, but Sora's expression was calm and her voice soft, as if floating on a breeze, as she assured them, "I'll see you soon."
And then she was gone again, but Lin felt the pressure lifting off of her chest. She knew that Sora was returning to her body, that the girl would finally be safe, in the real world, where Lin knew how to protect her, and they would be reunited soon.
Then Korra's form was fading too, returning to her body, and all of them watched as she emerged from the Tree of Time, and remerged with Raava in a dramatic display of lights and sound. Lin had no idea what had happened while Korra had been away, and even Korra's brief explanation did not totally clue her in, but Vaatu had been vanquished and Unalaq along with him, and that was really all that mattered. Lin didn't even care about the details at that moment, more focused on getting the hell out of the Spirit World and back to her family. After Korra had broken the news to her cousins of their father's death, and after Bolin had pulled Korra into a back breaking hug, Lin began impatiently ushering everyone in the direction of the exit.
Korra still needed to close the portals, but after a brief discussion with Tenzin, the girl revealed that she did not feel it was right to close the spirit portals, that the Avatar should no longer be the bridge between the two worlds. Lin got a little testy then, because really? After all the chaos and darkness they had just endured and Korra wanted to just let those things roam free?
"It's the Avatar's decision to make," Tenzin argued on Korra's behalf, squeezing his wife's hand and looking at her imploringly. She noticed then how haggard and tired he looked. She wondered if she looked the same. "It'll be all right, Lin. With Vaatu defeated, the spirits won't be turning dark like before."
Lin snorted disbelievingly. "Sure they won't." But she dropped it because she was too tired to argue and there were more pressing thoughts on her mind.
Stepping out of the Spirit World and back into the real world was like a breath of fresh air, and Lin sucked it in with relief. Earlier, there had been no certainty that they would even make it out, and she had never been so glad to see the frozen tundra of the South Pole. They were all eager to get back to the compound where everyone else waited for them, and wasted no more time in getting there; they could discuss whatever they had missed later.
When they all arrived at the healing hut, Tonraq, Senna, Nira, and Jeia were already waiting outside. Senna and Tonraq went rushing to meet their daughter, and Jeia came hurtling towards her parents with a squeal. Tenzin was carrying Ronen, but Lin raced forward and caught Jeia as the toddler leapt into her arms.
Jeia wrapped herself tight around her mother, her little arms constricting around Lin's neck, and she murmured against Lin's cheek, sounding half-surprised, "You're back…you came back…"
"Hey, what'd I tell you?" Lin said, rubbing Jeia's back and kissing the top of her head. "I'm never leavin' you again. Not like before. I promise."
"Sora woke up," Jeia exclaimed then, perking up to look at her mother. "You and Daddy found her soul?"
"Yes, we did," Lin assured. "She should be all better now. Is she inside with Gran-Gran and Jin?"
Jeia nodded in confirmation, and then Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi were beside Lin, and Nira reached them too. Nira and Jeia both startled at the sight of Ronen, and Jeia fretted, "What happened to Ro?"
"He'll be okay," Tenzin said quickly, "he just needs a little more healing from Gran-Gran. Let's get him inside…"
Tenzin started forward before anything else could be said, and Nira watched him for a moment before turning on Lin with a sigh. "I'm so glad to see you're all back in one piece."
Nira reached out to Lin, and the two women clasped hands for a brief moment, exchanging a glance that held a world of meaning. Then they went to follow Tenzin, with Jeia still propped on Lin's hip, and Lin replied, "I couldn't even tell you what the hell just happened in the last few hours. I figure I'll get more of the story from Korra or Sora later. Speaking of, how is Sora? She made it back okay?"
"Yes, she's doing all right," Nira answered. "She's very tired and a little weak, but Katara says she's slowly regaining her strength, that she should be good as new in a few days."
By then, they had strode the short distance through the healing hut, to the back room where Sora and the others had been. Tenzin was already there, lowering Ronen into the waters for his mother. Half lying on a cot a few feet away, with Yunjin sat beside her, was Sora, who was trying to crane her neck to see what was going on with her oldest brother. The girl still looked frightfully pale, with dark shadows under her eyes and her movements sluggish, but her eyes were bright and she was alive, and Lin finally allowed herself to breathe.
She rushed over to the twins, and they both perked up at the sight of her. "Mom!" Yunjin said with delight, hastily setting down a bowl of broth he had been trying to coax Sora into drinking a second earlier, soup sloshing over the edge as he bounded to his feet. He crashed into Lin's side for a brief hug, and then pulled quickly away, smiling as he told her, "I knew you'd come back. Did you kick Unalaq's ass?"
"Not me, unfortunately," Lin muttered, a little regretful that she hadn't gotten to dole out any damage on Unalaq herself, "but Korra took care of him, and your sister I think. How were things here?"
"Better now," Yunjin replied, turning his attention back onto his twin, and he and Lin moved as one to squat down next to Sora.
Lin settled Jeia onto her feet, and the toddler crawled up onto the cot to sit next to her big sister. Lin reached out to gently grasp Sora's hand, still cautious. "Hey, kid," she said, "how are you feeling?"
"Tired, but I'm okay," Sora assured, smiling softly. "How are you? What happened to Ronen?"
"We're all fine, don't worry about it," Lin insisted. "Ronen just got a little hurt, but Gran-Gran is gonna take care of him, like she did you. Why don't you finish eating and get some rest?"
Sora looked down at the bowl of broth Yunjin was holding again, and she grimaced. "I'm not very hungry."
Yunjin scoffed in disbelief. "Are you kidding? You haven't eaten in a week. You oughta be starved."
Lin put a hand on Yunjin's shoulder to quiet him, but kept her gaze on Sora. "I'm sure you feel a little weird, but you just haven't had anything in your stomach for a while. You'll start to feel better once you've eaten."
Sora sighed dramatically, but reached out for the bowl. Her hands were shaking though, and it was clear to see she wouldn't be able to hold it herself. She looked embarrassed, curling her hands into fists and stuffing them between her knees to still them and averting her gaze from all of them.
"I've got it, Sis," Yunjin said softly. "Let me help, yeah? I've been useless enough while you were away."
"Did you also forget to bathe?" Sora teased lightly, looking pointedly at Yunjin's unusually untamed hair.
"Hey, yours isn't much better," Jin countered.
"Yeah, but I was soulless for a week, what's your excuse?"
Lin was so relieved to be back with her kids, without the looming threat of darkness, that she simply smiled and listened to the twins playfully bicker as if Sora had never been gone. After a few minutes, she removed her armor so that Jeia could settle in her lap again more comfortably. The toddler started dosing off fairly quickly, and Lin felt exhaustion of her own settling deep into her bones. Her eyelids were heavy and her whole body was sore. Now that she was no longer fighting for her life and was warming up inside the hut, she could feel all the sticky sweat and grime on her skin, but it was so normal for her that it barely even bothered her. She'd be hurting in the morning for sure though; she didn't bounce back as well as she used to when she was younger. Having two healers around was handy, but she wasn't going to make a fuss when there were so many others that needed the attention.
Kya and Bumi came over to smother Sora with hugs and kisses, and then Tenzin joined them, but soon Sora was struggling to stay sitting up, and Yunjin was telling all of them to give her some space. Kya and Bumi obliged without hesitation, smiling at Yunjin's odd parental behavior, but not teasing the boy about it. They both knew he had been through a lot, and they made excuses to retreat to the other room. Nira went with them after placing a kiss atop each of the twins' heads. Then it was just the five of them, with Ronen just across the room and Katara still working to heal him. According to Tenzin, his mother had assured him that Ronen would be fine. With that in mind, Lin settled back against Tenzin's chest when he opened his arms, Jeia already asleep against her chest. She let her gaze flit between Ronen and Sora, who fell straight to sleep once left alone, with Yunjin's hand in hers. Lin felt her own eyelids growing heavy, and though she fought it, she soon dozed off surrounded by warmth and family, and the relief that darkness had not descended upon the world.
Ronen awoke disoriented and worried.
One second he had been facing off against Unalaq with Korra, Mako, and Bolin, and the next he was staring at the ceiling of his grandmother's healing hut. His limbs were sluggish and weak, and there was a throbbing pain in his left side that made him dizzy. Turning his head was uncomfortable and jarring so he went still and stopped trying to look around, evening his breath and quelling the panic. He waited a moment, waited for the memories to return, to make sense of what was going on, and eventually it all came trickling back.
He remembered Unalaq fusing with Vaatu, remembered getting thrown and frozen and not being able to move. He remembered Unalaq/Vaatu growing into a giant red beast before disappearing, the shockwave that had knocked everyone off of their feet, and his inability to seek help for himself or his friends. He had a vague recollection of his parents showing up, but most of that was a blur and now he was here and he didn't know how.
"Hey, you're awake…" a voice whispered nearby, and Ronen forced himself to turn, flinching a little, but enduring the discomfort to see Korra tiptoeing towards him. She smiled tiredly, and he smiled back, relieved to see her and hopeful that it meant the world had been saved while he was unconscious. She looked a little banged up, but no worse for wear, so that had to be a good sign, right?
"Hey," Ronen croaked, surprised by his lack of voice but powering through, "did we win?"
Korra stopped at his bedside and nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, we won. Barely, but…Vaatu was defeated. Unalaq is gone."
"And my sister?" Ronen questioned, because when his parents had shown up, Sora definitely hadn't been with them, he remembered that much.
"She's back," Korra assured, "safe and sound. She's sleeping now, with everyone else." Korra turned and gestured to the other side of the room, where Ronen could make out the familiar forms of his parents and siblings. It was heartwarming and almost comical, to see them huddled together in positions they would probably regret in the morning. Sora was the only one on a low cot, Yunjin curled up next to her with his arm overhead to keep a hold on one of her hands. His parents were slumped together against the wall behind them, and Jeia sprawled across both their laps. They must have been exhausted to have fallen asleep that way, and Ronen wasn't all that surprised. Even though he had just woken, he still felt like he could sleep for several more hours.
"Is everyone else okay?" Ronen asked next, dragging his eyes away from his family to meet Korra's gaze.
"Yeah, everyone's fine. Only you got yourself hurt," Korra teased, her forehead creasing in a way that betrayed her true concern. "Next time, maybe don't jump on a crazy bender's back."
"I'll keep that in mind, but we were getting our asses kicked and I had to do something," Ronen defended.
Korra nodded with a grimace. "Yeah…we weren't doing so well for a while."
"What happened while I was out of it?" Ronen asked softly. He could see that whatever it was had deeply affected Korra, but he had missed so much.
Korra fidgeted for a few moments, avoiding Ronen's gaze and considering her response. Ronen was patient, remaining silent while he waited. Eventually, Korra quietly answered, "Soon after you got hit…Vaatu ripped Raava right out of me. My connection to the past Avatars was taken away, and I…I didn't know how to fight back. When Vaatu touched the spirit portals, he was transported to Republic City and the rest of us got knocked out. Your parents and Kya and Bumi found us, and Kya helped wake us up, but I still felt so helpless. I thought it was over, that I had failed the world. Your Dad...he helped me see that I was more than Raava, more than my connection to the other Avatars. But even then…how could I stop Vaatu without Raava? Going into the Tree of Time helped too. It reminded me of things I had forgotten, showed me my life up to this point, showed me that Vaatu was destroying the city and all those people were in danger. After some meditation, I was able to do the same as Vaatu, in a way. My soul grew to his height and I went to the city to fight him. Your sister helped me too, actually."
"Really?" Ronen said in surprise, intrigued. He glanced across the room at his sister again, watched the steady rise and fall of her chest. It was a huge relief to know that she was apparently good as new, but he wouldn't be fully convinced until he saw her. He wasn't surprised that she had somehow helped Korra. He had always known that Sora was gifted, even if he hadn't known exactly what she was capable of. When he first learned of her affinity for spirits, he had been impressed to say the least, and he was interested to know what she had done to help Korra save the world. He felt a little guilty that he had been all but useless for most of the final battle between Korra and Vaatu, but he was glad that his sister and the rest of his family had been there for Korra when he could not be.
Korra nodded, and now that the topic was not directly on her, she perked up a little. "Sora showed me the light, showed me that Raava was still there, somewhere inside of Vaatu. Once I saw that, I was able to take Raava back and defeat Vaatu. I don't know if I could have done it without Sora. She was pretty great."
Ronen smiled, and wished for a moment that he could have seen his little sister help save the world, but it was enough to see Korra's fond expression as she recalled the memory. "I'm glad to hear it," he said. Then he reached out with his uninjured arm to grasp her hand. "And how are you doing? You said you lost your connection to the other Avatars and that you were parted from Raava. Were you able to fuse back together before harmonic convergence was over?"
Korra nodded. "We did, but...I'm not sure about my connection to the past Avatars. At first, I thought it was gone for good, but I've been getting...feelings, impressions of them. They seem to be coming back, very slowly, but I'll have to meditate on it for a while, I think."
Ronen couldn't imagine how that must have felt for Korra, or what it must be like to be the Avatar without all those past connections, and he squeezed her hand. "I'm sure they'll come back, with time."
"Maybe," Korra murmured hopefully, but she didn't sound entirely sure.
"And the spirit portals?" Ronen questioned next, in part to change the subject for her. "Did you get them closed in time?"
"Wellll, actually…I didn't close the portals. I decided that the Avatar should no longer be the bridge between the two worlds."
Ronen's eyes went wide, and he may have gaped a little. "Really? That's…wow. I mean...wow."
"Yeah, your mom wasn't too happy with me," Korra grumbled. "But your dad supported my decision."
"I'm not surprised my mom complained, but for what it's worth, I support you too. If you believe it was the right thing to do, then it must have been."
Korra breathed in deeply, and then exhaled slowly before responding, "I hope so. It'll unite the water tribes, at least, so that should help with recovering from the civil war."
"I take it Unalaq is gone?" Ronen asked gently, mindful of the fact that he had been Korra's uncle before his mad takeover.
"He is," Korra confirmed. "Eska and Desna are heading back to the North Pole in the morning. I'll stay for another day or two, to make sure the Northern troops head back and to be with my parents, but I think I'll probably be needed in Republic City. I'm not sure how bad Vaatu's damage was, but it didn't look good."
Ronen nodded grimly. "Whatever you need me to do, I'll help."
"You just make sure you recover first," Korra urged, giving him a stern look that looked out of place on her. "Katara said it might be a while before you're back to full strength. The frostbite went pretty deep."
"I can be helpful even without full use of my arm. I'll be fine."
"Tell that to Asami," Korra snorted. "Because she seems to think you broke a promise you made her."
Ronen winced. "I mean, technically, I came back in one piece so…I didn't lie. How is she?"
"She's fine. She was worried, like the rest of us, but fine. She's been a big help too, while you've been over here napping." Ronen rolled his eyes at her teasing and bit down on his lip to hold back a laugh. "She told me all about you asking her out. I was a little insulted that you didn't tell me first, but I guess I'll give you a pass since you were pretty unconscious. You'd better treat her right, you hear me?"
Ronen feigned offence. "Hey, you're my best friend. Aren't you supposed to be telling her that?"
"Nah, you'll be fine," Korra said with a smirk, and then lightly punching him in the shoulder.
However, she had forgotten for a second about Ronen's wounded shoulder, and he cringed at the sharp pain that shot through him from her tap. "Ow," he said fairly mildly, holding back a yelp by sheer force of will, because his family was still sleeping on the other side of the room.
"Oh my gosh!" Korra gasped, looking horrified. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to –"
"It's fine," Ronen interjected as her voice began to rise in pitch, glancing pointedly at his family, and Korra got the hint. "I'm okay."
"Spirits, I'm sorry," Korra repeated, quieter this time. "I completely forgot."
"It's all right," Ronen insisted. "It didn't hurt that bad. I'll forgive you this time."
He smiled teasingly and Korra made a face. "Listen," she said. "there's something else I wanted to say to you. When I was in the Tree of Time, I got my memories back, including some of the conversations I had before I left the city and got swallowed by that dark spirit. I remember our fight now and…I know we already talked about it a little, on our way here, but I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things to you."
"It's okay," Ronen said softly. "I'm sorry too. We were both being a little ridiculous, but you were going through a lot and I should have been more understanding. I should have listened to you instead of assuming I always know what's best. I guess I'm a little more like my mom than we thought, at least in that aspect."
"Well, to be fair, you've usually got some pretty solid ideas," Korra pointed out. "I'm glad I have you to talk some sense into me when I start thinking too much with my emotions."
"That's what makes you such a great Avatar though," Ronen argued lightly. "Your emotional investment helps you empathize with the people that need your help. Keeping a level head is important, but I think I tried to solve everything with reasoning these past few months and that wasn't always what was needed. Some of the time, I should have been empathizing with you more, and with my mother. Maybe with my dad too."
"You can't blame yourself for everything," Korra admonished. "Save some blame for the rest of us, would ya?"
Ronen chuckled. "Fair enough. How about we call it even and agree not to fight anymore?"
"Sounds like a plan to me," Korra said. "Besides, everything worked out okay in the end…for the most part."
"True," Ronen conceded, "but next time, let's try to resolve the problem a little faster. These past few months have been exhausting."
"You're tellin' me. Hopefully we'll finally get a break."
Ronen nodded his agreement, but before he could speak again, the sound of the door sliding open caught their attention, and they both turned to see Asami poking her head into the room.
Korra gave Ronen a sly smile and began retreating as she said, "Well, I'm beat. I'm gonna go, uh, find some place to sleep."
She and Asami nodded to one another as they swapped places, and then Korra was disappearing out into the hallway, and Asami was hovering over Ronen with her arms folded across her chest. She looked rather peeved, but Ronen still beamed at the sight of her.
"I thought I told you to come back in one piece?" Asami scolded.
"I did," Ronen defended brightly.
Asami scoffed and waved her hand over his wounded left side. "But look at you. You nearly lost that arm."
Ronen looked down at said arm for the first time since waking, and it did look pretty nasty, his skin looking like it was mottled with dark bruises. "That would certainly explain the discomfort," he murmured.
Asami gave him an exasperated look. "Korra told me what you did. I wouldn't have thought you'd be so reckless."
Ronen tried to shrug, but instantly regretted it. "Normally I'm not, but the only way to fight a bender like that is to get up close. Unfortunately, it didn't quite go as planned. For what it's worth, I'm sorry I worried you."
Asami sighed heavily, and Ronen noticed how tired she looked. "You all worried me. I hated just sitting here, waiting, not knowing what was happening. I nearly let Yunjin talk me into going after you guys."
"Let me guess, he wanted to come with you? Said he was the only one that could find Sora?"
"Something like that. He said he could feel the darkness winning, feel Sora slipping further away. I don't know if he was making it up or if it's a twin thing."
"Interesting," Ronen mused, more to himself. He didn't think it was impossible that Yunjin had felt something, considering Sora's own connection to the spirits and Jin's connection to her, but Yunjin was also known to exaggerate and the boy had probably simply been filled with trepidation. Ronen shook his head and looked back up at Asami. "It was probably better that you stayed here. I didn't end up doing much good, and I still missed half of what went on."
"Well, that's what happens when you try taking on the most powerful dark spirit in existence with a boomerang," Asami muttered, but a little bit of a smile was starting to show through her perturbed features.
"Yeah, but imagine if I had defeated him with my boomerang. That would have been an epic story to tell."
Asami snorted at the idea. "No one would have believed you."
"I'd be ridiculed just like poor Uncle Bumi," Ronen lamented. He hid a yawn behind his fist, and then added, "Speaking of boomerangs, have you seen mine around anywhere?"
"I think Bumi had it, last I saw. I'll check with him, make sure he's not neglecting it," Asami teased. "But we can talk later. You should rest."
"I'm okay," Ronen tried to protest, even though he was feeling rather exhausted still. A few more hours of sleep would certainly be nice. "You don't have to go."
Asami gave him a soft smile and reached out, hesitating a moment before swiping the hair from his brow. His hair was usually neater and cut short, but it had grown out a little in the midst of everything that had been going on and he hadn't had a chance to cut it off. Asami's feather light touch across his forehead was both soothing and nerve-wracking and he felt his heart thumping a little faster in his chest. She pulled her hand back immediately after, and he reached out to grasp it lightly before she could go too far.
"Have you gotten any sleep lately?" he asked her, too nervous to voice anything else.
"Not really," she admitted, her voice nearly a whisper, as if she was nervous too, "but I will now."
"Good," Ronen said, and then an awkwardness fell between them that hadn't been there before. "Look…about what I asked you earlier today…or yesterday, or whenever that was…if you've changed your mind, it's okay –"
"No," Asami hastily interjected, squeezing his hand reassuringly. "No, I haven't changed my mind. I still want to. We'll discuss it later, okay? When you're feeling better."
Ronen nodded. It was sensible, even if part of him yearned to stay awake longer just to talk to her. They both needed the rest and the world had only just been saved from eternal darkness. "I'm looking forward to it," he said, and smiled.
Lin awoke after only a few hours of sleep and with an agonizingly stiff neck. She should have been used to dozing off in odd positions, after spending the last few months barely sleeping or sleeping at her desk because her family was so far away, but her body was clearly angry at her. Falling off of Oogi and losing her mind and fighting off dark spirits, and then sleeping upright on the floor half slumped against her husband was apparently a catalyst for a ridiculous amount pain. Even so, she couldn't find it within her to be too bothered by it. She had her kids and her husband and they were all alive so it really could have been worse.
She couldn't get back to sleep though. Tenzin's once soothing warmth now felt like it was setting her on fire and her legs had gone numb with Jeia's weight sprawled across them. Her ass was killing her and she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to turn her neck again. She needed to move, even if it meant risking waking up Jeia and Tenzin.
Thankfully, Jeia stayed blissfully asleep even as Lin hissed and groaned and shifted the toddler completely over to her father's lap. Tenzin, however, stirred awake in the midst of the disruption, and peered at Lin with a grimace that betrayed his own discomfort. Lin bit down hard on both her lips and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she tried to stand and walk on legs that screamed, less like pins and needles and more like knives and daggers stabbing through her. After a few minutes of stretching and movement though, she managed to ease the pain, and returned to help Tenzin. She lifted Jeia again and held the snoozing toddler while Tenzin shook out his own limbs.
Afterwards, Tenzin helped her find some blankets and pillows to pile up on the floor. It wouldn't be as good as their bed back home, but it would be better than nothing. Nearly everyone else in the hut was sleeping now too, despite the fact that it was already close to mid-morning, and it seemed pointless to stay awake when they would surely be up late again that night. There was a lot that would need done before Korra could leave the South Pole, and Tenzin wouldn't leave her before it was done now matter how badly he wished to finally return home with the family. Lin certainly wasn't going to leave any of them, not after being apart for three weeks straight and everything that had happened in between their sorrowful reunion and now.
When they were roused awake the second time, it was because Jeia was awake and she wanted her mom and dad to be awake too. Lin still barely felt rested, but she did feel a little better and that was enough for now. She ended up receiving a quick healing session from Katara shortly after too, at Tenzin's behest – he must have seen her wincing every time she turned her head too fast – and it helped soothe most of the aches.
The following thirty-six hours were busy enough that any residual pain was all but forgotten. Between smothering her kids and helping Tenzin and Korra, Lin didn't have a second to think about herself, which was just how she liked it. Being without her family had left her too much time to think and she hadn't enjoyed it in the least. She was already happier now, even with everything else going on. She was still worried about Ronen and Sora, but they were recovering well. Sora hadn't been able to walk much at first, after a week of no movement, so Lin was being ridiculously optimistic to try and soothe the girl, and jumped right into the task of helping Sora retrain her legs to function properly. Lin was still feeling some residual guilt about Sora's capture, even though being at the Air Temple probably wouldn't have made a difference, but she felt better every time she managed to make Sora smile. And besides, Sora had apparently been instrumental in the destruction of Vaatu, according to the explanation they finally got from Korra about what had gone on in Republic City. Lin was beaming with pride even if she still hated that Sora had been in such a dangerous situation. She seemed to be worrying a whole lot for nothing, because her kids were tough and there was no refuting that.
Ronen required some physical therapy too, for the arm that he was lucky to not have had hacked off. Kya had stopped the frostbite just in time, and Katara's otherworldly healing had done the rest. Ronen was very lucky to not have suffered worse, especially with how the ice had been wrapped around his chest and neck. He would have scars, similar to burns, that started at his elbow and climbed up his neck, and it would take some time before he could properly open and close his left hand, but he had survived an altercation with a billion or some year old evil spirit and Unalaq, so Lin just thanked the universe he wasn't worse off.
Yunjin's spirits rapidly lifted now that Sora was back too, and Lin had never been so glad to see his naturally hyperactive state. He had been nearly as comatose as his twin the past few days, and it seemed as if something had shifted for him in the aftermath. He was still himself, but subdued in a way that hinted at a maturity that hadn't been there very often before. It was likely a result of all that had happened in the past year or so, ever since Amon and then Unalaq. But as exasperating as some of Yunjin's pranks and antics could be, Lin hoped the boy's spirits hadn't been too badly crushed. She figured once they returned home he'd be back to terrorizing the Acolytes in no time.
Jeia Rai was glued to her mother's side most of the time, and while that wasn't all that strange, Lin also hoped the toddler wasn't too traumatized - it had been hard enough getting her to sleep after Amon. She started sucking on her thumb again too, even though they had kicked that habit a while ago, and out of all the kids, seeing Jeia have to cope was the worst. She had seen so much already at her young age, and with her eidetic memory, she wasn't likely forget. With the twins, at least, they were close to fourteen, and Ronen was all but an adult, but Jeia barely got a childhood before she started being dropped into wars. Unfortunately, Lin didn't expect that to change anytime soon. The Avatar's arrival in Republic City had brought Korra out into the open, and as a result, all the psychos were coming out of the woodwork to face off with her. It would probably be years before it settled down, and while Lin wished that she could be optimistic, she had a feeling they'd all continue to fight such monsters for the next decade at least.
Hopefully Korra's decision to keep the spirit portals open did not cause as many problems as Lin suspected it might. Allowing spirits to roam free among humans after centuries apart sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. Lin didn't like it, but she kept most of her reservations to herself, and stood with the rest of her family in support of Korra as she announced that decision to the gathered people of the Southern Water Tribe. The Northern troops were returning home, the elders had chosen Tonraq as Chief, and the civil war was over, which meant that the rest of them could finally leave. Lin loved seeing Katara, but she really hated the South Pole, and she would be glad to be back on Air Temple Island, even if she was out of a job again.
Bumi would be returning with them once again, and at first it seemed as if Kya might accompany them too, until she approached Lin just a few hours before they were to leave.
When Lin spotted Kya coming towards her, she looked down at Jeia, who was grumpily kicking snow off of her boots, and said, "Hey, kid, why don't you go get your dad to help you with that while I talk to Aunt Kya?"
"I can talk to Aunt Kya," Jeia argued.
Lin just gave her a look, and Jeia rolled her eyes with an exasperated huff before going to do as she was told.
As soon as Kya was stood before her, Lin asked, "How are the kids?"
Shortly after the conflict with Vaatu and Unalaq had been resolved, Kya had gone in search of her own children, who were all residing in the South Pole. Kya's youngest, Akira, had spent some time living in the Earth Kingdom with her mother when Kya was still with Yumae, and when Kya had abruptly left, Akira had not wanted to leave. However, word from her two older brothers about the civil war had brought her back, despite the fact that Kya had urged all of them to leave and go somewhere safe. The South Pole was their home, and Koda and Ashok were too invested in its well-being to ever leave it behind. Akira held little fondness for the South Pole now that she had been elsewhere and seen what other parts of the world had to offer, but her family was still there and she had come rushing back. Koda and Akira had stayed out of the civil war conflict for the most part, because Akira found the whole thing absurd and Koda had a new pregnant wife to consider.
Ashok, on the other hand, had jumped at the chance to fight against the Northern invaders and had been injured in battle. Fortunately, he hadn't been too badly wounded, but enough that Kya had been beset with worry. Nevertheless, even though Kya was on a path to reconciliation with her middle child, there was still enough tension between them that Kya had decided to give him some space instead of hovering the way Lin was with her own injured kids. Kya and her ex-husband, Kole, weren't on very good terms either, not even with Kya living in the South Pole for the past several months; the two tended to simply avoid each other whenever possible. It was difficult to accomplish when they were both worried about their son, but Kya was letting Kole take charge in an effort to continue to keep the peace.
Kya had been rather close-lipped about how it was all going, so Lin knew only what she had gotten second-hand from Nira, who was apparently Kya's new confidant. Kya spent more time talking to Nira most days than she did anyone else, but to be fair, the rest of them had been pretty busy, and when Kya was with Lin on Tenzin they were usually discussing Ronen or Jeia or the twins. Lin and Tenzin both knew that they weren't making themselves as available to Kya as they probably should have been.
At Lin's question, Kya smiled softly and answered, "The kids are good. Ashok is doing better. He was up on his feet for a little bit today. He's being stubborn, go figure, and is determined to make it worse by pushing himself, but…Koda is good at calming him down. Akira's getting restless. I think she'll be leaving again soon. As for Koda, well…he'll be a father in a few months so he's halfway between panic and keeping it together."
Lin shook her head in bemusement. "I still can't believe you're going to be a grandmother. Are we really that old already?"
"Ugh," Kya groaned, "don't remind me. That kid isn't calling me Gran-Gran. I'm too young for that, right?"
Mid-fifties wasn't exactly "young," but Lin didn't try to shatter Kya's daydream. Lin could still remember baby Koda pulling on her hair, and she couldn't believe that he was old enough to have babies of his own.
"Sure you are," Lin said. "How is that wife of his anyways? I still haven't met her."
Koda and his wife had gotten married in a very small ceremony with only their parents and siblings, so Lin and Tenzin hadn't been invited, which was just as well because they probably wouldn't have been able to make it anyways.
"She's okay," Kya said with a shrug. "I don't hate her yet, so there's that. Koda really seems smitten with her, and frankly I'm just relieved he even introduced her to me. She seems sweet, I suppose."
"But no one's good enough for your first born?" Lin guessed.
"Is anyone good enough for Ronen?" Kya countered with a smirk.
"Absolutely not," Lin snorted.
"It looks like he's got his eye on the Sato girl now. How do you feel about that?"
Lin groaned. "Let's not discuss that. I can only handle so many crisis at a time. Let's go back to you being a grandma."
"No way," Kya protested. "I like tormenting you better. How soon, do you think, until you're a grandma?"
"Watch it," Lin warned, glaring as Kya laughed. "I'll be well into my nineties before I let that happen."
"I don't know, Lin. They grow up pretty fast…"
"Really? 'Cause you still haven't."
Kya chuckled. "Fair enough."
"Anyways," Lin stressed, "I doubt you came over here to torment me about my future. What did you wanna talk about?"
Kya shifted a little uncomfortably, averting her gaze for a second before confessing, "I know I said I'd come back to Republic City for a little while, to help out, but…I think there's something I need to do first."
"I told you that you're not under any obligation to come back with us," Lin replied, unperturbed. "These last few weeks have been tough, and I don't blame you if you want to go take a good vacation, instead of jumping into whatever insanity is waiting back in the city."
"It's been tougher on you and Tenzin though, and you've gotta go back into it, so I don't want to just leave you in the lurch –"
"Hey," Lin interrupted, "it's not your responsibility to take care of us. You've done more than enough the past few days, more than you needed to, and I'm grateful." Lin winced as she considered her next words, because there was something she'd never admitted out loud to Kya and it was probably time she shouldered her part of the blame. "Listen, Tenzin and me…we both dropped the ball when it came to your kids. I wasn't even half the aunt you are, and Ashok was right when he said we aren't his family. We should have been, but we aren't. We were so caught up in our own world that we didn't bother to think about them, and for that I'm sorry. You've done so much for my kids, especially Sora, and I can't ever repay you, or make up for not doing the same for yours. So you do whatever you gotta do. Don't ever feel like you owe us something."
Kya smiled sadly, inhaling deeply as she took in Lin's words. Then she sighed. "Thank you, Lin, but I love those kids and…honestly, part of it's selfish on my part too. With them, I can do everything right, the way I should have done for my kids, and it's easier, because I don't have to be their mother. They don't hate me or resent me, and I don't have to feel guilty every time I look them in the eye. I would have liked for you and Tenzin to have a better relationship with my own kids, but it wasn't your responsibility to take care of them. It was mine, and I failed, but I never expected you to help. You had your own lives and worries, and once they got older and I stopped visiting with them so much, you didn't really have an opportunity to see them. I guess we all failed them, in a way, but Mom looked after them, and thankfully Kole's family was always around. We can't change what's already done."
Lin nodded. "True, but I still feel like an ass. Your kids helped warm me to the idea of having my own. Without them I might not have agreed to having a family, and then where would I be?"
"I don't think any of us were ready for kids when Koda came around," Kya mused. "I always wondered, if I had waited like you and Tenzin, and had the kids when I was older, if I would have done things differently, if I would have stayed. It's pointless, I know, but…I guess I'll never stop thinking about it."
"When we were in the Fog of Lost Souls," Lin recalled, "you said something about being tied down. I know you probably don't remember much about what was going on in your head – I sure don't – but is that your greatest fear? Is that why you keep running away from people when they get too close?"
It was blunt and maybe a little harsh, but Lin knew that Kya wouldn't take offense. The two of them could always speak frankly that way – for the most part – and there wouldn't be any animosity between them. Lin was probably one of very few that could ever ask such a thing without getting decked across the face.
"Something like that," Kya admitted, "but when we were in there, it was more like the fear of doing it again, I think. Leaving my kids is my biggest regret, and I can't figure out how to atone for it, or if I even can. I just know that every time I get close to someone I run away and destroy everything and it's getting harder to live with myself." She chuckled self-deprecatingly, and Lin frowned.
"That's not true though," Lin pointed out. "You've never left me, not really. I mean you didn't come around when you left your kids, but that's just because you didn't want to face me. And I know you kept in touch with Bumi. You screwed up pretty bad, but you've spent the last decade trying to make up for it and that has to count for something. I didn't speak to Su for how long? I all but abandoned her too, but we've worked on it and now we're fine. Well, assuming she doesn't kill me when she finds out I didn't tell her about the last week. But the point is, you can stick around, you're just too busy beating yourself up for the one time you didn't."
"I know," Kya murmured, "sort of. That's why I can't come to Republic City right now. I've decided that I need to go back to the Earth Kingdom, back to Yumae. I'm not expecting her to take me back or forgive me, but…I know now that leaving her was wrong. I used my kids as an excuse, but it was just my own fears and I need to take responsibility for it. I hope she can forgive me, because let's face it I still love her more than anything, but I'm not sure what'll happen. She was understanding when I told her I had to leave, to focus on my kids, but I know I hurt her. Another regret, but maybe there's still a chance and…I have to take it. It's time I stop beating myself up for the past and focus on what I can do right in the future."
"I'm glad to hear that," Lin said, and she truly was. She felt almost a little choked up. She loved Kya, had admired her since they were children, and she wanted Kya to find the happiness she'd been seeking her whole life. Lin had never doubted where her own happiness lie. She had always known it was with Tenzin, but Kya had not been afforded that surety. It had been a long road getting there, but hopefully Kya's time had finally come too. "I hope it works out for you, Kya, and you know where to find us, if you need anything."
"I do, and I know you hate this, but…" Kya suddenly lunged forward, ensnaring Lin in a tight hug, and Lin huffed and puffed, but eventually hugged her back.
Returning to Republic City was difficult and a relief all at once. Lin was glad to get her family back home, but she knew they would have limited time together before they were being pulled in different directions. Vaatu had done considerable damage to the city, and most of them would likely end up aiding in the effort to put things back together. Lin probably wouldn't be welcome, not with how she had left President Raiko, but that was just fine with her. She would much rather stay on the Island with the twins and Jeia. However, she did reach out to Chief Tosuki, shortly after returning to Air Temple Island, just to get some info and make sure none of her officers had been too badly harmed – although, she would really have to stop referring to them as her officers.
Before leaving the South Pole, Lin had also been forced to write a letter to her sister, to explain what had gone on in the last few days before Su received word in Zaofu and lost her mind. Lin had tried to pawn the task off on someone else, like Tenzin or Ronen, but they weren't letting her get away with it. She was the one that had decided to keep Su out of it, and now she had to be the one to explain why.
Lin knew that Su was going to be pissed, but she hadn't expected to find out so soon.
On the first day back on the Island, most of them decided to rest and get settled back in before rushing into the city. Korra and Bolin, however, went in the morning to talk to President Raiko, Mako went to headquarters to get right back to work, and Asami went to see about her company and Varrick, who had apparently escaped from prison in the midst of Vaatu's destruction. Ronen had tried to go with them, but he was still recovering and eventually gave into the pleas of his parents and friends to take it easy for at least another day or two. Sora, Yunjin, Jeia, and Tenzin were happy to stay home, and Lin was glad to simply sit around the table for a meal with the five of them for the first time in months. Bumi also joined them for a few minutes, before rushing off to either nap or seek out booze - Lin didn't care to know which one.
Lin was in the middle of enjoying her nice, calm lunch when she was notified of the approaching Zaofu airship. She paused with food halfway to her open mouth, sighed heavily, and dropped the utensils back onto her plate with a noisy clatter. She looked over at Tenzin, who grimaced sympathetically.
"Aunt Su is coming?!" Sora excitedly exclaimed, perking up in her seat.
"How come you didn't tell us Aunt Su was coming?" Yunjin demanded.
Ronen said to his brother, "I'm going to assume, based on their expressions, that they didn't know."
"Is Kuvira comin'?" Jeia asked hopefully.
Instead of answering any of them, Lin muttered to Tenzin, "Better keep the kids inside. This might get ugly."
"I'm sure it can't be that bad," Tenzin said with little conviction. "She'll understand."
Lin snorted her disbelief.
Sora frowned. "Is Aunt Su mad at you?"
Yunjin's eyes widened in realization. "Oh yeeahh." He snickered and replied to Sora, "Mom never told Aunt Su about the end of the world and your spirit being trapped in the Spirit World."
"Why not?" Sora questioned. "She could have helped."
"That's exactly why I didn't tell her," Lin huffed, "because she would have helped and got herself hurt. I had enough of you to worry about already."
"I told you she'd want to help," Ronen said, looking half amused too, and Lin scowled at him.
"You've got no room to talk," she told her eldest. "Remember running off with the Avatar to fight Equalists without telling your parents? Does that ring any bells?"
"Fair point," Ronen conceded.
Jeia suddenly stood to her full height, which wasn't all that different from when she had been sitting, slapping her little hands on the table and looking frustrated as she exasperatedly repeated, "Is Kuvira comin'?"
"Probably not, sweetheart," Tenzin gently replied, reaching over to pat her shoulder. "We'll visit Zaofu soon, all right?"
Jeia flopped back down with a huff and went back to her meal.
Lin sighed again and rose to her feet. "Better get this over with."
"Oh I've gotta see this," Yunjin said delightedly, leaping up as well as if to follow his mother.
"Not a chance," Lin growled mildly. "Sit back down and finish your lunch."
"But Mom," Yunjin implored, "you two are wicked fighters. I'll never get a chance to see such an amazing match ever again. Plus, you'll need a buffer, and –"
"Quit trying to appeal to my ego to get your way," Lin interrupted. "She'll probably just scream at me until my ears bleed anyway. Nothing interesting is gonna happen, and you'll hear her from a mile away."
Yunjin opened his mouth to continue his protest, but Sora grabbed his sleeve and yanked him back down. "Come on, Jin," she said, "leave Mom alone."
"You guys are no fun," Yunjin complained, folding his arms across his chest.
"Haven't you seen enough drama this month?" Ronen asked his younger brother, as Lin turned away with an eye roll and headed for the door.
"There's never enough," Yunjin argued, and the rest of his words were incomprehensible the further Lin strode down the hall.
She considered stopping to put her armor on, as a precaution, but ultimately decided that it wouldn't be necessary. She figured that she and Su had come a long way, and her little sister probably wouldn't physically attack her despite her ire, and even if she did, Lin could take her. Lin was still a little sore from a few days ago, but overall not impaired.
When Lin walked outside, she spotted the Metal Clan airship up in the air fast approaching, and she moved as far from the house as possible. She reached the near edge of the island around the same time the airship came to hover there, and watched as a figure came spiraling down towards her. Su had not even waited for the airship to land or dock, but had come shooting down on a metal cable the moment she was close enough to land safely.
The two sisters were far enough apart that Lin could barely make out Su's features at first, but there was no mistaking the shrill roar of, "LIN BEIFONG!"
Lin stood her ground, planting her feet and straightening her spine, shoulders back. She kept her lips pursed and her expression neutral, not responding to her sister's call until Su had stomped right up to her, fury on her delicate face.
"Su," Lin replied shortly, not flinching even as Su clenched her fists. "I take it you received my letter?"
Su barked out a harsh laugh. "Oh yeah, I got your letter. Would have been nicer to get it a little sooner, y'know, before the end of the world, and before my niece died without her soul."
"None of that even happened," Lin said with a dismissive wave of her hand, which was probably unwise considering how pissed Su looked. "We saved Sora's soul and stopped the end of the world and you didn't have to get your hands dirty. You're welcome."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Su hissed, and the expletive just sounded weird coming out of her mouth. "That's what you have to say to me? After you completely neglected to inform me that my family's lives were at risk of being demolished by dark spirits?"
"Well, y'know, I had a lot going on," Lin said defensively, folding her arms across her chest. "It was my daughter that was dying, after all. I didn't have time to stop and think about who to send out postcards to."
It was the wrong thing to say, and Lin regretted it the moment it came out of her mouth, but it was too late to take it back, and Su reeled back as if she had been slapped.
"Well," Su said breathlessly, lip wobbling with rage or hurt or both, "I guess this is my fault then. I didn't realize that your sister and your nieces and nephews meant so little to you. See, I thought that in a time of such turmoil you might actually reach out to me, that we might warrant more consideration than a postcard, and that you might have wanted all the help in the world to find Sora, but… I see now that I was plainly very wrong."
Lin rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Oh, come off it, Su. You're being a drama queen. I didn't tell you because I didn't want you getting yourself all worked up before I even knew what was going on, and I didn't need you risking your ass to find my kid. That's my responsibility, and I didn't need to add you to the list of people I could lose in there."
Su just shook her head. "Even at forty-five years old you still treat me like a child. I grew up a long time ago, Lin, no thanks to you, and I can take care of myself. I also care a hell of a lot about my nieces and nephews, even if their mother is an idiot. You could have at least given me the courtesy of making my own decisions, but you always did have to control everything so I guess I shouldn't be surprised."
Lin was beginning to boil with rage of her own now, and instead of defusing the situation, she bit back with, "Well somebody had to be responsible while you were off being an immature brat. Sorry I didn't think to call you in for something as serious as my daughter's life. You can't exactly dance your way through the Spirit World." Which was probably a lie considering Bumi had subdued a couple of dark spirits with a flute, but well…Su didn't need to know that.
Su scrunched her nose up in that petulant way that used to drive Lin absolutely insane. "Real creative, Lin. Guess your next failed career will be as a comedian. And didn't you take Kya and Bumi with you? Not exactly the dream team of rescuers, but sure, I'm the one that would have screwed everything up."
"At least they have practical training in this kind of thing," Lin argued. "What experience do you have? You would have just been another thing for me to worry about."
"You know, someday you're really going to have to come up with a better excuse. You're not worried about me, you're just worried about yourself. You smother your kids just like you did me, because you don't want anyone to do anything differently from how you think it should go. Everything has to be your way, and spirits forbid if anyone tries to argue with you. It's a wonder Tenzin didn't leave you years ago, but then, I suppose he wouldn't have been allowed."
Somewhere way, way, way deep down, Lin knew that Su was just being rude because she was hurt and upset and had probably spent the entire flight to Republic City in a state of worry, thinking about all of the horrible things that had happened and had almost happened. Lin knew that she wasn't handling it well or easing Su's worries by barking back and being equally as rude, instead of just admitting that losing Su scared her to death and she wouldn't have been able to live with herself if Su got hurt again or worse. Maybe she was being a little controlling, but it wasn't because she wanted to rule Su's life, not anymore. She could have just explained that, but Su's words struck a nerve Lin hadn't even known was still there, and she nearly snapped. She felt her hackles rising, felt an uncontrollable urge to punch her sister in the face or hurl a boulder at her.
For once, though, Lin swallowed her rage, even though it felt like knives scraping down her throat, and she clenched her fists, but did not lash out. Instead, she muttered, "I can't talk to you when you're like this. Go back to Zaofu if you're just here to bitch me out."
Su growled in the back of her throat, grinding her teeth and clearly straining not to lash out herself. "For spirit's sake, Lin," she huffed. "Can't you ever get your head out of your own ass? Do you even care why I'm angry."
Lin's eye twitched, because of course she cared, but Su had to know that antagonizing her wasn't the way to get Lin to open up. "I know why you're angry," Lin grumbled. "I'm telling you that you're wrong. I was trying to protect you. If you don't want to believe that, then that's your problem."
"How are you protecting me by not telling me about the danger that could have come my way?" Su demanded. "Wouldn't you have wanted me to tell you?"
"If it really was the end of the world I didn't want you spending your last hours thinking about it, or running off to try and stop it and not getting to be with your family," Lin deflected. "We didn't know if we'd even come out of that spirit portal. It was hard enough without feeling guilty or worried about you too. You can tell me I was selfish or controlling all you want, but don't pretend like my concerns weren't valid."
Su just glared at Lin for several seconds, and there was silence between them, in which neither of them so much as blinked.
There was more that needed said between them, but they probably needed time to cool off, and they were given the perfect excuse a second later when Korra and Bolin suddenly stumbled upon the pair of them.
"Oh, sorry," Korra said hastily, when Lin and Su both turned at the sound of their approach. She seemed to pick up on the tension very quickly, and was already backtracking as she spoke. "We didn't mean to interrupt. We'll go the other way."
Bolin's eyes had gone unnaturally wide, and he looked ready to take off into a sprint, but Su suddenly said, in a voice of ominous calm, "Bolin…you know I was looking for you too."
The tone of Su's voice caused Lin to look at her sister in confusion and a bit of intrigue. The way Su's eyes were narrowed was telling enough, and the underlying threat in her voice was not simply from residual anger at Lin.
Bolin squeaked, fidgeting nervously. "Oh, um, Mrs. Beifong, ma'am," he stammered. "How nice to see you. I'm sorry, but I, uh, I have to go and, um –"
"Not so fast," Su interjected. "You and I have some things we need to discuss. Now, I know the mind of a young man is rather mixed up, and I know not all relationships work out, but you really had the gall to broke up with my daughter through a letter?"
Lin gawked in surprise. "He did what?!"
"No!" Bolin exclaimed. "I mean yes, but I didn't mean it like…I wasn't trying to…"
Su was already stomping towards Bolin, and the boy must have recognized the danger he was in, because he screamed shrilly before taking off running in the direction he had come from. Su chased after, shouting obscenities and hurling stones at Bolin.
Despite the fact that she had been fighting with her sister three seconds earlier, Lin found herself bursting with laughter at the display. It was better for her that Su's ire had been diverted elsewhere, and frankly, Bolin deserved it if what Su said was true.
Su was chasing Bolin in a circle, pelting rocks as Bolin screeched, and Lin couldn't stop laughing, but Korra approached Lin with a concerned, "Um, should we stop this?"
"Don't you dare," Lin wheezed. "This is the best entertainment I've had in weeks." And besides, she knew that Su wouldn't actually hurt the kid. If she had wanted to knock him on his ass or upside the head she would have already.
Korra didn't seem so certain, but she didn't argue further yet. Lin could feel the girl glancing at her surreptitiously out of the corner of her eye, until she finally asked, "Is everything okay with you two? It looked a little, uh…tense."
"We'll be fine," Lin muttered, and surprisingly, she actually believed herself. It might take some time, but she wasn't worried that she and Su would never make up. It wasn't like before. They had spent enough time apart, and no matter how annoyed she got, Lin wasn't letting Su go again.
Chapter 65: Chapter 65
Chapter Text
Chapter 65
When Su finally grew tired of tormenting Bolin, she left him encased in rock, which he could easily escape but wisely waited to do so until she was no longer in view. Then, Lin was sure to make herself scarce to avoid anymore of her little sister's wrath, but she needn't have bothered, because Su's warpath had come to an end – for that afternoon, at least. Su instead went in search of Ronen, Jeia, and the twins, so that she could get more answers from them about what had happened, and to shower them with her over the top affections.
Lin, meanwhile, decided to take the opportunity she was given, and snatched Tenzin as he was on his way back into the kitchen. Su and the kids were headed outside, because it was a beautiful day and it was about time for Sora and Ronen to take a walk – the only part of their recovery that they didn't usually complain about. Tenzin was initially going to join them, but had gone back inside to grab some water when Lin intercepted him.
"Why don't you toss that water out there and then come meet me in the bedroom?" Lin suggested.
Apparently not catching on, Tenzin began to say, "I won't be long, and then we can talk about what went on between you and Su. Perhaps I can get her to –"
Lin interjected, "I don't want to talk about Su, not now." She trailed her fingers along his bare forearms, left exposed when he had rolled up his sleeves to wash a few dishes earlier, and left a trail of goosebumps in her wake. "I had something a little more fun in mind. You see, we never properly reunited…"
The look she gave him, along with the fairly innocent touch and the not so subtle explanation, finally clued him in, and he began to stammer, "Oh! Um, yes, of course, I would definitely like to – ahem – yes, just, ah, give me one moment."
Lin took great pleasure in the fact that she could still make the tips of Tenzin's ears turn red, as if they were teenagers again. Before he could go, she pressed herself right against his chest and tipped her head up to murmur close against his ear, "Best not keep me waiting too long." She then bit down lightly on his earlobe and pulled slowly away, grinning wickedly when she heard him gulp.
"I wouldn't dream of it, dear," he said breathlessly, refraining from reaching out to her, but staring down at her lips with clear intent. He shook his head, and then hastily left the room, going to give the water to Su and the kids and make his excuses for why he couldn't accompany them.
While she waited, Lin went back to their bedroom and dropped down on the bed. She didn't bother to pose or change or tussle her hair. Tenzin wouldn't care and she wasn't the type to put on airs. That wasn't to say she had never gone above and beyond before to try and seduce him, but at their age it hardly seemed necessary. They had been married for several decades, and while they certainly tried new things from time to time, they didn't need much flair to keep it interesting. They were still just as attracted to each other as before. There had been a few dry spells now and then, because they were extremely busy people when it came to work, and having young kids never left much time or enthusiasm to get intimate, but they always managed to work it out eventually. Essentially, they were pretty easy going, and Lin didn't need to do anything over the top to get Tenzin excited, and vice versa.
She had been meaning to jump on him the second she had a chance, because they had already been apart for three weeks before he showed up in the city with a whole mess of problems. Now, several days after they had saved the world and their daughter, she still hadn't properly reunited with him, nor had she expressed her gratitude for his strong mind when they had been in the Fog of Lost Souls. If not for him, they would have all been doomed to insanity, and his fortitude in the face of such dreary circumstances was striking. Besides that, Lin was riled up from her fight with Su, and there was no better way to blow off steam and take her mind off of her problems than to lose herself in Tenzin's embrace.
Lin didn't have to wait very long before Tenzin returned. He wasn't quite running, but his pace was fairly quick, his robes swirling around him as he entered the bedroom and whirled around to shut and lock the door. Before he had even fully turned back around to face her, Lin was on him, hands grasping either side of his face to drag him down. Their lips met in a frenzy, his arms encircling her and tugging her as close as possible, so that there was not an inch of space between them.
They stayed locked in that position for several moments, until Tenzin moved, and took Lin with him. He pressed her back against the door and, before she could so much as gulp in a gasp of air, he had lifted her up off of her feet. His fingers squeezed her thighs as she wrapped her legs around his waist, and his mouth moved to nip at her neck. Her head fell back to thunk against the door as she sighed out a moan.
Tenzin groaned, his chest vibrating against hers and his lips detaching from her smooth skin, so he could lift his head a little and catch her gaze. "Please don't ever make me go a month without hearing that sound again."
Lin rolled her eyes at him, but smirked and assured, "Don't worry, I don't intend to let you out of my sight for that long again."
They had been apart for long enough.
Later that evening, right after dinner, Lin decided to approach her sister and make amends, instead of allowing the anger between them to simmer overnight. Lin had always hated wasting time, and yet she had been the master of it for so long without even fully realizing. It was time to put an end to that. Time was too precious, especially with how their lives had been going lately.
When Su got up from the table with a stack of plates and began carrying them to the kitchen, Lin leapt to her feet and hurried after.
"Hey," Lin said as she entered the kitchen, and when Su turned to glare at her she hastily added, "before you go yelling at me again, just listen for a second, okay?" Su folded her arms across her chest, but did not interrupt. "I know you're mad, and I get it. I would be too, and maybe it wasn't the right thing for me to do, by not telling you what was going on, but it wasn't for the reasons you think. I'm not trying to control you and it's not that I don't trust you. I felt guilty about dragging you into the Equalist drama, and I know you can handle yourself, but you said you were having nightmares and I didn't want to traumatize you anymore. Besides, I already had two kids in the Spirit World with their lives on the line, not to mention Tenzin and Kya and Bumi. I didn't want to risk losing you too. Plus, if all of us failed in there, at least Jin and Jeia would still have you. So I know why you're pissed, and I totally would be too if you did the same to me, but cut me some slack, would ya?"
Su stared at Lin for several long moments, features too expressionless for Lin to tell whether or not any of her words had sunk in. The silence between them was tense, until finally Su sighed heavily and her whole body seemed to deflate. "I understand that you were worried," she said, rubbing her eyes with one hand, the other braced on her hip, "but how do you think I felt?" She dropped her arm back down to her side and looked wearily at Lin. "Spirit's sake, we're apart for a month or two and the world damn near ends. Every time I turn around you're all in peril again. First with the triads and Shira, and then the Equalists, and now this? All within just a couple of years? I'm starting to feel like the next time we separate could be the last time I see you. And if you don't even tell me what's going on then how am I supposed to prevent it?"
"It's been crazy, yeah, I'll give you that," Lin conceded, "but you aren't getting rid of me that easy. This last one…I'll admit I wasn't totally sure we'd be coming back, but we did, so no harm no foul right?"
Su snorted humorlessly. "Yeah, now, but it would have been pretty harmful if it turned out differently. Look, I just need you to keep me informed, especially when it's something this big. Can you give me that at least?"
"Sure, if you agree to not come try to help," Lin countered with a smirk.
Su rolled her eyes. "You're insufferable, you know that?"
"I've been told," Lin said, undeterred.
Su pursed her lips in annoyance, huffed, and then turned around. She strode across the room to the liquor cabinet. As she was pulling out a dusty bottle, she looked over her shoulder at Lin and asked, "You want a drink?"
"Sure," Lin easily agreed, going over to grab two glasses and then sitting down on one of the stools at the counter. Su sat down across from Lin and began pouring their drinks. It was a much smaller serving than it would have been from Kya or Bumi, but enough to burn away the rest of the tension Lin held in her chest.
After Su had downed some of her own drink, she cleared her throat and looked Lin in the eye again before demanding, "Tell me about what happened. And I mean everything. Not just the tidbits I got from your less than helpful letter."
"The kids didn't fill you in?" Lin asked, honestly surprised. Yunjin was always anxious to tell such tales, and now that Sora was all but recovered, she was a lot more open about what had gone on during her time in the Spirit World – what she could remember of it anyway.
"I didn't want to question them," Su admitted, grimacing a little. "Just imagining what they went through… It didn't seem right to get my answers from them. Especially not with Jeia there. She's seen and heard enough already."
Lin nodded in grim agreement, and took another swift drink of liquor. "What else do you want to know?"
"Well, you went into more detail about Unalaq and the light and dark spirit struggle than you did the kids or you. I don't care that Raava and Vaatu have a brawl every ten thousand years, or that Unalaq was even more deranged than we could have ever thought. How did Sora end up trapped in there, and how did you all get her out?"
"Like I told you in the letter," Lin began, "Sora's apparently got a knack for spirit stuff. She can sense them in ways even Tenzin can't. I don't fully understand it, even after all that nonsense we just went through, but she's apparently been seeing spirits for most of her life, or feeling them nearby? I'm not really sure. Whatever the case, Korra showed up at the Eastern Air Temple when she figured out her Uncle was a lunatic and that she needed to get the spirit portal closed. She wanted to meditate into the Spirit World, but she needed a guide and Tenzin couldn't do it. That airhead dedicated half his life to that nonsense, but it just wasn't meant to be."
"So Sora volunteered," Su guessed.
"Bingo," Lin muttered. "So Sora gets Korra into the Spirit World, but they get split up pretty early on. Sora manages to meet some spirit that takes her to Wan Shi Tong's library, and that bastard owl-thing tells Unalaq that Sora is there. She gets captured, Unalaq uses her as bait to get Korra to open the second spirit portal, and then Sora gets dragged off."
"Wan Shi Tong?" Su repeated, looking surprised. "You mean the one from that story Uncle Sokka used to always tell? About how he bested the all-knowing spirit owl?"
"That's the one," Lin confirmed.
"But then how did Korra escape?" Su asked next.
"I don't know, some good spirit saved her or something. Too late to do anything for Sora, but just in time for Korra's soul not to get shredded to pieces. Korra wakes back up in her body, but Sora's soul is trapped and she can't wake up without it. She was an empty shell for about a week, and if not for Kya and Katara she would have never survived long enough for us to get her soul. Her body was dying without it. She was…" Lin trailed off with a shiver, remembering how pale and lifeless Sora had been, remembering the terror that had seized her at the sight.
Lin startled when she felt something squeezing her knuckles, but it was just Su's hand, and she forced herself to relax. She didn't need to fret any longer. Sora's soul was back where it belonged, and the girl was getting her color back. She had still been rather sickly looking the first two days after she had woken, and she could hardly walk or stomach food, but she was almost back to her normal self now. She could finish a plate of dinner – albeit a very small one – and she had no trouble walking, and was simply working on getting all of her energy back. Her cheeks were pink again instead of a waxy hue, and when Lin's paranoia set in, she would sneak into Sora's bedroom to check on the girl, and was satisfied to see Sora's chest rise and fall in a normal rhythm.
"Anyways," Lin said with a sniff, taking another sip of the bitter liquid in her glass, setting it back down on the counter with a loud clunk. "When we got to the South Pole, we left Jin and Jeia and Sora with Nira and Katara. The rest of us had to fight our way through the Northern troops and a bunch of dark spirits. Bumi and I got knocked off of Oogi in mid-flight, and the others were eventually captured. When Bumi and I managed to crawl out of the snow, he used his flute to subdue the dark spirits trying to kill us, and then we had to go rescue the others. Bumi took out the whole encampment singlehandedly – don't ask me how, 'cause I still don't know. Then we went into the portal and everything got even weirder."
Su pulled back her hand to take a long drink in preparation, and then refilled both hers and Lin's glasses. Then she braced both hands around her glass and told Lin, "Go ahead, lay it on me. I'm assuming things went worse before they got better."
"Something like that…" Lin hedged, but she was hesitant to go on. She knew what she had to tell Su about next, and she wasn't sure what reaction she would get. It was the part Lin had specifically left out of her letter to her sister, the part that she hadn't told anyone else about, not even her own kids. Kya and Bumi and Tenzin knew, and probably Katara now, but that was it. Su was the next person that needed to know, and Lin had to be the one to tell her, but Lin still wasn't all that good at the mushy stuff, even with how much of a sap she was becoming lately.
Lin sucked in a deep breath, and on the exhale she rapidly confessed, "Kya, Bumi, Tenzin, and I went looking for Sora while the teens faced off against Unalaq, and at first we had no clue where to go, but eventually we got some help, but not from a random spirit; it was from Mom."
Lin stopped abruptly, and Su blinked, confusion marring her brow as she struggled to comprehend what Lin had just said. "Mom?" Su said skeptically. "What do you mean Mom? Was it like, some kind of hallucination or something? Your spirit guide came in a form you would recognize?"
"I don't think it works that way," Lin replied. "Although I could definitely be wrong, but…no this wasn't like that. It wasn't a figment of my imagination, unless Tenzin and Kya and Bumi have the same imagination. It was Mom. Our actual, ridiculous mother. Humans can choose to go to the Spirit World after death. Iroh did it, and he helped Korra when she was separated from Sora. Apparently, Mom learned some things from Iroh when he was still alive, and then she went there too. We didn't have much time to talk, but…it was her, I know it was."
Su blinked again, still looking bewildered. "You mean it was Mom? Our actual mother? Toph Beifong? Living among the spirits in the afterlife?"
"I know, I was just as surprised as you are," Lin sympathized. "I couldn't hardly believe it either –"
"You're serious?" Su interrupted. "How can you be serious? She's the least spiritual person I ever knew!"
"That's what I said! But she told me she never backs down from a challenge. I guess Iroh told her all about it and she thought it sounded like a great idea, and who knows with her? I barely understood her when she was alive."
Su's eyes were unnaturally wide now and her mouth gaped. "So you talked to Mom?"
Lin nodded, softening her voice as she described the interaction. "Mom came to tell us to get the hell out of the Spirit World, that it was too dangerous, but we hadn't found Sora yet and we weren't leaving until we did. So Tenzin told her about the kids. She was snarky, of course, couldn't believe I had four, but she was pleased to know you and I had nine kids between us. Said we were 'keeping the Beifong blood going strong'." Lin rolled her eyes, and Su snorted even as tears sprang to her eyes. "I told her that we reconciled too. She wanted me to tell you that she loves you. I know you probably already knew that, but…doesn't hurt to hear it again."
Su bit down hard on her bottom lip and looked away for a moment, and Lin could tell that her little sister was struggling to hold back her emotions. A tear streaked down Su's cheek, and she jerked her hand up to hastily swipe it away, as if to pretend it hadn't happened.
Frowning, Lin rose to her feet and went around the counter, standing before Su, who still refused to meet her gaze, and saying, "Hey, come on, don't cry. You know I'm terrible at this. Should I get Sora? She gives really good sympathy hugs –"
"No," Su half-snorted, half-sobbed. "No, I'm okay, loser, just…" She reached out and grabbed Lin's hand, finally looking up to meet Lin's eyes as tears coursed down her cheeks. She swallowed forcefully. "Was she…is she happy there?"
"I think so, yeah," Lin assured, squeezing Su's hand. She was uncomfortable, but desperate to ease her sister's sorrow. "She looked good, and she was smiling, once she finished bitching us out for being there. She's got Iroh there with her, and who knows who else? And I'm sure by now she's got the spirits jumping through hoops for her."
Su nodded in acceptance, smiling, but the smile soon stretched into something else, and Lin saw it coming just before Su crumpled. And then Lin was holding her sister against her chest as Su wept quietly. It wasn't quite the reaction Lin had expected, but the more she considered it, the more sense it seemed to make. The two of them had discussed their mother a million times since they had reconciled years ago, but they were both always careful not to linger too long on Toph's death and what it meant for them. Lin had never unloaded any of the guilt she felt onto Su, and Su had never given any hint of what she had gone through when she had gotten word of their mother's sudden passing. They had been estranged at the time of Toph's murder, and even at the funeral Lin had demanded that the rest of the family keep Su at bay. It was something Lin knew she could never make up for. She had left her little sister to grieve on her own, and twenty-some years later, Su clearly still held onto something of her own. Lin had been given the opportunity to see Toph and be absolved of the guilt that had still weighed on some parts of her mind. Su could not have that same experience, but perhaps finally having the comfort of her sister could heal her soul in someway. Lin hated seeing Su cry and she was still awful at comfort, but she wouldn't leave her sister to grieve on her own ever again.
Ever since Harmonic Convergence and Korra's decision to keep the spirit portals open, Republic City had been in a state of chaos. Unavaatu had caused quite a lot of damage when he attacked the city, and the spirit vines had remained afterwards, which was causing a whole slew of other problems. Some people had been forced from their homes, and police headquarters was currently uninhabitable. Korra's discussion with President Raiko upon her return to the city had not gone well, despite the fact that she had been the one to stop Unavaatu. The president held her responsible for the take over of the spirit vines, and Korra had been spending most of her days since her return trying to get rid of them. Tenzin went with her on occasion to attempt to help, and after a couple days Lin allowed Sora to go as well, despite her misgivings. So far, the spirit vines had not been particularly dangerous, and Sora would be safer in the real world where she had her bending and her father to protect her.
Lin was very quickly discovering that her control on her children was slipping. Ronen was all but an adult now, and the twins were about to turn fourteen, and frankly with everything that they had been through in the last year or two, they were growing up at a more rapid rate. They thought they were capable of a lot more than Lin was comfortable with, but if she was being honest with herself, even she could see that they were pretty competent. Ronen had his smarts and a few particular skill sets, and the twins were basically masters of airbending. The only person that was struggling to accept the changes was Lin, and sometimes Tenzin, but he was better at reconciling all of it in his mind than she was. Lin had spent so many years vowing to protect her children at all costs, and while that had not changed, she was being forced to accept that they were often capable of taking care of themselves now. She still so clearly remembered when they were tiny and helpless, and it was difficult to reconcile that with who they were now. It didn't help that Ronen and Sora had been injured or near death only days before, but neither of them was willing to placate her for long by staying home.
Only two days after they had returned to Republic City, Sora was out helping her father and Korra with the spirit vines, and Ronen was planning for the date he had set up with Asami for the following evening. Lin still wasn't certain how she felt about that either, but she had very quickly learned that dictating who her sons decided to date was of little use. She had apparently raised her children to be as stubborn as she was, and she could easily imagine how she would have reacted if her mother had tried to keep her from Tenzin. Yunjin had insisted on having Jinora come over on the second day of them being home, which may have been part of why Sora decided to go into the city with her father.
So Lin was stuck on the Island with Jeia and the two thirteen year olds, which Yunjin was obviously just as unhappy about as Lin was, because she was watching Jin and Jinora like a hawk, and Tenzin wasn't around to tell her not to. Bumi was off bothering Nira and the other acolytes, Ronen had locked himself in his room for some reason, and Jeia was complaining of boredom. Su was in the city with Tenzin and the others, because she had wanted to see the spirit vines for herself. Lin was happy to avoid the whole problem, since it was no longer her job to care, and she didn't want to risk running into Raiko. She would rather annoy Yunjin and spend time with Jeia, even if the toddler was being a pain that day. Jeia wanted her mother to teach her some more metalbending, but Lin couldn't focus on that and stalk Yunjin and Jinora at the same time, so sacrifices had to be made. Instead, she promised to teach Jeia first thing in the morning the following day, which didn't completely mollify the girl, but close enough.
Lin was actually relieved when Pema showed up to retrieve Jinora that evening just before dinner. Yunjin had wanted Jinora to stay longer, but Pema needed her eldest at home. Apparently Jinora's family was having some difficulties after the latest attack on the city, but Lin didn't bother to ask what they were, and Pema certainly hadn't stuck around to explain it. The two women could still barely speak to one another, but Lin could tell that her luck with avoiding Pema was probably about to fade, especially now that Yunjin and Jinora were "dating." Pema kept opening her mouth and hesitating as if she wanted to say something, but so far hadn't gotten up the courage. Lin knew that a talk was inevitable, but she'd continue to avoid it for as long as possible.
Tenzin and the others still weren't home by the time Lin finished making dinner, and Ronen was still suspiciously holed up in his room. Lin made a plate for Jeia, and then left her in the dining room with Bumi and Yunjin to go in search of Ronen.
When she knocked on the door to his bedroom, there was no answer, but she could hear music on the other side, and figured that Ronen hadn't heard her. So she knocked louder and yelled, "Ronen! Dinner!"
"Be out in a sec!" came the muffled reply, and was he panting?
There was a noisy clatter and stomping footsteps, and then the music abruptly cut off. Lin stood by the door and waited, until she heard Ronen approaching, and then the door was flung open and there he stood. He was panting, and there was sweat dripping from his brow, and he looked annoyed. His hair was a shaggy mess, and she raised an eyebrow at his disheveled appearance.
"What the hell have you been doing in there all day?" she asked, before abruptly shaking her head. "Hang on, I don't think I want to know."
Ronen rolled his eyes at her. "It was nothing weird, Mom. I was dancing, or trying to, but I must be doing something wrong, or maybe it's different with a partner, I'm not sure. It hasn't been going well."
Lin stared at him, her brows scrunching together now in confusion. "That still sounds pretty weird to me. Why are you in here dancing by yourself?"
"Because," Ronen huffed, as if she should have known, "I'm trying to get better before tomorrow. I'm taking Asami out dancing after our dinner tomorrow."
"But you don't dance," Lin pointed out.
"Hence why I need the practice," Ronen countered.
"But why are you going to dance if you know you're no good?" Lin questioned, completely bewildered.
"Because Asami loves to dance," Ronen answered impatiently. "She's been talking about how much she misses it and I wanted to do something nice for her. I don't hate dancing, so I figured I could give it a shot, but I think it might be hopeless."
Lin snorted. "Oh, it's definitely hopeless. Unless you've got Sora's freak talent, you've probably inherited my two left feet."
"But do you really have two left feet, or is that just your excuse to get out of dancing?" Ronen teased.
"As far as your father's concerned, I'm just naturally abhorrent," Lin said seriously.
She sensed and heard a commotion from down the hall then, and she guessed that Tenzin and the others had probably just returned.
"I'm sure Dad knows the truth already," Ronen said with a smirk. "But practice makes perfect, right? I know I can get better at this. We all have the ability, it's just a matter of putting it all together the right way. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to keep at it for now. I think I was finally starting to get somewhere."
"Why don't you take a break for dinner?" Lin insisted.
"I'll have some later," Ronen promised. "I just don't want to lose my momentum."
Before Lin could respond, Tenzin appeared at the end of the hallway, and she and Ronen turned their heads as Tenzin said, "There you are."
"Here I am," Lin confirmed as he approached. "How did it go in the city?"
Tenzin sighed, and waited to answer until he had reached Lin and kissed her on the cheek. He squeezed her arm and replied, "No progress so far. Sora believes that the spirits are inhabiting the areas which they believe to be theirs, and that trying to force them out will only cause further problems. The citizens are rather vexed though, so Korra is going to keep trying. How were things here?"
"Fine, normal," Lin answered. "I was just trying to get Ronen to come to dinner, but he's trying to learn how to dance."
"Oh?" Tenzin said, sounding intrigued, his eyebrows rising as he turned to face his eldest son.
"For my date tomorrow," Ronen explained, and then his face lit up. "Maybe you could help me out, Dad? You can waltz better than Mom anyways. I'm just not sure what I'm doing wrong. Could you watch for a second and tell me what you think?"
"Of course!" Tenzin exclaimed.
Knowing that her husband certainly wouldn't leave it at that, Lin quietly muttered under her breath, "But –"
Having not heard her, Tenzin continued, "But if you're trying to impress a girl, there's no better dances than the traditional Air Nomad wind dancing."
Lin bit down so hard on her tongue to keep from laughing that she tasted a faint hint of blood.
Ronen's eyes went wide, and he stammered, "Oh, um, actually, Dad, that's a great suggestion and all, but you really don't have to –"
"It's no trouble at all, son!" Tenzin persisted, gliding into Ronen's room without invitation.
Lin wished that she had snacks to go along with the entertainment she was about to receive. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the door frame, a delighted smirk curling her lips.
"I really appreciate it, Dad, but honestly," Ronen frantically implored, "I just want to learn the basics first. Don't want to show off all the traditional dance moves on the first date, right?" He looked over at his mother, as if for help, but she had zero intention of saving him.
Instead, Lin said, "Nonsense. You can never have too much traditional dance."
"You want to impress her, don't you?" Tenzin added, oblivious to his son's lack of enthusiasm.
Ronen was struggling not to look completely horrified, but Tenzin seemed not to notice. "Somehow," Ronen attempted one last time, "I doubt that you managed to woo Mom with wind dancing."
Lin grinned and interjected, "That's where you're wrong, son. Why else do you think I fell in love with him?"
Tenzin and Ronen rolled their eyes simultaneously.
"Your mother has no appreciation for the arts," Tenzin said, "but that doesn't mean this won't work for Asami."
Suddenly, Sora was standing next to her mother, even though Lin had not so much as sensed the girl coming. Lin nearly jumped out of her skin as Sora asked, "What won't work?"
"Spirit's sake," Lin huffed, hand pressed against her chest as if to hold in her rapidly beating heart. "Maybe try walking instead of floating next time."
Sora grinned wickedly. "I told you I'd be able to sneak up on you one day. I'm glad to see it finally worked."
"It didn't work," Lin lied. "I knew you were coming, just didn't realize how close you were."
"Sure you did, Mom," Sora said disbelievingly. Then she turned to look into her brother's room. "What's going on in here? I thought we were all having dinner together?"
"We are," Lin said, "just as soon as these two quit fooling around."
"I'm trying to learn how to dance before my date tomorrow," Ronen grumbled.
Sora brightened up. "Oh! Well why didn't you ask me? I can help."
"Actually," Tenzin chimed in, one hand stroking his beard, the other raising a finger to still Sora before she entered the room, "I was just about to teach your brother a few moves myself."
"Um, no offense, Dad," Sora said carefully, "but I don't think Asami is going to be into traditional Air Nomad wind dancing."
Sora went striding into the room, all confidence and sweet smiles, and Lin smirked while Tenzin pouted.
"You love wind dancing," Tenzin argued.
"Of course I do, Daddy," Sora said, her face so earnest that Lin couldn't actually tell if the kid was lying or not, "but I think Ronen should start with something a little more simple. Wind dancing is far too complex to grasp in one evening."
"If you want my advice," Lin started to say.
But she was cut off by Sora, who suggested, "Look, Mom, Dad, why don't you leave the dancing to me? I think I can take it from here."
Lin silently raised her hands in surrender, and Tenzin bowed his head before moving to stand next to his wife in the doorway. They watched as Sora went to stand before her brother, and Ronen smiled gratefully.
"Thanks, Sora," he said. "I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I found a couple books and I followed the instructions and –"
Sora scoffed. "Well that's your problem! You can't follow a manual, dork. Dancing is about movement, and feelings. You can't just study. Come on, let's see what you've got."
Sora put the music on, and then held her hands out to her brother. The two of them fell into step, fumbling through a waltz with stifled laughs. Sora gave pointers and Ronen struggled to follow them. His movements were stiff at first, but with his sister's guidance he was slowly showing signs of improvement. Sora was as graceful as ever, despite her brother's faltered footsteps.
Lin watched with amusement, and also still some amazement, that Sora had such talents that Lin could never have dreamed of having. Her kids were incredible in their own unique ways, and she was always blown away by them.
Lin felt Tenzin's eyes on her, and she looked over to meet his gaze. He was smiling softly at her, a sort of adoration in his gaze, and he reached out to put his arm over her shoulder and tug her into his side. He kissed her forehead, and then she leaned into his chest as they both turned to watch Sora and Ronen dance.
The following afternoon, Korra went back into the city with Tenzin and Sora. At dinner time, the three of them had yet to return, and Ronen left to go on his date with Asami. Lin, Su, Bumi, Yunjin, and Jeia had dinner without the others. Afterwards, Bumi took Jin and Jeia out to the training circle because the two of them had begged him to show them some of his moves, and Bumi was all too happy to oblige. Lin had practiced with Jeia earlier that day, as promised, but the girl had been displeased when Lin insisted they call it quits. Several hours of watching Jeia slaughter some statues with metal and make zero progress with earth was quite enough for one day though, so Lin was glad that Bumi was always willing to practice with the kids.
That was not to say that Jeia had not made some progress in earthbending over the last few months, but it had plateaued again and Lin wasn't sure if or when it would ever improve. The kid was talented, that much was for certain, but something was blocking her from digging deeper into the earth. Metal just came easier to her, and as Yunjin had said, "Who needs rocks when you've got a thousand swords at your fingertips?" Lin would keep trying, of course, – what else did she have to do? – but she still needed a break. She was happy to let Bumi distract the kids for the rest of the evening.
Lin's plan was to take a long hot bath in solitude, and hope Tenzin returned home in time to join her later, but that was not to be.
She was in the midst of trying to get rid of Su when there was a knock on the front door. Lin and Su exchanged frowns, wondering who the hell would show up unannounced in the middle of the evening. It couldn't have been Kya, because she would have just barged right in. Su was only planning on staying a few days, so her family wasn't expected and they probably wouldn't have knocked either. If Tenzin and the others had gotten into trouble in the city, somebody probably would have called first, so Lin wasn't overtly concerned, but she hastened to the door anyways.
She had barely gotten down the hall when the door swung open, and Nira strode inside with an apologetic expression. "Sorry to barge in like this," Nira said, "but we've got a situation."
"What situation?" Lin asked, already half annoyed. They had been home for a total of three days, couldn't she at least get a week's break?
"I'm not sure exactly," Nira admitted. "Some of the acolytes discovered someone over by the East cliff's edge, but they believe it's a spirit and are uncertain about approaching it. Acolyte Jora said he briefly talked to it, but it seemed very frightened. I thought I'd let you know before I head over to check it out. Is Tenzin here?"
Lin sighed with plain irritation. "No, he and Sora are both in the city with Korra still, and Ronen's on a date, so, you know, the only people with spirit knowledge aren't here. Guess this is my problem then. Why don't you and Su go find Jin and Jeia, get them inside?"
"You think it'll be dangerous?" Nira inquired, as Su scoffed.
"I'm not taking any chances," Lin answered, before turning to acknowledge her sister. "I'm not trying to get rid of you I just want you with the kids."
"Nira and Bumi can stay with the kids," Su said stubbornly, in a tone that brooked no argument. "I'm going with you."
Without waiting for Lin to respond, Su strode past Nira and right out the door. Lin scowled, but followed after, with Nira falling into step at her side.
"They said that the spirit hasn't moved," Nira explained on the way. "That's probably a good sign that it's not confrontational, right?"
Lin recalled the spirit that had hovered over her while she lay half unconscious under a pile of snow, patiently and creepily waiting to strike. She didn't take the spirit's inaction as a good sign one way or the other. "I guess we'll find out," Lin grumbled.
"Are you certain you don't want me to come with you?" Nira asked. "No offense, Lin, but you're not exactly well-versed in spiritual matters. I may not have Sora's abilities, but I've learned a lot from Tenzin over the years. I could be of use to you."
"I agree," Lin admitted, "but right now I don't want to risk it. If this spirit is dangerous, I want you and the kids as far from it as possible. If I determine that it's safe enough or necessary for you to intervene later, then I'll come get you."
Nira still seemed reluctant, but she understood Lin's reasoning and wasn't confrontational like Su, so she relented. She parted from Lin and Su to go collect Bumi, Jin, and Jeia without further argument.
Finding the mysterious spirit was easy, because there were several Acolytes clustered together a few yards away from it, each of them talking in whispers and watching the spirit warily. When Lin and Su reached the Acolytes, Lin ordered them to go back to their rooms until the issue was resolved, and to spread word to any other Acolytes they passed on the way. The Acolytes nodded and began to take a few short steps in that direction, but when Lin turned her attention away from them, she sensed them go still. Clearly, they intended to stand by and watch, but while Lin rolled her eyes in annoyance, she decided not to bother snapping at them. If they wanted to stick around and risk their safety then she wasn't going to waste her breath. Su thought that Lin liked being in control, but honestly, Lin would have much preferred for someone else to be sensible enough to take the lead sometime.
After telling Su to stay back and being ignored once again, Lin began to approach the spirit that had invaded her island.
The first thing Lin noticed was that the spirit was not like the ones she had faced off with a few days prior. Rather than some amorphous shape or animalistic form, this spirit was distinctly humanoid, but also distinctly otherworldly. The spirit looked like a woman, with some elaborate gray gown and plain black hair twisted up on top of its head. However, it was also shimmery and ethereal, looking like it was floating even as it was sitting on the ground, knees curled up against its chest.
From a few meters away, Lin called out to it, "Hey! I think you may be lost."
Su snorted and looked at Lin incredulously. "Really?" Su said. "That's your plan?"
"Shut up," Lin muttered, ignoring her sister and taking another step towards the spirit woman. "Hey, I'm talking to you. You're trespassing –"
Suddenly, the spirit seemed to come to life, floating up to its feet and whirling to face Lin. Now Lin could see the spirit more clearly, and she was unnerved by how it simultaneously managed to look so human and unnatural all at once. There were markings on the spirit woman's face, which flared red and orange as she stared Lin down, and the stitching on her ornate dress mimicked the colors.
Feeling threatened, Lin instinctively placed herself in front of her little sister, and then shifted her stance just in case there was an attack. The spirit woman bristled at Lin's movements, narrowing her eyes at Lin and clenching her fists at her sides.
"Why are you here?" Lin demanded. "What do you want?"
"There's no need to bark at me," the spirit said with a scowl.
"You're trespassing," Lin snapped. "This is not your home."
"Clearly," the spirit woman scoffed, "but I don't see how my presence here is any of your concern. Last time I checked, nature belonged to everyone. I did not go traipsing into one of your temples."
Lin rolled her eyes. "Don't argue semantics with me. This is a privately owned island, and you aren't permitted to be here. So why don't you go back to where ever it is you came from?"
"Lin," Su began to say, "I don't think you should –" But Lin held up her hand to halt Su's words.
"I'd gladly leave your inhospitality behind," the spirit told Lin, "but I haven't got a clue how I got here."
"What do you mean you don't know how you got here?" Lin said disbelievingly. "I get that you're a spirit and all, but you've got a memory don't you?"
The spirit woman huffed irritably and folded her arms across her chest. "Of course I have a memory! I have memories from eons before your kind even existed. Maybe if you would leave me in peace I might be able to figure out why the universe has brought me here."
"Well why don't you go contemplate that somewhere else?" Lin countered, becoming increasingly annoyed by the spirit's petulance. She was beginning to miss the ones that didn't talk. "Go into the city for all I care, just don't stay here."
"I will do no such thing," the spirit woman said stubbornly, turning her back on Lin, who growled her frustration.
Su stepped out from behind Lin to call to the spirit, "Please excuse my sister. She's just worried that you're dangerous. You're not here to hurt us, are you?"
"Of course I'm not!" the spirit woman exclaimed, looking over her shoulder at them with an offended expression.
Lin rolled her eyes and muttered to Su, "Obviously she wouldn't tell us if she was."
"Oh, because you're the spirit expert now?" Su scoffed.
"I've got a bit more experience than you," Lin pointed out.
"You go to the Spirit World one time and now you know everything?"
"I know enough," Lin said haughtily.
"You've made zero progress so far," Su argued. "Why don't you let me talk to the spirit, and you shut your mouth?"
Lin eyed her sister skeptically, but swung her arm out in a dramatic gesture towards the spirit. "Please, be my guest."
Su tilted her head up, chin jutted out with pride, and then she marched three steps forward. "We may have gotten off on the wrong foot," she said to the spirit woman. "I am Suyin, and who might you be?"
The spirit seemed to consider answering, shoulders relaxing slightly as she peeked at Su from the corner of her eye. Su was tense though, Lin could see it, and the spirit must have too, because she remained stubbornly tight lipped.
"I need time to think," the spirit woman stressed. "Leave me be."
"Of course," Su acquiesced, with clear disappointment, "but first, can't you at least tell us who you are?"
"That is not a simple answer," the spirit replied.
"All right, enough," Lin interjected, just as Su opened her mouth again. She grabbed her sister by the arm and began to drag her backwards. "We're not getting anywhere this way. Time to call in reinforcements."
"You barely gave me a chance!" Su complained, but she didn't dig her heels in, and eventually she turned to walk alongside her sister. "I could have gotten through to her."
"Sure you could have," Lin lied, "but it'll be faster this way." As she passed the lingering Acolytes, she told them, "Keep an eye on that thing. Let me know if she so much as sneezes."
The Acolytes nodded rapidly and went back to staring open-mouthed at the mysterious spirit.
Lin and Su went back to the main house, where they found Bumi, Nira, Yunjin, and Jeia impatiently awaiting their return. Lin refused to answer their multitude of questions until she was finished on the phone. She called around to several places, trying to track down Tenzin and Korra, but they were difficult to pin down. She couldn't even get ahold of Chief Tosuki, but she did manage to catch Sanji before he left the precinct, and she asked him to get a message to her husband if he was able to find Tenzin. That would probably take a while though, and Lin decided to go with Plan B.
She hadn't wanted to call and interrupt Ronen's date with Asami, but she knew what restaurant he would be at, and she needed information on that spirit now rather than later. Tenzin could be home soon, but there was no guarantee, and so Lin pushed aside the little bit of guilt she felt and called the restaurant. The hostess put her in touch with Ronen, and despite his doubts that the spirit was dangerous, he agreed to come home to make sure and to appease his mother.
Ronen returned to the house with Asami in tow, both of them all dressed up, smiling despite the interruption.
"Sorry, kids," Lin said to the pair. "If it makes you feel any better my plans were ruined too."
"And what plans were those?" Ronen teased. "Going to bed early?"
"That would have been nice," Lin said wistfully, adopting a far off look as she imagined it for just a moment. Then she shook her head. It was all just a fantasy now. Even if the spirit wasn't dangerous, Lin was too stressed to relax.
"It's okay," Asami said to Lin, "we don't mind canceling for something important like this. Has the spirit done anything so far?"
"Nothing besides argue with me," Lin answered. "She doesn't seem dangerous, but considering our last run in with spirits I don't want to just leave it to roam free around here."
Ronen nodded, looking contemplative as he shed his outer coat and began to roll up the sleeves of his dress shirt. The light scarring on his left arm and crawling up the side of his neck still made Lin's stomach burn, but in that moment she was more distracted by how grown up he was looking. She could hardly believe he was becoming an adult, but there was no denying it.
"All right," he said once he was ready, clapping his hands together, "let's go see this spirit."
Everyone decided to follow Ronen, Asami, and his mother as they went to meet the mysterious spirit. Uncle Bumi and Yunjin didn't want to be left out of the loop, Aunt Su wanted to make sure her sister didn't further disgruntle the spirit, and Jeia wouldn't stay behind so then Nira went too.
However, once they reached the Acolytes milling about nearby, Ronen turned to address the group. "Listen," he told them, "why don't all of you stay back here?"
"I don't know, kid," his mother said hesitantly. "We don't know what that thing's capable of."
"We'll never find out who she is if we crowd around her and make her feel threatened," Ronen reasoned. "If she didn't strike at you, then I doubt she'll try to harm me. Let me talk to her for a bit, on my own."
His mother sighed. "Fine," she relented. "Just get it off my island."
Ronen snorted. "I'll see what I can do."
"I wanna talk to her," Yunjin complained.
"You're the last person I want talking to that thing," Lin said, which sent the two of them into an argument.
Asami reached out to squeeze Ronen's hand before he left. "Be careful," she urged.
Ronen squeezed her hand back in reassurance. "I will be," he promised. "Maybe if this doesn't take too long we can still go dancing, yeah?"
Asami smirked. "I'd love to, but I have a feeling this may take a while."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Ronen admitted, "but I'll make it up to you."
"Oh don't worry, I'm not letting you off the hook. I'll see those dance moves one way or another."
"It's definitely a sight worth seeing. My Dad taught me all the best ancient wind dances he knows." Asami raised a brow, looking slightly alarmed, and Ronen bit down on his tongue to hold back a laugh. He winked, and then turned away, dropping her hand to stride in the direction of the spirit.
The spirit woman was much as his mother had described – pale and shrouded in gray and curled up in on herself, knees against her chest as she blankly stared out at the Bay. Ronen approached her from the side, careful not to startle her with any abrupt movements. As he drew nearer, the spirit lifted her head to watch him curiously, but she did not try to run or turn defensive. She merely watched him, colors swirling on her face. She was beautiful, and her gown fluttered around her as if caught in a breeze as she unfurled her legs and dangled them over the edge of the cliffside.
Ronen stopped a few feet away from her and smiled warmly. "Hello," he said. "May I sit here with you?"
"If you would like," the spirit woman answered amicably.
Ronen dropped down next to her, legs folded in a meditative pose. He regarded her for a moment, and then prompted, "I'm Ronen Beifong, what's your name?"
"Beifong," the spirit echoed, adopting a far off look, as if recalling some distant memory. "That is not the first time I have heard that name."
Ronen was intrigued, wondering if his mother had given the spirit her name, or if the spirit knew another Beifong. He focused on the spirit woman first though, knowing that it was imperative that he find out more about her.
"Is it possible that I've heard your name before?" Ronen questioned.
"It is possible," the spirit woman responded, snapping out of her musings. "I have gone by many names. My original name – although, surprisingly, not the most popular – is Qinggan."
Ronen nodded encouragingly, glad to have made at least some progress, and then something clicked in his brain and his eyes went wide. "Qinggan?" he repeated in disbelief. "Your name is Qinggan? I have heard that name before."
"Then you know who I am?" Qinggan asked.
Ronen felt some excitement fill him, but he tamped down on it quickly, focusing on his task. "You're the spirit mother of human emotions," he replied. "I've read the tales from Omashu. I'm not sure how much of it is accurate, but you do have children, yes?"
Qinggan nodded without hesitation, features flaring with color for a brief moment. "Oh yes. I have children. I remember them very distinctly."
"Do you remember the last time that you saw them?" Ronen coaxed. "Did they come out of the portal with you?"
Qinggan's brow furrowed in confusion as she considered his questions. "I don't know," she admitted in a near whisper. "I don't think so. I don't think that I have seen them in a very long time."
"Well, what is the last thing you remember?" Ronen questioned gently.
Qinggan was quiet for several moments, deliberating before answering, "I have many memories, but I am uncertain of the order. Some I know are from long ago. Others I believe more recent, but which one happened last I cannot say."
"Do you remember meeting my mother?" Ronen asked. "The woman over there." Ronen turned and pointed to where his mother stood with the others, watching Ronen and Qinggan with narrowed eyes and tense shoulders.
"Yes," Qinggan said after a moment of observing Lin. "She was quite angry, and guarded. The other woman was nervous. The one called Su."
"And did you meet with any of the Air Acolytes?" Ronen inquired next, pointing to the group milling close to his family.
After a pause, Qinggan nodded. "I saw that one man, but he was very scared."
Considering Qinggan's answers and their attachment to the emotions each person had been feeling, Ronen came to a tentative conclusion. "Is it possible, Qinggan, that your memories only really stick if you encounter others with emotions?"
"I suppose that is possible," Qinggan admitted. "Why do you think that is?"
Ronen thought about it, and remembered his mother saying that Qinggan had been very standoffish and tense when they met. However, the Acolyte had said the spirit seemed scared. As Ronen was speaking to Qinggan, he was mostly neutral and curious, and Qinggan seemed to be mirroring those emotions to some extent. "What do you remember about your children?" he asked.
"I remember…everything," Qinggan said slowly. "Every moment I've spent with them is…crystal clear. I remember their faces, their expressions, their voices. I remember the way that they grew, their strengths and their weaknesses. Although, once they were grown, everything gets…fuzzy. It's strange. I remember feeling so whole with them, so full, but then they grew older, and they began to leave. I knew that one day they must, but I did not know the hole that it would leave. Since then…my life and my memories are a swirl of emotions, but never as clear or certain as before. My children were so lively… I miss them very much."
Ronen felt some sympathetic emotions welling in him, but he did his best to suppress them, mindful now of how it may affect Qinggan if he were to feel sorrowful. "I'm sure it must be very difficult for you to be separated from them," Ronen said. "I would like to help you, if I can. You don't remember how or why you came to be here, right?"
"Correct," Qinggan confirmed.
"If we were to reconnect you with your children, do you think that it might help you to feel again? Without having to rely on the emotions of others?"
"I suppose that it's possible, but I have not been with my children for a very long time. I know that some of them visit me, now and then, but usually only on their own, rarely more than one at a time. I imagine it would be quite difficult to find all of them."
Ronen smiled, hope filling him even though he had no idea if his plan would work, but he was determined and confident and frankly, a little excited. Meeting one of the oldest and most important spirits to ever live was a dream come true on its own. Finding her children to bring life back to her would be an honor. "Luckily for you," he told Qinggan, "the Beifongs are notoriously stubborn and never give up. Also, my best friend is the Avatar and I have a feeling she'd very much like to help you too. My friends and I will find your children, so long as that's what you want."
"That would be absolutely wonderful," Qinggan said breathlessly, face shining yellow with joy. "But are you certain you wish to embark on such a quest? It will not be an easy one."
"It would be my pleasure," Ronen assured. "I can't promise total success, but I can promise to do everything I can to find your children and bring them here to you." Ronen rose to his feet and dusted off his pants. "I'll go talk to my family now, get a plan in the works, and come back to introduce you to them when they've calmed down, so you're not overwhelmed.
Qinggan smiled warmly. "Thank you, Ronen Beifong. To see my children again…your kindness is very much appreciated."
"I'll do everything I can to find them," Ronen promised, aware that his own mother was likely going to flip when he told her his plans. He knew the inherent dangers of running back into the Spirit World after only having so recently returned, but he could not imagine just leaving Qinggan to wander the mortal world on her own. He would be devastated if he was without his own family for so long, and it was clear that there was an even more significant effect on Qinggan, with the way her memories and emotions seemed to rely on who she encountered. Ronen hoped that reuniting her with her children would be more than just a temporary fix.
He went back to where his family was waiting, and saw that his father, Sora, and Korra, had arrived at some point. All of them began bombarding him with questions before he'd even reached them, but he insisted they all go back inside to talk. His mother asked if it was okay to leave Qinggan where the spirit continued to sit, and Ronen assured her it would be fine. Before he followed the others inside, he glanced back at Qinggan, and saw her curled up in a ball as she had been earlier, once again a gray, lifeless, emotionless spirit, floating in limbo until she encountered emotions once again. It seemed such a sad fate for the mother of emotions, and Ronen was more determined than ever to help Qinggan however he could.
Chapter 66: Chapter 66
Chapter Text
Chapter 66
Once Ronen rejoined his family after speaking to the mysterious spirit woman, Lin immediately began questioning him, but the boy was tight-lipped until they made it back to the main house. He was insistent that the spirit was fine to leave where she was, and that she posed no danger to them.
It was as they were on their way back to the house that Sora spoke up. "I think I know that spirit. She looks like the one that I met in the Spirit World. The spirit mother that helped me find Wan Shi Tong's library."
"That didn't turn out to be very helpful," Lin pointed out, not at all reassured by Sora's statement. "Going there was what got you captured."
"Yeah, but I doubt the spirit mother knew Wan Shi Tong would sell me out to Unalaq," Sora reasoned. "If I hadn't gone there, I might never have found Korra and been lost anyways."
"Your soul wouldn't have been trapped though and you could have found a way out," Lin countered.
"There's no sense in lingering on the past," Tenzin interjected, squeezing Lin's shoulder. "Sora is safe now and all of that is over. Sora said that the spirit mother was kind to her, and Ronen seems to think she's trustworthy, so I think we need to trust the children."
Lin sighed, but relented. She did trust her kids, she just didn't trust the spirits.
When all of them were finally settled around the living room, Ronen stood at the center and began to explain.
"The spirit is Qinggan," he said.
Most of the occupants of the room gasped or made faces of surprise. Lin, however, was just confused. She looked around at the others with a furrowed brow, wondering why she seemed to be the only one that wasn't effected by the name.
"Who?" Lin asked.
"Don't you remember, Mom?" Yunjin scoffed. "Ronen told us the story when we were at Aunt Su's."
Su snorted. "Your mother fell asleep two seconds into that story, sweetheart."
"When was this?" Lin demanded, still not catching on.
"After Ronen and I got back from our trip," Tenzin supplied. "He was telling everyone the stories we had read in Omashu the evening of our return. You fell asleep, dear." Tenzin turned his focus back onto Ronen. "You're certain that this spirit is actually Qinggan, Son?"
"I am," Ronen confirmed. "She told me as much, and there are plenty of other indicators to convince me."
"So that's what she meant," Sora mused. "She told me that she had many names when I met her in the Spirit World, but her favorite was Mother."
"She told me that she had heard the name Beifong before," Ronen added. "She must have been talking about you. I'm assuming you told her your name?"
"I did," Sora replied with a nod.
"Well what is Qinggan doing here?" Korra asked.
"Do you think she's looking for Sora?" Nira suggested, sounding worried.
"Yeah," Yunjin chimed in, "maybe she needs help and since she helped Sora she wants Sora to return the favor."
Ronen considered it, but then shook his head. "I don't think so. Her memory is not the best at the moment. It seems like she can only function when there are emotional beings nearby. Left on her own, she is emotionless and without motivation or direction."
"Is there anything we can do to help her?" Korra asked.
"I have an idea about that," Ronen answered. "She said that her memories are very clear from when she was with her children, but now that they've gone their own way, her life has been empty."
Asami guessed, "So you think reuniting her with her children could help?"
"Precisely," Ronen confirmed. "They only seem to visit her one or two at a time. Maybe, if we can get all of them here, then they can share with her their emotions enough to make her more whole again."
"I think that's a fairly good hypothesis," Tenzin agreed. "It's certainly worth a try."
"But how would you find them?" Su inquired. "Aren't there like ten of them? And aren't they all in the Spirit World?"
"Eight," Sora corrected, "and the Spirit World would probably reveal Qinggan's children to whoever is looking, so long as their intentions are not malicious. When we needed help in the Spirit World, someone appeared to help each of us, and I think the same would work with this."
"Sounds like it's time for another adventure!" Bumi said with excitement. "I'd better clean up my flute!"
"Does that mean I finally get to go into the Spirit World?" Yunjin exclaimed.
"No Spirit World!" Jeia screeched. "Spirit World bad!"
"It's not so bad, Jeia," Sora said gently. "Not always."
"Now hang on just a minute," Lin interjected, just as the room erupted into a cacophony of conversations. "Hey!" she shouted over the din, lurching to her feet and stomping her foot. "Quiet!"
Everyone went silent, swiveling their heads to stare at her with questioning looks. She scowled, bracing her hands on her hips and looking at each one of them in turn, incensed that they were all acting so casual about it.
"First of all," she snapped, "nobody is going to the Spirit World. Second of all, will someone please explain to me who the hell Qinggan is, and who all these children are? Are they gonna be showing up here in search of her? If she can't remember anything then how do we get her out of here?"
"Mom," Ronen said with a patient smile, "I know you're worried, but I promise that Qinggan won't start attacking us. She is one of the oldest and most important spirits to exist. She is the spirit mother of human emotions. She gave us empathy and anger and courage and so much more. Her children are spirits like her that represent eight main emotions. They came in opposite pairs, and with them, she breathed life into the universe. However, it seems as if, when she gave her children their singular emotions, she gave too much. Now she cannot feel anything without feeding off of the energy of others. You have nothing to fear from her or her children."
"Except for the fact that you seem to think returning to the Spirit World is a good idea," Lin argued. "Are you forgetting the dangers that lie in that place? Are you forgetting that we all barely made it out of there alive a couple days ago?"
"Korra is the Avatar," Ronen reasoned. "I think she's fully capable of navigating the Spirit World, and the same dangers that were there a few days ago no longer exist. Without Unalaq influencing the spirits to become dark and vicious, we shouldn't have to worry about random assaults. So long as we don't disturb the spirits, there shouldn't be any trouble."
"I can protect Ronen, Lin," Korra asserted. "And he can protect me. He knows way more about how to talk to spirits, and I know how to control them if they get violent. We won't linger in the Spirit World longer than we have to."
"I don't understand why we need to do this," Lin huffed. "You don't even know if this will really make a difference. You could just be risking your lives for nothing."
"It's not for nothing," Ronen insisted. "Qinggan is lifeless without her children. She needs our help."
"It's noble what you're trying to do," Su said to Ronen, "but I think I may actually agree with your mother on this. It seems like Qinggan has been like this for a long time. If her children didn't feel the need to come back together before this, then what's to say that they will now?"
"I say," Korra answered instead, rising to her feet with a fierce look of determination, and Lin felt her stomach sink. "I don't know for certain that any of this will work, but I have to try. It's what I'm supposed to do. I've been spending all this time trying to fix the city to help the people who were displaced, but it wasn't just humans that were displaced after all this. The spirits have been affected by it too, and they're probably just as scared and confused as we are. Qinggan needs my help, and so I'm going to find her children and convince them to return to their mother. I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to help her."
"I'm coming too," Asami asserted.
"And I'm sure Mako and Bolin will want to help," Korra said.
"I think we should be able to find the children relatively quickly," Ronen told Korra and Asami. "If we make a plan to –"
Lin interrupted, "You are just determined to stress me out, aren't you? You've barely healed from your last trip into that place."
"Technically, he didn't go the whole way into the Spirit World," Bumi pointed out. "It was a bender that injured him, not the spirits." Lin shot her brother-in-law an aggravated look. "I'm just saying!" he defended.
"I'll go with them, Lin," Tenzin said softly, reaching up to grasp her hand and squeezing gently. Lin sucked in a deep breath, but his offer didn't really make her feel any better.
"Actually, Dad," Ronen said carefully, "I think it might be better if you stay here. We'll have to find the spirit children one at a time, so once we convince them to go to their mother, they'll be coming here to the island. Someone will have to be here as they're arriving to make sure that they stay and don't cause any trouble."
"There's no way you're leaving me here alone to deal with that," Lin muttered to her husband.
Tenzin nodded, looking displeased but understanding. "I suppose it does make more sense for me to be here. Lin and I just want to be certain you kids are safe."
"I can go!" Yunjin offered.
"Absolutely not," Lin and Tenzin said at once, and Yunjin slumped back down into his seat with a pout.
"I would offer to go," Sora said to her parents with a shrug, "but I know what you'll say."
"You're definitely not going," Lin confirmed. "I still don't want anyone to go. This doesn't sound like a good idea to me."
"Mama," Sora said gently, "I think it's the only option there is. Not only is it just the right thing to do, but Qinggan helped me when I was lost, and now she's lost. She needs our help, or she could be wandering for all of eternity. If you were separated from all of us, wouldn't you want someone to help lead you back?"
"Well if you're going to guilt me into it," Lin grumbled. "Listen, it's not like I don't feel bad for her, but why do we always have to be the ones to solve the world's problems? We just got home three days ago."
Su snorted. "This from the woman that was a cop for thirty years. You've been trying to solve the world's problems your whole life."
"And your children are every bit as stubborn as you are," Nira said with a teasing smile.
Korra smirked. "And I'm kind of the Avatar. It's my job to solve the world's problems."
Lin sighed heavily. "There's nothing I can say to talk you all out of this, is there?"
"Sorry, Lin," Korra replied with a shrug.
"We'll be safe, Mom," Ronen added, "I promise."
Asami said, "If all goes well, we shouldn't be gone long."
"What should we do in the meantime?" Su asked Ronen. "With Qinggan and as the kids are arriving, I mean?"
"Aren't you supposed to be going home tomorrow?" Lin interjected.
"I can push it back a few days," Su said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I'm not leaving now."
Ronen answered his aunt, "I think the best thing to do is to just make Qinggan and her children feel welcome. Particularly with Qinggan, you'll want to control your emotions, because she'll mirror whatever you're feeling. That's why she was so standoffish earlier, because I assume Mom was pretty guarded and that, in turn, made Qinggan very terse. And Dad knows as much as I do about Qinggan and her children."
"I can help too," Sora said excitedly.
"Of course, sweetheart," Tenzin agreed. "We'll need all the help we can get."
"That's comforting," Lin muttered.
Tenzin tugged on her hand until she sat back down on the couch next to him, and then he massaged her shoulder soothingly. "It will all be just fine, dear," he said. "The spirits of emotion are not known to be malicious, and they cannot force you to alter your emotions. They are influencers only. I don't think that we have anything to fear from them."
"Plus, once they've reunited with their mother they'll likely return to the Spirit World," Nira tried to assure.
"Don't worry, Linny," Bumi exclaimed. "Bum-Ju and I will make sure those spirits stay in line. Just as soon as I find him…"
"And me too, Uncle Bumi!" Yunjin volunteered.
"Of course!" Bumi cried. "I can't forget my Lieutenant!"
Jeia toddled over to her parents and grabbed onto her mother's knees as she complained, "Mama, I don't want no more spirits comin' here."
"Me neither, kid," Lin muttered sympathetically, "but it looks like we haven't got much of a choice." She looked around at all of her family with a disgruntled expression and said, "You guys better be right about this."
Ronen had been so focused on his plans and his surety about helping Qinggan that he had forgotten to consider what it would be like going back into the Spirit World.
After explaining Qinggan's plight to his family, he had spent the next several hours preparing. He introduced his father and Nira to Qinggan, and Sora tagged along to reconnect with the spirit mother that had helped her. Tenzin, Nira, and Sora then coaxed the spirit to the Acolyte dwellings so that she was not sat out alone on the cliff's edge, and the Acolytes were told about Qinggan and how to act around her. By that time, Mako and Bolin had arrived, and there was another round of explanations. Then there was another argument with his mother, who made a last ditch effort to talk him out of going into the Spirit World again so soon.
They all went to bed late and got up early the next morning. Then Ronen had to say goodbye to his family, which was a little unsettling. They had all been separate and then in peril, and had only been home together for a few days. He could understand why his mother was so reluctant to let him go, but he was too determined to help Qinggan to focus on any of his own feelings. He hugged his brother and his sisters, his mother and father, his Aunt Su and Uncle Bumi, and Nira too. Then he took the reigns of the sky bison that a three year old Sora had affectionately named Stinky. Asami, Korra, Mako, and Bolin clambered into the saddle, and Ronen waved to his family one last time before taking off into the sky.
The flight to the North Pole was thankfully only a few hours; they had decided to try for the spirit portal in the north because it would be a faster trip than going the whole way to the South Pole. The north was still not incredibly pleased with Korra, after everything that had happened during the war, but her group was allowed entry to the spirit portal without much fuss.
It was only once he was standing directly before the portal that Ronen felt a shiver of anxiety. He hadn't actually been far into the Spirit World before, and the last time he'd entered the portal he had come out unconscious and frozen. It would be different now, of course, because there was no Unalaq and Vaatu was defeated, but the fresh memories did give him pause. He didn't think that Qinggan's children would actually be dangerous, but he really had no way of knowing that, and he would be intruding on their domain. He would have to be smart about what he said to them, and try to be quick about it. He didn't want to be in the Spirit World any longer than he needed to be.
With that in mind, Ronen sucked in a deep breath, centered himself in the moment, and then stepped into the portal.
As Ronen, Mako, Korra, Bolin, and Asami all journeyed into the Spirit World, the group was cautious but also a little excited. It was nice to have a task to help someone that wasn't so life threatening or a possible end to the world. It was a bit like when they used to go into the city together to capture Equalists, before the war had escalated. After all they had faced together, they weren't all that frightened by the potential dangers of the Spirit World.
However, Mako was not entirely convinced that they had made the right decision. He, like Ronen's mother, thought their plan was risky, and that maybe they were tempting fate by assuming they needed to fix Qinggan. He had complained half the trip to the North Pole.
Then, shortly into their excursion into the Spirit World, Mako said, "So how are we supposed to find these guys? How many are we looking for again? Shouldn't we have come up with a more extensive plan?"
"Relax, Mako," Korra sighed, growing ever frustrated with his negativity. "The Spirit World doesn't allow for much planning. And we'll be fine."
"Yeah, relax, bro," Bolin crowed, thumping his older brother on the back so hard that Mako stumbled forward a step. "We've got the Avatar and Ronen the spirit guide with us. This should be easy as pie."
Bolin and Korra looked at one another and said at once, "Mmm, pie."
"Should we be looking for a spirit guide?" Asami asked Ronen. "Like how Iroh helped Korra and Qinggan helped Sora?"
"I don't think so," Ronen replied. "Maybe if we're in here a while with no progress, but I believe that the spirits of emotion should appear to us as we search for them."
"Should we all just think about them then?" Bolin suggested. "And if we think hard enough they'll appear?"
"Something like that," Ronen agreed.
"Well who should we think about first?" Korra asked. "I doubt they'll all appear to us at once."
Ronen considered it for a moment, and then answered, "I think the easiest to convince will be Yoji and Dasne."
"And which ones are those again?" Mako questioned.
Korra gave Mako an exasperated look. "Did you even listen to the story?"
"Hey, it was a long time ago!" Mako defended. "A lot has happened since then, and I had a lot on my mind that day."
"It's okay," Ronen interjected, before Korra and Mako could dredge up old relationship wounds. "Maybe talking about them will help us find them too.
"Yoji is the spirit of joy. He is known to be playful and excitable. Some believe that he spends his time flitting around to festivals and parties all around the world, bringing delight and merriment with him wherever he goes. His opposite is Dasne, the spirit of sadness. She is in a state of constant mourning. However, those who know of and revere the spirits of emotion have found comfort in knowing that Dasne is with them in times of grief."
"Is she really though?" Mako asked skeptically.
Ronen shrugged. "It's possible. I like to think that she is."
"That seems like such an awful way to live," Asami said sadly. "In a perpetual state of grief?"
"True, but I don't think she's ever known anything different," Ronen reasoned.
Bolin asked, "Do you think reuniting all of the kids with Qinggan will help the kids too? Like maybe they can feel more emotions when they're all together?"
"I don't know," Ronen admitted. "They embody their own singular emotion in its entirety, so I can't imagine there'd be much change."
"But maybe a little," Korra said hopefully. "They've got to be better together, right?"
"Why do you think they're all split up anyways?" Bolin inquired. "You think there was a lot of family drama?"
"With so many strong emotions like that?" Asami said with a snort. "I think there was probably a lot of discourse between them."
"And it's just like any other family," Ronen added. "The kids grew up and went their own ways."
"If they've been apart for this long, then what's to say we can even get them all to stay together?" Mako pointed out.
"Same thing that keeps most people together," Ronen responded. "They're family. We just have to appeal to the part of them that still cares about their mother."
Ronen sensed movement nearby then, and went suddenly very still.
The others stopped too, and Bolin whispered, "What is it? Did you hear something?"
"Shhh," Ronen urged, holding up his hand as he looked around them and listened closely.
They were in a sort of spirit forest, surrounded by foliage and thick vines. The leaves rustled in one of the trees, and then in another tree on the opposite side of the group. Ronen waited patiently, on guard but also maintaining calm thoughts so as not to affect any spirits that may appear. The others were on high alert too and stayed very still. However, the rustling stopped after only a second, and after several long moments it had not returned.
"We should keep moving," Ronen suggested. "Just keep an eye out."
The group moved forward at a more careful pace, and after a few more steps, they suddenly emerged from out of the thicket of trees and into a wide open clearing. While seconds ago the temperature had been comfortable, now the air turned sharply cold. In front of them was a lake that appeared to be frozen solid. Ronen shivered, and as he exhaled he could see his breath puff out in front of him.
"Uh, what the hell just happened?" Mako demanded.
"I think we just found one of our spirits," Korra said, taking a step forward and looking out across the expansive lake. Ronen followed her gaze and spotted a lone figure curled up on a stone in the middle of the lake.
"What is this place?" Asami half-whispered.
"I believe this is the Lake of Frozen Tears," Ronen answered. "Dasne's home of sorts, comprised of all of the tears she has shed."
"Must be a pretty deep lake," Bolin mused.
"Is it safe to walk across?" Asami questioned.
"Only one way to find out," Korra said before stepping right onto the lake without another thought.
"Hey!" Mako exclaimed. "Careful!"
But Korra was already taking three steps across the lake, and the ice held.
Korra looked over her shoulder at Mako with a triumphant expression. He rolled his eyes at her and folded his arms across his chest with a huff.
"Why don't you guys hang back while Korra and I go talk to Dasne?" Ronen suggested, looking at Mako, Asami, and Bolin. "We don't want to overwhelm her."
"Just holler if you need us," Bolin requested. "We'll be on the lookout!"
"Be careful," Asami urged.
"And hurry up," Mako grumbled. "This place gives me the creeps."
"Just try not to get into any trouble while we're over there," Korra teased Mako.
Ronen stepped out onto the frozen lake, his legs tensing on instinct, as if waiting for the ice to give in. When it did not, he sucked in a breath and continued forward. He and Korra walked together towards the figure in the middle of the lake with some caution.
Korra asked, "What do you think we should say to her?"
"I figured we'd just wing it," Ronen replied.
Korra snorted. "Works for me."
As the two of them neared the lone spirit that they assumed to be Dasne, they began to hear whimpers, and Ronen noticed that the spirit's shoulders were trembling. Dasne was curled up on the only rock in sight, weeping quietly. She had long black hair cascading down her back, shining with a blue hue from the reflection of the icy lake, and laying heavily as if it were soaking wet. Ronen and Korra kept a small distance from Dasne as they went around to be face to face with her, trying not to startle her.
Ronen crouched down to be more level with Dasne, bracing his hands on his knees and balancing on his toes. "Hello there," he said quietly. "My name is Ronen. Are you Dasne?"
The spirit sucked in a shuddering breath, staring at Ronen and Korra with an expression of deep sorrow. She was pale, with stark tear tracks on her face, and her lip quivered as she whimpered, "How do you know me? You are not from here."
"No," Korra interjected softly, "we aren't from here. We're from the mortal world. My name is Korra and I'm the Avatar. Can we talk to you?"
"What could you possibly want to talk to me about?" Dasne asked.
"We're here on behalf of your mother," Ronen answered. "After Harmonic Convergence she ended up in the mortal world, on Air Temple Island in Republic City where I live. She's very confused, Dasne, and we were hoping that you could help us. We thought that if you could go to her –"
Dasne immediately interrupted, "Oh, no, I can't."
"The spirit portals are open," Korra assured, assuming that was the issue. "You can move more freely between worlds now."
Dasne curled in on herself even further, only becoming more distressed. "No, no, no. I cannot see my mother. I will not go."
Ronen and Korra exchanged a glance and both of them frowned.
Ronen turned back to Dasne and asked, "Why can't you see your mother?"
Dasne was rocking back and forth, shaking her head and weeping still. "I can't. She's so sad when she's with me. I do not want to cause her any more misery."
"I understand, Dasne," Ronen said sympathetically, "but without you she's empty. That's why we've come. We're going to find your brothers and sisters too, and convince them to go to your mother. She won't be upset for long."
Dasne was still distraught. "I won't do it," she persisted. "I won't cause her more grief."
"But Dasne," Korra cut in, "we need you. We can't do this without all of you. It's very important."
Dasne was still resistant, practically in hysterics, and Ronen considered their options. Dasne was clearly too distraught to simply be coaxed with reasoning, and that wasn't likely to change considering her natural state of being was sorrow. He didn't feel right about guilt-tripping her, but his limited observation of those in a state of grief had shown that it was often the only way to get through to them quickly.
"Listen, Dasne," Ronen pressed, shuffling closer to her, "I know that you're worried, but if you don't go to your mother she'll never feel anything again. Not sadness, not joy, not anything. She'll wander aimlessly, driven only by the emotions of others, on the rare occasion that she comes into contact with them. She is a shell of her former self, and without you and your siblings she will remain that way. You must help us…you must help her. Don't you want your mother to be able to feel again?"
As he spoke, Dasne slowly began to go still, and her whimpers quieted, seeming to consider Ronen's words. "But my presence only fills her with sorrow," Dasne whispered. "It would be better if the others went without me."
"She can't get better without you," Ronen persisted. "She needs all of you. Isn't it better to feel sad for just a little while instead of nothing at all? She gave you life, and now she needs you to do the same for her."
Dasne peered at Ronen from beneath dark, wet lashes, her eyes red-rimmed and shiny. She stared at him for several long seconds before her shoulders finally slumped and she relented, "If my mother truly needs me then I will go."
Ronen smiled kindly. "Thank you, Dasne. I promise that you won't regret it."
Korra added, "Your mother will be very happy – er – very pleased to see you."
Ronen stood up straight and held out his hand to Dasne. She regarded him with caution, and then hesitantly reached out to accept his hand. He felt a chill run through him at the contact, but made sure not to flinch, helping Dasne rise to her feet. Once she stood before him he asked, "Do you know how to get to Republic City?"
Dasne nodded. "I am familiar with the route, yes."
"My family is with your mother on Air Temple Island," Ronen told her. "They're expecting your arrival, so you'll be welcome there. If you have any problems, ask for Tenzin or Sora."
"And you're sure about this plan?" Dasne worried.
Ronen wasn't one hundred percent certain, but he nodded anyways. "Yes," he answered, "I am."
Dasne looked over at Korra, who smiled encouragingly. Then Dasne nodded forlornly. "Okay, I will go."
Without further ado, Dasne turned and began to walk along the icy lake, in the opposite direction from which Korra and Ronen had come from. Ronen watched her for all of three seconds, until the spirit suddenly disappeared and he was staring at nothing but flickering shadows.
"Well," Korra said with a satisfied exhale, "that wasn't so bad. Wasn't expecting you to use the guilt trip, but it worked."
"I feel pretty bad about it," Ronen admitted, "but at least she'll be with her mother now."
The two of them began walking back towards where their friends waited for them, and Korra said, "I hope the others are this easy."
Ronen snorted. "Somehow I doubt it, but fingers crossed."
The two of them regrouped with the others, and Bolin immediately rushed forward asking, "How did it go? What was it like meeting Dasne? Was she very sad? Did she agree to go to her mom?"
Korra chuckled and squeezed Bolin's shoulder reassuringly. "Yes, Bolin, everything went fine. Dasne was hesitant because she doesn't want to upset Qinggan with her sorrowful emotions, but Ronen successfully guilt tripped her."
"He used the eyes, didn't he?" Asami said to Korra. "You know –"
"The sad eyes!" Korra exclaimed, finishing before Asami could. "Yeah! He totally did."
"What are you two talking about?" Ronen demanded. "What sad eyes?"
"You know," Bolin answered instead, "that face you make when you're trying to be sympathetic and honest at the same time."
"Oh, that look," Mako said, seeming to understand.
"I have no idea what you guys are talking about," Ronen said, "but I'm feeling attacked."
The four of them laughed, and Ronen folded his arms across his chest, shaking his head and feigning offence.
It was at that exact moment that the rustling in the tops of the nearby trees returned, and before any of them could react, something came hurtling out of the branches.
Everyone startled and jolted backwards as the figure crashed into the ground in front of them. They all began raising their arms defensively, but the spirit that landed before them did not lash out. Instead, it stood to its full height, male-looking and humanoid and grinning from ear to ear. His hair was much lighter than Dasne's and spiked up in a wild disarray that made it look as if he had been electrocuted. His eyes reminded Ronen of a cat-owl's.
"Hi there!" the spirit said with sheer excitement. "What're you four up to? Not trying to tell Dasne a joke I hope. I've been trying that for eons, but I haven't gotten her to crack a smile yet. If you're looking for a good time I'd be happy to offer my services."
"Uh, who are you?" Mako asked, still watching the spirit warily, though he did let the fireball in his hand peter out.
"Are you Yoji?" Ronen inquired, as the spirit in question shot Mako an astonished look.
Whirling on Ronen, the spirit answered, "Yes I am! Who might you be?"
"I'm Ronen, and that's Mako, Asami, and Bolin." Ronen pointed to each of his friends in turn, and then gestured to Korra, who stood at his side. "And this is Korra; she's the Avatar."
"Ooohh how exciting!" Yoji trilled, dancing closer to bend over and scrutinize Korra with wide eyes. "An honor to meet ya, Avatar. What brings you to my neck of the spirit woods?"
"We're here on behalf of your mother," Korra answered.
"Oh?" Yoji said, straightening up and sounding intrigued. "And how is my dear mother?"
"Not so good," Bolin admitted with a wince. "But we were hoping you could help us cheer her up. See, we were thinking if we got the whole family back together, then everyone will be happy!"
"Well, that sounds like a great idea to me!" Yoji easily agreed.
"Really?" Bolin asked in surprise, only to shake his head and hastily amend, "I mean, yeah! We've already got Dasne on board, and with you that makes two. Only six more to go. Your mom will be as good as new in no time!"
Yoji's jaw dropped. "You convinced Dasne to go? Here I was about to offer you my services, but it sounds like you've got it handled! I gotta say, I'm impressed."
"All in a day's work, Mr. Spirit, Sir," Bolin said, puffing out his chest proudly. Ronen and Asami shared an amused look. "Don't worry, Team Avatar is on the job."
Yoji just grinned from ear to ear and thrust his hand towards Bolin so quickly that Mako lurched forward with concern. Yoji, however, merely held his hand before Bolin to shake hands, and Bolin reached out with the intent to do just that.
Just before Bolin's hand touched Yoji's, the spirit snatched his own hand away with a chortle and teased, "Too slow!"
Bolin was stunned for half a second, and then laughed good naturedly, hooking his thumb in the direction of Yoji as he told his friends, "I like this guy."
Ronen shook his head bemusedly. Then he directed his attention onto the beaming spirit as he said, "We really appreciate your help, Yoji. Your mother is waiting at my home in the mortal world, on Air Temple Island in Republic City. Dasne is headed there now, and my family is with Qinggan waiting for everyone to arrive."
"I guess I'd best be on my way then, huh?" Yoji replied. "Can't let Dasne have all the fun without me! But you're sure you don't want my help with the rest of my siblings? Some of them are a bit more – uh – fiery."
"Have you seen any of your other siblings recently?" Asami asked curiously.
Yoji considered the question for a moment, and then confessed, "Not recently, no, but I do try to visit now and then. Revol can throw one heck of a party."
"I think we've got it covered," Mako said, still acting standoffish.
"But thank you," Korra added hastily. "We'll definitely come get you if we need your help. For now, you should go be with Dasne; she was nervous about being alone with your mother."
"It'll be my pleasure," Yoji said with a delighted clap. "I've got the perfect prank that I've just been waiting to –"
"Uhhh, actually," Korra interrupted. "Could you maybe not prank Dasne?"
"Awww, but why not?" Yoji pouted.
"Just do it as a favor to me, yeah?" Korra requested.
Yoji sighed heavily, but remained cheerful as he relented, "Well, since you asked so nicely, I suppose I can resist for now. It's been a pleasure meeting you, Avatar, and friends. I take it I'll be seeing you all again soon?"
"We'll join you as soon as we've found the rest of your siblings," Ronen answered. "It shouldn't be long, if all goes well."
"Well, good luck to ya," Yoji snorted. "I better go catch up to Dasne, make sure she gets there okay."
Yoji held his hand out to Korra, who eyed it skeptically, but eventually reached out to take it, and Yoji did not yank his hand away that time. He then darted to each of them with lightning quick speed, shaking their hands vigorously. He reached Mako last, and upon shaking Mako's hand, Yoji pointed to something over Mako's shoulder and gasped, "What's that over there?"
Mako whirled around to look, and with his back turned, did not see the wobbling sphere that Yoji had procured from his pocket. Yoji pelted the thing at the back of Mako's head, and it exploded with a splash, drenching Mako with water.
"Hah!" Yoji cackled. "That's the oldest trick in the book! Oh, you guys are gonna be fuuuuun."
Mako spun back around with an aggravated huff, but Yoji had already taken off, sprinting in the direction that Dasne had gone at inhuman speed, his laughter still echoing across the frozen lake.
Mako growled, and Ronen bit down on his lip to suppress a laugh at the sight of a furious, red-faced Mako with soaking wet hair and water dripping off of him.
Bolin and Korra, however, took one look at Mako, looked at each other, and then immediately burst out laughing, leaning on one another as if they needed support to be held up.
Asami gracefully attempted to conceal her smile, turning her head to the side and covering her mouth with her fingers.
"Ha, ha, very funny," Mako spat, trying to shake the water off of himself. "You guys are so mature."
"Face it, Mako," Bolin said breathlessly, wiping a tear from his eye, "he got you good."
"That could have been a knife in my back you know," Mako countered.
"Oh lighten up," Korra dismissed. "He's the spirit of joy I doubt he's in the habit of stabbing people."
"Don't worry, Mako," Ronen added, "I'm sure the others won't be like that."
"Yeah, why don't we go find Yangra next?" Korra suggested, slapping Mako on the back. "I bet you two will get along great."
"Yes!" Bolin eagerly agreed. "I bet Yangra and Revol will be so cool."
"Er, Korra, I don't know if that's the best idea," Ronen warned.
But Korra was already marching forward, and as the others hastened to follow, their surroundings began to morph and change. The bitter cold of the Lake of Frozen tears was replaced by a sweltering heat, and the condensed forest flattened into a vast, open space surrounded by towering flames.
Bolin took one look at the fiery landscape before them, gulped, and said, "Uhh, I'd like to change my mind."
After the older kids had set off for the northern spirit portal, Lin spent the better half of the day worrying and pretending that she wasn't worrying. She hated the idea of them going back into the Spirit World, and while she was not looking forward to more spirits invading her island, she was anxious for the emotion spirits to start showing up because it would mean that the kids were okay and making progress. Until then, she could only wait.
Tenzin, Sora, Nira, and Yunjin began making preparations, taking turns looking after Qinggan, reading through books about spirit stuff, and meditating, or whatever other nonsense they thought would help when the spirits arrived. Lin, Su, Jeia, and Bumi tried to help for maybe half an hour before admitting defeat and going off to entertain themselves somewhere else.
The four of them went instead to the sparring circle, the adults training Jeia, or rather, the three of them arguing over how to train Jeia, while the kid repeatedly rolled her eyes at them and did whatever she felt like doing.
Eventually, Lin ended up sitting on one of the steps at the edge of the ring, watching as Bumi and Suyin chased Jeia around the circle. The girl was quick, but her Aunt and Uncle were clearly humoring her, occasionally catching up to her long enough to swoop her up into the air or tickle her ribs so that she would squeal with laughter.
It didn't take long for Bumi to become winded though, and he called a time out for himself before staggering over to where Lin sat. He flopped down on the step next to her, wheezing and wiping sweat from his forehead.
"Aw, come on, old man!" Su teased from the center of the circle. "Is that all ya got?"
"Yeah!" Jeia called out with a giggle. "Come on, old man!"
"Hey now!" Bumi protested. "I'm no old man! But I do have ten and fifty years on you two, so your ageism is not appreciated." Su rolled her eyes, and Bumi continued, "Besides, I'd like to bond with my sister-in-law here."
Lin snorted at that last part, but didn't call him out on it.
"Whatever you say, Bumi," Su said, just as disbelieving. "Take all the resting time you need." She winked at him, and then turned to Jeia. "In the meantime, why don't you and I try some earthbending?"
Jeia wrinkled her nose and asked, "Metal after?"
"We'll see," Su replied. "Depends on how you do with earth."
Jeia sighed, but wasn't one to pass up on an offer to bend, so she relented.
Lin and Bumi watched for a few minutes in comfortable silence – aside from Bumi's panting. Normally it might have stayed that way for longer, but Lin had something on her mind, something that had been bothering her since they had been in the Spirit World a few days ago. She had considered not bringing it up at all, since she wasn't one to pry and she and Bumi weren't exactly the masters of navigating serious conversations. But Bumi had done a lot for her and her family recently, even if he had been driving them all a little insane since his retirement. He was like the brother she had never had, and she didn't like the thought that he might be holding onto something painful without a way to release it.
So she turned to face Bumi and said, "So, cannibals huh?"
Bumi let out a short laugh, but Lin noticed the way he went rigid beside her. "That Spirit World, eh?" he replied, with an amused shake of his head. "Makes up some crazy mind games."
"Yeah…" Lin said slowly, skeptically, "except it didn't make those torturous thoughts up. They were real, our worst memories, as Tenzin described it. Kya's was about her family, mine was about my dearly departed half-sister coming back for the rest of us, and yours…"
Bumi's easy smile faltered a little, but he still gave no indication of understanding her. "I gotta tell ya, Linny, I don't know what happened in there, but that fog must have made something up for me."
Lin gave him an annoyed look. "Come on, Bumi. I think we know each other better than that. Look, I'm sure it's a sore subject, and maybe it's not right of me to bring it up, but I feel like maybe it's something you need to get off your chest."
"There's really nothing to talk about," Bumi insisted with a forced chuckle, leaning back to rest his elbow on the step behind him as if to appear more relaxed. "There might have been a brief run in once that I completely forgot about, and I guess the spirit fog dug around real deep to find it."
Lin sighed in exasperation. "Spirits, you're worse than me. I know you'd rather chew your own arm off than admit you've got any fears, but talking it out can be a relief you know? I know it sounds crazy, and I usually don't fall for it either, but your brother has a way of coaxing it out of me. I have a feeling he wouldn't be able to do the same for you, which is why I'm here, gritting my teeth and trying to act like this isn't completely wrong. Plus, I've seen a lot of awful things as Chief of Police so you don't have to be worried about scarring me for life."
Bumi's terse smile finally faded and he averted his gaze from her, seeming to think it over, or maybe hoping she would drop the whole conversation. She kept her eyes on him though, waiting him out.
"There's not much to tell," Bumi eventually said with a shrug, still resistant.
"Then you should have no trouble telling it," Lin replied, unwavering.
Bumi gave her an annoyed look of his own. "I think we get along better when you don't ask questions."
"Yeah, probably," Lin admitted, "but when it's important I think we ought to impose a little risk."
"It was a long time ago," Bumi said with a dismissive wave, but he continued on, "just a few years after I joined the force. I was a stupid rookie and we were out in the middle of nowhere in the south of the Earth Kingdom. We were just passing through when we heard about some weird disappearances in this quaint little village. We had been bored for weeks and thought we were finally gonna have some fun." He paused there, grimacing and shaking his head in disgust, as if ashamed of his younger self.
Lin prompted, "I'm guessing that's when everything went down hill."
"As it always does," Bumi confirmed. "We managed to get a lead on the disappearances, but the culprits were onto us faster than we were onto them. We split up, leaving three of my men in town while the rest of us followed the lead. It was a dead-end though, and by the time we got back the three of them had disappeared. We eventually found them, but…by then it was too late."
Bumi rubbed his eyes and sighed, and Lin waited patiently for him to compose himself. In a low whisper he muttered, "They were fucking cannibals. That's why they were taking people. Some cult just living in the middle of that little village. They were eating people. Cutting them up like animals and…well, you get the picture. When we walked into that house…and I saw what they had done…and I saw my men…" Bumi's hands were clenched into fists and his whole body was trembling. Lin could see an uncommon rage building on his face that she had only seen maybe twice before.
"I lost it," he confessed. "I completely lost it. I wanted to…I wanted to destroy every last one them, to tear them apart."
"I can't blame you there," Lin said gruffly, glancing up just once to make sure Jeia was still distracted by Su before turning her attention back onto Bumi. "Sounds like they deserved it."
"Yeah well…" Bumi trailed off with a shrug. "They got what was comin' to 'em, but three of my men were still dead. And I know it happens sometimes and that wasn't even the first, but…it was different, you know? I never could forget, no matter how hard I tried. It was the kind of stuff you read in a horror story, not real life. The nightmares eventually faded, for the most part, but I'm not surprised that damned fog dredged it back up."
"Have the nightmares come back since we were in there?" Lin asked carefully. Bumi didn't seem inclined to answer, so she added, "Mine did, the first two nights."
"Yeah," Bumi eventually admitted. "Yeah they came back. I'll be fine though. You don't have to worry about me."
"I'm not," Lin said softly. "I know you can figure it out. It doesn't hurt to have someone to talk to though. You shouldn't have to carry that alone."
"What about you?" Bumi questioned, finally turning to look at her and clearly trying to change the subject. "Have you talked about your thing? You and Tenzin never said much about what happened that day when Jeia was born."
It was Lin's turn to avert her gaze as she muttered, "It wasn't a good day." She looked over at Jeia Rai, as if to assure herself that the kid was still there, that Shira hadn't been able to end that life too. She noticed then that Jeia and Su were still trying to earthbend, and Lin called out, "Jeia! Plant that foot, kid, like I showed you!"
Jeia readjusted her stance awkwardly, but eventually shifted into a comfortable position with her knees and arms bent.
"You ready?" Su asked Jeia.
When the toddler nodded, Su sent a small stone hurtling towards Jeia, slower than normal, but fast enough to present a challenge. Jeia dodged instead of parrying, wobbling as she came back up into her stance. Su sent another projectile, and Jeia bent backwards that time. On the third attempt, though, Jeia seemed to muster the courage and punched her fist in the direction of the oncoming stone. It shattered into pieces upon impact with her fist, as only an earthbender could have, and Su paused for a moment to applaud Jeia.
Lin and Bumi both cheered, "Good job, Jeia!"
Encouraged, Jeia eagerly told her Aunt Su, "Again!"
They went back to it, and Bumi turned to Lin again. "One good thing did come out of that day, at least," he said.
Lin nodded and agreed, "Yeah, but it would have been great if the kid had waited a few more weeks to be born, instead of scaring the hell out of us."
Bumi snorted. "C'mon, it's Jeia we're talking about here. She was ready to come out and she wasn't letting anyone stop her. I think she might be more stubborn than you."
Lin smirked. "She definitely is. She's been resisting the earthbending for over a year now and part of me thinks she's doing it just to spite me."
Bumi chuckled. "If I remember correctly, you were pretty resistant against your mom's teachings too. Seeing you and Jeia practice is like stepping back in time to watch you and Toph argue again. You two just gotta figure out your rhythm. Keep in mind that she's a miniature version of Toph."
Lin groaned. "Ugh, I know. I'm raising my mother."
Bumi only laughed harder. "And she looks like you so double the pressure. If the rest of the kids are bad you can just blame it on Tenzin, but Jeia? That's all you."
"Thanks for that," Lin muttered, giving him a vexed look, but they both knew she wasn't really angry.
Lin looked back over at Jeia and Su when she felt a rumbling in her feet, just in time to see Jeia stomp her little foot down, causing a boulder bigger than her body to thrust out of the ground. Jeia punched out her fist, and the boulder went spiraling forward. At the same time, Lin lurched to her feet in surprise, just as Su swatted the oncoming boulder to the side to avoid being hit. When the boulder dropped harmlessly to the ground, Su was beaming, and without realizing it at first, Lin was too. The most earthbending Jeia had ever done before was nudge a few pebbles, so to see her procure a massive stone and also throw it in the right direction was huge.
After a moment of stunned silence, Bumi let out a shrill whoop of joy, and all three adults went running straight for the toddler. Su got there first, swooping Jeia up into her arms and peppering the girl's face with kisses. When Bumi reached the pair, Jeia leapt into his arms and he tossed her in the air, all while telling her how amazing she was. Jeia was laughing and grinning from ear to ear, looking just as amazed as the rest of them that she had finally done some earthbending outside of metal. She held her arms out to her mother as soon as Lin was close, and Lin reached out to take Jeia from Bumi.
Lin hugged Jeia to her first, smiling proudly as she quietly said, "Nice job, kid. I knew you had it in ya."
"Did you see, Mama?" Jeia asked excitedly, leaning back to look at her mother, green eyes alight with glee. "Did you see me earthbend that huge rock?!"
"I sure did," Lin assured. "You did great. I'm very proud."
Jeia beamed, bouncing in Lin's arms and saying, "I just listened to you, Mama."
Su chimed in to explain, "She always says it's too loud, listening to the earth, so I told her to focus on something, just one thing, like a heartbeat, to narrow her focus and quiet everything else."
"I listened to your heart," Jeia told Lin proudly.
It was the kind of thing that would make Tenzin weep and, oddly enough, it was having a similar effect on Lin, but she stifled the teary-eyed reaction as best she could. She was becoming entirely too soft as she aged.
Bumi, on the other hand, wept openly, and Su was trying to look casual as she hastily rubbed her eyes. Lin just hugged Jeia again and kissed the side of her head, half-laughing at Su and Bumi and herself for getting emotional in the first place. She wished Tenzin was there, and she had every intention of going to find him to share the good news, but the four of them were interrupted before she got the chance.
"This calls for a celebration!" Bumi cried.
Then an unfamiliar voice from behind exclaimed, "Ooh! What are we celebrating?!"
Lin, Su, and Bumi all whirled around, Jeia's hands clenching around Lin's sleeves, and Lin's grip on Jeia tightened instinctively. The source of the voice was a humanoid spirit; two of them were hovering at the edge of the training circle, and they couldn't have been more different in appearance. The one Lin presumed to have spoken was a light-haired male, grinning broadly with a sparkle of mischief in his eyes. He was dressed in bright colors and shimmering as if illuminated by a vibrant yellow light. The spirit next to him was a woman, hunched over slightly and shrouded in darkness, from the blue-black hair to the dark shadows under her eyes. She was startlingly pale and sorrowful and she looked close to tears. Lin could only assume that they were the first of Qinggan's children to arrive, and she felt a bit of trepidation fill her.
When Lin and the others did not immediately answer, the hyperactive spirit spoke again, more rapidly as he said, "I love parties, and if you're looking for some fun ideas I'm your man. Do we need a theme? What's your favorite animal? I'm Yoji by the way, and this is my sister Dasne. We were told our mother was here, have you seen her? She's a great partier too, if she's in the right mood."
After a long, "Uhhh," Su was the first to manage a response. "Of course! It's nice to meet you, Yoji. And Dasne. My name is Suyin. This is my sister, Lin, and her daughter Jeia – they live on this island. And this is Bumi. Your mother is with the rest of our family inside. Why don't we show you to her?"
Su and Bumi began striding towards the two spirits, both of them nudging Lin forwards, and she sighed, already annoyed. She just wanted to spend time with her family without all the spirit nonsense, but she would suck it up and deal with it for now.
When Bumi reached the spirit pair, he sidled up next to Yoji as they all began walking and said, "In the meantime, let me ask you something, Yoji. What does a typical spirit party consist of, and can you drink alcohol?"
Lin rolled her eyes and tuned out Yoji's long-winded response, making a mental note to herself to keep a close eye on Bumi and Yoji. Dasne was still beside of Yoji, and next to her was Su and then Lin and Jeia.
Dasne turned to look at Lin, her eyes hauntingly dark and her voice almost inaudibly soft as she said, "I'm sorry for my brother."
"Oh, that's okay," Su replied, when Lin could only manage a gruff noise of acknowledgement. "We've got some rowdy boys of our own."
Lin interjected, "My son Ronen, how was he when you saw him? Did he look all right?"
"He did not appear distressed, if that's what you mean," Dasne said, looking a little confused. Lin wondered if the spirits could even understand any emotions outside of their own, or if Dasne simply didn't understand why Lin was worried.
"I'm sure the kids are fine," Su said directly to Lin, squeezing her older sister's shoulder reassuringly.
Dasne asked, "Is my mother terribly upset? Your Ronen said that she desperately needed us. I do not think I am good for her, but he said that she was worse off alone."
"We've been keeping her company," Su reassured Dasne. "She's better with others around, but she has been missing all of you terribly. I'm sure she'll be very glad to see you."
Dasne did not appear wholly convinced, but she nodded and said no more.
The six of them didn't make it the whole way to the Acolyte quarters where Qinggan was staying. A group of Acolytes were passing by, and Yoji became so distracted by them that he would not go any further. Frustrated, Lin hastened on without the rest of them, going the last few meters to where she knew Tenzin would be and demanding that he go deal with it.
Sora and Yunjin were there with their father too, and when they heard that some of the spirits had arrived, they went racing outside in sheer excitement.
Before following them, Tenzin went to stand before Lin, cupping her cheek and soothing, "I'll take care of it, love. Try to relax. If Ronen and Korra have already convinced two of the spirits to come then this should all be over soon."
Lin harrumphed, sharing a disbelieving look with Jeia, and Tenzin chuckled; he always found it amusing when the two of them made the same face. He leaned in to kiss them both on the forehead, and then went back to Lin to kiss her briefly on the lips, and then he was hastening out the door after the twins.
Lin turned to watch him, shifting Jeia on her hip and muttering, "I hope he's right."
Jeia sighed wearily and said, "Me too."
Chapter 67: Chapter 67
Chapter Text
Chapter 67
Bolin took one look at the fiery landscape before them, gulped, and said, "Uhh, I'd like to change my mind."
"I think it's a bit too late for that," Asami murmured, taking a tentative step forward.
Ronen followed close behind, taking in everything around him. He had read extensively about the spirits and their domains – what was known of them anyways – but seeing them in person was extraordinary. He was blown away by the grandeur in something so seemingly simple, and especially their current location.
"The Battlefield of Hearts," he whispered, in awe.
The vast expanse before them was surrounded by towering plumes of bright, orange flames. There was a trail of black soil weaving in between, which led to a glossy fortress that Ronen could vaguely see in the distance.
"Let me guess," Mako said with a hint of irritation, "Yangra is the spirit of anger."
"What would make you think that?" Bolin said sarcastically. "The big scary flames, or the mean looking people inside of them?"
"What people?" Korra demanded, whirling to face the nearest tower of flame.
Ronen, Asami, and Mako all turned to scrutinize the same flames, and sure enough, there were flickering shadows of someone inside. However, it did not appear to be some poor souls trapped in eternal misery, but rather, images of those living in the mortal world who had allowed anger into their hearts. For example, the flame that Ronen and the others were all looking into showed two boys and an older man, and the eldest of the two boys was clearly using bloodbending to control the man. Then, the flame morphed and the two boys were older; they were Tarrlok and Amon. Korra gasped at the sight of them, and the five of them watched in silence as the images changed through different points of Tarrlok and Amon's lives. There was rage on Tarrlok's face as he lunged at Korra in his office in Republic City, and hatred burning in Amon's eyes as Ronen's mother and Korra and the rest of them exposed him in front of his following of Equalists at his final rally. Then the flame burst suddenly, causing all of them to lurch backwards from it as it expanded and then petered out into nothing just as quickly. Ronen assumed that it must have been to signify the end of Tarrlok and his brother, the fire within them gone along with their lives.
"What is this place?" Mako questioned, sounding stunned.
"Yangra's domain is the Battlefield of Hearts," Ronen explained. "These flames must hold within them the images of those souls who have allowed Yangra into their hearts. I know that the legends say she has used the spiritual flames to view those who are open to her and influences them that way. Since these flames are on the outskirts, they must be from further in the past."
The group began to follow the trail slowly, peering in at some of the other flames, seeing images of people fighting with fists and bending, seeing people screaming and spitting with rage.
As they walked, Ronen said to Korra, "Before we get to Yangra, you should probably know something –"
He was interrupted by Bolin's exclamation of "Holy smokes! Is that –?"
Mako, who was looking into the same flaming spire as his brother finished, "Is that Beifong?"
Ronen and Korra edged closer to get a better look as Asami said, "She looks so young… This must be from before you were even born, Ronen."
The woman in the flames was very young, but there was no mistaking that she was Ronen's mother. The features were not very different and the twin scars were already prominent on her cheek. The image flickered shortly after Ronen got to it, morphing into another moment in his mother's young life. She was sat upon the ground somewhere, a limp body cradled in her arms, and there was a fury burning in her eyes that Ronen wasn't sure he had ever seen before. Without even standing, she lashed out with lightning speed, her metal cable hurtling out in front of her to wrap around the throat of someone who was not clearly in view. There was no sound and the person's face could not be seen, but Ronen still winced, assuming that the force alone might have killed them.
The image morphed rapidly a few more times, showing instances that were not wholly clear to the others what was happening, mostly what they assumed was his mother at work based on her metal armor and her immediate surroundings. It felt a little like Ronen was intruding on his mother's memories, but he also had a hard time looking away, especially once familiar moments in time began to appear. Like the time when he was ten and one of his mother's enemy's held a knife to his throat. Or the time a few months after that when his mother was trapped in police headquarters, beaten and bloody and still fighting for her life as she pummeled someone that Ronen assumed to be her half-sister Shira.
His mother's life seemed to be scattered with moments of hostile rage, and when it reached the moments during Amon's reign, Ronen decided that it was probably for the best to stop watching. He didn't need to relive those darker moments through his mother's eyes, and he had seen too much already. There were questions he wanted to ask, things she probably never wanted him to know, and the Equalist takeover felt a little too fresh to reopen those wounds, even a year or so later. Not only for himself, but for Korra, who still struggled with some of her defeats at Amon's hands.
When Ronen took a step back and looked over at his friends, all but Korra noticed, and he wondered if they had been watching him half of the time. Taking the hint, Bolin nudged Korra and gently ushered her back onto the trail, while Mako led the way. Asami trailed behind to squeeze Ronen's hand briefly, and then flashed him a small smile.
None of them spoke for an awkward couple of seconds, until Bolin sought to lighten the mood by saying, "Wellll, I don't know about you guys, but that actually made me feel better. Angry people don't have to be like Amon bad, and if Yangra is like Beifong we know how to talk to her, well sort of, well Ronen will, unless Beifong's just extra nice to you cause she's your mom, but I'm sure Yangra can't be that bad, right?"
Ronen chuckled at Bolin's rambles. "You're right, Bolin. I'm sure Yangra won't be unreasonable, maybe just a little grumpy. And there's no risk of Mako getting more water thrown on him," Ronen teased.
Mako glared at Ronen and said, "Why don't you just let me handle this one? You might have all that spirit knowledge, but you're too nice and I have a feeling Yangra will respond better to someone that's a little more firm."
Ronen could admit that his stubbornness wasn't quite on par with the rest of the Beifongs, so he relented, "Okay, fair enough. Yangra's all yours. Just be careful, we don't want to end up in a battle of wills with her."
"Or a battle at all," Asami added. "I think we've all had enough of angry spirits attacking us lately."
"That's an understatement," Korra agreed.
"On the bright side," Bolin said, "Revol should be easy, right? I mean, the spirit of love will definitely want to help his mom out."
"Here's hoping anyway," Korra replied.
Mako snorted. "Yeah, for all we know he could be more like jealous love, and then he might be more stubborn than Yangra."
By that point, the group had reached the massive fortress and were stood before a set of double doors that were black and shiny and at least seven meters tall.
"Well," Mako said, "here goes nothin'." He then stepped forward and pushed on both doors, straining slightly until they gave way and swung inwards.
The doors opened on a large throne room of sorts, with a long walkway down the middle and pillars wrapped in fire. At the other end of the room was an elaborate throne upon a dais, and in the throne sat Yangra.
She was an intimidating spirit to behold, with sharp features and her lips curled into a scowl. When Ronen and the others entered, she was focused on nursing the ball of flame in her hands, the light setting aglow her sharp, orange eyes. She was clothed in dark armor that was as glossy as her fortress, and her hair was literally fiery red, curling down her back and alight with flames. At the sound of their intrusion, she crushed the flaming orb in her hands and jolted to her feet, fury on her face and her hair smoking around the edges.
Her voice thundered across the throne room as she demanded, "Who dares enter my domain without invitation?!"
Mako stepped forward, and the rest of them followed close behind. "We are not here to harm you," he called to Yangra. "We come on behalf of your mother, Qinggan. We only ask for a moment of your time."
Yangra stomped down off of the dais, storming a few steps towards them. "Who are you to speak of my mother?!"
"We are friends," Mako started to say.
Korra interjected, stepping up next to Mako to say, "I am Avatar Korra. Your mother needs you and the rest of your siblings to –"
Korra was cut off as Yangra's face screwed up with unadulterated fury at the sight of Korra and she roared, "YOU!"
The throne dias suddenly burst into flames, and then the fire came racing towards them like ocean waves. Yangra bellowed a screeching war cry and charged straight at Korra.
Mako thrust the flames nearest their group away to save them from any harm, and Korra blasted Yangra back with a strong burst of air. Korra took two steps forward, fists clenched and ready to fight, but Ronen lunged forward to grab her arm, yanking her back a step.
"Don't!" Ronen warned, as Korra shrugged him off and Yangra rose back onto her feet with a vicious growl. "Fighting her will only make her stronger!"
Korra kept going despite Ronen's warnings, but Bolin leapt in front of her, trying to distract Yangra from attacking her, and it seemed to concern Korra enough that she finally relented.
"Fine," Korra said with a huff, throwing up a barrier of earth in front of Bolin. It wouldn't hold Yangra for long, but enough for the five of them to escape. "Let's go."
Ronen wasted no time in turning on his heel and sprinting for the exit, turning his head left and right just to make sure all of his friends were right beside him. They could hear Yangra still roaring behind them, fire and destruction clattering around at their heels until they finally made it outside. They kept running through the maze of flames without pause, and only stopped for breath when they were far on the outskirts of the Battlefield of Hearts. Yangra did not seem to have pursued them, but Ronen didn't think it would be wise to linger too long.
"What on earth was that all about?" Mako panted.
"Seems like Yangra isn't fond of the Avatar," Asami surmised.
"I've never even met her!" Korra exclaimed indignantly. "What could I have done to her?"
"Her hatred of the Avatar goes back centuries," Ronen answered, gulping in huge breaths of air. "Back to the beginning, when Wan closed the spirit portals I believe. The legends aren't exact, but there's always been something about Yangra feeling shut away, and my guess is she blames you for that."
"But I just reopened them," Korra defended. "Doesn't she know that?"
Ronen shrugged. "She's the spirit of anger. I imagine she's good at holding a grudge."
"I told you to let me handle it," Mako fumed, eyes narrowed on Korra. "But you just had to intervene to tell her you're the Avatar."
Korra scoffed. "Well how was I supposed to know that she hates me? Yoji thought I was great!"
"Yoji wasn't holding a ball of flames!" Mako countered.
"Just a water balloon," Bolin murmured to Korra, who bit down on her lip to stifle a laugh. Mako shot his brother a dark look, and Bolin threw his hands up in mock surrender. "Just saying! I bet you probably could have talked some sense into Yangra though. Too bad she hates us now by extension."
"Well thenhow are we supposed to convince her to come with us now?" Asami asked.
As the group pondered their conundrum for a brief moment, Ronen noticed a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to get a better look at what it was. At the edge of the battlefield where they stood, the towering flames were shorter and less prominent, or entirely nonexistent. Not far across the dark, ashy soil, Ronen could make out the beginnings of a lush and enticing forest. Through an open archway of spiraling tree branches, another building that appeared to be the polar opposite of Yangra's domain was visible. It was smaller and more quaint; it looked homey even from a short distance, with leafy vines spiraling along the outside of the white cottage. On one side of the house was an impressive rose garden, and tending to the roses was a male spirit that was currently shirtless and whistling softly.
The rest of the group had noticed the spirit and his home as well, and Asami began to ask, "Is that…?"
"Revol?" Bolin finished with some excitement.
Mako muttered, "Is it creeping anyone else out that the Spirit World keeps listening to our conversations?"
Bolin shrugged. "Hey, whatever works. I bet Revol can help us with Yangra."
With that, he began marching forward, Korra trailing behind a little more hesitantly. Mako sighed and followed after, along with Ronen and Asami.
The group of five strode into the forest and right up to the rose garden, and when Revol spotted them he smiled. Before any of them could so much as introduce themselves, Revol was hastening towards them and saying, "Hello there! Welcome, welcome. Please, have a seat, make yourselves at home, I'll get you some drinks…" He began ushering them over to a veranda and, bewildered, the five of them did as requested and took seats around a circular table with a red velvet tablecloth.
Revol rushed inside the cottage and was back a second later, toting a tray of fizzy drinks and bright colored fruits. He laid the spread out on the table and divvied up the drinks. As he slowed his movements they were finally able to get a good look at him, and it seemed to entrance all of them. Revol was remarkably attractive, with long black hair half pulled into a top-knot, warm hazel eyes, and a chiseled chest and jaw. He had a dazzling smile and a charming voice, and he spoke to them as if they were old friends.
Ronen, like the others, could not respond at first, even once the initial surprise wore off. His tongue felt glued to his mouth and he could not tear his gaze from Revol's. Like his siblings, Revol elicited emotions that drew in anyone around them, but it was not powerful enough to control anyone unless they allowed it to.
Mako was the first to break himself from the spell and said, "Okay, uh, thanks for the red-carpet treatment and all, Revol… you are Revol, right? But…haven't we got a job to do here, guys?"
Revol sighed as if in disappointment. "I thought it might be you that would break the mood. Drink, eat, loosen up! You're in Revol's domain now."
The sound of Mako's voice seemed to snap the others out of the same daze, and Ronen finally managed to say "Revol, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Oh, the pleasure's all mine," Revol said in a sultry tone, gracefully sliding into the only chair left at the table, between Korra and Mako. "It's so good to have such beautiful guests." He looked pointedly over at Mako and winked.
Mako pursed his lips and folded his arms across his chest. "We're here on business."
"So you said. As long as it's business and pleasure," Revol teased. "I'm always happy to lend my services in the name of love. What is it you fine young people are seeking? I sense most of you do not need my help, except…" He turned to Mako again, and Korra looked over at Ronen with a raised eyebrow. Ronen could only shrug.
"It's about your family actually," Mako corrected Revol, sounding annoyed.
"Your mother in particular," Ronen added.
"Oh, now there's a saint," Revol said with fond remembrance. "The most unselfish compassion I've seen in anyone. I really must remember to visit her soon."
"How about as soon as possible?" Mako suggested. "Like now."
"All in due time," Revol replied, interlacing his fingers and then resting his chin on the bridge they created as he focused on Mako, his eyes sparkling like diamonds. "First, tell me something about yourself. Is the scowl permanent?"
Mako rolled his eyes. "Now isn't the time."
"But there will be a time?" Revol asked eagerly.
"No," Mako snapped. "Your mother needs your help."
"My mother?" Revol echoed, dropping the flirty smile at the apparent urgency in Mako's tone. "Is she unwell?"
"Something like that," Mako confirmed. "She doesn't really know who she is."
"She knows she's Qinggan," Ronen corrected, "and that she's your mother, but she's having trouble retaining new memories. She can only interact with others by feeding off of their emotions. Alone she is empty."
Revol clucked his tongue. "Well, that just won't do."
Mako continued, "We were thinking that getting you and your siblings back together would help her out."
"All of us?" Revol asked, sounding disbelieving. "You're certain that's the only way?"
"We're not a hundred percent sure," Bolin confessed. "We're kind of just assuming."
"Her strongest memories," Asami clarified, "are from when all of you were still together. I'm sure that recreating that will only be helpful for her."
"Or will it only last so long as we are together?" Revol mused. "Will she not just go back to the way that she was when we once again go our separate ways?"
"That is a risk, yes," Korra admitted, "but isn't it worth trying anyways? If this works then she'll be good as new. If not, then she'll at least be able to see all of her children once again."
Revol considered, and then asked, "And what makes youfive so sure that you can convince all of my siblings? This definitely won't work without all eight, correct? I myself cannot remember the last time I have seen some of them."
"We're not afraid of a challenge, Mr. Revol, Sir," Bolin boasted. "Yoji and Dasne are already on their way to Qinggan as we speak, but, um, we may need your help with Yangra. We just came from there and, uh, it didn't go well."
Revol chuckled. "My dear sister Yangra can be a bit… stubborn, at times. What is it you said to her that set her off?"
"Er, well," Korra began hesitantly, "apparently she's not too fond of the Avatar and, uh, I'm the Avatar, so…"
Revol only grinned wider. "Oh she must have been raving. It's no wonder you came up empty handed. Otherwise," he wiggled his eyebrows at Mako, "she might have found a kindred spirit in you." Mako rolled his eyes, but Revol persisted, "You know, I aman excellent masseuse, I could really ease some of the tension in those shoulders –"
Mako jolted up from his seat and muttered, "I'm good, thanks. Can we just get this over with?"
Revol turned to Korra and asked, "Is he always this boring?"
"Always," Korra answered with a smirk.
"Well, Avatar," Revol said, "worry not. I will set things right with my sister for you."
"So you'll help us then?" Bolin sought to clarify. "And go to your mother?"
"Of course I'll help my mother!" Revol exclaimed. "What sort of heartless shrew would I be if I left her in such a state?"
"Great," Mako said curtly, "then let's get Yangra and you two can get going and we can find the last four of your siblings."
"What's your hurry?" Revol inquired, but he rose to his feet as well. "We were only just getting to know each other."
"We'd love to talk more once we're all back on Air Temple Island, where your mom is," Asami told Revol.
"I certainly look forward to it," Revol replied with a wink. "Just let me get a few things before we go…" Before anyone could ask, he had disappeared inside of the cottage, and returned a few seconds later with a shirt on. Then, he strutted into the rose garden, bent down and softly murmured something that the rest of them couldn't hear, and came back up with a sparkling golden rose in his hand. "Ready!" he declared.
The group of six spoke briefly as they strode back in the direction of the Battlefield of Hearts. Revol asked their names and about who they were. He seemed interested to know how they all met and what they were passionate about. Ronen felt like he had about a million questions of his own to ask the spirit, but their trek through the maze of flames passed by quickly.
When they entered Yangra's scorched dwelling to find her nursing another flame, she once again rose up with a fury, looking ready to smite them where they stood. This time, however, Revol stepped forward, and the raging spirit paused at the sight of her brother, eyes narrowing, but fists dropping back down to her sides.
"Be still, my sister," Revol said softly, striding quickly across the room to stand before her. "These humans are not our enemies." He held the golden rose out to her, and surprise showed on Yangra's scowling face. "Remember that the golden rose only blooms at the dawn of a new age, and that is what we are seeing now. Let go of this hatred you have for the Avatar. This new one, this Korra, has set it right by opening the spirit portals once again, and ushering in a new era that I believe will only bring good things for us. They have come now to ask for our help, for our mother. She is unwell without us and we must go to her."
Yangra turned her head to snarl at Korra and the others, but she did not attack. Instead, she reached out to take the rose her brother had brought for her and held it in a tight fist. "Fine," she snapped, "I will refrain from taking off the Avatar's head."
Revol chuckled and Korra snarked, "That's kind of you."
"I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Bolin insisted.
"Your mother will certainly be pleased," Asami said to Yangra and Revol.
Ronen told the spirit pair where to find their mother, and Revol said to Yangra, "I'm afraid Dasne and Yoji have already beaten us there."
Yangra rolled her eyes and groaned, muttering complaints under her breath as she stomped down off of the throne dais. She stopped before Korra, sneering down at the girl and poking a finger into her chest as she warned, "Don't get on my bad side again, Avatar." She then vanished in a puff of flames right before their eyes.
"See you on the other side," Revol said to the group, blowing them a kiss before he too disappeared in a shower of rose petals and the chirping of doves.
Korra leaned over to murmur into Bolin's ear, "I think that was for Mako."
Bolin snickered and said, "I didn't know Mako had such a thing for spirits."
Mako whirled around to face his brother and threatened, "You know I can still punch you in the face, right?"
"Only if you can catch me!" Bolin countered, just before taking off running towards the exit.
Half-laughing, half-serious, Mako raced after his brother, and Korra, Ronen, and Asami hastened to follow the pair, chuckling all the while.
Within only a few minutes of Tenzin going outside to deal with the spirits, Lin begrudgingly decided to follow. She supposed it wasn't fair to stick him with all the work, especially considering Bumi and Yunjin would likely be more of a hindrance than a help. She tried to tell Jeia to go sit with Nira and Qinggan until she could get Yoji and Dasne sorted out, but Jeia was adamantly latched to her mother's side no matter where Lin went. The spirits were making the kid uncomfortable and Lin supposed that was her fault too. She'd have to make an effort to appear a little more open without dropping her guard.
When she and Jeia reached Tenzin and the others, Tenzin was half-dragging Yoji away from one of the nearby acolytes who, according to Yoji, had a mustache that looked just like a hamster-weasel. Even then, Yoji was enthralled by everything around him and was flitting from place to place trying to take it all in. Dasne was apparently much easier because she didn't hesitate when Su offered to take her to where her mother waited. Sora stepped forward with a pretty smile and held her hand out to the depressed spirit, and Dasne examined the proffered appendage with some confusion before reaching out to accept it. Sora and Su then guided Dasne to the room they had set up for Qinggan. Yunjin and Bumi were busy watching Yoji with fascination, while Tenzin seemed torn between intrigue and a little frustration. Lin decided to follow Su for now, and come back to help Tenzin if it was taking him too long to reign in Yoji.
When Dasne entered her mother's room, with the two women and two girls trailing behind, Qinggan and Nira both looked over with interest.
There was a spark of recognition in Qinggan's eyes when she spotted her daughter, but her face didn't light up as one might have expected of someone who was seeing their child again for the first time in a while. And when Qinggan said, "Dasne…" it sounded more solemn than excited. However, Qinggan did hold her hand out, beckoning Dasne over.
"Mother," Dasne whispered sorrowfully, gliding over to drop down next to Qinggan on the bed she was sat on, "I am so sorry." The two spirits immediately embraced in a sad reunion that made Lin cringe a little. She hoped whatever Ronen had planned was actually going to work because so far she wasn't convinced it was going well.
But Sora was there, and Sora was an optimist, and she wasted no time in going to join the two spirits in an effort to cheer them both up. She was jaunty as she sat next to them, and the intensity of her emotions was strong enough to make Qinggan smile just a little. Soon Sora was chattering on, engaging Dasne and Qinggan in conversation, asking questions, telling her own stories. It didn't wholly lighten the mood, not with Dasne radiating grief, but it was a distraction that kept Dasne from sinking too far into her emotion and Qinggan from being dragged down with her.
Of course, when Yoji finally arrived, he burst onto the scene with an abundance of joy, heightening Qinggan's delight and making the room feel suddenly too full. All things considered, there were quite a lot of them once Tenzin, Bumi, and Yunjin caught up with Yoji, each of them breathless and disheveled. The change in Qinggan was not lost on Dasne, who shrunk back from her brother's opposing state of being, and who would have run if it were not for Sora. Lin had been watching Dasne while the others were naturally entranced by Yoji's antics, but apparently so had Sora, who reacted in a way Lin would never have thought to when Dasne tried to bolt.
Sora seemed to make friends with Dasne in an instant, gently drawing the spirit back to her seat and whispering calming words that Lin could not hear. It was enough to calm Dasne's frantic state, and when a few tears streaked down the spirit's face, Sora calmly swiped them away. Soon Sora was braiding Dasne's hair and the two of them were having their own separate conversation that no one else was privy to. Lin felt pride watching her eldest daughter maintain such a level head in a situation that was so clearly out of the ordinary. She supposed it had something to do with Sora's natural connection to spirits, or perhaps the girl was simply that good at comfort. Lin imagined it was a bit of both.
On the other hand, Jeia was completely discomfited by the spirits and would not be let down and Lin's arms were growing tired. Her ears were also growing tired of Yoji and Bumi and a now animated Qinggan. Yunjin had run off at some point, and Lin wasn't sure if even he had had enough or if she should be concerned about what he was up to.
Tenzin, Nira, and Su seemed content to observe the spirits' interactions, though Lin had a feeling that Su would get bored soon. Tenzin, however, was very much enthralled, and Lin was fully aware that she'd probably come second in his range of attention while the spirits were there, but she wasn't displeased. Even though she wasn't thrilled about the spirits invading her home, she could admit that it would likely be beneficial for Tenzin. He had been so heartbroken when he hadn't been able to get Korra into the Spirit World, that he had never been able to meditate there himself, but now he had a chance to help and interact with the spirits despite his past inabilities. Lin didn't know if Qinggan was fixable or if it was even their place to do so, but she knew what it meant to her family to try and so she would support them anyways. Tenzin had been supporting her for decades and she could never pass up an opportunity to do the same for him. It was nice to see him so lively and invested in a project. He had been going a little stir crazy after the council had dissolved, even if he never would admit to it. Of course, Lin had missed out on most of his relaxed state when he had been visiting the Air Temples with the kids, but she wouldn't miss out on anymore.
Tenzin was very clearly only half paying attention when she touched his shoulder and told him that she was going to take Jeia to the main house and start on dinner, but he did give her a beaming smile.
Jeia was much happier once they were away from the spirits. While Lin flitted around the kitchen preparing dinner, Jeia sat on the counter, her little legs swinging back and forth as she happily munched on whatever snacks Lin handed her. It wasn't enough to spoil her dinner, but enough to keep the kid from getting grumpy from hunger.
Halfway through, Su came in to help, but Lin shooed her away from the food saying, "We don't need you poisoning everyone when we haven't even got a healer in the house."
Su scoffed, looking offended. "I am not that bad of a cook!" she argued. She looked over at Jeia and asked, "I'm a good cook, aren't I, Jeia?"
Jeia wrinkled her nose, shook her head, and said, "No, Aunt Su. Mama says you burn water."
"Well your Mama is a liar," Su huffed.
Jeia shrugged, unconcerned. "She cooks better though."
Lin snorted.
"Laugh it up," Su told her sister, folding her arms across her chest. "You'll be begging for my help in a day or two with all these spirits traipsing around."
Something occurred to Lin then and she frowned, turning to face Su as she asked, "Do spirits eat?"
Su picked up a sliced carrot and popped it into her mouth before Lin could swat her hand away. It crunched loudly as she chewed on it and gave a garbled reply of, "Weren't you listening when Bumi was asking Yoji those questions?"
"No," Lin answered. "What did he say?"
Su rolled her eyes. "Y'know, for a cop you're not very observant."
"I'm observant when I need to be," Lin countered.
"Well Yoji said that spirits don't have to eat, but they can," Su explained. "And that they can drink alcohol, but he doesn't think it affects them and he's pretty sure he can change his mood to a drunken state on his own if he wants to."
Lin groaned. "We cannot let the two of them go anywhere alone."
"I hate to tell you this," Su said slowly, "but the two of them left Qinggan's room before I did. Bumi said he was going to show Yoji around." Lin's eyes went wide as panic filled her and Su laughed. "Don't worry. I think Tenzin went after them. He's as nervous and untrusting as you are."
"You think, or you know?" Lin sought to clarify, ignoring the dig at her ingrained paranoia.
"Well he didn't say where he was going," Su responded. "I just assumed that's why he left around the same time. I think if he hadn't there'd already be a rave taking place."
"True," Lin conceded, relaxing enough to go back to making dinner. "By the way, did Yunjin ever come back? I noticed he went missing at some point and I haven't seen him since."
"Pretty sure he's been on the phone with his girlfriend for the last hour," Su said with a smirk, snatching up a handful of vegetables and taking them over to share with Jeia.
"Great," Lin muttered. "I hope nobody tries to call with any important news. I really need to set a limit on those calls. I was waiting for Jinora's parents to do it for me, but of course it's gonna have to be me that's the bad guy."
Su snorted. "Yeah, good luck trying to stop a couple of teenagers from talking on the phone for too long. On the bright side you have plenty of experience playing bad cop."
"I'm just glad we live on an island and he can't get into the type of shit that you used to." Realizing that she had cursed, Lin winced and looked over her shoulder at Jeia. "Don't tell your father I said a bad word."
"Okay," Jeia agreed easily. If it had been Jin or Sora they would have tattled the second they saw Tenzin, but Jeia was an exceptionally good secret keeper.
Su said to Lin, "The imposed exile certainly works in your favor. Has he tried to sneak the girl onto the Island in the middle of the night yet?"
"Ugh, don't even joke about that," Lin begged. "He's too young for that, and besides he has to know that I'd kill him."
"That's a little harsh," Su said with a chuckle. "You can't tell me that you never snuck onto this very island to see Tenzin when you were teenagers."
"I didn't need to," Lin countered. "Mom didn't care if I came here."
"No, but I'm sure Katara wouldn't have let that fly once you were old enough to accidentally get pregnant."
"Watch it," Lin warned, glancing pointedly at Jeia, who was distractedly sifting through the vegetables for the pieces that she wanted. Then she shot her sister a glare. "Besides, there was no concern of that considering we weren't even dating back then."
"Oh come on," Su scoffed. "You were two single teenagers that clearly had a thing for each other. You can't tell me that you two didn't experiment…" Su glanced sideways at Jeia and hastily added, "er, the scientific properties of –"
Lin cut her off before she could come up with something, "I'm not discussing this with you."
Su persisted, "You're not saying that you two were celibate until your twenties, are you?"
"I said drop it," Lin snapped.
"Oh my gosh," Su said in disbelief. "You were, weren't you?"
"What's celibate mean?" Jeia asked.
"It's what you'll be for the rest of your life," Lin answered vaguely before narrowing her eyes at Su. "I'll seriously come over there and punch you in the mouth if you don't shut up."
Su just grinned. "I'm just trying to have a sisterly conversation!" she defended. "You know, like normal sisters do, without the threat of bodily harm. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes I wish I had waited a bit longer. I just didn't realize you two were so straight-laced –"
Lin picked up one of the potatoes sitting on the counter next to her and, with lightning speed, hurtled it in Su's direction. Su ducked just in time, and it banged into the wall behind her. She came back up laughing and holding her hands up in surrender.
"All right, all right!" she relented. "I'll stop."
"Mama," Jeia complained, "you said I'm not allowed to throw food."
"Well you can throw it at your Aunt Su right now," Lin told her.
Jeia smiled mischievously, looking eerily like her Grandma Toph, just before she picked up the chopped vegetables within her reach and pelted them at her Aunt Su. Suyin squealed as she dodged the harmless onslaught, and admonished Lin for teaching her kids such bad behavior. It got Su to leave the room though, vowing to get Lin and Jeia back later on.
Once Su was gone, Lin went over to high five Jeia and said, "Good job, kid." She had to clean a mess off the floor and re-chop vegetables, but she decided it was worth it.
Lin made far too much food for dinner because she wasn't sure if it would be rude not to invite the spirits or if they would want to eat even though they didn't need to. She didn't really care about whether or not she was perceived as rude, but she did want to keep the peace until the whole thing was over. She didn't need Yoji or Dasne running off before the rest of their siblings got there. Su must have told everyone that dinner was nearly ready because they all started piling into the dining room shortly before Lin finished. Tenzin came into the kitchen to see if Lin needed a hand, looking exasperated as he told her about what a handful Yoji was.
Tenzin helped Lin and Jeia carry the dishes full of food out to the dining room, and that's when Lin saw that everyone had decided to come to dinner, including the three visiting spirits and Nira. Sora was next to Dasne, still being kind to the sorrowful spirit, while Yunjin had finally gotten off of the phone with Jinora so that he could mercilessly question Yoji about pranks. Bumi had ceased talking Yoji's ear off to talk to Qinggan instead, boasting about some of his stories from the United Forces. Nira seemed content to distance herself a little bit from the spirits for the time being, sitting next to Su at the other end of the table. Tenzin sat at the head of the table on the corner by Nira, and Lin sat next to him, with Jeia on her other side, across from Nira. The chatter settled down a little as they all started filling their plates, and Lin noticed that the spirits didn't really take more than a spoonful and then left it untouched, probably just so they wouldn't look odd sitting there while everyone else ate.
"This all looks amazing," Nira said. "Thank you, Lin."
"She wouldn't let me help," Su lamented.
"You're welcome," Lin said with a pointed glance at Su. "It would look a lot less amazing if I let Su help."
"You're really gonna make me look bad in front of our guests," Su said with a shake of her head.
"I wonder if your cooking is bad enough to make a spirit sick," Lin mused, undeterred.
The kids laughed and Yoji chimed in, "I do love a good experiment!"
Jeia looked at her mother curiously and asked, "Like you and Daddy experiment?"
Lin gritted her teeth to keep from cursing Su and told Jeia quietly, "No, kid, we don't experiment."
"Experiment what?" Tenzin asked, giving Lin a confused look.
"Nothing," Lin muttered, shooting a murderous glare at Su, who had heard Jeia's question and was trying very hard to hold in her laughter and not choke on her food. Nira raised a brow, looking as if she understood more than she should, but she didn't comment.
Dasne said quietly, "I do not think I wish to be involved in such an experiment. I don't want to be ill."
"Don't worry, Dasne," Sora soothed. "We'll keep you safe from Aunt Su's terrible cooking."
"Just be glad you're here when Mom's not working," Yunjin added. "She's the only good cook around here. Sora's all right, but everything she makes is vegetarian."
"That's because we're airbenders, dummy," Sora said. "We're supposed to be. Just because you're a savage –"
"I just like the taste of meat," Yunjin countered. "So sue me."
"Killing animals is very sad," Dasne murmured, looking weepy.
Desperate to steer the conversation elsewhere, Lin abruptly questioned, "So what do you spirits normally do anyways? I figure you don't have day jobs in the Spirit World, but you must do something to keep busy."
"Oh but you see our job never ends," Yoji answered cheerfully. "Spreading joy to all corners of the universe is my number one goal and I love every minute of it. The parties, the pranks, the sheer exhilaration. Dasne's job is a bit harder, having to take care of all those poor, sad people, but once she helps them through it then they're mine to cheer up!"
Still slightly confused, Lin stammered, "So, you, uh, help people to… feel your emotions? Like therapy or something?"
Dasne looked Lin directly in the eye, her irises so dark that Lin felt as if she could be sucked in and swallowed whole. It sent a shiver down her spine, as if the room had suddenly dropped several degrees when Dasne flatly said, "I feel your grief. In your greatest moments of suffering I am there, grieving with you in tandem."
The room went still for a moment, and even though Lin figured Dasne was using the universal "you," it still felt uncomfortably like a direct message to her. Lin plainly remembered those worst moments of her life when sorrow had dug its claws in her chest, particularly after the twins had been born, and she wondered briefly if Dasne really had been there with her in some way when she had felt so alone.
Yunjin broke the tension first with, "That's… kind of creepy… No offense, Dasne."
Dasne finally wrenched her gaze from Lin's, and Lin sucked in a deep breath. Dasne looked at Yunjin and replied, "You would not say the same if you had ever been gripped with such misery. Those who know of me find it a great comfort to know that they are not alone. There are many who run from me, who misunderstand me as you do now, but there comes a time when they must let me in or be consumed."
It wasn't exactly the mood lightener Lin was going for, and when Sora asked Dasne, "Could you have been with some of us without us even knowing it?" Lin interjected again before Dasne could respond.
"You must be very busy with all those emotional people out there," Lin said. "It's a wonder you had time to come here at all."
"Time is just a construct," Yoji countered with a wave of his hand. "We have time for everyone, especially Mother. We're glad to be here."
"Well we're truly glad to have you," Tenzin said. "We'd like to help you and your family in anyway we can."
"Your hospitality has been very much appreciated," Qinggan said. She still sounded a little off and she wasn't very talkative most of the time as far as Lin could tell, but the spirit mother was at least a bit more leveled out. "It has brought me great joy to see my children, and I cannot wait for the rest to arrive. I do hope it isn't causing you too much trouble."
"Are you kidding?" Bumi said. "This is the most fun we've had around here in ages."
"Don't worry about it," Su chimed in, gesturing to Lin and Tenzin, "they've got nothing better to do."
"Apparently neither do you," Lin said sharply. "Weren't you supposed to go home?"
Tenzin cleared his throat pointedly before Su could counter. "It's no trouble at all," he insisted. "We are learning things from you that we could never have discovered without a dangerous trip to the Spirit World."
"Well I've got all kinds of things I can teach you!" Yoji exclaimed. "This island of yours is pretty amazing, but I think we can amp it up even more. It's the best place to throw a party, but some of your Acolytes are a little underwhelming. Don't worry, I'll have them smiling in no time. Making monks laugh is my favorite pastime. And of course this little one –" suddenly Yoji darted around the table to plop down in the empty spot between Jeia and Sora, grinning broadly down at Jeia, who scowled back – "is going to be my greatest challenge."
"Good luck," Yunjin snickered. "'Rai is like a brick wall when it comes to jokes."
"She doesn't like to be teased," Nira defended, giving Yunjin a look that the boy purposefully ignored.
"Oh but I bet her laugh is just adorable," Yoji gushed. "There's a secret delight just brimming under the stoic surface, isn't there, Jeia? Or do you prefer Rai? Or Jeia Rai? Sora told me it was both. You're a bit like my sister Yangra, I bet, but that's okay. I've gotten her to crack a smile a time or two. Granted, they might have been evil smiles, but I still count them as victories. We can have tons of fun, can't we?"
With an exasperated expression, Jeia looked Yoji right in the eye and deadpanned, "I'm celibate."
Tenzin, who had chosen that unfortunate moment to take a drink of his water, immediately spewed the whole mouthful across the table. Nira jolted back half in surprise and half at being sprayed in the face with water and ended up toppling back onto the floor. Su immediately began choking on her food and laughing uproariously at the same time, her face turning red and tears streaming down her cheeks. Lin simply slapped the palm of her hand against her forehead and closed her eyes, trying to even her breaths to stop herself from leaping across the table and strangling her sister.
At the other end of the table, Yunjin snorted and exclaimed, "Did she just say what I think she said?"
Sora asked with some concern, "Jeia, do you even know what celibate means?"
Lin peeked an eye open to see Jeia shrug and the kid answered, "Mama said that's what I am forever, but she only was till she was twenty."
Lin was certain she had never felt more desperate for the floor to swallow her up than she did in that moment. Simultaneously, she had never felt such a burning desire to murder her sister, which was saying something considering how angry she had been when Su had slashed her face open. Tenzin was choking now, his eyes wide as he looked between Jeia and Lin with something like horror and shock. Su had either managed to swallow or spit out the food that was choking her, but she was laughing so hard she was wheezing for breath.
Yoji cackled. "Oh this is marvelous. Kids really do say the darnedest things."
"Lin!" Tenzin admonished, finally catching his breath enough to speak. "What on earth have you been telling her?"
"Don't pin this on me! It was Su!" Lin snapped, pointing at her sister, who was still laughing like a maniac.
"Twenty, eh?" Bumi mused unhelpfully, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "I would have guessed seventeen, but I didn't account for how boring Tenzin was back when – "
"BUMI!" Tenzin shouted.
"Oh no," Sora moaned, putting her hands over her ears. "I so don't want to hear this. I just ate!"
"I don't know," Yunjin considered with a sly smile, "seeing Mom and Dad's faces turn red is almost worth it."
"I'm so glad I'm here to witness this special family moment," Yoji crooned. "Aren't you so happy that we're here for this, Dasne?"
But Dasne continued to frown and murmured to her brother, "This is just like one of your mean tricks."
Yoji was undeterred by his sister's solemnity. "I wish that I'd had a hand in this," he lamented.
Lin couldn't think of what to do to salvage her dignity, too torn between being half-stunned and half-enraged. However, what she did next probably wasn't the way to go.
Su was trying to calm herself, swiping the tears from under her eyes and taking measured, stuttering breaths. "I'm sorry," she wheezed, looking at Lin with zero remorse, "but this is one of the greatest moments of my life."
That's when Lin snapped into action, jolting to her feet, stepping halfway up onto the edge of the table, and then lunging across it at her sister. Lin saw Su's eyes widening for a split second, but then suddenly Su was obscured by Nira's form as the acolyte leapt to her feet to intercept Lin. It was too late to reel back, and Lin collided with Nira's frame, but instead of the both of them crashing to the floor in a heap, Lin felt arms tighten around her back and then the room was spinning around her in a blur. Half a second later, her feet were back on the ground and Nira stepped back to release her. Lin was surprised by the acolyte's strength for a moment, but then remembered that she had also seen Nira throw Yunjin over her shoulder a few weeks ago, so maybe not all that surprised.
"All right, enough of that," Nira said, giving Lin an exasperated look.
"Aww, but Nira," Bumi whined. "Let 'em fight. I wanna see this."
"You'll have to find your entertainment elsewhere," Nira told him, and Lin used the distraction to try darting past, but Nira was faster. "Really?" Nira huffed as she blocked Su from Lin once more. "It's no wonder your kids are so hot-headed."
"Yeah," Su chimed in, "is this really what you want to be teaching them, Lin? To resort to violence?"
"Hush, you," Nira scolded, not at all fooled by Su's mocking. "You're just as much to blame for this."
"Hey, I thought you were on my side!" Su gasped looking offended.
"Nira doesn't pick sides," Sora said.
"It's very frustrating," Yunjin added.
"Well," Nira said, clapping her hands together abruptly, "since your mom prepared such a nice meal for us, why don't you kids help me clean up?"
"Okay," Jin and Sora agreed with little fuss, and Jeia sighed heavily but stood up too.
"Yoji, Dasne, you can help too," Nira suggested, in a kind tone that also sounded stern.
"Oh absolutely," Yoji said with excitement, leaping to his feet and rapidly piling too many plates on top of each other.
Dasne rose more slowly, quietly replying, "I suppose I can… I hope I don't drop anything."
"I'll help too," Qinggan said dreamily, as if she was not wholly sure what she was doing.
"Excellent," Nira said, spinning to face Lin again and squeezing her shoulders. "Go on, relax. We'll handle everything for a bit. Take Tenzin with you."
Tenzin still look half dazed, but he jolted at the sound of his name and asked, "Hmm? What was that?"
"Come on, airhead," Lin sighed, dropping her desire to strangle Su and focusing on her husband instead. He had been dealing with Yoji for several hours and she had a feeling an hour break would do him some good, and he wouldn't take one unless forced.
Still, even as Lin was going to leave the room, she swatted at Su, who swatted back, but Nira inserted herself between them once again with a stern scowl.
"I swear," Nira muttered, as she was shoving Su in the opposite direction and waving Lin and Tenzin off, "you two are worse than the twins."
"She started it," Su said, while fighting back a smile.
Lin gave up on terrorizing her sister for the time being and led Tenzin towards their bedroom, where he then immediately asked her, "What just happened in there?"
"Su happened," Lin grumbled. "Don't worry about it. I'll talk to Jeia."
"Now that does worry me," Tenzin said seriously, and then flinched back with a grin when Lin whirled on him with a hostile glare. "We shouldn't leave them for long, you know? I trust Nira, but she can't handle all of them on her own."
Lin nodded. "I know, but we were given an opportunity. Let's not waste it."
Tenzin stepped closer, stroking her cheek and smiling fondly. "If it means I have you to myself then I certainly won't complain. Thank you, by the way. I know that you hate them being here."
Lin shrugged. "They're higher on my list of tolerable people than Su is right now. Nothing to thank me for. You're doing most of the hard work. I'll help more from now on. You're probably gonna need it if any of the rest of them are half as bad as Yoji."
"Oh gosh I hope not," Tenzin said with a shudder. "I would appreciate the help though."
"I know you would," Lin teased. "Come on, let's take a nice hot bath. No funny business though. We're on a tight schedule."
"Oh I wouldn't dream of it," Tenzin lied with a grin. And when Lin began striding away from him, towards the bathroom, he wrapped both arms around her waist from behind and began kissing her neck, laughing when she half-heartedly swatted him away.
Once they were in the tub though, they were too relaxed and tired to do much more than lean against one another, lazily exchanging kisses and slowly washing up.
Lin thought she might have dozed off for a brief moment when she was suddenly startled awake by a banging knock on the bathroom door. Before either Lin or Tenzin could react, the door was swinging inward and Su was barging inside with her hand covering her eyes.
"What the hell?" Lin protested.
"Sorry to interrupt," Su said, "but it's probably a good idea if you two finish – er – I mean hurry – I mean – look, we need you out there. Yoji thinks it's a good idea to go into the city to find some people to party with and Nira's having a hard time convincing him otherwise. Doesn't help that Bumi's egging him on. So, uh, yeah, put some clothes on."
"We'll be right there," Tenzin said, and his voice was too loud because he had sunk so far down the tub to hide himself from Su that only his face was protruding from the water.
Lin sighed and simply rose up out of the tub, assuming Su would be smart enough to keep her eyes covered. Lin strode over to her sister, dripping water all over the floor, and then spun Su around and shoved her out the door, closing it right behind her.
"Thank you!" Su shouted from the other side of the door.
"Time's up," Lin told Tenzin, tossing a towel at him as he stood.
"Well," he said, "it was nice while it lasted."
"Maybe we'll get a chance for a redo in a week or two," Lin said with a disbelieving snort as she hastily dried off.
"I'll clear my schedule," Tenzin promised, kissing her one last time before redressing in a rush.
Lin simply tied up her soaking wet hair and pulled on her clothes just as quickly, and then the two of them were racing out of the house. Apparently they were spirit handlers now, which felt a lot like babysitting to Lin, but she could concede to herself that at least it was Tenzin she was doing it with. She just hoped the next six spirits were easier.
Chapter 68: Chapter 68
Chapter Text
Chapter 68
Once Yangra and Revol had left and Mako had tired of chasing after Bolin, the group of five huddled together and Ronen remarked, "Hey, we're halfway done. Only four more spirits to go."
"With only minor setbacks so far," Asami said brightly. "We may be home in time for dinner."
"Based on the way my stomach is growling I'd say we've been in here longer than we think," Bolin said with a pout as he rubbed his belly.
"And time moves differently here," Mako reasoned. "So it'll probably be dinner time on another day by the time we get back."
Ronen was impressed. "How'd you figure that out?"
Mako shrugged. "Wasn't it obvious?"
"Okay show off," Korra snorted. "Since you're so smart, who have we got left?"
"Hey, I'm no good with remembering names," Mako grumbled. "It's what, fear and bravery and…something?"
"Fear and courage, yes," Ronen confirmed. "Daifra and Coragus are their names. Then there's Epathi and her opposite, but…that's where things get a little tricky. The legends aren't clear on him. There are a lot of varying theories, but nothing's been confirmed. One thing for certain is that he's estranged from the rest of the family and probably even less pleasant than Yangra."
"Oh great," Mako muttered. "So how are we even supposed to find this guy then?"
"We find Epathi first," Korra said with a shrug.
"Sounds like it's gonna take a little while longer for us to finish up then," Asami noted. "Epathi and her opposite may be a bit of a challenge."
"Why don't we take a break before we start back up again?" Korra suggested, smiling sympathetically at Bolin and squeezing his shoulder. "We brought some snacks, right?"
"We sure did," Ronen confirmed, tugging the pack off of his back.
"Awesome!" Bolin exclaimed. "I'm starved."
"Could we go back to Revol's and sit?" Asami asked.
"I don't see why not," Ronen answered. "Although I have a feeling he'll be jealous if he finds out we had a group lunch without him."
"At least I won't have to fend off his weird flirting," Mako muttered as the five of them started the short trek across the fiery landscape towards Revol's more humble abode.
"You don't have to pretend with us, Mako," Asami teased. "We know you were flattered."
Mako scoffed. "You guys are nuts."
"Can spirits even have romantic relationships with humans?" Korra inquired.
"I'm sure it's possible," Ronen answered with a shrug. "In fact, it's been said that Revol takes lovers both human and spirit alike, so I'd say the odds are good."
"I wonder what it would be like to be with a spirit," Bolin mused.
"I'm sure Revol would be happy to show you," Korra said with a chuckle.
Bolin's whole face turned red, but he laughed along with Korra before looping his arm through hers and begging, "Please don't tell him I'm interested."
Korra grinned mischievously. "But I wouldn't want to deny you such a once in a lifetime opportunity." She then went on to mercilessly tease Bolin for a few minutes, but eventually took pity on him and assured him that she wouldn't say a word to Revol.
Ronen and Asami were trailing a little behind the others, and she leaned over to ask him, "What do you think about romancing spirits? I'm sure your curiosity is running wild."
"It's certainly intriguing," Ronen admitted, before giving Asami an affectionate smile, "but I'm afraid I've only got eyes for one woman and she's very much human, despite her otherworldly beauty."
Asami snorted, but she grinned, looking pleased even as she said, "That was horribly cheesy."
"I'll work on it," Ronen promised, "but I learned most of this stuff from my dad so don't hold your breath. His over the top affections are the reason I worry my mother's eyes may one day roll into the back of her head and get stuck there. Although, I could channel my inner Beifong instead and simply mutter my affections as if it pains me to do so."
Asami covered her mouth to stifle her laughter before replying, "As amazing as your mother is, I think I prefer the cutesy stuff. It's easier to mercilessly tease you that way." She gave him a wink and slipped her hand into his, squeezing briefly.
Ronen lifted her hand up to hold against his chest, caressing the soft skin with his thumb as he told her, "Oh, challenge accepted. You want cringe-worthy cuteness? I can certainly delivery."
"Oh, spirits," Asami chuckled, "what have I gotten myself into?"
"Don't worry, you'll love it," Ronen jokingly boasted. "My Aunt Kya often reminds me that I'm ridiculously adorable... Too often, actually."
"Well, she's not entirely wrong," Asami mused, "but adorable makes you sound like you're five."
"I've told her that, and you wanna know her response? She says, 'You'll always be five to me, Ro.'"
"Your family isn't too fond of you ageing," Asami noted with amusement.
"Definitely not," Ronen agreed. "My mother's probably having a psychotic break with me in here, not knowing what's going on."
"She's protective, but I think she's been coming to terms with it lately. I don't think she was too thrilled about you going out with me though."
Ronen squeezed Asami's hand in reassurance as he said, "Don't worry. She's like that with everyone I befriend, let alone date. Luckily for us, Yunjin's got a girlfriend now and that takes precedent on her panic scale."
"I'm not worried," Asami said plainly, smiling contentedly. "I'm determined to win your mom over."
Ronen grinned at the mere thought. "Oh, now that I gotta see."
He and Asami fell into a comfortable silence as they strode the rest of the way to Revol's home. Once there, the group of five crowded around the outside table again and Ronen began doling out snacks. They all ate relatively quickly, but they weren't hasty about getting up. They admired Revol's impressive rose garden, but didn't go inside the cottage without the spirit present, despite Mako's insistence that Revol probably wouldn't mind and "When are we gonna be able to check this place out again?"
Eventually, they all began wandering back out of the colorful forest, but this time, when Ronen trailed behind the group, it was Korra that strode next to him.
"I'm really glad we're doing this," she told him, and he could tell how pleased she was by the bright expression on her face. He was glad to see it after all the less than happy moments she'd had to endure of late. "It feels good to finally be of some use. I've been freaking out a little after I decided to leave the portals open, but what Revol was saying, about a new age, it stuck with me. This can't be that bad, right? I mean, we're helping a family get back together. That wouldn't have happened otherwise."
Ronen nodded in agreement and replied, "I never doubted you. You clearly made that decision for a reason, and you wouldn't have done it if you thought it might hurt people. Besides, nothing too terrible has come of it. Raiko is just being dramatic. Some things will have to shift in the city of course, and there will be some adjusting required, but people will get used to it in time."
"Yeah, but you really like spirits," Korra pointed out. "People like your mom, on the other hand…"
"My mom is also being dramatic. I'm hoping some time with Qinggan's family will calm her down, show her that not all spirits are bad."
Korra snorted her disbelief. "You left her on an island with your siblings, her sister, and a bunch of hyperactive spirits. That doesn't sound like a reasonable Lin to me."
Ronen winced. "True, but she's good at adapting so…here's hoping she doesn't have a meltdown before we get back."
"She'll be fine," Korra said with an unconcerned wave.
Ronen nodded hopefully, but before he could say anything else, Mako, who was leading the group again, suddenly whirled around to face the rest of them. It eventually caused all of them to come to a halt before him, and then he huffed, "Why are we even walking? If we just start talking about them, the spirits will come to us."
"Well that might not have happened if we were just standing in the middle of Revol's house," Korra countered, putting her hands on her hips and shaking her head. "Always in such a hurry. Anyways, I say we leave Epathi and the other for last, since it'll probably be the most challenging."
"Well then I guess we know who's next," Bolin said, before flexing his muscles and lowering his voice to something overly macho as he dramatically declared, "The courageous Coragus!"
Mako rolled his eyes, but before anyone could respond, there was a sudden loud boom from behind, and the ground shook beneath their feet. Ronen could feel the rumble of the earth vibrating up through his legs as he whirled around to find out what was happening. Dust was swirling around them in a whirlwind, so that they could see nothing but each other and the spirit that had appeared behind them.
A male humanoid spirit had landed on one knee, one fist in the ground in a heroic pose. He was muscular and broad, shrouded in impressive, shining armor. He had short cropped hair, a strong jaw, and a chiseled chin. As he rose to greet them, he smiled broadly, fists braced against his hips.
Then, in a voice remarkably reminiscent of Bolin's impression, he said, "Now that is impressive! Not only to make a spur-of-the-moment impression of someone you've never met, but to meet the voice spot-on!" The spirit stepped forward and clapped Bolin on the back, his heavy hand causing Bolin to lurch forward and nearly fall flat on his face.
As the dust cleared, Ronen noted that they were now located within a craggy canyon replete with glowing mushrooms of various sizes, but otherwise seemingly deserted. "Are you Coragus?" Ronen asked the spirit.
"I am indeed!" Coragus confirmed. "And who might you young people be?"
Korra answered, "I'm Avatar Korra, and these are my friends –" she pointed to each of them in turn, "Ronen, Bolin, Asami, and Mako."
"It is an honor to meet you, Avatar," Coragus proclaimed. "What are you and your friends doing here in the Spirit World?"
Asami took the lead that time, giving Coragus the rundown on his mother and their plan for how to make her better.
Coragus listened intently, and after Asami had finished, he nodded firmly and replied, "I will gladly go to my mother's rescue, just as soon as I complete my quest to find Daifra."
"Why are you searching for Daifra?" Korra asked.
"Come," Coragus beckoned with a wave of his hand. "I will explain as we go. I was just in the middle of my search…" Coragus took off and, with a shrug, Ronen and the others followed after. Coragus led them deeper into the canyon, and as they traversed the rocky landscape, he continued, "I'm afraid that, in my younger years, I thought it wise to teach my sister Daifra courage. She was always so timid and fearful of such harmless things, so I wanted to show her that not all creatures are monsters. I woke her one morning while holding a marvelous but wicked looking snake that, despite being quite docile, was also rather alarming to behold. Daifra was petrified, and immediately fled. She has been running from me ever since. I have made it my ultimate mission to find her and apologize. I have learned over the centuries that not everyone can attain courage. It is simply not in Daifra's nature."
"I'm sure that once you explain it to her she'll be understanding," Asami said.
"I do hope so," Coragus replied. "Yangra would never let me hear the end of it if Daifra were to be hurt in the midst of all this. It's difficult to protect her when she's always running in the opposite direction. She's quite good at sensing danger in time to avoid it, but that will only work for so long. In the end, we must always face that which threatens us."
It was about that time that a shrill shriek echoed through the canyon, followed by a deafening roar, and Coragus grinned as he excitedly exclaimed, "Here we go!"
He took off sprinting down the ravine, expertly bounding over short ridges and climbing rapidly across the gaps. Ronen and the others hastened to follow, treading a little more carefully but no less swift. When the five of them landed next to Coragus on a wide ledge, they were able to spot the cause of all the ruckus in the distance. Down in the valley of the canyon, a humanoid spirit was cowering in a tiny crevice, while a huge wolf-type spirit gnashed its teeth and scraped its claws just outside of it, trying to dig its way into the small space as the humanoid spirit screamed in terror.
"That's Daifra," Coragus announced to the others, "and that foul beast is the mighty Fenrir." He tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck and then his knuckles, and then rolling his shoulders. He turned his gaze to Korra standing just beside him and said, "Avatar, why don't you and your friends demonstrate your valor by distracting Fenrir while I rescue Daifra?"
"We're on it," Korra agreed, punching her right fist into her left palm.
"Strength be with you!" Coragus told them, just before leaping right off of the ledge. He went hurtling a great distance through the air, and landed on the ground far below. Within a second of striking the ground, he was already sprinting in the direction of Fenrir and Daifra.
"Well, I'm gonna not do that," Asami muttered, peering over the edge to further examine their distance from the ground.
Ronen was already pulling something from his backpack as Korra was saying, "If we're the distraction we'd better get down there."
Mako said, "Uh, I don't know if I can make that jump."
"Don't worry, bro!" Bolin exclaimed. "I've got you!"
Mako started to back away as he protested, "No, Bolin, wait –"
But Bolin ignored Mako's refusal as he closed the distance between them, hefted Mako over his shoulder, and then went sliding down the rocky embankment at break neck speed.
"You need a lift?" Korra asked Ronen and Asami.
Ronen shook his head. "Nah, I've got it. We'll meet you down there."
Korra smirked, face lit up with excitement and fierce with determination as she saluted them and then stepped backwards off of the ledge. She used her airbending to control her descent, while Ronen quickly donned the mechanism he'd been waiting for just the right occasion to use. It was the birthday gift Asami and his friends had made for him the previous year – a pair of retractable grappling hooks similar to his mother's metal cables, but functional for a nonbender like himself.
Asami gave him a skeptical look as she asked, "Are you sure about this? It might have been safer to let Bolin carry us on his back."
"Hey, you're the one that built this thing," Ronen pointed out.
"And what do I know about climbing down mountains?" Asami countered.
Ronen rolled his eyes with a grin. "It'll be fine. I've tested it a hundred times by now."
"You'd better be right about this," Asami warned.
"I'm always right," Ronen teased, in what he believed was a rather good impression of his mother. He double-checked that the straps were secure and everything was where it was supposed to be – the last thing he needed was to rip his arm off…or plummet to his death. Once he was certain, he held out his hand to Asami, and she muttered either a curse or a prayer under her breath before taking it.
With Asami tucked into his side, Ronen shot one of the hooks into the ground and then stepped off of the ledge, bringing her with him. He pressed the button on his palm and extended the cable to rapidly drop them towards the ground. Once they were close, he slowed their descent, so that their soles softly touched the rocky earth as they landed. Then it was go time, and they both went sprinting to join their friends, who were already in the midst of battling the so-called Fenrir.
Up close, Fenrir was huge, and Ronen had a feeling that the beast could have swallowed a human whole with little trouble. A single swipe of his massive tail was enough to send Korra hurtling skyward, but luckily she managed to cushion her fall at the last second. The rest of them, meanwhile, were focused on avoiding Fenrir's gnashing teeth as he lunged at each of them in turn. Mako's fire assaults seemed to be the most effective at herding the beast backwards, while Bolin's earth attacks mostly just bounced off. Ronen and Asami didn't have much in the way of useful weapons, and hand to hand combat was certainly out of the question, so their duty was mainly to just distract Fenrir when one of their friends was in a precarious position. Spirit creatures were particularly difficult to subdue, and Ronen had a feeling they wouldn't manage it without some help from Coragus, who seemed to be taking his time with reuniting with his sister.
Ronen and the others all called out for the brave spirit several times, but when their shouts went unheeded, Ronen diverted from his current path to run over to where Coragus was kneeling before a still cowering Daifra.
As Ronen was sliding to a stop before the pair, breathless and slightly frantic, he heard Coragus telling Daifra, "I do not want you to worry any longer. I can see now that my ways are not entirely compatible with yours, and I will not push you again. It takes great courage to face your fears, but it also takes courage to admit when you are wrong. I am sorry for what I did to you."
Daifra quivered, sounding paranoid as she asked, "How can I believe you won't try to trick me again?"
"I give you my word that I won't," Coragus promised. "It's imperative that you stay safe, so I will not risk it. Now, we must return to mother."
"Mother?" Daifra fretted. "Why do we have to –"
"Sorry to interrupt!" Ronen cut in, raising his hands in a placating gesture when Daifra jumped in alarm. "Sorry, but we're really gettin' our assess kicked out there."
As if to emphasize Ronen's point, Korra and Mako both shouted from across the canyon, "WE COULD USE A LITTLE HELP OVER HERE!"
Fenrir let out a frightful growl that echoed around the canyon. Daifra screeched and scrambled backwards across the ground. Coragus appeared torn between ensuring his sister didn't run off and wanting to go help the others, so Ronen stepped forward and said, "I'll stay with Daifra."
Coragus did not waste another second, striding forward and clapping a hand down on Ronen's shoulder so hard that his knees buckled. "This will just take a moment!" Coragus declared, before bounding over to where the others were being chased by Fenrir. Coragus began shouting taunts at the massive beast, hurling huge boulders at it and diverting its attention away from Ronen's friends.
As soon as Fenrir lunged torward Coragus, Korra and the others began running straight over to where Ronen and Daifra were half-hiding behind a stone pillar. As they were approaching, Ronen finally turned to address Daifra, smiling kindly and telling her, "I'm Ronen by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Daifra eyed him cautiously as she murmured, "Hello… Why has a human come to meet me?"
"I'm here with the Avatar," Ronen replied just as Korra was jogging up to his side. Ronen introduced her to Daifra, and Korra bowed briefly in greeting, careful not to startle Daifra in anyway. She also elbowed Bolin in the ribs when he started talking too loudly and caused Daifra to shrink away from them.
"It's okay," Korra soothed, slowly approaching Daifra and beckoning the skittish spirit to come back. "I promise none of us will hurt you. Bolin's just excited, that's all. We're new friends of your mom."
"Has something happened to her?" Daifra worried, slowly edging back towards Korra. "Is she hurt?"
"She's okay," Korra assured, "but she needs some help."
As Korra began to explain to Daifra the situation, Ronen looked across the canyon to observe Coragus as he faced off with Fenrir. The burly spirit made short work of the beast, darting back and forth to get in a few sharp blows before finishing Fenrir off. Fenrir howled, enraged and trying to shake off the damage he had taken so far, and then Coragus lunged, barreling into Fenrir's chest shoulder-first and sending the wolf-like spirit flying through the air to slam into the canyon wall behind him.
Coragus landed on his feet victorious, pounding his chest with his fist and asking Fenrir, "Would you like to go another round?!"
Clearly not enticed by the offer, Fenrir flailed farther backwards from Coragus and then, suddenly, shrank in size. The wolf-spirit let out a high-pitched yelp, and whimpered as it scrambled away, digging its way out of the canyon with haste.
Coragus laughed heartily, turning to Ronen and the others with a cocky thumbs-up.
"And you said probending was over the top," Asami said under her breath to Ronen.
"Look," Ronen defended, "I didn't realize I'd meet a spirit more amped up than Uncle Bumi after he's been drinking when I said that, okay?"
Asami just laughed and shook her head.
Staring over at Coragus with irritation, Mako muttered, "Why couldn't he have just done that in the first place?"
"Maybe he was testing us," Bolin said with a shrug.
"He just wanted to make sure Daifra didn't run away first," Asami reasoned.
Somewhat off topic, Ronen mused, "Who do you think would win in a fight? Coragus or Yangra?"
Bolin sucked in air through his teeth and exclaimed, "Ooh that's a tough one!"
Asami and Mako both looked at Ronen with furrowed brows and concerned expressions.
Mako said, "You've been spending too much time with Yunjin the last couple days."
Ronen reexamined the question he'd just asked, considered the long hours he'd spent with Yunjin and Sora during his brief recovery from frostbite, and decided that Mako was correct. Ronen nodded. "You're right, forget I asked. We'll ask Jin what he thinks when we get back."
Coragus reached the group then, grinning as he clapped his hands together and said, "Nothing like a good brawl to get the blood flowing in the morning."
As Coragus went over to Korra and Daifra, Bolin leaned in to whisper, "Do spirits even have blood? Or mornings?"
Mako huffed. "Of course they don't."
"Oh I'm sorry," Bolin said mockingly, "I didn't realize you were the spirit expert now."
"Well you'd better get used to it," Mako countered, folding his arms across his chest, and Bolin snorted.
Ronen shook his head at the brothers' antics and turned his attention to Korra, Daifra, and Coragus.
Korra was explaining where to go to find Ronen's parents and Qinggan, and Daifra was hiding a little behind Korra, as if still uncertain of the others.
When she heard about having to go to Republic City, Daifra whimpered, "But is it safe there? I don't know if we should go. It's a new place and I don't like new places. What if something goes horribly wrong? What if I get lost? What if there are terrifying creatures? What if –"
"Do not worry, Daifra," Coragus interrupted his sister. "There is nothing to fear from the mortal world, and I will protect you. No harm shall befall you on my watch. Not to mention that most of our siblings are there too."
Daifra trembled. "But what about –!" She promptly shut her mouth and looked around frantically, eyes wide, as if concerned that something sinister might overhear her. But Ronen just figured that she had startled herself when her voice echoed a little around the canyon.
"I will protect you," Coragus repeated, more sternly that time. "I swear on my honor. We will be just fine."
Daifra did not seem wholly convinced, but eventually conceded to going with her brother, shortly after Korra promised, "We'll be right behind you, just as soon as we get the last of your siblings."
"Good luck, Avatar and friends," Coragus said with a bow before taking Daifra's hand. "You'll certainly need it."
"Uh, what's that supposed to mean?" Mako demanded.
But Coragus was already focused on gently ushering Daifra away, and ignored Mako's question.
"I'm sure it's nothing," Korra told Mako with a dismissive wave of her hand. "What could be worse than nearly being burned alive by Yangra and fighting Fenrir?"
"Oh don't say that," Bolin moaned, looking worried. "Now you've jinxed us!"
Korra chuckled and rolled her eyes, still insisting, "It'll be fine. All we gotta do is go find Epathi and some mysterious, unnamed spirit. What could go wrong?"
Tenzin had spent most of his life hoping to one day experience the Spirit World and put to use all that his father had taught him. He had dedicated innumerable hours of his life to meditation and research, and yet none of his studies had ever offered him any results. At first, he had blamed youthful ignorance, thinking that he simply did not have enough knowledge yet. Then, he had assumed he was out of practice and too distracted. Between work and children and Lin he didn't have much time to devote to spiritual matters. It wasn't until his final failure with Korra that he had to accept the fact that he simply did not have the necessary abilities.
It had only been about a week since Harmonic Convergence, but Tenzin was coming to terms with the fact that his spiritual training had not been meant for him. The knowledge his father bestowed upon him was not so that Tenzin could connect with and understand the spirits and their world, but rather, so that his children and Korra could. Sora's natural abilities would have been of little use to her if she had not listened to her father's lessons since childhood, and Korra was seeking to understand the spiritual information Tenzin had more and more of late. Ronen was so intrigued by learning that he might have figured most of it out on his own, but it was Tenzin that had first introduced Ronen to the subject when he was just a boy.
So Tenzin could not meditate into the Spirit World or connect particularly well with the spirits, but he was okay with that now. Especially now that his home was being invaded by spirits. He didn't even need to go into the Spirit World to meet some of the most ancient and interesting spirits because they were coming to him. Well, to their mother, technically, but he found it rewarding enough that he was there to guide them and keep them out of trouble.
Which was turning out to be a lot more difficult than he first anticipated. Yoji was a handful on his own, but added to Yunjin and Bumi he was almost uncontrollable. Between the pranks and the insane ideas, Tenzin was having a hard time keeping up. None of his threats of grounding Yunjin and banishing Bumi were of any help, and there wasn't really anything Tenzin could threaten Yoji with. The spirit of joy had his moments of calm and was perfectly nice, but with all the excitement at his finger tips – and Yunjin and Bumi's bad influences – he was more often bordering on mania.
The acolytes were also coming to Tenzin and Nira with their complaints, either from the pranks or from Dasne's disconcerting presence. Sora was doing a good job of looking after Dasne, but sometimes the dreary spirit wandered off on her own and was giving some of the island residents the creeps. Then Sora, in turn, became very disdainful towards those few disgruntled acolytes, and that was a whole other problem to add to Tenzin's ever-growing list.
Lin was trying her best to help, but she had her own hands full with Jeia. Keeping the five year old from having a destructive tantrum was of the utmost importance, and she was quite uncomfortable with the spirits around. With Lin and Su both keeping her company though, Jeia eventually began to relax. That is, when Lin and Su weren't trying to strangle one another. Lin had calmed down after the last near brawl with Su, but the two of them were pretty adept at keeping a regular balance of getting along one second and then wanting to fight each other the next.
On the first night with Yoji and Dasne on the Island, Tenzin, Lin, and Nira decided that, since spirits didn't really need to sleep, it would probably be best that one or two of them stay awake to keep an eye on things. The last thing they needed was Yoji sneaking out and wreaking havoc on Republic City, especially with how displeased people were with spirits already. Raiko's current disdain for Lin and Korra wouldn't do them any favors if he traced it back to the Island either. Tenzin offered to take the first watch, but Nira said he couldn't do it alone and Lin was too anxious to sleep, so all three of them ended up staying awake all night. Bumi and Yunjin did try to make a break for it with Yoji, but with three people on the look out they never had a chance. Yunjin was sent back to bed and Bumi anywhere else, and Nira somehow managed to convince Yoji to wait until morning to party.
By the time the sun rose, Tenzin was exhausted, Lin was particularly irritable, and Nira had passed out on the couch in the living room. Qinggan, Yoji, and Dasne were in the main house too, because it was easier to keep track of them there, and they were apparently fond enough of Nira already to keep their voices down so as not to disturb her. Yoji kept insisting that Lin and Tenzin should sleep, but neither of them were falling for it. They had too much experience with Yunjin to believe Yoji's claims that he would "be on his best behavior."
The others all woke mostly well-rested and excited for the day, and Tenzin finally convinced Lin to go to sleep for a few hours. Su tried to say that she could keep everything in order so that Tenzin could rest too, but he didn't fall for that either. Su could be strict, but easily influenced, and she was always saying how she didn't want to stifle Yunjin's "free spirit."
Once Nira and Lin had their own naps, Tenzin finally got a couple of hours in, but he woke drenched in sweat, thinking that something had gone wrong, and couldn't get back to sleep. When he went to find the others, he was relieved to see that everything was just fine. Lin was a little grumpy, but satisfied that she'd finally managed to distract everyone from mischief. Yoji was being entertained by Yunjin and Jeia, who were chasing him around in some sort of game the three of them had apparently made up – Lin didn't understand it but she wasn't going to interrupt them to ask. Sora was back to caring for Dasne, with Su and Bumi nearby attempting to help by trying to get Dasne to laugh but failing terrifically. Nira was sitting with Qinggan a few feet away, yawning surreptitiously but managing to carry on a conversation with the slightly more enlivened spirit.
Lin was on the outskirts, keeping a sharp eye on everything, barely looking up when Tenzin sidled up next to her. They didn't speak, both too tired and rather content to let the silence linger between them. Lin eventually leaned against Tenzin's shoulder with a huff, and he brought his hand up behind her back to trail his fingers through her hair and lightly massage her scalp.
They didn't get to remain that way for very long. Tenzin was dragged into the game once Jeia spotted him, because Tenzin had a hard time telling his youngest no, and by the time the four of them called it quits, an acolyte was rushing over to inform them that two new spirits had appeared.
The whole group of eleven wanted to go greet the pair at once, but Tenzin insisted that all but Lin stay behind, so as not to overwhelm them, and also so Tenzin could actually hear them speak without nine other people trying to talk over him. He promised to bring the two newcomers over to the rest of the group as soon as possible, and then promptly left before anyone could make any further arguments. Lin was right on his heels, looking a little more energized now that she had something to focus on aside from watching Yunjin and Yoji.
The acolyte led Lin and Tenzin to where he had left the new spirit pair to wait, and then hastily retreated as soon as Tenzin and Lin could see the spirits in the distance. Some of the acolytes took more kindly to the spirits than others. Tenzin figured that they just needed time to adjust.
"Welcome," Tenzin said when he and Lin were close to the new spirits. He looked them over, trying to determine who they were. The female on the left stood ram-rod straight, arms folded across her chest, swathed in shiny black and scowling. Her hair was a fiery orange and lit up with flames. On the right, the male spirit wore more flamboyant clothes in tones of red, his shirt unbuttoned halfway down his chest. He had a charming smile and his hair was a sleek black. "I am Tenzin, and this is my wife, Lin. Welcome to Air Temple Island."
"Revol," the male spirit replied, stepping forward to bow shortly before Lin and Tenzin. He gestured to his counterpart. "And my sister Yangra."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Tenzin said, smiling and bowing in turn. Yangra and Lin did not speak, but rather, were staring at one another with eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Your mother and two of your siblings are excited to see you. I take it our son Ronen and the Avatar explained the situation to you?"
"They did indeed," Revol confirmed. "We're happy to help our mother however we can. I hope it isn't too much trouble hosting us. Forgive my noticing, but you both look dreadfully tired."
Lin snorted and Tenzin chuckled briefly before responding, "Oh, yes, well, your brother Yoji is a bit of a handful."
"Oh don't I know it," Revol said. "It may have been more beneficial if the Avatar had first found those of us that are a bit less rowdy."
"I'm afraid our younger son Yunjin and my brother Bumi are not helping the situation," Tenzin advised. "We're used to their antics, but the three of them together has been quite the experience."
"Well worry no more," Revol declared. "Yangra and I will take it from here."
"We'll see about that," Lin murmured disbelievingly.
"You think you can handle Yoji better than us?" Yangra sneered.
"That's not what she meant," Tenzin hastily assured.
Lin unhelpfully clarified, "What I meant is I'm not sure I trust either of you yet. I don't intend to rest until I'm sure you won't burn my house down."
As if in answer to Lin's concerns, Yangra's hair ignited further, flames sparking and growing around her head. Tenzin noticed Yangra's fist clenching tight around the stem of a peculiar golden rose she held, and he might have been frightened of the scowl on her face if he hadn't seen a similar one a thousand times on his own wife's face.
Tenzin chuckled uncomfortably, placing a hand on Lin's shoulder and squeezing lightly, a silent plea for her to back down. "Please excuse our poor manners," Tenzin said before Yangra could retaliate to Lin's last comment. "We're just cautious and tired. We're very pleased to be hosting all of you, and we hope you enjoy your stay. Everyone here is willing to help with whatever you need. Why don't we show you to your family?"
"That sounds like a marvelous plan," Revol agreed, while Yangra huffed.
Tenzin hastily began to usher the spirit pair onwards, before Lin or Yangra could get into a battle of wills because he had a feeling that could go on for an eternity. When the four of them reconvened with the others, Yoji let loose an excited exclamation and dashed over to his siblings. Sora coaxed Dasne to shuffle over as well, and Qinggan drifted along with them. Lin and Tenzin stepped back to allow the spirit family their reunion, which mostly consisted of Yoji jabbering on so quickly that Tenzin could hardly keep up.
The reunion ended abruptly when Yoji suddenly started playing pranks on Yangra, who immediately became enraged and chased after her cackling brother with a vengeance.
Concerned, Tenzin asked Revol, "Er, should we do something…?"
Revol shook his head and chuckled. "Oh no. I've learned to never get in front of Yangra when she's chasing Yoji. Besides, that'll keep them both busy for a few hours. Yoji loves to torment her."
"Will she hurt him?" Sora asked, brows furrowed with worry.
"Oh don't fret, darling!" Revol hastily assured. "Yoji can handle Yangra's fury. And between you and me, I think she's got a bit of a soft spot for him. Not that she'd ever admit it."
Sora smiled, looking relieved. "So Yangra's like Mom?"
"Is your mother prone to fits of rage?" Revol asked curiously.
Tenzin wisely kept his mouth shut, but Bumi and Su both snorted and Yunjin replied, "Oh she's prone all right…"
Lin gave the three of them a scathing scowl and said, "Watch it."
"I meant the angry on the outside, soft on the inside part," Sora corrected.
"You know," Bumi said to Lin, "there was a weird resemblance between the two of you. Maybe Yangra is your real dad!"
"Mom did always say that she actually made us by herself," Su mused.
Lin rolled her eyes. "You're both idiots."
"Can we get a DNA test on a spirit?" Bumi wondered.
"That must be why Mom really went to the Spirit World after she died," Su reasoned. "She wanted to reunite with her old flame."
Su snorted at her own pun and Yunjin snickered, raising his hand for a high five with his aunt as he commended, "Nice one!"
"All right, all right," Tenzin intervened before they could go on, and before Lin's eyes could roll too far back into her head. He knew she could handle their teasing, but she was sleep deprived and her father was a sore subject as it was so he decided to err on the side of caution. "That's enough. Obviously Toph didn't reproduce with a spirit, amusing as that may be. Now, how about we get started on dinner?"
"Oh, allow me," Revol insisted. "I'd be happy to prepare a meal for you all."
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Tenzin said, at the same time Lin scoffed, "Do you even know how to cook?"
"Of course I do!" Revol answered Lin first. "And really, it would be my pleasure. I must repay you somehow. It's really no trouble. Please, be with your marvelous family, relax, and I shall… I'm sorry…" Revol suddenly trailed off, attention diverted elsewhere, and Tenzin followed the spirit's gaze to where Nira stood towards the back of the group. Revol glided over to her, picking up her hand and placing a light kiss on the back of it as he said, in what sounded like a slightly deeper voice, "My apologies, dear lady. I do believe we have not yet been introduced. You are gorgeous."
Nira was stunned for all of three seconds, and then she laughed, as if the whole thing was absurd.
Before she could catch her breath to respond, Lin had darted over and inserted herself between Nira and Revol, poking the spirit of love in the chest and growling, "Back off, pal."
Nira only laughed harder, squeezing Lin's shoulder and assuring, "It's okay, Lin. I can handle it." She looked over Lin's shoulder to the concerned spirit and added, "Uh, thanks, Revol. I'm Nira."
"I meant no offense!" Revol swore, looking horrified that Lin would even think such a thing. "I did not realize she was part of your union."
Lin and Tenzin exchanged bewildered looks. Revol noticed and tried to clarify, "Your marriage. I did not realize there was a third."
While Su and Bumi immediately broke into a fit of raucous laughter, Tenzin all but gasped in surprise, and he could feel his entire face growing red as he exclaimed, "That's not –!" and then became lost for words, uncertain of how to even properly respond to that and too stunned to do so.
Likewise, Lin spluttered, "What?! No, that's not…why would you…that's not even…oh for spirit's sake…" she threw her hands up in the air with a defeated huff. "I give up. You're on your own, Nira." She shook her head and quickly removed herself from Nira's space, striding as far across the group's circle from Revol as she could.
Nira simply looked amused as she calmly answered Revol, "No, that's not what's going on. Lin's just overprotective."
"Ohhh," Revol sighed in relief. "Is that all? Well that's much better. Jealous lovers can be such a killjoy, and I have no desire to tear apart true love in any case. But as you are unattached, might you do me the honor of telling me all about yourself?"
Nira exchanged a look with Su, both of them biting down on their lips to stifle more laughter, while Revol waited patiently with an unperturbed smile. "Maybe later," Nira deflected.
"Ah, so there is hope for the future," Revol said good-naturedly. "I'll take it." Looking satisfied, he gave Nira a wink and then spun around to face his family again. "Let's get started on dinner, shall we? Dasne, Mother, will you join me? I want to get caught up on all that I've missed."
"Of course," Qinggan agreed with a soft smile.
Dasne nodded solemnly, reluctantly following her mother and Revol and pulling Sora along with her.
As Sora led the trio of spirits to the main house, Tenzin went over to Nira to ask, "Would you like me to say something to Revol about leaving you alone?"
Nira shook her head and chuckled. "No, that's okay. He seems harmless, and I guess it's oddly flattering to be hit on by an ancient spirit. But thank you, Tenzin."
"Just be careful, darling," Su advised. "He is a billion years older than you."
Lin snorted. "And you have so much experience dealing with ancient, flirtatious spirits."
"Men are all the same," Su said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Spirit or mortal."
"How does sex with a spirit even work?" Bumi inquired, eliciting several annoyed or disgusted noises from the rest of the group. "Can it work?"
"Bumi!" Tenzin admonished, unsurprised by his brother's lack of a filter, but still justifiably appalled. "Really!"
"I'm just asking!" Bumi defended. "It's a scientific question!"
"I'm sure Revol would be happy to show you," Nira deadpanned.
Bumi sighed with regret. "If only he were my type."
"You have a type?" Lin asked in disbelief. "Other than whoever's willing, I mean?"
"Okayyyyy," Yunjin interjected, covering his ears with his hands as he shimmied out of the circle. "This just keeps getting weirder. I can't believe you freaks raised me."
Tenzin had no way to defend against his son's accusation and he didn't try. He merely patted Yunjin on the shoulder as he passed by and murmured, "Sorry, son. If it makes you feel any better I can't believe I'm related to them either."
Yunjin commiserated with a shake of his head, and then reached out his hand to his little sister and said, "Come on, Rai. Let's go anywhere other than here."
As soon as Jeia and Yunjin were out of ear shot, Bumi scoffed at Tenzin's previous comment. "Oh please," he said, "you're the biggest freak of us all. Lin told me about that time you two – OW! DAMMIT, LIN!"
Bumi began hopping on one foot, the other having been stomped on by Lin before he could finish his sentence, but Tenzin was still mortified.
"What did you tell him?!" Tenzin demanded.
"Nothing!" Lin exclaimed. "He's an idiot, don't listen to him."
"Oh I've got to hear this," Su encouraged, jostling Bumi's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll protect you from Lin."
"I will hurtle both of you into the ocean," Lin warned. "Don't think that I won't."
"She won't," Su dismissed, unfazed. "Spill it, Bumi."
"Please don't," Nira interrupted. "I'd like to be able to continue to look Tenzin in the eye."
Tenzin could feel himself getting worked up, the tips of his ears burning and a tension in his chest, and he was struggling to find words. Eventually though, he whirled on his wife and rebuked, "I told you to stop talking to my siblings about – !" He gesticulated, waving both his arms between his body and Lin's.
"I didn't!" Lin insisted.
"Drunk Lin tells a different story," Bumi muttered, hopping hastily out of reach of Lin's foot.
Lin gave Bumi a scathing look, and Tenzin huffed, spinning on his heel and storming off.
He could hear Lin chasing after him calling, "Come on, Tenz! Who you gonna believe? I didn't tell him hardly anything! I didn't even tell him; he guessed! Mostly…"
Tenzin kept going, not turning to acknowledge her yet. He wasn't really all that mad, but he was at least going to make her work for forgiveness. He could resist her pleading for a little while, make her sweat, make her think twice before she let loose anymore details of their sex life to his siblings.
Tenzin almost scoffed at his own thoughts. Who was he kidding? He'd last all of five minutes maybe before he gave in. By the time she caught up to him and slipped her hand into his, he was already sighing away his frustration. He squeezed her hand as he looked down at her and complained, "You drive me insane. You know that, right?"
Lin smirked. "Yeah, I know. But you love it."
"I love you," Tenzin corrected. "Your occasional lack of discretion leaves something to be desired."
"Believe me," Lin muttered, "I don't like what drunk Lin reveals anymore than you do, but you know how Bumi is. He's always bragging about something, and sometimes my competitive nature kicks in and I feel the need to one-up him."
"I often feel that too," Tenzin commiserated, "but I ignore that urge."
"Yes, well, we both know you're better than me."
"And yet it's taken you this long to acknowledge it," Tenzin teased, chuckling when Lin elbowed him in the ribs.
"Have you forgiven me then?" she asked.
"Not quite," he hedged, "but I'll consider it."
"Could I persuade you to consider a little faster?" Lin inquired, while purposefully toying with the belt at his waist.
Tenzin swatted her hand away, trying to give her an annoyed look but not fully succeeding. "Maybe later," he conceded. "Right now I think we'd better make sure the spirit of love doesn't set fire to our kitchen."
Lin groaned. "You had to remind me. But you're right. I don't buy it that he knows how to cook."
As it turned out, Revol did know how to cook, but he did not know how to use a modern day kitchen, and was in the process of receiving a lesson from Sora when Lin and Tenzin arrived. Dasne and Qinggan watched curiously from the sidelines, with Dasne bemoaning the uncertainty of it all. Feeding off of her children's energies, Qinggan alternated between intrigue and distress. Once Revol was certain that he had mastered the kitchen, he began ushering everyone out, insisting that he had everything under control and that they should all relax. Sora relented quickly, and then took Dasne and Qinggan to find Yunjin in the hopes that his lively energy would cheer them up – or Qinggan at least. Lin and Tenzin, meanwhile, were not convinced by Revol's claims. At first, they took turns barging into the kitchen to ensure that the spirit hadn't caused any damage, but after the third time of Lin screaming at Revol to put a shirt on – because apparently he worked better when he was free from such restraints – Tenzin decided it would be best to find some entertainment for his wife elsewhere to take her mind off of it.
They found Nira sleepily playing a card game with Jeia, and decided to join. But Lin quickly surmised that Jeia was cheating with her eidetic memory, and then proceeded to argue with the five year old about it until Revol came around to tell everyone that dinner was ready.
Everyone was a bit wary about how the food had turned out, but after a few cautious bites decided that it was safe to eat and not half bad. Lin was less confrontational about it now that Revol had finally put his shirt back on, but she grew more annoyed the longer Revol spent flirting with Nira.
Once dinner was over though, Revol finally relented – for the time being anyways – and focused instead on his family. Yangra and Yoji returned, Yoji looking pleased and Yangra still plainly peeved. The latter kept a wide berth from her exuberant brother, drifting over to Revol instead and muttering darkly.
The entire odd group of them sat around for a little while and chatted – the five spirits, Lin, Tenzin, Bumi, Nira, Su, and the kids. Tenzin asked Revol how Ronen and Korra and the others seemed when he met them in the Spirit World, and Revol assured him and Lin that the Avatar and her friends were just fine, even after Yangra had tried to set them on fire. Of course, that information set Lin off, and she just about tried to rip Yangra's head off, which in turn enraged Yangra, and it took quite a lot of effort from the rest of the group to get the two of them to simmer down.
With the brawl just barely averted, Jeia, sensing her mother's unabated discontent, did the one thing that always proved to calm Lin down. The girl simply crawled up onto her mother's lap and laid against Lin's chest until it finally stopped heaving. Once she was able to unclench her fists, Lin finally relaxed her shoulders and wrapped her arms around Jeia, letting her anger abate as she closed her eyes and drew comfort from the embrace.
Tenzin watched from across the room, expelling a breath of relief when he was certain that Lin had grounded herself once more. There were times when she was prone to go off the rails, and as confident as he was in his ability to reason with his wife, he also really did worry sometimes.
Revol managed to reign Yangra in himself, and the spirit calmed a lot faster than Lin, apparently more impressed by Lin's outburst than bothered. Tenzin had gone over to apologize to the spirits and explain his wife's concern for their eldest son, worried that Lin's threats would drive the spirits off, but it turned out that his apprehensions were unwarranted. Revol was more than understanding and Yangra was dismissive, as if she had faced much worse in her long lifetime and was entirely unfazed, which was probably true.
Dasne, however, had burst into tears, and Qinggan also appeared distressed, so Revol went rushing over to soothe them, leaving Tenzin alone with Yangra for a few brief moments.
It was as Tenzin was watching Lin cuddle up with Jeia that Yangra muttered to him, "You know, I have no idea how Lin has space for both Revol and I in her heart." Tenzin turned to look at the spirit, and saw her curiously observing Lin and Jeia with a furrowed brow. "Most of the flames I nurture succumb to one or the other, but she has struck a peculiar balance." Yangra turned to look at him, eyebrows lifting as she eyed him up and down with some bafflement. "Any other man would want to stay as far away from her as possible."
"Perhaps," Tenzin acknowledged, "but I count myself lucky everyday that I get to be with her. I love every bit of her, even the confrontational parts. And besides," he added, in an effort to lighten the mood, "her penchant for scaring off men only means less competition for me."
Yangra merely harrumphed in response, but Yoji suddenly appeared out of nowhere, popping up behind Tenzin with a loud exclamation of glee that caused the fine hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. His whole body jolted in surprise, tensing as Yoji shouted directly into his ear, "Congratulations, Tenzin! You made a joke!" The delighted spirit gripped Tenzin's shoulders and began shaking him excitedly. "I knew you had it in ya! That was a good one, pal! Wasn't it, Sis?"
Yangra rolled her eyes and stalked off without responding, while Yoji continued to jostle Tenzin for an unnecessary amount of time. But Tenzin had raised Yunjin, so he took the mild discomfort without complaint and a deadpan expression on his face.
Eventually, Yoji moved on, and Tenzin went to sit with Jeia and Lin, who muttered a curt apology that he could barely hear. Smiling, Tenzin kissed the side of Lin's head, and then kissed her again when she gave him a bewildered look. She rolled her eyes, but in that way she did when she found him endearing but wouldn't say so, and when he put his arm around her shoulders she leaned into his side without objection.
They didn't stay seated there for long, however. It was clear that all the mortals in the room were getting tired, and even some of the spirits were finally winding down some. Once Revol had calmed Dasne and his mother, he insisted that they all go to bed because, as he put it, "You all look dreadful. They don't call it beauty rest for nothing."
Revol promised Tenzin that he would handle Yoji and make sure that none of his siblings ran off or caused any problems, so that Tenzin and his family could get some rest. Lin was still slightly disbelieving, but too tired to fight sleep further. Even the kids were exhausted, and went to bed early without fuss.
Once they got Jeia and the twins settled, Tenzin and Lin went to their own room, and Tenzin watched Lin flop face first into the middle of their bed and move no more. He chuckled and leaned down to gently shove her across the mattress until there was room for him to curl up next to her. She shifted just enough to sprawl half across his chest, and with his lips pressed to her forehead and his arms wrapped around her back, he fell right to sleep in the span of a few short minutes.
Chapter 69: Chapter 69
Chapter Text
Chapter 69
Suyin had spent the first two decades of her life searching for her purpose in life, for a happiness and security that she just could not seem to grasp. Looking back, she could concede that she might have been a little more grateful, might have given her sister less of a hard time and enjoyed what little time she had with her mother. But when it was all occurring, all that she could see was neglect from her busy mother and a stranglehold on her free will by her sister. Then there had been the desperation that had led her to befriend members of the Terra Triad, culminating in the unfortunate altercation that scarred her sister's face and got Su banished to Gaoling. Despite the love she had for her grandparents, Su hadn't spent much time there before running off and missing out on their last years as well.
Nevertheless, Su never looked back upon any of her decisions with regret. All of them had led her to finding herself and finding Bataar. She had craved a family for so long, and creating a new one with Bataar had fulfilled her at last. Reconciling with her mother had improved upon that, despite how short a time it was before her mother's passing. Remaining strained from Lin was sometimes difficult to bear, even more so around the time their mother died, but Su had forgiven herself and found forgiveness from Toph, and she had learned to live without her sister in those years.
When Su had first heard that Lin had had a child of her own, it had stirred something inside of her that made her rethink that stance. She had deliberated for weeks, venting to Bataar and at a loss as to why it even mattered. It had been so long since she had been on good terms with her sister that she could hardly remember anything good about their relationship to even fight for. But there had been some. It might have been far in the past and Su did not like to linger in the past, but she also could not so easily dismiss those old memories. Su had felt like Lin was always stifling her, but as a mother Su could finally understand that Lin was likely just trying to protect her. Having children had softened and enlightened Su in so many ways, and hearing that Lin was a mother made Su believe that the same must have been true of Lin.
So Su had traveled to Republic City, several months pregnant but adamant about trying as soon as possible to reach out to her sister. She hadn't expected much, and had not been surprised when Lin refused to speak to her. But she had at least been able to reconnect with Tenzin, who had been just as much a part of her young life – how could he not be, with the way he was always trailing after Lin? Almost a year passed before Lin finally relented to a meeting, and it took a while longer for Lin to become comfortable with Su being around, but eventually everything had righted itself, just as Su knew it would.
Now, the dilemma Su faced was that she had family in two separate locations. She had her husband and her children and her people in Zaofu. But in Republic City, she had her sister and her brother-in-law and her nieces and nephews, not to mention Bumi and Kya, whom she only grew closer to with every visit. It became more and more difficult to leave Air Temple Island, especially with all of the crazy drama and deadly situations that she missed while she was gone. She wanted so badly to help, but she could not neglect her own family or her city. She knew that Lin and her family were fully capable of taking care of themselves, that they didn't need Su all the time, but it still tore at her heartstrings to say goodbye. At one time in her life, she had felt as if she had no home. Now, she had one too many.
Even so, she could feel that her time on the Island was quickly coming to an end again. She had already been away from Zaofu longer than she had originally planned, and she wanted to get back soon. As enthralling as it was to meet the spirits of emotion, Su did not wish to overstay her welcome much longer. She and Lin were sometimes better with a bit of distance between them, not quite the distance between Republic City and Zaofu, but a little more than Air Temple Island provided. It was another reason why Su often pressed Lin to consider moving her family to the slightly larger Zaofu, so that they could still be distant but together, but Su knew that the chances of getting Tenzin to agree to it were slim to none, and Lin wouldn't ask that of him.
So Su simply had to reconcile herself with the fact that she would have to get news from the other half of her family on a delay, and that she could not always be a part of every bit of their lives. She could console herself with the ability to at least be a part of almost every aspect of her children's lives. Even though they were getting older and more independent, she would continue to suffocate them just a little bit, just enough to show them how much she loved them. After all, it was what she had always wanted.
It was also clear that staying on Air Temple Island was not as beneficial as Su always assumed it would be. She was good at caring for her nieces and nephews and helping them through any problems they were having, but she was hardly allowed to do anything else that was useful. Lin barely trusted her, all because her methods were a little different, and Lin acted like Su was still a child and not a grown adult that could take care of herself. Lin would rather stay awake all night than let Su watch the spirits, or risk her own life rather than let Su help when tragedy had struck two weeks prior during Harmonic Convergence. Su was still peeved about that, but in the interest of letting go of the past, she was working to ignore her irritation.
So Su didn't get to do a whole lot while she was visiting and she was ready to go home to Zaofu. She decided to wait another day or two to see if Ronen and the others returned soon, but after that she was moving on. As enthralling as the spirits were, she didn't think it was prudent that she stayed. She enjoyed meeting Revol and teasing Lin about Yangra, and Yoji was an inspiring presence and Dasne was too sorrowful for Su not to be dragged in. But she was having more fun than she thought was necessary and she was needed in Zaofu more.
However, once Daifra and Coragus showed up on the Island, Su finally found a moment to be of some use.
Upon their arrival, Daifra and Coragus were discussing some frightful sounding beast called Fenrir, whom Coragus had apparently bested, but not until after Ronen and the others had been forced to face off with it. Lin and Tenzin had not been thrilled to hear Coragus say that Fenrir had once tried to eat Tui and La, but it had gotten Bumi excited and he had proceeded to question Coragus extensively.
With Coragus and Daifra's arrival, Revol took some time off from flirting with Nira to greet his siblings. When he wasn't babysitting Yoji, Revol was often serenading Nira, and if anyone was searching for him that was where they first looked. Nira continued to hold the spirit at arm's length, but Su could tell that the acolyte was starting to give in a little. Not that Su could blame her. Revol was rather good looking and ridiculously charming, and there was something oddly sensual about the thought of getting it on with a spirit. Lin, of course, did not agree, and thought that Su was an idiot for thinking otherwise, and that Nira had better be careful. Su ignored Lin's pessimism and actually hoped that Nira eventually went for it. The woman had dedicated the last two decades or so to the life of an acolyte, and had been helping raise Lin and Tenzin's children for nearly as long. If anyone deserved to he cherished by a handsome spirit it was Nira. And besides, Su definitely wanted to hear about it if it happened.
When Daifra and Coragus arrived, the rest of their siblings and their mother rushed over to greet them. Daifra cowered behind Coragus, but was gently coaxed out by Revol, and then ushered into Qinggan's secure embrace. The mother spirit was still rather off balance, but she seemed to improve with each of her children that she was reunited with. It was unwise to leave her alone with just one of them, because she couldn't seem to control a singular emotion quite as well as her children could, but there were so many people following her around that it was never much of a problem.
Yoji was delighted to see Coragus, and was apparently mindful of Daifra's skittish nature because he actually refrained from trying to play any pranks on her. Instead, he was much like Bumi in his persistent questioning of Coragus's most recent adventures. Coragus's wild tales were enticing to nearly everyone, and Nira suggested they all go settle down somewhere to listen.
"Oh yes!" Yoji exclaimed. "I like that idea. That's a great idea, Nira. I knew I liked you. Not like how Revol likes you though, sorry."
Nira snorted. "That's all right."
"We can get a fire going!" Bumi suggested with equal excitement.
"I don't know," Lin and Tenzin both interjected, looking concerned.
But Bumi cut them off, "Oh relax! We'll use the fire pit. No one will blow anything up…probably. You wouldn't let us throw a party so this is the next best thing."
"Can we roast marshmallows?!" Sora asked, hopping up on her toes, her eyes alight with glee.
"We're definitely roasting marshmallows!" Bumi declared. "Su, you get the fire wood; Sora, you get the marshmallows and any other snacks you think we could use. Jeia! My commander in chief!"
The five year old clipped her heels together and saluted. "Yes, Uncle?"
"You think you can smooth out some stones for us to sit on?" Bumi asked.
Jeia nodded sharply. "Sir, yes, sir!"
"She is just precious," Revol murmured to Tenzin, who nodded fondly.
"Spirits," Bumi said to Qinggan and her children, "follow Yunjin to the fire pit. I'll get the booze… Wait…" Bumi looked around the group with a furrowed brow. "Where the heck is Yunjin?"
Everyone else started looking around, but it was clear that the boy was not among them.
"All right," Bumi continued, unfazed, "change of plans. Nira, lead the spirits. Lin, you find Yunjin."
Lin rolled her eyes. "You can't order me around," she grumbled, as if she wasn't already planning to do just that.
"Too late!" Bumi cried, already hurrying off. "Get to it, folks!"
The group scattered, some slower than others, but eventually everyone but Revol, Su, Lin, and Tenzin had gone their separate directions to do as Bumi said.
Revol said, "Well this will certainly be interesting. Coragus has a habit of embellishing his stories. I can never tell if half of it is accurate."
"Bumi is exactly the same way," Tenzin commiserated.
"Between the two of them they'll probably never shut up," Lin muttered.
"But we'll all be sufficiently entertained," Su pointed out.
Lin made a face as if to say, 'yeah right,' but she didn't argue.
Tenzin told Revol, "I want to thank you again for all your help. I know I already have, but we really do appreciate it. We couldn't have maintained this relative peace without you."
"Think nothing of it," Revol replied with a dismissive wave. "It's my pleasure, and my unruly siblings. I'm happy to help as much as I am able, so long as Lin does not threaten to bring down the Island on my head anymore. I'm beginning to think she's serious."
Su spluttered out a laugh, entirely unsurprised. She was eternally amused by the lengths that Lin was going to in order to avoid admitting that she didn't find most of the emotion spirits so offensive anymore. Lin was still keeping her guard up, still keeping the spirits in line like a drill sergeant instead of just relaxing and enjoying the weirdness, but Su could tell that she was warming to them…well, some of them.
Tenzin raised an eyebrow and looked at his wife in alarm.
Lin shrugged, looking nonplussed. "I'm not exactly comfortable with his blatant seduction of Nira with Jin and Sora on the same island, let alone in the same room. I simply told him if he doesn't keep that nonsense away from the kids that I would slam the Island down upon his pretty-boy head. It's no big deal, Tenzin. Not like he even cared."
Tenzin rubbed his temples in exasperation and sighed, "That's not the point, dear."
Lin opened her mouth to respond, and Su was anxious to hear her sister's defense, but it was at that moment that Yunjin returned, and he was not alone. He held his girlfriend Jinora by the hand, and upon catching sight of the girl, Lin's attention was immediately diverted. "Yunjin!" she barked, just as the boy was about to stroll right past them.
He came to a halt, looking over at his mother with confusion. "What?" he asked.
"What the flameo do you think you're doing?" Lin demanded.
Su noticed Revol slowly beginning to remove himself from the small group, easing his way behind Lin and Tenzin to get out of eye line and make his escape. Su considered doing the same, and really probably should have, but judging by Lin's tone she had a feeling the boy might need some defense, and Su was nothing if not a loyal aunt.
Yunjin clearly did not yet understand his mother's affliction, or he was pretending not to. "Going to introduce Jinora to the spirits," he answered casually. "What are you doing?"
"I'm thinking of grounding you for the next six years," Lin snapped.
Yunjin looked appalled. "What for?!"
"You've been running around acting like a fool for the past few days and now you have the audacity to bring your friend here without permission?"
"You said she could come!" Yunjin countered. "The other day when she left, you said she could come over today."
Lin scoffed. "Yeah, before our home was invaded by spirits. What makes you think this is a good idea?"
"I'm sorry," Jinora quietly murmured, looking embarrassed. "I didn't know it was a bad time."
"You'd better call your parents," Lin told the girl. "They need to pick you back up right away."
"Ease up, Lin," Su started to say.
But then Yunjin exploded, "No way! You can't change your mind!"
"Watch it, son," Tenzin admonished. "That's your mother your speaking to."
"Her parents aren't even home," Yunjin said, calming his tone a little. "You can't send her there by herself."
"Yunjin," Tenzin sighed, "you must see why this is not a good idea. You should have checked with us first." He looked briefly at Jinora and added, "I'm sorry, Jinora. This isn't your fault, and normally we're happy to have you, but this isn't a very good time. When will your parents be getting home?"
"Not till later tonight," Jinora answered. "They're going on a date. My brother and sister are with our grandmother, but she's not able to make the trip to the docks."
"I don't see what the big deal is," Yunjin grumbled. "You know Jinora's not bad, and it's only for a few hours."
"The problem," Lin explained, "is that now there's another person here that we're responsible for and we've already got too many. And I doubt Jinora's parents will want her around these spirits. Did you even tell them what was going on here?"
"They didn't come all the way here," Yunjin defended. "They put Jinora on the boat and just waited for it to take off. They know the acolytes will look out for her on the short trip across the Bay."
"You could have told them on the phone," Tenzin countered.
"Yeah," Lin added, "don't act like you haven't been on the phone with Jinora everyday."
"Well I didn't think they would care," Yunjin persisted.
Lin and Tenzin exchanged disbelieving looks, and Tenzin proposed, "I can take Jinora to her grandmother's."
"I don't like the idea of you being gone that long," Lin complained.
"I'll do it," Su offered.
"No!" Yunjin exclaimed, before his parents could agree to it. "Please! Just let her stay for a little while. I promise I won't bring her without double-checking with you guys again. Please. I really want her to meet the spirits. I know she's gonna love it. Come on, Dad. It's a teaching moment. Maybe Jinora wants to be an Air Acolyte someday. This is real authentic stuff here."
"Do you want to be an acolyte?" Su asked Jinora.
The girl smiled nervously and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking at Yunjin with young love shining in her eyes as she admitted, "We've talked about it."
Lin made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat, rolling her eyes and muttering under her breath, "I think I'm gonna sick." Su tried really hard not to laugh. To Jin and Jinora, Lin said, "You're fourteen. Stop looking at each other like that, and stop discussing your future like you're thirty years old."
"Not everyone is a late bloomer like you, Lin," Su teased.
"Shut up, Su. I'm not a late bloomer. I was practical."
"Sure, real practical having a kid at forty-five."
"Can we get back to the topic at hand here?" Lin huffed.
"Please, Mom," Yunjin repeated. "Please just let her stay a little while."
"I promise I'll stay out of your way," Jinora added.
"Oh come on guys," Su coaxed, "just let the kids spend the day together. If they get outta line I'll take Jinora home."
Tenzin and Lin looked at one another, having another one of those silent conversations that used to frustrate Su to no end when she was a child and they were her teenage babysitters.
Finally, Lin relented, "Whatever."
And Tenzin more reasonably explained, "All right, Jinora can stay, but you'd better be on your best behavior Yunjin."
"Yes!" Yunjin exclaimed triumphantly. "Thanks, Dad! And Aunt Su. And Mom. C'mon, Jinora, I want to introduce you to Yoji…"
The boy grabbed his girlfriend's hand and they went racing off without another word.
Lin shouted after them, "One wrong move and you're grounded!" Then she grumbled to herself, "Have kids, they said. It'll be great, they said." She went hastening after Yunjin and Jinora, muttering all the while.
Tenzin and Su exchanged amused glances before following after her.
By the time they reconvened with everyone else, Bumi had already set up the fire pit with Yangra's help and a pointed dig at Su for having not brought the fire wood. Jeia had meticulously carved some benches that she wished to show off to her parents. Sora was still bouncing up and down in sheer excitement at the prospect of roasting marshmallows. Revol was seated between his mother and Nira, while Bumi and Yoji had crowded next to Coragus's right side and Jinora and Yunjin on his left. Interestingly, Dasne and Daifra had settled next to Yangra, who was not sitting, but standing ram-rod straight next to their bench with her arms folded across her chest like their bodyguard. Su decided to sit next to Yunjin and Jinora, in part because she wanted to hear Coragus better, and in part because she wanted to save her nephew from having his mother breathing down his neck. Lin, Tenzin, and Jeia sat across the fire from Coragus's entourage, but Su could feel Lin's eyes boring a hole into the sides of Jin and Jinora's heads.
Coragus decided to start from the beginning of his epic adventure to find his sister Daifra – after he explained to the mortals why she was fleeing from him in the first place. His stories were extensive and likely embellished, but seeing as Su knew very little of the spirit world she could not say for certain. His active tales kept them all enthralled till nightfall as he dragged several of them into acting out particular moments with him. Lin and Yangra, of course, refused to participate, as did Dasne, and Daifra spent most of the time startling at every little thing and hiding behind her siblings, particularly Yangra. Su felt badly for Daifra, for having to listen to such frightening stories when she was clearly terrified of everything.
They all had dinner around the circle too, just some skewers Tenzin had put together that they heated over the fire. When Coragus finally paused for breath several decades into the timeline – according to Su's estimations anyways – Bumi jumped in with his own far-fetched tales. By then, it turned into a contest between Bumi and Coragus for the most outrageous adventure, and a few people began breaking off from the group. Since Yoji was fully invested in the story-telling, Lin and Tenzin went together to put Jeia to bed. At some point, Su noticed that Revol, Nira, and Yangra had disappeared, but where they had each gone she had no clue. Qinggan had drifted over to Dasne and Sora, and when Su saw Daifra scurrying away, she decided to follow the anxious spirit.
She first glanced over at Yunjin and Jinora, but they both looked invested in Coragus and Bumi, so she figured it'd be fine to leave them there. Lin probably wouldn't agree, with the way she hovered over the young teens, but Su wasn't worried.
When Su found Daifra, the spirit was curled at the edge of the west cliffside, trembling as she watched the inky black waves crash against the shore. The moonlight illuminated the shimmering spirit's form, her shiny, dark hair and her quivering lip. Su approached slowly so as not to startle her too badly, and smiled kindly when Daifra eyed her uncertainly.
"Hi there," Su said as she crouched down a few feet away from Daifra. "I just wanted to see how you're doing."
Daifra shrugged, rubbing her arms as if she was cold. "I am okay, thank you."
She just looked so timid and petrified, and despite the fact that she was centuries old her face was youthful still, and Su felt compelled to stay with her, to help soothe her if she could.
Su sat down just slightly closer to Daifra, letting her legs dangle off the edge of the cliff.
Daifra gasped and urged, "Careful!"
"Don't worry," Su soothed, "I won't fall. I used to come out here a lot myself, when I was very young. It seems so long ago now that I can barely remember." She cast her gaze around their surroundings as she considered those old memories. "I use to hate it here," she confessed. "It wasn't until I was much older that I felt comfortable on this island."
"Were you fearful of the dark, foreboding forest?" Daifra inquired. "Or the tall spires of rock where all those people dwell?"
"The temples?" Su clarified. "No, that's not what I was afraid of. Mostly I was just angry that my mother wasn't here."
"Had she abandoned you?" Daifra asked curiously.
"No, nothing like that," Su said hastily. "She just worked a lot. I missed her."
Daifra fiddled nervously with her hair, eyeing Su for a long moment before dropping her gaze to the ground between them and quietly admitting, "I have known that feeling myself. I have not been able to truly be with my mother in a long time. My own fears are too strong for her to bear in her current state."
"I'm sure that she's missed you very much," Su replied. "But I noticed that you haven't spent much time with her since you've been here. Are you worried that you'll frighten her still? She's much better at handling your siblings' emotions with so many of you around. I'm sure it would be the same with you."
Daifra continued to fidget, her jerky movements becoming more pronounced as her anxiety seemed to rise. "I am worried about a great many things. This place, the state of my mother, my siblings…"
Su sensed that there was something else weighing heavily on Daifra's mind, so she waited for the spirit to continue. When Daifra began to rock back and forth without saying anything, Su carefully reached out to touch the spirit's shoulder and coaxed, "What is it Daifra? Maybe I can help put your mind at ease."
Daifra shook her head back and forth rapidly. "No, no, I don't think that you can," she murmured. "We cannot help them now."
"Can't help who?" Su asked.
Daifra went very still, slowly turning her head to face Su as she breathlessly confessed, "The Avatar and her friends. The place that they are going next…" Daifra shuddered.
"Your last two siblings, you mean?" Su questioned, her own heart rate rising as she considered what Daifra might be so concerned about. "Epathi and her opposite? Who is he? Is he the one that you're afraid of?"
Daifra looked frantically around them, as if afraid that simply talking about him would bring him to them. "I have already said too much."
"What has he done Daifra?" Su continued to ask, her own anxiety mounting. "Are we in danger? Is there something we can do to stop him?"
"Our only hope," Daifra said solemnly, "is that the Avatar can subdue him, but even Epathi has not been able to do that. And it has been some time since I've since Epathi, which is strange, because she was always able to find me before. I worry that she may have gone to him again, that she may be in danger. She does not consider fear as I do. She does not utilize it when she needs it most. If only she would consider the dangers, and flee before it is too late. But she's like the Avatar and her friends...they are so foolishly bold. They know not what they will find when they go seeking my last brother."
Su felt her blood run cold. She had thought before that Ronen and the others would be home soon, that their continued success with the rest of the spirits would continue. Now, however, she was terrified that they would not make it home at all. With dread filling her and a tremor in her voice, Su asked one last time, "Daifra, who is your brother? What will he do to my nephew and the others?"
Daifra looked sadly at Su, curling further in on herself and quaking at the mere thought before she finally whispered a name that made Su's breath catch in her throat.
Now that Lin had finally had a good night's rest and her entire being did not have to revolve around watching Yoji, or being apart from Tenzin so that he could watch Yoji, she was beginning to feel a little more at ease with the spirits invading her island. Aside from their strangeness, they did not seem particularly evil or suspect. Yoji was unpredictable and Yangra was a bitch, but neither were that different from people Lin had spent her whole life dealing with. Revol was surprisingly very helpful and Lin was grateful for that, but his penchant for strutting around without a shirt on and admiring Nira were still extremely annoying. Dasne mostly kept to herself if she wasn't being coaxed out into the open by Sora. And Qinggan, of course, was rather docile. Even Jeia was warming up to some of the spirits, but that could have been more to do with the fact that some of them doted on her, and there was little Jeia enjoyed more than someone telling her how amazing she was.
Coragus and Daifra's arrival stirred things up a bit, but so far it did not seem to be in a bad way. Lin had to admit that some of Coragus's tales were pretty impressive, even excluding the parts he had likely made up or exaggerated. Although, he did live in the Spirit World so it was possible that he was being entirely truthful. Lin had also learned recently that Bumi's tall tales were not quite as made up as she might have first thought. Seeing Bumi and Coragus side by side was fairly amusing because they were both ridiculously boastful and brave to the point of stupidity. Yoji also seemed pretty excited to see his brother Coragus, but Yoji was excited about a lot of things.
Daifra, on the other hand, was clearly uncomfortable and seemed torn about whether or not she wanted to be part of the group. She was afraid of Yoji and still not entirely trustful of Coragus despite his recent apology, and she was surrounded by strangers in a new land. It wasn't exactly the type of environment conducive to helping someone like Daifra relax, and Lin felt for the skittish spirit. She couldn't imagine being in a constant state of terror and paranoia. The rest of Daifra's siblings seemed to understand though, because they were all very careful with her, if not a little neglectful. But there was a lot going on and it was difficult to focus on any one thing. Lin herself was struggling to keep up, and she was still fairly pissed that Yunjin had brought Jinora to the Island in the midst of all of it. Her only consolation was that the pair of them were both too interested in the spirits to run off.
That's what she thought anyways. Until she returned from putting Jeia to bed to find that half the group was missing, and Yunjin and Jinora were among them.
Su was also missing, so Lin was hopeful at first that she was with the two teens, but according to Sora, Su had gone to follow Daifra earlier, and Jin and Jinora had went another direction shortly after.
"I'm gonna kill that boy," Lin growled as she and Tenzin stormed off in the direction Sora had pointed them in.
"I'm sure they're just taking a walk," Tenzin tried to soothe her. "Or perhaps they're with Revol."
"Oh please," Lin scoffed. "He's probably trying to coax Nira out of her clothes right now." She shuddered just thinking about it.
"Well maybe they're following Yangra," Tenzin persisted, desperate to come up with a reason not to worry.
"He'd better be," Lin grumbled. "If I find them making out I'm gonna puke."
Tenzin snorted, and then hastily schooled his features when his wife whirled on him with a threatening scowl. He cleared his throat and reached out to squeeze her shoulder. "Our boy is growing up, Lin. There's not very much that we can do about it. On the bright side, Jinora seems like a smart girl. I don't foresee him getting into much trouble with her."
Lin opened her mouth to respond, but was distracted by a tremor in the earth and spun in that direction. "I got 'em…"
She took off towards the heartbeats she had detected, with Tenzin close behind, and when she barreled through a thicket of trees, she found Yunjin and Jinora, alone as expected. Thankfully, they weren't wrapped in some disgusting embrace, but they both startled badly, and Lin both heard and sensed something rolling across the ground behind them as the two kids leapt to their feet.
"Spirits, Mom!" Yunjin exclaimed. "You scared me. What are you guys doing?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Lin countered. "What makes you think you two can just wander off?"
"We were just taking a walk," Yunjin defended. "We were planning on coming right back."
"Uh huh, that's why you were sitting on the ground," Lin replied disbelievingly as she strode briskly over to the pair. Both their hearts were racing tellingly, and Jinora's lips were clamped too tightly shut, as if she was afraid to open her mouth. Yunjin tried to shuffle casually in front of the object Lin was headed towards, but he must have seen the futility in trying, and she could see him bracing himself for a lecture.
Oblivious to what Lin had discovered, Tenzin admonished Yunjin, "You've really been toeing the line today, son. You should really be more respectful of the boundaries we've –"
Lin had reached the object Yunjin had tried to hide, and Tenzin abruptly went silent when she picked it up off of the ground and held it up for him to see.
Tenzin's nostrils flared and his voice was suddenly a lot less amicable as he demanded, "Is that alcohol?"
"Sure is," Lin confirmed, examining the label on the bottle in the little bit of moonlight provided. "I don't recognize it as one of mine so they must have stolen it from Bumi in the hopes that he wouldn't notice."
"I can explain," Yunjin started, at the same time Jinora finally opened her mouth and frantically began, "I'm so, so, so sorry, Mrs. Beifong, please, we were only –"
But neither Yunjin or Jinora had a chance to continue.
Somewhat unexpectedly, Tenzin exploded. Even Lin startled slightly when his thundering voice echoed around the clearing, "YUNJIN BEIFONG! What on Earth could have possibly possessed you to do something so – so – so irresponsibly foolish?! Are you trying to destroy your life?! Do you ever stop and think about the choices you are making, or do you just revel in sabotaging every advantage your mother and I have worked so hard to provide you with?!"
Yunjin was stunned, at first, by his father's outburst, but he did not hesitate to fire back, "It's not that big of a deal. We just wanted to try it, and it's not like –"
"Not that big of a deal?!" Tenzin incredulously exclaimed.
"What he means," Jinora interjected in a squeaky voice, "is that we're very, very sorry, and it won't happen again. I promise."
"Oh you're right about that," Tenzin said in a voice of deadly calm now, and Lin wondered if she should intervene, but Tenzin was kind of on a roll and it was nice to not be the crazy one for once. "It definitely will not be happening again, because the two of you will not be seeing one another anymore."
"WHAT?!" Yunjin shouted in disbelief.
"Jinora will no longer be permitted to visit the Island, and you will not be allowed to go and see her," Tenzin explained. "There will be no more phone calls between the two of you, and I will be telling Jinora's parents what has transpired here."
"You can't do this!" Yunjin protested. "You're being crazy over nothing!"
"I am being perfectly reasonable," Tenzin contended. "Clearly you are not mature enough to be responsible for such a relationship, and so I am terminating it before you can make any further mistakes. You will have to prove yourself before you can be allowed to have a girlfriend again."
"You've got to be kidding me," Yunjin scoffed. "Mom! You can't possibly think this is fair. Tell him he's insane."
"That's not the way to win this, kid," Lin advised. Even if Tenzin was going a little overboard, she certainly wasn't going to undermine him, and Yunjin needed to learn how to handle consequences and disappointment without resorting to insults anyway.
"Come along, Jinora," Tenzin said with a beckoning wave. "I'm going to take you home now. Yunjin, you will go straight to your room and don't even think of coming out until I say so."
Jinora hung her head and went to step forward, but Yunjin held out his arm to stop her. "No way!" he spat at his father. "I'm not a little kid anymore and you can't just decide my life –"
Tenzin interrupted, "You very much are still a child, living under my roof, and you will obey me. You have repeatedly undermined our rules and that ends now. You knew that we did not think it was a good idea for Jinora to be here, and we trusted you to prove us wrong. Clearly, that trust was misplaced, and I am finished explaining myself. There are consequences to your actions, Yunjin, and it's time you learned that. Come along, Jinora."
Jinora squeezed Yunjin's hand and reluctantly stepped out of his hold, looking back at him sadly as she traipsed forward.
Rather than take in his father's words, Yunjin only became further enraged. As Tenzin spun on his heel and began leading Jinora away, Yunjin lunged forward, but Lin grabbed him by the shoulder and held him still. He shouted at his father's back, "This isn't fair! I hate this place! I hate your stupid rules! And I hate you!"
"That's enough," Lin snapped, squeezing his shoulder harder and giving him a warning look.
Yunjin shrugged out of her hold and scowled at her. "Why didn't you stop him? You never take my side!"
"You're acting like a brat," Lin said plainly. "I'm not talking to you about this until you calm down. Go to your room and I'll be in later."
"Whatever," Yunjin muttered, spinning on his heel and stomping through the underbrush back towards the house.
Lin sighed and rolled her eyes. Having teenagers was really testing her in a number of ways.
Before going back to the house herself, Lin returned to the fire pit to find that the fire had been put out and the others had all dispersed. Slightly concerned about where Yoji could have gone off to, but hopeful that Sora had been watching, Lin went to the main house expecting to find everyone in the living room. But nobody was there, and she was torn for a moment as she considered where to go next. She didn't want to go too far with Jeia sleeping and Yunjin probably thinking of ways to run off.
Luckily, the answers to her questions came to her a few minutes later, but unluckily, the news was not good.
Sora came running through the front door and stopped before her mother with a panicked expression. "I'm sorry, Mom," she started off before Lin could ask, a little breathless, "I tried to stop them, I swear, but Uncle Bumi –"
Lin could already see what Sora was getting at and she cut the girl off, "Did they say where they were going?"
Sora shook her head. "Just that they wanted to go find some fun in the city. Bumi told Yoji and Coragus he knew all the best spots."
"Great," Lin muttered. "Just what I needed."
"I'm sorry," Sora said again, looking genuinely upset. "I should have tried harder, but I thought I should come get you –"
"That's okay, kid," Lin assured, patting Sora on the shoulder. "It's not your fault that your Uncle is a giant pain in my ass. Could you do me a favor and watch your brother for me? And keep an ear out for Jeia in case she needs anything."
"Watch Yunjin?" Sora asked in confusion. "Is Jinora still here?"
"No, your father is taking her home now," Lin answered, "and I don't know how long it'll be till he gets back. We caught her and Jin with a bottle of liquor." Sora's eyes widened in surprise. "He's grounded, obviously, and your father said he can't see Jinora for a while so he's pretty pissed. I'm gonna talk to him later, but I just need you to make sure he doesn't run away in the meantime."
Sora shook her head in bemusement. "Oh boy. Dad said he can't see Jinora? He's definitely gonna try to run."
"Exactly, but you can talk some sense into him, right?" Lin asked hopefully.
Sora smirked. "I guess I'll have to. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it."
"Thanks," Lin said gratefully. "I'll try to get back before your father, but if I don't, maybe don't say anything about the spirits escaping. Just tell him that I'm handling Yoji and that I told you to tell him to relax. If he finds out Bumi took the spirits into the city his head's liable to explode."
"So evade answering directly," Sora said with a nod. "Got it."
Before Lin could say anything further, there was a rapid knock on the front door, and then it swung inwards without waiting for an invitation. That by itself was not so much of a surprise, not with how many people were traipsing around the island and coming and going to the main house as they pleased, but the person who walked through the door was not at all expected.
Rather than one of the emotion spirits or Su, it was Kya's daughter, Akira.
"Sorry to barge in like this," the young woman said as she stepped hastily across the threshold. "I've been looking all over and I ran into some weird people that are apparently spirits and I'm so confused. Is this place ever normal?"
Lin and Sora just stared at Akira in surprise.
Akira paused, looking between the two of them and then asking, "Is this a bad time?"
"Uhh, something like that," Lin finally replied. "What are you doing here, kid? Is everything all right?"
"Everybody's fine," Akira assured, "but I'm here for Mom. She's not in a great place right now and I'm not really sure what to do. I was hoping you or Uncle Tenzin could talk to her."
"I take it her attempts to reconcile with Yumae didn't go well?" Lin asked with a disappointed sigh.
"Not very well, no," Akira confirmed. "I went with Mom when she left the South Pole, but we were only in the Earth Kingdom for two days before she said she wanted to come back here. I thought she meant the Island, but she wanted to go into the city first. We've been there the last couple days, and I kept trying to convince her to come here, but I think she's embarrassed or something, which I told her was stupid, but she's heartbroken so."
"I'll see what I can do," Lin promised. "Where is she now?"
"She was still brooding at the hotel when I left her."
Akira told Lin where to find Kya, and then Lin immediately started for the door, telling Akira as she passed, "I'll be back later. You can stay here and help Sora."
Sora smiled at her cousin Akira and said brightly, "It's good to see you again. Come on, I'll explain everything that's going on, but first we gotta make sure Yunjin hasn't run off…"
Lin didn't hear anything else as she stepped outside and shut the door behind her.
But of course, she only took two steps before Su just about ran straight into her.
"There you are!" Su exclaimed. "I've been looking all over. Look, we've got a problem –"
"If this is about Yoji and Bumi I already know," Lin interrupted, holding her hand up to still Su from going further.
"It's not," Su said, sidestepping to cut Lin off as Lin was trying to make an escape. "Why, what's going on with… never mind. This is about Ronen and the others. Daifra just told me –"
"Oh for spirit's sake," Lin interjected again, "I don't have time for another disaster. Look, whatever it is, you can handle it, right? I have faith in you."
Lin tried to move forward again, but Su simply fell into step with her and insisted, "I really think you're gonna wanna hear this. Ronen may be in more danger than we think."
Lin let out a frustrated growl and came to a stop again. "Fine," she relented, "tell me, but do it quickly."
"It's about the last two spirits they're searching for," Su began to explain. "I just had a talk with Daifra and she told me who Epathi's opposite is –"
"Epathi?"
"Daifra's sister, one of Qinggan's children, one of the last two Ronen and the others have to find. Spirits, keep up Lin. Anyways, we didn't know who Epathi's opposite was until Daifra just told me the name he goes by these days. Ronen and the rest of the kids apparently don't know either and they're –"
"Let me stop you right there," Lin cut Su off for the final time. "Whatever you're about to say, I'm not going to understand half of it, and frankly, I'm worried enough about Ronen as it is. Not to mention the fact that there's not really anything we can do, is there? The kids are probably already dealing with this crazy no-name spirit, and we'd never find them in time to do anything. Whatever it is, I'm sure Ronen and Korra can handle it. But if you're really worried, why don't you go around to the rest of Qinggan's kids and ask more about this brother of theirs?"
Su looked stunned and, after a pause, said, "Uhh, yeah, sure thing, Lin."
"Great," Lin said. "I've got some spirits and in-laws I need to go deal with."
As Lin was storming off, Su called after her, "Hey, do you need some help?"
"Oh no," Lin replied. "I've got this."
After sending Coragus and Daifra to Republic City, Ronen and the others were all feeling rather confident. They only had two spirits left to find, and even though they were likely to be the most elusive of Qinggan's children, the team was optimistic about their odds. They scaled their way back up out of the canyon, wandering aimlessly afterwards, waiting to come upon either Epathi or her brother.
When their surroundings finally began to morph, however, the desolate scene they came upon was wrenching. Everything turned dark and there was a vast stretch of dead, rotting earth at their feet. Small trees sprouted from the ground in various spots, but they were decrepit and crumbling. Farther across the plain they could see a large ravine shrouded in a dense mist, pierced by tall pinnacles of stone. At the center of the foreboding landscape was a large, gnarled tree, with roots extending into the air.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Mako grumbled.
"Umm, are we sure this is the right place?" Bolin squeaked.
"What even is this place?" Asami asked.
"Must be Epathi's opposite," Korra guessed, observing their surroundings with a calculating frown. "What is the opposite of empathy anyways? Some sort of hatred maybe?"
"I think Yangra's got hate covered," Mako muttered.
"The research is inconclusive," Ronen said as he began walking carefully forward, "but it's something to do with lack of emotion I believe."
"But what sense does that make?" Mako questioned, falling into step with Ronen. "If Qinggan was creating emotion then why would she create non-emotion?"
"Because it's the natural order of things," Ronen answered. "There must be balance between everything. Good and evil, light and dark…"
"Are you saying this guy is evil?" Bolin fretted, and for a moment Ronen was distracted by his own thoughts of how Bolin was almost an even mixture of Daifra and Coragus.
"I actually think I know this place," Ronen mused, scrutinizing everything as the group continued their trek towards the clear focal point.
Korra quietly agreed, "Weirdly enough, so do I. I don't know how, but…it feels oddly familiar." She shivered unconsciously, and that's when it occurred to Ronen where they were.
He came to a sudden stop with the realization, causing the others to come to a halt too. Before he could explain, they were all alerted to a strange noise nearby, and turned in that direction to see what it was. Through the fog Ronen could make out the shape of a sort of monkey bounding towards them, but as it became clearer, a harsher truth was revealed.
Nearly all five of them gasped as they came to the horrifying realization that the monkey did not have a face.
"Nope!" Bolin exclaimed. "I'm out of here!"
Asami grabbed Bolin's arm before he could take off. "Relax," she soothed. "I'm sure there's a good explanation for this."
"I doubt it," Mako scoffed.
Ronen and Korra exchanged a look and then, at the same time, said, "Koh."
"Who?" Mako questioned.
"An ancient centipede-like spirit," Ronen explained. "He lures unsuspecting people and creatures into his lair, and then steals the faces of anyone who expresses emotion in his presence. I read my grandfather Aang's accounts of his interactions with Koh from decades ago."
"But why would the Spirit World bring us here?" Korra asked. "Would Koh know how to find Epathi and her brother? Would he even tell us if he did?"
"I think…" Ronen began, discomfited by his idea, but with no other conclusion to explain why they were led there. "Maybe Koh is the spirit we're looking for. Maybe he is Epathi's brother."
"Is that possible?" Asami inquired. "You said Koh is a centipede and the whole stealing faces thing…it doesn't quite line up with the rest of Qinggan's children."
"It's a shaky hypothesis," Ronen admitted, "but it is possible that Koh was once like the rest of Qinggan's children, but he morphed into this sort of monster over time. There's really no way to find out without asking."
"Or," Bolin countered, "we could just leave and think really hard about Epathi."
"It's possible that Epathi is here," Mako pointed out. "Maybe Koh lured her here."
"It's like Ronen said," Korra sighed. "We've got to ask Koh. I'll go –"
"Actually," Ronen interjected, "why don't I go? You're amazing, Korra, truly, but you aren't as adept at concealing your emotions, which is normally fine, but with Koh I think we'd better be extra careful."
Rather than become offended, Korra actually seemed to consider Ronen's argument, and eventually relented, albeit reluctantly, "You're right. If anyone can keep a straight face in there it's you."
"Oh I've got a bad feeling about this," Bolin moaned.
"It's okay, Bolin," Ronen said, flashing his friends a reassuring smile. "I've read a lot on Koh and I'll be extra careful, I promise. I'll be out in no time."
"Are you sure this isn't a waste of time?" Mako reasoned. "Like with Yangra?"
"Maybe," Ronen conceded, "but the Spirit World brought us here first."
Asami merely pulled Ronen into a brief, crushing hug before telling him, "Please don't lose your face."
"Yeah," Korra added, "or your mom will kill all of us."
Ronen chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind." Besides, if there was anything he had learned from being the child of Lin Beifong, it was how to keep a straight face. "I'll be back soon."
Then, with a deep breath to center himself, Ronen began to make the trek down into the ominous depths of the tree, alone. He was not entirely afraid of losing his face, but he was still wracked with nerves, and he shook out his limbs as if it would shake out the concerns deep within him. He utilized the breathing techniques his father had taught him during meditations, clearing his mind of all else and focusing on his mission. He did not allow himself to be consumed by trepidation or wonderment. The dark depths of Koh's lair were fascinating and horrifying all at once, but he ignored all of it.
"Hello?" he called as he walked. "I'm looking for Koh…"
When a telling clicking sound filled his ears, he suppressed a shiver and went still, steeling himself for the appearance of the spirit he sought. From out of the darkness the long centipede came scurrying, and a deep, whispered voice echoed around the cavern, "I am Koh. And who might you be?"
"I am Ronen, grandson of Avatar Aang." He wasn't sure if that would save him any trouble, but he didn't figure it would hurt. "I have come to the Spirit World in search of a few spirits, and now it has led me here to you. I was hoping you might be able to help."
"Ahhh, Avatar Aang. Yes, I do remember him. He was but a child when I saw him last. I was unable to add his face to my collection. Are you as resilient as he?"
"I certainly have no intentions of giving up my face," Ronen replied.
"And what brings you to the Spirit World?" Koh inquired, while crawling along the side of the wall and down around behind Ronen, making the hairs on the back of Ronen's neck stand up.
"I am here on behalf of Qinggan," Ronen answered, "the spirit mother of emotions. Do you know her?"
"Qinggan," Koh repeated. "Oh yes. She is one of the most ancient of all spirits. She brought chaos to the worlds with her alterations, and I have spent centuries trying to CLEAN IT UP!" Koh attempted to jump scare Ronen with the viscous face of a sharp-toothed monkey, voice raising and teeth bared.
Ronen merely blinked. "Is that why you steal faces?" he inquired. "To rid the worlds of emotion?"
"I must restore order," Koh confirmed, face turning back into an impassive, dark-haired man. "Whatever Qinggan has sent you to do, it is against the very nature of the universe."
"She is actually a lot like you would want her to be at the moment," Ronen admitted. "She is emotionless without someone nearby to feed off of. She wanders without direction. I've come here looking for her children in the hopes that reuniting her with all eight will restore her to her former self. I've already sent six of them to her. The only two that remain are Epathi and…you."
Koh chuckled darkly. "How can you be so sure that I am one of Qinggan's children? They are far more feeble than I, and their forms are disgustingly human and expressive."
"You lack empathy," Ronen reasoned, "and your distaste for your family is too passionate for someone who has little connection to them. It's entirely logical that you're who I'm looking for."
"And you think that you can persuade me to assist my mother?" Koh snickered, though he did not deny Ronen's accusations. "Why would I want to help her?"
"Well, she is your mother. I have to think that some part of you is invested in her for that at least, for giving you life. Or perhaps the danger of a spirit as ancient as her wandering aimlessly is cause for concern. Imagine the secrets she could tell if she met the right person. All the things she could inadvertently reveal about her, about you. I'm sure you've heard what's been going on since Harmonic Convergence."
"Indeed I have," Koh confirmed, still slithering around Ronen in a never-ending circle. "Now my conquest will only be made easier. The natural state of the universe will be restored."
Ronen felt a shiver run down his spine at the thought, but maintained his expressionless stance. "Is there nothing I can say to persuade you?"
"Perhaps if you were to give me your face," Koh suggested, moving in close until he was mere inches from Ronen's face.
Ronen had to make a concerted effort not to smirk. "I'm sure you'd like that, but as I said before, I intend to keep it where it belongs. Do you know where your sister Epathi is?"
Koh skittered around behind Ronen, chuckling again. "As it so happens, I do. It's not often that she comes to visit. I wanted to ensure that she would stay."
"She's here?" Ronen questioned.
"She's…nearby," Koh corrected. "But why don't you stay here and talk a bit longer?"
"I think it's time that I go," Ronen said impassively. "Perhaps I'll be seeing you again."
"Oh I'm sure of it," Koh hissed, as Ronen turned and began to exit the foreboding, underground lair.
Ronen could feel Koh's eyes on him as he hastily scrambled away, or rather, the eyes of one of Koh's victims. He maintained his expressionless face all the way out of the depths of the tree, only breathing a sigh of partial relief when he was within sight of his friends.
As he went to them, they came rushing towards him, and he relaxed enough to give them reassurances that he was okay, and let them envelop him in a group hug when they saw that he had been rattled by his interactions with Koh.
"How bad was it?" Korra asked grimly.
"Is Koh Qinggan's son?" Asami inquired.
"I think so, yes," Ronen answered Asami, then told Korra, "His views on his family are…not great. I'm not sure how we can convince him to come with us, or if it would even be safe to do so. Taking a face-stealer out into the mortal world? There'd have to be some assurance that he wouldn't be able to steal faces, but I haven't got a clue how."
"Maybe Epathi will know," Korra suggested. "She has to have some kind of information on him that we don't."
"But if she knew how to stop him," Mako pointed out, "wouldn't she have done so a long time ago?"
"It seems like he's confined to this place," Asami reasoned. "It's possible that Epathi or Qinggan are responsible. They must have suppressed his powers somehow."
"Or he just likes the thrill of luring people in," Mako argued.
"Ah man," Bolin sighed with a shake of his head, "we really should have asked some of the other spirits about this before we came here. They would have known who their evil brother was."
"Well we need to find Epathi," Korra said firmly. "She has to be the key to all this."
"I hope you're right," Ronen said, "but I'm not sure what state she'll be in. Koh told me that she came here, and that he wanted to make sure she stayed. I don't know what that means, but it doesn't sound good."
"You don't think he took her face, do you?" Bolin gasped.
"I'm sure Epathi's stronger than that," Korra insisted. "She must be around here somewhere. Let's start looking…"
Korra did not wait for the rest of the group to agree, marching forward into the stretch of misty landscape before them, where Koh's faceless victims wandered in an endless state of apathy.
Chapter 70: Chapter 70
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 70
On her way to the docks, Lin happened to pass by Yangra and, upon a decidedly foolish impulse, implored the spirit to come with her to help reign in her escaped brothers. Yangra was only too happy – or, at least, bitterly pleased – to ruin her brothers' fun.
What Lin had not anticipated was for the spirit to gripe the whole way through the city, about how the humans had wrecked the spiritual oasis they'd built their city on. Fortunately, Lin was rather good at tuning people out, and she stopped listening to Yangra's complaints long before she shut up about it.
The first thing Lin did upon arriving in Republic City was to go straight to the hotel Akira had said she and her mother were staying in. The hotel was half covered in spirit vines, but still operating almost normally. After a brief conversation with the concierge, who kept throwing surreptitious glances at Yangra with plain bewilderment, Lin was permitted to enter Kya's room, in part because she was family, but mostly because her former status as Chief of Police still gave her some leeway. As it turned out though, Kya was not in her room, and for a moment Lin thought she wouldn't be able to find her sister-in-law at all. But then she found out that the hotel had a bar in the spirit vine section, and Lin went there next. As expected, she found Kya sitting alone and staring into a glass of amber liquor.
Lin told Yangra to hang back while she went to talk to Kya, but could sense the spirit following a few feet behind as Lin went over to the bar. Lin slipped onto the empty stool directly next to Kya and said in a low murmur, "Well this isn't how I expected to see you next."
Kya startled slightly, but relaxed immediately upon recognizing Lin. Her shoulders slumped again and she dropped her gaze back onto the glass cradled in her right hand. "Hey, Lin," she muttered glumly. Then she made a face of confusion. "How'd you even know I was here?"
"Akira came by," Lin answered. "I think she's worried about you."
Kya sighed. "She's always worried about me."
"Kids are weird like that," Lin commiserated. "Or ours are anyways. I don't remember being that concerned about my mother past the age of seven."
Kya snorted. "I know right? How did we get such caring children?"
"Could be less caring and more of a lack of faith," Lin mused. "They think we can't handle our problems."
"Well, they're not entirely wrong," Kya said with a chuckle, lifting her glass to take another drink.
Lin intercepted it first, carefully prying the glass out of Kya's hand. "Haven't you figured out yet that this stuff never helps?"
"It certainly doesn't hurt," Kya countered.
"I know a few people that would beg to differ," Lin snorted. "But I didn't come here to lecture you. I need your help."
Kya scoffed. "My help? With what? Are you trying to ruin your life?"
"I see you're in the pity party phase," Lin observed. "You can moan all you want, but while you're at it you gotta show me all of Bumi's favorite places to party around the city."
Kya blinked, confusion settling on her features. "I can think of so many reasons why you would want to know that, but none of them make any sense."
"It's a long story," Lin sighed. "Basically, while you've been away, the Island has been invaded by spirits. The spirit mother of emotions, named Qinggan, is in need of help and everyone but me decided that we should reunite her with her kids. Ronen and Korra and the rest of the bunch have gone back into the Spirit World to find them, and have been sending them to us. One of them is the spirit of joy and he's been trying to sneak off the Island for days, with Bumi's help. We avoided it up until tonight, and now I've got to get them back on the Island before Tenzin finds out and has an aneurysm."
Kya stared at Lin for several long seconds, looking stunned, and then she looked down at the liquor Lin had taken from her. "How drunk am I?"
"Not drunk enough," Lin assured, rising to her feet. "Come on, I'll try to explain better on the way."
Kya shook her head in disbelief, but stood up anyway, which was when she noticed the spirit hovering nearby just behind Lin. Kya's eyes went wide.
"Oh yeah," Lin said casually. "This is Yangra, spirit of anger."
Yangra was wrinkling her nose and looking about the room with disgust, taking advantage of the renewed attention from Lin and asking, "What kind of establishment is this?"
"You mean you don't recognize a bar?" Lin replied in disbelief. "I'm sure plenty of those flames you nurture spend time in places like this."
"Their location is of little concern to me," Yangra said haughtily. "So long as they give into their anger I am content."
"That's real sweet of you," Lin muttered.
Misunderstanding the sarcasm, Yangra frowned. "Sweet is certainly not a trait I would assign to myself. I believe you're thinking of Revol and his insufferable charms."
"That must be it," Lin conceded with an eye roll, turning her attention back to Kya, who was staring at the pair in bewilderment.
Kya blinked. "It's official. This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen."
"It's gonna get a whole lot weirder," Lin promised. "It's been a wild week."
While Lin was addressing Kya, Yangra had stepped over to the bar and picked up the abandoned glass of liquor. She examined the contents with her usual frown and demanded, "What sort of liquid is this that all the humans in this room seem to covet?"
"Didn't you see Bumi drinking liquor with Yoji earlier?" Lin asked impatiently, snatching the glass out of Yangra's hand and attempting to sit it back down. But Kya wrenched it from Lin's grasp and drained all of its contents in one gulp.
Lin rolled her eyes at her sister-in-law, while Yangra replied, "I still don't fully understand its purpose. It has no effect on us."
"That's a shame," Kya said in a strained voice as she held back her body's instinct to choke on the liquid burning its way down her throat.
"It instills stupid courage in the hearts of humans, or crippling depression, or overwhelming euphoria," Lin hastily explained, reaching behind her to grab hold of Kya's elbow and shove the older woman forward, before Kya could try to order another drink. "It's a toss up."
"Why on earth would you wish to alter your feelings in such a way?" Yangra questioned, still utterly confused, but allowing Lin to usher her out of the bar.
Lin shrugged, not fully aware of the answer herself. "Humans have a lot of emotions."
Kya snorted and muttered under her breath, "That's an understatement."
Yangra finally turned her gaze onto Kya, scrutinizing the human's features. "And which emotion do you seek to receive from this liquor?"
"Well I'm usually going for no feelings at all, but I often end up with depression so I don't think it's working right," Kya said sardonically.
"Could be a sign," Lin muttered pointedly, but Kya pointedly ignored it.
"Why would you wish to feel nothing?" Yangra continued to question.
Kya seemed perturbed by the spirit's inquiries, squinting at Yangra and hesitating to answer. Eventually though, when Yangra's gaze never wavered, Kya admitted, "I don't like the emotions I'm experiencing at this time in my life and alcohol can be a good numbing agent in more ways than one. But what's up with you? Spirit of anger? Is that the only emotion you've got?"
"Anger and all its many forms, yes," Yangra boasted.
"Sounds boring," Kya commented idly, staggering slightly as the three of them stepped out of the hotel and onto the sidewalk.
Yangra reeled back looking incensed, puffing out a short burst of flames as she exhaled, but she merely grumbled in irritation, "Humans."
Kya still looked bewildered, but also slightly bleary eyed, and Lin wondered how much Kya had drank before Lin had found her. Hopefully it hadn't been too much, because Lin really needed to find Yoji and the others, and Kya was the only one that knew Bumi well enough to find his party scenes. If Kya couldn't keep her head on straight then Lin had no way of bringing this whole charade to a quick close.
Kya's words, at least, were not really slurred as she demanded of Lin, "I'll show you where Bumi might be, but you've got to give me a better explanation of this spirit thing that's happening right now. I'm starting to think I passed out and hit my head."
While Kya led the way forward, Lin attempted to describe what had been going on in the past week while Kya had been away. However, with Lin's poor explanation, Kya was barely less confused by the time they made it to the first bar she thought they might find Bumi in, but she had given up trying to get information from Lin.
"You're really terrible at this," Kya complained. "I'll just ask Sora when we get back."
"I told you I don't understand this spirit nonsense," Lin grumbled, looking around the establishment for signs of her brother-in-law and finding nothing. "I don't think they're here."
"Let's try the night club," Kya suggested, and so that's where they went next.
As they were walking that way, Yangra strutting ahead as if she knew where she was going, Lin asked Kya, "Do you want to talk about what happened?"
Kya snorted. "That's the last sentence I ever expected to come out of your mouth. But no, I don't."
Lin left it at that and didn't prod any further, and they both went back to silence.
Unsurprisingly, once they came up empty handed again at the night club and began heading towards the third location, Kya finally confessed, unprompted, "I don't know why I'm even upset. I expected her to be finished with me before I even went there."
"Yeah but I'm sure part of you was still hopeful," Lin replied without missing a beat. "There's nothing wrong with being unhappy with the results, even if you were expecting them."
"I don't know why I keep doing this to myself," Kya muttered in frustration. "Why do I ruin every thing that I have?"
Lin shrugged. "Because you're with the wrong people. Kole wasn't right for you and maybe Yumae wasn't either. You keep putting people on a pedestal and saying they're perfect and you're the problem, and yeah some of it's your fault, but some of it falls on them too. I didn't know Yumae all that well, but if she was pushing you into something you weren't ready for then she didn't really understand you. And I never liked Kole, so…"
Kya laughed and shoved Lin's shoulder. "You did so like Kole!"
Lin made a face and asserted, "I definitely did not. Pretty sure I told you that several times."
"You definitely did not," Kya argued. "I would have remembered that."
"Nah you were pretty far up his ass," Lin teased. "You thought that man was the nicest guy you'd ever met."
"He was," Kya tried to defend.
But Lin countered, "He's a privileged, self-righteous, bigoted prick."
"He's also the father of my children," Kya grumbled, sounding half offended.
"Yeah, well, that's about the only good thing he ever did. I'll give him that, he was mostly a good father. Guess that was his only real purpose in life. Does he even have a job?"
Kya rolled her eyes. "Yes, he works for his father's –"
"Like I said," Lin interrupted, "privileged. But anyways, the point is that you're running from these things for a reason. Stop trying to force yourself into what you thinkyou're supposed to be, and just be who you are."
"It's really astonishing to hear this stuff coming out of your mouth," Kya said. "Motherhood really has changed you."
"Was that good advice?" Lin asked seriously. "Because I may need to use it on Yunjin later."
"Oh, spirits," Kya replied with concern. "What happened now?"
Lin snorted. "Where do I even begin? For starters, he brought Jinora onto the Island despite knowing full well that we were already at our wits end, and then the two of them snuck off with a bottle of Bumi's liquor."
Kya seemed torn between wanting to laugh and being surprised, and before she could decide, Lin warned, "I swear if you laugh this off I'll punch you in the face."
Kya did laugh then, but only briefly as she bent out of reach of Lin's hand. "I'm sorry, but it's kind of funny. I mean, youwere about the same age as him when you first tasted liquor."
"Yeah, thanks to your bad influence," Lin grumbled. "And my kids are supposed to be smarter than me."
"Oh they definitely are," Kya assured, "but Yunjin's a teenage boy. You can't expect him to make all the right choices. Please don't tell me you grounded him for life."
"Well," Lin hedged, "I didn't, but, well… Tenzin might have flipped a little."
Kya groaned. "Oh I'm sure he completely overreacted, like he always does."
"He wasn't completely unjustified in doing so," Lin defended. "Our families don't have a great history of mental health and moderate alcohol consumption."
"You mean me," Kya mumbled, looking resigned and not wholly offended.
Lin shook her head. "Not just you. I'm including myself in that list. None of us drink for the right reasons. I don't want Yunjin doing the same thing."
Kya seemed to mull that over for several moments before agreeing, "Yeah, you're right about that. I don't want him to either. But I don't think he's messed up the same way we are. I doubt he was trying to relieve some inner turmoil. He was probably just showing off for his girlfriend."
"Maybe," Lin conceded, "but the kid has an awful lot on his shoulders, and with everything that's happened in the last two years… I don't know if he'd even tell me if something was wrong."
"I can talk to him if you want," Kya offered. "He might be more honest with me, since I'm assuming he's fairly pissed at you right now."
"He definitely is, but I'm gonna try to talk to him first…" She trailed off with a frown when Kya stopped suddenly in front of an all too familiar building.
"Hey, Yangra," Kya called, as the grumpy spirit continued to stomp onward, "this is our next stop."
Yangra spun to face the huge building that had been plainly damaged during UnaVaatu's attack on the city, while Lin said to Kya, "You've got to be kidding me. This is police headquarters."
"But it's currently abandoned," Kya reasoned. "All the cops are in a different building."
"So you think Bumi got a hankering to go streaking through the empty hallways?" Lin asked in disbelief.
"I think there's bound to be a party in there," Kya corrected, "and Bumi knows how to find a good party."
"Who would throw a party in police headquarters?" Lin scoffed.
Kya shook her head and sighed. "Spirits, you're so straight-laced. Haven't you ever had to break up an underground dance party?"
"Only about a hundred times," Lin snorted.
"And where were they always held?" Kya prompted.
"Usually some empty warehouse or…oh." Lin scowled as it finally dawned on her. "You think there's some secret party in here?"
"I think there are several," Kya confirmed. "The real question is whether or not Bumi is at one of them, and which one. This might take a while, but you know the building pretty well so, where's the best place for a party? Try to imagine you're someone fun."
Kya snickered as Lin rolled her eyes and stomped away with a huff, heading towards the entrance of police headquarters.
There were indeed a couple of parties throughout the crippled police station, and it made Lin grind her teeth together. Not only was it ridiculously unsafe in such an unstable building, but it was also massively disrespectful. Part of her yearned to put an end to every single one of the parties, but she had to remind herself that she wasn't really a cop anymore, and she had more important things on her mind. She would leave a tip to the police later, if they hadn't already gotten one. She just hoped the police didn't show up while she was there, because if she ended up in handcuffs she really was going to murder Bumi.
The first party wasn't difficult to find seeing as it was on the first floor and barely removed from the front entryway. Lin had to wonder at how she hadn't heard the noise from the street, but the building had heavily fortified walls, built even stronger the second time around after the siege of headquarters five years prior. It had taken minimal damage from the UnaVaatu conflict, but enough to warrant keeping it empty just in case, something that the risqué party fiends of Republic City apparently did not comprehend, or purposefully ignored.
Within a few minutes it was clear that Bumi was not at the first party, and the trio of women were attracting a lot of attention, either because Yangra was still pretty otherworldly-looking in the dim lighting, or because Lin and Kya had well-known faces. Whatever the case, they made a hasty retreat and started up the stairs once they were convinced that Bumi and the two spirits accompanying him were not present.
The second party eluded them at first, but when Lin finally decided to act on her hunch that it was in the Chief's office, they finally found their targets. Lin was incensed to see the fourth floor filled with obnoxious people getting drunk and spirits knows what else. The fourth floor had been the place where she had given birth to Jeia Rai in the middle of the siege, and where Lieutenant Jeia had died and where Shira had tried to strangle her, and while Lin had long since forced the association of those happenings to the back of her mind, in that moment she felt it all pricking at the back of her eyelids. The party-goers could have had no idea of those details, but it still rubbed her the wrong way to see them gyrating to loud, thumping music in the halls of a building that was so sacred to her.
Yangra, too, was scowling as she regarded their surroundings, and asked, "Who are these detestable miscreants? And what is that vile noise?"
"It's not so bad," Kya tried to defend. "I admit, I'm not as in tune with the newer music these days, but it's got something to it."
Lin rolled her eyes, but didn't really want to agree with Yangra, so she didn't argue Kya's assertion.
Lin was briefly distracted but not deterred from her growing ire when one of the hoodlums at their end of the hall came sashaying up to the trio, reeking of booze and smoke and smiling broadly as he crowed, "Welcome, ladies! Can I get you drinks?"
"No," Lin immediately snapped. "We won't be long."
The guy's eyes focused on Lin, looking her up and down even as she turned her head away to search the crowd for Bumi or a wayward spirit. "You look very thirsty indeed," he said, not catching onto the warning in her tone. "Lighten up, sweetheart, let the liquor soothe your soul. Whatever you need, we've got it, and that's a guarantee."
He then made the mistake of putting his hand on Lin's shoulder, smiling deliriously like the drunken fool that he was, but his face quickly morphed into a much more sober expression when she grabbed his wrist with lightening speed and twisted his arm in the wrong direction, just far enough to make him yelp.
"Touch me again and I'll break that hand," Lin growled.
"All right, all right!" the man exclaimed, sounding both annoyed and afraid. And when Lin let go of him he began to mutter, "Crazy b –"
Kya hastily inserted herself between the two, shooting Lin a reproachful look and turning a falsely sweet smile onto the no doubt self-appointed host. "I'm sorry, forgive her, she's an angry drunk. What my friend means to say is thank you for the offer, but we're looking for some friends of ours. We lost them downstairs and we think they might be here. Have you by chance seen an older guy with crazy hair and a loud mouth?"
"You mean the commander?" the guy asked, hooking his thumb in the direction of Lin's former office.
Lin, Kya, and Yangra turned to look in that direction, and sure enough there was Bumi, standing atop the Chief's desk. He looked to be in the middle of telling a very intense story, wobbling unsteadily on his perch as he gestured wildly. On either side of him were Yoji and Coragus, and a small crowd had massed around them, staring intently up at the trio, likely more intrigued by the two spirits than whatever tale Bumi was telling.
Lin did not waste a single moment, storming into the office and sternly shouting, "All right, everybody out!"
The room went silent for half a second as everyone spun around to see who had entered, and then Bumi delightedly exclaimed, "Linny! I was wondering when you'd find us. I was expecting Tenzin to –" He stopped abruptly when he noticed Kya sidling up next to Lin, and his smile brightened. "Kya! I didn't know you were in town! When'd you get here?"
Before Kya could answer, Lin swept a dark look around the room at all the people that still hadn't budged and barked, "I said clear the room! Now!"
There was some grumbling from the crowd, but they were all apparently frightened enough of Lin's plain ire, or simply unwilling to toil with her, because they all began filing out of the room.
Yoji tried blending into the crowd to slip out the door, but Lin grabbed him by the arm and said, "Not you!"
"Ah, come on, Linny!" Yoji entreated. "We're just havin' some fun with the great people of Republic City!"
"Don't call me that," Lin snapped. "And you know the rules. I won't tolerate any sneaking around from anyone under my care, so while we're waiting for my son to come back with the last of your siblings, you gotta keep a lid on all this exuberance. Afterwards, you're free to do whatever you want."
Yoji snickered, sounding amused as he replied, "It might be a while before they convince my somber siblings to come here."
"Well then I guess you'd better get used to the Island," Lin advised, not letting herself worry about what Ronen might be dealing with.
Bumi had staggered over to greet Kya, clearly very intoxicated and slurring his words as he embraced her.
Coragus, meanwhile, stepped up to Lin and said, "My apologies, Madam. My brother and I simply wished to know more about this city of yours. Bumi tells such lively tales of his experiences. He also claimed that you could be more foreboding than Fenrir when you're angry enough, and I confess that I was curious to see it for myself. The way you handled that crowd was quite inspiring. You must strike great fear into your enemies."
"Apparently not enough or else I wouldn't have enemies," Lin grumbled. "And you," she added, whirling on Yoji, "might actually listen to me."
"Oh don't take it personally," Yoji said cheerfully. "I don't listen to anybody."
"Another thing we have in common!" Bumi exclaimed, finally releasing Kya and nearly tipping over.
"Well you'll both have to change that starting now," Lin countered. "You've had your fun and now it's time to get back to the Island."
"Awww, but there's still so much to do!" Bumi argued. "The night is still young!"
"Maybe so, but if you want to avoid a lecture from your brother I suggest we get home before he does," Lin said, even though she had a feeling Tenzin would still beat them home.
Bumi wrinkled his nose, but was still reticent up until Kya looped her arm through his and urged, "Come on, Bumi. I wanna tell you about my trip to the Earth Kingdom."
For Kya, Bumi finally relented and let his sister lead him out of the office. Lin and the others went to follow, and on their way out they grabbed Yangra, who had stopped before entering the office to accost one of the party goers, and was in the midst of heatedly admonishing them for some reason that Lin could not determine. And when Yoji tried to sneak off again as they were exiting the building, Lin wrapped a metal cable around him and dragged him the rest of the way to the island. The lively spirit probably could have simply wriggled out of her hold, but instead he merely cackled and skipped along behind her with his arms pressed down against his sides.
The trip back to the docks and then to the Island was blessedly uneventful. Bumi introduced Kya to Yoji, and then regaled the wiry spirit with tales of all the mischief he and Kya had gotten into over the years. Some of it was even news to Lin, who was not really surprised by what she heard, but sufficiently enthralled.
Once back on the Island, Yoji promised Lin he wouldn't leave again, but she figured he probably had his fingers crossed behind his back. Coragus and Yangra said they'd keep an eye on him for the evening, and Lin had other problems to deal with, so she decided to trust them for now. Kya took Bumi to his own room on the Island, where the two would likely be up half the night still drinking.
Upon entering her home for the final time that evening, Lin learned from Sora that Tenzin had already made it back as well, and that he knew about Yoji and Bumi escaping, and had gone to meditate in an effort to relax. Yunjin, at least, was still in his room, and Jeia was still asleep, so Lin thanked Sora and told the girl she could go to bed. Akira went with her younger cousin, having been offered to stay in Sora's room for the night. Then Lin was free to go and seek out her youngest son.
When Lin entered Yunjin's room, he was curled up on the ledge of his windowsill, staring out into the darkness with an unaltered frown on his face, no doubt thinking of a million different reasons that he should leap out of it and make his escape.
"Have you figured out where you'll move to?" Lin asked, half-serious, half-teasing.
Yunjin's frown turned into a full-blown scowl, clearly not in the mood for jokes, and he looked at his mother with unsuppressed annoyance as he muttered, "I don't want to talk."
"Well that's too bad," Lin replied, unfazed, "because I do." She grabbed the chair from his desk and pulled it the short distance to the window, and then she sat down on it backwards with her arms folded over top of one another on the back of the chair.
Yunjin rolled his eyes but still wouldn't meet her gaze. "There's nothing to talk about. And you don't even like to talk about this stuff. You're wasting both our time."
"What time is there to waste?" Lin snorted. "You're grounded and I'm unemployed. Where else do we have to be?"
"The sooner you leave me alone, the sooner I can be in Zaofu," Yunjin countered.
"Is that your big plan?" Lin asked. "To go live off your Aunt Su? Cause I hate to break it to ya, kid, but I don't think you'll like her rules much better. She's a phony with all that 'freedom to express yourself' nonsense. She's probably more strict on her kids than we are on you."
"Anywhere is better than here and I happen to like Zaofu. It's got little to do with Aunt Su."
"How exactly is that gonna help you get what you want though? You know it'll be about a million times harder to see Jinora from that distance?"
Yunjin finally turned to look at her, and his expression was unwaveringly firm. "She and her family will move to Zaofu with me. Her dad loves me, and they've been wanting to move out of the city for a while now. Jinora's mom doesn't like it here, and they really don't like it after everything that's been going on the last two years."
Lin didn't comment on the fact that Pema likely wanted out of the city in part so that she didn't have to have her daughter running off with Yunjin, the son of a woman she despised and the man who broke her heart. Instead she inquired, "And what about the rest of us? You hate your family that much?"
"I don't hate you," Yunjin grumbled, sounding irritated that he even had to defend himself. "You can all still visit me, except for Dad."
Lin sighed and shook her head. "Look, kid, I know you're pissed at him, but what you did was wrong, and your father had every right to punish you. You can't seriously think we were just gonna let you off the hook, did you?"
Yunjin folded his arms across his chest. "A punishment is one thing, what he did was outrageous. He can't ban me from seeing Jinora. He's totally overreacting."
Lin raised a brow. "And you're not? What do you call making plans to move away from home?"
Yunjin turned his head to look back out the window, letting his forehead clunk against the glass. "I don't wanna stay here with somebody that clearly hates me."
Lin blinked. Then she frowned. "Who hates you? Are you talking about your dad? Because I gotta tell you, that's the craziest thing you've ever said. He doesn't discipline you because he hates you. If he hated you he would have kicked you off the island himself."
"It's not just that," Yunjin mumbled, so quietly that Lin had to lean forward over the back of the chair to hear him better. "He's always saying I'm like Uncle Bumi and he hates Uncle Bumi."
Lin shook her head rapidly in bewilderment, even though Yunjin wasn't looking at her. "That's not even close to the truth. First of all, your dad doesn't hate Uncle Bumi. And second of all, their issues are completely separate from anything he thinks about you."
"Seems pretty clear to me," Yunjin scoffed in disbelief. "Dad is always saying how Uncle Bumi's antics are so annoying and so terrible and he's such a bad influence, and then he gets mad at me when I do the same stuff."
Lin blew out a breath from her nose and pursed her lips to contain her frustrated reaction. How could Yunjin possibly believe something like that? How could he not know that his father loved him more than anything? "Listen to me, Yunjin," she said firmly, stretching her arm across the space between them to tightly grasp his knee until he tilted his head enough to look at her from the corner of his eye. "Your father loves you, and he loves Bumi too, he just…" She shook her head, at a loss as to how to properly explain. "Their relationship is complicated. Your dad doesn't hate Bumi's actions so much as he just…well he's easily bothered by anything Bumi does. Like I said it's complicated."
"Complicated how?" Yunjin demanded, facing her more fully. "Why does he hate Uncle Bumi and Aunt Kya so much? And why do you fight with Aunt Su all the time? What could they have possibly done to make you and Dad so angry?"
Lin couldn't contain the harsh laughter that tumbled out of her throat as she released Yunjin's knee and sat back a little. "There's a lot of history there, from long before you were born. It's a long story."
"Then tell me," Yunjin insisted. "It's like you said, what else have we got to do?"
He was staring at her impatiently with a sour expression, and part of her wanted to evade, to tell him to just trust her and leave him to his brooding until he figured out that his parents weren't out to get him. But if she said nothing then he might go on believing that his father hated him, and that his parents were a couple of assholes that were frustrated with their siblings for no reason. Of course, it was Su and Kya and Bumi's fault, because they were exceedingly nice and loving towards their nieces and nephews in a way they never had been to Lin and Tenzin, at least not until they were all much older. Lin's kids hadn't been around for the times when she and Tenzin weren't even speaking to their siblings, or had been too young to understand. Lin wasn't even sure she knew how to explain something that had been harbored over years of strained childhoods.
But for her son, she would have to figure it out. Maybe if she could make him understand then he might see why his father reacted so harshly over something Yunjin deemed so unimportant.
"Okay," she said at last, and she could see that Yunjin had to make a concerted effort to contain his surprise, "I'll tell you why. But don't say I didn't warn you. This might take a while."
Yunjin nodded eagerly, turning in the windowsill to face her better.
Lin blew out a breath, and then began, "See, your dad and I never had the type of relationship with our siblings that you have with yours. Our parents were…well, they were very important people. You know some of the stories, about how they saved the world and built Republic City and brought peace to the world and all that nonsense. But all that required a lot of work, and they weren't around all that much. Think about how often I was at work and multiply it by about ten. Your Gran-Gran was a little better about it than my mom, but overall most of us were left to our own devices a lot. And since we were a bunch of stupid kids, we took it out on each other, competing for our parents' attention and resenting each other for it.
"When your Grandpa Aang did have time to spend with his kids, he had to spend a lot of it with your dad. Aang was the only airbender in existence up until your dad came along, and he knew he only had so much time to try and bestow upon your father centuries worth of Air Nation knowledge, so that one day he could pass that knowledge onto you. It was a lot of responsibility to put on your dad, but your Uncle and Aunt didn't see it that way. For them, it just felt like their dad wasn't paying attention to them because they weren't airbenders. So both of them bullied your father and teased him to no end. Kya grew out of it faster, but Bumi tormented him for a long time. It wasn't really malicious, but it was enough to drive a wedge between them."
Lin stopped for a moment and Yunjin appeared to be contemplating her words, brow furrowed and lips still turned down into a frown.
Eventually, he asked, "So…Dad is still angry because Uncle Bumi used to pick on him?"
"They're a lot better now than they used to be, but…yes," Lin replied. "That's basically it."
"So you guys all just hated each other as kids because you were mad at your parents?" Yunjin questioned, still sounding confused.
Lin shrugged. "Something like that. I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved my mom and your Grandpa Aang; he always tried to make time for me even though he had no real reason to. And your Great Uncle Sokka was around as much as he could be. They were good people, and looking back I understand why they weren't always there, but when you're a kid it's all a lot harder to take in. We didn't know how to handle it. But that's why your dad and I have worked so hard to give you and your brother and your sisters a better set up than what we had. I know you love your Aunt Kya and Su and Uncle Bumi, but they aren't perfect, and they've made a lot of mistakes that we don't want you guys repeating. That doesn't mean we don't want you to be like them at all, or that we'd love you less if you were. But there's a reason your dad and I weren't on speaking terms with the three of them for years at a time. They had a lot they needed to figure out, and we had our own issues to come to terms with. I know you've had a lot of things thrown at you in the last two years, and you had to grow up too fast and see some horrific stuff, and on top of all that you've gotta contend with becoming a teenager. But I feel like you've got a whole support system of people here that want to help you, and you shouldn't have to resort to acting out or sneaking around like they did. If you're drowning there's at least seven of us here right now that'll jump in to save you, I can promise you that."
Yunjin averted his gaze and chewed on the inside of his cheek, as uncomfortable with the heartfelt conversations as his mother usually was. Although, for once Lin did not feel so out of place. Giving her kids guidance had become second nature.
"I know that," Yunjin murmured in response as he picked at what Lin presumed to be some nonexistent lint on his pants. "I'm fine. I'm not losing my mind or something. I just want to have fun while I can before I have to become Dad."
Now Lin was confused. "Nobody ever said you had to become your father."
"Well who else will?" Yunjin scoffed. "I'm the only airbender besides Sora, and she likes girls so she'll probably never have kids, so I have to, even though Dad just banned me from dating. And it's not like I can just do whatever I want. I'm gonna have to train new acolytes and teach my kids how to be airbenders and that's the only life I'll ever have."
It was like a blow to the chest, hearing her son say it out loud, and Lin had to sit still for a moment as she tried to catch her breath. It was what she had never wanted for her children, but the cost she knew one of them would pay if she chose to have children with Tenzin. The combination of their DNA would have never produced more than two airbenders out of four, and it was a miracle they had even ended up with two. She had thought that would solve most of the problem, so that the twins would share the burden and it would not seem so onerous, but Yunjin was not entirely wrong. Even with Sora's help, he had a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, and especially now that he was probably the only one that would have kids. How could he not when the entire Air Nation was at stake?
Lin swallowed her own feelings on the matter and reasoned, "Your father does more than that, and even if you do have to take on some of those responsibilities, it doesn't mean your life is over, or that you have to do everything exactly the same way. You never knew your Grandpa Aang, but I promise you he wasn't half as serious as your father. Of course you'll still have to be an adult and that's no fun, but you don't have to be exactly like your father. Not that he's a bad example to follow though. I know you think he's always ruining your fun, but I think someday you'll realize that you kind of have the greatest dad in the world."
Yunjin raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Take it from me, kid," Lin persisted. "I had a terrible father, and your Aunt Su never even knew who hers was. I would have never married your dad and had kids with him if I thought he'd be awful at it. I know neither of us is perfect, but you can't forget all the good your father's done for you just because you're unhappy with him now."
She could see by the look on his face that she was getting through to him, but he was at least as stubborn as she was, and he wasn't about to give in that easily when his anger towards his father was so fresh in his mind.
Instead, he changed the subject by saying, "I thought you never knew who your dad was? How'd you know he was terrible?"
She could have lied, could have saved herself having to voice out loud a truth that she had long ago buried somewhere deep inside her, but she had already told Yunjin more than she had ever told the kids before, what could a little more hurt? And explaining the situation with her father might shed further light on Tenzin's reaction, and also show that having a dad like Tenzin was certainly something to be a little thankful for.
"I lied," Lin admitted. "It was easier to say I never knew him, and frankly I wish I never had. He was only around for a few years, and by the time I was a teenager I stopped seeing him altogether. When I was around seven or eight he became an alcoholic, a mean one, and then he got into even worse stuff, and his anger was always directed at the people that tried to help him, like my mom and me. He was in and out of prison and let his addictions ruin his life. I think you can guess why I didn't want to tell you about that when you were little."
Yunjin sat up a little straighter, expression serious and a little incensed. "Well he sounds like a jerk. I'd punch him in the face for you if he was still around."
Lin snorted. "I appreciate that. But can you see how stuff like that has made your dad really hate alcohol?"
Yunjin wrinkled his nose. "That's not fair. I'm not gonna be like that guy."
"I know you're not," Lin assured. "I know you were probably just curious, but considering the family history with alcohol it's not all that insane for your dad to be overly cautious."
"He let's you drink," Yunjin countered. "And Ronen drank just the other day –"
"Ronen is an adult and wasn't sneaking around behind our backs," Lin interjected with a dismissive wave of her hand. "And your Dad bitches at me for drinking too. The difference is that I'm a lot older than you. Your brain is probably still developing and you have no idea how to limit yourself. Teenagers die from alcohol poisoning, or from doing something incredibly stupid because they're too drunk to have any common sense. I just want you to recognize this as more of a big deal than you're making it out to be."
Yunjin made a sound halfway between a frustrated sigh and a groan while rolling his eyes. "I know, I know. Can we just be done with the lecture? I get it. Dad hates liquor. I should be better than all of you. Blah, blah, blah."
Now Lin was annoyed, and she let the frustration creep into her own voice as she snapped, "I don't think you do get it. You gotta stop being stubborn for five seconds and listen to me. This punishment isn't because your father thinks less of you. It's because you're one of the most important people in the world to him and he doesn't want to see something terrible happen to you. And anyways, you're mad over nothing. You know he'll eventually let you see Jinora again, well, assuming her parents don't ban her from the island. But even then I'm sure your dad would grovel to Pema and Anil on your behalf."
"Fine," Yunjin huffed, still not fully conceding. "I'll be the perfect son from now on to please Dad. If that's what I have to do to see Jinora."
Lin smacked her hand against her forehead and shook her head, muttering, "You're still not getting this." She rose up out of the chair to step in front of Yunjin, grasping both of his shoulders firmly and shaking him slightly. "Listen to me," she implored. "No one wants you to stop being yourself. You just need to have more respect for certain boundaries. Look, just think about what I've said, yeah?" When Yunjin begrudgingly nodded, she patted his cheek and then leaned in to kiss him on the forehead, smirking when he wriggled away from her with a wrinkled nose and a disgruntled expression. "I love you, airhead, even when you're being a giant pain in the ass. Got it?"
Yunjin rolled his eyes but conceded, "Yeah I know, Ma." Content with that for now at least, Lin turned to leave, to give Yunjin time to process all that she had said, but before she could make it out the door, he called to her once more, "Hey, Mom?" She turned back to face him as he asked, "How long were you and Aunt Su not on speaking terms? I remember Aunt Kya and Uncle Bumi not being around as much when we were little, but I'm pretty sure Aunt Su was around a lot."
Lin considered the question, trying to count the years. It had been so long since her estrangement with Su that she almost couldn't remember. "I think it was about ten years," she answered. "She came back to Republic City around the time I found out I was pregnant with you. Before that we hadn't spoken since she was sixteen."
Yunjin's eyes went wide. "Jeeze! It was that long? What happened with you guys? It can't have just been the thing with your mom."
Unconsciously, Lin reached up to scratch the twin scars on her cheek, feeling a sudden discomfort as if the wound was still fresh and not decades old. When she realized what she was doing she dropped her hand back down to her side and shook her head. "That's a story for another night, kid. I'll see you in the morning. Do me a favor and don't run away before then."
Yunjin sighed in exasperation, but said no more, so Lin slipped out the door before she could be any further consumed by old memories.
After leaving Yunjin's room, Lin went to check her own bedroom to see if Tenzin had returned yet, but he was nowhere to be found. So she journeyed back down the hall, heard Sora and Akira still speaking in hushed voices inside Sora's room, and peeked in to check on Jeia, who was still sleeping peacefully. Next, Lin went outside and made the short trek to the meditation pavilion. There she found her husband, sitting prone in the dark, legs folded underneath of him and hands in his lap. Lin walked quietly around the edge of the circle until she could lean against one of the railings and still see his face, which was illuminated slightly by the moonlight trickling in through the gaps. She folded her arms across her chest and silently observed him, waiting for him to open his eyes, knowing he would have sensed her arrival. He was still too agitated to be deeply ensconced in his meditations; she could see his fingers twitching in his lap.
After a few moments of silence, he sighed heavily and, without opening his eyes, murmured, "I was too hard on him, wasn't I?"
"Nah," Lin dismissed, "he'll get over it. The kid needed a wake up call anyways."
Tenzin's shoulders slumped as he finally peered up at her and solemnly lamented, "He hates me."
"He didn't mean it," Lin asserted, pushing away from the beam to stride closer, her shadow falling over him.
"He's never said that to me before," Tenzin murmured, gazing off into the distance. "He's been angry with me a hundred times, but he's never said that he hated me."
"Well he's a teenager now," Lin reasoned. "Teenagers are assholes and you took away his first girlfriend. Speaking of, how'd it go with Pema and Anil?"
Tenzin winced, meeting Lin's gaze as he admitted, "Not well. Jinora was crying and Pema was angry. She wanted to know why it was even possible for the kids to get to the liquor."
Lin rolled her eyes. "Of course, because perfect Pema would never have been duped by two teenagers. Did you explain to her that she maybe should have ran it by us before she sent her kid over here on the word of said teenagers?"
"I did tell her that there was a lot going on here, and that we wanted to send Jinora home sooner, but the kids promised to behave and then snuck off when we were putting Jeia to bed. She argued that we should have sent Jinora home immediately or kept a better eye on them. She's not entirely wrong."
"Except she's blaming us for shit that her kid was just as involved in," Lin grumbled.
"Would you have been any less angry if Yunjin had done this at Pema's house?" Tenzin countered, raising a disbelieving brow.
"Yeah well I've got a bunch of spirits invading my home. What would be Pema's excuse? That she got caught up with her knitting?"
"Even so, I don't see you being anymore forgiving if she had a valid excuse. Anil calmed her though, for Jinora's sake at least. The girl insisted that she was just as much at fault and that Yunjin didn't goad her into it, but she may have just said that to protect him."
"I'm sure she didn't protest much," Lin said. "Those two don't tend to disagree on much. She used to be good at calming him though. Now it just seems like he's rubbing off on her."
"I just don't know why he's so keen on rebelling," Tenzin said with a shake of his head. "It's not as if we stifle him. The only thing we ask is that he be more considerate and use more caution. He's getting older. He risks his entire future now."
"Yeah, about that," Lin said carefully, easing down onto the floor next to Tenzin. "I talked to him before I came looking for you. He's still being obstinate, but I think I figured out some of his problem. He thinks you don't like him. And not just because of the Jinora thing."
Tenzin recoiled at the revelation, astonishment showing on his face. "He thinks I don't like him? What on Earth does he think?"
"He sees how mad you get at Bumi and thinks that you're just as irritated when Yunjin does something similar," Lin explained. "I told him he's nuts to think you don't love him, but it might be better coming from you."
Tenzin shook his head, looking stunned. "I can't believe he would…how could he…I tell him I love him all the time!"
"Things have been crazy lately," Lin pointed out. "And most of the attention Yunjin gets is discipline. Maybe he's acting out for a reason, or several reasons. You know the kid doesn't express his feelings much."
"He's like you," Tenzin sighed.
"Yeah, but you've been getting through to me for like forty years now. I'm sure you can do the same for him."
"I'll talk to him in the morning," Tenzin declared, looking determined despite his clear despair.
Lin reached out to squeeze his thigh. "It'll be fine. He'll wise up eventually. This is just one of those rough patches."
"I hate that he doubts my love for him," Tenzin muttered, leaning over to rest his head on Lin's shoulder, seeking comfort in her embrace.
She put her arm around him and tilted her head against his. "I think he knows. He's just confused at the moment. But I talked it out with him, tried smoothing some of it over. Let him sleep on it."
"Speaking of smoothing things over, please tell me that you found Bumi and Yoji before they could cause too much trouble."
"Other than discovering that police headquarters has been turned into a party palace," Lin grumbled, "there wasn't much excitement, surprisingly enough. They must not have had enough time to cause mayhem, or we'll read about it in the newspapers tomorrow, one of the two. I found Kya too, so she's with Bumi now."
"How is she?" Tenzin asked. "I'm assuming her being here means that her reunion with Yumae didn't go well."
Lin shrugged. "She didn't tell me much, but she's definitely upset. She's here now though. Sora will know how to cheer her up."
Tenzin heaved a weary sigh. "It feels as if every time we avert one crisis, ten more take its place. I know we've always been bogged down with worries, but it seems to be escalating of late. And I thought the children were supposed to get easier as they got older."
Lin snorted. "Maybe when they're in their thirties. It has been pretty dramatic since Korra came to the city, which was to be expected. The fact that we've all but let our siblings move in with us doesn't help matters."
"Do you think they'll stay here to torment us for the rest of our lives?"
"Oh I'd bet money on it, but one of these days we'll move somewhere they can't follow us," she jested. "We'll leave the island to Bumi, or the twins if they want it."
"How soon can we leave?" Tenzin asked eagerly, tilting his head slightly to smile up at her.
"If we start packing now we can leave as soon as Ronen gets back," Lin replied with equal humor.
Tenzin chuckled lightly. "You know you would be stuck with me a lot more often without so many distractions around."
"Dear, I've been stuck with you for several decades and you haven't heard me complain yet, have you?"
"Only mildly," Tenzin teased. "Although I wouldn't necessarily say that you've been stuck with me. You are free to leave at anytime."
Lin scoffed. "And where would I go? You're one of the few people on the planet that I actually like being around."
"And I'm honored to be one of them," he murmured, kissing the side of her neck that he could reach with his head still resting on her shoulder. "Have I told you lately how much I love you?"
"Probably, but never hurts to hear it again." She trailed her fingers up his spine until she could knead the tense muscles around his neck and shoulders, and turned her head so that she could place a kiss against his brow. Then she let her lips linger there, her eyes fluttering closed as she whispered softly, "You're the greatest dad in the world, by the way. And I'm not just saying that because you're the father of my children."
Tenzin snorted, but he shuddered slightly in her arms and she could hear the emotion making his voice wobble as he tried to joke, "You're only trying to butter me up because you want to get in my pants."
"Well that's certainly one of the perks to this relationship," she admitted, squeezing his thigh playfully.
Before Tenzin could react, a third voice rang through the pavilion, sounding like a delighted squeal, followed by Revol crowing, "You two are just marvelous."
Lin huffed irritably and immediately leapt to her feet, playful mood vanishing at the sight of the spirit of love swaggering over to her and Tenzin, who was slower in getting to his feet.
"What the hell?" she demanded.
"I'm sorry to intrude," Revol apologized with a low bow. "I heard about my brothers making it off the island and I simply wanted to apologize for not keeping a better eye out. I'm afraid I was…well, occupied elsewhere."
Lin was still incensed, half embarrassed and wondering how long the spirit had been hovering nearby, and also perturbed by the thought of what Revol might have been up to earlier while his bare chest was shining right before her face. "It's late, couldn't your apology have waited until morning?" she snapped. "And how many times do I have to tell you to put on a damn shirt?!"
With that said, she stormed off before she could embarrass herself further, with Revol shouting to her retreating form, "Love is nothing to be ashamed of, darling! Bask in the beauty of your odd ways of affections! I'll see you two at breakfast!"
Lin was still muttering under her breath as she stomped back to the house, but Tenzin was chuckling quietly as he sidled up next to her with his long strides.
"What are you laughing at?" she demanded.
Tenzin kept on smiling as he slipped his arm around her waist and said, "Nothing, dear. You're just incredibly cute."
"I am not cute," Lin scoffed, giving him a sharp, irate look and immediately shoving him away from her, but it was half-hearted and he only staggered for a second before tugging her back into his side.
He said no more on the matter, but she could feel his body still trembling with amusement. She dropped the frustration though, and did not try to stifle his mirth. She was simply glad that his spirits had been raised, if only for a little while. All was not perfect yet, but Lin had learned over the years to take whatever moments they could get. After all, once the spirits left and Yunjin and Tenzin made up, they'd finally be able to find some sort of normalcy. With everything that had been happening lately, Lin thought that surely it would all calm down soon…
Ever since his brief meeting with Koh, Ronen had been feeling rather uneasy, and that chill of foreboding did not dissipate the farther he and his friends journeyed through the outskirts of Koh's domain. Ronen had no idea if they would ever be able to convince Koh to help them, and he certainly did not know if it was even safe to try. As much as Ronen wanted to help Qinggan, he could not risk his family and friends to do so. Going into the Spirit World and risking his own neck was one thing, but bringing an entity like Koh back to his home was quite another. Ronen was not even sure that Koh's siblings would be safe around their brother considering their powerful emotions. It made Ronen worry for Epathi, who he believed, based on Koh's earlier words, would be somewhere nearby. However, whether or not Epathi would still have a face was yet to be seen.
Trekking through the vast, dreary landscape was clearly bumming everyone out. They had been making such good progress, even with the brief snafu with Yangra, and now it seemed as if they may be about to hit a dead end. How could they return home empty handed now? Koh's domain was giving them all the creeps, which made most of them very quiet, but made Bolin very chatty. He was nervously spouting off all kinds of random factoids, mostly from his time making movers with Varrick, who was still missing after escaping prison during the UnaVaatu crisis. None of the others pressed Bolin to stop, despite how uninterested they may have been in the topic. His voice was comforting as opposed to whatever silence may ensue without it.
Bolin did go abruptly quiet though, when Ronen came to a sudden halt. The rest of the group stopped too, and there was a collective inhale when they spotted what Ronen had.
There was a humanoid spirit a few meters away from them, likely female based on the flowing hair and the long, dark blue dress. She was facing away from them, and it was impossible to tell with her back turned whether or not she was one of Koh's victims. She was standing very still, like many of the faceless beings in the area, and Ronen feared that they were too late, that the spirit was Epathi and she would be faceless.
Steeling himself for whatever outcome, Ronen sucked in a deep breath and stepped closer, softly calling to the spirit, "Hello?"
The spirit did not react at first, so Ronen continued to move forward, and then Korra came up next to him, and then all five of them were approaching the spirit together.
As they drew nearer, the spirit turned her head slightly, but her hair fell in the way and they still could not tell if she had a face.
"Epathi?" Korra called. "Is that you?"
The spirit lifted her hand to swipe her hair aside, and then turned the whole way around to face the group. To Ronen's great relief, she did have a face still, unlike the rest of the beings in the area. She was beautiful and otherworldly, and looked a lot like Qinggan. When she caught sight of the group, her expression turned to a mixture of surprise and worry.
"Who are you?" she replied. "How do you know my name?"
"I'm Korra. I'm the Avatar. And these are my friends – Ronen, Asami, Bolin, and Mako. We've been looking for you."
"You should not be here, Avatar," Epathi said, looking deeply concerned. "It is dangerous, especially for humans. Even I nearly lost myself in this place."
"Why are you here?" Mako asked.
"Koh lured me here after Harmonic Convergence," Epathi explained. "I'm afraid I have been lost here since that time. The sight of his victims…it is so deeply troubling to my very being. I cannot help but wander with them. Their faces may be gone but their internal sufferings are not."
"And you can sense that sort of thing?" Asami sought to clarify. "Because of your empathy?"
"You all seem to know a great deal more about me than I do of you," Epathi observed. "Why have you come here looking for me?"
"It's about your mother," Korra began, and Epathi immediately drew in a sharp breath. "She's in the mortal world at the moment. When we met her she was…"
As Korra struggled for words, Epathi finished, "Empty? Incapable of feeling emotions of her own?"
"You knew?" Bolin asked in surprise.
Epathi nodded grimly. "I have been aware of my mother's plight for quite some time. I am curious, however, as to why it has brought you five here. Has she caused any problems?"
"Nothing like that," Ronen assured. "We were concerned for her is all. We wanted to help. I had heard many of the legends surrounding your family, and I thought that if we were to reunite you and your siblings with your mother that she might be able to recover."
"I have theorized something similar myself," Epathi agreed, "but I'm afraid many of my siblings cannot understand the complex feelings of others. They believed that I worried too much, that mother seemed perfectly fine when they were with her. They could not see that her emotions depended upon theirs. Any attempt I made at bringing us all back together was ultimately a failure."
"Well then we've got good news!" Bolin declared. "We got almost all your siblings together. Once we get you and Koh back to Air Temple Island it'll be official."
Epathi appeared to be shocked. "All of them, you say? How did you manage to convince them? I've been telling them for centuries."
"I guess hearing it from strangers finally convinced them," Ronen reasoned. "Believe me, my siblings rarely listen to anything I say either."
"Well, I am quite impressed," Epathi said. "So six of my siblings and my mother are currently together in the mortal world? You're certain of this?"
"That's where we told them to go," Korra confirmed. "Ronen's family should be keeping them all together while we finish up here. We ran into some troubles with Yangra, but Revol convinced her easily enough."
Asami added, "We were hoping you might have a similar sway over Koh."
"I wasn't very successful in convincing him myself," Ronen admitted.
Epathi appeared deeply regretful as she confessed, "I'm afraid my brother is even more unreasonable than Yangra. I cannot hardly recall a time when he was at all agreeable. Before he took the name Koh, my brother was called Apathi. He believed that by bringing emotions into the universe, our mother had ruined it, and he was the only one that could right it. He was the first of us to strike out on his own, desperate to escape our strong emotions, and with his departure our family began to separate. Apathi had taken on a new form and a new name, and as he began stealing faces, it became all the more imperative for the rest of us to spread emotions across the world. However, Mother and I could see the danger in leaving him to his own devices, and before the family fully diverged, we trapped him here, so that he could not have free reign of the world. Every so often he attempts to escape, and every so often he lures me here with whispers, begging me to come and speak with him, telling me that he is lonely here, that he might stop stealing faces if only I'd give him a chance. I ignore him most of the time, but some days the pull is too strong. Sometimes I worry that I was wrong to have trapped him here. He used that against me once again, which is how you came to find me here. I am not surprised that you had no luck in convincing him to help our mother."
"So you're saying there's no chance of safely getting you all back together?" Mako inquired, sounding frustrated.
Epathi shook her head. "That is not what I'm saying. I do have an idea that may work, but you aren't going to like it."
It sounded terribly ominous, and maybe they were meddling in something they should have just left alone, but they had come so far, and to go back empty-handed now would make all of their efforts worth nothing. Plus, if there was a chance of stopping Koh from being a face-stealer, then surely they had no choice but to try. So Ronen exchanged a look with Korra, and at his nod, the Avatar turned to face Epathi once more and said firmly, "Let's do it."
Notes:
-My sincerest apologies for the terribly long delay. Taking five classes and working five days a week is a major time suck and I have been too exhausted to give this story proper attention. I've only got two classes for the summer though, so I shouldn't keep you waiting so long for the coming chapters! Next up will be the finale of this spiritual side journey, and then we should be coming up on the beginning of season three. Exciting stuff to come, so I hope you're all still hanging with me and enjoying the journey. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and until next time.-
Chapter 71: Chapter 71
Chapter Text
Chapter 71
Epathi did not further explain the plan she had devised in an effort to sedate her brother and bring him to Republic City. Instead, she told Ronen and Korra and the others to wait outside of the ancient tree where Koh resided, and not to come in and intervene no matter what they heard. She told them that if she did not return after a few minutes that they should leave the Spirit World at once and forget about their mission. Ronen highly doubted that any of them would actually adhere to that last rule, but all five of them nodded in agreement.
Before she entered, Epathi told them, "Thank you all for everything you have done to help my mother. Even if this does not work, you have given her more time with her children than she has had in a long time. I know that it will sustain her for many years to come."
"No thanks necessary," Korra replied. "We were happy to do it. Good luck in there. I hope to see you soon."
"Goodbye, Avatar Korra," Epathi said with a serene smile. "It was a pleasure to meet you in this life."
With that, Epathi turned and descended into Koh's domain, her shimmering figure disappearing into the dark void.
After a brief, heavy silence, Bolin gulped loudly. "Oh man I've got a bad feeling about this."
"I'm sure she'll be fine," Korra said dismissively, even as she began worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
"That goodbye didn't sound so optimistic," Mako pointed out.
"What are we supposed to do if she doesn't come back?" Asami asked.
"That's worst case scenario," Ronen placated. "We don't know yet that her plan won't work."
"If it doesn't I say we do what she told us to do," Mako insisted. "If she can't turn Koh around then we certainly can't."
"That's not true," Korra argued. "We're the ones that got the rest of her siblings together. You heard what she said, about how she had been trying for centuries."
"Yeah well this is a little more serious than convincing a few hyper spirits to go hang out with their mother," Mako countered.
Korra huffed in frustration. "You're so defeatist, Mako. Can't you ever have faith in anything?"
Mako rolled his eyes. "I'm being practical. You should try it some time."
Korra began to heatedly say, "And you should –"
But Ronen interrupted with a terse, "Shhhh! I think I heard somethi –"
It was about that time that a shrill noise emanated from within the alcove where Epathi had disappeared.
Korra immediately lurched forward, but Ronen lunged to intercept her. "No!" he cried. "You can't go in there!"
"She needs help!" Korra asserted, struggling against his grip. "We have to help her!"
"You'll only make it worse!" Ronen insisted, gritting his teeth as he pushed back against Korra's strength. "Look at you! If you go in there expressing emotion you're a goner! Your Avatar powers won't save you."
"We can't just leave her," Korra reasoned. "Bolin, back me up here."
"Aw man, but this guy is so creepy," Bolin squeaked.
"Give it a minute," Mako asserted, moving a few steps closer to listen. "Maybe it's not as bad as it sounds…"
But the longer Ronen listened, the sharper and more guttural the sound, and the more it began to resemble an agonized wail, until eventually it became a very clear scream of unimaginable pain.
Asami was the first to say, "Screw it. I'm going in there."
And the other three went hastily with her, and then Ronen was standing alone with his spluttered protests dying on his tongue. He made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat before rushing after them. If they were going to insist on going in then he had to try his best to protect them from whatever was happening.
The five of them burst onto the scene ready to fight, and Ronen pushed his way forward to get in front of his friends, schooling his features into a neutral expression despite the way his heart was hammering in his chest. First, he saw Koh, his massive, centipede-like body writhing and flailing around the tight, dark space. The screams were even louder up close, and distinctly feminine, and Ronen thought for a moment they might be coming from Epathi. But when he saw Epathi's form just a few feet away from Koh's gesticulating body, she was standing eerily still, and a slight shift of his stance gave him the angle he needed to realize that she had no face.
The sounds were coming from Koh, who had stolen his sister's face at last and was now so consumed by an immeasurable pain that he did not even notice the five emotional humans standing right in front of him.
"What's he doing?" Korra exclaimed. "What's happening?"
"He's taken Epathi's face!" Mako said in shock when he noticed the same thing that Ronen had.
Asami gasped. "Oh no!"
"We've gotta get out of here," Bolin fretted. "It's like he's gonna explode!"
"We're not leaving here without Epathi," Korra declared. "And he's not gonna explode." She looked to Ronen uncertainly and muttered, "Right?"
Ronen shook his head in bewilderment. "I don't know what's happened. I think he may be overwhelmed. Epathi's emotions are undoubtedly a thousand times more powerful than a human's. By taking her face and her energy into himself he's feeling empathy for the first time and it's…doing something to him."
"Will it kill him?" Asami asked.
"Probably not," Ronen said without total surety.
Their answer came just a moment later when, with one last guttural whine, Koh bent over backwards and expelled a great force from within his sternum. Epathi's faceless form was struck by the blinding oddity and staggered a few steps before righting herself. She shook her head and then gasped in a desperate breath of air through her mouth, which had been returned to her head along with the rest of her face.
Meanwhile, Koh bent low to the ground and scurried to a dark corner, curling up tightly against the wall of his den, his insect body trembling. Ronen cast his arms out and began backing up, forcing his friends further from the scene, still concerned that Koh might turn on them.
But he needn't have worried. Epathi stepped purposefully forward, kneeling before her brother and placing a gentle hand on his large head.
Koh cringed away from her touch and gasped, "Wh - what have you done to m - me?"
"I did nothing, brother," Epathi whispered. "The agony you're feeling belongs to your victims. By taking on my essence you felt it just as strongly as I do. It is what you would feel if you succeeded in taking the faces of all the humans and spirits in our worlds."
"How can you stand it?" he rasped. "This torture. This feeling. It's maddening."
"It is natural and necessary," Epathi corrected. "It is what makes life worth living. What is life without emotion?"
"You can keep them," Koh spat. "I'll give them back. All of them. Just so long as I never have to feel that ever again."
"I am glad to hear it," Epathi said with plain relief, glancing briefly over her shoulder at Ronen and the others to give them a quick smile. Ronen looked at his friends and was glad to see they were just as surprised as he was. "Shed this form, Apathi. Return to our family, to mother. Only then will you remember what it is to have peace."
Koh shuddered and bowed his head, releasing a ragged, weary sigh. His whole body shook and bent in half in a sudden spasm. A radiant light flashed for a single moment, and then the centipede began to crumble and crack. Ronen and the others watched in awe as Koh shed his form and once again became Apathi. He was humanoid, like the rest of his siblings, but with pale, gray skin; a thin, lanky body; and dull, short hair. His face was entirely expressionless, mouth set in a thin line and black eyes all but vacant. Even in his original form he was chilling to behold, but from out of the centipede husk beside him emitted several orbs that rocketed past Ronen and the others and up out of Koh's den. Ronen could only surmise that it was the faces Koh had stolen, released after centuries to return to their bodies.
"Welcome back, brother," Epathi said, squeezing his shoulder. Apathi merely inclined his head in response. Epathi turned to Ronen and his friends, who were still watching with bated breath and half stunned into silence. She smiled reassuringly. "Now we can return to Mother."
Bolin was the first to speak as he burst out, "That was awesome!"
Korra stepped forward to address Apathi saying, "I'm Avatar Korra. It's, uh, good to meet you, Apathi. We'll be happy to take you back to the mortal world with us, but we aren't going to have any problems, are we?"
"I have shed my former self," Apathi said in a dull tone, "and my ability to steal faces along with it."
"And what will happen to your former victims?" Ronen asked.
"Their faces will be returned, and they will no longer be tethered to this place. They will be free to wander the Spirit World."
"What about this place?" Korra questioned further. "The Forest of the Face Stealer? What will happen to it once you leave?"
"Of that I am not certain," Apathi admitted. "Either the forest will shrivel and die or manifest a new face stealer to take my place."
"Uh, let's hope for the former," Mako muttered. "If it's all the same to you we should get going. I'm ready to get back home."
Ronen couldn't have agreed more, and Bolin said, "Oh yeah. I'm starving."
"You guys ready?" Korra asked the spirit siblings.
Epathi nodded on behalf of them both and confirmed, "Let's go. I can't wait to see the family."
The morning after all the excitement, breakfast was late and scattered on Air Temple Island. Yunjin didn't come out of his room, Su and Sora and Akira ate early before Lin or Tenzin even awoke, and Jeia stumbled into the dining room as her parents were eating, rubbing her eyes and demanding tea as if she were forty years old and not five. Kya and Bumi were the last to have breakfast, both of them with shadows under their eyes and small appetites, but mostly their chipper selves. Lin, Tenzin, and Jeia stayed to talk with Kya and Bumi, who weren't entirely thrilled but too tired to run away. Tenzin chastised Bumi for running off with the spirits the night before, and then implored both of his siblings to cut back on all the alcohol when they were around their nieces and nephews.
Kya and Bumi were saved from an extended lecture when Sora reentered the dining room with a trail of spirits and Akira behind her. Akira had been just as bewildered as her mother by the emotion spirits, but had spent the morning being introduced to most of them by Sora. The younger girl was eager to impress and educate her cousin, and Akira was interested to learn, at least for the time being. Akira was a lot like her mother but with much less patience. She liked to be actively engaged at all times and couldn't stand to be idle. Meeting the spirits was interesting now but she'd probably be bored in a day or two.
Daifra and Dasne were with Sora and Akira. Sora had happily taken the most timid of Qinggan's spirit children under her wing. The girl seemed to be naturally drawn to troubled souls, so that her bright and caring personality might soothe them. It had certainly helped Lin several times, and seemed to be at least calming Daifra and Dasne to a reasonable level. The spirit sisters were both so skittish and sensitive, but Sora knew how to soothe them when the Island was too much for them to bear. Sora had done much the same for Qinggan earlier in the week, but the spirit mother was improving on her own as more of her children arrived. She had stopped gluing herself to Sora's side and began to emerge from her gray shell with something reminiscent of her own personality. It was still imperative that she not be left alone, but she was partially less impressionable to the emotions of a single person.
When Sora and the others entered the kitchen, Sora said to her parents, "There you are. Aunt Su's been looking for you."
"What does she want now?" Lin asked.
"It's about Qinggan's last two children," Sora answered. "She's worried about Ronen and the others."
"That's what she said last night," Lin huffed. "I already told her that there's no sense worrying over something we can't control."
"What are you talking about?" Kya said groggily. "You always worry about things you can't control."
"Why is Su worried about Ronen?" Tenzin demanded, turning to Lin with apprehension of his own. "What did she tell you?"
Bumi interjected, waving his hand dismissively, "Those kids will be fine. They've been in tougher spots before, and the rest of these spirits are pretty docile. How bad can the last two be?"
"I don't know," Lin replied to Tenzin. "I didn't want her to tell me who it was because I wouldn't have known anyways and I didn't want to have something else to be concerned about."
"So you ignored the fact that Ronen and Korra may be in grave danger?" Tenzin said incredulously.
"It's not as if we'd be able to do anything about it," Lin defended. "By the time we got to the Spirit World it would probably be too late for us to warn them, and that's if we even managed to find them in there. Whatever they're facing, I'm sure they're capable of dealing with it. They've made it this far haven't they?"
Tenzin was still panicking when Su entered the dining room a few minutes later, and he didn't calm down at all when she revealed, "Koh the Face Stealer is Qinggan's son."
"Face stealer?" Lin repeated, horrified. "That's a real thing?"
"Well that settles it," Tenzin said firmly, jolting to his feet. "We must go into the Spirit World. For all we know, Ronen and the Avatar could be wandering around faceless right now!"
"And what would you do if you went in there?" Bumi scoffed. "Join them in the desert of faceless bodies?"
Daifra quivered as she quietly said, "Our brother's lair is not so much a desert as it is a foggy wasteland. I've only seen it the one time, but I vowed never to return. All those wandering souls…" She shuddered and spoke no more.
"I'm so sorry," Dasne whimpered. "I should have told the Avatar what she would be up against, but I – I thought she knew. They knew so much about us. I should have said something. If they do not return…" She, like her sister, trailed off, but also dissolved into tears.
Sora hastily began to reassure Dasne, "No, no, it isn't your fault at all." She squeezed the woeful spirit's wrist. "Korra and my brother knew that it would be a dangerous trip, but we must have faith that they will come through unscathed. I'm sure that once they come upon Koh's lair they'll know not to show emotion. My older brother's one of the smartest people I know. He'll know what to do."
Lin was beginning to get a sour feeling in her stomach, and Tenzin still fretted, "I should never have let them go there on their own. I should have went with them. If anything happens to them I'll never forgive myself."
"Hey, come on," Lin chastised him, rising to her feet as well and gripping his elbow. "I'm worried too, but I'm sure they'll be fine. You taught Ronen everything you know about the spirits. He'll recognize this face stealer and know what to do about it."
"She's right," Su added, when Tenzin still looked uncertain. "I'm sure the kids will be fine. What I'm mostly concerned about is how they intend to bring Koh here. According to Qinggan and Revol, the family trapped Koh in his own domain so that he could not freely wander the Spirit or mortal worlds stealing faces. But if Ronen and Korra free him in order to bring him here, there's no telling what could happen. We could be putting a lot of people in danger."
"I don't think they'd be stupid enough to bring a monster like that here without some kind of way to reign him in," Akira chimed in. "Then again I barely know what's going on so I could be wrong."
"No you're probably right," Kya said. "Those kids know what they're doing better than most of us. You shouldn't worry, Tenzin."
"How's this Koh person take faces anyways?" Lin questioned. "What happens to the person that loses it?"
"Koh can steal the face of anyone that expresses emotion in his presence," Tenzin explained grimly. "The bodies then wander his domain for many years, trapped somewhere between life and death."
Akira shook her head. "You all just go looking for trouble, don't you?"
"They really do," Kya confirmed.
Lin ignored them both and asked, "So they just have to be emotionless around Koh?"
"Well that's easy," Jeia said through a mouthful of food. "Ronen is really good at being dull."
Bumi snickered while Tenzin gasped, "Jeia!"
"What?" the girl replied with some annoyance. "Jin said it first."
"How do you even know what dull means?" Sora inquired. "Weren't you only like two years old a couple of days ago?"
"I'm five and a half, thank you very much," Jeia responded in that wobbly voice that made everything she said sound cuter. "And I know lots of words."
"Of course you do, sweetheart," Tenzin said, giving Jeia a tight smile that belied his persistent concern. "But maybe don't repeat the words your brother Yunjin teaches you."
"I never say the bad ones," Jeia defended. "He told me they'd make you guys mad."
"We'll discuss that later," Lin promised. "For now I say we all go back to worrying about the spirits we have got and wait patiently for the kids to come back. Who's watching Yoji?"
"He's with Yangra and Coragus last I checked," Su answered. "Qinggan's with Revol and Nira."
"Anger and courage?" Lin snorted. "That's a dangerous mix. Tenzin, why don't you go make sure Yoji isn't about to go raid a village with his siblings?"
Tenzin began to protest, "I highly doubt –"
But Lin continued, "Bumi, why don't you clean yourself up and then go check on Yunjin? He's not thrilled with us at the moment –"
Bumi muttered under his breath, "For good reason –"
"And I'd appreciate it," Lin tried not to seethe through gritted teeth, "if you'd talk him down."
"I'll go with him," Kya offered.
"I'm gonna make sure Nira and Revol are actually watching Qinggan," Lin said, stepping out from the dining table and holding her hand out to Jeia. The girl scrambled up onto her feet and raced over to latch onto her mother's hand.
The rest of the room began to shuffle around, intending to go and do as Lin had requested without argument. There was no sense in standing around worrying about Ronen and the others, and having a task would keep them all busy, at least for a little while.
As Lin was nearing the doorway, Sora asked, "What do you want me to do, Mom?"
Lin paused before the smiling teen, glancing over at the shivering Daifra and weepy Dasne and trying not to grimace. She patted Sora on the shoulder and said, "Just keep doing what you're doing, kid. You've been really great the last couple days." Especially considering that the kid had nearly died a week earlier. Looking at Sora now, Lin could almost forget the pale, lifeless shell the girl had been.
Sora nodded happily. "Okay, I will."
Suyin was waiting just outside the dining room when Lin and Jeia stepped out into the hallway, and she fell into step with her sister and niece as they walked towards the front door. "I'll come with you," Su said. "I've got something else I wanna talk to you about."
"If it's another problem I don't want to hear it," Lin grumbled.
"No, no more problems," Su assured. "Although you might see it as a problem. But it's really not."
"I'm assuming you'll get to the point sometime today."
Su grinned and opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated as her gaze fell on Jeia, whom she told, "Jeia, can you cover your ears for a few moments so I can tell your mom about some icky grownup stuff?"
Jeia rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, but did as her aunt requested and placed her hands over both of her ears as she continued to march forward next to her mother.
"Should I cover my ears too?" Lin asked warily.
"Oh no, you'll want to hear this. It's about Nira and Revol."
Lin shook her head rapidly and slapped her own hands over her ears saying, "Nope, don't want to know. Just stop right there."
She could hear Su laughing next to her and jostling her arm as she insisted, "Oh come on! Quit being a prude. Don't you want to know what they're up to?"
"No, I really don't," Lin muttered, but she dropped her hands back down to her sides because she had a feeling her sister was going to tell her anyways.
"Well I do," Su said, "and I need you to get more details."
Lin made a face. "Why on Earth would I do that? I thought you knew what was going on."
"I don't know everything," Su corrected, "but I know there's something. She was way too obvious when I confronted her about it earlier this morning. Nira is a terrible liar. She's a lot closer to you though and I bet she'll spill everything if you're there."
"Nira and I don't discuss those kinds of things," Lin countered. "Unlike you, we like to keep our private lives private."
Su rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Nira isn't half the stick in the mud that you are. She's just shy I think. You're really not at all curious about the fact that she's sleeping with a spirit?"
Lin wrinkled her nose. "I'm really not."
"You're not a good liar either. Fine. Maybe Kya will help me. Her and Nira have gotten closer lately haven't they?"
"Or you could just stop being so nosy," Lin suggested.
Su scoffed. "Well that's not like me at all."
Lin rolled her eyes but snorted in amusement. "Yeah, you're right."
"Can I uncover my ears now?" Jeia called loudly up to her mother. Lin nodded and Jeia immediately dropped her hands with a sigh of relief.
"Sorry, kid," Lin told her. "Your aunt never shuts up."
"Don't I know it," Jeia said seriously.
"Excuse me!" Su exclaimed, smiling even as she tried to look offended. "You'd better watch it, young lady. Or I'm gonna unleash the tickle monster." Su hunched over with a devious look and wriggled her fingers, and Jeia's eyes widened with alarm.
"Don't you dare!" Jeia warned.
Su made some sort of pathetic noise that Lin assumed was meant to be an animalistic snarl and lurched in Jeia's direction.
Jeia squealed and leapt back, and then took off running when Su lunged at her and nearly scooped the kid up. "Mama!" Jeia screeched. "Help!" But she was laughing as Su chased her so Lin let them run in circles for a bit instead of intervening.
Su chased Jeia the whole way to the greenhouse, where Nira, Revol, and Qinggan were. Nira was tending to some vegetables, while the two spirits trailed close behind her, looking over her shoulders and asking questions as she worked. All three of them looked up when Jeia came barreling in, Su and Lin not far behind.
"Help, Nira!" Jeia called, her voice echoing musically in the glass foundation as her little footsteps carried her quickly down the path. "The tickle monster! She's coming!"
Nira instantly dropped the potted vegetable back into its housing and turned, bending and opening her arms just in time for Jeia to leap into her embrace. Nira's hands were still covered in soil as she cradled Jeia close to her chest, smiling and soothing, "Don't worry, sweetheart. I won't let the monster get you."
Su stopped a few steps from Nira, hunching over and bracing her hands against her knees as she gasped for breath. "All right, all right," she wheezed. "You win this round! Truce?" She held out her hand for Jeia to shake, and after a moment of suspicion, Jeia held her own hand out to accept. Su, however, took the opening to tickle Jeia's ribs.
Jeia squealed and squirmed as Nira stepped backwards to try and save the girl. "No fair!" Jeia screeched. "You cheated!"
"You must always be on your guard!" Su countered, relaxing now with her hands on her hips and a satisfied smile on her face.
"That was very dishonorable!" Revol said through his own amusement, giving Jeia a sympathetic look. "But the tickle monster is quite a devious foe. It may be the one beast my brother Coragus cannot slay."
With all the spirit nonsense she'd been learning about lately, Lin wasn't even sure if Revol was making that up.
"Poor sweet girl," Qinggan cooed, peering over Nira's shoulder again, and reaching out to lightly brush a shimmery finger through Jeia's messy hair. "Do not listen to my son's frightful tales. You must not fear such monsters."
Lin almost snorted because Jeia was anything but sweet, which only became more apparent when, in response to Qinggan's soothing, she wriggled in Nira's grasp until the Acolyte let her down. And then she screwed her little face into a scowl and declared, "I'm not afraid of any monster!"
Revol and Qinggan exchanged amused glances, and Su chuckled as she ruffled Jeia's hair and said, "Yes, little warrior. We all know you're braver than the rest of us."
Jeia swatted Su's hand away and then perched her hands on her hips, puffing out her chest as if it would better prove her bravery.
"Well if you're so courageous," Revol challenged Jeia, "then certainly you must have the stories to prove it."
"Oh yes," Qinggan encouraged. "Do tell us of what monsters you've faced!"
The spirits were teasing probably, had no way of knowing what horrors the five year old had already seen in her short life, or the way that it made Lin's stomach turn at the innocent request. Part of her wanted to interrupt, to pick Jeia up and carry the kid away, to pretend none of it had ever happened and hope that Jeia would soon forget if the topic was never broached again. But Jeia did not forget anything. Lin's only hope for Jeia was that letting the girl tell her story of the Equalist Revolution would reduce its impact on her young psyche, turning the memories into just that, mere stories, to take away the fear of such monsters.
Jeia was only too happy to begin her tale, though she didn't start with the Equalists, but rather, a story of when her brother Yunjin had tried to frighten her with an icky looking bug. Revol and Qinggan listened with rapt attention, as most of the spirits did when Jeia spoke. The innocence and curiosity of children was apparently just as intriguing to the ancient spirits as it was to most humans.
Lin continued to linger at the edge of the group, her preferred method of observation as opposed to interaction, especially with such foreign visitors. Su was the opposite, eager to be involved, eager to talk nonstop.
Nira extracted herself from the small group early on, striding over to stand next to Lin instead, her voice soft as she inquired of Lin, "How are you?"
Lin figured Nira must have heard all about everything that had happened the night before by now. Most of the island knew, with the way gossip traveled among the acolytes. It used to drive Lin nuts when she was younger, because she couldn't hardly do anything without it getting back to Aang or Katara, and when she was having marriage troubles with Tenzin she was furious about her private life being discussed in every corner. Now, though, it was useful for her to find out what her children were up to when she wasn't around.
Lin sighed at Nira's question and admitted, "Tired. But fine. We'll be fine. I haven't gotten any calls from the police and Yunjin hasn't made his escape yet, so here's hoping."
Nira lowered her gaze guiltily as she apologized, "I'm so sorry, Lin. I should have known better. Everything was going so smoothly that I thought…I shouldn't have left until you and Tenzin were back. I can't help but feel responsible –"
Lin held up a hand to stall Nira's apology and shook her head. "You don't have to do that. It's not your responsibility to do all the work. We ask too much of you as it is."
Nira frowned, staring at Lin hard for a long moment before she replied, "That's not true. My responsibility is to this island and those kids. And I failed at both."
Lin continued to wave her hand dismissively. "I won't let you be faulted for having a life."
Nira continued to look troubled, her gaze darting in Revol's direction and lingering there for a few seconds before she turned back to Lin. "It was foolish. I'm a grown adult. There are more important things for me to worry about than running off for some scandalous tryst."
Lin grimaced because she really didn't want to think about it, but she insisted, "You're being too hard on yourself. And that's coming from me. You are an adult, which means you're entitled to relaxing now and then. You've spent most of your life taking care of everyone else. You deserve to take care of yourself too."
Nira's lips quirked up a little, halfway into a smile. "Thank you, Lin. I do appreciate you saying that. But –"
"No buts," Lin interjected. "I'm not gonna hold it against you and neither should you. And that's all I'll say about it."
She folded her arms stubbornly over her chest, as if daring Nira to argue, but the acolyte had known Lin long enough to recognize a losing battle when she saw one.
"Very well," Nira relented. "I'll, uh, keep that in mind. But are you certain there's nothing I can do to help? How's Yunjin?"
"Brooding still," Lin answered. "Kya and Bumi are with him now, but you can have dibs on the next talk with him. I'm just gonna keep sending people to tell him how much they love him until he gets so annoyed with us that he'll be forced to accept it."
Nira snorted. "Your devious way of parenting is truly inspiring."
"I have many talents, most of them devious," Lin said. "Which reminds me. If that Revol ever gives you trouble, you come find me."
Nira laughed at Lin's deadly serious expression. "Don't worry, Lin. You'll always be the first person I go to if I need to get revenge on someone."
Lin smirked. "I'm glad to hear it. I'd love to kick somebody's ass on your behalf."
Nira snorted. "I'm sure you would."
Suddenly Lin noticed that Jeia's chatter had abated, and a silence had descended upon the group of four that stood a few feet away. When Lin and Nira turned to look, they saw Jeia, Su, and Revol watching Qinggan, who had a hand pressed against her chest and an odd expression on her face. She looked pale, but Lin thought the spirits always looked sort of pale.
Lin and Nira crossed the short distance to see what was happening, just as Revol was touching his mother's arm with concern and asking, "What is it, Mother?"
Qinggan shook her head and confessed, "I am not certain. It felt like…it was only just a moment but… It was as if something has come undone."
"Could it have something to do with Koh?" Su questioned, sounding worried. "You said you had bound him to his place in the Spirit World. Could he have gotten free?"
Lin felt panic swelling within her, even though she had no idea what was going on or if she even had reason to worry. All she could think about was Ronen, her firstborn, traversing the dangerous Spirit World, facing off with monsters. She had been trying to hold it all in but as more days passed and the longer it took for him to return, the harder it became to maintain her carefully constructed composure.
She wanted to collapse, or maybe run straight to the spirit portal; she just wanted to do something. But Qinggan must have felt her distress, and reached out to touch Lin's shoulder with that ghost-like hand. The ancient spirit smiled, sympathy and reassurance both shining in those ever-changing eyes that were now a soft gold hue. "Do not worry for your son," Qinggan said quietly. "I have a feeling we'll be seeing him soon."
Lin worried for the rest of the afternoon. She didn't take lunch, nor did half of the rest of them. They were all thinking of Ronen and Korra and the others, hopeful that all five of them would return in one piece, but without anyway to contact them there was no way of knowing. They thought of Koh, too, this dangerous spirit once confined but possibly now free. Qinggan asserted that unless her son had returned to his former form that it was highly improbable that he could have escaped with the ability to wreak havoc on the world. But it was clear that the spirit family was feeling anxious too, most of them having not seen the formerly named Apathi in centuries. Lin did not like the idea of Ronen having to even approach the face stealer, let alone having that thing coming to her home where the rest of her family resided. She could only wait and trust that Ronen and Korra could handle it. Lin hated waiting.
The sun was just beginning to set when Sora came racing into the sitting room where most of the adults were gathered. The kids, the spirits, Kya, and Nira had all been outside in the courtyard, and Lin had been watching them from the open window. The girl was breathless as she announced to the concerned group, "They're back! Ronen's back!"
None of them hesitated to ask if Sora was certain, but came to their feet at once and hastened to follow her out into the courtyard.
In the west, the sun was low and bright, blinding as it shone directly into Lin's eye line. As she turned further to the east, however, in the direction the others were facing, the sky was a swirl of orange and pink, and a familiar shape was streaking through the clouds. It grew larger as it approached, but even from a distance Lin could recognize the outline of a sky bison.
She held her breath as the bison swooped down for a landing, and she felt Tenzin's hand squeezing tight around her own, his tension mingling with hers. But they need not have worried all that time.
When the bison touched down on the ground in front of the large waiting group, all five faces of Ronen, Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin were intact, and none of them looked worse for wear. In the saddle with them were two unfamiliar faces, two spirits clearly, and no doubt the final two of Qinggan's children, but for the moment Lin did not spare them more than a glance. She rushed forward along with several others as Ronen began to descend from the bison, and she was the first to reach him the moment his feet touched ground.
Ronen was grinning broadly, and Lin felt her cheeks straining too as she tugged him into her embrace. Relief swept over her and she felt the tension in her chest relax at long last. Tenzin joined the embrace, wrapping his arms tight around them both, and Sora and Jeia lingered close by.
"I told you I'd be back," Ronen said, his voice strained with how tight his mother was holding him.
"Yeah, yeah," Lin grumbled, pushing him out to arms length to look him over. "You all right?"
"Never better," Ronen confirmed. "How were things here?"
Lin groaned. "I'll tell you later."
"The spirits have all been rather well behaved," Tenzin assured when Ronen appeared concerned. "Well…for the most part."
Jeia shoved her way into the middle of the three of them then saying, "I wanna hug Ro!"
Ronen grinned and bent to lift his littlest sister up into his arms. "Jeia! I've missed you the most!"
"Hey, what about me?" Sora demanded, pressing in to get her own hug.
Ronen chuckled, pulling Sora into his other side. "You too of course. I hope Mom didn't make you do all the work with the spirits."
"Oh I was happy to do it," Sora said seriously. "They've all got such unique personalities. It's been really cool getting to know them. I'm glad you're back though."
"Yeah we were starting to get worried," Su chimed in as she joined the group.
"They have no faith in you," Yunjin added, apparently deeming his brother's return a good enough reason to finally come out of his bedroom. "I knew you'd be fine."
"Yeah, cause you know everything," Sora snorted.
"Mostly," Yunjin said to Sora before turning his attention back to Ronen. "You didn't miss much while you were gone, except that I'm grounded for life."
"Again?" Ronen teased, and Yunjin gave him an annoyed look.
"Ro," Jeia interjected, bouncing slightly in his hold to get his attention. "You wanna hear what I did?"
"Of course!" Ronen said with exaggerated excitement.
"I earthbended," Jeia proclaimed proudly. "For real this time!"
"That's awesome!" Ronen praised. "I knew you could do it. You'll have to show me later. I can't wait to see."
Bumi and Kya and Nira crowded in to get their hugs and express their own relief at seeing Ronen. Korra and the rest of her friends joined in too and soon everyone was talking over each other. Lin couldn't bring herself to look away from Ronen for too long, still convincing herself that he was home and safe. Her boy had returned, and her family was whole again.
So too was Qinggan's, as all of her children massed around her. They were all eager to greet the newest female arrival, the one called Epathi. Daifra all but sobbed relief as she rushed to embrace her sister, the one she had been so worried about according to what the fearful spirit had told Su. But all of the children of emotion appeared wary still of the other one, the spirit that Lin assumed was Koh, but his appearance was much different from what Tenzin had described earlier. Koh was supposed to be some creepy looking centipede type creature that wore the various faces of his victims. Epathi's pale opposite, however, was not a centipede, but he was still pretty creepy.
Some of Lin's answers came when Tenzin questioned Ronen, "How was it in the Spirit World? What happened with Koh? Is that him? Is it safe for him to be here?"
The humans all looked over to the other huddle as one, to the gaunt-looking spirit who was expressionless as Qinggan approached him.
"Yes," Ronen answered, and they all turned back to him, "that's Apathi, formerly known as Koh. He had no interest in coming here when we first spoke to him, but we found Epathi and she convinced him by giving him her face and overwhelming him with her emotions. He then agreed to revert to his original form so long as he never had to feel such things again. The faces of his victims have been returned, though whether or not there will be a new face stealer, we do not know. But Epathi assures us that Apathi left those abilities behind."
"He better have," Lin growled, glaring at the strange spirit from a distance.
She was still glaring when the humans intermixed with the spirits. Qinggan went to Ronen and Korra and their friends, hugging each one of them gratefully and expressing her gratitude for bringing her children to her.
Apathi eventually noticed Lin's deadly stare and said flatly, "You do know that your attempts at intimidation do not work on me, right? Yangra in her fiercest rage could not spark fear into me. How could you hope to?"
Lin folded her arms across her chest and muttered a few choice curses under her breath, striding the short distance over to her husband and muttering to him, "I can't wait for the spirits to leave."
Tenzin did not verbally respond, but the way he rolled his shoulders and gave her a brief, understanding look betrayed his slight agreement. He might have been more relaxed with the spirits, but he must have been just as exhausted as she was.
"So now what happens?" Bolin was asking Qinggan. "Are you better now?"
"I don't think it's quite that easy," Asami said.
"Is there something more we need to do?" Tenzin inquired.
"What can I do to help?" Korra offered.
"I can help too!" Sora added.
"I believe it's up to them now," Ronen surmised.
"You have all been immensely helpful," Epathi said with a pretty smile. "We can take it from here."
Now that she was surrounded by her children, Qinggan seemed to know what to do, instructing each of them to place a hand upon her. They all did so, and the humans watched with bated breath, silence descending for what must have been the first time all week. Qinggan closed her eyes and seemed to breathe in deep, and soon a spiraling light show was orbiting around her, a bit of the essences of each of her children making its way into her own dim, gray form. A rainbow of colors began to return to Qinggan, her hair vibrant and shimmering, her flowing gown revealing its intricate weavings and hues, her face no longer pale and empty, but alive with bold markings. When she opened her eyes they were a warm blue, and she smiled contentedly.
If asked, even Lin would have had to admit that she was in awe as she watched the spirit mother of emotions come back to life. Looking around her own group, she could see gaping mouths and happy smiles and teary eyes.
Qinggan's children also seemed to be affected by their mother's rejuvenation. Dasne was weeping, but Lin could have sworn she saw the mournful spirit's lips upturn just slightly into half of a smile, and her creepy, apathetic brother wordlessly handed her a handkerchief. Yangra's expression was almost soft and the flames in her hair were dim as she hugged her mother.
Revol swiped at his own tears as he said quietly, "Ah, the power of love. I never tire of witnessing such beauty."
Yoji was surprisingly calm, but still openly elated and beaming as he congratulated each of his siblings on a job well done and kissed his mother on the cheek. Coragus appeared moved by the whole thing, sniffling but not shedding a tear as he smiled and tugged Daifra into a one-armed hug. For once the fearful spirit was not trembling, and seemed to relax slightly in her brother's hold.
Qinggan embraced each of her children in turn, speaking hushed words to them that the humans could not hear, and she lingered a moment longer with Apathi with tears brimming in her eyes.
Then Qinggan turned to Ronen and Tenzin and everyone else, smiling brightly and expressing her gratitude. "Thank you all so much. I don't know how I can ever repay you for what you have done for me. Not only have I been restored to a more balanced self, but I have been reunited with all of my children. You," she said to Ronen and Korra and their friends, "were incredibly brave and resourceful in your search, and the rest of you," she looked around at all the others that had remained on the Island, her gaze lingering on Sora and Tenzin, "were so kind to welcome us into your home and your lives for the last few days. I know that Yoji can be quite the handful." Many of them chuckled and Lin nearly scoffed. That was an understatement. "It has been a great honor to meet each of you. I hope this is not the last we see of each other."
"You are welcome here anytime," Tenzin said graciously. "We have truly enjoyed your company."
"Oh I'll definitely be taking you up on that offer," Revol said with a wink, and Lin could hardly stifle her groan.
"Are you leaving so soon?" Korra asked, looking somewhat disappointed.
"You're welcome to stay a while longer," Ronen added.
"Yeah," Bolin agreed, wiping away his own tears of joy. "You can at least stay for tonight."
"You did say you wanted to explore Republic City some more," Bumi said to Yoji.
"I absolutely do!" Yoji confirmed. "But, there's a big spirit festival going on in the Earth Kingdom. It just so happens that every year around this time a few villages put together a party in Mom's honor, and now that we're all here it'd be rude not to go. You're welcome to join of course!"
"Well I'm down!" Bumi immediately agreed.
The rest of them were not so excited. Bumi tried to coax Kya into coming along but she shook her head and said, "I need a break from the traveling. I think Akira and I will stay here for a couple days. Assuming you don't mind, little brother."
Tenzin inclined his head and replied, "You're always welcome to stay of course." Which hadn't necessarily been true a few years ago, but a lot had certainly changed since then.
Sora asked her parents, "Can I go?" And when they both gave her a look she simply smiled and shrugged. "It was worth a try."
"I need to be getting back to my own family," Su admitted, "but I can drop you all where you're going if you'd like. I'm sure your way of travel is much faster, but if you're interested in riding in an airship…"
"I would certainly be interested in this flying ship of yours," Coragus declared.
Su and Bumi went to gather some of their things and then there was a flurry of farewells. Dasne was crying again about hating goodbyes, but Qinggan soothed her and Sora gave Dasne a hug that might have been crushing to a human. Ronen, Korra, and their friends seemed at first as if they might go along for the festival, but they were all clearly exhausted and ready to drop, and instead promised the spirit family that they'd be there for the next one.
Lin and her family hugged Su tight and swore they'd visit Zaofu as soon as possible. Then they hugged Bumi and Sora begged him to be careful and come home soon, while Tenzin told his brother to stay and enjoy himself in the Earth Kingdom as long as he liked. Bumi laughed heartily and slapped his brother on the back, and promised the kids he'd bring back presents.
Jeia was sad to see everyone leave and tugged on her father's sleeve until he bent down to pick her up. Yunjin was keeping to the edge of the group, still displeased with his parents and overall unhappy with his grounded state, but he was plainly trying to push aside his ire in order to say goodbye to everyone, particularly Yoji.
The spirits, Bumi, and Su eventually climbed aboard Su's airship, waving and shouting to everyone else standing at the bottom of the ramp. Before departing, Revol openly swept Nira up into his arms to kiss her passionately. When he stepped away the acolyte was blushing so hard her entire face turned red, and it did not abate in the slightest when Revol declared, "You are one of my greatest lovers, and I shall return for you soon, sweet Nira."
"Wait, what?" Ronen spluttered, he and the rest of his friends looking shocked, having missed the last few days of Revol's obnoxious flirting.
Incensed by Revol's lack of discretion, Lin all but chased him up the airship ramp, swearing to ban him from the Island.
Eventually the airship began to rise into the air, and Lin stood with her family and Nira, Mako, Bolin, Asami, and Korra as they watched it depart.
In the silence that ensued, Jeia murmured to her father, "Daddy, does the spirits not have their own daddy?"
"That's right," Tenzin softly confirmed. "Some spirits don't have a mommy or daddy. Qinggan was able to create her children on her own."
Jeia frowned at that. "I'm glad I am not a spirit. I'm glad you're my daddy."
She tightened her arms around Tenzin's neck, as if afraid he might disappear, and he smiled and hugged her close, kissing the top of her head. "I'm glad I'm your daddy too."
Lin observed Yunjin watching the exchange between his father and sister with a contemplative expression, and then the boy was sidling up next to his father. He made a face as if it pained him to say it, keeping his eyes forward and his voice terse as he muttered to Tenzin, "I'm glad your my dad too, but I'm still really mad at you and I think you went overboard banning me from Jinora. But…I'm sorry I said I hated you and I know I screwed up so…I'd appreciate it if you eventually forgive me and I'll work on not being such a pain."
Tenzin breathed in a deep breath of air before looking down at Yunjin and murmuring, "I'm sorry too. My intention was never to upset you. I just don't want to see you get hurt. I hope you know that I love you."
Yunjin nodded and glanced up at his father for just a moment. "Yeah, me too."
Tenzin smiled and reached over to squeeze Yunjin's shoulder. "We'll talk about it tomorrow, after morning meditation. I think we both have a lot to say. I'll further explain my own concerns and you have permission to tell me all the things you think I'm doing wrong by you. Perhaps we can come to a better understanding."
Yunjin snorted. "That sounds absolutely terrible and way too emotionally charged, but… I suppose it's worth it. I don't want to fight so much anymore."
"Nor do I," Tenzin agreed.
"Could I call Jinora at least?" Yunjin asked.
Lin interjected then, "Uh, kid, you're still grounded."
Yunjin shrugged. "It was worth a shot."
"Maybe in a few days," Tenzin offered. "You should probably wait for her mother to cool off anyways."
Yunjin winced. "She's that mad, huh? Well, that's okay. Pema won't hold a grudge as long as Mom does. I'll talk to her myself."
Lin guffawed and said, "Good luck with that." From her own experience with Pema, the younger woman could hold just as good a grudge as Lin could.
Ronen cut in, "I'm eager to know what I missed while I was gone, but I have to admit that I'm exhausted."
"You and me both," Bolin exclaimed. "I could sleep for a week."
"We can all do a recap tomorrow, can't we?" Korra asked, just before covering her mouth to yawn.
"Sounds like a good plan to me," Lin agreed.
"I don't think any of us have slept right since this whole thing began," Tenzin commented.
"I don't think we've slept right in months," Kya countered. "Not consecutively anyway."
"So we're all agreed," Nira said. "Time for bed."
The sun had disappeared beneath the horizon sometime before Su's airship had departed, so no one contested the idea of sleep, though a few of them went to the kitchen first to grab something to eat. Lin was more tired than she was hungry, but she waited until she saw each of her kids off to bed before she went to her own. And for the first time in several weeks, she went to bed in a relaxed state, eager for morning to come, but happy to rest there in her husband's arms and sleep without concerns weighing heavily on her dreams.
Chapter 72: Chapter 72
Chapter Text
Chapter 72
In the days after Qinggan and her family had gone, Lin and the rest of the Island's inhabitants finally experienced some semblance of peace. With nothing urgent to attend to and nothing but time, Lin and Tenzin could truly relax together for what must have been the first occasion in years. Without her job to consume her life, Lin could also dedicate more of herself to her children, to training Jeia and looking after Yunjin. From Sora she seemed to learn more than teach, about patience and kindness and arts, but Lin still had a few things she could pass on to her sweet-tempered daughter. Ronen was the busy one now, working for Sato Industries and helping Korra attempt to make peace in the city. He seemed to be better at managing his time than his parents had been though, because he was often home in time for dinner.
Ronen and Korra's friends were all basically living on the Island now too, so dinner was seldom a quiet affair. Mako had returned to work with the police force, but he and Bolin's apartment had been damaged by spirit vines, and they hadn't enough money at the moment to find another. And though Asami had her own mansion still, she often took up residence in her usual room in the women's dorms to avoid being alone in that huge, empty house. Tenzin had happily offered for the older kids to stay, and they had eagerly accepted, and Lin could not wholly complain. It kept Ronen close more often and frankly, she wasn't sure she'd like a quiet dinner table after so long without. Kya and Akira were also staying for an undetermined amount of time, and Lin had a feeling Kya wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. She would have expected Akira to be less thrilled, but the young woman was enjoying Republic City after most of her life spent in the South Pole. She also seemed to have taken an interest in Ronen's friends, particularly Korra. Akira didn't have much in the way of friends, had left them all behind when she followed her mother years ago, and the way she talked she hadn't much liked the ones she had. She seemed to find a kinship in some of Ronen's friends, the band of misfits that liked to help people and cause trouble all at once. And she and Korra had bonded over similarly sheltered childhoods in the South Pole.
Kya had been beyond thrilled to see her daughter possibly beginning to find a place for herself, and Kya had acquired a friend of her own. She and Nira had grown closer during the trip to the Air Temples a few months prior, and now they could hardly be separated. Lin often found the two of them bickering like an old married couple or giggling like school girls over some private joke. She'd simply roll her eyes at the both of them and try to leave, but she was more frequently dragged into their conversation or argument, either as friend or moderator. She complained of course, but deep down she enjoyed it a little too. She hadn't had much for friends in her life either aside from Tenzin, and it was nice to finally have time to be sociable with the two women that had been there for her longer than most others.
Of course, the peace did not last for long.
Bumi returned from the spirit festival a week after Qinggan had left with him and her children. A week after that, Bumi came rushing up to the main house looking a mess and rambling about making a sweater for Bum-Ju, only to finish his incoherence with, "I can airbend!"
Lin and Tenzin exchanged a disbelieving look, and then sighed irritably at the same time.
Ignoring Bumi's claim for the absurdity that it was, Tenzin said, "Come on, kids. Dinner is almost ready."
Sora, Yunjin, and Jeia immediately went to follow their parents back into the house, Yunjin saying, "It's about time!"
As she was passing her uncle, Sora patted Bumi on the shoulder and told him, "Sorry, Uncle Bumi. It would be really cool if you were an airbender though."
"But I am!" Bumi persisted.
Lin began to wonder if he had hit his head and whether they ought to take him to see a doctor. He was grunting and thrusting out his arms and kicking his legs even as everyone else went back inside. No airbending occurred, so Bumi went with them to the dining room, but his wild gesticulations continued throughout dinner. Lin had grown used to ignoring such behavior, mainly within the last year she had spent living on the same island as Bumi, but Tenzin became frustrated within the first ten minutes.
"Stop waving your arms around at the table," Tenzin snapped. "It's not funny anymore."
Bumi folded his arms across his chest with a harrumph and muttered, "It's not a joke. I swear I'm not making it up!"
That was the exact moment when Ronen, Korra, Asami, and Akira arrived. After another failure in the city, Korra had separated from Sora and Tenzin, who had been trying to help her with the spirit vines again, and had been forced to face the questioning press and the disgruntled President Raiko. Ronen and Asami had already been at the press briefing to hear first hand what the president had to say, and Akira had tagged along out of curiosity. The four of them had remained together for the last several hours, doing spirits knows what, but as per usual, they made it home almost right in time for dinner. Bolin had remained on the island all day, spending most of his time sparring with Yunjin, who was still grounded and not allowed to do much of anything. So Bolin was already at the dinner table scarfing down dinner when his friends returned.
"Not making what up?" Ronen asked, only half interested and apparently famished himself because he immediately plopped down next to Bolin and started taking whatever food was nearest.
"What story did you tell them this time, Uncle?" Akira questioned as she and Korra squeezed in between Kya and Yunjin across the table from Bumi, Bolin, Ronen, and Asami. Everyone was shifting in their seats to make room for the newcomers and bumping elbows, dishes and utensils clattering and scraping across the tabletop.
In the midst of adjusting, no one immediately answered, until Bolin informed his friends, "Bumi says he could airbend earlier but he can't now. Oh, and I guess he's not very good at knitting either."
Korra, Ronen, and Asami looked stunned, pausing to look at Bumi for confirmation, but Akira laughed. "That's a good one," she said to her uncle, eyes shimmering with mirth. "I would pay good money to see you airbend."
"Well pay up, little missy!" Bumi countered. "Because it did happen. And I bet it will again. Just as soon as I figure out how." He rubbed his hands together and began focusing intently on the dishware set out in front of him.
He was wriggling his fingers and flapping his hands, and Lin warned, "If you knock that food over I'll have you cleaning up after every meal for a week."
Bumi ignored her, gasping and then exclaiming, "Did you see that?! I think the napkin moved…"
Kya sounded annoyed as she corrected, "You blew on it."
"Maybe 'Rai and Ronen can airbend now too," Yunjin snickered through a mouthful of food, bits of chewed rice flying across the table.
"No way," Jeia protested, wrinkling her nose at the mere thought.
Lin sternly told Yunjin, "Chew with your mouth closed."
"Can bending abilities even manifest in people this late in life?" Sora inquired. "Could Uncle Bumi have somehow suppressed his abilities all this time, and they only now came out to save his life?"
"I highly doubt it," Tenzin replied wearily. "This is just another one of your Uncle's foolish daydreams."
"Wait," Bumi cried, giving Sora an admonishing look, "did you just call me old?" He shook his head as if to clear it. "Never mind, we'll argue that later. You may be on to something! Maybe I can only do it when my life is in danger. Bolin! Bend a giant boulder at me."
Bolin shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea."
Bumi immediately whirled on Lin and implored, "Linny! You'll do it won't you?"
"Gladly," Lin muttered.
"I'll do it!" Jeia offered.
"You should probably take that outside," Ronen suggested.
Tenzin slammed his fists onto the table and everyone went quiet. "No one is bending giant boulders!"
"Let's just settle this once and for all," Yunjin said with a sly smirk, and Lin had a bad feeling about what he was about to do, but hadn't enough time to stop it. She could only watch with mounting frustration as Yunjin snatched up a bowl, dumped the contents onto his plate, and then chucked it straight at his uncle's head.
Bumi's eyes widened and he thrust out his hands, instead of doing the logical thing and dodging the oncoming projectile. Lin expected it to fly right over his splayed fingers and smack into his face, but a torrent of air stopped the bowl midway across the table, and Lin looked quickly around at Sora, Yunjin, and Tenzin, half expecting one of them to have created the orb of air that saved Bumi from being struck. However, all three of them were staring at Bumi in shock, and none of them seemed to be doing any airbending, and Lin had to conclude that it really was coming from Bumi. Her jaw dropped, like everyone else around the table, and she could only watch in total shock as Bumi continued to maintain the airbending.
Tenzin broke the silence first, in total awe as he said in a near whisper, "Unbelievable. You're actually an airbender."
Bumi said with unbridled excitement, "Wait till I tell mom. She's gonna love this."
And then the air petered out and the bowl crashed to the table, shattering into several pieces.
Lin was still stunned as she said in a choked voice, "You're cleaning that up."
But Bumi barely heard her, and the dining room soon erupted with noise as everyone began exclaiming their surprise and questioning how such a thing was even possible. Lin could hardly believe it herself, her mouth still ajar and any words she might have said caught in her throat. She looked over at Tenzin, and they could only share expressions of astonishment. Tenzin had carried the weight of the airbending nation on his shoulders his whole life, and now suddenly his brother appeared to have had those abilities inside him all along. The airbending population had just risen from four to five in a matter of minutes, and for once it was not because Lin had given birth to another of Tenzin's children.
Kya suggested they all go outside, to see if Bumi could airbend more in a better space than the dining room, and so the noise level would not be so deafening. Everyone hastily stood without question, abandoning their dinners to try and get to the bottom of Bumi's new-found abilities. But once again Bumi could not manage a single burst of air as he punched and kicked in the open space of the courtyard.
After several long minutes of all of them watching, Bumi made a frustrated noise and complained, "I can't figure this thing out!"
"You're trying too hard, Uncle Bumi," Sora soothed, moving closer to squeeze his arm as he stared forlornly at his hands. "You have to relax, let the air flow through you, become one with it."
Yunjin snorted. "That's great advice, Sora, but I don't think it's gonna work for Uncle Bumi."
Korra asked, "Do you think being in the Spirit World during Harmonic Convergence could have given him bending?"
"I suppose it's possible," Tenzin said slowly, sounding doubtful.
"Maybe, but I'm not experiencing any bending abilities," Ronen pointed out. "It would be odd that the Spirit World singled Uncle Bumi out."
"Well have you tried to airbend lately?" Asami teased.
Ronen smirked. "Well, no. I haven't fallen off of a cliff or had a bowl thrown at me –"
Jeia moved so quickly Lin almost didn't see the girl chuck a rock at her older brother. Ronen barely had time to dodge the incoming projectile, and then cried, "Hey! What was that for?"
"I was trying to help!" Jeia replied. "I thought you could airbend it away."
"Jeia, don't throw rocks at your brother," Lin said sternly.
"Yunjin did it," Jeia grumbled, folding her little arms across her chest.
"Maybe Uncle Bumi is just a late bloomer," Akira snickered.
"I have been noticing a change in your aura lately," Kya said from right next to Bumi, closing her eyes and trying to sense her brother's chi.
"And you didn't tell me?!" Bumi exclaimed.
"Are we sure this is a good thing? Lin mused. "What if he was taken over by some evil spirit or something and that's how he got this?"
Bolin gasped, looking worried now. "What if this isn't Bumi at all?" he fretted. "What if the real Bumi never came back from that spirit festival?"
"I doubt it's that dire," Ronen assured his friend. "I think we'd know if Uncle Bumi had been possessed. He's got a difficult personality to duplicate."
"Plus I'm sure Sora's spirit sense could sniff out that kind of thing," Yunjin added.
"I've never heard of a spirit possessing a human and giving them the ability to airbend," Tenzin said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "But I've also never heard of a nonbender developing abilities this late in life."
The conversation was clearly leading them no closer to a viable answer, and a few minutes later the situation got even weirder.
Mako, who had been spending most of his days and nights at the police station, sleeping there more often than not, finally returned to the Island, but with Chief Tosuki in tow. At the sight of them, Lin immediately straightened up, growing concerned at the serious faces they wore. Mako was always too serious, but if this had been a social visit Tosuki would have been a lot more cheerful. He and Mako glanced at Bumi's flailing with some confusion as they passed by, and Lin stepped down from the porch to greet them.
"Chief," Lin said gruffly.
"Chief," Tosuki echoed, inclining his head. "Sorry to intrude like this."
"Chief Tosuki," Tenzin said in surprise, wrenching his gaze away from his brother. "What brings you here?"
"We've got some…pretty strange news," Tosuki answered. "I thought I ought to be here to tell you in person." He eyed Lin for a moment with an odd look on his face, and then told Mako, "Tell 'em what you saw, kid."
"I got a call last night about a guy who just started airbending," Mako said.
Several shocked voices cried, "What?!"
"You mean there's another one?" Tenzin gasped. "Where is he now?"
"He, uh, blew a door down on me and got away," Mako admitted with some embarrassment. "We've got an all points bulletin out on him right now."
"Hang on," Tosuki interjected. "What do you mean anotherone? Is someone else airbending?"
Lin gestured to her brother-in-law. "Bumi just started today."
Tosuki and Mako both looked as stunned as everyone else had been.
"How old was this other guy?" Akira asked. "Uncle Tenzin, are you sure you didn't father any other children before you got with Aunt Lin?"
Lin scowled at her niece and Tenzin's face turned red as he spluttered, "Absolutely not! Lin is the only person I ever – I do not have any long lost children in the world."
"Bumi, on the other hand," Kya muttered as she slid over to join the group. "Who knows how many kids he might have out there?"
"Are you kidding?" Bumi shouted from a few feet away, apparently having heard Kya's murmurs after all. "No child of mine would be raised without me!"
"This must have something to do with Harmonic Convergence," Ronen surmised. "Bumi being the son of an airbender is probably a coincidence. If there's two people showing signs of airbending already then there's bound to be more."
"New airbenders?" Korra said with excitement. "We've got to find this guy."
Lin caught Tenzin's gaze again, and she could see the hope brimming in his eyes, along with something else she couldn't quite decipher. She thought that it must certainly be overwhelming for him, because it was a little overwhelming for her too. She didn't have any idea how many new airbenders might be out there, but she knew that it was going to change everything. For once, even Yunjin was quiet, both him and Sora looking contemplative.
"I'm heading out to search for him now," Mako said, both him and Tosuki looking as if they were about to leave.
"Let us come with you," Ronen insisted, stepping forward to join Mako, and Asami, Korra, Bolin, and Akira crowded in too.
"I guess some extra eyes would help," Mako conceded.
"I should be getting back," Tosuki told Lin and Tenzin. "I'll call you if I hear anything else."
"Thanks," Lin said gratefully.
Tenzin seemed to shake himself from his own thoughts. "Don't be a stranger. You and Sanji are still welcome anytime."
Tosuki smiled, looking more like himself for just a moment, reminding Lin of the young officer from years ago. "I hope to take you up on that soon. If you need anything from me, you know where to find me."
"We very much appreciate it," Tenzin responded.
Tosuki and Mako began striding away, with Ronen and Korra and the rest of their friends tagging along. Lin called to them, "You kids be careful!"
And Ronen promised, "We'll be back in a little while, hopefully with an airbender or two." He looked excited and intrigued, and Lin hoped it would remain that way. It had been a long time since Ronen had cared about the fact that he wasn't a bender, but that could always change if there were airbenders popping up left and right. He wasn't the jealous type, but he had been such a sensitive boy. Although, Lin supposed he had mostly grown out of that too.
Once half of their group had left, Lin felt someone tugging on the bottom of her shirt, and looked down to see Jeia frowning up at her. "Mama, are we gonna have to be airbenders now too?"
Lin chuckled and patted Jeia on the top of the head reassuringly. "No, kid. We're stuck with what we've got."
Jeia sighed in relief. "Good. I don't wanna fly."
"You fly in airships all the time," Sora pointed out. "What's the difference?"
"Cause it's metal," Jeia scoffed. "Duh."
"I gotta say," Bumi cut in, finally giving up on his attempts at airbending to join the rest of them, "I'm a little disappointed I'm not the only new airbender. It cheapens it."
Kya shoved his shoulder half annoyed, half playfully, as only a sibling would. "Shut up. You complained about being a nonbender for years."
"I was the greatest nonbender to ever live!" Bumi declared. "But now I've got to compete with them –" he gestured to Tenzin, Sora, and Yunjin " – and who knows who else? These three have had their whole lives to practice."
"Guess you'd better start working on catching up," Yunjin suggested with a cocky smirk. "But you're gonna have a hard time beating me."
"I'll help you, Uncle Bumi," Sora offered sweetly. "We can train everyday. Starting with morning meditation."
Bumi groaned. "But that's so early."
"Late, you mean," Lin corrected. "It's probably before you even go to bed."
"That's not helping," Bumi grumbled.
Jeia must have grown bored with the conversation, because she tugged on her father's sleeve next and asked, "Daddy, can we have dessert now?"
Tenzin smiled fondly and quietly answered, "Dessert sounds like an excellent idea, sweetheart." He knelt down to pick her up and turned back in the direction of the house. "What dessert shall we have?"
With a shrug, the rest of them followed Jeia and Tenzin back inside, to where dinner had been left on the table. Yunjin continued to eat what was left on his own plate, but helped Lin and Kya clean up the rest without needing to be asked. Lin suggested Tenzin and Jeia take their desserts in the living room; she could tell that Tenzin was feeling contemplative and probably a little emotional. With Jeia it was easy to maintain a comfortable silence, and Lin had a feeling that was just what he needed at the moment. Bumi and Yunjin were too boisterous, and while Sora was incredible at comfort, she talked a lot. Tenzin would need time to come to grips with all that was happening. Lin did not know how she felt about it herself yet either.
Jeia returned to the kitchen shortly before Lin and the others finished cleaning up. She was toting two small dishes that had been all but licked clean of the desserts they had once held. There was fruit smeared across the corner of her mouth as she held the plates up to her mother and said, "Daddy says he went outside to think."
Lin nodded, unsurprised, taking the plates from Jeia and using her thumb to wipe away the remains of her dessert.
Sora looked concerned when she asked, "Should we go and find him?"
"Not yet," Lin answered. "Give him some time."
"You don't think he's upset, do you?" Yunjin questioned.
"Not upset," Lin assured. "Reeling, probably. This is a…big deal." She didn't know how else to word it.
"It's good though, right?" Sora asked uncertainly.
"Of course it is," Kya soothed when Lin hesitated. "It'll take some adjusting, though."
Yunjin paused with a soapy dish in his hand, staring down at it but clearly not seeing it, his mind somewhere else and his expression serious. "It's going to change everything, isn't it?"
Lin did not have to contemplate the answer. She had already come to that conclusion the moment she saw Bumi airbending. "Yes, it is."
They went to find Tenzin as the sun was beginning to set. Just Lin, Jeia, Sora, and Yunjin. They checked the meditation pavilion first and he wasn't there, but they found him a few minutes later at the second place Lin suspected he might be. He was sat cross-legged on the ground at the edge of one of the cliff sides, staring across the Bay at where his father's statue stood. He sensed the four of them coming and turned his head to watch their approach, smiling and holding out his hand to help Jeia settle onto his lap. Jin and Sora sat down next to him on his right side, and Lin took the spot on his left.
"I was wondering when you might come find me," Tenzin said fondly.
"I would have come sooner," Sora said, smiling pointedly at her mother, "but Mom said to give you some time. Is it okay for us to sit with you now?"
Tenzin nodded quickly. "Of course it is. You're always welcome to interrupt my thoughts. And I suppose this affects all of us much the same."
"Are you happy about the new airbenders?" Yunjin inquired.
Tenzin smiled but it was a little sad as he looked out across the Bay at his father's statue once again. "It's like a dream. After a hundred and seventy years. New airbenders."
"Aside from us anyways," Yunjin snorted. "It's kind of weird that there will be airbenders outside of the family now."
"In a way, all airbenders are our family," Tenzin said. "We'll have to get used to not being the only ones around anymore. Maybe there will be enough to fill the air temples again."
At that, he teared up, and he could not hide the simultaneous hope and sorrow brimming in his voice. Jeia frowned at the sight of a tear streaking down his face and demanded, "What's wrong, Daddy? Who made you sad?"
Tenzin chuckled at the seriousness of Jeia's face, as if she intended to go and fight whoever might have upset her father. "I just wish your grandfather were here to see this."
Lin reached out to squeeze Tenzin's bicep, and the pair of them shared another look as she told him, "There's no one he would have trusted more to help these new airbenders than you. With his duties as the Avatar he wouldn't have been able to dedicate as much time to them as he would have liked."
"He would have been so happy," Tenzin murmured, his voice quivering as he struggled to control the emotions welling within him.
"Yes," Lin said softly, "he would have." She smiled a little, feeling somewhat emotional herself as she thought of Aang, that man whom she'd so admired. She remembered as well as Tenzin did how much the Air Nation had meant to him, how much his family meant to him. He would have been overjoyed to see the Air Nation returning, and it might have taken some of the weight off of Tenzin's young shoulders, but Lin could not imagine where they might have ended up if it had occurred sooner.
"He is here, though, in a way, isn't he?" Sora reflected. "He's a part of Korra."
"And you've got us," Yunjin added. "I know it's not the same, but you aren't alone. We'll help, with all of it. If there's a lot of new airbenders, you won't be able to train them all on your own."
"The new airbenders will need lots of help and guidance to understand what it means to be a part of our nation," Tenzin said. "That's a big responsibility."
"We're not afraid," Sora insisted. "You taught us everything we know, and Jin and I can teach them just like you taught us."
"Maybe not exactly the same," Yunjin said with a smirk, "but we know how serious this is. We won't embarrass you too much."
Tenzin chuckled and reached over to put his arm around Jin and Sora, squeezing them to him in a one-armed hug. "I know you won't. The two of you have some maturing to do, but your mastery of airbending is unquestionable. Perhaps…" he looked over at Lin, and she could see the question in his eyes, and she knew what he was thinking. They had talked about it in recent months, about how they wanted to handle it, if it should be the same or different from how their own parents had. They hadn't come to a definite conclusion, but it seemed that this new change was making some of the decision for him. Considering what might lay ahead of them, she couldn't help but agree, and she inclined her head to answer him in silence. His shoulders straightened a little, and he turned back to face the twins. "Perhaps it is time we discuss making it official."
"You mean making us masters?" Sora gasped first.
Yunjin looked stunned, but was excited as he asked, "You mean we'll get our tattoos and everything?"
"That's right," Tenzin confirmed with a delighted smile of his own. "I was a bit older when I got mine, because my parents thought it would be better to wait until I was older, but traditionally an airbender receives their tattoos as soon as they've mastered the thirty-six tiers. You've both proven to me that you're passionate and competent, and have excelled in nearly every aspect, with your own unique strengths. So long as you can show that you're ready for this responsibility, and understand what it entails, I see no reason why we should prolong the ceremony any longer."
Both twins grew very serious, tamping down on the giddy elation that had been plain on their faces a moment ago, straightening their posture at once as if they were of the same mind. It was always fascinating to Lin to see them unite in such a way. They were similar in appearance, but so different in personality that it was sometimes easy to forget that they were twins at all, but moments like these were a stark reminder.
"We understand, Dad," Sora said.
"If we're gonna be masters we gotta be reliable," Yunjin continued.
"We won't let you down," Sora promised. "You can trust us to be patient and wise."
Yunjin said, "No more getting grounded. I swear."
That, of course, was partly a result of Yunjin's conversation with his father a week earlier. The incident with the stolen alcohol and Jinora had been a source of concern, but once Tenzin had gotten to the root of it, and figured out why Yunjin was acting out in the first place, father and son had been able to come to a better understanding. Yunjin, too, had listened to what his father had to say on the matter and finally admitted that his recent actions had been poorly considered. Yunjin was still technically grounded and his contact with Jinora cut off, but the boy was no longer fighting the punishment or threatening to run away. Considering that Yunjin had always been difficult, Lin had been surprised by how quickly he had come around, but she supposed the last year or two had been a real wake up call for all of them. The threats to their lives had been too frequent, and with how uncertain everything remained, it seemed unwise to spend much time fighting amongst those they loved most. Yunjin had been creeping towards maturity slower than the rest of his siblings, but Lin had always been able to see it there, under the surface, under the hardened exterior he had inherited from her. His time at the Air Temples had especially helped in his airbending training beyond the physical aspects, and Lin had a feeling much of his poor behavior afterward was in reaction to nearly losing his twin sister and everything else that had occurred. He had been angry that his parents wouldn't let him help and afraid for Sora, and he had never talked to any of them about it in the week following Harmonic Convergence. He had let his emotions fester and made some poor decisions, but talking to his father and all the rest of the family members Lin had sent to badger him had reminded him of what he had, and also that it was okay for him to have feelings. When last she and Tenzin had discussed the possibility of the twins getting their tattoos, Lin had agreed with Tenzin's belief that it might reassure Yunjin that they recognized his abilities, and encourage the boy to maintain a higher level of discipline. They didn't want to stifle him by any means, or force him to grow up, but there was no denying the fact that his immaturity could be dangerous, especially if their lives continued to be as chaotic as they had been of late. Considering all that had occurred in the last three weeks alone, it was doubtful that anything would settle down anytime soon. Yunjin was reckless at the best of times, but there was no denying his strength in airbending, and of late his philosophical understandings had stunned them all.
"I'll test you one last time, of course," Tenzin told Jin and Sora, "to ensure that you really have mastered each tier. And we'll discuss it further as a family, and see where this new influx of airbenders takes us. But as soon as your mother and I are certain, we'll begin the process of naming each of you masters."
Jin and Sora both looked at one another, grinning and then nodding at their father enthusiastically.
"I think that sounds like a great idea," a voice from behind said, and each of them turned to see Ronen approaching. He dropped down next to his mother on the ground, and then smiled at his brother and sister. "I may not be an airbender, but I know you two will make excellent masters."
"You sure you haven't been feeling funny lately?" Yunjin asked his older brother. "You ought to be an airbender too, like Uncle Bumi is now."
Ronen shrugged, appearing untroubled. "I don't think it's gonna happen for me, but that's okay. I've got other skills. I'll leave the airbending to you guys and keep my hair."
Yunjin frowned suddenly. "Oh no," he moaned. "I forgot about shaving my head." He clutched at the hair hanging past his shoulders and looked down at it forlornly.
Tenzin chuckled. "That's all right. It'll grow back in no time."
Jeia snickered. "You're both gonna be bald, like Daddy. You'll look ridiculous."
"It's worth it," Sora decided. "I'll just have to invest in some cool hats."
"You never know," Lin teased, "you might love being bald."
"I won't," Yunjin muttered sadly.
Sora snorted. "If I stay bald and Yunjin grows his hair back people will have a hard time telling which one of us is the girl."
"I think they already do," Ronen joked.
"They're just jealous their hair isn't as nice as mine," Yunjin said proudly. The kid did have incredible hair. It could rival even Asami's if he didn't twist or braid it into his usual Water Tribe styles. He certainly hadn't gotten that from his mother.
Sora looped her arm through Yunjin's. "But think of how many people we'll be able to trick when we're both bald."
"Shhh," Yunjin shushed her, "keep talking like that and you'll make Dad change his mind."
Tenzin stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I suppose so long as it's not a harmful trick. It would be amusing to see Bumi struggling to tell you apart. You should have seen him when you were babies. He never knew which one of you he was holding."
Lin laughed as she remembered. "That's right! He was completely lost. I swear he cut his visit short that first week he came to see them, just so he wouldn't have to admit he got them mixed up again. Except I heard him asking Ronen who was who at least four times."
"Wasn't I like three when they were born?" Ronen asked. "Did I even know the difference?"
"Yes but you were a better brother than Bumi was an uncle," Tenzin explained.
"To be fair, Ronen had more time with them than Bumi did," Lin pointed out. "But considering his career he ought to have had better skills of deduction."
"Oh we're definitely gonna mess with Uncle Bumi," Yunjin said mischievously, before clearing his throat and amending, "when we aren't busy being very responsible and mature, that is."
"Your Uncle Bumi hasn't been mature a day in his life," Tenzin mused. "And I suppose I have to admit he turned out mostly okay. Perhaps there are some things more important, so long as you are sensible."
"And remember that you may not have Bumi's crazy luck," Lin pointed out. "That man could jump in a pit of lava and come out unscathed."
"It is awfully convenient that he gained the ability to airbend on the same day that he fell off a cliff," Ronen agreed.
"Speaking of new airbenders," Sora interjected. "Did you find any sign of the guy you were looking for?"
Ronen shook his head. "No, we didn't. Mako is still looking, but Korra got an idea about how to handle the spirit vines, and when that ended catastrophically she was pretty dejected, so we came back early."
Tenzin raised a brow. "How catastrophic?"
Ronen shrugged. "Well, she sort of made them worse, and tipped over a nearby apartment building in the process. But nobody was hurt! We got everyone out in time."
Lin groaned. "You kids just go looking for disaster."
"Where is Korra now?" Tenzin inquired.
"Meditating," Ronen answered. Tenzin's eyes widened. "I know, I was as surprised as you."
"Perhaps I should go talk to her," Tenzin considered.
"I should probably find Nira," Lin decided. "If we're about to be overrun by new airbenders, she should know."
All of them began to rise to their feet at once.
Sora asked her father, "Can Jin and I start training Uncle Bumi?"
"I think your Uncle Bumi is going to be difficult to train," Tenzin replied, "but you're welcome to try."
"This I gotta see," Ronen said with glee.
Yunjin held his hand out to Jeia. "Come on, 'Rai. We may need you to throw rocks at him."
As the kids raced ahead, Lin looked up at Tenzin and quietly asked, "You all right?"
He put his arm around her waist and watched their kids for a moment, and then he smiled at her and said, "I've never been better." He leaned down to kiss her, and though it was brief it still made her heart race. "I love you," he murmured against her lips.
"Just remember who gave you airbenders first," she teased.
She felt his chest shaking with laughter. "Of course not, dear."
The family dispersed for all of fifteen minutes before Bolin came running around the island to find each of them, breathlessly telling them, "Mako called. The cops found the new airbender guy, but when they tried to bring him in he ran away and climbed to the top of Kyoshi bridge and he won't come down!"
So Tenzin, Yunjin, Sora, Ronen, Bolin and Korra hopped on Oogi and raced off to the city. Lin and Jeia stayed behind with everyone else, deciding that there was no need to overwhelm the new airbender more than he already was. Lin might have told Jin and Sora to stay behind too, but if they were really to become masters soon they ought to be involved in such things. She still wasn't wholly certain if making them masters was the right thing to do so soon, but she supposed that had more to do with her over protective nature towards them, and Tenzin was going to need their help if new airbenders continued to pop up.
Tenzin and the others returned just after the sun had set, with new airbender Da in tow. The guy was skittish and, in Lin's opinion, a little weird, but she and the rest of them welcomed him to the Island. Nira was there too, and she, along with Yunjin, took Da to find a dorm for the night, with plans to discuss his new abilities the following morning.
As they were putting Jeia to bed, Tenzin told Lin the story of what had happened on Kyoshi bridge. After Korra had rescued Da from an accidental fall from the top of the bridge, President Raiko had come through to vent his frustrations. In the process, he had ordered Korra to leave the city. Lin was outraged, but Tenzin seemed unconcerned, and apparently Korra wasn't all that upset either. She had told Tenzin she intended to go find the rest of the new airbenders that must be out there in the world and rebuild the Air Nation. Tenzin intended to go with her, which he waited to tell Lin until after they had left Jeia's room.
"And you and the children must come too, of course," he insisted, clutching both of Lin's hands tightly and looking uncertain, almost pleading with her to agree. "I know we only just retired and things were beginning to settle down and you probably don't want to go flitting around the world looking for airbenders –"
"Tenzin," Lin cut him off firmly, and he went quiet, but he looked apprehensive. "I go where you go. I don't care where we are, whether it's here or halfway across the world. I intend to spend my retirement by your side. And I know what this means to you. I know we can't just sit around and let the new airbenders figure it out for themselves. Of course I'm coming with you."
Tenzin's shoulders relaxed in plain relief and he smiled softly. "I'm so glad to hear that. I didn't intend to make such a huge decision without you, but I suppose I assumed, or well, I hoped you would be agreeable. It's not exactly the vacation we intended, but I think it should suffice."
"Hey, it gets us away from the drama of this place. And who knows where we might end up? There's still a lot of the world I haven't seen yet."
"It's going to be wonderful, you'll see," Tenzin promised. "This will be the first real family trip we've had since…well, I don't even know when we were all together on a vacation after Jeia was born. There were those few days in Zaofu after Ronen and I returned from our own trip. This will be even better."
"Yeah, because Su won't be there," Lin joked. "Although we might have to swing by and make sure Bataar hasn't started airbending."
Tenzin chuckled at the thought. "Can you imagine?"
Lin shook her head "No, I definitely cannot. So, when do we leave?"
"I'm going to get started on planning now," Tenzin said with excitement. "I'd say we'll be ready to leave within the week. We'll need an airship. Ronen said that Asami would be happy to provide us with one. I'll need to sort through my books and things to decide what would be beneficial to bring with us. We'll also have to discuss with everyone who's staying and who's leaving. I'm sure Ronen and Korra's friends will want to come along, but I'm not sure if Nira, Kya, and Bumi will, though I imagine Bumi will since he'll need to begin training. But someone will have to look after the island and welcome any new airbenders that come out of Republic City. If Nira wants to accompany us we'll have to decide on another Acolyte to take over."
Lin blinked in surprise and spoke quickly before he could continue his breathless ramble. "Can't we start all that in the morning? Why don't you come to bed?"
"Soon," he said, leaning down to kiss her hurriedly. "I won't be long. Just want to look through a few things. But you go ahead to bed if you're tired, love."
"But if you come to bed now," Lin started to say, but Tenzin was already rushing off to his home office, no doubt to spend the next several hours studiously reading through ancient texts until he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. She considered going after him and dragging him to bed whether he liked it or not, but she decided to let him have his fun.
Sleep, however, was not on Lin's mind, and after an hour of restless wandering and a brief period of time spent rolling around in their empty bed, she decided to interrupt her husband's planning. She found him exactly where she expected, sat in his desk chair and bent over a ponderous looking tome. He didn't even glance up at her entrance, and barely budged when she went behind his chair and wrapped her arms around his chest.
"Can't sleep?" he murmured, idly patting her hand where it rested over his sternum.
She could tell he wasn't paying her much attention. Even when she began planting kisses on his neck he hardly reacted, but when she bit down on his earlobe, he shuddered. "Come to bed," she murmured in his ear.
His voice cracked a little as he began to protest, "I really should finish up here. There's a lot to be done in the coming days. I won't be much longer…"
"You'll have plenty of time to read in the next few days," she continued to coax, her hands drifting slowly down his chest. "We should be celebrating, don't you think?"
Tenzin cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. He was definitely paying attention to her now. "I really should stay here –" he started to say.
But Lin interjected with, "Oh, we can stay here, if your prefer," as she slipped nimbly around the chair and settled onto his lap.
Tenzin gulped as his hands automatically settled on her hips. Then he shook his head, his lips curling up in amusement. "You are making it extremely difficult for me to be a focused leader. I'm about to be responsible for a lot of new airbenders you know?"
Lin shrugged, unconcerned, and then lifted her night shirt up and over her head to toss aside. "They know nothing about airbending. They won't notice if you make some of it up."
Tenzin was chuckling as she dove in to capture his lips, but as the kiss grew heated and her hands deftly began removing his pants, he forgot all about his ancient book for the time being and lost himself in his wife's embrace.
Nira did not always attend morning meditation with Tenzin and the twins. Often she led meditation with the acolytes at a larger pavilion farther away from Lin and Tenzin's home. Sometimes, Tenzin and the kids would join her and the other acolytes, sometimes she left the acolytes in the care of one of the other senior members while she went to sit with Jin and Sora and their father.
The morning after Bumi had begun airbending, Nira joined the family at their pavilion. Korra and Bumi were both there this time, along with Da, who still hadn't decided if he actually wanted to be an airbender, but had agreed to attend morning meditation and learn more before he outright refused. Nira was excited about the sudden reemergence of airbenders outside of Tenzin's children, and she wanted to be there for that first special day when Tenzin had two new students.
Everyone greeted her with smiles, Yunjin and Bumi and Da looking half asleep still, but Tenzin and Sora bright eyed and wide awake as per usual. Korra seemed to be running on some of her own excitement while she stifled yawns behind her fist. The eight of them settled down together and began, with Tenzin giving Da some helpful pointers and Bumi grumpily claiming that he already knew what he was doing.
Nira relaxed into the moment, taking comfort in the familiar ritual, evening her breath and quieting her mind. It took an extra moment for her to calm with all that had been going on of late, and she could sense the others stirring around her as well. Eventually, though, she was at peace, and as she dove deeper into her meditative state, she began to feel a sense of weightlessness and warmth that was unparalleled to anything she had ever experienced before. The air around her felt somehow more alive in that singular moment, as if she could feel its every shift and flow, could taste it on her tongue as she breathed in deep. As she expelled it from her lungs it was as if she could sense it moving away from her, and every extremity seemed to come alight, but not in a painful way, more of an oddly soothing sort of burn that traveled along the path of her chi.
Nira could not fully understand what was occurring, but when the air beckoned to her like an unseen hand, she reached for it, desperate to latch on. Her fingers grasped at nothing and yet somehow found purchase. She was uncertain where the air stopped and she began; she soon discovered that there was no such point, that she and the air were one, and she felt herself lifting off of the ground, but she could not tell one way or another if her feet were beneath her or not. She was no longer just herself, but an extension of the wind, and she let it guide her through twists and turns as she spiraled along with it. With her eyes still shut tight she could not see her surroundings, but she felt the energy of the others, those people who were her family in a way, and the Avatar and the new airbender Da.
Her mind, however, quickly transferred her somewhere else. The sensations were such that she was reminded of something that had once made her feel much the same, or rather someone. Her beloved Azu, the only man she ever truly loved, the only person she really opened her heart to in any significant way. His death had closed her to all else, had nearly kept her from the destiny she had never expected to find. In that moment of freedom she remembered that wonderful man, the way his embrace had warmed her from head to toe, the enticing nature of his smile, the way they had danced together as if they were of one mind, until she was no longer certain where he ended and she began. She could feel him with her as she danced through the air, currents rippling underneath of her, vibrating along her skin. She tasted salt on her lips and noticed the tears drying on her face. The spirit of Azu was slipping away from her; she could feel the ghost of his lips brushing against hers, but in her mind's eye she could see him smiling at her, blowing her a kiss goodbye. Her lips stretched into a smile as well, and this time when he left her, she was not plagued with a soul crushing sorrow. Instead she felt light and at peace at long last. Azu had not been her destiny as she'd once believed, but he had been a part of her, some piece of her soul that lived on inside of her.
Nira felt her feet settle on the ground, and as she opened her eyes she watched in awe as a spiral of air emitted from her very own hands. With a blink it petered out, but she had seen enough to know what it meant, and for that matter, she had been meditating a very long time and she had never felt anything like that. She looked around her, heard the wind chimes begin to settle from the blaring chorus her dance had caused, and saw the astonished expressions of the people around her. No one was meditating anymore, each of them on their feet and watching her, and for a long moment none of them seemed able to speak, as if she had taken their breath away as much as her own.
Nira broke the silence with a short laugh that sounded half crazed, and she leapt forward to hug Tenzin for just a moment. When she pulled back there were still tears flowing from her eyes, but she was grinning and filled with joy. She was breathless as she said in a near whisper, "I felt him, Tenzin. It was if he was right here…with me. Azu – I – I know it sounds crazy… maybe I just imagined the whole thing, but… it was him."
Tenzin recovered from his shock and smiled softly, reaching out to place a hand on Nira's shoulder as he said, "I believe you."
She chuckled sheepishly, feeling a little embarrassed as she came back to herself, wiping the tears from her face and working to calm her racing heart. She looked down at her hands and flexed her fingers, stunned by what she had been able to do.
"You're not crazy," Tenzin assured. "You're an airbender, Nira, and it's an honor to have you. In fact, you may be just what the Air Nation needs. I could certainly use someone like you as we set out to restore it."
Nira was touched by his words; he had been a friend and mentor to her for many years, and his confidence in her was the true honor. She could not believe that she was an airbender. As a child she had been so disheartened to learn that she would never be a firebender like so much of the rest of her small village, but part of her had always known that it was not right for her. The Air Nation had always been her place, even once Azu was gone, and even though she hadn't needed bending to feel complete, it had given her a closure she had not fully realized she needed. It had opened her eyes to many truths she had tried to deny herself over the years. She had contented herself with what she had and never sought to keep chasing what she once desired. But it was never too late to change that. Her time with Revol recently had started her on that path, had been more than the foolish tryst she'd convinced herself that it was. Perhaps because he was not technically human she had allowed herself to feel, something less guarded, and now the floodgates had been opened wider still by her new-found abilities and what they had given her.
Sora and Yunjin leapt at Nira as she was contemplating it all, both of them hugging her with excitement.
"That was awesome!" Yunjin exclaimed.
"It was beautiful," Sora said with delight. "I'm so glad you're an airbender too."
"How come you're better at it than me?" Bumi complained.
"'Cause Nira's smart, Uncle," Yunjin teased, dodging out of the way when Bumi tried to swat at his shoulder.
"Nira has been an Acolyte for a long time," Korra pointed out a little more helpfully. She flashed Nira a smile too. "We've got a good group of airbenders so far."
"Welcome to the club, Nira," Bumi crowed, throwing his arm over her shoulders and beaming.
"Thanks, it's good to be here," Nira said with absolute sincerity, and for hours afterwards she could not wipe the smile from her face.
The following afternoon, Nira was still elated over recent events and excited about the upcoming trip to find more airbenders. Tenzin and Lin had invited her along, and she couldn't think of a reason to say no. She had never had the opportunity to travel much and there wasn't much tethering her to the Island when the Beifong kids weren't there. She was still the Head Acolyte, of course, and she took those duties seriously, but there were several others capable of managing the Island without her.
Planning for the trip to the Earth Kingdom was in full swing and everyone was doing their part to help prepare. On that day, Nira went into the city with Jeia to pick up a few odds and ends. She had intended to go alone, but the five year old was bored and wanted to get off the Island, so Nira had asked Lin if Jeia could come along. Thankfully, Jeia was not as rambunctious as Jin and Sora had been at her age, and stuck right by Nira's side. She didn't try to run ahead and she seemed to be even more aware of their surroundings than Nira could be. She looked a lot like her mother as she scowled suspiciously at strangers that strayed too near, and she would tug on Nira's hand to alert her to any problematic spirit vines in their path. Jeia was being so good and patient that Nira decided to get the girl a treat and offer to take her to the park. Jeia had silently nodded her assent, and her face didn't express much excitement, but Nira could see her dark green eyes light up in that subtle Jeia way.
So the pair of them went to a food vendor first, Nira toting the bag of miscellaneous trip items on one arm and her other hand holding onto Jeia's. She let Jeia pick out the treat she wanted, and then ordered one for herself too. She didn't notice the movement occurring at the next stall over, but Jeia did, and she started yanking on Nira's hand to get the woman's attention. Concerned, Nira snapped her head up to see what was happening, instinctively pulling Jeia half behind her, but when she caught sight of what Jeia had first sensed, she relaxed her grip a little.
She still frowned though as she watched a child covered in grime and tattered clothing eyeing the nearby vendor's food with obvious hunger. The child was half hidden in the dark alleyway, but was edging further out into the sunlight, squinting as if unaccustomed to it. On first glance, Nira could not tell if the child was a boy or a girl, but they were far too skinny, with dark mangy hair and bony limbs marred with scrapes and bruises. Nira's heart ached at the mere sight, and she found herself unable to look away as the child darted forward.
The child moved swiftly, leaping when the vendor owner's back was turned and snatching up a loaf of bread and whatever fruit they could grasp in their small hand. They seemed as if they would get away with their loot, but the vendor turned back at the last moment, and soon the man's large hand was grabbing the child's arm and yanking them back.
"Hey!" he shouted. "What you think you're doing?! You, thief!"
Nira felt her feet moving forward even before she fully registered what she intended to do. All she knew was that the man was being too rough, even though the poor child did not let out a single whimper, and she had to do something.
"Excuse me, sir!" Nira called, pursing her lips as she struggled to contain her disdain for him. "Unhand that child –"
"These orphan rats are always stealing my wares!" he grumbled back, still not letting the child go even as they struggled in his grasp. "I got a family. They gotta eat too."
"Of course," Nira placated, desperate to calm the situation; she could feel Jeia squirming next to her in clear discomfort, and the five year old was not good at controlling her own emotions in such unpredictable scenarios. "Let me pay you for the food. I'll take double what this child intended to steal, and some water. What will it cost?"
The vendor grumbled and looked down at the kid, and up close Nira could make out more of their features. Underneath the grime Nira could see that it was a girl, one not more than a few years older than Jeia at most, with dazzling hazel eyes that stared at Nira with both suspicion and surprise.
"Fine," the man spat after a second of consideration, shoving the girl in Nira's direction and naming his price.
Nira hastily handed over the money and took the food and water, and then ushered Jeia and the homeless child down a side street to a place out of view of the harsh man.
Once they were out of the way of foot traffic, Nira offered the food items to the girl, who eyed them hesitantly and seemed to be considering making a run for it.
"Don't worry, sweetheart," Nira said softly, "we won't hurt you. Please, eat as much as you need." The girl still did not budge, remaining silent, and she was watching Jeia warily. Jeia, too, seemed unsure of what to think of the strange girl, and would not let go of Nira's hand or soften her gaze. Nira squeezed Jeia's hand reassuringly and then told the other frightened child, "I'm sorry, Jeia is just shy, that's all. My name is Nira, I'm her caregiver. Can you tell us your name?"
The girl swallowed visibly, her eyes dropping to the food in Nira's outstretched hand. Quietly, the child finally spoke, timidly answering, "Amali."
"Amali," Nira repeated. "That's a beautiful name."
Apparently Amali's hunger won over her reservations because she finally snatched the food from Nira's hand and began to eat with gusto. She watched Jeia and Nira out of the corner of her eye the entire time. After a few minutes, Nira handed over the water as well, and the girl gulped it down thirstily. Then Amali wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and slowed down, tearing pieces of bread off to eat as opposed to tearing at the loaf with her teeth. "Thank you, Nira," she murmured.
Nira smiled sadly and silently considered what to do next. The thought of leaving the girl was painful, but she also couldn't force Amali to come with her either, and it was doubtful that a child on the street would be trusting of a stranger.
"Would you like to come to the park with us?" Nira eventually asked. "Jeia and I were just headed that way. It's only about a block from here. Maybe we could talk while you eat?"
Amali shrugged, looking uncertain, but eyeing the rest of the food in Nira's hand and probably thinking that was the price to get it. Nira would have given the girl the food regardless of her answer, but she was relieved when Amali said, "Okay."
So the three of them made the short trip to the park together and settled down on a bench that was a little more secluded. Amali was clearly twitchy around large groups of people and Nira hoped to calm the girl.
As Amali was munching on one of the fruits Nira had bought, Nira softly asked, "Do you have any family, Amali?"
The girl stilled for a moment, a haunted look passing over her face as she replied, "Not anymore."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Nira said sincerely.
"You mean you don't have parents?" Jeia interjected, brow furrowed. "Well where are they?"
"They're dead," Amali muttered, and Jeia immediately went quiet, her little face still scrunched up confusion. It was likely that she could not fathom how anyone could be without parents, let alone a child like Amali. Even with the tragedies Jeia had seen in her short life, her own parents were pretty good at sheltering her, and there were still some things she did not fully understand, like people being homeless or without some sort of family. Jeia had an abundance of loved ones and it would require a slew of horrific events for her to ever know what it was like to be in a situation like Amali's. As she grew older and saw more of the world she would not be so appalled, but for the moment the five year old was clearly stunned. Nira held the girl close to reassure her and hoped that Lin wouldn't kill her later for exposing Jeia to the tragedy of street orphans.
Trying to steer the conversation to somewhat safer ground, Nira asked Amali, "How long have you been living on the streets by yourself?"
Amali shook her head. "I do not know. Months, maybe? It's hard to keep track."
"How old are you?"
"Eight, I think."
"Have you lived in Republic City all your life? Or did you come from somewhere else?"
Amali frowned. "You ask a lot of questions."
"I'm sorry. I don't mean to pry. I just wanted to get to know you better is all, and help you if I can, if you'd like me to."
"Help me?" Amali repeated, as if such a concept were foreign to her, and it probably was for someone living the way that she did.
"I'm not from here originally," Nira revealed, hoping to make Amali more comfortable by giving some information about herself. "I come from a small village in the Fire Nation. I never liked it there because I was one of the only nonbenders and people in my village weren't kind about it. So when I was older I left and ended up at the Eastern Air Temple where I became an Air Acolyte. But I lost someone that I loved very much and that's how I came to be here."
Amali had stopped eating to listen intently to Nira's brief story, and mid-way through her eyes had gone wide. "I was the only nonbender in my tribe too. They all thought I was useless, all except my parents, and Elder Ji-Min. He brought me here after…" Amali dropped her gaze again, and fiddled with the fruit in her hands, sticky juice running down her palms and dripping from her wrists.
"After what?" Jeia asked, as uncouth as ever.
Amali looked at Jeia and answered, "Terra Troopers attacked my tribe. We had nothing to offer them, and few capable of fighting. Elder Ji-Min and I were the only two to survive. He carried me away and brought me to this strange place. He died not long after we arrived, but first he imparted as much of his knowledge onto me as he could. I'm the only one left to tell the story of my people. That's why he saved me, so that our story might live on. But one thing Elder Ji-Min didn't consider was that nobody would want to hear it. And I fear most of all that I might start to forget."
"I'd like to hear it," Nira offered genuinely.
Amali seemed to consider it, but then said, "It's a long story." She averted her gaze again.
"I don't like stories very much," Jeia said bluntly. "Not unless they're really interesting. Sora's stories are boring."
Nira snorted. "That's not very nice, Jeia."
"Mama says to always be honest," Jeia retorted.
Nira could not contest that. "Your Mama is very wise," she agreed, before turning to Amali again, who was observing the two of them in silence. "Amali, did you see Air Temple Island when you came to the city?"
"The land in the Bay with the tall temple?" Amali asked, and Nira nodded. "Yes, Elder Ji-Min told me that it's where the last airbenders live, that all of their tribe was wiped out like ours, all except the Avatar."
"That's right. That island is actually where Jeia and I live. Her father and two of her siblings were the last of the airbenders. And myself and many other nonbenders studied to become Air Acolytes, to help them preserve the Air Nation."
Amali looked both stunned and impressed, and for a long moment she seemed to consider what Nira had told her, once again munching on the fruit she had left. Then she asked Jeia, "Are you an airbender too?"
Jeia wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "No way! But I can turn metal into cool shapes. You wanna see?"
Jeia was already scrambling off of the bench before Amali could answer, eager to show off her talents. She hesitated when the older girl did not respond right away, and then Amali stammered, "Oh, um, okay."
"What's your favorite animal?" Jeia asked while removing the long metal cuff around her forearm that she wore nearly at all times these days.
"Umm, a camelephant!" Amali replied, sounding a little excited as she slid closer to the edge of her seat.
Jeia considered the answer, nodded, looked down at her metal cuff, and screwed up her little face in concentration. For someone who had likely only seen a camelephant maybe once in a book, creating that animal from memory would have been extremely difficult, but for Jeia, her eidetic memory allowed her to morph the cuff into an almost perfect figurine in a matter of seconds.
Amali gasped, sliding off of the bench to get closer and examine the metal herself. "That's amazing!" she exclaimed, and Jeia beamed proudly.
Though it was difficult to tell much about Amali's features underneath the dirt crusted on her skin, Nira had noticed the tanned complexion and a spattering of freckles in a stripe across the girl's face over her nose and cheekbones. Amali's mention of a tribe and the fact that she'd named an animal most commonly seen in the Si Wong Desert, Nira deduced that the girl must have been a part of one of the sandbender tribes there. Such a life in the desert was harsh enough even without all of the horrors the girl must have faced since then. Amali was so well-spoken, likely a result of the Elder Ji-Min's teachings, that it was almost easy to forget how young she was, but the way her eyes lit up as she asked Jeia to make more shapes was a stark reminder. Amali was only a child, and yet she had faced a lifetime worth of tragedy and was entirely alone. Nira knew that she needed to help Amali, even if she wasn't entirely sure how best to do so.
Nira watched Jeia and Amali interact for a little while, not wanting to interrupt them when they were both beginning to feel comfortable with one another. However, as the hour grew later, Nira knew that she needed to be getting Jeia home, so that the girl's parents did not worry. Deciding to go with her plan and hope for the best, Nira knelt before Amali and told the child, "Amali, I know that we're still mostly strangers to you, and you may not be fully comfortable with us yet, but if you want to, Jeia and I would very much like it if you came home with us to Air Temple Island. A lot of the Acolytes that come to live there were strangers at first too, so you'll fit right in, and we grow a lot of our own food there, so you'll never go hungry. There are plenty of dorms available, so you could sleep on your own bed."
Amali shifted from one foot to the other, looking conflicted.
"Yeah, you should come!" Jeia insisted. "All of Ro's friends live there, so I know Daddy will let you stay too."
"You want me to come and live with you?" Amali asked skeptically.
"It doesn't have to be forever," Nira said softly. "If you hate it there we won't force you to stay. But you shouldn't have to live on the streets when we've got plenty of space."
"But you don't even know me," Amali pointed out. "Why would you want to help me?"
"Nira helps everyone," Jeia answered first. "She helps me with my lessons."
"And Jeia is a pretty good judge of character," Nira added, smiling down at the littlest Beifong and smoothing down her wild hair. "She trusts you, and so do I. I'd really like it if you came with us."
Amali continued to fidget, but she looked between Nira and Jeia and seemed to make up her mind. "I suppose I could try it for a few days… I have nowhere else to go."
Nira smiled in relief. "I think you'll really like it there."
Amali seemed hopeful, and Nira did not waste another second in ushering the girls out of the park. It didn't take them long to get to the docks, and Jeia and Amali chatted sporadically on the way. Jeia wasn't as much of a talker as her sister, but she seemed intrigued by Amali and she always loved to impress people, though Nira told Jeia to keep her metal cuff on while they were walking down the sidewalk. The city might not have been as much of a dangerous place as it had been in the past, but Nira still didn't want to risk it. They were already getting enough sideways looks with Amali walking out in full view in broad daylight. Orphans and vagabonds were not an entirely uncommon sight in Republic City, but they usually kept to the shadows or were only seen with other people like them.
Nira only relaxed once the three of them were settled on their usual boat and were moving across the Bay. Amali wanted to stand by the edge and watch their approach, and Jeia joined the older girl despite her distaste for boat rides. Nira stood behind them and looked around at the other passengers. There were only a handful, all of them acolytes, except for three familiar faces that Nira was surprised to see.
She strode over to the trio to get a better look but there was no denying who they were. "Pema? Is that you?"
Pema looked up from her eldest daughter and husband that sat beside her with confusion, and then smiled when recognition dawned. "Nira! It's been a while. How are you?"
Pema stood and the two women embraced briefly. They had been friends once, when they were both acolytes, before Pema had tried to split up Lin and Tenzin. They had reconnected sometime after Yunjin and Jinora had begun dating, but Pema didn't like to linger on the Island, especially when Lin was around, so their paths didn't often cross. Nira was glad that the young woman had found happiness elsewhere and a family of her own.
"I'm doing very well actually," Nira replied, and then smiled briefly at Jinora and Anil in greeting. "I didn't know you three were coming to the Island today. Are Yunjin and Jinora allowed to see each other again?"
"Well, not exactly," Pema hedged. "We're actually here for another reason… Something crazy has happened, and I think Tenzin is the only one that can help explain it."
Nira really should have seen it coming, but she was still stunned when Jinora perked up with bright eyes and a wide smile and said excitedly, "I can airbend!"
Chapter 73: Chapter 73
Chapter Text
Chapter 73
While Nira and Jeia were out in the city, Lin busied herself with various other tasks, including a midday nap. With all that had been happening they had all been getting up fairly early each day, and with everyone out of the house for once, Lin had been all too happy to take advantage of the peace and quiet. Afterwards, she spent some time with Sora and Tenzin, who were still flipping through old books to decide what they would bring along with them on the trip. But Lin grew bored of that quickly and went outside to the training circle, where Yunjin was trying to teach Bumi and Da some basic airbending. Korra and Akira were there too, but seemed to be paying little attention, sitting far at the edge of the circle and laughing and talking over each other. Ronen, Asami, and Bolin had gone into the city earlier and probably wouldn't be back until dinner. Since Asami was going along on the trip, they had a lot to do to prepare Sato Industries for her absence. Mako hadn't come home from work the night before, and the last Lin had seen of Kya she was playing cards with some of the acolytes and apparently winning every hand.
So Lin stood at the edge of the circle with her arms folded casually across her chest and observed the training. It was amusing to see Yunjin becoming slightly frustrated by his Uncle's difficult nature, especially considering how difficult Yunjin had been to train. Da didn't seem to be much better, flinching at even the most minor occurrences and refusing to do half of what Yunjin suggested out of fear. Yunjin was clearly making an effort to remain calm and prove that he was a good teacher, but being on the other end of Bumi's tortures and having such a reticent student was clearly getting to him. He didn't have the patience that his father and Sora had. His strengths lay in the physical aspects of airbending, as well as some philosophical, but not so much in the area of discipline and calm. He had too much Beifong in him.
Lin was just starting to consider taking pity on him and suggesting that they take a break when she heard a familiar voice calling, "Mama!"
Lin turned to see that Jeia and Nira had returned, but the smile that had begun to curve her lips was halted before it could fully form. Jeia and Nira were not alone. On Nira's other side was a timid looking child a little taller than Jeia and covered in grime. Lin had seen enough homeless children to know one when she saw them, but why Nira had thought to bring one home with her, Lin could not fathom a guess. And on top of that mystery was another destined to grate on Lin's nerves, because a few steps behind Nira and the two kids were Pema, Anil, and Jinora.
"Yunjin," Lin said, without turning to face him. "Go and get your father."
Yunjin halted what he was doing when he noticed the tone of his mother's voice, and raced over to join her at the edge of the circle. When he spotted what she had, he gasped, "Jinora?"
"Go on," Lin urged him when he hesitated. "You can talk to Jinora when you get back."
Yunjin darted off without argument, and Lin knelt down to embrace Jeia when the girl reached her.
"We brought a friend home, Mama," Jeia told her. "She doesn't haven't a house, like Ro's friends. I told her she could stay here. Well, Nira told her first. But I said Daddy wouldn't mind."
"Who is this friend of yours?" Lin asked.
Jeia stepped back as Nira and the child reached them. Lin stood up and Jeia answered, "Her name is Amali."
Nira gently touched the shaky girl on the shoulder and said, "Amali, this is Lin. She's Jeia's mother."
Amali did not say hello, nor did Lin, who eyed the girl cautiously, uncertain of what to say. Lin's heart went out to the homeless children of Republic City, and she had always struggled with that aspect of her job, especially after having kids of her own. She hated to see a child go hungry, and had always tried to do what she could for them, but she was also very aware of what some of those kids were capable of. A life on the streets, usually due to tragic losses, often led them to lives of crime, and some of them were happier among the triads than they were with families that wished to adopt them. There had been so many children that had been placed in good homes and went right back to the triad they had been working for, and some of the really smart kids duped some naïve citizen in order to do the triad's bidding. Lin didn't like that her first instinct was to be suspicious of Amali, but after decades of police work she had learned never to let guard down. However, Lin also had to reconcile with herself that such an assessment of the girl was unfair, and frankly, Amali appeared genuinely uncertain, not like a kid that was trying to infiltrate Air Temple Island on some triad's bidding. Not to mention that Nira never would have brought someone to the Island that might do Lin's children harm.
So Lin sucked in a deep breath and pushed aside her initial concerns for the moment, saying to Amali, "You're welcome to stay here as long as you need, kid."
Amali glanced up at Nira, who smiled and nodded, and then looked back at Lin. "Thank you," the girl said quietly. "It is…nice to meet you. Can you bend metal into shapes like Jeia can?"
"Oh yeah she can," Jeia said before Lin could even comprehend what Amali had asked. "She's the best. Mama, show Amali the stuff you can do."
"Maybe later," Lin replied. "Why don't you show Amali to the dorms so I can talk to Nira for a second?"
Jeia sighed and told Amali, "That means the grown ups wanna say stuff they don't want us to hear. Come on. We'll get you a room with a good bed."
"I'll be with you in just a minute," Nira promised the girls.
Amali hesitated, but took Jeia's proferred hand and let the younger girl lead her away.
"I'm sorry," Nira immediately said when they were out of ear shot. "I know I should have spoken with you and Tenzin first, but you should have seen… I couldn't just leave the girl there. She was starving, and her parents are dead. From what I could learn about her it sounds like she was from a sandbender tribe in the Si Wong Desert, but she's a nonbender. The tribe's Elder brought Amali here, the only two of their tribe to survive a Terra Trooper attack, and he passed soon after. She's all alone."
"You're sure she hasn't got any ulterior motives?" Lin had to ask.
Nira shook her head quickly. "No, I don't think so. She didn't know who Jeia and I were, or that we would help her. She couldn't understand why I would even want to bring her here. I believe her story, what I know of it so far, anyways."
Lin considered for another moment, and then decided, "Well, I trust you. I can't be mad at you for trying to help a kid. Besides, with all the strays we've picked up in the last two years she'll fit right in."
Nira smiled gratefully and squeezed Lin's hand briefly. "Thank you, Lin. I promise she won't be any trouble. I just hope she likes it here."
"If anyone can convince her it'll be you. We'll talk more later. You'd better go make sure Jeia isn't scaring the poor girl off."
Nira chuckled. "I'm sure Jeia is being an excellent host."
Lin snorted her disbelief. Jeia was sweet in her own way, but was also often entirely lacking in tact. "I'm sure she is. Before you go, any idea why these three are here?"
Nira briefly looked back at where Pema, Anil, and Jinora were standing a few yards away, talking a little amongst themselves and purposefully avoiding Lin's gaze until she acknowledged them first. "Well…." Nira hedged. "I do have some idea, but I think it's best they tell you themselves. Good luck."
And with that, Nira hurried off, and Lin was left standing there with no other option but to approach the three visitors. She was not thrilled that they hadn't bothered to call in advance, but there was no helping that now. She could just make out the forms of Tenzin, Yunjin, and Sora hastening towards them, but it would be another minute before they arrived and Lin decided not to stand there awkwardly and wait.
"Anil, Pema," Lin said gruffly in greeting as she came to stand before them. "We weren't expecting you."
"Lin, we're so sorry to just drop in like this," Anil said first, smiling brightly and giving Lin a short bow like he always did. "We were going to call first, but, well, this was too exciting to wait."
Anil put his arm around Jinora's shoulders and nudged the girl forward. She smiled a little timidly up at Lin. "Hello, Mrs. Beifong, ma'am."
"Hey, kid, how have you been?" Lin greeted, softening her tone a little with the young teen. "Been staying away from the booze, I hope."
Jinora's cheeks turned pink with some embarrassment and she nervously tucked her hair behind her ear, but she laughed shortly at Lin's teasing and responded, "Yes, ma'am. I think those days are behind me. I never got to tell you how sorry I am. It was very disrespectful of me to do that after you had welcomed me into your home. I hope you can forgive me."
Despite the fact that Lin had always kept some distance between herself and Jinora, she could tell when the girl was being genuine. If she was being honest she had always kind of liked the kid; she had just liked her better when she was Sora's best friend and not Yunjin's girlfriend. But Jinora was a good kid, always polite and not too loud. Lin hadn't been as upset about the alcohol as Tenzin had been, so her displeasure over the situation had already faded over the last two weeks. She and Tenzin had been discussing letting Yunjin call Jinora, but Tenzin thought they should talk to Pema and Anil first, and Lin had preferred to put that off even if she did agree with it.
Jinora looked anxious about Lin's response, but was clearly relieved when Lin said, "Just don't let it happen again, yeah?"
Jinora nodded emphatically. "I promise!"
Yunjin, Tenzin, and Sora finally reached Lin then, and there was a flurry of greetings, Tenzin welcoming Pema and Anil and Sora hugging Jinora. Yunjin hesitated for a second, but surged forward to hug Jinora when the girl approached him.
The hug went on for a moment too long and Lin was impatient to know what was going on so she cut in, "So what's this news you had to come all the way here to tell us about?"
Jinora and Yunjin broke apart, and Anil began, "Well, we heard something about new airbenders appearing, and at first we thought it must have been nonsense, but then…" He looked over at his daughter and gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
Lin already knew what Jinora would say before the girl sucked in a deep breath and declared, "I can airbend now!"
"What?" Yunjin exclaimed in disbelief.
"That's fantastic!" Sora said cheerfully.
"That's amazing!" Yunjin agreed, recovering enough from his shock to pull Jinora back into a hug, this time spinning her around in a circle.
"You can imagine our surprise," Pema said a little uncertainly, over the sound of the three teens' excitement. Her gaze was twitchy as she glanced at Lin then Tenzin then back to Jinora. "We weren't sure what to do, but Anil and I agreed it would be a good idea to bring her here."
"You've come to the right place," Tenzin assured, smiling kindly. "We've been rather stunned and uncertain ourselves about all this, but I have every intention of helping every new airbender reach their full potential. We're actually planning to leave Republic City in a few days." He squeezed Lin's shoulder and focused those bright eyes on her for just a moment. "Our family and the Avatar will be going to search for airbenders in the Earth Kingdom, and then we'll be taking them to the Eastern Air Temple to begin training."
"You should come with us!" Sora said to Jinora. "It'll be so much fun, and we can start your training on the way. Dad says Jin and I will be masters soon, so we'll be helping out already. And I know how much you've wanted to travel more, you'll just love it."
"Oh, Mom, Dad, can I please?" Jinora begged, whirling to face her parents with hands clasped and eyes pleading. "I promise I'll be on my best behavior."
"I don't know about all that," Pema said with a frown. "I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves."
"Jinora is welcome to come along," Tenzin offered, "but I understand if you're hesitant to leave her with us again so soon. If you prefer, we can simply send word when we've reached the Air Temple and she can meet us there to begin training."
"Just how long is this training?" Anil asked with a furrowed brow.
"Oh, several years at least," Tenzin answered, stroking his beard as he considered it. "I don't know for certain because airbenders in the past were trained from birth, but I imagine Jinora will pick it up rather quickly."
"Several years?" Anil echoed. "You're saying she'd have to live at the Air Temple for years?"
"Well I imagine she'd probably end up staying there much longer than that," Tenzin said, not catching onto the distress on Pema and Anil's faces. "Although she may like to move to another temple. It would be her choice, of course."
"Hang on," Pema interjected with a shake of her head. "This isn't what we meant. We thought you could just train her here."
Tenzin's brow furrowed now too. "Well, I don't know for how long we'll be gone from the Island. As I said, I intend to begin training at the Eastern Air Temple."
"Yeah, I heard that," Pema said, sounding annoyed. "Maybe we should just wait a little while to have this conversation. Jinora's too young to be going off on her own to spend the rest of her life at an Air Temple."
"Do I get a say in this?" Jinora huffed, but it was quiet, as if she was afraid to ask.
"When you're older, yes," Pema replied, giving the girl a look, and Jinora went quiet.
"Well she wouldn't be alone," Sora tried to defend. "We'd all be there and you guys could visit whenever you wanted to."
"I know you would take good care of her," Pema admitted in a softer voice, seeming to be speaking only to Sora, probably the only person in Tenzin's family that Pema had grown fond of. Sora had that affect on people, and she was the least like Lin. "But I don't think she should be separated from her family for so long."
Sora nodded, frowning, but understanding. "I suppose I wouldn't want to be that far from my family either."
"Maybe we can start her training later," Pema suggested.
"I wouldn't suggest that," Tenzin advised. "She should at least learn some basics, so that she is in control of these abilities."
Anil seemed to be pondering another idea while everyone else spoke, and now he asked, "There are Air Acolytes at this temple, yes? Other families that aren't airbenders. They'll be permitted to stay, won't they?"
"Of course," Tenzin answered.
Anil looked over at his wife, who seemed to understand what he was about to say, but her expression wasn't entirely agreeable. Still, he continued, "Well, what if Pema and the kids and me came to stay there too? That way Jinora could still have her training and we wouldn't be separated from her. We'd been discussing moving out of Republic City anyways."
"Oh!" Tenzin said in surprise. "Well, um, hmm…" He looked down at Lin, as if she would have the answer, but all she could do was grimace and shrug. She wasn't the type to lie and say she would be happy to have Pema come live at the Air Temple with them, but she could also understand why Pema wasn't thrilled with the idea of letting her kid run off to live somewhere else at fourteen.
"We wouldn't be useless of course," Anil added. "We would work just as the Acolytes do. Pema was an Acolyte before, I'm sure she can teach me. And we'd be respectful of your ways, we're practically vegetarian already. It would probably be good for Jinora's siblings to learn some calming meditations." He chuckled mostly to himself.
Yunjin interrupted, "Wait, Pema was a what?"
He was ignored, and Anil went on, "I know there's some history between the three of you that I don't fully understand, but we're all adults, it's been over a decade, and I think we can live peacefully in such a space, don't you? If there's one thing all four of us can agree on it's that we want what's best for our children."
"What history?" Yunjin demanded, but no one answered him again. Lin was surprised that Sora apparently hadn't told him what she knew, or Jinora for that matter, but considering the temper the boy was prone to have she supposed it wasn't unusual that neither girl would have brought it up to him.
"That is true," Tenzin admitted to Anil. "I completely understand your concerns, and your idea is not terrible. I think it's certainly something we can discuss. It is a big decision to make, for your family especially. Living at the temple will be quite remote, and a big change from what you're used to. Why don't we take the night to think it over? In the meantime, perhaps I can show you around and give you a better idea of what it might entail? I know Pema lived here for quite a while, but it has been some time and I'm afraid we've never given you a proper tour, Anil."
"That sounds like a great idea to me," Anil easily agreed. He was a very agreeable man. Lin wasn't sure she had ever heard him say the word 'no.' Frankly, she was surprised he would even consider leaving the comfort of his home to go live at some unknown Air Temple. He was just as skittish as he was malleable. But then again, there had been a lot of changes in Republic City of late, and a lot of danger. Anil was probably just as desperate for some peace as Lin was.
Tenzin beckoned for Pema, Anil, and Jinora to follow him, and Anil followed hastily with some excitement.
"I think you'll love it, Daddy," Jinora said, smiling as she looped her arm through her father's.
"I think so too, pumpkin," Anil said cheerfully.
Sora went to follow, but was dragged off to the side for a moment by Yunjin, and the two exchanged heated whispers that likely had to do with his confusion over his parents' history with Pema, and why he was the only one that didn't know about it.
Lin left Sora to deal with her brother and followed further behind Tenzin and the others. She wasn't really sure how she felt about any of the day's recent events, but she was trying not to get herself worked up. She was still retired and still going to be with her family on an adventure for the next few weeks, and Pema's possible presence in the future wasn't going to put a damper on that. Lin didn't like the woman, didn't think that she ever would, but she had come a long way from the burning hatred she had felt all those years ago. The beginning of Sora and Jinora's friendship had been difficult, a painful reminder of that time when Lin had been so certain that Tenzin was about to be yanked away from her by the pretty, young acolyte, but in the last couple years she had cast aside that inherit fear and come to grips with the fact that her husband wasn't going to leave her, and Pema likely had no interest in trying to take him. The idea of living with Pema and her family at the Air Temple was still a little disconcerting though.
Lin also wasn't thrilled when Pema fell back from Anil, Tenzin, and Jinora to quietly request, "Could we talk?"
Lin forced herself not to make a face, and came to a slow halt, turning to face the younger woman and ask, "About what exactly?"
That was about the same moment when, from a few feet behind, Yunjin exclaimed in surprise, "Pema tried to steal Dad from Mom? She's braver than I thought!"
Pema winced and Lin sighed irritably.
There was a sound like a slap that rang through the air, and Yunjin shouted, "Ow! What was that for?"
Lin turned to watch Sora walk away from her brother with an eye roll, and Yunjin huffed before racing after her. The twins went to join Jinora, and said nothing as they passed Lin and Pema, but Sora gave her mother an apologetic look and Yunjin eyed them both with suspicious concern, as if thinking they might start a brawl if left alone.
Only once the two of them were out of earshot did Pema respond, "I know you don't like me much…well, at all, probably, and I get it. I didn't, before, but now that I have Anil and the kids, and I think about someone trying to take that from me…" She shook her head and sighed. "I never really apologized. In a way, I don't regret it, because I'm not sure how long I would have pined after Tenzin if I hadn't confessed my feelings to him, and if I would have found Anil when I did, but I am sorry I tried to ruin your relationship."
"Um…thanks," Lin grumbled, uncomfortable and uncertain.
"I know this is uncomfortable," Pema commiserated. "We never got off on the right foot and I don't know that we can ever fix that, but…our kids are pretty fond of each other, ironically enough. I think we're gonna be stuck with each other for a while. I don't know about Anil's idea to move us all to the Air Temple either. I left that life behind for a reason and I certainly don't want you to feel like I'm trying to encroach on you or your family. But I would do it if it's what's best for my family. I guess what I'm really trying to ask is, will you and I be able to put all this aside, or are we going to be mortal enemies forever?"
Lin tried to evade the question by saying, "Tenzin makes the Air Nation decisions."
Pema folded her arms across her chest with a disbelieving look. "Let's not pretend that you haven't got any sway. That man worships the ground you walk on, even now. Once I learned to recognize that is about the time I had to reconcile with myself that he wasn't my soulmate like I thought. He never looked at me with half as much adoration. He could never have felt for me what he does for you. If you tell him you don't want us at the temple he would find some reason that we couldn't come."
"Yeah, probably," Lin admitted. His reticence to agree with Anil's proposition from the beginning was a clear enough sign of that, let alone the looks he kept throwing her. "But I'm not trying to get in the middle of this. I know how my kids feel about Jinora and I'm not about to be the reason they can't see her. I won't lie, I'm not thrilled about the idea of us being in such close proximity, but I'm sure I can ignore you just as easily there."
Pema snorted. "I'm sure you can too, but it'd be easier if we could occupy the same space without trying to avoid each other. Honestly, it's exhausting, and it'd be nice if we could actually get along and not just pretend for the kids' sake. I'm not saying we're gonna be best friends, but tolerance would be a good start."
"I've been tolerating your for the last three years," Lin muttered. "You'd know if I wasn't."
Pema sighed. "Aren't you tired of hating me?"
Lin smirked. "I'm pretty good at holding a grudge."
"You know," Pema said wistfully, looking off into the distance for a moment, in the direction of where both their families could vaguely be seen as they showed Anil around, "in another life we might have been something like friends. Nira speaks very highly of you. I've wondered before it we might have been the same, if I hadn't been in love with your husband."
Lin shook her head, folding her arms protectively across her own chest and following Pema's gaze. "No, you never liked me, even before all that."
"Back then, no, but I've changed a lot since then. I think you have too. I look at things differently now. I didn't know what it was to have a family." The slight movement out of the corner of her eye caused Lin to look back over at Pema, who had moved her hands seemingly without thought to rest over her abdomen, and it was only then that Lin noticed the baggy clothing and the very slight curve of the younger woman's stomach. Seismic sense confirmed the rest, that Pema was pregnant. "I couldn't understand why you were the way that you were, but I do now. You're fiercely protective of what you have because you're terrified it might slip through your fingers, that you'll be alone again, that you'll lose the only people that mean anything to you in the entire world. I have those same fears. And I'm sorry, Lin. I'm sorry that I added to those fears."
Lin didn't know what to say. She was half surprised and a little displeased at being so easily read by the likes of Pema. But the younger woman had a good point. What had happened between them had been a long time ago, and they were both different now. They both had families that were more important to them than the hatred they'd bore for one another. Maybe they could find some common ground. It seemed no matter what that their paths were destined to cross in some way, and it would be less tiring if they weren't actively trying to occupy different spaces. There was more room on the Eastern Air Temple than there was on the Island, but it was a community in itself and there would be no way to go days at a time without so much as seeing one another. And there was some small assurance in the fact that Pema clearly had no intent to cause issues like she had nearly twenty years ago. Couldn't Lin give up on a grudge for once and let it rest? Neither of them wanted to fight, so why bother being annoyed?
"All right, all right," Lin huffed, dropping her hands to rest them on her hips. "You might have a point. I'll think about letting this grudge go. I've got plenty others to hold me over. If you really wanna move your family to the temple, I won't make it difficult."
Pema met Lin's gaze once more and smiled serenely. "I'm glad to hear that. I think our husbands will be happy to hear it too. As of right now they seem rather concerned."
Lin glanced over at where Tenzin, Anil, Jinora, and the twins were still waiting a few yards off. The kids, at least, were talking amongst themselves and not paying their mothers much attention except for a few furtive glances, but Tenzin and Anil were openly staring.
Lin snorted. "They must be waiting to see if we start strangling each other."
"Should we hug?" Pema suggested with a mischievous grin. "See how fast they come racing over?"
"Don't push your luck," Lin muttered. "You're lucky I've agreed to tolerate you."
"You'll come to love me," Pema said breezily, as she turned and began casually walking towards the others. "I just know it."
Lin scoffed. "Not likely." But she was still surprised she had even made peace with Pema in the first place. At one time, Pema had been enemy number one, but Lin had met a lot worse enemies since then. She would rather put up with Pema than Amon or Unalaq any day of the week.
With all that was occurring, the trip to the Earth Kingdom was pushed back another two weeks. In that time, Sora and Jinora continued to press Pema and Anil to let Jinora come on the trip with Sora and everyone else. Pema and Anil were hesitant mostly because they wanted Jinora's help with trying to pack and prepare for their family's move to the Eastern Air Temple. Yunjin, surprisingly, was being rather quiet on the matter, and Lin just assumed he was trying not to push his luck. He was being tentatively let out of his grounding and poised to be a master, and he seemed to be taking it all very seriously for once – well, as serious as Yunjin could be. In the end, Pema and Anil caved, so Jinora was permitted to come along on the trip to find new airbenders.
The decision on who to leave in charge of the island was huge on the list of things to do before they left, but then turned out to be a non-issue. Nira had originally intended to accompany everyone on the trip, but at the last minute decided to stay behind and meet them all at the Air Temple in a few weeks. She had been working with the orphan girl Amali in the days after she first found the girl, and decided that she didn't want to try and convince Amali to come with her to another strange place so soon.
Amali was still wary of all of them, but Lin didn't imagine it would take the girl very long to start relaxing, not with how persistent everyone was about making her feel comfortable on the Island. Amali was very often attached at Nira's hip, and since Kya was frequently wherever Nira was, Amali had taken to the waterbender as well. Kya doted on Amali so much that Nira often had to reign the older woman in, because Kya's idea of comforting a child typically meant too many sweets and ill-advised games. But Kya was the first one to get Amali to laugh with abandon, though Yunjin contested that he should get half the credit for that. Sora and Yunjin were both just as invested in making Amali feel welcome as they were in teaching their uncle and Da how to airbend. Amali seemed even more uncertain of Bumi's loud, over the top personality and tended to avoid him, but she seemed to admire the twins and enjoyed watching from afar as Sora and Yunjin danced around the training circle. Sora's sweet nature and Yunjin's cheerfulness were helpful in coaxing Amali to join in on their activities.
Ronen and Korra and all their friends were more often busy but just as kind to Amali. Bolin, though, was eager to bond with the orphan girl. His efforts were so far for naught, because Amali was just as apprehensive of him as she was Bumi, but the boy was working on toning down his rapid fire speech around her. Amali was not frightened of Tenzin though. Upon their first meeting, his soft voice and warm welcome calmed her anxiety over whether or not she was allowed to stay on the Island. Lin was not unkind to the girl, but guarded. She could see Nira and the twins getting attached and the way Jeia was looking up to the older girl and she didn't want to see any of her family getting hurt if the kid ran off. Children with the type of trauma Amali had experienced were unpredictable.
Nira's initial intentions when she invited Amali to the Island were mainly about giving the homeless girl a safe place to live, but Lin could see that they were bonding quickly. Amali was still reluctant to discuss her life and her family before she was brought to Republic City, but she was opening up about herself more as she spent time with Nira. Amali liked to trail after Nira as the woman tended to her acolyte duties. Nira taught Amali how she did the gardening and was surprised in turn by Amali's cooking skills, and in the evenings the pair were often found reading together. Amali liked to learn about the Air Nomad history, along with all the things she might have missed from being raised in the desert, and Nira also hoped that it would eventually coax Amali into telling the history of her own people.
The afternoon before Lin and the rest of them were set to begin their journey to the Earth Kingdom, Lin sought out Nira, and found the woman down on the beach. She was perched up on a rock, a soft smile on her face and her gaze focused on the shoreline, where Kya and Amali could be seen splashing in the waves. A great body of water like the ocean had been new to Amali when she first left her desert village, and the girl had seemed somewhat fearful of actually being in the water herself, but Kya had quickly eased some of those concerns. After several days, Amali still hadn't gone the whole way in, merely waded at the water's edge, but Kya was not deterred, and continued to delight the girl with various water tricks. Nira wasn't overtly fond of swimming herself, and Kya seemed determined to change both her and Amali's minds. It apparently wasn't working very well on Nira though, and Amali enjoyed playing in the sand more.
Nira was chuckling at one of Kya's antics and Amali's high-pitched laughter could be heard over the sounds of the crashing waves when Lin climbed up next to Nira on the large boulder.
Nira welcomed her with a smile, and Lin said, "Well, I was going to ask how things are going, but it looks all right to me."
Nira nodded and her eyes fell on Kya and Amali once again as she looked at both of them with fondness. "I think she's beginning to settle in, and it doesn't seem like she wants to leave."
"Can I ask what you're hoping for here?" Lin carefully inquired.
Nira looked back over at her with a furrowed brow, appearing somewhat puzzled. "Nothing in particular, I suppose. I just want her to feel safe, and maybe this can become her new home. This place was here for me when I needed it, and I think it can be good for her too. She deserves it after all she's been through."
"Yes," Lin agreed, "but is that all you want? For her to feel comfortable here? I know you wanted to adopt before, and you let that dream go, but has this kid made you rethink that again?"
"That's too much to put on her right now," Nira said quietly, shifting a little uncomfortably under Lin's questioning gaze. "I'm not even sure she wants to stay here yet, or if she'll come to the Air Temple with us in a month or so."
"Oh I'm sure she will," Lin said without doubt. "And I know you wouldn't be asking her to call you Mom three weeks after meeting her, but that doesn't mean you haven't thought about it, for the future. There's a difference between helping a kid get some food and wanting to make her part of the family. I'm not telling you it's wrong, just wanted to know what you're thinking. I like to be prepared, you know?"
She winked jokingly, and Nira snorted. "Oh, I know you do. You and Tenzin might as well have written me a book when I started watching the kids, with all the planning you'd done. I can't deny that I've been thinking about…well, what it might be like, to have a child of my own, to give Amali a family. But it's too soon. I really just want whatever is best for her. Besides, I wouldn't even know how to be a mother."
Lin scoffed. "Are you kidding me? You've been taking care of my kids for the last fifteen years."
"Yeah, but that's different. I'm just their caregiver."
Lin's eyebrows raised higher on her forehead, surprised that Nira was so dismissive, surprised that the acolyte didn't know. "Nira," Lin said seriously, and firmly. "You already know exactly how to be a mother. You've got a hell of a lot more experience than I did starting out. And let's face it, I couldn't have raised those kids without you. You've been like a second mother to them, not just a simple caregiver; you surpassed that long ago."
"It means a lot to me that you would say that, Lin," Nira said softly, "but you're their mother, and though I'm beyond grateful to have been included in this family, I would never want to encroach on that."
"I know all that," Lin said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "But if there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that kids can never have too much family. Having you as a sort of second mother, for the times when I was working too much or couldn't figure out how emotions work, is part of why the kids have turned out so well. I don't know what we would have done without you."
Nira blinked rapidly, looking half stunned and her eyes suspiciously watery. "You don't give yourself enough credit," she murmured. "You're an amazing mother."
"And so are you," Lin insisted. "That's all I'm saying. If it comes to a point where you're hesitating, don't. This kid is lucky you found her."
Nira smiled tearfully and opened her arms saying, "I'm going to hug you now."
Lin frowned. "Don't ruin the moment."
"I'm doing it," Nira said anyways, leaning in even as Lin half heartedly leaned away. "Come on. Just accept it. You brought this on yourself."
Nira tugged Lin into a tight hug, sniffling and grinning all at once, and Lin surrendered to it with only a hint of a scowl, sighing even as she patted Nira on the back. "Don't get all emotional on me," Lin grumbled. "I'm just tellin' you like it is."
"And I appreciate it," Nira replied. "More than you know."
Kya's voice interrupted them, thankfully for Lin, who could not think of an adequate response, closer all of a sudden as she said, "Aww, did I miss a tender moment?"
Lin and Nira separated to turn and see Kya striding towards them, Amali perched up on her back. The child was looking better every day, her skin no longer caked in grime, her hair cut shorter to remove the knots, and she was beginning to gain some weight now that she had plenty of meals each day, no longer looking as gaunt and fragile as before. She was smiling broadly, her freckled cheeks scrunched up and her hazel eyes alight. She and Kya were both damp from ocean spray, hair sticking to their cheeks.
"Nira, look!" Amali exclaimed, holding out her hand to reveal a large, colorful seashell. "Kya says there's all kinds of these in the ocean. And all different colors." Amali hopped down from Kya's back and walked up to present the shell to Nira. "This one's for you. Kya says they're lucky, for protection and…and family."
Nira delightfully accepted the gift and said, "It's beautiful. Thank you, Amali. I'll keep it with me always."
"I've got one too," Amali said, showing it off to Nira. "And so does Kya." She looked guiltily at Lin. "I'm sorry, I don't have one for you, but I can go look for another –"
"That's all right, kid," Lin interjected. "You can find me one some other time."
Lin hopped down off of the rock and dusted off the sand on her pants, and Kya told Amali, "We'll have one for her the next time we're all together." Then she asked Lin, "Are you guys all ready to leave tomorrow?"
"Pretty much," Lin replied. "As ready as we'll ever be. There's only twelve of us arguing over where to start." She rolled her eyes just thinking about it. "You sure you don't want to come along and babysit your brother for me?"
Kya snorted. "As much as I enjoy watching Bumi fail at airbending, I think I'm really going to enjoy some quiet time here. Besides, I can't leave my girls, can I?" She yanked Nira and Amali both into her arms, one on each side. Amali giggled, but Nira rolled her eyes, as well as she could when her head was trapped against Kya's chest and Kya's arm was curled around her neck.
"What would we do without you?" Nira deadpanned, tapping Kya's arm until the waterbender caught on and loosened her grip.
"We'll keep the Island together while you're gone," Kya promised Lin.
"I'm holding you to that," Lin warned. "But the reason I came down here was to ask if you two wanted to have a drink after dinner, since I won't be seeing you for a little while."
"One drink? Or four?" Kya questioned.
"You want to have a girl's night?" Nira clarified. "Who are you and what have you done with Lin?"
"I didn't call it that," Lin countered. "Mostly I just need to get away from Tenzin. All his fretful planning is driving me nuts. I hope he'll calm down once we're in the air tomorrow."
"I think she's gonna miss us, but she's too tough to say so," Kya said to Nira, who laughed and nodded her agreement.
"Keep it up and I definitely won't," Lin muttered. "Anyways, I'll see you later. I gotta go start on dinner. I hope Asami gets some world class chef for the airship because I'm tired of having to cook for this many people."
"Would you like me to help?" Amali quietly offered.
"Er, that's okay," Lin awkwardly assured. "You don't have to stop playing on my account."
"I don't mind," Amali said a little more bravely. "I like to cook, and Sora said you were the best. I promise I won't get in the way."
"All three of us will help," Nira decided, smiling down at Amali.
"We will?" Kya asked with a raised brow and a not so thrilled expression, but Nira gave Kya a stern look and Kya corrected, "I mean yes, we will. In fact, we can start girl's night early. I could go for a drink."
Lin shrugged and started up the slope, with Amali, Kya, and Nira trailing after her.
As they went, Nira told Kya. "You can't drink and cook. You'll wait until after dinner."
"Who said I'd be cooking?" Kya argued. "And anyways, I do my best work with a drink in my hand."
The two of them bickered the whole way back to the house, but surprisingly when they reached the kitchen, Kya didn't go immediately to the liquor cabinet. Lin was both shocked and impressed that Nira could actually talk sense into Kya.
The four of them made dinner in half the time it would have taken Lin to do it by herself, and Amali was a big help – the girl didn't shy away from anything in the kitchen. Lin could remember having her own kids help her out at Amali's age and they had been far too impatient or easily grossed out by slimy things. Ronen might have been the exception but even he would rather read a cook book than utilize it.
The four of them separated to go find everyone else, and the food was beginning to cool by the time all sixteen of them crowded around the dining room table, but it didn't stop anyone from digging in at once. Then it was all clattering dishes and noisy chatter, and Lin couldn't keep up with half the conversations going on. Jinora was there too, having said a tearful goodbye to her family earlier that morning so that she could stay the night on the Island and be ready to leave with the rest of them first thing in the morning.
It wasn't until near the end of dinner that it started to quiet down to a more reasonable volume, and that was when Yunjin chose his moment to speak to the entire group.
He focused his gaze on his parents as he cleared his throat and confessed, "So, I've been thinking a lot –"
"That must have been painful for you," Sora teased.
"About the trip," Yunjin went on, elbowing his twin in the ribs and giving her a look. "And about the other airbenders and how I can help them. I was thinking that I should stay here on the Island with Nira and Aunt Kya while you guys are in the Earth Kingdom."
The dining room suddenly went very silent, the last of the murmured conversations petering out and utensils stilling either in midair or atop plates. It seemed to take a moment for everyone to digest what Yunjin had just suggested, and even after that most of them seemed stunned.
Jinora first gasped, "What? You aren't going?"
Sora added, "Why would you want to stay here? You were looking forward to seeing the Earth Kingdom."
Yunjin shrugged. "Yeah, but I can see the Earth Kingdom some other time. There are still airbenders popping up in Republic City, and Da wants to stay a while longer to be closer to home but he still needs training. I just think it would be a good idea if there was another experienced airbender here to help out."
"I certainly appreciate your initiative, son," Tenzin said before Jinora on Sora could insert their own protests, "but this trip is intended to be just as much a family trip as a search for airbenders. We would really like it if you were there with the rest of us."
"I know, I hate to miss that part, but I'd still be meeting with you at the Air Temple in a month," Yunjin persisted. "If I'm going to be a master I need to be responsible for this sort of thing, don't I?"
"Yeah, but you're still a kid," Lin answered. "You don't have to be responsible for everything yet. Nira and Kya can handle things here."
"I know they can," Yunjin granted, "but I think I could be really useful. I can keep Da and Nira's training going, and start with any other new airbenders that show up. Nira has a lot of responsibilities already." He glanced briefly at Amali, who was seated between Kya and Nira and studying the expressions of everyone else at the table. "She and Aunt Kya shouldn't have to run the Island and keep track of and teach all the new benders, not when I'm fully capable of staying here too."
"You don't have to worry about us, Jin," Kya tried to assure him. "We don't mind running things for a little while."
"I certainly wouldn't object to your help if that's really want you want," Nira added, "but I also don't want you to miss out on the trip just for Kya and me. I don't mind being kept busy."
"It isn't just that," Yunjin told Nira and his aunt. "I feel like…well, like it'll be good for me." He turned his gaze back onto his parents. "I really want to do this. I know I don't have to and maybe it's not all that necessary, but it feels like this is where I'm supposed to be for right now."
Tenzin and Lin looked at one another, both of them frowning and not totally certain, but also encouraged by Yunjin's initiative and not wanting to stifle his idea if he was really so committed to it. It did make practical sense for someone with such knowledge of the Air Nation to be involved in convincing the new airbenders around Republic City to come to the Eastern Air Temple, and while Nira was highly qualified for that herself, she was lacking a lot to the sort of training that Yunjin had been given. And although Da, Bumi, and Nira were the only new benders to surface so far, it wasn't crazy to think that there could be dozens of others that might come forward in the coming weeks. Yunjin was still young, but if he really was going to be a master then it was only reasonable to trust him with such a task. Mostly, Lin just didn't want to leave any of her kids behind.
Before Tenzin or Lin could come up with their own response, Jinora murmured to Yunjin, "I don't understand why you changed your mind all of a sudden. I thought you wanted me to come on this trip with you. We can't be together if you stay here. Do you want me to stay here?"
"No," Yunjin said, frowning himself now and reaching out to squeeze Jinora's hand. He tried to talk quietly too, as if the others might not be able to figure out what he was saying then, but they could all hear every word the two teens said to one another. "I want you to go and explore, see the world, like you've been wanting to. I wanted to be there, but we'll only be apart a couple weeks and you'll have Sora. You were just saying the other day you don't spend enough time with her anymore."
"Yeah, but you're supposed to be there too," Jinora mumbled, the displeasure still clear in her voice. "It won't be right without you."
"I think it'll be good for us to do separate stuff," Yunjin reasoned.
"Is it because you want to get away from me?" Jinora accused.
"Of course not!" Yunjin exclaimed. "It has nothing to do with you – I mean, it isn't because I don't want to be around you. We can be in a relationship without being together constantly, can't we? Isn't that supposed to make a couple stronger or something?"
Even though everyone else was trying very hard to pretend they weren't listening to the quarrel, Bumi chimed in with, "That's true, Jinora! Tenzin left Lin for like two years and she still married him. Granted, I'm pretty sure she was dating other people while he was gone, but they weren't really official yet. At least I don't think so. It was hard to tell with those two –"
"Bumi," Kya snapped, "you're not helping."
"No but he's right," Yunjin said, his attention still on Jinora. "My parents have the best relationship and they've been apart a lot of times. It doesn't make them love each other any less. And we won't even be separated for that long. I'm trying to be a grown up here and do something good. Aren't you always telling me I should act more grown up?"
Jinora gritted her teeth, her eyes narrowed and her cheeks turning red as she hissed, "Yes, but it's not very grown up to make this big decision and then spring it on everyone the night before we leave, and to not even tell me about it beforehand, so that when I get upset you embarrass me in front of your entire family."
Jinora stood abruptly, clearly intending to leave, and the table erupted with several people trying to reassure the girl that she shouldn't be embarrassed, but it only seemed to make her more upset.
"Don't be stupid," Yunjin unhelpfully said to her as she was racing for the door. "Jinora!"
He started climbing to his feet as if to chase after her, but Sora grabbed hold of his shoulder and pushed him back down. "It's all right," she said, smiling softly as she rose gracefully to her feet. "I'll talk to her."
Yunjin sighed and slumped back down in his seat. "Thanks," he mumbled gratefully.
"For the record, I think your idea is good," Sora assured him before she left. "You just need to work on your communication skills."
Yunjin huffed and folded his arms across his chest and Sora followed after Jinora.
"Well, that wasn't awkward at all," Akira said sarcastically, giving Korra a look that caused the Avatar to stifle a laugh behind her hand.
"That's rough, buddy," Bumi said to Yunjin. "If you want my advice –"
"He doesn't," Lin interrupted, at the same time Nira said, "Stop," and Kya said, "Don't give the poor boy any of your bad advice."
Bumi gave all three of them an exasperated look. "I'll have you know that I give excellent advice."
"No you don't," Tenzin disagreed.
"I've got some advice," Ronen told his brother. "Don't call a girl stupid in the middle of an argument."
"Well I don't know what she's so mad for!" Yunjin defended.
"Well you could start by asking," Korra suggested, not unkindly.
"He hasn't done anything wrong," Mako pointed out. "He's trying to make a responsible decision and her outburst was totally unwarranted."
Asami rolled her eyes. "You would say that. It's not his decision that's upsetting her, it's his lack of communication."
"Communication is key," Bolin concurred, rubbing his chin and looking contemplative. He shrugged. "Or so people have told me."
"All right, all right," Yunjin said impatiently. "If everyone's done giving me relationship advice I had a point here." He looked at his parents. "Can we talk about this? Or are you just gonna tell me no?"
Lin was tempted to simply say no but, sensing Tenzin's hesitation, decided instead to wait and see what he had to say first.
Tenzin eventually replied, "Your mother and I will discuss it." He set down the utensils he was still holding and then began to rise to his feet.
"Oh, we're doing this now," Lin said on a slight delay before following his lead. She stood and went with him to the kitchen. She could hear the dining room erupting into conversation once more as the door swung shut behind her.
When Tenzin turned to face her he asked, "What do you think of all this?"
Lin sighed and admitted, "I don't know. I don't like the idea of leaving him here, but he's also got some good points."
Tenzin stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I agree. We did want him to start acting more mature."
"Yeah, but we didn't mean he had to grow up all at once," Lin countered. "This might be more than he's ready to take on."
"Perhaps, but he will have Nira and Kya here to help. It will be a good test, in any case. And if he decides it's too much he can always meet us in the Earth Kingdom sooner."
"So much for a family vacation," Lin muttered.
"It'll only be a few weeks," Tenzin soothed, "and then he and Nira and Kya and perhaps even Amali will all join us at the Air Temple."
"So we're going along with this then?" Lin asked. "You're sure leaving him here isn't like abandonment?"
Tenzin chuckled. "No, I don't think so. It was his idea. And he's not without supervision."
"And to think, a few weeks ago he was threatening to run away from the Island."
"He's always been a complicated boy," Tenzin said fondly.
"That talk you two had must have really gotten to him," Lin noted. "I couldn't believe it when he told Jinora it would be good for them to do separate things. I thought I was dreaming."
"I can't take all the credit. You did talk him down first."
Lin smirked. "Well, it's like I always say, we make a damn good team."
"That we do," Tenzin concurred. "Should I call Yunjin in?"
Lin nodded and Tenzin called out of the door for Yunjin, who came hurrying in a moment later.
"Look, before you say anything," the boy started, "I swear this isn't some crazy ploy to get away from you guys, or take control of the island, although, now that I'm thinking about it, that's not a bad idea –"
"Yunjin," Lin interrupted, "stop talking before we change our minds."
"Change your minds?"
"We've decided you can stay," Tenzin explained. "If you're certain this is what you want."
Yunjin nodded emphatically. "It is."
"And if you change your mind you can contact us at anytime," Tenzin continued. "We won't think any less of you if this doesn't turn out the way you thought. You're welcome to come and join us sooner."
Yunjin grinned. "Don't doubt me so soon." He lunged in to briefly hug both his parents and then stepped back again. "I won't let you down."
"We know you won't," Lin said, "but try not to enjoy yourself too much. This is only for a month. You can't decide to move out on your own after this."
"We can discuss that at a later date," Yunjin joked.
"C'mere," Lin said gruffly, reaching out to tug Yunjin into her side. For some reason, she wasn't expecting his head to reach her shoulders, but the boy was almost grown. In a year or two he'd probably be taller than her. There was no denying that her kids weren't babies anymore, but she had only just started getting used to Ronen becoming an adult. She had thought she'd have more time with the twins, but the prospect of them becoming masters seemed to be speeding things along. Although, to be fair, her kids had always been stubbornly independent. She was proud of Yunjin for stepping up, for doing his part to aid in the reformation of the Air Nation, but she would miss having him around for the trip. Even when he was driving her insane he was absurdly funny, and he was smart in a way that was different from his older brother but still just as useful, even if it was more often used for mischief.
Tenzin joined in on the brief hug, extending it by wrapping his arms tight around both Lin and Yunjin and refusing to let go even when both of them mildly protested. He simply chuckled and kissed them both on top of the head, and Lin forced herself to relax and commit the moment to memory. Such occurrences were becoming increasingly rare as the kids grew up, and Lin didn't want to forget what it was to hold her youngest son in her arms. The days of him leaping on her back or running to greet her every time she came home were long gone, but he was a good kid, happy and healthy and kind. And maybe he didn't need her so much anymore, but she'd still do anything for him, that part would never change.
Chapter 74: Chapter 74
Chapter Text
Chapter 74
Bright and early in the morning, after exchanging hugs and goodbyes with Yunjin, Nira, Amali, Akira and Kya, Lin and Tenzin boarded Asami's airship with the rest of their children, Jinora, Mako, and Bolin. With the map Mako had provided them, the group started off their journey by stopping at each of the Earth Kingdom villages that had sent reports of new airbenders. However, their plans to bring the new benders with them to the Northern Air Temple did not offer the results they were hoping for.
Tenzin's attempts at convincing people to leave behind their families and homes were embarrassing for Lin to watch. He couldn't understand why everyone else in the world wasn't willing to sacrifice for the Air Nomad way of life and be a part of the reformation of a long extinct nation. He didn't sell any of the dozen or so people they spoke to on casting aside their possessions and shaving their heads for full body tattoos and giving up meat. Lin could understand why so many of them were put off by that type of lifestyle. After all, she had married a monk and lived on an island of acolytes and even she hadn't agreed to live that way. There was meat on the Island because of her, and Yunjin had never once had his head shaved. She broke all the rules her husband was supposed to follow, and sometimes dragged him into it, but to be fair that was rarely intentional. She just didn't understand the need to stress over maintaining a certain way of life, and she didn't want her kids or her husband missing out on simple pleasures because some monk had made a bunch of stupid rules thousands of years ago.
Nevertheless, seeing Tenzin so disheartened, and hearing the way some of those new benders spoke to him, set Lin off more often than not. Three days into the trip she wasn't even allowed off of the airship when Tenzin went to speak to the airbenders. She had become rather incensed when people started throwing out insults or simply slamming the door in their faces, that she had begun reacting rather…well, brash. After snapping at the first couple of people, telling them to watch their mouths when they were speaking down to Tenzin or Sora, and declaring that they weren't good enough to be Air Nomads anyways, she was already put on warning. And apparently it was the last straw when she kicked down somebody's door, but in her defense they had slammed it in Ronen's face first and she was simply returning the rude gesture.
So she was confined to the airship the rest of the way to Ba Sing Se, which was just as well because she was sick of dealing with those ungrateful people anyways. They didn't understand the importance of the Air Nation, had never fought or suffered to try and keep it alive, and they didn't care that they had been handed a gift on a silver platter. Lin was happier brooding on the airship while the more patient side of her family went out and dealt with it, although seeing their heartbreak when they returned fueled her temper just as well. It was probably a good thing Yunjin hadn't come, but he at least would have probably been confined to the airship with his mother, and Jeia, who had little interest in what they were doing anyways. Lin hoped things were going better for Yunjin back in Republic City, though she anticipated a letter any day now of him begging to come meet up with them.
Just before reaching Ba Sing Se, the group stopped at one last village, and decided to try something a little different. Bumi suggested they try getting people more excited about coming to the Air Temple by adding a little 'razzle dazzle,' to which Lin had scoffed, but Bolin had excitedly agreed, saying that they could put on an airbending street performance.
Bumi then said, "I was going to say put sequins on Tenzin's robes but that works too!"
"It sounds ridiculous," Korra said to Tenzin, "but it might just work."
"I'm willing to try anything at this point," Tenzin admitted.
"Yes!" Bolin exclaimed delightedly. "That's the kind of enthusiasm I like to hear!"
He immediately started planning the show they were to put on, but when he mentioned Lin's role in it, she shook her head vehemently and said, "Oh no, you're not getting me involved in this."
Jeia, though, got upset that she didn't have a part, so Bolin had to hastily come up with something for her to do.
The following morning, they settled down in a village a few miles from Ba Sing Se and gathered the villagers up for the show. Lin stood at the top of the ramp of the airship with her arms folded across her chest, and watched with a displeased expression as Bolin did his ridiculous commentary, prompting Tenzin to do some over the top airbending without a shirt on. And then Bolin tried frightening the crowd with the tale of two escaped convicts, an evil firebender and a powerful metalbender. Mako stepped out of the crowd looking as unhappy as Lin, but he hadn't frightened his brother enough to get out of doing the show like she had. He said his line in a lackluster voice, after which Jeia enthusiastically joined him, cackling evilly and declaring off-script, "You'll never catch us, you wussy airbenders!" Lin could only smack her palm against her forehead and mutter under her breath about punishing Yunjin until the end of time for teaching his baby sister insults like that.
Jeia threw a few small shards of metal at Korra, who spun around in the air dramatically to avoid them. Korra then used airbending to toss Mako "the escaped convict" high up in the air, causing the elder teen to shout at her to let him down. Bumi and Jinora did a few basic moves to show what could be done in only a few weeks of training, and Sora flew around on her glider in an admittedly impressive display.
Bolin encouraged any airbenders to come join them after the show, but as the crowd dispersed, only one person came forward. It was a boy, no older than Sora and Yunjin, and apparently an orphan. The boy called Kai told them a tragic tale about how his parents had been killed by outlaws that raided his hometown, claiming that those same outlaws were still after him. Most of the group was all very moved by the story, and Tenzin and Korra welcomed the boy onto the airship, promising to keep him safe from now on. Bolin latched onto Kai, already offering to be a big brother for him. But shortly after things went sideways.
Some earthbenders showed up demanding they hand Kai over, and Kai claimed it was the outlaws come to take him away. Korra went out to face the supposed outlaws, only to find out that they were the police of the area. Kai tried slipping away during the fight, but Lin and Mako both noticed and stopped the boy before he could get far. His backpack turned out to be full of gold and jewels, which he had stolen from a family that had tried to adopt him. He had been on the run from the police ever since, but as he was being taken away, Kai declared that he had changed since he got airbending, that his life as a thief was behind him and he was a new person.
Lin didn't buy it for a second, but when the authorities said they were taking the boy to jail, Korra insisted that Kai be left in their group's care. Tenzin was not immediately sold on the idea either, and Lin was adamantly against it, but Ronen and Korra both agreed that Kai just needed guidance, and they were the best people to give it to him. With that guilt trip, Tenzin had given in and told the police that they could release the boy into their custody.
So their first airbender to join them was an orphan boy that was a thief and a liar. Lin couldn't have been less thrilled, but it was Tenzin's decision and if the others were willing to try and reform the boy she'd keep her mouth shut for now. She was keeping a close eye on him though.
When Kai stopped halfway up the ramp of the airship to grin at Sora and Jinora, Lin lightly shoved the boy forward and said gruffly, "Keep it movin', kid. They ain't interested."
"Mom," Sora huffed, swallowing back a short laugh. "Don't be so rude."
Jinora was trying to stifle her own amusement, but her eyes were on Kai, who must have been doing something behind Lin's back.
Lin couldn't actually tell what he had been doing, but she whirled on the boy anyway with a scowl and said, "I saw that. I've got my eyes on you, boy."
"Hey, relax," Kai placated. "It's like I told the angry guy down there –" he pointed at where Mako stood at the bottom of the ramp with narrowed eyes and arms folded " – I've turned over a new leaf."
"Uh huh," Lin said disbelievingly. "I'll believe that when I see it."
"Oh you'll see it," Kai promised, giving the girls a wink before sauntering up the ramp.
"I'm gonna toss him out the door mid-flight," Lin decided.
Sora squeezed her mother's hand and soothed, "Relax, Mom. We'll keep an eye on him." She smiled prettily, and Lin forced a small smile in return, thinking maybe Sora could be a good influence on Kai. But a few days later Lin was wishing she had urged Sora to just leave the boy to his own devices, because shortly after arriving in Ba Sing Se, their attempt at a happy vacation came crumbling down around them in a number of ways.
Sora's attitude at the beginning of the trip was vastly different from what it was two weeks later. After several failed attempts at convincing people to join the Air Nation, she had begun to feel rather disappointed, and the recent addition of Kai wasn't making her feel much better. For one, it was putting Mom on edge, and for another, she didn't much like the boy. He was a liar and Sora didn't like liars, in part because she wasn't the type to recognize a lie the way her mother could. Sora preferred to look for the best in people, and as she was often reminded, it made her a little more susceptible to being duped. Even though she was supportive of her twin brother's decision to stay behind on the Island, she found herself wishing he would give up and come meet them in Ba Sing Se. Yunjin was better at handling people like Kai, and he never would have been outsmarted by Kai's mischievous antics.
But Sora had said she would help watch Kai and she wasn't going back on that. It was just exhausting and it felt like she was the only one doing most of the work. She knew her parents were trying, but Dad seemed to think Kai would sort himself out over time after a few inspirational talks, and Mom was too abrasive. Korra intervened some times to see how things were going and help with Kai and Bumi and Jinora's training, but she was more often with her friends or planning something for their trip. Ronen was too busy nerding out with Asami over building stuff or on his own reading huge, boring books. Bolin tried but he was acting even more naïve when it came to Kai. And anyways, Kai naturally gravitated to Sora and Jinora the entire time because they were actually his age, so Sora had a hard time getting rid of him and she was too nice to be a jerk to him just because he annoyed her.
For some reason, Jinora seemed to think Kai was amusing, and that was another problem Sora had with Kai. He was definitely flirting with Jinora, who was still upset with Yunjin for not coming on the trip. Sora had managed to calm her down and Jinora and Yunjin had talked it out a little before parting ways, but Sora could tell that not everything had been resolved. Jinora and Yunjin had rarely been separated since they started their relationship, and when they had it was usually because they were forced, so Sora supposed it was a little odd that Yunjin would choose to be away from Jinora after they'd so recently been reunited. And Sora was a little peeved that Yunjin had left her alone with this madness too. Then again, it also made sense that Yunjin would want to help out on the Island and she didn't think it was intended as a slight against anyone.
So Sora could understand both their viewpoints and she thought at first that, after a few weeks apart, Jin and Jinora would be happy to see each other again at the Northern Air Temple. But Kai was throwing a wrench into that. He was talking to Jinora way too often on the flight to Ba Sing Se, and Jinora didn't seem to notice what he was up to, insisting that he was just in desperate need of friends. And maybe that was partly true but Sora was still unsettled, and cornered Kai to tell him to back off, that Jinora had a boyfriend and she didn't need Kai confusing her. To which Kai had looked around and said, "I don't see any boyfriend." Sora had wanted to punch him in his smug face so badly, but that wasn't really her way. So instead she had him spar with Jeia under the pretense of teaching him some new moves and enjoyed watching the five year old kick his butt.
Instead of her initial excitement, Sora found herself looking forward to the end of their trip through the Earth Kingdom, when Yunjin would join them at the Air Temple and could defend himself against Kai, and reassure Jinora that he still very much wanted to be with her. Sora also hoped the lack of things to steal would force Kai to chill out some once they were at the temple. She had to admit that he was pretty good at airbending so far, and she hoped that he'd straighten out and be a useful addition to the Air Nation.
But then things got wonky in Ba Sing Se and Sora found herself with a whole host of new problems, each of them worse than Kai but, unsurprisingly, entirely his fault. Well, his and the Earth Queen's, but Sora was blaming Kai for getting her mixed up in the whole thing.
Within an hour of arriving in the fortified city, Kai had already slipped off and disappeared to spirits' knows where. Mako and Bolin had gone looking for the boy themselves, but after two days neither the brothers nor Kai had returned, and everyone was beginning to get concerned. Things weren't going well as it was, because the Earth Queen was, according to Mom, 'a spoiled bitch.' Animals weren't allowed anywhere near the Queen so they had to keep Oogi and Naga on the airship and, before he had gone looking for Kai, Bolin kept hiding Pabu in his shirt. Then the Queen had sent Korra, Ronen, and Asami off to fight some so-called bandits that were stealing the Queen's tax money, in exchange for her information on the airbenders in Ba Sing Se. But Korra and Ronen were pretty certain that the Queen was the real thief, using her people's money to make her palace and the surrounding grounds more elaborate, and that the bandits were probably justified in trying to take the gold back. And afterwards, the Queen asserted that there were no airbenders in Ba Sing Se at all, and that whatever reports Korra might have heard of were false.
Everyone was getting anxious and suspicious, and with Kai, Mako, and Bolin still missing, the situation was even more complicated. Jinora was worried that something bad had happened to Kai, Ronen was planning on going out to search for Mako and Bolin in the morning, and Sora's parents started whispering to each other about getting out of Ba Sing Se before they started an international dispute. Apparently the Earth Queen wanted Republic City back under Earth Kingdom domain, and blamed the Avatar and Fire Lord Zuko for taking it away in the first place. With all of them sniffing around for airbenders the Queen was only becoming more riled.
Sora felt slightly at fault for letting Kai slip away, and was worried he was out there causing even more trouble for the rest of them. So that night when everyone had gone to bed, she decided to sneak out and look for Kai herself. She wrote a quick note for her parents and left it on her bed, hoping she'd be back before they ever saw it, and knowing full well that they would kill her if they found out. They might have begun to trust her a bit more, but they still didn't like her running off on her own.
Except, she didn't make it very far before she realized she was being followed, and she whirled around to see Jinora racing after her.
"What are you doing?" Sora hissed. "Go back inside!"
"No way!" Jinora whispered back. "I'm going with you. You're going to look for Kai and the others, aren't you?"
"Yeah, and I'll move faster on my own," Sora asserted. "I'm just gonna do a quick search and come back. I don't want to put you in any danger."
"You're supposed to be teaching me," Jinora countered. "So teach me how to sneak around like you and we won't be in any danger."
"Jinora," Sora quietly groaned. "Come on, I don't want to argue."
"So don't," Jinora said with a shrug, smiling and looping her arm through Sora's as she tugged her farther away from the building they had just snuck out of. "It'll be much quicker if you just bring me along."
"You're killing me," Sora grumbled, even as she let Jinora continue to drag her along. "Okay, fine, but you have to do everything I tell you, understand?"
Jinora nodded enthusiastically. "Totally! I'm all ears."
So Sora begrudgingly gave Jinora a quick lesson on how to sneak around as quietly as possible. Sora had perfected it at such a young age that her mother had often complained she was too light on her feet for her to even sense Sora coming with seismic sense. Sora still wasn't certain if her Mom had made that up to make Sora feel better or if she was actually that good, but she knew she could sneak around pretty much anyone else, if not also her mother. Jinora wasn't an expert on her first try, but she was a quick learner and already had some training in being light on her feet, so the two girls managed to slip out of the palace grounds fairly easily.
From there, Sora wasn't certain where to go, but if Kai was out stealing, she knew he wouldn't bother leaving the upper ring, where the vast majority of money would be. The people of Ba Sing Se walked around the upper ring with money jingling around in pouches on their waists, apparently confident that the Dai Li, the city's elite police force, would protect them from any attempts at thievery, along with their separation from those of poorer stature. Sora didn't care much for the city's division of its citizens based on social status, but tonight it might well serve her interests. There were only so many places that Kai would have gone in the upper ring, which made her wonder why Mako and Bolin were taking so long to return, but she assumed Kai was better at slipping away from them. She wasn't sure that she would be any better at nabbing him, but with Jinora along she might just be able to convince Kai to come back without conflict. Or so she hoped.
Jinora spotted Kai first, and tugged on Sora's arm until Sora turned to look and saw him herself. Kai was in the middle of robbing some unsuspecting man, using airbending to disorient him and then making off with a pouch of money. Sora frowned, and immediately went in pursuit, Jinora right on her heels.
The two girls used their airbending to put on a burst of speed and cornered Kai in a dark alleyway. He came to a startled stop at the sight of them, but smiled blithely. "Hey, Jinora! Sora. It's good to see you guys. I think I got lost on my way to the palace."
"Nice try," Sora deadpanned. "We know you snuck off. Mako and Bolin have been looking for you for days."
"Yeah, y'know, I think I saw them down by the train station," Kai said with a snicker.
"Why don't you just make this easy and come back to the palace with us?" Sora suggested.
"I don't know," Kai hedged, "seemed pretty boring up there. I'm enjoying myself out here, getting some real world experience."
Sora rolled her eyes. "This bad boy act of yours is getting really old. Why don't you quit acting like a jerk for five seconds and think about somebody other than yourself? You're really causing us a lot of –"
Sora felt the air shifting behind her even before she saw Kai's eyes widen. She whirled around at once, and saw a figure blocking the end of the alley. They were cast in shadow, but a dim lantern cast just enough light upon them to make the emblem on their chest clear. It was one of the Dai Li, and when Sora glanced briefly back at Kai, she saw another one standing behind Kai at the entry to the alley.
Kai took one look at the police surrounding him and immediately took off. Jinora called to him, "Kai, wait! Don't!"
Sora groaned in annoyance and went chasing after Kai, but the Dai Li got to him first, throwing out rock shaped hands to pin the fleeing boy to the wall as he squirmed and protested.
"Hang on a second," Sora tried to placate the police. "He's with us. We're with the – hey!" She leapt back as some of the rock hands came flying at her, and heard Jinora shriek as she was snatched up by two of the Dai Li. "We aren't your enemies!" Sora shouted at them as she continued to dodge and weave around various assaults. "This is all just a misunderstanding!"
But the Dai Li continued their assault, and Sora had no choice but to fight back. They were already dragging Jinora away and they didn't seem to care what Sora had to say. There was no explanation, no words out of their mouths at all, and Sora wasn't about to get arrested for no reason at all. She'd probably be in trouble for fighting Dai Li in the middle of the night, but she'd be in even bigger trouble if she ended up in a prison somewhere.
So Sora kicked and punched and whirled through the air, knocking back several of her attackers and even freeing Jinora for half a second. "Jinora! Run!" Sora commanded, but the girl was frozen in place, looking stricken. In the meantime, more Dai Li continued to swarm into the alleyway until Sora was fighting ten men on her own, and when she took a blow to the back, the air left her lungs in a rush, and with it her ability to fight back. She dropped to the ground gasping for air, and in the short time it took her to recover she was being tied up and blindfolded, and when she started screaming for help they covered her mouth too.
She continued to struggle even though she knew it would likely be ineffectual, and all it got her was a punch to the ribs to subdue her. After that, she decided to wait it out, see where she was taken, and figure it out from there. She wasn't about to escape ten Dai Li and save both Jinora and Kai in the process. Whatever was happening, she had to believe there would be a way out. She had to believe that once she explained the misunderstanding that the Dai Li would at least notify her parents.
But Sora was not so certain once they finally arrived at their destination. The Dai Li took the three young teens deep into what must have been some underground prison, and once there they didn't ask questions or throw out accusations of broken laws. Instead they forced the three of them to quickly strip down and change into itchy grey uniforms, and when Sora tried to protest, one of the Dai Li took a menacing step towards her and she decided not to bother, still feeling the ache in her ribs from earlier. Afterwards, the three of them were left untied, but dragged roughly down a long hallway and then tossed into a large cell, where over a dozen other people dressed in similar garb were sprawled or huddled up on the dirty stone floor, each one of them looking downcast and grim.
Just before the door swung closed and cast them into darkness, one of the officers said, "Welcome to Her Majesty's army, first airbending regiment. From now on, you live to fight for the Earth Queen."
And as Sora slumped to the floor with a heavy sigh she muttered, "Great. I'm never gonna hear the end of this."
When Lin woke the following morning, Tenzin was rushing her out of bed to tell her that Mako and Bolin had returned, not with Kai, but with bad news. They all gathered in the sitting room so that Mako and Bolin could retell their story to the adults, about how they had chased Kai to the train station and ended up in the lower ring with their wallets stolen and no way to get back. They had somehow managed to run into their father's family and met their grandmother, uncle, and various other relatives for the first time, and that's where they had stayed for the past two days. It was their family that told them that the Earth Queen was snatching up all the new airbenders in Ba Sing Se and forcing them to join her army.
Mako and Bolin had told Korra, Ronen, and Asami about this out in the courtyard just before the Queen herself arrived. The kids had played it cool, not wanting to let on that they knew what the Queen was hiding, and had been fed some lie about reports of airbenders in the Yang Province. The Queen was trying to get rid of them, but Asami had bought them some extra time by claiming the airship needed some repairs and wouldn't be ready until the following day.
Tenzin was understandably incensed saying, "I can't believe the Earth Queen is conscripting airbenders."
"Those people should not be forced to join an army," Korra said angrily.
"Well technically the Earth Queen has a right to conscript her citizens," Bumi pointed out. All seven of them gave him the same annoyed look. "What? It's true!"
"Yes," Ronen conceded, "but that doesn't make it right. She's kidnapping people off of the streets. Are we sure she hasn't gotten her hands on Kai?"
"Probably not," Bolin replied. "He's surprisingly difficult to catch. Like a – like a little greased hog-monkey."
Lin looked around the table and noticed something peculiar. "Hang on," she interjected. "Has anyone seen Sora this morning? Or Jinora?"
Everyone exchanged looks, glancing around the room as if expecting one of the girls to appear, and that was all the answer Lin needed.
With dread filling her stomach, Lin turned and raced off towards the bedroom the girls had been sharing, while Bumi called to her, "They're probably still sleeping!" But Sora wasn't a late sleeper, not like Jeia, who Lin had seen still curled up in bed before she'd gone downstairs.
Sure enough, when Lin barreled into the room, neither girl was there, and there was a note laying atop Sora's pillow. Lin snatched the letter up, and had just finished reading it when Tenzin appeared in the doorway.
Lin waved the note in the air, lips pursed in anger as she told him, "They went looking for Kai."
Tenzin frowned and opened his mouth to respond, but only managed a grunt when Bumi and Ronen both bumped into him trying to look over his shoulders into the room. The rest of the kids were all crowded in the hallway trying to peer inside too, and when Tenzin stepped further into the room to go stand next to Lin, the six of them spilled in after him.
Tenzin took the letter from Lin to read it himself, and Ronen asked, "What's it say?"
Tenzin sighed heavily. "Your sister has gone looking for Kai."
"Which means that bitch has probably got all three of them by now," Lin growled, already thinking up all the ways she was going to make the Earth Queen suffer for this.
"Or maybe Sora and Jinora are just chasing after Kai still," Ronen reasoned. "He's clearly elusive and I doubt the Queen would be stupid enough to snatch Sora."
As Ronen was talking, Korra had gone over to take the note from Tenzin and quickly read it herself, and then she countered, "Sora's not stupid either. She knew she'd get in trouble for sneaking out and had every intention of being back before sunrise. She even says in the letter that if she isn't back by now it's because something went wrong."
"Maybe she's stuck in the lower ring too, like we were," Bolin said.
"If the Queen does have Sora, she definitely doesn't know that she does," Asami surmised. "Otherwise, she wouldn't have been rushing us out of here."
"That's true," Tenzin said thoughtfully. "She can't expect us to leave without our daughter."
"So maybe she doesn't have Sora at all," Bumi said hopefully. "I'm sure the girls will come walking through the door any second, with a perfectly good explanation for all this."
That was about the time that a sudden knock on the front door caught everyone's attention, and Lin and Tenzin exchanged a look before sprinting back down the stairs, both of them filled with worry now. Tenzin reached the door first and wrenched it open, while the others could be heard clambering noisily down the steps behind them. In the entryway stood one of the Queen's messengers, who bowed quickly and handed over a letter of his own as he hastily said, "A letter for you, Master Tenzin, Chief Beifong."
Tenzin ripped it open and Lin pressed up against his side to read it with him.
Mom, Dad,
Jinora and I are okay. I'm sorry we left without telling you, but I felt somewhat responsible for losing Kai and I wanted to find him and bring him back before morning. We ran into some trouble though, and are about to leave the city. Kai got transport to the nearby Yang Province, according to the Dai Li that helped us, so we're going to follow him before he gets too far. We should be able to catch him by the time you guys catch up. Please don't be too mad. We'll stay somewhere obvious so you can find us.
Love, Sora
By the time they finished the short note, the messenger had disappeared. Tenzin shut the door just as the others rejoined them.
This time, Jeia came with them, rubbing her eyes and looking grumpy as she demanded, "Why's everybody runnin' around?"
"Who was at the door?" Korra asked breathlessly.
"What's that?" Ronen questioned, noticing the new paper in his father's hand.
"It's another letter from Sora," Tenzin said.
"A fake," Lin asserted. "Now we know that bitch has got her. They must have made her write that letter so we'd go racing off to look for her."
"How do you know it's really even from Sora?" Mako inquired.
"It's her handwriting," Tenzin answered. "I'm sure of it, and it matches the one she left on her pillow."
Ronen and Korra and their friends read the letter themselves, and Bolin asked, "Are we sure they aren't really chasing Kai to the Yang Province?"
"I doubt Sora would leave the city without us," Ronen replied. "And if she did she'd give us a better explanation than this."
"The letter isn't very rushed either," Asami pointed out. "It doesn't seem like she's frantically chasing Kai."
"And the Yang Province is too much of a coincidence," Korra decided.
Lin scoffed. "Does the Queen think we're this stupid? How gullible would we have to be?"
"Well, she isn't aware of how much we know," Tenzin reasoned. "If Mako and Bolin hadn't found out that the Queen was kidnapping airbenders, we would have had little reason to suspect foul play here, only our suspicions. We might have gone all the way to Yang looking for Sora."
"The Dai Li probably didn't even know they had snatched Sora until it was too late," Bumi surmised. "It's not like they can just give her back because then she'd tell us about the other airbenders."
"Well this shit ends now," Lin growled. "We need to find Sora and the rest of those airbenders and get out of here before I strangle the Queen with my bare hands."
"We'll find them," Korra said firmly. "We just need to figure out where to look."
Mako stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "I bet they're underneath Lake Laogai." The others all looked at him with a mixture of surprise and confusion. "What? I've been reading some of Ronen's books. The old Dai Li agents used to have a fortress underneath the lake."
Ronen nodded. "Mako's right. It'd be a great spot to hide airbenders, but would they have used some place so obvious?"
Korra gasped as something seemed to dawn on her. "Sora's letter! She said, 'we'll stay some place obvious.' Maybe she was trying to give us a clue about where she was without getting caught."
"There's only one way to find out," Tenzin said. "But how are we going to get underneath the lake and not be seen?"
"Well I've got seismic sense and Korra's got waterbending," Lin supplied. "Come on, we'll figure it out on the way."
She was already striding back towards the door, but stilled with her grip around the handle when she heard Mako asking, "Should we all go? Or should someone stay here?"
Lin looked back over her shoulder and saw that everyone else seemed intent on coming along, including Jeia, who gave her mother a fierce look and said, "I'm comin'. Whoever took Sora is gonna be real sorry when I'm finished with 'em."
Lin sighed at that, and considered the danger they might all be in if the airbenders turned out to actually be under the lake, but she didn't like the idea of leaving Jeia behind either. With all that was happening, the last thing she needed was to lose another kid. "Screw it," she decided, "we'll all go. Better that we stick together."
She beckoned for everyone to follow her, and they all fell into step.
They tried to play it casual and avoid being spotted as they crossed the palace grounds to the airship, where they released Oogi and flew off to Lake Laogai. But within an hour they were back at their lodgings, frustrated and no closer to finding Sora and the others. Lin's seismic sense hadn't picked up on any bodies beneath the lake, and Korra dove down into the murky depths to confirm that the underground fortress was abandoned, with no airbenders or Dai Li in sight.
When asked where else they might look, Ronen began to list, "Well, they could be in the catacombs beneath the upper ring, or the ancient sewers beneath the lower ring, or the maze of tunnels that connects the rings together, or –"
"There are just too many places," Tenzin interjected with a huff. "There has to be another way to locate them."
Lin lifted herself out of the seat she had slumped in and once more started for the door, this time grumbling, "I'm gonna go have a look around, see if I can get a sense of anything."
"That hardly seems like a good idea," Tenzin protested. "If someone notices what you're up to –"
"If I'm lucky they'll take me straight to the Queen," Lin countered with a dark smirk. "If I can get a few minutes alone with her she'll give me the location of the airbenders in no time."
"You can't just go around torturing world leaders," Ronen scolded. "We can figure this out without getting you hanged for treason."
"I think we're well past that," Lin argued. "Stealing the Queen's private army won't endear us to anyone either. My way is just faster."
"And also morally unethical," Tenzin muttered, crossing the room quickly to grab his wife's arm and drag her away from the door. Lin only half fought him. "We aren't going to stoop to that level. We'll wait until night fall and then –"
Something suddenly flickered directly in front of Lin and Tenzin, who caught the movement out of the corners of their eyes, and they both froze, whipping their heads around to see what it was. Something flashed before them again, and they both blinked rapidly, both wondering if they were losing their minds or if the sun was slanting through a window in just the right way. But then the flickering light took shape, and after another moment, held it, and then they were staring right at Sora. Well, part of Sora. She looked like she had when her spirit had separated from her body during Harmonic Convergence, shimmering and transparent and not really there.
Tenzin gasped, "Sora!"
"Mom! Dad!" Sora's specter exclaimed with delight. "Thank goodness. I wasn't even sure this would work…"
Ronen instantly sidled up next to Tenzin, and Lin felt Jeia latch onto her leg.
"How are you here?" Tenzin questioned Sora rapidly. "Where are you? Are you all right?"
"Don't tell me you're wrapped up in some spirit nonsense again," Lin begged.
Sora shook her head quickly. "No, nothing like that. I can still project my spirit is all. It's not as strong as it was during Harmonic Convergence though, so we haven't got much time, I don't think. That, and the guards will probably come back soon. They don't leave me alone for long. Thankfully, focusing on your energies helped me find you faster."
"Tell us how we can find you," Lin insisted.
"We're under the Earth Queen's temple," Sora provided, her floating body flickering again.
"Jinora and Kai are with you?" Ronen clarified. "And the rest of the airbenders?"
"Yes," Sora answered. "They separated me from the others, but they're here."
"Are you okay?" Tenzin asked again. "Have they hurt you?"
Sora shook her head, but her expression looked like a grimace. "It's not too bad, but you should hurry."
"We'll be there soon, sweetheart," Tenzin promised. "As soon as we can."
"Just hang in there, kid," Lin urged. "Don't make them angry, go along with what they tell you and we'll have you out of there by morning."
Sora's shimmering form wavered, and her voice sounded farther away as she said, "I have to go. I think somebody's coming."
"Be safe!" Tenzin implored.
"We love you," Ronen added.
As Sora faded away, there was just a faint, "Love you…" in return, and then she was gone, and an aching silence filled the space where she had been.
Korra broke through it with a heated, "I can't believe Miss Queeny Smug Face had them right under our noses the whole time!"
Tenzin said, "We have to get into that compound tonightand get Sora and those airbenders out."
Bumi slapped his hands together and immediately began plotting, "All right, we go in under the cover of darkness, two small insertion teams and a third on the outside. Then all we'll need is ten tons of blasting jelly, a medium size bulldozer, and does anyone have a badgermole that knows Morse code?"
Tenzin sighed heavily and shook his head, and Lin rolled her eyes but didn't snap at her brother-in-law. Now that this was the second or third crisis she'd had to overcome with Bumi along for the ride, she was used to his way of dealing with it, unhelpful though it may be. At least he was useful in a fight. But it had only been a couple months since Sora's last run in with untold danger and Lin's nerves were still frayed from that whole nightmare. If this kept up she was gonna have to lock that kid up in a protective bubble. Although, to be fair, if Sora could survive a week with her soul detached from her body and wandering through the Fog of Lost Souls, then imprisonment by some Dai Li agents was probably a walk through the park. At least, that was Lin's only consolation for the time being. And they knew where Sora was, and she doubted the group of them would have too much trouble breaking her and the other airbenders out. It was gonna piss the Earth Queen off for sure, but Lin was looking forward to that.
Before anyone else could counter Bumi's ridiculous plan, there was yet another knock on the door.
"Who is it now?" Mako said in frustration.
Asami huffed impatiently too. "It can't be the Queen again, can it?"
"If it is, I get first dibs," Lin stated, marching three steps towards the door before Ronen grabbed her arm and yanked her back.
He gave her an admonishing look. "I said no torture."
"Everyone just act normal," Korra urged. "If it is the Queen or one of her people we don't want them getting suspicious about what we know."
Tenzin went to answer the door again, putting on a mask of calm even though Lin could see the tension in his jaw and the way he held his shoulders. He was worried about Sora and the other airbenders, he was just better at keeping composed than his wife was.
Tenzin opened the door, and his tall frame hid whoever was waiting on the other side from view, but Lin heard his gasp of, "Akira?! What are you doing here?"
Tenzin stepped aside, and in came his niece, looking travel-worn and disheveled but not altogether grave. It didn't look like she was about to give them earth-shattering news, but if she had come all the way to the Earth Kingdom to bring word from Air Temple Island then something was definitely amiss.
While Tenzin hastily shut the door again, Akira explained, "A message came for you, Uncle, and Aunt Lin."
She pulled a folded paper out of the folds of her traveling cloak, and Bolin groaned, "Not another letter."
"Another?" Akira asked, looking confused.
"We'll explain later," Lin said, striding up closer to her niece. "What's the message?"
"It's from Lord Zuko, and Korra's father, Tonraq."
"What's my father doing with Lord Zuko?" Korra questioned.
For the moment, Korra was ignored as Akira went on, "Mom said we needed to get this information to you guys as quickly as possible, so I came straight here. It was a bitch getting into this place by the way. They didn't believe me when I told them who I was so I had to sneak around and…" She shook her head and held the message out to her aunt and uncle. "Anyways, here it is. But the short version is that Zaheer and his cronies have escaped."
"What?!" Lin and Tenzin exclaimed in disbelief.
"How?" Tenzin demanded.
"Zaheer is an airbender now too," Akira answered.
Tenzin gasped, "No!"
Lin locked gazes with him and they shared a look of worry and despair and could they ever get a break? One that was longer than a couple of weeks at least? Apparently not.
"We need to get Korra out of here," Lin said needlessly, almost mechanically, still half stunned and not entirely sure what they could even do. Stopping Zaheer and his companions had been difficult enough the last time, and Zaheer hadn't even been a bender then. "And soon."
"Wait, why?" Ronen inquired. "What's going on?"
"What are you talking about?" Korra added.
"She's in serious danger apparently," Akira replied to Ronen when Lin and Tenzin hesitated. "My Mom gave me a brief explanation, but I'm not sure I understand what the big deal is."
"All right, hold on," Korra interjected with no shortage of annoyance. "Will you all quit ignoring me and tell me what's going on? Who's Zaheer? Why is my life in danger?"
Tenzin looked to his wife one more time, and then sighed wearily. He turned to give Korra his full attention and began to explain, "Shortly after we found out you were the Avatar, Zaheer and three others attempted to kidnap you. Luckily, your father, Zuko, Chief Sokka, Lin, and I were there to stop them. We apprehended the criminals and locked them away in facilities designed to impair their abilities, but we knew that there must be others involved, and also feared they might somehow escape."
"So that's why you and my dad sheltered me away," Korra realized.
"It was for your own safety," Tenzin confirmed.
Mako asked, "Why were they trying to kidnap Korra?"
"We spent thirteen years interrogating them," Lin responded. "They never broke. To this day, no one knows what their motive was."
"Well it doesn't sound like they were very bright," Asami said, looking thoughtful. "Why would they attack at a time when you were all there to protect Korra?"
Tenzin shrugged. "Perhaps they thought we wouldn't be strong enough to stop them, or more likely they had no idea we would all be there. It was pure coincidence that Zuko was visiting at the time, and Sokka was in the South Pole for other reasons. Lin and I had been nearby with my mother for a few months and very few people knew we were there."
"If this was after finding out Korra was the Avatar then I must have been there too," Ronen surmised, "but I don't remember any of this."
"Neither do I," Korra said.
Lin felt a chill run down her spine at the mental image she had never forgotten from that night, of Korra's mother bursting through Katara's front door and staggering across the threshold, tiny Korra and Ronen held in either of her arms, just a thin blanket wrapped around the kids, and Senna without a coat and shivering violently as wind and snow beat against her back and coated her hair. The stricken look on Senna's face had filled Lin with fear, and when Ronen had run to her crying that his father was hurt, she had begun to expect the worst. She could have lost Tenzin that day, and though that particular moment hadn't haunted her much in the past decade, it still made her sick to her stomach just to think about it.
Lin shivered and shook her head to clear the memory away, while Tenzin told Korra and Ronen, "You were both very young, four and three years old. And it was probably rather traumatizing. Whatever you might have remembered was likely suppressed."
"Why were we in the South Pole for a couple months?" Ronen continued to question.
Lin almost laughed, but stifled the crazed reaction and let Tenzin uncomfortably stammer, "Er, well, we went there so that your mother could have Jin and Sora and she was still, um, recovering."
Ronen didn't seem wholly convinced, looking suspiciously between both his parents, but he let it drop for the time being.
"Well I'm not running away," Korra chimed back in. "I'm not afraid of these people."
"Well you should be," Lin advised. "These criminals are like nothing you've ever faced before."
"Look, I'm not a little kid anymore," Korra asserted. "You don't need to protect me. Our focus now is on saving Sora and the airbenders."
"Well you're right about that," Lin admitted, "but afterwards we're gonna have a serious talk about this."
"Fine, after," Korra relented. "For now, let's talk strategy."
For as long as Jinora could remember, she had loved to read. History or storybooks, it didn't matter; she loved them all. Immersing herself into a good book was one of her favorite pastimes, and if given the opportunity, she could spend an entire day reading. While she loved learning new things most of all, she had a soft spot for romance novels. She had grown up yearning for a love similar to her parents, who had found each other when their lives were not altogether perfect and built a better one together, a love that seemed true and beautiful and full of happy times. She dreamed of a romance full of adventure and excitement and over the top gestures like the ones in her stories.
With Yunjin, she had believed from the start that he was the person she had dreamt of. She hadn't expected to find him at such a young age, and she knew they still had so much of their lives to grow and change, but she had marveled at the idea of them doing that together. Yunjin was everything Jinora wanted to be, wild and carefree and endlessly brave. He taught her to be strong in a way her admittedly paranoid parents never had, and encouraged her to try new things. In turn, she calmed his wilder impulses and helped him find interests in literature that he had previously denounced as dull. They were perfect opposites, and the best of friends. They told each other everything and trusted each other implicitly. He was soft and tame with her, and she was brazen and tough with him.
But Yunjin had thrown a wrench into their relationship, and maybe Jinora was overreacting just a bit, but it had crushed her to think that he didn't want their journeys to cross. Of course she wanted him to do what he thought was right, and of course she was proud of him for taking on a responsibility no one ever expected of him. And she had never presumed that they needed to spend every waking moment together. What had hurt her the most was that he had been thinking about staying on Air Temple Island for over a week and never once brought it up to her in all the time they were together. He used to come to her with every little dilemma he was facing, no matter how huge or minor, but this one he had purposefully kept her out of. Had he thought she would try to talk him out of it? She couldn't really say because his excuses had been a whole lot of "I don't know why you're mad," instead of something that might have clued her in. Suddenly her bravery had begun to wane in his presence, and her embarrassment in front of his family had only further soured her mood.
So Jinora had left Yunjin behind full of uncertainty, about herself and them and where their relationship stood. She didn't think it was over between them, but it was on unsteady footing and she didn't know how it might change when they saw each other again in a month or so. She couldn't figure out if they would be stronger for the time apart, like Yunjin claimed, or if they were just becoming different instead. Maybe Yunjin would have surpassed her by then. Maybe he never needed her to tame him at all. Maybe Jinora was clinging to a fantasy, or maybe she was just fretting for nothing. It was difficult to vent out her worries and frustrations when Yunjin wasn't there because he was the one she always went to. There was Sora, of course, but she was Yunjin's sister and the girls were still recovering their friendship from the state it had fallen into after Sora confessed her own feelings for Jinora. Jinora hadn't been mad or uncomfortable with Sora afterwards, but she could definitely see how sad Sora was and it made Jinora feel bad, and she had thought some time apart would help Sora. It seemed to have worked some, or maybe it was another effect of Sora's brush with death only a couple months ago. Jinora hadn't been there to witness it, but she could tell that it had changed Sora and Yunjin both. Maybe that was why Jinora was feeling such a disconnect, because the pair of them had experienced horrors she couldn't hardly imagine.
So Jinora had been talking to Kai because it was apparently easier to tell a stranger about her problems than the two people that would be directly affected by her words. That, and she felt like she would sound selfish for being upset in the first place knowing what Sora and Yunjin had dealt with recently. Jinora liked Kai too, despite his obvious pitfalls. She could tell that he had a good heart and was compensating for his insecurities by acting like he didn't care. It must have been difficult for him living on his own for so long, with no family, and she couldn't fault him for being afraid to accept the rest of them. Plus, Jinora knew what it was like to be on the outside of the Beifong family, to have Lin always watching with suspicion and Tenzin seeming so larger than life, and Jeia with her scowls and Ronen so smart and kind that it was easy to feel dumb in his presence. Individually, Sora and Yunjin seemed almost normal, but with their family they were blinding. And that wasn't even counting Kya and Bumi and Suyin and all the cousins. Even as someone who came from a pretty happy family, Jinora felt intimidated by them. She wanted to help Kai feel welcome, and she didn't know why Sora was so worried. Kai wasn't half as bold as he pretended to be, and it wasn't like Jinora was going to forget about Yunjin just because she was uncertain about their future. But Sora didn't understand Kai and didn't seem to want to, which was not helped when Kai inadvertently got the three of them arrested.
Jinora was more upset at the Earth Queen for taking airbenders and forcing them into her own personal army, but Sora was blaming Kai for getting them involved. From the moment the door of their cell slammed closed, Sora rounded on Kai and laid into him for several minutes, admonishing him for being a selfish thief and an inconsiderate brat before Jinora intervened and begged Sora to stop.
Sora had frowned and softened her gaze at the sight of Jinora, who realized then that she was shaking and admittedly terrified. She felt guilty, too, for not helping when the Dai Li agents had surrounded them in the alleyway. Sora had been forced to fight them on her own, and maybe if Jinora had done something they could have freed Kai and gotten away. Sora had hugged Jinora and soothed her and promised they'd be all right, but a few hours later Jinora was not so certain. While she felt pretty sure that Sora's family wouldn't just leave them there, she was worried about what might happen in the meantime.
Despite it being the middle of the night, the guards didn't leave them alone for long. According to the other airbenders in their cell, time for sleep was brief and fleeting, and they were often dragged out at all hours of night and day to run drills. Not that they could really tell the time in their dim, underground prison. Sora instantly began fretting about how they were going to get out, asking the airbenders a million questions about what they had seen of the prison, if they knew where exits were and how many guards there were. But none of them had been there very long and had little hope of fighting their way out. So Sora had begun to meditate, which Jinora thought was a little odd given the circumstances, but when she snapped out of it she proclaimed that they were underneath of the Earth Queen's temple.
Sora hadn't been able to go into much detail about how she knew or what her plan was, because some of the Dai Li had returned by then, and that's when everything got worse. Sora had stood up and declared, "I am Sora Beifong, daughter of Air Master Tenzin and former Chief of Republic City, Lin Beifong. I demand that you let me and the rest of these people go, or else you will be very sorry."
The guards had looked at one another and burst out into laughter, but Sora didn't waver.
"This is your one warning. We can end this peacefully or with violence. I much prefer the former."
One of the guards had snorted and said, "Sure, you're Sora Beifong, and I'm Avatar Kyoshi."
Sora rolled her eyes. "Did you idiots not pay attention to what I was wearing when I came in here? How many people do you know that wear traditional Air Nomad robes?"
That gave them pause, and one of the Dai Li had become very angry as he snapped at the guys that had taken Sora, Kai, and Jinora. "You brought the Beifong kid here? What the flameo are we supposed to do with her now? You've endangered this entire operation! The Queen will have your heads for this!"
There had been some arguing and pleading amongst the Dai Li, some of it Jinora couldn't totally follow, but she heard enough to become very frightened for her friend. Someone suggested killing Sora or trying to make her forget or chasing her family off or all manner of horrible things. In the end, they had grabbed Sora and dragged her out of the cell and slammed the door in Jinora and Kai's faces when they tried to go after her.
Jinora had heard a commotion outside, Sora screeching and things crashing and slamming as she no doubt tried to fight them off, but then she went silent and Jinora feared the worst. She had slumped to the floor and wept while Kai held her and promised to keep her safe. But Sora had promised the same thing not that long ago and now she was gone.
By the time the guards returned, Jinora had recovered some, and she stood with the rest of the airbenders as they were ushered down the hall and into a large room with high ceilings. They were forced to pair off and spar with each other, and Jinora and Kai weren't allowed to be partners. They stood next to each other though, and exchanged a grim look when the Dai Li proclaimed, "You are the property of the Earth Kingdom. You will become the Queen's elite fighting force and protect her at all costs. It is your duty to serve the Earth Queen."
Jinora was not certain how long it all went on but it felt like several long hours. She stuck close to Kai, and when he started making trouble she begged him to stop. But she couldn't really be mad at him, not when the Dai Li were being so purposefully cruel. Kai's sparring partner had plead for Kai to go easy on him because he wasn't very good. And when Kai had obliged, the prison guard had shouted, "Never show mercy! Attack your opponent! And this time, like you mean it."
Kai had done so despite his misgivings, and his partner had hit the ground hard. So Kai said he was sorry, and the guard snapped again, "A soldier never apologizes to his enemy."
To which Kai had angrily countered, "I'm not a soldier."
But the Dai Li had merely smirked and declared, "You will be when I'm through with you."
Afterwards, they were given a short break to use the bathroom and eat what Jinora assumed was breakfast, but she was too sick to her stomach to eat. She tried asking one of the guards where Sora had been taken and only received threats in response.
They went back to the training room again, but this time they were all lined up against one wall and had to evade the rock discs that the Dai Li threw at them. Jinora was terrified, considering, how little training she'd had so far, but Kai whispered encouragements to her and she thought about what Sora had taught her and she managed to avoid the projectiles. Kai's former sparring partner, however, was useless at evasion, and was hit over and over by the flying discs. Eventually, Kai took pity on the guy and used his own airbending to save him, but that only served to anger the Dai Li.
"You again!" the guard shouted at Kai. "If you have time to help your friend then you're not getting enough rocks for yourself."
And then so many discs were flying at Kai that Jinora had to step farther back to give him room to maneuver, but there were just too many. Jinora could only beg the Dai Li to stop as several rocks hit Kai and sent him sprawling to the ground clutching at his stomach.
The guard came to stand over Kai and said, "I guess you're not as good as you thought." He jerked his head at one of the other guards. "Throw him in the hole."
Jinora gasped, and threw herself over Kai in a useless effort to protect him, but the guards knocked her off with ease and dragged Kai away, like they had with Sora, and then Jinora was completely and utterly alone.
Chapter 75: Chapter 75
Chapter Text
Chapter 75
Sora's initial intent when revealing her name to her captors was originally meant to dissuade them from harming her or her friends, and to maybe get them out of their dank dungeon cell without violence, but it seemed to have worked the opposite way. After being dragged away from Jinora and Kai, Sora had attempted to fight the Dai Li, fearing what they might do to her, but they had subdued her with a blow to the back of the head that still had her seeing stars several hours later. With her eyes watering and skull throbbing, she had been forced to write a convincing letter that would be given to her parents, and every time she tried to sneak in something that might help them find her, she got her hand twisted up in a rock vice, and threats to simply throw her dead body out in the lawn in front of the building where her family and friends were staying. Sora didn't think the Dai Li would actually kill her because that would cause them just as many, if not more problems than her simply being missing. It was doubtful her parents would leave Ba Sing Se without justice for their murdered child, but then again, the Dai Li could just as easily frame someone else. So Sora decided not to risk it and only managed to add 'we'll stay somewhere obvious'without the Dai Li threatening to cut her throat.
Afterwards, she was dragged to a much smaller cell that wasn't even wide enough for her to stretch her legs out when she sat down. At first, she curled up on the floor and closed her eyes, trying to quell the nausea her head injury had caused and hoping the throbbing might fade. She received no rest though, except for the brief moments where she would doze off and jolt awake again. The guards didn't leave her alone for long either, constantly opening the door to check on what she was doing, as if they expected her to sink through the floor and escape. She started timing their arrivals so that she could plan a time to meditate, and when her moment came she thought about her parents. She focused on their spiritual energies, ones that she knew so well, and managed to appear before them long enough to tell them how to find her. She had sensed trouble back where her body was though, and snapped back to herself just in time to see the door to her cell swinging open once more.
That time, they took her out and placed her in what she assumed to be some sort of interrogation room, where they asked her questions about her family and received no answers. They didn't torture her, per say, but the back hands she received to the face were pretty unwelcome. They also must have thought she was closer to five than fifteen because they kept threatening to hurt her parents if she didn't give them the information they wanted. But Sora knew what her parents were capable of and she was more worried about the harm that might befall the Dai Li. Mom especially had a nasty temper, and as angry as Sora was at the Dai Li, she didn't wish that kind of pain on them. It would probably get pretty ugly when Sora's parents showed up to rescue her, even uglier when Mom saw the bruises on her face, and Sora wasn't looking forward to it even if she was eager to escape.
On the bright side, the Dai Li left her alone once they gave up on getting information out of her. Then all she had to do was wait, and worry. She wondered how Jinora and Kai were faring, and how her family and the others were going to free them without getting themselves hurt in the process. When the throbbing in her head dulled to a less agonizing ache, she used her spirit form to sneak through the prison and check in on Jinora and Kai. She found Jinora and the rest of the airbenders trying to rest in their mass holding cell, but Kai was nowhere to be found. Jinora was not sleeping though, and noticed Sora's shimmering shape and went to her with both worry and relief. Sora and Jinora exchanged whispers, Sora telling Jinora that the others were on their way to rescue them, and Jinora revealing that Kai had been taken away to what the guards had referred to as "the hole." After reassuring Jinora that she was all right, Sora left to go find Kai, who turned out to be in a holding cell just a few doors down from her own. He was initially a little terrified when he saw her floating form, mistaking her for some kind of ghost, but once she reassured him he was happy to hear that rescue was coming.
It wasn't long after returning to her body that she heard the commotion in the halls, and she jerked up to her feet in anticipation. Soon enough, the door to her cell swung open, and there stood Mako, Bolin, and Mom, and oddly enough, her cousin Akira, who was supposed to be back on Air Temple Island.
Ignoring that confusion for the time being, Sora leapt straight into her mother's arms with relief and a broad smile.
"I've got you, kid," Mom murmured, squeezing Sora back just as tight.
"I'm sorry I snuck out to look for Kai," Sora hastily said against her mother's shoulder. "I'm sorry I got arrested."
"Don't worry about it," Mom sighed. "You did good. You're safe now…well, almost." They pulled apart to look at each other and Mom's soft expression turned hard as she noticed the marks on Sora's face. "They did that to you?"
"It's not too bad," Sora assured, but she wasn't sure how it looked so she could only imagine what her mother was thinking. Judging by the rage apparent on Mom's face and in her sharp tone, Sora assumed it looked pretty bad.
"Come on," Mom said to the others. "Let's get out of here." She told Sora, "Korra will look at it when we're in the air. Your father is getting the rest of the airbenders now."
Sora wanted to ask about Akira, but instead said, "Hang on, we have to get Kai. He's in one of these cells too."
Mom used her bending to wrench open all the doors at once, and they found Kai in a matter of seconds. Kai apologized to Mako and Bolin for stealing their money and getting them trapped in the lower ring, and Bolin hugged the boy and declared that all was forgiven, despite Mako's protests.
The six of them started towards the exit, and that was when several Dai Li appeared in the doorway. The one in the lead was the guy that had hit Sora across the face, and he stepped forward to say, "Deserting Her Majesty's army is high treason. Punishable by death."
Mom stepped forward with a smirk, cracking her knuckles and responding, "Oh I've been looking forward to this."
The hallway was tight so Sora and the others had a hard time trying to help without the risk of hitting Mom, so they let her take out half the guards on her own before they found an opening. Mom was slashing her metal cables through the air so fast Sora almost couldn't keep track with her eyes. Metal smashed through rock and swatted bodies back down the hall. The noise level rose to a crescendo and Mom was whirling through the air like she'd been born an airbender instead. There was a fury and determination in her face that Sora had only seen a couple of times, and while part of it was awe-inspiring, some of it was frightening. The way Mom's metal cables constricted around throats and smacked against skulls was too violent; Sora wasn't sure she'd ever get used to it.
When Mom pressed her back to the wall to avoid a barrage of flying rock hands, Mako and Bolin finally jumped in and pressed the attack. The two of them struck one of the Dai Li down in seconds, but a rock hand came flying through the gap and grabbed onto Akira as she was striking at another. She went flying towards their attackers gasping for air, the hand around her throat and constricting her airway. Sora and Kai leapt in at once, and together they took down the Dai Li that held Akira, throwing the earthbender an extensive distance down the hall until he struck the far wall and Akira was freed. In the meantime, Mom incapacitated the last guard standing and then, where before there had been chaos and noise, there was a relaxing stillness.
Sora turned to Kai and nodded her approval. "Nice job."
He smiled proudly. "Thanks. That was a pretty cool move. You'll have to show me how you did that."
"Later," Sora promised, and then they were running again.
This time, they made it the whole way outside, but a lot of the Dai Li were there, and rock hands were raining down on them from above. All they could do was sprint as fast as they could and avoid being struck. Bolin frantically called for help, which Sora thought was a little silly at first, but then Oogi came hurtling down from the sky. Mom and Bolin used their earthbending to propel all of them up into the air, and Ronen swooped in to catch them on Oogi's back just in time. Korra and Dad were both there, and Dad hurried forward across the saddle to hug Sora tight. He told them that Jinora and Bumi and the rest of the airbenders were on the airship with Asami and Jeia, and Ronen directed Oogi to follow the airship from his place at the reigns. The Dai Li could not follow fast enough, but Sora only breathed a sigh of relief when they were well beyond the fortified walls of Ba Sing Se.
They flew through the night, and Sora ended up dozing off curled up between her parents. Korra had soothed some of Sora's headache with her waterbending healing, but it made her groggy and the rest of her body still hurt. She was looking forward to getting back into the airship and sleeping in her bed for a while. Mom's armor and Dad's bony shoulders were soothing and familiar, but not exactly comfortable.
They landed on a cliffside as the sun was beginning to rise above the horizon. Sora was slow to clamber down off of Oogi, but when she spotted Jinora coming down the ramp of the airship, she took off at a sprint to reach her friend faster. The two girls crashed into each other and hugged with tearful relief.
When Kai appeared next to them, he scratched the back of his head and mumbled, "Hey, so, I'm sorry I got you guys captured and all. I should have listened to you instead of running off. Can you forgive me?"
Sora exchanged a look with Jinora, who was already smiling at the sight of Kai and clearly glad to see him alive and well. Sora sighed heavily, but cast her doubts aside and chose to trust her forgiving instincts this time around. She relented, "Fine, we'll forgive you this time, but don't pull anything like that ever again!"
Kai chuckled delightedly. "I promise!"
So Sora put her arm around his neck and dragged him into the hug too.
The rest of the airbenders were filing off of the airship behind Asami and Jeia. Asami went over to talk to Sora's parents, while Jeia ran over to hug her big sister extra tight, pushing her way right between Jinora and Kai without a care.
Afterwards, Dad gathered up all the airbenders, Jinora and Kai going to stand just at the edge of the group, and Sora stood at her father's side as he told those from Ba Sing Se that they were free now. He offered to relocate each of them to a safe place where the Earth Queen could not harm them, or bring them with him to the Northern Air Temple to become Air Nomads. Even Sora was surprised when all of the freed airbenders stood up one after the other and declared that they would go to the Air Temple. She slipped her hand through her father's and smiled up at him even before she saw the tears shimmering in his eyes. She knew what rebuilding the Air Nation meant to him, and she was so happy that they were finally seeing progress. Sora may not have had some of the same fierceness that the rest of her family did, but in that moment she decided that she would do anything to protect the budding Air Nation, to ensure her father never suffered from its absence ever again.
After escaping from Ba Sing Se, Lin watched from afar as everyone reunited. She was beyond happy to have Sora back and glad they had rescued all the other airbenders in the process, but she could feel an aching sorrow building inside of her and she needed to be alone as she tried to contain it. Ever since Akira had arrived with the news of Zaheer's escape, she had been thinking about what to do next, and she was increasingly sure of what she needed to do, even if she was desperate to avoid it.
Before Tenzin had left Lin's side, Asami had approached the two of them to tell them that she had received a radio call from Su in Zaofu while in the air. Apparently Opal was an airbender, and Su urged her sister to come to Zaofu at once. Lin and Tenzin had exchanged a look, but hadn't discussed it yet. The rest of the airbenders were disembarking from the airship and Lin told her husband to go talk with them first. She watched for a while as he spoke to them, and she could see him becoming emotional as the airbenders stood and agreed to join him at the Air Temple. She had felt a pull within her to go to him, to comfort him as only she knew how, but Sora was at his side, supporting him, and Lin knew that that would be enough.
Jeia was safe with Ronen and Asami, so Lin walked away to sit by herself on the edge of the cliff, legs dangling over the side. She stared off into the distance without really seeing as the orange sky bloomed all around her. She felt a heavy weight on her shoulders, a familiar weight, but one that she dreaded all the more. Her place was with her family, with Tenzin and the kids, but she could feel them being pulled in opposite directions again and there was little she could do to stop it. Turning her back on Korra and the world in order to stay by her husband's side was purely selfish, and as tempted as she was to do it, she knew her conscience would not allow it. And besides, danger would come knocking whether she ignored it or not.
She sensed Tenzin coming before he sat down next to her, and when he braced his hand on her thigh, she automatically put her hand over top of his. His hand was her tether, holding her there on the ledge so that she would not drift away. Everything felt off kilter but not him, never him.
"You're not coming to the Air Temple, are you?" he asked quietly, already plainly aware of the answer, if the pain in his voice was anything to go by.
Lin sighed heavily, hoping it might release some of the weight from her chest, but it only made her dizzy. "I don't think we have much of a choice here. The last thing I want to do is separate from you, but Korra needs to stay on the move. If she goes to the Air Temple, Zaheer and his gang will come right to us. We can't risk the Air Nation, or our kids for that matter."
"And you feel you need to go with Korra?" Tenzin asked, patient but clearly distressed.
"One of us ought to and it can't be you," Lin reasoned. "I know she's basically an adult now and she's got Ronen and all those friends, but they aren't taking this seriously. They don't know how powerful Zaheer and the others are."
"You're right," Tenzin conceded, "but she won't be able to run forever. This will have to be resolved somehow."
"We'll have to figure that out," Lin admitted. "But for now I need to make sure those kids aren't taking stupid risks. We'll send word to Yunjin, Kya, and Nira, tell them to go ahead and meet you and Sora and the airbenders at the Temple, that way they're safe. I'll take Korra and the others to Zaofu to get Opal and send her your way. Maybe Su's Metal Clan can help us out somehow, and I'll try and get in contact with Zuko."
"And Jeia?"
"I'll bring her with me. Maybe I can convince her to stay in Zaofu with Su for a little while. She'll be safer there while the rest of us deal with this."
Now Tenzin was all but despondent, dropping his gaze to where his hand laid on his wife's thigh and he squeezed too tight, desperate not to let her go. "It shouldn't be this way," he murmured, even though he knew it must be.
"It won't be for much longer," Lin asserted; she had no proof of that, but she had to believe it or else she'd never be strong enough. "Korra won't need us so much and things will get settled at the Air Temple. We should have known we were too young to be retiring anyway."
She nudged his shoulder with hers and tried to force some humor into her tone, but his sorrow was too great to muster up a smile. He merely laid his head down on her shoulder and fell silent. There was little else to be said, nothing that could change their situation. Zaheer was too great a threat to take lightly and the Air Nation was too important to neglect. What other option did they have?
When they were forced to separate, Tenzin held her in his arms for a long time, murmuring in her ear and pressing so close against her that they all but melded into one. She kissed him firmly afterwards but kept it brief; she could feel the kids' eyes on them. But Tenzin pulled her back as she turned to go and kissed her like they'd be apart for longer than a few weeks, like it might be the last kiss they ever shared. If she had known then what was going to happen to him, to them, to their family, she would have held on longer, maybe even changed her mind and never let him go at all. But she climbed up onto Oogi instead, with Korra, Jeia, Asami, Mako, Akira, and Bolin, with Ronen at the reigns, and when the airship carried him in the opposite direction with Sora and the rest of the airbenders, she turned away.
If there was one thing Yunjin learned from the weeks he spent on Air Temple Island without most of his family, it was that being mature and adult-like was hard. For the most part, he hated it. And it wasn't as if he had never been mature before, it was just that his current task was beyond anything he'd ever bothered with. Being mature enough to have a girlfriend and respect his parents and stop pulling pranks on people for five seconds was one thing. Trying to teach adults how to airbend and immerse themselves in a culture even he didn't wholly adhere to was something else entirely. He wanted to do right by his father and the Air Nation, to make his parents proud and prove to himself that he could, but he wasn't convinced he was doing a good job of it.
Aunt Kya and Nira kept telling him he was doing just fine but he didn't totally believe them. He started to wonder if he would have been better off going to the Earth Kingdom. At least then he would have had Sora at his side. Everything was easier with his twin sister, that was simply a fact. They had been attached at the hip since conception, and when they were separated by their own dumb fights, they were always worse off. Every time Yunjin really started acting stupid it was because Sora wasn't around enough. Becoming teenagers had split them apart and everything had been chaos, and they had only just started to work their way back to each other. By choosing to stay on the Island, Yunjin had only enhanced the distance between them, and he wasn't sure if he could really stay on the right track without her.
One of the few people he might have felt comfortable talking to about it all was Jinora, but she was gone too. Yunjin was glad she was getting to see the world, but they hadn't parted on good terms and he thought she might continue to stew on her anger while they were apart. He kept calling to check in on Jinora's family, to help them with their moving preparations and, in part, to maintain some connection to the girl he missed like crazy. Pema and Anil must have figured that out for themselves and taken pity on him because they never refused his calls, but he didn't want to be pitied by anybody so he tried to refrain from bothering them so much. He missed his own parents too, probably, even though they both drove him nuts. He had to wonder why he had even chosen to stay behind when most of the people he really wanted to be around weren't there. He supposed that was part of being an adult too.
Not all of it was awful though. Some parts were good, like Aunt Kya's goofy pep talks and Nira's unyielding patience in the face of his uncertainty. Not to mention Amali's more frequent smiles and Akira's untamable exuberance. He liked sparring with Akira to blow off steam and listening to her wild stories about all the crazy things she got into; she was definitely her mother's daughter. He always felt better after spending time with Amali, teaching her how to play games she hadn't had out in the desert and learning about desert life from her. He loved watching Nira and Aunt Kya, the way Aunt Kya could make Nira laugh uproariously in a way Yunjin had only seen a few times, and the way Nira made Aunt Kya relax without having to ply her with alcohol. And Amali, at least, was settling in, even if the new airbenders weren't.
Yunjin's few weeks of training Da had not fully prepared him for the difficulties of training brand new airbenders. Several more came to the Island in the days after his family had left, and not one of them seemed any more competent than Da. He knew it was to be expected, that they hadn't been born with their abilities like he had, hadn't spent their childhood practicing, but he couldn't figure out if they were just slow learners or he was a bad teacher. He had to remind himself how difficult it had been for his father to teach Korra, but that only calmed him after the fact. His impatience in the midst of watching the new airbenders flail through the movements he had so gracefully performed was irrepressible. And without Sora there to be the nice one, he was forced to swallow his frustrations or apologize when he inevitably snapped. He was definitely learning a new level of control whether he wanted to or not.
It wasn't until several weeks into the frustrating ordeal that Yunjin finally acquired a good student. A man named Yorru, bald and muscular, arrived on Air Temple Island with his new-found airbending abilities and a surprising amount of skill. He excelled at all of the exercises Yunjin put him through, and weaved seamlessly through the airbending gates like a natural born airbender. Yunjin was impressed, and feeling a little more confident in his teaching abilities for all of five seconds as Yorru bowed to him and said, "A student is only as good as his master." Yunjin wasn't completely moved by the attempt at flattery, but he'd take a compliment where he could get it.
The moment was not to last anyways, because Aunt Kya arrived immediately after with more news on his family. "I've got good news," she said to the dazed airbenders slumped down on the ground next to the airbending gates, and to Yunjin and Yorru who were standing nearby. "Tenzin is at the Northern Air Temple with a whole group of other airbenders and he wants you to join him. We'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon."
Yorru asked, "And the Avatar is with him?"
Aunt Kya squinted her eyes at Yorru, sounding slightly put off as she answered, "No, apparently she had to split off from Tenzin."
"That's unfortunate," Yorru said. "I was really looking forward to meeting her."
"I'm sure she'll visit eventually," Yunjin assured, but he could see that his aunt had more to say as she beckoned him to come to her. He told the airbenders, "That's enough for today. You can have the rest of the day to do whatever you want, but some extra practice wouldn't be a bad idea. The rest of you will try the gates again tomorrow before we leave."
There was an eruption of sighs and groans, but the airbenders all pushed themselves up onto their feet and shuffled away. Yorru lingered for a moment, but eventually turned away as well, wandering off in a different direction from the other airbenders.
When all of them were out of earshot, Yunjin closed the distance between himself and his aunt and asked, "What is it? It's not more bad news is it?" They had already had to send Akira off a few days earlier, to give Yunjin's parents the message of Zaheer's escape. Yunjin had wanted to go himself, but his Aunt Kya and Nira were both vehemently opposed. They were worried about Akira going too, but decided that she had more experience with the Earth Kingdom and travel and would be able to get to Ba Sing Se quickly. Yunjin had questioned his aunt extensively about who Zaheer and his friends were, and while he was somewhat concerned for Korra's well-being once he learned of the attempted kidnapping from years ago, he was also fairly confident that if his parents could beat them the first time, they could do it again, even if Zaheer was an airbender. His Aunt Kya didn't seem so certain.
"Things went awry in Ba Sing Se," Aunt Kya carefully began. "It turns out the Earth Queen was kidnapping airbenders and forcing them into her own private army. Your sister and Jinora were captured by the Dai Li."
"What?!" Yunjin spluttered. "How dare they – ! Don't they know – ! Mom and Dad got them out right?"
Aunt Kya nodded and reached out to squeeze his shoulder, probably trying to calm him down. "Yes, Sora and Jinora are both fine, and they rescued the rest of the airbenders too. I didn't get a whole lot of details from their letter, but it sounds like everybody is okay. I'm sure they would have mentioned otherwise. A lot of them have separated though. Your father, Sora, and Jinora took the airbenders to the Temple, while your Mom took everyone else to Zaofu."
"Why Zaofu?" Yunjin asked.
"Well, for one, your cousin Opal is an airbender."
Yunjin was stunned for a second, but then he smiled. "Nice, I bet she'll be great."
"Once they're done there, your mother thinks keeping Korra on the move is the best way to keep her safe from Zaheer," Aunt Kya continued. "She intends to leave Jeia in Zaofu with your Aunt Su and keep going."
Yunjin frowned then. "Maybe I should go meet up with Mom instead. I can help –"
Aunt Kya immediately shook her head and refuted, "No way would your mom allow that. Besides, you'll be needed at the Temple."
Yunjin scoffed. "What good will I be there? Clearly I'm not doing a great job here. Dad and Sora can handle it."
"This isn't your fight, Jin," Aunt Kya sighed. She looked tired.
"Then who's fight is it?" Yunjin demanded. "Ronen's? He was practically my age when he started helping Korra in the first place. Mom's supposed to be retired. I'm better at fighting than teaching anyways."
"Which is why you're here right now," Aunt Kya stressed, squeezing his shoulder tighter and shaking him a little. "You're learning how to be a teacher. When your with your dad and Sora again you'll be even better at it. Fighting can't be the only thing you're good at."
"Why not? That's all Mom has ever done."
"Your mom did a lot more than fight," Aunt Kya argued. "Granted, I'm not sure what all she did, but I know there was definitely a lot of paperwork involved. And she raised you, which, admittedly, was a battle in itself, but that's not the point. If you really want to be an airbending master you still need to prove that you're capable."
He shrugged his shoulder away from her grip and forced himself not to fold his arms across his chest, even as his fists clenched at his sides. He didn't want it to look like he was pouting, but he was annoyed. He wanted to be more useful and so far he didn't feel like he was. They were always forcing him to stay behind while the rest of his family risked their lives and he was sick of it.
Aunt Kya said, "I know, sweetheart. You don't like to sit still and you're worried about your mom, but there are other important things to be done. Those airbenders won't train themselves. And if you really are the best fighter then you've got to teach them how to be like you. You've been doing a good job here. You're being too hard on yourself."
"Whatever you say," Yunjin muttered, not actually believing a word she said but knowing he had little options if he wanted to prove his maturity. "I'm gonna go find something for lunch."
He turned and began to walk away even as Aunt Kya called to him, "Yunjin, wait…"
But he didn't stop. He didn't care to hear her reassurances just then. He was feeling out of his depth and regretting his choice to stay behind on the Island now that he knew what he had missed. He should have been there, when Sora and Jinora were captured by the Dai Li. He should have protected his sister and his girlfriend. He had to wonder how the two of them had even been captured. Both of them were always so careful. If Yunjin had been there they might never have been in danger in the first place. Or he could have helped his family rescue the other airbenders the Earth Queen was holding. He could have done something. Instead he was just standing around in the safety of his own home, playing pretend at teaching the airbenders. He could have left it to Nira and Aunt Kya. They both knew pretty much everything anyways, and Nira was learning how to airbend on her own faster than Yunjin could teach her. He felt like a fraud.
So he went and found a secluded spot where hopefully no one would find him, and he leapt up into a tree that overlooked the Bay. He remained there for a while, brooding and uncertain. He watched the sun slink down towards the horizon, and though his stomach rumbled and his muscles cramped, he did not move from that spot. He didn't want to eat and he didn't want to talk to anybody. He was tired of being responsible for the day and he needed a break.
He was still fuming a little when he sensed movement below him. He looked down, half expecting to see Aunt Kya, or for her to have sent Nira to talk to him. Instead it was Amali, carefully climbing up the branches until she was perched right below him. She blinked up at him with those wide eyes, hazel shimmering in the sunlight glaring through the trees. A few weeks ago she hadn't been able to climb a tree, but Yunjin had taught her and now she was practically an expert.
"Did Aunt Kya send you?" he asked her with unrestrained annoyance.
"Dinner is ready," Amali told him, without really answering his question.
"I'm not hungry," he muttered.
"You didn't eat lunch," she pointed out with a frown.
"Because I'm not hungry," he repeated, trying not to be a jerk but still wanting to be alone. "I'll eat something later."
Amali took in his surroundings and wrinkled her freckled nose. "What are you doing up here?"
"I wanted to be alone."
Amali tilted her head to the side. "Like really alone, or just alone until someone comes to find you?"
Yunjin furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why would I want someone to come find me?"
Amali shrugged. "So you could tell them why you're upset."
"I'm not upset," Yunjin refuted, but they both knew he was lying.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" Amali offered.
"No," Yunjin grumbled, but after a few seconds he took a breath and complained, "I just hate how I never get to be useful because they're all worried about my safety. How come their safety doesn't matter but mine does? They risk their lives all the time and I'm just sitting here doing nothing. I thought I could do something good here, but I was wrong. I'm good at fighting and bending but I'm never allowed to do it."
Amali rested her chin on her hands, which held onto the branch just in front of her. She seemed to contemplate what he had said, and Yunjin suddenly felt stupid.
"Never mind," he mumbled. "It's dumb."
"My tribe wanted to abandon me," Amali abruptly revealed, sounding far too blasé and leaving Yunjin momentarily speechless. "We were a small tribe so everyone needed to be useful. I couldn't sandbend, so I couldn't help as much as the others. Elder Ji-Min said he would have left me in the next village we passed by if my parents hadn't tried so hard to keep me."
"That's insane," Yunjin blurted, unable to refrain from interrupting. "Why would someone do something like that?"
"He didn't think I could pull my weight. Literally. Someone would always have to carry me through the desert since I couldn't use a sand-sailor."
Yunjin scoffed. "Still. You were just a kid. And anyways, if you guys were passing by villages, why didn't you stay at any of them? Why live in the desert at all?"
Amali shrugged. "It's all we knew. It was home. And we had no money to live off of. We traded with some of the people when we went into the villages, but they were distrusting of us, and we only exchanged small goods, not anything of real value. Starting a new life in a village would have been hard, for the older generations especially."
Yunjin nodded his understanding, even though he didn't fully understand. He couldn't imagine living the way the sandbender tribes did. "Isn't Elder Ji-Min the one that rescued you? What changed his mind, if he thought you were so useless before?"
"I changed his mind," Amali said simply. "I knew I would never be able to help the way the benders did, so I made myself useful in other ways. They wanted me to be strong, and when I didn't measure up, I showed them that I could be wise and kind instead. I helped my tribesmen with menial tasks, and in return they carried me across the sand. Elder Ji-Min made me his apprentice, taught me everything he could about our tribe and the world, and carried me to safety when the bandits attacked."
Yunjin's chest hurt just thinking about it all, about everything Amali had been through. He knew she wasn't trying to make him feel bad for being upset, but he did anyways. He should be thankful he even had a family, that all the tragedies they'd been through hadn't taken them away from him. He couldn't imagine someone trying to tell Mom that Ronen had to be abandoned in some random village because he was a nonbender. He couldn't imagine not having his parents at all. But that was part of why he wanted so badly to help. If he stayed at the Northern Air Temple failing at training new airbenders and the worst happened to his mother, or Ronen, or Korra…he'd never be able to live with himself; he'd always be thinking about what he could have done if he'd been there with them.
He swallowed down the emotion that was welling up his throat and told Amali, "Well, I'm glad your people realized how important you are, and I hope you know you won't face that sort of thing here. You don't have to prove anything to us."
Amali's lips curved up just a little, almost forming a smile. "I know. The story was for you, silly. If you want people to see that you're useful, you just have to show them. Maybe you have to be useful another way. Maybe you just have to prove you're as good at fighting as you say. Only you know what you're best at."
Yunjin rolled his eyes. "Okay, show off. You don't have to prove you're smarter than me all the time." He gave her a smile to show he was teasing, and Amali grinned.
"You said it, not me," she countered, and Yunjin beamed because he was always thrilled to see Amali's recent playfulness. When she had first come to the Island she had been starved and solemn and afraid of all of them. But she looked brighter and happier every day, and Yunjin was glad for it. Despite all the girl had been through, he had every confidence that she would be part of the family in no time, just as soon as she was ready. It was unfortunate what she had to suffer to get to them, that she no longer had her own parents, but she couldn't have been found by anyone better than Nira, in his opinion.
"Are you coming to dinner then?" Amali asked, already climbing down from the tree.
Yunjin sighed. "I guess so." He was feeling a little better and, frankly, he was tired of starving himself already. He never was good at sulking for long, not like Jeia Rai.
"I'll race you!" Amali challenged, feet already on the ground and a mischievous smile on her face just before she took off sprinting through the trees.
"Hey!" Yunjin called after her, leaping straight off of the branch he'd been perched on and using his airbending to cushion his fall. "Get back here, cheater!"
Amali laughed as she raced on ahead, and she was surprisingly fast too. Yunjin could have used his airbending to get ahead of her, but he simply used it just enough to catch up to her and let her beat him to the dining room. The two of them stumbled through the doorway in a breathless flurry, trying to laugh through their wheezing breaths and nearly crashing right into the table. Nira and Aunt Kya were already sitting together, their plates only half full now, and they both gave Yunjin and Amali admonishing looks.
"You're late," Nira scolded.
"And half a second away from disaster," Aunt Kya huffed. "You could have knocked all this food right off the table!"
Yunjin and Amali exchanged smirks, but then quickly readjusted their expressions to look regretful.
"We're sorry," Yunjin told Nira and Aunt Kya.
Amali nodded seriously. "Very sorry."
Nira and Aunt Kya didn't look convinced, but they weren't really all that mad, Yunjin could tell.
"Just sit down," Aunt Kya said with a wave of her hand, gesturing to the two seats across from her and Nira.
"And eat before it gets cold," Nira added.
Yunjin and Amali quickly did as they were told and dug into the food like ravenous animals, causing Aunt Kya to roll her eyes at them and Nira to shake her head. It reminded Yunjin of all the times he'd come barreling into the dining room with Sora, and how Mom would give them that look and Dad would mildly scold them. He missed his parents and he missed Sora, and he missed feeling the freedom to be a kid and be wild and not have to make up for it. But he was happy with his aunt and Nira and Amali, and he'd be with Sora and Dad and Jinora soon. Maybe he wasn't doing exactly what he wanted, but he'd figure it out. Amali had been right to say he needed to make himself useful and that's what he would do, as soon as he figured out exactly how.
He spent the rest of the night contemplating his next moves, and found himself restless as he laid in bed. When he finally gave up on trying to sleep, he crept out into the hallway. Since his family was gone, Nira, Amali, and Aunt Kya had started staying in the house so Yunjin wasn't alone, so he was careful not to wake any of them up as he tip-toed down the hall. He went to his father's private study, hoping to find inspiration or maybe just comfort, but he didn't find the study empty when he walked in.
Yorru was standing before one of the bookshelves, cast in shadows and illuminated only by the moonlight trickling through the far window. He was examining one of Dad's items, what looked like a necklace, and Yunjin was immediately on guard.
"What are you doing?" Yunjin demanded, startling Yorru from his thoughts. "This is my father's study. You aren't permitted to be in here."
"I'm sorry," Yorru said slowly, not sounding sorry at all as he turned to look at Yunjin. "I couldn't sleep. I was just admiring this piece. It's a poem written by Guru Laghima, the wisest airbender who ever lived."
"Put it back," Yunjin snapped. "You can't just go wandering into places. And how do you know that Guru Laghima is so wise? I've barely taught you about him yet."
Movement in the doorway caused both Yunjin and Yorru to turn their heads and see Aunt Kya entering the room. She must have overheard them, and she sounded even more suspicious than Yunjin as she said to Yorru, "You seem to know a lot about airbending history for someone who just got airbending."
"I've always admired the culture," Yorru defended.
"And you moved through those gates like a natural," Aunt Kya continued accusingly. "Where did you say you were from?"
"A small village up north," Yorru vaguely answered. "You've probably never heard of it."
Aunt Kya continued to scrutinize Yorru's features, until suddenly she gasped, "Wait… Zaheer!"
Before Yunjin could even wrap his mind around what his aunt had just said, he felt her yanking him behind her, just before she waved her arms and a rush of water came jetting out of the sink on the other side of the room. Yorru, or rather, Zaheer, immediately flipped out of the way of Kya's attack, and blasted a burst of air at her that she waved off with a swipe of her water enhanced arm. By then, Yunjin had recovered enough of his senses to help, and stepped out from behind his aunt to shoot a torrent of air that was meant to send Zaheer smashing into the wall. Instead, Zaheer spiraled around the oncoming wind and it blew through Dad's books instead, sending several heavy tomes flying into the air, delicate pages tearing from the seams to float across the room.
Zaheer punched his way out of the second story window and landed on the roof. Yunjin and Kya leapt out to pursue him, and as Zaheer attempted to fly away on a glider, Kya grabbed him with her water whip and slammed him onto the ground below, safely landing herself in the pond with him. Yunjin floated down next to her, and avoided the pond to give his aunt space to continue her assault on Zaheer. Each time Zaheer evaded one of her attacks, Yunjin jumped in to punch strong gusts of air at Zaheer, but the man was light on his feet and holding his own against the two of them. Aunt Kya called for help, but the White Lotus didn't show up for several long minutes, and in the meantime Zaheer kicked a blast of air at her that knocked her to the ground.
Yunjin didn't allow himself to become distracted by concern for his aunt, slashing the air in quick, decisive movements, and finally landing a blow that shot Zaheer into the wall of the house. Zaheer crumbled to the ground with a grunt, wood splintering around him, and Yunjin did not let up, still punching even though his opponent was down. He knew this wasn't like sparring, that Zaheer would press any advantage he got and keeping him down would be difficult. So Yunjin battered the man with air, only to be bested a second later when Zaheer knocked aside one of the blasts. Yunjin saw the air being redirected at him, and he twisted through the air to avoid it. But when he came back down on his feet, Zaheer was up and waving his arms, and Yunjin was trying to block an attack that didn't come. Instead of the punch of air he might have expected, Yunjin felt air being yanked straight out of his chest. Before he even realized what was happening, Zaheer had already pulled all the air from his lungs and was slowly suffocating him. Yunjin had never been faced with such an attack before, and it was taking him too long to figure out how to pull the air back into his lungs, made all the more difficult by the fact that he couldn't breathe and airbending was all but impossible without breath, and he was panicking a little and clawing at the air and quickly growing lightheaded.
But just in time, the White Lotus appeared, throwing fire at Zaheer and causing the man to drop his concentration on Yunjin in order to evade. Zaheer easily batted the two firebenders aside as if they were nothing, but Aunt Kya had also risen to her feet in the meantime, and she was a powerful sight as she surrounded herself with spirals of water. Yunjin was still choking and gasping for air, his eyes watering and his lungs burning, but he picked himself up off of the ground where he had collapsed and staggered closer to his aunt. He reached her just as she shot a huge spiral of water at Zaheer, but Zaheer stepped to the side to avoid it, and then shot an equally powerful spiral at Aunt Kya, who was thrown even further back than before and struck a stone wall so hard that Yunjin was distracted that time.
He felt the prickle in his ear, though, when Zaheer sent a similar attack at him, and Yunjin dodged the onslaught without turning, kicking his leg out behind him to redirect air at Zaheer. But Zaheer was faster, and a gust of wind hit Yunjin in his exposed stomach while his torso was parallel to the ground. The blow tossed him a few feet up into the air, and disoriented him enough that he could not stop his fall, nor cushion his head just before it smacked into the hard earth.
His ears were ringing and his vision went dark for a moment, but Yunjin could hear Zaheer somewhere behind saying, "Sorry I won't be joining you at the Northern Air Temple. I'm afraid I have other plans."
Yunjin grunted as he tried to stand, to stop Zaheer before he escaped, but by the time he was on his feet Zaheer was already flying away on the glider he'd stolen, too far for Yunjin to reach without a glider of his own, or a bison, but neither of those was close by. He stomped his foot and growled in anger, and then groaned and bent over when his head was jolted too much by the movement. He was furious, and ashamed. Zaheer had been right in front of his face the whole time, and when the time came, he hadn't been able to stop the criminal from escaping. If he had been better, he could have saved his family and Korra from even having to deal with Zaheer, but apparently he wasn't as good a fighter as he thought.
A shrill voice echoed around the courtyard and broke through Yunjin's misery, reminding him of where he was and his aunt and all the things that mattered now that Zaheer was gone. It was Nira, who was sprinting towards him with terror plain on her face, her robe askew and only half clinging to her shoulders as she desperately called, "Yunjin! Kya!"
She reached Yunjin first, nearly crashing into him as she engulfed him in her arms and breathlessly exclaimed, "Are you okay? What happened? Who was that?" She pulled back to look him over and frowned at his face, reaching up to gently touch the spot on his forehead that was throbbing in time with his pulse, and apparently bleeding because there was something wet dripping into his eye and Nira's fingers came away red. "A healer is on the way," she told him.
"I'm fine," Yunjin dismissed, looking around and insisting, "Aunt Kya. She needs the healer. She…" he trailed off when he spotted her still lying prone on the ground, and swallowed the terror that filled him.
Nira was faster about sprinting to Kya's side, but Yunjin was right behind her, sliding to his knees before them just as Nira was carefully lifting Kya halfway up into her arms.
"Kya," Nira said tremulously, gently stroking Kya's cheek. "Kya, can you hear me –?"
Kya stirred at Nira's touch and, with her eyes still closed and face twisted into a grimace, groaned, "I feel like I just got trampled by a herd of sky bison."
Nira released a heavy, relieved breath, smiling shakily and assuring, "The healer is on the way. You're gonna be okay."
Kya must have abruptly remembered the recent events, because her eyes flew open and she tried to jolt upwards exclaiming, "Zaheer! Yunjin!"
"I'm here Aunt Kya," Yunjin hastily reassured her, as Nira was trying to hold Kya still. "I'm okay. But Zaheer got away."
Kya winced at her sudden movements, and slumped back down into Nira's hold clutching at her ribs.
"Zaheer?" Nira gasped. "He was here?"
"Yorru," Yunjin muttered angrily. "He was actually Zaheer the whole time."
Nira shook her head in shock and seemed to hold Aunt Kya closer while reaching out to squeeze Yunjin's hand. "Well, thank goodness the two of you are okay." She must have been really worried when she heard the fighting and saw that he and Aunt Kya were involved. Yunjin could see it in her face, like she was about to cry.
"Who said I was okay?" Kya croaked, looking like she wanted to fall asleep there in Nira's arms, but she mustered up half a smile, probably to try and make Nira feel better.
"You'd better be," Nira warned, half teasing half serious.
Yunjin was glad they could find some levity, but he wasn't in much of a joking mood for once. He wanted to go chasing after Zaheer but he didn't even know where to look.
The healer arrived then, another White Lotus that looked like he'd been dragged out of bed half asleep. He looked Aunt Kya over and determined her injuries were minor considering. After some bed rest and another healing session she'd be good as new. Yunjin's head injury wasn't all that bad either, and there had been no lasting damage from having the air ripped out of his lungs, just some discomfort in his chest and throat. He'd probably have a small scar above his eyebrow from face planting the rocky ground, but he wasn't concerned about that. The two White Lotus that had tried to help Yunjin and Kya were okay too, and Yunjin was both relieved and annoyed that they hadn't been much use. How were they supposed to protect the Avatar or the Air Nation if a single swipe from Zaheer could knock them out?
Yunjin and Nira helped Aunt Kya back into the house, where they found Amali tearful and frightened. She ran to them when she saw them enter, and hugged Yunjin and Kya with relief, and then didn't want to leave the room when they settled Kya into bed.
So Nira sat down in a chair next to Kya and sat Amali on her lap, and Yunjin had no idea how long they stayed there or if any of them ever got any rest. He made sure his aunt was okay and then said he was going to his own bed, but he definitely couldn't sleep now. He spent the rest of the evening wandering the Island, searching every nook and cranny to ensure Zaheer was long gone, and to make sure no other suspicious persons had infiltrated the Island. He talked with the White Lotus about security, surprised when they were actually respectful enough to discuss it with him when he had expected them to treat him like a child. He asked for one of them to go into the city in the morning and make sure they got some of the portraits of Zaheer and his escaped friends from the police, that way they could better protect the Island when Yunjin left with Aunt Kya and Nira and Amali, and so Yunjin could get a good look at the others too. He resolved to call the police station first thing in the morning and try to talk to Chief Tosuki, or maybe Sanji or Sargent Raizo, who had delivered Jeia. One of them would make sure the White Lotus got what they needed if Yunjin asked. It had been a while since he had spoken to any of them, but they were all still friends with his mom and he was pretty confident they'd help him out.
By the time the sun began to rise, Yunjin was exhausted but focused. He sat on the phone for an hour before he got ahold of anyone useful, but eventually spoke with Sanji, who assured Yunjin that he'd keep the White Lotus well-informed, with what little information the police themselves had on the terrorists. That settled, Yunjin did another sweep of the island and then started prepping the bison for the trip to the Northern Air Temple. He was just about to go check in on his aunt, Nira, and Amali when one of the White Lotus came rushing over to alert Yunjin of an arrival. It was a teenage girl claiming to be an airbender, but Yunjin had insisted on locking down the docks and being stricter about who they let in, so the White Lotus wasn't just letting her stroll in like all the other new airbenders.
Yunjin went down to the docks to meet the girl, who was fidgeting nervously next to the blank-faced White Lotus standing guard over her. She wasn't old enough to be one of the escaped criminals, so Yunjin took pity on her and gestured for the White Lotus to leave the two of them.
"I'm Yunjin," he offered as he came to stand before her. "My friends tell me you're an airbender."
She was taller than him by a few inches, lean and probably muscular under the tight black clothes. She had long, dark brown hair, tied up except for the strands hanging around her face and sharp, amber colored eyes. She might have been an imposing figure if her shoulders weren't slumped and she could look him in the eye without fearfully looking away an instant later. She nodded timidly at his words and said nothing.
"What's your name?" he prompted, trying not to be impatient with her.
"Zara," she answered quietly.
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"And where are your parents?" he questioned further.
Zara shrugged. "I never knew my father and my mother has been gone a long time. I was staying with some distant relatives but I've been looking for an opportunity to get away from them."
"Why is that?"
"We don't exactly see eye to eye," was all Zara answered with, shifting uncomfortably under Yunjin's scrutiny. "I heard about new airbenders being welcome here and…well, I could probably use the help."
"With airbending?" Yunjin clarified.
Zara nodded, fidgeting with her hands. "I'm, um, not so good. The last time I… I couldn't control it and, since then, I've been afraid to try again."
"Well, you've picked a bit of a rough time to come, Zara," Yunjin admitted, "but I think we can help you if you're willing to leave in the next two hours."
"Leave?" she said in surprise. "Where would we be going?"
"To the Northern Air Temple. That's where my father is, and the rest of the airbenders. You'd have to be willing to start your training there, and commit to the Air Nomad way of life. Do you have any idea what that means?"
"N – no," Zara stammered. "Not really. But I guess… I guess I'm willing to try anything at this point. I don't have anywhere else to go."
Yunjin stared at her for a long moment, trying to determine if the girl was trustworthy or if he was just being overly paranoid because of what had happened the night before. He decided not to worry about it. She was basically just a kid like him, barely older and clearly alone and looking for help. If she was secretly evil he'd find out once they got to the Air Temple and Dad would be there to help handle it.
"All right," he said at last. "Come on then. I'll introduce you to the rest of the airbenders. And you'd better get something to eat. It's gonna be a long flight."
Chapter 76: Chapter 76
Chapter Text
Chapter 76
Ever since receiving news of Zaheer and his gang escaping, Nira had been a little on edge. She was worried about Lin and Tenzin, and Sora and Jeia and Ronen, all of them out there no doubt helping the Avatar and inevitably throwing themselves into danger. She remembered being told about Zaheer and the power of his friends, back when Korra was just a toddler, and it had given her chills to imagine it all those years ago. Now was no different, and the fear was even more acute. Back then, she had mostly been on her own, and while she had still cared a great deal about Lin and Tenzin and the kids, she hadn't quite been part of the family yet, hadn't spent the last fifteen years loving and caring for those kids. And now there was Amali too, and Kya, and Nira worried for all of them, for what Zaheer might do now that he was free and had airbending. She thought at first that his focus might not encompass them all, but she should have known better.
When Nira awoke in the middle of the night to the sounds of battle, she had not even realized at first what it was. In her confusion, she had tumbled out of bed blearily and went to the window. When she saw Kya and Yunjin battling some man out in the courtyard, her heart had leapt into her throat. In her haste to reach them she only half pulled on a robe and a pair of shoes, stumbling down the hallway to where Amali was peeking fearfully out of the door of Sora's room, where she was staying while the rest of the family was away. Amali had not wanted to let Nira go outside, but Nira didn't give the girl much time to protest, ushering Amali back into the room and insisting she stay put.
By the time Nira made it outside, the battle was over, and the first thing she saw was Yunjin standing alone in the middle of the courtyard with blood seeping from a wound on his forehead and dripping down his face. That sight alone had been difficult enough, and seeing Kya lying far too still on the ground a second later had been terrifying. Nira could see where the wall behind Kya had cracked slightly from the impact of her being thrown into it, and she was shaking the entire time she held Kya, even with the assurance that Kya was still breathing and semi-conscious.
It took a long time to comfort Amali after the whole ordeal, and Nira wasn't all that interested in sleeping anymore either, so she ended up remaining at Kya's bedside for the duration of the night. Amali stayed on her lap for a while before she curled up in bed beside Kya and dozed off. Nira wished Yunjin was there too, so she could keep an eye on him, even though the healer had assured that his head wound was not serious. But the boy was so headstrong and he couldn't sit still hardly ever, even after a fight.
In the morning, Nira was far from well-rested, but there was a lot to be done and so little time. Tenzin wanted Yunjin and the rest of the airbenders at the Northern Air Temple as soon as possible, and Kya wanted to leave even earlier than their original goal of sometime that afternoon. She wanted to tell her brother about Zaheer infiltrating the Island, in case Zaheer tried something similar at the Temple. Kya was not fully recovered from the previous evening, but refused to stay in bed any longer, even when Nira tried doing the bulk of the preparations herself. Yunjin, though, had done so much already that there wasn't much left for Nira or Kya to do. The boy had apparently been up all night planning and prepping, and when Nira and Kya came to help, he merely handed off a new airbender to them, a teen girl named Zara.
Kya took the timid Zara to get some breakfast, and a rundown of where they were going and what it would mean to be an airbender, to ensure the girl knew what she was in for. Yunjin went to finish readying the bison for their trip, and Nira took Amali to go pack up their own few belongings.
Nira had asked Amali a week ago if she would be interested in coming to the Northern Temple with her and Kya and Yunjin, and had been relieved when the girl responded with an emphatic yes. Amali had said that she went where Nira went, and that had been the end of the conversation. Nira had been worried that Amali might not want to leave the city behind to travel somewhere else foreign so soon after she had begun to grow comfortable on the Island, but it seemed Amali was attached to the lot of them more so than the Island itself. Nira was pretty sure the rest of them were attached to Amali too, her and Yunjin and Kya. She was glad Amali would be coming with them.
Just as Amali was helping Nira pack up her clothes, the two of them received an unexpected visitor.
A man with long dark hair flowing down his back, and dressed in what appeared to be fine silk, swaggered into the room with flair and a touch of regality. Nira might have been incensed, but he was no ordinary man. He was Revol, the spirit of love, and it was not all that absurd to see him strutting into her bedroom, though it was a surprise. There was no way to expect him – spirits didn't really have phones or send letters – so his occasional visits were never planned, but had never been so poorly timed.
"Darling Nira!" he cried happily as he entered the room, procuring a mess of roses that exploded in front of him and rained down upon the floor at his feet. "It is so good to see you again. I have missed y –" He stopped abruptly at the sight of Amali, who was half hiding behind Nira's skirt, eyes wide and distrusting, and his entire demeanor changed. His voice softened and the dramatics disappeared as he bent closer to Amali's eye level and asked, "I'm sorry, who is this little one?"
Nira stroked the top of Amali's head and soothed, "It's okay, sweetheart. He's not dangerous, I promise."
Amali looked up at Nira with trusting eyes, but her fists didn't unclench from Nira's skirt.
"This is Revol," Nira explained. "He's the spirit of love. You remember the story Yunjin was telling you? About Qinggan and her children? How the spirits of emotion were all here before I found you?"
"That was real?" Amali whispered in shock, eyeing Revol in awe, as if she couldn't believe her eyes. "I thought he was making it up."
"Nope, it was all real," Nira said, stroking Amali's hair until the girl began to relax. "He's a friend." She then turned her attention to Revol and smiled tiredly. "It's good to see you, Revol. This is Amali."
She nudged the girl forward a little, and Revol bowed and greeted, "It is lovely to meet you, Amali. I hope I did not frighten you."
"A little at first," Amali admitted. "I've never seen a real spirit before. Well, except for Bumi's little friend, but he's…different. I didn't know spirits could look so much like humans."
Revol chuckled. "Well where do you think humans got their looks from? Why didn't I meet you the first time I was here? I didn't miss a Beifong kid, did I? There were only four, right?"
"No, she's not Lin and Tenzin's," Nira answered. "She's…" She stopped herself before she could say mine and amended, "Amali and I met a couple months ago, in Republic City."
"I had no place to go," Amali continued, looking half dazed, still regarding Revol with amazement. "Nira said I could stay here."
"You poor, sweet girl," Revol breathlessly exclaimed, clutching at his heart – or rather, where the heart would be; Nira didn't think spirits had organs like that. "I'm sure Nira is taking very good care of you. Are you liking it here on Air Temple Island?"
Amali nodded. "I am. Nira is very kind."
"That she is," Revol agreed with a fond smile directed at Nira.
"Everyone has been very nice," Amali added.
"Well I'm glad to hear it," Revol said. "They were all very nice when my family and I needed them too."
"Amali," Nira interjected, "why don't you go see if Kya needs any help with Zara? I'll catch up with Revol and then come and find you soon."
"Okay," Amali assented easily, and it was still a little bit of a surprise. Nira was far too used to the Beifong kids giving her their mother's sass before doing what they were asked. Amali waved to the spirit as she left. "It was nice to meet you, Revol."
"It was so nice to meet you," Revol concurred. "I hope we can talk more soon…"
Once Amali left the room he turned back to Nira and grinned, closing the distance to cup her face in his hands and give her a quick kiss, which was still cool and tingly in that oddly appealing way. Normally it would draw Nira in, leave her wanting more, but she must have been tired because she couldn't muster up the same enthusiasm.
The first thing she said was, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you of course!" Revol replied. "It's been so long. I had begun to miss your sweet face."
Nira gave him a disbelieving look. "Just my face, huh?"
"Among other things," Revol conceded, looking her up and down with a sultry smile, "but I see I have found you a bit preoccupied."
"A bit," Nira admitted. "Between new airbenders and Amali and…everything else, we've been rather busy around here. Everyone besides Kya, Yunjin, and me have been gone for a few weeks."
"Ah, yes, I did hear about the airbenders. I'm sure Tenzin is overjoyed."
"Overjoyed and overworked," Nira confirmed. "We're actually packing up to go meet him now. We'll be leaving in about an hour."
"Oh well that's plenty of time," Revol said, smiling and stroking her hair back behind her ear.
Nira rolled her eyes and snorted. "Not exactly. I've still got things to do before then. We're on a tight schedule."
Revol sighed, twirling a lock of her hair around his finger. "Such a shame. I was so looking forward to reuniting with one of my favorite lovers." From any other man it might have sounded half insulting but Revol was…Revol. Nira had known what she was getting into with him – well, as much as she could know when delving into an intimate relationship with a spirit of all things. Revol was much different from a human male in many ways, and as loving and genuinely caring as he was, she had always known she was sharing him. It didn't bother her or stir any jealousy. She was content to enjoy what Revol could give her.
"Sorry," Nira murmured, "maybe next time." She probably could have given him a little more attention, but with everything going on she felt too distracted. She was thinking about Yunjin and Amali and –
Kya, who chose that moment to barge into Nira's room without so much as a knock and without even a hint of chagrin. She stood in the doorway eyeing Revol and Nira's close proximity with a raised eyebrow and a faint smirk as she said, "I heard we had company."
Nira felt herself unconsciously taking a step back from Revol, who smiled brightly and greeted, "Hello again, Kya."
"Revol," Kya said shortly, striding into the room trying to look too casual. "What brings you to the Island? Well," she pointedly eyed Nira, "other than the obvious."
"I thought I might come visit some of my human friends, but it appears that I came at the wrong time," Revol replied. "How have you been, Kya dear? You were rather glum the last time I was here."
He sounded genuinely concerned and not at all condescending and it seemed to throw Kya for a moment, but she still purposefully placed herself halfway between Nira and Revol. Nira was a little confused by it, but Revol remained cheerfully unbothered.
"I'm much better," Kya finally answered, placing a hand on Nira's shoulder. "Thanks to my friend Nira, here."
"Well I'm glad to hear it," Revol said.
Nira, however, noticed the subtle way that Kya was hunched over just slightly and the pale pallor of her face. She frowned and placed a gentle hand on Kya's bruised ribs and another on Kya's back and asked, "Are you feeling okay? You were straining yourself too much, weren't you? Here, you should lie down."
She tried nudging Kya towards the bed, but Kya waved her off and asserted, "I'm fine."
"You should see the healer again –"
Kya huffed. "I am a healer myself, you know?"
"Humor me, would you?" Nira persisted. "I'll feel better knowing you can endure the flight."
"I'll endure it just fine if I can take a nap," Kya countered. Nira gave her an exasperated look though and she relented, "Fine, fine. I'll go see the healer again. But we haven't got much time. Yunjin is rounding everyone up now. Jinora's family is here too."
"Well go ahead over to the healer and I'll meet you there," Nira decided. "I'm almost done here."
"I haven't even packed my own things," Kya realized.
"I already took care of it," Nira assured, gesturing to one of the three bags laying on her bed. "I've got yours and Amali's, and I was just finishing mine."
"You did that just so I wouldn't have an excuse not to go to the healer, didn't you?" Kya accused while trying to suppress her amusement.
"I'm used to making it difficult for people to argue with me, an art I've perfected with your nieces and nephews," Nira teased.
"Hey, I'm not that stubborn," Kya argued.
"Well you can prove it to me by taking care of yourself."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm going. I'll see you in a couple minutes?"
Kya looked pointedly over at Revol, who was watching them with interest, and Nira rolled her eyes. "Yes, Kya, I'll be there soon. I'm not going to run off with Revol to the Spirit World."
Kya sighed in exasperation but turned and took two steps with the intent to leave, which is when Revol chimed in, "Unless you'd like to join us, Kya?" He wriggled his eyebrows at both women. "What do you say? A romantic rendezvous for three?"
"Oh now that does sound interesting," Kya said, abruptly turning back around.
Nira groaned and gave Revol an exasperated look of her own as she told him, "You're not helping." She then grabbed Kya by the hips and pushed her the rest of the way to the door saying, "You won't be having any romance if you don't get those ribs fixed. Go on. I'll be there in a minute."
"I'm going, I'm going," Kya said through her laughter. "Bye, Revol!"
"Farewell, Kya!" Revol called back.
And then Nira shut the door and they were alone again.
Revol instantly questioned, "Kya was injured recently?"
"Last night," Nira confirmed. "We had an intruder. There's been a lot going on."
"I see that," Revol said with a slight frown. "I've missed quite a lot it seems. Is there anything I can help with?"
"No, I don't think so," Nira sighed. "We'll get through it, I'm sure."
"Well, do let me know if I can be of some use." Revol rubbed his chin, looking thoughtful, and then tilted his head to the side and asked, "Are you and Kya an item now?"
Nira snorted. "What? No. We're just…close friends, that's all."
Revol raised a disbelieving brow. "She seemed rather jealous."
"I don't know what's up with her today," Nira said, shaking her head. "She's just overprotective, like the rest of the family. They all seem to think I'm made of porcelain." Which she didn't mind really. She knew they meant well, and it was often pretty amusing.
Revol smiled mischievously like Yunjin did when he had a secret he really wanted to share. He sat down on the edge of the bed and folded one leg over the other. "Are you sure that's all it is?" he asked. "You forget, dear Nira, that I can feel your heart, and hers. That sort of burning passion brimming under the surface often stems from something…deeper than friendship. She is partial to women, is she not? And how could she not fall for you?"
"Kya isn't in love with me," Nira scoffed. "She's just… a passionate person. Anyways, I'm sorry we're sort of rushing you out of here. How is your family? Is your mother still doing well?"
"She's doing marvelous," Revol assured. "Everyone is doing well. And don't worry yourself. We'll catch up another time." He hopped off of the bed to cross the room and take her hand, planting a kiss on the back of it. "I'll certainly be back. I want to know how all of this plays out." He winked, and before Nira could so much as roll her eyes, he vanished in a shower of rose petals.
There wasn't time to ponder what Revol had said, so Nira pushed it all from her mind and went back to what she was doing before he had arrived. Her focus now was getting to the Northern Air Temple with Amali, Kya, and Yunjin. There was no sense thinking on Revol's imaginations.
From the moment that they all landed in Zaofu, Ronen could tell that his mother was in a less than stellar mood. The hug she exchanged with her sister upon landing was stiff and even less enthusiastic than usual. Aunt Su made a confused face, but didn't press, and everyone else was so caught up in their own worlds they didn't notice Mom steadily beginning to lose it. Ronen, however, knew how to read his mother's moods nearly as well as his own father, and he saw the impending storm coming long before it did.
The first day in Zaofu was fairly normal. Aunt Su was doing the most to welcome them all, and Ronen couldn't help but enjoy it. He loved his Aunt Su and her over the top gestures, and Uncle Bataar's wacky inventions and the way his glasses were always skewed on his face. He was excited to finally see his cousin Opal again after so long, and catch up with her in a way that was much more fulfilling than their letters could ever be. Opal had been his first best friend and he had forgotten how much he enjoyed her company. Wei and Wing had always been a bit exuberant for Ronen, but he still admired their spirit and imagination, and the twins had a new game to show off, something called power ball. It was good to see Jeia relax among so much family too, in the city of metal where she felt at ease, and it was beyond funny to watch her beat Wei and Wing at their own newly invented game.
But the fun was not to last. Mom never once lost touch with reality, with the misfortune of their situation and the impending doom of Zaheer, and her mood only soured as the evening wore on. She was mad that no one else was taking it seriously, and madder still that Aunt Su refused to send Opal to the Northern Air Temple to begin her training. Aunt Su thought Zaofu was plenty safe, that Korra could train Opal herself and there was no need for the rest of them to stay on the move. And when escaped convict Varrick suddenly dropped by the dinner table, boasting that Su had made him head of her new technology department, Mom finally lost it. She was yelling at her sister for "harboring fugitives" and "endangering the entire family and the Avatar." And Aunt Su was incensed that Mom would ever say something like that and they were shouting at each other like children. Ronen wasn't thrilled to see Varrick either, not after the way he'd played Asami and Bolin, but he was forced to play buffer to try calming his mother down. Varrick, at least, had the good sense to run off, and with his absence it was easier for Ronen to usher his mother away.
Mom then spent the next two days brooding and snapping at anyone that wasn't one of her children. She routinely checked and rechecked security around the domes, ordering around the Metal Clan guards, which had Kuvira complaining to Su and Su complaining to Ronen. Mom and Aunt Su avoided each other at all costs so Mom and Jeia started taking meals in the guest house. To make matters worse, theirs was not the only feud Ronen had to contend with. Bolin was making things weird with Opal, who was still mad at him for breaking up with her through a letter, and Bolin's attempts at reconciliation were embarrassing to watch. And Korra and Akira apparently got into a fight over something stupid that Ronen didn't have the full details to, and both of them were acting ridiculous. So Ronen was once again divided between his friends and his family both, and it was starting to drive him nuts. The only people acting normal were Mako and Asami, and he felt bad for venting to the two of them so often.
He was in the midst of lamenting the stubborn nature of basically his entire family when he stopped abruptly and gave Asami an apologetic look. "I'm sorry," he sighed. "I'll shut up now."
She smiled and rose up out of her chair. They had gone out onto one of the balconies of his aunt's overly large home after dinner, but Ronen hadn't been able to stay in his seat as he ranted. Asami went to him, clutching his shoulders in a firm grasp and soothing, "It's okay. I understand. Besides, how many times have I vented to you about the company?" She leaned in to kiss him softly on the cheek and his hands automatically came up to rest on her hips. He closed his eyes and breathed in deep, savoring the moment as Asami lingered, their cheeks touching, so gentle and yet so calming. Her support was all that he needed, to know that he was not totally alone. Almost everyone else he loved was acting crazy, but he could always count on her to be that familiar voice of reason he longed to hear.
"This happens frequently enough that you'd think I'd be used to it," Ronen murmured, leaning in to seek as much warmth from her as he could.
"I'd definitely be moreworried if your mom wasn't angry about something," Asami teased lightly.
Ronen snorted. "She has been happy before, yknow?"
"Oh I'm sure she has," Asami said, leaning back to give him a fond smile. "For you and your siblings anyways."
"Well, Jeia and I aren't quite cheering her up this time."
"That's because she's upset that everyone else isn't here. She'll come around."
"I don't think she's going to relax until this whole thing with Zaheer is over," Ronen said, his shoulders slumping. "Maybe I should try talking to her again. She should at least reconcile with Aunt Su. I don't even know what they're fighting about now, but it's always better when they're getting along."
Asami nodded encouragingly. "If you think it'll help. You have the best chance of getting through to her."
"If I can catch her before she goes to bed, Jeia is probably asleep by now –" he stopped just as he was about to take off, squeezing Asami's wrist and looking remorseful as he remembered. "I'm sorry. I said I wanted to spend time with you tonight and I'm not going to run off now. I'll just look for her in the morning."
Asami smiled and clasped his hand. "Are you kidding? Accosting your mother first thing in the morning is not a good idea. We can be together later. Go, do what you need to do. I'm not going anywhere." She looked around the balcony and amended, "Well, I'll probably go inside, but you know what I mean."
Ronen chuckled softly and leaned in to kiss her gratefully, and when he pulled back he meant to say thank you, but it came out as, "I love you." There was only a brief flicker on Asami's face that revealed her surprise, but it was enough for Ronen to realize what he had said, and he immediately began to back pedal. "Er – I mean – I'm sorry," he stammered, "that wasn't – I'm not trying – you don't – "
He went silent when Asami put her finger over his lips, stopping his ramble and his heart all at once, and she was still smiling as she assured, "I love you too."
Ronen exhaled in relief, and his heart began to beat at a normal rhythm once more, and he couldn't fight the smile tugging at his cheeks when she moved in to kiss him again.
It was even harder to leave her after that, but he knew they wouldn't be far apart and he had his family to think about. Asami would be there later when he either failed or succeeded. And besides, he'd never been much for dramatics. He was elated to know Asami felt the same for him, but he wasn't likely to go dancing through the streets of Zaofu.
Arriving at the guest house was also fairly sobering. His mother was still awake, and still clearly stressing herself out. The rest of the place was dark, with a single light in the tiny kitchen space, where his mother sat at the table staring intently at a map and a notepad with scribbled notes on it. There was also a cup of tea that looked like it had gone cold and a plate with a half eaten sandwich, and when Ronen entered she only briefly glanced his way.
"We missed you at dinner," he said by way of greeting as he edged closer to the table. "Again."
"Busy," Mom muttered, and said no more.
Ronen suppressed a sigh and sat down across from her, nudging the plate with the sandwich and saying, "Please tell me you've eaten more than this today."
He could see her rolling her eyes even in the dim lighting. "You sound like your father."
"Well I'm sure he would want me to make sure you're eating," he tried to tease.
But Mom just sounded bitter as she replied, "Maybe he ought to be doing that himself."
Ronen frowned. "Are you angry at Dad?"
Mom huffed irritably. "No."
He reached across the table to still her hand where it was harshly crossing out something on the page of her notepad, and he waited until she reluctantly dragged her gaze up to meet his. "Tell me what's going on," he urged. "I know you're missing everyone else and you're worried about Zaheer, and I know you won't say any of that out loud, but we've been in tougher spots before. We've been separated before."
"And look how well that all turned out," she snapped, but she stayed in her chair so he hadn't lost hope yet.
"Not all of it was great," Ronen conceded, "but we figured it out. We'll figure this out too."
Mom shook her head, looking half disappointed. "You have no idea what these people are capable of. Everyone's strutting around here like we aren't just possum-chickens waiting for slaughter. We need to be moving. We need to be planning. I didn't split up from your father and the twins so I could come take a vacation in Zaofu. The longer we stay here, the more dangerous this place becomes. We're just asking Zaheer to come destroy this place."
"I'll talk to Korra," Ronen promised, squeezing his mom's hand when she tried to pull away. "She just doesn't like to be told what to do. You know that. She wants to be treated like an equal, like she has some say in her own fate."
"I'll treat her like an equal when she stops acting like a child," Mom ruthlessly countered. "She's still throwing a tantrum because we locked her up when she was a baby. How dare we try to keep her safe, right? The nerve of us, to try and make it impossible for her to be killed or brainwashed." She scoffed and finally yanked her hand away from him, angrily tearing out the scribbled on sheet of paper in her notebook and crumbling it up in a ball.
"You have to look at it from her point of view," Ronen reasoned. "How would you feel if Dad had forced you to leave your job because it wasn't safe? He might have been right and it might have saved you a lot of harm, but you would have hated him for it. You would have never lasted sixteen years trapped on the Island."
"Or I would have realized I was better off for it," Mom stubbornly grumbled.
Ronen shook his head. "Maybe, but I doubt it. Or it would have taken a really long time. Korra has gotten over it for the most part, but if you never acknowledge her input she's never going to listen to you. In any case, none of this explains why you're mad at Aunt Su."
It was apparently the wrong thing to say because Mom's face twisted into such fury that Ronen instinctively leaned back in his chair. "Your loose-brained aunt is the worst of them all because she has no excuse. She's always been like this. Flaky, immature, careless. I wanted to think that she had gotten her shit together, but she hasn't, and she never will."
"That's not fair," Ronen said softly, carefully. "She's trying to help in her own way. She's scared too. She just shows it in a different way than you."
Mom slapped her hand down on the table, causing the plate and the teacup to rattle and Ronen to jump. "I'm not scared!" she hissed. And then she sighed, rubbing her face wearily and murmuring, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just…tired."
"Have you slept since we've been here?" Ronen asked with concern.
But before Mom could say anything further, a noise from behind her caused her to turn in her seat.
"Mama?" Jeia's scratchy, quiet voice mumbled as her tiny form slowly became visible in the low lighting. She shuffled across the floor, rubbing at her eyes, her lower lip jutted out in a pout.
"I'm sorry, kid," Mom said, her voice forcibly soft. "Did I wake you up?"
Jeia shook her head and pressed up against Mom. "I don't feel good."
Her voice did sound rough, like she had a sore throat, and her breathing didn't sound right. She was sniffling and she started coughing harshly when Mom picked Jeia up and onto her lap. Ronen remembered Jeia having the beginnings of a cold when he saw her in the morning, and it appeared to have gotten worse.
Mom frowned as she felt Jeia's forehead. "You're burning up. Come on, we need to get you cooled off."
"Not the bath," Jeia whined, struggling weakly in her mother's grasp. The girl was more prone to illness than her siblings had been, and she knew all too well the drill of bringing down a fever. "It's cold, Mama. I don't wanna. No!"
"I know," Mom sighed as she rose to her feet, rubbing Jeia's back. "I know, but it'll be quick."
"I'll go get you a freezie pop, Jeia," Ronen told his sister when she continued to whimper. "Whatever flavor you want."
Jeia huffed and wriggled in Mom's arms, but mumbled a resigned, "I want cherry."
"Okay, I'll be right back," Ronen promised, and his mother shot him a grateful look before carrying Jeia back to the bathroom.
Ronen went to get Jeia a cherry freezie pop while Mom gave her a cold bath, and by the time he returned Mom was toweling Jeia's hair dry. Jeia shivered in Mom's arms wrapped in a blanket while eating her freezie pop, and afterwards she fell right back to sleep. Mom was focused on Jeia and checking on her through the night, so Ronen didn't press her further. He tried reading for a while because he wasn't tired yet, but he couldn't focus his mind on a book long enough to relax, so he tinkered with his grappling hooks for a while until he was frustrated enough to give up and sleep.
Ronen woke a few short hours later, before the sun had fully begun to rise above the horizon, not fully rested but intent to start the day. He went to check on his mom and Jeia, and found that his sister had only continued to get worse through the night. Mom took her to the clinic and Ronen went to find Asami to let her know he'd be a bit longer. She was incredibly patient and understanding, and came with him when he went to check on Jeia and Mom. That's when they learned that Jeia had pneumonia and the clinic had decided that she needed to go next door to the hospital, to stay under observation for the rest of the day and through the evening, which did nothing to help Mom relax. Jeia was angry too about being stuck in bed and attached to tubes with fluids and antibiotics. It took the combined efforts of Ronen, Asami, and Mom to keep the girl from ripping needles out of her arms. The three of them entertained Jeia when she was awake, and took turns getting up for food and bathroom breaks when she slept.
By the time dinner had come and gone, they were all exhausted, and Aunt Su had heard about Jeia being sick and came bursting into the room in a flurry of concern. Mom was annoyed to see her, but silently endured Su's fussing because she had brought tea and better tasting food than they'd had all day. It seemed that Aunt Su could tell just as well as Ronen that Mom wasn't happy about her being there though, and wisely left before Mom could become hostile.
Mom insisted that Ronen and Asami leave halfway through the night, so they could get some real sleep, and Ronen knew when not to argue with her, despite his desire to do so.
The following morning, Ronen woke early again, and let Asami sleep even though she had told him she would go back to the hospital with him. He made the journey himself and left her a note so she could join him later if she wanted to. On his way, he unexpectedly ran into one of his Aunt Su's advisers, Aiwei.
"Ronen," Aiwei said in greeting, stopping Ronen before he could simply nod and keep walking. "Are you headed back to the hospital?"
"I am," Ronen replied, forcing himself not to fidget impatiently.
"I heard about your sister," Aiwei said with a sorrowful expression. "I do hope she recovers soon."
"I hope so too," Ronen agreed. "She's strong. She'll be back to herself in no time."
Aiwei inclined his head. "I'm sure she will. But how is your mother faring? I've noticed she's been rather…tense lately. Your Aunt Su has expressed her own concerns."
Ronen felt a little defensive as the truth-seer eyed him over his glasses. He straightened his spine and asserted, "My mom is understandably strained, but she'll better as soon as Jeia is, and once some of her other worries are resolved."
"Zaheer, you mean?" Aiwei inquired. "I'm sure she must be frightened of him, if the stories I hear are true."
"I'm sure you would know if they are," Ronen said, not unkindly but his patience was wearing out. Maybe he needed more sleep after all. "We're all concerned, but I'm confident we can handle it. If you'll excuse me. I really should check on my sister."
"Of course," Aiwei acquiesced, "but before you go…" He pulled a small card from one of the pockets in his smock and presented it to Ronen. "For your mother. I doubt she would take it from me or Su, but she may be more inclined to listen to you."
Ronen took the card with suspicion and asked, "What is this?"
"An excellent acupuncturist that resides here in Zaofu," Aiwei explained. "He is particularly good at helping people relax. It is not healthy for your mother to be under such constant strain. Perhaps Guo can help. As I understand it, his work has helped her in the past."
"My mother has seen this Guo before?" Ronen said in disbelief. As far as he knew, his mother never went to anyone for help, especially not someone who wasn't family.
"Yes, when your twin siblings were born, I believe," Aiwei confirmed. "That's actually how your Aunt Su met Guo. He's originally from Republic City, but she insisted he come and be a part of Zaofu's growing population."
"Um, well, thank you," Ronen said. "I'll be sure to give her the card."
"And my best regards," Aiwei added, as Ronen was walking away.
"Of course," Ronen said shortly, before continuing on his way. He stuffed the card in his pocket and forgot about it for a little while.
At the hospital, Jeia was asleep and not doing any better, but she wasn't worse so that was something. Mom didn't appear to have slept at all, and Ronen spent a solid thirty minutes trying to convince her to go back to the guest house to sleep, but she wouldn't budge. It wasn't until she nearly collapsed trying to rise up out of her chair that he remembered the acupuncturist and what Aiwei had said.
He helped his mother back down into her chair as she groaned in pain and clutched at her back, and he told her sternly, "You can't keep going like this. You need to find some way to relax, and let the rest of us help you. I know you can handle everything, but we've got to discuss this or something. Please, Mom." She looked up at him through her lashes with a mild glare, but she didn't tell him to get out so he didn't hesitate. He pulled the card out of his pocket and showed it to her. "I saw Aiwei on my way here. He said Guo is a great acupuncturist that could really help you –"
Mom snatched the card from him and snapped, "Aiwei should mind his own business. I never liked that guy."
"But you've seen Guo before," Ronen pressed, "haven't you?"
"Who told you that?" Mom demanded.
Ronen ignored her question and continued, "Maybe you should go and see him. If it worked before it can work again, right?"
Mom was becoming uncomfortable; he could see it in the way her left eye twitched and her fingers flexed, and hear it in the quiver in her voice. "I'm not like I was then. I don't need Guo or Su or whoever to take care of me. I'm stressed because your sister is in a hospital bed and the rest of our family is halfway across the world and there's a couple of psychos on the loose probably out there plotting our deaths. I'm fine."
"Stress can kill just as easily as those psychos," Ronen persisted. "I know I can't make you feel one hundred percent better about all this, but I can't just sit by and let you drag yourself over the edge. If you don't let any of us help you then you'll spiral out. So either talk to me or go to Guo or call Dad or something."
Mom just stared at him, lips pursed, folding her arms across her chest.
Ronen reached over without dropping her gaze and dragged the other chair closer, so he could sit right across from her and be more at eye-level. "Tell me about when the twins were born," he gently coaxed, and he could tell that he was onto the right track when she flinched minutely. "It keeps coming up and it can't be a coincidence. We were in the South Pole for a long time after you had them for some reason, and Aunt Su was there and you had to see Guo because something was wrong. And at some point everything with Zaheer happened. So tell me what was going on. Maybe all these old memories are what's bothering you."
Mom shook her head. "You don't have to psychoanalyze me. Things aren't the same now as they were then."
"How so?" Ronen questioned.
Mom gave him an annoyed look, but she must have decided to give in because she didn't tell him to quit asking and she didn't storm off, as were her typical ways of avoidance. Instead she muttered, "You never give up, do you?"
He smiled a little. "I learned from the best."
She sighed wearily and looked over his shoulder, where Jeia still slept soundly. Then she looked him in the eye and grumbled, "You ever hear of postpartum depression?"
Ronen forced himself to keep a straight face as he nodded and answered, "I have."
"Well, it was that," Mom confessed, pressing her lips together, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "That's why we had to stay in the South Pole so long. That's why I saw that acupuncturist. And it's also why I don't need to see him now. I'm pissed, yeah, and maybe I'm losing it a little, but I'm not feeling like that. I still remember well enough how it felt. And I was already getting better by the time Zaheer and his cronies showed up. The two things aren't really related."
Ronen swallowed and maintained his composure, not letting himself get swept up in the knowledge that his mother had suffered from postpartum depression. He couldn't imagine what she must have endured in those long months in the South Pole after she'd had Jin and Sora. He couldn't imagine her being anything other than who she was, but she must have been different. She must have been shattered in a way he had never seen her before. Although, he had seen her that way, he just didn't remember. He had only been three and it wasn't likely to be the sort of memory a child would wish to keep. He had only read a few things about it, but enough to let his imagination go wild with all the terrible scenarios his mother's affliction must have caused. He was simply glad that she had clearly recovered, and that it hadn't ended worse. He could see that it was still a sore subject though, and he didn't press her too much on it anymore, simply inquired, "But they did occur around the same time, right? So maybe you associate that time with the depression, and the resurgence of Zaheer's group is bringing some of that back."
"I don't know," Mom admitted with a shrug. "Maybe, but I don't think it's that deep."
"Well let's think about what's triggering you," Ronen considered, "aside from the obvious, which is Zaheer's return. You're separated from Dad and the twins, and back then I'm sure you were distanced from them, just in a different way, right? I don't know all the details, but I imagine you were probably trapped inside your own mind a lot of the time, somewhere they couldn't reach you. Now it feels like you can't reach them."
Mom wrinkled her nose. "You read too much."
"But am I onto something? What's something else – oh! Aunt Su. You've been angry with her since we got here, and I know you two are always bickering about something, but this is different. Were you two fighting during that time too?"
Mom scoffed. "I'm mad at your Aunt Su because she's still acting like a criminal and making excuses for other criminals, and I should have known better than to trust her."
Ronen's brow furrowed. "Why do you think she's a criminal? Is it because of Varrick? I don't like the guy being here either, but to be fair, I don't think he's dangerous. Aunt Su just has a thing about trying to rehabilitate people. I know it drives you crazy, but it's not so different from what you used to do at work. She just goes about it in an unorthodox way."
Mom snorted. "Believe me, kid, if you knew what she was like before you were born you'd think differently. I didn't speak to her for over ten years for a reason."
"What reason is that?" Ronen asked, genuinely curious. It was a subject not often broached, but one all nine of the Beifong kids were aware of. They'd heard mention of their mothers' estrangement, how Bataar Jr and Huan hadn't even met their aunt until they were close to eight and ten years old. Ronen and Opal and both twins had been too young to remember a time before their aunts, but they had always wondered about the history between the two sisters, about why there was still an underlying bit of animosity between them that came out every once in a while. It wasn't at all surprising that Ronen's mother had never divulged that information to him or his siblings, but Aunt Su was a lot more open about those kinds of things and even she would never give her kids a straight answer.
Ronen wasn't expecting his mother to give him anymore details in that moment either, even given the fact that she had divulged more information about herself to him than she had before. The way she pursed her lips and averted her gaze was all too familiar, but then another voice rang through the momentary silence and startled them both.
"Why don't you tell him?"
Mom immediately scowled at the person standing in the doorway to Jeia's room, and Ronen did not have to turn to know that it was his aunt. "What are you doing here?" Mom snapped.
Ronen turned to watch his Aunt Su enter the room, her gaze flickering sadly over Jeia's prone form before she locked eyes with her sister and replied, "I was hoping to catch you alone. Clearly there's something we need to talk about. You've been acting like a bitch since you got here, more so than usual."
"And you've been acting like a spoiled brat," Mom fired back. "As per usual."
"So tell him then," Aunt Su said flippantly, gesturing to Ronen. "If you hate me so much then at least tell him why."
"Why don't you tell him?" Mom fired back. "Why don't you take responsibility for your own actions for once?"
Aunt Su scoffed, but easily relented, "Fine. I'll tell him." She folded her arms across her chest and looked her nephew in the eye, but seemed to lose her nerve when they locked gazes.
When Aunt Su said nothing, Mom began, "She was best friends with criminals. And triad criminals no less."
"I was sixteen," Aunt Su cut in, apparently regaining her ability to speak. "You were hardly ever around anymore, and when you were you were just trying to order me around. So sue me for wanting to be with people that enjoyed my company."
"Oh please," Mom scoffed. "They were using you. And I wasn't ordering you around. I was trying to save you from your own poor judgment. Clearly I was right, wasn't I? Since you ended up driving a getaway car from a bank robbery."
Ronen's eyes widened and he asked his aunt, "You robbed a bank?"
"No," Aunt Su denied, "I just drove the car. I thought I was helping some friends. I admit it was an unwise decision, but when your mother caught me she wouldn't even listen to me. She tried to arrest me!"
"Yeah, because that's what you do when you catch a criminal," Mom snapped.
"I was a kid –"
"You were plenty old enough to know better –"
"I needed guidance, not all your self-righteous scorn –"
"Well excuse me for not being a good enough mother figure in my early twenties –"
"I didn't need you to be my mother! I needed you to be my sister –"
"Well clearly that didn't mean a whole lot to you either. What kind of sister were you?"
Up to that point they were talking over each other and snapping back so quickly that Ronen felt like he was watching Wei and Wing's power disc game, his head turning back and forth. He could only just keep up with what they were saying, and also impressed that they managed to remain mindful of Jeia enough to keep their heated voices low. But Mom's last fiery dig made Aunt Su go very quiet for a long moment, and her expression turned solemn and regretful.
"I don't know how many times I can tell you I'm sorry," Aunt Su half whispered. "I know I messed up. I messed up big. And I can't ever take it back. And I'll feel terrible about it for the rest of my life. But are you ever going to forgive me? I thought you already had. I thought…"
"I thought too," Mom muttered, folding her arms across her chest, leaning back in her chair, and averting her gaze. "But you haven't changed. You only care about yourself and what's good for you."
Aunt Su looked stricken. "How can you say that? After everything we've been through."
"Maybe if you stopped harboring criminals," Mom spat.
"I'm not harboring criminals," Aunt Su argued. "I believe that people deserve a second chance and so I give them that, and I try to steer them onto a better path. Because crime isn't as black and white as you think it is. And I get it. You had to do a job that didn't allow for that kind of naivety. But I know what it's like to be on the other side. I know what it's like to be a failure." When Mom could do nothing but stare at the opposite wall in sullen silence, Aunt Su turned her gaze onto Ronen again, and this time she finished what she had intended to say in the first place. "Your mother and I were estranged because I drove a getaway car and she caught me. She tried to arrest me and I was angry so I slashed her metal cable and it cut those scars into her face. I maimed her and our mother tore up the arrest report and sent me away. That was pretty much the last time we spoke for at least a decade."
Ronen had certainly not been expecting that, and for a moment he was stunned. Nearly all his life he had wondered about those twin scars on his mother's face, about how she received them and why everyone in the family was so reticent about giving him a straight answer. Yunjin used to make up crazy stories about the sort of battle Mom must have been in, about how she must have been taking on a hundred criminals at once, all by herself. Sora and Ronen would scoff at him, but one thing the three of them could agree upon was that whoever had hurt their mother so badly was surely a terrible person, the worst of the worst. Ronen had hated the person responsible without knowing who they were, had envisioned some awful, evil person. But the monster he had been loathing had been his Aunt Su. And that just didn't make any sense. He knew his Aunt Su. His sweet, caring, dazzling Aunt Su. She was too kind and too loving and she wasn't a monster at all. He could hardly reconcile that she might be capable of something like that at all, of so deeply harming her own sister, but the longer he considered it the more sense it began to make, in someway. It was obviously enough to have kept the sisters apart for as long as they were, and it explained the continued tension between them that hadn't yet been totally resolved.
"I'm sorry," Aunt Su whispered, sorrow making her shoulders sag, and she turned away in shame, as if she was about to leave the room.
But Ronen surged to his feet before he even knew what he was doing and said, "Wait." Aunt Su paused, and he crossed the short distance to her and enveloped her in his arms. He didn't fully understand the urge, at first, but the way his aunt clung to him assured him that it had been the right decision to make. She had probably expected him to hate her for that confession, at least for a little while, but how could he? Whoever his aunt had been all those years ago, she wasn't that person now. He knew she would never hurt his mother like that again, no matter how much they fought, and so he murmured to her, "It's okay."
Ronen's acceptance seemed to give Su the strength she needed to stay, and to continue to fight for her stubborn older sister's forgiveness. She smiled tearily at Ronen before releasing him and going over to Mom, who was still avoiding both their gazes, and she dropped into a crouch next to the chair and clutched at Mom's hand.
"Lin," Aunt Su said firmly, "listen to me, okay? I'm not like I was back then. You can trust me."
"How?" Mom demanded, finally looking her sister in the eye. "How can I trust you when you've been ignoring every single one of my concerns since I got here?"
"I know," Aunt Su admitted. "I know. I'm sorry. I should listen to you more. I just didn't want you running out of here so soon like you had planned. But I will send Varrick away. I don't want someone here that makes you uncomfortable. I was only trying to harness his genius for something better. You have to know I would never endanger our family. I want you to feel safe here. I want to prove to you that I'm not the person you think I am."
"And what about Opal?"
"What about her?" Aunt Su asked, looking confused.
"You won't let her leave even though you know she wants to go to the Air Temple to train," Mom said plainly. "Meanwhile I'm separated from half my kids and I can't do anything about it because you've trapped us here."
Aunt Su dropped her gaze to the floor, shaking her head and blowing out an anxious breath. "You're right," she quietly relented. "I guess Mom was too lenient and now I'm too overbearing. I just worry so much. She's never been so far from home without me."
"The greatest danger she'll have to face at the Air Temple is listening to Bumi's war stories," Mom pointed out. "You know I'd never send your kid somewhere unsafe, and she'll be with family." Aunt Su just looked up at her sister with wide, red-rimmed eyes, and Mom sighed, her shoulders sagging and the anger seeming to expel from her chest along with her breath. "Look, I get it. When this one –" she gestured to Ronen " – started running around with the Avatar I thought I'd never be able to handle it. Letting them go is hard, but they're more resilient than we give them credit for."
Aunt Su nodded sadly. "I don't know how you do it, truly."
"Clearly I don't handle it so well," Mom grumbled, rubbing at her forehead. "Look, I'm not still mad at you for all that shit from a thousand years ago."
Aunt Su nodded in understanding. "It's easy to fall back on old habits. Why do you think I've been running around here pretending everything is fine?"
Mom's lips curled up a little into a smirk, but it looked more fond than condescending. "You are exceptionally good at that. You almost fooled even me."
"I'm sorry I didn't seem like I was taking all this seriously," Aunt Su said sincerely, holding Mom's hand against her chest. "I just want to help you however I can."
Mom scratched the back of her neck with her free hand and muttered, "Yeah, I'm sorry too. I could have been a little calmer."
Aunt Su snorted. "You think?"
Mom rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know. But what do you expect from me?" She tugged on a lock of Aunt Su's hair in an oddly affectionate gesture for Mom. "Listen, you don't have to send Varrick away. The guy's a fraud, but if we send him back to prison he'll just find someway to escape again. If anyone has a chance at keeping him in line it's you. I trust you."
"Spirits," Ronen couldn't help murmuring as he watched the pair of them in bewilderment. "You two give me whiplash. Three seconds ago I thought you were gonna strangle each other."
Mom just raised an eyebrow and Aunt Su laughed, but neither of them responded because a fourth voice spoke up first.
"Wha's funny?" Jeia quietly croaked, apparently having woken up at last, and all three of them immediately turned their attention to her. Mom and Aunt Su stood quickly and went to Jeia's side, showering her with affection in their own unique ways – Mom's gentle hand squeezes and Aunt Su's forehead kisses.
Ronen observed for a moment, but before he could join in and overwhelm his baby sister with love too, a knock on the door caught his attention, and suddenly there was a flurry of visitors crowding into the tiny room.
Kuvira and Bataar Jr were first, much to Ronen's surprise. Despite being a sort of adopted daughter of Aunt Su's, Kuvira never seemed to allow herself to be part of the family, purposely maintaining a distance that probably wasn't helped by Mom's plain distrust. And Junior had always been an enigma to his cousins. Even with their shared interests Ronen had rarely been able to maintain a fruitful conversation with his eldest cousin, and Junior definitely had little to discuss with the energetic Jin and Sora. But Jeia had somehow clicked with Aunt Su's eldest in a way the rest of her family never could. Ronen assumed it had to do with the time the three of them spent together during the war with the Equalists, but he knew he would never fully understand it.
Jeia tried to perk up a little at the sight of Kuvira but it was clear she was still feeling rather weak and didn't manage much in the way of a greeting. When she tried to sit up she dissolved into a fit of coughing. Kuvira patted the girl reassuringly on the shoulder and said, "Easy, soldier. You'd better rest up. I need my co-captain in tip-top shape. The rest of the crew wanted me to let you know they're thinking of you." She presented Jeia with a metal pin in the shape of the symbol on Kuvira's airship – a badgermole with wings. Jeia made Mom pin it to her hospital gown right away.
Opal entered next, alongside Bolin, which was also quite a shock to Ronen, who had seen the two of them avoiding each other only two days prior. But they seemed amicable now, at the very least, and were throwing each other surreptitious glances when they weren't doting on Jeia. Ronen was curious to know what had allowed the pair of them to reconcile, and he made a mental note to ask one or both of them about it later.
Soon after it was Korra and Asami peeking into the room, and then they were at full capacity, which didn't stop Wei and Wing from squeezing in a few minutes later. The room was packed, growing loud as everyone spoke at once, but Jeia was smiling a little now, for the first time since she'd been trapped in bed to recover. That, coupled with the sight of his Mom and Aunt Su smiling at one another and getting along, Ronen could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
As he stood observing his family and friends with a satisfied expression of his own, Asami came over and slipped her arm through his. "Looks like you did it," she said proudly, grinning at him and then his Mom and Aunt Su. "You got them to make up."
Ronen shrugged and modestly replied, "They did most of the work. I just gave them a nudge."
"Well, it was a very good nudge," Asami commended. "It's good to see them getting along." She rested her head on his shoulder and Ronen felt at peace. The threat of Zaheer still loomed over them all, but he could not find it within him to be too awfully scared. He was reasonably concerned, but he also firmly believed what he had told his mother earlier, that they would get through it, together, as they always had.
Chapter 77: Chapter 77
Chapter Text
Chapter 77
Tenzin was not prone to hatred. It was not within the Air Nomad principles to waste his strength on such negative emotions. However, he truly hated separating from his wife and his children. Every time he felt as if he was losing a part of himself, and every time he had to fight the anger and sorrow that welled up in his chest with every day that passed without them. He knew that Lin was right – she often was – but it didn't make it any easier for him to accept. He did not believe that fate demanded they be apart, and he struggled to maintain a reasonable level of calm when so many of the people he loved most were so far away. He knew that they were safe in Zaofu with Su, but he knew also the danger that lurked with Zaheer and his friends now escaped from their prisons.
Tenzin's concerns for his family and for Korra only rose when Yunjin and Kya arrived at the Northern Air Temple with not so good news. Hearing that Zaheer had infiltrated the Island and injured both Jin and Kya in a vicious fight made him sick to his stomach. Even seeing that his son and his sister were okay now did not quell his fears. If Zaheer would be so bold then it was only a matter of time before he made a move against Korra, and Lin and Ronen would be right there in the crosshairs with her. Tenzin yearned to go and be with them, to help protect them however he could, but he had responsibilities far and wide and he had to believe that they could handle themselves. He knew that they were strong, and smart, and that the growing Air Nation was too fragile to leave on its own. He had to protect the new airbenders, and Jin and Sora, and Amali and Nira, and Kya and Bumi. It was not easy to stay, but it would not be easy to leave either.
Tenzin knew that Lin would be feeling much as he was, torn between two duties and at a loss as to how to manage it. He imagined she was doing much worse than he was in dealing with it because he always found comfort in meditation, and her methods of coping were much more…violent. Ronen was keeping him posted, for the most part, by calling on the radio nearly every day, but Tenzin could tell his eldest son was keeping some things out. It was a lot harder to give Ronen that stern look when they were miles apart, and Tenzin could only wonder at what he might be hiding.
One of the few things that kept Tenzin from losing his mind – outside of meditation and the twins – was the fact that he was overwhelmed and fully distracted by trying to train the new airbenders. He had plenty of experience in teaching, but his students before had been eager new Acolytes, or his very own children, whom he could bribe with treats or threaten with punishment if they refused to behave. That tactic didn't work so well on a group of mostly grown adults. Few of them were interested to sit and listen to him as he told them the history of the Air Nation and various notable Air Nomads. They were impatient, and easily distracted by Bumi, who had never listened to their own father tell those stories, let alone his little brother. Bumi made it nigh on impossible for Tenzin to keep his students' interest. They would laugh at Bumi's muttered jokes and watch in awe when Bumi's spirit friend Bum-Ju would flutter around their heads. Jin and Sora had already heard the history themselves and struggled to keep their own attention on their father, so they were of little help in that regard.
Tenzin was grateful to at least have Nira by his side on occasion. When she snapped at Bumi to pay attention he actually listened some of the time, and her witty commentary combined with Tenzin's lessons tended to help keep the new airbenders at least half interested. But Nira knew all of the history already so she didn't attend most of the lessons, and spent much of her time with Amali. She was always happy to help but Tenzin was adamant about being able to do it without her. What sort of master was he if he couldn't hold his students' attention?
Yunjin wasn't helping matters either. His first meeting with Kai had gone predictably unwell, and the two boys hadn't been civil to one another since. From the moment Yunjin had landed at the Temple, he had been a high strung ball of anxiety, and no one had been able to get through to him so far. He was angry about being bested by Zaheer, and worried about the rest of his family that were in Zaofu, and ashamed that he hadn't done much good training the airbenders himself, and on top of all that Kai was now threatening one of the few things Yunjin cherished most. But Jinora and Kai had formed a friendship while Yunjin had been away, strengthened by their shared time in the Earth Queen's prison, and Yunjin's insecurity was only driving Jinora further away. Especially once Sora told her twin brother all about Kai's previous transgressions and the fact that it was sort of Kai's fault that the three of them ended up imprisoned. Yunjin did not trust Kai one bit, and he made his displeasure clear for all to see. He was like his mother in that way, and just like his mother he was not easily calmed. He thought Kai was bad for Jinora and tried to say she shouldn't be friends with him, but Jinora was no pushover despite her naturally timid ways, and she was incensed that Yunjin would try to control her. Tenzin often had to stop the pair of them from bickering in the middle of his lessons, and if it wasn't them then it was Jin and Kai making snide comments to one another. In an effort to see the issue resolved more quickly, Tenzin had gone to Pema and Anil, who were settling in just fine at the Temple along with their other two children, but his plan had backfired terribly. Pema and Anil were not fans of Kai either, and were only too happy to say something to Jinora about it, but then Jinora accused her parents of being on Yunjin's side instead of hers, and blamed Yunjin for her parents finding anything out in the first place.
Tenzin might have found solace in Sora, who was typically rather helpful and so unwaveringly sweet, but Sora was still very much a teenager herself, a fact which he was unpleasantly reminded of when he caught her making out with Zara on more than one occasion. Zara was one of the new airbenders from Republic City, a sixteen year old girl that was tall and strong but exceedingly timid so far as Tenzin could tell. She always looked at him from beneath the bangs half covering her eyes and her shoulders hunched up like a frightened animal. She outright refused to airbend, stammering that the last time she had it had ended very badly, but she listened with rapt attention to all his lessons and sat still through meditation better than anyone else. Tenzin had initially tasked Sora with helping the older girl relax, but he hadn't quite meant it the way it turned out. He had believed that if anyone could make Zara feel at ease and encourage her to try airbending again, it would be Sora, but what he hadn't anticipated was the two girls hitting it off a little too well. Within only a few weeks of meeting they were attached at the hip, holding hands and smiling shyly at each other and sneaking off from dinner together, which is when Tenzin would typically find them kissing in various locations. They were worse than Yunjin and Jinora, who had at least had the decency to be embarrassed when they got caught, and were generally a lot less obvious about trying to be alone together. Of course, it didn't help that Lin wasn't there to follow Sora around like she had Yunjin, and Tenzin was struggling to do it all on his own.
Yunjin wasn't trying to sneak off with Jinora so much anymore, unless they were going somewhere to argue, but Tenzin needed to be available when Yunjin was venting his frustrations about Kai or Jinora or whoever else. The boy was taking everything very personally, like his own struggles with training the airbenders and his issues with his girlfriend. He seemed to be in the midst of a crisis, and Tenzin was desperate to help. Between that and trying to teach, Tenzin was already being pulled in several directions, and had trouble finding the time to chase Sora and Zara around. He tried to enlist Kya's help, but she seemed to think they should be encouraging Sora and not trying to shame her for having a girlfriend, which had only frustrated Tenzin, and so he quickly gave up on that plan. He wasn't trying to shame Sora, he just didn't want his teenage daughter running free with some new mysterious girlfriend. Zara wasn't very open about her past, at least not to Tenzin, so he knew very little about where the girl had even come from or what kind of person she was. Nira told him that they should trust Sora, but Tenzin knew what it was like to be a teenager and he wasn't certain Sora was thinking all that rationally.
Tenzin dumped all of these concerns and complaints onto Lin when she finally called him from Zaofu. He had only heard from her a handful of times in the several weeks they had been apart, and when he heard her voice over the radio this time he nearly wept. He figured she'd been avoiding contacting him because it was hard for her to talk to him when they were separated, and Ronen and Korra had been keeping him updated so she didn't have to. He didn't take it personally. He knew all too well how his wife could be when she was stifling her emotions, but it really was a relief to talk to her for longer than a few minutes. She spoke first, for a long time, telling him all about how she was losing it for a while and she was only now getting back to herself, and she was sorry for avoiding him. But she had some good news too, in that she had reconciled with Su again and stopped acting crazy, and convinced Su to let Opal come to the Air Temple. Then it was Tenzin's turn to vent, and by the end he was practically out of breath.
When he was finished he released a heavy sigh, and after a brief pause Lin's throaty chuckle echoed out of the radio, slightly garbled by static and distance, but clear enough that he relaxed at the sound of it. "So it sounds like you're kind of losing it too," she said.
"You could say that," Tenzin replied, nodding to himself because she couldn't see it. "I just don't know what to do. Why did we have teenagers again?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Lin answered. "I would have been happy to skip over that part, but short of shipping them off for a few years I'm not sure how we would pull that off. On the bright side, they should level out in a year or two."
Tenzin grumbled, "Everyone seems to be under the impression that I shave my head everyday, but what they don't know is that the stress of having teenagers just makes it fall out. Another two years of this and I may not even have a beard."
"Well we can't have that," Lin said firmly. "I like your beard."
"Oh really?" Tenzin said in a lower tone, smirking as he leaned in closer to the microphone. "You miss my beard, do you?"
"Mmhmm," Lin hummed, "I've been thinking about it a lot."
"Is that all you've been thinking about?" Tenzin encouraged.
"Definitely not," Lin said through a sigh, "but I can't talk sexy to you through this radio. I'm pretty sure half the Metal Clan are listening in."
"Really?" Tenzin inquired. "Shouldn't we make them regret that decision?"
She snorted. "I'm tempted, but it probably wouldn't scare them off. These people eat gossip for breakfast."
Tenzin chuckled. "Okay, well I suppose you'll have to visit me then. Why don't you bring Opal here? I know you can't stay, but if you're leaving Zaofu anyways… It can't hurt to spend a night here."
"Well…Opal left this morning actually. Akira is coming with her. Oh, and Oogi. Su is giving us one of her airships. But I don't see the harm in making a pit stop. Not like we have a clue where we're going anyways. And Zaheer knows where you are as it is. I can't believe that bastard managed to infiltrate the island. You're sure Jin and Kya are okay?"
"I'm sure," Tenzin reassured her. "Kya was a little banged up and Yunjin's ego was bruised, but they're both fine. At this point Yunjin's all but forgotten with how paranoid he is about Jinora and Kai. It's as if he's abandoned all else to fixate on an issue that probably isn't even an issue at all."
"Be patient with him," Lin urged. "You know he's softer than he lets on."
"Of course, dear," Tenzin agreed. "Maybe you can talk to him while you're visiting. And you'll definitely need to talk to Sora."
"Ugh, I can't believe she's got her first girlfriend and I'm not even there to terrorize her."
"I promise to terrorize her for the both of us. But I think she's beginning to get rather frustrated with me already."
"Well, you are interrupting her every time she tries to make out with the tall, dark, and pretty girl that's mysterious and cool. She's a walking cliché at this point. Of course she's angry at her dad too."
Tenzin rubbed his forehead wearily and closed his eyes. "What happened to my sweet little girl?"
"She's a ball of raging hormones now," Lin supplied. "Sweet Sora won't be back for three to seven business years."
Tenzin smiled at that, but his eyes also welled up with tears, and he was confused by his emotions but also aware of the issue. All he could muster in response was a murmured, "I miss you."
He heard a rush of static, like Lin was blowing air into the microphone on her end, and she replied, "I miss you too. But we're leaving in a few days. And then we'll come visit and you'll have me for a night at least."
He was excited and sad about it all at once, so he asked, "How did Jeia react when you told her she'd be staying in Zaofu?"
"Predictably unwell, but she's got Kuvira and Su. She'll be okay."
"And she's feeling better?" Tenzin pressed, his heart still twisting into knots knowing that his little one had been bedridden with pneumonia again and he hadn't been there to take care of her.
"She's much better," Lin assured. "The doctors said she's recovering just fine. I'll make sure she calls you tomorrow, when she's not so pissed off at me."
"Tell her that I love her and I miss her."
"I will. And you can tell her tomorrow. Maybe she can give you some advice on how to whip those airbenders into shape."
Tenzin groaned at the reminder. "At this point her advice couldn't hurt. Korra thinks I ought to enlist Bumi's help."
"Well that sounds like a terrible idea," Lin said, and he imagined she was probably smirking. Spirits he missed her face.
"Probably," Tenzin conceded, "but she did raise some pretty good points."
"I'd ask Kya before I'd ask Bumi. He might be useful but I'd be worried he'd stage a coup and take the whole Air Nation from you."
"Kya has been helping with a few things, but she's been acting a little strange. Of course she became defensive when I tried to ask so I've found its best to just leave her be."
"Strange how?" Lin questioned.
"I'm not sure how to explain it," Tenzin admitted, "but you'll see when you get here. I think it might have something to do with –"
He was cut off by a loud commotion out in the hallway, and he sighed when he recognized a pair of familiar raised voices.
"What is it?" Lin asked.
"Jinora and Yunjin," Tenzin explained. "Again. I should probably go separate them before Yunjin breaks something."
"Just give him something unimportant to break," Lin advised. "And tell him I said to cut it out. Jeia and I will call you tomorrow."
"I look forward to it. I love you," he said quickly, and once she had said goodbye he rushed out into the hallway.
"You could have been killed!" Yunjin was shouting.
"You're overreacting!" Jinora yelled back.
"I knew something like this would happen," Yunjin declared. "I knew he would force you into something dangerous –"
"Kai didn't force me to do anything!" Jinora exclaimed. "I have a brain of my own, y'know? And I don't need you or Kai or anybody telling me what I can and can't do."
"He's a bad influence on you, Jinora –"
"That's what people used to tell me about you –"
"I never put you in danger –"
"You won't even give him a chance –"
"He's an asshole –"
"He's my friend –"
"Clearly not a very good one –"
"All right, all right," Tenzin interjected, putting himself between the two teens. "That's enough of that. What is going on?"
Jinora went quiet and red around the ears at the sight of Tenzin, but Yunjin immediately ranted, "Kai convinced Jinora to go see some of the baby bison, you know, the ones out in the wild. She almost got trampled by one of the mothers because that idiot wouldn't listen when she told him it was probably dangerous. You should have never brought that guy here. He's done nothing but cause trouble –"
"Ugh!" Jinora exclaimed. "You're such an insensitive jerk. You can make all the mistakes in the world, but spirits forbid anyone else does."
"The Jinora I know would never be associated with someone like him," Yunjin snapped back.
"Well maybe I'm not who you thought I was. Because you're definitely not who I thought you were."
With that, Jinora spun on her heel and raced down the hallway, likely to hide the tears that had just begun brimming in her eyes. By the time Tenzin turned to Yunjin, the boy had taken off as well, in the opposite direction. Tenzin called out to him, but Yunjin just kept going, and he sighed yet again before hurrying after his son.
Tenzin, however, was not the first person to reach Yunjin. Tenzin had just turned the corner, and was at the opposite end of a long corridor from Yunjin when the boy jumped aside to avoid running straight into Pema. He had been staring sullenly at the floor, walking far too fast, and he hadn't seen her until the last second. He still bumped into her arm and he sounded horribly worried as he quickly apologized, "Spirits, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention, I'm so sorry, I didn't hurt you did I?"
"I'm fine," Pema assured him with a soft smile, resting her hand over her swollen belly, which seemed to grow larger with every passing day. She would be due to have the baby very soon. "Where are you running off to?"
"Um, nowhere in particular," Yunjin mumbled. "Just…away."
Pema frowned. "You and Jinora haven't been fighting again have you?"
Yunjin didn't answer directly, shuffling his feet, stuffing his hands in his pockets, and staring at the floor.
Tenzin had nearly reached the pair of them at that point, but Pema noticed him and held up her hand to stall him. He came to a stop, somewhat confused, but figuring she wanted to say something to Yunjin herself. He didn't expect her to say anything particularly rude, so he waited and let her talk. Yunjin usually accepted advice from others better than he did his own parents most of the time anyways.
"What was it about this time?" Pema gently inquired.
Yunjin shrugged and muttered, "Same as always. I probably overreacted. I didn't mean to make her mad I just… I don't trust Kai."
Pema reached out to squeeze his shoulder. "Yunjin, I may not be in Jinora's head but I know how much she cares about you. Kai is her friend, and spirits knows I don't understand it any better than you do, but she's fond of him and that girl will never abandon her friends. But that doesn't mean she's going to abandon you either. Kai might be a very good friend to her, and she needs that right now because you two are going through a rough patch, but you and Jinora have a lot of history. You've been through a lot together that Kai will never understand. You just have to remind Jinora why she liked you so much in the first place. Kai can't steal her away unless you let him. Show Jinora that you trust her, and you care about her, and that you want her to be happy, and I'm sure that you two can work this out."
Yunjin considered Pema's words for a moment, and then he asked, "How do I do that?"
"Well I can't give you all the answers," Pema teased. "It has to come from the heart. Your heart, not mine."
Yunjin nodded eagerly. "Okay, yeah, you're right. I can do that. I can think of something super romantic and mushy."
Pema smiled at his renewed enthusiasm. "Okay, but nothing too crazy. Remember, little gestures are usually better than something over the top."
"Thanks, Pema," Yunjin said sincerely. "I really appreciate it. You ever need any advice, I'm your guy. Though, to be honest, my strengths lie more in pranks and airbending than the emotional stuff."
Pema chuckled. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. But if you really wanna pay me back, you just gotta make things right with Jinora. I don't like her being upset."
"I know," Yunjin said quietly. "I don't either. I'm gonna go think of something to try and make it up to her right now. Thanks again. I'll see you later."
Yunjin rushed off again, this time with a new purpose, and Tenzin finally closed the distance between himself and Pema, stopping a few steps from her and saying gratefully, "Thank you, Pema. I appreciate you talking to him."
"No need to thank me," Pema said. "I just hope I eventually say something to one of them that'll actually help. I don't like seeing them like this."
"Me either," Tenzin agreed. "It's been hard on both of them. But it seemed like Yunjin actually took your advice to heart. I'm afraid he doesn't listen to mine quite so well."
Pema snorted. "Jinora will cover hear ears before she'll listen to my input. The joys of raising teenagers. I don't know how you handle two at a time."
"It's certainly a unique struggle," Tenzin admitted, "but you'll be in a similar boat soon, won't you? Ikki isn't much younger than Jinora, is she?"
"Don't remind me," Pema said with a grimace. "But Ikki listens to Anil better than Jinora ever listened to either of us. I think even once she's a teenager she'll be more likely to accept some of her father's wisdom. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking."
Tenzin chuckled. "No, I think you're probably right. Yunjin is the same, only really calms once Lin has had a chance to talk with him. He doesn't give in right away, but he definitely follows her advice better than he does mine. He's always been like that. When he was a baby he would scream nearly all day, and the second she got home from work and he heard her voice he'd go quiet."
"Ugh, don't you hate that," Pema said with a laugh. "You're home with the kid all day while they're fussing, and the second the other parent comes home they're suddenly a perfect bundle of joy."
"It was both infuriating and a relief," Tenzin commiserated.
He found himself looking off down the corridor at nothing, zoning out as he fondly remembered those times, when the kids were just babies, when he was only separated from his wife for a few hours while she worked. Even when she worked crazy hours she'd come home to him at some point, and even when it was just for sleep he could at least see her and know that she was safe, and curl around her and feel her warmth. He used to spend every day with her, with the kids, but now it was all different, and not the good kind of different. Not him and Lin enjoying retirement together and watching their kids continue to grow.
Pema's soft voice jolted him back as she said, "You miss her."
Tenzin nodded sadly. "Very much so."
"Do you think that –" Pema's voice cut out into a pained hiss, and Tenzin whipped his head around to look at her.
He saw her hunched over slightly, clutching at her abdomen, and he immediately grasped her elbow to help hold her up. "Contractions?" he asked shortly.
Pema nodded and answered through gritted teeth, "I think so. I've been feeling some discomfort all day, but I wasn't sure. That felt pretty familiar though."
"Let's get you to the midwife," Tenzin said without preamble, leading her carefully in that direction. "Where is Anil?"
"Um, with Meelo, I think. In the bison stables, last I heard."
"I'll find him for you."
Pema huffed out a laugh. "I can't believe I'm doing this again. What was I thinking?"
"What all of us think," Tenzin supplied. "That we know exactly what we're doing now so we ought to be able to perfect the fourth one." He chuckled too. "You'll realize how wrong you were in a year or so."
"Thanks, that's real reassuring," Pema joked, just before being seized by another contraction.
It was a mostly slow walk to the med-room, where Pema settled calmly into a bed, thanking Tenzin for his help while doing her best to calm her breathing. She seemed mostly unconcerned, and he supposed she was probably used to it all after giving birth three times before, so he didn't feel bad leaving her there with the midwife to go find her husband. Lin had always been terrified when she started having contractions, and Tenzin had refused to leave her for a single second when she was in labor with Ronen or the twins. Even five years later he was still angry that he hadn't been there for her with Jeia.
When Tenzin found Anil and told him that Pema was in labor, Anil was overjoyed, and went rushing off to find his wife, his young son Meelo racing after him. Tenzin smiled as he watched them go, feeling happy for the family and all the joy they had to come.
The whole thing made him miss his own family even more, so Tenzin went in search of the twins, and was surprised to find them together and smiling over something. Yunjin had enlisted Sora's help to think up the right way to try and resolve things with Jinora, and they'd been brainstorming ever since. Tenzin sat with them for a little while, but could see they didn't need his help and decided to leave them to it.
He went to Bumi next, gritting his teeth and swallowing his pride as he asked his older brother for his advice on how to train the new airbenders. Bumi's suggestion was to tear them down and back up again, to rule with an iron fist, and Tenzin decided to go for it because he hadn't figured out any other way to get through to them. Maybe if he treated them like army recruits they might actually give in and learn something.
By that evening, Tenzin had mapped out a full week's worth of training drills to keep the airbenders busy, Yunjin had come up with a plan to get back in Jinora's good graces, and Pema had given birth to a baby girl.
Tenzin found himself looking forward to the following day as opposed to dreading it as he often did of late. With new life in the world and potential improvements on the horizon, perhaps the future was not so bleak after all.
Yunjin thought long and hard about how he might reconcile with Jinora and remind her how happy they could be together. Most of his ideas were a little impossible, considering they weren't back home in Republic City, but then he remembered the time he spent with her after the Glacier Spirits Festival. Jinora had come along for the first part of their family trip to the Air Temples, and though she had only been able to go to the Southern Temple, Yunjin had promised to bring her back souvenirs from the others. He had almost forgotten to give them to her, with everything that had happened with Sora and Harmonic Convergence and Unvaatu trying to destroy the planet. But after all that had been resolved and they'd gotten back home, with Sora's soul returned to her body, Yunjin had remembered the little gifts he'd gotten for Jinora. The one he'd brought from the Northern Temple hadn't come from the Temple itself, but a small village nearby. Xiagu Village was the only place for miles outside of the Northern Air Temple, ensconced in a canyon with a skinny river running through the middle of the town. Dad had taken them there for a day, mostly so Jeia could be closer to the ground instead of up on a mountain top for a little while; she had adapted okay to the Air Temples but she still didn't care much for all the cliffs edges. Xiagu Village made Jeia feel better and Jin and Sora were allowed to go exploring on their own, since it was so small and remote. That's when Yunjin had found some rare flower he had never seen before, and it was purple, which was Jinora's favorite color. So he'd gathered some up for her, soil and all, and since they were accustomed to surviving harsh weather conditions further north, they lived long enough for him to present them to her weeks later.
Since they were at the Northern Air Temple now, it seemed like one of the best ideas he could come up with. Yunjin figured if he brought some flowers back for Jinora and apologized, maybe he could even talk her into spending a day with him in Xiagu Village. Maybe if they got away from Kai and airbending training and everything else for a little while they could have a real talk. Not that Yunjin liked those emotional sort of conversations, but if it helped his relationship with Jinora recover then he'd at least try. If Mom could do it then so could he.
So Yunjin asked his father for a ride to the village, and Dad was happy to comply. He said they'd have to wait till later in the evening the following day, after he was done training the airbenders, and Yunjin was happy to wait even if he was a little impatient. He was mostly just glad to have a plan in place.
But nothing went quite as planned that day.
First off, Dad woke everyone super early for a ten mile hike and meditation. Then he had everyone balance on posts while floating feathers. And after that he shaved some poor soul's hair and had them all running through a challenging obstacle course. It was all pretty easy stuff for Jin and Sora, but for airbenders only a few months into training it was particularly difficult. They had to leave Zara behind for most of it because the timid girl still wasn't airbending. Yunjin was skeptical that she even could, but Sora claimed that she'd gotten Zara to try once, and it had been so disastrous that Zara had nearly set the Temple on fire by knocking over some candles.
So Sora felt bad for Zara being left out and the rest of the airbenders being tired and started to get upset with Dad. Yunjin was kind of enjoying it though, and frankly, if it whipped the airbenders into shape he was all for it. Maybe Dad had been going too easy on them. Maybe a few tough days would make them pay attention in a lesson for once. Although, all it really ended up doing was pissing off Uncle Bumi.
Sometime in the midst of the obstacle course, Uncle Bumi fell into the mud, and when Dad continued shouting at him to keep moving, Uncle Bumi stood up and angrily yelled back, "I'm finished! I never wanted to be an airbender and I'm too old to be back in boot camp! Count me out!"
Then all the other airbenders started asking questions about dinner and when they would get to go home to visit their families, and Dad got so frustrated he stormed off and left Jin and Sora in charge. Sora decided to just dismiss everyone to get cleaned up and eat dinner, and Yunjin was annoyed too so he didn't feel like teaching either. He had overheard Kai asking Jinora if she wanted to sneak away to see the baby bison again earlier, and the effort it took for him to not tell Kai off made his jaw hurt. He was trying very hard to be civil, so as not to further upset Jinora, who was still clearly mad at him and purposefully avoiding him. He just hoped Dad would still take him into the village, so he could try reconciling with Jinora as soon as possible.
Yunjin waited a little while for his dad to cool off, taking the time to rest a little because he didn't like waking up early either, and then went in search of him. On his way, he ran into Nira, who smiled and assured him that Dad had calmed down, and a reminder from her about being patient with the new airbenders had made him feel a little less awful about his recent failures. And when Yunjin found his father, Dad gave him a tired smile and simply said, "Are you ready to go to Xiagu?"
Yunjin nodded emphatically and off they went on Oogi, who had arrived early that morning with Opal. She had been given the day off to get settled, and therefore avoided the trials everyone else had been put through. Seeing Oogi again for the first time in weeks seemed to make Dad feel a little better too, and the quiet ride to Xiagu was relaxing for both him and Jin. Once they landed, Yunjin walked through the small village with his father, and they used the time to vent their similar frustrations about teaching the new airbenders. It made Yunjin feel a little better about his own failings, knowing that even his father was struggling with it. Dad had been a master for decades, and if he wasn't perfect then maybe Yunjin didn't need to be either.
Finding the flowers didn't take long. Yunjin remembered around where he had found them the last time, and the village hadn't changed much since they had been there. They arrived back at the Air Temple shortly after dinner, and Dad tried to apologize to Uncle Bumi while Yunjin asked around for Jinora. But Uncle Bumi was refusing to talk to Dad, and one of the new guys told Yunjin that they saw Jinora leaving on her glider with Kai.
Yunjin was not happy, and for a moment he was tempted to give up, to tear apart the flowers he'd gotten and leave Jinora alone. Clearly she wanted nothing to do with him so why bother chasing after her? If she wanted to run around with Kai instead then maybe it wasn't his place to try and stop her. That's why she was mad anyways, wasn't it? Because he was trying to tell her what to do?
But in the midst of his brooding, Dad had put a hand on his shoulder and offered, "I can take you on Oogi. I'm sure we can find them."
Yunjin shrugged. "I don't know. What's the point?"
"The point is that you want to mend things with Jinora. Maybe this is how, by involving both her and Kai, so the three of you can work this out."
Yunjin considered for a moment, and then deadpanned, "But I didn't get Kai any flowers."
Dad chuckled. "I'm sure he'll be okay with that."
Yunjin still couldn't commit to the idea, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and staring at the ground as he mumbled, "What if she doesn't want to be with me more?"
Without missing a beat, Dad softly responded, "No matter what happens, I'm with you, son."
Yunjin looked up at his father, catching that familiar warm gaze, and even though he was still kind of terrified, his father's promise bolstered him enough to climb back onto Oogi and go looking for Jinora.
When they did find her though, it was clear that something had gone horribly wrong. She was trapped in one of several cages that were strapped to the back of a truck, which was speeding down a dirt path in an effort to escape. Several baby bison were trapped along with her, and some of their parents descended upon the escaping vehicle shortly before Dad directed Oogi in the same direction. Immediately behind the truck were Kai and Sora, both of them on gliders, and they flew into the cab of the truck to try and stop the driver. Yunjin itched to jump down and help, but he didn't have his own glider with him so he waited until he had a better shot at landing on the fast moving vehicle.
When Oogi came up next to the truck, Yunjin took his chance and leapt over onto the roof. The truck was veering violently left and right, from Sora and Kai fighting the driver and the adult bison ramming it on either side. Yunjin was hard pressed to hang on, but managed to climb down the side to peer into Jinora's cage. She looked terrified, and when he braced his hands on the bars she clung to them. "I'm gonna get you out," he promised, but trying to fight a lock on a swaying vehicle was nigh on impossible.
Fortunately, Sora and Kai managed to subdue the driver and bring the truck to a screeching halt, and then they were able to free Jinora and all the baby bison.
Once out of her cage, Jinora hugged Yunjin in relief, and he relished in the familiar feel of her after so long without. But it was rather short lived, because she jumped away from him to hug Kai next, giving Yunjin an awkward half-smile and then quickly looking away, as if she had forgotten she was supposed to be angry with him.
"What on earth happened?" Dad asked, and Yunjin listened with one ear while watching Kai and Jinora reunite.
Sora panted and swiped her hair back from her eyes before answering, "Poachers. They had rounded up the baby bison shortly before Jinora and Kai stumbled across them. I saw Jinora and Kai get taken, but there were too many for me to fight off alone, so I went back to get some help. Uncle Bumi rounded up the airbenders and we fought off the rest of the poachers. This guy took off with what he could and Kai and I chased after. Guess that's about the time you two showed up."
"What were they trying to take the babies and Jinora for?" Yunjin questioned distractedly.
"To take to the Earth Queen," Kai replied with unveiled disgust.
Jinora solemnly murmured, "I knew she was evil, but I never thought she would hurt baby bison like that."
Kai squeezed her hand reassuringly, but caught Yunjin staring and quickly pulled his hand away.
"Well, I'm glad to see you're all okay," Dad said, tugging Sora into a hug, as if to reaffirm that fact. "You said Bumi and the other airbenders helped?"
Sora pulled back with a smile and nodded. "Yeah, they were actually pretty great. Uncle Bumi was very inspiring."
Yunjin stopped paying attention then to look back over at Jinora. She was smiling now as she watched the baby bison reunite with their mothers, and she laughed quietly when Kai whispered something to her. Despite what she had just been through, she looked happier than he had seen her in months, probably because every time he was with her now they were usually fighting. Now that the initial fear of the whole experience had worn off, she looked just fine, and maybe it was Kai that was making her feel better.
Yunjin tried to refocus his attention on Sora and Dad, but his stomach hurt and his head was swimming so he didn't end up remembering much of anything that they said.
Not long after, Uncle Bumi arrived with the other airbenders and the captured poachers. Then everyone was grouping up, talking and laughing about how they'd fought off the bad guys together, and Yunjin was a little sad he'd missed it. Sora was beaming and proud of them. Even Zara was there but whether or not she'd done any airbending yet Yunjin didn't think to ask. Dad was happy too, and listened with rapt attention while some of the others told him the whole story and what some of them had managed to do because of the stuff he'd taught them.
The sun was setting when Yunjin separated from the group and went over to Oogi. He crawled up into the saddle, picked up the flowers he had gotten for Jinora, and jumped back down. He stared at the flowers for a long moment, and then watched Jinora for even longer as she, Kai, Sora, and Zara played with the baby bison. Then he went to the edge of the clearing, to where the trees and vegetation began, and he dug a hole in the dirt with his hands. It took a little longer than he expected, since the ground was cold and a little too hard, but eventually he made a hole big enough to gently place the roots of the flowers. Then he packed the soil back into the hole and stood up, brushing the worst of the dirt off of his hands.
When he turned around, he was surprised to see Jinora approaching, but he stepped forward to meet her.
"Hey," she said a little nervously, "what are you doing over here?" She looked directly at the flowers he had just replanted with confusion but she didn't seem to recognize them.
"Nothing," Yunjin said with a shrug, "just wanted to be alone for a minute. It was kind of loud over there. How are you doing? Those guys didn't hurt you did they?"
Jinora frowned at his obvious change of subject, but assured, "I'm okay. They didn't really hurt me. Thanks for coming to the rescue."
"No need to thank me. Sora and Kai had it covered anyways. He did good…Kai, I mean. I saw some of his moves. He's a pretty good airbender."
Jinora nodded uneasily, as if waiting for him to spring a trap, and Yunjin felt guilty. "Yeah, he is," she slowly agreed.
"You are too, by the way," Yunjin quickly added. "I don't know if I've told you that, but you're learning pretty quick. Probably faster than I did, but no surprise there. You were always a much better student than I was." He tried to chuckle but it was forced.
"Thanks," Jinora mumbled, her lips quirking halfway up into a smile but it looked forced too.
Yunjin sighed and got straight to the point. "Look, Jinora, I'm sorry. I know I've been a jerk lately and I have no right. I just want you to be happy, even if it's without me."
Jinora furrowed her brow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means what it means," Yunjin said, smiling sadly. "It means that I love you, and if you ever need me, I'm always gonna show up, no matter how far I have to go. But I also know you don't need me so much anymore and that's fine. I just gotta get used to it. But don't worry." He reached out to squeeze her hand because she was still frowning as if she didn't like what she was hearing. "I'm not gonna freak out about Kai anymore. I should have known you were smart enough to make your own decisions about people. You're the smartest, coolest girl I ever met, and I hope you can forgive me someday."
Jinora's lip wobbled and her voice cracked when she started, "Yunjin –"
But he cut her off, dropping her hand and saying, "It's okay. You don't have to right now."
Then, before he could lose his nerve or Jinora could stop him from going, he walked away. His chest hurt enough as it was and he wasn't sure he wanted to hear what she had to say. He knew he was supposed to listen. His dad was always telling him to listen to people more, especially when they were upset with him, but he wasn't strong enough yet. He needed time. He needed space. He had spent the last few weeks feeling miserable and making her miserable, and he needed to sort himself out so he didn't do that anymore. He needed to do what he wanted to do all along, and stop doing what he thought was expected of him. He couldn't blame anyone but himself if he didn't bother to take control of his own life. Whatever Jinora had to say she could tell him later. Whether she remembered that she loved him too, or she decided to leave him – for Kai or just for herself – he would accept whatever it was she chose, just at another time.
Although Tenzin was certainly not happy that some poachers had come through and tried to steal baby bison and Jinora and Kai, he had to admit that the whole ordeal had been good for the new airbenders' morale. Apparently using their abilities in a real case scenario and seeing what they were capable of had given them reason to be grateful for some of Tenzin's teachings. They seemed a bit more eager to learn, if their constant questions were anything to go by, and though Tenzin wasn't going to hold his breath, he was hopeful that it meant they would be more open to his teachings in the following weeks. He was also proud to hear how well some of them had done, and how they had come together as a team to rescue Kai and Jinora. He was especially proud of Sora, for being so level headed to go for help when it was clearly too dangerous for her to help her friends on her own, and of his brother Bumi, who had gathered and motivated all of the airbenders, and then led them into the rescue mission.
Tenzin made sure to tell Sora that he was sorry too, because she had been telling him all day that he was being a little too hard on the airbenders, and he should have listened to her more.
He went to Bumi next, to express what he should have told his brother a long time ago. "I'm proud of you," he said softly. "Your connection with the spirits and natural leadership… You remind me of Dad."
Bumi dropped his gaze guiltily and replied, "I'm sorry I've been causing you so much trouble. I guess I was just scared of not being able to measure up as an airbender." He looked up at Tenzin with an openness they didn't often share. "Y'know, even though I'm Aang's son, I've never really felt like I was part of the Air Nation before."
Tenzin smiled fondly, and reached out to squeeze his brother's shoulder reassuringly. "You are now."
Bumi smiled too, and Tenzin felt like maybe things were looking up. He seemed to have resolved some things with his brother, Yunjin was working on some of his own worries, Sora was flourishing, and Lin would be visiting in a few days. Maybe they could figure out this whole Zaheer thing while they were together too, maybe he could convince her to stay a little longer.
At least, that's the kind of optimism he had up until he was about to go to bed that night. He had just sat down on his bed, smiling to himself as he touched the empty space next to him and imagined what it would be like when Lin was there too, and then there was a frantic knock on the door. He hurried over to open it as Sora was calling out to him, his heart racing in his chest. Before he could even ask her what was wrong, she looked up at him with wide eyes and told him, "Yunjin is gone."
Chapter 78: Chapter 78
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 78
There were several ways Lin might have expected her last afternoon in Zaofu to go. For one, she would be spending most of it with Jeia, because she had no idea when she might see the kid again and she wasn't going to let Jeia's grumpy attitude stand in the way of their time together. Secondly, she would be calling Tenzin again, this time with Jeia, so that he would have a chance to talk to their youngest for the first time in several days. The rest was mostly up in the air, but she knew she'd also be spending time with Suyin, who was almost as displeased as Jeia that Lin was leaving her in Zaofu. And there might be some planning with Ronen and Korra for where they would go next.
What Lin had not expected was to have Su come knocking on her door an hour before lunch, toting a delivery Lin definitely had not ordered. When Lin first opened the door, all she could see was Su standing there with a raised eyebrow and a disconcerted look on her face. Lin had been half annoyed as she told her sister, "I said I'd be at lunch. Did you not believe me?"
"Oh no, this isn't about lunch," Su said, just before dragging the surprise into view.
And then there stood Yunjin, lopsided smile on his face and a halfway guilty expression. He looked like he knew he was in trouble, but was eager to argue about it.
Lin felt her left eye twitching, and it took nearly all of her will-power to contain her frustration as she gritted her teeth and seethed, "What in the flameo are you doing here?!"
"Listen," Yunjin began, "before you freak out –"
"Too late," Lin cut him off. "Give me the short version."
"I'm here to help," Yunjin said firmly, squaring his shoulders. "I'm not just gonna sit around the Temple and twiddle my thumbs. I'm coming with you. Ronen was about my age when he started fighting in revolutions so you can't tell me no."
Lin's eyes went wide. "Excuse me? I'm pretty sure the fact that I birthed you gives me the inalienable right to tell you no."
"You can't control me forever," Yunjin argued. "And you can't deny that you need all the help you can get, and that I can be useful, and –"
"Getting your ass kicked by Zaheer once wasn't enough for you?" Lin countered. "You want to let him do it again?"
Yunjin pressed his lips together in annoyance and gave her a look. "Obviously not. He got the jump on me the first time. It won't happen again. Besides, more numbers, the more likely we are to take him down. Come on, Mom. Please. I can't go back to the Temple. I need to do something useful."
"What happened to you trying to be mature and train the airbenders and all that stuff you said so we'd let you stay on the Island?"
"I tried all that," Yunjin said with a dismissive wave. "It didn't work out."
"Why?" Lin pressed. "Because the airbenders aren't perfect yet? You did notice that your father can barely train them either, right?"
"I know. It isn't just that."
"Don't tell me this is just because you're having girl troubles. Running off isn't gonna fix –"
"No," Yunjin tersely interrupted. "This isn't about Jinora. It's about me and what I want to do. I want to prove my worth."
Lin frowned, studying her youngest son for a moment, that face that was so much like his grandfather's, but the anger and insecurity and the need to fight was all her. "You don't have to prove anything," she told him, softening her voice a little. "Not to me or anybody."
"Like I said," Yunjin stubbornly replied, "it's not about anyone else. I just need to do this."
He was giving her that look, and she knew she was fighting a losing battle. He was basically as tall as she was now and a damn good airbender. She couldn't just throw him over her shoulder and take him to his bedroom for a time out. Well, she could, but it wouldn't be all that effective anymore. He would just walk out the door as soon as she left. And if she didn't let him join her and the others, he'd probably just follow them anyways. Or worse, go looking for Zaheer himself. At least if she let him come along she could keep an eye on him, maybe teach him a thing or two in the process.
She sighed heavily. "Did you even tell your father where you were going?"
"Of course I did," Yunjin answered, sounding offended she would even ask. "I left him a note…"
Lin groaned and rolled her eyes. She would have to call Tenzin sooner rather than later, to assure him that Yunjin was okay and hadn't been snatched somewhere during his journey.
"Hang on," Su interjected, and Lin was surprised she'd kept quiet for as long as she had. "You're actually gonna let him go with you? You won't even let me come along."
"Oh don't act like you really want to go," Lin countered. "You've got plenty to take care of here. And spirit's only knows how long we'll be out there. You complain about sleeping alone every time you're away from Bataar for more than two days."
"I do not!" Su protested.
"You all but climbed into bed with Tenzin and me the last time you stayed on the Island," Lin deadpanned.
Yunjin made a face and said, "That's kind of weird, Aunt Su."
"It wasn't weird," Su argued. "I used to sleep in Lin's bed all the time when we were little."
"She was afraid of everything," Lin grumbled.
"I wasn't scared," Su denied. "I just like to have company before I fall asleep."
"She likes to talk somebody's ear off so that they can't sleep either," Lin corrected.
"Don't deny it. My voice soothes you to sleep."
Lin snorted. "More like I pretend to be asleep so that you'll shut up."
Su rolled her eyes. "You don't have to pretend just because Yunjin's here. We all know you're a softy."
"And we all know you're annoying," Lin countered.
"But endearingly annoying," Su insisted.
"You're both ridiculous," Yunjin muttered, only to perk up a second later, grinning at something behind Lin. "'Rai!"
Jeia came hurtling forward with an excited, "Jin!" barreling through her mother to get to him.
Yunjin crouched down to hug his little sister tight, murmuring jokes in her ear that made her cackle and hang onto the back of his shirt like she didn't want to let go.
When Jeia finally did release Yunjin, she looked around and asked, "Are Daddy and Sora here?"
"Nah, not this time," Yunjin said gently. "They're still busy with the airbenders and all."
"Then how come you're here?" Jeia questioned.
"I'm here to annoy Mom," Yunjin teased.
Jeia furrowed her brow and considered his answer. "Is she takin' you with her? Not fair! I wanna come too!"
Lin sighed, but before she could try to calm the girl, Su said, "Hey, she's not letting me go either."
And Yunjin added, "It's not gonna be any fun anyways. You know how boring Ronen is."
Jeia folded her arms across her chest and gave them both an annoyed look. "That doesn't work on me no more. I'm five, y'know? Not three."
Su looked over at Yunjin with a barely suppressed laugh. "You can't put anything past Jeia."
Yunjin sighed. "Yeah, I should have known better. Sorry, 'Rai, I got nothin'. You just gotta sit this one out. But if it makes you feel any better, Mom never let me do anything when I was your age either."
Jeia scoffed. "Yeah, but I'm special."
Yunjin cackled. "Yeah, you're special all right. But can you do this?" He suddenly flipped over, with his feet in the air and his hair hanging to the floor, balancing himself on one finger.
Jeia scowled. "That's not fair. You're cheating with your airbender stuff."
Yunjin gasped, looking offended, having to crane his neck to look up at Jeia from his upside down position. "I never cheat! I am a man of honor."
Jeia just folded her arms across her chest, looking skeptical.
And then Ronen appeared behind Su, Korra and Asami in tow, and he was as surprised to see his younger brother as the rest of them. "Yunjin? What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to help," Yunjin said brightly, before dropping gracefully back onto his feet and turning to face Ronen.
Ronen raised a brow in surprise and looked over at his mother. "And you're okay with this?"
"Am I ever?" Lin grumbled in response.
Ronen smirked. "Fair enough." Then he turned his attention back onto Yunjin. "You do know you didn't have to make the trip here though, right? We're visiting the Air Temple tomorrow when we leave."
Yunjin groaned. "Wait, seriously? I just left there!"
"Well, I hope you didn't burn too many bridges on your way out," Korra teased. "Or it's gonna be pretty awkward."
Yunjin sighed. "Maybe I'll just wait in the airship."
Lin called Tenzin shortly after Yunjin's arrival in Zaofu, and she could hear the relief and exhaustion in his voice when she told him that their youngest son was safe and sound. He was concerned about what had pushed the boy to leave, and Lin promised to try and pry it out of him at the earliest opportunity. Then Tenzin talked to Jeia for a while, and Lin was lulled into a sense of ease by their familiar rapport. She was comfortable to sit there and zone out and not think about all the misfortune in their lives, but consider what bright spots they still had. Even separated their family could not be truly disbanded.
Even so, she was still looking forward to seeing Tenzin and Sora again in just twenty-four hours, so of course that was when the first disaster struck.
That night they all went to bed with the intent to rise early and head straight to the Northern Air Temple. Su and Jeia would stay behind, and Lin and Su spent the early hours of the evening drinking weak cocktails and chatting, while blatantly ignoring the anxiety they both felt at whatever was to come once Lin left the relative safety of Zaofu. They had only just parted ways for maybe twenty minutes, had only crawled into bed and dozed off mere moments before they were being rattled awake once more.
Zaheer and his gang had infiltrated Zaofu, and they had Korra.
Lin raced out onto the lawn along with Yunjin and several Metal Clan guards. Su, Wei, and Wing weren't far behind, and Ronen, Mako, Bolin, and Asami were already there. Lin and the guards succeeded in trapping Zaheer's gang for a moment, but despite being surrounded, the four criminal masterminds were not out of tricks. Ghazan melted their metal cage and the ground surrounding it, so that Lin and the others were forced to move backwards from the lava moat he had created.
Then the fight was on, but there was a struggle for Lin's side to get to Korra while she still lay unconscious in the middle of a lava pit. Zaheer was separated from his group, at least, but he was holding his own against the Metal Clan guards and his cohorts were still guarding Korra. Between P'Li shooting at them every time they peeked out from behind their cover, and Ghazan melting any attempt they made to cross the moat, they were at a standstill.
That was when Su suggested, "Lin and I can drop in from the dome on cables."
"That's a great idea," Lin said sarcastically over the sound of explosions, "except we'll get blown up the second that third-eyed freak sees us."
As if to emphasize her point, there was an explosion directly in front of their earth-metal barrier, which had all of them hunching down further and throwing their arms over their faces to shield themselves from debris.
Then Su continued as if she had not been interrupted. "She's a combustionbender. If one of you can stun her, her powers will be knocked out temporarily."
Ronen immediately chimed in, "The first thing Great Uncle Sokka taught me to do with a boomerang was how to subdue a combustionbender." He held aloft the very boomerang that had been gifted to him by Sokka several years ago, and there was a little bit of an excited glint in his eye, like he'd just been waiting for such an occasion to use that knowledge. "I've got your back."
Su nodded curtly. "You have to take her out right before we drop down."
"Got it," Ronen said firmly. "And if I don't, Bolin is my back up."
"I am?" Bolin asked in a high-pitched voice of surprise.
But Lin and Su were already racing off to get into position. Wei and Wing followed to help their mother and aunt, keeping radio contact with Mako in order to time their plan just right. Lin kept a clear head the whole way, not letting herself think about concern for her sister going into danger right next to her, or her sons still on the ground. She focused on the mission, on retrieving Korra, and she leapt from the top of the dome without a second of hesitation. She and Su went hurtling down, and from such a height it was hard to tell how things were going on the ground at first. But halfway down Lin could tell that P'Li hadn't been subdued yet, and she was looking straight up at Su and Lin, and there was an extended moment where Lin was hyper aware of everything. She could feel the heat from the lava creeping up on her even as she flew threw the cool night air. She could sense the metal cable on her back and the one that carried Su. She knew what she would do if P'Li shot at them. She knew exactly how she would save Su from the blast, but not exactly how she'd save them both.
And then, precisely at the last moment, Ronen's boomerang came hurtling out of nowhere and struck P'Li in the forehead. The explosion she had intended for Lin and Su petered out, and the two sisters dropped safely into the middle of the moat, while P'Li slumped to the ground. Lin hefted Korra up over her shoulders, and they immediately went flying up again, at least for a moment.
Ming-Hua tried to stop them, wrapping a tendril of water around Lin's ankle and dragging her halfway back down. For a moment, Lin could feel pain spiking out along her leg, her muscles straining like they were on the verge of snapping, her hip bone throbbing as she was being yanked in two different directions. Then a flash of orange came streaking through beneath her, and she recognized the blur as Yunjin on his glider, which he closed into a sharp point as he shot through the middle of the water whip that held his mother. As soon as he cut through the water, he popped his glider back open and dropped his legs from the foot holds. He came at Ming-Hua so fast she had no time to defend herself, and he slammed right into her, one leg wrapping around her neck and the other around her ribs. He carried her right out of the safety of the moat, several feet higher into the air, and then dropped her to the ground in a heap.
Beyond that, Lin could not track their movements because she was flying back up to the top of the dome, and she had more troubles on the way. Zaheer had managed to defeat the Metal Clan guards he'd been fighting, and now he was flying up on a glider of his own with clear purpose and rage on his face. He was headed straight for Lin and Korra, and there was little Lin could do in her current position to avoid him. She was rising faster than him, so he dropped his feet from his glider like Yunjin had and swirled through the air, directing a sharp blast of wind that likely would have smashed Lin and Korra right into the wall of the dome. Lin managed to whip their cable around to avoid it, but it slowed her progress and Zaheer was shooting up towards her again, on a direct collision course that would surely end disastrously. Except Su saw Zaheer's intent and swung her metal cable towards Lin's. She grabbed her sister's cable and flung it far enough to ensure Zaheer's assault never touched Lin and Korra. And then Lin, Korra, and Su were back at the top of the dome, landing safely next to Wei and Wing, while Zaheer raged far below.
Lin carefully laid Korra's unconscious form on the floor, thanked her sister for saving their skins, and then hastily went to peer out of the opening in the top of the dome. She saw Zaheer land back in the moat with Ghazan and P-Li, and then watched with trepidation as he created a whirlwind of smoke that covered the entire space below. She could no longer make out the forms of her children or anyone else, and her hands clenched over the edge of the dome as fear gripped her. She was just about to leap back down into the thick fog, to get to the ground in case her kids needed her, but it began to clear very shortly after it was formed. Then she could see that the lava moat was gone, and so were Zaheer and his gang. Thankfully, there were still several familiar forms moving around below, so it didn't seem that any of the kids or the Metal Clan had been further harmed, simply that Zaheer had given up and left. Even so, Lin was quick about racing back down from the dome, leaving Wei and Wing to heft Korra back down, while Su hurried along close behind Lin.
Once back on the ground, Lin could finally breathe in relief when she saw both Jin and Ronen. Jeia was with them now too, and the three of them were standing in a circle with Mako, Asami, Bolin, Kuvira, and another of the Metal Clan guard. They all seemed to be looking down at something in the middle of their circle, and Lin stepped up behind Jeia to peer in and see for herself. What she saw made her eyebrows raise to her hairline, and she heard Su gasping beside her.
In the middle of the circle was Ming-Hua, her shoulders encased in metal and another piece of metal covering her mouth. She was disheveled and clearly bruised, but still conscious and glaring up at all of them with rage on her face.
Yunjin gave his mother a cocky smirk, leaning against the staff of his glider as he told her, "Jeia and I caught this one."
"Zaheer left her?" Su asked in surprise.
"We all had her surrounded," Ronen explained. "He must have seen the futility in trying. He would have had to risk getting himself caught."
"Think we can get some answers out of her, Chief?" Mako inquired.
Lin shook her head, still staring down at Ming-Hua with disgust plain on her features. "No. She never broke before. She won't this time either."
"Except she just spent how many years in prison?" Yunjin pointed out. "Maybe she'll be willing to talk if we offer her something better."
"Like what?" Ronen scoffed. "Letting her go free?"
Yunjin scowled. "Of course not. I don't know what we could offer her. I'm just saying. You're the smart one. You figure it out."
"It's not a bad idea," Asami admitted, "but I don't think there's anything we can offer her that'll be enticing enough."
"And she did just try to kidnap Korra," Bolin said. "I don't think she should get anything nice for that."
"Yeah but if she could actually help us find the rest of her group I'd be willing to try," Mako asserted. "But Asami's right. There's probably nothing that'll work on her."
"Well we'll have someone question her anyways," Su decided. "Kuvira, take her to holding, and be careful. Don't let her get away from you."
"I'll go with her," Lin said. "We'll need guards on her at all times. And not even a drop of water in sight."
"You get it set up however it needs done," Su told Lin with solid trust in her gaze. "I'll take care of Korra and make sure the kids get back to bed. Kuvira, do what Lin tells you. She takes the lead on this."
Lin couldn't tell how Kuvira felt about that command, but she nodded silently and didn't object.
Jeia piped up, "I'll go too."
Lin immediately shook her head. "No, go with your Aunt Su –"
"I helped catch her," Jeia huffed indignantly. "I can help now too."
Lin swallowed her frustration and crouched down in front of Jeia, squeezing the girl's shoulders and quietly saying, "Listen, kid, you did really good here tonight, but you should have never been out here in the first place. I told you to stay inside and you disobeyed me. Sometimes a soldier's gotta learn to follow commands, yeah?"
Jeia fidgeted and seemed to consider her mother's words, and then countered, "Yeah, but sometimes ya gotta disobey to do what's right. That's what Uncle Bumi says. And Jin does it all the time."
Yunjin spluttered, "Hey, don't bring me into this."
"Come here," Lin told Jeia, taking the girl's hand and straightening back up, leading Jeia a few steps from the group so that they couldn't be overheard. Then Lin bent down and lifted Jeia's chin a little so they were eye to eye again. "I know you really wanna be a big girl, and you're all strong and brave now, but can you think about your old mom a little too? Cause seeing you in danger scares the hell out of me. You don't want me to be scared, do you?"
Jeia scoffed. "You're not scared of nothin'."
Lin sighed. "Kid, I wish that were true. Didn't you see how scared I was when Sora didn't have her soul?"
"Well…you were sad," Jeia admitted. "But she was fine 'cause you found her."
"Yeah, but I was very worried –"
"And I worry about you," Jeia interrupted, grumpily folding her arms across her chest.
"I'm sorry," Lin said sincerely. "I don't mean to make you worry. But I've been doing this a long time. Since long before you or your siblings were born. You don't have to worry about me. And I promise that when you're older and more experienced I'll let you help more."
"How am I s'posed to get exp – ex -perience if you never let me help?"
Lin smirked. "You're smart. I'm sure you'll figure it out. Now come on, short stuff. It's way past your bed time and we both know how cranky you'll be in the morning if you don't get some more sleep."
Lin hefted the five year old up over her shoulder and Jeia huffed out a laugh and a half-hearted protest of, "Mama."
Lin strode back over to the group and handed Jeia off to Yunjin, who began to say, "I can come with you to make sure the prisoner…" But he stopped at the look his mother gave him and relented, "Yeah, okay, you're right. I've done enough for tonight."
Lin squeezed his shoulder briefly and assured, "I'm proud of you. Now take care of your sister and get some rest."
Yunjin nodded. "You got it."
Yunjin spared one last glance for Ming-Hua, still seated on the ground but surrounded by Kuvira and several Metal Clan guards, and then he took Jeia back to the guest house.
Ronen and his friends were surrounding Korra, who was slowly coming to, sitting halfway up with the support of Asami and Bolin. Su was ushering Wei and Wing back to their own house.
Lin went to stand before Ming-Hua, and she stared down at the criminal with an emotionless mask, but disgust swirling in her gut. Ming-Hua and the others had tried to kidnap Korra when she was only four years old, had gravely wounded some of Lin's closest loved ones, and had just tried the same stunt once again. Whatever insane cause that had driven them over thirteen years ago still drove them now. They weren't about to give up, no matter who they had to harm in the process, and Lin had no idea how to stop them. She had no idea what they should do with Ming-Hua. With her friends still out there she was liable to escape imprisonment again, and keeping her in Zaofu would endanger everyone who lived there. But there inlay a bigger problem, which was the question of how Zaheer's gang had even gotten into the domes in the first place. There hadn't been any outward damage, meaning someone had more likely let them in, and that meant someone in Zaofu was a traitor, and that made Lin seethe with anger.
But she focused on her main problem first, and helped Kuvira and the other guards create a strong metal prison to hold Ming-Hua in. She stressed the importance of round the clock guards and keeping the room cold so that Ming-Hua couldn't so much as bend a bead of sweat. Lin stayed for a while to make sure her directions were being followed, and then went to check on the others.
Korra was fully awake, if a little groggy, and no worse for wear, simply angry that she'd been taken in the first place. Aiwei had given her some antidote to whatever Zaheer had used to knock her out, and it left her sluggish but alert. They were all on edge, debating how Zaheer's group had even gotten in and who might have betrayed them. Su was furious just thinking about it, and the second the sun began to rise she was bringing in every Metal Clan guard for questioning, as well as Varrick.
Lin, Su, Ronen, Korra, and Mako endured several hours of questioning and no results, with Aiwei asking the same questions over and over again, and every time shaking his head when he detected no lies. Lin was getting frustrated with the repetition and lack of answers, and even once Aiwei finally named a culprit, she wasn't wholly satisfied. When Aiwei was questioning the young guard, Hong Li, the truth seer paused after asking the boy if he knew Zaheer and the other criminals and said that Hong Li was lying. Further questioning and some angry shouting from Su only resulted in Hong Li's continued denial. He claimed to have had no part in the attack, and all they could do was throw him in a cell and search his home.
There was incriminating evidence found in Hong-Li's home, including a note that appeared to have come from Zaheer and a copy of the guards' logbook. But even faced with such evidence Hong Li didn't crack. And even if he was truly the one that had somehow managed to sneak Zaheer's gang into Zaofu, Lin doubted very much that he had been working alone. Hong Li was barely an adult, just around Ronen's age and had lived in Zaofu his whole life. Su spoke highly of his parents, and Wei and Wing were shocked to hear that Hong Li had been involved, both of them having known him fairly well from their days in Zaofu's small schoolhouse. If Hong Li really was the criminal he appeared to be, he must have had an accomplice. It didn't make sense for a kid like that to betray his family and his city, and while it certainly wasn't impossible, it definitely begged the question of how he had been brainwashed in the first place. Zaheer and his cronies had been in prison since Hong Li was around four years old, so it couldn't have come from them. Which meant there was another sympathizer on the loose, one that could still very well be lurking in Zaofu somewhere.
Ronen and Mako were both suspicious about Hong Li's supposed guilt as well, and were studying the evidence with the rest of their friends to figure out who else might have been involved. Lin and Su were focused on several other things and left the older kids to it. They had to re-secure the domes and search for any possible flaws, plus oversee the repair of the damage Zaheer's gang had caused, and make sure Ming-Hua remained under their custody. Lin also made a few calls over the radio, to let Tenzin know what was going on, and to also call in help from Zuko and Tonraq. Tenzin was understandably worried, and insisted that Lin bring everyone to the Northern Air Temple, including Su and the rest of her family, so that when Zaheer attacked next, at least they would all be together and more likely to strike him and his friends down. But Lin knew Su wasn't likely to abandon her city, and she wasn't thrilled with the idea of endangering the rest of her family and the airbenders anyways.
After getting off of the radio with Tenzin, Lin went next to Ming-Hua. She knew it was likely a useless attempt at getting the answers she wanted, and that she would be wasting her time, but she had very little options left and she decided to give it a shot. She told Ming-Hua's guards to give her the room, but stand outside the door just in case, and then dragged a chair into Ming-Hua's cell. She sat casually across from the prisoner, and simply folded her arms across her chest and observed Ming-Hua for a long moment.
Ming-Hua did not speak, due to the metal piece still covering her mouth, and she stared right back at Lin with a disconcerting amount of ease. The armless waterbender was attached to the walls on either side of her by the metal still wrapped around her shoulders and chains attached to those. There was also a collar around her throat to keep her head locked in place, and a chain from there linked to the wall behind her. Her feet were latched to the floor too, but Lin still had a sinking feeling, like Ming-Hua could somehow break free despite all their efforts.
Lin flippantly waved her hand, and the metal guard over Ming-Hua's mouth flew off and landed in Lin's palm. As Ming-Hua was working her jaw, Lin asked, "So are you people ever gonna tell us who you are?" Ming-Hua stared blankly, remaining resolutely silent, and Lin went on, "Kind of makes it difficult to negotiate if we haven't got a clue what your purpose is. I mean, what if we've been on the same side this whole time and just didn't know it? Granted, I'm doubting that's the case, since you keep trying to snatch the Avatar and all, but still. Seems a pity to spend the majority of your life in prison and have nothing to show for it. People will never even know what you were fighting for."
Ming-Hua snorted. "Our cause is bigger than that. Do I look like the type of person that craves notoriety?"
"Fair enough," Lin replied, "but if it means that much to you then wouldn't you be trying to spread it around a little more? Seems a little difficult to get people to rally to your cause if they don't even know what the point of it is."
"All in due time," Ming-Hua said, sounding bored. "We did have a bit of a…setback with all that time we spent in prison. I never did get to thank you for that, by the way." Something finally flashed in her dark eyes then, a spark of anger, for the time she had spent locked in a cage thanks to Lin and the others who had stopped her that day.
"Oh, no thanks necessary," Lin said with a dismissive wave. "It was my pleasure, really."
Ming-Hua gave half of a sardonic smile. "I want to give you a proper thank you, though. Once I'm out of here."
Lin raised her brows. "You think you're getting out of here? You do remember that your friends abandoned you here, right?"
"They knew I'd find my own way out. No sense in risking their skins."
"I guess they thought you had backup. Probably a good time to tell you that we found your friend. You know, the one that let you into Zaofu. They're rotting in a prison cell now too. Not very talkative either, but we'll break him of that."
Ming-Hua chuckled darkly. "Is that meant to scare me? I doubt you even have the means of finding an infiltrator even if there was one here."
Lin folded her arms across her chest and leaned casually back in her chair. "You do know that I'm the daughter of Toph Beifong, right? You think she didn't teach me how to tell when people are lying?" In truth, Lin had never really picked it up. It required too much patience and concentration. But Ming-Hua didn't know that.
Ming-Hua maintained her composure. "I'm not worried."
Lin shrugged. "Suit yourself. If I were you, I'd be hopeful that your spy is as strong as the rest of you. Looks to me like he'll snap like a twig under pressure. Torture is illegal by United Republic standards, but since Zaofu isn't really a part of any nation, well…" Lin waved her fingers in the air, "there's some gray area."
Ming-Hua smirked. "You don't have it in you."
Lin finally let some anger show on her face as she snapped to her feet and rapidly closed the distance between herself and Ming-Hua, leaning in menacingly close to the waterbender's face and saying in a low voice, "You came in here and threatened the lives of people I love. Try me."
The sound of the door suddenly swinging inward and slamming into the wall diverted Lin's attention. She whirled on the intruder, scowling and on high alert. When she saw Aiwei standing in the doorway, she snapped, "What are you doing –?!"
Aiwei interrupted her, out of breath and perspiring as he hurriedly gasped, "There was an explosion – the Avatar and your son Ronen – Su sent me to find you –"
Lin felt her stomach drop, and with concern for her son igniting her veins, she raced out of Ming-Hua's cell without another thought. It was only then that she noticed the unconscious forms of the Metal Clan guards sprawled on the floor in the hallway, but by that point it was too late. Just as she skidded to a halt and was about to turn back around to face Aiwei, she felt her metal armor beginning to constrict all around her. The initial pain of it compressing around her legs, arms, and torso caused her to cry out and drop to the floor. She strained to fight back against it, pushing the metal away from her body even as Aiwei continued to squeeze it closer. With the way it tightened around her chest she was fighting for breath, and her arms wouldn't cooperate as she meant them to. But she was stronger than Aiwei, she had to be, and she gritted her teeth and all but growled as she started to fling some of the armor off of her. Pieces of it she directed behind her, where she knew Aiwei stood and would be forced to evade the sharp metal flying towards him. But then, when she started to push herself up onto her hands and knees, she was kicked back down to the floor, and a boot stomped down onto her hand, pinning it in place.
With her eyes watering from the strain, Lin looked up to see Ming-Hua standing over her, newly released and smirking, her water arms once again hanging at her sides. Before Lin could even react, Ming-Hua turned one of the water whips into an icy blade, and then brought it down on Lin's wrist. Blood sprayed across her face and pain lanced through her, and for one horrifying moment of awareness she was almost certain that her hand had been cut off from her arm.
Ming-Hua said, "Thanks again," and then the world swirled around her and Lin slumped to the floor, succumbing to the darkness.
All her life Su had valued family above all else. Of course, she had failed at showing it in her teens, and all but obliterated part of it when she scarred her sister's face. But since then she had worked to accumulate as much family as possible, and to maintain that system however she could. When she had built Zaofu, she had wanted to make a place that was safe and welcoming to all kinds of people – reformed criminals like herself and people without families or homes. She made it a point to try and get to know all of her people, which admittedly became a little more difficult as the city grew, but she was always reaching out, always trying to ensure everyone was happy and comfortable. She considered many of them family, she trusted them, she cared for them. So when she learned that one of them was a traitor to both her and everyone else in the city, she had felt doubly betrayed.
Learning that it was Hong Li that had let Zaheer and his gang in had made Su feel sick to her stomach. She had been so angry, yelling at the young guard and barely suppressing the part of her that wanted to punt him into oblivion. Didn't he understand what he had done? What his actions could have caused? The Avatar could have been kidnapped, Su's own family – her children, her sister, her niece and her nephews – all of them could have been killed or severely wounded. The entire city could have been melted down by Ghazan's lava. How could a boy barely older than her two youngest sons help orchestrate something so catastrophic? She could only reconcile it with herself because she knew that young people made especially poor decisions, and maybe Hong Li hadn't known just how badly his actions would affect everyone else.
Su had been angered by Hong Li's supposed involvement, and angrier still by her sister's theory that someone else had been helping him and brainwashing him. But when Ronen and Korra and their friends told her that Hong Li's involvement had been falsified, and that the real traitor was Aiwei, Su had been devastated. Aiwei was one of her most trusted advisors. He had sat with her family at the dinner table many times. He was practically family himself, and he had betrayed her. She could hardly believe it, but she had heard the explosion at Aiwei's house and went running, and she had discovered Ronen having barely survived a brush with death. When Ronen and his friends had gone to Aiwei's home with their suspicions, they discovered a secret tunnel beneath the house, and Aiwei was immediately suspicious about seeing all of them there when he returned home. At being found out, Aiwei escaped through the tunnel and destroyed all evidence that he had been working with Zaheer by blowing it up. If it hadn't been for Korra's airbending, the kids might have been blown up too.
Su didn't have much time after that initial explanation to consider Aiwei's involvement, because Ronen suggested that Aiwei might try to break out Ming-Hua on his way out, and they all went racing over to the holding cells. But they were too late there too. The door to Ming-Hua's cell was wide open, and several Metal Clan guards were sprawled through the hallway, breathing but unconscious. Even more disturbing, though, was the familiar form they found slumped in a pool of blood and contorted by her own misshapen armor.
Despite how frequently it seemed to occur, Su had never really seen her sister injured before, only the aftermath, which had been bad enough. To be there and see the blood, to see Lin lying there, far too still and far too pale, was enough to send Su half into hysterics. With anyone else she might have been calm, might have been all reason and logic and optimism. But with her sister she was frantic, and even though she could see that Ronen was a little frantic too, she couldn't seem to calm herself down. Maybe it was the combination of everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, maybe it was the lack of sleep. Maybe she was just terrified that her sister was mortally wounded and that was reason enough to freak out.
Thankfully Korra kept her cool, and sent Asami racing off to find more healers, ordered Mako to check on the other guards, and Bolin to help her make a tourniquet.
"Where's it all coming from?" Ronen asked in a shaky voice, looking almost as pale as his mother, his gaze fixated on the blood. "Should we turn her over?"
"Not yet," Korra said, face set in concentration and a bit of a grimace. "I think it's just from her arm. Su, do you think you can take her armor off? Do it carefully. I can't tell if it might have punctured something."
Su nodded but her hands were shaking and she wasn't actually sure she could do it. It looked like Aiwei had tried to crush Lin inside her own armor, and what if something had stabbed through Lin's flesh? What if Su pulled it out and made it worse? But surely Lin would have defended herself. Surely she would have pushed back against Aiwei's metalbending and protected her body from serious harm. Lin's arm though… Now that Su was looking at it closely she was fairly certain she could see bone, a gash cut so deeply into Lin's wrist that it was a wonder her hand was still connected at all. Su had to look away quickly, but the image was probably burned in her brain for all of eternity.
Su sucked in a deep breath and tried to center herself, focused on what she had to do because Lin needed her. She was a Beifong for spirit's sake. Not some lily-livered sucker. She was a damn good metalbender, and she would know if Lin's armor had pierced through flesh if she was paying attention. So while Korra and Bolin were tying off Lin's wrist to try and stop the bleeding, Su slowly began running her hands over Lin's metal armor and strategically removing it. She quickly determined that she had been overly worried about it, because none of the metal had stabbed through or even done much harm aside from constricting around Lin's body. It must have been painful, but no lasting damage had occurred. As it turned out, the crushed metal guard on Lin's wrist was likely what had saved her from losing her hand or completely bleeding out.
"I hate to say she was lucky," Korra murmured, still tending to Lin's wounded wrist, "but this could have been a lot worse."
"Why did they even bother?" Ronen questioned, with plain disgust and ire in his tone. "What reason would they have for trying to cut her hand off?"
"Was it her wrist guard that did it?" Bolin suggested, frequently averting his gaze away from the wound, as if he couldn't fully look away, but was also sickened by it. "Maybe they weren't really trying to do it."
"No, it wasn't from the metal," Korra answered. "Something else cut through it. What was she even doing down here? I thought we weren't going to bother questioning Ming-Hua for a while."
"Well, you know Lin," Su replied, having to swallow the lump in her throat to keep going. "She has her own way of doing things. I guess she thought she could get something out of her, or maybe she was worried about someone trying to break Ming-Hua out even before we were."
"The other guards seem to be okay to me," Mako said as he rejoined them. "Some of them are coming around. Aiwei must have taken them by surprise and knocked them out from behind. Beifong is the only one that seems to have fought back."
A voice from down the hall could be heard calling, "They're down here!" And then Asami came into view, with several healers and doctors in tow. Some of them fanned out to check on the guards, while three came straight to Lin.
Korra explained to the healers what she had done so far, and then it was decided to get Lin back to the hospital quickly, for fluids and surgery and maybe a blood transfusion. They all worked together to carefully turn Lin over and place her on a gurney, and then carried her out of the holding cell, secured her in the back of a jeep, and drove her to the hospital.
Then Lin was taken to surgery and Su could do nothing but pace. At some point she checked in on her guards, and was genuinely glad that all of them seemed just fine, but she was so angry and so worried she could hardly express any relief. She was angry at herself for trusting Aiwei, for not seeing through him. She was angry that he and Ming-Hua had escaped. And she was angrier still that her sister had been injured. She was worried that Lin would bleed out or lose her hand or something equally dramatic, so she couldn't sit and she couldn't totally catch her breath. She thought she might have tried to give Ronen some reassurances, but in her current state she was less efficient than usual. Thankfully Ronen had Asami and all his friends, and he seemed to find his own purpose when Yunjin and Jeia arrived at the hospital. Korra had gone to tell them about what had happened, with a watered down version of their mother's injuries, and the two of them came rushing in with the same anger and worry that Su was feeling.
It was Bataar's arrival that finally got Su to stop pacing. He gave her that look and squeezed her shoulder and she collapsed into his arms. He was always so silent in these situations, but it seemed to bolster her, as if she needed to fill the silence, and in that she could make herself useful. She finally went over and sat down with her nephews and niece, quietly talking their ears off to keep their minds off of worry for their mother, and occasionally to make them smile just a little. Jeia crawled into her lap at some point and remained there for the rest of their wait.
Thankfully, the wait was not as long as they feared it might be, and when the surgeon came out to find them she was smiling. Ronen, Jin, and Su with Jeia on her hip all lurched to their feet, and before they could even ask the surgeon was telling them, "Surgery went well. No permanent damage to her wrist and hand since we caught it so quickly, but it'll be weak for a few days while it rehabilitates; she was very lucky. She's awake now, just a little groggy. She's asking for you all."
Su and the kids needed no further prompting, and went straight back with the doctor to Lin's room. The others stayed behind to wait for them, so as not to overwhelm Lin so soon after waking. When the four of them entered the room, Lin immediately sat up and held out her uninjured arm as if reaching for them, and Su was beyond relieved to see her sister's ashen face. Her left arm was wrapped from palm to elbow and hanging limply in her lap, and she looked dizzy and tired as she swayed there, but she was alive.
Su and the kids all tried to hug her at once, which was even more difficult when Lin only really had one arm to hold onto them with, but they made do. Jeia curled up against her mother's side and Yunjin sat halfway down the bed by Lin's knees. Ronen and Su stood next to each other at Lin's bedside and all five of them tried to talk at once, expressing relief and asking questions about what had happened.
Lin's raspy voice eventually won out as she demanded, "What the flameo happened? Aiwei told me there was an explosion, that Ronen was hurt, next thing I know I'm getting ambushed. You guys don't look hurt. He didn't hurt you did he?"
She practically growled the last part, and Ronen reached out to gently squeeze her shoulder as he explained, "There was an explosion, but Korra protected us. Mako and I were suspicious about how some of the evidence was lining up, and we went over to Aiwei's place to do some digging, with Korra, Asami, and Bolin. We found a secret tunnel behind his bookshelf, but before we could investigate further, Aiwei came back home. We spoke with him, he realized we suspected, and he took off through the tunnel. By the time we got down there the bomb he had rigged blew up in our faces. It destroyed any evidence or helpful documents we might have found down there. Aunt Su came over and then we had a bad feeling that he was going to break out Ming-Hua. He must have gotten there before us and told you about me to distract you. What were you doing down there?"
Lin sighed. "I was talking to Ming-Hua. I was hoping maybe I could get something out of her myself. Last time there were so many people trying to question them, and everything had to be done by the book, and I had two newborns and a three year old so I wasn't involved all that much. I figured maybe a little one on one would make something slip. When people get arrogant they tend to mess up. But I didn't have much time with her."
"Did the ugly man hurt your arm?" Jeia mumbled, carefully brushing her fingers over her mother's bandaged wrist.
"No," Lin quietly answered, stroking Jeia's hair with her uninjured hand and leaning back against the pillows propped up behind her. Jeia leaned with her, so as to remain pressed against her mother's chest. "That was a thank you from Ming-Hua."
"A thank you?" Yunjin scoffed, and Su only noticed then how angry he looked. He'd been quietly seething since he arrived at the hospital, but Su had thought it was just anxiety over his mother's unknown condition. Now she could see that it was more than that. His hands were balled into tight fists and he looked ready to snap off of the bed to go hunt Ming-Hua down.
"So it was purposeful," Ronen added, looking grim but not so enraged.
"I didn't make any friends when I helped throw the four of them in prison fourteen years ago," Lin muttered, examining her bandaged wrist. "At least she didn't manage to cut my whole hand off."
"Oh, Lin," Su whispered, tears brimming in her eyes again. "I'm so sorry. I should have never trusted Aiwei. I promised I would keep you and everyone safe here and I failed."
Lin frowned and reached out to grab her sister's hand, squeezing tight. "Hey, it's not your fault. You couldn't have known that guy was lying, traitorous scum."
"You never really trusted him," Su pointed out, sniffing back the tears that were desperately trying to spill over.
"Yeah, but I don't trust anyone," Lin countered. "And even I didn't really suspect him as the traitor. Zaheer and his people are no fools. If we want to take them down we just have to be smarter."
"We need to be out there right now," Yunjin snapped, sliding off the edge of the bed in a huff. "We need to be looking for Aiwei and Ming-Hua."
"I have people scouring the mountainside, Yunjin," Su placated. "And checking the tunnel he used to escape. If they're out there, we'll find them."
"No offense, Aunt Su, but your guards aren't going to be able to bring those two in even if they do find them. Korra and I were talking out in the waiting room, and she says Naga can track their scent. If we leave now we can catch up with them, and they'll lead us right to Zaheer and the others."
"And then what?" Ronen demanded. "We barely beat them the last time, and who knows who else they've got on their side?"
"Well what's your idea then?" Yunjin scoffed. "Sit around and wait for them to come back? Run around for the rest of our lives and hope they don't find us? We need to do something."
"We will do something," Ronen said, calmer than his brother but struggling to hold in his own frustrations. "But we can't just go running straight towards the danger without a plan. We need to protect Korra and –"
"Korra doesn't need you to protect her," Yunjin interrupted. "She's the Avatar, and she's getting really sick of you getting in her way."
Ronen rolled his eyes. "Korra knows I'm just looking out for her. And I don't need to defend myself to you. You might have been useful at catching Ming-Hua, but you haven't got a clue about how to plan for these situations. Not everything can be solved by punching people. There needs to be strategy."
"Except your strategy is to do nothing," Yunjin argued.
"Enough," Lin interjected, before Ronen could counter or Yunjin could continue. "We aren't hunting anyone down –"
Yunjin exclaimed, "But –!"
And Lin cut him off again, this time with a lot more heat in her tone. "No! We don't know how many other secret agents could be out there looking for Korra right now. It's too dangerous. We need to regroup and get some backup."
"The longer we wait the more powerful they'll become!" Yunjin shouted. "We can't just let them get away so that they can ambush us again. For spirit's sake you're lucky they didn't kill you. You're acting like cowards –"
"Yunjin!" Su snapped. "That's enough. Don't ever speak to your mother like that. I know you're frustrated. Believe me, there's nothing I want more than to make Aiwei and the rest of them pay for what they've done, but your mother's right. It's too dangerous right now. So you need to go cool off and get on board. When we do come up with a plan we'll need you to be with us, not arguing against us."
Yunjin stood there and seethed for a moment, his hands balled into fists, but he finally gave up on fighting them and then muttered a short, "Whatever." He stormed out of the room, and Su exchanged a concerned look with her sister.
"All right," Lin sighed, rubbing wearily at her forehead. "Someone go get the paperwork to sign me out of here."
Su pursed her lips. "Are you kidding me? You just woke up from surgery."
"And I'm fine," Lin insisted.
"You need to rest," Ronen urged.
"Then I'll rest in the guest house or Su's living room," Lin countered. "I'm not gonna relax in this itchy gown on this hard ass bed. So either help me out here or I'll walk out on my own."
Ronen and Su released a collective sigh and said in resigned unison, "Fine."
Yunjin spent the rest of the afternoon blowing off steam in one of his aunt's many courtyards, twisting and weaving around metal obstacles that were flung into his path. It was an obstacle course he'd had his cousins Wei and Wing put together for him several years ago, which could be activated by using airbending on the metal figures, so that he could practice his own bending when he was visiting without having a sparring partner. Especially on days like today, it was better that he didn't need to hold back to avoid hurting someone, and better still that he could be alone with his thoughts and the air.
He felt a little guilty for snapping at his mother and Ronen, but he was pissed at Ming-Hua and Aiwei and the rest of them. His mother could have lost her hand or been killed. Korra could have been captured or killed just the night before that. Yunjin didn't want to see any of his family suffer any longer. He didn't want his parents to have to be separated and Jeia to have to live in Zaofu without them. He wanted things to go back to normal, if their lives had ever even been normal at all. He knew he had to grow up and control his temper, and prove he was worthy of getting his tattoos. But how could he do all that when everything was such a mess? He still wasn't certain he was doing the right thing. He missed Sora, and he missed Jinora, and he wished he hadn't screwed everything up back at the Northern Air Temple, but there was nothing to be done about that now. Now the only thing he could do was push forward, focus on what needed to be done, and do what he did best.
He had done well with capturing Ming-Hua. No one else had been able to do that. And he could make plans just as well as Ronen could. His plans just had a bit of a different approach, along with a bit more haste. Sometimes being in a hurry was necessary. Sometimes waiting too long could mean the difference between succeeding or failing, living or dying. Airbending was about precision and mindfulness, but it was also about speed, about acting on instinct and avoiding all obstacles. Yunjin wasn't brash and stupid just because his methods were different. He would prove that his brother was wrong about him. He would prove that he was just as smart as the rest of his family.
So he carried out his plan when night fell, careful not to be seen and with sufficient haste. He couldn't be missing for long without his mother sending someone to look for him. She was suspicious that he might try to run off himself, but he knew better than to do that. Instead, he snuck over to the guest house where Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami were gathered. They were just as unhappy as he was about not being able to go after Aiwei and Ming-Hua, but dutifully following his mother's orders for the time being, in part because Su and Ronen had both agreed and shut down the argument altogether.
At Yunjin's arrival, all four of them looked confused, and even more surprised when he held up a key to present to Korra. "There's a jeep packed with supplies by the East gate. It's gassed up and ready to go."
"What?" Korra spluttered. "Why?"
"Because you need to find Aiwei and Ming-Hua before they reconnect with Zaheer," Yunjin explained.
"Does your mother know you're here?" Mako asked. "Or Ronen?"
Yunjin shook his head. "Of course not. They'd only try and stop you. I'll handle them so you guys can get a head start."
"Without Ronen?" Bolin said, sounding uncertain.
"Yeah, I don't know about this," Asami said hesitantly. "I don't think we should be leaving him behind, or without even telling him we're going."
"He'll be safe here," Yunjin placated. "And he's looking after my mother. Telling him that you're leaving will only make it impossible for you to go. Do you want to catch these guys or not?"
"We do," Korra asserted, clutching the key tight in her fist. "I don't like leaving Ronen behind either, but if he won't come with us then it's our only option."
"Oh he's gonna be so mad," Bolin fretted.
"Let's be honest," Mako said, "this isn't the first time we've all disagreed on something and it won't be the last. He'll forgive us."
Asami looked dreadfully torn, even after she'd just spent thirty minutes arguing with Ronen about why they should be chasing Aiwei. Frankly, it had been a rather mild argument, and Yunjin had been slightly confused by how easy it looked for the two of them to disagree so vehemently and yet remain so…calm. "I guess…" she said slowly. "I guess he could always catch up with us later."
"Exactly," Korra said. "He'll forgive us. Let's go get these guys."
The rest of them nodded with determination, and Yunjin stepped off to the side so that they could go past him. Before they left, Korra pulled him into a quick hug and said, "Thanks, Jin." And Yunjin smiled proudly even though he wished he could go with them. But he knew if he did, he'd only be jeopardizing their mission, because his mother would notice his absence far sooner than she would theirs. Because he wasn't just obsessed with fighting like everyone thought he was. He had made the wise decision to exclude himself this time, so that Korra and her friends could go and do what needed to be done. Now Yunjin's mission was to make sure no one realized they were gone until morning, and hope his mother didn't strangle him when she found out.
Notes:
-Next up, Ronen realizes his friends left without him, Lin is tired of people not listening to her, and Yunjin has to face the consequences of some of his rash decisions. Also, Korra chases Aiwei into the Spirit World and runs into more than one familiar face. I'm so thankful for all your kind words, until next time!-
Chapter 79: Chapter 79
Chapter Text
Chapter 79
Ronen had never known his mother without her scars. Likewise, he had never known his father without his tattoos. In essence, those parts of them did not change their character, did not affect his view of them as his parents, two of the people he admired most in the world. But there was no denying that those outer parts of them were integral to their own growth and being. His mother's scars were a reminder of a difficult but crucial time in her life, and his father's tattoos had a deep and spiritual meaning to him. Ronen knew that he would never fully understand those parts of his parents. Not in the way that they did.
What Ronen did understand was that his mother was not one to take risks. More specifically, she was not one to take risks with her children's lives. She could see the futility in trying to hold them back completely, but she would do anything in her power to keep them as far from harm as possible, and if they were involved in a dangerous situation, she would automatically throw herself into harms way to try and protect them. She was stubborn and hot-tempered, and would throw all logic out the window the second she recognized a threat to the people she loved.
And yet she wondered why Yunjin was the way that he was. Ronen, on the other hand, knew exactly why his brother was brash and willful. He was just like their mother, but with even more spirit, and he could not be contained. Sometimes that part of Yunjin was useful, inspiring even. Other times it drove Ronen mad. He loved his brother, really, but their warring ideologies drove them apart, even more so as they grew older. Ronen did not like disorder, and Yunjin was everything but orderly. So when Ronen noticed the absence of all his friends and his girlfriend at breakfast the morning after Aiwei and Ming-Hua's escape, he immediately turned his gaze onto Yunjin.
Ronen hadn't gone to talk to his friends after their disagreement over chasing down the escaped criminals. It was late and he knew they were frustrated and he was still worried about his mother – she had lost a lot of blood even if she hadn't lost her hand. He thought he would let his friends cool off and watch his mother for any sign of deteriorating health, and he had dozed off in an arm chair for most of the night. At some point he managed to drag himself to bed, and the next morning he was focused on forcing his mother to eat. She wasn't feeling all that well first thing in the morning, but he knew she needed to regain her strength and a good meal was necessary for that. Yunjin and Jeia had come along as Ronen coaxed their mother to Aunt Su's dining room, and Aunt Su and her family were all there already. It wasn't until the breakfast plates were being swept away that Ronen started wondering about his friends. While he knew that they had all been frustrated with him and his mother, he knew also that Bolin never missed a meal for anything. At the very least he would have been at breakfast, and Korra probably, and Asami was rarely angry enough to actively avoid him – if anything she would have dragged him out of the dining room and forced him to talk to her about it.
But not one of the four ever entered the dining room, and Ronen looked straight at Yunjin as he asked, "Has anyone seen Korra or Asami this morning? Or Mako and Bolin?"
Yunjin had always been a talented story teller, that Ronen could not deny, but he was not so good at keeping real secrets. The way he paused, for just a quarter of a second, with his glass of juice halfway towards his mouth, gave him away before he even opened his mouth and replied, "Probably just sleeping in. I would have too if you hadn't been making all that racket this morning."
Ronen wasn't fooled, and neither was Mom, who let out a long suffering sigh before demanding, "Yunjin, what did you do?"
"Why do you always assume I did something?" Yunjin huffed.
"When have I ever been wrong?" Mom countered, her voice rising with her impatience. "Tell me what you did."
"I only did what needed to be done," Yunjin defended. "Korra was gonna go looking anyways, probably. I just gave them a little help."
Mom slammed her uninjured hand down on the table and the remaining cutlery rattled noisily. She lurched to her feet, her chair screeching across the floor and nearly tipping over. She didn't say another word, only strode straight for the doorway, and Aunt Su called to her, "Where are you going?"
"To find them," Mom snapped.
"I'm coming with you," Ronen asserted, hurrying up out of his seat and after his mother.
"We can all go," Yunjin unwisely suggested. "They'll need all the help they can –"
Mom came to such an abrupt halt, and spun so quickly on the spot, that Ronen almost ran right into her. He sidestepped as she stomped past him, back towards Yunjin, and the anger on her face was enough to make the boy immediately drop back down into his seat. "You are not going anywhere," she growled. "You've done enough to help. You just sit here and try not to screw anything else up, and pray that the Avatar isn't already in the hands of those psychos."
Mom spun back around and resumed her purposeful march out of the room, and Ronen went with her. Aunt Su hesitated for half a second before scrambling out of her own seat and rushing after them saying, "Let me help you guys get some supplies."
Mom was angry the entire time they were prepping and filling a jeep. She didn't speak except to bark orders, and Aunt Su and Ronen knew to leave her to her brooding for a while, staying mostly quiet as they worked alongside her. It wasn't until they were about to leave that Aunt Su grabbed Mom by the biceps and shook her a little.
"Be careful," Aunt Su urged. "Don't do something stupid because you're angry. Radio me if you need help. I'll send Zuko and Tonraq your way as soon as they get here."
Mom finally cracked for a second, softening enough to pull Aunt Su into a hug and promise, "I'll keep in contact. I'll let you know as soon as I find anything. Take care of Jeia for me and…good luck with Yunjin."
"I'll make sure he stays out of trouble. You just focus on Korra and the kids." Aunt Su turned on Ronen then, dragging him into a back breaking hug. "You be careful too. Listen to your mother."
"We'll be back in no time," Ronen assured, his voice a bit strained by his aunt's tight hold.
"And all in one piece," Aunt Su commanded, finally releasing him, and she gave Mom and her injured wrist a pointed look.
Ronen got into the jeep alongside his mother, and they took off down the mountain path without a word between them. Mom was still busy seething about Yunjin and probably Korra too, and Ronen had his own muddled emotions to deal with. He wasn't surprised that Korra and Mako had left him behind. He knew how they got when they were set on a particular goal. Asami could be much the same, he knew that, but he would have expected her to at least tell him before she left. He wasn't completely angry with them for going without him, but he was a little hurt. Mostly he was worried. Zaheer's gang was ruthless and powerful, and the only reason Ronen didn't fight his mother on chasing Aiwei and Ming-Hua was because he didn't think they could beat Zaheer's whole crew on their own, especially if Zaheer had more people out there that they didn't even know about. He wanted to wait for Zuko and Tonraq to join them, maybe his father and Uncle Bumi and Aunt Kya too. Maybe all of them together would be enough. But separate he had the sinking feeling that they weren't. Zaheer had been too close to snatching Korra right from underneath their noses, and Ming-Hua had nearly taken off his mother's arm, and the other two were crazy powerful themselves. He had never heard of lavabending before, and even though he knew combustionbending was real, he had never seen its power up close. Now he was nearly as wary of Zaheer's group as his mother had been from the start.
But his friends had no such reservations. They had faced so many crazy villains in the last two years or so that they weren't intimidated. Unvaatu had been so formidable Ronen couldn't entirely blame them, but he remembered full well how they had barely beaten the dark spirit. Korra was much better at pretending, much better at ignoring those dark moments from her past. She didn't want to be intimidated by Zaheer, and so she chose not to be.
Ronen was surprised when his mother, the master of ignoring emotions, was the first one to speak. He felt her gaze on him for a short while, before she had to refocus on the road, and then she was saying over the sound of the roaring engine and the wind, "You doing all right?"
Ronen looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. "Are you?"
She shrugged without glancing his way. "Your brother is going to be the death of me."
"You do know he gets that from you, right?" Ronen risked saying, and then bit down on the inside of his cheek to stifle a laugh when his mother shot him a dark glare.
"I was never that reckless," she argued.
"That's not what Gran-Gran says."
"Gran-Gran is overly dramatic. Always has been."
"Maybe, but she's usually right," Ronen pointed out.
Mom harrumphed, and said no more. For the rest of the drive they were mostly silent. When they did speak, it was to discuss where they might find Korra and the others. As they traveled further out of Zaofu, Ronen was able to see his mother's detective skills in action, in a way he had never been so privy to. He had always assumed she was great at it, but to actually witness her work was impressive. Neither of them had any idea where Aiwei and Ming-Hua could have gone, or if Korra and the others had caught up to them, but between the two of them they managed to figure it out by mid-afternoon.
Several hours of searching and following various hunches lead them to the Misty Palms Oasis just on the edge of the Si Wong Desert. There they found Naga and Pabu, as well as two jeeps, one that had been given to Korra by Yunjin, and the other that Aiwei and Ming-Hua must have used to escape. Korra was nowhere to be found, but asking around town eventually revealed that she and the others had taken up a room at the Misty Palms Inn. Ronen and his mother had no clue what Korra had discovered or why she'd chosen to stay at the inn, but both of them were impatient to find out. However, Ronen could tell that his mother was still seething a little, and if he let her go barging into the room, she was likely only going to make things worse with Korra.
So before his mother could storm off in that direction, he grabbed her arm and swung her back around as he suggested, "Why don't you go back to the cantina and wait for Zuko and Tonraq? I'll talk to Korra and the others."
"No offense, kid, but what makes you think they're gonna listen to you this time?"
Ronen shrugged. "Maybe they won't, but they definitely aren't going to be receptive to you either. Let me try first."
"We don't even know what condition they'll be in," Mom argued. "Or if they're even still there. You could be walking into a trap."
"You can watch me walk into the room and I'll give you a thumbs up if it'll make you feel better," Ronen conceded. "And I'll keep in contact with you. I'll radio you every hour, if it takes me a while to talk sense into them."
Mom pressed her lips together, clearly displeased but seeing sense in his plan. Korra hated taking orders and Mom wasn't likely to be gentle about it, especially with how annoyed she was at the current moment. Ronen at least stood a chance at reasoning with Korra. Not that Ronen expected that to happen. He mostly just wanted some time alone with his friends, to ask them why they ditched him and maybe make them feel a little guilty for it. He didn't expect them to suddenly change their minds and go back to Zaofu empty handed. Not unless they were discouraged by a lack of results, but even that could often lead them to persist until they achieved something.
"Fine," Mom eventually relented. "But contact me every half hour, and if you don't see any results by nightfall I'm coming in myself."
Ronen reached out and squeezed his mother's shoulder. "Try to relax," he urged. "I'll handle this. You just focus on getting Tonraq and Zuko up to speed. And if danger comes, we'll have their help, so don't worry."
"Oh I'll worry," Mom grumbled. "Put your hood up before you go over there. And if you don't see one of your friends the second that door opens –"
"Mom," Ronen interrupted with a patient smile, "I got it. I'll be careful."
She rolled her eyes and huffed, and walked away from him muttering under her breath. He watched her stride out of the Misty Palms Inn to position herself on an incline that provided her with a perfect view of the room in which Korra and the others were supposed to be. He gave her a thumbs up and strode over to the door, and then he knocked and braced himself for whatever he was about to walk into.
There was a pause of silence, a shuffle from inside, whispered voices that clearly belonged to his friends, and then the door opened a crack, a hand shot out to grab him by the shirt, and he was yanked inside.
He started to splutter, "What are you –?" but then stopped abruptly when he crashed straight into somebody and felt a hand cover his mouth.
"Shhh," several voices urged as he continued to make a racket.
"Did he see us?" Korra asked quickly.
"I don't think so," Mako answered. "The curtains haven't budged."
"What if you missed it?" Bolin fretted.
"I didn't miss it," Mako snapped.
"I knew this would happen," Asami sighed. "I told you he would come."
"I thought it would take longer," Korra grumbled. "And that we wouldn't be here for so long."
"Are we sure he's even still in there?" Bolin questioned.
"He hasn't left," Mako asserted. "Would you all quiet down?"
Ronen did not take the time to interrupt his friends' fast paced conversation, nor did he even take more than a second to take in his surroundings. He snatched the radio off his belt and quickly said, "I'm fine! It's all good in here. All four of them are here. Don't kick the door down."
There was a pause, in which Asami and the others all looked at him with expressions of confusion, and then his mother's irritated voice growled through the receiver, "Copy."
Only then did Ronen relax and take a look around, and realized that he was crammed into a room barely large enough for two people. Naga and Pabu took up the entirety of the bed and then some, Mako was still staring out of the window at something, and Bolin, Korra, and Asami were crowded into whatever space was left. There was a Pai Sho board on the floor surrounded by pieces that were strewn all over.
"What are you doing in here?" he asked.
"You brought your mom?" Korra parried.
"She's gonna blow our cover," Mako started.
"She's out of sight," Ronen assured. "And she'll be going back to the cantina. Now is someone going to tell me what's going on? And why you left me?"
"For the record," Bolin chimed in, "I didn't want to go without you."
"It wasn't personal," Korra added, shifting guiltily. "I'm sorry, but we really needed to do this. I thought you would understand that, considering what they did to your mother especially, but you didn't seem to be coming around and we needed to act. We can't let Aiwei and Ming-Hua get back to Zaheer."
"Technically," Mako muttered, "Ming-Hua did get away."
"That's because we got here too late," Korra grumbled. "And she could still be around here somewhere."
"Aiwei is in the room across from us," Asami provided, when Ronen's level of confusion only rose. She didn't seem able to look him fully in the eye, her gaze just slightly off. "We tracked him here, but we haven't seen Ming-Hua anywhere."
"Which means she could be watching us right now," Ronen huffed, snatching the radio off his belt again and immediately relaying the information to his mother. There was a longer delay in her response this time, and for a second he worried he was too late, that Ming-Hua might have gotten to his mother again already, but then she finally responded with a simple, "Copy," again, and he breathed just a little easier. At least she was aware now and on the look out.
"I doubt Ming-Hua is around," Mako interjected afterwards. "We asked around to find Aiwei and no one had seen him with a woman. I think once he freed her, she probably went her own way, maybe to scout ahead."
"Well what's your plan here then?" Ronen questioned. "Just sit here and wait for Aiwei to do something?"
"He's supposed to be meeting with Zaheer," Korra answered. "At someplace called Xai Bau's Grove. But we don't know where that is, and we couldn't find it on the map, so we've been waiting to see what Aiwei will do. Mako thinks we'll learn more from spying on them."
Ronen sighed and rubbed his eyes. "First of all, you're insane if you think you'd ever get close enough to Zaheer to listen in on his conversation. Second of all, if Ming-Hua left Aiwei behind I'm doubting he's all that important to Zaheer, and he'll be lucky if Zaheer shows up to the meeting place at all. And lastly, Xai Bau's Grove doesn't show up on a map because it isn't in the physical world. It's in the Spirit World."
Korra's eyes widened. "Wait, seriously? So all this time we've just been sitting here waiting for something to happen that might have already happened! Aiwei could have met with Zaheer five times over by now!"
"Maybe if you had included me in all this," Ronen muttered, only slightly bitter, "you might have known that."
"Maybe if you had just agreed to come with us in the first place," Korra countered. "You're the one that sided with your mom."
"I didn't side with anyone," Ronen huffed. "I was trying to be reasonable. You should try it some time."
"You reason too much," Korra complained. "Sometimes you just have to act."
"I act plenty," Ronen argued. "Maybe you should stop being a hot head."
"Okay, okay, enough," Asami interjected before either of them could go on, squeezing past Bolin to hastily insert herself between the two of them. "You two have argued this point a thousand times. Can we move on?" She seemed more annoyed than usual and Ronen started feeling a little guilty himself, but it was short lived because she was the one that had left him behind. She had no room to be frustrated with him.
"I'm not waiting anymore," Korra decided then. "I'm going over there."
"Korra, wait," Mako tried to stop her, but she shoved past all of them and stormed out of the door.
The four of them that remained hastened to follow her across the courtyard to Aiwei's room. By the time they reached her, Korra had already kicked down his door and burst inside. As the rest of them crowded in, they found Aiwei sitting atop his bed, posed in meditation, eyes closed and body still. He did not react to them entering his room, but Ronen still tensed.
"I'm going in after him," Korra declared.
"We'll watch over you," Asami promised.
"Hang on," Ronen interjected, grabbing Korra by the shoulder and turning her to face him. "You don't have to do this. We can just take Aiwei with us back to Zaofu. Then you'll have accomplished at least part of what you planned. We can question him –"
"And what if he says nothing?" Korra countered. "This is an opportunity to listen in on whatever he and Zaheer have to say. I need answers, Ronen. I need to know why they keep trying to kidnap me and what it is they want. We can't fight them like this any longer."
She shrugged out of his grip and sat down across from Aiwei without another word. Ronen frowned but didn't protest further. Korra had made up her mind and he wasn't going to stop her.
He went to the corner of the room while Korra closed her eyes and dropped into meditation, and Mako and Bolin went to search the perimeter of the inn, to make sure there weren't any surprises waiting nearby. Ronen contacted his mother, to let her know what was going on, and she still sounded highly annoyed over the radio. She was still waiting on Tonraq and Zuko to meet her at the cantina, and then she was going to come to the inn.
Then Ronen and Asami were basically alone, and Ronen had no other way to avoid her, so he finally met her gaze.
Asami opened her mouth to speak, but Ronen beat her to it. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Asami sighed, her shoulders slumping. "I'm sorry. I wanted to, but you were so adamant about staying. I didn't want to make you choose between us and your family."
"You are my family," Ronen said firmly. "All four of you. It isn't a matter of choosing between anyone. I value your input as much as my mother's, I just happened to agree with her this time. I still would have liked to know what was going on, instead of finding out several hours later and having to track you all down."
"We thought you would stop us," Asami admitted. "When Yunjin brought us the keys, it just seemed like our only chance."
"I think you should know by now that I can't stop you from doing anything. I'm not your keeper."
"I know that," Asami asserted, suddenly closing the distance between them to grasp one of his hands. She smiled softly. "You make some pretty convincing arguments though. Sometimes we don't want to be talked out of it."
"I hate to sound like my mother, but you guys could have gotten yourselves killed and I wouldn't have even known about it," Ronen grumbled.
"We're a little more resourceful than that," Asami defended. "But you're right. We should have told you. I should have told you."
Ronen looked away for a moment, chewing on his bottom lip and watching Korra and Aiwei, both of them sitting still as statues. He felt Asami squeeze his hand again, but he didn't turn to face her yet.
When he remained silent, she pressed, "What is it? Tell me."
Without turning to face her still, Ronen murmured, "Did you not trust me?"
"Hey," Asami said quietly, tugging his hand and, when he didn't budge, gently touching his cheek and moving his head back around so that he was forced to look her in the eye. She was frowning as she shook her head. "That's not it at all. Of course I trust you. How can you even doubt that?"
"Be honest with me," Ronen implored, grasping both of her hands in a tight grip. "Part of you still expects this to end up like it did with Mako."
Asami was the one to avert her gaze now, weakly denying, "No I don't."
"Asami," Ronen said softly, and she sighed again.
"Okay, yes," she admitted, looking at him half guiltily, half defensive. "It isn't because I don't trust you. I just… I mean, come on. Mako and Bolin both fell for Korra, and I know you and her had a connection long before you and I did. It isn't that far fetched to be worried."
"No, I understand," Ronen conceded, "but I promise you it isn't like that at all. I love Korra, of course I do, but not the way that I feel about you. She introduces me as her brother half the time because that's the nature of our relationship. What you and I have is completely different. You challenge me and inspire me, and making you smile everyday is one of my top goals. You're fierce and calculating in a way that, honestly, sometimes is a little scary, but in a good way. You have no reason to worry about me losing interest because it just won't happen. And I'll tell you that a thousand times over if that's what it'll take to convince you. I just don't want the Mako thing to come between us."
Asami smiled a little shyly, her cheeks turning vaguely pink, and Ronen's heart swelled at the mere implication that he might have pleased her with his words. "You're so ridiculously sweet," she mumbled. "I'm sorry for doubting you. I guess I just never really confronted that whole situation with Mako. It shouldn't still bother me."
"All of us kind of just swept it under the rug. We never really talked about it. Maybe we should have."
"I think I just wanted to pretend it never happened."
Ronen nodded. "It's sometimes easier that way. Maybe I wasn't listening well enough."
Asami surged forward to hug him, wrapping her arms tight around his neck and murmuring next to his ear, "I promise never to run off on a dangerous mission without telling you first."
Ronen snorted and held onto her tightly. "You could also just…not run head first into danger, but I'll take what I can get."
"Don't act like you don't do it too," Asami said, pulling back to give him a pointed look and a playful smile.
"Who? Me?" Ronen asked with feigned surprise. "I would never do anything dangerous."
Asami's smile brightened, and as the sun was setting outside, dim rays of light were streaking through the small crack in the curtains, illuminating Asami's beaming face and setting her hair aglow. Ronen tried to commit the sight to memory, to stow it away for another time, but when he would try to recall it later on, it was as if the image had begun to crack and shatter all around him. The curtains were set aflame, the walls splintered to dust. Asami's face was pale and dim and marred with fear, no longer the radiant sight he knew it must have been. He would not recall much of their conversation at all, and nothing that occurred after Mako and Bolin returned to the room. All that he could salvage were brief flashes of battle, a vague image of Naga's white tail disappearing into the night, an ear-splitting crack like a whip, and then his eyes running red with blood.
Lin went back to the cantina begrudgingly, and would regret that decision for the rest of her life. Her wrist was throbbing in sync with her head, she hadn't slept more than a few scattered hours in the last three days, and frankly the allure of sitting down and letting someone else handle it for a change was all too enticing. She didn't really relax once she slumped down at a table in the back of the room. She stood out like a sore thumb in her armor and Ronen's face was on a wanted poster on the wall across from her. There were bounty hunters that had seen her with him in the cantina earlier, when she and Ronen were looking for Korra and the others, and it probably wasn't difficult for them to guess who she was. They were side eyeing her the entire time, but made the wise decision to leave her alone, just as they had earlier when she'd threatened to cut them all to shreds if they took one step towards her son. She figured it was only a matter of time before one of them tried something, but they were the least of her worries. She kept expecting Ming-Hua to come slinking through the doorway, her water arms snaking across the room to cut Lin apart.
For the first hour, Lin was on edge sitting there, constantly checking the time, constantly checking the radio for Ronen's updates. To her, it didn't sound like he was handling it very well, because he hadn't convinced his friends to come marching back to Zaofu where it might be relatively safe. But Lin left them to it because they were all but adults even if she still considered them kids, and they needed to figure things out for themselves, and Korra was the Avatar, and Ronen was usually pretty cautious, and the rest of them weren't all that stupid. And as soon as Zuko and Tonraq arrived Lin was going to drag all five of them back anyways whether they wanted to go or not. She just didn't like the waiting in the meantime. She didn't like knowing Korra was chasing Zaheer in the Spirit World and Ronen was standing directly across from Aiwei. She didn't like that Ming-Hua had mysteriously disappeared from Aiwei's side and could be anywhere.
Eventually she gave in and bought herself a drink. She hadn't allowed herself to, at first, because she needed to stay sharp, but one drink wouldn't impair her and she needed something to calm her nerves and dull the pain in her wrist. She had been pushing it too hard, after less than twenty-four hours since her hand had nearly been lopped off, and it was getting harder to close her hand into a fist without her muscles cramping and pain lancing through her wrist. She asked for some ice in a separate glass when she ordered her drink, hoping putting her wrist in it might soothe some of the pain too, but the bartender just scoffed and all but laughed in her face.
The sun had just sunk below the horizon when Zuko and Tonraq finally entered the cantina. They strode straight over to Lin, looking travel worn and weary. They had been traveling back and forth all over the place since Zaheer escaped, and Zuko especially looked as tired as Lin felt. Tonraq was a little younger than Lin, a little less afflicted, but she could see the strain of worry on his face. She didn't imagine being the father of the Avatar was particularly relaxing.
There was a brief moment for greetings and pleasantries, and then Lin got straight to business, telling the two men all that had happened so far and where Korra was now. They discussed plans and what to do next, brainstorming where Zaheer might go, but anticipating Zaheer's next moves was difficult. They still didn't know his main purpose or how far he would go to achieve it. At some point, Zuko asked after Tenzin and the new airbenders, and it was only then that Lin realized she hadn't contacted her husband since Aiwei and Ming-Hua's escape. He had no idea what had been going on, about Aiwei being the traitor and Ming-Hua nearly cutting Lin's hand off, and Yunjin helping Korra and her friends run off from Zaofu in search of the criminals. She would have to call him later, as soon as she got back to Zaofu.
At least, that was her initial plan. Until she heard Ronen's voice crackling through the radio ten minutes sooner than he was supposed to. He didn't give her much information, and he sounded rushed, and all she could understand from it was ambush and hurry.
Lin, Zuko, and Tonraq all went racing to the Misty Palms Inn without further delay. The inn wasn't far from the cantina, so it was a fairly short run, but it was long enough for them to arrive too late. They could hear the battle being waged as they drew closer to the inn, and when the sounds abruptly stopped, Lin's stomach dropped. By the time they reached the inn's ravaged courtyard, Korra and her friends were all missing, Zaheer's gang was nowhere to be found, and there was one familiar figure lying prone on the ground.
Ronen was the only one left.
Lin ran to him with her heart in her throat, her body numb and shaky with fear, and she slid across the ground on her knees when she dropped down at his side, kicking up gravel and dust. "Ronen," she harshly whispered, too weak to make her voice work on the first try. She tried to swallow but it felt like there was a rock in her throat and her mouth was as dry as the desert neighboring the village. "Ronen," she tried again, a little louder, her hands finally reaching out, trembling, uncertain of where to go. One hand landed on his chest, to feel the rise and fall of his unsteady breaths, the other hovered a second longer before gently moving to the pulse point on his neck. Her fingers instantly became wet with blood, but she could still make out the beat of his heart underneath. He was breathing and alive but he wasn't conscious and there was blood, so much blood. Not on his torso or his arms or his legs. His whole body was basically unscathed, his clothes barely dirty, but his face… His face was split open from jaw to hairline, two sharp lines separated by his nose. And on the ground next to his head lay the two halves of his boomerang, which had been sliced in half, and both sharp edges were rimmed with blood.
Head wounds bled a lot. They often looked worse than they were. Lin knew that. Sensibly, she knew that. But the part of her that was panicked over the sight of her son did not. And the worst part was that she didn't know what to do. There wasn't much she could do. She didn't have the ability to heal him. She didn't know where to run to find the nearest healer or she would have already scooped him up in her arms and carried him there, heedless of the fact that he weighed more than she did, and was taller too. All she could do was carefully lift him halfway up, cradling him in her arms like when he was a baby and choking on her own fear.
Tonraq and Zuko were a blur when they appeared before her, and her voice shook as she breathlessly stammered, "Help…he needs help…help."
Tonraq went racing off again, she assumed to find help, while Zuko kneeled down on Ronen's other side. The aging Fire Lord looked Ronen over much as Lin had, checking his pulse, examining the gashes on his face. Then Zuko squeezed Lin's hand and urged, "Be strong, Lin. Your son will yet survive."
Part of Lin could acknowledge that, could feel Ronen's heart strong and steady in the earth, could see that the gashes were not so deep that they could not be mended, that no vital organs or arteries had been struck despite the frightening amount of blood on his face. Ronen would live, but his face would be forever scarred, much like his mother's. Every time he looked in a mirror he would be reminded, and there was no way to hide them. Not like the light scars he'd received from fighting Unvaatu, those scars which had already begun to fade and had been entirely mild in comparison. The scars on his face would not heal the same. He would wake to find that his face would be forever marred for all the world to see, his cherished boomerang was destroyed, and his friends were missing and likely captured. And the longer Lin thought about it the angrier she became.
Tonraq returned shortly with the authorities and a healer, all of whom had already been on the way, due to calls from other guests at the inn. All of the guests had hid in their rooms during the battle, which made Lin angry too, but they were able to help piece together some of what had happened. They had seen a woman with water for arms and a man bending lava fighting three boys, which had to have been Ronen, Mako, and Bolin. A huge white beast had run off with two girls in its saddle, which explained Asami, Korra, and Naga's absence, but not where they had gone. And Ming-Hua and Ghazan had left with Mako and Bolin, saying of Ronen, "Leave him. He won't make the trip." That also made Lin angry.
The healer did what he could for Ronen, stopping the bleeding, closing up the wounds most of the way, and bandaging his face until he was nearly unrecognizable. The healer said Ronen was stable to be moved, but would need to be observed for a mild concussion, and maintain regular healings to avoid infection or continued bleeding. Lin decided to take him back to Zaofu, where there were more doctors and a few that she actually knew and trusted. Zuko and Tonraq stayed behind, to look for some sign of the rest of the kids.
"We'll keep you posted," Tonraq promised Lin after he and Zuko helped her settle Ronen in the back of her jeep.
"Be careful," Lin told the two men gruffly. "I'll be back when I can."
Then she raced back towards Zaofu, radioing ahead once she was close enough, so that Su would know to expect them. Ronen remained unconscious the entire drive, while Lin simmered in rage, alone with her thoughts. They arrived in Zaofu before dawn, and despite the fact that it was the middle of the night, Su, Yunjin, and Jeia were waiting at the hospital when Lin pulled up to the front doors.
"What happened?" Yunjin gasped when he saw his brother, but Lin ignored him. She told Su to keep Jin and Jeia in the waiting room, that she'd be out in a few minutes, and despite her clear concern Su obliged.
Ronen only began to stir once he had been settled in a hospital bed, while one of Zaofu's healers was looking over his wounds. When he woke he jolted, his fists flailing, still in fight mode, and Lin had to help the healer hold him down until he realized he was safe. He calmed once they explained to him where he was, but then he asked after his friends, and the devastation on his face when Lin told him what little she knew was agonizing.
"What do you think they'll do with Mako and Bolin?" Ronen asked, forced to mumble to avoid moving his face too much.
Lin shook her head and admitted, "I don't know. Use them as bait, maybe."
"Maybe that means Korra and Asami got away at least," Ronen said hopefully.
"If they did, Tonraq and Zuko will find them," Lin tried to assure.
Ronen tentatively reached his hand up towards his face, but the healer stopped him from touching the wounds there. "Best not to touch it," she told him. "An open wound like this can get infected very easily."
"How bad is it?" Ronen asked with a grimace.
"No major damage," the healer answered. "It will scar, I'm afraid. We'll monitor you for the concussion, but you should be free to go tomorrow afternoon. No strenuous activity for a few days, which includes too much facial movement, to avoid reopening healed tissue."
Ronen was quiet for a moment, then said, "Can…can I see it?"
The healer hesitated, then said frankly, "It isn't pretty. It'll take a few days for it to properly heal and it's rather enflamed right now."
"I understand," Ronen replied.
The healer nodded and went to retrieve a mirror. As she was striding back towards the bed, Ronen suddenly reached out and grabbed his mother's hand, something he hadn't really done since he was little, and Lin bit down on the inside of her cheek to try and quell the emotions swirling in her gut.
Ronen was calm as he examined his damaged face in the mirror, and even tried to joke, "Well, you're right; it's definitely not pretty, but I guess it makes me look dangerous and mysterious."
The healer indulged him with a smile and a nod, but Lin couldn't muster up the same.
"How did it happen?" she questioned, eager to know who she needed to make pay for it.
Ronen considered it for a moment. "I think… Ming-Hua. It's all a little hazy, but… I remember throwing my boomerang. She hit it with one of those water whips. I guess she snapped it right in half and it came flying back at me too fast."
Lin could hardly bear to look at him in that moment, to see her son's handsome, innocent face marred by wounds he never should have had. She should have been there. She should have taken the hit herself. She should have killed Ming-Hua when she had the chance.
"I'm gonna go back out there, check in with Zuko," she muttered. "You'll be okay here?"
Ronen nodded slowly. "Don't worry about me. Just be careful." He squeezed her hand and then let it go.
"Get some rest," Lin urged. "I'll be back as soon as I can. I'll send your Aunt Su and Jeia in."
She left without another word, not quite storming from the room but certainly leaving with some undue haste. She flexed her wrist, only further irritated by the discomfort she still felt. Rage had been boiling in her stomach since that morning, and she was just about to tip over the edge. So when she reentered the waiting room and saw Yunjin slumped in one of the chairs, she went straight towards him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. She yanked him up onto his feet, and he seemed too bewildered to jerk away or question her, just staring at her with a bit of shock and a lot of confusion.
Before he could open his mouth and piss her off further, she growled, "You're going back to the Northern Air Temple. Now. And you'll tell your father everything that's happened in the last twenty-four hours, including how you went behind my back to convince Korra to go after Zaheer's gang with barely any back up, so that now she and her friends have been captured or worse, and your brother is laying in a hospital bed with his face split open from one side to the other." She shoved him back a step. "Go. Get out of my sight."
"Lin," Su quietly admonished, but Lin didn't look her way and Su didn't seem to know what else to say.
Yunjin stared at his mother with a mixture of indignation and guilt on his face, his fists and jaw clenched, but his brow creased and his eyes unnaturally damp. For once, he said nothing. He just turned on his heel and left.
Lin had expected him to fight her, to argue and protest and get angry, but his lack of response made her feel like an ass.
"Lin," Su said again, reaching out with her free hand to grab her sister by the elbow, her other arm holding Jeia on her hip. "You shouldn't be so hard on him."
"He needs to learn," Lin muttered. "I can't be cleaning up his messes his whole life. I've babied him enough."
"He's finding his way," Su defended.
"I need to go," Lin interrupted. "I need to find out what happened to those kids. Spirits only knows what Zaheer could have done to them by now. You'll look out for Ronen and Jeia?"
"Of course, but, Lin, you should really rest –"
Lin cut Su off again, "No time for that." She said a quick goodbye to Jeia, who just nodded glumly, and then she left before she could let herself be dragged into feeling her emotions by her sister. She didn't have time to feel.
Ronen had never put too much stock into appearances, especially his own. He certainly put some effort in, always kept his hair tidy and dressed fairly well. But otherwise he didn't pay it much mind. He had never really cared what his face looked like, but then again, he hadn't been given much reason to. Now…
His face was barely recognizable as his own. Even once the swelling went down and it was healed completely, he knew he would still look noticeably different, that he would stand out in a way he never had before. Already he was getting different looks from all his loved ones, his mother that couldn't stand to look at him because it was too painful, and his Aunt Su that couldn't suppress her sorrow every time she so much as glanced at him. Jeia just started straight at him, brow furrowed, but unnervingly silent the entire time she sat next to him on his bed. Aunt Su was flitting around the room, doing her usual nervous activity. She kept trying to reassure him and Jeia both, or would go off on a tangent talking about something else to take their mind off of everything else. Ronen was half relieved when a Metal Clan guard came in requesting to talk to Su about all the updates to security.
It was only once Aunt Su had stepped out into the hallway that Jeia finally spoke. She scooted closer to him, to observe his face better with narrowed eyes, and then asked, "Does it hurt?"
"Not too much," Ronen answered. They had him on enough medication that he could hardly feel it. "It just feels weird mostly." He felt like if he was too expressive his face would stretch too far apart.
"It looks weird," Jeia said plainly. "Will it get better?"
Ronen nodded carefully. "Eventually, yes. It'll scar though. Like Mom's."
Jeia nodded sagely. "Is yours a secret too?"
Ronen was confused for half a second, until he remembered how tight-lipped his mother was about how she had gotten her own scars, how touchy and defensive she could become when asked about it. Now that Ronen knew where they had come from, he understood why, but Jeia was still too young to comprehend her aunt playing a role in something like that.
"No, it's not a secret," Ronen replied. "I was fighting the waterbender that you and Jin caught. She bested me is all."
Jeia huffed, looking angry. "I shoulda been there to help."
"I'm glad you weren't," Ronen said a little sharply. "I don't know where my friends are now, or if they're okay, and I don't know what I would have done if they took you too." It made him sick just thinking about it all, and he could do nothing to help. He didn't know if Korra and Asami had escaped, or how Mako and Bolin were faring in the clutches of Zaheer's gang. He wished he had been taken too, so at least he could have done something. Instead he was stuck sitting in a hospital bed while his mother ran back out there and his friends suffered spirits knows what.
Jeia was not deterred by Ronen's change in tone. She put her hand on his chest, over his heart, in an oddly affectionate gesture for Jeia, and countered, "But I coulda been with you when you was hurt. Like how you was with me when I was sick."
Ronen smiled fondly, laying his hand over Jeia's and softly replying, "You're with me now. And you're the best company a person could ask for."
"But you wish Asami and your friends was here," Jeia surmised.
Ronen nodded, feeling the pain of it in his gut, itching to go out looking but forcing himself to stay put. He was always nagging his mother to rest when she was injured. He'd be a hypocrite if he didn't do it for himself. "Yes, I do."
Jeia shrugged. "They'll be fine. They always is. They're strong, like you."
"You're probably right. I'm sure they can handle it. I just wish I could help them."
"You gotta get better first," Jeia asserted.
"Yeah…yeah, that's true," Ronen admitted. "I suppose they would hardly even recognize me as I am now." He was still getting used to the idea that he would never look the same again. That there would be people in his life someday that would never know him without his scars.
"You is still you," Jeia said plainly. "You is not any different."
Ronen smirked, or he tried, but he didn't think he quite managed it. "You're very wise, Jeia."
Jeia simply nodded and agreed, "Uh huh." Then she curled up next to him with a yawn, pressing herself against his side and murmuring, "You rest now."
"Okay," Ronen whispered, laying his head back and staring up at the ceiling. He couldn't find it within him to sleep at first, but he stroked Jeia's hair while she dozed off next to him.
Eventually, the medication and his baby sister's slow, even breaths lulled him to sleep for a little while, even with his mind whirring with worry. He woke only half rested and his arm numb from where Jeia lay half sprawled on it, and could sleep no more. Aunt Su didn't make a reappearance until mid-morning, and she didn't look any more rested than Ronen felt. She didn't have much news either, stating only that his mother had reconnected with Zuko and Tonraq, but that they still hadn't figured out where Korra and Asami had gone, or where Mako and Bolin were being held. When Ronen asked about Yunjin, Aunt Su told him that Mom had ordered Yunjin to go back to the Northern Air Temple. Ronen was shocked and a little worried when Aunt Su confirmed that Yunjin had taken off on the same sky bison he'd arrived on in the middle of the night. He hoped his brother didn't do anything foolish. It would be just like Yunjin to try and fix his mistake by going after Zaheer himself.
As planned, Ronen was released from the hospital that afternoon, after another healing session and orders to take it easy for another day or two. He spent the rest of the day trying to rest and failing miserably. He spent most of his time pacing or tinkering or just sitting around worrying. Jeia kept him company, and Wei and Wing tried to help distract him, but the longer he went without word on his friends the worse he felt. His mother was keeping somewhat regular contact when she could, but the signal from that distance was patchy as it was. They could barely understand what she was saying except that nothing had changed.
When news finally came, it was in the middle of the night. Something along the lines of: Korra and Asami are safe; the Earth Queen is dead, courtesy of Zaheer; still no Mako and Bolin. Only a third of that put Ronen somewhat at ease, and the rest just gave him a whole new slew of worries. Why would Zaheer kill the Earth Queen? What had Zaheer done with Mako and Bolin? Where had Korra and Asami been all day? Ronen could tell that Aunt Su was concerned too, with how often she was checking in with her radio people, but she seemed to still be trying to pretend for his benefit, or maybe for Jeia's.
The worse news didn't come until the following afternoon, just when Ronen was fed up with resting and on the verge of going back to the Misty Palms Oasis. There was an urgent radio call from Mom, and while Mako and Bolin had apparently reunited with the others no worse for wear, they came bearing news of Zaheer's plans. After overthrowing the Earth Queen and tearing down the walls of Ba Sing Se, Zaheer had released Mako and Bolin so that they could deliver a message to Korra. If Korra did not turn herself over to him, Zaheer intended to destroy the entirety of the Air Nation, including all the new airbenders and half of Ronen's family. Mom and Korra and the others were all urgently racing back to Zaofu, and urged Aunt Su to use her wider range radio frequency to get in touch with the Northern Air Temple to warn them of what was coming. Ronen stood with her as they attempted to call, his stomach clenched into knots, and every time their call went unanswered, he felt worse and worse. He had never coveted Sora's spiritual gifts more than he did in that moment. He wasn't even sure she could project her spirit that far of a distance, but it was agony just standing there waiting for someone to pick up.
Mom and Korra and everyone else – except Zuko, who returned to the Fire Nation to protect his daughter the Fire Lord – made it back to Zaofu before anyone at the Temple answered, and Ronen was distracted for a few minutes when his friends all stopped short at the sight of his face. Asami was the first to step towards him, her eyes welling with tears as she crashed into his chest and held him in a tight embrace.
"I'm all right," he assured Asami and his stricken friends. "I'm just glad to see you're all okay."
"Boy are we glad to see you," Bolin exclaimed, sporting a black eye and a swollen jaw of his own, and he wrapped his arms around both Ronen and Asami.
"We thought the worst when they said to leave you behind," Mako added. "You looked pretty bad when we last saw you. Not that you look much better now, but – ow! What was that for?"
Korra had swatted Mako in the stomach, apparently with formidable force, and she was glaring daggers at him.
But Ronen just laughed. "You're right. It's not pretty. It'll take some time to heal up."
Bolin pulled back from the hug he had invaded to encourage, "Just think of how cool and mysterious you'll look with that scar!"
Asami finally released him enough that she could lean back and carefully cup his face with her hands.
She stared at him so long that Ronen started to get a little nervous, flexing his fingers on her hips and quietly asking, "What do you think? Cool and mysterious? Or is it too much?"
She shook her head, making an effort to try and smile through her tears and only half failing. "It's not too much. I just wish I had been with you."
"Me too," Korra interjected, becoming impatient and pushing her way through to get her own hug. She squeezed Ronen so tight it felt like she was trying to crack his ribs, and then she let go. "I'm sorry I wasn't there. And that I dragged you into all this. And that I came back with more bad news. But I do have one good thing to tell you."
"Oh?" Ronen said, intrigued.
"While I was in the Spirit World, I learned a lot about Zaheer and his gang. They call themselves the Red Lotus. But even better, I saw your grandfather."
"Aang?" Ronen asked with excited surprise.
Korra nodded and smiled with unsuppressed relief. "I think my connection to the past Avatars is finally returning, and Aang and I had a nice long chat. I'll tell you all about it later, once we get this whole thing sorted out."
"I look forward to it," Ronen replied, and then whirled around at the sound of his mother slamming her fist down on the counter.
"We're wasting time!" she snapped at no one in particular. "Nobody is answering and Zaheer could be halfway to the Temple by now. We need to gather as many people as we can and just go."
It was a sobering reminder of their current situation, and Ronen went over to gently touch his mother's shoulder. "If we can warn them they'll be able to leave faster than we can make it there," he reasoned. "Someone will pick up soon. They're probably just in the middle of training."
"What if Zaheer is already there?" Aunt Su fretted.
Ronen tried to assure, "I'm sure they'll have time to leave. Dad will make sure –"
"Hello?" a voice finally came crackling over the radio. "Hello? This is Tenzin –"
Mom leapt back over to the radio and snatched it up. "Tenzin!" she shouted into the receiver.
"Lin," Dad's relieved voice sighed through the radio, "it's so good to finally hear your voice. Yunjin told me everything, and last I talked to Su she –"
"Tenzin listen to me," Mom interrupted. "This is urgent. You need to gather everyone up and leave now! Zaheer is on his way to the Temple. He's coming for the airbenders. You have to get out of there –"
"Oh no," Dad's voice could faintly be heard saying.
"What?" Mom demanded. "What is it?" There was a long delay, and Ronen felt like his heart would beat right out of his chest with how anxious he felt. "Tenzin! Tenzin talk to me!"
"It's too late," Dad said, and Ronen felt like he was going to be sick. "He's here."
Chapter 80: Chapter 80
Chapter Text
Chapter 80
When Sora first met Zara, she was instantly intrigued. Yunjin had been a little suspicious of her, but it was clear to Sora that Zara was very troubled and simply needed a friend. She also thought that Zara was probably the prettiest girl she had ever seen, but that wasn't the only reason she was determined to make the girl feel comfortable at the Air Temple. Sora didn't like to see anyone feeling left out, so she spent the first few weeks trying to get to know Zara without coming on too strong or prying, and encouraging her to try airbending again. At first, Sora made little progress. Zara was very guarded and didn't seem thrilled to be at the Temple at all, but Sora was exceedingly patient and persistently optimistic. Thankfully, rather than becoming annoyed, Zara seemed to find Sora endearing, and soon she was cracking smiles on occasion and relaxing ever so slightly. She was soothed by Sora's sweet reassurances every time she failed at airbending instead of growing angry. And then, one day, Zara opened up a little about herself.
Sora listened with rapt attention as the sun set on the cliff's edge where she and Zara sat, and Zara softly confessed, "I never knew who my father was, and I barely knew my mother. She was taken away from me when I was very little, too young to remember much about her, if she even cared about me. I had no other family. Some of her friends took me in, but they didn't love me. I think they only kept me out of obligation. Living with them was miserable. I was mostly just alone my whole life. They didn't like when I was in their way. They didn't like when I argued with them. They wanted me to be just like they were. I tried to leave a few times, to go off on my own somewhere, but I always ended up hungry and back with them. They were the ones that wanted me to come here, even though I thought it was a bad idea, even though I told them I didn't want to. I think they were afraid of me. After the accident…"
She trailed off and didn't seem willing to go on, staring off into the distance, her eyes glowing amber in the setting sunlight, as she seemed to remember whatever terrible accident had frightened her off from ever airbending again.
Sora reached out to gently squeeze Zara's hand, a little hesitant, ready to pull away quickly and mindful of the fact that Zara might not like it. When Zara didn't pull away or show any discomfort, Sora relaxed and told her, "I'm so sorry. You deserve better than those people. But now that you're one of us, this place can be your home, and we can be your family. I hope you can find what you're looking for here. I hope that you'll feel comfortable and happy."
Zara smiled but it looked sad. "You're unlike anyone I've ever met, Sora," she said half in a whisper. "It's hard to believe anyone could be that genuine."
Sora shrugged, cheeks turning slightly pink with embarrassment. "Sorry. I've been told I come on a little strong sometimes."
Zara shook her head, brow furrowed, and she flipped her hand over so that she could squeeze Sora's with her own. "Don't apologize. I like that about you."
Now Sora really blushed, tilting her head down to try and hide the reaction with her hair and struggling to suppress a smile. Her stomach was doing somersaults just from Zara holding her hand. She was a little worried that she was reading too much into it, like she had with Jinora. She knew Zara had only known her for a few weeks, and Zara was older and stunning, and Sora was awkward and inexperienced and –
Sora startled when Zara reached out to cup her cheek, turning Sora's head so that they were looking each other in the eye, and Sora felt the air rush out of her and her pulse quicken. Zara was leaning in, coy and confident in a way Sora had almost never seen from her in the time they had known each other. And then their lips met and Sora could have just melted. She had never kissed a girl before – well, okay, there had been that one girl in Zaofu, but it was so quick and sloppy and awkward that Sora barely counted it, at least, she barely counted it now. Now that Zara was kissing her properly, like she knew what she was doing and cared about whether or not Sora enjoyed it. And Sora really liked Zara too. She liked how Zara was fierce and independent even when she was scared, how she tried so hard to keep up with the other airbenders even though she couldn't bring herself to bend yet. Zara was mysterious in a lot of ways, but Sora could tell that she was good, that she was kind, and that she just needed to feel safe and loved, and Sora was determined to do whatever she could to help.
After that evening, Sora was beyond smitten, and she and Zara were inseparable. They went almost everywhere around the Temple together, talking about everything and holding hands, mediating and eating every meal together, kissing when they could get away with it without Sora's dad barging in to stop them. Sora had never had a girlfriend before, and having Zara was exhilarating – that is, after she confirmed that Zara did indeed want to be her girlfriend. Suddenly she could understand why her twin brother had been so persistent in pursuing Jinora, and why he was so worried about Kai. Sora was so thrilled to be with Zara that she felt a little bad about it, while her brother was clearly going through a crisis and her best friend Jinora was having struggles of her own. But Sora was lucky that the two of them never seemed to get mad at her for talking too much about Zara. She wasn't totally sure if it was because they were just happy for her or if they remembered how accepting she had been when the two of them had all but ditched her for each other.
Still, Sora tried her best to help Yunjin and Jinora, because she hated seeing both of them unhappy, and she thought that they were perfect for each other and just too hard-headed to admit it now. All their relationship problems seemed to stem from misunderstandings and an issue with communication. Which wasn't that much of a surprise to Sora, who had been putting up with Yunjin's poor communication for a lot longer than Jinora had. But telling the two of them that got them nowhere. They were both going through their own things and it would take time for them to realize they were good for each other when they weren't being so stubborn. Neither of them were listening to Sora, as if she couldn't possibly understand, and sure she had never been in a relationship until Zara, but she knew Jinora and Yunjin better than they knew themselves, so she thought they ought to give her some credit. But she knew that it was up to the two of them to fix it, so she tried not to intervene too much.
Nevertheless, watching her twin brother spiral out was particularly painful. Yunjin had always been so bright and energetic. Nothing affected him so deeply that he could not overcome it. Until now, when his struggles with figuring out who he was warred with the one relationship he had outside of his family. Jinora was the only unrelated friend Yunjin had ever had. In school he had only gotten along with a few of the other kids because they wanted to be around him. He was always so outgoing that Sora had never realized how much of a loner he actually was. She thought that what he needed was a friend that wasn't his sister or his girlfriend, but that was hard to come by now more than ever. They hadn't gone back to school after Amon, and all the new airbenders were old except for Zara and Kai. Sora thought that if the two dumb boys weren't fighting over Jinora, that Kai and Yunjin might actually be good friends. They both had the same energy and similar skills, but neither of them was going to admit to having anything in common.
Sora didn't know how to help her brother, not when he made it so difficult for her to reason with him. He didn't want to hear her logic on emotions. He was too swept up in doing everything his way. He was so angry about Zaheer, and angry that he wasn't directly involved, and angry that Kai and Jinora were friends. And when Yunjin was angry, there was no reasoning with him. He always played it off like he wasn't angry, like he was just being practical, just worried about everyone else and not himself. Sora knew that he did care deeply about the people that he loved, but she also knew he did a lot of things for himself. He had known that Nira and Aunt Kya could handle the new airbenders back on the Island, but he had wanted to prove himself and so he had forced himself to stay and be involved. He had known that even his father and Sora struggled with training the new airbenders at the Temple, but he was convinced that his own failings were unacceptable. He should have known that Mom and Ronen and Korra could handle themselves, but he had made himself believe that they needed him, and so he left in the middle of the night to fly off to Zaofu.
In the few days that Yunjin was gone, Sora could tell that her father and Jinora were both upset. Dad thought it was his fault Yunjin had left, like he hadn't done enough to make the boy feel better, while Jinora felt like Yunjin had given up on her completely. Sora didn't know what to tell either of them because even she was a little mad that Yunjin had left. She had thought they were making some progress, that he was going to try harder instead of running away when things got tough. Instead he did the same thing he always did and ran straight into danger rather than dealing with his emotions. Mostly Sora was just worried. It was bad enough she hadn't seen her Mom or Ronen or Jeia in months, and now Yunjin was gone too. Sora missed her family desperately, and without Zara she wasn't sure how she could have endured it.
Zara was always there when she needed her, always listening, always with a soft smile that she reserved only for Sora. Around everyone else Zara was still wary and guarded, but with Sora she showed that she could be fierce and clever. When Sora wasn't training the new airbenders with her father, she focused on learning everything she could about Zara, and trying to help Zara airbend. Yunjin hadn't believed that Zara could airbend at all, but Yunjin was pessimistic and distrusting, and Sora knew Zara better. Sora could see how frightening it was for Zara to try, especially when continued attempts led to another mishap. Sora had been trying to go through some of the fluid motions with Zara, both of them weaving together in sync. Air flowed around Sora like a ribbon, but when Zara tried the same, she had somehow managed to hit a lit candle, which caused the flames to expand into an explosive burst of light, and it had nearly set the room on fire. Sora had been reassuring and optimistic, telling Zara that it would just take time, that there was no reason to be discouraged, that Sora could handle a little fire, but Zara had been adamant about never doing it again. Sora decided not to push her, and trusted that Zara would come to her when she was ready.
Sora had expected the same of Yunjin, that when he was ready to face some of his emotions and deal with them she would be there to help him. She just hadn't expected it to be so soon. He had only been gone for a couple of days when she spotted him landing out in the courtyard of the Northern Air Temple. Sora had already been outside, with Dad, Aunt Kya, Uncle Bumi, and Nira. She had been searching for a way to boost morale around the Temple, not just for Zara and Jinora and Dad, but for all the new airbenders that were struggling. She knew they missed home or they weren't learning as quickly as they wanted to, and she wanted to put together a party for everyone, to hand out awards and have a big feast, and maybe some music and fun to take everyone's mind off of everything for a night. It was a little for herself too, because she wanted an excuse to dance with Zara and she wanted to make her dad smile, and she wanted to pretend that she didn't miss the rest of her family as much as she did. She was also trying to figure out someway to push Aunt Kya and Nira back together, because something odd was going on there. The two had been inseparable for almost year and now they could hardly look at each other. Sora had no idea what had happened, especially since she'd been so absorbed in everything else going on that she hadn't noticed until it was too late, but she was determined to fix it now.
Most of the party was planned and the adults were surprisingly all on board when Sora noticed the sky bison swooping in from above. When she recognized Yunjin at the reigns, she was elated for all of three seconds, until she remembered all that had been going on in Zaofu and started to worry about why he had returned. She could also tell, even from a slight distance, that something was wrong. The way his shoulders were slumped, the way he slid slowly off of the sky bison and then froze at the sight of his family coming towards him.
Already working herself up into a panic, Sora rushed ahead of the adults to leap into her brother's embrace before he could even tell her what was wrong. She hugged him tight, but she could feel him trembling in her arms, and that was so unlike Yunjin that she was fearing the worst. The last they had heard from Zaofu was that Zaheer and his three cohorts had infiltrated the metal city and nearly kidnapped Korra. The criminals had been stopped and Korra saved, but three of the four got away. Yunjin had successfully captured Ming-Hua, but there was still the question of who had let her and the others in. There was no way they could have gotten into the platinum domes without inside help, and Aunt Su was furiously questioning her own guards. Sora and her father had been worried about the lack of update, but they just figured everyone was busy. If Yunjin was returning to the Air Temple by himself and looking shaken, clearly something bad had happened in the interim.
"Yunjin," Dad said as he and the others reached the twins, and Sora could hear the worry in his voice too.
Yunjin shakily stepped back from Sora, and he was staring at his father with something like fear and guilt on his face.
"What is it?" Dad asked. "What's happened?"
"I –" Yunjin started, only to choke on his words. He swallowed and tried again. "Mom sent me back. She wanted me to tell you…" Suddenly his face crumpled, and Sora had so rarely seen him cry that she almost didn't even realize it was happening at first.
Dad was faster about reacting, stepping forward and tugging Yunjin into his arms, and then Jin was sobbing and he couldn't stop, like he'd been holding it in for too long. Sora was instantly upset just seeing him like that, her brother who was always so formidable and never let anything make him so distraught.
"I – I'm sorry," Yunjin stammered between breaths, half muffled with his face pressed to Dad's shoulder. "I – I didn't mean t – to – I was j – just trying to h – help."
"Shhh," Dad soothed, "it's all right. Take a breath. It'll be okay. That's it…breathe. I'm sure you didn't intentionally do anything wrong. Just talk to me. Tell me what happened. Start from the beginning."
Yunjin took several minutes to compose himself, wiping the tears and the snot from his face and sucking in deep breaths. The rest of them waited with bated breath, until he finally managed to step back from Dad and speak. He stared down at his feet in shame as he quietly explained, "Aiwei was the one that let Zaheer into Zaofu. He escaped, and since I captured Ming-Hua, he stopped to set her free too. And Mom was there and she… Ming-Hua almost cut off her hand. I was mad, and Korra was mad, and we all wanted to find Aiwei and Ming-Hua, and stop them from reuniting with Zaheer. Except Mom wouldn't let us go. She said it was too dangerous, and Ronen agreed even though all his friends wanted to go. And I thought… Korra said that Naga could track Aiwei and Ming-Hua, and so I went behind Mom's back and helped Korra and her friends leave Zaofu." He paused to suck in another shuddering breath, rubbing his eyes and his forehead. "I thought it would be okay but I was wrong. I was just thinking about myself and what I wanted. Mom and Ronen went looking for them, and when Mom came back –" More tears streaked down his face and he had to talk quickly to finish. "Zaheer had ambushed them. Now Korra and Asami are missing, Mako and Bolin were captured, and Ronen… Ronen's hurt. I don't – I don't know how bad. His face… it looked really bad. I'm sorry. It's my fault. It's all my fault. I'm sorry."
Sora didn't realize she was crying too until she felt Aunt Kya pulling her into a one armed hug.
Dad hugged Yunjin again, stroking Jin's hair and murmuring, "It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's Zaheer's fault. It's Ming-Hua's fault. It's all of theirs but it isn't yours. You were just doing what you thought was right."
"Mom hates me," Jin whimpered. "She hates me."
"She doesn't hate you," Dad said firmly. "She could never hate you. I'm sure she's upset but she's probably blaming herself just as much as you are."
"You didn't see the way she looked at me."
"I didn't have to. I know your mother. I know how much she loves you."
Yunjin didn't seem convinced but he didn't say anything else, just clung to his father for a long time. Eventually he seemed to gain control of himself, and then he looked embarrassed, stepping away from Dad and avoiding everyone's gazes. "I'm gonna…get cleaned up," he mumbled awkwardly, before making a hasty retreat.
Dad sighed heavily as he watched Jin go, and then decided, "I need to call Zaofu, find out what's going on." He noticed Sora and his frown depended. "Are you all right, sweetheart?"
Sora nodded quickly. "I'm just worried."
Dad nodded sadly. "Yes, I am too."
"Tenzin," Aunt Kya interjected, "if you need to go to Zaofu, the four of us can handle things here for a while. The airbenders will understand."
Dad seemed to consider it, but shook his head. "No, not yet. I'm needed here. I'm not sure what I could do there except… I don't know. Maybe. I'll see what I can find out about what's going on."
"Whatever you need," Nira offered, "we're here to help."
"Thank you," Dad said sincerely. "We'll discuss options later. I'm still not certain that it's even safe for all of us to stay here, not if Zaheer has more people working for him that we don't even know about. If someone could watch over Yunjin in the meantime…"
"We've got it covered," Uncle Bumi assured.
Sora wiped the tears from her cheeks and stepped up next to her father. "I'm coming with you," she said, and Dad nodded.
So Sora went with her father to call Zaofu, and it took a while for them to get Aunt Su on the line, but when they did she explained what Yunjin had, with a little more details. She also told them Mom's hand was still attached, and Ronen was okay, that he had suffered no major damage aside from a facial wound that would most assuredly scar. She asked about Yunjin and Opal, and Dad assured her that Opal was doing great and that Yunjin would be okay in time. Aunt Su seemed to want to keep talking, to tell Dad all about her worries and everything that had been going on, but she also seemed rushed. She promised to keep them posted about Korra and the others and then she had to go.
Sora didn't feel much better after the call, but she was glad her older brother was going to be okay. She couldn't imagine what he might look like, but so long as a scar was all he would suffer she was at least mildly relieved.
Dad was clearly still upset too, going off on his own to meditate, and when Sora went to find Yunjin, he was sullen and didn't want to talk to her either. Suddenly throwing a party that night seemed like a bad idea, but ultimately she decided to go through with it. They all needed a distraction now more than ever, and she was determined to do whatever she could to make her family feel at least marginally better.
Coaxing Yunjin to come to the party was nigh on impossible, but eventually Sora managed it because she still had a way of getting through to him even when he was in his worst mood. He wasn't at all lively, but he was there and surrounded by people that cared about him and Sora considered that a win. Aunt Kya and Uncle Bumi even managed to make him crack half a smile once or twice. Sora also dragged him onto the dance floor under the pretense of making Amali feel included, because she knew Yunjin had a soft spot for the orphaned girl.
All of Sora's planning seemed to be working to some extent. Dad looked a little more relaxed and Uncle Bumi was having the time of his life. All the new airbenders were happy and dancing, all carefree and lively. Amali was coming out of her shell, leaving Nira's side long enough to spend some time with Jinora's siblings, Ikki and Meelo, and the three kids were spinning and dancing in circles with sheer delight. At one point, Sora was concerned when she lost track of Yunjin, but then she saw him approaching Jinora, already looking apologetic, and Jinora must have seen the misery on his face, because she didn't turn her back on him. Instead, she separated from Kai, and she and Yunjin actually walked together out of the room, presumably to talk, and Sora desperately hoped that they would make up.
Then all that was left was Aunt Kya and Nira. Sora had watched them continue to avoid each other all night, while both of them kept throwing surreptitious glances at one another. So when Nira was sitting by herself, at the other end of the room, and Aunt Kya was not so subtly watching her, Sora sidled up next to her aunt and said, "Why don't you go talk to her?"
Aunt Kya startled, putting a hand over her heart and saying, "Spirit's, Sora. Don't sneak up on your old aunt like that."
"Well maybe if you were paying attention to your surroundings," Sora snorted. "Just go over there. Clearly she wants to talk to you too."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Aunt Kya evaded.
Sora rolled her eyes. "Come on. Everyone knows there's something going on with you two. And it seems like both of you want to fix it but are too afraid."
Aunt Kya frowned and shook her head, still not taking her eyes off of Nira. "It's complicated, sweetheart. Whatever I say…it won't really fix it."
"Well you won't know until you try," Sora persisted. "Don't let whatever it is come between you two. You both deserve better than that."
Aunt Kya looked at Sora with fear in her eyes. "What if I just mess it up?"
Sora smiled softly. "Nira loves you. I don't think you can mess it up that badly. And life is too short to waste time on what if's, Auntie. You taught me that."
Aunt Kya sighed. "Well, you're right about that last part at least. Screw it. I'll do it. Better than just sitting around thinking about it all the time."
"Exactly," Sora agreed. "You've got this."
"I've got this," Aunt Kya repeated, taking two steps in Nira's direction before spinning on her heel and turning back around. She shook her head. "I don't got this."
"Yes you do!" Sora encouraged, grabbing her aunt by the shoulders and pushing her back towards Nira. "You are Kya. You can do anything."
Aunt Kya groaned. "Oh my gosh this is going to end so badly." But she turned around again and marched straight over to Nira.
Sora watched them for a few seconds, but when she saw Nira accept the hand Aunt Kya offered her, she turned away to give them their privacy, happy that they were simply resolving to talk to one another.
Feeling accomplished, the only person Sora wanted to find in that moment was Zara. Sora had been spending as much time with her girlfriend as she could that evening, but she had been pretty focused on her brother so she wanted to make sure Zara wasn't feeling left out. Zara had submitted to dancing with Sora for a little bit earlier and she seemed to have been enjoying herself, but she had also been a little off since earlier that afternoon. Ever since Sora had vented to Zara about everything that was going on with Zaheer and her family, Zara had seemed more uncomfortable than usual. Sora wasn't sure what part had afflicted Zara, if it was too much talk of Sora's family, or if Sora's fear of Zaheer had rubbed off on her, or something else entirely. Sora just wanted to make sure Zara was feeling okay, so when she couldn't find her girlfriend anywhere nearby, she went outside and easily found Zara in their usual spot.
Zara was staring off into the distance, and when Sora plopped down next to her, she didn't even flinch. Sora waited a few moments, wondering if she should disturb Zara's thoughts or wait for Zara to speak.
Then Zara decided for her, turning to face Sora and asking, "How come we came to this temple? There are others, right? Why don't we ever visit those?"
Sora blinked in confusion, and then laughed softly. "Um, it's just the one my father chose, I guess. We'll visit the other ones sometime, once everyone has had a bit more training."
"Why can't we go now?" Zara pressed. "Doesn't this Zaheer know where we are? Shouldn't we go somewhere else?"
"Hey," Sora said quietly, reaching out to squeeze Zara's hand reassuringly, "you don't have to worry about that. Zaheer has no reason to come here. You're safe."
"Didn't he infiltrate Air Temple Island?" Zara countered.
"Yeah, but he was looking for Korra," Sora reasoned. "He knows she isn't here. Where is all this coming from anyways? Are you afraid of Zaheer?"
Zara scoffed. "I'm not afraid of that guy. I just… I don't know." She shook her head and looked away.
"Tell me," Sora urged. "What's bothering you?"
"It's nothing," Zara murmured. "I guess, I guess I'm just going a little stir crazy here." She turned to look at Sora with pleading eyes, gripping both of Sora's hands in a tight grip. "Why don't we go? Just you and me. We can explore one of the other temples together."
Sora frowned. "Zara, that… that sounds amazing, but… you know I can't leave. Not right now. My family needs me. And the Air Nation."
Zara smiled sadly, her shoulders slumping. "Of course. No, you're right."
"But I definitely want to," Sora said. "Someday, we'll explore all of them, just you and me."
Zara nodded, but she didn't seem to believe it, and she had that odd look on her face, the one that Sora still hadn't quite figured out. "Yeah, someday," she said without conviction.
Desperate to lighten the mood, Sora squeezed Zara's hands and leaned in to kiss her before changing the subject. "I'm having a slumber party for the kids tonight. You'll come with me, won't you?"
"Okay," Zara agreed, and she didn't look thrilled, but Sora was dedicated to changing that. She would make sure that Zara was happy.
That evening, Nira went to the small party that Sora had planned, and it did not disappoint. Sora had thought it would be good to recognize the accomplishments of all the new airbenders, and that maybe it would cheer everybody up. The girl was so perceptive and so caring, and she could see all of the tension and sorrow at play among so many of them. The airbenders who had left their homes and families behind, Tenzin who was missing and worrying about most of his own family, Zara who only grew more skittish with each passing day, and Yunjin who seemed to be the most distraught of them all. Sora wanted to mend that if she could, wanted to reach out and embrace them all and remind them of the good, of all the possibilities that were open to them if they just learned to reach out and take them before they passed by.
So Sora made some trophies and awards to give out, and found some musically inclined people to form a makeshift band for the evening. She made sure everyone was in attendance, whether by coercion or by force, and she made it her mission to ensure that all of them had a good time. She stood on the tiny stage she'd had her Uncle Bumi build for her, and she cracked jokes that were so ridiculous that almost everyone laughed. She called people to the stage to receive their awards, showering them with praise and encouragements. It appeared as though all the new airbenders loved it, some of them hefting their trophies up with pride, some making long speeches to thank Sora and their fellow airbenders, and some of them even being moved to tears. The recognition that they were improving seemed to bolster them, and when the prizes had all been given out, they took to the dance floor with renewed excitement.
Yunjin still looked morose, but his sister dragged him to the dance floor and then even he had to crack a smile. Zara was much the same, all grim and pale, but Sora's beautiful smile was infectious, and even Lin on her worst day couldn't help but be enchanted by it. Nira noticed also that, at first, Jinora remained with Kai most of the night, when she wasn't with her own family. Sora had made up some trophies for Ikki and Meelo too, even though they weren't airbenders, to make them feel welcome and part of the Air Nation, and the two kids were over the moon with excitement. Pema and Anil and the new baby didn't stay for long, because Pema was still recovering and the baby didn't seem as thrilled about all the noise as her siblings were. But Sora decided that she was going to host a slumber party that night too, and promised to watch Ikki and Meelo so that Pema and Anil might get some small reprieve. The pair seemed hesitant to agree at first, but Sora was persistent and Jinora and Kai volunteered to help, and the tired parents eventually relented. Amali was invited to the slumber party too, and came running over to ask Nira if it was okay, which of course it was. Nira tried offering to stay with all of them, but Sora insisted it was kids only, and Nira knew the girl well enough to know she'd take good care of the younger kids. And besides, they wouldn't be that far from several adults if something did go wrong. It was as Amali was racing back to join the rest of the kids that Nira happened to catch Jinora and Yunjin sneaking off together, and for one second her instinct was to follow them, because they were teenagers and Lin was always adamant about keeping a close eye on them. But considering the current uncertain state of their relationship and the fact that Yunjin was still looking depressed, she doubted they'd be getting up to anything bad. She figured they might actually be having a meaningful conversation, and hoped they might reconcile in some way, and decided to leave them alone.
She didn't have much time to think on it anyways because she appeared to be on the verge of an important conversation herself. She saw Kya walking straight towards her with purpose, and she honestly considered fleeing at first. She had been watching Kya half the night, watched as she teased her brothers and danced with Amali and made Sora and Yunjin laugh. All the while Nira had sat mostly alone near the edge of the gathering, not unhappy but purposefully separating herself a little. She sat with Pema and the baby for a while, and after they left she danced with Amali once and chatted with a few of the Air Acolytes that had already lived at the Temple. She hadn't gotten to know too many of the new airbenders, with her focus lately being on so many other things, and with how Kya was acting, Nira was trying to take a step back. Several of the airbenders had clearly taken to Kya, so that she had a small gaggle of followers and at least two strong admirers who's affections were clearly on another level. And then, of course, Bumi and Tenzin and the twins were Kya's family, and since Kya was blatantly avoiding going wherever Nira was, Nira tried not to get in the way.
When the issue had first arisen, Nira had not been so accommodating. She had thought that by acting normal, that Kya would eventually be forced to be around her so much that they would have to discuss it. But Kya was very good at avoidance, and Nira eventually grew so frustrated that she finally confronted Kya about it, instead of waiting for Kya to come to her. But Nira's questioning only seemed to frighten Kya even more. Whatever was making Kya so anxious around Nira had sent her completely into denial, and even with the friendship they had built, Nira could not get through to her. Nira knew that it was her own fault anyways. She was the one that had made the poor decision to broach a subject that never should have been broached, and she was the reason Kya had been acting strange ever since.
But ever since Revol had hinted that Kya might have some hidden feelings for her best friend, Nira hadn't been able to get it out of her head. Because Kya was also her best friend and she told Kya everything, Nira had thought that the best way to settle the matter was to simply tell Kya what Revol had said, and receive a hearty laugh and a typical Kya joke in response, and then it would be done. Except Kya hadn't laughed, not at first, and when she did it had sounded forced, and she had seemed annoyed that Nira would suspect something like that, and shortly after that their friendship had steadily begun to deteriorate. At first, Kya was still around, still making it a point to spend nearly everyday with Nira, but she was far more reserved. She seemed afraid to touch Nira in anyway, where before she had been so freely affectionate, and now she would jump away if they so much as bumped shoulders. Then Kya's presence began to dwindle, and anytime Nira brought it up, Kya would have some excuse about being busy helping Tenzin with the airbenders, or busy hanging out with Bumi, until Nira just stopped asking. She noticed Kya was drinking again too, something she had cut back on when Nira had started badgering her about taking better care of herself. That was when Nira had said enough was enough and confronted Kya about it, accusing Kya of acting like an idiot just because Nira had brought up Revol's stupid ideas of romance, but that had only served to upset Kya further and then even Nira was itching for a drink. That is, until she saw Kya the next afternoon, clearly suffering from one of her worst hangovers and still drinking liquor over lunch.
The last thing Nira wanted was for Kya to drink herself into oblivion, so she decided to remove herself as much as she could and hope that Kya would be able to move on from whatever was bothering her. Except the separation was affecting Nira too, more so than she ever expected. She had known, of course, that having to readjust to life without her best friend to talk to regularly would not be easy, but it was agonizing. She hadn't realized how much she had come to depend on Kya, on having that person to run to anytime something happened – good or bad or completely inconsequential. She had been mostly alone for so long that she had grown accustomed to it, but all of that was gone now that she knew what it was like to have Kya at her side. It was such a relief to have a partner, someone to open up to, someone to find comfort in simply knowing that they were there. Kya was always so good with Amali too, always had decent advice for Nira on child rearing even if half of it was ridiculous too. For the first time in a long time, between Amali and Kya, Nira had felt whole, like her heart was no longer torn in half from the loss of her first best friend, Azu.
All of the time Nira had spent with Kya, she had been convinced that it was entirely platonic for both of them. Of course they loved and cared for one another, but neither of them was looking to fill the voids left by lost lovers. But lately Nira was realizing that maybe she had been naïve. Maybe they had just been dancing around it all along. All those lingering touches, the late nights spent staying up way too late because neither one of them wanted to part ways. But the trouble was, Nira hadn't realized how much she missed – how much she craved – Kya's touch until it was no longer there. Once Kya started to pull away, Nira began to feel an emptiness that only grew with each day they spent apart. At first she couldn't fathom why she so desperately wanted to feel Kya's hand on her lower back, in the crook of her arm. But eventually it dawned on her, along with all the other things she wanted to feel, and she was too confused to process it for a little while. So distancing herself from Kya had been a little bit for her too, so that maybe she could figure out what she was feeling.
Nira had been pondering some of that throughout Sora's party, and at the moment when Kya came striding towards her, she still wasn't certain about much of anything. That was why she considered fleeing. That was why her entire mind and body froze when Kya stopped two feet in front of her and held out a hand saying, "Will you dance with me?"
Nira could only stare at the proffered hand while a million different thoughts ran through her head, and she could see Kya growing nervous, and she wished to soothe that anxiety, but she was battling her own and she couldn't muster the courage.
"Please…" Kya said softly, hope brimming in those bright blue eyes of hers, and how could Nira deny her? "Just for a minute."
Nira swallowed, but she still couldn't find the right words, so she simply took Kya's hand and let herself be lifted up onto her feet and led out to the dance floor. They remained on the edge, further away from everyone else, probably so it'd be easier if one of them decided to back out. The little band was playing a slow song, and most of the kids and the airbenders were just dancing together in a circle, or pairing off with friends to swing around together. Nira watched them for a second, but then she felt Kya tentatively placing a hand on her ribs and she snapped her gaze back onto the woman across from her. Nira instinctively placed her other hand on Kya's shoulder, and their joined hands remained loosely together as they fell into step with the slow, slightly out of tune music. They kept a respectable distance from each other that made Nira want to roll her eyes, but considering how awkward it was between them at the moment she didn't comment on it.
Kya spoke again, her voice so low it almost blended in with the music. "I know I've been a bit of an ass lately. I know you've got no reason to forgive me. But I wanted to apologize. You deserve to know why I've been acting this way, if you haven't already guessed. I just wasn't really ready before and…" She sucked in a deep breath to steady herself, and it was subtle but Nira was pretty sure Kya's hands were shaking a little. Kya blew out the breath and snorted at herself. "I don't know that I'm really ready now either, but I have to just say it. I hate that I've put this – this wall between us. But when you told me what Revol said about me…about us… I mean I already knew I was catching feelings for you, but when you brought it up like that I started to realize how far gone I already was, and I panicked a little."
Nira snorted, finally finding her voice to say, "A little?" But her hands were shaking now too.
"Okay a lot," Kya conceded. "But I started worrying about everything I was doing, about why you had brought it up at all. I was afraid maybe I had crossed some boundaries, or was about to. And I never want to make you feel uncomfortable, Nira. Even now I'm worrying I'm going to do something wrong. I thought distancing myself was the only way to fix it. I admit, it wasn't a well thought out plan."
"No, it wasn't," Nira agreed, feeling a second of relief when her voice didn't crack over the words. "I don't know why you didn't just talk to me about it. Did you think I'd be mad?"
"No, not mad, but…freaked out maybe." Kya shrugged. "I know we're just friends, and I didn't want you to think I was trying to get something out of you. I figured once you knew how I felt it would make everything weird."
"Well everything is weird like this too," Nira pointed out.
Kya sighed. "Yeah, I know. But hey, I'm talking to you now right?" She quirked her lips up in a tiny smile, but Nira could see that she was still half terrified. "I'll get over it, I promise. And we can go back to normal and pretend this never happened."
"Except for one thing," Nira said, stepping in closer, so that as they continued to dance in a slow circle they weren't an arm's length apart. She saw Kya's breath catch in her throat, and for a moment she almost did something impulsive, but she caught herself at the last second. "You didn't ask me my opinion on all this."
Kya frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. I'm sure you're not thrilled with me and I really should have –"
Nira took her hand off of Kya's shoulder to hold it up and stop Kya from talking. She also halted their dancing. "That's not what I'm saying." She looked around the room, still full of people not paying them any mind, but the music had changed without them noticing. Nira made sure Amali was still dancing happily with Sora and the rest of the kids, and then squeezed Kya's hand and began pulling her away from the dance floor. "Come here."
"Uh, okay," Kya easily relented, but with some confusion. "Where are we going? You aren't taking me somewhere private to berate me, are you? 'Cause I could really go without a lecture. Or at least save it for some other time. I guess your lectures are more endurable than Tenzin's, but still. It was a real struggle to start this conversation as it is –"
"You're rambling," Nira interjected, finally coming to a stop in a wide, empty corridor and pulling Kya behind one of the huge stone pillars. Her palms were sweating and she was so ridiculously nervous that she felt half sick, but she didn't let herself be convinced that what she was about to do was as stupid as her self preservation was telling her it was. There was only one way to figure out what the feelings she was having lately meant, and Nira was always seeking real solutions to problems, no matter what they might be. She didn't just give up when she got scared.
"Oh," Kya said with realization as she looked around their dim surroundings, "you've brought me here to murder me. Okay, fine, but I've got some ground rules. First of all…"
Kya's speech was cut off again, but this time because Nira had suddenly moved in so close that their faces were inches apart, and their chests were pressed together so that it was difficult to tell which one of them was suddenly breathing faster, or who's heartbeat was more erratic, and Nira wondered if her eyes were as wide as Kya's were because it almost made her laugh just thinking about it. Instead she kept to her initial plan – the one she'd just made up about three seconds ago –, lifting her hand up to gently stroke Kya's cheek with her thumb, and she sucked in a deep breath, staring into those familiar eyes, the comforting gaze of the person she trusted most, and as she leaned in she searched those eyes for some kind of sign, that what she was doing was either right or horribly wrong. Kya still just looked surprised most of all, and Nira stilled a hairsbreadth away, her lips tingling with anticipation. She jolted a little when Kya's hand braced against her hip, and she could feel the heat of it through her clothes, and the slight way Kya was tugging her ever closer. She wasn't sure which one of them made the final move, if it was one or both of them, but when their lips finally met, all of Nira's thoughts flew from her mind. All that she could feel and all that she was, centered around that moment in a dizzying explosion of bliss. Their lips moved in sync, pressing in and pulling closer, all that passion they'd been stifling boiling over, both of them a little timid, a little careful, but eager and enraptured all the same.
Kissing Kya was different from anything Nira had ever experienced. The passion was similar, almost hauntingly mirroring some of what she had felt with Azu, but everything else was distinctly new. Revol had been fascinating and adoring, but his touches were icy cold, where Kya's were burning hot. Azu had been warm too, but he'd had a scratchy beard that tickled her skin and sinewy limbs. Kya was soft all over, her skin achingly smooth. And the two or three others Nira had indulged in years after she'd lost Azu weren't even worth remembering. They certainly hadn't been as good at kissing as Kya was, and she'd never felt even a remote connection to them. She hadn't melded with them the right ways. They hadn't given her that sense of ease and implicit trust.
Kya's fingers gently weaved through Nira's hair, her other arm curling and tightening around Nira's waist. Nira kept her hand on Kya's cheek and braced the other on the back of Kya's shoulder. When Kya's tongue teased at Nira's lower lip, Nira met it with her own, and both of them released simultaneous sounds of pleasure. But they were both breathless and shaky, and frankly there was probably a lot they needed to process.
It was Kya that pulled away first, chest heaving and lips swollen, her eyes still half closed and dark with lust. She didn't move far, just enough to see Nira better as she breathily said, "That was not the reaction I was expecting from you."
"Me either," Nira confessed with a shaky laugh.
"Is this…okay?" Kya asked uncertainly, looking concerned while gently playing with some of the long strands of Nira's hair. "I never thought you were…well, that you would want… Look, if you want to change your mind –"
"I don't," Nira quickly assured, even though her head was swimming and her limbs were all tingly. But it felt good. She hadn't expected for it to feel so right. She had thought maybe she was hyping it up in her mind. Maybe she had no idea what she wanted at all. But after that kiss she couldn't deny it any longer. After that she only wanted more. "I'm okay. More than okay."
Kya smiled in plain relief, and Nira had almost forgotten how much she missed that easy smile. "So…can I kiss you again?"
Nira nodded eagerly. "Please do."
The second time was just as exhilarating as the first, and it only grew more heated the longer it went on. Nira let her hands roam this time, not going too far but thrilled by the possibilities. She found herself wanting to explore every inch of Kya, to map out the places that elicited the best reactions, the best sounds. She wanted to shower Kya with all the adoration she deserved. Kya was clearly of a similar mind, holding back just a little, but so tender and sweet, letting Nira guide them wherever she was comfortable. Even when Kya took control for a second to spin them around and press Nira's back to the pillar, she stopped to make sure it was okay before she resumed the passionate embrace.
Which was about the same time that a clatter of noise startled them both from their bubble of ecstasy, smacking them right back into reality all at once. They jumped apart just as several people came racing down the corridor, and Nira had maybe a second to nervously fix her shirt and pat her hair before the group noticed her there. It was Amali and the rest of the kids, and some of them simply waved at Nira and Kya and kept going, but Amali and Sora both stopped.
Amali grinned and said, "There you are," as she came over to hug Nira. She noticed Kya and went to hug her too before asking, "Did you two make up?"
Even though Kya had still made it a point to spend time with Amali while she was trying to avoid Nira, the girl was beyond perceptive, and she had been asking Nira and Kya about their apparently obvious estrangement for weeks.
Considering what they had been doing three seconds earlier, Nira couldn't even look at Kya without blushing or maybe bursting out laughing. But Kya snorted and answered, "Oh we made up all right."
"Finally," Amali huffed, while Nira resisted the urge to roll her eyes and shoot Kya a displeased look.
"That's great," Sora said, but she was fourteen and not eight, and she was scrutinizing Kya and Nira's disheveled appearances in a way Amali wasn't. "I'm glad you two could work it out. Whatever it was. It was getting a little weird around here. The airbenders were starting to discuss taking sides."
"Who was winning?" Kya inquired, leaning in with intrigue.
That time Nira did roll her eyes, and playfully swatted Kya in the stomach without even turning to look at her, but Kya grabbed Nira's hand before she could pull it away. Nira looked back at her then, and Kya just smiled, and Nira found herself smiling too, but she quickly realized they were being way too obvious and started to pull her hand away. Kya squeezed Nira's hand briefly and then released it.
Sora was eyeing them carefully now, but Amali didn't notice a thing. She said, "We're going to the slumber party now. I'm glad I found you so I could say goodnight."
"I'm sure you'll have tons of fun," Nira said with a bright smile, and she hoped her voice wasn't as high pitched as it sounded to her. "Try not to stay up too late. Don't want you falling asleep in your breakfast."
"I won't," Amali promised, but she was bouncing with energy so Nira figured she'd still be up most of the night. That was usually how slumber parties went, but Amali had never experienced one before. Nira was almost teary eyed just thinking about it. It was just a silly slumber party, but Amali was so excited and Nira had grown to love that little girl so much, and she was just glad that Amali could have those little joys even after everything she had been through.
"Be good for Sora," Nira reminded, hugging Amali one more time. "And if you need anything –"
"We'll be just fine," Sora assured, throwing her arm over Amali's shoulder and giving the girl a bright smile. "Don't worry. I'll take care of everything. And you know Dad is gonna be checking up on us every thirty minutes. You two are free to do…whatever you want."
"Sleep, probably," Nira said too quickly. "Meditation still comes bright and early. But you kids have fun. I can't wait to hear all about it tomorrow. I'll see you at breakfast."
"Goodnight, Nira. Goodnight, Kya," Amali said brightly, before tugging Sora in the direction of where the rest of the kids had run off to, telling the older girl, "Come on, we have to get the snacks."
Sora waved to Nira and Kya as she left, and Nira swore the girl gave them an all too knowing smirk.
Once Sora and Amali had rounded the corner, Nira whirled on Kya with her hands on her hips and grumbled, "Could you be anymore obvious? Sora definitely suspects something now."
"It's okay," Kya soothed, still with that goofy smile on her face as she slipped her arms between Nira's and wrapped them around Nira's waist. She leaned in and gave Nira a quick kiss. "Sora won't say anything to anybody. At least, not until she has more proof. I'll be sneakier from now on. I promise."
Nira snorted. "Yeah right. You're the least sneaky person I know."
"Well I guess you'll just have to teach me then. But maybe some other time. If you're interested, I'm all for continuing what we were doing a few minutes ago…"
She was already guiding Nira back towards the pillar and planting kisses down Nira's neck, and just like that her body temperature was rising again. Nira considered their options for a moment, and while part of her thought maybe they had gone far enough for one evening, a bigger part of her wanted it to keep going.
She put her hands on Kya's hips and murmured against Kya's ear as if it was a secret, "Y'know, we could have a slumber party of our own…"
Kya immediately went still, tilting her head up to look Nira in the eye. "Are you…are you sure? It's not too fast for you?"
Nira shrugged. "It's not like we're strangers. I know you. I trust you. And it doesn't have to go that far if you don't want it to. We can just…see what happens."
Kya smiled brightly and took Nira's hand. "Okay, let's do it." She was already pulling Nira in that direction. "Can we get snacks too?"
Nira laughed. "Yes, we can get snacks."
In the morning Nira woke feeling warm and at peace for the first time in weeks. As strange and out of the ordinary as it was, she didn't jolt away when she felt the warm body against her back and the arm over her bare stomach. Even in sleep she hadn't forgotten the night she had spent with Kya, and she felt more relief that Kya was still there than any real surprise. At first she snuggled back into the blankets and Kya's soft embrace, and tried to go back to sleep, but her mind was racing now that she was awake and she didn't figure she'd be able to quiet it anytime soon. So she carefully rolled over instead, so that she could see Kya sleeping peacefully next to her.
Nira only had a short moment to watch Kya at rest, her slow, steady breaths and relaxed features. Then Kya was stirring, as if she had felt Nira's eyes on her, and her arm tightened around Nira before she peeked one eye open.
"Good morning," Nira murmured, trailing her fingers up Kya's spine.
Kya smiled and rasped, "Good morning, beautiful."
She leaned in and kissed Nira softly, and then lingered there with their foreheads pressed together, their bodies intertwined. Memories from the night before flashed through Nira's mind and her toes curled, biting down on her bottom lip and flexing her fingers on Kya's hip.
Kya seemed to understand, or perhaps was going through memories of her own, and rolled Nira onto her back, then hovered there just above her. Before Nira could even settle her hands somewhere, Kya was diving in to capture her lips.
But just like the night before, they were interrupted before it could go further. An insistent knock at the door diverted their attention, and then Sora's voice was calling through, "Hey, Nira? Are you in there?" For a second Nira was worried that something might have gone wrong with Amali at the slumber party, but Sora didn't sound distressed about anything, and the girl continued before Nira could call out an answer. "It's Amali and me. We just wanted to make sure you were okay."
Amali's worried voice added, "You missed breakfast!"
Nira frowned in confusion, noticed the sunlight beaming in through her window, and then checked the clock on the wall and realized she had slept in far too late. She cursed under her breath and immediately sat up, unceremoniously nudging Kya off of her and searching for her clothes while she hastily called back to Amali, "I'm so sorry, sweetheart! I didn't realize how late it was…"
Kya was taking her time sitting up, looking amused by the whole thing, and Nira gave her an annoyed look as she hissed, "Put your clothes on!" and tossed Kya's clothes at her.
"You never miss breakfast," Amali was saying, and she must have jiggled the door handle, giving Nira a minor heart attack, but thankfully the door was locked and didn't give. "Are you sick?"
"No, not sick," Nira assured, a little breathless as she hastily dressed. "I'll be right there –"
"Uh, we can come back," Sora offered.
But Amali objected, "No! I want to see her!"
Nira hurried to the door, but paused there and looked over her shoulder to make sure Kya was dressed. She was, but she was still just sitting there stifling a laugh, and Nira gestured for her to move over to the bed on the other side of the room, the one where Amali usually slept. Kya rolled her eyes, but got up and shuffled over to sit there instead, and then Nira finally flung the door open
Amali immediately darted inside, throwing herself into Nira's arms in relief.
Nira felt a little guilty, hugging Amali tight and assuring, "It's okay, sweetheart. I'm right here. I'm sorry. I just overslept is all."
Amali looked up at her with a wrinkled nose. "You never sleep late."
"Well I was super tired after all that partying last night," Nira lied.
"It was partially my fault," Kya chimed in, prompting Amali to finally notice her.
"Kya," Amali said in surprise, going over to hug her too. "What are you doing here?"
"Nira and I had a sleepover of our own so we were up talking all night," Kya deflected. "I slept in your bed because I was too tired to walk to my own. I hope that was okay."
"That's okay I don't mind," Amali said cheerfully.
"Isn't your room like two feet away?" Sora pointed out with a smirk.
"These big dark hallways get creepy at night," Kya insisted before turning her attention back to Amali. "How was your sleepover?"
"It was so much fun," Amali gushed, and then went on a long, breathless explanation of all the fun things they had done. Kya nodded along with enthusiasm, gasping at all the right parts and encouraging Amali to tell her everything. Nira smiled fondly as she watched them, delighted to see Amali's exuberance and Kya just being Kya.
When Amali had finished and started asking what Nira and Kya had done during their sleepover, Sora interjected, "Amali, why don't you come help me lead the meditation group Aunt Kya is supposed to be at right now? That way she and Nira can have breakfast."
"Oh, shoot," Kya exclaimed. "I totally forgot."
"That's okay," Sora assured. "We'll handle it, won't we, Amali?"
Amali nodded. "Uh huh. I can help."
"Are you sure?" Kya asked.
"Of course I'm sure," Sora replied. "You two go on. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."
"We'll come find you soon," Nira promised Amali, who smiled and nodded and then rushed ahead with Sora.
Nira watched the two girls go, and then felt arms circling her waist from behind, and Kya's warm breath on her cheek as she murmured, "What do you say we skip breakfast again and we'll meet them for lunch?"
Nira laughed and lightly swatted Kya's hands as she stepped out of the all too alluring embrace. "Cut it out. We stayed in bed late enough. You've completely ruined my sleep schedule, you know?"
Nira stepped out of the room and started walking in the direction of the kitchens. Kya hurried to catch up, bumping into Nira's side as she casually replied, "I'll gladly ruin your sleep schedule every night if you want."
"You're absurd," Nira spluttered through another laugh.
"But you like it," Kya said, and Nira couldn't really contest that.
Since everyone else in the temple was in classes or training already, Nira and Kya had the dining hall to themselves. They scrounged up some of the leftovers from breakfast before the kitchen crew could finish cleaning it up, and then sat together on a bench and stuffed their faces with food. Kya was flirty and handsy the entire time, and Nira had time to revel in how great it was to have Kya acting like her normal self again. And it was great to let herselfrelax and enjoy it.
That is, until everything came crashing down around them.
A shrill voice broke through their peaceful moment, a child's terrified scream of, "MOM!" reverberating around the empty hall.
Nira recognized the voice before she fully registered it, surging to her feet and knocking several things over as she whirled towards the entryway. Amali was sprinting towards her, and the sheer panic on her face, coupled with the fact that she had never called Nira Mom before, was a clear sign that something terrible had happened. Bumi was close on Amali's heels, andeven he looked worried.
Nira rushed to meet Amali, who crashed into her with a sob, and Nira anxiously questioned, "Sweetheart, what is it? What's wrong?"
"Th – they're here," Amali stammered through her tears and gasps for air. "It's hap – happening again. Don't leave me. Don't leave me."
"I'm not going anywhere," Nira soothed, looking over at Bumi for an explanation, just as Kya came up behind her.
Wrapping her arms around Nira and Amali, Kya asked her brother, "Bumi, what the hell?"
Bumi heaved in a breath of air and answered, "It's Zaheer and his people. They're here. Everyone is going to the bison stables. We gotta go now."
Nira felt her chest constrict, and her arms tightened around Amali's trembling frame. Terror filled her to the brim, sticking to her bones like a harsh, wintry chill. She thought that she wouldn't be able to move, but when Kya took her hand and looked at her with the same urgent fear, she somehow managed to put one foot in front of the other, holding one of Kya's hands and one of Amali's in a vice-like grip as they sprinted for the bison stables with Bumi.
But they never made it that far. They met up with Sora and the meditation group she had been leading, only to have Ming-Hua appear and stop their escape. She had wrapped a tight tendril of water around Opal and held a jagged shard of ice to the girl's throat, and all of them surrendered to save Opal from harm. They, along with everyone else – all the new airbenders, Pema's family, Tenzin, and Yunjin – were herded into a room by Zaheer or one of his people. All of them huddled together, crouched on the floor, watching with bated breath as Zaheer stepped forward to address Tenzin.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet a true airbending master," he said.
"What is it you want from us?" Tenzin demanded, holding onto both of the twins, a reassuring grip on Sora and a restraining grip on Yunjin.
"Nothing at all," Zaheer replied. "In fact, if everyone cooperates, you will all walk out of this situation unharmed."
"Then what are you doing here?" Tenzin questioned.
"I want Korra," Zaheer answered, "and I'm tired of chasing her."
"You're using us as leverage," Tenzin surmised.
"Yes," Zaheer said simply.
Tenzin surged to his feet, and his children followed him. "I will never let you get to Korra."
Now Zaheer looked angry, narrowing his eyes at Tenzin and saying, "Unfortunately, you don't have a choice."
Tenzin was angry too as he seethed, "Yes I do."
And then he attacked, blowing Zaheer, Ming-Hua, and Ghazan across the room to slam into the wall. He looked over his shoulder just once, commanding, "Jin, Sora, get everyone out of here! Bumi, Kya, help me hold them off!" An explosion from above forced him to use his airbending to narrowly avoid being blown up by the combustionbender in the airship above. He pointed to P'Li and added, "And stay out of her line of sight! Go! Go!"
Nira was on autopilot as she attempted to leave, dragging Amali with her, not letting herself think about her fears or who she was leaving behind. But Amali wouldn't go. She dug her heels in and pulled Nira back, reaching out for Kya and screaming, "No! We can't leave her!"
Zaheer and the others were rising to their feet. There wasn't time. P'Li was shooting at the fleeing airbenders from above. Yunjin was deflecting the blasts and shouting at Nira and Amali to run. Nira locked eyes with Kya, and they exchanged a brief look, a goodbye they couldn't share, an understanding that they had to separate even though it was torturous. And then Nira forced herself to look away, knowing full well what the cost could be. She bent down and hefted Amali up into her arms, even as the girl screamed and protested, and then she ran.
Chapter 81: Chapter 81
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 81
In all her life, Pema had rarely felt true terror. There had been times when she was scared, of course, exceedingly worried, perhaps, but it had never been so achingly horrific that her whole body shook with fear. Zaheer's arrival at the Northern Air Temple shook her to her core, and it took every last bit of her willpower to not simply collapse from the weight of it. She had heard of what Zaheer and his gang were capable of. Nira had told her some of the things they had done, how they had nearly kidnapped the Avatar twice now, how they had broken out of their so-called secure prisons and had eluded capture at every turn, about how they had killed the Earth Queen in their quest to take down world leaders, and the ruthless way in which they went about their plans. Pema had seen how worried Tenzin was about them, and if he was worried about his wife, the seemingly invincible Lin Beifong that had been facing off with criminals for at least three decades, then surely Zaheer's group was one to be worried about.
The panic Pema had seen on Yunjin's face when he was darting around the Temple trying to get everyone out was also a clear sign of what they all had to face. If Yunjin was panicked then their situation was really bad. And for Pema, she had her entire family to worry about, and no way to protect them. She had no bending and no defensive skills, and since she had only given birth just a few days before, she could barely even run. She had to let Anil carry the baby, their little girl, who they had not even had the chance to give a name yet. Pema's arms were shaking too badly to risk holding the newborn, so she held on tight to Meelo and Ikki's hands instead.
Initially, all of their running was for nothing because they ended up being rounded up in a room together anyways, but that had only lasted a moment. One second they were kneeling before their captors, the next Tenzin was throwing Zaheer and his pals across the room, with a vicious gust of wind that made Pema jump with fright. And then they were running again, with a combustionbender shooting at them from above. Pema held on tighter to Ikki and Meelo, so close on Anil's heels that she had to watch the ground to keep from stepping on him. Jinora raced just slightly ahead, to help clear the way with Sora and Kai, to make sure the path was safe for all the people in their group. It made Pema's chest ache, to see her eldest taking on such a responsibility, to see Jinora risking her own safety for the other airbenders and her family. Before, it had filled Pema with pride that Jinora had such natural abilities when it came to airbending, but in that moment it only multiplied her worries tenfold, and made her feel even worse about her own lack of skills in that area, to have to rely on her fourteen year old to protect her own family.
The sprint they all made towards the bison stables couldn't have lasted more than a couple of minutes, but weaving through the temple seemed to take an exceedingly long time. The sound of battle, back where they had left Tenzin and his siblings, at times sounded as if it was closer and not farther away, as if they were about to be attacked from behind, until the sounds faded entirely and there was no way to know who was winning or if someone had already won. Pema kept looking back over her shoulder, half expecting to see Zaheer rocketing towards them. But she only saw Yunjin, who was watching the rear for that which Pema feared, and Nira, who was still carrying Amali, who was still wailing for Kya even as she slumped in Nira's hold. Nira seemed to be struggling just as much as Pema to keep up with the rest of the group, but Nira at least had the excuse of carrying an eight year old. Pema was angry at her own body for not having recovered yet, for being so weak when she desperately needed to be strong. She ended up letting go of Ikki and Meelo so that they could keep up with their father and the baby, and it was all she could do to keep within eye sight of the rest of the group. Yunjin was clearly going slower just to accommodate her, and ended up grabbing her by the elbow and dragging her forward when she slowed even more.
When they reached the end of the tunnel, Pema was able to catch up with her family, while Sora slowly stepped out to see if the way to the bison stables was clear. Pema noticed that Yunjin stayed at her side, holding her up, and it was only then she realized how far she was hunched over, the pain in her abdomen so much that she could hardly stand to breathe let alone stand straight up. He was dutifully holding onto her, but watching his sister with worry, and his grip on Pema's arm tightened when an explosion bloomed two feet in front of Sora's face. Sora leapt backwards, hastily returning to the safety of the tunnel, and Yunjin could not stand to remain at the back any longer. He looked at Pema first, and then Anil, who was holding her around the waist with his one free arm. "I've got her," Anil said, when he saw the look on Yunjin's face, and the boy nodded to them both, squeezed Pema's arm one more time, and then released her to move towards the front, where Sora, Kai, Zara, Jinora, and Nira were deliberating what to do. The woman in the sky was still shooting down at the ground just outside the tunnel where they were all crowded, a deterrent to keep them from even attempting to escape.
"We need to get out there before she decides to come down here and shoot us in the face," Kai said.
"Can we block her blasts enough to get by?" Jinora questioned.
Sora shook her head. "It's too dangerous. There aren't enough of us capable and too many could get hurt."
"We'll never make it to the stables with her up there," Nira concurred. Amali was on her own two feet again and no longer sobbing but was still clinging to Nira's side.
"Maybe we should just surrender," Zara suggested, "before anybody gets hurt."
"I'm not surrendering to these psychos," Kai scoffed.
Yunjin stepped forward, snatched up a glider that rested against the tunnel wall, and then stood in the archway, his back to the clangor of explosions as he addressed the group. "I'm going to distract her. Sora, the second her focus is on me, you get everyone out to the bison and get out of here."
There were several immediate protests from Sora, Nira, and Jinora, each of them saying, "No way," "It's too dangerous," "Don't you dare."
"It's the only way," Yunjin insisted, voice firm and oddly mature sounding, as if he had aged in the last thirty minutes. His silhouette was cast in shadows that made him look more a man than a boy, tall and strong and ready. But Pema knew that it was all an illusion. He was still just a child, no older than Jinora; he must have been scared and he should never have had to make the decision to put his life on the line. But of all the adults in that tunnel, he was the most powerful, the most well-trained. Aside from Sora he was probably the only one that had the best chance at pulling it off and surviving.
"I'll go with you," Sora tried to convince her brother. "We'll have a better chance of distracting her together."
"You need to make sure everyone gets on those bison and away from here," Yunjin reasoned. "Nira can't do it alone."
"Don't do this," Jinora cried, suddenly grabbing the front of Yunjin's shirt with both hands. "You don't have anything to prove."
Yunjin gently laid a hand over Jinora's and soothed, "I'll catch up with you guys as soon as I can. You don't have to worry."
"We're running out of time," Kai interjected, impatiently clicking the staff of another glider he'd found against the ground. "I'll give him back up if he needs it. We need to get moving."
"He's right," Yunjin said, gently prying Jinora's hands from his shirt, only to have Amali throw herself against him an instant later.
"No, you can't!" she wailed. "You can't go! Not you too!"
Despite the urgency of the situation, Yunjin patiently knelt before Amali, pushing her back to arms length and assuring, "I'm gonna be fine, Amali. I need to make sure everybody gets to safety. You just have to be strong one more time. We'll be out of here soon."
Amali kept shaking her head and crying. "Don't go, don't go –"
"Stay with Nira," Yunjin said firmly, straightening back up and pressing Amali into Nira's hold once more, and Nira held Amali tight against her chest with both arms. "It'll all be okay."
Nira begged Yunjin, "Please, please, please be careful."
Sora grabbed her brother's shoulder and shook him. "Don't do anything stupid. As soon as we get away you leave her behind and come straight to us."
Yunjin took a step back, but before he could get away, Jinora lunged forward again, kissing him quickly and whispering something that Pema couldn't hear. Yunjin nodded firmly, squeezed Jinora's elbow, and then stepped out of her hold.
Then, without further delay, the boy turned and sprinted out into the cacophony of destruction just outside the tunnel. They all watched with bated breath as he darted in and out of blast zones, and it was truly a sight to behold. His mastery of airbending was on full display as he spun and flipped around explosions, as if he was simply weaving around stationary objects and not spontaneous blasts. When he reached the edge of the cliff he leapt right off of it without fear, and he blasted up into the sky, using one of the explosions and a perfectly timed ball of air to propel himself faster.
"Go now!" Sora called from the edge of the tunnel, waving everyone on. "Get to the bison! Quickly! Go! Go!"
The group surged forward, with Nira, Amali, and Kai leading the way across the open landscape to the bison stables. Sora and Jinora waited until everyone was out before following, and when Pema continued to lag behind, Sora grabbed her around the waist and half carried her the rest of the way. Pema idly wondered if it was an airbender trick or if Sora was just that strong. Not so distant explosions shook the air as they began their run, but nothing struck the ground. When Pema glanced up at the sky, she saw Yunjin weaving in and out of P'Li's line of sight, sporadically kicking gusts of air at her to keep her focused on him. And then, when P'Li was shaking off one of Yunjin's attacks, the boy shot straight into the airship with her, and everything went quiet.
For once in his life, Yunjin was not fueled by unshakeable certainty and adrenaline. Instead, he was driven by desperation and mounting terror. His only goal in going after P'Li was to give his sister and Jinora and the others a chance to escape. He didn't care what happened to himself, he didn't care if he beat P'Li or not. All that mattered was that the others got away. It was already too late for his father, his Aunt Kya, his Uncle Bumi. Their only hope was that they were strong enough to take Zaheer, Ghazan, and Ming-Hua on their own. Yunjin felt terrible leaving them, wished that he could go back and help them, but the airbenders needed him, needed someone that could distract P'Li long enough for them to get away. Sora could have done it, but Yunjin was still haunted by the image of his brother's face, and that was his fault. He couldn't stand by and let Sora face a similar fate. And besides, she was the best person to lead everyone to safety. She was good with people, and with the sky bison, and she was smart and tactical. If he could give her enough time, she would handle everything. He felt a little guilty for leaving Jinora again, especially after he had only just last night promised to prove to her that he would be better, that he would communicate with her and stop running off. But he had to believe that she would understand how necessary this was, and there wasn't time for him to feel much guilt when he was so worried. He had to protect the people that he loved and he was terrified that he would fall short.
He flew up into the air amidst thundering explosions without any concern for himself, only the people below. He spiraled through the air, evading P'Li's assaults and throwing back some of his own. Every time she tried to aim her sights on the fleeing group below, Yunjin threw another whirlwind of attacks at her, and was relieved when she focused all of her energy on him. That was when he took his chance, flying up as close to her airship as he possibly could. Just before she could shoot him down, he dropped his feet from his glider and kicked a violent blast of air at her that knocked her back a step. It would only take her a moment to recover, but in the meantime he straightened his legs back out behind him and shot forward.
P'Li had reoriented herself and was gearing up to strike him down when he came bursting into the airship and slammed right into her. They both went down in a heap of flailing limbs, kicking and punching and then rolling away in opposite directions. Yunjin whirled back up onto his feet as P'Li leapt to hers, and he had a brief moment to be a little intimidated by how tall she was up close right before the fight was on. Up this close, it was too dangerous to herself and the airship for P'Li to use her combustionbending, so she was forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat with him. Yunjin used the staff of his glider as a weapon, knocking back P'Li's fists by rapping her across the knuckles and swinging the glider at various points on her body, her thighs, her ankles, the side of her face. She evaded or blocked most of his blows, but a few landed with a resounding crack of wood against flesh. He could see the rage growing in her fiery amber eyes, but he had no time for fear or satisfaction. He was entirely present in the moment, consumed by his element.
But when he finally managed to knock P'Li back several steps with a blow to the side of her face and a jab in the stomach, he was alerted to more danger just behind him. He whirled around to see several people entering the space through a doorway, and it was clear by the looks on their faces and their defensive stances that they were not simply a hired airship crew. They were members of whatever group P'Li was a part of, the Red Lotus, as they were called, and there were five of them coming straight for Yunjin.
"Ah, come on," Yunjin groaned, already spinning his glider in a defensive maneuver in front of him while glancing over his shoulder at P'Li. "This is hardly fair."
But P'Li didn't care about fair, and Yunjin knew his odds were slim. He would have a better chance from outside, where he had the open air to evade. And if everyone hadn't escaped yet, and he wasn't able to distract P'Li enough from out there, he would dive back into the airship and put up one hell of a fight. For now, he got in a few shots, tossed several of P'Li's defenders back through the open doorway they'd emerged from, whirled around some of the onslaught they threw at him, took a few hits, and then jumped straight out of the airship.
It was in midair that he saw the situation down below. Confusion and concern all bubbled up within him, and for a moment he disregarded P'Li and the rest of the Red Lotus still trying to pommel him with various bending. Down on the ground most of the airbenders remained, but the sky bison were gone, spooked no doubt by the raging fire that was steadily consuming the stables. Not too far off from where he floated through the air, Yunjin could see the sky bison attempting to fly away, and only one of them held any people. He could just make out about five of the airbenders, along with Anil and the baby, Ikki, and Meelo. Pema and Jinora were nowhere to be seen, nor was Sora or Amali or Nira, meaning none of them had escaped in time. Yunjin didn't know who could have possibly attacked, what firebender could have been on the ground when all the other Red Lotus seemed to still be in the airship with P'Li. All he knew was that he couldn't let the sky bison get away, not without first rescuing everyone else. He directed his glider that way, intending to herd one or two of the bison back towards land. But it was only then that he remembered the threat still looming just above.
He looked over at where P'Li had repositioned herself in the opening of the airship, but she was no longer trying to knock Yunjin out of the sky. Now her sights were aimed on the escaping sky bison, in particular, the bison that held Jinora's family, her father and Ikki and Meelo and their new baby sister. Yunjin felt his stomach rise in his throat, panic consuming him as he angled in their direction, trying desperately to speed up, to get there before P'Li could shoot them down. He tried to warn them with a strangled shout, but it wouldn't have mattered if they understood him. The new airbender at the reigns could barely guide the sky bison along, let alone maneuver it away from the blast.
Yunjin put on one last desperate burst of air to propel himself to them, keeping one eye on P'Li, hoping she'd turn elsewhere, but she didn't turn away, and all he could think was too late, too late, too late!
Yunjin heard the explosion coming half a second before it came, felt the distortion in the air, a prickle on his skin that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. At the last second he swooped directly in front of the sky bison, his back to P'Li and to the explosion that slammed straight into him with a deafening BOOM. He was not even conscious long enough to feel the pain, only heat and a heavy pressure and then darkness consumed him.
Pema was two seconds away from being lifted onto the sky bison when the fire came. Sora and Jinora had helped Anil and the baby, Ikki, and Meelo up into the saddle, and five other new airbenders had been coaxed up into it with them. Everyone else had been headed for the other sky bison, Sora had been prepared to lift Pema up, and then fire bloomed right before their eyes.
The sky bison all groaned in fear and immediately took to the sky, flapping their heavy tails and kicking up a gust of wind that knocked Pema, Sora, and Jinora backwards several steps. From atop their sky bison, Anil, Meelo, and Ikki all cried out, "Pema!" "Mommy!" "Jinora!" just before they were separated. Pema reached up, as if she could have grabbed their hands and held onto them, but they were far beyond her reach. Some anxiety filled her, made her feel as if she would weep as her children and husband drew farther and farther away. But at least she could see that they were headed to safety, which was more than she could say for the rest of them. She could take solace knowing her family would escape whatever was to come, all but Jinora.
Pema held on tight to her oldest as they all turned to see who had set the bison stables ablaze. Confusion set in when the only person they could see standing apart from the group was Zara.
Sora caught on before Pema did, sounding breathless with surprise as she asked, "Zara, did you… did you just firebend?"
Zara clenched her fists and positioned herself in a defensive stance, all the while looking guiltily over at Sora as she said, "I'm sorry, Sora. I can't let you all get away."
Pema couldn't believe it, and apparently neither could Sora, who spluttered, "But you…you're…you're an airbender. You can't firebend. What…what are you doing?"
Kai was enraged as he spat, "You're a traitor! You used us!"
Zara flinched, but didn't back down. "If you just surrender, nobody has to get hurt."
Someone in the group gasped and said, "They're not gonna make it!" prompting everyone else to turn their gaze back towards the sky, including Zara. Pema saw the sky bison carrying her family flying across P'Li's direct line of sight, and Yunjin was no longer in the airship distracting her. He was flying towards the endangered bison, but he would never make it in time.
"No!" Pema sobbed, nearly collapsing from the weight of her fear, and the overwhelming sense of powerlessness as she was forced to watch her family be shot down, with no way of saving them.
Except the explosion never hit them.
It hit Yunjin instead.
The boy swooped in at the last second, throwing himself into the line of fire. He couldn't have had time to defend himself before the explosion was consuming him, striking him in the back and propelling him over top of the sky bison he'd just saved, and then furling him in a ball of smoke. When he began to drop from the sky, his body was slack, his glider splintered into pieces.
Then an agonized scream that would haunt Pema for months to come permeated the air, and Sora went running for the edge of the cliff, as if she would jump right over the edge and join her twin brother in his freefall. Nira was faster than Pema, intercepting Sora before she could do something foolish. Sora stopped but her legs gave out on her and she dropped to her knees, and Nira went along with her. Tortured sobs wracked Sora's frame, and Pema could see tears streaking down Nira's face too. Nira looked to be in shock, staring off into the distance at nothing, her head turned so that she wouldn't have to watch Yunjin fall. She grabbed Amali and dragged the girl down behind Sora too, holding Amali against her as the girl cried along with her and Sora.
Kai, on the other hand, seemed to remember that he had a glider still, and when he went sprinting for the edge, no one stopped him as he leapt straight off of it. His glider popped open and he dove for Yunjin, and everyone watched in a state of suspense as Kai reached Yunjin's prone form and caught the falling boy with his legs. But Kai was still a little inexperienced, and with the weight of Yunjin dragging the glider down, Kai couldn't quite figure out how to steady them. He was wobbling left and right and dropping too fast, and several times it looked as if he would crash the two of them straight into a rock wall. After only a brief moment, P'Li began shooting at the both of them, and Kai was hard pressed to avoid the same fate as Yunjin. As to whether or not he ever managed to land them safely, the group would not know. Kai disappeared around the side of one of the cliffs with Yunjin just as one of P'Li's explosions erupted next to them, blowing rock and debris into their path, and they weren't seen again.
Jinora choked on a sob, and Pema shook herself from some of her own shock to pull Jinora against her chest. All she could do was hold Jinora tight and try not to cry herself. The anguish all around was palpable, and even though there was some relief, that the rest of her family was safe, that she could see them disappearing over the horizon, away from the danger of P'Li and the others, the cost had been steep. Pema did not know if someone could survive a direct hit from a combustionbender, or what kind of damage it would cause, but Yunjin was just a boy and now… He had started to become like part of the family, and Pema's heart ached at the thought. Admittedly, she hadn't been all that pleased when she had first found out her daughter was dating the Beifong boy. Between her past with Lin and the boy's temperament that clearly favored his mother's side of the family, Pema had been worried. But Yunjin's love for Jinora was so pure and innocent, and the way he doted on her was heartwarming. He was good with Ikki and Meelo too, always made time to play games with them when he would visit Jinora at her house. Meelo actually listened better to his parents when Yunjin was there, because he admired the older boy and Yunjin was always respectful of Pema and Anil, always offered to help make dinner or help clean up. The boy plainly had his issues with anger and communication, but he had a good heart. He was brave and bold and kind and he had just sacrificed himself for everyone else, for Pema's family. She didn't know how she'd ever look Tenzin and Lin Beifong in the eye again if their boy wasn't okay.
Now that the threat of Yunjin was gone and the sky bison were too far off in the distance to save anyone else, the airship carrying P'Li drifted over to dock behind Zara, who seemed just as shell shocked as the rest of them, just standing there braced for an attack. P'Li and several others descended to the ground, and it was clear that surrender was imminent. The new airbenders weren't trained well enough to fight off the dozen or so people dropping out of the airship and P'Li, who was formidable enough on her own. With the sky bison gone, the rest of them had no way of getting out. They were trapped. Again.
But the fight wasn't over yet.
When Sora stopped weeping enough to notice P'Li and the others approaching, her features went dark. Pema watched from over Jinora's head the sudden change in Sora, to something Pema had never seen in her before. Sora disentangled herself from Nira and Amali, and rose slowly to her feet, her gaze laser focused on P'Li. There was so much rage and grief on her young face, and her whole body trembled. With her fists clenched at her sides and tears still dripping from her face, she strode in the direction of Zara and P'Li and the rest, with her intent clear on her face.
"Sora," Nira desperately called, her voice choked from her own emotion. "Sora, don't. Sora –"
Nira tried to rise back up to her feet, but it was too late. Sora flicked her wrist and Zara went flying backwards, hitting the ground hard and sliding the rest of the way to stop right in front of P'Li's feet. Sora kept stomping forward, but P'Li did not attack. Instead, she waved her hand, and the others behind her came rushing forward. Sora lashed out, and the attacks she threw at her opponents were not like the normal graceful movements she usually executed when airbending. She was angry and volatile, and she had never looked so much like her mother before. She was all sharp jabs and swift kicks, unrelenting and driven by rage.
Sora managed to knock back almost half of the Red Lotus, but a lot of their attacks were getting through, and the airbenders were trapped between evading projectiles and the fire still raging just behind them. Nira stepped in, pushing Amali behind some of the airbenders, and joined her efforts to Sora's. Nira mostly focused on deflection, whirling through the air like a natural and not someone who had started airbending in their forties, batting aside rock discs and blowing back balls of fire. Sora was too busy trying to get to P'Li, reckless and impatient, and the harder she fought the more she started to slip. She was getting worse at blocking, and instead of making forward progress she was knocked back over and over and over. It was becoming difficult to watch, but nothing anyone did would stop the girl. Not Nira's pleas nor the airbenders' fright. Even when Jinora stepped in, Sora shrugged her friend away from her and kept on fighting. All Jinora could do was try and knock aside some of the barrage coming at Sora. But they were outnumbered, and P'Li must have grown weary of waiting because she started shooting at Sora too.
Jinora and Nira were forced to leap away from the blasts, back to where Pema and the other airbenders were huddled. Sora, on the other hand, kept creating air bubbles to protect herself and stubbornly stood her ground. But with all the chaos and the smoke blurring her vision, she couldn't defend herself as well from the rest of the Red Lotus. She took several hits, lashes of water and earth projectiles striking her. She was knocked down several times but kept getting back up. Nira and some of the others tried to step in, but P'Li kept them at bay.
Until Sora hit the ground and did not immediately get back up. She hovered on hands and knees, her arms shaking violently as she coughed and heaved and tried to catch her breath. She spat blood from her mouth, wiped her hand across her face and just smeared dirt and tears and blood across her cheeks. There was a moment of stillness where the assaults stopped, but Pema could see the Red Lotus thugs gearing up to strike again, and she couldn't stand there and watch any longer. The poor girl couldn't take anymore. Pema had no bending to help Sora, but she rushed forward anyways, praying P'Li wouldn't try to shoot her back. She called to The Red Lotus to stop, ignoring the pain in her hips and abdomen to quicken her pace. Sora was trying to rise onto her feet again and some of them were looking all too eager to knock her back down.
Sora made it to her feet just before Pema reached her, but she looked defeated, and she swayed on the spot. She glanced at Pema and all the others looking on, and her shoulders slumped, and Pema could tell that the girl was finally going to give up. But the Red Lotus were jumpy and distrusting, and when Sora turned to face them, she wobbled, and threw her arms out to steady herself, and one of them perceived it as an attack. He threw a barrage of rounded rocks at Sora, and she was too disoriented to defend herself. Pema did the only thing she could do and stepped in front of Sora, and took the hit herself. The force of it hitting her straight in the stomach knocked her back into Sora, and they both crumpled to the ground. Pema bent over with a gasp, the pain knocking the air out of her and radiating out across her whole body. She ended up face down on the ground clutching at her stomach and her ears were ringing. But she could hear Nira's voice calling out, "Enough! Enough! We surrender!" And then Pema could see little more than the back of Nira's legs as the woman came to stand protectively in front of her and Sora.
"Pema," Sora said shakily, and then tentative hands were brushing against her arm.
"Mom!" Jinora cried as she dropped down at her mother's side.
But Pema could not respond to either of them, and darkness encroached on her vision until all the sounds and the pain faded away, and she fell into the embrace of unconsciousness with relief.
The flight from Zaofu to the Northern Air Temple was too long.
They spent the first half arguing tactics, how best to rescue the hostages without anyone getting killed. Lin was driven mad with worry and guilt, but was forcing herself to stay focused. She couldn't help her family if she lost her mind. She had to believe that they were okay, that Tenzin would have done the sensible thing and surrendered, and that Zaheer would not see fit to slaughter the Air Nation on a whim. So long as she could get to the Temple in time, and execute a well thought out plan, Zaheer would not have the chance.
What Lin had not expected was for Korra to decide to give herself over to Zaheer, just as he had demanded. Everyone else in the airship protested, but Korra would not hear them out. She was adamant that it was the only way to save the airbenders and everyone else, that they could all worry about rescuing her once the airbenders were safe. Since she was the Avatar and her logic was fairly sound, the rest of them relented, albeit with renewed concern.
Korra went to contact Zaheer, and when she returned she revealed his demands. He wanted Korra to come alone to Laghima's Peak, a mountain top just beyond the Temple. Korra's people were permitted to go to the Temple to retrieve the airbenders, just as soon as Korra surrendered, otherwise Zaheer would order his people to kill the hostages. Su decided on a plan then, a way to rescue everyone, including Korra. Ronen, Asami, Mako, and Bolin would take the airship to the Temple, while Lin, Su, Tonraq, and the Metal Clan got into position at the bottom of Laghima's Peak. Once Ronen and his friends confirmed that they had the airbenders, Lin and the others would attack Zaheer and free Korra.
With the plans made, all they could do for the rest of the flight was wait. Lin didn't like waiting. It allowed too much time to think, to worry, to over analyze every little thing. She sat in a corner by herself, staring off into the distance and shaking her leg up and down, a nervous tick she didn't think she had ever had before. She kept thinking about the twins and Tenzin, Kya and Bumi, Nira and Amali and Opal. She remembered all too well the last thing she had said to Yunjin, the harshness in her tone – Get out of my sight. She had said that to her son, sent him off back to a place that turned out to be more dangerous than Zaofu, and if anything happened to him those were the last words he would remember her saying to him. She felt sick with guilt, tempted to hit herself in the head over her own stupidity. As for the others it had been so long that she couldn't remember the last things she had said to them in person. She couldn't remember if she had told them that she loved them. All she knew was that if the worst happened…
She couldn't handle it. Just the thought made her want to scream. She had to shake her head and block it out. She had to convince herself that they were fine. She couldn't think of them any other way.
Su dropped down next to her, and for a long moment neither one of them acknowledged the other. Lin continued to shake her leg and Su fiddled with one of the metal gauntlets on her wrist.
Then Su timidly asked, "What if we're too late? What if we make it and he kills them anyways?"
"You can't think like that," Lin grumbled, even though she had been thinking much the same a few minutes ago. "He doesn't have a good reason to slaughter all of them." Tenzin, maybe, because he could fall under the category of world leader, but not the entire Air Nation.
"I can't stop thinking about it. About Opal. If she…" Su grabbed Lin's knee, forcing her to stop bouncing her leg up and down. "Stop it. You're bouncing the whole bench and making me sick."
Lin had a feeling that wasn't the only thing making Su sick. "Opal will be fine. She's smart, and the others will protect her."
"How can you be so sure of all this?" Su demanded. "How are you not freaking out right now?"
"I am freaking out right now," Lin muttered. "I'm just being quiet about it."
A few seconds elapsed wherein Su was silent, and Lin was silent, and in that silence they both had too much time to think and worry.
"Lin," Su whispered brokenly. "Can you… can you just hold my hand for a second?"
Lin looked over at Su, who was staring stubbornly at the wall across from her, silently suffering, her jaw clenched and tears flowing down her cheeks. Lin didn't take her sister's trembling hand, but she hooked her arm around Su's shoulders and pulled her in. Su collapsed into Lin's hold, wrapping both arms around her older sister and holding on for dear life, her forehead pressed to Lin's cheek. She was quiet as she wept, but her whole body shook with the effort it took her to keep it in. Lin did not give her false promises or forced reassurances, simply held her tight and stroked her hair. That was all she could do. Neither of them had anyway of knowing what they would be walking into come morning. All they had in that moment was each other. Lin only hoped that, when it was all over, they still had each other, and the rest of their family, and that nobody did anything stupid. Except, who was she kidding? She was already planning several stupid things that she was going to do if she got so much as an inkling that any of her family had been harmed. Ming-Hua was already on her hit list for what she'd done to Ronen, and if Zaheer had done anything to Tenzin or the twins…
Su was just starting to recover when Ronen interrupted, looking apologetic as he hesitated in the doorway. Lin did not move, still holding her sister as she quietly asked Ronen, "What is it?"
"Sorry," Ronen replied, taking a step into the room and pulling something behind him. "I thought you'd want to know. We found a stowaway."
He gently tugged said stowaway in front of him, and there stood Jeia, already looking defiant, as if she expected her mother to berate her.
But all Lin could do was sigh heavily and hold out her hand to Jeia, who eyed it with distrust for a long moment before slowly stepping forward to take it. Lin simply pulled Jeia into her other side, lifting the girl up onto the bench, and Jeia immediately relaxed against her. What else could Lin do? They weren't going to turn back to take Jeia to Zaofu, and it was no surprise that the kid had refused to stay there when all of the people she loved most were gone. She liked her uncle and all her male cousins well enough, but she wasn't half as comfortable with them as she was with her Aunt Su or Kuvira, who was Captain of the Metal Clan they had brought with them.
Su was still sniffling, but trying to catch her breath and hastily wiping the tears from her cheeks, trying to pretend for Jeia and Ronen. Jeia seemed a little alarmed by her aunt's sorrow, and uncertain of what to do, awkwardly patting Su's hand where it had landed on Lin's side, which made Su snort a watery laugh at least. Ronen came over without further hesitation, dropping down on his aunt's other side and hugging her from behind. Su seemed to relax then, understanding that she was with family and she had been holding in all her emotions for weeks, and maybe it was okay for the kids to see her just a little unhinged for once. They were all a little unhinged at that moment, but by suffering together they found some small reprieve, some measure of comfort. And because none of them had slept properly in days, they somehow managed to doze off there for a brief period, cramped together on the bench, using each other as pillows, Ronen's head on Su's back, Su's on Lin's shoulder, Lin's cheek against the top of Su's head, and Jeia sprawled across her mother's lap. In a short time they would wake up barely rested and forced to face whatever was to come, but for that brief moment they had each other, and that was enough.
Before Ronen had found Jeia hiding away in one of the airship's storage compartments, he had gone in search of Korra. He worried about the decision she had made, to give herself over to Zaheer in exchange for the airbenders, but he also understood why she had done it. He would have done the same thing for his family and the revived Air Nation. Still, he knew that she must have been afraid, even with the plan in place to rescue her. He knew he would be if he were in her position. After everything that had happened in the last few months they knew what Zaheer was capable of, and there was no telling what he had planned.
When he found Korra standing at one of the port windows, he sidled up next to her and asked, "How are you holding up?"
She shrugged and gave him a tiny smile. "I'm all right. How are you?"
Ronen shrugged too. "As well as I can be. I wish I could come with you to face Zaheer."
"I know, but it's more important that you find your family and the airbenders," Korra reasoned.
"Yeah, but I wish I didn't have to choose between the two," Ronen countered. "Are you certain about this plan? You know I'm with you no matter what. There's no shame in second guessing it."
"I'm not really worried about myself," Korra admitted. "I'm mostly worried that I'll do it for nothing, that I'll give myself to Zaheer but it'll already be too late or it won't be enough, and I'll have failed everyone. Zaheer went after them because of me – Tenzin and Jin and Sora, and Opal and all the airbenders. I need to end this one way or another."
"It isn't your fault," Ronen told her, reaching out to squeeze her arm. "I hope you know that."
"I should have never let it get this far," Korra argued.
"Just because you're the Avatar doesn't mean you're gonna do everything right, or that you can be everywhere at once. I'm sure my mom is beating herself up for not being at the Temple with the rest of our family too, but we're all only human. We can only try our best, and sometimes we can only handle one crisis at a time."
Korra snorted, her sorrow turning to some amusement. "You sound like your grandfather. He said something similar when I spoke with him. I told him it sounded like something you would say. He seemed pretty pleased by that."
Ronen felt oddly emotional for a moment, thinking about the grandfather he had never known. Aang had meant a lot to both of his parents, and had a huge hand in Ronen's teachings even though he was gone, because Ronen's father had wanted to instill all those same values in his own children that he had learned from his father. Aang had been a legendary Avatar, but to Ronen's parents he had been so much more.
Ronen cleared his throat so that his voice wouldn't shake when he asked, "So your connection to the Avatars really is returning then?"
Korra nodded. "After Mako and Bolin told me about Zaheer's ultimatum, I wasn't sure what to do or who to talk to. Your mom suggested I talk to Zuko, and he gave me some good advice. I had pretty much made up my mind already, but I decided to meditate on it. I didn't expect to be able to connect to the past Avatars. I'd only been getting glimpses of them now and then, nothing substantial. I thought I was imagining it most of the time. But then I managed to talk to Aang and it was kind of a relief. I think I talked more than he did, but what he did say was comforting at least. I think he feels like he screwed up a lot too."
Ronen could imagine that being the Avatar and the last airbender and having a family to take care of would have been a lot, and it was no wonder his grandfather hadn't been perfect at all of it. Ronen had seen first hand some of the issues it had brought out in his Aunt Kya and Uncle Bumi, and he imagined Aang felt more than guilty for that. But he knew also how much everyone in the family had loved his grandfather, and he hoped that Aang had known that.
He said to Korra, "I hope you told him that no one really remembers the things he did wrong."
Korra nodded. "I told him his family was doing well, that he would be proud. I just hope I get the chance to tell Tenzin and Kya and Bumi that I spoke with him. I think they would like that…
She trailed off, staring sadly out the port window again, and Ronen frowned but assured, "You will. We're gonna get through this." Or so he hoped.
Kai had never liked Yunjin Beifong, but then again, he had never exactly disliked him either. In truth, he had envied Yunjin most of all, because he clearly didn't appreciate what he had. Yunjin had a whole slew of loving family members, a twin sister and the two siblings back in Zaofu, a mother and a father, two aunts and an uncle, several cousins, not to mention all the people that weren't exactly related but apparently part of the family anyways. Kai could barely remember his own parents, and sometimes he wondered if he hadn't just made up the few memories he had of them. Meanwhile, Yunjin seemed to bounce around from place to place, ignoring his family's wishes and doing whatever he pleased, no matter how many times Sora asked him to stay.
On top of that, Yunjin had Jinora, who was desperately in love with him no matter how much time she spent with Kai. It didn't take a genius to see the way she pined for him even when they were fighting, and Kai had listened to enough of Jinora's rants to know exactly where her heart lay. She tried to act like she was fine without Yunjin, but Kai could see how desperate she was for her boyfriend to come running after her and prove that they were meant to be. Jinora was smart and pretty and kind, and Yunjin didn't deserve her. Not that Kai necessarily believed that he deserved Jinora either, but it was frustrating to watch Yunjin get everything without even trying. Yunjin had a family, he had an incredible girlfriend, and he was an insanely powerful airbender. Kai would be lucky if he ever achieved just one of those things.
What was even more frustrating was that Yunjin wasn't that bad of a guy. He doted on Amali, the skittish orphan girl that trusted all of four people and was always hanging around that Nira lady's skirts. He did anything for his twin sister without even having to be asked. Kai had seen Yunjin carrying Sora's plate for her in the dining hall on several occasions, or carrying a pile of books or opening doors for her. And it wasn't because Sora couldn't do it herself – Kai had sparred with Sora enough to know she was pretty freaking strong – Yunjin just did it to be helpful. Something else Kai knew about Sora now was that she was incredibly emotional, and Yunjin always seemed to know exactly what to do when she was in one of her moods, whether it was coaxing her to eat when she was too glum to do so, or letting her braid his ridiculous hair so she didn't nervously chew all her fingernails off. And every one at the Temple that had known Yunjin before all the new airbenders came along had only good things to say. Even when they were complaining about pranks he had pulled on them, they said it with a certain amount of fondness in their voices, and were impressed by how well thought out the plan had been. It was disgusting, and Kai was beyond annoyed that he had little ammunition against Yunjin.
And of course when disaster struck, Yunjin was the first to offer himself up as bait so that everyone else could escape, and of course he did the stupidly honorable thing and sacrificed himself when he saw P'Li aiming her sights at the one escaping sky bison that had people on it. Frankly, Kai thought it had been overkill, because P'Li's strike probably wouldn't have even hurt the people on the bison, it would have just forced the injured creature to land – Sora herself had said that sky bison were incredibly resilient creatures. Yunjin should have known that, but he went and got himself shot anyways.
And then Kai found himself doing something equally stupid, leaping into the danger zone to catch Yunjin's body even though it was probably too late anyways. But how could Kai just stand there with Sora's haunting cries for her brother, and Jinora's quieter but no less tortured sobs? They had both become his friends even if Yunjin wasn't, and he hated to see them suffer, and anyways, nobody deserved to die alone like that, dropping thousands of feet from the sky. Kai hadn't really thought it through. He just knew that he needed to act so he did. He caught Yunjin, but their troubles were far from over. That psycho combustionbender was still shooting at them, and Kai hadn't been taught all the cool glider moves yet – Sora kept telling him he had to be patient and master some of the more challenging techniques closer to land before he did it way up in the sky. It might have been smarter to give Sora the glider and let her save her brother, but she had already been so upset Kai wasn't sure even she would make it in her current state.
Kai managed to wobble around just the right way to avoid getting shot down, his legs straining to hold Yunjin's dead weight, but right as he was rounding a corner where he hoped to find safety from P'Li's ever persistent blasts, she shot the cliff right next to him, and the resulting explosion momentarily destroyed his senses. Rock and debris exploded outward in a cloud of smoke. Kai shut his eyes as dust and tiny rock particles stabbed his irises, and he accidentally inhaled the dust and started choking, struggling to breathe. The loud BOOM had also rendered him temporarily deaf, his ears ringing so loud he couldn't even hear the air rushing by anymore. It was all he could do to settle himself and Yunjin down on a nearby rock ledge, and they both crashed into it and rolled before Kai managed to stop just at the edge. His glider, however, fell from his grasp and dropped right off the ledge. Kai reached for it blindly, but his hands never found purchase.
For several stunned minutes, Kai laid on his back, heaving for air and waiting for his senses to come back. Tears streamed from his burning eyes and he worked his jaw to try and pop his ears. He groaned when he tried to sit up, his body aching and sore already. When he finally got his vision back, he first made sure that P'Li's airship wasn't chasing after them, and then crawled over to where Yunjin lay unmoving just a few feet away.
Kai wasn't really sure what to do, and his hands hovered for a second. He'd tended to some of his own wounds before but never anything as bad as being shot in the back. He wasn't sure he should even move Yunjin, so he settled for checking the boy's pulse on his neck like he had seen people do before. It took Kai a while to find it, and even once he did he wasn't sure if it was right, but there was a heart beat, and if he watched closely enough he could see Yunjin breathing, though it looked a little off. Most concerning though was the scorch mark on Yunjin's back, right over his lower spine. His shirt had been burnt and torn the whole way up his back, and the wound was on full display, looking raw and gruesome, and Kai had to look away from the shredded flesh.
"Uh, hey, Yunjin?" Kai called to him, tentatively reaching out to shake Yunjin's shoulder a little, trying not to jostle him too much. "Yunjin, come on, man, wake up. We probably shouldn't stay here long…" Just because P'Li hadn't pursued them around the cliff didn't mean she wouldn't send someone looking sooner or later.
It took some prodding over the span of many long, tense minutes, but eventually Yunjin began to stir. When he finally woke, he jolted and then lay still, his face contorting in pain. He rapidly blinked his eyes in an effort to open them, and he could only utter a quiet groan.
Kai sat back with a sigh of relief. At least Yunjin was awake. Now they could figure out how to get off the rock ledge and somewhere safer, so they could come back and help the others. "Y'know," he said to Yunjin, "you really scared the crap out of everybody."
Yunjin said nothing, looking at Kai with a strained expression on his face and struggling to push himself up on trembling arms.
"Was it really necessary?" Kai huffed, unnerved by Yunjin's lack of reaction. He started taking in their surroundings, trying to figure out how they were going to get down, or if they should try climbing up. "You're like a master, aren't you? You don't always have to be such a show off."
"Kai," Yunjin said in a choked voice, and when Kai looked back over at him he was resting his weight on his forearms and staring down at the ground, his hair covering his face.
"You can thank me for saving your skin later," Kai replied, assuming that was the reason for Yunjin's inability to meet his gaze. "Right now we need to get off this ledge before that crazy lady comes back and blows us both up again."
"Kai," Yunjin repeated, and when he looked at Kai there was fear on his face and he was sickly pale, like he was about to throw up.
Kai instinctively moved back a few inches, in case that was what was about to happen. But Yunjin didn't throw up. Frankly Kai would have preferred to get puke all over him than to hear Yunjin's next words.
"I can't feel my legs."
Kai blinked stupidly, looked down at Yunjin's legs, which were motionless but didn't look injured, and frowned. Then he spotted the scorch mark on Yunjin's spine again and he gulped.
Before Kai could even articulate a response, he was distracted by movement on his right, and he whirled to see what it was. He was relieved when it turned out to be one of the baby bison hovering there. "Perfect timing," he said, reaching out to pat the bison's head gratefully and then telling Yunjin, "Now I can go get help."
"Wait!" Yunjin gasped, and Kai had never seen him look so fragile before or so utterly terrified. Yunjin had always been annoyingly brave, stupidly confident, impossibly strong. Now he just looked like anyone else, young and alone and scared. "Don't leave me here."
Kai nodded and then started shaking his head halfway through his response. "Yeah…yeah, no, of course not." He shuffled over to Yunjin and assured, "We'll go together. There's a village around here right? Some place with a healer?"
Yunjin nodded, seeming to calm a little. "Xiagu Village. I – I know how to get there."
"Okay, great," Kai said, trying to keep his voice light, to make it seem like he wasn't freaking out inside, a little afraid of seeing Yunjin have a meltdown and desperate to avoid it. "Let's just get you onto the bison…"
Which was easier said than done. Without the use of his legs, Yunjin couldn't help, and when Kai tried to lift him he screamed in pain, which made Kai terrified of trying to move him.
But Yunjin sucked in a deep breath and gritted his teeth, telling Kai, "I'm fine, just do it."
So Kai grimaced and his arms trembled but he quickly dragged Yunjin over to the baby bison, who seemed to moan sympathetically as Yunjin was thrown unceremoniously over its back. Kai climbed up next and urged, "Just – just hang on. It'll be fine. It'll be fine." It'll be fine. Maybe if he said it enough times it might actually be true.
Notes:
So there's the first part of the final face off! Next up, Lin's group tries to rescue everyone, but things don't go as planned. Thank you so much for your comments, until next time!
Chapter 82: Chapter 82
Chapter Text
Chapter 82
Sora could not wholly remember the time she had spent in the Fog of Lost Souls, with her soul detached from her body, but she was fairly certain she would have rather spent all of eternity there than continue to suffer through the absolute agony that she was experiencing now that the Red Lotus had taken the temple. She had watched her twin brother be shot down, assumed dead by pretty much everyone, if the sympathetic looks they kept shooting her were anything to go by. She had failed to protect the new airbenders, who were herded back into the temple in chains. She had acted so rashly that now her own body hurt from the beating she had taken, and because she had been acting a fool, Pema had been caught in the crossfire trying to protect her, and there was no telling what damage had been done, but it was clear that Pema was suffering.
Then there was Zara's betrayal, which struck Sora deeper than any of the physical wounds she had received. For months Sora had let herself be used and deceived, had been too stupid and too trusting to see Zara for what she truly was. She hadn't been suspicious for a single second, not like Yunjin had. Not even when Zara nearly set one of the temple rooms on fire. Not even when Zara refused to airbend time and time again. Sora had been drawn in by Zara's pretty features and mysterious nature, and she had freely given away information about her family and Korra to the enemy. She had kissed Zara, cared about Zara, trusted Zara. She was an idiot. She was weak.
And when Sora was shoved into the antechamber along with the rest of the airbenders and Pema and Amali, and she saw her father, her aunt Kya, and her Uncle Bumi sprawled on the floor, covered in blood and motionless, she just about lost it.
She went to her father first, even though she wanted to gather all three of them into her arms and hold onto them, make sure they were okay, make sure they didn't leave her. She was weeping again, if she had ever really stopped, cradling her father's face with her chained hands and begging him to wake up. His eyes fluttered open halfway, but didn't seem able to go farther. He grimaced and groaned, in obvious pain, his skin mottled with cuts and bruises and his robes shredded. He insisted on sitting up though, to see what was going on, but he was swaying even as Sora was holding him up.
"Sora," he croaked, sounding relieved and sorrowful all at once, probably wishing she had gotten away. He raised a trembling hand, his finger gently brushing over a welt on her cheek. "What happened?"
Sora was too much of a mess to fully explain, choking on her own sobs as she remembered all that had transpired in the short time she was away from her father. "Daddy," she whimpered, unable to catch her breath, "th – they – they – we couldn't – sh – she – and he's gone – he's gone."
"What?" Tenzin groggily questioned, looking terribly confused. "Who? Who's gone? Sora –" But he must have noticed who was missing as he looked around the small huddle, and his eyes did open a little wider. "Wh – where… where is your brother?"
Sora collapsed against him because she couldn't look him in the eye. She couldn't tell him that Yunjin might well be dead. She couldn't see the grief mirrored in his eyes.
A soft voice nearby explained to Tenzin what had happened outside, how Yunjin had been shot down trying to help the rest of them escape, trying to protect Jinora's family and the few airbenders that did get away. The quiet airbender told Tenzin that Kai had caught Yunjin as he was falling, but the boys had nearly been hit and no one knew what had happened to them.
Sora felt her father's arms circle and tighten around her, and the way his breath got caught somewhere in his chest. He said nothing but she could feel his grief.
Then Sora heard movement somewhere behind her, someone entering the room, and her father was calling to them, his tone sharp and demanding despite the clear strain, "What have you done to my son? Where is he? You must let me see him."
Sora felt a chill run down her spine when she heard Zaheer responding, "I have people looking for him. If he's found alive he'll be kept with the rest of the airbenders."
Sora turned in her father's hold, her shackles clanging together. She could see Zaheer's unsympathetic gaze, and the bitch P'Li right beside him, and just behind her was Zara, with the same emotionless expression.
"You must let me see him," Tenzin persisted. "He's hurt. He needs me."
"I told you that if you cooperated then nobody would be harmed," Zaheer said plainly. "Instead you decided to fight. Whatever happens to your son is on you. You're lucky you still have use to me or you'd be as good as dead too." He turned to address his followers. "Take everyone to where we discussed. Except for Master Tenzin. He stays."
"What – no!" Sora exclaimed, clinging to her father. "No, no, I have to stay with him –"
Zaheer was already walking away, ignoring her.
Ming-Hua was giving Sora a disgusted look and warned, "Don't make this difficult, girl. Haven't you had enough?"
Tenzin tightened his grip on Sora and quietly urged, "Sora – Sora please go with them. I'll be okay."
Sora shook her head. She didn't want to go. She couldn't go.
"Kya and Bumi," Tenzin insisted, looking briefly back at his siblings, who still hadn't woken. "They need you. And I need you to be safe. Please. I need you to be safe." He was choking on his own emotions, holding them back for her sake, but she could see right through him. He was falling apart, like she was.
Sora knew she'd be dragged away from him whether she wanted to go or not. She was tempted to fight, to refuse their demands. She was terrified that if she left him she would never see him again. But she didn't want the last thing he saw to be her being beaten into submission and dragged away screaming. She didn't ever want him to suffer that. So she hugged him tight and told him she loved him, and then she rose on shaky legs. She didn't fight. She wasn't sure she could anymore.
Ever since she first saw Kya's battered form, Nira had been struggling to catch her breath. The sight of Yunjin being struck by P'Li's blast was still flashing through her mind, and now she was seeing the aftermath of whatever similar horrors Kya had been subjected to. It was torture. And Amali and Sora's cries were torture. And Nira was at a complete and total loss. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know how they would ever make it out. Kya, Tenzin, Bumi and Pema needed a healer, she knew that much, but it was anyone's guess how long they'd be waiting for that. Someone was looking for Yunjin and Kai but what condition would they be in? Nira had no doubts that Lin and Ronen were on their way, with Su and Korra and the rest of them, but would they be able to stop Zaheer? Or would they just get themselves battered in the process?
Nira felt sick with worry, but she was forcing herself to be strong for the others, Amali and Sora and Jinora, not to mention all the terrified new airbenders. They were all forced out of the antechamber, except for Tenzin, and into the airship the Red Lotus had arrived on, and Nira spent much of the flight soothing the airbenders. Although, it was possible she did that in part for herself, so she didn't have to focus on Kya for too long. Amali was with Kya and Sora was with Bumi, so somebody had to look after the airbenders, or at least that's what Nira told herself. In actuality she was terrified. Kya and Bumi hadn't stirred awake like Tenzin had, had only occasionally uttered pained whimpers when they were jostled around, but their eyes never opened. They both looked dreadful and there was no telling the amount of internal injuries they might have. Nira was afraid they wouldn't be saved in time for a healer to stop whatever damage had been done.
It was only once they had all been ushered into some nondescript cave that Nira was forced to face what she had been avoiding. The airbenders were pairing up and resigned to their situation, leaning on one another for comfort and relaxed slightly by the fact that they hadn't been flown to their deaths. If they were being held as hostages still then Nira's assurances that the Avatar was coming to save them seemed to become more believable. Nira checked on Sora, but she was finding purpose comforting Jinora, who was rightfully worried about her mother – Pema was still just as unconscious as Bumi and Kya – and was avoiding her own pain that way. So Nira finally returned to Amali and Kya, shuffling over with her chains dragging the ground.
Amali looked up at Nira with red-rimmed eyes and quietly asked, "Is she gonna be okay?"
"Of course she will be," Nira softly replied, stroking Amali's hair and trying to make herself believe her own lies. "Kya is strong. She'll be just fine."
But the longer they all sat there, the less believable Nira's assurances became. A whole day passed by without any change in their situation, and the Red Lotus provided them with nothing. They were lucky if they could be escorted away to use the bathroom, and they weren't given any food or drink. Pema, Bumi, and Kya continued to worsen, and no amount of pleading from Nira or Sora afforded them any attention from a healer. After that first twenty-four hours or so, Kya was feverish and incoherent. Bumi, at least, was in and out of consciousness, and lucid enough to have brief conversations and mutter about the pain he was in. Pema was awake, but dreadfully pale, and too dizzy and lethargic to be wholly present. Kya was almost never conscious, and when she was it was clear that she was delirious. Her eyes were unfocused and hazy and she was murmuring things that made no sense. She didn't seem to know who any of the airbenders that approached her were, and she kept referring to Sora as Lin.
Nira felt helpless, sitting there shackled and under guard, holding Kya in her lap as the injured woman shivered and whimpered. All she could do was stroke Kya's hair and murmur soft reassurances that Kya probably couldn't hear. She didn't let herself cry except for the brief moments when Amali would doze off against her side. She didn't want the girl to know how worried she was. But the last time Nira had held someone she loved in her arms as they grew sicker and incoherent they had died. Nira had been with Azu for less than four years when she lost him. She had been with Kya for less than two days. And now she was crippled with the fear that she would lose Kya too.
She was worried about Amali also. The girl had gone quiet and had barely uttered a word to anyone since. Amali spoke only to whisper to Kya when the battered woman was in the throws of some kind of nightmare or fever induced delirium, words that were clearly meant to be soothing but sounded foreign to Nira's ears. Nira held onto both Kya and Amali, even though it was difficult with the chains and strained her wrists a bit. She wasn't about to let either of them go, and Amali did not shirk away from her despite her refusal to respond to most of what Nira said.
It wasn't until near the end of their imprisonment that Amali finally spoke.
She was still so quiet that Nira had to strain to hear her even with the girl pressed right up against her side. At first Nira was not even certain Amali was addressing her, or if she was talking to Kya or no one at all. But once Nira realized what it was about, she gave Amali her full attention.
"My tribe was called Yīqî," the girl was saying. "We were one of three factions that split apart from the Qiángdù tribe over a century ago, during the Hundred Year War. Something about differing ideologies that came between them. Xhen-Po, Lai, and Zo were our tribe's founders. They wanted to form a tribe built on strength and compassion, where everyone pulled their weight and differences were welcomed as long as it did not interfere with their usefulness. I was the first nonbender to be born in my tribe. My parents were Mengzu and Ani. They always believed in me, always loved me, but the rest of the tribe was doubtful of me. They thought that I was a waste of resources, but by being kind and working hard as my parents had taught me, they eventually saw my potential. Elder Ji-Min took me on as his apprentice. He taught me everything he knew about the world, and the history of our tribe.
"When the Terra Troopers first came, all we had to offer them was our hospitality. We were a small tribe, a peaceful tribe, and we had nothing to give them. We shared some of our limited resources for dinner, but to give anything else would hurt our own chances of survival. They came back that night, and my people had no chance. They were all killed, all but Ji-Min and me. He sensed that it was coming and he stole me away. He left everyone behind to get me to safety, so that our history would not die there in the desert, so that our people would live on through me. He took me to Republic City, but it was a long way and the travel was hard on him. I think he had a lot of guilt too. I don't know what it was that killed him but he went in his sleep. Then I was on my own, with a history no one wanted to hear. I was used to scavenging for food but not in that unfamiliar place, and there were more threats there, and I started to think it was all for nothing, that I survived for nothing."
She paused to look up at Nira. "But then you found me. I didn't know if I'd ever find somebody nice again, but you took me in and took care of me. You gave me a new tribe." She glanced over Kya and Bumi and Sora, and the new airbenders slumped around their circle. "I'll never forget my parents or the Yīqî, but my heart now is here, with you, and Kya, and… and I won't lose another tribe, another family. Whatever happens here, I'm not leaving you or anyone else behind. I won't go. I won't, even if it means surviving."
Nira tried to swallow but the lump in her throat was stronger and she decided not to respond with words. She simply nodded and leaned down to kiss Amali's forehead. A tear streaked past her defenses, down her cheek, so she kept her face pressed against the top of Amali's head for a moment. Some of the parallels to their current situation and Amali's previous perils were not lost on Nira, nor could she disagree with Amali's assertion to stay together. Ever since being recaptured by the Red Lotus ten minutes after trying to escape, Nira had been wondering why they had all separated at all. Maybe if they had stayed together they could have helped Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi. Maybe the three of them would not have been hurt so badly. Maybe they would know right now where Yunjin was, if he was even still alive. Maybe if they hadn't all separated months ago, when Lin had taken Ronen and Korra to Zaofu, maybe if they had all faced Zaheer together, maybe things would have been different.
Or maybe it would have been exactly the same, or ten times worse. There was no way to go back now. There was no reason to focus on their past decisions. The only thing Nira was certain of was that, from now on, they had to keep the tribe together.
Ever since the Red Lotus takeover, Sora had felt so sick to her stomach that even the thought of drinking water made her want to gag. But even through her numbed, depressive state, she could recognize her own thirst, and could guess at how some of the others were feeling. They had gone the entire afternoon and evening without food or drink, and no sign of Zaheer or his three most powerful friends. It was just the Red Lotus lackeys, who were under strict instruction to keep the hostages to one confined space with next to no interaction. They had been specifically warned about Sora, so that anything she asked of them was blatantly ignored. Sora knew that she needed to take care of everyone though, it was a burning need inside of her, because if she couldn't at least take care of the airbenders and what she had left of her family, then she would have truly failed in every possible way.
So when she saw Zara enter their space of the cave in the middle of the night, Sora pushed aside her own grief and anger and took the only chance she had.
Zara hadn't been seen since her initial betrayal either, and when Sora saw her for the first time in several hours, her initial instinct was to scream at Zara, to let all of her rage and hurt spill out, to make Zara feel at least half as terrible as Sora did. Because Sora had to believe that Zara had some sense of feeling, limited though it may be, and Sora wanted to make sure every bit of Zara that could possibly feel guilt was feeling it tenfold.
But Sora did not lash out. She did not yank at her chains and shout and cause a scene. She remained slumped where she was. She avoided even looking in Zara's direction.
Zara strode straight past the hostages quickly, going over to speak briefly with one of the Red Lotus guards. Sora could only half make out what they were saying, but most of it seemed to pertain to whether or not there had been any trouble, for either the Red Lotus or Zara, who was apparently high enough on the food chain to warrant a spot among Zaheer's top team. Sora was certain she could feel Zara's eyes on her, but she did not glance up to check.
When Zara finished her conversation and began walking back towards the airbenders, her pace was slower, less rushed, and when she passed by close enough to hear, Sora quietly asked, "Was all of it a lie?"
Zara stopped in her tracks a few feet away. She remained very still, and for a moment Sora thought that she would just keep going without responding. But eventually she turned, just enough to peer at Sora from beneath her long, dark bangs, and Sora finally looked up at her. Their eyes met, but Sora felt like she was staring at a stranger.
Zara murmured back, "Not all of it."
For a long moment, neither of them said a word, until Zara sucked in a deep breath, turning away, preparing to leave, and Sora had to stop her.
"Why?" Sora forced out, her voice choked and her chest tight. "Just tell me why you did it."
Zara continued to stand rigidly, fists clenched at her sides, muscles clearly tensed, and Sora thought she would leave without answering, but eventually she tilted her head down and replied, "The Red Lotus raised me. They asked me to come here posing as an airbender. It wasn't personal."
"But you made it personal," Sora seethed, straining to keep her voice low. Some of the others were sleeping and she didn't want the guards to come intervene either. "You got close to me. Why? I trusted you."
"We both made mistakes. I should have never let myself be drawn in."
"So you admit that you felt something then," Sora pressed. "So then have some compassion now. If you ever felt anything for me, for the people that welcomed you here, help us now. Help us as we would have helped you."
"I have to go," Zara whispered.
Sora hurriedly called to her, "Wait! They haven't eaten. They haven't even been given water. Just give them something. Please, Zara."
Zara did turn around then, but she couldn't meet Sora's gaze. Instead she directed her attention to the guards coming her way. They were focused on Sora, having heard part of her exclamation and looking prepared for a fight.
Zara stopped them, unexpectedly authoritative as she demanded, "Why haven't the prisoners been given food?"
One of the guards scoffed. "That wasn't part of our orders."
"You were told to look after them, were you not?" Zara countered.
"To make sure they didn't try to get away," the guard parried. "Not to make sure they're happy and comfortable. This isn't a day spa."
Zara actually looked angry, but Sora wasn't sure she could believe anything she thought about Zara anymore. "They won't make very good hostages if you let them die from dehydration."
"We can't just give them water," one of the other guards insisted. "They've got a waterbender."
Zara glanced over at Kya's battered, immobile form with a brow raised incredulously. "I'm fairly certain she's not a threat. Give them food and water. Now."
The lead guard spoke up again. "You ain't our boss, sweetheart. We don't take orders from you."
Zara appeared unfazed. "Should I have my mother come and tell you, sweetheart?"
Mother?!
It seemed to catch the attention of all the guards, who started shuffling and exchanging uncomfortable looks. But unlike Sora, they knew exactly who Zara was referring to, and they didn't look eager to cross paths with said mother.
Sora looked closely at Zara – the long dark hair, the fiery, amber eyes, and that tall, imposing frame – and she gasped when the realization came to her.
"I'll be back in the morning," Zara told the Red Lotus guards. "Feed them."
The guards began to grumble irritably, but they went back to their corner and rustled through their own rations. Apparently satisfied, Zara was about to leave again, but Sora stopped her once more.
"Zara," she called softly, not having any issue inflecting her tone with the worry and sorrow that she felt. "My brother, my father. Have you seen them? Are they okay?"
Zara looked over at the guards, some of whom were watching her with distrust. Then Zara glanced once more at Sora, with a barely suppressed expression of regret, and then she turned on her heel and finally left without responding.
Ronen had not expected their plans to go off without a hitch, but he had expected them to go just a little bit better than they did.
Leaving his mother, Korra, and Aunt Su behind to take on Zaheer and whoever else had been difficult, but he had faith that they would persevere with the help of Tonraq and some of Su's Metal Clan fighters. In the meantime, Ronen's main focus was on finding his father, his siblings, and the others at the Northern Air Temple, and freeing them from the Red Lotus.
With Jeia remaining behind on the airship, Ronen led the way into the temple, with Asami, Mako, and Bolin just behind him. Ghazan met the four of them in the entryway, and the temple was eerily quiet as he led them through, desolate in a way it hadn't been before, even when it was only inhabited by Air Acolytes. On their way into the antechamber, they passed through sections of rubble and destruction, where clearly a battle had been waged. It made Ronen's stomach twist with nerves, wondering what could have happened, wondering what state his family would be in if they had taken on the Red Lotus and lost. He quickened his pace without thought, half running the rest of the way to where Ghazan had said everyone was waiting.
When Ronen burst into the room, he saw his father first, chained and gagged and slumped over on the floor. Then he did run the rest of the way, falling to his knees in front of his father and taking in all the damage he could see. Tenzin had clearly been beaten mercilessly, blood and bruises marring his skin, and Ronen was gentle as he gripped his father's shoulders and lifted him halfway into a sitting position.
"Dad –" he began, but when Tenzin roused from his state of semi-consciousness and spotted Ronen, his blackened eyes went wide, and it wasn't because of the deep gashes on Ronen's face, surprising as those might have been. Tenzin was shaking his head frantically, trying to speak through the gag over his mouth. "It's okay, Dad," Ronen soothed, glancing over his father's shoulders, seeing several chained forms dressed in Air Nomad garb, but he couldn't make out anyone's faces. "You're safe now. We're here to –" But Ronen looked again, and there was something off about the airbenders, and his father was still trying to shout through the cloth tied around his mouth.
And then all the forms behind Tenzin began to melt, water pooling on the floor and the clothes dropping limply into it. There were no airbenders or anyone else, just Ming-Hua, and when Ming-Hua saw Ronen's face she smirked darkly.
Ronen whirled around and frantically shouted to Mako, "They're not here! Tell Korra to stop!"
Mako was already in the middle of doing just that before Ronen even finished speaking, yelling into the radio, "Korra! It was a trick! Don't turn yourself over!" And then adding, "Chief! Get Korra out of there now!"
In the meantime, Ming-Hua flipped straight over their heads, using her water whips to propel herself to Ghazan's side. Then the two of them were fighting Mako and Bolin, rock, fire, water, and lava colliding in a frenzy of light and sound. Ronen and Asami scrambled to free Tenzin from his shackles while the battle was waged, flinching when debris came flying too close by their heads. Asami was working with the lock while Ronen held his father upright and removed the gag from his mouth.
Then Ronen quickly asked, "Where is everyone else?"
His father looked up at him with palpable sorrow as he answered in a strained voice, "I don't know. I only saw them for a moment before they were taken away."
Ronen wasn't happy to hear that because it meant they were no closer to finding his family or the airbenders, but his main concern in that moment was surviving the next few minutes and rescuing his father. It was doubtful Mako and Bolin would be able to overpower Ghazan and Ming-Hua, and Ronen and Asami could do little to help.
Their situation became all the more dire when Ming-Hua called above the cacophony, "Will you just bury them already?"
Ghazan did as she requested, digging his feet into the ground and wrenching his arms left and then right. The earth crumbled and began heating from one side of the room to the other, until there was an expanding river of lava between the two groups. Mako and Bolin leapt backwards from the spitting, molten barrier, while Ghazan and Ming-Hua made a hasty retreat out the front doors. And the lava was still feeding off of every bit of earth and stone, eating its way up the pillars and bringing the room to a boil, flowing outwards in every direction with no sign of stopping.
"We have to get back to the airship!" Asami said, finally breaking through the chains on Tenzin's wrists.
"Not gonna happen, the exit is blocked!" Bolin shouted over his shoulder, before erecting earth barriers into the lava's path that only served to stall it for half a second.
Ronen hastily lifted his father up and asked, "Do you know where Oogi is?"
Tenzin shook his head, leaning heavily on Ronen for support as he wobbled on shaky legs. "Gone. He got spooked with the rest of the bison, but I think I know another way. Bolin, can you get us through that wall?"
Bolin looked to where Tenzin was pointing and shouted, "On it!"
Ronen and Asami held Tenzin between them, dragging him along as he wearily showed them the way to go. The group of five raced as quickly as they could through a deep maze of tunnels underneath of the temple, but the lava followed them at every turn. Bolin remained at the back of the group to erect rock walls now and then, to try and buy them time, to get them ahead of the raging river of fire, but the way it licked at their heels and never seemed to slow made it clear to Ronen that they would not be able to outsmart it.
Bolin seemed to come to the same conclusion, shouting ahead, "We can't outrun it! This way!"
Bolin ripped open a hole in the side of the wall, and the other four followed, but they were forced to come to an abrupt stop.
"Now what?" Mako said, as he cautiously poked his head out into open air and peered down the side of the sharp drop off.
Ronen looked too, with mounting desperation, thinking quickly, about the grappling hooks he wore, about how he could give them to Asami and she could carry his father down, or maybe Bolin could make some kind of rock slide to carry them all down. But the lava would follow them there too, and they had run out of time.
Ronen was half a second away from just pushing everyone off of the edge and hoping his father was strong enough to cushion their fall, or that someone would swoop in at the last second to save them. Anything was better than being melted alive by lava. But Bolin acted first, running straight towards the lava with a frenzied roar and thrusting his arms up into the air, as if he would stop the oncoming wave with his hands.
Mako fearfully cried, "Bolin!" and Ronen felt his stomach drop, sure that he was about to watch his friend be consumed.
But neither of them should have worried. The lava suddenly came to an abrupt halt somewhere over Bolin's head, and then began to retreat, curling in on itself and cooling until it turned back to stone.
The group looked on in shock, mouths gaping.
Tenzin was the first to say half in a whisper, "Incredible."
Then Mako said in disbelief, "You're a lavabender!"
"I know," Bolin said, sounding half in shock. "I just found out."
Ronen couldn't help but laugh, all that fear that had been coiling in his stomach unraveling and spilling out of him in half crazed amusement. He looked over at Asami and she was smiling at him too. He couldn't believe it! They were alive!
A voice from behind startled them all saying. "Hey, you guys need a lift?"
The five of them whirled around, and there floated Kai atop a baby bison. Ronen almost didn't recognize the kid; it had been so long since he had seen him.
"Kai!" Ronen's father exclaimed in surprise. "You're all right!"
"More or less," Kai replied.
"Yunjin," Tenzin said desperately. "Is he with you? Is he okay?"
Kai shifted uncomfortably and hesitantly answered, "He's…mostly okay. He's not with me. I'll explain later. We should probably get out of here before this place collapses."
Ronen looked up at his father with a frown. "What happened to Yunjin?"
Tenzin just looked back at him with that same grim sorrow from earlier.
Asami interjected uncertainly, "Can we all fit on the baby bison?"
They only had to mull over that predicament for a few seconds before their problem was once again solved.
"Look!" Bolin said excitedly. "The airship!"
Mako couldn't believe it. "Is Jeia flying that thing?"
"Well, she is Co-Captain of the Metal Clan," Asami pointed out with a smile.
"Jeia?" Tenzin said, sounding incredulous. "She's here?"
"She stowed away," Ronen explained. "We kept her with us while the others went with Korra. And apparently she can fly an airship by herself." He really shouldn't have been surprised. Jeia always wanted to be in the cockpit when they were traveling by airship, and she must have seen enough piloting to know how it worked.
The ramp opened at the back of the ship, and Kai and his baby bison helped Ronen and the others move from the cliff's edge over to the airship two at a time. Once they were all inside and the ramp was closed, they went straight to the cockpit, except for Kai, who stayed with the baby bison in the larger section towards the back. Ronen wanted to ask about Yunjin, especially since it seemed like Kai was eager to avoid it, but he could tell his father wanted to see Jeia so he helped Tenzin limp there first.
When Jeia heard them approaching, she spun the captain's chair around, still standing on it because she was too short to reach the controls while sitting down. Her face lit up at the sight of her father and she immediately leapt off of the chair, running to him with a relieved exclamation of, "Daddy!"
Ronen felt his father slipping from his grasp, and he wasn't sure if it was because Tenzin was overwhelmed at seeing his youngest child for the first time since they had all separated, or if he just wanted to be more level with Jeia. Either way, Ronen helped him kneel down on the floor, just in time for Jeia to reach them. But Jeia hesitated at the sight of her father's battered form, coming up short instead of leaping into his embrace
"It's okay, sweetheart," Tenzin softly assured her, holding out his arms for her. "I'm so happy to see you. Come here."
Jeia was careful, but quickly relented and stepped into her father's hold.
Asami went to pilot the airship, and Ronen watched his friends for a moment as they discussed what to do next, and he considered joining them, but when he looked back at his father and sister he found himself unable to move. It was only then that he thought about how long it had been since he had seen his father, about how badly injured his father was, and how he could have lost his father altogether. Everything had been such a whirlwind and now, in the stillness of the airship, Ronen was flooded with emotion. He joined in on the embrace between his father and sister, and they welcomed him in.
Ronen only sat back on his heels once his father stopped trembling, and when father and son looked at one another there were tear tracks on both their faces. Tenzin also seemed to have finally had time to scrutinize the damage to his son's face, and he reached up to gently brush his fingers over the raised scar, frowning deeply.
"I'm okay," Ronen told his father.
Tenzin sadly murmured, "I know."
"Come on," Ronen urged, helping his father rise to his feet once more. "Let's go see how Mom and the others are doing."
"Where are they?" Tenzin asked, while Ronen was pulling him over towards the control panel where there was an empty chair. "Did Korra give herself over to Zaheer?"
"That was the plan," Ronen answered, "but Mom, Aunt Su, Tonraq, Kuvira, and some of the Metal Clan went with her, secretly of course. They were supposed to rescue Korra once we confirmed that we had you and the airbenders, but I'm not sure how it went."
"Hopefully better than our recent events," Tenzin sighed as he sunk down into the chair. His gaze drifted sluggishly towards the viewport, and Ronen winced when he saw what his father was about to witness.
The entirety of the Northern Air Temple had been consumed by lava, and as they watched, the tall spires began to sink and collapse in on themselves, as the entire structure melted and crumbled. Ronen felt sick to his stomach watching the ancient temple disappear right before his eyes, and he could only imagine the pain it caused his father. Everyone in the cockpit was silent as they watched the temple dissolve, and all Ronen could do was place a hand on his father's shoulder, careful not to aggravate any of his many injuries, while Tenzin stared sorrowfully out of the viewport.
At the bottom of Laghima's Peak, once her own fight for survival was over, Lin watched from a farther distance as the Northern Air Temple was consumed by molten lava. Her stomach was clenched with worry, having no way of knowing if anyone had escaped the temple before it was destroyed. All she knew was the last thing she had heard over the radio, that the airbenders were not at the temple, that Zaheer had tricked them once more. On the one hand, Lin was glad Jin and Sora and the others had not been in the melting temple, but Ronen had been, and Jeia had been on the airship docked just outside, and Lin was five seconds away from traveling there on foot to search for them.
Lin's own mission had not gone as planned either. P'Li had made it impossible for Lin and the others to get to Korra and free her from Zaheer. Only Tonraq had gotten close, and in the midst of battle Zaheer had thrown him off the cliff. Kuvira had been there to save Tonraq, but it had been too late for Korra. Lin and Su and the Metal Clan had fought desperately to get past P'Li, but the third-eyed freak had blown half of them over the ledge, and Lin and Su ended up pinned down with minimal rock cover to protect them. Lin had made the only decision she could in that moment, and went to draw P'Li's fire so that Su could take her out. Su had protested, screaming at her sister to come back, but they were out of options and Lin wasn't going to sit there and wait for P'Li to pick them off while Zaheer took Korra. Lin managed to block and evade several more of P'Li's blasts before one of her barriers failed her and she went flying towards the edge. With the breath knocked out of her and nowhere to run, she had stared into P'Li's eyes and felt a prickle up her spine, and she had been halfway certain that she might well die. But just as P'Li shot off her final explosion, Su wrapped the combustionbender's head in metal, and it was P'Li that took the fatal hit instead of Lin.
Even then there hadn't been time for them to rejoice in having survived. Lin and Su had taken their opening and surrounded Zaheer, who had Korra unconscious and thrown over his shoulder by then. The two sisters had called to him to release the Avatar, but instead he stepped backwards off of the cliff, and Lin's heart had jumped into her throat, thinking the worst. And yet, when she raced to the edge and looked down, she could see Zaheer floating in midair, still clutching Korra to him. And then, by some terrible twist of fate, Zaheer had flown away, as if he were a sky bison and not a human being. Lin had been shell shocked and despondent. They had failed. Korra was gone, and they hadn't found the airbenders.
And now Lin was made to watch as the temple collapsed, separated from every one of her children and her husband, with no way of knowing if any of them were still alive, and she wondered if she shouldn't have just let P'Li kill her. But she snapped herself out of that line of thinking quickly. Her family was resilient, and she had to believe they were all still alive, that Ronen and Jeia would be on their way to her as soon as they could, and Jin and Sora and Tenzin were just waiting for her to find them. She would find them. She and Su had taken out P'Li, and even though Zaheer could apparently fly now he wasn't invincible. He would be stopped, along with the rest of his cohorts. Lin just had to figure out where to go next.
The Metal Clan was spread out behind her, tending to the wounded, which was nearly all of them. Su was checking on each of them. Tonraq was glumly accepting his own treatment, probably worried about his daughter most of all. Lin stood with her arms crossed, watching the temple burn, watching the sky for any possible sign of the airship.
She sensed Su coming up next to her, and then Su was putting an arm around her and quietly saying, "I'm sure they made it out."
Lin didn't respond directly, but turned to her sister with a different kind of concern and asked, "How are you?"
"Worried still," Su sighed.
"Well I know that. I meant about what happened up there." She tilted her head in the direction of Laghima's Peak, and Su glanced that way, as if she didn't understand what Lin was talking about.
"Oh," Su said in realization. "That? I'm fine with all of that. It was her or you. I'd make the same choice a thousand times."
"Just a thousand?" Lin half-heartedly joked.
Su rolled her eyes and snorted. "Okay, every time. Seriously, though, don't worry about me. I'm just glad you're alive. Please don't do something that terrifying ever again."
"I'll try to keep it to a minimum."
Before Su could respond, Kuvira's voice called to them from behind. "Look! The airship!"
Lin and Su whirled as one, eyes darting left and right, searching the skies, and then Lin spotted it heading towards them. She felt hope rise within her, relief building up in her chest, a heavy pressure waiting to burst out. The anticipation of waiting for the airship to land was almost unbearable. She just needed to see Ronen and Jeia's faces, to see them unharmed.
What she wasn't expecting, as she hurried towards the dropping ramp, was to see another familiar figure step out into the sunlight. Jeia was the first to come bounding down the ramp, and Lin felt some of the tension in her chest ease, even more so when she saw Ronen just behind her. But Ronen and Mako were hefting a slow moving form between them, and when Lin realized who it was, her heart skipped a beat.
"Tenzin!" she gasped, picking up her already hurried pace to go running towards him. It had been so long since she had seen his face, and now she could see that it was not quite his face as she knew it. He had clearly been battered and beaten, his skin marked with bruises and lashes, his clothes torn and bloodied. It made Lin's blood boil, it made her heart ache, and it simultaneously made her want to weep and rip somebody to shreds.
"Lin," Tenzin weakly called to her, his voice rough and raw. He removed his left arm from where it lay over Mako's shoulders and reached out to her, still heavily leaning on Ronen and unable to walk to her on his own two feet, but impatient to do so anyways.
He and Ronen both staggered slightly, but Lin reached them just as Tenzin was pitching forwards, and she caught him with both arms. She had to kick one foot back and stomp it into the ground to keep from losing her balance from his sudden weight, but she managed to steady them both and she held on as tight as she could without causing any further damage to his battered body. She wanted to breathe him in but he smelled like blood and ash and sweat. She could hear his heart beating up against her ear though and that was enough. That was more than enough. He was alive and she was so happy to see him that she couldn't breathe. He was sobbing softly into her hair and she squeezed her eyes shut and let herself revel in the feel of him for just a moment, as long a moment as she could.
When she pulled back to look at him she kept one arm around his waist and she stayed as close as she possibly could; she just wanted to be able to see that familiar gaze, those warm eyes she knew so well. She could see the sorrow there and everything else that he was feeling, the guilt and shame and worry and relief and joy all warped together. She brushed her thumb across his swollen cheek, wiped a stray tear as it fell from his eye, and tilted her head up when he leaned down to kiss her. It was over almost before it even started, but even just that short warmth of his lips pressed to hers was healing in its own way. She had always said they shouldn't separate again, but now she knew for certain that they never could. She could never go that long without him again, could never risk not being there for him if he ever came to harm as he had now. It tore at her to see him as he was and even though she knew she couldn't go back in time to stop it, she wished she had been there to protect him, even if she had taken the same beating as him. She wanted to tell him all of that, or at least part of it, or at least hold him for a while longer, but they had a crowd around them now and there was more that needed done. They still had people to find, and if they were even half as bad as Tenzin looked then they needed to be found as soon as possible. She didn't need to voice her feelings anyway, nor did he. She knew what he must have been thinking and she was certain he knew her feelings too.
As Lin was still trying to get her voice back, Kuvira was the one to ask, "How did you guys make it out of that temple alive?"
"It was all Bolin," Mako answered excitedly. "I thought we were done for and then out of nowhere he lavabends!"
Lin gaped at the boy, while Su smiled and patted his shoulder saying, "I knew you had the potential for something big. You just had to believe in yourself."
"You're right," Bolin agreed, looking a little surprised still himself. "Being moments away from death was a pretty big motivator too."
Jeia tugged on Bolin's sleeve and pleaded, "Can you teach me how to lavabend?"
"Oh! Um, maybe!" Bolin replied. "I'll have to figure out how I did it first…"
"You already have so many talents, Jeia," Tenzin rasped, wincing at the thought of her lavabending. He told Lin and the others, "She had a hand in rescuing us too. She can pilot an airship by herself."
Kuvira said proudly, "Of course she can."
Jeia shrugged. "It's easy."
Bolin scoffed. "Sure it is. I tell you what. You teach me how to land an airship and I'll teach you how to lavabend."
"I've tried to teach you several times," Ronen interjected. "You stop listening after the first five minutes."
"Ohhh, you're right," Bolin admitted.
Su reached out to squeeze her brother-in-law's shoulder lightly. "It's good to see you, Tenzin."
"It's good to see all of you," Tenzin concurred. "Did Zaheer get away with Korra?"
"I'm afraid so," Lin answered, her gut twisting at the reminder.
"Apparently he can fly now," Su revealed.
Ronen and his friends gaped, and Tenzin gasped, "What?"
"How?" Asami added.
"Are you sure?" Bolin asked in disbelief.
"I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen it for myself," Lin confirmed.
"I've heard the legends about Guru Laghima's ability to fly, but I never imagined they were true," Tenzin said thoughtfully.
"Zaheer does seem to have an obsession with Laghima's teachings," Ronen mused. "If anyone could pull it off I suppose it would be him. What was that poem of Laghima's? 'Let go your earthly tether. Enter the void…'?"
'"Empty and become wind,'" Tenzin finished.
"That sounds like the nonsense he was muttering right before he did it," Lin confirmed. "We had him surrounded too. P'Li is gone for good. But then he used that blasted trick."
"The tall lady is dead?" Kai said in disbelief, and it was only then that Lin noticed he was there, and she frowned at the sight of him. How was Kai there, looking none the worse for wear, when none of the other airbenders were?
Lin didn't have time to question him because Tonraq impatiently chimed in to ask, "So what's our plan now?"
"I have an idea," Kai offered.
"Not right now, kid," Lin snapped, slightly annoyed that he was there and her own kids weren't. She wondered if he hadn't just left them all to save himself. Tenzin had said the boy was getting better at the temple, but his behavior in Ba Sing Se hadn't won him any points with Lin. "We need to figure out where Zaheer took Korra."
"And find the airbenders," Tenzin added.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Kai exclaimed in exasperation. "I know where the airbenders are and I bet that's where Korra is too!"
"Well why didn't you say something?" Mako said, and Kai rolled his eyes with an aggravated huff.
"Where are they?" Tenzin eagerly questioned. "How did you find them?"
Kai began to explain, "After we got blasted out of the sky, this little fella found us." He patted the head of the baby bison sitting next to him on the ground. "I was taking Yunjin to that village, the one in the canyon, but first we saw the others –"
"Wait," Lin interrupted, "Yunjin was with you? Blasted out of the sky? Where is he now?"
"In the village," Kai replied, shifting uncomfortably under her gaze. "I took him there to get him some help but he made me come back here in case you guys showed up."
Tenzin grimaced and Lin demanded, "What the hell happened to him?"
"I attempted to fight Zaheer and the others," Tenzin admitted with palpable regret. "With Kya and Bumi's help. The others tried to escape, but P'Li followed them. Yunjin apparently flew up into the air to distract her, but Zara was an agent of the Red Lotus. She impeded Sora and the others from escaping."
"Zara?" Ronen repeated, in shock. "As in Sora's girlfriend Zara?"
Tenzin nodded grimly. "She's actually a firebender. She spooked the sky bison so that only a few airbenders escaped, along with Anil and his three youngest children. P'Li tried to shoot the escaping group out of the sky and Yunjin intercepted the blast, but he was badly hurt. Kai went to catch him, but no one was certain what had happened to either of them until Kai showed up to help us earlier."
"Hurt how badly?" Lin all but growled, wishing all of a sudden that P'Li was still alive, so she could kill the bitch herself, and slowly.
Tenzin looked to Kai for that answer, and the boy seemed to shrink, cringing as he replied, "I'm not sure exactly. Like I said, he made me leave, so I wasn't there for the whole healing. I don't know if that healer lady could fix it or not."
"Fix what?" Lin snapped.
Now Kai was grimacing and he spoke in a rush. "He couldn't feel his legs I think she hit him in the spine it looked really bad."
He flinched afterwards as if he expected Lin to strike him, but instead she lost feeling in her own legs. She forgot for a moment that she was still holding Tenzin up and both of them almost collapsed when she swayed unsteadily. Ronen and Su both darted their arms out to catch Lin and Tenzin, allowing Lin the second she needed to recover. She felt sick to her stomach, but she gritted her teeth and clenched the muscles in her legs to hold herself upright.
She sucked in a deep breath to try and calm herself but it did little to relax her. She continued to question Kai, focusing on what they needed to know to keep going. Her only way to help Yunjin now was to find and rescue the others, and make sure whatever his sacrifice was hadn't been in vain. He had insisted that Kai leave him to help the others, so he was alive and conscious and that was something, and maybe the problem with his legs was just temporary, surely a good healer would fix him right up. "You said before you went to that village –"
"Xiagu village?" Tenzin guessed.
"Yeah that one," Kai confirmed.
"Xiagu," Lin echoed. "You said that you saw the other airbenders."
Kai nodded. "Yeah, we saw an airship leaving with them, and we followed it to some caves a few miles from here, but all the Red Lotus people were in there, or most of them. I couldn't fight them all on my own, and Yunjin was too hurt, so I took him to Xiagu to get help. We found the one bison that escaped with some of the airbenders and Jinora's family on our way too, and led them to the village. But as soon as we found a healer, Yunjin made me come back here. He figured you guys would be on your way and I could tell you where to find the others."
"We need to get to those caves," Lin decided. "And someone should go check on Yunjin. How far is the village from here?"
"Not far," Ronen answered, "but we've only got the one airship."
As if on cue, a noise from above lifted all their gazes to the sky, where they saw a familiar sky bison circling over head.
"Oogi!" Tenzin called, and the sky bison came swooping down to land in front of him and Lin. Tenzin reached out to press a hand to Oogi's head as he murmured, "I'm glad to see you too, old friend." Even Lin found herself half smiling at the sight of him; Oogi was as much a part of the family as anyone else, and reliable as ever.
"Well that settles it," Su said. "Kuvira and Jeia can take the injured to Xiagu on the airship and find Yunjin. The rest of us will take Oogi to rescue the others."
Kuvira and Jeia both said at once, "I want to come with you."
Su told Kuvira, "I need someone I trust to get our people and Jeia to the village."
And Lin told Jeia, "Your brother needs you. He's alone and he's hurt. I wouldn't send you otherwise."
Jeia sighed but relented with a nod, seeming to grasp her mother's reasoning. Kuvira didn't argue further with Su either, resting her hand on Jeia's shoulder and inclining her head in acceptance.
"We'll all be together soon," Lin promised Jeia. "We put an end to this today."
She would accept nothing less.
Chapter 83: Chapter 83
Notes:
So I just noticed that chapter 80 may not have ever been posted here and I have no idea what happened but I am so sorry if you guys were totally confused. I have added it in now so feel free to read it as well. My apologies!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 83
As promised, Zara returned to where the hostages were being held the following morning, to ensure that they had been given food and water. And then, without another word, she left just as quickly with two of the guards.
Not that anyone had much of an appetite. They were all stressed and nervous about what would happen to them, and worried about the injured among them. Kya hadn't been lucid enough to even coax a drink down her throat, and Pema had swallowed two mouthfuls of water only to immediately choke it back up, along with a disturbing amount of blood.
Sora didn't even try to eat, but she did coax some of the others, reminding them to keep up their strength, whispering false promises that her mother would be there with Korra to save them at any minute.
But Sora wasn't sure her mother was even still capable of coming to their rescue, not once she saw what lay in the caves further below where she sat. Sometime after Zara had left, Sora somehow managed to calm herself enough to meditate, and while the guards were ignoring the hostages, she used her ability to project her spirit and go exploring. She couldn't stand to simply sit there any longer, not while people she loved grew worse and worse by the second, not when the fate of the Air Nation hung in the balance. She had sulked long enough, and now she needed to regain control, to focus on what she could still do. She didn't have her parents or her siblings, but she had people she still needed to take care of, even if it meant doing it by herself.
So she sunk down into the bowels of the caves, searching at first for a way out, or some sign that all was not as bleak as it seemed. Her spirit crept through the unfamiliar territory, investigating every cave, every opening to the outside world. She could find several routes of escape, but nowhere to go from there without an airship or a sky bison. She still had a bison whistle around her neck that her father had given her long ago, in case she ever needed to call on Oogi for help, but how long would it take Oogi to get to her? Was he even within range to hear it? The airship the Red Lotus had used to transport the airbenders to the caves was nowhere to be found, and at first neither was Zaheer and his three main accomplices. Sora thought that maybe they were all at the Northern Air Temple, where her father had been left behind. She had heard one of the guards muttering about P'Li and Zaheer being nearby in the caves the night before, but maybe they had left again. Maybe Zara and the two other guards had gone with them.
Sora was on the verge of returning to her body out of sheer frustration, with a plan to try again later, when she finally found some of the answers to her questions. She saw Zaheer striding towards her and immediately ducked into a crevice, holding her spiritual breath as he passed by and crossing her fingers that he hadn't seen her. Ghazan and Ming-Hua were with him, as were the two missing guards, now cloaked in hooded robes, but P'Li and Zara were not. The five of them strode down the narrow path, and after a beat, Sora followed them at a distance. Eventually they entered into an open cavern, lit by glowing green crystals that jutted out of nearly every surface – the ground, the ceiling, and the walls. When Sora spotted what the Red Lotus were there for, she struggled not to gasp.
There in the center, hanging in the air by metal chains on her wrists and ankles was Korra, struggling against her bonds. She shouted down to Zaheer and the others, "When I get out of here, none of you will survive!"
"You won't get out," Zaheer taunted, undisturbed by her threats. "Unless the Metal Clan taught you a way to bend platinum. Once we administer this poison, your body will naturally react, forcing you into the Avatar state in an effort to keep you alive. Sadly for you, you'll be entering it for the last time."
"No!" Korra cried in distress. "The Avatar cycle!"
"Yes," Zaheer confirmed. "Once we dispatch you in the Avatar state, the cycle will end. So we lucky few, these brothers and sisters in anarchy, are witnessing the beginning of an era of true freedom. Together, we will forge a world without kings and queens, without borders or nations, where a man's only allegiance is to himself and the ones he loves. We will return to the true balance of natural order. And though you will never again be reborn, your name will echo throughout history. Korra, the last Avatar." Zaheer turned to the cloaked figures behind him, and Sora noticed the basin they held between them, filled with a sort of metallic liquid. "Administer the poison."
The two men stepped forward, and one held the basin while the other began to metalbend the substance up into the air, and then shot it straight at Korra. The poison latched on and clung to her skin, over her arms and her legs, and then it began to sink in. As it was forced into her blood stream, Korra began to flail and cry out in pain, and Sora could not watch any longer. She couldn't reveal herself, because she had no bending abilities in her spiritual form, and alerting Zaheer of her presence would only stall him long enough for him to send someone to go get her body and probably kill her. He didn't seem in the mood to deal with anymore setbacks, and Sora could only be useful if she had some element of surprise. She wasn't sure that she would be able to save Korra and the airbenders, but she knew now that she was probably their only chance. Her mother and Ronen would have been with Korra, so if Zaheer had captured her, then that meant that Mom and Ronen had failed, and that could also mean that they were in a similar state as Aunt Kya and Uncle Bumi and Dad. Even if they weren't, it would take them time to figure out where Zaheer had taken Korra, and Korra didn't have time.
Sora had to act, and she had to act now.
She returned to her body at once, and the moment she opened her eyes she drew in a sharp breath.
Next to her, her cousin Opal whispered, "What is it? Did you find a way out?"
"No," Sora replied grimly, "but we're out of time."
"What do you mean?" Nira quietly demanded, her arms reflexively tightening around Kya and Amali. "What did you see?"
Sora glanced over her shoulder at the Red Lotus guards, to ensure they still had their backs turned, and then she answered, "Zaheer has Korra. I think we're on our own."
"But what do we do?" one of the airbenders fretted, having overheard what was going on. "We can't take them on our own. Not while we're chained up like this."
"And what if Zaheer comes back?" another worried.
"We can take them," Sora said firmly, feeling strength return to her along with her renewed determination. She had thought the fight within her had gone along with Yunjin, with her father, but she still had some resolve left. If she could at least ensure the airbenders and the rest of her loved ones made it to safety, that would be enough to carry her through the next fight. She had to make sure everyone else's sacrifices had not been in vain.
Nira seemed to be of a similar mindset, looking concerned still, but she nodded at Sora in solidarity. "What's the plan?"
Sora looked once more at the guards, counted them, observed them, and calculated the best possible way to outmaneuver them. Once she had devised a plan she thought Yunjin would be proud of, she turned and relayed her idea to the others in her circle. There was another circle farther across the cavern room, with more airbenders shackled to the ground, but Sora couldn't tell them anything without risking the Red Lotus overhearing. So instead she simply gave them a look and hoped they understood that she was about to try something. With any luck they would catch on and help.
Regardless, Sora could wait no longer. It was now or never; the others would only suffer the longer she put it off, as was Korra somewhere below them. So Sora sucked in a deep breath, blew it out slowly, and then rose to her feet. Her chains clicked noisily together, gaining the attention of all eight of the Red Lotus guards still present. She looked over her shoulder at them with a blank expression.
"Hey," one of them called to her, "sit down."
"I need to use the bathroom," she replied.
"Nobody is using the bathroom right now," another scoffed. "Sit down."
"Why not?" Sora pressed. "Is something happening?"
"Sit down," the same aggravated guard commanded, stomping two steps towards her.
"I don't understand," Sora said with a shake of her head.
"You wanna end up like them?" the guard warned, gesturing to Kya and Bumi.
"Will that make you feel like a man?" Sora taunted, trying to channel her mother, to make herself appear braver than she felt. "Beating up a teenage girl?"
"Don't play coy with me," he countered. "You're no innocent girl."
"Are you scared of me?" Sora goaded him. "Now that your powerful friends aren't here, I don't think the eight of you are enough to stop me."
That got three of them moving towards her at once, flexing their fingers and looking agitated. The lead guard told her, "I'm serious, girl. Sit down and be quiet or you'll regret it. I've got permission to use deadly force if you step a single toe out of line."
"Oh you've got permission, do you?" Sora snorted. "That's cute. I thought the Red Lotus was all about anarchy. But you still have to ask if you're allowed to –"
The three guards had reached her, cutting off her speech and kicking her into action. The lead guard grabbed her roughly by the shoulder and tried to force her down. She let him push her halfway, and then braced her knees and shot her elbow into his stomach. When he inevitably crumpled in half, she could reach her chained hands far enough up to smack one against either of his ears, using her airbending to strengthen the blow. He cried out in pain and then slumped to the floor holding his head and writhing. By that point, the other two were reaching out to subdue her, and she moved her arms and legs at the same time to strike out at them both. She used her hands to pinch a nerve in the left guard's leg, just like Ronen had taught her, and kicked her knee up into the right guard's groin, like her mother had taught her. They both went down to her level, and she balanced herself on her hands as she lifted her legs up into the air. She wrapped the chain hooking her ankles together around the right guard's throat, crossing her legs so that it tightened and cut off his breath. Then she pushed off of the ground and did the same to the left guard with her shackled wrists.
While hanging there between them, Sora turned a sharp gaze on the remaining five guards who were now lurching forward. "One more step and I snap both their necks," she warned.
It halted them for all of three seconds, until one of them decided, "You don't have it in you."
And she really didn't. She couldn't kill anyone no matter how desperate she was to escape. But she wasn't out of tricks yet. While Sora had been causing a distraction and the lead guard had been disoriented and deafened, Amali – tiny and spry as she was – had crawled forward and retrieved the keys hanging from his belt in the blink of an eye. As the rest of the guards went on the offensive, Nira was hastily unlocking the shackles on her own wrists. She jolted to her feet the moment she was free and tossed the keys to Opal, and when the Red Lotus threw several projectiles at Sora, Nira was there to wave the onslaught back, along with two of the guards that were off-balanced by her blast of air. By the time the guards had reoriented themselves, Opal and Jinora were free and standing on either side of Nira, and Amali was scrambling around the circle freeing everyone else.
Nira, Opal, and Jinora worked together to press the guards back, and as they were unchained, the rest of the airbenders joined in. Sora released her hold on the two guards she held and dropped to the floor. The guards rolled away from her spluttering and gasping for air, clutching at their throats. They would be back up soon though – the lead guard was already staggering back onto his feet – and Sora needed to make sure they didn't harm the others. She called Amali to her, and the girl came scrambling over to help unlock Sora's wrists and ankles, but it took a second too long and the lead guard had aimed his sights on the two of them.
Sora shoved Amali behind her and prepared to block whatever he threw at them, but he was close and she could barely maneuver with shackles still around her ankles and one arm holding Amali back. She certainly couldn't go on the offensive, but she was halfway certain she'd be able to defend herself at least once. When fire came blazing at her, she desperately threw her free arm up and blasted it back. She felt the heat of it on her skin and had to squint her eyes to suppress some of the burning sensation, and it made her ears ring in discomfort. She sensed another onslaught coming and pressed back once more, releasing Amali to use both hands and putting as much force behind her defense as she could. She could feel Amali trying to free her ankles but she still couldn't move well enough from her crouched position. She needed to stand and get her bearings but she didn't have an opportunity, and the blasts kept coming, and she wasn't going to be able to hold it much longer, and –
Suddenly the barrage stopped, and Sora hastily cleared her eyes to see what had happened. She had expected it to have been Nira or one of the other airbenders, but it wasn't. The lead guard that had been shooting fire at her was now being beaten back by a barrage of fire from –
Zara.
Zara was attacking the Red Lotus guard, fury on her face and her attacks chaotic. She managed to knock the man back to where the rest of the guards were still throwing attacks at Nira and the others. Then she strode right up to Sora and held out her hand, assumedly to help Sora up. But Sora could only stare at the hand in shock, filled with distrust and uncertain of what to do. She couldn't read the look on Zara's face either, could only see that Zara's eyes were red and dim and her face was pale and drawn.
Before Sora could make a decision, a loud blast rang through the cave, and she leapt to her feet on pure instinct and whirled towards the sound. A huge chunk of the wall next to where the Red Lotus had been standing had been blown inward, and in the process slammed two of the guards into the opposite wall. Three others were already lying unconscious from Nira or one of the other airbenders, and when the remaining three saw the six people coming through the hole in the wall, along with the several freed airbenders, they seemed to recognize the futility in fighting. Only one of them tried to fight and he was quickly subdued by the newcomers, while the other two simply dropped to their knees with their hands behind their heads.
Sora got one look at her saviors and all but sobbed in relief. It was Ronen and Aunt Su, and Mako, Bolin, and Asami, and "Mom!" she screamed, forgetting about everyone and everything to catapult herself across the cave, to where her mother was craning her neck looking for Sora. When Lin spotted Sora, she pushed through two airbenders and made long strides to close the distance between them. And then Sora leapt straight into her mother's strong embrace, her feet hanging off the ground and she was crying again, but this time she was happy because maybe it wasn't all over. If Mom was there then everything was gonna be okay.
"I've got you, kid," Lin murmured against Sora's ear. "You're safe now. I've got you."
"You're okay," Sora sobbed half in disbelief, wondering if she wasn't just dreaming, but she should have known. Mom had a history of getting into tight spots but she was always okay in the end. "You're here."
"'Course I am," Lin assured, leaning back to look Sora in the eye, frowning at the bruises she must have seen on the girl's face. "Are you okay? They hurt you –"
"I'm all right," Sora hurriedly told her mother. "It doesn't hurt too bad. Aunt Kya and Uncle Bumi though…" She trailed off, and Lin followed her gaze to where Kya and Bumi still lay slumped and immobile on the ground. Sora could see the concern and the anger and sorrow on her mother's face, and her heart jumped into her throat when she thought of her father and Yunjin, and did her mother know anything about what had happened to them? Would Sora have to be the one to tell her?
The answer came sooner than Sora expected, when her mother locked eyes with her again and said, "Your father is outside. Ronen was able to rescue him from the temple. And Kai found us. He said Yunjin is in Xiagu with a healer."
Sora could have collapsed in relief, clutching her mother's arms so she didn't fall and finally letting herself breathe for a second. "Are they okay?" Sora asked.
"They will be," Lin answered, but there was something in her voice that made Sora think she wasn't telling the whole truth, and she averted her gaze quickly to change the subject. "Is it just Kya and Bumi that need help getting out of here?"
Sora looked around to finally take in the rest of her surroundings. The airbenders were all unchained and standing together. Nira and Amali had returned to Aunt Kya, and Aunt Su was still hugging Opal to her side in relief. Ronen and his friends were shackling the Red Lotus together. They didn't seem to notice Zara standing off to the side by herself; she was wearing plain clothes instead of the matching robes the rest of the Red Lotus had on, and none of them had been at the temple in the past months to have ever met her. The airbenders knew of her betrayal though, and when they recognized her standing there, they hastily informed Ronen, who immediately snatched up another pair of handcuffs and went cautiously in Zara's direction. Sora started to say, "Wait…" but her brother didn't hear her and she wasn't sure she wanted him to anyways. She didn't know what to think. Zara had saved her but Zara had also betrayed her, and Zara's mother had shot Yunjin out of the sky and, according to Uncle Bumi, was the reason Kya and Bumi had dropped down a cliffside and nearly died. Zara didn't fight when Ronen chained her wrists together, even though she could have tried to run away. She just stood there looking resigned.
Lin noticed Sora's focus and asked, "Is that –?"
Sora nodded sadly. A few weeks ago she had wanted so badly for her mother to meet Zara. Now she just felt ashamed.
"I'm sorry, kid," Lin murmured, and Sora just wanted her mother to hug her again, but she needed to get ahold of herself and focus on what needed done.
Sora cleared her throat and yanked her gaze away from Zara. She told her mother, "Pema is hurt too. She…it's my fault. She was trying to protect me from them."
Lin looked to where Sora was pointing and saw Pema curled up against Jinora, who was trying in vain to keep her mother awake. Pema's eyes were glazed and her head kept lolling forward, and she was frighteningly pale. "Okay," Lin said. "We just need to get everybody out of here. Oogi can take them to the village. Hopefully they have enough healers there," she muttered as an afterthought.
"And Korra!" Sora suddenly remembered. "She's below us –"
"Korra is here?" Ronen interjected, having overheard Sora's exclamation.
"They're trying to poison her," Sora replied grimly, "to kill her in the Avatar state. We have to help her now."
"Okay, stay calm," Lin stressed. "Let's get everyone outside –"
Tonraq stepped in demanding, "Where is Korra?"
Sora told him how to find her, and he went ahead with Mako and Bolin to seek her out. Sora wanted to go with them, but she decided to make sure everyone else made it safely to Oogi first.
Two of the airbenders held Bumi between them to help him stagger from the cave, while Nira and Su all but carried Kya out. Ronen, Asami, and Opal dealt with the prisoners. Sora went to Jinora, who had reunited with Kai, and the pair were worrying over how to help Pema. Sora spared a brief moment to hug Kai in relief, and whispered a heartfelt, "Thank you," in his ear, for catching her brother, for taking Yunjin to get help.
Then Lin was there and she knelt next to Pema, sounding almost soft as she asked, "Where's the damage?"
Pema hovered a shaky hand over her abdomen, and Lin carefully pulled her shirt up halfway to examine the dark bruises there.
Jinora shakily revealed, "She threw up blood earlier."
Lin nodded grimly, seeming to come to her own conclusion about what the issue was, but she didn't explain. She told Jinora, "A healer will be able to fix it."
Pema clumsily shot her hand out to grasp Lin's arm in a tight grip, her voice weak as she pleaded, "My family –"
"They're in a nearby village," Lin assured. "They're safe."
Pema's eyelids fluttered and it looked for a moment as if she had fallen unconscious again, but she opened her eyes a second later and rasped, "Yunjin?"
Sora saw her mother's jaw clench, and she didn't answer directly as she replied, "He's in the village with them. I'm going to pick you up and carry you outside now, okay?"
Pema nodded slowly.
"This is gonna hurt like a bitch," Lin warned, and then before Pema could realize what she had said, she braced her legs and lifted the younger woman up into her arms.
Pema cried out briefly in surprise, but quickly swallowed her pain, biting down on her lips and slumping in Lin's hold with a quiet whimper. Lin carried her out into the sunlight, and Sora followed close behind, hugging Jinora against her side in an effort to comfort her friend.
Once outside, Sora saw her father leaning against Oogi, and she ran to him with the same tearful joy she had felt seeing her mother. She had been so worried about what Zaheer might have done to him once she'd had to leave him behind at the temple, worried about how he was faring with the injuries he'd already sustained. To see him on his feet, even as battered as he still was, filled her with immense relief.
Her reunion with her father, however, was all too brief. The fight wasn't over yet. In the time it had taken them to get outside, Korra had freed herself from her chains in the depths of the caves, and was now up in the air just above them pursuing Zaheer. They were both flying and leaping, Zaheer with an airbending ability Sora was stunned to see, and Korra with the use of several elements, blasting off with firebending and bounding off of rocky cliffs. But something wasn't right. Korra was faltering, even as her eyes glowed bright within the Avatar state. For every assault she threw at Zaheer – boulders sheered off of cliffs and stream water stretched out into wide sweeping whips – she was brought down by an invisible force. The poison must have been working through Korra's system, draining her and wounding her in some internal struggle the rest of them couldn't really see.
"We need to help her," Sora said needlessly, but what could they do? Sora could fly up on her glider, but would she be able to keep up with Zaheer when he was uninhibited by such things? If she could at least cause a distraction, maybe that would give Korra enough time to take him down. Sora looked around at the others, her family and the new Air Nation, all the wounded and afraid – Tonraq having rushed back outside to try and help Korra, staring up at the sky, his face pinched with worry for his daughter; Ronen and Asami looking as if they wished they could fly too as they watched their friend struggle. Sora thought of her twin brother and what he had done for all of them and she made up her mind. "I'm going up there."
Instead of protesting immediately as Sora might have expected, her mother looked at her with firm solidarity and said, "I'm coming with you." Her gaze flickered over to where Kai stood next to the baby bison, the one that had helped rescue Kai and Yunjin, whom he'd named Lefty. "I'm gonna need to borrow that bison, kid."
"I'll come too," Kai started to say.
But Ronen interjected, latching on his grappling hooks and telling the boy, "Sorry, Kai, but I'm gonna have to take your place."
Asami quickly kissed Ronen's cheek and urged, "Be careful."
Sora went to retrieve a glider she knew to be in one of Oogi's saddle packs, and when she dropped back down to the ground, Jinora came up next to Kai and asked, "Sora, what can we do to help?"
Sora looked behind Jinora and Kai, to the rest of the airbenders gathered behind them, and she locked eyes with Jinora as she replied, "There haven't been this many airbenders in a long time. We can use that to our advantage."
Jinora seemed to understand, nodding firmly. "We've got your back."
"Lin," Tenzin rasped, reaching for her from his spot on the ground. "Please, love, be careful."
"I'll be back," Lin promised, leaning down to kiss the top of his head and squeezing his hand.
Su hurried over to berate her sister, "I thought I told you not to do anything like this again –"
"I told you I'd keep it to a minimum," Lin interrupted, kissing her sister on the forehead too, figuring it would surprise Su enough to shut her up. "Last time. I promise."
Then Lin backed away and spun around, to join Ronen and Sora on the tiny bison. It was just big enough to fit the three of them, with Ronen at the front, Lin in the middle, and Sora at the back already perched and ready to leap off. They took off into the sky without further interruption. Tonraq seemed to want to come with them, but there wasn't room and barely any water for him to manipulate, not to mention what had happened to him the last time he'd been up on a cliff. So it was just the three of them, and though Lin was worried about her children, she was also pretty confident they'd make a damn good team. They had all survived up to this point so she had to believe they'd make it through this too. Only Zaheer was left to challenge them. According to Tonraq, Mako and Bolin were handling Ghazan and Ming-Hua elsewhere, and Lin was liking their odds.
They flew up into the air where Zaheer was hovering over Korra, who was slumped on the ground struggling to get back up. He sensed them coming and blasted several bursts of air in their direction to stall them, but Ronen maneuvered Lefty side to side and up and down. When the baby bison was close enough to make a strafing run at Zaheer, Sora catapulted off of its back, popping open her glider to carry her the rest of the way. While Sora flew into Zaheer's line of sight, Ronen abruptly guided Lefty back down, to the cliff where Korra lay. Lin leapt off of the bison before it touched ground, landing on her feet and immediately thrusting her arms up, yanking a boulder straight out of the earth and hurling it Zaheer's way. He evaded the assault, along with all the rest that she threw at him, but it kept him distracted enough to stop him from barreling straight into Sora. His ability to fly made him more adept than Sora could be on a glider, but she was holding her own, keeping a fair distance from him and spiraling through the air too fast for the eye to follow.
When Ronen touched down he went straight to Korra, helping his friend to her feet and keeping a tight hold on her when she seemed about to collapse again. Whatever poison the Red Lotus had used on her was taking its toll, and Korra could barely fight through the pain to defend herself. Ronen began leading Korra over to the bison, probably thinking of getting her somewhere safer than a tall cliff with a mere twenty feet radius, but Zaheer had just caught up to Sora and their attention was diverted.
Lin had to stop her own barrage of boulders to keep from hitting Sora when Zaheer landed atop the girl's glider. As soon as Sora noticed Zaheer had caught her, she flipped over to try and shake him, but he held on and swung his legs up to kick the backs of her knees. Her feet dropped from the glider and she twisted back around. Zaheer was still on top, still holding onto the glider's wooden frame with one hand, and he was floating off of it to curl his other hand into a fist, which he smashed through the middle of the glider. At the same time, Sora kicked her legs up in front of her and the whole way up, to where Zaheer's head hovered just above hers. She wrapped her legs around his neck and tried to yank him down, but he grabbed her knees and flipped over backwards, yanking her with him and throwing her off. He blasted away from her then, and since Sora couldn't fly she was left to drop from the sky, her glider veering out of reach. She wasn't without resources though, still surrounded by her element even if she had to manipulate it another way. She seemed to swim through the air, hurtling herself back to her glider, somehow managing to latch onto it, but it had been damaged by Zaheer's assault and she was wobbling through a mostly uncontrolled fall.
Ronen lurched forward, still holding Korra against his side, and patted the baby bison on the back saying, "Yip, yip!"
Despite being young and untrained, Lefty seemed to understand enough to hop up into the air. He didn't seem to know where to go at first, but Sora must have spotted the bison and whistled until Lefty veered in her direction.
Lin resumed her assault against Zaheer, who was barreling back towards them. But he bounded off of the boulders with relative ease and even kicked one back at her. As it came hurtling towards her, she rolled forward so that it flew over top of her, and when she came back up on one knee, Zaheer was close enough that she could swing her metal cables out at him. He flew over one, but the other cable changed directions and managed to latch onto his ankle. Lin yanked it downwards in a quick motion that took Zaheer off guard and slammed him into the side of the cliff. It subdued him for a few seconds, until he suddenly went shooting up into the air so fast that Lin was pulled up with him. She didn't let herself feel fear even when she was way too far from the earth, throwing her other metal cable up to wrap around his wrist. He stopped in midair, and looked down at her with mounting rage just before he kicked his foot in her direction. A sharp blast of air hit her full on in the face, and she was forced to drop her hold on him when it threatened to snap her neck back too far or yank her arms out of socket. She dropped from the sky, and Zaheer went flying back to Korra and Ronen.
Lin searched for a place to land, examining every cliff and rock spire, trying to determine which would be the best and the closest to catch her fall. When she was within range, she shot her metal cable out again, latched it onto the rocky edge slightly above her, and then swung out away from it to slow her descent and lessen the impact to her arm. She swung back in and crashed against it, knocking the air from her for a moment, but it was less painful than it would have been to hit the cliff directly.
Sucking in a deep breath and hanging there by a thread, Lin looked over to where Ronen and Korra were, hoping Ronen had a plan or Korra was able to stand. But neither appeared to be true. When Zaheer reached them, he swatted Ronen aside like he was made of paper, and Lin had a split second of fear as she watched her son go flying off of the cliff. But Ronen was prepared, shooting out his grappling hooks to stop his fall much the same way that his mother had.
Korra was slumped on the ground, and as Zaheer hovered above her, he used his airbending to lift her halfway up, and then made a circle of air around Korra's head. Lin couldn't tell from the slight distance, but it looked like how Yunjin had described his own altercation with Zaheer, when the psycho had invaded Air Temple Island. Yunjin had said Zaheer had tried to suffocate him with an airbending trick no real Air Nomad would have been sadistic enough to use. It looked like Zaheer was using that ability now, and Lin looked hastily around again for the best way to get back to Korra.
But Sora was already on it. She came sweeping in on the back of Lefty, punching out blasts of wind straight at Zaheer and knocking him aside. And there was help coming from below too. Lin felt the wind picking up, buffeting her against the side of the cliff she clung to, could hear it roaring in her ears, kicking up dust that blew into her eyes. When she got enough of her vision back to see what was going on exactly, there was a tornado forming, from the ground up. With Zaheer adequately distracted, Sora redirected Lefty back down to where the tornado was forming, where the airbenders and everyone else was waiting. Lin couldn't see Sora through the raging winds, but she assumed the girl had dropped down to the ground to help because shortly after Sora disappeared, the tornado picked up in speed and grew in size, and Lin had to cling to the cliffside with both hands and her feet sunk into the rock. She had to shield her face for a long moment, until she could feel the strain of the winds growing distant, and when she was able to look again she could see Zaheer and Korra being sucked into the tornado together.
The moment it was safe to do so, Lin focused on getting herself onto the ground. She checked to make sure Ronen was doing the same, and when she was assured that he didn't need her help just yet she catapulted herself across the rocky spires. She waited for him to catch up to her, and then they both rappelled down to where they had left everyone else. Sora, Jinora, Nira, Kai, and all of the other new airbenders had created a circle, and together they formed and manipulated the circling winds that had grabbed onto Zaheer and Korra.
The pair of them were sucked down into the tornado, barely visible through the tumultuous spiral, but clearly exchanging blows. Zaheer tried desperately to pull Korra out, and when that failed, tried to save himself, but Korra had one last reserve of energy. One of the chains that had been used to hold her prisoner was still wrapped around her wrist, and when Zaheer attempted to fly out of the top of the tornado, she threw the chain up to wrap around his ankle, and with all of her remaining strength, she slammed him down onto the ground in the center of the airbenders. Korra landed on her feet as the tornado petered out, but she only remained that way for a second before she swayed and dropped. Tonraq ran forward to catch her, cradling her in his arms as her body writhed in pain.
Lin raced over to where Zaheer had landed, just a few feet from where Su stood, and when he shifted, she and Su both trapped him in the earth, shrouding him up to his neck in thick stone. Unfortunately, he was still conscious, and when he saw Korra go motionless in her father's hold, he began to laugh.
"What are you laughing at?" Lin spat, wondering if it was worth suppressing the urge to knock him out.
"You're too late!" he crowed. "The poison's been in her system too long. The Red Lotus has won!"
"No you haven't," Sora interjected, scowling at Zaheer and then directing her gaze onto her mother and Aunt Su. "You can save her. The poison he used is metallic."
Su rushed into action first, sprinting through the throng of onlookers to drop down at Korra's side. Lin followed after, and watched as her younger sister placed a hand on Korra's head. Su waved her arms over Korra's form, back and forth in fluid motions, until she managed to gather the metallic substance and pull it right out of Korra's throat. The Avatar's whole torso lifted up as she heaved, choking up the poison as Su pulled it from her mouth and tossed it to the ground.
Freed from the poison's hold on her, Korra's eyes opened halfway, and she smiled at her father, relieved to see him alive. They exchanged a few soft words and then Tonraq hugged her against his chest.
Either moved by the scene or grateful that it was all over, or more likely a combination of the two, Sora shuffled over to settle against her mother's side, wrapping her arms around Lin's waist. Lin hugged Sora back, letting her head come to rest atop the girl's head and breathing in deep, letting some of the tension release from her chest.
"No!" Zaheer suddenly shouted just behind them. "No! You don't understand! The revolution has already begun! Chaos is the natural order of all –!"
Lin turned her head in time to see Bolin stuffing a sock directly into Zaheer's mouth to shut the lunatic up, and then it was blessedly quiet again.
After that, the only thing to be done was to get the injured to a healer. Korra, Pema, Kya, Bumi, and Tenzin were all lifted onto Oogi first. Tonraq, Jinora, Ronen, Nira, Amali, and Sora clambered up after. It was a tight squeeze but they managed. Ronen took the reigns and waited a moment for Lin to join them.
She went first to Su, who informed her, "I was able to get in contact with Kuvira over the radio. She's already on her way with the airship. The rest of us will join you in the village soon."
"You sure you don't need any help?" Lin asked, worriedly glancing at Zaheer's angered form. According to Bolin and Mako, who had returned just a few moments before Zaheer had been bested, Ghazan and Ming-Hua had been eliminated, so that was some help, but Zaheer was a lot to handle on his own, not to mention the several other Red Lotus they had captured.
"We'll be fine," Su assured, reaching out to squeeze Lin's shoulder. "The prisoners will all be dealt with. You go find Yunjin. I'll take care of everything here."
It turned Lin's stomach to even think about it, about what she would find when she finally reunited with her youngest son, and she was afraid to go. She was half tempted to stay under the pretense of making sure that Zaheer did not escape. But she couldn't run forever.
Su must have seen some of the indecision on her older sister's face because she tugged Lin into a tight hug and murmured, "Go. I'll be there soon. Everything is gonna be all right."
Lin nodded and forced herself to leave, giving her sister a grateful look before she turned away and strode over to Oogi, where the others waited for her. Her adrenaline was still pumping and she still felt on edge, like she needed to be prepared for another fight. Even though it was over it didn't feel like it was over. All those weeks they had spent worrying and running and fighting, and now they had won, maybe, for the most part, but it didn't feel like she could relax. Maybe because half her family was in need of medical attention and Korra was unconscious and there was still a lot to be concerned about. Maybe she would feel more normal in the morning, but she wasn't so certain. It felt like things would be different now, like something had changed, and it was probably just the uncertainty of it all. Zaheer and his people had done a lot of damage before they had been stopped, and there was no telling what would come of it. All Lin could do as she climbed into the saddle next to Tenzin and Sora was hold onto them, and hope that everything else would go smoother from here on out.
Things did not go smoothly.
They arrived in Xiagu village as the sun began to sink towards the horizon. Ronen landed Oogi next to the singular sky bison that had escaped the Red Lotus's initial attack on the temple. The five airbenders that had been on it came out of the small inn they were staying at to greet the newcomers. They were full of questions, but Lin waved them all off and demanded to know where the healers were. According to the airbenders, there was only one healer and two doctors in the village, all of whom were right down the street at the infirmary, along with a few of the Metal Clan that had required some extra attention. The rest of the Metal Clan were at the inn too, and came hurrying out shortly after the airbenders to ask Lin the same questions, but she wasn't giving anyone anything aside from a brief "It's over."
Lin was intending on going straight to the infirmary, but that was when someone told her that Yunjin was no longer there. The healer had claimed to have done all she could for him and he was released to make room for others. The airbenders had brought him to the inn, and up until the Metal Clan arrived, he had remained under the watchful eye of Anil and his three youngest kids. Jeia was with him now too, and Lin was torn for a moment as she considered what to do. She needed to go to Yunjin, but she needed to get the others to the infirmary too.
When Tenzin and Sora overheard that Yunjin was at the inn, they both jumped straight off of Oogi before Lin could tell them otherwise.
"What room is he in?" Sora immediately questioned.
"That one right over there," one of the airbenders answered, pointing to a door down at the end of the courtyard.
Sora immediately went running in that direction, but Lin paused for a moment to turn and place a hand on Tenzin's chest. "You need to see that healer."
"I will later," Tenzin assured, putting his hand over hers and grimacing. "Kya and the others need it more. Let them be tended to first. I want to see Yunjin."
Lin sighed but she couldn't much argue with his point. She looked over his shoulder to where Ronen had been listening as well.
Without having to be asked, Ronen said, "I'll get everyone to the infirmary and come back."
Lin nodded, and Ronen hastily climbed back onto Oogi without another word. Lin watched the sky bison fly down the street, and then turned away. She let Tenzin keep a hold on her hand as they headed towards Yunjin's room. Sora had already flown through the door and disappeared inside. Lin could barely feel her legs, and she wasn't sure if it was from the long day of fighting and strain or just plain trepidation.
Just before she and Tenzin reached the doorway, Anil emerged, baby held against his chest, and he smiled tiredly at them in relief. "Oh thank goodness," he said. "It's so good to see y – spirit's, Tenzin. Are you all right?"
"I'll be fine," Tenzin replied. "How are you and the children?"
"We've been managing," Anil sighed, and the closer he got the more Lin could see the strain on his face. He looked like he had aged in the last two days. She wondered if she looked much the same. "Please tell me Jinora and Pema are with you."
"They're here in the village, yes," Tenzin assured, "but they're headed to the infirmary. I'm so sorry to tell you this, but Pema was injured trying to help Sora yesterday."
Anil swayed a little on his feet, and Lin shot her free hand out to grab him by the elbow and steady him. "How bad is it?" he questioned. And when Lin and Tenzin hesitated, he insisted, "Tell me the truth."
"It's not all bad," Lin answered. "According to the girls she's been mostly conscious. But it's an internal wound. The impact of the blow must have caused something to rupture. I can't tell how serious it is without a professional's input."
Anil looked like he might pass out, and Lin figured the timid man had never been in a situation half as stressful as the last few days had been for him. He looked as if he would burst into tears at any moment.
As if picking up on her father's mood, the baby in Anil's arms started screaming, that newborn cry that was somehow shrill and quiet all at the same time. Anil instinctively began to bounce her, but he had a far off look on his face and he was shaking so much Lin was half afraid he'd drop the kid.
"What do I tell the kids?" Anil murmured, half to himself. "What if the healer can't fix it?"
"She's gonna be fine," Lin said dismissively, still watching the crying infant, who was not even remotely consoled by her father's attempts. "We got her to the healer pretty early. Granted, yesterday would have been better, but I'm sure they can still fix it."
"How can you be so certain?" Anil fretted, looking at Lin as if she held all the answers.
"I've seen people pull through plenty of times before," Lin said, but Anil was still shaking and she couldn't stand to listen to that baby cry for a second longer. "Here, let me –" She finally released Tenzin to put her hand under the baby's head, and Anil was too overwhelmed in the moment to protest.
Lin pulled the baby into her own hold, cradling the kid in one arm and stroking the baby's soft cheek with her other hand. She swayed a little back and forth, like she used to with her own kids, and the baby was either soothed by it or surprised enough by the stranger holding her that she stopped wailing. She blinked up at Lin with teary eyes and squirmed a bit, but she was calming in Lin's hold. "There ya go," Lin murmured to her. "You're all right." It was probably too soon to tell, but Lin had a feeling that the kid was going to look a lot like her mother.
Then again, so did Ikki, who curiously poked her head out of Yunjin's room to see what was going on. When she spotted her father, half bent over clutching his head and his stomach, with Tenzin holding him up, she rushed forward with concern. "Daddy, what's wrong?" she exclaimed.
Seeing Ikki and her very clear worry seemed to snap Anil out of his panic over his wife. He straightened up slowly and placed a hand on Ikki's shoulder as he assured her, "I'm okay, pumpkin."
As Anil was sucking in a deep breath, Ikki fearfully asked, "Is it Mommy and Jinora? Did something happen? Why aren't they here with us? Did they not come back with Sora?"
"They're here in the village," Anil soothed, "but I'm afraid your mom was hurt and Jinora had to take her to the infirmary. But I don't want you to worry. I'm sure the doctors are taking good care of her. Why don't you go say goodbye to Yunjin and get your brother, and we'll go over to the infirmary to see her?"
Ikki nodded but her eyes were still wide and scared, probably the very reason Anil had pulled it together so quickly. Lin wondered at how many times she and Tenzin had put on that same brave face for their own kids.
Ikki went running back inside calling for her brother, and Lin passed the baby back over to Anil. Tenzin reached out to snag Anil's sleeve before the younger man could follow Ikki. "Anil…my son, how is he?"
Anil looked away for a moment as if to school his features, but the sorrow was still clear on his face when he met Lin and Tenzin's gazes again. "I think you'll need to get a second opinion, maybe a third and a fourth. The infirmary here…they're a little outdated, and the healer is an old woman. They do fine work, but Yunjin… The healer said she could do nothing more for him. The doctors say it would require surgeries but they don't want to risk making it worse. He can't walk right now, but there must be something that can help him. He's… I'm so sorry. Your boy got hurt protecting my family. I can never repay him or you for what he's done, but if there's anything we can do to help…"
"Thank you, Anil," Tenzin said very quietly, looking resigned but fairly depressed. It was what they had been expecting, after what Kai had told them, but it was no easier to hear. They had been hoping for some miracle, that maybe Yunjin had just been stunned, that the healers in the village would make him better. But the road ahead was long and uncertain.
Lin could wait no longer. She marched past Anil, passing Ikki and Meelo as she stepped through the doorway of her son's room at the inn. The room was dimly lit, as if to set the dour mood, but Lin didn't take in anything else, looked only for the twins. Yunjin was half seated in the bed, surrounded by pillows to help hold him up, and Sora was pressed against his chest, crying softly as her brother held her. Jeia sat at the end of the bed, watching them, half chewing on a metal coin in distress. Yunjin looked a mess, wearing some old clothes that were too big for him and hung off his lanky frame. He was pale and there were dark shadows under his eyes, and Lin had never seen him look so tired and withdrawn before. He had always been so lively and vibrant, and now...
Her footsteps faltered halfway into the room, and she had a vivid flash of their last moments together before all this had happened, the last thing she had said to him. "Get out of my sight."
When Yunjin saw her standing there half in the doorway, he looked both relieved and uncertain. "Mom…" he said in a cracked voice, and just as Lin was moved to calm Pema and Anil's crying newborn, the sound of her own son's broken voice pushed her the rest of the way into the room to stand over him.
Lin placed a hand on the top of his head, smoothing some of his tangled hair back from his face. "Hey, kid…how are you doing?"
Yunjin tried to shrug and even that simple movement caused him to wince. "I've been better."
Lin nodded in understanding, but she couldn't speak for a moment. There was a lump in her throat, a burning in her chest, guilt and grief all churning in her gut. She could acknowledge that it wasn't purely her fault that he had been wounded so badly, but she knew also that she hadn't helped matters. She had pushed him away when he was at his most vulnerable, when he felt like he had something to prove, when he was wracked with his own guilt for what had happened to his brother.
"I'm sorry," Lin and Yunjin both said at once, blurting it out in strained voices as if trying to expel it from their throats before it choked them.
Lin rapidly shook her head. "No, no, you have nothing to apologize for."
"I should have listened to you," Yunjin argued.
"You couldn't have known," Lin countered. "I should have never been so hard on you."
"You were right –"
"I wasn't. I was scared."
Yunjin opened his mouth, but hesitated to respond, his brow furrowed, and before he could recover, his attention was diverted to the doorway, where Tenzin was shuffling inside. Lin instinctively rushed over to him, taking his arm to help him, frowning at his slow, measured pace, still wishing he would have gone to see the healer first. She helped him perch on the edge of Yunjin's bed, as father and son reunited with somber hugs and fretting over one another's health. Lin took a step back, looking over her family, feeling half grateful and half sick. She had them back but everything was different.
She held her hand out to Jeia, who crawled forward without a second of hesitation, leaping off the bed and into her mother's arms, and Lin held her as tight as she could, and swore to herself that she would keep her family together no matter what. She could not fail them again.
Notes:
Well folks, that's the end of season 3! Sort of.. Still plenty more to come, but that just about wraps up the Red Lotus. There'll be quite a few chapters before we really start off on season 4, since there's that three year gap, with some challenges and recovery for everyone from season 3's events, and then some craziness to set up season 4 for added drama for the Linzin family, and since I accidentally killed off Toph years ago lol. Hope you're all doing well, and until next time!
Chapter 84: Chapter 84
Chapter Text
Chapter 84
The flight to Xiagu village was a lot more relaxed for Su than any of the previous flights she'd been on in the last few days. Finally things seemed to be looking up, with Zaheer and the rest of the Red Lotus either dead or in chains. Everyone on Su's side had survived and been rescued, even if some of them were a little worse for wear; she had every confidence that the injured would recover.
Su could not stop hugging Opal every chance that she got, reassuring herself over and over that her little girl was all right. The last twenty-four hours Su had spent worrying had been the hardest of her life. She had always kept her children so close that they hadn't so much as scraped their elbow without her knowing about it. They had never been in a situation so dangerous. So the possibility of Opal being harmed had been agonizing. The fear and the uncertainty had nearly crippled Su, and if anything had happened to Opal she would have lost her mind for sure. She knew that she could not protect her children from everything, especially not now that they were nearly all adults or close to it, but she could damn well try. She was starting to understand why her sister was always so high strung. Lin's kids had been in more danger in a few years than Su's kids had been in their whole lives.
The fact that Lin's kids had suffered more harm than Opal was also not lost on Su. First Ronen, now the twins. They threw themselves into danger to help others, just like their mother, and this time they had been up against the well-trained, unrepentant monsters that were Zaheer and his gang. Su often worried about her nieces and nephews more than she did her own kids. Because most of her kids balked at the idea of a fight. Only Wei had even tried to come with his mother when she had told her family she would be going to fight Zaheer. Granted, they had all been half asleep and it was all very rushed, but still. Her children were like their father, in part because Su had wanted it that way. By the time she had started her family she had been so tired of fighting, and Bataar had been so normal and docile. Especially once her mother had died fighting criminals, Su had been desperate to purge some of that Beifong spirit, that penchant for danger.
Lin's kids were too much like Toph, too much like Lin. Yunjin especially had always been inordinately brave. Su had not been even remotely surprised when she heard that he had sacrificed himself to try and save the airbenders. But she was rocked by the revelation that he had been crippled. It seemed so impossible, to imagine that wily boy she'd watched grow be taken down so suddenly, to suffer something so devastating. Yunjin had always been running and leaping and active, a constant ball of energy. Su couldn't bear to think of him as anything else.
Su wasn't sure what she was expecting to find when she arrived in Xiagu, but some trepidation did fill her as she stepped out of the airship. Kuvira had told her what the healer had said about Yunjin's injuries, and how the boy had not looked well at all when Kuvira had taken Jeia to find him. Part of Su was hoping that Kuvira had been exaggerating, that maybe the healer was wrong and Yunjin would not be as bad off as everyone made it sound. But as soon as Su saw her sister, she knew that it was worse.
Shortly after arriving at the inn where everyone aside from the most injured were staying, Ronen had appeared, telling his aunt that he was only just getting back from taking the injured to the infirmary, that he had not seen his brother yet either. He went with Su and Opal in the direction of Yunjin's room, but halfway there, the door opened and Lin stepped out, striding somewhat hurriedly in their direction. There was something off about her, the way her heart was beating through the earth, the impassive look on her face. Decades ago, Su had not been able to read her older sister at all, had not understood anything about Lin's chaotic emotions, and especially not the ones she tried to hide. But over the years since they had reconciled all of that had begun to change, and in that moment Su could see right through Lin's stubborn walls.
Su nudged Opal and Ronen a bit of ahead of her as she said, "Why don't you two go on ahead? Lin and I will be inside in a little bit."
Ronen and Opal were both old enough and wise enough to know that Su was trying to get rid of them so that she could talk to Lin on her own, but they seemed to understand the importance of it, and hurried ahead without intervening. Su slowed her pace a little, so that when Lin reached her they'd be far enough from Yunjin's room not to be seen or heard by the others. And when Lin's long strides finally caught up to Su, she barely slowed down, crashing straight into Su and nearly toppling them both over. Su managed to hold steady, circling her arms around Lin's middle, but Lin's legs were weak, and when she started to drop, Su couldn't hold her up. They both fell to their knees in the dirt, and Su could see Ronen looking back over his shoulder, concern for his mother causing him to hesitate, but Su waved him off and he eventually continued forward to finally see his brother.
Lin wasn't crying but she must have been making a concerted effort not to. She was breathing too rapidly and she was holding onto Su for dear life. She didn't say anything but Su could feel her grief, like an aching in her own soul. And all that Su could do was hold her close and whisper, "It's okay – I'm here – I'm with you – it's going to be all right…"
What it would take to make them all right, Su could not say just yet, but she would make sure that they were.
Sitting around the cramped room at the inn, all of them somber and quiet and uncertain, like someone had just died, made Lin distinctly uncomfortable. Because they were alive, and they should have been celebrating, but they couldn't. Not when everything was such a mess. Not while Yunjin and so many others were suffering.
Tenzin was trying to be optimistic. He kept saying they'd take Yunjin to the South Pole, to see Katara. He was certain that she would be able to help Yunjin, that she could fix whatever the other healer could not. He insisted also that both his siblings would be fine, that they were both too stubborn not to be. Sora seemed to be of a similar mindset, forcing down her own pain from everything that had happened in the last few days to put on a smile for her twin. But Jeia was curled up so tight in the windowsill it looked like she was trying to disappear. And Yunjin was morose, unable to find comfort in his father's reassurances. And Lin couldn't stand to sit there and watch all of them suffer in silence.
She had to get out of that room.
Su's arrival had given her the perfect excuse, and also caused her to have half of a breakdown in her sister's arms. But it felt like she was being selfish by letting her own emotions out so she tamped down on it as best as she could. She dragged herself back onto her feet and avoided Su's eyes, and she went back inside to where her family waited. She could see the worry on Ronen's injured face when he squeezed her arm, and she knew even more that she needed to pull herself together. She couldn't have the rest of them worrying about her of all people.
Her main focus then was to get Tenzin to the infirmary. They had waited long enough, and he was wincing every time he moved, and his eyes were growing heavier with every passing minute; she couldn't let him go to sleep without being checked first. There was no telling what kind of injuries he had sustained, or if there was anything internal they needed to worry about. So Lin pressed the issue until Tenzin finally relented, half at the insistence of his children, who were all just as worried about him as their mother was. Su stayed with the kids while Lin guided Tenzin down the street.
They were quiet at first, shuffling along the dirt path in half darkness, their way lit only by the stars and a few tiny spirits flitting around in the bushes. It was a comfortable sort of quiet though, not like the stifling silence of their room at the inn. But they were alone for the first time since they had separated months ago, and there was no way they could remain mute for long.
"Did he tell you what I said to him?" Lin murmured first, because it was still weighing heavily on her. "When I sent him back to the temple, after what happened to Ronen."
"No," Tenzin admitted. "He didn't say much, only that…"
He didn't seem to want to go on, and Lin could guess. "He thought I hated him."
"I was very clear with him that such a thing was impossible," Tenzin assured. "Your anger could not diminish your love for him."
"I told him to get out of my sight," Lin muttered, disgusted with herself still. "I blamed him for what happened, for Ronen getting hurt and Korra being captured."
"That's all behind us now," Tenzin reasoned. "He'll understand that you were just worried and upset. We all say things we regret, but it's what we do afterwards that matters."
"You don't say those kinds of things."
"Well, love, I'm pleased that you don't remember the cruel things I've said to you in the past, but unfortunately I do. We fought a lot when we were younger, when our relationship wasn't as strong as it is now. There are things I regret about that time, but I did my best to prove to you that I wasn't the person I became during my worst moments, to prove to myself that I could be better. I know that you're capable of the same because I've seen you grow into the most extraordinary woman over all the years I've known you. And I know that Yunjin admires you more than anyone else in the world, and you'll prove to him how much you love him, and he'll forget you were ever angry at him in the first place."
"I wish I had your optimism," Lin grumbled. "I still remember the things my mother said to me that made me feel like shit."
"But you still loved her," Tenzin pointed out. "And Toph was…unique. She also didn't have the space or the time to grow as you did. I have a feeling that if her life had not been cut so abruptly short, the two of you would have reconciled in a more meaningful way."
"Seriously, how can you still be so damned positive after everything that's just happened?" Lin demanded, honestly becoming a little annoyed by it. "You can barely walk right now and your siblings were beaten half to death. Our son is crippled –"
"Stop," Tenzin said hoarsely, and with the way he was wheezing Lin wasn't certain if he meant for her to stop talking or to stop walking, so she did both. He breathed deeply for a moment, straining to catch his breath, and then turned to face her, his sorrow only vaguely illumined by the full moon above them, but enough that she could see it and feel guilty for it. "I'm not naïve. I know that there's still a possibility that this can't all be fixed. That Kya and Bumi might never fully recover, that Yunjin might never walk again. I know that I'm responsible for most of it and that's something I'll have to live with –"
"What are you talking about?" Lin interrupted. "You're not the one that hurt them."
"I'm the one that decided to fight back against Zaheer," Tenzin said with a grimace, clutching at his side. "None of them would have been harmed if I had just surrendered."
"You don't know that," Lin argued. "Zaheer is a liar. There's no telling what he would have done to all of you. Nobody blames you for this. And you know damn well none of them would have surrendered quietly either, not if they thought there was a chance at getting away. If it weren't for Zara betraying them, everyone at that temple probably would have gotten free, except for you and your siblings maybe, but the two of them would have been happy to take that beating if it was the only way to save the others."
Tenzin sighed and leaned more heavily into her side. "I just keep replaying it all in my head, wondering what I could have done differently, wondering why it wasn't me that took that hit instead of Yunjin. It isn't right. He's so young still, and he doesn't deserve this. If he can never walk again… I just wish that I could take on that pain for him."
"I know," Lin murmured, pressing her cheek against his forehead and noticing he felt a little warm. They needed to keep moving. "I do too."
She waited a beat, and then started to nudge Tenzin forward, slowly continuing their walk to the infirmary.
After a few steps, Tenzin continued, "No matter how it turns out though, I know that we'll be okay. I'm not giving up."
And even though it was little consolation when their future was so uncertain, Lin couldn't help but think that, with Tenzin holding them together, maybe they all would be okay after all.
While Tenzin was being examined by the healer – an exasperated old woman that was hunched over and scowling, but apparently quite good given Tenzin's sigh of relief when she started on some of his outward wounds – Lin went to check on how Bumi and Kya were doing. On her way she passed Tonraq, looking worn and disheveled, and he told Lin that Korra was resting but in poor shape. The poison had ravaged her body and caused a lot of internal damage, and the emotional toll she'd suffered wasn't aiding her recovery in the slightest.
When Lin found Bumi he was sleeping, but according to one of the doctor's was expected to make a full recovery in a few weeks. His worst injuries were two cracked ribs and a broken arm, and he would definitely need physical therapy to get his arm to function normally. But he was resting peacefully and there seemed to be no concern that his condition would worsen.
Kya was in worse shape. Along with a multitude of other injuries, she'd sustained a broken leg that had restricted blood flow and caused a whole slew of other problems. It was the reason she had become feverish and incoherent as she lay unattended in the cavern. They'd had to do surgery the moment she was brought in to release the compression in her leg, and she was lucky to have kept her leg at all. She would need to be kept under observation for at least two days, and then cautious for several more after, to be on the lookout for any signs of her condition worsening.
Lin didn't think there would be an issue with keeping an eye on Kya. Amali and Nira hadn't left her side for longer than a few minutes at any point in time, except for when she had been in surgery. When Lin entered the curtains closing Kya off from the rest of the infirmary, Amali was curled up in a chair that was pressed directly against the side of Kya's bed, and the girl was sleeping with her head resting right next to Kya's. Nira was sitting just a little farther away to observe the both of them, and she was the only one that was conscious to notice Lin's entrance. She looked tired though, like everyone else, and Lin figured worry and a residual amount of unease kept her awake like the rest of them. She perked up a little when she saw Lin, but still somehow remained slumped in her chair, as if she was too exhausted to sit up, which Lin could understand all too well. If her own mind wasn't racing she was certain she would be dead asleep already.
Lin picked up a third chair and quietly sat it down next to Nira, settling there for a moment to ask, "How is she?"
"A little better," Nira murmured. "Her fever broke and the surgery went well. The doctor seems optimistic." She reached out to clasp Lin's wrist. "How is Yunjin?"
Lin sighed. "Not good. We're going to take him to see Katara when all of us can leave here, but as of now he has no feeling in his legs." It burned her throat just to say it.
Nira's grip tightened, but Lin couldn't look at her anymore, to see the shared grief in her eyes.
"Let's talk about something else," Lin muttered, rubbing her hands over her face. "Is there anything good that I missed while you were all at the temple?" She looked over at Nira again, but now Nira's gaze was averted, focused instead on Kya. "Are any of the new airbenders interesting? Was teaching them as dull as it looks?"
Nira chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, seeming to deliberate before quietly admitting, "I didn't get to know the airbenders too well. I was…distracted most of the time we were there."
"With Amali?" Lin asked.
Nira nodded slowly, still avoiding Lin's eyes. "That was…one of my focuses, yes."
"How's that going?" Lin prompted.
"It's going very well," Nira answered, briefly showing a fond smile as she glanced over at the sleeping girl. "She's doing much better. The nightmares are rare these days and she seems to be happy. She's starting to open up a little more."
"Well good," Lin said, genuinely pleased. "I'm glad it's –"
"I also slept with Kya," Nira blurted out, in a hushed voice not likely to carry beyond Lin's ears, but so abrupt that Lin didn't comprehend it for several seconds.
When it dawned on her what Nira had said, Lin visibly startled, and her voice was too loud when she exclaimed, "You did what?"
"Shhhh," Nira stressed, looking over at Amali and Kya to make sure neither of them had stirred.
Lin lowered her voice to a whisper and repeated, "You did what?" Nira gave her an exasperated look, and Lin couldn't help it – she laughed. But she quickly reigned it in and amended, "I'm sorry, it's just…that's… I didn't even know you were into women, let alone Kya."
"Neither did I," Nira muttered.
When she did not elaborate, Lin asked, "Well…did you like it?"
"Oh yeah," Nira easily replied. "It was… stop laughing at me."
"I'm not laughing at you!" Lin swore, even as she fought the amusement bubbling up her throat and a broad grin stretched across her face. But Nira was laughing a little too, shaking her head and pressing her lips together to stifle it. "It's just a little funny, that's all. Or maybe I'm delirious. How many times did this happen?"
"Just the once. It was…" something passed over Nira's face and the amusement quickly faded. "It was the night before…all this."
"Oh. So this was really recent then."
Nira nodded.
"Well was it a one time thing, or are you guys serious about this?" Lin inquired. She had to know, because Kya was practically her sister and Nira was her best friend and she couldn't have either one of them getting their hearts crushed.
"Well, that's the thing," Nira murmured, finally meeting Lin's gaze, appearing uncertain. "We didn't really have a chance to talk about it. It all happened so fast. I know she has feelings for me, she did say that much, but I don't know how deep those feelings go."
"You two have gotten pretty close lately," Lin pointed out. "I doubt Kya would use you for a one night stand. She's made some wacky decisions but she isn't dumb, or a jerk. If she went that far with you it's because she cares about you a lot. Wait… is that why she was acting weird? Tenzin had said something about her being in a mood when I talked to him a week or so ago. Was that part of this?"
"Yeah that was definitely it," Nira confirmed. "We didn't really speak to each other much after we got to the temple. Revol came to visit the Island right before we left, and he said something about thinking Kya had feelings for me. I couldn't get it out of my head, and when I told her about it she got weird. She kept avoiding me and she was drinking too much again."
Lin snorted. "Oh no. She's got it bad then. If she's acting like an idiot that means she's serious about this. What about you, though?"
Nira sucked in a deep breath. "I… I think it's serious. But, spirits, am I being crazy? I haven't been serious about anyone in a long time, and honestly, Lin, I'm terrified. I didn't even think to ask what she wanted out of all this. Hell, she could still be in love with Yumae for all I know. I guess it's not too late for us to back out and save our friendship but… I don't know if I can go back to how it was before."
"Sounds like you two have a lot to talk about when she wakes up," Lin observed. She reached out to squeeze Nira's shoulder in a reassuring grip. "But if you want my opinion, I've known Kya for a long time, and she doesn't do passing flings as well as she pretends to. If you're serious about this, I don't doubt that she'll be a hundred percent on board. And don't worry about the other stuff. Follow your heart and all that nonsense."
Nira snorted. "Thanks, Lin."
"And if it goes well, please tell me all about it. I could use some good news."
"I'm sure Kya would be happy to blurt it out to everyone," Nira said fondly.
"She does like to show off," Lin concurred before rising slowly to her feet. It was more difficult that time; she was starting to feel the pain in her muscles from all the fighting. Her wrist was an angry red around the scar that had been left behind from nearly losing her hand, and it was throbbing. "I'd better be getting back to Tenzin. You'll keep me posted on Kya?"
"Of course," Nira agreed. "Give Yunjin my love."
"I will."
"Is it all right if Amali and I come by in the morning? I didn't want to bombard him so soon, so I figured we should wait a bit to intrude."
"Come by anytime," Lin insisted. "The room is cramped and miserable but he needs all the support he can get. You two certainly won't be in the way."
"We'll come over as soon as we can," Nira said, reaching her arm over to place a hand on Amali's back while the girl slept on. "They're waking Kya in about an hour, but she probably won't be awake long." She stretched her other arm up to squeeze Lin's hand. "You hang in there."
Lin simply nodded curtly and squeezed Nira's hand back gratefully. Then she took one last look at Kya, who had never looked so terrible in all the time that Lin had known her. Kya almost never got hurt or sick – when Lin was little she used to think Kya was invincible –, and seeing her like that was jarring.
Lin ducked out of the curtains surrounding Kya's bed and had to rub her eyes to try and erase the somber image from her mind. She staggered a few steps and then righted herself, shaking off the turmoil in a matter of seconds. She headed back towards Tenzin, but was intercepted before she could get there.
Jinora popped out of a nearby curtain and softly called, "Mrs. Beifong?"
Lin halted her footsteps and turned to face the teen, glad to see that Jinora wasn't in tears or looking too grave. "Hey, kid," Lin greeted. "How's your mom?"
"She's doing better," Jinora said with plain relief. "You were right about the internal bleeding. They had to do surgery, but they said they caught it in time. How is Master Tenzin?"
"The healer is looking after him now. He should be just fine."
Jinora fidgeted, opening her mouth but hesitating to say what was on her mind. Eventually she stammered, "My – my father said… Yunjin is… I was wondering… could – could I see him? Is he – do you think he would be okay with that?"
Lin didn't know what was going on with Yunjin and Jinora and their relationship troubles, but she knew the two kids cared a lot about each other. Yunjin had been asking about Jinora earlier, and there was no reason she could think of that he might object to seeing her. "Come by tomorrow whenever you can," she told Jinora "I'm sure he'll be glad to see you."
Jinora managed a very tiny smile as she murmured, "Thank you. I'll be there."
Lin nodded and the two of them parted ways.
She returned to Tenzin when he had yet to fully redress, and saw the full display of dark bruises and abrasions marring his skin. It looked even worse than she expected, probably because he had been trying so hard to pretend he was okay. She had known he was hurting more than he let on, but she hadn't realized just how much. She was having a hard enough time seeing him wounded as it was. It was usually her getting into scrapes and suffering the beatings. She wished she could have taken this one for him too. She wished a lot of things. If she had been at the temple for her family she would have accepted every punch to spare them. She would have gladly lost the use of her legs if it meant saving Yunjin from his current state. It was better if she took all that on anyways. She could handle all the physical pain in the world. The emotional stuff was what tore her apart at the seams. Watching her family suffer was worse than anything else.
When Lin stepped up next to him, Tenzin saw her staring grimly at his battered chest, and he reached out to grip her hand. She enclosed it in both of hers, pressing it to her chest and meeting his gaze. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it didn't quite reach his tired eyes. She wracked her brain for something to say, but she couldn't come up with anything worthwhile. What could she say that he didn't already know? He didn't say anything either, laying his head against her stomach, leaning against her while the healer finished tending to his wounds, and Lin released his hand so she could stroke the top of his head.
He was halfway asleep by the time the healer declared to be done, gruffly telling him to return the following afternoon before she left in a hurry. As Tenzin redressed he asked, "How are Kya and Bumi?"
Lin told him what she knew, leaving out the part about Kya and Nira apparently having slept together; she'd tell him that crazy story when she knew more and he wasn't on the verge of collapse. He seemed to relax just a bit once he knew his siblings were expected to recover, that guilt clearly still troubling him. On the way back to their room at the inn, he wondered about where they would all sleep, since the room only had two beds and there were at least eight of them. But while they were gone the rest of the family seemed to have figured it out themselves. Su had brought some cots from the airship that barely fit in the small space of the room, but allowed Su and Opal to stay with the family, and Ronen to have somewhere to sleep other than the floor. Sora was still curled up next to Yunjin on his bed, and that left the other bed open for Tenzin, Lin, and Jeia. Despite the stress and worry still weighing heavily on all of them, they were too tired to be kept awake by dark thoughts, and let exhaustion drag them under for several hours.
Two days later, it was time to leave Xiagu village behind.
Kya, Bumi, and Pema were released from the infirmary, and Korra and Yunjin were getting no better with the village's sparse resources. Su had called in extra airships from Zaofu to carry everyone in their separate directions. Su would be returning to Zaofu with Opal and the Metal Clan, but Opal would only be there for about a week. Then she would join the rest of the airbenders, who would be going to stay on Air Temple Island until Tenzin could sort out their next moves. Many of the airbenders would be stopping in to visit their own families on the way. Lin and Tenzin were taking Yunjin to the South Pole to see Katara, and Sora, Ronen, Jeia, Kya, Bumi, Nira, and Amali were coming along. Tonraq, too, thought that Korra should see Katara, so the pair of them would be joining Lin and her family. Asami and Bolin – and eventually Ronen, after some time spent with his family in the South Pole – were in charge of the airbenders, making sure they made it to their destinations and then to Republic City. Mako would be going straight back to the city to get back to work. Zaheer and the rest of the Red Lotus were being picked up by a horde of Republic City police officers, United Forces officers, and former Firelord Zuko with his own swarm of personal guards. A new prison was already being built for Zaheer, and the rest of the Red Lotus that had been captured would stand trial in Republic City.
However, there was one member of the Red Lotus that wasn't immediately handed over to the authorities, and while everyone was distracted dealing with Zaheer and getting statements from Tenzin and the airbenders, Su sidled up next to Lin and asked, "So what do we do with Zara?"
"What do you mean?" Lin said in confusion. "She'll stand trial with the rest of the Red Lotus."
"She's only sixteen," Su pointed out. "Practically a child still, but they'll charge her as an adult. She could be facing a lot of prison time."
"Well I guess she should have thought of that before she joined a cult," Lin muttered.
Su sighed. "Come on, Lin. She was clearly brainwashed from birth. But I've been talking to her the last two days, and from what Sora's told me I think –"
"Wait," Lin interrupted, turning a sharp look onto her sister. "You've been talking to her? You do know that she betrayed the Air Nation to impede them from escaping, which directly resulted in your daughter and your niece being held prisoner while your nephew was shot out of the sky by her mother, right?"
"I do know that, but I also know that she rescued Sora just before we arrived, and that it seemed like she was remorseful for what she had done. Sora seems to think that Zara didn't want to do what she did, but that she felt like she had to because her mother would have hated her otherwise. And every time I spoke with Zara I got the same feeling. She's a confused kid, not a hardened criminal."
"Or she's playing you like she played everyone else," Lin countered heatedly.
"Maybe," Su conceded, "but either way I think she needs guidance and a chance at a better life. If we send her off to prison she'll only become worse, and eventually she'll get out because there isn't enough to charge her with to keep her there for life, and who's to say she won't come after us then because we're the ones that put her away?"
"What else are we supposed to do?" Lin scoffed. "Let her go?"
"Not exactly. I was thinking I could bring her to Zaofu."
Lin balked. "Are you insane?!" she exclaimed.
"I'd keep her under guard, of course," Su defended. "She would be confined to her own space, a livable space, and I would only permit a select group of residents to go near her. There are quite a few people in Zaofu that know what it's like to grow up without parents, or to be raised by monstrous people. They might be able to connect with Zara and show her how to be a better person."
Lin shook her head, totally stunned. "You really are insane. This isn't some fairy tale, Su. You can't save everyone. Aside from my main concern, which is how this would affect Sora, think for a minute about what you'd be doing to yourself. What happens when that girl finds out you're the one that killed her mother? I'm guessing that didn't come up in one of your chats."
Su grimaced and shifted uncomfortably, looking away from Lin but still asserting, "That's just another reason that I need to do this. I took that girl's mother away from her."
"And P'Li crippled Yunjin," Lin snapped. "I think you're even. You don't need to feel guilty for these people."
"I don't feel bad about killing P'Li," Su admitted, "but I do feel bad that Zara never has and never will know her mother aside from whatever short amount of time they had together. Children can't be held accountable for the sins of their parents, but you know that's what'll happen to Zara when they put her in that court room. P'Li can't pay for her crimes so Zara will have to, even though we don't even have any proof that the girl has done anything except stop the airbenders from escaping."
"She's guilty by association," Lin argued. "She was plenty old enough to make her own decisions."
"Like I was?" Su countered. "I didn't rob that bank but I drove the car to help the criminals escape. I thought they were my friends. Zara thought these people were her family. She made a mistake, just like I did. Should she suffer just because her mother wasn't the chief of police?"
Lin blew out a harsh breath in frustration and pinched the bridge of her nose as if that would soothe the headache forming behind her eyes. "Su, she's going to kill you. The second she finds out you killed P'Li she's going to go on a rampage."
"She already knows it was one of us," Su reasoned. "And she hasn't even asked about it. If she wanted to know that badly she probably could have found out. I think she's too traumatized to be worried about revenge."
"For now maybe. Till she sits in Zaofu for a while held prisoner by her mother's killer."
"Well I'll just have to convince her not kill me," Su said without concern, and Lin could have pulled her own hair out.
"Okay fine. Say you somehow pull this off and the girl doesn't try to strangle you in your sleep. What about Sora? How is she supposed to feel comfortable visiting her aunt when your harboring the girl that broke her heart?"
"Sora is actually the one that came to me about this," Su admitted. "She didn't suggest I take Zara in exactly, but she was worried about the girl having to go to prison. Of course I will ask Sora what she thinks, but I came to you first. Zara would be confined to a separate section of Zaofu anyways. Somewhere Sora would never even have to go near."
"Obviously Sora still has feelings for Zara, but that doesn't mean we should be encouraging it. She needs to move on and heal. She can't do that with Zara right down the street from her aunt's house."
"I want to protect Sora too, but let's be honest, if anyone can make Zara a better person it's her."
"She shouldn't have to take that on."
"No, but I think she wants to," Su said softly. "Sora is kinder and more forgiving than any of us. There's just as much of a chance that she'll seek Zara out no matter where she ends up, whether it's a prison cell in Republic City or a place in Zaofu."
Lin didn't want to believe that Su was right, but her own reasoning was fighting against her. Sora was sweet and passionate, and if she thought there was a chance for Zara to be redeemed, she would probably try to help the girl. Which was precisely what Lin was afraid of.
Before they boarded their own airship, Pema, Anil, and the kids came by to visit Yunjin. Jinora and her family would be going back to Air Temple Island with Asami and the others until they figured out where they would settle. After their time spent at the Northern Air Temple, they were part of the Air Nation anyways, and Lin owed Pema a debt now for risking her life for Sora's. Jinora had been to visit Yunjin twice since arriving in the village, and once brought Ikki and Meelo along, but Pema had yet to see him since the whole ordeal at the temple. She had only been released from the infirmary that very morning, and was still half hunched over and looking weary as she shuffled into the room. But her color was returning and she managed a soft smile as she greeted everyone. Sora hugged her carefully and Lin gave a curt nod. Tenzin invited Pema and her family in with warm greetings.
Jinora's whole family crowded around Yunjin's bed, and the boy mustered up a tired smile for them. They wanted to know how Yunjin was doing and he lied and told them he was fine.
Ikki said, "I knew you'd be fine. See, Jinora, I told you he'd be fine."
Meelo told Yunjin, "You were awesome. Did I tell you that you were awesome yet? I wish I could fly like you."
"We wanted to see you before we left," Jinora said, reaching out to lay her hand over Yunjin's.
"We also have some news," Anil said brightly, glancing down at the baby in his arms. "We came up with a name for the little one."
"Oh?" Yunjin said with interest, smiling fondly at the baby and waving his fingers at her.
Pema was pressed against her husband's shoulder, gazing down at the infant with love, her finger trapped in the girl's tiny hand. She softly said, "Her name is Jiyun. Inspired by the boy that kept her safe."
Lin's breath caught in surprise.
"But we call her Ji-Ji," Ikki added excitedly.
Yunjin was stunned, eyes widening as he asked, "You – you named her Jiyun? For – for me?"
"We hope that's okay," Anil said. "We can't properly thank you, but we can make sure Ji-Ji here knows the sacrifice you made for us."
"We can't begin to know what you must be going through after all this," Pema went on in a carefully quiet tone, reaching out to lightly touch Yunjin's shoulder. "But know that I am forever grateful. My children are alive and well today because of your bravery and selflessness. You are a true Air Nomad, and –"
"And my hero!" Meelo interjected.
Yunjin looked embarrassed, where before Lin might have expected him to be pleased by such praise. "I'm no hero," he said. "I just did what I had to do." He cleared his throat and abruptly changed the subject. "But Ji-Ji is a good name for her. I like it."
Catching on, Pema patted his hand said, "Well we don't want to hold you up. I'm sure you're eager to get going and see your grandmother. We'll see you when you return to Republic City?"
Yunjin nodded mutely.
"Safe travels," Anil said in farewell, then waved baby Ji-Ji's little hand. "Say bye-bye, Ji-Ji."
Ikki and Meelo both hugged Yunjin, and he forced another smile for them. They followed their parents from the room, saying goodbye to Sora and waving at Lin and Tenzin. Jinora lingered by Yunjin, and Lin focused on Pema and Anil's exit to give the pair of them some privacy.
When Jinora and her family had gone, the room fell silent. It was Jeia that looked up at her mother with a frown and said, "Jiyun is a funny name."
"I think it's sweet," Sora mused. "It was nice of them to think of Yunjin."
"Mmm, very nice," Tenzin murmured absentmindedly, staring out the window at the family's retreating forms. Lin thought she could see a reflection of his frown, but she might have imagined it.
"Makes me feel like I died," Yunjin muttered.
Lin looked down at Jeia, the girl named for the Lieutenant that had died to save her, and then over at Yunjin, who had become so despondent over the last two days it was like he wasn't even there.
"Don't say that," Sora scolded. "That's not how they meant it."
Maybe it wasn't how they meant it, but it was where Lin's mind had gone too. It's what it would have been if the shot hadn't simply crippled him. And it was that intrusive understanding that would haunt her for months to come.
The South Pole was still just as frigid and uninviting as it had always been for Lin. Not for the first time she wished that Katara had not been born there, wished that Katara had never returned. But then again, maybe the South Pole wasn't to blame. Maybe if Lin and her family visited Katara more often, for reasons other than one of them being sick, injured, or missing a soul, it might be a more tolerable place. They used to see her more often when the kids were younger, but lately it had been more difficult. Lately Lin felt almost guilty for showing up on Katara's doorstep with another problem for her to solve instead of something positive.
But Katara was always there to help, a strong, dependable presence, even as she gazed upon her debilitated family with an aching sorrow in her eyes. Her only daughter, still looking unwell and using a crutch to hobble along on one leg while the rest of her body protested the movement. Her eldest son too fragile to be hugged without a wince, and who could not greet her with his usual raucous delight. Her youngest son not much better off, still half leaning on his wife for support and his face yellowed with healing bruises. Her eldest grandson with an unrecognizable face, attempting to smile at her with crooked features. And her youngest grandson, a boy grown and yet cradled in the arms of his mother, his face drawn and grim and his legs entirely useless. There was Korra too, the young Avatar looking worse than all of them, shadows so dark under her eyes that they looked like bruises, and her own father carried her because she could barely lift her own head in greeting.
They were a pitiful sight to behold, and they were ushered inside with hopes they all kept deep inside, for fear that voicing them would destroy them.
But even though Katara was a miracle worker, there were no miracles during the time they spent in the South Pole.
As far as Korra went, much of her healing progress would take time, and was hindered by the Avatar's own mental state. Only a few days after the ordeal and Korra was still traumatized by what she had endured at the hands of the Red Lotus. She had been plagued with nightmares and insomnia, and could seldom muster enough strength to rise from bed. She stayed with her parents, but visited Katara each day for physical therapy. She was struggling to walk the same as Yunjin, but had some capacity to make progress where he did not.
Yunjin's prognosis was hardly less dire than before. After an extensive healing session, Katara had called Lin and Tenzin back into the room to tell the three of them what she had determined.
Lin could tell from the moment she walked into the room that she wasn't going to hear good news. The look on Katara's face was too telling, too bleak. So Lin stood with her arms folded across her chest, as if to protect her heart from a physical blow, while Tenzin went to grip Yunjin's wrist in support.
"The damage was extensive," Katara said without preamble. "There are only two options that I can see. This isn't something that will simply heal with time, but to attempt to mend it comes at great risk. Although not ideal, it would be much safer to avoid any invasive procedures. I can help you learn how to get around more freely even without the use of your legs. In time it would become so natural to you that you would not face so many difficulties. You would be limited in some areas, but once you have recovered enough to be able to airbend again, I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to lead an equally fulfilling life as –"
Yunjin interrupted, "What's the second option?"
Katara paused for only a moment. "The other option is surgery. I know a renowned surgeon in the Fire Nation that has decades of experience in this area. With his efforts combined to mine, we could – in theory – repair some of the damage that's been done. You would likely not see one hundred percent improvement, and further procedures may be required. It would still take months of rehabilitation to regain use of your legs, and even then it would not be the same as before. Though you could possibly walk again, the risks are steep. We won't know exactly what we're dealing with until he's opened you up, and if anything were to go wrong you could face even worse damage."
"But you said this guy is good," Yunjin said.
"He is," Katara confirmed.
"Then I want the surgery," Yunjin decided.
"We should take some time to discuss it," Tenzin started to say.
But Yunjin insisted, "No. I don't need anymore time to think about it. It's my body and this is what I want."
"Son, I know that you are eager to go back to normal," Tenzin murmured carefully, "but think of the danger you're putting yourself in. There's no guarantee the surgery will work. It could make things worse."
"Things are already worse," Yunjin muttered, pulling his arm away from his father's hold. "I won't live like this. Not when there's a chance it could be fixed."
"Just take a few days to think on it," Tenzin urged. "There's no reason to rush into a decision –"
"That's easy for you to say," Yunjin scoffed. "You can still walk." He turned his attention back onto his grandmother. "When is the soonest I can have the surgery?"
"Probably a few weeks," Katara answered honestly. "I can reach out to him and see when he's available."
"I still don't think –" Tenzin spluttered.
"Well it's not your decision to make," Yunjin cut him off again. "Can you please leave? I don't feel like arguing with you right now and I can't exactly storm off." He gestured to his limp legs with unconcealed irritation.
Tenzin attempted to protest, but Lin stopped him with a sharp, "Tenzin. Come on." She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him towards the door, and he huffed his displeasure but stumbled after her.
When they were out in the hallway together, he yanked her to a stop and demanded, "Why didn't you back me up in there? I don't like the sound of this surgery. Shouldn't we be trying to protect him from further pain?"
"We already failed him," Lin said tiredly. "What difference does it make? The only thing we can do now is support him, no matter how this plays out." And all she could do was hope that it would be enough.
Chapter 85: Chapter 85
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 85
In the weeks leading up to Yunjin's surgery, the atmosphere around Air Temple Island was generally tense.
After a week spent in the South Pole, Lin and her family had returned home, hoping to find some comfort together back on familiar ground. But along with returning home meant returning to reality. In the wake of the Red Lotus, more than just Lin's family was in disarray, and with Korra's absence, the world was certainly not going to repair itself on its own. The murder of the Earth Queen – vile woman though she was – had turned the Earth Kingdom to chaos. Other world leaders convened and discussed ways to repair it, but with nations of their own to consider and the vast expanse of Earth Kingdom in a state of total anarchy, they were hard pressed to find a solution. President Raiko was reaching out to Tenzin, and even Firelord Izumi was requesting a meeting with Lin and Tenzin the moment they arrived in the Fire Nation for their son's surgery.
Lin was incensed by their audacity to bother her and her family at all, but Tenzin seemed to find purpose in their need of him. It stopped him from worrying about his children for a few hours each day, and gave him something to focus on. Lin was no stranger to avoiding her problems, but she used to be able to go to work and take her frustrations out on criminals. Now that such an option was no longer available to her, she was lacking an outlet, and her emotions were left to fester deep inside. While Tenzin busied himself with the Air Nation – still stuffed into the Island's now overpopulated dormitories and currently at a standstill – and the never ending stream of consultations with world leaders, Lin was trying to hold everything together at home.
But there was a reason Tenzin had been the stay at home parent when the kids were young. He was better at all the emotions and the comfort. He knew best how to soothe them, the right words to make them feel better. Lin had learned a lot over the years, but she still fumbled through half blind. Sora was crying a lot, most of the time for seemingly no reason at all, and it seemed like there was nothing Lin could do or say to help. Cracking jokes didn't work, trying to go on some reassuring spiel didn't work, and cooking Sora's favorite meal for dinner and buying her some of those weird chocolates that she liked definitely didn't work. That last one had only made Sora cry harder and Lin was at a complete loss.
Lin tried enlisting Yunjin's help, hoping he would have some insight into his twin that Lin couldn't see, but he was just as bewildered as she was. Or maybe he was refusing to help, Lin couldn't be totally certain these days. The loss of his ability to walk had intensified Yunjin's rage and negativity to a whole new level. He was snapping at everyone, he never wanted to do anything, and what few words he said were generally morose and pessimistic. He just laid in his bed all day, barely taking meals, rebuffing anyone's efforts to get him outside or at least down the hall to the living room. Lin had at first attempted to be careful with him, because she couldn't understand what he was going through and she didn't want to push him. But after a month of watching him deteriorate in every sense of the word, she had become fed up and picked him up and carried him outside. Her intent had been to get him out into the sunlight and fresh air, to show him that the world was not as bleak as he seemed to think it was, but she had only made it worse. In hindsight, she should have known that forcibly taking him anywhere was bound to backfire – he hated being carried anywhere, and would struggle for thirty minutes to put himself in his wheelchair rather than ask for help – but she was desperate. She just wanted her kids to be semi normal again. She wanted them to be happy.
Jeia and Ronen were mostly the same, but Jeia didn't like all the tension and did her best to avoid most of the family, slipping away anytime she sensed the mood going south. She had taken to sparring with the new airbenders, putting them through her own drills that had, at first, had Tenzin and Lin both worried. But apparently the airbenders liked the challenge, and Jeia had enough mastery of metalbending already to keep from accidentally hurting one of them. Nira was usually around too, because she had taken a larger role in training the airbenders in an effort to help out Tenzin and the twins. Since Yunjin refused to be involved at all and Sora could only occasionally manage it without a breakdown, Tenzin was having a hard time keeping up with all his other responsibilities. Ronen tried to help now and then too, but he was just as stretched thin as his father. When he wasn't helping Asami with Future Industries, he was doing his best to help out around the house. He was more patient than his mother, and therefore could sometimes handle Jin and Sora's mood swings better. He didn't always succeed but he could tell that he was needed and wanted to be around as often as possible.
Altogether it was a shit show, and Lin wasn't certain that the surgery was going to help matters. If Yunjin woke up the same as before or somehow worse, she didn't think there was anything any of them could do to reassure him. He was already making stipulations about who could come along to the Fire Nation. He didn't want anyone other than his parents to go with him, and he hardly seemed to even want them there, but knew he couldn't get there without them. Ronen and Jeia were accepting of their brother's decision, but Sora was devastated and took it as a personal slight. Lin was fairly shocked on Sora's behalf, considering how close the twins were. But Sora had also been so emotional of late, even more so than usual, that Lin could understand why Yunjin wouldn't want her there if the surgery went poorly. She wasn't sure if he was trying to spare Sora's feelings or his own.
Jinora had also been somewhat upset by Yunjin's decision not to have her there, but she was less hurt, or perhaps better at hiding it. Jinora's family had been giving Yunjin space, despite all of them being in such close proximity of late. Pema seemed to be aware that the boy didn't want to be surrounded by people in his current state, and kept her two middle children at bay. Anil acted half oblivious, all cheerful smiles when he ran into Lin and the rest of them, telling Yunjin he'd be "right as rain in no time." Lin wasn't sure if he was stupid or just trying to be optimistic. Jinora came by fairly regularly though, and she was one of the few people Yunjin bothered to put up with. As far as Lin was aware, he was usually much more civil with the girl too, didn't snap at her the way he did everyone else. Jinora usually came with an armful of books, which often ended with Yunjin dozing off next to her while she read aloud. Lin figured the two of them must have sorted out their relationship problems because they seemed almost as attached at the hip as before. Yunjin even seemed to be on okay terms with Kai, who came around to visit on occasion too, mostly to see Sora but sometimes to check in on Yunjin and well. But even though Yunjin seemed to prefer Jinora's presence over most other people, he still didn't want her coming to the Fire Nation with him. Lin had a feeling he was setting himself up for inevitable disappointment and didn't want anyone there to witness it.
On the day the three of them were set to leave, Lin, Tenzin, and Yunjin were seen off by the whole family and several others.
Kya and Bumi had been around the past few weeks trying to cheer Yunjin up on occasion, but they were still recovering from their own injuries, and being that they were both in their late fifties, neither one of them had much energy to be their usual amusing selves. They both came to see their nephew off though, cracking jokes to try and lighten the uneasy mood. Nira and Amali were right by Kya's side as per usual. Amali was one of the others Yunjin never raised his voice at, and whatever she whispered to him as they were saying their goodbyes made him smile just a little. Nira kissed him on the forehead and murmured, "Good luck, sweetheart. We'll all be here when you get back."
"Probably in this exact spot," Kya added, "waiting to smother you with love."
"And you'd better not try to avoid it," Bumi warned. "Don't think we won't go the whole way to the Fire Nation to smother you there."
Sora was better composed when she approached her brother, squeezing his shoulder and quietly asking, "Are you sure I can't come with you? I promise I won't be an emotional wreck."
"I just don't want everyone making a fuss," Yunjin said. "And you know you can't hide your feelings from me. I want to figure this out on my own, without anyone telling me how I should feel."
"I wouldn't –" Sora started to say, but she sighed and stopped. "Okay. Well, I'm here, you know?"
Yunjin nodded. "I know."
Jinora approached him last, taking his hand and telling him, "While you're in the Fire Nation, make sure you get plenty of fire flakes." That was Yunjin's favorite snack; he was always saying the fire flakes in Republic City were never as good as they were in the Fire Nation. "I'll wait to finish our book until you get back, so don't be gone too long."
Yunjin kissed the back of her hand and replied, "I know you've already read ahead, but I'll be back in plenty of time for you to tell me all about it."
"I only skimmed a few parts!" Jinora defended, cheeks turning a little pink as she smiled guiltily at being found out. "I promise I won't read the ending without you."
"I bet you twenty yuans that you can't wait two days to read it," Yunjin teased.
Jinora shook her head. "Nope. I made you a promise. I can wait."
"Sure you can," Yunjin humored her, tugging on her hand so she would lean down to kiss him.
Ronen sidled up next to his mother and said in a low tone, "Don't worry about anything here. I'll take care of everything while you're gone."
"Keep a close eye on your sisters for me," Lin replied, frowning as she looked upon her two daughters. Even though Jeia didn't really want to be there for the surgery, she wasn't happy about her parents leaving her behind, and was standing apart from the group with her arms folded across her chest and a sullen scowl.
"They'll be fine," Ronen assured. "It's Yunjin I'm worried about."
Lin sighed. "Yeah, me too."
With the goodbyes finished, Lin, Tenzin, and Yunjin climbed aboard Oogi and took off. The long trip to the Fire Nation was mostly silent, and it was a relief when they finally landed. When he had heard from Katara that they would be coming to the capital, Zuko had requested they stay at the palace, but Yunjin had refused, telling his parents he didn't want to have to socialize while he was trying to prepare for and recover from surgery. Lin couldn't really argue that, and so she had booked a room at an inn farther on the outskirts of the city. That's where she and Tenzin took Yunjin first, and the three of them rested there for a few hours before they were due to meet the surgeon, Zhiyu. Katara was already in the capital, visiting Zuko before she would meet Yunjin and the others at the pre-operative consultation.
Lin, Tenzin, and Yunjin had only just begun to settle into their room at the inn when they were interrupted by a knock on the door. The three of them all looked at each other with frowns and confusion.
"Could that be my mother already?" Tenzin wondered aloud as he strode over to the door and pulled it open. When he saw that Katara was not standing in the doorway, he said in surprise, "President Raiko? What are you doing here?"
"My apologies for intruding," Raiko said uniformly, without any real inflection of regret. "I was in the capital and heard that you were here. I was hoping I could speak to you."
Lin stormed over to the door and said over Tenzin's shoulder, "This isn't a good time. You can talk to him when we get back to Republic City."
"I'm afraid it's a matter of some urgency," Raiko replied. "The state of the world is –"
"Not our problem," Lin interrupted. "Why don't you do your job instead of coming to us to clean up your mess –"
"Lin," Tenzin cut her off, giving her a beseeching look. "I can hear what he has to say. We aren't due to meet my mother for a few hours. I'll be back very soon."
Lin snorted. "No way. He can tell us right here. I won't have him trying to back you into a corner while I'm not around."
Tenzin pursed his lips in annoyance, and then opened his mouth to respond, but Raiko was faster.
"By all means," the president said. "This pertains to you as well. Might I come in and we can sit down for a moment?"
Lin shook her head, thinking of Yunjin sitting crippled and morose in the bed behind her. "We can stand outside."
"It's all right," Yunjin said from across the room in exasperation. "Just let him in."
Tenzin stepped back to allow Raiko in, forcing Lin to take a step back as well with an undisguised scowl.
"President Raiko," Yunjin greeted in a forcibly cordial tone. "You'll forgive me if I don't stand."
Yunjin gestured to his legs, and Raiko inclined his head in understanding. "That's quite all right. I've heard stories of the heroics you displayed in fighting the Red Lotus. I wish you a full and speedy recovery."
"What's this all about then?" Lin demanded. "What was so important you had to track us here?"
"The Earth Kingdom, for one," Raiko answered, his own irritation for Lin seeping into his tone. "The Red Lotus for another. I assume your husband has told you that he and I have been in talks of late, about what to do while the Avatar is absent and the world is more dangerous than ever?"
"He has," Lin confirmed, folding her arms across her chest. "He's already given you the Air Nation. What else do you want?"
"Wait, you did what?" Yunjin interjected.
"I haven't given him the Air Nation," Tenzin defended. "I simply stated that I believe the new Air Nation should return to its nomadic roots. But rather than remain reclusive, we would dedicate ourselves to bringing peace and balance to the world. I'm hopeful that it will help to fill the void while Korra recovers, and it gives the Air Nation a meaningful purpose."
While Yunjin mulled that over with a furrowed brow, Raiko said, "And all of us are more than appreciative for that. I think it will serve us well. But the Earth Kingdom is in need of a leader. It has spiraled out of control in the months since the Queen was murdered, and no amount of influence from random parties is going to be able to string it back together. I was just visiting Firelord Izumi to discuss the matter, and she and I agree that what the Earth Kingdom needs is someone who can unite the many provinces and lead with a firm and just hand. We have decided to ask Suyin Beifong to be that leader."
Lin choked out a laugh. "I'm sorry. What did you just say?"
"Several other world leaders agree," Raiko continued, unfazed. "You yourself have told me the pivotal role Suyin played in taking down Zaheer and the others. And the success of Zaofu is a great indicator of her leadership qualities. The celebrity name doesn't hurt either."
"So what?" Lin scoffed. "You want Su to just become Queen of the Earth Kingdom? Like it's no big deal?"
"Not queen, exactly," Raiko said. "We would appoint her as the nation's provisional leader until such a time that order has been restored, and then we will decide on a successor."
"This is insane," Lin started to say.
But Tenzin did not seem to be on the same page, stroking his beard and remarking, "Actually, I think it's a good idea."
"You do?" Lin exclaimed.
"Su is a good leader," Tenzin explained. "She and Bataar have done incredible things by building Zaofu and uniting so many different people. I don't see why she would not be able to do the same with the rest of the Earth Kingdom. She is not power hungry and she would be a just ruler. I can think of no better person."
"I don't think you and I are thinking of the same Su," Lin rebuffed. "Yeah, she's done a good job with Zaofu, but it's a small place, not a whole damn nation. And there's more to being a leader than just unity. There's going to be a lot of opposition too, people that are happy to finally be free of the Queen, people that don't want another self-appointed leader taking over. The people of Zaofu generally came to Su of their own volition. The entirety of the Earth Kingdom isn't going to drop to their knees and listen to Su."
"It will certainly be a challenge," Tenzin conceded, "but Su is smart, and patient. There's no harm in asking her to step in. She can at least try."
"That's why I came to you as soon as I heard you were in the area," Raiko told Tenzin. "My next stop will be Zaofu. I was hoping you might come with me. I know Suyin will be more receptive if you're there."
"I'm afraid I don't know when I'll be available to leave," Tenzin admitted, glancing back at Yunjin, who was watching the whole thing in quiet contemplation.
"Well how about you let me know?" Raiko offered. "I'll be here on business a few more days, and the trip to Zaofu wouldn't be a long one. You could likely be there and back in a single day. I'll leave my information on where I'm staying with you. Get back to me when you can."
Raiko left after scribbling down the information. Tenzin walked him to the door and Lin said nothing else until Raiko was gone.
"I can't believe you're siding with that idiot," she accused her husband.
Tenzin seemed just as frustrated, but for different reason. "It was nice of you to proclaim that I can't make a wise decision without you there to advise me."
Lin made a face. "What are you even talking about?"
"Your insinuation that Raiko is capable of coercing me into making poor decisions."
"Oh come on," Lin scoffed. "You know that's not what I meant."
"That's how it sounds to men like him," Tenzin argued. "Tarrlok always ridiculed me for being on your leash, and when you act like that in front of world leaders it's difficult for me to be taken seriously."
"I'm not going to be silent just because tiny men like Tarrlok and Raiko have a problem with me speaking my mind."
"I'm not asking you to be quiet," Tenzin countered. "I never have. I just wish you would wait to argue with me until we're alone. I know you don't like him, but it's important to keep people like Raiko on our side."
"Why? What have world leaders ever done for us? We solve half of Raiko's problems for him and he still barges in here with an attitude. Meanwhile, you're putting a target on my sister's back."
"Su has had a target on her back since birth," Tenzin pointed out. "And I think she's proven she can take care of herself."
"Then let Raiko ask her but don't involve yourself. She won't listen to that dunce and we have other worries –"
Yunjin cleared his throat, and Lin and Tenzin both turned to him in realization.
Tenzin was immediately apologetic, hurrying over to Yunjin's side and saying, "I'm sorry, son. We should be focusing on you."
Yunjin shook his head. "No. I think you should go."
"What?" Tenzin asked in confusion.
"To Zaofu," Yunjin clarified. "With Raiko. I don't know if Aunt Su is the right person to bring the Earth Kingdom back together, but you're right that she's got the potential. You should go and talk to her when Raiko does. I'll probably just be lying in a hospital bed anyways. It isn't going to affect me if you're gone for a day."
"Oh," Tenzin said, trying to hide the disappointment that Lin could see he was feeling. It was most difficult for Yunjin to endure his current situation, but it was hard on the rest of the family too. They all just wanted to help him but they didn't know how, and it was especially trying when he pushed them all away. "I want to be here though. For you."
"I don't need you to though," Yunjin insisted. "I'm fine. What I'm more concerned about is this idea to use the airbenders as a peace brigade. Doesn't that go against everything the Air Nation stands for?"
"Not if it's done properly," Tenzin assured. "This would not be an expedition to alter people's viewpoints to ours, simply to broker peace."
"And you think the airbenders are ready for that?"
"Some of them, yes. I had also hoped that you and Sora would help lead them. I did say that I intended to recognize you as masters, and you've both proven yourselves capable. I've only been waiting to initiate the ceremony until you had recovered."
Uncharacteristically, Yunjin did not look pleased. "I haven't proved anything. You're right to give Sora her tattoos, but I haven't earned them yet. I can't even airbend right now."
"But that's only temporary," Tenzin dismissed. "You showed true courage and competency during the Red Lotus siege –"
"All I did was get shot down," Yunjin argued, and he looked truly angry, his fists clenching. "I was just scared. I didn't know what I was doing. I wasn't thinking about doing the right thing or the smart thing. I'm sick of everyone telling me I was brave and I was a hero because I'm not. Two days before I did that I got Korra and her friends captured and Ronen's face torn open. Just because I maybe did one good thing doesn't mean I wasn't an idiot all the other times."
"I told you that's not your fault," Lin cut in firmly. "Korra and her friends might have run off from Zaofu even without your help. And Ming-Hua cut Ronen's face open. We don't expect you to make every right decision. You think your Dad and I know what the hell we're doing? You think we've made good decisions ever since we became masters? We've probably screwed up a thousand more times than you. You deserve to be a master because you try, because you care, and because you're a damn good airbender, and you will be again, whether you can walk or not."
"Well I don't want my tattoos," Yunjin stubbornly stated. "And I don't want a ceremony. I can't lead anyone, not how I am right now. I just want to get through this surgery."
"All right," Tenzin said softly, reaching out to place a calming hand on Yunjin's shoulder. "We won't talk about it anymore until you're ready. Let's just focus on these next few days."
Yunjin nodded and said no more, but his anger was still there, and his anger would remain.
Lin and Tenzin sat and paced for hours while Yunjin was in surgery. When Katara and Zhiyu finally came out, their faces were impassive, and all they could say was, "We'll know more in a few days."
Yunjin was mostly unresponsive for the first twenty-four hours, heavily sedated and in and out of consciousness. When he woke fully, he was in agony. The surgery had been a success in that he had regained some feeling he had lost from the incident, but now that he could feel, the pain was no longer numbed. Lin had seen her children suffer before, but never in the way that Yunjin suffered in those long, torturous hours. He was given medication but there was only so much it could do, and Zhiyu was hesitant to give him too much, and so Yunjin was in a near constant state of pain. He writhed and screamed, and Lin had never felt more useless, holding his hand so that he could squeeze hers in a bone breaking grip, wiping the sweat from his brow with a cold wash cloth. Tenzin did the fretting, asking the surgeon if it was normal, asking if there was anything they could do, asking how long it would go on.
By the third day, Yunjin went in for another surgery, and when he woke that time, the pain had lessened to a more tolerable degree. He was still weary and uncomfortable, and plainly miserable, but he was more like himself. On the fourth day, he insisted that his father go with Raiko to Zaofu to talk to Su. Lin still wasn't entirely onboard with the whole idea, but her concern was with Yunjin, not the state of the Earth Kingdom. She could tell that Tenzin didn't want to leave, but eventually he did. He was gone for most of the day, and by the time he returned Yunjin was asleep. Lin was half asleep next to his bed, but forced herself to sit up and ask how it had gone.
"Su refused," Tenzin revealed in a whisper, sliding down into the chair next to Lin with a heavy sigh. "She feels as you do, that she would be seen as a conqueror and greeted with war. Kuvira was there too. She was very vocal in her disagreement with Su. Kuvira wants to bring Zaofu's progressive ways to the rest of the nation. Su wants to avoid conflict. It seems to have caused quite a rift between them."
"Kuvira is a foolish child," Lin muttered tiredly, slumping back down into her chair, gaze drifting over to where Yunjin slept fitfully. "She wants to play at war, but she knows nothing of the consequences."
But Lin was relieved that her sister had turned the offer down, that she would not have to worry about Su throwing herself into harms way. With any luck, someone else would take over, and perhaps her family would avoid the Earth Kingdom conflict altogether.
Yunjin spent another week in the Fire Nation before the surgeon suggested he return home. As far as Zhiyu and Katara could tell, the surgery had been mostly a success. The only challenge now would be, as Zhiyu had put it, "aggressive physical therapy and rehabilitation." It would take at least six months for Yunjin to see the results he wanted, and the boy would face further setbacks along the way. It was likely he would experience muscle weakness below the waist where he had been shot, along with chronic pain and spasms. Zhiyu had set Yunjin up with a specialist in Republic City, so that he could focus on his recovery at home, and not have to travel to and from the Fire Nation or the South Pole. Katara needed to return home to continue Korra's own rehabilitation, and Zhiyu believed that Yunjin would recover better surrounded by friends and family rather than confined to the Fire Nation for several months. Zhiyu would check in on Yunjin's progress, and make house visits if necessary, but they would know more in a year's time, depending on how well Yunjin was doing. The fact that recovery was a possibility gave Yunjin enough hope to throw himself into physical therapy with renewed conviction.
That lasted for all of two months.
For weeks Yunjin worked hard to regain strength and stability in his legs, pushing himself harder and harder, enduring every bit of pain and all the setbacks with a fairly positive attitude. He was still impatient and easily annoyed, but he was so determined to succeed that he had cast aside some of his negativity. He even started going outside and interacting with the family more. He was still adamantly refusing to be named a master and he generally avoided the airbenders, but he wasn't snapping at everyone like before so Lin considered that progress.
Except Yunjin wasn't seeing the progress that he wanted, and after months of barely being able to stand on his own for longer than a few minutes, he began to regress again. He was disappointed by his continued struggles to walk, and woke most nights in unbearable pain. He still hadn't been able to airbend, which his physical therapist said was being blocked by his own negative energy, and Yunjin had always prided himself in his ability to airbend above all else. To be without it for so long, and to be forced into a sedentary state, having to rely on others when he had always been so independent before, was taking a toll on his mental state. He began to withdraw, this time from everyone, too weary to even become angry with them. Instead he would stare blankly as he mumbled an indifferent response, or ignored them altogether. He barely ate, and spent most of his time sleeping, often refusing to even go to physical therapy, and because Lin and Tenzin didn't want to make things worse by forcing him into anything, they relented to a lot of his demands. But the boy was slipping away from them more and more everyday, retreating to a place so far inside his mind they could not reach him.
And in the midst of all that, Su arrived on Air Temple Island with more grim news and her own devastation. She hadn't called ahead to say she was coming, so when an acolyte came to the house to tell Lin and Tenzin that a Metal Clan airship was approaching, they had both been a little surprised. They weren't concerned though, because they assumed Su was simply visiting to check in on Yunjin and the rest of the family. She had only been to see them once since the Red Lotus conflict ended, and she was long overdue for another visit.
They hadn't expected her to enter the house with sorrow on her face, and to slump down onto the couch and reveal, "Kuvira and Bataar Jr are gone. They left Zaofu two days ago, along with Varrick, most of my security force, and several wealthy citizens. They intend to stabilize the Earth Kingdom on their own, using my airships. My own son... he betrayed me. And Kuvira, after everything I did for her. I took her in as one of my own. But they both just… left."
"Oh Su," Tenzin said sympathetically, sitting down next to her on the sofa and clasping her shoulder. "I'm so sorry."
Lin dropped down on Su's other side and offered, "You want me to go track Kuvira down and beat her up?"
Su snorted even as tears shone in her eyes. "I know you're just itching to say 'I told you so.'"
"Nah," Lin refuted. "I never liked Kuvira but I didn't expect this. I thought she had more respect for you at least."
"So did I," Su sighed. "Bataar is devastated. I tried to bring him along but he's just been hiding away in his workshop. Wei and Wing wanted to come, to see Yunjin, but I thought they should stay with their father. I probably shouldn't stay long, but I... I needed to get away." She shook her head and abruptly changed the subject. "How is Yunjin by the way? You said he was doing better, right?" Lin and Tenzin exchanged a despondent look, and Su's shoulders slumped further. "Oh no… What now?"
"Well, he's been… backtracking lately," Tenzin said slowly. "But I'm sure it's only a temporary setback. He'll pull through."
Lin didn't agree so she kept her mouth shut.
Su noticed her sister's silence and fearfully asked, "Is it that bad?"
"Go see for yourself," Lin muttered, gesturing down the hallway to where Yunjin's room was.
"I'm not sure I can take more heartbreak today," Su said sadly, even as she rose to her feet.
Tenzin hastily jumped up with her, concern on his features. "I don't know that he'll want a visitor –"
"He never wants visitors," Lin interjected, standing slowly. "I doubt Su will make it worse."
"Let me at least tell him first," Tenzin insisted, rushing on ahead.
Lin huffed in exasperation and glanced over at Su, who just looked worried. Lin couldn't stand all the sympathetic and piteous looks she kept getting lately, so she turned away from her sister and strode down the hall after Tenzin.
Su followed close behind, and the two sisters entered Yunjin's room just as Tenzin was saying to the boy, "I know you're tired, but your Aunt Su came all this way…"
Su's entire countenance changed the second she stepped into Yunjin's room, all her hurt and sorrow over Kuvira and Junior being pushed down inside, all her concerns about Yunjin seemingly nonexistent. She floated into the room acting half cheerful, going right over to Yunjin's bedside and perching there next to him as if it was entirely normal. "I'm so sorry to bother you, darling," Su told him, taking his hand and rubbing it between both of hers. "Your hands are so cold. Are you warm enough in here? I won't stay long – I'm sure you need your rest – but I wanted to check in. Has your mother been helping you with your hair? I can braid it for you later if you'd like." Yunjin just looked bewildered as Su reached up and gently stroked his matted hair. "Will I see you at dinner?"
Lin had a brief, sharp flashback that stabbed right through her and ripped the air out of her lungs. Suddenly she wasn't looking at Yunjin, lying there unkempt and despondent. Suddenly she was looking at herself, fourteen years prior, mere weeks after Yunjin had been born, curled up in bed in the South Pole, refusing to take meals or to get up or to do anything, and Su standing over her all soft and fake oblivious asking, "will you join me at dinner?"
It didn't work on Yunjin the way it had worked on his mother. He shook his head and replied, "I'm not hungry, but maybe I'll come talk to you later."
"Well, if you're sure," Su relented. "But I think you still owe me a game of Pai Sho. You're not getting out of it that easily. I intend to win my money back."
Yunjin was not enticed by the challenge. "Maybe later," he said. "I didn't get much sleep last night."
"Okay, well…" Su seemed at a loss. "I'll let you sleep then." She stood up a little unsteadily. "I'll be up late tonight, can't sleep much either, so if you're looking for a midnight game I'm your gal."
Yunjin just nodded and pulled the blankets up to his chin.
"Would you like any tea?" Tenzin asked Yunjin softly. "I'm about to make some –"
"No," Yunjin mumbled, rolling over so his back was facing them all. "I'm just gonna sleep for a little while."
"All right," Tenzin murmured dejectedly, patting Yunjin carefully on the shoulder. "Rest well, son."
The three adults retreated from the room, and as soon as they made it to the living room, Su dropped her whole façade and look at her sister and brother-in-law in shock. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? That's not Yunjin in there at all."
"We had hoped it would get better," Tenzin admitted wearily. "He was a bit like this right after, when we first came home from the South Pole, and he improved so much once he had the surgery. We thought it would be like that again. But it's been over five months since the incident and he hasn't seen much improvement, and it's as if he's given up."
"How long has he been like this?" Su questioned warily.
Lin shrugged. "At least a month, maybe two. It was slow at first, didn't really notice he was getting worse till it was too late. No one can get through to him. Not even Sora. And he broke up with Jinora about a week ago. Girl came running out of his room crying, couldn't even speak a coherent sentence. We asked him about it and he just said it was for the best. Whatever that means. He's cut everyone off. Sometimes he'll eat if Jeia goes in there and bullies him around, but she doesn't like seeing him like that and I'm not gonna ask a five year old to take care of him."
Su nodded in understanding, still looking distressed. "I feel like such a jerk coming in here complaining because my grown son left me while you're all dealing with this."
"Don't be ridiculous," Tenzin said kindly. "We're always here for you. You're dealing with your own troubles. You have every right to be upset about Junior and Kuvira. I wish there was someway that we could help."
Su waved a dismissive hand. "Maybe later. Right now we need to get Yunjin back to himself."
"It isn't going to be that simple," Lin warned. "All of us smothering him is just making it worse. We already tried that with Kya and Bumi and Nira. He chased all of them away too."
"Well Beifongs can be difficult to manage," Su pointed out. "Luckily, I have years of experience with the most stubborn of them."
"I appreciate you wanting to help," Lin said with a wince, "but I don't think it's a good idea for you to focus on this. No offense, but you're already upset, and I don't want you getting your hopes crushed when he rejects you like he does the rest of us."
"I can handle it," Su asserted. "I know better than to take it personally."
"Doesn't your husband need you?" Lin pointed out.
"Maybe I can have Bataar come here," Su started, but even as she said it she seemed to realize it was probably the wrong idea. "And the boys… maybe Wei can get through to Yunjin. Maybe…" She trailed off helplessly, shoulders slumping.
"It's okay," Lin said softly, reaching out to squeeze her sister's shoulder. "You don't have to solve everyone's problems. I'll take care of things here. Focus on your family –"
"You are all my family too," Su protested.
"I know, and we're here if you need us, but I think there's somewhere else you need to be right now."
Su sighed. "You're probably right. But I'm staying tonight and I'll be back in a week or so, and you really need to keep me better updated on all this, and –"
"All right," Lin interjected, before Su could run out of breath. "That's fine."
"Why don't we go get some tea?" Tenzin suggested, as if it might heal their wounded hearts, and Lin and Su nodded along as if they hoped it would.
But until their families were whole, it would take something much stronger to numb the pain, which is why, about three weeks later, Lin made the unwise decision to go into the city with Bumi.
Yunjin had not improved in the slightest. Not when Tenzin brought home a renowned therapist to try and talk to the boy. Not when Ronen and Asami built an elaborate wheelchair for him that would help him become more self-sufficient until he was fully able to walk again. Not when Sora sat with her twin every single day, silent or chattering incessantly or whatever new idea she had for the day to try and coax him into action. Through it all Yunjin did not budge. Jeia refused to go in his room any longer, and even Sora started to struggle, hesitating outside his bedroom door longer and longer each day.
Tenzin was so distressed he was making himself ill, no matter how much he tried to throw himself into saving the world. He spent so much of his time training airbenders, or sending them off on missions to help those in need, particularly people of the Earth Kingdom that were tormented by bandits. Somewhat surprisingly, Kuvira and Bataar Jr had managed to stabilize Ba Sing Se, and in turn the rest of the world leaders had appointed Kuvira as the nation's provisional leader. But there was still a lot of the Earth Kingdom left to unite, and Tenzin had a lot of meetings with President Raiko on the matter, as well as several issues in Republic City that Raiko wanted Tenzin's opinion on. But even with all those distractions, Tenzin was tormented by his concerns for his son, and the toll it was taking on him was beginning to show. Even Raiko had looked at Tenzin's pale, drawn face one day and told the master airbender to go home and rest. But Tenzin couldn't rest, and he was sick to his stomach more often than Lin had ever seen him be in the entire half century that she had known him.
Yunjin's state was hurting him and everyone else, and even though Lin knew it wasn't entirely his fault, knew that he had been through a terrible ordeal and he had every right to be distressed, she inevitably became angry. Because aside from her postpartum complications all those years ago, that was what Lin did when she was upset and uncertain. That's what Yunjin used to do. He used to rage and snap, and Lin could handle those outbursts. She could handle him screaming in her face or refusing to speak to her or throwing things across the room. At least in that instance he was showing some emotion, even if it was just to hide the deeper feelings he didn't want anyone to see. This silence was something new, something unbearable. It was plain that he had given up, and in so doing he had given up on all of them too, his whole family. Or at least, that's how it felt to Lin every time she heard Tenzin crying in the bathroom, or caught Sora chewing on her nails till they bled, or saw Jeia running past Yunjin's room with her face averted like she was afraid she'd catch the plague.
So Lin snapped.
She had gone to Yunjin's room like any other day, not particularly riled yet, but tense already because he hadn't eaten in two days. When she walked up to his bed, she sat a bowl of soup on his bedside table, and reached out to gently nudge his shoulder. He was turned on his side, back facing her, and didn't react to her entrance or her nudging. She wrinkled her nose at the smell but she was almost used to it at that point. Getting him into a bath was even harder than getting him to eat. His hair was so tangled and knotted, despite all of Sora's efforts, that it would likely need shaved before it would ever be untangled.
"Come on, kid," Lin coaxed. "Time to eat." Yunjin didn't answer, so she shook him a little more. "Come on. I know you're awake."
"'M not hungry," he mumbled.
"I know, but you need to eat anyway," Lin asserted. Sora and Tenzin had already tried it the nice way and it hadn't worked this time. "Sit up."
"Not now," Yunjin said hoarsely.
"Yes, now," Lin countered.
Yunjin said nothing, and Lin's jaw clenched.
"I'm serious, Yunjin."
Still silence.
"Let's not do this the hard way."
Yunjin didn't move. Lin's eye twitched.
"Fine," she said. "We'll do it the hard way then."
Lin grabbed Yunjin's bicep and tucked her other hand under his jutting ribs and started to haul him up. At first he just remained limp, letting her lift him into a seated position. But the second she let go of him he slumped back down and pulled the blanket up over his face. Lin snatched the blanket from him and yanked it away, and started to pull him back up. Then he reacted, flailing his arm and accidentally – or maybe purposefully – elbowing her in the side of the head. She dropped him and reeled back on instinct, her ears ringing but the pain not so much intense as it was a shock to her system. And Yunjin just curled back up into a ball without a word.
Lin blew out a breath to try and calm herself but her face was hot and she could already tell she was fighting a losing battle. "So that's how it's going to be?" she snapped at him. "You're just gonna lay here and mope? I know you were given a raw deal, kid, but you survived. You're stronger than this. Don't let it –"
She stopped abruptly when she heard him muttering something, and it took a second for it to register, until she realized that he had said, "Maybe I should have died."
Then she really lost it.
"Are you kidding me? So that's it then? You just give up? You're gonna starve yourself? And for what?! You're gonna let that stupid bitch ruin your whole life? You're not even gonna try for yourself? And screw the rest of us I guess. Not like you haven't got eighty five of us that love you. But who cares right? Who cares about anything? Screw it all!" She swiped her arms across the nightstand and the bowl of soup went flying over to shatter against the wall, and a lamp smashed into the floor, and a book flew open and landed on its spine. Yunjin did flinch then, but he said nothing, and he didn't look at her, and Lin stormed out of the room before she could say anything else.
Having heard the commotion, Tenzin came running down the hall looking stricken with worry. "What happened?!"
"I'm going out," Lin said shortly through gritted teeth, because if she didn't get off that island she was going to destroy something much bigger than a soup bowl, and the kids really didn't need to see her like that.
"Lin," Tenzin called after her, but she brushed past him and kept going as quickly as she could.
By the time she reached the docks she had cooled down enough that she could breathe. She also punched a tree on her way and that had released some of the tension in her chest. When she saw the boat and the two acolytes standing nearby, she started to reconsider, thinking maybe she shouldn't leave, maybe she could go back and act like a rational human being. But she saw Bumi first, and he saw her crazed look, and he came scampering over with only a bit of hesitation, watching her like an animal about to pounce.
"Uh, hey there, Lin," Bumi said, all calm and normal, and she missed normal. Spirits how she missed it. "Where you headed?"
Lin came to a stop and considered it for a moment. Where was she going? Where could she possibly go to escape her problems for a few hours, without having to be around other people that would inevitably ask her what her problem was? "I… don't know," she admitted. "I hadn't thought that far ahead."
"Well that's perfect!" Bumi said excitedly. "You can come with me then. I was just headed into the city to visit my favorite tavern, and Kya won't come with – you know, sobriety and all that – so now I won't have to go alone!"
Lin blinked in confusion for a second, because since when was Kya sober? But then it dawned on her. Something else she hadn't been paying much attention to over the last few months, with her head clouded as it was. Nira and Kya were a thing now – or at least, Lin thought they were; it was hard to tell exactly what was going on because they seemed to be keeping it fairly quiet. But they were together all the time, and it was an open secret around the island that Kya was spending nights in Nira's room. And Lin knew that Nira was the only person in the entirety of Kya's life that had ever managed to convince Kya to actually curb those alcoholic tendencies.
Considering the emotional state she was in right now, Lin knew drinking was the last thing that would make her feel better, but she also desperately wanted to escape, and alcohol was good for that, at least for a short time. Bumi could see her wavering and insisted, "Come on, it'll be fun! You deserve a break. First two drinks are on me." He slung his arm around her shoulders and grinned, all warm and exuberant, probably for her benefit only, but it succeeded at reminding her of better times, of Bumi always having her back when she was trying and failing at being reckless and carefree.
"All right," she relented. "Let's go."
"Wahoo!" Bumi cheered. "That's what I like to hear!" He steered her over to the boat and asked the acolytes to take them across the Bay.
Lin was on edge most of the way and still thinking too much about Yunjin and Tenzin, and worrying and thinking she shouldn't have left. But Bumi soon distracted her, chattering on and on, almost making her smirk at his amusing dramatizations, though it was more often a grimace in her tense state. She was actually interested to hear what he had been up to lately, while she'd been entirely focused elsewhere, and it made her both relieved and aggrieved to know that the world had kept on going while she and her family were trapped in their bubble of never ending grief. It almost gave her hope, gave her some perspective at least. It was what Yunjin needed, to be reminded of what the world had to offer, but she had made him stubborn like her.
"It's my fault," she told Bumi that night at the tavern, already slumped over the bar and four shots deep. They were ordering another round, just a glass full of liquor to save time.
"That's ostrich-horse shit," Bumi immediately argued, only to then furrow his brow in confusion. "Wait, what's your fault?"
"Everything," Lin muttered, "but Yunjin mostly."
"Ah, come on," Bumi protested. "The kid's going through a tough time, but that ain't on you."
"You didn't see me in the South Pole after he was born," Lin murmured, pausing for a moment as the bartender sat their drinks down in front of them. She took a long swig and shivered at the harsh taste. "I was just like him. All depressed and grim. I must have passed it on to him somehow. He was just a baby. They're not supposed to remember anything but maybe they do."
"I don't think it's contagious like that," Bumi said slowly, making a face like he was considering it, like he wasn't actually sure.
"I'm a terrible mother," Lin complained. Her lips were numb and her arms were tingling and the alcohol was ramping up her emotions. "I made him like this. If he was like Tenzin he wouldn't be so depressed. If he wasn't like me he'd know how to cope. And I can't even help him. I'm just making it worse."
"Well look at it this way," Bumi suggested, gripping her shoulder, and his eyes were shiny and he was leaning half off his barstool. "Tenzin can't make the kid feel better either. None of us can! Not even his favorite Uncle! That's me by the way. So we're all failures!"
"Wow, that makes me feel so much better," Lin deadpanned.
"Ah, you know what I mean," Bumi said, releasing her to wave his hand around dismissively, but it looked like he was trying to swat away a bug. "The point is, you're not a terrible mother. Yunjin just needs time. And when he's ready I bet he'll come to you first. Well… maybe second. But you'll be in the top five for sure."
"What if he never gets better?" Lin fretted.
"Are you kidding?" Bumi exclaimed. "He's a Beifong. You're all stubborn as rocks but you always get better! And I've seen guys like this in the Force. It takes a long time to get over somethin' like that. Now come on, drink up. No more of this sad talk. We came here to let loose and forget about our problems for a few hours."
Bumi urged Lin to lift her glass to her mouth, and then pushed the bottom of it up until she downed the whole thing. She smacked the glass back down onto the bar with a spluttering cough, and Bumi drained his glass too and called the bartender back for another round.
For about an hour – or was it two? Lin couldn't really fathom time after enough liquor was coursing through her system – Bumi and Lin ignored their problems and tried to have fun. Bumi seemed to be delighted, and Lin was drunk enough to laugh at his long-winded stories and his stupid jokes. They reminisced about when they were young, back when they were thick as thieves because Lin was going through a brief rebellious phase and Bumi was more than happy to bring her into the fold. Lin had never really considered that Yunjin's mischievous side might have come from her, but as she remembered the sort of pranks she used to pull with Bumi, on the very same island Yunjin had grown up on, she realized her youngest son was like her in so many ways. Everyone always thought Jeia was Lin's clone, and in a lot of ways she was, but Jeia was smarter and stronger than Lin had ever been at twice her age.
Lin had thought her similarities with Yunjin would have made it easier for her to help him through his current situation, but if he was anything like her he wouldn't get better with just support and understanding. He needed to figure it out himself, to have his own epiphany, to overcome that voice in his head that was telling him to give up. It didn't make it any easier for her to accept, but it calmed her a little for the time being. The alcohol helped of course. She couldn't feel much of anything as she fumbled around the tavern with Bumi. He had dragged her up to dance but she wasn't even sure there was music playing. She couldn't really see straight either, so she didn't actually know if she was swaying along with him or if the room was just spinning on its own. All she knew was that she was warm and her eyes were heavy and she was smiling for the first time in months, watching Bumi act a fool and not thinking about all the terrible things going on at home.
They went back to the bar so Bumi could order them each another drink, and Lin laughed because she was pretty sure she would puke if she put another ounce of liquor into her stomach. But before she could even protest, something knocked into her, causing her to lose her already unstable footing and go flailing backwards. Her back hit something solid and then shoved her forward again. She blinked several times and squinted to try and see her surroundings better. She hadn't sensed anyone approaching, but there was a man now standing between her and Bumi, and two people she assumed were his friends right behind her and on her right side, although she was seeing double so she wasn't positive if there were three men glaring at her or seven. And were they glaring or smiling?
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the disgraced Chief Beifong," the one in front of her sneered. Ah, so glares then, definitely not smiles.
"That's what they call me," Lin slurred. It wasn't the first time some idiot had approached her with malice in all the years she'd been a cop; she wasn't really bothered by it.
Bumi, on the other hand, who had been shoved out of the way by the tall guy towering over Lin, angrily demanded, "Hey, pal, who do you think you are?"
The guy ignored him, telling Lin, "You know you put my brother away for a long time. He ain't seen his kid in years."
Lin was used to either defusing or getting out of situations like her current one, had become rather good at it, but in all those previous instances, she hadn't been drunk. So now that she was a little more uninhibited and a lot stupider, she blinked up at the guy and said plainly, "A blessing for the kid, I'm sure."
"What did you just say to me?" the guy snarled, and he might have been reeling back or leaning into her face but it was all the same confusing blur to Lin.
"I guess your brother shouldn't have been a criminal," Lin unwisely went on. "I guess you wanna tell me he didn't deserve it and he's a good guy and blah, blah, blah, but I've got my own problems, buddy, and I really couldn't care le –"
She was cut off mid-sentence when a fist suddenly connected with the side of her face, and though she couldn't really feel the blow, the force of it sent her sprawling, crashing into a low table nearby and collapsing it with her own weight. Everything on the table spilled and crashed and shattered, and the two people sitting at it leapt up out of the way with shouts of surprise.
Lin was disoriented and not wholly sure which way was up and which was down, and it took her several seconds to figure out how to get back up. When she did, she recognized Bumi roaring, but she wasn't even entirely convinced it was him because she had probably never heard him that angry before. But as her vision cleared just enough for her to make out what was happening, the rage made more sense. Bumi had already clobbered the guy that had hit Lin, and was in the middle of fighting the other two – or three? Either way, Lin needed to help, and she stumbled over to her brother-in-law with the intent to do just that.
She only got two uncoordinated swings in before she was being knocked aside again, and this time when she slammed into a table she felt her own anger building. All that rage pent up inside of her was all too eager to come boiling out, and she leapt back into the fray with stubborn determination. Bumi was being held in place by one man while another punched him in the stomach, and Lin grabbed that man around the throat, jumping up onto his back and wrapping her whole arm around his neck. He staggered backwards and tried to grab at her or shake her off, but she kicked the back of her foot into his knee until he dropped halfway to the floor. Then she placed her own feet down, and used her whole body weight to toss him the rest of the way to the floor. She knelt down over top of him and she wasn't even sure what he looked like because she was only seeing red, and she smashed her fists into his face over, and over, and over, until he grabbed her by the thighs, lurched his body upwards, and flung her up and over. She went flying over his head and her back hit the floor so hard she lost her breath. She immediately began to push herself back up with a groan, grabbing a nearby table to lever herself upwards. She wobbled and tripped over her own feet trying to turn around to face her opponent, but by the time she saw him again, he was running headlong towards her, his own pummeled face contorted with rage. Lin didn't have time to jump out of the way or stand her ground. The guy's shoulder collided with her stomach and they both went crashing through the window right behind her. They rolled out into the street amidst a million shards of broken glass, and it must have taken the air out of both of them because they just rolled away from each other clutching at their battered bodies.
Bumi came outside a few seconds or minutes later, calling her name. She heard glass crunching beneath his boots as he scurried over to her, and then he was carefully trying to drag her back up onto her feet. She leaned on him to steady herself, and they turned as one to see the other two men from the fight stumbling out into the street as well. The one that had gone through the window with Lin was still on all fours, groaning and holding his head, blood seeping from between his fingers. The other two looked like they had taken quite a beating, but weren't hindered by it. They were still ready to pounce on Lin and Bumi, and the only thing that stopped them was the sudden sound of police sirens echoing down the street.
"It's the cops!" one of the guys shouted. "Let's get out of here!"
"Uh, we'd better go too," Bumi suggested, tugging Lin towards a nearby alleyway.
She protested at first, scoffing and saying, "Seriously? They started it. We can explain –"
"We were just in a bar fight, Lin," Bumi cut her off, "and you're drunker than a buzzard wasp on cactus juice!"
Lin considered it, and then nodded. "Fair point."
They both started racing down the alley as fast as they could, but Lin didn't feel like they were making any progress, like the alley was just getting longer and longer, and spirit's sake how much had she had to drink?
Apparently too much, because neither she nor Bumi was running fast enough to outrun the police. Lin could hear their thundering footsteps just behind, and the familiar call of, "Stop! Police!"
And before she knew what was happening, a metal cable was wrapping around Lin's waist and she was being dragged backwards. Bumi yelped as the same thing happened to him, and then they were both sat on the wet ground, in the middle of a dark alleyway, and two metalbending police officers stood over them.
Lin had been a police officer for over thirty years, and she had never felt as much shame as she did in that moment when some rookie cop slapped a pair of metal cuffs around her wrists and said, "You're under arrest."
Notes:
Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving and are all doing well! I'll be spending my birthday at work tonight, on Black Friday, so please know that any kind words will be a delightful gift lol. I also promise there will be some brighter chapters to come, for now I hope you can find the hilarity in Lin being arrested with Bumi in a bar fight. Up next, Yunjin receives a gift from an unexpected source, Ronen has to bail his mother out of jail, Asami and Lin have a chat, and probably some other stuff. Thank you so much, and until next time!
Chapter 86: Chapter 86
Chapter Text
Chapter 86
Ronen arrived home around ten o'clock in the evening, after a long day of work at Future Industries – where he was an official employee these days – and was dismayed but not all that surprised to find that his family was once again in disarray. Yunjin wasn't eating, Mom had had a breakdown and left, Dad was panicking, and Sora was crying. Jeia was nowhere to be found, but Ronen had a feeling she was probably with Aunt Kya, so he'd find her later. First, he got the story from his father, which wasn't all that detailed but clued him in enough to figure out what was going on. Apparently Lin had gone to try and convince Yunjin to finally eat, after everyone else had failed, but she had ended up shouting and throwing the food across Yunjin's room, and then stormed out to who knows where. Tenzin wanted to go looking for Lin, worried she'd do something foolish in her current state, but Ronen thought his mother probably needed to blow off steam and it was best to leave her alone. Tenzin was also worried about Yunjin, but the boy was still laying in bed pretending to sleep so Ronen ushered Tenzin out of the room, urging him to make a new bowl of soup for Yunjin and some tea.
Ronen cleaned the mess his mother had made, and then left the new food and a cup of tea on Yunjin's bedside table. He touched his brother's shoulder and quietly said, "I know you don't want to, but please do me a favor and eat something. If you can't muster up the strength to do it for yourself, at least do it for Mom and Dad." Then Ronen left Yunjin's room, hopeful that his brother might eat once he was left alone.
Ronen went to Sora next, and asked her to help him find something he didn't actually need. He told her about the charity function he was going to with Asami in a few days, and that he needed help picking the right outfit to wear. Sora might have seen right through Ronen's efforts to distract her, but she went to scavenge through his closet anyways. That would keep her busy and focused for a while, so Ronen went and found his father.
Tenzin was sitting in a corner of the kitchen, hunched over the table with his head in his hands. Ronen went over and squeezed his father's shoulder as he said, "It's going to be okay."
With his head resting in one hand, Tenzin reached up with the other to pat Ronen's hand and wearily say, "I'm sorry to put so much of this on you."
"You're not," Ronen insisted. "We're a family. We need each other. And right now, you need to rest."
"I can't," Tenzin refuted with a shake of his head. "I need to –"
"I'll find Mom," Ronen interjected. "And I'll look after Jin and Sora. You need to sleep."
"Later," Tenzin said. "Jeia –"
"I'll find her too," Ronen cut him off again. "I'm serious. You can't be any help if you keel over from exhaustion. Sleep now. I'll wake you if anything happens."
Tenzin protested a bit more, but eventually caved to Ronen's reasoning. He was too exhausted to fight it.
When Ronen went in search of Jeia, he found her where he had expected, sitting in the dining hall with Aunt Kya, Nira, and Amali. Dinner was long over, but people often lingered there or returned to chat, or to play cards or Pai Sho. Nobody that knew Jeia well enough wanted to play cards with her, because her eidetic memory pretty much ensured her a win, but Pai Sho involved more strategy, and while before Jeia had little to no interest in the game, she seemed to like the challenge as she grew older. She liked even more to be a show off, and had been teaching Amali how to play so that she could present her skills to someone new. The two girls sat across from each other at one of the benches, the game board between them, and Nira and Kya to either side. Nira sat next to Amali and Kya next to Jeia, and the two women were playing their own game of cards, except Nira was winning by a lot and Kya was accusing her of cheating, and they were laughing as they fought over one of the cards in the deck, which looked more like an excuse to hold hands. It made Ronen smile a little, happy for his aunt and his caregiver even though both of them were still denying that anything was going on between them.
As Ronen approached the table, Kya released Nira's hand and the card to hold her arm out and gesture for him to sit next to her. "Hi, sweetheart," she said brightly, smiling even though it didn't quite reach her eyes. Everyone was having trouble looking at him and his family these days without pity or sorrow. "How are you?"
Ronen sat down on the bench and his aunt squeezed him against her side. "I'm all right," he replied. "You haven't seen Mom anywhere this evening, have you?"
Kya's brow furrowed in confusion. "No, I haven't. Why? Is she not at home?"
"She left apparently," Ronen revealed, and Jeia turned away from her game to finally look at him. "I figure she just needed some space, but I thought I'd ask around."
"Would you like us to look for her?" Nira offered. "She probably hasn't gone far."
"No, that's okay," Ronen said with a small smile of appreciation. "I'm sure she'll come back."
"Is your father worried?" Kya asked.
Ronen nodded. "Yeah, but I think I convinced him to calm down a little. Hopefully he's sleeping now."
"Well is there anything we can do?" Nira questioned.
"We can deal you in if you're just looking for a distraction," Kya said, waving the cards in her hands.
"I should probably be getting back," Ronen admitted. "I wanted to check in on Jeia." He looked around his aunt to where his sister was watching him, realizing only then that he hadn't seen her in several days. He asked her, "Are you doing all right?"
Jeia shrugged and said shortly, "I'm fine. Is Jin gonna be better soon?"
"I hope so," Ronen said quietly, his stomach twisting into knots.
Jeia stared at her older brother for another moment and then looked away, refocusing on her game of Pai Sho.
Kya squeezed Ronen again and murmured, "We're taking good care of her."
Ronen nodded but he continued to watch Jeia for a few more minutes, wondering if he should add her to his mountain of worries, wondering if he ought to be looking out for her more. It was easy, sometimes, to forget that she needed emotional support too, because she was always so good at speaking her mind and avoiding whatever made her upset. But they had thought that about Yunjin too, and now he was an emotional wreck that they couldn't figure out how to mend. Jin and Jeia were different though. They shared the Beifong temperament and they were both abrasive, but that was where the likeness stopped. Jeia was more like Ronen when it came to challenges, level-headed and calculating. He had a feeling she understood well enough the issues at home to not take it personally that everyone's attention was all over the place. Ronen believed that Jeia would be just fine, though he did feel some guilt over not being as readily available to her as he probably could have been. He was grateful that his Aunt Kya and Nira were looking out for her.
"Thank you," Ronen said to the two of them, these two women that had been so crucial to his upbringing. Kya hadn't always been there, not as much as Nira, but she had made every minute count, and he loved them both. "I'll be back for that card game another time."
Aunt Kya reached out as he was rising back to his feet, gripping his hand and urging, "If you need us –"
"I know," Ronen assured, squeezing her hand gratefully.
"Let us know if your mother doesn't come back soon," Nira added, and he could see the worry in her eyes.
"I will," Ronen promised. He took a step around his aunt Kya to lightly grip Jeia's shoulders, and leaned down to kiss his little sister on the cheek. She made a face, wrinkling her nose in annoyance, but patted his hand affectionately.
Ronen smiled for the briefest of moments, and then left the dining hall to return home. He was glad to find his father still asleep and Sora still distracting herself sorting through clothes. He decided not to disturb Yunjin for a bit longer, and talked to Sora instead, telling her about work and trying on the clothes she tossed at him. It kept both their minds off of everything for just a little while.
It was a little after midnight when the phone rang, and considering the late hour, Ronen's stomach rose into his throat. Sora stilled with mounting worry on her face, but despite his own concerns, Ronen reassured her, "I'm sure it's just Mom calling to tell us why she's so late."
He hastily went to answer the phone, and his chest seized up too when he heard, "Ronen, this is Chief Tosuki. Is your father there?"
"He's asleep," Ronen answered. "What's this about, Chief?"
There was a pause, and then Tosuki revealed, "It's about your mother."
"What about her?" Ronen shakily questioned. "Is she hurt? What's happened? Where is she?"
"No, no, she's not hurt," Tosuki quickly cut in. "She's all right, but… she was arrested this evening, along with your Uncle Bumi. I'm sorry, kid, I don't mean to worry you. You might want to wake your father. I'm not going to hold her for the night, but someone ought to come get the pair of them. They're still pretty drunk."
"I'll come get them," Ronen decided, shaking off the shock rushing through him. "I can be there in fifteen minutes."
"It really should be your father…" Tosuki said slowly. "I don't think you want to –"
"I've grown up a lot since you last saw me, Chief," Ronen cut Tosuki off. "My father needs his rest so I'll be coming in his stead. I appreciate you calling. Who should I speak to about retrieving them when I arrive at headquarters?"
"Uh, just come to the main desk," Tosuki advised. "I'll let them know you're coming."
"Can I ask what they were arrested for?" Ronen inquired.
"I'll explain when you get here," was all that Tosuki gave as a response.
Not entirely less worried, but relieved his mother apparently hadn't been harmed, Ronen inhaled with relief. He hung up the phone and then picked it right back up, dialing a familiar number and crossing his fingers that the right person would pick up.
"Who's this?" an exasperated voice answered. "D'you know what time it is?"
"Tu," Ronen said quickly, easily recognizing the haughty cadence of Mako and Bolin's cousin who, along with the rest of the two brothers' long lost family from Ba Sing Se, was living in Asami's mansion following the destruction of their home during the Red Lotus takeover that had resulted in the death of the Queen. "This is Ronen. Is Asami around?"
"Oh, it's you," Tu snorted. "Don't you two ever get enough of each other? Weren't you just here this morning?"
"Tu, this is really important," Ronen said impatiently. "I need you to get Asami for me. Please."
"I think you two need to set some boundaries," Tu rambled on. "Listen, buddy, I want to give you some advice on how to keep a lady –"
"Tu," Ronen huffed in frustration, "I'm serious –"
"So am I!" Tu interrupted. "I don't want you getting your heart broken. Ya need to think about – oh, hey Asami, it's like I was just telling Ronen here, the two of you should really – hey!"
Tu's voice cut off with a commotion on his end of the line, and Ronen tapped his fingers on the counter until he finally heard Asami saying, "Ronen? Is that you? What's wrong?"
"Asami," Ronen sighed in relief, "I'm sorry to call so late, but can you meet me at the docks in ten minutes? I need to get to police headquarters, and there's something I may need your help with."
"Of course," Asami agreed. "What's this about?"
"It's my mom and Uncle Bumi," Ronen explained briefly. "I'll tell you the rest when I see you."
When Ronen put the phone down and turned around, he found Sora hovering in the doorway, looking half petrified.
"What happened?" she asked tremulously.
"Every thing is okay," Ronen quickly assured her. "I just have to go pick up Mom and Uncle Bumi."
"Why are they at police headquarters?" Sora demanded.
Ronen hesitated, but eventually admitted, "They got arrested, and apparently they're drunk, but Tosuki says they're okay and I don't want Dad to worry. If he wakes up before I get back, I need you to cover for me."
Sora frowned and her shoulders slumped. "But, Ronen, you know I can't lie to him."
"I don't need you to lie, exactly," Ronen said. "Just tell him that I found Mom and took her to Asami's. We'll leave out the part about her being drunk and arrested."
"That's basically a lie," Sora stressed. "He'll see right through me."
"He may not even wake up," Ronen reasoned, going over to squeeze Sora's shoulders reassuringly. "And I'll be back as soon as I can."
"I want to go with you," Sora decided. "I want to make sure Mom is okay."
"How about I call you when I get to Asami's?" Ronen offered. "Someone ought to stay here with Dad and Yunjin."
Sora sighed. "Fine, but be quick. Tell Mom I love her."
"I will. Don't worry, okay?"
"Too late," Sora murmured.
Ronen hugged her and she clung to him for a long moment.
Once Sora released him, Ronen donned a coat and shoes and hurried out.
Asami was waiting for him at the docks in Republic City, leaning against her car. When she saw him disembarking from his ship, she rushed over to greet him, asking what had happened. He told her what little he knew, and they climbed into her car together to make the short trip to police headquarters. They waited at the front desk for several minutes until Chief Tosuki arrived to greet them.
"You weren't lying, kid," Tosuki said as he looked Ronen over with a flicker of surprise. "You have grown since I saw you last."
Ronen inclined his head respectfully and said, "Chief. It's good to see you." Then he gestured to Asami. "You might know Asami Sato, owner of Future Industries."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Chief Tosuki," Asami greeted. "I've heard only good things."
"It's good to finally meet you, Miss Sato," Tosuki replied. "I've been meaning to get in touch with you. We may be interested in acquiring some equipment from you."
"I'd be happy to set up a meeting with you sometime soon," Asami agreed.
Tosuki nodded shortly and then refocused on Ronen. "Sorry to bring you two into this. Your mother didn't want me to call, but you can understand why I couldn't release the two of them on their own recognizance…or, you will once you see them. Come with me, I'll explain the rest in private."
Ronen and Asami followed Tosuki down a side hallway, and once they were alone, Tosuki continued, "A few officers on patrol were alerted to a disturbance at a tavern downtown. When they arrived on scene, they found five people fleeing, and according to other patrons, those five had just been involved in a bar fight. Beifong and Bumi were two of them, and my officers didn't even recognize who they were. All five offenders were brought in, and when one of the senior officers recognized your mom, I was alerted immediately. I had her and your uncle placed in a private cell, away from the usual drunk tank, and then I called hoping to get your father down here to sort them out."
"Do you know who started the fight?" Ronen asked. "Or why it went on in the first place?"
Tosuki shrugged. "Drunken brawls don't always have a reason. Beifong said something about an aggrieved relative of a criminal she put away. Bumi said the three of them deserved the beating. So who knows who really started it. The other three aren't foolish enough to press charges. They'll be happy to just be released in the morning without charges of their own. But…"
Tosuki came to a halt in the middle of the hallway, and Ronen and Asami stopped with him. "It isn't like your mom to do something this reckless. It may not be my place to pry, but the rumors around the city… I'm just hoping this isn't going to become a regular thing. I understand she's dealing with some difficult issues at the moment."
Although Tosuki was a family friend, had been one of Lin's most trusted officers, had been there with her during the siege of headquarters, had been there when Jeia had been born and helped Raizo carry the newborn to safety, Ronen still hesitated to respond. He didn't want to reveal too much and potentially upset his mother for doing so. She was an immensely private person, and she was probably feeling enough shame already for her current situation.
So Ronen answered with, "This won't become a regular thing. I think she just needed a night to unwind and it turned into this. She'll be back to her old self by morning." Or so he hoped.
Tosuki nodded, but with a furrowed brow. "That's more or less what she said to me, albeit with a bit more slurring. I told her to let me know if she needs anything, but I'm doubtful she'll reach out to me."
"I'm sure she appreciates the offer," Ronen assured. "We'll be just fine, Chief."
"I'll leave you to it then," Tosuki said, gesturing to the end of the hall. "They're in the last cell. It's not locked, but there is a guard at the desk across the hall. They should be sober enough by now to make it out of here, but let me know if you need help."
"We'll take it from here," Asami said. "Thank you, Chief."
Tosuki lingered for a moment, as if he wished to say more, or to go and see his former chief once again, but he clicked his heels together and turned away, striding quickly back the way they had come.
Once he was far enough away, Asami murmured to Ronen, "He's nice to offer, but I'm sure your mother is sick of people asking her if she needs anything."
"Oh she absolutely is," Ronen concurred, and then tore his gaze from Tosuki's retreating form to go and find his mother.
Ronen was not certain what he was expecting to find, but coming upon his mother's cell was not the amusing occasion it had been when he had broken his father out of prison a few years prior. In that instance, Tenzin had been arrested much more peacefully and for a very silly misunderstanding, by some small town folk that misinterpreted his enthusiasm for historical mysteries as breaking and entering. Lin's arrest might have been funny under different circumstances, but in that moment Ronen could not find it in him to make a joke. His mother and uncle both looked disheveled and disoriented sitting there on the jail cell's bench. Bumi was mostly upright, his back against the wall behind him, his head tipped back, and his mouth wide open as he slept, snoring loudly in the quiet hall. Lin was leaning on him for support, half slumped against his side, one leg stretched out on the bench. She wasn't quite asleep, but her head lolled forward a few times and her eyes looked heavy. She was wrapped in Bumi's jacket and his arm was curled tight around her chest, even in his sleep, as if he was afraid someone might try to snatch her away.
When Lin noticed Ronen's entrance, she tried and failed to sit up, eyes widening, and she elbowed Bumi in the ribs. Bumi jolted awake with a surprised shout and a slurred, "Who's'ere?"
"Ronen," Lin croaked in answer, grimacing at Bumi's abrupt movements, which had in turn jostled her. She looked pale and she pressed her lips tight together.
"Ronen?" Bumi echoed loudly, looking blearily around the cell. "Was he arrested too?"
"No, idiot," Lin said in a soft voice that didn't match her words. "He came here to get us."
"Oh," Bumi accepted with a small smile, "of course he did. He's a good kid that one."
Ronen had reached his mother and his uncle by then, and he bent down to better assess his mother, looking to see if she had been hurt, but she mostly just looked tired and dizzy, and there was a small bruise forming on her cheekbone. "Hey, Mom," he said quietly. "How are you?"
"Well, there are two of you giving me that disappointed look, so I've been better," Lin mumbled in reply.
"Not disappointed," Ronen insisted, "just concerned is all."
"Is your father mad?" Lin asked with a grimace.
"I didn't tell him," Ronen admitted. "He was sleeping when Tosuki called."
"Well, hey, that means we won't get a lecture," Bumi enthused.
"Yet," Lin grumbled.
"This can just be our secret," Bumi said in a hushed voice to Ronen. "You won't tell, will ya buddy?"
"If I don't, Sora will," Ronen replied.
"Sora knows?" Lin groaned.
"How did this even happen?" Ronen asked. "What were you two doing at that bar?"
"We were having a perfectly good time is what we were doing," Bumi huffed. "Till those losers came and ruined our fun. I got some good shots in though, really roughed 'em up. All in all, it was not the craziest night out I've ever had. I told those cops who we were, but young people these days don't even recognize us!"
"Might have been better if they never had," Lin muttered.
"I'm just glad you two are okay," Ronen said, "but I'd appreciate it if you refrain from getting into bar fights from now on."
"Ronen, my boy," Bumi tried to say wisely through a hiccup, "something you learn when you get to be my age is that bar fights often find you."
Ronen snorted. "Okay, well, you can tell me all about that later. Why don't we get you two out of here?"
Ronen took his mother's hands and helped pull her up, but she winced as she stood and immediately went still, looking like she was going to be sick. She also appeared unsteady on her feet, and Ronen held his hands out in case he needed to catch her.
"'M all right," she mumbled after a long pause, swallowing forcefully and taking a tentative step forward. She wobbled with every step, but when Ronen tried to help, she waved him off, insisting she could do it herself. By the time she made it to the cell door, where Asami stood waiting, Lin seemed to realize she was never going to make it, and when Asami held out her arm, Lin reluctantly latched onto it and let the younger woman lead her down the hall. Ronen stayed next to his uncle Bumi, who wasn't all that coordinated either, but managed to stagger the whole way outside without completely falling over.
Asami drove them to her house, which seemed a better option than trying to corral the drunk pair onto a boat, especially considering the way Ronen's mother had to fight from puking just on the short car ride. Ronen had been planning on that course of action anyways, thinking it better to give his mother time to sober up and calm whatever madness had overcome her before he took her home. He doubted she wanted anyone seeing her like she was.
Thankfully, Mako and Bolin's many family members were all asleep or tucked away at various corners of the mansion when Ronen and the others arrived at Asami's home. Bumi made a raucous as he entered, but Lin was silent, still wrapped in Bumi's coat and shivering. Asami suggested Lin and Bumi get cleaned up, and it was only then that the two of them seemed to notice that they were covered in dirt and glass, and stains that reeked of liquor.
"I've got some clothes you can have," Asami told Lin, who was just looking around the mansion in a sort of daze, as if she'd never seen it before. "Come on, I'll show you…" Asami gently led Lin away, and she went without a fuss.
Ronen ushered his uncle in the other direction, to one of the spare bedrooms, where he found a set of clothes that might fit Bumi's frame. While Ronen was digging through the clothes, Bumi had flopped down on the bed, and when Ronen turned around to face Bumi, he sighed. "Uncle, you know I love you, but what the hell were you thinking?"
"Hey, I told you they started it," Bumi defended. "Your mom and I were just minding our business."
Ronen strode closer to the bed as he asked, "But do you really think getting Mom drunk was a great idea?"
Bumi opened his mouth to protest, but seemed to change his mind before the words ever left his mouth, and his shoulder slumped. For once he looked a little sad and regretful, and Ronen didn't like seeing his uncle like that. "I was just trying to help her out," Bumi murmured. "She's been so depressed lately and I thought I could get her away from it all, that we could have a night of fun for once. I didn't want all the rest of it to happen."
"I know you meant well," Ronen softly replied, reaching out to squeeze his uncle's shoulder.
"I just feel so useless!" Bumi harshly whispered, suddenly in the mood to spill his feelings but still hesitant to do so. "I can't help your brother or your mom or anyone. I just want everything to be right again."
Ronen nodded in grim understanding, the weight of their family's shared suffering bearing down on him. "Believe me, Uncle, we all feel that way."
Lin followed Asami up the stairs and into what she soon realized was the girl's bedroom. It was pretty standard as far as bedrooms went, but a bit more opulent than what Lin was used to. It matched the rest of the mansion in style, but was fairly subdued in comparison. There wasn't a whole lot to make it recognizable as Asami's room, and Lin only realized it when she saw two small picture frames on the bedside table. One of the pictures was the whole group of teens – Korra, Mako, Ronen, Asami, and Bolin. It was a picture that had been taken sometime after the revolution and Amon, on Air Temple Island one day simply because Ronen wanted a group picture of his new-found friends. It was startling how young Ronen looked in it, how young all of them looked, full of hope and unaware of the future to come, all of them smiling brightly. The second photo was a little more recent, of just Ronen and Asami, both of them dressed up and probably on a date or at one of those functions Asami went to in order to find investors for Future Industries. There was a third picture, of Asami with her parents back when she was very young, but it was stuffed behind the other two pictures and purposefully hidden from sight.
The fact that Lin could see the pictures at all meant her vision was no longer the blur it had been not so long ago. She could feel the alcohol slowly fading from her system, but she was still a little off kilter, still fighting some of the nausea that had plagued her ever since she was taken to a jail cell. Mostly she just felt embarrassed and sore, and she dreaded having to tell Tenzin what had happened. She hated that Ronen and Sora knew. What kind of mother was she?
"Will this be okay?" Asami asked, startling Lin from her thoughts. Asami was holding out a mostly plain tunic and pants that looked like they cost more than most of Lin's wardrobe.
Lin nodded and answered, "Uh, yeah, that's fine, thanks."
"You can change in here," Asami said, "and the bathroom is right through that door. Did you want to –" Asami's words cut off into a gasp, eyes widening at something below Lin's eye line. "You're hurt…"
Lin dropped her gaze, to where her arm had finally stretched out from beneath Bumi's coat to accept the clothes, and saw her sleeve soaked with blood. "Oh," she said numbly.
Asami grasped Lin's wrist and rolled the ruined sleeve up, examining the cut there. "It doesn't look very deep. Come here." Asami took Lin by the elbow and guided her to the bathroom before she could protest. Once there, Asami nudged Lin down to sit on the edge of the tub while she sifted through a cabinet for bandages and antiseptic.
As Asami dabbed at the wound to clean it, it stung and it burned, but it was nothing compared to the pain in Lin's heart and she didn't even flinch. "Sorry about all this," she muttered to Asami. "For dragging you into our mess."
Asami shook her head, still focused on her task. "You don't have to be sorry." She squinted at the cut on Lin's arm. "There's some glass in here. I'll have to pull it out."
"Guess that's from getting thrown out a window," Lin mused.
Asami smirked, reaching over to grab a set of tweezers. "You never do anything half way, do you?"
Lin made a noise in the back of her throat that could almost be a sound of amusement, but she made no response and silence fell between them.
After Asami had finished removing the glass and cleaned the wound once more, she began to wrap Lin's arm with gauze, and only then did she finally glance up to meet Lin's gaze for just a moment. "Seriously though," she said quietly, "I'm happy to be useful in any way I can. Ronen is the only family I have these days, and you're a part of that. You can drag me into your mess anytime."
She finished with the bandage and stepped back, and Lin looked up at the young woman, remembering all of a sudden that the girl was essentially an orphan, having barely known her mother, and her father in prison for a multitude of heinous crimes. She had been all alone in that huge mansion before Mako and Bolin's family needed a place to stay, had all but lived on the Island just to avoid it. Almost no one was looking out for her except for Ronen, no one else would be there if she needed them, especially not with Korra still gone.
"Listen, kid," Lin muttered gruffly, before she could change her mind, "if you ever need a – a parental sort of figure… I know you're all grown up now, but if you want me to threaten someone for you, or give ya some not so great advice on how to run your company, don't be afraid to ask."
Asami looked bewildered for half a second, but then she smiled warmly. "That's… very nice of you. Thank you, Lin." She turned away to wash her hands and put away the bandages, and when she turned back to Lin, a thought seemed to come to her. "Actually, there is an investor I've been having some trouble with. Just the usual misogynistic old guy type. I can handle his less than subtle remarks, but I've been itching to say something in response and I know that I should be above it, not risk losing his money for my pride. But if you were to maybe say something to him for me –"
"Say no more, kid," Lin interjected. "Thinly veiled insults are my favorite past time. You just tell me when and where and I'll be there."
Asami's smile brightened, and it warmed Lin a little. At least she could still be useful to somebody.
But then there was a knock on the door frame, and Ronen poked his head into the bathroom looking apologetic as he said, "Sora just called. Dad is on his way." And Lin's stomach dropped.
Lin had seen Tenzin angry before. She had seen him deeply upset and she had seen him disappointed. She had seen all of those emotions directed at her a handful of times, but what she saw when he arrived at Asami's was something else. A combination of all of them maybe, or a whole new emotion that was meant to strike her at the core. She went outside to meet him as soon as Oogi landed, because she had a feeling she wasn't going to want anyone to overhear the conversation – or argument – they were about to have. She was sobering up quickly now, but she still wobbled a little as she went hastily down the stairs and out into the courtyard. She knew she must have looked a frightful mess. She was still picking glass out of her frazzled hair and the bruise on her cheek was swelling, and even though she was wearing clean clothes now she still reeked of booze and her arm was wrapped in gauze. But Tenzin didn't comment on any of that as he stormed up to her. He just looked down at her with flared nostrils and a shake of his head.
"What on earth were you thinking?" he demanded.
"I know, I know," Lin tried to placate. "I screwed up."
"The understatement of the century," Tenzin scoffed.
"I don't want to fight –" Lin started to say.
"You never want to fight when it's inconvenient for you," Tenzin cut her off. "And yet you make such unwise decisions, pulling all of us into it, never thinking of what it might do to someone else –"
"Now hang on," Lin interrupted, slowly, still on a slight delay. "I doubt you're worried about a scandal, and I'm the one that had to sit in jail."
"I cannot do this," Tenzin declared, voice quiet but somehow still harsh and firm. "Not this time. I've let it pass before because I know this sort of thing is difficult for you, but I can't – I – I can't."
For a moment she couldn't be certain what he meant. For a moment she felt unwell and it was not from the liquor. It was what she had expected at one time, for him to grow weary of her difficult character. But that wasn't what she was seeing now, not in that way. On the outside he just looked terse, but Lin knew his soul and she could see what he felt, and what he needed from her now, and she closed the distance between them to grasp his hands, and she promised him, "I'm here."
"I need you," he stressed in a whisper, squeezing her hands so tight she felt her knuckles crack, tilting his head down and closing his eyes. "I cannot do this alone."
"I know," she said, pressing her cheek to his. "I know. I'm with you. You're not alone."
He shuddered and wrapped his arms tight around her, and she held him tightly back, vowing to herself to never let him feel alone again. She couldn't fall back on her usual behavior when things got tough anymore. How could she expect Yunjin to get better when she couldn't even manage herself? She needed to set an example, she needed to be strong.
In the long hours that Yunjin slept on and off for days on end, he dreamt of flying. Not walking or running, but the gift once afforded to him to be able to soar amongst the clouds. His dreams were like memories, of the time when he had been able to leap off of any cliff or spire and become one with the wind, of when he could climb onto the back of any ski bison and spiral without fear. Every dream began the same, all carefree and joyful, surrounded by his element and basking in its warmth.
And then reality struck, or rather P'Li's blast struck him in the back, and pain lanced out in every direction. All of sudden the air became cold and sharp, and his flight became a fall. He was dropping, dropping, down into darkness, into pain and misery. And when he woke he could not move. When he woke he had no connection to the air, barely had a connection to his toes, and the darkness had consumed him.
He knew that his family wanted him to get better, to be positive, to pull through, but aside from them he could find little reason to do so. His life had been ruined. He would likely never fly again, and never with the freedom he'd once had. He was just a burden now. He felt nothing but embarrassment and shame and loss. He could not dress himself or take himself to the bathroom without an exorbitant amount of difficulty. He had to rely on his family to care for him, and he could not stand it. He didn't care what they said, about how they didn't mind, about how they were happy to help him however they could. He knew they were lying. He knew they would come to resent him just as he already resented himself. What kind of life could he lead as a cripple when all he had ever been good at was bending? What kind of life could his family have if they were always taking care of him?
He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to go on. He was just tired. So tired. Tired of calling for help, tired of spending hours in physical therapy and not seeing improvement, tired of being in pain. Pushing people away was the only way to silence them, the only way to keep them from tiring him further. And the easier they gave up the easier it was for him to give up too.
Some were more resistant. Sora for one, but he could tell she was wavering. His parents, for another, but Dad was so worried about giving him space and Mom was impatient, evidenced by her explosion that evening when he had refused to eat. Eating was a chore, and it often made him feel sick these days, and he wasn't in the mood for anything at all.
He had expected that his mother would be away for several days at least, if not a whole week. It was what she did when she overreacted and got upset, hid and licked her wounds. He certainly would have never guessed that she would show up again that same night. He had heard his father worrying to Ronen earlier about Mom leaving the Island, and Yunjin wasn't even sure she would be home before the following morning. When she did return, he knew that it was late, but he didn't keep track of the hours these days to know for certain.
As per usual, he didn't move or react to the sound of footsteps in his room, nor the dip in his bed as someone sat down on the edge. He did startle, however, when he felt an arm wrap around his chest, and someone's breath on the back of his neck. The smell of booze and sweat and whatever else was striking.
And then his mother's voice could be heard breaking through the stillness, hushed and ragged, wavering in a way he had never heard before. "You shouldn't have died," she whispered. "If there's one thing you ought to be certain of it's that. Take what time you need but I'm never giving up on you. I'm not letting you give up. I love you. We'll figure the rest out. You're a Beifong, and you're my boy. You hear me? This isn't the end. You're not allowed to give up. I love you and I will not lose you."
Yunjin felt his stomach clench, but whether it was from hunger or some emotion elicited by his mother's somewhat unusual expression of love, he couldn't wholly say. He was discomfited by the whole thing though, and sought to break the tension on instinct, forgetting for a moment that he was supposed to be silent and mumbling, "You stink."
He heard her snort weakly, and then she muttered back, "So do you."
Yunjin's lips actually quirked, and he turned his head to look at her. But any bit of amusement quickly faded when he saw his mother's face. The bruise on her cheek was unexpected, but not all that startling. It was the tears brimming in her eyes and traced down her face that jolted him. Now Yunjin's stomach was turned upside down. He wracked his brain for a time when he had ever seen his mother cry, and he came up with nothing. He remembered her being grim, he remembered her being distraught, but he had never seen tears fall from her eyes for anything, certainly not him. She lifted her hand towards him, but seemed to rethink it, and only the tips of her fingers brushed so lightly against his cheek that he thought he might be delirious after all.
Yunjin did not know what to do. He did not know what to feel. He only wanted it to stop. He squeezed her hand where it rested over his heart, but his grip was weak. Everything about him was weak now. He couldn't think of what to say, so he turned away, staring once more at the wall across from his bed.
Eventually, his mother left, and Yunjin rolled over to face the open doorway, grimacing when his back protested the movement. His eyes caught the tray of food laying on his bedside table, and his stomach hurt just to look at it. After maybe an hour or two, or maybe only several minutes, he reached over to pick up a slice of bread. It was almost too dry to swallow, but he forced it down, and then took one gulp of water. His energy was spent from that simple task, and he let himself slump back down into bed, down into his dreams, where he would fly and fly and then inevitably fall into darkness once more.
After two weeks of straining to eat and move and be awake, so that his mother would not cry again and the rest of his family would not look so aggrieved, Yunjin could take no more. Everything was dark and misery, and he felt as if he was suffocating there in his room. It was he who had confined himself to the space, but it gave him no further comfort. He needed out. He needed to feel the wind on his face.
Crawling into the wheelchair his brother and Asami had built for him took an exorbitant amount of effort, and he was heaving for breath by the time he managed to right himself in the seat. Pushing himself out of the room was easy though, with the chair performing as promised, with barely little effort needed to control it, and some mechanics involved to make the ride smoother and faster. It was the middle of the night and thankfully everyone else was in bed, just as Yunjin had hoped, and he was able to slip outside without being bothered. Once there, he paused in the front courtyard, breathing in the cool night air, closing his eyes and reveling in it for just a moment. And then he was on the move again.
He traveled the whole way down to the docks, abandoned at that time of night, and he sat in his chair by the edge, staring into the dark depths of the bay just below. He listened to the push and pull of the waves, felt the salt spray on his face and thought of better times, of days he'd spent running along the beach with Sora, sand and water in his hair, carefree and happy and strong. When he lifted his gaze to the sky, he could pretend for a moment that he was lying on his back, listening only partially as Ronen droned on about constellations and the importance of the stars. Yunjin yearned for those days, for that freedom from his current burden.
And then all of a sudden, he was crying too, deep, tortured sobs that wracked his feeble frame and echoed around him in the empty night. He wept for the loss of his strength, the loss of his bending, and for the suffering he caused himself and his family every single day. He wept for the boy he had once been, for the boy he would never be again, and he wept over the injustice of it all.
He did not notice the presence beside him until the shimmering spirit moved, catching his eye and causing him to jerk in his chair. He hissed at the pain it caused, and then looked upon Dasne with a mixture of surprise and fear. Dasne, the spirit of sorrow, who's pale features were nearly transparent, who's dark hair was as black and bleak as the night sky. She brought with her misery and despair, and what could her presence possibly do but make Yunjin feel worse?
"You," he accused, defensive at once. "What are you doing here?"
She looked down upon him with wet eyes that seemed to stare directly into his soul. "I go where I am needed," she whispered into the night, her voice seeming to carry along the air like a breeze. "It is as I told you when we last met. Where there is sorrow, there I shall be."
"So this is your fault," he spat, voice hoarse from emotion and disuse. "You've made me this way. You made me weak."
Dasne shook her head slowly, a tear streaking down her cheek as she softly replied, "Grief is only one part of life. Though you feel weak now, you will be stronger in the end."
Yunjin scoffed and exploded, "So what?! I'm just supposed to sit here and accept my fate? Watch my life disappear and wait for whatever's next? I can hardly get out of bed on my own and you tell me I'll somehow be stronger? I'll never be like I was before! I'll always be less! You're supposed to help me through this grief, right? So then why have you brought me only pain? Why?! Tell me why?" His voice broke and a loud thunder clap rang through the sky, and he shuddered, shutting his eyes tight, remembering the blast that struck him in the spine, that had changed his whole life in a single moment. And when he spoke next his voice was quieter, and he trembled as he repeated, "Why?"
Why had the Red Lotus come after them at all? Why had P'Li tried to shoot down a bison full of innocents and children? Why had Yunjin been the one to intercept it? Why had he not been able to stop the blast from doling out the damage it had caused? Why could he not make it through physical therapy without pain, and with such slow progress? Why was he letting this one thing, however monumental it was, destroy what he had left of his life? It was dismantling him bit by bit, cutting into everything he still held dear, especially the ones he loved.
Dasne reached out, her hand briefly settling on his shoulder, and a chill ran through him as he looked up at her once more. And then, with a flash of lightning that lit up the space around them, she was gone.
The sky opened up, and a steady downpour of rain descended from above, drenching Yunjin in a matter of seconds. He sat there staring at the space where Dasne had disappeared, and a moment later another figure filled it, and he recognized Sora running towards him.
She looked stricken by the sight of him, worried, no doubt, about why he was out there and what he might be doing. His heart ached, and he rushed to tell her, "I – I'm sorry."
She didn't seem to fully understand what he was apologizing for, or maybe she knew exactly what he meant. She leaned in at once to hug him, and the familiar feel of his twin's embrace was a balm to his wounded soul.
Sora helped him back inside without saying a word, letting him wrangle with his own thoughts for once, instead of filling the silence with chatter. But he had finally had enough of being alone with his thoughts. After Sora had settled him in front of the fireplace, with a blanket wrapped around both their shoulders, he told her, "I've been thinking. About… well, a lot of things. But I read something once, when we were visiting the Air Temples. It was at the Southern Temple, I think. I don't remember the full passage. But it was about the duality of airbending. An Air Nomad is meant to be peaceful, to avoid conflict and use only defensive measures wherever possible. But airbending can be dangerous too, and fatally so. Too much force and too little control grants us power we're not meant to use, but too much restraint and we risk ourselves. You and I are a bit like that. Without you I'm all force and no control."
Sora opened her mouth, looking like she was going to try and protest, because she believed in him more than he believed in himself, but Yunjin continued before she could.
"I was wondering if you would come with me to my next physical therapy," he said. "Maybe with you there, it'll remind me of my own limits, and the control I need will come more naturally."
Sora did not respond at once, looking stunned for a moment by his request. When she recovered, she smiled softly and took his hand in both of hers, squeezing lightly as she answered, "Of course I'll come with you." And it was such a relief to see her genuinely smile for the first time in months that Yunjin found himself smiling a little too.
From the hallway, Lin and Tenzin watched the twins with a mixture of hope and worry. Lin hadn't been able to sleep either, and when Tenzin woke in the middle of the night unable to sleep further with her sitting rigidly next to him on the bed, they decided to go to the kitchen for some tea. They had heard then, when Sora and Yunjin came back inside, apparently having been out in the rain for spirit's knows how long. Tenzin had been about to go out and ask if they were all right and what was going on, but Lin urged him to hang back for a moment. They couldn't quite hear what was going on, but when Sora took Yunjin's hand and smiled, and Yunjin smiled back, Lin felt just a little of the tension in her chest abate.
"Well," Tenzin murmured low enough not to be overheard, "that looks promising."
Lin nodded, grasping Tenzin's arm and leaning into his side. "Why don't we leave them to it?"
"Do you think you can sleep now?" Tenzin asked, placing his hand over hers and looking down at her with that loving gaze.
"I think so," Lin answered.
And sure enough, once she was lying in bed, ensconced in Tenzin's warm embrace, she slept soundly through the rest of the night for the first time in a long while.
The following morning, Yunjin joined the family for breakfast for the first time in months, and though they were all delighted to see him up and about, it was not the biggest surprise they received that day.
Later that afternoon, an airship came to the Island, with Kuvira's insignia on the side. In that past several months, Kuvira had been extending her reach across the Earth Kingdom, reuniting the nation bit by bit. But there were troubling rumors abound, not to mention the way she had betrayed Su. So Lin wanted nothing to do with Kuvira, and if the young woman had come to the Island for anything, Lin was fully prepared to send her away, no matter how interested Jeia was in seeing her old mentor.
Except Kuvira was not on the airship, and the people aboard did not stay long. Only one of them descended, along with a large crate, and held out a letter.
When Lin went to take it, Kuvira's lackey snatched it away saying, "The Commander ordered me to give this directly to Yunjin Beifong, to ensure that he receives his gift."
Lin scoffed at the military man's clipped tone, and probably would have fought him for the letter if Yunjin hadn't rolled up next to her just before. Lin had tried to go to the airship herself, but of course all four of her children and Tenzin had come with her.
"The Commander?" Yunjin echoed in question. "You mean Kuvira? What has she sent me a gift for?"
"The Commander wishes you a full and speedy recovery," the man replied. "She hopes this will help." He patted the crate, and then stepped forward to hand Yunjin the letter. "It's all written there. I must be returning to the front."
Lin watched the man retreat with a scowl, and when she turned back to Yunjin, he had opened and read the letter. Sora was reading it over his shoulder, Jeia was staring up at the airship, and Ronen and Tenzin were examining the crate.
"What does it say?" Lin asked.
Yunjin looked up with a furrowed brow. "She says that she had Junior build something, for my legs. She says that it should help me walk until I regain my strength."
"Well that's incredibly generous," Ronen said, still curiously looking over the crate, helping his father try to pry the lid off.
"Will it work though?" Sora wondered.
"More importantly, why would she send me something like this?" Yunjin questioned. "Kuvira and I were never close, not like she is to Jeia."
"It is a bit… unexpected," Tenzin agreed.
"It's suspicious," Lin grumbled.
"Why?" Jeia scoffed. "Can't she do something nice?"
Nice, was never a word that Lin would have used to describe Kuvira, but she knew what Kuvira meant to her youngest daughter and she held her tongue.
But no matter what Jeia believed of Kuvira, Lin didn't trust her, and she certainly did not trust whatever contraption was in that box.
Chapter 87: Chapter 87
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 87
Yunjin's mother would not allow him to try out the gift Kuvira had sent for him until she was certain that it was safe. Yunjin wasn't totally certain that he wanted to try it, too afraid of being let down if it didn't work the way Kuvira claimed it would in the letter, so he didn't protest. The contraption just looked like a pair of leg braces attached to a back brace, but a lot more elaborate than anything he had ever seen before. It was entirely metal, with some padding for comfort, and according to Kuvira it would keep Yunjin upright without strain, and allow him to walk with the help of some sort of motorized function that reacted based off of the few slight movements he could manage. His walking would still be fairly clunky and restricted at first, but theoretically he wouldn't be confined to a wheelchair, and in time he might be able to remove the braces and walk on his own.
Lin insisted that Ronen look the device over before Yunjin was allowed to try using it. So Ronen spent the next several days testing the leg braces, taking them apart and putting them back together. By the end of the week, he could find nothing particularly harmful, and had even tried it out for himself to make doubly sure that it was safe for his younger brother. But there was no way to know if it would work for Yunjin, and the boy wasn't all that eager to find out. So the leg braces sat untouched in a corner of his bedroom for the next two months. He focused on his physical therapy instead, on regaining his strength on his own, and with the dark cloud that had hung over him abating, he was finally seeing a little bit of progress. Walking was stiff and slow, and he had to take it easy more often than not, but he was walking. Even better, he was beginning to reconnect with his bending again, just a little.
By then, it had been a little over a year since Yunjin had been shot down and his whole life had changed. It was only then that everything began to return to some sense of normalcy, but it was not quite the normal they were all used to. Things had changed since the Red Lotus, and there was no way to go back to how it was before. Yunjin had missed Jeia Rai turning six, had barely acknowledged his own birthday when he and Sora turned fifteen, and he was still trying to catch up on everything else that had been going on while he had been consumed by his own misery. Even though Sora had tried to keep him updated, he hadn't always been listening, and lately it was becoming apparent how much he had ignored or failed to notice. He remembered his aunt Su coming to visit a time or two, and Sora telling him that Kuvira and Junior had gone to Ba Sing Se on their own initiative to try and stabilize the region, but he hadn't known how betrayed Su felt or how well Kuvira was apparently doing at reuniting the Earth Kingdom. He had known that his father had been sending some of the airbenders to help those in need, but he hadn't realized that Sora – despite essentially being a master now – had refused to go along with any of them until she was certain that Yunjin was going to be all right. He hadn't been aware of much of anything that Ronen was up to, and he certainly hadn't noticed that his Aunt Kya was apparently in some sort of relationship with Nira now.
More than just Yunjin's family was having to adjust in the post Red Lotus world. Korra had remained in the South Pole during her own recovery, which according to Yunjin's grandmother, was going well now. Korra was back on her feet and walking with ease. She was practicing her bending mostly, trying to regain her strength, but she hadn't remained in contact with anyone. Tenzin and Ronen had gone to see her just a month or so ago, and according to them she had looked well, but was still struggling with her bending and her connection to Raava. Yunjin thought of writing to Korra himself, thinking that their similar struggles might grant an understanding that could help both of them overcome it, but considering she wasn't even responding to her friends' letters, he didn't think she would answer him either. Ronen said that their cousin Akira was still spending some time in the South Pole, and that she was visiting Korra now and then. Yunjin thought that was a good sign. If anyone was good at cheering people up it was Kya's daughter, though Yunjin didn't imagine she would stay long; Akira had never been fond of her home town as long as Yunjin had known her. Sora thought that Akira was feeling guilty, since she had left the Northern Air Temple just days before the Red Lotus siege. She had remained close to her mother for several weeks after the ordeal, until she was certain Kya was going to be all right. Apparently Akira had also come to the Island to see Yunjin shortly after his surgery, but he didn't remember it.
Yunjin knew he had a lot to make up for. Sora said he had nothing to apologize for, that it wasn't his fault and they all understood why he had acted so harshly towards some of them, but Yunjin didn't agree. He had pushed away family and friends just because he was feeling sorry for himself, and he had hurt them all even if he hadn't meant to. At the time he had thought he was making their lives easier, that they deserved better than to be bogged down by his helplessness. That's the excuse he had used to push away Jinora, even after all the progress they had made, even after he had so recently promised her that he would never leave her again, that he would communicate better than before. Once he had been convinced that he would be a burden for the rest of his life, he felt that he had to save Jinora the heartache and break up with her sooner rather than later. What future could they have if she had to take care of him for years on end? There had been a good possibility that he wouldn't ever be able to have children, and he could hardly dress himself and he was restricted to what he could and could not do in a wheelchair. What kind of life could he give Jinora if he was like that? He knew they were still too young to think too much about all that, that so much could change before they were even old enough to consider marriage or children or anything else, and maybe they would have broken up long before that anyways, but he didn't want to drag it out in the meantime. Even if he eventually recovered – and at the time when he split with Jinora he didn't believe that he ever would – he would be forcing her to live a boring, restricted life with him, and he didn't want to waste any of her time. Especially knowing that she had Kai, Yunjin felt like she would be better off unattached to him. He had wanted to set her free, no matter how much it hurt.
He knew now that he had probably hurt Jinora unnecessarily, that he should have let her make her own decisions about her life. It was too late for him to take it back and he certainly didn't expect her to ever speak to him again, let alone forgive him, but he hoped in time he would find the right words to express his regret. He wished that he hadn't been so harsh, but it had seemed the only way to get her to leave. He hoped that she would be happy still, hoped that she was not too badly upset by his mistake. Sora had told him that Jinora seemed okay, but that the two of them hadn't spent much time together, not with Jinora trying to avoid any mention of Yunjin while living on the same island, and not while Sora was so focused on helping her twin brother. Jinora had been sent on a few missions to bring aid to some people in the Earth Kingdom, and Tenzin said that she had done well, though Yunjin was not surprised by that. He always knew Jinora would do great things.
But now that Yunjin was up and about – well, outside of the house, not so much up just yet – there were more opportunities for him to run into Jinora. The Island was only so big, and Yunjin was spending more time in the library than before. With all the down time he had, and all the time he had to deliberate his present and future, he was finding more interest in some of the philosophical texts from the old Air Nation. Jinora had been the one to pique his interest, back when she had briefly accompanied him and his family on their visits to the Air Temples. It had begun simply as an effort on his part to share her interests, to at least try to enjoy reading for a few minutes. He hadn't expected to actually be fascinated by any of it. But especially now that he could actually find the patience and the time to delve further, he was all the more intrigued. Jinora's interest in reading had never waned, so they were struggling to exist in the same space without being dramatic about it. Jinora seemed to want to remain civil even if she was avoiding him, and Yunjin simply settled for not bothering her and keeping his focus elsewhere, even if his gaze did slide in her direction on occasion.
It was Jinora that eventually approached Yunjin, and when she stepped up in front of him, she was cautious but not timid. He had already noticed that she looked more confident these days. He wasn't sure if that was a result of her coming into her own as an airbender, or if she really was better off without him.
"I heard you've been getting better," Jinora said to him.
Yunjin nodded slowly. "I have, a little. Still a work in progress but… I've stopped sulking so much."
She offered him a tight smile for his attempt at levity. "I'm glad to hear it. I noticed you've been reading a lot."
"I've got a lot of time," he replied. "My father says you've been doing really well, with the aid missions and your training."
"I'm glad he thinks so," Jinora said, sounding a little pleased. "Will you and Sora be getting your tattoos soon?"
Yunjin shrugged, still slightly uncomfortable with that subject. "I don't know. Sora won't do it without me and I'm not sure I'm ready."
Jinora seemed contemplative for an awkward moment of silence. "I don't see why you should let anything hold you back. You earned being a master even before all this."
Yunjin wasn't so sure, but he didn't want to argue. "I feel like I ought to start going to lessons with the newbies and relearn all the stuff I haven't been able to do."
"I'm sure they'd be delighted to see you. The mysterious Yunjin Beifong has been a frequent topic of conversation among new airbenders."
Yunjin snorted. "I hope you told them I'm not half as mysterious as they think."
"I was waiting for you to tell them yourself," Jinora said. "I'm assuming you'll pop in soon."
"I'd like to, eventually," Yunjin sort of confirmed. "I just don't want to fall flat on my face the first time I come to meditation."
"Meelo has come to meditation with me a few times," Jinora revealed. "I think he's just hoping you'll make an appearance."
Yunjin grimaced guiltily. "I thought of looking for him, but I didn't want to overstep."
"Well that's new," Jinora teased.
"If you don't mind, tell him he can come visit," Yunjin offered.
"I'll tell him, but I think the whole family would be happy to see you, if you want to come by our rooms. Ji-Ji is getting big, started saying a few words, sort of."
"You… you'd be okay with that?" Yunjin asked haltingly.
"I don't expect you'll ban me from talking to Sora or your father," Jinora reasoned. "I wouldn't do that to you either. No matter the state of – of us, we're intertwined still. We should be civil, and we shouldn't bring our families into it."
Yunjin nodded and said, "Of course," but she sounded detached, in a way Jinora never had been, at least not with him. To others she might be anxious around, perhaps, but never him. She had always been so passionate, always fought him when he was being stupid, always showed her heart on her sleeve. It was jarring for him to see her otherwise. It seemed it was just another of the changes he needed to adjust to. It had been several months since he had so rudely pushed her away; it was only natural that she would have closed herself off from him.
"Well," Jinora said with finality, sucking in a deep breath, "I only wanted to see how you were. I should be getting back."
"Of course," Yunjin repeated numbly, uncertain of what else to say.
"I'm sure I'll see you around."
Jinora turned to leave, but before she could take more than two steps, Yunjin called her name, "Jinora…" She paused, looking back at him with those big, soulful eyes, and he lost his nerve. "I… Friends?"
He thought she might have looked disappointed, but he wasn't sure he could read her anymore. Even so, she nodded and quietly answered, "I hope so."
Yunjin hated to watch her leave just as much as when he had forced her to, but there was nothing he could do, not now, maybe not ever again.
However, he could not allow himself to despair. If he lingered too long on his past decisions, he would only be sucked back down into that dark place from before, and he had already lingered there for too long. It would fix nothing to be sad. All he could do was recover, in whatever way he could.
Which is part of what finally led him to the leg braces Kuvira had sent him. He had to know one way or another if they worked, no matter what sort of disappointment he might face. He had to be able to handle setbacks, and he also hated wondering. The anticipation was probably worse than knowing it didn't work. He still didn't want any witnesses to his potential failure though, so he waited until he was sure that his family had gone to bed. Once he was sure they wouldn't wake, he climbed out of bed, legs trembling as he made short steps over to his closet, leaning heavily against the wall and whatever furniture available. He realized belatedly that he probably wouldn't be able to carry the braces back to his bed, nor would he be able to balance enough to put them on. So he staggered back to where his wheelchair sat, and rolled over to the closet a lot quicker. He pulled the contraption out and placed it over his lap, and then took it over to his bed to study it. Figuring out how to get it on was more difficult than he first thought, and he considered waiting till morning to ask Ronen about it, but eventually he caught on.
The back brace wrapped around him up to the middle of his ribs and forced him to sit up straight. It felt awkward and stiff, but it wasn't too painful as he had feared. The leg braces were much the same, with just enough give to bend his knees. Once it was all attached, he sat there for a moment, shifting experimentally, musing that he was looking a lot more like his mother than an airbender. Then he sucked in a deep breath, braced his hands on the edge of his seat, and stood up. He wobbled at first, unused to being so rigidly posed. He grabbed onto his wheelchair to steady himself, and then took a few seconds to adjust. Then he took one tentative step forward, muscles trembling but held firm by the braces. He paused in bewilderment, and then took another step, and then another, and all the time he walked from one side of his room to the other, he did not need to grab onto the wall or any furniture. Even though he still felt as if his legs would collapse beneath him, as if his spine could not hold him up, the braces kept him upright, kept him strong, and excitement filled him to the brim.
He was so enthused by the possibilities rapidly arranging themselves in front of him, that he became overly exhilarated and went too fast. His body had not yet become accustomed to so much movement, and even with the help of the braces he was still overtaxed. When he began to pick up speed, his legs gave out, and even though the braces held, the pain was striking, and he fumbled for something to help hold him up and take some of the pressure off of his back. Unfortunately, he was in the middle of the room, surrounded by empty space, and he went crashing to the floor to alleviate the strain on his back. He took the brunt of the fall on his knees and forearms, protecting his face and gasping slightly from the shock. It wasn't all that painful though, not in comparison to the many falls he'd had before, certainly not compared to the one that had so altered him. What actually made him wince was the sound he had made clattering to the floor with clanging metal.
He laid still for a moment, gritting his teeth against the throbbing pain in his spine as it slowly began to fade, and heard the footsteps thundering down the hall. He was only halfway sitting up when the door burst in and his parents appeared, looking half asleep and disheveled, and awash with worry. Yunjin knew he must look a sight, perspiring heavily and flat on the floor, and he started chuckling to himself.
"Yunjin!" his father gasped, rushing over. "Are you all right? What happened?"
"I'm all right," Yunjin assured them, still struggling to hold back absurd laughter. "I just fell. I'm okay."
"Are you hurt?" Tenzin fretted.
"Why were you messing around with this thing in the middle of the night?" Lin demanded.
"I was just trying them out," Yunjin explained, trying to catch his breath. "I'm not hurt. Just got a little ahead of myself."
"Is it okay to help you up?" Tenzin asked, mindful of his son's distaste of being coddled.
"Yeah," Yunjin agreed, taking his father's arm and accepting his parents' assistance. "And help me get this off."
They picked him up off the floor and propped him onto his bed. His parents started removing the braces, and his mother gave him a disgruntled look. "Why are you grinning? Are you sure you didn't hit your head?"
Yunjin shook his head with delight. "No. It worked. This crazy thing worked."
"You know that you fell, right?" his mother pointed out.
"Yeah, but before that it was working."
"If you say so," Lin huffed. "Just do me a favor and don't try it again in the middle of the night."
Yunjin didn't stop smiling, but he did nod and concede, "Okay, Mom."
Lin had never felt more relieved than she did when Yunjin began acting more like himself for the first time since the incident that paralyzed him. He wasn't exactly the same – she didn't think he ever would be – but he was talking and leaving his bedroom and cracking jokes again. That was enough for Lin. She didn't understand his new philosophy obsession, but she was glad something could interest him. She hoped they were finally reaching the end of the miserable state they had all been trapped in. She could already see the improvements, not just from Yunjin but from all of them. Tenzin was no longer so morose, Sora was smiling more than crying, and Jeia wasn't running away from the house anymore. With all that, Lin could breathe easier, even if it did still tear at her to see her son crippled, to see him struggle with even the most minor tasks. She still wished that she could help more, but she had let some of the weight lift from her shoulders. She knew that Yunjin had the potential to lead a great life and do amazing things still, he may only have to do them in a different way. So long as he was happy, she could endure the rest.
Being able to sleep more fully was a huge help as well, and with things finally looking up, Lin allowed herself to relax. She could spend time with the kids without feeling on edge, and she could leave the house herself without feeling guilty or worried. She could walk around the island and talk to people without a cloud hanging over her head, visiting Bumi – without the alcohol this time – and Kya and Nira. She even sat in on some of Tenzin's training sessions with the new airbenders; she kind of liked watching him teach and sometimes she sparred with the more advanced trainees. She started training Jeia again too, and allowed herself to swell with pride every time the six year old's abilities far surpassed earthbenders three times her age, instead of being overwhelmingly concerned about it.
One afternoon, she asked Tenzin to go into the city with her for dinner, and the beaming smile he gave her was almost more pleasing than the delighted awe on his face when he saw her that night. She had actually let Nira and Kya take her into the city earlier that week, to buy a new dress for herself, not because she much liked dressing up, but because she knew how it would excite her husband. With all the gloom and separation they had faced in the past year, she had hoped to invite some excitement back into their lives. Now that she didn't have to feel so guilty and worried and tired, she hoped that they could enjoy a night out together, like old times. So she dawned a dress for the first time in years, one that was not too scandalous but enough to draw Tenzin's eye. It wrapped tight around every curve, not so tight that she couldn't breathe, but enough to accentuate every asset she might have. Tenzin's reaction did not disappoint, and she was smugly pleased for the rest of the evening. She couldn't pretend that she wasn't delighted by the fact that her husband was still so enamored with her when she was well into her fifties.
As Lin and Tenzin left for their date that evening, the kids waved them off, all four of them together and smiling and promising not to cause any trouble. It might have been the first time Lin actually believed them, and the first time she had really left them without supervision. They didn't really need Nira to watch them anymore, and Ronen was old enough to keep the twins in line and look after Jeia. And Yunjin wasn't the trouble maker he used to be, so there wasn't much concern there anyways. It might have been one of the first times that she could leave the house with Tenzin and not feel an underlying sense of unease about leaving the kids behind. It was freeing, in a way, disconcerting in another.
Nevertheless, she would let nothing short of an emergency ruin her evening. They took Oogi into the city, and Lin hung on Tenzin's arm as they made the short trek to the restaurant. She had picked one of his favorites, a small, family owned business. The food was rather bland and the owners too friendly for Lin's taste, but Tenzin liked the charm and the talkative owners. The one bright side, apart from making Tenzin happy, was that the owners liked Lin and Tenzin and were happy to give them a secluded booth in the corner, where they would not be bothered by other people, and it wasn't the type of place they were likely to run into anyone bothersome like Raiko anyways.
So they sat close together in the curved booth, like they were young again and couldn't stand to sit apart. Tenzin's hand rested on Lin's thigh most of the evening, and when the mood struck him, he'd lean in and kiss her neck and tell her how ravishing she looked. The food was dry, but Lin would have eaten it a hundred times for Tenzin. She had planned the whole evening for him, which was a little unorthodox for the pair of them. Lin preferred to let Tenzin decide such things, but she liked to surprise him now and then. It was usually beneficial for both of them, so long as she didn't get it wrong, though there wasn't much fear of that as long as they had been together now. Even if Lin had to compromise just a little of her own comfort, it was always well worth it when Tenzin sought to thank her afterwards. They didn't always like the same things, but they could both benefit in some way. For example, Lin didn't like dancing in public, and she didn't like loud music, but she liked to have an excuse to sway close against her husband's chest, and the way it brightened Tenzin's smile, so she found a place that was not so off putting. After dinner she took him to a club on the outskirts of town, one where the tempo of the music was slower and the clientele less obnoxious, and it was dim and private in a way that would ensure that, once again, they would not be bothered. Tenzin looked absolutely shocked when they stepped into the club and Lin offered him her hand for a dance. Most of that shock did not wane for the rest of the evening, and Tenzin was drifting along beside her like he was in a daze.
Even so, her plans had gone well, and Lin was patting herself on the back for making Tenzin's night as they walked together back to where Oogi waited on the rooftop down the street. With one arm around her waist, Tenzin reached his other hand over to press the back of it to Lin's forehead as he asked, "Are you feeling all right? You aren't feverish, are you?"
Lin rolled her eyes and swatted his hand away. "Can't a woman do something nice for her husband without being ill?"
Tenzin chuckled. "Of course, dear. It's just that 'something nice' doesn't usually involve so many activities that might displease you."
"Well maybe I'm becoming more tolerant in my old age." He raised his eyebrow at her in disbelief and she conceded, "Okay, maybe I was just trying to get in your pants."
He snorted. "I think you know perfectly well it doesn't take all this to get that."
"All right fine," Lin huffed. "Maybe you've turned me into a sap. Happy now?"
Tenzin smiled and straightened up proudly. "As a matter of fact, I am."
"I was considered tough once, y'know?" Lin muttered with exaggerated despair.
"I'm sure one or two people still believe that you are," Tenzin teased, fighting laughter when Lin shot him a hostile glare. "It was very sweet of you to plan all this with me in mind, even at the risk of looking soft."
"I suppose my reputation can take the hit, though it may not recover if you keep calling me sweet."
He stopped her on the sidewalk, turning to face her and wrapping his arms around her waist. "What shall I call you then?" he murmured softly, leaning in to drop short kisses on her cheeks, nose, and brow with every word he spoke. "Kind? Loving? Wonderful? Amazing?"
"You don't have to flatter me so much, you know? Lin told him with an amused smile. "I was already planning on letting you have your way with me."
Tenzin chuckled and reached up to brush her hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering there in the soft tresses, and his thumb stroking her cheek. "Is that all you think of? I may begin to feel like a piece of meat."
"And what a shame that would be, for a vegetarian like yourself."
"I suppose I can allow it. Just this once."
"I'm glad to hear it," Lin murmured, leaning in closer, her cheek pressed to his and her mouth close to his ear, "because I've got a few more plans left for this evening." She captured his earlobe between her teeth, and reveled at the way his whole body shuddered against hers.
"Well, let's not waste anymore time," he breathlessly replied, chest rumbling against hers. And without further adieu, a powerful gust of wind swirled around their feet, propelling them up off of the ground and way up into the air. Lin barely flinched, still holding onto her husband, briefly watching the cityscape blur as she was lifted onto the roof in record time. Oogi waited for them there, resting on his haunches, but perking up immediately upon their arrival, shaking his whole gargantuan body and then shuffling over to them.
Oogi carried the pair across the Bay and back home, where Lin went ahead inside to check on the kids while Tenzin said goodnight to his companion and friend, ensuring that Oogi was fed and watered before coming inside. When Lin entered the house, she found Ronen dozing on the couch, several books and papers spread out on the coffee table and his lap. She shook him awake and ushered him off to bed, and then checked in on the other three, who were all asleep in their own beds already. Before Lin left him, Ronen sleepily mumbled that everything had gone fine while his parents were out, that he had made his siblings dinner and played Pai Sho with them until Jeia fell asleep tucked into Yunjin's side. He had stayed awake after the twins went to bed to get some work done, but inevitably fell asleep in the midst of it. He asked his mother not to move his papers, and was asleep shortly after his head hit his pillow.
Lin made some tea while she waited for Tenzin, and by the time it was done she could sense him sneaking in the front door, his footsteps so light she could hardly feel them. She continued with her task until he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, trailing kisses down her neck. His hands roamed her body, burning through the thin cloth of her dress, heating her skin the way the kettle warmed the tea, until she was liable to have smoke pouring from her ears. When his hand slipped inside the V-neck and cupped her breast, her head fell back against his shoulder and she gasped for breath. His expert touch had her reaching back to grasp his thigh, holding on for dear life, her knees feeling weak. She wanted to spur him on, to not waste any time getting to the bedroom, but they weren't in their twenties anymore. They had kids that could walk in at any moment, and their aging bodies wouldn't thank them for anything so impulsive.
She turned in his embrace, and his lips immediately latched onto hers. But she was in a better position to guide him, shoving him backwards towards the hallway. He went without protest, happy so long as he could stay attached to her. It was slow going, especially when they bumped into walls and he used the excuse to press up closer against her. She could feel his excitement in the way his heart was beating out of tune, his passion in the way he lavished her with affection. She had to take a moment to appreciate it all, to feel her own excitement thumping through her veins. It wasn't as if they hadn't been at all intimate in the past year, but it had certainly been different. In their grief and their turmoil, it had been mostly desperation, an aching in their souls, a longing to be touched and held, to feel something other than misery. Now, at last, they could have fun again, make love again, and delight in the time they had to dedicate to one another.
It wasn't until they were crossing the threshold of their bedroom that Lin remembered, and she tried to mumble against Tenzin's mouth, "The tea…"
But Tenzin was already closing the door and locking it, and since the stove was off and there was no fear of burning the house down, Lin forgot all about tea for some time to come.
In the morning, Lin stumbled blearily down the hall, having been woken by Jeia, who had shaken her mother and said simply, "Breakfast," before retreating from the room. Lin was still half asleep and exhausted, but tugged on her robe and tied it tight around her as she went to the dining room. The smell was enticing, but mostly she was curious about all the noise, too much to simply be her children and Tenzin, who had been missing from bed already when she woke. She didn't expect to walk in and find the dining room filled to the brim.
Aside from her four kids and her husband, there were several more familiar faces crowded around the table. Nira and Kya were both there, arguing about something, but in that odd way they did where neither of them was serious; well, Nira was mostly serious, but not half as annoyed as she pretended to be. Bumi was sat with Yunjin and Amali, who had finally warmed to the exuberant older man, and the three of them were debating the best fillings for rice cakes. Mako was between Bumi and Bolin, dressed in his uniform and looking anxious, trying to leave for work except Bolin kept pushing him back down in his seat and telling him to relax. Opal was next to Ronen, apparently having returned from her most recent aid mission, looking tired but animated nonetheless as she told her cousin all about it. Asami was on Ronen's other side, but she was talking to Sora about some kind of fashion nonsense as far as Lin could tell. Tenzin was at the far end of the table trying to convince Jeia to eat something with vegetables in it while the six year old shot him annoyed looks.
When Lin entered the dining room half bewildered, all thirteen of them turned to look at her. There was a pause, and then they erupted into a chorus of good mornings. Kya teased her for sleeping so late and Bumi made a quip about her unruly hair. As she settled down next to Tenzin, he told her, "Ronen and Asami made us all breakfast."
And Yunjin added, "So we know who to blame if it tastes terrible."
Sora snorted but tried to admonish her twin, "You ought to be more grateful."
"I'll be grateful if it's edible," Yunjin countered.
"Well I make no promises there," Ronen chimed in. "I'm not sure anyone can please your picky palette."
"I prefer to consider my palette refined, thank you," Yunjin sassed.
"We all have our delusions," Opal teased.
A few people around the table snickered, and Yunjin shook his head in mock disappointment. "Y'know, you used to be so sweet and quiet. I think all this time you've been spending in lessons with Sora has been a bad influence on you."
"If anyone here is a bad influence it's definitely you," Sora argued.
"Nah, those days are behind me," Yunjin said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I'm much older and wiser now."
"If that's true then how come I saw you teaching Meelo how to prank the acolytes just the other day?" Opal challenged, and the satisfied smirk on her face was so much like her mother's that Lin did a double take.
"That's…beside the point," Yunjin dismissed. "Anyways, we were talking about Ronen's inability to cook."
"It tastes fine to me," Jeia mumbled through a mouthful of food, still stuffing her face with gusto.
"See," Ronen said to Yunjin, "a ringing endorsement."
"She must have got the stuff Asami made," Yunjin dismissed.
"Isn't it too early for bickering?" Nira asked.
"It's never too early," Bumi replied.
"Not in this family," Kya muttered.
"It's delicious but I should really be getting to work," Mako cut in.
"Oh, shut up and enjoy breakfast," Bolin cajoled, yanking Mako back down into his seat again.
Mako sighed in aggravation and stabbed at the food left on his plate.
The kids bickered on some more, but Lin turned her attention to Tenzin. "Did you go to mediation this morning?"
He nodded. "Mhm. I was a bit late, but…" his cheeks turned a little pink as he smiled at her conspiratorially. He was such a dork, Lin thought fondly.
"You should have woken me instead," she murmured with a suggestive look.
"Oh, my darling," Tenzin said with a chuckle. "If there's one thing I've learned in all our years together, it's to never wake you for anything less than an emergency."
"I don't know," she said with a shrug, sliding her hand under the table to squeeze his thigh. "I think you could get a few free passes, under the right circumstances."
Tenzin's eyebrows raised with intrigue. "Oh? Well… in that case." He leaned in to kiss her on the lips and then the cheek and whispered against her ear, his hand trailing down her spine. "I will certainly keep that in mind."
Over on her father's other side, Jeia wrinkled her nose and, still vigorously chewing on her breakfast, said, "Don't be gross."
Tenzin chuckled and looked over at Jeia. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."
Lin, on the other hand, scoffed and told the girl, "Hey, I can kiss your father all I want. You ought to be grateful he likes to kiss me, or else you wouldn't exist."
Jeia rolled her eyes and groaned, "Mom. Ugh!"
Tenzin shook his head and smiled at Lin. "You really shouldn't torment her like that."
"Why else have kids?" Lin countered, reaching out to fill her plate with various foods.
She stuffed her cheeks full, and then felt Tenzin's eyes on her. When she glanced over, he was looking between her and Jeia with a stupid smile on his face. Lin furrowed her brow and studied Jeia closely, that familiar little face that was so much like her own, but she didn't see why Tenzin was so amused. And then she spotted it, Jeia's cheeks puffed out, stuffing her mouth with the same hunger as her mother, and Lin rolled her eyes, saying through a full mouth, "Shut up."
After breakfast, everyone dispersed, going off in their own directions, some together, others alone, all of them off to do various things. Opal lagged behind, until everyone had left the dining room except for Lin and Tenzin. She approached them with a tired smile and inclined her head as she greeted them, "Aunt Lin, Uncle Tenzin…"
"It's good to see you've returned safely, Opal," Tenzin replied. "How did things go on your last mission?"
"It went well, for the most part," Opal answered. "Turns out the thieves weren't bandits after all, just some locals in the village. We sorted it out pretty quickly. Kai seems to be doing well too. He's a little headstrong but we knew that."
"Indeed," Tenzin confirmed, "which is why I knew you'd be a good calming agent for him. I take it you two returned only this morning?"
Opal nodded. "Just about an hour ago. We were eager to get home so we flew through the night. I let Kai sleep most of the way and we gave Nira our briefing as she was leaving mediation. She invited me to breakfast so I'm probably due for a nap now. But I wanted to talk to you first."
"Is it about the mission?" Lin asked.
"No, it's about Mom," Opal admitted, and Lin frowned. "I don't think she's doing very well, but it's hard to tell through her letters. I know I'll see her in a few days for the new year celebration, but I was thinking I should go home with her afterwards, just for a little bit, maybe a week. I know things are hectic now and I shouldn't be asking for time off, but she and Dad took it really hard when Junior left and I just want to make sure they're okay."
Tenzin reached out and squeezed his niece's shoulder reassuringly. "Of course you can go. I'm sure your mother would be delighted to see you home for a few days, and don't worry, we can manage until you get back."
"Thank you, Uncle," Opal said with a relieved smile. "I promise not to be gone too long."
"Get some sleep, kid," Lin said gruffly. "We'll talk more about it when you've had some rest."
Opal lunged in to hug Lin and Tenzin both, and then hurried off to do as her aunt had told her.
Once alone, Lin turned to her husband, still frowning, and admitted, "I think I should go to Zaofu too. I've been away too long. I should have checked in on her sooner." With everything that had been going on with Yunjin, she hadn't had as much time to focus on her sister. Now that she could leave without worrying that her son would starve himself while she was gone, she felt like she owed it to Su to be there for her.
Tenzin put his arm around Lin's waist and tugged her into his side. "We'll all go. I'm sure the kids need a vacation just as much as we do, and it might cheer Su up to have all of us there. We should all be supporting her now, just as she's supported us in the past."
"Are you sure it's not too soon?" Lin questioned. "For Yunjin, I mean. I know he's doing better, but that's a big trip to expect out of him."
"I think he'll be glad to get away from here for a little while," Tenzin said. "It'll be good for all of us."
"Yeah," Lin murmured in agreement, but her focus was elsewhere, thinking of her sister. She let Tenzin pull her closer, let her head rest against his chest, but she wouldn't feel better until she saw her sister face to face, and knew for certain that Su was going to be all right.
Su wasn't all right.
Lin could tell from the moment her sister arrived, though Su did her best to hide it from everyone else. She didn't mention Junior or Kuvira, or the Earth Kingdom in general, and if anyone brought it up Su was adept at deflecting to a different topic. She didn't seem bothered, but Lin could see through the façade. All her boasting about Zaofu flourishing and life being just as grand as ever wasn't fooling anyone. But they all let her pretend, let her believe they were convinced of her happiness, or at least her indifference. Lin waited before confronting Su about it. They were all trying to have a good time, to celebrate putting the past awful year behind them, and Lin didn't want to spoil the mood.
They all had dinner in the dining hall with the acolytes – Lin, Tenzin, Sora, Ronen, Yunjin, Jeia, Nira, Kya, Amali, Akira, Bumi, Mako, Bolin, Asami, Jinora, Kai, Opal, Su, Wei, and Wing. Su made excuses for her husband, who claimed to be too busy with his work to leave Zaofu, and Huan, who never went anywhere. Akira had come from the South Pole to spend the new year with her mother and everyone else, and she brought with her word on Korra, who was still improving but not yet ready to visit her friends, even at Akira's insistence. Pema and her whole clan were there too, mingling in even as Yunjin and Jinora deftly avoided each other. Baby Ji-Ji, about a year and a half old now, was passed around the table, with Kya, Su, and Nira delighting over the cheerful baby, before she inevitably ended up in Yunjin's lap. He hadn't been happy at first when Pema and Anil had told him that the girl had been named Jiyun after him, but now that he was coming to grips with his situation, he was more receptive to the gesture, and he and Ji-Ji seemed to be fond of each other. From what Lin had observed, the kid didn't like to sit still for long, but she'd sit with Yunjin longer than she would anyone else.
Dinner was loud and chaotic, and they all lingered in the dining hall for a while, until it was time for Ji-Ji to go to bed. Anil took the little one back to their room, but Pema stayed because Meelo and Ikki begged to stay awake until midnight with everyone else, and Anil was happy to let his wife continue mingling with the others. The twenty-three of them drifted outside for the rest of the evening, settling together around a roaring fire, talking and laughing and playing games, the kids shouting out how much time they had left in the year every so often.
Lin lingered at Tenzin's side for most of the night, with Su and Opal close by and her own kids coming and going, but before the new year could begin, she strode around the circle to chat with some of the others. She stopped to talk to Kya and Nira for a while, having neglected her two friends for quite some time in the past year, and the three of them made plans to get together in a few days. As Lin walked away from the pair, she teased, "That is, if the two of you can stop making eyes at each other for ten minutes." Both of them made a face like they were annoyed and Lin just laughed.
She came across Pema next, who was bent over trying to clean chocolate off of Meelo's face while the boy squirmed. Eventually, Pema gave up with a sigh saying, "All right, all right, go on, I'll clean you up later."
Meelo ran off with a cheer, rejoining Ikki, Amali, and Jeia, and Pema just shook her head.
Lin stepped up next to the younger woman and commiserated, "Yunjin could get food on his face five seconds after a bath. I started to suspect he was doing it just to spite me."
"I know Meelo does it just to spite me," Pema said with a snort, watching with fondness as her son chased the girls around the circle.
Lin cleared her throat and steeled herself with a deep breath, staring into the fire as she murmured, "I never said thank you."
Lin could feel Pema's eyes on her but she didn't turn to meet them. "I'm sorry," Pema said, "what was that?" Lin did look sharply over at the other woman then, and Pema chuckled. "I'm kidding. You don't have to thank me."
"Sora told me what you did," Lin went on. "If she had taken that hit instead of you… Well, let's just say I'm glad she had you there to protect her when I couldn't."
"I'm not going to lie, it was pretty painful, and kind of scary when I started thinking I was about to die, but it was the least I could do. After what your family did, to protect my family and the airbenders, I couldn't have lived with myself if I just stood there and let them pummel Sora into the ground." She frowned, and there was an anger on her face that Lin understood all too well. "Those Red Lotus were monsters, and I'm onlysorry that I couldn't do more to stop them."
"Yeah, me too," Lin muttered, her gaze drifting unconsciously over to where Yunjin sat. The boy did look better, his hair cut a little shorter but no longer unkempt, back to its usual luster and braided as he liked it. He was smirking as he talked to his older brother, sitting casually in his wheelchair and not slumped over. He was still regaining weight and strength, but he didn't look frail or sickly, no longer did he have dark shadows under his eyes. Lin still didn't trust the leg braces Kuvira had sent for him, but they did appear to be working. Yunjin was improving more and more each day, at a faster rate than before. The physical therapist didn't want him to become reliant on the leg braces, but couldn't deny that it was a huge help for him to strengthen muscles that had gone unused for so long, and it aided in rebuilding the boy's confidence. He could walk most of the time now with the braces. He only used the chair to give himself a break, or when he knew he would mostly be sitting anyways. Lin knew that it was a miracle he was walking at all, that he was improving and recovering, but it had been a long road getting there, and Yunjin had been so deeply changed by it, and she would forever wish that she could have prevented it.
"It's good to see him like this again," Pema said softly.
"To be honest I thought you'd be pissed," Lin admitted. "He and Jinora didn't end on very good terms. I know the girl must have been heartbroken."
"She was devastated," Pema confirmed with a grimace, "but I think deep down she knew as well as the rest of us that he was in a bad way. I don't like to see her hurting, but I couldn't be angry at Yunjin for it. He's been through a terrible ordeal."
"He feels guilty enough about it already," Lin revealed. She knew her son well enough without him having to tell her so. "Hopefully they can sort it out and at least be friends. She's good for him, listens to her better than me most of the time."
"If there's one thing I've learned about those two, it's that it's impossible to keep them apart for long."
And Lin could not argue that.
From there she moved on to her sister again, settling back down between Su and Tenzin and focusing on her sister for a moment. Opal's attention had been diverted across the circle, where she had gone to talk to Asami, and Tenzin was talking to Bumi next to him, so Su was looking into the fire and essentially on her own.
Lin scooted closer to her and quietly asked, "So how are things really going at home?"
Su blinked lazily and slowly turned to face Lin, brow furrowed in confusion. "Whatever do you mean?"
"Come on, Su," Lin pressed. "You don't have to play that game with me."
"What game?" Su questioned, still acting oblivious. "I told you everything is just fine. It's been very busy, actually, with building new airships and training new guards, and we've had a lot of people come to Zaofu seeking new homes, what with all the chaos in the rest of the Earth Kingdom. It's a bit exciting, almost like when Bataar and I first built the place."
Lin huffed in frustration and opened her mouth to continue badgering Su, to get the truth from her sister, but she caught herself and shut her mouth instead. She didn't need verbal confirmation of Su's struggle. She didn't need to force her sister to talk about it just then.
"Well," Lin said, reaching out to squeeze Su's shoulder, "I look forward to seeing the progress you've made. We'll finally be coming to Zaofu for a little vacation."
Su actually looked delighted by the prospect, brightening up as she eagerly asked, "Are you really? How long will you be staying?"
"No set time frame really," Lin answered with a shrug. "A week or two, maybe. Just until you get sick of us or things start to fall apart here."
"Can Tenzin be gone that long? Who will look after the airbenders? Are you sure Yunjin will want to make the trip?"
"Nira and Kya can handle it for a while, and yes, Yunjin wants to come," Lin assured. "We'll all be there."
Su smiled, and for once it actually looked genuine. "I'm so glad. It's been too long since we were all together, and you're really in need of a vacation, and –"
She paused as Opal returned, sitting down next to her mother with a smile and curiously asking, "What'd I miss?"
"Your Aunt Lin and the family are finally coming to Zaofu for a vacation," Su replied.
"That's great," Opal said brightly, "and it reminds me. I'm coming home too. I already cleared it with Uncle Tenzin."
Su looked half prepared to cry tears of joy, hurriedly pulling Opal into a hug and expressing her delight.
Then, a clinging of metal against glass and Kya's voice calling across the circle suddenly lifted everyone's gaze in that direction.
Kya was standing, with Nira and Amali sitting next to her, and her hand on Nira's shoulder. The three of them were smiling at each other like they had a secret, and everyone hushed to listen to what Kya had to say.
"I just wanted to say a few words before we start the new year," she began. "There have been quite a few changes over the last few months and a lot of us have been a bit of a mess, but since we're finally sorting ourselves out, I think this is as good a time as any to pat ourselves on the back, myself especially."
"Wow, what a riveting speech," Bumi teased.
"And so humble too," Tenzin added
"Hush, let me finish," Kya told her brothers, with a sharp look for each of them. "I'm not trying to boast about my yearlong success at being a more reliable, sober person. I'm only up here to thank the people that made it possible."
"You're welcome," Bumi said, raising his glass of liquor and smiling cheerfully.
Kya rolled her eyes and continued, "Of course I love all of you so I'm not gonna name all twenty some or whatever that there are. Mostly my daughter Akira, who has kept me going all these years, and Amali, who reminds me every day to be positive, and Nira, the most beautiful and wonderful person I've ever met. I know there's been some speculation about Nira and I, and we've been pretty silent about it while we were figuring things out. But now, in front of family and friends, we'd like to finally admit that yes, we are in a committed relationship, so please let everyone know that I am a kept woman now. I know they'll be devastated to hear I'm no longer on the market."
"Boring! Tell us something we don't know," Bumi heckled.
Tenzin, on the other hand, exclaimed, "You and Nira are what?!"
Everyone turned to look at him in confusion, as if expecting him to be making a joke, but his eyes were genuinely widened in surprise.
Ronen asked his father, "You didn't know?"
"How did you not know?" Sora questioned.
"Everybody knows," Yunjin added.
"You knew about this," Lin insisted.
"No, I did not!" Tenzin argued.
"I definitely told you about them sleeping together, like, an eternity ago," Lin countered. "You must have forgot."
"I very much doubt that I would forget you telling me that my sister was sleeping with Nira."
"Okayyyy, this conversation is veering off in the wrong direction," Kya interjected, while Nira covered her face with her hands and shook her head.
"No, this is the absolute right direction," Bumi disagreed with a grin.
Lin was starting to think she had actually forgotten to tell her husband about Nira and Kya, but even so. "You didn't notice from the way they've been acting?"
"How were they acting?" Tenzin shrilly demanded.
"Spirit's, Tenzin," Su said, "I was only here a handful of times and even I noticed."
"It's a good thing Tenzin isn't the detective in the family," Mako said.
"Wow, Mako," Bolin chuckled, "that was almost a funny joke."
"I thought Aunt Lin told you about it," Opal said to her mother.
"It was you I told!" Lin realized, whirling on her sister, and then turning just as quickly back to Tenzin. "Sorry, Tenz, apparently I told Su instead of you."
"I told you that in confidence," Nira grumbled to Lin. "You weren't supposed to tell everyone."
"I didn't tell everyone," Lin defended. "I told Su."
"So you told everyone," Kya surmised.
"Hey! I am not a gossip!" Su protested.
"Right, and I'm not an alcoholic," Kya deadpanned.
"Well, not anymore," Bumi muttered, almost sounding disappointed.
"I really love coming here," Akira sighed happily. "You can't get this kind of free entertainment anywhere else."
"I can think of a hundred other things that people would find more entertaining," Ronen joked.
"Yeah, but I'd take this over the opera any day," Asami said.
Yunjin wrinkled his nose. "Does anyone actually like the opera?"
"I do," Sora huffed.
"Of course you do," Yunjin said.
"There's nothing wrong with the opera," Jinora defended Sora. "It's quite beautiful."
"You two are such nerds," Kai snickered, ducking away when Jinora tried to punch him in the shoulder.
"Well regardless of who knew and who didn't," Su cut in through all the chatter, raising her glass and tipping it in Nira and Kya's direction, "we're all very happy for the two of you."
"To Nira and Kya," Pema concurred, raising her own glass with a smile.
"I'll drink to that," Bumi agreed.
"You'll drink to anything," Lin pointed out.
As Kya was sitting back down, smiling and thanking everyone that toasted to her and Nira, Tenzin rose to his feet, holding aloft his glass of water and saying softly, "Even though I had no idea any of this was going on, so long as the two of you are happy together, I am happy too. I wish you many great years together. I had actually intended to say a few words myself –"
Bumi immediately groaned; and Jeia, Ikki, and Meelo called, "Only two minutes left!"
"I'll be quick!" Tenzin promised. "We went into this year on unsure footing, and there were times we thought we'd never make it to the other end, but we approach this next year with brighter promises ahead. I just want to thank all of you for the support and love you've given, and I especially want to recognize my children and my wife. To Ronen, the glue that has undoubtedly held us all together. And Sora, who's compassion and dedication inspire me every day. To Yunjin: you are the strongest person I have ever met in all my years. And Jeia, my darling girl; I thank whatever earth spirit brought you into our lives –"
"Pretty sure that was me," Lin muttered.
"And," Tenzin continued, turning a beaming smile onto Lin and grasping her shoulder, like Kya had held Nira's earlier, "to my wife, for giving me this wonderful –" his voice cracked with emotion and his eyes were looking suspiciously wet – "wonderful life."
"Are we sure he's not drunk?" Yunjin asked his siblings, who laughed along with most of the people around the circle.
"I could go on," Tenzin offered.
"Please don't," Bumi replied.
"You've embarrassed us enough," Ronen teased.
"Thirty seconds!" the younger kids declared.
Everyone around the circle began to rise in anticipation, and Lin rose with them, wrapping her arms around Tenzin's waist and smirking up at him. "You old softy. You're getting worse with age."
"I love you more than words could ever express," he murmured, his own arms curling around her.
"You really are drunk, aren't you?" she jokingly accused.
"I may be slightly delirious," he admitted. "It's far past my bedtime."
Lin tipped her head back and laughed as the final countdown began.
"Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Happy New Year!"
The assembled group all cheered and hugged or kissed or tipped back a shot of liquor. Lin took Tenzin's face in her hands and dragged him down to meet his lips with hers. She only pulled away when she felt something crash into her side, and she and Tenzin both looked down to see Jeia staring up at them.
"Can we go to sleep now?" she asked, and just like that Lin was laughing again, Tenzin along with her.
"That sounds like an excellent idea," Tenzin replied, pulling Jeia into a one-armed hug. "Now I am certain that you're mine."
Lin snorted. "You weren't before?"
A sudden hush fell over the group, which was exceptionally odd considering how rowdy most of them had been three seconds ago, and Lin craned her neck to look around Tenzin and see what everyone had quieted for.
"Sorry to interrupt," a weirdly familiar voice said, as a shadowy silhouette drew closer to the fire and slowly became more recognizable. "I just arrived and thought I'd sneak into an empty bed for the night. I didn't realize it was only just midnight."
Lin scrutinized the features of the newcomer, but couldn't place the woman in her mind, not until she felt Kya's heart rate pick up from across the fire, and heard the shocked exclamation of "Yumae?!"
Everyone was silent for a stunned pause, until Bumi's voice broke through with a cackle as he crowed, "Bet you wish you still drank now."
Notes:
My sincerest apologies for the long wait, my dear readers, but you know how the holidays are. Between my brother visiting and work being crazy busy and all the other nonsense, I didn't have much time to dedicate to this chapter. But I stayed up all night and finally finished, and I hope you all enjoyed. Up next, Kya's ex-girlfriend is in town and the Linzin family take a detour on their way to Zaofu. I look forward to your reviews, and Happy New Year to you all!
Chapter 88: Chapter 88
Chapter Text
Chapter 88
The arrival of Kya's ex-girlfriend Yumae introduced a whole host of complications.
For one, Tenzin was extremely distraught that he could not go to bed as planned. Somewhat surprisingly, Yumae was not visiting Air Temple Island for the first time in several years with the sole purpose of seeing Kya. She first wanted to speak to Tenzin, about troubles in her village, and Tenzin immediately went into councilman mode despite the late hour. Yumae offered to hold the conversation till morning, but there would be no hope for rest if they were all waiting in anticipation to find out what she intended to ask for. So Lin followed Tenzin somewhat reluctantly into his study, shooing the kids off to bed even though she doubted any of them would listen. Su and Bumi seemed about to join Lin, Tenzin, and Yumae out of curiosity, but apparently wanted to keep the new year party going instead, so they stayed behind with Mako, Bolin, and Su's kids. Kya, on the other hand, trailed right behind Lin, after urging Nira to take Amali to bed and promising to come find Nira later.
Once Lin, Tenzin, Kya, and Yumae were closed into Tenzin's study, Yumae quickly began, "I'm sorry to just drop in like this, but I didn't have the time to send a letter. It was difficult enough getting here. I've been traveling for days, avoiding bandits and armies alike. I know we haven't spoken in many years, but I didn't know who else to come to, and I had heard that the new Air Nation was helping in other areas of the Earth Kingdom."
"We go where we can," Tenzin confirmed. "Has your village been having trouble with bandits?"
"No, it's not the bandits that are the problem," Yumae answered. "We have plentiful harvests. Whatever food the bandits need they can have. Our problem is Xai. He was elected as our leading councilman shortly before Ba Sing Se fell. He used the death of the Queen to strengthen his power and enforce stricter laws. He has the backing of the village police and he inserted his own people into the council. But more troubling, now people have begun to go missing, particularly young women. My sister is one of them."
"Shuri?" Kya gasped.
Yumae nodded grimly. "She's been gone two weeks now. It isn't like her to run off without at least a letter, and when I had heard about all the other girls missing… Many of us think Xai is taking them, but we can't prove it and the police aren't investigating. Some of the villagers and I tried coordinating attacks of our own on Xai's mansion, but the police are always three steps ahead of us. Many have been arrested on false charges. We need someone on the outside with powerful influence. There is no government to call on with the Earth Kingdom in disarray, so this is my only hope."
"Technically speaking, Kuvira has been chosen as the Earth Kingdom's provisional leader," Tenzin said, looking contemplative as he stroked his beard. "Have you tried contacting her military? I'm surprised that, with your village's proximity to Ba Sing Se, that she hasn't already brought you into the fold."
"Oh she has," Yumae revealed, "but she hasn't been back since, and the few troops she left behind are practically children themselves. They don't know how to handle it. Xai smooth talks them or maybe he pays them off and they ignore it. They don't want to report any problems to Kuvira because they don't want to face punishment."
"How many women have gone missing?" Lin asked. "Are any of them children?"
"I don't think so," Yumae said, considering. "There have been at least twelve so far, all women in their twenties. Kuvira took many of our people for her army. The women that are disappearing are either unattached or their spouses are off serving Kuvira. The only people noticing their absence are friends mostly, some relatives, and they don't always notice for several days. Xai is trying to say they're running away. He's using it as an excuse to lock people in, nobody in or out of the village without his say so."
"So then how did you get out?" Lin questioned.
"I had some help distracting the guards. We had decided that I would be the one to come here to beg for your help."
"I'm certainly concerned about what might be going on there," Tenzin told Yumae, "but I'm also concerned about what our involvement could cause. Lin and I no longer have any official power, and the Air Nation deals mainly with rogue bandits in territories Kuvira hasn't reached yet. If she gets word that we're messing with an elected government official in her jurisdiction, she may consider it an act against her."
"Isn't she family?" Yumae asked in confusion. "Contact her then. Tell her you'll be there and why."
"It's… not quite that simple," Lin muttered, folding her arms across her chest.
"Well we have to do something," Kya insisted. "Kuvira will understand."
"No, I don't think she will," Tenzin said calmly, before Lin could say something rude, "but you're right. We must do something. We were already planning to leave for Zaofu in a few days. We'll stop at Yumae's village on the way."
"Will you bring some of the airbenders with you?" Yumae inquired.
"No, I don't want it to look like we're there to start a fight," Tenzin reasoned. "If I arrive with just my family then Xai may not suspect what we're there for. It will give us time to investigate before we confront him."
"I'll travel with you," Yumae decided.
"And I'll come for support too," Kya offered.
"That's not a good idea," Lin interjected, frowning pointedly at Kya, and then turning a sharp gaze on Yumae. "If we show up with you then Xai will know you enlisted our help. We can leave you on the outskirts if you want a ride home, but that's the best we can do without blowing our cover straight out of the gate. And Kya, you need to stay here and help Nira keep track of the airbenders."
"You may need my help," Yumae insisted. "I know that village and its people, and you'll need that information or you'll be going in blind."
"You can write it all down for us before we leave," Lin countered. "You've got two days. We'll discuss the rest of this tomorrow."
Yumae seemed to sense Lin's unwillingness to budge and the finality in her tone and inclined her head without further argument.
"We're a bit short on space at the moment," Tenzin told Yumae apologetically. "I'm not sure that we'll have a room. You'll likely have to bunk with someone –"
"She can have my room," Kya cut in, and Lin and Tenzin both looked at her incredulously. "What? I don't really sleep there anymore."
You'd better not sleep there tonight, Lin wanted to say, but she pursed her lips instead.
"I appreciate it," Yumae said sincerely. "All of it, not just the room."
"Don't thank us yet," Lin said.
Yumae shrugged. "The effort is something at least. I'll see you tomorrow then. Sorry again for crashing the party."
"It's completely understandable under the circumstances," Kya assured. "I can show you to my room."
"I think she can show herself," Lin snapped.
Kya frowned and opened her mouth to snap back, but Yumae hurriedly cut in, "It's okay. I think I remember how to find it. But we should catch up later. It's good to see you, Kya."
Yumae smiled tiredly in Kya's direction, and then slipped out of Tenzin's study, leaving the door half ajar.
Kya barely waited until Yumae had disappeared around the corner before whirling on Lin and demanding, "What the hell was that? You were being rude, exceptionally so considering her little sister is missing."
"I'm just trying to stop you from doing something stupid," Lin defended, "or are you forgetting about Nira already?"
"Spirit's sake," Kya huffed. "I haven't forgotten. I just stood out there in front of everyone and made that cheesy ass speech about how much I adore her, and I was sober. I'm not planning on dropping her the second Yumae shows up. Do you really trust me that little?"
"It's not necessarily a matter of trust," Tenzin said. "We're only trying to look out for you."
"Great," Kya snorted humorlessly, "so no matter what I do you'll always expect me to fail. Good to know."
"Kya," Lin called, as her sister-in-law went storming out of the room, but Kya did not stop. She turned to her husband and sighed a regretful, "Shit."
"She'll calm down," Tenzin soothed, landing his hand on Lin's shoulder with a soft squeeze. "I think seeing Yumae has thrown her and she doesn't want to admit it."
"Yeah, and we know what she does when she's feeling off balance."
"She has been doing well for a while now. I don't think there's reason to suspect she'll go back on her old ways."
"Even so, I'm keeping an eye on Yumae," Lin grumbled. "She broke Kya's heart once. I'm not letting her do anymore damage."
"What do you make of her story?" Tenzin inquired. "Do you think all of it is factual as she described it?"
"I think there are a lot of missing pieces and not a whole lot of facts," Lin concluded, "but whatever's going on can't be good. I just hope it isn't as bad as it sounds."
Tenzin nodded and grimly agreed, "Me too."
"You're sure about taking the kids with us?"
"The matter seems too serious to hand off to any of the airbenders, and I don't want any of us separated. Bringing the children along seems the only choice, but it also seems a wise choice. They may well speed the investigation along with their input. Considering what they've been through I don't see how this could be any worse."
Lin could imagine much worse things, but she could also concede that the kids were well beyond needing to be coddled.
"How much do you want to bet that all four of them are waiting in the living room for us to come back, instead of going to bed like I told them to?"
"Oh, I have no doubts."
She sighed. "I miss the days when they listened to me."
Tenzin chuckled. "Are you sure you didn't imagine those days?"
Lin nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right."
As expected, the four kids were all waiting in the living room when Lin and Tenzin entered, Asami with them, and they all turned expectant looks on their parents as Lin softly scowled at them.
"Didn't I tell you all to go to bed?"
"I think you knew perfectly well that that wouldn't happen," Ronen casually replied.
"What did Yumae want?" Yunjin asked.
"She came on behalf of her village," Tenzin began to explain. "Some young women have gone missing recently, including her younger sister. She suspects the leader of the town, Xai, is to blame, that he is using the police and his council to cover it up."
"Oh, so it's serious then," Sora surmised, looking worried.
"Yes," Tenzin confirmed. "Your mother and I have agreed to look in on the situation."
"You agreed," Lin muttered.
"And the four of you will be coming with us," Tenzin went on. "It'll be a family investigation before we go to Zaofu for a much-needed vacation, and to support your Aunt Su."
"You're making this sound oddly cheerful," Lin said, squinting her eyes at him.
"Would you mind if I come along?" Asami inquired hesitantly.
"Well he did say family vacation and Mom did declare herself your protector," Ronen said, throwing a smirk in his mother's direction.
"You did what?" Tenzin asked in confusion.
Lin waved a hand and dismissed, "It's a long story. I'll tell you later."
"Wait," Yunjin cut in, "did you say you're actually taking us with you? Into a situation that might be dangerous? Without us arguing our case? Okay, now I know you're drunk."
"I'm not without my concerns," Tenzin admitted, "but I also recognize that you are all growing up and can be quite helpful. I wouldn't have agreed to make you and Sora masters if I didn't believe in your capabilities, and Ronen, well, you've been running off to investigate crimes with Korra for years now. Besides, it's better we all stick together, is it not?"
"Finally!" Sora exclaimed in plain relief. "I've only been saying that for seventy-five years."
"Well we're listening to you now," Lin pointed out, and Sora gave her a look.
"Does that mean I get to help?!" Jeia enthusiastically cried, bouncing a little in her seat.
"Uhh we'll see," Lin hedged.
"So, that's a yes?" Jeia said with hopeful eyes.
"It's a no until your life depends on it," Lin corrected.
Jeia rolled her eyes with a huff and folded her arms across her chest. "You never let me have any fun."
"You're right, that is exactly my intent," Lin sassed.
"Where does Yumae think this Xai person is keeping these women?" Ronen questioned, getting back to the point. "And why is he taking them?"
"Well, that's the mystery we'll have to solve," Tenzin answered. "No one has any clue where the women are being taken. They've simply been disappearing at random, according to Yumae."
"So what's our plan then?" Yunjin wanted to know. "We just walk into the village and demand an audience with their leader?"
"I believe, in this case, we should use our celebrity names to our advantage," Tenzin replied. "We'll enter the village under the pretense that we've been travelling for a while, perhaps harried by some bandits, and are in need of a place to stay for a few nights before we move on. We'll make our presence known, and see if this Xai attempts to seek us out. If not, I can create some reason to speak with him, tell him I want to offer the services of the Air Nation if he's interested. Meanwhile, we can also speak to the people in the village, see if we can get any more information on the disappearances."
"That's a good plan, but it could get us kicked out before we have a chance to learn anything," Ronen pointed out. "If Xai notices us sniffing around he'll clam up and we'll get nothing out of him."
"Do you have a backup in case he turns on us?" Asami added.
"Yeah," Lin said mildly, "we start knocking heads. If he won't budge or he sends his police after us then we'll just kick the door down and see for ourselves if he's got those women trapped in his mansion."
"It's a wonder they let you be Chief for as long as you were with that mentality," Sora teased.
Lin shrugged. "I'm old. I don't have the patience anymore."
Yunjin snorted. "So you plan to take on the entire police force with just the five of you, a cripple, and maybe a six year old if she's allowed?"
"Hey," Jeia protested. "I'm just as good as an adult. Mama said so."
"It's small town police," Lin dismissed. "There won't be many of them and half will be rookies or a week away from retirement."
"Even so," Tenzin admonished his wife, "that's an absolute last resort. Diplomacy is the best way to handle this until we're certain there's foul play."
"Yeah, yeah," Lin relented, "but if that's the case, I'd better not meet this Xai myself until you're ready for me to knock his teeth in."
"Two years into retirement and she's already itching for a fight," Ronen said to his siblings.
"It's been too long since she's been allowed to punch someone," Yunjin sympathized.
Lin opened her mouth to argue, but Sora spoke up first saying, "I have an idea." Everyone looked at her expectantly, and she hesitated, seeming surprised for a second that they were actually waiting to hear it, and then she hurriedly finished, "I can be the bait."
"No," Lin immediately said.
"You didn't even hear the rest of –"
"No," Lin repeated.
Sora huffed in frustration. "You say I'm ready to be a master but you still won't let me be a master."
"Well, I am still your mother."
"You're also not listening," Sora countered.
Tenzin put a stilling hand on Lin's shoulder, giving her a look that she understood all to well, and she gritted her teeth, holding back a retort and simply folding her arms across her chest and pursing her lips.
"We're listening," Tenzin told Sora.
Sora sucked in a deep breath and began, "I would arrive separately, on my own, posed as a refugee seeking somewhere safe to stay. You guys can still go about the original plan, talking to the villagers and trying to get an audience with Xai. Meanwhile, I'll make myself look like an easy target, and hopefully whoever is snatching the women will notice me and take an interest. Then, if I'm taken to Xai's or wherever, I can find the other women and then use my spirit projection to tell you guys where to find us."
"It's too dangerous," Lin asserted.
"If it's too much for me to handle I'll fight my way out or immediately call you for help," Sora insisted. "But it worked when I got captured by the Dai Li and I wasn't even doing that on purpose."
"Yeah, and you also got hurt –"
"A few bruises won't kill me –"
"You're probably too young anyways. Yumae says it's mostly women in their twenties."
"So I'll make myself look older. It's not that far of a stretch to think I look young for my age."
"You are young –"
"I'll go with her," Asami suddenly interjected, cutting off Lin's argument.
"I'm sorry, what?" Ronen said in bewilderment.
"I'll arrive with Sora," Asami said again. "We'll pose as sisters. If they won't grab her, they'll at least take me and she can track them. Or they'll take both of us and we'll be able to protect each other. Problem solved."
"I don't like the idea of either of you being used as bait," Tenzin said, stroking his beard and frowning thoughtfully. "I don't doubt your capabilities, but it's a major risk."
Yunjin reasoned, "But if it works it'll solve the mystery much faster, and it'll deliver stronger evidence to use against the creep."
"I hate to admit it, but he's right," Ronen agreed. "If Sora and Asami can get on the inside, we'll have all the proof we need, and it'll tell us exactly what's going on."
"I can be bait," Jeia chimed in.
And everyone in the room collectively countered, "No."
Jeia groaned dramatically and slumped back in the couch. "You guys are boring."
Lin sensed movement approaching and turned just as the front door suddenly swung open, and Mako and Bolin came clambering in.
"Oh good, you're here," Bolin said with delight.
"Did you find out what that woman needed?" Mako asked.
"Her village needs saving, the usual," Ronen replied.
"Oh really?" Mako said with interest. "What exactly did she –"
"I'd love to hear the story too," Bolin interrupted, "but we're actually here for another reason. "Opal sent for you, Chief – er – I mean Lin – I mean ma'am – I mean Mrs. Beifong? –"
"What?" Lin snapped impatiently. "What did she need?"
"Oh, Bumi is getting Su plastered," Mako said casually.
"Oh for spirit's sake!" Lin exclaimed, turning an accusing look on her husband. "Why did you let me leave her alone with him?"
"Me?! How was I supposed to know she'd let Bumi persuade her?"
"You know she's in a fragile state," Lin said through gritted teeth.
"I assumed her children would stop her," Tenzin defended.
"The five of us actually left a little bit ago with Akira," Bolin revealed. "Wei and Wing made another new game. Or was it an old game? Or did they even invent it?"
"Ugh!" Lin grumbled. "Do I have to do everything around here?"
She stormed towards the exit, Bolin and Mako leaping out of the way just in time for her to barrel through the doorway. Tenzin came hurrying after her calling, "I'll come with you –"
But Lin whirled around to face him, poking her pointer finger into his chest as he flailed his arms and came to an abrupt stop. "No," she told him, "you need to go check on your own sister, make sure she's not doing something stupid."
"Oh, yes," Tenzin said in realization, "you're right I should probably go do that…" He sighed wearily and his shoulders slumped as he pouted, "I just want to go to sleep."
But he still went off in the direction of the women's dorms, where Kya would probably be, hopefully with Nira, while Lin went back to the fire to get Su.
It was another hour before Lin and Tenzin were finally able to collapse into bed together, their sisters accounted for and their kids finally in bed too.
Tenzin was half asleep as he muttered, "Told Kya we were sorry. She seems okay."
"She's with Nira?" Lin had to make sure.
"Mmhmm," Tenzin hummed, nodding his head against Lin's shoulder, laying partially on top of her. "How drunk was Su?"
"Just drunk enough to get her to go to bed," Lin rasped, eyes closed and sleep already beginning to drag her down. "Got to her before Bumi could make it worse."
"Need to talk to him," Tenzin mumbled. "'Bout his bad habits."
Lin snorted but couldn't muster the energy to respond, her vocal cords apparently asleep even before she was. Tenzin kissed the only part of her he could reach without moving, which was her collarbone, and that was the last thing she remembered before she was pulled under at last.
The second complication to come from the arrival of Kya's ex-girlfriend became apparent the following evening.
In the morning, everyone rose at different times, so breakfast was scattered and mostly separate. Lin and Tenzin ate the left-over scraps of something Sora had made, which led to Lin scouring the cupboards in search of something with carbs or meat because she was still starving and couldn't live off of vegetables like Sora did. Afterwards, the pair went to find Yumae, who was in the dining hall surrounded by a few acolytes and airbenders, all of them enraptured by whatever she was saying. Yumae could make friends wherever she went. Even when she was so bogged down with stress and worry for her sister and her village, she could captivate anyone with her words and her wit. Or at least, that's what Kya used to say about her. Lin had rarely been captivated by anyone, though she could admit that Yumae was fairly charismatic. Which was what had Lin worried.
Once Lin had inserted herself into the group, the acolytes and airbenders started to disperse, catching her sharp look and the jerk of her head – or maybe they just listened to Tenzin when he softly asked them to give him a moment with Yumae. Then Yumae went through everything with Lin and Tenzin, people in her village to talk to, a rough sketch of a map, and everything she knew so far about the disappearances, which wasn't much. She had talked to someone that saw it happen, a woman being snatched in the middle of the night, grabbed by two hooded figures and dragged away too fast to follow. Another villager claimed the police had come to talk to one of the missing women, and the next day she was nowhere to be found. One older woman insisted her son was taken too, another young person in their twenties, but Yumae wasn't certain he hadn't simply run off because his mother was supposedly difficult to deal with.
After all that, it was time to start packing and planning. Lin still wasn't thrilled with the idea of Sora going in as bait, but she knew the kid was good and she'd have Asami with her. Not to mention that Lin had every intention of keeping close to the two of them, even if they would be going into Yumae's village separately. She was going to be wandering the town with Jeia and Yunjin while Tenzin and Ronen tried the diplomatic route, and while Lin was questioning and spying on villagers, she'd also be tracking Sora and Asami as much as she possibly could. The girls had strict instructions on where to go in the village, and so long as they stayed within those areas, Lin would be able to find them.
Su left that afternoon too, along with Opal, Wei, and Wing, to go back to Zaofu. She had been sorely tempted to join her sister and the others in their investigation, but she seemed hesitant to go anywhere else in the Earth Kingdom, as if she was afraid she might run into Junior or Kuvira. As desperate as she was to see her son, she was also worried about how that reunion might go. She still hadn't told Lin all of what had been said when Junior and Kuvira left Zaofu, but Lin had a feeling it had been particularly hurtful, not least because of the whole betrayal. However, Su did urge Lin to write to her if the situation in Yumae's village got out of hand or was going on too long, and she would be there to help as quick as possible. Lin was annoyed that she had to wait to go to Zaofu at all, especially when she felt so sure that her sister needed her, but a slew of disappearances did warrant some concern, so she sucked it up for now.
Dinner in the house that night was distinctly quieter, with Su's family gone, Mako back at work, Bumi out in the city with Bolin and some friends, and Kya noticeably absent. Nira and Amali were there, even though they would usually have dinner in the dining hall with Kya, or Kya would go to the main house with them. No one asked Nira where Kya was, but it wasn't hard to guess that she'd be with Yumae. So once dinner was over, and Amali was distracted talking to Yunjin, Lin approached Nira to find out more.
As the two women were walking dirty dishes into the kitchen, Lin quietly murmured, "Please tell me you two aren't fighting over this. Tenzin said everything was fine last night."
"No, not fighting," Nira replied in a low voice, glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one was following them as they entered the kitchen. "They wanted to catch up over dinner and I figured I'd be in the way, and I think it's confusing Amali, so the two of us came here for dinner."
"And you're okay with leaving the two of them alone?" Lin said incredulously once the door swung shut behind them.
Nira deflated once she was in the empty room, shoulders slumping and expression weary as she sighed, "What else am I supposed to do? I can't control her every move."
"No, but you can tell her not to be hanging around with her ex," Lin insisted. "You have that right, you know?"
"Kya loved her very much," Nira reasoned. "I can't say what I would do if Azu suddenly walked through the door."
"That's different," Lin dismissed. "Azu didn't leave you. Yumae pushed Kya away. She has no right to come back in here and expect Kya's attention."
"I think she really is just here for her village and her sister," Nira claimed, "and even if she isn't, Kya will have to decide what she wants. I can't decide that for her."
"Why not?" Lin countered. "Pretty sure I decided for Tenzin."
Nira smirked fondly. "No, you didn't. He was – and still is – desperately in love with you. There was no choice for him to make. And if that's not what I am to Kya then it's better to find that out now."
"Except Kya doesn't always know what's good for her," Lin pointed out. "Sometimes she needs a nudge."
"She knows better than you think," Nira defended, smiling a little but it looked pained. "All I can do is hope that I know her as well as I think I do."
Lin didn't like that plan at all, but she wanted to believe that Kya would make the right choice, and goading Nira into worrying about it wasn't the right move.
Lin sighed too. "Well, do you want to hide out here for the evening or go spy on them? Either way, I'm with you."
Nira chuckled. "Amali and I will stay here a bit longer, if that's all right."
"'Course it is. And you're not doing the dishes," she added, snatching the plates out of Nira's hands. "It's Jeia's turn she's just trying to get out of it."
Nira and Amali stayed for a little over an hour, playing cards with Lin, Tenzin, Sora, Asami, and Jeia. Yunjin and Ronen were in a corner of the living room pouring over some old looking book. After a while, Lin got tired of playing, and went to go make some tea. Nira followed, and Lin didn't say anything, but Nira seemed to be rethinking her earlier words, staring out into the courtyard and mumbling mostly to herself, "It is getting late. I wonder if they're still catching up."
Lin just nudged Nira gently away from the window, pressing a cup of tea into her hands.
It was just as the two women were about to reenter the living room that the front door swung open, and in came Kya.
Amali immediately hopped up from her seat on the floor with a grin and a delighted, "Kya!"
"There you are, kiddo," Kya said with a smile, opening her arms just as Amali leapt into her embrace. "I've been looking all over, and here you are partying the night away. It's past your bedtime, isn't it?"
"Do I even have a bedtime?" Amali retorted.
"Okay, smarty pants," Kya snorted. "Well, you ought to have one."
"Nah, I don't think so," Amali said with a barely suppressed laugh. She tugged on Kya's hand. "Come play cards with us."
Kya looked over at the group waiting in a circle for the game to resume, and then her eyes scanned the rest of the room until she found who she was looking for. Her eyes didn't leave Nira's as she patted Amali's shoulder and said, "I'll be there in a minute, sweetheart."
Amali went back to finish the game without argument, and Kya strode straight over to Nira and Lin. She grasped Nira's elbow and leaned in to kiss her cheek saying, "Sorry I'm so late. I didn't realize you'd still be here so I went looking around the dorms and I ran into that new girl, Ari. She was having a meltdown, about her roommate being messy and noisy or something, but I think she's just homesick, so I had to talk her down, it was a whole thing."
"Oh," Nira said, sounding almost as bewildered as Lin felt, "that's okay."
"How was dinner with Yumae?" Lin asked, because she wasn't certain Nira would.
Kya snorted, looking amused. "She was trying to get me drunk ten minutes in. She's worried about her sister and I think she just didn't want to get drunk alone. So I started telling her how drinking to deal with stress never turns out well and quickly realized I was that buzz kill now."
Kya seemed unperturbed, but Nira looked worried. "She didn't pressure you did she?"
"Oh no she definitely did," Kya said with a chuckle. "She seemed confused when I finally told her I was staying sober, and I started thinking back to how much time we spent drinking when we were together. Granted, she was a lot more moderate than I was, more like a glass with dinner instead of a whole bottle, but I don't think she ever saw it as a problem." Kya shrugged. "Must be why I never saw it as a problem either." Suddenly, a thought seemed to occur to her, and she frowned. "Wait, you weren't worried, were you?"
"Well, not worried per say," Nira said slowly. "I didn't expect you to… I just know how much she meant to you and –"
"Yeah, she did," Kya said softly, "and I'll always be glad for the time I had with her. She taught me a lot, and she was patient with me for a while. And don't get me wrong, I was definitely tempted by the alcohol, I don't think that'll go away anytime soon, if ever, but it wasn't even a choice. You're kind of the best thing that ever happened to me."
"Spirit's," Lin muttered, "you really have turned into a sap."
"I like it," Nira said with a smirk, looping her arm through Kya's and tugging Kya closer.
"Oh, well, there's more where that came from," Kya promised, giving Nira a seductive look, and Lin rolled her eyes.
"Gag. I'm gonna leave you two now –"
Kya laughed and reached out to snag Lin's sleeve before she could get away. "Hey, I'm sorry about last night, by the way. I know you were just being protective. And I really have made some terrible life choices. I had no right to be mad."
Lin shook her head. "Nah, I should have had more faith in you." Kya was doing better than Lin had seen in her in a very long time. She had finally gotten it right, and Lin didn't think she was going to let anything take that away from her. "It's good to see you like this."
A relief, more like, and Lin had never been so happy to be wrong. Maybe Yumae's arrival wasn't so much of a complication after all.
Well, except for the mystery she had dropped in their laps.
Tenzin landed Oogi about two miles out of Yumae's village, so that Yumae, Sora, and Asami could disembark. Yumae went ahead west, after thanking all of them for the help they were about to give, and Tenzin promised to find her as soon as they found anything out about her sister. Sora and Asami lingered for a moment, going over the plan one last time and promising to be careful. Sora hugged her family, Asami hugged Ronen, and then the two girls started the short trek to the village towards the east. Lin, Tenzin, Ronen, Yunjin, and Jeia watched them go, and then climbed back onto Oogi and flew straight ahead.
They landed in the village a few minutes later, just on the outskirts, where a couple of military personnel surrounded them at once. All three of them just looked like young adults themselves, as Yumae had said, uncertain and twitchy. Their metal armor hung awkwardly on their frames, and they stood several paces back from Oogi, eyeing the animal as if afraid he would strike.
"What's your business here?" one of them demanded.
Tenzin floated down to the ground and slowly approached the young man. "My apologies," he began amicably. "I am Master Tenzin, of the Air Nation, former Councilman of Republic City. My family and I were on our way to visit some family farther south, but we were attacked by bandits a few miles from here. They took all of our food, and it was very stressful for my children. Yours was the closest village we could find to settle down and rest. We were hoping there might be a place to stay for the night. We have money still. I suppose the bandits didn't think to ask for that."
The kid soldier stammered, "We're not really taking tourists right now –"
But one of the others hurried over, elbowing the boy in the side and hissing, "This is Master Tenzin and his family. We can make an exception. Call the sergeant, get him over here."
The sergeant was older, but didn't seem that much more experienced. He grinned at Tenzin and the others while toying with his great, bushy beard, and welcomed them to the village without any questions. He did assign one of Kuvira's soldiers to them, which Tenzin tried and failed to avoid.
"We wouldn't want to trouble one of your soldiers," Tenzin insisted. "I'm sure they all have much better things to be doing."
"Nonsense," the sergeant dismissed. "You'll need someone to show you around town. Haito here will take you to the lodge, get you some food. If you need anything else, he can get it for you."
"We appreciate that very much," Tenzin said with a tight smile.
Haito showed them to the village inn, unnecessarily helped them carry in their few belongings, and then offered to take them to find food. None of them were quite hungry considering they had eaten just before leaving home, but it was clear that Haito wasn't going to let any of them wander around the village without him.
So, after exchanging a brief look with Lin, Tenzin took Haito aside and said, in a tone quiet enough to seem conspiratorial, but loud enough for his family behind him to hear, "I'm afraid only Ronen and I are up to going for lunch. My two youngest were rather upset by the whole ordeal and my wife would like to stay here in the room with them."
"Shouldn't they come with us?" Haito entreated. "Some fresh air and a good meal might do them good."
"I'm afraid not," Tenzin said grimly. "Jeia is so young, you see, and my son…" He sighed. "He's only just recovering."
Tenzin glanced over his shoulder, satisfied to see his family playing their parts perfectly well. Jeia wrapped her arms around her mother's waist and hid her face in Lin's side, while Lin pretended to comfort the girl. Yunjin made a pained expression as he grasped weakly for a nearby chair, collapsing into it with a groan, his metal braces clanking together. Ronen was pressing his lips together to suppress amusement, which to a stranger sort of made him look perturbed.
When Tenzin turned back to Haito, he could see that his family's dramatics had worked. "Well, I suppose if they need the rest," the young soldier said. "They can stay here then."
"Excellent, thank you," Tenzin said gratefully. "Just let me say goodbye…" Tenzin went over to kiss Lin and told her, "We'll be back in about two hours," and she nodded in understanding, checking the clock on the wall to see how much time that allowed her to poke around without supervision. "Ronen and I will bring something back for everyone."
Lin, Jeia, and Yunjin feigned weariness as they waved goodbye to Ronen and Tenzin, and Haito led the two of them back out onto the street.
"Is there anything in particular you're craving for lunch?" Haito asked. "There's some pretty good options around, a few bad ones. The locals here are crazy about their onions, some worse than others, so there's a few places to avoid."
"Oddly enough, I'm craving sweets," Ronen answered, even though the boy didn't actually care much for anything too riddled with sugar – the opposite of the rest of his siblings. But Yumae had said that the owner of the sweet's shop on the south end of the village was someone to talk to. "Are there any sweet shops nearby? With pastries and teas maybe?"
Haito gave Ronen a funny look, and for a second Tenzin feared that they were being too obvious, but then Haito chuckled. "Craving sugar after a battle, eh? I've been there. There's a sweets shop just a few blocks down that should do the trick. The old lady that runs the place is a bit of a bitch, but the cakes are damn good."
"Sounds great," Ronen acquiesced. "You don't mind, do you, Dad?"
"Of course not," Tenzin assured. "Perhaps I could pop into another eatery while you get your sweets."
"That's okay," Haito interjected. "We can do both. You've got to try these rice cakes. Then I'll take you to a good noodle place."
"Very well," Tenzin agreed, as Haito began to lead them forward, exchanging a slightly annoyed look with his son. Shaking Haito was going to be more difficult than he thought.
Once at the sweet's shop, Ronen, Tenzin, and Haito sat down and looked over the small menu. Tenzin only ordered a cup of tea, but Ronen ordered a pastry and Haito a cake.
As they sat there, Tenzin used the opportunity to ask Haito, "How long have you been part of Kuvira's military?"
Haito shrugged, focused fully on his cake and shoving it into his mouth even as he replied, "A few months."
"What made you decide to join?" Tenzin prompted.
"Same as anybody I guess," Haito mumbled. "Responsibility and all that. To help the Earth Kingdom." He suddenly seemed to remember something, choking slightly as he forcefully swallowed his mouthful of cake, eyes watering as he hastily added, "And, of course, the honor of serving the Great Uniter."
Ronen and Tenzin exchanged a look.
"The Great Uniter?" Ronen echoed. "Is that what they're calling Kuvira?"
"She's done a lot of good for us," Haito said, as if reciting rehearsed lines. "Saves us from bandits and anarchy. All villages under her rule are made better than before."
"Like this village?" Ronen questioned, brow pinched with a bit of concern.
"Of course," Haito replied. "I was stationed here pretty early on. There's been no trouble."
"Not even bandits?" Tenzin inquired.
"Well some of them still try, of course, but they don't get past us."
"And there's no one in the town to worry about?" Ronen pressed. "The crime rates are low?"
Haito frowned, and Tenzin could tell they had pushed as far as they could.
"You'll have to excuse my son," Tenzin said with a chuckle. "He's very interested in world events, wants to know all the details."
"I'll stop pestering you," Ronen told Haito, who was starting to relax again. "These sweets really are delicious, by the way. Should we bring some back for the others?" he suggested to his father.
"I think they would quite like that," Tenzin agreed.
"Well, well, well," a wizened voice interjected, prompting the three men to look up at the woman now standing next to their table. She was old and gray, lips pursed half into a scowl, leaning with both hands on a walking stick. "Thought I was lookin' at a ghost when I saw you sat over here. You must be the son of Avatar Aang."
Tenzin smiled kindly and replied, "Indeed I am. And this is my eldest son Ronen." He gestured to the boy and Ronen inclined his head with a polite smile. "And who might you be?"
"I'm Chiyo," the elder woman responded. "This is my shop."
"It's lovely to meet you," Tenzin said with interest. "My son was just raving over your delectable sweets."
"You have quite a gift," Ronen complimented. "How long have you been open?"
"Since long before you were born," Chiyo almost chuckled. "Probably before your parents were too. I was just about your age, I'd say."
"So you've been in this village a long time," Ronen surmised. "I'm sure you know almost everything that goes on around here."
Chiyo dragged the fourth chair out from the table and sat slowly. "I've got some stories I could tell. Once you get to be my age you've seen it all."
"I'm afraid we can't stay much longer," Haito cut in nervously, eyeing the old woman with distrust.
Chiyo shot Haito a dirty look, and Tenzin sought to break the tension by rising to his feet. "Haito, why don't we leave them to chat for a bit and you can help me pick out some sweets for me to bring back to my family? Then we can go."
Tenzin ushered Haito up before he could begin to protest, and Ronen leaned in to whisper with Chiyo the moment Tenzin and Haito were out of ear shot.
Tenzin did his best to prolong picking out sweets, asking a lot of questions and indecisively deliberating, as if he couldn't remember what Jin and Jeia's favorite sweets were, and wondering which chocolates Lin would find most appetizing. Once he had run out of delays, he slowly purchased the items he had known he would all along, cheerfully thanking Haito for his patience and suggestions, as if he hadn't been purposefully stalling the entire time.
As soon as Tenzin and Haito returned to the table, Chiyo stopped talking, and rose slowly back up to her feet, shooting a scowl at Haito and telling Tenzin and Ronen, "It was good to meet you. Come back anytime."
She shuffled away without another word, and Haito watched her retreating form with a wrinkled nose. "Frightful woman," he muttered. "Not sure how you could stand talking to her."
"I never pass up an opportunity to hear people's stories," Ronen said mildly, gesturing for Haito to lead the way out of the sweet's shop. He fell into stride with his father, and gave a short nod with a troubled look. Whatever Chiyo had told him, Tenzin was interested to hear, but until they were free of Haito, it was Ronen's knowledge to bear.
Five minutes after Ronen and Tenzin had left with Haito, Lin and Yunjin and Jeia hopped to their feet and left the inn. They went in the opposite direction in which Lin had sensed Haito leading Tenzin and Ronen, going first to another place Yumae had suggested. It was a tiny diner that was apparently often bustling with people, many of whom might be open to discussing the recent problems in their village. However, when Lin arrived with two of her children, the place was not quite bustling. It was an odd time of day, shortly after lunch, and the few people that were there didn't seem interested in talking to the three outsiders.
So Lin lead the kids back out onto the street, after a quick cup of tea for each of them, so as not to look weird. Drawing attention to themselves wouldn't help them investigate much. They wandered in the direction of the eastern border, stopping along the way to talk to various merchants and average villagers. They weren't getting much information though – not even the chatty people had anything useful to say – but Jin and Jeia seemed to be enjoying themselves so Lin tried not to be too outwardly negative. The main issue was probably that, out of their entire family, Lin, Yunjin, and Jeia were the three that were the least charismatic – well, Yunjin was charismatic but not at all subtle or patient – and coaxing strangers to open up to them was not exactly one of their strengths. Yunjin just liked to talk to people and Jeia liked to be involved in an adventure. Her heart rate always leapt with excitement when they had to duck behind cover every time they saw a soldier passing by. It wasn't a certainty that the soldiers would recognize them and report it to their sergeant, but better to be safe than sorry. They didn't know what to expect of anyone in that village, and if Yumae's assertions were correct, they couldn't trust any authority figures. Lin was actually a little dismayed to see that there were more of those around than she had expected.
After about an hour of no progress, Lin coaxed Jin and Jeia to head back to the inn, to make sure they got back before Ronen and Tenzin. She didn't want Haito getting suspicious of them already. Before she went though, she stopped near the eastern pub Asami and Sora planned to go to once they made it through the border. Yumae had suggested it as a place that they would likely garner the attention of the police, many of whom frequented the pub, and if the girls were going to be bait, it seemed only logical that they go straight to the suspected source. When Lin used her seismic sense from outside the pub, she was relieved to recognize Sora's familiar form, the girl's heart rate steady and calm. It was difficult for Lin to walk away, when she wanted so badly to stay and look after Sora, but she pulled herself away, reassuring herself that Sora could handle it, and that she would find her parents if something went wrong.
Lin made it back to the room with Jin and Jeia just ten minutes before Tenzin, Ronen, and Haito returned. Tenzin and Ronen came bustling into the room with a box of sweets and containers of food for the rest of their family. Lin was actually getting hungry then, and apparently so were Jin and Jeia, because the three of them pounced on the food with renewed energy.
Lin wanted to ask if Tenzin and Ronen had learned anything while they were out, but Haito was still lingering so she had to wait. Eventually, he finally left the room to contact his sergeant and give the family some privacy, and they all started asking questions at once.
"You go first," Tenzin insisted.
But Lin could only say, "We got nothin'. We went to the diner and walked around a bit, but nobody we talked to gave us anything. I checked the eastern pub though, and Sora and Asami were there, seemed fine so far."
"Did you have anymore luck?" Yunjin asked his father and Ronen, through a mouthful of food. "Or was the soldier with you the entire time?"
"I managed to get a few minutes with the owner of the sweet's shop while Dad distracted Haito," Ronen answered. "She said her granddaughter joined Kuvira's army, and that she's been hearing from some other soldiers about disappearances in neighboring villages. She heard whispers of people being sold off, but she doesn't actually know if Xai is the one who's selling them, or if more are being sold to him."
"What are they being sold for?" Yunjin questioned.
"She doesn't know that either," Ronen replied.
Lin and Tenzin exchanged a frown.
"This might be more serious than we thought," Lin said with concern.
Tenzin nodded in agreement. "If this is happening elsewhere, it may be too big for us to manage. It might be wiser to report it to the United Republic. They can coordinate with Kuvira to solve this faster than we can."
"I'm not so sure of that," Ronen admitted. "You heard how Haito was praising Kuvira, calling her the Great Uniter –"
"The great what?" Lin scoffed.
"The Great Uniter," Ronen repeated. "He seemed nervous about saying anything bad about her. And with the odd reports we've heard… Can we be certain she's not somehow involved? Or overlooking it?"
"She's not," Jeia immediately snapped, scowling at Ronen. "Kuvira would not kidnap people."
Yunjin scratched his chin in contemplation and said, "That is a bit of a leap. Whatever Kuvira's flaws, I doubt she would be okay with some sleaze ball kidnapping young women."
"True," Ronen conceded, "but I think it depends on what they're being used for. If it benefits her, then maybe she's okay with it. We know she's not above coercion." He shot Jeia an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, but I think we have to consider every possibility."
"Maybe we should pull Sora and Asami," Tenzin suggested. "If this goes farther than this village, who knows where they could be taken if they're snatched up."
"Unfortunately," Lin sighed, "I think that's why we have to leave them do this. We aren't going to get any real answers unless we get someone inside. It'll take too long to infiltrate the military or the police or whoever is behind it. If Sora and Asami are taken within the next few days, we'll know exactly where these people are being taken. Then we'll have a better idea of who's behind it and maybe why, and then we can go to the United Republic. If we go to them now, with so little evidence and only the conflicting reports from random villagers, they'll either do nothing or come barreling in, which will send the culprits into hiding, making it even harder to find these people."
Tenzin sighed too. "Yes, I suppose you're right."
"Of all the rumors and accounts we haven't heard anything too terrible," Yunjin pointed out. "I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to free Sora and Asami without them being in too much danger."
"But could they end up too far away for Sora to contact us?" Ronen wondered.
Yunjin shook his head. "I don't think so. She projected her spirit all the way to the Fire Nation after I had my surgery to check in on me. It wasn't as strong, kind of like having a bad phone connection, but she knows my spiritual energy well enough that she can latch onto it from pretty far away."
That was reassuring at least, but Lin could tell Tenzin was still worried. They both had full confidence in Sora's abilities, but with so many uncertainties, it was difficult to let her dangle herself as bait to some unknown threat.
A knock on the door startled the family from their conversation, and they all looked up just as Haito came striding in, along with the sergeant from earlier, neither of them looking all that apologetic for just barging in.
Tenzin rose to his feet. "Sergeant. To what do we owe the pleasure?" His rigid stance was in contradiction to his amicable tone.
"I've got good news," the sergeant said with that annoying grin. "I told Head Councilman Xai that you're passing through and he has invited all of you to dinner at his home tomorrow evening."
"Oh," Tenzin said in surprise. "That is…very kind of him. I hope it isn't too much of an inconvenience. We weren't expecting an audience with him, if that's what you thought."
"No, no, he's quite interested to meet you. Told me to make sure you were all well looked after."
Lin narrowed her eyes at what she was certain was some sort of threat.
"That is appreciated," Tenzin said convincingly. "But we only intend to rest and recuperate before we continue on our journey. We won't be much trouble."
"Of course," the sergeant said, less convincingly. "I'll come to fetch the five of you tomorrow evening. Until then, Haito here and one of my other soldiers will see to your needs."
The sergeant tipped his hat and then swept out of the door, leaving Haito and another young soldier standing stiffly in the entryway, and Lin looked over at the rest of her family, and she could tell by the looks on all their faces that they were starting to feel a lot like hostages the same as her.
Chapter 89: Chapter 89
Chapter Text
Chapter 89
The following day was spent under the watchful gaze of Haito and Taizu, the babysitters Head Councilman Xai had appointed to Tenzin and his family, under the guise of being helpful. Tenzin could see it for what it really was, which was that Xai was already suspicious of them, and they would have to tread lightly if they wanted to avoid being found out. There was the slight possibility that Xai was not what Yumae suspected, but something was clearly off if he wasn't taking the disappearances of his citizens as seriously as he should.
Lin had already made up her mind about Xai, especially now that she felt like she was under house arrest in a strange village, and she tried to get out of going to dinner at Xai's mansion. When the sergeant came to collect them, she insisted she was unwell, that she needed to stay behind and sleep it off, but the sergeant wouldn't hear of it. If Lin pressed any further, she'd only make their situation worse, so she relented and kept the grumbling to a minimum. She had to, with the soldiers breathing down their necks.
Tenzin wasn't certain what they were about to walk into, but he was filled with concern. On the one hand, he had to believe that Xai wasn't foolish enough to try and entrap them, but if he made them leave the city, the investigation would be dead in the water before they even had a solid chance to begin. Whatever his reservations, Tenzin felt a responsibility to get to the truth, to find the missing people and rescue them from whatever they had been thrown into. He couldn't leave them behind now, and it would be exponentially trickier and riskier to let Sora and Asami purposefully fall into the trap if Tenzin and the rest of the family could not be as close by to help. The dinner had to go well, no matter their personal feelings on Xai and the whole situation. Diplomacy required a level of patience and reasoning that some of his family members were sometimes lacking. He loved them for it, truly. Their tenacity and unwillingness to bend was to be admired, but it did make him a bit nervous in situations like their present one. However, so long as nothing provoked them, he had a feeling they would make it through the dinner without causing a national dispute. Lin was better at holding her tongue when it really mattered, Yunjin had matured a great deal in the last few years, and Jeia's quiet hostility could be passed off as shyness at her age.
Even so, Tenzin was sure to advise the three of them to behave just before they entered Xai's mansion, and all three of them gave him the same exasperated look.
The family of five was led into a great dining hall, which was decorated with huge banners draped along the walls. Most of them represented nations within the Earth Kingdom, one of them the United Republic and a few that looked to be of the Fire Nation. But the one that stood out was the one at the center of them all, larger than the rest to encompass the whole wall. As Tenzin and his family entered, Xai rose from his seat at the head of the table, with the backdrop of Kuvira's military insignia behind him.
"Welcome, welcome," Xai said, beckoning them in with a pleasant smile. He was smaller than Tenzin had expected, shorter than Lin and thinner than Yunjin, who was only just regaining the weight and muscle he had lost in the past year. Xai didn't look as if he could have defended himself from an insect, but Tenzin knew all too well that looks could be deceiving. At six years old and apparently rather short for her age – according to her doctor – Jeia could probably crush an entire metal airship with a clench of her fist. There was no telling what inner strength Xai might possess. It was clear that charm was one of his abilities, from the way he greeted the family as if they were old friends, insisting on making them feel welcome, shooing away their military followers.
"I do hope they've been looking after you," Xai said after the soldiers had gone, beckoning for Tenzin and his family to sit as he dropped back into his own seat. "I wish I could have offered you a better guide, but on such short notice, and the soldiers so conveniently available, it seemed a safe choice."
"They have been quite helpful," Tenzin assured.
"If a bit overbearing," Lin muttered.
"We do appreciate the gesture," Ronen said, at Xai's concerned look.
"But we aren't exactly helpless," Yunjin added.
Tenzin thought they'd be lucky to make it through the first course.
"No, no, of course not," Xai said hastily. "That was never my impression. I only wanted to be sure that you had everything you need. I heard of your troubles with those bandits. They've been terrorizing so much of the Earth Kingdom. I thought you deserved some peace of mind."
"That was very kind of you," Tenzin said.
"Some privacy might be nice," Lin grumbled, ignoring her husband's exasperated look.
"I'll be sure to speak to them before you go tonight," Xai promised. "But I'm afraid Kuvira's soldiers are not entirely under my command, you see. This past year has been a learning experience for all of us. The road ahead seemed so uncertain after the Queen's death, but the Great Uniter has forged a better path for us all. I'm sure you, of all people, know all about her work. I hope, when you see her next, that you'll speak kindly of our humble village. I know there is not as much to offer as your Republic City, but we have so many hidden gems. Have you been to Chiyo's Sweet's Shop? Best rice cakes I've ever had. My cook is phenomenal but he just can't replicate them."
Tenzin was momentarily baffled, wondering for a moment if they had gotten it all wrong, or if Xai was simply that good at acting, or if Kuvira really was involved, and Xai feared that Lin's familial relation to Kuvira and Junior meant she was checking in, to ensure Xai was doing what he was supposed to. It was all throwing him for a loop.
Thankfully, Lin was quicker on her feet, and this time less sharp. "I'm sure Kuvira knows the worth of your village. We hear your harvest feeds villages for miles around."
"We give as much as we can," Xai confirmed, "which is usually quite a lot. Our only loss now is those crops we don't have the manpower to tend to. With so many of our farmers bravely serving Kuvira, we've been short a few hands."
"I imagine that's cut into your profits a fair amount," Yunjin surmised.
"It has," Xai admitted, "but we're happy to do our part. We are at war, in a way. But let's not bore ourselves with talk of profit margins. Let's start dinner, shall we?"
Xai waved to a waiting servant, who nodded and went to retrieve the others, and then several platters of food were brought in and placed along the table.
As everyone was being served, Xai turned to Tenzin on his right with a furrowed brow and asked, "Forgive me, but you do have four children, do you not?"
Tenzin nodded with a relaxed chuckle. "Yes, my eldest daughter Sora did not come with us. She's actually heading up a mission with a few other airbenders farther south in the Earth Kingdom. The Air Nation has been coordinating with small villages being harried by bandits in an attempt to help until this whole business with the fractured Earth Kingdom has been resolved."
"Ah, yes. I had heard of the Air Nation's recent support," Xai said, gaze focused on his plate. "That must be quite challenging for you, since you are the only master available to coordinate such an endeavor, and with many of the airbenders only just learning."
"It's no small feat, but Jin and Sora are all but masters themselves, and the rest of my family has been enormously helpful as well. We're happy to help wherever we can. If you're ever in need of assistance here, feel free to reach out. I have a few airbenders who were farmers before they joined us. I'm sure they could be useful during the harvest."
"That is very thoughtful of you. I will have to consider your offer."
As they all began to eat – Lin with eyes narrowed and her chewing slow and measured, as if she expected to taste poison and was prepared to spit it out – the conversation devolved to careful small talk. They numbly discussed the weather that time of year, the typical harvest season in the village, and how Republic City was managing with the spirits these days. The topic of missing villagers never came up, and no subtle prompting from Tenzin coaxed Xai into talking. Just before dinner was coming to a close, Yunjin excused himself to use the bathroom, following one of the servers Xai had beckoned over to help him find it. By the time Yunjin returned, everyone had cleared their plates or had stopped pretending to pick at what was left, and it was clear that the conversation was hitting a snag too.
"I suppose I've taken up enough of your time," Xai said with a chuckle, and when he rose to his feet, the rest of them rose with him. "It was an honor to meet all of you. I hope you've enjoyed your stay."
"We have," Tenzin replied. "Thank you for inviting us to your home."
"Will you be leaving in the morning?" Xai asked, almost sounding curious more so than hopeful. "If you need an escort for the rest of your journey, to help with anymore bandits, I'm sure I could free up some of the soldiers –"
"That's quite all right," Tenzin said. "We don't have much farther to go. But I think we may stay another day. The village has been so lovely, and we are on vacation after all. Assuming that's all right with you?"
"Of course," Xai said quickly. "Why wouldn't it be?"
"Well, when we arrived, one of the soldiers said something about not taking tourists at this time," Ronen answered. "We wondered if there might be something going on."
Xai waved a dismissive hand. "No, no, everything is perfectly in order here. They just say that as a deterrent for any sort of bandits trying to slip through the border. We have to take entry of new citizens a little more seriously these days. But you stay as long as you need."
Haito, Taizu, and the sergeant entered, offering to lead Tenzin and his family back to the inn, but Xai cut them off saying, "Why don't you three stay behind for a bit? I was hoping to have a quick chat, and I'm sure the Beifongs would prefer an evening to themselves."
The sergeant hesitated, betraying a look of surprise, but he inclined his head and agreed, "Of course, Sir."
After leaving Xai's mansion, Tenzin, Lin, and the kids were finally able to speak freely.
First, Jeia said, "That was weird."
"It really was," Yunjin sympathized. "I don't think I'll ever get used to all those fake niceties."
"He was difficult to get a read on," Ronen said with a contemplative frown. "But he was definitely hiding something."
"It almost sounded like he thought we were there to check up on him, on Kuvira's orders," Lin said, voicing what Tenzin had been thinking himself.
"I thought the same thing," Tenzin agreed, "but was it because he doesn't want her to know what he's up to, or he wants her to know how well he's hiding it?"
Jeia squinted up at her mother. "Are we being followed?"
"Oh definitely," Lin said without hesitation.
"One of the soldiers, or someone else?" Yunjin inquired.
"It's Taizu, I think," Lin answered. "He's stealthier than Haito."
"Well, Xai is definitely trying to keep an eye on us," Ronen mused. "If he's not guilty, he's very bad at being innocent."
"Did you sense anything while we were there?" Tenzin questioned Lin.
She shook her head. "Nothing. If Xai is the one kidnapping those women, he's not keeping them at his mansion like Yumae thought. And there wasn't any sort of underground bunker like the Queen's, at least not there."
"I overheard something when I went to the bathroom," Yunjin revealed. "Once I got the servant to go away, I snuck down the hallway and listened to the soldiers talk. Haito was worried we would find out about something, or that we already knew. The sergeant thinks we're oblivious and we'll be gone soon. Taizu said his contact has a lead on some new recruits. Then the sergeant started complaining that he never gets to talk directly to Kuvira."
"So the soldiers are in on it," Ronen surmised. "But does the recruitment have something to do with the kidnappings? Is it a code maybe?"
"It seems like Sora and Asami being picked up is our only hope of solving this," Tenzin sighed. "I don't know how much longer we can stay here before whoever the guilty party is becomes too suspicious."
"Well, considering they've been trailing us since we got here, I'd say they're already pretty suspicious," Yunjin pointed out. "If we don't leave within the next twenty-four hours, I fully expect them to boot us out of here."
"We'll stay through tomorrow night," Tenzin decided, "and then leave the following morning. If Sora and Asami haven't been taken yet, we'll have to make camp a few miles out."
"They might follow us to make sure we actually leave," Lin thought aloud. "We may have to fly farther out and then double back."
"Great," Yunjin muttered, "just what my aching body loves, sleeping on the ground."
"You can sleep on Oogi," Ronen offered.
"I don't want to be the cry baby that sleeps in luxury," Yunjin protested.
"Are you kidding?" Ronen snorted. "I'll be sleeping up there next to you."
"Hopefully we won't be waiting too much longer," Tenzin said. "We won't keep the girls here more than another couple days. We may have to admit defeat on this one."
"We could call in Aunt Su," Ronen suggested.
"Not until we know more about what's going on," Lin quickly refuted. "Especially if Kuvira and Junior might be involved in this."
"If we can't figure this out ourselves, I'll speak directly to Raiko about it," Tenzin assured. "We won't let this go on, no matter who is behind it."
"I just hope Raiko shares your concern," Ronen said. "He hasn't always been helpful to us in the past."
"In this instance we may get lucky," Tenzin assured. "Before we left the city, I called Jun, my old secretary. She's still working at City Hall, and I asked her if she could find any information on Xai. There wasn't much, but he did live in Republic City for a few years, and apparently, he and Raiko were not on friendly terms during their early years in politics. We may be able to play on that old feud to get Raiko interested."
"Well, guess it depends on which one of us he despises more," Lin quipped, and Jin and Jeia both snickered. "I still say we go with my plan and start knockin' heads. I bet Haito will crack like an egg. Tie him up to a chair and whisper a few threats in his ear, twist his arm a little and he'll give us everything."
Yunjin snorted. "Is that how you interrogated people when you were Chief?"
"Unfortunately not, but my mother taught me how anyways, so I'm prepared."
"Don't let your mother fool you," Tenzin told his children. "She was very incensed when Toph tried teaching her some mild torture techniques. I had to fly her around on my glider to calm her down."
"I only did that so you'd think I was a nice girl," Lin countered, "and as an excuse to invade your personal space. So, who was really fooled here?"
"Why do you think I suggested flights on my glider every time you were angry instead of on Oogi? It certainly wasn't easier."
"Aww," Yunjin said sweetly, "you guys were so lame."
"Sora would think it was cute," Ronen said.
"That's because Sora is lame like them," Jeia teased.
"Once again, you wouldn't exist if we weren't lame," Lin pointed out. "So, you're welcome."
"Thank you for giving me life," Yunjin said in exasperation. "Now could you also give me some money?"
"For what?" Lin exclaimed.
"I'm starving," he groaned. "That food was disgusting."
"Oh! Me too!" Jeia chimed in. "Mama I'm hungry too. Can we go to the sweet's shop?"
Lin looked incredulously at Tenzin, who raised his eyebrows. "What? Don't look at me. They get that from you."
"You're the one with the sweet tooth," Lin argued.
"Something to scour the taste of onions out of my mouth would be great," Ronen interjected. "Haito was right. They really do love their onions here."
"I don't care what we eat, so long as it's close," Yunjin said with a slight grimace, and Tenzin noticed he was walking with a bit of a limp.
Lin and Tenzin both frowned, and Lin grasped Yunjin's elbow to try and take some of his weight as she said, "You've been pushing yourself too hard. You need to give this contraption a break."
"I can whistle for Oogi when we get back and get your chair," Tenzin offered.
"No, I don't want it," Yunjin insisted. "If something happens, I want to be prepared. My legs aren't as strong when I'm not wearing this. I don't want to be in the middle of a fight and just collapse."
"As willing as Mom is, I don't think we'll actually see any action," Ronen assured.
"But if we do, I don't want to be knocked over," Yunjin reasoned. "I'm okay, really. I just need to take a break sometimes."
"Well, let's find somewhere for you to sit," Tenzin said, holding onto Yunjin's other side for further support.
"Just as long as we aren't out too late," Ronen advised. "When Sora contacts us tonight, we don't want to be sitting in the middle of a crowded restaurant."
Sora had been contacting them late in the evening in her spiritual form, to let them know how things were going, and to avoid contacting them when they might be around others. It wouldn't do for them to have an audience when Sora's spirit suddenly appeared in the air before them.
However, even after returning to their room at the inn, the family did not see Sora for many hours. So many, in fact, that Tenzin was beginning to worry. They were all waiting up, even though it was well past two in the morning and Jeia was falling in and out of sleep laying across her father's lap. Lin was pacing slowly, as if she wasn't quite sure if she was stressed or not. She was itching to go look for Sora and Asami, but she could sense the soldiers outside their door, and getting out of the inn another way would be noisy or destructive or both, and she was waiting on that as a last resort.
"This is good, isn't it?" Ronen eventually said. "If they were captured, then we may just get to the bottom of this."
"Or she just fell asleep," Yunjin mumbled with a shrug.
"But she's supposed to let us know if they're captured," Tenzin said to Ronen.
"She probably just hasn't had the opportunity yet," Ronen reasoned. "She can't risk blowing her cover. I say we at least wait till morning before we panic."
"Yeah, maybe, but who can sleep?" Lin muttered.
"Jeia, apparently," Yunjin replied. "But actually… I could try something."
Lin stopped and looked at him, and Ronen and Tenzin waited for him to elaborate too.
"Try what?" Tenzin prompted.
"Well, Sora has been trying to help me connect more spiritually," Yunjin started. "I don't have the sort of spiritual sense that she does, but I do have a connection to her, and her random lessons heightened that. I can't project my entire spirit across great distances like she does – or any distance for that matter – but I have been able to, I don't know, feel spiritual energies in a way I never could – or ever tried to – before. I was able to latch onto her spirit before and communicate, sort of. It's not all that clear and we were sitting right across from each other, but I might be able to reach out to her, to at least make sure she's all right."
"Are you telling me you guys can communicate with each other telepathically?" Ronen asked incredulously.
"Not exactly," Yunjin answered. "It's more like, I can project my spirit, but only enough to sense feelings, energies. I can't just walk around all incorporeal like Sora does. And I probably wouldn't be able to sense just anybody, not without more practice. I'm not even sure I'll be able to find her."
"It can't hurt to try," Tenzin said, trying not to sound too eager.
Yunjin nodded and readjusted himself on the bed he'd been sitting on, folding his legs beneath him and settling his hands on his knees. He breathed in deep, his eyes fluttering closed as he slowly exhaled. Then he peeked one eye open, and looked around at his family, who were all watching him with intrigue and anticipation. "Er, you guys might want to get comfortable. This could take a while."
Arriving in the village was not easy but not particularly difficult for Sora and Asami. The soldiers were wary, but easily fooled by two young sisters with no other family driven out of their village by bandits. One of the soldiers took them to a nearby Inn, showed them around the eastern edge of the village, and then left them with a promise to have someone check in later. Sora and Asami wandered around a little, and the next person to visit them was a police officer. He acted nice enough, but he was clearly suspicious, asking the girls a lot of questions. Luckily, Sora and Asami both had their stories straight, and they knew each other well enough by now to make it believable. They had never really spent a lot of time alone together, but Ronen talked about Asami so much that Sora could fill in most of the blanks, and Asami had been around since Sora was twelve, so she'd seen the girl grow at least that much.
When the police officer seemed mostly satisfied, he left them alone, but said he'd be back. They went to get some food, with careful conversation in case someone was listening in, and then went to the pub Yumae had suggested for the rest of the evening. There were a lot of police officers there, and a couple of soldiers, and Sora and Asami both knew they were in the right place to attract attention. It helped that Asami was ridiculously beautiful and Sora wasn't half bad looking herself, especially with the make up Asami had put on her to make her look older. Sora felt a little odd trying to use charm as opposed to her bending, but she was learning from Asami, who was clearly used to exploiting people that underestimated her by her looks.
Sora was eager to learn, and eager to blend in, so when Asami ordered a drink from the bar, Sora asked for the same. Sora had never had any alcohol before. For one, her parents would have killed her, and for another, airbenders didn't really indulge in such things, and Sora took the Air Nation rules a little more seriously than her twin brother. Yunjin was all about freedom, and didn't believe that restrictions on what they ate or drank or did were necessary. Sora mostly just liked to follow traditions like her father, though he often veered off in some areas by his wife's influence. Sora's only reservation was denouncing material possessions, because she sort of liked to keep pretty things.
When the bartender sat their drinks down, Asami took a drink from her glass and then not so subtly watched Sora examine her own. Sora sniffed at the drink, and resisted the urge to wrinkle her nose at the potent smell. But there were some fruity notes too that smelled pleasant enough, so she took a tentative sip, all the while trying to look casual. The taste on her tongue was entirely foreign and not all that good, and even worse as she tried to swallow it. It burned the whole way down her throat and she choked, spluttering out a cough that she strained so much to suppress that her eyes started to water.
Asami started to laugh, patting Sora's back. Sora gasped in air and croaked, "Spirit's! What's in this thing? Cleaning solution?"
"It's a bit of an acquired taste," Asami said, still grinning in amusement.
Sora slid the drink away and shook her head. "I don't want to acquire a taste for that. No wonder Uncle Bumi is always so crazy; he's living off Satomobile fuel."
Asami only laughed harder, covering her mouth to try and calm it. "Don't tell your parents I let you drink that."
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have plenty of secrets by the end of this mission, most of them kept in the interest of avoiding giving my parents' heart attacks."
"And getting me banned from the island," Asami snorted. "Your mother didn't threaten me directly about keeping you safe, but I could feel it in that stare."
"Nah, that's just her face," Sora assured. "I think she likes you."
"Really?" Asami said disbelievingly. "How can you tell? Sometimes I feel like Ronen just pretends he can understand those looks."
Sora laughed that time. "It takes years of experience, but she's not as difficult to understand as she pretends to be. She's soft underneath all that bluster."
"I think I've seen glimpses of that," Asami said with a nod.
"You'll see more. She's just being tough because you're the only serious relationship Ronen has ever had."
"That's fair. I forget sometimes that he was such a loner."
"We didn't think he'd ever get a girlfriend because it would require him to stop reading long enough to make friends," Sora said with a snort.
"His books are still my greatest competition," Asami joked.
"I believe it. But you don't have to worry about Mom. She won't interfere. She's just intense sometimes. If she ever gets to be too much, just come tell me and I'll tell her to chill out."
Asami smirked. "I appreciate that. I promise to repay the favor. I'll defend your girlfriends when your Mom gets overprotective – or Ronen, for that matter."
Sora smiled in thanks, but she couldn't help the sharp sting the thought brought her remembering Zara. She tried to duck her head to hide the reaction on her face, reaching out for the drink she had pushed away, but Asami had noticed.
"Oh, Sora, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I shouldn't have –"
Sora shook her head. "No, no, it's okay. I'm just being dramatic."
"Of course you're not." She reached out and squeezed Sora's hand. "You can be upset about it as long as you need."
"It's been over a year now," Sora sighed. "I shouldn't care so much anymore."
"You cared about her very much," Asami said softly. "It's not an easy thing to get over."
"I think I let myself forget for a while," Sora admitted. "With everything going on with Yunjin… it was easy to forget. Now that things are getting better, I've been thinking about her more. Wondering why, wondering if I could have done more."
Asami nodded in understanding. "I know. When my dad… when I found out who he really was… it didn't make sense. I thought I knew him. I thought he was this great man. I thought he was perfect. But I was wrong. And by the time I found out, it was too late to help him. It sounds like you did a lot for Zara while you could, and I think she cared about you a lot, but she thought her mother was different, just like I did."
Sora felt a rush of emotion and grasped Asami's hand in both of her own. "I know it can't fix the betrayal you've felt, but you're a part of us now, so long as you like. We Beifongs aren't perfect by any means, but we're loyal to a fault."
Asami smiled gratefully, but seemed at a loss for words, and Sora wanted to make a joke, like Yunjin usually did in such tense situations, but she was at a loss, and she didn't have the time to think one up before they were being interrupted.
A trio of young police men had approached Sora and Asami, sidling up next to Asami at the bar. The one at the forefront said, "We hear you two are new in town."
"So we are," Asami smoothly replied, undaunted by the sudden intrusion.
After a brief startled moment, Sora felt her excitement spike. This was what they had been waiting for to truly start their mission.
Sora and Asami introduced themselves as Sun and Ami. The three officers seemed to be chatting the two girls up, asking curious questions and vaguely flirting, and Sora had to struggle not to laugh at how easy it was to fool them. Asami had them captivated, and Sora was catching on quick.
By the time Asami and Sora left the pub that night, they had talked with half the patrons in the bar, nearly all police and soldiers. If any of them were responsible for the disappearances, Sora and Asami had certainly made their presence known.
Later that evening, after returning to their room, Sora relaxed into meditation, and contacted her family through projecting her spirit. She was glad to see they were doing all right, a little concerned about their soldier shadows, and eager to hear if they had learned anything so far. They gave her a brief rundown of their day, and then she did the same, assuring them that she and Asami were doing just fine. She promised to contact them around the same time the following evening, and then bid them goodnight.
It was a little weird going to sleep for the first time in a weird place without any of her parents or siblings. Sora had never traveled anywhere without them, and even though she knew they were in the same village just a few kilometers away, it felt like much farther. Between that unease and the thrill of being on her first real mission, she had troubles falling asleep. She wasn't all that rested when the sun began to rise, but she was young enough and energized enough to get out of bed without much difficulty.
The police officer that had visited Sora and Asami the previous day returned to check on them bright and early. He didn't linger as long that time, but insisted they go to the town hall and fill out some paperwork if they intended on staying. Asami and Sora decided to put that off for a few more days, to see how their mission went, and spent the rest of the day visiting as many places as they could, and they were careful about not being too shy or too sociable with the locals. That night, they returned to the pub.
In those two days, Sora had not developed a taste for alcohol, but she had managed to tone down her reaction to it. She still got a drink from the bar to keep up appearances, but she sipped at it lightly, hardly finishing it after hours of nursing the same drink, and let Asami joke to the guys that asked about it that her little sister was a light weight. Some of them were pushy about trying to buy the two girls drinks and coaxing them to drink faster, but Asami was good at fending them off.
Since Sora drank so slowly, she never really felt any effects aside from the burning in her throat, until late that second evening. She had finally finished her first drink – though Asami had consumed most of it so Sora wouldn't have to – and had only taken a few sips of a second when she eventually started to feel something. It started with a sense of lightheadedness, followed by a giddiness she wasn't quite faking. When one of the younger soldiers started flirting with her, she felt oddly emboldened enough to loudly proclaim, "Sorry boys, but I prefer women!" And when a female police officer swaggered over at the news and gave Sora a very intense smile, Sora actually leaned in with interest for half a second.
Until Asami grabbed her by the elbow and steered her away. She was smiling at Sora, but she looked tense as she hissed through her teeth, "What are you doing?" She noticed the drink in Sora's hand and furrowed her brow. "How much of that did you drink?"
"It's actually not that bad," Sora said before taking another gulp. "It doesn't even burn anymore."
"I think you've had enough," Asami said, snatching the glass away and taking a huge drink from it herself. She shuddered and then held the cold glass to her forehead for a moment, looking stressed. "Spirits," she seemed to mutter to herself, "how did I let this happen?"
"It's okayyy," Sora drawled, mostly just because her tongue felt funny. "Relax, would ya?"
Asami just looked horrified. "Your mother is going to kill me."
"Nahhh. She wouldn't hurt a – a – is that fire flakes?" Sora was distracted by a bowl of food and tried to walk in that direction, but her legs didn't seem to be working right and she staggered. She held herself up, but she wobbled several steps before she felt Asami grabbing onto her again.
"Time to go," Asami declared, steering Sora in the direction of the exit, and Sora was torn between wanting to stay and feeling kind of tired.
"Aww, but we just started having fun," Sora protested weakly, remembering belatedly that they weren't really supposed to be having fun, and spirits her mouth was dry.
"Hey, where you two going?" one of the guys asked, blocking their path.
"I really need to be getting her back to our room," Asami explained, and Sora couldn't tell if she was trembling, or if Asami was. The guy tried to argue, several others chiming in to coax the girls to stay, but Asami was determined. "My sister isn't feeling well. I'm sorry, everyone. We'll be back tomorrow."
"I'm fine," Sora insisted, but it sounded weird coming out of her mouth and, now that Asami mentioned it, she was feeling a little unwell.
Asami shoved past the guy in their path and hurried she and Sora out into the night. The chilled air blasted them in the face, and Sora felt simultaneously comforted and bothered by it. Asami dragged her along and Sora started noticing just how off her balance was and how dizzy she felt. She clutched at Asami's arm in desperation, but she still felt like she was going to fall over.
"Asami," Sora said with some trepidation, her breath catching in her throat. "What's wrong with me?"
"They drugged us," Asami said bluntly, and Sora noticed Asami seemed to be struggling to walk now too. "I think we're about to be taken."
Even though it was what they had been hoping for, Sora still gasped, and her heart rate quickened, and she stopped Asami in the middle of the street. But she couldn't quite see the older girl because her vision was blurring. "They drugged us? But – but – I thought –" She didn't know what she had expected, but it hadn't been this. She had thought maybe there would be a fight, maybe a threat to force them to go, but not losing control of her senses like this. She was breathing too fast and she felt like she was going to pass out, though that was probably thanks to the drugs, but Sora had never been drugged before so she couldn't say for sure.
"Sora," Asami said firmly, squeezing Sora's shoulders and shaking her slightly. "Sora, listen, if you want out, it's okay, but you have to tell me now. I can hide you, distract them so they only take me and you can come find me when you wake up. But you have to decide before I collapse. Do you understand?"
Sora only half understood, but what she did understand made her shake her head, forcing herself to suck in a deep breath and calm the panic. "No. No, I'm with you."
"Don't worry," Asami said shakily, so far out of focus that Sora could only see a dark mass that might have been her hair. "I've got you. We stick together."
Sora tried to respond, tried to nod in agreement, but she wasn't sure she managed either one. Blackness was encroaching on her vision, and she would not recall anything else as she succumbed to the drugs' power and collapsed.
Yunjin's eyes opened at once, and he found his parents and Ronen hovering over him. He jerked backwards slightly in surprise and then gave them an annoyed look. "Spirits, give me some space, would ya?"
They didn't apologize, but they did lean back slightly as they bombarded him with questions. He could barely tell what they were saying because they were all talking at once, but he got the gist, their worry for Sora and Asami and whether or not he had managed to find Sora. He noticed the sun was beginning to peek through the curtains behind Ronen and his parents, and that Jeia was stirring awake on the bed across from Yunjin.
"They're fine," Yunjin placated, loud enough to be heard over his family's persistent voices, and they quieted at once to listen. "They've been taken, but they're okay. They were drugged, so Sora's head is still fuzzy. That's why she didn't reach out to us, and I couldn't quite figure out all that she was trying to tell me, but they're not hurt, I could comprehend that much. And they were traveling for a while – or they still are? I don't know. She isn't sure where they are yet."
"But they're okay?" Tenzin asked worriedly.
"They're okay," Yunjin repeated, and his father seemed to relax just a little.
"That was faster than I thought," Lin muttered, looking away as she seemed to consider the news.
"I guess we'll be getting the answers we need then," Ronen said, "but if they're still traveling, I think we can definitively rule out any locations here in the village."
"Unless they're only just now being transferred," Tenzin pointed out. "It's possible they were just kept somewhere for the night and are being moved across town."
"I don't know," Yunjin responded. "I couldn't get a good answer on that. It was –"
A knock at the door interrupted them, and they all turned abruptly at the sound. Jeia was fully awake then, sitting up blearily, her hair a wild mess around her face.
Lin went to answer the door, looking annoyed before she even wrenched it open. Before the visitor could so much as open their mouth, Lin had grabbed them by the arm and yanked them inside, peeking her head out to make sure no one else had seen, and then hastily closing the door. Then she whirled on Yumae with barely suppressed rage and hissed, "What are you doing here?"
"I hadn't heard from you in two days," Yumae defended. "I wanted to know if you had learned anything yet."
"Where are the soldiers that were sitting outside?" Lin snapped. "Did anybody see you come here?"
"Nobody followed me," Yumae huffed. "The soldiers are distracted by some of the village people. We've got time."
"You need to leave before you blow our cover," Lin said forcefully. "We told you that we would contact you when we had any answers. We don't have anything definitive yet."
"People are getting restless," Yumae resisted. "I'm getting restless. We need answers now. Haven't you figured anything out yet? Weren't you just at Xai's last night?"
"So you're following us now too?" Lin scoffed.
Ronen interjected, "Sora and Asami have been taken. But Sora doesn't know where they are yet."
"Did you check Xai's mansion while you were there?" Yumae pressed.
"I didn't sense anything or anyone there that was out of the ordinary," Lin said through gritted teeth, clearly irritated.
"We aren't certain Xai is entirely behind it," Tenzin added.
Yumae scoffed. "Are you kidding me? Of course he is. Don't tell me he conned you too –"
"Nobody cons us," Lin spat.
"We're just considering all possibilities," Ronen explained.
"Xai is definitely suspicious," Tenzin placated. "We just aren't sure why."
"Because he's stealing girls!" Yumae exclaimed in frustration. "He has them. Maybe not in his mansion but he knows where. We need to find out, before he can torture them any longer. There's enough of us to fight back against his police now. If you help us –"
"Hold on," Ronen cut in sharply. "We can't just be starting a civil war –"
"We just need to be patient a little bit longer," Tenzin insisted.
"Give Sora a chance," Yunjin reasoned. "She and Asami will be able to tell us where they are soon."
"How soon?" Yumae demanded. "How do you know she'll be able to contact you again?"
"If she doesn't reach out to us soon, I can reach out to her," Yunjin told Yumae.
Yumae seemed confused, but didn't question it. They had told her about Sora's spiritual abilities, and she had accepted that even though it didn't make much sense to her either. "Well what did she say when you spoke to her? Did she say who took her? Or where?"
"Not exactly," Yunjin admitted. "She was drugged so it was difficult for us to talk. She's still recovering and her head was fuzzy."
"Well what if these people keep her drugged?" Yumae questioned impatiently, and Yunjin hadn't really thought of that. "How is she supposed to tell you anything useful if she's sedated most of the time?"
"Then we'll find her," Lin asserted. "We have back up plans in place."
"And Sora and Asami are resourceful," Ronen defended. "If they know the mission is becoming too dangerous, they'll find a way out."
"You all may have faith in them," Yumae said, shaking her head, "but the people here want answers. They want to take action. I don't know how much longer they can be held off."
"Well figure it out," Lin snapped.
"This won't end well if you start attacking Xai and the police," Tenzin implored. "Innocent people will be hurt."
"Innocent people are already being hurt," Yumae countered. "My sister has been gone two weeks. Several women before her even longer. This can't go on."
With that, Yumae spun on her heel and stormed out the door before any of them could stop her.
There was a moment of stunned and contemplative silence, and then Lin started hastily tugging her shoes on as she declared, "I'm gonna go follow her. If the villagers are gearing up to attack Xai, I need to try and stop them. An upheaval is just going to make it harder to find the missing people, and I'm not risking Sora and Asami."
"I'll come with you," Yunjin decided, starting to rise from the bed, reaching for his braces, but his mother stopped him.
"No, you need to stay here, in case Sora tries to contact you. If you don't hear from her, keep reaching out, find out where she is. We may need to get them out of there sooner rather than later. Ronen will stay with you."
"So I'm going with you?" Tenzin guessed.
But Lin shook her head. "No, you'll have to distract the soldiers. They're gonna wanna know where I went and they can't be here if Sora manages to show up."
"So I'll go with you," Jeia decided as she clambered off of the bed.
"I don't know, kid," Lin hedged, looking resistant. "It's gonna be too dangerous."
"It's dangerous everywhere," Jeia countered, going to put on her own shoes.
"She might be useful," Ronen told his mother. "If Yumae is really about to storm Xai's mansion, you can wave Jeia around, make them consider the children that could be caught in the crossfire."
"Or I can beat 'em up," Jeia offered with a shrug.
"Let's leave that as a last resort, shall we?" Tenzin urged.
Lin sighed and relented, "All right, you're with me, but you gotta listen to everything I say."
"Don't I always?" Jeia scoffed.
Lin rolled her eyes, but Tenzin said, "Of course you do, sweetheart." He walked up behind Jeia and gently smoothed down her wild hair, tucking it behind her ears and then leaning down to kiss the top of her head. "Be careful, please."
"Okay, Daddy, I'll try," Jeia acquiesced, turning around to give him a quick hug.
Afterwards, Tenzin reached into his shirt and pulled out his bison whistle. He removed it from his neck and placed it in Lin's hand. "Take this," he insisted. "If anything happens, Oogi should be near enough. He'll come and get you."
Lin nodded and threw the necklace on, leaving it hang over the top of her shirt. She and Tenzin exchanged a quick kiss, squeezed each other's hands, and then Lin and Jeia were leaving.
Tenzin was next, telling Yunjin and Ronen that he would keep the soldiers away as long as he could, telling them to be safe, but Yunjin only registered half of it because there was a ringing in his ears. The room began to blur around him, and his breath was coming out weird, too short, too fast. He couldn't get enough air into his lungs and there was a sharp pain in his spine, lancing out in every direction, and he was falling, falling, and everything was dark and he couldn't move –
Yunjin.
Listen.
Breathe.
Safe.
Yunjin.
"Yunjin!"
He jolted, and blinked, and when his vision cleared he saw Ronen bent over in front of him, staring worriedly, clutching his arms. Yunjin furrowed his brow, confused, swallowing and trying to suck in a deep breath
"That's it," Ronen encouraged, "deep breaths. You're okay."
"Wha – what happened?" Yunjin stammered, looking around as if he expected to find the source of his sudden discomfort.
"I think you were having a panic attack," Ronen said carefully. "Was it a flashback?"
"No, I – I mean yes – I mean – I don't…" Yunjin shook his head. "I don't have panic attacks."
"They're not typically expected," Ronen said, slowly moving over to sit next to his younger brother on the bed, still holding onto one of Yunjin's arms. "Something must have triggered you. If I had to guess, probably something to do with the urgency and everyone running off in different directions. You haven't been in a situation like this since the Red Lotus took the Temple."
"But I wasn't even thinking about that," Yunjin argued, feeling frustrated and off-kilter now.
"No, but our minds have a way of putting things together before we even consciously realize it. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
Yunjin frowned. "This isn't something that's going to keep happening is it?"
"That's difficult to say," Ronen admitted. "Could be a one time thing, but I think with the trauma you experienced it's just as likely to affect you for longer. Talking about it helps though, learning what triggers you and overcoming it."
Yunjin sighed in exasperation. "Do me a favor. Don't tell Mom and Dad about this. They worry enough as it is."
"Well, I won't tell for now," Ronen hesitantly relented, "but if it persists you should. This isn't the sort of thing you can recover from alone."
"I've got you, don't I?" Yunjin reasoned.
And Ronen softened, smiling a little reassuringly. "Of course. I'm here for you. Always."
Lin and Jeia followed Yumae at a steady pace through the village, mostly using seismic sense to track her, in part to keep enough distance to avoid detection, and also so as not to lose her in a crowd. Lin was mostly letting Jeia lead the way, using the experience as a teachable moment, to hone Jeia's senses and see how the girl did under some slight pressure as opposed to training at home. Seismic sense was one of the things Jeia had struggled with not that long ago, but once she had finally relaxed enough to let herself be immersed in the sensations of the earth beneath her feet, she had excelled as she did in most aspects of earthbending. Jeia still preferred metal, and Lin was certain she had never seen anyone manipulate it so easily and so well before, but the girl was beginning to better learn the base of her element now too.
When Yumae arrived at her destination, Lin and Jeia had to be extra careful about getting closer because they were farther out of town and there weren't as many places to hide. Yumae had gone into what appeared to be an ordinary house, and Lin could sense several other people inside. It was clearly a meeting of some sort, and tensions were high if their heart rates were anything to go by. It was just as Lin expected, and she didn't feel at all relieved when they all dispersed. They were going different directions, but with clear purpose in their movements, and they were too scattered for her to stop all of them without doing something that might incite them to attack her in defense. She should have just stormed into the house, but she had been worried about getting attacked that way too. She knew what an angry mob could do, and even though she had followed Yumae with the intent to stop them, she wasn't certain that she could, even with Jeia there to guilt them. They were already determined, and Lin could hardly blame them. If Sora had been missing for that long she would have already torn Xai's mansion to the ground.
Nevertheless, she had to do something. There was a lot at stake, and these people were about to blow the whole thing up before they even knew who was truly to blame. Lin couldn't let them do it, and she couldn't let her family get caught in the crossfire.
She looked down at Jeia and said, "Follow my lead," and then she ran out into the open and thrust up her arms. A rock wall erupted from the ground, spanning across several meters to try and cut off every one of the villagers heading away from their meeting spot. When Jeia saw what her mother intended, she stepped forward to help, until every route of escape was cut off and the villagers were forced to stop. As Lin had expected, some of them immediately whirled around and started hurling boulders at her, thinking they were under attack. Lin stopped most of the oncoming projectiles and thrust them back down into the ground, letting the rest miss her, while Jeia sidestepped and found a safe space up close to her mother to stand. There were shouts of confusion and a few more boulders that Lin had to swipe aside, but eventually the villagers seemed to realize that they weren't being attacked, and Yumae's shouts of, "Wait! Stop!" finally broke through.
Yumae stormed up to Lin and Jeia, all the while waving her arm at her fellow villagers and telling them, "Stand down! This is Chief Beifong!" But she wasn't thrilled to see Lin again so soon and demanded, "What the hell are you doing, Lin?"
"What the hell are you doing?" Lin countered, with just as much hostility. "I thought you called us here to help, and three days in you're ready to start a mutiny."
"It's not my decision to make," Yumae said. "It's all of ours. We can't let this go on. I thought that you would confront Xai, not defend him. We don't want to wait."
"Nobody is defending Xai here," Lin argued. "We're just trying to find the truth. Xai could just be a power-hungry asshole that has nothing to do with it, or maybe he is responsible for the kidnappings and the second you storm his mansion he orders the women be killed or sent off to where you'll never find them."
"He'll tell us where they are," Yumae said with certainty. "Once his defenses are gone, he'll crumble like the coward that he is."
"Come with us!" someone from the crowd called to Lin. "Help us destroy this corrupt system!"
"You don't even know who's corrupt!" Lin shouted back in exasperation. "How many police officers will you punish that are simply following orders? How many –"
A sudden rumble in the earth beneath them all cut her off, and Lin looked up to see several police officers rising above the rock wall she had erected herself. There were a lot of them, along with a dozen of Kuvira's soldiers, and Lin knew that the villagers that had amassed to storm Xai's mansion were not enough to break through the trained forces now looming above.
"Nobody move!" the one with the sheriff's badge called down to them. "You are all under arrest! Surrender mow and we'll all go to the station peacefully!"
"There will be no peace until Xai's reign has ended!" one of the villagers spat.
"We'll never surrender to you!" another called.
And then the battle was on.
Lin grabbed Jeia's hand and they both walked quickly backwards, away from the fray. Lin grabbed for the bison whistle around her neck, but she didn't make any sudden movements, fully sober on this occasion where she was on the wrong side of an encounter with the police. All she had to do was explain who she was, what she was doing there, and hope for the best. But she still blew into the whistle to call for Oogi, just in case. If she needed to make a quick getaway, she would need his help.
The villagers were fighting tooth and nail though, and it was exactly the sort of thing Lin had wanted to avoid. People were being dropped left and right, villagers and officers alike, people of the same town pitted against each other, fighting with a vengeance. Lin hoped that maybe she could back away without being spotted, her palms starting to sweat as she considered Jeia at her side and how to get the kid to safety, but Jeia was not thinking of herself. Like all of Lin's children, she had a mind of her own, and each of those minds tended to react like their parents', much to Lin's chagrin.
Yumae cried out as she was struck in the thigh and went down, and an officer descended upon her immediately, forcing her face first into the ground and roughly yanking her arms behind her back. She was wailing in pain just a few paces from Lin and Jeia, and it wasn't like they could just stand there and do nothing.
Jeia reacted first, thrusting her hand forwards, and the metal armband she wore shot across the distance and clamped onto the officer's wrist. Jeia yanked her hand upwards, and the officer yelped in surprise as he was suddenly yanked up into the air and thrown several meters away.
Lin and Jeia went over to Yumae, even as all of Lin's senses were telling her to leave, to protect Jeia at all costs. But they crouched next to Yumae instead, helped her sit up as she clutched at her leg. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she was staring at the bleeding gash in horror.
Jeia said, "It's not that bad," but it looked pretty bad to Lin.
Three officers came running over, shouting at them to, "Get on the ground! Hands behind your head!"
Lin raised her hands in a placating gesture as she said, "Just hang on a minute! We don't wanna fight you. I'm former Chief Beifong of Republic Cit –"
"Shut up and get down!" one of them cut her off, and Lin sighed in aggravation as she had to deflect a direct assault.
Jeia simply swiped her hand in response, and a motorcycle sitting in the driveway came flying, crashing into the three officers and knocking them backwards. The officers weren't too badly hurt from the blow, and they, along with the one that had hit Yumae, scrambled up and really set their sights on Lin and Jeia then.
"Get the kid!" one of them snarled, and Lin immediately surged to her feet again.
She stepped in front of Jeia with clenched fists and a firm stance as she growled, "Don't you fucking dare."
The village police didn't try to get close that time, hurling one attack after another at Lin, who had a hard time standing in one place. She couldn't roll away or dodge any of the bombardment without risking Jeia and Yumae behind her, so she had to grab every projectile and force it aside. Some she managed to throw back at the police, but she didn't have the time to focus on aiming when she had four people attacking her at different intervals. She was forced into the defensive, with little chance to fight back. If she could just find an opening, she knew she could throw all of them back at once. They weren't giving her a free second yet, but she knew it would come. One of them would falter, one of them would get tired, and the second they did, she would –
A fifth attacker came from the side, one of Kuvira's soldiers. Lin sensed him coming, sensed him gearing up for an attack, and sensed Jeia rising up to intercept it. When fire came roaring towards them, Lin was instantly distracted because she hadn't been expecting the change in bending and fire was a lot trickier to manage than what the earthbending police officers had been throwing at them. Jeia had never really learned much about fighting with fire. Lin had taught her the theories, but she had been hesitant to let anyone actually throw it at the kid. Mako was the only firebender they had around and he seemed just as hesitant to spar with Jeia when Lin was breathing down his neck. So Lin was worried, and she turned her head, and that was all the opening the police needed to finally hit her in the ribs and knock her to the ground.
Of course, Jeia managed to shield them all from the fire with no problem, and even sent her earth shield flying forward to smash into the soldier.
But Lin couldn't get back up, not yet. The blow she had needlessly taken had punched the air out of her, and her ribs were definitely bruised if not slightly worse, considering she hadn't been wearing her armor. In the time it took her to struggle up onto her knees, the police had begun to converge on them. Only Jeia was standing to take them on, and Lin reached out a desperate hand, prepared to do the worst to protect Jeia –
And then the air shifted in a way even Lin could feel, and relief rushed through her as Oogi came swooping down from above. He slammed into the ground between Jeia and the officers, stamping his feet threateningly and turning, thrashing his tail into the ground to create a powerful gust of wind that blew the officers away.
Jeia whooped in delight and went over to stand next to Oogi, patting the great beast on the head and hollering at the officers, "Take that!" And Oogi bellowed as if in agreement.
Lin struggled to her feet and over to Jeia, hurriedly urging the kid up onto Oogi, who nudged his head against Lin in greeting. She had rarely been so glad to see him, and she offered a tired smile as she patted his thick fur and breathlessly murmured, "Thanks, big guy. You came just in time."
Oogi dropped down to make it easier for Lin to climb up, probably sensing she was a little injured and needed the boost, but before she could, she had to go back for Yumae. Lin groaned as she lifted the other woman up, her ribs straining with the effort, and Yumae nearly collapsed when she put weight on her injured leg. Oogi shambled over so they wouldn't have to walk to him, but they never had a chance to climb to safety.
Jeia cried out, "Mama, look!"
She was pointing up at the sky, and Lin followed Jeia's gaze to see four shiny, great masses approaching. They were clearly militarized airships, and as they drew closer, Lin's stomach sank at the sight of Kuvira's military insignia emblazoned on the side.
Chapter 90: Chapter 90
Chapter Text
Chapter 90
Sora woke with a splitting headache, feeling woozy and sick. She couldn't immediately move, and she dozed in and out for a while, though she wasn't sure for how long. A few times it occurred to her that she needed to get up, to find out where she was and make sure Asami was with her and tell her family she was okay. But she only had those thoughts for fleeting moments before she was unconscious again. Sometimes she didn't have those thoughts at all, wondering why she felt so awful and thinking more about going back to sleep because her eyes were too heavy to open.
When she finally managed to stay awake for longer than a few seconds, she had to take measured breaths to calm the panicked racing of her heart. Between the nausea and the worry, she thought she might actually puke, but she managed to calm herself down after a few short minutes. Then she took stock of herself, aware now that she was lying on a cold stone floor and her wrists and ankles were bound by rope. But aside from some soreness and the itchy rope chafing her wrists, she couldn't ascertain any concerning damage. And when she opened her eyes and blinked away the blur, she was glad to see Asami lying right next to her.
Asami was already awake, and when she noticed Sora's gaze on her she smiled shakily, expelling a breath of relief. "There you are."
"Here I am," Sora mumbled, her mouth dry and not all that cooperative. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," Asami assured. "How are you feeling? You were out for a long time. I was starting to get worried."
Sora frowned. "'M fine. Jus – dizzy. Thirsty. Where're we?"
"I'm not sure," Asami admitted. "We were driving for a while. I think we left the village. But we drove straight into this place so I didn't get to see outside. They brought us to this cell and left."
Sora opened her mouth to respond, but she felt an odd shift and a familiar presence, and whatever she had been about to say to Asami came out as a confused, "Yunjin?"
Asami furrowed her brow. "What about him?"
"He's… here, I think," Sora said, trying to reach out to him, but her mind was still a bit of a mess.
Asami looked deeply concerned. "Sora, honey, I don't think Yunjin is –"
"Not physically," Sora interjected. "Spiritually."
"Oh," Asami said in surprise. "Is that – can he do that?" She looked around as if expecting to see him materialize before them.
"Not quite the same way," Sora replied, "but we can sort of talk." She wasn't sure she was adequately conveying her thoughts to him though. With her brain still muddled from the drugs, she couldn't retain a straight thought for very long, and she couldn't connect as well to that spiritual energy that came so naturally to her. "I don't know if he can understand me though. Does your head hurt?"
"A little, but I think the drugs affected you more than me. I still dropped like a stone, but I wasn't out for as long."
"Ugh," Sora groaned. "I think I would have preferred getting punched in the face. This is awful. Don't ever let me agree to being kidnapped again."
Asami snorted. "This entire plan was your idea."
"Clearly I shouldn't be making decisions."
"We'll see how the rest of this goes," Asami said optimistically. "I'm sure once we manage to figure out –"
She went suddenly quiet when they heard movement just outside the door to their cell. There was a jingling of keys, and then a click of the lock and the door swung open. Two men entered wearing the uniforms of Kuvira's soldiers, and Sora and Asami exchanged concerned looks. They had been expecting Xai and the village police to be running the operation, but the situation was turning out to be a little more confusing than they had expected. Had Xai bribed and coerced Kuvira's soldiers too?
The soldiers said nothing as they approached the two girls, and each of them kneeled down on either side of Sora and Asami, grasping at the rope that tied their hands behind their backs.
"What's going on?" Asami demanded, expertly inflecting her tone with fear. "Why have you brought us here?"
"Sorry about the ropes," the one behind Asami replied, not quite answering the question. "Just a precaution."
Both soldiers cut the bonds from Sora and Asami's wrists and ankles and then gripped the girls' arms to pull them up to their feet.
"No funny business, yeah?" the one behind Sora requested. "We aren't here to hurt you."
"Then what do you want?" Sora questioned with trepidation, hoping she played it off as well as Asami.
"It's not what we want," the same soldier answered. "It's what this nation needs. You'll be briefed soon. We'll take you to your room first so that you can –"
A third soldier poked his head in the doorway and interjected, "Change of plans. The boss is here. Wants everyone in the great hall in fifteen."
"Guess you'll be getting briefed first, the soldier on Asami's right amended, still holding onto Asami's arm as if he thought she'd try to run off.
"Can we have some water first?" Asami pleaded, and Sora figured it was more to show weakness before the men, to fool them into underestimating them, but she also kind of hoped they'd get some water because she had never been so thirsty in her life, and that included the time her body had been without a soul for a week. The soldiers hesitated, and Asami persisted, "For my sister at least, please. She's not feeling well."
Sora didn't have to try very hard to feign weariness, and she figured she probably looked a mess. Even Asami looked ruffled.
The soldier holding onto Asami scrutinized Sora, frowning slightly. "How old are you, girl?"
Sora swayed a little for affect and then mumbled, "Seventeen."
The guy behind Sora scoffed. "Spirits. I thought we told them to stop sending kids."
"I'm not a kid," Sora protested, as she expected any teenager would.
"Might as well be," Asami's soldier grumbled, pulling at the pouch on his hip and then handing it to Sora, who realized it was filled with liquid and immediately reached out for it. She drank the water greedily, letting it run down her chin and forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be acting, and she probably should have been warier of taking drinks from strangers after so recently bring drugged. But she was too thirsty in that moment to care, and she wasn't going to pass up what might be her only opportunity to rehydrate for a while.
Sora passed what was left of the water to Asami, who was much calmer about taking a drink before returning it to the soldier.
Then the soldiers were nudging Sora and Asami out of the room and into an equally dim hallway. Sora couldn't tell if they were underground or just in a stone building with no windows. Either way, the intention was clearly so that the occupants lacked an easy escape route. Every hallway they walked down looked the same, with only a few doors marked with numbers and none of them in any understandable order. For Sora's mother, it would have been easy to use seismic sense on the paved stone floor to find an exit, but for anyone else it would require a little more ingenuity. For Sora, all it would take was the right moment and a clear head to send her spirit off to investigate. Now that she was up and moving and had some water in her stomach at least, her head was starting to clear bit by bit.
As they walked, Asami asked the soldiers, "Why are you doing this? Why have you brought us here?"
"You'll hear straight from the boss in a few minutes," one of them answered. "And you'll be briefed later on."
"Please," Asami went on tearfully, "whatever we've done… we don't want trouble –"
"You're in no danger here, girl," the soldier cut her off with a frown.
"You're lucky to be here," the other one added. "You're safe, and you'll be better off when the instructors are finished with you. These are dangerous times we're living in."
Asami and Sora exchanged a look and fell silent. It seemed their answers might be coming to them soon without the prompting. Sora wanted to ask if Xai was the boss the guys were talking about, but she thought it might make the soldiers suspicious so she decided to wait and see what happened in the great hall.
The great hall they were taken to wasn't all that great. It was cramped and bland, but every wall had a banner with Kuvira's military insignia on it. It seemed that Sora and Asami were some of the last people to arrive, and they were pushed into a space in the back. There were soldiers in every corner, and several more up on the small stage at the front. The room was full of men and women, mostly women, mostly young, and all of them prisoners like Sora and Asami, if the mixture of grim and hostile looks on their faces was anything to go by. Only a few of them were bound by chains though, the ones that appeared to be the most uncooperative. The rest of them just looked resigned.
Sora scanned the crowd looking for Yumae's sister, certain that the picture Yumae had shown her would be enough to help her recognize Shuri. But Sora couldn't see all of them very well, mostly just the backs of heads, though a few did turn to look when they started noticing the two newcomers. No one tried to strike up a conversation in the presence of so many soldiers though.
The soldiers that had escorted Sora and Asami to the great hall left the two girls to join some of their fellow soldiers on the other side of the room. Once they were alone, Sora leaned over to murmur to Asami, "I'm starting to think this is more of a Kuvira thing than a Xai thing."
Asami nodded with a frown. "Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. And if it is, we might have a bigger issue."
And indeed, the issue was even bigger than Sora could have ever imagined.
The boss the soldiers had been referring to came out onto the stage shortly after, and Sora was horrified to find that she instantly recognized them. She hastily turned her head away with a whispered curse, afraid she might have caught their eye and trying to cover her face with her hand. Asami looked at her with concern, having missed the boss's entrance while she was looking around the rest of the hall.
"What is it?" Asami whispered.
"It's my cousin," Sora hissed. "It's Junior!"
Asami's eyes widened as she looked up at the stage and saw him with her own eyes, and she quickly turned her head away too. "Shit."
"If he sees me it'll compromise this whole mission," Sora muttered in distress.
"Well, I guess we don't need to stay," Asami sighed. "We know now who's behind it, just not why. My concern now is what he'll do if he finds out we're here. He's not going to let us go. We're going to need to –"
Asami trailed off as Bataar Jr began to speak, and both girls turned to listen to him while still trying to avoid his gaze. They were probably far enough back in the room to not be recognized, but Sora wasn't taking any chances. She was panicking a little, wondering why her cousin was kidnapping women, wondering how she was supposed to get out without him knowing she was there, wondering if he would do something awful if he did see her, and wondering how she could ever tell her Aunt Su.
Junior was speaking to the assembled prisoners with unwavering calm and so much positivity that Sora feared he wasn't simply following someone else's orders. "I know that all of you have been working hard so I won't take up too much of your time. I just wanted to remind you of the importance of your contribution. One day soon, you will all be part of an elite fighting force that will be the turning point in this war. You will serve the Great Uniter as we rebuild the Earth Kingdom into one great nation. Each of you will prosper beyond your wildest dreams. I know that some of you are uncertain of your place here, but rest assured you were handpicked for a reason. Your loyalty to Kuvira and to the cause will not go unnoticed. When you help us win this war, you will be well rewarded."
A commotion at the back of the room caused Sora to turn her head and watch as one of Kuvira's soldiers hurriedly pushed his way to the front of the room. Junior frowned and bent down as the soldier reached the front of the stage, and his frown only deepened as he listened to what the soldier had to say.
Then Junior straightened up and told the assembled crowd, "I'm afraid there is business I must attend to now. But I will be meeting with each of you later on today. I want to be sure you're all settling in, and see the progress you've made."
With that, he turned and left the stage from the back, and Sora turned to Asami with frantic energy. "We need to get out of here."
Asami nodded grimly, and clutched tight to Sora's arm as the crowd began to disperse. There were too many soldiers to escape the great hall, and Sora and Asami had to act natural as their soldier shadows came back and led them to their room. The girls were told that the boss would come by to talk to them soon, and then left. The second the door was shut, Sora dropped down to the floor, folding her legs beneath her and sucking in a deep breath.
"I'm gonna try and find a way out of here," she told Asami.
"I'll watch the door," Asami said. "I'll tell you if anyone's coming."
Sora evened her breath and tried to calm her racing heart, sinking down into herself, reaching out to that spiritual essence. She needed to find an escape route, and then tell her family who was responsible just in case she didn't make it out.
She retraced her path to the great hall, weaving in and out of walls to avoid the soldiers roaming the hallways. She went over and behind the stage, and found a single door that lead her down another corridor, but this one had only two doors. The one at the end went right outside, and there were several military vehicles Asami and Sora could use to escape, but it would also require them to fight through all the soldiers roaming around. Sora committed as much of the surrounding area as she could to memory, and then went to check the other door.
It led to a small office, which Sora could only look inside of for just a second before she lurched back out. She had seen Kuvira standing behind the desk looking angry, and Junior across from her with hunched shoulders.
Sora put her ear to the door and listened as Kuvira growled, "I don't know what the flameo you were thinking, but we need to do damage control now."
"I'm sorry, but I think you're overreacting," Junior said a bit timidly. "This is going just fine. Only a few of them are dissenting and no one on the outside has any proof of what's going on. They don't even think we're involved –"
"Are you sure about that?" Kuvira cut him off. "Did you know that your aunt and uncle are currently in the village where you've been taking most of these women from? How do you think I found out about this operation you've been keeping secret from me? Because Xai called to assure me he was taking care of them."
"I didn't intend to keep it from you forever," Junior insisted. "I just wanted to do something useful. You've been sidelining me lately. I knew this was a good idea, but that you would need to see proof that it would work –"
"It's not working!" Kuvira snapped. "You don't think Lin Beifong and her brood just happened to be in town, do you?"
"They'll never figure it out," Junior scoffed. "My aunt and uncle aren't half as smart as they think they are."
"I wouldn't underestimate your cousins," Kuvira warned. "We both know what Jeia is capable of and Ronen is one of the people the Avatar trusts the most –"
"My cousins are children," Junior dismissed. "And the Avatar is still in the South Pole recovering –"
"She could be recovered in two days for all we know. I can handle her, but we aren't prepared to take on everyone else yet, and fighting the Avatar will gain us a lot more enemies. If Lin and Tenzin turn against us now, they'll bring the rest of the world with them."
"Then we'll handle them like we discussed," Junior said without concern.
Kuvira made a noise of frustration. "You aren't understanding this. We haven't amassed enough of an army yet. If the United Republic loses faith in me, they'll tear us apart, and you kidnapping Earth Kingdom citizens won't endear them to us either. Our own people will turn against us. We need to get ahead of this."
There was the sound of footsteps growing nearer to the door, and Junior calling out, "Where are you going?"
Kuvira answered, "To clean up your mess."
Sora jumped away from the door just before it was yanked open, and threw her spiritual form into the opposite wall to avoid being seen. She poked one eye out to watch Kuvira storming down the hall towards the exit, Junior racing to catch up to her after a moment of hesitation. Sora watched them go, and then returned to her body at once with a gasp.
From her place at the door, Asami spun to face Sora. "What did you find?"
Sora swallowed the lump in her throat before replying, "I think I know a way out, but we can't leave yet. I need to tell Yunjin what's coming."
No sooner had Sora returned from telling her brother what was going on when the door to their room swung open. The soldier standing there said, "Come on. You're going home."
Tenzin managed to keep Haito and Taizu distracted for a while, chattering on and on about whatever he could think about, telling the two soldiers that his family was still sleeping and he didn't want to disturb them. Haito and Taizu fell for it for a while, even went with Tenzin down the street to help him get breakfast for Lin and the kids. He wasted as much time as he could, thankful that the diner he had chosen was busy and he had to sit at a table with Haito and Taizu for a while to wait. Even on his return to the inn, he kept a slow pace and made a few stops along the way to examine things he wasn't all that interested in.
In the end, his procrastination was not forced to end by the soldiers becoming frustrated by him as he had expected, but rather, by the sight of his two sons running to him from the other end of the inn's expansive courtyard. At the sight of them, Tenzin immediately dropped his act and the food he was toting, and went rushing forward to meet them.
"What is it?" Tenzin demanded before they even reached each other. "What happened?"
"We heard from Sora," Ronen said quickly as he slid to a stop in front of his father, Yunjin stumbling up next to him a moment later, bent over and panting heavily. "We need to find Mom and Jeia."
"You mean they aren't here?" Haito exclaimed, having rushed to keep up with Tenzin even in his surprise. "Where are they? I thought you were all asleep."
"They've duped us," Taizu muttered, catching on quicker. "They're clearly up to something."
Yunjin heaved in a breath and straightened up, and then breathlessly told the two soldiers, "Sorry, guys, but you're gonna have to get out of our way now, or I'll be forced to have my brother and my father here kick your asses."
"We really must be going," Tenzin told the pair apologetically. "By any means necessary."
"But we'd prefer to skip the fighting if we could," Ronen offered.
Taizu and Haito exchanged a glance, and Haito immediately grimaced, raising his hands in surrender. "I'm out."
Taizu sighed, and he didn't look pleased, but when Haito started backing away, he seemed to recognize the futility of taking on Tenzin and Ronen by himself.
Tenzin turned his attention back onto Yunjin and repeated, "What happened? What did Sora say?"
"It's not Xai," Yunjin answered. "Or at least, not directly. It's Bataar Jr. He's been trying to create a secret, elite squad of fighters for Kuvira's army. But apparently Kuvira didn't know about it and she's coming here to fix it, whatever that means. She knows we're here looking into the disappearances."
Tenzin took it all in with grim understanding and a fair bit of trepidation. "Do you still have your bison whistle?"
"Of course," Yunjin replied, pulling it out of his shirt and blowing into it without preamble.
But they waited for several long minutes and even walked in the direction of where Lin and Jeia had gone to follow Yumae, and Oogi never came.
"Do you think he's too far away?" Ronen asked.
Tenzin shook his head. "He knows to stay close. Your mother may have already called him. He won't leave her and Jeia."
"Do you think we're too late?" Yunjin worried.
Which was about the time that Tenzin sensed a shift in the air. He looked up at the same time Yunjin did, Ronen a few seconds later, and all three of them came to a halt just as they saw four airships flying overheard, emblazoned with Kuvira's military insignia.
Ronen was the first to say what they were all thinking. "We're too late."
Lin had expected all manor of trouble to descend from Kuvira's airships, but she hadn't expected Kuvira herself.
After ordering her troops here and there, and calling to the confused villagers and police officers to cease their fighting, Kuvira eventually strolled over to Lin, Jeia, Yumae, and Oogi. Jeia seemed unable to contain herself, climbing back down from Oogi and striding a few steps towards Kuvira before catching herself and looking back at her mother.
For once, Lin shook her head instead of nodding her assent, but Jeia frowned and ignored it, looking back around and greeting Kuvira with a mostly eager, "Hi, Kuvira."
Kuvira smiled broadly, closing the distance between her and Jeia and bending down to be eye level with the girl. "Jeia! It's so good to see you. How are you?"
"I'm all right," Jeia answered. "I haven't seen you in forever, which is pretty lame."
Kuvira chuckled. "I've missed you too. I could have used a captain like you this past year. I've got some good soldiers, but none as good as you."
Jeia shrugged. "I could help some time maybe."
That's when Lin stepped in, putting Jeia a step behind her and grumbling, "Not likely," before facing Kuvira. "I'm surprised to see you here."
"I could say the same of you," Kuvira countered. "Mind if I ask what brought you here?"
"Depends," Lin replied. "Why are you here?"
Kuvira looked away shamefully for just a moment, and it was almost believable, except Lin didn't trust Kuvira and she had known the girl since she was eight. But Kuvira didn't consider that or simply powered on anyway, sighing regretfully as she answered, "I'm sad to say that it's unpleasant business that brings me here, something I've only just become aware of. But as soon as I heard, I knew I needed to come myself and put a stop to it at once. I'm headed to the head councilman's chambers at the Town Hall now. Will you and Jeia come with me?"
Lin glanced back at Yumae, who was leaning heavily on Oogi for support.
Misinterpreting, Kuvira said, "I'll have a healer look after your friend."
"No," Yumae protested. "I want to come along. I want to hear what you have to say to Xai."
"Of course," Kuvira easily agreed, looking almost sympathetic. She turned to address the rest of the villagers and police officers, all of them quiet now as Kuvira's soldiers kept them separate and contained. The soldiers that had aided the police in attacking the villagers were among the rest of the soldiers now, acting as buffers as if they hadn't just been on one side a moment ago. "I'm sure all of you want answers, and peace, and I'm here to give that to you. Come with me to Xai's chambers, and I'll explain it all."
She did not wait for a response, but began to lead the way to the Town Hall, some of her soldiers flanking her, the rest ushering the rest of the villagers along. No one really protested. They were probably confused and eager to know what was going on, and they had no chance against Kuvira's four airships full of soldiers anyways.
Yumae staggered forward, and was helped along by two soldiers Kuvira had sent to look over her injured leg.
Before Lin followed, she went back to Oogi and urged, "Go find Tenzin and the boys."
Oogi bumped his head against her shoulder, backed up two steps, and then took off into the air.
Lin took Jeia's hand and led the girl along behind everyone else.
Jeia muttered, "I told you it wasn't Kuvira."
Lin sighed. "I wouldn't be so sure that it isn't, kid."
"You never gave her a chance," Jeia huffed. "Not once."
"Yeah," Lin admitted. "You're right."
It was less than a ten-minute walk to the village's Town Hall, and as the huge group of them came upon the small building, Xai walked out the front doors with a few councilors and body guards of his own. He smiled as if unperturbed by the mob heading towards him, standing at the top of the steps with his hands resting casually on his hips as he called down, "Kuvira! I'm so sorry; we weren't expecting you. We can have tea made at once. I hope everyone has been treating you well. What brings you to our humble village this afternoon?"
Oogi landed quietly just behind Lin and Jeia, and Tenzin, Ronen, and Yunjin came rushing over. Lin could see the relief on Tenzin's face at seeing them both unharmed, but it faded slightly when he saw the grim look on her face. He clutched her arm and stood close when he reached her. Ronen stood next to his parents and Yunjin next to Jeia, but none of them spoke yet as they watched the scene unfolding in front of them.
Kuvira ascended the steps to stand face to face with Xai, who's smile faltered then, the corners of his mouth twitching as he fought to hold it in place. She could have whispered to him, but she spoke loud enough for everyone in the vicinity to hear. "You know why I'm here, Xai. It's the same reason your people are fighting each other in the streets. It's about the people that have gone missing these past weeks. You did a good job of covering it up, but that's over now."
Xai looked nervously around at the crowd before him, still holding that tense smile in place. "Missing? No. No. I mean, it's far more complicated than – I have the best people working on –"
"It's over, Xai," Kuvira interrupted. "I know now what you've been doing." She abruptly turned away from him, facing the people as an expression of guilt passed over her features. "I am so sorry to have had any part in this, but you see, this great nation has been torn apart, and I've been fighting day in and day out to tie the pieces back together. In our efforts, I asked each leader of every village and township, no matter how big or small, to send me whatever soldiers they could. I asked only for volunteers, for people who had the time and the will to help me reunite the Earth Kingdom. Xai was most eager to help me, and I was too trusting to recognize what he had done. He continued to send me people even after I had gone. Elite fighters, he said, ones that would turn the tide of the war and make this whole nation prosper. I had not been to the facility where these people were being trained. I had no idea of the truth until today. When I learned that Xai had been kidnapping them, I was sickened."
Tenzin's hand tightened around Lin's arm.
Xai looked stricken, his smile entirely eradicated now and his eyes wide. "What –" he spluttered. "N – no – no – that's not – I was only –"
Kuvira spoke over him. "I want to personally apologize to each of you, and assure you that all of your loved ones will be returned to you by the end of today, each of them unharmed. I promise that they were kept well fed and cared for. I only hope that someday you might be able to forgive me this folly. Furthermore, I don't wish to interfere in your government. I know that Xai was an elected official. I leave his fate to all of you. I only want to advise that you not turn against each other. The police were acting only on Xai's commands. He filled them with falsehoods, led them to believe that the families of those that were taken were acting irrationally. Let us all come together now, to condemn those few that are truly responsible."
"No!" Xai shouted fearfully. "I didn't –!"
But his words were drowned by the outpour of angry villagers crying out against him. The police surged forward, this time to detain Xai.
"She's lying!" Ronen exclaimed, half in disbelief, his voice thankfully unheard by anyone but his family. "We have to stop this."
"No," Lin said, grabbing Ronen's sleeve when he took a step forward.
"It wasn't just Xai," Yunjin told his mother. "Sora told us it was Junior. The entire thing was his idea. Kuvira's doing this to save his ass… and hers."
"And she's going to get away with it," Lin said plainly. "If we go up there right now, we'll get hanged along with Xai."
"This isn't right," Ronen continued to protest.
"No, it isn't," Tenzin softly agreed. "But Xai is not innocent –"
"But it isn't fair that he should take all the blame," Ronen argued. "Junior might have forced him into it for all we know. These people will crucify him and Junior gets off entirely free."
"We need to be practical about this," Lin hissed through gritted teeth, yanking Ronen back now and looking worriedly around at Kuvira's soldiers flanking them. "Kuvira and Junior will have their comeuppance, but it won't be here."
Ronen seemed to understand, but he still looked at his mother with sorrow and regret. "We have the power to do something here."
Tenzin reasoned, "It won't do us any good to reveal our knowledge to Kuvira. Who knows what she'll do to keep us silent? Until we have further proof against her, we'd only be making ourselves targets, and then we'll have no power to stop her at any point."
"You're all being stupid," Jeia scoffed. "Kuvira doesn't need stopped. It was Junior's dumb idea to take people and she's giving them back. That's what we came here to do."
Ronen seemed like he wanted to say something but Lin squeezed his arm and gave him a look. Now wasn't the time to lecture his baby sister on morality.
"So what then?" Ronen demanded. "We just leave? Do nothing?"
"That's exactly right," Lin said. "We find Sora and Asami and we get the hell out. We have no place here." They had no say in how the village doled out justice, and they had nothing to prove Junior's involvement but Sora's word. Yumae had asked them to come to her village to help find the missing women, and so they had, and now it was time for them to move on. They could worry about Kuvira and Junior later.
Lin, Tenzin, Jeia, and the boys left Yumae's village on Oogi the moment that all the kidnapped citizens were returned. To avoid tipping off Kuvira and Junior, the family knew they had to wait to reunite with Sora and Asami, so they touched down about a mile out of the village and waited. It didn't take very long for the girls to arrive, but they looked exhausted.
While Asami reunited with Ronen, and after Sora had hugged Yunjin, she moved onto her parents, who immediately started asking after her health.
"I'm all right," she assured them, "but being drugged sucks. My head still hurts. Do you have food? I'm starving."
"Of course," Tenzin responded, digging through one of Oogi's saddle packs to find her some rations and water.
As Sora stuffed her mouth with food, she added a garbled, "Otherwise, though, I think the mission went okay. We weren't there long enough to learn much about what was going on there, but at least we know the truth."
"We can always come back," Asami suggested, "once everything settles down. Find Yumae and ask her sister what went on in there."
"Maybe," Ronen said, frowning. "I'm still surprised it was all Junior's idea. I thought it was mostly his allegiance to Kuvira that drove him to leave Zaofu, but this is something else."
Sora swallowed the food in her mouth with a loud gulp and replied, "Something even more troubling is that, when Kuvira suggested to Junior that we might find out about it, he said that they should deal with us like they discussed."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Yunjin wondered aloud.
"Nothing good," Lin muttered. "If they think we need to be dealt with, they've got something planned."
"Kuvira thought it was too early," Sora went on. "That she wasn't powerful enough to take us on yet."
"Then it sounds like we need to make sure she never is," Ronen said.
"Let's not jump too far ahead," Tenzin advised, glancing over at Jeia, who was sitting on the ground a few feet away, sulking and digging a rock into the ground as she listened to them. "We're missing a lot of information here. The rumors we've heard about how Kuvira is handling things are just that – rumors. She's done a great deal of good for the Earth Kingdom so far, and we have no reason to believe that she won't relinquish control when the time comes. As with any leadership, there are errors, and her pinning the blame on Xai may have been unjust, but she loves Junior, doesn't she? It was likely she was just trying to save him. And dealing with us could simply mean negotiating."
"That's a whole lot of optimism, Dad," Yunjin said. "I'm not sure that I agree, but it is too soon to judge."
"I just don't like the way this is going," Ronen admitted. "Something doesn't feel right."
Asami looped her arm through his and softly assured him, "However this goes, we'll be prepared."
Lin only hoped that was true, because the feeling in her gut was telling her otherwise.
Arriving in Zaofu was not quite the peaceful and exciting vacation it had originally been slated to be. Of course, Lin had known all along that she would spend part, if not all, of the trip looking after her sister, to see how Su was really coping with the betrayal she had felt at the hands of Kuvira and her own firstborn. But Lin hadn't been withholding troubling information about Junior's activities in the Earth Kingdom before. She had been planning to reassure her sister that Junior was doing a good thing, that it didn't need to be taken as a personal slight against his mother and the rest of his family, that eventually he would come home. Now, though, Lin knew that wasn't quite the case, and she knew also that she would have to be the one to tell her sister about what had gone on in Yumae's village.
Su asked about their investigation shortly after landing, but Lin had feigned weariness and insisted they talk about something else, telling Su only that the women had all been returned and nothing else. Lin knew it was only a temporary fix, that Su would want details later, but at least they could all spend the first night together as a family and without the burden of the truth weighing so heavily. They all had dinner together, and with all the kids and Lin and Su and Tenzin and Bataar there, it almost felt normal and relaxed. Junior's absence was only mildly out of the ordinary, considering he had always been a little elusive before, but it was clear Su felt it keenly.
In addition to avoiding the mention of Junior and Kuvira, there was another name no one at the table would say out loud, at least not in the presence of Sora. That is, until Sora herself set her fork down on her plate, cleared her throat, and asked her Aunt Su, "Is Zara still staying here?"
The rest of them went suddenly silent, freezing in place, looking between Sora and Su, who slowly sat her own utensils down before softly answering, "Yes, she is. But you don't have to worry, sweetheart. You won't see her while you're here."
"How – how is she doing?" Sora tentatively inquired. "Was it the right thing to do? Bringing her here?"
Su hesitated, glancing over at Lin, who was already frowning. But she truthfully told Sora, "Yes, I think so. She's doing well. It was rough at first, of course. She was a bit destructive, angry, but we've been keeping her busy, channeling her energy into better things. I've had her talking to a therapist and we've started integrating her into parts of the city. So far, she seems to be on the right track."
Sora sucked in a deep breath and nodded. "That's… good to hear." She returned her attention to her plate, picking her fork back up and returning to her dinner. Everyone else followed her lead and resumed where they left off, striking up safer conversations.
Sometime after dinner, though, there was no more hiding from the conversation Lin would have to have with her sister. She wanted to avoid the topic of Junior altogether, to let Su live half in oblivion a while longer, but she knew Su would get suspicious, and probably angry if she found out Lin kept it from her, and frankly Lin would have wanted to know if it was her own kid. So, late that evening, when Su snagged Lin and asked for an explanation, Lin relented. Everyone else was heading off to bed or had already gone that way, except for Tenzin who lagged behind with Lin, but she told him to go ahead to the guest house while she went with Su.
Then Lin said to Su, "Come on then. We should sit, maybe get you a drink."
Su followed without protest but scoffed, "Well that doesn't sound ominous at all."
Only once they were alone in the sitting room, glass in hand and settled down on the couch, did Lin begin to speak.
"Listen," she started bluntly, "this is gonna sound bad and you're not gonna wanna hear it –"
"Just spit it out Lin," Su cut in. "Whatever it is, I can handle it."
"I don't have all the information," Lin continued to hedge, "only what Sora was able to overhear. Maybe there's a better explanation, maybe it wasn't exactly as it sounds –"
Su sighed impatiently. "Lin."
"Yeah, all right, all right. It was Junior. He was having the leader of Yumae's village send him people, young women mostly, to be part of some elite fighting force for Kuvira's army. Doesn't seem like they were totally mistreated but they were definitely there against their will. Sora and Asami were drugged and held in locked rooms, but they weren't there long enough to see the rest. The reason it got shut down was because Kuvira found out about it and didn't think Junior's plan would work. She knew that I was in town and was worried we would link it back to her and turn the world leaders against her. Junior said that they could just take care of us as they had discussed, whatever that means. But like I said, I don't know everything."
Su was quiet, seeming to take it all in, not looking Lin in the eye now, slowly taking a long pull from her drink. Her hand trembled as she lowered the glass, but at first that was the only outward sign that she was in any sort of distress. "So," she said quietly, her finger drumming against the side of the glass, "you're telling me that my son kidnaps women now?"
Lin winced. "Well, when you put it like that… I don't think it's quite as bad as it sounds. He had… good intentions… sort of."
"And he has a plan to take care of my sister and her family?" Su went on.
"It's probably just political," Lin reasoned. "Not like he'd try to kill us or something."
Su leaned forward to sit her glass down on the low table in front of her, and then she stayed bent over, her elbows propped on her knees as she buried her face in her hands. At first, she continued to breathe steadily, and Lin couldn't tell what emotion her sister was feeling. She reached out, but her hand hovered over Su's shoulder and didn't finish the movement. Until Su's body began to shake, and her breathing became labored and Lin knew that Su was crying even as she tried to suppress it.
Lin sat her own drink down and pulled Su into her side, and Su immediately dropped her hands and all pretense of being okay.
"What have I done?" Su choked out through a sob, her tears soaking through the shoulder of Lin's shirt. "What did I d – do?"
"Nothing," Lin murmured, "you did nothing wrong."
"How can my own s – son hate me so m – much? How did he become this?"
"It isn't your fault," Lin soothed, rubbing Su's back. "Kids never listen to us once they get to a certain age. I'm sure he doesn't hate you. He's just confused."
"He was such a sweet boy. How could he – it doesn't make sense."
"I know, I know…"
"I failed him," Su sobbed. "I failed him."
Lin shook her head and quietly protested, "No. No. You didn't. It's not your fault." She kissed the top of Su's head and held her tight, and that was really all she could do. She had rarely felt so useless in her life.
After Su had settled, she wiped her face and breathed in deep and told Lin she was fine. Lin didn't believe it for a second, but she knew Su needed time to be alone, to be with her husband. Lin would still be there in the morning, and for several days after, and she would do whatever she could for Su.
For now, she went to the guest house to be with her family, and the house was quiet so she surmised that all of them were sleeping. She checked in on each of them, finding Tenzin still half clothed, on top of the covers, apparently having fallen asleep waiting up for her. The kids were resting easy, all except Sora, whom Lin could not find. She remembered Sora saying that she was going to go for a walk after dinner, but it was late now and the kid should have been back. Lin was a little paranoid but not overly worried. Zaofu was safe and Sora wasn't a troublemaker. She sat in the living room though, and waited, checking the time now and then.
She was just about to wake Tenzin and go out looking when she sensed movement on the threshold. Sora crept in light as a feather, barely making a sound but for the quiet creak of the door hinges. She didn't notice her mother at first, so focused on sneaking inside without being heard, and when she turned and saw Lin, she jumped backwards with a gasp. "Mom! Spirits, you scared the life out of me. What are you doing up?"
Lin rose slowly, looking Sora over searchingly, taking note of the girl's flushed face and frazzled hair. She folded her arms across her chest and replied, "I could ask the same of you. Where on earth have you been?"
If it was Yunjin, Lin would have gotten a perfect story, every detail planned, an answer to every anticipated question. She would have known it was a lie, but she would have been impressed by the attempt.
If it was Ronen, he either would have simply come right out and told her what he had been doing without an ounce of shame, or told a lie so simple she might have even believed it.
Sora, on the other hand, was a terrible liar, and never came prepared. And when she saw the all too knowing look on her mother's face, she dissolved into tears. Lin hadn't been expecting that reaction, but she wasn't all that surprised by it either. For the same reason she didn't worry so much about Sora getting into trouble, she knew when Sora was doing something a little irrational, and not in the service of protecting her family, she was often ashamed to admit to it.
Far used to Sora's bouts of tears by now, Lin went forward to console the girl without further thought. She held Sora in her arms, much as she had held Su only an hour or so ago, and let the girl cry for a moment. Then she tilted her head down and stroked Sora's hair back to try and get a look at Sora's face as she surmised, "You were with Zara then?"
Sora only cried harder, and blubbered something vaguely reminiscent of, "I'm sorry."
But Lin insisted, "It's okay, kid. Take a breath. I'm not mad. Tell me what happened."
Sora made a concerted effort to calm herself, wiping her tears and sniffing back more. She was still gasping a little for breath when she admitted to her mother, "I only wanted to see – for myself – if what Aunt Su said was true. I didn't mean to – I wasn't going to stay – but I was still – I guess I was still upset and – she told me – we talked. I know you hate her but I – I don't know what to – I can't stop – she's so – and I just –"
Sora was getting worked up again so Lin shushed her and held her closer. "All right. It's okay. We'll talk about it later. It's late. Why don't you get some rest?"
Sora nodded against her mother's chest and let Lin lead her down the hall to her room. Lin made sure Sora was settled and tucked the girl in like she was five and not soon to be sixteen, and only then did she go climb into her own bed with Tenzin.
He stirred as she curled up against his side, and sleepily murmured, "There you are. Are you all right?"
Lin sighed and pulled Tenzin's arm over her as she muttered, "Ask me in the morning."
Despite everything that was still amiss in the family, they all managed to enjoy the next several days together. They played games and laughed and spent more time together than they had in a long time. They relaxed in the company of each other, ignoring, for a moment, whatever might trouble them. After the year they had had, they deserved to unwind, to block out the rest of the world for a little while. So that was what they did, disregarding everything else and focusing on each other. For a while, it was a bit like old times, like when the kids were little and everything was hectic but somehow easier. It helped that there was no specific end date. Lin was no longer employed and Tenzin wasn't really either in any official capacity. Ronen and Asami were the only ones with a real job, but since it was Asami's company it was easy for them to manage it from afar. But they would have to go back to Republic City eventually. Tenzin had the Air Nation to manage still and Asami couldn't stay away forever. Sora was eager to start leading missions with the airbenders, and probably to get away from the temptation of seeing Zara.
It was shortly after discussing when they might depart that Yunjin decided to tell some of his family his own plans.
Lin, Tenzin, and Sora sat down in the guest house living room at his behest, and Yunjin sat across from them as he went straight into it. "I've been thinking," he said, "about the future, and how I might be most useful. I don't think that I'm ready to lead airbenders on peace missions like Sora, but there's something else I might be able to do to aid that same goal. You'll probably freak out when I say it at first, so just hear me out."
"I don't like where this is going," Lin said.
Yunjin continued without further preamble, "I want to join Kuvira in some capacity –"
Lin shook her head. "Nope, definitely don't like it."
"Nor do I," Tenzin agreed.
"Why would you want to do that?" Sora exclaimed.
"Because I think it'll go one of two ways and both could be useful," Yunjin explained. "Even though we've heard some troubling reports from the Earth Kingdom about her actions, and what just happened in Yumae's village was not at all reassuring, we've also heard a lot of good things. Airbenders telling us that Kuvira arrived in time to save a battered village, to give the people food and resources they desperately needed. Kuvira's soldiers praising her as the Great Uniter and choosing to serve her to protect the Earth Kingdom from bandits and zealots. If those reports are true, then in joining Kuvira I'll be helping those people too, helping bring the Earth Kingdom back together and protecting people much the same as we've sent the airbenders off to do.
"If the other reports are true, where Kuvira is the bad guy, then maybe I can find the proof and the leverage we'll need to stop her. She sent me these leg braces for a reason, and I don't know why, but I can use it to prove my loyalty to her. She might be suspicious at first when I show up trying to join her ranks, but if I tell her how useful the braces were, how grateful I am to her, and how much I want to be of use, I think I can persuade her. And over time, I can gain her trust, maybe become a part of her inner circle. If she has any secrets, I can find that out. And if she doesn't, then we'll know we have nothing to worry about."
"That's…" Tenzin slowly began, "not a terrible idea, but… I still don't care for it."
"You're too young to be going undercover for something like this," Lin insisted.
"I'm the same age Ronen was when he started tagging along with Korra," Yunjin countered.
"Fine, then you're not healthy enough," Lin argued. "You only just got back up on your feet a few months ago, and you were not in a good place for a long time. There's no need for you to be rushing into any hasty decisions right now."
"This isn't hasty," Yunjin promised. "I've thought about it a lot, and this isn't something I'm going into with a bad motive. I only want to help the Earth Kingdom, and find out whether or not Kuvira can be trusted. I don't plan on doing anything stupid. I won't start any fights or act irrationally. What I've been through this past year is what will help me through this. Physically, I'm healthy enough, and mentally I'd say I'm stronger."
Sora chimed in, "Jin, you know I have total faith in you, and you'd probably be really great at this, but it's dangerous. If Kuvira finds out and she is being shady about something, you could be in a lot of trouble. And even if she isn't, you would be putting yourself in front of bandits and angry villagers on a regular basis while unable to defend yourself properly. You should practice more of your airbending first, get better at that before you do something like this."
"It'll take too long for all that," Yunjin said. "I can defend myself well enough, and I can still practice while I'm with Kuvira. This is all assuming she'll take me, but I think it's a good idea."
"Well I don't," Lin grumbled.
Yunjin smirked. "I knew you wouldn't. I'm going to do it though, and I want you guys to be onboard. I know it's not a mission you gave me, but it's the one I need to do."
"Is it so important that you do this now?" Tenzin questioned. "Can't we take some time?"
"I don't think it can wait too much longer," Yunjin answered. "I don't plan on running out tomorrow, but in a few weeks. I don't know how long it'll take me to get Kuvira to trust me, so the sooner the better."
"Somebody else can do this," Lin reasoned. "It doesn't have to be you."
"I think that it does," Yunjin replied. "I have a better way in than some random person, and nothing holding me back from a months' long expedition. And we know now that I can reach out to Sora if I need to. If anything goes wrong you can pull me out."
"There isn't any talking you out of this, is there?" Lin sighed.
"Probably not," Yunjin admitted. "I mean hey, you guys are the ones that kept telling me I was a master."
"You are, but you are our son first and foremost," Tenzin said. "We don't want you going into anything where we may be unable to protect you."
"I think we're long past that," Yunjin said quietly.
"All the more reason not to let you go," Lin responded.
"I'll send you letters every week," Yunjin tried to appease them. "And I'll be careful, more than I ever was before."
Tenzin stood up and went to sit next to Yunjin, pulling the boy into his side and saying, "I am hesitant to say it, but… you have my blessing. I don't want you to go, but I have every confidence that you can do this."
Yunjin managed a small smile of relief, but then turned his gaze onto his mother, watching her with uncertainty.
Lin wanted to fight against it, to force him to stay home where it was safe, but she also knew a losing battle when she saw it. She stood too, putting her hands on her hips and gruffly said, "Letters every day, and you're going to spend the next few weeks training with me before you go. No son of mine is going off on an undercover mission without the proper training."
Yunjin's smile grew. "I can do that."
Sora went over to Yunjin's other side and hugged him too. "Are you sure you don't want to just come on missions with me?"
"One day I will," Yunjin promised her. "Actually, before I go, there's something I want you to do for me."
"Anything," Sora said.
"I want you to get your tattoos."
Sora frowned. "I told you I'm not doing it without you."
"It won't be without me," Yunjin insisted. "I'll be with you the entire time, and I'll be at the ceremony, and when I get mine, I know you'll be right by my side."
"I don't know why you won't get them with me," Sora said in frustration. "I don't deserve them anymore than you do –"
"It's not about that," Yunjin interjected, "not anymore. It's just that we're going in different directions right now. I'm going undercover. You're going to be a leader of the Air Nation. You should look the part. And when I get back, I promise I'll get mine. I just want all of us to have this moment before we start separating again."
"And there's nothing I can say to convince you to get your tattoos with me?" Sora tried one last time.
"'Fraid not. Don't think I'm ready to get rid of my hair yet." He smiled wryly and patted his long hair.
Sora tugged on a strand of her own and joked, "I think being bald will be a nice change."
Yunjin smirked. "I can't wait to see it."
Lin could have waited a lot longer, but there was no denying that her kids weren't so little anymore, and there was little she could do to stop them from growing further. All that she could do now was hope that she had taught them enough to protect themselves.
Chapter 91: Chapter 91
Chapter Text
Chapter 91
Korra was no stranger to hurt or fear, but the agony she suffered at the hands of Zaheer was beyond anything she had ever endured before. Physically, the poison had ravaged her body, slicing through her like a knife, hammering at her bones and scraping across nerve endings, lighting a fire within her that burned through her veins. Mentally, she was no less tortured. Zaheer had broken her in a way she had not thought possible, sapped her of all energy, all hope, and all strength. She was weak, weaker than she had ever been before, a useless Avatar and a shell of her former self.
At the first opportunity, she left Republic City, left her friends and everyone else behind. She could not face them, could not listen to Tenzin's encouragements or Ronen's reassurances. She could not look at the pity in Mako's eyes or the sorrow in Bolin's. She couldn't bear Asami's gentle hand on her shoulder or Beifong's all too knowing looks. Even more she did not want to take any attention away from Yunjin, who was suffering much the same, and who needed his family to help him through, to not be distracted by Korra's similar plight.
So Korra went home, to her own parents, to a place she had never much belonged to, but which held some comfort in its familiarity. She wished that she could somehow avoid the worry in her parents' gazes, but that, at least, was nothing new. They had been worrying about her for ages, knew when to give her space and when to push her. They allowed her several weeks to grieve the loss of herself, taking care of her because she could not take care of herself, and then her mother asked her to see Katara, and because Korra had nothing else to do, she went to see if the master healer could somehow help.
Katara was soft but resolute. She did not baby Korra, and she had unyielding patience. Even as Korra gave up over and over, and argued with and snapped at Katara, the elder woman never once wavered. She was calm and unbothered, which was just the stability Korra needed when every bit of her was so shaky. Her mind, her body, and soul were three separate entities, torn apart and floundering. Desperately she tried to sew them back together, but the strength she needed was slow in coming.
Korra spent months trying to rehabilitate herself, trying to walk and eat and sleep, like a child having to relearn it all. For a while, nightmares woke her at all hours, the pressure to succeed stole her appetite, and her limbs rebelled against every aching step she tried to take. It was at least six months before she could walk with any amount of ease, longer still before she could sleep through the night. Even then, she had a lot of recuperating left to go. Her muscles needed strengthened, and her bending relearned. Things that had seemed so simple before had become so far out of reach. It was another year before she was in any condition to fight and hold her own, and even then she was haunted by images from when she had been poisoned and could not go into the Avatar state. In the two years she spent secluded in the South Pole, she was unable to commune with any of the past Avatars, that weak connection she'd so recently regained nonexistent now. Her connection to Raava was gone too, the Avatar state a far away dream she thought she might never recover.
Even as Korra yearned to reach out, she only managed to push everyone farther and farther away. She read all of the letters her friends sent her from Republic City, but she couldn't find it within her to respond. She didn't think that Mako and Bolin would understand, and she didn't want to trouble poor Sora with anything more than she had to deal with. She managed to send a few letters back to Ronen and Asami, but she didn't want to distract either of them or make them worry more. She knew they were both working hard for Sato Industries while simultaneously trying to help around Air Temple Island, with Yunjin and the Air Nation and sending out aid to the world while Korra could not, and Korra didn't want to burden them with her problems. Seeing Ronen and Tenzin when they came to the South Pole was almost enough to convince her to go back to the city, but the visions of Zaheer and the poisoning that continued to plague her changed her mind.
In the time she spent in the South Pole, however, she was not entirely alone. Akira was there for a while, and though she and Korra had been a little at odds several months prior, they resumed their friendship as if nothing had happened between them. Korra could not even remember why they had disagreed in the first place, but she was thankful for Akira's company. Having someone other than her parents and Katara around was a lifesaver, someone closer to her own age.
Akira had missed most of Korra's initial recovery, which was probably for the best because Korra hadn't been much for company before she could walk again. Akira had been in Republic City with her mother, until she had reassured herself that Kya was doing fine after her own altercation with the Red Lotus. And even though Akira mostly despised the South Pole, she had returned to her home village to attempt to make amends with her father and brother. She got along fine with her eldest brother Koda, but she hadn't been on good terms with Ashok or her father in a long time. As she had explained it to Korra, she had sided with her mother when her parents split, and her father hadn't taken it well, had tried to suffocate her and control her, worried that she would turn out like her mother. Ashok, meanwhile, had sided with their father, was still deeply hurt by his mother leaving, and would still barely speak to Kya at all, which only made his relationship with his sister even more strained. Akira had been fine with avoiding both of them while she traveled the world, but being so near to losing her mother had made her rethink a few things, and she had decided to revisit home and see if it was possible to be on better terms with the rest of her family.
Her attempts did not appear to be going well, judging by how frustrated Akira often was and how she went on long rants about her father and brother being idiots. Akira could talk and talk, about anything and everything, with a story for everything and a lot of interesting ones too, from all of her travels. Korra liked to sit and listen, liked that when she was with Akira she wasn't being asked about how she was or looked at with concern. Akira always acted as if Korra was unchanged, even on the days when Korra could barely eat or hadn't slept at all the night before. Akira didn't press Korra to do or say anything she didn't want to. And when Korra did feel comfortable or aggravated enough to talk or rant or complain, Akira quieted to listen, even seemed to become as riled as Korra sometimes, nodding emphatically and sharing Korra's outrage at whatever thing was bothering Korra that day.
The only time Korra saw Akira looking cautious and sorrowful was when she told Korra that she was leaving. After about a year in the South Pole, Akira hadn't made much progress with her brother and father, and she was going stir crazy in the frozen tundra. Akira was free spirited like her mother, craved travel and adventure, and Korra had always known her presence in the South Pole was temporary. Akira looked regretful, leaving Korra behind, and even tried to convince Korra to come along with her. But Korra wasn't ready to leave yet, was too afraid to go, and she smiled and pretended she was fine and insisted Akira go without any concerns for Korra.
It was another six months or so before Korra felt she might be able to move on. She was still plagued by flashbacks and nightmares, and could not connect to the Avatar state, but she had hit a wall and hadn't improved in a while. She thought that by going back to Republic City, back to her friends and the action, might help push her the rest of the way to her goal. She told her parents of her plans, told them that she wanted to go alone to clear her head, and then set sail to the city with high hopes.
But halfway there, she stopped at a small village for some food, and came across some thieves making off with a shop owner's stolen loot. When she attempted to stop them, Korra found that she was far from recovered, and could not even manage to fight off two bandits. Just like that her hopes were dashed, and though she went the rest of the way to the city, she turned back before she could reach land. She cut her hair and changed her clothes, so that no one would recognize her as the Avatar, and she went looking for the answers she needed.
She went first to the spirit portal in the North Pole, and then traveled the short distance to the Tree of Time. She had thought it might help her as it had during Harmonic Convergence, that it might reconnect her to Raava, but she was wrong. She saw no visions and felt no change. From there she knew that she could not go back to the city or the South Pole. She traveled instead, on her own, with no real plan or destination. She knew only that she had to figure it out on her own, and that she could not continue to drag anyone else down with her. She sent letters to her parents, telling them that she had arrived in Republic City and was settling in well. She roamed the Earth Kingdom trying to emulate Akira, trying to be free.
But her troubles followed her everywhere she went. Often in the distance she could see an apparition of herself, wrapped in the chains Zaheer had bound her in, trapped in the Avatar state, a dark shell of herself. Chasing the vision offered no results, ignoring it no solace. She found herself fighting something that wasn't there, something that nobody else could see. She attempted to confront the apparition and lost, and from there she only became more dejected than before.
It was only as she wandered the streets of the town that night, after three long years of turmoil, that things began to change. After six months on her own, of wandering and being lost, she ran into someone she hadn't expected.
"Well, well, well," the familiar voice rang through the night, and Korra froze mid-step, thinking for a moment that she might have imagined it, "if it isn't the elusive Avatar Korra."
Korra spun around, saw Akira approaching with a broad smile, and grinned in return. "Akira!" she said in surprise, before rushing over to hug her. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, you know, just passing through," Akira replied, frowning as she got a better look at Korra's face under the street lamps. She gently brushed her thumb beneath the swollen bruise under Korra's eye. "Looks like you've been keeping busy. What loser did this? You want me to beat 'em up for ya?"
She looked around the near empty street as if expecting to find the culprit, and Korra laughed. "No, it's okay. It was my own fault. Things have been… weird, lately."
"I heard you ran off," Akira said with a smirk, folding her arms across her chest. "Your father just arrived on Air Temple Island a few days ago, told us you left the South Pole six months ago and were supposed to be in the city."
Korra winced. "So I guess everyone knows then."
"Oh yeah," Akira confirmed. "And they're sending out a search party. I tried to tell them you'd come back when you're ready, but they're worried about the recent nonsense going on – you won't believe what Kuvira pulled this week – and they seem to think you need them."
Korra sighed and dropped her gaze, shame filling her as she thought about her current state, and how little she had improved even after being on her own for so long. "I don't know what I need," she muttered. After a long pause, she frowned and looked up at Akira again. "Wait. What exactly is going on? You said Kuvira did something?"
Akira waved her hand dismissively. "I wouldn't worry about it. She's just on a power trip. I'm sure Aunt Lin will take care of it. She's been itching to knock Kuvira out for ages. I'll tell you all the ridiculous details later. Where are you headed now? Mind if I join you?"
Korra could tell that Akira was just trying to avoid the subject so as to not make Korra feel worse, but because Korra already felt bad enough about not being around the last few years to help, she didn't call Akira out on it. Instead, she snorted and admitted, "I have no idea where I'm going. Feel free to wander aimlessly with me."
"Oh I love wandering aimlessly," Akira assured, hooking her arm through Korra's and setting them to walking the direction Korra had originally been going.
"How have you been?" Korra asked, trying to change the subject away from herself. "You must have been all kinds of places. I'm sure you've got plenty more stories to tell since I last saw you."
"A few," Akira replied. "I was in the Fire Nation for a while, since things are kind of crazy here in the Earth Kingdom lately. I visited the Princess but all she talks about these days is politics and that is so not my scene. But I was actually back in Republic City for a few months recently. I had a wedding to plan, but things went a little off the rails."
"A wedding?" Korra exclaimed. "Who's wedding? Yours?"
Akira scoffed and shoved Korra playfully. "No way! Believe me, if I was getting married, you'd know. The wedding is for my mom."
"You're mom is getting married?" Korra said in surprise. "To who?"
"To Nira, of course," Akira answered casually. "It was a surprise to me too. I never thought my mother would remarry. I don't think she ever thought she would either. But love changes people. And she's crazy in love with Nira. It's almost sickening. But they're good for each other, and for Amali. I think they plan on officially adopting the girl finally, once they're married. The wedding is in a few weeks, assuming the current political climate allows –"
"Hold on," Korra interjected, in shock. "Kya is marrying Nira? When did that happen?!"
"Apparently like three years ago, though they were keeping it kind of secret for a while, not really sure why, guess they didn't want to confuse people. Didn't I tell you they were a thing?"
"No, you didn't!"
Akira narrowed her eyes, trying to remember. "Are you sure? I could have sworn I did."
"You definitely didn't," Korra denied. "I would have remembered that. I didn't even know Nira was… I didn't know she liked women."
Akira shrugged. "Love is love, and usually fairly weird. I don't think either of them expected it, to be honest. You're invited to the wedding, of course, if you feel like coming back to the Island."
"I guess I can't hide any longer now that everyone knows I lied," Korra sighed.
"Nonsense," Akira said. "You can hide for as long as you like. But if you're tired of running, you're welcome to come back. In my experience, hiding is only good for so long."
Korra nodded. "I thought I was ready to come back. I almost did. But I'm still… I'm not all that I should be."
Akira squeezed Korra's arm. "Forget about what you should be. Do what you need to do, whether that's pretending not to be you for a while longer, or going back to the people that love you. You don't have to be the perfect Avatar. Your friends back in the city have got you covered. They'll have your back no matter what. I'm getting a little tired of running myself. If you need me to tag along for a while to be your bodyguard, just say the word."
Korra smiled gratefully at Akira, lightened by her support and her jokes that were just as serious as they were amusing. Korra didn't doubt that Akira would drop everything to follow Korra around and beat people up that gave Korra trouble. It was tempting to take her up on the offer.
But as she looked down the dark street ahead of them, Korra was once again burdened by the sight of herself, the chained apparition that stared back at her with those soulless eyes. Korra sighed heavily, stopping in her tracks, feeling Akira stopping next to her.
Confused, Akira quietly asked, "What is it?"
"Me," Korra mumbled miserably.
There was a pause, and then Akira inquired, "You've been fighting yourself?"
And there was no judgement or ridicule in her tone, but Korra still struggled to make words escape her throat.
"Well come on then," Akira urged, pulling Korra forward, "let's confront you then. Only one way to overcome this sort of thing –"
Before Korra could say that she had done that earlier and took a beating for it, she and Akira were both forced to stop their forward movement as a small animal came running across their path. They both stopped and looked down, and saw a puppy with glistening white fur staring up at them, tail wagging and tongue lolling from its mouth.
"Oh, hello," Korra said, one eye on the dog and another on the haunting apparition behind it. "Where'd you come from, little cutie?"
The puppy barked happily up at Korra and Akira, hopping a little on its front paws, but it seemed to pick up on Korra's dark mood and began to quiet. Its ears perked up and it turned, looking around in the direction that the apparition hovered, and much to Korra's surprise, the dog hunched down with a growl and began to bark, this time with a warning rather than playful delight.
"Hang on," Korra said with breathless excitement. "You can see her too?"
As if in answer, the dog yapped louder, hopping up and down, lunging threateningly at the specter.
"If you can see her too, maybe I'm not going crazy," Korra said.
"Clearly I'm missing something," Akira murmured.
The apparition that had been haunting Korra for months turned its back on her, and as it began to retreat, the dog chased after it, and Korra felt compelled to follow.
"Oh, okay, so we're doing this now," Akira said as she raced to keep up with Korra and the puppy and the specter.
They ran for a long time. Halfway through, Akira started muttering, about wearing the wrong shoes and she should have slept more the night before and she hoped the inn she'd left her clothes at didn't throw out her things. Korra only half heard her, focused as she was on following the tiny dog and wondering what it all meant. She was desperate to get to the root of her problem, to be rid of the traumas that haunted her, to go back to her normal life – well, as normal as it could be. She missed her friends and helping people and being the Avatar. Without all of that, she didn't know who she was. She didn't know what to do.
The sun had come up by the time the pair of them and the dog seemed to reach their destination. They were far out of town and standing before a thicket of trees, and Akira was panting and complaining that she was out of shape.
As the puppy finally turned back to face them once again, Korra asked, "Why did you bring me to the swamp?"
She wasn't really expecting an answer, but she definitely hadn't expected for the dog to suddenly morph and change, until it had taken the shape of a familiar little spirit. "Wait! I met you at the Tree of Time!" Korra huffed in frustration. "You should have told me who you were."
"If I did, would you have followed me?" the spirit asked in that child-like voice.
"I get your point," Korra sighed. "Why did you bring me here? What am I going to find in a swamp?"
"Not a what. A who."
"Wait," Akira panted. "You know this thing? What the flameo is going on?"
"I went to the Tree of Time a few months back," Korra hastily began to explain. "I was hoping it would help, but it didn't. I talked to a few spirits there and – hey! Wait! Come back!"
The little spirit had begun to scamper away, disappearing into the misty, dense grove, and Korra chased after it, but she had already lost sight of it. She still needed answers though, and she had no idea what to do in the swamp, of all places, and she needed help. The spirit hadn't even told her who she was supposed to find.
"Korra!" she could hear Akira calling to her far behind. "Korra! Wait!"
But Korra kept running, breaking through vines and shrubs, sloshing through mud and into a small open clearing.
And that's when she saw it, the haunting visage of herself, hovering before her.
"You're just in my mind," Korra called to the specter, trying to convince herself as much as she was it. "You're not real!"
The apparition lashed out, chains striking at Korra and forcing her to evade. Korra rolled through the mud and leapt back up, throwing rocks and water at the specter of herself with mounting desperation. But just like before, she was losing the fight, and she leapt for the trees, hoping to escape into the thick, misty foliage. Except she barely managed to grab onto a branch before she was being pulled back down, the chains wrapping tight around her ankle. She cried out and tried to resist, but her grip slipped and she was yanked to the ground. Her specter had melted into the mud, into a pool of poisonous metal, and that was where Korra landed, sinking, sinking.
She reached out shouting, "No! Help!" She thought she might have vaguely heard Akira's voice in the distance but it was too far and Korra was sinking too fast. "Akira! Noooo –!" The poison was seeping into her skin and blurring her vision and cutting off all sound, and then she was dragged the rest of the way under and everything went black.
The past year or so for Lin had been a real test of strength. Physically, she had nothing going on, and had to remind herself to work out, so she didn't fall out of shape now that she was retired and hadn't had to really fight for her life in the last three years. Emotionally, though, she was a slight wreck. Three of her kids no longer lived at home except for a few sporadic days at a time, the Avatar was secluded once more in the South Pole, and the job she had once invested so much of her life into was no longer hers, nor was there any chance of her taking it back. She had nothing but time to worry about the kids, mostly Yunjin and Sora, who were travelling all over the world without her. Ronen still lived on the Island, but had taken up residence in the house that had once belonged to his parents when he was just a baby, before Katara had moved out of the main house to return to the South Pole. Asami was there with him more often than not, and between work and his relationship, he was scarcely seen some days.
Lin was still trying to get used to it. After twenty years of having kids in the house, of planning and worrying about whether or not those kids were happy and healthy and safe, it was difficult trying to get out of the habit. She still worried, but she had to force herself to take a step back, to stop knocking on Ronen's door every night to make sure he'd eaten dinner, to stop her mind from jumping to the worst conclusions every time a letter from Sora or Yunjin arrived late.
Every time Sora came home from an aid mission, Lin had to refrain from begging the girl not to run off again a week later. Although, even when Sora was home, she was taking her role as master very seriously, spending nearly all her time training new airbenders and helping them get acclimated to their new way of life. And now that she had seen more of the world, all the things Lin had tried to shield her from for so long, had seen all the people that needed help and care, Sora's great big heart compelled her to keep going out there, to keep doing everything that she could to mend the world. Lin had known it would happen, even before Sora had gotten her tattoos, and what a whirlwind that had been.
Lin still remembered the day Aang had given Tenzin his. She remembered sitting with him for hours, the way her muscles had cramped and she had been so tense, trying not to hold his hand too tight, resisting the urge to kiss the enflamed skin on his forehead, in part because it would have been weird with Aang sitting there, and also because she and Tenzin hadn't yet let their relationship go that far, and she was hardly the type to be so easily intimate. Several years went by before she ever let herself express anything so deep to him, but in that moment she had felt it. She had felt deep pangs every time he winced in pain, had shook her head at his valiant attempts to pretend he was unaffected by the needles driving those meaningful tattoos into his skin.
It was no different, some thirty years later when she watched him give those same tattoos to their daughter. The entire day was emotional, not least because they knew that Yunjin would be leaving soon, going off on the mission he had chosen for himself, or that Sora would be leaving shortly after to lead several more of her own. Even though Sora had her twin brother there to hold her hand through hers, Lin still stayed, wishing at times that she could grab onto Tenzin's hand, and she would have if he hadn't needed them both. She could see him becoming emotional and trying to fight it, could feel herself becoming emotional in a way she wasn't used to. She had never been so sentimental before, but something about the whole experience was getting to her. It was as if some part of her life with Tenzin had finally been fulfilled. Even though they had started having kids long ago, had known two of them were airbenders for fourteen years, and the Air Nation had restarted itself and erased their need to have airbenders at all, the finality of their kid receiving her tattoos was striking. Everything they had suffered through, the obstacles they had fought to overcome in service of their family and their legacies, had all been worth it, had turned out almost just the way they'd hoped for. It was a relief, and fulfilling, and sad in a way, like something was ending, but it was also a beginning, and Lin couldn't have been prouder even if she was struggling to let go.
The ceremony was everything Tenzin's couldn't be, with so much of the new Air Nation there that they almost couldn't fit everyone into the Temple. Su arrived and dragged along her whole family, and she wept with pride so that Lin didn't have to. They flew Katara in from the South Pole because Sora wanted her there and Katara could hardly say no to the girl. Korra hadn't been able to come, but Bumi, Kya, Nira, and Amali were right up front, along with Yunjin, Jeia, Ronen, and Asami. Mako and Bolin were there, as well as Jinora and her family, baby Ji-Ji a toddler now and running through the rows of airbenders. Tenzin had invited Raiko as a courtesy, and Lin was dismayed when he showed up, but did her best to ignore him and pretend he wasn't there. When Tenzin pulled back the hood to reveal Sora's brand-new tattoos, Lin was too busy trying not to choke on her own emotions.
Only twenty-four hours after the emotional ceremony, Yunjin left for the Earth Kingdom, and only visited home twice in the year and a half that he was gone, leaving his parents to worry and miss him, with only a letter every few days, weeks if he was particularly busy. He took Bolin with him, but without telling Bolin the full plan, as Lin had decided that the less people that knew about Yunjin's undercover mission the better. They'd had to tell Su, because she would have been beyond distressed if she thought Yunjin was choosing Kuvira's side. But aside from Su, Yunjin's parents, and his siblings, no one else knew. Bolin had already been seeking employment with Kuvira, eager to get out there and help people, to make a difference in the world, and he had jumped at the chance to tag along with Yunjin. He still wrote letters to his friends and brother, but hadn't been back to the city since.
Mako was a rare guest on the Island in that time, focused himself on his own work as a detective at first, and then moved to the position of body guard for the not yet crowned Prince Wu, who was to take over as leader of the Earth Kingdom, once the world leaders asked Kuvira to step down. Wu was the great-nephew of the late Queen Hou-Ting, and a spoiled, naïve kid in Lin's opinion from the two times she'd been forced to meet him. He was a pawn in Raiko's political game, someone that could be controlled in a way Kuvira never could be. But the world leaders had decided and he was next in line. There wasn't much Lin could say about it, though she certainly pitied the Earth Kingdom citizens, and Mako for having to deal with Wu instead of doing something useful for the city.
Where before Lin's house had been crowded by her four kids and Ronen's four friends, and Jinora and Tenzin's siblings, and sometimes Su and whoever else, now the house was near empty. The kids had grown up and even Tenzin's siblings seemed to be maturing too. Bumi was still too much to handle at times, but he took his role in the Air Nation rather seriously, helped with training and gave advice to the newer members, while also regaling them with long winded tales from his days in the United Forces. Kya was investing in Nira and Amali more than she'd ever invested in anything, and though the three of them often came to dinner at Lin and Tenzin's house, they were working on becoming a family of their own. When Kya had come to Lin and told her that she was going to propose to Nira, Lin had actually had to sit down from the shock. But the longer she thought about it, the less surprised she was, and years ago she might have been concerned, but nowadays she actually kind of had a good feeling about it. Kya was nervous though, understandably so, about trying a second time, about Nira being too scared herself to attempt it again. Lin was nervous for her, and only when Kya and Nira came by for dinner with bright smiles and a betrothal necklace around Nira's neck did Lin breathe a sigh of relief, and even allowed herself to grin along with them. Tenzin was so happy for his sister and Nira he nearly wept.
Everyone seemed to be flourishing, even with all the pressures and traumas they bore, finding themselves and still reaching for every bit of happiness they could. Their battles with the Red Lotus were only so far behind, and there were probably more battles yet ahead, some that Sora and Yunjin were already fighting, but for now they were on better footing than before. For now, they were making the most of every moment they had. Together or apart they found strength and joy, and they embraced whatever change came their way.
Even with how off-kilter she felt, Lin was finding purpose for herself in this new normal. For once she had the time to take in all the things she hadn't indulged in before. She hadn't given in to sentimentality, not only because she had been raised not to, but because her dedication to her job didn't allow for it. Now she could cling to her husband because she was getting to be too old to care what anyone else said – as if she ever had before –, and because she had almost nothing pressing to attend to that might get in her way. Sometimes she would curl into Tenzin's side when he was meditating or teaching a class, even though he complained that she was distracting him. She could tell that he liked her being there, and he liked the sneaky kisses she gave him most of all. She even helped out with the training of the airbenders, to keep herself in shape and to make sure they were toughened up. She had plenty of experience in helping to train airbenders from when she had taught Jin and Sora, and she could throw obstacles at them that they would need to know how to face.
Most of all Lin had time to spend with Jeia, more time than she had ever had with the twins and Ronen once she had all three, and especially not once Jeia was born. Sometimes she felt guilty that she hadn't been able to dedicate the same amount of time to them, but she had done her best, and they had turned out pretty damn well. But it seemed like the universe had known that Jeia needed a little extra attention, and Lin was glad to have the time. In some ways, Jeia was far beyond needing help, learning the physical aspects of earthbending and metalbending faster than Lin could teach her. But the kid had been through a lot at so young of an age, with a memory that wouldn't allow her to forget a single detail. Even though they had all done their best to shield Jeia from the worst of it, she had seen too much, and she wasn't old enough to understand and process it the way her siblings could. Most of the time she was a normal kid, seven years old and then eight before Lin could even blink, growing up strong even if she was still a bit tiny for her age. She loved to play outside now, was no longer the lethargic toddler she'd once been, and she was a bit less stand-offish with other people, would play with Meelo and some of the other kids around the island instead of turning her nose up at them. She was a good kid, respected her parents, loved her whole family, was mostly courteous to others even if she did have her mother's attitude. But there was an edge to her that worried Lin and Tenzin. She wasn't allowed to spar with anyone other than family again, because whatever progress had been made in teaching Jeia to control her bending had begun to digress in some ways. She had control, up until she started to lose, rare though that was, and then some instinct seemed to kick in, and the metal she manipulated would turn into sharp spears that could seriously harm or even kill someone that wasn't fast enough about getting away. Maybe Jeia would never really hurt anyone, maybe instinctively she would stop the daggers – she never even did it when she was sparring with family –, but it was too risky with all the new airbenders.
Jeia had been born in the midst of a war, taken from her mother's arms thirty minutes after, spent over a month in a box hooked to tubes to keep her alive. At four years old, the Equalist Revolution had torn her from her father's arms, after she had watched her mother leap off of Oogi in self-sacrifice. The Equalists had been afraid of Jeia's power, had bound her in platinum chains to keep her still, and then tossed her to Kuvira and Bataar Jr to be rid of her, while her father and siblings were taken away. She had stood in the cockpit as Kuvira led the Metal Clan against the Equalists, had watched the United Forces' ships and the Metal Clan airships both be destroyed without mercy, and had had to protect herself and the others with her when an Equalist bomber tore through the front of the airship. She had spent another day with Kuvira as the war came to an end, and less than a year later they were at war again, this time with spirits and a crazed Unalaq. Jeia had been kept away from most of that, but had still seen her sister without a soul, had watched her parents march off to what could have been their deaths. And then it was Zaheer and the Red Lotus, and Jeia had wanted to be with her mother, had been tired of being torn apart. She had seen the Red Lotus try to kidnap Korra, had helped Yunjin capture Ming-Hua in the midst of a fiery battle. Then she had seen her mother in the hospital after nearly losing a hand, Ronen in the hospital shortly after with a mangled face, and she had gone with them to the Air Temple to rescue her father and everyone else. She had seen her father's battered, weak form, had seen Yunjin without use of his legs. She had seen all the suffering the Red Lotus had caused her family and she had been enraged. She wasn't there to witness the deaths of Ming-Hua, Ghazan, or P'Li, but she had overheard enough to know that it had been done. And she had been a part of all of that before she even turned six.
It was no great surprise that Jeia's understanding of the world was marred by war and trauma. Even with all her parents' efforts to give her a normal life, her life had never been normal, not for as long as her siblings' had been. Jeia thought that war was normal, that fighting for your life was normal, that kill or be killed was something she ought to take care to remember. She was less likely to look for the good in people when she was used to so much bad, and Lin spent all the extra time she now had to help Jeia relearn how to be as close to normal as they could be, to not fear for her life or the lives of her family in moments when there was nothing to be feared. That her bending did not always have to be used as an aggressive weapon, that there was more to life than just fighting.
It didn't help that the state of the Earth Kingdom and Kuvira's strict reign were such frequent topics nowadays. Because of what she had been through with Kuvira during the Equalist Revolution, and the sort of mentor relationship they had built afterwards, Jeia would not believe for a second that there was anything suspicious about Kuvira's actions in the Earth Kingdom. She was disgruntled with Yunjin for going off to spy on her, and mad at her parents anytime she heard them discussing it. She was surprisingly nice to her Aunt Su about it, not going so far as to berate Su for feeling betrayed by Kuvira and Junior, but trying to reassure her aunt that everything would be fine, that Junior and Kuvira weren't doing anything too bad and they'd come back to Zaofu eventually. Su didn't believe any of that, but she always smiled gratefully at Jeia anyways. Lin and Tenzin tried to refrain from saying anything about Kuvira around Jeia, but someone else always brought it up, especially with the upcoming coronation. Kuvira was due to step down now that most of the Earth Kingdom had been reunited and Wu was poised to take her place, and everyone around the island and in the city was talking about it.
Lin didn't know how the succession of power would go, if it would happen at all or if it was even the right thing to be done, but she was excited about it for the simple fact that it brought her family home. Sora returned a few days before, her hair growing in longer since Lin had seen her last, but ever since the girl had gotten her tattoos she had started to like keeping her hair shorter, and soon after she got home she was asking her Aunt Kya to cut it for her. Su flew in two days before, looking stressed but hopeful, trying to convince herself that Kuvira would hand over the reins to Wu without issue.
Yunjin didn't arrive with Kuvira and Junior until the day before the coronation, and when Lin saw him, she almost didn't recognize him. He was taller than when she had seen him last, probably the same height as his father now, his hair still long but pulled back into a tight bun. He was dressed in uniform like the rest of Kuvira's soldiers, but with a little less metal that would have only weighed him down. She couldn't see the braces that he had told her he still wore; he had said in one of his letters a few months ago that Junior had reconfigured them to be less obtrusive and even more functional than before, so that he could wear them underneath his clothes, and he thought his balance and speed were better with the braces than opposed to without. He had been working hard over the past eighteen months to rebuild his strength, and though his legs would never be what they once were, his shoulders were broad and his arms and torso clearly muscular even through his shirt and light armor. He looked better than he had in three years, and Lin could hardly suppress the urge to run to him.
He looked grown up next to Kuvira, hands clasped behind him and his back straight, but when he saw his parents and siblings across the lobby of the hotel, he grinned that familiar boyish grin, and had to catch himself from rushing over to them. They could have waited on Air Temple Island for him to come to them, but when he had told them his plans to first go to the Republic City Four Elements with the rest of Kuvira's entourage, they had all been too eager to wait. That, and the rest of the world leaders were arriving, like Zuko and Izumi, and Wu was already staying at the hotel, and Tenzin and Raiko were both there to greet everyone. But Lin was there for Yunjin and she wasn't letting any of that political nonsense get in her way. Su had tagged along too, but Lin figured that was because Su wanted to see Junior on neutral ground for the first time since he had left Zaofu, where she was forced to behave herself; she wouldn't let herself become too emotional in front of so many important people.
Kuvira stood near the entryway as Junior and Yunjin left her sides, looking like a statue even as Prince Wu approached her. Lin couldn't hear what the kid was saying to Kuvira, but she had heard him talk enough to know that it was nothing that Kuvira was at all interested in hearing. Wu had been on the island with the rest of Lin's family for dinner the night before, along with Chief Tosuki and President Raiko and his wife Buttercup. Lin had had to sit far down the table from Wu and the president and his wife to maintain her sanity. She felt deeply sorry for Mako, who had been informed by Tosuki that very night that Raiko had ordered the transfer of Mako to Ba Sing Se, to continue on as Wu's personal bodyguard at the prince's request. Lin knew Kuvira despised the monarchy, and Wu was everything about it that she despised, and Lin half expected Kuvira to bite his head off.
But Lin had better things to do, and wrenched her gaze from Kuvira and Wu to finally hug her son. Lin, Tenzin, and Sora crowded around Yunjin at once, while the others waited their turn.
"We missed you so much," Tenzin all but wept.
Sora was openly crying and smiling all at once. "It's so good to finally see your face."
"You should have come to visit sooner," Lin scolded while crushing him in her arms.
Yunjin chuckled. "I missed all of you too. I'm sorry it's been so long. It's been… busy."
Lin leaned back to try and read the look in his eyes, but she couldn't quite decipher it. Yunjin hadn't given them much information on his mission, too concerned about one of his letters being intercepted to risk it, and the last time he had been home he had only just gotten into Kuvira's good graces. Lin would just have to wait until they were in a private location to discuss it.
Yunjin hugged Ronen next and then Jeia, gasping at his little sister and saying, "Look at you! How old are you now? Thirteen?"
Jeia shrugged casually. "I'm practically a grown up."
Yunjin snorted. "Oh yeah? You think so?" He bent down and picked Jeia up off the ground with ease. "I don't know, short stuff, looks like you've got a ways to go."
Jeia gave him an annoyed look, folding her arms across her chest. "Well we can't all be giants like you."
"Who knows?" Yunjin teased. "You might get tall one day."
"I bet I'll be taller than you," Jeia said haughtily.
Yunjin nodded seriously. "Oh yeah. I'm sure you will be."
Jeia huffed. "Don't patronize me."
Yunjin smirked. "You really are grown up."
"I told you."
"So you did," Yunjin conceded, setting Jeia back down on her feet and then ruffling her hair.
Jeia swatted his hand away. Then she turned to her father and asked, "Daddy, can I say hi to Kuvira now?"
Tenzin looked at Lin, who frowned, but didn't object. Jeia had been exchanging letters with Kuvira over the years, much to Lin's dismay, but Tenzin thought it was harmless for now, that if they denied Jeia she might resent them for it. Lin was screening the letters, and so far, nothing concerning was being said, but Lin didn't expect Kuvira to be stupid enough to say anything hostile in writing.
"Yes, sweetheart," Tenzin answered Jeia, "but only for a few minutes. We have things to do."
"You have things to do," Jeia muttered, before hurrying over to where Kuvira stood, alone now that Wu had scurried away.
Lin saw Su talking to Junior a few meters away, and it didn't look like it was going well. Neither of them appeared happy in any sense. Su looked angry and Junior annoyed.
Lin watched Jeia for a moment, as the girl ran up and hugged Kuvira, who cracked a smile and finally broke her stance to return the embrace.
Then she was distracted by Yunjin, who asked, "Is Korra here?" All of them exchanged a look, and Yunjin looked at each of them in turn, searching their faces for an answer. "Okay, what'd I miss? You said she was coming, right?"
"We thought so," Ronen replied. "But her father showed up yesterday and she wasn't with him. According to Tonraq, Korra left the South Pole six months ago, told her parents she was coming here. She's been sending him letters pretending to be here, so we know she's out there somewhere, but no idea where, or why she lied."
Yunjin winced. "So I guess she's still not ready to come back. Sorry, Ro. I know you were looking forward to seeing her."
"I just hope she's all right," Ronen sighed.
"I'm sure she's fine," Yunjin said.
"How are you?" Sora questioned, squeezing Yunjin's wrist. "Are your legs still bothering you?"
Yunjin started to respond, "A little, but I think it's just –"
"Hang on," Lin interjected. "What's wrong with your legs?"
"Relax, Mom," Yunjin cut her off with a reassuring smile. "I'm okay. I think I've just been wearing the braces for too long sometimes –"
"I told you to stop over doing it."
"I know, I know. Time just gets away from me some days."
"Have you still been seeing a doctor?" Tenzin fretted.
Yunjin shrugged, looking a bit sheepish. "When I can."
"So no," Ronen snorted.
"I'll try to get an appointment with my doctor while I'm here."
"While you're here?" Asami echoed. "Won't you be staying now that Kuvira is stepping down?"
Yunjin scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Um, yeah, maybe. I – uh – we'll talk about it later. I can probably come to dinner tonight."
"Probably?" Lin exclaimed. "We haven't seen you in months and we don't even get a guarantee on dinner? You can tell Kuvira she can manage without you for a night. In fact, I'll tell her –"
Before Lin could go storming over, Yunjin grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Woah, woah, okay, it's okay. I will be at dinner. I promise." She gave him a skeptical look and he insisted, "Really. I'll be there. I've just got some things to do first, but it shouldn't take long. I'll see you at home in a couple hours?"
Lin huffed and folded her arms across her chest and relented, "Fine. But if you're not there I'll come find you."
Yunjin shook his head with a smile. "Oh I have no doubts."
Su rejoined them then, apparently having given up on whatever attempt at a conversation she'd been having with Junior, and she and Yunjin hugged and talked for a moment. She tried to ask him about his time with Kuvira, but he gave a vague answer and changed the subject. He hurried away soon after, hugging his family one more time before returning to Kuvira and Junior. The three of them left the lobby together, after Jeia said goodbye to each of them and rushed back over to her parents.
The rest of them moved on, Tenzin, Jeia, and Sora going to speak with Zuko, Izumi, and Ursa. Ronen and Asami went to greet Bolin, who had finished reuniting with Mako and seemed to be trapped in a conversation with Korra's cousins Eska and Desna.
Lin and Su trailed behind Tenzin and the girls, and Lin leaned over to whisper to her sister, "How'd it go with Junior?"
Su scoffed bitterly. "He goes by Bataar now. And it went about as well as I expected. Kuvira has completely brainwashed him." She sighed, and her shoulders slumped. "Or at least, that's what I hope is making him act like this."
Lin squeezed Su's shoulder, grimacing sympathetically, and assured, "Don't worry too much. Zuko was a dick when Aang first met him. There's still time for Jun – Bataar – to turn himself around."
"Zuko was a teenager not a grown man," Su muttered, "but… I see your point. And I hope you're right."
Yunjin came home for dinner that night, and several people around the island went rushing out to greet him, a dozen airbenders and Jinora's family – minus Jinora, who was off on a mission with another airbender. Nira, Kya, Amali, Akira, and Bumi joined the rest of the family for dinner, and Yunjin was delighted about the wedding and to hear about how everyone was doing. It was almost like normal, finally, and Lin had never been happier to have the house full and noisy again. She knew that it was not to last, that the kids would leave again and she would probably have to wait months to have them all together once more, but she wasn't letting that weigh her down. She would enjoy the moment while she had it, no matter how brief it was.
She knew that it was already over just a few hours after dinner. The extended family, Ronen, Asami, and Jeia had all gone to bed, so that only Lin, Tenzin, Su, and Sora were there to question Yunjin about what he had learned while he was serving Kuvira. Part of Lin didn't even want to know, just wanted Yunjin to tell her everything was fine and he was coming home, but she needed to know what they were up against.
"The rumors you've heard about Kuvira," Yunjin began carefully, "are mostly true."
Su immediately huffed. "I knew it. She's gone crazy with power."
"But not everyone is as appalled by it as you," Yunjin went on. "A lot of them see it as a means to an end."
"She's manipulated them," Sora said sadly. "I've seen it first hand. She scares those villages into joining her and then forces their citizens to help her."
"In some instances, yes," Yunjin admitted. "But revealing the truth as I know it won't be enough to stop it. Not with as many followers as she's got."
"Even Raiko said that we would deal with the aftermath of her actions later," Tenzin said, looking thoughtful and concerned as he stroked his beard. "That we would insert Wu and have his advisors handle most of it, and that Kuvira's influence would inevitably wane."
Yunjin nervously scratched the back of his neck again and slowly said, "Yeah… about that. There's something I need to tell you, but you all have to promise not to freak out."
"Well that depends on what it is," Lin said, folding her arms across her chest.
"I'm serious," Yunjin insisted, and he really did look more serious than she had seen him before. "It's really important that you pretend to be surprised when it happens."
"When what happens?" Sora asked worriedly.
"What does she have planned?" Su demanded.
"Does it have something to do with the coronation?" Tenzin guessed.
Yunjin nodded. "She doesn't intend to step down."
There was a brief moment of almost stunned silence, but Lin wasn't sure any of them were really that surprised. Raiko might have convinced himself that Kuvira would keep her word, but the rest of them weren't that naïve.
Su jolted to her feet with a fury. "We can't let her do this. We need to put an end to her reign now –"
Yunjin tried to jump up too, but he was slower about it without his leg braces on. "I told you not to freak out!" he chastised his aunt. "You can't do anything stupid."
"We should warn the other world leaders," Tenzin suggested.
"No," Yunjin snapped. "You can't tell anyone outside of this room. Bataar and I are the only ones that she told about this. If you do anything, she'll know I'm the one that told you and this past year will have been for nothing."
"We can't just do nothing," Sora argued.
"We can't let her get away with this," Su added.
"But she will," Lin reasoned before Yunjin could say exactly what she had just figured out for herself. "The world leaders can't stop her without a direct act against her entire army, starting a war nobody wants that they could very well lose. Taking Kuvira down is going to require strategy, and we'll need someone on the inside. If we blow Yunjin's cover now we won't have that."
Tenzin sighed. "Knowing Raiko, he won't do anything about it even if we did tell him. So long as Kuvira isn't infringing upon the rest of the world, he won't send the United Forces against her. He'll wait for someone else to do the job for him."
"And Izumi won't want to send her troops to war either," Lin said.
"So we do nothing," Su scoffed.
"Not nothing," Lin insisted. "We just need to wait. Let Kuvira make her announcement tomorrow, and we'll see what the world leaders decide. In the meantime, Yunjin will continue to get the information he needs to help, and the rest of us will prepare for whatever is coming."
Su shook her head. "It won't end here. Kuvira won't be satisfied with just the Earth Kingdom. She'll come for Zaofu next, and from there who knows."
"She definitely wants Zaofu," Yunjin replied with a wince. "She's been holding off but now that she's got the rest of the states… I don't know exactly when she'll come, but I can try my best to warn you."
"I'll never give her Zaofu," Su stated harshly.
"I hate to say it, but it might be better that you do," Sora said, reaching up to squeeze her aunt's hand and looking worried. "I hate to think of what she'll do if you refuse. At least if you give in for now, you'll be better able to fight her when the time comes."
Su looked down at her niece but didn't seem able to find the right words, looking more like she felt guilty, probably because she had no intentions of bowing to Kuvira's will, no matter how much Sora worried. Lin could see it in her sister's eyes, and even though she would likely feel much the same if she were in her sister's position, Lin still wished that Su would reconsider. She was already thinking up ways in her head to keep Su safe.
"I think…" Tenzin said slowly, "that it's time we found Korra. Whatever's coming, we need the Avatar. This isn't something the Air Nation can handle."
"But how do we find her?" Sora asked.
"And what state will she be in?" Su wondered.
"If she still isn't ready, she'll have our help to get there," Tenzin said firmly.
"I hope that works," Yunjin said, "because Kuvira won't be backing down anytime soon. Korra may be the only chance we have at stopping her."
Lin snorted bitterly. "Oh, so no pressure."
Chapter 92: Chapter 92
Chapter Text
Chapter 92
In the aftermath of Kuvira's announcement, Lin and her family retreated to Air Temple Island together for one last meal before they would inevitably be forced to act.
Just as Yunjin had warned them, Kuvira had stood before the assembled crowd, with the rest of the world leaders behind her on stage, and had declared herself the leader of a new Earth Empire. She had denounced Wu and his whole coronation, and refused to step down. The world leaders sent Su in to try and talk sense into Kuvira, but the results were the same. Kuvira refused, and with an army at her back, there was little anyone could do about it without declaring war against her and the rest of the Earth Kingdom. Raiko was not so bold, and Izumi too careful. They weren't certain yet about what to do about Kuvira. Nor, to be fair, were Lin and Tenzin. Su wanted to get back to Zaofu, certain that Kuvira would go there next, but it was difficult to say what Su could do if an army rolled up on Zaofu. Lin was worried, and wanted to go with her sister, but before she could she had other business to tend to.
The kids had volunteered to go looking for Korra, all except Yunjin, who would be going back with Kuvira early the following morning. Lin had decided to go with them, not because she didn't think Ronen and Sora were perfectly capable themselves, but because Jeia wanted to go and Lin wanted to monitor the girl and see how she did on such an expedition, and also Lin was kind of going stir crazy sitting around the island every day. She was used to being in the action, and even though she had been grateful for the time off from it, she wouldn't mind getting back into it from time to time. Tenzin was originally supposed to go with them, but Raiko and Izumi were asking him to stay in the city to discuss diplomatic ways of dealing with Kuvira, and despite how little Lin cared about Raiko, she knew also that her husband was needed, and assured him that they would be fine searching for Korra without him.
Akira had already left on her own search of Korra that afternoon, teasing Ronen that she'd find Korra faster. The day after Yunjin and Bolin left with Kuvira and Junior once more, Lin and the kids started their own journey. Asami wanted to come along, but she and Ronen were still overseeing some of the infrastructure changes in the city, and decided to stay behind for now, hugging Ronen tight and urging him to find Korra and be safe. Su returned to Zaofu with Opal, who was back from a recent mission and wanted to go home for a bit to be with her family, especially with the looming threat of Kuvira.
Before she left, Tenzin held onto Lin for a long moment, seeming reluctant to let her go. Where before they were almost used to being apart for days at a time, now he had gotten used to having her with him more than ever, and it was difficult for them both to say goodbye. They had struggled to let Yunjin leave again just the day before, after barely two days spent with him, and now Tenzin had to watch the rest of his family go. He was even less used to being without them as Lin, and she knew how desperately he wanted to beg off all other responsibilities to go with them instead. But Lin gave him a firm kiss and a promise to return soon, and it must have been enough to bolster him to release her. He was tearful by the time he hugged the kids though, and Lin had to usher the three of them up onto Sora's sky bison before anyone could get too weepy.
Lin had never let Jin and Sora have sky bison even when they were well beyond the point that they would have received one in the old Air Nation, had known them too well to trust it. The last thing she had needed to contend with while raising preteen Yunjin and Sora was an easy means for them to escape or wreak havoc. They might have been exceptional at airbending, but they had also been exceptionally reckless, and she wouldn't have been able to rest well knowing they could fall off a sky bison or crash or run away in the middle of the night. But now that they were seventeen, she could hardly say no to them. Within a week of receiving her tattoos, Tenzin had taken Sora to the Eastern Air Temple to look for a sky bison, and one had chosen her within the first few hours. Sora had fondly and not so subtly named the gentle beast Kyuti, and they had been soaring the skies together ever since. Kyuti was a bit skittish, but she had the perfect familiar in Sora, who could soothe the most troubled souls.
Ronen, Sora, Jeia, and Lin traveled on Kyuti for the entire day, flying over the Earth Kingdom – now Earth Empire – first. They all assumed that Korra hadn't traded the South Pole for the North, and that it was more likely she'd find somewhere to hide in the Earth states rather than somewhere in the Fire Nation. Traversing the new Earth Empire was a bit tricky though, as they had to avoid Kuvira's military and any lingering bandits. They did more flying than landing, soaring way up above the clouds, only swooping down long enough to get a visual down below, or to stop in deserted areas they deemed safe. Every so often, Sora would meditate, reaching out with her spiritual gifts to search for Korra's familiar energy, but so far she was coming up empty handed.
As evening fell, Sora landed Kyuti in a wooded area and the four of them plus the bison slept for the night. In the morning, Ronen complained about sleeping on the ground – Sora wouldn't let him sleep on Kyuti's back because the bison had a tendency to roll around in her sleep – and Jeia complained about the sun waking her too early. Lin felt oddly refreshed after a night sleeping under the stars, and Sora was far used to it by now. After a disappointing breakfast, they all scrambled back up onto Kyuti and continued their search.
Another day passed with no results, and Lin could tell that Jeia was becoming impatient. The girl kept huffing and asking Sora if she'd found Korra yet, or saying she could find Korra herself if they'd let her on the ground for ten minutes. Lin used the opportunity to try and preach patience, a lesson that was more Tenzin's style, but one that Lin had had to adopt after putting up with their hard headed kids for twenty years. Lin needed to teach Jeia patience, and what better opportunity than an uneventful mission? Lin tried not to make it sound like a lecture, because Jeia never responded well to a lecture, but Jeia knew exactly what her mother was up to and kept giving Lin an exasperated look. And Lin could definitely see Ronen snickering behind his hand at her, as if he thought his mother shouldn't be teaching anyone how to be patient.
On the third day, they arrived in a village on the outskirts of a desert far south. It was bright and early but Jeia wasn't cranky for once. She went with Sora to find something for breakfast that was warm and fresh, while Lin and Ronen stopped at a few stalls to buy some more supplies. They had packed light, and with Jeia's appetite they were running low already.
The village they had wandered into had a handful of Kuvira's soldiers, but nothing to be alarmed about. Lin and the kids could have fought all of them off if need be, but the soldiers didn't pay them any mind long enough to recognize them anyways. Lin had taught all of her kids how to blend in, and they had left Kyuti about a mile out. Sora had her tattoos covered, and aside from the scars on their faces, Lin and Ronen didn't stand out too much. Unless someone was looking for them, it was doubtful they'd run into any problems. They didn't know if Kuvira would have told her soldiers to do anything if they came across Lin's family, but with the way Kuvira was trying to purge the Earth states of any dissenters, it was doubtful they'd be welcomed. Kuvira knew they were on Su's side, and she and Lin had never gotten along anyways. Lin figured it was only a matter of time before they found out what plans Junior and Kuvira had for them. She was trying not to be too concerned about what Kuvira's reign would bring, but she could already see the effects it had on her kids. Ronen had been in a foul mood for most of the trip, and Lin had just assumed it was because he was missing Asami and worried about Korra, but she began to realize that it was more than that when he started arguing with her over fruit.
While buying supplies, he suggested they get some oranges, but Lin knew that Jeia had recently decided she hated them, and simply said, "Nah, get the apples instead."
Ronen huffed and tossed the oranges back down into the fruit stand, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Do what you want! It's not like I've ever been able to stop you before."
He stomped off, and Lin was too surprised to react at first, staring over at him with her mouth agape in bewilderment. Then she turned to look at the fruit vendor and awkwardly said, "Uh, I'll be back."
Lin followed Ronen over to the next stall, hanging back for a moment as he angrily sifted through bolts of cloth as if he was going to make a new outfit and was pressed for time. Lin slowly shuffled up next to him, hands clasped behind her back as she tilted her head to catch his purposefully averted gaze. "All right, kid. Spill it."
Ronen ignored her for a few moments, still tossing cloth around, and then he blew an aggravated breath out of his nose and turned to face her with pursed lips. "You all knew about Kuvira's plans and didn't tell me. You let me sit there and be blindsided."
"Well, to be fair, we only knew for a few hours –" Lin tried to defend.
"And this isn't the first time you've kept things from me," Ronen interrupted. "You think I can't handle it."
"It isn't that we think you can't handle it," Lin argued, bracing her hands on her hips. "Your brother just didn't want you to react before it happened. Your heart's in the right place, but sometimes you think with your morals first."
"So none of you trusted me to keep a secret that could endanger my brother's life," Ronen accused.
"It's not like that –"
"Then what is it like? Because it sounds to me like you all think I'm some kind of morality dictator, like I don't put my family first."
"Well that wasn't what we were thinking," Lin insisted. "I was thinking that I didn't want to make you choose. I know it's difficult for you to do the wrong thing. But it's not like we think less of you because of it. Hell, I admire you for it. You're a better person than I'll ever be."
Ronen looked away from her, fiddling with the cloth spread out in front of him again, this time with far less frustration. "It's not so great," he muttered. "You might say otherwise, but I know how the others are. Yunjin and Jeia don't trust me. Korra doesn't trust me. They think I worry more about what I think is right than them." He looked suddenly over at his mother again with hurt in his eyes. "But that isn't true."
Lin reached out to squeeze his arm with understanding in her gaze. "I know it isn't. I know you. And they do too, they just haven't quite figured it out. They look at things differently than you do, and they don't see your side yet. But they will. I'm sure Korra already does; she's just got her own issues to deal with."
Ronen shrugged. "I just feel like everything is about to get crazy again and we're not even on the same side. I don't want to wake up one day and find out my family went to war while I was sleeping."
"I hear ya, kid, but it won't be that way. We're in this together. And Jin and Jeia will come around. If this gets dicey, they know they can come to you for –"
A scream rang across the plaza, somewhat faint due to distance, but shrill enough to catch the attention of everyone in the vicinity, and familiar enough that Lin and Ronen's heads immediately snapped in that direction.
Without a word or even a glance, they both darted in the direction of the sound, sprinting as fast as they could, weaving around stalls and shoving past various shoppers and vendors that stood in their way. On their way, the scream abruptly stopped, and Lin nearly tripped with the effort she made to try and run even faster. Her pulse was pounding in her ears and her lungs were burning and her stomach was climbing up her throat. She had only heard Sora scream like that twice before, and one of those times was when the Equalists were electrocuting the girl to make it easier to drag her to Amon. She could not fathom why Sora would be forced to make that sound again, but whatever it was would not be a simple misunderstanding.
When Ronen and Lin finally reached the origin of the sound, they found a street in ruins, store fronts torn apart and debris littered all along the path. And in the center of the destruction lay Sora, limp and sprawled on the ground, blood pooling beneath her head.
Jeia was nowhere to be seen.
Lin skidded to her knees before Sora, kicking up dirt and dust that she violently waved away from her face before carefully lifting Sora up into her arms. She could feel Sora's breath and a steady pulse and for that she could be grateful, but her chest remained constricted and Sora was entirely unresponsive.
Lin cast her gaze around the street again, saw a man unconscious not far from Sora, dressed in clothing typical of the sandbender tribes, with a familiar metal dagger jutting out of his shoulder. But still no Jeia.
When Ronen dropped down across from his mother, Lin thrust Sora into his arms and commanded, "Stay with her," and then surged to her feet even though her legs had gone numb with fear.
Lin stomped her foot into the ground and reached out with her seismic sense as far as she could, looking for something, anything… She couldn't pinpoint Jeia, but she could sense a disturbance, a trail that would very likely lead her in the direction Jeia had gone – or more likely been taken. She followed that trail with even more haste, using the earth beneath her feet this time to propel her forward faster, so that every stride was stronger and took her farther. The path led her out of town, and as she emerged from the cluster of buildings, her line of sight was opened wider. Then she could spot movement in the distance, a group of figures, moving with suspicious speed, but nothing about them that Lin could make out except that they were dressed much the same as the unconscious man near Sora, all except for the tiny figure dressed in black held between them.
Jeia.
Lin stomped both feet into the ground at once, propelling herself high up into the air and far across the space between her and her youngest, wrenching rocks out of the ground and trying to fling them as much as herself in the direction of the kidnappers.
But as she came to land, and attempted to pull the same maneuver once again and close the distance, the earth fell out beneath her as the once firm ground turned to shifting sand. Lin kept running, not letting her steps falter even in her desperation, not when she needed to reach Jeia. She could not stop, no matter how her muscles and lungs screamed, no matter how far she had to go.
But Jeia and her captors had reached some vaguely familiar shapes waiting for them out in the sand, a means of escape that would get away from Lin too fast, no matter how hard she ran.
Sandsailers.
Sandsailers that they climbed onto, with Jeia still in their grasp, and which they used to propel themselves across the desert at a speed Lin could never hope to achieve. She shouted a protest and threw the metal around her body like knives but nothing reached them. She couldn't reach them.
But she kept running. She kept running and running until she was sure her legs would give out and her lungs would explode. Till the sun was burning her skin red and the sand she kicked up had filled her shoes. She did not stop running until she reached the end of the scorching wasteland – it must have only been about two miles to the next town – and she found the sandsailers abandoned there, with no trace of anything left behind, and the trail had gone cold. She followed what footsteps she could, but the town was small and cramped and whatever disturbance the abductors had left behind was long gone.
Even so, it must not have escaped the townspeople's notice that a group of sandbenders had come trampling through the village with a child held between them. Unless Jeia was unconscious or otherwise subdued and not fighting back. Unless the sandbenders had changed outfits. Unless the sight of sandbedenders was entirely uneventful because they were living on the edge of the desert. Still Lin tried, still she frantically asked anyone she could get to stop, grabbing strangers as they bustled through the street going about their day, her voice hoarse as she panted and choked and barely managed to speak. She idly thought that she was likely not making any sense, that she likely looked crazed asking about a child and the kidnappers from the desert. She soon realized she wouldn't be getting any help from the frightened or annoyed or just plain confused villagers that she cornered. She would have to investigate on her own, would have to scour the whole town for Jeia herself.
Jeia was taken at breakfast time, and by the time the sun began to set, Lin had not found her. However, she did find someone that had seen Jeia and the supposed sandbender tribe. The woman remembered because she had thought it was a little odd to see people dressed like sandbenders traveling away from the desert. The woman's hometown was right at the center of the southern Earth Kingdom, between where the desert ended and a forest began, and she pointed Lin in that not so specific direction, and admitted that, yes, now that she thought about it, she had seen them carrying a young girl.
So Lin went to the forest, and tried her seismic sense, and wandered through the edge looking for clues, but she found nothing, and the forest stretched on forever in every direction, growing thicker with every mile. She knew that she could go no farther on her own, that she would only end up lost, that Jeia and her abductors were long gone and who knew in what direction? It was getting dark and thunder clouds were rolling in; the air had turned moist, threatening an oncoming storm. She called Jeia's name and she prayed to whoever might be listening to help her, to please send her a sign, to please help her find her baby, but no one answered.
And as thunder rumbled above her, and the skies opened up, and rain began to pour down upon her, drenching her raw skin, she dropped to her knees as her legs finally gave out, and desperately and achingly wailed, "JEIA!"
But the forest was silent in the wake of her agony, and Jeia was gone.
Korra woke with a start, and found herself in unfamiliar territory, with no idea as to how she got there. To be fair, she had been waking up in unrecognizable places for six months, but this time felt different. She remembered running into Akira and chasing herself into the swamp, and losing that subsequent battle and then… That was it. And she had no idea why the spirit had brought her to the swamp or who she was supposed to find. All she knew was that she was sore and defeated, and frankly a little embarrassed. Part of the reason she hadn't gone back to Republic City in the first place was because she was ashamed of what she had become, and now Akira had seen it all.
Korra looked around to take in her surroundings, and found herself lying in a cave. At the entrance, bathed in dim light, Akira was sat on the ground, using her waterbending to try and remove the mud from the inside of her shoes, but it didn't appear to be going well if her pinched expression was anything to go by.
She must have sensed Korra shifting awake, or perhaps heard Korra's pained groan, because Akira turned just as Korra sat up and said with plain relief, "Oh good. You're awake." She climbed to her feet, leaving her shoes behind, and moved over to be closer to Korra.
"Sorry about all that," Korra said with chagrin, struggling to keep her gaze on her friend.
"Don't worry about it. I'm used to people running away from me," Akira jested. "I take it you didn't win?"
Korra huffed, folding her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. "I haven't won a fight in a long time. I'm not sure I can anymore."
"Nonsense," Akira waved off. "You've just been out of practice for a while. I haven't exercised in a while and man am I paying for it today. One run with you and my muscles are dead."
"I just don't understand why I can't get back to my former self," Korra sighed. "It's like I'm a step slower. I'm tentative, I'm out of sync. I just can't get back in the groove."
Akira looked uncertain for a moment, hesitating to speak and drumming her fingers against her hip.
"What?" Korra asked. "Just say it. You think I'm a hot mess." It was something Akira said about people, mostly the people that she found exasperating, which was a lot of people.
Akira smirked. "Well, yes, you are both of those things, but that's not what I was going to say. If you want my honest opinion…"
"I do," Korra said when Akira paused.
"I think you're scared," Akira said bluntly. "If you go back to being the Avatar, you're afraid you might get hurt again, so your brain is doing all these crazy stunts to keep you away from the danger."
Korra shook her head. "I don't think that's it."
Akira shrugged. "Maybe not. What do I know about Avatar stuff?"
"Maybe it's the first thing you said," Korra considered, "about being out of shape. Maybe I just need to train more. I hit a wall in the South Pole, but I was fighting the same people. Maybe I just need something new, something that isn't some creepy image of myself."
Akira nodded but she didn't look totally convinced. "Yeah, maybe."
Korra thought about it some more, and then she perked up with some excitement. "Hey! You're the granddaughter of Katara and Aang. You've got to be pretty good at fighting, right?"
Akira snorted. "Uh, I mean, I can hold my own, but my mother wasn't Lin Beifong. I didn't spend my childhood training like my cousins. If you're looking for a good trainer, we'd probably be better off taking you back to the city."
"I don't think I need a great trainer –"
"Wow, thanks," Akira scoffed, but her blue eyes twinkled with amusement.
"No, I don't mean it like that," Korra rushed to assure her, scrambling up onto her feet. "I just mean that I need someone good but not the best. Clearly I'm not at my best and if I tried to fight Lin right now I'd get my butt kicked. But maybe if I spar with you I can try to get back into shape without all the distractions and the pressure."
Akira appeared to consider it, and then she said, "Ah, what the hell. I guess I can throw you around in the mud for a while, but you owe me a new pair of shoes."
Korra nodded with excitement. "As soon as I'm back to my old self, I'll get you whatever shoes you want."
"Well let's get you back into shape then," Akira said with determination.
"Great. We can start now," Korra said, already walking towards the mouth of the cave.
"You want to start now?" Akira said in disbelief. "I just cleaned these pants!"
"I'll get you some new pants too," Korra promised. "No sense keeping them clean for another couple hours.
Akira groaned, and pouted even as she followed Korra from the cave.
Korra grinned and dragged Akira out to an open clearing to begin.
But Korra wasn't smiling for long.
Either Akira was a much better fighter than she let on, or Korra was even worse than she had thought. Akira was tossing Korra all over the swamp and she barely looked fazed. She was out of breath, because she really was out of shape, but aside from that Akira could still knock Korra down more often than not.
Korra was growing frustrated and dismayed all over again, and Akira must have seen it because she brought a halt to their training saying, "All right, that's enough for today. I think we both need some rest."
Korra nodded glumly in agreement.
"We should think about how we're gonna find food," Akira advised as she ushered Korra back towards the cave they'd been in earlier. Korra still did not speak, gaze downcast, so Akira went on. "We could leave here, y'know? Go back into town and find a less disgusting place to spar, sleep in a bed for the night."
Then Korra did speak to reply, "I think I need to stay. That spirit said I had to find someone here. I should probably start looking I guess. But you don't have to stay here with me. I would understand if you want to leave."
"No, no," Akira said quickly. "I'm with you. I'm just not sure how this smelly swamp is conducive to your health. But if there's someone here you need to find, then we'll find them. I can always go into town later and stock up on food so we can…"
Korra came to a sudden halt, and she felt Akira bump into her shoulder when she didn't realize quickly enough that Korra had stopped. In the distance, Korra had caught a flicker of movement from the corner of her eye, and she turned her head to get a better look. She half expected to see herself staring back at her, but the ethereal specter was not Korra. It was humanoid and female, but that was where the likeness stopped. The shimmering woman was much older, with graying hair wrapped up in a headband, and long bangs dangling over milky, unseeing eyes. She wore Earth Kingdom garb and had bare feet, and she looked oddly familiar, but Korra couldn't place who it could be.
But as the spirit woman jerked her head in a beckoning gesture, and began to turn away, Korra once again felt the unexplainable pull to follow.
"Is it you again?" Akira whispered, apparently unable to see whatever Korra was, but she was also looking in the wrong direction.
"No, it's someone else," Korra answered, and then grabbed Akira's hand. "Come on. Let's see where she's going." And Korra hoped that it would lead her to the answers she needed.
Ronen could not really remember a time before the twins. His father had always told him how helpful he had been when his mother was pregnant with them, when Jin and Sora were babies. But Ronen only had vague memories of them being that young, and couldn't really recall a life without them. However, when Jeia came along, Ronen was well past eleven years old, and he remembered a lot from that time, even things he would have rather forgot. He remembered his mom being pregnant and more often sick, how careful everyone had to be around her, like they thought she might break. He remembered her growing as Jeia grew within her, and how, towards the end of the pregnancy, she finally let him lay his hands on her belly to feel the baby move. And then the siege of headquarters and the attempted kidnapping of Ronen and the twins happened, and there were some strenuous weeks were Mom had looked dreadful and newborn baby Jeia even worse. Ronen remembered the adults' hushed voices and serious looks and thinking his baby sister might not survive.
But Jeia had beat all odds and thrived. Ronen had been there for so much of it, to see Jeia overcome all kinds of obstacles, to see her take her first steps and say her first words, and he and Jin and Sora had been just as excited – if not more so – than their parents. Jeia had walked to Ronen before she had walked to anyone else. She had said her first words to Yunjin – probably because she was trying to tell him off. She had been molded not just by her parents, but by each of her siblings, and they in turn had benefited from having her around, even if they hadn't always been able to see that at first.
Ronen had watched Jeia grow, and in an instant he had watched her disappear. Even worse, he hadn't even been there to see her be taken, to try and save her. He had only seen the aftermath. The ruined street, the remnants of battle, Sora unconscious and bleeding and Jeia nowhere to be seen. Ronen had watched his mother run off to look for Jeia, and at first he was hopeful, at first he was certain that his mother would get Jeia back.
When night fell and there was still no sign of either of them, Ronen was beginning to fret. The village police had been over the scene, talked to the few witnesses, and they had no idea who would have taken Jeia or why. They were actually more concerned to find out that Ronen and his family were there, seeming to think that the reason trouble had come to their small town was because of the Beifongs' presence. They got a healer for Sora and the mysterious man dressed like a sandbender, but they were pretty clear that they wanted Ronen and his family out of town as soon as possible. Kuvira's soldiers had been alerted too, and were making frequent visits to the rooms the village sheriff had allowed Ronen to stay in while Sora recovered. The healer did what he could for Sora, and assured Ronen that the head wound was not too severe, but that she would likely be disoriented for a few days and probably experience some memory loss. The supposed sandbender would also live, and the metal shard had been removed from his shoulder and sewed up. He was cuffed to a bed in a separate room connected to the one Ronen and Sora were in, and sedated so that he wouldn't wake until closer to morning. The healer would be back to check in on the two patients the next day, and Ronen was left to sit and worry, while Sora slept and his mother and Jeia remained missing.
Ronen didn't want to panic, or make anyone else panic, but after hours of pacing, he sat down and wrote three letters. The first went to Asami, in which he told her what had happened and asked her to break the news to his father, because his father ought to know but Ronen couldn't leave and he didn't want his father to find out through a letter. It was bad enough having to tell everyone else that way. The other two letters went to Yunjin and his Aunt Su, because Su was nearby and could arrive in a matter of hours, and Yunjin had the resources to search the Earth Kingdom with Kuvira's army, though Ronen was still crossing his fingers that such a thing wouldn't be necessary. He kept hoping his mother would walk through the door and Jeia would be with her and all would be well.
Instead, Ronen was in and out of the rooms, wandering outside hoping for his mother to show, and checking in on Sora as she slept. And when he finally saw his mother at the end of the street, even with her face cast in shadows, he felt his hopes vanish. She was dragging her feet and even in the dark of night he could see that she was defeated. And there was no Jeia, which was answer enough in itself.
Ronen felt his shoulders slump, and his limbs felt too heavy, but he dragged himself forward, reaching for his mother before they even closed the distance between them, and when he was finally close enough, he wrapped his arms tight around her shoulders. He had to swallow his pain even as tears filled his eyes. He couldn't lose it in front of his mother, not when she needed somebody to be strong for her, even though she was doing her usual good job of suppressing her own emotions. She was shaking in his arms and wreaked of sweat and mud. He didn't know what to say to her, so he said nothing at first.
She broke the silence after several long moments with a fragile, "Sora?"
"She's okay," Ronen assured, sucking in a breath when it came out strained, but his words were still stilted. "Concussion, she's still sleeping, healer says she might not remember much."
Lin pulled back and her expression had hardened. "The man that was on the ground –?"
"He's inside too," Ronen said quickly. "Sedated until morning."
"The rest of them were dressed like that," Lin revealed. "They got away on sandsailers."
"You caught up to them?" Ronen asked in surprise.
"Not exactly," she muttered. "I could see them, but I couldn't reach them in time. I tracked them to the next village but they got away, somewhere into the forest. I knew I couldn't find them on my own without more information, or at least faster transport."
"Do you think the man we caught will tell us anything?" Ronen wondered.
"Oh, he'll talk," Lin said darkly, murderous intent in her eyes that sent a shiver down Ronen's spine. Without another word, she strode past him into the motel, and he hastily followed her.
She went to Sora first, sitting on the edge of the girl's bed and gently stroking her forehead, stilling near the spot where her head was bandaged. There had been a deep gash running along the side of Sora's head, from just behind her ear all the way to her eyebrow, but it was a much smaller cut now and protected by gauze, and the healer had said it would barely scar. She stirred at her mother's touch, but did not wake for an hour more.
Without taking her eyes off of Sora, Lin murmured, "We'll have to tell your father."
"I already did," Ronen assured her in a whisper. "I sent letters to Asami, Yunjin, and Aunt Su while you were gone. I figured it'd be better for Dad to hear it from Asami, or at least, she can stop him from doing anything stupid."
Lin nodded, and now that she was in the dim lighting of the motel room, he could fully take in the sight of her, and she looked pained. Her cheeks were sunburnt and her hair a mess of frizz. Her clothes and skin were streaked with dried mud and clumps of sand. He couldn't know how badly her body must hurt, but he imagined she was in quite a bit of pain considering the way she was hunched over and the fact that she had been gone all day. He knew she wouldn't have paced herself, that she would have pushed herself far beyond her limits to try and reach Jeia. He probably would have done the same.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly. "Why don't you take a bath?" he suggested. "I'll let you know if Sora wakes up."
Lin seemed only to just notice that she was dirty, glancing down at herself half dazed, and for a long moment she just stared at Sora, until Ronen thought that she would just ignore him altogether. But then she cleared her throat and croaked. "Okay."
She rose slowly, wincing as she did so, and Ronen pointed to a bag laying on the empty bed nearby. "I got our things from Kyuti. There's some clean clothes in there for you."
He watched his mother move at a glacially slow pace, her movements stilted and mechanical, wobbling almost like she was drunk. He wasn't sure if she had overextended herself that much, or if she was just in a state of shock from the day's events. Everything had been so normal only a few hours before. Even with Kuvira declaring herself Emperor, it hadn't been a total surprise for any of them, nor was it really anything out of the ordinary considering the type of lives they had. But Sora and Jeia being attacked in the streets, and Jeia being taken by some random strangers was something new. Ronen and the twins had nearly been kidnapped before, but their parents had almost expected it, had planned for it, had known who the kidnappers were. In this case, Ronen had no idea who would have taken his sister or why. And why just Jeia and not Sora? And how had they even known that Jeia would be somewhere in the Earth Kingdom and not on Air Temple Island?
It was all very jarring and confusing and Ronen could understand why his mother looked like she was the one suffering from head trauma.
When she came out of the bathroom with wet hair and a fresh set of clothes, she looked a little less stunned but still haunted. She sat down next to Sora again, and this time stretched out on that side of the bed as if she was prepared to take a nap. But then she asked Ronen, "Did you find anything on the man?"
"No, he didn't have anything on him," Ronen answered. "Do you think a sandbender tribe is behind this?"
Lin shook her head as she slouched against the pillows behind her. "No. What reason would they have? There weren't any demands. If they were after money, we would have heard something already. Sandbenders aren't very tapped into the politics of the rest of the world, and your father and I never pissed any of them off as far as I'm aware. I think someone hired them."
"But who?" Ronen exclaimed, unable to contain his frustration. "Who would want to hurt Jeia?"
"It's probably not about her," Lin sighed. "It's about me, or your father, or all of us maybe. We've made a lot of enemies over the years."
Ronen rubbed his face and sighed too. He wished whoever it was had taken him instead. He wished he had some idea of who could have taken Jeia.
Ronen sat down on the empty bed next to his mother and Sora, and he watched his mother dozing off for brief minutes at a time, like she was too exhausted to keep her eyes open, but too frantic and alert to stay asleep.
Eventually, Sora woke, and Lin immediately stood up. Ronen jolted up too, and returned to Sora's bedside as she stirred. She opened her eyes slowly, wincing at the dim bit of light in the room and blinking rapidly. She looked at her mother and Ronen with clear confusion and tried to sit up, but instantly hissed, clutching at her head.
Lin urged Sora back down with a hand on her shoulder saying, "Easy, kid. Just lie still. You're all right."
Sora squeezed her eyes closed and breathed in deep through her nose before slowly blowing it back out. "What happened?" she questioned weakly, squinting her eyes open again.
"Well," Lin started, glancing over at Ronen with a frown, "we're not exactly sure. What's the last thing you remember?"
Sora considered it for a long moment, brow furrowed in thought. "I – I don't know," she stammered. "I – we were – we were home, I think. W – where are we now?"
"In the Earth Kingdom," Ronen supplied, when his mother just continued to frown. "We came here looking for Korra."
"Was it just the three of us?" Sora inquired, rubbing her brow.
"And –"
"Yes," Lin cut Ronen off. "We separated for a few minutes, to get supplies while you went to find breakfast, and some people attacked you. We aren't sure why, or who they were. But I'll figure it out. Don't worry."
Sora shakily reached up to grasp her mother's hand. She was pale and looked very tired and nauseous, exactly like the healer had said she would be. "I'm okay. I guess I lost but it wasn't too bad, right?"
Lin nodded and squeezed Sora's hand, while gently smoothing short strands of hair back from her face. "That's right. Just rest, kid. We'll talk more when you're feeling better."
"Do you want some water?" Ronen asked his sister.
"Maybe a little," Sora mumbled, already sliding back down the pillows.
He quickly grabbed some for her, and helped her take a sip, and a few minutes later she was asleep again.
"You sure it's okay to let her sleep?" Lin worried.
"The healer said it was," Ronen told her. "She needs to heal. We only have to worry if she starts exhibiting worse symptoms, but he said he stopped the swelling so we shouldn't have to worry."
Lin nodded in acceptance and went back to watching Sora.
Ronen said, "We have to tell her."
"Later," Lin insisted. "Let her rest."
Ronen was silent, and so was Lin, but after a beat she suddenly spun on her heel and stalked towards the door on the other side of the room, where their prisoner was being held. Ronen rushed after her with some concern.
She burst through the door and strode right up to the side of the bed, grabbing the sleeping man by the front of his shirt and shaking him with a commanding, "Hey, wake up."
Ronen opened his mouth to tell her to be easy, that the guy had a deep, gaping wound in his shoulder, but he snapped his mouth shut when he considered that his mother wouldn't listen and the guy had been involved in kidnapping Ronen's baby sister.
After being shaken around for a bit, the man finally woke, trying to swat weakly at Lin's fist around his shirt and squinting at her blearily in confusion, but his wrists were chained to the side of the bed and he never came close to reaching her. He looked down at his hands with a furrowed brow, and then seemed to come awake a little quicker, his eyes widening.
"Where did they take her?" Lin immediately demanded, not giving the man time to think.
He looked back up at her and slurred, "Who?"
"My kid," Lin growled. "Jeia Beifong. Where were you planning on taking her?"
He shook his head. "Dunno what you're talkin' about –"
"Don't play stupid," Lin snapped. "I already tracked the rest of your crew across the desert. It's only a matter of time until I find them. Tell me where they are and I may be merciful."
"I know nothing," the man denied.
"Who are you working for?" Lin shouted, and a sharp pointed blade snapped out of her wrist gauntlet, poised right against the man's throat.
He tipped his head back and swallowed, but still argued, "I have nothing to say to you."
Ronen stepped in then, because it looked like his mother was about to lose it and he didn't want her doing anything rash. He grabbed her wrist and gently tugged, calmly murmuring, "Okay, Mom, ease up. We'll find her. With or without him. Let's just regroup."
She looked back at him and he could see the rage and the determination in her eyes, but she softened a little at the sight of him, and she nodded and pulled her fist away. She followed Ronen from the room, all the way to the doorway, upon which she gave him a guilty look and said, "Sorry, kid, but I need to find out where your sister is."
And before Ronen could even register her words, she had stomped her foot into the stone floor and a wall erupted between them, cutting him off from the room. His heart leapt into his throat as he realized what she was about to do, and he slapped his palm against the rock door, shouting at her, "Mom! No! Don't do this! Mom!" He scrambled along the rest of the wall, where it had been built with wood, and hammered his fist against it and called out, but she ignored him still. He ran across the room to the bag of supplies and pulled out his grappling hooks, which he then rushed over to punch into the wall. He scraped against the wood over and over, tearing holes into the wall, but it wasn't enough for him to break the whole way through to the other side. He heard the stranger make a choked sound of pain, and Ronen desperately called, "Mom! Stop! Please!"
"Ronen," a small voice broke into his frantic thoughts, and he whirled around to see Sora trying to rise to her feet, swaying and clutching her head. Ronen rushed over to stop her, ushering her back into bed. "Wha's going on?"
"Nothing, I'm sorry," he told her, sitting down next to her. "It's okay. Just go back to sleep." He held her against his side, positioning her so that one of her ears was pressed against his chest and the other was covered by his hand. She was too tired to fight him and didn't seem to figure out what he was doing, and she fell back to sleep in a matter of minutes.
Ronen, on the other hand, had to sit and listen, wincing every time he heard the man cry out, his stomach feeling sicker with every minute that passed. He could only imagine what his mother was doing and he wanted it to stop.
It wasn't that long before the stone wall dropped and Lin stepped out. Altogether it had maybe been fifteen minutes, but to Ronen it felt like it had been hours. He was shaking as he rose to his feet, gently laying Sora back down, and his voice was hoarse when he stormed up to his mother and exclaimed, "What the hell was that?!"
She walked right past him and began sifting through their things, throwing a few supplies into a smaller bag as she replied, "I got him to talk."
"And was it worth it?" Ronen demanded. "If anyone finds out what you did to him you'll be arrested."
"They can try," she muttered.
Ronen could have torn his hair out. "You can't just torture people!" he hissed, mindful of Sora this time.
She threw a shirt down with a huff and whirled on him. "He helped kidnap an eight year old girl and nearly gave Sora brain damage. Spirit's only knows what his cronies could be doing to Jeia right now. He's lucky I didn't skin him alive."
"Don't you think I know that?" Ronen snapped. "I want him to pay for this too, but we can't lower ourselves to the inhumanity of people like him or we're no better than they are. We could have found Jeia another way –"
"Think about the statistics here, Ronen!" Lin barked back. "With every hour that passes, the likelihood of finding a kidnapped child, much less finding them alive, decreases exponentially. We don't have time to waste. Now, I need to go follow this lead. When your father and Su get here, take Oogi and Su's airship and follow the desert west to the Chukan village. On the other end, the forest begins, and you can start searching from the skies. When Sora is well enough, she can use her spirit bending to look for Jeia's energy. If I find out where Jeia is first, I'll come find you. I'll have to take Kyuti. Look after your sister."
And with that she left, before Ronen could get in a word edgewise, and okay maybe she was right to be frantic and maybe they didn't have time to waste when it came to Jeia's well-being, but the whole thing just made him feel ill. And yet his mother didn't seem all that fazed, and maybe it wasn't for him to worry about saving her soul, except that if he didn't, who would?
Yunjin stood before Kuvira's desk with his hands clasped behind his back and reported, "My source in the Fire Nation says that the Fire Lord won't engage in any attacks against us. Without Izumi's support, Raiko will not have the means to confront us even if he wants to."
"And this source of yours," Kuvira replied skeptically, her gaze focused not on him, but the small bit of metal she was manipulating a few inches off her desk, morphing it into various shapes as if she was bored, but Yunjin had picked up on enough of her habits in the past eighteen months to know that she was on edge, "you trust them?"
"With my life," Yunjin confirmed, thinking of Jinora and her pretty smile and incredible wit, and even with their relationship being what it was these days, he would trust her implicitly for the rest of his life.
"And you believe that they have good intel?" Kuvira pressed, glancing up from the metal blob to stare him in the eye.
"She got it straight from the Fire Nation princess herself," Yunjin answered. "She and Ursa are on good terms. There's no reason Ursa would have lied to her."
"I remember meeting the princess," Kuvira said idly, seeming to reminisce. "You were there too. You were only just a boy at the time." A dark flash passed over her face and she snatched the metal orb out of the air in front of her. "Ursa was dull and pretentious, like all royals. Her word is not to be trusted."
From behind Kuvira's left shoulder, Bataar Jr sneered. "Ursa is a spoiled child that fancies herself a politician. You'd do well to find better sources from now on."
Yunjin frowned in irritation, and opened his mouth to retaliate.
But Kuvira beat him to it, continuing as if Bataar had never spoken. "However… Ursa will know what her mother has planned. And she would likely be too naïve to think of deceiving this source of yours. I already suspected that Fire Lord Izumi would be too cautious to threaten war with us. Your information seems to confirm that. Thank you, Yunjin. You've done well."
Bataar frowned down at Kuvira, but she didn't see it.
Yunjin inclined his head in thanks. "I serve at the pleasure."
Kuvira smirked. "Don't mock me."
Yunjin smiled good-naturedly. "I would never." And his smile only grew at the sight of Bataar's pursed lips.
Before the banter could go on, a knock at the door interrupted them, and Kuvira called for the person to enter.
One of Kuvira's top soldiers entered, a wily man named Zuri that had been teaching Yunjin how to cheat at card games. Yunjin didn't think he'd ever have any practical use for such a skill, but he fully intended to try it out against Jeia sometime, since she definitely cheated at cards.
As Zuri entered, he bowed and said shortly, "Empress."
"Zuri," Kuvira acknowledged.
"I come with a brief report," Zuri explained as he straightened up. "Oh, and a letter for Yunjin."
He pulled said letter from his shirt and went over to hand it to Yunjin, who frowned at the sight of his brother's handwriting. He had only just left Republic City a few days ago. What could Ronen have to say to him? Other than berating Yunjin some more for leaving him out of the loop.
Yunjin began to tear the letter open and read through the short paragraph as Zuri told Kuvira, "The mission you gave me is under way, and so far, it's been a success. No casualties and everything is going according to plan."
"That's good to hear," Kuvira said.
"What mission?" Bataar asked with suspicion. "You didn't tell me about this."
But Yunjin didn't hear whatever else they said, because his ears started ringing and he began to feel faint. The letters he read were blurring together as he reread them over and over, hoping they might rearrange themselves to say something else, hoping that what he was reading was not true.
He was startled out of his panic by a strong hand squeezing too tight around his arm and a firm, "Yunjin."
He blinked, and looked up, and saw Kuvira standing over him now, and he was sitting in a chair that hadn't been there before. Zuri and Bataar were just behind Kuvira, watching him with furrowed brows.
"What is it?" Kuvira demanded. "What does the letter say?"
Yunjin swallowed, but he wasn't certain that he could say it out loud. He handed the letter over to Kuvira, hoping his hand wasn't shaking too much, and he watched her frown deepen as she read over the same words he had moments ago. Then she said what Yunjin was thinking, "This can't be."
"What?" Bataar questioned, trying to peer over her shoulder. "What does it say?"
"Jeia's been taken," Kuvira said grimly.
Bataar looked skeptical. "By who?"
"I have to go," Yunjin decided, surging to his feet. "I have to help them look for her."
"You can't just leave," Bataar scoffed. "We're right in the middle of –"
"Of course," Kuvira cut him off, looking only at Yunjin as she reached out to squeeze his shoulder. "Go. Find her. You can take Bataar with you."
"What?" Bataar exclaimed. "But –"
Yunjin struggled not to grimace. "That's okay," he insisted. "I appreciate it, but you need Bataar –"
"Nonsense," Kuvira interjected. "You'll need all the help you can get. I'm sure the two of you will be back in no time. We can manage till then." She turned back towards her desk. "Zuri, ready transport for the two of them. And then return to my office when you're finished. I want a full report on that mission."
"Of course," Zuri said with a bow before hastily retreating from the room.
Yunjin and Bataar looked at one another with shared distaste, but Kuvira had already returned to her place behind her desk, and both of them knew well enough not to argue with her when she made up her mind, though Bataar was more likely to push than Yunjin was.
"Keep me posted," she told the pair of them. "I want regular updates, and let me know if I can help further. I'll instruct the troops around the Empire to keep an eye out for Jeia. If you find out where she is, I can send a battalion to you."
"Thank you," Yunjin said. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"How do we know this isn't some lie concocted by your family to pull you out of our work here?" Bataar suspiciously suggested.
Yunjin gritted his teeth in anger. "My brother doesn't lie, and he would never use Jeia like that either."
"Well can't we send someone else with Yunjin?" Bataar flippantly inquired of Kuvira. "My work with Varrick –"
"Will be here when you get back," Kuvira said firmly. "Jeia takes precedent. I'd go myself but I can't leave at a time like this. That's why I'm trusting you to bring Jeia home safe."
The pointed warning was there in her tone, and Yunjin was glad that he wasn't Bataar. He had always thought that his cousin's relationship with Kuvira was weird, and it only got weirder the more he saw them together over the last year and a half. He was starting to think Bataar liked being bullied.
At that, Bataar finally relented, however begrudgingly, and he inclined his head even as his face betrayed his annoyance. "I'll send word when I have more information."
He and Yunjin left Kuvira's office, and when the door was closed between her and them, Yunjin told Bataar, "Look, I don't like having you along anymore than you do. Just stay out of my way, and when I find my sister, you can tell Kuvira it was all thanks to you."
Bataar folded his arms across his chest and eyed Yunjin up and down, looking insulted, but after a beat he nodded once and said, "Deal."
And then they both turned away from each other and stalked off in different directions.
Lin flew through what was left of the night – after arguing with the timid Kyuti for ten minutes about leaving Sora behind – and arrived in the Fire Nation around mid-morning. She landed nearby the address she hoped she had remembered correctly, and told Kyuti she could take off to look for her own breakfast, but to stay close. Then Lin strode up to the door of the quaint, little house, and knocked three times.
She sensed movement from within, and after a short wait, the door swung open, and she was relieved to see a familiar face staring back at her in surprise.
"Chief!" Saikhan exclaimed, scratching his balding head in confusion and a hint of embarrassment, probably over his state of dress, which was a ridiculous set of pajamas that looked like a woman had picked out for him. "What are you doing here?" He looked her up and down and frowned. "Spirit's, you look like hell."
"Sorry to barge in like this," Lin said, after nearly five years of barely a letter between them, "but I need your help."
Chapter 93: Chapter 93
Chapter Text
Chapter 93
After the initial shock of seeing Lin wore off, Saikhan ushered her into his home. He pointed her to a seat at his tiny kitchen table and asked her if she wanted tea. She told him no, but he looked her up and down again with a raised brow and said he was getting her tea. He had already been making some, apparently, so it only took him a minute to pour her a cup and sit it down in front of her.
Before he could make his own and join her, a small child peered into the room, tiny hands braced on the door frame as she curiously asked, "Grandpa, who was it?"
Saikhan saw the look on Lin's face, a mixture of grief and surprise, and shuffled over to block the girl from Lin's view. He bent down and quietly told the kid, "It's okay, sweet pea. She's an old friend. Why don't you go finish your drawing? I'll introduce you later, okay?"
"Okay, Grandpa," the little girl acquiesced, peering around his legs to get a look at Lin one more time before toddling back into the other room.
Saikhan didn't say anything to Lin about the girl, but it wasn't difficult to figure out. She had known, when he left Republic City, that his estranged daughter was newly married and pregnant, and the reconciliation he had planned must have gone well if the little girl was calling him grandpa and staying at his house. She must have been around four years old, and Lin wondered at how Saikhan had to have changed over the years. She had certainly never heard him refer to anyone as sweet pea before.
He sat down across from her with his own cup of tea and asked, "So what's happened? Must be bad if it brought you all the way out here."
Lin swallowed, nausea swirling in her gut at the mere thought of what had brought her to Saikhan's door. She was still in a state of disbelief, struck with the impossibility of it all, that someone had taken her little girl. "Jeia," she choked out. "They took Jeia."
Saikhan reeled back in surprise. "What? Who?!" he questioned.
"That's why I'm here," Lin replied. "I didn't know who could be behind it. They were dressed like sandbenders and they escaped on sandsailers, but it doesn't make sense as to why they would take her. We had one of the bastards involved and I questioned him, and when I finally got it out of him, he told me that the man he answered to was Chen."
Saikhan frowned. "Chen. Kane's son, Chen? The one that was with the Triple Threats during the siege?"
Lin nodded grimly. "The one I let get away. You were right the whole time. We should have taken him when we had the chance, put him in prison where he belonged. But I didn't listen to you."
"Well, shit, even I didn't expect this," Saikhan muttered, shaking his head in disgust. "This is beyond low. I thought he would have done the smart thing and kept his head down. This is just –" He huffed in frustration, and then looked at Lin seriously, but she almost couldn't take him seriously in that pink striped pajama top. "What do you need from me? How can I help?"
"Do you remember when you brought that file to my office four years ago, right before the Equalist Revolution? You told me our officers had found Chen and I told you to leave it. Well, I was doing such a good job at ignoring it that I don't remember where he was living or who we even had looking for him. I was hoping maybe you remembered something. The town he was in, or maybe the officers working the case."
"I can do you one better than that," Saikhan revealed. "I know exactly where Chen lives. Well, assuming he hasn't moved in the last two years, but he seemed pretty settled there." Lin narrowed her eyes in confusion, and Saikhan scratched the back of his neck with a hint of embarrassment as he explained. "I couldn't let it go. Even after the whole Equalist fiasco and forced retirement. When I got here, I kept thinking about it. I mostly remembered where Chen lived from obsessively reading the file you wanted me to get rid of, and I tracked him down. I watched him for a while, kept expecting him to still be involved in some kind of scheme. But I followed him for months and I never saw anything. I thought you had been right all along and I was acting crazy."
"Well, it's a little crazy," Lin said truthfully, "but I'm glad you did it. Can you tell me how to get there?"
"I'll come with you," Saikhan decided, rising to his feet.
Lin rose too, her muscles protesting the sudden movement. "I don't know how this is gonna go down. I didn't come here to drag you back into my mess."
"Are you kidding?" Saikhan snorted. "I'm going stir crazy out here. Thirty years on the beat was tough to quit. I'll be glad to stretch my muscles. Hopefully I still fit in the armor."
Lin almost smirked, and would have made a crack about Saikhan's very clearly retired appearance, but she was thinking too much about Jeia and couldn't manage it.
The sound of the front door opening caught their attention, and Lin tensed, instinctively thinking someone had tracked her to Saikhan's and was about to attack. But Saikhan squeezed her shoulder and assured, "It's okay, it's just Minya."
He reached the doorway between the kitchen and the front hall at the same time as the woman presumably called Minya. She had long gray hair all the way down her back and warm amber eyes, and her arms were full of bags of groceries. She smiled brightly at Saikhan even as they nearly collided with one another, and gratefully excepted his help as he took some of the bags from her.
"I see you've made a lot of progress since I left," Minya teased, eyeing Saikhan's pajamas in the early afternoon light.
"Yumi wanted to draw," Saikhan defended, and Lin assumed he was talking about his granddaughter. "And we also have a guest."
Saikhan stepped back so that Minya's view was no longer obstructed, and she startled a little at the sight of Lin, quickly composing herself as polite people do, but Lin figured she wasn't currently a pretty sight to behold.
"Minya, this is Chief Lin Beifong," Saikhan introduced.
"Oh!" Minya said with a kind smile that only looked a little forced. "Chief Beifong! It's so nice to finally meet you." She hurried forward to shake Lin's hand. "Saikhan told me so much about you. Well, about what a great detective you were, mostly. Nothing embarrassing."
"If you're looking for embarrassing stories I've got plenty about him," Lin managed to joke, even though the smile barely formed on her lips.
"I've definitely got to hear those," Minya said with interest, smirking over at Saikhan. "But I'm sure you two have a lot to catch up on. Just let me put these groceries away and I'll be out of your hair."
"Actually, Minya, I've got to head out for a bit," Saikhan told her, and Lin could tell he was trying to sound firm but there was some hesitation, like he was worried about her reaction. "Lin needs some help, old case that I've got some intel on. I shouldn't be gone long."
Minya's smile faltered. It was the very thing that had kept Saikhan from having a lasting relationship when he had been on the force, that disconcerted look and the inevitable worry. After a time it became too much. Lin felt guilty already for involving him.
"Oh. Where are you going?" Minya asked.
"Not far," Saikhan assured. "It's just a village a few miles from here."
Saikhan's granddaughter came rushing into the kitchen before Minya could come up with a response, and the little girl crashed into the older woman's knees with a wide smile on her face. "Grandma! You're back! There's a lady here that's old friends with Grandpa. Do you know her? Is she your friend too?"
Minya smiled softly and patted Yumi's hair. "I didn't have the pleasure of knowing her, darling, but she's Lin Beifong. You know, from Grandpa's stories? The Chief of Police in Republic City and the daughter of Toph Beifong. She's married to Air Master Tenzin."
Yumi's mouth gaped and she looked over at Lin with wide eyes. All of a sudden she turned shy, hiding half behind Minya's skirt as she waved at Lin looking stunned.
Lin kept thinking about Jeia and the time she was wasting and she wanted to throw up, but instead she took a step forward with her hand outstretched and said, "Hey, kid, nice to meet ya."
Yumi reached out to shake Lin's hand with excitement. "Grandpa says you and him fighted all the bad guys."
Lin nodded. "That's right."
Saikhan bent a little at the waist to be more eye level with Yumi as he told her, "I have to go with the Chief to help her with an important mission. You'll be good for Grandma while I'm gone?"
Yumi nodded seriously, and Saikhan patted her on the shoulder before straightening back up.
He turned to Lin and added, "Let me just get changed and then we can go."
"Right now?" Minya asked.
"It's time sensitive," Saikhan said, squeezing past her to go and get dressed.
Minya watched him go, hesitated, and then nudged Yumi. "Why don't you start putting the groceries away, sweetheart? I'll be right back to help."
Minya followed after Saikhan, and once they were both out of ear shot, Yumi looked back up at Lin. "What's the mission?"
"I'm looking for someone," Lin vaguely answered, having the presence of mind not to scar the child with a kidnapping.
"An important someone?" Yumi questioned.
Lin's voice was choked as she replied, "Yes, a very important someone."
Yumi patted Lin's hand. "You'll find them. Grandpa says you're the best."
The kid started unpacking the groceries then, and Lin felt out of place in the tiny kitchen. She looked around and actually took in her surroundings that time, taking note of how homey it was, and she remembered seeing the inside of Saikhan's apartment in the city, and it had never looked half as lived in. Apparently, he had been doing well since retirement. She didn't know when he had gotten a wife – or at least, she assumed he and Minya were married – and she had never expected him to be so close to his grandkid, but she was happy for him. Or she would be, when she wasn't so miserable worrying about Jeia.
Lin started to help Yumi for all of three minutes, handing the little girl items for her to put away, since Lin didn't know where any of it went, but it started to feel suffocating very fast. She started thinking about Jeia helping her put away groceries back home and she had to get out of that house. She staggered back outside and heaved in a desperate breath of air. She used the bison whistle to call back Kyuti, and then she stood out in Saikhan's front yard to wait for him, trying not to have some kind of panic attack in the meantime.
When she sensed movement behind her, she turned to see Saikhan stepping out of the front door, dressed in his old metalbending armor and looking a lot more like himself – or at least, the Saikhan Lin had known. Minya was right behind him and her expression was grave as she looked over at Lin – Saikhan must have told her then.
"Ready to go?" Saikhan asked Lin, who nodded mutely. He turned to embrace Minya, and she held on tight as she briefly kissed him goodbye. They exchanged a few whispered words, and then detached.
Minya took two steps forward and held her hand out to Lin, who took it expecting a handshake, only to have the woman clasp Lin's hand in both of hers. "Good luck, Chief Beifong. I hope to meet you again someday, under better circumstances. Please feel welcome to come back, after you've found your little girl. Bring the whole family. Yumi and I love company."
Lin nodded with a short, "Thanks." She jerked her head towards Saikhan, "I'll look after him."
Saikhan rolled his eyes at her, but Minya smiled tremulously and mouthed, "Thank you."
Minya released Lin's hand, and Lin went straight over to where Kyuti waited. Saikhan followed, and just before climbing up, Lin asked him, "You sure about this?"
"I'm with you, Chief," he said without hesitation. "Come on. One last ride. As partners?"
He held his hand out, and Lin looked at it for a moment, remembering the days when they were young and ambitious, and their jobs had meant everything to them, and they spent more time with each other than they did their own families. Saikhan had been her partner for three decades, had been her most trusted officer, had her back through innumerable battles. They had seen each other through their worst times – Lin's struggles to get pregnant, Saikhan's frequent relationship troubles, both their struggles with figuring out how to be parents, Saikhan's gambling addiction, and all of Lin's fights with Tenzin that sent her running straight to work. Neither of them had ever been good at emotional comfort, but they knew each other so well that they always picked up on those moods, and could usually help each other through them with little gestures and unspoken support. Unless they were both in a foul mood and then it was usually just a bunch of hostility that they eventually forgave each other for after some time apart. Lin might have dropped the ball in not keeping in contact, and Saikhan might have made some pretty major mistakes in his last months on the force, but Saikhan had been and always would be Lin's partner.
Lin reached out and clasped Saikhan's hand with her own in solidarity and thanks and all the words she would never express. "Partners."
After his mother left, Ronen went into the prisoner's room to assess the damage, worried about what he might find, and almost relieved when it wasn't quite as bad as he expected. Just a few broken fingers and some shallow cuts that were probably more threats than anything too painful. Ronen was still uneasy about it all, but he could at least console himself with the fact that his mother was practicing some self-restraint. With the way she had left, he half expected her to go on a rampage, and he wished that he could have went after her. He wished a lot of things recently.
Instead he patched up the prisoner as best he could, and he almost apologized except he remembered that Jeia was still missing and he decided not to. He asked the sandbender his name and what he had told Lin, but received no answers at first. It wasn't until later, after Ronen had checked in on Sora and spoke with Kuvira's soldiers to assure them he would be leaving soon that the prisoner finally spoke. When Ronen asked that time, the man told him that the only thing he knew about Jeia being taken was that the man he reported to was Chen. At first, Ronen couldn't remember who that was, but he knew he had heard the name before. He figured his father would know who it was, and apparently his mother knew exactly where to go.
Aunt Su arrived sometime in the morning, having left Zaofu the moment she received Ronen's letter. She engulfed him in a crushing hug and asked him what had happened, and he explained everything as best as he could. He didn't mention Chen yet because mostly he forgot and also he wanted to wait for his father before any of the rest of them went out looking.
Shortly before Tenzin arrived, Sora woke a little less confused but still groggy. She was coherent though and suspicious and Ronen had to tell her what else had happened when she had been attacked. She was understandably upset to learn that Jeia had been with her and captured, and it seemed like she was beginning to remember flashes of the battle, but not enough to give them any further clues as to what had gone on or why.
When Tenzin and Asami finally made an appearance around late afternoon, Sora was up and moving about without too much swaying, but she was still hurting too badly to concentrate enough to look for Jeia. The healer had been around to check on her, and said her wound was healing nicely but she should still take it easy for a day or two. The healer had to have noticed the added injuries on the sandbender, but after Ronen had worriedly told his Aunt Su about what his mother had done, she went into the room and must have worked her magic. The healer left looking frustrated but he didn't report them to the village authorities. The police did take the sandbender to their prison though, and assured Ronen the man would face judgement for his crimes.
The hard part was seeing his father, having to tell him what had happened, having to tell him that Mom had run off to spirit's knows where.
"And she just left?" Tenzin asked in a shaky voice, but he didn't look all that surprised. "She didn't say where she was going or what the lead was?"
"No," Ronen answered, "but sometime after she had gone, the prisoner finally told me what he apparently told her. I didn't fully understand, but she must have. He told me that he answers to Chen, that they were told to bring Jeia to him."
"Chen?" Tenzin echoed, sounding surprised now.
"The Chen?" Su added in disbelief.
"Is there any other that we'd have a connection to?" Tenzin said to Su.
"Why is that name familiar?" Ronen asked them. "Who is Chen?"
Tenzin sighed, and slumped further in the chair they'd sat him in earlier when he looked like he might faint. Asami and Sora were on either side of him as Ronen explained everything he knew, and Su stood next to Ronen with her arms crossed, having already heard most of it.
"Chen was involved in the siege of police headquarters," Tenzin revealed, "on the very day Jeia was born. He had a vendetta against your mother for killing his father, so he helped Shira and the Triple Threats develop their plan to attack the police."
Sora frowned. "Mom killed his father?"
"Kane," Tenzin confirmed with a nod. "The leader of the Silver Granite Triad."
"Silver Granite?" Asami repeated questioningly.
"Exclusively earthbenders," Su explained. "They no longer exist, thanks in part to Lin."
"Kane terrorized and murdered countless innocents," Tenzin added. "Your mother was only around twenty when she first captured him, had only been on the police force for a short time. Kane was smart and formidable, and evaded arrest for many years. He was beyond enraged when he was stopped by a rookie cop. He spent his days in prison plotting his escape, and eventually he did, with the help of Deak."
"I remember him," Ronen said with a grimace.
Tenzin inclined his head. "That's right. Deak was a police officer and an admirer of your mother. But he joined Kane when he found fault with the inner workings of the police department and, in particular, with your mother, who was clearly destined to take over as Chief. He spent even more years in prison plotting revenge than Kane did, and when he escaped with the help of Shira, Chen, and the Triple Threats, he attempted to hurt your mother by threatening you. Of course, that didn't end up going his way."
"Well none of us were born when Kane escaped," Sora pointed out, "so what did he do?"
"He sent the city into turmoil," Tenzin replied.
"Everything was shut down," Su continued. "People were hiding in their homes. Lin and I were forced to stay on Air Temple Island per our mother's orders. But Kane was killing police and citizens alike, and when he offered up an ultimatum, for Lin to give herself over to him so that the violence would stop, she ran straight back to the city."
"Of course she did," Ronen murmured, mostly to himself. His mother was always sacrificing herself for everyone else, only he was used to her doing it for him and his siblings. He had always known, of course, that she had done it for everyone else when she was a cop, but she kept so much of that part of herself hidden that it was sometimes easy to forget. He had been worried about her going to such extreme measures to look for Jeia, but what about all the things she had done for the city and the world in all her years? Maybe ten minutes of a lapse was warranted.
"She handed herself over to Kane?" Sora asked. "But how did she get away?"
"She almost didn't," Tenzin said quietly, a far off look in his eyes. "We scoured the city for her, all while –"
He hesitated, looking at his children, and he probably would have skipped over it if Su hadn't finished, "Kane and Deak tortured her for their own enjoyment. They intended to kill her, but she managed to break free. She fought Kane and she won."
"We didn't find out until many years later that Kane had a son," Tenzin went on quickly. "Chen and his mother lived in Ba Sing Se. Kane sent them money and visited from time to time. Chen was too young to ever know who his father truly was, only that your mother was the reason Kane was dead. He came to the city as an adult to find out why, and joined up with the Triple Threats for a time. Your mother and I believed that Chen had simply been in over his head. Towards the end of the siege, he was with Shira when she confronted your mother. Lin told him the truth, that she killed his father in self defense, and that his father was an evil person that had killed many before he was stopped. We thought that, with this closure, and seeing how he ran off and didn't participate in the final battle, Chen would simply leave us alone, and for many years he did. We hadn't heard anything from him in the eight years since, and her officers never caught him in any other criminal acts. She decided not to pursue charges against him."
"So then why would he do this now?" Ronen wondered. "Why wait all this time?"
"Maybe he knew he had to be careful to avoid detection," Su guessed. "And then once it blew over he had to plan, find the right people to help him and figure out the best way to hurt Lin. If he's as calculating as his father, he'd have planned it to the last detail."
"It's odd though," Asami said slowly, looking contemplative. "If he had all this so meticulously planned, it seems unlikely that Lin would have been able to get any information out of that sandbender, or at least, that she would be able to get Chen's name so easily."
"Unless Chen wanted her to know it was him," Sora worried.
"Meaning she could be walking into a trap," Su surmised.
"But how does she know where to find him?" Ronen asked.
"That I don't know," Tenzin regrettably admitted. "I remember that he was living in the Fire Nation a few years after the siege, but your mother told Saikhan to call off the surveillance. Maybe she still remembers where he was living."
"Would he still be there though if he's really been plotting all this?" Asami pointed out.
"I guess he would be if he wants her to find him," Su reminded.
"Well how can we find him?" Sora inquired.
"I suppose I could try to get in contact with Chief Tosuki," Tenzin considered. "He may have the information on file somewhere. I don't know if Lin had Saikhan destroy the file or not."
"Are we sure the information the sandbender gave us is accurate?" Asami interjected. "How did your mother even get him to talk?"
Ronen winced because he had only told his Aunt Su about Mom forcing the answers out of the prisoner, and he didn't really want to have to tell his father, and especially not Sora.
Fortunately for him, his Aunt Su answered for him. "Lin can be pretty persuasive. I'm sure she threatened him with some hefty prison time. In any case, how else would he know that the name Chen would be familiar to her?"
Tenzin rose to his feet, hand braced against the back of the chair as if he was struggling to lift his own weight. "I'll go into the sheriff's office and see if they'll let me use their radio to contact Tosuki."
Sora started to say, "I'll go with y –"
But she trailed off, and turned her head, tilting it slightly as if she was trying to hear something better, and Ronen saw their father doing the same.
"What is it?" Ronen asked them.
"An airship," Tenzin responded. "It's close."
"It's probably just more of Kuvira's troops," Su said with unveiled disgust.
They all went outside to investigate anyways, and stood in the courtyard to watch the airship's approach. It was one of Kuvira's airships, but it was headed straight for the motel, which was a little odd, unless Yunjin had enough sway to send some troops to help look for Jeia. Except Aunt Su wouldn't be happy about that, no matter how badly she wanted to find Jeia.
Ronen hadn't known what to expect, but he didn't think he would see his brother hastening down the ramp before the airship even fully landed.
Sora gasped a delighted and relieved, "Yunjin!" and went racing over to embrace her twin.
The rest of them went to greet Yunjin with surprise, with hugs all around, and Sora was tearful. Yunjin kept his arm around her shoulders so she could tuck herself into his side as he talked.
"I came as fast as I could," he said, looking regretful that it hadn't been sooner. "Where's Mom?"
"She's following a lead," Tenzin gently explained. "She left before the rest of us got here."
"How did you manage to get away?" Su cut in. "I'm sure Kuvira wasn't happy that you had to leave at a time like this."
"She was actually pretty understanding," Yunjin admitted. "You know she has a soft spot for Jeia. She says she wants to help. She, uh, she made me bring Bataar. He's hiding onboard for now."
Aunt Su looked behind Yunjin as if she expected Junior to appear at the top of the ramp, her expression all the more troubled. "Junior is here?"
"Yeah, but he's not thrilled about it. Thinks we planned this to entrap him or something. But what's this lead Mom is following?"
"We'll explain on the way," Ronen said. "We need to get in contact with Tosuki in Republic City, so we were just about to head to the sheriff's station, to see if they've got a long distance radio –"
"Oh, I've got one of those," Yunjin interrupted. "Kuvira had Junior equip all the airships with long range equipment. Come on…"
He was already leading the way back up the ramp, and the rest of them followed. Yunjin took them to the cockpit, where they found Junior fiddling with some wires he had pulled out of a side panel. He frowned when he saw them enter, and went back to what he was doing without acknowledging they were there. Ronen was happy to ignore him; his main focus was finding Jeia and his mother.
Yunjin didn't speak to Junior either, striding straight over to the radio system and beginning to adjust the controls.
Aunt Su hesitated a moment, but ultimately went over to speak to her son. Ronen tried not to eavesdrop, but nobody else was being very talkative so it wasn't difficult to overhear.
"Could we talk?" Su quietly asked her eldest son. "I feel like every time we see each other there's something in the way."
"Unless you intend to pledge your loyalty to Kuvira, I have nothing to say to you," Junior haughtily replied.
"You have nothing to say to your own mother?" Su said in disbelief. "To your family?
"Family is the one that we choose," Junior retorted. "You taught me that."
"And you've chosen Kuvira?"
"I've chosen myself, and what I wanted. Not what you wanted for me."
"All I ever wanted was for you to be happy and healthy."
"And I am. But you refuse to acknowledge that because I'm not doing what you want me to do."
Aunt Su sighed, half in dismay, half in frustration. "Junior, can't you see that she's using you?"
"Bataar," he forcefully corrected her. "And you're the one using my equipment. Kuvira and I love each other. It's no concern of mine if you refuse to see it. I'm not here to argue with you."
"Why are you here?" Aunt Su asked.
"Certainly not because I wanted to see all of you," Junior muttered. "I had important work that I was doing. If it weren't for Kuvira's insistence –"
"For fuck's sake, Bataar," Yunjin suddenly snapped, and Ronen's eyes went wide. For all Yunjin's rebellions, Ronen had never heard his brother sound quite like that. "Take a chill pill, would you? If we're bothering you so much then go back to the maintenance room and find something to entertain yourself."
Junior scowled. "How dare you speak to me like that? You would never do something so foolish in front of Kuvira. Only now that you have your traitorous family around to –"
"Keep it up and I'll rescind our deal," Yunjin cut in. "I'll tell Kuvira exactly how much you actually helped us find Jeia. We'll see then who has more resolve around Kuvira."
Junior narrowed his eyes, but he smirked and shook his head as if amused. "You think you've got it all figured out, don't you?"
"Maybe not," Yunjin permitted, "but I've got you figured out and that's enough."
Junior snorted. "If that's what you need to tell yourself." He slid off his stool and brushed past his mother, heading towards the doorway. "I have some work I would much rather be doing. If you fly us anywhere, try not to crash us into another mountain."
Yunjin rolled his eyes and, once Junior was gone, returned his attention to the radio, muttering under his breath, "I didn't crash, and it was one time, and ugh he's such a freaking pretentious di –" He stopped abruptly and looked guiltily over at Su, who was just frowning in the direction Junior had gone. "I'm sorry, Aunt Su. I didn't mean to lose my temper. He and I have had to spend a lot of time together recently and we don't exactly see eye to eye on many things…"
"Huh?" Su said first, looking over at Yunjin half dazed, but then she blinked and shook her head. "Oh, no that's okay. I understand. Junior and I don't seem to agree on anything these days either." She sighed sadly and walked over to rejoin the rest of them. Tenzin reached out to clasp his sister-in-law's hand, and she squeezed his gratefully in a brief gesture of support. "Let's focus on finding Jeia."
"I've just about got it," Yunjin murmured. Then, with a final adjustment, "There. Should make it to Republic City now."
He stepped back from the radio, and Ronen was impressed, telling his brother, "I'm surprised you know how to work one of those. A year ago you could barely operate the telephone."
"Oh I'm still hopeless with anything mechanical," Yunjin replied, "but I picked up a few useful things. Apparently being a soldier sometimes requires a little more ingenuity than blasting people in the face with air. Who knew?"
Ronen's lips quirked a little in amusement. "Well I'm glad to hear that your time there hasn't been completely wasted."
They all went quiet as Tenzin began talking into the radio, trying to get into contact with police headquarters. It required just a few more tiny adjustments, one of which Asami suggested, and then a response finally came. It took a while longer for Tosuki's voice to come through, and then Tenzin had to try to explain the whole thing and answer Tosuki's rapid questions. But the Chief agreed to see what he could find on the subject of Chen, and he had to step away to search through some files. They were all on edge by the time he returned, and all of their shoulders must have slumped at once when he regretfully informed them that he didn't have the answers they were looking for. All he could find was that Chen had once resided in the Fire Nation with his wife and daughter, but there was no address and no update in the last several years. Ronen felt his stomach sink, and many of his hopes along with it. Tosuki offered to send them some of his own officers to help, but Tenzin politely declined and shut the radio off.
"What do we do now?" Sora worried.
"We follow what we do know," Ronen suggested. "Mom said to follow the desert west to the Chukan village, so that's where we'll go. We'll continue her search from the skies with Oogi and the airships." He glanced over at Sora, hoping that she would be well enough soon to seek out Jeia's spiritual energy, but Sora was slumped against Yunjin's side again, her head heavy against his shoulder, and Ronen knew that his sister needed more time.
But Sora must have seen him looking, and she frowned tearfully as she said, "I'm sorry. I've been trying to find her, but I haven't been able to sink into meditation yet. My head's just so fuzzy –"
"It's okay," Yunjin assured her, squeezing her closer against his side in comfort. "You just focus on getting better." He directed his next words to the rest of the group. "If Chen is in the Fire Nation, and that's where he wants Jeia taken, it's doubtful they would have made it past Kuvira's border control without being seen. I can contact the southern stations and find out what kind of ships have left since Jeia was taken."
"Can you have them shut the border down?" Asami asked. "And search any transports trying to leave?"
Yunjin nodded. "I think so. I might have to get Kuvira to give the command, but if it's for Jeia I don't think that will be a problem."
"Are we sure that we can trust Kuvira though?" Ronen had to ask.
"What reason would she have for letting Jeia's captors get away?" Tenzin reasoned.
"To keep us focused on something other than her," Su replied. "The longer we're searching for Jeia, the less we know about what she's up to."
"For what it's worth, I don't think Kuvira would gamble with Jeia's life just to keep you off her back," Yunjin offered.
"Do you think she made Junior come along to keep an eye on you?" Asami asked Yunjin.
He shrugged. "Maybe, who knows? But I'm not worried about Bataar. He won't find what he's looking for."
"Well I just hope that we do," Tenzin interjected. "We should start searching. We'll run out of daylight in just a few hours."
All of them were quick to do just that, separating to accompany one another on three different flights. Sora was to go with Tenzin on Oogi, taking a radio with her so that she could keep in contact with the airships. Asami offered to pilot Yunjin's airship so that he could start on contacting the border, and also because he just wasn't a very good pilot and he didn't want to ask Junior to help. Ronen was initially going to accompany his Aunt Su so that she wouldn't be alone on her own airship – she had brought a handful of Metal Clan guards but it wasn't the same as family in a time like this – but as they strode halfway down the ramp of Yunjin's, another sky bison arrived, with Opal at the reins, and Wei and Wing in the saddle.
"I'm sorry," Opal said as she leapt down from her bison – aptly named Leaky – and approached her mother. "I know you said to stay and watch over Zaofu, but I had to come help."
"We couldn't just sit and wait for news," Wei added.
"We had to do whatever we could to help find Jeia," Wing finished.
"That's okay," Su said with a shaky smile, gladly accepting the tight hug Wing gave her. "It'll be good to have the extra help."
Opal approached her cousin, clasping Ronen's shoulder and asking him, "How are you holding up?"
"I'm hangin' in there," he said, gratefully squeezing her hand. "I'm glad you're all here." The more groups to search for Jeia, the better.
And since Wing was going with Su now and Wei with Opal, Ronen decided to return to Yunjin's airship with his brother and Asami. He had a feeling it was going to be another long day and another long night, and he'd feel better with Asami there to help him bear the weight of it.
With Saikhan's direction and Kyuti's speedy flight, they arrived at Chen's home in under an hour.
Just as before, Lin landed Kyuti far enough out from Chen's address to avoid detection. Then she and Saikhan finished the journey on foot. On their way, Lin was filled with so much rage, anticipation, and worry, that she had to distract herself somehow. So she started asking Saikhan about his new life.
"Minya, huh?" she started with, and realized after a pause that she hadn't really asked a question. "How long has that been a thing?"
"I met her about six months after I moved to the Fire Nation," Saikhan answered, and he wasn't looking at her but she could still see the fondness he felt just thinking about Minya. "She worked at the local pub. Had a smart mouth and was tough as nails, knew how to wrangle even the worst drunks. I was interested from the start, but she thought I was trouble. She wasn't really wrong, especially then. I was having a hard time adjusting to my new normal. I was trying, for my kid and for Yumi, but I had a lot of free time where they weren't around. Minya must have had a soft spot for me though because she looked out for me. She eventually straightened me out, and I eventually won her over. We've been together three years, married last spring." He finally looked over at Lin then and admitted, "I wanted to invite you, but there was barely anyone there and I figured you had better things to do than travel down here for a wedding."
"Well, I did rope you into coming to my wedding, so it would have made us even," Lin mused.
Saikhan snorted. "If I remember correctly, it was Tenzin that made me come to your wedding."
Lin considered it. "Did he really?"
"Oh yeah," Saikhan confirmed. "You told me I didn't have to come, 'cause you knew I hated those things, that you were only inviting me as a courtesy. Then Tenzin shows up a few days later and tells me how much you really want me there, that you just didn't want to admit it and make me feel obligated. I figured he was bullshitting me but he was laying it on pretty thick, about how I was one of your most trusted confidantes and it would mean so much to you if I came. So I caved."
Lin smirked and shook her head in disbelief. "I'm not surprised he'd pull something like that, but I can't believe you fell for it."
"Hey, the man has a way with words. I know damn well he's talked you into quite a few things you never thought you'd be interested in. Like getting married."
"Yeah, but see, usually those things turn out to benefit me," Lin joked.
Saikhan shrugged. "Your wedding wasn't as painful as I worried it'd be. I mean, you made us all wait forever and the ceremony was predictably sappy, but afterwards Bumi got me hammered so it evened out."
"Did I ever tell you I almost called it off that day?" Lin asked.
Saikhan looked at her incredulously. "Uh, no. Are you serious?"
Lin nodded. "Oh yeah. I was terrified, didn't know what the hell I was thinking. Told Tenzin I couldn't do it."
"And he still married you?" Saikhan teased.
"Amazingly," Lin snorted.
"Would you have ever believed it when we first met?" Saikhan said with a shake of his head. "Both of us? Married to two of the most patient people in the world and retired before 80?"
"And alive," Lin added, thinking of all the scrapes they'd been in together and how it was a miracle they'd made it to their fifties at all.
Saikhan chuckled. "If someone had told me our futures I'd have laughed in their face."
"You and me both," Lin agreed. "But I'm glad you found peace after leaving the city. I'll admit I was a little worried."
"So was I. That city and that job were the only things I ever knew. I wasn't ready to be retired. It was my own damn fault though. I ever tell you I was sorry?"
"No," Lin said plainly.
"Well I am," Saikhan asserted. "I was acting like an ass. I should have listened to you about a lot of things."
"I didn't make a lot of great decisions myself during that whole mess," Lin conceded. "I understood why we weren't on the same page, but I didn't do anything to address it."
"Hindsight is like that," Saikhan grumbled. "But hey, I heard you retired a few years ago, even after they let you come back. Did Tenzin finally convince you?"
"Oh, no that was a whole thing," Lin huffed. "The politics had gotten worse and Raiko was trying to control my every move. I couldn't stand it, and my family needed me more. I'm glad to be out of it. It's not like we've avoided many battles anyways with the Avatar living with us – well, when she was living with us."
"I heard she's been missing a while."
Lin nodded grimly. "Three years. That's actually why the kids and I were in the Earth Kingdom. We were looking for Korra. Then this happened."
"I guess Chen thought it was a good time to press his luck," Saikhan said with scorn. "Little weasel probably thought without the Avatar around it'd be easier. But he's in for a rude awakening when he finds out what I do to sickos that snatch kids. I'm sure you're probably worried out of your mind, but we're gonna get Jeia back."
Lin had a brief moment to feel honored that, even after all their time apart, Saikhan would still bust some heads on her behalf.
"Where's the rest of the family anyways?" Saikhan asked. "They still in the Earth Kingdom?"
"They're probably all there now," Lin confirmed. "Tenzin was still in the city as of yesterday. It was just Ronen, Sora, Jeia, and me. Sora was with Jeia when it happened. She took a pretty bad blow to the head so I told Ronen to stay with her until she's back on her feet. He sent letters to Tenzin and my sister and Yunjin, so they probably went to help search the area there."
"You think the people that took Jeia might not have left the Earth Kingdom?"
Lin sighed heavily. "I don't know. I don't know what the play is here. We could be walking into a trap for all I know."
Saikhan cracked his knuckles and slowed to a stop, turning to Lin and telling her, "We've walked into a hundred traps before. Let's make him regret this." He pointed over her shoulder. "His house is just down there."
Lin sucked in a deep breath and turned to look upon the unsuspecting house sitting alone at the bottom of the hill, ensconced in an alcove of short trees. It had a small garden in the back yard and flower bushes out front, and it looked well kept, not the sort of dwelling Lin and Saikhan had mostly been used to raiding during triad busts. Lin used her seismic sense to get a read on the place, and frowned as she told Saikhan, "I only sense four people in there. One of them is small, a kid, but I'm pretty sure it's not Jeia."
"We'll check the perimeter first," Saikhan suggested, and Lin nodded in agreement.
When their search came up empty, and as Lin grew increasingly impatient, she and Saikhan approached the front door with little to no apprehensions. There was no one hiding away near the house waiting to strike, and the two of them could easily take the three figures Lin could sense inside the house. The only concern was the child, because Lin was positive it wasn't Jeia, but then who was it? Maybe Chen didn't even live at that house anymore. Maybe she had just followed the lead she thought she had been given the whole way to the Fire Nation for nothing. Maybe that was what the sandbender had wanted her to do.
Anxiety increasing anew, Lin stormed up to the front door without further hesitation and knocked her fist against the door several times. There was a delay, and Saikhan hurriedly pressed his back to the outer wall of the house a few meters down from her, ready to be the surprise attack if needed.
The door swung open, and a confused face peered out, and in the midday light Lin saw it clear as day, and she remembered the face – how could she not when it swam into her nightmares every now and then, every time she relived the siege of headquarters? Even though Chen had only played a small visible role in that conflict, and had been the least of Lin's worries at the time, she still remembered that day in such fine detail that she'd have remembered his face even if he had never said a word to her.
"I'm sorry," Chen said kindly, apparently not recognizing her, "can I help you?"
Without thinking, Lin darted her hand out and grabbed the front of Chen's shirt, yanking him through the doorway and then slamming him back into the wall before he could react. "Where is she?" Lin growled as he yelped in surprise. "What have you done with her?"
Chen's eyes widened with fear as he stammered, "What are you – who –?" It must have dawned on him then who she was, and she watched the realization bloom on his face. "Chief Beifong?"
"Don't act so surprised," Lin snapped, her other hand coming up around his throat. "Tell me where my kid is and maybe I won't kill you."
Chen's whole body was trembling, his heart rate spiked, and he raised his hands in surrender, "Please – I don't know – I don't know what you're talking about –"
"Chen?" a feminine voice called from inside. "Who was at the –"
A woman appeared in the doorway, and when she opened her mouth to scream, Saikhan was there to yank her outside too, clamping a hand over her mouth to silence her and holding her still.
"Please!" Chen gasped. "Do whatever you want to me, just don't hurt my family."
"The only person I want to hurt is you," Lin growled. "Where have you taken my daughter?"
"I knew this day would come," Chen whimpered, as if he hadn't even heard her, teary eyes raised to the sky. "I knew I would have to pay for what I did." He looked at Lin with terror and guilt in his gaze. "I never meant for it to go as far as it did. I swear. I never wanted to hurt anybody. I didn't know – I didn't know –"
Lin was feeling her stomach coil and her ears were ringing. One glance in the doorway showed the other two figures she had sensed in the house, a young girl maybe close to her teens and a boy no older than three clutched tight in her arms. Two kids. Just kids. Worried, confused, traumatized thanks to Lin. The woman in Saikhan's grasp was crying. Chen was maybe the greatest actor in the world or the stupidest criminal she'd ever met, or maybe she was the fool.
Saikhan had better control of himself and questioned Chen, "The kid – if you don't have her, then why would somebody tell us you hired them? Seems unlikely that anyone would know that you're a former adversary of Chief Beifong."
"I swear," Chen replied with a quiver, "I swear I had nothing to do with it. I would never harm a child, and I especially wouldn't risk my own kids to do it. Mrs. Beifong," he said to her desperately, "I'm sorry – I'm so sorry for what I caused all those years ago. I didn't know what my father was – I didn't know – I wish every day that I could take it all back."
"How many people knew that you were after Lin?" Saikhan snapped. "How many would know framing you for crimes against her would work?"
Chen began to think about it, and Saikhan released the woman to run back inside to her children, and Lin couldn't breathe. She staggered back and released her grip on Chen, turning and walking away at a rapid pace. She didn't know where she was going or what she would do when she got there, only knew that she needed to get away, that everything was falling apart and she was falling apart and she didn't know what to do. Heart hammering and breath short, she only made it to the tree line before she dropped to her knees, and she slumped there against the rough bark, hands fisting in the dirt, gasping for air. She had flown all the way to the Fire Nation probably for nothing and she wasn't any closer to finding Jeia. She had failed, for the second time in thirty-six hours, and she was growing all the more desperate and disheartened.
Eventually, Saikhan approached, crouching down next to her with a grim expression on his face, but there was no pity or discomfort at least; she could count on him not to look at her like she was crazy even when she was.
"He doesn't know who it could have been," Saikhan said quietly. "He named a few Triple Threats but we put them all away and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be out, or smart enough to pull something like this off. I could contact the city though, see if we can get a status on them." Lin couldn't respond, just sat still and tried to even her breath, so Saikhan continued. "Chen could just be bullshitting us, but… I don't know. Doesn't seem right. Just a gut feeling. I'm thinking you got that feeling too."
Lin nodded mutely.
Saikhan nodded too. "Do you have a way to contact your family? See if they've found anything else?"
Lin shook her head.
"So we'll go to them," Saikhan decided. "I can call in a favor, get somebody to watch Chen's place, just in case he is involved, or if the people that framed him come by expecting you."
"He was right," Lin mumbled, snorting humorlessly. "The kid was right."
"What kid?" Saikhan asked in confusion.
"Ronen," Lin hummed. "He told me… he could see… I lost control…"
"Hey," Saikhan scolded lightly, reaching out to briefly grip her shoulder, "are you kidding? If anyone has the right to lose it, it's you. Your kid was taken. If it was Yumi, I would have already done a lot worse."
"The sandbender we caught," Lin said in a strained voice, "what I did to him –"
"If he's still alive he got off easy," Saikhan gruffly cut her off. "Come on. Let's keep going. We'll do what needs to be done and find Jeia. You can worry about the rest after."
He was right about that much at least. She couldn't waste any more time, not when Jeia was at stake.
She instantly began shuffling to her feet, using the tree and Saikhan's proffered hand to pull herself up onto unstable legs. She couldn't look at Chen's house as she trudged past. She couldn't linger on her own mistakes. She had to keep going so that was what she did. She went the whole way to Kyuti without another word, and she and Saikhan left.
It wasn't until they landed at Saikhan's house that he broke the silence saying, "Just let me make a few quick phone calls and then we'll go –"
"No," Lin cut in as she came to stand before him. "You've done more than enough. This is where we part ways."
Saikhan shook his head vehemently. "No way. I'm in this till the end."
"I appreciate it, really, but I can't let you do it."
"Look, Chief, all due respect, but you need all the help you can get here, and I'm not about to let you down this time. I wasn't there to have your back during the siege and I'm not letting that happen again."
"That wasn't on you –"
"No, but we lost Lieutenant Jeia that day and nearly lost a hell of a lot more, and this time I want to know I did everything I could. That's what partners do."
Lin reached out and grasped Saikhan's shoulder, ducking her head to look him straight in the eye. "You know what else partners do? Protect each other, and this isn't your fight. You've got people in there –" she jerked her head towards the tiny cottage "– a family that loves and needs you. I've got enough people to find Jeia. If they can't help then no one can. You need to be here, to protect Yumi and Minya. In case Chen really was a part of this or the real culprit figures out I came here. You already did more than I could have ever asked for. Don't make me risk you too."
Saikhan's nostrils flared in frustration and he seemed as if he would continue to argue, continue to push, and in another lifetime, he might have – he would have. But he looked over at his home, where his wife and granddaughter resided, and he hung his head. "Yeah," he reluctantly relented, "yeah. Okay." He looked at her with plain dismay. "But if you need… if you find her –"
"I'll call you," Lin promised.
They clasped forearms and Saikhan pressed, "Take care of yourself."
Lin inclined her head. "I hope to be back."
Then she left before her voice could crack or her resolve could break. She climbed back onto Kyuti and left Saikhan behind, and she flew back to the Earth Kingdom, back to her family where she belonged.
The mysterious spirit was always a step ahead of Korra and Akira, always slipping out of sight around a bend and through shrubs and around tree trunks. She was just there as Korra rounded a corner, and then gone the next second. The two young women were out of breath as they chased after the spirit, and after a while Korra started to wonder if they weren't being led in circles.
Sometime into the pursuit, something else familiar caught Korra's eye, and she skidded to a sudden stop, wrenching her gaze away from her quarry for the first time. Akira must have been right on Korra's heels, and didn't have time to stop, because she slammed into Korra's back and they both went flailing face first into the mud.
Korra had the wind knocked out of her and a fair bit of mud splashed onto her face, but she didn't take her eyes off of what had stopped her.
Akira rolled off of Korra's back with a groan, spitting mud from her mouth and huffing, "Y'know, I've been through some messy situations in my lifetime, but this is really shaping up to be the worst."
Korra absentmindedly reached over to pat Akira's shoulder, but she wasn't actually paying attention so she just sort of swatted the air until she found purchase on some part of Akira, though she couldn't say if it was actually her shoulder. Korra was busy looking at what had caught her eye, and when she finally focused on it, the realization dawned on her and her eyes widened.
"Daifra!"
The emotion spirit of fear jolted at the sudden exclamation, but seemed unsurprised by Korra's appearance. She was crouched down close to the mucky ground, half hidden behind a mossy tree trunk and a curtain of dark hair. She regarded Korra with misty gray eyes, voice and body trembling as she said, "Hello again, Avatar."
"What are you doing here?" Korra asked kindly as she pushed herself up out of the mud.
"I go where I must," Daifra squeaked, casting surreptitious glances on their surroundings.
"And you're needed here?" Korra curiously questioned.
"How many spirits do you know personally?" Akira panted.
"You remember Daifra," Korra said, turning to face Akira again. "You know, when Qinggan, the spirit mother of emotions, came to the Island, and I had to go and find her children?"
Akira squinted at Daifra and then nodded slowly. "Okay, yeah… Which one is this again?"
"Daifra is the spirit of fear," Korra explained. "She must be here for someone. I wonder if it's the same person we need to find."
Akira raised her eyebrows at Korra and then slowly said, "Or she's here for you…"
Korra huffed, slightly frustrated. "This again?"
Akira raised her hands in surrender and said no more.
Korra turned back to address Daifra, but with her mouth open, before she could get a word out, a sharp voice snapped, "Hey!" Korra and Akira both whipped their heads around, and saw the spirit they had originally been following stomping straight towards them, a very particular scowl on her face. "What are you doing?"
Korra blinked, stunned. "You talk!"
"Yes I talk," the agitated spirit scoffed, hands braced on her hips and her milky gaze seeming to bore into Korra's soul. "I was trying to be all spiritual and mysterious but you just had to go and ruin it. Listen, we're kind of on a time crunch here."
"Oh, sorry," Korra said sincerely. "I was just surprised to see my friend here –"
"Yeah, yeah, you can talk to your friend later," the grumpy spirit interjected. "She's been there all day; she'll still be there when we're done."
"Hang on," Akira cut in, slapping Korra's arm in disbelief. "Are you Toph?!"
"What?" Korra scoffed, looking at Akira incredulously and absentmindedly rubbing the sore spot on her arm. "No way. That's not…" Korra trailed off as she took another look at the exasperated spirit with Lin's scowl.
"No it is!" Akira exclaimed in excitement. "I was only a baby when she died but I remember the old pictures."
Korra had seen the pictures too, and the more she thought about it, the hair and the bare feet and the blindness were a dead giveaway. Lin had said that she had spoken briefly to her mother in the Spirit World during Harmonic Convergence, when she was there looking for Sora, but Korra had never expected to see Toph Beifong in the flesh – well, not quite flesh, but whatever she was now.
"You've grown up a bit since we last saw each other," Toph said to Akira, who snorted.
"Just a bit. What are you doing here?"
"I'm trying to lead you two boneheads in the right direction. Now get your butts moving," Toph ordered.
"We'll be right back, Daifra," Korra assured the timid spirit still cowering behind the tree trunk. "Will you be okay?"
Daifra only shook, and Toph groaned, "She'll be fine. She's been around a lot longer than you and your past lives. Let's go. We were almost there…"
"Where are we going?" Akira asked as she and Korra hastened to follow the impatient Toph.
Korra was hoping Toph's answer might shed some light on all the strange happenings in the swamp, or at least reveal who Korra needed to find to sort herself out, but Toph's terse response only served to confuse Korra further, and to make Korra's stomach plummet.
"We're going to rescue my granddaughter."
Chapter 94: Chapter 94
Chapter Text
Chapter 94
Jeia was angry.
She was angry and she was distressed but she wasn't scared. If given the chance, she knew she could escape her captors, though at the moment she was slightly… hindered. She wasn't really in pain. The ropes around her wrists weren't too tight and the wooden box they'd put her in was big enough for her to sit in, though not to stand. Her predicament was that she had made her mother a promise, and much as Jeia didn't like to take orders, she never broke a promise. And she had promised her mother that she would be more careful, more considerate, that she wouldn't use her abilities to hurt people unless it was absolutely terribly necessary. Jeia wasn't totally certain at the moment if it was necessary. She knew she needed to escape and that the people that had taken her were bad, but they hadn't hurt her not once.
They had hurt Sora though, which was why Jeia had impaled the man that had done it, but she thought she might have stopped him without doing too much damage. She thought he would probably be okay and she wouldn't have broken her promise but she couldn't be sure. After she had done it, another man had grabbed Sora's unconscious form and threatened to do greater harm if Jeia did not come with them, and so she had done what she thought her mother would do and she had gone. She had intended to fight them off once she was a safe distance from Sora, but they had put a smelly cloth over her face and she had fallen asleep.
When she woke up, she was in the box and, even though she could still very well yank up some rocks from the ground and probably knock them all out, it was difficult for her to get a read on her surroundings when she was elevated and restrained. She might do herself more harm than good, especially considering that she had no idea where she was or how far from her family. She had been asleep too long to keep track of how long they had been traveling or in what directions. Since she had woken, she had counted the steps and felt the box shift as it turned, but anything before that was unknown.
So she was biding her time, waiting for her family to find her or an opening to escape somewhere safe. But she was angry. At herself and her mother and the men that had taken her. She shouldn't have hesitated when the men had attacked. She shouldn't have promised to be careful. She should have let those guys get what was coming to them.
But then again, she might have gotten a lecture if she had let loose so maybe some control was for the best. And maybe stabbing people wasn't so good, but how was she supposed to know when it was and when it wasn't? If she had just gone and done it then she wouldn't have gotten kidnapped and Sora wouldn't have gotten hurt.
Jeia was confused to say the least and that made her mad too.
When her captors finally came to a brief stop, and opened up a section of the wooden crate nearby her head, she reached her bound hands out at once and tried to grab hold of something, growling in what she hoped was a threatening manor. Her fingers grasped only at air and for the first time she wished she had her father's powers. When she pulled her hands back in, she watched as one of the men tentatively came closer, his face half obscured by his head wrap. She bared her teeth at him and he jerked back.
One of the others that Jeia couldn't see admonished, "She's just a kid. What're you afraid of?"
"We were told not to underestimate her," the man Jeia could see retorted. He had a bowl in his hand with some kind of food in it, though it didn't look the least bit appetizing, even to Jeia who's stomach rumbled with hunger.
"Lemme outta here and I'll show you who's a kid!" Jeia snarled.
The guy with the food held his other hand up in a placating gesture. "Just some food for you. No one's going to hurt you."
He carefully placed the food on the open ledge and then took a step back.
Jeia scowled and viciously swatted the bowl so that it went clattering to the ground. "Screw you!" She figured her father wouldn't be too angry with her for saying it considering the circumstances.
The man looked at her in bewilderment, and then bent down, presumably to pick up the bowl of spilled food. As he was crouched down, Jeia took advantage of the cleared sight line and looked around outside. She frowned at the sight of the unfamiliar landscape, tall trees and deep pools of mud. It smelled bad too, and she wondered what kind of place she had been brought to.
Just before the man stood back up, movement caught Jeia's eyes in the distance, and she saw a shimmering form standing up on a hill, nearly blending into the foliage between two trees. It was a female spirit, one that Jeia would have never expected to see, but that she recognized instantly from the few pictures her mom and Aunt Su had. Jeia's Grandma Toph had been gone long before Jeia was born, but Jeia would have known that face anywhere.
Jeia did not know anything about all that spirit nonsense Sora understood, nor did she have any idea how her dead grandmother was standing off in the distance, but she knew who her grandmother had been, and she knew that sometimes that spirit nonsense could be useful, and she had every confidence that seeing Toph could only be a good sign. Her grandmother gave her a sharp nod and a salute, and Jeia smirked as her captor straightened back up to block her view.
"You ought to eat," he told her. "I'm sure you're hungry."
Jeia folded her arms across her chest, looking away and jutting her chin up as she haughtily replied, "No thanks. I won't be here long."
"Your granddaughter?!" Korra exclaimed as spirit Toph's words sunk in. "What happened to Sora?"
"No, it's not Sora this time," Toph said, still trudging hastily forward, though the mud didn't slow her down the way it did Korra and Akira.
"Jeia?" Korra gasped in disbelief, thinking of the tiny girl and worried about what could have happened to her, though she supposed Jeia wasn't a toddler anymore, not as tiny as Korra remembered her if she was around eight years old now.
"What's going on?" Akira demanded.
"You'll see," Toph mysteriously grumbled, and Akira huffed in frustration.
"Is it just Jeia that needs help?" Akira sought to clarify.
"At the moment," Toph confirmed.
"How are you here?" Korra questioned, figuring she would have to wait to find out more about Jeia, but she might satisfy some of her curiosity in the meantime. "Are you not bound to the Spirit World?"
"Our worlds are intertwined," Toph replied with a flippant wave, "and I was a part of this one before, you know? And everyone's been mingling since you opened those portals. Not a long walk from here to there."
Korra wanted to ask more questions, but they must have arrived at their destination, because Toph stopped and bent down behind a set of trees, holding up a hand to halt Korra and Akira.
"Shhh, quiet," Toph hissed.
Korra crouched low and crept forward, sidling up next to Toph and peering through the foliage. There was a clearing at the bottom of a short hill, and in that clearing were about ten people dressed like sandbenders, which was odd enough in itself, considering they were in the swamp and not the desert, but even more suspect was the crate they carried between them.
"Jeia's in there," Toph murmured, pointing in the direction of the crate.
"I don't understand," Akira muttered. "Why do these people have Jeia?"
"And how did they get her?" Korra added.
"Well why don't you go rescue her and find out?" Toph said acerbically.
Korra nodded. "You coming with?"
"I can't interfere," Toph said reluctantly. "But you're the Avatar aren't you? Go down there and show 'em who's boss."
Korra looked over Toph, to where Akira squatted on her other side, and the two young women exchanged a nod. Then, without further delay, they leapt to their feet and raced down the slope. On their way, they both threw mucky water in the direction of the sandbenders, knocking several of them off of their feet and taking all of them by surprise.
Then the fight was on, and Korra found herself ducking and weaving, shooting fire and punching back rocky projectiles. She blasted air in the face of two attackers and spun around to kick another. She saw four of Jeia's captors attempting to run away, still holding the crate aloft. Korra punched her fist forward, and a water whip shot out and wrapped around the ankle of one of the fleeing men. Korra yanked it back, and the man smacked face first into the mud. Korra erected a quick rock to take the captor's place, so that the crate dropped onto it instead of the whole way to the ground. The rest of the captors wobbled and stopped, the crate teetering unsteadily. Korra did the same to a second, so the other two set the crate down and went on the offensive.
Then Korra was fielding attacks from several different directions, and under normal circumstances, three years ago before Zaheer and the Red Lotus, she would have handled them easily, or at least with only minor setbacks. But Korra was still off her game. She managed to knock down a few of Jeia's captors and ripped open the crate housing the girl, but after that the situation began to decline.
The moment the side of the crate was ripped open, Jeia rolled out and landed on her hands and knees, sinking in mud up to her elbows. She scrambled up to her feet, thankful that her captors hadn't tied her ankles together the way they had her wrists, and ran in to join the fray. She stomped her foot and a large rock lurched out of the earth, and she kicked it in the direction of one of her captors. It hit them in the back, and they flew forward to land sprawled on the ground. Jeia repeated the move on another, and then raced over to where she could see her cousin Akira slapping back one attacker and freezing another in place.
Now that Akira was unhindered, she bent down slightly and held her hands out with a relieved, "Jeia!"
But before Jeia could reach Akira, she was caught around the waist and hefted up into the arms of one of her captors. Unable to strike without the risk of hitting Jeia, Akira hesitated, but Jeia was undeterred. She swung her leg behind her to strike at whatever sensitive part of the man she could reach, and then threw her head back to connect with his nose. He cried out in shock and pain and dropped Jeia at once. Jeia ducked down, punched her bound fists into the ground, and the earth propelled the man into the air.
Jeia looked over her shoulder, and saw Korra in a worrisome state, her situation having gone awry in the brief time since she'd freed Jeia. She was struggling with Jeia's captors, and Jeia frowned as she watched the Avatar's unnaturally stilted movements, the way Korra hesitated to strike and flinched subtly at every attack. It should have been simple for Korra to tear those men apart, but clearly there was a reason she had been hiding for the last three years. Something was off, though Jeia could not discern precisely why. Her mother had said that Korra had been through a great trauma, like how Yunjin had been unapproachable and unable to walk, and that Korra just needed extra time to recover. But Jeia could not understand why the issue was ongoing. Yunjin had gotten better, could walk again even if he did need assistance at times, and his airbending was strong again. Shouldn't Korra be even faster to heal with the power of the Avatar?
Jeia did know that Korra needed help, though, and she hurried the rest of the way over to Akira, who formed a shard of ice to cut the ropes and free Jeia's hands. By the time the two of them focused on Korra again, they saw her being knocked to the ground and rolling several meters. She struggled to sit up, and was not quick enough to defend herself from the barrage of rocky projectiles that came immediately after. Akira rushed over to protect Korra, and Jeia began uprooting as much of the earth as she could to trip her captors and knock them back and toss them aside. She probably could have destroyed them all, and she was tempted to do just that, but she was still holding back, her mother's voice in the back of her head advising her to be cautious, to control her instinctive rage.
Some of them began to focus on stopping Jeia's attacks, but they weren't fighting back, weren't throwing anything at her except trying to enclose her wrists and ankles in rock, which didn't hinder her in the slightest. The other half, however, were still throwing a barrage at Korra and Akira, and with Korra slumped on the ground and barely moving they were struggling to hold it off.
"Jeia!" Akira shouted, reaching for her cousin with panic in her eyes. "We have to go! Run!"
Jeia scowled, because she didn't want to run. She wanted to stand and fight. Her captors would only follow them, even if it took them some recovery time. Where was she even supposed to hide in this spirit's forsaken swamp? But Jeia knew when she needed to think about her team, Kuvira had taught her that, so she tossed an earthen wave into the lineup of men dressed like sandbenders, and then she sprinted over to her cousin and the Avatar. Akira had to heft Korra up and half drag her away, while Jeia followed behind and laid down cover fire to make sure no one caught up to them.
Korra was full of so much shame and disgust in herself that she felt sick to her stomach. She and Akira had freed Jeia and escaped like they had planned, but thanks to Korra they had nearly failed. She hadn't even been able to handle a few earthbenders when it mattered most, when Jeia's life counted on it. She had nearly jeopardized the entire thing, nearly lost Jeia all over again. Jeia's captors had overpowered Korra, knocked her down so that she could barely get up, and Akira had had to drag her to safety, with Jeia the eight-year-old being the one to cover them when it should have been the Avatar.
So Korra was sulking as she sat in the cave the three of them were hiding in, while Akira was checking over Korra's wounds and Jeia was watching the entrance for signs of her captors.
Korra had been resistant to Akira's attentions, but the older girl was insistent, worried that Korra had been badly hurt and wouldn't say so. Korra knew she was fine, that her pride had been damaged most of all, but she let Akira poke and examine her. But Korra couldn't suppress a wince when Akira brushed across her ribs, and before Korra could stop her, Akira was lifting Korra's shirt and running her fingers over Korra's bruised side. Korra felt her cheeks heat up at Akira's soft touch, unused to anyone's assistance and care, and it must have been embarrassment that quickened her pulse.
Akira sighed and dropped Korra's shirt, letting her hand fall to rest idly on Korra's thigh. "I think you'll be okay, nothing seems broken, but I'd heal that up some or you'll be hurting tomorrow."
"Would you mind doing it?" Korra mumbled sullenly. "I don't think I can do much of anything right now."
Akira stared at Korra with an odd look on her face, hesitating before she answered, "Uh, I don't know how to heal."
Korra's brow furrowed in confusion, and as she thought about it, she realized she had never seen Akira healing anyone, but she also didn't think she had been around Akira when anyone was injured. "What do you mean?" Korra questioned, thinking Akira was messing with her. "You're Kya's daughter, how could you have not learned how to heal?"
Akira squirmed uncomfortably, which was something Korra wasn't sure she had ever seen Akira do before. "My mom left when I was eight, remember? There wasn't really time for her to teach me, and when my Gran-Gran tried I wasn't interested." She shrugged and averted her gaze, pulling her hand away as she suddenly stood. "Just rest. I'm gonna go check around, make sure we weren't followed."
Korra opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but she couldn't think of what before Akira was already hurrying out of the cave, squeezing Jeia's shoulder on the way, and Korra felt worse than before.
Jeia watched Akira go, and then turned to stare at Korra, who was made a little uncomfortable by the young girl's gaze, not least because she had almost failed the kid.
"I'm sorry," Korra felt compelled to say, having to raise her voice a little so that it would carry over to where Jeia stood, arms folded over her chest and leaning against the mouth of the cave in a stance very reminiscent of her mother.
Jeia frowned. "For what?"
"I didn't do a very good job of rescuing you," Korra explained.
Jeia pushed herself off of the wall and strode over to Korra, still sounding like she didn't understand as she replied, "I'm here, aren't I?"
Korra nodded, but she still felt guilty. "Who were those people? How did they capture you?"
"I don't know," Jeia admitted. "They attacked me and Sora and they hurt her. They would have kept hurting her if I didn't go with them."
"And they didn't ask you anything?" Korra pressed. "Or say anything that might explain it?"
Jeia shook her head. "They didn't say anything to me."
"Where was the rest of your family? Did those guys take you from Republic City?"
"No, we were in the Earth Kingdom looking for you," Jeia revealed. "Me, Sora, Mom, and Ro."
"Oh yeah," Korra remembered. "Akira said something about you guys looking for me. Did something happen? Well, other than you being kidnapped?"
"You've been gone forever," Jeia scoffed. "It's time for you to come home."
Korra was just about to ask about Kuvira, about what Akira had alluded to but hadn't really explained, but before the words could escape her mouth, she recalled that Kuvira had been a close mentor to Jeia, and Korra wasn't sure if that was still the case, and she didn't want to upset the girl. Jeia would have mentioned Kuvira herself if that was why they were looking for Korra.
So Korra stopped herself from bringing up what might be a sore subject and instead said, "I'm sorry I've been gone so long. As you might have noticed, I'm not exactly myself still."
"Probably 'cause you've still got that metal inside you," Jeia said casually, tapping Korra's shoulder.
Korra frowned. "What metal?"
"The metal poison. Can't you feel it?"
"No, I – your Aunt Su got it all out," Korra insisted.
Jeia raised a skeptical brow. "Apparently she didn't."
"Are you sure?" Korra asked, grabbing Jeia's shoulder with brimming excitement.
"Oh, I'm sure. I could sense it since you found me. You should really get that out of there."
"That must have been my problem this entire time!" Korra exclaimed, leaping to her feet. "I gotta get it out! You can get it out for me, can't you?" Jeia was young, but Korra had seen how crazy good the girl was at metalbending, and she trusted Jeia to be capable of doing it without causing Korra any further harm.
Jeia snorted. "Of course I can!"
"That's great!" Korra said in delight, looking around for somewhere to do it. "Is right here okay?"
"Sure," Jeia agreed. "Just lay down."
Korra hurriedly cast her gaze around again, but then Jeia simply erected a rock bed out of the earth, and Korra laughed a little at herself. "Oh, yeah, duh." She hurriedly laid down, and Jeia came to stand over her, though the small girl was barely tall enough.
"You gotta be calm," Jeia advised, moving her hands over Korra's body and looking focused.
"Okay," Korra agreed, sucking in a deep breath.
But she didn't exhale and Jeia scowled. "You're not relaxed."
"Yes I am," Korra asserted, but she was feeling a little tense with anticipation.
Jeia huffed in disbelief, but cracked her knuckles and began to move her hands again. After a long, tense moment, Korra felt something jolt inside of her and she lurched upwards, crying out in pain.
"It wouldn't hurt if you would stop fighting me!" Jeia scolded.
"I'm not fighting!" Korra argued in frustration. She laid back down and readjusted herself. "Just do it. I'm ready. I promise."
Jeia pursed her lips, arms folded across her chest, and then she rolled her eyes and tried again.
This time, as the poison began to move, Korra tried to force herself to lie still, to relax, to let it go, but just as she closed her eyes, a vision of Zaheer flashed across her eyelids. He was hovering over her, those malicious eyes boring into her soul, and he was suffocating her and she couldn't breathe.
Korra screamed and her body convulsed, and as she curled up on her side she looked up and saw Jeia's disconcerted face just above her instead of Zaheer. "I'm sorry –" she started.
Jeia cut her off, "I'm not trying anymore –"
"Wait," Korra begged. "I just need a minute."
Jeia shook her head vehemently. "No. You aren't letting me do it. If you want to keep it in there then I give up."
"Why would I –? I don't want to keep it," Korra said, feeling defensive.
"You're making it too hard," Jeia huffed. "I can't do it."
"It's okay. I shouldn't have asked you, Jeia. This isn't what we should be focusing on. We'll just get you back to your family first. Maybe your mom can do it."
That clearly wasn't the right thing to say because Jeia was instantly offended. "Fine," she snapped. "Do what you want."
Then she was storming off too, and Korra called out to her, "Jeia, wait! Jeia, that's not what I meant! Jeia, it's not safe!"
Korra scrambled up as Jeia left the cave, worried about where the girl might run off to. Jeia kept stomping out into the swamp, and just as Korra reached the entryway, Akira returned, looking at Korra with incredulity and asking, "What the hell did I miss?"
Jeia didn't know where she was going but her father was always telling her to walk away from a situation if she felt herself getting too emotional to control herself so that was what she did. Korra didn't even trust her to get some measly metal out of her, and she had no idea how to get out of that stinking swamp or how to find her family, so what was the use in staying in that stupid cave? The sight of Korra had initially thrilled her, but now she wasn't so sure. Korra clearly wasn't done dealing with her issues and Jeia had no clue how to help her. She wasn't all wise like Ronen or comforting like Sora. She didn't understand Korra's problems like Yunjin might have. She didn't like it when she didn't understand.
So Jeia stomped off through the sludge, but she didn't go too far because she wasn't stupid and it was getting dark. She didn't want to get captured again, or more likely, have her captors go after Korra and Akira. She stayed close enough to sense what was going on within her radius, but found a nice big tree to settle underneath of. It was probably the biggest tree she had ever seen, but she didn't marvel over such things, and simply climbed up onto one of the massive roots and sat down with a huff. She felt an odd thrumming beneath her, but she ignored it, letting her anger simmer, trying to remember the breathing techniques Dad had taught her. Not that she thought it ever worked, but she tried just so she could tell him that she had.
Jeia reached for the metal cuffs she usually wore on her wrists, and was dismayed to find that they were no longer there. Her captors must have taken them from her while she was unconscious, and she felt anger brimming up within her anew. Kidnapping her was one thing, stealing her things was just uncalled for. Her metal was just as much a comfort to her as it was a defense. She wanted to go hunt them down and get her stuff back and beat them up for good measure, but apparently revenge wasn't the answer to rage, so she just muttered to herself from her perch, clenching and unclenching her fists.
As she was attempting to calm her frustrations and refrain from tearing up the earth, she noticed movement nearby, and looked over to see the spirit of her late grandmother striding towards her.
Jeia immediately perked up, smirking at Toph Beifong's spectral form. "You showed them where to find me."
Toph shrugged as she sat down next to Jeia. "They would have found you eventually. I just gave them a little nudge."
"You're my grandmother," Jeia said matter-of-factly.
Toph wrinkled her nose. "Not sure I like the sound of that. I wasn't that old when I died... I don't think."
"Well you're old to me," Jeia said.
Toph snorted. "Yeah, okay, maybe I am old. But man did I go out like a champ. Did your mom ever tell you the story?"
"No, she doesn't like to talk about it, but we all know it was at work."
Toph scoffed. "Doesn't like to talk about it? Well why not?" she exclaimed. "She ought to be proud. That was a damn good bust we made, should have put an end to the whole Terra Triad, and I only lost 'cause I was protecting her, which is still a win in my book."
"Well you should tell her that," Jeia suggested. "Maybe it wouldn't make her so sad."
"You'll tell her for me, won't you?" Toph asked. "I'm afraid I've got some limits to how long I can linger at a time. I probably won't get a chance to talk to her by the time she gets here."
"Is she coming?" Jeia questioned eagerly.
"I would assume so," Toph answered. "You can probably find out for yourself." She patted the large tree root Jeia was sat on. "The roots of the banyan-grove tree span out for miles in every direction, connecting the entire swamp. It may connect you to your family. Could be useful for the Avatar too."
"Really?" Jeia said disbelievingly. "Because she doesn't seem that open to help. I tried to get that metal out of her and she acted like it was my fault that she kept overreacting."
"She's just out of balance," Toph said, "and she's been disconnected too long from herself and the people that love her. The swamp can teach her what she needs to learn, if she's open to listening."
"She's not open to much," Jeia muttered. "But I'll tell her. And I'll tell Mom what you said too. Will I ever see you again?"
"Maybe," Toph answered mysteriously. "Who thought I'd be sitting here with you today?"
"I wish I could have met you. Before you died, I mean."
Toph waved a dismissive hand. "Ah, I taught your mom and Aunt Su everything I knew. It's almost like I never left. And you picked up metalbending much better than my girls ever did. You might be as good as me."
"Or better," Jeia said casually, trying to suppress a smile.
Toph cackled good-naturedly. "You've definitely got the Beifong spirit, kid. But if you wanna prove you're as good as me you'll have to keep up on your earthbending. Here's a good place to start." She gestured to the tree root again as she rose to her feet. "I think you need to be a little more open to listening yourself."
Jeia sighed. "You sound like Mom."
Toph grinned. "Well she learned from the best! Go ahead, kid. Listen to the earth, really listen, and you'll always be connected – to your family, to me, and to the whole world."
Jeia looked up at her grandmother skeptically, but relented, placing her hands down on the thrumming root and closing her eyes. She focused, wincing as the root began to hum and the noise began. It was why she had been reluctant to learn earthbending in the first place, because it felt too loud. Metal was better, less intense, more subdued. She could sense it with ease, manipulate it however she wanted. Solid earth was sometimes an overload of sensations. She wasn't sure if it was because of the way her memory worked, the way she could remember things with such vivid clarity, or if she was just a wimp that couldn't handle it. Her issues had calmed the more she worked on her earthbending, but focusing that intensely on her surroundings was still a sharper sensation.
Focusing on that tree root was a thousand times stronger. Toph had been right about it connecting to everything, and Jeia felt like she could feel and see it all in one blinding, intense moment. She lurched back from it with a gasp, her mind whirling with all that she had seen, so much that she could hardly make sense of it all, but the one thing that stood out among all the noise, the one thing she had sensed with absolutely certainty, was her sister.
"Sora!" she exclaimed, scrambling to her feet with excitement as she told her grandmother, "I saw Sora!"
It was only then that Jeia looked around the vast empty space and realized that Toph was no longer there, but even though there was a tinge of disappointment, Jeia did not feel alone.
Lin found her family just as darkness fell.
They were flying over the forested area outside the Chukan village just as she had advised Ronen to do. They were spread out on separate flights, and the first one she came across was Su's airship. She landed Kyuti inside as the ramp dropped open mid-flight, and dropped down from the tired sky bison as the ramp clanged shut. Su came racing down to greet Lin, arriving before Lin could even take in her surroundings and enveloping her sister in a crushing embrace. Lin held her breath to ward off any emotion trying to work its way up her chest, but let herself be comforted by the support for a long moment.
When they parted, Su did not have to ask if Lin had found anything. It was plain by the look on her face that she hadn't. Su put her arm around Lin's shoulders and began guiding her towards the cockpit, telling her older sister, "We'll find her. We've got four groups in the sky and Yunjin's got the southern border shut down. They can't make it far."
"It wasn't Chen," Lin said hoarsely. "That sandbender told me it was but it wasn't. I don't know why – I don't know who would know –"
"We'll figure it out," Su asserted. "We will. Whoever is doing this, we'll find them."
Lin looked at Su with mounting terror. "In the morning it'll be forty-eight hours since she was taken. The statistics –"
"No," Su interrupted, shaking her head and squeezing Lin closer. "No, stop thinking like a cop. It isn't going to be like that. They had a purpose here. If they were going to harm her, we would have already known it. And Jeia is strong. This is different."
Lin nodded but she wasn't sure if she could believe it.
"I contacted everyone else," Su went on. "Tenzin wants to see you. We're all going to meet up and we'll see where we go from here."
Opal and Wei arrived on Leaky first, and Yunjin was next, leaving Bataar Jr to pilot their airship while he and Ronen and Asami came over to Su's. Lin was happy to see Yunjin again but considering the circumstances their reunion was just depressing. Tenzin and Sora arrived on Oogi last, and Lin had an even harder time trying not to break down in Tenzin's arms. She kept it together even as he wept quietly into her shoulder because everyone else was around and she knew she needed to focus on finding Jeia and not allow herself to lose it completely. She had already wasted enough time acting rashly.
After Lin had told them all that she hadn't found, Yunjin asked, "Who else would have known about Chen?"
Lin could only shake her head and Tenzin didn't seem to have an answer either. A few of her top officer's might have known but they weren't like Deak, they had been loyal and dedicated to their job. Lin had never had a problem with any of them, nor could she think of why any of them would seek to do anything so harsh even if they were pissed at her for something. Some of the Triple Threats had known but they were all in prison, dead, or incapable of pulling such a thing off. Whoever had taken Jeia had to have had enough resources to find her outside of the Island, and hire sandbenders willing to kidnap a child and only name Chen as their leader under threat of torture, not to mention take on the response from the whole of Jeia's family, who would surely retaliate.
"Kuvira," Su said darkly, and everyone else looked at her in surprise.
"You don't really think…" Tenzin started to say.
"She would be evil enough to do something like this," Opal agreed with her mother.
"But she loves Jeia," Yunjin argued. "She wouldn't hurt her."
"Maybe she hasn't," Ronen considered.
"But what reason would she have for taking Jeia?" Sora questioned.
"To keep Jeia for herself?" Wei suggested.
"To distract us from something else," Asami offered.
"None of us are in Zaofu right now," Wing pointed out.
"But that'd be too obvious," Lin finally spoke. Much as she hated Kuvira, she wasn't sure she believed Kuvira would hatch a plot to kidnap Jeia. "How would it look for her to capture Zaofu while Su is searching for her kidnapped niece? Doesn't exactly endear her to anyone."
"I don't think she cares about anyone's opinion of her at this point," Su countered.
Yunjin shook his head. "I don't know. I've heard Kuvira's plans, and she was there when I learned about Jeia. I'm not saying she's incapable but I don't think she's involved in this."
Lin noticed Sora moving away from the group to go and sit down on the floor, holding her head.
Lin frowned in concern, but before she could go and check on Sora, Opal snapped at Yunjin, "I don't know why you're still working with her. After everything she's done."
"Especially after what she just pulled with her Emperor nonsense," Wing concurred.
"You're betraying your family by staying with her," Wei scorned.
Lin was confused and half annoyed for a second before she remembered that not everyone knew that Yunjin was actually spying on Kuvira.
Yunjin tried to placate his cousins, "It's not how you think. I'm here, aren't I? I haven't betrayed anyone."
"Kuvira and Junior betrayed all of us," Opal countered, "and you're siding with them."
"Opal," Su tried to cut in, wincing, no doubt, because she knew about Yunjin and hadn't told her children.
"I never side with Junior," Yunjin tried to joke.
Wei was instantly offended. "So this is funny to you? Will you be laughing when Kuvira brings her army to Zaofu? You can't tell me that's not part of your plans."
"You're right, I can't," Yunjin admitted. "But right now I'm not worried about any of that. I'm worried about finding my sister, or did you forget what we're here for?"
Opal and Wing seemed subdued by that, but Wei was still irate. "You're the one that's arguing Kuvira's innocence instead of considering her involvement."
Ronen interjected, "None of us know who did this. I'm sure Yunjin is considering all angles –"
"And this isn't the time to fight amongst ourselves," Asami finished.
"We should go back to our search," Tenzin advised.
Wei looked as if he might continue to argue, but Su gripped his shoulder and insisted, "That's right. We need to stay focused. Regardless of who did this, our priority is finding Jeia."
Wing started to ask, "But if we don't know who took her, how are we supposed to –?"
But before he could finish his question, Sora gasped, and Lin remembered her worry, and they all whirled, half expecting Sora to have fainted. Instead, they found her leaping to her feet, eyes wide but brightening with hope.
"Jeia!" she exclaimed. "I found Jeia!"
Jeia returned to the cave in high spirits – well, less annoyed anyways. She told Korra and Akira that Sora and the others were on their way, and then asked what they were having for dinner. She was displeased again the second she saw Korra and Akira exchanging a look.
"Don't tell me you don't have any food," Jeia sulked.
"I've got a little bit left," Akira said, pulling something small out of her bag to offer to Jeia. "You can have it."
"We'll find more in the morning," Korra said.
"The people that took me had food," Jeia told them. "If we go back to where you found me, maybe they left something."
"I could sneak over there while it's dark," Korra suggested.
But Akira immediately argued, "It's too dangerous to go back there. We'll stay together."
Korra didn't protest and neither did Jeia, but sticking together turned out to be more difficult than they thought.
They spent the rest of the night taking turns watching their surroundings outside the cave, in case Jeia's captors found them. In the morning, Akira suggested they try and leave the swamp, and since Korra thought she had found what she had been looking for, she agreed. But Jeia had a feeling there was more that Korra needed to learn before they left, and she also wasn't sure if it would be more difficult for her family to find them if she left the swamp, so she insisted they stay for a few more hours. They still needed food though, so the three of them went back to where Jeia had been freed from her captors, or rather, they tried to.
The men dressed as sandbenders – Jeia wasn't convinced that all of them could actually sandbend – must have been waiting for the three of them to leave the cave that morning, because they attacked shortly after. The fight didn't go any better the second time than it had the first, and amidst the chaos, Jeia was separated from Korra and Akira. She ran through the swamp with six of the men on her tail, darting through small alcoves to try and lose them and tossing back attacks when she could manage it. As she ran, she attempted to utilize the connection she had discovered within the swamp thanks to her Grandma Toph, bounding off tree roots and reaching out to analyze her surroundings, to ascertain how close her pursuers were.
But when she sensed two forms racing towards her from the front, she skidded to a stop in the sludge.
She was surrounded.
Upon arriving at the swamp where Sora had sensed Jeia's presence, the group split into five teams to try and track down the girl faster. With all the spiritual energy surrounding the place, Sora couldn't pinpoint Jeia's exact location, so they all broke off into separate directions, with portable radios in each group to keep in contact.
Arrival at the swamp apparently piqued Bataar Jr's interest, because all of a sudden, he decided he wanted to aid in the search, much to Yunjin's chagrin. Half concerned that Bataar would try to pull something, Yunjin paired up with him to keep an eye on his cousin. But Opal was suspicious of them both, and insisted on joining them.
It was tense from the very beginning, and none of them spoke for the first leg of the journey beyond some direction changes. But Yunjin could tell that Opal was on the verge of an eruption, and he wasn't surprised when she finally burst.
Bataar had halted their forward progress when he knelt down to examine a random tree root, pulling out one of his tools to probe it with, and a satisfied smirk curled his lips. "Just as I suspected," he murmured. "These are infused with spirit energy more powerful than I've ever seen."
Yunjin frowned upon realizing Bataar's ulterior motive for coming along, but before he should suggest they move on, Opal snapped, "What is wrong with you?! We're here looking for our baby cousin, who could be hurt or about to be killed for all we know and you're looking for spirit vines to harvest? Unethically, I might add. You're despicable!"
Bataar appeared unfazed, an expression of boredom on his features. "Are you quite finished?"
"Ugh!" Opal exclaimed. "I can't believe I'm related to you!"
"If it makes you feel better, I'm not pleased to be related to traitors either," Bataar intoned.
"We're the traitors?!" Opal said in disbelief. "You're the one that betrayed your family. And for what? For Kuvira?"
"For a lot of things," Bataar said. "But I wouldn't expect you to understand. You barely have a mind of your own."
Opal reeled back as if she had been slapped. "How dare –"
"All right, enough," Yunjin interjected, placing himself between the two siblings. "Let's not fight right now –"
Opal cut him off, "And what excuse do you have? You're no better than him or Kuvira. What messed up thing are you trying to do with spirit vines?"
"Hey, I have nothing to do with any of that," Yunjin defended. "I'm here for Jeia. I suggest we stick to that. We can argue ideologies later."
"I think I'm quite done actually," Bataar told them, rising to his feet and dusting off the knees of his pants. "I'm going to head back to the airship and run some tests."
Yunjin rolled his eyes. "Fine. You do that. Let's go, Opal."
Opal was grinding her teeth and looked as if she wanted to do anything but follow Yunjin, but he was already stomping off through the muck, leaving Bataar behind, and she decided not to remain with her eldest brother.
But as the two of them were trudging along through the swamp, Opal still had a lot on her mind. "I can't believe you're doing this to your family," she muttered. "I expect this sort of thing from Junior, with his stuck up, arrogant crap and his obsession with Kuvira. But I thought you had more integrity than that –"
It rubbed Yunjin the wrong way, and he grabbed Opal's arm, not roughly, but enough to stop her in her tracks, turning her to face him as he hissed, "Listen, you've got it all wrong, okay? There's a lot that you don't understand. But we can't discuss it here." He looked over his shoulder, half expecting Bataar to be right behind them. "Let's just focus on finding Jeia, okay?"
Lin and Su were the first pair to find Jeia.
They were just trudging through the mud when they heard fast footsteps up ahead. The steps stopped abruptly, and so did Lin and Su. Lin used seismic sense to determine how many people were ahead, and when she recognized the form just a few meters from her, she forgot all else and sprinted forward with an exclamation of, "Jeia!"
Lin and Su went racing through the underbrush, and as they crashed through to the other side, they immediately had to dodge a barrage of earth projectiles that came flying at their faces.
Lin swatted a few aside and then the attacks suddenly stopped, followed by a surprised, "Mom?!"
"Jeia!" Lin repeated, this time with a smile of relief at the sight of her youngest, finally, after all the worry, with not a scratch on her. She opened her arms as Jeia came running to her, and the force of their collision knocked the air out of her. And then Su was crashing into Lin's side to wrap her arms around them both.
For one brief moment, Lin felt a rush of relief and love and peace, but in the next moment, Jeia was wriggling out of the embrace to tell her mother and aunt, "They're right behind me."
And then there they were, six of the men that had captured Jeia. But this time, Lin was close enough to fight, to stop them, and this time she wasn't letting them get away. She pushed Jeia behind her and bent her knees, strengthened her stance and clenched her fists. One stomp of her foot sent mud splashing up her leg, and a large slab of stone rocketing at the men stood across from her. A few of them dove out of the way, while two were struck and went flying backwards. Lin punched her fist through the air and sent her metal cable out to grab onto one of the four that had evaded, yanking her arm to the side and flinging them straight into a tree.
In the meantime, the other three had rolled forward, too close to be knocked back by projectiles, forcing Lin and Su to take them on hand to hand. Su was already engaged with two of them, while one managed to land a sharp blow against Lin's thigh as she was retracting her metal cable. She stumbled, took another hit to the back, and then flung her left elbow behind her to strike her opponent in the gut. He swung his arm down across the back of her neck even as he groaned in pain and bent over, but when Lin flopped belly first into the sludge, she reached her hand out and grabbed his ankle, pulling him to the ground with her. He punched his fist at her face and she reeled back out of reach. She kicked at his side and he rolled away. He leapt upwards while Lin pushed up onto her knees, and she was poised to slash at him with her cables, but a stone smacked into the side of his head first, and she watched the man drop to the ground, unconscious, body limp and eyes rolling back into his head.
Lin looked to her right, and saw Jeia lowering her fist as she nodded to her mother.
Lin smirked, but before she could express her gratitude, she remembered that her sister had been fighting two people of her own. Which was the exact same time that, somewhere behind, Lin heard only a grunt, wet gurgling, and that distinct suctioning sound that sharp metal made when it sliced through skin and muscle.
Praying that it was one of the crazed men that had stolen Jeia and not her sister, Lin whirled around, holding Jeia tight against her with one arm and preparing the other to lash out at the men should they still be putting up a fight. She saw one of the men already slumped on the ground, the other standing directly in front of Su. When Lin's eyes landed on the two of them, she breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of her sister still standing upright with her hand clutching fast to a knife that was now protruding from the man's shoulder.
Su looked to be in shock, whole body trembling as she released the man and the knife and staggered backwards two steps. The man in front of her dropped with a choked groan, writhing and clutching at his shoulder. Su turned to face Lin fully, and the stunned look on her face was such that Lin did not notice what her sister's hands held. But then Su dropped her own gaze, and Lin followed it to Su's abdomen, to the blade protruding from her ribs and the blood steadily soaking through Su's tunic. Lin looked back up at her sister's eyes, and they shared identical looks of horror.
"Lin," Su whimpered, just before she started to collapse.
Lin keened a desperate, "No!" scrambling to her feet and tripping the few steps over to catch her sister just before she hit the ground, and Lin's knees buckled with the weight and the shock and she crashed into the ground, but she held Su aloft to save her from further harm. "No, no, no," Lin repeated desperately, gently lowering Su the rest of the way to the ground so that she could better examine the wound, but her hands were shaking badly and her vision was blurring and the mud was seeping into everything.
Lin couldn't think, she couldn't think, but there was a muscle memory, the field training she had learned; it was in there somewhere, it had to be. Her hands moved without thought, pressing down on the wound, not removing the dagger because it would make it worse and she needed to stop the blood. Su cried out in pain at the pressure and Lin flinched, almost jerked her hands away, not wanting to inflict pain on her sister, but she held on. She had to. Su's life depended on it.
Su looked petrified, trembling and gasping for air as she clutched at Lin's arms. "Lin – is it – I can't – it's –"
"You're okay," Lin found herself saying, though her breath was short too and her voice strained. "You're gonna be okay. We just need – we'll just get a healer –"
Su snorted without humor and then immediately scrunched her face up in misery. "Where? We're in a swamp."
And they hadn't brought Kya and Katara was too long a flight away but there was a village not far out and there had to be a healer there. Except Lin didn't have the bison and it was a long walk out of the swamp and would they have time?
"Korra," Jeia suddenly said, kneeling down next to her mother and gripping Lin's elbow. "We need to get her to Korra."
Lin frowned. "Jeia, we never found Korra. We don't have any idea where she –"
"She's here," Jeia cut in. "She rescued me, her and Akira. We got separated fighting those men but I can find them."
"Korra – she's here?" Lin asked in disbelief.
"That's what I said, isn't it?" Jeia said impatiently. "There's some caves around here. We'll take Aunt Su and I'll find Korra."
Lin felt half numb but she did what Jeia said, lifting Su up into her arms and carrying her to wherever Jeia led. But when Lin set Su down in the depths of a cave, Jeia went to run back out, and Lin threw herself across the space to grab onto the girl.
"Wait! You can't just go back out there by yourself. Those men are still out there –"
"Mom," Jeia said seriously, trying to pry her arm away from Lin's grip, "I'm not going far. It's the only way. I'll be back. Trust me."
Lin had only just gotten Jeia back and she didn't want to let go. It was too dangerous. She couldn't lose Jeia again.
But Su needed help. She needed a healer. And Lin couldn't lose her either. She had to trust Jeia. She had to believe the kid could do it.
So Lin released Jeia with much reluctance and a desperate, "Be careful."
Jeia nodded, and then she ran off, and Lin forced herself to look away, to focus on Su, which wasn't an easier thing to face, but it was the most pressing.
Korra and Akira managed to fight off the four attackers they were left with, but they had lost Jeia again. They went racing off to look for her, but it was Jeia that found them, barreling through a thicket of thorny bushes, her hair wild about her head and mud splashed across nearly every inch of her.
"There you are," she gasped, already turning around, beckoning for Korra and Akira to follow. "Come quick. We need you."
Korra did not have a chance to ask, hastily following after Jeia as she streaked through the swamp and into another cave. It took a moment for Korra's eyes to adjust in the dim lighting and she staggered after Jeia into the dark depths, and when she caught sight of what she had been brought there for, she had to blink several times to ensure she was seeing it right. Lin was there, crouched on the floor and hovering over the wounded form of Suyin, who had some sort of dagger protruding from her middle and blood staining her shirt.
Korra rushed forward, dropping down on her knees before Su and gasping, "What happened?"
"The men that were chasing me," Jeia answered, when Lin only looked grim and pale.
"You can fix it, can't you?" Lin desperately asked.
"I'll do my best," Korra promised, already examining the wound.
Su smiled shakily and said, "Hello, Korra. It's good to see you again."
Korra smiled faintly back. "It's good to see you too, Su, though the circumstances aren't ideal."
"Why's that?" Su said in a strained voice, huffing when Korra pressed down on the wound between her ribs. "I'm doing perfect, aren't you?"
Korra snorted, but her expression quickly turned apologetic. "This is going to hurt."
"It already does," Su countered.
Korra didn't allow time for Su to tense up further, grabbing hold of the blade and swiftly pulling it out of Su's middle. Su screamed, body convulsing, and Korra had to hold her down so she didn't move too much.
"Hey," Lin snapped at Korra, while reaching out to grip her sister's hand. "Easy."
"Sorry," Korra murmured, already waving water over the open wound. "It had to be done."
Korra focused her healing on Su, channeling her energy, willing the wound to close, to meld the skin back together, at least enough to staunch the heavy bleeding and mend internal damage. But as Korra was working, she felt a heavy pressure, worry consuming her, chest seizing with panic. The need to save Su, coupled with her recent anxieties and even more recent failures, caused her hands to tremble and her vision to blur, and then something flickered somewhere in front of her, and she looked over top of Su to see a specter hovering in the back of the cave, eyes alight with malice. "No," Korra whispered, sweat gliding down the side of her face, eyes fixated in horror at the haunting image of herself. "No, no, not now."
"What?" Lin demanded, not understanding Korra's imagined plight, thinking only of her sister. "What's wrong? What's happening? Korra!"
The specter lunged and Korra threw herself backwards, disconnecting from Su. "I'm sorry," she whimpered, as everyone else in the cave stared on in confusion. "I can't – I'm sorry."
"Korra, wait!" Akira called, but Korra was already racing out of the cave, heaving for air, looking over her shoulder to check and seeing herself still speeding towards her.
Korra cried out and kept running, anger and fear all twisting in her gut, and she dove into the swamp, seeking safety, but there was no safe place here. The image of herself eventually dissipated, but shortly after, Korra found herself in the dark, the foliage so thick above her that barely any sunlight shone through. And in the darkness, more evil arose, the frightening images of Amon and Unalaq, Vaatu and Zaheer, all of them reaching for her, taunting her, morphing and changing from one to the other. Korra felt as if she would go mad, heart thumping in her ears, a scream trapped in her throat. All she could do was run, try to fight back, but she was weak, so weak.
She staggered out into the light, dimmed still, by the swamp's thick trees, but lighter than before, and her monsters had gone. In their place stood Daifra, the spirit of fear, stock still and waiting, her lip quivering but her countenance calm. Korra's shoulders slumped, and she trudged up the short slope between them, accepting what she must now, what Akira had tried to tell her earlier. Daifra was here in the swamp for Korra.
Because Korra was afraid, she just wasn't sure how to mend it. She slumped to her knees before Daifra and begged, "Help me."
Daifra reached out timidly to touch Korra's shoulder. "What has the swamp shown you?"
"I – I had visions," Korra stammered, "of all the times my enemies hurt me."
"And why did you see them?" Daifra prompted.
Korra shook her head helplessly. "I don't know. I guess – I guess because they made me and a lot of other people suffer."
"You carry your former enemies within you," Daifra said. "Just as you still carry the metal poison. You must learn from them."
"Learn what?" Korra stressed. "Why are they still haunting me?"
"Because you need to face your fears," Daifra answered simply. "You cannot face new enemies if you're still fighting the past. There is a time to run, and there is a time to stand your ground. There must always be balance."
In the distance Korra could see another flickering image, sunlight shining down through a gap in the canopy upon the form of Coragus, Daifra's opposite, the spirit of courage, but he seemed so out of reach, his strong presence seemingly unobtainable.
"How?" Korra begged. "How do I fix this?"
"First, you must stop running," Daifra replied. "You must reconnect to your loved ones and yourself."
"I'm trying," Korra insisted, "but I don't know what I'm doing wrong."
"You can start by listening to me," a gruff voice from behind said, and Korra turned to see Jeia standing at the bottom of the slope, arms folded across her chest and her mother's impatient but oddly comforting scowl on her face.
Jeia began walking up the hill, and when Korra looked back around, Daifra and Coragus were gone.
"Okay," Korra quietly said. "I'm listening."
"Come here." Jeia beckoned, leading Korra through the swamp to the foot of a massive tree, where she began to explain, "The roots of the banyan-grove tree span out for miles in every direction, connecting the entire swamp. It connected me to my family. My Grandma Toph says it can help you too."
Korra was skeptical, but willing to try anything at this point, and she did as Jeia said, placing her hands on the root and reaching down deep, focusing, searching. She gasped when she felt it rushing through her, her awareness spreading out from the roots, splintering out in a hundred different directions, showing her everything, each murky corner of the swamp, and in some of those spaces she saw all of the people that had come to look for Jeia, the people she hadn't seen in so long. Yunjin was walking now, looking all grown up and strong again. Opal was with him, an official airbender. Farther away, there was Tenzin and Sora, now with her master tattoos, and Korra still regretted that she hadn't been there for Sora's ceremony. Wei and Wing were trekking through the swamp too, and there was Lin and Su and Akira in the cave. And then she saw Ronen and Asami, two of her best friends, and she felt excitement and sorrow well up within her. She had missed them so much, all of them, and now they were within reach, and when she pulled her hands away from the root of the tree, she felt more determined then ever.
"I'm ready," she said, turning to Jeia with surety in her gaze now. "We have to get this poison out."
Jeia nodded once. "It has to be you. Close your eyes, clear your mind, and focus your energy on finding the metal."
Korra sucked in a deep breath and closed her eyes, blowing the breath back out and letting her body relax, centering herself in the moment, casting aside all else, keeping only the comfort of knowing so many of the people she cared for were close, not letting herself linger on the distance she had caused or the urgent matters at hand. She found the metal within her, minute though it was, and worked carefully to remove it. The visions still plagued her, still trying to break her focus, send her running once again, but Jeia's voice was there to soothe her, "Whatever you're seeing, it's all in the past. Release your fear. Put the past behind you where it belongs."
Korra panted and strained, and images flashed across her closed eyelids, but her tormentors were beginning to fade as she pushed them out, pushed the poison out, until finally it was out of her and she opened her eyes at once, saw the metal floating there before her. Jeia enclosed the poison in a rock, and Korra sagged in relief, feeling lighter already.
"Nice job," Jeia commended, and Korra lunged forward to hug the girl.
"Thank you," Korra whispered, even as Jeia grumbled and squirmed, though she eventually relented to patting Korra's back
Korra pulled back, and Jeia asked, "Feel better?"
"Much better," Korra confirmed.
"Think you can help Aunt Su then?" Jeia questioned next, though she appeared tentative, as if worried she'd send Korra running.
Korra sucked in a deep breath. "I think so. I hope so."
Jeia shrugged and held her hand out to Korra. "Well, only one way to find out."
Chapter 95: Chapter 95
Chapter Text
Chapter 95
In the time that Korra was gone, Su's condition rapidly worsened.
Lin was struggling to staunch the blood flow and she was worried about how close the stab wound was to Su's lungs. Su was breathing rapidly and her face had gone frighteningly pale. Her eyelids were heavy as she looked up at her sister, and she was mumbling things that were barely coherent. She looked scared, and Lin had to suppress her own anxious terror to try and soothe her little sister, but she had a feeling Su could see right through her even in her debilitated state. Lin had removed her own outer shirt to tear into strips and tie tight around Su's middle, keeping pressure on the wound even after her hands began to cramp. But Su was cold, and Akira and Lin didn't have any more clothes to spare, and even though Lin would have sat naked in the filthy cave if it kept her sister warm, she wasn't convinced some wet, muddy clothes would really help Su. So Lin instead sat with her back against the cave wall and her sister in her arms, hoping that her own body heat would stop Su from trembling so much. She used an extra strip of cloth to wipe the sweat from Su's brow and cradled Su's head in the crook of her arm.
All the while Lin soothed, "It won't be much longer now. Jeia will bring Korra back. We'll get you fixed up. You're gonna be fine."
"If she doesn't," Su tried to say in a strained voice.
But Lin cut her off, "Then we'll fly you out of here and get you to a healer. The others are on their way. Sora will find us."
"But if –"
"Hush," Lin interrupted, stroking Su's sweat slicked hair back behind her ear. "Just rest. I'll take care of you. Don't worry."
But the longer they had to wait, the more desperate Lin became, and it was all she could do to not go running out of the cave with Su in her arms, to sprint until her legs gave out to get her sister to help. But Lin barely knew how to navigate the swamp, and Korra and Jeia were still out there, and Jeia's captors were out there, and she might end up doing more harm than good by leaving the cave. Not that the cave was the safest place, but at least it provided them some cover, at least Akira was there to help Lin defend them. But Lin hated waiting, especially when something so crucial hung in the balance, even more so something as important as her sister's life. She had only been able to enjoy the fact that she had found Jeia for three seconds before everything was collapsing again.
Lin had seen enough people in a bad way to know when Su was deteriorating. They were running out of time and no one had come to help them. She could feel her sister's life seeping away from her, Su's body cradled in her arms, her hands still cupping at the hole in Su's stomach, as if to catch the blood that was soaking through her shirt, catch it and return it to Su's body, but it was a futile effort, a misguided hope, because the blood was hot and sticky and seeping steadily through her fingers and no amount of pressure would stop it. Her mind flashed back to past nightmares. Of Tenzin lying in the middle of a roadway, surrounded by searing hot metal and raging fires, shrapnel imbedded in his side, his face so pale and his lungs choked with blood and smoke. Of the first man she'd killed in combat, a member of the Red Monsoon Triad, not innocent, but young, his life draining away as Lin stood above him, watching his blood seep into the concrete, until his body was irreversibly still. Of Suyin from long ago, young and wild and rebellious, desperate for love, desperate to be heard, cutting at the cables her older sister tried to use against her, Lin's own cables coming back at her, lightning fast, to rip open her face, the blood pouring through her fingers and white hot agony lancing up the side of her face. Of Kane, the former leader of the Silver Granite Triad that had killed Lin's fellow officers and then demanded her life, and she had gone to him, had been held in a dark crate, had suffered torture for hours until her moment came at last, and she had stabbed him straight through the chest, had watched the light leave his eyes as his heavy body fell onto hers and his blood soaked through her shirt and splattered onto her face. Of the misguided boy trying to make a name for himself, stabbing her through the abdomen, and her blood spilled into her hand as baby Ronen screamed in her arms. Of her seven officers that had died in the line of duty while she was out on raids with them, of the twelve civilians she'd been too late to save. Of Lieutenant Jeia, the young officer so full of light and ambition, with a bright future ahead of her, too noble for her own good, too smart and brave and she had died in Lin's arms so that Lin's last child could live. Of her mother, wild and full of laughter and courageous enough to step in front of a blade meant to end her daughter's life, Lin trying desperately to hold onto her, to somehow keep her alive, to cradle her back to life if only it were possible, but her mother's bloody fingers had stroked her cheeks and Lin had felt the final beat of Toph's heart through the vibrations in the Earth.
And now here she was again, her sister cradled in her arms, her body covered in Su's blood. Once again, she was powerless to stop this nightmare, powerless to save someone she loved. She started thinking about everything she had done wrong and what she could have done better, how she could have prevented it. But she had to stop herself from going down that path, experience had taught her how. Regret wouldn't reverse their situation. All she could do was hold onto the hope that the others would arrive on time. She had to believe that they would. She had made it clear over the radio that they needed help and fast, and even if she didn't put much stock into fate, she believed in her family.
But Lin's panic skyrocketed when Su's breath started coming out shorter, and she was staring up at the ceiling of the cave with glazed eyes and a weary smile as she whispered, "Mom?"
Lin frowned and lightly tapped Su's pallid cheek. "No, Su, it's me. It's Lin."
"No," Su said blearily. "Mom's here."
Despite knowing it to be impossible, Lin still looked around to check, but the only other figure in the cave was Akira, who was staring at Lin and Su with plain concern.
Su was too weak to speak much more beyond some incoherent mutterings, but she closed her eyes with a peaceful smile and a sigh. "Mom."
Consumed with worry, Lin held Su tighter, shaking her head and insisting, "No, Su, stay with me. Stay with me." But Su was fading and Lin knew all too well how difficult it was for someone to recover if they slipped too far, if recovery was even possible at that point, if the coma or the damage to the heart wasn't too detrimental. Lin was desperate and she felt tears burning her eyes and fear consuming her. "Dammit, Su! Don't you dare leave me, you hear? Tell Mom she's gonna have to wait. You gotta stay with me. Su!"
But Su was completely unconscious now, limp in Lin's arms, head lolling to the side, and Lin couldn't bear it.
As the first to arrive, Tenzin and Sora rushed into the cave first, and the sight before them brought them both to an abrupt halt. Even knowing what to expect they were struck by the image of Lin and Su, the pallor of Su's face, the agony on Lin's, the way Lin held Su against her chest as she begged her unresponsive sister to stay. The grief in that cave was palpable, and Tenzin went quickly to his wife, curling himself around her, helping her hold Su – helping hold Lin up – as her body trembled violently with suppressed emotion.
Akira was the one to faintly explain, how Korra had tried to heal Su but her abilities were limited in her current state, with the trauma that still consumed her, the metal poison still pumping through her veins. And Jeia had chased after Korra, thinking to bring the Avatar back, to help Korra believe in herself once more and persevere. But the pair of them had been gone a while, and Su's only other option was to be taken to a healer in the nearest village. Except Tenzin could tell just by looking at his sister-in-law that she wouldn't make it to the village, that hefting her out of the swamp and onto a quick flight would likely be too much for her. If Korra did not return soon, with some measure of control restored, they could be very close indeed to losing Su altogether, and Tenzin was made ill by the mere thought. Su could not be lost, not now, not for a very long time.
Akira tried shuffling forward, guilt ridden and frantic. "Maybe I can heal," she thought aloud. "How hard can it be? At least until Korra gets back. It's probably genetic, right? I can try –"
But Su needed more than that, and healing likely wouldn't come immediately to Akira, no matter how natural it was for the women in her family.
When Opal and Yunjin arrived, Tenzin's heart broke all the more, seeing his niece's face in all its striking grief, and she fell to the ground before her mother, on her knees, bent ever lower, weeping steadily as she pressed her forehead to Su's, held her mother's hand in a desperate grip. Lin moved one of her bloody hands from Su to hold onto Opal, her fingers clenching in the back of the girl's tunic, but there was nothing to be said.
Wei and Wing would be too far to reach them, Sora told her father in a tremulous whisper, her own tears streaking mercilessly down her face. And Tenzin wasn't certain if that was better for the boys or worse. He winced with every pause between Su's slow, ragged breaths.
By the time Ronen and Asami arrived, streaked with mud and clothes torn from a run in with whom they presumed to be some of Jeia's captors, all seemed lost. Yunjin was on the radio trying to get in contact with Junior on the airship, Asami was holding onto Sora, and Ronen was tearing through his backpack trying to find something to help his aunt, though Tenzin was too consumed by everything else to ask exactly what.
And then two figures appeared in the cave entrance, faces obscured momentarily by shadows, but as they stepped into the dim light of the small fire at the center of the dingy cave, their features became clear, and Tenzin was jolted by the sudden desire to rush forward and embrace them both. To see Jeia alive and well and free, even knowing from what Akira had told him that she was, was an overwhelming relief, and after all that time of worrying about her and being uncertain of how he might find her, he was beyond relieved at the sight of her. He wanted to reassure himself further, to hold his youngest in his arms even for just a moment, but his arms were still full of Lin and Su and the idea of moving away seemed a poor one in that moment. He could hug Jeia in a little while. He could not be sure of the same for Su. He could not think of leaving Lin when her sister's life was so uncertain.
But the figure beside of Jeia was Korra, and Tenzin was glad to see her, not simply because it had been too long since he had and he had been concerned for her too, but because her return might be just in time to save Su. Even knowing the concerns, that Korra hadn't been able to help Su earlier, Tenzin had the feeling that Korra wouldn't have returned if she hadn't felt able to try again. And maybe it would not turn out as well as they all desperately hoped, but Tenzin had faith in Korra, and he believed that her arrival could mean a turning point.
Everyone turned to watch Korra's approach, stilling in whatever they had been doing. Yunjin put down the radio and came in from outside, following Korra and Jeia's path. Ronen set down his things and seemed about to approach his friend, but caught himself before he did. Opal looked up at Korra with a pleading, tearful gaze, and Korra focused on the girl as she knelt down next to Su.
"I'm sorry," Korra murmured to Opal and Lin, and her gaze flitted briefly over Tenzin with a small flicker of light. "But I got the poison out. Jeia helped me and I… I think I can help now. Can I try?"
Opal immediately nodded and moved out of the way with a whimpered, "Please. Please help her."
Korra nodded firmly and then locked gazes with Lin, who was not so quick to oblige, defensive, as she often was, even more so when she was so consumed by grief and fear. But she knew too that her sister's only hope was Korra, and so she slowly began to lower Su to the ground, reluctantly releasing her hold, taking up one of Su's limp hands instead, resting her other palm on Su's fevered forehead.
Korra wasted no more time, removing the hastily made bandages Lin had wrapped around Su's middle, tearing Su's tunic enough to give her more room to work, summoning the water she needed and pressing it over Su's leaking wound. The water glowed, and for a long time there was silence, as the occupants of the cave held a collective breath and Korra worked, Su's low, wheezing breaths the only sound mingling with the rustling noise of the foliage outside. Tenzin couldn't tell just by looking if Korra's efforts were working, but he kept his hold on Lin, supporting his wife's tense form.
In the midst of healing, without breaking her concentration, Korra asked them, "Does anyone know her blood type? Do any of you have it? I'm trying to replenish as much as I can but it would help to do a transfusion –"
Ronen hurried forward, already rolling up his sleeve. "Me. I'm a universal donor. I can do it."
"Do you have anything we can use?" Korra questioned, still not lifting her gaze. "We can make the needles but we'll need a way to draw the blood and to hold it and it has to be sterile –"
It sent everyone into motion, a purpose that made them feel useful and stopped them staring and waiting for something to happen. In minutes they were filling a small metal basin with Ronen's blood and transferring it to Su.
And all the while, Korra did not falter again, did not suffer any flashbacks or go running from the cave. She focused on the task before her, and when she finally removed her hands from Su's middle, the wound had stopped bleeding and, while it still looked rather gruesome, had been closed back up to a reasonable degree.
Korra sat back with a heavy exhalation, and finally gave the rest of them cause to relax if only by an iota. "She's stable. We'll need to get her to a safer environment, but a few more healing sessions should fix the residual damage."
Su didn't look much better yet, but her breaths were steadying and there was a flicker now behind her eyelids, instead of a chilling stillness.
"Sora and I can call Kyuti down," Yunjin suggested. "I'll get the airship and bring it to you and we'll lift her straight into it."
"I should go with you to make sure you don't crash," Ronen weakly joked.
"I'll go with him," Asami said instead, putting a hand on Ronen's arm to still him as he went to stand. "You should rest a bit."
"I'm fine," Ronen tried to say, but he was looking a bit peekish from all the blood he had given, and when he tried to stand the second time he swayed and sat right back down. "Okay, yeah, you're right."
With that settled, there was movement again, and Lin was able to pry herself from Tenzin's grasp, her body not so weak that she couldn't hold herself up again. The possibility of Su's recovery had instilled some hope in her, and Tenzin felt okay moving from her side for just a moment, finally going to the person he had been so eager to find not so long ago. Jeia saw him coming and closed the distance, collapsing in her father's embrace as if exhausted, and he imagined she must be so.
"Oh, my sweet girl," he murmured into her tangled hair that reeked of swamp water. "I am so glad you're okay. I am so sorry I wasn't there."
"How could you be?" Jeia said practically, tipping her head up to look at him with her mother's eyes and her nose scrunched. "It's okay, though. I found Korra and I talked to Grandma Toph."
Tenzin frowned, running his thumb over Jeia's forehead and brushing back her unruly hair, half expecting to see a head wound. "Your Grandma Toph? But Jeia, she's –"
"Dead, I know," Jeia interjected. "It was her spirit or whatever. She led Korra and Akira to me and showed me the banyan tree and that's how Sora found me."
Tenzin figured he was missing some key points, but he would ask Jeia for the rest later. Instead he simply smiled softly. "Well, I'm glad she was here to help."
"That might explain what Su was saying earlier," a weak voice said from Tenzin's side, and he turned to see Lin sidling up to the pair of them, wearily rubbing her face – her hands had been cleaned of Su's blood but they were still stained pink until she could properly scrub it away. "I thought she was delusional saying Mom was here, but maybe, somehow, Mom really was with Su."
"It's a nice thought," Tenzin permitted, keeping one arm tight around Jeia's tiny frame but reaching the other out to grip Lin's shoulder; she gave him a grateful look.
"She said she couldn't stay too long," Jeia told her parents.
"Did she say anything else?" Lin asked.
Jeia nodded. "Yeah. I'll tell you all about it later. Is Aunt Su gonna be okay?"
"In time, yes, I believe so," Tenzin soothed, rubbing Jeia's back. "You did good bringing Korra back."
Jeia shrugged. "She just needed to listen to the swamp, and reconnect to the ones she loves."
"Oh, so you're a philosophy expert like your brothers now?" Lin teased.
"Maybe," Jeia said with a smirk. "Mama, before we go, can I show you somethin'?"
"Sure, kid," Lin agreed, even though she looked tired enough to drop.
"We'll have to leave the cave, but it's not far."
Lin nodded and looked over at Tenzin, "We should search the swamp for her captors while the kids take Su somewhere safe."
"We'll bring Sora and Ronen to help," Tenzin suggested.
Lin concurred, and then let Jeia take her hand and lead her out of the cave.
While Lin and Jeia were gone, Wei and Wing finally arrived and went straight over to their mother and Opal. Yunjin and Sora returned with the airship and lifted Su aboard, and her children and Korra went with her. Akira and Yunjin both wanted to help look for and attempt to apprehend Jeia's kidnappers, so when Lin and Jeia returned to the cave, the seven of them set off together to search the swamp.
After several hours, the group decided to concede defeat. Jeia's captors must have decided that they had no chance against the full might of Jeia's family and ran off, because there was no sign of them anywhere. Whoever had hired them would remain a mystery for now, but there was still the man that Lin had questioned, and perhaps with the knowledge that Jeia had been rescued and his mission failed, he might be more open to giving up more accurate information, or at least Tenzin hoped. He didn't like the idea that there was still someone out there that might try to take Jeia from them again, someone they did not even know.
But for now, he would rejoice in having Jeia safe and sound, and focus on his family as they nursed Su back to health.
At least, that was his plan for maybe twenty minutes.
Upon returning to their respective airships and sky bison and setting off for Zaofu, Yunjin and Bataar Jr spoke with Kuvira, and she called them back to her side. Before they could even reach Su's home, they had to stop so that Asami and Ronen could transfer from Yunjin's airship to Su's, so that Yunjin and Junior could veer off in a different direction.
Yunjin could not say much with Junior hovering at the top of the ramp, but as he was hugging his father goodbye, he whispered rapidly, "Zaofu in two days. She's bringing the entire army."
Tenzin schooled his features, containing his shock and smiling at his son as they parted. "It was good to see you again. Don't worry, we'll take care of your Aunt Su. Be safe."
"You too," Yunjin murmured with a grimace, before morphing his expression into something less obvious as he turned back around to Junior's line of sight. "Love you guys." He waved as he retreated, and his parents and siblings echoed the sentiment.
Tenzin waited until they were all flying to Zaofu again before he told Lin what Yunjin had said to him. He had been tempted not to say anything until Lin had gotten some sleep, but with a two-day time frame and the way Lin was too wired with worry to sleep, he decided he had to tell her sooner rather than later.
First, he asked her what Jeia had shown her in the swamp before they left, and Lin answered, "Oh, it was that tree she was talking about. Mom showed it to her. It really does connect to everything. Was a little disorienting. Apparently Mom also wants me to stop sulking about her death, says I ought to be proud or something, which is just the kind of ridiculous thing she would say."
Tenzin chuckled for just a moment. "That is exactly the sort of thing she would say. Though I hardly think you've been sulking."
"No," Lin conceded, "but Jeia says I'm sensitive about it and she's not wrong. We don't talk about my mom like we do your dad and that's my fault. We wanted to tell Jeia about the woman she was named for and we've hardly done that either."
"It's understandable that you would be distressed by those memories," Tenzin reasoned, clasping her wrist in his hand. "They were both important people to you, taken too soon, in such traumatic ways. I have no problem telling the children about Toph and Lieutenant Jeia so that you don't have to."
"Yeah, but it should be me, at least a little more," Lin grumbled. "If something happened to me, I wouldn't want the kids doing what I've done, bottling everything up and refusing to talk about it."
Tenzin frowned. "Well, I will do everything I can to ensure the children never know what it's like to lose you for a very, very, very long time."
"Not even just me," Lin said. "Anyone important to them. I don't want them to know that loss, but spirit's sake, they almost did today, and someday they will. So the point is, I ought to do better and I'll try. That's what my mother was trying to convey to me through Jeia, I think."
Tenzin nodded thoughtfully. "The meaning is usually rather simple with Toph. I'm just glad that she could help Jeia even though she's no longer with us. I've always wondered about the nature of the spiritual connection to our loved ones. It seems they are with us even when we feel otherwise."
"Seems that way," Lin murmured, but such philosophical musings were beyond her area of interest, and he knew she wouldn't be likely to keep the conversation going in that direction. It was time to tell her what he knew.
"Yunjin whispered something to me before he left," Tenzin revealed, and Lin immediately straightened up.
"What did he say?" she asked with some trepidation.
"Kuvira is coming to Zaofu in two days. She's bringing her entire army."
Lin seemed as if she could take no more, sighing heavily and collapsing onto a nearby crate. They were stood in the storage hold with the bison, and Oogi seemed to pick up on Lin's mood because he moaned in commiseration.
Since he'd had more time to take it in, Tenzin had already thought about what they might do, and he suggested to Lin, "Once we get to Zaofu and ensure Su is still stable, we should all keep going to Republic City to ask President Raiko and Izumi for help. Kuvira bringing her army on Zaofu is a direct attack, one that the United Forces would be justified in defending Su from."
Lin shook her head. "Su won't abandon her city knowing what's coming, and I can't leave her there to deal with it on her own. The odds of Raiko or Izumi agreeing to help are slim to none. They won't take the political fallout of helping Su's city while they've let Kuvira run rampant through the rest of the Earth Kingdom."
"Maybe," Tenzin conceded, "but we must try. We can't stop Kuvira's army on our own, and I'm not sure I trust Kuvira to keep the entire thing peaceful."
"I definitely don't trust her, but I don't trust the rest of the world leaders either. We're in this alone, and I need to protect my sister."
"Of course," Tenzin agreed, sitting down next to her and pulling her into his side. "But I don't want to see you hurt either."
"My plan is to smuggle Su and her family out if I have to drag them all by the hair," Lin muttered as she slumped against Tenzin's chest. She struggled to keep her eyes open as he stroked the top of her head. "But you should go, and take Ronen with you. If anyone can convince those idiots it's you two."
Tenzin didn't like the idea of separating again, but he would only be gone for a day, and if he left as soon as they got to Zaofu, he should be back before Kuvira arrived.
"All right, love," Tenzin said in a near whisper, feeling his wife sliding further into his side, exhaustion taking hold of her at long last, and he dutifully held her as she slept there against him. Just for that moment, before turmoil took over their life once again, he would keep her secure and safe and let her rest easy in his arms.
Lin woke with a crick in her neck and her ass numb, but she was ensconced in the familiar embrace of her husband, and for a moment her thoughts were delayed as she tried to bury deeper into his warmth, breathing in that distinct Tenzin scent. Except it was mingled with something less comforting, and she wrinkled her nose at both the smell of the swamp and the memories it elicited. She squirmed, trying to rile herself fully awake, and Tenzin must have dozed off next to her, because he jolted at her movements and inhaled deeply. They parted with some difficulty, groaning about the uncomfortable positioning and the way their bodies had cramped.
After stretching and shaking out their limbs, they went back up to find the others. Ronen and Asami were with Korra, reuniting after their time apart and probably catching each other up on all they had missed. Sora was with Wing, both of them looking exhausted but smiling tiredly as they spoke. It had been a while since Sora had been to see any of her cousins, and she had always been particularly close to Wing, so they likely had a lot to say to one another. Wei and Opal were with Su, who was still stubbornly unconscious but her condition hadn't worsened. Since they were almost to Zaofu, Lin told Wei and Opal to go and freshen up while she sat with Su, since both of them were covered in mud still and hadn't left their mother's side the entire flight. Tenzin went to check on Jeia, who was apparently in the cockpit, while Lin settled down next to her sister's bedside.
Lin was half dozing off again when she heard Su shifting, and she quickly roused herself awake, lurching to her feet and moving closer to her sister's side.
Su came awake slowly, inhaling and then grimacing, holding the breath in, squirming a little, groaning quietly. Lin gently clutched Su's hand, murmuring her sister's name and watching as Su's eyelids slowly fluttered open, closing again at the dim lighting in the room before trying again. When Su was able to squint around at her surroundings, her eyes landed on Lin's face hovering above her and the question was there in her gaze even if she could not yet work her throat to voice it.
"Everything is fine," Lin lied, thinking of Kuvira's impending plans but not wanting to burden Su with it yet. "You're okay. We're on our way to Zaofu. Should be nearly there."
Su opened her mouth, smacked her lips together and croaked, "Wa – wat – er."
"Oh, shit, yeah," Lin said absentmindedly, stretching over Su to pick up the waiting cup at Su's bedside. She helped Su sit up just a little, holding Su's head up and guiding the straw to her mouth.
Su took a few tentative sips and then collapsed back onto her pillow again. Lin set the cup down and laid the back of her hand on Su's flushed cheek, checking for fever, but Su's skin was cool.
"How are you feeling?" Lin asked. "We didn't have much for the pain."
"I feel…" Su started, pausing to breathe carefully. "Like hell."
"I'm sure," Lin commiserated. She had been on the receiving end of a beating a few times herself, and the recovery was never mild, no matter how hard she pretended it was around her family to assuage their worries. Even so, she would have gladly taken the stab herself to spare Su. Seeing her sister in such a state was terrifying and painful and just plain awful. "We'll get you all set up once we get you home. Won't be much longer now."
"Jeia?" Su questioned shortly.
"She's good," Lin assured. "Everyone is fine. Yunjin and Junior had to go back to Kuvira, but the rest of us are here. Korra is apparently doing better. There was still some of the metal poison stuck in her, that's why she couldn't heal you. But Jeia helped her remove it and she came back in time to help you."
Su flipped her hand over to squeeze Lin's fingers, trying to smile a little, perhaps gratefully, perhaps reassuringly. Her eyelids were heavy though, and every breath seemed to painfully stretch the wound in her upper abdomen.
Lin squeezed Su's hand back and soothed, "Just rest. I'll wake you when we're in Zaofu."
Su was too exhausted to argue, drifting off soon after, and she slept the rest of the flight.
She woke as they were transferring her from the airship to Zaofu's infirmary, and she tried weakly to reassure her frantic husband, who had come running out to meet them with his glasses askew and panting for breath. She was in immeasurable pain now though, and wide awake to feel it, and she moaned for the next thirty minutes, which felt more like hours as she and Lin and Bataar waited for Zaofu's doctors to get her settled into a room, and dosed with the right amount of medication to kick in and calm her. Bataar had ushered his children away when he had first seen the pain contorting Su's face, reassuring them that their mother was fine now and they should come to the infirmary after they had bathed and eaten and perhaps had some rest if they could manage it. Opal and her twin brothers had been slightly resistant, but Tenzin was observant enough to see what Bataar was trying to shield them from, and he ushered his niece and nephews away with his own children.
Once Su was settled and dozing again, Lin revealed to Bataar what she knew about Kuvira's impending visit. Lin had never much understood her brother-in-law the way Su seemed to, so she was not entirely comforted when he simply nodded mutely in response, his lips pressed into a thin line as if she had only told him something of minor consequence. He refocused his gaze on Su then, gently stroking her hair as she slept, and Lin figured maybe he was just overwhelmed. Bataar hadn't seen war or injury the way that Lin had. From what little she had heard of his life before Su, he had lived an uneventful one. His parents had had him late in life, and he had spent much of his younger years safely at home with them, drawing his sketches for architecture and tinkering with various gadgets of his own making. Even once he was a part of the Beifong life, Su had kept him away from any major conflict, leaving him behind in their domed city while she went off to help her sister. Lin assumed that Su had told her husband everything – or close to everything – that she had seen or endured, but hearing it told and seeing it firsthand were two vastly different things. The only time Su had suffered injury was during the Equalist Revolution, and by the time she returned to her husband she had been all healed up, sporting some scars that made Lin's blood boil, but nothing compared to the sight of her pale and in agony with a jagged puncture in her abdomen. And now, with Kuvira on the way with an army capable of tearing Zaofu to shreds, Lin supposed it was a lot to take in.
Bataar did not appear to have any plans to take charge while his wife was incapacitated, but Lin was used to compartmentalizing, and she could more easily hold back her worry for her sister to focus on preparing Zaofu for the inevitable. Lin was tempted to just stick unconscious Su on an airship and trick her niece and nephews into thinking that it was better to take their mother to Republic City, where she could receive care from the great doctors in the city and be close by for Lin to help look after, and simply take her sister's family away from Zaofu altogether. But she would be abandoning the rest of the citizens to Kuvira's reign, and she knew Su would likely never forgive her for it. So Lin would stay for now, but she knew there was no chance of preparing Zaofu for what was to come. All she could do was her best, and have a back up plan to try and get them all out when all else failed.
She had hoped to convince her own kids to go ahead with Tenzin, Ronen and Asami to Republic City, to help convince Raiko and Izumi to send aid – even though she highly doubted it possible – but once they knew of Kuvira's expected arrival, they were adamant about staying with their mother and aunt. Korra wanted to stay too, knowing she likely wouldn't have much sway with Raiko considering their tense dealings with each other in the past, as well as her extended absence over the past three years, and because she wanted to face Kuvira herself, feeling as if all of her time out of the loop had not helped the situation. Although he felt the need to go and ask for assistance, Tenzin himself was just as insistent about returning as quickly as possible, with or without Raiko's support, and if he was quick enough, he would be back in time to help Lin when Kuvira arrived. Lin wanted all of them to return to the safety of the city and stay there, but since she couldn't go without Su's family coming along willingly, she would have to resign herself to all of them facing Kuvira together. She wanted to keep Jeia safe by her side, in any case. With the girl's kidnappers presumably still at large, it was anybody's guess if they would attempt to try something again, and if they did, Lin needed to be near enough to stop it.
So Lin forced herself to leave her sister's bedside to do what little she could to prepare Zaofu and keep an eye on Jeia. Since Tenzin needed to leave as soon as possible, Lin went to find him, and they exchanged a few words, discussing strategies and plans for when everything inevitably went wrong. And then they hugged and kissed each other a bit harshly, both of them tired and filled with concern, and desperate for each other, wanting to stay together but constantly torn apart, the needs of the many and their family especially outweighing their own desires. They parted once again, still denying their own sensibilities and convincing themselves that they would see each other very soon, that they would face this next obstacle together.
Then Kuvira arrived a day early.
Ronen, Tenzin, and Asami had barely been gone for twelve hours when Lin caught the first whiff of metal on the air. As the sun was rising over the mountain top, it cast a blinding glare on the advancing military. Airships, tanks, mecha suits, and soldiers marched through the valley with a thunderous rumble, and Lin watched from atop a metal dome, the cool morning wind whipping her hair across her cheeks and chilling her to the bone. After a time, wherein she lingered as if to convince herself that what she was seeing was real, she climbed down and went straight to Suyin.
In the infirmary, Su was sitting up in bed, pillows propped behind her to keep her upright as Bataar fed her a small spoonful of broth. Her face was not as pale as the night before, but she still looked weary as she smiled up at Lin, who still hadn't had the chance to tell her sister about Kuvira's plans. But Bataar must have told her at some point while Lin was away, because when Su saw the look on Lin's face, her shoulders slumped and she frowned as she asked her sister, "She's here, isn't she?"
Lin nodded tersely as she came to Su's bedside. "She's early. And she's brought the army, like Yunjin said. They'll all be here within the hour."
Su sighed heavily and began to sit up, turning even as Bataar cautioned her not to and dangling her legs over the side of the bed where Lin stood. She looked up at her sister and said, "Well, help me out of here."
Lin frowned, but she knew she would have been demanding the same if she were in Su's position, and that there was little she could do to convince her little sister otherwise. So she reached her hands out to take Su's, and she helped Su rise to her feet. Su grimaced as she stood, and wobbled there clutching at Lin's forearms, but she managed to remain upright.
"Really, Su," Bataar weakly protested as he came around the bed. "You should be resting. Leave this business to Lin and I."
"I'm only going home to the couch," Su placated him. "Get me some clothes, dear, please. I can't be stood before Kuvira without underwear on."
"I don't know," Lin mused, still holding onto Su's arm, just in case her sister needed the stability. "That could work in our favor. The more pitiful you look, the more Kuvira might feel guilty about trying to take Zaofu out from under you."
Su snorted and then winced when it jolted her abdomen. "Are you kidding?" she scoffed in a strained voice. "Kuvira doesn't feel any guilt. And I want to at least go down with some dignity."
"Underwear it is then," Lin conceded, looping her arm around Su's waist and helping her sister towards the exit while Bataar ran ahead to get Su some more suitable clothes. The doctors came rushing over to urge Su not to go, but she waved them all off and tried to protest the use of a wheelchair too, but Lin put her foot down there, arguing that it was at least faster even if it wasn't necessary – and Lin could tell that it very much was necessary, even if Su was denying it.
They all gathered in one of Su's main sitting rooms – Su, Bataar, all their kids except Junior, and Lin, who had convinced her own kids and Korra to stay elsewhere, so as not to add tension to an already hostile situation, much as they wanted to be involved. Lin promised them a chance to speak to Kuvira themselves if it didn't go well between the self-proclaimed empress and Su – which it undoubtedly would not – but she had sort of had her fingers crossed behind her back because she doubted her girls would have the opportunity to see Kuvira, not if Lin's plan of smuggling everyone out succeeded after the negotiations failed. Her sister might have a soft spot for Zaofu and its peoples, but Lin cared more about her family, and they could always return to liberate the people of Zaofu later, when Su wasn't half crippled and they had back up of some sort. Korra might have gotten out the poison that had plagued her, but Lin still had a feeling the avatar wasn't quite up to par to handle the situation herself.
Kuvira entered the room with her usual lofty air, chin up and hands folded behind her back. Bataar Jr came in sneering on her right, and Yunjin followed a step behind on the left, his expression neutral, with only a flicker of worry in his eyes as he glanced briefly at his mother.
Su had to brace herself on the arm of the couch to stand, and she was trembling already from the exertion. But she still looked Kuvira dead in the eye and strongly proclaimed, "I'm not giving up Zaofu. I don't care if you brought your entire army."
"Su," Kuvira said, inflecting her voice with something that was meant to sound like hurt, "I didn't bring my army here to threaten you. I wanted to show you all that your son and I have accomplished."
Su's gaze snapped to Junior, who had refused his mother's council at least three times now, and her frustration seemed to have finally won out as she admonished him, "You must realize that what you're doing goes against everything your father and I tried to teach you."
Bataar softly added, "Son, you belong here."
"Why?" Junior scoffed. "So I can go on living in your shadow?"
Bataar Sr reeled back a little as if he had been slapped.
"Don't say that," Su chided her eldest son. "Can't you see she's brainwashed you?"
Kuvira laughed, which Lin considered highly inadvisable given the circumstances. If Su hadn't been hindered by injury and her own peaceful disposition – well, peaceful for a Beifong – then she might have smacked Kuvira down to size, or at least that's what Lin would have done if it was her own son blindly following Kuvira's lead. "I didn't brainwash him. I set him free. And now he's accomplished more with me than he ever could have with you."
Lin snorted because the only thing she imagined Junior had accomplished was kissing Kuvira's ass, but she didn't say that even when Kuvira's eyes darted sharply onto her.
Yunjin chose that moment to step in, positioning himself purposefully between the two groups and placating, "There's no need for this. It's clear there are issues that can't be worked out in a single afternoon, but we can end the fighting here today." He centered his focus on his aunt, his eyes pleading, and Lin couldn't honestly tell if that part was an act or not, though she decided his following words definitely were. "Aunt Su, I know that you're angry and hurt by Kuvira's actions against you, but put that aside and consider all the good she's done for the Earth Kingdom. If you join with us, Zaofu will prosper just as every other village –"
Opal cut in with a disbelieving, "Prosperous? Yeah, maybe for about five minutes. But I've seen what happens after you leave. Slave labor and dissenters thrown into reeducation camps. You're delusional if you think that any of that is prosperous."
"You're letting your anger blind you, Opal," Yunjin softly countered. "That goes against all we're taught as airbenders."
"Don't preach to me about the rules," Opal snapped. "You've broken every one of them by covering up for her."
"And yet we come to you seeking peace and it's you that fights it," Yunjin retorted.
"You call marching an entire army on our city peaceful?" Wei scoffed.
"That's only because –" Yunjin started to say.
But Junior interjected with an impatient, "I told you this was a waste of time. These people can't be reasoned with."
"These people?" Su echoed half in astonishment, and Lin had to grip her elbow when she swayed.
"You'd best watch how you speak to your mother, boy," Lin growled, no longer able to keep silent on the matter. She knew Su loved her son no matter what, but he was being a real dick and Lin was incensed by his behavior.
"No, he's right," Su said grimly, pushing off of Lin to stride forward, but her steps were slow and she stopped at the other end of the couch to brace herself on it as she looked sharply at Kuvira. "We can't be reasoned with. And I can't believe you brought Yunjin here to try and sway us. Leave. Zaofu will never accept you as its leader."
"Then you leave me no choice," Kuvira said, narrowing her eyes darkly. "You have twenty-four hours to agree to join the Empire or we take the city by force."
With Kuvira's decree, Lin was more adamant than ever that she smuggle her family out of Zaofu.
Su, on the other hand, wanted to take on Kuvira herself.
"We need to put a stop to this," Su declared, slamming her fist down on the table in front of her, "to Kuvira. We end this here and now."
"What if I talk to Kuvira?" Korra offered, having joined the rest of them with Sora and Jeia after Kuvira had left. "I think she can be reasoned with."
"There's no reasoning with her," Su stubbornly denied. "You need to go into the Avatar state and destroy her army before they cause any more harm."
"That's hardly the best option here," Sora protested. "Aunt Su, I know you're upset, and rightly so, but we can't just utilize the Avatar state as we wish it, and especially not against all those people. They could be seriously hurt, and I don't think all of them are adamant supporters of Kuvira's ideals. Maybe they can be reasoned with."
"The soldiers won't turn on Kuvira and risk her wrath," Wei argued.
"They might if they think we can protect them," Wing reasoned. "We do have the Avatar on our side."
"Kuvira won't let it go that easily," Lin interjected. "She has enough people that believe in her to put up a fight, and if it does come down to it, there's no guarantee we can hold them off, even with Korra."
"Let me go," Jeia insisted, barely tall enough to be seen over the table from where she was standing next to it, pushing herself up on her tiptoes. "Kuvira will listen to me. You should have let me talk to her in the first place."
"That may be so, but I can't risk it," Lin said. "She could decide to turn on you, or use you against us."
"She won't hurt me," Jeia said forcefully.
"This isn't your fight, kid. You shouldn't have to try and solve this for us. We'll handle it."
"You never let me do anything," Jeia scorned, her fingers clenching on the edge of the table, and the metal in the room began to rattle. "You know I'm the best person to talk to her."
Lin moved slowly, reaching out to carefully lay a hand on Jeia's shoulder. "Jeia…"
The girl looked up at her mother, anger flashing in her emerald eyes, but the longer she stared at her mother's calming gaze, the rising crescendo of metal clanging against the walls and ceiling began to peter out. When there was stillness again, Jeia looked away with a muttered, "Sorry."
"It's okay," Lin murmured. "Do you understand why I can't let you go out there?"
"No," Jeia grumpily answered.
"Can you at least accept that I'm doing it to protect you?"
Jeia shrugged, but did not argue with her mother further. Lin felt some guilt, but she just couldn't justify sending her eight-year-old to negotiate with a tyrant, even if, somehow, it did work. Jeia might be the only person capable of swaying Kuvira, but Kuvira was also capable of swaying Jeia, and even though Lin didn't think the girl would betray her family no matter how much she admired Kuvira, there were many ways that people could be manipulated, and especially a child, even one as formidable as Jeia – especially one as formidable as Jeia. It was obvious that the kid felt like she was being held back at times, but in Lin's opinion that was better than her being responsible for curtailing a war between two sides that she cared very much about.
"I'm going to go talk to Kuvira," Korra said definitively. "Fighting is something the old me would do, and that always made things worse. I have to at least try to reason with her."
So it was decided that Korra would try to negotiate with Kuvira, and Jeia stormed off, Sora following close behind at the behest of her mother.
When Korra had gone, Su turned to the family that remained and said, "The negotiations won't work. Our only option is to take out Kuvira ourselves."
"What a great plan," Lin deadpanned, "but even if we managed to get close enough to take out Kuvira, there's still an entire army just outside your walls."
"Most of Kuvira's soldiers are there by coercion or force. If she falls, they'll have no reason to fight us. I'll sneak into her camp tonight and capture her."
Lin scoffed in disbelief. "You'll capture her? You can barely walk!"
"I'm feeling better," Su protested, "and I'll have another healing session this afternoon that'll make me feel even better. Besides, Wei and Wing will come with me, won't you, boys?"
"We're with you," the twins agreed with a nod.
"Absolutely not," Lin disagreed, giving her sister a harsh glare. "We'll leave in the dead of night, sure, but we'll be sneaking out the back, and getting as far from here as possible."
"I'm not leaving my city," Su argued. "These people entrusted me to protect them, to lead them, and I won't abandon them to Kuvira's tyranny. I understand if you feel you need to leave with Sora and Jeia, to protect them, but I can't go."
"I'm not leaving you here," Lin muttered in aggravation.
"Then help me," Su half begged. "Come with me to stop Kuvira."
Lin considered it, jaw clenched and brow furrowed. Then she sighed and said, "No," and Su's face fell. "I'll go with the boys," Lin continued. "You will stay here."
Su appeared confused. "That's hardly –"
"That's the only way this will work," Lin cut her off. "With that injury, you're a liability. We'll be faster without you."
That, Su could not argue, and so she nodded once. "Okay," she relented. "I trust you."
Considering all that he had experienced over the last three days, Yunjin was convinced that he was suffering from some kind of emotional whiplash. He felt drained, not least because he had hardly slept, and he was fairly certain he wouldn't get a proper rest for a while longer. First it was Jeia's kidnapping, then it was his Aunt Su nearly dying, and if there was anything he couldn't face it was definitely that. And then he had been called back to Kuvira's side with her plans to take Zaofu now that she knew Jeia was safe, and Kuvira had seemed agitated from the moment Yunjin saw her. He was on edge around her and trying not to be, because he didn't want to seem suspicious, but he was waiting for her to snap. For all his efforts over the last year and a half, Kuvira seemed to trust him, but he couldn't be sure if she was just playing him the same way he was her.
That was why he'd had to lie to his father about when Kuvira would be arriving in Zaofu, painful and nauseating as it had been. He couldn't have them being fully prepared for Kuvira, or else it would be highly suspicious. He wasn't sure what they would have done if he had told them it would be less than twenty-four hours, that Kuvira had been gathering her army closer to Zaofu the entire time Jeia had been missing, but he was worried his mom would have whisked Aunt Su and her family off to Republic City the moment Yunjin parted from them if she knew the truth. Much as he wanted his family protected, he also had to play the game, and if Kuvira had shown up in Zaofu and seen the entire Beifong family gone, she would have known it was Yunjin that had warned them. So he had hoped by extending the timeframe a little that his family would not be too badly caught out, if a bit underprepared.
His larger concern came on the train ride to Zaofu. Bataar Jr had brought back some of his samples of spirit vines from the swamp, and added them to what Varrick had scavenged from Republic City. In the midst of his testing, Varrick had nearly blown the train car up with the power he had harnessed from the vines, and when Yunjin, Bataar, and Kuvira had rushed back to see what had happened, Yunjin had been horrified by what followed. Varrick, apparently having grown a conscience at some point, wanted to stop all further research on the spirit vines, frightened by such power potentially falling into the wrong hands. But Bataar and Kuvira had forbid him from doing so, threatening his life if he didn't continue, Kuvira going so far as to strangle Varrick with his metal collar and dangle him from the back of the fast-moving train. Varrick had hastily agreed to do whatever Kuvira bid him, and Yunjin had watched the scene impassively, but inside he had felt sick. Afterwards, he had tried to reason with Kuvira, affecting a nonchalant tone as he worried about what might happen if the technology Varrick created was taken by their enemies, but Kuvira had not been concerned. She was confident that no one would get past their defenses to steal it, nor even know that it existed, and even if they did, they wouldn't know how to work it. Yunjin hadn't pushed it any more than that because he didn't want Kuvira thinking he wasn't onboard, but he did begin plotting what he could do to try and stop her.
Once he had decided though, he was conflicted about putting it into motion. He would be putting Bolin and Varrick both at risk, but ultimately, he decided it was worth it. The fate of the world was at stake, and he couldn't let his personal feelings get in the way.
Defending Kuvira before his family in an effort to negotiate Zaofu's surrender turned his stomach, but he thought he had done a fine job at keeping up the act. And after the negotiations had failed, he even lamented to Kuvira, blaming the failure on himself, telling her how sorry he was to have let her down. He had seen Bataar rolling his eyes behind her, but Kuvira had gripped Yunjin's shoulder and assured him that the fault lay with Su, and that he had done perfectly well.
Korra came to talk to Kuvira a few hours later, and Yunjin used the distraction to put his plan into action. He went to find Bolin, being sure to avoid being seen by as many of the soldiers as he could, and of the two that saw him talking to Bolin, he smiled and acted casual, greeting both men brightly and complimenting them for random things he had seen them doing well, to let them know that he had noticed them. Something Yunjin had learned from his father was that people liked to be noticed, to feel valued, especially by someone of importance, and as a known member of Kuvira's inner circle, as well as a formidable bender in his own right that everyone knew had overcome a seemingly impossible spinal injury, Yunjin had earned the respect of a lot of the soldiers he had interacted with. Of course, they didn't know that he was a double agent and probably using them to fulfill his own agenda, but he hoped that they might forgive him if it ever came to light – when it came to light – because he knew many of them were torn by their own loyalties to Kuvira and to their own values and villages. Yunjin knew all about the reeducation camps, and he had overheard enough whispered conversations about discontent among some of the soldiers. He hoped that Kuvira's entire operation might crumble around her with the right push, but she had a lot of supporters that agreed with her methods, so he was not fool enough to think it would be easy.
Yunjin took Bolin aside under the pretense of discussing the upcoming confrontation with Zaofu, and when they were out of earshot of everyone else, Bolin fretted, "We aren't really going to attack Zaofu, are we?"
"I'm afraid so," Yunjin grimly replied, "but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about, not exactly."
"We are?" Bolin exclaimed in surprise, having not been privy to some of Kuvira's less savory dealings in running her empire, and having taken her word that she would maintain peace with Su's city. "But what about – I thought you were going there to talk to them – and Opal –"
"The negotiations fell through," Yunjin interjected, short of time and a little impatient from his worry. "I can't go into much detail, but, Bolin, you must know something… Kuvira is not all that we believed when we set out to help her. I've seen what happens to people who refuse to join her, who disagree with her methods. She's dangerous, and she's reaching the height of her power. If we want to stop her, it has to be done soon. There's been a recent development, and I need you to get word to Republic City, to my father and the president and the firelord and anyone else that can help."
"Wh – what do you mean?" Bolin stammered, eyes wide. "What are you talking about? Is this some kind of test? I don't understand –"
"Bolin this is serious," Yunjin stressed. "You trust me, right?"
"I – yes, yes I do," Bolin said, furrowing his brow.
"Then trust me now. Can you do that?"
Bolin only hesitated for a moment before nodding sharply. "Okay. Yes. What do you need me to do?"
"I need you to go and see Varrick," Yunjin quickly explained. "Get him and Zhu Li out of here –"
"Varrick? But what about Zaofu?"
"There's nothing we can do for them now," Yunjin said regretfully. "I can only hope that my mom is able to pull something off to protect my family, and if not… well, then I'll take care of it. Your focus needs to be on getting Varrick and the information he has to Republic City. He doesn't know you're coming. It would have looked too suspicious for me to visit him just before he disappears, but I'm sure he'll be eager to leave."
"What information does he have?" Bolin questioned.
"A weapon," Yunjin vaguely answered. "An extremely powerful one that really shouldn't be in Kuvira's hands. Varrick is under surveillance, so you're going to have to sneak in and out. I'd suggest using some of the mecha suits to get beyond camp. You should be safe once you're out of range, but remember that Kuvira has people throughout the Earth Kingdom still, and you'll have to evade them. She'll definitely alert everyone of your escape as soon as she finds out."
Bolin looked nervous and uncertain still. "Are you sure this is what we should be doing? I mean, maybe Kuvira's not so bad, maybe she just – or maybe there's a chance –"
"I wanted to believe that too," Yunjin said solemnly, "but this is where we are, Bolin. Go to Varrick, hear what he has to say, and then get out of here. There isn't much time."
Bolin did not look wholly convinced, but Yunjin was fortunate that the two of them had known each other for as long as they had, that Bolin had been as much a feature in Yunjin's home as any of his other siblings for the past few years. Bolin begrudgingly relented, and he hugged Yunjin briefly before he raced off to do what had been asked of him. Yunjin hoped it would not be too late.
Chapter 96: Chapter 96
Chapter Text
Chapter 96
Yunjin returned from sending Bolin off just before Kuvira and Bataar finished speaking with Korra. Neither of them looked at him with any amount of suspicion, Bataar ignoring him entirely and Kuvira giving him only a brief nod as they entered the tent where he waited for them.
"How did it go?" Yunjin questioned, forcing himself not to sound hopeful. He doubted Korra would have had any sway over Kuvira, but he couldn't help wishing it anyways.
"I think it went well," Kuvira answered, as she went to stand behind her desk. "Korra seemed sympathetic, and I believe I might have convinced her to urge Su to give Zaofu over."
"Do you think it will work?" Yunjin asked, unable to contain his skepticism.
"No," Kuvira admitted, "but any hostility from here will be Su's fault, and we'll have the Avatar as witness."
Yunjin nodded, attempting to look pleased. "What are our next moves?"
"I told Korra I wouldn't act until she returned to me with Su's answer. I imagine she'll come by tomorrow morning. My concern now is what Su and the rest of the Beifongs will do in the interim."
"You think they'll attack," Yunjin surmised.
Kuvira gave him a searching look. "You know them better than I do. What do you think?"
Yunjin took a moment to consider it, to really consider it. "I think they might," he admitted. "Sora won't be a part of it, and I think Su is still too injured to do anything herself, but she may convince my mother to do it for her. I know there's no love lost between you and my mother; she wouldn't be at all opposed to fighting you. She'll be worried about the family though. She'll want to smuggle them out."
"And what do you want?" Kuvira asked him for the first time since he had joined her over a year ago. "They are your family, after all. Will you not want to keep them safe from me?"
"I don't want anyone to be harmed," Yunjin said truthfully, "but I believe in what we're doing here. I hope that one day they'll believe in it too. It may require some discomfort, but I don't think you have the intention of doing great harm to any of them."
"And if they come for me?" Kuvira pressed.
"I can hardly blame you for protecting yourself. I hope they won't do anything that reckless, but if they do, I stand by you. I only ask that you be merciful. Justice must be served, and all that, but emotions make people do stupid things, and I would hate to see them too harshly punished for a lapse in judgement." The words felt like ash on his tongue but he didn't allow his expression to waver.
"So you say now," Bataar interjected, "but where will your loyalties lie when your family is arrested for defying us?"
"I don't blame my family for being misinformed," Yunjin calmly countered. "I'd like to educate them, if I can. And in any case, they're just as much your family as they are mine. Why do you doubt my loyalties over yours?"
"I've been with Kuvira from the start," Bataar spat, easily riled by Yunjin, as always. "That family is dead to me now."
"I would have been here sooner if it weren't for the fact that I couldn't walk," Yunjin muttered. "That's hardly a case for your unwavering allegiance."
Bataar opened his mouth to retort, but Kuvira held her hand up to stall him and cut in, "Enough." She hated when they bickered. "Yunjin has proved his loyalty to us, and this next stage of our plans is coming whether we like it or not. I don't wish to fight with Su, but here we are. We can't be fighting amongst ourselves also."
Yunjin and Bataar both inclined their heads in agreement, properly chastised.
"Good, now let's get back to work. Bataar, go and make sure Varrick's progressing in his research. Yunjin, find me Zuri, I have a last-minute task for him."
Yunjin and Bataar went to do as Kuvira bid, and Yunjin was anxious all the while, knowing that Bataar was about to discover that Varrick was missing, or maybe Varrick and Bolin hadn't left yet and they might never get the opportunity now. Either way, Yunjin was tense as he led Zuri back to Kuvira's tent, and he had to feign surprise when a soldier rushed in to tell them that Varrick and Zhu Li had escaped with Bolin's help, and that Bataar and a few others were in pursuit. He stood with Kuvira as they awaited news, and he could see the displeasure on her face so he kept quiet; he knew better than to speak when she was brooding.
When Bataar finally returned just before dusk, with the three escapees in tow, Yunjin's heart sank.
Two soldiers shoved the three of them inside, and Kuvira rose, hands braced on her desk as she commanded, "Send these three away on the next train. Bolin and Zhu Li will be going away to the reeducation camps for our most severe dissenters." She came around her desk to stand menacingly before Varrick. "And you will continue work on the spirit energy project under close, armed supervision. I want it weaponized immediately."
She began to walk away from them, no more to be said, and that was when Zhu Li threw herself at Kuvira's feet, begging for mercy, to be taken back and given a second chance. She spoke of the mistreatment she suffered under Varrick, the mistakes she had made by being loyal to him, drawn in as she was by his brilliance, and then she pledged herself to Kuvira, the Great Uniter, and promised to devote herself to Kuvira from here on out.
Yunjin wouldn't have been surprised if Zhu Li was being entirely honest, considering how he had seen Varrick treat her, but considering his own ability to charm Kuvira and her soldiers, he couldn't say one way or another if it was desperation to avoid punishment or the truth. Kuvira believed it though – she was often swayed by praise, in Yunjin's experience – and granted Zhu Li a second chance, while Varrick and Bolin were dragged off.
After they had gone, Yunjin was nervous that Zhu Li might betray him to Kuvira, that Bolin would have told her who had sent him to Varrick to aid in his escape. He was hastily working out in his mind what he could use against Zhu Li, how he could discredit her if it came down to a battle between his word and hers, but mindful also of how wrong that felt, to throw someone under the proverbial bison when he himself was the real double agent.
Thankfully, he wasn't required to do any of that, because when Kuvira asked Zhu Li what spurred the three of them to try and escape, Varrick's assistant didn't even glance in Yunjin's direction.
"Bolin came to speak with Varrick," Zhu Li answered. "He was worried about the direction you were taking in handling Zaofu. Varrick convinced Bolin that you weren't to be trusted, and coerced him into helping him escape."
"Why would Bolin have concerns now?" Bataar wondered. "Why would he go to Varrick specifically?"
"I'm afraid some of that may be my fault," Yunjin admitted, and the others turned to him as if just remembering he was there while he feigned chagrin. His mother had taught him that revealing a truth could sometimes protect the lie underneath, so he was getting ahead of it before Bataar started asking around and found out himself, making Yunjin look all the more suspicious for not bringing it up before. "I went to Bolin earlier today. I knew he had a soft spot for Opal still, and that he was aware Korra was in Zaofu, and I thought he might be upset when we took Zaofu by force. I hoped that by telling him myself, and explaining why, that he would be understanding, that he wouldn't feel the need to turn on us. Apparently, I was wrong."
Kuvira nodded thoughtfully. "You were right to go to Bolin. I wish I had thought of it myself, to prevent this sort of thing from happening. But it's of no consequence now. He'll see the error in his ways soon enough. Now, we need to discuss our preparations for Su's inevitable strike against me."
If Su had been able to pace back and forth through her courtyard, she would have made several thousand laps before she heard news of how Lin, Wei, and Wing were faring in their mission to take down Kuvira.
Instead, she resigned herself to impatiently tapping her foot from her perch in a chair full of pillows Bataar had brought out for her, while her husband paced instead. Her middle ached enough that she had to sit hunched over, but not so much that she couldn't bear it. She still felt dreadful, but she supposed part of that was from the stress of Kuvira's threats and her concern for her family and her city. She wondered if sending her sister and two of her sons off to face Kuvira had been the right idea – she wished she could have done it herself – but she had to make a stand. Kuvira was going to capture them either way. At least, if Lin succeeded, they might have some chance at fighting back, at keeping Zaofu safe from Kuvira's reign.
When Korra returned, she was shocked and distressed to hear what Su had done while she was gone. But just as Su had suspected, Korra had returned with the intention of persuading Su to concede to Kuvira, which was out of the question, and Su told Korra as much.
Sora and Jeia weren't thrilled either.
"I can't believe you guys planned this without telling the rest of us," Sora complained.
"I told them you wouldn't be happy," Akira muttered. Akira had been restless since arriving in Zaofu, clearly worried about Korra but not wanting to smother her friend, uncomfortable to be in the middle of an international dispute and unsure of what to do. So Lin had given her niece something to do just before she left, knowing that Jeia would protest what her mother was doing, and asking Akira to help Sora look after the girl, and keep both the girls away until Lin was too far away for either of them to come after her. Akira hadn't liked the idea of keeping secrets from her cousins, even for so short a time, but agreed to it because she had little else to do and she was a little intimidated by her Aunt Lin at times. But when Korra returned, Akira was done with keeping the information to herself and brought Sora and Jeia to the courtyard where Su, Bataar, and Huan waited knowingly.
"Are they gonna hurt Kuvira?" Jeia asked with a furrowed brow.
Su frowned, forgetting again that her youngest niece still had a soft spot for her mentor. Jeia hadn't been privy to the worst of Kuvira's actions, as her family had been trying to shield her from as much of it as they could, and she couldn't help holding onto the notion that Kuvira was redeemable. For an eight-year-old, even one as bright as Jeia, it had to be confusing, and distressing, and whatever Su's feelings for Kuvira, she never wanted to make Jeia feel badly. In fact, Kuvira's actions only served to anger Su more knowing how much it affected Jeia and everyone else.
"I'm sure your mother won't harm her badly," Su softly assured Jeia. "She only intends to capture Kuvira."
It was only moments later that Kuvira's voice suddenly rang out through the loud speakers all across Zaofu, and Su's stomach immediately sank.
"Attention citizens of Zaofu: Your leader, Suyin Beifong, sent her sister, former Chief Beifong of Republic City, to attack me while I slept, ignoring the terms of our truce. Luckily, I now have Lin Beifong and her assault team in custody. Rest assured, I won't take revenge on the peaceful citizens of Zaofu, as long as your remaining representatives meet me outside the city at dawn, to offer the full and unconditional surrender of your city. I expect that Suyin will attempt to dissuade you once more, but there is no place for traitors in the Earth Empire. She will be brought to justice, whether by giving herself over peacefully, or by force, and anyone allying themselves with her will suffer the same fate. That is all."
The speakers cut out, and Opal immediately whirled on the Avatar. "Korra, you can't let Kuvira get away with this! We have to go break out Aunt Lin and my brothers!"
"Much as I want to do the same," Sora cut in with a solemn sigh, "you swore an oath of non-aggression when you became an airbender. We can't just attack Kuvira."
"I don't care about the oath," Opal exclaimed. "We have to save our family!"
"No, Sora is right," Korra said, reaching out to grip Opal's shoulder. "Lin attacked the camp. Kuvira was just defending herself."
Opal wrenched her shoulder away from Korra's grasp, expression one of hurt and betrayal, and there was a familiar anger that flashed in her eyes, that famous Beifong rage, which was exactly what had gotten Su into this mess in the first place, but which was rarely seen on her sweet Opal's face. "Defending herself?!" Opal echoed shrilly. "She was going to attack our city! I can't believe you're refusing to fight."
"What are we going to do?" Bataar asked softly from behind his wife's chair, the concern there in his tone as he squeezed Su's bicep.
"Sora and I will go talk to Kuvira at dawn," Korra said, "and maybe we can work something out. I promise, I'll do everything I can to keep the peace."
"There will be no peace," Su said solemnly, her hand pressing against the wound aching in her middle. "But since this is my fault, I'll go with you. If Kuvira wants a prisoner, she can have me."
"I'll go too," Opal volunteered, frowning worriedly at her mother. "But I don't think you should give yourself to Kuvira."
"You need to be resting," Bataar reminded.
"I'll rest when this is over," Su muttered, even though she wanted so badly to lie down and sleep for an eternity, so that her abdomen would be blessedly numb to pain. She sensed movement farther across the courtyard, and she slid her foot across the ground, coaxing the earth to move, pulling the attempted escapee back to the group as she said, "Not so fast, young lady."
Jeia huffed and turned to give her aunt an irritated look. "I'm going with you or by myself.
"Your mother doesn't want you involved," Su said carefully.
"Someone has to make it to Republic City," Sora added, "to tell Ronen and Dad what happened here." Lin had sent them a letter shortly after seeing Kuvira's army on the horizon, telling them not to return to Zaofu without an army of their own or wait for further news. "If this goes wrong, one of us has to get back to them."
"You all had your chance," Jeia argued. "It's my turn to talk to Kuvira."
Korra bent down to be eye level with Jeia, telling the girl, "I can't risk anyone else being captured. You can stay with Akira and Bataar until I work this out with Kuvira."
Jeia scoffed. "And when you fail again?"
Korra bowed her head. "I'll do everything I can to –"
"No," Jeia interjected firmly. "Not again. I'm not staying behind anymore. Even if you tell me not to go, I'll just sneak out as soon as you leave."
"Fine," Su said, taking over before Korra or Sora could protest, knowing full well that her sister was going to kill her, but feeling like everything was coming to a head and they couldn't keep Jeia out of it forever. "But if you want to be a part of this, you're going to have to face some hard truths. You may hear and see some things you don't want to, and you're going to have to keep your cool."
Jeia did hesitate then, looking a bit startled, probably not expecting to be allowed to go, and probably a little anxious even though she would never say so. But she nodded sharply. "I understand."
Standing before Kuvira the following morning, with an army glaring down upon her with faceless masks, made Su's head spin. Yunjin was just behind Kuvira's right shoulder, but Junior was nowhere to be seen. And just behind them, Su saw her sister and two of her sons trapped in full body platinum, and for once her stomach hurt not because of the knife wound. Her anger swelled within her anew as she shouted across the distance, "Release them now!"
Kuvira did not waver, hands clasped behind her and shoulders back. "If you agree to bow to me and turn over Zaofu, your family will not be harmed."
"Never!" Su instinctively reacted. "I'll never bow to you!"
Korra stepped in, placing herself in front of Su to address Kuvira directly. "There must be some way for us to resolve this."
"I've already laid out my terms," Kuvira replied, "and I think they're very reasonable. After all, Su did try to take me out during our peaceful negotiations."
"You call bringing an army to threaten our city peaceful?" Wei shouted from behind Kuvira, who ignored him entirely.
"Yunjin," Opal desperately called to her cousin. "Tell me you don't really agree with all this. I can't believe you would go along with it."
"You orchestrated an unprovoked attack," Yunjin replied with little to no emotion on his face, but Su knew it wasn't easy for him, to stand there and pretend to choose Kuvira over his family. Betraying his operation now would only get him captured with the rest of them. "Kuvira has been nothing but fair."
"Yunjin has been an integral part of our mission in the Empire," Kuvira haughtily added, "and he has been onboard with everything we do. I guess you don't realize how much he's grown up. Now turn over Zaofu."
"I can't just let you take the city!" Korra declared.
"Avatar Korra, you are interfering with internal Earth Empire business, and letting your personal feelings get in the way of reason. Zaofu cannot continue to rule itself. They have been hoarding their technology and riches for too long. I'm here to distribute those resources fairly throughout the nation. This is about equality."
"You don't care about equality," Opal scoffed. "This is about control." She turned to Korra and insisted, "Just take her down. You know it's the right thing to do. You have to stop this."
"I'm sorry, Korra, but it's the only way," Su agreed.
"Wait," Jeia cut in, speaking up at last as she stepped forward, standing before Kuvira with her guard down. "Kuvira! You once told me that we serve Aunt Su and the people of Zaofu, that as members of the Metal Clan guard we had to keep them safe, protect their freedoms. There are people in that city that want to stay free. You pledged yourself to them. How can you take that away?"
Kuvira hesitated, and it looked as if there was some guilt on her face, some kind of regret, but Su figured it was all an act. "I'm sorry, Jeia," Kuvira said in a softer tone. "I hoped you wouldn't have to be involved in this. And you're right about our oath to Zaofu, but I promise you that I don't intend to go back on that oath. Only now, this is bigger than Zaofu. It's about freeing all citizens of the Earth Empire, and giving them the same rights and advantages. Zaofu's citizens will still be protected, and they'll share their resources with the rest of the Empire. I know you of all people can understand what I'm trying to do here. There's always a place available at my side for you."
"You're not taking Jeia," Korra interjected, pushing Jeia behind her, and Su quickly grabbed hold of her niece and held her close, "and you're not taking Zaofu."
"The only way you're going to keep me from marching into Zaofu is if you physically stop me," Kuvira told Korra. "Now what are you doing to do?"
"It looks like you're not giving me a choice," Korra decided.
"Fine," Kuvira accepted with ease, turning to address her soldiers now, all full of bravado and fake modesty. "I want you all to know that I would never ask you to do something I'm not willing to do myself, so rather than risk your lives, I will fight the Avatar one on one." She faced Korra once more. "Korra, if you win, then you can do whatever you want with Zaofu. But when I beat you, I want you out of my business for good. I'm the one who brought peace to the Empire, not you. You're not relevant here anymore."
"Fine," Korra huffed, already shaking out her limbs in preparation, "you want to fight the Avatar? Then let's finish this. Right here, right now."
Before Korra could go, Sora worried, "Are you really ready to fight her?"
"Just stay back and let me handle this," Korra said, not unkindly, full of determination. "It's been a while, but I got a lot of pent up rage."
"Don't mess around," Opal warned. "Kuvira is too good. Just go into the Avatar state and be done with it."
"No," Korra refused. "I'm only going to use that as a last resort."
"It'll be the only resort," Su forebode.
"Be careful," Sora begged.
But Su could tell within the first few minutes that the fight would not end in their favor. Kuvira was kicking Korra's ass, and it was clear the Avatar was not at all ready for such an altercation. She had been hiding for too long, struggling with her traumas, and Kuvira was laser focused and secure in a way that Korra wasn't.
"You have to go into the Avatar state!" Su shouted to Korra as the young woman took another bad hit. "Do it!"
And for once, Korra finally listened, her eyes flashing and wind billowing out from her with such force that Kuvira was caught off guard. Korra knocked Kuvira down again and again, and came to hover over the Empress with a massive boulder held overhead, ready to end Kuvira at last.
But then something happened.
Like when Korra had fled from the cave in the midst of trying to heal Su, that same fearful look overtook her, and she flashed out of the Avatar state, dropping the boulder and herself, crashing to the ground with a startled shriek. And it was just enough time for Kuvira to go on the offensive again, and the look on her face was viciously determined.
Opal and Sora could stand by no longer, with Korra curled into a helpless ball on the ground, and they seemed to move as one, blasting Kuvira back before she could do any major harm to Korra.
Kuvira was furious.
She rose to her feet, tossing her disheveled hair from her face and crying, "You broke our agreement!" And then to her army, "Attack!"
The soldiers moved at once, but so did Su, Opal, and Sora. Su erected a wall that held them back for a moment, and then Sora and Opal were creating a whirlwind, encircling them and Su and Jeia and Korra, holding back all else with a wind too fierce to walk through.
That is, a wind a wind too strong for everyone on Kuvira's side except for Yunjin, who had no choice but to step through it to maintain his cover, to assure Kuvira he was still faithful to her. He came walking through the buffeting winds casually, as if the weather were fair and unencumbering, moving his arms just slightly in front of him to guide the air aside. When he stepped into the eye of the storm his sister and cousin had created, he looked over at Korra, and then back to his family, and he gave them an apologetic glance before moving to where the Avatar lay unconscious on the ground.
"No!" Opal cried, darting across the space between them to hold Yunjin off, throwing air attacks at him that he batted aside easily.
"Opal!" Su called, releasing Jeia to move towards them, to stop one of them or both of them she wasn't even sure which, wishing now that she had told Opal about Yunjin doubling as a spy, but there had never been a good time. Now Opal thought that Yunjin sought to do them harm, and Yunjin clearly intended to take Korra back to Kuvira, and Su needed to do something. Except she had already overtaxed herself by being there in the first place, on her feet less than forty-eight hours after she had taken a near fatal stab wound to the abdomen, stressed beyond measure and worried about her family and her city, and she had erected that barrier without thinking and it had stretched the sensitive wound in her middle. Just a few steps towards them and her knees almost buckled. She bent over with a hiss, clutching at her stomach, and she had to stop a moment to collect her breath.
In the meantime, Sora was still busy keeping up the barrier of wind that held Kuvira's army back, and Su could see some of the mecha suits slowly beginning to make their way through it. Sora blew into her bison whistle without letting the storm falter, but it would be a minute before Kyuti and Akira could arrive, even as close as they were. Opal was still hurling attacks at Yunjin, who was clearly making an effort to remain defensive only, but Opal was getting closer and closer and he would need to make a move. Kuvira wouldn't believe that as a near master he couldn't handle a novice like Opal, even with the injury to his spine and Opal's three years of training.
And then Opal was upon him and Yunjin had to start fighting back. She was throwing punches at him that he simply knocked back with his forearms, and then she tried to kick his legs out from under him. But her foot collided with his knee and a metallic sound rang out in tandem with Opal's cry of pain, and she dropped to the ground instead, while Yunjin's leg didn't budge an inch. His metal braces had more than one use, and he took the advantage at once, hitting Opal with a blast of air that sent her hurling several meters away from him. He bent to lift Korra off the ground, hefting her over his shoulders, but Opal was back on her feet again, and he had to drop to his knees and toss Korra back down to avoid her next assault.
Su was trying to trudge forward, calling out to them, but Opal wasn't listening and Su was too slow.
But Jeia was fast, and she was very clearly agitated as she went racing forward, throwing herself in between them and thrusting up rock walls to stop their simultaneous air strikes, thrusting them both apart several meters. "Stop it! Stop it!" Jeia screamed over the roaring winds. "We don't fight! Stop it!"
Opal and Yunjin both looked chagrined, but Opal only paused for a moment before she rushed forward to crouch down over Korra, not striking at Yunjin but giving him a heated glare. Yunjin did not approach again, and Su had finally reached the dispute herself.
Which was the same time that Kyuti came hurtling in through the opening above, landing right next to Sora, who shouted, "We've gotta go! Now!"
Opal was already lifting Korra's groggy form off the ground and trying to drag her to the bison, but she was struggling and Akira rushed over to help. Sora was maintaining the torrential winds, but they were weaker without Opal's support, and Su could see Kuvira's army beginning to break through. She ignored the pain in her abdomen to throw up another rock wall, along with a few poorly aimed projectiles that pinged off of the platinum mecha suits, not managing much damage but hopefully giving them a few extra seconds.
Suddenly Yunjin was in her space, grabbing her arm and grimacing apologetically. "I can't go back empty handed."
Su was unfazed. She had never had any intention of escaping, even if she knew that's what her sister wanted her to do. She wasn't leaving her people and half her family behind.
Jeia clasped onto Yunjin's hand where it held Su's arm and told them, "I'm coming too."
But Su wasn't going to allow that.
Akira came running back over with a breathless, "We gotta go!"
Opal was in Kyuti's saddle with Korra, and Sora was leaping up to take the reins. Su gave Akira a sharp look and thrust Jeia into her arms saying, "Take her."
Akira only frowned for half a second, saw the look on Su's face, saw the approaching army growing closer, and then nodded once. She wrapped Jeia tight in her arms as the girl screamed a protest, and went sprinting over to climb onto Kyuti, forcefully bringing Jeia up with her.
"Go!" Su shouted at Sora. "Get out of here!"
Sora looked torn, but didn't hesitate to take off, even as Opal cried out from the saddle, lunging to the edge as if to reach for her mother, but Akira grabbed Opal too, holding her and Jeia both back long enough for Sora to lift them high up into the air, quickly fading from view as Su watched them go.
And then she was being pushed onto the ground, onto her knees, as Yunjin held her by the shoulder, not harshly, but enough to make it look like he had taken Su against her will as the dust cleared and Kuvira could see them.
Despite the Avatar escaping, Kuvira was pleased, smiling that self-satisfied smile as she looked upon Su, and she turned to her army with her fist raised in the air. "Zaofu is ours!"
Su was promptly encased in her own platinum cage with only her head free. Her abdomen was throbbing and there was a headache building behind her eyes. Lin was pissed at her, of course, scowling and hissing at Su for not trying hard enough to escape.
Kuvira, on the other hand, would have been giddy if it weren't entirely out of character for her to be so. She was outwardly composed, but Su could see the delight sparkling in her eyes and it made Su sick.
"Bring the citizens of Zaofu to kneel before the Great Uniter," Kuvira pompously ordered as she came to stand in the city square, her trophies – Lin, Su, Wei, and Wing – lined up behind her. It was late in the evening now, the early afternoon's events having inconvenienced Kuvira ever so slightly, so that she had been forced to deal with the aftermath before addressing the citizens of Zaofu, saving her gloating for when she came around to check that Su and the other prisoners were still under guard, no longer disheveled as she had been after she'd faced Korra. At some point, Junior had returned from wherever he had been before that made him miss Kuvira and Korra's altercation, and he took his place at Kuvira's side once more. Then she had marched her army straight into the city, just as she had always intended. "All who pledge their loyalty to me will keep their freedom and be dealt with fairly as full citizens of the Earth Empire. The rest will be imprisoned as traitors like Su Beifong and her family. Now bow."
The people of Zaofu knelt to the ground, slowly, but no less purposefully, aware of their fate if they refused and too outnumbered to do anything about it. Su could not blame them for it, even if the sight of them bowing to Kuvira made a shiver run down her spine.
However, there were two people in the crowd that pointedly did not bow, and Su was unsurprised to recognize Bataar and Huan.
Though Kuvira did not react, probably no less shocked than Su, Bataar Jr was immediately enraged, storming down off of the platform to confront his father and brother, and even from a distance Su could hear him shouting, "Bow to her! Do it! She is your rightful leader!"
Bataar did not flinch, but the expression on his face was sorrowful as he quietly replied, "I'm so disappointed in you Junior."
That only served to enrage Junior further, and he commanded the nearby soldiers, "Take them away!" Then he turned away from his family as the soldiers roughly grabbed them, and he raised his first in the air as Kuvira had done earlier crying, "All hail the Great Uniter!"
An echoed chorus rang out through the square, and Su could only bow her head and close her eyes in dismay, her heart breaking. All she could think was that all of it was her fault. After all, she had raised Junior and Kuvira both, and now she could not even recognize them, could not reconcile them with the children she had nurtured and loved. They were tearing people apart and she was the one that hadn't prevented it long ago.
Her agony only grew a short while later, when the people began to disperse, but one came forward, stopping several steps away from Kuvira so as not to spook the guards surrounding her, and kneeling nearly the whole way to the ground.
"Empress," Zara greeted submissively, not even looking Kuvira in the eye, gaze focused on the ground in front of her feet. "May I be permitted to speak?"
Kuvira eyed the young woman with undisguised distaste. That was something else Su and Kuvira had clashed over in the aftermath of the Red Lotus. Kuvira hadn't believed it wise to take in the troubled child of P'Li, that Zara should face trial in Republic City like the rest of the Red Lotus fanatics. But Su had argued that Zara was only a child, one that needed nurtured and reformed rather than punished for what was essentially the crimes of her mother. Zara had betrayed the Air Nation when Zaheer and his gang attacked, but she had shown regret afterwards, had returned to help at the end. Kuvira thought it was only because Zara had fallen for Sora, just as Sora had for Zara, and that, when Zara found out Su was the one that killed her mother, she would be a dangerous liability. Zara had admitted to struggling with controlling her firebending, and rage was an easy catalyst for all out destruction. And yet, Su had believed Zara was redeemable, and pointed out that she was not so much unlike Kuvira, who had been dropped at Su's doorstep when her parents couldn't control her. But Kuvira didn't see the resemblance.
"You're the daughter of P'Li," Kuvira stated more than asked.
"Yes, Empress," Zara answered anyways, "but now I wish to serve you."
"In what capacity?" Kuvira questioned, brows furrowing together.
"In whatever way serves you best," Zara replied. "Perhaps as a soldier in your army. My bending is not the same as my mother's, but it is powerful."
"Why do you seek such a position?" Kuvira asked curiously. "You've been imprisoned here for three years. I'd have thought you might try to fly under the radar and find freedom."
"Traveling with you and your army will be freedom," Zara said, finally looking up at Kuvira, glancing at Su with a harsh glare. "She killed my mother. I have nowhere else to go, and I want to see Su Beifong and people like her brought to justice."
Even though Su shouldn't have been the least bit surprised, it still hurt. She had spent the last three years working with Zara, hiring all the best specialists she had in Zaofu, spending her own time trying to help the girl. All Zara had ever known was the cult of the Red Lotus, and Su had wanted to show her all the possibilities that could be open to her in time, a better life without the need to hide and deceive. Zara had guessed early on that Su was the one that had killed her mother, or at least had a large hand in it, but the girl hadn't reacted violently as everyone had feared, had simply seemed sad and resigned. She had been improving, had been opening up to her specialists and even to Su, and Su had her suspicions that Sora was keeping in contact with Zara too. Su had been relaxing a lot of the restrictions on Zara recently, letting her walk freely through the city, testing the waters to see how it went. She had felt certain that Zara was beginning to adjust and maybe even enjoy life in Zaofu, but maybe she had just been waiting for an opportunity to escape.
It was clear that Kuvira didn't fully trust Zara's declarations though. "And why should I trust you around my soldiers?" she scoffed. "You know that I opposed your mother and her ideals. She may have been right to take out the Earth Queen, but that's where my acceptance of her stops. Su was right to kill P'Li."
Zara's face twitched minutely, but she recovered quickly. "You're right," she admitted. "My mother and her people were fanatics. I never did agree with them, but they were all I knew. But I believe in you, Great Uniter." She bowed her head again, awaiting Kuvira's judgement.
Kuvira seemed to mull it over, speaking her thoughts aloud without leaving room for Zara to respond. "You know, I disagreed with Su's decision to bring you here. I believed that you should be imprisoned for your crimes, that you were not to be trusted. If it were up to me, you would be in a cell right now. Instead you stand before me claiming loyalty, but I'm not sure you've been loyal to anyone in your entire life. I ought to send you to a reeducation camp, or perhaps to Republic City, where I'm sure some bureaucrat will be eager to hang you for your mother's crimes.
"But… you've approached me on the right day. I'm in a forgiving mood, and I'm intrigued by the possibility of bringing you into the fold. If you're as powerful as your mother, you'll make for a strong ally. But I think you'll need to be kept close. I can't have you causing problems or going unattended. Yunjin…" Kuvira turned to him, locking gazes, "you'll take Zara on as a sort of protégé. Teach her our rules and values, keep a close eye on her, and if she steps out of line, you have the honor of dealing with her however you see fit."
Lin snorted humorlessly. "You're torturing him, making him babysit the girl whose mother crippled him."
Kuvira only smirked, while Yunjin finally allowed his passive expression to morph to irritation as he snapped, "I do as my Empress commands. She doesn't lead me astray."
"She already has," Lin argued.
"We wanted this to be civil," Yunjin countered. "You can only blame yourselves for what's happening here." He turned away from his mother to speak to Kuvira instead. "I will see to Zara."
Kuvira inclined her head. "Good. For now, Yang can take her and get her fitted for a uniform, and find her sleeping quarters."
The man presumably named Yang snapped his heels together, bowed, and ushered Zara off to do as Kuvira commanded.
Kuvira told another of her soldiers, "Take the prisoners back to their holding cell. I'll come by with further instructions later. Have them fed, and don't underestimate them for a single second."
"Su needs to see her healer," Lin cut in. "She'll die if that wound is left to fester."
Su rolled her eyes in frustration. "Lin –"
"I'll have one of my people look her over later," Kuvira interrupted before snapping her fingers at Junior, Yunjin, and Zhu Li to follow her as she walked off.
"No thanks," Su muttered.
"Su," Lin huffed, and then was jolted as one of the soldiers began to push her encased body off of the platform. Su hissed when they did the same to her, and Lin barked at them, "Easy!"
"You're making me sound weak," Su complained.
"You should have left," Lin growled.
"I wasn't about to run away with my tail between my legs," Su scoffed.
"You should have," Lin grumbled. "I swear to fuck, Su, if you die 'cause you're a stubborn ass I will kill you."
"Duly noted," Su said, and she smirked a little even with the tinge in her belly and her city being overtaken by a tyrannical dictator.
Kuvira led Yunjin, Bataar Jr, and Zhu Li to the courtyard of Aunt Su's house, where Bataar – who had only just returned thirty minutes earlier and hadn't been able to brief Kuvira – finally explained why he had returned when he was supposed to be on a train with Varrick and Bolin, coercing the former to continue his work on the spirit vines and taking the latter to a reeducation camp.
Yunjin expected to hear that the pair of them had escaped, or maybe some excuse Bataar had made up to return to Kuvira's side, but when Bataar spoke, Yunjin thought he had misheard him.
When it finally settled in what he had said, that Varrick had created a bomb from the spirit vines and ordered everyone from the train car except for Bolin, and that Bataar had watched the car explode, without any sign of Varrick or Bolin escaping, Yunjin staggered back a step in shock. Zhu Li was better at hiding her surprise, only her eyebrows raising for just a moment, and Yunjin wondered if she felt like she had just been punched in the gut like he did, or if she really harbored no more feelings for her old boss. Yunjin had never much cared one way or the other for Varrick, amused by the technological genius more than anything, but Bolin… Bolin had been a friend, practically family, one of Yunjin's brother's best friends, the only family Mako really had left, and Yunjin felt sick. He was the one that had sent Bolin to help Varrick escape. He was the reason Bolin had been captured and taken on that train in the first place. He was the reason Bolin was dead.
"Are you sure there's no way they survived?" Kuvira asked, sounding bored, her focus on the meteorite she was shifting and morphing into various shapes over the palm of her hand.
"Positive," Bataar answered, without any inflection of care in his tone either, "but I think I can replicate Varrick's work with the spirit vines and get us back on track. I'll just need an assistant."
Kuvira turned to Zhu Li, who had already readjusted the mask of indifference on her own face. "How would you like to help Bataar build the most powerful weapon the world has ever seen?"
Zhu Li bowed. "It would be my honor, Great Uniter."
Kuvira returned her gaze to the meteorite and ordered, "Begin dismantling the domes." Zhu Li and Bataar began to leave, to do as Kuvira had said, and Yunjin took one step to follow before Kuvira called, "Yunjin. A moment."
Yunjin swiveled back around, stepping to his usual place behind Kuvira's right shoulder. His mouth was dry but he managed to respond, "Yes, Empress?"
"I noticed your reaction to the news of Varrick and Bolin. You must be upset."
"No," Yunjin said quickly, before amending, "I mean, yes, I suppose, a little bit. Bolin was a friend before I knew he was a traitor. It was just a surprise to hear that he… that he's gone."
"Of course," Kuvira murmured, still not looking at him over the rock in her hand. "Why don't you take the night off? You've had an emotional day."
"I appreciate that, truly, but it isn't necessary. I know the importance of our work here."
"Very well," Kuvira acceded, finally dropping the space rock into her palm and closing her fingers around it, turning to analyze Yunjin's face. "Do you feel that I'm torturing you by putting you in charge of Zara?"
It was a bit of an abrupt turn in topic but Yunjin was used to it by now. He shook his head. "No. My mother worries too much about all the wrong things. I'm glad that you entrusted me with Zara, even if her presence will be grating."
"I don't trust her," Kuvira said plainly. "I fully expect her to try and betray us."
"So do I," Yunjin agreed.
"I hope she might prove us wrong, it would certainly be beneficial to have her fight for us, but you may be forced to do something very difficult," Kuvira warned. "When the time comes, will you be able to take her out?"
Yunjin nodded without hesitation, even with his stomach churning. "She broke my sister's heart, and nearly brought about the destruction of the new Air Nation. I won't have any problems doing what needs to be done."
Kuvira smiled wickedly. "I thought you might feel that way. You'll keep me posted on anything you learn about her."
"Of course. Is there anything else you need from me?"
Kuvira gave him a short list of errands, but insisted he take the evening off after that, and Yunjin went to do as she said without question.
It wasn't until he was alone, lying in his cot in his private tent, that he let emotion swell within him, his chest tightening and a moisture in his eyes he hastily blinked away. He thought of Bolin and his mother and his aunt, the rest of his family and all that they were suffering now, and his own struggle to keep up this charade and how it drained him. Needless to say, sleep eluded him that night.
Farther north, on Air Temple Island, sleep eluded Yunjin's brother as well.
Korra, Akira, Jeia, Opal, and Sora had arrived earlier that evening, with the sad news of what had happened in Zaofu after Ronen and Tenzin had left seeking aid they never received. As expected, neither Raiko nor Izumi had been open to sending their armies to help Zaofu, and with the letter that revealed Kuvira had arrived in the metal city early, it was too late for Tenzin and Ronen to make it back in time to help. Much as they were glad to see Korra and the others again, they had been dismayed to hear that Lin, Su, and the rest of the Beifong family had been captured and imprisoned by Kuvira. Ronen's only consolation was that Yunjin was there, still under cover, and hopefully able to look after the family until they were freed.
It didn't stop Ronen from tossing and turning half of the night, and after a while he gave up on trying to sleep, quietly rising out of bed, careful not to wake Asami next to him. He crept out to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. He deliberated for a time before deciding to dig into the leftover pie sitting on the counter. His mother never ate when she was stressed, but Ronen liked to keep busy with something less destructive than his mother's usual coping mechanisms, and if there were sweets around when he was struggling with something it was likely to be eaten.
He didn't even bother with a plate, taking two bites straight from the pan before a voice from behind startled him. "Is there enough for me?"
Ronen turned in surprise, mouthful of pie, and saw Asami leaning against the door frame, arms folded loosely over her chest and a small, sleepy smirk curling her lips. He hastily finished chewing and swallowed what was in his mouth, and then replied, "I'm sorry, did I wake you?"
"I wasn't sleeping very well either," Asami assured, pushing off the doorway to shuffle farther into the room. She retrieved another fork from the utensil drawer and then sidled up next to Ronen, taking her own bite of the pie before speaking again. "If you want, we can go break your mom and your aunt out."
Ronen snorted, picking at the pie in his hand with his own fork. "Don't tempt me."
"Whatever you want to do," Asami told him. "I'm with you."
"I know," Ronen said with an appreciative smile, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. "How are you? Have I asked you that lately? I'm sorry I've been all over the place."
"Don't be ridiculous," Asami dismissed. "It's been crazy recently. You have every right to be a mess." She stabbed another forkful of pie, but she didn't lift it the whole way to her mouth, hesitating with it hovering there, staring at it without explanation.
"What is it?" Ronen asked.
"Well… there is something," Asami admitted, meeting his eyes. "I've been wanting to tell you, but with everything going on… You know how my father was sending me letters? Letters I didn't want to read?" Ronen nodded, expression mostly neutral, and she continued. "Well, while you were looking for Korra, right before I got your letter about Jeia being kidnapped, I went to see him." Ronen couldn't help the way his eyes widened in surprise, but he waited for Asami to finish. "I just wanted to return the letters, to tell him to stop sending them to me, that I never wanted to hear from him again. But…"
She looked away, and when she remained silent for a while, Ronen dropped his fork into the pie pan and put his hand on her lower back, rubbing soothingly and softly prompting, "But what?"
She sighed and looked back up at him with a sort of guilty expression. "But he's my father and I miss him. I went to the park afterwards and I saw a man with his daughter and it reminded me… it reminded me of what I used to have. And then I ran into your father and he was talking about how he missed all of you already and I – I went back to the prison that same day. We played Pai Sho, like we used to, and we talked and it was…nice. And I know he did terrible things, but before all that he was just my dad and I think I want to go back and see him again."
She said the last part in a rush, as if she was afraid to admit it, but Ronen was quick to assure her, "I think you should."
Asami looked confused for a second. "Think I should what?"
"See your father again," Ronen clarified.
"Really?" she asked in disbelief. "But… the things he did with Amon, what they did to your family –"
"I don't like what he did, to my family or you, but he did raise an incredible daughter, so I have to give him credit for that at least. And besides that, it doesn't matter what I think of him. He's your father, and if it helps you to see him, as long as it isn't hurting you, then I think you should. We can't help who we love, especially when it comes to family. I know that Yunjin isn't really serving Kuvira because he believes in her, but if he did, I would still love him because he's my brother, and I would still want him in my life. There's nothing wrong with you wanting to visit your father."
Asami seemed to relax, slipping her arm around Ronen's waist and laying her head on his shoulder. She mumbled almost inaudibly against his neck, "I love you."
"I love you too," Ronen murmured, kissing the top of her head and holding her close.
After a beat, Asami seemed to want to change the subject, lifting her head and telling him, "Korra wants to get lunch tomorrow, just the three of us plus Mako and Akira, to really catch up. But I told her I wasn't sure. I know you're itching to do something about your mom and –"
"We can do lunch," Ronen interjected. "We couldn't get Raiko to meet with us till the day after tomorrow anyways, and I'm sure that meeting will go just as unwell as the first. A short distraction will be good."
There was a concerned frown on Asami's face. "If the world leaders refuse to help us again, do you think your father will use the airbenders to free your mom and aunt?"
"No," Ronen answered with certainty. "But I do think he'll try to rescue them himself. He just has to try the peaceful route first. I think he's wary about the implications of breaking out supposed war criminals, and whether or not it's even possible to get past Kuvira's army with just a handful of us."
"We've been in tighter spots before, right? If we can sweep your aunt right out from under Equalist noses and free your family and the Air Nation from the Red Lotus, we should be able to handle a few soldiers."
"True," Ronen conceded, but then he grimaced, "except that in both those situations, we had Kuvira on our side."
Lunch didn't go as planned.
The five of them – plus Prince Wu, whom Mako had been unable to be parted with for the afternoon – had hardly sat down before they started arguing. Mako was mad that Korra hadn't written to them while she had been away, Asami was frustrated that Korra disagreed with Asami's plans to see her father, Ronen was already tense from worry over his family and not much of a delight to be around, and Korra was offended that her friends didn't seem to understand why she had been gone for so long. Prince Wu wasn't helping the mood with his flirtations and obtuse observations. When he went off to the bathroom – disappointed that Mako wouldn't be going with him this time – none of them missed him, and it was several long minutes before Akira pointed out that Wu had been gone for a suspiciously long time.
The five of them reached the back door of the restaurant just in time to see a vehicle making off with a dazed Prince Wu in the back, and then they were on the chase. Asami drove them at high speeds through the city, trying to follow the vehicle and eventually managing to take a short cut and intercept it. Except that, while the truck had been out of their sight, it must have sent a decoy in its place, because Wu was nowhere to be found. Korra had a trick up her sleeve though, holding her hand to one of the spirit vines and telling the others that the prince was taken to the train station. They raced off there instead, Mako full of questions, since he hadn't been there when they were all searching for Jeia and Korra in the swamp.
Upon arriving at the train station, Korra pointed them to the departing train she suspected Wu to be on, and they found him in the cargo hold trapped in a large suitcase. They were attacked shortly after by supporters of Kuvira, who had apparently been sent to retrieve the prince for her. Ronen and the others faced off with the kidnappers, ending up on top of the train as it sped along the tracks. Then Korra used her airbending to float them all off and onto the ground below. They landed in a heap several meters below, but they escaped Kuvira's soldiers. And afterwards, they were all apologetic for being snappish with each other. They had all missed each other, and the crazy situations they always managed to get into together, and the moment called for a group hug that was only missing Bolin.
Ronen felt guilty later on for feeling a little giddy. It was good to have most of the group back together, and exhilarating to be a part of the kind of altercations they faced as a unit, to come out victorious, a moment where they weren't being weighed down by everything else. But reality was lingering just behind, and Ronen worried about how his imprisoned family was doing, worried about how his father and his sisters were handling it.
The following day, Ronen went with his father and Korra to try one last time to convince the world leaders to aid them in fighting Kuvira.
This time, Raiko was for it. He took Kuvira's seizure of Zaofu as an act of war, and her arrest of Republic City's former chief, as well as the matriarch of Zaofu and her family, as a good enough reason to deploy his troops. He was worried about Kuvira growing too strong, seeking more power, and he wanted to crush her before she was out of control. Prince Wu and Korra were in agreement, but Firelord Izumi thought they were all letting personal feelings get in the way, and even Tenzin seemed on the fence about retaking Zaofu when Kuvira hadn't directly attacked the United Republic. Ronen tried to play on Izumi's emotions, pointing out that she might feel differently if it was her daughter Ursa behind enemy lines, but Izumi was unfazed. She contended that she would trust Ursa to take care of herself, and Ronen really shouldn't have been surprised. It had been years since he had dated the Fire Nation Princess, but he remembered well enough how headstrong Ursa had been, and he also remembered how Ursa complained of a disconnect between her and her mother. While Izumi loved her children, she was a bit more detached from them than Ronen was used to. His parents had all but smothered him, while Ursa's mother had focused most of her energy on leading the Fire Nation.
Before a decision could be made on what to do – or not do – about Kuvira, two familiar figures came bursting into the room, and it took Ronen a moment to recognize Bolin and Varrick. They were both disheveled and covered in filth, their Earth Empire uniforms in tatters, and Bolin was shouting incoherently. Raiko ordered his guard to seize the pair of them, but when Bolin revealed that they had defected, and had escaped Kuvira to bring vital information to the republic, Raiko allowed them to be let go in order to speak.
Ronen did not even have more than a second to be glad to see his friend before he was filled with deep concern once more. Varrick spoke of a super weapon created from the energy harnessed in spirit vines, and Raiko wanted to make a preemptive strike against Kuvira to halt its production.
But Tenzin couldn't justify using the airbenders in that way. "We need to get in contact with Yunjin," he insisted. "He can tell us if Kuvira intends to use this weapon against us."
"Yunjin's the one that sent us!" Bolin exclaimed. "He had me free Varrick so that we could bring this information to Republic City."
"Did he say anything else?" Tenzin questioned.
"Well, not exactly, there wasn't really time," Bolin said rapidly. "He couldn't tell me everything with all the soldiers around. But the more I've learned about Kuvira the more I understand why he was worried."
"Even if she isn't pointing it directly at us," Ronen chimed in, "the creation of a super weapon, especially one that's desecrating spirit vines, is a violent act in and of itself. There are laws against destroying and perverting nature. We can, at the very least, charge her with that."
"She won't stand down," Korra said bitterly. "Throwing the rule book at her won't get us anywhere. We need to do more."
"The Fire Nation will not be part of an unprovoked attack," Izumi said definitively, rising to her feet, her chair scraping loudly across the floor.
"But, Firelord Izumi," Raiko argued, "Kuvira is a threat to the world. She has to be stopped!"
"The Fire Nation has spent too much of its history fighting nonsense wars, and I refuse to drag my nation into another one unless there's no other choice. If you attack Kuvira, you'll do it without my army."
That was enough to change Raiko's mind. "Fine," he relented with a huff. "I'll hold off any plans for an attack. We'll go on the defensive, and fortify security on the boarders."
"In that," Izumi said, "you'll have my help."
But none of that did anything for Ronen's mother, his aunt, his uncle, or his cousins. He hadn't expected much else, but it was still a bit of a disappointment.
It was decided though. Ronen wasn't going to sit back and do nothing while his family remained unjustly imprisoned. Whatever his opinion on inciting wars and the unethical nature of super weapons, he couldn't leave his family to rot in a cell. When it came to their well-being, there was nothing he cared about more. He didn't know how he was going to sneak through Kuvira's soldiers and back out without getting captured himself or incurring Kuvira's wrath, but he was willing to take the risk. He would leave that afternoon.
Chapter 97: Chapter 97
Chapter Text
Chapter 97
The day after Kuvira took Zaofu; Lin, Su, Bataar, and the boys were moved to a new location outside the city. They were removed from their platinum body suits and thrown into a wooden crate suspended over a large pit deep in some cave. And then they just sat, for hours on end, Bataar half in a panic because apparently, he was terrified of heights. Wei and Wing started chattering incessantly and pacing around the crate within the first few hours, full of nervous energy, but it drove Lin crazy and she snapped at them to stop. Huan was sulking in a corner the entire time, and Su had no choice but to sit still. By the second day, her wound was beginning to become infected, just as Lin had feared. Kuvira had had someone look at it once but hadn't sent them back since. Every time one of the guards came by with meals and the like, Lin begged and shouted about getting Su a healer but all of them ignored her.
Meanwhile, Yunjin had overheard one of the less savory soldiers cackling about it, and with the mounting uncertainty growing within him, he found himself doing something a bit rash. He wouldn't say it was irrational, exactly, but it wasn't well thought out. He was only thinking about his family and how worried he was, and how he was tired of keeping up the charade with Kuvira. Internally, he knew that it was essential now more than ever to be close to Kuvira, to find out exactly what she intended to do so that he could thwart her plans and warn the people that were most at risk. She hadn't announced it yet, but he knew that she would be going after Republic City next, that she would be using the spirit vine super weapon to take it. He needed to just hold it together a little longer to stop her because he might have been the only person that could. There was no one else close enough to her that would betray her.
But he didn't want to do it anymore. In all the time he had been with her, he had done so little to protect people. He had been too concerned with proving his loyalty to her, getting closer to her and earning a place by her side. At first, he hadn't even been certain that it was totally necessary. Kuvira's actions seemed rather banal, despite all his parents' worries, but eventually she began to show him her true colors, and she had watched him closely too, expecting him to react, to turn against her, but Yunjin had learned how to conceal his emotions in a way he never had before. Spending a year crippled and depressed had apparently been good for something because he was a lot better at feigning indifference. He used to be so quick to anger, so brash and hard headed, but his injury and subsequent recovery had subdued him, and even though his own ideals protested against what Kuvira was doing, he had done well at concealing it.
But now his family was involved. He had always known they would be eventually, had tried to prepare himself, but he still hadn't been ready. Hearing that Bolin had died had only made him worry more, made him feel worse and worse about what he was doing. What did it matter if he was there to foil Kuvira if he lost people in the process? He couldn't let anything happen to his family. He couldn't sit back and do nothing anymore. It was bad enough he had let so many others suffer in the name of his mission. Even though he had helped a few people escape Kuvira's reeducation camps, and had tried to do what he could for the villages Kuvira left behind, he hadn't done enough. He had sacrificed a few in his self-imposed quest for the many, and he couldn't rationalize it any longer.
His first step in rectifying his actions was to save his mother, aunt, uncle, and captured cousins. Once he got them back to Republic City, he could inform the president of Kuvira's plans, and hopefully help stop her from causing anymore harm. He deliberated on what to do about Zara. In the few days he had spent mentoring her to be a soldier of Kuvira, he hadn't been able to ascertain where her loyalties lay, though he was suspecting she still felt something for Sora. She was careful not to give much of herself away, staying mostly silent at Yunjin's side, but she had asked after Sora by the second day and Yunjin could read her expression enough to know it wasn't mild curiosity that prompted her to ask. He thought he might be able to lure Zara away from Kuvira, or learn her real intentions by dangling the possibility of her being with Sora again, but he didn't feel right using his sister like that – even if he knew well enough that Sora still harbored feelings for Zara – and he didn't want to drag anyone else into his plans. If things went wrong, he didn't want Zara on his conscious as he did Varrick and Bolin, no matter what his personal feelings for her were.
So Yunjin went alone, giving Zara a task that would get her away from him for the rest of the evening, and late enough at night when he knew Bataar would be resting. Kuvira was a few miles away in Zaofu for the evening, so it was the perfect night to enact his plan. He still had to make his way through the soldiers on night duty, but there were a lot less, and getting in was easy because they just let him through. Getting out would be harder, but he had a few ideas, and he knew once his family was free, they would be able to help.
He walked casually down into the prison hold, with as much haste as he could manage without looking suspicious. It wasn't until he got closer to the hanging cell that anybody started to question him, and he made it through the first and second set of guards with an excuse. The third and final defense at the entrance to the open cavern had to be subdued, and Yunjin used the one chi blocking move his brother had taught him that he actually remembered. He smiled at the two soldiers, greeting them as he approached, and as soon as he was close enough, he jabbed two fingers into both their necks and they dropped, unconscious, to the floor. Then he stepped through the doorway and looked across the cavern to the suspended prison, trying to gauge the distance he would have to go.
Yunjin kicked up off the ground, using his airbending to hurtle himself across the wide gap between the ledge and the box that held his family. He smacked into the side of the wooden crate, grasping the top edge and scrambling to climb up. Once secure on the top, the crate swaying just slightly beneath him, he crawled over to the hatch, unlocked it with the keys he had stolen, and threw it open. As he peered inside, he saw the startled and confused faces of five Beifongs. Once they realized it was him, their expressions morphed, his mother's to one of furrowed brow concern, his aunt's a weary but delighted smile. Wei and Wing looked distrusting and Uncle Bataar still confused.
"Yunjin!" Lin said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Yunjin leapt down into the crate and told her, "I'm here to get you out."
"You're what?" Wing asked.
"Why should we trust you?" Wei scoffed.
"I've been undercover this whole time," Yunjin impatiently explained. "No time to get into that right now. We need to get going."
"What?" Wing exclaimed.
"I said there's no time," Yunjin insisted. "Now, if you'll follow m –"
Yunjin's words suddenly cut off with a gasp as a jolt of pain stabbed through his spine, agony lancing out in every direction. His lungs seized and his legs gave out. He dropped to his knees, mouth agape in a silent scream, his muscles spasming. If he had been able to think in that moment, he might have remembered the feeling of electrocution, but all he could think was that there was fire racing through his veins and he couldn't understand why. His vision darkened for a moment and he thought he might pass out or die, but then the pain eased as suddenly as it came, only vibrating through him like aftershocks, his whole body shaking. When his vision cleared, he could see his mother above him, calling his name and clutching his arm, his hand, stroking his hair, frantically trying to figure out what was happening, what was causing him pain.
Yunjin heaved in a desperate breath of air, grabbing his mother's arm, but he didn't have a chance to say anything to her before movement rocked the crate. His mother and he both looked up, and saw several of Kuvira's soldiers dropping through the hatch, brandishing weapons and shouting at the Beifongs to get back against the wall.
Everyone listened except for Lin, who scowled at them with bared teeth and a growl as she half covered Yunjin's body with her own, daring them to tear her away.
Bataar Jr dropped in through the opening and held up a hand to stall the soldiers from doing just that. He smirked down at Yunjin, who had gritted his teeth and was straining to sit up, forced to accept his mother's help as she held him in a half-seated position.
"I knew you weren't to be trusted," Bataar Jr proclaimed, looking far too pleased with himself.
"Wh – what did you do to me?" Yunjin panted, clutching at his back, his fingers sliding over the metal brace there that connected to his leg braces, half expecting it to be super-heated from whatever had just run through him.
"Oh, this?" Junior said, holding aloft some handheld device, which he pressed a button on and briefly sent pain shooting through Yunjin's spine again.
Yunjin cried out in shock and collapsed once more, and he could hear his mother screaming, "Stop it! Stop it! Stop or I swear I'll fuc –"
She was on her feet, trying to lunge at Junior, but the soldiers were there holding her back with sharp metal poised at her chest, and she knocked some of it away but she was outnumbered and the space too small, and they were holding a dagger to Bataar Sr's throat to dissuade her from doing anything rash.
"You're in no position to threaten me," Junior said coldly and entirely unperturbed, looking back down at Yunjin to continue. "I knew in the event that you were a traitor, as I always suspected you were, that I would need a failsafe to stop you, especially if you decided to turn on me while I was alone. Kuvira initially had me make those leg braces for you in an effort to warm you to us, in the hopes that you and Jeia might keep the rest of your family from coming after us before we were ready. When you took to them so well, I used the opportunity to make you a new set, a better set, one that you couldn't live without. If you were stronger with the braces, I knew you would be too weak minded to give them up. When I was making them, I installed a system so that, when the time came, I could use this device to send electroshocks through your spine. Nothing too harmful, so long as I don't increase the voltage too high, but enough to subdue you."
"You sick son of a –" Lin started, jolting again, but she was hit in the chest with a metal cable and staggered back, breathless.
"I've done nothing wrong," Yunjin said in a strained voice, grimacing as he tried to rise to his feet, his legs shaking. "Can't a guy visit his family without an ulterior motive?"
Bataar Jr sneered. "Please, I know exactly why you've come here. You thought you could help them escape. Now I have the proof I need to convince Kuvira that you were a traitor all along."
"I did nothing," Yunjin fruitlessly argued. "There's nothing to prove."
"We'll see," Junior replied without concern, turning to address the soldiers. "Take him."
"Junior," Su pleaded from the corner she had never moved from, slumped there against the corner of the crate. "Bataar –"
But Junior was already crawling up out of the hatch.
"She needs a healer," Yunjin called after his eldest cousin. "She's your mother, Bataar. She'll die without a healer."
But Bataar didn't stop, and Yunjin was being dragged out of the cell. He looked over his shoulder one last time at his family, at his worried mother, telling them, "I'm sorry." He felt like a fool. If Junior was right about one thing, it was that Yunjin was weak.
After he was hefted across the cavern, Yunjin was put on his knees, his wrists and ankles chained together, and in the flickering firelight he saw a familiar figure step out of the shadows. He looked up at Zara with disappointment, but he had nothing to say to her. He had never expected her to be loyal to him, and had apparently underestimated her too. He was taken away to his own cell, one that was dark and damp, a small cell made of stone, where he sat cramped and miserable and cold, his muscles aching from the electrocution, and his heart aching even worse.
Ronen had every intention of leaving for Zaofu as soon as the meeting with Raiko and Izumi ended, but he was held up before he could go.
Sora had sensed a disturbance in the spirit wilds in the city, and one of the airbenders and the tour group he was leading through the wilds were missing. While Ronen and his father had been in the meeting, Sora had gone to inspect the location, and had nearly been ensnared by the spirit vines herself. She managed to escape to tell the rest of them what had happened, and they went to the entrance with her, where they saw for themselves the snapping vines reaching for them even from outside.
Korra went inside with Ronen and Mako, and found that the missing group's souls had been trapped in the Spirit World. Korra attempted to meditate into the Spirit World to mount a rescue when all outward measures of freeing their bodies from their translucent cells failed, but she was haunted by flashbacks of Zaheer once again, and could not accomplish it. Korra then decided that she needed to face Zaheer one last time, to visit him in his new prison cell just outside the city and hopefully get to the bottom of her issues. Ronen and Tenzin were not entirely on board with her decision at first, fearing it might do more harm than good, but Korra was adamant, and Tenzin agreed to get clearance from Raiko to let her go.
Ronen, meanwhile, decided that, while Korra was gone, he would leave for Zaofu. He didn't want to drag all of his friends into it, and he thought it would be easier to leave if they weren't there to try and talk him out of it. Mako went with Korra to see Zaheer, and Sora wanted to stay behind in case she was needed further to help Korra free the tour group from their spiritual prisons. Raiko had asked Ronen and Asami to work with Varrick, to begin building ways to fight back against Kuvira's super weapon, and Ronen and Asami decided she should stay behind to begin working on it, despite how much she wanted to help Ronen rescue his family. If he didn't make it back, at least Asami would be there to protect Republic City. Tenzin told Jeia that she needed to stay behind with Aunt Kya and Nira, and surprisingly, the young girl didn't protest, even if she did look annoyed.
As they were preparing to leave, Bolin came rushing out professing feelings for Opal that Ronen had known nothing about, but apparently the two of them had reconnected as friends after the Red Lotus debacle, and had remained in contact for a while even once Bolin went to join Kuvira. Opal had been angry with Bolin, though, the more he defended Kuvira, and he had tried to approach her while Ronen was inspecting the spirit wilds with Korra, but Opal rejected him. Bolin wanted to prove his loyalty to Opal and his change of heart after being a soldier of Kuvira's, so Opal offered for him to prove it by coming along to help rescue her family. Bolin was all too eager to help, but Ronen wasn't certain if it would be enough to make Opal fall for Bolin again. After all, the brief relationship they'd had ended because Bolin had still had feelings for Korra, and it had taken a while for Opal to trust him again. His dealings with Kuvira had felt like another betrayal for her. But having Bolin's support would be helpful, so Ronen didn't protest.
Once all that was settled, Tenzin, Ronen, Bolin, and Opal prepared an airship and coaxed Oogi and Juicy onboard. The four of them set off, disembarking from the airship a few miles out from Zaofu and taking Oogi the rest of the way in. They landed on a hilltop overlooking the metal city and discussed their next moves.
"Kuvira tore down all the domes," Opal noted. "Why would she do that?"
Ronen used his binoculars to get a better look at the city, telling the others, "She's got a whole battalion of troops stationed there."
"There's no way we'll be able to spot anything useful from here," Tenzin pointed out, peering over Ronen's shoulder and squinting down at the city below. "We'll have to go in for a closer look."
"They're not down there," a voice from behind said, and the four of them whirled around to see Jeia standing a few yards away, hands on her hips and most of her clothes covered in dirt.
"Jeia!" Tenzin exclaimed in a huff. "What on earth are you doing here?! I told you to stay behind –"
"I couldn't just sit and do nothing!" Jeia cut him off. "You need my help. I'm not a baby anymore. I can be useful."
Tenzin sighed and rubbed his eyes wearily, rising from his crouched position to go over to Jeia, gripping her shoulder as he said, "Jeia, no one is questioning your talent, but this sort of thing requires more than just strength. You may be a master of metal, but not of your emotions. This entire situation is too stressful for any child, even you."
"I can be good, I promise," Jeia insisted, sounding desperate for once instead of demanding. "I want to help rescue Mom and Aunt Su. They did it for me, now I have to do it for them."
"How did you even get here?" Opal questioned. "Did you stow away on the airship?"
Jeia nodded, glancing guiltily up at her father. "When you guys left on Oogi, I had to use earthbending to get here, but I checked with seismic sense and Mom's not in there. None of them are. They must have been moved."
"And you're certain of that?" Ronen asked, just to be sure. "You can tell from here?"
"I went closer just a few minutes ago," Jeia replied. "I can see everything. They're not in there."
"Where would they have been taken?" Opal wondered.
"There is a factory and reeducation facility not too far away," Bolin revealed.
"Would Kuvira have kept them that close-by, though?" Ronen questioned.
"It's the only lead we have," Tenzin said. "Bolin, can you take us there?"
"Of course," Bolin agreed.
Tenzin looked down at Jeia. "You need to go back to the airship."
"Hang on," Ronen requested. "Her seismic sense will be useful. We can at least bring her for that, and hide her if things get out of hand."
Tenzin frowned, looking reluctant, but he relented, sternly telling Jeia, "You listen to everything I tell you, and after all this is over, you're grounded for the foreseeable future."
"Ah, come on!" Jeia protested. "All I'm trying to do is help."
"I know that, but you've disobeyed your mother and I several times over the course of all this," Tenzin countered. "You seem to be forgetting that you're still a child."
"Everyone else gets to help," Jeia muttered, folding her arms across her chest grumpily. "I'm only a little younger than Grandpa Aang was when he was saving the world and stuff."
"Your Grandpa Aang was the Avatar and he had no choice. Your siblings are adults now, that's why they're allowed to help. And when you're closer to seventeen, if it's necessary, you can help in these types of situation."
Jeia's shoulders slumped but she nodded with a heavy sigh. "Fine."
They took the airship most of the way to the factory Bolin led them too, and then took Oogi the rest of the way, landing on the outskirts. They snuck in without running into any problems, racing through the open landscape and then hurtling through a hole in the metal wall that Jeia created for them. Once inside the factory, they knelt down behind some packing crates, and Jeia used her seismic sense to look for their family.
As she was searching, Bolin noticed something in front of them and gasped, "Woah. That is one big… thing."
And whatever it was, it was indeed massive, and Ronen exchanged a concerned look with his father. It was a huge metal structure shaped like some giant canon, taking up nearly the whole space of the factory, and if Ronen had to guess, it was likely the superweapon Varrick had warned them about.
"I think I found them," Jeia whispered. "There's a cavern below us. It looks empty, but it's guarded by a lot of soldiers."
"They must have them in a suspended prison," Ronen surmised, "so they can't use their earthbending."
The creaking of metal somewhere at the front of the factory startled them, and Bolin hissed, "Somebody's coming! Hide!"
They all knelt down as best they could, carefully peering around the crates to see Kuvira stepping in through the tall front doors, sunlight beaming through the widening gap. She stepped forward to study the giant weapon, two mechatanks flanking her, and then several others were hurrying in behind her. Ronen recognized two of them as Bataar Jr and Zhu Li, and a third was… was that Zara? Ronen suddenly wondered if he should be worried that Yunjin was nowhere to be seen, when before he was so frequently at Kuvira's side.
"I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow," Junior could be heard saying to Kuvira, his voice echoing across the vast hanger.
"I just wanted to check in to make sure everything was on track," Kuvira replied. "It looks wonderful."
"We've had a few minor malfunctions," Junior reluctantly confessed, "but we should be ready for the test tomorrow."
Kuvira turned part way to eye them closely. "You've been working on this the entire time, Zhu Li. What do you think the problem is?" She sounded angry, and suspicious, or maybe that was just how Kuvira always sounded.
"It's a very complex machine," Zhu Li answered. "There's bound to be some bugs to work out."
"But you're doing everything you can to fix those, correct?" Kuvira demanded.
"Of course, your eminence," Zhu Li assured, bowing for good measure.
"I won't tolerate any more betrayals," Kuvira warned. "If you do anything to sabotage this weapon, you'll face a much worse fate than Yunjin."
Ronen's chest constricted, and he heard his father inhale sharply beside him.
"Tell the troops and factory workers to attend tomorrow's demonstration," Kuvira was telling Junior. "I want them all to witness this incredible new weapon in action."
Ronen tapped Opal and Jeia on the shoulder, beckoning for them leave the way they had come, and Tenzin and Bolin followed.
The five of them raced back across the landscape stretching between the factory and where Oogi waited, none of them speaking until they were safely hidden behind rocky hills once more.
"What could she have done to Yunjin?" Tenzin immediately fretted. "Jeia, did you sense him anywhere?"
Jeia shook her head. "No, I wasn't really looking for him, but I think there were other cells underground. They were mostly filled with equipment and stuff so I didn't focus much, not once I found the cavern."
"Yunjin was on her side when she took Zaofu," Opal said. "That was only a few days ago."
"He's the one that sent me to help Varrick escape," Bolin reminded. "Maybe she figured it out."
"We'll look for him when we go back in," Ronen assured his father. "I'm sure he's okay."
"We should be thinking about a way to take out Kuvira while we have the chance too," Opal suggested.
"Or at least destroy the canon," Bolin added. "If she takes that to Republic City, it could obliterate everything."
"I'm not sure it's feasible for us to do all of that ourselves," Tenzin said. "It'll take everything we have just to get our family out without getting captured ourselves."
"Kuvira wants every single one of her people to see the weapon test tomorrow," Ronen reasoned, "so the factory will be mostly empty then. That's our best chance to sneak in and free the family without being spotted."
"What if we split up?" Bolin offered. "Opal and I could try to take out that weapon while you three rescue the others."
Tenzin considered it for a moment, but then shook his head. "No. It's too dangerous. We stick together, get in and get out, and then we take the information we have back to Republic City."
The following morning, they put their plan into action.
Opal stayed behind with Oogi and her own bison, Juicy, whom she had retrieved from the airship the night before, while the others went on ahead. Opal would wait to extract them, and watch for the right time to tell them to strike. When she saw the troops gathering and the massive weapon being moved out of the factory, she called over the radio to give them the go ahead.
Jeia opened a hole in the earth and led Tenzin, Ronen, and Bolin down into the cavern they suspected the family to be held. Upon Jeia opening a wall to expose the gaping hole within, Ronen could see a crate hanging in the middle by taut wires stretched across the cavern, from one end to the next.
"The guards are on the other side of that wall," Jeia told them. "We'll have to be quiet."
"I'll fly over and get them one at a time," Tenzin decided.
"I'll start looking for Yunjin," Jeia said.
"If you take me with you," Ronen told his father, "I can use my grappling hooks to swing them back over. Bolin can catch them."
Tenzin nodded in agreement, and then hurtled himself and Ronen across the gap to land on top of the crate. The top hatch was locked, but Ronen had just the tools to crack it open, and then he and his father peered inside.
"Tenzin," Lin said in plain relief, grasping his hand in both of hers when he reached down to her.
"Are you all right?" he worried. "We came as fast as we could. We couldn't convince anyone to help."
"Of course not," Lin grumbled. "But I'm fine. All of us are, except Su. That wound's infected."
"Well let's get you all out of here and we'll take her straight to a healer," Tenzin said.
He went to pull his hand back, but Lin held on, her expression grim. "Tenzin… they have Yunjin. I don't know where. I don't know what they've done. He tried to rescue us. Bataar Jr showed up and electrocuted him. He built it into Yunjin's leg braces to control him."
Ronen frowned at that, already worried about his brother and now even more so. He couldn't believe Junior would do something so cruel, even knowing how attached he was to Kuvira.
"We'll find him, Lin," Tenzin swore. "Jeia is using seismic sense to search for him now. If he's here, we'll rescue him too."
Now Lin's frown deepened. "You brought Jeia?"
"She stowed away," Tenzin sighed. "I've already told her she's grounded for the foreseeable future. Hand me up Su. I'll take her first."
Lin went to lift her sister up into her arms, and Ronen was disheartened further to see his aunt pale and sickly again, barely able to move for the pain in her abdomen and the weakness in her limbs. Ronen helped his father take her from Lin's grasp, and Su smiled shakily at them but her eyelids were heavy and she was slick with sweat.
Tenzin cradled his sister-in-law in his arms and leapt across the gap, using his airbending to cushion their drop into the opening where Jeia and Bolin waited. In the meantime, Ronen used his grappling hooks to swing Wei over to be caught by Bolin. Tenzin returned to take Huan, while Ronen retrieved Wing. Then only Lin and Bataar remained, but Bataar was terrified of heights and refused to leave, clutching to the planks of the crate.
Tenzin exchanged a look with his wife, and then told his brother-in-law, "I'm sorry about this," before forcefully hefting Bataar up into his arms and leaping out of the crate.
Ronen looked to his mother, who slapped her hand down on his shoulder and said, "It's good to see you, kid."
"You too," Ronen agreed. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Lin took the hand Ronen offered her, and then clung to his grappling wire as he flung her across the gap.
It might have gone off without a hitch, but Bataar screamed the whole way as Tenzin flew them over the deep cavern, and it alerted the guards on the other side. As soon as Ronen landed with the others, the door across from them was wrenched open, and the guard was shouting as he slapped his hand down upon an alarm system. A blaring sound rang out, and Ronen knew that they were in trouble now. Kuvira would know that they were trying to escape, and all of her soldiers would be converging on them at any moment.
"We gotta get out of here," Bolin said.
"Did you find Yunjin?" Ronen quickly asked Jeia.
She nodded rapidly. "Yes, he's not far."
"Take me to him," Ronen requested. Then he told his father, "Get them out of here. Jeia and I will be right back."
"I'll go with them," Lin told Tenzin when he appeared hesitant. "Get Su to safety."
Bolin got on the radio to tell Opal to come pick them up, and then opened the way for Tenzin and Su and her family to emerge above ground once more.
Jeia opened a wall on their left, and led her mother and Ronen through, creating a tunnel as she went, until they broke through the other side.
They were in the midst of an underground holding cell, and the guards standing along the corridor snapped to attention at their sudden arrival. Lin kicked a flat stone wall at two of them and smacked them into the ground. Ronen threw his boomerang, bouncing it off of the curved wall so that it careened into the back of one guard's head, bounced off, and hit another guard in the face. Jeia grabbed hold of the metal on one of the soldiers and squeezed, just enough to make him stagger, and then Jeia stuck him to the wall, melting his hands into the stone to at least stall his escape.
"Over here!" Jeia called, already racing down the cleared hallway and stopping before a metal door, which she wrenched open to reveal Yunjin.
Ronen slid into the doorway to see his brother struggling to sit up, cramped in a tiny cell and disheveled from head to toe. His hair was no longer tied back as it had been, released from its confines in a messy disarray. There was a swollen gash across his cheekbone, from ear to nose, dried blood crusted onto his face. His shirt was untucked and the bottom of his pants shredded, so that Ronen could see the braces clamped tight to Yunjin's legs.
Yunjin appeared surprised to see his family in the doorway, and then he was rapidly shaking his head. "No, you have to leave me."
"Like hell," Lin disagreed, stepping into the cell to grasp Yunjin's arm, prepared to lift him up.
"I can't get them off," Yunjin hurriedly explained, pulling his arm from his mother's grip, squeezing the brace on his thigh. "He did something to them. When I try to release it, I get electrocuted. If you take me away with these things still on, Bataar will zap me into oblivion."
"There has to be something we can do," Jeia insisted.
"It's okay," Yunjin soothed, trying to smile reassuringly at them. "I'm not scheduled for execution or anything. You can get me out when you defeat her. I'll be fine here."
"No," Ronen decided, swinging his pack off of his back and pulling out the items he might need. "I'll get those braces off of you."
"You'll never make it out in time," Yunjin argued. "I could hear the alarm from here. Kuvira will be looking for you."
"Let her," Lin said, lifting Yunjin onto his feet as she had intended. "We aren't leaving you behind." She looked at Ronen. "Can you work while we're on the move?"
Ronen nodded. "Just keep him steady for me."
"You need to get back to the city," Yunjin still asserted. "Think of all the people you're risking just to save me."
Ronen looked hard at his brother. "I'm not going to leave you to suffer. Someone else can take care of the city for once."
With Yunjin subdued by his brother's words, Lin created a stone slab for him to lay on face first, and kept it moving while Ronen walked along beside it. They had to move at a slower pace, but Ronen was quickly able to locate the device that was causing the electrocution. It was positioned in the middle of where the brace wrapped around Yunjin's back, just at the base of his spine. Ronen had to be careful about removing it because one wrong move could send bolts of electricity shooting through Yunjin once more.
A handful of guards arrived just as they were clambering back through the hole in the wall, but Jeia collapsed the ceiling above the oncoming soldiers, which would keep them occupied as they scrambled to free themselves.
By the time the four of them rendezvoused with Tenzin and the others, Ronen had grabbed hold of the mechanism he believed would stop the electrocutions, and without letting himself hesitate, yanked it out of the brace. A small amount of electricity crackled in its wake, tingling the whole way up Ronen's arm and causing him to drop the thing as his hand jerked open. He hissed more in surprise than pain, shaking out his arm as it spasmed.
"Did you get it?" Lin asked immediately.
"Only one way to find out," Ronen replied, grabbing onto the hooks that held the braces in place. "You ready, Yunjin?"
His brother gritted his teeth and nodded. "Just do it."
Ronen quickly began opening the clamps, holding his breath, waiting for electricity to shoot into his brother's legs and back and be forced to stop. But Yunjin never cried out and Ronen didn't feel any shocks. In only a minute, the braces had been torn completely off of Yunjin's legs.
Yunjin gasped in relief, sitting up on the stone his mother still held aloft, rubbing his lower back with one hand and his leg with the other. He smiled in relief and went to climb down, thanking Ronen on the way, but when his feet touched the ground, his legs collapsed under the weight.
Ronen and Lin were there to catch him, and he quickly assured, "I'm okay. I just… Been too long since I was without them, I think."
Lin pulled Yunjin into a hug. "You scared the life out of me, kid."
"What else is new?" Yunjin chuckled, but he seemed just as desperate to hold her too.
Tenzin hurried over to hug Yunjin in relief, and Ronen quickly explained about the braces, which made his father's expression darken as he held Yunjin tighter.
Opal arrived then, collapsing into her parents' arms too and fretting over her mother.
When Yunjin saw Bolin, his eyes widened and he exclaimed, "Bolin! You're alive!"
"Of course I am!" Bolin said, coming over to embrace Yunjin. "I'm glad to see you're okay."
"You too," Yunjin said half breathlessly, still looking in disbelief. "I thought you and Varrick were killed in that explosion."
"Oh, yeah, well, we nearly did die because Varrick is insane, but we made it out in time."
Growing impatient with the reunions, Lin told them all, "We're running out of time. Let's move."
Before they could go, Opal revealed, "Kuvira caught Zhu Li trying to sabotage her and threw her in the town she's about to blow up with that weapon."
"What?" Bolin exclaimed. "No! I have to go in there and save her."
"You can't go in there, kid," Lin advised. "It's suicide. Kuvira's on to us."
"We've been through too much together. I can't leave her," Bolin declared. "You guys leave. If we make it out, we'll get to the city somehow."
Bolin was already racing off, and Opal leapt to her feet too, calling after him to stop. When Juicy arrived, she leapt right on top of him and told the rest of them, "I can't let him go alone." And then she was taking off too, just as Oogi landed amongst them.
Lin looked over at Tenzin, reluctantly suggesting, "It could be our best chance to take out Kuvira."
"Maybe take out that weapon too," Tenzin concurred.
"We can't let Opal be the coolest," Wei agreed.
Lin looked to Yunjin, "Can you fly the others out on Oogi?"
Yunjin nodded determinedly. "I can."
"Get Su and the others back to the airship," Tenzin ordered. "Jeia knows where it is. Give us fifteen minutes, and if we aren't back, leave without us."
"Be careful," Yunjin urged, moving out of his mother's hold to limp two steps forward before hurtling himself up onto Oogi and taking the reins. Once Su, Jeia, Bataar Sr, and Huan were in the saddle, Yunjin called, "Yip, yip!" and Oogi took off into the sky.
Lin, Tenzin, Wei, Wing, and Ronen went out to face Kuvira. The weapon was fired at the same moment they came upon it, but Lin shot an earth wave up into the train tracks it sat upon, jolting it upwards just as a great beam of light shot out of it. The beam missed the town and struck the hillside right above it, blasting a huge hole through the thick rock from one side to the other. Ronen did not have time to linger on his shock, aiding his family as they fought back Kuvira's soldiers. Most of his help involved only his boomerang, which was useful against a few of the soldiers as either a distraction or to knock them over when they were busy trying to deflect air blasts and stone projectiles, but it was useless against the mecha suits quickly converging on them.
Lin attempted to get at Kuvira, throwing herself up onto the walkway of the huge superweapon and facing off with the younger woman one on one. Ronen observed the match from time to time, and saw his mother get a few hits in, but ultimately, she was thrown back down onto the ground, bested by Kuvira in the end.
By that time, Ronen, Tenzin, Wei, and Wing were hunkered down behind an earthen barrier that was slowly crumbling around them. Tenzin darted out to help Lin to her feet and into the relative safety of their makeshift barricade. But they were surrounded now, with no way out and entirely outnumbered.
That is, until the ground shook beneath them, billowing out around the circle they were hiding in and throwing all of the soldiers and mecha suits to the ground so rapidly that, when they struck the ground, most of them were knocked unconscious or groaned in pain.
Ronen and the others whirled around, and saw Jeia a few yards behind, stomping forward with her blazing eyes on Kuvira. Juicy landed just behind Jeia, with Opal, Bolin, and Zhu Li safely aboard, watching the events unfold.
"Enough!" Jeia shouted. "Stop this!"
Kuvira looked down on the girl, hair disheveled from her fight with Lin and her chest heaving for breath, but she seemed at a loss for words.
Jeia opened her mouth, presumably to say more, but she came to an abrupt halt as she was walking between her parents, and she furrowed her brow while looking over at one of the fallen soldiers. He was rubbing his jaw and struggling to sit up, but his face was on display, unlike some of the other masked fighters, and Jeia clearly recognized him.
"That's one of the people that kidnapped me," she said, sounding stunned.
As Jeia's words sunk in, Lin understood at once, and was instantly enraged, scowling up at Kuvira and accusing, "You! You're the one that took her!"
"Yes," Kuvira surprisingly confessed, but she had eyes only for Jeia.
"You what?" Bataar Jr exclaimed from beside her.
Kuvira ignored him too. "Jeia, it was never intended to harm you. I only wanted you safe, and I knew the best way to ensure that was by having you at my side. I didn't want you to be dragged into all this fighting this way. I wanted to rescue you from it, explain my reasonings to you myself. It's too much to say here, but I want you to know I would never do anything to hurt you."
Jeia seemed to consider it, and then she said, "Then let them go. I'll stay with you if you let the rest of my family leave."
"Okay," Kuvira quickly agreed, at the same time that Lin and Tenzin both said, "No."
The mecha suits were rising back up and some of the soldiers were on their feet, and Ronen and his family were still mostly outnumbered. If they stayed to fight, they would be captured, but did that matter now that Yunjin and some of the others would escape? Or would Kuvira track them down while they waited to hear from the rest of the family? Ronen wasn't convinced Kuvira would hold down her end of the bargain once Jeia wasn't around. But they couldn't leave Jeia and they couldn't stay behind.
"Go," Jeia said, already walking backwards in Kuvira's direction. "I'll be okay."
"Absolutely not!" Lin shouted, reaching for Jeia, but the girl kicked her heel into the ground and it threw Tenzin, Ronen, Lin, Wei, and Wing into the air, hurtling them the rest of the way to where Juicy stood, and Tenzin had to create a bubble of wind to cushion their fall into the saddle, knocking Bolin and Zhu Li over in the process.
Lin and Tenzin scrambled to the edge, but before they could jump down, the earth beneath Juicy vaulted upwards, and the sky bison moaned as it scrambled to keep itself in the air when the rock beneath it disappeared. Both of them were still poised to jump down regardless of the height, but now there were sheets of metal shooting up at them, spiraling all around Juicy in a violent circle that would surely cut into them if they tried to jump through it. Lin snapped her hand out and grabbed hold of some of the metal with her bending, holding them apart so that Tenzin could jump through, only to have several more pieces take its place.
"Put us down!" Lin screamed. "We have to go back!"
But Juicy was distressed, and Opal called over her shoulder, "It's going to cut him!"
"She won't hurt him!" Lin asserted. "Put us down!"
The metal was spiraling around and under the bison, coaxing him farther into the air and steadily away from where Jeia was. Tenzin tried using a powerful blast of wind to blow back the metal but it barely budged.
"I know this is a bad time," Zhu Li shouted over the chaos, "but Kuvira is going to strike at Republic City in two weeks! We need to get back to warn them!"
"We can't get through this," Wei reasoned, his and Wing's help doing little to advance their aunt's efforts to stop the metal whirlwind.
"Jeia wants us to go for a reason," Wing added. "She knows what she's doing."
"She's eight!" Ronen scoffed, but he was starting to wonder if they had any options left. Juicy was flailing now, nearly throwing the saddle's occupants off his back, twisting and turning as he tried to get away from the slicing metal. He was too spooked to calm, even with Opal's soothing. They could leave and come back but Kuvira and Jeia would probably be long gone, or too well guarded to be torn apart. Jeia was fighting against them, thinking she was doing the right thing somehow, a child torn between the people she loved and acting as any child did – irrationally. Kuvira being the one to order the kidnapping of Jeia must have come as a shock to the girl, and what's more, Jeia remembered all too well what had happened when her family had tried to stop it. She remembered Sora bleeding in the street and her Aunt Su nearly dying in a cave. Maybe she thought that the more she resisted, the more her family would get hurt.
Ronen moved forward atop the bucking bison and squeezed his parents' shoulders hard, pulling their attention to him as he regrettably said, "We need to go. If we keep this up, somebody is going to get hurt."
"I don't care," Lin immediately growled, trying to wrench away from his hold, but Ronen held tight.
"Jeia could get hurt," Ronen persisted, and he could see his mother waver then. "I don't want to leave her either, but we can't win against Kuvira and her soldiers. We'll only make things worse."
Lin's jaw was clenched and she was shaking her head, but no words came out. Ronen knew she couldn't say it, couldn't do it, couldn't accept leaving any one of her children behind.
Ronen had to be the one to do it for her.
He called to Opal, "Get us out of here!" and she complied without question, guiding Juicy high up into the air. And when the metal shards struggled to climb at the same rate, Juicy shot off in a desperate effort to escape.
Lin and Tenzin seemed frozen stiff at the edge of the saddle, staring numbly into the distance. Ronen struggled internally with whether or not he had done the right thing. He just kept reminding himself that Kuvira loved Jeia. Kuvira wouldn't hurt Jeia.
When they landed at the airship and joined the others, Lin was still unconvinced. "We have to go back."
She was trying to leave and take Oogi herself, but Ronen and Tenzin stopped her.
"We will," Tenzin told her, taking her by the shoulders and forcing her to look him in the eye, to see the sincerity and the surety on his face. "We will, but we need more help –"
"No one is going to help us," Lin huffed. "Haven't we already –"
"The Air Nation," Tenzin cut her off. "And Kya and Nira and Bumi and whoever else we can call in a favor from. We'll go back to the city and we'll make a plan and we'll figure out what to do, and if I have to use the airbenders for a rescue mission then I will. We'll get her back, Lin. But we'll do it when we can ensure Kuvira won't be able to take her again. We'll put a stop to all of this and Jeia won't have to choose."
Ronen could see that his father had it handled, even though Lin still looked like she wanted to protest, so he ran over to slap the hangar door closed, and then went up to the cockpit where he found Yunjin working at the controls.
Ronen took over and Yunjin let him, asking with some trepidation, "Is everyone onboard?"
Ronen's fingers stilled over the control board for a second, and when he looked over at his brother, the answer must have been plain on his face, because Yunjin slumped into the co-pilot's chair at once. Ronen had the difficult task of explaining, and he wondered if it would ever feel like they'd made the right decision.
Bataar Jr stormed into Kuvira's office an hour or so later with Zara close on his heels.
Kuvira was at her desk, seated in the chair, with Jeia perched up on the edge of the desk in front of her. Neither of them looked up at Bataar's entrance, continuing whatever deep conversation they seemed to be having, their heads tilted close together.
Bataar stopped in front of the desk and snapped, "Can we talk?"
Kuvira looked slowly up at him, left eye twitching once, her only sign of annoyance at his tone. "Has the spirit canon been properly stored?" she asked instead of answering him.
"Yes," Bataar said impatiently, "and they're working on the rest of the mecha suit. Everyone is doing their jobs. Now I need some information from you, so if we could have that talk…" His eyes darted to Jeia with displeasure. "Alone."
Kuvira made a face, but patted Jeia on the knee and told the girl, "Jeia, why don't you go with Zara and get some lunch. She'll show you where the mess hall is. I'll come find you after."
Jeia eyed both Bataar and Zara with distaste, but hopped down off of the desk to do as Kuvira requested.
Once the door closed behind them, Bataar instantly demanded, "What were you thinking?! Kidnapping that girl? Putting everything we've accomplished at risk? You could have destroyed us, our army and our foothold in the Earth states, and for what? For some stupid girl –"
Kuvira rose to her feet scowling, hands braced on her desk, and Bataar might have been intimidated if he wasn't so certain that Kuvira would never hurt him, even if she had kept such a vital thing secret from him. "Jeia is not just some stupid girl. She's a powerful ally, and she's family. She's the only person I trust besides you not to betray me –"
"That's what you thought about Yunjin," Bataar interjected.
Kuvira clenched her fists. "I was wrong about Yunjin. I wanted too badly to believe that he was loyal to me. I should have known his loyalty to his family was stronger. But Jeia would never seek to do me harm."
"That may be so now, but what will she do if you hurt her family?" Bataar pointed out. "You know that they'll oppose us when we take Republic City."
"I have no desire to fight any of them so long as they stay out of my way, and with Jeia next to me, they might do just that. They're too noble for their own good, but they put their family first. Why do you think they came here in the first place? I doubt their rescue mission was sanctioned by any government, or else they would have had more help."
"They won't stand idly by while you seize power," Bataar argued. "They don't see the good in it as I do."
"If we can take Republic City peacefully, they'll have no reason to fight me. It'll be a simple exchange of power. And what has Raiko ever done for them? I doubt they'll be sorry to see him go."
"And if they come after you anyways?" Bataar challenged.
"Then they'll be dealt with," Kuvira promised, "but Jeia will know that I did everything I could to avoid it."
"I still don't understand why you would do something so foolish," Bataar scorned. "Why would you risk it? Why would you risk us?"
"Because, Bataar," Kuvira replied, her voice softening very slightly, "when this is all over, what will we have? I'm not fool enough to think every one of our soldiers is loyal to me by choice, and I don't expect more from them, so long as they obey my orders and enforce our rules. But when Republic City is won and peace is restored through the Empire, we'll be able to rest, to enjoy life outside of this mission, except your mother alienated me from the only family I ever knew. All I have left now are you and Jeia, and when all this is complete, I want the both of you by my side. I didn't want Jeia's mind to be warped any longer by Su and Lin's disdain for me."
Bataar's anger had waned, but he was still perturbed by it all. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I figured the less people that knew of my plan, the better. Only Zuri knew, and I had him hire people that weren't connected to me, people that wouldn't recognize him as one of my soldiers. I had him work under the name Chen, hoping the Beifongs would follow that lead instead of considering the possibility of me being involved. I didn't anticipate Lin finding Chen so soon, of her believing him when he told her he didn't do it. Not to mention the Avatar just happened to be strolling through the swamp at the same time. If everything had gone according to plan, I would have told you as soon as it was safe to transfer her to us."
Bataar shook his head, exhaling in agitation. "You should have discussed it with me," he muttered.
"Like how you discussed with me your dealings with kidnapping women to train as your personal soldiers?" Kuvira snapped back.
Bataar pursed his lips. "They were soldiers for you, and I've already apologized for that a hundred times over."
"It could have been a lot more detrimental to us than what I did. You're lucky I managed to save your neck."
"And who will save you if your obsession with Jeia compromises our entire mission?"
"I'd hardly call it an obsession," Kuvira scoffed. "She's one of us, or have you forgotten she saved your life in the war against the Equalists?"
"I haven't forgotten, but just because you let her play at being captain doesn't mean she's on our side. Her parents are notoriously arrogant and convinced of their rightness. They'll do what they have to in order to bring her back to them, and we would be foolish to trust her in the meantime."
"You don't trust Jeia, but you'll trust Zara because she betrayed Yunjin to you?"
Bataar inhaled sharply and then exhaled immediately after to calm himself. "Do you trust me?"
Kuvira was silent for a long moment, staring him in the eye. Most would look away in discomfort, but Bataar did not.
Eventually, Kuvira answered, "Yes."
"Then will you be honest with me from now on?" Bataar questioned. "Our love is the most important thing, is it not? So long as we have that, so long as we trust each other, we can do anything together."
Kuvira grasped his hand, and her lips quirked halfway up into a smile, so subtle it might not have been noticed by anyone else, but Bataar saw it. "Of course, Bataar," she promised him.
And he believed her.
Chapter 98: Chapter 98
Chapter Text
Chapter 98
Seven days after the events at Kuvira's factory, Lin stood upon the roof of the main temple on the island, staring out across the bay at the uncharacteristically dormant city. In just a few hours, Chief Tosuki would be arriving with President Raiko, to take up residence in the room just below her feet. It would be their base of operations for Kuvira's attack on the city in a week's time. From her vantage point, Lin had a direct line of sight to the war ships floating in the bay, the tanks and mecha suits lined up on the beach, and the airships hovering across the cityscape. She could have just as easily seen all that from down below, inside the temple attic, but she had wanted to feel the air around her, let it flow through her hair, whip at her clothes and her cheeks, and send cool breaths through her lungs. Though she felt most secure on the ground, with her feet sunken into the earth, there was a spine-chilling exhilaration to being up in the air, unfettered, invigorated. One step over the ledge would send her plummeting, and without her armor and her metal cables on, it left her vulnerable. On the ground she was Lin Beifong, hardened and opaque. In the air, all of that was stripped away and she became something else, open and exposed.
When Lin was four, Aang often floated her up into the air as a game, to both expend her youthful energy, and to quell her tears when her mother left her on the island to go to work. Weightless and enthralled, Lin's sorrow would fade, the absence of her mother not so keenly felt when she was floating so far from the earth. Often times, it was the only thing that would soothe her.
By the time she was seven, Lin's taste for flight had waned. Her mother had taught her too much about the earth, and how to cocoon herself in it, to protect herself from all else. On top of that, Suyin was born, and Lin was sidelined, and she lost her longing for flight. Much as she craved freedom, she didn't want to share anything with baby Su, and floating had become a means to soothe her, so it could no longer feasibly soothe Lin. She balked at flying, even on top of Appa, and she screamed if Aang tried to play their old game. Until one day, Aang took her to the top of the temple, still inside, but several meters above ground, and he urged her to stand on the open ledge.
"Are you afraid of the height?" he'd asked.
And Lin stubbornly shook her head. There was stone beneath her feet and all around her, so what did she have to fear? "No, I'm not. Why'd you bring me up here?"
Aang took her higher up, onto the slanted roof, and then the anxiety kicked in. Not because she feared the fall, but because there was nothing to hide behind, no walls to shield her from the buffeting winds.
"How about now?" Aang asked.
"This is stupid," Lin asserted, on the defensive. "I don't want to be up here."
"Okay, so let's go down," Aang acquiesced, stepping right up next to Lin and squeezing her tiny hand. "Do you trust me?"
Lin rolled her eyes and answered, "Yeah, duh," without thinking, before she realized what he had in mind. "No, wait –"
But she was already being lifted up in the air by a gale, wind spiraling at her feet and buffeting her off of the roof, into open air, with the ground far below. Her heart seized and she flailed, reaching for the safety of the roof, and a few clay shingles rattled in her direction, but she was too far to grab on. "Put me back!" she screamed. "Put me back!"
"It's okay, Lin," Aang assured, his voice low but closer than she would have expected, as if he was right next to her. She could see him now that her panic was abating at the familiar sound, and he was floating across from her, a serene look on his face and an encouraging smile. As they began to descend in a lazy circle, he reached out to her, and she reached back mostly from fear, grabbing onto his hands and holding on tight. He floated them the whole way to the ground, and Lin only released his hands once her feet touched solid earth again. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"
Lin shrugged, scowling up at him while he simply beamed back at her. "You shouldn't have done that. I don't like it."
"But you used to," Aang gently pointed out. "I know you will again, if you allow yourself to."
"What's that even mean?" Lin scoffed.
"It means that you've fallen out of balance. I can see it affecting you, in more than just your new-found distaste for flying. I thought this was a good place to start, to figure out what it is that's bothering you. Did you feel anything in particular?"
Lin just continued to pout, folding her arms across her chest and tapping her foot before eventually deciding, "Not really. We should probably try it again."
Aang was all too happy to oblige, and after two more spinning, controlled falls from the temple, when they went up for the fourth time, Lin finally opened up, dissolving into tears on the roof. The wind had whipped against her skin until she had been torn open, and only then could all her troubles and fears spill out, only with Aang's strong support.
When she was eighteen, Lin joined the police force, fresh out of school and younger than everyone else, with a famous name and something to prove. On one of her first real raids, Aang came along, and she was annoyed because she thought her mother had put him up to it, that Toph didn't trust her to succeed without him. Being in the thick of it, though, a real-life battle and not a fake scenario at the academy, was more terrifying than she had thought. She was afraid to fail, afraid of having to rely on someone else when she had always been so certain that she had to do everything on her own.
When her prime suspect was on the verge of escaping, using the water from the bay to carry himself up into the port tower, where he would easily be able to jump from one roof top to the next and find a place to hide before Lin ever made it up the stairs, she felt panic setting in. But when she looked at Aang, he was just as unperturbed as ever as he simply asked, "Need a boost?"
Aang could have just as easily gone himself. It probably would have been faster, actually. But he was showing confidence in her, letting her make the leap.
She nodded, and kicked up off the ground, using the earth to propel her halfway up, and when her momentum began to dwindle, she felt Aang using a blast of air to push her up the rest of the way.
When she returned several minutes later, her one captured criminal in tow and still panting for breath from exertion, she found Aang not even remotely disheveled, with about twenty men tied up and subdued next to him.
"His back up finally arrived," Aang said with a beaming smile. And Lin rolled her eyes with a sigh.
At twenty years old, Lin had learned enough from Aang to be open and comfortable enough to make the leap that led her to Tenzin. She stopped being afraid of the fall, and she jumped off the tower herself, trusting that Tenzin would slow her fall. It had taken her years more of growth and work, but Aang had given her the foundation she needed to start her family with Tenzin, to feel comfortable asking for help. Some thirty years later, she had so much to be grateful for, all the things in life she could have wanted.
But Aang had not prepared her for every aspect of war. He hadn't prepared her to be separated from her eight-year-old daughter, by the very person at the forefront of the war. She didn't know how to cope with that. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. Everyone was telling her to wait, to be patient, that Kuvira wouldn't hurt Jeia, and they would get her back as soon as they were prepared to take Kuvira down, but her gut was telling her otherwise. Every motherly instinct she'd ever had was screaming at her to go and get Jeia, to free her littlest girl, no matter what the cost. It didn't seem right that she should be preparing the city for Kuvira's attack instead of looking for Jeia.
Aang would have waited though. Tenzin advised waiting. And not because he was less worried or because he missed Jeia less, but because he had a patience and a rationale that Lin couldn't always sustain. But that's what Aang had taught Tenzin, and what Tenzin had taught Ronen and Sora – unsuccessfully tried to teach Yunjin – and they were better at convincing themselves of the right thing to do. And in ordinary circumstances, Lin was better at doing that too. She had needed it to be a good cop, a good leader, but when it came to her family everything was different. Sora had still done as her mother requested and tried to use her spiritual gifts to find Jeia, but with the distance it was difficult enough to pinpoint where Jeia was, and harder still because she seemed to be moving about from one location to the next. It was no surprise. If Lin was Kuvira, she wouldn't make it easy for anyone to take back her prize, but it was still a difficult reminder that, even if she searched for Jeia herself, she would spend an eternity looking.
So she stood upon the precipice, exposed and vulnerable, letting the air carry her sorrows with the wind. The uncertainty of war, the failure of losing her child to someone else, the gripping terror of what was to come. A single tear streaked down her face, at the same time she sensed movement behind her.
The shingles shifted underfoot, and then Tenzin was standing next to her, a solitary presence, and she turned to him on instinct, seeking his strength, his cover, to protect her from all else. Their eyes met with shared understanding, and he reached across to stroke his thumb over the tear track on her cheek, and she leaned into his touch. The rest of his fingers slid back into her hair, and he nudged her head forward till it came to rest on his chest, his arm wrapping over her back as her own arms encircled his waist.
He murmured so quietly she almost couldn't hear him, but it carried along the wind, "I love you."
Thirty years ago, Lin would never have been able to face the coming storm, to endure the destruction left in its wake, but Aang had taught her how to take the leap, and Tenzin had taught her how to fly.
Tenzin was six when he first took Toph's advice.
Bumi and Kya were teasing him, and Toph told him that he was making it too easy for them, that he needed to stand his ground. And he scoffed, at first, because his father was always telling him not to plant his feet so firmly, because he wouldn't be able to adjust to unexpected change. But his siblings were always messing with him and he was curious to try a new tactic, so he stood his ground and told his brother and sister to leave him alone. Stunned, Bumi and Kya had looked at one another, and then burst into laughter, and Bumi still dropped a water balloon on Tenzin's head.
When he was fourteen, he decided to try Toph's advice once again. He was sparring with Lin and she was kicking his butt, cackling with glee every time she knocked him over with a rock. He was hopping and flipping around to try and get away, but Lin wasn't like her mother. She didn't need to wait for him to land to see him, and she seemed to anticipate every move he made.
Toph noticed his struggle and took him aside, one hand braced on his shoulder and the other on her hip. "Listen, kid," she told him, "you have got to stand your ground. She knows all your moves. You're just jumping right into her attacks."
"I'm doing the best I can," Tenzin huffed, panting for breath. "I can't move quick enough."
"Because you're moving too much," Toph advised. "Your father was like this too when I was trying to teach him earthbending, like a stubborn monkey marmot. Quit running away and fight back."
Tenzin folded his arms across his chest with a pout, not liking Toph's assertions and not certain that he could follow her advice. He had learned a few things about other bending styles, of course, but he had never put many of them to practice. It had always felt more important that he learn everything about airbending and the Air Nation that he could, since he would be the only one that could really pass it on one day. He could learn about the other nations some other time. And airbending was about evasion and being light on his feet; his father had needed to learn to stand his ground because he had to learn earthbending, how could it help Tenzin?
"C'mon, Twinkletoes Jr," Toph said, slapping him on the back. "Look at Lin. You think she's just standing there waiting for you to attack? She's on the move before you even decide which way to hop. If you wait, and listen, you'll see her strike coming from a mile away, and at the last second, you slice it in half!"
Tenzin looked over at Lin to see her pacing impatiently at the other end of the sparring ring. She had been listening to all the things she had been learning from other teachers, and she was lighter on her feet than most earthbenders, able to move and adjust quickly, throwing out attacks faster than lightning, cartwheeling to evade anything he managed to throw back. Toph was right though. Lin wasn't waiting for Tenzin to take a breath. She was taking advantage of his predictability.
"Come on!" Lin shouted, holding her arms out invitingly. "You two done cheating yet?!"
"Go on," Toph urged, shoving him forward. "Stand your ground."
Tenzin sucked in a deep breath, and then stepped back into the ring. This time, when Lin moved into her first stance, Tenzin tried something different. He flattened his feet and bent his knees, holding his fists out in front of him. Lin stomped her foot into the ground and then kicked the stone she'd erected straight at Tenzin. He ducked, felt the stone flying right above his head, but held firm, not giving up his stance, so when Lin shot two more boulders off to the left and right, they whizzed right past him. Surprised but undeterred, Lin shot a rock wall straight for him, and Tenzin felt his hackles rise, his instinct to leap up and avoid it. But he remembered what Toph had said, and stood his ground. He pushed both his arms out and blew a powerful ball of wind at the oncoming rock. He managed to obliterate the rock into a thousand pieces, and in the pause, he listened. He heard the rocks clattering to the ground, Lin's aggravated huff, and her feet sliding across the ground. She couldn't see him through the dust, and he knew she would be searching for him with seismic sense. He waited, and Lin struck out at him again. He sensed the air shifting around him, and he twisted to the left to avoid the first projectile, bending over backwards with his hands touching the ground a second later to avoid the second. And then, he came back up, smacked his hands together, and a blast of air sliced through the haze and smacked straight into Lin.
Lin went flying backwards to land with an oof, and Tenzin leapt up into the air with a delighted whoop. Toph came over to congratulate him with a punch in the shoulder while Lin struggled to get up.
"So what!" Lin shouted from across the ring. "You won one time!"
"It was a good match, Lin," Tenzin said modestly. "You were a strong opponent."
"Yeah, quit bein' a sore loser," Toph cackled.
Lin shrieked in irritation and stomped her foot, and a sudden rock wave knocked Tenzin and Toph right off their feet. They both fell into the dirt as Lin stomped away, and then looked at one another in surprise, though Toph's eyes were directed farther off to the right. After a pause, they both burst into laughter.
About eight years later, Lin and Tenzin were in the early stages of their relationship, and Tenzin had joined the police force as a liaison, to help out when they were overloaded with cases. While Lin and Tenzin were a formidable team, they were also struggling to find their rhythm without fighting with each other. Tenzin was too worried about Lin and Lin couldn't handle his overbearing concern.
After another one of their heated, public arguments, Tenzin was called into Toph's office, and she was furious.
"I thought you came here to help!" she snapped, slamming the door closed right behind him.
"I'm sorry – Tenzin started to say.
Only for Toph to cut him off, "I took a chance on you, kid, and this is how you repay my generosity? We don't normally let airbenders join the police all willy nilly just when they feel like it –"
"Well, I am one of the only airbenders," Tenzin muttered.
"There won't be any airbenders when I'm through with you!" Toph warned.
"That doesn't even make sense –" Tenzin grumbled.
"YOU don't make sense!" Toph shouted, viciously pointing at him with her head turned away. "You told me you wanted to come here to help Lin, and you've been fighting with her the whole time!"
Tenzin's shoulders slumped as his ire began to fade. He sighed heavily. "You're right. I don't know what's wrong with me."
Toph seemed to calm too, folding her arms across her chest and relaxing her own shoulders. She pursed her lips into a pout. "Listen, I'm gonna give you some advice about Lin, though how you haven't figured this out already, I have no idea. She doesn't like to be told what to do, and she isn't gonna come right out and tell you exactly what's bothering her. She's blunt, and she'll tell you like it is, but if you really want to know what's up with her, you have to wait, and listen."
It took a few years for Tenzin to figure out the right way to take Toph's advice that time. It wasn't that he didn't believe her, but that he wasn't always very good at following it. His own impatience and heightened emotions often impeded his ability to wait, to listen. But eventually, it became easier. He tried again and again, and at a time after Toph was already gone, Tenzin had learned how to best care for his wife, for his children too, some of whom were so much like her.
He wasn't sure where the next few days would take them. He wasn't sure how his family would fare. But he knew that he would do anything for them, that when the time came, he would stand his ground and protect them from all harm. He would not let Kuvira take the city or tear his family further apart, and he would bring Jeia back to them. Toph had taught Tenzin how to listen, so that Lin could show him how to fight for himself and for the people he loved.
In the days leading up to Kuvira's attack, Bumi worked with Yunjin to do some last minute training with the airbenders who would be aiding in defending the city. Yunjin and Bumi worked to draw up plans on how best to fight back against some of Kuvira's army, with Yunjin's inner knowledge of Kuvira's technology, and Bumi's general knowledge of war.
Bumi had learned from at least a hundred different people over the course of his fifty-nine years, but it was his mother that had taught him the most about war.
When he was young, before Tenzin was old enough for he and Kya to torment together, Kya used to pick on him, using her waterbending to best him at every turn. Of course, he was the one that kept running straight at her, trying to catch her off guard, trying to smack her with his wooden sword or dump dirt on her head. He was always running headlong into everything, and when he failed, he became angry and frustrated, throwing tantrums and stomping his feet, smashing whatever he could get his hands on.
His mother often scolded him for it, and then when his father came home, he would preach at length about pacifism and keeping a level head, until one day Katara must have had enough and dragged Bumi aside to talk to him herself.
"Look, mister," she told him, crouched down and holding his chin so that he was forced to look her in the eye, his toy sword clutched in her other hand, "if you ever want to be worthy of this sword, you need to learn real discipline. For one, you need to obey your mother because no good swordsman ever got to be that way without being given life by his mother. And two, you can't lose your temper every time something goes wrong because anger makes you weak. It may seem like you're strong when you're smashing things, but in the midst of all that you lose sight of your purpose." She stood up straight, releasing him and slipping the sword through the belt on her waist, patting the handle twice. "I'm going to keep this with me until you've proven you're worthy of it."
"But, Mom!" he immediately protested, his anger rising again.
But she was already walking away from him, calling over her shoulder, "Lessons begin tomorrow at dawn."
True to her word, Katara had woken Bumi far too early the following morning, and put him through a series of drills. All the while she kept his sword at her waist, tantalizingly within reach, but never letting him touch. She was no swordsman, but the lessons she gave went beyond swinging a sword the proper way. Bumi would learn that from Uncle Sokka and various others later on. What his mother taught him was healthier ways of dealing with his anger, and other things he might do besides terrorize his sister. It was silly things, like push-ups and sparring and whatever random obstacles she created for him. At the time, Bumi only viewed it as a punishment, maybe his mother's efforts to drain some of his hyperactive energy each day. He complained most of the time, trying to pretend he wasn't occasionally having fun, and hid his disappointment when his mother inevitably ended the lessons two weeks later, by taking the sword from her the moment she offered it and running off to smack it against a tree with delight. He was mindful of the fact that she might take the sword back if he went after Kya so soon, so he waited a week or two to try it. Of course, he didn't immediately take to heart what his mother had taught him, and spent several more years driving her up the wall, but her teachings got through to him even without him noticing. He unconsciously began practicing some of the techniques she had shown him to manage his temper, and when he joined the United Forces many years later, he had her to thank for giving him the tools he needed to get through it.
His first few years of training and beyond were difficult though. He was spirited and strong, and he had a handle on any anger that had once plagued him, but he was struggling to ascertain his purpose there. He was too young then to realize he had mostly chosen to join the United Forces in some desperate attempt to make his father proud, since he hadn't been born an airbender and he'd spent most of his youth being a wild child and generally annoying his parents to no end. His other reasoning was that he wanted to be on the front lines, to fight back against people that sought to ruin the peace and prosperity in the world, to go toe to toe with the kind of evil his parents had fought against when they were half his age. Except those types of villains weren't all that rampant in Bumi's early years on the force. He spent most of his time doing menial tasks, and when they saw action, they were mostly dealing with bandits or disgruntled Fire Nation still protesting the results of the war. Sometimes they were just backing up local governments over trivial disputes.
Bumi was thinking of quitting, of running off and becoming a vagabond like he and Kya had always discussed, free to be himself, free to wander and do as he pleased, fight the bad guys on his own terms.
He went home for the holidays that year, but he wasn't as invested in the festivities as he usually was. Being the holiday grump was usually Lin's job, but she'd just married Tenzin that year and even she was in an unusually chipper mood. Bumi just maintained a level of drunkenness that fooled most of the family into thinking he was his usual energetic self, but his mother saw straight through him, and cornered him when he snuck into the kitchen for more of the desert she had made.
She demanded he tell her what was wrong, and soon he was spilling everything, all his conflicted feelings and troubles. His mother knew him better than anyone and it was easy to open up to her. And when he was done venting, she smiled at him in that way that always made him feel better, and she reached out to fondly push his hair back from his forehead in that way he always hated, but he let her do it this time because he hadn't seen his mother in six months and it was comforting.
"My sweet boy," she said with a shake of her head. "For all you've just lamented, I am thankful everyday. I am thankful that you have never known war as we did. I hope that you never do. But if there ever comes a time that you must, I hope that you'll remember what it is you're fighting for. The people we view as enemies are not always as evil as they seem, and war makes all of us do things we never thought we'd do before. Some of it for good, some of it not so much. But you should never approach any battle with the simple desire to fight. You must take care to consider all sides, to help those that need it before you seek blame. And then, when you're certain of who the enemy is and you've given them every opportunity to change without results, then you can absolutely knock them out." She smiled again and ruffled his hair, and Bumi felt lighter.
Over the following years he struggled to put his mother's words into practice, to be mindful of how lucky he was to be without the same strife his parents had faced as children. But after losing Toph and then his father, he solidified his choice to remain with the United Forces, to ensure that peace continued even with the Avatar and Toph gone. And when trouble inevitably rose in their absence, Bumi was there, with his mother's wisdom, fighting injustices with more than fists.
And now, with another war upon them, Bumi felt weary, never more understanding of his mother's hope that he would never see war than he was going into the fourth he'd seen in the past five years. But just as all the times before, he was ready to face it, to help those that needed it and be worthy of his sword – metaphorically these days, since he got airbending. And what he had learned from his mother, he would pass along to the airbenders, most of whom would be facing their first real war, and maybe, if they were lucky, his mother's wisdom would carry all of them to the other side.
Kya was seventeen when she had a falling out with her mother.
The two of them didn't always see eye to eye, but for the most part, they'd had a good relationship even through most of Kya's teen years. But Katara could sometimes be overbearing and Kya didn't care much for her mother's judgmental attitude. Kya wanted to be able to leave the house and come back when she pleased without her mother harassing her about it, asking where she had been, who she was with, what she was doing. Kya felt like, at seventeen, she was legally an adult now and her mother didn't need to know every aspect of her life. It didn't help that Kya was going through an identity crisis – the first of many throughout her life. She was trying to be carefree and mostly single, but it seemed like everyone had something to say about her fleeting flings, especially her mother. Katara claimed she was "just worried" about her, but Kya thought it was disappointment that colored her mother's tone. And then, of course, there was the growing preference for women that Kya was trying to suppress and not suppress all at once, confused about whether she liked men at all or if she liked both or if she was just a complete mess. She knew what the Water Tribe and many remnants of the Fire Nation thought of same-sex couples though, and while Kya didn't really think her parents would disown her for liking women, she didn't much care for the idea of dealing with that kind of judgmental misery for the rest of her life if she could avoid it.
And on top of all that, Kya was kind of tired of being a healer. Much as she liked helping people, and handy though the skill was, the work was often difficult to deal with. She wasn't sure she had the mental strength her mother did, to have sickly and wounded people pressed into her care every single day. It was hard to watch them suffer, to see them die even after all her efforts. Even though there were rewarding moments, and a lot of people that got better, it was the worst cases that stuck with her, and Kya wasn't certain she wanted to spend her life with that kind of responsibility.
But Katara's response to all that was to assume Kya wanted no responsibility at all, that she was just trying to run away from everything and act immature, which was so not what Kya wanted. She just wanted a little freedom, a lot more joy. She wanted to explore the world like Tenzin got to with their father, she wanted to seek happiness and love on her own terms and not be judged for it. She wanted to be unburdened by the legacy of her mother, the greatest healer in the world, because how could Kya ever hope to live up to that?
So Kya packed a bag after a screaming match with her mother and went into the city to stay with her Uncle Sokka. He invited her in without question, but she could feel him watching her for the rest of the evening, waiting for her to tell him why she was there, but Kya kept her lips sealed.
Late that night, the phone rang, and Sokka went to answer. Kya overheard him assuring her father that she was safe and sound. Then Sokka came out to the sitting room and sat back down on the couch, returning to whatever he was reading through while Kya pretended to read the newspaper. He didn't say anything to her at first, until finally his curiosity won out and he turned to her to ask, "Fighting with your mom, huh?"
Kya sighed and glanced at him over the paper. "I don't really want a lecture right now."
"Hey, who do you think you're talking to?" Sokka said, looking half offended. "When have I ever lectured you?" Kya didn't have an answer, pursing her lips and shaking out the newspaper. "Besides, I've fought with your mother way more than you have."
Kya snorted a little, but still didn't say anything at first, still staring stubbornly at the newspaper. Sokka seemed to get the hint and went back to what he was doing. But it was only maybe five or ten minutes before Kya slapped the paper down into her lap and flew into a tirade about how much her mother was driving her insane.
Sokka sat and listened for a while, and when Kya was finished, stroked his short beard and mused, "Hmm, this reminds me of the time when I –"
Kya cut him off with an exasperated groan. "Uncle. If this is another boomerang story, I swear –"
"It wasn't!" Sokka insisted. "It was a – you know what, forget the story. All I'm gonna say is that your mom loves you, like a lot, and she's always been a worrier. But if you tell her everything you just told me, I'm sure that she'll understand. Family is more important than anything. Not your job or the way you choose to live, but the people we love most, accepting us for who we are. I don't want to see either of you lose sight of that."
Kya had huffed and rolled her eyes and continued to not speak to her mother for over a week, until Sokka dragged her back to the Island himself and forced the pair to reconcile.
But Kya never really told her mother what was bothering her the most, and they both glossed over the whole incident so they could go back to normal. Kya forced herself to endure whatever bothered her, until she had convinced herself so well that she actually started to believe the life she made for herself was what she wanted.
Almost twenty years later, Kya was married and had two young sons, and she was miserable. But she had brought it upon herself and she had no one to turn to. She couldn't tell her parents or anyone really. She couldn't face the disappointment and the shame. She couldn't even talk to Kole, her own husband, because he believed in all the worst of the old Water Tribe traditions and he would never understand. So she started making mistakes, one of which that got her into a lot of trouble, and which aligned perfectly with one of Sokka's visits to the South Pole.
He arrived late in the evening, and hadn't sent word that he was coming because his letter seemed to have gotten lost somewhere on the way. Kya always insisted he stay with her when he was visiting, and since he thought she had gotten his letter, he quietly entered her house in the middle of the night, intending to rest on the couch. But Kya was still awake, having only returned home herself less than thirty minutes before, and when she heard the door opening, her heart seized up in panic. She briefly considered hiding in the bathroom where she stood, but decided to face the enemy head on, anger boiling up within her as she stormed out to the front room, because how dare they come after her again?
Coming face to face with her Uncle Sokka scared the life out of both of them, and they screamed their shock as Kya dropped her water weapon with a splash and Sokka clapped his hand against his chest, over where his heart was.
"Spirit's, Kya!" he exclaimed, at the same time she demanded, "What are you doing here?!"
Then he explained about the letter and she told him she hadn't gotten it and they both slumped down onto the couch in relief. Sokka worried that he had woken the rest of the house, but Kya assured him that Kole had taken the boys to his mother's for the night and all three of them were staying there. Sokka might have been confused by that, but didn't comment. Instead, he lit the lamp resting on the end table, illuminating the nearly pitch black room with more than just the moonlight flickering in through the window, and that's when he saw Kya's face clearly for the first time.
He blinked several times at her and then reeled back with a gasp. "Kya! What happened to your face?!"
In all the excitement, Kya had forgotten about the dark, swollen bruise under her eye that she had been trying to heal, and she hastily tried to cover it up, but the damage had been done.
"Oh, it's nothing," Kya dismissed. "I was just out and – the bar, you know – rough crowd this late – some friends and I got into a scuffle with another group." She tried to laugh it off, but Sokka was looking at her in that way where it felt like he was staring straight into her soul, and his brow was furrowed and she knew that he could tell she was lying.
But she couldn't tell him. She couldn't tell him that she had fallen in love with a woman in town that she met at the clinic. She couldn't tell him that she started setting up play dates with her because they both had sons around the same age. She couldn't tell him that she started sleeping with the married woman while the kids were napping in the other room and their husbands were at work, or that the other woman's husband had come home early one day and discovered them. She couldn't admit how stupid she had been, how she had only spiraled out even more when she came home to find out that Kole knew everything and was threatening to take the boys away from her. Instead of straightening herself out, instead of groveling to Kole and proving to him that she was still a good mother, she spent the last several nights at the bar while her husband and sons stayed with Kole's parents. She couldn't tell him that, tonight while she was out, she was accosted by a hateful group that knew about what she had done, a group that shouted slurs and shoved her into the corner of a table and blackened her eye.
Instead, she burst into tears, and Sokka pulled her into his arms, and she sobbed against him for a while.
But when she started to quiet and he asked in a voice of deadly calm, "Kya, did Kole do this to you?" she knew she had to get a hold of herself.
She rapidly shook her head and pulled out of his hold, wiping at the tears and snot, and saying quickly, "No, no. It wasn't him." At least, she hoped it wasn't. She didn't think he had it in him, prejudiced as he may be. He had known about some of her exploits in the city, had thought them the wild delusions of a young girl, maybe a sickness he thought he could expunge. But he wasn't a violent man, never had been, for all his attempts at controlling her. He might have asked some friends to attack his wife for him, but Kya thought it more likely that they had simply heard about what she had been doing with that other woman – news travelled fast in a village that small –, and took it upon themselves to harass her. Even though Kya's own mother had paved the way for a more open and progressive community within the Water Tribes, not everyone had abandoned the old ways yet. It wouldn't be until the generation of Kya's own children began to take over that such bigotry would be more thoroughly snuffed out.
Sokka seemed to believe Kya when she assured him that it definitely wasn't Kole that had bruised her face, but he was concerned about her all the same, and when the only thing she told him was, "I just don't know what I'm doing anymore; I'm ruining everything," he told her something in turn that she wouldn't yet take to heart.
"Kya, you need to be true to yourself, and figure out what it is that you want. How can you expect to be true to anyone else if you can't be true to yourself?"
Except Kya still hadn't figured out how to manage her chaotic feelings, and Sokka's advice reminded her of years ago, when he'd told her "family is more important than anything," and she thought that was how she needed to be true to herself.
So she went to Kole and she begged him to take her back, and she had Akira a year later and she threw herself back into her marriage and her family, and left the affair behind. And eight years after that, she remembered Sokka saying, "how can you expect to be true to anyone else if you can't be true to yourself?", and used it as her excuse to flee.
It wasn't until she was in her fifties that she managed to put the two pieces of advice together.
But better late than never – Sokka used to say that too – and Kya was determined to take advantage of every minute she had left. She had spent the last decade working to mend the relationships she had broken with her children, working to be a part of the rest of her family that she had abandoned just the same, her brothers and Lin and her nieces and nephews. In the process, she had found Nira and Amali, and she was finally being true to both herself and the rest of the people she loved, the people that mattered most.
And because family was everything, she would stand with hers to the bitter end, doing what was right, no matter the difficulties. Nira and Amali wanted to help Prince Wu with the remainder of the evacuation, to see the citizens of Republic City to safety, so Kya would help them. They both had such compassionate hearts, and Kya learned from them every day, learned to be the selfless, level headed person Sokka had been, the person he had tried to help her become.
"Are you ready, love?" Nira asked, snapping Kya from her musings.
And Kya looked up from her seat, to see Nira standing above her with a soft expression and an extended hand, and Kya smiled, unperturbed by the fact that war was upon them when she had such an awe inspiring, soon to be wife at her side. She clasped tightly onto Nira's hand and answered, "I'm ready."
Sokka had shown Kya what love was, and Nira had shown her how far it spanned.
Suyin was five when she went to the Fire Nation with the Avatar's family and her sister. Toph and Sokka had stayed behind, but Aang and Katara had offered to bring Lin and Su, mostly because Tenzin begged to have his best friend come along and partly because Su hadn't been there since she was too young to remember. Su was in awe of the palace and all the shiny objects within, and she was running around the castle, ahead of the rest of the group even as Katara called for her to slow down, trying to take it all in at once.
Eventually, she ended up running into some old, expensive looking statue, and when it crashed to the floor it shattered into a million pieces. Su came to an abrupt stop, looking down at what she had done in horror, panic mounting within her. Katara was gonna be so mad, and the Firelord! Surely Zuko would be furious. What was the punishment for breaking something so important? Could Su be arrested? Banned from the Fire Nation forever? She hadn't even gotten to try fire flakes yet or seen the capitol city or been to the ballet with Kya.
Tears began welling in Su's eyes, and she looked around hastily for something to help. She crouched down and tried to put some of the pieces back together, but she only made it worse and she cut her finger a little. She heard the others coming closer to the corridor where she sat, and she panicked. She scooped the pieces of the broken statue up and held them in her shirt, and then she ran, one hand holding her shirt full of pieces and the other skimming the wall, searching for some place to hide, but she was moving too fast and her seismic sense wasn't that good yet and she couldn't see for the tears blurring her eyes.
Eventually, she found a sort of closet and she scurried inside. She found some hanging cloth to hide behind and curled up there to cry. Later on, she heard some of the others passing by, calling her name, searching for her, and she curled up tighter and held her breath. As she sat there, she deliberated what to do, wondering how long she could hide, where she could go when she inevitably left the closet. She would have to leave the palace. Maybe she could find a way home to her mom. Mom didn't care when she broke stuff. Mom would protect her, wouldn't she? She wasn't sure about Lin. Su's big sister could be protective but she was also a stickler for the rules and she might be mad at Su for breaking the statue.
Su still hadn't figured out how she was going to find a boat home when she heard the closet door opening. She instantly froze, sitting very still and hoping whoever it was would just leave, but then the cloth covering her was pulled aside, and she looked up to see the Firelord himself standing above her.
She instantly burst into tears again, hyperventilating as she told Zuko, "I'm s – so sorry, Mr. Firelord, sir. I b – broke your very old pretty statue. I – I didn't mean to – it was a – a – accident. I promise I'll pay you back but I – I don't have any moneys. I can work – I'll clean – how – however long. I'll miss my mama, but it's o – okay. Just don't throw me in the jail p – please. I –"
"Su, Su," Zuko interjected, and she was surprised when he knelt down beside her on the dirty floor, taking one of her hands into his and looking at her with a kind expression. "Little Su, I promise it's okay. You don't have to pay for the statue and you won't be arrested."
Su sniffled and looked up at him in disbelief. "R – really?"
Zuko chuckled and reached out to gently wipe away some of her tears. "Yes, really. We don't throw people in jail for accidents."
Su rubbed her eyes, her lower lip in a pout. She gathered up the pieces of the statue and held it out to him. "Even for this? It looks really old and important."
Zuko took the main part of the statue from her and threw it carelessly over his shoulder. "Who cares about that old thing? It was just collecting dust."
Su stared at him in shock. "I thought you'd be mad."
He just continued to smile pleasantly, pulling a handkerchief out of his cloak and handing it to her. While she attempted to clean her face up some, he continued speaking softly to her. "Don't worry so much, sweetheart. I'm not mad at all. It was an accident.
"I shouldn't've been running," Su mumbled.
"Everyone deserves a second chance," Zuko told her, pulling her up onto her feet.
Su didn't realize just how well Zuko understood that until she was older and knew the story of Zuko's background, how he had hunted Aang and turned against his Uncle, only to realize the mistakes he had made, to turn against his sister and his father instead, and fight with Aang and the rest of his friends to end the war with the Fire Nation.
Of course, Su's mistake had been a lot less dramatic. But it wasn't the last mistake she ever made, and while she never contributed in the wrong side of a war, she did turn against her family. She betrayed nearly everything her mother ever stood for by driving a getaway vehicle for her so-called friends, and she tore open her own sister's face.
Su didn't really feel all that bad though, not at first. She was young and dumb and she was mad at her mom and sister both for getting her sent away from the only life she had ever known. She did some traveling and bounced around looking for a place to belong. She reconciled with her mother but not with Lin. She met Bataar and built a city and a family all at once. She had her first son and then her mother died.
The funeral was terrible enough on its own, but made worse by the fact that Lin refused to even look in Su's direction. Tenzin kept Su away when she tried to approach, and even some of the rest of his family did the same, advising Su to avoid having an argument with her sister in the middle of their mother's funeral. Aang and Katara weren't unkind at all, but Lin was their family in a way Su wasn't, and Su felt horribly out of place and alone. She had insisted that Bataar not come with her, that he stay home in Zaofu with baby Junior because she didn't want to drag them so far from home for just a few hours, and she knew she wouldn't be invited to any sort of after funeral family gatherings. But she began to regret it once she was sitting there grieving by herself. She had thought the funeral would be more of a formality, that she was there to pay her respects to her mother and she could be depressed about the loss at home, but it was harder than she had anticipated, even more so after the service when everyone separated into groups.
Su stood on the outskirts, watching Tenzin's family huddle around Lin, a few family members she had never met before, like Kya's kids and Izumi's youngest. She was waiting for the right time to leave, for the strength to walk away from her sister even as she ached to force a conversation or an argument or something.
She sensed Zuko approaching, but she couldn't turn to face him. She half expected him to ask her to leave.
Instead, he murmured, "I am so sorry, Su. I know I don't have to tell you that your mother was a remarkable woman, and she was so very proud of you. I hope to see your city of metal someday. She spoke very highly of it."
Su felt her chest constrict and tears brimming in her eyes and she sucked in a sharp breath to swallow the sob trying to erupt from her throat. "You're welcome to come anytime," she said in a choked voice. "You'll be the only one, now that Mom's gone."
"I don't think that's true," Zuko softly assured.
"She hates me," Su asserted, eyes still laser focused on Lin. "That'll never change."
"I used to think that myself," Zuko murmured, "about a great many people."
"I disappointed her," Su sighed. "Mom, I mean. She said she forgave me but I always wondered… She was the Chief of Police and I shamed her."
"Are you kidding?" Zuko snorted, not unkindly, but amused. "Your mother wasn't innocent herself when we were young. Don't you remember Sokka retelling the story of how they conned several villagers out of money for a few days when they were waiting to strike against the Fire Nation, using your mother's blindness to get away with it? She was always a rule breaker. I thought Aang was trying to pull a prank on me when he told me she was going to start the police force in Republic City. Believe me, she was never ashamed of you. She was probably secretly impressed."
That was fairly true so it made Su feel a little better, but she was still watching her sister and she kept seeing those scars. "I deserve it though," Su muttered bitterly. "I deserve to be hated forever. I don't expect Lin to ever change her mind."
Zuko squeezed her shoulder to turn her towards him, looking at her seriously. "Su, you deserve happiness, no matter what Lin decides. And you deserve to be forgiven. You shouldn't be punished for the rest of your life. You're not the person you once were. Lin will see that. She just hasn't had the opportunity to look. Sometimes we have to give the people we hurt a little more time, but it's not impossible."
Su mumbled a sincere thank you, but she didn't believe him for a few more years, not for herself anyways. Even as she welcomed former convicts and the like into Zaofu, she never believed that she could obtain a second chance for herself. Even when she went to Air Temple Island and tried to force a reconciliation with Lin. Even then, when the two sisters were sort of on speaking terms, there was still a wall between them, even if it was considerably smaller. And it took some time for Su to realize that it was, in part, because neither of them had forgiven themselves. Su had to remember Zuko's assertion that she deserved forgiveness, and only then could she truly understand how to ask for it.
It was something Su had tried to bestow upon her children, upon some of her citizens, upon Kuvira. But as Su spent several days in bed, resting and letting her wound heal so that she would be ready to fight when Kuvira arrived in Republic City with her army, she realized that Kuvira had yet to learn what Su had tried to teach her. Kuvira did not understand that she needed to look inward, to confront what really plagued her, what drove her to behave like a dictator. Because Kuvira hadn't always been that way, troubled though she was. But the girl had always been searching for something, always reaching but never knowing what to grasp. Kuvira was lost, and Su wanted to think it was too late for her, but was it ever too late?
Su was conflicted, and she couldn't be sure, but even with all the hurt she hoped that a second chance was possible, not just for Kuvira but for Bataar Jr too. Because if it wasn't, and the worst happened, Su wasn't certain she could ever forgive herself this time.
All that Lin, Tenzin, Bumi, Kya, and Su had learned from their parents and Sokka and Zuko, had shaped them into the people they were on the day of Kuvira's invasion. And on top of that, each of them had passed that knowledge on even further, to Ronen, Yunjin, Sora, and Jeia. And while the eldest three, at seventeen and twenty, had absorbed much of it into practice, Jeia had not yet reached a point in her life where she could navigate all of those teachings and understand them for what they were. She had stayed with Kuvira, not because she intended to spy as her brother had, but because she loved Kuvira, and she loved the rest of her family, and she hoped she might find a way to curb anymore fighting between them.
Except Jeia hadn't accounted for Kuvira's focus, her stubborn willpower that the two of them had in common. Kuvira was dead set on taking Republic City, on doing whatever was necessary to protect her Empire, and while she listened to Jeia's advisements and concerns, she always had a reason why she needed to go forward with her plans. To be honest, Jeia was not entirely unconvinced by Kuvira's reasonings. Under different circumstances, she might even help Kuvira with them, but she kept remembering her family on the other side, no doubt preparing to fight back. She thought about when the Equalists had tried to forcefully take Republic City and all the harm it had caused her family, and she wondered if all of it was really worth it.
Jeia was confused, and uncertain of what was going to happen in the next few days, but she was determined to do what she could to protect her family, all of her family.
When they left Zaofu to head to Republic City, a week earlier than scheduled, since they knew Yunjin and Zhu Li would warn everyone about the attack, Jeia stood next to Kuvira on the deck of the superweapon. Jeia had seen the spirit weapon in action, and while part of her was a little thrilled by its power, she wasn't sure she liked the thing. Not because of some moral philosophy, but because it wasn't very easily controlled. It was destructive. That was why Jeia preferred metalbending over earthbending. Metal was more refined, more easily contained. While earthbending could be useful, and she was really starting to get the hang of seismic sense, rocks were messy and they blew up in your face and crumbled too easily. Metal was sleek and smooth, easily molded.
The superweapon was destructive, and once shot was only controlled by the direction it was pointed. Afterwards, it destroyed anything in its path, which in practice was pretty cool, but in reality, kind of scary. When they came upon their first target, Jeia knew that she needed to minimize the damage. The less harm Kuvira did in her quest for Republic City, the more likely Jeia might be able to convince everyone else that Kuvira wasn't so bad. And while Jeia herself was still struggling to understand a lot of things, she knew that blowing a bunch of people up was seen as bad.
"We're coming up on the outpost now, Empress," the third person on deck said. He was in charge of communications and some other technical things while Kuvira controlled the weapon.
"Let me know when we're in range," Kuvira said, preparing to move the massive arm of the mecha suit.
Jeia stepped forward and grabbed onto Kuvira's wrist saying, "Wait." Kuvira looked down at her with a frown and a raised eyebrow, and she seemed like she was about to go into a long winded explanation about why they had to blow the place apart, but Jeia continued quickly. "Let me go."
Kuvira only frowned deeper. "What? Jeia –"
"I wanna help," Jeia explained. "Let me go to the outpost. I'll knock those guards out before they even know what hit 'em."
Kuvira's face relaxed. "Oh. Well, that's a fine idea, but it'll be much quicker to –"
"I can handle it," Jeia insisted. "You said you believed in me, didn't you?"
Kuvira's lips quirked. "That's very manipulative of you, Jeia. But if you really want to…"
"I do."
"Very well. But make it quick, and make sure none of them have the chance to send word to Republic City. I'll send Zuri with you."
The communications guy got in contact with Zuri's airship, and then Jeia was climbing up out of the giant mecha suit to rendezvous with Zuri. They used earthbending to run quickly across the open landscape in the direction of the outpost. When they got close, they went the rest of the way on foot, creeping around the back, up the mountain top, and into the facility. Kuvira had said it only housed about eight people, which would be easy enough to handle, especially with the element of surprise.
When Jeia and Zuri reached the entrance, Zuri stepped back with a smirk and motioned for Jeia to go ahead. He thought she was just some dumb girl, but she'd show him.
There were two guards at the entrance, and it took Jeia three seconds to grab hold of their metal helmets and knock their heads together. They slumped to the ground, unconscious, and Jeia rushed forward, removing the metal helmets and morphing them into one long strip, which she wrapped around both guards to hold them in place. She went up to the door and knelt down, holding one hand to the ground and another on the metal door. She reached out with her senses, checking to see what was going on inside. There were only about three rooms and one of them was empty. Only one person was in the smallest of the three, and the other five were in the main hub. Jeia quietly eased the door open and slipped into the first room, knocking the sentry guard inside unconscious.
Zuri strolled casually behind, and Jeia ignored him. As she strode towards the entryway of the main room, she held out her hand, and the metal brace on her forearm unwrapped and came to hover in the air, morphing into the shape of a boomerang like her brother had. It probably wasn't all that accurately made but it wasn't like she knew how to throw one. She was only using the shape because it had rounded edges and probably wouldn't stab anybody. Seeing what had happened to her Aunt Su after she had been stabbed was not fun, and Jeia didn't really want to do that to anybody else.
As she entered the room, casually but quiet, she looked around with both her eyes and her seismic sense, taking note of all five sentries and where they stood. None of them noticed her entrance, focused as they were on each other or their equipment, or the outside viewport where they would soon be able to see Kuvira's approaching army on the horizon. So Jeia whistled, and the room went silent, and all five of them turned to face her, surprise blooming in each of their faces. Before they could react, she flicked her wrist, and the makeshift boomerang went spiraling across the room, smacking into the hand of the first guy that moved and bouncing upwards to hit him in the chin. From there, the boomerang spun to the right, smacking two more sentries on the side of the head, and then careened off to the far left side of the room to rapidly bounce from one sentry's forehead to the other at least five times before they both dropped. The boomerang came back around to hit the other three one more time for good measure, and then returned to Jeia's wrist with force, spiraling around her forearm and latching into place.
All five sentries were motionless on the floor, and Jeia stepped to the side, turning halfway to look at Zuri, holding her arm out to gesture him ahead. "I'll leave the rest to you."
She expected him to tie the sentries up, maybe destroy their equipment, but when he dragged one of the guys up and tried to stab a dagger through his heart, Jeia lurched forward with a shout. She wasn't able to stop him in time, but she managed to use her metalbending to move the dagger a few inches to the right, so that it stabbed into the sentry's shoulder instead.
"What are you doing?!" Jeia screamed, rushing forward to smack Zuri's hand away as he looked at her in annoyed confusion. "Stop that!"
"We can't let them send a message to the city," Zuri said plainly, and when Jeia continued to batter his hand and his arm with her little fists, he roughly shoved her away. "Go back to Kuvira."
"Just tie them up!" Jeia protested, stomping right back over to him.
"They could get free," he argued.
"So destroy their equipment! We'll make it to the city before they do!" Jeia wasn't sure why she was so distressed but her chest hurt and it felt like she couldn't breathe. She was staring at the sentry guard's bleeding shoulder and she wanted to fix it but she didn't know how. She was only made angrier still when she felt tears pricking the back of her eyes. She couldn't cry. She wasn't a stupid baby!
"We're at war, kid," Zuri patronized. "If you haven't got the stomach for it, go back to your mommy." He pulled the dagger out of the unconscious man's shoulder and blood sprayed across Jeia's face. He swung the knife up again, intending to finish what he had started
Jeia gritted her teeth and squeezed her fists, and her face turned red with rage. The metal in the room began to rattle all along the walls and the floor, and she felt herself losing control, but she had forgotten all her father's techniques to stop it.
Before Zuri could kill the defenseless sentry, a piece of metal from the opposite wall came flying over to slap into his chest, flinging him against the wall behind him and holding him there. Six smaller strips of metal morphed into sharp points and poised themselves at Zuri's throat.
When he had recovered from his initial shock, he laughed throatily, his voice strained as if he was in pain. "Now I see why Kuvira likes you so much. Not sure she'll like you killing me though."
"I'm not gonna kill you," Jeia snapped. "I'm just gonna cover up your stupid face before I go."
Jeia focused, holding her hand out and flexing her fingers, her brow furrowed, and the metal around Zuri seemed to melt into the wall, all around him, trapping his limbs so that he couldn't budge and covering his entire face except for his mouth so that he could breathe. He would probably still escape it eventually, if he managed to bend without hardly moving, but it would hold him long enough for Jeia to leave. He was shouting at her, calling her names, threatening her, but she ignored him. She went around the room and tied up all the sentries so they wouldn't be able to move for a while either. She didn't know what to do about the guy Zuri had stabbed, but she remembered seeing people wrap wounds like that to stop the blood so she did that and hoped it'd be enough. Then she destroyed all the equipment she could find in the tiny building, ripping out wires and smashing all the controls. She left without a backward glance and sprinted back to where Kuvira waited.
Kuvira was worried the moment she saw Jeia, rushing over at the sight of the blood on the girl's face and hands, crouching and examining Jeia and asking if she was hurt.
Jeia shook her head numbly. "No, but Zuri's gone."
Kuvira sat back on her heels, face contorting in confusion more than sorrow. "You're sure? Should I send someone to –?"
"No," Jeia interjected. "I'm sure. But did you tell Zuri to kill those guards?"
Kuvira narrowed her eyes. "What?"
"Did you tell him to kill them?" Jeia harshly repeated, anger welling up again.
Kuvira shook her head. "No, Jeia. You heard me contact Zuri. Did you hear me tell him to kill those people?"
"No, but you could have before," Jeia persisted, though her ire was dimming. "Is that what we do? Kill people?"
"Those people killed Zuri," Kuvira countered without answering. "Do you really think they're better?"
"That was his own fault," Jeia muttered, turning her head away and hoping she was good at telling lies. "I told him not to – he wouldn't listen to me."
Kuvira grasped Jeia's chin and turned the girl's face towards her. "I'm listening to you."
Annoyingly, Jeia felt her bottom lip wobble, upset now because of what Zuri had done and worried that Kuvira was the same way. Kuvira had wanted to blow the entire sentry station apart, with all the guards inside, so clearly, she wasn't opposed to killing. How was Jeia supposed to stop Kuvira from doing all the things that would get her into trouble when she finally got caught? Could Kuvira be stopped at all? The only thing Jeia knew was that she loved Kuvira and she didn't want anything bad to happen to her, but she didn't want to kill people that couldn't defend themselves either. She didn't want to have to visit Kuvira in prison, if her parents would even let her.
Kuvira seemed to notice Jeia's distress, even if she didn't know exactly from where it stemmed, and she pulled Jeia into a tight hug. Normally, such a hug would be welcome, but while it was mildly comforting, Jeia couldn't help but wish it was her mother instead.
Lin, Kya, Tenzin, Bumi, and Su were gathered at the top of the main temple, with Raiko, Tosuki, Nira, Wei, and Wing when they received word of Kuvira's approach.
Ronen, Korra, Asami, Bolin, and Mako had left earlier that morning, hoping to take out Kuvira's superweapon before she brought it to the city in a week's time. When they returned after only a few hours and with panicked expressions, Lin knew they weren't returning with good news.
"Kuvira's army is only a few hours away," Korra revealed to the stunned group.
"No," Tenzin gasped, "they can't be! We're not ready."
"And that spirit weapon of hers is attached to a giant mecha suit," Korra went on. "It's over twenty-five stories tall!"
Raiko immediately turned to Tosuki, "Get General Iroh on the line and tell him that the attack is happening today. We need to lock down the city."
Tenzin told Nira and Kya, "Find Wu and get the remaining citizens to safety immediately. We can't have innocent lives in jeopardy."
"What should we do?" Bolin asked.
"We should go to the factory," Ronen answered.
He looked over at Asami, who agreed, "Maybe we can get a few of those hummingbird suits up and running."
"We're coming with you," Su said, Wei and Wing nodding beside her.
"I'll head to the front lines and help General Iroh," Korra decided.
While everyone was rushing off, Tenzin looked to Lin and Bumi. "We'll need to find Sora and Yunjin, and get the airbenders ready." And then they were rushing off too.
A few hours later, Lin was stood upon the roof of one of Republic City's tall buildings, wind whipping her hair and the sun beating down upon her back. In the desolate silence, a tremor echoed out, shaking the earth, and in the distance a great metal beast could be seen, Kuvira's giant mecha suit, striding into view.
Lin reached to her left, and grabbed hold of Tenzin's hand, and their eyes met in sinking gloom. But for once, they were together as darkness approached, and Lin was not afraid. She was ready to take the leap, and face the enemy with him at her side.
Chapter 99: Chapter 99
Chapter Text
Chapter 99
Jeia stood next to the communications officer on deck as the giant mecha suit came upon Republic City. Kuvira had told her to stand back, so that she could better wield the weapon, and Jeia had mutely done as she was told, but found herself creeping forward the closer they got to the city, staring out at her home and all the war machines waiting for their arrival.
When they were within range, a male voice came through the radio saying, "Kuvira, this is President Raiko. I order you to stand down. Turn your army around and leave."
"You're in no position to give orders," Kuvira replied, undaunted.
"Stand down, or we will attack!" Raiko asserted.
"I don't think you understand the power I possess. Let me make it clear."
And before Jeia could so much as blink, Kuvira was shifting and moving, using the mechanisms within the suit to lift the arm and aim it at the warships floating in the bay. A great, purple beam of light exploded out of the canon, rocking the suit slightly, and Jeia grabbed onto the railing to hold herself upright. The energy beam, meanwhile, struck one of the ships in the bay, and it burst into flames. Kuvira immediately began loading another capsule of spirit vines into the chamber, and aimed another shot at two more warships, and two more after that. Jeia winced, squeezing her hand tight against the railing and hoping that her family wasn't on any of those ships.
Kuvira turned the arm downwards, aiming it at the soldiers on the field, and Jeia knew someone she loved would be down there. "You have three seconds before I wipe out your army," Kuvira said through the radio.
There was a lengthy pause, and Jeia held her breath, and when no response came through, Kuvira declared, "Time's up!"
"STOP!" Raiko's voice cut in, with no time to spare. "We surrender. Republic City is yours."
Kuvira straightened up, relaxing her stance and letting the huge arm drop to the side of the mecha suit. "Good. Turn your army and the Avatar over to me, and give Bataar your location. He'll present you with our terms."
Jeia sucked in a deep breath, and made the only decision that she could. She stepped forward and told Kuvira, "Let me go with him."
"That won't be necessary," Kuvira said, with only a brief glance down at Jeia.
"Let's face it," Jeia argued, "nobody likes Junior all that much, and he's not a great negotiator."
"They'll agree to our terms," Kuvira asserted. "And if they don't, I'll persuade them."
Jeia sighed. "They'll come after you. Because of me. Raiko gave up, but the rest of my family won't."
Kuvira looked down at Jeia then, her expression pinched, unreadable. "You want to go back to them."
Jeia reached out and took Kuvira's hand. "I want to stay with you."
"Then stay," Kuvira insisted. "I'll protect you."
"If they see that I'm safe, I might be able to convince them not to attack you," Jeia reasoned. "And then we can be done and we won't have to fight anymore. I'll come back. I promise."
Kuvira shook her head, and she actually looked a little sad. "They'll never let you come back."
"I'll find a way," Jeia swore. Because even after everything she had seen, even with all the worries she had about what Kuvira was doing, Kuvira was like a big sister to her, a best friend, and Jeia couldn't turn her back on someone she cared about that much. She could have wrecked the inside of the mecha suit, tried to stop Kuvira right then and there and made it easy for the opposing army to fight back against Kuvira's on a level playing field. But Jeia didn't want to bring Kuvira down. She just wanted all the fighting to stop.
Bataar's voice crackled through the radio then saying, "We've done it, Kuvira. And I just got word that President Raiko is on Air Temple Island. I'm heading there now."
Kuvira looked away, and shrugged her hand out of Jeia's. She tapped the control to respond to Bataar, "Before you go, stop by the mecha suit and pick up Jeia. She's going to come with you."
"Um, I don't think that's necessary –"
"It's already been decided," Kuvira interrupted impatiently, cutting off the radio and moving away.
Jeia could tell that Kuvira must have been angry or upset or maybe both. The past week, though busy, had been nice, for the two of them to be together again after so long, to laugh at stupid people and metalbend together, and Kuvira always treated Jeia like an equal even though she was young. Jeia felt sad about leaving, but she wouldn't say so.
When Bataar arrived, Jeia hesitated, looking over at where Kuvira stood, ramrod straight, hands clasped behind her back and feigning indifference. Jeia went over and hugged Kuvira's stiff form, murmuring quickly, "You're my family too. I love you."
And then she left before Kuvira could respond or she could rethink her decision, hoping that it wasn't the last time she'd see Kuvira.
Lin, Tenzin, Bumi, Sora, and Yunjin convened at Asami and Ronen's warehouse, with Korra, Su, and the others.
"Raiko surrendered," Korra said as she entered the factory. "It's down to us now."
"How are we supposed to fight an entire army, a mecha giant, and that crazy weapon?" Bolin fretted.
"We can't fight it, but maybe we can cripple it," Asami said.
"We have to keep in mind that Jeia is probably on that thing too," Lin cut in.
"We have to make sure whatever we do doesn't hurt her," Ronen agreed.
"Are we sure Kuvira would have brought her?" Mako wondered.
"She's definitely nearby," Sora answered, eyes closed and looking meditative.
"Kuvira likely won't let Jeia out of her sight," Tenzin said.
"So how do we destroy that thing and get Jeia out all at the same time?" Su sighed.
"And avoid getting ourselves blown up in the process," Bumi muttered
Asami looked over to where Zhu Li and Varrick stood. "Zhu Li, when you were spying on Kuvira, did you learn anything about that metal monster?"
"I had no idea they were even building it," Zhu Li admitted.
"I had heard some things," Yunjin added, "but Junior was suspicious of me from the beginning. He kept most of its inner workings under wraps."
"Guess Bataar Jr. is a better inventor than I thought," Varrick grumbled. "Don't tell him I said that!"
"That's it!" Korra exclaimed with brimming excitement. "Bataar Jr. built it, he'll know how to take it down! I say we capture him, and get him to talk."
Lin looked over at Su, but her sister's expression was mostly unreadable.
Tenzin stroked his beard and hummed thoughtfully, "Hmm…"
"I know it's a long shot," Korra conceded when she sensed Tenzin's hesitation, "but it's the only chance we have, and if we don't –"
"Korra," he cut her off. "I'm in," and Lin could hear the decisiveness in his tone.
"We'll need a stealth team of airbenders to get in and out of Bataar's airship unnoticed," Korra said. "Tenzin, Bumi, Yunjin, Sora, let's get moving."
Lin decided to stay behind at the factory with the others, and when Tenzin and his group had gone, she approached her sister. Su was standing with Opal, Wei, and Wing, but she seemed to be somewhere else as her children spoke amongst themselves, arguing a little over what to do with their eldest brother when Korra's team returned with him.
Lin bumped her shoulder gently into Su's and quietly asked, "How are you feeling?"
"Nervous," Su whispered, still with a far-off look.
"Whatever happens here, I'm with you," Lin assured, hoping that would be enough, knowing it might not be, not when it was a matter of Su's child. "However this thing goes with Junior, however you want to handle it, I'm on your side. I won't let them do anything you're not comfortable with." Not that Korra would really hurt him, but if they managed to defeat Kuvira, some people would be asking for both of them to answer for their crimes. The Earth Empire wasn't really under Republic City's jurisdiction, but they had blown up enough ships in the bay to be liable for that at least. And there was no telling what Prince Wu might do when he took the throne. Junior was an accomplice to all of Kuvira's plots, not to mention some of his own.
Su finally turned to look at Lin, desperation on her face. "I just hope that he can take this second chance and come back to us. I don't… I don't know what to do if he doesn't."
"He will," Lin asserted. "He has to."
Or so she hoped. For her sister's sake if for no one else.
Korra, Tenzin, Bumi, Sora, and Yunjin took Kyuti across the bay to intercept Bataar Jr's airship, flying high above the floating metal ship so as not to be seen, hovering there among the clouds. Then Sora told Kyuti to fly home, and the four of them leapt out of the saddle to glide down through the air and land atop the airship. Korra used metalbending to rip open the top hatch, and then she, Bumi, and Tenzin dropped down into the empty corridor, quickly and noiselessly rushing for cover. They hid themselves in an alcove for a moment as a soldier strode down the opposite corridor, and then Korra poked her head out to check that the way was clear. She gestured for them to follow, and then the three of them were tiptoeing down the corridor, sliding to a stop when they overheard a familiar voice on the other side of the wall.
"You'll stay here with Zara till we reach Air Temple Island," Bataar Jr was saying. "I can't have you running around the ship unsupervised."
There was a scoff and then the retort, "I'm not your prisoner and you're not my parent. I'm not gonna sit in this room the whole time."
Korra contained her own surprise, but heard Tenzin quietly gasping behind her, "Jeia!"
There was movement, and Bataar's exasperated huff before he told someone, presumably Zara, "Stay here. We'll be back." And then Bataar's footsteps following after Jeia's.
Korra waited a moment, holding Tenzin back when he surged forward. Then she crept to the doorway and checked both directions, saw the back of a girl's head as she entered a room on the right, and Bataar following Jeia on the left. Korra waited until Jeia and Bataar rounded the corner, and then, after ensuring that Zara wasn't watching, sprinted down the hallway after Bataar.
Upon rounding the corner, Korra found Jeia peeking her head out of a doorway, beckoning them inside and whispering, "In here!"
Bewildered, Korra hurried inside, Tenzin and Bumi coming after as Jeia closed the door behind them. In the room, Bataar Jr was already subdued, metal wrapped around his arms and mouth as he struggled angrily.
"Daddy!" Jeia exclaimed with excitement as soon as the door was closed, throwing herself into her father's arms, and Tenzin knelt to embrace her with relief.
"Oh, Jeia, I'm so glad you're here," Tenzin sighed, holding her tightly. "I missed you so much."
"I'm sorry I went with Kuvira," Jeia murmured, burying her face in her father's cloak. "I just didn't want everyone to fight. I guess I thought I could fix it, but you were right, I'm just a dumb kid."
"No, no," Tenzin soothed her as she trembled in his arms, and Korra thought it might have been the first time she'd seen Jeia so visibly upset rather than just angry. "You're not dumb at all. I'm sorry you were dragged into all this."
"Are you mad at me?" Jeia mumbled.
"No, sweetheart," Tenzin assured. "I'm just happy to have you back with us again."
Jeia finally pulled away, rubbing at her eyes, and Bumi said, "You got a hug for your Uncle Bumi?" Jeia nodded with a small grin and leapt into his arms. "It's good to have you back, kid. We been lost without you."
Korra went over to hug Jeia too with a bright smile, saying, "Welcome back, Jeia," and the girl's spirits seemed to have lifted a little under their attentions.
A nearby thud reminded them that Junior was still tied up next to them, and fighting against his restraints.
Korra asked, "How'd you know we wanted to capture Bataar?"
Jeia shrugged. "I didn't."
"We should get going," Korra told them. "We've been here too long already."
Tenzin nodded shortly. "Let's go."
Bumi threw a large sack over Bataar, and he and Tenzin picked him up between them. Korra took Jeia's hand, and then the four of them made a run for it, back to the open hatch. They slipped out unseen, and rendezvoused with Sora and Yunjin on top of the airship. The twins were surprised to see Jeia, and rushed forward to hug their baby sister in delight.
"How are we getting off this thing?" Jeia asked, looking up and around, probably expecting to see Oogi or Kyuti.
"Sora and I will hold you between us," Yunjin answered.
Jeia's eyes widened in shock. "What?! No way! Nuh, uh. I'm staying here."
"Don't be silly," Sora said. "We'll keep you safe."
"Or you can ride on the back of my glider," Korra offered with a knowing smirk.
Jeia looked at Korra incredulously and didn't even respond. She looked out over the edge, down at the bay far below, and groaned.
"It's just a short trip," Tenzin reassured Jeia. "Would you prefer I hold you and Yunjin can take Bataar with Bumi?"
Jeia sighed heavily and reluctantly grumbled, "No, I'll be fine."
But just as they were all about to leap off of the airship together, Sora suddenly cried out and fell to her stomach. Korra whirled around, and saw a dark-haired girl stretched halfway out of the top hatch, holding onto Sora's ankle.
Korra prepared herself to blow the girl back, but hesitated when Sora exclaimed, "Zara?!"
Korra had remembered hearing about the infamous Zara, daughter of P'Li that betrayed the airbenders and broke Sora's heart all at once, about how she was taken in by Su, to hopefully be reformed. But according to Yunjin, Zara had defected to Kuvira immediately after Zaofu had fallen, and was the one to rat Yunjin out to Bataar when he attempted to rescue his captured family.
Sora was the first to react, rolling onto her back and kicking her free leg upwards, summoning a gust of wind to hurtle Zara up out of the hatch. Zara lost her grip on Sora's ankle, and smacked belly first onto the top of the airship, right next to Sora, who cartwheeled over Zara's back and came down with her knees on either side of Zara's rib cage. Sora grabbed both of Zara's wrists and pulled Zara's hands behind her back, holding them there.
"Jeia, make me some cuffs," Sora requested, and Jeia hastily fashioned some metal ones for her sister, ensnaring Zara's wrists and ankles.
"Now what are we supposed to do?" Yunjin questioned. "We can't carry this many people."
"If we leave her here, she'll alert someone as soon as we leave," Bumi advised.
"Not if we just leave her restrained up here and melt the hatch," Yunjin muttered.
"She could fall off," Sora argued, but Yunjin only raised his eyebrows, like he didn't understand why that was a problem.
"I'll just have to carry Jeia with me," Korra decided. "Jin and Sora can take Zara."
"I won't fight you," Zara said in a low tone, straining her neck to try and look back at Sora. "I didn't tell anybody that you were here."
"You'll forgive us for not believing you," Tenzin said to Zara, and then to the rest of them, "We need to go."
"Somebody cover her mouth," Yunjin said of Zara.
"Jeia, use some metal to strap yourself to me," Korra told the girl, opening her glider. Jeia looked pale, but did as she was told, her head pressed against Korra's chest and her arms wrapped tight around her back, a metal strip wrapped around them both.
They all finally leapt off, their charges in tow, and drifted down into the edge of the city, to Asami and Ronen's warehouse by the bay.
Over the past three years, Ronen's life had been a series of ups and downs. On the one hand, he didn't see or hear from his best friend for nearly the entire time. His brother – and by extension, his entire household – had been suffering for over a year after being crippled and depressed. And he hadn't seen much of the rest of his friends either, as they all dealt with Korra's leaving and the aftermath of the Red Lotus in their own ways. On the other hand, Ronen and Asami had been together through all of it, working together, growing together, and Ronen counted himself lucky every day that he had her. They had also spent much of that time rebuilding Republic City to accommodate for the spirit vines that had taken up residence after Harmonic Convergence, and in an effort to advance the city's infrastructure to align with its increasing populace and advancing technology, which had been a lot more fun than Ronen could have imagined.
Ronen had never been too worried about where he would end up, but he was glad to have landed where he did. Working with Asami and the rest of her brilliant mechanics and strategists was the dream job he'd never dreamed of. To think that he had started out as just a boy building model boats and tiny cities in a shed on the Island, and then a teenager tinkering with old manuals to try and recreate devices that would help him make up for his lack of bending. To now, when he was one of the top leaders of Future Industries, alongside a woman he had always admired and respected, even before he loved her.
But lately he wondered if he might have done more. He had been concerned about some of Kuvira's dealings long before she came to Republic City. He and Asami both had discussed fortifications for the city after that mess with Xai and the missing women that had been taken by Bataar Jr. But even after making the plans and building a few prototypes, they hadn't gotten the clearance from Raiko, who hadn't been concerned at the time, and Ronen thought maybe he should have done more to push it. He thought he should have gone looking for Korra sooner, even though she insisted that it wasn't his fault and she probably wouldn't have been open to listening to him. Even though most of the citizens had been evacuated by now, the city could still face a lot of destruction if Kuvira turned that weapon onto it, and while buildings could be rebuilt, it would be costly and time consuming and some people would likely be without homes and work in the meantime. Even more pressing, Ronen worried for his family and friends as they discussed ways to take down that giant mecha suit. Even though he knew it was necessary, he had seen the destruction it caused, and he couldn't imagine that weapon being turned on any one of the people he loved. He couldn't imagine how they could ever hope to defeat it.
Then again, they had all been fighting against terrible odds for much of their lives, especially in the last few years, with one deranged monster after another. This particular monster was a little trickier though, because Kuvira had been family to some of them, had been on their side through so many battles, and now it was a choice between their freedom and taking her down. Ronen wished they had tried sooner to stop her, to stop that spirit weapon in its tracks, but without military support and Korra still struggling with her bending, they hadn't been much of a match for Kuvira's army. They still weren't, not with Raiko's surrender and the United Force's ships sunken in the bay, but they were out of options now. Frankly, Ronen was half tempted to leave it, to let Kuvira have the city and come back another day when they were better prepared, but they had already let Kuvira go before, and she only seemed to grow stronger the longer they left her unattended. It was now or never, and Ronen knew his family and Korra weren't giving up, and he wouldn't leave them.
They had, at least, finished manufacturing some of the hummingbird suits that Ronen, Asami, and Varrick had designed, and Ronen just hoped that would be enough. He hoped that his cousin Bataar would tell them how to defeat that thing, hoped that they could do so without Jeia being harmed. Hope, it seemed, was what drove them. His grandmother had always told him that hope was the strongest weapon, that without it, even the greatest army was made weak, but with it, even the most powerful adversary could be defeated. Ronen had lived by that as much as he could, trusting in his family and friends and their talents, trusting in himself even when it felt like his lack of bending could be a hindrance. He knew when to step back and when to jump in, and he didn't let fear override his senses. He wouldn't let his fear stop him from making sure Kuvira's super weapon was taken out for good.
While Korra and her team were off capturing Bataar Jr, Ronen busied himself with checking over the hummingbird suits with Varrick, Asami, and Zhu Li, ensuring they would be ready to be used when the time came. He wished they had more functional ones and more people to man them, but they would have to make do.
When Ronen heard a commotion at the entryway, he looked up and saw Korra returning, with Tenzin and Bumi lugging Bataar Jr between them and Jin and Sora lagging behind, but they had returned with more than anyone had been expecting. Yunjin and Sora were each holding onto one of Zara's arms as they pulled the restrained girl between them. And even more surprisingly so, striding casually along beside them all was Jeia.
Ronen's little sister stopped at the top of the stairs and looked all around the factory, searching for someone in particular, and her face lit up when she finally spotted her mother rushing up the stairs to meet her, shouting a delighted, "Mama!"
Jeia practically jumped off of the top ledge and into Lin's arms, and it was a testament to her mother's strength that they didn't both go toppling backwards. Ronen felt his feet moving in that direction as well, dropping his tools a bit carelessly and smiling before he even reached Jeia. He had been so worried that he had made the wrong choice, that convincing his parents to leave Jeia behind would turn out to be the wrong decision, and not the safe one like he had believed. He was more than relieved to see Jeia okay, to have her back with them and not inside that super weapon.
"We thought you would be with Kuvira," Ronen said after he had hugged Jeia and they had all moved off of the stairs.
"I was," Jeia admitted, leaning against Lin's side, looking sad, and she didn't elaborate so Ronen didn't press her. He knew all of this was difficult for her.
"Well it's good to have you back," Asami said with a soft smile.
"I hate to ask," Korra said, kneeling down in front of Jeia, "but do you know anything about that superweapon? About how we might destroy it?"
Jeia shook her head. "That was all Junior. I didn't see them build it."
Everyone seemed to turn as one to look at where Bataar had been confined to a chair, mouth still gagged, glaring darkly at each of them. To his right, Zara was similarly confined, but strained slightly and attempted to speak through her mouth restraint, clearly trying to tell them something, but no one moved to release her just yet. Ronen was not even sure how they had come to obtain Zara in addition to Bataar and Jeia, but he assumed she had been nearby.
Korra went to Bataar first, uncovering his mouth and affecting an intimidating stance. As soon as his mouth was free, he scorned, "You've made a terrible mistake. Once Kuvira finds out I'm missing, you're all done for." He snapped a sharp gaze onto Jeia adding, "You most of all. She trusted you."
Ronen felt his own hackles rise at the threat, and could hear his mother half growling as she protectively pulled Jeia closer to her.
"That's why, before she finds out, you're going to tell us how to stop that mecha giant," Korra told Bataar, "or else."
"Or else what?" Bataar sneered.
Suddenly Korra's eyes flashed, turning a bright white as she entered into the Avatar state, and her hand shot out, grabbing Bataar by the front of his shirt and lifting him up, chair and all, with one strong arm. She stared menacingly at him, and for a moment, he squirmed in fear, thrashing against his bonds.
A moment later, he stilled, relaxing as a smirk curled his lips, and he stared undaunted at her saying, "You won't hurt me. I know an empty threat when I see one."
Korra maintained her threatening stance for a moment longer, and then sighed in exasperation, throwing Bataar down, and he groaned as his chair smacked into the floor and jostled him roughly.
"Was this your best idea?" He laughed darkly. "You've lost, only you haven't accepted it yet."
Aunt Su stepped forward saying, "Let me talk to him." She came to stand before her son, but only got out a pleading, "Bataar –"
"If you think I'm going to spill all my secrets to you, Mother, you're sadly mistaken," he cut her off harshly.
"Why are you doing this?" Su asked helplessly. "I know you set out to help better the world, but this is madness!"
"It's madness to let others take what's yours and accept it blindly!" Bataar fired back. "The United Republic belongs to us, and we're taking it back."
"But at what cost? How many people have to lose their lives before Kuvira is satisfied?"
Bataar leaned forward, straining against his bonds. "It doesn't have to cost any lives if you would all just surrender! All that Kuvira and I want is a united Earth Empire!"
"I don't know what I did to hurt you," Su murmured sadly, and Ronen's heart ached for her, "but whatever it was, I'm sorry. When you left Zaofu, it broke my heart, and our family has never been the same since. Please, Bataar – stop all this and come home. We want you back with us."
Bataar had looked away from his mother as she spoke, and when she finished he snapped his gaze back to her, face contorted into a scowl. "Kuvira is my family now," he said forcefully.
Su dropped her gaze, stepping back from her son with tears streaming down her face, and Lin stepped over to her sister, gripping Su's elbow and pulling her into a one armed embrace while glaring daggers at Bataar.
Korra seemed to have an epiphany, looking over at Tenzin and Ronen. "We've been going about this all wrong." She retook her place in front of Bataar and told him, "You're right. I'm not gonna physically hurt you if you don't talk. But there is something I could do that will be even more painful." She bent over slightly to look him straight in the eye. "I will take away the one thing you care for the most... Kuvira."
Surprise flashed in his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"Kuvira might win," Korra conceded. "She might chase us out of the city. But you won't be around to enjoy the victory. Because wherever I run, I'll take you with me. I am going to make it my life's mission to never let you see the one you love again." She straightened up, towering over him with her hands on her hips. "Is taking the city worth losing Kuvira forever?"
"No!" Bataar exclaimed desperately. "You can't!"
"I will," Korra promised. "Unless you convince Kuvira to back off. You two will still have the Earth Empire. Just leave the United Republic alone."
Bataar hung his head, his anger dissipating now as he considered Korra's threat, and it must have worked because his shoulders slumped, and when he looked back up at Korra his expression was resigned.
"Do we have a deal?" Korra asked.
Bataar sighed, and sadly mumbled, "Yes. We have a deal."
"Good," Korra said with a nod, asking the rest of them to bring her a radio, which Akira went to retrieve. "You can tell Kuvira to stand down."
After Akira had returned with the radio, Korra switched it to the channel Bataar gave her, and then held the receiver up to his mouth.
"Kuvira?" Bataar Jr said sullenly. "It's Bataar. I've been captured. My airship was ambushed and I was taken by force. Korra refuses to release me unless we back down and leave the city."
Kuvira's voice crackled back through the radio asking, "Are you injured?"
"I'm fine," Bataar answered.
"Is Jeia with you?" she asked next.
Bataar scowled in Jeia's direction, and opened his mouth to respond in the affirmative, but Lin suddenly kicked at his chair to get his attention, and shook her head with a menacing look. Bataar narrowed his eyes at her, but did as she said and told Kuvira, "No, they took her somewhere else. I'm not sure where."
"Is the Avatar there with you now?" Kuvira inquired.
Bataar paused, and when no one told him not to, he truthfully replied, "Yes, she is. Listen to me… If you try to take Republic City, the Avatar will never let me see you again, and I refuse to live that way. Forget the United Republic; we have our empire! We have each other!" His expression softened, smiling a little to himself. "Let's go back home and get married. The only thing that matters is that we're together for the rest of our lives."
There was a moment of hesitation, and Ronen thought that Kuvira wouldn't accept, but then she was saying, "You're right. This city isn't worth sacrificing our life together. I love you, Bataar."
"I love you too," Bataar said brightly, just before Korra pulled the radio away from his mouth.
"Meet us at Air Temple Island to discuss terms," Korra told Kuvira shortly.
"Very well, Avatar," Kuvira acquiesced, and then the line cut out.
"Well," Bolin said into the sudden silence, "that was easier than I thought."
"If you trust her," Opal muttered.
"Which we don't," Wing agreed.
"Why would she give everything up for him?" Wei scoffed, shooting a glare at his oldest brother.
"Love is weird?" Akira offered with a shrug.
"Speaking of weird," Yunjin cut in, going over to remove the gag from Zara's mouth. "Why are you here?"
"She basically gave herself up to us," Bumi explained to the rest of them that hadn't been there to witness.
"I've been trying to tell you," Zara huffed. "I know a way you can take that thing out. Though I guess you may not need it now."
"What do you know about it?" Ronen asked with interest.
"Nothing," Bataar Jr scoffed, looking angrily over at Zara now. "I should have known you were a traitor, but you're also a stupid one. You don't understand even the most basic mechanics of that suit."
"You're right," Zara admitted, "I don't. But I was there when they were molding it, pouring all that hot platinum metal, and I slipped something else in."
Bataar narrowed his eyes and Yunjin asked, "And what's that?"
"Earth," Zara revealed. "Rocks and dirt and whatever else I could get my hands on. It's not pure platinum anymore. A few good metalbenders should be able to rip it apart. Assuming you don't get stepped on first. And once you're inside, there are two emergency levers in the engine room. If they're shut off at the same time, it'll cut the power."
"You traitorous little –" Bataar began to seethe.
But Korra cut him off, "Calm down. It's over anyways. Kuvira is standing down. As soon as we work out terms with her, we'll let you out of here."
She began untying Bataar as a show of good faith as Asami questioned Zara, "And why should we believe you anyways?"
"Yeah, you've kind of defected a lot," Yunjin added. "How are we supposed to know who's side your on?"
"Why would I want to work for Kuvira?" Zara reasoned. "I never even knew her. She left not long after I came to Zaofu. I only pretended to work for her because she had captured Su and I didn't know what she would do to me. She didn't seem as much the forgiving type, and my mother did try to kill a lot of you, including Kuvira."
"What do you want?" Tenzin inquired, and Ronen was curious of that as well.
Zara didn't answer right away, but her gaze flickered over to where Sora stood quietly not too far away, and that was telling enough. "I want what you all already have," she quietly confessed. "Freedom. And I thought I could show that I'm loyal to you by making Kuvira beatable. I would have fought her myself if that would have convinced you, but I figured it would have just gotten me killed." She looked at Yunjin with chagrin. "I'm sorry about ratting you out to Bataar. I didn't know he had control of your braces. I just thought he'd put you in that cage with your family and I'd have proved myself to him enough to get information, since he wouldn't give it to you."
No one seemed to know what to say to that, because it seemed rather genuine and even if it wasn't, how could they know? But Su and Sora both had said that Zara was making swift progress, before Zaofu was taken, and the young woman clearly cared about Sora, even if she didn't care at all about the rest of them.
Sora stepped forward first, closing her hand over Zara's bound wrist and declaring, "I believe you."
"So do I," Aunt Su chimed in, having recovered herself enough to speak and wipe away her tears, though her voice was still shaky.
No one else had a chance to agree or disagree, because Mako suddenly cried out from across the room, "Guys! She must have our location! She's pointing that weapon right at us!"
"No!" Bataar refuted. "She wouldn't!"
But sure enough, as Ronen looked out of the window where Mako and Bolin stood half petrified, he could see the giant mecha suit in the distance, and the canon arm was aimed straight for the warehouse where they all resided.
"Everyone out!" Korra frantically yelled, whirling on the spot and waving her arms. "Now! Now!"
Sora was already hastily untying Zara, and Yunjin and Bumi surged forward to help her. Ronen turned to run, heart hammering in his chest, his hand landing on the back of Asami's shoulder, but before he could move more than a step, he saw Jeia streak past him, going in the wrong direction.
"Jeia!" he shouted in surprise and panic, nearly tripping himself in his efforts to spin back around and chase after her.
She slid across the floor to where the radio had been left, and snatched up the receiver, screaming into the mic, "Wait! Kuvira, don't! I'm here! Don't! Please! Noooo –" She trailed off in a shriek as Ronen grabbed her around the middle and yanked her up off the floor. He didn't spare a glance for the window where a purple beam of light was blossoming, whirling on the spot and sprinting with Jeia held firmly in his arms.
An ear-splitting BOOM rent the air, and the energy beam blew through the right side of the factory. Ronen saw the searing, bright light overtaking his vision, felt the heat and the shock wave knock into him as the floor exploded in a ball of flame where the blast had struck, and he knew they'd never make it out. He stopped abruptly and dropped to his knees, bringing Jeia with him and then covering her entire body with his own, hoping it would be enough to protect her from the brunt of the shrapnel and debris whizzing overhead. He flinched, eyes closed, and braced himself, expecting pain to stab through him, expecting burning and jabbing and the roof falling down upon his head.
But instead all he felt was tension, heard grunting and a few indecipherable shouts, and when he dared to peek his eyes open, saw that half of the factory remained standing… for now. His mother and Bolin and Korra were holding up parts of the roof to stop it from landing on anyone as the right half of the building crumbled, acrid smoke filling what was left of the room. Up ahead, Aunt Su was ushering her kids outside, Bumi was helping Mako to his feet, and Tenzin was knelt over Akira, who appeared to have been closest to the blast. Asami filled his vision, rushing towards him with ash on her face and worry in her eyes.
Ronen scrambled to his feet, pulling Jeia up with him and checking that she was all right, which she was; she just looked downcast. Then Asami was there hugging them both in relief, and Ronen inhaled deeply, thankful for a moment, before smoke choked his lungs.
"Go ahead, take your time," Bolin said in a strained voice, "just bending a giant wall!"
"Oh, sorry, Bolin," Ronen said sheepishly, pushing Asami and Jeia along in front of him.
Everyone reconvened outside, and the earthbenders were able to drop their hold on the building, letting the roof begin to cave, the walls to sag inwards. The left side of the building was almost salvageable, but of course, the hummingbird mecha suits they intended to use against Kuvira had been on the right, where the brunt of the explosion had been.
"Huh," Varrick mused, scratching his head as he looked upon the rubble. "I thought we were goners there for a second. I can't believe she missed."
"I don't think she did," Ronen told the assembled group. "Jeia shouted into the radio right before the energy beam was shot. I think Kuvira tried to pull out at the last second."
"How kind of her," Lin muttered angrily, standing up on a pile of rubble to look out across the waterway between them and Kuvira, likely checking to make sure they weren't about to be shot at again.
"Do we have everyone?" Korra asked, looking around the group with a furrowed brow. "Is everyone okay?"
"We need you over here," Tenzin called to her, and when Korra's eyes fell on Akira, Ronen saw the shock and concern flash on her face.
Korra rushed over, and Ronen moved in that direction too, and he recoiled slightly when he saw his cousin curled up with a grimace, the right side of her body burnt and bloodied. It didn't look too terribly bad, but it certainly looked painful. Korra set to work, murmuring soothingly to Akira, "It's okay. It looks worse than it is. You're gonna be just fine."
Akira tried to snort and winced. "Feels pretty bad too."
Korra said something else, a teasing remark, judging by her tone, but Ronen didn't hear it, his attention diverted behind him, where Bataar Jr was muttering, louder as his disbelief began to morph into rage. "She tried to kill me… She tried to kill me."
Most of the group had moved over to see that Akira was okay, so Bataar was standing on his own a few meters away, and Jeia was closest to him, having sat down on a rock looking glum and disheveled. And Bataar whirled on her, pointing an accusatory finger at the girl and shouting, "You! You did this! You turned her against me! You took everything from me!"
"Hey!" Lin snapped, alerted to Bataar's yelling and scrambling down off of her perch.
Ronen was already walking back towards them, intending to pull Bataar away.
Before he could get there, Bataar reached behind and pulled something out of the back of his waistband that he pointed at Jeia. Ronen assumed it was a weapon of some sort, but he had never seen anything like it, and he was so taken aback by it, along with everyone else, that he did not understand the danger it posed. He surged forward anyways, intending to snatch whatever it was out of Bataar's hand.
But he was too late. They were all too late. The only person that recognized the thing for what it was, and moved quickly enough to attempt to impede it, was Zara.
She leapt in front of Jeia just as Bataar fired off the mini canon looking object, and a bright purple light burst forth, just like Kuvira's superweapon, smaller but still highly destructive. It slammed into Zara's chest and came out the other side, but it all happened so fast and Ronen was in shock and he didn't know if it hit Jeia or not, but Zara fell back into the girl and they both crashed to the ground.
In the stunned silence, Bataar hissed, the weapon overheating in his hand, causing him to drop it, but Ronen's focus was Jeia and he hurtled across the distance to her. Sora screamed and Lin shouted and everyone was moving, towards Jeia and Zara, everyone was stumbling away from Bataar as he hastily picked the weapon back up and brandished it at anyone that came near him. Ronen wasn't sure that it would even still work, but better not to test fate, better to go to his sister, who wasn't moving, and her eyes were closed and her body was limp.
Sora reached them first, and lifted Zara up off of Jeia, and then Tenzin was there picking Jeia up from the ground, and then Ronen and Lin slid to the ground there too. Yunjin was standing guard as if he expected Bataar to attack, but Bataar was scrambling backwards, rightfully fearing for his life, and if everyone hadn't been so stunned and wary of that weapon and worried about their injured, someone might have stopped him and restrained him, and Ronen considered it for half a second but Jeia.
"Jeia," Tenzin was desperately repeating in a shaky voice, checking for vitals, shaking her motionless form. "Jeia, sweetheart – Jeia, wake up – Jeia..." There was a burn mark on her shoulder, Ronen noticed, her flesh dark and raw, but he couldn't tell how bad it was. There was some blood on the side of her head, where she must have struck the stone when Zara was thrown into her, but that, at least, did not look so worrisome. "She's breathing," Tenzin said breathlessly, and Ronen felt himself taking in a breath in turn. "She's breathing."
And as he was saying it, Jeia was stirring, eyes flickering open a little, a pained grimace on her face, but she was alive.
Zara, on the other hand…
Sora choked out a sob, clutching Zara's limp form against her chest, burying her face in the older girl's dark hair, trying to suck in her keening cries and gasping for air in between. "No, no no, please, no…"
Asami was already pulling Sora against her, hugging her, holding her, and Ronen felt compelled to give his own support, but his mother had seen Zara, what Bataar had nearly done to Jeia, and something in her snapped.
She was on her feet again before anyone could react, murder in her eyes, laser focused on Bataar, who was running away but he wasn't too far. She could reach him with ease. She could chuck a boulder at him and knock him down, or shoot out a metal cable and yank him back by the ankle. She could probably sprint across the rubble with her fury induced adrenaline and tackle him. And Ronen wasn't sure what she would do if she caught him, if that weapon of his was still functional or not.
Aunt Su must have been worried over the same thing, because when she saw her sister and the look on her face, she threw herself in front of Lin with a frantic, "No, Lin, please!"
"Get out of my way," Lin growled, arms grappling with Su's, trying to move her aside.
"Lin, please!"
"He tried to kill her!"
"I know! I know," Su sobbed. "But he's my son. He's my son." Su began to sink to the ground, still holding tight to Lin's wrists as she was overcome with emotion, weeping steadily, begging her sister. "He's my son – please – he's my son – please – I – I –"
The sight of her little sister so distraught seemed to snap Lin out of the rage that had so swiftly consumed her, and she slumped to the ground as well, letting Su collapse against her. She watched Bataar escape over the horizon, and Bolin seemed to consider going after him, but decided not to.
There was so much grief around him that Ronen felt sick, like he couldn't wrap his head around it all. He felt helpless.
"Daddy?" Jeia mumbled, squirming as she woke, gasping when she jolted her shoulder.
"It's okay, sweetheart," Tenzin soothed. "I'm here. You're all right. Just lie still."
"Mama," Jeia whimpered.
"She's right here," Tenzin assured. "She's coming…"
Opal and her twin brothers went to their mother, transferring Su from Lin to Opal's arms, so that Lin could move over to Jeia.
Satisfied that Jeia was being taken care of, Ronen shuffled over to Sora, where Korra was checking over Zara, but she looked at Ronen and he could see the sorrow in her eyes and he knew there was nothing she could do. She moved quietly away, head bowed in regret, to go and help Jeia if she could.
Yunjin dropped down on Sora's other side, looking helplessly at Ronen. Sora had one hand on Zara's sternum, and Ronen covered that hand with his own, squeezing tightly. Sora's other arm cradled Zara's head, Zara's unseeing eyes staring up into the sky, and Ronen gently brushed his fingers over Zara's eyelids to close them.
All the while Sora sobbed, and she looked at Ronen with cloudy gray eyes, gasping after every word, "I – never – told – her –"
"It's okay," Ronen interjected in a near whisper, while Asami stroked Sora's hair and her arm. "She knew. You believed in her. And she knew. That's all she wanted."
"I – should've – d – done – some –"
"No, no, shh," Asami murmured. "None of us knew. She saved Jeia. She was a hero. She wouldn't have wanted you hurt in her place."
Sora shuddered and seemed to cry harder.
Ronen sensed Korra next to him, quietly telling him, "We need to get the injured somewhere safe."
Ronen nodded, but he didn't know how to get Sora to move. He didn't want to make her let go. But he slid his arm under Zara's back and softly urged, "Let me take her. Once we get inside, somewhere safer –"
Sora rapidly shook her head and pulled Zara closer to her chest, and Ronen stilled, uncertain, sharing a brief look with Asami.
Before he could decide on what to do, his mother was there, and Asami moved out of the way, around to Ronen's side, as Lin squatted down next to Sora.
Lin put her arm around Sora's back and grabbed hold of the wrist over Zara's middle, and her voice was firm in a way Ronen's wasn't as she told Sora, "Let your brother take her for a bit. He'll keep her safe. Come on – that's it – I've got you."
Sora slowly began to release Zara as her mother pulled her away, and Ronen took the young woman in his arms, looping his other arm under her legs. Even though he had never known Zara himself beyond what he had learned from others, it broke his heart to look upon someone so young, someone who was trying to change for the better, who had loved his sister, and know that she was gone, taken cruelly by Ronen's own cousin, and Zara had sacrificed herself for Jeia without any thought for herself. Ronen wished, like Sora, that he could have done more, but he would just have to honor Zara by bringing Kuvira and Bataar to justice.
Uncle Bumi suddenly floated down from where he had been perched atop a nearby building, and urgently told the group, "Kuvira is heading our way, with a platoon of mecha suits."
"This is my hometown and I hate to say it," Bolin began, "but there's no use risking all our lives to fight that giant thing! Let her take the city for now. We'll think of some way to come back and beat her!"
"What about all the people who haven't been evacuated yet?" Mako pointed out. "If Kuvira finds out that Wu is with them, she might fire that spirit cannon at him and take them all out."
"I couldn't stop Kuvira from taking Zaofu," Korra said. "I'm not letting her conquer Republic City. The world isn't safe as long as she has that weapon."
"I agree," Lin said from over top Sora's head, holding the distraught girl close, a fire burning in her eyes. "We take down that giant today."
"Well, you benders are going to have to fight her alone," Varrick said in frustration. "She just blew up our factory with all our hummingbird suits."
"Not all of them," Asami revealed. "There are the prototypes back at my office. If we can get those ready to fly, we'll at least be able to offer a little air support."
"Ronen, you take Jeia and the rest of the wounded back to the office," Korra commanded. "Get those suits working as soon as you can. The rest of us will just have to face Kuvira on our own."
Ronen rose to his feet with Zara in his arms, and Lin ushered Sora up onto shaky legs, kissing the top of her head and then transferring her to Asami saying, "Go with Asami now, and I'll be back as soon as I can."
Sora shook her head and tried to argue, "No, I want to go with you. I want to help. I can fight."
"Maybe later," Lin allowed, "but right now you just need to catch your breath. Go with Asami and Ronen. Help them with the suits and look after Jeia."
Sora was too distraught to protest much more, leaning heavily into Asami's side.
Aunt Su came over, still clearly distressed herself, but walking on her own, tear tracks drying on her face. She stood before Tenzin, who was holding onto Jeia, and offered, "I'll take her, make sure she's well looked after."
"Thank you, Su," Tenzin murmured, squeezing her wrist, sympathy in his gaze that she ignored. "Jeia, your Aunt Su is going to take you to Asami's office. Your Mama and I will come see you as soon as we can."
"Be careful," Jeia pleaded, going into her aunt's arms without argument, looking too tired to try and join them.
After assembling a makeshift stretcher for Akira, Varrick and Zhu Li carried the injured young woman between them. Then the three of them, along with Ronen, Zara, Asami, Sora, Suyin, and Jeia, began making their way to Asami and Ronen's offices, while the others went with Korra to face off against Kuvira's superweapon.
It was a slow walk, but not too far, and the group was subdued the entire time. When they reached the office, Asami, Varrick, and Zhu Li went straight to work, while Ronen took Zara to a room where he could lay her down. Sora drifted after him, and before he could cover Zara with a blanket he had pulled out of the closet, she bent down and placed a brief kiss on Zara's forehead, closing her eyes and letting a few more tears fall before she sucked in a deep breath and sat back.
Ronen covered Zara with the blanket, and then gripped Sora's shoulder. "We'll get justice for her," he softly said. "I promise."
Sora nodded numbly, and if she was like Yunjin or their mother she would have been angry most of all, but Sora was just sad, sad and resigned. And she knew that there were things yet to be done, to ensure that no one else was lost, and she looked at her older brother with determination and asked, "What can I do to help?"
Yunjin had the idea to equip the airbenders with balloons filled with paint, to create an aerial distraction while Lin, Wei, Wing, and Bolin attacked the giant mecha suit from below.
A large part of Lin had wanted to go in search of Bataar Jr instead. She had wanted to grab him before he could escape but there were so many other people around that he could have hurt if he managed to fire off another shot of that weapon, and then there had been Su… And Lin could only imagine how devastated she'd be if her own kid tried to kill her niece, and how the part of her that couldn't stop loving her child in a split second wouldn't have been able to let anyone hurt them even if they deserved it. And Lin had been so angry – she wasn't sure what she would have done to Bataar. She had felt a deep burning urge to do something and none of it would have been a simple disarming. She had almost lost Jeia – for real that time, and forever. Seeing Zara, that poor girl, only just an adult and having barely lived a life without misery, dead on the pavement… And that could have been Jeia. Lin was half furious with herself for not being quicker, for not recognizing the danger Bataar presented. She would have never forgiven herself if the worst had happened. What had happened was terrible enough. She could still hardly wrap her head around it. But she had to focus now. She had to stop Kuvira, stop that superweapon before it hurt anyone else, before Kuvira got her aim right and obliterated them all.
Lin watched with bated breath as the airbenders swarmed the mecha suit, pelting the front glass with paint balloons and evading Kuvira's defenses. Lin tensed up when a blast of spirit energy scattered several airbenders, unable to tell from her vantage far below if one of them was Yunjin or Opal or Tenzin. But the airbenders had seen the arm cannon rising in their direction, and seemed to hurtle away just in time, rolling onto nearby rooftops and leaping off again to once more go on the offensive. The blast, meanwhile, sheered through one of the city's tall buildings and cut the top half clean off, causing a giant hunk of rubble to come raining down on the ground, thankfully nowhere near to where Lin and the others waited.
As the airbenders continued their frenzied attacks, the mecha suit waved its other arm to try and swat them aside, even as the glass was splattered with paint.
Lin saw a familiar form leaping across rooftops towards her position, and then Tenzin's voice shouted from above, "Now!"
Lin wasted no time, swinging out into the open and landing directly on one of the feet of the mecha suit. She reached out with her bending, searching, sensing, hoping that Zara had been right about the earth within the platinum. It took her a moment, but she found it, and when she did, she grabbed hold of it and pulled. Wei and Wing were on the other foot doing the same, but judging by their grunts of frustration and Lin's own struggles, she knew they wouldn't have enough time. The metal beneath her screeched and groaned, but she was only able to pierce through the platinum a little at a time. If she focused enough, she thought she might be able to break through, but she doubted the suit would stay still long enough, and the second Kuvira lifted the foot, Lin would have to focus on hanging on and not being crushed.
"We'll never get through in time – Bolin!" she shouted in the boy's direction. "You're up!"
Bolin came rushing out, and Lin and the twins leapt off of the giant and out of the way. Bolin landed before the feet and began to lavabend the street beneath just one. That, at least, shook the suit off balance a little as the foot sunk into the earth. Lin and the twins used metalbending to begin manipulating large spools of metal wire around both legs of the mecha suit, pulling tight.
"Hit it now!" Bolin yelled up to the rooftop where Korra resided.
Korra immediately entered into the Avatar state and began to form a huge air bubble, building it up and then blasting it straight at the chest of the giant suit. The rest of the airbenders joined in, and the violent winds coupled with the bound legs caused the mecha to teeter, tipping backwards slightly, heavy arms grasping for purchase. The superweapon was fired off blindly, purple rays of light streaking through the air, glancing off buildings, smashing through anything it touched. The weapon's beam sliced across the skyline during its wild flailing, and the skyscrapers in its wake exploded, spreading a massive plume of smoke and fire across the city.
In a last-ditch effort to save itself, the mecha giant grabbed onto the buildings to either side of it, and the metal cables around its legs snapped under the pressure, and it was able to regain its footing, stabilizing itself and then rising back up straight. Lin watched half in shock, half in horror as the thing righted itself as if undaunted, and then pointed that spirit cannon straight at the building where Korra and the airbenders stood. The blast rocketed out at once, and screams rent the air as the airbenders scattered, jumping or being thrown from the rooftop and plummeting to the ground, some of them without control.
Lin and the boys went sprinting their way, too late to catch anyone, coming upon the destruction and finding injured airbenders sprawled on the concrete, surrounded by rubble.
Lin spotted Yunjin first, seemingly unharmed, with only a scrape over his eyebrow, but he was knelt next to Jinora, who was clutching her arm, which was mostly covered in blood, her sleeve shredded from wrist to shoulder.
Bolin found Opal before Lin did, calling the girl's name in distress as he ran to her, and Lin's stomach flipped when she saw her niece motionless on the ground, Tenzin hovering over her. Lin rushed over too, only breathing again when she saw Opal stirring awake and no visible wounds. She seemed to have only had the wind knocked out of her and blacked out for a moment upon impact with the ground, and assured her aunt and uncle and Bolin that she was okay.
There wasn't time to press her on it because thundering footsteps were rumbling through the streets, and growing closer every second. Lin felt a chill run down her spine, and whirled to see the giant mecha suit looming over them from the other end of the street, likely to blast them all to pieces if they lingered there a moment longer.
"Everyone retreat!" Korra shouted, lifting up a wounded airbender. "Take the wounded back to Ronen and Asami's office!"
Lin helped Tenzin pull Opal to her feet, and then made a split-second decision, telling him, "I'll meet you there. I'm going to see if I can find some help."
Tenzin appeared curious, but nodded and let her go, and all of them scattered just as Kuvira fired on them again, darting down side streets and taking cover behind what tall buildings were left.
Su held Jeia close the whole way to Future Industries tower, and upon arriving, struggled to let her go. She felt so guilty, so terrified, the thought of her little niece coming to harm, and the fact that it was Su's own son's fault… It was killing her. Thinking of Zara was crushing her heart in a vice. She didn't know what she had done, where she had gone so wrong. For Bataar to be capable of what he had done, of what he had almost done… She felt sick. She felt like she was in some horrible nightmare that wouldn't end. She wanted to keep crying, to curl up in a ball and let the emotions spill out. But it wasn't right to do that to Jeia, to the rest of her family. They needed her to be a strong presence, to protect them, to fight for them. It was her fault that so many of them were hurting. She was the one that had raised Bataar Jr – and technically, Kuvira too – so wrong.
Su eventually sat Jeia up on a stool and checked on the burn marring her shoulder. Korra had healed it some but it still looked a bit raw. "Does it hurt terribly?" Su asked.
Jeia shrugged her uninjured shoulder. "Not too bad anymore. Just stings."
"Oh, Jeia," Su breathed, stroking the girl's hair back behind her ear. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I'm so sorry Bataar hurt you. I never thought…"
"It's not your fault," Jeia said simply, undeterred, because she didn't understand the hand her aunt had had in it, unintentional and indirect as it was. She squirmed and looked away uncomfortably. "I'm sorry I made him mad," she mumbled very quietly.
"Oh, no," Su said quickly, rushing to reassure her. "No, sweetheart, it isn't your fault at all. Bataar is just…" She sighed heavily. "Confused, I guess."
Jeia nodded. "I think Kuvira is confused too."
"I think you're right," Su whispered weakly. She just hadn't realized how confused until it was too late.
Jeia was restless and upset. Su could feel the metal around them thrumming, and to avoid it from turning into a rattle or worse, Su gave the girl something to do, having her help fix or morph whatever Varrick and Asami needed for their hummingbird suits. Su stayed with her until Ronen and Sora joined them, and then she slipped away as they worked. She went to the room where Ronen had placed Zara's body, and Su entered with her heart in her throat, not letting herself freeze at the sight of the blanket covered form in the corner. She knelt by the body, and then she did pause, steeling herself before she grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it away from Zara's face. She choked on a sob and then quickly swallowed the emotion, hands trembling as she touched the girl's cheek and whispered a thick, "I'm so sorry. You deserved so much more. I should have never doubted you. I never should have let this happen…" She let a few more tears fall, taking one last look at Zara's features, committing them to memory, determined that she would never let the girl fade from mind. She had taken the girl in, been responsible for her, been determined to help her, and she had failed. But so long as she lived, she would remember Zara, and today she would fight for Zara. Even if it meant arresting her own son. Even if it meant bringing Kuvira to heel. Su would not let Zara die in vain.
Su covered Zara again and returned to the others after she had wiped the tears from her face and pulled her shoulders back. She had to focus on helping everyone take down Kuvira's superweapon now. She could be heartbroken later.
Korra's team returned soon after, most of them disheveled and some of them injured. Su was worried when she didn't see Lin among them, but Tenzin assured her that Lin was fine, that she had gone to seek help from someone, though he hadn't had time to ask who. Su was near frantic when she saw Opal being supported by Bolin, but everyone was quick to tell her that it wasn't too bad of a fall and Opal was fine.
But a platoon of mecha suits was approaching the tower, and they weren't ready for a second assault yet. Asami and Varrick were still arguing over stabilizing hydraulics, but Varrick had a sudden idea and ran off with Zhu Li to put it into action. Apparently he could stop the regular mecha suits with an electromagnetic pulse, and thought that he might be able to stop Kuvira's as well with a giant pulse. He and Zhu Li went to the top of the tower to try it, but returned a few minutes later and gave them the grave news, that the regular mecha suits marching alongside Kuvira had been taken down, but the giant had not.
"How come your electro-thingy shut down the small mecha suits but not the big one?" Bolin asked.
"Because it's powered with spirit vine energy," Ronen suddenly realized.
"Great, so it's unstoppable," Yunjin surmised.
"No, it's not," a deep voice said from behind, and everyone turned to see who it was.
Su saw Lin entering, with a vaguely familiar looking man with gray hair and glasses in front of her.
Asami exclaimed, "Dad?!" in disbelief.
"I got him out of jail to help," Lin explained. "I figured we need all the geniuses we can get our hands on right now. If the prison's still standing after all this is over, we can throw him back in."
Su's eyes widened a little in surprise, but she couldn't fault Lin's logic.
"I know what you all must think of me," Hiroshi Sato said, "but I love Republic City and I would do anything to save her."
Korra was skeptical. "You think you know how to defeat this thing?"
"You must act like an infection: break the skin and attack its vital organs, disconnect the heart and the brain and this beast cannot live."
"Yeah, we know we need to get in," Ronen said, voice a little terse. "The trouble is how."
"Future Industries has plasma saws for cutting platinum," Hiroshi answered. "If we had one on the mecha suit…"
"But the saws are way too big," Asami argued. "We'd never get the suits off the ground."
"I think I can add an electrical element to the welding torch on your suit and convert it into a plasma saw. Then we'll just have to land on the giant and cut open a hole big enough for someone to get in."
"Like a metal mosquito," Asami said.
"You know what happens to mosquitoes that land on me?" Varrick countered. "I squash 'em!"
"We'll have to attack in a swarm to try to keep you guys safe in the hummingbird suits," Korra reasoned. "It looks like they're our only hope."
"We can try to break through with metalbending at the same time," Lin added. "It'll take some time to break through, but with the four of us focusing on one spot it might be quicker."
Those that could got to work on putting together the hummingbird suits, while the rest of them tended to the wounded or discussed battle plans. It was enough to distract Su from all that she was feeling, but her stomach was still twisted in knots.
One of the airbenders dropped down into the room not long after warning, "Kuvira is headed our way!"
Korra asked Ronen and Asami, "How long will it take to get the plasma saws ready?"
"Just a few more minutes," Asami replied.
"Get out there as soon as you can," Korra told them, and then turned to address the rest of the group. "We may not be able to beat that thing, but we can slow it down. Let's go!"
Chapter 100: Chapter 100
Chapter Text
Chapter 100
Moments before they took off in the hummingbird suits to help fight off Kuvira's mecha suit, Ronen was approached by Hiroshi.
"I was wondering," the aging man requested, "if I might fly with Asami in your place. I know you have every reason to deny me, but this will likely be the last time I'll ever get to work with her like this again, and I suppose I want to hang onto it just a little bit longer, before I'm back in a prison cell. I couldn't leave here without knowing that I tried to make the most of every second I have with her."
Ronen hesitated, deliberating and not wholly onboard, but he wasn't unsympathetic to Hiroshi. Much as he despised the man for what he had done to Asami and to Ronen's own family, he also knew how much Hiroshi had meant to Asami – what he still meant to her, because despite all that he had done, he was still her father. Ronen knew how difficult it would be for him to cut ties with his own father, and he had seen the spark of joy in Asami's eye that she couldn't quite contain when working on the plasma saws with her father. She had loved working with him what seemed a lifetime ago, before the betrayal, and Ronen didn't want to hold her back from anything.
So he replied, "If Asami wants that, I won't stand in the way."
Hiroshi seemed relieved, his shoulders relaxing slightly. He smiled tightly. "I know that I did great harm to your family, and I don't expect your forgiveness, but I hope that you can accept my thanks. Asami speaks very highly of you. I can tell that she loves you very much, and that you take good care of her. I'm grateful that she has you."
Ronen inclined his head, but didn't respond directly. They didn't have time and there was something else Ronen needed to say. "She still cares a great deal about you. When this is all over, don't hurt her again."
Hiroshi bowed his head. "I never wanted to cause her harm. I will do anything to ensure I never do again."
Ronen was content to leave it at that, and then he needed to find himself a partner to fly with him in the secondary seat in the third hummingbird suit. He went over to where the wounded sat huddled together, and asked if any of them were well enough and willing to come with him.
Jinora, with her arm wrapped and tied up in a sling, stepped forward, determined and insistent that she could handle the controls even with her injured arm. Ronen thanked her and ushered her quickly over to the suit, giving her a hasty overview of what buttons and levers she would need to use and how to use them.
By the time he had finished, Asami came over to hug him tight, telling him to, "Stay safe," and kissing him briefly. Ronen echoed the sentiment, and then the three teams of two were climbing into their suits – Varrick and Zhu Li in one, Asami and Hiroshi in another, and Ronen and Jinora in the third.
Ronen's palms were sweaty as he guided the hummingbird out into the open, and got a clear view of Kuvira's giant mecha down the street. He sucked in a deep breath to calm his nerves, and then shot forward before he could begin to second guess himself. No matter what happened in the coming minutes, it was imperative that they stop that superweapon in its tracks, before it or anything like it did anyone anymore harm.
Yunjin clambered up onto the top of Future Industries tower with an ache in his lower back and conviction in his heart. He had been dealing with a near constant throb in his spine since he had been without his leg braces, his back not used to carrying his weight on its own. His legs had felt weaker, more vulnerable ever since he'd been forced to leave the braces behind, and going into battle with a giant superweapon was testing his nerves. Before he had been shot down three years ago, he had been a lot more confident, and that confidence had grown since relearning to walk with the help of the leg braces, but now he felt a little like he was back at square one and it made him anxious. And there was no time to be anxious, to second guess himself. It was imperative that he be decisive and quick on his feet. His feet that didn't seem to want to move properly.
His only saving grace was that most of his assaults against Kuvira's mecha giant were done in air and didn't require him to do much walking. Flying was easier, soaring among the skies made him feel more secure. Except flitting away from the destructive blasts brought back terrible flashbacks of being hit in midair by P'Li's explosive shot that had crippled him. He had to keep his mind on the task at hand to avoid running in terror, which was made easier by his worry for his family. Even while he was flying around trying to distract and hinder Kuvira's suit, he was keeping his eyes on Sora and their father. He was astonished by Sora's ability to keep her calm and focus on the mission so soon after losing Zara. Yunjin knew how much Zara had meant to his sister, even with all the issues between the two girls, and if the same had happened to him, if it had been Jinora – like it nearly was during their first strike against Kuvira – he wasn't sure he could have been half as level headed. In fact, he knew he wouldn't be. Even so, Yunjin was keeping an eye on his twin, in case her stability changed, in case it all became too much or Kuvira got in a lucky hit.
This time, the tactic was to simply distract Kuvira while the metalbenders and the hummingbirds tried to break through the mecha suit. Since paint could be cleared away from the port glass, there was no point doing that again. But floating around and shooting off blasts of wind that barely nudged the suit felt a bit pointless too. Even when the hummingbirds finally arrived, they weren't able to land on the giant metal contraption for long, and certainly not long enough to be effective. Kuvira swatted at them the same as she did the airbenders, and they were forced to fly away to avoid being smashed. So Yunjin and the airbenders had to redouble their efforts, while Korra threw everything she could at the thing.
The metalbenders weren't having any more luck down by the ankles because they kept getting kicked off before they made any progress. And then Kuvira fired the spirit canon at them and Yunjin feared the worst. Wei and Wing had climbed onto a building right next to the mecha's knee to try and cut through there instead, to avoid being kicked off, but they hadn't been prepared for the energy beam and Yunjin watched in horror as they were blasted off the roof. Thankfully, he saw his mother and aunt swinging in to catch them as they fell, and they all seemed to land on the ground without added injury, but immediately had to protect themselves from the rubble and destruction raining down upon them.
Yunjin was close enough to the suit again by that time to attempt a new distraction, and he swooped in to land right on the front glass on the mecha's head, towards the top. He perched himself there on one of the metal pieces holding the glass in place, and began rapidly jabbing both hands against the glass, using sharp, purposeful bursts of air to strengthen his strikes. The glass was strong, but while Kuvira was distracted elsewhere, he managed to get enough focused hits in that a crack began to form, and his excitement heightened as he moved his hands faster and faster, thinking he might actually make it through.
That is, until he saw, from the corner of his eye, another purple beam blasting through a nearby spire, one that was directly next to where Sora was floating in for another attack. The spire exploded, and Tenzin swooped in from the left to attempt to wrap his own body around Sora to shield her from the destruction, but they were both struck with the force of it and went spiraling. Yunjin didn't even think about the glass he was about to penetrate, flipping over backwards and shooting himself downwards, pulling out his arms at the right moment to aim himself at where his sister and father plummeted through the air unmoving. They were far apart and Yunjin was trying to figure out how best to grab them both without all three of them smacking into the pavement too fast, until he saw Opal streaking in. He was relieved when she grabbed onto Sora and hurtled them to safety on a shorter rooftop nearby. Yunjin was then free to focus on his father, placing himself underneath of Tenzin's large frame and grabbing his father's arms. As they drew closer to the ground, Yunjin used a burst of air to slow their descent, and then they were both collapsing onto the ground. Yunjin was up a second later, throwing his dad's arm over his shoulders and lugging Tenzin into a nearby alleyway, out of Kuvira's path.
Ronen piloted his hummingbird suit through explosions and flailing mecha arms, dodging and weaving around blasts and giant hands alike, mindful also of the buildings to either side and Jinora in the cockpit behind him. He had to force himself not to watch Asami's suit at every moment, only catching sight of it when it flitted across his path for just a moment, flying away from the same dangers as him. He knew Asami could take care of herself, was a better pilot than he was, but he still worried with all the destruction taking place, the buildings crumbling and his family members falling from the sky.
Twice he landed on Kuvira's suit, but barely managed to press the plasma saw into the metal before he was forced to pull away. He was almost regretting bringing Jinora along, worried she might be hurt if Kuvira got in a lucky shot, but there was nothing for it now and he needed the back up. It was difficult to keep track of every danger and she was good at letting him know when they needed to evade and a good direction to serve to. She was a pretty useful copilot considering it was her first time using a mecha suit of any kind.
But for all the qualities of the pilots of the hummingbird suits, they couldn't get a long enough moment to break through the giant mecha. The airbenders only offered momentary distractions, and were having their own struggles staying in the air. The first opportunity the hummingbirds had to latch on was when the mecha came near enough to a river for Korra to waterbend. She came bearing down on the giant with huge streams of water that froze the suit in place. But the canon was still operational, and when it fired off a shot, it struck the wings of Varrick and Zhu Li's suit and sent them spiraling out of control, forcing them to eject just before the hummingbird struck the side of a building and exploded.
Korra used another stream of water to freeze the canon arm, and Ronen swooped in. Asami perched on the right leg while Ronen landed somewhere around the left hip. He began flipping switches and pressing buttons and then the saw was bearing down onto the platinum suit. All the while, Jinora was watching the frozen arms, but the one closest to them was only partially frozen, and came loose before the canon arm.
"It's coming!" Jinora cried, and Ronen wasted no time in flying off of the hip, but when the giant hand came bearing down on them, a metal finger clipped the front of the hummingbird suit and crashed through the cockpit.
Ronen yanked his hands back just in time, but his controls were destroyed, sparks flying and wind rushing in through the busted glass. "Eject!" he shouted to Jinora. "Eject!" And as soon as he heard the whoosh and saw her shooting out of the busted suit, he tried to flip his own switch, but it was jammed. "Come on!" He slammed his hand down on it in frustration, and then wrapped both hands around it, pushing and pulling with all his might. But nothing happened. The hummingbird was whirling out of control and Ronen couldn't get out. If he'd had some kind of bending, he could have maybe jumped out, but if he did that now he'd just plummet to the ground. Instead he yanked a sharp piece of busted metal off his ruined controls and turned in his seat to stab through the back, tearing open a hole and grabbing onto the parachute tucked inside, pulling it out and tossing it up so that it would catch on the wind, and hopefully slow his decent to some degree. Then he tightened the straps on his seat and braced himself, all of this just moments before the hummingbird suit skidded to the ground in a crash landing, bouncing and rolling across the pavement, jostling Ronen all around until there was a sickening crunch and then everything went black.
Asami watched Ronen crash into the ground from her vantage point on the giant mecha's leg, and she screamed. "Ronen! No!"
"I'm sure he ejected in time," her father tried to assure her, his teeth gritted as he spoke, focused as he was on cutting through the platinum.
"No! He didn't eject!" Asami wailed. "Something must have happened!"
"He's a very smart boy," Hiroshi insisted. "He must have thought of some other way to save himself. I'm certain of it."
Asami slumped in her seat, tears brimming in her eyes. She wanted to believe what her father said but she was so worried. Ronen was strong and smart but how could he have survived a fall like that? She sucked the emotion back in though, because there wasn't time to be upset. She would just have to wait and look for Ronen after. She and her father's hummingbird were the only hope left, and while the arm that struck Ronen and Jinora couldn't quite reach Hiroshi and Asami, and was frozen by Korra shortly after it broke free, the canon arm was beginning to work its way loose.
Asami saw the ice around it beginning to shatter, and when it became apparent that they were running out of time, Asami urgently told her father, "We need to get out of here."
"Almost there," he said, refusing to pull away even as shards of ice began to rain down upon the glass of their suit.
"We have to go now!" Asami cried.
But Hiroshi was still concentrated fully on cutting through the mecha. "Almost there. Almost there!"
Asami watched in shock and horror as the canon arm broke free. They had run out of time. "Dad! Now!"
But her father still didn't maneuver them out of danger. Instead, he said a solemn, "Goodbye, Asami. I love you." And then he flipped a switch and, before Asami could object, her seat was being ejected and she was flying up into the air, out of harm's way, just one moment before the hand came down and smacked straight into the hummingbird suit where her father still resided, crushing it at once.
"Dad!" Asami screamed in a heart wrenching plea, reaching for him even as she knew that it was too late, that he was gone.
But as the mecha hand lifted and the hummingbird scraps dropped, it revealed a hole in the giant's leg.
Her father had given them an opening, and paid for it with his life.
Lin was too busy avoiding her own demise that she missed a lot of what went on in the meantime. She tried to keep an eye on the rest of her family flying around above her, but she had to put a lot of energy into watching her own back, and that of Su's, Wei's, and Wing's. When the twin boys were knocked unconscious by the blast that blew them off the roof, Lin and Su had to carry them to safety, hiding them in an alleyway farther from the battle and covering them with an earth tent in case any stray rubble managed to reach them. By the time Lin and Su returned to the battlefield, there was a hole in the giant mecha suit's leg and Korra was gathering her team to go inside.
Korra, Mako, Bolin, Lin, and Su hastily climbed up the leg and into the hole, barely avoiding getting swiped off by Kuvira. Once inside, Korra looked at each of them and commanded, "We need to move fast. Su, Lin, climb up to the arm and try to disable that weapon. Mako, Bolin, get to the engine and see if you can power this thing down. I'm going after Kuvira."
"Are you sure?" Su asked. "When you fought Kuvira before…"
"I know," Korra said, bowing her head briefly. "She almost destroyed me." When she lifted her gaze, her face was set in determination. "Not this time."
Lin nodded sharply, believing in Korra. "Good luck, kid."
While the kids went in their own directions, Lin and Su pulled themselves up through the suit with their metal cables. They landed on a ramp leading to the right arm where the canon's mechanisms resided, and were immediately accosted by a waiting guard just below them.
Metal plates came flying at them, and Lin ripped a metal sheet from the wall to shield herself and her sister from them. "I'll deal with this guy!" she told Su. "Disable the weapon!"
Su went racing down the tunnel, and Lin sent the metal shield flying towards her attacker. She then hurtled over the railing and dropped down onto the platform below. Using an extension of her armor, she blocked several more projectiles with her left arm, and used her right to shoot her metal cable at him. He leapt backwards to avoid it, grabbing a piece of metal off the wall with his bending and hurtling it at her. Lin kicked it aside, shot out her left cable, and when he jumped to the right to avoid it, used her right cable to grab him by the ankle and yank him onto his back. Before he could recover, she wrapped her left cable around his wrists. He kicked his one free foot and sent another metal plate at her. She dodged, and yanked the guard by the wrists, flinging him forward, and then stomped her foot. A piece of the metal floor snapped upwards and smacked straight into the guard's face. When Lin released her cables and slapped the floor back down, the soldier slumped to the floor, unconscious.
Lin wasted no time climbing back over the railing and racing down the tunnel after Su. She heard and felt the explosion rattle through the inside of the mecha, saw a great purple light blossoming up ahead, and Su ducking back through the entryway to shield herself from the blast. Lin felt a surge of relief and slid to a stop next to Su just as the eruption was petering out.
Lin peeked inside the room Su had just come from, saw the destruction Su had caused, destroying the spirit vine cartridges and rendering the canon useless, and smiled. "Nice work."
"The outside may be platinum," Su said, "but we can do a lot of damage in here."
And so they did, metalbending every bit of gears and mechanisms they could get their hands on and tearing them apart.
In the midst of all the destruction, the arm they stood within suddenly lurched, and Lin and Su were thrown forward. There was a terrible screeching tear, and then air was rushing in and Lin felt her stomach rise into her throat as she became weightless, falling, falling, and it took her a moment to realize that Kuvira had completely removed the mecha arm from the rest of the suit and thrown it aside. Lin and Su were on a downward spiral, and Lin had only one second to bend a strip of metal around her and her sister both to latch them to the inner wall. Debris was flying all around them and they were in free fall, and when they struck the ground, Lin felt a great pressure in her abdomen and then everything went black.
Kuvira knew that the end was coming.
She had anticipated it from before the very first strike Korra and those airbenders brought against her. Even though Kuvira had beaten them back with ease, even though she fought as hard as she could, she knew that they would be back. She knew that the Avatar and the Beifongs would not rest until they had stopped her. It didn't matter that Raiko had surrendered. It didn't matter that she had the most powerful weapon ever created. She knew the Beifongs. Even if she had never felt like she was truly a part of their family, she knew how resilient and single minded and hot headed they could be. Even Bataar Jr, who was so insistent upon breaking away, on proving himself different and superior to them, was just as easily led by his temper. It was part of what had made it easy for Kuvira to coerce him into joining her as she sought to unify the Earth Kingdom, playing on his anger and sharp focus that had already been brewing against his family. That, and his love for her, which she had been pleased by at one time. Before it all started, he had been one of the only people to see her for who she was, to admire her anyways, and to believe in her and champion her when her own parents did not even want her.
But building an empire together hadn't exactly brought them together, and an hour or so ago she had tried to kill him. Not him specifically, but she had known he would be on the list of casualties if her shot managed to destroy everyone inside the factory, probably the one most at risk without bending. But then, at the same time, she also hadn't really expected the Avatar to die. She wasn't really sure what she expected, but she pretty much assumed Korra would jump into the Avatar state and save herself. It would be just Kuvira's luck. That even after all she had done and all she had sacrificed for her people, that the Avatar would survive any and everything and foil Kuvira at every turn. If it wasn't Korra herself, it would be her friends, her family, the Beifongs that were supposed to be Kuvira's family, but they had never accepted Kuvira the way they had Korra, they had never shown half as much affection.
Except for Jeia, who was barely more than a toddler when they first met, and yet that child had given Kuvira something she had never thought she would obtain. Even with Bataar, Kuvira had always suspected he loved her power and her sexuality more than anything. But Jeia had loved Kuvira as a friend, as a mentor, as a sister. Jeia had considered Kuvira family, and to repay her, Kuvira had nearly killed her – maybe had killed her, for all Kuvira knew. As soon as she heard Jeia's voice coming through radio, she had tried to turn the mecha suit's arm away from the factory, but it had already been too late. However much Kuvira wanted to strengthen and protect her nation, to stop the Avatar from interfering in that, she never wanted to sacrifice Jeia for it. Jeia was innocent. Jeia didn't deserve to die or be wounded in the middle of Kuvira and Korra's conflict. If Kuvira couldn't defeat the Avatar without purposelessly killing a child then she didn't deserve to be Emperor.
Kuvira knew, from the moment she fired on the factory and thought that she might have killed Jeia, that the end was coming.
For one, she felt guilt creeping up on her in a way it hadn't in a very long time. She felt guilt and sorrow for possibly destroying the one good thing in her life. She felt as if her parents had been right all along to cast her aside, because how could she possibly deserve a family after what she had done? She felt like a failure, in more ways than one, because she knew the Avatar would still come after her, that whatever Beifongs were left would come after her, and Bataar with them now that she had stomped on his love for her. He would tell them what they wanted to know, and they would stop at nothing to destroy her suit. And when she failed, her empire would topple with her. She had failed her people and now what would they be left with? The pathetic Prince Wu? A United Republic that had left them to burn once before and would likely do so again? If Kuvira was captured, they would have no one to lead them.
So Kuvira fought back with all she had, even though she knew it was a losing battle. She fought back for her people and for her own freedom. But by the time the Avatar burst into the cockpit, Kuvira was tired of fighting.
She still played the game. She parried and attacked, back and forth, back and forth. Sometimes the Avatar was winning, sometimes Kuvira was. In the end, they both had to grab onto the railing and hold on for their lives when the mecha suit began to explode from the inside out. The head of the suit, where the cockpit resided, came free of the rest of the body, and they were both falling to the earth.
They struck the ground hard, and Kuvira slammed into the railing, her knees buckled so hard it felt like they shattered, and her arm was nearly yanked out of socket. Pain stabbed her in the ribs and radiated out through the rest of her abdomen, her legs collapsed underneath of her. The glass shattered and the metal frame bent and Kuvira slumped to the floor as dirt and dust and rocks blew into the cockpit. She couldn't find the strength to drag herself onto her feet, coughing against the dust and curling up on herself as it jostled her ribs. She felt someone lifting her up and half dragging her out of the destroyed cockpit and she didn't even fight it, knowing it must be the Avatar even if she couldn't see clearly. Once outside on the cracked pavement, Korra set Kuvira down on the ground and then collapsed beside her, panting and spent.
"It's over," Korra said, looking at Kuvira with a hardened stare. You're gonna call off your army and surrender to President Raiko. Then you and —"
"Jeia," Kuvira interrupted, holding her ribs and breathing carefully. "Is she alive? Did I hurt her?"
Korra did not answer at once, seeming as if she didn't want to divulge, seeming as if she was weighing her response. Kuvira wasn't sure if it was to protect Jeia or to make Kuvira sweat. On the one hand, Kuvira suspected that Jeia hadn't been too badly harmed, or else Korra's expression might have been grave, or else it would have been Lin Beifong tearing through Kuvira's cockpit with unbridled rage as she sought to rip out the heart of the person that had killed her youngest child. On the other hand, the Avatar was looking a little grim and maybe she had made a deal with Lin for later.
"Jeia is alive," Korra eventually admitted, and Kuvira would have sucked in a breath in relief if her ribs didn't hurt so badly. "But –" Korra continued, and Kuvira's stomach rose back into her throat "– thanks to your betrayal, Bataar Jr went crazy and shot Jeia with that miniature cannon of his. It would have killed her if it weren't for Zara stepping in the way."
Kuvira felt a sharp stab in her chest, a grief she wasn't sure she had experienced before. Not really for Zara, because she had never trusted or liked the girl, or known her well enough to feel anything other than sympathy for her. But for Jeia, who could have been the one to die, still because of Kuvira even if indirectly that time. For Bataar, who had been loyal to Kuvira through everything and this is what she had driven him to.
She bowed her head and closed her eyes and desperately questioned, "Is Jeia okay? Is Bataar…"
"They both would have been better off without you manipulating them," Korra said without pause, and it wasn't exactly harsh but it wasn't kind either. "They both loved you, and this is how you repay them."
"This wasn't how I wanted things to end," Kuvira muttered wearily, mustering up a glare for the Avatar. "If you would have all just surrendered, none of this would have happened."
"You brought this on yourself. Messing with the spirit vines, acting like a dictator over your people… you had to know what you were doing wasn't right."
"I was trying to help my people," Kuvira snapped, anger rising in her anew. "Su turned her back on the Earth Kingdom, you were gone! I had to do something."
"I think I get it now," Korra said softly, tilting her head slightly as she regarded Kuvira.
"You don't understand anything about me," Kuvira said, turning her head away.
"I do," Korra argued gently. "Su told me how she took you in when you were younger. It must have been so hard being an orphan."
"Don't pretend you know what it felt like!" Kuvira shouted, lurching up onto her feet, bending over in pain immediately after but still waving her less injured arm dismissively. "The Avatar is adored by millions! I was cast aside by my own parents like I meant nothing to them. How could I just stand by –" her voice cut out for a moment as emotion consumed her, and she swallowed it even as hot tears formed in her eyes "– how could I just stand by and watch the same thing happen to my nation, when it needed someone to guide it?"
"You wanted to create a place where you and your people would never be vulnerable again," Korra understood, and Kuvira couldn't help glancing over at the Avatar with some surprise. "I may not have been an orphan, but believe me, I understand what it feels like to be afraid." Korra rose to her feet a bit slower, walking a step forward to look Kuvira in the eye. "After I was poisoned, I would have done anything to feel in control. I guess… I see a lot of myself in you."
"We are nothing alike!" Kuvira denied.
"Yes, we are. We're both fierce and determined to succeed, sometimes without thinking things through."
Kuvira scoffed and turned away, closing her eyes and breathing carefully, her mind moving rapidly, trying to think things through, to figure out her next moves. "Then you understand," she said quietly, without facing the Avatar, "that I cannot fail. I cannot give up, or else everything I've done for my people will have been for nothing."
"Kuvira, no," Korra huffed in frustration. "Stop this madness. It has to end now!"
Kuvira did not comply, not while she still had some fight left in her. She bent a chunk of rock at Korra suddenly, catching the Avatar off guard and sending her sprawling across the rubble. And Kuvira took off, sprinting down the street as Korra called for her to stop, limping and holding her ribs but still running.
Except she only made it a handful of steps before she was suddenly sliding to a stop, and her former conviction seemed to evaporate at once.
Standing in the road between Kuvira and her escape was Jeia.
It was as if all of Kuvira's remaining strength left her in an instant. She dropped to her knees with a whispered, "Jeia…" and she knew then that the end was upon her.
The girl walked steadily forward, and as she drew closer Kuvira could see the raw burn marring Jeia's shoulder and the heavy weariness in the child's eyes. But there was something else there too, despite it all. When Jeia looked at Kuvira there was still compassion there, understanding, and Kuvira broke under the weight of it. All she had ever wanted was a family, and even if everyone else had turned their backs on her, Jeia had said only hours ago, "you're my family too."
And as Jeia reached Kuvira now, she wrapped her arms tight around Kuvira's frame and murmured, "You can stop now."
And Kuvira's shoulders slumped and the tears she had been holding back streaked down her face. She put her arms around Jeia's back and clung to the girl, to the only person that had ever truly loved her in her entire life.
"I should have known," a sneering voice interjected, and Kuvira and Jeia turned to face it. Kuvira recognized Bataar before she saw him, but he didn't sound like himself. She could feel his hatred thrumming in the earth, angrier than she had ever seen him, his face contorted with it. "I should have known you'd give up everything for her. You've betrayed the entire Earth Empire! Everything we built! For a child!"
"Bataar," Kuvira said carefully, rising slowly to her feet and keeping a firm hand on Jeia's shoulder. She sensed Korra moving in closer, towards Jeia and Kuvira. Bataar was holding that miniature canon Korra had spoken of, the one that had killed Zara and nearly Jeia. Kuvira hadn't even know he was building it.
"You betrayed me!" Bataar accused, pointing the weapon directly at her chest. "All that I did for you… I denounced my own family –"
"I never asked you to do that," Kuvira countered, perhaps unwisely. And she hadn't really. She had never seen leaving Zaofu as a betrayal, even if Su had. She had never told Bataar that he couldn't speak to his own family. She had actually been jealous of him, because he had parents and siblings that loved him and she didn't. It had annoyed her to no end when he complained about them because at least they wanted him.
"I loved you!" he roared. "And you threw me away like I meant nothing to you at all!"
He pulled the trigger and a bright purple burst came hurtling towards her.
Kuvira did not react in time, but Jeia screamed, "No!" and Korra yelled, "Don't!" and both of them ripped up barriers from the earth. The beam exploded on impact, and rocks and dust blew out in every direction, the shock of it knocking Kuvira off her feet as she was pummeled by debris.
In the time it took for the three of them to clear their eyes and catch their breath, Bataar had raced off, but Korra recovered quickly and went chasing after him. Kuvira rose to her feet and went to do the same, but paused when she felt Jeia moving next to her. She turned to face the girl, gripping Jeia's shoulders and urging, "Stay here. Please."
Jeia was frowning but she nodded in acceptance. "Be careful."
Kuvira quickly hugged Jeia one last time and whispered so low it was nearly silent, "I love you."
Then Kuvira went after Korra and Bataar, racing into the spirit wilds where they had disappeared. She followed the sound of Korra's voice as the Avatar called for Bataar to give up, to surrender.
Kuvira caught up to Korra just as the Avatar stepped through a curtain of vines, and the two women entered a clearing, gasping when they found Bataar. He was perched on the side of the massive spirit weapon, which was suspended in a cradle of vines where it had fallen from the discarded arm of the mecha. Its barrel was aimed directly at Korra and Kuvira, who stood motionless before it.
Bataar held to the side of the firing mechanism, the manual trigger handle in his left hand, and said, "The Empire is mine now, and I'll never let anyone betray me again. I'm going to come out of the shadows at long last. Everyone will know who I am!"
Korra extended her hand and cried, "No!"
But Bataar was done talking. He pulled the trigger, and as the purple energy began to build within the barrel, Korra and Kuvira both dived away in opposite directions, seeking cover as the weapon discharged. The ground exploded and both women were thrown off their feet, hitting the ground hard and rolling several times. When Kuvira finally came to a stop with a pained groan, she looked up at the persistent noise, and saw the barrel still firing, the ground beneath its blast bursting into flames. Bataar was still latched to the side of the weapon, but the spirit vines holding it in place were beginning to glow with the same purple light as the force of the extended blast propelled the canon backwards. It began to swing wildly, the spirit energy following, cutting a path of destruction in its wake, slicing through trees and buildings as Bataar struggled to hang on.
"Shut it down!" Korra demanded, rolling away from an errant explosion.
But it looked to Kuvira that Bataar couldn't comply even if he wanted to. Trying to toggle the switch did nothing, and he was thrown off of the canon as it lurched from side to side. Bataar rolled in Kuvira's direction, bouncing across the ground as the weapon went wild all around them, and for a moment she thought about leaving, saving herself, maybe running away while the Avatar was distracted and returning to the Earth Empire, to her people. Bataar had tried to kill Jeia, had tried to kill her, so what did Kuvira owe him?
Still, she found herself moving in his direction, grabbing him by the shoulders and hefting him off the ground, intending to drag him to safety, but they never got the chance. Kuvira and Bataar could only look on in horror as the very weapon they had created bore down upon them. At the last moment, Korra leapt in front of them, hands raised before her and eyes turning aglow just as the energy beam struck. The light exploded, blossoming into a great spherical mass around the three of them, smaller beams sparking outwards, and the light turned brighter and brighter, until it was such a bright white that Kuvira clamped her eyes shut. She felt a great pressure bearing down on her, and then everything went still.
Kuvira blacked out, and when she came to, she was slumped on the ground, staring up at the Avatar hovering over her. Kuvira lay still, looking around at their surroundings, which had changed. Now they were in a field of purple flowers with mangled-looking reddish trees.
"What happened?" Kuvira asked, struggling to sit up. "Are we… dead?"
"No, we're okay, but –" Korra started to say, but there was a shuffle nearby and both women turned to look.
Bataar was holding his head and groaning as he slowly rose up, and when he saw Korra and Kuvira, he scrambled backwards and lurched to his feet. He cast his gaze around frantically, demanding, "What happened? Where are we?"
"We're in the Spirit World," Korra finished, gesturing around them. "All the energy from your weapon tore open a new portal and blasted us in here."
Bataar glared at them, gaze sharpening on Korra. "Why did you save me?"
"Because it was the right thing to do," Korra said simply. "And for your mother. Because she still loves you even after everything you've done. The courts can decide how you'll pay for your crimes."
Kuvira could still see the fury in him. "It's over, Bataar. We lost."
"You did this," he accused. "You betrayed our entire Empire. I'll make certain that our people know what you've done."
"You do what you have to do," Kuvira said wearily.
"Will you go peacefully?" Korra asked Bataar, leveling him with a firm stare. "Stop this fighting and surrender?"
"It seems I owe you for saving my life," Bataar begrudgingly admitted. "So I'll grant you this one concession, Avatar, and plead my case in court. Republic City has nothing to charge me with."
"Only the murder of Zara and the attempted murder of Jeia," Korra heatedly argued.
"I didn't know that weapon's power," Bataar stated, undeterred. "It was Kuvira that had me harvest the spirit vines, and I was only defending myself against two powerful benders. Zara and Jeia were threatening me."
Korra was outraged. "They weren't –!" She sucked in a deep breath to calm herself. "Fine. Let's get back to the others."
Korra stepped forward and took Bataar by the arm, leading him and Kuvira out of the Spirit World and back to Republic City.
When they stepped out, everyone had circled around the new spirit portal, including several spirits that were swirling within the wilds once more. The Beifongs and Korra's friends came rushing in, and just behind them, Kuvira's soldiers and mecha suits, with their weapons raised.
"Release Kuvira, or we will attack!" one of the mecha suit captains demanded.
"Stand down," Kuvira called to them, taking a step forward but no farther. "This battle is over. I owe the Avatar my life. Her power is beyond anything I could ever hope to achieve." She looked to where Jeia stood just behind her parents. "I'll accept whatever punishment the world sees fit." She turned to where the Beifong matriarchs stood to her right, and caught Su's gaze. "And Su, I'm sorry for all the anguish I've caused you and your family."
"You're going to answer for everything you've done," Su asserted, with grief in her eyes. She seemed too distraught to speak to her son, who stood on Korra's other side looking smug and avoiding his mother's gaze entirely, as well as the dark glare from his aunt.
The chief of police stepped in with a few officers to take Kuvira and Bataar Jr into custody, and neither of them fought it, as promised, but Bataar did address their troops as he was being led away, "Do not worry about the future of the Earth Empire. I will beat these charges against me, and I will return, to keep our vision alive. Kuvira has forsaken you, but I will not."
Jeia came pushing through just before Kuvira could be taken away, wrapping her small arms around Kuvira's middle and hugging her tight. She looked up at Kuvira and said, "I love you too."
"Thank you, Jeia," Kuvira murmured. "For everything. I'm sorry I hurt you."
"Will I be able to visit you?" Jeia worried.
"If your parents say it's okay," Kuvira replied. "I'll write to you when I can, okay?"
Jeia nodded solemnly and stepped aside, and Kuvira let the police take her away, through the destruction she had created in the streets.
Over the next several weeks, the cleanup process began. People from all four nations came to Republic City's aid, hauling away debris and starting construction on the damaged streets and buildings. Thankfully, due to the evacuations, few people were harmed in the battle, only a few airbenders and the United Forces crew that had been on the destroyed ships. The evacuated citizens were permitted to return, and temporary housing was set up for those that had lost homes in the destruction. Kuvira and Bataar Jr were detained until cases could be built against them, and Prince Wu was instated as the Earth Kingdom leader. Kuvira's army seemed so confused and uncertain of what to do that many of them simply followed along with Wu's requests to aid in the reconstruction of Republic City. Others simply abandoned the army altogether and went home.
Two days after the battle, there was a small ceremony held on the Island for Zara. Sora wanted to do something for her, and Su helped her plan something special. At first, it was only Su's and Sora's family that were expected to attend, and a few airbenders and acolytes that were fond of Sora that wanted to show their support, like Jinora and her family. But word had spread fast around the island about Zara's heroics, how she had attempted to create a weakness in Kuvira's superweapon, and how she had sacrificed her own life for little Jeia, and that night every temple emptied. All of the island's residents, as well as Korra and her friends, Varrick and Zhu Li, and even General Iroh made an appearance, lighting a candle for the girl that gave her life for their cause. Most of them had never known Zara, but for Sora they came to pay their respects to the young woman, and Sora had smiled so brightly even through her tearful grief, grateful to all of them and moved by their support. Lin was grateful too, even as her heart was breaking for her sweet girl, who should have been too young to know such devastation. She stayed right by Sora's side nearly the entire service, her arm usually around Sora's shoulders, and she wished more than ever that she could take away Sora's pain, but she was relieved, at least, to be reminded of all the love and support Sora would have through this difficult time.
Kya and Nira's wedding was originally planned for one of the days where they had been busy evacuating and prepping the city for Kuvira's arrival, but they had, of course, pushed it back to a date that would be determined later on. When Varrick and Zhu Li requested to use the island for their own wedding, which they were eager to have as soon as possible, Kya jokingly suggested to Nira that they just piggyback off of the wealthy pair's wedding, in part so people didn't have to get dressed up twice, and Nira had decided it was actually a good idea. The two women didn't care much about the actual ceremony or even the reception, so long as the people that they loved were there, so they asked Varrick and Zhu Li if they would mind letting a few guests linger for a second ceremony directly after theirs, and Varrick had been all too thrilled by the prospect of a double wedding, so long as it was certain that his ceremony was first.
But there was one other ceremony that had to take place as well, and Tenzin didn't want to put it off any longer. A week after Kuvira's attack on Republic City, Yunjin was finally, officially granted the rank of Air Master. He said a tearful goodbye to his long hair, and let his father shave it off for the first time since he had been born. Sora helped her father administer the tattoos, to speed the process along and also to simply be a part of it. Several hours later, Yunjin emerged a man and a master all at once, stepping into the ceremony in the main temple with his face shielded from view by the ceremonial hooded robe. He knelt before the assembled airbenders, acolytes, family, and friends, and when his father removed his hood, he lifted his head to gaze out at the crowd, looking all grown up, but still with his distinct boyish grin. And with the bald head and the arrow, the light gray eyes and the facial hair growing on his jawline, he looked so much like Aang that Kya grabbed onto Lin's arm in shock. Half the older members of the family were in tears at the sight of him. Lin was just glad to see him growing stronger every day without his leg braces, and back to his normal cheerful self even after all he had endured.
A few weeks later, much of the city had been mended or was in the midst of some final reconstructions, and a grand wedding was set up on Air Temple Island. It took five days for the caterers Varrick had hired to set everything up, with Varrick flitting around shouting orders and pointing out issues every single one of those days. It drove Lin insane, and if it weren't for Tenzin distracting her in a hundred different ways, she probably would have destroyed everything in her path just to shock Varrick into silence. Tenzin reasoned with her that it would probably just make Varrick more annoying, and that it would all be over soon, and that all of it was kind of being done for Kya and Nira too.
On the day of the wedding, everything was frantic. Even though three of her four kids were basically adults now, Lin still found herself running around trying to get them ready on time. Yunjin was still fussing about wearing his dress clothes and Sora was having a breakdown over her hair, and Jeia was refusing to wear the outfit that she had picked out for the occasion. Tenzin was of no help because he had been missing all morning, looking in on Kya and Nira, helping the caterers with last minute touches and making sure they weren't destroying anything on the Island, and probably spent half the morning with his mother again, like he had been everyday since she arrived. Katara had come for Yunjin's master ceremony and hadn't left, deciding to just stay through the wedding and spend time with the family. Ronen and Asami arrived at the main house well in advance of the wedding, both of them dressed up and ready to go, but they weren't much help either because they were too busy laughing at Lin's struggle. Ronen was still walking with a crutch after crashing in his hummingbird suit during the battle, but considering his only real injury had been the broken leg alongside some minor cuts and bruises, he had gotten pretty lucky.
Eventually, Asami calmed Sora down and helped the girl fix her hair – not that Lin could see that there was even anything wrong with it. Yunjin stopped complaining when Lin threatened to shave his hair again, which had gradually begun to grow back in over the past weeks. And Ronen sat and calmly talked to Jeia for a few minutes until she sighed and went to put her dress clothes on. Then Tenzin returned and asked why Lin wasn't dressed, and if looks could kill he would have spontaneously burst into flames from the murderous look she gave him.
With the kids sorted, Lin managed to fix herself up quickly, and she was striding out to the sitting room just as Su and her family arrived, at the last minute, as per usual. Su had been back and forth between Republic City and Zaofu over the last few weeks, having liberated her people and sent Kuvira's army away, and begun the reassembly of the metal domes that had been taken down. She was coping with her son's crimes and imprisonment by not discussing it with anyone, while also keeping up to date with the proceedings of his trial. Bataar Sr had returned to Zaofu with his wife and hadn't been back to the city since. He was noticeably absent from the wedding, and when Lin asked about it, Su had simply said, "He wasn't in the mood for a party," and then changed the subject. Su, at least, seemed in a halfway cheerful mood. She was excited to see Kya and Nira married, and she had always loved a good party.
Bolin officiated Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding first, as promised, and afterwards, once Varrick's fireworks had completed, he and his new bride went to the reception area with their guests, while half of the rest of them remained, moving to the front seats and scooting in closer together. This time, Tenzin went to the front to officiate, while Bolin took a seat in the audience. Kya and Nira walked down the aisle together, arms looped through each other's, hardly able to look away from one another and beaming smiles on their faces. Tenzin was teary eyed before they even reached him, and he struggled to speak through the beginnings of his speech.
Kya and Nira stood facing each other, hands clasped together, and when her brother took too long to recover himself, Kya let go of one of Nira's hands just long enough to swat him in the chest and teasingly scold, "C'mon, Tenzin, I waited like fifty years to find this woman, don't make me wait another ten years to marry her."
Tenzin chuckled and wiped at his eyes and tamped down on his emotions. He went rapidly through the usual sentiments, skipping a few when Kya still impatiently motioned for him to speed up, and finished with, "It is my great honor to unite my dear friend Nira and my sweet sister Kya, having come together at last. May they live out the rest of their lives in love and joy. You may now kiss your bride."
"Finally," Kya sighed, pulling Nira in, and they kissed in celebration, barely managing it through their wide smiles.
Bumi started a cheer and the rest of them joined in, surging to their feet in a standing ovation. Amali rushed forward to hug her newly wedded mothers, dragging Akira, her new sister, up with her. Akira's oldest brother Koda was in attendance too, with his wife and children, though their middle brother Ashok had opted not to come. Koda had been delighted to meet Amali, and Kya had been so relieved that he was so accepting of Nira and Amali, but Lin hadn't been surprised. Koda had always been a sweet boy. She still remembered babysitting him when he was little, however vague those memories were these days. It had been him that softened her to the idea of children. She felt guilty that she had fallen out of touch with him since he had gotten older. If things would ever settle down, she thought it'd be nice to invite him around more often.
Everyone congregated around Kya and Nira, offering congratulations and hugs, and they all moved in a clump to where the reception was under way, ready to eat and dance and finally let loose and relax. Lin and Tenzin fell to the back of the group, their hands intertwining, and they looked at one another with adoring smiles.
Tenzin brought Lin's hand up to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it before murmuring, "Marry me."
Lin raised a bemused brow. "I know you're an airhead sometimes, Tenz, but I don't think even you could have forgotten our wedding."
"Of course not," he replied cheerfully. "I'll never forget one of the best days of my life. But it's been a while, and I think we should do it again, renew our vows."
Lin snorted. "Wasn't it difficult enough for you to get me down the aisle the first time?"
Tenzin chuckled. "Oh, it absolutely was, but I never stray from a challenge. And I certainly never give up on you."
Lin shook her head in amusement. "Whatever you say, dear."
"So, will you?" Tenzin inquired.
"I'll think about it," Lin granted
Tenzin continued to smile. "That works for me." As they came upon the party, he eagerly asked, "Would you like to dance?"
And Lin gave out an exaggerated sigh. "I suppose, for you."
They danced for a while, pressed close together, cheek to cheek, and they watched their family dance around them. Kya and Nira, wide smiles and brimming with joy. Ronen and Asami, not really dancing due to Ronen's leg, but swaying on the spot. Katara and Jeia, holding hands and making lazy circles, Katara not giving up until she had coaxed a smile out of Jeia. Amali, twelve years old and her cheeks bright pink as she asked Yunjin to dance with her, both of them laughing when Jinora's baby sister Jiyun, three years old and full of energy, suddenly crashed into the back of his legs. Sora, Opal, and Su dancing circles around everyone else.
Soon Lin was ready to escape the dance floor, and she and Tenzin went to find a table, spotting Katara at one of them and going to join her. Nira's mother was there as well, the only family from Nira's hometown that she had there. Elza was a quiet older woman, kind like Nira, but a bit timid. Nira had said it was all a little overwhelming for her mother, that it was the first time Elza had traveled more than a few miles outside of their small Fire Nation village, and much as she was fascinated by the Island and the city, she was very much accustomed to a different way of life. Elza was more of an observer than a talker, but Katara was determined to make Kya's new mother-in-law feel welcome. The four of them talked about Lin and Tenzin's kids, about Nira and Kya, and then Amali came over to ask her grandma Elza to dance, and the older woman went with a smile. Then Katara had something she wanted to tell Tenzin and Lin.
"What is it, Mom?" Tenzin asked, and Lin could hear the worry in his tone.
Katara did too, and she reached across the table to squeeze his hand and assure, "It's nothing bad, sweetheart. I was just thinking… When I moved to the South Pole, it was because I knew I had to help teach Korra. And when she left, I had grown accustomed to living there. I felt like, perhaps I would finish my life there, as Sokka had, in the place where I grew up, where I last saw my family, my parents and grandmother and my brother. But the more I think on it, I have so much family left, and why be alone in a place that's so different from my childhood, when I have so much family here? When I spent so much of my life here? Of course, Kya's children are there, but Akira rarely stays, and Ashok doesn't like to visit much, and even Koda is talking of moving here to the city with his family. I think I'd like to come back and stay.
"I know you weren't expecting this," she hastened to say as Lin and Tenzin looked on in surprise, "and I know you haven't had to live on the same island as your mother in a while, but I promise not to be overbearing or –"
"Mom," Tenzin interrupted her, squeezing her hand now and smiling softly. "There is nothing I would love more than to have you stay here on the Island with us again. We would be so glad to have you."
"Agreed," Lin added, laying her hand over both of theirs too. "It'll be good to have you around again. The kids are barely home to entertain us these days. We might be annoying you more than you annoying us."
Katara laughed. "That's perfectly fine. It'll be nice to have you kids annoy me again," she joked.
"Is Tenzin annoying you already?" Kya's voice suddenly cut in, and the other three occupants of the table swiveled to look as she plopped down in a seat panting for breath, Nira sitting down more gracefully next to her. Kya shot Tenzin a look. "I told you to stop badgering her to have tea with you for six hours every morning."
Tenzin leveled his sister with an unamused look. "You know all those nice things I was saying about you earlier? I take them back."
"No, no," Katara said to Kya, who was sticking her tongue out at her brother, "it's nothing like that. I was just telling Lin and Tenzin that I want to move back here, to be with everyone."
Kya was stunned for a second, like Lin and Tenzin had been, but recovered quickly with a delighted, "That's great news, Mom. Hey, it'll be almost like old times! All of us back on the Island, with a few additions of course," she added, slipping her arm around Nira's shoulders and tugging her close.
"Amali will be thrilled," Nira agreed, reaching over to squeeze Katara's hand with a smile of her own. "We're thrilled."
"Well," Tenzin sighed happily, leaning back in his chair and pulling Lin into his side as well, and as uncomfortable as it was, she endured it to feel his warmth surrounding her, "this is shaping up to be a really great evening."
"Mmm, I agree," Nira hummed, laying her head on Kya's shoulder, and Kya kissed the top of her head.
"All right!" a loud, jovial voice startled them, and then Bumi was slamming a tray full of shot glasses onto the table, and Su crashed into Lin's back, wrapping her arms around her sister's shoulders and squeezing tight even as Lin spluttered a protest, the smell of liquor apparent on Su's breath. "I've got shots for everyone! Let's get this party started! Here, Mom, you can have Kya's since she's sober now."
Katara just laughed as Bumi handed her three shot glasses, while several other voices around the table groaned, "Bumi!"
After several spins on the dance floor with Sora, and then Kai, and then her brother Meelo and her sister Ji-Ji, and one dance with her father, Jinora finally spun her way off the dance floor to catch her breath. She saw Sora standing off to the side on her own, arms folded across her chest as she watched everyone else dance with a sad smile on her face, and Jinora began making her way there. She sidled up next to Sora, squeezing her friend's wrist in greeting and asking, "You all right?"
Jinora winced immediately after, thinking it was a stupid question considering what Sora had been through so recently.
But Sora just smiled at Jinora and answered, "I'm… okay. I'm really happy for Aunt Kya and Aunt Nira, and Varrick and Zhu Li. It's great to see everyone so happy, and all of us together."
"But you miss Zara," Jinora said knowingly. She had known, more than most, how much Zara had meant to Sora. Jinora and Sora had been determined to remain best friends, no matter what was going on with Jinora and Yunjin, no matter how far Sora traveled, and there had been many nights in the dorms when Sora would spill her heart to Jinora about her mixed feelings for Zara.
"I do," Sora sighed, "but she probably would have hated this. She would have come to make me happy, but… she never felt comfortable around anyone. I wish I could have given her more. I don't know if it ever would have been enough. She never wanted to come around Yunjin or my parents – she felt so guilty."
"You showed her what real love is," Jinora softly reasoned, "without all the manipulation. I think she was grateful for every moment she had with you, even if it wasn't everything you guys wished it could have been. You and your Aunt Su gave her a better life in the time she had left, and I'm certain that's what she held onto when she made the decision to save Jeia."
Sora nodded, rubbing at her eyes and biting down on her bottom lip, quelling any emotions trying to break free. "I'm sorry. I don't want to be bad company. I really am feeling better. I'll always miss her, but… I have to accept what is."
"You take all the time you need," Jinora soothed. "I'm here no matter what."
Sora couldn't hold back any longer and she surged forward to hug her friend, murmuring, "Thank you, Jinora. You've helped me through so much. What would I do without you?"
"Knowing you, you'd probably have a hundred other friends," Jinora teased. "But I'm glad I'm your number one."
Sora chuckled and pulled back. "Always. Now tell me something: why has Ikki been glancing at me all night? Did I do something to upset her?"
Jinora tipped her head back and laughed. "Oh that? She's got a huge crush on you, didn't you know?"
Sora's eyes widened in surprise. "She does? When did that happen?!"
"Years ago, I suspect," Jinora answered. "She's been wanting to ask you to dance all night, but she's been trying to give you space because she knows you just lost Zara and she doesn't want you to think she's coming onto you. I told her you wouldn't think of it that way, but she's Ikki. She over thinks everything."
"That's kind of sweet," Sora said, smiling a little and waving her fingers at someone behind Jinora, who looked over her shoulder and saw Ikki hurriedly looking away with a blush and a barely suppressed grin.
Jinora rolled her eyes at her little sister's obviousness, and was surprised Sora had never noticed. Ikki was always trying to hang around the two older girls from the moment they became friends, though Jinora supposed Sora could have attributed that to Ikki being only about a year and a half younger than them. Ikki, like most others, was drawn to Sora's sweet nature, something the pair of them had in common.
"I suppose I could ask her myself if she'd like to dance," Sora considered.
"It would make her night," Jinora replied, "but don't feel like you have to."
"No, I like Ikki," Sora said. "Nothing wrong with a dance. Besides, who knows better than me about unrequited love for a close friend?"
She smirked at Jinora, who scoffed at the pointed reference to Sora's old feelings for her, and smacked Sora playfully on the shoulder. "Stop. I told you I was sorry."
"Yes, just what every girl wants to hear after they lay their heart bare," Sora continued to jest. "I'm sorry."
They laughed and Jinora admitted, "I'm sure Kai didn't like it when I said it to him either."
"Well, at least he's still speaking to you," Sora pointed out. "But that probably just means he took your 'I need time,' as a 'wait for me.'"
Jinora huffed. "You're probably right. Boys are so exasperating."
"I tried to bring you to my side," Sora defended, holding her hands up. "But nooo, you wanted to date my brother."
"To be fair, he almost looked more like a girl than you did with that hair. You must not be feminine enough for me."
"Oh my gosh," Sora drawled, as Jinora snickered. "You are ridiculous. I'm gonna go talk to someone that appreciates me."
Jinora only laughed harder, still teasing Sora as she strode away, "Grow your hair out longer and maybe I'll rethink it!"
"I'm ignoring you!" Sora called, but Jinora could see her shoulders shaking with laughter too.
Sora went to ask Ikki to dance, and Jinora watched them for a minute before turning away. She could feel Yunjin's eyes on her from across the dance floor, but she didn't turn to look at him, leaving the reception area and knowing that he would follow her. Sure enough, she had only been sitting on the cliff side for a few minutes when she sensed him dropping down beside her. He was louder about it than he used to be, due to his spinal injury, but he was much more agile than he was two years ago.
They didn't speak at first, watching the ocean crash against the cliff side far below their dangling feet, illuminated by the moonlight.
Jinora was the first to say, "I'm sorry."
Yunjin turned to look at her with a furrowed brow. "For what?"
"I never really told you where we stood," Jinora explained. "I didn't know what I wanted and I wasn't ready to pick up where we left off, but I shouldn't have just left you hanging."
"No, that's okay," Yunjin assured. "You had every right. I left without much notice, when we were barely hanging on to begin with. I'm just glad you kept in contact at all."
"Well, I don't think I'll ever be able to ignore you completely," Jinora admitted. "You Beifongs make it nigh on impossible. But you did give me a lot of time to think."
"And do you know what you want now?" Yunjin asked curiously.
"I think so. But I don't think you'll be happy to hear the answer."
"Jinora," Yunjin said with a frown, grasping her hand and tilting his head to meet her averted gaze. "All I want is for you to be happy. I promise. No matter what it means for me."
Jinora sucked in a deep breath and looked him in the eye. "I love you. I think I'll always love you. But I think, somewhere in all that, I lost who I was. Not because of anything you did, but because I didn't know how to be me and be with you at the same time. We got together so young, and I was so infatuated with you I couldn't see much of anything else. I think… I need to be on my own for a while. I want to figure out who I am and where I want to be."
Yunjin looked back out at the bay for a moment, still holding tight to Jinora's hand, and he looked sad, but not wholly surprised. After a moment, he murmured, "I understand." He turned to catch her gaze again. "When I was away… I missed you, but… it was nice, to sort of make decisions without my parents or anyone else there." He sucked in a deep breath, and Jinora felt tears welling in her eyes even though she knew it was all for the best. "I know that you'll be amazing in everything that you do. And I hope you know you can call on me if you ever need anything."
Jinora nodded mutely, unable to speak through the lump in her throat, and leaned in to hug Yunjin around the waist, burying her face in his chest and breathing him in, tears spilling from her eyes. When she looked up at him, he used his thumb to wipe a tear from her cheek and kissed her forehead. But if this was to be their last moments together like this, she was going to savor every bit of it, and she tilted her head up and pressed her lips to his, lingering for a few seconds, committing it all to memory. And then she pulled away with a sigh, eyes still closed, and laid her head back down on his chest. And there they remained for a while, clinging to one another on the cliff side, watching the waves crash over the rocks, until the tide would inevitably pull them apart.
While Asami was taking a turn on the dance floor with Sora, Ronen hobbled over to where Korra had just approached Mako and Prince Wu.
"Good to see you, Prince Wu," Korra was saying, smiling briefly at Ronen when she saw him. "Or should I say, King Wu? You ready to get back to Ba Sing Se and finally take the throne?"
"Yeah… about that…" Wu said, glancing down at his feet and rubbing the back of his head. "I was actually thinking of stepping down as king and getting rid of the monarchy all together."
Ronen's eyes widened, and Mako asked, "Are… you joking?"
Wu shook his head. "For once, I'm not. Now I know what you're gonna say, I'm being lazy, I'm afraid of responsibility, I'm putting my singing career before my people, but it's none of those things. I really think the Earth Kingdom would be better off if the states were independent and had elected leaders, like the United Republic."
Mako was stunned. "That's… actually pretty wise of you."
"I think it's a great idea," Ronen said.
"So do I," Korra said with a bright smile. "The Earth Kingdom should evolve, and I'll do everything in my power to help you make that happen."
Wu gave her a salute. "Looking forward to working with you. But for now, the dance floor calls."
He shimmied away from them, Mako still half bewildered and Ronen chuckling.
Mako noticed something out on the dance floor, and snorted. "Looks like Bolin is in need of assistance." Ronen and Korra looked over to where Bolin was wrangling several children climbing on his back and hanging on his arms and legs, including Ji-Ji, Meelo, and Koda's two young kids. He was throwing his older brother a beseeching look and Mako went to help, shaking his head in amusement.
Korra turned to Ronen. "How's the leg?"
"Itchy," Ronen sighed, "but it's healing all right."
"And, uh, how is Asami?" Korra asked with concern.
Ronen found Asami in the crowd, laughing at something Bumi and Su were saying to her, and answered Korra, "She's healing too. She's glad she was able to forgive him before she lost him, but we're taking it day by day."
Korra nodded. "It's good that she has you. I'm glad that I've had you as a friend through all of this. I never told you I was sorry."
Ronen turned to face her with confusion. "Sorry for what?"
"For disappearing for three years," Korra said sheepishly. "For not coming back sooner. You were always there for me in the past, and I wasn't here for you."
Ronen gave her a reassuring smile and reached out to briefly squeeze her hand. "You have nothing to apologize for. I had plenty of people here. And, yeah, they were a bit of a mess too, but I don't hold any of that against you. You had to find your way. I just wish I could have helped you more."
Korra looked out at where their friends danced under the moonlight, looking at peace for the first time in a long time. "I was in a pretty dark place after I was poisoned. But I finally understand why I had to go through all that. I needed to understand what true suffering was so I could be more compassionate to others, even to people like Kuvira. And I feel like I've only just begun. There's so much more I want to learn and do."
"And you will," Ronen assured. "And whatever help you need, we're all here. We've got your back, always."
Korra smirked. "That's a bit like what Mako said. I'm pretty lucky to have you guys."
Ronen beamed. "I'm glad you used to be my grandfather and we got to meet."
Korra laughed and hooked her arm through Ronen's. "Yeah, I'm glad too."
After Korra had spoken to Ronen, she drifted away from the party, finding a quieter place on the Island where she could sit and watch the new spirit portal in the city, lights dancing in the sky. Shortly after, Tenzin approached her, and she had a similar conversation with her old mentor that she'd had with his son.
He told her, "You've transformed the world more in a few years than most Avatars did during their lifetimes." And "You don't know how happy I am to hear you so full of hope again."
Before anything more could be said, Akira appeared behind them saying, "Hey, Uncle, Varrick is looking for you. Something about wanting to borrow a glidersuit to fly off the tower?"
Tenzin's eyes widened in alarm. "That doesn't seem like a good idea." And then he was racing off as Akira snickered.
"Wanna sit with me for a minute?" Korra asked her. "I'm not ready to get back to the party just yet."
"Oh absolutely," Akira easily agreed, plopping down next to Korra on the stairs of the pavilion where she sat. She leaned back on her hands with a sigh. "All that dancing… Y'know ever since I found you it's been nothing but physical activity. I might actually be getting back into shape."
"What a tragedy," Korra teased, laughing a little when Akira shoved her shoulder. "Thank you, by the way. For finding me. And helping me in the swamp. Oh, and staying with me in the South Pole for a while even though I know you hated it there."
"Guess I liked you more than I hated that frozen tundra," Akira said with a cheeky smirk. "You're done running, though, right? Cause I gotta tell ya, I am exhausted."
"No more running," Korra assured. "I promise."
Akira slumped in relief, tilting her head back and looking up at the sky, exposing her neck and the healing wounds there. "Good. Cause I'll chase you if I have to, but it's a lot easier if you just tell me where you're going."
Korra reached out absentmindedly, stroking her thumb over the burnt abrasion marring Akira's skin.
Akira froze, looking at Korra out of the corner of her eye, but not pulling away. "It doesn't hurt much anymore," Akira murmured, seeming to read Korra's mind. "It's uncomfortable, but not the worst I've had."
"What was the worst?" Korra half whispered.
"I got in a fight with a polar bear dog once. She was protecting her babies. I stumbled across her at the wrong time. I was only nine or ten."
Korra's eyes widened and she dropped her hand as Akira turned to face her. "Really? Is that why you were scared of Naga at first?"
"I wasn't scared!" Akira denied, and Korra raised a disbelieving brow.
"You were definitely scared," Korra argued.
"Was not!"
"You were practically shaking."
"I was nothing but nice to Naga."
"Because you were afraid she'd eat you."
Akira shook her head and tsked. "Wow. You're really gonna call me a scaredy cat. And to think I was going to invite you to come with me on vacation."
"Vacation?" Korra asked with interest. "What vacation?"
Akira shrugged. "I don't know. Any vacation. I think we've earned it after all this nonsense, don't you?"
Korra didn't need to think about it. "Let's do it! Let's go on a vacation, just the two of us. Anywhere you want."
"Anywhere I want, huh?" Akira deliberated, looking out across the landscape while tapping her chin, and her eyes fell onto the spirit portal in the city. "Y'know, one place I've never been is the Spirit World."
Korra smiled. "Sounds perfect."
Akira looked over at Korra, slowly beginning to smile now too, and she scooted closer, laying her hand over Korra's. She moved in, kissing Korra briefly on the lips, and Korra felt warmth spread through her, and flipped her own hand over to intertwine their fingers as Akira said, "It's a date."
As the night began to wind down, the wedding guests began to disperse, returning to the city or their rooms on the Island. Varrick and Zhu Li flew off on an airship to begin their honeymoon, fireworks exploding beside them. Kya and Nira lingered a while longer before they were ushered off to their own rooms by Tenzin when he noticed Nira trying to help with the clean-up. Varrick's hired caterers were cleaning up the huge mess left behind, but Tenzin wouldn't go home until he was certain he had seen everyone off the island, so he and Lin ended up doing more of the work than they wanted to considering the late hour and how exhausted they already were. Some of the acolytes and family chipped in for a bit, but were inevitably pulled away by the lure of a nice warm bed.
When Lin and Tenzin finally stumbled wearily into their home, they found the house stuffed full of sleeping family members, who had apparently tried to stay awake waiting for them and ultimately failed. Su was passed out on her stomach on the couch, Bumi, her drinking cohort of the evening, on the floor below her. As Lin and Tenzin tiptoed down the hallway, they peeked into their kids' bedrooms along the way, saw Katara sleeping in Ronen's old bed, Opal and Amali sleeping in Sora's, Wei and Wing in Yunjin's, and Huan in Jeia's. And in Lin and Tenzin's bedroom, they found their kids, all sprawled out in their parents' bed, Ronen laying at the foot of it with Asami curled up against his side, Yunjin and Sora on either end, with Jeia snuggled between them.
Cute as it was, Lin was ready to drop, and she huffed, "Great, where are we supposed to sleep?"
Tenzin chuckled softly. "I think I have an idea. Grab some blankets and pillows."
While Lin was digging the extras out of the closet, Tenzin crept over to gently kiss the tops of each of their kids' heads, smiling fondly at them, and Lin took a moment to ignore her weariness and observe them, thinking idly that she might never have the four – five – of them all together and resting sweetly like this again.
Then Tenzin led her out of the room and the whole way back outside, and she figured out where he was taking her halfway there, but neither of them spoke, walking together in contented silence. And when they had put together a bed on the floor of Tenzin's secret, not so secret to Lin, cave hideout, they huddled together and looked out at that familiar view of the bay, stretching out to the bright cityscape beyond, now with a spirit portal flaring through the center. And as Lin drifted off, ensconced in Tenzin's arms, with the city their parents had built laid out before them and their children resting somewhere just above them, she was at peace.
Chapter 101: Epilogue
Chapter Text
Chapter 101 – Epilogue
Thirteen years later…
Lin saw the boulder flying at her face and stood her ground, crossing her arms in front of her and then yanking them downwards, the rock cracking straight down the middle and disintegrating around her as the two disconnected pieces flew off to either side of her. Before her opponent could send another projectile – and they'd probably need half a second after heaving that giant boulder at her – she twisted her right foot and sent a rock wave striking at her attacker, who dove out of the way, landing on one palm, feet momentarily suspended in the air. As they pushed off the ground into a cartwheel, they dug their hand into the earth and threw a rock wave right back at Lin, who merely sidestepped and punched the air, chucking a smaller boulder at her opponent, who had just come up onto their feet and barely managed to knock it aside.
There was a sharp whistle, and Lin knew what was coming but it still came too fast for her to properly evade. An all metal boomerang came spiraling in, smacking off her left knee and bouncing off. Lin dropped down from the blow and immediately ducked to avoid the boomerang as it came swooping back in. Then she thrust out her right hand, and when the boomerang came back for another assault, she snatched it right out of the air, her whole body vibrating with the force of it, and it took nearly every ounce of her bending strength to forcibly snap the metal weapon in half with both hands. She tossed them to either side and didn't still in her defense, knowing the pieces could snap back together in an instant. She needed to distract her attacker, so she smacked both hands onto the ground and pulled the ground up beneath their feet. As they were flipping backwards off of the unsteady earth, Lin rose to her feet, stomped her foot into the ground, and the second they landed, kicked a rock about the size of her head at her attacker, and hit them square in the chest.
They fell onto their back with an oof, and before they could catch their breath to retaliate or go on the defensive, Lin flipped her hands over, and covered nearly their entire body in earth. They would still be able to escape, but it would take too long, and Lin was already propelling herself across the space between them and stopping just over top of them. In her right fist was one of the jagged pieces of the metal boomerang, and their eyes widened as Lin raised it over her head and brought it down into the rock over their chest.
Several loud cheers erupted around the sparring circle, and Lin raised her fist in victory.
Below her, Jeia Rai huffed and probably muttered a curse and broke out of her earthen confines. She yanked the one half of her boomerang out of where it had been imbedded in the rock, and held out her left hand to summon the other half. The two pieces snapped together, and Jeia let it slither around her wrist and forearm like a snake.
Lin stopped boasting long enough to turn and clap Jeia on the shoulder saying, "Nice moves, kid." Jeia just stared at her mother with an irritated expression, dusting off her clothes. "Hey, I told you I could still kick your ass."
"You could have at least let me win," Jeia grumbled, "instead of embarrassing me in front of the entire family."
Lin smirked. "Well where's the fun in that?"
"How's it going to look to Wan if I can get taken down by my sixty-eight year old mother?" Jeia muttered, glancing up at where her boyfriend stood outside the sparring circle. He was smirking at something Yunjin was saying to him, but seemed to sense Jeia's eyes on him and turned to look down at her, winking at her in that way that Lin hated but Jeia seemed to like.
"It'll look like you took it easy on your old mom," Lin said, "but you and I know the truth." She playfully elbowed Jeia in the ribs and the girl scowled at her, but a second later her expression brightened. "You're right, I can use that. Thanks, Mom." She slapped Lin on the shoulder and walked off to join the others, leaving her mother scowling now and rubbing her shoulder.
Though to be fair, Lin half expected Jeia had been taking it a little easy on her mother, and if there had been more metal than earth around, she might have gotten the upper hand. But mostly, Lin did have a world of experience that Jeia hadn't yet mastered, even for all her gifts, even with Lin having slowed a little in her age. At twenty-one years old, Jeia had mastered her bending and most of her temper. She had joined the metalbending police force as soon as she turned seventeen, having refused public schooling, never having been eager to try it as her siblings had been – and the three of them hadn't bothered to finish theirs after the Equalist Revolution anyways. In the four years that she had been on the force, she had been simultaneously proving herself an exceptional officer and learning how to obey orders. She was under the tutelage of Raizo, the very man that had helped her mother give birth to her and for whom she was half named for, and they were getting along pretty well now that Raizo had gotten most of the teasing out of his system.
Jeia had a lot more to learn, but she was expected to follow in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother and become Chief of Police, assuming she wanted it that is. So far, Jeia wanted to be in on the action. She didn't want to be sidelined to a desk and bureaucracy as the chief so often was. And as much as she disliked taking orders, she didn't care much for being the one to dole them out either. She preferred to work alone, and that was something she was already striving to overcome, and would need to be far removed from if she wanted to become chief. But she was young still, and Lin had a feeling Jeia would change her mind about wanting to be in the field constantly once she was older.
Six months ago, Jeia had come home with her boyfriend Wan, and Lin hadn't warmed much to him since, but she was trying to give him a chance, as per Jeia's request. He was just so cocky and self-assured, like Jeia, to be frank, but Jeia was Lin's kid and Wan was the man she'd brought home, the man that was eight years older and had quit his job on the police force because he liked authority even less than Jeia. He'd been bouncing around to different jobs since then, which Lin found to be unreliable but Jeia found to be exciting. One good thing Lin could concede about him was that he seemed to adore Jeia. He was always grinning at her, even when they were arguing, which they did a lot, but seemed to find some odd enjoyment in. Lin supposed Jeia just liked somebody that could and would go toe-to-toe with her in an otherwise pointless debate. Jeia had been so quiet as a young girl, but hadn't shied from speaking her mind when the opportunity presented itself. Now she was a lot more outspoken and still just as brazen. And Wan wasn't afraid to test her in ways most others would simply avoid. Jeia could count on him to be honest, and he never looked at her with any real irritation beyond some playful exasperation. Lin almost liked Wan because Jeia clearly did, but until she was certain she could trust him, she was withholding her decision on the matter.
"You sure you didn't break a hip out there, Mom?" Yunjin teased Lin as she passed him.
"Watch it, kid," she warned her thirty year old son, "or you'll be next."
"He'd break his own hip out there," Amali joked from beside him, hand resting on her pregnant belly.
Yunjin laughed, leaning his weight against the cane held in his right hand. "You're not wrong."
Over the last few years, Yunjin had experienced some more issues with his spinal injury. His doctors warned that he needed to be involved in less strenuous activity, that he would worsen his condition if he continued to overexert himself past what his injured body would allow. He'd undergone a few more surgeries, one of them fairly recently, hence the cane to help him walk. His brother had made him a new set of braces a few years prior, but Yunjin was hesitant to rely on them again, and his doctor advised that it could make his condition worse. But throughout all the surgeries and uncertainty, Yunjin had not despaired. He'd been surprisingly optimistic, even when it seemed he might be returned to a wheelchair at some point in his life.
It helped that he had Amali through much of it. Around the age of twenty, Yunjin had left home to wander the earth much as his father had decades before. Yunjin wished to travel and seek enlightenment, studying the philosophies of ancient Air Nomads, as well as the philosophies of the other three nations. He traveled for several years, visiting home as often as he was able, always bringing odd little gifts home for his family. Many times his father asked him to stay, to teach the airbenders what he had learned, but Yunjin wasn't finished with his quest. One year, he came home and noticed Amali, well into adulthood herself and full of interest of his travels. She had admitted to harboring a bit of a crush on him in their younger years, but with the four year age difference and Yunjin's persistent interest in Jinora, there was never any place for something between them. Amali was simply Nira's adopted daughter and she and Yunjin hardly interacted without the rest of the family around before then.
Even after Yunjin and Jinora split ways, they never really got around to getting over each other until much later. Lin often suspected part of the reason Yunjin left home was to get away from reminders of Jinora. The girl had been traveling a lot herself, but she was at Air Temple Island most of all, as was the rest of her family, who had all integrated into Acolyte life. Some of the Air Temples had been re-inhabited over the years, freeing up some space on the Island, but it was still fuller than it had ever been. Jinora most enjoyed the teaching aspect of a leadership position in the Air Nation, and with most new benders and acolytes coming through the Island first, she spent much of her time there. She had been granted the rank of master a few years ago, and Yunjin and Sora had helped their father administer Jinora's tattoos.
By that time, Yunjin had begun his relationship with Amali. There were no hard feelings between Yunjin and Jinora, nor between Jinora and Amali. Yunjin and Jinora had remained friends, and even with Yunjin's difficulties in getting over her, they had been amicable through it all. In the end, their differences had simply not aligned. In some ways they made each other better, in some ways worse. Ultimately, they were better off apart. Jinora had been in a handful of relationships herself, but she was dedicated to focusing on her own goals. Yunjin, meanwhile, had been ready to settle down after his travels, and had found that with Amali. They both wanted a family. They both wanted that family together.
Amali herself was working two jobs. One at the library in the city where she followed her passion of history and research, and the other at the foster home, where she sought to help all the children without parents, to make them feel safe in their hopefully temporary housing, and help to find them loving homes to go to. After the fall of Kuvira, Amali had gone with Kya and Nira to the Earth Kingdom, where they had helped reunite separated families, and found new homes for those who had lost theirs. Amali had been moved by that experience, and sought to pursue it as she grew older. She had been so fortunate to be found by Nira, to inevitably end up with two adoring mothers after she had lost her own parents and her entire tribe. So many people on the Island had welcomed her, given her a new family, a new tribe, and she wanted to try and give that to all the other children without families.
Amali and Yunjin had planned to adopt after they had officially married, but Amali had gotten pregnant first. Everyone kept asking the pair of them when they were going to have a wedding, but neither of them had any major drive to make their union legal. They claimed to have "already married in spirit," whatever that meant. Some philosophical mumbo jumbo that Lin only half listened to. They knew one day that they would have an official ceremony, for their families if for no one else, but they were in no rush. They were focused instead on the baby they would have in just a few short weeks, and if the kid was anything like Yunjin they would undoubtedly have their hands full.
"Save your strength," Lin told Yunjin. "You're gonna need it when that kid is born."
"Oh, it'll be fine," Yunjin waved off without concern. And Lin snorted, because he had no idea what was coming. He may have gained some insights over the years and learned to sit still for longer than five minutes, but he was still very much like his mother, and fatherhood would be a challenge for him. She had no doubts that he would overcome those challenges, but it wouldn't come to him as easily as it had for some of his siblings.
Like it had for the ever patient Ronen, who stood next to Sora, who stood between her two brothers. Sora was holding Ronen's youngest on her hip, grinning at her three year old niece Hira, making faces at the girl as she cheerfully bounced in Sora's arms. Sora glanced up from Hira to smile at Lin, but she hadn't been half as interested in Lin and Jeia's sparring, enraptured as she was by the child in her arms. Sora had never really professed to wanting children herself, but she loved Ronen's two girls, and since she didn't live at home much anymore, she liked to spend most of her time with Hira and Roze when she was. Sora usually lived at the Eastern Air Temple with Ikki, whom she had been in a relationship with for about a year. Both women had been in their share of relationships over the years, but hadn't found exactly who they were looking for, though they seemed to think they had now. They worked together at the Eastern Temple, Ikki with the acolytes and Sora with the airbenders. According to some of the other residents there, the two women were a good team, in tune with each other. They were already planning a wedding for next month, which Lin thought was too soon, but she wasn't surprised because Sora had been engaged at least three times before. The girl loved hard, she always had. Ikki, at least, had been in Sora's life for a long time, so maybe it wouldn't end like the others. Lin hoped so anyways.
Ronen had married Asami nearly eight years ago, and since then they'd had two daughters, Hira and Roze, who was six years old. Ronen and Asami had taken their time, even though everyone had expected them to stay together long before they ever sought to legalize it. They'd eloped in the Fire Nation during a spur of the moment vacation, and had an official wedding with the whole family a few months later. They started trying for a baby not long after. They were planning to have a third sometime, but they had their hands full with the girls. Roze was a nonbender like her parents, but Hira had recently shown signs of airbending and she was keeping her parents busy. Hira had her father's features but her mother's strong will. She liked to test her parents' patience, and was trying out some of the pranks her Uncle Yunjin was teaching her. Roze, on the other hand, looked just like her mother, but reminded Lin a lot of how Ronen was at that age, quiet and sweet, though she didn't seem to have the same knack for mechanics as her parents did. She was more inclined to burying her head in a book. She liked to tell her grandparents stories when she came to visit, which was fairly often since the girls stayed on the Island when their parents were busy with work, or the occasions when Ronen and Asami would go out for the evening. Roze's Aunt Sora had tried to teach her how to draw but she hadn't picked that up very well.
Roze hung from her father's arm as she beamed up at Lin and praised, "Gramma, you did really good. Daddy was worried 'bout you but I told him you would be okay."
"Thanks, kid," Lin said, ruffling Roze's hair. "Your dad just thinks I'm old."
"I would never say such a thing," Ronen denied while attempting to suppress a smirk.
"Not to her face," Sora muttered next to him.
"Where's Asami?" Lin asked Ronen, who was shooting Sora a glare.
"Working," Ronen answered, "but she'll be here in time for dinner. "She had to –"
"Pay up," a voice interjected on Ronen's other side, and a fourteen year old boy knocked into Ronen's shoulder.
Ronen feigned offence. "I didn't agree to any bets."
"I told you Aunt Lin would beat Jeia, no problem," the boy persisted. "I put ten yuans on it."
"Sokka," an exasperated Nira chimed in, "I told you to stop trying to scam your family out of money."
"Aw, Mama, I'm just havin' fun," Sokka defended. "Tell her, Mom."
Kya held up her hands and shook her head. "No way. You're not draggin' me into this one. I already got in trouble for supposedly encouraging you the last time."
"You certainly weren't trying to dissuade him," Nira mildly scorned.
"Kid's gotta make money somehow," Kya teased.
"Gambling is a serious addiction," Nira argued.
"You're a serious addiction," Kya murmured, wrapping her arms tight around Nira's waist and trying to lean in to kiss her cheek, while Nira swatted her away with annoyance and amusement before inevitably giving in.
"Yuck," Sokka complained. "You guys are so gross. Why do I have the grossest mothers in the world?"
Ronen snorted. "Believe me, bud, my parents aren't much better."
Lin scoffed. "Excuse me. I never act like that."
"Sure ya don't," Sora snickered, jostling Hira in her arms and telling the girl, "Gramma is silly."
Hira giggled and exclaimed, "Gramma is silly!"
Lin rolled her eyes, and so did Sokka when his mothers both reached for him making kissy faces, and the boy made a hasty retreat.
When Kya, Nira, and Amali had gone to the Earth Kingdom to help out all those years ago, they had found a baby boy with no parents and no known name, and they had only taken him in temporarily until they could find a good home for him, but all three of them had grown attached quickly. When they returned to Air Temple Island, Kya and Nira came back with a son named Sokka, much to the surprise of the rest of the family. Kya thought it was absurd because she was far too old to become a mother again, but she had been smitten with the little boy and Nira had wanted him so badly, and she hadn't been able to say no. He looked nothing like his name sake, but Kya was making sure he developed a very similar attitude.
Sokka was a good kid, but a handful much like Yunjin had been, with a mouth on him that he'd certainly gotten from Kya, though Lin was often blamed for it too. The boy had started earthbending around the age of four, and since Lin and Jeia were the only two earthbenders on the island, it had been mostly up to Lin to teach him control. She had actually come to look forward to the lessons, not least because she didn't have a job and she was finally teaching someone that wasn't an airbender. Sokka's gifts were a lot different from Jeia's too, so it had been a bit of a challenge to rework her training to his. Plus, with the way her life had been before, so consumed by work and her own family, and with all of them living outside the city, she had never really had the time to dedicate to any one of her nieces or nephews, not since she'd babysat Kya's older kids way back in the day. It was kind of nice to be a part of Sokka's upbringing in a meaningful way.
It seemed though, that Sokka spent most of his time with his grandmother.
Katara had settled in just fine when she moved back to Air Temple Island for good. Ronen and Asami had begun building their own place in the city, and left the smaller house on the Island they'd been residing in open to Katara. Tenzin loved having his mother around, and frankly so did everyone else. A lot of the airbenders living on the Island were in awe of her, and would gather around her some nights to listen to her stories from long ago. But she seemed more interested in observing everyone else. Bumi and Kya had shown no intentions of moving away, and Katara was delighted to be surrounded by all three of her children once more, not to mention nearly all of her grandchildren and now great-grandchildren. She was pushing close to a hundred years old now, so she was a lot less active and Tenzin worried for her health, but she was always around as much as she was able, always with a bright smile and warm hugs.
When Kya had first introduced her mother to baby Sokka, Katara had wept even as she beamed with joy. She had been just as taken by him as his mothers had when they'd decided to adopt him, and the pair had bonded early on. When Sokka was old enough to talk he was often requesting to see his Gran-Gran, and when he was old enough to be upset with his mothers he would run across the Island to find Katara. He wasn't a boy that was prone to sit still, but he liked to talk his grandmother's ear off while pacing around the room with animated gestures, and Katara liked to sit and listen. It was the opposite relationship she had with Jeia, who liked to sit with her grandmother in silence, and more often than not both of them ended up napping.
Currently, Katara was sitting at the edge of the sparring circle in the wheelchair Ronen had built for her, for the days when she just felt too weary to walk. Sokka went straight over to her, to where she was talking with Su and Opal.
Su and her family had gone through a rough period of time after Kuvira and Bataar Jr's betrayals. Su and her husband especially had been tormented by Junior's actions, by their own potential fault in it and having to see their son imprisoned. For the first year or so after Kuvira's attack on Republic City, Su had barely been home to the liberated Zaofu. She and Bataar Sr didn't seem able to talk it all out and Su didn't know how to handle it all. When Junior was sentenced to several years in prison, she had gone a bit off the deep end, but eventually Lin was able to pull her back, with some help from Opal. Su and Bataar were eventually able to reconcile and move forward, to heal rather than run from their distress. In an effort to make amends and perhaps one day make peace with their son, Su requested that she be allowed to have Kuvira and Junior transferred to Zaofu to remain in her custody, and serve out the rest of their sentences there, with the hope that both of them could be rehabilitated and serve the community they had harmed in more productive ways.
Su's request was denied three times before the courts finally relented. Since then, Kuvira and Junior had both been residing in Zaofu, separate and with restrictions, but supposedly on the mend. During his time in prison, Junior's anger towards his family and Kuvira had mellowed. His parents had visited him enough times until he relented to see them, and it seemed then that he was willing to apologize and seek forgiveness. His siblings were not so willing to see him for a long time, but once he was in Zaofu again, each of them eventually went to hear him out, to attempt to put the past behind them as well as they could. Even Sora had gone to see her cousin, even with the great hurt she still felt years later over Zara's loss. Sora had always been about peace and forgiveness, and it was healing for her to go and see Junior, to hear his apologies, even if she wasn't ready to forgive him, even if she never would. She could at least accept his attempts, and put aside her anger for him.
Lin, on the other hand, was not so accepting. She could not simply set aside the rage she still felt every time she thought about what he had done, what he had almost done. He had killed a girl that was barely an adult, had hurt Sora so deeply, had nearly killed Jeia. Lin would not tell her sister what to do about her own son, but she would not consent to be around Junior at any time either. When Lin visited Zaofu, she never went to see Junior, and she made certain that she'd never run into him.
Kuvira, though, Lin had seen quite a lot, but only for Jeia. It was apparent that Kuvira had tried, in some small way, to turn it around in the end, for Jeia's sake, because she loved the girl and wanted to see no harm come to her. Lin thought Kuvira could have stopped long before she had, was still pissed that Kuvira had kidnapped Jeia at least twice, had brought destruction on the city and harmed so many of the people Lin cared about. But she didn't want Jeia going to see Kuvira on her own, so she had little choice but to accompany the girl on the occasions when Tenzin could not, and even sometimes when he could, just because she was paranoid for a while. Eventually, she had stopped assuming Kuvira was going to break free and snatch Jeia away. Kuvira, at least, was repentant early on. She hadn't been trying to reestablish her place in the self-appointed Earth Empire as Junior had. Lin hadn't trusted it, of course, but after a few years she had relaxed. Now, Jeia had long since been going to visit Kuvira in Zaofu on her own, but avoided any sort of confrontation with Junior the same as her mother. She had been so young when it all happened that much of her feelings for that time had numbed, but she still remembered it with great detail, and she was no more inclined to seek out difficult, emotionally charged situations than her mother.
The rest of Su's children were doing well though. Huan was still ever focused on his art, Wei had moved to Republic City to be on a probending team, and Wing had married a man from the Fire Nation and was living there. Opal was a master airbender now, and split her time between living in Zaofu and at the Eastern Air Temple. Even Bataar was collaborating on some new technology with Ronen and Asami at Future Industries. All of them had come to the Island by Tenzin's and Lin's invitation, leaving Junior and Kuvira behind in Zaofu under guard still.
Pretty much everyone had come out for the event. Pema and Anil and their kids: Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, and baby Ji-Ji who wasn't really a baby anymore at sixteen. Bolin with his current girlfriend, a quiet, sweet girl that loved food as much as he did. Bolin had joined the police force years back and seemed to be thriving there, as Chief Tosuki had told Lin. Mako had eventually left the police force, a few years after a fateful meeting with Princess Ursa. He had met her years before, but when they ran into each other outside City Hall, both of them frustrated by the results of their own separate dealings with some of the lawmakers inside, they had something to discuss. In venting over their mutual frustrations, they found other similar interests over dinner, and one dinner turned to several, turned to a relationship that had been going on almost three years now. Mako had moved to the Fire Nation in the midst of it and was working with the royal police there. He and Ursa had arrived on the Island that morning.
The only people that hadn't yet arrived were Korra and Akira, who were on their way but had sent word ahead to say they'd be late, probably after dinner, but in time for the following day's celebration. Korra and Akira had a place in Republic City where they spent much of their time, but they traveled a lot, of course, and had a home in the Earth Kingdom as well. Before they had children, Ronen and Asami would often travel with Korra and Akira, and Mako and Bolin still did at times, each of them trying to help Korra whenever possible. Akira was not always thrilled with the Avatar work, but it never seemed to come between her and Korra. Some of their journeys they went on together, others apart, but they had a solid, trusting relationship, in that they could separate for weeks at a time to follow their own paths, and come back together again.
The event in question that they had all been invited to was Lin and Tenzin's fortieth wedding anniversary, which they would be celebrating by finally having their vows renewed, as Tenzin had requested years ago, with all their friends and family there to bear witness. Each of them had traveled – or simply took a trip across the Island or the bay – to spend a few days together and attend the vowel renewal. A surprising amount of them were looking forward to it, seeing as how most of them hadn't been there for the first wedding, including Su, since she and Lin hadn't been on speaking terms then. The majority of the rest of them, of course, had not yet even been born.
But the one person that had been with Lin through it all, every critical moment of her life, including her own birth and the births of most of the people around the circle, every milestone with bending and work and family, all of it she had experienced with the man she was going to walk down the aisle with for the second time tomorrow evening. He was the one she found herself drawn to as she made her way around the circle of people. He was standing next to Saikhan, who's hairline had receded so far at that point that he just shaved the hair on his head completely bald now. His wife Minya was there too, with their granddaughter Yumi, now just about sixteen and smirking at the looks Sokka was giving her from across the sparring circle. Lin had stayed true to her word and, once Jeia had been found, sent word to Saikhan to let him know, and to thank him for helping her even when she had been going in the wrong direction. After that, they had been better about staying in touch, exchanging letters almost monthly, mostly talking about their families more so than themselves, occasionally reminiscing some of the good times in the old days. He and his wife and Yumi had been to the Island a few times over the years too, and Lin always tried to visit them when she was in the Fire Nation.
At Lin's approach, Saikhan tipped his head in her direction with a smirk, a silent acknowledgement of her victory, and then told Tenzin that he was going to go threaten Sokka about possibly hitting on his granddaughter before he wandered off. Minya went after him in exasperation, telling him to leave the boy alone, and Yumi just rolled her eyes and went to talk to Ji-Ji, the only person there that really was her age.
Then Lin and Tenzin were alone – well, alone as they could be with all their family so close by – and he smiled down at her with a shake of his head. "Do you feel better now that you've proven yourself right?" he teased, curling his arm around her waist and pulling her against him.
"I do actually," Lin murmured, tugging lightly on his lengthening beard. It was gray now – finally. She had lamented for years about how her hair had long gone gray while his looked just as brown as ever. "You want a turn? Remember what it's like to have me kick you around?"
"Oh I remember it just fine," Tenzin snorted. "I prefer to engage with you in other, less painful exploits."
"Well that's good, because you'll probably need to be giving me a back massage every day for the rest of the week," she admitted, grimacing and rubbing her sore muscles now that nobody was looking. After all her years of police work and various injuries, her body wasn't quite as forgiving as it used to be in her youth.
"I told you that you wouldn't be happy with yourself when it was over."
"Hey, I still won," Lin defended.
Tenzin chuckled, running his fingers up and down her spine and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Yes, dear. Yes, you did."
That night, they all gathered for dinner in the dining hall, and again the following morning for breakfast. That afternoon, preparations began, everyone scrambling to set up some chairs and a few decorations – Lin didn't want anything over the top so they weren't doing a whole lot on that front. Then they were all dressing up in their best clothes and excitedly joining together for the ceremony.
Forty years ago, Lin's mother had walked with her down the aisle. Today, Su was there to take Lin's arm, a bright smile on her face and tears already brimming in her eyes. Su had been tearful ever since Lin had put on her old wedding dress, the very same one she'd worn on her wedding day, with some alterations by Sora to make it look and fit better than when she'd pulled it out of storage. Lin rolled her eyes at Su's emotional state, but smiled fondly and squeezed Su's wrist. Su sniffled and looped her arm through Lin's, and they walked together between the rows of chairs, to the front platform where Tenzin waited, along with Ronen, both of them all dressed up and beaming matching smiles.
Once they reached the platform, Su pressed a kiss to Lin's cheek and, with one last tearful grin, went to take her seat. Tenzin reached out to take Lin's hand as she took a step up onto the platform, and as they turned to face each other, Lin's eyes fell on their joined hands. It wasn't the same as when they'd first married, their hands now bony and wrinkled with age, no longer the smooth, youthful skin of old. But when she looked up into his eyes, those loving, familiar gray eyes, it was as if they hadn't aged a day. Even with the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, the laugh lines around his mouth and the furrows in his brow. He was all the same to her, his hands still soft and warm, his gaze still bright, his smile infectious. Her love for him had not waned over the many years they'd been together. It had changed, of course, as they had changed, from friends to lovers, from lovers to man and wife, to parents of four children. They had been through so many things together, so many trials and triumphs, grief and joy. They had seen each other at their worst and their best. They had aged together, just as he'd promised her, with hopefully many more years to come, with their children and the rest of their family, to see their grandchildren grow. They had been experiencing a period of peace in the past few years, with no jobs or villains to weigh on them, and though Lin had once thought she would always be chief, that she would die before she ever quit, she had never been happier to be wrong.
She could see all of that reflected in Tenzin's eyes as he lifted her hands up to kiss the backs of them, as Ronen spoke to the assembled group of his parents' love. Lin heard the words but she didn't really take them in, centered as she was in the moment, in remembering the little details, the feelings, the way Tenzin never took his eyes off of her.
When it was their turn to speak, Lin could not find the words to express to him everything that she felt, her gratitude and love. It had never been something she had conveyed with words, more by actions, and even with weeks to prepare she was at a loss. But she squeezed Tenzin's hands and she smiled, and he nodded in understanding. She held his hands against her chest and said only, "I love you." He could read the rest in her eyes.
Of course, Tenzin was always better at words. He moved one of his hands to brush it over her cheek, murmuring softly, "My dearest, Lin. I am so grateful to have met you, to have grown up with you, to have watched you become the women I so adore. You are… the strongest, wittiest, most beautiful person I have ever known, and you have given me so much happiness, since the moment we first married forty years ago. As my wife, as my best friend, as the mother to our children. You are, in every way, imbedded in my very soul. You are my constant, my touchstone, that which puts a smile on my face every morning to know that I will face the day, and every ensuing day, with you by my side. I have been beyond fortunate to have so many years with you, nearly our entire lives so far, and I look forward to every year yet to come. Thank you, Lin, for marrying me, for strengthening me. I love you more than I could ever say."
He dropped her hands so that he could cup her face, thumbs lovingly caressing her cheeks as he gazed at her, and before he could lean in, she muttered, "I don't know, I think you did a pretty good job of saying it just there. Way to make me look bad."
Laughter rang out from the onlookers, their family sitting just a few feet away, and Tenzin's chest rumbled with his own chuckles just before he tilted his head down to capture her lips. He kissed her with gusto, and her own hands grasped the sides of his head to pull him all the closer, and she let herself sink further into the moment, into him.
She didn't hear the crackle of thunder somewhere above, nor did she notice their family gathering around. She didn't notice any of it until she and Tenzin's lips parted, and the world seemed to come back to her at once. Their children had surrounded them, Ronen clapping them both on the shoulder, Yunjin beaming at them, Jeia with her arms folded but smirking fondly, and Sora tearfully embracing them. And Lin let that feeling linger too, memorized the faces of her children in that moment.
Until a sharp intake of breath broke through and a tiny, "Uh oh."
And Yunjin's smile faded as he twisted around, to where Amali stood a few paces behind him, demanding, "Uh oh? What's uh oh?"
She smiled slightly in chagrin, her cheeks flushing pink as she said, "Um, I think the baby's coming."
There was a flurry of activity, raised voices of both panic and delight. Thunder rumbled above once again, this time louder, and the second that Lin tipped her head up to look, the dark clouds opened up, and a million drops of rain began to pour from the sky. A few people screamed or shouted their surprise and discontent, all of them soaked in a matter of minutes as they scrambled to find shelter.
Lin, meanwhile, stood still on the platform, ensconced in Tenzin's arms, unfettered by the rain, even as her hair and clothes clung to her skin. She looked at Tenzin, and he just shook his head with a smirk, lifting one hand from her waist to tuck a soaking strand of hair behind her ear, his palm settling on her cheek once again. He pulled her flush against him, both their eyes sliding closed as he pressed his lips against her forehead.
It was in the middle of Republic City's worst ever rainstorm when Lin Beifong decided to grace the world with her presence. And upon her birth, baby Tenzin had reached out and touched her cheek, and from that moment on, their souls had been intertwined, two halves of a whole, different but the same. If anyone had told Lin when she was young that she would one day fall in love with Tenzin, marry Tenzin, have his children and watch those children grow into adults, to have children of their own, she would not have been able to believe it. She would never have been able to anticipate the future. But as she looked back upon the memories of her life, a past that had once been her future, she knew that she would not have changed a single moment. Everything that led her to Tenzin, that gave her their four amazing children and all the other family they had acquired since. She would do it all again in a heartbeat.
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