As Lin emerged from her lonely guest house, she wondered what she had done in a previous life to deserve such pain? After a restless night, a migraine still bashed her brains. Light danced across her eyes, and even the quietest sounds rang louder than a gong held up to the side of her head and banged. She should rest until it passed, but felt like she couldn't. Lin's mother was always there for the last Avatar, so Lin felt like she couldn't abandon the current avatar. No matter how petulant a child she was, Zaheer and his cronies were out there somewhere and Lin couldn't let her die.
As she rounded a corner of another building on her way to go find food in the main house, Lin heard a couple of guards talking.
"How many push-ups did you do last night? Cause I did like fifty," One guard asked another flirtatiously.
"What do you two think you're doing?! Get back to work!" Lin reprimanded them before being overcome with a wave of pain. She winced and pinched the bridge of her nose as her head pounded in agony.
"Is everything all right here?" Aiwei asked.
"The Avatar is in danger, and nobody seems to give two shits about it except me. Even these two knuckleheads are just standing around here chit-chatting," Lin barked.
"Don't worry, Zaofu is the most secure city in the world!" Aiwei assured her.
"I'll be the judge of that! I'm going to check every inch of this place!" Lin declared. Knowing Suyin and the type of company she keeps, I wouldn't trust anything anyone here says even if he is a truthseer.
"Lin, you don't have to work while you are here. You need to relax," Aiwei insisted.
"I'm fine!" Lin snapped before being hit by another wave of pain, this time coming across her entire body.
"It doesn't take a truth seer to know that you are under a dangerous amount of stress. If you don't deal with your suppressed feelings, there will be severe consequences to your health ... and your job." Aiwei warned her.
"I'm not interested in talking about my feelings."
"You won't have to say a word. I know a great acupuncturist in town who will be able to help you," Aiwei said handing her a card.
"Hmph,"
Acupuncture. Kya always did rave about it whenever Lin had a particularly bad day. Tenzin had done it a couple times. Even Aang did it a few times and had nothing bad about it to say. It couldn't be so bad. Lin knew she had to do something to clear her head of such toxic thoughts or else, she wouldn't be able to fight when Zaheer and his band of benders caught up with them. It was inevitable, Lin knew, but nobody seemed to realize or care. She could only look after herself at this point and was very near to give up trying to help everybody else.
The acupuncturist, Guo had her lay down as he raised dozens of needles above her at extremely precise locations.
"How many of those things are you going to stick in me?" Lin asked a bit rougher than she should have.
"I'll be placing several needles on each of your acu-points. There's nothing to be scared about."
"I'm not afraid of needles!" Lin snapped back.
"Please, close your eyes and take a deep breath. This process corrects an imbalance in your chi. Please tell me if you feel any pain or pressure."
"I can't feel a thing."
"That's unusual. Your chi must be powerfully blocked. We're going to need more needles." Guo said opening a drawer in another room.
Or it could be the fact that my mother made us believe all metal was simply an extension of ourselves, born of earth.
"Acupuncture often taps into peoples' buried memories. These memories can sometimes be difficult to process.
"Huh, buried memories." Lin grumbled skeptically as the acupuncturist placed a needle in the middle of her forehead.
Flashback:
Lin - 22, Suyin - 16
Lin was working on some reports in her room at home. There were three robberies an attempted murder and an attempted kidnapping that she responded to all in one day it was unbelievable.
"Almost as unbelievable as what you did to Suyin," Toph said as if she read her daughter's mind. "How could you arrest your sister?"
"How can you say that? I thought it was our job was to protect the innocent people of Republic City? Suyin committed a crime!—," Lin protested.
"But Suyin is family! She's blood Lin, and how does jailing her help anyone one bit? The trial, the criminal record will stop her from ever becoming something! She's just a stupid teenager; we all were once stupid teenagers EVEN YOU though that phase ended when you were two... Think about protecting family! Isn't that our job too?" Toph asked her older daughter.
Lin froze. Had she forgotten? Had she forgotten all of the times she risked her own life to get Suyin out of whatever shit Suyin had gotten herself into? Had she forgotten all of the sacrifices Lin had made to ensure that ungrateful little shit lived another day?
Had Toph forgotten that it was Lin who changed the diapers, bottle-fed the baby, dressed the toddler and then the child, cooked breakfast in the morning and packed snacks for school? Had Toph forgotten Lin had to help Suyin learn arithmetic because Toph was too busy at work? Had Toph forgotten Lin took the blade of a knife into her leg multiple times, who gave up the one piece of herself that she could never get back to some lowly thug to protect Suyin's innocence? Had she forgotten it was Lin gave everything she had to keep Suyin safe, while Toph sat behind a desk at the Police Headquarters and complained about a headache she got after talking to a couple of idiotic detectives. Toph had more pressing responsibilities than her daughters' day-to-day activities. Keeping Su under control, keeping Su safe had fallen on Lin's shoulders since the day Lao and Poppy went back to Gaoling.
"Even with your feet, you are BLIND, mother. Blind to EVERYTHING!" Lin yelled heading for the door.
"Lin—,"
"Protecting Su was OUR job, yet I seemed to be the only person ever doing anything about it ever since she could walk! Where where you when she became labeled a habitual truant at age of eight?"
"School is overrated—,"
"Where were you when she first brought home thieving streetrats and gave them access to our home when she was ten?"
"Street rats aren't dangerous and we have nothing worth stealing,—,"
"Where were you when she pledged herself to the Terra Triad at twelve?"
"I—,"
"Where were you THAT NIGHT she went on that date at Kuang's Cuisine with a twenty six year old regional Triad leader?"
"I was working-,"
"AT THE STATION! But I wasn't protecting family was our job too?" Lin asked with tears in her eyes.
"Don't turn this on me, Kid-,"
"I'm not your kid anymore," Lin growled bending on her armor, grabbing her satchel and over coat, stuffing her unfinished reports into the bag, and heading towards the door.
"Where do you think you're going?" Toph yelled running after her.
"Away! Anywhere but here because I can't STAND you anymore! I am sorry for trying to prevent the inevitable. I'm sorry for trying to protect Su, and you. I'm sorry for trying to keep us together. I am sorry for trying to keep up TWO Full-TIME jobs so YOU didn't have to. But don't worry. Now you don't have a family to feed or neglect, or fail to protect," Lin cried grabbing her coat disappearing into the night.
Lin sat up, bending every needle out of her sweat covered body, gasping for air.
I need to get out!
"Wait! Leaving in the middle of a session could make you sick!" the acupuncturist called desperately.
"I'm done here," Lin decided stumbling out of the acupuncturist's office.
She sat with the pounding headache on the lounge chair in her living room in the guest house. Her seismic sense was blurred substantially by the debilitating migraine compounded with the blinding emotional pain. She didn't even notice the knocking until the door had been opened.
She looked up and saw a young Su.
"Are you going to stay in your room feeling sorry for yourself all day?" the intruder asked.
Lin blinked a few times before her eyes refocused and saw Korra standing in the room. "You owe Opal an apology for the way you treated her last night."
I don't owe anyone anything! Lin thought to herself bitterly.
"Are you okay? You don't look so good," Korra asked with a tone and expression of great concern.
"I'm fine!" Lin snapped pushing past her, doubled over in aching pain.
Back at the acupuncture place, Guo was cleaning needles when Lin barged in.
"What did you do to me" the weakened Chief of Police demanded.
"I tried to warn you of the consequences of leaving early. Come with me. Let's go finish the session," he said compassionately helping her to the acupuncture table. "Now, just relax and breathe."
Lin tried to slow her breathing but to no avail as the acupuncturist replaced a needle into the middle of her forehead.
Flashback:
Lin - 22
"You're being ridiculous, Lin!" Toph berated Lin the next day at work.
"I'm being ridiculous?" Lin replied incredulously looking up from the finished reports she was signing.
"Acting all innocent, like Su's the criminal,"
"She is-"
"She at least never murdered-"
"I never-"
"You can't lie to me. I remember. You killed twenty-six men THAT NIGHT, Lin. TWENTY-SIX! I had Tam check up your file. He didn't even believe me when I told him you had a file in the first place. YOU KILLED twenty-six men and I cleared it and you get mad at me for clearing Su's petty theft assistance?"
"Do you even remember WHY you cleared it? Do you even remember WHY I killed them? Why I HAD to?" Lin asked through gritted teeth, looking away from her mother, feeling as if a dagger had been run cleanly through her heart, her pelvis, and leg.
"Does it matter?" Toph asked slamming her hand on Lin's desk. "We've always said murder is never justified."
Lin blinked away tears. "They would have received the death penalty for their crimes anyway. Do you even know what they would have done to Su if I didn't intervene? I knew she was stupid and weak but she was my SISTER, and I did everything I could to protect her. Yes, I KILLED them, but only because I realized that if I died, they would have killed Suyin anyways," Lin said trembling with fury. "NO MATTER WHAT I GAVE TO THEM!"
Lin's fists clenched so tight that her finger nails pierced the palms of her own hands and drew blood. Her body was sweating profusely, and her left leg began to spasm subconsciously.
Guo dabbed the blood away nervously before it dripped onto the table. Acupuncture wasn't supposed to have such a strong affect on the physical body.
"Breathe," Guo said dabbing the Police Chief's head with a cool cloth, before removing the needle.
"You should probably rest for a few days," Guo warned Lin as he helped her sit up on the operating table.
"I don't need to rest. I need to do something I should have done a long time ago," Lin replied sliding off the edge of the table, heading towards the door with clenched fists and tense muscles.