Present Day:
"You got it out of your system yet?!" Suyin demanded walking over a bridge towards her big sister.
"Not quite!" Lin replied lifting up a chunk of the staircase forcing Bolin to jump off of it and into Wei's arms in fear.
Suyin picked up a boulder just as big and lifted it above her head, but before she could chuck her chosen weapon at her older sister, her daughter intervened.
Opal jumped between the two women blasting the massive masses of earth out of their grip. "What are you doing?! You two are sisters! Why would you want to hurt each other?!" the young woman shrieked at her mother and aunt.
"Ask HER that!" Lin replied angrily clutching the back of her leg, turning and limping away leaving in her wake an array of sharp, jagged spires protruding from the earth, piecing through the metal plates on the ground of Suyin's estate as the rather sizeable crowd watch with bewilderment.
"Did she pull a muscle or something?" Bolin asked Wei who shrugged.
"Lin! Come back! You can't just walk away from this!" Korra yelled running after her, jumping from spire to spire.
She almost reached Lin when a jut of earth shot out of the ground nearly impaling the avatar if she didn't airbend herself out of the way. Lin didn't even seem to notice. It was like a subconscious reflex.
Suyin's face fell as she recognized the chaos the Police Chief left in her wake. "Oh no!" Suyin gasped. "Stay back! I have to go after her!" Suyin said pushing Korra back and chasing after Lin.
Suyin managed to avoid death by using her seismic sense to feel the earth coming out before it did and followed Lin all the way to the guest houses where she had barricaded herself in and jammed the door shut with her metalbending and some platinum bolts.
"Lin, Let me in!"
Lin didn't respond.
"Please!"
Suyin pressed her back against the door and slid down to the ground.
"Lin, please. I- I—Just hear me. I want to apologize for today, for yesterday, for the last thirty five years. I know I made a lot of mistakes, and I'm sorry you had to be the one to suffer for them. I am sorry for all of the scars you have to live with because of me. I'm sorry I don't tell Mom about what she couldn't see. I'm sorry for getting tied up with the triads when I was twelve, and I'm sorry for going on that date when I was thirteen. I'm sorry you were raped. I know nothing I say or do can atone for the pain I've caused you, but swear to you, I've changed! I'm not the same impulsive and impudent little girl I was when I left Republic City 30 years ago! Please, Lin... I've been a terrible sister, but can I at least have the chance to try again?" Suyin begged. She looked up at the clouds in the sky, feeling fat tears forming in her eyes. She unfolded her arms briefly only to bend the metal panels on the ground before her to stand up on end around her and the door, forming a privacy wall before letting her tears fall.
Emotions were always seen as a weakness in Toph's eyes, so Lin and Suyin became experts at hiding everything.
Flashback (Suyin's POV)
Lin - 19, Suyin - 13
Suyin kicked open the stone door of their rather lavish estate and helped her sister inside.
"Where have you two been?" Toph demanded, leaning against the wall of the entryway with her arms folded and her eyes closed.
"Nowhere important," Lin replied grumpily.
"It is nearly midnight! How long are dates these days?" Toph muttered kicking the door shut.
"Lin's hurt!" Suyin said to Toph.
"I can tell by the way she's limping.
"For the last time, just SHUT UP, SU!" Lin yelled.
"Don't yell at her! Tell me what happened, kiddo?" Toph asked reaching to relieve Suyin from supporting Lin's weight.
"Nothing happened! I'm fine. My injuries are none of your business. I just need time!" Lin growled throwing her mother's arm off her shoulder, practically crawling away unsupported, leaving a tiny spike where every hand and knee touched the stone floor. Suyin watched as the blood left a trail on the floor, but Mother couldn't see. Just then the phone rang.
"I'll get it," Toph sighed with frustration. "WHAT?!"
"Chief. We've got a call about a mass murder," Deputy Chief Rollo said.
"What?" Toph gasped picking out her ear to make sure she heard clearly.
"Twenty six people have been found dead in a pub in the Dark Clay District. We desperately need your help,"
Toph tilted her head to the ceiling where she could feel her older daughter's labored breathing resonating through the stone.
"I'll be right there!" Toph informed the officer. "Su, Don't go out until I return. If you need food or something, call Aunt Katara to bring you something. That is an order! Go see if you can help your sister,"
"Yes, Mom," Su sighed trudging up the stairs as Toph bolted out the door.
Suyin set about cleaning the blood off the floor then went to see her sister.
"Lin! Let me in! I can help you at least clean the thing!" Suyin yelled through the stone.
"Just GO AWAY!"
"LIN!"
"I can take care of myself! You should learn to do the same!" Lin yelled.
"But Lin! Please! Let me help you!" Suyin pleaded banging her little fists on the door. She jumped back with a gasp as a spear sprouted from the stone door right where Suyin's head was mere seconds before.
"You've done enough, don't you think?" Lin replied.
"Lin," Suyin whimpered sliding down with her back pressed against the door, looking up at the spike protruding from the stone above her. Suyin yanked off her shoes and hugged her knees to her chest, listening to her sister's heart beating against the stone floor. She was laying under her bed now. Why?
Present Day:
"Lin, please let me in!" Su asked again, miserably
Lin looked down at her shaking hands and the splintering ground beneath her fett. She couldn't control either and it was frightening. She knew there was nothing to be afraid of now, so why did she have this feeling? She remembered the last time this sensation came over her being. She had just become police chief and was flipping through witness accounts when she found one written by Uncle Sokka about the mass murder in the Dark Clay District of Republic City in the year 139AG
Flashback (Sokka's POV)
Witness Testimony for the Murder on Ale Avenue, Dark Clay District, Republic City; Spring 139 AG
When Chief of Police, Toph Beifong, and Me, Councilman Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe arrived at the crime scene of the Dark Clay Murder, a four block section of the city had been completely roped off, quarantined. There were no signs of any sort of scuffle. The pavement was completely undisturbed and clean. I could feel the Chief's grip on my hand tighten as we approached the building that contained the crime scene.
"What do you see with your feet?" I asked.
"You'll find out soon enough," the Chief replied stone-faced as we turned to face the entrance of the rather rustic establishment.
"Spirits!" the sight was ghastly. Twenty-six people were dead; all impaled from various directions in what appeared to be one fell swoop of extremely powerful and probably distressed earthbending. I draped my arm over the Chief. In case this brutal murderer was still nearby, I wanted to protect our chief. "Maybe I should preside over this investigation, while you go sleep or something," I suggested. "The entire building is made of wood... really thick wood. You wouldn't be able to see. Besides, the next few days will be..."
"First of all," Toph said raising a hand to silence me. "You are not even part of the police force, and second of all, I've already seen. The people were impaled by an earth bender. I could feel their bodies perched on these spikes from all the way down the street. I couldn't believe it."
The Chief spoke quietly. The last time there was a mass murder, she was yelling at everybody to work quickly, take the pictures, and clean up, so they could go back to the station, ID everybody and carry on the investigation swiftly and efficiently. So far, she had not said a single word to any of her officers. Did she know something?
"CHIEF!" an officer yelled as Toph had lifted her foot. Her grip on my hand tightened painfully. "Don't step there!" an Officer yelled.
Toph put her foot back down beside the other on the stone step and frowned. "Why not?" she asked suspiciously, still not yelling at anybody.
"There's blood... and lots of it. You could slip and fall... and we haven't finished taking pictures," the officer stammered.
"Oh... Right..." Toph stepped back and resigned while her subordinates collected evidence and took photographs for later review. Her unseeing eyes narrowed in thought as she receded deep into her own mind. Ordinarily, Toph left the photographs for the various detectives under her command to review, but he knew she couldn't now. She would personally have to sit with someone to go over all of the evidence for a case with so many casualties.
"Chief, I think you need to see this," an officer called from an adjacent room near the back of the main gathering hall of the pub.
"Do you have all the pictures we need?" Toph asked calmly before stepping into the building.
"Yes, thank you for asking," a nearby officer said waving for the Chief to proceed forward.
I followed her as she crossed the room, her bare feet splashing in the puddles of blood that formed on the cracked wood. She was using the earthen pillars that had broken through the thick wooden floor to triangulate her own position in the building.
The small room the police officer called us to must have been the administrative office for the bar. It was small, cramped and filled to the hilt with scrap paper, log-books, and receipts. The pencil looked like it had been chewed on for years, and the pen was snapped in half and spilling ink. Nothing appeared really out of place for this lower city establishment except for a single throwing knife with a green hilt sitting on a stack of papers.
"It's just a knife," Toph shrugged folding her arms.
"Chief, I think he is more concerned with what is on the knife," I said reaching for it. I paused. "You've taken all of your pictures?"
"Yes, Councilman. You may pick it up,"
I did. Toph held out a hand to receive it. I reached for her other hand, placing her finger on a place on the hilt of the blade.
She recognized it immediately. The hand-crafted steel was the finest the Fire Nation could produce. Both Toph and I knew. The weight, the grip, and the shape was made custom as a gift from Fire Lady Mai for Toph's daughter, Lin, nearly a decade prior. On the green hilt, they even had carved in gold, the Beifong Family Crest of the Flying Boar.
Toph's face didn't change, but I could tell her heart stopped the moment she touched the blade. Her unseeing eyes became dazed as her fingers slowly closed on the blade, piecing her own flesh without realizing.
"Toph?" I asked, taking the blade back, and replacing it with the handkerchief I kept in my breast pocket.
Toph blinked and took a breath, snapping out of her dazed state as she turned to the officer who had summoned us to this room. "Who were these people? Have any of them been identified yet?" Toph demanded, her former, commanding self returning briefly.
"Three have been identified as relatively high-ranking members of the Terra Triad. The rest, most likely sources, messengers, and accomplices," the officer said.
"Chief, the coroner is here!" another officer called peaking into the small office.
"He should know what to do!" Toph replied with a brusque air of annoyance turning her attention back to me and the one who called her into this room. "Will you please excuse us," Toph asked her officer. He saluted and bowed to her before slipping out of the room.
"Sokka, I need you to go to my house and stay with Lin and Su for a few days, until I can come home," she said to me.
"Toph, I'd love to. You know I would, but I have a job too, and with this going on..." I began to say.
"Your assistant has the security clearance to to take your place for a few days. Mine doesn't. I cannot get away. Please, Sokka." She was begging. I could hear her voice begin to break. She was frightened by something. "Su was practically carrying Lin home tonight. I couldn't tell if she was injured or inebriated. All I could feel was her limping and her heart beating irregularly. Su won't speak to me, but I need to know what happened,"
"You think Lin or Su did this?" Sokka asked. Toph said snatching the throwing knife out of Sokka's hand, holding it up to his face. "THIS is proof enough for me that they were here, I know it. Lin always takes one when she goes out to stalk Suyi."
"Alright," I sighed. "I'll go and see what I can do for the girls."
"Thank you, Sokka."
"Toph,"
"Yeah?"
"We'll get to the bottom of this. Don't worry," I tried to tell her.
"I'm a mother. That is an impossible demand," Toph replied turning away from Sokka to think.
I knew the Chief was not going to sleep tonight, or tomorrow probably. After twenty-six gruesome murders took place in one night, in one building, with no witnesses, I would not be surprised if she didn't sleep for the whole week.
Flashback (Suyin's POV)
Lin - 19, Suyin - 13
Four days passed. Sokka tried to ask questions here and there, but Suyin wouldn't divulge anything. She didn't want to make Lin angry. She had already hurt her sister so much, and telling Uncle Sokka would mean telling her mom which would only result in more problems for the two sisters. Lin didn't leave her room for anything, and any time Su or Sokka tried to get in, they were met by an earthen cone point to their face. Three of the five councilmen were demanding answers and ranting about Suyin's mother's incompetency all over the covers of the newspapers. Avatar Aang became involved in the investigation, working alongside Toph, replacing her "brainless" secretary, and still little to no information had been released. Crowds formed every day waiting for the Chief of Police to emerge and make a statement. The station was scrambling to find something, yet every lead yielded nothing.
The door to the Beifong Estate was kicked down, causing Sokka to spill his tea and Suyin to crack the floor with her earthbending unintentionally.
"Police! We need all occupants of the building to come down with their hands visible!" an officer yelled entering followed by the Chief who issued a warrant to search the premises.
"Mom, what are you doing?!" Suyin screamed as they came into the kitchen.
"Following our last lead," Toph said as her officers parted for her to come forward. She held up the throwing knife with the Beifong Family Crest on it. Suyin's eyes widened with horror. She thought she had grabbed everything, the metal cables, her own arm cuffs and Lin's meteor bracelet... If she left any of those, no one would have known because those had no family symbols. They were all factory made.
"No! It wasn't us! Please!" Suyin screamed, lying anyways.
"You're not in trouble, Su. Stop yelling. We just want to ask a few questions. Where's your sister?" Toph asked.
"She's not feeling well!" Suyin replied. "Still in bed."
Toph took a deep breath of frustration and sent her officers up the stairs to her daughter's room. As they approached, the entire house began to shake and the floor began to crack.
"Huh?" the Officers thought to themselves. Just before they reached the door, the stone hallway transformed. Spires shot out of the ceiling, walls and floor blocking the door with deadly points, forcing the officers to jump, roll, and fall back.
"How long has that been happening?" Toph asked Suyin.
"Like I said, she's not feeling well!" Suyin replied folding her arms.
"Chief, it's the same formations as in the-"
"Yeah! I know!" Toph yelled rubbing her temples. Sokka put his hands on her arms and held her, trying to comfort her with his presence.
"Chief, what are our next steps?" the officer asked.
"I will personally close the case tomorrow. In the meantime, archive everything we've done so far under a Tier 1 Classification. Talk to NO ONE. I'll write the press release." Toph decided.
"Chief, should we arrest her? The consequence for serial murder is life in prison,"
"We still don't know anything about the circumstances surrounding the murder. Leave her," Toph ordered. "All of you return to the station and get back to work." Toph ordered as the police filed out of the building.
"You really think Lin killed all of those people?" Sokka asked that evening after Suyin was supposed to be in bed.
"Yes," Toph replied.
"Why?"
"To protect Su when I wasn't there to." Toph replied wiping her eyes.
"But they said they were at Kuang's. That's miles from the Dark Clay District,"
"Sokka, I know my little one is lying. I just need the big one to come out of her room-" Toph's voice hitched.
"Don't worry, we'll get through to her." Sokka reassured Toph.
Flashback (Lin's POV)
Lin - 19, Suyin - 13
The light hurt Lin's eye. She was disoriented. She couldn't tell up from down, she couldn't tell time, she couldn't see or breathe. She was dying and she knew it. Maybe then, she would be out of her misery. Never again would she have to argue with her mother or try to keep Su from doing something stupid. Never again would she ever have to do anything.
"It's been over a week," Lin heard Toph say through the door. Lin couldn't even lift her head. She pressed her hand into the ground with what little remained of her energy. Her mother wasn't alone out there, and it wasn't Suyin or Uncle Sokka. "What's the range on your bloodbending?" She heard her mother ask Aunt Katara.
"I could get her from here," Katara said.
"Use it to immobilize her if you need to, to get her to stay still. Just- find out what happened, please. She's never been out this long for anything," Toph said.
Lin gasped. If she got into bed, she could pretend she was sleeping. She managed to get out from under the structure and climb on top. Her arms were shaking and her legs completely numb to all feeling.
"I'll try," Katara tuned into the girl's body. The waterbender gasped and released her hold on Lin as the young earthbender winced in agony as memories flooded her brain again of that night in the Dark Clay District. .
"What's wrong?" Toph asked.
"There's not much blood left in her body to bend-" Katara said gravely. Toph looked down, and Lin, overcome with fatigue from crawling into bed, closed her eyes and instantly fell into a restless sleep.
(Katara's POV)
Katara tried again and held Lin still on the bed while Toph bent a tunnel for her to crawl through beneath the door's defenses.
"Lin, " Katara said peeking out of the tunnel in the floor to find a room reeking of blood and death. Katara pushed herself out of the tunnel and stood.
It looked like the young, budding police officer had only been living off water and a couple of packets of instant noodles she had stashed away in her day bag and a drawer in her desk. She looked frighteningly thinner and weaker laying on her bed, struggling to find sleep and peace. Her flawlessly beautiful face was contorted in agony, her body in chills and skin dripping with sweat. And her sheets, were stained red.
Katara climbed onto the bed slowly. Lin barely noticed. Her senses had gone numb from the bloodbending and her mind walled itself in some deep dark corner of her her head to relive the some nightmarish memory. Katara opened her water skin and bent some of its contents to the troubled earthbender's head.
"There, there, Little Linny, you're home. You're safe. You are loved more than the world by so many. It's okay, to hurt. It's okay to feel pain." Katara said relieving the young woman of some of the trauma in her head so she could finally sleep. Katara kept one hand encased with water on the girl's head. With her other hand, she peeled back the stained red sheet covering the young earthbender's naked body. The bed sheets were stained with blood.
Her elevated left leg was wrapped in blood soaked fabric from the thigh to the knee. Katara bent some water away from Lin's head and cleaned the bandage, forcing the dried blood to dissolve, discarding it in the sink of the bathroom attached to the girl's bedroom. Then she returned to remove the cleaned bandage and inspect the damage. It was a gash at least ten inches long and at least three inches deep from what Katara Could see. It was a miracle Lin wasn't dead yet from the blood loss.
"You poor thing!" Katara said drawing more clean water from her pouch. The gash wasn't healing properly. In the nine days since the event, the fibers had misaligned when Lin tried to bandage herself. Katara would need to reopen the wound to be able to make it mend itself.
Katara used one hand to hold Lin still, and the other to create an icy blade that would numb the area as it cut through her leg again. The experienced healer had seen many injuries but none have been this bad requiring her to reopen the wound just to get to the damage. She turned the icy blade into healing water again and mended the girl's leg before noticing a wound in the back of thigh. It was a stab wound. She had to reopen that one too and realign the fiber ands and heal it again.
Katara moved the water around, searching for more wounds in a desperate attempt to save what was left of little Linny. There. More lacerations. Deep lacerations. A tear slid down Katara's cheek as she looked down at the young lady. "You were raped." Katara breathed placing a loving hand on Lin's head for a second.
It was a private place, but Katara knew she had to make sure Lin was okay for Toph, and Tenzin's sake. She turned Lin onto her back and spread her legs slowly and carefully wanting to minimize discomfort. She felt Lin waking slightly. The girls arms began shaking as she gripped into the filthy bed sheets with her fingers like claws.
"It's just me. Aunt Katara. You're home now. Your safe. We're going to help you get better, Linny. I promise!" Katara said placing a hand on Lin's shoulder.
She didn't respond, but she didn't attack either so Katara proceeded to bend healing water into Lin's private area to get to the internal lacerations. Finally, everything was done. She was healed but it would still take some time for her to naturally regenerate her blood supply.
"Tenzin," Lin said softly.
"What about Tenzin dear? He'll be here soon, Linny," Katara said washing her hands in the bathroom.
"I was ready, but he wanted us wait until our wedding day. I agreed, but now. I am not even sure if he will even still want me," Lin whispered breaking down again.
"Linny, he doesn't care if you're a virgin or—,"
"What if he thinks I cheated on him? What if he thinks I'm dirty?"
"Lin! He won't even be able to tell the difference, trust me!" Katara said. "He loves you with his entire existence. He will always want you," Katara promised. "We will always want you!"
Lin sniffled and pulled her legs closer to her chest. Katara could hear the girl's stomach grumbling.
"I don't ever want to see the light of day again, I could do it, you know. I am an earthbender, I could dig my own grave,"
"Lin, do not speak that way. You will survive this. We will get through it, together! Trust me!" Katara insisted reaching out to take one of Lin's hands. The girl didn't seem convinced.
"Would you believe me if I told you I saw dreary standing before me?"
"Yes, I would," Katara said squeezing the girl's limp hand. She was so weak. "Can you walk now?" Katara asked helping her to her feet. Lin stood, shaking at first, then steadied a bit more. She felt the ground beneath her callused soles and the dust between her toes as she curled her feet into the stone. She looked around at the jagged formations she created barricading her windows and bedroom door.
"So messy," Lin commented bowing her head in disappointment. She slid her legs apart, flexed her mended muscles and then flipped her palms down collapsing all of the jagged rock formations, restoring the cool, smooth, polished marble of the luxurious Beifong Estate.
"Let's get you some proper food. These instant noodles are disgusting!" Katara said kicking aside a wrapper, draping her arm around the young