A potty break for Naga, that was all that they stopped for, and now the Avatar is playing fetch with her dear pet.
"While you're playing fetch, four of the most dangerous criminals are hunting you down. We should get moving," Lin said impatiently, her arms folded, lips pursed in annoyance as the avatar launches the leather ball over a mountain pass with the assistance of her earthebending.
"Relax! We just got here. Besides, no one knows where I am except us!" Korra replied shrugging it off as Naga returned, panting, tongue out, with her tail wagging. "I think she wants you to throw it for her," Korra replied.
"I'll pass, thanks." Lin replied looking down at the saliva-and-grass-coated leather ball. Teenagers, think they're invincible. Think a couple of the world's most dangerous criminals are no big deal. What naïve stupidity they possess! If only they knew…
Just then, Asami emerged from the Republic City Police Air Ship, having given her to Tenzin and the airbenders to use to get to the Northern Air Temple. "We just got a call from the radio about another airbender!" she exclaimed practically overcome with excitement.
"Finally! Where are they?" Korra asked eagerly.
"A city called Zaofu, the home of the Metal Clan," Asami answered.
Lin nearly gagged on air at the sound of that wretched place.
"You know the place?" Korra asked noticing the Police Chief's reaction.
"Uh… Never been there…" But that doesn't mean I don't it... and who rules it. "But I don't want you going there! I would rest a lot easier if you were back at Republic City." Where I can keep the most naïve and stupid teenager that I have ever known, now grow, from encouraging you to make even more reckless and impulsive decisions. …Like extending this potty break for a stupid game of fetch that could very possibly give our location away if there's a village beyond that mountain where Naga could be spotted by somebody.
Korra stood her ground, even more stubbornly than an earthbender. "Sorry, if there's an airbender in Zaofu, then that's where we are going next," Korra replied firmly.
Lin glared at the Avatar as she reboarded the Police airship with Asami. I thought water was supposed to be the element of change. The people of the Water Tribes were supposed to be capable of adapting to many things. Great Uncle Iroh, why did you lie to me?
Zaofu looked exactly how it did in the drawings Lin received decades ago when some architect she had never met asked for her opinion on his designs.
During the day, the 'protective domes' were left open giving an aerial view of the city that resembled a cluster of lotus flowers floating together on a lake that was comprised of the expansive, green plains of the Southern Earth Kingdom. The view was peaceful, almost serene, but at night, everything was different.
The protective domes were closed, to resemble cages, not buds or blossoms in Lin's eyes. As Lin saw it, the leader of the Metal Clan was not concerned with the safety of her people, but only her control on them. The nearest humans to the city were the waterbenders of the Swamp: isolationists unconcerned with the affairs of the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, and the rest of the world. They would never attack the Metal Clan. The next nearest civilization was Gaoling, a wealthy trading town where Lin's family lived for centuries on a grand estate with expansive gardens, and high walls built not to keep the villagers out, but the pesky daughter of the master of the house in. The last threat Lin could think of was several days away by airship in Ba Sing Se. The Earth Queen was the only person in the entire Earth Kingdom who may have trouble with Zaofu's self-declared autonomy but if she hadn't attacked in the 30 years since it's founding, she probably wouldn't attack in the next 30 years from the date.
The domes were nothing but a waste of platinum and money.
"Woah! An entire city made of metal! Wohoho! You should feel right at home, Beifong!" Bolin exclaimed.
"Hmph," Lin grumbled seated as far away from the windows as she could while still able to keep her eye on the Avatar and her friends in case anything truly bad happened.
"Aren't you coming?" Asami asked Lin just before disembarking the airship with her friends.
"What's there to see? It's metal, big whoop." Lin replied curtly. "Just find the airbender so we can get moving and don't tell ANYONE I am here," Lin snapped. Right now I really don't need a family reunion.
"Fine. You got it, Chief Crankypants." Korra muttered following her friends down the metal stairs onto the one of the airship landing pads of the city.
In the next hour, Lin had moved from the bench where she sat to the window of the airship to examine the state of the city. Four domes had been added since she last read the daily Zaofu newspaper that she had delivered to her flat in Republic City. The City Hall had grown a tall spire likely to receive all of the radio transmissions from around the world. Lost in her thoughts, Lin didn't notice the Avatar's return with her friends, until the teenager spoke.
"We found out why you were so against coming here!" Korra announced. Lin frowned when in place of the rumored earthbender the Krew had returned with her estranged half sister. "Why didn't you ever tell me you had a sister?" Korra demanded.
"Because my personal life is none of your business, besides, what does it matter? She's a half-sister." Lin replied turning away from them again to return her gaze to the platinum city.
"Same mom, different dads, so what? We're blood Lin, and after thirty years, the least you could do is say hello," Suyin said warmly.
The false compassion in her voice was infuriating, Lin knew that tone her half sister used. It was the same tone that convinced her grandfathers that she was innocent. It was the same tone that got her sweets and fried food on the weekends. It was the same tone that got her "breaks" from training. It was the same tone that convinced everyone that she didn't need to start working when she was sixteen. And it was the same tone that convinced their mother to release her thieving little friends from prison.
"I have nothing to say to you" that I probably haven't said already, Lin replied bitterly.
"You two haven't spoken in thirty years? How come?" Korra asked.
"Ask her, I've tried!" Suyin replied with a shrug of the shoulders.
"Oh don't put that on me! You're the one who tore our family apart!" Lin replied feeling rage and pain knot itself into a pit in her stomach.
"And you've done a bang up job keeping it that way!" Suyin replied smugly and sarcastically.
"You haven't changed one bit, have you?" Lin asked. You're still the same selfish, lying, impulsive-
"Look, we can stay here arguing about the past all day, but that is not the reason the Avatar came here," Suyin interjected.
-evasive-
"Korra, my daughter is thrilled to meet you!" Suyin informed the Avatar.
Spirits! Opal is the new airbender?
Flashback:
"Leave of absence?! You can't turn in a leave of absence!" the water tribe councilman yelled rejecting Lin's paperwork.
"I must! I have a duty," twenty-eight-year-old Lin began to protest.
"Your duty is to the city!" the water tribe councilman shot back.
Lin closed her eyes, her nose scrunching up in fury, the scars on her face reddening. "My duty is to the world! My husband is the LAST AIRBENDER! I can't risk continuing to work for the duration of this pregnancy! This baby could be-"
"I am well aware of what the baby COULD be and what it could not be and if it is just an earthbender-"
"Then it's life is worth less than if it were an airbender?" Lin interrupted angrily.
"Councilman Ranok," Tenzin said softly, his smooth, low voice silencing his wife and calming her simultaneously. "If you decline our Police Chief's request for a rather brief leave of absence for the remainder of her pregnancy and two months after the child's birth, then don't be surprised to find among the next stack of forms submitted to your office, her resignation… and mine." Tenzin said standing up, looking at Lin with nothing but love and support in his eyes. Lin let out a sigh of relief. At least the council should be assured she wasn't lazy. In fact, she was far from lazy, having serves them since the young age of sixteen, only ever taking time off to care for Suyin...
Lin planned on just not showing up for the last few months while Tenzin urged her to go not exempt herself from the formal procedure to take maternity leave to ensure the new councilmen would take her seriously. Since they all were all so new to their positions, they had to be careful and monitor their approval ratings.
"Lin, your niece is the new airbender! Isn't that amazing?" Korra asked.
"Yeah. Terrific," Lin replied frowning. It wasn't supposed to be this way!
Flashback:
That afternoon, Lin received a package from the relatively new city of Zaofu containing a vinyl record. With a knot in her stomach and shaking hands, Lin placed the record onto the turntable of the phonograph and gently dropped the needle onto the edge.
"Heya Lin, my secretary here in Zaofu read the newspaper from Republic City and told me. I must say, I'm impressed with you and Floaty. I honestly didn't think Twinkletoes Junior had balls with which to bang you, hehe. I mean, I've never seen them and you have to see to believe... hehe... geddit, Lin? Geddit? But in all seriousness, I am glad that he does, because now I am get to be granny to a little Airbaby! I still can't believe that we will officially have a fancy dancer in the family. Until you reply to this letter, in print or recording and and tell me his name, I'll just refer to the future Arrowhead as 'Chrome-Dome the third, Future leader of the Air Acolytes, and heir to the Master's Seat in the Meditation Pagoda on that tiny, spirit-forsaken island'. Well, that's all, Linny. Wish you good health and good luck in this next chapter of your life. I hope for your sake, that this kid doesn't turn out like you or me, though I doubt he will, since he's got Aang and Tenzin's peace-loving blood flowing through his tiny veins already." came Toph's voice through the horn of the phonograph.
