I have returned! Hopefully, I'll have a few more up in the coming days. I haven't done so yet, but I would like to express my appreciation for those who have reviewed my stories. They certainly encourage me to keep sharing the ideas I come up with. So, thank you, everyone who has reviewed, it means very much to me. Also, thanks to everyone who has favorited me or just read my stories. It keeps me writing. This might be my longest story to date. So, whoo!
Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra belong to Nickelodeon and Mike and Bryan.
The darkness surrounding the Bei Fong home in central Republic City was absolute. Not a candle flickered in the windows. The nearest source of light was an electric lamp on the next street, the abode of the esteemed chief of police alone on Bei Fong Boulevard. Given the lack of illumination, an observer would expect an all encompassing silence, but that was not the case. In fact, the residents of the streets surrounding Bei Fong Boulevard would have complained to the police department about the intense racket coming from the chief of police's house if they were not so utterly terrified of the aforementioned.
Toph and Lin Bei Fong were amused at the thought of their flustered and disgruntled neighbors, though it had not been their intent to cause such disruption. Fifteen year old Lin was preparing to apply for entry to the Metalbending Police Academy, which churned out benders who would become members of the greatest police force in the world. If accepted, she would be the youngest pupil to ever be enrolled.
Her days and nights were filled with constant training. She did not actually need the intense regimen to prepare for her trial, but for her sanity. Lin possessed swagger that very nearly rivaled that of her mother, but it could not keep the fear of not measuring up to her mother's legacy at bay. However, the nerves, on this particular night, were absent.
The night trainings were devoted, of course, to perfecting Lin's "sight." Tonight's training was the same in that respect only. It combined everything Lin had ever learned from her mother and the Avatar, in earth bending and metal bending. Toph had strapped Lin into an old police uniform of hers. It was too large in most places and not long enough in the others, Lin being much taller and leaner than her rather stocky mother. Toph would have simply bent it to her daughter's shape, but she was waiting for Lin to pass her trial before she would actually gift her daughter with what had been her first police uniform.
The uniform was necessary as Lin would not be the only one with metal wires. Toph had insisted she wear a helmet, but Lin downright refused. If her mother did not need one, neither did she.
The earthen brick courtyard had become a battlefield and enclosed, Toph having constructed walls of earth to simulate a fight in a building. Both benders had been at it for hours, but were not yet exhausted and in fact had hit their second wind. Lin crouched behind a barrier she had erected, waiting for her mother's next move. Really, hiding was merely instinctual and possessed no tactical purpose as they could see each other perfectly and there was no way to break the other's line of sight with earth and metal being the only options.
Toph stood in the center of the courtyard, tapping her foot to irritate Lin. "Have you given up?" Lin, even without light to see and vibrations to feel, knew her mother was giving an infuriating smirk. Pride gave way impulse, sending Lin flying over her barrier and at her mother. She barely saved herself from Toph's wires, opening a channel beneath her feet for her to fall into and returning her to a place several feet behind Toph. Lin knew she should have stayed behind her little barrier as she had to fend off attack after attack following her reappearance above ground.
Walls of earth and wires flew at Lin in a constant stream, sending her dancing all around the courtyard. The only breaks in the onslaught came when Lin managed to send a quake toward her mother, causing the elder bender to pause at most for a few seconds to either stop the quake in its tracks or stabilize herself enough to continue moving. Lin stumbled herself many times but what saved her when she truly came close to falling were the air bending forms she had learned from Aang, allowing her to flip backwards on light feet when she could not use her native element to propel her. These movements always gave Toph pause, straining even her acute sight.
As Toph's attacks became more and more ferocious, Lin began to realize that she had no comprehension of the true extent of her mother's abilities. This sparked adoration and fear. Lin actually considered conceding at one point, but the determination on her mother's face resolved her.
Lin pushed back at Toph, gaining ground with her unique, almost acrobatic earth bending, but what impressed Toph was the ease with which Lin wielded the metal wires. Toph herself could not bend the wires so effortlessly or fluidly. Her pride at her daughter's abilities did not cause Toph to relent however, even when on the run.
Boulder after boulder came at the chief of police, each one sliced in half or cast aside, but Toph could not stop moving, being forced back until finally her back struck the wall. Just as her mother would not have, Lin did not cease in her assault, sending barrages of earth and blocking the retaliations with her wires.
Lin had the upper hand, but this gave her excess confidence, lowering her guard. Her attacks became robotic and no longer spontaneous. She developed tunnel vision, focusing intently on a particular target. Toph took advantage of this chink in Lin's armor. Lin's attacks were blindingly fast, but in what was not even half a second, Toph launched a set of wires between flurries of earth.
"AAAHHH!" Lin's head bent back at a horrifying angle as the wires struck her in the jaw. Toph ran as quickly as she ever had in her entire life, making it just in time to keep Lin from striking the ground. The wires lay forgotten on the ground, though still attached to the elder bender. Toph could faintly hear something hitting the ground near the wires, but she blocked it out, focusing entirely Lin. Her stomach fell through the earth though when she watched drop after drop of what could not be sweat fall from her daughter's chin.
"Lin…" The girl groaned and shifted a bit. She sent a rock flying into the wall of the house, smacking a button that caused the lights ringing the courtyard to glow. After her eyes adjusted from total darkness to dim light, Lin looked up at her mother and was shocked by the fear in her pale eyes.
"Mom, I'm fine." Lin nearly gasped as she watched a tear form in her mother's right eye. Toph reached up, laying a thumb just an inch away from Lin's wounds. The teenager bit back a roar of pain. "Really, it's nothing."
"It's going to scar, isn't it?" Toph's watery eyes and shaky tone sent panic and guilt surging through Lin's spine.
"Eh. Maybe. So what if it does? It'll be cool. My face will have character." Her words had the opposite effect Lin had wanted. Her mother's face hardened and before she could really process the change, Lin was being carried out of the courtyard, the section of wall in their way vanishing back into the earth a scant inch from her face, her mother's pace never slowing.
Toph's arms held Lin beneath her knees and shoulders, the girl's head resting on the elder's shoulder. They were nearly two streets away when Lin watched the walls around the courtyard sink back into the ground. This bending feat was even more impressive when paired with the fact that Toph was only using her feet and at the same time using those feet to make the earth propel her, elongating and quickening her strides. They were half way across the city in the time it took three drops of blood to fall from Lin's face.
The clock in Central City Station could be heard chiming twelve times when they reached the harbor, Air Temple Island in the distance. Toph did not bother with the ferry, which would not run this time at night unless there was official business and Toph did not have time to explain herself. She could have gone to thehospital, where some of the greatest healers in the world worked, but she needed the greatest healer in the world. Toph would not have her daughter disfigured because of some stupid training accident.
Toph raised a pathway from the seabed of Yue Bay and was across in minutes. She was met by Air Acolytes making their rounds and at the sight of her, Master Katara was immediately sent for. In mere moments, the island was alive with activity, its sleep broken. Toph did not let Lin go until she set her on the bed in the infirmary and even then, she kept her hand tight on hers. Katara had water over Lin's face nearly the moment her head hit the pillow.
"What happened? Were you attacked?" Katara did not look up from her work, but Aang, who rushed in just as the question was asked, settled his gaze on Toph.
"No. We weren't attacked." Aang's brow furrowed, but before he could open his mouth, Lin spoke.
"It was an accident. Mom and I were training." Katara paused briefly in her work, her glowing hands hovering above Lin's face. Aang, Katara, and the faces of the children who were supposed to be in bed, in unison, noticed the blood dripping from the twin wires that hung limp from Toph's arm.
Aang was across the room in an instant, taking Toph into his arms and to everyone's surprise, she went willingly. Katara let shock take her for a moment before returning to her healing. The children edged in from the hall, taking places flat against the wall. Tenzin stood closest to the head of the bed, his complexion ghostly, his siblings not looking much better.
As Katara worked, Kya handed her the things she knew she needed without being asked and Katara said nothing about her being out of bed. In fact, Katara seemed rather oblivious to what was going on around her, her attention held entirely by Lin. The wounds were surprisingly deep, gashes and not just scratches. The wires having come very close to striking bone.
"I….I….Aang." Toph shook in her friend's arms, tears rolling down her face, her voice hoarse.
"I know." Aang held her closer, his chin resting on the top of her head.
"I should throw myself in jail."
"It was an accident, Toph."
"But…my baby. I hurt her, Aang. I hurt her."
"I…I know, Toph. She doesn't blame you. And if she doesn't, you shouldn't either. I know a thing or two about guilt, Toph. Don't let it consume you. Don't let it mar your feelings when you look at your daughter." Toph could not help but to crack a smile.
"I can't look at my daughter, Baldy." Aang snorted, shaking his head.
Toph's good humor faded as the healing session went on and on. She knew the wounds themselves were mended and that now, her friend was trying to prevent scarring.
"Aunt Katara."
The water bender continued working feverishly, two skins already empty on the bedside table.
"Aunt Katara."
The others just continued to watch.
"AUNT KATARA!" Everyone in the room jumped at the shout, especially the one Lin was trying to address.
"Yes?"
"Just stop. It's not getting any better."
"Lin…"
"I don't care! What does it matter that I have a scar? Uncle Zuko has a scar and he's the Fire Lord! And Uncle Aang has scars and he's the Avatar! The greatest people I know are scarred. Tenzin, come here." Tenzin edged forward carefully, peaking his head over his mother's shoulder. "What do you think?" His ears became a vibrant shade of red.
"I think you're beautiful, Lin." Lin developed a slight blush herself as she gave a small smile.
"Thank you. These scars…they don't matter. Mom…" Aang and Toph approached the bed, Aang keeping a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Please, don't be upset. It was an accident. And besides, I bet I look pretty badass."
"Totally badass."
"Thanks, Bumi." The girl gave a tired thumbs up to her friend, who responded in kind. Katara sighed.
"I am sorry, Lin." Lin looked up at her aunt, smiling.
"I'm not. You healed me and you did the best you could possibly do, better than anyone else the entire world could have done. How can anyone be sorry or angry?" Katara smiled down at the girl and kissed forehead before moving back, allowing Toph to hug her daughter.
"I…" Lin glared at her mother.
"Don't you say you're sorry. Tell me I should block next time." Toph laughed.
"Pay attention when you're battling the greatest earth bender of the era."
"What happened to the greatest earth bender ever?" Toph smiled down at Lin, stroking her hair.
"That's going to be you, Lin." There was a pause before Bumi shouted.
"Can I have a cool scar?" Katara buried her head in her hands. Aang placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned down at Lin.
"Your scars are pretty cool but not as awesome as mine."
"I'm going to have the greatest scars of all time!" Lin smirked at Bumi.
"And I'll be the one to give them to you."