A/N: Another nifty one-shot for everyone's favorite Chief of Police. Since my cable doesn't have the specific channel that runs Avatar the Last Airbender anymore I had to use Wiki and my memory for Koh and he ended up coming out as one creepy bugger for some reason so it isn't the exact same and it had been awhile since season two happened awhile ago let's spare you and say it is sort of an AU because I forget the order of stuff sometimes. This is only my second LoK fic (back to back) Again sorry for the weird kinda ooc thing...Well I had fun writing it and I hope you have fun reading it. Excuse Grammar and again I DO NOT OWN LEGEND OF KORRA OR AVATAR THE LAST AIR BENDER, I GET NO MONEY FOR ANY OF IT.
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The fleeing Sautomobile screeched to a violent stop throwing its driver clear through the air as the metal cable bended by the Chief of Police successfully jammed the mobile's tires effectively ripping it free. Curses! He lived! She thought with a snarl as she jumped out of the police car to continue the chase on foot. Ever since the spirits came back to the physical world those damned vines and forests grew everywhere including in the middle of cities now. She wasn't a nature hater nor did she hate the spirits, (they were annoying at times flying around everywhere) but she had before all this enjoyed walks in the hills and forests- though any mention of entering a forest now had people looking at you like you grew a second head. As cute as those friendly little spirits were Lin knew there were darker ones people seemed to conveniently ignore- after all if you ignored it the problem would just go away magically. And he flees right into a forest. Fan-stinking-tastic. She thought with an irritated groan. Of course there was a forest here of all places. She had half a mind to turn around and leave him there but he was wanted for three murders; he had killed an officer who tried to stop him from fleeing the scene which followed by the hit and run of some poor couple as he rode right through a group of pedestrians with the cops on his heels. She couldn't leave him in there where he might just wait until she turned and come right back out to kill some more. With one last longing look back towards the city (what was left of it) she entered the foreboding cluster of trees which towered over the tallest building and swallowed her up in its dark labyrinth.
This forest seemed to be around the outskirts of the city which made her wonder if she would be coming out the other side or hitting a cliff wall when she got to the end. Everyone and their brother thought since the city was flooded with spirits that it was a bloody free for all which had her and her officers working themselves to death trying to restore order. She continued to struggle through the vines and weaving through trees until her foot caught on a fallen branch almost tripping her. "I don't have time for this!" she snapped with a flick of her wrist a hand length extendable blade formed from her gauntlet which she used to cut the vines that seemed to be wrapping themselves around her arms. She had fought her way through feeling her anger flare as the vines just kept seeming to tangle her limbs no matter how many she cut. Quite suddenly she remembered with shock one of her Uncle Sokka's stories about falling into a forest that was 'alive' something about vines and trees changing things and dragging the trio apart in different directions. He had said his error was that he kept cutting them. She felt uneasy almost feeling the vines give her a gentle tug to the side making her vanish the blade she had been using feeling the vines loosen. She twisted around and did some rather ungraceful maneuvering until she had completely untangled herself from their hold watching in alarm as they seemed to retreat further away from her. Okay, no cutting them. At that moment an inhuman scream was heard- something that started out as a scream and ended sounding like a drowned gurgle. She was not letting him get off that easily after she roughed it through this unsettling terrain.
She ran as fast as her legs could carry her until she stumbled into a clearing to see a trail of blood leading to a cave. Common sense told her only an idiot would wander into the cave but her inner earth bender was too stubborn to let him get away. She picked up a fist sized rock and approached the entrance. Another horrified scream made her pick up her pace and run in seeing her target laying face down on the ground further in. She should wander barefoot to see if there were any enemies or traps that had been laid but there was sharp rocks all around as well as an odd substance on some areas of the cave floor and earth bender or not she wasn't very sure she wouldn't slice open her feet. By the time she had reached the motionless man every sense seemed to be on high alert screaming at her to get him and get the hell out of there. Beifongs were not cowards, they didn't go running from spooky caves but something inside her sensed danger even though it was completely silent except for the occasional dripping of water from the cave's roof. Lin flipped him over with her foot only to scream in alarm at the fact that the man no longer had a face. The moment the sound left her throat a gust of violent wind blew behind her and she looked down to see a large shadow had completely blocked out the light. It was behind her.
"And what have we here?" A deep languid voice sounded over her shoulder.
Lin tensed at this and the sound of many small legs moving. "Who are you?" she asked with a lot more indignation than was safe in a situation such as this but Lin Beifong was not the type to be backed into a corner.
"Koh, oldest amongst the spirits and inhibiter of these woods. Perhaps you have heard my name?"
Koh…?..Koh…? indeed she had heard it in a story Tenzin told them all once about his father and Koh but the details were very fuzzy. Curse that man and his amazing ability to make even the most interesting stories boring to the point of people actually dozing off! Come on Lin! Think! She remembered him being dangerous, something about faces…closing your eyes when you saw him..was that it? She remembered Tenzin having such a bland expressionless face as he said something about it- Koh! Koh the Face Stealer! Just her luck! Of all the spirits she had to be stuck with she gets trapped in a cave with a spirit that rips off people's faces for fun. Lin knew closing her eyes wouldn't work and even if it did, she couldn't imagine the spirit stepping aside for her and letting her leave. She felt her heart race as sound told her he was moving around to face her. He eats emotions, the words seemed to come back to her from the story: 'If he senses any emotion , any emotion at all, he will steal your face' . The chief quickly let all feelings drain from her body making her face settle into an emotionless gaze in time to lock eyes with what she remembered as resembling a Noh mask in appearance. The mask like this spirit's face was pale white with red lips and markings of grey around the eyes that made it rather unsettling to look at.
"History has long since forgotten the old ones but your face tells me that you know of me. Now, I'd rather like to put a name with that face of yours if you would. I make it a habit to remember the names in my collection." Koh said smoothly seeming circle her, one of his many centipede legs brushing against the side of her arm again stopping in front of her.
"I am Lin Beifong Chief of Police in Republic City." She said firmly.
"No need for titles, you are nothing but a face." he blinked now wearing the face of a wolfbat. "There have been several new faces coming into my realm, yet none of which are the avatar-why is that? Do you even have an Avatar?"
"We do have an Avatar and you are not in the Spirit World anymore so of course there will be people wandering around which I will see to that it is stopped after I leave-"
"HAHAHAHAHA!" The loud booming laughter of the beast sounded which would most likely have had anyone else show surprise but not the serious woman. She had been expecting stuff to get loud and having also been at many a riot she wasn't as affected. That didn't mean it didn't startle her though, she just didn't show it. "What makes you think you are leaving?" He taunted. " You will not be going anywhere!" He shouted in her face.
"I think that I will once you get sick of unsuccessfully goading me." Lin shot back. Be a rock, be a rock. Firm unmoving rock. You aren't going to go down to this wretch. No emotion. Avatar Aang was younger than you and did it. Firm. Of course the airbender did it. Don't think about Tenzin! She shouted in her mind. That man made her so sad, angry, and happy and every other emotion there was and emotion was what she needed to avoid. She could hear Tenzin's voice telling her to stay focused or that she was too emotional. Emotional, HA! Coming from that boring man?! NO! Relax!
"Oh there is still time, you will break, no one can avoid it forever." Her eyes shifted to the side to see two of the centipede legs turning into unnaturally long black arms that were as thick as bone and as tall as she was with long black razor sharp nails stretching out of the empty finger tips measuring up to her knee. "I had one like you once, an earthbender. It's always the older warriors that are the hardest to take, after all their time has passed and they think they have seen everything."
An old lady taunt?! We will see how old I am when I run you through. Rock…rock..you are a master, you lead the officers of Republic City…you grew up having to deal with Bumi... By now her face felt numb and a single bead of sweat came from her temple, rolled down her cheek making her realize how humid it was in her armor. She felt the urge to lick her dried lips but she pushed it aside worried her face might gain feeling again. Maybe if she inched her way towards the entrance she could get away but it was hard to predict his movements as well since he flew so her seismic sense was useless; another problem was that she was still facing away from the light of the outside though and would need a better view to even think about trying to make a run for it. That idea was interrupted when the loud screeching of his nails against the rock walls of the cave reached her ears with a pitch loud enough that if it wasn't for Bumi making that sound just to annoy her when they were younger she would have lost her face. So many annoyances from work to family and friends seemed to ironically be saving her. Koh's face seemed to twist in anger at the failed attempt.
Lin took a deep breath and exhaled it trying to find her center. She was no airbending do gooder, it was taking all her strength to keep her face expressionless and keep her mind from having any unpleasant things pop up to ruin her focus. Bet they didn't think she could do it, no doubt when she made it out they wouldn't believe she hadn't made one sour face at the thieving spirit. She knew who they were and if he did steal her face she hoped Koh would scare them with it. By the spirits I hope I don't have to stay here long, it must be the air or something, I never feel so many emotions at once. She could already see her officers running around like headless chickens trying to sort through the case reports and arrange shift and petrol schedules , or worse, without her there…they might slack off! Her new second in command would handle it, Monten was a very good choice for a second though he was still green about his duties. Leave it to her to be thinking about work in a situation like this!
"It was the Avatar's fault wasn't it? It was a mistake." Again he changed, this time into a beautiful woman with long dark hair twisting himself until he was floating at eye level while upside down . "They say that spirits and humans are meant to be in the same realm but we are separate entities no matter what your Avatar and airbenders say, we are different."
"The portals being tampered with perhaps. And there are no airbenders as you put it, I can count how many of the race are alive on one hand." Again it took effort not to roll her eyes and shove past Koh and get the hell out of there, she had much more pressing things to do than exchange pointless banter with a sadistic spirit with too much time on its hands. She had been heading back to headquarters when she got the call about the criminal, she would have so much extra paperwork to add to the mountain of it that was already spilling over her desk. It would be a real treat trying to convince a council that a spirit killed him and it would give the press all they needed to continue this tirade with 'actual facts' that the spirits were all no good killers. More riots and more avatar bashing seemed to be taking up her favorite radio station now making her have to drive to work with the radio turned down all the way.
"You speak of them with distaste." if she didn't know this spirit at all she might say he had a hint of sympathy in his voice, but it vanished in an instant. "You want them all gone don't you?"
"No." She had no problems with airbenders it was because seeing their arrows made her think of Tenzin. And still there weren't many airbenders to make her think of him so it really wasn't much of a problem for her.
"Don't. .Me." he hissed. "Give in already...Lin."
The woman wanted so badly to flinch, her name on his tongue was the most revolting thing she had ever heard. Be numb. Be numb. The mantra played over and over again as one unnaturally long hand rested on her shoulder, its nails reaching the small of her back. Firm as earth firm as earth! Be like mother, unmovable! She focused on thinking of plain boring rocks as the spirit violently spun her around making her come face to face with an adolescent airbender. No! Look into his eyes not at his arrow! Something in her was snapping her frustration into fear now. She focused all her energy into staring as deeply as she could into the bender's blue eyes.
Now Koh was confused- what was wrong with this mortal? She was looking him in the eye! Strait in the eye! She had not so much as flinched at his nails scrapping across the wall much to his shock, that had always gotten them. He was rather disappointed he hadn't remembered to do that with the last Avatar he ran into. Clearly airbenders made her uncomfortable, he had only been able to catch and steal the faces of two though especially since they were a dying species. When he heard her scream at discovery of the man he thought she would be fair game but he had been wrong and was getting rather frustrated at seeing her face still attached to her head.
"My question." her voice called bringing his attention back to her. "I was under the impression if the stories about the Avatar are correct you would be willing to answer a question." This had to be without a doubt one of the stupidest things to ever come out of her mouth but why waste an opportunity when it arises?
"You seem to assume a lot!" he snapped. Even grabbing her face with one of his clawed hands did nothing to break that accursed emotionless stare! "Why bother to even ask, for I will only waste my time answering an inquiry that will never make it outside this cave. It won't hurt. The blood from the man was because he struggled. It will be quick, and I shall have another face for my collection. I might even scare a few airbenders with it."
Tenzin. She thought sadly but was too unnerved. No one would ever know this but disproportioned limbs were a phobia of hers and having those long nails and fingers on her made her want to scream. Rock…Rock…Unmoving…Firm… She saw one of the nails of his free hand trace a downward line beside one scars on her face then move to the other. Think boring rock! Tannish brown boring as hell rock! "How do we get rid of the vines? Can we remove them or relocate them?" she noticed when he pulled the claw away from her face a few drops of red dripped off of it.
"The vines are of the spirit world. I suppose you used bending on them?" He scoffed blinking to become the second airbender in his collection. Her firm but deep breaths told him she was close to breaking. "They are spirit world foliage in the mortal world. The bridge can bring them from one realm to another." He had wasted enough time conversing with her deciding maybe an attack would break her concentration. He was not a truly evil spirit regardless of how many faces he had gladly stolen and how much he enjoyed doing it. He was entitled to one or two faces stolen for selfish reasons and he liked her face. It wasn't the most beautiful or the youngest he had stolen but it was strong, blemished by fierce scars and reeked of bitterness and despair hidden deep beneath many layers of iron. He smiled imagining yelling at someone wearing her stolen face would scare them quite nicely.
The tiny gashes on her face mixed painfully with the few nervous drops of sweat coming from her brow. How in the name of the spirits had Aang done it?! Her already high respect for the bender increased ten fold. This is it. He is done playing games. She noticed him turning back to her quickly. And so am I. In one blindingly quick moment Lin Beifong sent her fist which now bore a blade crashing into Koh's head piercing him between the eyes. She shot a metal cable into the roof of the cave towards the entrance using her bending to fly her right over the large spirit and swiftly to the exit. As she swung out of the cave she gave the cable one hard tug as she released it making the entrance cave in with fallen rocks. Beifong knew that wouldn't hold him and while running she practically stumbled over as an agonizing pain was felt and she knew she had not escaped him unscathed. A brief look over her shoulder revealed four claw marks that had torn into her metal armor leaving long deep gashes on her back that went from her right shoulder slanting to her left hip. Damn. A loud crash from behind made her pick up speed bending any rock she passed to sail over her shoulder and hopefully hit the spirit, she could not look back to know if any did. What was wrong with this demon?! Didn't he let the Avatar leave after he taunted to boy without success and answered his question? She wouldn't be running at all if she was able to look at him without loosing her face, even if she had to keep her eyes closed she could have easily taken this spirit on, Beifongs never liked retreating.
She had to admit that she was impressed with herself dodging all these trees with vines and thick roots, then again one tended to do that sometimes when it came to life or death. She was unsure if anything could survive without a face but she wasn't going to wait around to find out. Her mental pat on the back ended as she tripped over a warped root twisting her ankle and landing on her elbow wrong barely avoiding the blade sharp nails that only just missed her head. She could see her life flashing before her eyes followed by the extremely stupid article title that would be on the front page announcing her death: 'CHIEF LIN BEIFONG NO LONGER THE FACE OF REPUBLICE CITY LAW ENFORCMENT'. She would rather die than see that! At that moment as her ear was pressed against the earth she was jarred with the vibrations and sounds of something that was charging right towards her from the other direction. She could only catch a blur of a colossal black and white beast standing over her protectively (she hoped).
"This is none of your concern Hei Bai, she belongs to me." Koh's voice had a warning edge to it but peeking up she saw the beast was unmoving.
The black and white spirit kicked aside a large copse of trees and hanging vines before turning back to Koh with an ear splitting screech followed by a blinding light coming from its mouth. The chief used that moment to dash behind the beast heading for the now cleared path ducking and dodging until she saw the beautiful sight of a crashed Sautomobile and paved roads. Something in her mind wasn't thinking clearly, she just knew she had to get as far away from those woods as possible. She didn't feel very celebratory of her shocking escape from showing no emotion for that entire time, she felt sick as she used metal bending to fly her from building to building. When she finally got close to being by the water she retracted her bending allowing herself to be caught by a wave of earth she summoned and used it to surf through the park uncaring of anything else (there had been a giant crack in the earth there, council would thank her for filling it). After rushing through she Jumped off of it quickly to the water and summoned another wave of earth to carry her through the waters towards Air Temple Island.
Metal armor was bended violently off and Lin struggled towards the path to the temple as her flesh burned making her try to claw off her shirt in an effort to try and ease the heat. Two flashes of blue and white was all she saw before she felt two sets of hands grab her and everything went black.
"What's this?!" a female voice asked in horror. "Get her inside you two!"
"We found her on the back path heading for the temple, we need a medic she is hurt pretty bad and I think she is suffering hallucinations." came a panicked male voice.
Lin felt as if she was floating on air or even water, engulfed in warm darkness. This is pretty humiliating, she thought to herself despite almost dying she was rather embarrassed that the big bad iron chief of police had been sent running all the way to bloody Tenzin. Still, at least she in her frazzled state had enough sense to know that if any hospital saw her like this all of Republic City would believe she escaped from an insane asylum. Consciousness was pulling her back- she really wished it wasn't yet, she need a clever excuse for her turning up like this that didn't involve actually going into a dangerous cave in a forest full of restless spirits.
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"Pema! Pema!" Tenzin's voice shouted as his loud footsteps were heard down the hall."Pema?! Is it the children?! I came as soon as I heard, they just said it was an emergency and that I was to come strait away."
"It's okay the children are fine, but you should keep your voice down and hurry up. We have no idea what's wrong with her." Pema said leading the airbender into the back room to see a rather shocking sight. Jinora sat cross-legged beside a sleeping mat which was occupied by a woman who was facedown her grey hair covering her face and her back exposed showing several long violent tares which he hoped wouldn't scar. Lin.
"Dad I need your help." Jinora said urgently using a cool wet cloth to try and treat the wounds which were an angry black. "It doesn't feel right, I think a spirit did it but I don't know how to draw out the energy. "
That prompted the man to rush over to join his daughter.
"She keeps going in and out of consciousness and is muttering about bright lights and..I don't know. Is she going to be okay?" Pema asked nervously wringing her hands. Tenzin didn't answer as he moved one of his arrowed hands to hover just above the black wound.
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Lin's eyes felt heavy as she blinked a few times allowing her eyes to get use to the light catching sight of two airbenders each occupying a chair on either side of her bed; the first was a young girl, and the second one was Tenzin. You sure look graceful when you sleep arrowhead. She thought seeing Tenzin with his head back and mouth open as he snored. This was the perfect time to take inventory of her body- The pain in her back had dulled down from burning agony to an uncomfortable dull throb and she felt bandages wrapping around her back and shoulder, a square of gauze on her face where her scars were, and now her arm was in a splint. She must look like she got hit by a bus. Trying to sit up caused a pained groan which woke both benders up quickly.
"Do they hurt?" Jinora asked trying to check her shoulder bandage making the older woman shoo her off.
"You are going to need to stay off that ankle for awhile." Tenzin said in his authoritative 'wise airbender' voice.
"I don't have time to stay here I have a job to do!" the officer growled trying to sit up further only to fall back onto the bed with a defeated sigh.
"I'm sorry but you're not going anywhere, I took the liberty of calling headquarters and your shifts are being covered until you get better." Tenzin's face grew softer. "Can you tell us what happened?"
"Why should I tell you? I'm fine!" Lin snapped but her face still felt numb and she realized her snarl ended up coming out completely flat. Her hands moved to feel her face to see it was unresponsive. She tried frowning but felt nothing- she had even tried to smile, a smile so big that she would be embarrassed if anyone saw it but still her face remained still. Her shaking hands moved to keep exploring her face; perhaps the numb feeling was because she didn't have a face, but she still had her eyes, a nose, and a mouth which was a very good sign.
"We both know you were attacked by a spirit and we kept your wounds from scarring too badly, they will be very thin and your face hasn't been fur….further scarred by the attack." He looked rather sheepish not meaning to comment on her existing ones. "But your face…hasn't really moved, it seems to be frozen in place."
"It just feels numb but my face, is it..all there?" her city for a mirror.
"Yes, of course it's there, why would you-" Tenzin's eyes widened at the realization. "-how did you make it out? Not saying you couldn't do it but ..I just wasn't- I didn't think one of the old spirits would actually be this close." Had Koh physically attacked her rather than steal her face?- it was the only logical thought he could come up with after seeing the long black wounds that were oozing black inchor. His father never mentioned having seen that sort of aftermath when dealing with a nasty spirit but luckily him and his daughter were able to purge the darkness out and properly heal them. Jinora thankfully sensing the upcoming one-on-one chat excused herself and slid the door closed behind her. There was a long lapse of silence before Tenzin finally spoke. "Have you found out anything from him? Did he impart any knowledge?"
"How to get rid of the vines. He doesn't like being here very much and we can't risk anyone else crossing paths with him. I need to make a call to the station about the criminal..he ran into Koh before I did and he was killed before I could even get to him." The woman took the liberty to tell him the whole story hoping he would be the one to answer people's questions because she wasn't sure she would be able to repeat it again. "- Tenzin, there was another spirit in there. I can't remember the story about him but its name was Hei Bai and he saved me. Is there perhaps a safe way I could thank him?"
"Of course." the look she got was rather surprised. "There is a village not far from Republic City that has a shrine for Hei Bai, we can fly Oogie there when you recover. And as to your face, it is likely to be shock. It's alright now, it's safe to smile..or get angry, I am after all keeping you from your job as well as preventing you from getting back to all that paperwork you love." he said jokingly hoping to get a response from her. No response. "Lin…please…don't make me do that." his voice was laced with dread as she stared blankly at him. "Curses." he groaned going through a drawer and pulling out a marble. "Are you sure I can't just do stand up?" the pause made him hang his head. "Don't tell anyone I did this! Just because my father did…" he grumbled. "Okay." he looked up giving a wide smile and using airbending to make the marble spin around while spinning quickly in a circle between his hands before tossing it in the air and catching it with his teeth.
"You're father never caught the marble with his teeth you know." Lin shook her head throwing a pillow at him, feeling a very slight and unfamiliar upward twitch of her lips when it hit him in the face.
Fin.
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A/N: I ran out of creative juice towards the end. The show said that the ones that have their faces stolen can actually live but the crook died in this one. I had a whole different middle and ending planned in my head but I was busy that day and when I finally got to my computer I forgot almost everything so it's different. As for her face being numb and kinda unresponsive, your body does strange things I wouldn't be surprised if her face had frozen for a bit, plus I wanted to have a reason to throw a pillow at Tenzin and as for the marble thing, I just thought of that episode where Aang did it and he had this retarded funny smile (the Kyoshi island one I believe). Probably be expecting another one-shot when I update next time (which takes me awhile) If you guys like these I might keep writing more. R&R and stay beautiful my peeps.
-Dark Priestess