1. The Same Mistake
("The chief")
In the interrogation room, Lin stares at her second daughter in pure fury.
"What were you thinking, running around with the Triple Threats?"
Yili glares back with her bright green eyes, defiant and unrepentant. "Why do you care? It's not like you noticed."
"Do you realize what you have done? You committed a crime!" Threats of extortion, involvement in a gang turf war. Lin's head aches just thinking about it.
"What are you going to, Chief? Arrest me?"
The sneer in her voice is the last straw. Suddenly, Lin feels like 22 again, bubbling with all the rage of Su's rebellion and her mother's betrayal.
"Of course I'm going to arrest you! You committed a crime, and you are going to suffer the consequences. I know exactly what you are thinking, and the days of you getting away with all the garbage you are pulling are officially over."
"That's bullshit! You don't know a fucking thing about me." Yili yells back. The profanity would bother Lin later, but in the interrogation room, she is used to that kind of language.
An officer knocks on the door. "Chief, your husband is here."
Yili looks at Lin with a smug look on her face, and Lin walks out without another word.
She takes Tenzin to her office, where the walls are sufficiently soundproof for the fight she intends on having.
"You are not bailing her out, Tenzin."
"We can't leave our daughter in jail."
"One night isn't going to kill her. She needs to understand that there are consequences to her actions."
"And we need to support her to find the right path, not just punish her and leave her there, Lin. We are her parents." Tenzin says, and Lin looks at him like he is insane.
"We are not going to support her life of crime." Lin says coldly. "Besides, I'm the Chief of Police, and I'm not releasing her tonight, and that's final."
Tenzin sighs, not because he agree but because there's nothing he can do when Lin is like this. Like mother, like daughter. Just as gentle chiding can't steer Yili away from her troubled path, it won't change Lin either.
When they return to Air Temple Island, Jinora and Meelo, greet them at the docks. Meelo looks strangely subdued, but it was the look in Jinora's tired eyes that caught Lin's attention.
"What is it, Jinora?" Tenzin asks.
"It's not Yili's fault, not entirely, anyways." Jinora says to them, and it quickly turns into an angry tirade, something almost unheard from the sweet, calm Jinora that Lin and Tenzin have taken for granted. "You should have been there for her when her earthbending fell behind. You should have found her something she would have liked to do when she said she doesn't like metalbending, but you are never there. Neither of you! You are always at work and you are never there for any of us!"
"Jinora, that's not fair." Tenzin tries, because he knows Jinora likes him better. "Your mother and I can't abandon our responsibilities at the Council and the Police Department, but we both love you very much."
"Then you are doing it wrong!" Jinora says, barely containing her anger. "You are always working. You make us feel so alone and frustrated, but you don't even realize it. When we try to tell you, you don't listen. If the Triple Threats accepted airbenders, I would join be joining them myself."
"You said it, sister!" Meelo says, and their words hit Lin like a slap in the face.
Her greatest fear had always been that her children would hate her the way she hates her own mother, and it breaks her heart to see Jinora looking at her the way Lin last looked at Toph.
2. The taste of regret
("the broodmare")
Lin Beifong teaches the young avatar earthbending at the South Pole. The White Lotus wants the Avatar to have the best teachers, and when a Beifong is a stay-at-home mother with no other responsibilities, arrangements can be made.
Lin's second daughter and youngest son look on with envy. Yili is still too rusty with earthbending to try the techniques being taught to Korra, and Rohan hasn't shown any bending abilities yet. Jinora and Meelo keep themselves afloat on an air scooter while they watch their mother and the avatar.
Katara calls all four of her grandchildren over to her hut, and leaves Lin to train the Avatar alone.
"How long until Tenzin visits again?" Korra asks while she tries to shape a piece of metal into the likeness of her Polar Bear-Dog.
"In two weeks. He can't leave his work on the Council too often."
"It must suck for the kids to be away from their dad for so long. I go see my parents at least once a week."
Lin smiles wryly. "I think they like the change of scenery, and heavens knows I've been dying to get off that island. Jinora and Meelo may get a bit behind with airbending training, but they get to spend time with their grandmother. I can still train Yili here, and I really enjoy doing some real work for a change."
"You thinking training me is 'real work'?" Korra asks with dopey grin.
"A soft, nice, light version of it. You wouldn't know real work if it hit you in the face."
Of course, Korra takes it as a challenge. "Oh, Beifong, you are on."
Ten days later, Lin scouts out a mountain range where the icy walls are solid enough to support the metal cables for Korra's cable-bending practice. Her old police cables feel like dead weight in her arms, but when she puts them on her back and extend them with her bending, its presence feels as natural as her body.
She grasps onto the edge of mountain and swings herself up. She hasn't used that motion in years but it still feels like second nature once she is in the air. It's far colder here than in Republic city. Polar air bites into her face like something vicious, but she misses the wind cutting into her face, the freedom of flying through the air, and the sense of fulfillment she always felt, working for a cause greater than herself.
When she comes to the end of the training area. She swings herself to stand on a precarious cliff. The wind is cold but the adrenaline from the dangerous exercise makes her blood boil with life.
For a moment, she fights off tears while she remembers everything she has given up.
When Lin heads back to the Compound, she runs into Korra's parents.
Senna smiles when she sees Lin and eagerly links their arm together, the way Lin sees women do in the city but never quite understood herself. "Master Tenzin is here four days early." Senna says with a bright smile. "You must be so happy."
Lin thinks of the mountain and the cables and flying through the air, and for a moment she isn't sure.
But then when they enter Katara's hut, Tenzin has Rohan on one lap and Yili on the other. Meelo is on his shoulder, poking at his bald head and Jinora is by his side, listening to his story with rapt attention. When Lin walks into the room, the children's eyes light up and they all yell "Mom!" and wave her over to join them. She sits by Tenzin's other side, and he takes her hand and squeezes it. They eyes meet and it's a reflex for Lin to smile back when Tenzin looks at her like that.
He has all he ever wanted – children, airbenders, Republic City, and Lin – because Lin gave up everything else to have him. But he is so happy, and their children are so loved, and Lin tries to convince herself that she doesn't regret it.
3. What is Love
("childless")
"Pema is getting married."
Lin looks up from the police reports spread across the dinning room table. The small apartment they shared in the city is never meant to be grand or hospitable, but it had always been cozy. There are moments, though, like right now, when it makes Lin feel claustrophobic.
She doesn't like hearing about Tenzin's ex-wife.
"Oh," Lin tries to sound neutral, "When did that happen?"
"They have been seeing each other for a year now. He is a librarian who helps out on the Temple." Tenzin says awkwardly, and then adds as an afterthought, "The children seem to like him. He is going to visit Air Temple Island with them this weekend."
Lin grunts in acknowledgement. They always go back to the island on the weekends, and Pema would leave the children with Tenzin so they can train airbending. The three precious little airbenders Pema gave Tenzin always put Lin ill-at-ease. Avatar Aang and Katara had three children but only one airbender. Sometimes, she wondered if the three little blessed airbenders are the universe's way of telling them that Tenzin's place is with Pema.
What could she say though? That she hopes they'll be a happy family? That won't do, because they children are Tenzin's and they need to train with him and feel connected to his culture and heritage. But Lin can't exactly wish ill on the children, either. They are Tenzin's, after all, and if anyone in the universe has a good reason to hate Lin Beifong, it's probably Pema and her kids.
Tenzin picks up on Lin's darkening mood and sighs. He puts a hand on shoulder, "Come to bed, Lin. You can finish the work in the morning."
Lin leans into her husband's touch, and looked into his eyes. For seven years, he was someone else's husband, and it had been the seven longest years of Lin's life. He went out of his way to avoid Lin for those seven years, hiding out on the Island with his children, in the South Pole with his mother, in his office in the city hall behind work. Tenzin had never been unfaithful to Pema, but he never loved her the way he loves Lin. A life with Pema will be happy, peaceful, and content, but a life with Lin would be filled with the kind of passion that can change a person forever.
Lin and Tenzin chose each other in end; they chose love and passion, and chose to bear the divorce and heartache and scandal that came along with it. Maybe the years apart missing each other has made them selfish. Maybe they have always been that way since the beginning.
They look into each other's eyes and finds understanding. Lin begins to remove the armour on her body while Tenzin loosens the knots of his robes. They display their intimacy openly in the living room, a kind of freedom they wouldn't enjoy if there were children. Lin hopes that this is enough to keep Tenzin from regretting his decision to leave Pema for her. Lin hopes that this is enough to hold onto him.
They lay on the bed in the aftermath, panting quietly into the dead of the night. Tenzin caresses the scar on Lin's cheek and she holds onto him with both arms.
"I love you." Lin tells him, because she means it.
"I love you too." Tenzin says softly, with the same smile Lin fell in love with more than three decades ago.
A baby wails somewhere far away – probably in the streets below. Tenzin's hand trembles ever so slightly, and Lin notices
"Are you happy, Tenzin?"
He smiles, kisses her forehead, and repeats, "I love you, Lin."
She leans into kiss him on the lips, not missing on the fact that he didn't give her an answer.
4. All you never wanted
("earthbenders")
Jinora rearranges the walls in her room when she is angry. She'll block the door and window with solid rocks, and Tenzin panics about her weakening the structural integrity of the building and getting hurt when it collapses.
Yi is a waterbender, and it took Tenzin and Lin a long time to realize because when her stuff is soaked half the time and everyone, include Yi herself, thought it was just because she spilled water all over them. She liked keeping a glass of water near her – maybe that should have been a sign, before she flooded the basement.
Meelo is more like an earthquake than an earthbender. He took out the foundation underneath one of the towers and ruins at least two flights of stairs in the building every week.
Lin never thought she would get to practice earthbending in this context, but for her, motherhood meant running around Air Temple Island using high-precision earthbending and metal-bending to undo the structural damages inflicted by her children and contain floods.
Lin remembers the look of disappointment in her husband's eyes when they looked out the window and saw Meelo earthbend for the first time. She thanked the stars that they were inside and they children never thought to look for them. But that look never left his eyes, not completely. He looks at his children and wishes they were someone else, and as much Lin knows its' not fair, she understands – she feels like she has failed Aang as well.
Tenzin lives on with the knowledge that he will be world's last airbender. He teaches his children about the books and history and philosophy, and they can't really understand because they are earth and water and that's just not how they were.
"Your children have airbender in their blood." Lin tells him while they watch the kids play. "Their children can still become airbenders."
Tenzin nods and puts his arm around his wife. He wants to believe her, but he can only put so much faith in a future he probably won't live to see.
He wonders if there's anything he could have done differently, and he is right to think that no, this is the work of the spirits. He is meant to be the last airbender, and he hopes that this title only applies to his lifetime, and not for all eternity.
5. My Happy Ending
("it works out")
Korra sneaks to the Republic City when Tenzin delays his relocation to the South Pole. He isn't exactly busy: he spends his days on Air Temple Island managing the Acolytes and training his children – but his wife is the Chief of Police and apparently can't afford to leave the city at the time. Korra still lands in a leap of trouble and in Lin's office before the first day is out. Lin still arrests her and charges her with property damage and vigilantism, but she takes Korra home with her to Air Temple Island at the end of the day, because she knows even if she leaves Korra in a cell, Tenzin is going to bring her to the island anyways.
"Enjoy your last night here." Lin says sternly as the children hugs Korra and looks at her with pleading eyes. "You are going on the first ship to the South Pole tomorrow morning."
"But mom, Korra is the Avatar! She needs to learn airbending!" Jinora argues, playing up her cutest smile.
"Yeah! We'll teach to her how to kick butt like an airbender!" Meelo says.
"And Korra can teach me earthbending!" Yili adds while jumping up and down. "Wouldn't it just be perfect, Mom? Wouldn't it? Wouldn't it?"
No it wouldn't, Lin thinks, because Korra is about as subtle as a dragon and the tension with the Equalists in the city is already at blowing point without the avatar's presence as a spark. But Tenzin caved to the children's puppy eyes and Lin tried to glare even though a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. She leaves for work the next morning, kissing the children on the forehead before she goes, and tells korra to behave.
Korra knows nothing about airbending, and with none but Tenzin to serve as a benchmark, she can't judge the abilities of Jinora and Meelo. However, they both seemed very comfortable with their element. Even Meelo, who can't go to the bathroom without knocking something down, can move through the spinning gates with ease.
But Yilin is a different story. Korra is good enough an earthbender to know that Yilin is progressing very slowly for her age, not that it seemed to bother the girl.
"It's okay, I know what you feel like." She says breezily, after the spinning gates knock out Korra for the fifth time and Tenzin calls for a break. "When my earthbending teacher teaches me something, I don't get it either a lot of times."
"Then what do you do?" Korra asks her.
"You work around it until you find a way to get it to make sense to you." Yilin says with a wise smile.
It's sound advice, but, 'That doesn't seem like an earthbender's kind of thing to do."
"I know, but you have to find something that works for you." Yilin shrugs. "That's why I train with Jinora and Meelo and dad – because they talk about bending in a way that makes sense to me. It doesn't always translate into earthbending, but it works better than anything else, and going over the ideas with Mom helps."
"But does it ever bother you that people think you should be better at your element, and you can't live up to it? Everyone keeps on saying the Avatar needs to master all four elements. I bet they have a lot to say about a Beifong earthbender as well."
Yilin just shrugs. "Mom says the Beifong name didn't make me an earthbending genius, so I don't owe it anything." Then the eleven-year-old adds with a meek smile, "Honestly, I feel more out of place being an earthbender on Air Temple Island, but if Mom managed all these years, then so can I."
Yilin is too young to realize that her mother was only able to feel at home on Air Temple Island after she fought for the freedom to still commit to her work in the city across the bay. Their family was only able to function after their father decided to resign his duties and stay on the island. It worked, strangely, because it would have devastated Lin to walk away from her career with the police, and all Tenzin really wanted to curate the airbending heritage, which was also very well-served by training his children and educating the acolytes.
"Well, she may be managing, but Chief Beifong still looks pretty grumpy to me." Korra mumbles jokingly.
"Oh, but she loves us." Yilin responds with a knowing smile. "She just wont ever admit it to dad, but she is really happy to come home to us. I'm a Beifong earthbender too. I can tell."
And she is right.
-FIN-