"I'm tired of waiting!" Lin snapped. "You need to come back with me to Republic City, where I can protect you."
"Lin, you can't protect me from everything," retorted Korra.
"If it's safety you're concerned about, don't worry," interjected Suyin. "Zaofu is one of the safest cities in the world."
"I don't think either of you understand the threat headed this way," Lin said brusquely. "These benders are unlike anything either of you have ever faced."
Suyin subtly used her seismic sense to monitor her older sister's vitals. The chief's breathing was faster than normal as was her heart rate; whatever was going on, it was rattling her, and that alone was cause for concern. Suyin moved closer to her sister and hesitantly put an hand on her shoulder. "What aren't you telling me?" She asked softly.
Lin shook Suyin's hand off her shoulder. "They tried kidnapping Korra shortly after she was named the Avatar. Tenzin, Tonraq, Lord Zuko, and Chief Sokka were barely able to take them down. I and my fellow officers have been interrogating them for the past 13 years and not a single one of them has broken. So yeah, maybe I'm a little on edge."
Suyin's eyes widened. The members of Team Avatar looked at each other in dismay.
"Korra, I think Chief Beifong is right," Asami said quietly. Lin had always liked Asami, even when she thought she was an Equalist sympathizer. She was intelligent, pragmatic, and could hold her own in a fight. Plus, she seemed to be the only one who could ever talk sense into that hot-headed Avatar. "If there are benders out there with powers we've never seen before trying to kidnap you again, we won't be able to protect you."
"Wha—I don't believe this!" Korra fumed. "Su, you can't agree with this!"
"I surprised to say this, but I am inclined to agree with my sister," Suyin said. "Zaofu may be safe, but if these people are as extraordinary as Lin is implying then I'm willing to be they've been watching you for a while. They'll know you're stubborn and likely to ignore any action that will make you look cowardly. If you go with my sister, you'll buy yourself some time."
"But the airbenders—"
"Mako, Bolin, and I will continue looking for them," Asami soothed. "Go. We'll handle this."
Korra frowned and turned to Lin. "Guess I'm going with you, Chief."
Lin curtly nodded at her new charge. "Good. I'll see you at 0500 tomorrow. With any luck, we'll get back to Republic City by sundown."
The next day, the group assembled at the launching bay. Suyin sent the Avatar off with a warm hug and a piece of meteorite for metalbending practice. As Lin began walking towards the airship, Suyin caught her hand. "Stay safe out there," she said, squeezing it gently. Lin pulled her hand back and hesitantly drew her sister in for a hug. "You too." Without another word she and Korra entered the airship, anxiously heading towards their destination.
"I have to say Beifong, I genuinely thought you lived at police headquarters." Lin had decided to keep the Avatar at her apartment. Located on the edge of the business district close to her office, her home was surprisingly spacious. The front door opened into a large sitting room; to the right was the kitchen and dining room, and to the left was a hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms.
"I pretty much live there anyways," Lin replied. "Your room is the last door on the right, and the bathroom door is the one before it if you want to freshen up. Either way, noodles will be ready in 20 minutes—hope you like spicy food since that's what we're eating tonight."
Korra rolled her eyes and set off to put away her luggage and wash up. She put her luggage in the designated guest bedroom. The room was a good size and nicely appointed, with white sheets and a fresh coat of paint. The closet had more than enough room for her clothes, and Korra was able to put away some of her books as well. She was about to help set the table when the desk caught her eye. Or rather, what was on it.
There were three pictures, each in their own simple wooden frames. The first showed a stern child gazing unflinchingly into the camera while holding the hand of a child with a large smile and an even larger bow. Wow, Lin has had the same personality since forever, Korra thought. The next picture showed a bored Suyin and serious Toph flanking an uncharacteristically happy Lin who was clothed in a shiny new metalbending officer uniform. Yikes, looks like her relationship with Suyin has been strained since forever too. Finally, Korra picked up the last photo. It was a portrait of a woman in her 30s and her daughter, who appeared to be no older than seven years old. Korra began to analyze the photo more closely when Lin's voice disrupted her concentration. Not wanting to keep the metalbender waiting, she put the photo in her pocket and moved towards the dining room.
Once there, she found Lin silently eating her noodles. Korra sat across from her and took a large mouthful of noodles. Startled by their spiciness, she promptly spit out her noodles and guzzled her glass of water.
"Spirits Lin, are you half Fire Nation or something? This is painfully hot!"
Lin snorted. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Korra rolled her eyes. "Forgive me for being interested in the background of the woman who's taken me to her own house to keep me safe."
"You and me both," Lin bitterly replied.
Korra's head snapped up. "What?"
Lin sighed. "I've never met my father. Don't even know his name. My mother didn't think it was important enough to tell me who my own father was."
The Avatar sat back in her seat, absorbing this new information. "What was it like growing up with Toph as your mom? Was it like growing up with a real-life superhero?"
Beifong harshly laughed and shook her head. "That's what you would think, right? Maybe that's what it would have been like if she had actually been around instead of leaving me and Suyin to fend for ourselves. Sometimes she would even send us to Air Temple Island under the guise of a 'stay-cation,' but I saw it for was it was: her caring more about her job than about us."
Korra hesitated before pulling out the picture that she had found. "But surely there were good times too? I mean look at this picture, you and your mom seem so happy here!"
The Chief of Police angrily snatched the photo from Korra's hands. "You don't know what you're talking about!" She roared, angrily stomping off to her bedroom. "Not a single clue!" On that note she slammed the door so hard the walls shook, leaving a stunned Korra at the kitchen table.
After washing and putting away the dishes, Korra found herself knocking on Beifong's bedroom door. "Go away," Lin muttered.
"I promise it will only take a second."
Korra felt the door unlock and spring open. She found Beifong reading the newspaper in her pajamas on a rather large bed. "Make it quick," she said, her eyes not lifting from the pages. Korra noticed that her eyes were red and slightly puffy, which made her feel even worse.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I know that these past few days have been stressful, what with reuniting with Suyin and having to keep track of these bad guys that are following me. I know that your family is a touchy subject, and I shouldn't have pressed you about it. I'm sorry."
The Avatar turned to leave, but stopped and faced Beifong. "Chief, I also want to let you know that you don't have to worry about me. Yeah all these bad guys are after me, but we've been through worse and turned out fine."
Lin carefully folded the paper and patted her bed. "Sit, Avatar," she said. "We have a lot to go over."
Korra carefully seated herself on the bed as the police chief rose, subtly dabbed her eyes, and perused her bookshelf. After finding a blue leather-bound album, she sat down next to Korra and began leafing through the glossy pages.
"Do you remember the first time you met Tenzin?" She asked, her eyes scanning the pages.
"Um, barely," Korra answered confusedly. "I remember thinking that he was really tall, and also that he looked funny because I'd never seen anyone in monk's robes before."
"Do you remember anything else?"
"Well, I'm not sure if this part is true or not but I remember him bringing a woman. I called her Metal Lady because she didn't move the same way that he did, and her clothes looked like they were sculpted from metal."
Lin paused and showed the book to Korra. The Avatar gasped. There in front of her was a portrait of a younger Lin and Tenzin in Korra's home. Sitting on a bemused Lin's lap was a wildly grinning Korra, clearly thrilled with being in the metalbender's presence.
"You were real? You were Metal Lady?"
Beifong chuckled. She hadn't heard that nickname in a very long time. "That was me. You followed me everywhere that trip. Tenzin was so jealous that you paid more attention to me than to him."
Korra held the book in her hands, her eyes probing every detail of the picture. "So our first meeting wasn't when you arrested me."
"No, we go back much farther than that. You'll find that I've been a lot more present in your life than you realize, Avatar."
Korra raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"
"Have you ever wondered why you had to wait an extra year to learn earthbending?"
Korra looked shocked. "How did you know about that?"
Lin smirked. "Because I was supposed to be your earthbending master. The night before I was supposed to leave a brutal turf war broke out in Dragon Flats. It should have been dealt with quickly, but it soon became very clear that this was going to be a very long and bloody affair. So instead of teaching you I personally chose your interim earthbending master. By the time I finished cleaning up that mess you were steadily progressing under your master. I didn't want to disrupt any progress that you'd made so I formally renounced my claim to teaching you. I always figured I would teach you metalbending but with the Equalists and all I pushed it to the back of my mind. Besides, looks like Suyin's taken care of that."
Korra kept silent, perusing the photo album in front of her. Lin had saved photos, letters from her parents, and even telegraphs from the White Lotus detailing her progress. "Damn Chief, you've really been looking after me this entire time," Korra said. "And I thought you didn't like me."
"Oh no, you're incredibly frustrating and a pain in my ass," Beifong confirmed. "But you're my pain in the ass, and Spirits help whoever dares to hurt you. I'll knock them on their ass so fast they won't see what's coming."
Korra cracked up and embraced the metalbender. "Love you too Chief!" Her eyes widened upon realizing what she was doing and she let go quickly. "I'm just going to go to my room before you kill me."
Before the Avatar could move she pulled her into a tight hug. "Love you too kid," she said gruffly, trying to hide her emotions. "But if you so much as lay an arm around my shoulders in front of the others I will earthbend you all the way to Ba Sing Se. Are we clear?"
Korra vigorously nodded. She may be the Avatar, but she didn't doubt for a second that Lin wouldn't make good on her promise.
"Good. Now if you'll do me a favor, can you please put the picture you took of my daughter and I back in its frame please?"
Korra froze. "Your what?" She squeaked.
"My daughter. Seriously, you didn't look at the picture? It's very clearly not me and my mother. Toph never stares directly at the camera. Thank the spirits you're not one of my detectives."
The Avatar took the photo from the police chief's hands and examined it more closely. Sure enough, Lin and her two scars were looking directly at the camera. Lin's hands rested on the shoulders of her daughter, who wore a satin bow in her hair. The little girl looked every bit a younger Lin, down to the high cheekbones and short, dark wavy hair. Her gaze was unsettlingly familiar, though Korra couldn't place why.
"She's beautiful Lin. What's her name?"
"Chen. This is an old photo—she's 13 years old now and the light of my life. Take a look."
Korra took a different photo album from Lin's hands. This one was bound in green leather and embossed with the Beifong insignia of the flying boar. Inside, she found photos of the young girl from infancy to childhood through to present day. As Korra flipped through the pages, she saw Lin's meticulous handwriting list the dates of important events such as her first steps or her first lost tooth. Finally, Korra came across the last two photos. The first one, dated two weeks ago, portrayed Chen in an elaborately patterned cheongsam, her fingers hovering over a guzheng. The second, dated two months ago, showed an ecstatic Chen embracing an exhausted but smiling Lin. Both were in training uniforms from the Metalbending Police Academy, though Chen's was too large for her small frame.
"That first one was taken at her spring concert. She's a stellar guzheng player," Lin said, her eyes shining in admiration. "Her control over metal is so fine that she uses metalbending to play the strings of her instrument, not a pick. Which is how, as you can see in the other photo, she beat me soundly in sparring. She is really something else."
"Wow, she seems like a great kid," Korra grinned. "You and her father must be so proud."
"Her father isn't involved in her life," Lin said curtly, moving to get the picture frame for the photo Korra had taken. "It's better for her that way."
Korra cleared her throat uneasily. "I don't mean to be that person, Chief, but aren't you doing to your daughter exactly what your mother did to you?"
Lin froze. Korra mentally swore at herself. Shit, didn't you just promise her that you wouldn't bug her about her family? Get it together Korra!
The chief simply sighed. "Kid, you really don't have a clue do you? Take a closer look at her concert photo. It will come to you."
Korra examined the concert photo. Chen was a slim, delicate thing, with long wavy hair much like Asami's flowing smoothly over her shoulders. She bore a look of concentration that looked so much like—well, like Tenzin concentrating over his ancient scrolls. As she looked at the photo, she only became more certain. Her cheekbones, her nose, her lips—those were all Lin. That intense but even-keeled gaze? It couldn't be denied.
When Beifong returned to the bedroom, Korra looked up at her with realization in her eyes. "She's Tenzin's, isn't she?"
Lin nodded. "Yes," she said softly as she rejoined Korra on her bed. "She is." Korra watched Lin closely. The Chief of Police reminded her of a stone wall. She was tough, uncompromising, and hardly capable of emotions other than anger and annoyance. This Lin, however, was caring, sentimental, and unnervingly vulnerable. Korra reached out and gently put a hand on her newfound maternal figure's shoulder. Lin grabbed her hand and squeezed it for comfort.
"I didn't know I was pregnant until three months after Tenzin had left me for Pema," she said. "I even arranged a tea date for us so that I could deliver the good news. He, however, brought Pema and her engagement ring to the venue. That's when I knew I could never tell him."
"So he doesn't know? Period?"
"No, and the more I thought about it the more I realized how stupid a move telling him would be. He would have wanted to leave her for me, but I was 37 when I got pregnant with Chen and 38 when she was born. At best I could have had two more kids, and considering how strong earthbending runs in the family there's no way to guarantee that they would've been born airbenders. I mean, Chen mastered metalbending last year!" Lin hesitated but continued. "He needed someone to help carry on the Air Nomad lineage, and that wasn't going to be me."
Korra nodded. Lin was strong, but Korra had never realized just how strong; she couldn't imagine how painful it would be to raise the child of the love of her life without them knowing, and having them in incredibly close proximity no less.
"I think the most hysterical part is that I've literally hidden her in plain sight. She uses the Beifong name, and if she doesn't have guzheng practice after school lets out she walks over to my office and does her homework there until we leave for dinner. When I'm in meetings she's watched by the other officers, has been in my office when Tenzin's dropped by on official business, and still he's never noticed. I think Tenzin might have even led her classroom tour of Air Temple Island, and her class can't be more than 15 people. For a champion of introspection, he is quite possibly one of the least perceptive people I've ever met."
"Clearly if you were pregnant and he didn't notice."
"Well, he never actually saw me pregnant. I took a leave of absence to the ancestral home in Gaoling, where she was born perfectly healthy. By the time we returned, Republic City was in a frenzy since Tenzin was getting married. He and his family were so preoccupied that they never realized something was different—which is good, because I would have been toast the minute Katara sensed anything. And considering I don't talk to my mother or my sister, no one in our respective families knows about her existence."
"Wow, you Beifongs know how to hide people. Toph was completely hidden from the world until she was 12, and I've been in Republic City for two years now and I've never seen or heard anything that would have tipped me off to her presence. Shit Chief, if you've hidden Chen in plain sight of Tenzin there's no way these bad guys can find me!"
Lin and Korra laughed together, but Korra soon grew curious. "Does she know that Tenzin's her dad? Also, where is she? I haven't seen or heard anyone but us in your apartment all evening."
"She's a smart girl. She's seen our interactions and knows how stilted they are, so I think she has an idea. But whereas I harangued my mother for my father's identity, she hasn't asked a single time, not even when she was little. She says that she doesn't care at all who her father is, having me as her mother is more than enough for her. That's definitely Tenzin's side of her personality, spirits knows I drove my mother up a wall with that question. As to her location, she's currently attending a music camp with her school in Gaoling. I had actually just dropped her off when I got the news about Zaheer and headed straight to your location in Ba Sing Se. I'm hoping that all this Zaheer nonsense will be over soon so I can bring her home. Once she's back, it would be nice if you came over. She would love to meet you."
Korra smiled a genuine smile. "I would love that."
A few moments passed in comfortable silence. Korra looked through the album Lin had kept for her, and Lin added more notes in her album for Chen.
"Thank you for listening," Lin said softly.
Korra looked up curiously.
"As I'm sure you've realized by now, I'm not exactly one for openness. That's my doing—I need a strong barrier between work and home. With my mother, the lines were constantly blurred, and I want to provide a stable, loving atmosphere for my daughter where she knows that she is the focus of my attention. But it's also because I don't want her to be exposed to the expectations of my or her father's world. The minute it's discovered that Aang has a fifth grandchild her whole world will change. She already faces high expectations as the daughter of the Police Chief and granddaughter of the founder of metalbending, but adding the fact that her grandfather was the Avatar AND the last airbender? That's too much to put on anyone's shoulders, much less a 13-year-old girl's. She's so young and she has so many interests, like joining the force or going to music conservatory—I want to give her the freedom to explore that, so when she walks her own path in the world she knows it's by her choice and her choice alone."
"You don't have to explain yourself Chief," she said, then reaching out for Lin's hand. "But I'm glad you did anyways."
Lin allowed herself a small smile and returned to her work.
"Hey, can I ask you something?"
"You have been ever since I brought you here."
Korra snorted good-naturedly. She was wondering when that Beifong was going to reemerge.
"Would you be my metalbending master? Suyin's taught me some of the basics but I won't be returning to Zaofu anytime soon, and-" the Avatar would have continued talking had Lin not chucked Suyin's meteorite piece towards her head.
"Normally when one sees an object hurtling towards their head, they try standing their ground and facing it, not ducking. If that's the extent of what Suyin's taught you, then we have a lot to go over."
With a wicked grin Korra bent the meteorite piece back at the master metalbender. The rest of the night was spent in laughter trying to escape the meteorite that kept flying between the two women. For the first time in a long time, Korra felt at peace. And though she knew it wouldn't last, she had to give Beifong credit for finding happiness in even the hardest of times.
Hope you all enjoyed this version! I'm low-key bitter that there was never a child between Chief Beifong and Tenzin. To be fair though there are future comics, so one can dream right?
