UPDATE
Hello people reading this. I thank everyone for reading, finishing, reviewing and favoriting this story. I have been spending a ton of time improving and writing other things since this story. I am currently working on two novels and some short stories. Two of my short stories I put on the website, smashwords. They are called:
"The Kalos" (Rated T)
and
"Flowers" (Rated M)
By me, Jay Vogel. They are short and they are free! So check them out and thanks so far for giving me your your support for doing what I love.
* This a new, shorter story I wrote. Same universe as my other one, Eden, but there is really no need to read that one to be able to follow this one. Similar writing style, different storytelling style. I jump around time periods. Events take place before season 1 of Korra. Experimenting with writing somewhat with this one. Hope you enjoy */
-Prelude-
The phone rang. It was the phone call he had been waiting on for days. Dusk. He had dozed off, but the sound of the phone ringing after what seemed like an eternity of the most unsettling silence jolted him awake.
Tenzin sat up in his bed and reached for his phone. He knew the only person it could be.
"Lin," he said, certain in his greeting. "What is happening?"
"Tenzin." It was her. She sounded neither worried nor urgent. Just calm. "Are you okay?"
"Yes. I am fine. Where are you? What is going on?" Tenzin said, trying to get to the point. She spoke slowly.
"I think...I figured it out. All of it."
"You know who it is!" Tenzin said, a statement that would have offered him much relief if it was not being drowned in dread for what Lin would do next.
"Yes. I know who it is," she said, her voice low. No emotion. "I have already informed the press that the situation is under control. The city need no longer fear another threat. I will make sure of that."
"Lin, what are you planning on doing?"
"Whatever I have to. I am going alone. I need to ask you something. I need you to meet me at the clock tower. At midnight."
"Please, Lin. I know you are angered by what has happened. Don't let yourself be controlled by it. Don't let my involvement fuel your hatred. Don't seek vengeance."
Lin was silent. Tenzin could hear her breathing. He knew it was not simple for her. She had difficulty in choosing forgiveness. He did not understand why. It scared him that Lin was not agreeing with him immediately, that she was confused, that she was actually considering taking the life of another man.
"Lin, it's just another case. Don't take this too far. If you do this, if you let your anger overpower you, you will regret this for the rest of your life. It will haunt you..."
"You don't understand, Tenzin. It's not just another case. It's not just another criminal. Please, just promise you will meet me there…"
"I know this man has shaken you. Shaken your wits and threaten the ones you care for but you will just have to accept that these things will happen, Lin. Giving in to hatred will not solve anything. It will not help you. Make an arrest, send him to prison for life, whatever! Just please don't choose revenge..."
"Tenzin, please...just meet me at the clock tower. Goodbye." Lin hung up the phone.
Tenzin had no idea what was happening, but after that phone call he was not going to be sleeping tonight until he talked to Lin. Feeling jittery and in no mood to stay put, Tenzin left his lonely bedroom on Air Temple Island and made his way to the clock tower to meet his girlfriend. It was ten in the evening. Rather than airgliding his way up to the top of the tower like he used to do as a young man, he took the stairs up to the roof, where there was a small balcony overlooking the city, just underneath the gigantic clock that chimed eleven O'clock by the time he got there.
Lin was not there, as expected. Tenzin paced the length of the balcony for almost an hour, waiting for her. Walking by the chalk drawings on the pillars. The drawings of his face next to hers. Together. Cute, childish drawings, reminding him of his past with her. Reminding him of how she used to be. His heart raced, thoughts going through his mind of where she had gone. What she had done. Where underneath that blanket of bright lights beneath him was Lin?
Please, Lin. Please hurry. Please tell me you didn't...
Tenzin heard the sound of the motorcycle. He waited another few minutes. She did not say the top of the clock tower. She did not say it was "their spot" that they were meeting. Tenzin descended down to the foot of the tower and saw the slim, hardened Chief that he had known so well all of his life and felt so close to up until the last few years. Now she felt further from him than anyone. Like she had drifted away onto another planet. Her long, brown hair with noticeable streaks of gray tied up messily. Visual stress.
"Lin..." Tenzin uttered quietly. Her back faced him. She leaned on her bike, breathing slowly. Unable to look at him. Tenzin's heart dropped.
"I didn't want to meet you on the balcony of this place," she said. "It would remind me of old times. Those times are gone. You know that as well as I do."
They were quiet for a few seconds longer.
"What did you do, Lin?"
"I did what I had to, in order to protect my city."
Tenzin knew what that meant. He understood all the signals perfectly. She was unhappy with what had happened, but to her, there was no other way.
Tenzin was speechless. He knew the truth. He found it redundant to ask, but he was so desperate for the answer he wanted. But he only received the one he dreaded.
"You killed him?"
Lin finally looked over at him. There was nothing in her green eyes. They were empty and filled with darkness. A void. Her gray-black hair hung down in front of her face. She looked at him as if nothing mattered to her anymore. Not even Tenzin. Not even herself.