After Kya couldn't find anything incriminating in Daizo's office on Air Temple Island and Daizo found out from Tenzin that Kya still visited Lin and the children, Daizo was furious. He stormed into the Police Headquarters and threatened to convince the council the murder of his hitman was done in cold blood and that Lin and the "errand boy" were co-conspirators. He would have her exiled from the city and her children made motherless, passed off as orphans and adopted by Pema and Tenzin. Lin scoured the law code but could do nothing to incriminate him since he had a perfectly clean record whereas she had killed dozens in her line of duty. Some may even falsely believe that she enjoyed it.
Lin used her Earth Kingdom status to get citizenship for her guard and his family in case Daizo did decide to pursue the framing. She had a safe house established for them and ready the instant they may need to flee the United Republic and promised them sufficient funds to live and adjust to their new home across the border.
To increase security around the mountain estate, Lin asked her grandfather to expand the property which he willingly did with the expectation that she would eventually inherit his company and would need all of the land and security requested to stay safe. She cited her growing reputation among the triads as her primary concern. As a result, Lao bought the surrounding four thousand acres around the Beifong Estate where they lived and quintupled the guard stationed on the property. Nobody was allowed on the entire mountain where they lived.
The winds were kicking up as fall set in over the bay. It was even colder on the mountain top when Lin and Kang went to meditate. While Lin had to wear the bearmink fur coat she had just to be able to last the full hour designated to the activity, five year old Kang refused to wear even a sweater.
"It just doesn't feel cold to me," the boy insisted. Lin frowned, but brought an extra coat for him anyways before they began their trek up the mountain. It had been only a day since the other children left for their Ember Island adventure with Aunt Izumi.
"And then then Shu was killed by Oma's brother so she destroyed both armies and made a new city where the survivors of both villages would live happily ever after and she called it Omashu!" Kang said to his mother gleefully as they began their descent after meditation.
"I'm not sure that's how the story goes, Kang," Lin replied walking beside her youngest baby. She couldn't believe what her baby boy had become. He was so big now! So full of energy and enthusiasm and he wasn't cold!
"It's BASED on the legend. It's not the actual legend! Gosh! You never like my stories," Kang replied with exasperation.
"I do! I just didn't know if this one was supposed to be true or not. You didn't specify when you began speaking, and as your parent, I also have to make sure you know the difference between fact and fantasy and clarify when things are unclear," Lin replied covering her face with embarrassment.
Kang sighed. "It's so boring without everyone else here."
"Really? I thought you might get lonely while I train your siblings."
"But that's interesting! And I like watching you guys fight!"
"Fighting isn't a good thing! It is just a necessity. Look, I want you to be happy, but they also needed some time away. So I am going to ask you, what would make our time together less boring?" Lin asked.
"Could we race back down to the house?" Kang asked.
"Are you sure you want to do that? You know you won't get a head start."
"I don't think I'll need one!" Kang said cracking his knuckles, stretching his shoulders by swinging his bare arms in a circle through the cool fall air.
No! Lin realized it the second before it happened. Her five year old sprinted, covering over fifty feet in six steps before turning up a ball of air right beneath himself creating an air scooter, laughing with the same glee his father had when he was a child, when he was still happy.
"Kang! Be careful! Watch out for the trees!" Lin said racing after him on a slab of earth, sliding down the mountain as if it were a board on tightly packed snow covered in a thin layer of ice.
He only laughed and went faster. Lin shot a strip of metal that she wore on her wrist towards the boy but missed.
"Kang! The trees end soon! You could be seen!" Lin yelled, unable to make up the distance between, but not losing any.
"Don't worry Mama, I got th-" Kang yelled turning back. His foot hit a rock and he flew through the air and out of the forest at the bottom of the hill, and over the fence that lined their property, falling towards asphalt.
"No!" Lin reached her hand out and reduced the entire street to a soft muddy sand pit turning up the wet ground underneath the paved road.
Screaming, Kang fell into it with a splash. She rode her rock sled right through the metal fence bending it open with ease, dropping to her knees beside the boy.
"Are you alright?!" she demanded, cupping his face.
"Ma! I'm fine! I could have stopped it myself! I've been practicing-"
"But- You-You can't be!" Lin said looking at him with fear on her face.
"But- I thought you'd be proud. I thought-. I thought this was a good thing!"
"It is! Just- It is NOT something you should keep from me!" Lin scolded.
"Lin?" a third voice asked. Lin looked up and saw her probably least favorite person in the world looking down at her and Kang.
"Mama, is he-"
"SH!"
"Lin, did he just call you-" Tenzin began to ask before Lin cut him off.
"Why are you here, Tenzin?" Lin asked stepping in front of him.
"I was just about to ask you the same thing? And why all the mud-"
"That's beside the point! I asked you a question!" Lin raised her voice. Kang stepped behind her, clinging onto her leg, not taking his eyes off of the arrow on the bald man's forehead.
"I was delivering some papers to a fellow Councilman who lives nearby when I saw the new fence up. This land used to be a protected forest!"
"Well not since Republic City zoned it for residential buildings!" Lin replied. "Now if you will excuse me, I have to go wash somebody!" Lin growled frowning down at Kang who shrunk back a little.
"But Lin!"
"I'll return the road to its previous state in the morning," Lin said turning to head towards the fence with the hole in it, holding firmly onto Kang's hand.
"Lin, wait!" Tenzin yelled grabbing her other arm just below the elbow.
"Let GO of me!" Lin screamed yanking her hand out of his grasp, releasing Kang, and punching Tenzin in the face accidentally, subconsciously bending a pillar of earth at him, pushing him ten feet in the air and twenty feet away. She panicked.
"Lin!" He garbled clutching a bloody and broken nose.
In a panic, Lin grabbed Kang in one swift motion, jumped onto her rock slab and slid back up the mountain, closing the hole in the fence as she passed through.
If Daizo found out about Kang, and Kang being an airbender, if ANYONE found out, they'd be ruined.
"You hurt him!" Kang yelled.
"He grabbed my arm!"
"You grab my arm!"
"You're my son! I can do that!"
"But I'm his son too, aren't I?"
Lin turned away. "Yes, you are."
"I saw the way he looked at you; he still cares about you-"
"But we cannot be. The White Lotus needed him to have airbenders and I didn't have any so we had to leave for him to find someone new who could give him what the world needed."
"But you DID give him airbenders! Three!"
"Well the White Lotus didn't know that when they separated us. And we all found out after it was too late."
"I want to meet him!"
"Well we don't all get everything we want in life, DEAL WITH IT!" Lin yelled back.
Kang stepped back from her, his lip quivering. Lin froze, her features softened. She crouched down in their living room and reached out for him.
"Kang, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lashed out! I want to see him too! I want to tell him about you. I DO! I want us to live together, and be happy but it has been too long. He has another family. It would be too risky, too dangerous if we expose ourselves now. We will never be able to live like this again-"
"I don't want to live like this! I hate the isolation! It gets SOOOO lonely, ESPECIALLY with everyone gone-" Kang sniffled.
"But Kang, would you rather be followed by reporters? Stalked by criminals? You're young, and I am the Chief of Police. The triads WILL target you for ransom. Here we are safe. Here we are free."
"Says Joo Dee in the all the books about Grandfather's adventures in Ba Sing Se," Kang replied turning away from her, running to her room.
Lin stood up and wiped her eyes. Give him time.