Breathe in, breathe out. There was chatter all around her, but Kya was focusing on breathing. Breathe in, breathe out. She tried to process what Mako and Korra had just told them. Tenzin, Bumi, Izumi, and Su were gathered in the dining room to hear Mako's theory. Could it be possible? Could Lin really be alive? Breathe in, breathe out.
Kya nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand touched her shoulder. A smooth voice said, "How are you holding up?"
"Is she alive, Izumi?" Kya looked at her old friend as if the Fire Lord held all the answers. "What did we miss? Is she still out there?"
"I don't know," admitted Izumi and squeezed the hand on Kya's shoulder. "Do you believe them?"
"I want to." Oh, how she wanted to believe it. The pieces of her heart may be able to be put back together again if Lin was really alive. "I need her to be alive."
"We all do."
"But where is she?" asked Tenzin loudly and everyone focused on him. "If Lin is alive, where is she?"
"That's the part we can't figure out," admitted Mako. "But Fire Lord Izumi said she knew something about the people who may have done this."
Kya glanced toward her friend, trying not to get her hopes up that Izumi could bring Lin back to her. That wasn't fair to Izumi or herself. If Lin was alive, she was out there somewhere, and they were going to have to work together to find her.
"Almost two years ago, Father came to Lin and myself to ask for help hiding a spirit from a renegade group called The Order. We were the only two people who know where the spirit is. Of course, that was a secret as well. My father and I believe that the Order found out that Lin knew the location of the spirit and attacked the Police Department to find out."
"She had been tortured before she died," murmured Tenzin.
Mako cleared his throat. "It looked like she had been tortured. But if that was really Pari, then they had to force her into the Chief's uniform. Most likely, they captured Pari before the attack on the station and tied her up."
"If that's really Pari," argued Tenzin. "If these Order people tortured Lin for information, she could have died during the interrogation."
"Lin wouldn't give up the location of the spirit," said Kya more firmly than she intended. Her breathing had steadied, and she was completely focused. The pieces were falling into place. Lin was alive. She had to be alive. So now Kya needed to find her.
"I agree," said Izumi with a nod. "If Lin had told them where to find the spirit, they would have gone after it. If Lin died before she told them, they would have come after me. Neither of those things have happened. Based on what the Avatar and Officer Mako have said, I believe that Lin may still be alive."
"So, the Order kidnapped Pari, attacked the Police Station, incapacitated Lin, switched the bodies with the help of that face stealing spirit-"
"Not exactly…Jinora says that he just switches the faces of the already dead. It can be any face, but the person whose face is changing has to be dead," interrupted Korra.
Kya barely heard her as she continued, "Then took Lin somewhere to continue interrogating her. So, if the Order doesn't come after Izumi or get to the spirit, then Lin is still alive." As soon as the words left her mouth, she was left with the realization of what Lin was going through right now. If all of this was true, the Order was torturing Lin as they were speaking.
"Exactly!" cried Mako. "We need to track them down!"
Kya's brain was working overtime. She practically ran from the room. She had to locate Lin now. They were hurting her, she knew it. Lin was alive and being tortured and Kya needed to get to her. Taking the steps out of the temple two at a time, she glanced around the garden. Finally, she spotted her niece and Kai hovering together.
"Jinora! Jinora! I need your help!" Kya rushed over to them and spoke quickly, "Lin's alive, I need you to try to find her…with your spiritual projection abilities."
Jinora hesitated before softly saying, "I've been trying since this morning after Mako told us his theory, but I haven't been able to find her."
"What?"
"I mean, I think I can feel her. When I'm concentrating I can sense her aura-"
"Where?"
"Aunt Kya, that's what I'm trying to tell you. I can't sense where her aura is coming from, I'm sorry." Kya closed her eyes and let out a sigh. If Jinora couldn't find her, then Korra probably couldn't either. If Toph was here, she might be able to locate her daughter, but the metalbender was still missing. "I'm sorry, Aunt Kya. I've tried."
Kya's heart went out to her niece. This wasn't her fault. "I know, Jinora. I'll find another way."
Time for Plan B. Well, she guessed that asking Toph for help would have been Plan B. So, this was probably Plan C. Actually, there were probably at least two better options she wasn't considering. So, it was time for Plan E.
"Bumi!" Her brother was next to her quicker than she expected. Kya raised an eyebrow at his sudden presence, before smiling to herself. Bumi had been trailing her ever since he and Tenzin had told her of Lin's death. She loved him and reminded herself to thank him later for being such a good brother in her time of need.
"You believe she's alive," he stated rather than asked.
"Yes. I need you to find Su. We're going on a little mission." At first, Kya thought Bumi was going to refuse or tell her she should tell Tenzin. But instead he nodded. "We're going to the spirit world."
A half hour later, Kya, Bumi, and Su were standing in front of the portal. Kya crossed her arms and looked at the vines that wrapped the glowing portal. This could potentially be a problem. She now remembered Korra telling them that she had used the vines to entrap the spirits that had attacked them.
"What's the plan?" Su hadn't even hesitated when Kya had informed her that she planned on going into the spirit world to get answers.
Bumi and his little spirit had circled the portal. Hands on his hips, he declared, "I think we can climb through."
"You think that will work?" asked Su skeptically and Kya had to agree. Surely the answer wasn't that easy.
Her brother shrugged. "Sometimes the simplest answer is the best answer."
Su cautiously approached the vines and tentatively reached out a hand to touch one. Nothing happened. Kya almost let out a sigh of relief. Su pulled herself over the thick branch and rolled into the portal. Kya quickly jumped through after her and she heard Bumi come in behind them.
"Look out!" screamed Su as she bent the earth in front of her to rise to block a spirit that had been speeding towards her. Kya automatically pulled water from the pouch on her hip and lashed out at the brightly colored spirits surrounding them.
"I think they were waiting for us!" shouted Bumi.
Kya slashed an ice blade at a purple eelhound shaped spirit. "I think they were probably waiting for Korra, but we still have to deal with them."
The three worked together to fight the surrounding spirits, but to Kya's dismay, they didn't seem to be making much progress. Her brother had the same idea and yelled, "We need a plan!"
"We need to escape! I have a feeling none of them are going to answer our questions."
Kya glanced at where Su was fending off two spirits at once. "What are we supposed to do? Run?"
The purple spirit dived at her and Kya barely managed to roll out of the way in time. Gritting her teeth, she jumped back up to resume the fight. Bumi was bouncing around them obviously confusing his spirits, so they just moved on to Su and Kya.
"We need a distraction," muttered Kya and used her water to block several hits by a green spirit.
Blue fire ripped past Kya to collide with the green spirit. Kya's first thought was that the spirits were fire bending and a small panicked shudder went through her. But then she realized that was ridiculous. More blue fire swirled in the area and Su and Bumi backed up stand beside Kya. The grass in front of them caught fire.
"Need a hand?" A cool voice came from the portal. Kya let out a sigh of relief as she whirled around to find Fire Lord Izumi behind them.
"Umi!" cried Bumi. It was a childhood nickname that the two had given each other because the last three letters of their names were the same. The fire burned in the grass in front of them, effectively holding off the spirits for now.
"We should go," said Kya over the crackle of the flames.
Izumi looked as if she was about to ask a question but thought better of it. Su pointed south of their location and the group started off toward the edge of a forest. Of course, this was the spirit world, so the forest was actually mushrooms of various shapes, colors, and sizes. But for the time being, it hid them from the spirits that had attacked them.
"How did you find us?" asked Su, clearly just as relieved as Kya to see their old friend.
Izumi straightened her glasses and said, "You three just took off. Since you didn't tell Tenzin or the Avatar, I assumed you were up to something dangerous to find Lin. Since none of us know where the Order is keeping her, the most logical step would be to go to the Spirit World to speak with spirits who might be involved with the Order."
"Logically," replied Bumi, almost mocking her, but it didn't faze Izumi.
"I'm sorry it took me so long, I had to lose my security detail. Of course, I wasn't expecting for you to be in a full-fledged fight or I would have brought my security."
"It's better you didn't," said Kya immediately. "We need to talk to spirits and the entire Royal Guard probably wouldn't convince them to be forthcoming."
"What is your plan?" Izumi had always been the one with a plan: master firebending, tour the world, marry her childhood sweetheart, have perfect children, become Fire Lord. And of course, she had succeeded in every aspect. Kya on the other hand, never had a plan.
"Go into the spirit world," said Bumi with a wild smile.
Izumi looked between him, Su, and Kya before taking a deep breath. Kya knew exactly what she was thinking. Izumi, Tenzin, and Lin had always gotten on better than the three wild children of the Team Avatar family. Of course, Kya had purposely not invited Tenzin because he would have told them that their plan was stupid. And Lin wasn't here. But she was alive and that's what really mattered.
"That's it?" she asked skeptically.
"We're going to find the spirits that are working with the Order," added Su.
"I believe we should proceed back to the portal then, as I can assume they are working with the Order."
Kya shook her head at Izumi's dry voice. "Give me some credit, Izumi. Those spirits are merely pawns. We're looking for Kun."
Izumi regarded her for a moment then nodded curtly. "Not a bad plan. Where is Kun?"
"No idea," admitted Kya.
Bumi puffed out his chest, "Don't worry, Bum-Ju and I will get to the bottom of this." The little dragonfly-bunny popped up over Bumi's shoulder. Bumi whispered to his friend and the spirit chirped back before flying off quickly.
"Um, where is he going?" asked Su, before Kya could get the words out. She trusted her brother and his military mind, but sometimes she thought he was getting senile with age.
"He's got a few contacts here in the Shroom Forest."
"Of course, he does," replied Izumi dryly.
"So now what?"
"We wait for him to come back," said Bumi as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.
Kya let out a huff of impatience and turned her back on her brother. She didn't have time to wait for Bumi's little friend to track down Kun. Lin was probably being tortured as they stood here. They had wasted so much time thinking she was dead. Su had practically planned Lin's funeral in the time it had taken for them to figure out Lin was still alive.
A hand touched her back gently. It was Su, her eyes filled with concern. "We're going to find her, Kya. Lin is strong. She is resilient. And she knows we're coming for her."
"We don't have time for this!" Kya didn't even know why she was so angry all of the sudden. It had been her idea to come into the Spirit World to look for Kun. What did she think was going to happen? That Kun was going to meet them at the portal? The Spirit World was infinite. Bumi was right, letting Bum-Ju ask around was a good idea.
"Thank you for coming," said Kya to Izumi. "And thank you for not telling Tenzin."
"I'm sure he's working with Avatar Korra and her friends on a different angle. I thought I could be of more use here. Soraya would be able to provide them with any information from the White Lotus." Izumi always thought things all the way through. Of course, she didn't just wildly come after Kya and the others without having a plan.
It was about five minutes before Bum-Ju came back with two more dragonfly-bunnies. Bumi bent over to listen to their twittering and stood up to report, "I know where Kun is!"
