"MMMMM! What is that smell, Aunt Lin?!" Ikki asked entering her new home for the second time with the other airbenders.
"It is amazing!"
"It smells like Gran Gran's Sea Kumquat stew!" Jinora exclaimed taking a big wiff of it as she passed the kitchen.
"It is your Grandma Katara's recipe, with a little of my own tweaks," Lin replied smiling.
"Mom always cooks Water Tribe food on special occasions!" Kang said reaching into the pot to try to steal a stewing sea kumquat.
"Hey! No touching! You all have been sparring. I can smell it. Go clean up, then we will eat," Lin ordered slapping his hand away.
"What is the special occasion?" Jinora asked.
"You guys joining our family," Jiexue answered knowingly.
Jinora gasped and turned between Lin and Tenzin. She saw them in a whole different light now. With Jinora's mother, Tenzin was cautious. He watched what he said, where he stepped. They said it was because he was just overprotective. But really it was because Pema was sensitive. She was offended easily. She cried, she got hurt easily. Lin on the otherhand was as tough as the steel and stone she bent. She was passionate. She could argue with Tenzin for days. They would start by fighting then end their disagreement after a few days of silence, their love strong enough to tough even the roughest storms, and remain unchanged after 16 years of separation. They were both so overprotective of each other, but they were also both so individually strong. They fit each other perfectly.
"Hey Mom," HuiFan said after coming home from training, hugging her mother from behind while Lin stirred the stew.
"Why aren't you sweaty? Did Grandma Toph teach you anything today?" Lin asked
"No. She just had me beat up my cousins. It is rather easy to do," Huifan replied automatically opening the cabinets like she use to to get dishes and cups to set the table. She had always been closest with her mother, helping with all of the chores before they had servants, and taking care of her baby sisters. The more she helped her mother with menial tasks, the more energy her mother had to spar with her when she was younger.
"For you," Lin replied with a smirk.
Everyone was finally seated, Tenzin sat at one end of the table, and Lin at the other. Just before they could start passing the first dish around, Huifan's head shot up. "There's someone at the door!" HuiFan announced.
"Who?" Ikki asked.
"Especially at this hour?" Jinora added.
"GO AWAY! WE'RE EATING DINNER!" Meelo yelled.
"Hush Meelo!" Tezin snapped. "We do not speak that way!"
"I don't know. It feels like the Future Industries CEO and the firebending police chief and another boy that I've never seen before!" Huifan replied just as the visitors knocked.
"Your skills of perception are impeccable." HungJian said sarcastically standing up.
"Ha-ha!" HuiFan replied sneering.
"No! You sit. Eat. I'll get it," Lin snapped her fingers pointing back down at the chair and Hungjian dropped down into his seat once again.
"Mako! Asami! Bolin! What brings you here at this hour?"
Mako spoke, "Well, I finally got rid of Raiko. I wanted to ask for your advice. Raiko is impossible and I can't trust the other officers to not go blabbing."
Lin sighed. "You need them to fear you"
"But you said I needed respect more than fear!" Mako replied.
"Respect comes after the fear." Lin explained with a sigh. "What's up? Have you eaten? Where's Korra?"
"Korra's visiting her family in the South Pole. We stopped at Narook's before coming and didn't want to impose for too long."
"Then have at least a cup of tea. I always have a kettle full and ready. Come in," Lin said opening the door wider to allow Mako, Bolin, and Asami into her modest, unburied home on Air Temple Island.
"Oooooooh! Who's the handsome earthbender boy." Jiexue asked with a smile, craning her neck to see over the high back of Jinkun's chair.
"That's Bolin. He's Opal's boyfriend," Jinora answered.
"Oh," Jiexue sighed for a fraction of a second. "Never mind then! I won't break someone's. ESPECIALLY my own cousin's."
"Did you know Bolin can lavabend?" Ikki asked throwing her hands down on the table with excitement lifting herself out of her dinner chair.
"Yes he can, now finish your food so you can get ready for bed. You have a long day of training tomorrow, Ikki," Lin said running her hand smoothly and casually along the top of the high back on the chair bending the metal lining to snake around Ikki's waist and pulled her back into the seat before reassuming its original shape.
"Woah!" Ikki said watching it reshape itself as Lin walked over to Tenzin at the head of the table.
"I'll only be a short while. Make sure the children eat and clean up the table. Can you have Huifan show Jinora and Ikki where all the dishes go after washing and drying?"
"Of course."
"Thank you," Lin replied almost kissing his arrow before remembering the presence of their guests. "I'll be in the study if you need anything."
Tenzin smiled as she walked away leading the young adults to her study.
"Dad, can I learn lavabending?" HuiFan asked.
"I suppose you can try, just don't practice ANYWHERE near the house,"
Lin settled on her side of the desk and unstacked three cushioned chairs from the corner of the room by a slat of metal she had screwed into the bottom of the seats. "So what's this about?" she asked folding her hands on the desk.
"Well, we received this note yesterday," Mako said sliding the paper over the dark stained oak table.
No bender is safe during the Four Nations' festival.
"When is that festival?" Lin asked.
"Four days away, Mako replied.
"How many officers will you have there?"
"Five hundred."
"Estimated civilian count?"
"Ten thousand."
"Estimated demographics?"
"34% benders."
"How many of your officers have been trained in bomb detection and disarming?"
"About twenty,"
"Exactly?"
"Seventeen."
"Have them all be present that night as well. Sweep the area every hour before the event and do thorough clean up. Secure the area and screen everyone entering the area. Restrict weapon possession to law enforcement..."
"Do you think that will work?"
"It should help, but we are never certain."
Just then the door opened and Huifan entered. "Mom, I know it wasn't my place to listen, but I think I can help if it's a security thing. I can feel the bombs by their earthen components!"
"Absolutely not! Now go back Huifan. You should be at dinner with your siblings. This is a private conversation! Go!" Lin yelled.
"Ugh!" HuiFan groaned storming off.
"She can detect bombs?" Asami asked.
"She found ONE on our airship and suddenly thinks she's an expert! She's overconfident in her abilities-" Lin said to them.
"I've seen several displays of earthbending, Chie-Lady Beifong. She deserves to be overconfident."
"I trained her, Chief Mako. She deserves nothing and needs to learn restraint." Lin said. "You came asking for my advice and received it. You will not take my daughter as well."
"Let's go Mako. We've taken enough of Lady Beifong's time,"Asami said urging Mako out of his chair.
"Thank you for seeing us this evening," Mako said bowing as he stood.
Lin nodded and watched as they filed out of her home office. "Wait," She took a strip of paper.
"This is the number of the private line to this house, and this is the private line to the estate. If you need me, call here first. If I don't pick up or the person who does says I am not here, call the estate and ask for Peng. He is the captain of my Guard. A good man who can get a hold of me quickly and easily. Do not hesitate, but at the same time, don't waste my time if its not a big deal." Lin said handing Mako the paper.
"Thank you." Mako said.
Three nights later, HuiFan and her sisters were all sitting together in Jiexue's room with Jinora and Ikki telling stories.
"... there once was an earthbender that was so strong that she was able to earthbend the ground to cancel out her own movements and heartbeat enabling her to sneak past even the most accomplished benders capable of seismic sense! She moved every step with the perfect rhythm of the earth that she bent and escaped her wretched prison FOREVER! Mwahahahahaha!" Huifan said standing on the bed with her hands up victoriously reminding Lin of her mother's retelling of the time when she was the Melon Lord. Lin stood just outside their open door, out of sight, leaning with her back against the wall, listening to their voices permeate through the house that had heard nothing but silence for sixteen years.
"Who was the earthbender?" Jinora asked completely enthralled by the unfathomable feat of earthbending
"ME!" Huifan replied flopping down on the bed again leaning against Jiexue.
"But you've never been in prison!" Ikki corrected her.
"It is called figurative language!" Huifan explained.
"Why do you have to take everything so literally?" Jinora asked with annoyance asked folding her arms.
"Why do you have to be so boring!" Ikki shouted back.
"Hey! Knock it off! You're sisters! Don't end up like Mom and Su!" Jiexue scolded snapping at them while Huifan seemed rather annoyed by their quick squabbles.
"Sorry," Jinora and Ikki apologized to each other.
'What are you do-" Tenzin began to ask before Lin covered his mouth and pulled him against the hallway wall.
"So did you sneak out?"
"Once,"
"Where did you go?"
"About a half mile down the hill of the south wall. Then I got scared by a moose lion and went back home," Huifan replied.
"How old were you?"
"I don't know. Eleven maybe,"
"I'm eleven!"
"Have you ever sneaked out?"
"Once! We were on vacation and JINORA was making fun of me!" Ikki said sneering at her sister with her hands on her hips.
"Only because you made fun of me!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Hey! Quit it you two! You didn't bicker like this three days ago! What happened?" Jiexue asked.
"I don't know," Jinora sighed.
Jiexue raised an eyebrow at them.
"Did you guys ever argue when you were little?" Ikki asked Jiexue. She glanced at Xiaoyu who sat with her back against her sister's head board.
"I think we were too busy or too sensitive to tease each other or argue. HuiFan spent most of her time sparring Hungjian, but always wanted a little sister to dress up, so she was exceptionally nice and gentle in the early years, but then Jiexue was freaking out around six years old about being a non-bender until Aunt Zumzu taught her knife throwing. Then I spent all of my time with Mom begging to be trusted with knives too..."
"So you never argued?"
"Not with each other."
"See, we were the only friends each other had. We didn't have school or air acolytes. Just each other, mother, Aunt Kya and Aunt Zumi," Jiexue replied.
"Wow!"
Tenzin looked down at Lin who had her eyes closed, 'watching' their daughters all converse in the room with her seismic sense, listening to them argue and laugh, with a smile spread across her face. Tenzin traced the scars on her cheek with his eyes, taking in every single line of her body as he looked down at his lady. He never felt happier in his life. The woman from his child hood and his dreams was finally able to be with him freely. He had children of his own, and six of them were for sure airbenders. Only Rohan was too young to tell.
"Why don't we give them some privacy and go find some of our own. They'll be okay until morning, They're old enough to be responsible." Tenzin said snaking his fingers into her hand. She opened her brilliant green eyes and looked up at him.
"Alright. Where do you propose?"
"The caves in the south side of the island."
"Okay," Lin said following.
Huifan scanned the house. It was three in the morning. Both parents deep asleep, all of her siblings equally distracted by elaborate dreams, no doubt, and Huifan fled the house for the city, bending a sand wave to propel her across the bay without any need for a ferry, it was exhausting work to maintain that level of bending for so long, but it was okay. Once Huifan landed by the shipping depot, she realized just how little she knew the city. She recognized the port where the Fire Nation-Republic City steamer pulled in that one year that Lin let Fire Lord Izumi take her and her siblings to ember Island. She recognized the direction of the Probending Arena and could see its golden body gleaming in the distance on a pier of its own, but she had no idea where the Police Station was to offer her services to the security team. She was at a loss. As if the spirits heard her dilemma, they sent a night patrolman roaming her way. "Excuse me," she called to the patrolling officer. "Which way to Republic City Police Headquarters?"
"That way, about five miles. It's a long walk. Would you like me to drive you?"
"No thanks. I'll manage, I have these," she replied tapping one of her spools of cables.
"Oldstyle police cables?" He asked.
"Yep!" Huifan replied turning around.
She metalbent one of her cables into the corner of a building and swung half the length of a block, practically flying towards the headquarter building. The plaza between the City Hall and the Police Headquarters was completely vacant save for her. HuiFan looked up at the statue of Toph in her prime wearing her Chief of Police Uniform standing above the plaza, looking down on the road. I can't believe you are MY grandmother! Beside Toph, there was beginning construction of another outcrop in the police headquarters to make space for the second longest serving Police Chief, Lin Beifong. Huifan had a feeling Mako wouldn't be in until morning, especially with such an important day beginning in a few hours, so she decided to set up camp and wait. Huifan made an earth tent along the side of the building and took down her hair and shed herself of metal to catch about six more hours of sleep before the city woke up.
Huifan did her hair in complete darkness of her earthern tent and dressed. She bent her belt around her waist and attached the spools of cable and changed the curl of her meteor bracelet just for design and then collapsed her eastern tent to find the courtyard bustling with activity as politicians, secretaries, police, civilians, and messengers hurried between the most important buildings in the city. She had never seen so many people in a plaza. It was nothing like the moderately crowded streets between the docks and the pro-bending stadium that one
She had to hurry. It was festival day and she had to help the bomb squad.
"Is the Chief in yet?" she asked the receptionist.
"The Chief doesn't have time for petty civilian complaints especially on festival day," the secretary replied.
"Then let me speak to whoever is leading the security team for the festival this evening," Huifan replied.
"Whatever you have to say, you can write it down and we will put it in the chief's mailbox." the secretary said handing Huifan a piece of scrap paper and a pen. If she were a fire bender, she could burn it to make a statement. She held it up and narrowed her eyes, spearing the paper with the metal on her wrist guard, slicing it into four jagged pieces letting it fall onto the secretary's desk.
"No wonder my mother hates bureaucracy." She muttered, not backing down. She looked at the secretary. Good. Now I have her attention. But I don't need it. "I'll find the Chief myself!" HuiFan said. She slammed her foot into the ground causing the entire police headquarters to pulse. Huifan said with a flash of a smile turning to walk away.
"The girl from the paper," the secretary gasped looking up for the first time.
"What paper?" HuiFan asked pausing.
Another secretary handed her the newspaper clipping from a few days ago. It had been a hot topic in the police station. Gossip had gone rampant as was kind of expected. And here was Chief Beifong's secret daughter, in flesh, and just as magnificent and intimidating. Huifan was intrigued by the article and nonetheless a little disappointed her mother didn't show her when it was first published.
"If anyone is interested in further reporting on me, tell them to add 'AND the GREATEST EARTHBENDER IN THE WORLD'. By the way, I found the Chief. He's on the fourth floor heating a cup of tea with his hands. A girl is with him. The head of Future Industries, Sato, I think her name is. Thanks for the clipping, Madame secretary," Huifan said nodding at the secretary before walking towards the metal door that lead from the lobby to the rest of the building. She bent it open with as little movement as blinking her eyes, and for some reason, not a single officer made any move to stop her.
Huifan walked past uniformed dectives, trainees, secretaries, newbies, firebending officers, metalbending officers, waterbending officers, consultants, contractors, and janitors. She walked with a confidence not seen since Beifong retired about five weeks ago. She knew where everything was, after getting a complete layout of the building from the one pulse.
"Chief Mako," Huifan said appearing behind the firebending boy with the cup of tea.
He nearly jumped out of his grey police uniform in shock. "Huifa-"
"-fan," Huifan finished for him.
"Duh-" Mako cleared his throat nervously. "Does your mother know you're here?"
"Probably, but don't worry, she won't come. She hates Raiko and probably doesn't want him to accuse her of invading Republic City," Huifan said rolling her eyes. Some eavesdropping officers gasped and whispered among themselves shocked that the girl would be brave enough to express her distaste for their president.
"So why are you here?" Mako asked.
"I wanted to help the bomb squad. I heard your conversation a few days ago, but I knew my mother would try to make stay if she knew I was planning on coming, so I decided to not alert you ahead of time."
"Well I guess every bit of help counts," Mako replied. "There's only one problem."
"What?"
"You're kind of famous now." Mako said nervously.
"So? How does that change anything? I am still only human, I still want to help. I don't see how that impairs my ability to locate bombs," Huifan replied looking puzzled.
"People will recognize you. You can't really be discreet about finding the bombs."
"Do I need to be discreet?" Huifan asked with a dead serious expression. "I'm still only human. I don't care what they call me. They cannot change me or stop me. I know who I am. Please, let me help."
Mako thought for a moment. He remembered how she was able to take over control of over two dozen officers that day on Air Temple Island. She remembered the unusually strong earthquake a few weeks ago that was apparently caused by her rage when she thought her mother had been killed in a tower that blew up. She was indeed the most powerful bender of any element he had ever seen. "Okay. The first security sweep begins in an hour. Until then, I guess you could just hang out, somewhere."
"Great." HuiFan took out a block of metal and sat down in his office, patiently turning the block in her hand shaping it into geometrically symmetric shapes, assymetric blobs, and humanoid figurines.
"Did you shake the building earlier?" Mako asked curiously.
"Yep," Huifan replied keeping a bored expression focused on the blob of metal in her hand.
"You Beifongs are scary."
"I like to think of all of us, only my grandmother, mom, and I am scary. The rest of us are pretty sweet. Like Opal, the Twins, and Jinkun and Xiaoyu and Kang..."
"Yeah... sure... I'll take your word for it," Mako replied. "Wait, who are Jinkun, Xiaoyu, and Kang?"
"Two of my brothers, and one of my sisters."
"You have siblings?"
"Yeh,"
"How many?"
"Five,"
Mako struggled to keep his shock contained. He felt like he was being let in on some huge secret. He had seen them all just a few nights ago at that kitchen table in Beifong's new home on Air Temple Island, and he heard rumors about Chief Beifong having a family, but he didn't really count the chairs at that table when they passed through. She looked up curiously at him, but he decided to not ask anymore questions. He tried to return to his paperwork, but like the rest of his police force, and a good percentage of the police force, he was distracted by all of these things he was finding out about the Chief of Police he thought he knew.
Sorry about the delay with getting Raiko and Pema back in this story... Oh and I still have to introduce Masaru soon. I'm having trouble with squeezing him in... But he will be important too... eventually.