Lin had taken three punches to the gut in the last two minutes of the fight, and, not without protest and force, she was now leaning against a crumbling wall with her mother fighting off the men surrounding them.
"So," Toph spoke angrily, "Care to explain what Azula and Destan Kao were talking about?" Lin knew that it wasn't really a question. Her mother was going to find out Lin's worst secret after nearly twenty years of it being kept hidden.
"That year I was here on request of Qing-Yuan Kao," Lin began, "I was only here for three months."
"What were you doing for the rest of the y–" Toph cut herself off, realizing, with a great amount of shock, what her daughter had gotten herself into.
"Dour Kao slipped something into my drink at one of his father's parties one night," Lin muttered, "After I remembered what I could of what happened the rest of the night I resigned and went to Gao Ling." Lin felt like she was able to fight again, and was soon earthbending left and right as she continued her story for her mother.
"I- I left the baby with Poppy, but Dour Kao was informed – apparently indirectly by Azula – that she existed."
"Custody battle, he got the baby, blah blah blah, here we are today, and she is…" Toph left the sentence unfinished so Lin could confirm what she thought.
"Kai." Lin said as she knocked out the last of the group that had been assaulting them.
Lin looked around and saw that the last of Azula and Min Chang's followers was being fought and quickly defeated by Bolin. Now all that was left was Min Chang who was surrounded by Kai, Troy, Dimitri, Azule, and their six other scarred classmates. Lin was going to go and help them, but was stopped by Kai calling out, "Go get Azula," the eighteen-years-and-fifty-one-weeks old girl pointed after the older woman, "Min Chang's ours." Her tone took on a darker aura.
"Just…" Tenzin trailed off, "Just don't kill him."
"We won't." She assured the airbending master. Tenzin nodded and Toph took off after Azula who was trying to run away. Lin, Tenzin, and Team Avatar followed quickly after her.
X
Kai stood facing Min Chang with Azule on her left and Shanti, a waterbender and the only other girl that had been in their class on her right. To Shanti's right stood Haruka and Hasook, a pair of identical twin waterbender boys, Po, a squat waterbender boy, and Lyon, a waterbender boy who was about 6'4" with a very lanky stature. To Azule's left were Troy, Dimitri, and the fraternal twins Terrran, the only other earthbender their age, and Ignado the only other firebender their age.
"What are you waiting for?" Azule taunted her father, "We aren't going to fight unless you fight back." With the taunt Min Chang shot a flame at her face, and she quickly firebent it away. The fight had begun.
X
Bolin watched Toph Bei Fong tie Azula's wrists behind her back and then force the psycho woman to her feet. The woman was so angry that she had been defeated by the Avatar again that she was crying. "We need to go back to Kai and them," Bolin finally spoke, and his friends agreed.
Coming up on Kai and her childhood friends' fight, Team Avatar and their adult allies were astonished at what they found. In the time it had taken them to take down Azula, some of her and her son's followers mustered up the strength to fight again and had begun assailing Kai and her friends along with Min Chang. The group of teenagers had only just entered the climax of their fight.
The female waterbender had a wall of water held up in front of her and was using it to project shards of ice out of. The identical twin waterbenders were using the same concept, but instead of a wall in front of them, they were back-to-back with a ring of water encircling the both of them. The squat waterbender had encased all but his head in water and was using his fluid, elongated appendages as water whips, using them to strike down Min Chang or his followers that were still strong enough to fight. The tall lanky water bender, instead of actually using waterbending as his fighting style, he had his arms encased in water and was using them as elongated arms, punching his assailants with them instead of using them as water whips. Bolin didn't see Troy.
The firebender that wasn't Azule or any of Min Chang's followers had just brought his leg through the air and to the ground sending a line of flames to the feet of his assailant. Bolin didn't see Azule.
The earthbender that had been on his knees had his legs encased in rock, using earthbending to take steps, and sandbending to use a form that looked akin to the water whip move. Dimitri was making loud, boisterous battle cries while rapidly firing rocks at his assailants with quick punching movements. Bolin didn't see Kai.
"Look at Kai," Korra pointed and Bolin followed the girl's gaze and saw Kai sandbending at Min Chang, her movements fluid and graceful like that of a waterbender. Azule was using her firebending to deflect some of the more dangerous flames her father was sending their way, only occasionally throwing fire balls at him. Troy had a wall of ice erected to shield him from the flames, using every chance he got to lean around its side and fire ice shards at Min Chang.
It wasn't ten minutes later that all that was left of Kai and her classmates' assailants was Min Chang and three of his followers. Kai was the only fighter out of her and her classmates that was still capable of fighting. She had earthbent Azule and Troy to the sides as soon as she could tell they were no longer able to fight, and the two benders now sat with their classmates on the sidelines.
Each man took a stance at the compass points, Min Chang taking the one directly in front of Kai, who was facing East. Everyone around them could tell that Kai was tired, and they were all worried what would happen next.
Then, in the blink of an eye, all four men unleashed their strongest blow of fire directly towards Kai. Kai met his eyes momentarily, gave a weak smile, and then she was no longer visible. "No!" Bolin cried out.
Moments later the fire cleared, and on the ground was a rock hut. Everyone stared on in confusion, and then in a blink of an eye the hut was shooting out at high speed in a ring of large rocks and sand that spiraled around like a cyclone.
Soon the ring that was quickly expanding was nearly as wide as the room. Team Avatar, Chief Bei Fong, Toph, Tenzin, and Kai's nine classmates took cover, and then watched as the ring made contact with Min Chang and his men, flinging them against the wall, and, thusly, knocking them out.
"That's your kid?" Toph asked. Bolin furrowed his brows and turned around just in time to see Chief Bei Fong nodding in answer to Toph's question.
"Good job," Toph replied.
"Mother," Chief Bei Fong scolded her mother, something resembling a blush decorating her skin.
X
Was that it? Is it over? Has Min Chang finally been defeated? For real? These were the questions rushing through the heads of everyone that was in the Koi Pond Courtyard of the old bending school, or so Kai assumed.
Kai stood in the middle of the koi pond courtyard of her old training school. Her hair was disheveled, her face was bruised and her scar was showing, her shirt had a giant gaping hole in the back, the only thing keeping her entire back from being visible was the ratty strips of fabric that had been torn off of her not ratty knee-length pants, her feet were covered in gashes and dried blood from running around barefoot throughout the battle, and her entire body was covered in a generous layer of sand and dirt.
Kai heaved giant gulps of breath from the slowly cooling air as her friends and allies began to come out of their hiding places. Bolin quickly ran over to her, wrapping his arms around her middle in a bone crushing hug that lifted her off the ground, "You're okay!" he exclaimed happily.
"You doubted me," Kai retorted with a semi-false arrogance, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him back with a humorless chuckle. The happy moment didn't last for long, though.
Just as Bolin set her back on the ground and was about to let go of her, Min Chang stood and moved through a form that Kai had only seen Azule do a few times. "Move!" Kai exclaimed as she shoved Bolin away just as the lighting shot out of Min Chang's fingers.
Before Kai could dive out of the way too, though, she felt the worst pain she had ever felt in her head and it slowly spread throughout her body. She might have let out a blood curdling scream of pain, but she really couldn't tell you. She blacked out soon after the lighting made contact with her person, the pain too much for her consciousness to handle.