Chapter 38
Lin was called into the communications room about two hours into her shift.
Lieutenant Jeia and Deputy Saikhan were already there, both of them leaning over one of the operators to listen in on whatever discussion the operator was having with someone.
"What's going on?" Lin demanded as she strode into the room, ignoring the twinge in her back and the tightness in her lower abdomen that had been plaguing her for the last hour or so. The baby was restless that day, very likely picking up on the foreboding its mother had been feeling all day.
Jeia and Saikhan straightened up and turned to face Lin as she entered, both of them looking grim.
"We've got several reports coming in of a situation in the Dragon Flats Borough," Saikhan explained.
"What kind of situation?" Lin questioned, coming to a stop before her two head officers and folding her arms over her chest.
"Triple Threats," Jeia answered. "Apparently they started rounding up nonbenders earlier this morning as a show of force. We sent an airship out to see what was going on, and they reportedly saw nothing like what we had been told. Except…"
Jeia trailed off and looked sideways at Saikhan. Growing impatient, Lin snapped, "Except what?"
"Except we've had no contact with them since," Saikhan grumbled. "We just sent another airship to –"
"How long has it been since we lost contact?" Lin interrupted.
"About forty-five minutes, ma'am," the female operator chimed in. Lin thought her name might have been Aska.
"What was the last thing they said?" Lin pressed, directing her question at the operator this time.
"They reported all clear," Aska said. "They advised that they would be dropping several officers to the ground to get a better look and would radio in when they got back. We've been hailing them since then, but either nobody is onboard or they're incapacitated…or their radio is simply down."
"Which is doubtful," Jeia said plainly. "And they should have left at least one or two officers onboard the airship."
"How close is our second airship to the borough?" Lin inquired.
"Less than five minutes out," Saikhan replied.
"Let me talk to them," Lin ordered, and Aska leapt out of her seat to offer it to Lin.
Lin settled down in the chair and began conversing with the captain of the airship that was approaching Dragon Flats. Captain Shin gave her a running commentary the rest of the way there.
When they reached the borough, Shin said, "We've got the first airship in our sights, Chief. It appears to be undamaged and hovering steadily. No suspicious activity in the area. Doesn't even look like there's anyone in the streets. Trying to get in contact with the airship now…waiting for a response…
"Still waiting…waiting…waiting…...
"Looks like we're getting nothing, Chief. You want us to go in?"
"Send three officers with a portable radio," Lin decided. "Maintain contact, and keep your distance. Better watch the streets too. Doesn't seem right that there's no civilian activity."
Captain Shin did as he was told, and soon he relayed to Lin that there were three metalbending officers rushing across rooftops to the second airship. Shin continued to tell Lin what was happening, until suddenly there was a long pause and nothing but the sound of a crackling radio in her ear.
"Captain? Captain Shin, do you read me? Captain, are you there?" Lin persisted. "Can anyone hear me?" Several long seconds passed, where Jeia, Saikhan, Aska, and Lin all held their breath. Lin tried to make contact again, but still nothing came through. She swore under her breath and muttered to herself, "Come on, dammit."
And then the radio crackled to life and the captain's voice came through, gruff and harried, "Hang on, Chief. The officers on the first airship are – hey, wait…"
There was another pause, and Lin's hand clenched around the receiver.
"Wait, is that –" Shin's words dissolved into a panicked curse, and then he could distantly be heard shouting, "INCOMING!"
The rest of the captain's words became mostly intelligible as he began shouting orders to his crew, and then there was a loud crash, followed by the screeching groan of metal and the radio turned to static, and then silence.
"Captain?" Lin shouted into the receiver. "Captain, come in! Shin! What's happening?"
But there was no reply, and she didn't really expect one.
Without waiting a second longer, Lin surged to her feet and turned to face Saikhan. "Take two airships out there and find out what the hell is going on," she commanded. "Find Sergeant Ping and have him take three foot patrols, six officers each, approaching Dragon Flats from different vectors."
"Yes, Chief," Saikhan complied, saluting briefly and then spinning sharply on his heel. He left the room at a brisk pace, and Lin turned her attention onto Jeia next.
"We need to remain in constant contact with them while they're out there. Somebody has to be able to tell us what's going on. Get on a radio and patch into Sergeant Ping's unit when he reports in." Jeia dutifully went to do as she was told and Lin directed her final command to Aska, "Get a message out to all our street units. Tell them to be on high alert for any triad activity, and don't wait to report it. If they're near Dragon Flats, steer clear of there, but keep civilians out until we get this under control. Then send word to the Council, let them know we have the situation under control."
They might have the situation under control anyways. They had lost contact with two airships and had no idea what was even happening in the Dragon Flats Borough. But two more airships and three foot patrols would be enough to hold back a triad assault – probably. And they could always send more reinforcements once they knew what was going on. Normally, Lin might have gone straight there herself instead of sending Saikhan, because she hated not knowing what was happening, but in her current state she'd just be a liability, which was another thing that she hated. She would be glad when she never had to be pregnant again.
Lin took a seat at one of the operating stations again and waited impatiently for Saikhan and Ping to report in. Then she waited some more while the Deputy and the Sergeant began their trek to the borough. Saikhan gave Lin regular updates throughout, reporting no other unusual activity the whole way to Dragon Flats. Lin was becoming increasingly impatient and there was a knot in her back that would not loosen no matter how she shifted in the metal chair.
Until finally Saikhan's voice crackled through the radio to report, "I've got eyes on the first airship. It's still hovering with no activity, just like our second ship reported."
"Keep your distance," Lin warned. "Don't investigate until you've swept the surrounding area."
"Copy," Saikhan said shortly.
"Chief," Jeia called to her from behind, and Lin turned in her seat to give the Lieutenant her attention. "Ping's eastward team says they've got the second airship in their sights and –"
Saikhan's voice crackled in Lin's ear saying, "We've got a plume of smoke coming from the east," at the same time Jeia finished, "it's been downed. Not sure of the cause, but it's engulfed in flames."
"Tell them to check for survivors," Lin told Jeia first, "but to keep an eye out for an ambush." She looked to Aska next, "Get a fire and rescue team over there." Finally, she twisted back around in her seat and spoke to Saikhan over the radio. "Ping's team found the second airship. It's down."
"I'll have one of my airships watch the area for them while they check for survivors," Saikhan replied, without having to be prompted.
It was nearly thirty more minutes of back and forth and still little to no explanations as to what had happened. There was a suspicious lack of civilians in the Dragon Flats Borough, and the few that remained weren't offering up any information. It wasn't a surprise, though, because the borough was notorious for triad dealings and nobody there was going to risk ending up on a triad's hit list. Either that, or they were part of one of the triads, which was more likely the case.
The burning airship had been obliterated, and if there had been anyone on board, it was impossible to tell. Fire and rescue was quickly getting the blaze under control, but they could not yet figure out what had caused the crash.
Since Saikhan and the others didn't fall under attack in the time they were scouring the borough for triad members or clues, Lin finally permitted them to check out the still ominously hovering airship that they had originally lost contact with. It was another ten minutes or so before Lin received any further communications, just enough time for her to start grinding her teeth in tense anticipation.
Finally, Saikhan's voice returned in her ear to say, "Looks like nearly all of the original crew and most of the second airship's crew are alive, Chief. We've got some badly wounded, but the rest just appear to be unconscious. We've swept the airship and no sign of the triads. Some of the officers are coming to, but all they can say is that they were ambushed. I think whoever did this is already gone."
Lin deliberated over what Saikhan had told her for a few seconds, still not certain what exactly had transpired in the borough, but at least she was starting to piece some of the puzzle back together. Saikhan seemed certain that, if the Triple Threats were behind it as they'd originally been told, then they were no longer lying in wait. But why take down an airship and incapacitate a few officers and then leave? Something wasn't right, and Lin felt a swooping sense of dread in her already taut stomach.
"Finish up there and get back to headquarters," Lin eventually decided, confidant in Saikhan's ability to properly handle the rest of his mission without specific instructions. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Me too, Chief," Saikhan admitted. "You think this was just a distraction?"
"Maybe," Lin muttered thoughtfully, "but if it was, then where's the real action happening?"
Saikhan was quiet for a moment, likely thinking on that question, and Lin began to rise steadily to her feet, still holding the receiver to her ear, but her mind racing with all the things she needed to do as soon as she finished talking with her Deputy.
"I don't know," Saikhan finally said, "but, Chief, I think we should consider –"
All off a sudden, Saikhan's words broke off into a shrieking crackle of static, and Lin wrenched the receiver away from her ear with a sharp intake of breath.
It wasn't more than half a second later that the entire building rocked beneath her feet, as if it was held together with rubber bands and not stone. There was a loud boom, like an explosion somewhere beneath them, and Lin was so wobbly she had to reach out and grab onto the desk in front of her, retracting the soles of her boots to dig her toes into the floor, trying to sense what was happening, trying to quickly analyze the shifting infrastructure.
Something had exploded somewhere beneath them, near to the front entrance, if Lin had to hazard a guess, but in all the chaos and shifting rubble it was hard to tell. It wasn't enough to send the whole building crumbling to the ground, but it had been knocked off its axis and gravity could sometimes be a cruel mistress. If nothing was done to stop it, the damage would only spread further out, like the delicate veins of a spider web, until it was too late.
So Lin reached deep down into herself, to the core of her earthbending, and quieted her mind, centered her Chi, despite the noise and the disruption all around her. She delicately shifted essential structures back into place, trying her best to steady the building. She was relieved to sense some of her officers doing the same, joining their strength to hers or spreading their own reconstruction out into different directions.
It was not a simple feat, and Lin tired even more quickly than usual, the baby inside of her restless beyond measure. She startled out of her connection to the framework, surprised to find that her hands were shaking and she was perspiring heavily. Her legs were tingly, weak, and it took all she had left in her to collapse into the chair behind the work desk and not onto the floor. Her breath was coming in quick, short pants, her chest seizing up and a fuzzy darkness blurring around the edges of her vision. She blinked rapidly and hunched over, bracing her trembling hands on her knees and praying she didn't puke all over herself. Nausea was rising up the back of her throat and she clutched the cloth of her pants in her fists, curling over further.
And then suddenly it passed, just as quickly as it had come, and she let out a shaky, relieved breath. She still felt dizzy though, and weak, and too far away from the floor even in the chair, so she slid carefully off of it, settling down behind the desk. She leaned against the cool metal supports and purposefully drew in deep breaths of air, slowly exhaling out of her mouth. All she could hear was her heart thumping in her ears, and she scrambled to connect a hand to the earth to ensure that the baby's heartbeat was unchanged.
It was hard to tell with how untethered her mind was at the moment. She thought it felt erratic, but frankly, it always felt at least slightly erratic, and she didn't think she'd be able to tell with all the vibrations still rattling through the building.
"CHIEF!"
She noticed then that someone had been calling her name, and as her eyes fluttered open, she saw Jeia squatted down in front of her, expression full of concern and surprise.
"Chief?" Jeia repeated, quieter once Lin had started looking at her. "Can you hear me?"
Lin nodded slowly, swallowing forcefully and swiping a shaky hand across her sweat-slicked forehead. She breathed in deeply, and as she exhaled she replied, "I'm okay. Just got dizzy is all."
Lin tried to stand, but Jeia pushed her back down, and it took little effort because Lin still felt weak.
"Hold on a second," Jeia commanded. "Your heart rate is going crazy. Relax. Take another deep breath. You put quite a lot of strain on yourself and that could knock the wind out of anyone, let alone with you being pregnant."
Lin balked at the accusation despite it's harmless intent and firm basis in fact. She was weaker because of the pregnancy, but she didn't admit to weakness under any circumstance, and especially not in front of her officers, even if Jeia was one of her most trusted detectives. She was the Chief of Police, and pregnant or not, she had a duty to the city and to her officers. Headquarters was almost certainly under siege, and she needed to be the strong, unwavering leader that she was meant to be.
So she took a few deep breaths, reached deep down inside of herself to find the strength she needed to get up, and then carefully began extending her legs. She even allowed Jeia to take one of her hands to help her rise, and once she was standing straight once more, she rolled her shoulders and got down to business.
Everyone in the communications room was unharmed, but the long range radio had gone down with the explosion. They couldn't call for help beyond their immediate radius, although Lin doubted it would take long for word to spread across the city. If the Triple Threats had launched an attack as she suspected they had, they hadn't exactly been subtle about it. An explosion would have been heard from miles away and City Hall was only a few short blocks down the road.
However, with that realization came the worry that the Triple Threats might have hit City Hall too. If they were willing to attack police headquarters of all places, they might be going after all the leaders of Republic City. There was also the matter of Chen's vendetta against Lin, and that might very well have led him on a crusade to directly attack Tenzin as well. Spirits help him if he had sent anyone to Air Temple Island to grab her kids, because if she made it out of this alive and a single hair had been harmed on their heads…well, Lin would be hard pressed not to put him in the ground with his father.
But she couldn't think about any of that right now. If she thought about her family she would be distracted and now was the worst time to be distracted. She needed to be of sound mind and lead her officers to safety.
It was a seemingly insurmountable task, considering half of her officers were elsewhere throughout the building and communications were limited. Seismic sense wasn't telling her a whole lot and she had no idea how many members of the Triple Threats could have infiltrated the building after the explosion.
Lin was back to having little to no information to go off of and she was finding it increasingly irritating. She wasn't about to just stand around and wait to find out, so she went with Jeia and the five communications officers out into the hallway, all of them cautious and slow at first. They made a tight circle so that every direction was being watched, and Lin strode straight across the hall to the window to carefully peer down at the street below.
The communications room was on the third floor and close to the middle of the building. Therefore, it was almost directly above the front entrance, from which a dark plume of smoke was now billowing out of. Fire was flickering up the side of the building and out onto the front steps. But the more disconcerting of a discovery was the overwhelming number of triad thugs lined up in front of the building. There were firebenders creating walls of fire along the front sidewalk, as a deterrent for the police to try jumping out of a window. Earthbenders were blockading both ends of the street and waterbenders built towers of ice to keep any outsiders from interfering. Two groups of a dozen or so Triple Threats each were breaking their way into the first floor on either side of the burning entrance.
One of the firebenders below noticed Lin standing at the window and sent a blast of flame flying up at her. Lin jerked backwards shouting, "Incoming!" and ripped the stone floor up in front of her as a barrier, just before the fireball crashed through the window. The glass shattered, and superheated fragments sprayed into the hallway. The communications officers scrambled backwards, and Jeia wrenched her fists downwards, metalbending the wall above the windows so that it came down like shutters the whole way down the hall. With the sunlight blacked out, the corridor went dark, and Lin had to blink rapidly to readjust.
Several metalbending officers came pouring out of various doorways, apparently having been waiting after the initial explosion to decide what to do. In the dim emergency lighting, Lin did a quick headcount and found that she had about fourteen more officers on this floor with her now.
"We need to move," Lin said loudly, over the sound of glass still shattering behind the metal shield Jeia had created as the firebenders continued their assault. The fire was starting to heat the metal and Lin could feel the warmth radiating off of it.
"How are we gonna get out of here, Chief?" one officer asked as he jogged over to join Lin's huddle.
"We need an escape plan," Jeia answered first, directing her gaze onto Lin. "Do you think the back windows are being guarded too?"
"I think we have to assume that they are," Lin replied. "If they're smart enough to blockade the street they've surely got all the windows covered."
"The roof?" someone suggested.
Lin shook her head. "No, they'll be watching that too. We'd just be making ourselves easy targets up there, and there's no way to get an airship safely above us for a rescue. But we know this building better than they do. We can hold them off until word gets out to our officers in the streets."
"And what if we can't hold them off?" one of the communications officers fretted.
Lin opened her mouth to respond, but another worried officer added, "We'll be overrun if we stay here."
"They can't send everyone in here without opening up their outside defenses," Lin argued. "There's still enough of us here to take them. We'll split up, send a group upstairs, and another down to the second level for reinforcements. Once we're all back together we take these bastards on and recover any survivors from the first floor."
"The first floor is going to be overrun, Chief," Jeia interjected. "It's the worst spot for us to be."
"Do you suggest we leave our officers on their own then?" Lin inquired testily.
"No," Jeia admitted, "but we need to consider our approach here. Say we go down there and recover our officers, but we still don't have a way out. Where do we go? Up to the fourth floor? Then what? Wait there and hope they don't collapse the floor beneath us?"
Lin sighed in frustration. She knew Jeia was right, but they needed to think fast and get as many officers to safety as possible. There weren't a whole lot of options open to them, each one with a downside, and there wasn't time to debate all of them.
"If only we could just tunnel our way out of here," Aska muttered, half to herself.
Lin ignored the operator's comment, still trying to think, but a nearby officer overheard too and snorted, "Yeah, we could, if we could get to the first floor."
Another metalbender chimed in, "Except it would take forever to burrow out of here and they'd be right on our tails."
Suddenly, Lin had an epiphany, and she gasped, snapping her fingers and pointing at the three officers that had spoken. "That's it!" she exclaimed. "That's how we get out of here."
"What?" Jeia asked, confused. "Tunnels?"
"Chief, we'd never make it," one of her officer's told her with a wince. "It takes time to build a tunnel –"
"Not if it's already built," Lin interjected. "There are two tunnels hidden on the first floor, both leading to different places in the city. I can't believe I didn't think of it first. My mother was adamant there be extra escape routes out of this place. I just thought she was paranoid, but I think those old tunnels might finally be of some use."
Jeia perked up, grim expression brightening just slightly. "You think they're still useable?" she questioned. "It's been a while since this place was built, could they have started to collapse?"
"I don't know," Lin admitted. "I haven't been down there in over a decade, but I know my mother frequently inspected them while she was still Chief."
"Tunnels built by Toph Beifong?" one officer's voice emanated from out of the group, his voice quivering with excitement. "They'll hold for sure!"
"I'll need volunteers to come with me to the second floor," Lin called above the ensuing murmurs, getting straight to business. "The rest will go with Lieutenant Jeia up to the fourth floor and bring reinforcements to meet us back here. Once we're all together we can go for the first floor tunnels and our people downstairs."
Several metalbenders came forward to join Lin, and only one of the operators. But before they could storm off downstairs, Jeia stepped directly in Lin's path and, in a voice lowered so as not to be heard by the others, said, "Chief, I think I should stick with you." She glanced pointedly at Lin's burgeoning abdomen, and Lin had to make a concerted effort not to grind her teeth and roll her eyes.
"I need you leading the other team," Lin said calmly instead. "You're the only senior officer I have right now."
"Then let me go downstairs and you lead the other team up," Jeia continued to argue.
Lin's eyes narrowed in warning, nearly all patience lost as she asked, "Are you questioning my judgement, Lieutenant? I've given you an order, so are you going to do as I say, or do I need to find someone to do it for you?"
Jeia cringed, but reluctantly relented, "No, Chief. I can do it."
"Good, then go," Lin ordered, expression softening just slightly as she added, "and be safe."
"You too," Jeia said.
Before Tenzin could go and find his pregnant wife, he was forced to meet with his fellow Council members to discuss the situation.
After Jun had told him about the attack, he had immediately called Nira to ensure that his children were taken somewhere safe. Preferably as far from Republic City as possible, and there was no place they would be safer than with their aunt in Zaofu. Suyin would protect her niece and nephews by any means necessary, Tenzin had no doubt about that. He also trusted Nira to get them there, and his only regret was that he could not be there for them himself.
But someone needed to look for Lin and their unborn child. While Tenzin knew that Lin was more than capable of taking care of herself, even while pregnant, he still wasn't going to wait around for her to get herself to safety. He only hoped she hadn't already been wounded in the initial attack. All he knew was that there had been an explosion, but the building hadn't toppled so perhaps the damage had not been so bad.
By the time Tenzin arrived at the blockade in front of police headquarters, Saikhan and several patrols of officers had already set up their own perimeter nearby. Tenzin scanned the scene through a downpour of rain as he descended on Oogi, searching for a gap in the Triple Threat's defenses, but he was forced to abandon that objective when the waterbenders started hurling ice shards up at him. He was forced to dodge and evade and came to a dramatic landing just behind Saikhan's front lines. The ice barrage slowed as the metalbending officers thrust shields up to intercept it, and then petered out completely.
Tenzin leapt off of Oogi and floated right over to where Saikhan was turning to face him. Behind Tenzin, Tarrlok and the other three Council members were disembarking Oogi's saddle. Tenzin had argued the logic of all of them going into a potential danger zone together, but Tarrlok insisted that all of them find out what exactly was going on so that they could determine what their next steps would be. Without contact with the Chief of Police, it was partially the Council's responsibility to make the crucial decisions about how to proceed. In such a terror attack, it was typically expected of them to call on the United Forces, but it would take several hours for them to arrive and some of the councilors weren't certain the military was necessary to end the conflict.
"What happened?" Tenzin demanded of Saikhan, having to raise his voice slightly to be heard over the thundering of rain.
"They fucking played us," Saikhan cursed, uncharacteristically showing his unfiltered rage. "They staged a conflict in the Dragon Flats Borough so I went out there with the rest of our available airships and several foot patrols. By the time we got there they were long gone, and shortly after, we lost contact with headquarters. We got over here as quick as possible, but they've got the place surrounded. We tried staging an attack, but they threatened to level the whole place if we didn't back off. It's not just the Triple Threats either, they've teamed up with some of the other triads too."
"When was the last time you heard from Lin?" Tenzin asked next, mostly as a concerned husband, but also as a defender of Republic City. Without contact with the Chief, Saikhan would be in charge of the police force until further notice.
"From what we've pieced together it was right before the first explosion," Saikhan answered. "I was in contact with her while we were in the borough, and then all of a sudden the connection cut out. I'm assuming that's when the bomb went off. The explosion was on the first floor and she was on the third floor in the control room talking to me when it went off so we're thinking she wasn't injured. We're in close enough range to pick up short range radio, but there's a lot of interference between us and them, so we haven't been able to coordinate very well with our people inside. There's too much static."
"You've been in contact with them?" Tarrlok interjected before Tenzin could ask it himself. The other Council members had finally reached them and were huddling around Saikhan and Tenzin.
"I spoke briefly with Lieutenant Major Ikuro," Saikhan confirmed. "I think he was on the fourth floor, trying to round up everyone there before they made any plans."
"We need to contact the United Forces," the Fire Nation Council woman fretted. "Half our police force has been incapacitated and there's no telling what could happen to the city if the triads are allowed this free reign."
"Let us not be hasty, dear," Tarrlok said in a patronizing tone. "We still have plenty of capable officers at our disposal, and we can certainly beat these thugs back into whatever holes they crawled out of."
"For once, I agree with Tarrlok," Tenzin begrudgingly admitted. "We cannot wait for the United Forces to get here. Headquarters could be demolished by then. We need to think of a way to end this on our own."
"And what would you suggest?" the Earth Kingdom representative demanded. "What can we do now, besides have an all out battle with these triads?"
"I'm certain that Councilman Tenzin has a wealth of ideas," Tarrlok said confidently, but with a very obvious smirk that belied his true doubt. Tenzin struggled not to roll his eyes. "After all, his wife is the Chief, surely he would have some idea of her next moves."
"I'm sure that Chief Beifong is doing everything she can to gather all of the remaining officers together and coordinating a counter strike," Tenzin said through gritted teeth, not letting Tarrlok's attitude affect his response too badly despite how stressed he was in that moment. Losing his temper wouldn't help anything. "And there's plenty that we can do out here to be prepared to help them when the time comes. Deputy Chief Saikhan can handle all of that, so I would suggest we follow his lead. In the meantime…" Tenzin returned his full attention to Saikhan to ask, "have you had any contact with the triads besides their earlier warning?"
"Not much," Saikhan said. "I asked for a word with their leader, but they seemed confused on who that was. I spotted the two escapees over by the entrance; Kane's son and his female counterpart. They haven't done much so far besides supervise, but they don't appear to be giving all the orders either."
"We need to determine their chain of command," Tenzin decided. "If we can negotiate with the leader we may be able to find a peaceful resolution to –"
"Councilman Tenzin," Tarrlok rudely interrupted, "while I certainly admire your dedication to your pacifist nature, I think we have gone beyond peaceful resolutions. These criminals have seized the stronghold of our city's protectors and clearly have no intent on backing down. They hold this entire city in the palms of their hands, they hold your wife hostage, if they have not already disposed of her, and if we do not strike now we will be at an even larger disadvantage."
Tenzin's jaw and left eye twitched with the effort it took him not to wipe the arrogant look off of Tarrlok's face. It was not a common urge Tenzin would have, despite his frequent disagreements with Tarrlok. But the Southern Water Tribe representative had crossed a line and Tenzin was already tense beyond measure. The fact that he was using Tenzin's concern for his wife was bad enough, let alone that he was using it to try and goad Tenzin into what would undoubtedly be a bloody battle.
Tenzin breathed in a calming breath through his nose before telling Tarrlok, "Your concerns are valid, Tarrlok, but your solutions are lacking sense. Deputy Saikhan has already stated that any offensive action by us will result in the total destruction of headquarters and, by extension, will cause the slaughter of every single one of our police officers and any other civilians inside. I don't know about you, but I would be hesitant to order such a strike myself." Tarrlok was scowling at Tenzin by the time he finished talking, and Tenzin had nothing left to say to him, so he turned back to Saikhan. "With your permission, I'd like to attempt to negotiate with them myself."
Tarrlok tried to argue, "You don't have the authority to –"
"I'll allow it," Saikhan spoke over Tarrlok. "We'll cover you, in case they try to attack."
"Thank you," Tenzin said, "but don't immediately retaliate unless I'm in serious danger. If they take me as prisoner, do not attempt a rescue until we've recovered our people inside."
Saikhan and Tenzin discussed negotiation methods quickly, and then the officers on the front line of the perimeter parted to let Tenzin through.
After separating from Jeia and her team of officers, Lin only made it down one flight of steps towards the second floor before a stabbing pain shot through her abdomen and forced her to come to an abrupt stop. She managed to hold in a groan by biting down on the inside of her lips, but her feet faltered and everyone behind her was forced to stop. Her hand had tightened around the railing in a crushing grip, but she repressed her instinctive metalbending reaction to mangle the metal in her hand.
She breathed carefully and remained very still until the pain had subsided, and shortly after, one of her officers leaned forward to whisper, "You sense somethin', Chief?"
Without responding, Lin retracted the sole of her boot to simultaneously check on the baby and what her officers thought she was checking on. She could hardly sense what was happening on the second floor, but the baby's heart was still thumping and she had felt it shifting around in her womb so she decided not to panic. Although, it did seem…distressed, the heartbeat slightly faster than usual…or maybe she was just overreacting.
She had shaken her head and ordered her officers onward, leading them the rest of the way to the second floor. The baby continued to stir, but she didn't feel any further pain besides the tightness she had been feeling all day anyways. She focused instead on the task at hand, scouring the entirety of the second floor for the rest of her officers. They were all mostly unharmed, except for a few that had been directly above the explosion that had some scrapes and bruises.
They didn't meet any resistance until they started to make their way back upstairs with everyone. It was about that time that a small group of the triad thugs came rushing up from the first floor throwing fireballs and stones and ice shards. Lin and her officers far outnumbered them, though, and soon the criminals retreated back downstairs, no doubt to get reinforcements. Lin didn't bother having anyone chase after them. Instead, they continued upstairs to meet with everyone else back on the third floor.
Lieutenant Jeia and her group, along with everyone from the fourth floor, including Lieutenant Major Ikuro, arrived shortly after Lin and the second floor occupants. Ikuro had a radio strapped to his chest, and informed Lin that he had spoken briefly with Saikhan, who was right outside the barricade with several other officers. Lin tried to contact Saikhan herself, but the connection was shoddy and she had more pressing matters to deal with than to waste time messing around with the radio. She decided to wait until they were in a better position to attempt contact again.
Lin, Jeia, and Ikuro quickly devised a strategy to get everyone out through the tunnels in two separate groups. Jeia once again insisted on going with Lin, and since Ikuro was technically Jeia's superior and more than capable of leading a group to safety, Lin didn't have much reason to argue. She would be glad to have Jeia with her anyways, especially when another cramp shot through her middle while they were in the midst of splitting everyone into two evenly distributed groups. Once again, she was able to shake it off and avoid anyone's scrutinizing gazes, since they were all preoccupied elsewhere, but she was beginning to worry that something was seriously wrong with the baby.
After Lin had explained to Ikuro where the tunnel on the left side of the building would be and how best to get to it, she and Jeia split off with their own group to begin the trek back downstairs on the right side of the building. Ikuro took his group in the other direction.
This time, Lin's battalion met resistance as soon as they got to the second floor.
The triad usurpers had returned with reinforcements, just as Lin had suspected, and the ensuing battle slowed them down tremendously. If Ikuro's group had not run into any opposition of their own, they would probably have already made it within meters of their own escape tunnel. Meanwhile, Lin and the others were forced to evacuate the cramped stairwell to find better cover in the second floor corridor. The criminals followed them, and several people on both sides started to drop from injuries or lost consciousness.
Lin started out at the head of her group, but had to fall back when another startling pain ripped through her abdomen and put her in danger of being struck when her reaction time was too slow. She might have been struck down anyway if Jeia hadn't stepped forward to take the blow herself. For a moment, Lin worried that Jeia had compromised her own safety and would be seriously wounded, but the young lieutenant simply shrugged it off and continued to protect Lin from further harm while she was incapacitated. Lin recovered quickly, though, and powered on through the fight, pushing her way back towards the front, where the battle had turned mostly to hand to hand combat in such close quarters. Lin's team still outnumbered the triad's at first, but with limited space to move and airborne attacks coming in through the windows from the triad criminals outside, the metalbending officers and their civilian charges were being forced into a retreat path.
"This isn't working!" Jeia called to Lin at some point in the battle, and Lin had no choice but to agree. If they remained where they were, they would be pinned down and probably lose half or more of their capable fighters.
"FALL BACK!" Lin began to shout to her officers behind her. "DIVERT TO PLAN B! PLAN B! RETREAT!"
Lin's officers didn't hesitate long before they started repeating her orders down the line, until the people in the back finally got the memo and started sprinting in the opposite direction of the fight, carrying some of the wounded with them. The triads would think they were trying to find somewhere else to hide, but plan B wasn't as simple as that. The officers had a destination in mind. They were headed towards the tunnel on the left side of the building, where hopefully Ikuro and his group had not run into as much opposition. Many of Lin's officers had protested against plan B, had wanted instead to fight hard against the triads for as long as possible, but Lin wasn't allowing that just yet. Their mission was to escape, and Lin had made it clear that they were to prioritize that mission above all else until they had all made it to safety together. Once they were reunited with their officers on the outside, it would be far easier to take down the triad usurpers.
Lin, Jeia, and several other officers held the front lines while the rest of their battalion made a quick getaway down the hall. The triads tried to stop them, but couldn't get past the front defenses to do so. Lin could see several of the criminals disengaging to go running back towards the stairwell, but she had little idea as to where they were going. She suspected, at first, that they would be running up to the third floor or down to the first, either searching for Lin's fleeing officers or seeking out more reinforcements. She only began to worry when the remaining triad members abruptly broke off the engagement and darted away from Lin and the five other officers that remained with her.
It was about that time that someone from far down the hallway behind her screamed, "BOMB!"
Lin spun around just in time to see someone hastily placing some contraption in the middle of the hallway, and then promptly leaping out of the second story window. From that distance, Lin couldn't fully make out what the package was, but if it was a bomb like her fleeing officer believed, then they were all in serious trouble.
"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" Lin began to shout, ushering the five officers with her into the nearest room, which turned out to be a simple office space.
Lin had just slammed the door shut behind them and dove for cover when the bomb went off. The blast was loud so close to its center, and everything in the office space rattled violently, the floor trembling beneath them and the door Lin had closed blowing off its hinges with a screech of metal. Heat and smoke came rushing in, and Lin huddled closer to the cabinets she'd chosen to hide behind.
Her ears were ringing and she could feel a dull headache pulsing behind her left brow, but a quick check confirmed that she hadn't been harmed by the explosive. She cast her gaze around in the smog to count her officers and was glad to note that all five of them appeared to be intact as well. Upon placing her hand on the floor, she sensed that the infrastructure was wobbly, but holding for the most part still. The place where the blast must have originated was obliterated though, and she could faintly hear the floor crumbling out in the hallway. She twisted a finger in her ear, but it did nothing to relieve the uncomfortable feeling of trying to listen to things underwater, and she resolved that she would simply have to put up with it for now.
They couldn't remain where they were if they didn't want be cut off by the growing fire, so Lin rose quickly to her feet and went first to check on her officers. Once confirmed that they were all fine, Lin found herself edging towards the window, which had shattered somewhere in the midst of the blast. Glass crunched underfoot as she bent down slightly to peer out of the sharp-edged hole in the window. Rain sprayed her face and clanked against her armor, and she thought she heard a gust of wind whistling through the room.
Outside she could still see the triad's barricade, and now she also saw, just beyond that, a wall of her own officers. If Ikuro's group and the rest of Lin's team that she had sent off just before the blast had made it out of the left tunnel, they'd have more than enough to overpower the triads and end the whole thing. The only complication would be the captured metalbenders that the triads were currently herding out of the front of the building. Each of them had been stripped of their armor and their hands bound together with rope. Most of them must have come from the first floor, while a few had been dragged away from Lin's group during the battle on the second floor. If her original group had made it down the right stairwell, they would have attempted a rescue on their way to the tunnel, but it was clearly too late for that now. She could only hope she didn't see Ikuro and the others show up among the hostages. Someone had to make it out and help Saikhan and the others put an end to the fiasco.
Someone below spotted Lin once again and pointed up, but no fire attack came at her this time. Instead, Shira and a younger man that Lin assumed was Kane's son, Chen, stepped into her line of sight, waving off any attacks their triad cronies wanted to attempt.
"You can end this now, Lin!" Shira called up to her, having to shout over the rain, and her voice was still slightly garbled by the second floor distance and Lin's damaged hearing. "Surrender now and your people may yet survive!"
Lin sneered, and she could feel Jeia and her four other officers coming up behind her, backing her as she told the criminals, "We don't surrender to terrorists. You think you've beaten us, but you've only strengthened our resolve."
Some of the captured officers below looked up at her and shouted their support, raising their bound fists and struggling against their captors.
"We're with you, Chief!" one of them cried.
Lin replied to her officers, "And I'm with you. We won't rest until each and everyone of you has been rescued."
"You're making a mistake, Beifong!" Chen shouted over the noise. It was the first time Lin had heard him speak, and he sounded meeker than she had expected. He was frowning up at her and there was a look of concern on his face, but she wasn't sure what for. Perhaps he knew that the triads would be no match for the full force of the metalbending officers once they were reunited. "You cannot let this bloodshed go on."
"You're responsible for whatever happens here today," Lin argued. "Make no mistake of that. If you stop this pathetic attempt now, perhaps your people will live to see another day. If not, then we have no choice but to stop you by any means necessary."
Lin felt someone tapping her arm, and she turned to Jeia as the Lieutenant muttered, "We gotta go, Chief. That fire is about to reach us."
Lin cast her gaze out across the horizon once more, and in the distance she spotted Oogi's distinct form just beyond the barricade. She searched quickly for those familiar red and yellow robes, but she could not see her husband anywhere. She wasn't worried though. If Oogi was there, then Tenzin was too, and between the rain and the barricades it was difficult to make out much of anything. If Tenzin was there, it also meant their children must have been safe, because he wouldn't have come to headquarters until he was certain that their lives were not in danger. It was even possible that he would remember her mother's tunnels like she had and could be leading a team into the building.
With that assurance and the knowledge that her captured officers were alive and still fighting, Lin was able to turn away from the window and return to the depths of the building. She led Jeia and the four men with them – Sergeant Raizo, Captain Kaito, and petty officers Sanji and Tosuki – out into the hallway. They eased past the raging fire and used their bending to attempt to snuff some of it out, but the floor was crumbling and the corridor was filling with acrid smoke, so they couldn't stay long. It would be too dangerous to try going through the wreckage to attempt a rendezvous with their people that had been on the other side of the blast, heading towards the left tunnel, and since the way to the right tunnel would surely be blocked, they had no choice but to go back the way they came.
However, instead of taking the stairs, where they'd been ambushed twice before, the six of them climbed up into an air duct and started crawling their way up to the third floor. It was a tight squeeze, especially with Lin being seven months pregnant, and by the time they started dropping out of a vent on the third floor, they were all sweating profusely and feeling claustrophobic. But they had made it without incident, and decided to try their luck with taking the stairs on the left side of the building to see if they could make it to the tunnel Ikuro had taken his group to. It was a long shot, considering that the triads had probably already started blocking that side as well, but they were running out of options and none of them wanted to be trapped inside the building for much longer without backup. There were only six of them left, after all.
Except they were right to be concerned that the other stairwell would be just as treacherous, because they hadn't even made it halfway down the hall when twelve criminals came rushing at them in the direction they'd been going.
Lin and her five metalbenders started backing up as the attack was starting, dodging projectiles and blocking fireballs. The stairs were just a few meters behind them, and if they could make it up to the fourth floor they might be able to blockade themselves somewhere until they thought of a better plan.
But they'd only taken down two of the twelve criminals when another five came running up behind them. They were forced to divert their attention in two different directions, and now there were five people blocking their escape route. Raizo and Sanji focused on the five behind, while Lin and the rest continued fighting the ten in front of them.
It all seemed to happen so fast. The triad members were starting to drop like flies and Lin's team was really holding their own. Until, inevitably, it all went horribly wrong.
There were six in front and three behind when Captain Kaito failed to block a firebender's attack. The right side of his body was engulfed in flames, and he screamed in agony as he dropped to the floor and began to writhe. Jeia, who was closest to him, knocked the arrogant firebender unconscious with a powerful strike from her metal cable, and then dropped to Kaito's side to begin frantically snuffing out the flames. Distracted, she missed the shard of ice that came hurtling in her direction and struck her in the side. Jeia cried out in shock and hunched over, but didn't stop putting out the fire still flickering in places on Kaito's body.
Lin lunged in front of Jeia and Kaito to block any further attacks sent against them, and managed to take down two more criminals just before an agonizing pain shot through her abdomen and her body folded over against her will. At first, she thought she'd been struck by something, but there was no blood or puncture wound and she quickly realized that it was another contraction-like pain.
There was no room for hesitation, and Lin's cost her dearly. A firebender sent a bolt of electricity straight at her, and though she managed to throw up a last minute defense, the force of it knocked her off her feet. When her back hit the floor, it sent shockwaves of pain radiating through her middle, and she curled up on herself in an instinctive effort to protect the baby. Her ears were ringing again, but that was hardly her biggest concern. She was beginning to feel panic welling up inside of her, but she tamped down on it, gritting her teeth and resolving to get up, to move, to fight back. She had to do something.
Before she could move, someone was grabbing her by her arms and hefting her up off of the floor, and for one startled second she thought it was the triad criminals. She was relieved when it turned out to be Sergeant Raizo, who wrapped his arm tight around her waist and held her own arm over his shoulders as he began dragging her towards the stairwell. The remaining attackers were already down, and Lin could see Sanji limping hastily just ahead of her, blood trailing down his leg. A quick glance over her shoulder showed Jeia and Tosuki half carrying Kaito between them.
By the time the six of them made it up to the fourth floor, Lin could walk on her own again, even though every step made her feel as though her uterus was tearing in half. They chose an interrogation room to hide away in, because the rooms had specific locks that would at least slow the triads down if they tried to get in, and because most of the criminals wouldn't even know how to bend metal. The room was also soundproof, which was fortunate because Kaito was still groaning in agony from his burn wounds.
Lin walked into the interrogation room and immediately collapsed into one of the chairs. She felt clammy and weak and like she might very well pass out. She noticed her hand trembling as she brought it up to push back her hair, and quickly closed it into a fist as if afraid someone would see.
The others were huddled over Kaito, and Lin asked, "How is he?"
"Not good," Jeia answered in a strained voice of her own. "There's not much we can do for him. He needs a healer."
"What about you?" Lin questioned.
Jeia looked up at Lin with a furrowed, sweaty brow, and despite her immediate denial of, "I'm fine," her face was sickly pale. "I'm more concerned about you, Chief. How's the baby?"
Lin opened her mouth to speak, but had to clamp it closed again when another contraction tore through her. She clenched her fists and her jaw and tried not to hunch over again, but the pain only grew worse the longer the day wore on, and being thrown to the floor certainly hadn't helped matters.
She needed to think of a solution for their predicament, but they were pretty much trapped up on the fourth floor until help came, if it came at all, and that didn't bode well for most of the occupants of the interrogation room. Jeia had a hole in her side, just above her hip, and blood had already soaked the waistband of her pants and was spreading further out. Kaito was covered in serious burns that would no doubt send him into shock in a very short amount of time. Sanji had a long, deep gash running the length of his upper thigh. Tosuki and Raizo had only scrapes and bruises, but they'd never be able to drag their three wounded officers and Lin to safety.
Frustrated and enraged by the whole situation, Lin forced herself back onto her feet, still not answering Jeia's question and trying to pace the small room. She needed to think, and she needed to walk off the pain in her abdomen, but thirty seconds later she was forced to abandon all that.
She came to a sudden halt when she felt it happening, dread and embarrassment washing over her all at once. She was afraid to look, but forced her gaze to tip downwards to confirm that her water had just broken and, besides that, her pants were also soaked with an uncomfortable amount of blood.
Her mouth went dry and she could only stare for a few moments, unsure of what to do and assuming the worst. She heard Jeia mutter a curse and then she and Raizo were in front of her, easing her down onto the floor and asking her a million questions she couldn't answer.
Lin snapped out of it eventually, looking up at her two worried officers and stating the obvious that she'd been trying to deny all day, "I'm in labor."
Jeia looked horror stricken, as did Tosuki, who was staring at Lin with wide, petrified eyes from across the room.
Raizo, on the other hand, was calm and collected as he turned to the nauseous looking Tosuki and demanded, "We need blankets. A lot of them. Towels too, if you can find them, maybe some flashlights. And whatever first aid kits you can find, or something we can fashion into a bandage for Kaito and Sanji."
Tosuki's whole body twitched as he blinked and finally focused his gaze on Raizo. "W – what?" he stammered.
"Snap out of it, kid!" Raizo ordered.
Sanji limped over to Tosuki and said, "I'll go with him. We'll get everything we can. Come on, Tosuki…"
Sanji clasped Tosuki's shoulder tightly and shoved him in the direction of the door. They took their time stepping out into the hallway, and Lin half expected to see them get ambushed the second they stepped out of the room, but then the door closed behind them and they were out of sight.
"How far along are you, Chief?" Raizo asked of her next.
"Twenty-nine weeks," Lin answered with a grimace. It was too early. And there were no healers or doctors and nobody to even deliver her baby. The triads could show up at any second, and then what could she do?
"I'll need to take a look," Raizo told her, "to see how dilated you are."
Lin looked at Sergeant Raizo with the same startled look that Jeia did, a hundred thoughts racing through her head and each of them ending with absolutely fucking not.
Seeing the clear discomfort on Lin's face, Raizo insisted, "Look, Chief, my wife and I have five kids and I helped birth two of them. I know what I'm doing here, for the most part, and you haven't got a whole lot of other options at the moment. And my mother was a midwife, so you won't be the first woman I've seen give birth. It's completely natural, no reason to feel uncomfortable, right?" When Lin could only stare at him with a grimace, he added, "Would it help if I just talk Lieutenant Jeia through it?"
"What?" Jeia shrieked, sounding truly fearful for the first time in all the years that Lin had known her.
Frankly, Lin didn't want Jeia down there either. She didn't want anyone other than a licensed physician, preferably Katara, who had birthed her first three children, but she no longer had that option available to her. Katara was in the South Pole and Lin was trapped in a war zone. She would have preferred to try waiting it out in the hopes that they'd somehow get free before the baby was actually born, but judging by how close the contractions were getting she didn't think she'd have such luck. It would be maybe thirty minutes tops before the baby was born, if she had to guess, and there would be no stopping it this time.
So she swallowed down her pride and her mountain of discomfort and finally said to Raizo, "No, I trust you Sergeant. We don't need to scar the Lieutenant just yet. She's still young."
Raizo cracked a smile despite their situation, and even Jeia huffed out a short laugh.
"Sorry, Chief," Jeia said. "All that pregnancy stuff just freaks me out a little bit."
"No kids of your own then?" Raizo asked Jeia.
"No way," Jeia exclaimed. "Never, if I'm lucky."
Lin snorted as another contraction tightened her middle, and spoke through gritted teeth while she said, "Yeah, that's what I used to say, now look at me."
Jeia grabbed one of Lin's hands when she noticed that she was having a contraction, and Lin couldn't help but squeeze it gratefully. It wasn't Tenzin's hand, like it was supposed to be, but she was glad it was Jeia at least. "Thankfully," Jeia replied, "my wife is just as averse to kids as I am."
"Kids aren't so bad," Raizo insisted, while tapping Lin on the knee and gesturing in what she knew meant he wanted her to take her pants off, but she really wanted to delay that as long as possible. She did trust Raizo, but there was something about letting her subordinate officer help her give birth that she just couldn't wrap her head around.
So Raizo and Jeia argued lightly about the greatness of children in an effort to distract Lin from the contractions and her discomfort. It didn't really work, but she appreciated their efforts.
However, when Sanji and Tosuki returned to the room with armfuls of supplies, Lin was forced to accept that this was really going to happen.
She felt a little better when a blanket was draped over her lap, and was finally able to ease out of her ruined pants and the armor stretched over her torso. Raizo ordered Jeia to sit behind Lin to support her back, while Sanji and Tosuki busied themselves with tending to Kaito in an obvious effort to avoid seeing whatever was going on with their Chief.
It was mortifying, but the contractions were so close together now that Lin was beginning to care less and less. It didn't matter that she was trapped in a room with five of her officers about to give birth to her fourth child, or that one of her Sergeants had his head between her legs to examine the progress, or that her Lieutenant was holding her up and clutching both of her hands in support. All that mattered in that moment was getting the baby out of her so that the pain would stop and the baby would be safely ensconced in her arms and she would know one way or another if it would be all right despite being born too early.
"It won't be much longer now, Chief," Raizo informed her.
Lin was too busy panting and bracing herself against the pain to respond. She couldn't help but wish that Tenzin was with her, like he had been for the first three. He had never left her side when she had Ronen or Yunjin or Sora. He had coached her through every breath even when it annoyed her, because he knew it helped soothe her even if she was outwardly irate. She knew, too, that he would be devastated that he hadn't been there for the birth of their last child. Even to Lin it seemed wrong to do it without him, as if a crucial part of her was missing.
Wherever Tenzin was, she hoped he was faring better than her.
Tenzin managed to speak to the Triple Threat Triad's leader for all of five minutes before being thrown back across the barricade. It had taken ages before the man had even agreed to talk to Tenzin, and even then he had only laughed in Tenzin's face and essentially refused to negotiate. In the middle of the pointless conversation, Tenzin had noticed some of the criminals attacking the second floor of the building where, presumably, some of the officers were putting up a fight. And then another bomb had gone off inside the building, and Tenzin's concern for Lin had risen to new heights. What if she had been involved in the fight and had not been able to escape the explosion in time?
But he needn't have worried so much, because he saw her up in the window a few moments later. He could hardly make out her features from that distance, but he saw the golden Chief badge shining there on her metal uniform and he thanked the spirits that she was still alive. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but he thought he saw Chen and Shira at the front of the building and there was a very brief back and forth between them and Lin.
Then Lin was gone again and the Triple Threats leader was telling his people to capture Tenzin, who blasted back their initial attacks and then threw himself as far from their lines as he could. Once he was within range, Saikhan and the rest of the police officers were able to help fend off the attack until he was safely behind his own people once again.
Tarrlok, of course, had plenty to say about Tenzin's inability to strike a deal with the triads, but Tenzin ignored the man in favor of discussing their next move with Saikhan.
They were no closer to figuring out a solution when, all of a sudden, their answer came to them.
It was in the form of Lieutenant Major Ikuro and an armada of police officers that hadn't been there before. Saikhan saw them first, his eyes bulging as he looked past Tenzin and exclaimed, "Lieutenant! You made it out!"
Tenzin whirled around, saw Ikuro and the other officers, and scanned the crowd desperately for Lin. But he knew already that she wouldn't be there. He doubted she would have made it out in the time that had passed since he'd seen her in the second story window. Still, if Ikuro had made it out, then maybe Lin would be able to use the same escape route.
"How did you get out?" several voices asked at once.
Ikuro looked as if he'd been in battle, but was mostly unscathed. He smiled very slightly as he breathlessly answered, "Some old tunnels Toph Beifong created decades ago. There was one on either side of the building, so we split into two groups."
"The tunnels!" Tenzin gasped. "Of course, I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier!"
Ikuro nodded and continued, "Chief Beifong took a team to the right, while I took mine to the left." Ikuro's expression turned grim, and he looked to Tenzin with remorse on his face. "The Chief's group was ambushed in the stairwell before they even made it to the first floor. She sent them all in our direction, and most of them caught up with us, but the explosion… it cut the rest of them off. I'm sorry, I…I'm not sure what became of her."
"Lin was still alive after the explosion," Saikhan told Ikuro. "She and the rest of our people must still be in there. They'll probably have barricaded themselves somewhere, maybe on the top floor. We can use those tunnels to enact a rescue. Once we get them out, the triads won't have much leverage besides the hostages we can see out here. We can stage an assault and finally put an end to this."
"I'd like to accompany you into headquarters," Tenzin insisted.
"Of course," Saikhan easily agreed.
But Tarrlok argued, "This hardly seems like a good idea. If you go back in there you could be trapped or killed, and then we would be without a councilman and our Deputy Chief. Not to mention that this charade has gone on long enough. We have the manpower now to arrest these criminals and end their reign of terror. We can worry about a rescue afterwards."
Tenzin was aghast and, frankly, quite enraged. "You would suggest that we abandon our Chief of Police and several other officers to their own fates?"
"We have to consider the many over the few," Tarrlok countered. "You are letting your concern for you pregnant wife cloud your judgement. What if it was me in there instead of Chief Beifong? Would you risk the citizens of this city for just one person?"
"Lin and our unborn child aren't the only people in there," Tenzin seethed, shaking with rage as he fought to contain it. "And if leaving you in there would result in your death, then yes, I would attempt a rescue, even for someone as detestable as you. Besides, this is not your decision to make. If Deputy Saikhan sees fit to send in a rescue team, then he has every right to do so. And either way, I am going inside, whether you agree to it or not."
Tarrlok looked ready to continue the argument, and Tenzin was prepared to ignore him, but Saikhan cut in, "We aren't leaving any of our people behind. I've got a plan that will ensure that the group inside and all the hostages outside are recovered, and after we're all together, we finish this. Councilors, this is going to get dangerous very soon. If you aren't going to help, I suggest you get clear of here until this is all over."
With that, Saikhan began doling out orders, and Tarrlok fell blessedly silent.
Saikhan's plan was to use the tunnels to strike at the triads by sending a team of officers into each one and attacking from behind, while the rest of the officers outside – led by Lieutenant Major Ikuro – would work on destroying the barricades and creating a distraction. Meanwhile, Saikhan, Tenzin, and three others – along with one of the healers that had been on stand by for any injured – would use one of the tunnels as well to sneak into headquarters and find Lin and the others.
Tenzin didn't know what condition Lin would be in when he found her, but he hoped the stress had not harmed her or the baby too much. If she could hold on for just a little bit longer…
Lin couldn't hold it in any longer. When the next contraction hit and Raizo told her to push, she couldn't stop the long, agonized groan that escaped her. She'd been pushing for several minutes already, and though she knew it was never a quick process, she felt frustrated that she'd made little progress. She needed it to be over. She had thought giving birth to twins had been difficult, but she'd been seven years younger then, and she'd had Katara easing her pain with waterbending. Now she was forty-five, in premature labor, with nothing to relieve her pain except for crushing poor Jeia's hand. Besides that, she felt certain that whatever had sent her into labor early was making the whole thing even more miserable than usual. She knew she was losing too much blood. She felt faint and dizzy, and Raizo kept exchanging grim looks with Jeia, even though he'd told Lin that it was manageable. But he was a terrible liar, and shortly after, he had asked everyone what their blood types were as if he was going to do an impromptu blood transfusion. But Lin had snapped an assertive, "No way." Her officers were already injured and losing blood of their own. Only Raizo and Tosuki were well enough to even consider it, and since Raizo was busy delivering Lin's baby, that would leave Tosuki, but the young man didn't even know what his blood type was. Not to mention that somebody needed to be in good shape if the six of them ever wanted to make it out of that building alive. Lin knew she'd barely be able to fight back after giving birth, Kaito was unconscious, and Jeia and Sanji were getting weaker every minute.
Sanji and Tosuki had done their best to tend to Kaito's burn wounds, but there was little they could do with a first aid kit. The man needed a healer, and soon. Tosuki had wrapped Sanji's gaping leg wound, but blood had already soaked through the bandage. Packing Jeia's wound seemed to slow the bleeding, but she was still in rough shape. Overall, the group was practically useless. If help didn't come, Lin wasn't sure if they could make it out.
While searching for blankets and first aid and whatever else, Sanji and Tosuki had come across a portable radio, and they were both hunched over it waiting for something to come through or sending out very short messages of their own. Lin suspected that they were also using it as an excuse to avoid watching her give birth, which she was completely fine with. It was bad enough Sergeant Raizo was delivering her baby, it would have been even worse if two young officers had watched the entire process.
Lin felt a bit guilty for letting Jeia be dragged into it, because as helpful as the young Lieutenant was trying to be, she was very clearly uncomfortable with the whole thing. But despite all that, Jeia didn't waver. She kept Lin's back supported and never complained when Lin began to crush her hands in the midst of a contraction. Lin had even tried letting go of Jeia's hands to wrap her fists around the blanket on her lap, but Jeia had taken Lin's hands back without being prompted. It only served to remind Lin of why she was so fond of Jeia in the first place, and after collapsing back against the lieutenant once again, she panted, "I…never said…thank you."
Lin turned her head just slightly so that she could peer back at Jeia, but sweat dripped from her brow and stung her eye, forcing her to blink rapidly and look away just as Jeia was responding, "Thank me? For what, Chief?"
Lin took a moment to catch her breath before answering, "I would have never made it this far today without you, kid."
Jeia scoffed, and Lin felt the movement against her back. "Me?" Jeia said incredulously. "You handled yourself incredibly considering you were probably in labor the whole time, and we all made it here because of each other. You don't have to thank me. I would do it all again in a heartbeat."
Lin nodded and swallowed forcefully, wishing desperately that she had some water. "I know," she croaked, raising her voice to address the others in the room too. "You all did incredible today. No matter what happens after this, I want you all to know how –" her words stalled for a second when she had to grit her teeth through a wave of pain, and she hastily finished, "how proud I am. My only regret is that I wasn't strong enough to get you all out of here. I can never repay you for all that you've done for me when you could just have easily saved yourselves."
"We're just doin' our jobs, Chief," Tosuki said almost bashfully.
"There was never a question of leaving you behind," Sergeant Raizo told her firmly, leveling her with a serious look over her knees before ducking his head back below the blanket that was keeping her somewhat modest in front of the others.
"You helped us too, Chief," Sanji insisted. "You might not have made it without us, but maybe we wouldn't have made it without you either."
"Listen, you name this kid after me and we'll call it even," Jeia joked, chuckling quietly against Lin's back.
Lin managed to snort half of a laugh before pain shot through her, and she told Jeia quite seriously, "You get us all out of this hell hole and I'll change my other three kids' names to Jeia too."
Jeia laughed loudly at that and pointed out, "Don't you think your husband will have something to say about that?"
Lin fought not to grimace at the thought of Tenzin. It was more difficult doing this whole thing without him than she had thought it'd be, but she wasn't alone. She could be grateful for that at least.
Before Lin could respond to Jeia, Raizo interjected, "I think this next push might be the beginning of the end here, Lin. The head is almost out, and the rest will be easy."
Lin half scoffed, half whined, feeling her abdomen clenching up for another contraction. She felt like she was being torn in half at that point, but she consoled herself with the knowledge that soon her baby would be born and she would never ever have to endure that torture again. She was still immensely worried that the baby might not survive once it was outside of her womb, but she couldn't let herself think too much about that. She wouldn't know until the baby was born anyway, so there was no use fretting.
Lin inhaled a deep breath and then pushed with all her might, squeezing Jeia's hands and clenching her jaw. Raizo continued to encourage her, coaching her through it until finally he exclaimed, "I've got the head! Just one more big push, Lin!"
Lin wanted nothing more than to sleep for the next century, her head lolling back against Jeia's shoulder and her eyelids so heavy she didn't know if she'd ever be able to open them again.
Jeia jostled her slightly and urged, "Come on, Lin. You can do it. You're almost done."
Lin stifled the whimper that was working its way up her throat and forced herself to lean forward again, breathing shakily and then pushing one last time.
Shortly after, Jeia began repeating several curses, her voice a combination of awe and incredulity as she leaned over Lin's shoulder to watch the baby that was coming into the world. Lin thought she saw Tosuki and Sanji staring with gaping jaws and wide eyes too, but she couldn't be bothered to care in that moment.
And then, finally, Raizo proclaimed, "I've got her! I've got her! It's a girl, Chief! It's a baby girl!"
Lin's whole body went limp, her chest convulsing with suppressed sobs of relief and joy. It was finally over. Her baby was born and it was a girl. She had another daughter. It was over, and her baby was alive.
"Holy shit," Jeia kept saying, half laughing, half crying, "holy shit, Chief."
"Congrats, Chief!" Sanji and Tosuki joyfully exclaimed while clapping one another on the back, chuckling with the same amazement that everyone else seemed to be feeling. Lin figured the two rookies and Jeia were young enough not to have witnessed child birth before, and she forgot for a moment to feel uncomfortable that she'd just given birth in front of several of her officers. It was almost endearing to see them so impressed by the whole thing… almost.
But then Lin realized something that made her chest seize up, and all joy seemed to evaporate in a heartbeat. She hadn't heard a single cry out of the baby yet, not even a whimper. And when she let her gaze fall onto Raizo, she saw his face scrunched up in a frown, gaze focused intensely on the unmoving infant he'd laid on the floor at Lin's feet as he began checking the baby's airway.
Lin had to look away immediately, forcing her gaze onto the ceiling and clamping down on the emotions threatening to destroy her all of a sudden. She held her breath and refused to let the stinging tears fall from her eyes. She was shivering violently, at once cold when before she had been sweating from the heat. She couldn't wrap her head around a single thought besides no. She had fooled herself into thinking that everything would be fine and now…now she might have to hear instead that the baby had not made it and…NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!
Lin couldn't hear what went on in the following seconds or minutes or however long it was that passed. All she could hear was her heart thumping in her ears and her agonized thoughts screaming inside her head. All she could think was that she had lost the baby. She had lost the baby and how could she ever recover, how could she ever face her family, how could she –
But then a piercing cry cut through the breathless silence, emanating from her newborn, and it cut through everything else and restored all feeling to her limbs in a sudden rush. She snapped her gaze back onto Raizo to make sure she wasn't imagining it, and he was grinning in tearful relief as he cleaned the infant as well as he could before swaddling her in a clean blanket. Lin immediately reached out for the baby with desperation, needing to hold her little girl in her arms, to feel the baby's warmth against her own skin, even though her hands were still shaking and she wasn't certain she had the strength to hold up even a few pounds.
She needn't have worried, because Jeia's arms shot out beneath Lin's from behind, supporting Lin as she accepted the bundle from Raizo, so that Lin would not drop the newborn.
"Congratulations, Lin," Raizo murmured, fondly stroking the newborn's cheek with his thumb before he retracted his arms.
Lin looked at him with the utmost gratitude as she breathlessly wheezed, "Thank you."
Raizo smiled and shook his head. "You did all the work, Chief."
Lin looked down at the bundle that fit just right in her arms and felt her heart swell with love and relief and so many other emotions she couldn't name. The baby girl was tinier than even the twins had been, but she still looked perfect, still felt warm and soft and alive. Lin could already tell from the tuft of thick, black hair atop her head and the sharp, little chin that the girl was going to be a Beifong through and through, and for some reason that thought didn't terrify her like it used to. Somewhat ironically, Lin had been born in a thunder storm, and now her youngest daughter had been too.
There was an instant connection with her littlest girl, like there had been with Ronen, like she still regretted there not being with the twins until months after they were born. Lin silently vowed to protect the newborn in her arms until her very last breath. Whatever she had to do to get her to safety, Lin would do it.
It was going to take some effort though, possibly more than her body could handle at that point in time. They were trapped in an interrogation room, on the fourth floor, with triad thugs surrounding them. Lin was still bleeding heavily, if her severe lightheadedness and Raizo's concerned frown were anything to go by, and three of her five officers weren't in much better shape.
But the baby needed to get to a hospital, and soon. The slight wheeze in her tiny breaths was a source of great concern for Lin, and she couldn't rest until she knew for certain that her little girl was safe and healthy. Yet the question still remained: how were they going to get out?
-Soo sorry for the long wait this time, guys, had way too much going on recently, but hopefully this ridiculously long chapter can somewhat make up for it! I didn't intend to end you guys on another sort of cliff hanger but I thought you might prefer to have this bit now rather than wait for an even longer chapter.. The baby is born! And it's a girl! Back to the rest of the Linzin kids and Nira next chapter to see if they ever made it to Zaofu, and of course, we'll see if Tenzin comes to Lin and the baby's rescue.. Hope you all enjoy, and I'll crack down on getting the next chapter out sooner. Until next time!-