Lin figured she deserved an award for not throwing Bolin off the bison. She and Opal had told him to shut up several times but the kid just won't. Lin has really never liked Bolin, he always seemed to have his head in the clouds, not to mention he had hurt Opal. He should consider himself lucky that they need all the help they could get. Currently, the kid was only slightly below Kuvira on people she wanted to beat up. Lin reached out and shoved him harshly out of her way when they landed. "You, Zip it. Now!" She growled out.
"Yes ma'am" Bolin said meekly and quickly.
"She got a whole battalion station down there." Lin told them, looking out down into the valley below them. "We'll have to move in to get a better look."
"Don't bother. All the prisoners have been moved." A voice said from behind them. The three turned.
"Uh hey chief." Lin greeted her mother.
"Hey chief." Toph responded neutrally.
"Grandma, Toph." Opal cried running forward to hug her. Toph for her part looked only slightly uncomfortable with the hug.
"Oh man! This can't be happening!" Bolin practically hyperventilated. Lin pinched the bridge of her nose, knowing there was no stopping the migraine coming on.
"What do you need to pee?" Toph deadpanned. Opal snickered. Bolin continued to grauvell. Lin rolled her eyes.
Toph turned to her. "What's wrong with him?" she asked.
"He's an actor. So you already check the city for Su. How did you know what happened?" Lin asked.
"I've been living in the swamp." Toph said as if that explained everything. "I heard they were taken to a nearby prison camp."
"Where would that be Bolin?" Opal asked pointedly, crossing her arms at him.
"There is a reeducation camp nearby." Bolin said, looking away.
"He used to work for Kuvira," Opal explained as Toph raised an eyebrow in question.
"How did you end up dating a dipshit like that?" Toph asked and Lin fully agreed with.
"It's not his silver tongue I can tell you that." Lin muttered stalking past her mother toward Opal's bison.
"Please tell me this attitude isn't hereditary." Lin heard Bolin mutter and bend a rock to trip him up a little bit for the remark. The boy stumbled behind them. They flew towards the prison. Lin figured if she didn't kill anyone by the end of the mission it would only be because she herself would be dead. Bolin had managed to get on her last nerve on the way here, only to find her mother who was now proving that she was truly world class at pissing Lin off.
"So how long has it been since you've seen each other?" Bolin asked the two older Beifongs.
"Eh, a couple of years." Toph said sitting back easily with her hands behind her head.
"Try 20" Lin scoffed sourly.
"You know, I'm surprised you even came to save Su. Thought you didn't get along." Toph said with a dismissive way of her hand.
"We worked it out." Lin bit out, trying to end this conversation.
"Glab we can put that behind us." Toph said easily.
"Right, We" Lin said bitterly. Toph had never bothered doing anything that wasn't absolutely necessary or convenient for her. Twenty years later that hadn't changed. They snuck into the camp and found where Su and her family was being held. They were to come back during the test they had heard about to rescue them; there should be less people around at that time. For now they were camping in the hills just above the camp eating a makeshift dinner in peace and quiet until Bolin spoke up.
"Who's Lin's dad?" Bolin asked and Lin could have thrown him off Juicy for it.
"He was some guy named Kanto." Toph as if it was no biggy. Toph Beifong would never be described as loving or kind by either of her kids or most of her close friends. She was selfabsorded and cared little about anything outside of her world. That being said it irked Lin to no end that she would tell some nobody who Lin's dad was when she never told either Lin or Su no matter how many times they asked.
"Lin, I can feel your enraged breathing from here! Just say what you have to say, and let's get it over with." Toph said, sound irritated.
"Just get it over with? Yeah, let's not linger on the fact that I grew up without a dad. No need to get all touchy-feely about it. " Lin growled at her mother.
"Hey, I forgave you for all your garbage a long time ago, and Su and I worked things out. You're the only one who wants to hold on to this family drama nonsense for the rest of your life." Toph said, waving her hand at Lin.
Lin could feel her blood boil."Forgave me for what? And not knowing my dad is nonsense to you? It was pretty important to me. And until now, you would never even discuss it! You know, after Su and I patched things up, I thought, 'maybe I should try to reach out to mom'. But now that we're together again, I remember why we stopped talking. You make me furious, and you don't even know why! And when I tell you, you don't care. Once we save Su, you and I are finished." She ground out.
"If that's your decision and it makes you happy, then fine." Toph said as if she was commenting on the weather, not on her daughter being part of her life. Details. The next morning they tunneled underground of the camp to right outside the room where they suspected Su was in. They opened a hole in the wall, revealing a huge cavern with a wooden box suspended in the middle of it.
"Shot me over to the middle of the cave." Lin told her mother. "Bolin you have to catch them since mom can't see them."
"Uh okay." Bolin said somewhat unsure. Toph and Bolin shot Lin in the air so she landed on the top of the cage. The cage swung when she landed and she internally cursed at hearing her nephews groan as they crashed into each other. The door opens and the guard looks around luckily the box has mostly stopped swinging and he closes the door again. Lin gets to work cutting a whole in the top of the box.
"Lin," Su said relieved.
"Come on let's get you out of here." She says hoisting Wei up and swinging him across to Bolin. Then Wing, then Huan. It wasn't until Bataar's turn when they had a problem.
"Sweetie, it will be fine. Lin won't drop you." Su tried to convince her husband.
"No, no just go." He told her sweating profusely. Lin rolled her eyes, huffing and shared a look with her sister. Her cable shootout wrapping around Bataar's leg and pulling him out the box and flingling him towards Bolin as quickly as possible. Unfortunately Bataar screamed the entire time and altered the guards. They came bursting in, a mech suit raised its arm. Lin threw herself against her sister as the mech shot flames inches above their heads. Both sisters jumped off the wooden prison and landed in front of their mother. They tunneled back out behind the building.
Opal swooped in."Mom Dad!" Opal cried.
"Let's get out of here." Lin said.
"No they took Zhu li she tried to stop the test." Opal told them.
"This could be our best chance to take out Kuvira," Su said.
"It could be our best chance to destroy that machine." Lin agreed.
"If you all want to get yourselves captured again fine. I'm out of here." Toph declared. It probably said a lot that neither Su nor Lin were surprised by this. Opal and Bolin jumped on Juicy to go save Zhu Li while Lin, Su, Wing, and Wei went to fight Kuvira. Lin and Su sent rocks to knock Kuvira's weapon off target just enough to save Opal and Bolin. While Su went after Kuvira, her and the twins dealt with everyone else. Lin shot rock after rock at the mechs keeping them distracted, but eventually it was too much. Her and the twins created a rock circle where they could take cover from the troops outside. Su was losing to Kuvira, Wei went to get her, Wing shot a cable out to them his brother shot his own wrapping around each other and pulled sister and nephew into their defensive circle. Unfortunately it didn't last long the mechs brought down the walls and Lin figured this was it and all of this was for nothing. Then she felt the ground rumble. All of Kuvira's forces fell down, surprised and buried in the ground.
"You give metal benders a bad name!" Her mother's voice yelled a Kurvia. Opal landed just behind her with Juicy and the entire Beifong clan climbed on the air bison. Lin was surprised that Toph had actually saved them, at the same time she wasn't. Toph was not neglectful or malicious. She was willfully forgetful and wouldn't know what empathy is if it hit her in the head.
"Thanks for coming to save us mom." Su said, the tree eldest Beifongs were off away from the group slightly.
"Yeah thanks chief." Lin said, offering a small smile. "Look I'm sorry for uh we uh you know." She tailed off.
"Look I know I wasn't the greatest mother to either of you. But one way or another you two ended up pretty good. If you can find some way not to hate me, then that's enough at least for me." Toph said.
"I don't hate you mom never did." Lin told her softly, giving her a half hug. Then Bolin had to come over and ruin the moment.
"Let's head back, we need to warn Tenzin and Raiko." Lin told her sister and they all headed back to Republic city. They head straight to city hall when they go back to Republic city, by a stroke of luck everyone was there.
"Guys!" Bolin cried as he burst through the door.
"Bolin, Su!" Korra said excitedly, greeting the group. Lin walked over to Tenzin on the other side of the room. He reached his hand out to her smiling gently at her as a peace offering. Lin let out a breath and then returned the smile and squeezed his hand. If she could forgive her mother and sister, they would be fine. Lin switched her attention back to the rest of the room as Bolin began to explain what happened.
"Kuvira's got a new super weapon, we saw it super up close, like way way too up close." Bolin impressed upon them.
"She's going to use it against Republic city." Zhu Li said.
"Oh Zhu Li on our side now." Bolin butted in.
"I faked loyalty to Kuvira in order to find out her plans. I wasn't able to stop her spirit vine weapon but I did find out she plans to attack Republic city in two weeks' time." Zhu Li told them.
"I knew she wouldn't stop at Zaufo." Raiko growled.
"My guess is she'll use the trains." Lin spoke up. "It's the only way to transport that weapon."
"We'll cut the train lines." Korra said determinedly.
"And the evacuation is now mandatory." Raiko added on. They left the city hall to head back to the island. Su had opted to stall in the city saying she couldn't impose on them especially with the acolytes leaving.
"I'm sorry." Tenzin said, engulfing her in a hug. "I should have gone with you guys. You have no idea how worried I was."
"It all worked out Tenz." Lin murmured into his neck. She didn't have the time or the emotional energy to be mad at him right now.
The next several days were spent fortifying and preparing for the invasion by Kuvira's troops. Between the Air nation, Her officers, General Iroh's troops with reinforcements being spent over by his mother and Korra and her friends. Lin was cautiously optimistic that they had a shot against the Earth empire. She was less than thrilled that everyone she even liked but her mother would be involved in the battle. She still had a week to get her head around that one. She was also less than thrilled with Raiko moving to air temple island, tactically it made sense, too much sense not to. He was in the main temple spiral way from the house at least.
"There is something we need to discuss with you." Korra said, interrupting her, Tenzin and Raiko. Mako, Bolin and Asami followed her up the stairs.
"What is it?" Tenzin asked.
"The four of us have been talking and we want to take out Kuvira's spirit weapon. Before it gets too close to the city." Korra explained.
"That sounds like an unnecessary risk." Tenzin immediately protested. Lin thought it made a lot of sense but she didn't think they had that good a chance. But against a weapon that could easily put holes in the side of mountains they needed to try.
"I know Iroh can go toe to toe with Kuriva's army but that weapon is too powerful." Korra told him voicing Lin's thoughts.
"But if you get caught…" Tenzin trailed off worried.
"It's worth the risk." Korra affirmed.
"I agree." Raiko said. "It might be the only chance we have. Good luck."
"We'll head out tonight." Korra told them. That night Lin could see the worry practically rolling off him after they left. He was looking out the window of the living rooming from his chair. Lin was sitting on the couch with Ikki lying across her lap and Jinora reading out loud to her brothers and sister next to them. She could tell Tenzin won't even be able to say what the story was. He had been like this since the teens had left after an early dinner. She hadn't bothered him yet about it mainly because the kids were around. Jinora and Ikki had both picked up on it but had chosen not to ask their father about it. After the kids had gone to bed her still had moved lost in his own world. She hugged him from behind.
"Hey are you alright?" She mummers to him.
His hand grips her hand around his shoulders. "I have a bad feeling about this." He said grimly.
"They'll be fine Tenz, they've been in worse situations and they've all grown since then. Don't worry." Lin told him. She would be wrong. The next morning they ran out of the temple when they saw the sky bison return.
"Korra are you alright? Why are you back so soon?" Tenzin asked running out to the teens worried, Lin, Raiko and Su on his heels.
"It's Kuvira." Korra said, jumping off the bison. "Our intel is wrong, she is only a few hours away from the city." Korra told them.
"No they can't be, we're not ready." Raiko cried concerned.
"That spirit weapon is attached to a giant mech suit." Korra said keeping the bad news coming. Lin found Tenzin and the kids one last time before the fighting started.
"Ready or not here they come." She told Tenzin quietly as the air bender got ready they were to be in the city during the fighting.
"Yes. I'm afraid so." Tenzin sighed.
"Aunt Lin." Ikki said, running up to her Meelo on her heels.
"Hey kids you ready?" She asked them gently.
"You bet they won't know what hit them." Meelo said confidently.
"Be careful." she told them, hugging them
"Love you aunt Lin." Jinora said when it was her turn for a hug.
"Love you guys too, kid." She returned. "I'll see you guys in a few hours though. Don't worry." She turned to Tenzin. "See you later." She told him, hugging him as well.
"Love you." He said against her neck before giving her a quick kiss.
"Love you too, airhead." She watched them fly towards the city. With a hell of a lot of luck they would get through this and they wouldn't lose anyone they loved. Lin took a breath steeling herself before head back inside to be Raiko's right hand.