The paperwork was nearly done and the words were starting to swim in front of Lin's face. The nightshift had arrived three hours ago and had been sending someone in every half hour to remind her that she could pick up on paperwork in the morning. But honestly, Lin would rather just get it done now. Kya was at Air Temple Island for a few days to help Tenzin induct new Airbenders so she would be alone at the apartment.

It had been a normal week, relatively speaking. The two new stations had finally started to function smoothly in the new neighborhoods and crime had dipped to a more manageable level. As she had explained to President Raiko, crime was never going to stop. Otherwise, what would be the need of a Police Department? But the City had been in transition since Kuvira's attack and Lin felt that they were finally getting back to something that resembled normal. But new stations meant new officers and new officers meant additional paperwork.

Saikhan had poked his head in about fifteen minutes ago saying he had worked late to close an assault case and was almost done with his paperwork if she needed help. She told him to go home to his wife and he had made a quip about she had her own old lady to get home to before returning to his paperwork.

Once he had shut the door, Lin couldn't help letting out a chuckle. About four months ago, Saikhan had discovered that she and Kya had been living together and refused to let her live down the fact that she had told no one that she was in a relationship. It wasn't as if she had meant to keep it a secret. She just wasn't sure how her force would react to her dating a woman. Apparently, they could care less. She had arrived at the office several times to find Kya with lunch entertaining her officers.

It was almost midnight and Lin knew she should leave the rest of it for the morning. Yuke flung her door open and declared to the other officers, "She's still here. Get back to work!"

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving," Lin grumbled back and started to pack up as Yuke laughed and headed back into the main office.

Something caught her eye outside her window. A shadow? She wasn't sure. Setting down the stack of files on her table, she started to walk to the window, but before she could look out, a bright light blazed through it, forcing her to close her eyes and turn away. At the same moment, she heard shouting outside her door. Then the shouting turned to screams and something snapped in Lin: they were under attack.

Flexing her hands and feeling the cables begin to pull, Lin started for the door. However, before she ever had a chance to open it, two spirits dropped from thin air in front of her. Instinct took over and metal cables spun out straight at the spirits, but they dodged easily. In the milliseconds it took to redirect the metal to follow them, she felt a prick on the back of her neck and she felt herself falling. Her office grew dark and she hit the ground, listening to the cries of terror in the room next door.

Her eyelids were heavy as Lin tried to open her eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time. Her limbs felt distant and she couldn't even lift her head. Time was passing without her knowledge, but she knew it had been more than four days since her abduction. She also knew that they had been drugging her repeatedly so they could move her from place to place. Lin had no idea where they were going, only that they only asked one question: "Where is Neo?"

Her captors knew she knew. But Lin had years of interrogation training on her side and the will of the earth. To her surprise, they didn't try to torture her. They just kept moving her to a new place, giving her more sedatives, and asking the same question. From what she could gather, they were taking her to someone in charge, but seemed to be going the long way. Lin figured that was to make sure no one was following them.

Even though she couldn't move, Lin was trying to keep herself as active as possible. She couldn't give in to the darkness and weakness. Whenever they finally got wherever they were going, she needed to be strong. Of course, she had given real thought to letting the drugs take over and giving into death. They wouldn't be able to get what they wanted that way. But then they would go after Izumi and Lin couldn't die knowing that the Fire Lord and her family would be put in further danger. Izumi had a nation to run; Republic City would move on without her.

The thought flitted across her mind that Izumi had a family and she didn't but that wasn't true anymore. Years ago, Lin would have laughed at any person who would have told her she would miss having her sister around. Su had swept back into her life just as quickly as she had left it. But that was Su: intense and dramatic. But Lin had felt the surge of joy when Su brought her family to Republic City to visit. She had a family.

A tear that she was unable to brush away fell down the side of her face from the corner of her eye. Along with the sedatives, they also had her strapped to a wooden table with leather straps. She couldn't turn her head very well, but from what she could see when she managed to open her eyes she knew she was in a wooden crate. The rickety wheels bounced on the uneven roads; Lin guessed she was being pulled by something. Every once in a while, she could actually feel the earth as they moved along, but she was too weak to even move a pebble.

To pass the time when she wasn't sleeping, Lin thought of Kya. It was easy to see Kya's blue eyes when the drugs made it too hard to open her own. Kya's bright smile caused Lin's lips to twitch upwards. Even though she couldn't move her hands, Lin imagined running her fingers through Kya's long grey hair. Lin loved it when Kya let her hair down. The ponytail was always so neat and traditional. When Kya brushed her hair out, Lin would watch as the long lengths of grey would settle over Kya's dark shoulders.

"You're staring," Kya would laugh with bright blue eyes and that wonderful smile. She would turn away from the mirror to look over her shoulder at Lin. Her hair would slide down her back, giving Lin the perfect view of her bare skin.

Lin never knew what to say when Kya called her out for things like this. Ever since Tenzin, the majority of her relationships had been passed in silence. Not a suffering sort of silence, but a rather comfortable one. No one doted on her, nor was there any need to be overly affectionate back. It wasn't as if she didn't trust her past lovers with anecdote of the day or an outward projection of feelings, but that Lin didn't want to.

But Kya did. And thus, Lin found herself sitting at the dinner table listening, and sometimes giving her own input, as Kya chatted. More than that, Lin found herself enjoying it. Of course, Lin liked the silence just as much as she always did. Except for right now. She would give anything to hear Kya talking or even Su.

"You awake?" Kya's not so soft voice often broke the silence in the bedroom. Lin's response was to grumble and clamp her eyes shut. Why Kya enjoyed talking after sex when Lin just wanted to sleep was beyond Lin's comprehension. The woman couldn't just go to sleep. If there was something on her mind, she had to tell Lin about it. However, falling asleep to the sound of her voice wasn't the worst thing in the world.

But Lin was awake now. Sleep would come and go because of the drugs they were using, but it was a rough slumber. She was a light sleeper; years of being a police officer had taught her to awake to any sound. The cart was noisy and bumpy and she was mentally fighting the drugs. Every time she'd suddenly snap awake, she'd wonder if they were finally at their destination, but the cart just kept moving.

The only time the cart stopped was to feed her and inject her. Although 'feeding' was a relative term. One of the water benders would practically force some sort of liquid mush down her throat. Lin guessed it was filled with just enough nutrients to keep her from wasting away, but not enough to give her any energy. Not that it would have mattered; as soon as the mush was force fed to her, a needle pricked her arm and more drugs were introduced into her system.

Lin had seen this method of feeding before with patients too ill to eat on their own. Katara and Kya both used it frequently when they worked in the hospitals or tended to the wounded who ended up on their doorstep. Kya was always so gentle when she bent water and not just when she was healing. Aang had often said waterbending was like dancing and watching his wife dance was one of the most beautiful things. It had taken a few years but Lin had finally agreed.

Kya's long arms moved rhythmically as she shifted from foot to foot. Delicate fingers twirled the water around her, making it spin and spray. Rohan and Ikki were screaming in glee as slender columns of water danced through the air. Lin watched from the bank, a faint trace of a smile on her face as Kya entertained Tenzin's children. She was beautiful; the smile, the way she moved her body, all of it. The water was dancing with her- a perfect couple.

Of course, they weren't a perfect couple. They had both been on their own for too long. Lin knew that she was far too stubborn, but Kya could be too free-spirited sometimes. Kya had never held down a job for longer than a year, if you didn't count being a part-time healer, while Lin had been married to her job since she announced to Toph she want to be a cop. Their families were even different. Even though Aang, Katara, and Toph had raised their children together, they didn't have the same experiences growing up. Kya was the quintessential middle child and Lin was the hard headed eldest born to a single mother.

They could be awful to each other when they fought. Lin knew how to use her words to cut deep and Kya could give it as good as she got it. But they weren't twenty and didn't have the rest of their lives ahead of them. So as bitter as Lin could be and when Kya's patience wore thin, it didn't take them long to forgive.

All that could be heard was the clinking of spoons against bowls. For two hours, neither had spoken, but no one had left either. Lin was too stubborn to walk out of her own house and Kya stayed just to annoy her. So, dinner was made and eaten in silence. Lin was the first to speak, "I'm not going to change."

"I know."

She always knew. Kya knew her so well. Lin wasn't even sure when she fell in love with Kya. It had been slow and steady until the woman occupied every thought. It wasn't a young love that left her daydreaming in her office, but a gentle love that assured Lin that Kya would be there at the end of the day. There was plenty of passion, but there were also tender moments when they were both too worn out to make love.

"I love you." Kya's voice was soft after a hard day.

"Yeah?" Kya squeezed her tight as they lay in bed. Lin didn't bother to hide a smile when Kya's legs moved to intertwine with her own. Kya loved to be close. And Lin loved Kya. A single kiss pressed into her shoulder as Lin began to drift off to sleep.

But it wouldn't be Kya who woke her again. There would be no sweet kisses or gentle caress. No silver hair on bronze shoulders. Just hard and unforgiving wood beneath her back and the rumble of wheels on the road. Groaning, she wiggled her fingers and toes, trying to find some feeling. Nothing. The first time it happened, it had taken all of her self-control not to have a panic attack. The numbness had been too much of a reminder of when Amon had taken her bending.

But after a few minutes, she had realized that her bending was still there and the drugs were merely dulling her senses. Lin figured that if she could actually touch the earth, she would still be able to bend. But they were keeping her from the earth and so her senses were dull. But they had to eventually stop somewhere. They couldn't keep her from the Earth forever.

They also couldn't hide forever. She knew that Kya, Su, Tenzin, the Police Department, and the Avatar and her friends would be looking for her. It wasn't the first time she had gotten herself into a bind and knew that they would be looking for her. The Order was smart; they had been avoiding the White Lotus for over two years. But it seemed the Order was moving toward their endgame and it was possible that they had been less cautious. She had faith that Kya and her sister could find her. And Korra. She had faith in Korra too.

Voices outside the cart alerted Lin to her captors once again. She had been so out of it, she hadn't even realized they had stopped. It hadn't been long enough since her last injection to get another one. Something was going on. But the voices didn't sound panicked or worried, so no rescue party. That only left one other option: they had reached their destination. The door to the cart opened and a man climbed into the cramped space.

"Time to answer our questions, Beifong."

Drawing from the little strength she had left, Lin spat, "Fuck you."