Tenzin was furious. Of all the idiotic, immature, risky things that his siblings had come up with over the years, this one had to be one of the top five. It didn't surprise him that Suyin had been dragged into their insane plan, but Izumi was the Fire Lord! He would have thought she would have been able to talk some sense into them.
"The Spirit World?! I thought Korra closed the portal!" He was shouting and he knew his face was growing redder by the moment.
"The Avatar succeeded in keeping the spirits in, but it would seem that humans can pass back and forth without issue," replied Izumi calmly, as if they were talking about the weather.
"None of that matters," scoffed Kya, her eyes alight for the first time since they had told her about Lin's death. She was practically vibrating with positive energy. "We know where they're holding Lin! Please, we need to get the group together and go-"
Tenzin knew what was driving Kya. He knew his sister was desperate to reunite with her girlfriend. There had been very few times in his life that he had seen Kya so dedicated to a goal. It had taken him a while to realize how much Lin meant to Kya, but he had never seen his sister in love before.
"How do you know the spirit didn't lie to you?" Tenzin was skeptical. This spirit had played a part in murdering police officers in order to kidnap Lin.
"I believe him," declared Bumi as he thrust out his chest.
Su stepped forward, saying, "You weren't there, Tenzin. Kun was surprisingly honest-"
"You're right, I wasn't there!" Tenzin exclaimed. "Because you nut-brains went without me!"
Bumi threw his arm around his fuming brother and asked, "Are you mad because we went to the spirit world, or because we went without you?"
"Arg!" Tenzin jerked away from Bumi and resisted the urge to punch him in the face. Just as he opened his mouth to retort, Kya spoke up.
"We know where Lin is!" Her voice had climbed to a level that Tenzin could remember from his youth. Kya didn't often lose her temper, but when she did, it was dangerous territory.
Izumi placed a gentle hand on Kya's shoulder, but her eyes were attempting to calm down Tenzin. Tenzin took a few deep breaths and let his heart rate slow down to a more tolerable rate. Izumi spoke slowly and calmly, "The spirit explained that he had no allegiance to the Order. Kun was simply asked to swap the faces of a deceased body with that of an unconscious woman."
"He just swapped the faces, no questions asked?" It just didn't make sense. Why would Kun help the Order for nothing in return? And why would he flip on the Order? "How do you know he isn't leading us into a trap?"
"We don't," shrugged Su.
This time before Tenzin could speak, he was interrupted by the door opening. Korra, Asami, and Mako entered. Korra exclaimed immediately, "Where have you four been?!"
"The Spirit World," replied Bumi cheerfully. Tenzin rolled his eyes.
Mako looked to the girls in confusion. "I thought we closed the portal?"
"That's not important. We know where Lin is!" Korra's eyes lit up at Kya's words and Asami grabbed her arm excitedly. Mako seemed to straighten for the first time in days. Tenzin groaned internally. No matter if it was a trap, they were certainly following Kun's lead now. There was no way the kids wouldn't want to explore this.
"What are we waiting for?" Korra turned to Tenzin. He had no idea why she would immediately assume he was the reason they weren't already on their way. "Let's go!"
"We should really think this through," warned Tenzin. The last thing they needed was for someone to actually die. Or to find out that Lin wasn't alive after all. However, he couldn't easily sway the group away from a chance that they could find Lin.
Why was he so reluctant to believe Kun's information could lead them to Lin? Tenzin wanted more than anything to find Lin. But a part of him couldn't believe she was really alive. He kept remembering that morning in her office, standing in front of her dead body. It was as if his mind couldn't cope with the thought of Lin being alive because there was a risk that she would be dead when they found her.
"I agree with Tenzin." Tenzin felt a small sense of pride when Izumi spoke. "We need to follow this lead with caution. It could easily be a trap."
Mako held up a hand to get their attention. "While you all come up with a plan, I'm going to tell the department. Chief Roan will want to know."
"You know they won't have jurisdiction outside of Republic City. Kun said the Order was most likely holding Lin at a base in the mountains of the Earth Kingdom."
Mako nodded tensely. "I know, but they will still want to know. I'll be back soon." He left quickly.
Korra, Asami, Su, and Kya already had their heads together, coming up with a plan. Izumi was watching Tenzin with concerned eyes and Tenzin barely noticed that Bumi had approached him. "I'm sorry we didn't bring you with us. Kya got all serious and only invited Su. And Izumi followed us. I mean, I'm not sure why she didn't tell you. Well…I guess I do. Because you wouldn't have let us go after Kun…"
"Shut up, Bumi," growled Tenzin. It was up to him to make sure no one got hurt trying to find Lin. He couldn't handle going through all of this again. Tenzin needed Lin to be alive, but he needed everyone else to stay that way too. The people they were going up against had killed seven people; they had killed seven police officers. "Alright, listen. We need to proceed with caution. We will go find this compound, but we're going to scout it out first. We're not just going to jump in there and attack. They could have spirits helping them still."
It didn't take them long to come up with a plan that almost satisfied Tenzin's paranoia. Tenzin, Jinora, Opal, and Korra would take Oogie to fly ahead and scout out the compound. A team of airbenders led by Bumi, Ikki, and Meelo would follow at a safe distance above a ground team that would consist of Kya, Su, Izumi, Mako, Bolin, and Asami. Izumi would have her personal guard with her. Wei, Wing, and Huan would be helping their mother lead some of Zaofu's security team that accompanied the brothers when they came to Republic City.
Tenzin watched fondly as Korra and Asami whispered together in the corner. They were facing each other, hands clasped, as they reassured each other. Not too far away from them, Bolin and Opal were sharing an embrace. He tried not to look at his oldest daughter standing just a little too close to Kai.
Ikki was by his side in an instant, looking way too grown up in her wing suit. "Don't worry, Dad. We've got this…I mean, it's not like it's our first rescue mission."
Tenzin wished she would never grow up. Jinora was so serious sometimes and Meelo wasn't serious at all. Rohan was still a cute little toddler. But Ikki was his little girl; she still saw the world unblemished even though she had seen terrible things in her short life. "I'll be relying on you to keep an eye on your uncle."
"Of course," she saluted him and bounced off.
Pema replaced her with Rohan in tow. She stood on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. "Bring her home."
To think that four short years ago his wife couldn't stand his ex. Nor could Lin be in the same room as Pema. He had known that Lin had moved on from him decades ago, but Pema was the living reminder of what her life almost was: good or bad. And Lin was known to hold a grudge. But to his continued perplexment, Lin and Pema were almost friendly to each other now.
Tenzin gave Pema a kiss in return and walked over to Oogie. Before he could fly up to his seat on the bison's head, Kya appeared from around the other side. Since her elation a couple of hours ago after returning from the Spirit World, Kya had mellowed out and now looked almost nervous.
"Kya?"
"I…" She clenched and unclenched her fists. It was very rare that Kya didn't have a quip or comeback for every situation. So, Tenzin let her have a moment to gather her thoughts. His older sister had always been so sure of everything in her life; or at least she had always appeared to. Rarely had she sought out his advice.
"Kya, we'll find her," he tried to reassure, but her unsteady nod made him doubt his own words for a moment.
"Do you think she's still alive?" Her voice was raw with emotion, much like when Tenzin and Bumi had broke the news of Lin's death to her only a few days ago. "What if they've already gotten the information they wanted from her and killed her? What if we're too late? It's been days, Tenzin…"
Tenzin reached out his arms to rest his hands on her shoulders. Looking her directly in the eyes, he spoke as confidently as possible. "If there's one thing I know about Lin, it's that she's the most stubborn person on this earth. And that includes her mother. There's a reason Zuko chose her to keep this secret; she's great at keeping secrets. She'll never give it up."
"But…"
"Lin gave up her bending instead of giving up the location of Korra, a girl she hardly knew at the time. And didn't really like that much. Lin defined herself as a metal and earth bender and she made that sacrifice without a second thought. She'll never give them what they want…but she's no stranger to interrogation. She knows how to keep herself alive."
His sister nodded stiffly and swallowed back the tears that were threatening to fall. "Thanks, little brother." To his surprise, Kya stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. Without a second thought, he returned the hug. Brother and sister, they held each other tightly.
"Mako!" Bolin called out from behind them and Tenzin reluctantly let go of Kya. Mako had been at the Police Station for over two hours. Soraya had gone with him, to convince the stand-in Chief that Lin could possibly still be alive.
Mako had returned with Soraya, but he had brought company. Close to two dozen people were walking in behind him. It took Tenzin a moment, but he recognized a few from the Police Department. None of them were in uniform and the few that were metalbenders had slim armor instead of their uniforms.
"What's this?" asked Tenzin, nodding to the entourage.
"We're helping you," spoke a tall woman behind Mako and Soraya. She had a metal chest plate and matching spools of metal on her hips.
Tenzin appreciated the gesture, but the Police Department couldn't get involved. "I'm sorry, but the Republic City Police can't involve themselves in any altercation in the Earth Kingdom. It's outside of your jurisdiction. I know that Lin would appreciate-"
"We resigned," said a man dressed in fire nation red.
Tenzin blinked at his words. "You what?"
"We all resigned," explained Mako. "That way we could help you without causing a political incident. The Republic City Police Department can't go rescue the Chief from the Earth Kingdom, but every day civilians can."
"You all resigned…"
"Chief would do the same for us," said another officer, albeit, now an ex-officer.
Another piped up from the back, "Chief did do the same for us!"
The memory of Lin handing in her badge to go after her officers that Amon had captured surfaced in Tenzin's mind. His throat felt thick with emotion as he stared at the group in front of him. They could use the help and they obviously wanted to help Lin, but, "Who is going to look over the City?"
"We drew a lottery to resign. Chief Roan wouldn't let everyone quit, so we still have force here in the City, just in case," replied Mako with a small smile. The young man had really thought of everything.
Very aware of everyone's eyes on him, Tenzin cleared his throat and declared, "Then we better get going. The ground crew has almost an entire day's journey ahead of them."
Tenzin mounted Oogie and was joined shortly by Jinora, Opal, and Korra. With one last look at the crowd that had gathered to rescue Lin, he told Oogie, "Yip, yip."
They flew hard for a few hours before stopping to give Oogie some rest and to eat the food that Pema had provided. There wasn't much to talk about and for once, the three young women weren't chattering constantly. He knew that they each saw Lin in a different way. For Jinora, she was a hero; to Opal, the aunt she thought she had lost; to Korra, a mentor. He was proud of each one of them and he knew that Lin was too.
After Oogie recovered, they flew for a few more hours before repeating the process, this time taking a bit longer to rest themselves. The next stop would be the Order's compound and they needed to be alert when they got there. The girls often took turns guiding Oogie while Tenzin rested as well. They made a good team.
Morning was dawning when they found themselves over a break in a dense forest. A long, but shallow building covered the cleared area. They were up high enough that they could avoid being seen, Jinora and Opal created some cloud cover just in case. From what Tenzin could see, the building was locked up tight. There was very little activity outside of the concrete walls.
"I can see only three people posted on the doors," reported Korra, as she looked through another invention of Asami's that the girls kept calling a distance vizor.
"That's good news," replied Tenzin. "That means they aren't expecting us. But I bet that building has several levels under the ground. There's no way to estimate how many are inside."
Jinora stretch and then pointed to the tree line to the south. "We should set down and wait for the others. They're probably only an hour or two behind us."
Tenzin turned Oogie to the trees and the bison found a branch that could support his weight. Now came the hard part: waiting. The girls took turns flying out on their gliders to search for the ground and air support that would be coming soon. Tenzin used Asami's distance vizor to keep an eye on the compound. Lin was in there somewhere, he could feel it. He just hoped that she had faith that they were coming to rescue her.
"Just hold on a little bit longer, Lin."