Aika walked back to the Beifong estate in the federal district. The streets were beginning to bustle, as the essential workers who made the elites' lifestyle so comfortable, begin their daily routines. Some are assistants who grab tea and food at a local shop, others are transporting boxes of silks to homes, and some are like Aika, a nanny out for a stroll with the children. The Air Acolyte took a deep breath and welcomed in the hustle of the city.
Her clothing always outed her in the crowd. The acolytes did not just simply wonder into such an official part of the city. This place had represented the strong divisions of the classes. The acolytes normally came in herds for peaceful protests when an injustice occurs. For most of their time, acolytes spend their life dedicated to Air Nation traditions and left it to their representative to deal with daily assault on the justice system. Representative of the Air Nation, Councilman Amun, lived in this district to stay close to the offices. Aika would occasionally talk to the old monk while he tended to his little garden before heading to his office.
Amun was from a family that called themselves "opportunists," and he had grown up around corrupt politics. When he was in his midthirties, after trying to establish his family's rotten business in the city, he found himself in an endless loop. His family would buy properties and built apartments cheaply and hastily. It was a newly, booming city and desperate people would stack a family of 10 in one apartment, that could barely maintain one occupant without becoming undone. Tracking tenants rent, keeping up with damages and evictions took its toll on the young man. Unhappy, he turned to the port at Yue Bay, where he believed he would end the cycle of corruption of his bloodline. He was then was faced with the Avatar's new statue. It was just a statue of a boy, who overlooked the city and into his soul.
Amun was one of the oldest members to join the acolytes but adapted quickly to the lifestyle. He felt he was meant for this life and worked hard to undo the damage his family and their accomplices have caused the city.
Through the monk, Aika learned that the council plans to rebuild the slums of the city into cultural hubs of museums and architecture. Also installing more businesses on the outskirts of the city to expand and bring in more jobs.
Jobs, or the lack thereof, has caused a rift between not only classes but benders and nonbenders.
As machinery replaced benders, the nonbenders began taking jobs to maintain and operate machinery in factories. Scorned benders were associated with joining triads to survive. It was a never ending cycle in the city that claimed to be the most evolved in the world.
Aika admired Toph's ambition to keep the streets safe for everyone, but the job would never be done. The Chief had been on a roll though, and it was on all the morning papers as Aika walked home.
She stopped at a newsstand and paid for a paper. For Lin, she thought.
When she entered the Beifong estate she was greeted by the cleaning crew. Po and Lam were siblings who worked at their parent's house cleaning business, "Yokly and Po Cleaning Inc." established two decades ago.
The two were hired by Poppy Biefong herself right before Lin was born. Toph had just moved into the estate when she was pregnant from a smaller apartment and her mother thought the bigger home came with more cleaning responsibilities. Usually Toph would put up a fight with her controlling mother but the chief just shrugged in agreement.
Lam quickly ran up to Aika with a hug. The two had started working together at the same time and experienced the highs and lows of the Chief's household.
Lam's eyes lit up in amusement to the newspaper that Aika held.
"She is going to be talking about this for weeks," Lam laughed.
Aika shook her head and disagreed, "We'd be lucky if it were just weeks."
Po smiled and nodded from afar. He was always the serious one on the job. Lam shrugged him off to chat with Aika for a bit, ignoring his glare.
"We will be off in the next couple of weeks so we can visit family outside the city," Lam said as she rolled her eyes. "I wish our parents could give us a real vacation instead of some dusty old town in the Earth Kingdom," she snapped.
Lam further informed Aika that they have hired some temp workers to take over the Beifong's and the rest of the clients cleaning load while they were away.
"A vacation is nice though," Aika smiled as Lam shrugged.
The two were about the same age but had different views on the city. Aika was well traveled but still marveled at the melting pot of cultures. Lam was more cynical, she was born on this land but as much as she complained about the city, she complained about leaving it too.
"I guess it will be nice to get out of here for a few weeks, especially with all the craziness going on," Lam said as she eased her stance.
The two women entered the home and passed Po. Aika still had the newspaper in her hand and entered Lin's room.
"This is my favorite room in the whole house. It's always so clean," Lam mused as Aika put the paper that displayed the Chief on Lin's bed.
"Only because she barely uses it,"Aika said as she rubbed her temples in frustration. The nun had tried to get Lin to sleep by herself when her mother worked late or for days at a time without returning home. The little earthbender always ended up sleeping with Aika if Toph was unavailable. With hope she would still one day sleep in this room, Aika always had something in there to attract the four year old to her own bed. She patted the bed to try to make it look comfy and smiled to herself as if she gave it new life.
"So I guess you aren't leaving anytime soon," Lam smirked.
Aika raised her eyebrows and turned to face Lam. The nun could not tell what Lam meant by that statement, but she responded honestly.
"I guess I haven't thought much about it lately," Aika replied. She realized over the years her eagerness to leave had eased. She knew it would happen but never set a date.
Lam could sense the uneasiness of her question and nodded, "I guess I should get back to work before Po gets all moody".
Lam started out the room but then paused to look back at the nun. "By the way who is staying at the guest house? They keep trying to make the bed but I just end up putting in fresh sheets. I did not know if it was anyone important, like Lady Beifong," Lam eyes looked back curiously.
"It's an old friend of the family,"Aika stopped her, "please keep maintaining the area. I apologize you were not informed of our guest. It was a last minute visit," she finished her white lie.
"Of course," Lam bowed her head as she said goodbye.
It is well known that Toph Beifong hated entertaining guests and people invading her space.
Aika knew full well her lying skills have only improved over the years here at the estate. There was no guest this morning that attended breakfast with the family but that did not mean anything. The Chief did not care about her reputation what company she kept. Aika knew her place in the household was to be a caregiver to Lin but somehow she managed to be the keeper of all of the Chief's secrets.
With a sigh, she looked up to check the time and it was barely 10 in the morning. With quick haste in her step, she left the room to the kitchen. She reached for her pre packed bag of goods to donate and headed towards the door.
Aika walked from the federal districts to the underdeveloped parts of the city. It was only a twenty minute walk, still so close to those in power to make its neglect feel personal. This was close to the area where she first arrived in the city and always brought her back to those first memories of independence. A lot of scary moments that she grew from and forced to act braver than she looked.
The street shopkeepers welcomed the Air Acolyte with open arms. A familiar face in these parts. She was running behind and could not stop and chat like usual, a wave and a smile was all she could offer. She had to catch up to the others who also volunteered from Air Temple Island.
She could see the familiar gathering of yellow robes and red sashes in front of a building being remodeled.
A familiar face turned around to meet Aika's eyes. His green eyes lit up to match hers.
"Ringo," the young nun exclaimed as she started to run to the young monk. The young man welcomed Aika's embrace and balanced her volunteer pack before it fell to the ground.
"Still clumsy I see," Ringo mused. The monk was unlike most of his fellow brother acolytes, he was taller and more toned but still rocked a bald head. Aika remembered his curls and missed them slightly. His usual olive skin had become more tan from his travels and eyes more worn.
The two had been inseparable since Aika joined the Air Acolytes over a decade ago. Until a few years when Aika became a nanny to the Beifongs, the two split as Ringo decided to keep traveling to find himself. It had been nearly a year since they last saw each other.
They two laughed after their embrace and Aika looked at him with so many questions hidden behind her stare.
Then suddenly, the ground beneath them trembled and the rest of the acolytes began to shout.
The reunion was short lived as the of Earth shook the two apart. The foundation of the house being remodeled was being destroyed and started to fall apart onto the group of acolytes.
Quickly, Ringo put his arms up to bend an Earth wall to shield the group from the debri.
The group hurdled under the wall and covered their heads.
They heard the building crash on the wall above, almost giving weigh, Ringo bent another round of Earth pillars to hold the wall.
The ground beneath them fell still.
The dust had stunned Aika's eyes as she tried to make sense of the sudden halt.
Aika tried again to peer through her eyes. She had dropped her bag of goods as she fell and lost her balance during the earthquake.
She looked up realizing she was facing the city street. The street had looked abandoned, until she realized a small dust storm was coming their way. Ringo noticed them too and quickly blocked in the rest of the groups' perimeter with another wall.
Aika did not realize that Abbot Sha was with them today until he got up and walked to Ringo.
"Ringo is there a way you can make a tunnel to get everyone else out safely," the leader urged. The rest of the acolytes were frightened with the sudden attack but before Ringo could react the wall he summoned erupted into pieces.
The Earth riders busted through the wall and then their group was greeted with the wrath of fire.
Aika got up to her old friend's side ready to defend their group. She knew if there was an Earth bender, escaping with a tunnel could lead to their premature funeral burial. The bender had to be taken out.
"Like old times," Ringo smirked.
Aika looked back at him annoyed, "Not exactly my favorite."
Abbot Sha stepped in front of the two and held up his arms, "We are not here to engage in your violence. We are peaceful volunteers, if it is resources you want we have food and supplies," he finished as he tossed the perpetrators similar bags that Aika had carried.
A man with tattoos that seemed to cover him from neck to toe stepped forward in front of the group eight triad members that Aika counted.
"We do not need YOUR food. You have taken business and do not supply jobs to gather your harvest. YOU are the problem," the man spat at back at the monk.
"There will be dire repercussions for hurting peaceful Air Acolytes," one of the members of the group shouted back to the bender.
"Ah, what would you give to be an airbender or let alone just a bender," his eyes now turned to Ringo curiously.
"I have never seen a bender willingly embrace a life so opposite of their own element. How unbalanced you must be," with a quick motion of tattooed man's own jaw, Ringo fell face flat to the ground.
The tattooed man bellowed in amusement at the Earth bender turned acolyte.
"Poor kid, you haven't even mastered your own element," the tattooed man mused.
Angry, the young earthbending monk dug his fingers into the ground. With now full control, he partially buried the tattooed leader.
Aika quickly reacted by jumping towards the partially buried bender and jabbed her opponent at a few key points, temporarily paralyzing him.
"RINGO WE HAVE TO GO NOW-," the nun shouted as she turned around to retreat back to the group but she was cut off.
A water whip had caught a hold of her leg and thrown her back.
"Don't let her go," the tattooed man yelled from his pathetic position.
The throw was harsh but Aika managed to sit up to see Ringo bury the group underground. The firebenders were too late in their attempts to scorn them.
"Looks like it's only you girly," the waterbender said cooly.
His eyes were harsh realizing the group had escaped. Immediately giving up that anger a sense of amusement fell onto his face as he looked at Aika. She tried to jump up to her feet but was thrown down again. He had his water whipped around her whole body this time and turned to ice as he continued to throw her down. As she lay stunned and bruised the coldness of his voice shot her eyes open.
"Can't chi block anyone if you don't have any hands," the bender let the water wrap around her hands to her wrist and then suddenly turned into a block of ice.
She winced as she felt the daggers of ice puncture her skin around her hands.
Then he let a smirk cross his face, when he heard his boss saying they had to go.
With a raise of his hands, Aika was elevated above the ground hanging from her own wrists of ice. It was unbelievably painful and Aika could not help but let out a small shriek.
She was forced to look down at him with a smirk still on his face.
There was a small twinkle of splashes on her face that made her look up at her hands. She could see the trails of blood falling down to her wrist to her arms.
She closed her eyes, knowing that he was just abusing her for a thrill. She did not want to give him the satisfaction of her cries anymore and played dead. She went limp, hoping this would end soon.
Then she felt the ice on between her wrists being shot open, releasing her. It allowed her to fall to the ground but to her surprise it's as if someone made the ground softer. "Sand," she thought to herself. She landed on the same side she was thrown on and winced in pain. Aika looked up to see the metal cable that went through her ice cuffs, had tried to also hit the waterbender. The triad member managed to dodged it. He quickly retreated back to his group as more metal cables shot towards them.
Aika felt someone hover over her but she could hardly turn to meet their face.
"Aika, are you okay," a familiar voice asked frantically. Aika was relieved, because it meant the others were okay too. Ringo came back for her, "You're bleeding," he exclaimed as he carefully rolled her over.
"I told you not to shoot your line unless you were absolutely sure you would not hit her," a woman's cold voice pierced the air.
It was the legendary chief of police herself. Aika recognized the scrutiny in the voice from anywhere.
"No, he stabbed my hands,"Aika reassured the Chief that her elite team did not miss their target.
"We have to take you to the hospital," Ringo said as he gently folded her arm over his neck.
"No, take her back to Air Temple Island with the others. The triad was brave enough to come after a group of you, I don't need anyone to be split up. I doubt they would come to the island protected by the White Lotus and now a couple of my men," the Chief demanded.
Ringo hesitated for a moment. The Chief sensed this and continued, "Katara is the greatest healer in the world. She is on that island and could help your friend better than anyone at the hospital," the Chief spat. "Now go," she ordered.
Aika, weak in Ringo's arms muttered, "let's go," to her friend. He nodded in agreement and quickly followed the metalbenders that were ready to escort them to the island.
Toph stood there feeling their hasty steps getting away safely.
Angered that this assault was way too close to home, she faced these thugs. She stalked up to the four of them all in metal cuffs.
"Through all of your attempts that girl was not scared of any of you. Worthless little beings like you are actually pitied by those acolytes you tried to assault. I for one will not take pity and will uphold you to the law's harshest degree," the chief said sternly as she walked passed each of them.
The leader of the group had been captured due his chi blocked state. He was dead weight to his crew that escaped. This angered him enough to speak back to the Chief, "Surely this girl must be afraid of something. I mean we at least spooked her," the man laughed.
Toph amused, "Of course she is," with a small grin Toph replied, "me."
The five triad members all screamed in anguish as their cuffs were tightened and they were now suspended in the air. Their feet no longer touching the ground, forced to look up at the sky.
They saw an airship hover over them and then suddenly one by one each were thrown up to the ship. Their screams were muffled by the sudden loss of air in their lungs as each were caught by another metal wire from the airship.
This made Toph laugh.
"I think you might have broken their wrists chief," one of her officers Shin teased.
"I definitely did," Toph replied then ordered, "get them into the interrogation block as soon as they are booked."