Everyone that could move sprang into action. Shots came shooting through the building shattering the glass but luckily know one was hurt.
"Alright everyone listen up! I want those with serious injuris to escape thorugh the underground tunnel. The rest of you I want outside to fight this!" despite the circumstances it felt good to be back here giving orders.
"Kya see if you can heal the lightly wounded."
"Right." as she ran off to treat them I made my way over to Su.
"Wow Lin back for two minutes and you're already giving orders."
"It's what I'm good at. Now where's mom?"
"She's in her office patching herself up. When the raid went south she took a fire ball to the side. Her armor took the most of the damadge but she still got burned."
"Was the raid really that bad?" I needed details and this was the best chance to get them. "Well it started out pretty well. We got them surronded and moved inisde the building catching some of them off guard, but as we were rounding them up their reinforcments showed up. We mananged to push them back and make it back here but they decided to follow us. After we baricaded ourselves in they decided to run wild across the city while ocasinally sweeping back to try and finish us off."
"Well good news is Katara is nearly done healing the officers and she'll send them here as soon as she can."
"And with Kya here we'll be able to hold on long enough to capture them. But Lin I have to ask, with your eyes should you really be here?"
Probably not but I'm not about to sit on the sideline any more. If I can't bend outside then I'll just give orders inside.
"I'd rather be here helping then somewhere else worrying."
"Damn straight. Glad you could be here Lin." I heard before my mother came walking up to us.
"Mom you should be resting." Su said trying to get her to sit down. She waved her off and marched up to one of the windows. "I'll rest when I'm old and grey but untill then we have work to do." she stommped the ground and a wall sprang up in front of the building.
"You two stay here and make sure we get everyone on their feet, I'll head outside and crack some skulls."
Su and I just stood there as our mother hopped out one of the windows to join in the fighting.
"That should buy us some time but right now I... I need." she colassped into my hands. "Su!?" I gave her body a guick check but I didn't find any injuris beyond minor scratches.
"Don't worry about her. She and the cheif have been pushing themselves harder than any of us. Her tanks beyond empty now." a nearby officer said before helping me move her into a nearby office.
Just as we were setting her down another explosion rocked the building this time collasping a portion of the wall. What made this one worse was shortly after the wall came down a series of screams filled the halls. Most were cries of rage but one cry got my attention.
Kya!
I rushed down the halls as fast as my feet could carry me. When I turned the corner I saw officers sprayed out across the ground and Kya pinned under the rubble.
"Kya!"
"Lin I'm okay, my legs are just a bit pinned."
"Don't worry I'll get you out of there." But as I started moving the debris it became obvious that the bigger and heavier pieces had her trapped just above the waist.
I'll never be able to move this on my own. A quick look around was all it took to know that no help was comming.
"Lin look out behind you!"
I turned just in time to see three people comming throught the colasped wall.
"Alright boys you know the drill!"
They poured through the halls attacking any officers they could but at least four of them stoppped for a moment and took notice of us.
"Well well well, looks like we get a chance to take down one of the beifongs."
With every step they took my mind scrambled to come up with an idea, something, anything to save the two of us.
There's four of them and one of me. If I don't do something they go through me and finish off Kya.
What to do?... when they were within a few feet of me my mind came to one singular conculsion.
I'm not running. I'll do whataver I can to protoct Kya. They are not getting past me.
As I stood up and readied myself for the fight I felt something I hadn't felt in weeks. I felt the earth beneath my feet. The feeling of being in control.
I raised my hands the the debris lifted off Kya and with one motion was sent flying into them. One went down while two others dived behind overturned decks. The thrid being an earthbender erected a wall but I rushed foreward and with a kick sent it back into him.
Once he went down I turned my attention to the others. A fireball soared past my arm, quickly I sent a chunk of earth into their chest. Seeing that his allies were out for the count the last of them made a run for it but slammed two slabs of earth into their sides. Once they were dealt with I moved the pieces of debris off Kya who stood there for a few moments in awe.
"Lin since when can you bend!? I thought you hadn't been able to for a while."
I really didn't know myself. But I could think of a few reasons.
"I think I just had to stop trying to run or hide. Earthbenders don't run from problems they face them head on. When I saw them comming the only thing I wanted was to protoct you and I wasn't going to let them get to you no matter what."
"My knight in shinning armor. Well you can look foward to a very special reward when this is all over but right now lets deal with the intruders."
Within the next few minutes we mananged to take down a dozen invaders and drive them back outside where more officers were waiting for them.
We mananged to hold them off and push back the majority of the attacks long enough for the reinforments to arive. Within a few hours we had the majority of the force back while everyone else was lying in makshift earth prisons.
"Not bad considering a few hours ago we were barely holding out."
"Yeah but do you think we got everyone rounded up?" we had about two dozen men here but if felt like there should be more.
"Maybe, but we got enough of the small fish for right now. We'll get rested up and in the morning go after the rest. The rest of the officers are finishing up around the city. It'll be a rough couple of weeks but we should have everything back to normal by then."
Just as I started off toward Kya so that we could head back to the island Mom stopped me.
"Listen kid I wanted to tell you this later but I think we found who you've been searching for."
My heart stopped and my blood ran cold. "What?" that single word was all I could say.
"We found him as we were making our way to the station. I made sure to lock him up in one of the isolation cells."
He's here. Just down the staris in a cell. The man who took my sight.
"Can you go get Kya?" if I was going to confort this and truely move past it then I was going to need her by my side. But the more I thought about the more I was sure it wasn't just support I wanted from Kya, it was to stop me if I went to far in there.
I stood there waiting for her unable to move or even think. With every passing moment my mind thought about each and every thing that could take place.
When Kya finally did find me the first thing she did was take my hand. Or walk down the stairs was filled with silence, she knew how much I needed this. But she also knew that a part of my wanted to just ignore it and move on.
By the time we reached the door I was as ready as I ever could be. "Kya... give me two minutes then come on."
"Alright." by her tone it was clear she thought I'd do something. Before I went in I pulled her close and hugged her. "Don't worry, the worst I'll do his punch him in the face."
"Make it two, nobody hurts my girl and gets away with it."
Taking a deep breath I opend the door. "What do you want?"
A few seconds after I closed the door he started laughing. "Oh it's you. Haven't seen you in a while, but then again last time I remember you were in the back of your car clutching your eyes."
If I had to describe the intensity of my punch I'd wager it was as hard as I could. He was knocked to the floor and was screaming a varity of curses as I tried to shake off the burning in my knuckles. When he got up to scream I gave him a second one.
"Lets's be honest that was probably the least hurtful thing I could have done."
"Bitch!" he screamed.
For the longest time I watched him rolling on the floor clutching his face. As I did whataver anger I'd felt seemed to just fade away.
This is it? The guy that blinded me. I'd pictured him as some hardned gangster that would laugh at me and gloat about what he'd done.
But this? This is just sad.
I turned away and made my way outside deciding that I had better things to do then to dwell on this.
"Well how did it go?"
"Lets just say he got what he deserved. Now how about we head home."
"Back to the island?"
"I'm thinking something more private. Somplace where we can be ourselvs without worrying about intruptions."
"I'll borrow one of the cars."
We made our way up the stairs and past the various officers. Kya snatched a set of keys and we headed to the garage and got into one of the cars.
When we made it back to our place we embraced each other and didn't stop until we were upstairs in the bedroom.
By the time morning finally came we were both tired, sore and extremely satisfied.
"Lin there's something I have to tell you but I don't want you to get your hopes up."
"What is it?"
"Well I've been talking with mom about your eyes and she's been talking with some old friends."
"And?"
"Well lets just say we managed to get our hands on something that could fix your eyes, well one of them anyway."
"What? How is that possible."
"Just get dressed and I'll show you." I needed to know what she was talking about so I quickly got dressed and followed her downstairs and into the car. Nearly five minutes later we boarded the first ferry to the island. During the journey Kya refused to tell me exactly what she'd gotten. As soon as we landed she rushed me to Katara's room.
"Girls I didn't expect to see you so soon."
"I couldn't take it anymore. It's been bothering me for days know. I've wanted to try it as soon as we got it but we agreed to wait. And after last night I can't think of a better moment."
"Alright Kya but you remember what you'll have to do." Okay now I'm confused and curious.
"I know mom." Katara handed her a box containing a very small vial.
"Alright Kya for the love of the spirits tell me what's going on!"
"Well you know the story of how mom brought dad back to life with a vial of spirit water?"
I'd grown up hearing the story about her but I could never believe it. I'd always thought that she just stopped him from dying and healed his injuries rather then bringing him back from the dead. "Yeah why?"
"Well it took forever and I'll have to head up north to teach waterbending for the next yeah but I managed to get my hands on a single drop."
"Wait you'll have to leave for an entire year?"
"If this works it'll be worth it. We can be apart for a year right?"
"No."
"What?"
I took her hand to stop her confusion. "Kya I don't want to be apart from you for a year. So if you have to go up north then I'm coming with you. I'm not taking no for an answer."
"You big softie. Now open your eyes and hold still this is going to be very delicate." I opened my eyes as wide as I could and waited for the sensation of liquid hitting my eye. It was an odd feeling, it was different from her usual healing. This one was more intense. After a few moments she pulled her hand away from my eye and I closed it instinctively.
"Well don't leave me waiting Lin."
Slowly I opened my eye and was taken back. Kya stood there her beautiful blue eyes brimming with tears. "I can see you." I didn't bother trying to hold back the tears as we embraced. It was only one eye but to me it was the entire world.
"How about you and I start our trip a bit early."
"Sounds good to me."