Disclaimer: I don't own atla or lok.
"Lin, this isn't working."
The older Bei Fong yelled back. "Keep trying. We have to get out of here, Tenzin."
The young monk looked at his best friend sympathetically and turned back to the bars. He sliced at the air sending it towards the wooden bars. Strangely enough, the wood was unusually dense making it hard to cause critical damage. But Tenzin kept going. Not just because Lin was hounding him, but because Lin (although he was sure she hadn't realized it yet) was begging him.
He exclaimed out in surprise when Bumi's fist collided with the bars he had been working on. The crack that echoed in the room pumped adrenaline through their veins.
"Bumi!" The airbender stared at his brother.
The nonbender pulled his fist back once more and had it collide with the wood. The way Bumi hissed when his hand came back could not have upset Tenzin more. "Keep going, Ten. Keep hitting the same spot. I'll apply force on the same place and it should start to break."
"Bumi, you're hand is bleeding." The airbender stared at the red substance beginning to ooze from his older brother's hands along with the purple tint slowly framing his knuckles. "I can handle this."
"That's great, little bro." Another punch. "The fact that you believe in yourself like that." Punch. "But right now, I don't care. What matters now is getting Su help. Maybe even Lin. I don't know how much longer she can stand looking at Su. Hey, am I going to have to do this all myself?"
Tenzin quickly joined his brother, motivated by his words. Air alternated with fist. "No. Not at all."
"Don't worry about me, alright? Mom can fix this in no time. Although I wouldn't know if she would want to."
"Of course she would." Tenzin blasted the specific area of damage and wood began flying out. They moved on to getting the hole bigger. "There was no way we could have anticipated a mad woman coming after us. Do you recognize her at all?"
Bumi began using his legs to weaken the dense wood. "Not a clue. But she obviously hates Mom and Dad."
"She isn't exactly a rare case. Not everyone likes Mom, Dad, Aunt Toph, and the others."
"Well, her hatred is too intense. Not really my type. I mean the woman used that...gun thing. I didn't even know what happened until Suyin cried out."
Tenzin paused his efforts suddenly and when Bumi went to question him, there was fear in the airbender's eyes. "What was that thing? That can really hurt someone, Bumi."
He fought the urge to roll his eyes at his younger brother. "Thank you for pointing that out Monk Obvious."
"No. I know that it can hurt someone. What I meant...if she aimed elsewhere..."
Bumi understood Tenzin's struggle to use the word. He didn't want to think about the object hitting someone in the chest or head. He had already figured out the capacity of such a weapon. On a different note, the future recruit knew exactly why his baby brother was scared beyond his mind. One pull of the trigger and there was the end of any chance that the air nation could be revived. His gray eyes looked towards the Bei fong sisters. Watching them didn't help. Bumi grabbed his brother at once and hugged him fiercely.
"Nothing is going to happen to you, got that, little bro?"
"I'm worried about everyone else too-"
"You aren't gonna die, Tenzin."
The young monk relaxed in Bumi's embrace and wrapped his arms around him.
On the other side of the cell, Lin continued to whisper to Suyin who was struggling to keep calm. Even after an hour, the thirteen year old was still in slight shock. The pain was immense, no where near tolerable either. However, Lin had tended to the wound immediately, failing to remove the metal but managed to tie a piece of her clothing acting as a bandage. It was tight to apply pressure on the bleeding injury. Throughout the entire procedure, the worry in Lin's voice brought Suyin comfort. It was nice to know that when the time came, her big sister was there for her. Hopefully it wasn't a one time thing.
The two were currently seated on the floor. Su's head laid on Lin's lap and she was stretched out perpendicular to her sister's body. The older Bei Fong's arm was laying across Suyin's body, her left hand unconsciously rubbing Su's arm in comfort. Toph's youngest opened her eyes to see her sister's green eyes looking right back at her.
"You know," The youngest of the group took a shaky breath. "You're actually kind of pretty."
Lin's expression didn't change at all. "You're starting to become delirious." Her voice reached across their cell. "Hurry up!"
"Got it." Was Bumi's response.
"I think you're the one losing it, Lin. Maybe you got knocked in the head too hard." Su pushed herself to give a teasing laugh.
"I told you to rest. Even on the verge of death, you still don't listen to me. Damn you, Su."
The younger rolled her eyes. "Verge of death? Come on, this is nothing."
Suyin wasn't afraid to admit that she giggled when the familiar scowl crossed her sister's face.
"Nothing? Are you fucking kidding me?"
Her hand came up to her mouth and Suyin gasped obnoxiously. There was no medicine better than irritating Lin. She may be feeling better already (other than the radiating pain of a gun shot in her leg). "I'm telling Mom you cussed."
"Go ahead." Lin retorted. "I may get a raise in my allowance."
Whether it really was because she was starting to go crazy due to the blood loss or something else, Su laughed genuinely at the comment. "Oh god. Only Mom would. Of course she would."
Lin wasn't sure if she was mad or concerned, but she yelled at her little sister when she began to tense. The thirteen year old's face hardened and Lin could tell she was holding her breath. "What is it?"
"I shouldn't have laughed." Suyin exhaled and inhaled raggedly. "Holy..." She took several seconds to let the pain subside her newly developed tolerance level. "I swear if I lose my leg to this stupid piece of metal, I'm going to kill Yun."
"You are not going to lose your leg. We are gonna get out of here and find Aunt Katara immediately. The only thing you should be concerned about is the fact that you won't be able to dance for probably a few weeks."
"Are you freaking kidding me? I just got my cables back." Suyin closed her eyes and pouted. "And don't act like you don't want to kill that lunatic either."
"Mom and I are going to follow her into the spirit world just to make sure she made it."
"Great." Su relaxed slightly, her head pressing into her sister's thighs.
"What does that woman want with Mom, anyways?" When Suyin didn't answer her question immediately, Lin became alert. Su noticed this and tried to sit up.
The older Bei Fong placed a hand on Su's chest and forced her back down into her lap. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I know that face, Lin. I've had to live with you for thirteen years, unfortunately, and during that time I learned a lot of things. That's your suspecting face. Now let me up, I'm getting a back ache."
Defeated, Lin helped her sister sit up against the back wall of the wooden prison. She observed Suyin cautiously as the young girl fought off yelling out in pain once again due to the movement. Lin ignored the obvious tears pooling at the corner of her sister's eyes. She forced herself to continue the conversation. "There is something bothering you about that woman. Spit it out."
She pondered on her sister's words. During the fiasco that was their first meeting with the wonderful Yun, Su had no time to reflect on how familiar the woman looked to her. Once they were back to sitting in their prison cell, she carefully visualized the woman's features and there was no doubt that she had never met Yun in real life. But a vague part of her memory had seen her. In the thirteen years that she had been alive, she remembered seeing her face. It was infuriating not knowing when and how. Suyin shook her head and went on to answer Lin's question. "I've seen her face before."
"You know her?!" Lin had said it loud enough that the boys in the front turned around at the outburst. They went to approach the two and join in the conversation, but Lin halted their efforts at once. "No. Keep trying. We have to get out of here."
Bumi stared into her eyes. His response was serious. "Talk loud then."
Lin waited for the sound of air and fist hitting wood before she allowed Su to start talking. "I've never met her, I can promise you all that. But I've seen her face. I don't know when, I don't know where, but I recognize her."
"Does that mean you know of her?" Tenzin asked as he sliced the wood.
"No. I really don't. I know her face, but that's it."
Bumi grunted as he hit the wood over and over again. "That isn't really much help, Bei Fong Jr. You sure you can't muster anything up from that memory of yours?"
Think. Think. Think. If she hadn't been stuck on the ground, Su would have been pacing back and forth. No longer was she frustrated by the fact that she couldn't recall where she had seen Yun. Now, the youngest Bei Fong was mad with herself. "I can't remember. But the Yun I remember wasn't that old."
Suddenly, there was large crack and crash. Lin covered Su at once, thinking that someone had come into the room and attacked. But when her eyes looked back up, she found Tenzin and Bumi standing over a good sized hole in their prison. The older Bei Fong got up and quickly stepped through it. Her feet touched the earth and she couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Leaving no time to enjoy the contact with her element, Lin put up a large stone wall up against the platinum door. Afterwards, she slammed her foot down and concentrated.
Her sister's voice snapped her out of focus. "What can you see?"
Lin whipped her head around and found Suyin standing with the help of Bumi. "You were supposed to stay put."
"Oh." Suyin formed an O with her mouth. "I didn't listen."
Lin rolled her eyes, but answered her sister nonetheless. "We're in a pretty large underground building. Through that door and down the hall is the largest compartment of the complex which could only mean it's crawling with whatever henchmen she has. The air vent stays pretty level with several attachments going to the surface, probably where the fresh air comes from. If we keep traveling horizontally, we'll make it towards a different part of the sewer system. That's probably going to be our way out."
"Is Su really going to be okay moving through such a small space with her leg?" Tenzin looked back at the younger Bei Fong who already had an expression of discomfort.
"Don't worry about me, air boy. I don't see another option."
"She'll just have to make do for now." Lin said the statement with no emotion, but her face showed a sign of concern for her sibling. "I'd say that we have another couple of hours before Yun checks on us again as long as no one heard the ruckus in here. We should be pretty far in the air vents by then. What I don't know is if they know where it leads out to. Hopefully there will be no one waiting for us at the end of the vent."
Tenzin stepped through the hole and walked up to Lin. "We'll make do."
"Yes. Yes we will. How's your head Bei Fong Senior?" Bumi asked trying to bring a little bit of humor into the situation.
Lin placed a hand on her hip. "Depends on what you're referring to. My concussion or my sanity."
"Both." The oldest of them all carefully picked up Suyin and gently maneuvered through the hole. "I just want to make sure you'll be ready for whatever is waiting for us at the end of the tunnel."
"Regarding my concussion," Lin hadn't realized the thumping in her head for awhile. Now that Bumi had brought it up, her head ache seemed to become more obnoxious. Tenzin's piece of robe was still wrapped around her head, but she had doubted she was still bleeding. "I'll make do. My sanity? Yun better watch out."
Aang's oldest son grinned. "Excellent. Is that gonna be our new saying now?"
"We're gonna have a slogan? Not really the time." Su asked through her gritted teeth.
The metal caging from the air vent bent and screeched then flew across the room. Bumi walked to the area right below the vent and was not even surprised when Lin bent him and Su up towards the entrance. The future recruit carefully pushed himself backwards into the air vent while pulling Suyin with him. The vent was tall enough for Bumi to sit straight up. He sighed at the thought of a back ache when this was all over from being hunched for a long amount of time. Suyin bit her lip at every movement. Not long afterwards, the two found Lin crawling into the space with Tenzin right behind her.
Suyin pushed herself to make a sarcastic comment. "Well isn't this just cozy."
Bumi stopped the groups movement to look back at Lin and Tenzin with the biggest smirk on his face. He enjoyed each word that left his mouth.
"We'll make do."
Toph, Satoru, Aang, Katara, and Sokka stood still side by side.
There wasn't much they could do considering that there were about twenty other guards blocking them from going further into the building.
Satoru looked towards Toph to his right. "Still think coming in undetected was a bad idea?"
The chief of police scoffed at her former lover. "I knew they were all in here. I was expecting this very situation to happen."
Sokka spoke from her left. "Okay, Chief. What now?"
"We fight, of course."
Faster than anyone could realize, Toph sent both her cables towards the blockade of guards. What they wrapped themselves around was not bodies, but a golden rod that was held up. Katara reacted at once and bent water towards the rod as well, intending to pull at it with her friend. Both women screamed out when electricity was suddenly conducted into their bodies. Toph and Katara fell to the ground. The golden rod sizzled with the remaining electricity accompanied by the sinister laughter of a woman.
"It must be my lucky day. I got a shock one get one free."
Satoru and Aang bent down to check on their respective partners while Sokka yelled out into the air. "Show yourself!"
"Oh I remember when you used to yell out like that for me. Quite the nights."
The councilman pulled out his boomerang and chucked it in the general direction of the mysterious voice. It caught him by surprise that a delicate hand, matching the one holding on to the electric stick caught it easily. The hands disappeared quickly and the voice began to travel around the large room.
"I gotta say. Team Avatar has really let itself go. Over confidence can't win every battle. Did you really think just charging in here was gonna scare the boys and I?"
Aang quickly blasted air towards the guards and they flew backwards instantly. But there wasn't a woman anywhere in sight. Only the sound of whizzing in the air.
Sokka yelled out at once. "Aang, watch out!"
The boomerang had not only hit the avatar in the head, but continued on its path to hit Satoru over the head as well. The men hit the ground groaning. Still conscious, Toph and Katara pushed themselves up to check on the men this time. Sokka put his full focus on trying to find their attacker.
"Another double hit? You guys must really be having a bad day. I don't think I'm going to get to show you my new toy."
"How about showing us yourself instead. I'll show you the kind of day I'm having."
The voice only giggled at the water tribe warrior's request. "Still funny as ever."
Sokka turned his head towards Toph. "Do you know where she is?"
The chief of police pushed herself up making the effort to stand. "Is there any wood in here?"
"Yeah there is a stack of wooden crates to your left."
"She isn't anywhere else."
The giggling echoed once more. Sokka searched the wooden crates and practically paled at the sight of the woman sitting on the highest crate. Legs crossed, electric rod being tossed into the air and back to her hand, she was just as Sokka remembered.
"Hello darling. Why didn't you ever call me back?"
Toph placed a hand on Sokka's shoulder. "Is that...?"
The councilman inhaled deeply before answering. "Because you're one crazy ass bitch, Yun."
Sokka, what kind of people are you mingling with? Yun really is a lunatic.
Being that this was my last weekend before school starts, I tried taking DragonGirl317's advice and try to get at least one more chapter out. This is what I got!
Next time: Does Yun know that the kids escaped? What is she planning to do with Team Avatar? What past does she have with Sokka? And will the kids make it out?
Thanks for reading! Leave a review if ya feel like it (:
