Dear Mako,

Grammy's dead. Mom's hurt pretty bad. I'm scared.

"Mom? Is it ever gonna stop storming?" Bolin asked from his spot on his mother's office floor.

"No." She replied grumpily, not even looking up from her paperwork.

"Come on, when's it gonna stop?" He asked again, wanting a serious answer. Adults always knew these things, why did they never share the information?

"Just as soon as you quit complaining about it." she finally looked over to see him staring out of the window, "Have you finished your homework yet?" He didn't answer, but the sounds of scribbles against the floor was all the answer she needed. After a half-a-minute of childish fuming, Bolin started humming a tune while he went about his work, and inevitably started singing it. It was a song that had been familiar to Lin since she was young enough for lullabies,

"I'm alone in the world, and my luck's runnin' low,

The trail's so hard with such a long way to go.

I got no sunshine, and I got no moon,

no reinforcements to save me from doom.

But I don't fear the dark or any risk that comes along,

because I'm blind as a wolfbat and twice as strong."

Her mother use to sing it to her before she went to sleep, it wasn't until she was sixteen that she found out that her favorite childhood lullaby was actually an Earth Kingdom tavern song. At the time it infuriated her to no end that her mother did that, but looking back Lin only wondered why it surprised her. This was the same woman who told the City Council that if any of her officers were hurt because of their new anti-brutality laws she was going to take her cables and shove every square inch of them straight up their asses...yeah, once she thought about it, it all made sense.

"Chief! We got word that the Shuang Gou Dam is faltering!" Lin jumped to her feet, and started out the door.

"Get rescue teams to warn and evacuate any citizens in the river's path! Call in every officer who isn't is a hostile district. Then call in every off duty water and earthbender! Have all earthbenders deepen the widen the riverbed! Asiaq!" she yelled at the highest ranking watertribe captain, "Take your team to the dam and stop all the water you can, travel by river, it's the fastest way. Saikhan, have the other waterbenders stream as much water from the river into the ocean as possible." they had to make room for the tons of water that might be coming through, "Send someone to alert the hospitals. When you're done with that, bring your team to the dam."

"What can I do, Mom?" He caught up to her as she got to the zip lines.

"Stay here, Son." Lin called down to him.

"I can help."

"You want to help? Don't try to be a hero." It wouldn't surprise her if he thought about coming after her. "Don't follow me." With that last order she took off. The Shuang Gou Dam was located about five miles Southeast of Republic City, and despite that distance if it were to burst hundreds of people could be killed. She couldn't let that happen. She went as fast as her bending would allow despite the danger of using the zip lines while wearing her armor during a thunderstorm. As soon as she reached the end of the lines she rode an earth wave the rest of the way.

When she got within seismic range of the dam, she found her mother had already heard and beaten her there, her fingers buried in the stone, trying desperately to keep the crumbling dam together. While she was doing that Asiaq's team was trying to plug the holes by freezing the water as it came through, but the water pressure was too much, the ice broke almost as soon as it froze. It was already clear that only a avatar could fix this.

"Lin, the dam's gonna go!" Toph shouted as Lin reached her destination.

"We have to give them time!" Lin yelled as she propelled herself to the other side of the river. The rain had made the ground slick with mud, she quickly compressed enough ground to get a strong foothold, dug her fingers in and braced herself, "Come on, Saikhan, hurry up!" she groaned as she literately tried to hold back a flood. The pressure grew and grew while the ten benders held the structure in place with all their might.

Suddenly there was a deafening crash from the other side of the dam. Lin was assaulted by a barrage of rocks and pressurized water and was thrown into the nearby tree line. As she flew back, the half that she'd been holding crumbled. She was immediately swept away in the current. As the water pushed her along, Lin felt all sorts of debris pound into her armor. She couldn't swim, her uniform was too heavy to let her. She couldn't bend it off, she was too busy being tossed around like a rag doll. This was the end. As a last resort she bended her cables in what she hoped was upward to try to catch them on something, then unfortunately she was hit in the head by a tree limb and blacked out.

...

"Near suffocation." the medics explained to Councilman Tenzin as the Chief's next-of-kin had yet to arrive at the hospital, "Major Head injury, multiple body injuries including broken leg, collar bone, four ribs, foot-"

"Will she be alright?"

"We don't know yet. It's a miracle that she even made it this far."

"May I see her?"

"No. I'm sorry, but she's still in the intensive care."

"Thank you." He sighed and resisted the urge to yell. The woman was just doing her job, and it was hard enough today without him keeping her from it and yelling, "Where is Toph?" he asked himself, "I need to tell her this." In all probability, Toph was over by the city limits, helping put up the last of the flood barriers...but he supposed that trying Headquarters couldn't hurt. He went up the the front desk and asked one of the clerks, "Excuse me, but would you mind if I used your telephone?"

"Not today. We have strict orders to keep the line free." The man with the mustache said strictly.

"Oh." Monkey Feathers, "Please make an exception, I need to locate Chief Beifong's mother, Toph." Another man with glasses looked at him sympathetically, but held his tongue.

"My orders are clear, Councilmen." The man made it clear that Tenzin would receive no help and left to do more important tasks. He huffed, blowing a gust of air and stormed away.

"Uh, Councilman?" the man with glasses whispered and gestured for him to come back. The airbender's mood lightened slightly, this kind gentleman was obviously going to lend him the telephone, "Please don't tell anyone I told you this, it's against regulations."

"Of course?" Maybe he wouldn't get to make that call after all.

"You see, Master Toph is already here." he started hesitantly.

"Here? Where?"

"...In the morgue, Sir."

"What?!" In the blink of an eye his body froze painfully and his breath got caught in his throat, "What?" he added when he found his voice, "No there must be some mistake."

"I overheard the officers that brought her body say that she and the Chief were trying to hold the dam together when it burst. I'm sorry." The Council felt lightheaded all of the sudden. He went over to the nearest wall for support.

"Aunt Toph..." he put his head in his hands, "tell me it's not true."

Once he got himself together a little bit, he found a healer that confirmed what the clerk told him. Toph Beifong was dead and Lin Beifong was in terrible shape and Bolin... where was Bolin? Surely he hadn't been there with them!

"Sorry, I need to use the telephone." He lightly shoved the mustached man aside.

"Police Headquarters, what's your emergency?"

"This is Councilman Tenzin. Is Bolin Beifong there?"

"Sir this line is only used for emergencies."

"This is an emergency. Is Bolin there?"

"...please hold." the receptionist couldn't have been gone for a minute, but it felt like a lifetime.

"Uh...hi?" A boy's voice came over the phone.

"Oh thank goodness. Bolin this is your Uncle Tenzin. Now listen carefully, I want you to go to your mothers office-"

"Captain Saikhan told me to stay outta there." Bolin interrupted.

"Well, go wait for me in the break room, I'm coming over right now to pick you up."

"Okay."

...

"Tenzin," Pema greeted her husband as she walked up to his bison, "I thought you wouldn't be home until later tonight." She didn't get an answer. He just helped his passenger down and started towards the house without even acknowledging his own wife. All words left her. Something happened, something bad.

"Bolin." Her husband sat the boy on a cushion in front of the fire while she stood at the doorway "I need you to be brave for me, alright?" the boy nodded, "Your grandmother was a very brave woman..."

I don't know what to do. I lost my grandma. What if I lose my mom again?...

..."Assassinated?"