Su took the bounty hunters' bait, and was quickly presented with a wanted poster. And on that wanted poster was an enormous, obviously personally funded, reward for one Hiroshi Sato. Of course this begged a somewhat obvious question, "Why would my sister use gold out of her own inheritance for his capture?"
"This is why." The head bounty hunter tossed a newspaper in front of her, the headline reading 'BEIFONG IS BACK'. The picture on the front page showed a woman with the basic form of her big sister hugging two young men, of course this touching moment almost made Su believe that it wasn't really Lin in the picture. As she read the article, her mind started to fill with questions. She had to stop more than once to get something explained to her. The first time was when she read 'equalist cell'.
"Found in equalist cell?" The paper was obviously locally obvious what an equalist was, and so Su had no idea how bad it was to be trapped in one, "An 'equalist' is one of those chi-blocking terrorists?"
"Right." The leader nodded, "They caught her by setting a trap. They kidnapped her son."
"Son?" Su's jaw dropped slightly before she could catch herself, she must have heard that wrong. Lin didn't have a son.
"Yeah," the boss's right hand man pointed to the more stocky of the two young men on the front page, "The youngest one, he hadn't learned metalbending yet."
"No he's the eldest." The third, and youngest, corrected. Glancing over, she silently silently asked Aiwei which was trying to lie to her, and he informed her that neither were. So while they couldn't both be telling the truth, neither thought they were lying. "He's the airbender's kid."
"You sure?" The second grabbed a small bit of paper out of his satchel, and Su rolled her eyes, waiting for them to make up their minds which one of the young men was Lin's supposed son. "He looks younger than the other two."
"Yeah, street ages people, that for sure." he told his superior before turning to her to explain, "I was on the force for a year until Amon's defeat, I heard all about Chief Beifong's boys." So now it was 'Beifong boys'? The youngest man took the paper from the second and put it in front of her on her desk. It was a family portrait with Lin, the two young men and a young woman. Su's jaw dropped at first, but then nearly choked on a laugh as she looked down at the family...they were all in their undershirts for a family portrait.
"That sounds like something my sister would do." She mused quietly to herself, still trying to wrap her head around the idea. They probably had no clue as to what she was talking about, but they let her little ramble go without comment, "How did you get this?"
"We asked the photographer they used, and he gave it to us to give to you." In other words, they bribed someone so they might butter her up, "That's Bolin, he's her eldest, though you'd never tell by looking at him. He's Councilman, former councilmen now, Tenzin's boy. He lived at Air Temple Island until they found out he's an earthbender, then his dad shipped him to the chief. This is Mako, Bolin's half brother. I don't know who his father is, but after the guy died, he ran away and lived on the streets. Beifong looked for him for years and they finally found him. Now this is Asami Sato, she's not really Beifong's kid. She's her stepdaughter, or she was about to be before Hiroshi Sato betrayed her to the equalists, I'm told."
"Yeah and after all that, the girl's still in the family photo. Give her credit," The second laughed a little, "Beifong has bad taste in men, but she does right by the kids." The matriarch only half heard that last sentence because what young bounty hunter said had nearly her complete attention. Asami Sato, probably some relation to Hiroshi Sato...who betrayed his fiancee...who was her big sister.
"Aiwei..." This couldn't be true. Hiroshi was a good man, he was her husband's friend and coworker, he wouldn't do something like that. Surely.
"They're not lying." He said simply, an angry frown forming on his face. She probably had a more vicious version of it on her face. Her blood started to boil as she remembered everything her family had done for the traitorous bastard.
"No we're not." The leader, who had been silent for the majority of the conversation said with a tone of feigned concern, "That's why you need to give us Sato. These equalists terrorize benders, and the weapons they use against metalbenders were designed by this man right here."
"And now he's in a city full of metalbenders..." His second added causally.
"I am aware of that." She said full venom, her eyes darkening and a look of murder covering her face.
"Now that's all for today." Bolin told his morning class as the lesson was nearing it's end, "Remember to-" he was about to give out the homework when his pet fire ferret and his mom's pet sealhound came bounding in. Of course, by the time he was aware of this, Pabu had jumped on his head and Tǎoyàn pawed the ground at his feet, "Remember that if you have a small rodent like pet, it's not a good idea to con any member of your family into taking in a sealhound." He swatted his pet's tail out from in front of his face while his students snickered, "Just work on your stance and breathing techniques tonight, we'll be working with purer metals tomorrow."
They all started leaving the training room, most of them telling him how glad they were that he was doing okay and back teaching the class. The instructor smiled and nodded, accepting their good natured talk and bidding them a good day before going to the far corner of the room with his buddy firmly attached to his head and his mom's partner on his heels.
"Sorry, Bo." A voice that didn't belong to any of his students laughed apologetically from the doorway.
"Oh, hey, Korra." He turned as the avatar walked in with Asami, which Bolin should have expected, he had asked his best friend to let Pabu stay at her place while he went to work. His mom must have been out of her office when the girls went in. The sealhound always seemed to think the ferret was fair game when his master wasn't around, "Hey, Asami, what's up?"
"Well, Mako's only working a half-shift later tonight, so we're going out to dinner and we thought we could get all of team avatar together. Around six o'clock, maybe?"
"Oh, well," He rubbed the back of his neck, "I'd love to go, but I've already made plans for tonight. I'm really sorry." If he wanted a downhearted look from Korra, or a sweatdrop from Asami, he'd succeeded.
"Oh, okay." Korra said, trying to hide a small pout.
"Korra, could you excuse me and Bolin for just a minute?" His best friend asked sweetly...a little too sweetly. Bolin suddenly got the feeling that he was in trouble, and he started to sweat a little, not knowing just how much trouble he'd managed to get himself into.
"So...ouch!" He rubbed the back of his head and gave the woman a halfhearted glare. Asami had done a facepalm with her left hand and a headslap with her right, "Hey, what was that for?"
"You blew it again, Bolin." Asami groaned, still keeping her face in her hand, "That was a perfect setup for a double date in a causal, stress free environment."
"Oh man, I wish I could go..." Bolin's glare turned into the pout of a kid who just lost his dessert privileges, "But I can't." He said despairingly as he put on his blades, which his mom talked him into wearing again. But to ease his mind, he kept them just barely sharp enough to make a cut, "Mom's gonna show me how to strike with a blade without causing...you know, death."
"Well, that is really important." And now Asami felt horrible for setting this up and making Bolin miss it for what could only be called safety training, "I'll tell them that you had some mother/son bonding time. It's not like either of them knew it was going to be a dating situation."
"Thanks for trying, Asami." He smiled gratefully, "Maybe next time."
"Yeah, see you later, Bo." She gave him a goodbye hug, which was readily returned.
"Bye." He waved her off and looked at his present company, "Alright boys, I'm gonna take the sealhound back to mom's office, and along the way we're gonna get along, and not kill-" Tǎoyàn made a jump for Pabu, who jumped down and started running for his life, "Hey, wait! Sit Tǎoyàn, bad hound!"
It took Su less than a minute to get her armor while Kuvira assembled a team of guards. Hiroshi Sato was going to be the exception to the rule and he was going to answer for his crimes for the sake of her sister's family, and for the safety of the citizens of Zaofu.
"Baatar! Junior!" She shouted, getting into as they reached the construction site which Hiroshi was helping them with. They couldn't count on the man not to have some kind of small weapon that would render them all but helpless, "Get away from him!" They gave them a look of complete confusion while Hiroshi gave them a look of panic, he knew he'd been discovered,
"It's over!" The captain of the guard informed the criminal, "Don't try anything foolish!" They stood still as statues as the man put his hands up in the air, and with a flick of the wrist a small green ball shot up from each of his sleaves and into each fist. They shot out their cables as the balls hit the ground, releasing a smoke cloud that made their eyes tear up.
"Damn it!" The matriarch roared as she doubled over in pain along with everyone else in the general vicinity. As she tried to gain control, she heard the sound of retreating footsteps. If they didn't do something soon, he'd surely escape, but she just couldn't move. Luckily a rumble traveled beneath their feet, starting from behind them and, judging by a angry growl, ended at Hiroshi. Su forced her eyes open slightly and saw the shape of a man on the ground, his feet encased in earth courtesy of her seismic sense expert adviser, if she had to guess.
"Don't I have any rights?" Hiroshi asked with anger as she and Kuvira threw him into a cell, "This is supposed to be a place of second chances!" She did her best to master a threatening look which was probably cheapened by her red eyes and tear stained cheeks.
"You're a danger to the entire clan, and my family!" Su ignored his reply as she stormed out, meeting the bounty hunters outside the jail, "We'll take him to Republic City."
"He's our-"
"You may come along and collect your reward." Su interrupted with a sneer, still hating the three for their chosen profession, "Then your business in Zaofu will be complete, for good. We'll leave tomorrow at dawn." With the final instruction, Su walked off with the captain right behind her.
"We?" Kuvira asked her as soon as they were out of hearing range of the bounty hunters, "You don't have to trouble yourself, I can take them on own." It sounded like the young woman thought that she was doubting her ability to get the job done without problems.
"I know, Kuvira." She stopped and put a hand on her shoulder, "But I want to check on my sister...and meet her children. Could you get a ship prepared, I need to radio someone in Republic City, wouldn't want to get arrested the moment my feet hit the ground." A small smile met her mischievous one before the young captain left to her task, and the matriarch to hers.
"Dear." Baatar came into the radio tower in the middle of her transmission, but didn't speak until she made arrangements to meet on Air Temple Island, which she learned was still technically classified as Air Nation land and was therefore technically neutral ground. And of course, she made a condition or two in exchange for Hiroshi's extradition. "Kuvira told me...are you alright?"
"This is just such big news. Lin, my big sister, miss 'I'm never having kids' has two sons, and a stepdaughter. Teenage sons and stepdaughter judging by the picture..." she just found out about them. Through strangers no less. It brought tears to her eyes, "I'm happy for her, children are a blessing. I'm glad she didn't miss out on that."
"Su." Her husband said with a tone that told her he was calling her bluff. She tried to act as if nothing was wrong for a few minutes, but she failed miserably. So many thoughts were running through her head, and with each one of them, her heart broke into tinier pieces.
"Why didn't she tell me?!" She sobbed, standing up and throwing the chair she vacated across the room, "Why didn't anyone tell me?! I know she hates me but how did she convince the entire family to sweep this under the rug?" she paused, her breath catching in her throat. As fast as her anger came, it left to be replaced with sorrow, "...I think she's disowned me, Baatar."