In a rage, Lin's little sister stormed right back to her airship and took Hiroshi back to Zaofu. After the upset, Raiko wasted no time telling the press whose fault it was that Hiroshi Sato was not in the city prison. Word spread, and now Asami wasn't speaking with her, Mako was confused, and only Bolin was at least giving her the benefit of the doubt. She had many arguments, with many different people, but she didn't budge. The president had no right to involve her family without her permission and she refused to get them mixed up an a mess.
Two days after the messenger came, Lin traded her metal armor for a uniform of her order. She found it lacking compared to her usual gear, but luckily she rarely had to don the colors. It would defeat the purpose. Sentinels such as herself were supposed to blend in to society, remaining unknown to the general public, which is why they had the addition of a half mask to their uniform that came up from the neck and stopped just below the eye.
"I want to meet with him alone." She told the guards on the boat ride to the first stop of her mission, the wooden prison that held Ghazan. It was her turn to interrogate each of the four criminals that tried to kidnap the avatar from her home.
"Good luck, Sentinel." They gave her a tray of food and she went to the task. Ghazan barely raised an eyebrow as she set the tray of food just out of arms' length outside the cage, he knew what she was there for, but he didn't care. Not that she'd expected him to break at the mere sight of her, he had a dozen Inquisitors, Sentinels, even Grand Masters interrogate him every year, and he didn't even blink when they stepped into view.
"So another Sentinel," The lavabender shook his head as he leaned against the wall of his cell, "You know you're wasting your time." A staring contest ensued. This was going to be a long day, and he was only the first of on the tour.
While the Chief was away, President Raiko did play. It took him just a little over a week to convince all three of them to take a field trip to Zaofu. And it wasn't really all of them, just Bolin who was being indecisive; and it wasn't Raiko who convinced him, it was Asami. But honestly the youngest Beifong didn't know what to do. His mom hated that woman enough to let Hiroshi Sato walk...Hiroshi. Sato. The man who befriended her, betrayed her, kidnapped her boys and sent them to the enemy...he knew they were missing something here, but he didn't know what.
"Seriously." Bolin finally broke the tense silence of the airship. During the flight, almost no one spoke unless it was necessary, even the reporters had given up trying to get information out of them. But the silence left the young man with time to think, and the curiously had finally got the better of him, "What did this woman do to Mom? Or the city, or, you know...?" The reporters suddenly grew fangs and licked their lips for the juicy tidbits they were about to get.
"Well..." His Uncle Tenzin stroked his beard while he tried to think of the right words as his Uncle Bumi and Aunt Kya looked at their brother, and each other with dreading and panicked faces, almost like something would blow up if they made the wrong move, "that is a very complicated question. The situation had escalated over the course of a few years a-"
"President Raiko, we're making our approach into Zaofu." Bolin could have swore he heart every reporter's heart drop when the navigator interrupted and ended any chance for an explanation, not that he was leaping for joy himself.
"Just remember, all of you." Kya told the three quarters of team avatar, "What Lin did, she did because she thought it was the right thing for you."
"Alright, why do I really not like where she's going with this?" Bolin whispered to the rest of team avatar.
"Cause this ain't gonna be pretty." Bumi overheard him and answered with a shrug, then holding his hands up as his siblings glared at him, "What? It's not." The reporters all wrote down a few notes to put in their respective papers as the airship touched down and the gangplank lowered. The youngest Beifong glanced over at his group of family as they walked to the mysterious woman, and hummingbutterflies started flying around in his stomach.
"President Raiko." Camera's flashed as the woman extended a hand towards the world leader, but her eyes were on him and his big brother.
"Matriarch. I wanted to apologize for Chief Beifong's poor beha...vior..." he trailed off as the city's leader ignored him and walked straight over to him as questions were shouted in her direction. Out of the older adults, Tenzin was the closest and he put a hand on Bolin's shoulder to reassure him that everything would be alright.
"Bolin Beifong?" she smiled at him and cast a quick glare at his uncle. And something about that glare unnerved. He took a second to gulp, and nodded. And everyone there, except three, all momentarily panicked as she suddenly threw her arms around him. But only for a second before realizing that she'd pulled him into a hug. Jaws dropped when she pulled back to kiss his cheek. His eyes followed the matriarch, wondering what in the world was going on while she went for his big brother. The brooding firebender had figured out what was coming for him and tried to escape, but he just wasn't quick enough. The poor guy froze stiff as a board as he was engulfed in a hug and kissed as well, "Hello Mako."
"..." he looked at her, rather stupidly, like his brother was. The reporters weren't flabbergasted as the brothers though, more questions came from even more curious people.
"I'm sorry." She frowned sadly at the brothers, "I knew better than to think your mother told you about me."
"And who are you exactly?" Mako asked cautiously. Before a word could come out of her mouth, all three of the cloud kids got in between the brothers and the woman.
"Why don't we go talk about somewhere a little more private?" Kya suggested. No one except her siblings seemed to like the idea, the family thought that they'd waiting long enough for answers, and everyone else just wanted to be nosy. But the matriarch nodded to the older woman before turning to the President,
"Aiwei will take you to and your people to Zaofu's finest hotel. Everyone else will come stay at my home as guests."
"But we haven't discussed Hiroshi Sato."
"After my meeting, as promised. Now if you all would all follow my adviser, we will go over the details of the transfer later." No one had to ask which group they were sorted into, but Bumi would always be Bumi. He pointed a thumb back at the airbender as they all started towards the train station,
"Even him?"
"Yes." Su turned to glare at Tenzin, "Even him." Her demeanor changed instantly, replaced by a devious smirk, "By the way Tenzin, we didn't get the chance to talk while I was in Republic City. Did you like my wedding gift?"
"Y-" The top half of Tenzin's face turned red and his eyebrows shot up, "You're the one who sent the crate full of beewasps and labeled it 'Air Nation Artifact For- Master Tenzin's Eyes Only'?!"
"Guilty." She said with the sweetest smirk. Bumi and Kya laughed and patted her on the back.
"That was classic Su." The eldest of the cloud siblings said so proudly, "How'd ya rig contraption that splattered him with honey, syrup and sugar?"
"Oh, that was my husband's design." She stopped their conversation to be a good hostess, or at least as good as a hostess who didn't offer her guest a place to stay within her residence could be, to ask the president and others to please enjoy their stay in her city. Then she led the family on another private train, "I didn't tell him what I was using it for, of course. He's such a sweet man, he would never help me pull that prank. I trust it went well?"
"He ran halfway across the island, tearing off his cloths before air diving into the bay in his underwear." The waterbender reported as Tenzin continued to seethe and pout while the four teenagers looked on in awe.
"Really?" Korra grinned in her teacher's direction, undeterred by his huffing,
"Oh, she pulled stuff like this all the time when she was younger." Kya explained to Korra, and the other teenagers.
"I had to play dirty." The matriarch, or Su as Bumi called her, defended herself, "I was always so much smaller than all the other kids."
"Most of the other kids were adults by the time you came around." The hairy man patted Su's head sympathetically,
"Or at least teenagers." Bumi's little sister agreed with a playful pinch of the younger woman's cheek and began to speak in baby talk, "And we all wove de likle baby girl."
"Hey!" She swatted the two of them away, "At least the tables are turned. Now you're all old, and I'm not." The waterbender pulled her brother away a few steps,
"Well, she's got us on that one, right big brother?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, faking concern. Bumi leaned over to Kya, the hand hiding his mouth did nothing nothing to muffle his voice,
"Think we should beat her up after our afternoon naps?" they both started snickering, and were immediately joined by Su. Bolin and company watched the exchange silently, though they did all look to him for an explanation, which he couldn't give. He settled for a shrug.
"Oh hey, look!" He pointed out the window as they passed a statue of Toph, "It's Grammy."
"Grammy?" Su asked with a light chuckle, "I'm surprised she let you call her that."
"Well, she didn't like it, but Mom backed me up on that one. I think it was some sort of revenge for all the embarrassing stories Grammy always told. Why do you have a statue of her here?"
"When I decided to build a city of metal, I knew I would have to pay homage to the mother of metalbending. Besides, she was always upset that Aang's statue was bigger than hers, I think this would help make up for that." To the untrained ear, that sounded like a joke. But only two people there hadn't heard the great metalbender complain about the crime that was the gaang's statues.
"So how did you know Toph?" Mako's question went unanswered as Bumi, Kya and Tenzin each stopped Su from speaking, telling her in their own words to wait until they could sit down with a cup of tea and discuss this like adults. From that moment on, the ride became almost unbearably tense for everyone. Bolin spent the time shuffling on his feet while he looked out the window until they came to the Matriarch's estate.
"Whoa." He looked at it with wide-eyed fascination. This place was huge, even by rich people's standards. The main building they made their way to was unsurprisingly a mansion, and the office they were led to was equally impressive. Bolin especially liked the model of the city, but that wasn't what everyone was here to talk about, so he took a seat on the couch with the other teenagers while the older ones sat across from them. Now they only had to wait for someone to drop the hammer.
"What's going on? And where's my father?" Actually, it was surprising that Asami had taken this long to speak up, the suspense had been eating at her since the end of the equalist movement.
"He's where he belongs, in jail. And what's going on is..." he head tilted to the side slightly and a hesitant smile donned her face. The others beside her, well, they all looked incredibly nervous, "something of a family reunion."
"Come again?"
"Perhaps I should properly introduce myself. My name is Suyin Beifong." Dead silence. Those surrounding Suyin found different corners of the room very interesting, those sitting opposite of Suyin had to take a moment to gather their wits just to look at each other in surprise.
"Beifong?" Mako spoke up for the group, "As in..."
"Toph Beifong was my mother." None of them believed her claim at first, but none of them could call the bluff before Tenzin confirmed it,
"You're mother had her reasons for hiding this from you." he told them softly, but firmly.
"Yes," Su agreed so sarcastically, complete with sarcastic smile, "she's a bitter woman."
"That's not entirely true, Su." The airbender went to defend his ex-girlfriend in her absence without hesitation, soon followed by his big brother,
"Yeah, you did get-"
"Hold it!" Bolin shot up with his hands in the air. He was confused, and he wanted answers right now, "What's going on here?! You're my mom's sister." he pointed to the youngest of the four and got four head-nods, "Okay, that's settled. Now, you and my mom are estranged sisters?" again, four nods, "Okay. And no one told us about you, why?" Here's where everyone started to get a little antsy, but Bolin got his answers as they went down the line,
"Well, I made some mistakes-" Su.
"That got people killed." Bumi.
"Who happened to be your mom's team." Kya.
"And Lin hasn't been able to get past that." Tenzin.
"To realize that I saved her life." Su finished bitterly. After an explanation like that, there was only one thing to say,
"What?" They were told a tragic tale of a misguided teenager who got in over her head, and was so focused on saving her sister that she ignored the fact that she was sending a team of people into danger without their leader. Su seemed to be trying to make herself sound favorable as she told her side of the story, But the others made sure that they heard Lin's side of the argument as well, that Lin had trusted her and had been betrayed. And when the story was finished, no member of Team Avatar knew what to think.
"I know this will take awhile to process," The older waterbender took pity on the stunned teenagers, "so in the mean time, why don't we find a place where you all can get some rest."
"Come meet your cousins." Or, instead of taking some time to think things over, they could go meet other members of the family and have that much more to keep them up later, "Come along, most of them should be playing outside right now." In a silent daze, Bolin, his brother and his friends followed Suyin outside and to a specific part of the grounds, obviously meant for little children to play in.
"Bolin!" He knew that voice, and that tone in that voice.
"Mom?!" The young man's whole life flashed before his eyes as he saw his mother standing a few yards away, not in uniform, but taking a stance against the matriarch all the same. A cold chill ran down everyone's spine as they looked between the two women. And they slowly backed away from the both of them.