Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: The only thing I can really think of is to have villains that carry over between seasons like Ozai and Azula. Something like having Kuvira play a much larger role in Book 3 to set her up better, or still having Equalists around in later Books. Or, indeed, just have the same antagonists take more than one season to defeat.

As Always, Please Review!

Bolin

A jet of air blasted Bolin in one direction and Opal in the other, as the metal embedded itself in the ground where they had just been. Opal flew to her feet and pointed accusingly at Ganzorig.

"We trusted you!" She told him. The sandbender just shrugged.

"Sucker!" He replied, before swan diving off the far side of the saddle and vanishing into the sand under Juicy's feet.

The rest of the sandbenders looked up as Lin and Suyin jumped off the sky bison, landing with a thump in the sand and straightening up. Suyin was brandishing a knife.

"Where are we?" She demanded. "Take us back now!"

"No!" Opal replied. "You don't belong there!"

"The Great Uniter ordered us there! You kidnapped us!"

"We rescued you! You're brainwashed!" Opal tried desperately. But this only caused Lin's face to harden.

"How dare you," she said. "Just because we support Kuvira and you don't?"

"No, I mean you're literally brainwashed-"

But Opal didn't get to finish her sentence before Suyin attacked, sweeping her arm to send the dagger slicing through the air at her. Opal sprang away, propelling herself high into the air with her bending and landing a distance away, before blowing sand into her mother's face. Suyin reeled backwards, dropping the knife, but before it could even hit the ground it stopped as Lin assumed control over it, sending it spearing towards her. The ground shook and Opal stumbled, the knife whizzing by her harmlessly. It had never even come near her.

Bolin looked to see one of the other sandbenders, Borte, he thought, with an arm extended, having just knocked Opal over. The woman nodded at him and then hurried away.

"Opal!"

Bolin rushed towards the two of them, extending his arms as the ground beneath him rumbled. The heat intensified as the ground melted and a wave of lava raced towards the two of them. In alarm, Juicy roared and took off to get out of the way, as the sisters looked at the oncoming rush of lava and jumped. They just managed to grab a sky bison foot each and were carried safely over the crest of the wave, before dropping to the floor again.

There was a rumble as Toph arrived, having rushed over using the sand to increase her speed.

"Who let them out?" She demanded.

"Ganzorig."

Toph cursed.

"I knew we should never have trusted sandbenders!"

The other sandbenders looked hurt at that, but Bolin didn't have time to dwell on it as the knife came spearing back towards Toph, guided by Lin. But Toph just sank into the earth and the knife missed again. A moment later she was back, whipping up a huge sandstorm that blinded everyone. Bolin fought against the sand that choked his nose and eyes, pulling rags over his mouth to protect it as he strained to see through the storm. He could hear the sounds of fighting, of the crunch of rock and the whistle of metal through the air. Though Toph had seismic sense, and thus a natural advantage in low visibility, that wouldn't count for much here because Lin and Suyin did too.

He felt a hand clamp around his arm and yelped, whirling around, but it was only Opal, generating a fierce whirlwind around herself to keep the sand away.

"Are you alright?" She called over the rush of sand and air. Bolin nodded.

"Where are they?"

Bolin pointed in the general direction of where he had thought he had heard the fighting. Together they moved towards it, Opal's wind parting the sand before them as they walked.

Abruptly though, the sand fell away. As quickly as it had begun, the storm was over. Ahead of them, Toph was now looking like she was seriously struggling, and needed all of her energy to concentrate on the fight. Lin had control of Ganzorig's knife, and was swiping it towards her mother as Toph blocked it with sand that rose from the ground to form barriers before falling away again just as quickly.

Opal shouted, and rushed towards them, her arms outstretched to blast Lin away, but her call seemed to distract Toph, who stumbled. The pillar of sand that would have deflected the knife rose in the wrong place, and Bolin watched in horror as, seemingly in slow motion, the blade travelled under Toph's outstretched arm and towards her heart.

And just as quickly, the knife stopped. It fell to the ground, as Lin, her eyes wide, fell to her knees. Beside her, Suyin looked shocked.

"What?" She said. "Where am I? Mum? What are you doing here?"

Toph didn't say anything for a long second, and then...

"Oh yeah!" She jumped up. "Welcome back! Toph Beifong does it again!"

"What?" Opal asked, stupefied.

"Are they back to normal?" Bolin pointed at Suyin, who was too busy hugging Toph to notice. Over her shoulder, Toph shrugged.

"Well, I may have known a bit more about breaking mind control than I let on before," she admitted.

"You did?" Opal seemed like she wanted to be angry but couldn't quite muster it. "How?"

"Before," Toph began, "when Jet... just before it happened, we managed to briefly snap him out of it," she said. "By reminding him of what was important."

"So you did that here?" Bolin asked. "By doing... that? Letting yourself get stabbed? How could you be sure it would work?"

"I hoped," Toph replied. "But I'm an old woman, I wouldn't have been too disappointed if it failed."

Bolin felt a chill run through him at the implications of those words.

She smiled.

"I'm glad it worked though."

"I'm glad it worked too," Opal said, going over to hug her. Toph didn't even try to stop her.

Bolin didn't move though.

"Wait, but if this was planned, then what about Ganzorig?" He asked.

"Don't be too hard on him, I asked him to do it," Toph revealed. "It had to look good, which is why I didn't tell you."

She stamped a foot, and the sand parted to reveal Ganzorig lying in a ditch. He stood up warily.

"Er, hello?" He said warily. "Toph? Do they know?"

"They know," Toph told him.

"We thought you'd betrayed us!" Bolin thundered. "After we helped you and everything!"

Ganzorig held his hands up defensively. "Come on, it wasn't real!" He said. "She told me to!"

Bolin relented.

"Alright, fine," he said. "Thank you." He had to force the words out.

The Beifongs didn't pay him much attention though. All four of them were now locked in a passionate hug.

"So they're not brainwashed any more?" Varrick asked, moving over to Bolin.

"Apparently not," Bolin said.

"Good," Varrick replied. "Brainwashed Lin is even scarier than regular Lin, believe me. How did she do it?"

"I don't know," Bolin shrugged.

Meanwhile, Suyin had separated from the hug.

"I'm so sorry!" She said.

Toph frowned. "For what?"

She sounded genuinely baffled.

"For trying to kill you?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. Kuvira made you do that. And the next time we see her we'll destroy her for it, don't you worry."

Toph said it in a tone of casual certainty that masked her fury.

Suyin frowned.

"Sure," she said. "What happened? I'm trying to..."

And then her eyes widened.

"We have to warn them!" She said urgently. "Republic City, that is."

"What, that Kuvira's coming to attack them?" Bolin asked. "We already knew that, didn't we?"

But Suyin shook her head.

"No, it's not that she's going to try to take the city," she explained. "It's what she's going to do with it once she has."