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The Red Lotus guards watching over the airbenders went down quickly with the help of Suyin and Asami. Lin looked at the group in the cave and a knot formed in her stomach. Pema wasn’t with the others. The lone heartbeat she sensed in a familiar body a few dozen meters back must have been her. She was just about to leave the cave to go find Pema when Jinora started frantically yelling in a way that Lin hadn’t heard from the girl before.
“I need the key! Unlock me! Now! Now!”
Suyin took the keys from Opal and began to uncuff Jinora.
“Everything’s okay. We’re getting you all out of here,” Suyin said in a motherly tone.
The second Jinora was freed, she created an air scooter and made for the mouth of the cave. Lin sent out a cable to grab at the back of her shawl as she sped by. Jinora yelped in surprise and her scooter dissipated, causing her to fall flat on her back.
“Lin, we have to go get mom!” She started ripping her clothes where the cable was still hooked on.
“Auntie Lin they took mommy away!” Ikki shouted.
“Jinora says mom’s hurt!” Meelo cried.
Lin surveyed the group. Everyone looked physically fine, and Rohan was being held by some airbender she didn’t care to know the name of. Jinora screamed in frustration as Lin pulled her back into the cave.
“What happened?”
Ikki grabbed onto Lin’s leg when she was freed from her chains, clearly wanting to be held. Lin couldn’t resist those light gray eyes that reminded her so much of Aang and picked her up to rest her on her hip.
“They took mommy last night and she hasn’t been back.” Ikki sniffled. “I’m scared.”
“I know, baby,” Lin said gently and brushed some hair off her face. “Who took her?”
“Zaheer and Ghazan,” Opal said as she pushed Bolin away. “They said they would take me if she didn’t go with them.”
“I saw her!” Jinora shouted. “I used my spirit projection to find her. They hurt her!”
Lin frowned. It was concerning what Jinora’s spiritual prowess made her capable of. “I know where she is. Go with Suyin and Asami and get out of here.”
“But—”
“What did I just say?” Lin snapped.
“Yes, Lin,” Jinora said in a defeated voice.
Lin released the cable holding Jinora, put down Ikki, and got down on her knee to pull the kids into a hug. “Listen to Suyin and Asami.” She turned to leave the cave only to find Suyin in her way this time. “What?!” she snapped. She didn’t have time for this.
“Why are you talking to Tenzin’s kids like that?”
“Get out of my way.” Lin shoved her sister aside and ran.
Suyin didn’t need to know anything, not her relationship status, and certainly not that the kids had started to see her as another parental figure over the past few months. Lin sprinted into the section of the tunnel system where she had sensed the heartbeat earlier and found Pema in a sparsely lit cavern. She didn’t react to Lin’s approach, she stayed lying on her side with her arms tied behind her back. The tie securing Pema’s hands gave way easily under the sharp edge of Lin’s knife. As the fabric unraveled, Lin recognized the feeling of the material slipping through her fingers as Pema’s sash.
“Monkey rat bastards,” she growled under her breath.
Her blood boiled as she untied the thin fabric gag that was cinched too tight through Pema’s teeth and did her best to close the layers of her dress. Lin pulled her up by the shoulders to put her upper half in her lap. She cradled Pema’s head in the crook of her arm.
“Pema,” Lin’s voice was devoid of emotion even though deep beneath the surface a white-hot rage burned there. Tenzin was hardly able to keep his eyes open when she left him outside. The kids couldn’t lose both their parents to the Red Lotus, and Lin knew she wasn’t at all prepared to be a single mother of four. She gently tapped Pema’s cheek with her fingers. “Pema,” she said louder.
Pema’s gasped and tried to push Lin away. “No,” she rasped, “please.”
“Pema, it’s me.” Lin sensed a deep section of the cave shaking and beginning to crumble. She grabbed Pema’s hand and pressed her cold palm flat over the badge on her chest. “It’s me. Can you walk?”
“Lin?” Pema croaked weakly. “Where are the children?”
“They’re safe. We need to leave.”
Pema stood as Lin pulled her up and cried out when she took a step. The cave shook again, this time closer. Pebbles and dust shifted and fell in streams from the roof of the cavern. Lin picked Pema up in her arms and sprinted to the exit. Once they were in the sunlight, Lin looked down to get an idea of how badly Pema was injured. Her face was bruised and bloodied, patches of her dress were stained with blood and filth, and one of her sleeves had nearly been torn completely off where it met the shoulder. More bruises could be seen splayed across her sternum from where her dress was coming open at the top. Her shoes were gone.
Luckily all the airbenders were busy making some kind of massive tornado and Lin could hide Pema from the kids for a moment longer. She got up into Oogi’s saddle and laid Pema next to Tenzin. Pema raised her hand to get the sunlight out of her face and noticed Tenzin next to her. She turned to bury her face into his soot-coated robes and held onto his arm
Lin wanted to take off now and get them help, but Oogi was the only mode of transportation they had until they got back to the Zoafu airship, other than Kai’s baby bison, which she eyed and decided wasn’t a viable option. She couldn’t just abandon everyone in this valley, so she grabbed Bumi and Kya and brought them into the saddle as well.
Once Zaheer was defeated, the injured, Tonraq, Lin, and Asami made the trip on Oogi back to the airship. The kids protested up and down about not coming with them, but Lin pointed out the new airbenders needed guidance in Tenzin’s absence. Then she commanded Asami to take off before much more arguing could be done. Her and Tonraq made sure none of the unconscious members of the group fell from the saddle and kept an eye out for any attacks from the ground.
The Metal Clan members that Suyin had shelled out for the occasion were expedient in getting the injured onto the airship, and they managed to get the first ones boarded set up in the medical bay. Unfortunately, there were only four proper beds in the infirmary, and by the time one of the Metal Clan soldiers walked up the ramp holding Pema, the beds were all occupied by Korra, Tenzin, Bumi, and Kya. She heard the man carrying her say something about being a non-bender to one of the others. Lin marched up to him and took Pema in her arms to take her to one of the nearby rooms.
“Non-bender,” Lin mumbled to herself, nearly losing her composure. “Not the fucking avatar or the child of the previous one. Who really cares?” She opened the door to the room with her bending and slammed it shut behind her. A tear of frustration finally slipped from her eye now that she had some privacy. She carefully rested Pema on the bed and got on her knees to be as close as possible while she wiped some dirty hair off Pema’s face. “I’ll take care of you.”
***
About an hour into the 12-hour flight back to the city, the Metal Clan members who knew basic triage were able to report that no one was going to bleed out from their wounds, and that someone would watch over the injured to make sure no one took a turn for the worse. Lin convinced Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo to take charge of the new airbenders, citing that their parents needed rest and couldn’t be disturbed. Lin made Suyin take Rohan and decided to stay with Pema herself. She grabbed some supplies from the medical bay and went back to Pema’s room to assess the damage.
She began by cleaning the blood and dirt off her face from her split lips and random cuts around her cheekbones and forehead. Then she opened her dress to see what was going on and red colored her vision, both from the blood waiting for her there and the anger she felt. Blood smeared Pema’s inner thighs practically down to her knees and her body was littered with bruises.
Lin delicately cleaned between Pema’s legs as best she could and tried to ignore the bruises and friction burns that waited for her under all the blood. She put some gauze between her legs when she saw that she was still bleeding. She was shaking with anger by the time she was done and threw the soiled dress into the corner.
She forced herself to move on to the other wounds, sanitizing and cleaning up the scrapes on her hands and knees, punctures on her arms and stomach, and bite marks on her shoulders and breasts. When she was done, the water in the bowl was crimson and all the bandages she brought in were being used. She covered Pema over with the soft bedding and then used her seismic sense to make sure she wouldn’t bump into any of the kids on the way to dispose of the dirty water and clothing.
Asking around for spare clothes led her to a storage closet of some basic items. She grabbed pants and a shirt and went back to get Pema dressed and as comfortable as possible tucked her under the blankets. There was nowhere else to rest, so Lin sat cross-legged on the bed holding Pema’s hand talking softly to her, simultaneously hoping she would and wouldn’t wake up. She wanted her to wake up so that she knew Pema didn’t have any brain damage after what looked like repeated blows to the face, but she also wanted her to remain unconscious because she would be in a world of pain otherwise.
A couple of hours later, Lin stopped talking. The memories of the time they spent as Amon’s captives plagued her thoughts. The last time she saw Pema badly injured was in that cell. There were several times where she thought the woman had died. Pema had been so far gone by the end of it that she only ever woke up for the bloodbending. That had only been six months ago, none of them had truly recovered yet.
Soft crying next to her pulled her from her thoughts. Pema’s swollen eyes were trying to open, tears streamed down the sides of her face.
“Pema?” She ghosted her fingertips through Pema’s hair and reached for the painkillers and water. “I need you to swallow these.” She pushed the pills into Pema’s mouth and lifted her head so she could take a sip of water.
Pema tried to spit out the pills and turned her head away. “No.”
Lin guided her head back over and tipped the water to her lips. Pema coughed at first, then stopped resisting and drank more eagerly as Lin spoke softly to tell her what she was doing. Lin checked her mouth to see if the pills had been swallowed and didn't see them anymore. Pema’s green eyes looked like they were struggling to focus.
“Lin,” she said after a long moment of staring.
“It’s me.” Lin’s fingers ghosted over an uninjured portion of her cheek.
“The children.”
“All safe.”
Pema visibly relaxed but then her face twisted in agony. “Tenzin?”
“A little beat up, but he’s alright.”
The sobs that came out of her were so sudden and loud that Lin was frozen for a couple seconds looking her over to see if there was fresh blood coming from somewhere. She put down the water cup and reached for Pema’s hand and face when she deduced there was no fresh wound to tend. “Is it the pain? There’s probably something in the med bay I can use to knock you out until we get back to the city.”
Pema shook her head and tried to speak through her sobs. “They— they told me that—t-they killed him.”
Lin shook her head and ran her thumb over Pema’s knuckles. “No. No, they tried and failed. He’s in the other room resting.”
Pema nodded and sniffled as she reached up to grasp Lin’s arm. “Hold me,” she whimpered.
Lin shifted back just enough to remove her armor and get under the covers to hold Pema protectively. Lin laid on her back with Pema curled up to her side. Pema’s head pressed against Lin’s chest, and she held her tightly and as she sobbed. Lin ran her hands over Pema’s back and through her hair.
“I’ve got you. You’re safe. Everyone’s safe.”
Pema remained a mess of incoherent sobbing for a long time. Lin allowed her own tears to fall even as she did her best to reassure her that everyone was alright. After some time, Pema stopped crying, and her breaths came easier.
“There were so many of them,” Pema said hardly above a whisper.
Lin nodded even though Pema couldn’t see her face. “I’m sorry.”
“It didn’t hurt as much as the bloodbending.” Pema tensed; her fingers curled harshly into Lin’s sides. “But it still hurt.”
“It’s over now,” Lin said softly and kept running her fingers through Pema’s hair.
“Lin—J-Jinora—she was there. She saw—” Pema’s words devolved back into sobs.
“I know. I’ll talk to her.”
Pema’s tears quieted down to sniffles over the next few minutes.
“I feel funny.”
“Pain?”
“No. Numb.”
Lin reached down to pull the blanket higher. “The painkiller’s kicking in. Try to relax.”
Pema’s shoulders shook. “I can’t believe it happened again.”
Lin firmed up her grip on her. “I know. I’m so sorry.”
Half a choked sob bubbled up from Pema’s throat. “Did they hurt you?”
“No. No, I’m fine.”
Eventually Pema’s death grip loosened, and her body relaxed into sleep. Lin found herself dozing off listening to the monotonous hum of the ship’s engines.
The door to the room opened and Lin’s vambrace was on her arm in a split second with the knife drawn. Su stepped in with her hands up in mock surrender and closed the door. She stood there with her arms crossed.
“How long have you two been fucking?”
“What are you doing in here?” Lin growled. “Where’s Rohan?”
“Put the hackles away.” Su sat on the edge of the bed and studied Pema’s face before looking back at her sister. “Jinora and Ikki assured me they could watch him for a few minutes. He’s sleeping anyway.” She shrugged. “I always thought I’d find you in Tenzin’s bed, not hers.”
“Fuck off.” Lin retracted the knife back into the armor and dropped it to the bed. “She’s injured and your pathetic excuse for a medical bay only has four beds and no healer.”
“There’s a triage unit set up in the cargo hold if you want to leave her there.”
“I’m not leaving her anywhere.” Lin’s grip tightened on Pema.
Su eyed the two of them. “So, is this like a cheating thing?”
“It’s a none of your business thing.”
“I saw the way you were with the kids,” Su pointed out. “Been spending a lot of time on the island?”
“If you don’t leave in the next three seconds, I will stab you,” Lin warned.
“Look, I just want to know what’s going on in my big sister’s life and I don’t want to let it slip to Tenzin that this—” She swirled a finger back and forth between the two of them. “—is happening if this isn’t supposed to be happening.”
Pema mumbled something in her sleep and Lin held her even tighter and looked down at her.
“Tenzin knows,” Lin said softly, not offering any more information.
“Great! I can ask him about it.” Suyin said as she stood from the bed.
“Leave him alone you heartless bitch, he was nearly beaten to death.” Lin glared at her.
Suyin shot her a raised eyebrow and a smirk blossomed on her face. “Oh, so you’re fucking both of them. What’s that like?”
One swift movement of her arm sent the knife flying at Su’s face, but Su deflected it like it was nothing. The knife clattered on the floor and the sisters scowled at each other for a few drawn out seconds.
“Get out.”
Su glanced at Pema again and then started for the exit. “Whatever you’ve gotten yourself into, I hope you’re happy, Lin.”
The door closed behind Su and Lin locked it from across the small room. She looked back down at Pema in her arms and tried to get her bangs back to where they usually were.
“I am.”