Ally Beifong

27: Airbenders in Ba Sing Se

"Kai disappeared along with Mako and Bolin. The queen claimed she had no airbenders in the city, but I'm not so sure, I have a feeling there are airbenders here. Korra refused to give up and she decided to continue her search."

Zaheer and his companions busted P'Li out of prison, even with Lord Zuko, Tonraq, Eska, and Dezna fighting against them. In Ba Sing Se, Ally was leaning up against the side of their house, drawing in the grass with her nail. Korra and Asami were training when Bolin and Mako ran up to them. Bolin told them that the queen was forcing airbenders into her army and she was lying the whole time. 

"Of course!" Korra muttered. "Next time I see that queenie smirk of hers I'm-"

"She's coming!" Asami hissed. The queen and Gun came up to them in a palanquin. 

"Gun, give them the good news," the queen ordered. 

"The Yang Province has reported having airbenders," Gun said nervously. 

"It's what you're looking for, isn't it," the queen said. "You can be on your way." Ally's eyes narrowed, no one noticed she was barefoot and could sense the queen's heart rate and breathing, she was lying. 

"That's great," Korra told her sarcastically. 

"Do you can leave at once... ACHOO!" she cut herself off as a sneeze erupted from her lungs. Spit flew down her robes as she continued to sneeze. She turned to Gun and grabbed the front of his robes, dragging him down. "There's an ANIMAL in my presence?!" 

"No, no, of course not," Gun stammered. "I wouldn't let any animal near you." The queen sneezed again and wiped her nose with the sleeve of Gun's robe. 

"If I find ANY animal within 50 feet of me!" The queen yelled. "Your head is on the line. Now, if you need help packing your things, tell Gun. You should be out of this city by sundown."

"I don't think we can leave that soon," Korra fiddled with her hands. 

"The airship we took in is having a bit of engine malfunction," Asami chimed in, quickly thinking of a lie. "The soonest we can be out of here is tomorrow." The queen looked at them harshly, then sneezed several times and went back to her palanquin. 

"Nice one, Asami," Ally praised. They went inside and told Tenzin and Bumi about the queen's lies. He was shocked, to say the least. 

"We need to find them," he said. 

"What if Kai was taken too?" Jinorah piped up. "If he was seen airbending, he could have been taken."

"We'll find him," Korra reassured the young girl. "But where do we look?"

"Maybe Lake Laogai?" Mako asked. Everyone looked at him with a confused expression. "The old Dai Lee agents used to have a secret base that was under a lake. I read it in one of Jinorah's  books."

"Of course!" Jinorah agreed. "And we can check the base out without being caught. I can project my spirit into the base and look around." 

"That weird out-of-body spirit thing you did during harmonic convergence?" Bumi asked. 

"You can still project your spirit?" Tenzin gasped. 

"It's not going to be as powerful," Jinorah explained. "Not like harmonic convergence, but if I can get close, maybe I can do it."

"Let's go," Ally smiled. Korra and Tenzin took Jinorah to an island on Lake Laogai and found that it was abandoned. Jinorah tried to focus on Kai's energy to find him and discovered he was in a prison underneath the earth queen's temple. When they went back to the house, Jinorah told everyone what happened. 

"She's keeping them under her temple," she explained. 

"So queenie mc smirkface was keeping them right under our noses, the entire time!" Korra shouted. 

"We have to rescue them," Tenzin said gravely. 

"Okay we need a badger mole that knows Morse code, blasting jelly, and a bulldozer," Bumi started spewing out ideas. "3 teams, two inside, one outside." He was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door. 

"Oh great, the queen," Asami groaned. 

"Act natural," Korra told everyone. Bolin his Pabu in his shirt and Tenzin went to open the door. When he did, it wasn't the queen's face who greeted him, it was the sour, scarred face of Lin Beifong. 

"Mom?" Ally inquired. Not sure if she was seeing right. Lin walked in and Tenzin closed the door behind her. 

"Lin?" Tenzin's eyes widened. Lin walked to the center of the room and crossed her arms. 

"We need to get Korra and my daughter out of here," she stated. "Their lives are in grave danger."

"Okay, what?" Ally walked over to her mom and stood next to her. 

"I got word from Lord Zuko," Lin continued, ignoring Korra and Ally's muttering. "Tonraq too."

"Lord Zuko and my father?" Korra asked. 

"Zaheer, Ming-Hua, Gazhan, and P'Li have escaped," Lin plowed on, ignoring her. 

"What? How?" Tenzin gasped. 

"Zaheer is an airbender, just like the others who have been popping up," Lin explained. 

"No, that can't be!" Tenzin exclaimed. 

"Okay, enough!" Ally threw her arms down and a gust of wind blew everyone's hair back. "What is going on? Quit ignoring me and tell me what's going on!"

"After we found out there were two Avatars, Zaheer and his companions tried to kidnap both of you," Tenzin told them. "Lord Zuko, your father, Cheif Sokka, and I stopped them from kidnapping Korra, Lin and her police force stopped them from kidnapping you."

"That's why I was never allowed to leave the city?" Ally murmured. "Because of Zaheer?"

"Shortly after the kidnapping attempt, Lord Zuko and Chief Sokka came to check on you," Lin told her daughter. "And I decided to keep you a secret."

"Why did they want to kidnap them?" Mako asked. 

"We spent 13 years interrogating them," Lin sighed. "No one broke. Still, to this day, we don't know what they were planning to do once they had you. We need to go back to Republic City where I can protect you both, do you understand?"

"No," Korra said harshly. "I'm not going to run from them."

"You don't understand what's you're facing," Lin tried to tell her. 

"Mom we're not little anymore," Ally agreed. 

"We came here for airbenders, and I'm not leaving until they're safe," Korra growled. 

"Fine," Lin snapped back. "Once we get them, we get out of here." Under the cover of darkness, the group got the airbenders out. Lin, Ally, and Asami took two separate airships to get the airbenders to safety. 

"Do you see them?" Ally asked, looking out of the window. 

"Alls, we need to talk," Lin said. "I need to get you back home where I can protect you. You're in danger and I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I'll be ok, mom," Ally replied as her mom lowered the airship. The airbenders got in and Bumi radioed them to go. "I'm not a little kid anymore, I'm stronger than I was." Everyone stopped on a cliff away from the city and the airbenders went to the Northern Air Temple to train as Air Nomads. Lin kept a close eye on her daughter, she went into overprotective mom mode and didn't leave her kid's side.