Jin was having his first meal and drink after seventy years of forced fasting in the police precinct, some sweet donuts with hot chocolate that his niece—who was now over fifty—had kindly bought for him.
He wasn't going to touch the precinct's food or coffee. Even starving, he had standards. Especially since he had never been a big fan of coffee.
Lin Beifong watched her uncle (spirits, she still struggled to believe it was really him) calmly eat through three entire boxes of donuts, dipped in half a liter of hot chocolate.
There wasn't a trace of weakness or malnutrition in him; somehow he had kept himself perfectly fit. The muscles in his arms alone made it clear her uncle was someone who maintained his strength.
She introduced herself and shared a few surface-level details about the present, fully aware that despite her uncle's apparent calmness and temporary distraction with food, his emotions had to be running raw beneath the surface.
"How much time has passed?" Jin asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin, breaking the silence.
Since the moment he saw Lin, he had already decided how to interpret his role.
"It's been seven decades." Lin sat across from Jin and rested her forehead against her hand, elbow propped on the metal table. "I… Mom said…" She couldn't find the right words until the key question slipped out. "Uncle Jin, what really happened to you?"
Jin leaned back against the metal chair.
"What version did the traitor tell the world?"
He had genuine curiosity about what excuse Aang had used for his selfish actions.
"...Avatar Aang said you were possessed by dark spirits and he had no choice but to enter the Avatar State to deal with you, saving everyone from a great catastrophe," Lin revealed. "People assumed you were dead, but Mom always knew something was off about the explanation he gave. She insisted you were still alive and, as I can see, she was right."
That was also the origin of why the Beifong family turned their back on Aang. Toph had even thrown him in jail multiple times in the following years for thinking that being the Avatar put him above the rules and the law.
At the same time, it meant Avatar Aang had lied to the entire world.
"I see…" Jin took a deep breath. The excuse was pathetic, yet far too convenient and well thought out for someone as narrow-minded as Aang, so it was probably Katara's idea. That she was involved and didn't stop Aang didn't even surprise him. "How is my little sister?" he asked, concern and fear evident in his voice. "She should be… eighty-six by now, right?"
Lin took a moment before answering.
"Mom got tired of people a long time ago… of everything, really. Now she's… retired."
Jin nodded as he crossed his arms, clenching his fists tightly.
That discomfort when talking about family… so Lin still had a falling-out with Suyin?
He needed to be updated on many things.
"What about Honu, Xi, and June?" he asked, genuine pain in his heart.
If he had to name just three reasons—out of the many—for why he now hated Aang, losing an entire lifetime with the people he loved would be among the very top.
By now, he doubted any of them were still alive.
He had never been able to give them the wedding they deserved, nor could they have children…
…
He would make sure Aang's spirit could never find peace for what he did to him and, by extension, to his loved ones.
If he weren't a sensible man, by the time Korra set foot in Republic City, Air Temple Island and its inhabitants would have long since vanished beneath the river's waters. As for Tenzin's brother and sister, they would soon follow.
"I'm not sure what happened to them, I haven't heard from them in a while," Lin shook her head. "Mom probably knows something, but I haven't had much contact since I became Chief of Police. It's complicated."
In fact, both Lin and her sister knew the three women Jin mentioned.
Honu, Xi, and June had been the visitors their mother received most often. They were important to the Beifong family and had taken care of the girls when they were young and Toph was busy with Republic City work.
Lin still believed that Suyin's rebellious phase was influenced in part by Aunt June, while she herself had been closer to sensible Aunt Honu, who healed the scar on her cheek and prevented it from leaving a mark. Then there was Aunt Xi, so mysterious yet capable of handling both of them.
"You asked me what happened. In short, I was ambushed and caught off guard by the traitor," Jin revealed the truth of the incident. "He asked to meet me in a discreet place to discuss something important, and I reluctantly agreed. As soon as I arrived, he immediately entered the Avatar State and sealed me alive, taking advantage of my momentary surprise." He tilted his head slightly to the side. "As for the reason, it's quite simple: jealousy. He was purely jealous of me."
"WHAT?!" Lin slammed both hands on the table and stood up, eyes wide.
"You see, the traitor was… utterly incompetent in his duties. While he spent a hundred years hiding, letting the longest war in history unfold, I needed just a little over a decade to do more good than he could in his entire life," Jin explained. "I created jobs for countless people who now had money to survive. I increased food production to levels where few went hungry. With their wages, people could spend on new inventions that made life easier and better. I invented sports to boost entertainment, introduced new varieties of food to the world, founded a medical center (which I hope helped many), improved transportation, sheltered the last herd of flying bison, commercialized wasabi, encouraged world exploration, freely shared knowledge, and improved communication across half the world…" He listed off casually. "Meanwhile, the traitor preferred to turn a blind eye to the rest of the world, except when it was about reviving his precious Air Nomads. And don't even get me started on money—if it weren't for the White Lotus, the traitor couldn't even afford a mud hut to live in. Over time, people began saying and wishing the Avatar had been me, not him." He spread his hands. "You can imagine the rest."
Lin could hardly believe what she was hearing.
"You were locked away for seventy years… you lost an entire lifetime… the world lost so much in your absence… Why couldn't Avatar Aang handle his jealousy and low self-esteem?" Lin's incredulous tone as she collapsed back into the metal chair was almost tangible in the room. "That's… just…"
"Yeah, I know." Jin's deadpan tone said it all.
Lin looked at her uncle.
"How are you not going insane right now?" she asked, bewildered.
If she were in his place, she couldn't even imagine what she would do out of sheer rage, resentment, and unfiltered hatred.
"Even while I was sealed, I remained conscious the whole time, and it happens I have a few spirit friends." That was the moment Jin laid the groundwork for his future knowledge and actions. "So, although I couldn't know exactly what was happening, I wasn't completely disconnected from the world. I know some things, scattered fragments and bits of news that reached me over time. I had time, plenty of time, to think."
Lin nodded. Her mother had once mentioned, when they were children, that Jin had spirits as friends. In fact, if she remembered correctly, one of the previous Avatars was among them.
"I know the traitor is dead now and a new Avatar has been born," Jin shrugged. "As you can imagine, I can't take revenge on a corpse. And I am a sensible person—I won't destroy his bloodline in retaliation if that's what you're worried about. His children and grandchildren haven't done anything to me. Though, as you can guess, I doubt we'll get along. I'm pretty sure they'll prefer to believe the traitor's lie rather than accept the dishonorable truth."
Lin paused to think. Her uncle was right. Tenzin would never accept the terrible act his father had committed. He would deny it until the end, knowing how stubborn he was and how much he idolized the man.
A traitor.
"Unfortunately, it seems the new Avatar has strong ties with the White Lotus, the traitor's descendants, and that woman." Jin made a contemptuous grimace referring to Katara, who had undoubtedly been involved in his confinement. "I can't even imagine how much they've brainwashed her over the years and how 'protected' she is. They're probably keeping her separated from society with some excuse."
"The White Lotus is an important organization," Lin reminded him—even she knew that much.
"They're a bad joke, that's what they are. Do you know what they did during the Hundred Year War?" Jin would have spat on the floor if he weren't so well-mannered. "They recovered ONE city during Sozin's Comet, that's it. They didn't feed refugees, didn't help when they got sick, didn't try to establish safe zones away from the war—nothing. They just played at being mysterious and noble, dressed the part, but despite their humanitarian philosophy and 'for the good of the world,' they never acted unless it directly or indirectly benefited the White Lotus." He snorted. "With all the money they poured into the traitor, do you think they were short on funds for humanitarian aid?"
Suddenly, Lin realized the White Lotus wasn't really that great. In fact, it even seemed a little… sinister, like a sect with hidden motives, once she thought about it.
"Alright." She sighed with immense relief when she realized her uncle was as—or even more—sensible than her mother had told them. "I suppose you'll need to catch up with recent events. I hope you don't mind sleeping on a couch—I don't have a guest bed. I'd like to stay with you, but work…"
"Don't worry, I understand." Jin waved his hand to reassure her. "I just hope you don't mind me staying at your place for a few days. It won't take long for me to catch up on everything. Speaking of work, why are there so many gangs, bad people, and corruption in the city? Is your department underfunded, short on staff, or do you just not have anyone competent?"
"How do you know that?" Lin stared at her uncle in surprise.
He had barely been out of confinement for any time at all!
Jin might have been blind like Toph, but that didn't stop him from giving his niece an exasperated "look."
"Look under the table."
Lin glanced down.
"He's barefoot," she realized. "So… Mom learned that ability from him?" she thought.
She understood now that her uncle was "seeing" far more than a normal person ever could.
What Lin didn't know was the scope Jin had gained after seventy years of accumulating, expanding, and reinforcing his chi reserves with multiple spiritual blessings.
Aang had stolen a lifetime from him, but had accidentally given him seven decades of uninterrupted improvement in return.
Jin was now the human with the most chi on the planet.
"While I was eating, I caught up with all the sets of laws in the library, the recorded historical events, located at least six poorly hidden gangs carrying out illegal activities, and found evidence of a not insignificant amount of money used for bribery and corruption," he explained. "And while we're having this conversation, I'm still learning and figuring out things here and there. I already have an approximate idea of half the businesses in the city."
Lin instinctively wanted to ask how he read the books, but bit her tongue, remembering that ink control—the ability her mother used to read despite her blindness—was among Jin's original skills. As long as it was within his "range," he could read any letter, pamphlet, record, or book without even holding it.
He could even sense a tattoo if someone had one.
"Would you… by any chance… be interested in working with the police?" she asked unconsciously.
By the time she realized what she had said, her cheeks reddened slightly in embarrassment. She couldn't help it—habit and the severe lack of staff!
Jin paused for a moment before laughing.
"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you." Jin wiped a tear of laughter from his eye. "No one in this city is qualified to give me orders."
Lin sighed. She had expected that—and, in fact, he was right.
Strictly speaking, her uncle was about ninety-three years old, despite looking like a handsome young man in his early twenties. Adding in the stories her mother had told… yes, truly no one qualified to give him orders.
The Council was in trouble.
Uh… actually, why didn't that sound so bad?
Oh, right, because it was the Council who had cut the police budget!
"But no one said I can't tell you about the things I 'see.'" Jin grinned mischievously as he leaned forward. "If you just happen to find those things later and it turns out you can use them in your work to clean up the city… well, I don't think anonymous informants have gone out of style, do you?"
It was Lin's turn to laugh—something she hadn't done in a very, very long time…
While uncle and niece plotted the downfall of the city's criminals, a certain man with an arrow painted on his head was heading toward the precinct, steaming with rage, determined to find out what had happened to the statue of his honorable father.