Republic City, thirty years before Korra first stepped foot in it. A young Lin Beifong, lieutenant with the police force, caught her rebellious sister Suyin on a heist with the Terra Triad organised crime group.
In the struggle, a snapped cable tore two long gashes in Lin's cheek, a scar she will have for the rest of her life.
The pain in her cheek is nothing compared to the feeling of resentment when Chief Toph Beifong, their mother, tore up Suyin's arrest papers, covering up what she did. Letting her off without consequence... Again.
All characters are 18 or older
Word Count: 6,336
F/F | Feet Tickling | Tickle Torture | Non-Consensual
The expansive corridors of the Police Headquarters usually smelled of polished brass and justice. Today, to Lin Beifong, they smelled of blood and betrayal.
She walked with a rigid, militaristic cadence, her boots hammering the floor tiles like gavel strikes. Every step sent a fresh jolt of agony through the bandaged slash on her right cheek, effectively cutting through the adrenaline. It throbbed in time with her heartbeat—a hot, searing reminder of the cable that had snapped back, guided by her own sister’s hand.
But the physical pain was distant compared to the bile rising in her throat. Toph’s voice still rang in her ears, dismissive and casual, as she ripped the arrest report into confetti. “Just get out of the city, Su.”
Suyin walked a half-step ahead of the two escorting officers, a smug, rolling gait that infuriated Lin. She was still wearing her Terra Triad colors—that garish green and gold jacket that marked her as a common thug, not a Beifong.
"Can't believe you actually tried to cite me for property damage," Suyin scoffed over her shoulder, her voice light, unburdened by guilt. "Mom knows what's what. You're just jealous she didn't give you the task force."
Lin stopped dead. The two junior officers behind them halted in confusion.
"Change of plans," Lin said, her voice a low grind of gravel. "Take her to holding. Level B4."
Officer Zhelan, a tall, silent man with the lean build of a specialized chi-blocker, hesitated. "Lieutenant, the Chief said—"
"I don't give a damn what the Chief said," Lin snapped, turning on her heel to face them. Her eyes were hard shards of meteorite iron. "She assaulted an officer. She destroyed city property. And until I sign her release, she is my prisoner. Do you want to explain to the Council why you disobeyed your direct superior officer during an active transport?"
The threat hung heavy in the air. Zhelan exchanged a look with his partner, then nodded once.
"Hey!" Suyin spun around, her smugness evaporating into sudden alarm. "No! Mom said I was free! You can't—"
She raised her hands, assuming a bending stance, ready to pull the metal plating from the walls.
"Zhelan. Now," Lin commanded.
The movement was a blur. Zhelan stepped inside Suyin's guard, his knuckles striking with surgical precision—thwack-thwack-thwack. He hit the nerve clusters in her shoulder, her elbow, and the base of her spine.
"Ghh-ah!" Suyin gasped, her eyes going wide as her Chi flow was severed. Her arms dropped like lead weights, totally limp at her sides. Her knees buckled, and the second officer caught her by the back of her triad jacket, dragging her upright like a marionette with cut strings.
"You're pathetic, Lin!" Suyin screamed, her head lolling as she struggled against the paralysis deadening her limbs. Her boots scuffed uselessly against the floor tiles. "You think following the rules makes you better than us? It just makes you alone!"
Lin didn’t answer. She pressed the call button for the heavy freight elevator. The cagework doors rattled open with a harsh, industrial clatter.
"Go ahead, lock me up!" Suyin spat, her voice rising to a venomous pitch as she was shoved roughly inside the cage. "Is this what you’re gonna tell Tenzin tonight? That you put your own sister in a box just to prove a point?"
Lin stepped in, turning her back to the prisoner to face the doors.
"You're delusional if you think he's going to stick around for this," Suyin laughed—a harsh, brittle sound that echoed in the small space. "He has a dead civilization to resurrect, Lin."
Suyin leaned forward, her paralyzed body sliding slightly against the wall, her voice dropping to a cruel, intimate whisper.
"He needs a mother for the next generation of Airbenders. Not a metal statue with a badge, cold iron on the inside. A wife. You care more about this city than you do about family. You’re already married to the job..."
She smiled, a cruel, knowing twist of her lips.
"He's going to leave you, Lin. And you'll deserve it."
The elevator doors slammed shut, severing the connection, but the silence inside was deafening.
Lin stood with her back to the door, staring at the rivets on the wall. The comment about Tenzin didn't just sting; it pierced through her armor and twisted the knife. The scar on her face burned hotter. A red haze, darker than anger, washed over her vision.
"Processing Room 4," Lin said. Her voice was terrifyingly quiet, barely visible over the hum of the descending elevator. "Get her inside. Strip off the jacket, the pants, the boots. Leave her in her undergarments. I don't want those Triad rags tainting my station."
"And for containment, Lieutenant?" Zhelan asked, glancing at the paralyzed Suyin. "Standard cuffs to the table?"
"No," Lin cut him off, staring straight ahead at the metal doors, refusing to look at her sister. "Lie her on the center plating, arms up, forearms behind her head and cuffed. I don't want any surprises when the chi blocking wears off. Then clear the room. I will deal with her from then on personally."
She flexed her fingers, the metal rings on her armor clicking together with a cold, predatory sound.
"She likes to break rocks," Lin murmured. "Let's see how she likes becoming one."
---
Suyin lay in the center of the room, her arms raised, forearms behind her head. She had been stripped of her jacket, pants, and boots, left shivering in her simple white cotton bra and panties. Her limbs were useless, lifeless from the chi-blocking.
Lin raised her hands, her movements sharp and violent. She pulled the metal floor plates up, the steel groaning as it yielded to her will.
CRUNCH. CLANG.
The metal slammed around Suyin’s body. It didn't just cover her; it segmented. Independent heavy plates wrapped tight around her calves, her thighs, and her torso, locking her rigid.
"Lin! Don't you dare!" Suyin shrieked, her chest heaving against the forming shell.
Lin clenched her fists. A floor plate morphed into a curved, helmet-like cowl and Lin slammed it over her sister's face, encasing Suyin’s raised arms and locking over her head. The final chest-plate slid upward, interlocking with the cowl and sealing her sister in total darkness.
HISS-CLICK.
The plates locked together with a suffocating finality, the seams vanishing into a smooth, gray surface. Suyin was now a prisoner in a form-fitting iron thermal trap. The metal pressed against her skin from ankle to wrist, leaving no room for movement and nowhere for her body heat to escape. The only break in the seamless armor was a narrow, grilled slit over her mouth and nose—just enough oxygen to sustain life, but not enough to cool her down.
Suyin was now a statue, a prisoner in her own metallic coffin, lying in the center of the room.
"Think about your choices, Su," Lin whispered to the metal shell.
She turned and marched out, the heavy blast door thudding shut behind her, leaving Suyin screaming into the dark, her muffled cries vibrating harmlessly against the steel.
---
The coffee in Lin's mug had gone cold an hour ago, but she drank the sludge anyway. It tasted like ash—fitting for the mood she was in.
She sat at her desk in the upper precinct, surrounded by stacks of unresolved case files. The Terra Triad. They were a plague on Republic City. Extortion, racketeering, illegal bending duels. Every time the police got close, the Triad vanished into the earth like ghosts. They had no roster, no hideouts that stayed put, and absolutely no informants.
Except now, they had one.
Lin touched the dressing on her cheek. The pain was duller now, a steady throb that synchronized with her headache. Suyin. Her own sister, running with the very scum Lin had sworn to wipe off the streets.
She picked up the arrest report Toph had ripped in half earlier. She had taped it back together, the jagged tear running right through Suyin’s name.
“You’re free to go, Su.”
Lin crumpled the paper in her fist, her metal armor creaking with the pressure. No. Not this time.
She stared at the wall map of the city, pinned with red flags marking Triad activity. She needed names. She needed locations. She needed leverage.
Suyin wouldn’t talk willingly. She was stubborn, arrogant, and currently basking in the delusion that she was untouchable. Traditional interrogation wouldn’t work; Suyin would just scoff and throw insults about Toph or Tenzin until Lin lost her temper again.
Lin’s eyes drifted to a framed photograph on her desk—a rare picture from a decade ago. It showed Toph, Lin, and Suyin. They were younger, happier. Lin remembered that day. They had been wrestling in the garden. Suyin had pinned Lin, gloating, until Lin had found the one weakness Suyin couldn't bend her way out of. Lin plunged her fingers into Suyin's exposed underarms.
Lin remembered the sound—not the defiant shouts of a rebel, but the breathless, desperate, high-pitched screeching of a little sister who had lost all control.
“Lin! Liiiiiin! St-stop! Ple-heeeese!”
A dark, cold realization settled over Lin Beifong.
She stood up, her chair scraping loudly against the floor. She walked to her equipment locker. She didn't reach for a baton or shock gloves. Instead, she picked up the severed metal cable—the evidence from the altercation. The end was frayed, the steel wires splayed out like a stiff, metallic brush.
It was perfect.
She clipped the cable to her belt and strode out of the office.
The journey down to the lower holding levels was silent. When she reached Interrogation Room 4, she didn't enter immediately. She dismissed the guard stationed outside.
"Black out the observation window," Lin ordered. "No cameras. No audio feed either."
"Lieutenant?" the guard asked, confused. "Protocol states—"
"I am conducting a high-level interrogation of a Bender with known Flight Risk capabilities," Lin lied smoothly. "I don't need an audience. Clear out."
The guard saluted and left. Lin turned the heavy locking wheel on the door. She engaged the privacy shutters, sealing the room from the outside world.
She stepped inside.
The room was cool. In the center lay the metal sarcophagus, a seamless, gray coffin.
Lin walked a slow circle around it. She could hear Suyin’s muffled breathing through the mouth slit—fast, shallow. Good. The isolation was already working.
"Comfortable?" Lin asked, her voice echoing off the concrete walls.
"Let me out, Lin!" Suyin’s voice was muffled but furious. "This isn't funny! You can't keep me in here!"
"I can do whatever I want, Su. You're unlisted. As far as the city is concerned, you're already gone."
Lin stood at the foot of the sarcophagus. She raised her hands, her fingers flexing with the subtle, intricate movements of a master unlocking a safe. She didn't need to force the metal; she simply commanded the segments she had designed.
HISS-CLACK.
The heavy, curved plating covering Suyin’s soles retracted, sliding smoothly up into the casing around her shins. But as the soles were exposed, the trap engaged. Thin, articulated bands of steel extended from the ankle cuffs, curling around each of Suyin’s toes. With a mechanical whine, they pulled backward.
The metal forced her toes wide apart and locked them back, hyperextended. Suyin’s soles were stretched taut, the pale skin from heel to ball pulled smooth and tight, rendering her unable to curl her toes or shy away. The delicate webbing and the flushed, damp pads were completely exposed to the open air.
The "thermal trap" had done its work. As the plating retracted, a visible puff of trapped heat escaped. A heavy sheen of perspiration coated Suyin’s skin, and Lin watched with cold satisfaction as a single bead of sweat rolled slowly down the high curve of her sister's arch, glistening under the harsh interrogation lamp before dripping onto the concrete.
Almost simultaneously, Lin twitched her left hand. The segmented panels covering Suyin’s ribs and underarms disengaged with a synchronized click.* They slid downward into the main torso casing, revealing the deep, hollowed curves of her armpits. The skin there was flushed pink from the heat and wet with sweat, framed perfectly by the cold, grey edges of the retracted armor—a map of vulnerabilities waiting to be exploited.
"The Terra Triad," Lin said, unhooking the frayed cable from her belt. She ran her thumb over the wire brush tip. It made a rasping sound. "I want names. Safe houses. Leadership structure."
"I don't know anything!" Suyin yelled. "I just drive the getaway car! Go to hell!"
Lin stepped closer. She looked down at the strained, sweating soles, locked in their metallic display.
"Wrong answer."
She brought the frayed cable down. Not a strike, but a slow, scraping drag up the center of Suyin’s taut sole. The stiff metal wires bit into the soft skin with agonizing precision.
Suyin gasped, a sharp, involuntary intake of air—Hhh-uh!—as the frayed wires scraped up the length of her foot. Her toes twitched violently in their metal shackles, straining against the unyielding steel bands, but there was nowhere to go. The sensation was maddeningly distinct: fifty tiny, cold metal fingers scratching against the most sensitive skin on her body simultaneously.
Lin pulled the cable back, hovering it just millimeters from the skin. She didn’t strike again. Not yet.
She began to pace slowly around the sarcophagus, the heels of her boots clicking ominously on the concrete. She let the silence stretch, heavy and suffocating, interrupted only by Suyin’s ragged breathing.
"You know," Lin said conversationally, examining the tip of the cable as if inspecting a weapon of war, "the human nervous system is a fascinating thing. Chi flows through the body like water, but nerves... nerves are wires."
She stopped near Suyin’s head. She looked down at the exposed patch of pale skin under her sister’s left arm. The arm was locked high, the pit hollowed and deep, protected by absolutely nothing.
"When you block Chi, you numb the muscle," Lin murmured. She reached out with her free hand. She didn't use the cable. Instead, she extended one metal-clad index finger and lightly—barely—dusted her nail against the very center of Suyin’s armpit. Use a circular motion.
"EEP!" The sound burst out of Suyin before she could stop it. Her shoulders jerked in the casing, the metal rattling. "D-don't!"
"But when you stimulate the nerves without release..." Lin continued, ignoring the outburst, her voice smooth and clinical. She withdrew her hand. "...The brain begins to panic. It anticipates the sensation. It actually amplifies it. Tell me about the Triad safe house in the Dragon Flats, Su."
"I told you, I don't know!" Suyin insisted, though her voice was thinner now, strained. She was trying to sound tough, but she was tracking Lin’s every movement, her eyes likely squeezed shut inside the helmet. "We never go to the same place twice! It's just—"
Lin moved back to the feet. She took the severed cable and tapped the heel—tap, tap, tap—with the hard metal handle, not the brush. The vibration traveled up Suyin’s leg.
"Liar," Lin whispered.
She suddenly curled the frayed end of the cable onto the ball of Suyin’s right foot and scribbled it back and forth for three seconds. Hard, fast, abrasive scratches.
Lin didn't wait for an answer. She felt the tremors running through Suyin’s legs—the involuntary twitches of anticipation rippling through the calf muscles right into her own foot from her seismic sense.
She held the frayed wire cable like a conductor's baton, hovering it over the exposed, flushed pad of Suyin’s big toe on the right foot.
"Let's check your fundamentals," Lin murmured, her voice dangerously soft.
She pressed the wire bristles into the soft whirl of the toeprint.
"This little rock learned to lift..."
Lin traced a slow, agonizingly precise circle around the pad of the big toe. The wires bit and scratched, a focused point of maddening sensation.
"Eee-hee! No!" Suyin gasped, her foot jerking against the metal spreaders. "Lin!"
Lin ignored her, moving the cable to the second toe.
"This one learned to bend..."
She swirled the bristles again, faster this time, digging into the sensitive skin near the nail.
"Hhh-ah! S-stop!" Suyin squeezed her eyes shut inside the helmet, her breathing turning ragged.
Lin moved to the middle toe, the one pulled tautest by the metal ring.
"This one learned to stand its ground..."
She didn't just circle; she vibrated the brush against the tip. The sensation was electric.
"Yip! Ahhh-ha-ha! Don't! Don't do that!" Suyin’s voice cracked, the laughter bubbling up through the panic.
Lin moved to the fourth toe.
"This one would not bend..."
She swirled the wire hard, grinding it against the soft skin.
"Neee-heee! L-Lin! ST-STOP-HA-HA!"
Lin smirked, moving to the pinky toe, which was curled back helplessly in the metal loop. She hovered the brush right over it, letting Suyin wait for a split second of terrifying anticipation.
"And this little stone went..."
Lin leaned in close to the metal shell, shouting over the metallic groan of Suyin's struggles.
"...CLINK, CLANK, CRASH!"
On each word, Lin raked the frayed cable along the entire length of Suyin’s sole, from the toes to the heel and back up.
Scritch-SCRATCH. "CLINK!"
"AAAAHHH-HA-HA-HA!" Suyin screamed, her head tossing inside the sarcophagus.
Scritch-SCRATCH. "CLANK!"
"NOOO-HOO-HOO! IT BURNS! IT TICKLES! MAKE IT STOP!"
Scritch-SCRATCH. "CRASH!"
Lin dug the wires into the deepest part of the arch and scrubbed furiously for the final beat.
"GYAAA-HA-HA-HA-HEEE! OKAY! OKAY! I'M SORRY! HA-HA-HA!"
Lin stopped abruptly.
The silence that followed was heavy, filled only with the sound of Suyin gulping for air. Hhh-uh... hhh-uh... Inside the helmet, it must have been deafening.
Lin leaned against the side of the sarcophagus, casually inspecting her fingernails as if she were waiting for a bus.
"Listen to you," Lin said, her voice dripping with disdain. "That wasn't even ten seconds. Look at you shaking."
She reached down and placed her palm on the metal sheet covering Suyin's chest, feeling the rapid-fire hammering of her sister’s heart through the ribs and casing.
"You talk so big out there," Lin murmured. "Triad colors. Swift kicks. Disrespecting Mom. But in here?" She tapped her metal finger against the rim of the sarcophagus' rib-opening. Ting. Ting. "You're just a little girl who can't handle a bit of wire."
"I... I hate you..." Suyin wheezed, the defiance weak and watery.
"Good," Lin replied. "Hate keeps you awake. Hatred focuses the mind."
She walked to the head of the sarcophagus. She looked down at the tiny air slit. She could just see Suyin’s eyes in the darkness—wide, wet with panic tears, darting frantically.
"Let's talk about 'Brass Knuckles' Shin," Lin said, dropping a notorious Triad name. "Rumor has it he's recruiting Benders from the underground clubs. Is that where you met him?"
"I don't... I don't know Shin!" Suyin cried.
Lin sighed. "Disappointing."
She moved her hands. The metal rings on her armor clicked. With a gesture, the metal casing around Suyin’s armpits shifted. Thin strips of metal peeled inward from the edges. They didn't cover the skin; they pressed into the pectorals and the lats, effectively squeezing the muscle and forcing the armpit to bulge outward, making the skin even tighter, even more accessible.
"Oh no... no, no, Lin, please..." Suyin realized what was happening. Her voice pitched up into a desperate whine. "Don't! Not the pits! I swear I don't know him!"
Lin abandoned the cable. She held up her hands, metal flowed from her wrists over her fingers and solidified into cones—five sharp, cold talons on each hand.
"Since you don't know Shin," Lin said, bringing her clawed hands to hover over both exposed underarms simultaneously, "maybe you'll remember something about the Terra Triad instead."
She slowly lowered her fingers. The cold metal tips ghosted over the sweating skin of Suyin’s armpits, barely touching, teasing the fine hairs.
"I wonder," Lin whispered, "if five minutes without a break will jog your memory."
She sank the claws in. Wiggling them deep into the hollows with relentless, digging strokes.
Shhh-luck. Shhh-luck.
"AAAAHHH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! NOOOO! LIN! LIIIIIIIIN!"
The sound was immediate and deafening. Suyin’s head thrashed wildly inside the helmet, banging against the steel cowl, but her arms remained locked high, offering up the pale, vulnerable cups of her underarms to Lin’s mercy.
"Too loud," Lin critiqued calmly. She twisted her wrists, rotating the ten metal talons in a harsh, circular grinding motion right in the deepest, dampest center of the pits. She wasn't just scratching the surface; she was kneading the nerves, burying the cold metal tips into the soft tissue until they practically disappeared.
"GYAAAA-HAAA-HAAA! OH SP-HI-HI-HIRITS! NOT THEEE-HERE! NOT THE-HE-HE-RE!"
Suyin’s chest heaved violently against the breastplate. Her shoulders jerked, trying instinctively to clamp her arms down to protect herself, but the metal casing held her limbs rigid. She was forced to remain open, exposed, and utterly helpless.
"One minute," Lin announced, her eyes glued to the clock on the wall, ignoring the sobbing laughter beneath her hands.
She changed her angle. Instead of digging, she began to rake. She dragged the sharp, curved tips from the bottom of the armpit up to the delicate skin of the inner bicep, then snapped them back down.
Scritch-SCRATCH. Scritch-SCRATCH.
"EHEEE-HEEE! STOP! STOP IT! I CAN'T-HAAA-HAAA!"
Suyin gasped, the air whistling through her teeth. "LIN! PLEASE! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!"
"You're not remorseful yet," Lin murmured. "You're just sorry you are finally facing justice."
She spread her fingers wide, spanning the entire width of the underarm, and began a rapid-fire spider-walk—her metal fingers drumming a chaotic, staccato rhythm against the sweat-slicked skin.
Tip-tap-tip-tap-tip-tap.
"NNNGH! GUH-HUCK! AAAA-HA-HA-HA! MMMM-MAKE IT STOP! T-TOO FA-HA-HA-AST!"
The sweat was pouring off Suyin now. Lin could feel it slicking her metal claws, making the friction wet and heavy. The heat radiating from the open vent of the sarcophagus was palpable.
"Two minutes," Lin said. She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a terrifying whisper right near the grille of the helmet. "I bet you're regretting your choices now, aren't you? It's getting hot in there."
She suddenly scissored her fingers, pinching and vibrating the loose, sensitive skin at the front of the armpit, right where the pectoral muscle met the arm.
"YIIII-IIIII-IIIP! NOOO-HOO-HOO! LIN! LIN! I'LL DIE! I'M GONNA D-DIE-HI-HI-HI!"
"Breathe, Su," Lin instructed coldly, watching the panic rise. "Use your training. Find your center."
She dug the thumbs deep—right into the nerve cluster—and held them there, vibrating her hands with the speed of a hummingbird’s wing.
"AAAAAHHHHH-HAAAA-HAAAA-HAAAA! OKAY! OKAY! I'LL TALK! I'LL TALK! SHIN! IT'S SHIN! AAAA-HA-HA!"
"You will talk," Lin said over the screams, increasing the tempo, refusing to show mercy. "You'll talk when I'm done."
She didn't let up. She kept the rhythm brutal and consistent, turning her sister into a breathless, sobbing wreck. Lin didn't stop until the clock finally, mercifully, ticked over the mark.
The five minutes felt like five hours. When Lin finally withdrew her hands, her metal claws retracting with a synchronized click, the silence that rushed back into the room was heavy and wet.
Suyin was wrecked. Even paralyzed and encased in steel, her body twitched with phantom sensations. Her chest heaved against the metal breastplate, producing a hollow, rattling sound. Great racking sobs shuddered through the air slit.
"Hhh-uh... hhh-uh... oh spirits... oh spirits..." she whimpered, her voice a broken thread.
"Talk," Lin commanded. She stood perfectly still, her face a mask of indifference, though sweat beaded on her own forehead from the exertion of the bending.
"It's... it's Spider," Suyin rushed to say, the words tumbling out desperate and fast. "Spider drives the trucks! They move the stolen satomobiles through the tunnels under the arena! They meet at midnight on Tuesdays! That's all I know! I swear, Lin! That's it!"
Lin stared at her sister. Her expression didn't soften. It hardened.
"The Arena tunnels?" Lin repeated flatly. "We raided those tunnels three weeks ago. We found empty crates and tire tracks. That's old intel, Su."
She leaned in, her eyes narrowing. "You think I'm stupid? You think because I’m your sister I’ll buy whatever scraps you throw me?"
"No! It's true!" Suyin pleaded, panic rising again in her voice. "Maybe they moved! I haven't been in the loop for a month since Mom—"
"Lies," Lin cut her off. The single word was a condemnation.
Lin stepped back. She raised both hands high, palms facing the sarcophagus.
"If you want to protect your little gangster friends," she said, her voice dropping to that terrifyingly calm register again, "then you can suffer with them."
Lin slammed her fists together.
CLANG-CRUNCH.
The sarcophagus openings slammed shut. The panels retracted over Suyin’s exposed armpits. The plates slid back over her feet. She was fully encased once more, sealed in the dark iron tomb.
"No! Lin! Wait! I'm telling the truth!" Suyin’s voice was muffled again by the grilled airslit, vibrating uselessly against the steel.
"Save your breath," Lin said. She closed her eyes, focusing her seismic sense. She could feel the metal casing like it was part of her own body. She could feel Suyin inside it.
With microscopic precision, Lin bent the inner surface of the newly sealed plates.
From the smooth metal lining directly under Suyin's armpits, tiny, needle-sharp protrusions rose up. They didn't pierce the skin; they pressed against it. Lin set them into a rotation—two small, cold points tracing maddening, jagged circles right in the deepest, dampest part of the hollows.
Simultaneously, at the bottom of the casing, she manipulated the steel beneath Suyin's soles. She formed two more protrusions that began to slowly, relentlessly draw symbols against the arches and heels.
"Eee! Mmph-hhh!" The sounds of muffled struggling began immediately. The sarcophagus rocked slightly on the floor as Suyin thrashed against the internal mechanisms.
"It requires no effort from me to keep this going," Lin explained to the vibrating coffin. "It's a loop. A simple mechanical rotation. It will not stop. It will not tire. And it will not listen to you beg."
"Lin! PLEASE! Mmmph-mmmph! GYAAAA-HAAA!"
"Maybe your tongue will be looser when I come back." Lin turned her back on the screaming metal box.
She walked out of the interrogation room, the heavy blast door thudding shut behind her, cutting off the sound of her sister’s torment.
---
Lin sat in her office, staring at the clock. The second hand ticked by with excruciating slowness. Ten minutes. Twenty. Thirty.
She tried to read the reports on her desk, but the words swam. The anger hadn't faded; it had curdled into something colder, something necessary. Mom had always let Suyin run wild. She had laughed off the rebellion. Look where that had lead them. A scar on Lin’s face and a criminal in the family.
Someone had to be the adult. Someone had to hold the line.
Forty-five minutes.
Lin stood up. She straightened her uniform. She didn't hurry. She walked back down the long, cold corridors to the holding cells.
As she verified her palm print on the lock of Room 4, she could hear it even through the blast door—a high, thin wailing sound.
She opened the door.
The wave of heat and scent hit her instantly. The room smelled intensely of fear—acrid sweat, and urine. The sarcophagus in the center of the room was vibrating, a low, constant rattle against the concrete floor.
Inside, Suyin was no longer forming words.
"Hnnn-gnn! AAAA-EEE-HEEE! MMM-HMMM-HAAAA!"
The muffled screams were raw, throat-tearing sounds of pure sensory overload. The machine had been grinding and circling against her most sensitive nerves for nearly an hour without pause.
Lin walked over to the casing. She placed her hand on the metal where Suyin’s head would be and ceased the torment.
"Ready to be loyal to your family now, Su?"
"Shin's Deputy. It's... it's a non-bender named Iron-Thumb Ito," Suyin rasped. Her voice was barely a whisper, shredded by nearly an hour of screaming into the recycled air of her metal prison. "He runs the books out of a tea shop in the lower ring. The Jasmine Dragon... but the old location."
Lin stood silent for a moment, processing. Iron-Thumb Ito. The name had popped up on wiretaps before, a ghost in the system they never could pin down. A non-bender handling the finances for a Bending Triad? It was unusual, specific... and credible.
"If you're lying," Lin warned, her voice low, "I put the needles back."
"I'm n-not," Suyin sobbed, a pathetic, broken sound. "I swear. Just... let me out. Please, Lin. I can't breathe in here anymore."
Lin didn't answer. She turned and exited the room.
In the hallway, she grabbed the first officer she saw. "Run a full trace on a 'Iron-Thumb Ito.' Cross-reference with property records for the old Jasmine Dragon tea shop. I want a surveillance team there ten minutes ago."
"Yes, Lieutenant!" The officer sprinted off.
Lin took a deep breath. The headache was finally receding. She walked back into Interrogation Room 4. The air was still thick and humid, smelling of her sister’s distress.
"The intel is being verified," Lin announced, her boots echoing as she approached the sarcophagus.
"Does that... does that mean I can go?" Suyin asked, hope trembling in her voice. "You got what you wanted, right?"
"We have to wait for confirmation," Lin said simply. "Standard procedure."
She stopped at the foot of the sarcophagus. She looked at the smooth metal plate sealing her sister’s legs. She thought about the scar tissue knitting on her cheek—a permanent mark. She thought about Tenzin, about the stinging truth in Suyin’s cruel words earlier. "He's going to leave you. You'll deserve it."
Lin’s eyes darkened. The interrogation was over. But the score wasn't settled.
With a sharp thrust of her hands, she ripped the metal cover away.
CLANG.
The plating over the feet tore away violently and slammed into the wall. Before Suyin could even twitch, the steel bands snapped back into place around her toes, wrenching them apart and locking the ankles rigid. Her soles were thrust out into the open air once again, flushed pink and glistening with sweat from the ordeal.
"No... No! wait!" Suyin cried out, realizing her position hadn’t improved—it had just become specific again. "Lin, you said—"
"I said we wait," Lin interrupted. She moved with deliberate slowness, sitting down on the metal casing right over Suyin’s shins. Her weight anchored the leg section further. She was now looming directly over the exposed feet.
"This," Lin said, turning her face so Su could see, pointing to the bandage on her cheek, "is going to last a lifetime, Su."
She formed the metal claws again. Snick-snick-snick. Am inch of cold, curved steel extended over her fingertips.
"And what you said about Tenzin..." Lin turned back and looked down at the defenseless, soft arches, twitching in anticipation. "...that's going to stick with me for longer."
She reached down. She didn't scratch this time. She planted the tips of the claws right into the center of both soles threateningly.
"So while we wait," Lin growled, "let's see how sorry you really are."
Lin scrabbled all ten talons over Su's taut arches.
"AAAAHHH! LIN! NO! NOT THE CLAWS! HA-HA-HA-HA!" Suyin’s scream was instantaneous and piercing. Her feet buckled in the restraints, toes curling uselessly against the steel bands.
"Are you sorry?!" Lin shouted over the laughter, digging the claws into the sensitive hollows under the toe joints.
"YES! YES! I'M SORRY! HA-HA-HA-HEEE! ABOUT THE FACE! I'M SORRY ABOUT THE FACE!"
"And Tenzin?!" Lin demanded. She moved to the heels, raking the claws down deep.
"I DIDN'T MEAN IT! HA-HA-HA! HE LOVES YOU! HE LOVES YOU, LIN! AAAA-HAAA-HAAA!"
"Louder!" Lin commanded, ignoring the lies, twisting her wrists to drill the sensation into the softest skin of the arch. "Make me believe you!"
"I TAKE IT BACK! I TAKE IT ALL BACK! PLEASE! LIN! STOP! IT'S TOO MUCH! HA-HA-HA-HA-HOOO!"
Lin didn't stop. She watched her sister’s feet dance in their iron shackles, a chaotic, desperate rhythm. For the first time all day, the pain in her cheek didn't bother her at all.
"I believe you," Lin said, her voice devoid of warmth.
She maintained the rhythm—a relentless, methodical scribbling against the weeping, flushed arches of her sister’s feet. She watched Suyin unravel completely, the laughter dissolving into shapeless, hiccupping sobs of pure exhaustion, until the defiance was scrubbed clean from her soul.
"But a lesson isn't learned until it sticks," Lin murmured.
She kept going, ignoring the pleas, letting the cold steel write its final warning into her sister's skin.
---
The rain had started falling over Republic City, turning the streets into slick ribbons of reflected neon as she drove her Satomobile home.
Her mind was still back in the damp, grease-scented gloom of Cell 4. She could still see Suyin, shivering and rubbing her raw ankles as the sarcophagus retracted for the final time. She could still hear her own voice, low and shaking with a mixture of rage and grief.
"Get out of my city, Su," Lin had hissed, looming over her sister in the shadows, echoing their mother,. "If I see you again, I'll throw you in a hole so deep even Mom won't be able to feel the vibrations."
Suyin hadn't argued. She had just gathered her clothes and ran.
Lin exhaled a long, shuddering breath. It was done. Su was gone.
By the time Lin unlocked the door to the apartment, her armor felt twice as heavy as usual.
She stepped inside, the latch clicking shut behind her, sealing out the noise of the metropolis. She leaned her back against the door for a moment, closing her eyes, letting the silence wash over her.
The apartment was warm. It smelled of sandalwood incense and brewing jasmine tea—a stark, jarring contrast to the scent of sulphur and wet concrete that clung to Lin's clothes.
"Lin?"
Tenzin’s voice drifted from the kitchen. It was calm, steady—like a stone in a stream.
"Out here," Lin called out, her voice rasping slightly.
She walked into the small living area. Tenzin was standing by the stove, wearing his loose Air Acolyte robes, pouring hot water into a clay pot. He looked up, his grey eyes brightening when he saw her, before narrowing instantly as they landed on her face.
"Spirits," Tenzin breathed, setting the kettle down. He crossed the room in two long strides. "You're hurt. What happened?"
His hands hovered near her face, gentle and warm, terrified of causing her pain.
"It's nothing," Lin lied, leaning into his touch despite herself. She felt an exhausted tremor run through her legs. "Hazard of the job. A cable snapped back during a pursuit."
"You need to be more careful," Tenzin chided softly, his thumb grazing her jawline below the bandage. "Did you at least catch them?"
Lin walked past him, sinking onto the sofa. She began unbuckling her heavy metal bracers, letting them clang onto the coffee table.
"We got an informant," she said, carefully omitting the name. "Gave us a lead on the Terra Triad’. A guy named Iron-Thumb Ito. It looks solid."
"That's... that's good news, Lin," Tenzin said. He sat down beside her, handing her a cup of tea. He watched her closely. He knew her too well. He could see the tension in her shoulders, the way her eyes wouldn't quite meet his. "But you don't look like someone who just cracked a big case. What’s really on your mind?"
Lin stared into the dark liquid of the tea. Suyin's venomous words were swimming in the reflection. Metal statue with a badge. Cold iron on the inside.
"Tenzin..." Lin started, her voice small. She set the cup down and turned to him. "You love me, right?"
Tenzin blinked, surprised by the sudden vulnerability. He reached out, taking both of her scarred, rough hands in his.
"Of course I do," he said, his brow furrowing with concern. "Lin, where is this coming from?"
"I just..." Lin hesitated. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "I know the Air Acolytes... I know preserving your culture is everything to you. And I know how important starting a family is for that."
She squeezed his hands tight, her metal rings digging into his skin.
"I just want to make sure you understand," she whispered. "When I say I'm not ready yet... I need you to know that it's not a 'never.' It's just a... a 'not yet.' I will be, Tenzin. Someday."
Tenzin didn't pull away. He didn't sigh. He didn't lecture.
Instead, he pulled her in.
It was a sudden, fierce movement. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. The metal breastplate of her armor pressed into his soft robes, cold meeting warmth.
"Lin," he murmured into her hair. "Do you think I’m in a rush? Look at our parents."
He rubbed calm, circular patterns into her back. "My father didn't have me until he was in his thirties. Your mother... well, Toph does things on her own timeline, as we both know. They both started families late. It didn't stop them."
He pulled back just enough to cup her face again, his thumbs stroking her cheekbones, careful to avoid the wounded side.
"We have time. I’m not ready either. There is so much work to be done here in the city before we bring the next generation of airbenders into it."
Lin felt a stinging pressure behind her eyes. It was sharp, sharper than the cut on her cheek.
"You mean it?" she whispered. Her voice broke on the last syllable.
A single tear escaped her eye. It tracked hot and wet down her face, rolling over the edge of the white medical tape and soaking into the shoulder of Tenzin’s robe.
Tenzin leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes.
"I love you, Lin," he said, the words vibrating against her skin, solid and absolute. "I'll never leave you."
In the struggle, a snapped cable tore two long gashes in Lin's cheek, a scar she will have for the rest of her life.
The pain in her cheek is nothing compared to the feeling of resentment when Chief Toph Beifong, their mother, tore up Suyin's arrest papers, covering up what she did. Letting her off without consequence... Again.
All characters are 18 or older
Word Count: 6,336
F/F | Feet Tickling | Tickle Torture | Non-Consensual
The expansive corridors of the Police Headquarters usually smelled of polished brass and justice. Today, to Lin Beifong, they smelled of blood and betrayal.
She walked with a rigid, militaristic cadence, her boots hammering the floor tiles like gavel strikes. Every step sent a fresh jolt of agony through the bandaged slash on her right cheek, effectively cutting through the adrenaline. It throbbed in time with her heartbeat—a hot, searing reminder of the cable that had snapped back, guided by her own sister’s hand.
But the physical pain was distant compared to the bile rising in her throat. Toph’s voice still rang in her ears, dismissive and casual, as she ripped the arrest report into confetti. “Just get out of the city, Su.”
Suyin walked a half-step ahead of the two escorting officers, a smug, rolling gait that infuriated Lin. She was still wearing her Terra Triad colors—that garish green and gold jacket that marked her as a common thug, not a Beifong.
"Can't believe you actually tried to cite me for property damage," Suyin scoffed over her shoulder, her voice light, unburdened by guilt. "Mom knows what's what. You're just jealous she didn't give you the task force."
Lin stopped dead. The two junior officers behind them halted in confusion.
"Change of plans," Lin said, her voice a low grind of gravel. "Take her to holding. Level B4."
Officer Zhelan, a tall, silent man with the lean build of a specialized chi-blocker, hesitated. "Lieutenant, the Chief said—"
"I don't give a damn what the Chief said," Lin snapped, turning on her heel to face them. Her eyes were hard shards of meteorite iron. "She assaulted an officer. She destroyed city property. And until I sign her release, she is my prisoner. Do you want to explain to the Council why you disobeyed your direct superior officer during an active transport?"
The threat hung heavy in the air. Zhelan exchanged a look with his partner, then nodded once.
"Hey!" Suyin spun around, her smugness evaporating into sudden alarm. "No! Mom said I was free! You can't—"
She raised her hands, assuming a bending stance, ready to pull the metal plating from the walls.
"Zhelan. Now," Lin commanded.
The movement was a blur. Zhelan stepped inside Suyin's guard, his knuckles striking with surgical precision—thwack-thwack-thwack. He hit the nerve clusters in her shoulder, her elbow, and the base of her spine.
"Ghh-ah!" Suyin gasped, her eyes going wide as her Chi flow was severed. Her arms dropped like lead weights, totally limp at her sides. Her knees buckled, and the second officer caught her by the back of her triad jacket, dragging her upright like a marionette with cut strings.
"You're pathetic, Lin!" Suyin screamed, her head lolling as she struggled against the paralysis deadening her limbs. Her boots scuffed uselessly against the floor tiles. "You think following the rules makes you better than us? It just makes you alone!"
Lin didn’t answer. She pressed the call button for the heavy freight elevator. The cagework doors rattled open with a harsh, industrial clatter.
"Go ahead, lock me up!" Suyin spat, her voice rising to a venomous pitch as she was shoved roughly inside the cage. "Is this what you’re gonna tell Tenzin tonight? That you put your own sister in a box just to prove a point?"
Lin stepped in, turning her back to the prisoner to face the doors.
"You're delusional if you think he's going to stick around for this," Suyin laughed—a harsh, brittle sound that echoed in the small space. "He has a dead civilization to resurrect, Lin."
Suyin leaned forward, her paralyzed body sliding slightly against the wall, her voice dropping to a cruel, intimate whisper.
"He needs a mother for the next generation of Airbenders. Not a metal statue with a badge, cold iron on the inside. A wife. You care more about this city than you do about family. You’re already married to the job..."
She smiled, a cruel, knowing twist of her lips.
"He's going to leave you, Lin. And you'll deserve it."
The elevator doors slammed shut, severing the connection, but the silence inside was deafening.
Lin stood with her back to the door, staring at the rivets on the wall. The comment about Tenzin didn't just sting; it pierced through her armor and twisted the knife. The scar on her face burned hotter. A red haze, darker than anger, washed over her vision.
"Processing Room 4," Lin said. Her voice was terrifyingly quiet, barely visible over the hum of the descending elevator. "Get her inside. Strip off the jacket, the pants, the boots. Leave her in her undergarments. I don't want those Triad rags tainting my station."
"And for containment, Lieutenant?" Zhelan asked, glancing at the paralyzed Suyin. "Standard cuffs to the table?"
"No," Lin cut him off, staring straight ahead at the metal doors, refusing to look at her sister. "Lie her on the center plating, arms up, forearms behind her head and cuffed. I don't want any surprises when the chi blocking wears off. Then clear the room. I will deal with her from then on personally."
She flexed her fingers, the metal rings on her armor clicking together with a cold, predatory sound.
"She likes to break rocks," Lin murmured. "Let's see how she likes becoming one."
---
Suyin lay in the center of the room, her arms raised, forearms behind her head. She had been stripped of her jacket, pants, and boots, left shivering in her simple white cotton bra and panties. Her limbs were useless, lifeless from the chi-blocking.
Lin raised her hands, her movements sharp and violent. She pulled the metal floor plates up, the steel groaning as it yielded to her will.
CRUNCH. CLANG.
The metal slammed around Suyin’s body. It didn't just cover her; it segmented. Independent heavy plates wrapped tight around her calves, her thighs, and her torso, locking her rigid.
"Lin! Don't you dare!" Suyin shrieked, her chest heaving against the forming shell.
Lin clenched her fists. A floor plate morphed into a curved, helmet-like cowl and Lin slammed it over her sister's face, encasing Suyin’s raised arms and locking over her head. The final chest-plate slid upward, interlocking with the cowl and sealing her sister in total darkness.
HISS-CLICK.
The plates locked together with a suffocating finality, the seams vanishing into a smooth, gray surface. Suyin was now a prisoner in a form-fitting iron thermal trap. The metal pressed against her skin from ankle to wrist, leaving no room for movement and nowhere for her body heat to escape. The only break in the seamless armor was a narrow, grilled slit over her mouth and nose—just enough oxygen to sustain life, but not enough to cool her down.
Suyin was now a statue, a prisoner in her own metallic coffin, lying in the center of the room.
"Think about your choices, Su," Lin whispered to the metal shell.
She turned and marched out, the heavy blast door thudding shut behind her, leaving Suyin screaming into the dark, her muffled cries vibrating harmlessly against the steel.
---
The coffee in Lin's mug had gone cold an hour ago, but she drank the sludge anyway. It tasted like ash—fitting for the mood she was in.
She sat at her desk in the upper precinct, surrounded by stacks of unresolved case files. The Terra Triad. They were a plague on Republic City. Extortion, racketeering, illegal bending duels. Every time the police got close, the Triad vanished into the earth like ghosts. They had no roster, no hideouts that stayed put, and absolutely no informants.
Except now, they had one.
Lin touched the dressing on her cheek. The pain was duller now, a steady throb that synchronized with her headache. Suyin. Her own sister, running with the very scum Lin had sworn to wipe off the streets.
She picked up the arrest report Toph had ripped in half earlier. She had taped it back together, the jagged tear running right through Suyin’s name.
“You’re free to go, Su.”
Lin crumpled the paper in her fist, her metal armor creaking with the pressure. No. Not this time.
She stared at the wall map of the city, pinned with red flags marking Triad activity. She needed names. She needed locations. She needed leverage.
Suyin wouldn’t talk willingly. She was stubborn, arrogant, and currently basking in the delusion that she was untouchable. Traditional interrogation wouldn’t work; Suyin would just scoff and throw insults about Toph or Tenzin until Lin lost her temper again.
Lin’s eyes drifted to a framed photograph on her desk—a rare picture from a decade ago. It showed Toph, Lin, and Suyin. They were younger, happier. Lin remembered that day. They had been wrestling in the garden. Suyin had pinned Lin, gloating, until Lin had found the one weakness Suyin couldn't bend her way out of. Lin plunged her fingers into Suyin's exposed underarms.
Lin remembered the sound—not the defiant shouts of a rebel, but the breathless, desperate, high-pitched screeching of a little sister who had lost all control.
“Lin! Liiiiiin! St-stop! Ple-heeeese!”
A dark, cold realization settled over Lin Beifong.
She stood up, her chair scraping loudly against the floor. She walked to her equipment locker. She didn't reach for a baton or shock gloves. Instead, she picked up the severed metal cable—the evidence from the altercation. The end was frayed, the steel wires splayed out like a stiff, metallic brush.
It was perfect.
She clipped the cable to her belt and strode out of the office.
The journey down to the lower holding levels was silent. When she reached Interrogation Room 4, she didn't enter immediately. She dismissed the guard stationed outside.
"Black out the observation window," Lin ordered. "No cameras. No audio feed either."
"Lieutenant?" the guard asked, confused. "Protocol states—"
"I am conducting a high-level interrogation of a Bender with known Flight Risk capabilities," Lin lied smoothly. "I don't need an audience. Clear out."
The guard saluted and left. Lin turned the heavy locking wheel on the door. She engaged the privacy shutters, sealing the room from the outside world.
She stepped inside.
The room was cool. In the center lay the metal sarcophagus, a seamless, gray coffin.
Lin walked a slow circle around it. She could hear Suyin’s muffled breathing through the mouth slit—fast, shallow. Good. The isolation was already working.
"Comfortable?" Lin asked, her voice echoing off the concrete walls.
"Let me out, Lin!" Suyin’s voice was muffled but furious. "This isn't funny! You can't keep me in here!"
"I can do whatever I want, Su. You're unlisted. As far as the city is concerned, you're already gone."
Lin stood at the foot of the sarcophagus. She raised her hands, her fingers flexing with the subtle, intricate movements of a master unlocking a safe. She didn't need to force the metal; she simply commanded the segments she had designed.
HISS-CLACK.
The heavy, curved plating covering Suyin’s soles retracted, sliding smoothly up into the casing around her shins. But as the soles were exposed, the trap engaged. Thin, articulated bands of steel extended from the ankle cuffs, curling around each of Suyin’s toes. With a mechanical whine, they pulled backward.
The metal forced her toes wide apart and locked them back, hyperextended. Suyin’s soles were stretched taut, the pale skin from heel to ball pulled smooth and tight, rendering her unable to curl her toes or shy away. The delicate webbing and the flushed, damp pads were completely exposed to the open air.
The "thermal trap" had done its work. As the plating retracted, a visible puff of trapped heat escaped. A heavy sheen of perspiration coated Suyin’s skin, and Lin watched with cold satisfaction as a single bead of sweat rolled slowly down the high curve of her sister's arch, glistening under the harsh interrogation lamp before dripping onto the concrete.
Almost simultaneously, Lin twitched her left hand. The segmented panels covering Suyin’s ribs and underarms disengaged with a synchronized click.* They slid downward into the main torso casing, revealing the deep, hollowed curves of her armpits. The skin there was flushed pink from the heat and wet with sweat, framed perfectly by the cold, grey edges of the retracted armor—a map of vulnerabilities waiting to be exploited.
"The Terra Triad," Lin said, unhooking the frayed cable from her belt. She ran her thumb over the wire brush tip. It made a rasping sound. "I want names. Safe houses. Leadership structure."
"I don't know anything!" Suyin yelled. "I just drive the getaway car! Go to hell!"
Lin stepped closer. She looked down at the strained, sweating soles, locked in their metallic display.
"Wrong answer."
She brought the frayed cable down. Not a strike, but a slow, scraping drag up the center of Suyin’s taut sole. The stiff metal wires bit into the soft skin with agonizing precision.
Suyin gasped, a sharp, involuntary intake of air—Hhh-uh!—as the frayed wires scraped up the length of her foot. Her toes twitched violently in their metal shackles, straining against the unyielding steel bands, but there was nowhere to go. The sensation was maddeningly distinct: fifty tiny, cold metal fingers scratching against the most sensitive skin on her body simultaneously.
Lin pulled the cable back, hovering it just millimeters from the skin. She didn’t strike again. Not yet.
She began to pace slowly around the sarcophagus, the heels of her boots clicking ominously on the concrete. She let the silence stretch, heavy and suffocating, interrupted only by Suyin’s ragged breathing.
"You know," Lin said conversationally, examining the tip of the cable as if inspecting a weapon of war, "the human nervous system is a fascinating thing. Chi flows through the body like water, but nerves... nerves are wires."
She stopped near Suyin’s head. She looked down at the exposed patch of pale skin under her sister’s left arm. The arm was locked high, the pit hollowed and deep, protected by absolutely nothing.
"When you block Chi, you numb the muscle," Lin murmured. She reached out with her free hand. She didn't use the cable. Instead, she extended one metal-clad index finger and lightly—barely—dusted her nail against the very center of Suyin’s armpit. Use a circular motion.
"EEP!" The sound burst out of Suyin before she could stop it. Her shoulders jerked in the casing, the metal rattling. "D-don't!"
"But when you stimulate the nerves without release..." Lin continued, ignoring the outburst, her voice smooth and clinical. She withdrew her hand. "...The brain begins to panic. It anticipates the sensation. It actually amplifies it. Tell me about the Triad safe house in the Dragon Flats, Su."
"I told you, I don't know!" Suyin insisted, though her voice was thinner now, strained. She was trying to sound tough, but she was tracking Lin’s every movement, her eyes likely squeezed shut inside the helmet. "We never go to the same place twice! It's just—"
Lin moved back to the feet. She took the severed cable and tapped the heel—tap, tap, tap—with the hard metal handle, not the brush. The vibration traveled up Suyin’s leg.
"Liar," Lin whispered.
She suddenly curled the frayed end of the cable onto the ball of Suyin’s right foot and scribbled it back and forth for three seconds. Hard, fast, abrasive scratches.
Lin didn't wait for an answer. She felt the tremors running through Suyin’s legs—the involuntary twitches of anticipation rippling through the calf muscles right into her own foot from her seismic sense.
She held the frayed wire cable like a conductor's baton, hovering it over the exposed, flushed pad of Suyin’s big toe on the right foot.
"Let's check your fundamentals," Lin murmured, her voice dangerously soft.
She pressed the wire bristles into the soft whirl of the toeprint.
"This little rock learned to lift..."
Lin traced a slow, agonizingly precise circle around the pad of the big toe. The wires bit and scratched, a focused point of maddening sensation.
"Eee-hee! No!" Suyin gasped, her foot jerking against the metal spreaders. "Lin!"
Lin ignored her, moving the cable to the second toe.
"This one learned to bend..."
She swirled the bristles again, faster this time, digging into the sensitive skin near the nail.
"Hhh-ah! S-stop!" Suyin squeezed her eyes shut inside the helmet, her breathing turning ragged.
Lin moved to the middle toe, the one pulled tautest by the metal ring.
"This one learned to stand its ground..."
She didn't just circle; she vibrated the brush against the tip. The sensation was electric.
"Yip! Ahhh-ha-ha! Don't! Don't do that!" Suyin’s voice cracked, the laughter bubbling up through the panic.
Lin moved to the fourth toe.
"This one would not bend..."
She swirled the wire hard, grinding it against the soft skin.
"Neee-heee! L-Lin! ST-STOP-HA-HA!"
Lin smirked, moving to the pinky toe, which was curled back helplessly in the metal loop. She hovered the brush right over it, letting Suyin wait for a split second of terrifying anticipation.
"And this little stone went..."
Lin leaned in close to the metal shell, shouting over the metallic groan of Suyin's struggles.
"...CLINK, CLANK, CRASH!"
On each word, Lin raked the frayed cable along the entire length of Suyin’s sole, from the toes to the heel and back up.
Scritch-SCRATCH. "CLINK!"
"AAAAHHH-HA-HA-HA!" Suyin screamed, her head tossing inside the sarcophagus.
Scritch-SCRATCH. "CLANK!"
"NOOO-HOO-HOO! IT BURNS! IT TICKLES! MAKE IT STOP!"
Scritch-SCRATCH. "CRASH!"
Lin dug the wires into the deepest part of the arch and scrubbed furiously for the final beat.
"GYAAA-HA-HA-HA-HEEE! OKAY! OKAY! I'M SORRY! HA-HA-HA!"
Lin stopped abruptly.
The silence that followed was heavy, filled only with the sound of Suyin gulping for air. Hhh-uh... hhh-uh... Inside the helmet, it must have been deafening.
Lin leaned against the side of the sarcophagus, casually inspecting her fingernails as if she were waiting for a bus.
"Listen to you," Lin said, her voice dripping with disdain. "That wasn't even ten seconds. Look at you shaking."
She reached down and placed her palm on the metal sheet covering Suyin's chest, feeling the rapid-fire hammering of her sister’s heart through the ribs and casing.
"You talk so big out there," Lin murmured. "Triad colors. Swift kicks. Disrespecting Mom. But in here?" She tapped her metal finger against the rim of the sarcophagus' rib-opening. Ting. Ting. "You're just a little girl who can't handle a bit of wire."
"I... I hate you..." Suyin wheezed, the defiance weak and watery.
"Good," Lin replied. "Hate keeps you awake. Hatred focuses the mind."
She walked to the head of the sarcophagus. She looked down at the tiny air slit. She could just see Suyin’s eyes in the darkness—wide, wet with panic tears, darting frantically.
"Let's talk about 'Brass Knuckles' Shin," Lin said, dropping a notorious Triad name. "Rumor has it he's recruiting Benders from the underground clubs. Is that where you met him?"
"I don't... I don't know Shin!" Suyin cried.
Lin sighed. "Disappointing."
She moved her hands. The metal rings on her armor clicked. With a gesture, the metal casing around Suyin’s armpits shifted. Thin strips of metal peeled inward from the edges. They didn't cover the skin; they pressed into the pectorals and the lats, effectively squeezing the muscle and forcing the armpit to bulge outward, making the skin even tighter, even more accessible.
"Oh no... no, no, Lin, please..." Suyin realized what was happening. Her voice pitched up into a desperate whine. "Don't! Not the pits! I swear I don't know him!"
Lin abandoned the cable. She held up her hands, metal flowed from her wrists over her fingers and solidified into cones—five sharp, cold talons on each hand.
"Since you don't know Shin," Lin said, bringing her clawed hands to hover over both exposed underarms simultaneously, "maybe you'll remember something about the Terra Triad instead."
She slowly lowered her fingers. The cold metal tips ghosted over the sweating skin of Suyin’s armpits, barely touching, teasing the fine hairs.
"I wonder," Lin whispered, "if five minutes without a break will jog your memory."
She sank the claws in. Wiggling them deep into the hollows with relentless, digging strokes.
Shhh-luck. Shhh-luck.
"AAAAHHH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! NOOOO! LIN! LIIIIIIIIN!"
The sound was immediate and deafening. Suyin’s head thrashed wildly inside the helmet, banging against the steel cowl, but her arms remained locked high, offering up the pale, vulnerable cups of her underarms to Lin’s mercy.
"Too loud," Lin critiqued calmly. She twisted her wrists, rotating the ten metal talons in a harsh, circular grinding motion right in the deepest, dampest center of the pits. She wasn't just scratching the surface; she was kneading the nerves, burying the cold metal tips into the soft tissue until they practically disappeared.
"GYAAAA-HAAA-HAAA! OH SP-HI-HI-HIRITS! NOT THEEE-HERE! NOT THE-HE-HE-RE!"
Suyin’s chest heaved violently against the breastplate. Her shoulders jerked, trying instinctively to clamp her arms down to protect herself, but the metal casing held her limbs rigid. She was forced to remain open, exposed, and utterly helpless.
"One minute," Lin announced, her eyes glued to the clock on the wall, ignoring the sobbing laughter beneath her hands.
She changed her angle. Instead of digging, she began to rake. She dragged the sharp, curved tips from the bottom of the armpit up to the delicate skin of the inner bicep, then snapped them back down.
Scritch-SCRATCH. Scritch-SCRATCH.
"EHEEE-HEEE! STOP! STOP IT! I CAN'T-HAAA-HAAA!"
Suyin gasped, the air whistling through her teeth. "LIN! PLEASE! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!"
"You're not remorseful yet," Lin murmured. "You're just sorry you are finally facing justice."
She spread her fingers wide, spanning the entire width of the underarm, and began a rapid-fire spider-walk—her metal fingers drumming a chaotic, staccato rhythm against the sweat-slicked skin.
Tip-tap-tip-tap-tip-tap.
"NNNGH! GUH-HUCK! AAAA-HA-HA-HA! MMMM-MAKE IT STOP! T-TOO FA-HA-HA-AST!"
The sweat was pouring off Suyin now. Lin could feel it slicking her metal claws, making the friction wet and heavy. The heat radiating from the open vent of the sarcophagus was palpable.
"Two minutes," Lin said. She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a terrifying whisper right near the grille of the helmet. "I bet you're regretting your choices now, aren't you? It's getting hot in there."
She suddenly scissored her fingers, pinching and vibrating the loose, sensitive skin at the front of the armpit, right where the pectoral muscle met the arm.
"YIIII-IIIII-IIIP! NOOO-HOO-HOO! LIN! LIN! I'LL DIE! I'M GONNA D-DIE-HI-HI-HI!"
"Breathe, Su," Lin instructed coldly, watching the panic rise. "Use your training. Find your center."
She dug the thumbs deep—right into the nerve cluster—and held them there, vibrating her hands with the speed of a hummingbird’s wing.
"AAAAAHHHHH-HAAAA-HAAAA-HAAAA! OKAY! OKAY! I'LL TALK! I'LL TALK! SHIN! IT'S SHIN! AAAA-HA-HA!"
"You will talk," Lin said over the screams, increasing the tempo, refusing to show mercy. "You'll talk when I'm done."
She didn't let up. She kept the rhythm brutal and consistent, turning her sister into a breathless, sobbing wreck. Lin didn't stop until the clock finally, mercifully, ticked over the mark.
The five minutes felt like five hours. When Lin finally withdrew her hands, her metal claws retracting with a synchronized click, the silence that rushed back into the room was heavy and wet.
Suyin was wrecked. Even paralyzed and encased in steel, her body twitched with phantom sensations. Her chest heaved against the metal breastplate, producing a hollow, rattling sound. Great racking sobs shuddered through the air slit.
"Hhh-uh... hhh-uh... oh spirits... oh spirits..." she whimpered, her voice a broken thread.
"Talk," Lin commanded. She stood perfectly still, her face a mask of indifference, though sweat beaded on her own forehead from the exertion of the bending.
"It's... it's Spider," Suyin rushed to say, the words tumbling out desperate and fast. "Spider drives the trucks! They move the stolen satomobiles through the tunnels under the arena! They meet at midnight on Tuesdays! That's all I know! I swear, Lin! That's it!"
Lin stared at her sister. Her expression didn't soften. It hardened.
"The Arena tunnels?" Lin repeated flatly. "We raided those tunnels three weeks ago. We found empty crates and tire tracks. That's old intel, Su."
She leaned in, her eyes narrowing. "You think I'm stupid? You think because I’m your sister I’ll buy whatever scraps you throw me?"
"No! It's true!" Suyin pleaded, panic rising again in her voice. "Maybe they moved! I haven't been in the loop for a month since Mom—"
"Lies," Lin cut her off. The single word was a condemnation.
Lin stepped back. She raised both hands high, palms facing the sarcophagus.
"If you want to protect your little gangster friends," she said, her voice dropping to that terrifyingly calm register again, "then you can suffer with them."
Lin slammed her fists together.
CLANG-CRUNCH.
The sarcophagus openings slammed shut. The panels retracted over Suyin’s exposed armpits. The plates slid back over her feet. She was fully encased once more, sealed in the dark iron tomb.
"No! Lin! Wait! I'm telling the truth!" Suyin’s voice was muffled again by the grilled airslit, vibrating uselessly against the steel.
"Save your breath," Lin said. She closed her eyes, focusing her seismic sense. She could feel the metal casing like it was part of her own body. She could feel Suyin inside it.
With microscopic precision, Lin bent the inner surface of the newly sealed plates.
From the smooth metal lining directly under Suyin's armpits, tiny, needle-sharp protrusions rose up. They didn't pierce the skin; they pressed against it. Lin set them into a rotation—two small, cold points tracing maddening, jagged circles right in the deepest, dampest part of the hollows.
Simultaneously, at the bottom of the casing, she manipulated the steel beneath Suyin's soles. She formed two more protrusions that began to slowly, relentlessly draw symbols against the arches and heels.
"Eee! Mmph-hhh!" The sounds of muffled struggling began immediately. The sarcophagus rocked slightly on the floor as Suyin thrashed against the internal mechanisms.
"It requires no effort from me to keep this going," Lin explained to the vibrating coffin. "It's a loop. A simple mechanical rotation. It will not stop. It will not tire. And it will not listen to you beg."
"Lin! PLEASE! Mmmph-mmmph! GYAAAA-HAAA!"
"Maybe your tongue will be looser when I come back." Lin turned her back on the screaming metal box.
She walked out of the interrogation room, the heavy blast door thudding shut behind her, cutting off the sound of her sister’s torment.
---
Lin sat in her office, staring at the clock. The second hand ticked by with excruciating slowness. Ten minutes. Twenty. Thirty.
She tried to read the reports on her desk, but the words swam. The anger hadn't faded; it had curdled into something colder, something necessary. Mom had always let Suyin run wild. She had laughed off the rebellion. Look where that had lead them. A scar on Lin’s face and a criminal in the family.
Someone had to be the adult. Someone had to hold the line.
Forty-five minutes.
Lin stood up. She straightened her uniform. She didn't hurry. She walked back down the long, cold corridors to the holding cells.
As she verified her palm print on the lock of Room 4, she could hear it even through the blast door—a high, thin wailing sound.
She opened the door.
The wave of heat and scent hit her instantly. The room smelled intensely of fear—acrid sweat, and urine. The sarcophagus in the center of the room was vibrating, a low, constant rattle against the concrete floor.
Inside, Suyin was no longer forming words.
"Hnnn-gnn! AAAA-EEE-HEEE! MMM-HMMM-HAAAA!"
The muffled screams were raw, throat-tearing sounds of pure sensory overload. The machine had been grinding and circling against her most sensitive nerves for nearly an hour without pause.
Lin walked over to the casing. She placed her hand on the metal where Suyin’s head would be and ceased the torment.
"Ready to be loyal to your family now, Su?"
"Shin's Deputy. It's... it's a non-bender named Iron-Thumb Ito," Suyin rasped. Her voice was barely a whisper, shredded by nearly an hour of screaming into the recycled air of her metal prison. "He runs the books out of a tea shop in the lower ring. The Jasmine Dragon... but the old location."
Lin stood silent for a moment, processing. Iron-Thumb Ito. The name had popped up on wiretaps before, a ghost in the system they never could pin down. A non-bender handling the finances for a Bending Triad? It was unusual, specific... and credible.
"If you're lying," Lin warned, her voice low, "I put the needles back."
"I'm n-not," Suyin sobbed, a pathetic, broken sound. "I swear. Just... let me out. Please, Lin. I can't breathe in here anymore."
Lin didn't answer. She turned and exited the room.
In the hallway, she grabbed the first officer she saw. "Run a full trace on a 'Iron-Thumb Ito.' Cross-reference with property records for the old Jasmine Dragon tea shop. I want a surveillance team there ten minutes ago."
"Yes, Lieutenant!" The officer sprinted off.
Lin took a deep breath. The headache was finally receding. She walked back into Interrogation Room 4. The air was still thick and humid, smelling of her sister’s distress.
"The intel is being verified," Lin announced, her boots echoing as she approached the sarcophagus.
"Does that... does that mean I can go?" Suyin asked, hope trembling in her voice. "You got what you wanted, right?"
"We have to wait for confirmation," Lin said simply. "Standard procedure."
She stopped at the foot of the sarcophagus. She looked at the smooth metal plate sealing her sister’s legs. She thought about the scar tissue knitting on her cheek—a permanent mark. She thought about Tenzin, about the stinging truth in Suyin’s cruel words earlier. "He's going to leave you. You'll deserve it."
Lin’s eyes darkened. The interrogation was over. But the score wasn't settled.
With a sharp thrust of her hands, she ripped the metal cover away.
CLANG.
The plating over the feet tore away violently and slammed into the wall. Before Suyin could even twitch, the steel bands snapped back into place around her toes, wrenching them apart and locking the ankles rigid. Her soles were thrust out into the open air once again, flushed pink and glistening with sweat from the ordeal.
"No... No! wait!" Suyin cried out, realizing her position hadn’t improved—it had just become specific again. "Lin, you said—"
"I said we wait," Lin interrupted. She moved with deliberate slowness, sitting down on the metal casing right over Suyin’s shins. Her weight anchored the leg section further. She was now looming directly over the exposed feet.
"This," Lin said, turning her face so Su could see, pointing to the bandage on her cheek, "is going to last a lifetime, Su."
She formed the metal claws again. Snick-snick-snick. Am inch of cold, curved steel extended over her fingertips.
"And what you said about Tenzin..." Lin turned back and looked down at the defenseless, soft arches, twitching in anticipation. "...that's going to stick with me for longer."
She reached down. She didn't scratch this time. She planted the tips of the claws right into the center of both soles threateningly.
"So while we wait," Lin growled, "let's see how sorry you really are."
Lin scrabbled all ten talons over Su's taut arches.
"AAAAHHH! LIN! NO! NOT THE CLAWS! HA-HA-HA-HA!" Suyin’s scream was instantaneous and piercing. Her feet buckled in the restraints, toes curling uselessly against the steel bands.
"Are you sorry?!" Lin shouted over the laughter, digging the claws into the sensitive hollows under the toe joints.
"YES! YES! I'M SORRY! HA-HA-HA-HEEE! ABOUT THE FACE! I'M SORRY ABOUT THE FACE!"
"And Tenzin?!" Lin demanded. She moved to the heels, raking the claws down deep.
"I DIDN'T MEAN IT! HA-HA-HA! HE LOVES YOU! HE LOVES YOU, LIN! AAAA-HAAA-HAAA!"
"Louder!" Lin commanded, ignoring the lies, twisting her wrists to drill the sensation into the softest skin of the arch. "Make me believe you!"
"I TAKE IT BACK! I TAKE IT ALL BACK! PLEASE! LIN! STOP! IT'S TOO MUCH! HA-HA-HA-HA-HOOO!"
Lin didn't stop. She watched her sister’s feet dance in their iron shackles, a chaotic, desperate rhythm. For the first time all day, the pain in her cheek didn't bother her at all.
"I believe you," Lin said, her voice devoid of warmth.
She maintained the rhythm—a relentless, methodical scribbling against the weeping, flushed arches of her sister’s feet. She watched Suyin unravel completely, the laughter dissolving into shapeless, hiccupping sobs of pure exhaustion, until the defiance was scrubbed clean from her soul.
"But a lesson isn't learned until it sticks," Lin murmured.
She kept going, ignoring the pleas, letting the cold steel write its final warning into her sister's skin.
---
The rain had started falling over Republic City, turning the streets into slick ribbons of reflected neon as she drove her Satomobile home.
Her mind was still back in the damp, grease-scented gloom of Cell 4. She could still see Suyin, shivering and rubbing her raw ankles as the sarcophagus retracted for the final time. She could still hear her own voice, low and shaking with a mixture of rage and grief.
"Get out of my city, Su," Lin had hissed, looming over her sister in the shadows, echoing their mother,. "If I see you again, I'll throw you in a hole so deep even Mom won't be able to feel the vibrations."
Suyin hadn't argued. She had just gathered her clothes and ran.
Lin exhaled a long, shuddering breath. It was done. Su was gone.
By the time Lin unlocked the door to the apartment, her armor felt twice as heavy as usual.
She stepped inside, the latch clicking shut behind her, sealing out the noise of the metropolis. She leaned her back against the door for a moment, closing her eyes, letting the silence wash over her.
The apartment was warm. It smelled of sandalwood incense and brewing jasmine tea—a stark, jarring contrast to the scent of sulphur and wet concrete that clung to Lin's clothes.
"Lin?"
Tenzin’s voice drifted from the kitchen. It was calm, steady—like a stone in a stream.
"Out here," Lin called out, her voice rasping slightly.
She walked into the small living area. Tenzin was standing by the stove, wearing his loose Air Acolyte robes, pouring hot water into a clay pot. He looked up, his grey eyes brightening when he saw her, before narrowing instantly as they landed on her face.
"Spirits," Tenzin breathed, setting the kettle down. He crossed the room in two long strides. "You're hurt. What happened?"
His hands hovered near her face, gentle and warm, terrified of causing her pain.
"It's nothing," Lin lied, leaning into his touch despite herself. She felt an exhausted tremor run through her legs. "Hazard of the job. A cable snapped back during a pursuit."
"You need to be more careful," Tenzin chided softly, his thumb grazing her jawline below the bandage. "Did you at least catch them?"
Lin walked past him, sinking onto the sofa. She began unbuckling her heavy metal bracers, letting them clang onto the coffee table.
"We got an informant," she said, carefully omitting the name. "Gave us a lead on the Terra Triad’. A guy named Iron-Thumb Ito. It looks solid."
"That's... that's good news, Lin," Tenzin said. He sat down beside her, handing her a cup of tea. He watched her closely. He knew her too well. He could see the tension in her shoulders, the way her eyes wouldn't quite meet his. "But you don't look like someone who just cracked a big case. What’s really on your mind?"
Lin stared into the dark liquid of the tea. Suyin's venomous words were swimming in the reflection. Metal statue with a badge. Cold iron on the inside.
"Tenzin..." Lin started, her voice small. She set the cup down and turned to him. "You love me, right?"
Tenzin blinked, surprised by the sudden vulnerability. He reached out, taking both of her scarred, rough hands in his.
"Of course I do," he said, his brow furrowing with concern. "Lin, where is this coming from?"
"I just..." Lin hesitated. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "I know the Air Acolytes... I know preserving your culture is everything to you. And I know how important starting a family is for that."
She squeezed his hands tight, her metal rings digging into his skin.
"I just want to make sure you understand," she whispered. "When I say I'm not ready yet... I need you to know that it's not a 'never.' It's just a... a 'not yet.' I will be, Tenzin. Someday."
Tenzin didn't pull away. He didn't sigh. He didn't lecture.
Instead, he pulled her in.
It was a sudden, fierce movement. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. The metal breastplate of her armor pressed into his soft robes, cold meeting warmth.
"Lin," he murmured into her hair. "Do you think I’m in a rush? Look at our parents."
He rubbed calm, circular patterns into her back. "My father didn't have me until he was in his thirties. Your mother... well, Toph does things on her own timeline, as we both know. They both started families late. It didn't stop them."
He pulled back just enough to cup her face again, his thumbs stroking her cheekbones, careful to avoid the wounded side.
"We have time. I’m not ready either. There is so much work to be done here in the city before we bring the next generation of airbenders into it."
Lin felt a stinging pressure behind her eyes. It was sharp, sharper than the cut on her cheek.
"You mean it?" she whispered. Her voice broke on the last syllable.
A single tear escaped her eye. It tracked hot and wet down her face, rolling over the edge of the white medical tape and soaking into the shoulder of Tenzin’s robe.
Tenzin leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes.
"I love you, Lin," he said, the words vibrating against her skin, solid and absolute. "I'll never leave you."
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