Warning not beta read. Sorry for any mistakes.

"Lin! You look amazing!" Pema smiled and pulled the Chief of Police into an awkward hug. After they broke apart neither knew what to say. Seeing as they had a history of not being very civil with each other, this simple show of mutual respect was a nice surprised to any who knew the back story to these two woman.

"Well it's nice that you had time to come to Korra's birthday party. I know she wanted you to be here after what happens at the Pro-Bending Arena. I think everyone is a bit more at ease now that the Chief of Police is here." The younger woman smiled and walked behind her patting Lin's shoulder as she walked away to see to the food that would be served.

Lin sighed with annoyance and roses a gloved hand to tuck a silver strand behind her ear. She wasn't annoyed with the woman she had just shared greetings with, but with the dress she was forced to wear. The dress was to tight, making it impossible to walk in. Maybe she was exaggerating on that part. You could walk in the dress, but you couldn't take long strides or even make a proper kick. BeiFong knew that tonight there would be no need to punch or kick anything, hell she wasn't even going to be earth bending. But it didn't hurt to see if you could fight in what you wore. With the things that were happening in Republic City people were left on their toes.

As the night went on she smiled at a few police men who volunteered to watch over the party. Many were stunned to see their boss in such a get up a poor few had mistaken her for one of the more willing and younger guest and were scared beyond their wits and were apologizing, begging that she not fire them. She laughed it off and patted their shoulder assuring then that all was well.

Half and hour had passed and Lin had a drink in hand and stood near the wall making sure that she didn't have to be forced into pointless conversations. She was poorly mistaken.

"Hey Chief, got tired of the party that quick."

"Hello Avatar." The older woman nodded and went back to her drink.

"Please don't call me that. I haven't heard my name be spoken all day. Everyone seems to have forgotten that I was a human being." The water bender sighed and leaned against the wall. She took a gulp from her drink but instead of some champagne it was water.

"And I would have thought you would have been drunk off your high horse with this much alcohol surrounding you." Korra laughed and stole a glance at the gown.

It was as white as the snow that Korra often saw back home. With a sweetheart neck line emphasizing what Lin's uniform always hid. Small red blood cherry blossoms were all cluttered on the side of her left breast. Then the image gave the illusion of a soft breeze blowing them away having then scatter all along the curves of her body. The red heels that gave her the extra five inches and the matching gloves pulled off the look. Then the ruby earrings and the diamond tipped pins keeping her hair up were beautiful. Now the poor girl felt a bit under dressed standing next to the Chief of Police with her simple water bending attire.

"I'm not the type, just never liked the taste and I couldn't stand it long enough to get a buzz. Always gave it away with a funny face." Lin rolled her eyes and rose her own drink to her lips.

"Why a funny face?"

"Like I said I didn't like it." She replied as if it answered the question.

"Aww, yes how could I have missed it." The statement was practically oozing with sarcasm.

"Anyway Miss Sassy Heels you cleaned up nice. Never thought I would see you in a dress. And all for my birthday. I am truly a

honoured." She placed a hand on her chest and bowed her head. Lin was caught off guard with the nick name when she saw something move in the second floor.

She tensed and placed her glass on the table provided next to her. Lin was going to inform the Avatar, but she was beaten to the punch.

"You saw it too?" Korra rose an eyebrow and she too placed the drink on the table reaching over the earth bender.

"It could be Melo." Lin mutter in her ear while the were centimetres apart. The water tribe member straightened and gave the second floor a glance. Both women noticed the shadow the second time that night.

"He couldn't be up there. Pema took her kids to bed not to long ago." A couple passed by and offered their greetings. Beifong and the Avatar gave curt nods and made little work in dropping hints that they wanted to be alone.

"No, he might be a bit hyper, but he knows when enough is enough. A couple perhaps?" She offered and moved away from the wall to be in front of Lin.

"What are you doing." She said pressing herself against the wall, feeling her personal space being invaded.

"Pretend to have a conversation with me and look up causally." Lin wasn't going to play stupid, because she knew something was wrong. She could feel it. All soreness pushed aside she moved her eyes to the floor above them and this time saw two figures move one after the other. There was a flash of a very familiar blue light.

Next to them the door to the kitchen opened. A man came out with his head bowed. In his hand was a mask that he put on. Soon he pulled some shock gloves and with out a doubt the man turned into an Equalist. His head turned and landed on the couple inspecting the second floor. The Avatar, his main target, was looking at what he thought was the Chief of Police.

They turned to the side sensing his presence and being to far from them, pulled out a small gun aiming it at Lin. He shot once and the rope that flew out of the muzzle went as high speed towards its target. They wrapped around her, trapping her arms. The force of the hit was so great that she flew back and hit table with their drinks on it. Knocking them over.

Blue sparks ignited and soon after she screamed in pain. All party goers turned to the sound of distress. Korra was about to run after the Equalist, but the sound that came from the world-renowned metal bender stopped her.

Who knows if this was planned? The moment that Lin screamed the room came alive. Shadows erupted from the second floor and the window ceiling shatter. Chi-Blockers rained down on the party goers and everyone scattered like roaches.

"Lin!" Korra gasped. She fell to the floor beside the unconscious woman and pulled her up to her lap.

"Dam it I should have paid attention. Come on wake up Chief." She cupped her face and gave to a few gentle slaps.

"Korra, what's happening? Who is that?" Tenzin pushed against the crowd. Screams of pain were heard. Fire, water, earth sprang to life as the White Lotus guards fought the Equalists. A few party guest joined in on the fight but it wasn't enough to stop them. Some broke from the group charging after the older man. He reaction time was quick.

He drew his hands up, causing a gust of wind to erupt from beneath the assailants feet. They were thrown up into the air. Tenzin made circular motions with his hands and a ball of air was born mere inches from his body. He shoved his hands forward, propelling the ball of air to hit the Chi-Blockers. Both people dropped there batons on the floor making a show of sparks fly out from the tip.

The two bad guys flew all the way across the ball room, slamming against the wall, shattering a portrait.

"Tenzin, help me get this rope off of Lin." Korra ordered. The woman in the Avatar's lap was still unresponsive to any means of pulling her from her slumber. And the burn marks starting to form on her arm was starting to alarm the two spectators.

Both people unwrapped the ropes from Lin's body, but as they were almost done. The Chief of Police woke up with a wince of pain.

"W-What happened? Korra?" She straightened up pushing away from Tenzin and the Avatar. The rope fell on the floor, but she couldn't move properly. Something was wrong.

"Are you alright Lin?" Tenzin moved closer to check her over and inspect the burns she had received from the shock, he was soon pushed away. A look of hurt passed over his face, but he hid it and let his eyes roam over her. She wasn't in a bad state. Just a few cuts here and there. Mostly from the glass that had broken on impact.

"Korra, this dress is to tight and if we are going to stand a chance..." Before she could finished her eyes widen. The look on her face was enough for Korra to shoot up and turn to face yet another Chi-Blocker.

She ran to it and her fist was engulfed in flames. With a powerful right hook she launched herself at the intruder. The masked citizen was to quick for the enraged teenager. It dodged the blow easily, another flame kick was thrown its way, luckily Korra was on her toes filled with adrenalin, but more Chi-Blockers saw that one of their brothers was in need of help.

"Tenzin go help Korra!" Lin screamed.

"Lin, but you're hurt." He pleaded he was going to reach out for her. The earth bender saw that Korra was in need of help so her ex-lover needed to push his old sentimentality aside and help the Avatar.

She pushed him away.

"I don't need your help, so get away from me. Korra needs you! So go!" She almost screamed, but the older man understood her worry and rushed to the girl's aid.

"This is why I don't wear nice things." She looked around her for anything sharp. Next to her was a broken shard of glass. Lin took it and pulled the bottom of her dress as far as it would go.

With much difficulty, she managed to get up and properly stand.

People if they saw her, would have thought that she was in a great deal of pain. No, the dress she wore was so tight that she couldn't get up.

The Chief of Police bent down taking the shard of glass. She made a tear in the fabric and that was enough for her. Lin took both ends and ripped the dress all along the side making a slit that ended right below her waist.

She ran her fingers through her hair pulling out every pin and shaking her head making her silver locks fan around her face. The gloves she worn were ripped off her flesh and she marched up to the fighting group before her.

As she walled she managed to take off her heels and with dead accuracy each shoe hit the side of a Chi-Blockers face rendering them unconscious.

Feeling the ground with her bare feet was exhilarating. Through the earth she could feel every single heart beat. Every small movement. She closed her eyes and a whole new world of blacks, greys, and whites exploded behind her lids. Her heart raced with excitement and she felt like she was twenty again running through the streets to find the bad guys. But this time she didn't need to run anymore because they were right in front of her.

Her right foot slid smoothly across the floor to stop behind her. She rose her arms up and forcefully pushed them to the side. Pillars erupted from the ground right next to her. Then she threw a kick in the air sending the tops of the pillars sailing through the air hitting Chi-Blockers.

Tenzin and Korra turned to her in surprised and when they took the state of both her dress and hair, they didn't know what to say. She opened her eyes and walked up to the stun group and smiled.

"See, I didn't need you!" She smirked and patted the air benders shoulder. Soon they had gathered their wits and fought.