[act two; chapter three     -     transcending lifetimes]

    "Lian!"

    He was chasing her through the many halls of the palace, hands reaching for her at all moments. Finally, he caught up to her as they breached the courtyard, his arms wrapping around her waist, lifting her from the ground.

    Lian was all giggles, her hands laying atop his as he spun her through the air, her back against his chest. "Zuko, put me down!"

    He laughed in her ear, "No, you're mine now!"

    All they could do was laugh, surrounded only by one another, by whatever lingered between them, now. They could not quite place, could not name it. But, perhaps, they could, just that neither would name it. They were young, yes, but they knew the meaning of the word love. They knew what such a thing did to a person, how it influenced the way they lived. And while they would not speak it, while they may not have understood it, those around them knew. Lian and Zuko loved each other in whatever childish kind of way that they could, even with their little understanding of such complex feelings.

    When Zuko released her, she sat herself on the ground, balancing on her knees. Zuko, still standing, took a moment to observe her. Everything about her. He took her in and memorized her, swearing that he would never forget her face or her laugh or her voice or the way she cared for him in a way that no one ever had, not even his mother, not even his Uncle Iroh.

    He admired the small dip of her nose and the rise of her pronounced cheekbones, or how her nose and cheeks seemed to always be painted red in some way. He admired the way her ears slightly pointed outward, only enough to truly be noticed if her hair was pulled away from her face. He admired her dark green eyes and the natural downturn of her lips and the way her cheeks creased when she smiled or laughed. He admired how her hair always seemed so free in the world, how her spirit seemed to do just the same—they reflected each other, he supposed.

    "Zuko?"

    He turned to her, expecting her to be looking back at him, to be speaking. But she wasn't. She was still—completely still. Frozen. She didn't blink, she hardly breathed, and her hair seemed to be the only moving thing about her, blowing in the wind.

    He reached out to her, placing his hand on her shoulder. She was cold to the touch, like ice. "Lian?" No answer. He shook her gently, and, suddenly, her body toppled over, falling to the ground. "Lian?"

    She didn't move, didn't do anything but lie there.

    He grasped her face, searching her eyes, but they had gone milky white. There was nothing there anymore, she was simply just...a body. There was nothing living or human about her.

    "Zuko?"

    The voice returned. It was her voice. It was Lian speaking to him, but when he turned his head, all he found was nothing.

    And then there was a hand on his shoulder and he looked back...she was standing before him. But no longer the young girl she had once been. No, this was the last time he had ever seen her. Her hair was choppy and short now, reaching her shoulders. And her skin was caked in blood and dirt. Her face was coated in it, red being nearly the only thing he could see. Her eye was the same, crimson leaking into the white. Her body—her arms, torso, legs, and everywhere—was burnt, just as his face was.

    "L-Lian?"

    She stumbled towards him, hot and burnt hands grasping his arms. She shook him, eyes blown wide, chin trembling. "You hurt me."

    "I didn't mean to."

    "You hurt me."

    "No—"

    "You hurt me—"

    "Zuko!"

    He gasped, throwing his body forward as he woke. His hands reached for his arms, as if searching for the hands that he had felt there. But there was nothing. He was alone, his sister standing across from him, waking him up with her usual smirk.

    "Come on Zuzu, we have things to do today."

    "Yeah, I—" he swallowed harshly, trying to find his breath. "I'm coming."

———

    "Aang! I know swimming is fun and all, but do you really think you should be exposing yourself like that? Cover up."

    Toph's short rant fell on deaf ears as Aang floated through the water, eyes occasionally cast towards Katara as she squeezed water from her hair. He looked behind him, then, just briefly, towards Lian. She had created a tub of sorts for herself out of smooth stone, sitting in a small pool of sun-warmed water. It was, by far, the most relaxed he had ever seen her.

    "I'm wearing trunks," he said regardless, not quite understanding her words.

    Toph through her hands in the air. "I know, it's your tattoos I'm worried about. What if someone sees you?"

    Katara looked over her shoulder at the younger girl. "There are walls all around us. It's completely safe."

    Lian pointed towards the waterbender and nodded. "I agree. Besides, if someone were headed this way, I would know."

    As Aang disappeared down a tunnel, Sokka kicked his feet up, splashing water towards Lian, laughing as she gasped in surprise. She brought down the walls of her pool, swimming towards him. She pushed her hands through the water, laughing loudly as water splashed him in the face, his hair falling around his face.

    This had been their first real bit of collective peace in a long while. They had found Sokka someone to teach him, to show him the ways of living in a world such as the one they lived in. He had trained him, teaching him how to create and survive as someone with no bending. He taught Sokka how to find value in such things; it had changed him.

    Lian had spent her days, for the most part, alone. It was not by the cause of others, but rather her want to avoid sharing her grievances with those around her. She did not wish to inflict any of them with her sadness or grief, for she had finally begun to mourn all that she had left behind. Still remaining in Ba Sing Se was everything of her childhood, of her life with her father, any physical memory of her mother. There, letters and relics remained, and she, truthfully, did not know if she would ever see any semblance of it again. And she mourned such facts. She realized, days ago, that she missed her father. While he had not always been an outstanding constant in her life, he had loved her in the only way he had been able to. She missed hearing his laughter distantly in the halls of the palace and she missed how he had always tried to teach her the things he viewed as important.

    They had loved each other in the only way they could, in the best way they were capable of. Whether it had been enough or not, did not matter. No, Lian simply wished to see him again, and wondered if he did, too. She hoped so, because, for once in her life, she wished he would hold her.

    (The last time he had held her she was merely a crying, motherless baby. Now she was a lonely, motherless teenager who knew nothing of her father's embrace.)

    (She hated it.)

    As the sun began to set, they readied themselves for night, preparing to sleep. She had done her best to wash up earlier, cleaning her flowy pants and bandeau. Laying out on a mat between Toph and Sokka, Lian lay on her stomach, her arms acting as a pillow. Her hand, however, lay flat against the ground just in case. Once the sky turned dark, she shut her eyes, allowing her mind to sleep, even if only for brief moments.

    It was not long after, however, that both Toph and Lian flinched awake, startled by footsteps much heavier than the average person's. The Princess sat up, eyes scanning the ridges above them, as Toph pressed her hands to the ground below them.

    The younger girl sat up, eyes wide and unseeing, though her hands and feet offered her a sight far past anyone else. "Guys, you're all gonna think I'm crazy, except Lian, but it feels like a metal man is coming."

    Aang, barely awake, groaned, rubbing at his eyes when a blinding light hit him. They all looked up, following the direction of the light, only to find a man standing far above them, the light reflecting off of what appeared to be an entirely metal hand.

    Sokka reached for his sword, while Lian was the first to move, crouching on her knees and feet, one hand poised carefully on the ground, the other ready to push her forward.

    Aang made the first move as the man inhaled sharply, jumping up, only to be hit with a strong blast reflecting off the cliffside, knocking him, and everyone else, back several feet.

    Toph propelled herself to her feet, drawing her arms level with her hips before thrusting them forward, the cliffs moving with her.

    Another blast blew straight through it, however, just as it did to every other thing they did to try and stop him and his attacks.

    Steam filled the chasm, Katara's water having mixed with the explosion. Lian turned and grasped Toph's arm, pulling her back, helping to guide her through the steam and explosions.

    They all ducked against the side of the cliffs, attempting to shield themselves from the blast.

    "This is crazy," Sokka exclaimed, hair disheveled and falling in front of his face. "How can we beat a guy who blows things up with his mind?"

    Aang pushed himself forward, creeping forward on his hands and feet, keeping himself low to the ground. "We can. Jump on Appa. I'll try to distract him."

    He disappeared through the fog, only to appear once more on the cliffs, projecting himself up the side, just barely missing another blast from the strange man.

     Lian gestured to Sokka as the man disappeared, following after the Avatar. "I'll stay with him, you all get to the sky."

    She took off without another word, the earth below her pushing her forward like individual sleds, one for each foot. She pushed even harder, her arms helping to keep her going as she quickly made her way in the fighting's direction.

    Just as she rounded the top of the mound, she watched as Aang stopped an explosion with a perfectly controlled, centered explosion of his own, entirely made of air. He was propelled back, flying through the air. While she trusted that he would catch himself, Lian refused to chance it.

    She attempted to break his fall, sliding her right foot forward, while her arm punched outward, watching as he broke through a stack of rocks and the earth curved around him to cradle his body.

    Keeping herself hidden among the stacks, she pulled him back with her, the two hiding among the individual rocks, blending in as if they didn't exist in any other form.

    Aang, grasping onto Lian's hand, broke them through the rocks, propelling them into the air, narrowly missing another explosion. She let out a gasp as he clung to her, their bodies free falling through the air. And then, from below them, Appa appeared, catching them in his saddle with the others.

    Lian couldn't help but let out a relieved laugh, eyes blown wide as she kept her body braced on her hands. "Sokka, you could not have had better timing."

    Behind her, Aang, leaning against Katara, sighed heavily, "We're okay."

    "Well," Toph said sarcastically, gaining their attention. "That was random."

    "I don't think so," Katara shook her head. "I get the feeling he knows who we are."

    Lian turned and looked behind them, smoke filtering through the air where they had just been, the stacks of rocks falling all throughout the canyon. She thought back to the man, his appearance, however brief it was that she was able to see him. Turning back, leaning against Appa's saddle, she realized who had sent him. She wanted to say it aloud, truly, she did. But she would not. Instead, she kept it to herself, attempting to burn the name from her mind. She did not wish to know the answer and she would do anything in her power to stop it from happening again.

———

    Their next stop, Aang told them, would be the island once belonging to Avatar Roku, an abandoned, burnt island.

    They broke through the clouds from above, the island coming perfectly into view.

    "There it is," Aang said, his tone almost seeming excited. "That's Roku's home."

    When they touched down, Lian immediately knelt, balancing on one knee. Her hands pressed into the ground, the fossilized rock feeling nearly impenetrable beneath her. It had been made like this long ago; she could only imagine the tragedy that had occurred here as she looked around.

    Katara spoke Lian's thoughts aloud, "But there's nothing here."

    Toph, joining them on the ground, disagreed. "Yes, there is. An entire village. Hundreds of houses. All completely buried in ash."

    "She's right," Lian murmured. "It's hard to tell, but it's so heavily buried." She looked up, her eyes finding Aang's. "Like a mass burial."

    There, waiting patiently, they allowed Aang to slip into his connection with the past Avatars. And with one last look at his friends, at the people who surrounded him, the Avatar met the only face that reflected the lives that lingered in his mind. And then he was gone to the mortal world.

    While they waited, Sokka looked over to Lian, who was leaning against the curve of the fossilized volcano. He asked, "Do you know what happened here?"

    She sighed heavily. "I've only heard stories, though I can't be sure if any of them are true."

    "Like what?" Katara questioned, looking over at the older girl.

    "All I know is that the volcano exploded one night, the lava pouring over all of the homes that once existed here. Avatar Roku fought it all on his own, trying to stop it. That was when the second volcano exploded, and Fire Lord Sozin came to offer his assistance." She looked up to the peaks, imagining the two lifelong friends fighting nature entirely on their own. "They both nearly died, is what the stories say. But before they could stop it, Sozin abandoned Roku, leaving him there to die alone."

    "That's...horrible," Toph said. Her voice was as emotional as Lian had, most likely, ever heard.

    "That was—that was why they killed the Air Nomads, to eliminate the next Avatar." Katara pointed out, gesturing all around them.

    Lian shrugged and looked towards Aang. "I don't know much else, Fire Nation history is not well known in the Earth Kingdom, especially within Ba Sing Se." She inhaled deeply, exhaling just as deep. She knew so little about the history of her own home, of her own people. Her own mother, of course, was a descendant of Avatar Kyoshi, though histories such as that were left untold and unrecorded in most places.

    She felt as though so much of the legacy she was made to continue had gone missing. As if it had been stripped from this world, generation after generation. She knew not of what she was supposed to continue, who she was supposed to help. Her father had never truly ruled the Earth Kingdom—he had been ruled, himself. And for so long the richness of their nation had been taken from them, destroyed by the power of the Fire nation. And from what was known, no one could truly interpret the truth of it all, if any of it even was.

    It was not long after that that Aang came back to them, explaining all that he had learned from Avatar Roku. He built off of what little Lian knew, and went from there, revealing a rich history that no one had known.

    Katara was astounded by it, saying, "You mean, after all Roku and Sozin went through together, even after Roku showed mercy, Sozin betrayed him like that?"

    "It's like these people are born bad." Toph stated, her brows furrowed.

    "No one is born inherently evil," Lian shook her head. "It's things that happen along the way that cause them to change."

    Aang nodded in agreement at her words, looking at Toph and Katara. "I don't think that was the point of what Roku showed me at all."

    "Then what was the point?" Sokka asked, shrugging his shoulders, doing his best to understand.

    "Roku was just as much Fire Nation as Sozin was, right? If anything, their story proves anyone's capable of great good and great evil. Everyone, even the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation have to be treated like they're worth giving a chance." Aang turned away from them, staring out at the sky with a smile. "And I also think it was about friendships."

    Toph looked down, lips pinched tightly together. "Do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?"

    Aang grasped her hand, doing the same, albeit more cautiously, as if testing it out first, to Lian. She smiled at him, faintly, and squeezed his hand. "I don't see why not."

    But from the side, Sokka put a hand out, explaining, "Well, scientifically speaking, there's no way to prove that—"

    His sister held her hand out, forcing him to join them. He did so, of course, all too willingly. They were, after all, all each other had.

Guys, Lian is starting to open up more and more! Also, her and Sokka give off such sibling vibes to me and I love them so much.

Anywho, this is a short filler chapter, and I'm thinking of skipping through the next few, but there will definitely be a little description of "The Puppetmaster" episode since it's important for Katara's character. Other than that, we're skipping straight to "Day of the Black Sun", so get ready!

Anywho, that's all I have! I hope you enjoyed, BYE!