She hadn't even realized the nearing footsteps or the creaking of an opening door.
"Lian, we've been look—oh, Lian."
She felt arms wrap around her, arms she had realized belonged to Katara. The girl had not tried to move her, had not tried to pull her away from where she collapsed against the floor. Instead, she joined her, brought her down to the level in which Lian had found herself.
And she held her.
Katara secured her arms around Lian the best she could, allowing her to cry. Allowing her to break with the promise that she would have help being put back together. That she would not have to do it alone as she had so many times previously.
They sat like that, then, for a time. Just the two of them. After a while, of course, another came looking. This time it had been Toph.
She had froze in the doorway, her brows furrowed as she did her best to understand. As she sought for answers and, very quickly, found them.
She joined them on the floor, wrapping her arms, to the best of her ability, around Lian and Katara. She joined them, offering a small joke with a quiet murmur of, "Well, isn't this cozy."
That had caused a laugh to bubble up from within Lian's once collapsed chest, pushing her lungs and ribs back to where they had been. Where they resided in her chest. Proud and tall, she would stand. Unafraid she would be. Even when the fear crept in, even when it threatened to tear her apart. All because, she realized suddenly, she had more to fight for. A family who needed her.
No longer was she the faceless Princess of the Earth Kingdom, the unseen heir. No longer was she Long Feng's pawn or tool for power. No longer was she fighting just because she was told to or thought it was right. She was fighting, now, because she wanted to.
She sat up, wrapping her arms around the girls. She wanted to laugh, then, when a light knock sounded on the wooden door, Suki's face hardly visible through the night's lack of light, the moon only offering a small sliver of clarity through the dust-covered windows.
She joined them on the floor with a confused furrow of her brows, though she seemed to have no qualms with it. None at all.
She whispered, albeit unnecessarily, "Is everyone okay?"
They all laughed, then, at the question. At the manner in which it was asked.
Lian leant forward against them, trusting that she would be held up, even as her laugh bellowed from the depths of her chest, rattling through her chest. She said, lightly, "I am better now than I was before." She pulled back, just enough for her eyes to find them all. Her friends. "Thank you."
Toph raised a single brow, her unseeing eyes narrowed. "What for, Li? For being so incredibly powerful and amazing?"
"Yes," the earthbender laughed, her cheeks beginning to ache. She realized, then, that she hadn't ever felt that. The ache in her cheeks, the way she could not help but smile. She repeated Toph's words wholeheartedly. "For being so incredibly powerful and amazing. For being my friends. I am—I feel honored to have you all in my life."
Suki threw her arms around Lian's neck, pulling her in for a tight hug. She grinned, resting a hand around the girl's shoulder. "We should all be saying the same thing to you, you know? You could beat us all in a fight," she paused, her grin growing, "Well, maybe not Toph, but—"
The room, for quite some time, was filled with laughter.
———
Early the following morning, Sokka was sitting atop Appa's saddle, compiling their collective stuff. He looked around, arms braced on his hips. "Okay, that's everything."
From where she and Lian sat on the fountain, Toph shook her head. "No, it's not." Her words gained everyone else's attention, all of them looking around suddenly in realization. "Where's Aang?"
They rushed, then, to find him, though, no matter where they looked, he remained lost.
"Aang?" Zuko shouted. "Aang?"
Toph pressed her feet into the ground, as if that would give them answers, as if it would bring him back from wherever he was. "Come on, lazy bones, let's go!"
They separated then, going down the different hallways, searching for him. Yet, no matter how many rooms they searched, there was nothing. Not a single thing.
Lian walked out onto the porch, finding Sokka, Suki, and Katara standing around Aang's staff, the item cradled gently in the boy's hands.
"He's not in the house," Lian announced, looking around. Trying to find him, to search for him in any manner that she could. And still, nothing.
Zuko placed a hand on her shoulder, tipping his chin up. "Let's check the beach."
When they reached the beach, it all appeared as normal as it had been before. As if nothing in the natural cycle had changed.
Sokka gasped, gesturing to a long line of prints in the sand. "Look! There's his footprints." He followed them, as if tracing the Avatar's steps, but paused. "The trail ends here."
"So, he went for a midnight swim and never came back?" Suki prompted confusedly, her eyes following the steps as they trailed to the end of the beach, stopping where the sea met the shore.
"Maybe he was captured," Katara suggested, her brows pulled together tightly. Worry was all she felt. It consumed her.
Her brother shook his head, observing the footsteps carefully. "I don't think so. There's no sign of a struggle."
Toph crouched down beside him, saying, "I bet he ran away again."
"Unh-unh. He left behind his glider and Appa."
She groaned, putting her hands out before her sarcastically. "Then what do you think happened to him, oh, sleuthy one?"
Sokka stood, his eyes trailing the tracks. "It's pretty obvious," he states casually. "Aang mysteriously disappears before an important battle? He's definitely on a Spirit World journey."
Zuko's eyes watch the boy for a moment, a frown pulling at his lips. "But if he was, wouldn't his body still be here?"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that."
Lian crouched before the footprints, placing her hand just beside one. Her brows furrowed. "I hate to agree with Sokka—"
"Hey!"
"—but I think he might be right. Perhaps not about being in the Spirit World, but the rest. Aang wouldn't just disappear purposefully." She pushes up to stand, brushing the sand from her hands. "He might be somewhere on the island still, so we should split up and try to find him."
Suddenly, faster than what she had been prepared for, Toph had wrapped her arms around Zuko and Lian, holding them against either side of her body protectively. "I'm going with Zuko and Lian!" At the group's silence, she questioned, "What? Everyone else went on a life-changing field trip with them. Now it's my turn."
The three found themselves searching the beach in the more residential area of Ember Island, scouring the sand for any signs that Aang had once been there.
Toph, walking between Zuko and Lian, explained, "And then when I was nine, I ran away again."
"Uh-huh," Zuko mumbled.
"I know I shouldn't complain." She shrugged, waving her hands between the two who walked on either side of her. "My parents gave me everything I ever asked for. But they never gave me the one thing that I really wanted—their love, you know what I mean?"
Lian nods absentmindedly, having actually paid attention to Toph's words. "Yeah, I understand that."
Zuko stopped walking, turning to face both girls with his hands braced in front of his body. "Look, I know you had a rough childhood. But we should really focus on finding Aang."
The elder girl pat Toph on the shoulder, walking ahead to join Zuko. The younger earthbender huffed. "This is the worst field trip ever."
Eventually, they all found themselves back at the house, sitting on the stairs with no answers and no sign of Aang.
Sokka landed just ahead of them, Appa landing on the ground with a thud. "Judging by the looks on your faces," he said with disappointment laced in his tone, "I'm guessing you guys didn't find Aang, either."
Zuko sighed. "No. It's like he just disappeared."
Toph sat up suddenly, having been laying down on a step, gasping. "Hey, wait a minute." She said, "Has anyone noticed that Momo is missing, too?"
Sokka turned with a terrified gasp, his arms flailing around with panic. "Oh, no! I knew it was only a matter of time! Appa ate Momo!"
Katara sighed, staring at him with a disappointed expression. He was hopeless, really. "Sokka, Appa didn't eat Momo. He's probably with Aang."
Lian stood up from the stairs, cracking her knuckles, hearing the pops and crunches. "Flying Bison are also vegetarians, Sokka. They don't eat meat."
He turned to them with wide eyes, attempting to search Appa's mouth. "That's just what Appa wants you to think," he said dramatically.
Zuko snapped, "Get out of the bison's mouth, Sokka. We have a real problem here." He looked around, worry lingering in his eyes. "Aang is nowhere to be found and the comet is only two days away."
Katara turned, looking up at him expectedly. "What should we do, Zuko?"
He stood, shaking his head. "I don't know."
Lian took a step down, standing on the ground, her arms crossed over her chest. She looked up, then, her eyes finding his. She shrugged.
The other's eyes settled on him, the weight noticeable as it settled upon his shoulders. "Why are you all looking at me?"
"Well, you are kind of the expert on tracking Aang," Katara said, wincing.
Toph tipped her head slightly, shrugging. "Yeah, if anyone's got experience hunting the Avatar, it's you."
Without much explanation or any speaking at all, Zuko had ordered them to get comfortable on Appa's saddle. He took the reins, leading them to the sky.
Sokka, with his arms braced on the rim of the saddle, looked down at the firebender. "Zuko, I don't wanna tell you how to do your job, but why are we heading towards the Earth Kingdom? There's no way Aang's there."
He glanced over his shoulder at them. "Just trust me."
And they would.
By time they touched down, finally in the Earth Kingdom, in Lian, Toph, and Suki's home country, Zuko had led them, wordlessly, to a small tavern. He pushed open the door, eyes flitting around the building. Searching.
Katara eyed him carefully. "And the reason you brought us to a seedy Earth Kingdom tavern is what now?"
He pointed straight ahead. "Jun."
And across the room, perched carefully on the end of a chair, sat a woman with dark hair, dark clothes, tattoos, and skill.
Sokka grinned. "Oh, yeah, that weird bounty hunter with the giant mole."
"Mole?" Suki questioned. "Her skin is flawless."
"No, she has this giant mole creature she rides around on."
They all turned, then, glancing at Zuko when he said, "The Shirshu. It's the only animal that can track Aang's scent anywhere in the world." He glanced down, his eyes finding Lian. "It's the one shot we have of finding him."
They watched, then, as she fought off man after man, remaining untouched and unbothered.
Toph took a step forward, grinning. "I don't know who this Jun lady is, but I like her."
Lian just hoped, then, that Jun was truly as skilled as Zuko claimed.
Initially, I was going to try to write the "Ember Island Players" episode, but after about five minutes, I quite literally just gave up. There was absolutely no way that I was ever going to finish that and I could not figure out how to write it, so I skipped it.
Anyway, I'm glad I did, because I am quite happy with this chapter! I wanted to dive more into Lian's backstory, especially her childhood in Ba Sing Se. Personally, I don't think that it is something that will ever be fully explained; I kind of want to keep it vague and unknown, because I feel like it reflects how Lian feels about it and how she remembers it. Obviously there have been moments throughout the entire story where she references little things or portions of an experience, especially with Long Feng or the Dai Li, so I wanted to touch on that a little bit before the story ended, and I felt like this was a good time.
As much as I would love to sit down tomorrow and write/start the final chapter, I can't. I will be in a car driving to another state to visit family for the weekend, so I won't have time, nor would I want to do that while I'm with my family. I will definitely be writing it when I get back, though, so I will defiantly be cooking up my specific plans for that (I am so so so excited).
I officially move into college in exactly two weeks (scary, 14 days is barely anything) to start my freshman year, so schedule stuff and writing time will defiantly be changing!
Anywho, that's all I've got. As always, I really hope you enjoyed, BYE!
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