Chapter 1

"Can you drive?"

"Of...of course."

Her words caught in her throat, but she swallowed the fear and steeled herself.

"Of course I can."

Huan nodded tersely and threw her the keys to the Satomobile.

"You know the usual route. Back alley after Sonn Street, hard right at the bridge. If you cut through the market, it'll be harder for anyone to follow us."

Suyin didn't need the instruction. She'd heard her friend's stories more times than she could count- the narrow escapes, the well-planned shortcuts. It was textbook to her.

She stood with Huan in an abandoned warehouse, pitch black save for a sliver of street lamp that poured from a window crack. Suyin struggled to see with bending the way her sister did, but it didn't matter here. She knew her way around. During the day, the place was almost comforting- familiar in a dusty sort of way. Though she couldn't see them now, she knew wooden crates lined the walls and flattened boxes carpeted the floor. In the middle of the cavernous space, a huge crane sat neglected. The warehouse was Terra Triad's usual meeting space and Suyin had spent many a Saturday lounging on the crane's padded seat, absentmindedly bending its metal knobs up and down, left and right as she listened to triad briefings. The thing would never work again, but she liked to pretend.

Most days the briefings went long and she'd let her mind drift- to her mother, to Lin, to the restless itch in the back of her mind that wondered if everywhere felt like Republic City. She didn't usually pay attention to their plans- they were all so similar. Besides, Suyin wasn't a member of Terra Triad, not officially anyway. More of an onlooker really. A friend. She told herself she wasn't there for the action.

She was there for them. Suyin had known Huan since she was ten- Jun, hell, she'd known Jun even longer. They were closer than she and Lin had ever been. So when Huan asked her to drive, it was never really a question.

She stood with him in the dark of the warehouse, waiting. Only their breathing punctuated the silence as their eyes and ears strained for a signal outside. Then it hit her.

Jun was across the street, robbing an estate. Her hands were holding Huan's keys. The keys. In minutes, she'd be driving them home. Them- and thousands in valuables.

At first it was all adrenaline- razor-sharp turns that throttled her ribs, hard shifts into high gear, the smell of sweat and motor oil. They dodged traffic- what was left of it anyway- weaving through crooked alleys and crowded streets to the dim outskirts of town. She barely remembered the chase.

Suyin had only driven a handful of times, but she had a kind of natural reflex, something instinctual that guided her hand on the wheel and eyes on the road. Maybe they scraped a curb or dented a fender, but at the end of the night they were free- and more importantly- alive. In a crisis her body had a way of finding its footing, making the right movements more often than not. But in conversation, in the day to day, well- that was different.

"I don't get it."

Suyin heard her voice in the hall. In the whirlwind of the last 24 hours, she'd forgotten the door was ajar. She'd probably forgotten there was a door. Or walls. Or a room. After her arrest and the "family talk", she'd spent the night trying to forget where she was.

"I just don't."

It was Lin. Her voice cut like a knife into Suyin's room, grating on the edges of her consciousness. The familiar dry manner of her sister's voice brought her back to earth.

Suyin had laid in her bed for hours, at first burying her face in a pillow to strangle her angry cries and sobs. When they died, she'd rolled to face the ceiling and stared into nothing. Now she rose to sit at the edge of the bed, hastily brushing her blouse with her hands in a vain attempt to smooth out its wrinkles.

With her sister there was always some expectation of order.

"Are you even listening?" Lin's voice was different this time, tense. Suyin could hear the crack in her composure.

"Of course I am," she said, crossing her arms as she looked to the wall. Suyin was determined not to make eye contact. She wasn't sure why.

She could hear Lin press the door open, slide inside, and close it firmly behind her. Not that their mother was listening.

"Look, it could have ruined her. What you did today, it could have ruined me...ugh Suyin, would you just look at me!"

Suyin drilled her eyes into the wall. She wouldn't give Lin the satisfaction. Not for anything.

"Spirits, why are you such a child? You think you can do what you want, where you want, whenever you want. Of course you do. Everything's always about Su, pretty princess Su...Oh how can I help you princess Su? Could I make you more comfortable princess Su? Have you ever felt for once in your damn life-"

"NO!" Suyin whipped her head towards her, still avoiding her gaze as she bored holes into the floor.

"No? Oh that's a word I didn't think you knew-"

"NO!" It's not about that! It was never about that!" Suyin turned back to the wall and pulled her knees to her chest. "You think this is fun for me? You think it was a game? I was terrified!"

"Suyin..."

"Terrified!" Her voice broke as she stifled a sob. "Last night was the worst, the scariest moment of my life and-"

"Suyin! Wha-"

"I, I did it for them. For them! They've always cared about me and-"

"SUYIN!" Lin took a step towards her. Out of the corner of her eye, Su could see she was shaking. "Suyin. What were you afraid of?"

The silence in the room was suffocating. Suyin's eyes began to drift toward her sister, but she stole them back, training them on a Earth Nation map across the room.

She realized she didn't have an answer.

"Really," her sister pressed, "what were you afraid of? Who? Didn't matter who caught you. Nope. No, you'd just end up with me. Or Mom." Her voice cracked with a tinny high pitch that made Su's stomach turn.

"What does Suyin Beifong have to be afraid of? Do you know who cares about you- wh-who actually-" Lin paused to stifle a cough.

Suyin hadn't looked up earlier, but she especially didn't want to look now. Lin in pain was something Suyin had never been able to cope with. It felt wrong- fundamentally wrong - as if the sky was green and grass was blue.

"Look." Lin took a deep breath. "If you would ever take the time to think about- ugh! You know what? I don't know why I bother!"

Su heard her turn and walk away. Lin collected herself somewhere between Suyin's bed and the door. Her voice was business now, Lieutenant Lin Beifong. "Don't oversleep. I'm taking you to the train. 6am sharp."

If Su had looked at her sister just then, she would have seen her eyes narrow and blinking, a drop of moisture trailing jagged valleys of raw skin cut fresh across her face.

Su did not look at her sister.

Thin rivulets of cream swirled with her tea in slow, gentle spirals. She dipped a spoon inside and twirled, blurring their dance into beige. Suyin laid the spoon on a cloth to dry, cupped her hands around the mug. The warmth was so comforting she didn't want to drink.

But the ride to Gaoling had been long. Hundreds of passengers. More stops than she could remember or count. Cramped, interrupted sleep against a window pane had made her irritable, and she'd practically leaped out the door when the train arrived at Gaoling.

Suyin needed the tea. In an hour, Gram and Gramps would be meeting her at the station and that was no time to nod off. They would want to know everything. How's your mother? Everything ok at the station? Lin's a lieutenant now, isn't she?

Just the kind of surface talk that wouldn't tell them anything they didn't already know. The hard questions they'd avoid entirely. And Suyin would have to talk through it all, smile and nod.

Because for them, the situation was already uncomfortable without acknowledging its existence. High society didn't talk discomfort or disgrace. They talked about schedules and soirees and... tea. Suyin looked down at her cup.

She took a sip, thankful for the liquid that would help her survive hours of pleasantries.

Suyin could handle small talk, but not a desperate attempt to distract from her catastrophic failure. That was a kind of conversation Su knew nothing about.

…

"I trust you have everything you need."

The butler stood at the door of the room that was now hers, waiting. Su had expected to be left alone and the question caught her off guard.

"Ah, o-okay." She stared at him, or through him. When his thin shape didn't budge, Su realized the man would wait as long as he needed to until he was given the correct response. Her words hadn't made sense but she was exhausted. If this was the last human interaction she would ever have, Su probably wouldn't have minded.

"I mean, yes. I'm fine. Thank you," she managed.

"My pleasure." The butler abruptly turned on his heels, shut the door and left. The sound of his footsteps walking away was the sweetest sound she ever heard.

Alone at last, Su took in the room. There was so...much of it.

In her mother's house less was more. Their apartment in the city had been spacious, but bare, furnished with exactly what they needed and not a thread more.

This was a palace. In the center of the room, a large king bed- her bed- if she could believe it, was covered in rich silk sheets of emerald, lilac, and gold. On either side, thin windows stretched to the ceiling- stained glass bearing a proud winged boar. Su had seen the emblem once or twice, on one of her mother's documents or some fairly heirloom, but she'd never given it a second thought. Here it was majestic- mysterious almost- and Su decided she didn't mind it watching over her.

A door on the west wall led to the bathroom and beside it a vast vanity and dresser sat ready for her. Not that Su had business with either of them tonight. She dropped her luggage, allowing it to plop open and dove onto the bed. By the time she realized her bag had spilled onto the floor, Su was laying on the bed, arms spread wide, far too tired and comfortable to care. Nothing felt real.

Not when the family's butler had answered the door and led her down halls too cavernous and branching to be anyone's home. It didn't feel real when she greeted her grandfather, when he told her her grandmother was ill, that she had been for the past few years, and was living in seclusion in the home's east hall. And it certainly didn't feel real when the two of them sat down for dinner, the smalltalk she expected, the food she did not, course after course of traditional Earth kingdom dishes her mother never cooked. Suyin had focused on the food- things were easier that way- and pretended to be present. Fifteens hours she'd been awake and every muscle of her face fought to hide it.

Now Suyin was alone. She flicked a finger, shifting the metal switch of her bed lamp. She forced her body to relax in the dark, stretching on the soft sheets until her arms and legs cracked. Was she really that tense?

The distant sound of muffled voices began to drift down the hall. Suyin froze, straining to hear them. Her grandfather's voice. Another man. The butler? Fighting sleep, she caught a word here and there. But her eyelids were losing the battle.

"...coming in the morning…"

"Are you sure?"

"the Councilman..."

…

She tapped a spoon against her plate with small, soft clanks. It was a nervous tick, a vain attempt at containing her excitement.

Suyin had a problem with fidgeting. Lin had told her so. Her mother had told her so. But scolding hadn't made her fidget any less.

So when her grandfather, seated across from her at a dining table longer and grander than any table had a right to be, peered over the book he was reading and raised a brow at her tapping,

Suyin kept tapping.

The Councilman. Did she remember it right? Suyin had barely been awake the night before, but the words stuck with her and she wished she could will them into being.

It had been a few years since she'd seen him, enough years that the details of his face were fuzzy, but the memories...those were clear, at least the feelings they came with. She smiled at her plate.

There was the time he took her and her sister to his "office" after school, only they never went to the office. Well they went through it anyway, to his private sword collection, stashed in a converted storage closet he'd hidden from everything and everyone. They weren't old enough to hold the swords but he told them their stories. Each had an adventure behind it, something colorful and daring and larger than life. Lin wondered the stories were true, but for Su they were real and that was all that mattered.

There was the time he hoisted her on her shoulders. You're a lion turtle Sucakes! He'd walked her through the busy market streets of Republic City, weaving through a crowd, through an ocean, and she was the lion turtle, queen of all. Suyin was small for her age, but he made her forget.

There may have been a time, early in the morning as light poured in her room, when she opened her eyes to his face beaming at hers. That one she barely remembered- she had been very young. But she thought about it at times, when she thought about him.

"Sir." The butler stepped into the room. Suyin swiveled in her chair to face him as he addressed her grandfather. "There is a guest at the door."

Her heart raced.

"I'm coming," her grandfather said as he closed his book and rose. "Suyin, you should get dressed."

She ignored him, grasping the back of her chair, knuckles white and eyes wide. "Who is it?" she asked, her excitement palpable. The butler opened his mouth and her grandfather answered for him.

"You'll see soon enough. Now go, I want you to be ready when he arrives."

She turned to him smiling and giddy, all composure an afterthought. "He? Oh so it's a he? Does he have a name?"

"Suyin!" He rolled his eyes and gestured to another door that led to her room. "Hurry now."

With a huff, Suyin obliged, running past her grandfather and down the hall. There was no wasting time. Su wasn't about to wait who-knows-how-long to see a man she missed like mad. She wasn't going to see him dolled up in silks either.

Su ran all the way to her bedroom door and made a sharp right instead, careening down another hallway that led past a restroom and kitchen. She was retracing the way she'd been brought to her room the day before. From that short walk, she knew the hall would eventually lead to the front door and she hoped to spirits no one would cross her along the way.

Not that the house was crowded. For all she knew, there were cooks, there were servants, there was her grandmother, who she still hadn't seen since she'd arrived, and her grandfather. Only the latter would have an inkling of what she was supposed to be doing. He would take the fastest way to the door, certainly not this one and-

Shit. Footsteps interrupted her train of thought. From where? Su barely knew the house she was trying to sneak through, certainly not enough to account for all its rooms and corridors. Still, she only passed doors to rooms that should have been dead ends. Unless-

A grind of shifting earth gave Su her answer. The sound was only a few paces ahead, just around the next corner. An earth door! Really? What use did seniors have for secret passages? She heard her grandparents had been clingy...but this? Her mother's complaints were beginning to make sense now.

Su quickened her pace, careful to not let her feet pound against the carpet as she half-ran, half-crouched, eyes darting everywhere in search of a hiding place. Su only had seconds now. She couldn't sprint, no he'd hear if she did. Then she saw it.

Nestled beside a potted plant under a row of family portraits was a metal vase, taller than her and every bit as wide. She could fit. With maneuvering. Su widened her stance, feeling the vase's metal respond to her movement, and thrust it open with a crunch. She darted inside, crunched the vase closed, and immediately began to rotate the metal around her, willing the torn end to face the wall. She tried her best to stabilize the vase's shakes and movements, but someone had to have heard. Su could only hope they hadn't seen.

Minutes passed like hours. She steadied her breath, waiting. The footsteps grew louder. They had to be feet away. What kind of plan was this anyway? Not like I'd get to the door any sooner. Stupid, stupid-

Then a laugh. It came warm and loud and Su immediately decided it was her favorite sound.

"Su! I thought this was a fancy establishment, but if these are the accommodations these days...I mean, maybe comfy for you earthbenders but I should have brought a sleeping bag."

She looked up. Staring at her through the neck of the vase, bent over and clenching his chest in laughter, was the representative of the Southern Water Tribe, chairman of the United Republic council, and a very familiar face- Sokka.

"Sir! Sir, is everything alright?" It was the panicked voice of a servant. She heard more footsteps, then her grandfather.

"Councilman! What's going on?"

Sokka's laugh petered out into a wheezy chuckle. Su could feel him leaning against the vase as he looked down the neck again and shot her a wink.

"Come on out of there," he said.

"But," Su said under her breath. "I'll kind of...wreck it."

Sokka cupped is mouth with his hands and whispered theatrically, still too quiet for the room to hear. "Guess you'll just have to wreck it again."

Somehow his smile read like a dare. She couldn't resist the challenge. Su shifted the vase again so it's scarred side faced the hall. With a gesture of her arms, she bent the metal open and crawled out of the vase.

Her grandfather yelped as if the metal had been his own skin.

"I-I can't believe this. You-," he fumed, pointing an accusatory finger in Su's direction. The servant beside him stood dumbfounded, staring at the pathetic hulk of metal that was once a prize-winning vase.

Sokka raised his hand in a gesture of peace. "Apologies sir. Entirely my fault, I must have startled her. Anyway, it still has a good side." He cocked his head in Su's direction. Catching his meaning, she bent the vase shut and turned it to its smooth, unblemished side. With the tear against the wall, you could barely tell it was dismantled twice.

"See?" Sokka said with a shrug. "Not half bad. I can pay for the damages. But in the meantime.." He turned to Su, and before she could process what was happening, Sokka scooped her off the ground and squeezed her in his arms. He spoke softly in her ear, a real whisper this time that no one but her could hear.

"I missed you Sucakes. I really did."