Avatar: The Last Airbender

.::The Beginning (715 years ago)::.

"Murderer!"

"Destroyer of Peace!"

"Give her the death sentence!"

The crowd angrily yelled their accusations as they pointed up toward the girl tied to the base of the flag post. Her white-gold hair fell about her face, but her storm-blue eyes shone clearly, directed at the crowd, but not truly seeing them. She seemed to be looking past them, into the distance.

The village elder came up to her, and the crowd quieted. "Shihong," he began, "You are here because you are accused of murdering the Avatar Feng-"

"I did not kill him." Her voice, though soft, was strong. A buzz began to ripple through the crowd, like an angry bee.

"Oh?" the elder said calmly. With a kindly expression, he held up a piece of paper, placing glasses on the bridge of his nose. "You were found by Feng's body, with no one else around."

"I came across him."

"So he was dead when you found him?" Feng's friend, An, now spoke. His yellow and orange robes stood out on his dark skin. Grey pants and brown, slightly pointed boots concluded the ensemble. The pale blue, intricately designed arrow on his forehead seemed to radiate in the late afternoon sun. His scarab-black eyes looked stern.

Storm met scarab, and she forgot everyone around her. "Did you kill Feng?" An asked quietly.

"No." Her voice was almost a whisper.

Suddenly, there was a loud gust of wind, and the skies grew dark. People watched and gasped in fear as a being materialized before Shihong.

It was Feng. Or, at least, the ghost of Feng. His Fire Nation colors were now a pale blue, and slightly transparent.

"Shihong," he said, his voice deep and strong. "You bring dishonor to my name."

"Feng!" she gasped, "I have not dishonored you!"

His face showed sadness. "You continue to dishonor me as you continue to lie." He held his arms open. "You may not be my killer, but you refused to help me. I laid there, dying, and you did not help me with your waterbending."

"Even if I had, it would have been useless, you lost too much blood-"

"There is a fine line between trying and giving up." He now looked stern. "You did nothing but watch."

Shihong held her head in shame. His words spoke truth.

"I do not like to do this, but… you shall be punished."

"I deserve one," she mumbled.

"Your soul shall never proceed into the afterlife," he told her. His voice seemed to ring loudly. "It shall wander the world, being a guardian to those whoever need one." He paused. "Praticularly to the Avatar."

Shihong's head shot up. "But I-!"

Feng raised his hand to silence her. "I have spoken. You are forever bound to the Avatar, protecting them from fatal harm." With that, he vanished.

Shihong was silent. Eternally bound… She tightly gritted her teeth. "I will be known as Guardian." Looking up to the distant mountains, she gritted her teeth. "There is no more Shihong Ching."

.::Lian Jiang (6 years ago)::.

"It's not as hard as you're making it," Lian Jiang chuckled as eight-year-old Katara strained to push and pull the water. "And anyway, you just found out you're a waterbender last year. Take it slow."

Katara huffed as the water shivered, but nothing more. "You're a waterbender, too. And you didn't take it slow!"

"We have a lot of age difference between us, m'dear." Lian stood up. "Eight years."

"That shouldn't matter anyway!" Katara protested, trying again.

"You're too stiff," Lian chided. "Relax a bit."

"But then I can't concentrate!"

"You girls still playing with magic water?" Sokka loudly asked as he walked over.

"It IS NOT magic water! How many times do I gotta tell you!" Katara snapped, causing the water to flicker.

Lian didn't reply. She was staring into the distance, a slight look of alarm on her face.

"Lian, tell him to—Lian?" Katara nervously asked.

Lian didn't reply, but instead started running back to the village as fast as her legs could carry her. Katara and Sokka hurried after her.

Snoot was falling steadily around them as they came across the village, a raid in movement. Lian quickly grabbed a child in the way of a rhino, becoming seperated with the other two.

"I'm going to find Mom!" Katara told Sokka.

Meanwhile, Lian was in the middle of a fight with a young Fire Nation soldier. She knocked him down, but he grabbed her ankle as she tried to run by. Jumping up, he lunged at her. "Think again!" she grunted as her fingers made contact with his pressure points, causing him to fall over.

Running over by Sokka, she kicked away another soldier as the young boy hit one in the head with a boomerang.

"I coulda got that guy, too," Sokka huffed as he turned to see Lian hitting a third soldier's pressure points.

Lian rolled her eyes.

"Dad!" yelled Katara as she ran by the two.

"Lian!" Lian's younger brother, Huan, hollered. She whipped around to see a soldier yanking the five-year-old by the hair to a ship.

Lian quickly formed a snowball, then hardened it into ice as she chucked it at the soldier's head. It collided, and he dropped Huan.

Lian grabbed Huan and began to run back to her family's hut. Huan's blind eyes looked panicked as she set him down.

"Lian, I lost Kyo," he sniffled as she brushed snow off him.

"Stay here," she ordered, then ran into the fray.

Hakoda ran by her quickly, Katara at his heels. "What's wrong?" Lian asked.

"Mom!" Katara replied.

Lian froze. Her family was seperated all over the village. Her mother, Aika, was with Kya, Huan in their hut, her father, Hasoka, fighting at the front line, and Kyo? She had to find him!

Pushing her way through the fights, Lian finally spotted Kyo, fighting back-to-back with their father. Both weren't doing too great. Lian managed to help a little, before they suddenly heard, "Back to the ships!"

The firebenders started going back to the ships, grabbing Kyo and Lian on the way. "Dad!" Lian screeched, struggling as hard as she could.

Her father lunged at the man and knocked him down. He scrambled away.

Bato came up to them. "Hasoka."

Hasoka turned. "Bato? What's wrong?"

Bato looked ashen. "It's Aika. She-"

Hasoka hurried off.

"Kyo, what do you think—Kyo?" She turned quickly, looking in desperation for her older brother.

He was on one of the ships. "Lian!" he bellowed. Lian ran over to the cliff's edge.

"Kyo!"

"Lian, stop!" Bato yelled after her.

Other protests of the villagers reached her ears, but she ignored them. Suddenly, there was a loud crack. Stopping, Lian turned and looked behind her. The ice was cracking, breaking apart. She looked up to see Bato and some others run toward her…

And then she was falling.

The frigid water met her with a loud splash. Plunged into the icey depths, Lian let out all of her breath in shock from the sudden temperature. Things started to go fuzzy. And then… Nothing.