Conjugation
By FullMentalPanic
...but she was still alive.
There were so many times when that was what made her get up again. Through violence, and heartbreak, and politics, she was still breathing, which meant it wasn't over.
On the island, in midst of insurrection, in the midst of bright and warm colored robes and young faces, there was that thought that didn't surface too often, that these could have been her children...
...but that was a complete delusion. She could see Tenzin in them, but she could also unmistakably see Pema. If these children were hers they would look and act differently, and would certainly have been brought up differently. They existed, and only could exist, through the union of Tenzin and Pema.
She could resent that, or she could appreciate being able to know them. Her friend, the woman he had chosen, and the young lives that wouldn't have happened in any other circumstances.
She could protect that. Looking over her shoulder she didn't see them as the last airbenders or even Tenzin's family, but as four children and one wife who shouldn't have to be torn apart. Even if that meant she wouldn't get the chance to crush Amon with earth and metal for what he had done to her men and her city. Even if she was killed...
...but that wasn't how Amon operated. Even if he stole her...
...but she would deal with that if it happened.
There was still a chance.
The bulk of the airship seemed almost alive under her feet from everything she could sense from it. It was metal, and she could shred metal into tattered slips of steel. She almost did.
One airship was falling in flames while she ripped a fatal tear in the second, when trailing weights snaked around her body and legs. Crackling energy swept and tore at skin, bone, muscle, and settled with searing heat in her joints...
...but the family escaped.
She could barely move. They weren't such idiots as to bring her before their leader without jabbing at her chi first, but she could still feel. It was muffled through the metal covering her legs and feet, the criminals standing around her and the almost indistinguishable drops of rain falling on her, on them, and him.
The demagogue.
The monster.
The liar.
When he offered to let her keep what was already hers if she would betray her own side, it filled her with more rage than anything else he'd done. The hypocrisy of it, that he would make exceptions for the ideals he was promoting, but also the lie, because he would never do what he claimed, and she was filled with a sick anger that he thought anyone would fall for it. She refused with all the vehemence and power she could muster from lungs that weren't breathing quite the way they should, so he would know he couldn't deceive everyone, that some manipulation would fall flat on its face.
He came to steal and destroy and then enact his own cruel will over the shambles that were left when he'd beaten down all who stood against him. That might not be how he saw it, though she doubted it, but it was what would happen. You could be a monster without meaning to be.
She didn't watch, she didn't have to. She could feel him, feel the impact of his light steps as he moved behind her, the slight flex of muscle and angling of body as he reached toward her. She knew what was coming. She'd personally interviewed the people who'd had part of themselves ripped away. She closed her eyes. She tipped her head back herself so the rain hit her full in the face, because she wouldn't let him move her into the position.
Listen and wait. Listen and wait. There might still be a chance...
...and even if there wasn't, pay attention anyway, because maybe she could learn something.
He came tangibly closer until she wasn't just feeling him with the core of gut, but her skin. Then...
...shock...
...a vacuum...
...
...and stillness...
...
...such utter stillness...
...
...
...
...but she was still alive.
A/N: Lin Bei Fong is an absolutely magnificent character, and I really wanted to do something for her. As we've already seen the depressed reaction from people after being shanked by the bad guy, I think Lin is going to be the person who keeps on fighting. I'd be kind of surprised if they wrote her out of the story or even mostly out of the story at this point.