A/N: Hey guys.
Ok so I have no idea where this idea came from but I just had to write and couldn't stop until it was finished. I hope you enjoy it.
I own nothing.
...
"Was that her?"
"I don't know. She hasn't been seen for years."
"Do you think she will come back?"
" She's been lost for a long while."
"Lin. Who's that?" A young Korra asked her waterbending teacher, after overhearing a conversation between Katara and Korra's father.
For a moment the master looked shocked... uneasy even.
"No one you should worry about." She assured, putting up a smile to hide the emotions that associated itself with that person.
Korra didn't ask Katara about it again, but it didn't stop her from listening to the words spoken among the White Lotus Sentries.
...
"She's imprisoned?"
"Well if the rumours are true where else would you keep the world's most dangerous bender?"
"Does bending like that really exist?"
...
Once Korra was close to mastering waterbending and on the verge of learning earthbending , the rumors returned once again, as quickly as they disappeared years ago . Sometimes the Avatar would overhear the White Lotus talking about the person called 'Lin.'
But always when they were alone... or they thought so.
In soft voices they would murmur to one another and Korra would listen.
"They say she mastered earthbending at the age of ten."
"I heard she became a master at metalbending when she was twelve."
"That's-"
"Keep your voice down! We aren't even supposed to be talking about this."
"Right. The Avatar..."
They were trying to keep it from her. Korra realized early on, but that didn't discourage her from trying to find out the mysteries behind this person. Who was she and why was everyone so afraid to talk about her?
The years went by, gradually taking Korra's need for answers away. She mastered both earth and firebending in the following years. She was focused on her duty as the Avatar and mastering airbending. Nothing else.
...
"They say she ran away, forced into hiding."
"Hiding?"
"That's what I heard."
"You sure? People said that she died a long time ago."
"There are rumors everywhere."
"Last I heard someone said he saw her spirit in the alleyways of Republic City ."
"No one knows the truth for sure though."
"I don't think were supposed to."
...
Then Korra came to Republic City. A bustling metropolis that held a great threat for the benders of the City known as Amon.
She wanted nothing more than do defeat him , but the Avatar was soon terrified of what he could do to her. Whenever she thought about him or his anti- bending revolution, nightmares and horrifying thoughts would overwhelm her. Even though her friends were there for her, it didn't help much to stop her paranoia.
Even after the revolutionist leader had been defeated, the Avatar could feel as if something was...there. Watching her. The City now always held a presence that was always following.
Until it just stopped.
Korra was glad for things to be returning to normal but still she couldn't help to feel that something was... off. And it wasn't just her who felt it.
She could hear the whole of Republic City talking about it.
...
"Is she coming back?"
"Didn't she die a long time ago?"
"I don't know. Did she?"
"Yeah, a lot of people say that she was killed by a Crime Lord or something."
"Yakone?"
"Maybe."
...
"I don't even know why you're so in to this." Mako looked over his shoulder, feeling as if someone was watching them, but no one was to be seen. It was just him, Bolin, Korra and Asami sitting in a rundown restaurant with no customers.
"Yeah, it's not like there some weird ghost lady walking around right? Right?" Bolin asked again, hoping that the answer to that question would be 'no.'
"I know something is going on here!" Korra said, feeling sure of herself.
"If the rumors are this many and people are scared to talk, then it can't be just some made up story." Asami said, agreeing with Korra.
The firebender sighed heavily, knowing that he was going to regret telling them this.
"I've been asking around back at the Station and they say she was the youngest person to become Chief. She wanted to be just as good as her mother but apparently-"
"She ran away?"
"No-"
"She took revenge?"
"No! Let me finish." The firebender said, annoyed.
Both Asami and Korra stopped talking, edging closer to each other ,wondering when it suddenly got so cold.
The firebender gave one last glance over his shoulder before continuing.
"They said she killed herself."
"Suicide?"
"No, apparently she trained so much that her earthbending killed her in the end."
Everyone was silent.
"That... that can't really happen... right?" Bolin said from under the table, too scared to come out of his hiding place.
"Of course not Bolin, it's just made up."
For that moment everyone agreed, and they all tried to forget...
...
Asami ignored the old newspapers she found in her father's desk drawers. All of them associating the name: Lin Beifong with 'Missing' or 'dead?'
Bolin never looked back at the moving shadows that followed him through the dark alleyways.
Mako came to accept that it was just something to be left in the past, so he ignored the old diary entitled: 'Bonebending' he found jammed in his desk drawers. He looked past the glass case in Shaikan's office that held a bloodstained uniform...
But Korra would never forget nor could she ignore , the Avatar couldn't stop wondering...
She would still think about the golden plaque on a wall at the Police station, underneath the one entitled: 'Toph Beifong'.
With the name that seemed deliberately faded away. The one that seemed so much older than the rest even though it was only second from the top. The one who's color seemed to be a darker shade than the rest had engraved on it: 'Lin Beifong.'
Korra would not stop thinking of the mystery that continued to follow her through the streets of Republic City.