Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA or LoK
Her feet pounded into the ground as she kept on running desperately. Her desperate attempts to communicate with the earth had proved futile, and she felt naked and defenceless. All around her the shadows twisted and contorted; jeering laughter mocking and ridiculing filled her ears as she clenched her head, begging them to stop. And she continued onward into the swirling darkness, the voices gleefully nipping at her heels, refusing to leave, a pack of ravenous dogs closing in on their prey; knowing exactly where her weaknesses could be laid bare.
"Keep running, Linny, it is the only thing you are good at." The voice of the first captain she had served under swirled around her, malicious delight oozing.
"Shut the hell up you bastard!" She screamed, not daring to look back, for the first time in a long while she was afraid at what she might see; tears intermingled with sweat streamed down her face, as she stumbled on, fear and inexplicable urgency gripping her.
"Aw would you look at that, Linny Lin is bawling her eyes out again, what a pathetic excuse for an officer" Captain Hiroh's sneering condescending voice echoed inside her; rage swelling inside her to add to the tumultuous mix of emotions she was experiencing.
"Don't call me that or I swear I'll kill you" her burning throat sore from her crying and screaming croaked out, hating hearing the nickname she always despised being sung upon the lips of a man she could truly say she hated. Raucous laughter bellowed into the air the only response to her pleas.
And then her knees buckled under her, causing her to pitch forward headfirst into the dark, and yet instead of yielding to her body, it instead tried to wrap itself around her, trying to consume her in its entirety. The droning laughter grated shrilly inside her mind, getting louder and more demanding; she could feel its wicked intent emanating onto her. She could only remain limp; too tired to even try to escape; waiting for the inevitable.
Until the inevitable became the unexpected, and the darkness started to dissolve.
And she fell.
She desperately tried to cling on to something, anything, but there was nothing to grip but the emptiness which passed through her grasping fingers, as she hurtled down; the voices and laughter becoming fainter and more distant.
Floating.
Hurtling into a murky abyss, she felt hollow and empty; space and time had become trivial and irrelevant and she felt as though she could remain falling forever, the void in her heart and mind a balm to her spiralling emotions. She wished she could stay this way, forever drifting into the unknown, simply not caring, or even having to care at all.
Until she hit rock bottom.
She slammed face first into the ground; the earth which had always been her friend now seemed like a cold lover intent on malicious revenge. The pain scorched throughout her body and it instinctively arched; doubling the anguish, feeling as though a firebender was pouring molten liquid onto her entire frame. Hard rocks jabbed into her prone figure and dust was beginning to enter her eyes and mouth, but her mind hazily related that most of the bones had been shattered; too much in pain to even moan, much less move about. Through all the torment her ravaged body had been inflicted, she told herself she could deal with it but for one thing.
She felt so alone.
For her entire life she was always surrounded by people who genuinely cared for her, and always made her feel welcome; Avatar Aang and his entire family's residence on Air Temple Island was always a second home to her; Sokka had always been one to listen to all the problems and give a word or two (or many) about them, more often than not leaving her all the more wiser. Even Fire Lord Zuko, as awkward as it was sometimes to be around him, offered her nothing but kindness.
And now here she was, teetering on the verge of unconsciousness, desperate to scream out from the constricting binds of helplessness but silenced by her mangled throat and there was no kind smiles, no encouragement, nothing.
She lay there, unmoving. She didn't know how long had passed since she had fallen into the abyss, nor did she care. The blood that had poured out of the gashes had since stopped its generous outflow, yet her eyes were dulled, a flicker here and there the only sign of life. Slowly, she had managed to turn herself on her side, inch by excruciating inch.
It was the wind that roused her from her trance; barely a whisper at first, yet picking up momentum as time went on. If anything, Lin was grateful; it seemed to blow the oppressive atmosphere surrounding her, allowing her to breathe in a few gulps of air into her burning lungs. Filled for so long with pain and agony, Lin suddenly felt anxious, a sense of anticipation gripping her as the wind continued to rage around her.
She first noticed it on the horizon, approaching her location. The darkness above her was steadily decreasing; instead, it obtained an increasingly red hue. Indeed, dark clouds of red began swiftly flying by her head, aided by the ferocious winds. The sense of anxiety continued to increase, only this time it was joined by a feeling of apprehension.
Drip… Drip… Drip
A large drop of liquid splashed onto Lin's face, causing her to rear up slightly in surprise. She could feel it running down her forehead, keeping itself out of her vision, hot and sticky on the surface of her skin, yet her shattered arms prevented her from actually touching it. It started falling from the ominous skies more frequently now; dropping behind her and on top of her body, yet no matter how much she tried to see with her limited scope of vision, it was for all intents and purposes invisible to her.
Until it started falling directly in front her.
Lin's eyes widened as the recognition of the liquid in front her slowly sank in, making her empty stomach dry heave uncontrollably. Uncontrollable shivers racked her weakened body and she could not take her straining eyes from what lay before her.
Blood.
As soon as that one word crossed her mind, the skies seem to shake and contort; releasing its bloody content onto the surface below it and its solitary inhabitant. The wind lashed at her prone figure; swirling menacingly above and around her. Moments later and it seemed that Lin had been bathed in blood, coating every orifice she had, indeed it seemed to claim the entire surface of her skin; the coppery odour surrounding her sickening her.
Loud thunder cracked overhead as the sky parted even further. To Lin's disbelief, a lone figure emerged from above, descending rapidly onto the ground which was rapidly being turned into a sea of blood. The drying blood on her face made it difficult to keep her eyes open; yet she still strained them towards the figure.
"It seems you have gotten yourself into quite a sticky situation here, Lin."
The minute those words were uttered, she knew who it was, and yet her mind still could not comprehend its magnitude.
"U-Uncle Aa..ng?" she managed to croak out, shock reeling through her.
And indeed it was Aang, yet it was not the man she had known from her first memories. Instead of the kindness and serenity that had always been visible in his eyes, it now contained malicious amusement as he surveyed her wrecked body on the ground. Bending down and bring his face closer to hers, it held a malevolent smile, horrifying her and frightening her at the same time.
"What's the matter Lin, you don't seem to be too happy to see me." He cooed nastily, reaching over to brush a bloody matt of hair from her face, making the blood left in her veins run cold.
"You….. you're de…dead." She managed to say, watching as his face turned ugly, realizing, too late, that she had said the wrong thing.
"Aren't you the smart one" he shot back at her, cupping her face into his hands, enjoying the look of pain that crossed her face. Dimly, Lin felt the winds accelerating even further, while the skies continued emptying its contents, resulting in the sea of blood steadily rising higher.
"You are probably wondering what I'm doing here." Taking Lin's silence as a yes, he continued, "Well it really is quite simply, my dear." Her mind barely clung to what he was saying, yet his next words struck at her very core.
"You are nothing but a failure."
Those six words passed through his lips, and Lin stopped breathing.
Unconcerned, Aang grinned at he r widened eyes, continuing his diatribe, "Let's face it Lin, you were born as a result of your mother's whoring, resulting in your birth. So from the start you were born a failure."
"Not…. True." Lin wheezed out weakly.
"Still have oxygen to talk, well let me fix that for you." A gesture from Aang and Lin felt all the air remaining within her forced from her carcass.
He was killing her slowly.
Satisfied, he continued, "Now where was I? Oh right, you being the product of a whore. If that wasn't bad enough, you had to latch onto my son, the only other airbender left alive. And you were so pathetic you couldn't even seal the deal, could you? Or maybe Tenzin was just smarter than I thought, and realized that someone as wretched as you couldn't possible bear airbenders." Smiling, he noted the anguish with pleasure.
"Ever since my… funeral, you haven't even seen him have you? Because you're afraid of what he might say, what he might do. What a coward." He released her near lifeless body, Lin falling with a splat into the bloody waters surrounding them.
"You couldn't even save me could you? I'm the Avatar and yet you let me die. Republic City is dying, and you are to blame!" He roared, eyes bulging as they stared accusingly down to the dying earthbender.
Lin lay there, looking blankly at the man ranting before her, a man she once considered an uncle. The bloody rain beat furiously onto her skin, and the winds screamed angrily in chorus with the deceased Avatar's tirade. And as her vision went dark, the parting screams from Aang pierced her skull.
"YOU ARE A FAILURE!"
"You are a failure!"
Lin shot up from her bed, breathing frantically, her heartbeat echoing into her head. Her eyes scrambled furiously around her room, taking in her surroundings, familiar scenes not quite registering in her mind. Ragged coarse breathing filled the room as she struggled to regain her composure.
"Dream…. Just a dream" Was the first coherent words she uttered out loud.
Moving to remove the sheets that covered her body, she realized that they were soaked, from sweat and from rain. A metallic bang interrupted her reverie and she realized that the window had been left open, leaving her bed a victim to the torrential rains. Getting up slowly, and moving to close the window, annoyance at her mother for leaving the window open in the first place entered her mind. After living a nightmare in her dreams, such a trivial thought brought a ghost of a smile across her tired face.
As she reached out to grab the offending window, a gust of wind blew across her face, causing her to recoil, the horrors still fresh within her mind. After hesitating, she resolutely gripped the window and banged it shut, with more force than usually necessary.
Exhausted, both mentally and psychically, she detached her metalbending uniform which she had slept in, dropping it on the floor. Grabbing the old blanket from on top her desk, she dropped unceremoniously in the corner of her room, her back against the wall.
Unwillingly, all the accusations that he had hurled at her came rushing back at her. Hands trembling, she wondered if there was any truth to anything he had said. All her pent up emotions that she had stemmed from ever since his death came roaring to the fore, all her anger, her sadness, her guilt. And so she did something that she always despised, something she always sneered at, something she considered for the weak.
She wept.
Well that escalated quickly! I had first envisioned this as a one shot, now it seems that a minimum of four chapters will be needed to adequately cover all the things I have planned. And given my nature as a procrastinator, I'm rather proud that this second chapter had been churned out a mere four days after the first! Hurrah for me! As always, thanks for reading, leave a review, let me know what you think about my writing.