Piece
-Tenzin: Another Year-
Thirty-three years prior.
Another day. Another agent, one from some child protection service asking the same questions. They found her on the street. Called her on the phone. Caught up with her at work. Spending their time tracking her down, asking her the same questions.
Lin was seventeen. She pushed her long, gorgeous black hair out of her eyes. The agents asked:
"Did your mother ever hurt you?"
"No."
"Did your mother ever abuse you?"
"No."
"Has Toph ever touched you inappropriately?"
"Has your mother carried out her anger on you?"
"Did your mother steal you from someone else?"
"Did your mother give you those scars?"
"No. She didn't," Lin said. She glared, instilling fear in these agents. Young men and women who thought they were actually helping by repeatedly asking the same questions. As if getting a "no" was unacceptable, and they would not leave, would not be happy, unless they heard the bad news: a "yes". They would need a new approach that would not involve facing Lin directly. Her short fuse kept them on their toes, but they pressed on, determined.
"They keep bothering you?" Tenzin asked. He broke a piece of bread and buttered it lightly. Lin sat across the table at the nice restaurant in downtown Republic City, pouting.
Another year, that they had been together, or so they just continued to think. Lin didn't know exactly when they started dating. It seemed like it had been this time of the year some time ago when their lifetime friendship turned romantic. It didn't matter to Lin when exactly it was, so Tenzin just picked a day to take her out to a nice dinner.
Lin tried to waive the topic aside and started to look over the menu. She nearly gasped when she read the prices of each dish.
"Tenzin, this food is expensive. Can you afford this?"
"Not usually."
"How…uh?"
"I put in a few extra hours at the courthouse with my dad. Helping out with paperwork and things. Also, you'd be surprised how many people in the city were willing to pay me to do some random chores for them. I only put in a few hours, though…well, around fifty hours to be more exact. Some people were feeling generous and gave me a slight bonus when they heard what I was working for."
"You did all that just to take me to this nice dinner?"
"Of course. You are more than worth it." Tenzin smiled. Lin blushed and looked away, embarrassed. Tenzin chuckled.
"I feel so…lucky." She could not help but smile and reached across the table to hold his hand. It felt strange to her, and that was when she noticed she was wearing gloves. Lin suddenly realized her attire and thought about how stupid she was that she still had her police uniform on out to this nice event.
Tenzin stopped her before she began her apologies. "Lin, I am not upset. I don't mind. I always think you look beautiful. I always have."
The two had been friends since they were children, a friendship that largely resulted due to the fact that both of their parents had also been lifelong friends, facilitating the meeting of the two lovebirds. Lin and Tenzin always had eyes for each other. Tenzin remembers being nine years old and quietly air-gliding through Lin's window to meet her, careful not to touch the ground with too much force such as to awake the storm that was Toph Beifong. He had goofed up before and was subsequently caught by Lin's mother, who no more than told Tenzin to leave, but did so in a voice so intimidating it nearly made the young airbender soil himself. While Toph never meant any harm against the boy, she disapproved of the nocturnal meetings, much to Lin's dismay. It was something her mother would never let slip by, the meetings bothered her beyond compromise, and Lin knew it was useless to try and argue with the woman. Toph's scowl along with her manner of speaking with such force worked well enough to keep Tenzin from venturing over to Lin's room every night after a while, so the two needed a new place to meet. A place they would both know. Would both depend on always being safe for all time.
It was this place toward which the young, teenage couple walked that night, years later, after their something-year anniversary dinner. Tenzin dressed up. Lin regretfully in uniform. The old meeting place had a sentimental value to them now in their late teenage years, and it was for the purpose of nostalgia and romance as opposed to their old reasons of secrecy and adventure that they continued to meet there. They were reminded of how young they were when they first started using this place as their rendezvous point, and now as young adults, they were already out in the world, working, growing up. Changing, for better and for worse.
A clock tower. One giant, eternally ticking clock for the whole city to see as they went about their lives. Reminding them of their duties and schedules. Indicating another hour of their lives had ticked by, instilling either excitement or anxiety into all those that heard it.
The clock tower chimed. Nine O'clock. Lin was startled by the sound, sitting against the wall on the rooftop ledge below the clock, high up on the tower, right next to the bells emitting the sound. The building was easy now for the two to infiltrate and reach the rooftops. Tenzin's air gliding and Lin's metal cables, it was a piece of cake.
"Guh, I always forget that it chimes like that. Gets me every time. Maybe because we usually came here after midnight when it stopped making noise, all those years ago," Lin said, looking up at the clock.
"Or maybe you just forget it was going to happen because you lose track of time when you are around me...since I am so captivating," Tenzin said, jokingly. Lin lightly punched him on the arm. Affectionately. They looked over the city, leaning on the ledge. All over the ledges and pillars of the rooftops were the childish drawings etched in the stone, the more ornate ones done by Lin as a young girl, and the rough scratches by Tenzin, who found it hard to work with the material, being unable to bend it unlike Lin. Depictions by the two kids of the two kids, a boy and girl, holding hands, smiling, laughing, earthbending and airbending together. Kissing.
"I can't believe these are still here," Lin said, rubbing her hands over the drawings.
"They'll probably always be," Tenzin replied.
"That's nice to know. As things change, it's comforting to see these and be filled with those happy memories. Of what we were like back then."
Tenzin laughed to himself. "I remember your mother trying to find me one night after I snuck in. She stood right in front of me, shouting, but couldn't see me because I was just barely gliding off the ground. Even though I knew I was safe, the sound of her voice speaking out to me, and her just standing there looking at me was probably the scariest thing I can ever imagine. I bet she heard my heart beat. She could always hear yours. I swear, my parents were forever upset that they could never frighten me like she did," he joked.
Lin giggled at this. One of the drawings was of her smiling as she lifted a big rock. "The day I learned to earthbend. That was such a long time ago, I can't even really remember. I haven't stopped to think of how things have changed so quickly since then. She seemed so proud that day," Lin sighed, reminiscing.
"So, how is the old warden these days?" Tenzin asked, referring to Lin's mother.
"Fine. Obsessed with work, and herself, as usual. I can kind of see what she means when she says it becomes a part of her life, now that I've been in the force."
"Do you like it? The work? The responsibility?"
"I like the idea of people being safe and not afraid to go outside. I think this is what I was supposed to be doing here."
The answer was strange to Tenzin. He did not feel it was very close to a "yes". At least not to him. He looked over at her face, the scars across her cheek. Two nearly parallel lines which at one time were so deep into her face that the mark would be left on it forever.
"It's a little unbelievable to me at times, though," she said.
"What is?"
"People. The things they will do. The horrible things. It was not long before I had my first case of murder. Seeing the whole concept of life and death like that was unsettling. One day, the man was alive. He was a father, a hard-working business man, he had parents that loved him. A life that was fulfilling and had so much meaning and depth. The next day, he is dead, and it's all gone, just memories and paper work. That life is obliterated. That piece of so many other people's lives is just removed at the hands of the one person who thought that man needed to die. It gets you thinking about that person who felt the need to kill someone else. You wonder...who does that person think he is? To feel justified in taking that life?"
"Some people just have a very distorted sense of morality. But I don't think anyone can just kill like that and not feel even the smallest amount of guilt," Tenzin said, trying to reassure Lin in the goodness within all humans.
"I've been doing this a year now, and I am starting to believe the opposite. I'm starting to believe that some people have released themselves from any feeling at all. They just do, without thinking, without emotion. They just kill for no other reason than that they just do. And they feel nothing." Lin looked at the etching of her and Tenzin holding hands. Connected, like all humans are. Holding hands, her inclusion in the life of someone else. A sense of belonging burned within her, that she shared her life with this man beside her, that his happiness as well as his pain was hers for all time. Complementing this joy within her was a confusion that there were those who disconnected themselves completely from the notion of a human relationship and a meaningful life, unable to experience this one if not the most important component of living. They just coursed alongside humanity, parallel to it, occasionally interacting with it but never immersing themselves with it. No longer even a human, just a force of nature.
Tenzin looked over to Lin, who had become lost in her thoughts. Pensive. Tenzin started to think as well. Lin had changed since joining the force. The kind of thoughts she was having and expressing to him had only been conceived over the last year. A year where Lin had seen death and murder and the malice that humans can resort to. A year of being scarred by witnessing the worst of mankind.
"Lin. You know you can tell me anything, right? You know I am always here for you?"
"Yes."
They were both silent for a few seconds, then Lin spoke again.
"This is about my scars?"
"I know you've said it was not your mother, and I believe you. I know you said it was just an accident, but I just feel as though the scars bother you more than they should be. I feel they have left more of a mark on you than just these two streaks across your face."
Lin sighed. She had spent the last year fending off agents who seemed to be so set on slamming Toph with child abuse charges. Who wanted so badly to hear bad news from Lin that she was a victim of physical beatings from her mother who 'could not control her temper'. Her mother who 'was so stressed over her job and took it out on her daughter'. Creating their own versions of the chief, trying to get Lin to agree with those lies, just so they could break down the image of the Great Toph Beifong that all citizens came to hold as true, but the actual truth rested only with Lin. It was as if these people already had the headlines written in the papers and all they needed was Lin's correct answer so they could run the issues and feel "complete" in their line of work.
Maybe it'd be nice to tell someone what had actually happened. Someone who was not jumping the gun and making predetermined accusations. Someone who would actually listen, even if it was not the truth they wanted to hear. Tenzin knew she was affected by the scars too much for them to be of no importance beyond a mere wound. He cared, and she knew he cared. She loved that he cared.
"One of my first missions on the police force last year. After graduating the academy extremely fast, you can bet I was feeling sure of myself. A break-in, if I remember correctly, on the east side of town somewhere. Suspicions of terrorist activity was what we thought. Was what I thought. Well, because I was so sure of myself, I allowed myself to be caught so off-guard. Bastard came out of nowhere and did this to my face with some kind of weapon. A long blade of his. Two-pronged. It felt like he was laughing at me. At my zeal. Such a deep cut. Hurt more than anything I can remember. Just imagine being stabbed in the face. It was completely my fault. I was over-confident, and I let my pride bring down my strategy. I failed, Tenzin. I'll never forget that I failed that day, and these scars were the consequence. The result of my zeal. These scars remind me of my responsibility, that this job is serious and I need to take it seriously. I feel like this happens to most cops at some point, it just happened to me earlier. It is strange to me that everyone is making a big deal out of them, though. What do they want?"
Tenzin reached and grabbed Lin's hand. She looked to him and smiled. Almost anything Tenzin did made her smile. He was the best thing she had in her life. It made him happy seeing her face, but then he remembered why he had asked her about her scars.
"I am not sure why those people have been calling and asking you about the scars. Trying to pry into your private life. People have their reasons, some of them are genuine, others just want a story and will get you to say something for that story. Twist your words. Uncover information that is none of their business for a mere headline."
"It's my problem, not theirs."
"Well, whatever the reason…I wanted to ask you for a different one."
"What is it, Tenzin?"
"Maybe you don't remember. Maybe you choose not to, or did not think it was a big deal. But the day you received those scars, when I came to see you to make sure you were alright, I happened to see your mother. Of course, you merely toughened up and acted like the ordeal did not affect you, that's just who you are, but I won't forget the look on your mother's face. Just thinking about it…I never even once considered the absurd thought that she was responsible. She just looked terrified. I had never seen her like that before."
Lin did not respond immediately. She looked over the balcony, looked over the city. The lights shined so bright and blurred together that it was confusing to tell which building had which lights. They shined green and blue and yellow and white. She heard sirens in the distance. The sound pinched her curiosity, but she let it go, trusting that her mother would be able to handle it. Whatever it was. Whatever evil lurked underneath the bright lights before her, her mother would snuff it out. Obliterate the evil. She had to. She was the chief.
She was her mother. Toph, who to many, including Lin at the time, represented all that was powerful and good.
