A/N: I am so terribly sorry that it has been so long since I posted a new chapter to this story! I have many excuses but that's neither here nor there! I'm back in action and ready to write up a storm. I hope this chapter makes it up to you somewhat. The similarities between Asami Sato and Lin Bei Fong are astounding, when you think about them. I did not write the poem used towards the end of the story. I believe the author is unknown, but if anyone wants to correct me on that, feel free! Please read and review. Nothing would make me happier than reading what you think of all the points made in this chapter. Please know that I never use characters as mouthpieces for what I believe. I write what I think they would say and nothing more. I do not own Legend of Korra but the writing is my own.

Freedom

For two months after the Equalist attack, Asami Sato visited her father every Sunday evening at Republic City's high security prison. She would come towards the end of visiting hours and stay as long as it took for her father to hiss a number of insults and declare, for the world to hear, that she was no longer his daughter. Lin Bei Fong—who had been assigned to Hiroshi Sato's case until such time as the court could set up a hearing with impartial judges and an adequate attorney to argue the defendant's case—would watch the girl return each week with somber, tired eyes. Each time, Asami spoke fewer and fewer words, allowing her father to control the conversation once it was clear there was no civility to be had.

Lin was always present at these meetings to ensure Asami's safety, though the metalbender was quite certain Asami could handle herself. Lately, however, it appeared that the girl was losing health. Most would not notice the slight changes in her appearance—the loose clothing, tired eyes, and lack of the usual make up—but Lin was in the business of noticing anomalies such as these. The girl walked as if she had a hefty weight resting between her shoulder blades; her posture was no longer that of an heiress, but that of a woman in mourning.

What she came to mourn, there in that harsh place where criminals gave her sideways glances and her father spit insults like poison into her ears, Lin could only guess.

It would appear that not all casualties of war were buried quietly beneath the ground.

One day, as Asami was leaving the prison well past visiting hours, Lin could see that the girl was visibly unwell. Her steps faltered on the stairs, and Lin decided it was time to stop guessing and act. Since Lin's assignment at the prison was simply matters involving Hiroshi Sato, she was free to leave when Asami was done. Following the girl down the steps and out into the warm summer's night air, Lin spotted the girl as she sat shakily down onto a bench beside her Satomobile.

Asami sighed softly, closing her eyes for a moment as she mentally prepared herself to get up and drive home. Her visits with her father always left her in such a terrible state, she did not wish to drive for fear of taking her anger and sadness out on the road. At home, with a test track all to herself, she could afford to be reckless. On city streets, it was dangerous—if not to herself, to others—for her to drive with her emotions riding shotgun beside her.

"Ms. Sato?"

Asami started, her heart beating wildly in her chest as she moved to prepare herself for a fight, but found a gentle hand on her shoulder keeping her from standing up. Looking up, Asami saw the concerned gaze of none other than the reinstated Chief Bei Fong.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," the chief said, removing her hand once she was certain the girl was not going to turn tail and run. "May I sit?"

"Please," Asami said, motioning to place beside her.

Once seated, Lin realized that she did not have a clear idea in her mind as to what she was going to say. Luckily, Asami spoke first.

"How are you, Chief?" Asami smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. "I bet it's good to hear that title again."

Lin's gaze turned to the street as she replied, "In some ways, yes. It's good to be back. But more often than not, I find myself forgetting."

Asami waited, expecting Lin to explain further, but she did not. Then Lin's eyes returned to the heiress. "What about you? How are you?"

The answer was so easily given that Lin expected the girl had practiced it many times before. "I'm doing very well, thank you. The company is back on its feet, working to build a new reputation separate from the one my father left it."

Lin chose her words carefully, hoping to shine light where she could. "Republic City is still a young one, as far as cities go. Its people are very willing to forgive, if given the time."

Silently, Asami nodded, eyes trained above the skyline of the city. The prison was located on the outskirts, at a relatively high elevation, which offered a decent view of the city below.

"Do you ever think about leaving?" Lin's question was quietly and carefully delivered, but the response made it clear that the words had hit their mark all the same.

"W-what?" Asami's eyes were wide with shock, but there was something in them—a small, reflected light of recognition and guilt—that indicated Lin's words were not unfounded. "I couldn't leave. The company depends on me to raise it out of the ground. My father would—"

Her voice faltered, but Lin knew what had been on the girl's lips all the same. Silence followed, and Lin was careful to respect the girl's decision to leave the rest of her thought unsaid.

"Asami?"

Sweeping a loose strand of black hair out of her eyes and behind her ear, Asami looked up at Lin with the air of a rabbit caught in a trap.

"Your loyalty to your father is admirable. I would not ask you to abandon him and all that he has created," Lin paused, uncertain if she should say what had been on her mind for months since the uprising. She knew it wasn't her place to say, but the girl looked so lost and alone, waiting for her nerves to settle enough to drive home and leave the cruel words her father had spoken once again tonight behind her. Steeling herself and her own nerves, Lin continued, "But might I say, from what I've seen, your visits seem to do more harm to you than good to him."

Asami's eyes closed, bowing her head until her face was hidden by her long hair.

Thinking she had indeed gone too far, Lin was quick to apologize, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to suggest—"

"No. You're right."

Asami looked up as she continued, "He doesn't want me here. He doesn't want me at all. Not anymore." Her voice wavered, and she ground her teeth to keep the tears out of her eyes. Laughing bitterly, Asami turned her gaze to the stars, blinking repeatedly to keep herself from crying. "You would think I would be used to it by now."

"Asami, what your father has done to you is not something you are expected to 'get used to.'"

Shaking her head, Asami said, "That's not what I meant. When my mother died, my father changed. He was always in his study, at meetings, or managing his factory. I got used to being ignored, to being alone. He only needed me when there was a celebration, so I could dress up like my mother used to and spend the evening on his arm. I look just like her, you know."

Lin was aware of the resemblance. She had been one of the officers assigned to the murder case of Hiroshi Sato's wife. Asami had been just a little girl then. Despite the girl's youth and delicate situation, Lin still had to take the girl into the police headquarters for some light questioning. She discovered that it was as she had feared: the six-year-old had indeed witnessed the murder of her mother.

The situation reminded Lin of her own, but Lin had been much older when she saw her mother killed in front of her. She could not imagine a girl so young witnessing something so terrible. Lin shivered involuntarily. That had not been an easy investigation, for anyone involved. It was hard to believe that it was over twelve years ago when they laid the poor woman to rest.

Taking in a shaky breath, Asami tried to calm herself down enough to continue. Lin could see it was taking the girl's full effort to keep the tremor out of her voice.

"When I began dating Mako, it opened up all of my father's old wounds. I had no idea he was still so bent on avenging my mother. I should have known. I…I should have known…" Asami's voice cracked and tapered off. She was shaking, now. She wrapped her arms around her trembling body, and Lin felt a sharp pain shoot through her chest. Moving closer, Lin wrapped her own arms around the girl, offering comfort where comfort was long overdue.

"I'm sorry," Asami whispered, trying desperately to get a hold of herself.

"It's alright. Just breathe."

Lin stared at the stars as Asami shook in her arms. The sobs were silent; no sound escaped the girl's trembling lips. There were a few tears, but not many. It would seem the girl was still trying very hard to keep from breaking.

Contemplating her next words, Lin tightened her arms around Asami, running a hand soothingly through her hair, as a mother would. Lin's maternal instincts were few and seldom felt, but in the case of this girl, Lin knew it was what she needed.

"Some say that true freedom comes in having nothing left to lose," Lin said the words quietly, almost to herself. "But you and I…we know from experience that this is untrue. We are never free from the ties that bind us to our loved ones, living or dead. We, who have lost love and family, know that we are no freer for having lost it. You will always have a piece of your heart buried in Republic City, and that is why you feel you cannot leave."

Asami's shaking stopped as she moved to look at Lin, breaking the embrace.

"But sometimes you have to accept that the life you knew is gone, and move on. Your father doesn't need you, and no number of hours spent subjecting yourself to his ridicule and hatred is going to change that."

Wiping her eyes with edge of her sleeve, Asami said, "You're right, of course. I've been silly."

"Not silly. Believing there is still some good in your father is not silly," Lin said, letting Asami reclaim her personal space and build the walls around her heart right back up again. "Some men are misguided. Death changes people; we all cope differently. Your father's methods may have been wrong, but all men see themselves as the heroes and saviors of their own stories. He believes benders ought to suffer the same way he has for all these years. What is remarkable is that you, Asami, do not feel that way."

Looking into her lap, the girl murmured, "For the longest time, I was afraid of fire. But one day when I was younger, I decided I didn't want to be afraid anymore, and that was that."

"Exactly." Lin smiled before placing a hand over the two clasped in Asami's lap. "For what it's worth, I'm sure your mother would be very proud of what you've done, and how strong you've become."

The girl's green eyes widened as they looked up. "Thank you," she said, her voice quiet but grateful. "Sometimes I wish I knew her better. She wasn't alive long enough for me to really know what she was like. In some ways, I'm jealous of my father."

"How so?"

"He knew her the best, and longest."

Lin was quiet for a minute before saying, "Do you think of her often?"

"Every day. I keep her picture with me wherever I go." Asami fidgeted with her jacket, withdrawing an old, frayed photograph. She glanced briefly at it before handing it to the woman beside her.

Lin took it carefully, wary of its age. The paper was yellow and crumpled, well-loved in a way that only an old photograph could be. It showed Mrs. Sato holding Asami as an infant, sitting in a cozy chair beside a glowing fire. The woman was beautiful, with long, curly black hair that fell below her shoulders. She looked at her baby with the eyes of a new mother, seeing her little miracle as the most precious being in the world. Turning the picture over, Lin saw a date written some eighteen years previously, and words penned in a different hand:

If tears could build a stairway,

And memories a lane,

I would walk right up to Heaven

And bring you home again.

"Did you write this?" Lin asked, showing her the back of the photo.

"I did, a long time ago. I had forgotten it was there, to be honest."

"It's beautiful." With that, Lin returned the photograph after one last look at the happiness and love on the mother's face. Asami took it in her hand and let her eyes linger on her mother awhile longer before putting it back inside her jacket.

"I should be getting home," Asami said, standing on shaky legs.

"It is late," said Lin, motioning to the stars. "Do you want me to drive you home? You've had a rough evening."

Asami looked as though she were going to refuse, but then reached into her pocket and offered Lin the keys. "If you don't mind, I think that's a good idea. I don't know if I can trust myself to drive right now."

As Lin took the keys, Asami pulled her into a quick hug. "Thank you, Chief. For everything."

Taken aback a bit by the suddenness of the hug, it took a moment for Lin to get her bearings and return the embrace. "No problem, kid. Anytime."

As they drove back into the heart of Republic City, Lin noticed Asami starting to doze off in the passenger seat beside her. Lin chuckled softly to herself, thinking that despite Asami's reputation as a head of industry and hero in her own right, she was still just a teenager.

These kids, Lin thought as she turned down an empty street towards the Sato mansion, they'll be the end of my hard-ass reputation. And as Lin pulled into the driveway of the Sato estate and moved to shake the girl awake, she realized she was okay with that.