Thanks for checking out my fic! A couple of things to be aware of:

-This fic is an independent continuation of The Original Beifong. However, while it has many references to things that happen in The Original Beifong, it can be read on its own. It's also an independent prequel to my next fic (which will be about the next Avatar) and will introduce some characters and plot elements that will foreshadow events that take place in that fic.

-Much of this fic deals with grief and loss of loved ones who have passed, as well as trauma from various life events. Lin had a hard life! As the title suggests, this fic is not happy fun times for her. There are some happy scenes though :)

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Year 200 AG

"Renyu's here," Su said, peeking her head in. "Are you ready for him?"

Lin sighed dramatically and drummed her fingers on the arms of her chair. "I guess. Might as well get this over with." She glanced up at the window, catching a glare from the afternoon sun glinting off the metal of the city. "But close the damn curtains first."

"Alright."

Su crossed the room to do so—still infuriatingly graceful, despite her age—before vanishing back into the hall. A minute later, Renyu appeared and knocked on the open door, his height and broad shoulders filling the opening.

What I wouldn't give to have his strength and youth, Lin mused bitterly.

"How are you today?" he asked, coming inside to sit down.

"Old and cranky. Were you expecting anything else?"

"I guess not."

She made a vaguely irritated noise. "I can't believe I let Su talk me into this."

"I've heard you express on many occasions how you'd like to set the record straight."

"Well," Lin began stubbornly. "This isn't exactly what I meant. I'm not sure I'm prepared for people to know everything about my life."

"You don't have to talk about anything you don't want to."

"Please. I know you. You're going to dig and dig until you find every last nugget of gossip."

"It's not gossip," Renyu said with a long-suffering sigh. "I'm an author, not a journalist. And you retired a long time ago. Republic City has moved on."

"Then why are you so determined to write this book?" she challenged, leaning forward angrily.

"Because it's important. I'm sorry, maybe I worded that badly. You left an indelible mark on the city, and the world. There should be a record of how it all came to be, and it should be in your own words."

"Fine," Lin grumbled. "Ask your damn questions."

Renyu took a deep breath, opened his notebook, and pressed the button on his tape recorder. "Right. Let's start with something easy. When and where were you born?"

"Don't you already know that?"

"I'm going to ask you about a lot of things I already know. Just answer them."

Lin rolled her eyes. "Republic City—Air Temple Island, specifically—in 120 AG, smack dab in the dead middle of winter, to an unmarried woman who had no interest in ever having children."

"C'mon." He cocked an eyebrow at her. "You really want me to write that?"

"You want the story of my life, in my own words? Here it is. My mother didn't want kids but she ended up with two, anyway. Why? Well, it's simple: They didn't have condoms back then."

Renyu snorted but didn't look up from whatever he was scribbling. "...probably rolling over in her grave," he muttered under his breath, chuckling.

"Please. She'd most likely think it was funny. And she's in the family crypt, not a grave."

"Really?" he said with interest. "She's here?"

"Well, where else would she be? But don't put that in your book," she added quickly.

"Why is it a secret? It's been more than a decade."

Has it really been that long…? Sometimes it seemed like it had only been yesterday. "Because she didn't want her final resting place to become a tourist attraction. The old hag didn't ask for much, but she was clear about that. Anyway, who cares? I thought this book was about me?"

Renyu just shrugged. "Yes, you're right. Moving on. Um, let's see… Why don't you tell me how you came to join the police force?"

"Well, that's a doozy of a question." She let out a heavy breath. "Alright. I was eighteen. I hadn't told my mother my plans, though I'd made my intentions clear on many occasions."

XXX

"Next!" the man called in a bored voice, not even looking up as Lin stepped forward. "Name?"

"Lin."

"Lin… Lin…" he muttered, running his finger down the clipboard. "I don't see a Lin on here. Are you sure you're in the right–" Finally, he glanced up. "Oh." A second later his eyebrows furrowed. "I don't understand. Are you…here to test? Why didn't you sign up? Does Chief even know you're here?"

Lin crossed her arms and jutted her jaw out. "What does it matter? I want to take the test."

"But… But you didn't enroll…"

"So what? I can already metalbend better than any rookie. I don't need to take any courses."

The man looked stymied. By this point, other recruits were starting to whisper among themselves. Lin shot cold, hard glares around the room to shut them up.

"Well…alright. I guess I don't see any harm in you taking the test." He shook his head and scribbled something on his clipboard. "Go ahead."

With one hand extended, using the laziest gesture she could muster, Lin lifted the yuan from the pole and let it hover in the air. Then she set it spinning with deft finger and wrist movements, slowly at first but then faster and faster until it was a blur. The metal spread out and flattened into a thin disk.

The recruiter rolled his eyes. "Was that really necessary?" He dug around in his pocket for another coin to replace the old one.

"Show off…" a young man behind Lin muttered.

She snapped around, wielding her sharp metal disc threateningly. "You wanna say that to my face?"

His eyes went wide and he put his hands up in a defensive gesture, but before he could say anything the disc flew from Lin's hand. She whipped back around to see the recruiter holding it.

"Not off to a good start, Beifong. Your metalbending skills may be impressive, but you have a lot to learn about being a cop. Here's your first lesson: Don't get into fights."

A murmur started up with the others in the room and he glanced towards the door. Lin followed his gaze to see her mother leaning against the door frame impassively, arms crossed.

"Lesson number two," the man continued, "though you should already know this one: Don't try to pull a fast one on the Chief."

"So…you wanna explain to me why you didn't feel the need to tell me about this?" Toph said once she'd sat down behind her desk.

Lin opted to stay standing and stared stubbornly at the small box of paperclips in front of her. "I…wanted to do it on my own. I wanted to prove–"

"I'm the Chief of Police, Lin," her mother said sharply. "I have to be involved in these things."

"Are you saying you personally interview every single new recruit?"

Toph frowned. "No, but I check over the list of people who have signed up. You deliberately circumvented the system in order to test without me knowing about it. Why?" She raised her hands, palms up, clearly agitated. "To prove something?"

"To prove to them that I didn't need my mom to make everything easier for me. And to prove to you that I was serious about doing this. Every single time I have ever brought it up, you laughed or brushed it off and changed the subject."

"Why do you even want to do this? You've spent your whole life complaining about how my job makes me too busy and how I've been a terrible, neglectful mother because of it."

Lin rolled her eyes and groaned. "Ugh. You're so overdramatic. And for the record, I don't care about having a consuming career because I don't plan on ever having kids. Unlike you, I know how to–"

"Don't," Toph said in a dangerous voice, pointing her finger at Lin. "Do not fucking cross that line. Or you can kiss any hope of getting what you want goodbye."

Lin clamped her mouth shut, seething, but also a tiny bit abashed. "Does that mean you'll let me join?" she asked, trying to add a touch of meekness to her attitude. Everything else aside, the approval of the Great Toph Beifong was and always had been her primary goal.

Toph threw her hands in the air in defeat. "You really wanna be a cop? You really wanna spend your life in a thankless, dangerous, stressful, shit-paying career that is still rife with misogyny, even after three decades of me being in charge? Fine. Whatever. But don't expect any special treatment."

"I don't. I don't want any."

XXX

"So…why did you join the police force?" Renyu asked.

Lin shrugged, focusing on a small chip on the edge of a picture frame. It was a wonder Su hadn't noticed that and done something about it, as neurotic as she was about that sort of thing. "It was the only thing I had ever dreamed of doing. I grew up in my mother's shadow, watching her job be the primary focus of her life. The most important thing to her. How else was I going to get her approval?"

"Doesn't sound like you got it. Sounds more like she was unhappy with your decision."

He really was digging in deep, wasn't he? But she knew him and had expected this, so her only reaction was to shake her head wearily.

"It was a battle every day. I worked so hard to prove myself to her—and everyone else—but because she didn't want it to look like she was giving me special treatment, I tended to get shafted. I didn't even make detective until after she retired."

"Was that a relief for you? To not have your mother as your boss anymore?"

"Hardly. Her successor ran into the same nepotistic problems, though I guess he was a little more relaxed about it. He was…something between an older brother and an uncle to me."

"Oh, that sounds interesting," Renyu said, scribbling furiously. "Tell me more about that."

XXX

"So…" Riju mused, rifling through Lin's file. "You've got a pretty solid record. Are you planning on going for detective soon?"

"I've been going for it," she said. "How could you not know that?"

"You weren't in my unit, and therefore I didn't have access to your file. Also, you've never talked to me about your ambitions. This is the first time in months that we've had a real conversation."

"Er, well," she mumbled. "I've been busy."

"Preaching to the choir," he said with a laugh, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair. "Between this place and my twin terrors at home... Agh. Why did I accept this job?"

Lin was pretty sure he was joking. Mostly. "Because no one can say no to Toph Beifong."

"Oh yeah? I happen to remember you saying 'no' to her all the time when you were little. It was your favorite word there for a while."

"Ugh. I can't escape from this!" Lin said leaning back in the chair and throwing her hands up. "Just once I'd like to have a boss that can't say, 'I used to change your diapers.' Do you know how insulting that is? I'm a grown woman!"

"I'm sorry," he said, actually looking penitent. "I'm sure that must be a challenge for you. I know you're not a child, and I don't think of you as one."

"Thank you." It occurred to her that her own mother had never expressed that sentiment before.

"I'll do my best to set aside our personal history. I know your mom has always been hard on you here and you haven't always felt like you got the appreciation you deserved–"

Lin scoffed, unable to help herself.

"–so I want you to know if you stick to your current trajectory, you should make detective within a few years, depending on availability."

"Years? I thought I was closer than that."

"Almost no one gets there before twenty-five."

"Well, yeah, but I'm–" She cut off, not entirely sure what she was getting at.

"You're what? A Beifong?" he challenged, cocking an eyebrow.

Her face went hot with indignation. "That's not what I was going to say! My bending is miles above most of my peers and I've put in almost double the hours. Don't hold me back just because you don't want to look bad, or you'll be doing the same thing as her."

"Lin," he said with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I know you've known me your whole life, but you really can't talk to me like that. If you don't want me to treat you like an old family friend—well, it goes both ways.

"I know, I know," she grumbled, crossing her arms.

"And I have to look at the big picture and make decisions that are best for the force as a whole."

XXX

"You didn't really answer my question," Renyu said.

"What do you want me to say?" Lin snapped. "My mother recruited him to her metalbending academy when he was a little kid. An orphan. Then Katara and Aang adopted him. I thought you wanted the story as it pertained to my life."

"I do. It just seemed like a weird tangent."

"What are you talking about? It was completely relevant."

"Hey, it's all good info for me," he said absently, waving her off while he looked back down at his notebook. "Hm. Let's see… Since we're on the subject of your early days on the police force, why don't you tell me how you got your scar?"

Lin barked out a harsh laugh. "Which one?" Though, of course, she knew what he meant.

"The one on your face."

"You should ask Su."

"I already know the answer, but I want to hear it from you."

XXX

"Leave them alone!"

Lin froze, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end; she knew that voice. Slowly she turned to face it. "...Su?" For a few seconds, they just stared at each other, then Lin gritted her teeth and slammed her fist into the Satomobile, denting it. "So you're robbing stores with the Terra Triad now?"

"I didn't steal anything! I just drove the car. I owed my friends a favor. It's not a big deal."

Every shitty, petty thing her sister had ever done and suffered no consequences for flooded into Lin's mind and her eyes narrowed harshly. "I'm not letting you get away with this."

Su scoffed and laughed mockingly. "Ohhh, what are you going to do, officer? Arrest me?" She rolled her eyes and turned away with a dismissive wave.

"Don't even think about taking one more step!"

But Su ignored her and started sauntering away.

Oh no, you don't! Lin angrily shot one of her cables out, catching Su's wrist. For a brief moment, it looked like her sister was going to give up. Then suddenly she whipped around, her wrist guard forming into a metal blade, and sliced the cable. Lin had only a split second of horror before the pain hit, like a red-hot knife on her face. She screamed in pain, falling to her knees as blood dripped between her fingers.

Su just stood there for several long seconds. Lin couldn't see her, thanks to her eyes watering, but she could feel her. Hear the ragged breathing. Then Su took a couple of steps backwards. Stumbling. Then she was running.

Lin gave up. She wasn't going to chase her. What was the point?

"How could you do it, Mom?" Lin demanded, the question coming out more plaintive than she meant. "You've betrayed everything you stand for."

Toph whipped around angrily. "Betrayed? No, Lin. You are the one whose priorities are screwed up."

"Ex– Excuse me? I was doing my job! The same as your job! Maybe if you'd bothered to actually–"

"She's your sister!" Toph yelled, getting in her face. "Family! Does that mean nothing to you? Who the fuck cares if she got mixed up in some stupid petty theft? You should've let me handle it! But instead, you just had to show her that you're the boss–"

"Because you would have done NOTHING!" Lin exploded, on the verge of tears. "You never do anything! She's like this because of you. Because she has no boundaries, no stability." She saw her mother lean back, crossing her arms with a hard but unreadable expression. It made Lin a little nervous but she continued on recklessly. "I've done my best with her because you were never here, but she doesn't listen to me. She doesn't listen to anyone. The only person she ever listened to was Uncle Sokka, but obviously, he had better things to do–"

"Don't you fucking bring him into this," Toph said in a dangerously quiet voice. "All you're doing is changing the subject. You don't have a leg to stand on here, Lin, and you know it. I'm well aware that Su fucked up. She knows it, too."

It was something, but not nearly enough. "And yet she got off, scot-free. Just like she always does. And you've probably just flushed your reputation and career down the toilet, along with mine."

"Is that the only thing you care about?" Toph demanded, lip curled in disgust. "Your reputation? Your career?

"My face?"

Toph's expression softened the tiniest bit, but there was still a marked tension around her eyes. "It will heal. But I suspect our family won't, thanks to the two of you."

Lin was about two seconds away from slapping her. "Unbelievable," she barked out with a derisive scoff. "You're still blaming me. How– How can you possibly rationalize that?"

"You chose a job over your family, Lin. I don't claim to be the best mother, but I thought I raised you better than that. But you know what? You've got your wish. Su is gone, facing those consequences you so desperately want her to have. You won't ever have to see her again if you don't want to. I hope you're happy."

With that, she turned and walked out, leaving Lin silently seething. Speechless. How could her mother not see the blatant hypocrisy of her own words? It was beyond baffling and impossible to argue with. Like talking to a wall.

XXX

Lin stared out the window with a deep scowl, fingers tracing across the scar on her face. Su had apologized long ago; the three of them had made their peace and set aside old grievances. But…reliving it wasn't easy and some bitterness still lingered. A weariness that she'd long since recognized as a symptom of old age settled into her bones and she turned to Renyu.

"That's enough for today."

He stood and offered a slight bow. "Of course. We can continue another day. Thank you for your time."