Reviews;

Wicked Neko: Lien will catch a break. Maybe. Probably. Not very soon! And anyhow, here is more for your enjoyment.

moon so bright: I'm very mean to her, aren't I?

Guest from December 11th: Thank you!

Littlemissheadphones: Thank you so much! I always try my best to be original. I've messed up a couple of times, and luckily people have called me on it. I think I'm doing well in this story, at least.

Redtailhawk19: You're in luck! Iroh and Zuko appear here ^^

Jak: This is a little anticlimactic, sorry.

Ceralyn: You're so very welcome! I'm so glad to hear from you!

Guest from February 25th: Thank you so much! I actually really love cliche's? Like, a love using them, it's so much fun, but I never just use a cliche.

Cheshirehat: Hello Wendy! Here's an update for you ^^

Lien gripped Sokka for all she was worth, her legs were locked around his torso and her arms threatened to strangle him as the water boy tread water on behalf of the both of them. Her breath was sputtering and ragged. Water churned around them, sweeping the pair through the black tunnel.

Her eyes were shut tight. Dark, closed space, water. This was literally the worst thing to ever happen to her.

"Should have stayed at home, should have stayed at home, should have stayed at ho- oh!" she screaming so loud a banshee would have cringed when they were spit out of the tunnel and sent sloshing onto the ground. It was like a horrible water slide that ended with her face down in mud, choking and thrashing and getting kicked in the ribs by a boy who knew how to swim.

Lien was yanked upwards by the now-ruined sash that Ying had given her. She coughed and sputtered, spitting muck out of her mouth before she heaved. The concoction that left her throat wasn't worth mentioning. It wasn't worth thinking about.

She was put upon her feet by Sokka, for which she was grateful. Her lungs hurt. Her heart hurt. Her legs were shaking.

But the sun was shining on her back and the warmth sunk down into her skin, stoking the fire that burned inside of her.

"There is a willow grows aslant a brook," she said when she got her breath back, "That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; There with fantastic garlands did she come, of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples-"

"Seriously?" Sokka stared at her incredulously but the familiar words calmed her racing heart, so she went on.

"That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, but our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them. There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds. Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke, when down her weedy trophies and herself fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, and, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up," while she chanted, backing away from the massive machine, Toph joined Katara and pushed the water back, forcing Ty Lee further into the sludge. She floating in the churning water. Mermaid-like.

"Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes, as one incapable of her own distress, or like a creature native and indued. Unto that element: but long it could not be, till that her garments, heavy with their drink, pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death."

"You didn't die," Sokka said flatly, crossing his arms.

Lien shrugged, feeling better after her little monologue. "Not this time." She was still annoyed at him for forcing her into the tunnel.

The slurry around her started to boil. She glared at it until it cooled. Lien wondered, idly, if she could melt rocks into magma. That was an earthbending technique, but she was pretty sure that if she got the temperature right…

The earth rolled beneath her feet when Toph lifted them away from the 'splash zone', creating an oh-so-soft landing for Ty Lee. Lien peered over the edge and waved at her. The circus girl pouted and slid down the pillar of stone. A shame. Lien quite liked her. She wondered, idly, if Zhao had raised her and not her mother how things might have gone. Would she have known them? Would the rising military man have sent her to the Fire Academy for Girls? Or would she have been some form of Cabin Girl, a firebender like all others sent to do her 'father's' bidding?

A question for another time.

They had better things to do than sit there while Lien pondered the possibilities of things that had never been and would never be.

Namely, getting into the city they had come so far to see.

It should have been simple. Load onto the monorail, ride it to the station where they would be met with the city representative. That was how it looked like it went in the show.

In real life, they were all brought into a guard house and sat down in front of a lantern and a scribe.

"What are we doing in here?" Aang asked first. He was looking around, taking in the Earth Kingdom tapestries and the walls lined with shelves of scrolls. In one corner was a strange sort of filing cabinet.

"Giving a report on the actions that went on inside of the drill, of course," said the general. Sung said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which, she supposed, for a soldier it might be. For someone like the avatar and his travelling band of merry men, it was less mundane.

Lien propped her chin in her hand and let Sokka do all the talking, with occasional interjections from Aang about how he fought Azula on top of the drill itself. It lasted for hours.

By the time they walked out it was pitch black, no moon to be seen but the crust of dawn touching the edge of the earth. Lien yawned, exhausted. All of this excitement in one day, and she hadn't eaten since they left the Serpent's Pass.

Lien was barely able to listen to the conversation around her as she waved her farewell to the guards on the wall, who were eyeing her with a smidgen less suspicion than they had before, and climbed into the not-subway.

It was not a subway, and it did not go underground, nor was it made of metal that could crunch and impale her if an earthquake came about. It was pushed by earthbenders who would be able to shield her if an earthquake came about and she sat next to the greatest earthbender in the world, who would also shield her if an earthquake came about.

No earthquake, no underground tunnel, no metal poles.

She was good. So good, in fact, that she passed out completely.

She didn't wake up until the sun was in the sky and they were greeted by the plastered smile of Joo Dee.

"Can I skip the tour and get a hotel?" Lien cut into her insistence.

"Maybe you two are missing what I said," Sokka stormed up to Joo Dee, his pack slung off his shoulders. For dramatic effect, Lien figured. "We have information for the Earth King about the war!"

"You are in Ba Sing Se now," Joo Dee said brightly, "Everyone here is safe."

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

"Okay!" Lien clapped her hands together, getting the attention of everyone in the carriage. They were on their way back from a unsuccessful trip to the University, wherein Joo Dee had skillfully scared the shit out of everyone who might have helped them find the flying bison that had gone missing.

"Two things, Joo Dee. Aang and I will require the backyard to be a zen garden instead of a grass field, would it be possible for us to get sand enough to do that?" she asked, addressing their 'host'.

"Oh yes, I'm quite certain that that will be an easy accommodation to make, and a lovely addition to the home," she would have been more skilled at handling, if she weren't so sharply transparent.

"Excellant. Second thing, I was planning on getting a closer look at the lower ring tomorrow. If we're going to stay in the city this long I'd like to set up a glass working shop. Would you be willing to accompany me?" and give everyone else a little bit of space.

At this her smile wilted a bit. "The lower ring is a wonderful place for craftsmen, but I am sure that it can be arranged that a studio be set up in one of the upper rings, for the convenience of such an honored guest."

Lien waved it off. "Oh, no. I insist. I'll only be here for six to eight weeks, it would be a waste of time to do that. And besides, won't it be such fun for us to look for a shop? We can get tea too!" she leaned across the carriage to clasp the woman's hands. There was a slight tremor in them.

"Ah, yes, very fun," Joo Dee lost some of her conviction in face of the quietest person of their party being so forceful. Truthfully, it was very out of character for her, but she wanted to give her companions a bit of a break. And maybe freak out the girl a little bit.

They stopped in front of the pretty house with the yellow shingles and everyone not from the city stepped out.

"I am sorry no one has seen your bison. Why don't you get some rest? Someone will be over later with dinner," she smiled at them and off the carriage went, rolling down the street.

"While I have her out tomorrow, you guys should be able to get a little more done," she told them. Sokka's eyes lit up.

"It was a trick!"

Lien frowned at him. "It was no such thing, and lower your voice, the whole street will hear you. I do plan on working while we're here. I love my glass, and I hate not getting to work with it."

"Why do you like making it so much anyway?" Aang asked, starting towards the front door.

"Because I'm an artist. Glass is my medium. It's as important to me as my bending. If I couldn't make glass then I don't know what I'd do. By the way, Pao across the street is watching us."

Everyone else's heads snapped around to look at the door across the street, where an older man was, indeed, watching them. Lien went into the house and let them go across the street and interrogate Pao. How she remembered his name after nearly two decades was impressive even to her.

While they went over to talk to their neighbor Lien went to the room that she shared with Katara. Toph had her own, and the boys split. It was fine by her, the bedroom was the size of her apartment had been before the subway crushed her.

She spread herself out on the mat on the floor, letting out a breath. It had been so long since she had been in a big city. There were so many people and sounds and smells that, while her mind knew them all, her body was still trying to adjust.

She would feel better when she had a safe place to work on her art.

She would feel amazing when she got back to her home.

Lien had never wanted to be involved in this war. Truly, she would have much rather stayed in the desert until it was all over. She liked the Gaang well enough. She liked them a lot, actually, when they weren't staring at her like she was a barely tame dog.

Toph she liked a lot. Toph was blunt and didn't seem to give two shits about her heritage. It was nice.

Not a lot of things about Ba Sing Se were nice.

"I love tea. A man once said, 'If you are cold, tea will warm you. if you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you.'" Lien said wisely.

The old man looked down at her. "Truer words have never been spoken. It is a pleasure to serve someone who appreciates good tea."

Lien had never expected that the first shop she suggest she and Joo Dee have tea at would be the one that she had been planning on tracking down. Never in her life had she dreamed that the first building she took a step into would reveal Iroh and Zuko.

If it weren't for the scar on his nephew's face, she would have thought that it was any other old man. Any other wise, kind man. There were many in this world. She had met so many in the harsh light of the desert, travelers looking for a safe place. Refugees seeking redemptions.

Lien sat across from Joo Dee who was still smiling creepily. The firebender propped her chin in her hand, looking at the older woman.

"At his earliest convenience," she said, "I would like to speak to the man in charge of the city."

Joo Dee's smile stayed plastered right where it was.

"The earth king is processing your request right now. One does not simply-"

"Pop in on the Earth King," Lien cut it, quoting her companion. "I wasn't referring to the Earth King."

The smile slipped, just a little.

"I don't understand what you mean."

Lien just hummed. "Alright."

They fell into a rather uncomfortable silence. Lien was used to silences between people. With a cloth guarding her mouth most of her life she had a tendency to communicate mostly with her hands, but this was awkward even for her.

It was Zuko who returned with the tea, his grip not very firm for supporting something so hot.

"Here," he grunted and set the cups down before them. Lien awarded him a smile.

"Thank you," she said simply. He nodded curtly and left. Lien wasn't sure what to think.

"What did you need in your workshop?" Joo Dee asked.

"A forge of some sort, probably. Or even just a large oven I could get going hot enough. Something like a blacksmiths shop, with a bit of refurbishing. The tools I need, I already have mostly, but I will need diamond shears, a soffietta, and easy access to water. As well as a lot of sand. The kind that's heavy in quartz and crystals. On top of that I'll need ground powders of Cobalt Oxide, Cadmium Sulfide, Gold Chloride, Antimony Oxide, Sulfur, Uranium Oxide, Chromic Oxide, and Magnesium Dioxide," she listed. While Joo Dee stared at her she took a sip of the tea and smiled. It was wonderful.

"Where- where would these be found?" She asked at last.

Lien shrugged. She had never made glass from 'scratch' in this life. Her experience with it was based almost solely on the scraps she traded for in the desert.

"Potters use those chemicals too. I would ask them."

"Perhaps you would prefer-"

"I'm not as polite as my friends," she said suddenly. "I don't have the patience," an exaggeration, "or the inexperience to be deterred. I will let many things slip through my fingers but this studio is not one of them. I will procure it with or without your help, Joo Dee."

She stared. Lien did not look away. If she was cursed to be in this god forsaken city, she was going to do what she loved.

Long Feng could eat her if he had a problem with it.