Gerbilfriend: truly an underestimated ability!
Zerdas999: Thanks! Here you go!
97chaoscat: You're welcome
2000kate: Thank you! I honestly think Lien is one of my favorite characters, I really like writing her ^^
RedtailHawk: Thank you! Lien would be a pretty good member, until they came out of hiding. Then she'd be a little less happy
goddragonking: Thanks!
OddShadow: It was definitely Dai Lee
fanfictionnatic: Thank you! Honestly, I don't have a set plan for any ships involving Lien. I might put up a poll later? idk
Littlemissheadphones: Thank you so much! I love glassblowing! I actually got to go to Murano a couple of years ago, and that actually what sparked the very first ideas I had for Lien.
HawthornShadow: You get your answers now!
ChopSuzi: Thanks! The whole set up is hilarious if you think about it this way.
KnowlingGirl: I like your icon! I can't tell you how much that means to me to hear! I really do try to do my own thing, or at least put my own spin on what I am doing ^^
Gueast from April 13th: Thanks! Lien is a very chill person in general, which will hopefully make it easier for other people to get along with her. I say that like I'm not in control of her future. And you're probably right, but I don't have a beta or anything. I'm on my own in this en-devour, so please forgive my spelling and such.
MrCcoz: Thanks! The hardest, and the easiest, part of this story is probably Lien's firebending. Because its so different from Zuko's or Azula's, but so similar to the other three, it really makes for a weird variety in skills and weaknesses.
TheWorldIsACessPoolOfImbiciles: God I love Shakespeare! He was such an awesome writer and his plays are always hilarious, and tragic, and dramatic all at once! I have so many feelings about his plays, it's not even funny, okay? I had to put some of his work in here, especially when I have a character like Lien who makes it easier to get away with. And thank you for the king words, I should kill thee with much cherishing.
DearChibico: You're review number 123! I was hoping the little Mulan bit wouldn't get over looked! I'm working pretty hard on Jet's bit, to be honest. I have trouble not just magically altering his prejudices into a change I want to see(which is that he has none). So it's good to know other people are enjoying that!
Guest from April 15th: Thank you! I really like Jet, tbh, he's a pleasure to write.
1MoreInMe1: Thank you! I'm really glad you like these so much!
jj: thanks!
Lightsbane1905: I actually read a theory about that a while back! I think it was by FuzzyBeta, but essentially its that it takes fire and earth heritage to lavabend! Since Bolin is the only non avatar who's parentage is confirmed and can lavabend, and Ghazan could easily be Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, it's not a very far stretch. I actually have a theory that, if done right, firebending could be changed into lightbending. Now that would be a bit of a stretch, considering that fire and lightning are both plasma and light itself is not typically considered a phase of matter, but I do think that its possible, if we take into account that fact that we're talking about magic superpowers and science doesn't always have a holding on that. So yeah, lightbending is a thing in my head.
Guest from May 22nd: BECAUSE IT MEANS I GET MORE REVIEWS AND I SURVIVE OFF OF PRAISE
Anonymous Legacy: thanks! I do try to be original, so thank you again! As for the spelling and grammar, I'm sure that there are errors. I don't have a beta or anything so...
akagami hime chan: thank you! She is quite the baker ^^
The Avatar cycle confused her.
It was strange in that, for every life he had to learn to do the same thing. For every life Aang was a totally different person, but his spirit was meant to be connected to hundreds of others. Yet, if he wanted to know something they did, he had to speak to the former Avatar's face-to-spirit's face. That was, apparently, how reincarnation worked here.
Except for her. Lien was not Lien, who had to ask her advice from Harmony. Lien was merely Lien, a name taken after Harmony. It was, to her, the same as when her mother called her Mimi instead of her actual name. She was still Harmony, she had all her memories, all of her knowledge, and she was redeveloping her skills.
So what on earth was up with Aang and his former lives? Why couldn't he just summon up the information he needed? Or was it because, there were so many of them, they had to seperate each other by personality or all of their memories would be lost and forgotten, like an adult growing out of childhood memories? But if that was the case, why hadn't her own memories grown far more distant?
Lien was still considering all of this when Jet stood up from where he was sitting next to her. She had been sketching idly on her pad, a bouquet of flowers she had been asked to make Xiao and Tang's anniversary while her thoughts wandered away with her.
"I'm going to find a bathroom," he declared. Lien fished out a key and offered it to him.
"You can use my workshop," she offered. Jet looked surprised, but took the key all the same.
"You'll watch them?" he looked back at the tea shop, eying the two firebenders.
Lien waved her hand at him idly. "Scouts honor."
While he shot her a very weird look he still hopped over the edge of the roof. Lien felt weird spying on Zuko and Iroh, but more than anything else she was drawing. And thinking, about the discrepancies in reincarnation.
Lien swung her bag off of her shoulder and pulled it open, allowed her to access to the almonds she kept inside. Some foods were the same as they had been before her untimely death. It was a small comfort.
The firebender cracked through the nuts, focused mostly on her work as opposed to the banished prince across the street. It wasn't like he was going anywhere, and if they hadn't noticed Jet they weren't going to notice her.
Zuko and Iroh weren't the only ones.
"Hey, Jet, we brought you- You're not Jet."
Which was about the most interesting introduction she could have imagined for Smellerbee and Long Shot to have to her.
She looked over her shoulder at the pair, gold eyes squinting against the sun. She had left her goggles at the house, unfortunately.
"No, I'm not," she agreed. "You aren't either."
"Where is he?" Smellerbee asked, looking around the rooftop. Jet travelled light, but there was still a few wrappers from a bun shop, and an apple core in the corner.
"He went to the bathroom. Are you, friends of his?" she couldn't' remember if Jet had told her about his friends, or if she merely remembered them from her past. She didn't want to take the risk that it was latter.
"Yeah," the girl nodded slowly, glanced at her friend, and when he nodded at her she went on. "I'm Smellerbee, this is Long Shot."
"My name is Lien. Nice to meet you."
Recognition lit up Smellerbee's face. "You're Lien! Jet talks about you."
She didn't have to fake her surprise. She sat straighter, her eyes getting wider despite the bright light that haloed Long Shot's wide hat.
"Jet talks about me?" she asked, incredulous.
"Yeah. He says you're some weird sage girl," Smellerbee confirmed. She walked closer and plopped down. Lien was heavily impressed with the utter lack of sound she made when he moved, not even clicking her armor or the knife in her belt.
"That's… pretty accurate, actually. Huh," Lien scratched her cheek. It was no wonder the scar was still there. "So you guys are Jet's, um, Freedom Fighters. Right?"
"That's right," the smaller girl agreed, nodding.
"So, you know how to fight pretty well, right?" Lien's mind turned around. She had been planning on asking Sokka, or finding someone in the Fire Nation, but this was just as good.
"Yeah, why?" Smellerbee's head cocked to the side. Long Shot sunk onto the roof's edge. His bow was managed carefully. Neither of them made a sound.
"Well, you see, I was raised by sandbenders. So I can fight, sort of, but I'm no earthbender. And that's what they focused on. So I'm not that good with the whole, hand to hand thing," and when they invaded on the Day of Black Sun, she doubted she would be allowed to simply stand back and watch.
"So, do you think you could show me what you know sometime?" she asked, offering the girl an awarding smile.
Smellerbee was openly surprised. Lien waited, patiently. Watched the girl shift silently on the rooftop before she finally shrugged under her armor.
"I guess. But, why not ask Jet? You know him better."
Lien smiled warmly. "Yeah, but Jet's a boy. He can't move the way us girls can."
Smellerbee sat straighter. A smile, close lipped, spread across her face. She was cute.
"When do you wanna start?"
"As soon as Jet get's back?"
Smellerbee nodded, and Lien smiled back at her. Through all of this, Long Shot watched silently.
And so, too, did the Dai Lee.
The clock chimed midnight.
Somewhere, far behind her back, the bells rang. It echoed, deep in her bones. The wind blew outwards, catching her hair and snatching it around her face until she could see nothing.
Lien turned, and the wind snapped around her. Her dress was a sail, helpless to the pull. It dragged her off her feet until she was stumbling, pulling her hair out of her eyes to look around at the wide green fields and the brightly colored trees that surrounded it.
One of them reached a shimmering pink branch down to her face.
"Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild, with a faery hand in hand-"
"For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand," she murmured. Thoughtless, she placed her hand into the softly luminescent leaves. Her bracelet caught in the light and she pulled her hand back, suddenly. The reflection upon its service was not the tree she faced.
Teeth closed in the air inches from where her fingers were. She looked up at the grotesque maw that bared her a gruesome grin.
The clock struck again. The wind howled and Lien ran.
She ran, faster, faster, until she had left the mockery of an anglerfish behind her and was sweeping across the earth. Skirts melted into pants which vanished into nothing as she launched into the sea.
The water hit her as a truck. A whale sang over her ear. The water parted and a congregation walked past her, lead by a man with a staff. Above head a behemoth of a shark was visible only because of the shadow it cast upon the people.
A single thread from a tapestry, it's color brightly shining, caught her eye and Lien picked it off of the ground. Peter held the other end.
They walked, out of the ocean and into the Library.
Wan Shi Tong was settled in front of a Pai Sho board.
Lien moved her White Lotus.
"Am I doing this right?" Aang asked, staring at the fire in front of him. It licked up from the fire pit, towards a white blob on a stick. Lien was heating hers without the flames. She hated charred marshmallows.
"It depends. How cooked do you want it?" she asked.
The little Airbender gave her a funny look. "I don't know. I've never had one of these before."
"Then I guess you'll just have to experiment," she reasoned breezily.
"What does this have to do with firebending?" Katara asked, working some marshmallow out of her hair. They hadn't existed previously, so Lien had conscripted the water girl to help her make them. The result was both of them covered in sticky goo after a, ahem, minor explosion.
"Nothing," she shrugged. "It's just fun. And they taste good."
"I can't believe you guys made a mess without me," Toph complained, poking a misshapen snack on the table in front of her. She'd been eating them raw for half an hour, or flicking them into Sokka's mouth. The aim of a blind girl was terrifying. So was way Sokka jumped for it like a fish.
"Next time, you'll be the first person I call," Lien promised, patting her shoulder. She stuck the poofing marshmallow on a slice of bread covered in cinnamon and shoved it into her mouth, for-going manners. It wasn't like Toph gave a damn.
In fact it was only Katara that would give her flack, and she was looking at Aang, watching him struggle to roast his mock upped marshmallow.
"So, are you ever going to get around to teaching Aang actual firebending?" Sokka asked, looking over at her.
Lien frowned a little. "What do you mean? I am teaching him."
"Yeah, little tricks. But what about that wall you made when there were the buzzard wasps?" he pressed, and the girl understood. He meant the destructive, combat based stuff.
"When he's ready," She said simply. And it was a cop out, honestly. She was still working out how to teach him, and what. Nothing she showed him would be traditional firebending, not any of it. It was just improvisation and trial and error, and a smash of sandbending. He could probably do more than she could. An irritating reality for someone who had spent so many years on the art, but a fact she was sure of.
Sokka eyed her. "Are you doing that vague thing on purpose so you sound wise and owlish?" he demanded.
Lien smiled at him. "You think I'm wise?" she asked, leaning in towards him, her teeth bared.
He pulled back, made a face, and scooted closer to the fire.
"I think you think that you think that if you talk like that I'll think that you're wise," he corrected quickly. On impulse, Lien booped his nose before she stood up and brushed off her skirts.
"I'm going to bed," she announced, and spun away, leaving Sokka to stare at her back. Lien clasped her hands together, trying not to giggle at the confusion she had caused. It was fun, and what was like without a little bit of fun?
Lien had never wanted to run so far away from anything than she did when she stepped into a ballroom where the party was being held. She did her best not to fiddle with her wide bell sleeves or the heavy decorum in her hair. The robes she wore were heavy and she was, again, reminded of Ophelia.
Only this time, Sokka was nowhere to be seen to save her.
Lien took a breath, quietly. The lanterns in the room brightened minutely.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" their guide asked, turning kind eyes upon them. If Lien didn't know better, she would have been charmed instantly by his personality. "By the way, I am Long Feng. I'm a cultural minister to the King."
Katara said, "I'm Hwamei, and this is Kalama and Dung."
While Lien, who had picked her name before hand for private irony, smiled at Long Feng, Toph grabbed the beads on Katara's head dress and yanked, making her yelp.
"A pleasure," Long Feng said, "Now, where is your family? I would love to meet them."
And there was the problem with their lie. It didn't help that Katara slipped up her Proper Lady Talk when trying to excuse them, and Long Feng, ever the gentlemen, stepped in to keep as their escort.
Lien said her thanks and focused on facing forwards and not burning something on accident. When Toph stepped away to get another crab puff and Katara followed her Lien fixed Long Feng with a stare. She knew they were to be caught anyway, so there was no point in feigning ignorance beyond now.
"By any chance did Joo Dee pass my request for an audience onto you?" she inquired. His polite smile did not change at all.
"You're an observant girl. She did. I don't have much time on my hands," there was no apology in words. Lien didn't know what to make of that.
"Of course. With a city this large I'm sure you're very busy conserving the culture. I do hope my glass making isn't stirring up too much distress," she smiled lightly. Trying. She was honestly very scared. Long Feng could have her executed or worse with only a few words.
"It isn't your glass that would do the damage," he said dryly. "If you'll excuse me, I have a King to see to. Joo Dee will escort you back."
"Ah, actually," she stepped towards him, daring more than she thought she would. Her pulse beat hard in her ears. "Aang would like to speak to you."
"To me?" he repeated, looking marginally dubious. He never let up his charming, galant persona. Lien was silently impressed with his acting abilities.
"Well, he thinks he need to speak to the Earth King, but I doubt that would be, ah, preferable to anyone," she waited into his brow cocked and took that as a sign to continue. "He has information he wants to pass on to whomever controls the army. Since the King is essentially out of the picture-"
"There is no war in Ba Sing Se," it was a warning.
"With respect, they have breached this wall twice. If Ba Sing Se is going to continue to be war free, you may wish to listen to what he has to tell you."
Long Feng narrowed his eyes at her, minutely. "I do not need the advice of-"
Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a delighted cry of, "I didn't know the Avatar was going to be here!"
Both of them turned to see Aang leap out of his disguise and start bending for the entertainment of the nobles and the bear. Lien frowned.
"Subtle as a brick in the face," she said dryly. Long Feng flicked his hand up a few degrees and a Dai Li smoothly slipped to his side.
"Show her to the Library," he ordered. Lien smiled politely at the Dai Li and followed him without needing any restriction.
Idly, she said, "You know, a proper gentleman would escort me with an arm."
The man glanced at her before facing forwards again. Lien frowned. How dull.
She and Aang were the only ones who went in willingly. Everyone else had at least trace amounts of dust on their clothes and mouths. Lien felt bad for them. They had no idea what was going on. Poor things.
Lien looked around the library, delighted at being in such a familiar place once more. It was nice, and familiar, and she was much more calm, more comfortable, there than she had been pretending to be something she was not. She only wished she could rub the make up off her skin. Except maybe the lip paint. She liked how it looked.
While Lien looked at all of the books she was surrounded by Long Feng came in and sat on the bench in front of the green burning fire. Copper sulfate. It was a nice touch. She only joined them when she had to.
"Why won't you let us see the Earth King?" Sokka demanded. "We have information that could end the war with the Fire Nation."
"The Earth King has no time to get involved with political squabbles and the day to day minutia of the military," Long Feng deflected smoothly.
"This could be the most important thing he's ever heard," Aang beseeched the man, gesturing grandly.
"What is most important to his majesty is maintaining the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se. All his duties relate to issuing decrees on such matters," Long Feng said plainly. "It is my job to maintain of the cities other resources, including the military." The man shifted on the seat and awarded them a sort of smile. It was inviting, actually. Lien was amazed. She knew he was horrible and she almost fell for the act. Her skin crawled.
"So the king is just a figurehead," Katara realized.
Lien didn't know why Toph exploded to shout at Long Feng about the king being a puppet. The man raised his hand in defense.
"Oh no, no. His Majesty is an icon, a god to his people. He can't sully himself with the hourly changes of an endless war."
Her friends couldn't take a hint.
"We found out about a solar eclipse that could leave the Fire Nation defenseless! You could lead an invasion-"
Long Feng stood suddenly and with two steps he had silences Sokka.
"Enough. I don't want to hear anymore about your ridiculous plan. It is the strategic plan of Ba Sing Se that the war not be mentioned inside city walls. Constant news of the war will throw the citizens into a state of panic. Our economy would be ruined, our peaceful way of life, our traditions would disappear. In silencing talk of it, our city maintains a peaceful era as a utopia. The last one on earth."
Katara stepped forward. "The people have to know!"
Lien could only watch as Aang threatened the most powerful man in the city. She rubbed her temple. The fire behind Long Feng lifted up a little higher. He glanced at her and she looked elsewhere. A woman who was most certainly not Joo Dee came and escorted them home.
Lien wanted nothing more than to return to the desert she belonged to. To return to her mother.
Instead, she returned to a fancy house under the guise of being a guest, instead of a prisoner.