MorteSangriz: Thank you! I'm never totally sure about the whole Lawful/chaotic/neutral stuff, honestly.

Girbilfriend: Thank you! It is interesting all the stories she knows.

Animagirl: thank you!

3broomstix: you're very welcome! I updated sooner this time ^^

Guest from September 12th: Thank you! I do try.

Taffdog19943: Here it is!

Regrettable Pun: No pun is regrettable. And thank you very much! I love to hear that.

MrCcroz: I don't think that he would be able to sense anything right now, especially with how out of sorts he is with the Avatar State. Maybe later he'll notice something, but who knows?

Missanone: Yeah, it sure would suck to have all her hard work blow up in her face….

Akagami hime chan: yep, he's a little shit.

Questions: Thanks!

Kmbrun: Will do!

Innieminnie: I'm not sure! I've already got a plan for the lightning though!

Guest from October 18th: Thanks!

A: Thank you so much! I spend a long time on this story, which is why it takes so long to get anywhere ^^'

"Jet, I really don't think you're going to get anything out of this. Even if you do see them firebend, how can you prove that to the authorities? It would be your word against theirs, and two to one aren't good odds," she tried to reason with him, gesturing to the pair that were leaving work across the street.

Smellerbee and Long Shot were with them, standing at the edge of the roof. Jet had his things already packed and on his back. He levelled her with a distasteful glower.

"He's a firebender, I can't just let him go around with all these people! He's a danger to them!"

"Jet, if he was a danger, then shouldn't someone have been burned by now? It's been months!" she insisted.

Jet looked over her shoulder at his two Freedom Fighters.

"Do you two agree with her?" he demanded.

Smellerbee sighed and walked forwards, her hands up to try and pacify him.

"Please, we're worried about you," she tried, reaching for his arm. Jet jerked away from her, turned betrayed eyes on all of them. Lien felt a little bit bad, and even more irritated. Firebending wasn't evil, why wouldn't he understand?

"Fine!" he shouted. "I'll do this on my own!" he spun around and stormed away.

The three were left on the rooftop.

Lien hissed her breath out through her teeth. A flame escaped, lighting her face up in the dark of night.

She heard Smellerbee suck in a sharp breath and realized her mistake.

Her head snapped around towards them, tension drew her shoulders together. The girl took a step away from the pair.

"You're a firebender," the girl said simply. Lien saw Long Shot's fingers twitch and his arm jerk. Towards the bow on his shoulder.

"I am Gansu," she told them, "I am a daughter of the desert."

And then, she turned and jumped off of a building.

When she walked into Pao Family Tea House the next day she was surprised to see Zuko with a thin line on his cheek. Identical to her own, actually.

Lien frowned at him. "What happened to you?" she asked, leaning closer to see. He jerked back.

Pao, who had been passing, made a mournful sound.

"Oh, you should have seen it. My shop was a mess! Some crazy boy came in talking about firebenders! As if they would be here!" he laughed, high and nervous, and walked back to the back. She looked at Iroh, who met her eyes and sighed.

"Here," Lien swung her pack around and pulled out a tiny jar.

"What is it?" Zuko asked, narrowing his eyes at it.

"It's rosemary balm. It helps cuts and bruises," she explained. She scooped a small glob on her finger. "Please hold still," she requested, and reached for him. His head jerked back before he stilled and let her put it on the scratch. She kept the contact brief. Zuko was clearly uncomfortable.

When she went to sit down Iroh already had a tea ready for her. She smiled at him gratefully. She was still worked up from the night before.

"Thank you," she nodded to him and tucked her feet under the stool.

Iroh was watching her intently. "The most taut of strings snaps the most easily."

Lien sighed. "A cup of tea is good at chasing tension away."

"The ear of a friend, can be even better."

"Did you, just imply that something is better than tea?" she asked, a smile twitched onto her lips. Iroh looked horrified at the thought, and the passing Zuko stared at him like he'd lost his mind. Which was a fair possibility.

"Never!" he cried, clutching his tea cup like his life depended on it.

Lien laughed softly at him, her shoulders finally relaxing. It was okay. She knew where Jet went, and she knew that he return. She wasn't worried about him at all.

Not at all. Not even at that little tidbit about how he was supposed to die. Because if she existed then things changed and he might not die at all.

"I'll be alright," she promised, "I just got in a fight with a friend is all. I think, things will work out for the best this way," her brows furrowed. "And I alarmed a couple of other friends last night. I don't know that they'll stay my friends, actually…"

The Gaang, were they her friends? They had relaxed a little, but she still doubted they trusted her. And Zuko, he had outright refused that they were friends. Did Iroh count? Or was he just a kind old man?

Lien was struck with a horrible sense of solitude.

She was alone in Ba Sing Sei, with only allies of convenience around her. She had no family, no tribe. Nothing.

She stood abruptly, blinking back tears, and bowed thoughtlessly.

"Excuse me," she pleaded, and fled before Iroh could ask what was happening. For the second time in twelve hours she ran away.

A coward.

Lien spent the rest of the day in her studio. She bent fire and molded glass, pushing out work and losing herself in the beauty of construction.

She made her commissions first, of course, and then near duplicates for the displays that would belong in her shop window, which was also glass. The only one in the city to claim such luxury.

Then, she started something new. Something massive and delicate. One wrong move and she would ruin the whole thing. It was work that she began that day, with globes of color and crystal links, swirls and sharp edges, and soft turns. She spent hours pouring over it, delighting in every unique, unmatched form.

She would be lying if she said that the fact that no one in this world had ever seen anything like what she did wasn't something of an ego boost. It made her feel special, of all things.

She liked the attention, the adoration. There was a look that dawned on people's face when they saw something new, and Lien saw it on the faces of her customers. She loved it. She loved the deep breaths, the soft gasps, the careful, shaking hands that lifted her creations like they were as precious to them as they were to her.

Most of all, she loved the smiles.

Lien finished her work and set everything in the kiln, or on a shelf, or in a box filled with straw that would be taken to her store front in the morning. She cleaned after herself and drew the fire out of burning before she finally grabbed the short brown cloak she had bought some weeks before and spun it around her shoulders.

It hid herself, and the bag that she kept strapped across her shoulder and ribs still. She didn't trust the slippery hands of the children in this city.

She walked home, pausing as a dumpling stall that was open later than most. He was trying to sell the last of his stock, the dredges. He smiled when he saw her, and Lien nodded in return. Sometimes she bought the last of his days work, and pawned it off on Jet when she went to visit him on the night Zuko and Iroh closed the tea shop.

Tonight, she had to turn away from him.

The city was still awake around her, people and animals cluttering around, women hanging laundry in the windows and children running round in the last dying light fo the day as the sun sank low over the walls of Ba Sing Se.

She pulled her hood up, a wished for the desert. A cold wind blew, and she wished for her mother. A shadow flickered in the corner of her vision, and she wished for privacy.

"Hey," Sokka waved at her when she walked in the door, which she returned half heartedly.

"Hi," she said, and went to find Aang. She still had to teach him what she knew, after all. Not that he really needed it. Zuko would be a better teacher when he eventually joined the group. He'd actually had the training.

Aang was with Katara in the back yard, playing with water.

On impulse, Lien bent a bolt of fire at them, intending for it to go between the pair. They reacted better than she thought they would, and a wall of water lifted by both the avatar and his master rose up to stop the 'attack'.

Lien waved at them. "Are you guys finished?" she inquired, sliding her cloak back off and laying it on a rock beside her. The rock shifted, revealing Toph to be lying beneath it. Lien decided not to question that.

"No," Katara said curtly.

Aang looked between the two. "Actually, we were just finishing the last forms. Weren't we?" he looked to Katara to corroborate. The girl frowned deeply before she let the water relax back into a stream. Rich people had rivers in their backyards, apparently.

"Yeah," she agreed, "I guess so."

Katara confused Lien. Sometimes they seemed to be getting along just fine. Then Lien would do something, say something, or just walk the wrong way it seemed and Katara would get brisk and huffy again.

Lien tried to be understanding. But her patience was growing thin. Especially today.

"What's your problem with me?" she demanded, crossing her arms and staring Katara down.

The younger girl stiffened and drew herself up.

"What are you talking about? I don't have a problem with you," she declared, setting her jaw.

Lien narrowed her eyes. "You suck at lying."

"I'm not lying!" she shouted this time. Took a step forwards.

Liens hands dropped to her sides and she flexed her fingers.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Aang jumped between them, holding a hand between them both. "Let's not fight! We're all friends here, right?" he beseached them, but it only fanned the embers that had been in Lien's heart all day.

Her eyes stung and she bared her teeth at them, feral and hurt.

"No," she snapped, "We aren't."

Aang looked like she'd slapped him and a tiny, tiny sliver of regret laced into her heart.

"Friends don't act this way, nice one day and then distant and pissy the next!" She took a step forwards. The grass under her feet turned to ash. "You don't get to do that, do you understand? I left everything to help you, and I'm not here to be treated like some rabid dog you're waiting to bite you! You need to figure your shit out, Katara, because I'm done dealing with it!"

"My sh- what!?" Katara took a step towards her, forcing Aang to move backwards to keep his place between them. "What about you? You leave all day, doing whatever you want to do, going who knows where, instead of training Aang like you were supposed to! You shouldn't even be teaching him, you can barely control your bending! You kill everything around you, just like the rest of the Fire Nation does!" She practically screamed in her face. By now Aang had a hand on both of their stomachs, and was squished between them.

Lien hadn't moved an inch. She looked Katara dead in the eyes.

"I didn't kill your mother."

The next thing she knew was cold, and pain.

It took her a full ten seconds before her brain comprehended what she had been hit by. Katara had waterbended her, using a wave of icy water to slam her into the wall that separated the avatar from their neighbors. The rock bit intoh er shoulder and Lien's head tried to spin.

The water retreated and she shoved herself off the wall, launching herself to the side. Her vision blurred before she managed to stand up and take a breath. Without the heat of the sun she was weakened. Katara, on the other hand, had a full moon to give her power and strength.

It was hardly a fair fight.

Luckily, Lien had never fought fair. She was Gansu.

She lashed out a kick, sending a wave of fire arcing towards Katara. It was blocked with the greatest of ease, but the extra heat she had used in it hit the water and it exploded into steam. Katara killed that soon, but in the brief cover it allowed her Lien had already launched herself in the air and rained fire from the sky, pouring it down in a veritable waterfall. Fire fall.

Katara threw her arms up, and with them came a dome.

Lien twisted in the air, spinning fire around her a wheel that spun around Katara's dome, landing on all sides. The water sizzled when it hit, and the distraction worked. The water washed out, covering the fire, and leaving a weak point in the top.

Lien barely touched the center of the roof. Her palm sat flat upon it, and she focused. Fire ignited beneath her, inside of the water barrier.

Katara shouted, and the water stabbed up into ice spikes. They cut through Lien's clothes and her skin, blood mingled with the water, staining it red as she fell from the sky.

She landed right next to Katara, on her hands, and spun herself in a break dancing way to drive her foot, not fire, into the waterbenders ribs. Something cracked and gave way, and Katara stumbled, gasping.

Lien flipped to her feet, only for her legs, bloods and gashed, to give out beneath her. She sunk to her knees, breathing hard. Fire puffed in front of her lips. There was a very noticeable hole in her biceps. And her stomach.

"Huh," she said, idly. "I've been impaled."

A glance at Katara revealed that she had fared better. Far better. There was a rather nasty burn on her right arm, her hair was singed and her cheek was red and already starting to try and blister. She was gripping her probably broken ribs.

Lien waved her hand, drawing the heat out of the burns, and the red of the smallest went with it. There was nothing worse than a second degree burn on her, despite how close it had ignited. Lien hadn't been trying to kill her, of course. She had just lost it.

She was tired of the attitude, and now she was just exhausted. Lien yawned, her jaw popping, a second before it was snapped shut.

Blood filled her mouth, matching the stuff on the ground, and she heard something screaming at Katara over the newfound ringing in her ears. She fell against the ground, tasting copper.

Who knew Katara would take such a cheap shot.