Author's Note: I am awful. I admit it. I am sorry. Please review anyway, because you have no idea how much it motivates me.

Enjoy!

Air Bender Girl

Jinora has been having trouble with a particularly difficult airbending move. The move is based off an earthbending stance, meaning Jinora had to be rock steady on her feet. And for an airbender, that's pretty difficult. Jinora is used to swishing and swirling, moving around and changing directions at a moment's notice. A steady stance isn't really something she can do.

(And sometimes, to protect yourself, you need to be steadier than just being the person Ikki and Meelo depend on to protect them. You need to be immovable.)

So, in true Jinora fashion, she decides to go meditate. And she gets an idea. The move was developed by her Gramp-Gramp with the help of General Iroh, the Dragon of the West. Together, they meshed aspects of different bending styles together.

The move Jinora is trying to master was very simple, in theory. She just has to send a very large and powerful blast of air in the direction of her opponent.

(Powerful enough to knock them and their airships off course.)

The only problem is that this blast is supposed to be powerful enough to knock anyone without a rock solid stance off their feet. But in order to do that, she would need a rock solid stance herself. Otherwise she would be blown back as well, and that was pretty much the opposite of what she wanted to happen.

(She just needed to be able to blow them far, far away from her. And Ikki. And Meelo. And Rohan.)

So she'd need the stance of an earthbender.

The problem is that Jinora doesn't really know any earthbenders. Only Korra and Bolin. But this is supposed to be a secret, and Korra couldn't keep a secret if her life depended on it.

And there is no way Jinora is going to ask Bolin to help her. Absolutely not. Besides, this is based on a traditional eathbending move, and Jinora's pretty sure Bolin didn't know much about traditional earthbending.

So whom else could she ask?

(Whom can she depend on to help her save her family?)

"Hey, kid, have you seen your father around?" Jinora turns, and standing there is her new teacher.

That is, if she agrees. To, ya'know, teach her. Which Jinora is already having doubts about. But she has to try, so she puts on a smile and says "Chief Beifong! What are you doing here?"

(She's perfect, because she has given up everything to save them once before.)

"Looking for Tenzin. I thought he'd be up here, meditating." She frowns, probably annoyed that she had to walk all the way here for nothing.

"Well, maybe I can help you." Jinora says cheerfully. "At the very least, I can take you to my father. He's training with Ikki and Meelo right now, but I've been practicing on my own."

Beifong nods, and Jinora bends herself up from her meditation, landing gently on her feet. "This way please." She says politely.

(But maybe she's not, because she failed.)

They walk down in silence as Jinora tries to think of something to say to break the ice.

"So, what do you need to see my father for?" Jinora asks, hoping that she sounds innocently curious and not like she's trying to be nosy. She doesn't really care very much, but it's the best she can think of right now.

"Official business."

"Is it important?"

"I wouldn't be here if it weren't."

"Oh." Jinora is quiet. She's really not sure what to say. She's never really talked with Chief Beifong so much before. She knows that she and Daddy have a history, but they're kinda over it now. She also knows that they have saved each other's lives (or at the very least their bending) when the Equalists attacked Air Bender Island, and then when they were fleeing. They both got caught and Lin got her bending taken away anyway, but still, it had to count for something, right?

"Will you teach me earthbending?" She blurts out. Lin looks at her, surprised, and she starts talking at Ikki speed. "Not actual earthbending, of course, because that would be impossible, but I want to learn this move that Gramp-Gramp invented and it's based on earthbending so I need a teacher and Korra can't keep secrets and Bolin can't help and-"

"What? You want me to teach you to earthbend?"

Jinora takes a deep breath, and wonders how Ikki does it.

"Not earthbending. Just, you know, the stances." Jinora looks down at her shoes. She's nervous and wringing her hands behind her back and 'maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, and maybe she should just find Daddy and leave-'

"Alright." Jinora's head snaps up.

"Really? You'll teach me?" Her face lights up.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Lin raises an eyebrow, and Jinora can tell that she's not really comfortable right now. Her arms are crossed and her hip is thrust out to one side and she's not quite scowling, but Jinora can't really bring herself to care. "After all, if those Equalists attack again, you should be prepared."

Jinora's face falls (because that's what she's been thinking, but she's too scared to admit it). "I thought Korra beat the Equalists." She says quietly.

The Equalists have been haunting her nightmares for rather a while now. She's scared because even if they beat them the first time, they caught her- they caught her and they caught Ikki and they caught Meelo, and that time Daddy was with them. And if Daddy couldn't protect them, who could?

Lin shakes her head. "Korra beat Amon. There's a difference."

"But Amon was the equalists! And he wasn't even who he said he was! He was a blood-bender!" Jinora is not-quite shouting now, and she has a feeling she knows where Lin is going with this. That does not mean she will accept it, though. The equalists are gone. They are gone and they will never, ever come back. They will never hurt her again.

"Amon was just their leader. He may be gone, but his ideas aren't." Lin clenches her fist. Jinora is shaking. And maybe Lin is too, just a little bit.

They are very different people, Jinora and Lin Beifong.

But in that moment, it doesn't really matter. Terror is universal.

Author's Note: That's terror and fear in a row, I know, but originally, this was not where it was going. The Equalists thing just kinda... happened. And originally it was gonna be Bolin who taught her, but that made no sense because Bolin's style is very light on your feet-ish, which is the opposite of what Jinora needs here. The next theme, which is mostly written, is also similar... but the title is the complete opposite so I wouldn't have three in a row. Until next time (whenever that may be)!