Author's Note: After watching Lin Bei Fong's bending stripped from her, I wondered how Team Avatar would have reacted to losing their bending. And, after watching The Last Airbender and wondering why Haru was just a random little boy, I got thinking. Haru (and Katara) had said that the only way for him to stay close to his father (and her mother) was by bending. Hence, this.
Additionally, would you say metalbent or metalbended? I wasn't sure...any feedback on that?
"I won't tell you anything, you monster." Lin was determined. Nothing in the world would make her reveal where Korra was hiding.
"Very well," stated Amon. Slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, the man walked toward Lin. He grasped her neck roughly, forcing Lin's head back. Then, he pressed his finger to her forehead.
Lin could feel a tear running down her cheek. No, she told herself, Mother taught me not to cry.
She felt herself freezing up, and knew it was over. Lin, the daughter of Toph Bei Fong, could no longer bend. Her final connection to her mother was severed. Lin let herself fall forward into a sea of memories.
. . .
"And then what happened?" a five year old Lin asked, eyes wide.
Toph scooped the girl into her arms. "What do you think? I'm the greatest earthbender in the world. I just bended the metal."
"What?" Lin asked. "Is that possible?"
Toph laughed, sending her daughter into a fit of giggles. "It is for me!"
Lin, serious now, looked up at her mother. "Do you think I'll be an earthbender? Or maybe even a metalbender?"
Toph hugged her daughter. The chief of police placed her head next to Lin's ear. "I think you can be whatever you want. I think you already are a bender."
. . .
"Mommy, I just can't do it!" Lin sat down on the ground, ready to cry. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't earthbend. "Maybe I should just give up."
Toph crouched next to her daughter. She could sense the tears brimming in Lin's eyes. "Hey," she whispered, taking her daughter's chin in her hands. "We're Bei Fongs. We don't cry. Instead, we go down fighting."
"Always, Mommy?" Lin asked, sniffing.
Toph nodded. "A good friend once told me that when we are at our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change. You can only get better, if you keep trying. If you give up, though, that's it. It's never gonna happen. Now let me see your horse stance!"
Lin got up, happy again, and assumed her position. Her mother was right. They were Bei Fongs. They didn't cry, they fought.
. . .
"Alright, now!" Toph shouted. Lin still hadn't gotten the hang of earthbending. She hadn't even moved a pebble. But the five year old kept trying.
"Hya!" the little girl shouted. She pushed every ounce of longing through her veins. All she wanted to do was move one small rock. Lin just wanted to be as great as her mother.
Suddenly, the rock jerked. Hard and fast, it shot across the room and straight into Toph's stomach. The woman didn't have time to react; she was too surprised and overjoyed.
"Mommy, are you okay?" Lin asked, rushing to her side. She completely forgot the fact that she had just thrown a rock clear across the room; her mother might be hurt, and that was all that mattered.
"Lin!" Toph shouted, not caring that her stomach would be purple with bruising the next day. "You did it! You earthbended!" She swept her daughter into her arms.
"Yeah," whispered Lin. "I did it!"
"This is what happens when you don't give up," her mother responded, "Great things happen. Before you know it, you'll be able to metalbend!"
"I'm gonna be just like you, mommy."
. . .
"Here," commanded Toph. "Tie this around your eyes. I want to show you how to feel the earth."
"But I already can," protested Lin. "It's hard. Like a rock."
Toph sighed. "No, I mean really feel it. Have it be an extension of who you are. I use that technique to see."
"But mommy," complained the eight year old girl, "Is that possible if I'm not blind?"
"I taught Twinkle Toes to do it," her mother replied. "It is perfectly possible."
Lin sighed and wrapped the blindfold around her head. Crossing her arms, she grumbled,"There. I can't see. Are you happy?"
"Yes," replied Toph. Now, I want you to wait and listen. Feel the earth. Try to tell where I am."
Lin couldn't feel anything; at the most, she felt stupid, standing in the middle of the field with cloth over her eyes. She picked a random spot and sent a rock hurtling toward it.
"Focus!" her mother called, voice coming from a completely different direction.
Lin calmed down. Taking a deep breath, she tried to sense the ground. She pictured it physically connected to her body. Suddenly, she felt a vibration a ways off. Lin forced a mound of earth to come up where she thought her mother was.
A loud thunk brought the girl happiness. She whipped off her blindfold and noticed her mother sitting on the ground with a grin on her face.
"You're a whole lot better than Twinkle Toes," Toph commented.
. . .
"Picture this. Metal is just earth. It's changed. Like sand. Sand is earth, but different; it's looser. Metal is earth, but it's tighter. Hit the metal, and let it be an extension of you. Feel the particles. Like you did when I blindfolded you."
Lin could tell her mother was getting a bit frustrated. Every day for the past year, Lin had done the same thing. But try as she might, all that came of her metalbending training was bloody knuckles. Of course, she was not about to give up. Years of living with her mother's strange habits had taught Lin that no matter what happened, she couldn't give up. She was not about to fail her mother.
Lin punched the metal. Sharp pain tore through her fingers and up her arm. The nine year old was used to it, but that didn't mean she welcomed injury.
Lin tried with her other hand. More stinging failure. Now both hands hurt. Lin growled with aggravation. It just wasn't working.
"Concentrate!" snapped her mother.
"I don't want to concentrate! I'm never going to get this!" shouted Lin. In frustration, she banged her hands down on the metal. Lin was surprised when she didn't feel any resistance. When she looked down, two huge dents were present in the shiny grey material. Lin had succeeded.
. . .
Lin tore through the street, not wanting to look back. When she got to her house, she threw open the front door, intent on running straight up to her room. However, she was stopped by her mother, who was planted firmly in the doorway.
"What happened?" Toph asked.
"Nothing," Lin answered, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
"Lin Bei Fong, you know I can tell when you're lying." Toph placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Why are you so upset?"
Lin looked at her mother's face, so full of concern. Usually, she would have blown past her mother and marched straight upstairs, but not this time. Lin stood her ground and told her mother, "Tenzin doesn't want us to be together anymore."
Toph pulled her daughter into her arms. Immediately, Lin let out the tears she was holding back. "It's okay," Toph soothed.
"What, you're not going to tell me that 'we're Bei Fongs and we don't cry?'" snapped Lin facetiously.
"No," replied Toph. "Everyone has to let it out sometimes. I told you that because I wanted you to be able to take what the world gave you. I've cried before, you know. I've even given up."
Of course, Lin knew that her mother was a real human being, but the fact that the great Toph Bei Fong had cried, had even given up, gave Lin an odd sense of security. Her mother wasn't some sort of god; she was human, and she was just like Lin. She didn't feel as alone.
. . .
Lin felt utterly alone. As the last of the Bei Fong line, it was her duty to send her mother's spirit away with a speech, but she was too distraught to do anything. Lin ignored the grief-stricken faces of the crowd as she stood and remembered all the times her mother had been there for her. True, she had her own way of being a mother – she faced the task head on – but Toph had cared for Lin more than anyone in the world. For her to be there one day and suddenly gone the next…it just wasn't right.
Lin looked out at her mother's friends, all with handkerchiefs to their noses or red rimmed eyes. She could only say, "She is my mother. I don't care what anyone says. She's still alive to me, and I love her with all my heart."
. . .
"Whatever happens to me, don't turn back." Lin had seen the family, crouched and afraid, and although Tenzin had broken her heart, she had to do what she could to save them.
"Lin, what are you doing?!" cried Tenzin.
Lin ignored him and flung herself through the sky toward the first airship. When she was young, her mother loved to tell a tale about the time she had nearly died while taking down Fire Lord Ozai's fleet of airships. I guess the Bei Fongs and airships don't mix, she thought.
Lin landed on the metal beast, ready to rip it apart. All the while, she couldn't help thinking how futile this was. She was giving up.
No, said a little voice in her head. I'm giving people a chance. There's a difference between giving up and sacrifice.
When she had finished with the first ship, Lin hurtled to the next. She barely had time to start before she felt her arms snap to her sides and electricity course through her body. She hoped her mother would be proud.
. . .
As Amon walked toward her, Lin couldn't help thinking she had failed her mother. Now I really have given up, she thought. All her life, Lin had wanted to be just like Toph. She took her place as chief of police and learned metalbending and earthbending. But now, her identity was being stripped from her. All that hard work, the bleeding knuckles, the blindfolded days, the sleepless nights. All those times Lin had done everything she could to emulate her mother, and all those times Toph had looked at her with approval in her unseeing eyes.
Gone. Gone in an instant.