we'll meet again in another life, lin beifong

by andysyearn

Summary:

what if Ming-Hua won the fight against Kya?

//major character death, blood, injuries

Notes:

Kya's a nonbinary they/them lesbian
Lin's a nonbinary she/they, she/her lesbian
They've been in a relationship since book 2. This takes place in the book 3

Chapter 1: we haven't been meant to be together in this life

Kya opened their eyes slowly. their vision was still blurred. they tried to remember what had happened but somehow they couldn't. They looked around.

the statues of the previous nomads were shattered on the floor of one of the temples, sacred to the air nomads culture. The ones who lived here and the ones who were here now.

Aang wouldn't like that. Kya thought.

Oh, yes, their father. Their remembered him taking Tenzin on the trips with him. He hardly took them at all but they didn't blame him. Tenzin was the only one to bend the air yet they all had to learn history of the Aang's life, the connection, love and patience. It was their culture, after all.

Kya noticed lava dripping from the floor above them.

What happened here? And why are they lying on the ground? Where's Tenzin? Bumi? New airbender and kids?

Kya tried to get up, but as soon as they moved they screamed in pain. They attention focused on the abdominal pain, they look there. They noticed that their hands were covered by blod holding their own stomach, which was also bleeding.

"No...-" Kya whispered in disbelief suddenly remembering what was going on.

They were attacked by The Red Lotus. They fought with that woman with no arms and they...

Kya breathed out very heavily, the picture of them and Ming-Hua fighting remembering the ice arms, they did cut, they did hit the targed which was Kya's stomach.
Kya gasped one more time when they realized it.

Is this how it ends? they thought again.

They noticed the fountain against the far wall, they tried to bend the water to themself or near them but they couldn't move, everything suddenly hurt so much. Adrenaline was fading from their body. maybe if they wait someone might show up. That's what they told themself, their eyes were suddenly so heavy, their eyelids were slowly closing.

No, this isn't reality, it's just a bad dream.

---

Lin lay on the cold ground, tired of fighting the villains. She deserved a vacation at this point so she accepted her fate, looked death in the face, with courage waiting for the end...and the vacation for life. The tall woman was standing before her, yes P'Li, ready to finish what she started. Lin closed her eyes but suddenly heard a hollow crash and a fall.

She opened her eyes and open her mouth at how her sister had saved her life. But her priority now was not her life but the life of the Avatar. Su helped Lin to her feet and they both ran after Zaheer, who carried Korra away. They both, Lin and Su trapped him on the peak of the mountain

"It's over, Zaheer!" Su shouted.

Zaheer muttered something quietly.

"Release the Avatar!" Lin said with her fists ready to fight.

"This is your last warning!" Su added very angrily.

Well, but Zaheer suddenly stepped back falling off the peak.

"No! Stop!" Lin and Su ran up to the edge, where Zaheer were before now floating in mid-air. Both of them attacked with their cables at Zaheer, who dodges it and flied away.

They both were in shock, they couldn't believe their eyes, their mission were completely useless at some.point.

"Did he just, fly?" Lin said this in disbelief looking at Su and then at the devastates air temple in the distance. She hoped everyone are ok, she hoped Kya is ok.

"Yeah, I think so. But how?"

"That's not important at this moment, we have to save the rest over there," She pointed to the air temple and Su agreed.

---

Lin entered the air temple watchimg the scenery of the Air temple. The airships were floating behind her. Suyin also got off the ship walking right there, Lin followed her. They searched every corner, every inch together, they split up to make it faster.

Lin entered the main hall noticing the statues over the ground and...

Kya. she gasped running towards her partner.

Lin knelt carefully checking Kya's breathing and pulse. They were still here, still present but the question is for how long. How long have they been lying here like this? She put her hand over their back to their arm and put the other hand under their knees thinking she would pick them up and carried them to the airship.

Their eyes were closed and their blue dress was soaked with their blood.
Kya let out a groan of pain and opened their eyes. They saw Lin, they smiled looking tired, Lin on the other hand looked frightened.

"You've never seen blood in your whole life, Beifong? "Lin didn't answer, she was shocked that Kya was even joking in this situation.

"What happened to you, Kya?" she asked finally but still in shock "We have to carry you."

She looked around and saw the fountain, wanting to lift Kya again but Kya screamed.

"N-no, Lin, put me slowly down, you can't do this. I can't do this."  Lin looked at them in disbelief. They were angry but not at Kya. not at all, they were angry because of this situation.

When she saw more blood coming from the wound, she sighed and did what Kya wanted.

"Let's be honest, today wasn't my lucky day..." Kya looked into Lin's eyes and smiled softly "...but I don't regret whether this is the end of me."

"No, I won't allow it!" Lin interrupted her screaming painfully. It hurted to listen to her partner talk like that. "No one's dying today!"

The irony of this statement. Su literally murdered the combustion woman bender.

"I had a great life and I met great people and...had a great girlfriend, my lovely partner" Kya whispered and put their hand on the ground beside them, between Lin and their own body, opening their palm.

Tears streamed down Lin's face, she was feeling powerless but she took Kya's hand. She could smell the warm, sticky blood and its smell.

"Don't look there, darling, look at me, into my eyes. I meant what I said." they coughed, it was not good, they were coughing up blood.

Lin frowned and stood up. She could have made a bowl out of the stone and taken water into it but Kya stopped her.

"No, Lin, it's not safe there, stay here with me."

"But I fucking want to save you, Kya, you can't leave me!"

"You are a good person and I am so sorry for this situation, for the pain I'm creating right now to you, Lin, but I wouldn't be able to heal myself. I don't have the strength."

Lin looked down feeling more powerless than before.

"We may not have been meant to be together in this life, but we will be in the next one. I've always loved you and I'm happy for the days we spent together. Your laughter, your kindness, your singing talent... oh Lin, you should share this with everyone. And one more thing. Opal told me how her aunt is really amazing and how she gave the most comfortable hugs. I'm so proud of you. Forgive your family, spend some time with them, Lin. You deserve the second chance you have now and so do they."

Lin had no words. Why was Kya so selfless, so kind, so lovely, so pure. She knew they was like that but why are they leaving her here then? so alone? without them? without their love? they mean everything to her.

"Kya, I-...I love you."

Lin sat down next to them, snuggled up to them and stroked their hair. they didn't want to stressed their partner anymore.

"Don't be sad. We will meet again in another life, Lin Beifong." Kya was feeling dizzy and tired. "Can you sing me Leaves from the vine and then my favorite one?"

Lin kissed Kya on their forehead.

"Of course."

Leaves from the vine
Falling so slow
Like fragile tiny shells
Drifting in the foam
Little soldier boy
Come marching home
Brave soldier boy
Comes marching home

Lin was sobbing while singing this song, looking at Kya and their head. their head was slowly heavier on their chest. Lin felt Kya's heart rate slowing.

"Now your favourite?" Kya hummed, Lin smiled, Kya was still here.

Two lovers, forbidden from one another
A war divides their people
And a mountain divides them apart
Built a path to be together

"...Yeah, and you forget the next couple of lines, but then it goes..." Kya whispered weakly but smiling.

Secret tunnel!
Secret tunnel!
Through the mountain!
Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel!

Lin smiled and look at Kya again. She forgot for a second that Kya was injured but now, she was not moving

"Kya?" Lin asked quietly. No response came back.

Lin slowly moved her face into Kya's hair, hugging them around their arms, sobbing. Tears streamed down her face while Kya's lifeless body lay against their girlfriend's body, against Lin, she was gone. Lin kissed Kya on their cheek.

"I will make you proud, Kya, I promise." They lifted them and carried them out of the temple.

"I found Bumi, he was lying over there, he's alrig-" Su stopped, looking at Lin who was carrying Kya's lifeless body.

"Oh Spirits, Lin." She helped Lin,

When they reached the airship Lin put Kya on the sofa sitting there with them, with their body, everyone looking at them, sobbing, the airship finally lifted. they have left the temple and everything what was left there.

including Kya's last words and promises.

Chapter 2: the reward of the selfless one

Summary:

Lin's life is hard since Kya's death. Her wish is to find some peace.

Notes:

yay! finally next and final chapter! I didn't forget about it, I just had no energy to post it.
cw/ tags, alcohol + a little nsfw scene (but it's really short and basically nothing happened but just in case)

Three years had passed since the event. For Lin, it seemed like an endless time, like an eternity and a repetition of the same routine every day for those few years.

There was not a single day without her missing Kya. Their smile, their laugh, their touch, their words. In her wardrobe she still had their coat from which, unfortunately, their smell had disappeared over the 3 years of loneliness. Today wasn't the exception. She began her usual morning routine; get up, work out, eat and wash, then sit down and read the newspaper.

It wasn't like with Kya. Kya always kissed her cheek or put their arms around her neck kissing Lin's ear. oh, Lin remembered the pleasant and very comfortable feeling with Kya and this little tease. She closed her eyes for a moment imagining Kya was here. That Kya welcomed her with good morning, she tried to remember their voice but she couldn't. In fact when she thought about it, she didn't even know what Kya's voice sounded like anymore, but she knew it sounded very sweetly and kindly.

She opened her eyes again and closed the newspaper while she was taking a deep breath and realized that a tear was running down her cheeks, which she wiped away of course. She looked toward the wall where Kya's picture was hanging, she missed them. She tried to keep her promise to Kya, tried to be with her family and the people around her but unfortunately she felt like it was almost impossible. She felt loneliness even when she was with all these people .

A few years ago, she admitted to herself that she would never get over Kya's death.
It was a day when she felt every vibrations, heard every sound, everything irritated her, it was too much for her. She felt so lonely and angry. Her repressed and closed feelings with emotions suffocating within her once more and struggled to the surface. She went to the local Republic City gay club that day. Maybe it was because she did hear how she should try a new relationship or try something new, which was selfish because everyone knew how much she loved Kya and how much Kya changed her, but she was still sitting there, in the club and listening to the loud music with a glass of whiskey, her was coat unbuttoned, her eyes fixed on the table. Oh yes, Chief Beifong and her lowest point but then there was this blank. all she could remember was undressing a woman at Lin's, in her bed and unbuttoning woman's shirt, kissing her the way she did with Kya. Kissing lips very gently and then sucking her neck meanwhile she was playing with inner side of woman's thigh. Lin was gently scratching there with nails leaving red path from them on woman's skin. The woman moaned of course.

But that was the problem. No one will be like Kya, no one will enjoy their pleasure together like Kya did, no one will whisper Lin's name like Kya did, no one will look as beautiful as Kya did.

There Lin stopped and simply sat down on her bed apologizing that this was a mistake, a bad idea. The woman was beautiful, no doubt, but it simply wasn't what Lin needed, what Lin wanted. No one and nothing can replace this feeling, her soulmate.

It was the guilt that consumed her for the next few days. The feeling that she tried to replace Kya and cheat on them. But Kya was dead and Lin did not owe them anything. Oh, yes, that's true but Kya won her heart and Lin won Kya's but that all ended that awful day, it was all buried with the Air Temple that Red Lotus had destroyed.

A week passed. Lin's been working for three days straight without a pause, without a sleep. She was tired, so exhausting even of living. I mean, it wasn't a job as an obligation, it was this situation again. The world vs the villain. A few months ago, Kuvira was supposed to resign from her position at the time of the unification of the Earth Kingdom, on the day of Prince Wu's coronation, when all responsibility and power over the Earth Kingdom itself was supposed to be transferred to him. It was ironic though since the prince himself didn't seem to know what he wanted, not quite a future ruler.

She was standing in a room with her sister and her rescued family, the Avatar and his friends. They agreed on a plan, the evacuation should continue, as many people as possible should be evacuated. Raiko nodded at the plan to separate the train tracks from Republic City itself, the only way Kuvira could take her vine-weapon. Oh, how wrong they were here.
Korra and the rest of the krew returned with the news that Kuvira was already here, breathing down their backs. Everyone wondered how that was possible. Kuvira thought it all through. It was a mechatank. Lin wasn't with them at the time after this happened, she was on her way to Iroh II. but she was listening to everything on the radio feeling the vibrations of big steps and after a while she could see Kuvira's army, her vehicles and finally the mechatank. Huge, shining as it bounced off the sun. Nobody knew what to do.

Korra arrived moments after Lin, ready to fight. Lin had to smile inside herself. The way she grew up during those three years. She was already a woman and a fully responsible Avatar. Unfortunately, from this point, everything just collapsed.
Avatar, Lin and Iroh and the army had to withdraw and surrender, as had Raiko, because not only the city was still being evacuated but there was also the risk of massive damage to the city after Kuvira had shown how powerful her weapon was.

and they were wrong once more time.

The team Avatar split into several groups.

first group; the airbenders should draw away Kuvira's attention.
second; the non-bender should have cut through the part of layers into the mechatank since it was all platinum
third; Krew with sisters Beifongs were supposed to get into the mechatank after that.

Everything went so easy except for a few things — Asami's dad was dead.

This is where the second phase of the plan started. Su and Lin went to the machine/ engine room to destroy as much things as they could.

Oh, yeah, there's a lot of things to destroy. Lin thought for herself with a little smile on her lips. Unfortunately, she was disturbed by Kuvira's guard, she knew they wouldn't suddenly surrender, they were fighters and they had some spirits, Lin had to admit that. So Lin sighed.

"I'll deal with this guy! Disable the weapon!" and she left Su in that machine room for destruction while Lin, herself, went to take her up some time.

She was so tired.

She finally came back after a while, at the sound of a rumbling sound and saw what Su did, "Nice work".

This was the last thing she could remember.
Now she was lying on the ground. She heard a sparkling sound and felt... she felt grass on her fingers.

When she opened her eyes, her head was ringing, she was looking around for something or someone, she was confused. The colours were literally shining - warm and pastel colours...well that's all what she could tell by far since her vision was a bit blurry, so she tried to blink away all of this mess.
Suddenly it all hit her where she was.

What the hell was she doing in the Spirit world?

She looked around for Su but there was no sign of her little sister. She sighed once more time yet she had to admit, it was nice here. Just a moment before she would return back, she would just lie down here a moment longer, no lies. and so she did.

The sun shone in her face, she let the wind play with her hair.
She softly touched the grass, felt the movement of every living thing, she felt every movement of connection with earth. She was suddenly so relaxed.

She thought about how she and Kya had promised they would come here one day and stay here forever, and from the way how Kya described it, it sounded like a paradise where her wandering soul wanted to live forever. She loved how their eyes always shone with happiness when they talked about it and how they focused on Lin's expression and Lin always focused on their wonderful smile.
Unfortunately, loneliness and emptiness hit her again. She would never experience this again, she rolled into a small ball, putting her knees to her chest and feeling tears stream down her cheeks. She missed her lover, her Kya so much.

Lin froze because she suddenly felt someone's hands on her arms moving up to her hair, someone put a kiss into her hair. Lin slowly turned with her messy face of tears and she froze one more time. Her inner Lin was literally screaming. It was...

"...Kya?" she said quietly but with an amazement on her face, Kya was as gorgeous as ever but Lin's expression changed from amazement to tears again. Kya hugged her and stroked her hair once more time saying nothing, knowing it wasn't worth it. For now. They knew Lin was not a talker, they knew how hard was put a single emotion in words for her. This was Lin's way of communication, her repressed emotions wanted to break free. They felt how tired Lin was and how much she wanted to put herself out of this misery. They soothed Lin, made her cry even more but they were there for her this time. Lin stopped crying after a few minutes and just lay there not knowing what was happening, why she was here and why her lover was here. Kya finally spoke.

"You look confused, Lin, I understand but know you're here for some reason,"

"What reason?" Lin said almost silently, still a little messy and confused.

"You want something so much, your wish basically came true while Korra opened the portal. Did you know that?"

"Korra did what?"

"Yeah, you didn't. Well, she opened the portal in the middle of the city."

"I'll kill her!" Lin sighed.

Kya laughed but then they stopped, their expression looked sad.

"What is it?" Lin asked very gently still looking at Kya.

"I...I can't imagine the pain of yours...all those years..."

"Yeah, it was...horrible, sad, frustrating, painful...but it's not your fault, Kya. It's just...the feeling of not being whole. I think half of my soul died there, with you." Lin was now lying in Kya's lap.

"I know Lin." Kya sighed. " Even though I couldn't be there physically with you, I was always with you spiritually."

"That's nice." Lin smiled and closed her eyes.

"Yeah, it is...." Kya tried to thought of some other topic but Lin interrupted them.

"I wanna stay here."

"Yeah and be together forever. This sounds so pretty." The older one chuckled.

"Kya, I feel like you're right. Maybe I am here for some reason?"

"I'm never wrong, deary."

Lin was thinking about all this and replaying everything that happened in her head. Suddenly, she remembered the reason why she was here.

"I think I finally found my peace and I can be here with you forever." Kya stroked Lin's cheek one more time. Sadness was in her eyes for a second but after a moment she looked at Lin with love in her eyes again. She glanced off into the distance where spirits were playing.

''I think it's time to have some tea, Lin.''

---

It was true, she finally found her peace with Kya. Lin could finally make up for lost time with them.
Thing is, if you go across the square, near the Republic City Police Department you'll see a statue of Lin Beifong holding a hand close to her chest...

Notes:

have a nice day. <3

Notes:

english is not my first language and I'm sorry for the suffer!

next chapter is a little happier than this one.