── 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕.

[ 001 ] HAUNTED CHILDHOOD
❝Let my daughter go, you thugs!❞

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 SANYU WAS ONLY SIX when her favorite season turned into a nightmare.

 Spring had always been her comfort──a season of blossoms, gentle breezes, and new beginnings. But on that fateful night, the warmth of spring betrayed her, breaking the sense of safety she had once known.

 She had fallen asleep in her new room, her first time sleeping apart from her mother. It was just a short hallway away, but to Sanyu, it felt like a declaration of independence. She had pleaded with Lin, her mother, until the usually stoic woman relented, though not without a stern warning. "Republic City isn't safe, not even at night," Lin had said.

 Lin Beifong's fears proved right.

 The cool spring breeze had lulled Sanyu into dreams, slipping through the open window. But that same breeze carried something else with it──a presence, unseen but deeply unsettling.

 A loud thud jolted her awake. Her heart raced as her eyes darted around the dimly lit room, regretting her habit of keeping the windows open. Moonlight filtered through the curtains, casting long, eerie shadows on the walls. The once comforting breeze now felt cold and invasive.

 "Mom?" she called out. However, it was swallowed by the quietness of the house.

 Lin was never a heavy sleeper. Sanyu knew her mother's instincts were sharper than anyone's──always vigilant, always ready to protect her daughter from the city's countless dangers. But tonight, the silence pressed in, deafening and wrong.

 The curtains fluttered, and Sanyu froze. The breeze felt different this time as if someone──or something──was lurking in the darkness.

 "Mom!" Sanyu's voice pierced the stillness of the night, louder now, as her eyes locked onto two glinting pairs in the shadows near her study table.

 Before the scream could fully escape her lips, a rough hand clamped over her mouth, silencing her. In an instant, she was yanked from her bed, dragged into the cold, unfamiliar darkness beyond her room. Her struggles were futile as they bound her with coarse ropes and gagged her with a scrap of fabric, plunging her into a suffocating silence.

 The chill of the Spring night swept across her exposed skin as she caught a fleeting glimpse of her mother rushing into the room, her nightgown billowing. The terror etched on her mother's face froze Sanyu's heart. It wasn't just fear, it was heartbreak, raw.

 From the corner of her tear-blurred vision, Sanyu saw four figures: the one holding her was clad in maroon. The others, garbed in gray, blue, and green, loomed like specters. The woman in blue had no arms, only writhing tendrils of water that coiled and flexed. They were benders, each one wielding a different element. Each one a threat.

 Sanyu's heart thundered in her chest with fear. She was only six──just a child who had discovered her airbending days ago. Her first lessons with her father, which had felt like the promise of a brighter tomorrow, now seemed impossibly distant.

 Dad. The word burned in her mind, a desperate cry for the man who had drifted so far from her and her mother after her third birthday. She had never understood why, only that his absence had hollowed out a space in her life. Now, in this moment of terror, her yearning for him turned into an unbearable ache.

 Hot tears streaked down her cheeks, blurring her vision. "Mom! Dad!" she whimpered against the gag, her voice muffled and broken. Her chest heaved as panic and despair choked her.

 "LET MY DAUGHTER GO, YOU THUGS!" Lin's furious cry tore through the night, sharp as steel. Sanyu blinked through tears and the haze of her blurred vision, catching glimpses of her mother bounding from rooftop to rooftop in her nightgown. Lin swung effortlessly on her retractable metal cables, her voice a battle cry of rage. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!"

 Even in her terror, Sanyu knew her mother wouldn't back down. Lin was the strongest, fiercest person she had ever known──a woman who had trained Sanyu in combat long before she discovered her airbending abilities, inherited from her father. That discovery had crushed Lin's hopes of Sanyu following in her earthbending and metalbending footsteps.

 One of the kidnappers, clad in green, stepped forward and slammed his foot to the ground, summoning a massive slab of earth to block Lin's path. But Lin darted around it, faster than he anticipated. Another assailant, dressed in blue, sent water tendrils snaking toward Lin's feet. They coiled around her legs and yanked her to the ground with a bone-jarring crash that split the earth beneath her.

 The green-clad thug wasted no time. He struck again, his kicks and punches igniting patches of lava that bubbled and hissed beneath Lin. But she was relentless. She fired her cable and launched herself into the air, narrowly escaping the molten ground. She came down hard, striking out at her opponents with fire in her eyes.

 Sanyu's muffled cries joined the fight as she struggled against her captor's grip. Her heart clenched when she saw a crimson streak across her mother's face, the result of a brutal lash from the waterbender's tendrils. Lin barely flinched, but Sanyu's throat burned with helpless screams.

 The thug holding Sanyu jerked her forward, tightening his grip. He and his partner dragged her into the shadows, away from the fight. Sanyu's legs scraped against the uneven ground as they darted through narrow alleys and twisting corners, the city's lights growing dimmer. At last, they emerged at the outskirts──a lone bridge stretching into the dark woods beyond.

 Through it all, Sanyu's mind clung to memories of her family. She yearned for her father, for the calm and strength he brought. Air Temple Island felt like a distant dream now. The last time they had been a family──truly together──was on her third birthday. She remembered her father's fleeting presence, his rushed departure before he even tasted her cake, muttering something about urgent matters. Since then, her parents' arguments had grown more frequent, their family moments fewer and far between.

 She found it futile for them to argue and blame each other when they had a daughter to care for. Their constant strife had once pushed her mother to the brink──nearly causing an earthquake on Air Temple Island. Sanyu had been only four years old at the time, but the memory was etched into her mind. Even now, two years later, she couldn't understand why her parents fought so often.

 Was it something she had done?

 Was she the reason they couldn't get along?

 Sanyu didn't have the answers, but her heart ached for one thing: for her family to be whole again.

 Untrained in airbending and far too young to face such dangers, Sanyu nevertheless found herself in a fight for her life. Fierce determination burned in her chest──a need to survive, to reunite with her parents no matter the odds.

 She inhaled deeply, letting the air fill her lungs and calm her racing heart. Then, with a sharp exhale, she channeled her will through her body, blasting a powerful gust from her feet. The ropes binding her snapped with a sudden crack, scattering threads into the air. Sanyu staggered but quickly steadied herself, dropping into a defensive stance. Her captors froze, their faces painted with shock.

 "You didn't tell me she was an airbender, Zaheer!" barked the thug in red, her forehead marked with a third-eye symbol. Her gaze darted nervously between Sanyu and her leader.

 Zaheer's expression darkened, though a trace of amusement lingered. "Perhaps I underestimated her. I assumed she'd take after her earthbending mother, P'Li."

 His smirk faded as he surged forward, slicing the air with razor-sharp gusts aimed directly at Sanyu. The attack came fast, but her instincts were faster. She moved and dodged each strike with surprising agility. The wind seemed to flow with her, bending to her will as if protecting her.

 Zaheer's brow furrowed, exasperation creeping into his voice. "You've got some skill, kid..."

 But his compliment was short-lived. He pressed the attack harder, signaling to P'Li to flank her. Despite Sanyu's fear, she stood her ground, the hope of seeing her parents again giving her strength.

 As P'Li and Zaheer continued their assault, Sanyu adeptly dodged their attacks. P'Li unleashed powerful combustionbending blasts, each exploding with intense force, while Zaheer manipulated the air around them with swift and calculated strikes.

 Despite the relentless barrage, Sanyu remained composed, drawing upon her training in self-defense from her mother. With each evasive maneuver, she demonstrated her skill, refusing to yield to their relentless onslaught. As the battle raged on, it became increasingly clear that Sanyu was a formidable opponent, capable of holding her own against even the most experienced adversaries.

 However, when Zaheer unleashed a deceptive air strike towards her──air that couldn't be seen, only sensed──he caught her off guard. The sudden blow sent a sharp pain through Sanyu's body as P'Li's firebending seared into her right arm.

 The sizzle of her skin could be heard in the air as the young airbender erupted into a piercing scream. She crumpled to the ground, tears flooding her eyes, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Every inhalation felt like an eternity, the agony of the burns overwhelming her senses.

 "It's been quite the ride, kid, but your journey ends here," Zaheer's voice carried with an eerie calmness as he approached the young, innocent girl, who longed for nothing more than to return to her parents.

 Unlike most airbenders, Zaheer wasn't a pacifist. He began to pull the air out of the girl's lungs, slowly suffocating Sanyu. She was just a child. She was so small, so fragile──it almost felt unfair. But Zaheer didn't care for fairness.

 "S-Stop... please..." Sanyu's voice cracked, her words barely audible over the wheeze of her strained breaths. Tears streaked her cheeks, and her tiny hands clawed at the empty air, as if she could pull it back into her lungs. "I... I want to see... my parents..."

 Her words hit P'Li like a punch to the gut. She stood a few steps behind Zaheer, watching the scene with a growing knot of dread in her chest. And she could take no more.

 "Zaheer, enough!" she snapped, stepping forward.

 He ignored her, his focus fixed entirely on Sanyu, who was now barely able to hold herself upright.

 "Zaheer!" she said again, this time gripping his shoulder and yanking him back. "She's just a kid! She's done nothing to deserve this!"

 Zaheer's gaze flicked to her with a serious expression, unreadable. For a second, P'Li thought she might've gotten through to him. But then he turned back to the girl.

 And that's when the spotlight hit.

 A beam of harsh, white light flooded the clearing, casting long shadows around them. A police airship loomed overhead, its searchlights glaring down like the judgment of the Spirits themselves. Startled, Zaheer released his hold. Sanyu collapsed to the ground, her small body limp like a discarded doll, barely clinging to life.

 The airship's side doors opened with a clang, and officers began rappelling down, their armor glinting in the light. More emerged from the shadows, surrounding the pair. Their escape route narrowed with every passing second.

 "Go!" P'Li hissed, tugging Zaheer's arm as they turned and fled into the shadows. The officers giving chase.

 "Sanyu!"

 The voice that rang out was desperate. Lin. She sprinted across the scorched ground, her heart pounding so hard it drowned out the sounds around her. When her eyes fell on the small, broken figure lying there, it felt like the earth had been ripped out from under her.

 "Sanyu!" she cried again, dropping to her knees. Her shaking hands hovered over her daughter before she finally pulled her into her arms. Sanyu's face was pale, her lips tinged blue, and her right arm was marred by an ugly burn.

 "Stay with me, baby," Lin whispered with a crack in her voice as she smoothed Sanyu's hair back. "Help is coming. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay."

 A young officer crouched beside them as he spoke into his radio firmly. "We need medics now. Severe respiratory distress, second-degree burns."

 Lin barely registered his words. Her focus was entirely on Sanyu──on the faint rise and fall of her chest, the tiny flicker of life that refused to go out.

 "Mom..." Sanyu's voice was a faint whisper, her eyes fluttering open just enough to meet Lin's. "It... hurts..."

 "I know, baby. I know," Lin choked out, holding her tighter. "I'm here. I've got you."

 As the medics arrived, Lin refused to let go, even as they tried to assess Sanyu's injuries. She wasn't going to let anything else happen to her little girl. Not now. Not ever.

 The medics worked quickly as they assessed Sanyu's injuries. Lin stayed rooted to the ground, her arms wrapped protectively around her daughter even as one of the medics gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

 "Chief Beifong, we need to move her to the stretcher," the medic said softly.

 Lin's jaw tightened, her instincts screaming at her to keep holding Sanyu. But she knew they were right. She reluctantly loosened her grip, her hands trembling as she eased her daughter onto the stretcher.

 "Where's Lin? Where's my daughter?"

 Tenzin's panicked voice pierced the tense air. His eyes darted wildly, searching through dozens of officers and medics until they landed on the stretcher. Sanyu was barely conscious, her small frame frail and pale as medics carried her toward the airship.

 Relief and dread battled within him at the sight of her, but Lin──Lin stayed behind, frozen in place like a statue about to crack.

 "Lin..." he murmured as he stepped toward her. Her shoulders were hunched, her entire body radiating anguish. His hand hovered just above her arm, uncertain, as if he feared she might shatter beneath his touch. "I──I'm so sorry──"

 "Don't."

 The word snapped like a whip, and she turned on him, her eyes red and blazing with fury. Before he could react, she shoved him, hard enough to send him stumbling back.

 "Get away from me!" she screamed, her voice cracking under the weight of her grief. "Get the fuck away! Just... just go!" Tears spilled down her face, raw and unrestrained, as her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "I don't... I don't need you anymore."

 The words tasted bitter on her tongue, their falseness aching like an open wound. She clung to the lie because the truth──that she still needed him──was far too unbearable to admit. Fear and anguish clawed at her, the memory of her daughter's weak body etched into her mind.

 Lin's words hit Tenzin like a physical blow. He stood there, stunned, watching her crumble in front of him. She pressed her fists against her temples as though trying to block out the world, her body shaking with sobs.

 "Oh, my baby," she whispered brokenly, her sobs shuddering through her entire body. "My poor, sweet baby..."

 Her knees buckled, and she sank to the ground. For a moment, she was silent, staring at her trembling hands like they might hold answers. But they didn't. Nothing did.

 Tenzin felt as though his heart had been ripped from his chest. The guilt clawed at him, leaving him gasping for breath. Slowly, carefully, he knelt beside her, keeping a respectful distance at first.

 "Lin," he began, his voice barely audible, "I'm so sorry. For everything. I should've been here──for you, for Sanyu. I failed both of you."

 She didn't respond, only wept harder with years of buried pain.

 Tentatively, he reached out and pulled her into his arms. For one fleeting moment, she didn't resist. Her face pressed into his chest as he held her tightly, his own tears falling silently into her hair. He could feel the wall between them──a chasm born of choices he couldn't take back──but for now, she let herself lean into him.

 "I'm sorry," he whispered again, as if saying it enough times might undo the damage. But he knew it wouldn't. His mind spiraled with regret. He had chosen to leave, to pursue a love that wasn't this, wasn't them, and in doing so, he had failed the two people who mattered most.

 And as Lin cried in his arms, Tenzin silently wondered if forgiveness was even possible.

 Would Sanyu ever understand? Would Lin ever forgive him?

 He didn't have the answers. But for now, all he could do was hold her as she fell apart, hoping he wouldn't lose her completely.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I know Zaheer got his airbending
after the Harmonic Convergence
but this is for the plot.
Hope you enjoyed the prologue!

RULER OF HER HEART | ❝You don't like me
the way I like you, don't you?❞