Fanon:Year Twenty-Five (TYATHYW)

Important Message! The following story is indubitably fanon and should not be considered actual canon.

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"Year Twenty-Five (TYATHYW)"
Episode guide
Previous	Year Twenty-Four
Next	Year Twenty-Six

KYA MEETS A NOMAD

By the time Kya grew up to be a strong, eighteen year-old Waterbender, she convinced her parents that it was time she traveled the world to find her place in the universe. In her years, Kya became very interested in her father's spiritual duties and his methods of enlightenment; she also realized she was a pescetarian, and she respected all the earth and its creatures like Aang did. So, after receiving her parents' blessings, Kya set off on foot to tour the land and help people in any way she could. Over the span of her life, Kya has spent most of her time mastering Waterbending defense, but even more time mastering her Healing abilities. She planned to tour the world, healing the sick or injured, and passing along the ways of spiritual enlightenment and peace to all nations.

Kya was camping in a small tent near the lake when she woke to the sound of strange strumming noises-

Kya was camping in a small tent near the lake when she woke to the sound of strange strumming noises. She got out of her tent and followed the sound until she started hearing singing, and it was then that she heard the familiar words---"even when your lost you can, find the love because it's in your heart..."

"Mom and Dad's song!?" she exclaimed in wonder. Often, Kya would catch her mother singing or humming this tune whenever she was doing house work, and a long time ago, before Toph's husband died, Ohev had managed to get Kya a signed copy of this song on a record for her tenth birthday. He used to be a nomad, just like that Chong fellow, and it was rumored he and his pack of nomads still traveled the Earth Kingdom, despite their riches and fame in the music industry. Her mother had told her long ago that this was her and Aang's favorite song sung by their nomad friends they met as children---they even sang this very song at their wedding. Kya remembered the nomads once a long time ago when she was a little girl---at Toph and Ohev's wedding---she was young, but the music never left her ears. Kya never really talked to any of them then, but still, she has loved their music all her life and naturally, Kya loved this song the most, in fact, it was her favorite...and to hear it so randomly made her just a tad over-excited.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's you!" She bellowed jumping through the bushes.

The startled man jumped backwards into the bushes and screamed while Kya looked down to him and her joy quickly melted away. Before her, flinched a young man who was maybe twenty-something at best, she thought. He wore colorful clothes and carried a funny little guitar, he was many things, but he was not the man who really sang this song.

"Who are you?" She barely wanted to know.

"Hello to you as well?" he grinned, regaining his composure, "My name is Lyric, I'm a nomad. Who are you, a lady of the bush people?"

"My name is Kya! Daughter of Avatar Aang and Master Katara---look I---I'm sorry I startled you, I was just hoping I would meet----you know---the nomad I thought you were---when I jumped out of the bush."

"Oh! Do you mean Chong?" Lyric asked.

"Yes!" Kya squealed, jumping at the sound of the nomad's name, "He wrote my favorite song----the one you were just playing...he sang it for my parents and Toph Beifong at their weddings!"

"Oh... Well, I can lead you to Chong, if you want----I'm sure he's around here somewhere?" the boy puzzled.

"How do you know?" Kya asked as she helped the strange boy back to his feet.

"He's kind of my dad. I'm sure he'd be happy to see you, he's happy to see everyone."

Kya nodded with an excited smile, and Lyric lead her through the forest playing his little guitar; he was humming a tuneful melody, before he stopped to ask, "So what brings you out into the woods, Kya Avatar?"

"You don't know where you're going, you know what you're going to do, but you don't seem to be interested in the why you are going?"

"Just Kya..." she winked, "I'm travelling the world to heal the sick and spread the words of peace and love to everyone I meet..."

"Is that so?" he chuckled lightly, "Well, you seemed pretty set on your journey then..."

"Yep, that's the plan...why?" she wondered.

"You don't know where you're going, you know what you're going to do, but you don't seem to be interested in the why you are going."

Confused, Kya replied..."Yeahbutwhat now?"

"Why are you helping people---why do you want to pass along all of this know-how of peace and love?"

"Because I want to help...Isn't that enough?" she shrugged.

"Perhaps," he shrugged back with a smile, "If that is what you think is enough?"

He started humming again and Kya asked defiantly, "Well, why are you out here, singing and playing songs in the middle of the woods where no one can hear you?"

"I go wherever the wind leads me---and I know I will find my purpose in life, when I run into it. I wouldn't say that no one can hear me either because you heard me and nearly ran me over back there."

"You don't sound like you know where you're going either," she accused.

"Perhaps?" he grinned, "But I do know what and why!"

Kya slapped her forehead and groaned, "Now I know what my uncle meant by you people..."

Lyric and Kya hiked across the forest until the sky started getting darker---the daylight was still inching away, but already the dim, full moon was fading into the blue sky. The two nomads were actually enjoying each other's company, either by singing or talking---when all of the sudden, an angry snort rustled in the bushes nearby and the two stopped cold in their tracks. At once, the sounds of fleeing birds screeching away echoed through the woods and Kya got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She looked to the side only to see an odd series of food scraps leading into a huge cave hidden beneath the brush, and she looked back to her new companion only to see the foul beast lurking just a hair's length directly behind him.

"Don't move a muscle..."

"Lyric!" she whispered hastily, "Don't...move...a muscle..."

A breath of foul air blew across Lyric's neck and he froze, his voice shaking..."Wh-whatever you say boss..." but curiously, he snuck a peak behind him only to see a very large, very angry Boarcupine frothing over his shoulder. "Ha, ha...Look Kya, it's a ten foot Boarcupine..." he chuckled meekly before bursting into a scream-and-run maneuver that only made the monster charge. The Boarcupine grabbed Lyric up by the guitar hanging on his back and tossed him roughly into a tree nearby.

"Lyric!" Kya exclaimed, opening the pouch of water at her hip before sending a whip right at the giant beast.

The massive, smelly monster snarled and averted his attention over to Kya, who already shot another ineffective whip at it; she tried shooting off a couple of icicles, but they too proved to be a futile attack and a serious waste of water.

"You should know that I'm normally a pacifist!" Kya shouted, struggling as her mind tried to come up with an idea---she added in a huff, "But, I'm half Water Tribe, so you could say that hunting is in my blood---you should really get lost, fuzzy!"

The continued whips just seemed to make the monster angrier, and it came for Kya in a full sprint, making her drop her string of water and fall back into the mud. She thought she was a goner, when all of the sudden, Lyric came pouncing out of the tree and grappled onto the Boarcupine's back.

"Whoa big guy!" he grunted, before singing something along the lines of "Calm down big fella, there's no reason to eat us I tell ya," but he was being bucked around, so his words weren't really clear or harmonious. The animal tried vigorously to shake him off---"Oh, big giant monster, we are of bad taste; stop trying to hurt us, and tear off our face!"

Kya bended back her water and shouted, "Lyric, I don't think he's a music lover! Stop singing to it and just hang on!"

Kya took in all the breath her lungs could hold and she shot out her hands, stopping the monster cold in its tracks-

The nomad couldn't hear her as he screamed hastily atop the bucking Boarcupine. The beast finally shot him off of its back and Lyric landed harshly on the grass a few feet away, knocked completely out cold. It was up to Kya now---and it was up to her to do the only thing she could think to stop the monster---the one thing that was so bad that her own mother had never even known that Kya knew it existed---it was her deepest, darkest secret. As the huge beast came charging at her once more, Kya took in all the breath her lungs could hold and she shot out her hands, stopping the monster cold in its tracks. Kya watched the massive beast cringe and she even managed to make it step backwards. The Boarcupine whimpered suddenly, and at once turned and ran off, leaving Kya out of breath in the field with her unconscious side-kick.

As soon as they were safe, Kya sighed and immediately rushed over to her friend, who was wounded in the slightest---she took out the last two handfuls of water she had, and healed Lyric as he started to come to.

"What happened?" he groaned.

"I guess he didn't like your song?" Kya shrugged, "It ran off into the woods."

"Why am I wet?" he barely wanted to know.

"Oh, you got hurt, so I healed you," Kya smiled.

"You can do that!?" Lyric asked brightly, "Whoa! That is so cool! Now I have to take you to my parents, they will flip out!"

After a rather calm remaining hike through the woods, accompanied by the sour notes of Lyric's broken guitar, he stopped at a bush where the sounds of rushing water quickly got louder in the distance, and grabbed the leaves to part the way. "The journey is over for the moment Master Healing Hands... Chong and Lily should be right over there," Lyric pointed.

"Oh my gosh....It is such an honor to finally meet you!"

Kya gasped at the scenery. It was a huge waterfall that concealed a massive, marvelous rainbow! Birds and animals sang around the oasis, and right in the middle of it all was an old man in a silly hat dancing with his flower-covered wife. Kya eagerly shot over to them and greeted, "Oh my gosh! It is such an honor to finally meet you!"

"Happy to see you," Chong smiled, "I'm Chong, this is my wife, Lily, and our son Lyric. We were going to name him Chilly, but a nice swamp monster said to follow our hearts in a different direction, so we did."

"Dad," Lyric ignored, "This is Kya, daughter of the Avatar, and fan of your music."

"Is that so? How is master Arrow-Head---still believes in love, does he?"

"Uh---yes?" Kya shrugged.

"Lyric?" Lily eased, "What happened to your pipa, son?"

He waved her question away..."A bump in the road---nothing to fret about...Kya can tell you all about her magnificent journey later."

"Absolutely..." Kya mumbled in an off tone before springing back into excitement, "I am so happy I found you! I'm a nomad too, and I'm travelling all over the world so I can help people and spread peace like you guys and my parents!"

"So set in your goals are you?" Lily asked.

"Okay, what is with you people!? Three minutes ago your son practically asked me that same thing," she huffed.

Chong chuckled, "Goals are like a door that blocks us on our journey into home. Without doors all sorts of things would get into your house and mess up all of your furniture; but, an open door can be shut and re-open at any time for any reason, if not to protect your furniture..."

A bug chirped distantly for a moment before Kya hollered, "WHAT!?"

"He means...that, while it is important to have goals----it is important not to let them control the where, why, and what you do throughout your journey," Lyric informed, "If you only focus on traveling the world to help other people, then you would never fully enjoy your path to that destination and you would never make memories with new experiences by straying away from your goals---just a little bit."

"Like, you would never have met Lyric---or us," Lily said chipperly, "and you would have never seen the Rainbow Falls...Not unless you planned to meet Lyric all along?"

"Flameo Hotman! I think I understand!" Kya exclaimed. Then she grinned and timidly asked, "It's getting kind of late---and I've sort of lost all of my supplies...Mind if I stick around with you guys for a little while, while I travel?"

"Of course," Lily grinned.

"One way to help open doors is to do it with friends."

"One way to help open doors is to do it with friends," Chong said.

Kya took a breath of annoyance, but then smiled and continued the rest of her journey, healing people, spreading love, and also singing, dancing, and enjoying her trip and all the twists and turns with her new friends. Kya learned that while they were kind of annoying---the nomads actually shared most of the beliefs that she did, and they taught her to enjoy life and the journey itself, rather the goals she had and nothing else but her destination achievement. Plus, on top of completing her quest, young Kya had also found a lifelong friend who decided to stick with her when she split from the nomads---her new best friend, Lyric. Together, they had many adventures and met many new friends all on their own path that Kya couldn't have ever imagined possible.

STORY TIME

By the later age of five, Lin Beifong started to become all the more curious about her heritage. She knew that she was an Earthbender like her mother, she knew her Gram and Gramps were rich old people living in Gaoling, and she also knew that the Avatar was a close personal friend of her family's and that his son was her very own personal best friend, but what Lin didn't know was why her mother rarely ever mentioned her father. A curious Lin realized (after spending time with Tenzin and his father) that she had no idea where her own dad even came from. In all fairness, Lin never truly asked her mother about her father, but she knew a little bit about him---mostly from an old story, a bed time story that Lin would get every once and a while when her mother was home from work to tuck her in at night; it was a story about how a blind and powerful Earthbending Master fell in love with a valiant Airship Captain and former servant boy. In the end, the pilot heroically sacrificed himself to save the lives of his other officers after a horrifying explosion caused him to crash into the water---and the story was also about how now the captain missed out on seeing his wife and his daughter growing up.

Toph was standing over the counter, trying to mend together a few pieces of scrap metal in order to fix her police cables, when Lin tiptoed in and tugged at her mother's skirt to get her attention.

"What is it Lin?" Toph smirked.

"Hey Mommy, where did Daddy come from?" Lin asked curiously.

"What do you mean, Lin?" she replied with a frown, setting all of her project aside in an instant, her gaze stuck to the wall in front of her.

"I was playing with Tenzin and Aang---he's Tenzin's daddy, and the avatar, and I know he was frozen for a long time before you told him Earthbending---but what about my Dad---what did he do?"

"Story time, short-stuff..."

Toph cracked a solemn smile and wrapped her arms around her daughter with a playful roar, falling backwards onto the floor so that Lin could sit in her lap. After Lin stopped laughing and the two ladies were settled, Toph stated, "Story time, short-stuff..." Lin's face got bright with wonder as her mother painted the image for her...Toph said, "You see Lin, your daddy actually came from the same house that I did."

"He did!?" she asked astonished, "In Gram and Gramps' place?"

"Yep! Only your father didn't live in the house like I did, he actually worked in it. We were both trapped within the walls of your grandparents' house, never knowing the other even existed, until one year, we both ran away from home---"

"You guys ran away!?" Lin gasped.

"I needed to help Aang master the elements," she smiled, "But your dad needed to go and see the world, find a purpose in life, chock-full of adventures and uncertainty---he and I both wanted to be free, so we left."

Lin's hands clasped excitedly as she awaited the rest of the story. Toph could literally feel her daughter's anxiousness, and she continued with a smile, "It was many months later, but the gang and I ran into this (sort of annoying) group of travelling nomads, that sang and danced all night long without ever stopping once...and that was where I first laid feet on your dad---" She grabbed her daughter's foot comically, making Lin giggle before Toph continued on with the story. "He was a short kid, kinda scrawny; he had this cute little gap between his teeth---well Lin, you know what he looks like from the pictures around the house---you know more than I ever will about how he looked. Oh, but looks never mattered to me, it was what was inside him that counted, and your dad was a good guy, generous and sweet, polite, strong and selfless, not to mention loyal------But, I'm getting ahead of myself. You see, when I met him, those nomads wanted us to try a dumb old love potion juice---and after we did, everybody was hugging and dancing, and singing all around the camp fire like a bunch of mushy saps!"

"Even you!?" Lin exclaimed.

"Me? Of course not," Toph denied, "I got as far away from those lily-livers as I could and sat alone in the woods where things made more sense."

"Oh...." Lin nodded, before springing into another question, "Wait, was daddy a nomad too? Did he sing and dance with the saps like the other people?"

Toph chuckled... "Your dad sang like he was gargling rocks in a tin-can...but he could dance----he was a natural at that fancy footwork. But Lin, get this, he wasn't dancing with the nomads---"

"Where was he?" she eagerly wanted to know.

"He was in the forest too, and he came looking especially for me."

"Whoa!" she sighed in astonishment.

Toph laughed, "I told him to scram---that I wanted to be alone, but he was persistent and he refused to leave me alone---do you know what he said to me, Lin?"

Toph chuckled, before she huffed dreamily and drifted off into thought for the longest time-

She shook her head and her black hair bounced wildly against her cheeks, "What?"

"He sat his butt right down on that old log and he said, "Why don't we be alone together?"," Toph chuckled, before she huffed dreamily and drifted off into thought for the longest time.

"Then what happened!?" Lin burst impatiently.

"What?" Toph snapped back into reality... "Oh, we just figured out that we knew each other all along, and we talked a lot, and danced around a little---nothing too mushy. But, after that, he kissed me right on the cheek and he told me that he was glad he got to meet me."

"He kissed you!? No way! Did you hit him?" Lin wondered.

Toph burst out with laughter, "No squirt, I didn't hit him; I actually gave him a little earth-rock shaped like a heart. But----I didn't really know what a heart actually looked like---so it turned out to be more of a diamond-shaped monstrosity with feet."

"Like that?" Lin pointed over to her mother's uniform---on the chest plate was the golden symbol of the United Republic, the same symbol that was on all of the Police Airships and numerous signs throughout Republic City.

Toph didn't see it, but of course she knew what Lin meant, and she eased in by saying, "Sort of munchkin---see, they took my design and tampered with it until Aang and the founders came up with that symbol. Originally, it was my idea though." Toph bragged.

Lin pounced back asking, "Well, what happened then, Mommy?"

"I actually didn't see your dad for many, many years after that. I eventually found him at your Aunt Katara's wedding and my parents were actually forcing him to spy on me. He admitted to it before he ever got the chance and then I started to admire his honesty. Later, I created the police force, and Ohev commanded the Airships---then everything was swell for the longest time..."

"He saved everybody so they could get out safe, before the water swallowed it up, right Mommy?"

Her mother stopped and frowned, making Lin frown too, but then the little girl added, "Then Daddy fought off a big fire monster inside his ship, and he saved everybody so they could get out safe, before the water swallowed it up, right Mommy?"

Toph shut her eyes, and a tear almost escaped, but Toph wiped it away before Lin could notice. She smiled and tapped the tip of Lin's nose with her finger, "Right again rugrat..." After a long moment of quiet, Toph sighed and looked over at the window before grinning back towards her daughter, gradually asking... "What color is the sky now, Lin?"

"Black and white..." she replied in an honoree voice. (She meant that it was nighttime and dark out, but with specks of white stars in the sky---this is how Toph knew when it was time to put her to sleep, without having to go feel the temperature cooling outside.)

Defiantly smiling, Toph gave Lin a look and said, "Well, it ought to be time for bed then, shouldn't it?"

"But, I'm not sleepy..." Lin yawned.

"I can tell you're lying, Lin," Toph teased, as she stood back up with her daughter wrapped around her waist, her arms hugging her daughter's sleepy, limp body. "Let's hit the sack kid, and tomorrow you and I can practice more of those Earthbending moves you were showing me. Then you can practice them on Twinkle Toes Jr."

"Okay Mommy---" she drifted wearily, before falling fast asleep against her mother's shoulder.

The entire walk up to bed, Toph held her daughter gently and sang her lullaby that she had been singing secretly to little Lin every night...it was a song that Ohev was working on before she was born, but because of the accident---he never got the chance to sing it to her...

Hush little soldier, don't say a peep,

Momma's gonna buy you a Koala-Sheep.

But if that Koala-Sheep don't Bah,

Then Momma's gonna buy you a metal claw.

Then, if that metal claw turns brass---

"Well...obviously the owners are chumps, and Momma's going back up to that store to kick everybody's---" Toph growled in an annoyed tone before she caught herself and cleared her throat, humming the rest gingerly as she tucked her future Metalbender away in bed... "Night baby."

She climbed quietly into bed and kissed her daughter's head, before turning over the covers and kneeling over to dig for something in a drawer by the bedside. A moment later, Toph had a tiny, odd-shaped rock in the palm of her hand and she clutched it as the memory came rushing back as it did nearly every single night.

• Flashback mode:

"Chief Beifong," the injured officer called; he limped over and greeted the Chief, adding, "Why, what a beautiful baby..."

"This is Lin," she smiled solemnly before Toph asked, "What are you doing here Saikhan, you should be at home resting?"

"I should say the same to you....But, I just had to see if the River Rescue Units were able to find anything---"

Toph frowned, "They told me the remainder of the airship was too charred to release an exact number of victims---it seems that everyone who went missing in action...was in that airship."

"Take care of yourself Chief Beifong..."

"It's hard to believe...." he sighed in despair, "But, I am glad that I found you here, Chief. There was something I wanted to give you the other night---before...you...disappeared..." He reached into his coat pocket and handed Toph a small, misshapen rock---she instantly recognized it as the one she made for her husband so many years before and her hand closed quickly around it. "The Captain asked me to give it to you before he locked himself behind the hatch doors. He stopped the water from crushing us, and he was very clear on two things: he told us not to turn back for him under any circumstances, and he asked me personally to give "this" rock to the Chief. Captain Ohev was a very brave man, Chief."

Toph closed her hand around the stone and waited. Officer Saikhan put his working hand on her shoulder to express his apologies by bidding her a farewell... "Take care of yourself Chief Beifong..." and then he sadly turned to head home.'

'Toph stayed on the beach, rubbing the small rock with her thumb. Ohev always kept it in his pocket---for over twenty years, this disgrace of a rock never ever left Ohev's side, and now he was gone forever. Toph and baby Lin (who was strapped in a pouch on her mother's back) left Yue Bay that evening with absolutely no hope that anybody survived that tragic crash a few days before. Sometimes people get trapped in places like that, but they could still be saved---it was unlikely and naïve that Toph thought it could be true, but now she was sure and took off into the air to skate home on the wires set up across town.

Presently, Toph held the little rock in her hand and kissed it softly before setting it on the nightstand. "Ohev, I really wish you could have seen your daughter---" she smirked, "She's just like me, but I see a lot of you inside her too. She never gives up and is always wanting to run off to help people. You would have been proud, I know I am." Toph stroked her snoozing daughter's hair behind her ear and turned over to fall asleep herself.

The moon outside shined brightly into the small bedroom while a single streak of light poured against the small rock sitting on the table beside the bed, and the two Beifong girls peacefully fell fast asleep.

Fanon Trivia

• This is the first time we see Kya as an adult, other than from a picture used in the background of Year Twenty-Four.

• "Love is in Your Heart" is one of the Singing Nomads' most popular hit songs...and also Kya's favorite.

• Lyric is the son of Chong and Lily. He is around twenty-one years old, and is known for playing a similar guitar to that of his father, called a Pipa.

• Lily mentioned that a "swamp monster" convinced them to name their son something other than "Chilly". This could be a reference to meeting Huu very possibly at Aang and Katara's Wedding if not somewhere else.

• Kya is a known peskitarian, meaning she is a vegetarian who sometimes eats fish. Other than that, she has become very involved with the spiritual aspects of her father's life, as well as inheriting his fun-loving attitude, and dancing skills....So in other words---she has been notably titled a "hippie".

• NOTE: Kya was NOT taught Bloodbending by her mother, but she knew it existed and she knew that it was illegal. Her use of it was merely a last resort to save her and Lyric's lives.

• The Rainbow Falls were first mentioned by Moku in the ATLA episode: "The Cave of Two Lovers"...though it did not have a set in stone name.

• Note: Kya may be a hippie, but she has a long way to go before she can officially become a Nomad like Lyric, Chong, and Lily.

• Lin knew much about her mother's past and has even visited her grandparents in Gaoling each summer, but she was never truly told about her father---mostly because it was too painful for Toph to talk about.

• Toph's story is mostly about things that happened in the (non-canon) story, Love Potion 8.

• This is the first time we've seen Ohev since his death in Year Twenty. It is also the first time we see what happened a few weeks after Lin was born, when she and Toph were living on their own, and when the River rescue ships got done cleaning Yue Bay.

• Toph's bedtime song to Lin might have been a rubbed off trait she got from Ohev. Since he was an ex-singing nomad himself, he often sang songs to Toph and to Lin before she was born.

• Seriously... who sells cheap Police Metal Claws in the same store as Koala sheep---Who I ask you, who?

• The Firefighters are a team of Waterbenders that patrol the harbor of Republic City...they are also referred to as the "River Rescue Unit".

• The symbol of the United Republic, is none other than the heart-shaped rock, Toph gave to Ohev the day they first met.

• The streak of moonlight is supposed to represent Ohev connecting to Toph through Princess Yue in the Spirit World.

• Speculation states that normal peoples' spirits do not typically live in the Spirit World, but sometimes they can connect with other, more powerful spirits from there, in order to see their loved ones. This is why the spirits of past Avatars are seen disappearing after sharing their wisdom---they are travelling to this unknown area to be with the spirits of their loved ones. This will come back to be explained later on in the Fanon.

• Fun Fact: This would also have been the year that King Kuei's youngest son, Dende, was born.

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