Toph walked along the hallway as …invisibly as she could. Which was hard, as she really didn't know what attracted the attention of a sighted person. She was getting better at it, she thought as she hid a smirk. That, she had found, was one thing a fire bender would notice. Servants and errand runners did not smirk. She moved further into the administration building, her plain runner's uniform helping her go almost unnoticed through the inner halls. Sokka had been very opposed to her helping in the reconnaissance efforts, until, well, he had caved. Once again she had to smother a smirk. She had lost some of her societal training in the past few lax months. She needed to drop the smirks, and fast.

She kept her head down, her hair hiding her telltale eyes. Men and women in ceremonial armor passed her occasionally, but she was ignored for the most part.

She tensed as she sensed a man turn her direction. She paused, head 'humbly' bowed, waiting for his orders. She heard a parchment scroll shoved close to her face. "This needs to find General Li in the central guard room." He only waited for her to take the parchment before turning on his heel and striding away with a loud tacktacktack of metal on cold stone.

Toph turned away as soon as it was safe and took off quickly for the central buildings. She had spent the last week here, in the prison complex, listening for any helpful tidbit of information. They had mere weeks left until BS Day (as she had begun calling it) and everyone was getting desperate for any sort of information.

When she reached the door, the young earth bender knocked lightly, in the proper manner, and waited for the answering call. When it came, she pushed the door open only enough to let her light frame through and waited for one of the lower officers to come and take the message from her.

Low voices muttered around her, though crystal clear to her waiting ears.

"I can't believe he really did it. I served under General Iroh for months before we were even sent to Ba Sin-"

"He's not General anymore, Soon, remember that. I could report you just for mentioning the traitor." Another man stepped close to the conversation.

"Speaking of the Traitor, I was to report that he is secured in the main holdings. They didn't consider him a threat anymore." A pause "He is nearly senile! I can't believe…He really isn't the Dragon he once was, is he?" That last one sounded almost sad, Toph thought as she turned to face the man who approached her now. She held out the parchment, as he reached. "General Li"

The man nodded, and Toph let herself out the door. Iroh! The old man was still, if not on their side specifically, he was sympathetic. He couldn't be truly senile. He was wily enough to play at it until rescue came, though there was no way…he must have friends. They had to get him first- he could be too useful. It would be risky, but she felt it could be done.

"What!?!" Predictable Sokka. Always predictable. With a twist of her heel, Toph sent Sokka backwards onto a smooth stone stool that sprang up to meet his obstinate butt. He would see this her way.

"I could do it alone, really. All I need is to pretend to take a message to the head of the shift, which I have done before. I'd recognize that old man in an instant, and all I'd need to do is tunnel him out. Easy as pudding."

"Pudding??" The analogy had Sokka stumped for a ridiculous moment. "Easy as pudding?" Toph snorted.

"I like pudding. But that's beside the point, Sokka. No changing the topic" she indulged in a slight smirk "We could use Iroh. We already know he is at least sympathetic to our cause, and we so owe him a little for his help in the caves under Ba Sing Se. He could give us information. He would give us information, for helping him."

"I think Toph's right on this one, Sokka" Thank the Spirits for Katara. She'd talk sense into her brother. "And Toph is the only one to do it, though I don't like this. We are getting a little desperate for information, and we know Iroh could help us." Aang stepped in at this point, agreeing with Katara, and the fight was over. After some brief discussion, plans were laid and everyone settled in for the night.

Over the next two days Toph scouted as best she could. She made several false runs out to the main prison complex, and succeeded in locating the old fire bender. She made one more run after that to get a rough lay of the guard patrols and to figure out a plan for the following day, careful to stay well out of sight of the man's cell. Then she quietly disappeared to prepare.

When she arrived the next morning, it was just after the changing of the guard. The patrols had just started, and it would be a good half hour before they came back around to Iroh's cell. She went around a corner to a section of empty cells (only empty because the old occupants had been shipped off to fight at the front line) and started her tunnel. She had to be careful not to make any noticeable changes to the floor, and it was frustrating and time consuming to shift the stone and soil so smoothly, but after shifting a couple floor tiles out of the way she had herself underground, and a painstaking half-hour later she had a good, even tunnel leading into Iroh's cell, and the floor around her had risen an even half inch for a couple hundred feet around.

Footsteps tacked down the hall just above her head. She had timed that one closely- they must have increased the guard today. Another set of footsteps approached, close behind the last. No, three? Four. Definitely four. And, more. Further along the hall, there were more, and the sound of chains clinking cruelly. Of course. More prisoners. One stumbled, fell, and one of the guards kicked and prodded them back up. A key clicked in a lock just above and behind Toph, and she held her breath, releasing it only as the door swung open with only the slightest catch on the now raised floor. Someone was detached from the chain and shoved roughly into the cell, before the door swung heavily closed and keys rattled and the lock clicked once more. Soft sobbing, a proudly hidden limp, muttered curses all whispered over Toph's head as this nightmarish parade padded hopelessly by, accompanied by the harsh chink of chain-on-chain-on-cold stone. When it was finally over and the guards had moved off to their daily duties, and the only sound left to Toph in the darkness was the sound of desperate pacing, she began to move shakily towards the old man's cell. There was nothing she could do here. They would all be released after the Day of Black Sun.

Iroh was the priority. She sensed him just to the left of her tunnel's end, and listened closely for any nearby guards. The cell directly across the hall was thankfully empty. She made some deliberate scuffing and thumping noises only Iroh would be close enough to hear before opening a small hole, just enough to see through. He looked back at her with a lightly bemused expression, but did not move. Toph opened the hole wider.

"Oh, the young traveler. What a wonderful surprise!" cried Iroh before Toph could silence him. A stone gag covered his mouth as she signaled frantically for him to come down the hole. He got the message apparently, because with a mildly confused expression he crawled into the hole she opened for him. As soon as he was safely in, she closed the hole behind him. The old man started violently, thwacking his head against the stone ceiling of their tunnel. Toph scolded him roughly.

"Shush! You can stop acting stupid, old man. I'm here to rescue you! If you can't keep quiet, we'll get caught! I know you're smarter than this!" He seemed to accept this, so she turned away and started down the tunnel. "Grab the hem of my jacket and keep up!" She sensed him fumbling about in the dark and sighed. Twisting around, she put the corner of her long jacket in his flailing hand. It could be so difficult dealing with...inot/i blind people sometimes.

They moved forward like this, the old man on hand and knees (must be hard on him...we'll have to take a rest soon Toph growled) and the young girl crouched low, shifting earth along the sides of the tunnel and behind them, filling in the way they had come. They had to take several breaks, Toph opening covert breathing holes along the way to let fresh air seep into their stuffy little bubble of earth. The painstakingly slow pace Iroh set was putting Toph on edge, but she couldn't just shift him along and move the tunnel and keep an ear out for any danger from above. They were crossing the wide open courtyard now, and the sound of drilling soldiers covered any noise she made, but the earth bender had to keep the roof of her tunnel even and strong to keep any fire bender from stepping straight through and uncovering them. The old man behind her muttered aimlessly most of the way, sometimes breaking into quiet song, but never speaking to her, and never saying anything that made sense, at least…not that Toph could make out. She iwas/i pretty distracted…

They finally made it outside the walls of the complex. Two-thirds of the way to safety. They stopped for a breather just outside the thick, ironclad wall, before setting off again. Toph made quicker time, and within an hour they were in the treeline and Toph was fighting roots out of their way with every flick of her hands. They broke the surface and Toph led Iroh out into the leaf-filtered daylight. He muttered to himself and squinted about for a moment, stretched like someone just out of bed, and followed Toph obediently through the forest to the clearing where the others waited.