Detonation

by breeeliss

Aang had never been more terrified at the prospect of losing one of his friends forever until he turned the corner and saw Toph injured and covered in blood. AxT. Submission for the January competition at the A:TLA Fanfiction Challenges forum.

Title: Detonation

Rating: T

Words: 5415

Summary: Aang had never been more terrified at the prospect of losing one of his friends forever until he turned the corner and saw Toph injured and covered in blood. AxT. Submission for the January competition at the A:TLA Fanfiction Challenges forum.

a/n: Submission for the January competition over at A:TLA Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt was to write about someone's deepest darkest fear. So naturally it got a little angsty, but sometimes you need some drama in your life, am I right?

Apologies it's a little rushed. Haven't had much time to write the last couple of days. Still hope you all like it.

Warnings: Blood and injuries, nothing too bad.

Disclaimer: Mike and Bryan own these characters. I am not writing this story for profit.

OOO

Detonation

OOO

"So is this it?"

Zuko nodded, staring gravely at the side of the rocky hill. "According to my informants, yes. Though, again, it's only a tip. There's no telling what's down there. It could be them, or it could be nothing at all."

Aang was visibly uncomfortable at the vague answer, but he knew that there was nothing that Zuko could do about such things. Tentative information was better than no information, and Zuko's worry was causing him to grasp at any straws that he could. Zuko wasn't exactly the type to put so much effort into scoping out a simple hint, but with a situation this delicate and this dangerous, the Fire Lord unfortunately had no choice. Maintaining peace and safety in his nation was crucial.

Many soldiers were already beginning to file through the trees and along the sides of the other hills in the area, some keeping their weapons gripped tight and others keeping their fists high in case any speedy bending was necessary. Aang didn't think that his "back up" would be quite so large. "How many rebels did you say there were?"

"Honestly, we're not sure," Zuko admitted. "We noticed them first when they were posting propaganda advocating against the founding of the United Republic of Nations. I thought that they were just a group of Ozai supporters that didn't agree with my policies." Zuko sighed and looked behind him worriedly, watching as more soldiers filed into the field. "But lately they've been threatening assassinations and attacking cities with the force of a militia group. I wonder if they are old discharged soldiers. Anyway…we suspect there are upwards of forty of them."

Aang winced. Zuko had just about that number of his own soldiers here in the valley, looking for any evidence of this supposed rebel group. In addition, frantic letters asking for assistance had been written to all of Zuko's friends because the situation was so delicate. Sokka, Suki, and Katara were all intermingled with the soldiers, keeping alert and ready for a possible ambush. Zuko's informants told him that the rebels' bunker was somewhere in the outskirts of the Fire Nation capital. Most everyone was looking above ground. But Zuko had told Aang that Ozai certainly had more than one underground bunker during the war, similar to the one they found during the Day of Black Sun. He suspected another such one was in this field.

"I got it!"

Aang turned his head and saw Toph leaning both of her hands against the side of the rocky hillside that Aang and Zuko were standing in front of. She swiped her hands across the rock and managed to create an opening that led into the middle of a man-made network of tunnels within the hillside. Toph turned back and smirked at them.

"There's a bunker down there all right," she confirmed. "Smaller than the one in the volcano, but there's no denying a dense hunk of metal in the middle of a hill."

Zuko nodded and looked back toward Aang. "Are you sure that you don't need more men to go down there? Not that I don't trust your skills and Toph's, but you might very well be outnumbered down there."

Toph was the one that answered. "Oh, quit worrying. We've been outnumbered worse than this. Besides, Aang and I are the only Earthbenders you've got. We'll have a better chance at fighting down there anyway."

"She's right," Aang reasoned. "We'll be fine. Besides, the whole reason Toph's coming is because she has a distinct advantage. We should be able to see the rebels coming long before they reach us. If it's a lot, we'll call for back up and lead them back up here for an ambush." It was the plan that Zuko had presented them with, and it seemed like the best idea. Although he suggested that he send down a team of ten men to join them, Aang and Toph simultaneously agreed that actually infiltrating the bunker should be a two-man job. It was less conspicuous and it would fool the rebels into thinking there were less people after them than what Zuko had prepared for.

Toph slapped the side of the hill and cleared her throat impatiently. "If Lord Firepants is done stressing, we should probably get going, Twinkles." She already slipped inside the opening and started looking back and forth down the tunnels, trying to pick a direction.

Aang placed a hand on Zuko's shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll be back before you know it."

Traveling underground through dark tunnels that were only lit by small torches wasn't exactly Aang's idea of a vacation to the Fire Nation. Toph had gone through complaining to Aang about how she was in the middle of signing up twenty new students to her Metalbending Academy when this whole rebel nonsense popped up. But, their friend needed help, and it wasn't exactly minor help either. If Zuko's suspicious were correct, they'd be upending one of the largest rogue Fire Nation uprisings since the end of the war. That wasn't exactly a small favor.

"Feels just like old times, eh?" Toph smirked as she pulled Aang to the left and away from the path he was trying to walk down.

"If you call old times plunging head first into deliberate danger, then yeah. Feels like coming home," Aang answered dryly.

Toph raised a brow and laughed. "Well, hello, sarcasm. Didn't think I'd find you coming out of Aang's mouth."

"It's just you're so…I dunno, excited about this," Aang clarified. "I wouldn't exactly call this kind of mission something to be all happy about."

"That's because you don't appreciate the thrill of fighting and being plunged into danger," Toph admonished. "You never did."

Aang couldn't stop his deadpanned expression, even though he knew Toph wouldn't be able to see it. "Because…fighting is unnecessary and violent?"

"Really?" Toph replied in confusion. "I find it kind of cathartic. Letting your anger out by busting open some Fire Nation heads is better than taking it out on regular people. Besides, we're supposed to be in peace. When's the next time I'm going to get the opportunity to beat up Fire Nation scum again? It's like my last chance."

Aang rolled his eyes affectionately, forgetting how much he missed Toph's ranting and raving about fighting. "Well, let's find these rebels first and then you can go crazy."

"Don't mind if I do," Toph promised as she cracked her knuckles. "I don't know why Zuko is so worried. If anything, this should be pretty fun."

Aang didn't bother to argue Toph on that point, figuring that there was going to be no changing her mind on that end. At least she was enthusiastic and eager to help.

They kept on walking through the tunnels for nearly ten more minutes before the two of them started to step on metal instead of Earth. Aang looked down at his feet and frowned. "No door?"

Toph shrugged and hopped a couple of times on the metal flooring, acclimating herself to the vibrations. "I guess not. Maybe it got ruined during the war. Rebels have to take what they can get?"

Aang didn't seem too content with that answer. "You'd think they would just reinforce it instead of just settling with leaving it open like this." The hallways were now linear and made completely of metal. Aang was staring at the sides of the walls and seeing all of the stray weapons and plastered propaganda posters that were lining the walls and corners. It looked abandoned more than anything else. Like everyone just dropped everything and disappeared. Surely if this was an actual bunker, all evidence of them being here would at least be hidden or secured somewhere. "Do you see anyone, Toph? Anything weird?"

She shook her head and turned another corner. "No, not from what I can tell. I mean this bunker still goes on for a bit father than I can see, but nothing yet. Just more hallways and empty rooms. You think they abandoned it?"

Aang was hoping that this would be the case. After all, Zuko did say that there was a very good chance that this was merely a bust and no one was in here. That meant that the entire bunker was empty and devoid of rebels, and he could finally go topside and not run into any danger. But of course, there was no way of knowing for sure. An empty bunker could mean a lot of different things. "There's no way to tell."

They reached a rather long hallway that had around a dozen doors branching off of it and leading into what Toph described to be small rooms that could be no larger than a simply linen closet. "Probably storage," she had informed him as she walked forward. There must not have been much interesting inside, because she didn't even bother to open one of the doors and simply walked past them as she went.

Aang cracked open the door closest to his left and looked inside. Toph wasn't too far off in saying there was nothing interesting. Aang wouldn't have even bothered to classify all of this as storage. If anything, it all looked like junk. Broken pieces of wood, scraps of spare metal, nails, broken blades from old swords, and a group of waist-high barrels sitting in the center of the room. There was nothing interesting to report.

However, what stood out was the rope leading from the frame of the door to the pile of barrels. Aang frowned at the sight. The rope was going inside of the barrels and was purposefully fixed against the frame of the door. Aang was about to walk inside and take a closer look, but he felt a slight pressure on his ankle and immediately stepped back. He was familiar with those kinds of booby traps that the Fire Nation used. He had fallen for the same kind of trick before. Sure enough, there was a trip wire going along the bottom of the doorway. Aang looked up at the ceiling of the small storage room, but saw no evidence of a possible trap. What was that wire even doing there?

Ang got on his knees and tried to observe where the wire led. Sure enough, when Aang lightly tugged on the wire, the torch hanging above the wall to light the storage space began to wobble loose from its perch. Had Aang walked into the trip wire, the torch would have fallen. Aang looked down and saw that the torch was just over the edge of the doorframe where that piece of rope had started and led to the barrels.

…that was certainly a strange set up.

After carefully stepping over the trip wire, Aang walked over to the barrels in question and managed to pry one of them open. Staring inside, Aang managed to see a thick, paste inside of the barrels. Aang cringed his nose, not knowing what he was smelling or why it would be here all of a sudden. But then when Aang inhaled again, the smell started to become familiar and Aang knew that he had encountered this somewhere. He just didn't remember when. It had to have been a long time ago while he was traveling, because the memory would have surface quicker had this been a recent exposure. Aang leaned against the barrels and tried to think. It was a pungent stench, something that might have exuded off of a Fire Nation tank or a ship. Machine oil? No, machine oil was thinner, and it wouldn't be kept in wooden barrels…

Aang eyes snapped open as he looked back at the trip wire. No, he remembered what this was. Jet had managed to acquire a whole stash of this stuff when he planned to blow up a dam and drown an entire village.

Blasting jelly.

That trip wire was meant to drop the torch, ignite the rope—or fuse in this case—, and blow the blasting jelly up. This room got turned into a makeshift bomb. No wonder this bunker was abandoned. It was booby-trapped and ready to blow sky high. The rest of the rooms on this main hallway were also probably—

Oh no.

Aang sprinted out of the room. "Toph! Don't open the—"

Aang couldn't finish his sentence before an ear splitting explosion erupted through the metal halls of the bunker. Aang's heart immediately fell into his stomach and panic exploded throughout his chest. There was no way that Toph would be able to sense something like a thin wire going across the opening of the door. Toph must have triggered one of the other explosions on the other end of the hall.

All that wood and metal. It would be shred to pieces and blow all over the place with the help of the explosion. Sokka had explained to Aang what that was. Shrapnel. It made the bombs stronger and more deadly.

Toph was certainly right in the middle of it.

…oh no.

"TOPH!" Aang screamed frantically, his voice cracking with the strain of his nerves. The blast had come from further down the hall and around another corner that Toph was exploring. Stupid, stupid, stupid. They were a team. They weren't supposed to leave each other alone. He should have stayed with her so that he would have had a chance to warn her about the bombs the moment he had noticed. Of all the idiotic things he could have done, leaving Toph alone was the worst.

When Aang turned the corner, the first thing he noticed was that one of the metal walls had been ripped out and crumpled into a mangled heap on the ground. The indentations and grip marks in the metal told him that this wasn't a result of the explosion, but of Toph's bending. The room that she had opened had its door blasted off and thrown to the other side of the hall, and grey and black smoke was wafting out of the room. Shrapnel was everywhere, but Toph was out of sight.

Aang's imagination produced something incredibly grisly that made him want to throw up before a cough and a groan erupted from the mangled metal. Sure enough, Toph began crawling out of the metal cocoon and out into the open hallway. Her left hand was wrapped tightly around her torso and she was clutching the fabric of her over shirt so tightly that Aang was sure her fingers were ripping through it. As Toph crawled out, Aang had only just noticed the thick stream of dark blood that followed her.

"Toph…" She was hurt. Really hurt. There was so much blood seeping in between her fingers and onto the floor. He wasn't sure about the nature of the injury, only that it was a large one and it was taking up the majority of her right side. He could see Toph grunting and wheezing through the pain and breathing like she couldn't get enough air into her lungs.

Aang quickly kneeled down in her blood and lifted her head so that he could see her face. He brushed her sweaty, bloody bangs out of the way. Toph coughed again and clutched her side tighter. "…well, that was a kick."

"Toph," Aang asked breathlessly. "What hurts, what's wrong?"

She shook her head and grunted in pain again. "Freakin' bombs…damn…rebels."

Aang looked back at the metal mangle that she had just crawled out of. Toph must have crudely bent some metal from the wall at the least minute once she realized what she had set off. She managed to save herself from getting killed from the blast and protected most of her body. There must have been a hole in her efforts because it looked like her entire right side was shredded anyway.

Aang gently brushed his thumb against Toph's cheek. "Toph come on, you've got to tell me what hurts."

The girl merely shrugged and hung her head as a flare of pain made her bite into her lip. "…side."

"Just your side?"

Toph nodded in response, but that single injury didn't do a good job of mollifying him. Aang took Toph's bloodied hand and pushed it away from her side, and tried his hardest to keep the bile in his throat down.

It looked wretched. There was so much blood and ripped tissue, plus Aang was pretty sure that he could see bits of wood and metal sticking out of her wound, which explained all the bleeding. The shrapnel certainly did its job. Judging by the amount of blood and the weakness that Toph was exhibiting, those sharp pieces of scraps must have hit something important.

Aang had to think fast. "Okay, Toph, just…don't move, alright?"

Aang reached out and ripped off the bloodied fabric of Toph's outer shirt, leaving her in nothing but a thin undershirt that was completely soaked red with blood. Aang reached up with shaking hands and pulled his own shirt off, reaching for the bottom hem and immediately ripping his shirt into thick strips. He was wearing a tunic that was surprisingly absorbent, and he was hoping that the makeshift bandages would do a good enough job of wrapping the wound, keeping it compressed, and hopefully keeping the bleeding from getting too bad. It was one of the only things that Aang had remembered when Katara had told him about some basic first aid tips she had learned from the healers, and Aang wished he had paid better attention.

The bandages were wrapped snugly, and Toph cried out and sobbed in pain every time the bandages tightened around her. Aang tried his best to ignore her sounds of pain and tried to stick to working. If he thought too much about the severity of the wound and how much pain Toph was in, he'd get distracted.

Aang looked behind him. It had taken them fifteen minutes in order to walk to this point. Hopefully it would take them only a little bit longer to get back to the entrance of the tunnels. Toph needed a healer and quickly.

Aang stood and held out both of his hands. "Do you think you can stand up?"

The answer was slow in coming. "…this really hurts, Aang," she sighed shakily.

"I know it does," Aang sympathized. "But we have to get out of here and get you to Katara. The rebels aren't here. We need to get you out."

Toph understood the necessity of her needing to move, and her stubborn nature wouldn't allow herself to simply stay on the ground lying down. Reaching up and grabbing one of Aang's hands, Toph pulled hard and attempted to get into a standing position.

However, once Toph's legs straightened, her torso stretched and the girl let out a horrid scream that echoed harshly against the metal tunnels and made painful, thick tears of absolute horror prickly behind Aang's eyes. The screaming was intense, and it merely tapered off into more half-sobs and whimpers of pain as Toph managed to acclimate herself to a standing position.

Standing was a bad idea. Toph cried out once more and dropped the entirety of her weight against the side of Aang's hip. Aang's arm immediately came and wrapped around her shoulder, keeping her from falling. "Aang…Spirits, this really hurts, Aang…I can't…I can't get…"

"No, no, no, don't worry," Aang assured her. His breathing was getting quicker, and his chest was tightening like a coil that was about to burst and explode out of his chest. He could feel his limbs trembling as he took Toph's arm and wrapped it around the back of his neck. His other arm came to wrap itself around Toph's hips until his hand was resting just underneath the wound that reached from the top of her ribs to the middle of her waist. Aang could already feel his hands getting soaked with her blood, but he tried not to think too much about how much was currently slipping down his fingers. "I've got you. Come on."

Walking back through the tunnels was absolute torture. Aang was supporting most of Toph's weight and helped her limp through the halls, but the bandages that he had used to wrap her wound had only helped for a few minutes. After a few dozen feet, Toph's wound began to bleed even more, and blood was seeping rather steadily from her side. It made Aang want to throw up in the corner and just forget that he ever had to see what he saw. But unfortunately he didn't have time for that at the moment. Toph could barely walk, and he was the only thing holding her upright. They had to keep going.

The longer they kept walking, the more of the healthy flush that was usually across Toph's cheeks began to pale into a sickly sallow shade that made her look like she hadn't spent a day in the sun in her life. Toph's eyes were growing heavy, and her feet were starting to drag. This wasn't good. She was getting weaker and she was losing too much blood. Aang's efforts to dampen the bleeding hadn't done much for too long. She was bleeding out. Fast. Aang pushed himself to keep going. They had already reached the end of the metal hallways. Just had to get to the entrance of the tunnel. They could do it.

"Come on, Toph, we're almost there. Keep walking."

Aang kept trying to coax her to walk, but the blood loss was becoming too much for her. After only a few more seconds, Toph's legs buckled from underneath her and caused Aang to lose his balance. They both fell left and Toph immediately dropped against Aang, her eyes completely closed and her legs done with working through her pain.

"No, no, Toph, no please," Aang mumbled under his breath. Aang shook her shoulder and tried to get her to open her eyes and stare at him, but he wasn't getting a response. Immediately, the worst began to invade his brain, and he found himself frozen for a few seconds before he moved frantically.

He leaned down and pressed his ear against her chest, but there were only faint traces of a heartbeat left for him to hear. It was fluttering along like a hummingbird that was about to sputter and run out of steam. Aang kept muttering little prayers to the Spirits under his breath as he pressed his ear near Toph's mouth. There were only little puffs of breath coming out from between her lips. She was barely breathing and her heartbeat was almost gone.

This was bad. This was extremely bad.

"Toph, you have to stay with me, wake up!" Aang begged her, his vision starting to grow blurry and his eyes prickling with the pain of his panic. But there was no response from her. Her body started to feel heavier against him, and a cruel reality started to wash over Aang like an unpleasant cold shower. This wasn't happening…she had to wake up again…she had to wake up…she was fine merely minutes before this…she was going to be fine…she was going to wake up and they were going to get out of this tunnel and then they were going to go back to Zuko's palace. They'd eat together and talk about her bending school. Aang would talk about the new capital city they were building in the United Republic. They'd both make fun of the Fire Nation food and complain to Zuko about how Earth Kingdom food was obviously the best. Toph would make fun of him and call him names. Aang would laugh at her jokes. They'd both fool around with their silverware and get Zuko to complain about their manners. They'd treat the rest of the day like a joke and try looking for the rebels again tomorrow. Together. Just like today.

They'd be fine. She'd be fine. She was going to wake up.

Except Toph wasn't waking up and Aang felt a feeling of absolute horror rip through his heart in a way that made him sick to his stomach. "Toph…" he tried again. The knot in his throat loosened, and a pitiful sob escaped along with a fresh track of tears. He kept rocking her back and forth and shaking her shoulder, trying to get some reaction and refusing to admit was he was so absolutely terrified of admitting.

"Toph, please, you have to wake up, I don't know what to do," Aang begged her, pressing both of his hands to her wound, hoping that if he pushed some of the blood back, it would help. "You're scaring me, Toph! Please just wake up!"

It was a reality he hoped he would never have to face. It was his most horrid and terrifying nightmare when he was still a boy during the war: that all of his efforts would be in vain and he wouldn't be able to protect the people that he cared about. He was afraid that he would lose them and he wouldn't be able to do anything to get them back. He had lost so many loved ones already that he didn't want to have to repeat the process. His panic was making those thoughts and fears cloud his judgment and spring him into a full blown panic attack that consisted of slapping Toph's cheeks and roughly shaking her whole body, hoping that he could shake her soul back into her body.

This was just supposed to be a simple mission for Zuko. He couldn't have her dying here.

After what seemed like an eternity of staring at a potentially lifeless body, a strong series of coughs erupted from Toph's throat, and she gasped for air like she had just surfaced from water. Her eyes were scrunched shut and she began to fill her lungs with shallow breaths as quickly as she could.

Her mouth cracked open. "…are we out yet?" she croaked.

Aang wasn't taking any more chances. He maneuvered in front of Toph and managed to get her into a piggyback position without jostling her too much and exacerbating her wound. He wrapped her arms around his neck and tugged her thighs along the sides of his hips. Aang looked ahead and could see a small pinprick of light that indicated the end of the tunnel. He laughed in relief. "No, we're almost there. But you've gotta keep talking to me," he insisted strongly. "You have to stay awake. Keep alert."

Aang was trudging through the tunnels while Toph's head fell onto Aang's shoulders. "'Bout what?"

"You can talk about anything," Aang said distractedly. "Like, uh…like what we're gonna do after this. The bunker was a total bust, huh?"

Toph scoffed, and the normally acerbic and sarcastic remark came out as nothing more than something that sounded like a pathetic sob. "You're telling me," she muttered into his shoulder.

Aang was jogging at this point, hoping that the action wasn't ripping open Toph's wound anymore. He simply didn't have the patience for walking. Aang had almost completely lost Toph for good back there and never felt so much paralyzing fear and panic wrack his body all at once. He wasn't going to let it happen again. He wouldn't. "We'll try again. Then we can actually relax and do something fun."

"Please," Toph answered back. He could feel her frown against his shoulder. "Never do anything fun…"

They were getting closer. They were almost out. "Not true. We'll do whatever you want after this. Go wherever. Just the two of us." Aang was feeling blood run down his thigh, and he felt his feet move even faster. "I promise."

Toph chuckled weakly into his shoulder. "You don't…mean that," she croaked out. "If I took you to…the Earth Rumble Championships…you—you wouldn't go."

Tears were still rolling down Aang's cheeks, his relief, fear, and desperation mixing into a wild mutation of potent emotions that he didn't know what to do with. Even though he couldn't put a name to it, it was helping him push forward to the entrance to the cave and back to Katara where Toph could get healed and get better. He was almost there. He wouldn't lose her. He wasn't going to lose her. Everything was going to be okay. "Tell you what?" Aang promised. "If you get better and get back on your feet…I'll go with you. No complaints. I'll even cheer on your favorite bender."

Aang had finally spilled out into the daylight and was met with a crowd of soldiers surrounding the opening of the tunnel. Aang managed to catch Zuko's eye. He could tell that the Fire Lord was laying his eyes on the blood that was dripping on to the floor and immediately called Katara over. The soldiers tried to remove Toph from Aang's back, but the Arirbender kept his grip on her thighs nice and tight, refusing to hand her off to anyone. A stretcher was being brought over along with water, bandages, and towels. Katara was already running over and pulling her water pack off of her hip.

Toph was still breathing heavily, but her eyes were open. Aang laid her down on the stretcher that the Fire soldiers had spread onto the ground. A few of the women were removing Aang's shoddy bandages and dipping towels into the heated water in order to wipe the blood away from Toph's wound. Katara was already hovering water in her hands and holding it over Toph's wound.

The pain was returning. Aang could see it on Toph's face. But this time it was being tempered by the relief that Aang knew Katara's healing was bringing her. That made Aang breathe in and sigh in relief. The torrent of emotions that were running through his chest was finally abating. Toph's breathing was getting a little deeper and a little slower, and from what he could see, Katara was managing to pick out all the pieces of metal and wood that were stuck in Toph's wound and was even stopping the heavy flow of blood. She was still pale and she still looked incredibly weak, but the healing was already making her better. She was going to be all right. Aang had gotten her out in time.

Aang stayed cross-legged next to the stretcher for the entire half hour that it took for Katara to finish cleaning Toph's wound and get the bleeding to completely stop. Toph was wincing at the addition of the new bandages that were being wrapped around her torso three times over, but her posture relaxed once they were tied off and secured snugly.

"You know I'll hold you to that," Toph replied breathlessly, the exhaustion finally hitting her. "Earth Rumble is in four days. You promised."

Aang smirked in defeat and held a hand to his heart. "That I did. I keep promises."

"You have to sit near the front with me. That's where all the rocks get thrown."

Aang didn't even feel reluctant about the prospect. His body was singing with too much relief for him to say no. "Whatever you want." Aang pushed Toph back against the stretcher. "Stop talking and rest, will you? You're hurt."

Toph shrugged and leaned her head back against the bundle of blankets acting like a pillow. "I'm fine," she insisted. "Nothing was going to happen. You weren't going to leave me to die in there. Everything's okay."

Aang didn't realize how relieving that simple sentiment was. He didn't think he'd ever been so terrified of losing one of his friends in his life. For a few seconds, seeing Toph completely unresponsive almost sent him into a grief and a rage that he wouldn't have been able to stomach or process. Seeing all of that blood all over her body froze his body still with terror.

But Toph was right. There was no way he was going to give into such nightmares without a fight. Because no matter how much the prospect of losing any of his friends distressed him, he knew that there was nothing he wouldn't do to make sure it didn't happen. It was a good thing, too. Because now Toph was awake and breathing, and in a few days they were going to go to Earth Rumble, laugh together, and enjoy each other's company like they always had.

Things were normal again.