Why the design and location of the Western Air Temple different from the rest of its sisters was anyone's guess.
Aang had popped in with the information that it was exclusively populated by the female airbenders and that the statue towering over them in the east wing was of Avatar Yangchen. He was feeling mighty proud of himself for providing the glimpse into his culture until Sokka pointed out that neither fact answered the question of architecture.
"I don't know why they built it upside down," Aang admitted sheepishly. He nudged Teo, the nearest to him. "It's still pretty, right?"
"Yeah, that's got to be some super sticky glue that's keeping us from thundering down into that quarry." Sokka's input had been of his staple sarcastic nature but once he took in his own words his face grew taut with horror. "Hey wait, we're not putting on lives on the line for-!?"
"This temple's been here for thousands of years." As Katara made to calm her brother from his shenanigans she ladled the just finished rice from the fat, black kettle. "It's not going to just decide to fall under a little extra weight."
"But I – it-" Sokka protested, still at the start of a potential panic attack. "What's holding us up!? It is some freaky air magic or something!? Is this building just a gigantic nail hammered into the rock, because nails rust and rock breaks apart and-!?"
"Mind shredding some light our way, baby girl?" Chit Sang asked coolly of Toph and far had the blind girl come in that she didn't take it as belittling but as it was intended in comradeship.
"Not to worry there, O' Spaz of all Spazes," she assured Sokka. "Each of the buildings is snuggled in nice and deep into the ledge. It's only a few yards from reaching the surface above actually. They're reinforced and pressure-sealed with about ten stone layers piled one atop another that none of you can see. Those girl airbenders knew what they were doing all right."
"So – so we're safe!?" Sokka begged of her.
"Plenty."
Sokka heaved a sigh but it became a strangled sound like a pentapus lodged in his throat at Toph's next words. "As long as that chandelier pillar thing there-"– she pointed –"Remains perfectly safe from all harm."
"Wha-what!?"
"Everything that is this temple hooks up to that pillar, of course," Toph said as though it were common knowledge. "If it were to get damaged at all then there'd be a chain reaction and the supports would cut…maybe that one-" – Toph swiped a hand to a neighboring building and Sokka jolted in place, eyes bugging in panic – "Or the one we're sitting on right now."
Sokka took the news with gentlemanly composure.
"Gaaah! How're we supposed to stay alive with you crazy benders bending your junk where ever you please!? We should all be dead already! We should be dead and buried under a thousand feet of rock at the bottom of the world!"
Toph had to clench her teeth to keep herself contained but anyone who looked could see that her belly was shaking with silent laughter.
"What if Combustion Man had hit it!? What if I had hit it practicing with my boomerang!? What if-!?"
"We've got to protect it!" agreed Aang, jumping to his feet and joining in on the hysteria. "What would happen if it were to go out when we were sleeping!?"
"What if a rapid woodpecker-squirrel came and pecked at it for worms!? What then!? Huh!?"
From clenching her teeth, Toph now had to bite her lip hard to keep from giving herself away. Some of the others had started to chuckle under their breathes but Katara looked disapproving of the prank.
As the boys scrambled to do anything and everything in their power to protect the stone pillar they fretted over what to use for bird repellent, how exactly to tie the cloth tarp up around the surrounding pillars and in the process half scared the wits out of Zuko, getting into his personal space in half-crazed pleas to help them in their mad dash.
Toph had Sokka and Aang working frantically for nothing and she was clutching her stomach for laughter. "It hurts! It hurts! Ha, ha, ha!"
"Sooo I made a trip to a nearby village in the Fire Nation and-" Haru paused when he was passed a ration of rice. "Thank you, Katara. Anyway I thought it would be a good idea to keep tabs on what's happening. They stomped us good in the invasion so the people can't be entirely ignorant that it occurred, right?"
"The Fire Nation isn't always the most loyal to its own citizens," remarked Katara with no little amount of bitterness after the incident in the floating village on the river, earning her an annoyed look from Zuko who, despite the insult, didn't direct his gaze at her. Katara handed out the next ration. "Aang, Sokka, get down here for dinner."
"But-!" they chorused.
"Toph was just messing with you. It's not my fault if your portions get cold."
"Anyway," said Haru, "I picked up some a few things while I was there, food, supplies to fix Appa's armor, you know, and I found this flyer." Haru laid flat the parchment so that all could see.
"Mind reading it aloud, Caterpillar Lips?" Toph threw out between bites of rice. Colors and text never did it for her.
Toph's inventive nickname for him brought a chuckle from the teenager and he stroked his moustache in show. "Says that since Sozin's Comet in coming in a week the Fire Lord seems to think that with the phenomenal upgrade in powers that ruler of an entire nation is too meek of a title. He's planning on crowning himself Phoenix Lord…whatever that means."
Zuko groaned lowly at the lengths his father's arrogance would reach. Was Phoenix Lord even a real title or was Ozai just attaching it to his name to crush even lower beneath his soles in fear the captured capitals of Omashu and Ba Sing Se?
"Phoenix, huh?" Toph scoffed. "Sorry to break it to you Twinkletoes but it seems your training's all been for naught if that hothead has infinite lives to relive held back on the shelves. Poof, I'm born again! Poof!"
"It'd still be fun to poof him out of existence a few times. Wa-ter-ben-ding-" said Sokka in the low, very deep voice of the giant bullfrogs, making overexaggerated dancing, skipping and chopping movements in a graceless imitation of Katara.
"Here comes an avalanche of boulders," said Toph.
"Poof!" Sokka rammed his arms toward the ground.
"There's Pipsqueak body-slamming the big jerk," The Duke contributed with joy.
"Poof!"
Sokka continued 'poofing' away the Fire Lord in any such demise suggested from the group of eleven but Zuko wasn't interested in the diversion, especially not when the only link they had to the outside world was spread before him open for the taking. Take it he did and every article did he read to try and get an edge on what the father he'd disowned was planning but of course nothing was given away, not even signups for new recruits to join in on an upcoming endeavor.
He'd been about to discard it when he saw that there was a backside.
All of the group, excluding Toph, turned to stare at him with the same set of questioning eyes and Zuko realized the gasp he uttered must've been aloud and noticeable to boot.
"Everything all right there, lad?" asked Hakoda with genuine concern even for the son of the enemy. Zuko had after all aided in the Boiling Rock rescue and for that he and Suki treated him with more respect than they'd have normally.
"I – y-yeah," Zuko stammered to get the eyes anywhere but on him. "Just choked on a little rice, that's all."
"Is that wink toward that my cooking doesn't measure up to royalty standards?" Katara asked of him lightly though there was a challenge not well hidden beneath the layers. "Shall I cook you something else, Zuko? After all we have tables and tables of selections to choose from."
"Wha-? No, it's fine. Anyone can cook rice and-"
It was the wrong thing to say. Anything the banished prince said was the wrong thing to say in Katara's ears.
"Oh so anyone can do it, you say? Even a filthy water tribe peasant like me?"
"Easy, Katara," said her father gently, wanting to head off the feud before it even began.
"He's not worth the effort," Katara huffed and hers were the last words spoken around the fire before sleeping bags and dibs on the best places were called out for the night.
For a painfully long hour did Zuko wait until the very last of them was asleep.
Only then did he trust himself to unroll the parchment again.
Again it showed the same row of traitors to the crown. The only face Zuko saw was the one of a regal-looking woman with long, flowing black hair. She was Fire Lady Ursa, though not accredited so and mixed along with the rest of the so-called scum and tyrants.
Now I realize that banishment is far too merciful a sentence for treason, echoed the cold voice of Ozai just before he had attempted to fry with lightning his own flesh and blood.
He wouldn't, argued Zuko with himself for any shred of decency of his father that remained.
The truth stared him in the face. The mother he'd not seen in five long years was sentenced to die in only a day's time.
Zuko stared up, up and up at the massive war balloon that had previously been in service to his sister and groaned. He looked to the furry, white hill that was Appa and moaned. He might as well have tattooed a great big arrow on his-
"Argh! Scratch that!" Zuko shook his head free of the thought as soon as it came.
What he needed was the balloon he had arrived in, small and inconspicuous…and in ruins at the bottom of a boiling lake. Thoughts of the prison brought thoughts of Mai, how she had turned on her princess and comrade so that he could get away. Not witnessing the finale of said incident, he wondered how she'd held up under the duel forces of Azula and Ty Lee and if there were anything left of her to stow away in a prison cell.
So many years of trying to raise the perfect doll, thought Zuko of her parents. Her family will be ruined.
He tried to push the less than pleasant thoughts from his mind, exploring the innards of the mechanical beast. He found an escape balloon, which he put into commission in mere seconds.
Groggily drifting in her sleeping bag, Katara awoke. She gave a great yawn and sleepily lumbered to answer the call of nature that had woken her.
What she saw on reaching the landing strip shocked out of her any forms of weariness.
"Yip yip!" she called out, running along Appa's wide tail and jumping into the saddle as he took off.
Zuko's face went slack when he heard but still he faced forward and, subtly so that she couldn't see, fired more fuel for the tank. Alas his balloon had only departed and hadn't the time to pick up speed so Appa was along it in moments. Katara didn't try reasoning; she didn't try talking it out. In one great leap she overtook the distance between and landed on the lip of the basket. There she tackled a startled Zuko and in those few seconds, from her expression, Zuko wondered if this girl was somehow channeling Azula's spirit.
They were both out of the balloon and skidding on the ledge before Avatar Yangchen's statue.
"You traitor! You were just waiting for us to let our guard down!" With great ferocity Katara drew up her element from the nearest fountain and used it on him like whips. Every time he tried to move Zuko was smacked back down. "I warned you! I warned you and now you'll get what I promised you!"
"W-wait!" he managed to say when he caught a breath of air. "I left a note! Chit Sang can teach the Avatar firebending while I'm away! I'll only be gone for-!"
"Don't lie to me!" And so angry were her words she could've spit acid. "You think just because you saved my father we can start a new slate!? You're wrong!" She banged and bruised and abused Zuko but he didn't lift a finger against it.
Katara thrust back her water-lengthened arms for a powerful attack…and found herself lifted into the air.
"Wha-? Appa? Appa, you put me down this instant!"
The great beast whined like a two-ton dog.
"I mean it, Appa! Don't you make me get firm with you!"
His great furry head lolled back and forth on its hinge and Katara was tossed side to side like a chew toy.
Katara let loose a deep growling sigh. "Fine. I won't hurt him, not physically anyway. Why you're not supportive of me I don't understand. Don't you remember all the fireballs he shot at you?"
Apparently Appa didn't, that or the gratitude he felt from the Lake Laogai incident had replaced any hard feelings. He set her back on the ground lightly. She saw that nearby the balloon had been saved from destruction by Appa who had lugged it in.
Turned away, Zuko mostly stifled a groan.
Katara rolled her eyes. She saw something on the ground then and vaguely recalled Zuko holding something. "Why did you take this parchment, Zuko? It was supposed to be shared amongst us."
There was no reply he was willing to give.
She picked it up and scanned over the contents. "Just a normal flyer…a festival…a lost pet…an execution – your nation is really sick, you know that, killing people for having different beliefs and-" Katara's words faded. "Wait a second…golden eyes, that face structure, this woman is she…?"
"Yes." There was no use denying it.
Katara looked haunted. "The Fire Lord is really…to his own wife?"
"Yes."
"You told me your mother was dead."
"I thought she was. The gaps in the story were only just filled in to me during the invasion. Apparently the Fire Lord wishes to tie up any loose strings that could serve to embarrass him."
Katara grimaced. If Zuko's devotion to ending the Fire Nation's reign of terror were genuine and he had really severed all ties from his war-hungry father and sister than it could be certain that the same fate awaited Zuko upon capture.
"I know my word accounts for little to you. Maybe I could leave something important of mine behind to ensure that I return?"
"So you plan on taking on solo an entire fortress manned with firebenders already hopped up for blood?"
"I managed to save your friend from Zhao's imprisonment without using bending at all."
"Aang said you wouldn't have gotten out of it had he not rescued you the rescuer."
"The fortress isn't far from here," Zuko continued on nonetheless. "I'll only be gone a couple days."
"We'll only be gone a couple days."
"Pardon?"
"I believe she said she and I will be accompanying you to said location." Toph emerged from the darkness of a building entrance, privy to all or most of the conversation. "Kind of slow on the uptake, aren't you, Princess?"
"Princess?" Zuko repeated, insulted.
"Sure. Joined to the ranks of Twinkletoes, Sugar Queen and Snoozles, you should be honored."
Zuko would've growled in reaction to the demeaning nickname had Katara, more of a Lemon Queen right then than Sugar, hadn't been standing there.
Katara frowned. "It's not very nice to interrupt conversations, Toph."
"It's also not very nice to beat the snot out of a comrade and wake me up from the awesome dream I was having," Toph shot back. "Geez, I could feel you guys stomping around all the way up to my knees."
"Go back to sleep. I have this under control."
"I hope you know what element we're all standing on right now," teased Toph, curling her toes over the stone below. "I could have everyone up in an earthquake before you could blink twice."
"Toph..."
"So the solo mission has turned into a duo mission, you say? Why Katara, you were so dubious about taking this on, why not take the help you can get?"
"Don't call us a duo," growled Katara under her breath, glaring away from them both.
"Aang and Sokka both had their little adventures with the ol' boy, I'd say it's high time that you and I do the same! I've had enough of being cooped up here! I want some action!"
Toph grabbed up either reluctant party by the arm to infect with her enthusiasm. "Oh yeah! I've got a good feeling about this!"