3. Face Me
Toph didn't quite know what made her go out into the garden that day. She wasn't allowed to earthbend without getting into a bit of trouble for ruining the garden and today she simply wasn't in the mood. She hadn't been in the mood to earthbend for a while since the accident. Her bones were still healing from what had happened. As brilliant of a healer as Katara was, her magic wasn't quite good enough to heal the broken bones.
The doctors had told Toph that she was probably going to have problems for a while. Her whole body was quite stiff and her immune system was down while it was trying desperately to finish healing. Because of this, earthbending wasn't such a great idea for her, not to mention her abilities for it had decreased with her injuries.
I can't believe I'm on my way to fourteen and already I'm telling myself that I'm not as strong as I once was...
She sighed as she walked through the gardens. For a while, she stood where she was and let her feet look about the scene for her. With the everyday vibrations of the earth, she could almost see what was happening in the ground level of the palace... almost. She could see the ants marching in their never-ending line between their nest and where they found food. She could see all the flowers, though not their colours or patterns, and she could see ever tree, shrub, bush and plant that was rooted into the earth around her. A little further into the garden, towards where Azula and Ursa's memorial place was, she could see turtle-ducks wading timidly in and out of the water. And lying on the bank of the pond, heartbeat slowly fading into nothingness...
Toph did a double take.
"K...Katara?" Half of her wished to rush to her friend's side and to her aid, but another part of her stopped her. Something was wrong, something was very, very wrong. She let the first urge get the better of her and she stiffly scurried to where the waterbender lay.
"Katara?" Toph dropped to her knees beside the girl. That's when she realized what was so wrong. "Oh gosh..." She reached her hands out and ran her fingertips over her friend's face... over where her friend's face should have been. For a moment, Toph's heart stopped. Katara's heartbeat was slowing down. Her face was gone – no nose or mouth – she couldn't breathe!
Toph jumped up and tried to drag Katara towards the palace. That plan was abandoned quickly when she realized that she wasn't physically capable on such a thing.
"Aang!" she shouted, moving as quickly as she could back towards the palace. "Aang! Help!"
Just as she re-entered the building, the young monk appeared before her.
"Toph, what's the matter?" he asked in a flurry.
"It's Katara! Something's happened to her! She's out in the garden and she needs help, come on!" she screamed in panic, grabbing Aang by the sleeve and dragging him along with her.
At mention of Katara in trouble, Aang sprung into action, "Where? Where is she?" He swapped places with Toph and began to drag her instead.
"Out here, over by the pond."
"Which pond?" Aang looked down several paths that led deeper into the garden, all of which he knew led to a pond somewhere along the way.
"This way!" Toph showed him, pulling him along. A few seconds later, Aang and Toph came out onto the bank of the pond and there in the sand lay a faceless body, dressed in the same attire the Fire Lady had dressed herself in that morning.
Aang stood still for a moment, standing over Katara while Toph knelt down beside her again. He stared dumbly down at where her face should have been, where her beautiful blue eyes and soft, tender lips were missing.
"Oh ..."
"Aang! She can't breathe!" Toph startled him out of his thoughts. "We need to get her to the hospital wing in the palace. Her heartbeats just about gone; she's dying!"
Tears were streaking their way from Toph's misty green eyes and her voice rose up several octaves in her stress. She looked up at the Avatar's face and felt him looking back at her.
Shaking his head, Aang dropped himself into an airbending stance.
"Toph, stand up and get back, I'll get her into the hospital. Run ahead of me and get the doctor's to get ready for her."
Toph nodded and sprung up again, dashing as fast as she could without hurting herself back into the palace to do as her friend had said. Aang looked back down at Katara's body and bent the air currents around her, lifting her into the air. Quickly, he made his way towards the hospital wing behind Toph.
When he walked in, the doctor and a couple of nurses rushed up to him and took Katara from his air currents and laying her down on the bed next to Mai's. Toph was sitting on a bit at the other end of the room and Aang raced over to her and wrapped his arms around her. He hugged her to his chest and shushed her quiet sobs. Angry at herself, she bit down hard on her lip and straightened up, refusing to make another peep. The tears rolled down her cheeks silently.
The doctor and his nurses pulled a curtain around Katara's bed. They spoke in hushed voices to one another, discussing what they should do. Aang watched as one of the nurses ducked out from behind the curtain and fetched some tools for the doctor. Behind the curtain, they did what they had to. Aang and Toph waited as patiently as they could, holding their breath. After fifteen minutes, the doctor and nurses stepped out from the curtain. There was a small amount of blood on the gloves on their hands. After removing them, the doctor came up to Aang and Toph with a frown on his face.
"She is stable, for now. But what a peculiar thing... I have never seen a case quite like that. Lady Toph, you said you found her?" Toph nodded. The doctor shook his head and kept frowning. "I just don't understand. Less than an hour ago, she was sitting in here next to Lady Mai's bed with Prince Skye and Miss Suki and little Sayu. Her brother and General Iroh came in and they all saw her, face intact! Do you have any idea what has happened?"
Toph shook her head, "I just walked out there and saw her lying there... and her face was gone."
"Yes, I can see that..." The doctor cast a wary look over his shoulder. The curtains remained drawn around the Fire Lady's bed and the nurses stood in a huddle in the far corner of the room, casting unnerved looks towards it and speaking to each other in hushed voices.
"How could this have just happened...?" Toph asked.
Aang stiffened beside her and she straightened up and turned her head towards him, noticing his skipping heartbeat.
"Twinkletoes... what's going through your head? You don't know anything about this, do you?"
"Well, I..."
"Aang?" Toph grabbed the front of his shirt and shook him. "What's going on?"
His eyes went wide in fright as she shook him, and he grabbed her wrists and pried her off of him.
"Calm down! Actually, maybe not, but still!"
"Aang!"
"Ok, ok! Look... a couple of years ago when me, Sokka and Katara were up at the North Pole for the first time, the Princess of the Northern Water Tribe showed me a little garden with an oasis. It was a place to be closer to the spirits. I was trying to get in touch with them and learn how to help protect the Tribe from a siege from the Fire Nation."
"How does that have anything to do with –!"
"Just let me finish! Ok, so I went into the Spirit World and... well, I met a spirit who... who..." Aang gulped as he looked back over to where Katara's bed was obscured behind the curtain.
"Aang?" she asked gently, putting a hand on his forearm.
He turned his head back to her and looked her in the eyes. "His name was Koh... Koh... the Face Stealer."
"What do you mean strange activity in the Spirit World?" Zuko demanded of the Fire Sages that were standing around the table with him.
"My Lord, it is unclear to us what is going on exactly. All we know is one of the Spirits came into the mortal world without warning, and as far as we're aware, this Spirit could cause some trouble if he isn't sent back soon," the superior Sage explained.
"Who is this Spirit and what does it do?" the Fire Lord asked in a low voice, keeping his eyes locked with the superior Sage's.
"He is dangerous and potentially... deadly, My Lord."
"Who is he? What makes him so threatening?"
Keeping a neutral face, his hands folded in his sleeves, the Sage continued, "He is known to us as Koh the Face Stealer. The name is self-explanatory, My Lord."
A puzzled expression washed over Zuko's face. "A... face stealer? Are you honestly telling me this guy goes around and steals people's faces?"
"Not just people; he can steal animal faces too. But that's not the point. The point is that he passed into the realm of mortals; that's here amongst people. And if he sees anyone's face and they show some sort of expression on their face... well, the result will not be good."
"My Lord," a messenger walked in and bowed. "Please, forgive the interruption. The doctor and the Avatar sent me; they said it was an urgent matter."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait until this meeting is over," Zuko said, sounding irritated.
"My Lord, I think perhaps you should learn whatever it is your messenger has been asked to deliver to you. If the doctor and the Avatar himself have marked it as urgent..." The superior Fire Sage trailed off. His strange wisdom much reminded Zuko of his Uncle, though he seemed a lot more serious and a lot less boisterous than the old tea-lover.
"Very well... what is it?"
"It's... well, Sir, it's Lady Katara."
For a moment, his heart froze, along with his blood and his brain. When his body kicked back into action a split second later, he found himself holding the messenger by the collar of his shirt.
"What is wrong with my wife?"
"She... she..." The man stuttered as Zuko shook him. "Avatar... hospital wing... urgent..."
That was all Zuko needed to hear from the fearful man. Heart pounding, the young Fire Lord raced from the Peace Room and headed straight for the hospital wing.
The Fire Sages walked solemnly behind him in a straight line, their heads bowed and their hands folded into their sleeves.
"So let me get this straight," Toph said. "Koh is a spirit who steals people's faces."
"But only if they show expression to him," Aang explained. "If they keep their face neutral, then they have nothing to worry about. But the moment they slip up... he has their face."
"And if he takes their face, it means they die, right? Because without a nose or mouth they can't breathe, right? Right!"
"I don't know!"
"Aang! How can you not know? You saw Katara!"
"I know, I know, but... Toph, listen, when I was in the Spirit World and I saw him, I also saw what was left of some of his victims. There was this monkey, and I came up behind it and it turned around and had no face... but it wasn't dead. It probably would have died of starvation eventually, but somehow it was still there!"
"Ok, ok, let's think logically..." Toph decided. "You were in the Spirit World, yes? DEAD THINGS GO TO THE SPIRIT WORLD, AANG!"
The monk hunched his shoulders and nodded, "Ok, I get it, I know, I understand."
"Good..."
Aang sat down and rubbed his hands over his bald head, "Oh jeez..."
Suddenly, the door to the hospital burst open and Zuko virtually ran inside.
"Aang!"
The boy sighed, "Why is everyone yelling at me today...?" he mumbled.
"Aang, what's going on?" Zuko demanded. "Where's Katara?"
Sucking in a deep breath, the boy stood up and met the Fire Lord half way across the room.
"It's... kinda hard to explain..." the young Avatar started, trailing off and fiddling with his fingers nervously. "But it's really not that bad, I'm sure there's a way to fix it, and the doctor said she'd be –"
"Aang! Where's my wife?"
"Behind the curtain, Firefly," Toph interjected, nodding her head towards Katara's bed.
Zuko stood before the curtains within a few long strides and he gripped the material, taking in a deep breath.
Aang stepped forward and put his arm on Zuko's shoulder, "Zuko, I'm not so sure you should –"
But before he could finish what he was saying, Zuko pulled back the curtain to look at his beloved. Katara lay on the bed, her chocolate locks flowing about her head in beautiful ripples. But her skin was pale, as if from shock or blood-loss. Zuko's heart plummeted to his stomach as he registered the absence of her face – no more eyes, nose or mouth. And his stomach twisted itself into knots at the sight of the tube that was sticking out of her neck, allowing her to breathe.
Aang shrank back at the sight too and Toph stood up from where she had been sitting the whole time and approached them, already having known what the doctor's had done to save Katara. She looped her arm around Aang's and put her head on his shoulder, staring blindly at the waterbender.
"Good Agni..." Zuko murmured, stepping back and putting a hand over his mouth. He had to bite down hard on his lip to prevent himself from having some sort of outburst. Fists clenched around the curtains, a ribbon of smoke began to issue into the air.
Toph grabbed the Fire Lord's forearm and pulled him back. Reluctantly, Zuko released the curtain and turned away from the heartbreaking sight before him, burying his face in his hands and shaking his head.
"Good Agni..." he repeated.
Toph rubbed his back soothingly and they listened as the superior Fire Sage walked in behind Zuko, ordering the other Sages to remain outside the hospital.
"My Lord," he bowed. "I am ever so sorry for your loss."
"My wife..." Zuko hissed through clenched teeth. "How can we fix this?"
Taken aback, the Sage stuttered, "M-My Lord?"
"HOW DO I FIX THIS?" he demanded, rounding on the elderly man angrily.
For a few minutes, they stared across the room at each other. The Sage's face remained vacant; totally blank. Zuko was seething where he stood, taking in huge gulps of hair to keep himself from lashing out. His eyes were glistening with tears and they travelled slowly down his unscarred cheek. Fists clenched at his side, Toph kept a firm grip on his arm, just to make sure he wasn't about to attack somebody.
"Zuko," she said his name softly. "Calm down. She's alive. We will figure this out," she assured him.
A few moments later, Zuko was holding his breath. Soon enough, he had regained proper control of himself and straightened up. He struggled but succeeded in keeping a straight face and looking the superior Fire Sage in the eye.
"How do I fix this?" he enquired once more.
The Fire Sage shook his head, "As far as the Sages are aware, there is no known way to retrieve a face stolen by Koh. I cannot help you," he spoke gravely. "I just hope that we can ensure the safety of everyone else – make a public notice and be sure that everyone is alerted of the threat underway here. Inform the people of any and all precautions they can take and tell them to report any strange activity immediately and stay on their guard. I will write you out a list of things to ensure every individual's safety."
With that, the superior Fire Sage exited the room. He and his brothers retreated from the palace.
Zuko stood, fists still clenched at his side and his hair falling gently over his eyes, hiding them, but not the tears that streaked down from them or his trembling lips, desperately trying to contain any sound or word that would further betray his despair.
The Fire Lord raised his head and walked to Katara's bedside, where he knelt, head resting on her chest so that he could feel the rise and fall of her breathing, and hear the beating of her heart, just to assure him she was still with him. Then, he raised his head once more and kissed her gently where her lips would have been.
Dun dun dun! What will happen next? I'll leave that for you to guess. Until then, I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave a review, remember, I need at least three (3) or I cannot update. Once I get my three, I'll update ASAP. :)
Give me your thoughts and feedback and hope to hear from you soon!
JOIN TEAM ZUTARA!
