Trust, and a Whole Other Kind of Love

Chapter 2

Sokka's body hit the ground with a thump. His lifeless arms bounced a few times before coming to rest by his shoulder. He had his head tilted unceremoniously to the side; the vision in his eyes blurring as the seconds passed.

Somewhere distant, he could make out a familiar voice calling his name. All the sounds around him were muffled, and he could somehow feel the vibrations the ground made. For some reason, he couldn't understand anything that was happening at the moment. He could only feel a faint pain in his shoulder, just past the bone in his neck. There was an atmospheric feel of danger around, but he could no longer meddle on the idea as his thoughts turned black. He unconsciously muttered, "Toph," before he lost all awareness.

Just hearing her name escape his lips was enough to fuel the fire within her. Moments ago, her body was frozen in place; none of her senses were working. Although she knew she had to do something quick, her muscles weren't reacting to what her mind so wanted to do.

The motions around her seemed to slow down, almost coming to a stop. All she could feel was his silhouette and the faint beating of his heart. Everything in her focused on those two things; the outside world was nothing but a stranger to her.

Then, he spoke, and everything came back to place. The pain in multiple parts of her body was no longer there, nothing but the scars and bruises to remind her of their visit.

Two more men were coming for her, and she knew she had to act quickly. Her first instinct was to fight them off with all her might, but that would make Sokka defenseless against all odds. For now, he was her first priority. He was a good couple of feet away from her, and she needed to get to him as soon as possible.

As the two men charged for her from different directions, she slipped under them just in time. Unfortunately, the two attackers anticipated that move from her. They made a swift grab of her feet before she could scurry away.

Toph felt strong grips on both her ankles, pulling her to the tree once again. She reacted immediately and twisted her body, so that her back was the one in contact with the ground. Getting fistfuls of earth from both her sides, she threw the rocks towards their faces; her aim was perfect. They were blinded for a second; she used that time to wiggle free from their grips and take a proper stance. Once she was balanced, she brought her hands away from each other, and lifted them in the air. The two men were now trapped in her special earth-coned prison—the one she always used with Sokka and the others.

Sokka.

She remembered him in an instant and came rushing to his side. She stood above him, a tear threatening to fall down her cheek.

"You idiot," she murmured, shaking her head, "always trying to be the hero."

Toph slammed her feet on the floor and created a foggy view around them. She made sure that the dust would cover them for a while. Her fist made contact with the ground as 4 earth walls emerged, protecting them in all sides except for the top—they needed to breathe, after all.

Twisting her arms in open, fluid motions, she turned the hard ground into a soft bed for Sokka. She put his arms gently to his sides, and placed him in a comfortable position; she knew he didn't want to wake up with sore muscles.

In her mind, she knew this was all her fault. It was her fault Sokka had all these cuts and bruises. It was her fault he was shot in the shoulder. Even if she couldn't feel anything in the trees, she should've tried. She should've tried to save him. Deep in her heart she knew that nothing was impossible, and that if she wasn't so selfish—if she hadn't been mourning over her own pains—this wouldn't have happened to him.

He always got hurt because of her, and she was tired of it. She promised herself not so long ago that Sokka would never get hurt because of her; in fact, she promised herself that no one would get hurt because of her. She didn't want to be the cause of other's pains, especially her best friend's; but, so far, she hadn't lived up to that promise.

Unconsciously, she caressed his cheek with her calloused hand. Something told her that Sokka wouldn't really mind. They weren't lovers, but they were so much more than best friends. If honest, Toph didn't know how she felt about Sokka. She knew she used to have a crush on him, though it had evolved into so much more that she didn't know what to call it anymore.

So far, Sokka hadn't told her anything about his feelings, but she somehow knew he felt the same. He and Suki were still a couple, and she could tell he cared deeply for his girlfriend and vice versa. When they were still quite young, she used to feel jealous of Suki's relationship with Sokka, but through the years, she learned to respect the warrior, and accept reality. If she was asked what her relationship with Sokka was—they've often been mistaken as a couple—she'd usually answer that they were just simply best friends; but they both knew better. For some reason, it was a mutual and unspoken agreement that their relationship with each other best be left undefined. They both knew most things are broken when one puts a label on it.

Through the years, they've learned to welcome what they had without any questions. They didn't avoid the topic, though when they would talk about it, they usually didn't come up with a suitable result. They decided it is best left as it is: a mystery; but that surely wouldn't stop them from bringing up the subject every once in a while.

Her fingers reached his forehead and she realized that he was burning up. Her face scrunched up in thought.

What was in that arrow?

Almost reflexively, she brought her ears to his chest.

Thump… Thump… Thump…

Eyebrows knit together, she brushed the inside of her ear before listening once again.

Thump… Thump… Thump…

She wasn't mistaken. His heartbeat had become slower since she last checked. His breathing seemed normal, but she could never be too careful. Toph knew what might come next, but she refused to even think about the possibility. Two lines of tears raced down her face; she made no move to stop them. She knelt down beside the bed she made for Sokka, her right arm draped across his chest.

"You're okay, you're okay. Just hang in there, okay? Everything's going to be fine, I promise," she assured, more of to herself than to him.

With two gentle pats to his chest, and a quick kiss to his forehead, Toph rose from her knees. She wiped her tear-stained face and readied her battle stance.

"Let's do this!" She jumped and slammed her feet and fists to the ground. The walls around her fell back to the ground and the dust cleared away. The racket she made cause the fight around her to cease. All eyes were on her; a malicious smirk crept into her face.

The waterbender held her water whip as she heard a loud bang. This gave her rival a chance to catch her off-guard. Attempting to plummet her sword towards the master's chest, the non-bender charged forward, twisting her blade.

Her effort proved to be futile when a strong wind blew the sword out of her hands. She grunted and looked at the responsible Avatar right before she was put under the ground.

The sound of wind was enough to bring Katara back to her senses. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," answered Aang.

Another loud bang was heard around the clearing.

"Say, do you hear that? What is it?" His mind was filled with questions, though he was alert and didn't let his guard down.

"I don't k—" her sentence was cut short was she saw Toph in her stance—she looked so different for some reason—and her brother unconscious on a rock bed. A gasp escaped her lips. Tears fell quickly down her face as she thought and shook her head.

Sokka. My brother. What happened?

"Oh no," she heard Aang mutter from behind her.

"Where are they coming from?" Yen shouted amidst the noise. "We've fought so many, yet there's always more! "

The students were still situated in a circle. It wasn't as strong as it was a couple hits ago, no, it had become floppy and disorganized.

Shi wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. He looked around and saw that everyone had their hands on their knees, sweating, and panting heavily.

They keep on coming… I don't know if we're going to be able to hold them off much longer… he thought. If only… there was some sort of distraction… then we would be able to take them down easily. But, with everyone in a state like this, with new attackers coming out from every direction every minute, we don't stand a chance.

He heard a strained and harsh coughing from his right. Shi didn't dare look at the person; he was too worried he might lose his focus.

"Are you okay?" he called to whoever was coughing.

Ching gasped as Lu fell into his arms. He was positioned beside her and saw the blood that came out of her mouth when she coughed. He couldn't help a gasp as she lost consciousness. Slowly, with the help of Xi, he was able to carry her on his back.

"Lu's down! She's unconscious!" the boy said, as he struggled to keep up with the weight on his back.

"What the Spirits happened?" Shi still refused to look behind him. Attackers could come at any minute. He anticipated another 30 seconds before the next attack, since it's been about a minute since one came.

"I don't know! But we have to do something!" Ching was genuinely concerned for Lu. Even though she was always a pain in the butt during training, always goofing around and stealing food from their bags, she was always fun to have around; he would never admit such a thing, though.

"What do we do?"

"Yeah, Shi! What do we do?"

"Come on!"

"Lu's unconscious! We have to help her!"

"This was your idea!"

"This is your fault!"

"We should've escaped when we had the chance!"

"We should've never listened to you!"

All these remarks were thrown at Shi at the same time. His ears had their voices bouncing of the walls, echoing in his head. Just when someone was about to throw another insult at him, Shi had enough.

"Will you guys just shut the Ravaa up?" he exploded at them, finally facing his comrades. "I have no idea what the Spirits happened to Lu, so don't keep throwing your problems at me! I know this is all my fault, but I don't see any of you thinking of anything! You're all just a bunch of cowards! At least I tired to help! At least I fought! I know that the attackers keep on coming out of nowhere, but I don't control their numbers! Don't blame me if they keep on coming! Our job here is to try and help the Masters! Now will you all just shut up so I can think of something?"

This was able to shut everyone up. They had these unknown looks on their faces that Shi couldn't decipher. He brushed their looks off and pondered about the situation.

If we leave now we'll probably all be safe, he thought. But then the Masters wouldn't have any help. And by the looks of how many their numbers are, the Masters will need all the help they can get. Lu's unconscious. She can't fight. If we leave now, we might be able to help her. If we don't, well we can't just leave her like that. We could go and hide deep in the forest. But then there's the possibility of being attacked in the forest too. If ever, we have more of an advantage here since it's open. The attackers could be hiding in the trees for all we know. Yes, it's best to stay here. But what about Lu then?

His mind kept racing from one subject to the other. It was as if there were two forces in himself opposing one another. After almost 20 seconds of thinking, Shi was able to come up with a plan he thought would work.

"Okay, guys, listen up. The next wave of attacks will be here in about 20 seconds max. Here's what we have to do: Ching, bring Lu away from here, but not so deep into forest. Xi and Bao, go with them and make sure they don't get hurt. Ching, you have to make a sort of underground earth tent so Lu can lay there, but make sure the both of you can breath properly. You two guard that earth tent, okay? The rest of us will stay here. We have to keep on fighting. Got it?" Shi said in a rush. He was answered with nods from everyone. "Okay, now go!"

The three, along with Lu, began to race out of the clearing, but before they could get any further, more attackers came. Then just when the fight was about to resume, a boom was heard and everyone turned their heads towards its origin.

What they saw surprised them. They couldn't register what happened, but by the look on their Sifu's face, they knew all of hell was about to break loose.

"Ahhh!"

All eyes were on her as she moved faster than deemed possible. With various and complex forms, she was able to knock out a group of earthbenders and trap them underground in an instant. Her body seems so fluid and graceful, yet she had the aura and rage of a firebender. As if the attacks were nothing to her, she dodged the rocks, fire, and blades. Even if they were continuously attacker her in sync, she managed to evade every single one of their hits.

The men and women that were fighting off Aang, Katara, and the metalbending students rushed off to help their comrades in the battle between the blind earthbender.

The Avatar and his subordinates could do nothing but stand in awe as they saw Toph single-handedly taking down a whole army. They knew she was acting in a blind rage, and they could see why.

"Don't you think we should help her?" Katara asked her boyfriend.

"I don't think so. We might just get in the way. I've never seen Toph like this before. I think it's best to let her have her way for now," he replied.

As if hearing their conversation from afar, Toph shouted through the battle, "What are you waiting for, Katara? Sokka's unconscious! What the Spirits are you just standing there for?" Her voice sounded undeniably angry to most people, but her two friends knew that hurt in her words. If one listened close enough, he would hear the sound of genuine fear off her voice. It wasn't obvious, though, for the look of rage plastered in her face.

Katara nodded to Aang before running towards the fight. She was worried about her brother, but she was worried about Toph too. She never acted in blind anger, always thinking before acting in a fight. For some reason, Toph began to look like Zuko. Only he would act like this, and even he wouldn't go to this extent.

There were too many opponents with different kinds of weapons. It was only a matter of time when Toph would slip up—

The earthbender's horrifying laugh echoed through the clearing as a body came crashing down on hers from above. Even as she was pinned to the ground with blood coming out of her nose, Toph still continued to laugh like she was mad.

"Oh, you'll never catch me!"

A/N: I can't believe I decided to continue this "one-shot" today instead of Right Decisions. Oh, you guys are gonna kill me when I post the next chapter…

Which will hopefully be up by next week.(?)

I should've done Right Decisions first… I'm so stupid… Oh well…

Also, I hated how the last parts (after Toph's first long one, before the cut) turned out. Sucked. My writing skill always goes down hill after a cut.

Until next time!

About 2 more chapters until this "one-shot" is done, I guess. The main point will be in the next chapter while the last will just probably be supporting it, or wrapping things up. :)