Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender is the creation of Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and is owned by Nickelodeon.


Author's note: Yes, I know it's been a while...a long while...since I've updated. *cringe* My apologies. Life has made keeping up with this rather difficult. I still do want to finish it. And I will - even it if takes a long time! I was stuck on this chapter too, so that didn't help. Anyway, I will do my best to finish within a reasonable amount of time! As a side note, I have another story I had written quite a bit for that I recently resurrected and am pondering publishing...


For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
H. L. Mencken


Chapter 6: Problem Solving

A small figure practically flew across the grounds of Fire Palace, her quiet footfalls barely making contact with the ground. A larger figure in armor was making a valiant effort to keep pace with her, but Admiral Jee could not run quite so fast as the panicked girl. She ducked into one of the hidden side entrances to the grand hallway that led to the throne room. As much as she wanted to scream Iroh's name, she did not want to blow her cover if anyone from the so-called "loyalist" group had eyes at the palace. All they could report was that she was running. For all anyone knew, she could be running to see if the deed had been done.

Ty Lee made her way through side corridors and secret passages, trying to get to the family wing of the palace. She knew every nook and cranny of the Fire Palace, thanks to the years of her childhood spent playing in these ancient halls. She ducked behind a tapestry that led to a hidden corridor, and brushed a cobweb away from her face. Normally, she would be appalled at touching a cobweb, but right now she didn't even spare it a thought. All she could bring to the mind was the face of Messenger as he informed her that Iroh was scheduled to be assassinated. Worry settled in the pit of her stomach as she ran through the dark passage toward the family wing. She exited the hidden passage and entered the empty hallway.

She forced herself into a quick walk as she approached the doors to Iroh's suite. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that entrance to the room was currently being guarded by two Kyoshi warriors, but her heart hitched in her throat when she saw how tensed their muscles were. The green-clad warrior women were ready to take action at any moment. Usually they were calm and on alert, but much more relaxed and ready with a smile for friends. Something had happened. She approached them and whispered, "Iroh…" with a questioning gaze.

"He is inside," one of the warriors said in a hushed tone, and granted her entrance.

Ty Lee hoped he was inside and alive. She walked through the doors with hesitance, afraid of what she would find. Her knees nearly buckled in relief when she saw him sitting at his tea table with Sokka and Suki. She ran to him and nearly knocked him over with an enthusiastic hug. She had never been so happy to see the old man calmly drinking his tea.

"You're okay!" she exclaimed. "They…they were…going to…"

The older man looked at her with a measure of sadness. "They tried, Miss Ty Lee," he stated. He looked over at Sokka and Suki with pride and fondness. "Our young friends saved me from the attack," he said, gesturing toward the two warriors.

A tear started to roll out of Ty Lee's eye. "I guess at least we know my contact is telling me the truth," she said with a tremble in her voice.

Sokka looked over at her, his hand linked with Suki's. Ty Lee noted that they both looked shocked and horrified. She noticed they both had their weapons close at hand. He spoke, voicing what they had all been wondering since Ty Lee's return.

"I guess we don't have any more contact with the spies, then?" he said, assuming Ty Lee had run out of there.

Are they going to think I'm awful for not running straight out of there?

"Actually," she started with hesitance, "I stayed. I think he intended it as a test. It was all I could do not to run back here as soon as he told me what was happening." She choked back a sob. More tears ran down her face as she continued. "I knew I'd never make it in time, and then we would lose any line to information we had." She looked pointedly at her friends. "I just had to trust that you all could take care of yourselves. And you did," she said with admiration. "I'm sorry," she finished as more tears welled in her gray eyes.

Iroh smiled gently at her, and reached for the cooling teapot, which he quickly reheated with a gesture.

He poured a cup of tea for her as he said, "You did the right thing, my young friend." He patted her hand, and she felt relief wash over her.

She took the proffered cup and smiled.


"Twinkletoes?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we bust out of here now?"

Silence. "No."

"How about now?"

"No."

"How about now?"

The young airbender sighed. The moon was now high in the sky over the ancient Sun Warrior ruins. He closed his eyes and attempted to tune out the voice of his impatient earthbending friend. He concentrated on the humming of the local insects…the breeze brushing by the opening of the cave they were currently imprisoned in…

"You do realize we could both earthbend our way out of here in five seconds flat, right? Even Snoozles could figure that one out."

Aang gave up on meditation. There was no hope for it with Toph as a prison mate. He turned toward her. They were both seated on the floor of the cave, as there were no comforts to speak of in their current accommodations. The ground was gritty and cold underneath him. He tried to concentrate on his inner fire to warm himself, but then guiltily realized Toph didn't have that luxury. In the moonlight, he saw the small earthbender suppress a shiver. In vain, he looked for some kind of tinder to build a fire, but the ground was bare.

Toph was trying not to show her discomfort, and casually sat with her back resting on the wall as she mindlessly manipulated a piece of rock that had come loose.

"I know, Toph. But…I need the Sun Warriors to trust us, and breaking out of prison isn't going to do any good," he said, unable to keep a small bit of frustration out of his voice.

Toph continued to shape her rock. "Well, what are we supposed to do? Sit here until we rot?" she said to him sharply.

"Let's just get through the night, okay? I'll figure something out in the morning," he said, throwing his hands up in the air. "I'll try to get permission to talk with their leader again. If I can just convince him-"

"Convince him of WHAT, Aang?" Toph interrupted.

Uh oh. She stopped with the nicknames. That's never good.

"He already seemed to have made up his mind! He seems pretty convinced you're only after the weapon for your own interests," she yelled, finally throwing her rock aside. It echoed through the chamber as it bounced off the walls.

"I don't know. I guess I just have to make it up as I go," he said, feeling dejected.

In the dim light, he saw his friend's expression soften.

"Well, I guess that's not any different than usual," she observed. With that, she cocooned herself in earth, and was softly snoring in a matter of moments.

Aang was finally left alone with his thoughts, but the solitude did not help with a solution. With a sigh, he waited for morning to come.

He stared at Toph's earth-covered form, and his last coherent thought before sleep claimed him was that he hadn't needed to worry about her being cold.


When morning broke, Aang looked hopefully toward the barred entrance to the cave. He was thankful that firebenders were naturally early risers, so he expected to see one of their captors soon. He assumed they would bring them some food and water, and when they did, he could once more try to gain an audience with the leader of the Sun Warriors.

His ears burned with embarrassment when he thought of how poorly the previous day had gone.

Monkey feathers! Why did I have to come right out and say what we were after! I'm not good at this kind of thing.

Sure, he was good at reasoning with people when they trusted him as the Avatar, but things were a little different with people who didn't trust the Avatar. It was so ingrained in him that he was the good guy that it came as a bit of a shock when people didn't quite see that right off. Sometimes it was difficult to argue his case. Inside, he knew his heart was in the right place – but how could he show that to other people? He knew this situation looked bad. Everyone who had ever gone after this weapon wanted to wield its power. How could he convince them that he merely wanted to keep it out of Azula's power-hungry hands?

Maybe I can find a way to destroy it.

He blew out a sigh. It came out a little more forceful than he intended, and some unintentional airbending shifted dirt across the stone floor. He nervously looked at Toph's small form, which was still covered in earth. He really didn't want to wake her up quite this early. She was definitely not a morning person.

His thoughts turned to Katara. She was more of a morning person than Toph. Usually she was up a little bit after him and Zuko.

Zuko.

He wondered how their mission was going. He still felt sharp disappointment when he thought of Katara's goodbye. He hadn't wanted to admit it, but he could tell that her heart wasn't in their relationship. He kept trying to cling to a thread of hope that she would fly into his arms and apologize when they met again. He would apologize too, and everything would go back to the way he wanted.

Then he remembered the look in her fathomless blue eyes. He saw fondness, friendship, and sadness over what was. What he did not see was love – not love in the way he hoped. He never had her look at him the way she looked at Zuko when she thought no one saw. He tried to clamp down the burning knot of jealousy inside himself. He knew that as the Avatar, he could not let anger over Katara get in the way of his relationship with Zuko. The Fire Lord and the Avatar had a long road ahead to work toward peace, and it would never be achieved if they did not have peace with one another.

You must let go of your worldly attachments.

He stared sadly toward the sun, which was now well on its way into the cloudless blue sky.

He felt a low rumble as Toph's cocoon of earth returned to the cave floor. He allowed himself a small smile as she stretched, dug something out from between her toes, and spit before she glanced in his direction.

It never ceased to amaze him that she always knew where he was, even when he wasn't moving.

She must feel the vibrations of my breath.

She really was amazing.

And then she jammed a finger up her nose to remove an offending glob of mucus.

Yup, that's Toph.

The petite earthbender finally finished her morning ablutions and decided to speak.

"So, has Sunshine been by here yet?"

"Sun…shine…?" he mumbled hesitantly. Recognition came as he suddenly remembered that was the name she had called the Sun Warrior leader yesterday.

"Oh, uh…no. Not yet," he said haltingly, throwing a hopeful glance toward the cave entrance. "Actually, no one has come by yet."

"So can we bust out of here now?" she asked. She sounded like she didn't really expect a positive answer, but hoped for one anyway.

He gave her a withering expression, and belatedly realized it was wasted on her.

"You know the answer," he replied.

She let loose a growl of frustration, threw her hands up in the air, and plopped down on the floor.

"Toph…"

"What?" she bit out at him.

"Maybe they'll come in a few minutes," he said cheerily. He gave another desperate glance toward the cave entrance. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep his earthbending sifu contained.

"Right," she said with a healthy layer of skepticism in her voice.

He watched the sun climb higher in the sky. He heard Toph's breathing become deep and regular, and registered that she had fallen back to sleep. He was starting to worry. He watched seabirds go about their business on the rocks outside the cave. A new set of daytime insects started to buzz. His own eyelids started to droop as he worried that no one was going to come talk to them. Or bring them food.

He snapped to attention as he finally heard footsteps on the rocky ground outside.

"Toph!" he whispered sharply. To his relief, she woke up instantly.

A Sun Warrior finally appeared, and shot a burst of flame into the opening mechanism of the gate. It opened with a ponderous, rusty creak. Aang stood and looked in askance at the warrior.

The older man spoke. "Come. It has been decided that you and the girl will face a test."


Azula stood on a balcony overlooking a town square. Her red-painted lips curled into a cold smile that did not reach her eyes. After what had seemed to be an interminable voyage, she had reached the location indicated on the map.

On the outside, it looked like every other pathetic Earth Kingdom colony she had ever had the misfortune to visit. This one though…this one was different.

She had sailed into the small docking area and docked her small vessel. After securing both it and her mother, she walked down the dock, her boots beating a staccato on the wooden planks. Curious eyes followed her, but asked no questions. She quickly found the town center and demanded to know who was in charge.

Not that he would be in charge much longer.

She was led to the largest building in the town and guided into an office. She was told that the governor was on his way, and a few moments later, a well-muscled man burst through the door. He had immediately dropped to one knee before her.

"Princess Azula, I have been awaiting your arrival. Everything has been prepared."

"That is fortunate…for you. I would have been most displeased if you were not prepared for my visit after all this time," she replied, casually inspecting her nails. She felt satisfaction as he gulped. That was the only sign he was intimidated. He'll do. I'll keep him around for now.

"Is there anything you immediately require? We have a suite of rooms ready for you – they are the most luxurious on the island. I'm afraid they are not quite fitting for a princess, but it is the best we have to offer," he said apologetically.

Her eyes narrowed. "I suppose it will do. Is there a prison on this island? I have a prisoner on my ship." She paused a moment. "Actually, a secure room near mine would be fitting," she amended.

The man bowed to her. "It will be done, my princess."

And so she found herself on her own private balcony overlooking her new domain. Her mother was secured in a small room next to her suite, and her brother was almost certainly on his way to the island by now. It would lead to his eventual downfall. She smiled in satisfaction.


"What do you think that one looks like?"

"A boarcupine."

"Zuko, you've said the past seven clouds have looked like a boarcupine! You're supposed to use your imagination!"

"I can't help it that all the clouds look like a boarcupine."

Katara huffed in frustration.

Zuko relented.

"Okay, it looks like a flame," he supplied.

She looked over at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Really? That's the best you can do?" she questioned.

"My upbringing stifled my imagination," he said drily.

Katara snorted. "Okay fine. I suppose that could be considered a valid excuse," she conceded. "But I'm gonna make you practice using your imagination," she said good-naturedly.

It had been a long couple of weeks. Zuko's initial fire to catch up with Azula as soon as possible had lapsed into impatience and boredom. Katara repeatedly reminded him that the war balloon could only fly so fast, and that Azula was expecting them to follow anyway. They had needed to stop for supplies a couple of times, but made the trips as quickly as possible in order to get right back up in the air.

Katara was concerned over Zuko's exhaustion over keeping the war balloon afloat. She wished she could help more. She could stoke the fire a bit, but it didn't quite add the power that Zuko's firebending did.

She thought back to their days of traveling the Earth Kingdom. The vast lands seemed to last forever back then, and now she realized just how long the coastline of the Earth Kingdom was, as they were following it south. The island they were looking for was near the southern edge of the Earth Kingdom. Beyond it lay Whale Tail Island and the Southern Air Temple.

For now, they were trying to pass the time in any way they could. They stood next to one another, each leaning on the edge of the balloon's basket, chins resting on crossed arms. Katara was trying to distract Zuko from his worry over his mother – hence the cloud game. The young Fire Lord had finally given in and said he would play the game. Katara quickly found that Zuko's imagination was lacking in comparison to Aang and Sokka…and even Toph, who couldn't see the clouds, but would shout out random objects they could be.

"I see Momo eating a fruit tart at a table with an elephant koi!" Aang would say with enthusiasm.

"No, no, no Aang. You have it all wrong. Clearly, it's a moose-lion cub that's waterbending and doing spooky spirit things," Sokka supplied, waving his fingers in "spooky spirit motions" in support of his argument.

"You're both wrong," Toph interjected. "It's a boulder."

Sokka gave her an exasperated look. "Are rocks all you ever think about?"

"They are when we're flying on this overgrown fuzzball."

She broke out of her reverie when she realized Zuko had said something to her. She looked blankly at him, and asked him to repeat what he had said.

"I just asked if you were okay," he answered. She noticed he looked everywhere but at her. She realized he was still uncomfortable with "friend stuff."

She smiled. "Yeah, I was just thinking about when I played this game with Aang, Sokka, and Toph."

A sigh passed her lips as she thought about Aang. "I hope Aang is doing okay. I just feel…" she trailed off without finishing.

Zuko looked off into the clouds. "He can take care of himself, Katara," he reassured her.

"I know that. I just – "

Zuko answered as she struggled for words. He realized she wasn't just worried about his physical safety on the mission.

"He'll be fine. He just needs to get used to the idea," he said. "You...did the right thing in telling him."

Her spirit rose a little. "Do you think so? I was so worried about hurting his feelings…"

"Yeah. It wouldn't be fair to either of you to not say anything," he said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. He looked back out over the expanse of the ocean. She slipped her hand into his and gave a little squeeze. She leaned her head on his shoulder and whispered, "Thanks Zuko. I needed that."

They both stared for a little while at the setting sun, looking back toward the Fire Nation. Both wondered how their friends were faring. They could only hope that things were going well.

Just as the sun was about to disappear over the horizon, Zuko spotted a piece of land jutting up out of the water in the distance. He quickly grabbed the map to compare their location.

"Katara, I think we found it. We had better put down soon so we're not spotted," he murmured.

They landed on a small outlying island for the night. Few words passed between them as they thought about what lay ahead. Sleep eventually found them. They would need their rest.


There you have it, folks. And as a side note, I really do have fun writing Toph ;)