The actions of Zuko finding his injured workers and searching for councilmen occurs simultaneously when his friends are running their own dusk-to-dawn investigation. This is why the gang finds the councilmen just after Zuko does.
Chapter 8
After moving the injured, unconscious firebenders and guardsman into the infirmary, Fire Lord Zuko and his bodyguards marched through the hallways of the palace. They went in search of his councilmen and soldiers who had been displaced from his throne room since he had ordered them out the previous day. His palace staff were scattered in their private quarters, since they knew not to come back inside until he granted them access again.
He replaced Tamotsu and his colleague with another pair of guards at the front gate, knowing they would be able to handle a long night standing guard after a day of inactivity. In addition, Zuko commanded five of the other Imperial Firebenders in the palace to guard the perimeter wall.
As night turned to day, he encountered a room with a sliver of light appearing underneath the door and flung it open; his three Kyoshi Warriors, although exhausted, loyally stood right behind him and showed absolutely no fatigue in their posture. Zuko knew that these fiercely relentless Kyoshi Warriors would never leave his side, unless he became twisted and power-hungry like his father.
As he took in the room, he noted that it was illuminated with fire from torches even as the sun began to rise. The light revealed all nine government and military officials kneeling on cushions around a low table. As he approached, they looked at him in bewilderment, seeing the rage on his face.
"Sir? Is something wrong?" one of his servants humbly inquired.
"Yes," he spat. "I was attacked yesterday by fifteen members of a group loyal to my father, and at least five of them worked at the palace! One of them was a guard, two others were soldiers, and another two belonged to the Royal Procession. So—which of you are spies?"
"Sir, I think you should calm down," said another official cautiously. "You—"
"Why should I calm down?" he yelled. "You're telling me that I should relax after my own people turned on me?"
His council members stared at him with incredulity spread across their faces, at a complete loss of what to say.
After leaving Ursa's bedroom, Mai continued leading the gang through the hallway. They were looking for the very last of the employees when she noticed an open door up ahead. Mai began sprinting towards it; the rest of the group took off to keep up with her.
"So none of you have any relation to the New Ozai Society? How can I believe that?!" a familiar, yet furious voice exclaimed from the room as they drew closer. "Which of you are members?"
Peeking around the door, they saw Suki, Ty Lee, and another of their warriors standing before Zuko, whose hands were tightly gripped, his fists flaming. These were the council members they had been looking for! Toph was the first to enter, pushing past Mai. "Well, you'll find out soon enough," the blind girl stated.
The Fire Lord and all his servants, including his guards, glanced at the newcomers, shocked at the new group's swift entry. "All right, everyone on their feet. Spread out so that we can get started," Toph said.
"Are you really going to take orders from this Earth Kingdom girl?" one of the officials asked in astonishment.
"She's my friend—and one of my guards. She is acting on my behalf. Furthermore, I'm not the one taking orders from her—you are!"
"Get up off the floor. Is standing up for a few minutes going to kill you?" she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
The nine officials slowly rose from their cushions and spread themselves out across the room, while Toph crouched down to feel for vibrations of truth or lies. "Are you a part of the New Ozai Society?" she asked the first one on the left.
"No," he answered adamantly, and Toph moved to the next man.
Toph continued this same line of questioning, carefully evaluating the vibrations of each man with her hand as well as her feet, just as she had done with Zuko's family. She wanted to ensure she was correct in this critical situation. "All right, Zuko," she said, rising. "Two of these workers are spies for your father's loyalists. The fifth guy and the third one to the right. And something is wrong with the second man's vibrations—he's telling the truth, but something doesn't feel quite right. He's definitely nervous—I think he might have known about the society for some time now, but must have chosen to avoid informing you."
"That's not true!" the man in the center exclaimed.
"How can she tell if we're truthful or not?" the seventh man asked. "Feeling the ground for lies seems like hocus-pocus! I'm loyal to you, Fire Lord Zuko!"
"I have total faith in Toph's abilities." He paused, taking time to absorb how profound the rebellion truly was. "Now that I know you two are involved in reinstating my father as the Fire Lord, you'll be kept in the Prison Tower! Toph, bend mobile prisons to hold them and get them out of my sight!"
The girl used her earthbending ability to trap the men in huge cones of stone, their heads barely poking out from a small opening where the apex would have been. She unfused them from the ground and levitated them out of the room, heading back into the hallway with her captives. "I think it would be better to keep them in the palace for now," Toph said to Zuko just outside the door. "It would take too long for me to go back to the Capital City Prison. I'll find another place to detain them for the time being."
"Very well," Zuko agreed.
"Where are you taking them?" the third Kyoshi Warrior whispered.
"I'm gonna lock 'em in one of the empty rooms we came across during our search through the palace. There is so much to do; we don't have the time to place these dissidents in the Prison Tower right now." She turned to face the warrior directly and said, "You should come with me and stand guard."
The guardswoman looked around, observing Zuko's large group of friends and her two colleagues. "All right," she replied. Then she tapped the Fire Lord on his shoulder and motioned to Toph, who was already halfway down the hall. He nodded, understanding, and returned his attention toward his council as Toph disappeared around the corner.
Toph stopped in front of a metal door a few minutes later, metalbending it open by sliding it to the left. She mercilessly flung the incased traitors onto the floor and then bent the door closed behind them and crushed its lock before walking back to the council room. "They don't stand a chance of escaping, but you should guard it anyway. We don't know who we can trust anymore."
The Kyoshi Warrior nodded and stood expectantly in front of the dismantled door, watching as Toph wound her way back to Fire Lord Zuko's temporary council chambers.
© 2015 imaginator1
