Story Title: Psychopomp (alt. title: "Darkness Falls")
Chapter: 11
Author: Moor (or 'beyondthemoor' from LJ)
Length: approx. 1700 words
Genre: Dark/Modern AU/General/Wangst
Rating: I'll say M
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Summary: Rough sketch scenario: Modern AU; Underground societies; Iroh left the Fire Nation syndicate to join the Avatar Group, but was attacked shortly after his defection. The Avatar Group vow revenge at his bedside; the only clue they have as to who ordered the hit are some rumours claiming Zuko was responsible, but no one knows if it's true. Darkfic; Toph and Aang leave to gather a group of elites from Bumi --their superior-- and hunt down the person or people responsible for Iroh's coma.
Disclaimer: I have no ownership of "Avatar".


Running like mad animals, Aang and Toph had finally gotten outside the entranceway of the Guilt Lily.

They zig-zagged between the overturned garbage bins, fallen gangfighters, and other obstacles as best they could as they tried to outrun the gun fire that followed—and anticipated—their every move, and slowly but surely progressed to Teo's awaiting security. Between the firearms and the car engines, as there were multiple vehicles battling outside now trying to pick up their comrades, the noise was enough to unsettle even Toph's keen focus and senses, and Aang had already been suffering from his wounded shoulder, further slowing them down. It was only a matter of time before it happened, and it did happen.

Aang fell.

Toph had been rushing to the next heap of wreckage and was just a few yards from Teo's demon-like vehicle, and if she hadn't been listening so hard to keep track of her friend, she would have lost him among the fallen. She skidded to a stop and took cover.
"Aang?"

She heard him grunt in pain and try to stand again, but slump at the effort, hissing something unintelligible between his clenched teeth. He couldn't have been more than a dozen feet behind her—and was now giving her cover instead of trying to get up again. It made her seethe with anger at the realization.

"It's ok, Toph, hurry up! You're almost there! GET IN THE CAR!"

"You stupid idiot!" she hollered back at him in accusation, already making her decision. If he could do it, so could she.

She turned around, ducked out of the way of another cross-fire exchange, and sprang towards him, running as fast as she could. She was not leaving him behind. She would never leave him behind.

"Like hell you're getting all the fun and glory," she spat indignantly, reaching him. He was angry at her; she could tell that much before even touching him to determine where he was wounded.

"I thought I told you--."

"Yadda, yadda, yadda, I heard you right the first time," she wrapped his arm around her shoulder and stood up to a level crouch. "Can you put any weight on that leg?" His subsequent stumble—and grunt of pain-- was all the answer she needed. "Ok, change of plans. Hop on."

"This is so embarrassing…" muttered Aang, as he grudgingly climbed on her back.

"Don't worry, I'll never let you forget. Or live it down."

"Wow, that's a relief."

"You're welcome. Hold on tight." He did, wrapping his roughened hands around her neck and clamping his legs around her koala-style, despite his injury. He even dropped his head to her shoulder, to reduce their target size. While he was taller than she was, she was more than strong enough to carry him. It would just take her a bit more planning to get them both to the car's doors intact.

Gripping him as tightly as she could, she counted the shots, calculated the distance to the car, and tried to figure out where her biggest obstacles were. Then she took off again, running straight to the car. As she dodged, a few shots grazed by her foot, her shoulder, and nearly her ear. She clenched her teeth and ran harder. "A bit of help with covering us both right now would be a good thing," she said through grit teeth, tease-pestering her free-loader to earn his keep. Her friend didn't respond to the challenge.

"Aang?"

He was silent.

She reached the car and Teo hurled open the door; she threw Aang in the back, and hopped in beside him, slamming the door shut as fast as she could. Still wearing his goggles, Teo was already gunning the engine and spiriting them away, at least two other vehicles in close pursuit.

"Welcome back, sirs."

"Hospital, Teo, now."

Teo glanced at her in the rearview mirror, though Toph didn't know it. "What's wrong?"

"He's bleeding out," she said, running her hands over Aang as thoroughly as she could to find out just how many times he'd been hit and tried to hide it from her to get her out of the terrible situation she'd partially started. "He's hit in the shoulder, the leg… twice. I think he may be hit somewhere else, too, but I can't get a good grip on him." Her hands slid uselessly over him due to the slickness from his blood, and she was losing her patience at her inability to determine how best to help him. She fought her own panic down and kept looking for entrance and exit marks on his clothes.

The engine snarled and growled as Teo pushed the car even harder. "We got a call from Bumi while you and Aang were in there," his voice revealed nothing. Toph's shoulders stiffened anyway—Bumi's calls were unpredictable, but he rarely interrupted a mission. "They were taken by surprise… the 'Nation's at the hospital. Katara's with Iroh, but Sokka had just left to get some food, and the door-guards were--."

"I get it." Katara was alone. She was surrounded.

"Jet's with her." Teo's voice had a cold, quiet edge.

"WHAT?" With Toph temporarily losing her grip on Aang's torso, the young man slid half-off the bench seat and groaned in pain, semi-conscious. She turned back to him, pushing him back into as comfortable a position as she could. She gently straightened his head and neck, and noted he was wetter around his hairline—but she couldn't find a wound. He was also getting cold. He was sweating and losing blood, then. Not a good sign.

"Hold on," Teo swung the car around on a hard right, throwing Toph into her 'patient', and leaving Aang groaning again. "He's gonna be mad at me for this," grumbled Teo, thinking aloud of what Aang's reaction would be later, and wondering if his friend would consider it him being vindictive for their earlier drive around town to fetch Toph. "Jet and two other Freedom Fighters are with Katara. It looks like they're fending off the 'Nation right now, but Katara didn't know who's side they're on."

"I don't suppose you have any good news?"

"Katara had the room stocked with weapons before she let Sokka leave."

This led Toph to pause mid-stream in her thoughts. One of her eyebrows rose.
"And Jet's with her?"

"Yes sir."

"Psht, not for long," and for the first time in over an hour, Toph smirked.

At that, Teo smiled a bit, too, and the blind young woman could hear it in his voice when he next spoke.

"So, still to the hospital?"

"Yeah—we need Katara here now," she agreed thoughtfully, and used her sleeve to wipe away some more of the sweat that had beaded on Aang's brow.

"Pass me the first aid kit at the next light," and her voice held authority and compassion as she strapped a pair of seatbelts across Aang to keep him in place and leaned across the front seats with her arm outstretched. It seemed they'd slowed down; she assumed they'd lost the twin tails that had followed them from the Guilt Lily.

She got to work tying as many tourniquets as she could, and elevated his limbs with the help of the handles above the car's windows.

"How are you doing for gas?" Toph was reloading her weapons as she spoke, and doing the same for as many of the car's back-up weapons as she could. Her hands were a sticky mess, despite having tried to clean them with the sterilized wipes, and it hampered her ability and efficiency at the usually easy task. She ignored the irreparable damage they'd probably done to the car's upholstery by that time, what with the blood and all. She could tell by the noise coming off the car it was full of bullet holes on the outside – it might as well look like a horror room on the inside…

"We have limited options," stated the driver. Everything he saw on the dashboard display was in tints of red, however he could still read the gauge clearly.

"How limited?"

"I can stop on the way there, or I can try and make it from the hospital to a safe-house. But we can't afford another round of chase-and-shake-'em before hitting our closest lock-down."

"Do we have anyone on us now?"

Teo glanced at the rearview mirror, and then to the side mirrors. "We did until about three streets ago… I haven't seen them since then. I want to say we shook 'em, or that they gave up, but…"

"But you aren't sure?"

"We can give it the old college try!"

"Your car's riddled like a piece of swiss cheese, your best friend's unconscious from blood loss behind you, and you want to play roulette with our luck tonight. Did I cover everything?"

"… sorry, sir, I—."

To his surprise, Toph clapped the back of his seat in encouragement.

"Now you're thinking like Bumi!"

"… thank you, sir…?"

"Stop in at the next station you find – fill up as fast as you can in 5 minutes. I'll call Bumi and tell him to prep a team to distract the 'Nation while we go in for retrieval at the ICU."

"You aren't supposed to use a cellphone while I'm filling up at a gas station."
"Man up, nancy-pants, or do I need to come up there and straighten your doilie?"

Teo relaxed and almost leaned back in his seat—but he stayed vigilant, just in case they were still being pursued.

"Glad to have you back, sir."

Toph smirked a bit, and laid a hand across Aang's forehead. She wanted to hear him say those words to her, not Teo.

AN: Thanks for reading! (Sorry, another rushed chap, wasn't it?)