XX. Abbadon
Aang could feel the Avatar State tugging and flickering at him like a firelight beacon flashing in the corner of his eye as he threw himself bodily across the open space to where Toph had gone down under a pile of Black Fist soldiers. Catching an air current, he leapt forward with twin cyclones spinning out in a maelstrom from each palm. His enemies went flying off in all directions, blown away from Toph's limp form like leaves before an autumn gale. In one smooth spinning motion he drew his staff and landed with the weapon leveled at the crowd, one knee bent, the other leg out straight, balanced and waiting.
"Surrender."
A hail of the ropes they had used to bog down Toph was his only answer.
Aang turned them to ash before they crossed half the distance.
Ozai's fire welled up beneath his skin like blood and Aang gave it free reign, using it to propel himself upwards and lend force to the column of flame produced by his circling kick. The Black Fist fell back in surprise even as the fire cut a swath through their line. Their confusion allowed him to sink a dozen into the earth before any managed to get within striking distance.
Blue fire flashed across his eyes, remaining just long enough for the power of Kyoshi to sink deep into his bones. A ring of boulders rose out of the ground to spin in orbit around him as jets of fire cut men down and spinning strikes of his staff pushed the attackers back. Aang's focus was so bent on reaching Toph it took him a moment to notice when the onslaught stopped.
He was ringed in, but she was there, bound and unconscious but visibly breathing, at the feet of an old man in the long elaborate robes of a scholar, who stood with his hands in his sleeves watching Aang with something disturbingly close to amusement on his face.
Aang did not drop the boulders but stilled their movement, leaving the rock suspended around him as though frozen. He leveled his staff at the man's chest. "Let her go."
"Avatar, you have no idea what an absolute joy it is to see you," the man greeted him like an old friend. "A delightful end to a rather dismal day. Would you kindly put down those rocks my boy?"
Aang looped a rope of air around the man's neck and dragged him forward. "I will not ask again."
Three arrows split the small space between the two of them, disrupting Aang's hold and allowing the man to step back. "Neither will I." He gestured up and behind him, drawing the Avatar's attention to half a dozen dark shapes arrayed across the rooftops nearby. "From what they've told me, you have encountered the Yu Yan archers before, Avatar."
His stomach dropped.
"They were disgraced after they failed to capture you, and fell out of favor in the Fire Nation military, which I always thought was a mistake. After all, who else is a good enough shot to drop a bender before they can bring forth any of their unholy tricks?"
"I was twelve then," Aang said through gritted teeth. "You really think they can stop me from there?"
"No."
Cold sharp metal pricked the back of his neck and only one thought made it through his mind when Aang glanced over his shoulder to see the red-painted gimlet eyes above the crossbow.
Toph is going to kill me for not hearing him.
"The great and powerful Avatar." The old man was grinning like a shark. "My brother was an Earth Sage, ever so long ago. When you disappeared – the first time you disappeared," he clarified with a smirk, "the guardians began to fear what might happen if they were destroyed. The ravenous army of the Fire Nation had already obliterated the Air Nomads trying to wipe out the Avatar, it would only make sense to turn on those who were responsible for the collected knowledge about you. So for the first time since their inception the Sages began to document everything they knew. All the terrible power of the Avatar… and all your weaknesses.
"And where better to entrust that knowledge than with a family whose second born had served the sages since the time of the first Avatar? They did make for such interesting reading as a boy."
He gestured and two men came forward bearing chains of heavy black metal. "If you attempt to ascend into the Avatar State the Yu Yan will kill you and break the line of incarnation. If you resist and refuse to cooperate we will kill her and see if your loyalty to your friends is enough to bring on the change. I have plans for you Avatar, but I will easily settle for your utter destruction."
Aang wanted to curse and scream. He wanted to tear the whole encampment apart.
And Toph was slumped, tiny and unconscious, bound up in ropes.
He turned his hands to expose the insides of his wrists and offered them forward.
"Very well."
Piercing pain burst against his leg as an arrow buried itself deep in to the meat of his thigh. Aang reached down to grip the protruding shaft with a lurch of nausea.
"I'd leave that if I were you."
The man's smug, self satisfied voice was the last thing Aang heard as his vision began to swim.
He woke to the sound of Toph cursing the air blue.
"-And your mother too, you cow sucking stupid inbred sack of meat! I will end you!"
Aang was laughing before he remembered where he was and Toph immediately turned her ire on him.
"Twinkletoes you airheaded, frog-humping son of a bitch! How did you manage to get us into this mess?"
"Me?" he demanded, groggily trying to rub at his eyes.
He was chained. Not just manacled at the wrists but covered forearm to fist in metal, outstretched towards thick iron pillars on either side. His hands wrapped so tight he could feel the jab of fingernails cutting into his palms. He had been positioned on his knees, presumably so that he couldn't bend with his legs and his calves were secured to the wooden platform on which they knelt. Toph was facing him, from no more than three feet away - if his hand were free he could have reached out and touched her – similarly secured, but her bonds were canvas and rope rather than metal.
The door was positioned behind him, well out of range of an air or firebending attack, flanked by two crossbow carrying guards who hadn't so much as quailed under Toph's torrent of abuse.
"I was trying to rescue you," he protested.
"Nice job rockhead!" she struggled briefly, trying to lash out at him, panic and relief warring in her voice. "I can't see anything on this stupid wood."
"That's okay," he said nonchalantly. "Nothing interesting in here anyway."
"So?" she demanded after a beat, the slight rise in the pitch of her voice the only indication she was anything but completely relaxed.
"What?"
"What's your plan Twinkles? It was your big rescue operation that got us into this mess. You get us out."
Aang scanned the room for anything that he could turn to their advantage. "Might help if I knew what that guy wanted. Has anyone come in?"
"Not since I woke up… which was a long time ago. I was starting to run out of insults."
She was close enough that he could conceivably burn away the fabric that held her with his firebreath, but he wouldn't be able to control it enough to avoid seriously injuring her.
The click of the door behind him drew Aang's attention to the fact that one of the guards had left. "I guess they were waiting for us both to be conscious." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Toph, can you bend these cuffs?"
"No." She dropped her head. "Not on wood, not from this distance without my hands. I can feel the metal but I need contact!" The last word was a growl of frustration.
"It's okay. Whatever they want, they're obviously not interested in killing us outright. We just have to wait for them to slip up."
Toph took a long slow breath, trying to relax through sheer force of will. Waiting tied up and truly blind for spirits knew how long had clearly taken its toll, but something in her seemed to unknot at the sound of his voice.
"Aang," she said with a detached sort of calm. "You remember those impossible choices?"
No, no, no. "Toph-"
"You remember what I said," she instructed. "Don't forget."
"I'm not going to-"
"Well you might want to at least attempt another plan first." There was a hollow sounding laugh to her words. "I don't want that to be the only thing we try."
The sound of the door opening, prevented Aang from arguing the point.
"So, Toph Bei Fong, my men chase your little vigilante group all around the Kingdom trying to flush you out and here you appear on my doorstep." The voice was low and smooth, relaxing in its timbre. The man it belonged to remained directly behind Aang, invisible despite how he craned his neck.
Toph's head came up, cocked slightly as she tried to track the man by sound alone. "Well the Earth King asked me to stop by and pick up his kid," she told their captor. "Says he wants the little monster home for dinner."
"Ah, young Dan Ling. How fortunate that my soldiers happened to rescue him from those Fire Nation dissidents. My associate is with the boy right now. I believe they are bonding, but you have my word that the child will not be harmed."
"Well the word of some nobody holding us captive makes all the difference."
"I don't usually bother to introduce myself to the tainted, but as I am your host for now I suppose the effort is required. I am Zaofu." At last he stepped out from the door and Aang could see him.
The man was a tall, imposing figure in full armour of black leather and silver metal that glinted blood red in the torchlight. His features were aristocratic but harsh, his smile a cruel twist and his eyes filled with equal parts self-assurance and bat-shit-crazy insanity. Aang was reminded very strongly and unpleasantly of Azula.
The eyes of a zealot.
They were in serious trouble.
"-Leader of the Black Fist, formerly of the Fire Nation. No doubt you have heard of me."
"You know," Aang interrupted. "Jeong Jeong made it sound like deserting the Fire Nation army was a huge and daring accomplishment, but you people are just everywhere–"
"Do not question my loyalty. The battalion under my command was among the most feared anywhere in the world, and we accomplished that without your bending parlor tricks."
"Parlor tricks?" Toph's voice was an incredulous stage whisper. "Did he see what the Loser Lord did to the Earth Kingdom?"
"Ozai would have been a better leader without the ability to firebend. He should have remained on the throne and continued our conquest. Not surrendered to his mad daughter or weak son. Bending was a crutch to our nation for far too long, weakening our people, keeping them submissive and dependent." Zaofu's voice practically shook with conviction.
"Oh Snoozles and Suki would love to hear that."
"Has he stopped claiming boomerang is an element?" Aang asked, genuinely interested.
Zaofu took two steps forward and backhanded him hard enough that the metal tips of his gloves scraped parallel lines across his face and the inside of his cheek split on the ridge of his teeth. Bound and helpless to fight back, Aang reeled and tasted blood.
"We will free the people from your oppression," the Black Fist commander swore. "Make them strong and united under one banner, one country. The age of the bender will end in blood and the spirits themselves will rejoice at our victory."
There was a dramatic pause and Toph hummed in consideration.
"Did that work for you Twinkletoes?"
He swallowed the blood in his mouth and smirked at her, letting the cocky smile infuse his voice. "You know, I liked it. Good intimidation, just enough of a story to keep you interested."
"All I heard was blah-blah no one in the Fire Nation loved me, blah-blah I'm throwing a huge tantrum."
"Silence," Zaofu demanded.
"Oh come on Toph, backstory is important for a convincing villain."
"Silence!" There was a ring of metal on metal and Zaofu's longsword rested, vibrating slightly, against Aang's throat. "I suggest you start taking all this a touch more seriously, or I shall begin at your toes and break every bone going up until your flippant attitude runs out."
"No!" Toph protested and then bit her own tongue at the outburst. Aang tried to give her a reassuring smile, before realizing she wouldn't be able to sense it.
"Good." The sword left his neck but remained unsheathed in silent intimidation. "I was told you could be used one against the other, I'm pleased to find it's true. The return of the Avatar was an unexpected snag in our plans, but you have the potential to accelerate our cause greatly."
Aang glared balefully up at him. "What do you want Zaofu?"
"I want you to remove the abilities of every bender on the planet," he said finally. "You can start with her."
He knew it was absolutely inappropriate, he knew it was a bad idea, but Aang couldn't help himself.
He burst out laughing.
The absurdity of the request just wouldn't let him go. Not even the Avatar had that much power, could handle that much power. Toph's alone would overwhelm him. If he were to take her bending, sure he'd be able to remove the metal cuffs that bound him and get them both to safety, but it wouldn't be necessary because he'd have accidentally leveled the mountain by then.
He finally got control over his chuckling long enough to look up at Toph, expecting to see her smirking at him and rolling her eyes. Only to find her looking ashen and terrified, her face completely drained of colour.
The sight sobered him instantly.
Not as funny as he'd thought.
"I can't," he said simply. "It's not possible."
"You have done it before Avatar, don't insult my intelligence."
"Really though," Aang insisted, desperation mounting. "It's not a fearless show of defiance. I actually cannot do it."
"Avatar, it's not a request."
"And if I don't cooperate you'll kill her?"
Zaofu laughed a little. "No, no Avatar. Miss Bei Fong here has given me enough trouble that I might very well kill her anyway. But if you refuse I will burn down everything she is." He leaned close to Toph's head and whispered in her ear, the gesture a hideous parody of seduction. She tried to jerk away, but Zaofu tangled his fingers in her hair and yanked her close, laughing at her uncontrollable trembling.
"Do you hear that little girl? You and yours escaped my last trap by sheer luck. It won't happen again. I'll frame you and leave all your Bandits to the tender mercies of the people. The vengeance upon fallen heroes is always so terribly harsh; I wonder what will happen to your students?"
"You leave them alone!" she shrieked. The mountain around them rumbled faintly with her ire and Aang could feel his metal cuffs drawn forward as though magnetized, but they quickly fell flat again.
Zaofu turned back towards him. "If she is no longer one of you abominations then I have no quarrel with her. Do as I say promptly and I might even be persuaded to let her live."
"As leverage you mean." Aang summoned up enough saliva to spit at the man's feet, putting enough airbending behind it that it tore through the leather of Zaofu's boots. "Toph's Bandits aren't fools, you won't pin them so easily."
"Very well." The man's jaw clenched as he looked from his elaborate now ruined footwear to Aang's defiant stare. "I shall simply have to find a more sensitive pressure point." He paced to the edge of the room and flipped a lever, raising the metal pillars that they were strung up between. The door guards removed the straps across his legs just as the Commander unbound Toph's.
His muscles ached in relief at the chance to stretch after spirits knew how many hours kneeling, but across from him the shorter Toph hung suspended in midair, gritting her teeth in pain as she tried to keep her arms bent and the weight of her whole body off her wrists.
"Put her down!" he cried at the same time she screamed the equivalent command.
Zaofu ignored them both. "Gamen," he began, "my associate who is so fond of your history, Avatar - he studies people, why they do the things they do. He's been doing it so long that he can predict their thoughts like the migration patterns of the elk-deer.
"I, on the other hand, study individuals. I watch my enemies, track every gesture and idiosyncrasy looking for a weakness where I can strike. You know," he said conversationally to Toph, "most people don't really believe that you're blind. But you're the only one of your despicable kind I've encountered that will never wear shoes."
Quick as a striking cobra he reached out and seized one of the earthbender's feet. Toph cried out in panic at the sudden sensation and awareness, kicking furiously back at him with her free limb. Zaofu dug the sharp tips of his gauntlets into the soft arch of her foot and she went limp, gasping in pain.
"Sensitive indeed," he murmured, looking over her shoulder directly at Aang. "Well Avatar? Will you cleanse your friend and spare her suffering?"
Toph's head came up and she shook it emphatically.
Choking on panic and foreknowledge, Aang gave himself up to what she wanted. "Suffering? Toph loves a good foot massage."
Her smile was brilliant, grateful and proud.
Then Zaofu brought out the knife.
"I am not a great one for the finer points of torture." He slid the blade across her skin, drawing a line of blood and a loud, gurgling gasp from Toph. "But I can do well enough I think."
The knife cut shallowly through her skin, but it wasn't until he sheathed the dagger and seized the tiny flap tightly between his fingers that Aang realized what he intended.
Zaofu intended to strip the skin from her feet.
Toph's flesh pulled away from her body so smoothly it was hard to imagine that it even hurt. Except for the screaming.
Aang was bellowing protests before the first cry left her lips. Struggling with all his might against the chains that held him and desperately forcing back the rising tide of the Avatar State.
It seemed to go on and on, Zaofu laughing at his helpless struggle. Toph's voice howling and whimpering, ragged with agony.
Aang's desperate pleading lost coherence long before the strip of skin was sliced free at her heel.
Zaofu stepped back to consider his handiwork. "Are you ready to cooperate now?"
Toph hung limply from her bonds, sweat dripping from her hair, blood dripping from her feet.
"Take her bending and I promise not to harm her any further."
She was mouthing something at him. Trying to talk in a voice destroyed by screaming.
No.
"Sever her power and she can be free."
Aang, please.
"Surrender."
His vision was blurry with tears. "I'll do it."
He'd forgotten about the Yu Yan guards until they came up behind him. One keeping the crossbow bolt pressed firmly into the back of his neck while the other undid his chains. Aang fell forward onto his knees without their support to hold him and dragged himself across the space between them, pressing his face to the top of her damaged foot for a moment, lips shaping endless apologies against her skin.
"Oh get on with it." Zaofu seized him by the back of the neck and lifted Aang to his feet.
Face to face, inches away he could hear her begging now.
"Aang don't, please don't, let him kill me if you have to but don't leave me helpless, please please please don't put me in the dark."
"Toph." He gripped her waist, moved to her shoulders, his hands fluttering like birds. "You need to let me in."
"You're going to take it all away!" Her voice was halfway to a scream.
He pressed their foreheads together, and then shifted so that they were temple to temple, his eyes clenched shut, his lips just above her ear. "You have to trust me."
Aang stepped away and spread the fingers of his left arm against her chest, placing the pad of his right thumb gently in the space between her brows he gazed into Toph's defiant, sightless eyes and fell back into the endless blue light of his power.
"…I'd never felt like that before. In battle there is always the possibility that you could be cut down at any second. But that's a distant sort of worry, undercut by adrenaline. I was ready for that fear, spent my whole life preparing for it. Death in battle defending her people is the greatest glory for a Warrior of Kyoshi. But she didn't want me to die. She didn't even ask me any questions really. Just said she wanted to understand me better. 'Know me' were the words she used.
"I think the worst thing was the fire. Zuko tried to burn my village down once, did you know that? But I don't know one person who grew up with the war and doesn't sometimes dream of fire. She didn't do anything that would truly cripple me – said that was for later. But she liked to pour oil over me and set it bubbling – liked the way it always made me scream on and on, I couldn't stop myself. Just pain, pain, pain and the sound of her voice telling me to let it all out. Tell her everything.
But there was nothing to tell.
I didn't know where Aang was, I didn't know what they were planning. There was nothing for me to tell her.
So I told her about Sokka. I screamed his name. Begged and pleaded and prayed he would save me. And he never did, not that he could have - he didn't even know I'd been captured till she'd already sent me away in preparation for the invasion- but I hated him for it then, in the worst moments. I hated him for not saving me.
And when I wake up with her voice in my ears, smelling my own skin cooking sometimes I still do.
I can't tell him.
How could I ever explain? That I love him so much it kept me alive, but sometimes the only thing I see is the boy who left me in that hell when I needed him."
Suki tipped her head back and let the pale silver light wash over her.
"How can you bear to let me keep him?"
You love him. The words rose in her mind soft and full of grace. It is more than enough.
Her own thoughts or something else, it didn't really matter.
She smiled at the moon hanging over the water.
"Thank you."
A/N Thanks to everyone who reviewed and favorited me and suchlike. It is always nice to hear from you!