A/N: Fanfiction hates me. Just when I think I'm going to post early, the website screws up. And it only happened to me apparently because all my other friends posted their chapters no problem. *sigh* Well, at least I got it up the next day right?

By the way, thanks to Bumblemark for correcting my stupid mistakes in the last chapter. They should be fixed now...I think. Unless I missed one. *goes back to check*

Chapter 21

Toph blinked. "W-What?"

"I'm sorry," Kyoshi pleaded. "But I can't train you anymore."

Toph backed away slightly. She shook her head violently. "No. You can't be serious. I-I'm not even ready; it's only been two days. How can I be ready after only practicing for two days!"

"Don't think that you aren't ready," Kyoshi scolded, finding her old voice again. "I've seen the way that you've been progressing and you've learned a lot."

"Yes, but it isn't enough!" Toph shouted back. "You said it yourself. This is a spirit. I don't stand a chance unless I'm amazing. I only just got a handle on things. How do you expect me to go on like this?"

Toph was about to go into hysterics. Her heart was racing in panic and her mind was plaguing her with images of all the possible scenarios of how things could go wrong from here. She thought back to Aang's words before of needing to be calm and needing to relax and focus. But that was back when she thought that Kyoshi was still going to come. She was going to teach her so much today. And now Toph was left in the dark all over again.

"You promised me you were going to help," Toph forced out while gritting her teeth. "You said you were going train me for three days. Why isn't that happening anymore?"

"Things have gone wrong, I told you," Kyoshi repeated desperately. "Don't think that I'm abandoning you because I lost interest or I was not committed. I realize that I may have been acting selfish in the beginning, but I swore to myself that I wouldn't let another person get snatched by that monster. I'm not going to let you die, and I'm going to try everything I can to assure that. Please, you simply have to trust me."

Toph wished she could see the determination flashing in Kyoshi's eyes. She imagined it would've have been a touching sight. But even so, her words brought a new wave of comfort, even though Toph still failed to see the happy ending after all of this.

Kyoshi never struck her as a liar, even though she couldn't feel her vibrations to officially tell. But something must have really gone wrong for her to break a promise like this.

"What happened in the Spirit World since yesterday?" Toph asked carefully.

She didn't hear Kyoshi speak for a few seconds. It was similar to the way her doctor paused before he told her parents' she had gotten a terrible fever as a baby and probably wouldn't last through the cold months. Her mother told her that he was physically straining to find the most delicate way to explain something so difficult to hear, but that sometimes it was better to hear the entire truth than for people to tip toe around it.

"Koh is about an hour away from finding you."

It was the first time in her life that Toph was rendered entirely motionless. She couldn't move her mouth to make another comment. Her feet weren't moving. Her heart nearly stopped, and her ears only barely picked up the rest of Kyoshi's explanation.

"I know. I told you that I would protect you for three days," Kyoshi continued to explain. "It was a shield that I put up around you to shield your energy. It starts to fade at around this time on the third day, but it fades in very small amounts. Only extremely small bits of your presence would be detectable to anybody. I didn't think that Koh would be able to find you when your energy was so weak so I decided this was the best thing for you."

Kyoshi let out another great sigh. "It seems that this has been done before. Apparently, a number of your past lives were protected by the Avatar's past lives as well. So like me, they concealed as many of your past lives as they could so that they wouldn't be found or so that they could escape to another part of the world and be safe. Koh has seen this done thousands of times. He is apparently so used to searching for these girls when their energy is so low that once your power starts fading today, he might still be able to find you."

"There's of course a good chance that he's lying," Kyoshi snarled. "But then again, there's also no reason to not take him seriously. And by the way he's been making trouble in the Spirit World lately, and by the way he spoke to me, I don't have any grounds to say that he isn't telling the truth."

"Wait," Toph said hoarsely. "I still don't understand why you're leaving." She could hardly tell that her voice was starting to shake.

"I can't leave you only an hour of free time," Kyoshi continued. "I'm going to have to keep up a continuous shield for you in the meantime. But it's requires so much energy that I cannot do it in the Physical World. It has to be done in the Spirit World for it to be as powerful as I can make it. I'll be able to hold up a shield continuously until sunrise the next morning."

"But...if Koh finds out what I'm doing…there may be problems with this plan."

"But please know," she rushed out desperately as soon as she saw Toph's face contort into even more shock, "I'm going to try my best. I'm going to hold out as long as I can. Remember, I'll try to keep you hidden until sun up if I can. I'm going to desperately try. But you have to trust me: I don't mean to abandon you. I'm going to try my best."

Toph shook her head slowly this time. "This is crazy. This is insane, what am I supposed to do now? How am I supposed to get ready? How am I even going to know what to do?"

Kyoshi's mouth opened to say more, but she quickly halted what she was about to say. Toph figured that she was probably risking it to be here now. After all, she did just say Koh would be here in an hour.

"I have to go," Kyoshi said apologetically. "If I stay any longer there won't be time to put up another shield for you before this one starts to fade."

Toph felt a ghostly presence on her shoulder. It wasn't real, but it felt like Kyoshi had probably put her hand on top of Toph's shoulder.

"I'm sorry I can't stay here with you," she apologized. "But I would just like you to know…that you have learned enough to hold your own. You can do this. You just need a little faith, alright? But…I am sorry that I couldn't help you more."

Kyoshi's removed her hand from Toph's shoulder. Toph's eyes widened and she stepped forward a few steps.

"Wait a minute, don't go!" she pleaded. "What am I supposed to do?"

Kyoshi paused again, this time it seemed like she was actually thinking and looking for an answer. Toph felt that presence that always seemed to around Kyoshi whenever she was here start to fade considerably. Toph felt panicked. She was leaving. She was really leaving.

"Maybe you should try asking yourself that question. You have more answers than you think," Kyoshi said.

"I'm sorry," Kyoshi said miserably before she disappeared. "Miss Bei Fong…I'm really very sorry."

And then she was gone. Toph didn't feel any vibrations, Kyoshi wasn't speaking anymore, and it seemed that there was no one else in the room with her. She was alone and the only difference from before is that now she was alone without a teacher. The severity of the situation started to dawn on her in small moments. Soon enough she felt the full blow of what just happened.

She had no more preparation in her arsenal. Whatever she had learned from Kyoshi would be all that she would know. Despite Kyoshi's harsh and desperate promises, there was no guarantee that this new shield of hers would last until sun up. If Koh found out what Kyoshi was doing before sun up came along, then there was a good chance that Koh would appear right on Bumi's doorstep before sun up as well. She was completely in the dark. There was no way of telling when Koh was coming for sure and there was no way for her to learn anything else. She was done. This was all she had. There was no learning or finding out anymore. There was no more security.

She had officially run out of time.

"Hey," Aang called from the doorway of the arena, appearing to have returned from the dining room. "I grabbed one of everything. It was all Earth Kingdom food so there shouldn't be any Water Tribe surprises in any of these…"

He was huffing and puffing out of breath, probably holding the bundle of food that he had promised her. She didn't know why, but something about Aang coming into the room made that pressure that was building up behind her eyes this whole time finally break loose. She didn't sob, and she didn't make a sound. But she let a good number of tears fall down her cheeks.

Toph didn't' cry. Except for a few occasions, she never let anyone see her cry. The fact that she was doing it so freely in front of Aang made him rush over and grab her shoulders. He bent down to try and see into her eyes and saw them overflowing with tears. She reluctantly looked up at him and tried her hardest not to let out a sob.

She could feel Aang staring at her intently now. "What happened? What's the matter?" he asked worriedly.

She sniffed and shook her head. She couldn't speak.

"Come on, Toph," he pleaded. "You have to tell me what's wrong. You're crying, what's the matter?"

She still didn't say anything. Aang lifted her head again and held her face in between his hands.

"Hey listen to me," he said seriously. "You were perfectly fine when I left and now you're crying. Tell me what happened to you. Did someone come in here and say something to you? Are you hurt? What?"

Toph brought a hand up and wiped the tears from her eyes and cleared her throat so that she could speak. She gave Aang a miserable looking stare and choked out a response.

"I have to tell you all something."

"So she's gone!" Suki shouted.

Toph nodded lamely. She shifted uncomfortable on her seat placed in front of the dining room table. "She apologized so many times, so I know she didn't mean for any of this to go wrong. But…yeah. She's gone."

"But wait," Zuko said, sitting somewhere on her right. "How do you know that you even have until sunrise the next morning…did she…?"

"She didn't make it sound definite," Toph explained. "She said she would try, but if Koh figured out any funny business from her, my deadline might be a little earlier than intended."

"So we have no idea, basically, when this bug is coming?" Sokka asked angrily.

Toph nodded again. "That's one way to put it."

"This is insanity," Katara exclaimed, horrified. "How are we supposed to prepare for something when we don't know when it's coming?"

"Look, the worst thing to do right now is panic," Aang said, trying as best he could to lighten the situation. "We have to take this a little bit at a time and go through what we plan to do slowly. If we can't do that, then we really will be caught in the dark with no way to defend ourselves."

"Well what are we supposed to do, now?" Toph said hysterically. "We're basically trapped in a cage in a dark room where we can't see the exit."

"Well for starters," Aang began, "you're not staying by yourself anymore."

Toph turned to her left to face Aang. "What?"

"He's right Toph," Katara agreed. "Remember the last time Koh came to you? You hallucinated to the point that you thought he was coming after you. The last thing you need is to be at some random location in the palace by yourself where we can't get to you. You should be with someone at all times."

"Maybe she should sleep with someone else too," Suki offered. "You know, she shouldn't be in her room by herself. Maybe someone can sleep on the floor next to her to keep watch. We can bring blankets over."

"I'll do it," Aang volunteered immediately. "I've actually come face to face with him before. It's definitely not much, but at least he won't take me by surprise if he happens to show up at night."

Sokka nodded. "Alright. Living arrangements are set. Now how about we figure out how we are going to kill this thing?" he said loudly.

"I don't think you can kill a spirit though…" Suki said. "…can you?"

Zuko shook his head. "Nope. They're immortal beings. There's no killing them. But there has to be a way to stabilize them. You know, make sure they don't cause any trouble."

"Only really powerful spirits can subdue other spirits," Aang explained. "And no one in the Spirit World is going to want to have anything to do with Koh."

"Besides," he added, "what are the chances of finding a spirit now that would be willing to do something? Very low. And even if we did manage to find a spirit to help us, Koh is ancient. He's one of the oldest spirits in the Spirit World. He's probably stronger than a great deal of anyone that's there."

"So then we're stuck," Sokka complained. "How are we supposed to fight an all powerful spirit if we don't even know what the heck to do with it once it's in front of us?"

"Didn't Avatar Kyoshi tell you anything about this?" Katara asked.

Toph shook her head. "Not really. She started talking in riddle's when I asked her what I was supposed to do. She just said that I should ask myself and that I knew everything I needed to know. Does that help anyone?"

"Not in the slightest," Suki said. "I don't know what she's talking about either."

"But that doesn't mean we can't rough him up a little bit right?" Sokka asked. "I mean just because we don't know how to permanently stop him yet, that doesn't mean that we can't at least defend ourselves from him…right?"

"Right," Zuko agreed. "Regardless of what we don't know, we should at least come up with something. It wouldn't make sense to just improvise."

"Well," Aang began, "I think it's safe to say that Koh will go wherever Toph is. So there's a good chance that he'd come to Bumi's palace, right?"

"But maybe that's not such a good idea," said Zuko. "I mean, this is in the middle of Omashu. Bringing a fight here isn't such a good idea. That would be endangering more lives than necessary. We probably shouldn't even be here in the morning. I think our stay is over as of today."

"But where do we go?" asked Katara. "There aren't a lot of places near here that are abandoned to the point that no one would get hurt or be able to hear us."

"The only place that I can think of that's deserted enough for a fight and close enough to the palace so that we won't have to waste our time traveling far is that town that Koh had hit a couple of weeks ago," Aang suggested.

"Wait, you mean the town that we saw him in first?" Toph asked.

"That's the one," Aang nodded.

"It might work," Sokka agreed. "There's a lot of open ground in the middle of the town. Plus with all of those abandoned buildings, we'd have all the hiding places in the world while that big thing will be stuck out in the open ready to get hit. It'll be perfect terrain for us. Besides, that town is so stuck in the middle of the woods, no one would even think of coming over there to see what's going on."

"Are you sure?" Suki asked him.

"Totally. I mean he's got to face four bending masters…and of course two of the best warriors this world has to offer," Sokka smiled proudly. "Worse comes to worse, me and Suki will be able to distract him and lead him anywhere in that town while you four pop out and do your bending magic."

Katara nodded. "Well, it sounds like a good plan," she began. "But again, it's not going to work unless we know what to do after we have him incapacitated."

"I don't know what we could do," Aang confessed. "Spirits always get their powers back when they return to the Spirit World, though I'm not really sure quite how that works. Unless there's a way to make sure that he doesn't return to his regular strength once he's in the Spirit World, fighting him will be useless."

"So we're back to square one," Toph muttered. "We know how to beat him, but we don't know how to make sure he stays beaten."

"Not a lot of people know how Koh works," Aang explained. "One of my past lives had battled Koh before, but he failed easily. He had the same problem we did. He couldn't figure out how to permanently end him."

"Isn't there anyone else we can ask that's met Koh before? Anyone that's had even a single encounter?" Toph asked him.

"None that I can think of. They'd need to know how to stop him permanently. I can't think of a single person who would know how to do that."

"We really are stuck," Katara muttered.

"Can't you look around the Spirit World for help?" Suki asked Aang.

"I suppose, but I don't think it would be such a great idea," he answered. "Koh would probably know when I entered the Spirit World. I don't think it would be smart to hang around there for too long anyway."

Sokka groaned. "How are going to do this? We've got nothing!"

Zuko held up a hand. "Don't panic. That's the last thing we need right now."

"Zuko's right," Katara agreed. "We've got all day. I'm sure that Kyoshi is trying her best to protect you right now, Toph. We just need to keep thinking."

Aang nodded and stood up from his chair. "Why don't we all pack up as of now?" Aang suggested. "That way, if need be, we can pick up and leave at any time. Sound good?"

"I agree. I'll go let Bumi what our plan is," Katara offered. "It's only fair that he knows, right?"

"How about we meet back here in an hour? We'll come up with a more in depth plan then," Aang offered.

"Fine. But everyone, don't take too long. We need as much time to prepare as we can. He can come at any time," Zuko announced.

"I'll go with Katara," Sokka offered.

"I'll pack up your things, alright?" Suki said to the both of them.

"Thanks," Katara smiled. She grabbed her brother's arm and led him outside one of the many doors that led outside of the dining and towards the hallway that led to Bumi's throne room.

Zuko sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I should probably send a messenger hawk to Uncle," he said. "Let him know that things might get a little hectic. Who knows, I might be getting back to the Fire Palace later than expected."

"You can't stay away from the country too long, can you?" Suki guessed.

Zuko shook his head in response. "People will think that I'm 'avoiding my duties as Fire Lord.' I told Uncle I wouldn't be gone long. But I'll have to have him stall for a little bit longer. Who knows how long we're going to be on the run from this thing?"

"How long can he cover for you before people start to have issues?" Toph asked.

"Not very long," he answered. "If I'm not back by the end of this week, I'll be hearing it from the Fire Sages. They'll think I'm not doing my job properly."

"Well, then we better come up with something fast," Suki suggested. "The faster this finishes, the better it is for all of us."

She turned to Toph at that moment. She was sitting on the edge of the dining table. She had one foot propped on the edge in front of her and she was resting her chin on top of her knee with her arms wrapped around her leg. She was looking down at the floor the entire time they were talking and she didn't move from that position ever since she had gotten here in the first place.

"You alright, Toph?" she asked.

Toph nodded as she looked slightly past Suki. "I'll be alright."

"We'd better hurry up and get ready," Zuko said. "I'll see you all back here in an hour."

"Me too," Suki said, following Zuko out of another door different from the one Katara and Sokka exited from. "Don't worry Toph. We'll figure this out."

The door shut with a loud bang and left the room feeling terribly empty. Toph sighed and wrapped her arms tighter around her leg. She wasn't about to cry again because it wasn't going to help the situation. It was bad enough that she had cried in front of Aang already so she wasn't about to do it again. Besides, there was nothing to cry about anymore. There were just a lot of things to think about instead.

She felt Aang hop on the table next to her and wrap his arm around her shoulders. Toph let her leg drop form the table and hang over the edge while she let her head lean against Aang's shoulder. He started rubbing her arm up and down and kissed her on the top of the head a few times. She smiled at the comfort and let herself bring her thoughts together. He started to rock her back and forth as if to tell her that he was there if she needed any comfort. And she was grateful for it.

"You believe me, don't you?" Aang asked her.

"What do you mean?" she replied.

"I'm going to protect you. No matter what happens, I'm going to save you. Nothing bad is going to happen to you and we are going to walk away from this unscathed and safe," he assured determinedly. "You just have to trust me, okay?"

She nodded. "I do trust you. Don't worry."

"I just don't know what to think anymore," she said. "Everything seems to be going wrong lately. Once I think that I'm safe, things go terribly wrong. Once something good comes along, something else comes to mess it up." She thought back to the time where Aang asked her to be his Earthbending teacher, only to have her parents send him away. She remembered the time she got a letter from her mother, saying she understood everything, only to be kidnapped a short time after. And now this. Aang had helped her get out of her parents house and she had started liking him. Really liking him. And then this mess with the Face Stealer had started up again. "It happens every time."

"But we're going to fix this, I swear," Aang assured her, hugging her closer. "I'm not going to let this get to you. I'm going to help you."

Toph shook her head. "Why are you always so optimistic? Hasn't it ever occurred to that things aren't always a happy ending?"

"It's not optimism," he explained. "It's determination. And there's no such thing as a bad ending. A bad ending is just a story that hasn't reached its happy ending yet."

Toph smiled lightly. "I don't know. Something about the things that you say make it seem like everything's going to be alright."

"That's because everything is going to be alright," he promised. "I don't think I'm going to save you, I know I am. I don't think we're going to stop Koh, I know we are. We just have to figure out how first."

Without thinking, Toph reached up and kissed his cheek. She then wrapped her arms around his neck and let her head rest in the crook of his neck. She breathed out and made him shiver. She laughed.

"Sorry," she chuckled.

"S'okay," Aang answered.

"Don't you wish things could just stay like this?" Toph asked quietly. "Then you won't have to think about how bad things got."

Aang nodded. "I know."

"I mean to think things were going so well before. You don't know how good it felt to be riding on Appa with you again without a care in the world. That's the only time I can think of where I'm actually pretty happy," she said.

"Well, I think Appa would be happy to hear that," he laughed.

Toph smiled. "I'm sorry for freaking earlier."

Aang shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he assured. "You're allowed to get scared once in a while."

Toph lifted her head and stared in his direction. "I wasn't scared."

Aang rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. Lying to me is one thing, Toph, but don't lie to yourself. It's not wrong to get scared, you know. It proves that you're human."

"Are you scared?" she asked.

Aang shrugged. "I wouldn't say I'm scared. But I'm definitely worried. I don't know what's going to happen next either."

Toph looked down in silence. She felt Aang turn her head slightly and felt him place a sweet kiss on her lips. She closed her eyes until he pulled away and heard his voice afterwards.

"I don't want anything to happen to you," he told her. "And my worry is that something will."

"But remember what you said," she smiled. "You said you'd come and save me no matter what."

He nodded. "I know. And I swore that I will. But if that thing even touches you…" he growled.

"He's not going to," Toph promised. "And if he tries, he'll hear it from me. I don't go down without a fight. And if it's a fight this thing wants, it's a fight he's gonna get."

Aang chuckled. "See? And to think you were freaking out only a few minutes ago."

"Don't worry," Aang assured her, squeezing her to him a little tighter. "We'll figure out what to do with him. After all, there has to be someone I can ask for help."

"Yeah, like the thousands of little ghosts that live inside of you," she joked.

"You do know that those ghosts happen to be me, right?" he said.

Toph shrugged. "Same difference."

Aang nodded in thought. "I think you're right though. One of my past lives should know something, hopefully. After all, they do live in the Spirit World. Maybe they know where we can trap Koh or something."

Toph laughed. "Yeah. Maybe we can trap him in a nice little cage and give him an eternal time out."

Aang shook his head. "I doubt they have that."

"But it would be funny," she shrugged.

"Yeah I guess."

"So, who would know something? Any ideas?" she asked.

Aang shrugged. "I don't know. I'll have to ask them one by one. I've only spoken to a few of them. Maybe I can go back further and speak to some of my older past lives. I might actually have more answers than I think."

Toph froze.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Maybe you should try asking yourself that question. You have more answers than you think."

"Say that again," Toph asked suddenly.

"Um…what?"

"What was it that you just said?" she asked seriously.

Aang looked at Toph strangely but answered her question regardless. "I just said that I could talk to some of my other past lives that I haven't seen before."

Toph shook her head violently. "No, after that!"

Aang was confused, but he ignored the feeling. Toph seemed serious. "Um…I might know more than I think?"

"That's what Kyoshi said to me before she disappeared. She said I know what I need to know," she said excitedly.

"Well, what is that?" Aang asked.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "But it has to be important. Something that we can use to our advantage. A weakness, a tactic, a place, a weapon, something."

Aang stood up from the table and stood right in front of Toph who was thinking excitedly. He tilted his head in confusion at her epiphany. "What in the world are you thinking? Can you please explain to me what you're talking about?"

Toph slapped his shoulder. "Pay attention! I said that I know what we need to bring Koh down."

"Well, then why didn't you tell us?" Aang asked.

"Well…I don't know. But I'm pretty sure another me knows."

Aang stared at her with a stupidly confused look on his face. Then his eyes widened and he smiled at her idea. He snapped his fingers as if he just got a brilliant idea.

"I get what you're saying!" he said.

Toph nodded. "That's why I need your help."

Aang got confused all over again. "Pardon?"

"I need you to teach me how I can speak with one of my past lives."

A/N: Meh, kind of short, but the next one should be a lot longer.

And don't worry. There will be fluff coming. Aang's sleeping in Toph's room remember? *smiles at the possibilities of this situation* And Aang's determined talk of "I'll save you no matter what?" That will be put to the test. So yes, there will be Taang in the future. A lot of it. And fairly soon.

Review, please, please, please. You make me happy when you do. Thanks.