An hour after talking with Katara, Zuko stood in his own room, a pack on his bed that was filling with his small number of possessions.

Well, at least, it was a small number compared to what he used to own during his short time reacquainted with life as a prince.

As he carefully organized the items in the bag to ensure everything would fit, he tried not to think about Toph, or Azula's cruelty, or how long they had to get her back. He also tried to forget all the things he and Katara had talked about, namely those concerning his scar and his past.

He could not, however, ignore the fact that Sokka was staring at him from his doorway. And had been for the past five minutes.

"Shouldn't you be packing, too?" he asked, gently sliding his uncle's portrait down the side of his bag.

In his peripheral, he saw Sokka shrug. "I don't have much to take with me. Besides, Appa's gonna be overloaded already."

Staring down at the things he had packed – which included, among other things, his old prison uniform (well, he had no idea what might happen while travelling with the Avatar and his crazy friends; it might come in handy!) – Zuko began to reconsider his necessities. Slowly pulling things back out and placing them on his bed, he shot Sokka a glance. "Well . . . Do you need something?"

"No."

"Then what are you doing here?"

Crossing his arms and leaning against the doorframe, he tilted his head slightly. "I'm trying to figure out what to think of you."

"And how does watching me pack help with that?"

"It doesn't. I just like intimidating you."

Zuko scoffed, picking up his uncle's portrait for reconsideration. "I'm not intimidated by you, of all people."

"Well, you should be," he said, pointing at him accusingly, than using the same hand to poke his chest with his thumb. "I'm Katara's big brother, so any interest you have in her has to make it through me first."

With a slightly bitter laugh, Zuko said, "Relax; Katara has no interest in me that way. We're just friends. And even if she did, do you really think she'd sit back and let you take charge of the situation like that?"

Back straightening and cheeks reddening, Sokka sputtered, "Wh-what are talking about? I' in charge! I'm in charge all the time! I'm her big brother – I always protect her!"

"Sure," Zuko said, a small grin on his lips as he placed his uncle's picture back on the nightstand, then turned back to his bed, picking up his dagger and swords. After pocketing the knife, he began strapping the twin blades to his back, adding, "Because you're the one who was kicking Azula's ass with waterbending. Right?"

"Is that all you're taking?" Sokka asked, directing his glare at Zuko's swords in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

Fingering the strap attaching the scabbard to his back, he shrugged, saying, "Yeah. I get the feeling I won't need much else."

Then he headed for the door, slipping past Sokka, who hesitated before following him down the corridor toward the platform where the fight had taken place.

"What about that picture you were looking at?" he asked, walking just a step behind him. "You're not taking that?"

Pausing at the entryway of the platform, Zuko stared at the small crowd gathered at its center, seemingly in the middle of an important discussion. Judging by the way Aang kept gesturing to Appa (who was in good health now, thanks to Katara's waterbending), it was about transportation. Glancing toward them, Iroh offered a strained smile and beckoned them to come closer.

"No," Zuko said simply. "I think I'll remember my uncle well enough on my own."

As they approached their comrades, bits of conversation floated back to greet them, revealing it to be more of an argument than a discussion.

"Aang, you are not staying here while we all leave on Appa," Jet was saying, standing with arms crossed, facing the boy in question. He, along with everyone besides Aang and Iroh, had his back to the approaching teens. "And you're definitely not staying behind with Zuko."

"But I need to practice fireb–"

"You need to stay alive!" he snapped, tone showing no room for argument.

Pausing a few feet away from the group, Zuko glanced at the back of everyone's heads, trying to discern what exactly was happening. When studying their hair revealed no clear answers, he finally spoke up. "Uh, what's going on?"

"There's too many of us for Appa to carry at once," Aang said, reaching up to pat the furry beast on his soft nose. "But we can't decide who should go on the first trip and who should wait."

"I say we leave you and the other royal hotheads behind," Jet said, half-turning to glare at him.

Shooting her own sidelong glare at Jet, Katara said tightly, "But Aang really needs a firebending teacher, so that's never going to happen."

The Freedom Fighter's scowl shifted toward her, and for a moment they were locked in a silent, "if-looks-could-kill" war. Watching them, Zuko felt the beginnings of a smile twist his lips. Even if his chances of dating Katara were questionable at best, he still enjoyed seeing Jet in worse favour than him. It was a refreshing change.

"Alright," Aang said, glancing uneasily between the former couple. "Well, what if I fly out on my own first?"

"That's even worse!" Jet snapped, now turning his glare on him. "How stupid are you?"

Eyes widening, Aang shrank back the slightest bit, mouth twitching as he struggled for a response. Even Zuko was taken aback – as aggressive and good at holding grudges as Jet was, it wasn't like him to be so short with his own comrades. He couldn't help wondering if there was more bothering the rebel than he was letting on.

"Don't call him stupid!" Katara yelled, moving to stand between Jet and Zuko, hands balled into fists at her sides. "He's just trying to help! What is wrong with you?"

"Wrong with me?" he asked, eyebrows rising as if this were a ridiculous question to ask.

"Yes –" she jabbed his chest with her index finger "– you. Who else?"

"Oh, I don't know," he said, gaze lifting to the sky in mock thought. Then his eyes narrowed to slits, focused back on her face. "You."

"Me?"

"Yes, you." He gave her shoulder a light shove in the same manner she had poked his chest.

Katara seemed ready to fire back an insult, but Aang grabbed her elbow, gently pulling her away from Jet, saying, "Alright, maybe that wasn't the best suggestion. But there's no need to fight! Let's just figure out how t get to the Eastern Air Temple, and then you two can talk out your problems. Alright?"

Judging by the glares Jet and Katara continued to trade, they had no intentions to simply talk out their problems. But they nodded, anyway.

"Great!" Aang said, beaming. "Now we just need to figure out how to get out of here."

"It'll definitely take two trips," Sokka said, arms crossed and weight leaned on one foot. "And there'll have to be someone to fly Appa there and back, so the loads will be uneven . . . One group of four and one group of five, pilot included.

"Aang and uncle Iroh should definitely go on the first trip," Zuko said, trying hard not to stare and Jet and Katara. His efforts were unsuccessful, as he found himself glancing at them, wondering what in the world had happened while he was away. "Aang needs the safety of an undiscovered location, and you –" he forced himself to look at Iroh instead "– said you have some people there to greet us, so you should be there to make introductions."

Iroh nodded his agreement, musing, "I suppose that makes sense . . ."

"And I'll go with you so there's someone to fly Appa back," Sokka said.

"I'll go too!" Ty Lee rushed to add, sending a flirtatious smile in Sokka's direction.

"Sounds good to me," Aang said with a shrug and a smile. Gaze darting over the others to survey their responses, he asked, "Any objections?"

"Yeah, you're –"

"From anyone besides Jet?"

The teen in question first looked taken aback and annoyed at the interruption (from Aang of all people!), then just plain annoyed. Nevertheless, he kept quiet.

When no one else spoke out, Aang's smile widened and he said, "I guess that's settled then. To –" he turned, arm shooting out to point at the distant horizon "– to the Eastern Air Temple!"

"Uh, actually, that's South," Sokka corrected. Gesturing toward the sun hanging in the sky at their left, he added, "That's East."

"Oh." Aang turned to point in the appropriate direction. "To the Eastern Air Temple!"

From where he stood at the edge of the group, Zuko thought he heard Mai mutter, "And I'm supposed to fly with these people?"

XxXxX

The world was black and slightly throbbing.

Or it was for Toph when she woke up, at least. Her memories of the fight assembled themselves in a blurred, disorganized mess for the first few conscious minutes, making her wonder if she had fallen sleep in her rock tent, or if the lightning everyone had been shouting about had somehow hit her.

Only, that didn't quite make sense. The pain she felt was in her head, the kind of pain that came with slipping on a wet floor and bonking her head on the edge of a table. Or even the kind she experienced on the rare occasion Aang managed to knock her out of one of their makeshift Earth Rumble rings. But it certainly wasn't the pain of lightning. It just didn't fit the burning of being struck with the snake-like fire Zuko had described.

Plus, there were no voices. If she had been hurt or fallen asleep, she would have awoken to the usual ruckus of her friends, or to them pleading and praying she was alright. Here – wherever she was – it was complete silence aside from her own breathing.

Unless everyone else had been killed or captured by Azula and she was the only person left in the temple.

Well, the only way to find out was to look.

As she shifted in an effort to place her feet on something solid, it occurred to Toph that, not only was she above the ground, but her wrists and ankles were bound. With . . . chains?

Something definitely wasn't right.

Shifting her hands, she managed to press her fingertips to the wall behind her (it was bone-chilling metal). Soon, a world of pulsing vibrations was laid out before her, revealing that she was in a wholly unfamiliar but foreboding place.

Four metal walls surrounded her, as did a metal floor and ceiling. If there was earth beneath it, then whoever had built the place did a fantastic job of concealing it. The cell seemed to be isolated, with no clear signs of other rooms nearby and one lone guard posted at the door.

Wait, no – two. Someone (a girl?) had just stepped into her range of sight, moving toward the guard with purposeful strides.

It only took a second for Toph to recognize her, stomach sinking.

"How is the prisoner?" Azula asked in her usual commanding tone. When Aang had tried to describe Koh the Face Stealer to her that was the voice she always imagined it having. "Has she gotten her first dose yet?"

"N-no, princess. I d-don't believe she's awake. "

"Well, check. I need her nicely disoriented if I'm to get any information out of her."

The guard stuttered obediently, and Toph felt him fumble for the keys on his belt.

It could not be this easy! Were they really about to open the door and invite themselves in for some ass-kicking? Not even The Boulder was that stupid.

Then again, how could they know the greatest earthbender in the world was also the only metalbender?

Concentrating on the small impurities in her cuffs, Toph balled her hands into tight fists, feeling the metal buckle at the motion. Then she sharply uncurled her fingers, popping each cuff open and sending her sprawling to the floor. Pain shot through her feet (maybe they weren't as recovered as she had thought) and Toph winced as she pushed herself upright.

A nervous laugh drew her attention outside the door. Focusing on the pulse of metal beneath her, she noted that the guard was hesitating – he had the key in and turned, but made no move to actually open the door.

"I-I guess she must be awake now," he said, voice trembling nervously in time with his hand.

"Well, go put her back to sleep, then."

The door cracked open, and Toph seized her chance.

Still kneeling, she made a sharp pushing motion at the door, sending it swinging from its hinges and slamming into the guard. Azula, who had been standing to the side, looked at the door pinning him to the wall for a single, bewildered second before turning to the cell with her fists blazing.

Grunting, Toph dug her fingers into the floor, feeling it buckle as she pulled hard, yanking it out from under Azula like a rug while simultaneously creating a shield against the onslaught of fire. The metal was already heating up like an oven in the short time it took Toph to notice the thick concrete it had hidden.

Pressing both palms to the cool, solid surface, she twisted her wrists and pushed, drilling her way into the earth. Slipping into the resultant hole, taking care not to put any pressure on her tender soles, she proceeded to burrow her way through the ground until she was behind Azula, who – judging from the sharp pulses shooting down toward her – was walking into the cell.

"Now, you filthy peasant," Azula spat, stopping inches from the protective shield of metal Toph had hauled up.

She never got to finish the statement.

Bursting open concrete and iron above her, Toph hurled the resultant debris at the princess, grinning in satisfaction at the vibrations the impact made. As Azula reeled, she planted both hands on the edges of the hole and hoisted herself out, grunting, "Actually, I'm pretty high-class myself."

Then, with a few precise twists of her wrists, the already torn metal at Azula's feet peeled away from the ground in strips, two looping around each of her wrists while a third bound her feet. A fourth looped through the cuffs on her wrists, imbedding itself into the concrete so she was forced to stand in an awkward, bent position.

"You!" Azula spat, heart rate erratic.

"Yeah, me," Toph said with a shrug and a smirk. "I'm pretty amazing. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some friends to find."

Pausing to reassess her surroundings, Toph turned to the right and began the laborious crawl to the door. If she could just get out of this dungeon or prison or whatever, she could find a nice healer in some little town somewhere and get some salve for her burns before heading back to the temple to find the others.

Azula, however, seemed to have an entirely different view of things.

"Well, where do you expect to go" she grunted, struggling against her makeshift bindings. "There are guards everywhere and you're clearly injured."

"I handled you pretty well, didn't I?"

"I was one, ill-prepared person. What if you were to encounter three or four guards? Surely you couldn't pull this trick on all of them." There was a shift in her posture, an effort at nonchalance despite her uncomfortable (not to mention humiliating) position. "Besides, how will you ever get back to the Avatar? How do you even know if he's stayed in the same place or not?"

Hesitating at the door, Toph tried to shove down the doubt those words created. She was the Blind Bandit – what were a few guards to take out? What would a little wandering hurt? Even if she couldn't find Aang and the others, she could sure as heel create her own path of destruction across the Fire Nation!

Yeah. Everything would be fine; she could take care of herself, by herself.

. . . But what about the Comet? The invasion? She wanted to be there, caught in the middle of the action, sending the Fire Lords goons flying with a stomp of her foot, she wanted to feel the close brush of fire as she fought side-by-side with her friends, hear their awe at the Comet, be there while everything came together while at the same time falling apart. She wanted to know she would see her friends again.

And where better to wait for them than with the Fire Lord and princess?

"You know what?" she said, shifting so she sat on her knees. "I'm getting kinda sick of Twinkle Toes and those dunder-heads."

"Really?" Azula asked, voice rising on the first syllable in a combination of doubt and intrigue.

"Yeah. They were always holding me back, being all slow and meek and step-by-step with this whole 'stop-the-war' scheme. I say, 'You snooze, you lose!'." Turning to look in the general direction of Azula, Toph grinned, asking, "Mind if I crash here 'til this whole thing's over? I don't exactly care who wins."

As the words left her mouth, she braced for something awful – death by fire-breath, a villainous cackle, to be mocked into oblivion. After all, it was a very stupid, ill-thought-out plan, one that a plotting mastermind like Azula would easily see through, even without being able to read heartbeats.

But something in her seemed to shift – her posture tensed then relaxed, a small breath caught in her throat, blood pressure lowering like someone who had just been petting Momo.

And then she said one phrase that knocked Toph's proverbial socks off:

"I don't see why not."

Author's Notes: Hope you guys enjoy this, and I'm sorry for the delay! =D

Dislcaimer: "Avatar: the Last Airbender" and all of its contents are property of Nickelodeon, which I am in no way associated with.