Chapter 11
Toph regained consciousness and felt panicked that she couldn't feel anything with her feet. She couldn't move her arms either, and it felt like she was suspended in an empty void. It was terrifying, not being able to see or feel anything. For the first time in her life, she felt actually blind.
"Where am I?" she called out, trying not to sound scared. "Anyone there?"
"You're finally awake!"
It was Sokka's voice, and she immediately felt relieved.
"Sokka? What's going on? Where are we?"
"We're in prison!" He sounded strangely gleeful. "And look who's here next to me!"
"I'd love to," Toph responded in a deadpan manner.
"Oh right, sorry," Sokka said with nervous laughter. "It's my dad! Say hello!"
"Hello Mr. Sokka's Dad," Toph said. "We came to rescue you."
"Um, thanks for trying," Hakoda said.
"Am I in the air or something? Why can't I feel anything?" Toph asked.
"After our delayed-victory—"
"You mean our loss?" Toph interrupted.
"We haven't lost yet! We just haven't won yet, either. Anyway, you were knocked out from Azula's lightning and I just plain got captured. Appa managed to get away, though. They placed us into the tank train with the rest of the prisoners and we've been transported to the prison camp. Everyone's here, just in different prison cells. You can't see it, but there's a wall of metal bars separating you from the rest of us.
"This place was meant to hold normal earthbenders, so it's all metal. They know you can metalbend, so they wrapped you in a bunch of rope and have you suspended off the ground so you can't touch anything. You kinda look like you're in a giant rope cocoon! They definitely don't want you touching any of it. My guess is eventually they'll build you some kind of wooden cell."
Toph started to squirm and struggle against the ropes. If she could just free any of her limbs, she'd be able to bend the metal and break everyone out.
A gruff voice called out from in front of the prison cells. "Hey, cut that out!" It was one of the guards. Toph ignored him and kept struggling. The guard opened the cell door and walked up to her. He formed a fire dagger with his firebending and held it right up to her face. "You may be blind, but I know you can feel this." Upon feeling the intense heat from the fire dagger, she stopped. The guard turned off his fire dagger. "Good. Next time you try and squirm away, you'll feel it a lot closer." He left her cell, locked the door, and walked away.
After a short wait, Toph asked Sokka in a whisper, "So, any plans for getting out of here?"
"I have a bunch of plans. But they all involve you metalbending."
"Oh. Great."
Sokka continued talking, still whispering. "Did you ever learn to bend without your limbs from Bumi? I remember you mentioning it."
Toph groaned. "No. I couldn't get the hang of it."
"Really? You couldn't get the hang of it? You're supposed to be the greatest earthbender in the world!"
"Well, stop blabbering for a minute and maybe I can figure it out!"
Sokka shrugged and didn't respond.
Okay, Toph, you can do this. Think back to what Bumi said, she thought to herself as she tried to remember her lessons with Bumi.
"Watching you earthbend is always so fascinating, heh-heh!" Bumi said. "You do things differently than all other earthbenders. I see it in Aang's earthbending, too. It's very… primal."
"Well, I did learn directly from the source, the badgermoles," Toph said.
"That is one of the reasons you are so powerful. Earthbending was taught to us by the badgermoles, and from there it has been passed down over the generations. In time, earthbenders came to learn earthbending as merely an extension of technique and form, rather than as the primal power that it is. This has created a layer of abstraction, separating us from the source. You do not have this layer of abstraction, so your bending is raw and unfiltered. But there is a cost to this."
"What do you mean?" Toph asked. She had become so accustomed to believing herself the greatest earthbender in the world, that the notion of there being a piece of it she was missing intrigued her, as preposterous as it seemed.
"By being a self-taught earthbender, you have missed out on thousands of years of knowledge about the nature of bending. Let me ask you this: why do you need to move your arms and legs to earthbend?"
Toph thought about it for a moment and realized she didn't have an answer. "I don't know."
"It's simple, you don't!" Bumi laughed and snorted. "Moving your limbs to bend is merely a mental trick to make it easy. We just do it to provide our minds with physical feedback for our bending. And you can use any physical motion, including your face!"
Bumi demonstrated this by keeping his arms and legs completely still and scrunching his face, suddenly making a large boulder rise from the ground. He squeezed his lips together and moved them to his left, and the boulder went flying in that direction.
"See? No hands needed! Heh-heh!" Bumi waved his hands. "Just remember! Moving your limbs is nothing more than physical feedback for your mind, and you can reprogram your mind to use any feedback at all!"
"Okay, Toph, concentrate," she whispered to herself and calmed her breathing. She began to feel the metal around her. Slowly, a three-dimensional model of the metal world around her formed in her mind. She honed in on a rivet that partially protruded from one of the metal plates of the ground.
She imagined moving her hand upwards, the same physical motion she would use to bend the metal and pop the rivet out of the ground. She kept repeating it in her mind, and after she got a good sense of the motion, she tried puckering her lips and tilting her head upwards in sync with the mental projection of herself moving her hand. Nothing happened, but she kept repeating the movement with her face.
"Uhh, did you hurt your head or something?" Sokka said. "Your face… it's doing weird things."
"Quiet, dunderhead!"
Angry that Sokka interrupted her, she tried it again, squeezing her lips hard and scrunching her face as intensely as it could go. The rivet moved.
Sokka saw what happened and his jaw dropped. "Did you just…?"
Toph grinned in response.
"I'll tell the others we'll be out of here soon," Sokka said, whispering.
"No, not yet," Toph replied. "I think we should wait."
"Wait for what?"
"I don't know. We'll know when the time is right."
"Come again?"
"Look, I was able to do this thanks to some stuff Bumi taught me," Toph began to explain. "He also taught me once about something called 'neutral jing.' There's positive jing when you're attacking, and negative jing when you're retreating. Earthbending is all about neutral jing. I already knew about it, I just didn't have the word for it. Anyway, I just have this feeling we should wait. If we try to bust out now, we'll never make it. We have to wait, and listen. We'll know when the time is right."
. . .
Aang and Katara stood in the gondola of their war balloon, on their trip back to Xin Se. Aang had the furnace's latch open and was shooting a stream of fire into it.
"I think you should stop," Katara said.
"How come?"
"Because we're here." She pointed straight ahead and Aang could see the city in the distance.
"Already? The trip seemed faster this time."
Katara pulled on the lever that released the hot air from the balloon's envelope and the balloon began to descend below the clouds. Aang leaned against the wall at the front of the gondola and watched as the city grew larger as they approached. "They're going to be disappointed in me. I couldn't unlock the Avatar State."
Katara stood next to him. "It's going to be okay. We'll find a way, we always do. Sokka probably already has a plan."
Aang smiled, feeling some comfort. "It'll be good to see him and Toph again."
As they approached for a landing just outside the city, they could see some of the White Lotus members gathering near the landing site. The balloon made a gentle touchdown and they anchored it down. As soon as they stepped out of the gondola, they saw Iroh standing there. From his face, they could tell something was wrong.
"Something happened, didn't it?" Katara asked. She felt a pit of dread as she noticed that her brother was not amongst the group.
"Sokka and Toph are missing."
"What? What do you mean they're missing?"
"We're not entirely sure. Yesterday Appa flew into the city from the North. Nobody was with him, and he looked panicked."
"Is Appa okay?" Aang asked.
"Appa wasn't hurt, but some of his fur was singed from fire. We believe that the Fire Nation is involved."
"I don't understand, what were the two of them doing near the Fire Nation?" Katara asked, noticeably angry. "Why would they be so reckless?"
Aang wondered if it had something to do with finding Sokka's sword, but Iroh spoke up before he could ask.
"I have a theory of what happened," Iroh said reluctantly, almost as if ashamed. "A couple of days after you two left, they had a confrontation with a Fire Nation spy while they were out finding his sword. They found intelligence scrolls in a bag that belonged to the spy."
Iroh paused for a moment before continuing. "One of the scrolls revealed that the prisoners from the failed Eclipse invasion were being transported to Ba Sing Se. I believe that Sokka and Toph went to try and rescue them alone."
"That doesn't make any sense, why would they go alone?" Katara asked.
"Sokka wanted the White Lotus to help rescue them, but I refused. I believed it to be a trap, and I fear that I was right."
"Of course it would be a trap!" Katara yelled. "But you should have helped! My dad is one of the prisoners!"
Iroh frowned. He still believed he made the right call, but he could see how upset Katara was and knew it'd be better to just let her have a source for her anger right now. Before anyone could say anything further, a White Lotus guard came running.
"Grandmaster Iroh, Avatar, a messenger from the Fire Nation has arrived!" The guard announced as he ran to them. "They're waiting at the Northern gates."
"Could this be another trap?" Aang asked.
"Doubtful. They're alone."
"Let's go," Katara said. "They might have information on Sokka, Toph, and the others."
The group hurriedly walked to the north gates of the city. Just beyond, they saw the Fire Nation messenger, sitting on a mongoose lizard. They didn't know it, but it was the same woman that Toph and Sokka had encountered when searching for his space sword.
"Where is my brother?" Katara yelled at her as soon as she came into view.
The messenger raised an eyebrow. "Are you the one in charge? I was told it would be a fat old man."
In a flash, Katara flung pointy shards of ice right at her, stopping them mere inches from her face.
"Tell me where Sokka is!"
"Katara, stop this!" Iroh yelled out. "This woman is a messenger. Even in war, there are rules. Messengers are not to be attacked."
Katara's face quivered with anger as she stared at the messenger. Finally, she relaxed and retracted the shards, morphing them back into water and into her waterskin.
"You must be Iroh," the messenger said. "Old, yes. But fat? I wouldn't call you fat. Stocky, maybe." She then looked at Aang and noticed the arrow tattooed on his head. "Ah, you must be the Avatar. Good. This concerns you too. In fact, why not just come with me now? Save everybody some time?"
Aang looked confused but didn't say anything.
"Give us the message you've come to deliver and be on your way," Iroh said.
The woman smirked and held out a scroll. One of the White Lotus guards grabbed it and handed it to Iroh. He opened it and read through it. "Out of the question," Iroh said and stared angrily at the messenger.
"That's not really your choice to make, is it?" She responded.
"What's going on?" Aang asked. "What does that scroll say?"
Iroh hesitated.
"It says…" The messenger began. "The Pheonix King has some prisoners that he understands are quite dear to you. And quite dear to that waterbender over there with the temper, too. Among these prisoners are also some of your friends, captured just yesterday. Believe it or not, The Pheonix King is quite eager to hand them back to you."
"Somehow I doubt that," Katara said with her teeth clenched in anger.
"Oh, it's true. Your friends, all the prisoners, they will all be released into your custody in exchange for…"
"For what?" Aang asked.
The messenger smiled and looked directly at Aang. "In exchange for you, Avatar."
Aang's eyes widened as he heard the demand.
"I already said, it's out of the question!" Iroh said.
"And I already said, that's not your choice. So, Avatar, what do you say? Air Nomads are supposed to be pretty nice, huh? Why not do the nice thing and turn yourself in for your friends?"
Aang didn't respond.
"No answer? Well, that's alright. You have some time to choose. But not too much time."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Aang asked.
"It's in the scroll, but I'll tell you. After three days, the Pheonix King will execute one prisoner each day until you surrender yourself to him."
Aang suddenly looked shocked. Katara covered her mouth in disbelief. Everyone else, except Iroh, gasped.
"The scroll says we have seven days to decide," Iroh said.
"Does it?" The messenger responded. "I could have sworn The Pheonix King told me three days. Wait, or was it just one day? Ah well, maybe you should make your decision sooner rather than later, just to be safe." She winked at Aang.
"You should leave now," Iroh said angrily, under his breath. "There are rules against attacking messengers, but I'm beginning to consider breaking them."
The messenger gave them all a disgustingly warm and friendly smile and waved goodbye. She turned around and rode away.
"Let's go discuss things," Iroh said with a sigh of defeat.
They gathered at Iroh's tent along with the other White Lotus masters. The scroll was read out loud and the entire situation was explained to everybody. Aang was the first to speak up. "I am not going to let them kill any of the prisoners. Not Sokka. Not Toph. Not Katara's dad. Not anyone."
"I'm not sure what our options are," Pakku said. "But we can't let you, the Avatar, be captured. Without you, there is no hope in stopping the Fire Nation."
"Aang, how did your visit to the Guru go?" Bumi asked. "Were you able to unlock the Avatar State?"
Katara put her hand on Aang's shoulder before Bumi even finished his question, preemptively comforting him. Aang looked down in shame and quietly said, "No. I wish I had. It sure would have been useful right now."
"Is there anything we can do to help you unlock it?"
"I learned everything I needed from the Guru. It's just… up to me now. We can't count on it for this."
Silence fell on the meeting as nobody responded. Some of the masters couldn't decide on what they should do. Others already knew, but were afraid to say.
Iroh spoke up and broke the silence. "I have been a general for a very long time. I have been in many battles and made many hard decisions. Some of them have cost me greatly. The hardest part of being a general is that inevitably, sometimes it just comes down to math. The cruel math of war. All things being equal, if sacrificing one person will save two people, it makes sense to do it. If sacrificing—"
"Stop." Aang interrupted Iroh. "I know where you're going with this. Just… stop."
Katara looked at Aang and saw he looked livid. If his chakra wasn't blocked, she knew he would already be in the Avatar state from his anger. Aang continued, "Let me just get one thing clear. I am not going to let my friends be killed."
Aang looked at Iroh with unblinking eyes, and Iroh looked back. Their eyes were locked together, and as Iroh stared at him, he saw a glint of light deep in Aang's eyes. A chill ran down Iroh's spine. For the first time, he got a sense of that terrifying Avatar power buried deep within Aang. He didn't know what could possibly unlock it now, but it was there. And that meant there was some hope.
"You are the Avatar. And although your decision affects us all, it is your decision. What do you want to do?" Iroh finally asked.
"I'm going to attack the Pheonix King and put an end to this war."
"What about the Avatar State?"
"I don't need it. I've gotten this far without it. I've mastered the four elements, and I can take him. Ozai has crossed too many lines. I'm going to stop him, once and for all."
Katara smiled proudly at Aang, and now so did Iroh. Iroh said, "As your firebending teacher, let me just say I'm glad to finally see you with such fire in your belly."
"Now's not the time for puns, Iroh," Katara said.
"Never a bad time for a good pun, heh heh!" Bumi said.
Jeong Jeong spoke up now. "I believe you can defeat Ozai, but you yourself said you can't fight him and all his forces without the Avatar State. How do you plan to defeat him?" As always, Jeong Jeong was the voice of caution.
"He won't fight Ozai alone. I'll be with him," Katara said. Both she and Aang briefly looked into each other's eyes. Although they hadn't discussed anything like this, somehow it came as no surprise to Aang that she would be by his side in this upcoming final conflict.
"Thank you, Katara," Aang said quietly.
"Even with her help, Ozai is too well guarded," Jeong Jeong said. "He has tanks, armies, airships."
"We'll take care of that," Iroh said. "Us masters will lead the White Lotus and attack. We liberated Ba Sing Se before. We can do it again. This will draw Ozai's forces to the frontlines, leaving him vulnerable. Aang and Katara will then be able to fly to his tower and attack him directly."
"Even if they defeat him, will that be enough to end the war?"
"Yes. The Fire Nation has long been a rampaging dragon, and the way to slay a dragon is to cut off its head."
. . .
The attack plan had been finalized by the White Lotus masters. That very night, they would depart with the rest of the White Lotus and any available soldiers from Xin Se and march North, under the cover of darkness. Along with all the available fighting forces of the city, they would also take with them retrofitted canons from the downed airships; their only hope to fight Ozai's flying war machines. Then in the morning, they will attack the ruins of Ba Sing Se where the Pheonix King was building his new city. Their primary target would be the prison camp. If they could free the prisoners, their fighting force would be significantly bolstered.
Aang and Katara were now on Appa, flying to the mountain range just south of Ba Sing Se where they could camp out the night and wait for their time to strike in the morning. The sun was setting in the west, casting an unusually bright orange glow to the world. The two of them were very quiet during the flight. Maybe it was because they had already spent so much time traveling together, or maybe it was because they were now approaching the end of their long journey together.
They landed in a relatively flat area behind one of the mountain summits and departed off of Appa. Aang immediately stopped and stared at the surrounding rock.
"We've been here before. This is the same place we landed when we first saw what happened at Ba Sing Se."
Katara noticed this, too, but had decided against pointing it out.
"I think this is where my water chakra became blocked," Aang continued.
"I remember. You got so upset, you tried to enter the Avatar State. Your tattoos started to glow weirdly."
"This is where it all started."
Katara stood next to him. "No, it's not."
Aang looked at her.
"It all started in an iceberg at the South Pole."
He smiled, and she smiled back.
The two of them set up a modest camp for the night and went to sleep, but neither were able to get much rest knowing what lay before them the next day. When the sun rose, they were already awake. Aang sat and meditated, in one last effort to unblock his Chakra and reclaim the Avatar State. Katara prepared herself for battle and equipped two waterskins, one under each arm. She also made sure she had the new spirit water pendant around her neck that Pakku had given her, but prayed she wouldn't have to use it again.
Far off in the distance, among the ruins of Ba Sing Se, the White Lotus army could be seen as they approached their own destiny. They looked like little more than a shadow on the ground. Suddenly, pinpoints of light began to appear as the battle began. Aang and Katara could just barely hear distant rumbles at the top of their mountain. These were the sounds of explosions, fireblasts, and giant boulders colliding.
"The battle has started," Katara said as she watched. Aang opened his eyes and stood up. He walked over to her and they stood side by side, watching it together. From within the inner ring of the city, airships began to emerge and move towards the battle. It was what they were waiting for.
"There are the airships," Aang said. "They're leaving the palace area. It's time."
Both he and Katara stared at the black tower where Ozai waited. Aang was finally about to walk away when Katara grabbed his hand. He turned to look at her and she looked back.
"Aang… This could be the end. For both of us," she said. "Before we go, I have to tell you something."
"What is it, Katara?"
She bit her lip and looked down as she thought about how to word what she wanted to say. "I've known you now for a year. Before I met you, life was so hard at the South Pole. My mother was dead. My dad was away. I had Sokka and Gran Gran, but there wasn't much hope to cling to. All I had were Gran Gran's stories of you. Everything changed when you came into my life. You brought us fun, but more importantly, you brought us hope. You brought me hope.
"When Azula shot you and you were unconscious for those weeks, it was the hardest time of my life, because all that hope had gone away. I blamed myself for not being a better healer, but the worst part was that I felt exactly the same as I did when my mother died. I loved her so much, and feeling that same way again made me realize that… I love you."
Aang's heart skipped a beat at her words. She leaned in and kissed him. They kissed for a long time and held each other. Eventually, they parted and smiled shyly at each other, blushing.
"I love you too, Katara," Aang whispered.
"I'm sorry I didn't say it back the other night. I've just been afraid. It's so hard to love somebody and live in fear that they'll be taken from you."
"You're not going to have to be afraid of that anymore."
They stared at each other for a long time, still holding each other, wishing this moment could last forever. Unfortunately, they were interrupted by a particularly loud rumble from the far off battle. An airship in the distance was in flames, crashing into the ground.
"Let's go," Aang said quietly. He noticed Katara now suddenly looked distracted. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I feel… strange. Like, I can see clearer, somehow. I just feel… lighter. I think I just opened my air chakra."
"That makes sense. The air chakra deals with love and is blocked by grief," Aang said.
Katara smiled and said, "That was the last one I had left. I guess I've officially unlocked all my chakras." She opened one of her waterskins and flowed water around, trying out her waterbending to see if there was any difference.
"Notice anything different?"
"I'm not sure. I think my waterbending feels stronger, kind of like when there's a full moon, but maybe it's just in my head."
"Either way, I'm jealous."
Aang picked up his glider staff and the two of them walked over to Appa. Aang patted him on the nose and said, "Thank you for bringing us this far, boy, but I'll take us the rest of the way."
Appa roared in protest.
"It's too dangerous," Katara explained. "And you're too easy to spot."
"We'll be okay," Aang added. "You go to the battle and try and help them, but stay safe. If things turn out badly, head back to the city and keep Momo safe. Whatever happens, I love you, boy."
Appa gave both Aang and Katara a big lick and flew away, heading towards the battle. Aang expanded his glider's wings, ready to take off. Katara stood closely next to him and he put his arm around her.
"Ready?"
"Let's do this."
"Hold on tight."
She kissed him one more time and held on tightly. They flew off together and headed towards the menacing black tower where their destiny awaited.