Toph kept her senses alert from the lowest dungeon of the prison, feeling the movements of the Dai Li as they darted around the city. Zuko briefed everyone on what he knew, both of the occupying forces and of the layout of Caldera City itself. The secret tunnels branching out from the throne room were pointless with enemy earthbenders to watch out for.

The Dai Li several times assailed the prison tower from below, trying to dislodge its foundations, to bring down its walls. Toph growled and fought them back with sharp movements. For the time, the building held.

"We need to meet up with the rest of our forces," Sokka said, "or try to trap the enemy in the middle somehow."

"Those earthbenders are impossible to trap anywhere on land, except maybe at the top of one of the wooden palaces," Katara said. Her voice had a slightly watery echo to it, and her pulse felt strange to Toph.

"Which doesn't make for the most versatile battlefield for us either," Sokka said. "If only those serpent-people weren't in the bay, or we could try to fight the Dai Li at the water."

Zuko said, "Maybe we still can. We haven't seen them bend metal, even in their new forms. If we could draw them onto one of the docked warships..."

"And if we can't, all we've done is forfeit the city to them. We're inside a pretty defensible position right now, but we need to make contact with the others somehow." Sokka paused a moment. "Wait, I've got it. You can fly out of here with that fire hawk. You can get in touch with them."

Toph interjected. "If he's flying back and forth until we can all put together a plan, that's going to take forever. And as great as I am, I can't hold back these Dai Li forever."

"You're right." Sokka hummed thoughtfully. "Flares! Of course! We can have them send up some kind of signal flare that the enemy won't understand."

Toph focused on the defenses again while everyone else quickly thought up a color code for possible signal flares. Zuko flew away on his new fire hawk.

Toph inwardly wondered to herself if her parents were okay after everything that happened on this world. After she and her friends finished saving the world, she'd have to send someone out to go check on her family.

She wasn't left to worry about that for long. Suki, keeping watch on the horizon, alerted them that a signal went up, the one that meant "hold position". Zuko returned shortly, with Jaina Proudmoore.

"Good job on taking this prison," Jaina said in lieu of greeting them. "I was afraid we had lost you all. Zuko told me about Benedictus – it's hard to believe he fell to evil. He was a trusted member of the Church of the Light of Stormwind."

"If there's anything we've learned here," Toph said, "it's that the most powerful and high-ranking people are the least trustworthy in the world."

Jaina sighed. "Indeed. But there will be time to feel disappointed over his defection later. For now, I have a plan. How long can you hold this position?"

"Not forever," Toph admitted. "They're trying to get in from below. It's taking everything I've got just to keep them from tearing this whole place down."

"We may have to give them ground as a feint," Jaina said. "I want to draw as many as we can above ground. The rest of them who remain in hiding – I have a plan for them, too. Part of that plan involves finding and capturing Benedictus as quickly as possible. Which of you is best suited for that?"

"I think that'd be us," Suki said. "Me and the Kyoshi Warriors. We excel at stealth and infiltration. And he's not going anywhere easily without his flying bird."

"Go then. Take him alive if you can. If all else fails, hopefully we can use him as a hostage to draw out the rest of the enemies here and force them to surrender."

"And if we can't?"

"If he can't be taken alive, use your discretion as you would with any other dangerous enemy."

Jaina filled in the others on the other steps of the plan while Suki turned to gather the Kyoshi Warriors into their own planning huddle. The warriors searched the prison to loot any spare weapons they could find, then without waiting further, they stole away like wisps of cloud into the city.

Toph was sweating with the strain of holding back the Dai Li. She felt some of the earth assault lessen, briefly. Probably one or two agents tunneling away to follow the Kyoshi Warriors.

"They're splitting up, but I still can't hold them off much longer!" she said.

"Alright," Jaina said. "Execute the plan now."

A calculated release of Toph's earthbending at a non-load-bearing section of the wall and floor was followed by immediate tremors. The Dai Li's power wracked that section of the building, but the vibrations were penned in and kept from harming any rest of the building. Everyone moved back, while Jaina chanted a spell in preparation.

The impasse must have annoyed the Dai Li almost as much as it annoyed Toph, and finally the stone floor burst open as several agents leaped out of it. They took quick stock of the room and started flinging their stone hands at everyone, only for the projectiles to bounce off a sudden barrier as Jaina finished her spell.

Toph couldn't see it, but she felt the change in air pressure as a solid bubble suddenly appeared from thin air to encapsulate the Dai Li. They made an assault attempt against the bubble itself, then tried to retreat just as quickly as they'd appeared.

This time, Toph's attention was already freed. She didn't have to stop them from rumbling the whole building. She focused all her earthbending on the floor right below them, bucking them up like it was the back of a rodeo animal. As soon as their feet collectively left the floor, Jaina's bubble shrank to close the space. The Dai Li fell in a muffled heap in their magical prison cell, completely cut off from any contact with their element.

Toph heaved a huge, relieved sigh as she dropped her hands. "Finally!"

"This should hold them for long enough to clear the docks," Jaina said. "Katara, you remember what to do?"

"I do,' Katara said. "I'm ready."

"Go now with Sokka. Send up a flare when you're ready for me to bring our new prisoners onto a ship. Zuko, go keep watch."

Zuko went upstairs. Sokka and Katara went outside to fly away on the firehawk. Jaina stood calmly, standing faced toward the magical bubble.

Toph wasn't sad to miss this part of the fight. She couldn't appreciate waterbending antics, and she liked staying far away from any fight she had a chance of getting drowned in.

"Man, that took a lot out of me," she grumbled. She shook out her hands, stretched her arms, and found a place on the floor to plop down on, seated against the wall.

"Here, this should help." Jaina chanted something. There was a sparkly, whooshy sort of noise that Toph had come to associate with arcane magic.

"What is it?" Toph said when she didn't feel any different.

"Oh, sorry. Just a couple yards in front of you, there's a mage table. I've conjured food and refreshments for you."

"You can use magic to make food?!" Toph said, jumping up.

She tried to find the table with her tremor-sense, but soon discovered it was levitating off the floor. The surface felt smooth and cold like chilled glass, bobbing gently in the air as if floating on water. Toph found bowls of sweet desserts and glasses of refreshingly cool water. All of it had an oddly effervescent aftertaste that spread throughout her body after she swallowed. She soon felt her energy slowly returning.

Zuko's voice called down the stairs eventually: "They're ready! The bay is clear!"

"And down to the ships we go," Jaina said, and a second later she and the Dai Li vanished. There'd be no need to fight them there anymore. Other mages would take up watch on the Dai Li in whatever metal brig they were thrown in.

Realizing she was now fully unsurpervised, Toph grabbed as many snacks as she could to hide in her clothes.

Before long, they all fizzled and faded away into nothing as if they'd never existed.