Part IV: Sixty-Eight


"You hungry? I brought some apples and some tea," Toph said, as the door closed and locked behind her. Her footsteps echoed in the mostly empty room, but she could feel a table, and two chairs before her. She could also feel the unmistakable shape of a woman sitting in one of the chairs, her heart beating like crazy, belying the calm and cold exterior she'd been showing them for days now.

"I don't want anything. I've told you, I don't know anything. Let me go!" the woman said sternly, as if that might move Toph.

Toph sighed and put the tray down on the table with a bang. "Yeah, you've said that, but somehow I just don't believe you."

It was hard to believe a clear lie, when her feet were telling the things Madam Sakura did not want her to know.

"It's the truth!"

"Uh-huh," Toph said, swinging out the other chair and plopping down into it. She put her feet up and grabbed one of the cups of steaming tea. She took a loud sip. "You sure you don't want any? It's good."

"No, thank you," came the cold reply.

"Your loss," Toph shrugged, putting her tea down and reaching for an apple from the tray. "Detective Kanto makes the best tea. Not as good as my old friend from the Fire Nation, but I am not complaining. Kanto's certainly good with his hands." She couldn't help the smirk on her lips at that. She knew Sakura would see it, but didn't care very much.

"How long are you going to keep me here?"

"Until you start answering my questions."

"I don't know anything."

"Yeah, you said that. But I know you're lying, so here we are."

"You can't prove I'm lying. You have nothing on me," Sakura hissed. Toph ignored her.

"Hey, you ever play that old game? You know, the one where you twist off the apple stem and you count the letters of the alphabet with each twist to see who you'll marry?"

"No."

"It's a lot of fun. Let's see..." Toph mused, grabbing the stem and giving it a twist. "A... B... C... D... E... F... F! Looks like I'm going to marry a man whose name starts with F."

She tossed the stem at Sakura and knew it hit her in the face. She laughed.

"How lucky for him," came Sakura's sarcastic reply, from somewhere in front of her, followed by a sigh, and the clink of metal against metal.

"He'd have to be pretty lucky, considering I'd rather stick a bunch of boarcupines up my ass than get married. Mr. F must be pretty special," Toph said, grinning. Then she took a loud bite of the crisp apple, the sound filling the air. She chewed with her mouth open. "Wha 'bout you? You ever wan' get hitched, Sakura?"

"I'm not the type."

"No," Toph said, leaning back in her chair with a creak of leather and metal. She lifted both of her legs and propped her bare feet up on the edge of the table. She heard Sakura's small sound of disgust and grinned, swallowing her mouthful of apple. "I don't suppose you are, career woman that you are. Not much time for marriage when you're running a brothel."

"Men get very jealous. It makes things complicated."

"I hear that, sister," Toph said, taking another bite. "Use 'em and lose 'em. That's my motto."

"You leave them before you start feeling anything for them, because if you feel something for them, then they have the power to hurt you," Sakura said softly, and Toph stopped mid-chew. "Isn't that right, Chief Beifong?"

Toph shifted in her chair, swallowing the apple. It got stuck in her throat a little, and she grabbed the tea, swilling it down with a loud gulp. "Oh, you think you know me?"

"I do. I've always been very good at reading people. It makes my job easier."

"Your job doesn't sound very easy to me," Toph said, tossing her apple down with a bang. "Keeping all of those girls safe can't be easy. Or safe for you. We both know the evil that men can do."

"And women."

Toph nodded slowly. "Oh, yes. Women too. I've seen things on this job you wouldn't believe, Sakura. Things that would turn your delicate little stomach."

"I don't think you mean seen in the traditional sense, surely?"

Toph smiled, tight-lipped. "Oh, a blind joke. Classy. That almost makes me like you." She heard Sakura laugh a little, a soft huffing sound of superiority.

"And I simply live for your approval," Sakura drawled again, and Toph knew that she was rolling her eyes.

"Mmm... It's not my approval you live for, Sakura," Toph said softly. "And we both know that. Tell me, where is Chil-Hyeon? Where is your Master?"

"I don't know. And he is not my Master," Sakura said, and Toph did not miss the touch of heat and anger in her voice. Her lips curled a little, and she tilted her head back, working a bit of apple out of her teeth with the tip of her tongue.

"You don't know? Just like you don't know how the Master's favorite little henchman ended up in a rolled up carpet and dumped in the river? You know, we still haven't found his head."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

But her heart was thumping like mad. Toph smiled.

"What was his name? Kubby? Kokomo? Kuba? Kobra Kai? Kubra! That's it, Kubra!" she said with a snap of her fingers. "Didn't find his head, but the coroner confirmed it's him from our arrest records. Hard to mistake those burn scars for anyone else. So how do you think ol' Kubra got dumped in the river without his head? Did he get in the Master's way?"

"I have no idea."

"We both know that's a lie, honey. My men saw the Master's people carrying a bloody carpet out of the House of Red Petals. They watched them dump the body. The House of Red Petals is your domain. Or mostly... You don't own the place, really. In fact, you owe everything you are to the Master, don't you?"

Sakura didn't say anything, but Toph could feel her heart beating again, galloping wildly.

"I'd say you'd do anything to stay on his good side, wouldn't you? Not that I'd blame you. Chil-Hyeon made a name for himself long before he strutted into Republic City and set up shop. He's a brutal bastard. Not as brutal as his benefactor, Lord Kun, however."

Sakura flinched and jerked at her cuffs before she could stop herself. Toph took a breath and smiled.

"Oh, you've heard of Lord Kun, huh?"

"Let me go. I'm not going to tell you anything."

"No, you probably won't," Toph said with a sigh. "Because we both know you are shit-your-pants terrified of the Master. And clearly, Lord Kun. Whatever happened in the House of Red Petals that lead to Kubra getting the word's worst haircut I am sure you will take it to your grave."

"I told you, for the millionth time. I don't know anything. Let me go."

"Well, I would, but we're having such a lovely conversation," Toph said, gesturing between the two of them with a wave of her hand. "So, I know you're lying. You know you're lying. I can't prove you had anything to do with it, so really I have no reason to hold you for questioning... Except..."

"What?"

"See, I'm bothered by something. And maybe you can help me out with this?" Toph said, dropping her feet off of the table and leaning forward at the table, her voice lowering a little. "You haven't asked for a lawyer yet."

Sakura became very still and Toph heard her swallow hard. "I didn't do anything wrong. I don't need one."

"Ooh! Ooh! That was a big fib! Felt it right in my big toe!" Toph said gleefully. "Why don't you want a lawyer, Sakura?"

"I want to leave, right now!"

"Maybe it's because you're afraid of your Master? Afraid of what might happen if he comes back from wherever the hell he went, and finds out you were talking to the police? If he finds out you asked for a lawyer... Well, maybe Kubra won't be the only one losing his head."

"I'm not afraid of him."

"You're shaking, Sakura," Toph said, hands flat on the table on either side of the tray. "I can protect you from him. You tell me everything and I'll make sure he can't hurt you."

"You don't have that kind of power."

"Honey, I'm the world's greatest Earthbender. Some little snotrag crime lord would have to get up pretty early in the morning to get one over on me. I'm not afraid of him. Or Lord Kun. Or anyone else involved in whatever mess is going on here."

"You're a fool if you're not afraid of them! You don't know what I know!"

Toph stood with a scrape of her chair legs, feet flat on the cool floor. "Then tell me! Everything I want to hear, Sakura. Or..."

"Or what?"

"Or I charge you with Kubra's murder."

Toph felt Sakura's heart pound harder than ever, and then heard the lie vibrating through her from head to toe. It was like someone had rung a gigantic bell that she was standing inside of; the shockwaves just kept coming.

"I didn't kill Kubra!"

Toph hissed in a breath through her teeth. "Oooh... Madam. That was a lie."

"PROVE IT!" Sakura screamed, breaking her composure now, as she also stood, her cuffs screeching as the chair fell over behind her.

"I will. In time. We're already questioning your girls. One of your sweet little Petals will flip on you, and that will be enough to charge you with murder."

"You wouldn't..."

"I would and I am," Toph said calmly. "You'll go down for his murder. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"I can recommend a lesser charge, if you start cooperating. See, Sakura... I know people too. I know you're the kind of woman who does what she has to in order to survive. You've been at the mercy of powerful men your whole life. I know you killed Kubra, whether you admit it or not, but I also know that there is no way you would have ever risked killing one of the Master's men, no matter what he did. You're too afraid of the Master," Toph said, and then went for the kill. "Unless the Master ordered you to kill him."

Sakura became very still, though Toph could still feel her galloping heartbeat through the floor beneath her bare feet. Her toes clenched and the pulsing grew stronger.

"You can't prove that."

"Some asshole told me I couldn't bend metal once. That didn't work out so well for him. I don't think this will work out so well for you either, Sakura."

"I..." Sakura panted, her cuffs clinking again. Toph knew that the madam knew she had been cornered. "I need time to think. Please."

"We don't have time for you to get your story straight," Toph said softly. "The Master is missing, and so are two of my friends, whose safety I am extremely worried about. You have wasted enough of my time with your lies as it is. Where is Sokka? Where is Mai?"

"I don't know anyone by that name."

Another lie.

Toph banged her fist down onto the table. "WHERE ARE THEY?"

"I don't know!"

"Mai was working for you as a server for months, Sakura! You knew her as Tsubaki. Sokka...Ran was one of your regular customers until the night Kubra died! WHERE ARE THEY?"

"I don't know!"

"ANSWER ME!" Toph said, and her hands clenched the table, the metal bending with a loud screech, denting and then crumpling. The tea splashed onto the floor, and the cups broke. She heard the half-eaten apple roll across the floor. Sakura cried out, jerked forward by the cuffs connected to the table. Toph caught her by the front of her dress. "NO MORE LIES, SAKURA! TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW! NOW!"

The door behind her opened, and footsteps rushed at them, wrenching them apart.

"Chief! STOP!"

Toph let herself be wrenched back from Sakura, and pushed against the wall.

"She knows where they are," Toph snarled, but a hand slammed into her chest, pinning her there. "I'm tired of her wasting my damned time!"

"Calm down, Toph," the officer holding her there said in a low voice, right in her ear. She felt a shiver run down her side and bit down on the inside of her lip. The fight went out of her immediately.

"Take her to a holding cell," Toph said, pushing his hand away. She heard her officers moving in, uncuffing Sakura from the twisted remains of the table. "I'm not done with you yet, Sakura. I will get answers from you. Or I'll charge you with Kubra's murder. You may want to think about lawyering up!"

"Fuck you!" Sakura hissed, and Toph surged forward, only to get pushed back again by the same pair of hands. She felt her officers escort Sakura out of the room, and listened to their fading footsteps.

The moment she was gone, Toph let out a breath, and cocked her head in the direction of the door.

"Well, what did you think?" she asked with a smirk. "Did I sell the bad cop routine?"

Detective Kanto let out an exasperated sigh. "A little too well. I really thought you were going to hurt her."

"I was," Toph said with a shrug, and then smiled up at him. "But I knew you'd stop me, good cop."

"I still think she's too afraid to flip on the Master."

But Toph shook her head. "Sakura is a business woman. She knows a good deal when she sees one. And let me tell you, a woman like that? She'll do anything to save her own skin. She'll flip. Give her another night to stew."

"We don't have that kind of time. Who knows where your friends are?"

Toph rubbed at her forehead, her worry a gnawing thing in her guts that wouldn't go away. She hadn't slept much since Kubra's body had been found, and had slept even less since Katara had taken a ship toward the Fire Nation. All of the news out of Ba Sing Se was bleak and horrifying, and it was impossible to sort out fact from fiction. She had no real idea what was going on.

She just couldn't escape the feeling that it was something big, and she was only on the tip of it.

"I know we don't, but we don't any other leads. She'll break. She has to."

"And if she doesn't," Kanto said softly, slipping his hand into her own, "then you'll keep putting your sexy little toes over the line, I suppose."

Toph extended her senses down the hallway in both directions, but there was no one in the station close enough to hear them. She tightened her hand in his. "You like it when I put my sexy toes over the line."

"I do. I just want to make sure you know what you're doing."

"I always do," Toph said, as Kanto leaned in and ran his nose along her neck. "What do you think you're doing?"

"You need to take a break. She's not going to flip tonight. Come spend the night at my place."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Toph said. "You remember what happened last time?"

"How can I forget? I still have the marks."

"Mmm, I bet you do," she said, smiling a little, feeling heat flash up her spine. "Wimp."

"A man has his limits."

"I have not even begun to find your limits..." Toph purred, grasping him by the front of his uniform and pulling him in for a hard, clenching kiss. Then guilt flooded her, and she pushed him back a little, feeling heat in her face. Kanto let out an unsteady breath.

"Come home with me."

"Tempting... But... There's too much going on, okay?" she said, pushing away from the wall, and away from him, even though she didn't want to. "Thanks for the offer though. I could definitely use a tumble."

Kanto caught her hand. "We don't have to always have sex, Toph. You could just... Stay. And talk."

Toph felt her stomach flip-flop, like there were live butterflies caught inside of her. She almost gave, almost. But she slipped her hands from his.

"I'm not the stay and talk type," she said, and started to walk away. She stopped though, half-turning back toward him. She could feel his heartbeat—had been trying very hard to ignore it for weeks—and knew that he was watching her. "But thanks for the offer."

"Well that offer is still on the table, if you change your mind."

"Noted," she said, with a nod. Then she shot back at him. "And don't call me Toph when we're at work. Got it, Detective?"

She heard him laugh. "Understood. Chief Beifong."

Toph walked away, feeling her middle churning, her face burning. She ducked into her office and closed the door, putting her back against it. She had a secretary to do all of her paperwork for her, but she liked having an office where she could rest and relax and clear her thoughts. Her thoughts were definitely not clear at the moment.

She didn't sit down at the desk, but started pacing the room, her feet heavy on the floor.

She thought of Sakura, and what she might do, if given enough time and pressure. Pressure, she had. It was time she knew she was short on. Sokka and Mai needed her. And Suki... Suki was facing something in the Fire Nation. Katara was going to help her, but who knew what she would walk into. Zuko had been kidnapped in Ba Sing Se. The city was on fire...

Toph sighed and rubbed at her forehead, wondering where the Avatar was in all of this business. She had left watchers and a messenger on Air Temple Island, asking them to alert her when Aang showed up. Katara had left three days ago. Aang was two days overdue.

She wondered what was keeping him. She wondered where her friends were.

"If they all get themselves killed I am going to kick their asses."


"HELP!"

Wind whipped across the valley, billowing out his sodden robes, and slapping him in the face with cold, hard pellets of rain that stung the skin wherever they hit. He flinched and peered through the downpour, water up to his knees and soaking him to the bone.

"HELP!"

He saw a yellow blaze of color—the child's shirt—a moment before the current took him again, sweeping the child down past the semi-submerged rock he had found in the rushing flood. The riverbed had once been a small and quiet little brook that the villagers had used for fishing and capturing little crawlfish for their gumbo pots. Now it was overflowing its banks, rushing, bubbling, the water high and cold with rain from the mountains, full of thick mud and the debris from downed trees.

He leaped off of the rock and spread out his hands, bending the water with a desperate pull. It wasn't easy, fighting a flood, but he managed it, grasping the child as he bobbed to the surface again, lifting him out of the current on a column of swirling water.

The water flowed around him, his feet ankle-deep in the muddy riverbed. The river rushed at him from all sides, kept back by his force of will. The long whirl of water carrying the child lifted out of the river, and swung toward him like a drunken snake.

He didn't realize that the child, spinning in the water like a top, had spotted something behind him, until it was almost too late.

He whipped around, seeing the downed tree speeding toward him. It was horizontal on the water, bobbing there like a spiked club. The parted water had no effect on it, carrying it straight toward him and over the small gully he'd made in the riverbed. If it hit him, he'd probably lose his head.

He didn't stop to think; he just reacted. Power blazed through him, and with a rushing surge, he felt himself open up to the universe, felt the power of the Avatar flow through him like the flood had flowed through the forest and down the mountainside. His eyes blazed white, and his tattoos glowed beneath the mud smeared across his skin.

Aang's foot squelched in the mud and came back down, a rock jutting up and out of the riverbed like a jagged tooth. It hit the tree with a splintering bang and sent it flying backward. It broke nearly in half, landing on the riverbank, and taking out a sapling that had been drowning in the flood. Its soaked roots gave with a wet squelch and it toppled, coming for the column of water keeping the child aloft, above the debris in the flood.

Aang didn't let the sapling hit him. He launched himself out of the riverbed, aided by a rock beneath his feet, and a rush of uplifting wind. The column of water broke, and the child fell straight into his arms. With a twist, and another gust of buffeting air, Aang landed on the riverbank and skidded to a halt.

He felt the power fade and, blinking back cold rivers of rain and mud sliding down his smooth head, he looked down at the shivering, half-drowned child in his arms. And he smiled.

The child gave a sniff and then slowly smiled too.

"You're going to be okay," Aang said, and then he held up one hand, stopping the rain from hitting them. "Let's get you home."

It didn't take him long to find the other villagers, including the child's parents, who had watched the flood sweep the child from the bank and hadn't been able to reach him. They thanked him profusely, throwing blankets over the both of them, and shoving bowls of warm soup into their icy hands.

Hours later, Aang stood in a large barn on the outskirts of the village, still wrapped in a blanket, and watched the rain come down in buckets. The trees were bowing to the storm, limbs breaking and branches cracking. The storm was getting worse, not better.

"What do you think, Momo?" he asked the chittering lemurbat on his shoulder, glancing at him. "Typhoon?"

Momo nibbled on the leche nuts one of the villagers had brought him, ignoring Aang's question. Aang sighed and started to close the barn door to keep out the wind, but saw a cloaked figure running toward him through the muddy yard, a lantern bobbing in his hands. He fought with the door, holding it open to let the Mayor rush inside. Aang slammed the door shut behind him, throwing the latch.

The Mayor of the Green Mountain village threw back his oiled hood, and let out a breath.

"Nasty weather!"

"And getting nastier," Aang said, as the roof above them rattled in the wind. He glanced back at Appa, but the sky bison was sleeping soundly in a massive pile of hay, curled up like a giant lap cat. Aang didn't blame him. He'd been pushing Appa hard for days, trying to stay ahead of the storm that had chased them up the coast.

He hadn't been able to outrun it, however, and they'd taken shelter here in the village this morning, just in time to rescue the child that had fallen into the river.

"We're probably in for it tonight. I just wanted to thank you for saving Toki today. If you hadn't been here..."

"I'm just glad that I was," Aang said heavily. "I was hoping to outfly this, but it was faster than Appa. I guess my wife will just have to wait for me. I hope she's not worried too much."

"If she's anything like my wife, she worries about you when you go out to the outhouse alone," the Mayor said with a good-natured laugh. "She thinks I'm going to get lost, although in my case that's not exactly unlikely."

Aang laughed a little. "You've both been very generous, letting us use your barn."

"Of course, of course! I still think you'd be more comfortable in the house. We have more than enough room. A barn isn't exactly fit for the Avatar."

"Thank you," Aang said, clasping the man's shoulder. "But I'd rather stay with my bison. The barn is fine."

"As you wish," the man said, and then brought out a bundle from beneath his dripping cloak. He handed it to Aang. "From the missus. More food, and some warmer clothing."

"Thank you. Both of you," Aang said, as another gust of wind rattled the barn. "You'd best get back before she worries."

"If you need anything at all, please don't hesitate," the Mayor said, as Aang put down the bundle of food and clothing, and opened the barn door a few inches. The wind tried to grab it from him, rattling it on its track. He held it tightly, as the Mayor hesitated. "Uh..."

"What is it?"

"This storm? It's not... Spirit-related, is it?" the Mayor asked, and Aang realized that this was the real reason the man had braved the storm again.

Aang hesitated, and then shook his head. "Not that I can feel."

"Oh. Good," the Mayor said with a sigh of relief, and then nodded at him, and put his hood back up. Then he took off into the wind, slipping and sliding in the mud. Aang watched him go until the shrouding rain swallowed him up. He closed the barn door again and let out his own sigh of relief.

Momo had jumped off of his shoulder while he and the Mayor had been speaking, and was nosing at the food.

"Yeah, I'm hungry too," Aang said, retrieving the bundle and picking Momo up again. He went over to Appa and sat down in the crook of one of the bison's legs, the smell of wet fur in his nose. He was used to the smell, however, and tuned it out. He gave Momo some bread and more leche nuts, and ate half of what was left. Then he tied the rest back up and set it aside, then changed into the warm clothing.

His mind was racing.

It was odd that the man had asked him about Spirits being behind the storm. He wondered why he had asked that.

Aang had already dealt with his fair share of Spirits on what was supposed to have been a rather boring trip down to the Southern Air Temple. He had started to fix up the other Air Temples, starting with the Southern Air Temple. He'd expected to go over some of the plans, and oversee a little bit of the work and restoration of the murals and training grounds, and nothing more strenous than that.

He had left Katara back in Republic City, expecting to only be gone a few weeks at most. Those few weeks had turned into a month and a half when, on his way home, he had been waylaid by a problem only the Avatar could solve.

A village, not unlike this one, had been having a problem with a Spirit. He'd found the problem—someone had been cutting down sacred trees—and put the Spirit to rest after he'd organized the entire village to replant cuttings of the trees. That had taken more than a week.

He'd left the village, now at peace, and flown straight toward Republic City.

The storm had developed behind them, first out to sea, then it had moved swiftly toward the coast, growing bigger and bigger and bigger, until they had been unable to outrun it. He didn't think it was Spirit-related; he had a sense about these things and the storm felt entirely natural to him.

But something was not right.

He could feel it. He had felt it long before he'd even left the Southern Air Temple. Long before he'd met the villagers and their wayward Tree Spirit.

He didn't know what it was, but it was weighing on him. Something was wrong.

Sitting there, in the crook of Appa's warm leg, he sat very still, eyes closed, and meditated, while the storm raged on around the barn, rattling the old timbers and making the roof lift and bang with each strong gust.

"The fire is in the East, where a city burns, and a little empire lies in ruins."

Aang's eyes flew open and he found himself staring into a pair of glowing blue eyes. He hitched in a breath, stilling as his eyes widened in shock. He knew her face, though he hadn't seen her in a very long time.

She had not changed, not in beauty, not in age. A cold light came from her brown skin, her white hair flowing around her. The storm seemed calm, there in the dark barn, with the Moon Spirit near enough to touch.

"Yue?" Aang whispered. Yue nodded and pointed to the west.

"The fire is in the East, Avatar Aang. But you must look to the West, where the sun will rise on smoke and ruin, and all that you know will turn to ash. Unless you act. You must act."

"What does that mean?" Aang asked, reaching out a hand to her, but she faded as quickly as she had appeared, leaving the barn dark and dim without her shining light. Aang felt as if the air had been sucked out of him, as he blinked in confusion.

For a moment he was sure he had been dreaming, but when he stood and walked over to one of the grimed over barn windows, and he looked out and saw the wind topple another tree, he knew that he hadn't been.

Yue had been here, now, of all times, and of all places.

And she had come with a warning.


Katara stood on the bow, feeling salt on her lips, the wind sweeping her long hair back from her face. She watched with awe as the storm swirled in the distance, lightning flashing so fast and frequently that the huge swirl of clouds seemed to be strobing. The clouds towered into the sky, so tall they seemed to scrape the heavens.

The ship she had booked passage on was far away from the storm, however, and going in the opposite direction. The storm—typhoon, she'd heard the sailors say with awe in their voices—had started in the ocean between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom, but had swung drunkenly to the southern coast of the Earth Kingdom a few days ago. Now it was hugging the Earth Kingdom coastline and churning northward toward Republic City.

The ocean was rough, despite their distance from the storm, and Katara clutched the railings to keep her footing on the slippery, heaving deck. The rough seas had been against them the whole journey, and the ship was making slow progress toward the Fire Nation.

Katara watched the storm, the wind buffeting her. Though they were leaving the storm behind, she felt like she was racing right into the eye of it. She had no idea what was awaiting her in the Fire Nation, but she wasn't going to let Suki face it alone.

She hoped Aang got her message. She hoped that Toph found Sokka and Mai. She hoped that Zuko was safe in Ba Sing Se. She hoped she saw them all again soon.

She hoped.