Kuvira shifted her stance with fists raised. Toph hadn't yet made a move to attack, but she could still tell the old—or rather, now young—woman was sensing every little vibration through the ground. She turned a quick glance towards Lin. "What do we do? Do we fight her?"

Lin blinked, staring in a partial daze at her newly revitalized mother. "I... I don't know."

"You two feel a little tense," Toph said, as she linked her fingers together and cracked her knuckles. "If I were to fight you right now, I'd destroy you."

"Mom, we don't have to fight," Lin said, taking a cautious step forward. "Please. You can help us."

"Help you? Ha!" Toph grinned, and turned her head to spit on the earthy ground. "Sorry, but that ain't happening. My orders are to stop you, so that's what I'm gonna do."

Lin's brow furrowed. "Orders?"

"Sen's orders," Kuvira said. "He put her under his control when he placed her spirit in this new body. Just like all the others."

Lin balled her hands into tight fists. "Mom, please, I don't want to fight you."

"Well, I wouldn't want to fight me either!" Toph laughed, shifting her legs apart with her hands raised, wrists hanging loose at the ready. "Unfortunately for you, that's the way it has to be."

Lin swallowed, raising her arms into her own earthbending stance. "I guess we don't have a choice."

Kuvira shot her a questioning look. "Can we take her?"

An unavoidable question. As confident as she was in her own ability, and in Lin's, this was Toph Beifong they were about to fight. If it were an elderly Toph, she might not be so worried. They'd have speed and agility on their side, against a much slower, hobbled opponent. This was not an old, feeble Toph. This was Toph in her prime, a woman renowned for her incomparable skill. She might have proclaimed herself the greatest earthbender in the world, but there was a reason so few people had ever challenged her for that title.

Lin offered a quiet grunt in response. Not a huge inspiration of confidence. With a deep exhale, she slid forward a step and thrust her fist. Stone and earth rippled in an arcing path towards her target, exploding upward with such ferocity the entire ground tore apart in its wake. Toph remained calm. When a massive blunt crag burst upward at her feet, she circled around it with a simple sidestep, as if anticipating exactly where it would emerge. With a simple turn of her heel and twitch of her wrist, she launched a boulder out of the ground at Lin's feet. Lin recoiled, eyes flaring as the boulder caromed off her shoulder with a loud crack. She spun sideways, tumbling to the ground.

Kuvira countered with a firm stomp against the earth. Several floating boulders tore free from the ground and hovered in the air around her. With several quick thrusts of her fist, she fired each boulder forward in quick succession. Toph sidestepped the first earthen missile with all the effort of a lackadaisical dance move. She bent her knees to duck below the second, and with a simple flick of her fingers caused the third to rupture in half. The fourth boulder crashed to a halt in her open palm. A grin snaked across Toph's face, as she spun around and threw the boulder back the way it came. Kuvira stepped back and raised her forearm to block the strike, only for Toph to pull her wrists apart and cause the boulder to explode in a shower of stone. Earthen shrapnel pelted Kuvira's body, dropping her back a step down to her knees.

Toph belted out a delighted laugh, holding up her fists up in excitement. "Oh man, it's great to be young again! I'd almost forgotten just how awesome I am, but I feel incredible! My back doesn't hurt anymore, my joints don't creak, I'm faster than ever—you two don't stand a chance!"

Kuvira sprang back to her feet with a heaving breath. "I'm starting to think she's right. We need to attack her together."

"I agree," Lin muttered, as she repositioned herself into a defensive stance. Her eyes sparked with renewed determination. "Let's take her down together!"

Lin extended her arms and shot out metal cables from beneath her bracers. Kuvira struck in unison, kicking up another boulder from the ground. The boulder served as a feint. With a quick thrust of her palms, she fired out a rapid succession of metal strips from her armguards, trailing them behind the boulder's path.

Toph grinned. With a quick shift of her arms, she bent the incoming cables around her own wrists and yanked hard, pulling Lin clean through the air. In the same motion, she spun around and flicked her fingers at the incoming boulder. The stone projectile split in two, each half passing harmlessly on either side of her. She continued her pull on the metal cables and swung Lin airborne between the two slabs. Another flick of her wrist, and the two halves slammed inward. Earth exploded against either side of Lin. She crumpled, falling limp against the ground, beaten, bloodied, and bruised. She didn't move.

"Ha, nice try," Toph said, "but you're not even close to being in my league. No one is! I'm the greatest—!" Her words cut out as a metal strip clamped around her mouth. A second wrapped her wrists together, and a third around her ankles.

Kuvira raised her hands, and the metal strips raised with them. "What about me?"

She spun Toph through the air, flipped her end over end, and slammed her into the cave wall. Another motion of her arms dragged Toph into the ceiling, and a third smashed her against the ground. With one final whirl of her hands, she threw the blind woman across the cavern. Toph crashed with a heavy thud against the earth, bouncing and sliding until she slammed into the far wall with a violent stop.

Several moments after the assault, Toph grumbled and began to stir. She heaved herself upright, ripping her wrists and ankles apart with an effortless motion. The metal crumbled into scattered bits, and she yanked the final strip off her mouth. Climbing back to her feet, she cracked her neck from side to side and turned a blank stare back towards Kuvira.

"Hmph, platinum," she muttered. "No wonder I didn't sense it at first. Platinum is so much rougher than other metals."

Kuvira glared, extending her arms forward. The numerous metal strips remaining on her armguards quivered in preparation. "Yeah, and there's plenty more where that came from."

"It won't do you any good. I can bend platinum now too, as you've seen. You taught me how, remember?"

"Yeah, well next time I'll be sure to slam you into the wall headfirst." Kuvira peeled off another barrage from her armor and hovered them above her head. "Can't bend anything when you're unconscious."

Toph laughed. "Please, have you forgotten who you're dealing with? There won't be a next time."

Kuvira narrowed her eyes. "Well, I guess we'll just have to see."

She fired her metal strips forward, followed by a firm punch to the ground. Several large chunks of earth erupted upward in front of her. With a spinning kick, she launched them forward. Toph smirked at the assault, shifting her stance with a slight twitch of her fingers. The ground between them exploded with stony shrapnel and swallowed Kuvira's projectiles. Earth surged, and the earthen storm raced towards her. Kuvira made a desperate lunge out of the way, rolling across the ground half a second before a hurricane of dirt and rock decimated the spot she'd been standing.

Toph continued flicking her hands forward, bending a repeated barrage of attacks at the former Great Uniter. With little effort, each of her strikes erupted with such power so few other benders could match, almost as though she didn't even have to try. A subtle shift of her feet here, a few twitches of her fingers there. Kuvira could only run and dodge, each of her evasions becoming more desperate by the second. Before long, Toph had her lunging and rolling across the ground at every opportunity to have any hope at avoiding utter destruction.

"Can't run forever, Great Uniter!" Toph declared, with a maniacal cackle. "I am the greatest earthbender in the world! You're nothing compared to me!"

Kuvira made another desperate leap to evade Toph's next attack. Her boot caught against a loose divot in the ground. She stumbled, slowing just enough for a twisting coil of earth to clang against the armor of her chest and lift her from her feet. Bright colors flashed in her vision, as the cavern whirled around her. She blinked a few times, suddenly aware that she was staring up at the frozen, icy ceiling. What she saw there, as her vision slowly shifted back into focus, made her grin.

Toph sighed, taking a few steps towards the downed woman. "You see? You can't beat me."

"Don't have to," Kuvira groaned, as she crawled back to her feet.

"Hmm?" Toph lifted an eyebrow, lips pursed together. "Speak up, I didn't quite hear that."

"I said, I don't have to." Kuvira propped herself up on her elbows, and wiped the blood from her lips. "Sen should have given you new eyes when he made your new body."

Toph frowned in confusion. "What the heck are you talking about, you dunder—?"

A loud crack ripped through the air, as a figure descended from above and delivered a furious stomp to the back of her head. Toph crashed face down into the dirt, silent and unmoving. Blood oozed from a cut on the back of her head. Lin landed next to her with a pained wheeze and collapsed to her knees. She sat there, staring at her mother for a few moments. Only when she was certain Toph was unconscious did she let herself flop against the ground. She sprawled outward, chest heaving and her eyes closed.

"Thanks for that," Kuvira said.

"Thanks for keeping her busy so I could get into position." Lin grimaced in pain, as she raised one of her arms to retract the extended metal cable back beneath her bracer. "I suppose we should be thankful she can't sense vibrations through ice."

"Yeah, no kidding." With a tired huff, Kuvira fell back against the ground and closed her eyes.


What's the matter, Azula? Is the big bad prodigy scared?

Those words pulsed through Azula's mind, echoing on terrifying repeat. Over and over again. She grit her teeth and swallowed, tried to shake them away. No use. The words only grew stronger, louder, until they were screaming, drowning out all of her other thoughts. They wouldn't go away. No matter what she did, those words wouldn't go away. Not until she screamed herself, loud enough to shatter them from her mind.

"I'm not scared!" she chided, with hissing, biting venom. "I was never scared! Not of you, or anyone!"

"Really? Because you're shaking." Katara cocked her hips to the side, folding her arms with a casual smirk. "I can see the fear in your eyes, Azula. You're terrified."

Azula clenched her fingers tight to stop the trembling in her arms. Didn't work. Her hands shuddered harder, and her teeth chattered, fueled by a steady, creeping coil of anxiety and panic wrapping around her throat. Tight, and choking, seizing the breath from her lungs. "I am not!"

"You remember the last time we fought? When I beat you?" Katara's smirk grew wider. "When the poor, lowly peasant humiliated the perfect princess? When you lost everything?"

"Shut up!" Azula's voice cracked, shrieking from her lips with sheer, unrelenting distress. The longer she stared at the woman across from her, the deeper the knot sank in her gut. It tightened, twisted, bubbling nausea so strong in her core she could feel the bile rising into the back of her mouth.

When Katara had been an old woman, wrinkled and well past her prime, Azula could ignore that she was the same woman who had shattered and embarrassed her all those decades ago. She'd practically been a completely different person to what Azula remembered. This was different. This Katara was young again, with that too-familiar face and those too-familiar eyes. Azula's mind raced, swarmed once again by every horrible emotion she'd felt that day. Hopeless, broken, crushed. Desperate, humiliated. Defensive. Hostile.

Azula recoiled, latching onto that anger to shield herself from those memories. To shield herself from the shame. "You only beat me because I wasn't in my right mind!"

Katara scoffed. "Of course you weren't in your right mind. You're still not in your right mind. You'll never be in your right mind. You know why? Because you're not mentally stable. You're crazy, Azula. Certifiable. Oh, you can hide it and pretend like you're normal, but deep down you know it's true. You know it's only a matter of time before you snap again, and when that happens do you really think Anraq is going to stick around? Let you near Kanna ever again? I don't think so."

Azula flinched. She wanted to bite back, to deny the accusation, but words escaped her. Katara was right, after all. Azula knew her own psyche better than anyone. She wasn't stable. She'd already admitted as much to Annie, hadn't she? Ever since this whole nightmare had begun, she'd been slipping further and further away. Further over the edge. Further back into madness. Not that she would ever stop fighting it. She couldn't. She wouldn't let herself, not ever.

"N-No, that won't happen," she insisted. "Annie said he'd never leave me. No matter what."

"That's because he doesn't know what you are," Katara shot back. "Not really. But I know. And you know. Once he figures it out, he'll get rid of you just like he should. In the end, you'll wind up exactly where you belong: alone and institutionalized, where you won't be able to hurt anyone ever again."

"You're wrong!" Azula clawed at the sides of her skull, fingers knotting through her hair. She squinted her eyes shut, shaking her head back and forth in defiance. "I won't hurt them! I would never hurt them! I love them! I love them..."

"Who are you trying to convince? Me? Or yourself? We both know you're incapable of love. You don't deserve it."

"Shut up!" Azula swung one of her hands forward. A violent blue fireball erupted from her fist, leaping the distance between them. Katara blocked it with a single swipe of water, but Azula didn't stop. She repeated her attack in rapid succession, unleashing blast after blast of flames. "Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up!"

Azula's attacks were wild, uncontrolled. Skill was lost to her, drowned beneath a wall of terrified rage. Katara defended herself with sweeping arcs of water pulled from the surrounding ice of the cavern. Skillfully, easily, as though batting away an annoying fly. Katara waited for the right moment, ducked low beneath one of the incoming fireballs, and guided a crushing water stream through the air. Azula never saw the attack coming. Water erupted against her chest. Her eyes snapped wide, air rushing from her lungs. She briefly lifted from her feet, but managed to steady herself long enough to land back in a sliding crouch atop the frozen ground.

"You really want to do this?" Katara said, as she whipped around another lash of water. "Because trust me, this isn't going to be much of a match."

Azula kicked out a flame to block the whip, only for an icy crag to burst upward and knock away her leg. She stumbled, nearly fell. Water smacked against the side of her face and sent her spinning back across the ground. Panic lifted into her chest, drove her to scramble back to her feet. She made it as far as her knees before a block of ice shot into her stomach. Her lips parted in a shocked gasp, as she stuttered into a fit of coughing and wheezing, desperate to breathe.

"Face it, Azula. You can't beat me." Katara extended a vine of water and wrapped it around the firebender's waist. With a vicious yank, she pulled Azula from her feet, slammed her against the cavern wall, and threw her into the air. "You could never beat me."

Azula made a flailing twist in midair, attempting to regain her senses enough to land on her feet. Her heels scraped against the ground, but her momentum carried her too far. The cavern spun with her, head over heels. When her head slammed into the ice, she fell still with a hissing groan of air, every muscle in her body screaming in defiant pain to keep her down. She lay unmoving on the ground, staring wide-eyed at the rotating ceiling above her. She couldn't stand, couldn't breathe, couldn't even hear herself think.

"I can't beat her," she uttered. Her voice cracked out in little more than a hoarse squeak.. "Can't beat her, can't beat her, can't beat her, I can't... I can't..."

Katara doubled forward in a fit of laughter. "Oh wow, would you listen to yourself? You're like a broken record. I guess you're even more messed up than I thought. Man, I thought this would be harder. If nothing else, at least it's entertaining."

Azula forced her eyes shut and clenched her jaw. What was wrong with her? She was fighting like a child, flailing around with no sense of purpose, hoping to get lucky. That wasn't her. That wasn't the prodigy she had always been and always would be. She had to calm herself somehow. She had to focus. But how? How could she focus when she couldn't even breathe steady? How could she—

Breathe.

Of course. She had to breathe. That was how she calmed herself, wasn't it? That was how Annie had helped her through these little moments of hers. That was how she beat this. Remember the exercises, remember the good things. The happy things. What made her happy?

Annie. Kanna. They made her happy.

Mai. Ty Lee. They made her happy.

Kuvira, too. Even the Avatar.

All her friends. That was something she had a lot of now. Friends. Something she'd never had before.

Love. Compassion. Acceptance. Those were the good things in her life. All of it.

Azula's mind steadily cleared. The terrified dread that had warped her thoughts so violently only moments ago evaporated, freeing her with a blissful warmth that descended into the center of her chest and blossomed, as though a seed sprouting roots and rapidly growing into a mighty tree. Her breathing steadied, and became even. Her hands stopped trembling. Most importantly of all, her mind was quiet. No more doubt, no more fear.

With one more deep breath, Azula climbed back to her feet and glared at the waterbender. "You're wrong about me."

Katara raised an amused brow. "Is that so?"

"Yes, it is. I know I'm not well, and I know my mental health is maybe not the best, but I am not crazy. I am not insane. I am not out of my mind. I am still a person. My own person. A person I am happy with, and that others are happy with. I may have to work hard to keep it that way, but that's just something I have to live with. I have people to help me with that. I have people who love me. People I love. No matter what you say, I will never hurt them. Not ever."

"Talk, talk, talk, that's all you ever do," Katara said, with a bored sigh. "You can try to kid yourself all you want, but it won't change things. You're still a monster, and deep down you always will be."

Azula's glare darkened, but she didn't say anything else. She simply raised her hands in preparation to attack, flames igniting into her palms. Time to finish this. As she went to throw the fire at her opponent, two globs of water engulfed her arms and pulled her across the ground, smothering her flames on contact. The water was attached to Katara's arms, linking them together by two long whips. Azula dug her heels into the ground to keep herself in place. No use. The water pulled her close, and within seconds she found herself only a few paces away from Katara.

"This seems familiar, doesn't it?" Katara smirked, and the water snapped into solid ice. Azula struggled in the frozen grasp, but could do nothing to break it. "Only difference is, Zuko isn't here to save you this time."

"I never needed Zuko to save me," she countered.

With a single deep breath, Azula pulled her legs off the ground and kicked her feet square into Katara's chest. Massive blue flames exploded between them, as the ice joining their arms shattered on impact. Azula slid back across the ground in a controlled crouch. Almost controlled enough to stop herself. Almost. Her momentum carried her too far, too fast, and she descended into a backwards roll. She came to a sudden and violent stop when she slammed into the far cavern wall, dull pain rupturing through her body.

Her vision blurred, a nauseous bubble lifting into her throat. When she blinked her vision clear, she found herself staring up from her hands and knees. Strange, she hadn't even felt herself hit the ground. Initial instinct pushed her to get back to her feet, to ready herself to press the attack. That instinct faded moments later, when she saw Katara lying flat on her back. The waterbender's shirt had burned open, leaving behind a singed, smoking scar across her chest. She was silent, motionless. Defeated.

"I guess this time the prodigy wins," Azula said, with a soft, quiet chuckle. The world flickered dark moments later. With a pained, wheezing breath, she collapsed face down against the ice.