A/N: Sigh... it's been a while, hasn't it?

I'm still working on this story. Haven't abandoned it. Promise.

Jet fans, turn back now.

Chapter XXXIII

Horrors of War, Part II

"Wake up, Snoozles. Spirits, I don't know how the Princess handles your snoring." A rough hand shook Sokka awake, and he blinked the sleep away from his eyes. The glaze took a few moments to dissipate, revealing Toph's face hovering over his own.

"Ehrghhh... what time is it?" he grumbled. He rubbed away the crust that had formed at the corners of his eyes, looking at Toph balefully.

"Wait a second, let me check... oh. Looks like it's a quarter past wake-the-fuck-up o'clock. Now get up."

Sokka grimaced half-blindly at the girl, who looked rather pleased with her comeback, and got up. Azula wasn't in their tent, and he felt more tired than he should have. The few hours interruption to his sleep, spent fishing with Kiyi must have sapped his energy more than he thought.

He thought back to their conversation from last night. Tired though he was, he couldn't help but feel it was worth it in the end, knowing that Kiyi was struggling with the same problem he'd wrangled with ever since he'd met the Princess.

He pushed through the tent flap, stretching his arms out as he basked in the sun. Despite the quippy non-answer from the Earthbender, he could tell it wasn't too late, no more than nine in the morning. He could smell eggs being cooked over a fire, and his mouth began to water.

"Hungry? Load up, we've got a lot of work to do today," Toph said, pushing past him brusquely in the direction of the campfire. She plopped down on a comfortable rock and helped herself to some of the food, which Suki was making. She smiled at Sokka as he approached, as she stoked the fire and added another log.

"Morning, Sokka. Help yourself, the others just ate."

Sokka stretched some more before sitting down next to her with a yawn. "Thanks. Where is everyone?"

"Mmm... I think Ursa and Kiyi went to forage. Noren went hunting. As for our companions, Aang, Katara, and Azula went on Appa to the nearest town, to see if they've had any sight of the resistance fighters."

"Which means you're on forest-scouting duty with me, Snoozles," Toph said, choking down a mouthful of egg.

Suki looked at her with a raised eyebrow, before shaking her head, though Sokka found it amusing that perhaps they were adding someone to their party with an appetite to match his. "Fair enough," Sokka said. He helped himself to some of the eggs, and his mouth watered as the smell wafted into his nose. The first bite lived up to the hype - perfectly cooked eggs, fluffy without being burnt. He looked at Suki with pure, unadulterated gratitude in his eyes. "Holy shit, Suki."

"Thank me later with an empty mouth, you glutton," Suki said, rolling her eyes, though with a smile on her face.

In between bites, Sokka managed to choke out, "You got any leads, or do we just pick a direction and start marching?"

Toph shrugged. "We get close enough, I can sense footsteps. It's a little muddled because of the amount of life in the forest, but humans are pretty different from mongoose lizards or sugar gliders. Got no idea when it comes to direction."

Sokka nodded. "We'll just pick a direction, then."

They finished the rest of their meal in silence, though Sokka couldn't help but observe the Earthbender. He'd yet to see her in action, but if she'd managed to impress Aang enough for him to enlist her aid as his master, surely there was significant underlying skill. And the way she could use the earth to see... it was remarkable. The more devious part of his mind, however - the strategist - was thinking of every possible weakness. The gears whirred in his head. She uses earth to see... earth. Hmm... The ghost of an idea sprang into his mind, and he decided to pursue it.

"Say, Toph," Sokka began.

"Mm?"

"If this deal works out for everyone... will you be coming with us to Agna Qel'a?"

"Agna what-now?"

"North Pole," Sokka clarified. "Not sure how much Aang told you, but we're going there to fight a Fire Nation fleet."

"Yeah, he mentioned something like that. Sorry, but the deal is for teaching services only. Twinkletoes needs to learn water first, so you guys go and take care of that at the pole, and then I'll be waiting here on nice, warm, comfortable land in the meantime."

"I understand," Sokka said, lacing a casual tone into his voice. "Besides, it's probably hard to bend or see with earth when there's not much of it, to begin with, and the rest is mostly ice."

Toph stopped mid-bite and snapped her glassy eyes in his direction. "Very clever, Nightwolf," she said drily. "Very clever. I'm glad to see it's not just a bullshit name after all."

It was Sokka's turn to shrug. "Didn't stay alive all this time by being a complete idiot." He smiled at her genuinely, though he wasn't sure if she could sense it. "By the way, you don't have to call me Nightwolf. Sokka is fine. Snoozles is fine, even. I think I'm gonna like working with you, Beifong."

The Earthbender grinned at him. "Ditto. Let's see if you fight as good as you think."

Suki was on camp guarding duty that day, which meant it was only Sokka and Toph that were going out scouting. On a hunch, since Azula and the others had gone with Appa to the northwest, Sokka picked a more south-eastern direction to scout in. The terrain did not make for easy going, yet he was able to cut and hack his way through the bramble efficiently enough. Toph, on the other hand, did not miss a step. Her seismic sense attuned her to everything in her vicinity, and she found no false footing, every step lithe and measured in the direction she chose. She was also, for the most part, soundless with her movement.

He shifted the pack that was slung over his shoulder. Though the two had not planned to make this scouting trip any longer than two days, he decided it might be wise to get supplies in case they found a promising lead or a trail that could not be explored in just one day. Suki had given them some food, supplies, and waterskins. As of yet, however, they had found nothing, and it was inching closer to midday as they continued in a southeastern track. Eventually, they came across a river - more of a creek - that seemed to meander in the same direction they planned to go. Sokka stopped there to refill their water-skins when he heard Toph mutter something behind him.

"What's up?" he called out.

"Something's wrong," she replied, taking a few tentative steps down the creekbed. "I can feel a village here, over the rise, but... not a single footstep. Nothing. No kids running around, no people working fields or chopping lumber or doing anything."

Sokka's face turned grim. It was noon; a village of any sort should be bustling with life. But then again, they were rather deep in the forest, and perhaps this was an abandoned or ruined settlement. Toph led the way, and he followed in her footsteps. The trees began to give way until there were only stumps around them, the area surrounding the village deforested by the local lumberjacks. He could see the wall around the village. It was an earthen rampart, mostly, but with some sections of wooden palisade as well. There was an eerie quiet around them, and there were no signs of people anywhere.

Inside the village, Sokka could spot a singular tower that reached over the walls and the roof shingles of the houses underneath. It was more recent in make than the rest of the village, and in a different style too. Fire Nation banners hung around the tower.

"I think this place was an outpost for Fire Nation troops," he muttered to Toph. "Can you sense the tower?"

"Yeah. It's Fire Nation, right?" she asked.

"Yep. Red banners all over." Sokka stared up at the top of the tower. He spotted a strange-looking spire, or a spike - something at the top that he could not quite make out. Toph confirmed that there was absolutely no movement inside the village walls, so they agreed to go inside and scope out the place. When he finally got to the top of the rampart, he wished he hadn't.

Bodies by the score lay bloodied and in the village. Blood spatters stained the dusty walls of the houses, coated the roofs, dripped from the shingles, and collected in little flowing rivers in the crevasses of the cobblestone streets. There was no discrimination among the dead; men, women, and children were all there in equal measure. Bodies were hung from the rafters inside houses, and others were hung from poles in the street, both civilian and the Fire Nation garrison that had once lived in the village. The Fire Nation outpost tower, as well as the wooden barrack pressed up against its base, were littered with the bodies of dead soldiers, and when Sokka neared the base of the tower, he realized that the 'spire' at the top was a man impaled on a stake. In blood, the walls were graffitied with slogans, all of which were some variations on a common theme.

Death to collaborators and traitors. Death to the Fire Nation.

"Shit," Toph said. She stomped around, working herself into a greater state of agitation before she let out a guttural scream and ripped apart a section of the palisade with her Earthbending. The ground opened up and roiled on itself, swallowing the wooden stakes entirely. "Fuck!" she screamed. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Her anger fed Sokka's own, and his face grew darker and darker. Only animals could have done something like this. He tried to clear the rage from his mind, but his fingers trembled, and his breathing became quick and rapid. He wanted to bury his club in someone's skull for this-

No. Stop. You have to focus, Sokka. Justice. Not vengeance. The better path, not the base one.

He forced himself to breathe normally. He needed to keep a clear mind. He needed details, clues, evidence, something to track.

The bodies had not even begun to rot, which hinted to him that the devastation had been recent. The blood was drying, but not completely dried yet, and vultures and scavenging animals had not yet found the carnage in any great numbers. The entire village was littered with tracks, but he looked for any that entered and exited. As they had been tracking in a southeastern direction, Sokka continued in that way, and found what he was looking for - footprints that egressed to the south, into the forest again, following the creek.

"Toph," he called out. The Earthbender did not respond, and Sokka turned to look at her. She was staring furiously at the ground, her hands balled into fists at her side.

"Beifong," Sokka called out again. He took a few steps closer to her, his hands raised, hoping she would not lash out at him. "Hey. I'm just as pissed as you right now."

"No, you're not," she snarled. "You're calm. I'm boiling over. I'm going to bury the animals who did this alive. They're going to die choking on dirt."

"I'm calm because I'm forcing myself to be calm," Sokka said. "Trust me. We can't do anything for these people now, but we can make sure nobody else suffers their fate. There are tracks heading south, into the forest. Can you sense them?"

Toph slumped her shoulders a little, and her hands unclenched from tightened fists. She ground her feet into the dirt and closed her eyes, forcing herself to breathe normally. "Yeah, I feel 'em. Let's go."

Azula tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Aang and Katara to finish talking to the villagers.

Their scouting had taken them north on Appa's back to village after village, searching for any sign of the resistance fighters. They turned up little that was of any import - no visits or sightings of any great import. The villagers knew about the resistance, and they spoke in hushed tones about a blown-up dam and a flooded village. As the day passed and they flew further away from camp, however, the more Azula became convinced that they were heading in the wrong direction.

She felt a general uneasiness about letting Sokka take the first shift with the Earthbender girl. She already did not have much trust for a new member of the group; unlike Suki, Toph had not yet shown her commitment or trustworthiness. But more than that, she did not trust Sokka's inability to stay out of trouble, which followed him around like cloud over his head.

Aang was still talking to the villagers when Katara sidled over to her and groaned. She eyed the Waterbender with a lopsided smile.

"This is ridiculous. We're not finding anything," she grumbled.

"Perhaps because we're headed in the wrong direction," Azula offered. "Truth be told, I'm a little worried about Sokka."

Katara raised her head and met Azula in the eye. "I don't trust him with the new girl."

"Me neither."

"It's not just that she's new... she's immature. And she doesn't care for him the same way the rest of us do. She's not a part of this family," Katara added hotly.

"Yes, the sex jokes alluded to that," Azula said drily. "That being said, if there's someone who can forge a link with her, it's Sokka. I'm too..."

"Mean?" her friend teased.

Azula narrowed her eyes. "I was going to say unapproachable, but your opinion has been noted. You and she are never going to get along; you're far too mature and she is not. Aang needs some distance as she will be his teacher, and I cannot say how she and Suki will get along, but Suki is by-the-book, and Toph does not seem that way. That leaves our charismatic prince of the Southern Water Tribe."

"Too mature?" Katara said with an eyebrow cocked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Azula grinned at the Waterbender and gave her a little nudge in the ribs. "I saw the look you gave Sokka and I last night. When are you and the Avatar planning on taking the next step?" Her friend blushed immediately at the question, causing Azula's grin to turn into an amused laugh.

"Well..."

"Oh please, Katara. You've grown adept enough at brewing that tea to do it for the both of us."

"We don't exactly get much alone time!" she protested.

"You have to make alone time," Azula countered. "You two fools are in love, even if you haven't admitted as much to each other. Devote some time to it."

"Yes, but it's not the same as-"

"As Sokka and I?" Azula finished. "Of course it isn't. I can't say I'm particularly experienced in the field, but logic only dictates that no two relationships look the same, especially when the constituent parts are very different." Azula flipped a pebble into the air with her toes, and then kicked it up and down on the same foot, never letting it fall to the ground. "Does it feel right, when you're with him? Subjectively, of course. I'm sure our definitions of 'right' aren't the same."

"Yes," Katara responded with firm finality. "It does."

"Then proceed at your own pace and rhythm, but do proceed. Take steps and make time for each other." Azula sighed and shook her head. "Your brother has changed my worldviews so quickly that sometimes I'm stunned to realize that I'm the same person who stepped foot on that barge months ago."

"Do you feel like you've lost something of yourself?"

"In a way," Azula said, a soft smile spreading across her lips. "I promise it's nothing that I miss."

Aang finished his conversation with the villagers and trotted back. All smiles vanished as both girls saw the grim look on his face.

"What happened?" Katara asked.

Aang shook his head. "A nearby village that trades with this one was supposed to send a caravan today. It never arrived. Some of the towns to the south of our camping ground have been attacked recently. I think that's our best bet."

The fire crackled, warming him up on the outside. It did nothing to chase away the horrid chill inside his bones, the one that settled in once they left the unnamed village where the massacre had taken place. Toph had buried every corpse in the village as best she could, willing the earth to swallow up the bodies where they lay. She summoned another large rock, and Sokka carved markings - a memorial - for the fallen. He did not say as much to her, but he thought it a good gesture.

He stared at his companion, who sat on a log, her knees drawn up to her chest. The rage she felt had not subsided even a little, and Sokka could feel it roiling off her like a horrible heat.

"That wasn't your village, was it?" he asked, poking at the fire with a stick.

"No," she said curtly. "I'm not from around here."

"I can tell." She glanced up at him. "You do a good job of hiding it when you swear like a sailor, but your accent is a bit like Azula's underneath. It's easy to spot when you talk to her enough," he said, by way of explanation. "Also, you have a family name, which means you're a highborn, or from a merchant family, or something."

"You think you can read me or something?" she snarled at him. "You don't know me, and we aren't friends." Her genial tone from earlier in the morning was gone, replaced by something else. Sokka knew innately that Toph was only lashing out because there was nowhere else for her disheartening frustrations to go. He would not feed it, not by responding in kind, even if he felt sorely tempted.

"Not yet, we aren't," he said. "Look, we're not catching those assholes tonight, so we might as well get to know each other if we're going to fight together."

Toph snorted. "We don't need to know each other to fight together."

"Fine," Sokka said, nonchalantly. "You don't have to share if you don't want to, but I'm going to talk. Whether you listen is up to you." Without giving her a chance to protest, he began to tell her about his life in the Pole, growing up with Katara, stories of his father, and Gran-Gran, and Kya. He delved into worse memories; the raids, Kya's death. And happier ones as well - falling in love with Saira, preparing to get married. He still choked a little when he spoke about what had happened to her, and how his mission and legend had started. As far as he could tell, he may as well have been speaking to the air, but Toph seemed to relax a little.

Even if that was only because of what she regarded as his inane babble, Sokka figured he'd take that result. She did perk up when he started talking about his mission as the Nightwolf. Her attention grew rapt, and then she even began to interrupt with questions of her own. When he caught up to the moment he met Azula, she asked him something that gave him pause.

"If things hadn't changed when you met the Princess... you think you would have done this-" she gestured in the direction of the village they'd left - "to the Fire Nation? Killing at any cost?"

Sokka stared at his hands as if he'd suddenly find them stained with the blood of everyone he'd killed up until this moment. "Maybe," he whispered hoarsely. "I wanted to die, but I was too much of a coward to do it myself. So... I just hoped my work would do it for me. Maybe not actively, but... I don't think my mind was healthy. If I'd been left to stew like that any longer..." Sokka sighed. "Killing for the sake of vengeance doesn't fill you up. I get that now. No matter how much you want it to. It just becomes another hunger of its own."

"And you think that's what's happened the resistance fighters? They've given in?" Toph pressed.

Sokka shrugged. "Maybe. Imagine if instead of doing it all by my lonesome, I had ten or fifteen others who were in the same frame of mind as me. Imagine if we fed off each other's worst impulses."

Toph gave him a wary look. "You sound like you empathize."

"I understand, I don't empathize. There's a difference," he said quickly. Of course, I understand. That could have been me. That would have been me, he thought, but he did not say. "Alright, that's enough out of me. What's your damage, Blind Bandit? Highborn Earthbender doesn't end up hunting scumbags in Gaipan Forest unless there's a story, so spill it. And how'd you earn the name? The bandit part, not the... well, you know what I'm saying."

"Blind, Snoozles. You can say it. I'm not a delicate little flower that falls apart any time someone mentions it to me."

Sokka winced. "I was just trying to-"

"What? Be nice? Don't patronize me," she interjected bitingly. "Do I look like someone who needs pity or condescension? "

"No. Just not boiling you down to your blindness," Sokka said, exasperated. Nothing was easy with this girl. "It's probably not nearly the same, but ask Suki or me. We're in the company of three - and now four, including you - of the strongest benders we've ever met. Suki and I can't do shit in comparison to some of the things they can. You're blind, and I'm a non-bender. We are what we are, and the world isn't likely to let us forget it. But that doesn't mean you deserve to be the 'blind' girl or that Suki or me are the 'non-benders' wherever we go. You're a person, not just a pair of non-functioning eyeballs."

Toph grinned at him. "Non-functioning eyeballs. Smooth recovery, guy. Anyway, you sure you wanna know the story? Don't think you'd believe it."

"Try me."

"Alright, fine. In Gaoling, in the southern Earth Kingdom, there's an underground earthbending tournament - and I mean that both literally and figuratively. Strictly off-the-books shit, you get me? I participated under my parents' noses for a while. We needed stupid stage names to fight - nobody really fought under their own name, and I didn't want my name getting out there besides. So Blind Bandit it was, because beating those jabronis was like stealing candy from a baby," she snickered.

Sokka whistled. "Well, shit. What was your record?"

"Perfect 14-0, retired as Earth Rumble heavyweight champion, of course," Toph said matter-of-factly, though not without an undercurrent of pride. "Anyway, parents found out, tried to cloister me in the house like a nun. I ran away, and then..." she trailed off, cupping her face in her hands and staring sightlessly into the campfire.

"You fell in with Twin Hook and his fighters," Sokka finished, the realization dawning on him. Of course. No wonder she's taking this all so personally. This could have been her, too, perhaps? Would she have given in? Sokka suddenly felt his spirit reach out to Toph. There was something kindred there, some common essence between the two.

"They weren't always like this," Toph said quietly. "We did some good things at first."

"I know," Sokka added. "Suki told us that Twin Hook and his people helped engineer a prison breakout off the coast of the Earth Kingdom, over by Khangai Village, with the help of Commander Haru. That was a good thing, so... begs the question, where did it all go sideways?"

"You ever hear about what happened to the Gaipan Dam?"

Sokka's face fell. Zuko and Suki had mentioned the incident separately to him. "Yeah."

"Well... I tried to stop it. Didn't happen. Jet - that's Twin Hook - fooled all of us. But most of the rest stayed behind, with him. They were too committed, too... blindly devoted to the cause," Toph said, with a painfully sardonic laugh. "That was my family for a while. Then they killed hundreds of innocents to take out a few dozen Fire Nation soldiers. At first, I thought Jet was... I thought he would try to justify it, say that the Earth Kingdom citizens who died, did so for the cause. But he told me to my face that traitors and collaborators deserved to die."

"How'd he know they were collaborators?" Sokka said.

Toph was quiet for a few moments, before responding. "He didn't. His town was razed after a siege. He later found out that the town magistrate let the Fire Nation through the walls for a bribe and a guarantee of safety for his own family. After that, he was never the same. Anyone who tolerated the Fire Nation's occupation was a traitor to him. Anyway, I left. Then that Fire Nation prince swung through the area, hot on Jet's heels. At first, I harassed his supply lines, attacked his scouting parties, but then I realized if he got rid of Jet, he'd be doing everyone a bigger favor. So... I let him do his thing."

"And then it turns out the Prince couldn't pull it off," Sokka added. "Not completely, anyway. From what he told me, he shut down the operation, but didn't capture Jet and the rest of the group's leadership."

"It was good enough for a while. Things were quiet. Then, a month ago, two villages destroyed, the Fire Nation outposts wiped out, and the people put the sword. I've been trying to find Jet and his people, but no dice. That's when I ran into Twinkletoes and the rest of your little gang," Toph said, crossing her arms. "So that's it. That's the whole story." Somehow, Sokka doubted that it was the entirety of it, but it was enough of a start to a working relationship with this girl. They ate a little from their pack supplies in silence, before he returned to his bedroll, and Toph put up her little earthen tent.

Sokka woke first, before the dawn. A little chill swept through the forest, though they were still not yet far enough north for the true effects of winter to set in. There was a slight fog on the forest floor, and the stars gleamed their last gleams before the coming of the sun. He stretched and looked over towards Toph's earthen tent, which was still up. He strained his ears, trying to pick up on any sign of people nearby, but he could not hear anything apart from the pitter-patter of small animals, and the earliest chirping of birds.

He breathed in deep, taking in the woodsy air, relishing in its freshness after what he had seen yesterday. He tied his weapons to his belt and took down his tent, leaving the supplies by the smoldering remains of their campfire. He did not want to follow the trail too deep into the forest, lest he became separated from his partner and run into the enemy, but he tracked it along the path they had followed yesterday. It continued for less than fifteen minutes before he lost the tracks. Sokka doubled back to camp, to find Toph taking down her earthen tent and biting into some jerky from their pack. She tossed him a few strips as he drew close, and they snacked on their breakfast silently. After they were done, Sokka told her what had happened with the trail.

"Alright, take me there. I'll see if I can't sense anything," she said. He guided her back to where he lost the trail, and he could tell by the immediate frown that set upon her face that she couldn't discern anything either. By then, the faint hues of pink, signifying the imminent dawn, were present in the sky.

"No luck?" he asked, hoping against hope.

"Nothing. It's strange... but it's like their steps disappear here into the trees completely. Like they just upped and vanished. But that can't be right. The earth doesn't lie. They could cover up their tracks, but I can still sense the disturbances."

"And they just... stop? Right here?" Sokka said. He touched the bark of a nearby tree, long, red, reaching up high into the forest sky. There were knots and branches leading up, though the yellow and orange leaves of the trees did not start until much higher. His eyes followed the trees up.

And then he felt his scalp prickle. There was only one good explanation, and while it wasn't the only possibility, he wasn't sure he really wanted to find out.

"Toph," he hissed. "They're in the trees. We have to get out of here, now."

The Earthbender, to her credit, did not stiffen up or show any signs of alarm. Instead, she leaned against the tree, crossing her arms, before whispering back at him. "Do you see them?"

"No," he responded quietly. His eyes tracked through the trees. At first, it was difficult to see anything, given how elevated the canopy was. The more his eyes strained, however, the more evidence he found confirming his theory. "I can see makeshift treehouses and some rope bridges. Fuck, they've disguised them well." He looked back down at her. "Can you sense anything up there?"

She ground her feet into the dirt, twisting her ankles, silent for a moment. "Yeah. But they're so high up, I couldn't have told them from the squirrels and sugar gliders unless I really knew what I was looking for. I knew some of them had treetop hideouts, but when I was with them, we stayed on the ground. I could usually tell if enemies were coming near. They've adapted since I've been gone." Toph's words became more angry, and Sokka saw one fist clenched into a ball.

He saw what she was about to do before she did it. "Toph," he whispered. "Don't. We'll come back with Azula and the others. We can smoke them out, do a controlled burn or something, and surprise them. Now isn't the time."

"Quit being a fucking coward, Nightwolf," she hissed. "Can't you handle anything without relying on the Princess?"

Sokka sensed that she was trying to bait him, and though her words crawled under his skin, he tried not to let it show on his face, or to rise to the trap. "I didn't survive this long by doing stupid shit." That was, in fact, a lie - he'd taken plenty of foolish risks in the South Pole - but he shoved that thought to the side. "Listen to me. They have the high ground. Don't try it, Toph."

"Screw that. You SAW what they did back there," she said through clenched teeth. "The whole village. They didn't even spare the kids."

"Toph..." Sokka began warningly, but it was too late. She was committed. The girl jumped and stomped the ground, causing a frightening quake to erupt underneath her. There was shouting above them, and Sokka heard the arrows whistle towards him and Toph before he saw them. He grabbed her and dove away from where they were standing, taking cover behind another clumping of trees. Some tree-structures came tumbling from the top, as did screaming people, who landed with wet, bloody thunks on the ground. There was even more screaming and shouting from above them, and then dozens of ropes descended from the treetops. People in bamboo armor and straw hats rappelled down the ropes, shouting war cries as they brandished a number of improvised weapons, spears, or bows. Within the span of a minute, he and Toph were hemmed in from all sides, surrounded by several dozen fighters.

A lone figure emerged from the throng, and almost immediately upon seeing him, Sokka disliked him. He was handsome, and likely the same age as he; shaggy brown hair fell from his scalp, framing dark eyes, a high face, and a cocksure smile. He had a stalk of grass between his teeth, and wore a red gi with bamboo armor over a blue tunic. Sokka didn't have to wonder what his name was - the twin hook swords, the fu tao in either hand gave away his identity. This was Jet.

"Hello," the man said, his voice a sarcastic, grating sneer. "Not nice of you to wake us like that, Beifong. Is that any way to greet your old friends?"

Toph growled at him. "You're no friend of mine. Where are Longshot, Smellerbee, and the others? They get sick of your shit too, Jet?"

Jet snickered with amusement. "People come and go, Toph, much like you. I can't make them stay committed to the cause, but the cause remains eternal. Did you like our handiwork over there in the other village?"

"You killed a lot of innocents," Sokka said. "Civilians. They did nothing to deserve what they got."

"On the contrary, Water Tribesman," Jet said, pointing a hook sword in his direction. "They were collaborators. Their men opened the gates for the Fire Nation. Their women fed their soldiers and washed their clothes. Some of those Fire Nation soldiers even started families in the village. They were all guilty, guilty of being part of the occupation, of being the oppressors. They all deserved exactly what they got."

"Funny. You talk about oppression and then you go about killing civilians. Not much difference between you and the ashmakers, as far as I'm concerned," Sokka spat. He gazed around at all of the partisans. "Your followers, how long do they last before they get sick and tired of carrying out massacres and leave?"

"You make interesting friends, Toph," Jet said, ignoring him and addressing the Earthbender again. "How many more of you are there?"

Sokka watched as Toph gave him a cocky smirk. "With the Nightwolf on my side, I don't need others. We'll whip you back from here to Ba Sing Se without any help."

Jet's eyes widened as they traveled back from Toph towards Sokka. "My... the Nightwolf, eh? The famed warrior of the South Pole. Kinda funny that you were talking all high and mighty just now-"

"I didn't go around killing innocents," Sokka hissed.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard your spiel the first time," Jet said dismissively. "You're not really what I pictured, to be honest. Thought you'd be more impressive."

"Step up and I'll show you just how impressed you should be," Sokka retorted.

Jet waved him away. "Thanks for the offer, but..." he gestured around him. "I've got the numbers advantage. Nice to know that strategy isn't your forte, Nightwolf." Sokka wanted to shoot Toph a glare since it was her that had given away any element of surprise they might have had, but there was no use. They were in the shit now, and they had to work together to get out.

"Time to show me why Aang wants your teaching," Sokka muttered in Toph's direction.

"Gladly," she growled. A loud rumbling filled the forest, and Sokka readied his club and boomerang for battle.