A/N: I really want to apologise for not updating sooner, but university is literally taking up all my time. But I have managed to write this chapter for you guys, I apologise that it's not even particularly long to make up for my absence, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.
I open the window to my room using the key that Zuko gave me and stumble in, exhausted. I flop to the floor, lacking any energy to reach my bed. Staring at the ceiling I wonder what I did wrong.
'Going to the police station must have been my worst idea ever, of course Toph was going to be there! I've heard she works herself to the bone, wishful thinking of me that she would have taken the night off. Also how did I not sense them? That costed everything. It's only a matter of time before they catch on. Dumb brain!' I slap my forehead hard in frustration. 'The worst thing is that I have to face them all first thing tomorrow for the water tribe meetings.' I shake my head, 'spirits how did it get to this point? Trying to keep secrets from the very people who became my family. What am I doing?' I sigh and before I know it, my eyes begin to shut. 'At least the assassins never seem to attack me when I'm away for meetings.' I finally drift off to sleep.
Meanwhile... Sokka POV
"Ok, we are going to have use this room for the meetings for the rest of the week." The Firelord states despondently.
"Ah come on Zuko, it aint that bad!" I say in an attempt to cheer him up.
"Says you."
"Hurry up you slow pokes, I want to get some shut eye before having to be dragged out of bed tomorrow for those boring meetings." We nod, Zuko sits beside her and I sit opposite.
"Ok so what do we know?" I ask.
"He's having nightmares about us and the Air Nomads." The Firelord responds almost immediately.
"Well that's easily explained. He's probably lonely because he lives by himself and..."
"So why does he have nightmares about us?" Toph asks curiously.
"Maybe he misses us." Toph and I look at Zuko ludicrously at his suggestion.
"I doubt that." I snort.
"Well any ideas Mr Genius?" I think about it for a moment.
"Hey Toph you remember Aang used to have nightmares about us just before the invasion?" She thinks for a moment and nods slowly before widening her eyes.
"Yeh and what about when Ba Sing Se fell, he said to Katara that he didn't want any of us risking our lives for him or something." I nod before realising she probably can't see me.
"Yeh! Oh oh and there was a time when Aang had a nightmare about a storm and he lost us in it… I can't remember exactly cos he only told Katara about that but she told me later on… I er wasn't paying attention." Both Zuko and Toph shakes their heads.
"Typical." The blind earthbender snorts.
"Hey my mind was occupied with other things."
"Yeh I bet it was on meat." I cross my arms and turn my head to the right.
"Anyway what does that have to do with anything?" Zuko questions, his eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. I uncross my arms and lean forwards.
"I'm not too sure...but doesn't he only have nightmares of us when he thinks we are in danger?" The room falls silent for several minutes.
"That's true. But what is he scared of? The war has ended, the nations are pretty much at peace now." I scratch my head in thought, running over Zuko's question in my mind.
"Maybe it has something to do with those two guys he delivered to me last week."
"How?" Zuko and I ask in unison.
"Well as I said, I didn't get anything out of them when I questioned them. But! I did notice when I asked the non-bender about the Avatar, I sensed some sort of hatred radiating of him. It might have been my imagination, but I was sure he held some sort of grudge." I stroke my chin in thought.
"You think he wants to protect us from those two?"
"But if that was the case everything would've returned back to normal and we would all be friends again." Zuko points out.
"Not to mention we are masters of our element, there's no way he could be scared of a bender and a non-bender." Toph confidently adds in.
"Unless there was more of them around." I say slowly to catch their attention.
"And speaking of non-benders did any of you notice Aang's expression after I asked about whether they could bend?"
"I think your question is actually directed to Sparky there." I blush and rub my neck.
"Er yeh, sorry about that." She smirks and shrugs, happy to have embarrassed me.
"Actually I did, but I didn't think much of it. Do you think it means anything?" I bite my cheek in thought.
"I'm sure it does, but I just can't think what it could be." Zuko sighs and turns to face Toph.
"Going back to those two, do you have any ideas of their aims or motives?"
"When he came by the police station he said they had hurt him, so they had intent to do harm." I listen to Toph closely, hoping for an answer to pop out in front of me.
"But do you think it was intent to scare him or intent to do some serious damage?" I question in worry.
"When you mean damage do you mean...?" I sigh and nod to Zuko.
"Yes, an assassination attempt." I watch as both Toph and Zuko gulp at the thought. Toph then turns her head to the side, her eyes hidden underneath her bangs of hair and Zuko shakes his head vigorously.
"But that's crazy! Why would anyone want to kill the Avatar? It's because of him we are at peace." The Firelord argues with me.
"Yeh but not everyone was thrilled with that, I mean look at the Fire Nation, no offence Zuko, but lots of people wanted to continue with the Ozai regime! And if you remember one of the people who attacked the Avatar is a firebender, we don't know about the other one, but he could well be a fire nation citizen, working together for revenge against the Avatar." Toph turns back to face us, raising a critical eyebrow in doubt.
"You really think people still hold a grudge for 3 years."
"Well it could happen! I mean remember how long Katara held a grudge against Jet, if it wasn't for his death, I'm sure she would still hate him."
"Yeh, but that's just Katara." The Firelord waves his hand, quickly dismissing my example.
"Well that's just the Fire Nation." I bite back at which Zuko throws me a fierce look. Toph slams the table, causing Zuko and I to jolt in surprise which swiftly defuses the argument.
"Back to our topic! Wouldn't that mean that those two have wanted to get back at the avatar for a long time, why only do it now? And could there be more of them?" I watch as Toph leans back in her chair and crosses her arms across her chest, awaiting a response. I take a deep breath and say what's been annoying me for the last couple of hours.
"I think that there's potentially more than those two, I mean why else would Aang be worried about us?"
"That's if he's worried for us." Toph mumbles, I just shrug in response, 'this is all speculation we don't know if any of what we've said is even right.'
"But wouldn't it make sense?!" The Firelord squeals in excitement. Toph and I snigger at his reaction. He glowers at us before I ask;
"What would?"
"Why Aang left so soon after the end of the war! He's been worried people will go after him and endanger us!" Zuko shouts as if he has just fixed the puzzle.
"But he left like nearly 6 months after the war, a bit late to decide to suddenly up and leave."
"Well maybe something happened?" Zuko counteracts Toph's line of doubt.
"Like what?" I query while furrowing my eyebrows at the possibility.
"I don't know, but something happened that caused him to leave in the end!" A bell suddenly clangs in the room, causing the sound to echo for several minutes. In response to the noise Toph puts a hand to her forehead with her elbow leaning on the table, while shaking her head in frustration.
"Oh no it's midnight and we have to get up at 8!" I sympathise with Toph's complaint, 'I need my beauty sleep'.
"Ok to summarise. We think some people are after Aang and he's actually not ignoring us but is actually trying to protecting us." I watch as Zuko looks at each of us, waiting for our agreement.
"Yeh but there's still lots of questions unanswered, like why didn't he come to us at the start? How many people are after him? And we still don't know for sure if any of our speculations are correct!" I tell them in my most serious voice. "I mean for all we know, Aang…well… he might not have wanted us to be friends anymore."
"I guess the best place to test our theory is to question those two again." The Firelord responds whilst nodding his head, as if understanding my need to remain pessimistic so as to not be disappointed if the later part of my statement is true.
"You are welcome to try but you won't get any more out of them than I did." The blind earthbender responds with less enthusiasm.
"Hey you never know. I have come to think that I'm pretty good at getting the information I want." Zuko rolls his eyes.
"If you like to think that then go ahead." I cross my arms at the insult.
"You're just jealous because you couldn't get any answers from Aang." Zuko, whilst crossing his arms in a mimicking fashion, argues back.
"I am not!"
"Are too!"
"Are not!" The blind earthbender slams her hand onto the table for what was the second time in our little meeting, which doesn't fail to make the pair of us jump from the action, again.
"Stop acting like a pair of babies." Zuko and I look at each other before pouting.
"We are not!" We yell in unison. She puts a hand to her forehead.
"Ay I need Sugarqueen to keep me sane."
"You know I haven't seen Katara in ages." Zuko muses whilst stroking his chin.
"Well I haven't seen you two all that often either. I just manage to have a glimpse of you two and then we all go different ways after those meetings." I retort.
"It doesn't help that the leader of our gang no longer wanted to be a part of it anymore." We fall in a tense silent after Toph's rough but true words. I sigh.
"Let's just focus on trying to get our gang back together. So when are we going to question those two prisoners?" Zuko puts a hand to his chin and looks at us.
"I've got nothing to do after the second meeting tomorrow, if you guys are free?"
"Sure, I can do tomorrow."
"Same."
"Then that's settled we'll meet up after the meeting and head to the police station." With Zuko's confirmation I rise up from my chair with Toph and Zuko in tow.
"Let's hope we'll get some answers then." I say as we head to the door and stepping outside of the room we look at each other again.
"But what happens after that?" The earthbender questions, already thinking ahead of time.
"If our theory is correct then we'll have to somehow persuade Aang that we can handle ourselves." We look at each other solemnly, knowing that it won't be an easy task.
"Well goodnight guys. I'll see you tomorrow." I pronounce in an attempt to rid this forlorn atmosphere that's been created.
"Oh goody another day filled with lifeless meetings, I can't wait." Toph's dry humour makes us chuckle for a bit, before we bid each other goodnight and head off in different directions.
'Let's hope that we can get somewhere soon.' I think as I walk down the corridor, in exhaustion, towards my room.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Unfortunately there's not a lot of action, but I thought it would be good to have a whole chapter on what they plan to do next and I hope the bit of humour in it makes up for it. As always please review, I'd like to know what you think of the story. Not sure when my next update will be, I'll try to do it before the end of 2016, but can't make any promises. Anyway, hope you all have a good weekend.
