Warning- the next part takes place before Mai attacked Katara, it's just Sokka's and Aang/Toph's version of the events. Sometimes the POV times are a little different- for Sokka the sky's beginning to darken, the machine is coming and Aang/Toph are on a walk somewhere.

Lawl, watch as I further continue to create shippings in my frightening story of…scariness. Whatever. ONTO THE NEXT CHAPTER!

As the roaring machine came to a hault, Azula was surprised to find only one adversary blocking her path.

Sokka was holding his boomerang, about one inch from where the perilously fast-moving vehicle had stopped.

"Well, isn't this a surprise" Azula said with a twisted grin, jumping out from the vehicle.

Sokka didn't move, only raised his weapon.

"Now really, boy, do you think that dinky little toy is going to hurt me?" Azula's fingertips sparked with lightening. The other two girls appeared behind her- Mai's face stoic, Ty Lee's smiling pleasantly.

"Where's your little 'family?' Azula questioned, continuing to walk closer to Sokka. "It's not smart to leave little boys all alone at this hour."

"Whatever you want with Aang- just forget it. I'm not letting you have him!"

Azula lunged forward with expert skill, kicking Sokka's weapon away and holding a threatening hand an inch from his face.
"Well what a coincidence! I'm not letting YOU have him. I guess we have a lot in common…" Azula grabbed Sokka's chin before the warrior could do anything about it, forcing him to look at her.

"I'll only ask you one more time. Where are they?"

Sokka aimed an unsuccessful kick at Azula's stomach. Azula charged up her hand and touched his chest, pushing him away almost gently. She didn't need force- the lightening would hurt enough.

Sokka fell to the ground with a loud scream at the burning touch, but she had purposefully spared his life.

"Kinda cute, isn't he Ty Lee?" Azula whispered to her friend with a sadistic smile. The evil princess's eyes followed what looked like an orange and green bird in the sky. Satisfied, she gestured to Mai to follow.

And with that, Sokka was left alone with the acrobat.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Aang smiled at Toph. Toph made a noise similar to that of an impatient horse.

"So…Toph…"

"…"

They'd been walking around for quite some time and all Aang could produce from her was a few awkward insults. He wanted desperately to gain her respect, get to know her as a friend rather than a teacher, but she didn't want to talk to him.

"It's getting dark."

"I wouldn't know" she lied.

Aang looked up into the sky, which was in perfect view as they had entered a clearing in the woods, and suddenly grabbed Toph's hand.

"Have you ever flown before?"

Toph looked a bit startled at such a weird question.

"Uhm. No…other than on the flying mop's back, I've never been in the air…"

Aang grinned. "That's GREAT! I can show you right now!"

"Show me wha-aaa!"

Toph suddenly found herself blinded as Aang opened his glider, secured his grip on her arms, and with a blast of bending, flew them up into the night sky.

"Isn't this great Toph!"

Toph looked about ready to throw up. Her usual 'in-your-face' attitude had vanished for pure fear- suddenly the earthbender had found herself isolated from her element with nothing to guide her but the crazy Avatar. She had no idea how high up they were, what was below them, how fast they were going-

She was blind.

Completely and utterly helpless.

Unable to speak, all Toph could do was return Aang's deathgrip on both of her arms, close her eyes, and pray that it would end soon.

But it didn't. And Toph's heart began to calm down, and her fear dulled.

She wasn't enjoying herself, but she didn't feel panicked either.

"Do you trust me?" Aang questioned curiously.

"I…guess" Toph answered. "Just…don't drop me or anything…"

Aang smiled. Through his skin, Toph understood this and began to enjoy herself. Perhaps it was safe to say that she had to take her feet off the ground at some point. Toph prided herself at being brave. Sometimes bravery means willing to take a step in the dark.

"Oh no…" Aang's voice became dead serious.

"What? What, are we going to crash, are we going to-"

"The machine! I didn't see it at first, I was too busy steering and you couldn't feel it without your earth-sense…"

"WHAT?"

And that's when they heard Sokka scream.
"He's in trouble!" Aang shouted, looking for a place to land them. "We've gotta help!"

"What about Katara! She's still by the river, isn't she?"

"I'll help her, you get Sokka!"

Toph felt herself being dropped from Aang's grip. She struggled to hold on to him but realized a second later that her feet were touching the ground.

She knew where Sokka was, she felt Katara, who was almost a mile away, she felt the machine, the alien footsteps of the three new girls. She smelled the smoke it was spewing, she felt the darkening sky…she felt Aang as he took off in the direction of the river.

"Be careful, twinkletoes!" Toph shouted to the Airbender. "Please…" she whispered.

Aang heard. He didn't hear, but he heard. He heard it as his heart pounded in his chest, as his became part of the wind. He didn't feel the words, but he felt them. He felt them as he dodged trees that he didn't even see, jumped over rocks that he didn't even know were there…

Aang had entered the woods blind.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Awkwardness eeked from this situation and Zuko wondered what the hell he'd just done.

The Blue Spirit simply grinned annoyingly in response to this inner struggle. Mai and Katara…were silent. Both of them looked at him as though they expected him to initiate the next move.

What did he care if they killed each other? This was the girl who had knocked him unconscious during a blizzard and wanted to leave him there! This was the girl who had befriended him when he was little and had chosen to stay with his sick, evil sister after his 'accident.'

The girls had forgotten their struggle at his interruption, and Zuko had forgotten why he was even here. The Blue Spirit told him to stay silent. Put the weapons down and back away. Let them finish this themselves.

Zuko did just that.

Mai smirked.
"Looks like your little friend didn't come to save you after all."

"He's NOT my friend!" Katara protested. "I-I mean, he's not here to rescue me. Is he?"

Katara didn't know how right she was about them not being friends. All she knew of him was a masked man who had tried to steal some fish from her. The mask was what kept them neutral. Without it there, they were a circle of enemies.

Zuko wanted them dead. He wanted to wipe the deadpan look off of Mai's face. He wanted to marr Katara's stupid shocked expression. He wanted them out of his way, so he could kill his sister and capture the Avatar.

But the Blue Spirit didn't.

The Spirit had never wanted anyone dead. He had never wanted this war that he was born into. He didn't want to see these two girls tear each other apart.

The blue Spirit shook his head to Katara. He sheathed his swords and backed up, crossing his arms.

The battled continued.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sokka groaned, grasping his stomach.
He couldn't lose this. He had to stand up and fight!
If not for him, then for Aang. For Katara, and Toph. For Yue.

Although he had been electrocuted the warrior somehow found the strength to stand up and look at Ty Lee with determination.

"That's nice and all" she said, not really managing to mask her concern, "But I still have to kill you."

Ty Lee lunged forward, sending a kick at Sokka's face. The injured warrior grabbed her leg and swung her backwards. Ty Lee landed catlike, tumbled expertly, and immediately bounded back up, cartwheeling towards him.

Sokka bent down and picked up his boomerang surprisingly quickly, now ignoring his pain. He threw it at her and purposefully missed. Ty Lee stopped her attack, looked at his obviously terrible throw, and raised an eyebrow.

She looked disappointed.

"I thought you would be better than that" Ty Lee pouted. Before getting struck in the shoulder by the weapon's return attack.

"I am."

Ty Lee's shoulder was bleeding, but she was still in better shape than him. Lunging forward and pinching underneath his shoulder, she disabled Sokka's left arm. He swung it limply in protest, the listless appendage hitting her in the face comically. She pinched his other arm.

Sokka headbutted Ty Lee, who stumbled back dizzily.

"Woo, your heard is hard."
"I exercise it 24 hours a day!' Sokka said proudly. Ty Lee groaned.

"That was cheesy."

Sokka aimed to kick her. She pinched his leg.

"Damnit!"

Now having nothing left but his other leg, Sokka realized that he was, indeed, losing.

Ty Lee disarmed his last leg. Sokka slumped up against a tree for balance, straining to keep himself standing.

The girl merely stared at him.

"Ok…so aren't you going to finish me off?"

'No. I don't feel like it."

She sounded exactly like Toph.
Great. I have another stalker.

Ty Lee walked closer to him. She reached out her hand, cupping his chin and looked into his eyes.

"You're pretty" she said simply, and planted a rather passionate kiss on Sokka's lips.

What the hell?

Ty Lee's lips still didn't budge from his. Her eyes locked with his, which were looking rather franticly back and forth, not knowing what to do.

Not that there was anything wrong with being kissed by a pretty girl, in normal circumstances, but-

"What. The. Hell."

Ty Lee pulled away just in time to see a very angry earthbender wham her in the stomach with a rock

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Run all you want the sadistic firenation girl thought, hearing the windy approach of the Avatar. But I'll catch you.

And with that, a lightning bolt cut Aang's senseless path to Katara in half.
"AAAahhH!" the Avatar protested, falling flat on his face to avoid being fried. He looked up and spat out a mouth full of leaves at the sight of Azula, to say rather unenthusiastically "oh. You."

Azula looked a bit annoyed at the 'oh. You.' If she had scripted the encounter she would've preferred a little more fear and perhaps something about her being his greatest enemy…

"Do you mind, my friend is in danger" he said matter-of-factly.

"So are you" Azula spat.
Aang looked back and forth.

"Really? I see no danger…HEY- if there's something you're holding out on then-"

Azula roared, charging up her hands with more lightening and aiming two more bolts at the Avatar.

"Uhh…I'm up here" Aang said from his new perch in a tall tree.
"Come down and fight then!"

"See, I can't. My friends are in danger and I don't like to leave them alone when psycho girls are attacking them…"

Azula promptly severed the tree in half with her flaming lightening hands.

"Woah!" Aang said, his eyes wide, as he landed with an air-induced balance and the tree fell down.
"That's more like it" Azula growled.

Aang put up his hands in a forced truce.

"I don't want to fight you…"

"That's too bad."

Five seconds later, the trees around them were up in flames.

"See…that's kinda bad. You ever heard of Karma?" Aang gestured to the flaming wilderness around them.

"Are you trying to piss me off?" Azula gritted.

"Yeah, is it working? Because it took twice as long for Zhao and you know, he's dead."

Azula nailed the Avatar in the shoulder with a lightning bolt. The smell of burnt flesh was reached Azula's nostrils and she smiled in satisfaction.

Aang attempted to blow her out of the way. She dodged. A few bending attacks later, neither was further hurt.

The earth rocked, Azula dodged. Fire was thrown, Aang dodged. The Avatar wished he had some water to douse the fire, but his wishes were still with Katara, whom he could only hope was unhurt.

"Sad that the Avatar can't even beat a little princess"
"You're not a princess, you're psychotic" Aang protested, before being hit in the stomach with a lightening bolt.

The little boy doubled over in pain. Azula walked over to him, prepared to finish him off.

"I won't kill you" she cooed in a falsely kind voice. "Because we need to keep you alive until Sozen's comet arrives. But this is still going to hurt."

Aang shut his eyes. The pain never came.

"Why don't you pick on someone who wants to fight you, Azula" came a raspy-sounding voice.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Katara was bleeding in three places. Her hair was completely wild now. Mai's arms were temporarily encased in a block of ice. She was completely soaked.

The watertribe girl winced as she pulled a foot long needle out of her arm, refusing to look at the warm blood that she felt seeping into her robes. Water was summoned from the stream. She healed herself as Mai broke her ice handcuffs by slamming them on a tree.

The Blue Spirit watched.

"You can't even take a little pain. Typical."

"That's easy for you to say. You aren't hurt."

"Well it's not my fault you can't hurt me, is it?"

Mai's wet clothes hardened as Katara's breath turned them to ice. Katara dodged as three kunai were thrown at various parts of her body.

The Blue spirit watched.

"Hmph" Mai breathed.

A moment of silence.

Mai eyed Katara. She reached into her sleeves. Katara prepared to protect herlself.

But the next attack wasn't for her.
Three arrows were aimed at the Blue Spirit.

One lodged itself in his shoulder. Another he managed to dodge, although he hadn't expected to be attacked at all. Another lodged itself dead center in his mask.

Katara watched as the man's disguise began to crack.
"Why did you attack him?" Katara shouted at Mai.
"He was annoying me" she said simply.

The Spirit looked unphased, but that was mostly his mask. Zuko himself was quite shocked. His arm touched his injury with curiosity, gloved fingers growing warm with blood.

Katara iced the girl over again, this time catching Mai's entire body in water. Mai, unable to move, watched as Katara moved over to the injured man.

"Let me see your arm."

The spirit pulled away from her.

"DAMNIT, I'm trying to help you! You shouldn't be here anyway!"

The sound of ice cracking reached Katara's ears. The water-tribe girl ripped the arrow out of the man's skin.

More ice cracking.

"So you are human after all."

The spirit resisted her touch, and she looked hopelessly into the stare of his cracking mask. She didn't care if she had his permission or not. Water pooled onto his arm.

The blood washed away. The wound was healed.

Something sharp stung the back of Katara's neck.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Oh. You have a girlfriend."

"No, that's just Toph" Sokka explained with a sarcastic cheeriness. "Scary girl, Toph. Toph, scary girl."

"My name is Ty Lee" the 'scary girl' said indignantly.

"Ty Lee? That's a pretty name" Toph said sweetly. Before putting a wall of stone between Sokka and Ty Lee.

"You see, that's not helping any!" Sokka protested, now having little room to move away from the tree that Toph's wall had pinned him to, in edition to having useless muscles.

"I think you've been enough help" Toph said bitterly, focusing her attention on the angry pink acrobat. "All right, lovergirl, game over. Surrender now."

Ty Lee raised an eyebrow.
"You think I'm going to give up because a blind girl half my size just called me lovergirl at hit me with a pebble?" The firenation girl's words were light and bouncy. This irritated Toph. A lot.

Toph growled, bending several large boulders towards Ty Lee, who dodged them through various acrobatic means. Toph tried to sink her in quicksand- Ty Lee skimmed over it like a feather.

The little eartbender suddenly found her arm being pinched twice by her enemy.

Toph rolled her eyes.

"Oh! You just poked me. I feel like dieing" she said sarcastically, trying to create an earthquake with her arms.

And failing.

"Aw shit…"

Ty Lee kicked the poor girl in the back, and pinched her behind the knees. Toph fell.

"I feel a bit bad for hurting a small blind child" she said sympathetically. "But you're also a bit vicious, and you deserved it."

Ty Lee stood back to admire her handiwork, only to find herself in a rather violent embrace from the recovering Sokka.

"If you can't use your hands, you can't hurt anyone" he muttered into her ear.

"But see, I kinda like this" she giggled.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

In the onslaught of darkness lit by forest fire, Aang could hardly recognize the face of his 'rescuer.' But the growling old voice was something he clearly remembered from previous encounters.

"Oh. Great" Azula said, similarly to Aang's reaction to her previous attack. "A crippled old man is lecturing me on who to attack."

The 'crippled old man' extinguished the fires in the trees surrounding them with one sweep of his stubby arms.

"This is not your day to capture the Avatar" Iroh said calmly. "I advise you leave now."

"I decline your advice" Azula said with false honor, bowing to Iroh and grinning impishly.

"Then we have no choice but to fight."

Aang rubbed his injured arm, not knowing what to expect from the two firebenders. The young airbender watched the rush of red and blue fading and flaring as the two enemies masterfully manipulated their elements. He couldn't move, merely stared at them like a rabbit would at a wolf and fox, not sure who to root for.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Katara was now unconscious in The Blue Spirit's arms.

Mai was smiling, her boredom finally alleviated

Zuko felt disgusted. Blood trickled down the girl's neck. Was she dead? Why had she helped him? Why the hell had he stayed and watched anyway?

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't waste my time trying to defend your little girlfriend. Hand her over?"

Mai's voice was a bit too…nice.

If he handed her over, Mai would capture her and there would be one less person for him to worry about when he went after the Avatar.

But if he handed her over, Azula would probably get the Avatar anyway and he'd never even have a chance.

Still, what use was she to him?

Mai sighed in boredom at his 'thinking.'

A bored Mai was a dangerous Mai. He needed to make his decision fast.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sokka and Ty Lee were once again fighting, while Toph sat impatiently on the ground, waiting for her bending abilities to return.

"C'mon Sokka, use your head!" she coached him, impatiently pounding the dirt while Sokka swung his machete at Ty Lee.

Some flipping and punching and useless attacks from both of them later, Sokka yelled back at her.
"What do you think I'm DOING?"

"NO! Stop thinking and use your HEAD!" Toph shouted.

Sokka stopped for a second to think of what Toph was talking about, and Ty Lee got his arm.
"damnit!"

Once again, Sokka headbutted the circus girl, who stumbled backward dizzily.

"That's it, brickbrains!"

Sokka slammed the girl again. And again.

"umph" Ty Lee managed, before falling to the ground.

'Hey! It worked!"

"Of course it worked, dumbass."

Toph stood up and massaged her arms where they'd been pinched.

"I think my bending's coming back."

Sokka looked at the unconscious girl before picking her up. "What should we do with her?" he asked, readjusting her so that her body hung limply over his back.

"Tie her up. See if we can trade her for a truce?"
"That's completely stupid."
"You just want to hang on to her so you two can kiss again"

"HEY- I didn't ask for that"

"Because guys totally hate being kissed by pretty girls"
"How do you even KNOW she's pretty?"

"Well you just admitted to it, didn't you?"

"Why do you even care? Let's just find Aang and Katara and get rid of her before something bad happens"
"You mean besides you making out with the enemy?"
"Shut up shut up! You don't even-"
"neenerneener neeenerrrI can't heearrrr youu"

"your SO immature!-"

"you're so dididididiwhatever sockface"

And so, Sokka and Toph continued to bicker all the way back to the campsite.