"Hurry up," Toph said, opening the door. "You're going to miss your boat."
Sokka shouldered his pack and walked over to her. Instead of going through, he put his hand on the door and pushed it shut. "You trying to get rid of me or something?" he teased, though Toph thought maybe he was a little serious, too.
"No. I just hate these prolonged goodbyes. It's hard."
He dropped his bag and put his hands on her neck, thumbs tracing her jawline. "No tears for me, this time? I must be losing my touch." He gave her a light kiss, gentle and sweet. She preferred his fierce, rough kisses, though. The kind that lit a fire inside her.
"Why do you have to make it sound like I cry all the time? Because I don't."
He sighed and picked his bag back up, opening the door. When he started to walk out, Toph felt a twinge of regret for the way she was acting and impulsively grabbed his wrist.
"What?" he asked.
She said nothing, but he seemed to take the hint, anyway. Suddenly she was pushed up against the doorframe, his lips fiercely attacking hers.
That's more like it, Toph mused to herself.
"Alright," he said with a throaty chuckle after a few moments of passion. "Let's go, or I really might miss it."
This time, Katara and Aang were absent from the docks, being on a diplomatic mission to Ba Sing Se. Sokka gave her one last hug, lingering just a little too long, his hot breath in her ear. She could feel words on his lips that he didn't speak, and wondered - not for the first time - why he kept silent. She was the stubborn, conflicted one, not him. But it was still a relief to not have to deal with figuring out how to respond.
"Safe trip, Meathead."
Once he was gone, she began the long walk to the station, not feeling like taking a carriage. For once, she was happy for the brisk air. Patches of snow still lingered from the last storm, though it was quickly melting in anticipation of spring. During times like this, she wore metal boots but kept the soles retracted for as long as she could stand the numbing chill.
How could she feel so free and relieved, while at the same time her chest ached at his absence? It was so fucking stupid and confusing. She considered his complaints about how, with his travel schedule, he had to celebrate his birthday away from her and the rest of his friends. He would be twenty-four in a few weeks. How much longer would he be content with their indefinite, unspoken arrangement?
With an annoyed shake, Toph pulled herself out of those thoughts and tried to concentrate on work. She had a busy day ahead of her. Once a week, unless there were more pressing issues, she checked in with Penga first thing in the morning. Seeing Sokka off then walking all the way to the station made her late and the day's classes had already started. The fifteen-year-old metalbender, who had once been a little girl with an obsession with shoes, was now tall, strong, and commanding. Well, she was still obsessed with shoes, but that was beside the point.
"And lift! Watch your stance, Anji! Work together, hold…"
It was an intermediate drill that Toph was familiar with, seeing as how she'd come up with it. A circle of students stood on a large metal disk that balanced on a raised point in the center. They had to cooperate to keep the disk from tipping, while also lifting a boulder up and down in the center to force them to split their attention.
There were other groups of students in the large training area, though no longer were any of them young. All the regular Academy students that had followed Toph to the city had long since graduated; everyone here at the new 'Police Academy' was eighteen and up, preparing for a career in law enforcement, which only made it more amusing that Penga led their training.
"Alright, five-minute break. Get some water." She strode over to where Toph was watching, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. "Morning, Chief."
"Any updates for me?"
"Three new recruits in the last week. Still on the coin exercise, so we'll see if any of them have got the stuff. Chong and Lan are prepping for their final exam. I think they'll do well, so be prepared to place them into a unit."
"Good. Yachi's just had two promotions and one transfer to undercover, so there are openings there."
"How's the Harin case going? Anything new? What about that serial killer?"
Toph gave her a withering look, though there was some amusement behind it. "You're not a cop, Penga."
"Well, I might as well be. C'mon, I like knowing what's happening. You don't want me to be completely clueless when I'm old enough to join, do you?"
"The serial killer case is stone cold at the moment," Toph said with a resigned sigh, "and we haven't had any major breaks in the Harin case lately. A couple of tips that have led nowhere. One witness that may provide some good leads. Endless interrogations and paperwork. Half of the force's resources are focused on trying to figure out who is now leading the city's most threatening organized crime ring, and the Council is breathing down my neck about it. That enough info for you?"
"You sound like you need a day off," Penga replied with a light laugh.
"'Day off'? I don't know what those words mean."
If Toph thought she was busy then, she found out the true meaning of the word three weeks later. She had literally just sat down on her couch with takeout from her favorite restaurant when she sensed Detective Xaio's footsteps coming down the hall.
"Motherfucker," she said to the empty room, getting up to open the door before he even had a chance to knock. "What?"
"Sorry to bother you, Chief, but something's happened that I thought you'd want to know about ASAP."
"What…?" Toph repeated, growing apprehensive.
"Ty Lee has been arrested."
"Wh-?! For what?!"
"For murder."
"What?!" Apparently, it was the only word in her vocabulary, now. With some effort, she searched for an actual thought. "That- That's fucking ridiculous!"
"There were reliable witnesses. She put up enough of a fight for the rest of Suwang Di to get away. After that, she came willingly."
"They were all involved?"
"It looks like it."
She took a step back, pressing her palm to her forehead. Ty Lee… What have you done? "Has… Has she been questioned yet?"
"No. I wanted to let you talk to her first."
Toph put her armor back on, a numb feeling creeping up her spine. Her dinner went in the garbage, appetite long gone. It was a silent walk back to the station, and still quiet once she arrived; most people had gone home for the day. As she approached the interrogation room, she could sense her old friend sitting inside, cuffed to the table. Toph went in and sat down across from her, a burning ache in the center of her chest.
"What happened?" she asked softly.
"It's over," Ty Lee whispered. "You can do whatever you want with me."
"Is that a confession?"
"I killed him."
Toph closed her eyes and slowly emptied her lungs. "So. It was an execution."
"Balance."
"What?"
"A life for a life. Balance is restored."
Anger suddenly overwhelmed Toph's artificial calm. "Who do you think you are, doling out vigilante justice? I'm the Chief of Police, for fuck's sake! You could have just come to me and done this the right way! Then there's no mistake, no 'oops, wrong per-'"
"I'm NOT wrong!" Ty Lee interrupted forcefully. "I have been tracking him for almost four years. I know!"
"It doesn't give you the right to take the law into your own hands! Damnit, Ty Lee, I can't protect you from the consequences of this! Even if I wanted to!" she added quickly, mostly for the sake of the official record.
"I'm not asking you to. I will accept whatever consequence the court deems necessary."
"Even if that means rotting in a jail cell for the rest of your life?"
"Life? What life?"
The utter heartbreak in her voice dissolved Toph's anger. She knew Ty Lee had been deeply damaged by Suki's death. Sokka had come right, eventually, but Ty Lee had apparently held her pain silently, alone, and it had festered to create this agent of revenge in front of her.
"By the time you became Chief," she continued softly, "no one was looking for her killer anymore."
"We were. It's been an open case this whole time!"
"You didn't care anymore."
"How can you say that?!" Toph spat. "She was my friend, too! You didn't exactly come forward with the information you had on him. Why not?"
Ty Lee didn't answer right away. "...You couldn't have used it."
Because it was information you came by illegally, Toph guessed. "Where is the rest of Suwang Di?"
"I don't know."
"They were involved." It wasn't a question.
"I killed him."
"Being an accessory to murder is still illegal."
"You have me. Isn't that enough?"
"You know it's not."
"I've said all I'm going to say. Do what you want with me. I don't care."
Aang just sat there. He couldn't believe the grim words that had just come out of Toph's mouth. Glancing at his wife, he could see she was likely having a similar problem. Katara's eyes met his, a complicated expression on her face.
How could he have let this happen? It was his job to prevent this sort of thing. Ty Lee was his friend. Maybe not a close friend, but someone he should have kept a sharp eye on after Suki's death. Forming that splinter cell should have been a huge red flag, but he had been so preoccupied with his own grief and trying to deal with the fallout of Suki's murder. No - assassination. That's what it had been, really, based on what little evidence they had managed to collect.
"Well?" Toph said impatiently, and Aang realized that he and Katara had both been silent for some time.
"Sorry," he said. "I'm just shocked."
"I'm not," Katara muttered.
He directed a curious, surprised glance at her.
"There's going to be a trial, obviously," Toph said. "I expect it will be a short one, but the investigation will probably take some time. The big question is what to do with her afterward."
"That's not really our decision, is it?" Aang asked.
"You're the Avatar, and Ty Lee is technically a foreigner. You have the power to overrule the Council in international matters."
Aang's eyebrows shot up. "You want me to do that?"
"It doesn't seem right for her to be imprisoned for the rest of her life," Katara said softly.
"I don't like it either," he said, "but she killed someone in cold blood. I'm not going to use my influence to let her off easy just because she's my friend."
Katara didn't say anything, but her head was bowed. He could see that stubborn set to her jaw and knew to expect a heated discussion when they were alone.
"Look," Toph said, exhaling heavily. "I think we should get Zuko involved. She's Fire Nation. Ultimately, I think her fate should be his decision."
Aang leaned back and rubbed his temples. Maybe she was right. But he knew that Zuko would go easy on her, having no personal stake in this, and he was someone who had benefitted from being given a second chance after doing horrible things. He had to ask himself: What did she deserve? It disgusted him that her actions had been in the name of 'restoring balance', according to the transcript of her interview with Toph. What a sick joke that was. A life for a life was not balance. It was revenge. And what would stop her from doing it again if she lost someone else she cared about?
"He may not even want to get involved," he hedged.
"Only one way to find out," Toph said.
"Well… I guess I'll send him a letter to see what he thinks." Aang glanced back at Katara, who seemed to be brooding.
"That's all I ask," Toph said, standing up. "Anyway, I gotta get back to Headquarters. Got a lot of work to do now."
"Do you want a ride?"
"Fuck yes."
He stood and leaned over to kiss Katara's temple. "I'll be right back."
She just nodded absently.
"What's with her?" Toph asked as she climbed into Appa's saddle.
"I...don't know. But I'm sure I'll find out when I get back."
"I bet she's glad the son of a bitch is dead."
Aang pursed his lips, then spun himself up onto Appa. "Yip yip." They didn't speak again until he landed.
"Let me know what Zuko says."
"I will," he said, pausing. "Um...how is Sokka handling this?"
A pensive frown spread across her face. "He...hasn't said much. I think he's still processing."
Aang just nodded slowly and left. When he got home, Katara was still sitting at the kitchen table, tapping her fingers on the wood and chewing on her lip.
He sat down next to her. "What's on your mind?"
"It's just sad, you know?"
"Yeah. It's hard for me to not feel a little responsible."
She turned to look at him, eyebrows furrowed. "Responsible? What do you mean?"
Aang shrugged. "I should have paid closer attention to her. She's obviously been hurting for a long time."
"Yeah, but...I don't think you could have done anything to prevent that. Suki was her best friend, and the only people who were close enough to her to do any good either went back to Kyoshi Island or joined her new group and just...fueled her need for revenge."
"I shouldn't have let her make that group. It never sat well with me, but she was helping Kori so I let it slide."
"How could you have stopped her?"
"I dunno. I could have tried a little harder, though."
"It's pointless to blame yourself. She did this on her own. No one made her. And you know what? It's the only closure we've gotten for Suki's death." Aang's eyebrows shot up; Toph had hit the nail on the head. "Don't look at me like that," Katara continued. "I'm not saying it was right. I'm just saying...it's over. We don't have to have that lurking worry in the back of our heads anymore."
"What worry? It's been four years."
"The worry that he might see Toph as Suki's successor and have the same plans for her." The comment brought him up short. He'd never considered that. "Or you," she added softly, her voice tight.
"Sweetie," he said gently. "Toph and I will always have enemies. But we can look out for ourselves. She has a whole police force at her back. And me? I've got you."
‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›‹¤›
"On the charge of vigilante espionage, the court finds you guilty. On the charge of obstructing due process of law, the court finds you guilty. On the charge of murder prime, the court finds you guilty. After much deliberation, we have settled on a sentence of exile from the United Republic for the remainder of your life."
Standing formally against the wall, Toph let out a relieved breath. She was going to be spared the emotional burden of knowing that one of her friends was imprisoned in her city, in the company of its worst scum.
"As such," Councilman Ludo continued, "you will be released into the custody of Fire Lord Zuko until you arrive on your native shores. If you are caught attempting to return to the United Republic at any time, you will be imprisoned for the remainder of your life without further trial." The gavel knocked hollowly on its wooden base. This being a high-profile case, the courtroom was full of spectators and press. A ripple of murmurs followed the brief moment of silence in the wake of the sentencing.
Toph strode over to her friends. "Well. I guess that's that."
"I think it's the best possible outcome," Zuko said, sounding tired. "As much as it complicates my life."
"Have you decided what you're going to do with her?" Aang asked.
"Well...for the time being she will be imprisoned. But I do intend to get her some...help. She won't waste away in a dark cell." They didn't get the chance to speak further because Luon was bringing Ty Lee over. She was utterly silent, heart and breath even and slow, shoulders slumped.
"We should get going," Aang said. "We've still got half a day of light left."
"Can I talk to her for a minute?" Katara asked suddenly. "Privately?"
"I can't leave her unattended," Luon protested.
"It's ok, Luon," Toph said. "She's not going anywhere." They all walked to the other side of the room, leaving Katara and Ty Lee to speak. Toph tuned out Aang and Zuko's conversation to eavesdrop.
"I just wanted to say...I'm really sorry for everything that's happened to you," Katara said. "I know what it's like, to be full of that vengeful rage, and while I don't agree with the choice you made, I really can empathize."
"You're the last person I would have expected to say that," Ty Lee murmured. "But I… I don't deserve your kind words. I don't deserve this gentle sentence, either. I don't regret what I did. If given the chance to do it over, I'd do it again, and I know what that makes me.
"Toph?"
"Huh?" She brought her attention back to Aang and Zuko, losing track of the distant conversation.
"I said 'Are you going home or back to work?'" Aang repeated.
"Oh. Work. I still have a lot of paperwork to do for this case. But...I guess at least it's over and I'll be able to refocus on the Harin case."
"What's that?" Zuko asked.
"We recently had this crime boss get knocked off and we're trying to figure out who replaced him. It's sucking up a lot of my time. Pretty big deal, as Harin had united at least four of the city's gangs. All of the exclusively non-bender ones."
"I take it that means relations between benders and non-benders are still not great?"
"They could be better," Toph said with a wry smirk.
"What about..." he trailed off uncomfortably.
"Nothing new," she said, knowing what he meant. "I'm still convinced it was Azula, but she's either left the city or she's laying low. Not much I can do about it at the moment." She let out a long breath, wishing he hadn't brought it up. "Anyway. I gotta go. It's been good catching up, I guess. Wish it were under better circumstances."
"Me, too."
She slipped out a back door to avoid the press and headed to the station. Two hours later, she couldn't bear another second of paperwork. "What do you say we call it an early day?" she asked Rinna.
"Really?"
"Yeah," Toph said, standing. "I gotta get out of here."
After stopping by her apartment to change, she headed to the refinery, feeling a need to do something physical, but more cerebral than solo training. "Whatcha doin'?" she asked, finding Satoru with his head in his new generator.
He jerked in surprise, banging his head. "Ow, shit!"
"Er, sorry."
"Ah, ow... No, it's fine. I was just really focused and didn't hear you come in. Huh, it must be late if you're here. I lost track of time."
"Nah, it's only three-thirty."
"Ohhh, right, the trial was today, wasn't it? How did that go?"
"About as expected. Zuko took her." She didn't really want to talk about this. "So what are you working on? I need something to do. Been doing too much paperwork lately."
"I'm so close to making this damned thing work. I wish I had more time to spend on it but, like you, I often find myself drowning in administrative duties."
"Spirits, when did we become such boring adults?"
Satoru laughed. "I know exactly when I became boring. It was when your dad decided to spend less time here and made me the Executive Operator."
"So what is it you're struggling with?" Toph asked, coming over to examine the area he had been working on. "Are the capacitors still giving you trouble?"
"Well, not exactly. The issue I'm running into is that, even though the energy can be collected and stored safely, too much of it is being lost by the end of the process. So, really, it works in theory, but it's just not efficient or practical."
"Where is the energy going? Into the ground?"
"The ground, the machine itself. Anything that's connected."
"So if it was suspended, would that solve the problem?"
"No. The energy would find some way to jump to something metal nearby. Or the whole thing could just explode, I guess. That's always a possibility."
"Hey, I'm just spitballing here. You know I don't really understand how this thing works. Electrical engineering is not my forte."
"Apparently, it's not mine either," Satoru muttered. "I feel like the solution is staring me in the face and I just can't see it."
"Have you tried looking with your feet?" Toph joked.
She felt his heart lurch suddenly. "Toph… That's… You're a genius!"
"I'm sure you're right, but how exactly?"
"Hold on, I'll be right back!"
She crouched by the machine for several minutes, idly studying its insides. She'd helped him make several of the more intricate pieces and could see how her handiwork fit into the whole, though most of it was beyond her understanding. Satoru eventually returned with Akane, an employee of his that had been assisting in this project due to her ability to create lightning. Iroh himself had taught her, alongside many others.
"Ok, Toph," Satoru said. "I'm not sure if this is going to work, but I want you to tell me if you can feel exactly where the energy is being redirected into the ground from."
"Ah, I get it! Ok, let's find out." She heard the crackle of lightning forming, followed by a prolonged zap. The fine hairs on her body all stood out from her skin, the air charged with electricity. But she was focusing on the ground, extending her senses to try and see where it was absorbing the current. It wasn't working, though, and without thinking, she reached out and put her hand on the generator. There was sudden pain, and the next thing she knew, she was flat on her back.
"Toph!" a distant voice called. "Toph!" The voice sharpened, along with other sensations. Pain, for example.
Yes, pain. Her whole right side was numb, except for her hand, which hurt like a motherfucker. "Ow."
"Oh, thank the Spirits!"
"Hey, Satoru?" she mumbled.
"What?"
"I think all the energy is being stored in the casing and going into the ground."
He let out a hollow laugh. "Why in the name of the Spirits did you touch it?"
"Cause I'm a fucking idiot, apparently. Ugh." She used her left hand to sit up. "I'm feeling a little singed."
"You're lucky you're not dead! Honestly, I didn't think I needed to tell you not to touch it."
Two pairs of hurried footsteps entered the room. "Oh, good, you're awake," Akane said, sounding shaken. "I gotta say, I didn't expect to nearly kill the Chief of Police when I came into work today."
"What were you thinking?" a vaguely familiar female voice asked, kneeling down next to her. A moment later, cool water covered her chest and right arm.
"I guess I wasn't." She kept still while the healer worked, trying to put her thoughts in order.
"Hm. It looks like you're ok. Your hand has a nasty electrical burn, but I think most of the energy went out your foot into the ground."
"You hear that, Satoru? I can redirect lightning with my feet."
"Earthbending probably saved you," the healer said, focusing on Toph's burned hand. "I'm not sure I would call it 'redirection', but more like a natural ability to ground the incoming energy. If you'd been wearing your metal armor, you might've died. Being barefoot probably helped a lot, too."
"As if I needed another reason to avoid shoes," Toph smirked.
"So, I gotta ask," Satoru said. "Before you tried to kill yourself, did you feel anything? Did my idea work?"
"Well, yes and no. I couldn't pinpoint any specific location, which is why I touched it in the first place. But I think it's really just the entire thing, honestly. You're going to need to find a better way to insulate the energy transfer."
"Hm. Yeah, I guess so. I'll have to rebuild it with a less conductive material. I was really hoping it wouldn't come to that."
"Do you need me anymore, Satoru?" Akane asked.
"No, I don't think we need to try that again. Thanks for your help, you can go back to what you were doing."
"It's going to take a few days for your hand to fully heal," the waterbender said, wrapping a bandage around it. "But hopefully it doesn't hurt too much anymore."
"Nah, it's fine. Thanks." The feeling was just starting to come back into Toph's side and leg.
"So are you sure you're feeling alright?" Satoru said once the two women had left. "I can't help but feel like this was my fault."
"I'm fine. And it wasn't your fault." She moved her leg around, trying to dispel the uncomfortable pins and needles feeling. "Actually, it's kind of nice to have some excitement that's not work-related."
"Is the job really getting you down so much that almost dying is a welcome relief?"
"Eh. It's not that. I guess it's fulfilling or whatever. But frustrating. All that business with Ty Lee... Well, it wasn't fun, building that case against her. It felt wrong, you know? Kinda made me question what it is I'm doing here. I never cared about rules when I was younger. Well, I mean - I did care about them. I hated them. I still do, in some ways. There's a part of me that really believes that a killer deserves to be killed. That a dead friend or family member deserves to be avenged."
"In principle, it's not a horrible perspective."
"But being in law enforcement has made me realize that if everyone feels that way, and everyone is just making those decisions on their own, lots of people end up dying. And they're not always the 'right' people, if you know what I mean."
"Yeah."
"And it goes beyond that, too. You know, when I first became Chief, they kept sending people to my office to remind me of such and such law that'd I'd never heard of and couldn't see a reason for. I brushed them off. I told myself I was there to stop dangerous crime. Theft, assault, murder. The obvious stuff. But it is just...so much more complicated than that."
"How so?"
"Ok, say, for example, you're out drinking at a bar. You're in a heated discussion with someone about a guy that pissed you off that day, and you say 'I'm gonna kill that motherfucker'. They're just words, right? Spoken in a moment of anger. Harmless."
"Sure."
"Illegal," Toph said, pointing her finger at him. "You can be arrested for that, even though no one was actually hurt. But why? People should be able to say whatever they want without being thrown in jail. Right? Unless...something actually does happen to that person. Maybe they wind up hurt, or even dead. Suddenly, that guy who said he was going to kill him is a suspect, because of course he is. We have to book people for saying shit like that, otherwise we'd never be able to solve cases."
"I guess that makes sense."
"And it's like that with literally everything. I learn about some new bullshit law every fucking day, and the next day I realize that it's not bullshit, but that it exists because of something some idiot did once and ruined it for everyone. And, of course, being the Chief of Police, I'm expected to be the gold standard of morality and law-abiding...ness."
"Law-abidingness?" Satoru laughed.
"You know what I meant."
"Yeah. It must be a lot of pressure."
"It's exhausting. People think, oh, she's the Chief of Police, she can do whatever she wants. Who's gonna stop her? But it's literally the opposite of that. And when it comes to my friends," Toph continued in a softer voice, "I'm forced to decide whether to be cold and impartial...or lenient, letting things slide. And that… That is a slippery slope." Her words created a heavy silence. "Er, sorry to dump all that on you," she said with a forced smirk.
"It's fine. It's nice to see you open up."
"Heh. Don't get used to it. I think being electrocuted scrambled my brain."
"The thought did occur to me."
"You're a good listener. You didn't interrupt me or anything."
"That's because everything that comes out of your mouth is fascinating."
"And the ego boosts aren't so bad, either."
Satoru laughed. "I know."
"In all seriousness, though, I really am glad we're friends. And it's not just because of the fancy gadgets you make me. It's nice to have someone to talk to when-" She clamped her mouth shut, annoyed at herself for saying that. Maybe her brain really was scrambled.
"When Sokka's gone," he finished; Toph just shrugged. "You love him." It wasn't a question. "It's ok. You don't have to say anything. I can see it on your face, not just now, but whenever he's around." He sighed softly. "He's a lucky guy."
"Satoru-"
"No, it's- I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I'm sorry I brought it up."
Toph wasn't sure what to say. Part of her was annoyed at him trying to tell her how she felt. But...there was another part lurking beneath the surface that desperately needed someone to tell her how she felt, because fuck if she knew. Well, she knew she loved Sokka; that wasn't a question. But everything else in her head regarding him was a confusing mess. One that she was reluctant to sort out.
And underneath the resentment that she was feeling toward Satoru for dredging all of this up was a glimmer of self-awareness. "I'm sorry I hurt you," she muttered.
There was a long pause.
"I… Thanks."
More silence.
Toph punched him in the shoulder. "Now give me something to metalbend. I came here to do shit, not talk about feelings."