The Boiling Rock, It is time for us to officially break from Cannon. We tip our hats to what was, and now look to see what could have been… Continues to be rated T for Toph.
The Western Air Temple… Midmorning
The world's first metalbender was getting really annoyed at being awoken by Sweetness and her incessant noisemaking. Not bothering to address her hair, which was sticking out in every which way, the earthbender made her way out to the noisy waterbender.
"What is this unearthly ruckus going on out here. Is there a reason for all of the stomping around? I can't sleep with all your stomping and muttering!", the younger girl complained.
"Its because of this", Sweetness replied, and Toph could feel a slight air movement on her face as she heard the sound of a paper crinkling.
"I am going to assume that whatever has you in this mood of yours has to do with whatever is on that paper", Toph replied with a slight lilt.
Twinkletoes headed towards them, his footsteps light as ever. He left The Duke over by the Flying Fuzzball to approach the girls. "What are you two talking about?", he asked innocently.
Sweetness just groaned and read the paper, "Need Meat. Gone Fishing. Back in a few days. Sokka and Zuko."
"Finally! A day off", Twinkletoes cheered as he jumped from the ground.
Toph spoke at the same time as Sweetness. With a laugh, Toph boasted, "As if. I still have training with you, and like it or not, you still have a long way to go". Sweetness meanwhile continued with the letter, "Aang, practice your firebending while I am gone. Twenty fire fists and ten hot squats every time a badger frog croaks, Zuko".
As if on cue, a loud croak echoed throughout the halls.
Twinkles let out a long resigned sigh, "But no one else has homework", before starting to count.
Toph let out a light chuckle before leaning over to rest her head on Sweetness's arm. With her most dripping in mock sincerity voice, "Looks like Airhead has his homework, the boys usually keep to themselves, so you and I have plenty of time for some sisterly bonding. We can get totally covered in dirt, then arm wrestle to see who really is stronger. And I have an idea for a great prank to pull when Meat Head gets back." She looked toward Sweetness and put on her best smile.
Sweetness just sighed loudly before walking away, muttering under her breath, "I just wish that I had another girl here who I could talk to. Who wasn't totally crazy".
Toph just chuckled to herself, teasing Sweetness had just been too easy since Prince Emo Angst had joined. She decided to go see where the boys had gotten off to. It had been too long since she had metalbending lessons with Mustache Boy.
Somewhere in Fire Nation Air Space…
Sokka sat across from Zuko. Zuko pushed another flame into the furnace to keep them aloft as he mulled the other boy's question. He replied carefully, "Well, I did have a girlfriend, Mai"
The other boy snorted, then queried bemusedly, "Wait, the gloomy girl who sighs a lot. Has a thing for knives and sarcasm? Deadly aim?"
Zuko was lost in thought for a moment, 'I'm sure I've blown it with her. There is no way she would have me back now. Not after I left her. With a letter. Yeah, this is it for sure'. He looked back up at Sokka, "Yeah, everyone in the Fire Nation think's I'm a traitor. I couldn't drag her into it. I, uhh, left her a note telling her that I was leaving"
The other boy stared at Zuko for a moment, as if trying to determine how to reply to such an admission. After a few moments, the Water Tribesman replied flatly, "My first girlfriend turned into the moon"
'What in Agni's sweet name is that supposed to mean. Is that Water Tribe slang for something? He can't actually be serious, right?', the prince thought to himself. Obviously, his confusion must have been written across his face, because Sokka asked a question, "How long until we are there"
"At least a few more hours", Zuko replied, still thinking about Sokka's prior statement.
"Well, you better settle in, because you are never going to believe this story I am about to tell you. You recall back to when you were all angry all the time and you had that dreadful haircut and were on that boat and …"
Later that evening back at the Western Air Temple…
Katara rifled through their ever-diminishing supply of food as she set about cooking for the evening. Potato-corn husks littered the ground near the cooking pot as she boiled them. Tonight's dinner wasn't going to be grand, tomato-carrots, potato-corn, and broccoli-bean stew. After Aang's portion was safely removed, the last of the fresh fish would go into the pot. It was the last two small salmon-trout of the few Sokka had managed to catch on their group's way to the temple. 'What got into him', she thought of her brother, 'taking that terrible person with him to hunt. As if. What if he kidnapped Sokka and took him back to the fire nation. It has to be. There can't be any other reason!'
Having worked herself up into such a frenzy, she hardly noticed that the pot was boiling over, sending water everywhere. Only the sound of Toph and Haru earthbending in the distance brought her out of her thoughts. She saw the pot and dropped the vegetables in.
While the food cooked, her little family of misfits slowly filed in. First were The Duke and Teo, tired from a long day down in the lower levels again. The Duke had a large stick in his hand as he sat on the edge of the fountain. Teo wheeled next to him with a handful of papers. The Duke looked over and asked, "When's dinner gonna be done?", to which Teo just gave him a look.
At the sound of the young boys words, Katara was reminded just how young the two were. Boys of hardly past 12. The same as Toph and Aang. As she thought about it, she realized that with Sokka and him gone, she and Haru were the oldest there. She thought of the young kids in her care, all wartorn and haggard. But still, they all managed to retain some wonderment and innocence. Well, all except for maybe Toph. She has a sneaking suspicion that Toph knows more about the world than she lets on.
Realizing that she never answered, she voiced to the two boys, "Soon, I am finishing up the vegetables now. Then I'll add the fish. It's only going to be about ten more minutes."
With a flick of her wrist, she spun the water in the pot to stir it's contents. Watching the boys, she could see that Teo was very interested with the papers that he had with him. The Duke just kept swinging the stick he had brought around in front of him.
"What's on the papers?", she asked as the curiosity got the better of her. Sokka always said her curiosity was an unstoppable force.
"Oh, these? These are Naval Star Charts I found in the library. I am trying to learn how to read them. Zuko said that the Fire Nation Navy uses them to determine where they are and where to go. I want to know how to do that too. Someday when I can fly free, I want to be able to roam the world. And what better way than to have a map in the sky", the chairbound boy replied with wonderment. At the mention of his name, Katara's left eye twitched. 'What nonsense was he filling these boy's heads with anyways?', she wondered.
Absentmindedly, she bended a serving of stew into a bowl for Aang, then dropped the last of the fish into the pot. It wouldn't be long now at all. Not long after, Toph and Haru joined their little circle.
"What's cookin' Sweetness. I've worked up quite an appetite working out mister Mustache here. He's got a lot to learn, but he is picking up. Slowly. Slower than Aang, but I suppose that's to be expected. Kyoshi is hidden somewhere in Aang's mind or something.", Toph prattled on as she sat down and began to pick wax out of her ear.
Unbeknownst to Toph, Aang had just drifted down on his glider halfway through her statement. "Come on, Toph, you know it doesn't work like that. I can't just rely on my past lives to do everything for me."
Katara watched as Toph reached out and gave the now on the ground Aang a quick punch to the arm, "Yeah, well, maybe if you were Kyoshi, you could actually give me a run for my money. Maybe. 'Cause I'm the best there is!"
Aang replied with a slightly sarcastic reply, "Sure you are Toph…"
Katara let the kids all bicker amongst themselves while Haru wandered over. "What's in the pot?", he mused as he picked up an empty bowl.
"Fish and vegetables", she replied, bending a serving into his bowl. "Do you think you can help me serve the others?", she asked of him. He shrugged in reply, unstacking the remaining bowls for her to serve into.
A silence fell over their camp except for the sounds of eating, and the occasional belch from Toph. As they finished eating, the younger boys all mumbled thanks to her for dinner then took off back inside the temple. Their dirty bowls still sitting on the ground from where they last were.
Aang soon after finished his bowl, setting it gently down on the ground in front of himself. "That was lovely as ever Katara. You are such a good cook, isn't she?", he asked with his usual enamored wonder.
Haru replied, "Yeah, I would have to agree. This is pretty good. Definitely better than some food I've had in my time."
Toph replied first with a belch before following up, "As much as I'd love to stay here for the awkward fest, my feet and I are getting out of here. I've got some new metalbending moves I want to work on." With that, the tiny earthbender dropped her bowl upside down on the ground and departed the group.
Looking at the mess she had to clean and the two remaining boys, Katara thought now was as good a time as any to try and enlist help. Especially since everyone seems to just keep leaving. "Soo, boys, you want to help me clean up. Since I did plan, prep, cook, and serve, this meal here…", she asked as sweetly as she could without allowing sarcasm into the question.
Both boys looked at each other, then to her, then back to each other. Whatever their unspoken communication was, it was interrupted by a rather large "CROOAAAK".
"Well, gee, Katara, you know I'd love to help you do the dishes, but you know, Sifu Hotman left a strict instruction list for me. Gotta get going. Those hot squats aren't gonna squat themselves", the airbender said while snapping the wings free on his glider and taking off.
She looked over at the last one left, Haru.
"I can help. It's not like I have anything else to do today", he said unenthusiastically before gathering the bowls.
They both carried the serving and cooking dishes to the cleaning fountain and began to clean. The only sounds to break the silence were the sounds of water sloshing. Trying to break the awkward, Katara tried to get the earthbender to open up, "So, how's training with Toph?"
Haru let out a long haggard sigh before replying, "It's difficult. Toph, is,", he paused, Katara assumed he was looking for the right words. He continued, "demanding. Unyielding. And quite good at what she does. I've never really had a master. Our village never used our earthbending quite as precise or as quickly as she does. It's a lot to take in all at once. Especially when her way of saying 'Good Job' is to throw a boulder at your face."
Katara stopped scrubbing the bowl she was holding to look over at Haru, "Really?"
"How do you think I got this bruise under my left eye?", he mused back. Before Katara could reply, he added, "Actually, I think this one was her way of saying I need to get better. She expresses disapproval by sending two boulders at your head." He said it as if it was just a fact of life.
Feeling both irritated at Toph for her gruff teaching and Haru for not saying anything sooner, Katara let a little water from the fountain rise up to Haru's face. She reached out with her left and covered the bruise in water. Feeling the water, she felt the familiar push back against her as she willed it to heal.
The blue glow must have startled Haru, who leaned away for a moment. "I still can't believe how good you have gotten. It really is incredible. Thank you"
For the first time in days she had received a complement. Well, she supposed that he used manners and was complementary to her, but that didn't count. Instead, she chose to enjoy the feeling of being appreciated and let her irritation with Toph and hatred for him dissipate for a little while.
In the Sky, Approaching the Boiling Rock…
Zuko looked over at his current traveling companion. He mused for a moment, considering the stories they had shared. This was the closest to open he had been with anyone since his Uncle. 'Is this what it is like to actually have a real friend. Someone who doesn't want anything from you?', he mused to himself as the other boy snored really loudly.
Zuko cleared his throat, waking the other boy.
"Rise and Shine, Sleepyface", Zuko called.
"Toph must really be rubbing off on you, Princelord", the other boy replied through the sleep clouding his thoughts.
"I just wanted to let you know that we are currently a few days out from a fire nation prison", the prince in exile explained.
"Great. Let's orchestrate a prison break!", Sokka replied with gusto.
"Do you have a plan?", Zuko asked.
"No, I thought you had a plan", came Sokka's reply.
"Um, aren't you supposed to be the plan guy?", Zuko asked with a slight hint of exasperation.
"Um, aren't you supposed to be from the Fire Nation?", Sokka snarked back.
"And how many Fire Nation Prisons do you think I have spent time in?", Zuko parried.
"How am I supposed to know what you do for fun?", Sokka jested back. Zuko just shook his head in disbelief and returned to the controls. 'At least we are here', he thought to himself.
A few days later in the Western Air Temple…
'It's been too long. He must have captured Sokka and brought him to the fire nation. I can't let my brother be taken too. We have to go after them!', she worked herself again into a tizzy.
"TOPH", she bellowed into the temple. It was still early in the morning, and the young earthbender was likely still sleeping. A couple of minutes later, and a couple of words mumbled from Toph that Katara thought the younger girl shouldn't use later, Toph was standing before Katara. Her hair was disheveled, her headband was sideways, and she just yawned really loudly. "This had better be good, Ice Queen, cause I was sleeping. But by your heart rate, you are really worked up. So, What?", the young girl demanded.
"Look Toph, I have been thinking it over. I know that he has taken my brother to the fire nation. Sokka could be in a fire nation prison by now! We need to go after him. We need to rescue him. He led Sokka right into a trap! I am thinking that if we get Appa, we could catch up to them. His airship isn't the fastest, I don't think. We have to find them!", Katara was nearly yelling in Toph's face.
"One, say it don't spray it. Two do you really think that Sokka would be that dumb to just allow himself to be captured?", Toph paused to consider her statement, "Never mind on two. Three, even if we were to go after them, we don't have the slightest clue as to where they went. Four, Zuko", Toph made a point of drawing out the vowels of Zuko's name, "has been nothing but helpful since he arrived. And lastly, even if you were to go after them, what would you do, orchestrate a prison break? No, I didn't think so. So I am not going on a hunt at this un-spiritly hour. Convince the boys instead. I'm going back to sleep"
With that, Toph turned on her heel and retreated back towards her room. Katara hear the door slam shut and then the unmistakable sound of an earthen barrier being erected in front of Toph's door.
With that rather unpleasant interaction behind her, Katara set about her daily tasks. She noticed the food was running low. Haru was supposed to have been gathering food and firewood the last few days. The dirty clothes have been piling up at the fountain that the boys were supposed to be cleaning. Appa hadn't been groomed, nor had any dishes been done.
Later that day, Western Air Temple…
Katara had just finished prepping dinner. It wasn't much, but it would feed them all. Haru lay off to the side with his hands folded across his stomach, fully asleep. The Duke arrived soon after the dinner was done, waving his sword-stick around, accidentally smacking Haru on the stomach. Aang and Teo dropped out of the sky from a glider flight around the premises.
"It never gets old, does it?", the airbender asked the other boy.
"No. It is so freeing. So wonderful", Teo replied.
"Oh, can it, both of you. You are just jealous that I am so much better down here on the ground", Toph huffed from around the corner.
As Aang, Teo, and Toph began to engage in a rather heated argument regarding their respective thoughts on flying, Haru approached Katara with both hands over his stomach. The Duke followed quietly behind, helmet dropped low over his eyes.
"Can you…", the earthbender began to ask before she cut him off. "Yes", she replied curtly while reaching out with her left hand. She could feel the water in the fountain behind her. Pulling slightly, she pulled enough water to heal Haru, to her hand. As she healed his bruise, she looked to the younger boy, "The Duke, if you could please be more careful while you are playing."
"But I was…", he replied sheepishly, head hung in remorse.
"I understand it was an accident, but just be careful", she admonished.
As the two boys left, she let out a large sigh. It was just too much. Haru was overreacting, The Duke was pouting. Toph was intentionally irritating Aang and Teo. She was pretty sure Aang had been shirking from his firebending. Toph definitely did not clean any of the sleeping bags like she had asked.
"THAT'S ENOUGH! Everyone, just shut up. NOW", she bellowed before she had even realized she was speaking. The silence afterwards was deafening. The cricket-grasshoppers from the surrounding forests could be heard cutting through the wind. All heads turned to face her. "I've had just about enough. I get it. Its not our ideal situation. Were on the run. Sokka hasn't gotten back with any meat. But none of you have been doing anything since he left. Not a single thing. The dirty clothes pile is disgusting. No one has gotten any firewood or foraged for berries or fruits. No one preps the tomato-potatoes or the celery-carrots for meals. No one has been washing dishes or cleaning camp or, or well, anything lately!", she flung her hands in the air in frustration, bending the entirety of the fountain of water into the air alongside of it. Her audience looked on in shock as the wave grew larger.
She noticed the large eyes of her younger companions and then felt the pull of the water above her. With a flick of her wrists, she returned the water to its place in the fountain. She took a few deep breaths, seeking her inner calm. Finally, after a couple of breaths and an eternity of silence, she spoke.
"I am sorry for snapping at you. It has just been a lot to take care of you all, with no help. It's a lot. And I don't know why you all stopped helping out. I understand this isn't where any of you want to be. But it is where we are now. So I am asking, no, begging, please help me out like you were earlier", the waterbender pleaded.
"Look Ice Queen", Toph berated, "If you would just have listened to us, you would know that none of us have been doing any of that. I mean, come on. Who cares if the camp is a little messy. But none of us have ever done any of that since we arrived here."
Katara's brain whirred as she tried to comprehend what Toph was saying. 'There is no way Sokka was doing all of that. Actually, I don't think Sokka was doing any of that. I think I reminded him to stop leaving clothes at my door to be mended the day before he left.'
Aang's voice interrupted her musings, "Um, Katara, I think what Toph was trying to say but not saying so very well – ooph, Toph, was that necessary?" Toph had elbowed the airbender in the gut, "I was saying exactly what I meant. Just because Icey over here can't see what is in front of her own nose, isn't my problem."
Aang again took over, "I'm sorry, Katara. Toph here is being overly stubborn. As I was saying, um, well, actually none of us were doing our chores. I mean we kinda thought about doing them at first."
The Duke interrupted, "Eh, not really", and Teo nodded along affirmatively.
Aang continued, "But when we went to do those things, they were already done. So we kinda thought that you had already done them, since they were done so well."
She looked across the group, all who were nodding in agreement. Toph had her arms crossed and was making a face that expressed her displeasure with Aang's politeness. Teo and The Duke both had their heads hung low. Aang put on a strained smile while Haru just hung his head.
Disbelief ran through her entire body as the implications of what everyone was saying rang through. As she stood there, she whispered to herself involuntarily, "No. It can't be. Not Him."
Meanwhile in Fire Nation Airspace…
"So we are about half a day from the Boiling Rock and we have nothing?", Sokka asked.
"No, we have three day's worth of useless plans that end with us killed, or worse, captured.", came the muffled reply. Zuko's forehead was in his right palm. The stress in the small war balloon was thick enough to cut with a sword. "It's a good thing that we both left our swords with the group. They would be instantly recognizable to anyone with a most wanted list. We don't even know for sure if your father is being held here, or if he would have arrived yet. We can only hope that if we can get some guard uniforms fast enough, no one will question us. New recruits are sent to the Boiling Rock all the time."
"Uniforms must be kept on at all times. We are both too recognizable to the Fire Nation. One slip up and this whole thing goes kablewhie", Sokka finished off with a wild wave of his hands, imitating an explosion.
They had gone over what little information that they had non-stop for the trek through the air. The trip was smooth except for a windstorm that had blown them four days off track. On the horizon, the Volcano that houses the Boiling Rock looms large. The Fire Nation's exiled prince's war balloon is tiny in comparison.
"Prepare yourself! We are less than ten minutes from crossing over the lake", Zuko called as he jammed on the throttle to steer the ship down.
Sokka gathered up the meager sack of supplies, and was looking over the edge when Zuko called out, "Oh, Fuck. Shit – were going down. Hard! We're gonna fucking crash – Agnidamnit!" Zuko blasted the furnace with as much fire as he could.
"What is going on?", Sokka asked back.
"I don't know. The fire isn't hot enough. It's just too hot out from the lake. I can't keep us aloft!", Zuko replied.
"Well, Tui damned Fire Nation water has to be too hot. Of course", Sokka bemoaned.
The Fire Nation recon ship impacted the ground just outside the edge of the lake. The force of the impact jarred both boys out from the basket. Zuko stood up and dusted himself off while Sokka grabbed their supplies from the backet. They analyzed their surroundings. The walls of the volcano rose high in the surroundings. The clouds in the sky were dark and foreboding, casing long shadows down into the volcano. The walls of the prison rose in the near ground, with interspersed towers every few meters. The gravely ground crunched beneath their feet.
"Volcano. I should have known. The air surrounding the balloon is as hot as the air inside the balloon. It can't lift itself anymore. I kinda though this might be a one-way ticket", Sokka bemoaned.
"You knew this could happen and yet you wanted to come anyways?", Zuko demanded.
"Yes. My father could be here. I had to come see", Sokka explained.
"Uncle always said I never thought things through, but this", Zuko stopped to gesture from the downed balloon to the prison, "This is just crazy!"
"Look. I never wanted you to come along in the first place. And for the record, I always think things through. But my plans haven't exactly worked, so this time, I'm making it up as I go. So there", Sokka huffed back.
"So we have no plan to get off this island in a volcano island?", Zuko asked in bewilderment at Sokka's casualness regarding their current situation.
"I'll come up with something. Now help me get this in the lake. If anyone finds it were as good as prisoners here", Sokka replied while starting to drag the balloon towards the shoreline.
Zuko grabbed the opposite side and helped him push it in deep. As it sank, he spoke, "I sure hope you know what you are doing."
Both boys turned to face the prison. As they headed towards the wall, Zuko mused to himself, "There's no turning back now."
Sokka walked close up to the wall before motioning over to Zuko, "We should stick close to the walls. Less chance anyone will see us out in the open."
Zuko obliged, walking close in on the wall. They walked in silence for a moment before he spoke, "Look up there. Do you see those cables? Those are the gondolas that transport everything in and out of this crater. That is where the entrance will be. They will drop down on the upper tower level. There should be a small access gate for guards to do a ground perimeter search. We will have to find that and hope that the room is empty."
They soon found the lower level patrol entrance. It was an unassuming wooden door emblazoned with the fire nation insignia. Zuko looked over at Sokka and nodded. "This is it. If there is anyone in this room, we will have to take them."
Sokka nodded in return and took the handle. He counted down from three and flung the door open. Both boys rushed inside into a dark room. The outside door swung shut. The only light coming in was from a small window on the inside door into the complex. A small weapons rack stood on one wall, and an armour stand was next to it.
"Zuko, could you add a little light here?", Sokka asked.
Without speaking, Zuko lit a small flame in his left hand and held it high. The light danced across the room, illuminating its occupants and contents. The room itself was no larger than a rather large supply cabinet. The rack held multiple standard issue short swords covered in dust. Three armour stands next to the weapons contained full sets of guard gear. On the opposite side of the room, a small wooden table and four chairs sat unused with a thick layer of dust. Two torch scones adorned both sides of both doors of the room.
Sokka suddenly lunged under the table, dragging Zuko down as well. "Kill the light", he whispered, "I hear something."
Zuko snuffed the fire from his hand, and the room again returned to mostly dark. He heard first the sounds of his and Sokka's breathing. Then he heard the footsteps. Two guards, based off of the footsteps.
The door rattled as one guard stopped outside it. "I thought I saw a light in there", a gruff voice rang out. A slightly shriller voice replied, "Well, stupid, does it look like there is anything in there? You really need to lay off the fire-flake soup before rounds. You are getting jumpy."
As the guards footsteps receded, the boys emerged from beneath the table.
Sokka went over to the armour stand and started putting on the gear, "I suppose we could pass as guards"
Zuko walked over to the shortswords and picked one up, "It's a start, that's for sure."
A little while later, both were dressed in the full guard uniform and ready to begin infiltration. As Sokka went to open the door, Zuko patted him on the shoulder, "And remember, confidence. No one will question you if you just act as if you are supposed to be here. Except the warden. But if he gets involved, were screwed, so I suppose that is irrelevant."
As Sokka opened the door, he said back to Zuko, "You really need to work on your inspirational speeches"
