When Zuko first blinks awake, he doesn't pay much attention to the stinging and burning of the wounds littered over his stomach. He's been through much, much worse and a few new-age bullet wounds aren't anything compared to pure lightning shocking through his body.
He does distinctly notice, however, the lack of ache in his joints. He notices the starkly non-existent dull pains that usually come with being so damn old. He notices how his face feels tighter than he's felt in a while.
When he looks down at himself, completely disregarding the bloodiness of his clothes, he gasps because his bloody clothes swamp him. They engulf his suddenly small body.
He hears an annoyed groan next to him and chokes on surprise as he turns his head and sees Toph, bloody and dirty but young and with smooth skin and that is a surprise but it's set aside because at least she's breathing. The way she looked when he first joined the Avatar and his gang.
Zuko closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, steadying his shaken core, he breathes out hotly and warmth washes over his body as he pulses heat through his muscles.
Now, time to figure out where the fuck he and Toph are.
Their wagon, adorned with symbols of earth and fire, gently riding along a path.
Toph, Sokka, and Zuko are the last of the Avatar Gang- or Gaang if you talked to the sentimental old Sokka- and nowadays things are much different.
There are dozens of new countries, each without much care for maintaining one type of bending. No more Fire Nation or Water tribes, just people. People, but still power-hungry.
Toph and Zuko are on their way to discuss trade treaties with one of the newer countries. With just a few correspondence letters, Zuko and Toph already know this new leader is arrogant and power-hungry.
Zuko and Toph meet up anyways, exchanging inside jokes and laughs as though they have the time. Now they're riding together to meet up with the new blood.
They didn't expect to be ambushed by a group carrying wood guns and plastic bullets. They certainly didn't expect the plastic bullets being able to tear into their skin.
Zuko fucking hates the new-agers inventions. Still, Druk should be sensing his distress at the moment, and guns have yet to become more powerful than dragons.
Zuko sighs and quietly pushes away some of the anxiety that rings through his mind. He raises a hand and calms slightly as fire bursts into flame above his palm. Before he can lower the hand to his abdomen and cauterize the wound, an annoyed growl appears in his head. It sounds like Druk.
"I'm glad you recognize me, Zusie, "
Zuko groans and lays his head back on the ground. Then, a warmth that is equally his and isn't his rushes towards his wounds and the throbbing pain of them disappears, it gets replaced by an almost pleasant tingling and then Zuko feels as though his skin is moving. He feels what he swears is the plastic bullets push out from his abdomen.
Zuko tries to sit up, but a jolt of pain sends him back down.
"I'm trying to heal you! Stay still!"
"...Druk? Where are we? Where are you?" Zuko asks, his voice straining slightly as he tries to hide away the panic from his voice.
He's been Fire Lord for a while, he can take unfamiliar situations. He can ignore the strange feelings, for now, the feelings of spirits- crawling, lurking, and splashing around him. Where is he? He wishes he could turn to Aang and ask why the spirit world seems to have overspilled into the regular world, why his own soul feels heavier than normal.
"I'm with you, Zuko, calm down. Those aren't spirits-"
Zuko shivers and shuts his eyes, he takes a few more steadying breaths and when he opens his eyes again, he's in his mind. He finds himself sitting in a wooden chair, well-loved and well-cleaned.
There's a table in front of him, and upon the table is a hot cup of tea. The steam from it swirls up and dances around his head. He's at the Jasmine Dragon. Well, his memory of it at least. His hands rest on either side of the tea, wrinkled and old like he's used to seeing them.
His mind space has always been places he felt content in. Consequently, they've always been where he and Uncle Iroh were able to relax. (He used to throw away the notion when he was younger and meditating for the first time; He used to ignore the bright smile Iroh showed when Zuko first said his mind-space looked like the beach they attended when younger).
Zuko wishes he could breathe in and taste the brewed smells of jasmine and lychee that his uncle used to boast about, but he'll settle for the warm memory his mind provides him. Zuko smiles ruefully and looks up from the cup of tea when he hears-
"Zuko? You got here quicker than I expected,"
At the entrance to the tea shop, Zuko stares in shock as Druk, smaller than normal but still too big to enter the tiny shop, lays carefully. Druk's head is rested upon the slightly elevated floor of the shop's door, the rest of his body lays outside, where Zuko can scarcely see forest and flowers.
"Druk? What are you doing in my mind? Are you-" Zuko coughs lightly and raises one of his hands to cover his mouth, "-dead? Have you become a spirit?"
Druk blinks at him silently, and many years of companionship with the dragon leads Zuko to conclude that Druk is offended.
"Of course not!" Druk snaps, his nostrils flare and light smoke puffs out of his maw, "I am undoubtedly going to outlive you, fire-boy, and why haven't you thanked me yet?"
Zuko suddenly realizes that Druk must've somehow been healing him. That Druk was the one that somehow commanded Zuko's own skin to knit back together.
"Thank you? Can you explain what's happening now?"
Druk bristles slightly before accepting the gratitude for what it was and guiltily raising his head slightly.
"...I have made an extensive miscalculation."
When Toph wakes up, she immediately smells Zuko's smoky and surprisingly flowery presence near her and she also immediately feels the much much different rhythms of life around them.
They aren't where they were last, and she can tell. Despite her rising worry, she takes in the sound and thumping of Zuko's beating heart and even breathing. He's either unconscious or meditating. A flare of irritation shoots through her and she grimaces at the thought of Zuko choosing to leave them exposed like that.
Though, she's a thousand times sure that there are no other humans around them at the moment.
She takes stock of her surroundings like she's been doing it for years, and she has.
They're in a man-made clearing, as the condensed dirt ground around them indicates. Zuko's blood isn't rushing as fast as it was when she first heard the bullets ram into him, and her own wounds have already begun to clot.
There are thick trees around them, and there aren't any crunching sounds or the papery rustling that comes from Fall's autumn. It isn't cold enough to be winter either. She's lucky she wasn't shot like Zuko, but she still sustains injuries from knives barely dodged.
She taps her left hand's fingers against the ground and visualizes a city near them- waits, not a city. They're near a village. She inhales deeply and smells almost none of the heavy pollution she's become acquainted with. A rural place then.
Why are they here? She should've had her guard up, she would've heard the air splitting around thrown weapons sooner, she could've spared Zuko from experiencing what bullets in your body felt like.
But then, Toph shakily begins to wonder why the absolute fuck her armour and her clothes feel larger on her, and why her fingertips press smooth into the ground, wrinkles. She can tell she still has calluses, but they pale in comparison to her usual ones.
Despite her best efforts, panic floods her throat and she raises her hands to her torso, feeling around the clothes that are undeniably hers. She presses a palm against her shoulder and feels the smooth and unblemished skin. She feels the weight of her sleeve dramatically outsize her arm, and she whimpers quietly as the familiar ache from her bones is gone. She hates unfamiliarity with herself. It makes her feel small.
And she is. She raises her fingers to her face and traces over softer lips and cheekbones, she's herself but she's herself from long ago. She's young again.
She vaguely remembers the feeling of Zuko frantically grabbing her and she remembers the feeling of her body slowly losing sensation. It was terrifying, but she has her senses now, so it's fine. Toph reaches toward's Zuko's body next to her and feels for his arm.
She breathes out a heavy breath when she comes into contact with smooth skin.
"This world parallels yours, there are countries named after elements, much like your nations. However, their history differs from yours, and their wars and battles have been fought with a different sort of bending. They have their own form of spirit too-" Druk is cut off by an angry shout,
"But why did you send us here? To this parallel of what Toph and I know? And how could spirits be different?" Zuko asks years of being royalty subtly filter his voice into a demanding tone.
"...the rules of spirits here are different. Their life energy and blood are tied into their spirit far deeper than on our world. I sent you here because-" Druk's affection for Zuko melts into he words, "Because I knew you and Toph yearned for your past. You even talked about it constantly, you kept recounting memories as if they were wistful bedtime stories. And when those people attacked, I was angry because you have done so much for them! The new-age has brought about arrogance and disregard for the spiritual that is bound to swallow them in revenge! I thought you would be excited! Why are you so angry?"
Zuko huffs, his pale face shakes as the anger at their situation filters out of him. He gets up from his wooden chair and walks over to Druk. He sits down near his dragon's head and places a reassuring hand over Druk's snout.
"I am not angry Druk, I admire your wish to help me, but if you have the power to send us to a whole different world, why not just send us to the past?" Zuko asks. He would do anything to go back. To spend more time with his friends, to spend less time over his father's wrongdoings.
Druk snorts and ruefully leans into Zuko's touch.
"To mess with time is to mess with the Avatar. It is not in my power to disrupt reincarnation,"
Zuko nods quietly before he asks with a hesitantly curious tone, "How is their bending different?"
Druk seems to relax at the question, and he smiles easily as he begins a brief explanation.
"They bend their spirit and call upon forces beyond. They call it chakra, but their chakra is nothing like we know-"
Toph grits her teeth and gets onto her bare feet, immediately things become even clearer.
She thumps the heel of her right foot against the ground and breathes out calmly when her senses reach further.
Definitely a rural village. But then, she feels vibrations travel upwards and against stone walls. There is a large wall surrounding the village, and the strange park they are in.
She reaches toward the village more, and feels the beating of many feet in a market, the vibrations subtly raking through buildings.
The architecture isn't much different from what she's 'seen' before, maybe albeit old in taste. She thumps her heel again and gasps as she feels rhythms akin to walking. They are far enough that they likely wouldn't be able to hear her talking, but she can tell that someone is walking towards them.
They're vulnerable. Somehow stuck in younger bodies, and with armour too big for her. Zuko's twin swords lay a couple of feet away from them, and Zuko himself is still not conscious.
She turns to Zuko and kneels awkwardly next to him. She can pretend. She's acted through many situations, and she's even fooled her own parents before.
Quickly, she bends the metal of her armour off of her. It crumples up next to her and awaits further instruction. Without the metal on her clothes, they look civilian at best and enslaved at worst. Toph feels around Zuko's wounds and gets blood over her fingers. For some reason, she can't seem to find the actual entry points that come along with bullets.
She twitches her head and immediately, the metal shifts and forces itself into the shape of chains and cuffs. They fly over to her and she locks thick cuffs around her wrists, connecting the chains to each other.
She sends the rest of the metal to her feet, leaving her ankles cuffed but the chain attached to them don't connect her feet.
The person is getting closer to where they are. Their footsteps are light and practised and undoubtedly fight ready. She needs to make themselves look non-threatening.
The rest of the metal forms into cuffs and broken links, she guides them over Zuko's wrists and ankles, making them so they look like Zuko was able to break the chains. With his type of bending, it'd be easier if his wrists weren't forced close.
The person she's hearing is almost at their clearing, they should be able to see them soon.
She composes herself once before she puts on a broken face.
Tears run down her face and she's quick to force pieces of dirt up to further mess up Zuko and her's clothes. She presses her undoubtedly bloody fingers against Zuko's abdomen in an attempt to snap him out of unconsciousness and smiles inwardly when she feels him stir slightly.
The person is at the edge of their clearing now. Able to see them. Toph puts up an even more broken front. She keeps her eyes wide and clearly blind.
She's played helpless a million times before.
Toph snaps her head around as if she's heard something surprising. The person near them stops, and Toph is sure they saw her eyes.
Toph acts pathetic, something she's never truly been but is familiar with. She presses her ear desperately against Zuko's chest and feigns a breath of relief when she hears his heartbeat.
Her chains rattle and she hunches her shoulders protectively when she feels the person walk closer to them, making their presence overly known on purpose.
"Hey, hey, it's alright. You're in Konohagakure, we can help you if you comply, kid"
A man's voice says reassuringly, she understands the language and that's good. He isn't lying either. What is 'Konohagakure?' Is it the village's name?
Toph can't stop the scowl from climbing onto her face, but she quickly directs it's connotations into distrust.
"Don't touch me! Stay away from us!" Toph shouts, her voice sounds satisfyingly panicked and vulnerable. She could kill the man with the twitch of her finger. Toph presses herself closer to Zuko instead.
The man seems to calmly walk closer, and she can hear the clothes on the man shift as he looks at their bloodied clothing. She breathes out heavily and takes note of the metal weapons on the man's body. No firearms at least.
"I'm not going to hurt you or your brother, alright?" The man says. Toph forces herself not to smile at his assumption. The man doesn't recognize them, that's either great or terrible.
Toph evens out her breathing a little, and puts shaky trust into her posture.
"Why are we here? What do you want from us!" She snaps at the man, though her head is still facing Zuko's body.
The man holds himself confidently and rests to spring into action. A soldier then? What is he doing here, who sent him over-
"Kid, we felt a spike of chakra here around forty minutes ago- was anyone else here with you? We can get you and your brother healed, just trust us, "
Toph feels real panic rise up in her and her breathing quickens. Chakra? How could they feel chakra? Her points are exposed, they could bring her down like fuckin-' Ty Lee? She bares her teeth at the man, and inwardly delights in the man's discomfort.
"I won't let you take us! You stay away!" She says with a desperate shout. Let the man come to his own conclusions.
She fakes a wince and her bloody left-hand moves to a wound she knows is on her side.
The man takes another concerned step forward.
"Kid, we can get you help. You and your brother look really injured, and there's a hospital near here. Whoever hurt you isn't around, " the man says further. Toph almost scoffs at his sureness that there isn't anyone else around and really, her wounds aren't that serious.
However, she proceeds to relax her shoulders slightly. Realistic tears well up in her blind eyes and she moves to fist her hands in the too-large clothing on Zuko.
"Okay, " she says shakily. The man nods before ruefully trying to hide it. He gently picks up Zuko-short and sixteen again, Zuko's swords, and puts a hand on Toph's twelve-year-old shoulder.
He leads them towards the village carefully, taking care to make sure she's not stumbling.