AN: Sorry to those of you quick on the draw with this chapter; website needed me to review the Rules and Guidelines policy when I updated the story and I guess it put stuff on hold until I do. Chapter should be good to go now, sorry about that.

Chapter 25: Obito's Move

The darkness was doing nothing but intensify Azula's increasingly furious state as she ran about her blackened cell, running into anything and everything as she did her best to wear down the restraints that were still keeping her arms restricted. She had managed to work off the rope around her legs through a matter of tearing her clothes and scratching bloody burns up and down shins. That bitch had done quite the job securing her and she was deeply starting to feel what might have been a madness induced panic attack gripping her as she could find absolutely no way of loosening the bindings on her arms.

Running around in pitch black made things worse as she could find nothing that she might be able to use to cut through the rope, or slacken it to the point of being able to make her escape. Every time she managed to calm herself to the point where she could lower herself to the floor and feel around for something that could aid her, thoughts of Sasuke fighting alone tore at her conscience and she began to scream again and resume her frantic movements.

It was truly incomprehensible that Mai had been willing to do something like this to her. Perhaps she had finally decided to make a play for Sasuke's affection and this was her way of removing Azula from the picture long enough to do so. But what could she do, truly? She had no bending to aid him, what was her plan? Trying to decipher such mysteries was nothing that didn't just throw fuel on the fires of Azula's frustration and she did her best to push such thoughts from her mind. Her only goal needed to be reaching Sasuke, no matter what that required of her.

Within the wall, locked away in the cell, she could hear almost nothing save for her own struggles, but as minutes passed, she could very distinctly feel shaking in the very foundation of the wall itself, as though there were an earthquake occurring that shifted in intensity second to second. Something massive was happening and as she swung her foot angrily trying to summon up fire for the umpteenth time, she knew it couldn't be at the behest of anyone who had been exposed to the toxin.

Sasuke… what's happening? What are you having to do to protect me?

Tears leaked from her eyes; in the dark, pride was something she didn't have to concern herself with in the slightest, and the agony at only being able to imagine what was happening was enough to tear at her very insides.

Her toiling with the ropes had worked her arms into burning pain; akin to the restraints tied to her legs, there were surely lesions that had been opened up all along her forearms, her clothes having been torn there too, but she had done only enough to loosen them slightly. The awkward way in which she was forced to grapple with them made it difficult for her to manage any real progress, as they were still too tight around her wrists for her to pull her hands free.

But as she took a brief moment to catch her breath, taking in long gulps of air as her head spun from the lack of oxygen her inconsistent breathing was forcing on her, her mind flicked to a specific memory.

It had been the same tribe whom she had gone to procure the generations-old statue from, the same tribe who had been forced deep into the archipelago by her efforts and had tried to assassinate her those nights ago. A night before she had gone to the tribe's leader and begun her brutal efforts to have it handed over, she had ordered her men to take two soldiers from the tribe captive, under cover of night. They had both been bound similarly to how she was restrained now, and were thrown into the hold of Azula's ship. She had waited about an hour before going down to question them, but was met with a surprising sight. Both men had worked their hands free of their bonds and had choked the life from the soldiers coming to check on them; however, they had been forced to use their forearms and body weight to do so as their thumbs had been brutally broken on their hands, allowing for them to slide free of their bonds. After she had been forced to kill the rampaging men, Azula remembered looking at their mangled digits in mild impressment, that they would be so headstrong in their duties to hurt themselves in order to break free.

As she sat in her cell now, Azula considered what must have been a similar set of circumstances to the two men she had taken prisoner. They had considered their duties far and above their own personal wellbeing and had been more than willing to suffer for what they had to do. And as Azula thought about this, she found herself almost smiling.

They were willing to do that to protect some stupid statue, but I haven't done the same to be at Sasuke's side?

When put like that, she cursed herself violently and got to her feet, back against the wall. With the hand furthest back, she extended her thumb and pressed it against the cold rock that she was leaning against. Just a quick, hard thrust from her body and the hardest part would be over and done with, and Azula took in a measured breath as she prepared to crack her digit out of place.

Just as she drew her body back, she paused as the strangest feeling came over her. It was rather as though she were lying in a river, the current dragging her body along, but she wasn't moving somehow. There was a great stillness as well that she noticed, mixed with the quiet that her solitude was already imposing. It suddenly felt like she was under the presence of some impossibly large creature, as it loomed down upon her with cavernous maw and burning eyes that she couldn't see. To her, the world might have been standing still.

This only lasted a few, deeply long moments before the sound of what must have been the end erupted around her. All at once, her senses were assaulted as the ground, walls and ceiling began to quake violently as a great roaring thundered around her, deafening her ears. Azula was knocked to the ground as the sound and shaking put her in a state where she was forced to jam her eyes shut and wait desperately for this all to come to an end.

It lasted probably about thirty seconds or so, but while it was happening, it was quite as though each second droned by as an hour of torture as Azula was subjected to something she truly didn't understand. Her mind danced with possibilities, each as wildly unlikely as the next, but at last, the shaking ceased and the blaring roar echoed away into something like distant rumbling. For a while, Azula remained where she lay, quietly waiting for the awful sound to recommence, but when it didn't, she slowly opened her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was that it was no longer pitch black. The yellow and orange of the sky now bathed her cell, the color reminding her of the heat she felt so deeply within her very body.

The leftmost part of her cell had been completely sheared away, as though some great knife had come down and sliced it away and as Azula slowly righted herself, it took a long moment to realize what she was looking at.

Ba Sing Se's wall had been struck by some immense and exceptionally powerful force, as there was now a great piece of it missing as though a hole had been blown in it, from the very top of its border, all the way to the ground far below. Azula looked across to the other side of where the blow had been struck, seemingly a mile at least in the other direction, the innards of the wall fully exposed. It was difficult to even comprehend as Azula lifted her head and peered upwards and saw only sky above. The wall had been blown open, somehow, by some power that she didn't even dare try to imagine. Whatever it was, it had achieved something hitherto thought impossible by the Fire Nation in the decades they had spent trying to break through into Ba Sing Se: the wall had collapsed.

Azula allowed herself a moment to revel in the destruction that had just taken place and the fact that whatever force had just blown apart the wall as if it had been nothing more than a wicker fence before a elephant, it had come extremely close to taking her with it. And as she looked at the half of her room still remaining, she saw jagged remains of the room's foundation jutting out at various points.

As she imagined how easily these pieces might cut through rope around a prisoner's arms, Azula smirked and moved towards them.

Despite the chaos that had just consumed her world, her objective hadn't changed.

Find Sasuke.

Sasuke was caught completely off guard as the shockwave rushing up behind him knocked him clean off his feet. He was in the air for a long second, before he crashed into the ground, his speed causing him to smear across the craggy earth for a long couple meters before grinding to a halt. Wincing and reflecting that this was probably the hardest hit he had taken thus far, Sasuke hauled himself to his feet and turned away from Ozai's forces to find whatever it was that had just taken him by such total surprise.

Surprise was indeed all that remained in his body, however, as he observed what had just taken place behind him. The wall of Ba Sing Se had just had a great piece of it blown entirely away, a curve that stretched from its highest point to dip all the way down to the ground and then rise up again, as though someone had just taken a massive rock and thrown it entirely threw the wall itself. The hole stretched wide enough to have allowed Ozai's entire fleet to sail into the city had their been water beneath Sasuke's feet and he found he could do little more than stare for a moment as he tried to piece together what had just happened.

It didn't take him long, for of all the feats he knew benders at the top of their class to be able to perform, none could have so suddenly and so entirely blown apart the wall that had rose so high into the air, and stood so thick against opposition. An awful feeling was burning inside Sasuke, one of disbelief and pure anger. All this time, he had been waiting for Obito to strike him from some unexpected angle, to make his presence known, to try and remove Sasuke as an obstacle, and the entire time, Sasuke had never been the target. He had been played, extending himself from the city too far, never seeing Obito coming and letting this awful calamity take place.

As he realized he was now running full sprint towards the wall, he could spare no time cursing himself or Obito. For the truth of what had just happened was now setting in and it was taking everything he had to try and keep his heart from bursting with worry as he did everything he could to not imagine his companions, twisted and shattered, lying on the ground where once had stood the great wall of Ba Sing Se.

Toph hadn't honestly expected to wake up.

She knew she must have passed out when the wall gave away from beneath her feet and all she had been able to hear were screams on all sides of her and a roar so loud she thought her head might split open. But as she felt the layer of dust caking her body and she coughed more of it from her lungs, rolling over as she did, she knew she wasn't dead. Everything hurt too much, everything was still so wrong. Toph had never honestly given much thought to the idea of being dead, but she knew that this couldn't have been what happened afterwards.

"Hello?" she tried calling out, coughing again as her voice shook. Not knowing where she was happened to be well enough to make her deeply worried and the idea that she might be alone on top of it was even more distressing. Her hands began to tingle with that feeling of panic again and she spoke up again, louder.

"Hello?"

Around her, she could feel things coming to settle, pieces of rubble the size of her head to the size of Appa, all shifting as they found their place on the ground.

Was the wall… destroyed? How could that even have happened?

Slowly getting to her feet, she wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to break into tears at the very idea that she wasn't just alone in the moment, but alone in the sense that she had been the only one to survive whatever had just transpired.

"Please…"

She breathed out the word and turned her head towards the ground, taking deep, calming breaths before blowing out a tight sigh.

"Relax, Toph," she chided herself. "No use jumping to conclusions. What would Sasuke say if he were here?"

The very idea that her mind so eagerly jumped to him, or perhaps it was the mere thought of Sasuke at all, made her heart skip a beat and she wondered where he was now. Still fighting? Had he seen what had happened? Was he worried about—

Damn it, Toph, I said stop that.

Feeling her mind getting off track, she focused on the situation before her.

Just relax and feel. If anyone is moving nearby, I'll feel them.

Her toes ground into the rubble at her feet as she concentrated deeply. More so than ever, she could feel the shifting and moving of debris, but through it all, there was something else, a more unnatural feeling. Toph had spent years feeling the way the rocks shifted and fell down in great slides over the mountain, just as this rubble was doing now, falling to gravity and moving in such a path that would allow for them come to rest fastest. But this what she sensed now only shared half of the property that the rocks did in the sense that it wasn't very large and was moving away from gravity rather than just with it.

Scrambling her way across stone and what very likely have been the remains of the wall itself, Toph made her way towards the movement and as she heard a groan from just beyond, she allowed herself a moment to hope.

She slid down a couple meters of gravely rock, and reached out to touch the person stirring, her heart soaring as she heard the person grumble something and recognized the voice.

"Where… what just happened?" Mai muttered as she slowly brought herself to sit up.

"I was hoping you could tell me that," Toph replied grimly as she put a hand on Mai's back, feeling for anything broken or out of place in the girl's body. "To me, it felt like the wall just exploded."

Groaning, Mai put a hand on Toph's shoulder and gently used it to push herself to her feet. She coughed as well, dust no doubt catching her off guard. "Well, I can tell you, that's exactly what it looked like to everyone else. So, though I guess I'm not complaining, how exactly aren't we dead?"

Through Toph's feet, she felt more movement, sharper and more intense. "Come on, this way!"

She took Mai's hand and pulled her along as they stumbled their way through what must have been a cloud of dull brown color; Toph could feel the dust on her face and knew that the air was far from clear, and likely wouldn't be for quite a while, considering the gravity of what had just taken place.

Around the a pile of rubble, Toph heard Sokka before she could even ask who was there.

"Help me!" His voice was panicked and frantic, and as Toph and Mai rushed over, the former could feel another person stirring distantly beneath a good amount of broken earth.

"Sokka, stop pulling so hard, you're going to hurt her!" Mai's voice snapped and Toph felt the girl pulling Sokka away from the third body.

"No more than he already has…" came the slurred voice of Suki; Toph reached out with her bending and flung aside the boulders pinning her down as if they were pebbles. Sokka immediately returned to her side, slowly helping her up, freezing in place as Suki let out a sharp curse.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, are you okay?!" Sokka's voice sounded still frantic, and it was clear he was still in a state of panic, no doubt a result of both fear for Suki and trauma from the cataclysmic event that had just occurred. As Suki's breathing came in ragged gasps, Toph felt Mai's form pull Sokka aside again, her voice was its usual low tone, but Toph could hear the calming force that she was clearly attempting to get across.

"Listen to me; she might be hurt, but the most important thing you can do for her right now is calm down. Do you think you can do that?"

Toph didn't hear Sokka reply, but based on the quick movement she felt through his form, he must have been nodding.

"I need to hear you say it," Mai said and Sokka responded, his voice still high, but slower and more controlled.

"I'm calm."

"Massage the muscles on your hand between your thumb and your pointer finger," Mai instructed. "It will help relax your body."

There came a pause followed by a low and long sigh from Sokka. Suki grunted in approval.

"Nice," she remarked, still in a somewhat dull and pained tone. "Wouldn't think a noble girl like you would know some tricks like that."

"Fire Nation Women's Academy," Mai said by way of explanation. "I went with Azula and Ty Lee when we were younger; they teach you a lot more than table manners, hairstyles and proper dress. They know some of us go to war and they helped get us ready for that."

"Nice," Suki said. "But we always learned that you massage the far side of the palm, the muscle down beneath the pinky."

Mai let out a short, sharp exhale that might have been something close to a laugh before asking in a more serious tone," In all actuality, are you hurt?"

Suki winced and replied, "Broken rib, I'm thinking. Maybe two. At least a fracture on the second."

She grimaced again, before adding, "What the hell happened?"

Mai snorted, "Your guess is as good as ours."

There was only a brief pause before another voice added itself to the mix.

"Hey guys, I think the wall exploded or something."

Ty Lee's almost hilariously obvious observation added levity a moment of levity that mixed with the relief of her approaching around some more wreckage, walking with another person and using them as support as far as Toph could tell.

"Is everyone okay?" came Katara's voice, and Toph found she was actually quite glad to hear that controlling and uptight voice even as she ran forward and threw her arms around the two girls. Katara put her free hand around Toph's head and kissed the top of it, and Toph could feel tears fall into her hair as Katara whispered to her.

"I'm so glad you're okay."

Whatever her grievances with Katara had been before, Toph knew in that moment that they weren't even close to enough to not feeling ecstatic in seeing her safe now. She hadn't not felt the wince from Ty Lee however and pulled back as the acrobat gave her cheek a pinch.

"Good to see you too, Toph," Ty Lee said warmly, but Toph could hear the underbite of pain in her voice and she pulled away, reaching out and taking her wrist aggressively.

"What's wrong?"

Her mind flew with the possibilities of what could be the matter, things she couldn't see or feel that could be the matter, grave injuries that she wasn't aware of; she imagined this must have been how Sokka felt for Suki, terrified that he didn't know the extent of her injuries.

Ty Lee must have sensed her worry and gave a laugh, perhaps one a little forced, before replying, "Nothing serious, just a broken hip I think. Maybe a sprained ankle."

As she spoke, Mai came up behind them and must have then embraced Ty Lee as when she spoke again, her voice was muffled, likely buried as her face was in Mai's shoulder.

"Maybe in danger of being hugged to death as well," she mumbled and Mai pulled away, muttering sheepishly.

"I'm sorry."

There was a pause as the sound came perhaps of ruffling hair as Ty Lee then said in a much quieter tone, "Happy to see you too, Mai."

The group congregated over where Suki was leaning against the rubble in Sokka's care before Katara's voice once again spoke up, this time echoing with a bit of the same panic Toph had heard amongst the group just previously.

"Aang?"

As if on cue, two sets of feet touched down on the ground just behind them and Zuko's voice sounded, offering a rare joke.

"Someone order an Avatar?"

Over the next minute, hugs and relief were exchanged as Aang and Zuko rejoined their company, having flown over as per Aang's abilities. Toph was surprised to find herself hug not only Aang but Zuko as well and felt even more surprised when he returned it strongly.

"You're a good hugger," Toph smiled as she pulled away from him and was happy to hear him chuckle. Aang had made his way through Toph and Katara, and sounded like he was currently in the midst of being bear hugged by Sokka.

"I'm glad to see everyone's okay," he finally was able to say. "It was only seconds before… well, whatever happened that I felt my bending start to come back to me. When it all came down, I tried to grab you all and put you all under a cushion of air and try and get you free of the wall coming down."

"That would explain how we ended up not exactly beneath the wreck," Sokka said.

Toph heard Aang scratch the back of his head before he added, "I was only able to slow everyone's falls so much, so I'm sorry for the hard landings."

"Well, Aang, considering I'm alive," Suki said with a grunt of pain, "I'm going to go ahead and not be too bummed out about whatever's hurting right now and just be grateful, I think."

"I agree," said Ty Lee and Toph could practically hear Aang smiling at that.

The relief and happiness that was being shared by everyone was finally brought to a halt then as Zuko asked quietly, "I don't suppose you saw my uncle? Or my sister?"

Aang's voice was thick with pain as he replied. "No, I'm sorry, Zuko. I looked for him in all of those… "

He choked off and even though Toph knew he had been more than happy to save his friends, the realization that a great many people had just been killed and he had been unable to save them was eating him alive.

"… in everyone I saw, but I didn't see him."

His voice trembled and Toph took a step to him and hugged him again, much more gently than she usually did. Aang was shivering and was very clearly trying hard not to; Toph found she could understand this feeling, it was something that had been eating at her since they had arrived in Ba Sing Se, but was only being further and further punctuated as time went on.

This is war.

"You couldn't have saved them all," she whispered in his ear and she felt him jerk in what might have been a withheld sob.

"If I had known… I could have done… I don't know, something…" he moaned. Toph squeezed him tighter.

"You're not all-powerful, Aang, even if you'd like to be. You saved us and you're going to save more people before the day is up, I have no doubt."

He made no reply, but hugged her back tightly; Toph vaguely remembered on more than one occasion how Sasuke had openly denounced how much weight seemed to be constantly laden on Aang's shoulders and how it was selfish and immoral to expect so much from someone so young and relatively innocent.

He was probably right, she thought.

Mai spoke up then, and as she did, the situation doubled down in its tension as Toph could practically feel the resentment she and Zuko were looking at one another with.

"I don't know what might have happened to Azula. The cell we put her in was a good ways down the wall, so I don't know if—"

"Don't give me that crap, Mai," Zuko suddenly snapped and Toph bit her lip anxiously. Though the others might not have picked up on it, she had seen plenty of signs of this brewing in recent days. Through her extremely heightened sense of touch, she had noted Mai and Zuko spending very little time near one another except in dire circumstances, and even then, after what Katara had vindictively hurled at Mai in front of everyone about the time she had spent with Sasuke in the hot spring, any sort of care they might have had before for one another had gone by the wayside; Toph couldn't remember a time since that she had felt them move willingly towards one another, let alone exchange words.

"What are you talking about?" Mai asked cooly and Zuko replied immediately, clearly having been ready for this.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. How could my sister possibly have survived that wall coming down?! Don't stand there and pretend like 'oh, maybe there was a miracle' when you're just as sure that she's dead in the rubble somewhere!"

Toph slowly pulled away from Aang and did her best to act invisible, something that she was sure everyone else was looking to do right about then as whatever had been boiling between Zuko and Mai started to overflow.

"Gosh, Zuko," Mai said in a tone that was dripping with sarcasm. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were suggesting that I'm hoping she really is gone."

"Mai!" Ty Lee hissed by way of trying to somewhat defuse the situation, but neither Mai nor Zuko seemed to notice her.

"Yeah, maybe I am," Zuko growled. "I don't suppose it doesn't make sense though. Considering what's been going on as of late."

Mai's sarcasm leapt a degree higher as she replied, "Oh, I'm so glad you're all-knowing to a point of faultlessness, Zuko, please let us all in on your sleuthing; I'm sure everyone here will be just blown away by whatever it is you think you've pieced together."

Toph found herself wishing she were just about anywhere else right about then as she felt Zuko tense up.

"Alright, Mai. I'll let you in on what I know, since apparently you think I was too stupid to piece this all together myself. Ever since he showed up, you think I haven't noticed you quietly paying him more mind than anyone else here?"

Letting out a painfully fake laugh, Mai replied, "Wow, you're really going to do this right now?"

Zuko's voice jumped in volume by a degree enough to make Toph jump.

"Yeah, I'm going to do this right now, because my sister could be dead because of it!"

That seemed to pull Mai out of her mocking condescension of Zuko as her voice became dangerously quiet and icy.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" she said, in a tone just above a whisper.

Toph could feel Zuko breathing heavily in and out as he likely stared daggers at her.

"I didn't want to see it. But I watched it happen day by day. Then, you apparently spent some time with him alone, and maybe it was harmless, maybe neither of you tried anything."

"Are you seriously suggesting that I—" Mai started to angrily interject but Zuko continued over her.

"But you saw Azula too. Everyone here did, everyone saw how much she fell for him. I was scared; I didn't want to imagine what being in love with him might do to her, or what might happen if he felt the same. But I didn't stick my head in it."

He swallowed and Toph could tell he was trying to keep his voice shaking with anger and hurt. "But I saw you too, Mai. Because no one watched you more than me. I guess you found him attractive or interesting or whatever, but I just wanted to let it pass, hopefully it would just pass."

Toph felt him twitch.

"And then this. Now, Azula might be out of the picture permanently. And you don't even seem to care. And I guess I can imagine why."

Now it was Mai that Toph could feel quivering, something that was even further enunciated as she spoke, her voice low and shaking.

"I… how dare you, Zuko… I can't believe you would even…"

She cut herself off then and Toph tried not to imagine the pair of them, standing there and shaking, glaring with such deep anger at one another. She had supposed that perhaps their relationship might have suffered some deterioration as a result of their circumstances, but the depths to which she now knew Zuko garnered suspicion were quite serious. If she put herself in Zuko's shoes, she supposed she could see why he was feeling this level of resentment, but with nothing proven, this kind of speculation was only doing damage, nothing more. And there was no taking back what he had just implied.

Toph could feel the strain of the situation all around her through the rest of her companions, but finally, thankfully, Suki spoke, her calm and stern tone cutting through the moment with a relief that Toph took to allow herself to breathe.

"It's clear that there's some issues that need to be worked out with the both of you, but we have to remember the reality of what's happening and understand how little we actually know right now."

Katara picked up in that same line of thought, her words sounding just as eager at the chance to shut this down before it grew any more irreparable than it already had been.

"Suki's right: we're in the middle of a war still, and Azula could still be alive for all we know. We don't need to be jumping to conclusions like that."

Toph was both curious as to the expressions on Mai and Zuko's faces, but was also rather pleased that she couldn't; it was no doubt the daggers they were staring at each other were nothing pleasant to look at.

"Let's head towards the wall," Sokka finally suggested. "I don't know the state of things, but maybe we can find some survivors, maybe Iroh and Azula."

Still nothing from either Mai or Zuko, but as the group quietly gathered up and began to walk in the direction of the settling rubble of thousands of pounds of rubble, they fell in accordingly, though a good distance from one another as they did. Toph found herself walking beside Katara as they moved and she couldn't help but quietly murmur to the waterbender.

"Katara… what I said back at the teashop… I didn't mean—"

"Not a word about it, Toph," Katara said firmly. "I know why you said what you did and you don't need to explain yourself to me."

"I know," Toph said desperately, feeling a strange sense of melancholy that didn't so much have to do with the devastation that surrounded them. "But if… something had happened just now, and the last thing I said to you was that awful stuff…"

Situated at the back of the group as they were, Katara was quickly able to stop moving, take Toph by the shoulders and drop to her knees, taking the earthbender into a tight hug. Toph felt tears practically being squeezed from her eyes as Katara whispered gently in her ear.

"Toph, no matter what Sasuke is, no matter how complicated or mysterious or… dare I say interesting he might be, and no matter how that makes me act, and say and do stupid things, I'll never stop feeling how I do for you. You're the sister I never had, the friend that I've needed and the rock in our group, well more than once. So please don't think I'd ever think less of you just because of some stupid boy."

Toph gave a wet chuckle. "He is kind of stupid, isn't he?"

Katara shook with a gentle laugh of her own. "So totally stupid."

After a moment more, they broke apart and trotted quickly to bring up the tail end of the group. But before they got close enough to fall within earshot, Toph couldn't help but quietly ask,

"You like him, don't you?"

For a long while, Katara didn't say anything and when she finally did answer, it was hardly something that Toph, who had been ready to hear a full denial, had expected to hear.

"I don't know, Toph. I really don't."

The world almost seemed to blur before Sasuke's eyes as he raced towards Ba Sing Se, not so much as bothering to look behind him for the remaining number of Ozai's forces and airships that were no doubt still heading his way. Because the reason he was fighting, the reason he had charged them all in the first place, was very much in jeopardy, and he couldn't stand the thought of not knowing what had become of his allies.

The entire time he ran, that nagging part of him kept prodding, telling him that they really weren't that important to him and he would probably be better off if they had all just perished when the wall had come down, but as he imagined this and saw the lifeless forms of his parents, the lifeless form of his brother, he could only grit his teeth and run all the faster.

Itachi… where are you?

He reached the earthen barricades that had been raised by the defenders on the ground outside the wall and saw that they had actually been relatively untouched as a result of the attack; whatever the force had been that had taken the wall apart, it had done so in a particular direction, inwards towards the city. Initially, his thought was to start interrogating the shell-shocked soldiers that were milling about, looking completely unsure of how to act, or what to do, but knew they would be hardly of any help to him.

As Sasuke reached the base of where the wall had once started, rising up towards the heavens, he realized the extent of what really had just happened. The sheer size of the wall meant that even though it had been blasted inward all the way to its base, pieces of it had fallen and congregated in tall piles before him. A few quick chakra-aided leaps and he had made it over the side and slid down the wreckage to truly see the waste before him.

Even for him, though, as he looked out over what had become of just inside the wall, it was a sight to freeze him for a brief moment.

Pieces of the wall had been blown deep into the city itself, the force clearly having been enough to break more than just the wall, sweeping back everything in a curved arc from where it had initially been destroyed. Buildings within had been crushed or swept away, rubble made up everything for at least a mile into the city with pieces of the wall stretching at least that far in.

Sasuke could see the green and blue shades amongst the dirt and debris, most of them motionless and knew them to be bodies. Seeing them made his heart wrench if only due to the fact that it forced him to imagine the bodies of—

"Stop it," he said aloud, and hearing his own voice, clear and calm, allowed some level of clarity to settle on his mind and he started to walk through the carnage, surprised at how strangely quiet it was.

He forced himself not to look at the bodies, instead focusing on the smaller portion of the people that he saw, the ones that were still alive and moving. He strode past soldiers helping one another to their feet, tending one another's wounds and it was not lost on him the tone of utter shock and defeat that was present around him.

It was minutes before he saw someone he actually recognized and he sprinted up to the familiar face.

"Iroh!"

Sasuke found it rather odd that seeing someone he had known so briefly cold bring such a sense of relief to his body as he came to a halt before the old man, a injured General Gokan sitting beside him.

"Sasuke!" Iroh replied in a warm, relieved tone of his own. "I'm glad to see you're safe."

"How'd you survive?" Sasuke practically demanded by way of greeting. Iroh rubbed his thumbs along the rest of his fingers and Sasuke saw a flicker of spark flash there.

"Our bending was returning to us just as the wall collapsed. I was able to catch both myself and General Gokan by utilizing a firebending trick to create a powerful draft beneath us to glide us down, though I'm afraid I wasn't able to ensure enough of a soft landing for the general."

He gestured at what appeared to be Gokan's broken leg, but the general waved it off.

"Not every day you get saved by the Dragon of the West… particularly after I all but publicly ousted him to boot."

It didn't take long for Sasuke to note that both men were looking at him through very wary eyes, both seeming rather like they were waiting to watch lobsters crawl out of his ears.

"Did either of you see what happened?" Sasuke finally asked, by way of breaking the now uncomfortable silence that had fallen over the three of them. Iroh shook his head, but Gokan adopted a sour and darkened expression.

"Yeah, I saw him."

"Him?" Iroh asked, as he turned to the general. Gokan growled, massaging the back of his neck.

"The guy that the Fire Nation grabbed when we found the both of you on the outskirts of the city," he explained and Iroh's face paled.

"What do you mean?" he asked in a hushed tone and Gokan snorted.

"He was there, hovering or floating even just in front of the wall. I caught sight of him just before it happened; he was hard to make out what with how small he was being that far away. I'd say he was most of the way up the wall though, just a ways back, he had his arms outstretched it looked like. Then, the whole wall just seemed to blow apart at our feet."

"Obito," Sasuke said, and as he did, he realized Iroh had said the same thing. He and the older man stared at one another before Sasuke immediately snapped angrily.

"How do you know that name?!"

Iroh was looking a combination of hurt and shocked as he slowly allowed himself to lean back and rest against a piece of rubble, looking quite immediately tired on top of everything else.

"Obito and I traveled together across the desert to reach Ba Sing Se. When we reached the city, we were confronted by Earth Nation patrols and then were attacked by a Fire Nation reconnaissance unit and I assumed him to be captured or killed."

He looked ag Gokan intently.

"You're certain that was the same person as who you found traveling with me?"

The general nodded and Iroh blew out a long sigh before Sasuke was on top of him again, furiously demanding.

"This guy you mentioned back at the teashop… that was Obito? And you didn't even think to mention his name?"

Iroh gestured helplessly with his hands. "When I was with him, he was certainly… peculiar. Special, even, like you. But it was nothing to suggest he had that… that kind of destructive abilities at his fingertips."

Sasuke opened his mouth to further bluster along in his indignation that Iroh's knowledge of Obito hadn't been passed along, but Iroh cut him off before he could, raising his hands and continuing.

"And he was much as you seem to be now! He was without much of his memory, and he only seemed to be of the mind that answers lay for him within the city. I didn't know what that meant, but he seemed very confused and lost and frustrated. I only wanted to help him. And I certainly would never have imagined that he could do what he has done today."

Slowly pushing himself into a more righted position, Gokan gave a darkly humorous chuckle. "If I hadn't seen what I have today, I would never have put two and two together and assumed it was him that was behind this. But after knowing that he's clearly not some traditional bender, and seeing what you just did to Ozai's army, I don't think it's too hard to figure that bastard was the reason we just lost a wall that's been up longer than any of us have been alive."

He fixed Sasuke with a beady and tired look. "You both aren't exactly of this world, are you?"

Sasuke let his silence answer the question, before turning back to Iroh. There was no point in wasting time interrogating Iroh for whatever he had or hadn't done as there were more urgent matters at hand. He had all the confirmation he needed to know that Obito had been behind the attack and he still hadn't come close to solving the most pressing question on his mind.

"Have you seen Aang or your nephew or any of his group?"

In turn, Iroh's silence answered his question and he turned back towards the rubble and left them both without another word, letting them become swallowed up by the cloud of dust behind him.

More bodies went by and Sasuke finally admitted to himself that if he didn't at least accept the possibility that… things were worse than he wanted them to be, he might never find them. Turning to his Sharingan and jutsu, the world around him became highlighted in sharp colorations, the rubble being a tight shade of grey and the bodies, both moving and unmoving shone with a bright red, and it was only then that Sasuke realized just how many bodies were scattered about, some dozens of feet beneath the wreckage.

He forced himself to look at each one with lightning quick speed, turning away when they didn't match the bodies of his companions, and trying to keep his heart from pounding when they came close. Minutes passed with all the mercy that time didn't allow for, every moment that passed one where Toph could be trapped under mounds of rubble in utter darkness, too hurt to bend herself free, too crushed to even breathe. Sasuke shoved these thoughts aside, but every time he did, they changed and he saw Azula's broken body, or Katara's, or Mai's, or Aang's, or Suki's, or any of them, and then the cycle repeated. He didn't want any of them to be dead, and with each passing moment, the truth of that wish became more and more of a burning pain on his insides.

Please… let them be okay.

Whom he was requesting this of he didn't know, but he hadn't been there to watch over things so whoever had been, they had best have come through for him.

I shouldn't have left. I should have stayed close to everyone, I could have protected them, easily. I could have seen Obito coming and I could have blown the bastard out of the air. But now…

Now, Sasuke only was able to focus on what was immediately before him. He felt what he supposed was physical discomfort in his stomach as a result of the worry that he now had no choice but to accept as a present part of his being. He bounded over collapsed buildings, immense piles of the what remained of the wall, dashed past bodies and tried not to notice the disturbingly skewed ratio of ones that were alive to the ones that weren't. But he kept forcing himself to look away from them, even as they grew more and more difficult to pass his eyes over, knowing that there were only so many he could look at before he was bound to see—

Then, as he shot deeper into the city towards the furthermost level of destruction, he saw a small blotch of color in the distance. Several shapes, moving shapes. Sasuke focused and he saw them from a more magnified view, eight people all of a relatively smaller stature than the average body he had been seeing.

There was a crack as he propelled himself in their direction, not able to bear looking closer to see if his presumption was correct, the sound barrier shattering at his behest.

Please.

A silent plea as he tore to them fast enough to cross the destruction between them in seconds, weaving and zigzagging around and over rubble until he slid around a particularly massive piece of the wall that had been tossed inward and stopped.

A couple dozen yards away, he saw them. They looked to be in various states of exhaustion and perhaps some trauma, no doubt a result of what had just taken place. There was Ty Lee leaning on Mai, Zuko walking beside Aang and Sokka supporting along Suki with Katara just beside them.

They're alive.

He started to walk towards them, trying to control the flow of alleviation that was flowing over his muscles. Mai saw him first and came to a jerky halt, her eyes widening and body tensing up. The rest of the followed suit, expressions of shock and relief coming over them; Suki and Sokka gave him tired smiles, Ty Lee with a look of pure relief on her face as Mai stared at him with something like pained comfort. Aang had a smile blooming over his face as Zuko stared at him with a look not quite so cheery. Katara's face was mostly emotionless save for her widened eyes and slightly ajar mouth as though she were trying to decide what emotion she wanted to feel presently.

As he drew within earshot of them, he heard a voice call out hesitantly.

"Sasuke?"

Pushing between Mai and Zuko came Toph, a fist clenched to her chest and her face rich with something that looked like restrained hope. Sasuke stopped a dozen feet from them and they did the same; when he made no reply, Toph took a step ahead of the group, her expression turning angry, her jaw trembling for just a moment.

"I know what you feel like, asshole, don't you dare just stand there and not—"

There was barely time to blink between Sasuke standing a distance away and standing just in front of Toph. She must have sensed his sudden nearness and inhaled sharply as Sasuke looked down at her, feeling tremors of emotion rolling in his gut that he rather hated being so overpowering.

And before she could say another word, he reached out and pressed the ends of his middle and pointer finger against her forehead.

It hadn't been the first time he had done so, but while he had done so the first time in an effort to calm her down and the second time in an effort to make her feel at ease. Now, it was entirely affection and relief he felt as he her warmth touched his fingertips. Sasuke closed his eyes briefly, as he breathed in the reality of the moment.

She's alive.

He looked down at the rosy flush on Toph's cheeks as she turned her head up towards his in a moment of stunned silence. Then, her mouth became a tight line and she stomped the ground; curving pillars of earth jabbed out of the earth and struck the back of Sasuke's knees, buckling them and dropping him down. He was so surprised that he didn't even have time to react before he was on his knees and Toph had practically tackled him in a ferociously tight bear hug, her small arms wrapping around him like a vice grip.

In any other moment, as he knelt there feeling Toph's arms around him, her body pressed against his and her face buried in his shoulder, Sasuke would have maybe allowed her to remain there a moment before gently extricating himself from her grip and pulling away to stand. But right about then, all he wanted to do was hug her back and he did so, slowly moving his arms around her to clutch her tightly as he turned his head to nestle his face in her hair.

"I'm so glad you're okay," he managed to mumble against her and she squeezed him tighter.

"You're really impossible to figure out," she replied through what sounded like gritted teeth.

Sasuke was vaguely aware that everyone was watching with no doubt some varying levels of surprise at this show of affection, but he didn't pay that any mind. They were here, and so was he; the one thing he had been able to use as a moral and mental anchor in this strange world, and they were okay. Had he not found them, not been inducted into their group, baring some hiccups, who knew what would have become of him. It was more than enough for him just to grant himself a moment to be relieved at their mere presence.

From where he had perched himself following the attack, Obito looked down at Sasuke, embracing the young girl. Watching him interact with them was just as curious a thing now as it had been when he had been disguised as one of their member; be it romance, or camaraderie, or fellowship, or friendship, or who knew what else kept Sasuke as tightly connected to their little circle, his deepening ties with them all were nothing short of astounding.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised. Not like he grew up with much of a family himself. Maube getting to spend time with a bunch of people around his age who have no basis on which to judge him was something his psyche found refreshing. More so than those he grew up around in the Hidden Leaf.

But still, Sasuke was the last thing that remained for Obito to deal with before he could move forward with his own plans. With the wall destroyed, Ozai could freely roll his troops into the city and pummel down any opposition easily, his airships being free to move into Ba Sing Se without the supposed altitude problems imposed by the wall and the ability to freely move troops in on the ground as well. That was assuming that there wasn't Sasuke remaining in their way, nor his meddling brother.

Itachi remained a point that burrowed its way in the back of Obito's mind as he pondered just where Sasuke's older brother might be. He hadn't seen him since the attack on Ozai's flagship, and he had half-expected during the entire first half of this invasion that he would come out of nowhere and present a possible nail in the coffin for Obito's plan. But he had never showed and the wall had fallen. And he hadn't shown yet, with his brother at his most vulnerable.

Obito supposed that Sasuke had done more than a fair job of handling himself, regardless. He had not only managed a summon, something Obito would have thought impossible, but he had been able to pull a repeat of his fight with Itachi and create a thunderstorm with which to draw Kirin from. All of this on top of already utilizing Susanoo effectively and efficiently, and Obito had to admit he was worried about having to face Sasuke down. He didn't know exactly how worn out Sasuke was at this point, but chances were, it was not as bad as him.

The Shinra Tensei had more than drained Obito's strength and even the thought of just standing up gave him a tired feeling. It hadn't been to the scale of Nagato's assault on Konoha, but it had been a significant charge nonetheless and while Obito's single Rinnegan had managed the success of blowing apart the wall, his own energy was sapped a good deal and he wasn't sure how he might fare against Sasuke as such.

He looked back towards the horizon to see Ozai's ships looming ever closer. It brought a smirk to his lips to imagine what exactly was going through the Fire Lord's head right about then as he first had witnessed his army being partially decimated by a dragon made out of solid lightning and then had seen the wall of Ba Sing Se crumble apart. What could anyone of this world think after experiencing that sight, he thought?

But Sasuke… how to go about this?

Every moment he spent was time he and Sasuke were both recharging, but time wasn't on his side. Sasuke had to be out of the picture by the time the fleet arrived or the burning purple fumes of his Susanoo would be more than enough to put victory outside of Ozai's grasp. But Obito was still sure he couldn't risk straight combat with Sasuke, not as he was. He needed an advantage, something he could use to give him an upper hand over Sasuke; if he could get close enough to make it happen, pulling Sasuke into Kamui could be just the ticket to securing victory. And it could give them a chance to even with one another; once everything done here was accomplished and Sasuke had nothing more to try and protect in this world, Obito could reason with him and show that he had done everything to try and get them back to their world. If he could catch Sasuke in his Kamui, then he could ensure more than a single victory for himself.

For he didn't want to kill Sasuke, he found. He would if he had to, but this might very well be a way to keep that difficulty from becoming reality.

But getting to Sasuke to use it, that could be difficult. Sasuke would no doubt sense him coming, regardless of how he tried to move in. And he had a great many abilities at his disposal that could completely ruin Obito's ability to hold his own; Susanoo, Amaterasu, another Kirin perhaps. So how might he get to Sasuke without great risk to himself?

He supposed then as he looked down at Sasuke and his companions, that the answer was staring him right in the face.

But which one?

What he was starting to formulate a plan around was nothing short of risky in and of itself. Using one of them to control Sasuke could work, but not only would it be a risk to even just get close enough to them to force the situation, he wasn't sure which was best.

He didn't see the princess among their number, she might have been one of the many unlucky individuals caught up in the attack. He did see Toph whom was still embracing Sasuke and he imagined she would be a good choice, Sasuke clearly held great affection for her. But could romantic interest be more manipulatable? He knew that Katara and Mai both seemed to have some sort of that tension for him, and he towards them. But which to choose? Which could he use to the greatest effect in forcing Sasuke's hand?

A thought occurred to him then, one that he supposed was probably his best bet. If he was going to get one shot to make this happen, he needed to be certain. He gathered his chakra and focused, hand seals snapping off accordingly. The jutsu in question was rather touchy and precise, but he didn't need much, just the last day or so should do just fine. He locked eyes with the back of Sasuke's head from the hundreds of feet away he watched them hidden among the rubble and willed Sasuke's mind to be something he could peer into.

Unnoticed, he dipped his fingers into Sasuke's memories and emotions that had been within the past day. They swirled and washed over his mind within the time it took for him to access them, and within a second, he had seen all he had wanted. All he had needed.

Straightening, he slipped away from the rubble and shot into the city with the speed his chakra and enhanced ability allowed, moving through streets that he had seen only through the eyes of another.

He had seen just who he needed and felt all he needed.

With this, Sasuke would bend to him, and he could seize the day.

Sasuke felt the smallest prick and as it happened, he supposed he knew what it meant. When nothing happened immediately, he wanted nothing more than to run off and prevent what was about to happen from happening, but he knew that for this to work, he had to keep still for the time being, no matter how much it pained him to do nothing.

"So… you all made it?" he asked and Sokka replied, looking at Aang.

"Thanks to our personal Avatar."

Sasuke nodded, the miracle not lost on him that Aang's bending hadn't returned a moment later than it had.

"So… you can turn into a giant snake?"

Pulling slowly away from Toph and straightening, Sasuke looked to Aang who was looking at him very curiously.

"Not quite," he replied. "I can summon one though."

Aang blinked. "Like, right now, you could just…"

Sasuke nodded. "Yeah."

"And that lightning dragon? Was that the same you used at the capital?" Ty Lee followed up as she tried to shift her balance on what appeared to be an injured leg.

"Yeah," he repeated.

As he looked around at them all, he saw it again. It was that fear, that same lack of understanding of how to react to a person like him. Sasuke knew that on that day, he had gone above and beyond what anyone, even they knew him to capable of, and though he understood why they were looking at him like that, he still didn't like to see it. He had gotten rather used to them looking at him more like how they looked at each other, a member of their group, even if he was one that they still maybe didn't entirely trust. He much preferred that to this fear and suspicion, but on that day, he knew he would have to accept it.

It struck him as he looked around at them all then, from Mai's slightly narrowed eyes, to Katara's tight lips and intense eyes, that there was one missing from their number. He found it almost annoying that he felt fear of his own just then.

"Where's Azula?"

The touchiness of the subject was made apparent immediately as he watched Zuko fight down what looked to be an angry expression and a muscle in Mai's mouth began to work itself aggressively. The rest of the group adopted uncomfortable expressions and it was Suki who finally spoke up, her calm demeanor adding some stability to what might have become a more hostile situation, if Sasuke was reading the room correctly.

"When you went down to fight, Azula started acting… kind of crazy," she started.

"More than usual?" Sasuke asked dryly and she gave a slightly humored grin, but her eyes were still worried and tense.

"Yeah, even more than usual. Was going off about how she didn't know how you could go down there by yourself, and how she needed to be there to protect you and this and that."

I was worried about that, Sasuke thought bitterly.

Suki seemed to be trying to figure the best way to explain what had happened next and she finally just shrugged her shoulders, giving Zuko a sad look as she continued.

"Mai and myself decided the best course of action was to restrain her so she didn't do anything… rash. Like jump down after you when her bending returned. We tied her up and brought her down to a cell a ways down inside the wall."

She paused before adding, "We don't know what happened to her."

Sasuke considered this, trying to imagine what might have become of the princess.

If she was inside the wall… and that part of the wall was caught in the blast… there's no way she could have survived.

He found himself wondering for the first time how he might react if Azula were dead. The feeling that ought to be spreading inside of him should have been relief, shouldn't it? So why was he so upset at the prospect of her being gone?

"It was my idea," Mai said, speaking up quite suddenly and stepping forward. "I asked Suki to help me, but whatever might have happened to Azula is on me."

She stood straight before him, her expression firm and as Sasuke watched Zuko give her a look of something close to pure loathing, he realized that she was expecting Sasuke to react the same way. She was ready to be berated, maybe even struck for what she had done based on how her face tensed as he looked to her. And while Sasuke guessed there would probably be a part of him that would be very angry should something have happened, she had made an overall smart choice and perhaps done so at his request.

"You've nothing to be ashamed about, you made the right choice under the circumstances. She could have done something rash, and there was no way you could have seen that attack coming."

Even as he felt Zuko glaring at him, he saw Mai's face soften with gentle surprise and what looked like no small amount of relief. He wanted to give her a small smile, but he instead turned back towards the blown open wall, looking at the now gaping space between, wondering if Azula had been within the destruction.

"What do you think we should do, Sasuke?"

At Katara's question though, he didn't reply. He knew what was about to happen, and it would do him better to just let it happen. In the back of his head, he had been counting it down the entire time, and he took careful, measured breaths.

It wouldn't be long now.