Disclaimer still applies: I own nothing except the plots/ideas/situations that I have placed the characters in and OCs.
Fractured Minds
Chapter 3: Interesting Company
Six hours later…
The first thing that he was aware of, after he processed the assault on his senses, was how cold his body was. The second was his chattering teeth. "Sorry about the cold Beast Boy, the maze for this dimension is the same temperature as our galaxy's sun."
"No w-worries Rae and m-maybe you should c-c-call me Gar while w-were h-here. Y-You know k-k-k-keep a low p-profile among the l-l-locals." He said through his violent shivers and then promptly turned into a snow leopard. He almost immediately let out a yowl when he saw that his form wasn't green.
'We definitely need this down time. I mean if he's more aware of secrecy and is suggesting subtlety .' The emote sounded horrified.
'I'm too tired to deal with this.' Their conversation was interrupted when Beast Boy changed back to human form.
"I told you that those clothes would help you blend in." she said. She stepped away from him and his unadulterated joy. "And by that I meant all of you would blend in."
His emotional reaction to the simple non-greenness didn't surprise her, as she knew that he liked being green just as much as he'd first liked transforming into the Beast. It was quite the shock when he admitted that he hated the color green but he knew that someone liked how green he was.
"Thanks Rae." He gave her that happy go lucky grin that she'd never admit, out loud anyway, that she was fond of.
"Alright, so where does this Iroh guy live?" He asked, hoping that there were animals there. The prospect of seeing new animals was exciting and try as he might he couldn't hold his excitement back.
"Not far, at least if you're me." she paused to give him a sympathetic look as he realized what she meant, that they'd be traveling via teleportation. "Its best if we wait until night before entering the city. I don't have the passes for the gates and I don't want to get into it with the earthbenders."
"Earthbenders." he said. The hurt in that one word was clear as day. Whenever he heard the word Earth, it reminded him of Terra.
"Earthbenders. People in this dimension can bend the four elements; Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. We're in the Earth Kingdom, the largest of the four nations. The others are the North and South water tribes and the Fire Nation." She said hoping to pull him from the downward spiral that his emotions and thoughts were in.
"So like Hotspot and that alien Hotshot that Ben can turn into?" He asked knowing that she could tell he was grateful for the change of subject. "Wait you said four nations, what happened to the airbenders?"
"Yes like them. The four nations were at war for the last one hundred years. It started when the air nomads were killed by the fire nation; they attacked on the same day as a comet was passing through the sky, it boosted their bending tenfold. It would have been genocide but the Avatar wasn't there." She explained and was caught off guard by what he said next.
"The Avatar can bend all four elements can't they? And they were the only airbender that survived."
'I really need to stop underestimating him.' she said to the amusement of Intelligence. Who'd already came to the conclusion that her mistress was.
'You're only noticing this now? He went and grew up when you weren't looking. Beside how else would he know which animals would help the most in the heat of battle.' her chastising tone elicited a low hiss-like growl from Raven.
"Uh Rae, exactly how many times have you been to this dimension before?" he asked, unknowingly snapping Raven out of her thoughts. "I know that you're super smart but it seems to me like you've practically memorized the history of this dimension and the element bending stuff I'm sure, you seem to know an awful lot about it."
Try as she might she couldn't help the amused snort she let out at that. "Hardly I've only ever spent two days here at any given time. But during those days I would raid Iroh's library while he served his costumers. I have the bare bones of the bending arts and the one hundred year war."
"I get the feeling that you'll spent most of your time reading." he said quietly as he started taking in the surrounding area. He was just realizing that they were in a cave when he picked up a strange growling-snarl. The sound was faint, telling him that the animal that made it wasn't too close to their position.
"It is my vacation and I do enjoy reading." When he returned his attention to her, he saw that at some point she had sat on one of the many rocks inside the cave. Her eyes were closed and she was leaning back against the cave's wall. Upon seeing that she was relaxing for perhaps the first time since the JL assigned them the task of finding the dimension hoppers. He started fidgeting, his curiosity, excitement, and his concern for his friend were at war in his head.
"Just ask Gar." her voice halted his fidgeting and finally he asked, noting that she was still in the same position as before, "Did you hear that? The snarl?"
"I think it was a saber-tooth mouse lion. Iroh said they frequented the region and I have yet to see one." At hearing her answer he was a bit disappointed but he reasoned that there would be time enough to see one while they were here. But his curiosity was really intense, because of all the cats that he could turn into, and something from earlier had raised a few questions.
"So is the war with the Fire Nation over? Like for good?" his questions were fair ones. Even in a world that was post-war, tensions would run high for years afterwards towards the aggressors.
"In this dimension time runs differently than in ours, for example. Two years here would translate to one year back home." She fell silent for a moment letting him turn that over in his head before continuing so as to answer his original questions, "Iroh told me via the communicator that I left with him, that the avatar ended the war a month before my father attempted to destroy the universe; six years ago. But three years our time."
"Whoa, wait, this is where you went after the mission with the Tots." He said but then something didn't make sense because she'd only been gone for half a day it seemed.
"Because of what I am, time is just another dimension that I can traverse." She said as she felt his confusion. Shaking his head he flashed a grin in her direction, "That is so cool."
"Some days." She said. What she didn't add was that one day she'd have to watch her friends get older and die, as she most likely never would. The very little amount of research that she could stomach about half-demon's said as much, but she interpreted it as: half-demons are abominations against nature and therefore are cursed with immortality.
"Its dark enough to risk going into the city now." She turned to pin him with a stare as an amused grin spread across her face. "Ready?"
His only response was to gulp audibly as the familiar chill washed over him and everything went dark.
They emerged from the shadows onto a fairly tall building with the head of an enormous gold dragon that had a sign dangling from its mouth jutting out over the space between the buildings. The walkway below was wide and opposite the dragon's head, there was a blacksmiths shop. In fact the whole area was a shopping district of some sort.
The roof was flat unlike most of the other buildings that could be seen which had slanted roofs with smooth tiles, promising a painful trip to the ground far below.
"Raven are you sure its a good idea to be in a shopping district and especially this late at night?" he asked, the nervousness in his voice wasn't hard to miss. His instincts were going haywire screaming that this dimension was dangerous. Way more dangerous than back home because of the whole people who can bend the elements thing. 'We are outnumbered here. Be careful and heed the demon.' The deep tone to the Beast's speech was still something he was getting use to. But he nodded.
"Oh come on where's your sense of adventure?" Her replied only served to ratchet up his unease. "Gar, it will be fine. There is no way the Dai Lee will be able to spot us, all they will see is shadows. But they are ruthless and have more stealth skills than Robin and Kyd Wykkyd combined."
When nothing else was said by him for several moments, she returned her attention to the city; one that she never had the time to taken in before.
It was divided into three, three ring sections; Lower, Middle and Upper. The different sections denoted the different classes of citizens. Poor, not as poor, and filthy rich. There was of course the giant outer wall that enclosed the city, protecting it from attack. Ba Sing Sei reminded her of China but the wall builder of Ba Sing Sei was a powerful earthbender and they finished building it in four years.
According to the stories that Iroh had shared with her about the Earth Kingdom's history and what little information she found in his library; the earthbender's name was Cheng. He'd grown tired of living in the vast crystal catacombs beneath the city, he went to the surface one day and just started building a wall; it wasn't long before people started coming to settle within the ring of stone as it became a safe haven from bandits.
"What's Iroh like?" He whispered in a low voice.
Her eyes never left the city as she answered, keeping her voice low. "He's the one who found me when I crash landed here. The very same night of the old library fiasco with Slade. He also knows his way around a tea pot like Robin does a coffee pot."
The night she spoke of was one of several taboo subjects that none of her teammates dared to dredge up, unless she did so first. "They were still visible, the runes. He helped me, a complete stranger with what could have been blood on her skin and he wasn't afraid of me. Not even after I told him about Trigon."
She took a few deep and calming breaths as she continued, "I figured what's one more person who knows, its not like he's going to tell anyone. And ever since my first trip here, he's been like...an uncle to me."
He didn't need to be an empath to feel the sadness and hurt in those seven words. Wordlessly he nodded, not knowing what to say. He was still uneasy around her when she told him stuff like this. The silence was awkward and it stretched on and on.
"Well I'm glad you met him then." He said after some time had passed.
"I almost forgot. You remember when Jinx started that prank war?" A timid nod was the only response from Gar.
"Do you also remember what happened when she cleaned your room and you came running to mine in a panic, thinking that someone boosted all your stuff?" His response this time was a glare, that said 'just get to the point'.
"What you don't know is that she told me what she was going to do the day before. But the look on your face was priceless and I couldn't help myself. You were worried the whole tower would come down on top of us or explode." His glare turned into a confused frown as he recalled that day. Even as he tried to get her to stop laughing, it took him a couple minutes before he saw half of the books in her room floating in the air, harmlessly. When he asked her about it, she said that she'd give him an explanation one day.
For a moment she was unsure of his reaction but his face broke into a wide grin as he said, "Now I'm really glad that you met him."
She only had a split second to brace herself before he glomped her with enough force to give Starfire's brand of hugs a run for their money. She allowed him to hug her for a few seconds longer. Then he was gently pulled back from her by a shadowy hand.
"Still the same old Raven." he whispered in their 'stealth missions' tone of voice. She was the only one of the team besides Cyborg who could hear it. Or so the two of them thought.
The blind general was tired and cursing her bad luck. She'd been summoned by King Kuei and he dumped a bunch of lackluster recruits onto her. Then he informed her of her promotion to General and that she was to whip those recruits into some semblance of competent.
That was two weeks ago and the earthbenders among them were still learning the basics of earthbending. The non-bending recruits at least gave her a challenge during training. As of yesterday morning's training session, it would be three weeks before she could get back to stabilizing the United Republic and policing the bandits that were located near the new borders on either side.
Why the hell did I let Avatar Twinkle Toes and lord Sparky talk me into this?
Okay Toph only two more years of training Twinkle Toes and then you'll be free to focus on expanding the tunnels...and founding that metalbending academy.
A jolt went through the blind general as she was torn from her thoughts. Her ears had twitched and she felt a shift in the night's air currents. It was faint but she picked up the sound of two heart beats. Her dull green eyes widened when she realized that the potential threats were closing in on the shopping district. Immediately she tapped one of her feet on the ground trying to get an exact location. Her scan of the area turned up nothing.
Are they flying...I thought that Twinkle Toes was the only airbender left? She decided to follow who ever it was as best as she could. Her focus was so intense on the pursuit, that she froze mid-step when her earth sense picked up the vibrations coming from the two people that were just there all of a sudden. But there was no mistaking the two human shapes on the roof of Iroh's tea shop.
She readied to launch an attack at the first sign of shenanigans. Her patience was rewarded a second later.
"Raven are you sure its a good idea to be in a shopping district and especially this late at night?"
Hm...with nerves like his, he won't be much trouble if they attempt to rob uncle's shop.
"Oh come on, where's your sense of adventure?"
Is that...? No I haven't seen Sunshine since lord Sparky's coronation. Huh I wonder were she got a weird name like Raven from.
"Gar it will be fine. There is no way the Dai Lee will be able to spot us, all they will see is shadows. But they are ruthless and have more stealth skill than Robin and Kyd Wykkyd combined."
Wha ...what does she mean all they'll see are shadows? And I'd really like to see Robin and Kyd Wykkyd get past me, who ever they are.
The silence that followed was perhaps the longest that the blind general had ever experienced in her life. When they did start talking again she could barely make out what they were saying.
"What's Iroh like?"
How does this Raven woman know uncle? This should be interesting. A huge smirk showed off the blind general's teeth as she listened to the girl's response.
"He's the one who found me when I crash landed here. The very same night of the old library fiasco with Slade. He also knows his way around a tea pot like Robin does a coffee pot.
Crash landed? Old library? Slade? As she'd heard the word library, a shudder passed through her. Note to self all libraries are bad for your health. Yeah that's uncle alright, he could brew tea in his sleep.
"They were still visible, the runes. He helped me, a complete stranger with what could have been blood on her skin and he wasn't afraid of me. Not even after I told him about Trigon."
The blind general recoiled as a chill traveled the length of her spine. She hadn't though it was possible to find a person scarier than Azula, Ozai, and Koh the face stealer combined, but she had. She felt the malice like she felt the dirt on her skin and it gripped her so hard that she was starting to get dizzy from lack of breath.
She took a deep breath and exhaled, still trembling. She wanted to find the nearest bed to hide under. But she couldn't move her feet, its like they were fused with the ground.
"I figured what's one more person who knows, its not like he's going to tell anyone. And ever since my first trip here, he's been like...an uncle to me."
Knows what exactly...and first trip? I can relate to that, sometimes I wish Iroh was my uncle too.
"Well I'm glad you met him then."
Most people are. She fondly remembered her first encounter with Iroh. She never told the rest of the gAang about it until lord Sparky's crazy sister kidnapped Sugar Queen and then Iroh showed up asking for their help.
"I almost forgot. You remember when Jinx started that prank war?"
Where is she going with this? Although this Jinx person sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. A prank war? I wish I would've though of that when I was still traveling around with everyone.
"Do you also remember what happened when she cleaned your room and you came running to mine in a panic, thinking that someone boosted all your stuff?"
Now I really do want to meet this Jinx person.
"What you don't know is that she told me what she was going to do the day before. But the look on your face was priceless and I couldn't help myself. You were worried the whole tower would come down on top of us or explode."
All of the color drained from her face as she heard the word explode. Not a firebender. Please not a firebender. She can't be a firebender. If she is, then she'd be way stronger than Azula...or Twinkle Toes avatar state or not.
"Now I'm really glad you met him."
Wait did I miss something? To her astonishment she felt Gar rush towards Raven, and hug her. A couple of seconds later and she felt the air temperature drop a little and heard the distortion as an unseen force pulled Gar back.
"Still the same old Raven."
I'd hate to meet the new Raven. But still these two...they bear keeping an eye on. I so don't want another issue to deal with.
Raven held up a hand to forestall any more conversation from Gar and placed her hand beneath her chin. Gar nodded.
'There's someone listening to us nearby. Transform into something small and brace for the Raven express. Blink once when your ready.'
He blinked.
When they reappeared inside the Jasmine Dragon's backroom,
'Don't transform back yet. The person is trying to find us and it won't be long before they do. I think they're a bender and our best bet is to remain off the ground. I'll make a platform for you.' Her voice was getting weaker and weaker, traveling to this dimension and subsequently to their destination had taken a lot out of her.
The gray mouse in her left hand winked at her in answer. She waved her right hand and a small black disc appeared next to the hand holding the mouse. She watched in the pitch black room as Gar made himself at home on the disc and drifted off to sleep.
Gar was a sight to be hold when he slept, not that she would admit to observing him when he'd fall asleep on the couch occasionally; but she did. Chances were that depending on his dreams or nightmares, he would transform into different animals. She'd learned how to determine what kind of dream he was having by the animals he changed into. She found him on the couch one fateful night, he'd transformed into the Beast.
The powerful emotions he was experiencing, unfortunately, dragged her soul-self into his nightmare. It was a kaleidoscope of images and sounds, there was screaming, smoke, heat, and horrible laughter. She'd caught glimpses of Terra turning to stone and of Slade holding a puppet replica of Terra; Slade had scissors in one hand and as he'd cut the first string the whole puppet was ablaze.
That was the night that ultimately led to her attempting to be less harsh to him. But only enough where he wouldn't notice her change in behavior. This led to her discovering that there was more than meets the eye, concerning one Garfield Logan. His goofing around all the time was a front to lull the criminals they fought into a false sense of security as well as to suppress the instincts of the animals he turned into; so that he didn't act on those instincts. He was a walking animal encyclopedia and he rescued animals in his spare time.
'If we weren't an empath. He'd be great boyfriend material...' Intelligence trailed off, lamenting the missed opportunity.
'Among other things. And according to polite society we're mentally unstable and prone to violence.' This was difficult subject matter for them to discuss, made even worse by their empathy.
The emote nodded sadly, the discovery of their sexual orientation hadn't been pleasant or easy to accept. Not only were they already a half-demon but also bi. They had to go for broke in all freak categories it seemed. What was worse than that was Rage telling them that Beast Boy would never be acceptable dating material; not ever. Naturally they'd both asked for an explanation and the one they received was shocking to say the least; they were fond of Beast Boy.
Rage's reason was simple they would feel the instincts of all the predators that he could transform into. Not only would that fuel Rage and allow her to more easily over power their mistress but it could lead to more disastrous consequences. As they had learned that Beast Boy has to suppress the instincts of the animals near constantly and if they were around him for extremely long periods of time, they would begin to act on their instincts and demons had powerful instincts.
Their instincts included but weren't limited too, uncontrollable violent outbursts, the urge to conquer the known dimensions, the absorption and redistribution of anger and hatred, and lastly turning the Earth into her own personal Nevermore.
'We could pretend to be his girlfriend. That is, if he ever found the courage to ask.' Laughter greeted this statement and the source of it was revealed to be Happy as she appeared in Intelligence's library, lounging midair.
'Can you imagine Cyborg's face if we did that when we go back?'
The three of them shared a grin as they could, in fact, imagine the look on his face.
"I see that you've been practicing. And its good to see you Raven, I was worried you'd never come back; after you rushed off during your last visit." As she turned to face the speaker, the various objects that'd been floating through the air crashed to the ground.
"As you can see, I still need more practice." she said as she waved her hand, picking up, repairing, and resettling the objects that'd been scattered across the ground.
He let out a hearty chuckle at her response. With a smile still on his face he asked, "Another 'Smash and Grab'?"
"Actually we're here on vacation; Robin crossed a line." She felt a wave of emotions from Iroh. But they were too brief for her to get an accurate read of them all.
"And since not very many of the people who I work with can easily travel, like I can; I figured why not stay here and finally sight see like I've been meaning to." She finished with a small grin while trying to wake the sleeping mouse up without drawing attention to it.
"That's good to hear and there is much to see. But first a cup of tea." With that said he moved around the cozy backroom, that she was very familiar with, to prepare a pot of tea for them. Once Iroh had turned his back to her, she prodded Gar a little too hard with her powers, "Wake up."
Gar let out a squeak of surprise and still half asleep he rolled off the platform. He flipped once during his downward plunge and landed on all fours in human form. The squeak had drawn Iroh's attention. He was astonished at the sight of a small creature turning into a human, so much that he dropped the tray with the tea that he'd been about to set on a table. The half-demon waved her hand and the tray was airborne a moment later, it hovered in the air about a foot above the aforementioned table.
"Iroh allow me to introduce Garfield, Gar for short. He's a good friend of mine and here on Robin's orders; back up in case a situation arises." She said while setting the tea tray down on the table with care and as she directed the tea pot to fill four cups, instead of three, she finished, "And Gar, this is General Iroh, Dragon of the West."
Gar instantly stood, back ramrod straight, and saluted Iroh. "Very pleased to meet you sir."
"There's no need for that young man, I'm retired. Its just Iroh." He said while gesturing for Gar to take a seat at the table.
Before anyone could move, the back door to the shop flew open and in rushed a blind earthbender who placed herself between Iroh and the two Titans. As soon as she was in position the earthbender hit the ground with her foot and had two rocks hovering in the air. "Uncle very interesting company you keep these days. Any reason why I shouldn't do something drastic."
Though she'd done a good job at holding back any outward signs of fear, the blind general wasn't liking her chances with a powerful firebender who frightened her, much as she hated to admit it, and an unknown non-bender.
"There is no need for drastic measures Toph. They're friends from very far away." Iroh's voice was filled with mirth.
Shrugging the blind general let the two stones fall to the ground, they hit with a resounding thud, and then bent them back in place. "Whatever you say Uncle."
Without missing a beat she turned her attention to Gar and asked, "Does my earthbending frighten you or something, Goofball?"
"It isn't fright that he feels." Her tone held no trace of emotion but the blind general's hearing was better than most, there was sadness and bitterness there. And for once the blind general had nothing to say. Nor did she think there was anything she could have said. After a moment she said, "Name's Toph greatest earthbender in the world. Nice to meet friends of Uncle's. But really who are you guys, I overheard you talking on the roof earlier."
The two Titans were immediately alert and focused on Toph as she wasn't finished , "I pegged you, Nightmare for Fire Nation and the Goofball for well, I don't know but I felt him turn into a strange critter of some kind."
Gar risked a glance at Raven and was surprised to see his friend relaxing, it was rare that Raven liked new people from the off. "You must be Toph Bei Fong, the blind bandit, the Runaway, and the creator of metalbending."
"Blind?"
"How did you know that?"
"Why don't we all sit and talk over tea." Iroh suggested once he sensed that the tension had diffused entirely.
When everyone had settled at the table by the back door and had a cup of tea in front of them. Toph had just opened her mouth to ask her questions again when she was interrupted by Raven. "To your first question, Gar and I are not from any of the four nations and we aren't benders either. We do, however, possess abilities that are similar to bending, in the sense that a normal person would have a difficult time fighting against us."
Toph nodded and sipped her tea while thinking over what she'd heard so far. "What abou-"
Again she was interrupted, "I read up on the history of the Fire Nation and the one hundred year war. You were instrumental in ending the war and Iroh has been very patient with my questions about the Bending Arts, needless to say; he's mentioned you and your friends."
"That's all well and good but not what I was go-"
"My powers are influenced by my emotions, positive and negative. Before I met Iroh, my powers would lash out and destroy things regardless of the emotion I was expressing at the time. But now that only happens when I'm angry." As Raven fell silent the blind general took a deep breath and let it out, trying to put a lid on her annoyance at being interrupted.
"Its like your reading my mind." Toph said and waited for a pace for either of the two Titans to contradict her words.
"Rae's not reading your mind. She's can feel your emotions and don't worry, you'll get use to it." Gar said breaking the silence as he slid his cup of tea toward his teammate.
"Alright what about you? What can you do?" Toph asked of him as she relaxed into her chair and bent a foot stool out of the ground.
"I turn into animals." Toph wouldn't have believed him, if not for the matter of fact tone that he spoke with and what she'd 'seen' him do on the roof.
"For real? I wonder if you turned into a badger-mole, if you could earthbend..." Unbeknownst to Toph her musings had the two Titans sharing startled looks.
Gar was the first to recover and said, "I don't believe for a second that your blind."
"I think you and I are going to be good friends Goofball." She said and then she pointed directly at Raven, "And you as well Nightmare."
Gar was curious about something that Raven had said about Toph helping to end a war. "So how exactly did you help end a one hundred year war?"
"Well it all started when I helped Avatar Twinkle Toes out of a tricky situation."
'Do you think Iroh's finally going to tell us about whats been bothering him?' Intelligence placed one last book on the shelf before answering.
'I don't know. But he was very happy to hear that we are here for an extended period of time.' At this, unpleasant memories surfaced for both Intelligence and her mistress; it'd been the first time the two had ever been at odds.
'I never did apologize for that.' her words echoed throughout the library.
'Mistress you don't-' The emote was cut off as a transparent manifestation of their mistress appeared.
'I have to.' She was hesitant to speak further because they both shared a deep rooted aversion to what they were or so Raven thought. 'I've never accepted what I am. And you knew our elemental magics are demonic in origin. When you wanted to grill Iroh about firebending in order to better understand and hopefully control them. I felt like you were beginning to accept our demonic nature and if you were starting to, then so would I.'
'Aw mistress if you were actually here, I'd give you a hug. But you aren't so...I'll just have to give you two when you are.'
Several dozen bookshelves imploded causing bits and pieces of black wood, shreds of paper, and books to rain down on them. 'Candy!'
'Did you want your hugs now or later Madam Snark?' Intelligence's answer was drowned out as Raven's attention returned to Iroh's shop.
"So Rae can I?" She turned her head in his direction with a far away look in her eyes.
"Help Toph's unit with the bandits plaguing the earth kingdom's western border." He said when he realized where Raven had gone to, for who knows how long.
"Its not like we have bandits at home that we can thrash." At both Gar and Toph's strange looks she said, "That means yes."
As the two began to talk strategy she tuned them out once more and directed her attention to Iroh, who'd been sipping his tea silently. "Iroh from the moment we met I've always felt conflicting emotions from you. And when you heard that I would be staying here for an undisclosed amount of time; you were extremely happy. Why is that?"
Iroh was relieved that she'd asked him that, it saved him from trying and failing to figure out how to ask for her help.
"Do you remember the train that you saw when you first came here?" He waited for her to nod before continuing, "It marked the beginning of the end for my niece's sanity. At the end of the war her mind snapped completely and her brother only made matters worse when he sent her to Crescent Isles; its where the Fire Nation sends its most mentally unstable criminals and citizens."
A sharp crack echoed throughout the room drawing the attention of everyone to the blind general. Toph's eyes seemed to bore into Iroh's. "Uncle. Please tell me you're not asking her to help Azula."
"I am. I don't condone the things she's done but she wouldn't have done them if her family hadn't abandoned her to her father." He took a few shaky breaths while trying to rid his mind of the nightmares and visions that he saw regularly. "I promised Ursa, Zuko and Azula's mother, that I would watch out for her daughter and I've failed. I will not leave my niece to rot in the worst asylum in the Fire Nation. All because her brother believes that she'll get better there; she won't."
"Lord Sparky and Sugar Queen won't be happy about this."
"Zuko threatened to lock me up, if I ever attempted to interfere with Azula's treatment. But I'm long past caring she's had no one on her side for so long and now, I'm all she has." Toph was taken aback at the conviction and venom in his voice as he defended Azula.
"Uncle, I said Zuko and Katara wouldn't be happy about this. Frankly I always thought Lord Sparky was over dramatic when it concerned his sister and I have a healthy respect for the Firefly, she never held back when she's fought with me. I can't say the same for other people." Toph said hoping to reassure Iroh that she wasn't against him. "Defenseless blind girl..." She muttered under her breath a moment later.
"You know Toph, Rae and I know someone whose blind and kicks ass. His name is Daredevil." Gar said making sure to express the grin on his face in his tone of voice.
"Keep talking."
As those two started talking once more, Raven said, "Your nephew, I haven't met him yet and I already dislike him."
Her statement was emphasized as every piece of breakable cutlery rattled violently. A second later and the rattling stopped. "However I intend to repay you for the kindness you've shown me, Iroh. I will help your niece in any way that I can."