Now it was Wan's turn to get annoyed with all the running. It was rapidly becoming a theme of their time together that they were always heading off to somewhere else like a bunch of headless chicken-pigs. The disguised Water Tribe siblings were feeling too frantic to notice. Their sprinting feet clanged against the steel floors, dashing from dim light to fuzzy darkness and back again as they passed the many lights and lamps that lined the corridors.
"An' why're we headed ta yer pal's room again!?" Wan asked loudly, not out of breath but still agitated, "these things wanna sink th' ship! What makes you guys so special?"
"We know more about these things than you!" Sokka puffed behind him, "so nyah!"
"Convincing, Sokka, real convincing," Katara droned in-between harsh breaths, almost completely focused on running as fast as possible. As she approached a main artery inside the vessel, she didn't think twice about caution or subterfuge, what with Aang's life being at stake. With such thoughts far from her mind, she was actually enraged when something tugged hard behind her and made her stop just before the turning into the main corridor.
"Wait!" urged Wan, clutching the both of them by the backs of their shirts and pulling back into the murky side-passage. The sudden halt nearly sent them sprawling, and as they regained their balance Katara swung around, ready to give him hell for interfering. She paused, however, as Wan ducked down and pressed a finger to his lips, urging silence. He unlocked a cramped storage room and ushered them inside, slamming it shut just as two crew members approached from either side of the passageway.
The room was stocked high with tins of grease. Sokka was finding it hard to not barf. He whispered urgently, "why are we in a room full of grease...?"
"I don't wanna be dragged t' th' Captain havin' ta explain why I'm helping you skulk about when ye should be in yer quarters," Wan whispered back.
"We're going there anyway..." Sokka's voice lowered, "maybe it'd be better if we got an escort or something..."
"We can't lead them to him..." Katara pleaded quietly to Sokka, voice dispersing as metallic footsteps approached from either side of the door and halted in front of it. For a few tense seconds the handle was twisted, twisted back, twisted again, and finally returned to its original position.
A female voice came from the other side, "it's locked. We'll have to get Wan to open it."
"How would some kids play hide and seek in a locked room?" an older male voice spoke in return, "what do you think they did? Went up to Wan and asked for the key first?"
"We have to check everything," the first voice asserted, "no exceptions. Make a note of the room. We'll come back later."
The two sets of footsteps clanked away and disappeared into muffled silence. It was only when the group in the closet exhaled that they noticed they'd been holding their breaths. Katara, sighing in relief, jumped suddenly when Wan placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned in to ask under his breath, "can't lead them to who?"
Sokka, hoping to drive the engineer to distraction, remarked urgently, "can we get out of the stinky grease room now? The inside of my nose is melting..."
"Not yet, just half a minute more," Wan considered. Katara turned away and looked aside.
"We won't make it in time," she decided.
"Sure we will!" Sokka comforted, "and maybe we don't need to! Toph's there after all."
Katara looked up at the small ray of light being reflected by a tiny mirror from the hallway to the room. She had doubts...very real doubts...that this was one situation Toph had little to no power over.
She waited and listened. If she was good at anything she was good at that. Trying to hear the edges, the rattle of the engine throbbing through the hull, betraying the signs of some presence in the room. There was none. The air was still, no footsteps fell. She felt completely alone, but she knew they were there. Watching her, and waiting in their own good time. And holding the Avatar hostage.
"Come on!" Toph goaded, "fight me!"
"It's your move, girl."
The boy's voice drifted around the room like a cloud, and Toph immediately spun around to punch a fist in its direction. The metal band around her wrist formed a thin blade, punching forward with incredible momentum. It made a sizeable dent in the wall, but met not a trace of Nandi. Toph reeled the blade back with a forceful jerking back of her fist, and waited further. The six children held fast, vultures waiting for the kill, one of whom was clinging to Aang, hand clamped over his airways and deprived of oxygen. They smiled with nothing. They laughed with even less.
"Eheheheh...even without sight, you're still blinded with sense."
Toph growled as she brought her wrists together and pushed her palms apart, thrusting her arms out as she spun around to where the voice was coming from, the other side of the room from where it was. Four tendrils burst forth and pummelled yet another bare wall. She pulled her fists back to her waist reeling the metal back like fishing lines, and standing firm. She relaxed her fury and concentrated. The voices weren't coming from anywhere. She just thought they came from somewhere.
"Okay...Nandi...I know you're in here," Toph coaxed, "I don't know if there's more than one of you or not, but y'know what? It doesn't matter how many of you there are. 'cause none of you are getting through this door with Aang."
"Who would've thought she'd be so protective?" a girl's voice drifted out.
"She doesn't seem the type," another boy commented.
"It's not about protection," a noticeably smaller girl's voice spoke, beginning to erupt into giggles, "eheheheh...it's about pride..."
"Heheheheh...that's...heheh...asking for a fall..." a lighter-toned boy's voice added to the mixture.
"Heheheheh...she doesn't like what she is...heheh...so she...heh...she tries to be more...eheheheheh..." a girl's voice, deeper than the others thus far.
"Heheheheh...so...heheh...tragically...heh...human..." Nandi brought it back full circle, and the room filled with empty, distant giggling. Toph took it surprisingly well.
"What're trying to do? Knock my self-confidence?" Toph harrumphed, stepping slowly around in a circle, her bare feet sifting through the growing puddles of water, "you don't even know me! Y'think after 12 years of being told I'm worse than useless that I'm just gonna crumble like a pile of bricks by being called mean names?"
"You talk yourself larger than you are," Nandi teased, "you believe yourself beyond your nature."
"Says the undead floating dripping boy," Toph countered, beginning to pause to take stock of any shift and change in the room. The kids were talking, forming puddles and grabbing hold of someone who was actually alive, but somehow left no trace of a direction doing any of these things. That was impossible. She had to think abstractly, "no one could say you're not walking the talk. You really are beyond your nature."
"Nothing's beyond nature," the first girl butted in, "you humans might have forgotten that, but we haven't."
"C'mon, Ju, give her some credit," Nandi smiled, "she doesn't want to admit what she is. And she tries so hard not to admit it. It's fantastic."
"Don't tell me you miss being human," one of the other boys contributed, "don'tcha love our new mamas and papas?"
"Well duh, Bao. Sure I love them," Nandi mocked playfully, "but just cuz my new life's so much better don't mean my old life was worthless. My old mother took me to see the Grand Fleet on parade. I left my name on the Faxin Cliffs. And I met you, Toph."
Toph stood stock still, no longer circling. She needed the silence to hear a pin drop. Curiosity got the better of her, "what d'ya mean...'and you met me'? All you did was steal my pet."
"You meant more than that to me," Nandi informed, "you don't know what kinda impact you make. In fact...I think I have a crush on you."
...Toph retreated from the conversation, her emotions wildly whipping between outrage and introspection. She recalled their meetings. He always wanted to talk to her. No matter how much she'd insulted him, he'd simply ignored it. He was always happy when she was around, and wanting to please her in his own smiling, dorky fashion. And then the clincher...his crushing disappointment when she'd finally shut the lid firmly on anything resembling friendship. As soon as that happened, whatever trace of Nandi left disappeared.
"Is your self-confidence knocked now?" the smaller girl teased. The giggling began again, teeth-gratingly constant and quiet. Toph's nerves were set on edge by the giggling, the cold water pooling around her feet, sweating and fuming like a war rhino about to charge.
"Shut up!" Toph flung her arm around, trailing a thin sliver of metal away from her wrist. She whipped the sliver across the room, slicing cloth and bedding. A loud crumple accompanied it as Aang's bed collapsed in two. Toph trembled with fury. The giggling continued ringing in her ears, keeping her from hearing anything else, uninterrupted by her rageful outburst. She'd never felt so impotent.
"Heheheh...don't mind Niu...heheh...she's just jealous..." Nandi gloated.
"He's right, you know," Niu admitted, "I don't like having competition."
Toph jerked her fist back again, the speed of the metal's whip back leaving a long silver streak across the floor. Toph was shouting spittle, "competition!? He's a zombie! I hated him even when he was alive!"
"Pretty forceful about it, ain'tcha?" the sly girl noted.
"...not you too..." Toph groaned, "can't someone just honestly hate people these days?"
"Ya does have a point," Nandi commented, "I never did anything to you. I looked after your winged lemur for a day, and gave him straight back. I was nothing except nice to you, and you were nothing except nasty to me. Why was that?"
"Because you annoyed me," Toph argued, "read into that whatever you like."
"Does the Avatar annoy you?" Nandi asked.
Toph went silent. These...things could see through whatever she said, and she couldn't deny that he did annoy her. Constantly. On an hourly basis. But his life was in danger, here, right in front of her, and to give them any more ammunition than she stupidly obliged them with would put his life still more at risk. She remained silent, and steadied her stance, calming her heart to prevent it from beating through her chest.
"Would you be comfier telling the murderer yourself?" Nandi dared.
There was a small sound, barely perceptible to anyone else, but to Toph it rang through the room like a struck anvil. A small, sighing groan. The same sound, from the same voice, that she'd heard when Aang was sleeping bad dreams, or struggling to stay alive. A small, pathetic mew, from the world's saviour.
"Aang!" Toph flung her fists ahead in the direction of the sound, but just as she was about to act, she stopped short. Her fists were shaking.
"Smart girl," Nandi mocked, "wouldn't want to skewer your saviour, would you? Even if it would save us the effort."
"He's not...!" Toph blurted, snorting through a runny nose. "He's...!" Toph was left bereft of comebacks. She couldn't do anything. Her head angled lower towards the ground, bright red in fear and hatred.
"You know, I actually wanted to see if I could be friends with you, without bringing you into the family," Nandi spoke distantly, "but what hope would I have had? You already eloped with a dead boy."
Toph's tears trickled down her contorted face, as her head lifted up again. She screamed. She screamed at the wall to her left, lacerating it several times. She screamed at the wall to her right, punching and puncturing it until the screws burst out the other side. She screamed at the far side of the room, hooking the furthest bed, pulling it off of its hinges ,and throwing it at the far wall, smashing the porthole and cutting off all light to the room. She screamed at the wall behind her, clawing strips away from it. She screamed hard enough to cut her windpipe into shreds, "what do you want from us!?"
"Nothing. Our new family loves us as we are," Nandi spoke calmly, "our old families never did. Yours especially, Toph. Wouldn't you like to have a papa who is proud of your abilities, rather than ashamed of them?"
Toph shrank back in disgust, "don't you dare compare these things to my parents! They killed you to use your bodies as dress-up dolls! That's...that's just...evil!"
"But it's incredible. Heheheh...I don't know...heheh...I don't know how I survived without it," Nandi was lost in rapture, "heheheh...I don't have to worry anymore...heheh...about getting things wrong...heh...about being alone...heheheh...because they're always there, watching over me, taking care of me...and...heh...and I don't even need to do anything..."
The giggling came, and wouldn't stop. Toph was past bursting point, past all pretence of waiting and listening. She just stood there, trembling hard enough to make ripples in the puddle beneath her feet. No amount of raging would do anything. No amount of listening would break past the giggles. And they would never stop giggling.
But in one moment she gasped. A piercing shriek came from her left, and a ball of fur leapt out of his hiding place and clamped his claws around the head of one of the children. She could hear all of it. With a sense of purpose powerful enough to move mountains, she twisted and thrust a fist forward, slamming a wall of metal into Niu and into the far wall.
Momo flew off and sprang onto Toph's shoulder, twisting her whole body aside to face an approaching menace. Toph brought the metal wall back and hammered it into Bao on the rebound. She repositioned her stance, breathing harshly, but beginning to sport a creeping smile. This was more like it.
"You abuse nature to fight nature, and we abuse humanity to fight humanity," Nandi teased, "now that's irony."
"You want iron!? Why didn't you say!?" Toph slid her right leg side-forward and twisted her foot, sliding her hand with fingers outstretched in the process, making a series of spikes burst forward and up through the bed-posts from her leg-bands. Nandi narrowly avoided the spike trap and headed straight for Toph, spinning quickly around to fling a foot outwards. Toph blocked that, and quickly blocked another attempt to spin his foot down on top of her head. Various more moves were tried, but just in the nick of time Momo was always able to tug Toph's attention to the moves. It was hard keeping up with them all, but Toph eventually sensed a pattern and, taking the initiative, formed a hammer around her hand and pummelled it straight into Nandi's stomach, sending him flying.
A sharp pain burst in the small of her back as Ya laid into Toph, pushing her against the wall. Toph spun around, but Ya managed to avoid the earthbender's blow, leaping up to slice her palm into Toph's head. Toph blocked this, and was sprightly enough to avoid another blow as it was coming and step out of Ya's vice. Any chance of turning the tables were dashed when Momo tugged Toph's attention towards Ju, flying towards her with a fast elbow swing. Toph managed to block that by shunting her leg-band into the ground and jumping, kicking the elbow away while still keeping Ya pinned. Ya, however, had managed to wrap her hands around Toph's arm, in an excellent position to break it into two. Thinking quickly, Toph sent a tendril of metal over to the far end of the room, dragging her rapidly out of the trap.
Toph bounced off the bottom of the bed crushed against the wall a split second before Tai flew his weight into the bed, splitting it in two and allowing daylight to re-enter the room. Toph splashed on the floor quickly enough to form a hammer around her foot and crash it into Ya, who was quickly approaching behind her. A recovered Bao emerged to grapple onto Toph's foot, allowing Tai to re-emerge from the collapsed bed and step atop Toph's head, pressing it into her neck. Toph cried in agony, and kicked her free foot upwards to catch Bao in the jaw and allow her head some free space. Her arms stretched out to pull herself out from underneath Tai's foot, which made a tremendous dent in the floor.
Planting her wrist-band into the floor she spin-kicked Tai into the left wall. Left vulnerable however, she was grappled in the back by Niu, and pinned down. Her face pressed into the puddle, she grunted, spitted water and squirmed in defiance, unable to move. Momo was tugging on her shoulder to get her back up, but to little avail, as Nandi stepped up calmly, looking as if nothing had happened to him. He stepped across the strewn debris to squat next to Toph's pinned body, remarking, "I think I'll have my pet back, now."
"Just you try," Toph dared Nandi. Momo was having none of it, flying up through the boy's reaching hands to clamp onto Niu's face, making her reel back from the impact and give Toph a valuable opportunity to scythe her arm upwards and clear both of them away with a single swipe. As soon as she was back on her feet, Momo flew up to tug her around at the next threat, from Ju again, which she blocked quickly but wasn't quick enough to react against Bao's rapid swipe that took Toph's legs off the floor. Before she hit the ground, she thrust her fist upwards to puncture the ceiling, pulling her upwards quickly away from the trap the two children threatened to trap her in.
She kicked out to puncture the wet floor and bring her down away from the others. As she fell back, Toph formed her wrist-bands into sharp, long scythes, warning off the two that tried to catch her as she was descending. Splashing on her knee, she covered her upper and lower torso with the scythes, digging her feet into the ground and preparing to charge. With the help of her leg-bands, she power-charged down the length of the half-destroyed room towards the children.
Abruptly, Momo shrieked and pulled hard against Toph's ears. The blind girl winced and, panicking slightly, ceased to a halt with the blade half an inch away from the neck of a groaning, half-conscious boy. Nandi was holding Aang by the armpits, blocking Toph's way. Toph's heartbeat raced at a thousand li a minute, adrenalised beyond belief. Nandi was utterly placid by comparison, "does he want irony too? Or is that a stupid pun too far?"
Toph had no energy left to do anything but fume. He had her in a bind, with little way past. While plans for getting Aang were racing through her head, she was becoming irritably aware of the tiny, minuscule tugs on her right ear Momo was making. She was in no position to make him stop, but on wondering why he was doing it, realisation slowly crept up on her that Momo was actually trying to help.
"You're so strong-willed, Toph. I really admire that about you. You'll be a great member of the family," Nandi continued the conversation, "not like the Avatar here. Our mothers and fathers know all about him. They told us, how they were made homeless...how our brothers and sisters were murdered...all because this weak-willed coward ran away from his promise to us. We'll take him down to meet them soon, down to the very bottom of this beast, where he belongs."
Toph slowly and surely lifted up her upper scythe, quarter of an inch every second. When Momo tugged down, she lifted it up. When Momo tugged backward or forward, she changed the angle. Slowly, but surely, the blade angled gradually over Aang's head. Toph attempted to remain as straight faced as possible.
"You can't begin to understand what it's like to know that you have no future. We thought we were protected, special, indispensable to the world. We formed the first rivers, and helped make the world a bountiful, beautiful place. When the first men came along, we were glad to associate with these smart, appreciative apes. We helped those who needed help, and harmed those who wished harm. We were feared, and worshipped, and we thought we'd earned our place in the natural order of things," Nandi calmly ranted, "but only one of us believed in a natural order of things. We deluded ourselves into thinking that you really did appreciate us and what we represented, that the balance was important to you. But we were really nothing more than a commodity to mine and sell to the highest bidder. And then, we weren't even worth that. In the end we were obstacles to pave over. We imagined, 'at least the Avatar hears us. At least he knows our worth'. But he turns out worse than the rest of them. He showed his appreciation for the world the moment he decided to disappear from it. How can you stand being with him?"
Toph shrugged, "he's fun to tease?" Her palm clenched into a fist, and the scythe transformed instantly into a battering ram, avoiding Aang's head and pummelling into Nandi in a split second, with the force of a charging train. A mighty crush erupted at the far end of the room, sending debris in all directions, while Aang fell away to the ground. Toph reeled her fists back to be rid of the weaponry her bands had transformed into, and caught Aang before he hit the ground.
She leant him up, checking him over. Placing her hand on his chest, she could tell that although he was weak, Aang was stable and in no danger, at least. This was some relief, and Toph actually relaxed a little. Her relaxation was short-lived. In front of her, a fit of giggling slowly grew from a background murmur into a crescendo. She couldn't fathom what they were so on edge about, until she felt the cool breeze against her sweaty cheeks. Her arms and legs were occupied, and Momo was fretting urgently. The blind earthbender could tell what was happening next, and it chilled her to the bone more effectively than any breeze. She mumbled softly, "...no..."
Toph was thwacked in the chest with what felt like the God of Steel itself, being ripped away from Aang and buried in the wall nearest the door. She yelled in pain as her back bounced off of the wall, and fell forward onto her hands, wheezing desperately. She clawed herself to her feet and took a stance, feeling the sounds and shaking and whatever Momo was indicating, but none of these things came to pass. The breeze passed through unhindered, the room was empty, and Aang was gone.
Dejected, Toph gulped and leaned back against the wall, her energy utterly exhausted. She felt dizzy and uncertain in her legs, so she slowly collapsed back onto the floor. She was too tired even to cry. She couldn't do anything except sit there and breath as much as she could. Momo cautiously crawled up to Toph, and settled down next to her lap, looking up with wide eyes at Toph. She could feel the lemur, but she couldn't raise her hand enough to pet him. Instead, her hand was held a few inches high, allowing Momo to look carefully at the wounds inflicted, and lick them sympathetically.
Toph smiled weakly. She could feel the breeze and the sun on her skin, the earth embedded around her wrists and her ankles, and the constant rumble of the God of Steel. It was company of a sort.
"It's got to be an attack, ma'am! We need to get our men off the search and onto battle stations!" Lieutenant Tan urged in a state of panic, reacting instinctively to the plume of smoke emanating from the side of the hull.
"Settle down, Lieutenant," Mayu strode onto the forward balcony with a portable eyepiece, leaning over the side and looking closely at the source of the damage, "there's not another ship all the way to the horizon in every direction. It must've come from the inside. There's nothing but passenger quarters there, no vital machinery...strange..."
"This is crazy," Tan fretted, "there should be at least one other ship within hailing distance. They can't leave us to our fate like this."
"Blame the Avatar and the Ocean Spirit for that," Mayu quipped, putting the eyepiece to her right eye, "the Avatar's no longer an issue, but I'm starting to think the Ocean Spirit might have something to do with...what the..."
Mayu leaned over in shock at what she saw through the eyepiece. A convoy of seven...what looked like children, with one being held by another one...floating alongside the port side of the hull, down from the smoking cabin and towards the section next to the conning tower. One by one they lifted themselves over the side of the hull and disappeared into an open ladderway. It was once all the children had disappeared that Mayu felt capable of tearing her eyes away from the eyepiece, murmuring, "dear Agni..."
"What did you see, ma'am?" Tan asked in curiosity. Mayu was gawping for a few crucial seconds until she spun around with renewed energy and ordered right into Lieutenant Tan's face.
"Get everyone you can and concentrate them in the lower rear decks! Now!" Mayu yelled, "search for seven children with the ability to levitate! Secure and immobilise them without restraint! And if any of you doubt me I'll personally punch you in the face. Understand!?"
The crowd of onlookers was the first sign that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. The massive dents in the wall were the second sign. Wan cleared the way to their room, shoving people aside and yelling "crew comin' through! Crew comin' through! C'mon, people, y'should be in yer rooms anyways! Get back! Get back!"
The crowd grudgingly dispersed, leaving the three of them to fiddle with the lock. They had to splash through a puddle spreading from underneath the door to reach it. It wouldn't budge. Sokka and Wan together shoved themselves onto the door, pushing and shunting until the door finally gave way. Katara, standing behind them, was the first to see the state of the room, and brought hands to face in shock. Sunlight hit her face as she looked at the gaping hole at the end of the room, and her bangs lifted up from the breeze. Wan and Sokka were similarly flabbergasted at the scene of utter devastation, with slices of wall torn off, beds chopped into bits, and a dead body of a crewman clumped in a puddle in the middle of the room.
Katara shouldered past Wan and Sokka, looking around utterly speechless. As her head glanced behind, she noticed the crumpled figure collected in the corner. "Toph!" she cried, rushing down onto her knees to accompany the earthbender, bruised and battered and barely conscious. Katara looked up angrily to yell, "close that door!"
"Aaaah...excellent advice," Toph chimed in, while Wan and Sokka entered the room to close the door as best they could behind them. Katara swung her arm aside and up to bring water out of her pouch, as Toph looked up exhaustedly, "three guesses what just happened."
"Take it easy, something might be broken," Katara laid the healing water across Toph's body in a preliminary examination. After a few seconds she sighed in relief, "it's only bruises. Some internal bleeding, but nothing that can't be fixed."
"That's good," Toph commented, "I don't really feel like 'doing a Je-'"
A small fit of coughing interrupted as Katara set to work. She tut-tutted the earthbender in a distinctly medical manner, "I told you to take it easy. Trust you to not do what your told even when your life depends on it...hey..." Katara's attention shifted to the metal bands on Toph's arms, "...what's the point of these?"
"As soon as I can stand up without puking, maybe I can give you a sneak preview," Toph joked.
"Yeah, touching..." Wan interrupted, "look, we can't stay here. Th' guards 'r gonna be on us any second. If this don't get th' Captain suspicious, nothin' will!"
"You crazy!? We can't move her!" Katara snapped at the engineer.
"Actually, I'm feeling kinda better..." Toph croaked, leaning up slightly, "...maybe just to the next room or something..."
"Hey, who's the healer here?" Katara scolded Toph, "sit back and stop killing yourself. Doctor's orders."
"Mannn..." Toph whined, dropping back down to pout.
"Sorry Chief, but if there was a time to tell the Captain everything, it's now," Sokka leaned aside, "Toph? Nandi and some other kids did this, right?"
"Nandi, Niu, Bao, Ya, Ju and some fat kid," Toph said distractedly, "I tried to remember the names."
"Did he say anything?" Sokka asked.
"Try getting him to stop..." Toph moaned, wincing as another wound was closed, and sighing with relaxation once it did.
"There we go! Easy alibi! The creepy kid detailed his whole plan before blowing up the room and fleeing!" Sokka smiled in triumph.
"Alright," Wan nodded, "an' th' reason why th' creepy kid chose ta blow up this room is becaaauuuse...?"
"It...it doesn't matter!" Sokka gesticulated, "they're creepy psycho water creatures with an axe to grind! They don't need a reason."
"Doesn't matter, huh? It don't matter when fer some reason some psycho creature who wants ta sink ma ship an' ma god 'long with it goes outta its way ta blow up sum' random crew quarters that by lucky coincidence belong ta you."
"...that's right," Sokka squealed. Wan looked considerate for a brief moment, then abruptly grabbed Sokka by the collar and shoved him against the wall. Toph saw it first and leaned forward to stop him, only to break out into another fit of coughs. Katara leaned Toph back down and looked around, too far in the middle of healing Toph to interrupt.
"What're you doing!?" Katara yelled.
"Ye're hidin' sumthin'!" Wan accused the warrior, "sumthin' big 'n important that ye wants ta take ta th' Fire Nation. Now what c'n that be, I wonder?"
"...nothing...sir..." Sokka croaked, "...we're just...simple...run-of...the-mill...spiiiies..."
"Stop it!" Katara commanded, interrupting Toph's treatment to stem the water threateningly before Wan. The Chief Engineer ignored her.
"Ye're in no position ta make demands, missy," Wan threatened in turn, "th' guards'll be here any moment, an' y'know what? I gone 'n changed ma mind. I thinks we gotta tell th' Captain everythin' after all...includin' everythin' 'bout y-"
The tell-tale rumble of the sound tubes interrupted Wan's spiel. They paused to listen, "Command. All available personnel are ordered to immediately report to the rear section lower deck for a concentrated search. Seven children between ten and twelve years of age with extra-ordinary abilities must be detained by all necessary means. Report immediately. This is an order from the Captain."
The room was still after the message sounded, as a tense, awkward pause permeated. Wan eyed Sokka closely, asking tersely, "...seven children, spy?" Sokka looked into Wan's eyes with fear, until suddenly dropped to the ground. Wan admitted, "lucky day, boy. Th' guards ain't comin'. Y'better come with me ta help sort out th' mess. I need ta get back ta th' Engine Room anyways, might as well get some extra hands."
"I'll stay here, try to clear up the body and the rest of this mess," Katara decided, treating Wan warily but still grateful their cover hadn't been blown. She leant back down to tend to Toph again.
Sokka straightened himself out and dusted himself off, peering sneeringly into Wan's eye to ask, "okay, you're more than twice my dad's age, and you don't look really muscly, so...how did you do that?"
"Engine oil, son. Engine oil. Better th'n th' olive kind," Wan lead the way out of the door, tugging it harshly to open it up, "soak up 's much 's ye can, boy. But if I have an inkling that th' Gang Shen's in trouble cuz of you, th'n I'm gonna reel ya in myself, ye got that?"
"Crystal clear, sir. Crystal clear," Sokka responded bitterly, shutting the door behind himself.
"Men..." Katara commented, concentrating harder on making Toph better. She comforted, "soon as you get better, how about we take a lifeboat ourselves and blow this joint?"
"Good idea," Toph concurred. A silence filled with the cries of crow-gulls out of the open hole in the ship allowed their heads to process some unwelcome facts. The sun and the breeze should have been soothing...comforting...but instead they just illustrated how far away from reality they were, encased in the darkened chamber. Toph sighed uneasily, finally able to start petting Momo, who clustered alongside her. She said quietly, "Katara...I did the best I could..."
"I know." Katara acknowledged, not looking up to face Toph. It wouldn't have meant anything to Toph if she did, but eye contact of any kind wasn't helping Katara cope. Healing was only marginally better. Her hands shifted, "did they say what was going to happen?"
"Nandi said..." Toph gulped, which prompted a round of coughing, and half a minute while she calmed herself enough to deliver the nail-biting news, "...he said...they were going to take him to meet...their 'parents'...I guess they meant the Sha...y'know. They said they'd...'take him to the bottom of the beast'..." Toph paused before the final verdict they'd delivered, "...where he belonged..."
"...okay..." Katara kept concentrating on the healing. The faster it was finished, the faster they could help Aang. But it was hard going. The images, and the guilt, burst through like a pent-up dam. The healing was stalling as her concentration ebbed and her hands became unsteady. She decided to pause, "...I'm sorry...I just need..."
The water flowed back into the pouch, and Katara sat down to steady herself. Her breathing was steady enough, but weighty, as a feeling of foreboding washed over her. She tried to keep herself calm, but it was impossible to go against the flow. She turned away as her eyes teared up, never crying openly but always on the verge, the back of her hand up against her mouth and her eyes bloodshot from too much tragedy in one day. Toph held a hand out to touch Katara's, which was pressed against the ground. Momo purred in collective sadness. They had come too far to lose him again. They couldn't imagine it. The thought of imagining was bringing Katara to the edge. She wouldn't let herself fall over.
She just needed a moment. A moment would be all she needed. The moment stretched to eternity, and the crow-gulls called in indifference.
To Be Continued…
Avatar: The Last Airbender Concept and Characters © Nickelodeon 2005-06
Author's Note: Yup, I'm writing action again. I'm shooting for a kinetic, active style like the detail put into the fight scenes on the show. But it lacks...lyricism, I think. It's not much apart from a description of A to B to C. And if it confuses, then that's especially my fault. I just felt like writing a fight where not everything completely goes in one side's way until the very last moment, and where an awful lot of PHYSICAL VIOLENCE is evident. Nothing bloody though, just rather painful thunks. The T rating is a handy thing to have, but I didn't want to get too excessive...just as excessive as needed.
And on top of all that, I'm starting to tire of all the 'members of Team Avatar running from one corridor to another' scenes. I think I might try to streamline those in the future. It isn't really necessary to detail every step in the way.
