Chapter Two: The Black Mission

Aang and Katara returned at last after an amount of time that could just as easily have been infinity in Toph's eyes. It was rather obvious that they were carrying the boy she has just grievously injured by the way they walked and by the weight on the floor. The Earthbender sighed deeply, not of relief but of disappointment. She was not facing them, not that it mattered, not to her anyway.

"He's alive, and he'll be fine." Katara informed her reproachfully, as if reminding the younger bender that she had done something wrong. "His parents just went out of town, and he has nowhere to be."

Toph hoisted herself to her bandaged feet instantly, "He's not staying here." She declared, she had already acted upon her judgment, whether flawed or not, and she was standing behind it.

"That's not your decision to make, Toph." 'Sugar Queen' stated in her annoying self-righteous voice. Toph clenched her fists, just holding back from launching a vicious attack on her.

"If he's staying, then I'm not." She warned, "And I mean for good." She could feel Katara glaring at her, but the Waterbender didn't say anything. Instead, it was Aang who spoke.

"Where's Sokka?" He asked, "Wasn't he here?"

"He was." Toph answered, "But he went out, I thought he went out to help you." She lied, it didn't make her comfortable to lie like that, but it didn't matter to her now. "And I think I'll join him, if you're gonna let that assassin in here."

"What did I ever do to you?" The boy's voice came faintly from the corner where the beds were, "I don't even know you…"

Toph turned around angrily, "No?" She asked in a shriek, "Whatever happened to: 'Oh I'm the Fire Nation's best agent'? What happened to: 'age is no indicator to power, Ms. Toph', huh?" She accused him, uncaring that in her anger she caused a small quake.

"Toph…" Aang said rather hesitantly, "He's just a little kid, how could he be such a powerful bender? I mean, more powerful than you? You're the best earth bender in the world." The last comment did not calm Toph down, despite it being a compliment.

"Because, Twinkle-Toes, I'm still BLIND! He knew I was, he attacked me from the air, where I can't see!" Toph said, "He knows our weaknesses, he's trying to kill us!"

"Cut it out, Toph." A new voice said, Sokka's voice, just as dreary as it was when he had left. "I know you've problems with being blind, but it's serious. You could have killed him." Toph couldn't believe what she was hearing, Sokka was her last hope, he was the only one who believed her. Tears of anger built up in her eyes.

"Fine, I hope he burns you all to death." She let out in a determinedly calm voice, and made to exit the room. Katara blocked her way.

"Toph wait…" She said quietly, but Toph was beyond reasoning, she sent a small, thin piece of wall crashing at her, throwing her out of the way. The way clear, Toph left the inn and began walking down the street. No one followed her. She lowered her head and turned it sideways, clenching her teeth, tears once more threatening to drip down from her cheeks to the ground. They didn't even care enough to follow her.

She was angry, raging even, and felt the need to earth bend. She left the village, and a short distance away from it, near the edge of the neighboring woods, she began raising rock spires around her, then smashing them with her bare hands. She started slow, and picked up the speed as she went, not missing a single one, despite the severe pain in her hands. She knew she wounded herself, and that she was bleeding, but she didn't care. She needed to let out steam.

She then raised a large piece of rock in the air in front of her, punching it so hard, it flew right across from her, crashing through the nearby woods and ripping through the trees.

She let out all of her frustrations, of being the newest member in the group, of not being trusted enough yet, of being constantly underrated by Sokka, because she was blind. She knew that the fire bender was getting exactly what he wanted; he was tearing her apart from them, making both easier targets.

She stomped the ground with her right foot and raised two large boulders in front of her, throwing a circular back-kick at them and thus hurling them after the first boulder.

She didn't care she was destroying trees in her rage, she didn't even think about it, perhaps she should have. After sending the two boulders soaring after the first one she turned on her heels and marched back towards the village. She was going to convince them she was right, one way or the other.

000

Three girls, two adorned in red, one in pink, were riding their reptilian mounts in the shade of forest trees, trying to move while attracting as little attention from the locals as possible. They had followed the Avatar's trail as best as possible so far, but the trail vanished now, so they were proceeding in the last known direction the Avatar took. Not too hopeful though, and on the brink of breaking pursuit.

"Hey Azula…" The pink wearing teen said, whipping her riding-lizard with the reigns and moving to be level with her quiet leader, finally gathering the courage to tell her what she wanted.

Azula looked at her from the corner of her eyes, "You know that fire bending kid? Well uh…" She said as she noticed that Azula's piercing gaze seemed rather displeased, Ty Lee knew that the kid's suggestion of sparring with her caught her off guard. From what Azula told them, it sounded like that agent was much more powerful than her, and obviously she didn't want to seem cowardly by refusing. She always did hate it when someone exceeded her at something.

"What about him?" Azula asked, her voice was deadly, yeah, Ty Lee was sure she was planning how to get the upper hand against that kid.

"Well his aura is… weird, he gives me the creeps." The gymnast tried her best to explain the strange sensation she had when she looked at him. "It's like; he was scary… like he's in control of everything. I felt like we were surrounded…"

Azula sighed slightly, debating the point of trying to explain this to her rather dim-witted friend, "Firebending is about bending energy, it's all around us, and we conjure it and manipulate it. What you felt was a constant grip on it, the readiness to fight at a hair's notice." She smiled, though it was a smile of cold pleasure, "As is to be expected from the most esteemed assassin of the Fire Nation."

True to the leader's suspicion, the pink wearing girl didn't really understand what she meant, about energy being all around them, but she understood enough to know it was a kooky Firebending thing.

"That's fantastic, and while he's out fighting the Avatar's friends, we're here… hiding." The third girl spoke at last, playing with a throwing dagger in a bored fashion.

"We're not hiding," Azula argued, "We just don't want the Avatar and his friends to realize we're still on their trail. Do we Mai?" The Fire Princess began playing with one of her bangs, but then, quickly whipped her head to the side.

The three girls all leaped off their lizards just in time to avoid being crushed by three soaring boulders. The boulders trailed out of sight, along with their mounts, which were not as fortunate.

An immediate counter attack by Azula and Mai was initiated, daggers and fireballs flying next to each other in numbers, heading towards the origin of the boulders. The next action was by Ty Lee, who leaped at a nearby tree in hopes of spotting the unknown attackers. However she was surprised to find out that there were none in sight, in fact, the trail of destruction made by the boulders was a long one, so long it was possibly impossible for the attackers to have seen them. Ty Lee had a rare stroke of brilliance at that moment.

"Hey Azula," The acrobat said, one arm around the trunk of the tree she was latched unto, "Doesn't the avatar travel with a blind Earthbender kid?"

000

The first thing that greeted Toph as she entered her party's room in the inn was the word "Predictable." Spoken by the young suspected Firebender, who lifted himself to a sitting position as she entered, leaning against the back of the bed.

"Where's everyone?" Toph inquired suspiciously, assuming her battle stance. Ready and more than willing to crush the boy should he dare move. He simply shrugged, and shook his head.

"They went out to find you, figured that if you were attacked by Firebenders; you'd be more than an easy target right now."

"You're lying." Toph said confidently, even though she could hear no change in his breathing, "No one followed me when I left." The boy laughed audaciously, but stopped suddenly, as a fit of coughs came over him.

"…yeah, that's painful… Well of course no one followed you when you left. Someone had to take that wall you threw off Katara. By the time they did that, and by the time I assured them I'd be fine by myself, you have probably vanished." He slid down the bed and returned to his lying position, "Personally, I hoped you wouldn't come back."

"Yeah, so you could catch me later by myself and finish the job!" Toph accused, "It's good to know you mess up though, with the kind of power you have you could have probably finished me off with no problem if you wanted to…" Her eyelids half closed and her gaze trailed to the floor as realization struck her, "But you didn't, did you?"

"No, I didn't." The boy confessed, "The only reason I even let you injure me so was in the hope that you might decide to break off from the Avatar and thus I won't have to later." He explained, quite evenly, as though he was discussing a rather interesting change of the weather.

"And why is that, because I'm a girl, because I'm blind, because I'm young?" Toph suggested, mock ponderingly.

"My predecessor and trainer in the arts of stealth, before he tried to escape the Fire Nation, told me of something he called The Black Mission. A mission that once completed, depletes the assassin's will, and removes the taste for the kill." Toph listened intently, hoping in her heart that one of her companions would suddenly barge in the room with a loud exclamation about how she was right, but she could feel no one close by. "I always supposed that I would not ever face such a mission, which would lead to my self destruction, as his had, since I was never an assassin." Toph laughed shrilly.

"Oh really? So separating us, and then killing us, that's not being an assassin?" She questioned.

"No, I've always allowed my targets a last fight; I've never killed them unfairly." The laying boy said confidently, "I hold no illusions that it makes me any better than assassins. I just don't think about it." His voice, for the first time sounded like it really belonged to a child, apparently having a forced introduction with death so young in his life has matured him prematurely, which made him sound much like an adult rather than a child. "In any case, when Princess Azula ordered me to kill you, she mispronounced your name by the way; I had a funny feeling that this would be it. Funnily enough, it only gets stronger the more I'm moving by my plan."

"Oh wow, I never realized you must have these issues. Surely I will think of you in an entirely different level now." Toph said, though not as mockingly as she had tried to make herself sound.

"Everyone has issues, yours don't stop you from doing what you need to, and mine won't stop me from doing what I need to." Toph could imagine him frowning, though in truth, she wouldn't be able to tell if he did. "Well since you're not going to leave, then I suppose I'm gonna have to end it sooner or later, huh?" He supposed, sounding rather disappointed.

"And why shouldn't I just finish you off instead?" The Earthbending master pondered, pointing straight at the boy rather accurately.

"I don't doubt that you can," The child said, his voice sounding slightly pleased now, "But then what would your friends think? Finding my dead body here, with no trace of Firebending in sight?" He let out a chortle of laughter, "They don't fully trust you yet, you know." Toph stomped hard on the floor, which made the room shake slightly. He planned this all along, even this talk.

"I'd think you're a fortune-teller by the way you make plans, Firebender." She spat, knowing full well that she couldn't touch him currently. She sat defiantly on the floor near him, cross-legged. "I'm going to whoop your blubber the moment I convince the others. Just so you know it." She added menacingly.

"I've got a gift of certain foresight, you can't be a good killer without it, you have to figure out how people work, know their personalities, how they will react, where they will be, how to manipulate events in order to make them follow your plans. It's what really makes us, not any marvelous Firebending ability." He spoke in a pleasantly proud voice, as though he was speaking of some musical talent rather than the talent to make conditions ideal in order to kill a person.

The girl settled for a mere "Hmph" and remained silent afterwards, waiting for her friends to return, when suddenly, a subject she had so far neglected in the memory of her near death experience jumped at her. Her face burned with cold fury so suddenly, that when the Firebending boy looked at her, she could hear him gasp despite himself.

"You kissed me!" She cried angrily, her hands pushing hard against her crossed legs, staining her pants with blood. She kind of wished she'd paid more attention to her bending while she was at it then her anger, because they stung badly, but now she hardly felt them at all. All she felt was a burning desire to reduce the Firebending prodigy in front of her to a mushy paste.

"Yes, first time I've done it actually. I thought it might be nice to try a more… enjoyable way to steal your breath than just bend the heat out of you. I must say I wasn't disappointed." She glowered at him through her blind eyes and he shrugged. "What do you want me to say? Sorry I upset you by doing that? Considering I'm about to kill you and your friend I don't think it matters."

"And for one moment back there, I thought you might be a good Firebender." Toph flung at him, her voice as angry as ever. Not wanting to give him the satisfaction of questioning how, regardless of the ability, he knew how to Earthbend "It doesn't matter that you don't have a choice," she continued quickly, as she heard him inhale in order to begin a sentence. "You're just an evil jerk, and I'm going to get you back. You'll see." He didn't reply to that, and she had an impression that she struck a nerve. She smiled with grim satisfaction, and then felt someone coming, it was Katara.

"Stop it, I'm not a Firebender! Why are you saying such horrible things?" The boy lying on the bed yelled, obviously having heard Katara coming to the door. Toph sent him a stare of pure hatred, but said nothing. Instead, she merely sat in meditation, eyes closed, hands resting on the sides of her knees.

"Toph!" Katara came in; obviously the relief of seeing she was okay was overcome by reproach at her supposed behavior. The addressed girl did not respond, preferring the peace of her meditation, and hoping that it would shut the Waterbender up. It didn't work. However, to Toph's pleasant surprise, what Katara said next had nothing to do with the boy.

"Oh Toph, you're bleeding," She bent down to take a closer look at them, "I shouldn't have neglected your wounds. I'm sorry." The Waterbender settled down on her knees next to the Earthbender and bended the water out of her water skin, and to her hands. Working on Toph's wounds slowly, it felt a pleasant sensation to be healed, even though usually Toph would pretty much object to it. This time, however, she sent a triumphant smirk at her adversary, quietly bending a thin spire of stone to the back of the mattress he was on and poking him hard in the back. He let out a small 'ouch', probably to capture Katara's attention, but before he even finished uttering it, the small stone spire was gone.

Katara seemed completely oblivious to what had just transpired, being too focused on her colleague's wounds to notice it.

Soon, they were joined by Sokka, who came in, sighed of relief at seeing his younger peer, said hello and retreated to his corner of the room. Obviously still depressed from what she had said to him before.

Suddenly, the injured boy tensed, rising up to a sitting position once more, and getting up from the bed. Katara finally looked up from Toph's wounds as he did so, "What's wrong? You should rest…" But before she could complete the sentence, he answered.

"I forgot to feed my pig-rat, he's ill. I'll be right back." And at that, he walked, slightly tentatively out of the room. Toph couldn't tell what happened, but the change in his breathing was sudden, and extreme. She turned her head after him, trying to sense where he was going. She couldn't track him much after he had left the vicinity of the inn, and as Katara finally broke her sad gaze from the door and returned to tending her wounds, she resolved to wait until he had returned. Though Sokka didn't, this sent another triumphant smile to the Earthbender's face.

"I should go with him, he's still pretty weak." Both Katara and Toph looked at him appreciatively, though both from very different reasons.

"Thank you Sokka." Katara said, at the same time Toph whispered, "Thanks Sokka." And he left.

000

The nameless boy was speeding around the village, twisting and turning in the surrounding terrain, sometimes stopping in a desolate spot to wait and check if he was followed, and after he was confident that if he was followed, then he had lost his stalkers, he proceeded to the edge of the bordering forest. Someone was Firebending there, and he could feel it.

She couldn't have come here so quickly, she wouldn't have, how could she expect him to have finished his assignment by now?

And as he approached the source of the Firebending his suspicions were confirmed, as the girl Firebending in front of him to scare a porcupine-boar was non other than Azula, princess of the Fire Nation…