Chapter Four: A Good Conversation
Toph and her three traveling companions stood at the edge of the village, just after the sun glimpsed from above the woods at them. Li didn't come to send them off, to Toph's immense displeasure. She'd have liked to say something, anything. To her it seemed that not only she has wounded him physically, but now, also mentally.
She felt the others turn to look at her, for she was still facing in the direction of the village. She turned around and began walking, but then she felt that ticklish feeling again, like she was blinded.
She turned in spot, and her companions with her, she heard screams, she heard pleads for help. She could smell the burning houses, burning wood, burning hay, burning flesh.
"He's burning the village!" Sokka yelled, and she felt him move next to her.
"We have to help them!" Aang yelled, and all took to run over to the village, when suddenly, Toph's sight became much more limited, due to a wall of flame rising in their path.
Aang and the Water Tribe siblings merely sprinted through it, but Toph, blind to what was going on at the village was too afraid to do so. She'd be no help if she couldn't see properly there, she'd only distract them.
But then, after a moment or so of anxious anticipation, the villagers' screams died out… Toph breathed as sigh of relief, to be exchanged by a gasp of terror, as a new set of screams rose from the village, her friends'. After a moment of trying to gather the nerve to go past the wall of flame, Toph heard something whistle as it soared through the air, and barely stepped aside in time to dodge it. When it struck the ground, she recognized it immediately; the prolonged object now lodged in the soil before her was Aang's staff.
"No! Leave them alone!" The Earthbending master screamed, sending flying boulders everywhere she could in the direction of the village; raising her arms quickly and punching the boulders powerfully, without aim.
And then the laughter came, Li's laughter, from behind her. Before she could turn around however, she was grabbed by the back of her neck, and lifted to the air.
"No! Let me go!" She commanded, punching and kicking at the air.
The laughter kept coming, and the back of her neck suddenly felt warm, hot, flaming. She was burning, she was on fire! She screamed with all of her lungs, thrashing wildly in the assassin's grip, until he finally relinquished.
000
It took her a long time to figure out that the assassin's hand grabbing her was no more than the strap of her bag on her back, and that she was having a very terrible nightmare. She felt Katara's soothing hand against her forehead, and the Waterbender shushed her gently.
"It's all right Toph, you had a nightmare…" Katara assured her.
"A pretty nasty one," She heard Sokka suppose, and she began reaching out with her senses to see who was in the room. She expected Momo, Sokka, Katara and Aang, but her heart clouded and her hair stood on end when she also felt Li in the same room, and she crawled backwards, pushing herself against the wall, to get away from him.
"Toph, it's okay, no one's going to hurt you." Aang said, approaching her, yet keeping a certain distance, giving her space.
"You have a fever Toph. Aang; we can't go on when she has a fever." She heard Katara say, "She needs rest."
"Then you're going to stay?" Li asked; his tone unreadable, "What if that Fire Nation guy comes back?"
"We'll just have to deal with him," Sokka answered, "As of now; we don't go anywhere alone, only in pairs and Li, we've already told you it was dangerous to be around us. Last night you could've been hurt."
"Living here is always dangerous, what with the porcupine boars always around." Li argued, "And I can take care of myself!"
"Fine, have it your way, no one ever listens to the sane one!" Sokka called indignantly.
"Funny, I remember the last time we listened to you we were almost buried under the desert with a giant owl." Katara said; her tone however, was not as amused as it would be.
"How was I supposed to know the owl would freak out like that?" Sokka yelled in indignation.
"Could you be more quiet Sokka?" Aang asked softly, and Toph had no doubt that he was looking at her. Katara removed her soothing hand from Toph's forehead, and despite very much wanting to call out for her not to, the Earthbender remained silent, contemplating.
"I'm gonna go." Li said suddenly, "I've got an idea." He continued, then elaborating. "Katara said yesterday that the assassin was surprised to learn that I was there, right? Well, if he doesn't know I'm with you, I can pretend to be exploring, and find out where he's hiding!"
"Yeah… no." Sokka answered immediately, "Too dangerous, if you find him, he might kill you."
"You're not my dad, you can't tell me what to do!" Li said, and Toph could hear the thump that meant Li had just kicked Sokka in the shin.
"Ow!" Sokka yelled, and Toph could feel him jumping on one foot. She suddenly felt Momo landing next to her on the floor, purring as he rubbed his head against her cheek.
"I'm gonna do it, I'm telling you, I'll be fine, I promise! Bye!" Li quickly said, and before anyone could argue, he left.
"I have half a mind to let him get burned down by that Firebender." Sokka said flatly, and Toph imagined him rubbing his shin, she wouldn't be able to tell though, since he was now sitting on his bed.
"Look, what are the chances a twelve years old would be able to find a trained assassin?" Katara asked, "Though, I've got to say that there's something about that one…"
"Yeah, he pops up at all the wrong places, and how come I've never seen him talking to anyone else from the village?" Sokka wondered.
"Thinking about it, have you seen anyone of this village at all besides the innkeeper? It's almost like they're afraid of us." Aang pointed out, and Toph could feel him walking around restlessly.
"We should just get out of here… I'll be fine…" she said weakly, "This place is just… wrong."
"No Toph, if the assassin catches us on the road, with you sick and all, he's going to use that against us." Aang contradicted her. "The best thing we can do now is stick together; we have to be on our guard. Like Sokka said, we shouldn't go anywhere alone."
"If that means I'm gonna have to take that pervert with me when I go to the bathroom then I think I'd rather face the assassin." Toph replied, trying to get some laughs out of the situation. Aang and Katara laughed, and Sokka resented.
"That was not the idea I had in mind when I said that." He claimed, stomping on the floor with his foot and crossing his arms, Aang and Katara still laughing.
000
Ty Lee and Mai were both relaxing, Mai sitting on the ground, leaning against the trunk of a tree, and Ty Lee hanging upside down from one of the lower branches.
"Ah, how I'd like to just go in that village in the middle of the night and just grab that cutie…" She said, eyes sparkling.
"And then what would you do with him? I don't think he'll be really cooperative, seeing that he's our enemy and all." Mai stated dully, yawning.
"Oh, but that's the beauty of it… He doesn't have to be cooperative. Well, not at first anyway... But I'm sure I'll manage to… persuade him…" Ty Lee gave an upside down, mischievous smile at her partner.
"Right… if there's one thing that scares me, Ty Lee, it's the thought that you might one day have children." Mai said monotonically.
"Ooh, I haven't thought that far ahead yet!" Ty Lee said, her voice loaded with excitement, "Do you really think he'll want to?"
"No, Ty Lee, I think he'll be too busy trying to bite off the rope you'll tie him up with." Mai answered, though without a shade of amusement in her voice.
"Hmph, look who's talking, miss Zuko…" Ty Lee said, nimbly lifting herself up to a sitting position on her branch and jumping to a higher one.
"Shut up." Mai warned, though blushing slightly.
"Mai and Zuzu sitting in a tree… K. I. S. S… whoa!" Ty Lee cried of surprise, as a small ball of flame just nearly missed her face, she reeled back, almost losing her balance, but then straightened up again.
"Quiet you two," The newly arrived Azula called, approaching them now.
"Hi Azula!" Ty Lee called cheerfully as though her trusted leader did not just shoot a flaming orb at her, swinging down to the ground, "So where've you been?"
Azula smiled coldly to that question, and sufficed by saying, "Making arrangements…" The gymnast and her glum partner exchanged glances, when Azula was this mysterious; it usually meant she had something big up her sleeve.
"Let's go." The leader ordered, and her companions hastened to comply.
000
"Maybe we can talk the assassin out of killing us?" Aang asked hopefully.
"Actually…" Toph mentioned, "When he attacked me the first time, he said he wasn't sure his orders were worth killing us. But afterwards I didn't give him much time to talk."
"Great, we're being chased by an assassin with morality conflicts," Sokka said dejectedly, now standing. He then proceeded to a pretty much unfounded impersonation of the assassin, "Wait, I don't know if it's all right to kill you, oh well, I have my orders, whoosh." At that he mimicked a Firebending move he caught in the numerous times they were attacked by Fire Nation soldiers.
"Hold on a minute…" Aang said suddenly, apparently looking at Sokka, "Katara, did you recognize any of the moves he used on us? I mean, from the other Firebenders we've fought?" He asked.
"Uh, no actually, I don't think I've ever seen a Firebender fight like that before." Katara said ponderingly.
"I think it kind of makes sense, I mean, if he's the best assassin they have he must be sent out for very powerful and experienced people right?" Sokka asked and Toph nodded.
"Yeah, he said he "met" with some of the mightiest Earth Generals of the time…"
"Well, obviously, having fought so many Firebenders they'd know what to expect right? But if he uses his own style of Firebending, that only he knows, he doesn't just take away that advantage from his targets, but also adds the advantage of surprise to himself." Sokka elucidated.
"Like Toph, she has her own Earthbending style, so most Earthbenders would have a hard time figuring out what she's doing." Katara agreed.
"Okay, so we're dealing with an insanely powerful, trained, conflicted and unexpected assassin. That's just great." Sokka called hopelessly.
"That's not helping Sokka." Katara said irritably, and Toph could feel her tapping her foot impatiently on the ground.
"He said he'll let us go if we left Aang, what if we left and joined you in Ba Sing Se?" She offered.
"No, Katara, think!" Sokka said exasperatedly, "Azula knows we're here, once we separate from Aang, she'll be all over him like a swarm of vulture-bees!"
"He's right," Toph agreed, "The only thing we can do is fight back, hard, and hope we win."
"He knows us though, he'll find a way to separate us again, I'm sure he will." She continued, "All we have to do is take him out before he figures out how to do that. I feel bad for saying it, but if we can get Li to find out where he's hiding, that would be our best shot." Toph couldn't tell, but she had a pretty strong feeling that Katara was sending her a very dirty look.
"Let's just hope the kid doesn't get himself burnt." Sokka agreed, and after a moment, in which Katara undoubtedly threw him a dirty look, he said, "What? He wanted to do it! I told him not to! Ow!" Another clunk was heard, and undoubtly Katara had kicked Sokka in the shin as well.
"Did you have to kick the same one?" He asked heatedly.
While the two Water Tribe siblings argued, Aang sat down near Toph, scratching Momo's back.
"How're you feeling?" He asked her.
"Not so good, Twinkle-Toes…" Toph responded mock-conversationally, "I've been attacked twice by an assassin yesterday. How's it going with you?"
Aang let out a small chuckle, and a sigh, "We'll come through… We always do…" he said finally.
"Yeah, but then, we never really needed Sokka…" She smiled slyly at Aang, who snorted with laughter.
No one seemed inclined to leave their room in the inn that morning, and excruciatingly slowly, the afternoon crept up on them. Toph still wasn't at her best, and the others were getting increasingly nervous and paranoid, Sokka mentioning a few times that the assassin might just set the building aflame and let them burn inside of it.
So it was no surprise, when Li came back, that he had Sokka's boomerang, Katara's water, and Aang's staff aimed at him.
"Uh, it's just me." He quickly said, raising his arms to show his non hostile intentions. "Have you been staying here the whole time?"
"Well Li, some of us are not interested in coming face to face with a Firebender set on killing them." Sokka answered.
"So you're going to let him keep you all locked up inside? Isn't that what he wants?" He questioned, leaning on his left leg, which was positioned slightly behind the right one.
"If we go out he'll just ambush us again." Katara replied, her voice filled with frustration.
"So… you'll stay here, where you're sitting ducks and wait?" Li asked, "I mean, no disrespect and all, but I'm twelve and I could think of a better plan."
"But Toph's sick, we can't just move on while she's with fever." Aang argued, to which Toph had the strange feeling Li glanced at her.
"Oh, right… her." He said, his tone dropped when he said the last word, and it was apparent that his sympathy towards Toph was very limited after her constant accusations of him being a Firebender.
"Well you're the avatar! And you're a Waterbender! And uh… he has a boomerang…." He stated.
Sokka took a deep breath, probably in order to yell that he could very much defend himself, but Katara interjected.
"Li if it was that simple, there really wouldn't be a problem!" She said.
"I guess… well in any case, I convinced that old fraud of a merchant to open up shop. So you should probably go and get supplies, and do it quickly, he might close shop at any moment, that wimp." He suggested, and then adding "After last night everyone are scared to go out of their homes."
"Thank you Li, that's thoughtful of you." Katara said appreciatively, getting up on her feet, "Would it be okay if we leave you here with Toph?" She asked.
"But the assassin!" Sokka cried, and Katara placed her hands on her hips.
"We'll only be gone for a short while, and it's a small village, if anything happens we'll be right back!"
"Oh fine, but you'd better not try to steal anything, I'll check!" He threatened.
"Like I need your junk, funny-man, remember the door opens outwards." Li flung at the warrior, giggling as he did.
"Oh very funny," Sokka said exasperatedly, letting himself be dragged off by Katara, who was following Aang outside, muttering.
"We'll be right back."
Toph could feel them leaving the inn along with Momo, who flew over to Aang's shoulder once he stood up.
Toph waited in silence for several moments, but felt she had to say something to Li, but before she could, Li himself talked.
"I swear, I'm starting to like you guys too much." Li stopped her before she even started. "Frankly I'm just as confused as you are." His voice suddenly sounded not older than his age, but somehow more mature.
Toph couldn't understand what he was talking about, she turned to face him, and he sat down in front of her.
"They picked me out as a baby you know, to be an assassin." Toph's milky-green eyes widened, was she hallucinating again? How could Li be the assassin? Or were there two of them, as she suspected?
"So they took you away from your parents?" She asked conversationally, deciding to go along with it for now.
"No, they took my parents away from me, and they keep me under the constant threat of their death." He told sadly, "that's why I have to do what I do."
"Am I imagining this, or is Li the assassin?" The Earthbender asked directly, hoping to finally get an answer for her questions.
"Could be both, could be neither, you can never tell." The assassin said mysteriously then proceeding to a short tale.
"I once met an Earth General, called General Shan; he had invented his own style of fighting. In battles, instead of physically engaging in combat, he'd use his bending to create a creature, made out of rock, which he would use to crush his opponents. The creature was gigantic, so big in fact, that most Firebending would not affect it in the least bit. He called it a Golem. So I had to think fast, as even my outstanding Firebending could not destroy the beast completely, seeing as the general kept replenishing it with his bending. I observed that while controlling the Golem, the general was very vulnerable, the problem was, that I could not reach him, due to the creature defending him. So on the spot, I invented my very own technique, the Phoenix, and I used it to not to dodge around the Golem, but to go straight through it, the general, still busy with controlling the Golem didn't have enough time to raise his defense and thus, he was defeated."
"Get to the point." Toph said coolly.
"I'll let you think about that." He replied evenly. Afterwards, he remained silent, apparently waiting for Toph to say something.
"So you really don't know whether you should kill us or not?" The Earthbending master asked finally, slightly taken off guard by the assassin's anecdote.
"I don't want to kill you, but you must understand I don't have any choice. That's why I'm trying to get you away from the Avatar. I know you hate me, and frankly, I don't know what to make of it. I guess that's the price I have to pay." He said.
"If you joined us, we could help you free your parents." Toph offered, to which he refused.
"If they even think I've betrayed them, they'll kill my parents, and they'll send everything they have at me. If I travel with you, I'll only make your journey that much more dangerous, imagine trying to fight off the entire army of the Fire Nation… No it won't work, and I know what you're thinking, but I was never meant to teach Aang Firebending." He said in a rush, "Besides, I'm too tainted. I killed too many people, the blood on my hands will never be washed off."
"Everyone deserves to be forgiven, if you turn your back on the past and act to redeem yourself, and help us bring peace to the world, I'm certain the spirits of those you killed would be able to forgive you." Toph asserted firmly, "But not if you keep feeling sorry for yourself and do as the Fire Nation tells you. If you're going to change, you have to do it now, or it won't matter, if you show remorse, and if you act to make things right again, you'll have a chance. But if you don't try, then you're wasting your time talking to us, and you might as well focus on just killing us." She finished, speaking fiercely.
"This has been a good conversation, Toph, thank you." The assassin stated, to the Earthbender's confusion.
"What do you mean a good conversation?" She questioned, slightly bewildered.
"I gave you something to think about, and you gave me something to think about. That is what a good conversation is. Farewell." And before she could even say another word to him, everything seemed to change.
She rose up from her bed and rubbed her eyes, "Was I sleeping?" She asked no one in particular.
"Were you ever," Answered Sokka's amused voice, "You were actually snoring for a while there." He chortled.
"What time is it?" She asked sleepily, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.
"Past sundown," Toph placed her legs on the floor, so now she could feel Sokka right in front of her.
"Where're the others?" The blind girl asked, not feeling them anywhere nearby.
"Li went home to check on his pig rat, and Aang and Katara are trying to figure out how to refill the village's well, seeing that the assassin vaporized it and all that."
"So they had a pervert like you watch over me while I sleep?" She asked mockingly.
"Yup, actually, I must say you're pretty cute when you sleep. I like you much better that way." He retorted, sounding very much amused, that is, until Toph tapped her foot on the floor and sent a small rock right at his shin. Then he sounded in pain.
"Would you people stop it with the shin!?" He cried, clutching said part in agony.
Toph didn't answer him, she just laid back on the bed again and began wondering whether her latest encounter with the assassin was a dream, or whether the assassin really was Li. She just didn't know anymore if she could trust her senses. And of course, a grim smile spread on her face as she thought that, that's exactly what the assassin aimed for.
She simply strengthened her earlier decision to bury the assassin up to his head in the earth, and added a pack of carnivorous, rabid, Hyena-Tigers.