Burn My Dread FES

By Iain R. Lewis

Disclaimer: Characters and concepts belong to Nickelodeon, some of the concepts are similarly inspired by Persona 3 and Persona 4, property of ATLUS games.

"When the moon's reaching stars, you won't leave me again. If I could ever tell you that, you wouldn't leave me..."

- When the Moon's Reaching Out the Stars - Reincarnation-

Yumi Kawamura

Chapter 21: The Stars of Solitude

"This place looks abandoned." Katara pursed her lips as she ran her hand over the black steel frame of the corridor. "Like we're all alone in here."

"That's impossible," Azula said, "Zuko's in here somewhere. I can just feel it." The hard soles of the dress shoes, a part of the Phoenix School uniform, tapped against the floor, sending an echo deeper into the blackness. The red lights cast everyone in monochrome, red and black.

"I wonder where we are," Katara continued, "Where do these cartoon supervillains usually put their secret bases, Sokka?"

"Huh? Well, in the old cartoons, they could be anywhere. The bottom of the ocean to outer space to even just under the city. We could be anywhere!"

Azula agreed with the assessment. The way the corridor was costructed seemed to allow it to be completely closed off from the rest of the building. A breach underwater or in space would definitely be disastrous without such measures. Her brother could be amazingly thorough in his imagination.

"We shouldn't spend our time admiring the archtecture," she said, firmly. "I think we're making Toph jealous."

"Ha ha."

"Regardless," Azula continued, "We don't have long. Considering Zuko's temper and how he was behaving earlier, I would not expect it will take long for that Stranger self to provoke him. If we want to find Zuzu alive, we have to hurry."

"Definitely," Katara agreed. "Looks like this place is pretty simple for a maze. Just walk forward, right?"

"Right," Yue said. "It's just like you said, Katara. This place feels empty. I advise caution. Nothing is ever what it appears to be."

"No need to tell me twice." Azula straightened her hair. She didn't even notice it coming undone earlier. Peculiar. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and slowly crept down the long, empty corridor.

In the distance, static crackled on monitors placed along the top of the walls. It was the only sound besides their own footsteps and it was a relief to finally break the monotony of the sound of their breathing.

"Usually, on the show, the villain's minions would be hard at work constructing an evil army for him to take over the world with," Sokka said. "Explains some of the decorations, actually." Along the ground, abandoned tools and futuristic looking weaponry abounded. They littered the floor with total abandon.

"Maybe Zuzu decided to beat them up," Azula suggested, idly.

"Oh man, he could totally do it with his bare hands," Sokka said, "The villains in these shows were laughable. It was worse when it was all real actors in foam suits, too."

"Sokka, Zuko beat up spirits with his bare hands," Katara reminded him. "I think it'd be a bit unfair."

"Yeah, true," he said, smirking, "Oh, those were the days. Just Zuko and me, beating up spirits in a show of manly manliness. No doubt these tv shows helped."

"Oh, I'm sure you both learned how to defend our world from the evil Spirit World by watching actors in silly multi-colored uniforms fight men in foam suits. Real manly," Katara teaseed.

"Hey! Color coordination is important for manliness."

"Sure it is."

"Here," Yue said, "This door. I sense something on the other end of it. Something powerful." She shivered, "Something evil."

"That's our guy," Toph said. "Best maze ever."

"Don't let your guard down," Azula said. "I know my brother. He's probably repressed all of this since he was seven. This one's going to be much stronger than the rest, mark my words."

"Is that a hint of pride I detect?" Sokka asked, grinning, "Are you actually impressed?"

"Maybe," she said. A smirk played on her lips, and she pressed the doorway. It was some futuristic barrier, hexagonal in shape with lights shaped like arrows adorning the door for no reason that Azula could discern. She tried pressing the arrows, but nothing happened. She scanned it from ceiling to floor and wall to wall, and saw a small console to the right.

The crackling of the static was louder here. A monitor overhead gave a little bit of gray light to break the monotony of the red. "I wish those things would stop," Toph said. "Can't hear myself think."

"No kidding," Sokka said. "What are you playing with over there, Azula?"

"The door's locked. I believe this should unlock it," she said. "It requires a password. I've tried every combination I can think of. Student ID, security clearance code for the Phoenix Group's lab complexes, father's birthday -"

Sokka looked at the console. He hemmed and hawwed as he drew his finger over the buttons, looing at them with a critical, studious eye. Then, he closed his eyes, and sighed. "I'm baffled."

"Then why are you even trying."

"Try his favorite pet's name!"

"Zuzu was allergic to most household pets."

"Oh," Toph shrugged, "Aren't you rich, though? You should have cloned a sky bison. Those things sounded awesome!"

"Maybe it's Ozai?" Katara suggested. Azula pressed a few buttons and got a red light for her troubles. "Or... what was your mother's name?"

Azula froze. "My mother's name?"

"Yeah. He was really close with his mom, I heard."

Azula frowned. "It's worth a try," she said. She slowly drew her fingers over the characters. That should have been the first thing she tried. Now she didn't know how to feel, embarrassed or angry. After a few seconds, the light went from red to yellow to green, and the door slid open.

The static was cut off by a loud, unintelligible shriek, and the monitor flipped from static to an inhuman visage. The image was distorted and deformed, looking less like a face than a series of features constantly shifting in color and form.

The shriek hurt their ears, dragging like nails across a blackboard.

And then just as suddenly as it came, it was gone. The static had disappeared, and a black monitor stared back blankly. "What was that?" Toph asked.

"I don't know," Katara said, her voice trembling just slightly. "Do you think that's... it? Zuko's other side... his Stranger?"

"It could be." Azula frowned. "There's only one way to find out. Yue, is that presence still there?"

"Yes," she said, "It is definitely waiting for us. I don't see any other way to proceed but through this door."

"Well, let's not keep him waiting too long. I'm looking forward to meeting my brother's Stranger." Azula straightened. Perfect posture, perfect composure. Every detail, perfect, just the way she liked it. It was time to proceed.

"Okay, let's get going," Sokka agreed. He drew his sword, keeping it in front of him. "And be careful. He may already be in super deformed monster mode!"

"If he was, we'd be too late," Azula snapped.

"Right. Let's keep positive. I'm sure Zuko's all right," Katara said. With that thought in mind, they stepped through the gateway.

0000000

The way the room was structured, it was hard to believe anyone could navigate it. It was carved into a cavern, with the black steel giving way to deep brown earth and dirt. The moment Toph's hands felt the familiar course rocks, her cloudy eyes lit up. They were standing on a platform made of the mysterious alloy, which rounded the cavern almost completely.

Overhead, more platforms were and doorways were carved into the cavern. It was large enough a cave that they seemed to interweave like visual illusions. But most peculiar was the positioning of the doors in regards to the platforms.

"You'd fall if you came in that way," Sokka said. And that seemed to be the case. It was especially clear of a platform that rounded the cave above them. The door was below the platform! There were several others just like it. Some of the platforms were even sideways.

But there was something else. "Behind these walls, I feel something. Kind of like metal underneath."

"What?" Azula looked at the wall, a long expanse of stone from the cave, "Why would someone make a facade here?"

The lights in the room dimmed as soon as she asked that, and there was a sound of machinery coming to life. "Ack! What did you do!" Toph asked.

"Don't blame me. It was probably your earthbending," Azula snapped back.

"I can't do this with earthbending, Spice Girl."

"Well, how do you expect me ... to..." her voice trailed off as the wall moved, split into two. The metal frame underneath was connected to a series of machines that revealed a large window. "We're in space." She stated it as monotonously as she could, but even that couldn't disguise the wonder she felt.

The asteroid field seemed to go on long into eternity, stretching deep into a orange and violet nebula, where thousands of small glimmering points of light danced in and out of their sight. A comet streaked through the sky, wrapping around a distant planetoid and continuing into the nearby warmth of the red star.

"It's beautiful," Katara breathed.

"Yes, it is, isn't it?" Yue seemed less impressed, but it was more out of familiarity. "The sky looks so much different when you're amongst it."

"Tell me about it."

"What's so special about space. It's a whole lot of nothing."

"Well, Toph," Katara said, "How to put this. It's like the ground. I bet you can feel pretty deep down, right?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Well, imagine you were feeling that up close instead of from far away."

"Oh. So it's dirt and mud, only spacey. Cool."

Azula rolled her eyes.

"Hey, what's that?" Sokka asked. He pointed at a point of light that had appeared suddenly. By the time the others turned to look, what it was became abundantly clear. It seared across the sky, a beam of light, and collided with the structure of the base. A loud klaxon sounded and the source of the beam appeared. A large flagship, surrounded by a small fleet of warships, appeared in the sky. Their metal frames were painted red by the red starlight.

"We're under attack! Why are we under attack?"

"Why are you asking me, Sokka?" Toph asked, annoyed, "Let me take a look. Oh, yeah, they're totally ticked at you."

"Why? Wait - stop doing that!" He grumbled, and then was shocked by into, well, shock by another rumbling from the barrage of laser fire. "We need to retaliate. There's got to be a retaliate button around here somewhere."

"It's their daily show of force. They'll be destroyed momentarily. If the asteroid field does not finish them... Hah! I will!"

The voice came from behind them. Nearly directly behind them. Azula slowly turned around, concocting in that short moment a hundred plans for retaliation. None of them involved her falling into a fit of hysterical laughter, but, some things just can't be planned for.

The ridiculous blue uniform. Part spandex, part foam armor shaped almost like a classic Fire Nation army uniform's spaulders, he looked like he'd just stepped off of a sentai set. The mask was the most ridiculous part. A large visor that hid his face was designed to look like the smiling mask of an Oni, pushing the rest of its features to the top of the helmet like small ornamentation.

That wasn't what did it, though, it was the ridiculous pose he'd assumed.

Katara was doing her best not to fall into the same fit. Only Toph seemed to be taking this with any sort of weight. "How did you sneak up on us!"

"That part was easy," the Stranger said, nodding his head in an exaggerated fashion. "Your focus was on my enemy, so I used that as an opportunity. I see you are skilled at Earthbending. It shows in the way you hold yourself. Do not think - hi-yah! - that I am some pushover."

The red lighting faded as the rest of the facility came alight. The cavern was filled to the brim with monitors, most of them around the center, The Stranger leapt up into the air from his martial art pose, and landed on the center platform. "Allow me to demonstrate the power of the Orika-Zartarian Artificial Intelligence Mainframe, our Glorious Leader!"

The monitors came to life with the distorted features, each one a small part in a massive screen that wrapped around the central support. The loud noise it made echoed and mulitplied out of speakers set around the cavern. The entire asteroid seemed to shake. "Watch in wonder at the power of the Kaiser Cannon!"

Azula snorted, "Those poses... I can't stop laughing. Zuzu, stop it!"

"Zuzu? I know not who that is. I am Spirit Blue! Servent of the Glorious OZAI Mainframe!"

"Um, yikes," Sokka said, "Daddy issues."

"You won't find this so amusing when you see for yourself his omnipotent power." He pointed to the window, using his whole body to accentuate the motion, "Behold! My mighty cannon!"

The ray was only a tiny point of light compared to the full on assault from the fleet. Still it cut a line through them slowly. And while it didn't seem to do anything, Spirit Blue did not seem to flinch. In fact, he seemed to be waiting cockily.

"You missed!" Sokka teased.

"Did I?"

A moment later, the fleet exploded. A large, blinding light enveloped them, and when the light faded, all that was left was space rubble. Katara muttered, "He missed, huh?"

"How was I supposed to know his cannon totally rules?"

"Ah, there will be more shortly. They will no doubt use this time to - Kiyah! - attack while the Kaiser Cannon restarts." Martial art strikes interspersed his sentances. "Now, I must be off to illuminate my prisoner on the glories of the Orika-Zartan Galactic Empire. You are welcome to join me if you like."

"Zuko!" Katara said, "He must mean Zuko!"

"Of course he does."

"Oh, you know this one?" Spirit Blue asked. "He will soon understand the truth of this world." A pause, and then an overexaggerated nod, "The Glory of the OZAI Mainframe!"

"Stop right there," Azula said, "We won't let you do anything to that prisoner. That's my job."

"I do not believe you'll be able to stop me," Spirit Blue said. He placed a hand on a nearby console, "Not without gravity at any rate." He pulled a lever.

"Whoa! Whoa hey!" Sokka shouted as his feet started to float just above the ground, "What's going on?"

"He must have been generating gravity somehow," Azula muttered, "Despite this being impossible, I mean."

"Newsflash, Spice Girl, somehow he did the impossible."

"I've long ago disregarded science and reason, I'm simply stating. Anyhow, as long as we remain calm and proceed in an orderly fashion, I'm sure we can manage somehow. Perhaps if I airbend, I can create some manner of momentum and -"

"I would advise you to move quickly, the next wave of attacks should be here shortly. I will leave you to your demise, now. A-ha Haha Ha!"

He vanished in a bolt of blue light, leaving the console completely unguarded. Azula grinned, "That idiot. Acting like a bad serial villain." She floated about aimlessly. The sensation was strange. Unlike airbending, which seemed to allow her to push the air around her to let her control the speed and height of her jumps - an ability that was actually more fun than useful most of the time, but she could understand why he would do so at any opportunity - the feeling of floating was, well it was hard to put into terms.

She was moving entirely on momentum, of which she still hadn't built much up, and if she were to be honest, which she was not entirely inclined to be, the idea of using airbending to move around made her nervous. It wasn't exactly known for its finnesse, and there was no guarantee that she'd be able to judge the exact amount of force it'd take to stop.

But, she wasn't inclined to share that. "I'll be just a minute."

"Whatever. I'll just float here and have no idea what's going on."

"Me too," Sokka agreed, "Only not in the same way."

Azula scowled. She really didn't need the encouragement from the peanut gallery. She concentrated on bending. Moving without her feet probably wasn't quite safe, but she wasn't about to get anything consequential out of them except maybe some impotent flailing.

She hated flailing.

Despite that, she seemed to move with enough grace, following a slow kata with her arms until releasing a light and careful gust. She began to float towards the console, slowly. "Hurry, Azula, we don't have long."

"This takes time, Katara," she retorted.

"Well, I'm sorry to rush you, then," she said, sweetly, "I'll just tell those mean old ships to not fire on us for a few minutes."

"Already?" Azula nearly lost her cool.

"Yes, already!"

"Hey, why are we worrying. The last bunch just rattled up the place a bit."

"This time that big old cannon is offline, Snoozles."

"Toph's right. The worst case is this place will be blown open, and we'll be dragged out into space. This place may have gravity generators and science ninjas or whatever it is they're called, but space still seems to be as deadly as ever." Azula frowned, "And even if they didn't, we'd be thrown in every direction. We'd be separated."

"Oh," Sokka looked a bit embarrassed. "Sorry."

Azula punched another gust outwards, a bit stronger this time. "This may take some time. Try and hold on to something."

Another gust, much stronger than the first two, threw her calculations off. She was hurtling towards the console too fast. She needed to provide an equal and opposite force. Spinning her body mid-air, she thrust her hands forward. She couldn't overdo it, though, she just needed to slow down a little.

"Azula! Hurry!" Katara shouted, "They're firing!"

She could almost reach out and grab it. She needed to slow down just a little more, then she could reach it and try and figure out which button would restore some sense of normalcy. She didn't like how Zuko's Stranger had turned her world, well, up-side down.

"Just hold on," Azula said, "I'm nearly there."

"Oh dear, she's not going to make it," Yue whimpered. It only served to hurt Azula's pride. She would make it. Just a little further. No doubt the button would present itself if she just looked over the console.

She couldn't for the life of her read what was written on the keys.

"Here it comes! Brace yourselves!" Katara shouted.

The barrage hit. Rubble dislodged from the asteroid's walls, and the Bending Club was tossed about wildly through the maze of asteroid rock and twisting pathways.

"Ouch."

"I'll say! That was really cool, how you used Airbending to move around, but I think you overdid it. I'm really getting worried about you, Azula. Things are getting worse in the labyrinth, too."

"Oh, it's you."

The suite looked about the same as ever. Velvet drapes still hung over a window in the farside of the room, behind the boy in the sun mask. He looked like he'd been playing a game with the cards, possibly to alleviate boredom. He really didn't seem the type to like being locked inside a weird purple room.

Nor was she, in fact, "Take me back. I don't have time."

"You'll be back when you wake up. Unfortunately, I can't hurry that up. For the time being, let's sit and talk." He indicated the seat she'd woken up in. She looked at it distastefully. "See? You're already seated, so why not?"

"What do you have in mind, Lee?"

"Umm, that's a bit of a tricky question," he said, "Are you sure you don't know me?"

"I am. However, I want to know what you're doing visiting my teammates when their Strangers attack them."

"Strangers? Weird name, but it fits!" he said, "And there's no ulterior motives. They needed some support on the inside as well, and all of them are tied to this room, just... you more than anyone else. I don't know how else to explain it."

"This is all a bad dream."

"Well, yes," he said, "This is all in your dreams, but it's also not. It's really strange. Avatars past share one spirit, so they were able to meet each other through meditation. The hows and whys of this place are a bit different, but the results are the same."

"What are you talking about?" she muttered. He was gabbing a mile-a-minute and she barely understood what he was even saying. Finding out what he meant was another story entirely.

"Oh, um, well, basically, all of you are tied together by the red string of fate," he said, "These bonds of friendship are so strong, not even the most powerful spirit to ever live could break them. Unfortunately, they've lost some of their luster." He seemed sad.

"Well, unfortunately, I don't consider them friends. And they definitely don't see me as a friend. At best, I'm an asset."

"That's not true. and you know it."

She looked at him, clearly unimpressed. "Anyhow. What does it matter? I just don't want Zuzu's silly little other side defeat me. I'm simply superior in every way."

He shook his head sadly, "Oh, Azula."

"Besides. I owe him retribution for what he did to me."

"I'm sorry. I'm sure he didn't mean to do it. He's under a lot of stress. A lot a lot."

"Oh, and how would you know?"

"I know Zuko," he said, "He's always been single-minded. It's admirable when he's got a clear goal, but when he doesn't, he's kind of lost."

"I suppose that's true. Good instinct, Lee. However, I can't help but feel you're cheating somehow."

Lee laughed. "I guess it comes across like that! But really, that's only what I picked up, no special magic cheating this time."

"Oh? This time? Did you use them some other time?"

"Ah - well, that's kind of a secret."

Azula smirked. "Oh, I see. Is that how you wish to play this."

Lee laughed. "I suppose it is! This is fun!" he seemed to relax visibly in his seat for the first time since she'd entered the room. And, for some reason she couldn't quite place - did she want to? - it all felt natural. "But, Azula, I should warn you. This may be the last door inside the maze, but it's also the most dangerous."

"I am not surprised. Zuzu's a bit repressed."

"Not because of that! Do you remember Sokka's maze? Something entered it after you did, and changed it. This time, it arrived before you. You've probably noticed that things are off." Azula frowned. It would certainly explain the atmosphere of the place. "Please be careful. Your friends are counting on you to lead them through this ordeal."

She frowned, "I told you that they're not my friends."

"And I told you that you don't believe that," he responded, blithely.

She couldn't argue with him there. Not because he was right, not at all, but because she knew he would put his fingers in his ears and ignore all her protests. Childlike behavior, maybe, but Lee seemed far from normal.

"Anyway," Lee said, "Whatever this thing is, be careful. I'm worried about what you'll find, but this maze should take you right to the center of the labyrinth. You've nearly made it, Azula, so keep it up and keep positive, okay?"

Azula frowned. "What's in the center?"

"I don't know. Whenever I try and find out, something pushes me out. Be careful when you get there. I'll try and help if I can, however I can. I'm a little scared, but if I don't try I won't know what I can do." He looked a bit sad, "It's unfortunate we can't talk when you're not asleep, Azula. I really missed you, you know... Oh! Looks like you're waking up."

"Excellent," Azula answered. "I don't have time to waste."

"No. I'm worried about Zuko. Save him, Azula!"

Whenever Yue was alone, she tried to piece together the events that began everything. Her memories felt like shattered glass, and maybe that was the way for everyone. This place seemed to almost feed off of their memories just as much as trapping them there.

Azula was asleep, and the others, she couldn't be quite sure, but she assumed they'd been blown all about the secret base. Gravity was still an issue, but to her, it wasn't so bad to navigate. The moon moved with purpose through the sky, this was no different.

"Azula?" she regularly called out, to see if the other girl was awake. She'd been knocked out by a piece of debris before Yue could reach her, and she hadn't woken up since. She wished Katara were there, someone to help make sure nothing serious had happened. "Please wake up soon."

She returned to her thoughts. The pieces of glass were like a jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing. The Spirit World, the Garden, both of those were clear, but it was the space between. She just remembered being called by a distant and familiar voice. It was all in all quite a bother.

She tried to locate her friends again. It took a lot of concentration to find her way around the maze, and it wasn't quite as powerful as it was back in the Spirit World. The base seemed to wrap around itself like a coil, platforms going backwards and upside-down. She could sense someone just out of the range of her senses, like a shadow out of the corner of her eye.

And she felt, close to her, Azula. This was becoming something of an enigma. She'd been given the power of the Avatar mysteriously enough, but that wasn't the only thing different about her. Whatever it was, she'd barely noticed it when they first met in the garden, but as time passed, it became more and more noticeable.

Like, she didn't know how to put it, precisely. It was almost like she'd always been looking at Azula, but until now she couldn't see that behind her there stood something else - someone else. But that was a very bad analogy. Azula hadn't moved to reveal this other presence, rather, it was more as if she'd changed in her mentality.

Perplexing.

Still, in this world formed from the mind of one of her friends, these things were also just a little ominous. "Azula?"

She expected no response, and instead, got an annoyed grunt.

"Azula! You're awake!"

"Head hurts," she said, "Keep your voice down." She always said things like that with an edge to it, an unspoken threat. Yue, for her part, learned to ignore it.

"Sorry. You did hit your head hard."

"Where are the others?" She opened her eye trepidatiously, as if expecting the stimuli to send her headache roaring into full bore.

"I've been searching for them, but they're too far away to get an accurate read." She sighed, "I'll keep looking though." She smiled, "While you were asleep, I managed to solve the mystery of this door." She pointed to a door that was upside-down with the pathway leading to it seeming more like a ceiling to Azula's perspective. Yue was upside-down as well. Fantastic, Azula thought, just fantastic.

"Have there been any other attacks?"

"The last one stopped a little while ago. I think they must have gotten destroyed in the asteroid field. Poor things."

"They were trying to blast us. And I don't think they're on our side anymore than my brother's Stranger." Azula tried to spin herself around. How Yue moved so effortlessly in zero gravity was astounding. "Something's wrong about this place. It's like Sokka's world, only worse."

"Oh," Yue frowned, "I suppose that's possible."

"You can't sense it?" Azula asked. "This place is nearly abandoned. Something happened here."

"You're right, but it's hard to be certain."

"I'm never wrong. How hard was that?" she'd be on the same perspective as Yue soon, just a little - no, too much momentum.

"Do you need any help?"

"I've got it." She reached out for the rail of the platform. "We need to find a way to restore gravity to this complex."

"Yes, I agree." She looked a little nervous, "Unfortunately, the debris that knocked you out was only a small part of the damage. Most of it fell on the console."

"That figures," Azula said, dryly. "We'll have to find another terminal in the facility. You said you've worked out this door?"

"Azula, if you need any help-"

"I asked a question."

"Yes, I have! The password was Emperor."

"Good."

"Wasn't that clever of me?"

"Yes, yes," Azula said, She felt her feet brush against the floor. "There. All better." She felt sorry for the others. If she had this much difficulty getting oriented, the others would no doubt still be floating around aimlessly.

"Ha ha! They don't even slow down! This is awesome!" Toph cackled. The creatures, whatever they were, collided with the asteroid's rocky surface with enough force to send rubble flying into the gravity-less space. Toph's feet were cemented to the side wall. It seemed to be an elegant solution.

"Be careful, you nearly took me with them!" Katara shouted right back.

"Oh you're fine, Sweetness."

Katara and Sokka held onto the railing and watched the creature drag itself out of its crater, its silver carapace gleaming red from the emergency lights. It stretched out its six legs and raised its horn up threateningly, exposing the steel mask on its face. "This is ridiculous. What are these things made out of?"

"Oh relax, Snoozles. I got it." She punched the wall with enough force to dislodge a chunk of stone. "Hey! Beetlebreath, eat this!" She raised it up into the air like a volleyball serve and spiked it down The miniature asteroid sailed past Sokka's head and right into the beetle creature. Its mask shattered as the rest of its body returned to steel plating.

"Okay, I get you can't see us with this floating around, but can't you at least try and give us some warning so we can, y'know, move?"

"Got to keep you on your toes." She started stomping her feet along the side of the wall, "Come on! Let's move it!"

"Right," Sokka said, "You just nearly miss my head and I'm the one who needs to stay on his toes. That's some really creative logic, Toph."

"Thank you!"

"That wasn't a compliment." He sighed, "We need to find a terminal and get this gravity back on so we can find Azula and Yue."

"And what about the stupid other Zuko?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. What do you think, Katara?"

"I'm just worried about Zuko. He's been through a lot worse than we've ever been through," Katara said.

"He's tough," Toph said, "He'll manage."

"Yeah, I guess. I'm a bit worried about what we'll find in his doorways," she continued, "We might see Mom."

Sokka frowned, and shook his head, "It'll be okay, Katara. For all we know, there's only one door and we'll never even see it."

"Oh yeah?" Katara said, wryly, "Then what do you call that?"

Sokka sighed, hanging his head, "Note to self, optimism never works."

The doorway hung sideways along the platform, at just the right angle for them to climb in. "Come on, Toph, we need to find out what's behind that doorway. It might even lead us to Zuko!"

"Coming." She wrested her feet out of the ground and then kicked off the side to launch herself at the platform. With surprising grace and speed, she managed to scramble to the railing and in between Sokka and Katara. "Hi."

"You're scary good at that."

"What can I say, it's a gift. I adapt to things easily because I am awesome."

"Then how come I can't get used to this gravity swimming thing?"

"Because you're not awesome?"

"Butt out, Katara."

"She just said what I was thinking," Toph grinned.

"Fine then! Let's just focus on the spooky time-traveling door in front of us. Do we go in?"

"We don't have a choice," Katara said, "Unless you like fumbling around in zero-gravity like a moron."

"Are you calling me a moron?"

"No, moron, but you sure did." Toph grinned. "Anyway, Snoozles is right, we've got a door to open."

"Yeah, right." Katara dragged herself along the railing over to the door and slowly turned the handle. "Here goes nothing." She slowly pushed the door open, but it was like blowing a hole into the side of the base. It sucked everything inwards, like a vacuum trying to fill itself.

"What did you do!" Toph screamed as the force pulled them in.

She received no answer as Katara hurtled into the doorway. Toph could feel her fingers slip. "If I die, I'm coming back to haunt Katara's ghost!"

"Duely noted."

"Can't hold on!"

"Me neither."

"Sokka, I just wanted to tell you," Toph said, her voice quiet and tender, "Just wanted to tell you that... it was me. I was the one who stole your lunchboxes."

"I know, Toph, I know."

She was barely holding on, and the force wasn't letting up. She could feel her grip give, and she was thrown violently through the door. She didn't know if Sokka had followed her or not, because as soon as she was through the door, she landed, rather abruptly, on the streets of Ba Sing Se.

"Ow." Toph rubbed her back. "Why is it so hot?"

"Toph! What took you?" Katara asked. "Where's Sokka?"

"Probably about to be dragged in. I thought you were dead."

Katara sighed. "Get up, Toph, we need to find Zuko."

"Where and when are we?"

Katara frowned. She could see the flames rising high, smoke billowing into the night sky. "I'm not sure, but I think this was that fire in Ba Sing Se's lower ring."

"The one with a flimsy official explanation?" Toph asked. "That explains why it's so hot."

"And if I heard right," Katara said, "It's the night Zuko quit the Bending Club."

Sokka landed face first on the ground in front of them. "I hate Zuko's maze so much."

To be continued.