Title: Falling in the Water (part 5 of 7)
Author: Kyra Rivers
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence, mild language, allusion to rape, dark themes.
Genre: Horror, Supernatural, Action
Notes: This story takes place during Avatar season 2, sometime after the episode "Bitter Work". Also, I pretty much just assume that the Earth Kingdom equates to China, so all of my original characters will have Chinese names. This story will be Gaang-centric (with extra Toph), and it will also include a few minor OCs. Minor Kataang hints (no more than are already in the series), and uh. Tokka if you squint. Kinda. I can't really see them together at any time in actual canon, to tell the truth, but that doesn't mean I can't allude to it. :) This story can pretty much be assumed to be AU, though it's kinda more like a really dark what-if episode than an actual change to the storyline.
Thanks: Thanks again to He Li Wen and Zhou Li Kai for sound boarding, and special thanks to the best beta reader in the ENTIRE WORLD, Countess of Lace, who is also my Super Best Friend. (South Park reference intentional. :P) This is because she always lets me know when I'm info-dumping, which tends to be roughly all the time or so.
Summary: Aang makes a mistake. Toph pays the price.
PART 5
Her head felt too heavy to move from Sokka's shoulder, but Toph gave a start the same as everyone else when she heard the coldly amused voice of the Fire Princess Azula. She gripped around his neck tightly, hardly able to register what this meant. Toph knew she should be doing something -- make the earth swallow them up, make the land shake -- but her thoughts were swimming around in her head, unable to find solid ground.
"How the hell did they find us?" Sokka muttered, his breath blowing past her right ear. He was moving slowly backward, pinning her legs to his side with a tight grip. His cheek was cool against her hot face, and Toph leaned against it instinctively. She felt a sudden pang of affection for the man holding her, cool and solid against her, anchoring her down as she began to feel hot and shaky.
"She's good," Toph said without thinking about it, and then latched onto the thought of their three enemies. She moved with a sudden desire to touch the earth, to start the fight, to bend them beneath the deep, deep earth and make them stop, make them go away, and struggled against Sokka's firm grip on her legs.
"Lemme go," she whined, hating the way it came out more like a whimper than a command. She pushed away from his shoulders in a burst of energy, but couldn't manage to hold herself up more than a few seconds before slumping down again. She shivered in the heat, and wasn't listening as Sokka said--
"Stop fighting me, Toph, you have to be quiet!" He was hissing the words, and Azula's laughing voice was moving away in slow, steady steps.
--and Toph wondered why she had been fighting him, she wouldn't fight him, he was Sokka, she liked Sokka. He was funny, and even when Katara and Aang had yelled at her before, he hadn't gotten mad. He tried to make her stay with the group when Azula and her fighters had been chasing them all night, and hadn't she warned them? She always warned them.
"I'm sorry you can't sleep, Sokka," she apologized suddenly, remembering. "They're gonna catch us, we can't sleep anymore, they're gonna find us--"
"Shh, Toph, it's okay, I don't care," he said back, and Toph felt herself being moved from his broad back. A few dazed moments passed, and Toph found herself being pressed against his chest, her face tucked just under his chin. She could tell by the way his neck felt, half rough with stubble, and Aang didn't have hair on his chin yet, so it had to be Sokka. He wrapped long arms around her, securing her against himself, and his breath was hot against her ear as he whispered, "Just keep quiet, Toph, Katara and Aang are going to fight, but you and I need to stay quiet, okay?"
Distantly, Toph heard the sudden clash of water against fire, and a burst of wind stirred the hair around her face. She shifted uncomfortably against Sokka's grip, feeling hot and small and scared, and couldn't shake the need to use the earth, to cover up in cold dark mud and hide, hide away from the dragons chasing them round and round the world and--
"We'll be fine," Sokka murmured. "Just stay still, we'll be fine."
She imagined him riding a dragon, waving a sword fearlessly against the hot sun, and thought anxiously, he has to stop before it burns him up. Burns him up, and her along with him, both turning to ashes and falling to the earth below.
Toph was muttering nonsense against him, her body hot against his chest, and he clung tighter to her small form as she began to move restlessly. He had hidden just behind one of the nearby trees, feeling both cowardly and intelligent at the same time. He couldn't leave Toph by herself, not with her injuries and a fever that was quickly turning into delirium. And to stay in sight would be to invite an attack, especially once the crazy girls saw Toph's predicament, but Sokka couldn't help but feel helpless at the sight of Katara and Aang facing off against the three enemy warriors. They were outmatched. Sokka could see the way Katara's shoulders were slumped, and how Aang bent forward a little too much in his fighting stance. They were tired and they needed help, but every time that thought crossed Sokka's mind, he felt the heavy weight of Toph curled against him, her face flushed and limbs limp, completely defenseless against any sort of attack.
Sokka knew he couldn't do anything, but it didn't make it any easier to crouch behind the tree and watch as Aang and Katara leapt into action without him.
"The dragon's gonna fall," Toph said, lips brushing across his collarbone as they moved. "Sokka, Sokka, you need to jump, you need to run from the fire -- the sun's on fire, Sokka, you shouldn't fight the sun--"
"It's okay, Toph," he reassured her, eyes locked on the beginning battle even as he clung to the feverish girl. The moonlight highlighted everyone's dark form, and he stared hopelessly as fire burned and daggers glinted in its glow. "We'll be just fine, just stay quiet," he whispered again.
She shivered in his grasp, and he closed his eyes as he heard the loud crash of the first blow, echoing in the desolate land like thunder. The night was cold and dark, filled with enemies and threats, and dread filled Sokka's mind. It felt like they were never going to get out of the horrible forest.
Azula attacked first, whipping a string of fire straight at Aang's head. Katara responded as Aang darted away instinctively by blocking it with her own water whip, essentially fizzling both weapons out. She kept her eyes focused on the girl in front of her, whose hands were already being surrounding by hot blue fire. In the moonlight, the fire was painfully bright; Katara could hardly bear to look directly at the sight, which affected her fighting style in a poor way: rather than face Azula head-on, she was moving sideways as she struck out with her bending, trying to get a hit while still not using the full force of the water.
She didn't like fighting like this. For air and fire, maybe, evasive tactics worked well, but Katara had always used water as a direct attack. It was flexible, definitely, bested perhaps only by air in its maneuverability, but water smothered you, swallowed you, swept you up -- it was not a subtle element. And Katara was not a subtle fighter.
But she knew she had to keep Azula focused. As she darted away from another burning streak of fire, Katara caught a glimpse of Sokka crouched behind a tall oak tree, watching her with wide, furious eyes. He held Toph in his arms like a ragdoll, clutching her to his chest even as he stayed still and hidden in the woods. Katara knew how much this had to be bothering him, to stay behind and watch as she and Aang fought, but Sokka wasn't stupid. And Katara wasn't about to make him reveal himself and Toph to the trio of ruthless girls.
She spun away from a whirlwind of flame and ran away from the line of trees, heading for the dried out river. It was strategic, in a sense -- the river might be dried out now, but Katara was already reaching out her senses to see if any underground reservoirs of water remained --, but mainly she was doing anything she could to get Azula away from the forest.
"I'm getting tired of chasing you, peasant!" Azula shouted after her as Katara ran. A wave of fire forced her to dive behind an outcropping of rock, rolling painfully on the cracked dirt. Her shoulder cried out in protest as it collided with the side of the rock.
Katara winced, but didn't dare stop to examine her injuries. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she continued to run, aiming for the far side of the old river where she could sense a collection of unused water just beneath the surface, waiting to be freed. Azula was quick, but Katara was driven by desperation and had always been the fastest in her village, so she was beginning to gain some distance.
Then, from out of nowhere she felt a sharp pain in her arm and she toppled over from a sudden yank on her tunic. She skidded awkwardly on the dry land and could just barely make out a sharp little dagger glinting in the moonlight.
Oh right, she remembered vaguely, not giving herself any time to consider the matter as she leapt to her feet. There are three of them. Apparently the crazy weapons girl was also after her. While part of Katara was mildly gratified at the recognition of her abilities, the sane remainder of her mind was just horrified by the concept of having to fight two of them. She barely had enough energy to deal with Azula alone.
She scrambled across the way, using various rocks to block any direct attacks, but it was still only by virtue of luck that she managed to make it to the other side of the river. Here, she planted her feet on the ground and whipped around to face her opponents. Azula was leaping from a nearby rock as she did so, with her dagger-flinging cohort running on the ground underneath her, and Katara thought--
Perfect
--and pulled the water from beneath their feet to strike up at them in sharp spikes of ice. The girl on the ground was tangled up instantly, though she noticed the change faster than Katara had expected and promptly darted away, saving herself from a worse injury. Azula, trapped without bearing in the air, was not as lucky; the icicles caught her in the midsection and sent her spinning with a shriek of pain. Her fire flickered out harmlessly in the air as she landing heavily on the other side of the valley.
Katara didn't bother to check on the fire warrior's status. She took a moment to take a breath, but her heart rate had not yet slowed at all when she sensed a movement behind her. Ducking on instinct, Katara felt her heart sinking as she saw a pair of daggers sticking out of the thick dirt on the bank of the old river, right where her chest had been. Clearly, the weapons-girl hadn't been too sorely affected by the ice attack.
Katara reached a hand out even as she was running again, toward where she could see the dim image of Aang fighting with the third warrior. With Azula momentarily out of the picture, the two of them combined might be able to take out the non-bending pair in time to double team the fire-bender.
She whipped a stream of water at the fighter chasing after her, knocking daggers out of the air as she did, and ran.
The dragon was gone and Sokka was floating
"You're flying," Toph said curiously, and reached out a hand, but he wasn't there. But there was a cackle, a hiss, and she was gripped with the knowledge that the Wild Woman was back, even though all she could smell was burnt wood and--
But Sokka wasn't gone. She could still smell him, still feel his arms around her, and she couldn't smell rot or death, and the Wild Woman always smelled of those things.
A sharp sound cut through the air, a crack of ice and--
--there were hands holding her down, like the men in the forest, and Toph shrieked, but her voice was muffled by a heavy cloth, muffled by the thick, callused hands that kept touching her, kept hurting her, and she squirmed away, crying out--
"Toph, stop, stop, you're safe, Toph, just stop struggling," a voice commanded above her, and Toph reached her arms up to cling to the man. His chest was solid beneath her, and his skin was smooth against hers, and she thought--
"Dad, I had a nightmare," Toph whispered, and suddenly she was five and there was no earth, no sight, only the darkness and the protective grasp of her father's arms. She whimpered, "Daddy, make the monsters go away, Daddy--"
The sun was back, and now it looked like a dragon.
"It's Sokka, Toph," the man said, sounding pained. "It's Sokka, I've got you, you're okay."
The dragon was hot with fire as it slithered through the dirt, and Sokka was back, standing motionless in the woods as the dragon got closer and closer, and he wasn't watching--
"The dragon's coming," Toph said with a hushed voice. "Sokka, it's coming, it's coming, you need to run--"
"There's no dragon, Toph," Sokka said, arms solid around her. "We need to keep quiet."
--but the dragon was flying now and flames surrounded it -- Toph could feel the heat pulsating under her skin, and curled up as tight as she could, but it kept coming closer--
Aang was having some success against his opponent, mainly because she wasn't a bender and relied on getting close enough to her foe to strike them in order to win. Not only was Aang a bender of multiple elements -- well, two, now, but that was one more than everyone else and two more than she had --, but he was also naturally an airbender. And airbenders, above all else, were excellent at staying out of reach of their enemies. He might not be the best at facing his challenges head on and staying stubborn as a rock against direct attacks, but he could dodge and weave with the best of them.
And against the flexible Fire Nation fighter, Aang was pleased to note that his natural defense was working.
"Oh, come on," she whined as he jumped away from her flipping jumps yet again, sounding ridiculously cute for someone so intent on hurting him. "You're not any fun at all, are you, Avatar?"
"Maybe you could come back later!" Aang suggested brightly from halfway up a nearby oak tree. He was about twenty feet away from where Sokka and Toph were crouched, half-hidden in the bushes, but his opponent had stayed focused on him since the beginning of the fight and he was leading her away as subtly as he could manage. He added, "We could schedule something, even! Do you like penguin sledding?"
The girl giggled in response even as she darted up a nearby tree, and Aang had to be impressed at her ability to defy gravity. For an ordinary person, she was managing to be nearly as quick and light on her feet as an airbender, albeit not a particularly skilled one. Aang jumped away as she drew near, taking the opportunity to show off just how far she still had to go in mimicking the airbending ways by hovering twenty feet off the ground on a ball made of air. He stayed just out of reach of any jumping point from the trees deliberately, and watched as the scantily-clad girl paused on her branch and judged the distance speculatively.
After a few moments, she heaved a great sigh and put a hand on her hip. "Really," she said, looking rather put out by his avoidance of her. "I don't see why Azula likes to fight you so much. All you do is run away."
"I don't want to fight you," Aang said honestly. "I don't even know why you three keep attacking us."
"To capture you, obviously," she said brightly. "Mai and I serve Princess Azula, and we're taking over where Prince Zuko obviously failed." She nimbly moved up to another higher branch and looked down at him with a grin. "You know," she added conversationally, "you'll have to come down eventually. I bet hovering there is tiring."
She was right, but Aang wasn't about to let her know that. Instead, he floated up to match her height and asked, "So the girl with the daggers is called Mai? What about you?"
"I'm Ty Lee," she answered. Then she tilted her head quizzically, smirked, and said, "Oh, and you should probably duck."
"What?" Aang asked, but didn't stop to think further on the subject as he sensed an object approaching him, and he instinctively flew upwards. A glint of moolight off a blade told him it was a slim dagger, and it flew harmlessly under him before embedding itself in a nearby branch.
"Oh, no fair flying higher!" he heard Ty Lee whine as she jumped up to reach him. Before she could get within grabbing distance of him, Aang whirled himself around, flipping backwards and shooting toward the ground. As he zoomed downward, he saw Katara roughly ten feet away from the forest's edge, arms whipping around like watery snakes as she blocked the dagger-wielding Mai's attacks.
Aang created a wind tunnel around him as he flew down, and as he landed heavily at Katara's side, he redirected it toward the tall girl, sending her flying across the valley.
He glanced over at Katara, who was breathing heavily and wiping sweat away from her eyes with a now water-free hand. "Are you all right?" he asked worriedly. He might have gone Avatar state earlier, but he hadn't really expended that much energy fighting while doing so; Katara, on the other had, had healed a good deal of Toph's injuries at rapid speed and had been exhausted even prior to the battle's beginning.
"Yeah," Katara said, catching her breath. "Yeah, I think I--"
"Look out!" Aang interrupted with a shout, creating a burst of wind and pushing Katara back even as Ty Lee leapt down to jab at Katara's limbs. The agile warrior immediately turned to chase after her, but Aang was quicker; before she could dodge out of his range he focused his will on the air around her arms and legs. Suddenly, she was struggling to move in mid-air, her arms and legs both pinned by invisible cuffs of oxygen.
It was difficult to hold another person in the air like this, especially if that person was struggling as fiercely as Ty Lee was, but Aang held on with determination, his jaw set as he concentrated on keeping the bonds firm. After a few moments, she stopped fighting so strongly against the hold and looked around to regard the technique with curious eyes.
"Now, that's kind of cool," she said appreciatively. Aang wondered if her constant pleasant attitude was genuine or if Ty Lee was actually a little insane. It didn't matter, really, and quite frankly, he would rather fight against someone who seemed to enjoy the challenge rather than someone who was driven by anger and hate.
Still, he considered as he watched her hang in mid-air, it was a little disconcerting.
A wave of water shot by him abruptly, and Katara approached quickly with a criticism, "Watch out, Aang!"
Aang glanced to the side and saw a pair of knives stuck in the ground just to the side of him. He gave Katara a quick, abashed grin, and said, "Sorry! It's hard to concentrate on keeping her here."
"You could let me go," Ty Lee advised cheerfully.
"Yeah," came a monotone voice from behind them. Aang turned halfway to regard the dark shape of Mai, who was staying out of the moonlight an hiding herself in the shadows of the nearby trees. Katara was poised just behind Aang, water glittering around her as she waited for another dagger to be flung at them. Mai added, "You're not going to be able to keep her up there forever."
"You'll eventually run out of knives," Katara shot back with a smirk.
"Really?" Mai asked in response, sounding honestly surprised by the concept. Aang felt a pit begin to well up in his stomach at the thought of just how many daggers the girl could carry on her person.
"Hey, I've been wondering," Ty Lee asked as the standstill persisted. "Where's your cute warrior friend and the little blind girl? Don't they normally follow you around, too?"
If Aang concentrated, he could still see Sokka in the bushes, roughly thirty feet away, but he didn't look. He didn't even bat an eye as he answered, "They stayed back at camp."
"It's just us," Katara supported with a stoic expression. Then she added for emphasis, "Which is more than enough to beat you!"
"Too bad," Ty Lee said with a pout, shrugging. (Which looked incredibly weird when someone was pinned spread eagle in mid-air, but she managed it.) She grinned at Katara, teasing, "The warrior boy was so cute, too."
Katara made a disgusted face at the very thought of her brother being regarded in such a way by their enemy.
Mai took that opportunity to fling another pair of daggers at the two of them, and Katara's water wasn't fast enough to stop the second one from getting close to Aang. In self-defense, he whipped a gust of air out to block it from hitting him in the chest, but the break in his concentration forced him to drop Ty Lee. Luckily, just before he let her go, he focused on the air currents and blew her back thirty feet, letting Katara and himself have time to get into a more prepared battle stance against the two of them.
They stood back to back and waited as their two remaining enemies approached.
The fire surrounded them.him.
The dragon circled slowly, taking its time regarding its prey. She could tell by the lazy, confident steps and the sinuous twitch to its tail as it dragged along the dark earth. Her fingers flexed, reaching out to touch the life she knew lived in the ground, but her hands were pinned. She was bound by ropes made of branches, with leaves and thorns digging deeply into her arms and chest even as they prevented her movement.
"Sokka!" she whimpered. "Sokka, the dragon's going to eat us, we're going to be burned up! Cut me loose, cut me down, I have to stop the dragon from burning us up."
She could feel the stares of the men from the woods on her back. She curled away from the creeping feel of their hands on her throat, leaning into the heat. The dragon twisted a sharper circle around them, the heat burning all the brighter, but she would take her chances against the bright flames rather than the foul, dark unknown.
The branches tightened around her and she cried out. She couldn't even fight against them anymore; the flames were too hot around her, the bindings too tight. She could feel her limbs shaking with exhaustion, eyes already shut tight against the onslaught of warmth, and knew that she wasn't going to be able to fight for much longer.
Sokka was there, Toph knew. Sokka was there somewhere. He was by the dragon. The dragon was watching him. The dragon was watching
"Run, run," she repeated, and her own voice swam in her ears. "There's fire and the men, they'll grab you and hurt you, Sokka, there's something in the woods--"
"Toph, please stay with me, come on," whispered a voice from above, but Toph was too far gone to notice anymore.
It was a challenge keeping Toph quiet at first, but as Sokka kept his eye on the battle not too far away, he realized that it wasn't really that big of an issue. For one, Toph was too weak to really get any power behind her voice, so most of her delirious babble came out as mumbles anyway. Besides that, Sokka knew after a few minutes of watching that none of their enemies were going to be listening for random voices in the woods anyway. Not with the attacks that Aang and Katara kept throwing at them.
Honestly, Sokka was damned proud of his friends. Not just Aang, who had been playing cat and mouse with the little circus girl for the entire time he had been out there, but also Katara, who had actually taken their greatest threat out rather early on in the game. He wasn't sure how beat up Azula had been, but he certainly had given a silent cheer the moment he saw Katara's thrust of icicles sent the woman flying. Now he waited anxiously as Aang and Katara faced off against the other two and hoped desperately for a quick finish. They could run and free Appa in no time, maybe even get out of the valley before any of their foes could recover and be in the village quickly. And yeah, they'd have to make haste after that -- the trio of enemies wouldn't just let them hide safely in a nearby town --, but maybe they could stop just long enough to get Toph some medicine and then hightail it to a different town to hide. At the very least, they could all get some rest.
And Toph--
Sokka looked down at the feverish girl in his arms, whose struggles against him had slowly died down as delirium from the poison took over. Her face was flushed and sweaty, and her brow was furrowed as she weakly fought against his tight hold on her. She kept muttering something about a dragon and fire, interspersed with some talk of bad men, and Sokka wasn't sure exactly how to make sense of it all. Or if he could even make the delirious ramblings make sense. All he knew was that Toph was getting worse. He might not be as skilled as Katara at medicine, but Sokka had grown up in the same village she had and knew plenty about disease and other dangers. Toph's body was rapidly failing against the poison, and they needed to get her out of here.
At that thought, Sokka looked over at the fight that had continued between his friends and their foes. Aang and Katara were holding their own, but Sokka knew that their grip on victory was a tenuous one. The longer the fight persisted, the more likely it was that the adrenaline would wear off and leave both Aang and Katara with no more energy. Not to mention that Sokka wasn't sure what exactly had happened to the leader of the gang, Princess Azula, and he knew that the longer they lasted, the more likely it was that she'd join back in the fight.
Toph muttered into the side of his throat, "The grass is frozen but the fire kills it, it kills it and the men are coming, Sokka, they'll hurt you too, Sokka, you need to run."
If they survived this, Sokka planned to make fun of Toph for making absolutely no sense while she was poisoned, regardless of her incredibly good excuse for doing so.
Sokka watched the battle anxiously, and felt another pang of desperation as he saw Katara stumble under an onslaught of blows from the circus girl in pink, though thankfully none connected. Just as he was moments away from giving up and joining in the battle himself, danger be damned, he heard something he had been previously dismissing: the sound of Appa roaring in the distance, sounding furious.
Like a flash of lightning, Sokka knew what he had to do. They couldn't battle forever, even if Aang and Katara could potentially beat their enemies. They were too tired, Toph was too sick, and it was too great of a risk in any case. But he and Toph had yet to be noticed by their three pursuers and could potentially sneak around to free Appa from whatever was preventing him from flying to their rescue. With Appa and Momo freed, Sokka could fly to pick up Aang and Katara and fly them all out of the valley. They'd have to book it to make it to the village before their foes were able to pursue them on foot, but if they flew fast -- if they could just swing in and grab some medicine to last Toph through the night, to keep the poison from killing her -- if worse came to worse, Katara could at least get some sleep and keep healing Toph until they could rest for real--
Sokka didn't bother contemplating his options. The instant the plan crystallized in his mind, he stood up, scooping Toph against him like he would a child, and began to slink through the trees toward the sound of Appa's roar. It was slow going at first. Toph was heavy now that she was nearly unconscious, though she had managed to respond to his movement by wrapping her arms around his neck, seemingly by instinct. The forest was less cluttered near the edge, but it was not entirely clear to quickly move, and Sokka was trying to steer clear from sight as much as possible. But he steadfastly kept moving, and slowly but surely he began to approach where Appa seemed to be.
He was nearly halfway there when Sokka saw something that turned his blood cold.
From his secluded position in the trees, Sokka saw the limping form of the fire warrior Azula slinking toward the battle nearby. Her face was twisted into a foul glare, staring directly at Katara as she held her torso in a tight battle stance. As Sokka watched, he saw bright blue flame begin to form up in the palm of her right hand, shaping swiftly into a spinning ball. Sokka knew by instinct what she planned to do: send the circle of fire whirling at Katara's back. And he had no doubts that she would strike well; Azula was dangerous and deadly, and she hadn't earned that reputation by missing.
In that split second, Sokka was frozen with indecision. He could keep heading toward Appa, going as fast as he could to try and retrieve the flying bison so they could get out of there. It was the safest course of action, and surely the one that would have the most benefits.
But he saw Azula darting toward his little sister, who was too busy using waterbending to keep Mai at bay to turn around and notice. And shouting a warning wouldn't do anything: Katara wouldn't be able to react in time, and all he would wind up achieving was revealing himself and Toph.
The bottom line was that Azula was heading to attack his baby sister, and Sokka wasn't about to let that happen. He didn't think any further as he moved, his boomerang appearing in his hand without him consciously being aware of grabbing it. He shifted Toph to his left side as he whipped his right arm around, flinging the weapon with the precision he had honed from hours of practice back in the South Pole, waiting and training for the day that his father would call for him to join in the battle against the Fire nation.
As the sharp weapon struck home against the side of Azula's head, ringing with a painful-sounding thunk, Sokka figured that he was well into the battle already.
Azula whipped around with a shocked, furious expression visible on her face even as the deep gash along her cheek began to well up with blood. Dammit, he had hoped that the blow would knock her out. Toph's weight against his hip had apparently thrown off his aim just enough to make the solid strike a glancing one. Despite his position in the woods, Sokka was standing close enough to the edge for Azula to see him clearly, and he saw the instant she realized just who had attacked her. She glowered viciously.
Sokka noticed Katara turning in surprise as well, gasping out, "Sokka!" with a horrified look on her face, but he couldn't dwell on her worry with the threat of Azula present. He turned and ran for the other side of the clearing, where he could still hear Appa. Maybe if he made it, they could still free him with enough time to avoid Azula's counterattack, maybe even get Appa to help keep her at bay, and then--
Any further thought was cut off as Sokka felt the ground explode in flame underneath him, and then he and Toph went flying forward. He landed heavily on his left shoulder, and the resulting shock of pain was enough to make him cry out. His head slammed into the hard dirt shortly thereafter, knocking his senses for a loop. For a brief moment, he couldn't feel anything but the ringing blankness in his head and the sharp, piercing pain in his shoulder. He groggily moaned against the dirt, his hands scrambling for purchase reflexively even as he tried to remember precisely what he had been doing.
It was only a few moments later that he came back to himself. Forcing himself to think through the pounding in his head, Sokka shoved his working right arm underneath himself and pushed himself up, biting down a fierce curse as his shoulder jarred painfully. He blinked a few times as his vision swam, and looked desperately around for Toph. The smaller girl had flown a few feet further than him. She was lying prone against the dirt, unmoving.
"Toph," he gasped out, and darted forward. She didn't react to his voice, but as he reached her and pulled her up against him, the girl stirred weakly.
"Sokka," she muttered, sounding somehow less dazed than before. Her hands twitched against the solid ground, small fingers digging into the dirt. "Sokka, the dragon, the dragon, she's here, Sokka--"
Abruptly, Toph's delirious babbling made a little more sense, and Sokka whipped around.
Azula stood before them, standing ten feet away with a cold, foul look in her eyes. Blood covered the entire left side of her face, dripping down her neck and seeping into the collar of her clothes. In her right hand, she held a spinning ball of flame, twice as big as the one she had been about to shoot at Katara and just as fiercely blue.
"You little snot," she hissed, rearing back with her flame-drenched hand. "I'll teach you to strike at me!"
She flung her hand forward flames bright against the black sky, and Sokka could do nothing to stop it. In the last instant, he turned and curled around Toph, wrapping as much of himself around her defenseless body as he could, shutting his eyes tight against the scorching heat he felt against his back.
There was heat, hot and painful and blazing, and then--
There was nothing but darkness.
END PART 5
WORD COUNT: approx. 6,000
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