Chapter 43

Back in the compound, Toph sat next to Zuko on the couch, trying not to think about what was going on in the stadium. She knew Jet would win. But she also knew the fight would kill him. That was a given.

But Lian Shen's words nagged and nagged at her. It was like she was teasing Toph. She hated that manipulative green witch. She really did.

Katara bends blood but not bone, she'd say and just laugh and laugh.

Bone bending. Who could do that? Bones are part of the body. Tissue. Nobody could bend that.

Then she looked at Zuko really, really hard. She was used to seeing motion in him—the way his blood moved in his heart, the way the air moved in his lungs. Most of the time she concentrated on seeing his skin so she could see his expressions.

Then she looked deeper.

Calcium.

It was a little gross to look at his skeleton, but she could see it. Why hadn't she ever tried this before?

Well, it was a little gross, she thought.

But if she could see it, she could bend it, she thought to herself.

Then she tried to see her own bones. Nothing. She never could see anybody else like she could Zuko. Ever since the day on the beach when she'd restarted his heart, she could see him in so much more detail than anybody else—even herself.

Maybe that was it. Without a word, she grabbed Zuko's hand and began to run.

Jet had felt Bumi move something metal. He knew it. The other benders wouldn't have picked up on it. None of them could bend metal. Even Aang might not have felt it since he was sitting on the wooden stands. But Jet was on the ground listening with all his earthbending abilities and felt the small metal item move maybe an inch or two.

Disregarding the fact that Ji-Fu was probably going to attack again at any moment, Jet knelt on the ground so he could put his hands in contact with the earth and listened for what lay in the vicinity of the piece of metal.

Ji-Fu shoved another large boulder at him—a heavy one that Jet knew would never even reach him. So he ignored it to Ji-Fu's very vocal displeasure.

"Fight me, you coward!" he yelled, but Jet just ignored him, intent on seeing into the wooden box he'd discovered beneath the metal piece. The metal piece was a trap door latch—now unlatched, he realized. And the box was at least ten feet deep—quite a drop for the unprepared. Ji-Fu could hurt himself seriously if he fell in without warning.

"Be careful, Ji-Fu!" Jet called to him. "There's a trap about ten feet in front of you."

"Idiot," Bumi murmured to himself in the stands. "Let him fall in! Don't warn him!" But Bumi knew that the overconfident Ji-Fu would never listen. He'd never let an opponent do him a favor.

Sure enough, Ji-Fu took several bold steps forward in that very direction, shoving boulders from all sides at Jet as he came. Jet quickly analyzed which had a chance of making contact, sidestepped a few, deflected a few others, and ignored a few others. Two got close enough to shove him around a little, one knocking him flat of his back to slide a few feet in the sand.

Eun Min watched him fall back and hit the ground hard, her heart jumping in her throat. Was he okay? she thought, even as she kept telling Aang her story. She told him how she'd worked in the kidnappers' hideout. How she'd seen a covered palanquin with this man as one of its bearers just before Suk-Chul ordered Jet's kidnapping.

"And I can prove it's him because he had a new military tattoo on his shoulder," she explained. "If he's one of Ji-Fu's men, that proves a connection between Ji-Fu and the kidnappers."

"True enough," Aang said as he stood. He looked down to where Jet was slowly rising from the ground. He'd managed to stay on his feet so far, but there was no guarantee he'd be able to continue doing so. Eun Min's suggestion was worth trying with King Bumi, so Aang headed up to the king's box. Maybe there was time to stop this before Ji-Fu stopped Jet permanently.

Jet stood there a moment to collect his thoughts, aware that Ji-Fu was not slowing down. He shoved a light boulder at the general, more to distract him while he took inventory of himself than to hurt him. Ji-Fu deflected it easily, then took another step forward, closer to the trap door.

Jet realized things weren't good for him just as Ji-Fu strode forward two more steps to hurl a large boulder from the side at Jet. Apparently, Ji-Fu was trying to feel the earth more sincerely, because this boulder avoided all but one of the hidden hazards in the sand.

If it hadn't hung on a metal spike at the last moment, Jet would have been flattened. As it was, Jet just ignored it, knowing it would never get to him. Jet had more pressing things on his mind. He was losing his sense of balance.

He knew that sure enough, one of those hard blows had done its job. He was bleeding again. Badly.

Meanwhile, Ji-Fu shot boulder after boulder at him, some hanging, some stopping short. Jet was lucky that none of the giant rocks could make it through to him because he was not really capable of stopping them right that moment. He tried to think, but everything had gone fuzzy on him.

Then he watched as Ji-Fu stepped onto the trapdoor just as he was completing a bending move to shove yet another boulder at him. The door collapsed beneath his feet in a shower of sand, and the general fell with a short cry of surprise.

"You should have believed me," Jet whispered to Ji-Fu as he sidestepped the last boulder sliding past him.

An earthbending official ran over to where Ji-Fu lay in the box, but Jet could tell by the shadowy angle of the man's neck that he was dead.

There was a gasp as Ji-Fu fell, then the crowd went silent as the official carefully walked over toward Jet, placing one hand on his shoulder. "I give you the winner—Jet!" he announced, doing his best to sound excited with the sudden tragic turn of events.

Up in the stands, Aang had just reached Bumi's side when Ji-Fu fell. "Ooooh, too bad," Bumi stated without a trace of sympathy. "Jet did try to warn him though. What can I do for you, Aang?" he asked with a friendly smile as he led the applause which began slowly as the crowd got over its shock, but grew over the next few moments.

"That's okay," Aang managed to say as he gazed down into the grounds. The height of the stands and the placement of the trap gave him a clear view of Ji-Fu's body sprawled out onto the floor of the box.

Eun Min had watched in horror as the match continued, gasping with the crowd as Ji-Fu fell. Then when Bumi began to applaud the winner, she joined in, her face beaming.

She looked over at The Duke in excitement to see a confused look on his face. "How did you know that guy had a tattoo on his shoulder?" he asked curiously. Eun Min's smile faded.

Down on the field, Mai ran to the edge of the stands, relief written all over her face. It was over. He was still alive. Jet struggled through the sands toward her, growing more dizzy by the second. Even his earthbending sight was beginning to flicker on him. It hurt him to think that he wouldn't be able to see her much longer.

She grabbed at his arms, then hugged him tightly, planting a huge kiss on his lips.

"Can we get out of here?" he asked her.

"Of course," she answered. He looked and sounded tired.

Katara, Suki, and Sokka joined them at the edge of the stands, Smellerbee, Longshot, and Pipsqueak close behind. The crowd pressed around them, all wanting to talk to him, to touch him. Jet backed away a little. His head was really beginning to hurt. That disappointed him. He was hoping it wouldn't come to that.

He looked at Katara—at least he hoped it was her, his vision was really slipping. "I'm not good, Tara," he said softly.

She ran her globe of waters around his head. The pain eased a little, but his vision didn't return. "Oh, Jet," was all Katara could say.

"Aang!" Sokka called in his booming voice. Aang airbended his way lightly down from the stands to stand beside them.

"We need to get him some place quiet—soon," Katara said urgently.

Pipsqueak stepped forward. "Allow me to help, Miss Katara," he said, then roared at the crowd. "Everybody, move!" Then he began to break a path through the press that an elephantocerous could walk through.

Somehow they managed to get him out of the stadium and up the street where they were met by Toph and Zuko.

"What's going on?" Toph asked, out of breath. Zuko knew from the looks on their faces. Mai's especially.

"Hey, Toph," Jet said from his perch between Sokka and The Duke as they carried him back to the diplomatic compound. "I won by default. Bumi had the floor rigged like you wouldn't believe."

"Yeah, I probably would believe it," she said with a laugh. "I've known Bumi a long time." She placed her hand on Jet's head and said, "Not doing too good in there, are you?"

"Not really," he managed.

"Just hang in there a second until we get to the practice grounds, okay?" Toph instructed. Then she turned to Katara and Aang. "We're going to have to do it," she said.

"Do what?" came Katara's response.

"We're going to go in there and fix this. We're going to make a hole," Toph replied easily.

Katara just looked at her in confusion as Toph waved the guys on. "What do you mean, we?" Katara asked in frustration. "I don't know the first thing about making a hole in someone's skull!" Just the thought of Toph what asking her to do made Katara tremble uncontrollably.

"It's going to be okay, Katara," Toph said softly, pulling her by the hand up the street to follow the guys carrying Jet. "Remember when Jet helped out by cutting up Zuko? I think I can help out now."

"How in the world can you help out?" Katara asked in disbelief.

"Skull and bone and blood and flesh all contain earth. I can see that earth better than any of you," Toph replied as she strode on ahead of them, motioning for them to hurry up. "I learned how to see Zuko. I can learn how to see Jet. And if I can see it, I can bend it," she added over her shoulder.

"Can she do that?" Katara asked Aang quietly as they hurried to catch up.

"None of the past avatars have ever run into an earthbender that can do what Toph can do," Aang answered. "It's certainly worth a try."

Within moments, they'd arrived at the courtyard and Toph had given orders for Sokka and The Duke to place Jet in the center of the courtyard there on the earth.

Jet tried to look for Mai but couldn't see any more at all with either sense. He tried to call to her, but he couldn't hear her answer. Not good, he thought. Not good at all. Then he felt something—felt a hand press itself into his. Mai. He wasn't alone. She wouldn't leave him. Then he couldn't feel anything anymore.

Imperiously, Toph sent everyone but Mai, Aang, and Katara to sit in the stands. "Minimize distractions," she stated.

She knelt on the ground beside Jet, making sure to pull up her skirts so that her bare knees met the dirt. In an afterthought, she had them remove Jet's shirt as well so that his bare back also made contact with the earth. "Maximize contact with the element," she explained.

Toph placed one hand on his forehead and one on his chest. Then she began to breathe deeply, sending her consciousness into the deepest levels of earthbending she could muster. Around them, the ground began to vibrate.

In the stands, Zuko remembered when Toph had called on the earth to heal him on Tuzai Island—they said her earthbending had been so powerful it caused a volcano to erupt. He sincerely hoped Omashu had not been built on top of a volcano.

He needn't have worried, however, because this time Toph's bending was not fueled by fear and desperation. This time she was clear-headed and completely in control of what she was doing—she hoped.

The level of concentration and commitment it took to bend like this was so far outside her usual range of action that it did scare her a little. But Toph pushed back the fear and instead called on her element. As she did, the ground around her gave a heave and roll and they settled into its embrace like a mother holding her child.

She called on the elements inside Jet's body to become visible to her—to show themselves to her. She called on the elements inside herself to shine in her sight. As the earth around them rolled and undulated, caressing them with its touch and its power, she opened her sight to the minute particles of earth that suffused them, willing her vision to accept them, to see them, willing her powers to bend them.

In the stands, Zuko couldn't help but gasp at the sight of the courtyard rolling up and around them, pulling at them. Mai and Katara struggled back out of its grasp in abject terror, leaving only Toph, Aang, and Jet in the flow of earth that surged over them.

Zuko jumped down and ran to pull Mai and Katara free of the dirt that clung to them like a living creature. The others reached down to help as they all struggled to climb higher into the stands out of the reach of the earth that continued to crawl and pull.

On the highest seats, they looked back in a mixture of fear and amazement as the ground solidified over Aang, Jet, and Toph, forming a statue-like shell over them, freezing them into place. How long could they hold their breath like that? Zuko couldn't help but wonder.

Then just as suddenly as the earth had surged over them, it suddenly fell away from them again and the courtyard returned to its previous state as if nothing had ever happened.

"Katara," Toph called, "come here. I can see what to do now."

Cautiously Katara stepped out of the stands, as if unsure of the ground's intentions. Once she reached their side, Toph looked up at her and said, "I'm going to pinpoint the spot and make the opening. But I can't heal the bleeding. You're going to need to do that. I can get you in where you need to be though. Just let me know if you need more working room."

Then Toph picked at her meteor bracelet until she'd pulled a piece free from it, rolling it in her fingers until it grew pointed. "Let's start with this one. I think it's the worst," she said calmly. "By the way, Katara, you were right about there being more than one bleed. I've found three—two old ones and one new one. It's the new one that's causing the worst of the trouble."

"What are you going to do with that?" Katara asked nervously, gesturing at the little piece of meteor with its pointed end.

"I'm just going to use it to direct my energies," Toph explained easily.

Katara watched in a mixture of fascination and horror as Toph pressed the little meteor spike against Jet's forehead just at his hairline, a little to the left of center. Toph closed her eyes in concentration and Katara watched a tiny hole appear, a pearl of blood welling to the surface.

Katara shook herself and pulled her healing waters free of the waterskin as Toph teased and molded the bone, biting her lip in concentration. At last she finished making a small opening in Jet's forehead. Katara just managed to catch the sudden flow of blood that erupted from the wound.

There was a good bit of pressure behind the rush of blood, Katara realized and she worked quickly to heal the tear she could now see through Toph's little opening.

After the tear was sealed, she pulled out the rest of the pooled blood that was putting pressure on the brain in that place, then Toph resealed the skull as she healed the tissue. Then they moved to the next tear.

Jet woke up halfway through the second healing and they'd had to do some fast talking to keep him still. In the end Mai had been needed to come and sit with him, holding his hands while they worked. He swore that it didn't hurt a bit and that he felt great. Although Mai looked a little pale, she bravely stuck it out while they finished up the final tear in the back of his head.

At last, they were done, Jet swearing he felt fine, Mai still a little pale, Katara shaking, Toph triumphant.

"I can't believe you guys actually did that," Aang was saying as he placed an arm around Katara.

"We rocked, basically," Toph said with a huge proud grin.

"Man, you guys were incredible," Jet added. His words were directed toward Toph and Katara, but he couldn't keep his eyes off Mai. They traveled up and down her like they were drinking her in. "Oh, sugar, you don't know how good it is to see you again."

"You really couldn't see this morning, could you?" Mai asked, fear making her voice sharp.

"No, sorry," Jet said sheepishly. "But I can see you now." And he kissed her. From the way she kissed him back, Toph knew she'd forgiven him.

Then Toph realized she could see Mai too. She glanced around at the group and her proud grin faded into amazement.

She could see everybody.

She looked down at her hands and realized she could see herself.

Then she looked up into the stands. Zuko. He looked even clearer to her than ever. Even more detailed, more solid than before.

As he came down to meet her, she looked inside herself. Could she? Was it?

Tiny. So tiny her eyes might not have seen it—provided she could see with her eyes at all—but there was something there. A tiny movement of iron and salt and earth.

A heartbeat.

"Zuko," she whispered breathlessly to him as he reached her side. Then she pulled his head down to hers. "I can see him. I can see the baby."