Life… was simple.

There were known things. There were unknown things.

There was food. There was not-food.

Once, there were Others, alike but different.

But not anymore.

It was quiet.

Washed left ear with paw and yawned, perched on the edge of one of the many holes that dotted the tall not-trees. The sky was blank, today; couldn't see the bright-thing. It was also getting cold, and knew that it was only going to get colder. Luckily, there were places inside the not-trees that stayed not-cold during the cold-time.

Blinking, ears lowered, feeling sad.

But there weren't any Others anymore. The last one was Mother. And she was gone, now.

It had been this way for many bright-things.

There were no conscious thoughts about such, of course.

Merely a basic disquiet. It was unsettling to have no Others to be with. No social interaction whatsoever.

But now… there was sound.

Large green eyes dilated, and enormous ears swivelled.

The sound was different. It was different from dead leaves on the ground. Different from the branches of a tree scratching the tall not-trees of this place. It was uneven. Non-uniform. Unpredictable.

It was like the sound of the Others treading the ground… only bigger.

And there was more.

Sniffed. Tasted the air coming on the breeze.

The sweet scent of the round fruit. The tang of the long fruit. The punch of the seedy fruit.

All at the same time.

Ears twitched.

Interesting.

Arms spread. Wings flapped. Air rushed.

Followed the smell of food.

Weaved the way around the tall not-trees, sailing on the currents which blew through this silent place.

Then… he came upon a flat place, and in the middle…

Mouth watered.

Food.

A lot… of food. All in one place.

As the one who would be called Momo rushed forward to the pile of carefully-arranged fruit, Sokka and Aang silently cheered behind an outcropping of rock, clasping each other's hands, Katara giggling with her gloves covering her mouth.

"... Otherwise, when one takes that concept into consideration, it doesn't seem that there's actually a fundamental limit to-"

There was a knock on the door, cutting off Zuko in the middle of a long-winded explanation.

"General Iroh," Lieutenant Jee's muffled voice came through the closed portal, "We have arrived at Whale Minor."

Iroh's jaw dropped.

Already!? We must've talked the whole night away!

The older prince recovered and spoke, "I'll be right out, Lieutenant. Are the tides in our favor?"

"Yes, sir," came the affirmative.

"Then please tell the helmsman to bring the ship into port."

"Yes, sir."

As Lieutenant Jee's footsteps moved away and down the hall, Iroh turned back to his nephew, stroking his beard in thought.

"And what, exactly, is the plan here? How are we to handle Zhao?"

"We… are not going to do anything interesting whatsoever," the prince revealed, standing from his sitting position in a single, graceful move, "All that Prince Zuko is going to do today is buy coal, have his ship stay overnight… and then leave. That's it."

Instantly, the general's eyes narrowed, staring up at his now standing nephew.

"... And?"

Zuko stretched, fingertips reaching towards the metal ceiling, before settling down. He had a small smile on his face, his eyes closing.

"During the night, while we, the Fire Lord's son and brother, are sleeping peacefully in our cabins aboard our ship and not doing anything suspicious at all…" and Zuko opened his eyes, taking Iroh aback somewhat with the devious look on his face, "Zhao shall have an interesting midnight visit from a certain spirit."

Iroh could guess which spirit. After all, Zuko had used that disguise before. An answering smile grew on his face.

Casually, the prince offered a hand to help his uncle stand up, his small smile disappearing into a straight face as he asked, "What were we doing today again, Uncle? We can't waste time! I need to train so that I can face the Avatar."

Oh, he knew how to play this game. It was only like he'd been doing it for nigh upon three years now. He took his nephew's hand and stood up, tut-tutting as he did so.

"You are too focused on your firebending lessons, nephew," Iroh said seriously, "You forget that this ship doesn't run on firebending as well!"

He grumbled, "We could get fuel somewhere else. Isn't Captain Zhao somewhere around here?"

"Zhao?" Iroh asked, brow furrowing in confusion, "Zuko, we're here to refuel. What does Zhao have to do with the price of tea in Ba Sing Se?"

Zuko nodded, his small smile returning, "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"'Scuse me, sir."

The shop owner paused before stepping away from the products he was arranging on the shelves.

"I'm comin'."

It sounded like one of those kids. Probably sent ahead with money by the parent to buy feed.

Stepping out into the harsh sunlight - winter didn't mean much this close to the desert - he approached the wooden counter and the head of black hair peaking behind it.

Taking in the full view of the street outside of his store, the man warily eyed the forms of Gao and the other 'soldiers' across the road playing dice. They weren't bothering anybody… for now. He hoped it'd stay that way.

Then he turned his head and looked down to address the mini-customer.

… Wait…

The kid was a girl. He took a moment to realize that he'd never seen this girl before when she continued.

"Get me some food. I'm hungry."

Nonplussed, the man blankly stared at her. This situation was… a little odd. Obviously, she wasn't from around here. She was a foreigner to this village; there must've been others, because he couldn't imagine this tiny thing travelling by herself. But if that was so, what was she doing here without anyone else?

"Hey, earth to shop guy."

A silver piece clinked onto the counter.

He blinked, before shrugging, "Alright."

The coin rolled easily in his hand. Money was money.

But as he turned to go back into his store and get out the rice, he saw a couple of local kids sniggering out of the corner of his eye, hefting pebbles and clearly zeroing in on the oblivious soldiers across the street.

Oh, perfect.

It was too late to do anything about the little idiots; one of them was already winding up. It was obvious what they were doing. They'd be able to dart out of sight in a second; he'd seen them do it before, often. Usually it left Gao without a target to vent his frustration.

But not this time.

The missile flew and struck its intended target with a whack.

"Augh!"

Giggling voices disappeared from hearing range.

The shopkeeper felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as he heard the heavy thumps of the town garrison standing up straight, and slightly - only slightly - rushed his way inside. It was cowardly, but he wasn't about to risk life and limb for a stranger, even a little kid. He'd seen what happened to people who got Gao's unwelcome attention too many times.

Footsteps sounded as the group approached, and he heard the leader's voice through the doorway.

"You think it's funny to throw rocks at soldiers, little girl?"

There was a long pause.

"Let me get this straight… You think… that I… threw that."

The weak sunlight of the winter day filtered its way down through the clouds to illuminate the Southern Air Temple and the snowy, rocky area surrounding it.

Momo was asleep on a flat rock, belly full and with an unfinished peach knocking against his head, dreaming about his new favorite humans in the whole wide world.

Appa was in the temple with Aang.

Katara stood in a shallow pool formed by a natural dip in the ground and water which she had gathered and melted from the surrounding patches of snow. The waterbender grunted as her body protested against the grueling exercise she was putting herself through with a particularly distracting throb of pain in her lower back. She ignored it and shifted her weight.

Today was a designated day for the three of them to quietly do separate, individual things.

Catching Momo was pretty much the only thing they did together on this day. It was part of celebrating their new life amongst themselves; part of the many small toasts to their everlasting existence, and a way to be happy with their situation. Other than that, though…

Aang went off into the temple to do the work which should have been done a hundred years ago… And to connect, as best as he could, with his past. His real past. The past so far distant that the proper memories were long obliterated by the eroding sands of time.

She knew how it would go. Gyatso would be first. And he would get special, personal treatment that probably went against the spirit of Air Nomad culture. However, Aang would not just throw in his old teacher's bones in with the rest.

He barely remembers him, she recalled sadly, remembering that conversation as she bent the water past her face, seeing Aang's crestfallen face in the reflection with her mind's eye, The only reason why he even remembers what he looks like is because of that statue in the courtyard, and I don't think he remembers what he sounded like at all. That's plenty detached enough.

The motions would be carried out - as best as could be done by only one - and the traditions would be observed. The bones would be ground into meal. The meal would be taken to the top of the tallest tower. Prayers to the spirits would be said. The meal would be spread upon the wind…

It was a bit of a process, but it was one of those things which the Avatar refused to give up.

She paused her thoughts when her left leg twitched out of sync with the rest of her body. Abandoning her current form, Katara inhaled, moving back to her resting, first position in the center of the pool which she had created.

Exhaling, she again began to go through her personalized waterbending kata. Muscles were screaming in distress, but she determinedly forged onwards, knowing with a mathematical precision exactly how much her body could take and how to maximize the opportunity of her youth.

That was her personal act of the day.

Get into shape.

It was a pain, but it had to be done. She could barely tolerate the lack of muscle memory. Even when she was a hundred and ten years old, she was in better fighting condition than her fourteen-year-old self had been when they'd first set out on their journey, simply by virtue of her body knowing, without the need for guidance from the mind. It was embarrassing.

Snap.

"RAGH! Stupid piece of twine-!"

The waterbender rolled her eyes.

Sokka was jury-rigging a functional… something. Katara wasn't sure she wanted to know.

When Zhao was told that the banished prince had pulled into port, he was pleased.

It was never the wrong time of day or the wrong day of the week to show the banished Prince the depths of his inadequacy and failure. Someone who was born into power and threw it away for the sake of peasants. Someone whose sum total existence was pathetic. Someone who obstinately refused to accept his position of disgrace.

Someone who was not like himself, in every way. Who was born low, but who made himself great. Someone able to bring the Fire Lord himself to heel.

So it was with that in mind that he strolled out of the port authority complex to greet the captain of the Huoling; the late afternoon sun suffusing the sky above with a fiery backdrop.

It was funny, he could hear them talking all the way from across the docks.

"Uncle, we're buying the fuel, and then we're leaving. We are not to stay here overnight!"

"Nonsense, Prince Zuko. The men are tired; they need rest! Real food! We've been at sea for weeks."

Wait a moment… what happened to the kid's hair?

This distinct absence of the normally very prominent hairdo had Zhao burning with curiosity.

That was a traditional, royal style… now why would he go and cut it off…?

"The men don't matter," the banished boy snarled, "Finding the Avatar is what matters! Every second spent idle is time lost!"

Oh, how cute. The boy was trying so hard to grow a backbone.

Well, let's see how much time we can kill, Zhao thought maliciously.

He made his presence known to them with his approach, "Time lost? Do you have a pressing appointment? Possibly a barber to see?"

The teenager turned away from his Uncle to level him with a look of thinly veiled disgust, "Captain Zhao."

"It's Commander, now. And General Iroh," and here he took special care to bow to the old fool, "great hero of our nation."

"Retired general."

"The Fire Lord's brother and son are welcome guests any time. What brings you to my harbor?"

The banished prince growled out a terse response, "All that we're here for is to refuel; we won't be staying here long."

Zhao, eyeing Zuko's unsightly haircut, suddenly had the perfect idea. "Really?" he feigned his unknowing, then leaned forwards slightly in challenge, knowing that it would annoy the angry brat, and added, "Are you sure? Wouldn't you like to have a drink at least, before you go? Tell me about your very busy schedule; I'm just dying to know what could be occupying so much of your time."

I need to pump your crew for information, anyway.

The teenager was already turning away in rejection, muttering "Sorry, but we have to go-"

He was halted by his uncle's hand falling heavily on his arm.

"Prince Zuko, show Commander Zhao your respect."

Retired general, active dullard Iroh turned to fully face him, bowing, "We would be honored to join you."

The commander gestured graciously, bidding them to follow and starting the walk back to the fort.

The old man asked from behind him, "Do you have any ginseng tea? It's my favorite."

Zhao's superficially pleasant smile morphed into a smug smirk as he heard the prince breathe fire out in impotent frustration behind them.

In the end, though, all good things had to come to an end.

It turned out that the two royals really were only there to refuel. The investigative force he sent to the Huoling returned to him later and in private with nothing except a few useless, vague warnings about the banished brat.

When prompted about his haircut, Zuko's answer was terse, "It kept getting in the way."

Simple enough, though somewhat disappointing in its simplicity.

And, surprise, it turned out that there were no leads on finding the Avatar.

Ah, well.

Nothing new there. Failure, as usual. And the commander made sure to tell the prince to his face.

At the least, Zhao took special care to speak with Iroh for as long as necessary about whatever random inane things he could think of until it was too late and they were basically forced to stay overnight, all the while enjoying the view of the banished prince barely keeping himself from blowing his top off.

By then, it was fairly late at night, and after finishing his saucer of sake after the royals left his office, he headed to his quarters.

And when he settled upon his new, larger futon (compared to the one he had as captain, anyway), he prepared for a long, peaceful night's rest.

A shadow flitted out of the corner of a guard's eye, causing him to jump slightly as he walked his beat through the hall intersection.

He lifted his lamp to illuminate the other hall.

"Who's there?"

Lee was worried.

That older girl was in trouble. Because of him. And now she was going to rat him out.

The response was typical from that thug, oily, "Well, I don't see anyone else around here."

He didn't mean it. He didn't mean for this to happen!

His father's words echoed, You have to think before you act, and especially in this town!

Stupid! I was so stupid!

"Right, okay, let me clear this up. I didn't throw that."

Wincing in his hidden position behind a cart, Lee looked over to his friend helplessly, who returned the gaze with dread.

We're doomed.

"I could not have possibly thrown that, because that was the most gratuitous display of fail I've ever seen in the history of stone-chucking."

The gears of Lee's mind ground to a halt. What?

"If I deemed you worthy of my rock-throwing virtuosity, your whole family tree would be feeling it for at least three generations in either direction, bucko."

The two boys froze, eyes widening as deafening silence descended on the street.

There was a low, dangerous laugh, "You think you're tough, kid?"

Matter-of-fact nonchalance, "No. That's a stone-cold fact which has been proven in laboratory conditions. What I think is that yo fat mommas didn't know what to do when they gave birth to a bunch of slimeballs like you."

Lee's jaw went slack, eye twitching.

She wants to die!

After a shorter pause, the response was dark, "You think we gonna let you get away with that just 'cause you're a little girl? You're dead where you stand."

Knowing that it didn't matter much now, Lee quickly peeked over the side of the cart, his friend following. Being ten year old boys, they of course wanted to see the gruesome bodily harm.

They would get it.

Teeth flashed in the sun with a vicious glee, "Awww, the widdle baby's mad. Hang on a sec, just let me grab a pacifier."

There was a simple bloody joy in this. Toph loved it. In fact, she loved it so much that in some lifetimes, she admitted, she loved it perhaps a bit too much.

Minion 1 - let's call 'im Clumsy - lived up to his nicknamesake by stepping in with an awkward thrust of his spear.

Now, this fight could be super simple. No one outside of the Singing Groundhog Club could really pose a threat to her. That's how things have been for… well, she couldn't remember how long. Sokka probably had a better idea. He liked counting things like that.

For instance, it was well within Toph's capabilities to break their collective legs with barely a twitch of the finger. Or necks, if she were up to the challenge of dealing with the wrath of a god later in the form of a certain monk.

Either way, that was boring.

No, the goal, as with all things, was not to win; never merely that. It was too easy.

It was to make things interesting.

Lee's heart stopped when the spear seemingly went unchallenged, and impaled the stranger.

Gao, too, was somewhat stunned at the profoundly unnatural passivity of his opponent, and didn't know how to respond.

She just… stood there.

"Hmm… let's see…"

And now the earthbending soldier was dumbstruck.

That thrust went straight through the stomach.

How is she still talking!?

"... points, I guess, for hitting the target."

He stared as a little hand went up to the spot, and was jarred into noticing there was no blood what-?

The metal end of the spear was abruptly snapped off, cutting off the thug's train-wreck of thought. And then she pulled the tip away with a small tear of her clothing to reveal-

The nerve cells in charge of Gao's eyes were fired by management for sending obviously not real information to the rest of the brain.

"You got me in the gut… but I have a feeling you were aiming for my lungs."

The tip was flattened. There was a circle of metal about the size of a small coin where the tip of the spear used to be. Like the metal simply… turned away from her skin?

"You accomplished the main intent of killing a little girl in cold blood, but…"

A sigh, as if delivering bad news, "I'm sorry, but with aim that bad, you do not pass Quality Mook Inspection. Whatever other qualities you may have can not make up for that."

The soldiers slowly started to back away, suddenly having the deep-gut feeling that they were punching above their own weight.

At the same time, a crowd of people was gathering along the previously mostly-empty street to gawk. They wanted to see this once-in-a-lifetime showdown for themselves.

They froze in place when they saw the metal move.

Melting, twisting, forming-

Until a gleaming caestus of spikes covered her fist.

"For the dignity of villainous underlings everywhere, I'ma hafta shut down this rickety-racket you have going on here."

What was this feeling?

She stepped forward and slugged the man who tried to skewer her with a haymaker to the stomach.

Not too hard, don't wanna punch through him.

Wind knocked out of his lungs, he fell to the ground with nary a sound. She finished him off with a blow to the head.

"Nighty-night." Sleep tight. Hope the bedbugs bite.

She turned, brushed bangs away for a moment to wipe away some sweat… from the sun, not the piddling scrap… and, like clockwork, the gasps came from all around. Because now there was a crowd watching.

Good, good. This'll help with my PR.

"What? I don't see-"

"She's blind."

"How can you tell?"

"Blind?"

"Blind!"

"Her eyes are clouded over-"

His parents had talked about it before, but Lee didn't understand back then. He didn't know. How could he? Girls had cooties.

Out of self-preservation, hoping to kill her quickly, the other two spear-wielding mooks went in together.

She grabbed both ends with one in each hand.

"Really? I just showed you what happens when you do that. You want some more!?"

Soon afterwards, there were two more heavy thumps on the ground and Toph was wielding two very terrifying heavy gauntlets.

Gao had cold sweat pouring down his back even as he evenly stared down the brat, holding up his earthbending hammers at the ready.

Not for the first time, he asked himself: Should I run?

But there was nowhere to go for him. He joined the Army specifically to avoid going it alone.

Also, his pride kicked his cowardice in the ass.

No way am I letting this meddling kid ruin everything.

The little rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, "Right. You. You and your ugly face."

She turned to face him fully, and Gao took a defensive step back.

"Those guys got the appetizer, buddy. You're gonna get the full meal deal for what you've been trying to pull."

But this… this must be Love. Love at first sight.

Toph could feel the giant honkin' pieces of metal that the jerk was hefting from twenty paces away.

Really, what was he thinking?

She launched forward on a pillar of earth, jumping-

It seemed he realized at the last second that he was being fatally stupid, because he threw his hammers away from himself, throwing them to each side of the street.

Too bad it didn't help. That throw left him wide open.

She lay into him, not giving one single second of quarter and hitting with just enough strength to stun him.

The crowd was cheering, now.

Jab to the stomach, taking away his breath.

"Give 'im a left! A LEFT!"

Cross punch to the solar plexus.

"Get him! He took my cow-hippo and sold it!"

He tries to retaliate by earthbending, wanting desperately to create some distance.

No dice. Toph shut down the earth spike he was attempting to wedge between them before it even appeared.

Hook punch to the ribs. It was too much; he fell to his knees, dazed by the supernatural force of her strikes.

"Wow!"

"Yeah!"

"Woohoo!"

And now for the finale.

Elbows to the face.

Right. One.

Left. Two.

Right. Three. Blood.

Left. Four. Tooth.

And lastly: The clincher. Toph's Trademark Earth Launch Special.

She leaned down.

Then jumped straight up, leading with her right fist.

CRUNCH.

Quiet.

In a single, almost graceful motion, the soldier was lifted into a standing position. For a moment, he was blankly facing forwards down the main street, directly at the sunset. Then he tipped backwards, falling into history as one of the poor souls who tried to mess with Toph Beifong, Greatest Earthbending Mistress in the World of All Time.

Thump.

All were silent, in awe at what had occurred before them. Each of them, now, perhaps having a better idea than anyone else in all the world that everything was going to change. That things were different.

Toph remained in her uppercutting position on her platform of earth, waiting patiently for the historical moment of awesome to play itself out naturally.

And the crowd went wild.

The boy next to Lee had a dopey grin on his face, "What a girl!"

He almost didn't hear it because of the noise of the cheering townspeople, but Lee reacted instantly, shoving his 'friend' as hard as he could, who fell to the ground with an oof.

"I SAW HER FIRST!"

And he dove headfirst into the milling crowd of people to claw his way towards his newfound True Love.

Sokka leaned back over the saddle until his head rested on Appa's fur, looking at Aang sitting on the flying bison's head. The upside-down perspective was useful for thinking, he'd found.

"So… Kyoshi first… and then Whaletail?"

The Avatar hummed an affirmative, adding, "Pretty much."

Toph's words were, 'Make the Fire Nation war machine blow a gasket.' Hitting their comm towers was a given. And Zuko would, of course, handle things from the inside.

"Gotcha," Sokka nodded absently, his warrior's wolf-tail getting mixed up in white fur.

His mind drifted to the prototype adding machine part that he had stashed away in his knapsack.

And simmered.

I would kill for even just a lousy arithmometer right now. And an abacus does not count. Doing all this math by hand bites.

Going straight from access to spreadsheets to being forced to scratch with a stick in the snow and dust was the worst.

He stowed those thoughts away for later. It would get better soon enough; just as soon as they got to the Mechanist. A couple of months was a blink of the eye.

Instead, he focused on something that was a bit nearer in the timeline.

"I'm calling it."

Aang let out a noise like he had stomach flu, head visibly drooping, "Uuuuuggggghhhhh…"

The front of Sokka's jacket was grabbed, and he found himself being yanked back up into a seated position.

Katara let go and held up a chiding finger, a serious expression on her face, "No."

Sokka put on his most charming smile. What did the grandkids call it this time? My trollface?

"Yes, and there will be various combustible objects involved, and I'll be having fun."

"No."

"Yes."

"Just let him go, Katara," Aang called out tiredly.

"Don't encourage him," she barked, leaning to the side to glare at the back of the airbender's head, "You want to be responsible for reinforcement of bad behavior?" she returned her attention to her brother, staring him straight in the eyes, "No."

"Okay, now you're both being ridiculous about this," Sokka complained, swatting at his sister's pointing finger, "You're making it sound like I'm planning to kill them all. No one's even going to get seriously injured. I'm just going to use the explosives to destroy the tower. Promise."

She raised an eyebrow, still frowning. Then she sighed, rolling her eyes, "Fine, you incurable pyromaniac."

Sokka nodded sagely, before opening his mouth, "But just so you know, there's also a few other things I want to take care of, you know, for later-"

Up front, hand met forehead-arrow, and his sister shook her head in disapproval as he began to list the things he had planned.