While I admit that "On the Rocks" would be a good ship name for Toph and Weiss, that's not what I'm doing here. Canon pairings, people; canon pairings. I'm totally up for some White Rose or Bumblebee or whatever if it becomes official, but until then...

The sun had not yet met the horizon, but the first ethereal hints of dusk were quietly emerging. Appa, lying on his belly, cast a long shadow over the Fire Nation soldiers loading supplies onto his saddle; his head was turned slightly toward them, but remained immobile as his eyes followed their movements with mild interest. Momo, who had returned from wherever he had hidden himself, nibbled on a peach atop Appa's head.

Sokka, standing at the treeline, rubbed Foofoocuddlypoops' chin, his eyes experiencing flash flooding and his mouth doing the worm. "Well, buddy . . . you take care of your family, now, and watch out for any more of those mean old Grimm . . ."

Behind him, Katara rolled her eyes at the theatrics, though Aang smiled.

"I'll try to come visit you again sometime!" Sokka continued. Glancing sideways, he thought aloud, "Even though this isn't where you were the first time, so I don't know if you'll still be here . . ."

The moose lion calmed the oncoming emotional storm with yet another slimy lick to the face. Sokka hugged the animal around the neck again and then turned away.

Raising his head, Foofoocuddlypoops stared over Sokka's shoulder and let out a mildly angry snort.

In his line of sight, Ruby was making toward Appa, ineffectively attempting to conceal one of the moose lion cubs under her cloak. The cub squealed happily, wriggled out of her grip, and ran over to its father, sending Ruby into her own rendition of Sokka's performance.

Yang approached her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I know they're cute, Ruby, but you can't just take -"

She was interrupted by another snort. A moment later, a second cub popped its head out of the prodigious mass of Yang's hair.

Glaring at the baby, Yang said firmly, "This is your fault." The cub responded by licking her nose. Then it disappeared back into her golden curls, slipped out the bottom, and joined its sibling.

Not far from the would-be cubnapping sisters, near Appa's tail, Zuko and General Mak stood and monitored the soldiers' progress.

"That's enough," said Zuko as another sack of food was handed up. "You need more than we do."

The lower soldier shot off a quick bow and proceeded to help her companion down from the bison's back.

Turning to Mak, Zuko said, "I'll send an airship back as soon as we arrive, but if you can find one of the hawks, send a message anyway, since it might get there faster."

"Do not worry about us, Fire Lord," Mak responded with a chest-thump salute. "The Royal Family must be protected at all costs."

Zuko shook his head slowly. "There's just no way . . . By the time we get there . . ."

"Hey," said Katara as she approached. "Remember the Day of Black Sun? The Fire Nation's not an easy place to invade." Backing up the assertion with eye contact, she said, "They stand a good chance."

Zuko sighed. "I just keep picturing one of those portals opening up in my mother's room when she's asleep, and . . ."

Blake, who had been leaning reticently against Appa with her arms crossed, said, "After we make sure they're safe, we should try to find out what's causing the portals in the first place." Glancing almost imperceptibly at Yang, she went on, "Similar powers aren't unheard of in Remnant, but obviously your world isn't common knowledge."

Sokka walked up, sniffing and wiping his eyes. After clearing his throat several times, he opined, "In our world - Earth, I should say - weird stuff like this is usually caused by spirits. But their thing is usually revenge for destroying nature, and I didn't really see any nature being destroyed around here. Besides, the Grimm came through this one, but you guys came through the other one, so -" he shrugged - "I dunno."

"Well, I know one thing," said Yang with a goofy grin. "Whichever world ends up with Weiss and Toph is in for a rocky ride! Aeh? Aeh? Anyone?"

Sokka leaned over to Katara and said, "Her jokes need some work." Katara gave him a rather Weiss-tastic look, to which he cluelessly responded, "What?"

On the other side of the portal, Weiss landed on top of Toph, and immediately rolled forward off of her and spun around to face the Griffon. But she need not have bothered: the portal, which appeared orange- rather than blue-rimmed on this side, shrunk to a close as the beast was only halfway through it, and the front half began dissolving before it even struck the ground.

Toph scrambled to her feet before Weiss, looking distinctly displeased.

"Wha - what just - what did you do?!" she blustered.

"We fell through another portal," said Weiss calmly, stowing Myrtenaster.

"Why?! Why did you - Don't do that again!" Toph jabbed her finger at Weiss accusationally.

"Well excuse me for saving your life!" Weiss shot back.

"I don't need saving, Ice Queen!"

"Okay, seriously, how does everyone come up with that independently?!" Grumbling, Weiss held her face in her hand briefly. Then she looked back at Toph and continued, "You see through the ground, right? There was a flying Grimm coming at you, so I thought -"

"I know!" Toph interrupted. "It was shrieking its head off! I do have ears!"

"Well, I didn't know there would be a portal, okay? It just appeared!"

"So where the heck are we, huh? Is this your world?"

Weiss looked around, and the question turned out to be more difficult to answer than she had anticipated.

It did look like one of the many ruined cities to be found in Remnant, but something seemed a bit off. This particular city looked a little too familiar . . .

Toph tapped her foot impatiently. "Well?"

Weiss half-sighed, half-huffed. "I'm not sure. I mean, I think it's Remnant, but . . ." She trailed off, staring at the castle-like building off in the distance. Dark fog surrounded it, and blanketed the sky in general, but she would recognize Beacon's silhouette anywhere. Except . . . it seemed a little different. The top of the central tower appeared to be missing, and there was a huge, misshapen mass bulging out from one side of the same. It almost looked like . . . something was clinging to -

"So what's the plan here?"

"Just let me think for a second!" Weiss spouted. "Didn't anyone teach you it's rude to interrupt people?!"

Toph took on a mock-elegant voice. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry to have offended the delicate sensibilities of the dainty little princess who's always biting everyone's head off!"

Weiss marched up to Toph with her finger bared as she replied, "Your snarky little tough-girl attitude is of absolutely no help right now!"

"I told you, I am tough, and you're the one with the attitude problem!"

"The only problem I have right now is your disrespect! You badly need to learn some manners!"

Toph let out a sharp but gravelly screech as she spun around and stomped away, shaking the ground with each step. Throwing her arms around dramatically, she professed to the heavens, "Of all the people to get lost in another world with, I have to get stuck with the spoiled brat!"

"Excuse me?!" Weiss all but shrieked as she started after the impetuous earthbender.

Toph whirled back around and said, "No, you know what? You're not excused! Your type is all the same - I try and try to get away, you always find me - we're here five seconds and I already wanna claw my own useless eyes out!"

Weiss wrapped her fingers around Myrtenaster's hilt, moving slowly and gripping hard to make sure that Toph felt the vibrations. "I might be able to arrange that."

Toph waved her hand, and then after a moment her expression faded to puzzlement. With a "Huh?" she repeated the gesture, and after another pause said, "Hey, what kind of metal is that thing - Wait . . ."

"What do you mean what kind -"

"No, seriously, shut up for a second," said Toph, her brow furrowed but all anger gone from her voice.

"Why -"

"SHH!" Toph jammed a finger over Weiss's mouth. A second later she released it and said, "Yeahp . . . Yep, that's definitely uh . . . more Grimm, coming in fast."

"Well it's no surprise, the way we were arguing," Weiss lectured, wiping at her mouth.

Toph took her mantis stance. "Let's just agree to live long enough to kill each other."

Weiss drew her sword and took her fencing stance. "I'll hold you to that."

As the agents of evil rushed in from all sides and Weiss patiently watched her opening coalesce, in her periphery she could not help but notice the way that Toph waited and listened for the perfect moment to strike.

Kiyi didn't understand what was happening. It was the middle of the night, but she got woken up by all the noise. Outside her room, it sounded like everybody was fighting. Not yelling fighting - firebending fighting. But there were growls, and howls, and roars. Like everybody was fighting crazy animals or something.

She had to find Mommy and Daddy.

Zuzu wasn't here, she knew. She wished he was. He would beat up all the bad animals. But he was on a trip with the Avatar.

She had to find Mommy and Daddy.

Nobody was around in the halls, so they were all probably outside fighting. That meant the bad guys weren't inside yet, maybe, so she was safe for now, maybe. But she didn't want to be safe, she wanted Mommy and Daddy to be safe.

She slammed the doors of their room open. But they weren't in there. Where were they?

"Mommy?" she called, in case they were hiding. Nobody answered, so she turned around and started running again.

Kiyi didn't care about the bad guys, or animals, or whatever they were, but she had to find Mommy and Daddy. She had to make sure they were okay. Why did she sleep by herself again? If she was with them, she would know they were okay. Now she didn't know.

It was weird that Mommy got a different face from the spirits. She didn't look like Mommy anymore. It was weird and Kiyi didn't know what to do about it. But she still loved her. Mommy knew Kiyi still loved her . . . Right?

But she was kinda mean to Mommy . . . What if . . .

She went around the corner and - there was Mommy! And some weird black bear thing. With sharp claws that it was trying to scratch Mommy with and a stupid ugly face that Kiyi hated and wanted to punch.

Mommy pulled a sword off the wall and started fighting the not-platypus bear. Zuzu said those swords were just for decoration. It looked like it was working fine to Kiyi.

Mommy saw her and shouted her name, "Kiyi!" She slashed at the not-armadillo bear and said, "Run! Get out of here!"

The ugly bear turned and looked at Kiyi, and Mommy slashed the sword at its neck. But its head didn't get cut off. It just turned back to Mommy, and when she tried to slash it again, it caught the sword in its mouth.

And it bit the sword in half.

Okay, just for decoration.

The bear that was too stupid to be two animals lifted its ugly hand to scratch Mommy, and Kiyi's heart jumped out of her mouth.

There was no time to do the whole form - Kiyi just ran at the idiot-bear and threw her arms forward again and again and again, sending out little puffs of fire that combined into one big flame that waved backwards and forwards with her hands.

"DON'T - HURT - MY - MOMMY!"

The bear was surprised, then tried to swat the fire, then got mad when it got burned. It swung its ugly paw up through the fire and smacked Kiyi, knocking her back and down on the ground. Mommy screamed her name.

Kiyi pushed herself back up, but it hurt because she landed on her funny bone.

Why was it called a funny bone? It wasn't funny! It hurt!

The dumb bear got down on all fours and roared at her. Mommy kicked it in the head, and it roared at Mommy. Kiyi bent more fire at it, and it roared at the fire. It was really stupid.

Then it ran at Kiyi.

Kiyi wasn't scared of it, but she wasn't stupid like it either. She made a bunch of fire so it couldn't see what she was doing and she ran to the side. It worked, and the bear went past her and had to stop and turn around. Kiyi ran over and stood in front of Mommy and held her fists up.

The bear's eyes glowed red, and kinda left little trails of red light when it moved. It was nighttime, so the red lights were bright. But the hall wasn't all the way dark.

Kiyi had an idea.

On the roof there was a chandelier, which was a word that Daddy taught her. It was a pretty one made of those green crystals that glowed in the dark. And it was just hanging by one rope.

The just-a-bear ran at them, and Kiyi started doing her form. There wasn't much time, so she did it faster than she was supposed to. It still let her make a bigger fire. She aimed the fire up at the chandelier rope and stretched it out.

The ugly bear got closer, and the fire got farther.

Mommy's hand reached down by Kiyi's feet and grabbed one half of the bitten-in-half sword. She threw it at the bear, and it hit it in the face and the bear slowed down.

The fire got to the rope. The rope was on fire. But the chandelier wasn't falling.

The bear stood up on its back legs. It roared at them.

The chandelier fell.

It smashed the bear into the ground like a dumb ugly moronic loser.

Mommy's arms came around Kiyi from behind and hugged her. Her hands were freezing. Kiyi could feel Mommy's heart beating against her back and Mommy's breath in her hair. Kiyi was breathing fast, too.

They caught their breath.

Then a giant black arm punched through the wall right in front of Kiyi. The hand grabbed Mommy and pulled her and Kiyi through the wall and Kiyi didn't know what was happening until they slammed into a different wall far away.

Kiyi was dizzy and couldn't see for a second. When everything stopped being blurry, she saw they were in the courtyard with the pond where Mommy liked to feed the turtle ducks. She hoped the turtle ducks were okay.

There was a roar that was different than the bear roar and she looked at the different animal.

It looked kinda like a drawing the Avatar showed her of a goat gorilla, only without the goat. Why were all these things so stupid?

The stupid thing stood up on its stupid little back legs and punched on its chest really fast with both hands. Its arms were huge.

Its whole self was huge.

It ran at them with its hands and feet.

There were no chandeliers outside.

Kiyi tried to make fire, but she was dizzy and tired and her arm still hurt and she just made a little spark.

This time, Kiyi was scared.

Her eyes felt hot.

"Mommy . . ." Her voice sounded weird. She pushed herself around to hug Mommy and tried to talk louder. "Mommy, I'm sorry! I still love you!"

Mommy looked surprised and then she started crying too. "Oh, Kiyi, it's okay, I know you do." Kiyi felt Mommy's fingers in her hair. "I love you too . . ."

The ground was shaking from the bone-gorilla getting close. Kiyi and Mommy squeezed each other.

"Mommy . . . !"

A bird cawed.

The big hand hit Kiyi, but it didn't really hurt. Confused, she opened her eyes.

The gorilla stood over them. But its arm was on the ground. Its arm was cut off.

The one-armed gorilla turned around to look behind itself, and Kiyi looked too.

There was a man there with his back to them. He had black hair, a white shirt, black pants, and a ripped-up red cape. And he was holding a thing that made big swords look like toothpicks.

He looked back at them and smiled like he was winning a game or something and said, "Left that one a little close."

The gorilla started to move, and the man swung his sword back. Kiyi didn't understand what happened, but there were lots of clicking and sliding noises and the sword handle got longer and the sword leaned so it was hooked around the gorilla. Then the man spun around and used the sideways-sword to throw the dumb gorilla over the pond and into the hole that it made in the wall when it pulled them out.

Since the man spun he was facing them now and he held his hand down. Mommy reached up and grabbed it, and the man yanked them up so fast that Kiyi was squished between him and Mommy.

"Or maybe not close enough," he said to Mommy over her head. Kiyi didn't get what that meant, but for some reason she didn't really like the way he said it.

The man's breath had a weird smell that made Kiyi's nose wrinkle. Mommy pushed a little away from the man too. But then Kiyi remembered the stories everybody was telling.

"Hey mister!" she said. "Are you the Crow Spirit?"

He looked down at her like she had told a joke. But he said, "Sure, kid."

There was a noise, and the one-armed gorilla came back out of the hole. It slammed its one arm on the ground.

It roared like thunder.

Then there was a blue flash behind it and actual thunder.

The dumb thing fell down and behind it was Uncle Iroh and -

"Daddy!" Kiyi jumped down from Mommy's arms and ran over and hugged Daddy.

"Kiyi!" he said. "Thank goodness you're okay." He was holding two swords that hopefully weren't for decoration.

Kiyi looked up at Uncle Iroh because he was probably gonna say something wise or something. But Uncle was looking weirdly at the Crow Spirit.

"Have we met before?" he asked him.

"Doubt it," said the Crow Spirit, and his sword turned back into a sword.

Everything got even darker than it was, and everybody looked up.

A really huge giant black bird was flying over everything, and it blocked the moon. Then on the roof another not-goat gorilla came, and then another idiot-bear, and they both jumped down to the ground and looked at the Crow Spirit.

"Let's discuss it later," he said.

Both the monsters ran at him and he switched his sword to the other hand. The gorilla jumped at him and tried to punch.

The Beringel's fist crashed into the ground an inch from Weiss's foot, splintering the already weatherbeaten pavement. Weiss unleashed a lattice of strikes across its face before throwing up a glyph to block its other hand. Her stomach lurched as the first hand clutched her ankle and swung her over the hulking beast's head, slamming her into a car. Or perhaps 'through' would be more accurate; suffice to say it was thenceforth not much of a car.

Some earthbending happened while Weiss collected herself, and by the time she was back on her feet the ape was buried in the asphalt up to its neck.

Weiss brandished her rapier and allowed Dust to flow onto the blade. The Beringel barked at her, and she shoved the weapon into its nostril; arcs of electricity scrambled over the beast's head, and it convulsed for a few moments before going slack and beginning to evaporate.

"There's no end to these things!" Toph griped, and indeed more Grimm were closing in.

"I'm getting low on Dust," said Weiss. "But anywhere we go, they'll follow."

Toph snapped her fingers. "How about underground?"

"That - could work." Weiss pointed her rapier at Toph. "Here, this might help."

A yellow ribbon of light flew from the end of Myrtenaster and snaked through the air before diving onto the earthbender. Below her bare feet, a yellow glyph with gear-like patterns appeared, and there was a noise reminiscent of a helicopter blade revving up.

Toph, moving unnaturally quickly, took her stance and stomped her foot, and land began to flow like liquid.

The nearest of the Grimm were taken out before Weiss knew what happened to them, and the rest began to slow down and reconsider their advance, which gave Toph the time to tear open a hole in the road and hop down into it. Weiss followed, and the earthy ceiling closed like a mouth above her.

The Schnee heiress held up her spare right hand and conjured a miniature glyph, the glow of which allowed her to see in the enclosed space. Toph had started on tunneling sideways when the speed boost wore off, and she flexed her fingers curiously.

Weiss transformed her tiny white glyph into another yellow streamer, which sought Toph out again. The sounds of Grimm pounding on the dirt overhead accompanied the helicopter thumping, but shortly Toph was skating over the ground and parting the earth before her as though she exuded some sort of field of repulsion. Weiss followed at a trot, lighting her way with small glyphs beneath each step.

They continued wordlessly for some time; the repeated haste glyphs began to take a toll on Weiss, but it paid off in the end, as when Toph announced that she could no longer see any Grimm and brought them back to the surface, the city that they had left appeared to be little more than a toy model in the distance.

They had emerged in the Forest of Forever Fall, or at least it sure looked like it. But if that was the case, then the ruined city . . .

Weiss's thoughts were interrupted by a painful slug to the upper arm.

"Ow!"

"That speedy thing saved our butts. How do you do that?"

"Time dilation," said Weiss, rubbing her arm. "Like I said, my Semblance has a variety of uses. I still haven't figured out summoning, but . . ."

She trailed off. Eventually, Toph, shifting her weight from foot to foot awkwardly, started back up.

"So uh . . . Sorry I got a little shouty before. Whatever a portal is, I can't see it, so when we suddenly landed in a different world, I was pretty freaked out, y'know?"

"And I should have been more understanding of that," Weiss admitted, stowing her rapier. "I know I can be . . . difficult . . ." She was avoiding eye contact despite Toph's blindness. "People think I don't care, but I do. I'm - trying. I - Don't tell Ruby this, but just being with her, with all of them, has . . . helped. A lot."

Toph nodded. "Let me guess: your family's rich, dad's kind of a jerk, you had everything you ever needed but nothing you really needed?"

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Now how did you . . . ?"

"I was describing myself," said Toph pointedly.

"You're rich?"

Weiss immediately regretted her judgemental tone, but Toph took it in stride.

"My parents are. The Beifongs are the richest Earth Kingdom family outside Ba Sing Se. I left all that behind."

Weiss sighed. "Look -"

"Can't, remember?" Toph interrupted, tapping her temple with a snarky grin.

Weiss shook her head. "You're worse than Yang. Listen, then." Her tiny amused smile faded. "I'm trying to be nice, but I don't want to talk about my family, okay?"

"Then don't talk," said Toph. "You listen." Reaching behind herself, she pulled her hands up and created an approximation of a sofa out of stone, leaving the coating of red grass and leaves for - assumably - the sake of comfort. Sitting down and patting the spot next to her, she added, "Pull up a rock. By which I mean I just did it for you."

Weiss folded her arms and opened her mouth to protest, so Toph flicked her foot and pushed up the ground underneath one of Weiss's high heels, causing her to fall exactly into a seated position next to the earthbender. Folding her arms behind her head, Toph caused the rock behind her to lean back like a recliner.

"Aang, Sokka, Katara, and kinda Zuko - he joined later; long story - those guys have been more of a real family to me than my actual parents. My dad never let me do anything or talk to anyone - he thought because I'm blind, I'm some delicate little flower that needs to be protected from dangerous things like 'people' and 'fun.' And my mom just went along with whatever he said. So I ran away - a lot, but most importantly the time I joined Aang. I didn't see my parents for a while after that." Toph paused for effect before continuing, "Until . . . I unexpectedly ran into my dad at a refinery."

Weiss folded her arms again. "So what, you hugged it out and then everything was happy and easy forever?"

"He acted like he didn't even know me."

Weiss stared in silence. Toph was not crying, but the edge had gone out of her voice, and for the first time Weiss saw the rude, crude earthbender as the young girl that she was. Maybe even younger than Ruby . . .

Speaking softly herself, Weiss asked, "So what happened then?"

"Well, Aang did that golem thing to fight a giant spirit, and later we reinvented a holiday . . ." The snark faded slightly again after that resurgence. "But, me and my dad talked, and . . . things are better now. Not great, but better." Toph stretched out her arms above her head, then sat up on her elbows. "I guess what I'm saying is . . . Talking might make things worse - but not talking won't make things better."

Weiss stared at her shoes, feeling as though her brain were on fire from overexertion even though none of her thoughts seemed to take on any comprehensible form. Like she was silently screaming at herself in an attempt to be heard over her own scream. Outwardly, of course, the Ice Queen showed nothing, although she would not have been surprised were Toph to claim somehow to feel her inner turmoil.

The truth was, these kinds of feelings had become increasingly familiar. Winter was right - she would not go crawling back - but, at the same time, Toph was right too. Sooner or later, she would have to face Father, and she needed to be ready for it.

"I won't make you promise or anything," Toph said. "Just throwing it out there."

Weiss closed her eyes and let out a small, slow sigh. The otherworlder was about the furthest thing from a proper psychologist, and their scenarios were certainly different, but she understood that Toph was trying to help, and that it may not have been easy for her. Swallowing her own snark, she turned to thank her, and -

Toph was unabashedly picking her nose.

Even as Weiss launched into a tirade of disgusted protest, she could not entirely hold back a smile, and by the time Toph finished countering with another parody rant, the two of them were consumed by a fit of laughter.

Because they were flying west, the sunset had been drawn out to several hours in length. Normally, Katara would be the first to appreciate the beauty of such a situation, but she felt mostly drained, and was ultimately relieved when nightfall finally became complete. Of course, her connection to the moon may have played a role in that.

She sat against the side of the saddle with her eyes half-closed. One hand cradled Aang's head in her lap, and the other held one of his, limp though it was as he slept. Yang, directly across from them, was also asleep, her arms and head thrown backwards over the saddle and her mouth hanging open, occasionally releasing a loud snore. Her teammates were nestled on either side of her, Blake looking over some of Sokka's maps and Ruby staring down at Momo as she stroked him from neck to tail. Sokka was at the back of the saddle reorganizing their supplies for the umpteenth time, and Zuko was at the reigns, his back to everyone.

They were only missing two members, but somehow the group seemed much smaller.

Just as Katara once more temporarily succumbed to her eyelids' downward insistence, she heard Ruby's squeaky voice address her quietly.

"Hey . . . Katara? Are you awake?"

"I don't want to sleep," she responded, and opened her eyes to meet Ruby's. Smiling and speaking calmly, she elaborated, "I'm afraid of what I'll dream."

Ruby's mouth curled down at this and she fell into a pensive silence.

"Sorry," said Katara, "did you have a question?"

"Well, I just . . . Is Aang gonna be okay?"

Any remnants of jealousy that Katara had felt over these girls' apparent familiarity with Aang melted away when she heard the genuine concern in Ruby's voice.

"The Avatar State uses a lot of energy," she explained. "He just needs to rest."

"Yeah," said Ruby, "but I mean . . . that look he gets, on his face . . ."

Katara nodded slowly as Aang stirred a little. "It scares me too."

Beneath them, Appa groaned and flexed his six legs as though performing a swimming stroke. Then he returned to his simple hanging posture.

"Can I ask," said Katara softly, "what exactly happened when Aang went to your world?"

"Well, uh, there was a weird light and Aang appeared in our school courtyard, and then I took him to Professor Ozpin and I dunno what they talked about, but the next day he launched us all into the forest and there was this weird half-guy half-Grimm thing that Aang got rid of by shooting lights out of his eyes and -"

"You're wondering how well we really know Aang," Blake cut in, and only then did she lift her gaze from the map. "Not that well, but well enough to know he's - sensitive. About killing."

Katara closed her eyes again and said, "When Aang found a way to end the war without killing the Fire Lord, he set an example of peace for the rest of the world to follow. We all went through so much to get to that point . . . And it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing since then, but it's better than it was." She lifted one hand to rub her eyes and then opened them and glanced at Zuko. He had not reacted to the conversation; she was sure that he could hear them, but he may have been lost in his own - probably unpleasant - musings.

"An example of peace . . ." Blake mumbled, her eyes unfocused. "For the world to follow . . ."

"But now . . ." Katara said. "Zuko's been through a lot too. His mother had to kind of go into hiding, and it wasn't that long ago that we found her." She took a long, slow breath. "I hope she's okay."

Several silent moments passed before Katara realized she was clutching her necklace.

"So I shoot her up there, she gets her scythe around its neck, and she runs up the glyphs, finally cutting its head off at the top."

"She sounds like your version of Sokka, only - well, I was gonna say girlier, but . . ."

"And this was literally our first proper day of school," Weiss added.

"Wow." Toph grinned and shook her head. "I am definitely chucking my students off a cliff when I get back." Frowning, she corrected, "If I get back . . ."

Weiss sighed. "I don't know what's causing these portals, but . . ." She stared into the distance for a while before turning to Toph and saying reassuringly, "I'm sure we'll get back."

"You're lying."

"What?"

"I can tell. Breathing, heartbeat - if you know what to look for, it's a dead giveaway. Unless you're creepily evil like Azula. Which, I mean, you kind of are, but it works on you."

"Thank you," said Weiss distastefully, with half a grin and half a frown. "Is there anything you can't do?"

"Nope." After a moment of silence, Toph said, "Wait, so . . . if they're sisters, how come they have different last names?"

"They're half sisters," Weiss explained. "Same father, different mothers."

"That's just weird," said Toph, shaking her head disapprovingly.

"A little," Weiss shrugged. "But you have to learn not to judge people by what they're born into."

Toph opened her mouth, then closed it again. Changing the subject, she said, "I invented metalbending, you know. Nobody could do it before. I look for the impurities in the metal, but apparently you guys are so good at metalworking that I can't find any."

Weiss drew her sword again and examined it idly. "You know what we're up against. Our weapons have to be perfect."

Toph tilted her head like a curious dog. "But I bent those . . . things earlier . . ."

" 'Things?' "

"Those little . . . pellety things. That came out of Yang's - punchy things."

". . . Oh, the shells. Empty Dust bullets. They're lower-grade material. They only need to work once."

The distant howl of a Beowolf drifted through the fluttering leaves, cutting the conversation short.

"I don't know how you guys survive here," said Toph gloomily.

Weiss stared up at the shattered moon. "We might stand a better chance if we didn't spend so much time fighting each other. My family has been a big part of that problem, but there are even worse people in Remnant . . ." She slumped forward, resting her chin on her fist. "Who knows what other horrors our world is inflicting on yours . . ."

Neptune flashed his sparkling smile.

"Well, gorgeous, I don't like to brag," he bragged, "but I do just so happen to be -" under his breath, he inserted "training to be" before resuming - "a professional monster slayer."

"Really," said Suki with mock interest.

"That's right," Neptune said, casually making flexing motions with one arm, which did not particularly reveal much muscle. "So why don't you point me toward this 'unagi' and then, y'know -" he winked - "kick back and enjoy the show."

"It's right over there," said Suki, pointing at the beach.

Neptune turned and scanned the area. Obliviously remaining chipper, he said, "Where? I don't see it."

"In the water."

Neptune, in his cocky posture and expression, froze so completely that he appeared to become a statue, even his azure hair ceasing to loll in the breeze. Unfortunately the statue's weight was not evenly distributed and it began to slowly tip over, until eventually he had to snap out of it and move to avoid faceplanting.

"What's wrong, Mr. Manly Monster Slayer?" lilted Suki. "You're not scared, are you?"

Wrangling up his machismo like a flock of escaped geese, Neptune chortled, "No, I'm not scared . . . Of the monster . . ." Pointing over his shoulder, he said, "Uh, let me just go consult with my teammate - because, y'know, the fight'll probably be over so fast, I don't want him to get left out." He flipped his pointing gesture into a thumbs-up and flashed his teeth again, before hastily dashing off around the side of the building.

Rounding it, he shouted out, "Hey, Sun?"

Sun, it turned out, was standing with his arms slung around two of the other Kyoshi Warriors, whilst the rest of them were fawning over his customarily-exposed abs.

"You say somethin', Neptune?" he said over their giggling.

"OH COME ON!"

Yeah, Sun and Neptune will probably remain sidelined as usual, but at least I got them in there. And for those who didn't hear me the first time: I am not shipping Weiss and Toph. I merely noticed some similarities in their backstories and decided to explore their differing approaches to handling it, which also should lead nicely into Weiss's arc in Volume 4. I hope.

Yes, the blue-and-orange portal is a reference to Portal. Considering I'm using the resonance cascade bit from Half-Life, it was coming sooner or later.

And I should probably explain... In Legend of Korra, Toph has half-sisters as daughters. So her disapproval here is supposed to be funny for that reason, but as far as making sense of it, I figure it's the one aspect of her rich, snobbish upbringing that she's still thus far retained. Clearly, that won't stick either. Of course, Kiyi is also Zuko's half-sister, but those were unusual circumstances and she and Toph haven't had much interaction yet. Between her and Team RWBY, though, that's probably why Toph ends up dropping the issue.

Speaking of Kiyi, I have no idea how to pronounce her name. Kee-yee? Keye-eye? Keye-yee? Kee-eye? Kih-yih? Not a clue. I don't think they've yet specified any Chinese characters to use for her name, so you can't figure it out based on that either.

I have absolutely nothing of the next chapter written and I'm not even completely sure what it will contain. But things will be wrapping up here in fewer chapters than you'd expect, and not just because Volume 4 is almost here. That's what convenient plot contrivances like a resonance cascade are for, after all. Nonetheless, you will have Volume 4 to distract you from my procrastination, so. Until next time.