we all want love/we all want honor

Part 7: you feel it burn when you're knocked down

"Let the fire be your crown."

- Oliva Holt, "Phoenix"

Toph was bending in her room, trying to avoid being roped into music night (which, by the way, seemed to be happening more and more frequently the longer they traveled), when she felt the distinct footsteps that signalled Zhao's arrival.

(She should have been expecting it, honestly. The past few weeks had been far too peaceful. (There'd been that incident with the bounty hunter and her shirshu- Toph had zero interest in jumping around the kingdom on the back on some animal she wouldn't be able to see from, so she'd stayed behind for that.) Someone- she wasn't sure if it was Zuko or Uncle- had figured out that the Avatar was trying to get to the North Pole, presumably for waterbending training, so they'd just continued in that general direction without ever actually running into the kid.)

She put her hand to the wall and focused, listening to what the pompous old fart was saying.

What? He was taking the entire crew? Toph might think there were way too many people on this stupid ship, but she knew that compared to the navymen in Zhao's fleet, the few people under Zuko's command were pitifully insignificant. The admiral didn't need them; he was just doing this to mess with Zuko.

I need to go punch some rocks. It was a good thing they were already docked...

Zuko couldn't believe what he was hearing. Everyone?

Behind Zhao's back, Uncle mouthed not Toph. Internally, Zuko released a small sigh of relief, but maintained his furious air as Zhao inspected the wall.

"I didn't know you were skilled with broadswords, Prince Zuko," the admiral said.

How could I be so stupid as to leave those out?! The only people who normally risked entering his room were Uncle, and, on occasion, Lady Toph, both of whom already knew about the blades.

"I'm not," he lied. "They were a gift from one of the Fire Lord's vassals. Just decorative." No need to mention which Fire Lord, or why said vassal had chosen such a gift for a firebending prince.

And then Zhao started talking about the Blue Spirit. He knows. Zuko could deny it all he wanted, but once Zhao got an idea into his head, he wouldn't let it go. (Sounds like someone else I know, whispered a voice that sounded suspiciously like Lady Toph's.) The question was, what would the admiral do with the information?

As soon as Zhao left the room, Zuko strapped the swords to his hip and made sure he had his dagger on him. Just in case...

After sending off the crew, Iroh stuck his head back into his wayward nephew's room.

"The crew wanted me to wish you safe travels," he said.

"Good riddance to those traitors," Zuko muttered.

"Lady Toph left a note saying she was going to do some bending in the woods- I'm going to go check on her. Would you like to come with me?" The boy didn't respond. "Or just stay in your room and sit in the dark. Whatever makes you happy."

Iroh sighed as he left the room. Poor child. It wasn't healthy for him to bottle up his frustration like that. At least Toph had found a healthy outlet for her annoyance. The girl had mastered the balance between releasing her rage into her bending without letting it consume her the way most firebenders did. He never met anyone who was so in tune with their element. Even Bumi doesn't have the fine control she does. Not to mention the metalbending...

He strolled for a while, heading in the general direction of the forest. And then he heard the explosion.

"ZUKO!"

After she'd finished pounding all the nearby boulders to rubble, Toph perched on top of one of the reformed rocks and pulled a slim chain out from under her shirt. Swinging on the end, like some sort of pendant, was an arrowhead. The arrowhead. From the arrow that one jerk at the Pohuai Stronghold had shot. The one she hadn't been able to bend.

She inspected it carefully, running her fingers along the smooth metal. It certainly felt like regular metal. She couldn't place it exactly- though if she had to guess she'd say it was steel- but it just seemed like a normal arrowhead.

And yet she couldn't sense it. Not the way she could other metal. It was like... the exact opposite of her bracelet.

The bracelet had too much earth... was it possible that the arrow had too little?

Weird...

And that was when she heard the explosion.

By the time she reached the dock, the boat was gone.

No!

Her hand flew to her arm, then her hair, making sure her two most cherished possessions were still on her.

Thank goodness.

But the ship... all of her other stuff... the few things she'd kept from Gaoling, her knife collection, the other odd bits of metal she used, her writing samples...

Her books.

Oma and Shu, her books. The same books Zuko had spent hours upon hours copying just so she could actually read them. Because he cared. And now they were just... gone.

She heard a strange squawking noise somewhere above her.

Is that the pirates' weird lizard-bird-thing? Were they somewhere around here? Did they do this?

"Lady Toph, have you seen Zuko?" Suddenly, Uncle was there. She'd been so distracted that she'd barely noticed his approach.

Sparky?

"Wasn't he... with you?" She could feel the old man shaking his head.

"He wanted to stay on the ship..."

Oma's rage, Zuko was on the ship when it exploded? She knew firebenders could survive a lot, but that...

"He's gone," Uncle murmured.

"NO!"

Sparky couldn't be gone. He was Zuko. He would never just lie down and die like that. No matter how much the world threw at him, Zuko always got back up again. Always.

"I'm afraid, Lady Toph..." She could hear the tears choking back Uncle's voice.

"DON'T call me that!" Toph snapped. "He's not dead. He's not!"

Because if he was...

If he was, what did that even mean? She'd spent half her life with his presence a constant knowledge in her mind. Even during the time she hadn't met with him, she'd still known he was there.

She didn't know how to exist in a world where Zuko didn't.

Sparky, if you're dead, I'm going to find a way to bring you back just so I can kill you all over again.

When he'd spotted the bird, Zuko had known he had only moments to get off the ship. He had his blades, everything else could be replaced...

Mom's mask! The mask was the only thing of hers he'd brought with him, he couldn't lose it. He quickly ran to grab it from his cabin, and then flung himself over the side of the boat.

Ouch!

As he pulled himself out of the water, he felt something hard hit him in the side.

"Ow!" He looked up to see Lady Toph standing before him, fist extended. Uncle was quickly running after her. "Lady Toph, why did you-"

"You absolute idiot!" Was she... crying? Before he could say anything else, she'd flung herself into his arms. "Don't you ever do that again, do you hear me?! You scared us!"

Gingerly (he thought he might have a cracked rib), Zuko raised an arm and awkwardly patted the tiny girl's back as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"You had us worried there, nephew," Uncle said when he finally reached them.

"I'm sorry, Uncle," Zuko said,"Lady Toph."

"Oh, would you two stop calling me that," the girl said, lifting her head and wiping off her eyes. "I haven't been anything resembling a lady in a long time."

"What happened, Prince Zuko?" Uncle asked. "Was there a malfunction in the engine room?"

"It was those pirates," Lady Toph said, standing up properly and holding out a hand for him. "I heard their stupid bird flying around here."

"No," Zuko said, using her hand to pull himself into a standing position. "Well, yes, but they weren't doing it on their own. They were hired."

"Hired?" Lady Toph said, confused, but he could see Uncle's eyes lighting up in understanding. "By who?"

"Zhao," Zuko spat. "This was a deliberately targeted assassination."

"Go and claim your kingdom."

- Olivia Holt, "Phoenix"