we all want love/we all want honor
Part 15: we were born with nothing
"We sat and made a list of all the things that we have."
- Bastille, "Things We Lost In The Fire"
Toph woke up to loud crashing sounds.
"What's going on?" Sitting up, she winced. Ouch. She rubbed her collarbone, feeling the bandages.
"Lady Toph!" Zuko came running into the room. "You're awake!"
"'Course I am, Sparky," she said. Uncle, who was sitting next to her, handed her a cup of tea, and she sipped it carefully. "What happened?"
"Azula shot you with lightning," Uncle Iroh said.
"It was a surprise attack," Zuko said bitterly.
"And yet, I'm not the least bit surprised," Toph laughed, which irritated her injury. She raised her hand to her neck. "Wait, where's-"
"This is an interesting pendant," the old general said, handing her the necklace. She put it back on.
"Wait, is that- Lady Toph, why would you keep that?" Zuko said, noticing what was on the chain.
"Because I thought it was cool," she said. "Now, what was all that banging going on outside?"
"Zuko has decided to try his hand at lightning," Iroh said.
"Makes sense," she said, shrugging. Ow. That was going to get really annoying, really fast. "Let me guess, it's not going too well."
"Instead of lightning, it keeps exploding in my face," Zuko said, annoyed. "Like everything always does."
"Overdramatic much, Sparky?" Toph smirked. "You're not going to figure out a new technique that fast. You have any idea how long it took me to be able to do this?" She bent her bracelet off of her arm, twisting its shape.
"What are you doing?" Zuko gaped. Uncle just made an intrigued hmmm.
"Metalbending," she said. "I've showed you this before, remember?"
"Yeah, but not like that," Sparky said. "I knew you could snap chains, not... melt and reform it like that."
"What did you think I was doing with all the knives?" She twisted her arm, and something came flying out of her bag into her hand. She tossed it to him. "By the way, I think this is yours."
Zuko looked at the knife in his hand. Never give up without a fight. He'd given it to Lady Toph before they split up- when he decided not to go after her, he'd thought he'd never see it again.
"I restocked my collection," Lady Toph was saying. "So you can have that back."
"That metalbending you do is fascinating," Uncle said.
"I thought you already knew," she said, wrinkling her face in confusion.
"I knew you'd adapted your earthbending sight to the metal of the ship," Uncle Iroh explained. Oh! That explains it. Zuko had never really thought about how Lady Toph managed on a metal boat. "But what you're doing with that bracelet... looks more like waterbending."
"Really?" She bent the bracelet back to its original form and returned it to her arm. Zuko's eyes narrowed as he noticed the gold flame. She still has that thing?
"Hmmmm," Uncle muttered. "Lightning... waterbending... I have an idea! Lady Toph, I believe you might find this helpful, as well."
"That's great," she said, standing up. "Any chance we could do this outside? I can't sense anything on these wooden floors."
"I believe that could be arranged."
The two of them sat on the ground as Uncle stood in front of them, holding a stick.
"Fire is the element of power," he began, drawing a symbol of fire in the dirt. "The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will, and the energy and drive to achieve what they want."
"Like Sparky over here, finding the Avatar when no one else had seen him for a hundred years," Lady Toph said, nodding.
"Exactly. Earth, however, is the element of substance." He drew a symbol of earth. "The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring."
"Yeah, we don't give up just because some people decide to give up and forget about us," she said, pointedly not facing Zuko's direction.
"Air is the element of freedom. The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns and found peace and freedom," he continued, writing a symbol for air. Then he smiled. "Also, they apparently had pretty good senses of humor!"
"Like running after frogs when they should be escaping," Lady Toph whispered to Zuko. He frowned.
"Water is the element of change," Uncle continued, drawing a symbol of water and ignoring her muttering. "The people of the Water Tribe are capable of adapting to many things. They have a deep sense of community and love that holds them together through anything."
"That's all well and good, but why are you telling us?" Zuko had heard Uncle talk about the different elements and what they meant for the four nations a million times before. Lady Toph elbowed him.
"Shut up, and let him explain!"
"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale," Uncle Iroh said, drawing lines between and around the symbols he'd drawn. "Understanding others, the other elements, and the other nations will help you become whole."
"All this four elements talk is sounding like Avatar stuff," he replied.
"It is the combination of the four elements in one person that makes the Avatar so powerful. But it can make you more powerful, too," the old man explained. "Just as Lady Toph was able to change and adapt her bending to life on a ship, much like a waterbender. In fact the technique I want to teach you, Zuko, is one I learnt by studying the waterbenders."
While Uncle showed Zuko how to manipulate his chi to redirect lightning, Toph stayed behind for a while, thinking about what Uncle had said.
Sure. she'd heard him talk like that before, in some of their chats over tea or pai sho, but she'd never really considered what it meant for her.
She was an earthbender. Like he'd said, she was persistent, tough, and enduring. But she'd also spent half her life living amongst people of Fire.
There's no way that hasn't affected me, or my bending. What had he said about the Fire Nation? Desire and will. The energy and drive to achieve what they want.
Earthbenders stood their ground, yes. But would a normal earthbender have traveled across the continent to track down people who clearly didn't want her around? Would a regular earthbender have been driven enough to keep attempting to bend metal after numerous failures?
She didn't know.
But that was okay. She might be an earthbender, but there was a part of her that was Fire, just like Kori. She wasn't ashamed of it- it was just who she was.
Water is the element of change, he'd said. Toph had never thought of her metalbending as being anything like waterbending, but it was. She thought about how she could soften and harden it, forming it to her will. Regular earth didn't melt like that. She wondered if Uncle knew any waterbending techniques she might be able to use.
But what about air? Freedom. Peace. Detachment. She'd had a taste of freedom and detachment once- those two years alone had nearly killed her. She couldn't go back to that.
But the kid isn't like that. He had friends, and he was always moving. Air wasn't static the way she had been- it moved, and changed. It breathed.
Wonder what that's like. It was definitely something to consider, in any case. But how could she learn more about the airbenders when the only one around was their enemy?
A few minutes later, she heard yelling.
"What are you two dunderheads arguing about now?" Toph asked, marching over to where they were.
"Uncle won't shoot lightning at me!" Zuko yelled, annoyed.
"Normally, that's a good thing," she said. "Why would you want him to?"
"How else will I know if I can redirect it?" Zuko asked.
"Zuko, if you are lucky, you will never have to use this technique at all," Uncle tried to explain.
"Yeah, but when are we ever that lucky?" Toph asked sarcastically. "If Sparky wants you to shoot him with lightning, I say go for it. At least he knows you're not going to try to kill him."
"I said no, and I meant it!"
"Well, if you won't help me, I'll find my own lightning," Zuko said.
What is he talking about?
"It's going to rain soon," Uncle Iroh murmured.
"He's going to try and get struck with actual lightning?"
What are the odds he'll actually get hit?
"Wait!" Lady Toph yelled, running after him.
"You can't stop me," Zuko said. "I said I would find my own lightning, and I will."
"I wasn't trying to stop you," she said, "I just thought you might be able to use this."
He caught the object she tossed in his direction.
"And what am I supposed to do with this?" Zuko looked down at it.
"Hey, it worked for me, didn't it?"
"Come on, strike me," he yelled at the raging sky. "You've never held back before!"
But no matter how much thunder shook the air, none of the lightning came anywhere near him.
He looked at the necklace Lady Toph had given him.
Stupid, useless...
Zuko was tempted to throw it off the mountain side.
Instead, he stuck the metal arrowhead into his pocket.
"I was the match and you were the rock, maybe we started this fire."
- Bastille, "Things We Lost In The Fire"