A. N. : We are taking a short break from the Gaang to catch up with the other side of the fighters. Picking character names after a theme is fun, but sometimes it means some names are kind of similar... anyway, Min and Ming are not the same person. It should be clear from the context, but I know sometimes the brain gets confused. Once again, some mentions of injuries, since we're dealing with the fallout of the Tenuht fight, but nothing too graphic.

It could've been worse.

That's the thought Xia clings to as he sits in the balloon and fights the urge to tear his own face off. It could've been worse. He didn't lose a single man. Shu might never be able to serve in the field again but he's alive, and they managed to get him stable enough to transport him back with everyone and it's fine, once he's recovered he can stay in Intelligence, work in the Archives and do administrative or historical work, or even switch over to Formation under Ming and teach future Agents –

If there remains Agents to teach to by the time he's recovered.

No. No, just because the Avatar still lives and the Dragon of the West escaped doesn't mean – Ba Sing Se still stands. Ba Sing Se needs them. The kids of the Lower Ring need that opportunity, that chance to keep their family fed. Ba Sing Se and her people weren't burned down because the Dai Li kept them safe, and they will all still be needed even if the Fire Nation somehow manages to lose the War.

Formation will be fine. Ming will be fine.

Xia should send him a hawk, get indebted to Qin one last time, just in case, just so Ming can prepare in case things turn out to be worse than they already are.

But it could've been worse.

The only deaths were Fire Nation soldiers, that has to count for something.

Even if Shu's arm was crushed to well, they might end up having to cut it off, even if they had to thaw Qin out of the ridiculously big block of ice he was encased in and he's been moving even less than usual ever since, even if Wuyue's pretty face will probably end up looking like Xia's in the long run, at best, even if half of them all were so shaken in the head they had trouble walking straight after the fight. Even if Xia's arms hurt so much he can hardly move them anymore.

It could've been worse.

Hell, Ma Chu and Min both only have minor injuries, slight frostbite where the Avatar iced him for Ma Chu, and the mark of the steel shackles the Avatar's earthbender somehow managed to attach to Min's limbs, same as she somehow untied the Dragon of the West. Min could've been perfectly fine, even, if he hadn't struggled so much to get them off and check on Shu.

And to think that just two days ago, Xia had to put an entire city between these two because Min kept losing his temper at Shu for volunteering to join the Fire Nation team. Not that Xia doesn't get it – if one of his own little siblings had willingly put themselves in such danger, he wouldn't have taken it well either.

Xia had told Min to trust Shu a little more, then, that Shu was a good Agent in his own right and – and here they are now.

It could've been worse, he didn't tell Min when the balloon took off, only pressed a painful hand on his shoulder in silence. Xia could feel the Dragon of the West's fire peeling off some of the skin on his palm, but as Branch Head and as the one who picked Min off the streets, he had to provide support.

He wonders, idly, what the young Kyoshi Warrior Leader will do with her newfound freedom. Her escape isn't a bad thing, on its own, and he can't say he's unhappy she managed to live through this.

Ming is right, Xia is probably too soft on kids. They have that in common.

How Xia misses him, right now. If Ming was here, he would worry and fuss so much that Xia would have no other choice but to say it could've been worse with a smile, and believe it, just to reassure him.

Instead he is left watching over the wreck of a team in front of him, injured and lost and missing one person. The Princess locked herself up in the private room, and Xia hasn't seen her since, but before she did –

Xia doesn't think he's ever seen someone look so haunted before, not when the Dragon of the West pierced the Outer Wall all these years ago, not even among the Agents who brought the Wall down and had to be sent to the Lake for a while. There was something wrong with her arms, too, in the way they twitched at times like they muscles were somehow trying to escape the Princess' skin, and that's worrying in its own right, but – her silence was worse. There was no shouting and burning anger, no harsh criticism and cold disappointment at their failure, there was just –

Nothing.

The Princess gave her orders to head back to the Caldera as soon as possible with a hollow voice and stood in place, waiting for everything to be ready, like an empty shell, and when she walked to the balloon, there was none of her usual purposefulness and intent.

Wherever her thoughts have been since the Avatar and the rest took flight, it isn't any place of this world.

But it could've been worse. Things could be worse.

Xia can't bring himself to smile, much less believe it.