The hundred year war had finally ended. For many, it was like a dream in which they could live. Entire lifetimes had existed within that war and now future generations could know peace. For Team Avatar, this new world did not mean that responsibilities were suddenly non-existent. All over, there seemed to be little issues with people struggling to adjust. There would be a Fire Nation family being attacked by people from the Earth Kingdom or a few soldiers going rogue and attacking a village. This split up the team, leading to Aang and Katara being off on one mission while Sokka and Suki were on another. Of course, considering how it had been a few weeks since any signs of trouble, the last two members of Team Avatar were just as certain that their friends took this as an opportunity to have romantic outings.

A thought had occurred to Zuko which led to him asking his uncle to take over things at the palace until he returned. He had some unfinished business with a certain earthbending master. Fortunately, it was not overly difficult to find who he sought. She had her own metal bending classes and the prospect of learning such a skill consistently brought a large crowd. That alone was enough to make finding her not too challenging. Zuko waited for the class to end and when it did, he approached the younger bender.

"I was wondering when you were going to come say hi," she said, smiling. "What brings the busy firelord out this way?"

"I realized that we never had our adventure. With the others off, I was wondering if you still wanted to do that."

Toph's face lit up in excitement. "A Zuko adventure? Yes! Ooh and I've got just the mission for us. Have you heard of The Boulder?"

"Eh, I don't think so. Is that a place you like to go to often?"

"No, he's a fighter. He used to be one of the most loved earthbending fighters until I kicked his butt," she said, chuckling proudly at the memory. "Good times. Good times. Anyway, he's gone missing. Now, he's a bragger, but he's not a slacker. He wouldn't just disappear and definitely not when he has fights lined up. It could be nothing, but I think something's going on."

"Do you know where he was last?"

"I think so. There's a little village not too far off from where the Fire Nation colonies used to be. I heard from our mutual friend, Hippo, that he has some family over there. He said it was called Huao."

"Huao," Zuka repeated quietly. "I've seen that on one of the maps."

"Good," Toph said, clapping her hands. "You bring the blimp, I'll bring the snacks."

The earthbender went to collect her things, grabbing a small bag from a back room and returning. Zuko raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"You're ready that fast?"

"I've been ready for a Zuko adventure ever since Katara told me you were about to help her kill that murderer," Toph said with a devious smile. Happily, she wrapped her arm around Zuko's and started heading out, laughing. "I'm not as merciful as her, so I wonder who we'll be taking out. I bet Twinkle Toes will have a koala bear when he finds out!"

"Well, this doesn't have to be a kill mission."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

With that, the friends got on the blimp, one feeling very thrilled and one thinking he might have gotten himself in over his head. Zuko began firebending into the balloon, letting them rise higher and into the clouds. Once they hit a good point of elevation, he stopped.

"How's it been going with the metalbending trainees?"

Toph scratched her ear and shrugged. "I'm a great teacher, but they're still not me so…they're as good as they can be. I guess that's all a master can ask for. How's firelording been? Need any tips from the melon lord?"

Zuko chuckled. "I think I'll pass. I'm pretty sure she would just try to crush Sokka with a boulder."

"Only if it's a training exercise. Otherwise, she'd try to crush everyone with boulders."

With an amused shake of his head, Zuko got to the first part of her inquiry. "It's been good mostly. It's different from what I was expecting, but I'm glad that it happened this way and I have my uncle to advise me on things."

"He's definitely the wisest person I know." She paused, grinning slyly. "Are you sure you're related?"

"I'm getting wiser."

"Mhm, and I'm getting girlier."

This time, it was Zuko's turn to smirk. "Apparently. From what Katara told me, you two had a spa day while out in Ba Sing Se."

Toph's cheeks turned bright red. "She told you that?! It was under duress. I haven't done it since." She paused. "It wasn't completely awful, though. Just mostly. Spa days are probably common in the palace."

"I never really liked them. Especially after being out of the Fire Nation for so long, all the doting was just too much."

"So, the new firelord isn't being pampered? Or is it that Mai's the pamperer now?"

The firebender smiled. "I like to think we pamper each other."

Toph pretended to gag, getting a laugh out of her friend. They continued with their back and forth for a little while longer until Zuko started to let them lower back to the ground.

"We're here," he alerted the passenger.

"Alright!"

As soon as Toph could feel the blimp land, she jumped off onto solid ground.

"I'm never going to get used to not being on the earth, but now that I'm back to it…"

The earthbending master stepped heavily with one foot, sending the signals through her body and into her mind's eye. By doing this, she could see better than someone with the sharpest eyesight. Toph could sense people walking around a market area nearby. Everyone seemed to be there. Toph frowned as a look of confusion crossed her face.

"What's wrong?"

"Everyone is in the market."

"Okay, why's that so strange?"

"Because everyone–everyone on this island–is in that market. No one's home. Not even someone's elderly grandparent. I've never felt so many people gathered in one region of an island this size before."

"That is suspicious," Zuko agreed, frowning as well. "Let's check it out and be careful."

The two began to head towards the market, seeing the droves of people almost immediately. With a similar speed, they noticed strange looks they were receiving. Despite that, they were not reluctant to approach someone.

"Have you seen The Boulder?" Toph asked. When the person seemed hesitant to answer, she continued. "He's only one of the most famous fighters of the Earth Kingdom. Loud, buff, calls himself 'The Boulder' every chance he gets. You can just say no if you haven't."

"No, I haven't. Sorry."

The person scurried away from the frowning bender.

"He's lying," she said.

"I've never really gotten how you can tell about that."

"Most people have physical tells when they lie. It makes them uncomfortable, so their heartbeats race or they start twitching or shaking. Of course, there are some people who are just great at lying. They make it trickier, but they're rare. When the other ones lie, I can sense the change as long as they're touching something I can connect to from the ground."

Zuko's eyes were wide. "That sounds like it would be helpful to have in daily life."

Toph nodded, but she did not look happy. She began walking around more, being followed by her friend.

"It's not always fun to know when people aren't telling you the truth. I've definitely had a lot of disappointing times with finding out that my parents didn't really believe in me. They used to think I was helpless and would only say otherwise to pacify me."

"Is that why you wanted to become a fighter? To prove them wrong?"

Toph paused. "I didn't really think about it like that. I figured I just wanted to rebel and do something so wild and out there that even if I had to be this perfect little girl in their mansion, I could do enough during the night to compensate for that and trick myself into thinking I was living my own life. I guess it might have been to prove them wrong too." Her face became more sad. "It was during those fights that the real me showed herself. I found out who I was and couldn't even share it with them. As soon as I did, I couldn't tell if they were more horrified or ashamed."

The bender felt a comforting hand on her shoulder. "They had a great daughter. I'm sorry that they didn't realize that, but you've definitely found some people who can see it."

Zuko felt a less gentle hand punching his arm. Remembering that it was meant to show affection, he refrained from saying "Ow."

"You're not half bad at making people feel better. Maybe you are Iroh's nephew after all."

The firelord chuckled. "That's probably the best compliment you could give me." His own smile faded. "I get what you mean, though. Family can be…difficult. I wanted to be the perfect son for my dad for so long, but nothing I ever did was enough. I think that even if I'd been as strong a bender as my sister, he still would have hated me."

Toph started to frown. "Do you ever talk to him now?"

"Not really. He just tries to fill my head with bad ideas for the nation."

"It's his loss. Too bad the war wasn't already over then. I bet we'd have been friends if we had known each other." Toph chuckled. "We would've been the prince and the rich girl by day, Blue Spirit and Blind Bandit by night."

"I like the sound of that." Zuko stopped when he noticed Toph having a contemplative look on her face. "Is someone in trouble?"

"I can't tell. A shipload of people just got here. I can sense them coming this way. When they go by the residents here, it's like they're frozen in their tracks for a few moments, then they start moving again. This place reminds me of Ba Sing Se. I don't like it."

"If something is wrong with this place in general, we might be better off not trying to ask people. We could just be alerting them to the fact that we think there's something going on."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'll just keep checking if I can feel where he is. There are so many people here that it's a little tricky to pinpoint one. I can do it, though."

Toph started speeding up her pace with a grin.

"Did you find him?"

"No, but I found someone else I know."

Zuko followed her through the crowd, wishing he could track people as easily as she could since she was moving so quickly between the groups. Finally, he stopped and saw a tall, large man with spiky hair on the top of his head. When he spotted Toph, he grinned, revealing himself to be missing more than a few teeth.

"Toph!"

"Hey! Didn't expect to find you here." She turned to the firebender. "Zuko, this is that mutual friend I mentioned. Meet the Big Bad Hippo."

"Another earthbending fighter?" he asked.

"You got it!" the girl answered. "We met in the Earth Rumble tournament too. What are you doing here?"

"Looking for The Boulder."

"I knew something was up," Toph said to herself. "Do you know if any of the other fighters are looking for him?"

He shook his head. "With him missing, Hippo mad!"

"We're looking too. If you find something, let us know and we'll do the same for you."

The man nodded before heavily walking away to continue his search. Toph started tuning into the people she felt walking again.

"I wasn't sure if this was just him letting the fame get to his head at first," she admitted. "He could've just decided he could be lazy for a week or so, but if Hippo's worried too, then he must really be in trouble. Come on, I can feel a lot of people going to a store. A lot."

Zuko followed her through the crowd again, this time halting when they were in a tea shop.

"Uncle would love this."

The firelord ordered two teas for them and a container of the leaves to bring back for the elder firebender. Then, he and Toph found a place to sit where they could keep an eye on everything. Apart from the tourists, it was quiet. Given how many people were there, this was unexpected.

"They're scared," Toph whispered. "Most of their hearts are beating like crazy and that's assuming they aren't shaking also."

"If they're too scared to tell us, we'll just have to figure out what the problem is and help them."

Zuko went to take a sip of the tea, but Toph put her hand on his, stopping him.

"Don't drink that. It's drugged."

He kept his expression the same and slyly lowered the cup. "Can you tell how many are?"

After a moment, Toph nodded. "I thought it was weird when the servers were adding an extra ingredient in the tea, but they're doing it for the tourists. That means four tables–two to your left and two behind me–are going to have knocked out people soon."

Zuko got up from the seat. "Let's head back to the inn."

Catching his drift, Toph nodded and got up as well. The two left the shop and waited until the few people walking by had gone before hiding behind a building.

"No one can see us from here," Toph informed him. "We could've taken those servers in there."

"We could have, but we don't know where the others are going or even what's really going on yet. Despite you being able to tell when they're lying, that won't guarantee that we'll be able to get them to tell us the truth. This way, they won't have to."

"Okay, I like that plan. Considering how quickly the people are drinking, I don't think it'll be much longer. Especially not now that they're closing for the day."

As the earthbender had said, one of the employees was turning a sign on the door to let future customers know that no one else would be served. Within the next few minutes, people began falling onto the tables, unconscious. On cue, the residents got up from their seats and began tying their hands behind their backs.

"They're going the back way," Toph said.

She and Zuko began moving, still staying out of anyone's view. When they turned the corner, they were close enough to see more people dragging unconscious bodies behind them. They did not say anything to each other so much as exchange looks. After this, they began going deeper towards the center of the island, unaware of their watchers. The friends felt ill when the abductors stopped. There were groups of people tied up or looking afraid. Zuko's eyes fell on a sturdy, wooden cage.

"Toph," he said grimly. "We found The Boulder."