The Boulder Regrets

It was honestly a relief when Toph didn't get a reincarnation trigger from Mai, Sokka, or Yue.

Or maybe it was disappointing because Sokka had been ready to bet money (not that he had money to waste on betting, this life was very different from his last one) that she could be Nie Mingjue.

As hilarious as that would have been, Toph wasn't Nie Mingjue.

No, Nie Mingjue was The Boulder, which Sokka found out when asked for his autograph after Toph tossed him from the ring.

"Didn't Wei Wuxian kill you?" The Boulder asked in bewilderment, probably from taking one too many rocks to the head on top of remembering old memories.

"I got better," Sokka said, offering him a hand up and doing his best to explain their situation as quickly as possible.

After that, there was some more family drama, and poor Toph was grounded from being Aang's earthbending teacher. But, ever the optimist, Aang insisted on sticking around a little longer in hopes of changing her parents' minds.

So while Aang, Katara, and TomTom napped on Appa before going to beg the Beifongs one last time, Sokka, Yue, and Mai met up with The Boulder in a tavern to talk more in-depth.

The Boulder, thankfully, was looking less concussed and more contemplative when they arrived. "What happened to Huaisang?" he asked Mai the second he saw her and actually dropped his bombastic speech patterns from the Earth Rumble ring.

Mai looked at him searchingly. "After you died? Or…"

Sensing what she was asking, The Boulder clarified, "After my fierce corpse dragged Jin Guangyao's sorry ass to hell with me."

Sokka and Yue balked at the crass description, but Mai was unphased. "I didn't realize you were aware."

The Boulder snorted. "As aware as a sleepwalker, because I sure as hell wasn't 'thinking' at the time," he said. "I only remember it through a fog now. Maybe it's because they did try to make me into another Ghost General before giving up. But whatever the case, yeah, I remember. Sorry for trying to kill you and yours during that time."

"Apology accepted," Mai said and then answered his initial question. "After taking your revenge, there was a ceremony. Your body was sealed with Jin Guangyao's in that coffin, and buried for a hundred years to be guarded by three Great sects until your combined resentment finally faded. After the ceremony, Sect Leader Nie slowly began unveiling his true intelligence under the guise of learning competence and having to act for himself now that Jin Guangyao was dead and Xiongzhang had entered seclusion in his grief. Eventually, he assumed the office of Chief Cultivator and frankly was the best one of our generation. Though, given the three before him, that's a low bar to clear."

The Boulder looked extremely proud of his little brother. "Always knew he had it in him," he said, more to himself than the others. "If he just applied himself he would be great."

"He was," Mai confirmed. Whatever one could say of the morality of Nie Huaisang's actions, the changes they'd wrought had indeed been great.

"What are you going to do now?" asked Yue.

The Boulder sighed. "Search for Huaisang first and foremost," he said. "Try to find Xichen too and tell him it wasn't his fault. Snap Jin Guangyao's neck again if I find him and he's still up to his old tricks. Su She's and Xue Yang's too. Not Wei Wuxian, I'll let him be. That Empathy he did on me went both ways and he helped Huaisang and Xichen."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, then added, "I'll probably end up joining the war at some point. If I know there's one thing I'm good at, it's war. But at least this time my power is less likely to become my undoing."

"Huh," said Sokka in surprise. "Kinda thought you'd be more gung ho about taking down the Fire Nation. Especially with the Wen parallels."

The Boulder grimaced. "I'll admit, there's a part of me that's itching to take down Wen Ruohan myself this time, but I had time to think while you were helping The Blind Bandit, and… remember something someone said that forced me to take a long hard look at myself."

"Who?" asked Yue, curiously.

"Xue Yang," The Boulder said gruffly. "My memories as a corpse may be fuzzy, but I spent a lot of that time under that delinquent's 'tender mercies' before they wrote me off as a lost cause. Part of his 'treatment' to try and control me was to increase my resentment by telling me things he knew would enrage me, or maybe he just didn't care and liked to torment me with the truth. I don't know. But one of the things he found hilarious was my own hypocrisy in life. I petitioned so hard to have him hanged when in truth he found me to have committed the same crime as him."

"Hypocrisy?" Sokka and Yue asked, sharing a look of confusion, but Mai looked like she already knew what he meant.

"As Chifeng-zun I was hailed as a beacon of justice, yet I failed to live up to the moniker when the Wen were involved. Xue Yang's crime was wiping out the entire Chang Clan for a slight the former sect leader made against him," The Boulder said grimly. "I aided in wiping out the last of the Wen Clan for a slight their former sect leader made against my family, despite my father already having been avenged with the death of Wen Ruohan. I avoided looking beyond what I was told and failed to see that those we helped kill were innocents." He looked contrite. "The rage I felt after what little awareness I had realized he was right nearly gave me enough strength to kill Jin Guangyao when he next showed his face. That was when they gave up on me as a weapon and dismembered me. Too uncontrollable, they said."

Sokka and Yue were glad Katara and Aang were too busy sleeping to hear this conversation. Their past had been bloody, and they'd like to shield the young idealists from that for as long as they could.

"I'm glad to hear that," Mai said. "Since it seems there's no predicting who was reborn into what nation."

"She's right," Yue said, glad to move on from grim topics. "Zewu-Jun and Young Master Nie could just as easily have been born in the Fire Nation like A-Cheng was, and we can't hold that against them."

"I was born in the Fire Nation, and I'm sure Xiongzhang wouldn't be happy if you held it against me," Mai added mildly.

"And most people who remember the Sunshot Campaign, even if they're Fire Nation, will probably stop supporting the war when they hear that if the Fire Lord isn't Wen Ruohan, then he's enough like him to convince everyone he is," Sokka pointed out. "No decent cultivator would want to associate with that."

The Boulder snorted bitterly into his drink. "And the not-so-decent ones?"

The other three made a face, remembering how many would rather go with the flow and believe gossip rather than do due diligence unless it affected them directly.

"At least they'll probably stay out of the way, but so far we haven't met anyone insignificant since Hahn, and he's stuck guarding the North Pole. That should keep him out of trouble, at least," said Sokka.

Yue giggled, Mai smirked, and The Boulder thumped the table and laughed at the thought of the former Jin Zixun's reaction at hearing himself described as insignificant, and from his own cousin no less.

"I'll drink to that," said the Boulder, waving down the bartender they'd been mostly ignoring in favor of their conversation.

"This world has an age restriction on alcohol," Mai reminded him, as she and her companions were well under it. Not that she would have drunk it anyway. She had no desire to see if her Lan alcohol intolerance had carried over into this life.

"You think that man cares?" asked The Boulder, pointing out how seedy their meeting spot was.

The barkeep apparently did care, as only The Boulder ended up getting alcohol. The rest very pointedly were given milk.

The Boulder found it hilarious.

A/N (spoilers) Toph is a reincarnation. She just hasn't been triggered yet. 'Why' is explained in the next chapter. Nie Huaisang eventually showing his true intelligence and becoming chief cultivator post-canon is something I read on the MDZS wiki.