Gladiator

by Seyary-Minamoto

In a world where the Avatar wasn't found, the Fire Nation took over two nations and they strive to overcome the last one. Water Tribe warrior Sokka seeks to fight for his people's rights, but he's captured by his enemies. His life is no longer in his hands as he fights as a Gladiator, and his fate will eventually depend on the Fire Nation Princess, who needs him for her own ends...

290. Chapter 290: WL Fortress-Loyalty 3

The White Lotus Fortress/Loyalty to the Disgraced

3

It had been another day of boredom, of poorly contained resentment, of drinking her sorrows away. Just another day of lying in bed, bitterly pondering everything she had lost… everything that had changed in her life over the choices of a single man, everything he had cost her, everything she'd had no say upon losing once it had been taken away.

Somedays she thought maybe she should try to forgive him. That maybe she should just try to go back to the way things were once, if just for her own peace of mind, for her own sake… and then she'd sense him. She'd feel his presence nearby, and her whole body would burn with outrage anew. It would take her every effort not to bend him as far away from her as possible… for he was to blame for her current situation, for this captivity he refused to acknowledge as such, for every bond she'd lost without even having a damn chance to say goodbye to those she cared about…

"Woah. How many have you gone through over the past two days?"

She cringed at the sound of the only voice she wasn't all that reluctant to hear as of late: he had come to check on her again, as he often did… she wasn't sure whether she wanted to send him away or welcome him to join her in bed. If there was one thing that had managed to sweep away her ever-darkening thoughts so far, it was him…

Rather, it was what she'd do with him in bed.

His familiar smug chuckle was nowhere to be found this time. She huffed, her long bangs swaying in the wake of her breath as he picked up a few of the emptied bottles she'd left on the bedroom floor.

"You're not seriously going to ask me to nick more from the cellar today, are you?" he asked. She scoffed. "Toph…"

"If you don't wanna do it, I'll go do it myself," she slurred her words carelessly, folding her arms over her chest. "No one's told you to look after me anyway, Jet."

"Getting you more drinks isn't something that qualifies as 'looking after you', just so you know," Jet smirked, stepping up to sit by her bedside. Toph squared her jaw. "I mean, I guess drinking helps you cloud your mind so you don't have to think about things, but… I'm pretty sure everyone would agree that that's not a healthy habit."

"So, you're a very bad influence on me?" Toph asked. "That's what you're trying to convince me of?"

"Totally," Jet smiled mischievously.

Despite herself, Toph felt better around him. She didn't know why, not entirely… but it was likely because Jet didn't judge her. He wasn't a good person, and so, he didn't make her feel self-aware about her own failings and wrongdoings. He didn't make her feel guilty, he… he didn't make her feel much of anything, actually. He helped mitigate her usually rampaging thoughts, cooling them down by monopolizing her attention. She didn't know if the tranquility he offered her had a deeper meaning than that… but she was grateful enough for what help he had been, so far.

"So… some stuff's going on in the fortress," Jet started. Toph scoffed and shook her head before taking another swig of the bottle she was still holding. "Hey, now, not going to offer me any?"

"You're talking stupid stuff. I don't wanna hear it," Toph growled… though she offered him the sake bottle regardless. Jet smiled and clasped the bottle gratefully.

"You probably don't. But I figured it'd be better if you knew anyway," Jet said. Toph rolled her blind eyes dismissively. "I don't really know anything for sure, myself, but… it sounds like someone came to pay Iroh a family visit."

"Oh? The Fire Lord, maybe?" Toph asked. "Is he here to make his big brother realize he's a cowardly piece of shit?"

"Uh… no. If the Fire Lord were here, I'm pretty sure we'd all be dead by now," Jet said, humorlessly. Toph huffed. "It's not him… not Azula, either."

"Then who the hell is even left? Doesn't even matter, fucking hell…" Toph grumbled. Jet smiled weakly.

"Not like I knew him personally, bet you'd be more likely than I am to know if he truly existed or not," Jet said. "But didn't Iroh have a nephew? Zuko, was it?"

Toph's dismissiveness froze over, and Jet saw the sudden shifting emotions plain on her face. The languishing, lazy young woman suddenly sat up, a confused frown on her face.

"Woah. Just… just a fucking minute, now. You said… Zuko?" she repeated. Jet nodded.

"Then there really was a nephew after all, huh?" he asked. Toph gasped.

"Zuko… fuck, he's here?! Ugh… UGH!" she roared, punching her pillow fiercely before leaping out of bed: of course, one of her feet had to land on a bottle that fortunately didn't give out under her collision or her weight, but still nearly sent her toppling right into the window of her room.

Jet had to reach out quickly to wrap an arm around Toph's bare abdomen: she hadn't even bothered dressing up in the days that had followed her latest squabble with Iroh. Thus, she had locked herself up in her room and only worn her underwear for several days. It had made certain things smoother with Jet, but it certainly afforded her no dignity to be holed up in a room, drinking every day away while not even wearing clean clothes.

"Where do you think you're going, huh?" he asked, playfully. Toph scoffed, elbowing his stomach hard: had she done it to anyone else, she knew they would have complained. Jet, however, only laughed. "Hey, now, no need to play rough…"

"Not playing right now. We can get to that later," she grumbled, kicking the bottle away as she regained her balance – as much as she could regain it while under the influence of every drink she'd had so far.

"You want to go find out if it's really him?" Jet asked. Toph huffed.

"I… guess? I don't know…!" she admitted, gritting her teeth. "I… I don't know how he got here. I don't get it. Iroh and I went looking for him everywhere, so why the hell did he show up now? Did Iroh and his buddies finally reach him? Because if they did…! W-well…! I should fucking tell him. I should tell him what Iroh did…!"

"Well, you could, if you really wanted to," Jet conceded. Toph scowled. "Though you said the other day that you didn't care to make any more scenes, didn't you?"

"Well… I don't, but how was I supposed to know Zuko was going to show up now? And also, how was I supposed to know anyone was listening in that day?" Toph retorted. "Wouldn't have been a scene otherwise, it'd just have been me yelling at Iroh alone. Say, have you found out anything about that woman? Who she is, where she went now…?"

"The people I've asked don't know much about her. One did seem to know more than he said, but he just blew me off and walked away," Jet admitted. "But if Iroh freaked out so badly around her… it's got to be someone important."

"Bet it is. Bet she is," Toph said, spitefully.

"It wasn't the first time you talked with her, was it?" Jet asked. Toph shook her head.

"Second one. We bumped into each other before too," Toph said, breathing deeply. "I don't know, but… it felt like she's just as much of a prisoner in this place as I am. Seriously, Jet, why the hell do you even want to be here at this point?"

"It's safer for me than anywhere else," Jet admitted. "But… I don't really know, either. If a better offer came along…"

"I'm a better offer. I can get us out of here through an underground tunnel, get us all the way to Gladiator Rumble…"

"Sounds fun," Jet smirked. "We're going to live underground forever, then?"

"Better than in this shithole, anyway," Toph hissed. "Though… we're gonna steal all the drinks they have left before we go. Promised thing."

"Sounds good," Jet smiled. "Now, though… if you really want to go find out if this Zuko's really here, you sure you want to go greet him with your bombastic body in plain sight for him to ogle…?"

"He… he wouldn't do that! Gross!" Toph flinched, color rushing to her cheeks. Jet couldn't hold back a chuckle.

"If that's the case, then never mind. It's just fine if you stay that way: I'll be the one doing the ogling instead," he suggested. Toph scoffed.

"You do worse than ogling, jackass," she growled, throwing a half-hearted fist in his direction.

Jet received the punch in the chest, only countering it by wrapping an arm closer around her waist and offering her a mischievous kiss. Toph grunted in response, enjoying it for just a moment… then she pinched his butt cheek and Jet flinched out of their kiss.

"And what was that for?" Jet asked. Toph huffed.

"Your breath stinks. Bet you ate fish again…"

"Your breath stinks of sake, too…"

"Your problem if you want to kiss me when I stink of sake, but I won't kiss you when you smell of fish…"

"Oh, I know what I should eat instead, to see if I taste any different…"

"Uh… wait, now? Just… now?"

"Might as well…"

Toph actually smiled. She barely did that these days, but whenever Jet played those sorts of games with her, it was difficult to help it: she wound up in bed again before she knew it, and he tossed her underwear aside before getting to work diligently. Her fingers curled on the sheet's fabric; every sensation elicited by the brush of his tongue was enhanced by the lingering effects of the liquor she'd drunk earlier…

A deep roar, so loud and clear it shook the very foundations of most buildings in the fortress, suddenly saw both Toph and Jet stopping on their tracks.

"W-what was…?" Jet blinked blankly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Toph scowled.

"No idea," she said. "Did you hear anything about some weird creature showing up in the fortress too?"

"No, just rumors about Zuko," Jet answered, glancing at Toph with uncertainty. "Are you thinking about…?"

"Finding out what it is? Yeah" Toph admitted, reaching for her underwear again. Jet didn't make a move, though, remaining where he was, eyeing Toph remorsefully. "What? C'mon, you can get back to it later. That thing, whatever it is, sounds like it's a big burly creature and it's probably going to try to eat someone. I can't miss out on that…"

"You know, if it chooses to eat Iroh… he's a pretty tough bender, isn't he?" Jet asked. Toph scowled.

"So?"

"So, he'll resist for at least five, ten minutes? We've got time," Jet smirked. Toph scoffed… but she smiled soon enough.

"You're the worst bad influence I've ever met," she said, still grinning as Jet snickered on his way back to devouring her folds…

It took them slightly longer than ten minutes, in the end. Jet reaped the profits from his very successful attempt to distract Toph, who cared nothing for restraint. Instead, she would give in to self-indulgences whenever she felt like it, most of all as of late… though after a rough session of bucking their hips together as wildly as possible, she was back to her former, unamused self once again within moments of finishing. Jet sighed at her stern mood by then, but he helped her dress up without complaint, nonetheless. She'd called him an idiot for doing that the first time, telling him she didn't need anyone's help with dressing up… he had ensured she understood he wasn't underestimating her, but that she was the one who underestimated how madly attracted he was to her. Every excuse he could find to touch her, he'd take them… so long as she wasn't appalled by it, of course.

So far, she never had been. So far, she had welcomed his every attempt to distract her. She was particularly passionate on her very worst days, when she was in a dreadful mood. Jet had never imagined he'd want to submit to anyone… but when it came to Toph, he was completely overwhelmed by her. It had barely taken her a couple of trysts to choose dominance over passivity, and while he certainly enjoyed it when he had control over their exchanges, he'd learned to relish in Toph's aggressiveness as well. It was a sure fact that he had never met anyone like her…

Which was a bad thing, because his interest in her was starting to gain an edge he wasn't sure he wanted it to. Especially because it was clear that Toph didn't feel anything deep for him, at all.

Yes, she liked him, he wasn't so insecure as to doubt that. But her emotional distance was uncanny for a woman as young as her. It was clear she held great affection for the friends she had been forcibly dragged away from, even if it was no romantic affection… perhaps she had chosen not to care about anyone to that extent again. Jet had tried, playfully, to make her jealous a few times… to no avail. She had made it extensively clear that she had no expectations from him, wasn't committed to him, and wasn't going to expect him to be committed to her either. This was just fun. It was just something she did with him because he ticked the right boxes for it… but that didn't mean she loved him, let alone that she ever would.

All of which didn't really bother Jet… not rationally, not objectively, anyway. He wasn't entitled to her love, much as she wasn't entitled to his… but the more time they spent together, the easier it felt to give her his own, even if he knew himself a fool for it. He had known many people in his life, from his very youngest years to his period of settling in the White Lotus Fortress… and no one was like Toph. The better he knew her, the more he wanted to cherish her… but she'd only let him do that if he played the wicked bad boy, the jerk without a soul: any sign of genuine affection, any glimmers of sincere kindness, would piss her off immediately. He had tried that approach, at times, to no avail. She had a very strange concept of who he was, he guessed… though when they had bumped into each other while Iroh was searching for Zuko, she hadn't been remotely as jaded and emotionally distant as she was now. He remembered their first kiss all too well… and it was nothing like the ones they shared nowadays. Whether he preferred the old times or the current ones, he didn't know… but he did know he wanted Toph to find a semblance of peace, if possible. She had helped him find freedom from the Dai Li and Long Feng long ago… he wished he could provide her with similar freedom too, but he didn't know how.

One day, he hoped, he'd figure it out. But for now, he'd accompany her and play the role of her supportive friend – or rather, friend-with-benefits – as she hoped to learn if some big bad beast was trying to eat her former sponsor.

They marched together through the open areas of the fortress upon leaving the small room Toph had been assigned to. Her room stood within housing structures that had been built into the walls, far from the central tower… thus, far away from Iroh. Toph had demanded for that expressly and her wish had been granted. Iroh had allowed it, seen to it, and while Toph still resented him, she was grateful that he respected her wishes rather than attempting to weasel his way back into her good graces when she'd said she'd never forgive him. He had enough sense to know to back off, at the very least.

Her dark thoughts regarding the man she had once seen as a father figure, as family, as one of her best friends, almost distracted her too effectively… almost. She came back to reality when she sensed a group of soldiers, however, walking away from the tower.

Jet eyed the twin stairs that led up to the main doorway, frowning as he identified the soldiers:

"Archers… from Longshot's group?" he said, frowning.

His friend had joined the White Lotus along with Jet after Iroh had directed them to the fortress long ago. Yet while Jet had been slightly aimless at first, and now his self-appointed tasks were expressly about keeping Toph in good spirits, Longshot had found a sense of belonging and purpose with the White Lotus that Jet and Toph certainly hadn't. He had joined their archer squad and he trained with them frequently, strengthening his skills through the mentorship of older and more experienced bowmen.

"Not your friend, though, right?" Toph asked. Jet shook his head.

"No… guess we can ask them if something's going on, though," he proposed. Toph scoffed.

"Might be better if we ask someone who you know will give us answers. I think your friend's… over at the food house," Toph said, gesturing at the communal dining building, erected near the wall that enclosed the fortress. Jet smirked and glanced at her with unrestrained admiration.

"It never stops being amazing when you do that, you know?"

"You already got lucky a few minutes ago, quit asking for more," Toph retorted, though a smile played in the corners of her lips as she guided Jet to where Longshot was.

They found him by the building's threshold, his bow slung over his shoulder.

Jet wasted no time catching Longshot's attention by waving at him once he and Toph were close enough to the archer.

"Jet…" Longshot frowned. His friend imitated his expression quickly as he came to a halt in front of him.

"What's going on?" he asked. "We heard a big roar, like a beast or so…?"

"The bison," Longshot said, simply. Jet blinked blankly.

"A… bison? What, somewhere outside the walls?" Jet asked, puzzled.

"A sky bison," Longshot clarified. Both Jet and Toph frowned. "Strange visitors have showed up. Not sure what it all means… but I figured I'd get something to eat before asking any questions."

"Well, you can answer ours while you get your food, huh?" Jet suggested, and the three of them marched inside the building.

Longshot made for one of the recently served food trays as soon as they entered the first of the dining halls. Jet and Toph followed him, though Toph was starting to regret their course of action by now: as much as Longshot was friendly with them, or as friendly as possible when it came to a guy as stern and unamused as him, he wasn't talkative at all. Getting him to share more information about the bison would be easier said than done.

"Who's with the sky bison?" Toph asked, plain and simply. "You said there were strange visitors, means there's more than just the one bison, right?"

"More than one visitor, yes. More than one bison, no…"

"I meant more visitors besides the bison!" Toph scoffed. Jet smiled at her loss of patience, and Longshot only frowned further.

"Well, yes. Most of them were unfamiliar… but two of them weren't," Longshot said, glancing at Jet pointedly. "One was that woman… the mysterious one you were curious about."

"Ah, her?" Jet asked. "The White Lotus's most elusive guest…?"

"Hostage," Toph shut him down quickly. Jet flinched.

"Well, we don't know that for sure…"

"She acts like it anyway. If she's here against her will, she's a hostage. That much I know," Toph said, bluntly. She turned to Longshot again by then. "And the other one? Two visitors, out of how many…?"

"Counting the bison… and a strange lemur, too, there were eight of them," Longshot said. "Going by what I understood, one of them may have been the exiled prince from the Fire Nation. The others…"

"Then it's really him?" Toph asked, frowning. "Jet… he heard he was here, but… are you serious? It's Zuko? Iroh's nephew, Azula's brother…?"

"From what I understood, yes," Longshot said, curtly. Toph clenched her fists. Jet folded his arms over his chest.

"What's he doing here?" he asked. "Did you figure that out?"

"Apparently, he and his group want to strike an alliance of some sort with the White Lotus," Longshot said, frowning. "I doubt it will succeed."

"A whole group, huh?" Jet said. "Who're the others? You said we knew one other person besides the mysterious lady, so… who is it?"

Longshot's face was stricken, for a moment. It seemed he was weighing the consequences of speaking… though it was inevitable that Toph would find out, sooner or later. So he breathed deeply before answering Jet's question.

"Their leader… is the Blue Wolf."

Jet froze in place upon hearing those words… but his shock only strengthened upon glancing at Toph.

"What did you… what? Longshot, what did you just say?!"

Her jaw had dropped, her blind eyes had widened… then she shook her head lightly, then she brought her hands to her mouth as she struggled to grapple with Longshot's revelation, which he reiterated again, frowning…

"The Blue Wolf. He's their leader. He… he's alive."

"No way. No way… n-no way…!" she gasped: tears blinked in her eyes when she frowned heavily. "You're sure it's him? Are you?!"

"I… haven't seen him in a long time, but I believe so," Longshot said, wary. "I remember his face well enough, and the way Jeong Jeong and the others acted around him, it couldn't have been anyone but…"

He didn't have a chance to say another word: Toph dashed out of the building at haste, possibly boosting her movements with her bending.

"Oh, shit," Jet blurted out, watching her rushing off so quickly he barely could keep up. Longshot let out a deep breath.

"She's been mourning him from the moment she arrived… hasn't she?" Longshot asked. Jet grimaced and nodded.

"No one knew what had happened to him," Jet said. "He could've died, but… guess he's too tough to go down that easily, huh?"

"Toph will be pleased for that, if nothing else," Longshot remarked. "As for you…"

"What about me?" Jet asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your new normal will probably change after this," Longshot said, simply. "If you're alright with it, then there's nothing to worry about."

"As long as she's happy again… can't say I'll mind the changes," Jet admitted, hands on his hips. "Anyway, I… definitely shouldn't let her run off just like that, who knows what she'll do if Iroh's around too. Where are they?"

"In the topmost floor of the tower. Or at least, that's where they were when we were sent away," Longshot said. "There's other strange people traveling with them. One of them… well, they claimed it was the Avatar. There was no demonstration, but…"

"Wait, really? How the hell did they find the Avatar?" Jet asked, puzzled. Longshot shrugged.

"Maybe that's one of the first questions you should ask," he retorted, hoisting his tray firmly. "I'm off to eat. I'll see you later."

"Right. Enjoy your meal," Jet said, smiling awkwardly… and then he turned, racing down that corridor, following the light disturbances of stone Toph had left in her wake.

He couldn't keep up with her, though. No matter how affected she might be over her earlier drinks, no matter how little she moved around lately, for she would typically stay inside her room all day… none of that hindered Toph's speed as she raced into the tower at haste, rushing through the stairs at first, then deforming them with her earthbending as she propelled herself upwards with her powers.

The topmost floor was so far away, but she could feel it already, no matter the vibrations of her bending. There were people gathered there, as well as one huge creature that she didn't recognize… the sky bison Longshot had mentioned? Surely that's what it was… her heart raced so fast, she was almost out of breath from the effort, her head throbbed and she didn't register it…

She broke through the threshold that led into the terrace at last, startling everyone present there.

"T-Toph…?" Iroh gasped. Of course, he was there too.

His voice was unwelcome, but ignorable. Toph trembled where she stood, sensing the vibrations, the presences, of everyone in the topmost floor…

She recognized only two of them. Neither one was Sokka.

"W-where is…?" she blurted out, turning her head frantically as if that would make him show up somehow. "Sokka, where is he…?!"

"Toph…"

The voice wasn't Iroh's, this time. Instead, it belonged to someone else Toph hadn't met in a long time… in far longer than she hadn't met Sokka.

It was strange, undoubtedly, that Zuko's presence would startle her even if she had already been aware that she'd likely find him here. Strange that his return suddenly meant so much to her, beyond Iroh's obvious hopes and dreams to see his nephew returned to him one day. Toph shivered as she stepped towards him, lips parted… and Zuko stepped forward, too.

"Zuko…? Y-you… you showed up all of sudden, out of nowhere, you…?" Toph started… and she could tell Zuko was smiling, if painfully, when he uttered his next words.

"Don't even pretend you missed me now, will you?" he said, letting out a deep breath. "Though I've got to say… it's really good to see you, Toph."

"I… I've never seen you, so I can't even pretend that… t-that I feel the same way…" Toph blurted out: her voice was choked up, and a light smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

Zuko chuckled softly as he stepped forward: of all things Toph expected to do, running into Zuko's arms was certainly not one of them… and yet that was exactly what she did, clinging to a man she had always clashed with, a man whose disappearance had always hung on her as a heavier burden than she'd known, as she had feared she might have sentenced him to a life of suffering, or even to the sudden end of that life, if his disappearance had obeyed much darker motives than they imagined.

But he was here… he was hugging her tightly, so much more tightly than she thought he would. Tears spilled from her eyes as she trembled in his arms, though the most important question she had to ask spilled from her lips, next…:

"I-is he…? Is he really here? Sokka…" she said, pulling back slightly. "Longshot said he was, but I don't… I don't sense him, I… I thought he'd been killed, Zuko, I…"

"He's alive," Zuko answered: Toph's breath hitched, and even more tears spilled down her cheeks. "And yes… he's the one who led us here, in the first place."

"He's…!" Toph could barely speak at this point: her voice was so choked up as a new onslaught of tears, of profound relief, broke through her every wall. She raised her hands to her lips, closing her eyes firmly… and Zuko stepped forward, hugging her anew.

"It's okay. He's okay…" Zuko said, swallowing hard. "He… he has to be."

It sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than Toph, though. The earthbender shuddered in his arms, pulling back anew once the tears slowed down enough to do so. Something heavy clung to Zuko anyway… so heavy that his old, bad blood with Toph was well and truly forgotten right now.

"W-what do you mean, he has to…?" Toph asked. "If you said he's here with you, then…!"

"Master Piandao just took him away, to explain some things to him directly, privately," Zuko said, gritting his teeth and trembling. "And if it's… if it's what my uncle just told us, I don't know if he'll be okay at all."

"You mean…?" Toph gritted her teeth, fists clenched again. "You mean the shit we heard recently? That crap about… Zhao?"

"Toph…" Iroh called her, but she snarled in his direction.

"Don't even try to shrug it off. I don't care if I shouldn't have overheard that shit, but it's still on you," she hissed at him, shaking her head. "It's… Azula is… fuck, Sokka's going to be a wreck. He's going to be a… w-why? Why are you all here? Why…? Who's everyone you've arrived with, anyway?"

Zuko swallowed hard as he cast a glance at his friends: they were still afflicted, profoundly affected by what Iroh had told them. Katara, to his surprise, seemed truly mortified regarding the unsettling news about Azula's forced marriage and potentially forced pregnancy… whether it was out of empathy for Azula, or out of concern for Sokka, she had shed several tears of her own while Aang wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Kino was still pale, still dismayed… even if, by now, he was also intrigued by Toph's sudden arrival. Zuko supposed it would have been better for Sokka to handle all those introductions himself, but…

"Well…" he started, though Toph didn't let him finish: she turned towards Ursa, a light frown on her face.

"You're… with them too?" she asked, puzzled, as the woman dabbed at her eyes as well – no one was quite as stricken by what Iroh had explained as she was, hugging herself and shaking violently as urges to reject reality burst in her mind all over again. Fortunately, Toph's voice helped break her from the cycle she might have fallen into recklessly, otherwise. "You're… Zuko's friend?"

"She's my mother," Zuko stated, bluntly. Toph's sightless eyes widened.

"She's… who?" she gasped. "B-but… what the hell? You're with the…? No. No, they're… they're keeping you here because they want to, right? They made you… their prisoner. You really are their hostage, after all…!"

"It's not…" Iroh started, but he gave up quickly: the one most affected by Iroh's confessions was none other than Ursa, but now, after shedding several tears in her son's arms before Toph's arrival, she seemed to have gathered herself slightly better. Enough to shoot Iroh a deathly glare, if nothing else.

"I… am not here by my own choice, no," Ursa admitted to Toph. "I have understood you were a friend of my daughter's. A close friend…?"

Toph shivered, tears blooming in her eyes again. Ursa swallowed hard and stepped towards her, taking one of Toph's hands in her own.

"I… I'm sorry for your pain. I share it," she admitted. "But I… I would like to thank you for being a friend to Azula. For still being one… no matter how far away you may be."

"I… I'll always be one," Toph said, lips trembling slightly: she had never seen this coming. She truly hadn't, she couldn't really remember much from Sokka's words when he had explained certain things to Toph… but this was Azula's mother. Suddenly, the woman's temperamental, near-hysteric reaction from that day made so much more sense…

Toph had been in a bad mood from the moment she had arrived in the fortress. The only thing that lifted her spirits was Jet: the first time he found her she had genuinely smiled for the first time since the end of her fight with Sokka. They had talked at length, Toph had explained her situation, Jet had explained his own… and then they had talked many more times, meeting up daily, spending plenty of time together so Toph would be free to avoid Iroh as much as she possibly could.

She had bumped into the mysterious woman for the first time after her fifth day in the fortress. Ursa had been leaving her bedroom, it seemed, and Toph could tell something was off about her. They had talked, just briefly… and then Iroh had showed up. Ursa had reacted badly, claiming this couldn't be real, switching between that and accusing Iroh of betraying his family – a notion Toph had agreed with, frankly – and with every passing moment it had become clearer that she was close to a mental breakdown. Another man had stepped in then, to help… and while he had taken Ursa inside her room again, Toph wasn't sure if he had been much help at all. On the next day, she hadn't sensed the woman's presence anywhere. About a week later, she learned she had escaped somehow, and Toph had practically envied her for it: she wanted to escape this damn place just as well, but Iroh insisted she'd only put everyone she cared about in further danger if she acted rashly. So, she didn't run. She was tempted to pay no heed to his words… but she refused to be like him. She refused to put those she loved at risk over a whim, the way he had.

Then, about a week ago, maybe more, Toph barely could tell anymore, she had bumped into the woman again… or rather, the woman had turned up just after Toph happened to run into Iroh while he held a conversation with General Fong. Iroh had tried to placate Toph, she had been particularly drunk that day, Fong had fled, and just as Toph had been shouting at Iroh about everything he'd put Azula through, Ursa had been listening in again. She had demanded for explanations, Iroh had tried to dodge everything and he seemed even more nervous than usual… only a few hours later, Toph learned, by eavesdropping on Iroh's conversation with that general, after guessing that he was hiding more than he'd admitted yet, that Azula had been forced to marry Zhao. That she had conceived a child that was likely his… otherwise, the Fire Lord would have forced her to abort it.

That information had been devastating. Toph had never imagined she'd be so appalled, so disgusted, so outraged… so depressed and miserable, too. She had spent all this time cooped up in her room, unwilling to go anywhere, drinking whatever Jet might bring her simply because it was better than trying to face the fucked-up world that had ruined the life of one of her very best friends, if not the best of them altogether. How could she try to carry on with her own life while Azula couldn't do the same with hers? Whenever such thoughts overwhelmed her, even Jet couldn't coax her to distract herself with anything else. She'd shut him out and tell him to leave her alone… for she knew now, if just on a very small level, how Azula had felt before with Sokka. Once her own relationship with Jet had progressed enough that she had dared give herself to him, she understood what she hadn't before… she understood what Azula had lost. Her own interest in Jet was practically recreational, he was a good friend, that was it… it wasn't the overwhelming, extraordinary partnership between Sokka and Azula. Toph had never even thought she could or should aspire to anything like it… but that extraordinary partnership had been tested, tormented, tortured without restraint, and Toph couldn't bear the guilt over it all. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair for her to enjoy her life in any capacity while Azula was suffering pain and struggles beyond measure, while Sokka might even be dead…

But he wasn't dead. He wasn't dead, and…

And he wasn't stupid. Toph knew that much, if nothing else.

If he was here… if he was hearing about Azula's current predicament, he wouldn't just wallow in grief and give up. No… he would try harder. She knew he would. The terrible truths would hurt him badly, but he would only be more determined to keep going, to rise up again, to fight back…

"Y-you're all here because of… of Azula?" Toph asked, turning towards Zuko. "You and… your friends? I, well…"

"What, can't believe I have friends?" Zuko asked. Toph smiled weakly. "Knew it. You never give me any credit…"

"Maybe they're just Sokka's friends and not yours…"

"Well… this one is his sister," Zuko pointed out, gesturing at Katara who dabbed at her eyes and offered Toph a weak smile. "His waterbending sister, actually."

"You… huh?" Toph raised an eyebrow. Katara's smile waned.

"Did… did you not know I existed, by any chance?" Katara asked. Toph shrugged.

"I… can't really remember Sokka talking about a sister," she admitted, wiping her eyes clean with her forearm. Katara's sadness was quickly replaced by annoyance, and Kino chortled behind her: she shot him a sharp glare for it.

"What's so funny, huh?" Katara hissed. "No way he talked about you either, you know?"

"Guess not, but it would be kind of funny if he had," Kino laughed again.

"I mean… I think I overheard them mention a sister once. Kind of?" Toph said, biting her lip. "But the others were cooking and being noisy and I tried to listen in on their conversation… maybe Azula said something about it. A waterbending sister…?"

"Oh… huh," Katara blinked blankly. "She's the one who brought me up, not him?"

"Don't take it personally," Toph suggested, with a shrug. "Not like Sokka and I were so close that we'd talk about everything in our lives. It was more like that with… with Azula, if anything."

"Oh," Katara said, biting her lip before smiling reassuringly. "Well, for what it's worth, we've heard a lot about you. You're… the Blind Bandit, was it?"

"Ruchong," Kino said, smiling weakly. Toph scoffed.

"What?"

"Uh, that's… you're not supposed to say that kind of stuff, Kino," Zuko huffed, rolling his eyes. "That guy's Kino, he's a deserter from the Fire Nation's army. Anyway, uh… well, they heard a lot about you when Sokka was telling my kids about his adventures, using fake names for everyone and…"

"And I was… Ruchong?" Toph asked… but then she smiled. "Ruchong… the dirt worm? Heh. Heh, that fucking bastard. That fucking clever bastard…!"

She couldn't quite help but laugh: he had told stories about her, surely stories about them all… though something in Zuko's earlier words only dawned on her right then and there:

"Wait. Your… kids?" she repeated. Zuko bit his lip but smiled. "You're fucking serious? You…! Oh, shit, you're a dad now, Zuko?!"

Zuko chuckled and nodded as Toph laughed too: she tossed a fist at his shoulder and he took it without complaint, knowing it was one of Toph's typical ways to show affection, approval… and also knowing she'd never done that to him before. How odd that two people who had been in near-constant conflict would reunite, so many years later, as old friends… life had been so complicated, with so many unpleasant twists and turns, that he could only welcome the surprise gladly.

Still… there was one person who kept eyeing Toph strangely. One person Zuko hadn't introduced yet… and whose frown had only deepened upon hearing Toph's sudden laughter.

"I… know you," Aang blurted out suddenly, startling everyone in the topmost floor of the tower.

Toph's smile waned as she focused her hearing, her bending power, on Aang. She wasn't sure she had heard that voice before, and she was particularly good at memorizing voices…

"You do?" she asked. "Well, what, are you some fanboy from the Gladiator League or so? Can't remember meeting you before…"

"I… can't remember meeting you either, not for real, but…" Aang said, stepping forward, a hand on his chin.

"Wait, you knew her from somewhere but you can't remember it?" Zuko asked, blinking blankly. Kino chimed in, next.

"Maybe Ruchong is about a hundred years old too, like Aang….!"

"Am not!" Toph retorted, scowling at the awkward Fire Nation deserter. "But even if I were a hundred years old, I could fling you off this tower with a flick of my wrist, so you better mind your words, Blabbermouth!"

"Oh! Oh shit, she gave me a nickname!" Kino gasped, cheeks flushed as he brought his hands to his mouth and glanced at Katara with unbridled excitement: her blank stare should have sufficed to make him stop losing his mind over his newly-bestowed nickname, but as ever, Kino remained immune to any form of shame.

"Though… the fuck's that supposed to mean, a hundred years?" she said, turning to Aang again. "I'm assuming you're this Aang guy? And you're a hundred years old?"

"Older than that," Aang admitted, with a weak grin. "It's a complicated story…"

"Well, try me," Toph said, defiantly. Aang blinked blankly.

"I, uh… was frozen alive in an iceberg for about a hundred and, uh, six years?" Aang said, biting his lip. Toph huffed. "Believe it or not, yeah. Katara got me out of there and I'm, well, the Avatar."

"You're… the Avatar," Toph repeated. Aang nodded. "Uh… yeah, I don't buy it."

"Y-you don't…? What do you mean by that? You want a demonstration…?" Aang asked, perplexed. Toph huffed.

"Yeah, I do: earthbend," she said, immediately. Aang froze.

"I… don't know how."

"Then you're not the Avatar."

"Of course I am! I can bend all other three elements…!"

"How can you bend all the others and not earth?" Toph asked, scoffing. "You're a shitty Avatar if you're missing out on the only element worth learning…"

"The only…?!" Aang gasped: Toph grinned wickedly…

And then it clicked. Only then did it click.

Yes, he had seen her… but it wasn't really her. Not really…

"Wait… wait. Uh… oh, damn," Aang raised a hand towards the puzzled Toph. "D-do flying boars mean anything to you?"

"Flying boars…?" Ursa repeated, puzzled… but the meaning of Aang's words sank slowly on his other traveling companions. It was Iroh, however, who spoke up first.

"That's… the Beifong family's crest," he said. Aang gasped. "A flying boar."

"What about it?" Toph said, as blunt and harsh as ever. Aang raised his hands to his head, eyes wide as plates.

"Y-you're highborn… you are! But you don't look like you are right now, but then… that's where I saw you. In the swamp!"

"The swamp?" Toph repeated, with disgust: Iroh gasped behind her, Ursa froze up… and everyone else stared at Aang in disbelief and amazement. "The fuck…? You guys were in that weird place?"

"We were! And I saw a vision of you, it guided me through the swamp!" Aang said. "But it was you, so that means… you're an earthbender. I was fated to find you and that means… you should be my earthbending teacher!"

"Woah! Woah, woah, woah, what the hell does one thing have to do with the other?!" Toph exclaimed, stepping backwards as though to put further distance between herself and Aang. "I don't know what the hell that swamp was trying to tell you, but you and I aren't fated for shi-…!"

He leapt with joy and excitement. Not so high… but not so little that Toph would find it natural, common. He hovered in the air for too long for a normal person… and a light gust of air buffeted her.

Then he landed… and then she sensed a sudden familiarity. An odd familiarity she hadn't expected to, by the lightness of his feet…

She knew him, too.

She had come across him in dreams while under the swamp's influence, just as well.

She gasped, stepping back again… and nearly crashing into Jet when he finally crossed the threshold and climbed down the steps that led into the top floor.

"Hey, now… be careful, you messed up the stairs big time," Jet said, hands on either of Toph's shoulders. "Took me damn long to climb up here because you… uh, wow. That's a lot of new people…"

"Jet…!" Toph gasped, pointing a finger at the joyfully skipping and dancing Aang, who couldn't seem to stop rejoicing in his apparent understanding of his supposedly fateful connection to Toph. "T-that guy is…! I met him in my swamp dream! He's the weird laughing airbender!"

Aang stopped jumping when she exclaimed those words. Everyone else turned to her in astonishment upon hearing them, too.

And then Aang roared with joy, jumping even higher in the sky while Toph shuddered in Jet's arms. Her friend-with-benefits was frozen in place, blinking blankly while struggling to process everything that appeared to be happening in this tower right now.

"What the hell is going on?" Jet asked. Toph shuddered.

"T-that guy's… the Avatar, apparently," she said. Jet's eyebrows rose appreciatively at the sudden information.

"Then Longshot wasn't shitting me? It's really the Avatar?" he asked. Toph shrugged.

"How should I know?" she said. "He says he doesn't earthbend, so I don't believe him…"

"Well… he's airbending now."

"Sure."

"And… that's firebending. He just shot a punch of fire into the air."

"Uh… shit."

"If he can do those two, he can do the other two as well, if the legends are true," Jet said, with a crooked grin. Toph shuddered again.

"He… he's got it in his head that I should be his teacher or something? I don't know, can you talk him out of it?"

"What, me?" Jet eyed her warily as Toph slipped out of his hold.

"I've…. got to find Sokka. He's here somewhere, I don't know where, but I… I've got to find him," Toph declared…

And then she took off without another word, leaving Jet where he stood, watching her as she raised debris and dust on her way down the tower.

"You have no idea where he is?" Jet called back at her.

"I'll figure it out!" Toph exclaimed. Jet blinked blankly.

"Well… if someone can, it's you," he said carelessly, smiling a little before turning to face the strange, mismatched, large group in the terrace floor. "Anyway, uh… nice meeting all of you, whoever you are?"

"We don't know who you are, either," Zuko pointed out, eyeing Jet with uncertainty. Jet smiled and closed his eyes, hands on his hips.

"I can guess who you are, at least. You're Zuko, aren't you? Azula's brother?"

"Uh… yeah. Guess you know my sister?" Zuko asked: it was odd to return to this side of the world… a place where Azula was at the core of so much, even in her absence. The Water Tribe had certainly been rather different, no matter if she had been the subject of many conversations, especially after Sokka's return. But further north… it was likely that most everyone would know Azula, even have personal connections to her, while he would be a near-total stranger for them, instead.

"Met her just the one time. Pretty, feisty, mean…" Jet said, with a shrug. "She let me and Longshot go free instead of forcing us into some slave market. I'll always owe her big time for that."

"Then you should join us!" Aang said: he was still in a pretty joyful mood upon deciding that, at long last, his education as an Avatar would be complete with Toph's help. "Best way you can return the favor is by helping us get her out of the Fire Lord's clutches. That's what Sokka wants, after all…"

"Well, that and ending the war, all in all," Katara pointed out. Jet whistled, smiling widely.

"That crazy guy seriously wants to…? Well, fuck. I… can't even say he wouldn't be able to do it," he laughed. "He might need a lot of help, though. But I'm down for it, if Toph is."

"Are you? Looks like you two are pretty close, then…" Kino said, raising his eyebrows. Jet shrugged.

"In a manner of speaking…" he said, enigmatically. Aang grinned even more widely.

"Then you have to convince her to train me!"

"… She literally just asked me to talk you out of that, though."

"What?! No, but she has to do it! Come on, this has to be destiny!" Aang exclaimed: his sudden switch in tone saw the others laughing at his childish pleas. "You have to convince her, I have to learn earthbending! I'm so ready to learn, too…!"

"Eh, guess we'll see," Jet smiled. "Though, at any rate… how's he going to go about it? Ending the war, maybe defeating the Fire Lord…?"

Zuko opened his mouth… and then he closed it again. He glanced at Katara. She stared back at him with uncertainty. Then they glanced at Kino. He shrugged, hands on the back of his neck. Aang froze on the spot, turning to the others as though hoping they'd answer…

But none of them did. Jet crooked an eyebrow, much as Iroh and Ursa did.

"Are there… no solid plans?" Jet asked.

"T-the way he talked, it… it sounds like he knows what he's doing," Ursa said, though her voice was uncertain. "Like he has plans in mind, but… he hasn't disclosed them?"

"I suppose he must be waiting for allies, certain allies, to join him in order to strike a first blow," Iroh remarked, sighing. Zuko glanced at him next.

"And… will he have them?" Zuko asked. "I know it's too soon to tell, but… if Jet's willing to join us and Toph's that desperate to meet Sokka again, I'm guessing that's two more allies, at least. Would you… would you join us too, Uncle?"

"I… would be glad to," Iroh said: Ursa shot him a venomous glare, but she held her tongue. "I only fear I may have no place among you. But whatever I can do to help, Zuko… like I already told you, I will do anything I must to ensure your mission is a success. It is… it is the least I can do."

"For certain," Ursa said: she sounded unforgiving still, though something in her eyes had softened. "You… are one of their leaders, aren't you? Of the White Lotus?"

"I am," Iroh confessed.

"Then you must have people who would listen to you. Who would obey you," she said. "Those who would follow you even if you break off from the rest of the Order. If nothing else…"

"I may not have as many of those as you might have hoped, but… I do have many allies across the world," Iroh said. "Jeong Jeong gathered most the troops here, the majority are loyal to him and General Fong. Those loyal to me… they're distributed as inconspicuously as possible across the world."

"In the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation?" Kino asked. Iroh nodded.

"I cannot reach out to most of those in the Fire Nation, I do not know if many of them still live… but the ones in the Earth Kingdom would likely join your ranks immediately if I requested it."

"Then that's another potential source of back-up, at least," Zuko said, letting out a deep sigh. "I can only hope it'll be enough, but…"

"But nobody knows what the Blue Wolf's after, anyway," Jet said, casting a glance towards the horizon. "How many troops he's going to need, whatever our first move should be…"

Nobody knew the answers to those questions yet, not up here in this tower. But perhaps someone was well on her way to learning more, and Jet could only look forward to hearing what she had to say once she came back… hopefully, with the Blue Wolf by her side.

---

A heartbroken man could have fallen apart, losing his resolve and purpose upon being battered and demolished by the circumstances thrust upon him.

A man who had already been broken so many times, however, had long learned how to push himself back to his feet no matter what blows life might deal him. A man who had lost so much knew better than to wallow in grief and let himself be consumed by his sorrows: instead, Sokka was determined to defy whatever accursed destiny was being inflicted upon him if that was how he'd reclaim everything that had been stolen from him and those he loved.

He still was hurting. He wasn't better off just yet. But standing strong as he was, with his blue eyes blazing as furiously as the azure flames of a certain, extraordinary firebender, Sokka meant to continue powering through his path, through the nightmares that stood before him, until he was finally triumphant.

Piandao's breath caught as he took in Sokka's fierce, determined eyes. A slow smile spread over his face as he stood up as well and raised a hand to clasp Sokka's shoulder. The Gladiator didn't waver, no matter how difficult it was to endure the emotions that currently wracked him so profoundly.

"You are an extraordinary man, even if you don't wish to hear that right now," he said. Sokka winced. "Anyone else in your shoes would lose heart…"

"But this isn't about me," Sokka said, his voice frayed. "I may be in pain… but she is in far greater pain than this. She… she has been on the verge of giving up. I don't have the luxury to waste time sulking when she needs me. When this world needs its freedom just as much as she does. So… I have to keep going. I have to push forward… I have to."

"You have to…" Piandao said, breathing deeply, patting Sokka's shoulder and nodding. "If nothing else, it's fitting that it's not the forces of some preconceived destiny that will determine the fate of this world… but the strength of a gladiator. The Gladiator…"

"There were many others besides me…" Sokka said, quickly, but Piandao cut him off.

"That, however, is how many people refer to you as things stand," Piandao smiled. "How most everyone does, at this point. And it's how they will continue to refer to you, in the future as well. You cannot fight alone, that much is clear… but you won't have to. Even so, your strength and your willpower will see to defying the state of the world, won't they?"

"They'd better," Sokka said, gritting his teeth, unwilling to waver. "This is why I've survived… why she spared me so long ago, why I fought for so many years to stay alive without even knowing it. My life won't go to waste. And I can't think of any better causes to devote myself to… I can't think of a worthier purpose. I… I will do everything in my power to fight onwards and build a new future for this world."

"So be it," Piandao smiled fondly, nodding approvingly. "I always believed you were my most promising student, Sokka, from the very first moment… but I didn't dare guess at your future, your path, your destiny to this extent. Even then… I find it fitting, don't you?"

"That I'd be ready to wage war on the Fire Lord?" Sokka asked, uncertain. Piandao smiled:

"That it would be the Gladiator who sets his master free."

Sokka shuddered upon hearing those words: Piandao's smile and earnest dark eyes spoke for themselves. He thought he could succeed… he thought Sokka could end this war and bring back true balance to their world. He knew he wouldn't be able to do it alone, but perhaps he meant to stand by his side this time around. Now that Ursa had been reunited with Zuko, now that Sokka direly needed the support of more forces than he ever had led before…

"You intend to join me. You said so just a moment ago…" Sokka said, softly. Piandao nodded, firmly.

"I do not know how many masters have charged into battle under the leadership of a man they had once taught the art of the sword to…" he said. "But I'll be most honored to follow you, Sokka, wherever your path will take you. I may not be able to help you obtain the White Lotus's full support, I know as much… but even if Jeong Jeong remains immovable, even if the others won't follow you, I will stand with you for as long as you may have need of me."

"Thank you. T-thank you… for everything, from the very start," Sokka said, swallowing hard as he held back more tears. "I didn't know what to think once I heard of the White Lotus, once I understood you were part of them… but I always wanted to believe you were the admirable man I had known. A-Azula… she encouraged me to believe that, too. To remember you as the master, the teacher I had always looked up to… to focus on that rather than on everything I couldn't find answers for. But I guess… I can have more answers now, huh? I've found my way here, and I've met you again…"

"Any other answers you may need to hear, I will provide when you ask it of me," Piandao said, reassuringly. "I'm afraid I don't have any other information about the Princess that I can provide, but if you have anything else to…"

A sudden tremor reached them where they stood. Both Piandao and Sokka fell silent when they identified the sensation, immediately, as the work of earthbending… and Sokka's eyes widened as he raised his gaze in the direction the vibrations were coming from.

"What…?" Piandao blurted out, frowning towards the cloud of dust rising in the distance, too.

Sokka said nothing yet, though… for he had seen a similar sight in the past. He could recognize those moves, those mounds of earth rising and shifting forward, just as they had in the Gladiator and Sponsor Race…

In the end, he hadn't had a chance to ask Ursa at all… the opportunity had passed him by when Kino had spotted Zuko in the distance. But even though he hadn't been able to ask her about that mysterious woman she had mentioned, he hadn't doubted his suspicions, his instinctive assumptions about her identity, not even for a moment. And now, after his heart had been devastated, it seemed reuniting with a friend might just serve to ease his sorrows, if just for one moment.

"Toph…" he said, a watery smile on his face as he stepped in the earthbender's direction.

Piandao, as well, recognized the young woman by then, though she was still far away, still powering her way towards them carelessly violently, likely damaging crops without a care in the world… but who could possibly stand in the Blind Bandit's way? She had been moody and aggressive since her arrival; it was a miracle that she hadn't chosen to tear down the fortress in retaliation for having been brought there against her will…

And yet now, as she rushed towards Sokka, it seemed to Piandao that the blind woman was finally experiencing emotions quite different from frustration and anger, perhaps for the first time since she first arrived in the White Lotus Fortress.

"She was your friend, wasn't she?" Piandao asked, with a weak smile. Sokka sniffed, letting a soft laugh tumble from his lips before nodding.

"One of the best of them," he answered, earnestly.

He didn't say anything else: instead, he started on his way down the hill towards the wild earthbender, no matter if she could run at well over double the speed he could achieve with just the strength of his legs. But where he started with a walk, now he ran towards her as she did the same, and his voice regained some of its integrity as he called for someone he had feared he might never see again…

"Toph!" he shouted: she seemed to stumble upon hearing his voice, but if anything, she moved all the faster after she did. "Toph…!"

"You crazy bastard…! You bloody crazy weirdo, you…!" Toph managed to exclaim, her voice cracking emotionally as she responded to him as best she could: she wasn't far away now, her mounds of earth were decreasing in size as Sokka chuckled at her words. "Y-you…! Sokka! You're alive, you're fucking alive, you're…! Sokka!"

Before he knew it, Sokka had to impede his fall by sticking out one foot behind himself, for Toph nearly tackled him to the ground with the force of her desperate hug.

The impact knocked the breath out of him, and he gasped as his own arms fell around Toph's lithe frame. However resolute she wanted to be about not crying, she failed herself for a second time that day by bawling helplessly, probably more desperately than she had since her childhood. Sokka's pained smile didn't wane as he tightened his embrace, patting the earthbender's back kindly. So long ago, she had beaten him to a pulp and almost killed him. So long ago, Sokka had been desperate for Piandao's wisdom and advice to defeat her and he had returned to Shu Jing to find an empty mansion. So much had changed in all those years… so much that he could barely believe they had started off as badly as they had anymore. He could barely remember that Piandao had only heard of Sokka's friendship and rivalry with Toph through others, and not through Sokka himself…

But now the man witnessed their reunion with a kind smile on his face, no doubt sympathetic towards the earthbending woman and her emotional outburst. Much like Piandao himself, Toph had feared for Sokka's life… the thought that he might be dead had been one of the main driving forces in her antagonism towards her own sponsor. While she didn't intend to forgive Iroh regardless, matters certainly felt less overwhelming now that she knew Sokka was still alive…

"Fuck…! Fuck, I'm just… gonna leave your armor covered in snot…!" Toph whimpered, her voice unusually frail. Sokka bit his lip.

"I… might forgive you for that, just this once," he said, with a light chuckle. "Hell, I really… really hoped you'd be here. I had no idea if you really would be, but then Ursa said something that sounded like she'd met you, and…"

"I had no idea who she was until… u-until I just climbed that tower and found Zuko and all of them and… hell, Sokka, how?" Toph gasped, pulling back at last, tears still stinging in the corners of her eyes, streaming down her cheeks. "I… I thought you were… I was so sure the fucking Fire Lord was gonna…"

"He tried. Multiple times, at that," Sokka answered gravely. Toph snarled furiously.

"And… and he didn't have enough with that, he's thrown hell knows how much shit at Azula afterwards too, and…" Toph winced, shaking her head. "I'm so… I'm so fucking sorry, Sokka, I'm really…"

"You have nothing to be sorry for, it's not your fault…"

"I-it… kinda is?" Toph said. Sokka blinked blankly as she bit her lip. "If… if I had been stronger, you wouldn't have beaten me and… and I guess Iroh wouldn't have done what he did. If I just…"

"So… that's really what drove him?" Sokka asked, frowning heavily. "He told you so?"

"The fucking ass just… he was angry after the fight ended, and he wanted you two to get a move on so all your fans would leave the Dome and get out of the way. I could get proper medical aid afterwards or something, whatever," Toph said, bitterly. "I… don't know what the hell he saw between you two. I have no idea, but… clearly it was enough to confirm that…"

"That we had a relationship," Sokka snarled, tightening his fists: they had locked the door. They had even barred it… he remembered it so clearly, and even then, Iroh had somehow succeeded at spying on what they had been doing? What had he seen? When had he…?

Oh, but did any of that matter anymore? Sokka gritted his teeth and shook his head before glancing at Toph anew.

"So, that's when he went to Ozai with the tale. And then… I don't know, his mind started working again and he realized nobody would gain anything after what he'd done?" Sokka guessed. Toph scoffed, shrugging.

"Maybe? I… I guess? But I just thought he was a fucking coward, all around. The Fire Lord had to be so pissed, you'd know it better than me, and… and Iroh just bailed. He found me at the Dome and then loaded me onto some boat without so much as telling me what was going on. He only explained like… like three days into our trip and by then I… I decided I'd never forgive him. For you, for Azula, I… I couldn't stand the thought of being anywhere near him when he'd… w-when I thought he'd gotten you killed, when he'd ruined her life…"

"Well, I didn't die," Sokka said, placing a hand on Toph's shoulder as she sobbed quietly again, dropping her head on Sokka's breastplate. "But… but he did ruin her life. That's more than enough to make me want to hack his head off. But I can't do that right now, I… I know it won't fix a damn thing to kill him, no matter how much I may hate him. It'll make things worse for me, even…"

"You're… too fucking smart or too nice, I don't know which it is, but I just don't like it," Toph sniffed, pulling back again, hands on Sokka's forearms. "I… I can't really believe I'm… I'm talking to you again, damn it. I…"

Finally, a small smile spread over Toph's face. Sokka responded with his halfhearted grin too, unsurprised when tears sprang from Toph's eyes again as she dropped her head against him again.

"I can barely believe it's you, too," Sokka said, patting her back gently. "I'm so glad you're okay, Toph. After you vanished, and Iroh with you, we could only guess you guys ran away, but nobody knew anything for certain…"

"Not willingly… n-not knowingly, on my part. I… I was ready to jump off the damn boat and swim back to you guys, but… I don't know how to swim," Toph admitted. Sokka laughed quietly.

"Guess that's one more thing for you to learn in the future, then. I'm sorry, though. You've been here all this time?"

"Yeah… in this fucking prison," she hissed… then she frowned in Piandao's direction. "Not upset I'm calling it that? You're one of the bigshots, aren't you?"

"I'm afraid that's a more accurate term for what the Order has become as of late than anything else would be," Piandao said, climbing down the hill and stepping towards them: Toph scoffed. "Well… it is quite clear you two have much to talk about. Two gladiators reunited… I suspect she will be quick to pledge her allegiance to you in the future, Sokka, much quicker than most every other fool in the Order."

"Allegiance? This one?" Sokka repeated, smiling a little as he dropped his embrace with Toph. "I wouldn't dream of it. If she's going to join us, I doubt she's going to swear any sort of fealty to me…"

"Heh. Pretentious bastard you'd be if you expected that…" Toph said… though she smiled too, as she tossed a half-hearted punch in Sokka's direction.

Her smile strengthened further, even if the tears spilled down her eyes, when Sokka caught the fist, much like someone else always would. Sokka smiled, squeezing her fist as Toph grinned wildly, dabbing at the tears with her free hand's knuckles.

"I'll step away for now," Piandao said, nodding in Sokka's direction. "Though I'll keep an eye on the two of you from a distance. I fear they will be quite cross with me if I don't, considering neither of you are actual members of the White Lotus…"

"Neither of us? Heh, that's good to know," Sokka said, letting go of Toph's fist. "You didn't get dragged into some cult, then?"

"The only difference between being here as a prisoner or a member is whether you want to be or not, but we're all stuck in this place anyhow," Toph sighed, shaking her head.

Sokka bit his lip before nodding in Piandao's direction. His master nodded too before stepping away, marching towards the fortress's walls to offer them some privacy. He would be able to watch them from afar, but he wouldn't overhear their next conversations.

"How did you…? What did you guys even do?" Toph asked Sokka, swallowing hard. He gritted his teeth as he turned towards her again. "There's no way in hell Ozai let you get away easily…"

"No, he definitely didn't. It was a mess, all in all," Sokka admitted. "Azula's guards had to arrange most things to get us to safety… she resisted against Ozai all she could, but you know, with her wound, it… it was impossible for her to stop them from…"

"The fucking purity examination," Toph hissed. Sokka gritted his teeth and nodded, fists shaking with fury. "Then… there was no way around it? You guys couldn't get out before…?"

"No. Ozai wanted to do some twisted form of damage control by killing me and setting Azula up for… for marriage with Zhao," Sokka admitted, swallowing hard. Toph snarled. "And you'd think he got away with it, but… it wasn't as easy as that. Zhao himself didn't want this, he arranged matters so that I'd have to fight his gladiator, you know? The way I used to fight all gladiators from Azula's suitors…"

"Wait, really?" Toph frowned. "You… you fought him? Combustion Man?"

"I did," Sokka admitted, breathing deeply before gazing at Toph somewhat remorsefully. "If… if you wanted a rematch, I'm not too sorry to say I robbed you from that chance."

"What, with you? I mean, maybe we can set one up for the future, but that's not really important right now, not even to me…"

"I didn't mean with me: with Combustion Man."

Toph froze where she stood. For a moment, neither one said anything as Toph's jaw dropped slowly. Sokka swallowed hard.

"You… you killed him. You killed the fucker…" Toph said… and then she smiled, letting out a snort of laughter. "You bastard! I can't get even with him anymore?! That's not fair! Hahaha, you're unbelievable! You killed him?! You killed the crazy metal guy?! Sokka…!"

"I know it sounds crazy," Sokka smiled weakly. "Ozai meant for him to execute me, outright… he almost did. I was ready to die, but… Azula wasn't ready to let me die, of course. She and Xin Long… they snatched me out of the Arena as the whole place caught fire. It was insane and…"

"Wait. The whole place caught fire? You're saying… the Dome's gone?"

Sokka bit his lip: one building definitely wouldn't amount to that much compared to the loss of human lives, the horrors inflicted upon Azula, upon Sokka himself… but the Dome was important to Toph. The League was important to Toph. If there was one person who might truly mourn the Dome's destruction, it was her.

"Sorry," he said. Toph huffed.

"Bastard. No Combustion Man, no Dome… no bloody wonder people are calling you 'the Gladiator' and all that," Toph said, with a weak grin. "You burned everything down and just took off afterwards? Sounds like… like the stuff of legends, you jerk. How could you do that to me? Now I'm just… now I'm really just second place to you? Damn it…"

"You're not…" Sokka smiled a little, but Toph shook her head.

"I lost against you. I lost against him. You beat us both," she smiled. "This is fucking stupid to talk about now, but… you guys proved yourselves the best, in the end. I've got no idea how you bloody did it, alright? To think you were such a wimp once… and now you're the only damn rival gladiator I can have any respect for. Maybe… maybe one day I'll have to ask for that rematch after all. See if I can become the Gladiator, the way you are now…"

"We'll see about that in the future, if anything," Sokka said, with an earnest smile. "We have too much to deal with first, so…"

"Right: so, what did you two do then? After you escaped…?"

"We fled to the South Pole. She… dropped me off there," Sokka said, his throat choking up as he recalled that terrible moment, as that ship drifted further and further away… "I begged her to stay with me, to go hide with me elsewhere, but… she thought she had to go back. That she could she stave off the worst of Ozai's rage. I don't think she was entirely wrong, but… she shouldn't have sacrificed herself that way anyhow. I tried to convince her as best I could, but…"

"Didn't pan out?" Toph asked, letting out a deep breath. "Well… she was always the one who called the shots. Problem of having a sponsor as stubborn as her, huh?"

"A wife as stubborn as her," Sokka said, rubbing his brow with his fingertips. "I don't care if Zhao really… really wound up marrying her, I'll never stop thinking of her that way."

"Pretty sure she didn't marry the bastard willingly," Toph said, reaching up to clap his shoulder gently. "And I'm pretty sure she'd think of you as her husband too, anyway. No matter what Ozai's puts her through."

"Yeah… yeah," Sokka swallowed back the surging tears, smiling slightly. "Though I still wish she'd stayed. I know handling the full brunt of Ozai's forces might have been… it might have been impossible, but maybe we could have held them off. We had Aang, the Avatar…"

"Ah. The weird light-footed guy, huh?" Toph grimaced. Sokka smiled.

"You already met them all, then. Katara and Kino too?" he asked. Toph nodded.

"I kind of overheard you and Azula talking about your sister once, but I barely remembered it," she acknowledged. "The Kino guy's… another weirdo. He was pretty happy when I gave him a nickname."

"Ah? What was it?"

"Blabbermouth."

"… That's terribly on-point, actually."

"Thanks."

Sokka chuckled softly, and Toph grinned widely at him. It would definitely take time for so many wounds to heal… but having a chance to talk with a friend again, after fearing he might never see her again, was a helpful balm against so much strife and grief.

"Anyway, Ozai sent one group of troops to attack us down south about a month ago. We beat them… and we misinformed him about the battle's outcome. He thinks I'm dead now," Sokka said. Toph frowned. "And yeah… he told Azula as much. The fucking bastard went and…"

"You… wait, what? You know he told her? How?" Toph asked.

"Believe it or not… the swamp," Sokka sighed. "I don't really understand how it happened but… it allowed me to communicate with her, Toph. It was really her, it was no dream and… and she told me he'd said that. That she'd nearly been ready to… to die because she thought I was gone."

"Fuck… fuck, she's got to be…" Toph gasped, eyes tearful again. Sokka shook his head.

"She said that encountering me like that had saved her. Saved… 'them,'" Sokka clarified, gritting his teeth. "I… didn't tell the others back then. There wasn't much time for it. But… she told me. She took my hand and… and placed it on her womb. I could feel a slight change, so small but… it was something different from before and… and I knew. I knew she was expecting a child and…"

"It's yours," Toph said, immediately. Sokka ran a hand over his hair.

"I… thought so. She didn't explain any of her situation with Zhao, there really wasn't enough time for her to do that, so… I had no idea there were other possibilities, but…"

"Oh, please, she wouldn't have done that thing with putting your hand there if it wasn't yours!" Toph huffed. Sokka laughed softly and shook his head.

"Maybe not. But even if the kid weren't mine, I… if I intend to go back to her, and I do, I have to be a parent to that child with her. I'm not going to… to be an asshole of a father if I'm not the biological dad, alright? So… I'd rather keep everything in mind. It's possible, yeah, but… I want to do things the right way."

"Well… you're being dumb, but okay," Toph said, biting her lower lip. Sokka smiled sadly. "But then she… she's not going to be ready to die anymore, right? She talked to you and… and you told her you were alive. And she knows you're okay, so…"

"I told her I would find her. That I would come for her," Sokka said. Toph breathed deeply but grinned slightly. "I intend to… that's why I'm here, damn it. I'm done letting the Fire Lord fuck over everything good in this world, everything worth protecting. I'm ending this war, whatever the cost may be, and I will save her from his damn clutches. I already know it's going to be tricky, yeah…"

"Fuck however tricky it may be: I'm in," Toph said, immediately. Sokka smiled. "You know I'm on your side, damn it. I've… I've been waiting for something to happen for months now, okay? I… alright, I haven't always been bored, true, but it's been a fucking nightmare in general anyway. Not knowing if you were alive, only hearing half-truths about what was going on outside, being told I couldn't even go to my parents because I'd put them at risk…!"

"You ran away from home to be free," Sokka remembered. Toph gritted her teeth. "And now you're stuck here, as far from freedom as possible."

"And when shit way more important than my own freedom is at risk," she said, fiercely. "Look… you and I both loved her. She's… the most important person to us. And we're gonna fuck up the bastard who tried to break her. We're gonna make him regret the day he dared give out the shitty orders he did. And we're gonna set her free… and you'll be the annoying, obnoxious couple you've always been, and I'll be annoyed by it, b-but deep down I'll just be… I'll just be so glad if things can go back to… t-to some of what they used to be."

Toph's latest words were accompanied by emotional tears. Sokka couldn't contain the ones in his eyes either as he reached out to Toph for another hug.

"It's… it's so good to have someone on my side who's down for fucking up this world for her sake," Sokka said, with a weak smile. "Everyone has reasons to fight… they have a right to that. But… I don't think anyone else understands just how badly I want to save her as you do."

"I'm going to help you. Everything I can do… I'm gonna," Toph said, wiping her tears as best she could. "And… w-well, he said he'd come along if I found anything else to do, s-so… I guess he'd be down for joining us, too."

"He? Who?" Sokka blinked blankly. "Surely you don't mean Iroh…"

"Iroh can fuck himself for all I care," Toph sniffed. "If he wants to help and do something decent for once, then we'll make the most of it… but I'm not fucking trusting him again. Never again."

"Well… we have similar feelings even in those regards, huh?" Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "I told him already I was… I was only going to stay civil as best I could for the sake of the mission. But that, as far as I was concerned…"

"He should stick his own boot up his ass and jump into a volcano?"

"Uh… well, something like that."

Toph smirked as Sokka pulled away, slightly amused.

"But if it's not Iroh, then… who're you talking about?"

"Uh… well. Don't make fun of me… or do, I don't know," Toph sighed, dropping her head heavily before answering with the truth. "It's Jet."

"Jet…? Wait, Jet?" Sokka blinked a few times, staring at Toph in confused disbelief as her cheeks reddened. "Really? He… joined the White Lotus?"

"Yeah, he did. Iroh and I bumped into him ages ago… no idea if Azula told you," Toph said, swallowing hard. "He and Longshot, his friend, vanished pretty quickly after Iroh had a word with him. I had no idea what it was about, but… he just told them how to get here. He's safe from slavers here, and from all law, but… he's still pretty much a prisoner. And he's as itchy about doing something useful as I am; Longshot isn't, he joined the archer squads…"

"Oh, so he was one of the people pointing arrows at me today?" Sokka asked. Toph nodded.

"He told us you were here. The minute he said that, I… I just ran like a demon was chasing me, went up that tower and you weren't there. I, uh, may have fucked up their tower's staircase in the process, too…"

"Guess you can fix it quickly," Sokka smiled. "Not that they'd deserve to get it fixed, but… it might help me if you did. Garner some goodwill from their bastard leaders or so…"

"Yeah, well, what'd you want their goodwill for?" Toph huffed. "You've got the Avatar, a big furry creature, a waterbender, a chatterbox, an exiled prince, and now you'll get two former gladiators too. Sounds like an army to me."

"You're not entirely wrong… but a bigger army will be better for us anyway," Sokka said, swallowing heavily. "There's a lot riding on this. I'm only going to get one shot at blowing my cover… maybe two, if things go really well. I want to hit Ozai before he even knows we're coming… with hits so fast and effective that he will be caught by surprise and won't have a chance to take any action before his damn empire crumbles before his eyes. And for that… I need to ensure he keeps thinking I'm dead for as long as possible. At least, until we have secured enough victories so he can't strongarm us into submission again."

"Huh… that all sounded so vague I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Toph admitted. Sokka smiled and shook his head.

"Don't worry about it yet. Point is… if I can have an army on my side, all the better. If I can't, then it'll be just us… and that's not that bad a deal, anyway. With you and Jet around too, our possibilities would expand even further, so… I'm glad to count you in."

"Great," Toph smiled. Sokka nodded in her direction.

"So, about the Jet thing…"

"U-uh, do you really want to talk about that? Sokka, I… I thought, well, after everything, you…"

"I what? I wouldn't be able to hear about anyone else finding love and happiness without breaking down in tears?" Sokka asked: Toph, unsurprisingly, squirmed over his words.

"It's not… love!" she huffed, cheeks red. "Honestly, he's just…"

"He's just… what?" Sokka asked, after she was quiet for longer than expected, head turned away from him.

"… A good lay," she said, simply. Sokka snorted and shook his head. "What? It's true! And… well, it's fine if you don't want to hear about it but my point is, I… after what I've witnessed, you know? You and Azula, you were… well, you are my standard for what love is, pretty much. I know that I don't feel remotely as strongly towards Jet as you do towards Azula…"

"You wouldn't go to war to set him free?" Sokka asked. Toph pouted.

"I… don't know. Probably not war, outright, but he's not as important in the political spheres as Azula is, so I doubt that'd be necessary…" she said. Sokka chuckled again. "I'd just break him out quietly. As quietly as I can, anyway. See? Not as crazy as what you're planning on. But anyway, we're just spending time together sometimes. He's… the only person in that damn fortress who doesn't make me feel like pulling my hair out. There's something wicked about him that just… it just makes him good company, I guess. He steals drinks for me, we make fun of everyone else, he listened to my stories… he's a better guy than he wants to act like, I guess."

"That's good to know," Sokka said. "Sounds like you may not love him but you're good friends, at least."

"I guess, yeah," Toph smiled a little. "Though… I could've been a better friend. To this moment, I've… I've just been shutting everyone out but him. Nah, actually I… wasn't really open to him in every way, either. After thinking I'd lost you guys, lost everything I cared about in the Fire Nation, I… I didn't want to care about anything else again. It might sound stupid but… I'm tired of getting hurt. Must sound fucking rich coming from me, when I made a living of making people hurt pretty badly, but…"

"I understand how you feel. All too well," Sokka admitted. Toph sighed.

"You have it worse than me," she said. Sokka swallowed hard and shrugged.

"The pain is, strangely, so familiar by now that I don't know if I'll ever stop feeling it," he admitted. Toph grimaced. "It's a weird reminder that I'm still here… that I'm still alive to feel it. That I don't want to live with it anyway… that I want to make it stop. That I want to make everyone's pain stop, too…"

"Good. Make grief your driving force or so…" Toph said, with a weak smile. Sokka nodded.

"It's worked, so far," he said. "And I hope it continues to. I know convincing the White Lotus won't be easy, but… I have to do it. I will do it, whatever it takes. If they refuse under all circumstances, I'll find some other source of help somehow, but even if nothing else works out, I'll find a way to do this. It has to be possible."

"If someone's crazy and stubborn enough to figure out how to end this war and defeat the Fire Lord, it's got to be you," Toph said, with a weak smile. "I'll be there to give you a hand with it, too."

"Well… if that's the case," Sokka said, eyeing Toph with uncertainty. "While I try to persuade those old goats, maybe you can do something to help me out…"

"What? Want me to restrain them with my bending? Threaten them?" Toph smirked. Sokka laughed and shook his head. "I can do some really nasty shit to people I don't like, mark my words…!"

"I'm aware: I still remember that you recited quite a few ways to kill me back when we first crossed paths," Sokka said. Toph grinned guiltily. "But that's not it. I… guess you already saw the Avatar. He's a pretty strong guy already, but he doesn't know one element…"

"Oh, fuck. Not you, too…" Toph sighed. "Here I was hoping you'd help me convince him I'm the worst choice of a teacher there could possibly be…"

"You hoped wrong," Sokka smiled. Toph huffed and shook her head. "Look… you're the greatest earthbender in the world. We all know this, don't we?"

"Sure?" Toph huffed, her bangs swaying in the air. "Doesn't mean I'd be a good teacher, Sokka. Be reasonable here…"

"I'm being reasonable: no one else will be able to teach earthbending to Aang as effectively as you," Sokka said. "If that guy manages to earthbend, as well as controlling every other element, we'll have better odds of success. It's not to say that you won't be a tremendous help all on your own, but…"

"Yeah, yeah, try and butter me up now, it's not gonna work," Toph huffed. Sokka smiled and shook his head. "Just… do you really think this is the best thing I can do right now? I'm not much of a teacher, I think, and… I don't know if I want to do this. But if you're sure this will get us closer to saving Azula, I… I'll do it. But only if you're sure."

"Unfortunately for you… I really am," Sokka said, with an empathetic smile. "Aang's bound to be a good student if he could endure having Zuko as his firebending teacher…"

"Or maybe Zuko's good at something and I'm not?" Toph suggested, Sokka shrugged.

"Shoji seemed to enjoy your earthbending lessons quite a bit back at Ty Lee's wedding…"

"That…! Oh, come on, we were both drunk as hell and…!" Toph laughed: as always, her eyes were tearful after letting her mind return to a blissful day, now so distant she could barely reminisce on it anymore… "Fuck, I miss them. I miss all of them, Sokka…"

"So do I. So do I" Sokka whispered, wrapping an arm around Toph's shoulders as she dabbed at her eyes. "We left too many friends behind, huh?"

"Too many," she nodded, swallowing hard. "But… if we pull this off, we'll go back to them. To all of them. Shoji, and Stretchy, and Blades and Song…"

Sokka gritted his teeth and nodded: he could only hope Azula's sacrificed had succeeded at ensuring the safety of so many of their friends…

"Okay… okay. Fuck, you're a clever one. Manipulating me this way," Toph laughed, wiping her tears again. "I'm… I'm gonna do it. He's gonna regret it and you know it. But… I'm gonna do it anyway: I'll teach the Avatar."

"Thank you, Toph," Sokka said, squeezing her gently. "Fuck, it's been a messed up day. Learning about Azula being married off to Zhao… it makes me want to scream. Well, I already did, but then I found you again…"

"What you're trying to say is you're glad we'll have each other's backs from here on," Toph said, smiling proudly. "We will for sure, big Blue Wolf, Gladiator, whatever they want to call you by now. Whatever comes next… you know you've got Ruchong on your side, for sure."

"You… oh hell, they told you about that?" Sokka asked, smiling guiltily. Toph laughed and nodded, patting his back heavily.

"I'm happy with it, you know? Hell knew I'd ever be so happy to be a dirt worm, eh, but… I really am glad of it now, Dog."

"Been a while since anyone called me that, too," Sokka smiled. "Good to know some things won't change… much, anyway."

"Yeah… some will, I guess. But not that much, in the end," Toph said: the two of them started on their way back to the fortress. "Think about it, huh? I've been following your orders and your lead for way longer than I ever wanted to admit. Back in Ba Sing Se… then in the Brawl a little bit, too? And then when that shithead tried to fuck up the factory…"

"So… you won't have a problem following my orders this time, either?" Sokka asked. Toph snorted and shook her head.

"Your only problem's going to be if I go a little too wild following them, if anything," she said. Sokka smiled and patted her shoulder again. "I'm in this for good, Sokka. We're definitely going to save Azula. Whatever the fucking White Lotus may want… I know you and I and all your new friends are going to make that happen. Like you said… whatever it takes."

Sokka nodded, firmly: his hand squeezed Toph's shoulder gently as burning fire, strengthening resolve, surged in his chest.

"That's right… whatever it takes."

Piandao nodded in their direction once they reached him: together, all three of them marched back inside the fortress when the sun had already set. Several things were still being arranged – the new arrivals' rooms would be located within the tower, most likely to ensure they could be kept under mostly constant surveillance. They wound up sharing dinner in a private dining room that Piandao allowed them access to, and the sword master also helped Kino and Zuko deliver their remaining quarries from their latest hunts to the kitchens where all ingredients, especially such rare ones, were quite welcome.

The group was tired, clearly, but Toph's enthusiasm seemed to make up for everyone else's. She talked quite loudly, with Jet sitting right beside her, laughing at her jokes and smirking at her frequent jabs at everyone in the room: Aang had struggled to sit down for dinner, so excited as he was upon knowing Sokka had successfully persuaded Toph to teach him. Katara was happy for him, as was Kino, who kept raving about whatever cool things Aang would be able to do once he was an earthbender too. Zuko was mostly quiet, though he was quick to smile kindly whenever his mother spoke to him, and he always ensured that she had enough food on her plate. As for Sokka… he did smile at Toph's jokes. He laughed on occasion… and yet there was something deeply affected inside him, something strained and troubled that Piandao never failed to notice. The man he had once known, reckless and stubborn, had become a jaded warrior, hurting deeply after too many wounds sustained across his heart. He had been through more than he could bear… and even then, he still stood up again to continue fighting. No matter how hurt he was, he would stop at nothing to ensure Azula's safety.

The younger people in the dining room continued to talk after the food was done, swapping stories from the past, further explaining their experiences across the last months – Piandao had been curious about this tale of a mystical guru in the Southern Air Temple, but he stopped paying attention when someone stepped up to him, quiet and inconspicuously, by the wall he had been standing against.

"All seems to be going well for you with Zuko," Piandao said, quietly. Ursa swallowed hard and nodded. "I'm glad for it, Ursa."

"I… I suppose you are. I… I just meant to apologize, Piandao," she said, raising her gaze to meet his. He appeared perplexed by her words, but he didn't interrupt. "I have been… difficult. Resentful, and cruel, and thoughtless… I have put many people through countless struggles, through much pain, but none have tried to help me as much as you have and… and it was a thankless job you undertook. I am sorry for… for all the difficulties I've put you through with my stubbornness, with my fears and closed-mindedness…"

"You have nothing to apologize for," Piandao said, quietly. Ursa shook her head. "Not to me. Ursa… I have always regretted many of my choices. I still believe you are safest with us, and yet… no, if anything, you're safest with your son, with his friends. I trusted Jeong Jeong wouldn't treat you as he did, that he would at least see the value you held as an asset, if nothing else…"

"I have very little of value to offer. I had even less to offer, back when I wouldn't… w-wouldn't accept the truth about my husband's ghastly choices," Ursa said, lower lip trembling as she shook her head. "But just… just one look at Zuko and I knew they weren't lies. Everything they'd told me, everything you told me… even if I hated it all, it was the truth. It was the truth and I… I shouldn't have rejected it. In denying it, I only… I only amounted to nothing. I helped no one, not my family, not you…"

"Perhaps," Piandao said, softly. "I cannot blame you for your regrets, Ursa. I can say, however, that I have no shortage of my own. If I had persuaded the others to let you see your son earlier… perhaps you could have been more helpful, as helpful as you wish you had been. I didn't, however. I… couldn't stop any of them from making the terrible choices they made, either. I could only do my best to keep you alive."

"And you succeeded. I am still sorry for making you run to the swamp so many times," Ursa said, gritting her teeth. "Whatever you must have seen in its depths as you sought me…"

"It was no trouble. Illusions are beautiful enough, I suppose… but they are only that," Piandao said. Ursa shuddered and nodded, covering her face in her hands. "To see you now, with a mind so clear, with that spark in your eyes anew…"

"I… I must look terribly old compared to those days, Piandao…"

"So must I," Piandao smiled. "We are old, yes. And they…"

Ursa glanced at the group before them: now Kino seemed to be explaining what Sokka had done during the battle of the South Pole, standing before a tall pile of burning debris to beckon the armies to attack him. Toph and Jet were utterly enthralled by the tale, and Piandao couldn't help but smile as his apprentice smiled too, humbly, his head slightly ducked.

"They are young, and they are stronger, smarter and better suited to fight this war than any of us could have hoped to be," Piandao whispered. Ursa swallowed hard. "I know… seeing her son off to war is a mother's most dreaded day, for sure. But you know, just as well, that this war has dragged on for too long. This world… it is due a grand change, down to its very foundations. And this young man is the face of that change. He's the hand that holds the sword of redemption. He will not waver, not for an instant. He will see this war to the very end, and he has no intentions of dying on the battlefield, either. He wants to survive… to see the world that will be born after the one that exists now finally vanishes. He will be ready to build that world, too…"

"And she will build it with him," Ursa determined. Piandao smiled. "Whether it is fate or not… it is the path they've chosen. A path… a path the likes of us could have never found or followed on our own. So now… all that's left for us is to hope that they will succeed. That they will achieve the unthinkable…"

"You do understand the likely cost, don't you?" Piandao asked, his smile waning. Ursa gritted her teeth and nodded. "Truly?"

"He asked me… your Sokka, he asked me if… if I was ready to prioritize Azula over Ozai. If I was ready to give up on him, to choose her…" Ursa whispered. "I've told him I'll choose her over everything. I wasn't lying. It is too late for me to be a good mother to her, but… but it isn't too late for me to fight in my own way… to beckon and encourage him to save my child. More so after… after everything we learned today."

Ursa gritted her teeth: knowing that bastard, Zhao, had married her daughter had nearly tempted her to jump off the side of the tower. That she was with child… oh, how she hoped it was Sokka's child instead. She needed it to be. Zhao didn't deserve to be connected to her family in any way, let alone did he deserve to father any heirs for Ozai… the mere thought angered her so profoundly she would have spat in Ozai's face right then and there if she had the chance. Burning Zuko had already been enough of a crime, unforgivable by all accounts… but how had he dared hurt Azula so horribly when she had once been his favorite child?

It was difficult to fathom that the man she had wed long ago, the man who had been the only partner she had known, could have grown so rotten. To think that Ozai's every choice had hurt their children on and on until they were outright ready to fight against their very nation if that was the only way to defeat him, as Zuko soon would…

But it was the truth. No longer could she deny it… no longer did she dare deny it. It was the gruesome, disturbing truth. And as such… even she, after all these years of rejecting reality, could see that Ozai needed to be stopped. His rule, his reign… it had to end. His thirst for power had driven him to become the very worst version of himself he could be… and whatever affection she still might have felt towards him could no longer justify standing on the sidelines of this conflict. It would never justify allowing him to continue treating Azula so poorly, all be it in the hopes that maybe someday he'd decide to honor Ursa's hopes that he could be a better man than the one he had chosen to be. He had made his choices… and Ursa genuinely hoped he would pay the appropriate price for every single one of them.

The people in this room would soon charge into war, regardless of whatever the White Lotus's answer might be. They might find themselves becoming different people once the battles ended, if all of them lived to see the first dawn of a new world… Ursa could only hope they would. Her heart clenched up as she eyed them, as she believed in them more faithfully than in anything she had ever believed in the past…

"Then… we shall watch over them, however we can," Piandao said, quietly. Ursa nodded solemnly. "We shall ensure they succeed at their mission. I have allies who will follow me, for sure… perhaps not enough for Sokka's purposes, but more forces will always be welcome in these circumstances. Whatever the future may hold, we will stand behind them, we will support them, and we will do our very best to help them triumph… that is, if they happen to need us old folk at all."

"Perhaps they won't…" Ursa said, softly, though she smiled slightly nonetheless. "But we will do our best to encourage them, even so. To assure them that we are by their side, through thick and thin… and ultimately, to witness the new world they will create. I… I know it won't come at no cost, Piandao, but… I look forward to seeing that world. I really do…"

"So do I, Ursa. So do I."

He placed a hand on her shoulder, and Ursa breathed deeply as she smiled upon the warriors and benders of Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Air Nomad and Water Tribe origins alike. That table would grow larger in time, for this was but the starting point. It was but the first place where balance had been restored: her heart trembled with anticipation, for she could barely wait to see the changes these young heroes would bring to the White Lotus, and to the whole world, in the days to come.