Aang spent the next few days practically glued to Appa's side. He had a lot of missed time with his big buddy. He regaled him with stories of being at the palace and gave him lots of treats, even though he probably didn't need any more. Well, whatever! Aang was going to spoil him, at least a bit.

On the fourth day, he came out of his cabin and was surprised not to see Appa, but Zuko.

"Aang! Woah...hair." Zuko's eyes bugged. "I mean, looks good."

"I'm glad you're still alive," Aang said, hugging Zuko.

"I think that's my line," Zuko chuckled, looking around at the Swamp, taking it all in.

"Hardly. We're pretty protected here. I wouldn't put it past your dad to...slit your throat in the night," Aang said honestly. Zuko shrugged, not disagreeing.

"Is it how you imagined it?" Ty Lee asked, swinging herself over the railing to stand next to Zuko. Though he'd been the one to set up this communication and knew the location, he hadn't ever been here, not until now.

"Better," Zuko said, "Seeing everyone here...not fearing for their lives...it's good." From his dark expression, Aang almost didn't want to ask. But he had to. Zuko winced, inhaling.

"It's Zhao. Ever since finding out you were the Avatar- the ultimate Airbender- he's...gone off the deep end. And my dad only encourages him. Anyone he thinks is an Airbender..." Zuko drew a line across his throat. "It's been a week since you escaped, and already, his body count that we know of is thirty. Possibly more. Hard to say how many were airbenders, how many were 'Airbender sympathizers,' and how many just looked the wrong way at him."

"Holy smokes," Aang groaned, "Well, I mean, we gotta go out and find them! Bring all the airbenders here, obviously. And stop Zhao. We have to-"

"Woah, slow down!" Zuko held up a hand, "Find my uncle and Toph? I need to talk to you all."

"Not Shen or Dhakiya?" Ty Lee questioned.

"In the town over. I'm on a 'trip' right now with Alcina, Yue, and Suki. Yue and Suki are volunteering. Alcina is having lunch, in town, with her father and Dhakiya. Thought it would be kind. Plus, I don't trust her enough to bring her here." He laughed. "I mean, I barely trust anyone."

"As you should. Be mindful of who you speak your secrets to," Iroh said, coming up the path with Huu. "Nephew, it's good to see you."

"Now we just need Toph," Zuko said.

"I'll get her," Aang offered. He darted back inside. Toph was lying on her bed, making small shapes with a ball of dirt above her.

"Hi."

"Shit, Twinkletoes!" Toph snapped. "Can't sneak up on me like that."

"Sorry," Aang winced, "So you're...completely blind here?" He hadn't thought to ask before, until now. Toph hopped off her bed, running her feet across the floorboards.

"Usually, even in structures, I can feel the earth beneath me and see easily. This earth is all wet," she complained.

"So...?"

Toph motioned for Aang to come forward. She found his face after a few missed attempts and then took her hand and pressed it to his eyes, fingers spread.

"Can you see very well right now?"

"Erm, not really," he said, squinting through the openings.

"Exactly. It's like that. I can get a bit, but it's really difficult and sort of tiring," she replied. Aang understood; ever since arriving here, his connection to the other Avatars was like a bad signal. It wavered in and out. Sometimes, he could hear a few clear words from them, but it was usually choppy. Other times, he could only hear the faint fuzz and murmur in the back of his brain, like a fly that never left. He'd rather it was all or nothing because this half-connection was way worse. Oh, fear not though, his past Avatars figured out how to annoy him through his dreams, so he wasn't without their sage wisdom, he thought with a roll of his eyes. Was it too much to have a normal, non-lectured dream, though?

"Need help outside?" Aang offered, feeling bad for her.

"No! I have legs still," Toph snapped, and proceeded to walk into her dresser. "That wasn't there before," she said stiffly.

"Sure," Aang agreed, though he was pretty sure it had been there since they arrived.

"What's the big deal anyway?" Toph asked, "I'm pretty much ignored here." It was for the best, lest she teach more swear words to children. With her unreliable sight right now, there wasn't much she could do.

"Zuko's here."

"Zuko! That means..." Toph's whole face lit up. She ran outside, only tripping once, eager like a child on their birthday.

"Sokka! Come on out! Where are ya? I can't see very well, so you gotta come to me," Toph said, grinning, lifting her feet to show the wet squishing sound that was shadowing part of her vision.

"We need to talk about that," Zuko said stiffly.

"I hate that tone," Ty Lee sighed.

"Let us retire inside," Iroh said, "I have some tea on."

Once they were in the main living room of the hut, Toph turned to the wall. "Okay, Zuko-"

"Over here." Zuko interrupted.

"I knew that," Toph said, but her face was flushed scarlet, "Where's my boyfriend?"

"That's...fuck." Zuko winced. "He's not coming."

"Not coming...today?" Toph said somewhat hopefully.

"No. Not anytime soon. Possibly...never." Zuko swallowed. Aang felt something cold grip his bones, a foreboding sense that only grew as Zuko recounted the Agni Kai. Ty Lee gripped Aang's arm tightly, whimpering at the sound of it. Iroh shook his head sorrowfully, handing out teas. Toph's face stayed the same, almost confused, as though she didn't quite believe him.

"...And he's hurt badly now. My father won't let Katara heal him. As it is, he seems...intent on staying. But I'm not sure he'd have the strength to make the trip anyway." Zuko pressed his palms to his tea cup, trying to figure out what to say next. "Spirits, Toph, I'm sorry-"

"You did what?" Toph demanded. Zuko's whole demeanor shifted from apologetic to furious, his back straightening like a whip and his eyes inflamed.

"What I had to!" Zuko snapped back at her, "Spirits, if my father-"

"You nearly killed him! And I'm supposed to thank you?" Toph's fists clenched. "Aang, where is the Fire Idiot? He deserves exactly what he did to Sokka!"

"I'm not helping you punch Zuko," Aang choked.

"Traitor," Toph snarled.

"Toph, Zuko is right," Iroh said, "Ozai would have killed Sokka. This was merciful."

"Merciful! Huh, I'm beginning to wonder if you flame yahoos have ever read a dictionary in your life because me and you have two very different definitions," Toph said. Then, the truth seemed to wash over her. Aang saw tears gather in her eyes. He expected her to cry. Instead, she spun, angry, moving toward her bedroom door.

"Toph!"

"Stop!" Toph shoved Aang hard. "Because none of you get it!" she said, throwing a finger out, yelling to keep herself from crying. "You and Ty Lee get to be all lovey-dovey in your room over there, together," she said, "And Zuko and Katara get to be awkward and shit at the palace, but they're together too if things go bad. But for me? And Sokka? It's not fair."

"Not fair?" Zuko gave a low laugh. "Toph, spirits, wake up and smell the swamp water. All you and he had to do was not get caught! But no!" He threw up his hands. "You could have come to me. We could have gotten you off the competition list. There were two million things we could have done, but you chose to be selfish and do whatever Toph wanted to do, and look where it got you!"

"Zuko..." Iroh warned.

"She needs to hear this!" Zuko stood, his voice thundering. "You can just dance through life and expect that the wake of your decisions will always work themselves out! From the baby scandal to your behavior at the balls, to this!" Zuko threw out a hand motion. "Why are you so consistently surprised that bad choices have bad reactions?"

"A bad reaction is maybe getting privileges revoked! Forcing an Agni Kai against Sokka is mental and cruel!"

"A heavy punishment for a heavy crime," Zuko said icily. "You knew I had no feelings for you past sibling love. I could have fixed this early on. I could have. But Toph always does what Toph wants," he said angrily, crossing his arms.

Toph stood still for a few seconds before she stormed into her room, slamming the door. Zuko stomped out of the house, steam rising from his shoulders as he threw curse words out.

"Let them," Iroh said to Aang, who was poised and trying to decide who to go after first, "It is in Zuko's nature. He needs to calm down. And Toph?" Iroh stroked his beard. "Well, she needs to internalize some truth in Zuko's words." He looked down. "More tea?"

After half an hour, Zuko grumbled his way back in. Toph eased out of her room, still looking distrustful.

"Fine," Toph said in a high voice, "Maybe I made some bad choices. Okay, I'll own up to that. But since you're not gunna bring Sokka to me, I'll go get him myself."

Zuko just sighed, sinking low into a chair. "You can't," he said, grinding his teeth. "None of you should leave this area."

"Try to tell me what I can and can't do." Toph snorted.

"You, Toph, and you, Uncle," Zuko said, sounding tired and drained, "Are dead. According to, well, everyone. That's also why I didn't want to bring Alcina or the other girls here. They all think you two were executed. If you showed your face if anyone started to doubt my father's lies...I fear he'd retaliate and actually kill Sokka."

"Not if I get there first," Toph responded haughtily.

"Do you want to risk his life?" Zuko asked seriously. Toph did consider it and deflated.

"Dammit!"

"And you two," Zuko spun to Aang and Ty Lee, "Are Most Wanted One and Two. You will be killed on the spot."

"So we just stay here a bit longer." Ty Lee tried to sound bright and cheerful, but the mood was grim. "We can still make a difference from here...right?"

"That's what I came to ask," Zuko said, "If you had any ideas. I mean, any new plans." He waved a hand. "What can I do since you're grounded?"

"Keep sending airbenders our way," Aang said. "Try to stop Zhao whenever you can. Injunctions, burning his supplies, turning his uniforms bright green...whatever you can do," Aang said without pause, "I'll, uhm, practice the things I didn't really get a chance to do at the palace."

"Master that thirty-sixth tier?" Ty Lee teased. Zuko threw Aang a confused look, but Aang waved it away, grinning at Ty Lee.

"That's not much of a plan," Zuko said uneasily. "Something is coming Aang. I can feel it." He paused. "If I keep sending you the information I have on the Equalists, in your spare time, maybe leaf through it? I hardly have time to look at it. If we figured out who they were and what they wanted, we'd have one less issue on our hands."

"Sure," Aang said, "Guess I don't have much else to do." Part of him was glad he wasn't going to be expected to go out there, waving the flag of battle when he had no battle plans to enact. Part of him was frustrated to not be able to help, unable to dig into what his people were feeling and experiencing. He felt almost like a fraud, safe here.

"We can't lose you, Aang," Zuko said, as though reading his mind. "You're our most valuable player."

"I'll find a way to cope," Aang sighed, hating feeling so useless.

"Can we get to talking about more exciting stuff?" Toph asked. "If Sokka's not gunna show up, at least you can entertain me."

"Whatever do you mean?" Zuko narrowed his eyes. Aang groaned.

"New gossip," Toph said, easing back into her chair, "What sort of trivial BS is going on at our dear Royal Palace?"

Zuko looked ready to argue, but perhaps he was tired of fighting with Toph. Plus, Aang noticed Ty Lee looked a bit piqued. Even Iroh leaned forward a bit. Zuko relented. He seemed to realize they all needed something a bit less...dark to end this day.

"Okay, well...Yue and I had lunch the other day, and you wouldn't believe the weird story she told me..."

XXxx

Katara felt like all her time was spent waiting. Waiting specifically, to be allowed to see her brother. She wanted nothing else, felt no desire to do anything else. She would sit in her room until she was summoned, knowing that was a poor use of her time, but finding little energy to care...until she couldn't.

So, Katara tried to push herself to do other things. She read some of the books from the library that had accumulated in her room. She worked out. She tried embroidery again and recalled why she'd stopped in the first place. She tried to practice bloodbending, but as soon as she began, she had flashbacks to her brother's blood in the arena and simply...could not.

One of the days, while Zuko was still gone with Alcina, Yue, and Suki, Katara wandered into the Ladies' Room. On Ji had told her that there would be tea cakes there for tea time and Cillia had tried to encourage Katara out by asking her to spar with her later. Katara had said she'd see how she felt.

The discussion was, frustratingly, still about her brother and Toph. Any and all gossip was about their relationship and the drama surrounding it. Katara almost wished the Equalists would make a surprise visit so that the other girls would be talking about something else!

She intended to grab her tea cakes and cup of tea, find an excuse to quit on Cillia (who, luckily, wasn't in here at the moment), and leave quickly, but she couldn't help but overhear.

"I can't believe Prince Zuko put Sokka through that! And executed Toph! Maybe I...maybe I don't know him like I thought I did," On Ji was saying, looking at her hands, lip quivering. Katara snorted quietly. It was obvious that Zuko didn't enjoy a second of it.

"Then leave," Nadhari snipped, "And we'll continue on."

"I didn't say I wanted to go." On Ji frowned. "I just think there should have been another way."

"What they did was wrong," Mai reminded, and Katara nearly dropped her teacup in anger. However, when she looked at Mai, she saw beneath her calm facade a frustration, an uncertainty. Mai was glued to the rules as her life depended on them. It was all she was taught, and some part of her was starting to question it like On Ji, but her rigid upbringing was barring her way.

Katara wondered, briefly, what sort of turmoil churned inside of Mai currently?

"He could have killed Sokka too, but he did not." Mai finished, tucking her arms into her sleeves.

"That wasn't merciful. For all we know, Toph's in an unmarked grave," Smellerbee spat. Clearly, this was a heated discussion. Katara was glad there was a dissent. If all the ladies just accepted it, she would have been alone.

"I doubt that." Mai shook her head.

"We wouldn't know, though, would we?" Smellerbee shoved a cake in her mouth. "I just don't know about Sokka's punishment, though..."

"I think he'd prefer it to death," Nadhari said with a raised eyebrow, "If we were to ask."

That was it. Katara couldn't just leave now, not with such fighting words from her least favorite person.

"Don't presume you know my brother," Katara growled.

"Oh, so he wants to die, then? You'd let him walk into an execution?"

"Don't twist my words!" Katara stalked up to her, months of pent-up frustration spilling from her. "We have suffered a thousand times more than you have! You've lived your entire life as a nobleman's daughter, afforded things that I only dreamed about not so long ago! And, if someone you loved ever did something so reckless, you wouldn't stay awake at night worrying about how your people are going to survive now that there's no more food coming! At worst, you'd miss one of your hundred meals a day."

"Don't act like you know my life." Nadhari stood, face to face with Katara. "You're not the only one who's gone through trauma, who's suffered!"

"Oh, like what?" Katara asked, "Your nail broke? You lost your favorite dress in the hundreds that you own? The chef wasn't serving the meal you wanted for dinner?" she cruelly mocked. "My suffering...my brother's suffering is not the same as yours."

Katara felt the electricity of the emotion in the air and wondered if this was going to lead to a fight. She'd be ever so pleased to knock Nadhari on her ass.

On Ji stood up, nervously looking around, distressed. "Hey, guys! Before Yue left, she told me this really funny and sorta weird story-"

"Katara is right! You have no idea what people like me, or her, have gone through!" Smellerbee jumped up.

"The story-" On Ji tried again.

"You can't minimize another's plight, though," Ratana said, and all of a sudden, any order in the room crumbled and almost everyone was talking over each other, lines starting to be drawn in the proverbial sand. Katara only knew for sure that Smellebee was staunchly with her, everyone else on varying degrees.

"Everyone!" On Ji stood on a table, surprising all with the booming of her quiet voice. "Really? Are we going to act like wild animals in here?" she asked, "We all clearly have a lot of emotions and this is doing nobody any good!"

Begrudgingly, even Katara agreed with her. All the girls slinked to opposite places in the room, scattered with their food, looking a bit ashamed.

Katara reloaded her plate, knowing that she didn't want to be here.

As she left, she heard a side-comment from Ratana, almost so quiet she missed it.

"Maybe Sokka didn't deserve it, but Toph got what she deserved. Poor Zuko... never took her for a whore."

Katara lost it. Her food and drink clattered to the floor and Ratana only had time to make a squeak of surprise as Katara lunged at her like a cougar. Ratana made a grunt as Katara collided full into her, knocking them both into a side-table. Ratana was staring up at Katara in utter shock, and Katara was just as surprised at her own actions. She'd begun to like Ratana, especially after the Painted Lady incident, and this deeply hurt her.

That hurt bubbled. and as Ratana grasped to shove her off, Katara slapped her hard across the face. The sound echoed around the room, seeming to linger. Her hand burned, but the reddening mark on Ratana's flesh was satisfying.

Ratana hit Katara back, making an impact with her cheekbone.

From there, Katara was in a daze as the two girls clawed and snarled, rolling on the ground, pulling at each other's hair. At one point, Katara split Ratana's lip. Ratana grabbed a book from the table above and hit Katara's head hard. As Katara's head spun, she registered the rest of the girls pulling them apart. Katara yanked against whoever had her, dizzy as she was.

"Stop that!" Mai said, "What have you done?"

"Take that back!" Katara demanded. "Keep your mouth shut and never talk about Toph that way again!" Katara's eyes burned with tears.

"You're insane!" Ratana hissed back, Nadhari holding her from lunging at Katara. "I'm just defending Prince Zuko! He was heartbroken, but Toph didn't care. She is a who-"

"Ratana," On Ji shrieked, "Stop saying that word!"

"Prince Zuko is a big boy. He doesn't need you to defend him," Katara said, finally wrenching free from Mai's fingers. "I'm not going to start something. I'm fine," she said, holding up her hands. She needed to wipe the blood away. Gingerly, she touched the side of her head and winced. Tender.

Katara turned to leave, and she heard Ratana mutter, "What a psycho. If Prince Zuko had any reason to keep her after her brother's fuck up, he won't now."

As soon as Katara closed her door, she