Chapter Text
AANG
He joined the mass of evacuating craftsmen and carpenters out of the working area, running towards the crumbling mouth of the cave, and into the light of the stormy afternoon.
A spy had been reported residing in their workplace and, as usual, the Fire Nation had pinned down the issue with their common response when it came to rebellion in their colonies. Simply, burning everything into ashes by any means. In this case, they had exploded the foundation of the structure inside along with the caveʼs. Never mind the people decently working. A person had been reported. The rest of the two hundred were easy collateral.
He was one of the first fifty people to see the mouth of the cave. He had sensed the upcoming danger ever since the rumor about rebellion had spread the other day. He had felt it under his skin, seeping into his bone. The familiar scent of a residing threat. The familiar stink of death. Thus, when he had spotted the presence of the military in red that day, just before the explosion occurred, just before they fry the rumored man into crisp, quick on his heels, he had bolted into the exit.
“RUN!” he had screamed mentally, but didnʼt bother voicing it out or even warning the others, because alerting the very men in uniform was more frightening.
And so, there he was, a few paces away from the light with a little less than two hundred people behind him. Most of those people would probably be buried deep in the crumbling cave. There was little time.
He so wanted to stop on his heels and help them like he used to, when he was still playing the legendary savior they were once calling him. But, he couldnʼt anymore. Gone were the days he could. Now, he was merely a person who could only run and hide.
So, once again, as he always did for the past five years, he closed his eyes and swallowed down his guilt, down along with the other forgotten regrets accumulated in his stomach. Someday, for sure, he would vomit with bile, blood, ashes, and mud. This fact, he knew. But, for the meantime, he ran. Self-preservation at its finest. He didnʼt even know why he wanted to self preserve after everything he had done and was doing. Shameless and pathetic. How the hell did he become this low? Ah, he knew damn well how.
Looking up ahead, he noticed everyone else was running towards the exit, but one. There was a lone figure in the middle of the path, not too far but also not too close to the mouth. She, because there were curves along the outline of the figure, was in an earthbending stance. Both of her arms were raised up, her hands were in a tight grip, holding a large pillar, keeping the cave from crumbling down as it would naturally, as her bare feet were anchored deeply into the ground.
She was shouting through the running crowd, her back against the exit, “HURRY UP! GO! GET OUT OF HERE!!!”
Clearly an earthbender. How the hell an earthbender was in this nonbending town? A foreign one, the least. Ah, the rumor. They said a spy, who was now in crisp and so dead inside, had infiltrated the town to secretly recruit earthbenders in hiding, ones which were now fighting the military men inside. This one, the female earthbender, must be one of his comrades, one of the rumored rebel troops, perhaps. Well, where were the rest? She wasnʼt the only one coming, was she?
He stopped from running. First, because she was doing a magnificent job keeping the cave from crumbling down. It would take a team of ten to hold much, but she was alone. Second, she seemed like she was waiting for everyone to get out of the cave before breaking her stance. But, it was clear, with the cave still collapsing, she wouldnʼt be able to save everyone unless she had intentions of burying herself after the last batch of people. It was suicidal. Third, she seemed familiar.
A close good friend from five years ago.
Her long black hair was all tied up in a bun. Her long bangs were loosely hanging before her creamy eyes. Blind. Except for a few strands that were brushed up with an elegant jade pin, a golden ring around her earthbending finger, her height, and more mature features, she was all the same.
Toph Bei Fong was all the same.
“Hey, you!” she barked, her head tipped towards his general direction, and he snapped out. “Why did you stop?”
He found himself frozen and speechless. He couldnʼt talk. He didnʼt want to in fear that she would pick up the familiar voice from the past despite the changes of adolescence. After what he had done and what he had become, he didnʼt want her to recognize him. He had no guts to face her, and everyone. Why else was he hiding? But, had she already recognized him? Afterall, she had more than eyes with her, better and more precise, to identify people.
“HEY, YOU!” she shouted at him, loudlier this time. She kept calling him 'you'. She must have not yet recognized him. “I asked you, why did you stop?! Do you want to help or do you only want to stare and stand there like an idiot?!”
There was evident rage in her speech, but it could have been because of the recent assassination of her comrade, or the presently collapsing cave, or both. Nonetheless, she was glaring his way. He felt like he needed to say something, anything, or she would trap him in the cave.
He stammered, “I… I was just…” Damn. His voice was so different, and so wrong.
“What?!” she snapped impatiently. But, he zipped his mouth. He didnʼt know what to say, to be honest.
It appeared she recognized his resignation. For a moment her facial expression shook, crumbled, as if she was about to burst, but then, she paused and turned her head away from him, back at the giant pillar in her grip. She mumbled, heavy tone, “Leave.”
Confused, he blurted, “What?”
“Leave now.”
“But, you —”
“You donʼt want to help.” Not a question, but a statement. She had read through his vibrations, his heart, his breathing, like she always did. Before. But, this time, she was wrong.
He felt somewhat misunderstood. Insulted. Did he even have the rights to? Nonetheless, he spat, defending himself, “It is not that I donʼt! I CANʼT!”
But, Toph only scoffed, “No, you just donʼt.”
“You donʼt understand —”
“SHUT IT NOW, AVATAR!” Not his name. Not his nickname. But, his title. His long lost title. Of course, she had recognized him all along. His back shot up straight. His eyes widened like an owlʼs. He felt so small under her scrutinous glare, an insect rather, a vermin, and she wasnʼt even looking at him. She was blind, for goodnessʼs sake! He wanted to shrink, to turn into bubbles and burst, and disappear. All gone. But, somehow, his legs were refusing to move. Perhaps, from too much embarrassment. He could only cower in shame in front of her.
Sensing he was not moving at all and still standing there like an idiot, Tophʼs jaw clenched. She barked at him once more, “CANʼT YOU SEE I HAVE A WHOLE CAVE AND A MOUNTAIN TO KEEP FROM COLLAPSING?! YOU ARE NOT HELPING, SO LEAVE!!!”
He tried, her name rolling off his tongue, “T-Toph —”
“GO AWAY!”
His rough edges and stiffness resigned. He told her softly, “Youʼll die.”
He was scared for her, extremely terrified of her inevitable death if she were to stay a little longer, and that was the truth.
But, she retorted simply, “I donʼt care.” No hesitance. No fear. No self-preservation.
He remembered the heavenly delicately-looking girl in the swamp, the fierceful earthbender in the middle of the ring, greatest of all, his master, his companion, his friend. He remembered her teaching him how to anchor himself to earth, be stubborn and firm, and face his battles head on. She was a great teacher because she surely lived to her own teachings. That moment, he realized that her definition of facing battles head on extended up to Death. If it was inevitable, so be it.
He had failed to live up to her teachings, as basic as those principles were, just as he had failed countless others.
But, he still cared for her and so, he followed another try, begging her, “Toph, I donʼt want you to die. Please…”
She whipped her head back at him, “And, you want those people to die?” There was deep accusation in her tone, which he responded with a leap from his heart and silence. They were equally surprised by the answer he did not need to voice out. His heart was beating it out loud. He didn't exactly want them to die, but the answer was close and thus, the same.
Disbelief and disgust were crystal clear when she spat, “You worked with them! For years!” Yes, but —
No. He had been hiding, and so he had been distancing himself from anyone. Not talking. Not befriending even one soul. He had alienated himself so much, he had been completely unattached. He had lived a lonely, pitiful life. Clearly, Toph was far more important, his current priority, but she didnʼt know those things. Also, being completely distant was never a reason. They were people after all.
Toph seethed, “HOW COULD YOU?!” He was then reminded that the green color was also associated with disgust.
The way she looked at him now, blind eyes narrowed in contempt, like he didnʼt deserve anything, even the air around him. All of a sudden he couldnʼt breathe.
From then on, everything went blur. In his floaty losing head, he could hear her add — You are a horrible person, Avatar! He had never felt so dreadful and so belittled in his miserable hundred seventeen life. He hated himself more than ever.
“Iʼm sorry…”
.
.
.
.
There was a blinding light.