Dawn of a New Prince (Star Wars/Avatar Crossover)

Mara

"Are you sure that is....wise? Seeing such a thing would startle them, no doubt." Mara mused. "Then again...seeing the look on that oaf's face would be quite entertaining. Very well, then."

Mara fished out a small pad from her pocket and keyed in a series of commands. Five minutes later, a distant noise was heard as Mara's starship flew to them. It arrived a minute later and made a smooth landing near an empty area, not too far away from Mara and Zareal. A docking hatch then extended from the bottom of the craft.

Toph laughed. "A man after my own heart," she said, patting him affectionately on the chest. It took her a moment to realize this, and when she did she blushed a little. "Well, um... I never did get to finish my breakfast. Wanna go back to the Temple?"

She heard something loud. It made her ears pop.

"What was that?"

Zareal

"There's the possibility they will see something similar anyway," Zareal said, and waited for the ship to arrive. When it did, it settled close to them and the bay door closed. The Jedi was glad to have his saber back, he did know there was the possibility this was a trap, by Mara or Vader's doing.

Sokka grinned at Toph, blushing but pleased with the compliment physical content. He looked up and felt his jaw drop at his first sight of a spaceship.

"It's-it's some sort of... flying machine!" he exclaimed, drawing his blaster and aiming at the ship.

Toph felt her breath leave her. "A flying machine?" she said. Her first thought was Fire Nation. Weren't they good at that sort of thing? Then she remembered Vader and the technology he and his soldiers had. She shuddered without meaning to. "Is it attacking?"

Mara

Mara snapped her head toward Sokka and scowled at him. She held out her hand and the blaster he held easily flew away from his grasp and settled into her out-stretched palm. Mara stared at him one more time before pocketing the weapon away.

"Be careful, boy. This isn't a toy."

She looked over to her ship and nodded approvingly when its loading ramp opened up automatically. Mara motioned for Zareal to go ahead and get in.

"Hey!"

Toph couldn't see, but she still knew Mara had done something to Sokka's weapon. His stance and weight were different, and she had obviously mentioned it.

"That's Sokka's!"

"Hey!" Sokka exclaimed exactly at the same time as Toph, indignant at how Mara so easily took his weapon away, the only real weapon he could use to defend the others, "I'm not a boy, I'm warrior! And I know how to use a weapon!"

He looked surprised at Toph's outburst, but grateful. He smiled a little at her before glaring at Mara.

Mara

"You may know how to wield your primitive swords and clubs, but this is a deadly weapon in which you've had no training in. If this blaster is wielded efficiently, it can kill a man with a single shot. You're more likely to burn your own foot off, or injure one of us. I, on the other hand, have been trained to use this weapon in the event of an emergency. Thus, it belongs to me now." Mara retorted.

Sokka scowled, obviously not convinced. He crossed his arms, "I used it just fine to break us out when Vader had us locked up and you were useless! And a club and a sword is just as dangerous so I'm not going to blast any of my friends! You have your freaky powers, I deserve to use what I found!"

Zareal

"It's for the best Sokka, maybe you can be trained to weild a blaster someday, but for now it's better to use what we have efficiently," Zareal said, sympatheticly. He boarded the ship, waiting for Mara to come along.

Toph swelled with rage, and for Sokka's sake.

"How dare you talk to him like that!" she snarled, charging forward to glare at the woman. She didn't care she only had one arm now; she'd beat this bitch down if she had to. "Sokka has been using it just fine. And maybe he hasn't had training. That just means he's loads smarter than you dumbasses who need to be taught how to aim like little babies!"

"Exactly!" Sokka yelled, heartened by Toph's support. He shifted his eyes to Zarael, frowning. He didn't expect the Jedi to agree with Mara. He was clearly good and not annoyingly arrogant like the woman, "You can't agree with her! I've been trained just as well as you or her!"

Zareal

"I'm not saying you're incompetent Sokka. I'm saying that Mara can use this weapon more effectively. It's not a matter of training in general, it's a matter of training in that specific weapon. Do you know every subtle nuance of this type of weapon? It's recoil, how many shots you can use in one charge, the difference in angles," Zareal asked him.

Mara

"Watch your tongue, girl." Mara hissed. She smirked, though, as a new thought occurred to her. "Perhaps you tell the truth. That oaf over there might be able to use a blaster without injuring himself....much....but what can you do? You can't exactly wield a weapon you cannot even aim properly. You have your earthbending, yes, but it's child's play compared to what Zareal, Vader, and I can do. Not to mention you're blind, too. You wouldn't be able to see a lightsaber coming your way at all. Nor a shot from a blaster. You're practically a sitting duck in the battlefield."

Jade held out her left hand and used the Force to lift Toph off of the ground a few feet. "And once your 'sight' is taken away from you, you truly become blind. In reality, you are the weakest member among your group, in a fight against Vader. The bald boy and the other girl have useful bending skills. Even that oaf might be a good use for a distraction. But you...well, you're quite easy to defeat.

"A thrown lightsaber could easily plunge into your chest, and you wouldn't know it was coming until you were already dead. Take away your other 'sight' and you become as helpless as a new-born pup."

The Emperor's Hand let Toph go and turned away, not bothering to look back at her as she went toward her ship.

Toph scowled. Her face burned with shame.

She might once have retorted with some witty, cutting remark of her own, but as it was now she was lost for words. The bitch had only voiced what she had been afraid of since the encounter with Vader in Ba Sing Se.

That she was worthless and in the way, helpless and unabel to protect her new family.

Her arm suddenly ached, only adding to the insecurity that had plagued her for days now. She held her maimed arm close.

"I'm not useless..."

Sokka grimaced, hating himself for not having a rebuttal for Zarael's words. It was what Mara was saying and doing that made him see red, however.

"Shut up! Toph has been one of the strongest members of our group since she joined us! She learned to see when others would have just given up and her bending make the Dai Li look like little kids! You have no right to talk to her like that!" he yelled, his face red and his fists clenched.

"I know I'd rather have her by my side in battle than a old hag like you!" he finished, throwing a boomerang at the back of the woman's head.

Mara

Just before the boomerang connected with Mara's head, she twisted around and in a flash sliced the boomerang into two with her lightsaber. She paused to glare at Sokka once before going back to her ship and entering it. Mara entered the cockpit wordlessly, ignoring Zareal for the moment, and closed the landing pad. A moment later the starship hovered into the air and zoomed away from the temple.

"My father gave me that," Sokka said weakly, quickly picking up the two pieces of his most prized possession, the one thing his father gave him to remember him by before he joined the War.

"I change my mind. We should be watching her," he muttered, hating the fact that the woman would return soon.

"When she comes back, at least." Toph sighed, still shaken. "With allies like her..."

She could feel the sorrow radiating off Sokka. The boomerang had been a gift from his father? Toph knew how much Sokka looked up to his father, and could guess at just how dear he had held the prized weapon for that fact.

Anger replaced the self-pity that she had been drowning in for a few moments. It had been special to him, and Mara had destroyed it.

A thought came to her.

"I could fix it. Um, well, try to, anyway," she said, slowly, meekly. "If you want me to, Sokka."

Zareal

Zareal fixed Mara with a dissapointed stare from her entry to the ship until they were flying away from the temple. "Are you proud of yourself? You humiliated a young girl who's had her arm cut off recently. Instead of trying to help your allies, do you always cut them down?"

Sokka looked up, his eyes staring hopefully in her pale, blind ones. He handed the pieces to her carefully, as if they were made of glass, "You could do it?"

There was no skepticism in his voice. After all, if Toph could fix it, he wouldn't complain and if anyone could bend metal, Toph could. It was mined from the ground, right? So it should count as earth.

"It's made out of some kind of metal, right?" Toph spared a small smile. "I can bend that now, remember? And I've been practicing a little, while we've been here. So... I can try. I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but..." She held the pieces close and gently. "No. I will do it."

She wouldn't quit until the boomerang was fixed.

"Just give me a minute, okay?"

Toph set the pieces on the ground and sat down. She arranged the pieces into the shape of his boomerang. She set her hand against the break and concentrated, willing the pieces to form back together into one entity.

Sokka sat down next to Toph, careful to be as quiet as he could, watching her pull the pices together. His mouth dropped slightly. The metal looked like it was changing. He leaned forward hopefully.

For the moment, Toph was in her own world. She kept her focus on the bending set before her. The pieces slowly but surely responded to her call. They drifted together and melded together, forming together as one again.

She finally took a breath. She checked her work. It was firm and steady, though she could tell where the break had been.

"That should do it." She handed the boomerang to Sokka. "Want to give it a try?"

She hoped it worked, for Sokka's sake.