Book Four: Air

IC: Azon

"No, they will not," replied Azon.

"If I am able to concentrate...people will only see me if I wish it."

He tilted his hooded head at her.

"Strange...if not Milady, what would you prefer?"

IC: Toph

"How about my name?" she said. "I do have one, you know. It's Toph."

She still wasn't sure about letting this guy hang around the mansion. There was just something off about him, and she hadn't needed for him to give her sight to know that. He almost made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end.

But at least this way she could keep a foot on him. She didn't want him vanishing again.

***

IC: Suki

"Well, that's good. It has been a while since you two had a chance to have some fun together," said Suki. She yawned, and added, "But now it's late, and I'm heading to bed. You probably should too, Sokka. The council meets again tomorrow."

***

OOC: Magus has give up Suki. I will take her up for now.

Sokka nodded and headed for his own room, "Good night, Suki."
With that said, he entered his room and flopped down on his bed, not bothering to change or tuck himself in under the covers. The Fire Nation still felt warm to him.

Wuong

"I do not know Fire Lord. I truly do not know. If neither of us can help contain this situation, the flames of war could spread more, and rise. Perhaps...the Avatar could pay a visit to the Fire Nation Colonies? The people there celebrate him as our hero, for stopping Ozai. It could be the thing we need to calm us all down." Wuong suggested. He truly did not want to resort to war, if at all possible. The colonies needed to be calmed down.

IC: Azon

"As you wish, Toph."

Azon bowed his head, his blindfolded eyes staring at the floor beneath him. Nothing appeared to be different, but Azon vanished from the sight of everyone but Toph.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

IC: Ozai

The explosion caused the Royal Guards to halt, the smoke rising beyond the line of houses. A few of them retracted closer to Mai, while a few left her to investigate the smoke. The darkened sky masked the hooded figures movements as he approached from behind.

The first guard was knocked aside before he could react, the others yelling in surprise and pushing Mai back. The hooded man rushed forward, parting the jets of fire that had been unleashed to halt him. When the jets stopped and he turned on his foot and send a quick blast into the chest of a guard.

He quickly grabbed the arm of one as he prepared to attack, throwing the guard over his shoulder and slamming him to the ground.

He quickly sidestepped the attack of another, smashing a fire covered fist into the armored helmet of his attacker. With a quick thrust of his foot out to his side, the final guard was thrown back in a burst of flame.

The hooded man now faced Mai alone, his smile barely seen from the darkness of his hood. He slowly tilted his head back so his orange eyes could be seen. Ozai looked pleased with Mai's now isolated position.

"Hello...my new daughter..."

IC: Toph

"There. That's better," she said. Toph crossed her arms. "Don't try anything funny now, mister. You'll be sorry if you do."

Some time passed in silence. The meeting inside Wuong's room--she had sensed Zuko inside--continued. Toph tried to stay awake, not only to find out what was going on but to follow through with her job, but it was late and she was tired. She began to nod off.

And then she was completely asleep.

***

IC: ?

"These things are pretty nasty. You sure we should...?"

"Ah, grow a pair. We're getting paid to do it, and the guy said this is the room. He wants the kid dead, and rat-vipers make nice little assassins."

"If you say so..."

They opened the door somewhat. Two forms slunk into the room beyond. One took to the shadows, while the other slid closer to the sleeping body.

Sokka.

***

IC: Mercenaries

"Well, well, now! Nice to see you lot again!"

Maku had finally arrived on Whale-Tail Island. He found his companions at one of the local restaurants, near the waterfront. Grinning at them, and patting a small bag slung over his shoulder, he joined them at the table.

"So? You seen our little earthbender yet? Find out anything?"

Sokka yawned a little as he turned in his sleep. Currently, he was dreaming that was on a beach with a beautiful girl. She looked familiar to him, but he just couldn't place who she was. It didn't matter to his dream self, however. He had just said something funny and they were both laughing. Unbeknownst to him, however, something was crawling on his chest.

IC: Rat-viper

The large snake had slithered its way up into the young man's bed. Almost silent hisses escaped it as it slipped forward. Moving up onto its prey's chest, it looked down on him with feral, deadly intent.

A forked tongue flicked the night air. Its mouth opened, revealing twin fangs dripping with venom.

It brought back its head.

"Sokka..." the dreamgirl told Sokka.
"Yes?" Sokka asked with a stupid grin.
She smacked him, "Wake up!!!!!!"
*
Sokka's eyes shot open just as the rat-viper was about to bite him. Instinctively, he turned over, avoiding the fangs. He turned over to his handstand and grabbed his sword, unsheathing it and lunging at the rat-vipers.

The rat-viper hissed and struck, only to miss its intended target. The creature, part rat, was able to react quickly and half-slither, half-scurry off the sheets before the young man could attack it. Once it was on the shadows of the floor, it struck again, this time aiming for his ankle.

The other slowly, silently, stalked the boy from afar.

Sokka cried out as he felt his ankle become pierced. He slashed at the rat viper that attacked him before leaning against the wall as the poison took its effect. He gripped his sword, knowing instinctively there was another danger in the room.

The remaining rat-viper could sense that its prey was in some trouble. It slunk past its dead companion, its forked tongue testing the air. It kept to the shadows at it slipped closer and closer to the young man.

It had not been trained, but it was still a deadly, intelligent beast.

Without warning, it darted out from the dark. It aimed for the young man's leg.

Sokka grunted as he closed his eyes like Piando taught him to do in this situation. When he heard a noise, he slashed his sword at the the animal, slicing it in two. He grinned a little. Thank the Spirits for his training. He grunted, however, as he fell to the floor, the poison spreading.
He sighed and was surprised to find himself whispering a familiar name in a plea for help, "Toph..."

IC: Toph

She had been dreaming about something or other. Toph thought it might be a nightmare. She was sweating and shaking a little, and she couldn't help but feel a clammy hand in hers as she hung over nothingness. Screeching metal sounded all around her, as did the roar of fire, so much fire...

And then she started awake.

"Something's wrong," she said. She knew it, without knowing exactly why.

Toph spread her senses outward. So far, there was nothing out of the ordinary. People were either asleep or in their rooms at this time of night. It was quiet.

But then her earth-sight touched Sokka's room. She felt him on the floor.

His heart was beating much too fast to be healthy.

"Sokka's in trouble!" she shouted, loud enough so that others could hear.

Toph did not wait for them to react. She left her post, again, and ran for Sokka's room. It was on the second floor too, so she did not have far to go. She barged into his room. Her bare foot brushed what felt like a dead animal.

She ignored it.

"Sokka!" She found him laying on the floor. He did not sound so good, either. Her stomach turned. "Sokka," she repeated, a hand coming to his shoulder. "Sokka, what happened?"

Sokka felt his vision blur as he heard someone approach him. He fought to stay awake, however. He knew that if he fell asleep, it would be likely that he'd die. He looked up and felt himself a smile a little when he saw it was Toph. He murmured, "Something bit me... Two rodent-things got in here..."

IC: Azon

"Poison," replied Azon.

He was standing next to Toph, suddenly in her and Sokka's sight, looking down at Sokka through the darkness of his hood, his head tilted as if he were an interesting side show.

"From the corpse, I'd say it was a Rat-Viper. Very potent, very deadly, and can not be removed by Waterbenders. This is quite a problem, Milord."

He kneeled down beside Toph, his voice was so calm, as if Sokka dying did not stur any sort of feeling within him.

"What to do, what to do..."

He examined Sokka with interest.

"From what I can see, the poison is spreading towards his heart; I'm afraid my friend, you'll be dead very soon. Perhaps I should..."

He brought a hand towards Sokka, but stopped halfway, and brought it back.

"No...I rarely see death such as this...it would be a waste to stop it."

"Two rodent things?" she said, confused.

Toph could sense the corpses of the animals, whatever they were. She returned her attention to Sokka.

"Don't worry, they're dead now. You killed them, Sokka."

But how had they got in here in the first place?

He sounded so weak. His heartbeat was weak, and his breathing harsh. It terrified Toph. She grabbed his face with both her hands.

"Stay with me, you idiot. If you die, I'll just come into the Spirit World after you and kill you myself. So stay with me, okay?"

Where was everybody!?

And then the weird guy was there. Toph barely listened to him, as he talked on and on about this and that, but when he held back from helping Sokka...

She exploded.

Toph slammed a fist into the man's face.

"Save him!" she screamed. "You can do that, can't you!? So why don't you save him, dammit!? Please, help him!"

Sokka smiled a little, happy that Toph cared for him. This time, when he felt pain spread through his body, he didn't grunt. He was paralyzed. I don't want to die, he thought tiredly.

IC: Azon

Azon took the hit on his cheek; he brought his hand up and carefully removed Toph's fist.

"Calm yourself, Milady, Toph. Death is a simple thing; too simple to waste your anger."

He tilted his head again, this time however, looking at Toph.

"But...please?"

He slowly reached over, taking Toph's hand and placing it upon Sokka's chest.

"Keep your hand here..."

Gently, Azon covered Toph's with his own, a blinding green light came to life on Sokka's chest.

"All life is connected, Milady."

Azon's voice echoed in her head as the light quickly filled Sokka's body, pouring from his mouth and eye sockets. And then it was gone, and the tired sensation of running several miles was suddenly placed on Toph. Azon removed his hand and tilted his head at Sokka.

"There we are Milord..."

Toph felt exhausted, as if she had done a very hard workout and then some. What had this man done to her and, more importantly, to Sokka? Had he been able to save him? Was this weakness she now felt... Had she helped in the healing, somehow?

She didn't understand.

"Sokka...?" she tried, hopefully. Right now, she was too worried about him to care whether or not he saw how scared she was, or the threat of tears that welled in her eyes. "Are you... Can you here me?"

For a moment, Sokka's heart had stopped beating. It was a curious thing. It felt as though he was about to cross over, but then, he felt a tingling sensation in his chest. It felt warm. He opened his eyes and frowned when he saw that there were tears in Toph's eyes. He murmured, "Yeah. Are you okay?"

Zuko

"Yes, I think that's the only route we can take," Zuko said. "Aang has to be able to calm them down, talk to them, explain the situation. He seemed upset by the news anyway." He looked over at Wuong and said, "I appreciate your attempts to help things peacefully. I wasn't sure if we could after the meeting today, but I'm glad I can work things out with someone willing to compromise."

((Just putting up an OC application, was accepted.
NAME: The Master and Mouthpiece (AKA: Tysho)
AGE: 40
APPEARANCE: Black hair that goes down to their necks, in a topknot. They wear simple Fire Nation robes and shoes. The Master usually looks stoic and impassive while the Mouthpiece usually has an emotion on his face.
PERSONALITY: The Master is virtually a weapon, he's trained to master his chosen arts with care, with no emotion of any kind. The Mouthpiece has all the emotion and talks for both of them. The Master is merciless but works with morals and restrictions, while the Mouthpiece is generally kind and gentle, but can get quite angry and moody.
HISTORY: Tysho was only supposed to be one person, but he was born as Fire Nation twins, and the two bodies share one brain. Early on they tried to lead two different lives, but it didn't work too well, as they would often do things that were either innappropriate or irrelevant to their current situation. They came to an understanding, The Master would handle their physical actions and duties, such as mastering Firebending and sword fighting, while the Mouthpiece would take care of the social situations of the two. Simply stated, if you need one to do anything physical, The Master is the one to go to, while anything that has to do with social situations would be handled best by the Mouthpiece. They even have a slightly disturbing ability to switch bodies between them, letting them more easily handle situations that arise.
BENDER (if applicable): Firebender
WEAPONRY (if applicable): A big two-handed sword.))

Tysho

"Trouble in paradise, it would appear," one of two men walking down a road stated. In this colonial town, there had recently been a riot, and there had been casualties. "Such a shame, ignorance really is man's worst enemy," he said, while his counterpart nodded. "Though I do say, they have a right to be angry. Too bad they can't see past it, move on to help rebuild instead of running from the problem."

A sigh of relief escaped Toph. She actually laughed, almost hysterically, and scrubbed away the tears she felt building up in her eyes. She hated crying, and most of all in herself.

"Of course I'm okay!" she said. "Why wouldn't I be?" And then, without any warning whatsoever, she punched him in the shoulder. "And don't you dare scare me like that again!"

It had worked. Whatever the stranger had done, it had worked!

"What? No hug?" Sokka whined with a grin, knowing that Toph was glad to see him, "I almost died and I'm greeted with a punch?!" He crossed his arms, "What happened to girls nursing a wounded warrior to health?"

IC: Azon

"She saved your life," said Azon.

"I think, Milord, that is nursing enough."

He stood from his place beside Toph, walking over to the corpse of the Rat-Viper. He reached down, picking it up and tuning it over in his hands. Several guards were now reaching the room, the commotion of Toph's yelling enough to alert them.

They ran past Azon as if he was not there.