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Sokka grunted as he twisted the wrong way trying to worm out of the cramped rickshaw, deep throbs from his sides making him remember the bruises and twisted muscle left behind by Yakone's bloodbending. With some effort he clambered out, stepping onto the street-side and tossing a coin to the driver before he moved off.

It had only been a day or so since the damn bloodbender's brief escape attempt, and after only managing a few fitful hours of shuteye he had surfaced, ignoring his sister's many attempts to make him stay and speed along his full recovery.

He could take it. He had been through it before after their encounter with Hama all those years ago. A encounter he did not want to live through again. Sokka looked up at the sturdy building housing Toph's metalbenders and police officers.

As usual there was a flock of reporters and journalists hovering near the main entrance, trying and failing to get past the four metalbenders on guard duty. He couldn't help noticing how beefed up the patrols had become and how there seemed to be a few more airships in the sky than usual today. He couldn't blame them after what happened in City Hall.

"Councilman Sokka! Question if you can-" Suppressing a sigh, he put on a smile and loosened his posture as he approached the main doors and came in range of the nearby reporters. He came to a stop halfway up the steps and turned to them all.

"Councilman Sokka?-"

"Now, just hold on, everyone. I'm afraid I won't be able to answer your questions right now, but I will be holding a press release later today. Avatar Aang will be present as well. If I can tear him away from the temple, at least!" Sokka grinned at the group of reporters, their questions slowly dropping away and being replaced with quiet laughter and nods of agreement.

Slowly at first, the group of reporters began to disperse, moving away towards the streetside. waved at them as he turned and made his way up, stopping to greet the four metalbenders. One of them visibly relaxed, heaving a sigh of relief as light from the sun caught the twin golden bars on his pauldrons, signalling the rank of captain.

Sokka remembered Toph mentioning a few recent promotions. He had made it a point to know as many of the officers as possible. "Yun? Those reporters give you and your boys any grief?"

"No, sir. Actually, they had been keeping their distance until when you arrived."

"Huh." That was unusual for Republic City's reporters. News of Yakone being a bloodbender must have gotten out. Sokka sighed, knowing he and Aang could be faced with a panicking city soon. He needed to talk to Toph as soon as possible. "Is she in?"

"She's... she hasn't left." Yun said, saluting him as two of his officers pulled the doors open for Sokka. The young captain's face grew heavy. "Chief's been holed up in her office since yesterday."

Sokka stopped just as he cleared the door's threshold, looking down at the highly polished black metal floor. She hadn't even gone home to see Lin? "Okay. Keep it up, guys."

The four officers saluted him as he departed, stepping into the loud chaotic lobby, a line of metalbenders trudged towards him. Sokka quickly ducked out of their way, seeing the long line of armored men and women snake past for a few seconds before continuing towards the reception desk. A large crowd of people blocked him from reaching the exhausted clerks and interns behind it, answering the constantly ringing telegraphs and phones, handing out reports or directives to be delivered to patrols and generally trying to order the chaos.

One of the receptionists spotted him and immediately perked up, trying her best to look alert and awake as the crowd noticed him as well. All kinds of people were there. Refugee from the Earth Kingdom, immigrants from the Fire Nation and Water Tribes, current citizens of Republic City, all of them intensified their shouting as they parted for him, trying to get his attention while making way for him.

"Sir! We weren't expecting a visit, um... we're a little swamped at the moment-" The receptionist, a girl from the Fire Nation with short brown hair and yellow eyes, continued to babble along, until he smiled at her.

"I'm not here for any official stuff. Just here to check up on a friend. Is Chief Toph in a meeting right now?"

"N-no..." The girl looked at him, trying to block out the crowd's shouting and yelling. "She told me she isn't taking any visits. She's handling paperwork."

"Got it. Paperwork." He nearly shook his head, knowing she definitely never handled paperwork. "I'll be out of your hair." Sokka suddenly grinned, before he he turned and made his way through the people, excusing himself and trying not to step on anyone's toes or trip them over as he usually did.

Miraculously nobody had to be hospitalized as he broke through and went down the nearby hallway, before turning and going down another. Reaching its sharp bend, he stopped in front of a large pair of doors, more slabs of black iron than anything. He knocked on them with his knuckles, getting loud ringing noises in return.

They didn't move.

Sokka sighed as he reached over his shoulder, getting a grip on the handle of his space sword and pulling it free of the wolf-skin sheath. He balanced the flat of the blade on his palm, before shifting it forward so the tip slotted into the thin gap between the two halves. With a grunt he pushed on the handle, trying to jimmy the door open-

He yelped as they shot back into the walls, making his sword quiver as it dropped through the air before he managed to catch it. Breathing slightly he quickly fed the space sword back into its sheath and straightened, looking into the relatively sparse office.

The room itself was a warm brown color, with shades of green visible mainly on the cabinet hugging the wall and the benches lining the sides of the room. Dominating the room was a huge mahogany desk and behind it a woman looking out the only window in the room, her back to him.

The doors slid back into place behind him with a resounding ring.

Toph wasn't wearing her hair up like she usually did, resulting in it reaching down her back as a cascade of black tangles. It looked like she was holding something in her arms, but he couldn't tell from where he was. The councilman came to a stop before the desk. "You're not in uniform, chief."

"My office. My rules." the woman answered back.

He nodded, reminded of how petite she was when the armor wasn't covering her. "That's not setting a good example for your metalbenders."

"What do you want, Councilman?"

Sokka nearly smirked at the annoyed bite to her voice, remembering a couple of times when they were younger she had done the same thing. Often because of a bad joke he just made. "Just came to see how you're holding up."

"Everything's great. Yep. No riots. No-one making any trouble. Nothing me and my men can't handle. You can go now."

"Toph..." he moved around the desk, now able to see what she was holding. Her uniform, the dark metal plates glinted in the light from the window, as she ran one hand over its smooth surface. "Talk to me."

The woman's pale bare shoulders dropped as she glanced over her shoulder at where he stood, her milky green eyes settling straight on his own. "I couldn't do anything."

He didn't say anything, knowing that he had been thinking the same thing ever since Yakone had bloodbent him. He didn't know how but the creep paralyzed everyone at the proceedings and took off, he even managed to get Aang as well.

But Yakone didn't get far. Aang glowed it up and took him down. Took away his bending and stopped him from leaving the city. Saved everyone again.

But him and Toph... they couldn't do a thing. Couldn't lift a single finger without their entire bodies screaming in agony. Sokka recalled the cold fingers gripping his muscles, sending trembles through his entire body after he had passed the sentence.

Sokka closed his eyes for a moment, before looking at Toph, seeing hints of a growl on her features. "You did do something Toph. When he bloodbent me and the council-"

She rounded on him. "He controlled me. Got me to just hand the keys over to him!" Her eyes softened, and darted away with that look of utter shame. "I couldn't see anything, feel anything but what he did to me."

He was such an idiot. "Toph..." Sokka didn't know what he could do, knowing that any attempt he could try would just end up making things worse for her. She had always been so sure of herself that she never needed any help with picking herself up.

The blind earthbender's shoulders trembled as he heard her teeth grinding, most likely her attempt to stop herself from going any further. The councilman didn't hesitate for a second as he laid a hand on her shoulder. "I was just as helpless. So don't think you're alone in thinking like that. You don't need to beat yourself up over this."

"I couldn't even stop that snake. How can I protect this city- how can I protect Lin if there are more people like him in the world? Its just been me and her ever since he-"

"Hey. The past is past." Sokka's grip strengthened on her shoulder as his eyes narrowed for a few moments at the memory of that idiot. "Just focus on what you can do now... Chief Beifong."

Toph threw a heaved a breath as she looked at him askew, with the ghost of a smirk. "Way with the ladies, huh, meathead?"

Sokka raised a eyebrow at the return of her usual boisterous tone, before smiling to himself and turning to the metalbender chief with a wide grin. "One of my many qualities-" He yelped as her fist flew into his shoulder, impacting with the usual force of the woman's surprising muscle. He rubbed his shoulder and scowled. "Still with the punching?!"

"Affection. Remember?" The woman stuck her tongue out at him and sniggered at the pout on him. "Get going, Councilman. We've got our jobs to do."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, hooray..." he moved back around her desk towards the door.

"Hey, Sokka."

"Huh?" he turned around, immediately thinking he saw the faintest hint of a blush on the woman's cheeks.

"Thanks for the pep talk... wanna come by to see Lin and me later on?"

Again he didn't hesitate. He turned around and smiled at her, a little amused at the unsure way she asked.

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