I am closing in on the finish line. Trying to get this and one other story done before Law School starts next month. One more chapter here, maybe 4-5 on the other story. You should go read it - Lives We Touch - it's far more mushy and drama-ish, not as exciting, but it's fun to write.

Anyways, I'm glad people are enjoying this story. It's almost done. Please review, just to let me know you exist and this kinda stuff is being seen (even if you hate it).

Still don't own any of it.

"Hmm.. So, why are we all gathered around watching this all of a sudden?"

Kyoshi looked briefly at Aang. "Because our part is coming up soon. I haven't gotten to do anything this fun since you were twelve, Aang."

"Alright, Jung, looks like it's that building over there that's keeping Toph. I want you to fly both of us to the front entrance. Katara and Zuko will take out the guards trying to get in through that wall." Sokka gestured towards the small building next to the palace. Guards were flocking to it from both sides.

Jung told Sokka to grab on tight. "And you guys be careful! Nobody gets hurt but Water Tribe here." Sokka scowled at her. "Northern Water Tribe, Sokka!"

With that Jung took to the air to get around to the front entrance of the building. Katara and Zuko heard a loud and heavy thump from the doorway the group just exited as Da Shan bent the earth behind it to seal the door closed.

"Alright, you want to get their attention, or should I?"

Zuko looked to Katara. "I think I got that part handled."

A wall of fire arose in the same place that had previously been a wall of ice forming the back of Toph's cell. The soldiers that had not made it into the cell yet turned to see a very unwelcome sight. Water whips and tentacles began to lash in Zuko's direction. The first wave was stopped by Katara as she effortlessly redirected the watery assault away from her friend. Zuko found time to send a wave of flame through the crowd of guards and soldiers thanks to Katara's defensive move. A quick tidal wave washed the guards away, allowing both Katara and Zuko to get into the cell behind Toph. The dstruction they found there struck them instantly and they froze up for a moment. Toph, not being able to "see" in the snow swung her weapon around quickly at the intruders behind her. Katara dropped to the ground, pulling Zuko with her.

"We're the good guys back here! Keep that thing in front of you from now on!"

The heart shaped chunk of metal slammed hard into the temple of another water tribe guard. "You're late! Where the hell have you been?"

Katara got up quickly and bent an ice wall back into place momentarily, to stop the assault coming at the three friends. As soon as Zuko was up, he got back to his fighting stance.

"Alright, Katara, drop the wall. We've got to get out of here."

"Nice battle-cry you have there, ponytail." Jung landed at the front entrance and immediately rushed forward, staff bared, striking down soldiers heading for the prison's front door. There was something about her form that reminded Sokka of watching Zuko spar, or the Fire Nation soldiers from the Hundred Year War.

Sokka reached for his sword and started in on his own assault. "Thank you for noticing! Most people would think it was a cry of fear!"

"I was kidding, you sounded like you saw that moose-lion again while we were flying here, Sokka. I'm going to have bruises across my back now!" A water-tribe soldier, lifted by a gust of air, flew out of the prison entrance and past Sokka's face.

Sokka took the rear, guarding against any further influx of soldiers from behind. "Duck!" he screamed. They both dropped to the ground as a water-whip zoomed over head. Getting up with a big whirling motion of her staff, Jung created a gust of wind to fling the water-bender against the side of the hall. With another sweep, he was sent, unconscious, into three more soldiers behind him. Jung took up a standard airbending stance. "So, you think you can not mention my battle-cry to Suki when –"

"Jump!" Jung leaped up to avoid a low-flying water tentacle. In mid-air she unleashed a gale in front of her, clearing the remaining soldiers to the far wall in a pile.

A scream was let out behind her. Turning around, Jung found Sokka lying on the ground holding tight to his left leg.

"Crap! We have to move fast, Sokka, hold on to my shoulders." Sokka placed his arm around her neck, and a gust of wind picked up behind the two, carrying them to Toph's cell. "Guys, let's get out of here! Sokka needs help!"

"Yeah, I heard his 'battle-cry' from in here. Let's move! Out the back guys." Toph turned to the back wall as she was saying this. Katara melted it away as Zuko performed a spinning kick, shooting a wave of fire at the water-tribe soldiers.

"Sokka, lean on Toph for one second."

The guards remaining after the wave of fire kept coming forward. Once Sokka's weight was off of Jung's shoulders, the teen started making large circular motions with her arms. A barrier of air quickly built up between the friends and the soldiers closing in on them. With one final, leaping pirouette, Jung shot her arms forward, forcing the barrier to release with enough force to the two dozen soldiers around them off the ground and fling them back fifty yards.

Jung leaned over, close to her mom's ear to whisper, "Eighty-five."

The guards had fled his room a while ago. Darru walked slowly to his front door to make sure they weren't just hiding, waiting for him to waterbend so they could punish him again. When he noticed they weren't there, he started practicing. He had been wanting to for so long, but he was never allowed. First thing he did was reinforce the door to his room. He didn't want anybody getting in without Darru being warned of it.

There was a lot of screaming and yelling outside. Darru bent the wall away so he could see. He had been moved to a room on the second floor, but he could see all sorts of guards and water-tribe soldiers in the back of Toph's cell. Then there were others. Not soldiers this time. They were dressed differently… really differently. There was one woman in blue, sort of similar to their own dresses that Darru had seen, but somehow more exposing, and more open. There was a man in blue also, with a weird pony-tail, then a guy dressed in red and black, and a girl in orange and yellow with bright blue tattoos and… is she flying? Yes, that one's flying!

Darru, was in love.

He wanted to fly. And the new people were beating up all the guards that Darru hated so much. The same guards that kept him in his room. The same guards that wouldn't let him talk to the ocean spirit that taught him how to move water, or Toph, who taught him what friends were. From his room, now without a wall, he looked down, and he occasionally bent the water to make the guards feet sink into the snow, or slip out from under them.

The new people were amazing. It reminded Darru of the stories that Toph used to tell him. The big waves of fire that the guy in red shot everywhere, were just like the stories of Sparky. The grace and effortlessness of the girl waterbender looked like how he imagined Sugar Queen to move. Then there was the girl with the tattoos and the big staff… The girl that could fly… She had to be Fancy Feet. Nobody else ever could be that amazing, and that's exactly how Toph always described her: The most amazing girl in the world... well, aside from Toph.

Then, suddenly, as Toph and her friends were leaving her room, the building collapsed. Guards rushed at them as Toph, the flying girl and the guy with the pony-tail were buried under snow. Darru had to help his friend. His only friend in the world. He jumped from his second-floor room, moving the snow below him into ice, easily skating across it to stop in front of Toph, as she lay on the ground, face down.

"Get them! Now!"

Just before Darru could reach his friend, a water whip shot towards Toph's face. Then there was a scream. Then there was nothing.

The final water whip stopped right next to Toph's cheek. Sokka kept screaming, but the water whip didn't move. Nothing moved. Then they noticed the winds, the flames, the water and the glowing… especially the glowing… coming from a small boy, not 10 feet away from them all, riding on a path of ice. The waves of water rushing around the boy expanded further, and the boy floated higher into the air. The circling tides reached out to envelope the entirety of the prison standing behind him. The waves moved away, exposing nothing but the prisoners that had been held inside, and the guards, still unconscious or dead, lying amongst the snow.

Then the circling waves reached out towards the palace. A great dome formed over the building, then crashed down, and returned to the floating, glowing Avatar. The palace, however, was no longer there. Only a pile of confused bureaucrats and posh furniture.

Finally, the snow under the feet of the embattled Norther Water Tribe warriors, lifted up and swept away all of them into the nearest canal, freezing them inside.

As the circling flames and waves and gusts of wind started to subside, and the diminutive boy sank, unconscious, back to the snow beneath him, Toph reached out. She didn't know how, but she knew exactly where to reach to catch him in her arms.

"Sokka, back around my shoulder, mom, give me your hand. Let's get out of here."

"How's that leg, Sokka?" Katara yelled back from in front of them.

"I don't…" Sokka didn't have the energy to finish. He was losing blood fast. "I."

"Back to the oasis! Fast! You can stop the bleeding when we get on Appa and get out of here!"

"By the way, sweety." Jung didn't slow down, but listened intently to her mother's voice. "Fifty-two. I taught you well."