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Epilogue: Between Two Doors.
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    • Epilogue: Between Two Doors


    She had a backpack almost ready from the camping trip. She had planned many parts of it, and then done something cowardly and not thought about it. She took each step as a piece, as a shattered bit of a stone puzzle, and she had not 'looked' at what she was assembling for fear that she'd see all the cracks.

    She'd been lying to herself, and she hated to think of it now, just as she hated to think of that dream. It had been so normal, it had been exactly what it would be like. She wasn't stupid, the whole of the world would not collapse if Azula wasn't in it. Life would go on. And yet.

    And yet Toph packed the backpack she'd gotten along with important camping skills and considered what she was taking. Everything she could. She even had another bag because she knew there were things Azula would want to take even though it didn't make sense: some of the books, some of her writing, maybe even that stupid joke candle she got her. Or maybe she wouldn't want them.

    Toph had a plan. The plan kicked ass. The first step was to steal Zuko's boat and reach the Earth Kingdom. Okay, that wasn't really the first step so much as the end of the first set of steps. But she could do it.

    She'd spent most of the last year and a half stuck in place. Sure she got a lot of training, and once she met Azula it was even better… but she hadn't really been fighting people she'd been sparring with them.

    She hadn't really been risking her life and her safety, she'd just been playing around in the mud. She liked playing around in the mud a lot! It was one of her favorite activities. But the thought of finally cutting loose, to hold literally nothing back even if it meant she had to cut loose everything else she had… it filled her with an odd sort of thrill. Her limbs felt unburdened, her heart felt light. It felt as if, no matter what she was about to inflict on those stupid guards and well-meaning but wrong Zuzu, it would be good, it would be right, and more importantly than both of those combined: it would be fun!

    She liked kicking people's butts. She liked getting the better of people who looked down on her. She nodded to herself and slipped the backpack on. It'd be an added difficulty, as would the ache in her limbs and head. She was still "hungover" but whatever. Alcohol sucked! She was never drinking again! She'd only drank to try to trick Zuko into getting drunk!

    She reminded herself of this as she lurched forward and stopped for a moment to try to center herself. She knew how to meditate, and it was in moments like these that it was especially important to center herself. Yet when she did, she did not feel any different: she'd made her decision. It was the right decision.

    Zuko and Aang and Katara and Sokka wouldn't understand yet, but this was the right thing. She also just wanted to do it even if it was wrong. But this was the right way to go about things.

    (And who knew, maybe she'd get her life-changing field trip.)

    Toph stomped once, just to get in the right mood, and noticed that her lips were curled up into a smile. She nodded and stalked out into the gloom of the early morning. She could sense people for huge distances all around, and she made sure not to be seen. But she wasn't afraid. She knew she was taking on the world, and that only made her feel more free. The character she made up for Azula's little story ended it alone and exhausted and tired and victorious and sure to lose against impossible odds. That's because he wasn't even half as good as her.

    Azula had said something about how supposedly characters are supposed to be complex and flawed, and so she'd made sure that he sometimes made mistakes in his bending--which was basically what she was talking about, right? It's not as if she gave her character flaws!

    Toph couldn't help that her grin, the one she felt stretching her face, turned somehow softer.

    She remembered the thought: Azula, between two doors, was her best friend. Azula had never seen Toph smile. Toph didn't care about what someone 'saw.' She'd done just fine without that, she didn't really regret that she'd never 'see' Azula's smug grin… at least a few people had described it, mostly as an insult.

    Any other day, perhaps even tomorrow, she'll be worried about whether they were still as good of friends when you removed it, when it was not 'between two doors.' But she couldn't let herself worry about that, not when she felt so free. She was not an Airbender, she did not like floating weightless above the earth. But there was a feeling of weightlessness, as if everything she did was smooth and perfect, that left her in a good mood despite everything.

    Nobody saw her, as far as she could tell. She made her way through the palace, which was surprisingly empty. Must be all the people sleeping off their drinks! Toph sniggered to herself and cracked her knuckles, and even stretched a little bit. She was standing in front of the entrance to this part of the cells. There were other cells nearby, but none of them were occupied or nearly as well protected. Nobody wanted her to be close to prisoners, in case she broke out and, what, recruited them?

    Everyone, Zuzu included, didn't get Azula at all!

    Was she dangerous? Yeah. She was dangerous and kinda a jerk and rude and arrogant and maybe even manipulative, though she'd gotten a bit too used to the boredom of being in prison. She was a bit too stiff, and probably not used to surprises. Toph bet that Azula would try to kill her just on instinct. Or at least launch a little fire her way. It wasn't like they were wrong about her in any of the ways they were talking.

    But she could be as awkward as Zuko, except she was usually better at hiding it or replacing any awkward pauses with arrogant pronouncements or smug and teasing words. She guarded each moment of tenderness as if it was a bruise that someone could press down so hard she'd start crying, and Zuko did the same thing. She held herself stiff when she wanted to be treated seriously, and she practiced and rehearsed half of her grandest speeches and most clever quips. She wasn't Zuko, was very different from him: but Toph could see the lines and the marks.

    Zuko loved his Mom and despised his Dad; Azula hated her Mom and feared her Father. Toph understood all that.

    But she felt free of that too. Maybe she wasn't. But she stepped forward once, and then again. And then she threw open the door.

    It took just a wave of her hand to move the stone beneath it to toss it open. It wasn't a metal door, but wood on the outside: she guessed that if Azula got that far a metal door wouldn't matter. Inside, over a dozen figures suddenly turned towards her. Some of them were sitting in chairs, so she couldn't see all the details, but she heard the heartbeats, and sensed the shock. They all were surprised. "Yo, idiots!" she yelled out.

    One leg slid back, and the door shut quietly. Another slid forward and one standing man did the splits, so extreme he let out a scream of agony. Or maybe he was just a wimp. Guys usually were about that stuff.

    She laughed, and couldn't help it. The laughter came out, bubbling and gleeful, and she said, "Get wrecked!"

    She shifted, and a piece of the wall pushed out into a boulder that she then punted towards one of the men.

    A single heartbeat.

    One man turned to shoot fire at her, his stance as typical and boring as could possibly be imagined. It was a traditional stance, and in the second heartbeat of the fight she raised the weall of stone and then pushed it forward, until he was burning his own skin with his blow and had to back up… but he wasn't fast enough and he was knocked over and thrown against the wall.

    There was a crack: his arm shattered. He deserved it. That one was that big guy who'd been whispering about how dumb it was that Toph kept on coming. So what if he'd broken his arm! He shouldn't have been in her way, and it wasn't like she was gonna kill him!

    She could have kept on going, but she took a moment to breathe in this feeling and shift her hands until the whole of the ground was a slap. Then she bent down and pulled at it, and two different guards fell over with a shout. One fell badly, bruising as she grunted and threw a dagger Toph's way.

    Stupid discount Mai, Toph thought dismissively as the barrier came up in time to block it, and then pushed to shove her around too.

    She shifted forward, one hand sending a rock to knock another man down and knock him out, and another to sink a guard up to his knees. He kept on struggling, thrashing as if his life, and not Azula's, was in the balance.

    More heartbeats.

    She was playing with her food. But people who said that didn't realize how fun it was to play with your food. A shift to the left and a kick sent another tumbling over, one of his legs breaking.

    "You're a monster," one of the guards said. "Stop this!"

    She laughed, and sank him down into the ground until only his neck was visible, and turned to send another boulder crashing into one of the guys trying to get up. Her? A monster! Well, she had set herself up against the entire world and felt more free than she'd ever felt before doing so. If that was a 'monster' then…

    Azula was always thinking about it. She'd mentioned that word sometimes. She'd said it bitterly and matter-of-fact.

    But Toph just wanted to save her friend. If that was a monster, then all monster meant was someone who disagreed with the world. Of course, Zuko hadn't called Azula a monster: all the terrible things he said about her, and he still didn't go that far. But these people? They gossiped endlessly, they did their job and they were in her way.

    She stepped forward, and downed another, and then another. Her movements grew more and more flowing and sharp and powerful. She liked it, liked pushing herself, and the laughter didn't stop until they were all down groaning. She even had to hit the buried guy in the head to keep him from shouting so much. Then she stood there, a few dozen heartbeats spent in kicking butt!

    But now, standing amid all of this, she felt a moment of doubt. Azula had seen her before, and she could not see Azula anyway.

    But this was going to change everything.

    This had to change everything, because there'd be no more barriers.

    Azula thought she was doomed. Azula thought she was a monster. Azula thought that nobody was willing to fight for her, and that Toph had all but betrayed her by revealing to Zuko that she was crazy.

    She thought all sorts of stupid things. And she'd been thinking them for months. It wasn't as if Toph could say, "Don't worry, Sparky, I'm thinking of maybe busting you out."

    No.

    She'd had to stumble towards it, and now here she was.

    …getting what she wanted.

    The smile slipped back onto her face. Her doubts didn't matter, not now. There was nowhere else in the entire world. Here, about to greet Sparky, Princess, Prodigy, Zappy, and a dozen other nicknames she thought were pretty good. She'd given Azula all of her best names. Every name but one.

    She'd given Azula all of her coolest nicknames, and she'd cast off one of her own names in the process: she was no longer Toph Beifong, and she'd been that for most of her life.

    There was a Jing to describe this, she was sure of it: there was a Jing, sometimes called 'Freedom Jing' that was about that feeling. It was about what happened when an army ran past its own supplies and lived on the land, when a general made a bold and reckless attack that would destroy either his enemy or himself. You burned the bridge behind you and dared your soldiers to seize immortality! (Somehow that had worked, though she didn't know how.) She'd thought 'what's so free about that, anyway?' She'd thought she'd known when she went with Aang. But no, she hadn't, not really.

    But now she knew.

    It was the happiest feeling in the world. The doubts fell away, just flowed away like water. Let it all tumble into the river and be washed away. What was stone, what was steel, it could rust but she would not let itself be washed or worn away by doubts.

    She skipped towards the iron door and opened it carefully, as if hesitating. But no, she was just preparing as she set her stance and stepped inside.

    Briefly, she stood between two doors once again.

    "Yo, Azula!"

    And then Toph tore down both doors.


    veteranMortal AN: Really sorry this is later than perhaps advertised; that's entirely on me, I was out and then had to change the tyre on a car and it was a whole thing. More pertinently - we finished! It's been a lot of fun writing Toph and Azula's respective arcs in this fic, and I'm so excited to continue with the story we've begun with this fic. I really hope everyone has enjoyed this so far?

    Also, please vote both this fic and my WWZ fic for:

    User's Choice Awards Nominations: Best Completed Fic

    The Laurent AN: And then Toph was a monster. This is all her villain arc… but more seriously, the story will continue, somewhere down the road…

    It will continue in… Avatar: Before Two Wastelands.

    However, it will be a while before that is so, because we have a few different obligations and in order to have consistent updates every week, we didn't begin publishing Between Two Doors until we had finished the first part (Prodigy), and so we won't do so until we finish the first Part/section of the new work.
     
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    • veteranMortal said:
    However, it will be a while before that is so, because we have a few different obligations and in order to have consistent updates every week, we didn't begin publishing Between Two Doors until we had finished the first part (Prodigy), and so we won't do so until we finish the first Part/section of the new work.
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    Will you post an update here once the new work is up?

    Also, love the ending, thank you so much for writing this! It's been fantastic!
     
    Fantastically done! I was hooked from start to finish here, and the only problem with a sequel in the works is that I'm going to keep thinking about it lol.

    I was definitely impressed with how true to character everyone felt, once events kicked off there was a great sense of Inevitability to how everything shook out.

    Thank you so much for writing this!
     
    Absolutely loved this, and so glad an eventual sequel is confirmed!

    Toph's decision to save Azula no matter the cost is so good, and you can already see all the great seeds for the sequel as their relationship dynamic fundamentally changes and they both have to reckon with what that means. Thinking about it is really exciting!
     
    Thanks for writing this, it was a blast to read.

    I'd been somewhat saddened that the interactions between Toph and Azula had grown less frequent as the story progressed, but knowing there's a sequel planned definitely helps with that. I look forward to it immensely.
     
    This was a really good fic (better than a large chunk of official material), thnx to the authors for writing it.
     
    Amazing conclusion! Looking forward to the sequel. Will you post a link when it comes out?

    Also, a question: how does Toph stand between the doors before tearing them down? Did she not deal with one already, in order to get between them?
     
    Woo hoo! It was fun seeing Toph realize that she was... commited. Commited and ready to rock and roll for Azula in a way nobody else was.
     
    God, I can hardly wait. Very excited to see what you write next. You both hit it out of the park, ATLA and otherwise.
     
    This was a really good read. You both did a great job taking these two characters who have a surprising amount of chemistry and letting them play off each other, exploring their canon personalities while also allowing to develop - and doing them both justice by the end. It's really an inspired pairing.

    I loved seeing the development of their relationship and the way it eventually collides with the political plot, and of course the ending was great, it's nice to see Azula come so far and earn a glimmer of hope.

    Parts of this also felt...very familiar? It reminded me of online relationships I've had, surprisingly, the way Toph and Azula talk to each other without being able to see each other's faces, they way they send each other's gifts and write fanfic together...the way seeing each other "outside" becomes a huge ordeal. It all felt strangely relatable.

    veteranMortal said:
    She forgot. Every time Mother came, she forgot.
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    I really liked the way you handled Azula's mental illness. One of the signs of a psychotic episode is that it doesn't form a strong memory.

    The Laurent said:
    Sato
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    Oh, of course SatoCorp is descended from colonial elites, that always seemed like something that should be canon.

    veteranMortal said:
    She'd grown the nails on her left hand out
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    Haha. I wonder why only the one hand. It's a mystery.

    ...

    I'm excited for the sequel!
     
    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA FUCK THE GOVERNMENT I'M BREAKING MY GIRLFRIEND OUT OF JAIL!- Toph, probably
     
    Such a great fic, truly phenomenal work

    A little surprised we didn't see Azula's reaction to the breakin, but I suppose that's for the next fic. I wonder if she'll go right away or have to be convinced not to go through the trial
     
    The logic behind azula's imprisonment is unsound. Yes she can't burn the doors, and the walls are thick, but the parts holding the doors in place can only be so thick. It should be entirely within her ability to flash cook a few inches of stone doorframe, and blast it with lightning to slowly burrow out the door until it's own weight causes it to crash down.

    We all know how incompetent the fire nations guards are. They absolutely check the noise of a heavy metal thunk, and boom, Azula's free, especially if she timed it right.
     
    Randino Treviani said:
    The logic behind azula's imprisonment is unsound. Yes she can't burn the doors, and the walls are thick, but the parts holding the doors in place can only be so thick. It should be entirely within her ability to flash cook a few inches of stone doorframe, and blast it with lightning to slowly burrow out the door until it's own weight causes it to crash down.

    We all know how incompetent the fire nations guards are. They absolutely check the noise of a heavy metal thunk, and boom, Azula's free, especially if she timed it right.
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    ...or they actually have experience with holding Firebenders. And you'll note she hasn't actually used Lightning across the entire fic.

    I mean, it's also kinda just a bizarre thing to jump out with.
     
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