Sokka was pacing up and down the hall of the Earth King's highest security prison. He was gritting his teeth and his hands were balled into tight fists. With each stride he stomped the ground forcefully with his feet. "Damn it. Damn it. Damn it! Damn it all to hell!" he cursed impatiently.
"Sokka!" he heard Toph's voice call. He turned and saw her running towards him. "What took you so damn long Toph?!" Sokka asked curtly.
Toph stopped short, obviously surprised by the outburst. "Geez I came as soon as I got your letter! I had to make sure there was someone was watching my Metalbending academy."
"We don't have any time to waste!" Sokka shouted. "Every second we waste Katara is with the Dai Li and Long Feng and…and…and…" He was very frantic. He clasped his head in his hands and started shaking it frantically, becoming totally unintelligible.
Toph grasped his arms to make him stop. "Sokka calm down!" She was very worried.
Sokka sounded full of despair now. "I can't! It's my fault! I'm her big brother I'm supposed to protect her, ever since we were kids, I promised my dad I would protect her." He started shaking his head again. "I failed! UGH I HATE MYSELF!"
Toph pulled his arms down. "Sokka cool it! We have to stay focused on saving Katara! Beating yourself up isn't going to help."
Sokka was breathing heavily but his voice stabilized a bit. "I know but when I think about Katara…and what they must be doing to her right now…"
"You can't think like that Sokka!" Toph insisted. "It'll just distract you. We have to focus on finding her." Sokka still looked very frightened. He didn't say anything and kept his head bowed. "Look I promise you we'll get her back, ok?" Toph said strongly. Without thinking she grasped his hands and squeezed them tightly. "I won't rest until we get her back!"
Sokka at first didn't react. He was still filled with emotion. But he knew Toph was right, Katara needed him to stay focused. He took a deep breath and resolved to stay rational. At the same time his sense of humor returned. With a sly smile he asked Toph, "Are you holding my hands?"
Toph immediately drew her hands back. "No!" she shouted. She was blushing quite furiously.
Sokka shook his head with sarcastic pity. "Oh Toph, Toph, Toph, still haven't gotten over your childhood crush on me I see."
"Oh, piss off!" Toph responded shortly. "I never had a crush on you! Don't flatter yourself!" She folded her arms strictly, but her face was still turning deeper shades of red.
Sokka laughed boisterously. "Oh, Toph I'm very flattered but Suki is the only girl for me. Besides you're just a little too young. I'm sure you'll find a nice hard-headed Earthbender guy someday."
Toph' reply was quite succinct. "Oh, bite me!" Sokka laughed even more. It may not have been in the way she intended but Toph had helped Sokka feel better.
The door next to the two opened and an Earth Kingdom soldier stuck his head out. "The prisoners are ready to be interrogated" he informed.
"Good" Sokka answered. "You got here right on time Toph. I need your help with the interrogation since you can tell when someone's lying.
Toph seemed very happy to have the subject changed. She confidently boasted, "Oh I can help a lot more than that!"
"How" Sokka asked.
"By sensing their heartbeat and breathing I can tell just how afraid they are, how close they are to cracking. Not to mention I can tell the difference between a squealer and someone who won't talk" she explained. Suddenly a puzzled look came on her face. "But why did you call me here?
Twinkletoes can do that too."
Sokka sounded fairly annoyed. "Aang has been trying to find Long Feng on his own for months. We have no idea where he is or how to reach him."
"I see" Toph replied. "Well in any event I'm a better for this job anyway. After all, if a guy's not talking, I know how to…" She punched Sokka in the arm. "…persuade him...
Sokka rubbed his sore arm. "Yeah, I don't doubt that" he said with a chuckle. "Let's go."
They entered the room. The other two Dai Li agents who had helped kidnap Katara were tightly fastened to chairs with wooden harnesses. There was no earth for them to use, save for the stone floor, but they couldn't move anyway. They both had bandages wrapped around their heads, pressing cloths against the spots where Sokka and Suki's weapons had struck to stop the bleeding. The man on the right had a beard and the one of the lefts was bald. The bearded man also had a brace on his leg from where Sokka's club had struck him.
"I'm going to ask this once," Sokka said directly. "Where is my sister?" Both of the men glared defiantly at Sokka saying nothing.
"Not talking, eh?" Sokka said as if it was a challenge. "All right. Toph persuade them."
Toph cracked her knuckles gluttonously. "With pleasure." She stomped the ground and two columns of earth shot up under the men's chairs, propelling them into the air. They fell hard on the ground. The chairs didn't break though, they were reinforced with metal hinges.
Sokka knelt down in between the two chairs. "Let's try this again. Where's Katara?"
The bald man shouted with conviction, "We'll never talk!" "Never!" the bearded man parroted.
Sokka knelt down near the bald man's head. "Are you sure about that?" Toph cut in, "Don't waste your time with that one Sokka."
Sokka looked at her. "Why?"
Toph calmly explained. "He's cool as a cucumber. He didn't react at all to my persuasion. He's probably prepared to endure torture. That guy on the other hand" she pointed to the bearded man. "He's much more afraid."
"Oh really?" Sokka said happily. He picked up the bearded man's chair and stood it up straight, forgetting about the other. He could see what Toph meant; there was a lot of sweat on his forehead. "Where's Katara?"
The man was trying his best to stay calm but his voice trembled. "I…I don't know anything!" "Stay strong!" the bald man shouted.
"Get him out of here!" Sokka shouted, pointing at the bald man. Two guards picked up his chair and carried him out of the room, back to his cell.
Having his ally taken away had clearly increased the bearded man's fear. He was sweating very visibly. Toph could feel his heart racing.
"Tell us where Katara is!" Sokka demanded. "I know nothing!" the man yelled nervously.
Toph folded her arms, clearly proud of her abilities. "I doubt I need to tell you this but he's lying."
Sokka was very serious. "Listen to me" he said as he stared the man down. "You broke into the Earth King's palace, slaughtered some of his guards and kidnapped his guest. That's a crime punishable by death. You hear me? They're going to execute you!"
Toph's eyebrows quirked as she felt the man's physiological reaction. "Oh, he doesn't like that at all" she said mischievously. "You're pretty scared of dying, aren't you?" She addressed the man directly.
Sokka played off of her. "Why shouldn't he be? Dying sucks! Isn't that, right?" he asked the man. The bearded man started avoiding eye contact and breathing heavily. "There's no reason you have to die. You have the right to stand trial like any other Earth Kingdom citizen. Maybe if you help us, they'll lighten your sentence a bit. I'm not saying they'll let you go but life in prison isn't off the table."
The man became more and more uneasy but he said nothing. Sokka leaned in close and stared him down. "Where is Katara?" he asked again. "I'll tell them you helped me. I'll do everything I can to make sure they let you live. I swear on my honor as a warrior."
The man kept panting. He looked away from Sokka. He slowed down his breathing. "They're heading southwest" he said calmly.
Before Sokka could respond Toph calmly said, "Liar."
Sokka glared at the man angrily. "It won't help you to lie to us. Listen to me, you are going to die unless I can tell them you helped."
"Long Feng's army will reach us and conquer Ba Sing Se before that happens!" the man retorted fearfully.
"That won't happen" Sokka said simply. "Aang will stop them. But that doesn't matter. With how long it would take an army of that size to get here I can assure you that you would have been dead for a long time." The man bowed his head. Sokka could hear the numerous beads of sweat hitting the ground. "Look there's no reason you have to die. What do you owe Long Feng? Do you owe him your life? He's going to murder my sister! She's pregnant! She has a husband and a family!
Don't you care at all?!"
The man shook his head frantically, much the same way Sokka had before. "Forget it!" he shouted.
"What's that mean?" Sokka asked.
"I'll tell you what you want to know damn it!" the man shouted. "I just did this so my family wouldn't starve! I never agreed to die for Long Feng!"
Sokka was very surprised to hear this, skeptical actually. "Just tell us what we want to know we aren't interested in phony sob stories."
Toph corrected Sokka, "Actually he was telling the truth." Her voice sounded the same as it had the day Zuko first tried to join their group and she was the only one who believed his remorse was sincere.
Sokka looked at the man. "Really?" he asked.
"I joined Long Feng's army because my home village burned to the ground" the man said. "My parents died and I had to care for all of my siblings. We had nowhere to go, no food, nothing! Long Feng's army showed up offering us food and shelter so I swore my undying loyalty. Problem is they made that exact promise to so many people there wasn't enough food to go around and my siblings starved to death anyway."
Sokka couldn't help but feel pity for this agent now. He knew what it was like to be responsible as the older sibling. He could only imagine how horrible something like that would feel. "I'm sorry" he said honestly.
The man looked up at Sokka. "I'll tell you everything and not just the stuff about your sister." Sokka smiled. "Start with my sister. You can tell the soldiers everything else."
"Your sister is being held in our prison underneath the Secret Tunnel in the Kolau Mountain Range just outside of Omashu. Because of its legends of a curse no one would dare go looking around in it and even if they did they would never be able to find their way through the labyrinth without finding the artificial metal tunnel we created" the man explained.
"That won't be a problem!" Toph shouted. "You know where this place is Sokka?"
Sokka nodded. "I wish I could forget it. Let's go Toph!" As they turned to leave Sokka doubled back, faced the man and thanked him.
The man didn't seem very effected. "Just promise me you'll screw Long Feng over."
Sokka nodded, "Deal."