Severance

Chapter 17 -Sokka/Toph

Lately, I had spent more time at Toph's house than I did at my own just taking care of the two girls. She no longer had time to, but when I came over for the last time, she quickly threw me out. She didn't seem angry, just a bit anxious. I didn't understand what I did wrong, but with how stressed she's been lately I decided to leave it alone and let her be.
I wasn't going to complain, because if she didn't want me there I couldn't just say that it wasn't fair. That wasn't up for me to decide, it was her house, her kids, and her life. So, I went home, and I stayed there hoping she would come saying she needed me again.
Instead, the next time I saw her was under much more unfortunate circumstances.
I was sitting at home reading a book when all of a sudden I'd heard a loud boom, then screaming. There was glass breaking and yelling and babies crying all outside, so I went to analyze the situation.
I looked into the sky, and all I saw was hot air balloons and blimps. People were dropping onto roofs of houses, breaking into windows, shooting arrows and daggers at any person walking outside.
It took some time, but I finally realized what was going on when I saw the symbol: the symbol of the Black Lotus.
We had all seen this coming, but we were hoping for a little more time. Nobody had prepared quite yet—the police force obviously would be taken by surprise, and nobody had time to start evacuations. It was going to be a mess.
I ran back into my house, grabbed my sword and my boomerang, and prepared myself to fight anybody who got in my way. I needed to make sure Toph and the girls were safe before anything else, but it was like everything was against me. The only path to her house had been blocked by landed air balloons and people who were yelling to others to capture as many citizens as possible. I could tell I wouldn't be getting to see Toph or the kids anytime soon, because protecting my people was my first priority over anything else.
The earth kingdom was no longer safe, but from the looks of it, we weren't going down without a fight. Everywhere I turned there were adults, teenagers, and even kids fighting. Swords were being handed out, crossbows had arrows flying in all directions, and I had never seen so many rocks in the air before. Everyone of every gender was helping too, and I had only seen something like this once before. Both times were a fight for and with the same man: Ozai.
I didn't understand how one man could bring so much chaos to the world.

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Toph

I had spent all morning trying to get Su to calm down. She only seemed to calm down for Sokka, so naturally whenever he wasn't here she became a problem child. I didn't want him here, though. I wanted him home where it was safe. I rocked her, fed her, sang to her, everything, and nothing worked.
I had been up all night with her once again. When I finally did get her to calm down, there was a loud bang outside. I frowned, confused, but didn't do anything about it. We live in the earth kingdom, people throw rocks, things make noise.
Yet, there was a sneaking suspicion in the back of my mind that it may be something more. I always listened to my instincts, so I set one foot on the floor and immediately got my answer. I would know the feeling of it anywhere, it was most definitely an invasion. There was an overload of people on the ground that made my head hurt, and different types of machinery had landed in multiple places.
I laid Su in her crib, and told Lin to go in her room and stay there. She did as she was told and I closed her door. From my house I was feeling everything going on, and earthbending whenever I needed to help out someone who was getting hurt. I felt like I should be out and helping even more, but I had a family to protect. It wasn't as if I was doing nothing, I was just helping from a distance.
Apparently, though, this would still get me in trouble.
I heard a window break in Lin's room, and immediately got up and ran into it.
There was Yami, standing next to Lin's bed, smiling as she looked down at her. "Aw... how cute. She looks just like you"
"What are you doing here? I'm staying out of this all, you can do whatever you want"
She looked at me and laughed. "Staying out of it, huh? Then explain why rocks are randomly being thrown everywhere"
"This is the earth kingdom, funny concept, you see, people earthbend here"
She frowned and shook her head. "Oh Toph... you expect me to believe that you're not behind it? Come on... it's a shame, really. I like you, but I'm gonna have to kill you" she chuckled, and grabbed to swords from off of her back.
I frowned and earthbended her off of the ground, out of Lin's room. I walked out, shut the door behind me, and got ready for a fight.
"I'll make this quick" I frowned, lifting some rocks from under the house up through the floor. I'd have to fix that later.
Yami looked at me and chuckled. "Make what quick?"
"Ending you"