As Korra failed to return, Toph set out to search for her and found her sitting on a root while staring into the water. Upon learning that Korra had been plagued by visions, Toph casually answered that she had figured something like that would occur. She was unfazed by Korra calling her a "twisted, old lady" for having wanted Korra to have those visions and explained that the swamp could sense her to be out of balance. If Korra was willing to listen, the swamp would teach her what she needed to learn. Asking why the Avatar believed she kept seeing her old enemies, she offered the advice to learn from them. Toph walked Korra through her visions, stating that Amon wanted equality for all, Unalaq brought the spirits back, and Zaheer believed in freedom. She reasoned that their problem had been that they were out of balance and took their ideologies too far. Although Korra acknowledged the reason in Toph's words, the young woman still did not understand why she was haunted by their visions and thus Toph explained that she needed to face her fears and stop fighting her old enemies if she ever wished to be able to deal with future enemies. Since Korra revealed that she did not know how to do that, Toph noted with irritation that Avatars needed "a lot of hand-holding", before ordering Korra to get up and follow her to the banyan-grove tree.

Arriving at the heart of the swamp, Toph explained that the roots of the banyan-grove tree connected the entire swamp and added that Korra's problem was that she had been disconnected for too long from those who loved her and from herself. As Korra tapped in to the connection of the swamp and excitedly revealed that she had seen Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo, Toph commented dryly that she hoped the tree were there to take Korra home. Upon being introduced to the young airbenders, Toph revealed to them that their grandfather had been a "real pain in [her] butt". When Meelo recognized her due to her age, crankiness, and blindness, Toph commented that she liked the young boy.