A/N: This story is set in Shadow Wasserson's The Last Earthbender 100 AU. It's good, you should read it. But if you can't be bothered, opposite nations are swapped. Avatar Toph, the last earthbender, is traveling in a Fire Nation ship with Zuko, Azula, and now Aang, trying to master the elements and defeat the Water Tribes.

Takes place near the end of Book 2.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar.

"Even metal is just a part of earth which has been purified and refined." The guru's words echoed through Toph's head. Everybody knew that you couldn't bend metal, or at least they thought that they did. Then again, people had thought sand was different until the sandbenders proved them wrong. If metal was just earth, then a strong earthbender should be able to move it, and Toph was the strongest there ever was. Toph grinned as she ran her hand along the iron railing that ringed the deck of their ship. "Might as well give it a shot", she thought. "Being the world's first metalbender would be pretty sweet."

Toph dropped into her earthbending stance and prepared herself. Her arms shot out, connecting solidly with her target. Her first attempts were preparatory, trying more to size up her opponent than to break it. As she extended her senses, Toph found that she could feel the vibrations traveling through the metal almost as well as she could on solid ground. A smirk began to cover her face. "This will be too easy", she thought.

Having satisfied herself with her initial trials, Toph began in earnest. Again and again her fists and feet collided with the wall. Each blow landed with more force and determination behind it, but each time the rail refused to budge. Toph clenched her teeth and continued, she had no intention of letting this stupid piece of scrap defeat her. As sweat began to run down her face, Toph started to feel the first hints of frustration. This was not going as she had hoped.

"Maybe I need some firebending", she thought. "Just a little to soften it up, make things easier." Toph paused to catch her breath and consider this new option. The heat would be a problem. Toph didn't like the idea of burning her hands in the attempt. She would need to cover it up with something to block the heat, some actual rock might do the job nicely. With that in place, she could bend to rock to push the metal and reinforce her direct attempts. Heck, with a setup like that she wouldn't really need metalbending at all-

"No." Toph said to herself. Twinkletoes must have really been getting to her. She was thinking too much like an airbender, trying to find her way around her problems. Facing things head-on, that was the earthbender's way. To move earth you had to be determined, unflinching, unbreakable. No more half-hearted attempts, she was going to bend metal. Toph took a few steps back and changed at the railing, she leapt forward bringing her forehead down upon its edge.

Toph's world exploded into pain as she fell backwards. One hand went to her throbbing head, while the other searched for the wall to determine the outcome of her efforts. Nothing. The ship's sides were as strong as they had ever been. Toph collapsed onto the deck, waiting for her head to stop pounding. "Idiot" she berated herself. "Why did you listen to that airhead guru in the first place? What does he even know? He seems to think that it's a good idea to give up on your friends in exchange for some magic space-energy." Toph sat there filled with pain and frustration, but was soon interrupted by a voice coming onto the deck.

"Toph? Toph, are you OK?"

Great. Zuko was coming. Toph's mind started racing, wondering how she was going to get out of this without looking like a complete idiot.

"Spirits, Toph, are you bleeding? What happened?", Zuko asked as he made his way to her, taking her head into his hands.

"Heh. You think I look bad? You should see the other guy."

A/N: It's not that metalbending is necessarily impossible in this universe, just that this is not the right way to go about it.