Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the characters that appear in this story. I do own the story though; as it was inspired by a friend who I think tries to take on too much by herself.
(A/N: This is an episode I thought up that takes place after "Bitter Work" and before "The Library".)
"Means character speech"
'Means character thoughts'
Toph's Pride
Total silence.
The wind blows through the valley and a lone winged-lemur happily rides the thermals to a fruit bush on the side of the valley wall. He flies back up with his small bushel and sets his find in the golden-brown earth. He starts stuffing his cheeks as quickly as he can as dust clouds blow past being carried on a gentle breeze. The sound of ground shifting, followed by shouting causes the mammal to look up from his meal. A small shadow encircles him, growing larger with each passing second, and the lemur looks up in time to a rather large rock about to crush him and his food. He hurriedly gathers his food and stuffs his mouth before narrowly escaping being crushed.
"Oops! Sorry Momo!" Aang called out.
"You've gotten better with the pushing, but you've still got to work on your aim Twinkletoes!" shouted Toph.
"Aw, c'mon Toph. It wasn't that bad of a shot." reasoned Katara from her standing position by the steep cliff.
"Yeah." agreed Sokka "I'm actually not afraid for my life anymore." he replied from his seat on the rock next to a sunbathing Appa.
Toph stomped her foot on the ground causing a small pillar to rise behind her and catch Sokka on the chin, effectively knocking him off the rock he was sitting on.
"You were saying meathead?" she challenged without bothering to turn around; not that she needed to. She couldn't see what happened, but the vibrations from Sokka hitting the ground told her all that she needed to know.
"That was under-handed!" Sokka accused as he picked himself off the ground, rubbing his jaw. Toph turned around and smiled.
"Actually, it was more under-chinned. Be happy that I have such great aim meathead. I could have aimed somewhere a lot more sensitive." Toph reminded him. Sokka's jaw dropped as he put his hands in front of said sensitive area between the legs.
"You know Toph, as interesting as it is to the know that my brother is aware of at least one of his weaknesses, and that it can be used to shut him up, don't you think you were a little harsh?"
Toph rolled her sightless eyes. "Wow! Katara thinks I'm being a brute. What a surprise!" Toph replied, voice oozing with sarcasm. "Why do you always have to baby people? They'll never get any stronger if you coddle them, Sugar Queen!"
"Well they'll never get any stronger if you destroy their confidence either you… you... dingbat!" Katara lamely retorted.
A large vein emerged on Toph's forehead, as small rocks rose into the air surrounding her. "What did you call me?" she demanded.
"You heard me. Dingbat." She repeated with more confidence.
Katara had just enough time to get out that last syllable before a rock flew past her head. Katara looked behind her and saw the rock go over the edge of the cliff, taking a long fall before she lost sight of it in the thicket of trees. "Was that a warning shot?" she asked smugly before turning back around to stare at the boulder that Toph had suspended in the air.
"No, this is!" Toph shouted as she hurled the boulder in Katara's direction. Katara forced the water out of her waterskin and bended it into a whip that lashed out and cut the boulder in half.
"That was hardly worth the effort I'm sure." mocked Katara, hands on her hips, as the boulder halves landed on either side of her. Toph gritted her teeth and stomped her foot into the ground making a trail of stalagmites erupt in Katara's direction, but she nimbly dodged and destroyed what she could not. Unfortunately, this led her straight into Toph's trap. Katara gasped as two large boulders, three times as big as the first one, closed in on her from in front and behind.
'Too big to evade. And I don't think I can destroy both at the same time. I'm trapped.' Katara thought desperately as she closed her eyes and waited to be crushed, or for Toph to call off the attack. It could probably go either way.
Crash! Schink!
Katara opened her eyes to the sounds of the boulders being destroyed and expected to see Toph crossing her arms with a smug look on her face. What she saw was… well, Toph crossing her arms with a smug look on her face. What she hadn't expected, was to see Aang in front of her with his arms outspread, obviously having been the one to destroy the boulder in front. What was even more surprising for Katara was seeing two boulder halves slide past her and that Sokka had both his boomerang and machete in hand, which he had used to split the boulder with a double slash.
"Aang? Sokka? Did you just… did you two…"
"Gee, it looks like my harsh attitude hasn't destroyed their confidence, only the obstacles in their path. Maybe if you weren't so soft, you could have gotten out of that yourself." Toph taunted. "Nice job guys. You've really come a long way."
Aang and Sokka's glares didn't phase Toph and probably wouldn't have even if she could see them, but their anger seemed to be causing enough vibrations for her earthbending to detect because she stopped smiling.
"What?" she asked plainly.
"That wasn't funny Toph!" Aang declared.
"It's okay Aang. I was as much at fault as she was." Katara reminded him as she extended her hand. "I'm sorry Toph. Truce?"
Seeing that Toph wasn't going to initiate the handshake on her own, Katara took a step forward intending to put this all behind them but was interrupted when Aang put the end of his staff in front of her.
"Tell me, Toph. If Sokka and I hadn't made it there in time, what would you have done?" Aang inquired
'What is Aang trying to say? Does he think Toph would have followed through with that attack?' Katara thought worriedly.
Toph turned around and put her arms behind her head. "Does it really matter what I would have done since you two made it in time?"
Sokka took a step forward. "Are you saying that you wouldn't have stopped your attack?"
"It was a good lesson for all of you. The Fire Nation is ruthless, as I'm sure you've all seen. If the sugar queen can't take care of herself, then that means someone else has to cover for her. I doubt that the Fire Nation would sit and wait for you guys to be ready to defend each other." Toph pointed out.
"I'll vouch for that!" A voice called out from the bluffs. The gang looked up at the mountainside to see none other than Azula staring back at them.
"Greaaaat. Another girl whose hobbies include totaling city blocks and destroying anything that she thinks will make a nice boom. This is just what we need." Sokka whined.
'When this is over, I'll remember to carry out that earlier threat Sokka.' Toph thought as she braced for Azula's attack.
Azula jumped from her perch and swung her left arm out to project a vicious fire attack in Toph's direction, but she stomped her foot on the ground and raised her arms to bring up an earthen wall for protection. Sokka let fly his boomerang while Katara bended the water out of her waterskin before firing ice spikes in Azula's direction, only to watch her knock Sokka's boomerang off course with a fireball and jump over Katara's attack. Azula jumped back just as Aang dropped down from above and slammed his staff down, but was caught off-guard when Aang swung his staff at her and a strong gust of wind knocked her towards the rock wall.
'Just a little closer flame-brain, and I'll totally rock your world.' Toph thought silently as she prepared to strike. Azula recovered her balance just as Momo flew in front of her face, which distracted her long enough for Appa to swing his tail and knock her into the wall. Toph immediately slapped both of her hands on the ground causing a tremor large enough to loosen the rocks above Azula's head, threateninig to come crashing down on top of her. Azula looked up at the approaching hazard and looked back at Toph with a sneer. She sent out two lightning strikes before she surrounded herself with a fire barrier to protect herself from the miniature avalanche. Her first shot went wide and missed hitting Katara and Aang, but Sokka and Toph weren't so lucky as it seemed to be aiming true to its intended targets. Toph knocked Sokka out of the way and put up another earthen wall, but the electric bolt proved to be too powerful as it drilled into the barrier. The wall blew outward with a loud bang, knocking Toph off the cliff and towards the forest valley below.
"Toph!" Sokka yelled as he got up and ran to the cliff's edge, but he wasn't expecting the tremor to have caused the ground beneath his feet to become unstable, giving him the freedom of flying without the going up part.
"Sokka!" Katara cried out. "Aang! Get Appa!"
Aang nodded. "Appa! Yip y—" Aang was cut off by the explosive return of Azula.
"Well, well, well. It looks like it's the Avatar and just some nobody left." Azula remarked as she laughed at her own joke.
"Don't worry, I'm sure somebody must think you're worth something, even if it's not much." Katara retorted without a second's hesitation as she got into a fighting stance.
Azula gritted her teeth as she looked at Katara. She charged forward and began a relentless attack against Katara who could only defend until Azula left an opening. Aang rushed in to assist her, but Katara motioned him away.
"No, Aang!" Katara shouted, "You have to go after Sokka! And Toph" she added after some consideration.
"As if I'll let either of you go." Azula pointed out as she caught Katara off-guard. Azula viciously knocked Katara aside with a blast of fire which would have scalded her badly had she not managed to block the heat with her waterbending. Azula lunged at Aang and continued her ferocious assault not even giving him the leisure time to order Appa after their fallen comrades…
A/N: Ooohhhh. Cliffhanger. Literally.