It was like something out of a bad dream, something she had never thought she would see. Not that she could actually see what was happening, but she could feel it and hear it and smell it and it filled her with a sense of dread. When she actually thought about it she realized they had all been fools to think this wouldn't happen. The signs had all been there and yet none of them had seen it coming. Aang hadn't seen it, neither had Zuko, or Katara, or Sokka, none of them and now it was too late. She had seen it coming, or least she'd had a feeling, but for once Toph Beifong didn't feel like saying, "I told you so." No, all Toph felt like doing now was fighting and finding a way to end this war before the entire world went up in flames.

The war had started a little over a year ago when Azula had escaped from the Fire Nation facility she had been housed in since losing her Agni Kai, and the throne, to Zuko. Azula had sworn vengeance against her brother and by extension the entire world. She had sworn to end the Harmony Restoration Movement and reclaim all lands in the name of the Fire Nation. It had seemed like folly at first, a fool's errand carried out by a damaged, desperate young woman who had no real chance of achieving victory. But the world had quickly learned just how serious Azula was and through her plan, an even more terrifying truth had come to light, Azula was not the only one who wanted to end all that Aang and Zuko had worked to build. Fire Nation citizens had come out in support of Azula and then, as her rebellion had begun to gain traction, Earth Kingdom citizens had joined her, as had people from both Water Tribes shocking everyone. And as more and more people had fallen under Azula's sway Zuko and Aang and Earth King Kuei had had no choice but to meet her on the field of battle.

And so, here they were, fighting another war when they should have been enjoying the fruits of peace and harmony. Toph couldn't honestly say that she was overly disappointed by this, as she had been getting board with the whole peace thing, but she hadn't wanted to fight another war. There wasn't much she could do about that now, so she kept her complaints to herself and fought alongside her friends for the security of their world. Currently, they were split into three different groups. Aang and Katara were in Ba Sing Se helping Kuei hold the great Earth Kingdom capital. Zuko was in the capital of the Fire Nation, along with Mai and Ty Lee, fighting to keep Azula from getting through the Great Gates of Azulon. And Toph was on the front lines near Omashu with Sokka, Suki, and her three metalbending students, Penga, Ho Tun, and The Dark One. They had been sent here because Toph's immense earthbending skills would prove useful in a city like Omashu and Sokka had felt like accompanying her, so Suki had come as well. As for her students, they were still learning and the only way for her to keep teaching them was for them to join her in battle. She was doing her best to teach them in the midst of battle, but it wasn't easy, which only added to her frustration.

At that moment they were outside the city, battling a wave of firebenders, as well as a handful of earthbenders and a pair of immensely powerful waterbenders. Azula didn't actually have that many followers compared to the number of people who had remained loyal to Zuko and Aang, but her followers were fanatics like she was and they were more than willing to do whatever it took to achieve victory for their queen. Their fanaticism was made even more dangerous by the fact that Azula seemed to have found a number of rather powerful benders and by Toph's own admission that was a bad combination. To battle powerful benders was bad enough, but to battle powerful benders who were fanatically devoted to Azula's ideals was another level of bad all together. And fighting powerful fanatics while also trying to teach metalbending to three individuals who were still amateurs only made the situation worse.

"Damn it, there's just no end to these guys is there?" Toph shouted as she slammed a pillar of earth into an advancing firebender.

"Well, what did you expect?" Sokka asked as he engaged a non-bender in hand to hand combat. "These are followers of Azula, it's not like they're going to be pushovers."

"Yeah, I know." Toph said, rolling her eyes. "Damn shame Azula has to be such a charismatic ash maker. Maybe if she wasn't this war would be over already."

"Yeah, well she is so there's no sense in dwelling on it." said Suki as she stepped in between Toph and an earthbender, thwacking the earthbender on the head with one of her fans in the process. "Better to keep your mind on the hear and now."

"You've got a point there." Toph agreed, slamming two more pillars of earth into a particularly large earthbender who had been aiming a large earth block at Suki. "Still it would be nice if we didn't have to deal with this crap."

"I thought you wanted more action in your life, sifu Toph?" Ho Tun said from somewhere behind her.

"Yeah, but this isn't what I had in mind." Toph said, not turning to face him as she spoke.

"Well, this is the action you got, whether you wanted it or not." said Sokka, now inches from Toph as their enemies closed in around them.

"Lucky me." Toph muttered. "So, you have plan, plan guy?" Her sightless eyes flickered in Sokka's direction as she spoke.

"I'm working on it." Sokka said, his voice strained and breathless.

"Could you maybe work a little faster?" The Dark One asked.

"You can't rush plans." Sokka snapped. "They need time to develop."

"I hate to tell you this Sokka, but we don't have time for your plans to develop." said Toph. "The enemy is all around us and we're gonna be crispy in a minute if you don't think of something."

"Go down." Sokka shouted, nodding at Toph, who smiled, knowing exactly what he had in mind. It was proof of just how dire their situation was that he would ask for this, but Toph was happy to oblige. But just as she moved to create the underground slide Sokka was asking for the ground exploded beneath them, sending them all flying in different directions.

Toph went flying over the edge of the cliff they were fighting on, her stomach jumping into her throat as the air suddenly opened up beneath her. She heard Sokka call out her name and then she felt her body bounce off the stone at the bottom of the ravine. Pain shot through her body, shocking her with its fury and for a moment she nearly passed out. Fighting to stay conscious she pushed herself to her feet just in time to sense the heat of multiple fireballs raining down on top of her. Without thinking she closed the earth above as a shield, though she wasn't able to move quite as fast as usual and one fireball made it to its mark before she could completely seal the shield. She screamed in pain as the fire scorched her hands, arms and face but managed to close the earth shield before any more fire could reach her. Now safe she collapsed from exhaustion, her eyes rolling back in her head as she passed out. All is lost, she thought, as she slipped towards unconsciousness, the darkness rushing in to greet her. And then, all was silent for a very long time.

A/N: Okay, so, this is my first Avatar: The Last Airbender fic. As you can probably tell it focuses on Toph and is set in a war torn, AU future. The fic is set after the events of the Promise trilogy, so if you haven't read those, I would suggest doing so before you read this. Since this is AU, you'll find some slight differences between what happens at the end of that trilogy and what happens in this fic. Also, Toph is 16 in the prologue and 22 in the rest of the fic (the prologue is set three years after the Promise in which she is 13, and the rest of the fic is set six years after the prologue, thus the ages I mentioned). Finally, I do not own Avatar, it is the property of Nickelodeon and its creators (Michael DiMartino and Brian Konietzko).