Author's Note: This is a fight scene during the last stage of the final battle. It takes place after the solar eclipse, right before/during the comet's arrival. This is not what I think the final battle will be like, nor is it what I think it should be like. This is just a random account of what will probably not happen during the siege of the Fire Lord's palace. I repeat/clarify: this is a totally random Tokka oneshot.
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Toph's Take
The Final Battle
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Toph's sightless eyes watered from the suffocating smell of smoke. The heat of flames danced around her, engulfing her in a sea of fire. It burned, but she lifted the patch of ground beneath her feet. The pillar she stood on gave her a much needed safe haven from the terror below, and she could finally focus.
She could feel Katara whipping water around this way and that, destroying Fire Nation soldiers and hurtling their figures all around. Zuko was locked in one-on-one combat with Mai (are they going easy on each other?). Iroh was demonstrating how he acquired the title Dragon of the West to some unfortunate firebenders, and Aang was currently airbending, snapping guards like twigs. He was entering the palace. He was finally going to end it.
Sokka... where was he? She couldn't feel him anywhere. "Sokka," her feeble voice mumbled. "Sokka!" Her calls fell on dead ears and were to no avail. Where could he be? Was he okay?
Suddenly she felt a heavy weight shift on her left, and her pillar came crashing down. She didn't care, though. She had to find Sokka.
A blast of fire erupted toward her, but she'd already thrown up a wall of rock to block it. She twisted the rock wall toward her target and heard a yell as the man she'd hit was thrown back into a barrier of solid fire. A smile creased her lips, but it disappeared as soon as her mind shifted back to her original plan - find Sokka.
She became so entranced by the array of footstep vibrations (none of which she could identify as Sokka's) that she didn't notice someone approach behind her. This mistake could have been fatal, but she got lucky. "Looking for someone?"
Toph whipped around and her blind eyes were full of venom. "Shouldn't you be after the Avatar?"
The corners of Azula's mouth lifted a bit. "Father can handle himself. I'm here to have a little fun... maybe inspire a family reunion. Anyway, I just thought you'd like to know where the little Water Tribe guy went."
"What did you do to him?" Toph demanded.
"Oh, I don't have him. If you want him, you'll have to take that up with Ty Lee."
"I'll do that," Toph growled, and before she turned around Azula shot a bolt of lightning at the blind girl. Toph had been expecting it. A half-second earlier and Toph would have been killed, but she'd encased herself in rock. It took most of the hit, and she hadn't escaped the blast scot-free, but she was well enough to begin her search for the acrobat.
She couldn't feel Ty Lee anywhere outside, so Toph decided to take her search into the palace. After blocking a vicious onslaught of fire lit arrows, she dashed through the open palace doors. The writhing earth beneath her feet was a big help when it came to bombarding through unfortunate soldiers in her path.
"C'mon, Snoozles, yell!" Her voice, low to begin with, was lost in the rebellious war cries of Fire Nation guards that hadn't yet entered the battlefield. They pushed around her, nearly causing suffocation, but she pulled up and away from them and wrenched herself into a seemingly deserted hallway to gather her strength.
Suddenly she heard muffled noises coming from a door just across the hall. She noticed that it was ajar and silently crept up to it. What're they saying?
"You know, if you didn't struggle so much the skin on your wrists wouldn't be so red," Toph heard Ty Lee comment. A muffled protest was her response.
Sokka! "Sokka!" Toph threw open the door and prepared to bend... what? There was no earth in that room. Metal, she told herself, and she hurriedly dodged Ty Lee's chi-blocking hands.
Ty Lee was always one for talk. "You know, your friend here isn't really the talkative type."
Toph couldn't actually see it, but her mental picture was of Sokka bound and gagged in a chair at the far end of the room. It was actually pretty accurate... as her mental pictures usually were. "Sokka, I'm going to get you out of here." With that, she took the metal chair behind her and skillfully bent it around Ty Lee's hands. Ty Lee, unfortunately, had taken a moment of Toph's vulnerability (when she was actually bending the chair) to render her legs near useless. It would have been an awkward sight to any passerby, Toph lying on the ground (working on crawling toward Sokka) and Ty Lee attempting to squirm her wrists out of the newly bent metal (she could have gotten up and used her feet, but she wanted her hands free).
Toph forcefully pulled the rest of her body toward Sokka. When she reached him she did her best to unbind him, and he pulled the dirty sock Ty Lee had taken off him out of his mouth, sputtering as he did so.
Toph's face looked in Sokka's direction expectantly. "Well? Aren't you going to help me out of here?"
"Oh! Right." Sokka's face turned crimson, even though she couldn't see him, and he helped her limp out of the room. They left Ty Lee writhing uncomfortably on the floor, still trying to free her hands, and they reached the ornate doorway that led to the outside. No more soldiers were around to push them out of the way; they must've all made it outside already. Sokka pulled Toph over the threshold to the outdoors and stopped abruptly.
"What're you waiting for, Snoozles?" Toph demanded. Sokka's gaze was fixed on the blazing summer sky just like everyone else's.
Sokka quickly glanced around the battlefield at his now seemingly feeble friends and allies, and then he focused on the newly-powered Fire Nation soldiers. Aang... if he hadn't defeated Ozai by now... "Toph," Sokka mumbled, "we're too late."
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Author's Note: If you haven't guessed, the comet appeared right at the end of the battle. I didn't do Aang's side of the story, so it's not really evident if they were really too late or not. If Aang defeated Ozai before the comet actually gave him power, then, well, the ending is all good anyway. Review, please!