I do not own Avatar the last airbender nor doctor who. please enjoy!
Toph sighed and faced forward with her pack slung over her shoulder. It was getting late and the sun was setting. Just over the hill in front of her was her was her parents house. The war had ended, and everyone was happy...except for her. Though it she was glad the war was over, she was dreading it's end for this very reason: she would have to go back home to her parents. There was no other real choice for her. She could stay in Ba-Sing-Se, but she hated that city; it was practically the same thing as going home. Plus if she stayed there her parents could find her. Zuko had given her an invitation to stay in the Fire Nation, but she couldn't do that because the all scamming she did would eventually catch up to her. If they didn't lock her up, they would send her home, and boy would her parents throw a fit about that. Katara and Sokka had offered to let her stay with them in the south pole, but seeing as the South pole was basically a floating chunk of ice, that was definitely out. This was her only option. Time for her to return home, face the music, and most likely to be confined to the house for the rest of her days.
Toph took one step forward...and slumped to the ground. "I can't do this." she said. She lied down on the ground, blind eyes facing the sky, where a few twinkling stars began to appear. How could she, after all the amazing adventures she had been on, come home to parents who, although they loved her, would confine her and act as if she wasn't a person, but a fragile doll that would break if not guarded? There was so much she still wanted to do! She still wanted to travel and "see" the world and go on adventures. Plus, Zuko still owed her that life changing field trip! If she went home, she probably would never go on that trip, or any other trip for that matter. She didn't want to hurt her parents feelings though. She didn't know what to do. She felt so alone; she wished there was someone to talk to, someone just to listen.
...Vwhoosh...Vwhoosh...Vwhoosh...
Toph sat up straight. What was that? She could feel something sending pulses of vibrations through the ground not too far away. She was confused. Something would come into her "sight", then fade away, then come back, then fade away, then finally it stayed. She put a hand on the ground to get a better idea of what it was. From what she could tell it was box shaped. The strangest thing about it was that it seemed small, but also very big; made of wood, yet not. The whole box seemed to vibrate too. This was very weird. Whatever it was, she didn't trust it. She stood up, deciding to investigate, when suddenly, someone stepped out of the box.
"Now where have you taken me this time Old Girl?" the stranger muttered. He looked around. Though Toph couldn't tell much about this man, seeing as she was blind, anyone else could see he was fairly tall, skinny, had floppy, dark brown hair brushed to the side; a large chin, and was wearing a tweed jacket and a bow-tie.
This man was strange. Toph focused on sensing vibrations from him to get more details about this guy when suddenly she gasped and her eyes widened. 'How is that possible?!' she thought to herself. The man had two heart beats.
The man, or whatever he was, must have heard her, because he began walking over towards where she was. "Hello?" he called. Toph noticed how strange his voice was. "Is anyone there?" he called making his way over. Toph didn't trust this...thing, so she got into a bending position. With one slide of her foot, a rock got thrown at the man and hit him in the stomach, sending him flying back. "OOF!" he blurted as he hit the ground, "What was that?!"
Toph got into his line of sight and took another stance. " That was me. Who are you, and how did you get here?" she asked in a serious tone. The man looked at her curiously as he got up.
"I'm the Doctor." he said grinning, "I got here using my TARDIS over there." he pointed to the box. "I don't know exactly why I'm here. I wasn't aiming to come here. I don't even know where here is." he said as he looked around. He turned back to face her and said, "Well now that I've introduced myself, do you mind telling me your name, where I am, and why you threw a rock at me? Well more how you did that. No offence, but you don't look strong enough to throw a rock of that size."
"My name is Toph Bei-Fong, you're in the Earth Kingdom, and for one thing I didn't throw the rock; I bent it. I bent it at you because I didn't know if you were a threat or not. Also, I'm not weak! I can take care of myself!" she said annoyed.
"I never said you couldn't take care of yourself, I'm just saying that with this planet's gravitational pull, someone of your size couldn't possibly pick up a rock and then toss it a 3 meters at that velocity." he said studying the young girl before him."You said Earth Kingdom, but that can't be because that would mean we're either on Earth for that word to be used or we are on some other planet and this kingdom is a human colony. Neither of those ideas make sense though, because your clothes are too primitive to be on another planet, and there's never been an Earth Kingdom in recorded human history so..." the doctor babbled on.
"What are you blabbing on about?" Toph said confused to the strange man.
"Oh never mind. Anyways, what's this bending thing you mentioned?" he said.
Toph looked surprised. "You've gotta be kidding me. You've never heard of bending? What have you lived under a rock your whole life?" she said raising an eyebrow.
"Naw, but I have spent most of it in that blue box!" he said grinning.
Toph rolled her eyes. "Well anyways, bending is the ability to channel chi through your body to control one of the four elements-water, earth, fire, and air- through movements." she explained, "Like so." She stomped her foot causing a rock to levitate, then punched it, sending it flying. "I'm an earth bender." she said.
The Doctor blinked in surprise before cracking a huge smile, his eyes shining with excitement. "That's brilliant! In all my years of traveling, I've never met a human, or humanoid that could do that, and I've traveled the whole universe!" he said before his eyes widened in realization. "Oh that's it!" he said before pulling out his sonic screwdriver and scanning her and a nearby tree.
"What's what now?" Toph said confused.
"I've never met a human who could do that, and I've traveled all over the universe, meaning I'm not in my universe! That's why I've never heard of this place!" he explained still grinning as he read the readings from his sonic.
"So you're telling me you're from a different universe or something? I guess that would explain the second heart but why did you say human?" she said, "What's that buzzing thing anyways?"
"1, yes. 2, No, humans in my universe still only have one hear but how did you know about the second heart anyways? G...no 3, That's because I'm not a human. 4, It's a sonic screwdriver." he replied.
"I knew about the second heart because I could feel your heartbeat through the ground. If you hadn't noticed, I'm blind, so I found a different way of seeing. I use my earth bending to pick up vibrations through the ground and make an image of the world around me. I can pick up heart beats too and I picked up two different ones coming from you." she said.
"Really? Huh, kind of like a bat's echolocation...that's brilliant!" he said smiling again, "You're going to have to tell me more about this bending stuff. I think it's quite amazing really!" he said.
Toph grinned. Maybe she could stall a little longer before going home. "Ok, but only if you tell me about yourself, like what you mean by 'not human'." she said.
"Fine by me." he replied, "How about we talk over a cup of tea?" Toph smiled and nodded and the strange man went running back to his strange box.
(time skip)
"Wait, you're how old?" Toph asked with a surprised grin.
"953, which is actually very young for Time lords." the Doctor said.
"Yeah, but for a human like me, that's REALLY old! You're older than my friend Zuko's uncle, and he's pretty old. Heck, you're older that king Bumi, and he's ancient! Am I going to have to start calling you Gramps or something?" she said laughing.
"Oi! Only my granddaughter Susan could call me that!" he said trying to joke but felt a tug on his heartstrings as he remembered her.
"You're a grandpa?! Ok, that proves it. You are a wacky old man!" she said laughing at the last part.
The Doctor smiled again and said, "Well I'll at least have you know I look very good for my age. To a human I would appear to be in my mid twenties."
"You're still old." she said, "Well would you look at this: I'm sitting in the woods, having tea with a strange old man I met after hitting him with a rock. Well I can't say this is the first time this has happened!"
The Doctor chuckled. "Really?" he said.
"Yeah. It's how I met Zuko's uncle Iroh." she said, "He gave me some good advice and made me tea. The tea was pretty good too. Much better than your weird alien tea anyways." she said sticking her tongue out.
"It's British, not alien, just from another universe; and I think it tastes great! Well fish fingers and custard tastes better, but it's still good!" he said.
Toph burst out laughing. "Fish what and what?! Are you crazy or something?" she said in between the laughs.
The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. "Probably." he said. This made her laugh again and the Doctor chuckled too. "So these friend of yours. How did you meet them?" the Doctor asked.
Toph settled down and thought. "Well I met Aang because he was in need of an earthbending teacher. He's the avatar, the only one who can master all four elements. I sort of ran away from home with him, Katara, and Sokka. I met Zuko a while later when Aang needed a firebending teacher." she said.
The Doctor looked confused. "Why did you run away from home?" he asked.
Toph blew some hair out of her face in annoyance. "It doesn't matter." she said.
The Doctor sighed. "Come on Toph, if you're this upset about it then it does matter." he said.
"Fine! It was my parents ok!" she said getting more upset, "They didn't care if I was the greatest earthbender in the world, which I am -heck I'm the world's only metal bender!-, all they saw me for was some helpless little blind girl. They were so protective, they practically smothering me! They wouldn't even let me go outside in the garden unless there was a guard with me. I had to pretend to be some helpless obedient little daughter just so they wouldn't hover over me so much so I could sneak out and practice earthbending. When they finally found out about my bending abilities, and how I could defend myself, all they did was try to lock me up more, so I ran away."
The Doctor nodded sadly. "I understand why you did what you did. I probably would have done the same thing. Never could stay in one time or place. I'm constantly running. Though something I've learned over the years is you can't keep running forever, and I'm guessing you've come to that conclusion too, haven't you?" he said. Toph sighed and nodded. "So what happened?" he asked.
"There was a war going on, and it ended." she said, "I had to teach Aang earthbending so he could face the Fire Lord and stop him and he did. He took away his bending abilities, and Zuko, the prince, took over the Fire Nation. The war ended and our little gang kind of disbanded. Zuko had to rule the Fire Nation. Aang had to begin helping Zuko with peace negotiations. Katara and Sokka had to return home to the Southern Water Tribe. I have no place left to go so..."
"You have to go back to your parents and live with them." the Doctor finished, "That's where you were headed until you met me am I right?"
"Yeah..." she said sadly. He face scrunched up in anger and she got up. "But I don't want to go home! I can't! Not after all I've been through! I've traveled all over the world and after that I can't just go back to the life I had! They'd lock me up for good! The only time when I'll ever leave that place is when they finally marry me off to some stranger who'll probably be twice my age! IT'S NOT FAIR!" she shouted as she stomped about, practically causing an earthquake.
The Doctor was struggling to keep from falling on his back. "Toph! Calm down!" he shouted.
Toph calmed down a bit and stopped stomping. She turned towards the Doctor and he saw tears threatening to fall from her eyes from behind her long bangs. "I don't want to hurt them. I care about them a lot...but I just can't..." she said quietly "I can't go back. I'm not ready." She sat down. The Doctor sat next to her and patted her on the back. "There's still so much I want to do. I still haven't gotten that life changing field trip with Zuko like he owes me..." she said smiling a bit at the last part. The Doctor gave her a confused look. She could tell he was confused and smiled saying, "It's a long story...basically all my other friends went on life changing field trips with him except for me." Her smile faded a bit. "Still...I don't know what to do." she said. She turned towards the Doctor and said, "The last time I met an old man in the woods who gave me tea, he also gave me advice. Do you have any words of wisdom like his?"
The doctor took his hand off her back and though for a second before standing up. "I think," he said giving her a hand to help her up, but she got up on her own, "That I already told you some, that you can't keep running forever-"
"That doesn't help!" she snapped at him, giving him an angry look.
"BUT," he said, "That doesn't mean it's best face things when you're not ready." he said.
She gave him a confused look. "So what do I do?" she asked.
"Well, you have several options. You could 1, face them now, 2, you could stay far away for a while and make them worry about you even more now that there isn't a reason why you're gone nor an idea of where you are, or 3..." he said, "You could come with me."
Toph's eyes widened and she was surprised for a second. "...What?" she said.
The Doctor pointed to the TARDIS. "That box isn't just a box. It's a time machine...and a space ship. I could show you my universe and get you back here five minutes from when you left." he said, "You said you were owed a life changing field trip, and although I am not Zuko, I could definitely take you on a field trip that would be very life changing."
"...You're serious?" she said getting hopeful.
"Yep!" he said with a smile but his smile faded a bit as he said, "I must warn you though, traveling with me will most likely be more dangerous than any other danger you've faced. Do you still want to come?"
"Are you kidding?!" she said ecstatically, "Of course!"
The Doctor smiled with twinkling eyes, "Well then, Come along Toph!" he said running over to the TARDIS. He leaned against the door frame and snapped his fingers. The doors of the TARDIS opened to reveal a bright golden light from inside. Although Toph couldn't see it, she could feel the warm light. "Go ahead." the Doctor said, "Ladies first!"
Toph gave him a sideways grins and stepped inside. Immediately her jaw dropped and eyes widened in awe. "Wow..." was all she could say. She could feel the sheer size of the TARDIS which was like a labyrinth of rooms and hallways all connecting to the console room. From the control panel in the center of the room she could feel vibrations kind of like a heartbeat. Everything was made of some kind of metal, so that was a plus.
"So...What do you think?" the Doctor said smiling as he stepped inside.
"It's...sweetness." she said.
The Doctor smiled. "Well, I've never heard that one before, but all compliments are welcome." he said. he closed the door and began walking over to the console. "So...all of time and space, anything that once was, will be, or is and only one rule...it can't be boring. Where do you want to start?" he said pressing buttons.
Toph thought for a second. "You're the one showing me your universe, you pick." she said with a mischievous and excited smile.
The Doctor returned the smile with a twinkle in his eye. "Good answer!" he said pushing more buttons. "Good evening passengers, thank you for choosing Madman in a box airlines!" he said grinning, "We are now leaving normal life and will arrive at our next destination immediately! Please keep your arms, legs, and other appendages inside the TARDIS unless I've jumped out laughing already. Leave any sanity you have behind because the use of it here is strictly prohibited. Next stop..." he said grabbing a lever and pulling it down, "everywhere!"
The TARDIS began to shake and make it's whooshing, whirring sound as the two fell down. "Welcome aboard, Toph!" he said shaking her hand.
"Wouldn't rather be anywhere else!" she said before laughing. The Doctor joined in the laughter as the two zoomed through time and space in that funny blue box.
Hope you guys enjoyed this! Just to let you know, I don't really intend on continuing this. If one of you guys wants to, go ahead. heck you can even use this one-shot as the first chapter. just tell me if you are.