Chapter 2: Toph, the Soldier
Cometfall
The young Major stood in front on the deck of the landing craft. This officer would not be back in the relative safety of the flagship, directing the battle from afar. She was the feet-on-the-ground type. The Earth King's commissioning of Toph Bei Fong's to lead the new Royal Army of the Earth Kingdom was met with only token resistance. Toph's performance in battle on the Day of the Black Sun had forever silenced any criticism of the twelve year old's abilities. She had since overseen then last two versions of the plan for the invasion of the Fire Nation, taking it from original form: a seemingly easy victory over a powerless enemy, to its second: a desperate surprise attack, to its current form: a distraction. Soon the black volcanic sands of Inxon Beach would be turned upside down. Major Bei Fong spit over the side of the boat in anticipation.
Three Weeks Earlier.
Rendered powerless by a solar eclipse, the occupying Fire Nation forces were driven out of every major city in the Earth Kingdom in a rout. However the rag-tag Free Army of the Earth Kingdom was unable to muster the resources to fulfill the original plan for the invasion of the Fire Nation. A sizeable force, protected from the Free Army by the treasonous Dai Li, remained on the continent.
The celebration triggered by the capitol city's liberation lasted three days, not that Aang and his cohorts had much to celebrate. Their best chance to end the war in one quick stroke had forever passed, and in three weeks the return of Sozen's Comet would likely make this victory short lived.
The Earth King, who had displayed a bravery and a knack for true leadership that his soft upbringing would belie, took back his throne room personally. Despite the fact that it was empty, those with him at that moment would have no doubt that he would have taken down the Fire Lord himself had he been there. It was soon discovered that Azula, Zuko, Ty Lee, Mai and a select few others had fled back to the Fire Nation well in advance of the Day of the Black Sun, anticipating defeat. The city was overcome with joy, save for the unfortunate few who knew what the comet's arrival would bring with it.
Toph Bei Fong was annoyed. Not with having to be in the big city again, she was actually enjoying using her power to help repair the damage the battle has caused. She was annoyed by her new entourage. Word had gotten out that there was not only an heiress to the Bei Fong fortune, but that she was a 12 year old blind girl. Not only was she a 12 year old blind girl, but an incredibly powerful self-taught Earthbender. Not only was she an incredibly powerful self-taught Earthbender, she was the earthbending teacher to the Avatar. Finally not only was she the Avatar's teacher, she was the first and only person ever to manipulate metal with her bare hands. Now wherever she went she was followed by a crowd of people fascinated by her for any or every one of those reasons. She felt them following her like a herd of Saber-Toothed Mooselions.
"Is that her?" Any new arrival would say in hushed tones, "The Metalbender?"
That would be followed up with a hushed conversation describing all of Toph's feats in a fantastic fashion. The fighters would marvel at her intuitive powers, the scholars would postulate about her blindness and her relationship with the earth, and the awe struck fans would speculate on how just sharing a moment with Toph would make their life perfect. None dared approach, too many of them had been walled up, or trapped atop earthen spires, for bothering the girl in question.
Toph had just finished restoring one of the small stone bridges that crossed over the canals to the muted cheers of the locals and her fan base. The new structure was unmistakably Toph, a simple stone platform with two, solid, four foot high railings; appearances never mattered to the Blind Bandit.
She felt the ground begin to cool, and knew that it was getting dark. She made a quick duck down an alleyway and in one final act of urban planning, threw up a wall behind her to ditch her entourage. She turned back to head to the small house that she and her friends had called home during their previous stay in the city, but she was not alone.
A flick of her wrists had the stranger pinned by his neck in a stone pillory, a gasp of air escaping his lips. "Message for you ma'am. From the King." The page was carrying a small slip of parchment.
"The King wrote me a note?!?" Toph was incredulous.
"Oh, no, no please, these are just my directions, pleasedon'thurtme." The page was near tears.
Toph lowered her arm and released the page. He told her that His Highness wanted to see her immediately, and he was prepared to escort her. She waved him off with a small smile; she could feel her way to the palace at this point. She could find the center of the city by sensing routes of the city's tram system, the closer they came to each other, the nearer she was to the central station. From there it was a matter of following the royal guards footfalls to the palace gate, the guards always walked a bit faster away from the palace, heading home at the end of their shift. Large, flat stones eventually replaced the cobbles of the outer rings, signaling that she had arrived at her destination.
She was hopeful that she would be in the presence of her friends again, whom she had not been around for days. Sokka had discovered the Kyoshi Warriors being held captive in the palace dungeons; half starved and without their leader, Suki. Toph had felt Sokka's heart race at the prospect of seeing her again, and when he found out she was gone, it had almost stopped. Toph cursed her ability to sense the truth in that moment; she knew then that Sokka would never feel that way about her.
Sokka took the island warriors to the city's port where his father's fleet was docked. There he worked on rebuilding both the girls and the ships night and day in preparation for what ever came next. His sister Katara moved into the hospital and was applying her healing skills full time treating casualties, and Aang had taken off on Appa to find the Guru, desperate to find a way to reenter the Avatar State.
So Toph was saddened to arrive at the palace alone and to be unceremoniously ushered into the War Room. There the King and the three remaining High Generals were waiting for the young Earthbender.
"Toph Bei Fong," The King spoke. His voice was still the same soft tone it always was, but Toph could tell he had truly changed. Where once he was a puppet on a string, the King now held himself with the confidence of a master Earthbender. "The Earth Kingdom needs you."
The newly commissioned Major Toph was immediately put to work training the Royal Army in preparation of the invasion of the Fire Nation. There was no time to lose; Sozen's Comet would arrive in less than a month. They had allocated only two weeks for preparation and one week to make the crossing. On the surface it was a sneak attack to cut the enemy's supply lines, but in reality it was a last ditch effort to prevent the Fire Lord from effectively using the comet's power by disrupting his chain of command.
Toph's unit was composed of the Army's best Earthbenders, an elite division of troops charged with the goal of seizing the Inxon beachhead: the most important, and most dangerous, task of the entire plan. Her orders were to take command of her unit on the beach of Lake Laogai and prepare them for the attack.
She arrived just after dawn to find the men milling about on the sands, most sitting in the shade of the blocks of stone created weeks ago to defeat Long Feng's most loyal Dai Li agents and recover Appa. The rubble of the walls that the mighty flying beast had shattered still lay in the sand. Toph could feel that only a few of them noticed her approach, and fewer still paid her any attention. She knew that they would were told to expect her, and she wasn't naive enough to think that they would snap to right away.
"Form up!" She yelled, not surprised that they paid her little mind, she tapped her foot twice, even on the sand she could feel where they were, "I said…" Toph brought up her right hand and moved it sharply to the left causing six long stone rods to jut out from the cliff side, dividing the unit in rows, "…form up!" Toph brought her left arm forward, hurling seven rocks forward from behind her. The Earth Kingdom soldiers had no choice but to line up to prevent being hit. Toph moved one last time to shift the rods back into the cliff side, and smirked at her nicely ordered pattern of fifty-six Earthbenders, all of their hearts racing in terror of the blind girl's skill.
"Now listen up you pathetic pebble pushing pidgeondoves! My name is Toph Bei Fong, Major Toph Bei Fong, but you mud brained mamma's boys can call me Sir. My King, and he is my King, since you worthless washrags have only one ruler now: and that is I, has apparently graced me with the honor of working with the Royal Army's best. I'll tell you now," Toph lifted her head and tossed the loose hair from her face, "I don't see it."
None of them dared to laugh.
Toph smiled inwardly, "Here's the deal dust brains, we are going to drill night and day, night and day until you are one with the earth. Until the world itself is at your command. Until can unleash the planet's fury on those who would dare to take it from its people! The Fire Nation better learn how to grow wings, 'cause you will never let them to lay a foot on our ground EVER AGAIN! DO YOU GET ME?"
"SIR, YES, SIR!" Fifty six voices shouted in unison, but Toph only heard one.
"You!" Toph pointed out at the unit, who were stunned that the blind girl could point at anyone. They followed her finger back, and it led to a young man in the second to last row, "Front and center!"
The young man wasted no time following the order, he knew this would happen and knew too well to play dumb. "Sir, Private Ghashiun reporting as ordered, sir!"
It was the young man who led the group that captured Appa outside of the Spirit Library, "I know who you are, Sandbender, what are you doing here?" Toph commanded.
Ghashiun looked sheepish, "Sir, I…"
Toph felt him tense up. He was nervous; it was something personal and not for the ears of the men, "Never mind! I just remembered, I don't care!" She moved away from him to address the unit and could feel that the young man was relieved, "You know what we have here, you worthless gaggle of goosefish? A genuine Sandbender straight from the Si Wong Desert! How'd we get so lucky? We are lucky, aren't we?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" They yelled. It was going to be a long time before she got tired of that. She turned back to Ghashiun.
"I've got a special job for you; you're going to teach us how to fight on the sand. And you'd better be good at it!" she shouted at Ghashiun, pointing at his face while looking down, "Or we are all going to end up under it! Do you get me…Corporal?"
The newly promoted Corporal Ghashiun was stunned and more than a bit fearful, "Yes, ma'am, err, sir!"
"Fine!" She waved him off and he fell back in line, "Now let's get started." Toph summoned a pile of rocks in front of her and climbed on top, "Which one of you cactus-juice drinking wall flowers is going to knock me off this hill?"
Time began to move very fast, and although Toph was unable to teach anyone without her special gift the act of bending metal, she nevertheless drilled her charges mercilessly night and day. Each day they marched down to the beach and in the shadow of the Water Tribe fleet, she had Ghashiun step up and help the unit gain confidence fighting on sand. Toph never let on that she ever had any problems with it herself; she spent the first few lessons 'observing' Ghashiun and reading how his movements were connected to his element. His style was more of a combination of airbending and waterbending more than the traditional earthbending style. His teaching was solid as well; he gained confidence quickly and exuded the kind of leadership that was useless to a mere desert raider.
After a few days she joined in on the lessons and Ghashiun had gotten bold enough to even correct Toph on her sandbending style. She was prideful, but she didn't mind having the young desert dweller close to her. None of the others in the unit dared to get that close, and during rare periods of rest the soldiers exchanged stories of how they had become more terrified of a blind twelve year old then the Fire Lord himself.
"It's the way she points right at you if you're just a fraction off the pace..." "The mouth on her, I've got a little girl at home, and if she ever spoke like that…" "Those eyes, she looks right though you with those glassy eyes…and that grin…it's like she's a demon! A grinning demon!"
Toph, lying on the ground beneath her earth tent, smiled to herself, happy with her new nickname. Her force was coming along great, and soon she was going to show the whole world what she could do, "What do you want?" She asked Ghashiun, whom she had felt gingerly walk up to the 'door' of her tent.
The young Sandbender was not surprised, he knew better then anybody that no one sneaked up on the Major, at least not since he had done it himself the day he stole the Avatar's Sky Bison, "Sir, a word please?" Toph pounded her heel on the ground and opened the front wall, then moved back to sit against the rear, "Permission to speak freely?"
"Get on with it!"
"Sorry, sir. I just wanted to thank you for not sharing…our history with the rest of the unit."
"It was not important for them to know, besides you have something I need…the unit needs: your sandbending. So don't worry about it."
"I need to tell you this; I never thought I'd get a chance to talk to any of you again. After you four left, things were different in my tribe. No one treated me any different, and that was the problem. I'd done a terrible thing, I hurt the Avatar,"
"You don't need to worry about it…"
"No, please, let me finish. I'd damaged the world's best chance for peace, and everyone in my village treated it as if it was a childhood prank. I couldn't look at myself. So I left, I joined up, and here I am with you again. There really must be some kind of order to the universe." There was a long pause. Toph had a biting, sarcastic comment on the tip of her tongue, but for some reason, she couldn't say anything.
He continued, "I just wanted to tell you that you could trust me, but I'm not here to make things right with you, I'm here to make things right with myself." There was another long pause, "That's it. Permission to leave?"
"Dismissed," Ghashiun turned and left, as soon as he was across the threshold, Toph closed the 'door' behind him. A moment later he could hear her yell, "You know on any other surface, I would have kicked your butt!"
"Yes, ma'am" he replied softly, almost to himself, but knowing that she could still hear him.
That's one messed up kid, she thought to herself, but I know what it is like to have a family that doesn't care. However, their opinion doesn't matter; they lost that right when they sent bounty hunters after me! When Toph realized that she had triggered small earthquake, she calmed herself down and turned over and went to sleep. She never dreamed.
One Week Before Cometfall
While Toph's unit was breaking camp and preparing to march to the retrofitted water tribe ships, Major Toph herself was practicing her sandbending by dividing small piles of the substance in half again and again. She was almost done when she felt a slight breeze disturb her sand and foretell the unmistakably soft footsteps of her former pupil.
"Welcome back, Twinkle Toes, we were just about to leave without you."
The Avatar, Aang, gave a quick hand salute and bow, showing respect to his former teacher, "Hello Toph, good to see you. I need to get everyone together right away."
Less then an hour later Toph was alone in their small house, the front corner still in disrepair. She was uneasy about the meeting Aang had called, the Avatar seemed ill at ease and that wasn't like him.
Toph was snapped out of her reverie by the arrival of Sokka. When he finally made it inside, she could feel that he was carrying something that she couldn't get a read on right away.
"Ah, if it isn't Grand High General Toph, the legendary Badgermole of the East! Company…Atten-Hut!" Sokka joked and gave an exaggerated salute.
Toph giggled and retuned the salute, he seems like he always does, but there's something darker. He finally let the item he was carrying hit the ground. The noise it made let Toph know it was a long, wide piece of metal, the kind that the Water Tribe warriors were fastening to the bows of their boats in preparation for the invasion, "I need your help with something."
Moments later Sokka was lying on his side with his shirt off. Toph laid the metal plank over his chest and just as she struck it, Katara and Aang walked in. Sokka screamed in pain and surprise at being caught in this situation.
"This is not what it looks like." Sokka said, half out of breath.
Aang scratched his bald head, "What does it look like?"
"I have a...AAARRRGGHH...plan" he eked out as Toph delivered another blow, smiling like crazy.
When she finished creating Sokka's secret defense, the three of them exchanged jokes at Sokka's expense about the feasibly of his latest bright idea. It was a nice moment of levity before they got down to business. Aang explained where he had been and what he needed to do.
When they finally sat down to begin the séance, Toph was bewildered. Aang had been on a spiritual quest and had discovered some truly frightening things about the war, about the nature of the Avatar, and about how everything, and he meant everything, was connected. What he needed now was the help of others strongly connected to the Spirit World: powerful benders, to help him make sense of a vision he had had.
"Then what's Sokka doing here?" Toph joked.
"He's the only other one I know of who's been to the spirit world, and I'll need that to strengthen the link," Aang replied. Sokka shot Toph a satisfied look, which he held until he remembered that she couldn't see, "Ok, now everybody relax, and close your eyes," he continued in disaffected monk tone that she disliked but she complied, "this should only take a moment…and there. Here we are! The Spirit World!"
It was then that Toph began to scream.
Cometfall
The crossing had been as fast as anticipated. The waterbendering technique of the Foggy Bottom Swamp dwellers produced a much higher top speed than even the most powerful Fire Nation engine could create. This speed matched with perfect tactical bending on the part of the Northern Water Tribesmen had made breaking the Fire Navy blockade easy. They were now in sight of the beach, and the Royal Army, lead by the elite unit now known as Toph's Grinning Demons, were making their approach.
Major Bei Fong spit over the side of the boat in anticipation. She felt as if she had finally regained the confidence she had lost after her experience with Aang one week ago. Katara had found her by following the large trail of destruction that followed her from the house to a small bridge that she had made two weeks previous. She helped her come to grips with her experience and regain her stride. However the world was different for her now, and she knew her life would never be the same again.
She had to say goodbye to her friends one more time, and maybe for the last time. Aang, Sokka, and Katara had flown off on Appa not long ago to make a rendezvous on Crescent Island with the leader of a resistance movement that had made itself known. They purported to have to power to disrupt the Fire Army's chain of command, and weaken their defenses enough to allow the Avatar to face the Fire Lord without too much interference. Therefore the invasion plan had changed again one final time. Their goal had become diversionary: they were still assaulting a hostile beach and facing overwhelming odds, but now the objective wasn't victory, it was just staving off defeat.
The landing crafts began to take fire about two hundred feet from the beach. Fire Army catapults flung rocks covered in flaming rags out over the ocean. Most plopped harmlessly into the water. The few that came close were first extinguished by each craft's Waterbender pilot then redirected by a designated Eathbender.
Toph was unsurprised to be caught off guard by the first near miss, but never moved her head from its bowed state, "How's it look?" She whispered.
Corporal Ghashiun, whom Toph had reluctantly let become her eyes for anything beyond the boat's borders, leaned in very close, "Not bad, the shots are few and scattered," Toph could feel his breath on her neck, "looks like the plan worked."
"That part anyway," Toph was skeptical of even the concept of a resistance movement within the Fire Nation and hoped the idea of it hadn't gotten her friends killed by now, "How much further?"
"Only about…GET DOWN!" The corporal tackled his commander to the deck; Toph felt a massive wave of heat pass overhead. The young man, surprised at his actions, explained himself right away. "Firebenders, sir, hundreds of them attacked at once, the boats are burning, and a lot of people are hurt. Are you ok?"
"I'll be fine once you get off of me!" Ghashiun complied sheepishly, "Now, how far is it to the beach?" Just then, the lead ships ran aground tossing their contents forward, "never mind, let's go."
Toph vaulted over the bow and the instant she felt the ground hit her bare feet, she felt whole again. A quick twist of her heels firmed up the black sand beneath her and gave her a better sense of the challenge ahead of her. Only twenty-five feet up the beach was a low metal wall, and behind it were the Firebenders, lined up and throwing flame with every movement. The ocean lapped at her heels has she raised her arms immediately and created a wave of sand in time with the water's motion, just as she had practiced doing. With the waving of her arms, the black sand rolled forward, absorbing jets of flame and falling back down.
Moments later the remaining Grinning Demons disembarked and took their positions along side their commander. The black wave of sand became bigger and bigger, absorbing more and more heat until the individual grains began to melt. A flaming catapult shot impacted just down the beach from Toph, scattering a dozen of her force.
Ghashiun was getting nervous, "This is taking too long!" He yelled over the roars of flame and the strange grinding noise that the waves of sand created.
"We're almost there, just a bit longer, hang on!" Toph yelled back, trying to reassure herself as well. The first part of the plan had to be completed soon. If the remaining landing force arrived now, they'd be sitting turtleducks, "How far out are the boats?" She asked, annoyed with herself.
The young corporal looked backwards without missing a step in his part of the sand wave, "About two minutes."
Two minutes could be an instant or a lifetime, Toph thought as the heat coming off the black sand left her dripping with sweat. She felt the sand become more and more pliable as it absorbed the attacking flames. It was close to being ready; her unit had done an excellent job keeping up the rhythm. Other than the occasional catapult hit, all the attacking flames were being intercepted. Just a few more, she thought, now trying to actively ignore the pain of being occasionally dusted by searing sand from the now burning ground. She had no choice; the sand had to be just right for this to work. They were going to use the Firebender's power against them. I have to move up the beach before they second attack wave hits. Toph felt the beach sand start to thicken, it's now or never.
"Now! Pull! Pull it!" The Major yelled to her troop. In unison the Grinning Demons pulled the now molten wave of sand in an arc over their heads. The waterbending boat pilots recognized their signal and threw a huge swell of water over the beach. The cooling wave struck the melted sand and gave off a huge cloud of steam; the pile of hot sand creaked and groaned as it solidified. Anxious to know if the plan had worked, Toph moved towards the strange new structure, placing a hand, instantly burned, against the smooth wall of obsidian glass.
They had done it. There was now a fireproof barrier along the beach's entire span and it was past time to finish the job. "PUSH!" Toph ordered and as the word was passed down the line, each one of her men put their hands on the scorching, opaque glass and moved it enmass up the beach.
Once the wall was in motion, Toph gave her second order: "FIRE!" as she and her unit dug their fingers into the glass and shot black spears of obsidian out the other side at the defending firebenders like a porcupineboar throwing it's quills. The sharp daggers startled the enemy, piecing their armor where they stuck or shattering into a thousand razor sharp pieces when they met rock or the metal defense wall.
As the black glass wall reached the top of the beach, the landing of the main Royal Army force began in earnest. Defending firebenders could no longer see the beach, and even if they could, the obsidian shield absorbed their attacks. There was only one thing left to do, the job Toph was hired for.
Major Toph took her hands off the wall and curled them into fists, and when she moved her arms down sharply the glass wall parted in front of her. She moved into the Toph sized tunnel and came up against the metal wall. She gave it two quick raps with her knuckles, "Wow, that's thick. Makes me think they didn't want anyone to drop by!" Toph struck the wall with both hands, but she couldn't get a read on its composition. Again and again she hit the wall with no results, No! This can't be happening, she thought, I have to be able to do this. Everyone is counting on me!
Again she hit the wall, this time hard enough to cut the skin on her hands, leaving streaks of blood over its surface. She rested her forehead against the barrier. This isn't me, it's the Spirit World. I can't let that place keep affecting me! That's not who I am, I don't want to be there, I don't need what it offered, I am NOT WEAK!
Toph slammed her head on the wall, cutting herself slightly in the process, but finally feeling it. She glimpsed the metal's composite elements, the places where they met and mixed in the most impossibly small way. As a drip of blood ran down her face, Toph's wide grin returned. She reached back and thrust her fingers directly into wall and gripped two wads of metal as if they were parchment. With a yell, she wrenched the wall down over the beach's entire length, pinning a large number of enemy benders beneath the wreckage.
The breakout from the beachhead began. Hundreds of earthbenders and Royal Army warriors streamed through similar tunnels in the glass wall, created by other Grinning Demons, and the rout was on. The landing was a success; soon the Royal Army would be knocking on the gates of the Fire Palace itself.
Toph felt Corporal Ghashiun run to her, at first she thought he was going to be in congratulations, but with every step, she felt more assured that something was wrong. The final proof was that Ghashiun left off the ground with a yell, "TAKE COVER!" and tackled Toph forward just as an explosion occurred right were she was standing a moment before.
"Airships!" She heard someone yell, Toph couldn't tell who, the impact of the bomb left her dazed and disoriented.
"Ghashiun!" She yelled, but she couldn't feel his presence anywhere. Another explosion occurred in the distance: they were under attack from the sky. Toph felt a twinge of fear, they could be anywhere, she thought. She remembered Sokka describing what the airships looked like. Boats with big spheres of air holding them in sky like slow Sky Bison.
Again and again the bombs went off catching Toph by surprise each time. I have to do something, but what? I can't even see them…I don't need to see them! Toph curled her fingers and faced her palms down, and then flung her arms up and elevated herself into the sky on a stone pillar. When she felt she was at a suitable height, she reached her fingers out and summoned ten long strings of back sand, a single grain thick, up from the beach. She splayed her hands and whipped the strands of sand around in the sky, tearing dozens of the airship's support balloons, causing them to crash.
She brought the sand back and formed the grains into two swirling spheres in her palms. In her first attack, she felt the locations of a dozen or so more ships that she only brushed past the first time. She shot the sands out of her hands again and again, taking the ships out two at a time. Toph began to laugh; she stretched the sand out forming two giant black wings on either side of her. Spinning around she raked the sky clean of attackers, her laughter contrasting harshly with the sound of men screaming and bombs detonating. She didn't even hear the one that exploded at her feet. Major Toph Bei Fong fell into darkness.
One Hundred Years After Cometfall
There is a small bridge in Ba Sing Se, and although it only spans ten feet, it is the most magnificent structure in a city famed for its architecture. People come from all corners of the world to see it; more then just a bridge, it is a work of art carved by the hand of the greatest Earthbender who ever lived. It features impossibly intricate designs folded within each other, metal and stone melded into one. It seems to possess the beauty of another world, one that could only be felt and never seen. So it became tradition that the bridge should be seen only from afar and if one needed to cross it, they would do so with their eyes closed.
To Be Continued
Next: Katara, the Healer cures the pain of strangers and assuages the fears of her friends, but will she lose herself when she fights her dark reflection?
Then see how the other half lives, and dies, in: Zuko, the Prince.
Finally, it's the final battle in Aang, the Avatar.