DISCLAIMER: I do not own "Avatar: The Last Airbender." I will not make any sort of profit off this story. The only thing I am claiming out of this is rights to the character(s) I have created, and I'll even make a list. They'll show up as the story plays out. Currently, the list consists of Circe (AKA Jord),Nasu, Ronyn, and Zeph.

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"I'll have dinner on the roof." The venom in Jord's voice surprised even herself. She snatched up her bowl and cup, ignoring Nasu's attempt to reach out to her. Trying to make a point by glaring at their blind Earthbending guest, she stomped off towards her room without another word.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, as if stunned by the way Jord had acted. "Nice family." Toph said, unmoved by Jord's lack of hospitality.

Nasu sighed. "I don't understand why she's acting like this. It's not like her."

"Her heartbeat sped up when she stepped out of her room. I doubt she was pleased to see me. She could even consider me a threat."

"But you haven't done anything to her."

"Circe isn't stupid, Nasu." Ronyn said as he hobbled over to his chair. "She knows who Toph is, and she knows what we're thinking by our inviting her over here."

"You think she might be a Nomad." Toph raised an eyebrow, though it was more of a statement than anything else.

"Well…" Nasu took a breath, pausing just long enough to pick up the remaining bowls. She continued to speak as she moved things from the kitchen to the small table. "A little over a week ago, Circe was in a fight that happened in the slums. She talked to Ronyn about it the other day."

"According to her, the person she fought had glowing eyes." Ronyn explained. "We thought there were three people involved, but we only found her and a young man there."

"Airbender." Toph said pointedly. "The first one we found had glowing eyes, and so did the ones in Omashu. None of them know who their real parents are, either, or they're homeless. If Circe's your real daughter, I wouldn't worry about it too much." Toph's words were followed by an uneasy silence. She immediately hoped what she was about to say wouldn't be true. "She's not your real daughter, huh? You adopted her."

"Yes… yes, we did. We found her in a port village just south of our old farm, we used to make monthly visits there. She was in this tiny little boat nudged up against some rocks." Nasu sounded nostalgic. "We searched the whole town looking for her parents, but no one claimed her. So, we took her back with us. She's got the strangest color hair, though."

"I couldn't tell, really, doesn't make one difference to me." Toph snorted.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to sound rude… but I've never seen someone with hair the color of gold. It's like…" Nasu paused, trying desperately to find a way to describe it so that Toph could understand it better. "It's like finding one single piece of diamond in an enormous pile of coal. They come from the same source, but it's so easy to find and you're only likely to find it once."

"I see. Just like everyone else and made of the same stuff, just so different that she sticks out in any crowd." Toph nodded as Nasu spooned out food for everyone.

"Exactly." Ronyn agreed. "However, she doesn't act like what an Air Nomad is supposed to. She's got a bit of a ruthless streak to be honest, and if you didn't know her you'd think she didn't care one bit about other people. Some of the soldiers who she helped train commented on how she can fight a "damn dirty game" as they said. Though in the end, I suppose it helped with fighting against some of those Fire Nation soldiers. But she really does care for other people, it's just hard for her to show it."

"I don't mean to offend, but that almost sounds Fire Nation." Toph smiled to show she was kidding. "That does set her apart from the Airbenders we've been finding. From what I can tell, most of them wouldn't put up much of a fight if their lives depended on it. They may just turn tail and run." She picked up her chopsticks to begin eating.

"What do we do if she is a Nomad, though? I don't want to loose my daughter." Nasu sat down, but didn't touch her food.

"We've never forced anyone to come with us. They all came on their own free will. Heck, one of them was convinced to come with us by his own mother." Toph spoke through a mouthful of food. "If you want, I'll see about arranging a meeting with your family and the Avatar, maybe we can figure something out. But you can't force her to do anything, she may not even believe the news of Airbenders coming out of hiding. If she is a Nomad, she'll need time to come to terms with it. She seems like she's got a hard head."

Nasu could only manage a sad smile at that.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was quiet on the roof. The silence helped her to clear her mind and calm herself. Jord set down the empty bowl, took a sip from her cup, and focused her gaze on some invisible point on the horizon. Guilt had quickly replaced anger, and it was keeping her dinner from actually settling in her stomach. She knew she had acted out of line, but she had been so angry.

Jord shook her head. It was difficult for her to understand why exactly her mother had invited the Avatar's friend over. "I'm not a Nomad…" She said out loud, as if hearing it would make all the difference. "I'm just caught up in something I have no business in. Just stuck my nose where it didn't belong."

'Doubt clouds the mind…'

"No. Go away." Jord growled. The cup clattered to the roof, the liquid inside spilling across the rough surface. Her hands came up to her head in an attempt to block out the voice. "You're not real. You're just in my head… my mind just made you up."

'We're so much more than that.'

A whimper escaped her mouth. If she had been standing next to herself, one would have decked the other. Something was probing at her mind, she could feel it. It was like there was something MOVING inside her skull. Jord could only curl up on her side and whimper once more.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Toph stopped suddenly in the middle of chewing. She frowned and tilted her head to one side, then shifted her feet just a little. Something was different… wrong in fact. "How do you get on the roof?"

"There's a door in the ceiling of Circe's room. Why?" Nasu put down her cup, a questioning look on her face.

"Something's wrong with your daughter." Toph stood up quickly and headed for the door to Jord's room. "Help me get up there."

Ronyn and Nasu jumped up and followed Toph into the small room. Zin was pitching a fit, yowling and hissing and baring his teeth at the ceiling. Ronyn reached up with his crutch and pushed against the trap door, then frowned when it didn't budge. "She must be on the door. I can't open it from this angle."

"Then I'll open it." Toph had no reserves about this. She moved into a sturdy stance, shifting her feet and bringing her hands up to chest level. "I'll apologize in advance if I break the door." Toph brought up her right foot, slammed it down, and quickly thrust her hands into the air. The couple felt the ground shift as a pillar of rock burst out of the stone floor, colliding with the door above them and tearing it right off the hinges. The three Benders heard a yelp, followed by a thump and a curse, and Toph had to struggle to keep from smiling as she lowered the pillar. "I'll be right back. If you think she's a Nomad and she hasn't gone psycho yet, this could get ugly. I'll try not to hurt her." She jumped up onto the pillar without waiting for an answer, then brought herself up through the hole in the ceiling.

Toph found Jord near the edge of the roof, on her knees and clutching her stomach. She could feel her heart racing, and her body was still shaking. "Can you hear me?" Toph kept close to her pillar, more than willing to leave Jord where she was. "Circe, are you alright? I need you to answer me."

"Stay away from me." Jord groaned, hardly moving much from her crouched position.

"Your parents are worried. Stand up so I know you're okay."

"I'm fine, go away."

"You're lying. Get up."

"No."

"I said get up."

"I said no!" Jord suddenly lurched to her feet, spinning around and thrusting a fist towards Toph.

Instinctively, the Earthbender threw up a stone wall from the roof. She felt the impact, and in retaliation she punched the wall, sending a chunk of it flying towards Jord. Anticipating her opponent's dodge, she sent two more sections of the wall after the first. She heard one connect, likely with Jord's stomach, and felt the vibrations as Jord landed on the street below.

Toph followed close behind, jumping down and almost landing on Jord. There was something different about this fight, like some important piece was missing. As she launched another wave of projectiles at the crazed Bender, she tried to figure out what it was. When she had helped in the fight against Zeph, his attacks had been mostly at random; he hadn't actually been aiming, just sort of firing off orbs haphazardly. But as she was forced to dodge Jord's counter attack, she realized something.

She was aiming. It wasn't a bad job, either.

Jord didn't seem to be crazy at all.

This thought made Toph extremely angry. She brought up two slabs and angled the edges together, making a large wedge. The sharp point split Jord's next blast in half. Toph sent one slab flying after Jord, then broke the second in two and launched those as well. As planned, Jord stepped aside to avoid the initial shot, only to be caught by the wide side of one of the other pieces. It slammed into her, flinging her back into the wall of a nearby house, after which she bounced off and hit the ground. Toph quickly ripped open the earth, allowing it to swallow all but Jord's head. "Alright, I don't know what your deal is, nor can I tell if you have glowing eyes." She could feel Jord trying to struggle, but the earth wasn't moving. Toph stomped towards Jord and kept talking. "But I'm tired of your attitude. I think someone needs to knock that out of you, what do you think?" She didn't wait for an answer. Toph slammed a foot into the ground, causing it to heave and launch Jord into the air.

For a moment, Toph couldn't locate her enemy. A frowned appeared on her face as she began to feel as though she had stomped too hard. She quickly squelched that idea, though, when she felt some faint vibrations. Several blocks away was the city wall, and at the very top was the crater that Jord's landing had made. Toph sprinted towards the wall, fully intending to put an end to the fight.

The ground in front of her suddenly exploded, showering her with a spray of dirt and small rocks. Toph caught the dirt, bent it together into one huge mass, then thrust her hands forward and threw it in Jord's direction. Behind her, the earth shook again. It wasn't Earthbending, though, as the vibrations didn't originate from the ground itself. It was simply the result of a surface impact; Jord was definitely Airbending, and she was being far too aggressive for that.

Toph dodged another blast, finally reaching the earthen wall. While climbing up the wall would have been the most obvious choice, it just wasn't safe with Jord firing off air blasts from the top. So instead of simply bringing down that section of the wall and likely causing a little damage to the buildings around her, Toph did something almost completely unexpected.

She walked right into the wall like it was water.

Jord stopped mid-attack the moment Toph disappeared. She frowned, confused, and lowered her hand, the air swirling back to it's natural state. Never before had she seen something like that, and in her calculating state she failed to notice the tiny tremors coming up the wall.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"This city's not too bad." Aang commented as he and Katara meandered down the street. "Everyone seems friendly."

"It's a nice place. Most of the people have a strong bond, they've all been through the same hardships."

The two continued to walk on in silence. During the course of the day, they completely explored the section of town they were staying in, as well as the marketplace. Now, with the sun setting, their plan was to end the day with dinner. Fortunately for Katara, Aang didn't choose the tavern. "I wish all cities could be like this, supportive and peaceful. Even their wall isn't that high, it's nothing compared to the one around Ba Sing Se." He continued, walking slowly beside his friend.

"Ba Sing Se does have a pretty big wall."

At that moment, Aang's gaze drifted up to study the city's forty foot wall. He stared at it for a moment, and just as he started to look away he noticed something. A small plume of dust had suddenly appeared near the top of one portion of the wall. Aang's eyes narrowed as he tried to focus on it. "Katara… do you see that?"

Katara frowned and followed his gaze. Her eyes widened suddenly, and she nodded in reply. "I see it. What happened there?"

"I'm not sure…" Aang frowned, then suddenly brightened up. "Let's find out!" He took off, running straight for the wall. Katara stood there for a moment, then slowly shook her head and chased after him. She didn't have a good feeling about it, but Aang looked so hopeful. At times he could act like he was still a naïve twelve year old boy. Sometimes it bothered her, but she was glad the war hadn't changed him as much as it had changed others.

As they drew closer to the wall, Katara watched as a huge lump of dirt rocketed towards the dust cloud. "Aang, I think Toph is already there!" She struggled to keep up with the much faster Bender.

"We better hurry, then!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

If Toph hadn't been completely covered by the rock wall she was trying to climb through, she might have laughed at the thought of Twinkletoes showing up so late. However, she was also somewhat occupied with trying to move up the wall without giving herself away. It took a bit of effort and patience, as she had sort of made the move up on the fly, but she was able to move the stone down and around her body to pull herself up. If she did it right, Jord would never see her coming.

Very clever, in her entirely biased opinion.

As Jord's vibrations grew stronger, Toph prepared herself to spring. She had to take her out before Aang showed up, because he wouldn't be able to stomach it. Taking a deep breath, Toph thrust her hand up and through the rock, managing to grab Jord's ankle. By the way Jord's heart suddenly jumped, she knew she had taken her by surprise. Giving the ankle a hard twist as she emerged from the wall, Toph lifted her up and over, tossing a startled Jord right off her perch and down to the forest outside the city. The sneak attack was answered with a rather violent curse, which Toph found amusing to no end. Having lost "sight" of her opponent once again, she stood still to catch her breath, feeling rather pleased with herself.

"Toph!"

'Darnit.' "Aang!" An unusually large and obviously exaggerated grin plastered itself onto her face. Toph turned around just as Aang cleared the top of the wall with Katara in tow. "So nice of you to show up!"

"Where's the Airbender?" Aang couldn't have hidden his excitement from Toph if he had tried. "Where'd he go?"

"She," Toph said, pointing down to the trees below. "Is down there."

"Is she okay?"

"No doubt about it. She's different from the others, I bet she wasn't crazy at all." Saying it out loud just made it more aggravating.

"How do you figure that?" Katara raised an eyebrow in question.

"Well, she was aiming for one. She was actually putting up a good fight. Unlike crazy boy down there-"

"Were her eyes glowing?" Aang interrupted quickly, nearly dancing in place.

Toph just stared at him silently.

"Oh… sorry. Nevermind, got a bit ahead of myself."

"I'd say so." Toph turned away from them and faced the forest. "I was talking with her parents before this kicked in. She was one of the people involved in that "incident" everyone keeps talking about. Her parents suspected she was part of this whole Nomad business and they wanted help, because they didn't know what else to do." She pointed behind herself. "I want someone to go back and make sure her parents are okay. Just follow the craters, there's a small stable behind their house. Her name's Circe."

"What about you?" Katara asked.

"I promised them I'd help. I intend to keep that promise."

"Then I'm coming with you." Aand stepped up to the edge of the wall. "I want to make sure she's alright."

"She will be."