Disclaimer: Don't own these shows.
Toph was running. Not far behind, a figure was coming after her, a monster. She pushed herself to move faster and faster. With each step, she felt the man's steps moving two steps faster than hers. Her eyes, frantic and wide, panic started to fill her body. Hopelessness of escape clouded her thought. She fell hard to the ground, cursing to herself at how stupid she had been for tripping. She sat up and turned her body around. Her head turned in every direction, trying to find the source of the steps. Tap. Tap. The slow vibrations of the steps filled the sight of her feet. The monster was straight ahead. She pushed herself away from the sound, away from the inevitable death that she would soon receive. Her mind tried to ready herself. She tried to anticipate the feeling of getting a sharp weapon pierced through her racing heart or the feeling of drowning, water constantly entering her mouth instead of air. No. That's not what the monster had planned for her. No. He would kill her the way that would bring her the most pain: torture. Suddenly, Toph's body started to part with the earth below her. Frantically, she clawed for the earth. She fought to regain the touch, the sense, her sight. No matter how hard she reached, her fingers didn't make contact. She was now suspended in the air, blind. Terrified out of her mind, the monster began.
"Aggh!" A man's voice filled Toph's ears. A voice she knew too well. Zuko. She heard a body hit the ground.
"Aaaaah!" Mai. Another body hit the ground.
"Gyah!" Bumi. Thud.
"Yaaaah!" Kya. Thud.
"Dyah!" Tenzin. Thud.
"YAAAH!" Katara. Thud. Tears streamed down her face furiously.
"GAAAAH!" Aang. Thud. She was sobbing.
"Toph…AAAARRGH!" No, no, no. She was shaking her head in sorrow. Sokka. Thud. Her cries were hysteric.
The screaming and falling of bodies halted. Toph was crying, hard. The air in her lungs escaped faster than she could breath in enough.
"Mom?"
Toph bit her tongue to pause her cries to make sure she heard correctly.
"Why didn't you ever love me?" Lin.
Toph yelled with all the force she had. "NO!"
Slice. Thud.
"NO! LIN! NO! MY BABY!" Toph was crying uncontrollably. She wasn't getting enough oxygen to breathe correctly and was slowly fading away.
The menacing laugh of the monster was the last thing she heard as she breathed her last breath.
It had been four days since the incident happened and Toph was still in bed, unconscious. Everyone had made time to visit her. Lin had sat in her room for hours just waiting for her mother to respond. However, her visits were usually disappointing. With every hour that passed, Lin slowly became more hopeless. She had always known her mother to be the unstoppable one. The one who wouldn't go down without a fight and always never went down at all. But this time was different. Her mother was down. Down and out cold.
At the moment, Lin and Katara were in Toph's room. Lin was sitting in a chair opposite from the bed while Katara was checking on Toph's injuries and healing her bones more. Lin's arms were crossed as she watched her Aunt skim the glowing water over her mother's injuries. If her mother was conscious, she would be earthbending the entire building down from the pain.
Katara moved her hands towards the nearby bowl and dropped the water into it. She looked towards Lin. "Can you hand me some new bandages?"
Lin walked over the cabinet in the room and opened it. She was welcomed by hundreds of medical supplies, thankful that the bandages were right in front of her. Lin quickly grabbed them and made her way to her Aunt.
"Thanks, Lin." Katara carefully wrapped the bandages over most of Toph's upper body. Lin observed as the dark purple bruises started to disappear underneath the white gauze wrap.
"You remind me a lot of your mother, you know that?" Katara said breaking the silence.
"I don't even know how but I will take that as a compliment." Lin answered.
Katara handed her the roll of gauze so that she could cut the wrap. "Lin, you are stubborn and hard headed just like her."
"Slowly moving away from the compliment and moving towards insult here, Aunt Katara."
Katara chuckled a bit. "But I could see that you would do anything to protect the people that you love. Just like your mother."
"Thank the spirits. I thought I was nothing like her." Lin said sincerely.
"You've been so strong through all this."
"I'm actually really terrified."
Katara eyed her niece carefully as she started to wrap Toph's right arm. "Why is that?"
"What if…she doesn't wake up?"
Katara was slightly taken aback. "Why are you thinking like that?"
"I'm already eighteen years old. Old enough to join the police force. If in any way my mother is unable to fulfill her duties, she made me her successor to the position."
"What's wrong with that? I thought you were looking forward to joining the police force?"
Lin sighed as she once again held the wrap as Katara cut. "I'm not ready to be Chief! I'd be under so much pressure. If I were to mess up my time as being Chief, the whole Beifong name will go down in shame."
Katara put a hand on the young adult's shoulder. "If anything, I think you will bring honor to the Beifong name." A warm smile appeared on Lin's face.
The two started to clean up the medical supplies that had been scattered around the room. The silence was comfortable and relaxing in a way.
Suddenly, a groan was heard from the bed. Lin and Katara turned around and found Toph moving her head side to side with a scared look on her face. The two rushed towards the earthbender and tried to figure out what was wrong. Toph looked as if she were trying to evade somenthing and wanted to thrash around. However, her injuries restricted her from moving as much. She whimpered in panic and tears started streaming down her face.
"What's going on?" Lin asked frantically towards her aunt.
Katara tried soothing Toph with little effort. "It seems as if she is having some kind of nightmare."
Toph continued to shake and cry. Lin and Katara were trying to do everything to comfort her from her nightmare, but it seemed as if things were just getting worse.
"Mom! Mom! Wake up! Everything is fine!" Lin pleaded her mother.
Katara tried to do the same. "Toph! Wake up! It's just a dream!"
At that moment, the earthbender started to raise her voice. She yelled just loud enough to fill the room. Words started to become clear as Toph began to speak clearly."
"No, no, no. Lin."
Lin looked at Katara and she looked as equally dumbfounded. Thinking quickly, Lin moved towards her mother and put her hands on her cheeks. "Mom, it's me. I'm fine." Lin took her mother's free hand and put it up to her own cheek.
"See mom?" It's me. Wake up."
"NO!"
Toph shot up halfway to a sitting position. The pain that rang throughout her entire body caused her to yell, probable that the entire house heard it. Lin helped her lay back down on the bed as she moaned in misery. Toph was no longer crying in fright, but rather in pain.
"Lin, open her mouth." Katara demanded.
Lin opened her mother's mouth awkwardly. Katara bended a red liquid into her mouth and bended it down her throat. Afterwards, the waterbender dipped her hands into a bowl of water and quickly made her way to Toph. Lin helped her remove the newly wrapped bandages on Toph's chest and stomach and Katara started healing at once. Lin stayed near her mother who hadn't removed her hand from her face.
The door slid open with force and Sokka and Aang looked into the room worriedly, the rest of the children behind them.
"What happened? I heard her scream from all the way in the living room." Sokka asked frantically.
"Kya!" Katara yelled a bit irked.
Kya pushed past her father and Uncle and ran to her mother's side. "Make everyone other than Lin leave. It can't get overcrowded in here. Once you are done, come here and stand by just in case I need extra help. Go!" Katara ordered.
"Everyone out!" Kya yelled to the group. Tenzin and Bumi left the hallway at once. Sokka on the other hand fought to stay. It took Aang to hold and drag him out of there. Once in the hallway, Aang explained the difficulty of the situation and the water tribe warrior walked down the hallway in frustration.
Kya rushed back to her mother's side. Lin watched her mother's face the entire time. Delicate tears spilled out of Toph's pale green eyes.
So much going on on this chapter. I decided to tug on your heart strings more. Sorry! Forgive me! (x