Thirty minutes earlier the scene was one of peace not violence. Zuko, along with a handful of body guards stood on the sand waiting. To a casual observer you could mistake them for statues from the lack of movement. The illusion was suddenly broken when Toph bei tong walked across towards Zuko.

'Bei Fong it's good to see you here. However I was expecting the earth king as well,' said Zuko.

'Bei Fong?' Said Toph playfully. 'Your talking as if we've never met. He's busy so he can't join us but he sent the next best thing,' she replied with a deep sense of pride.

'Well Be- I mean Toph it's good that your here because I need your help. I see you've brought your boar guards with you.'

'As I'm sure you know they are some of the best there are and all personally trained by me.' Even though Toph was now a fully grown women she stilled acted like a child and showed off all she had achieved.

'I need them incase something goes wrong. If this ends in a fight then we could all be doomed unless we stop them quickly,' said Zuko seriously.

'Zuko why are you so worried? You must of talked to them before you set up this meeting,' replied Toph not phased by Zuko's cold tone.

'Thats one of the reasons. They came to us and I'm worried that they might try and use us for their own gain.'

'You mean like with your father?' She instantly realized what she said had offended Zuko.

'Yes,' he took a deep breath and let it out. 'Just like my father, I want to bring this world into a new era and not just be used again. Thats why I need you, you can detect when someone is lying?'

'Yes' figuring out where this was going.

'When we are talking I need you to signal me if they are lying. If I put a stone in my pocket will you be able to move if you sense they are lying?' Asked Zuko.

'I can do that but I need a flat surface. The sand just gets in the way. Lucky I've got my flying boars with me. Jin, Haru come here,' she commanded with force to make everyone heard. 'We need this sand to be flattened so we can have a proper meeting with our visitors. Go.' She commander her warriors in a direct manner making sure they knew what to do and had absolutely no questions. It was also very clear that in everything she did it was not just for herself and that it helped others.

The earth benders stepped into to the middle of the area. Everyone else moved away to make sure they had enough room to work their advanced earth bending. The two stood up and raised one hand in the air they took a deep breath. Then they began. They smashed their raised hand onto the floor then turned 360 on the spot. The ground trembled. Then they used their second hand to flatten the sand perfectly. This lasted barely a coupled of seconds and turned the entire floor to stone.

'Well done you two, knew you could do it. Now lets get into our positions.' When they walked to her place behind Zuko she said one last thing. 'Believe in yourself and do the right thing, not just for the fire-nation but for all of us.'

All of us.

There was a moment of silence, of deathly stillness where everyone worked out what was going on. The guardsmen raised their weapons but it was too late for them. The earth bender had raised a massive wall and had launched it at the enemy. It crushed everyone in its way.

The firefight began quickly but the guardsmen were already suffering loses. The enemy could control the elements and were very good at it. They didn't stand a chance.

As guardsmen began to support the front line the imperial guard's commander began to get up. As he realized what was going on he cursed to himself then tried to stand. He fell straight onto the floor.

'My lord you are week let me take you back,' said a robotic voice. It was his personal bodyguard, the blank he rescued.

'No!' He said as he ached with pain. 'You are too good to drag me to the ship. We can't lose here, we have to establish ourselves as the stronger force now. Kill their leader, if we can't win peacefully we'll do it the old fashioned way.' After that the blank went off to her task. 'You two' he said to a couple of guardsmen. 'take me back to the ship.'

As the blank ran towards the enemy she saw the destruction they were causing. guardsmen were dropping like flies, be it by fire, earth or water. On her left 3 soldiers just dropped into a bottomless pit and on her right a man had just been crushed by a rock over half his size. In front of her was a corpse which was on fire. She was on the right track.

On the other side of the battlefield was Toph fighting six guardsmen at once. And she was winning because this was her domain. There were two on either side and two more approaching. She could kill all of them in an instant by creating a large hole and drowning them in sand or by releasing six sharp rocks into there bodies. However that was not Toph's way. She didn't hold back but she prided herself on never having to kill unnecessarily. she had killed before and was no stranger to it but this could be avoided. She already knew how to defeat them anyway.

The one on the right had different armour and markings probably indicating a commander, he would go first. She raised a stone pillar from the sand and hit the man in the chest knocking him out. The man next to him attempted to drive his bayonet into her but Toph deflected his weapon into the ground and then kneed him in the stomach with ferocious force, leaving him on the floor.

The two left behind her wavered for a moment after seeing their comrades being taken so quickly. Toph didn't hesitate and sent sand in both their eyes. With the extra time she created quick sand trapping them until she saw fit. Two more left. A las-gun shot landed a foot to her left and she barely dodged the second. she tunneled into the floor away from the firing. The guardsmen continued to fire hoping to do some damage. She then appeared behind them in a full earth suit she created while in the ground from the sand. She punched one five meters into the air and grabbed the other one. He struggled and looked straight into her eyes. They both saw a monster, a monster who would stop at nothing to destroy the other. She then slammed him into the ground knocking him out cold. It all took about 15 seconds.

The imperial guard was getting back together and started to do some damage. The first to die was the water bender, with little to work with he couldn't defend himself and was obliterated by a salvo of las-bolts. The fire benders faired no better with only Zuko and one of his guards still alive. The earth bender were doing the best being able to defend them self and do serious damage. Flak jackets don't defend against large rocks.

This mattered little to the blank. She only kept it in her mind to make sure she had a possible escape route and knew the situation. She had to kill Zuko, no one else and that was what she trained to do. He was only 10 meters away, close enough for her to strike. He went to strike her with fire but she didn't move. Only when the fire appeared did she move. Shocked that he could still fire bender his attack got dangerously close. Her armour was able to withstand over 1000 degrees of heat but she didn't now if that would be enough. He was good, very good. She was now face to face with him and could see both the anger and the skill in his face. She dodged one punch and deflecting another. This gave her enough time to draw her assassins knife and tried to stab Zuko. But it failed. He was unnaturally fast and it only left a deep cut on his left shoulder. he used the opportunity to send her flying. He knew he couldn't fight her forever and so did she.

'Get back to the ship now! We're leaving!' She heard in her helmet. as she ran across the battlefield she could see the damage that had been done. She had failed along with the rest of the guardsmen. As she jumped into the plane which had just started to leave she saw at least eight guardsmen still on the battlefield. There would be no hope for those still on the ground. Now all that was left was to prepare for the upcoming war.

Today was a disgrace. I still can't believe it, how did we lose? Ten soldiers defeated us! this is humiliating. 'Owww! be careful!' I shout at the medic in the medical wing. Being healed like this was a stain on my pride because it was such a rare thing. Even worse it came from no where. He seamed as if he would follow the imperial creed but it turns out he's as bad as the rest of them.

'Did you send for my body guard yet' I ask impatiently, not wanting to wait for her anymore. 'I need to have a serious talk with her,' I need to know her allegiance.

She will betray y-

The door opens and she walks in along with two of my soldiers who were lucky enough to survive. she is still in her armour charred and damaged from the battlefield. I don't think she ever takes it off. 'Why did you fail me?'

'I tried commander but they were to strong,' she replied, a weak excuse.

'Too strong? You were trained by the assassins, no task is out of your reach.'

'But they had inhuman powers which I was unaware of.'

'Your a blank! A pariah! When we first met you made my friend die by just being near him! Why didn't you effect them? I want answers dammit.' If I don't get answers soon she would pay.

'I've been trained to control my abilities but during the fight I let it out but they still used their powers. it must mean they aren't warp based.'

'Rubbish! Without the warp what they did makes no sense. Of course you could be lying.' she flinched. 'The inquisition and the Officio Assassinorum checked you out but they could of missed something. You came from nowhere. You might be working for your own gain and we can't have that.' This would be her test to see if she was still loyal to me. I hope she passes. At that moment the psyker I order to kill her entered. He is about to shot her with lightening before she stops him.

'Enough!' She screams and all goes dark. I feel cold and weak, unable to do anything about it. The two guards are on the floor and the psyker is turning in pain, probably about to die. I don't want this to happen. She is a good body guard and a good person. 'P-p-please stop.' My words barley leave my lips but she still hears me. I feel the emperor's light shine upon me again.

'I will obey you commander,' she says as she bows to me. 'You doubted I could still do my task but I just showed you what I could do. I wear this suit to keep my powers in check.'

Thank the emperor that she is still loyal to me. 'I just needed to know, thank you,' I say sincerely. I commanded the two guards that were on the floor to remove the now dead psyker from the room. He was nobody anyway, just another battlefield casualty.

'How do we proceed now commander?' she asks waiting for my orders.

'If what you say is true then it means that this are being that the Imperuim has never encountered before. This means that we need to gather data and people to find out what happened and why your powers didn't work. We're going to capture some new specimens.' I have a grin I shouldn't have.

In the desert Toph and Zuko are looking through the battlefield for any wounded. They had won this first skirmish but there would be many more battles to come and so many more deaths. Zuko stood silently while Toph was talking.

'At least we did okay,' she said trying to cheer him up sensing something was wrong. He didn't react. 'I mean there were like fifty of them and we still won. We are aw-'

'Was I right? Interrupted Zuko.

'What?' Asked Toph not understanding his question.

'Was I right to reject them. Have I saved the world or withheld enlightenment?'

'You knew he was lying. I showed you with the rock. He just wanted to use us,' she replied.

'But how can we be sure?' Toph stood in silence not knowing how to answer. 'Their technology is beyond us and we have no way of attacking the source of their empire. This is a one sided war.

'Zuko it is better o fight for freedom then live in tyranny. We learnt that as teenagers, it's important that now we've started we don't back down.

'Your right and that is why you need to contact the earth king and tell him to prepare. The water benders should stay neutral. I'm going to recreate the fire nation army.'

'What about the avatar?'

'We can do this without him. He's disappeared twice now so we can't rely on him anymore.'

'Okay Zuko. I'm gong to take my flying boars back to the earth king and tell him what has happened. You can take the prisoners back to the fire nation.' As she started gathering her students she had only one thought on her mind. The avatar must be found.

Author's note

So this is the big moment, what do you think? please review and i'm going to have alot more free time so i'll probably right these more often then. this is also were i 'planned' up to but it shouldn't be a problem. thanks for the reviews so far and any i'll get please mention certain bits that you liked/disliked about it.