Lao quietly sipped on his tea at the dining room table as he contemplated the coming day. Poppy had just sent the servant to go fetch their daughter.

"How goes business, dear?" came the daily, traditional inquiry from his caring wife. She sat to his left, and brought a pair of chopsticks up to her not-yet-painted lips, breaking fast.

As was custom, he humored her, "Shipments of finished metal from the western coast of the Earth Kingdom have been slowing, lately, though this is ordinary at this time of year. The routes are currently plagued with storms. But things should return to normal once winter's over."

"Oh, good," came the reply, though they both knew she had no idea what he was talking about. That was fine, though, because her role was solely to support her husband and run the household. It was the way of things, and they were both happy with it.

Of course, now it was time for him to reciprocate, "What is scheduled for today?"

By which he meant to inquire whether or not there were any guests coming to visit.

None, it turned out. "I planned to practice Haiku verse with Toph."

Nodding, "Very good."

At that point, their very ordinary morning was violently disrupted.

Poppy was about to have another bite of steamed rice, but cried out in shock when the barrier to her left next to the paper door connecting to the main hall was blasted open. The piece of wall slid forward before crushing the table, room quickly filling with billowing clouds of dust. Man and wife both quickly went into coughing fits.

"Guards! Hehehack, guards! Defend my person, we're under attack! Ack!" he called out, eyes squinting, waving a hand in front of his face to clear away the air.

He felt clinging hands on his robe, "Lao!"

Standing, he tried to grab hold of his wife and lift her into a standing position, "Come with me! We have a panic room, maybe we can get away -!"

"Hey Mom, Dad, how ya doing?" said a voice filled with childish happiness.

They froze, and looked at each other in distraught. Toph!

Her mother reacted first, her green eyes searching through the cloud of grit as she tried to warn her daughter, "Toph! We have to get away, there are burglars!"

"Is there anyone with you?" Lao stumbled in the direction of his little girl's voice, "Poppy, get to the guest hall! Toph, quickly, follow the sound of my voice, grab onto my hand!"

"Hmmm, let me think about that… No."

And the dust that filled the room was promptly swept away, revealing their daughter in an earthbending pose for a brief moment before she relaxed and waved, giving a wide grin.

"What's up?"

One could hear a pin drop in the silence which followed that greeting. Poppy, with one foot through the servants' door in the opposite hallway, looked as though she might pass out. He could hear his own heart pumping in his ears, trying to take in the scene before him.

The choice of clothing she wore was totally unfamiliar; she looked like some peasant boy dressed up as one of those vagabond earthbending gladiators he'd heard about in town. Toph had her left hand planted on her waist, her right hand up in a mocking salute and was still smirking.

Stunned, her father shouted, "What on earth are you doing, Toph!"

She moved and held up her hands in a 'Who knows?' gesture, breezily strolling into the room as she did. "Remodelling the dining room?" she tried, "I thought it could use a new door."

Lao's brain returned an error message as it scrambled to find the correct response to this stimulus.

Red faced, "Do you have any idea how expensive…! No, what am I saying…?" he brought the palm of his hand to his forehead, horrified at himself for thinking of expenses ahead of his daughter's safety. "You could have hurt yourself, earthbending like that! What were you thinking!"

His wife unfroze from her previous stupefaction, rushing back into the room, picking her way across the wreckage of the dining room table and lifting a scolding finger, "Don't scare us like that! You don't know how to earthbend; you're only allowed to bend when Master Yu is watching over you!"

"You, young lady, are going to your room," her father declared imperiously, "There will be no visiting the gardens for you today. You're grounded!"

Before Lao could reach forward and grab hold of his daughter's hand to drag her away to her punishment, Toph held up two fingers to her mouth.

"Sh-Sh-ssssshhhhh…"

Out of pure punch-drunkenness from the blows reality was delivering them, both parents obeyed the odd command to be silent. An intense look of deep focus appeared on the girl's face, smile gone and replaced with a small frown of concentration, and her head tilted to the side as if she were listening for something.

"You hear that?"

Total silence. Their daughter stayed perfectly still, waiting. Gradually, having been allowed a respite from chaos to actually think, it dawned upon Lao what was wrong about this state of affairs.

Raising a hand to one of her ears, his daughter spoke, "Nothing. No footsteps down the hall, not the girly screams of your servants running around like pig-chickens with their heads cut off, not the thumpity-thump of your dunder-headed, overpaid estate guards racing to save your sorry butt," beneath the bangs which hung over her eyes, Toph's frown morphed until she wore a positively wicked grin, "Do you know why you can't hear any of these things, Dad? It's because this morning,"

Suddenly, before either he or Poppy could react, their daughter twitched her chin upwards and cones of earth drove their way through the oak-spruce floors to encase man and wife in perfect casts up to their noses.

"I happened to 'em."

Both of them were completely immobile, glued into the position that they were in moments before. Breathing heavily through his open nostrils, Lao watched the girl with wide eyes. He couldn't turn his head but he thought he had heard a squeak -

"Aw, Mom, I'm touched that you'd faint for little ol' me."

Shocked, his eyes focused onto Toph, and he felt his stomach performing somersaults.

Holding up and waving her hands around, "Don't panic, don't panic! No one's dead. I'm not a complete bitch. Besides, Twinkletoes made me promise to use the kid gloves, and trust me, nothing puts that guy into rage mode quite like cold-blooded murder. I'd like to keep my soul intact, thank you."

What… what… what… ? Lao's mind seemed to be stuck in a loop, not knowing which wrong thing to grasp at. The bizarrely aggressive behavior? The absurdly reckless earthbending? The disgusting vulgarity? What she was actually saying?

"Right, let's get down to business," and, without turning her head to face him, she pointed directly at his face, "This is my half-minute notice that I'm moving out. I'm the Greatest Earthbender Who Ever Lived. I've got things to do, people to save, small countries to conquer. G'bye. I'll miss you dearly. Not."

Then she moved her head so that her filmed-over eyes were looking directly into his own, somehow.

"This is also my fair warning, just for you, Pops," she articulated, "'cause I know that what I just said didn't pierce your thick skull. If you do anything stupid, like, I don't know, send bounty hunters after me, at the very least, don't pay them anything up front. I'm telling you right now, they suck. I don't need to know who they are; unless one of them's a kid my age with some swanky blue tats, they don't stand a chance. Also,"

She lightly heeled the floor with one of her (bare?) feet, and a raised platform - which Lao felt was disproportionate to the almost gentle tap of the child's foot - smashed its way through the now totally destroyed floor. Toph was lifted up so that she stood at his height, and he became aware of the sweat gathered on his brow. How he wished he could wipe it off with his sleeve…

Misty green eyes glared straight past and through his head as she scowled. Her finger was still pointed at his face.

"Don't deal with the Fire Nation in your pathetic efforts to capture me. Ever. Or I will be back, and you will not like it. I've got a zero tolerance policy for that kind of shenanigans."

With each pause, she jabbed her finger forward, making Lao go cross-eyed as he watched it. When she was finished, she backed off and was back to smiling.

"Well, that was fast! Wish I could stay, but I gotta run; I had to keep it under the length of an autolift pitch."

Lao was briefly jarred by the meaningless expression.

Toph stopped at some unknown cue. Then she mumbled to herself, "Oh. Right. That turn of phrase ain't invented yet. Whoops."

Shaking her head, she continued, "I meant that I had to keep it brief, get it? I've got a schedule to keep."

With that, she stomped.

The platform she was standing on instantly launched upwards in an enormous pillar, demolishing the roof of his home as it went. The morning sun shone through and debris rained down from the freshly created hole in the ceiling.

And Lao was left staring at the new stone fixture, unable to look anywhere else until his earthbending servants woke up from being knocked out and got him out of his impromptu prison.

Where did I go wrong? he wondered pitifully.

His daughter, for one reason or another, was out of control. And, from what he had heard her say, he had a heavy impression that it was because she had become irrecoverably mentally ill. Wild dreams of the outside world he knew that she had never been to before, having raised her all her life within the closed walls of the compound. An over-inflated view of her own earthbending prowess. Even a made-up friend (the one she called 'Twinkletoes'). It was the worst case scenario, representing every dark fear he had harbored. His fragile daughter was in danger, the world would break her, and, in addition, if it ever got out that she's Lao Beifong's daughter, his reputation would be utterly ruined.

Muffled noises came from somewhere behind and to his left. Poppy.

So she is safe, he thought with some relief.

A grumbling noise sounded in his ears.

Lao's brow furrowed in distress.

… I have to go to the bathroom…

Just outside of Gaoling, strolling into a lovely clearing, feeling the cool grass between her toes and the damp ground with the soles of her feet, Toph jauntily whistled random notes.

It feels great to be young again.

Upon thinking this, she paused, standing still. The melody settled on a sentimental tune.

Winter, Spring; Summer and Fall~ There it is. The story of our lives.

She stopped blowing air between her lips and huffed air past her bangs, feeling a little melancholy.

Just so many seasons going by. Dangit. And I was in such a good mood.

Her life, their lives, were a joke, and the punchline was not funny. Because she knew that she was young now. But it was only a matter of time before she'd wake up and, surprise!, she was a sack of old bones and there were creatures rolling around in her front yard and she had an irrepressible urge to yell at them to get off her lawn and then go have tea with the thick-skinned one that stuck around and wasn't afraid to break rules and then share eternal wisdom with the brat. And then she'd blink again and she'd be right back at monkeyfeathering square one.

It could've been worse.

She could've been in it alone.

Shivering, she ground her teeth and stomped the ground in frustration, causing a minor earthquake in the area.

What in the courts of hell am I moping about!?

It was her turn. Her turn to call the shots and steer the wheel of destiny. Her turn to decide what the world would look like. That was like… a winter solstice celebration or a birthday or something. For one of them, anyway. Actual winter solstices were like watching a day go by. Days were like seconds ticking on a clock.

Speaking of which…

Starting up her marching again, she finished crossing the clearing and began hiking the mountainous terrain north of the city in earnest. She had an appointment to get to.

This is going to be fun, she thought to herself firmly, approximately 9,000 times more awesome than the powderpuffs I just ditched, that's for sure.

That put a grin back on her face.

She knew which buttons she could have pushed to make them see her for who she is the quick way, of course. She'd done it before. The problem was:

1) The quick way took a depressingly long amount of time and energy.

2) Like the others in Aang's merry band of time-travelers, she thrived on originality, which Mommy and Daddy lacked, big time. They were boring people with very boring personalities and desires. At least to begin with.

No bigger wet blanket than that.

So, although she did have a minor soft spot for her parents, she wasn't willing to do all the work of making the relationship happen. They were going to have to do some soul searching, themselves.

Just like the first time.

In a way, it made it feel more real.

She frowned and stopped again, this time in the midst of the forest covering the slopes leading up to the mountain range.

Walking's too slow. I'm late.

It was a beautiful day to die.

The sky was cold and bright, and even though the sky was clear, the sunlight was weak and brought no warmth - an alien concept to many men of the Fire Nation who never experienced true winter. And winter was coming to this place; it became considerably colder at these higher altitudes during this time of year than at the base. The path was well-trod; the most direct route from Gaoling to Omashu without crossing the Si Wong Desert or the Banyan Swamp was over the hill and through the plains. The light bathed the east side of the mountain, and a gentle breeze blew through the dying leaves of the forest bordering the path, prompting a shower of reds and yellows and oranges. They fell with many a whisper, sounding like the ghosts of the spirit world greeting him.

Shi stood rigid, feeling numb, knowing his fate.

What a beautiful day to die.

Colonel Mongke, firebender specialist, sat upon his komodo rhino mount, smirking, no doubt, at the thought of the money which would soon fill his coffers, "You are wanted by the Fire Nation for desertion."

It was simple, Shi's fate. It was decided a long time ago, by Fire Lord Azulon. One thousand gold pieces are paid out by the military to anyone who brings back a deserter's head.

Usually, that was deterrent enough.

Not for Jeong Jeong. But at least he was a master firebender, and could defend himself.

Not Shi. He wasn't even a bender to begin with.

But he still left.

The other members of the renowned Rough Rhinos emerged from their previously hidden places along the road. Kahchi, Ogodei, Vachir, Yeh-Lu.

"Desertion is an act of treason," the leader continued.

Not for the first time, he pondered the wisdom of that decision.

He wasn't the first one in the forty-first infantry division to become more desperate than they were sane. It had become a madhouse of paranoid soldiers since the slaughter nearly three years ago. No one trusted the higher-ups. They got a reputation as a 'problem' division, and were moved from the outskirts of Ba Sing Se to the Southwest Theatre. New recruits weren't sent to the forty-first division anymore. 'Undesirable Numbers' were, now. 'Dishonored' citizens. Political inconveniences. Every week was a constant stream of blood and death; the Southwest was perhaps the most contested area in the Earth Kingdom aside from Ba Sing Se. They were sent on raiding missions, and it was very much a thing of luck to get out of one alive. Many others before Shi got to the point where the killing and dying was just too much. They wanted out. They were all wretches and they wanted out. But there was this rule…

Mongke scraped his wrist guards against each other, "The penalty is death."

The Rough Rhinos circled him. Shi stared at the fist aimed at him by the leader, and absently thought of all the dry kindling surrounding them in the form of dead leaves. Undoubtedly, a fire started here would burn uncontrollably.

Shame. It's beautiful, here.

According to the Fire Nation's military policy, if one is declared insane by the division physician, then one no longer needs to serve; he or she would receive an honorable discharge and be allowed to go home. Since one had to be crazy to go on a mission in the forty-first division, all that one had to do was ask. However, in so asking, according to the official rules, that marks oneself as sane due to showing concern for one's own safety. And if one is sane and able-bodied one must fight, or one is a traitor.

If you fight, you're crazy and don't have to fight.

When you opt to not fight, you're sane and you have to fight.

If you desert, you're a traitor for being sane and avoiding battle before you're crazy for running into the teeth of a mercenary group or elite cavalry team like the Rough Rhinos, so the penalty for that was the customary death sentence.

It was a beautiful, simple system.

Gold, merciless eyes narrowed, fist punching forward, fire flaring into existence, and Shi was abruptly aware of a wetness on his face.

All he ever wanted was to not die.

Flames rushed forward in an expanding cloud, and Shi closed his eyes tightly, hunching in on himself and covering his face with his arms. He let out a squeak of fear.

Only for the heat to abruptly vanish.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNGGGGG!"

That sounded like… the colonel…?

Opening his eyes, he peeked over his upraised arm.

Something… Well, something was happening to Mongke.

The colonel was looking directly upwards, bending backwards slightly. Where his arms were previously in an attacking pose, now they were flung open in a wide T-shape. His nose ring was sticking out at an odd angle, not falling where it ought to have naturally. His pierced earlobes were strange, too, elongated as if they were being pulled downwards. Shi couldn't see the colonel's face, but, based off of the whimpers, he guessed that Mongke was experiencing quite a bit of pain.

There was no frame of reference for what was happening; Shi's brain was completely unable to place what was going on. Feeling confused, he looked around, standing in place as he turned his head.

From the looks on the other Rough Rhinos, they had no idea what was happening to their leader, either.

"Ya know, you're so much fun," a high pitched voice called out fondly.

The voice came from behind Colonel Mongke, and Shi was stunned by the occurrence, because that sounded like... What… a little girl…?

The dissonance of the situation was temporarily interrupted as bare footsteps sounded against the ground. The owner of the child's voice came into view, walking around the leader's komodo rhino.

She was a little girl. Black hair bundled up into a bun with bangs hanging low, and wearing an earthbender warrior's get-up. At a guess, he placed her at thirteen years old, maximum. Curiously, she had her arm outstretched, fingers splayed out, in the direction of Colonel Mongke.

Then he noticed the tigershark smile on her face.

"It's just, you have these pieces of metal… in so many, amazingly painful places. And when I see you, every time… "

No… it can't be… Shi jerked his head back and forth between the two, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Judging by the conspicuous lack of deadly objects being hurled at the little girl, the rest of the Rough Rhinos were in a similar state of shock.

"... Well. A target like that? I'm sorry, but that's totally impossible for me to resist, sonny."

From behind him, he heard the twirl of a metal chain, and he ducked.

Shi curled himself up into a ball, head down, as soon as Ogodei launched his bolo at the self-proclaimed metalbender. So, he never saw. But the audio information was plenty.

The sound of the jangling chain switched directions.

"Hmm. Your minions are kinda idiots, aren't they?"

A whimper issued from the leader.

The chain wrapped around something.

"AAAaarrrgghhh!" Ogodei yelled.

Correction, someone.

Then he heard an arrow slicing through the air… but no accompanying thump indicating that it landed.

"Anyways, back to you… I mean, come on, man. That? Seriously?"

She must've done something, because the colonel cried out, "YAAAAAAHHHHHHNNNGGG!"

Then the ground was shaking and the komodo rhinos started making fearful noises.

"I mean, just, wow. Wow. Really."

The whizz of an arrow going back where it came from; there was a snap of string.

The bow… Vachir's bow…

"I… I don't even get it. No one would see it. Except… oh."

There was an odd sliding sound, and there was a muffled shout.

Shi struggled to comprehend, and it dawned when he heard the rattles of a suit of armor. Yeh-Lu, the grenadier. Who was completely covered in metal.

What did she do to him?

"You tryin' to impress the ladies or something? Show 'em how tough the big bad cavalryman is?"

One of the komodo rhinos charged, and Shi knew it was because the only one of the Rough Rhinos who wasn't incapacitated yet was also the only one of them that wasn't a long-range specialist.

Kahchi, the wielder of the guan dao.

There was a whistling sound as the blade was presumably sliced forward… interrupted by a crunch.

"Well… shucks. Congrats, macho man. I'm sure they all thought you were super tough, honey."

The earthquake which had been rumbling in the background ratcheted up in intensity. Shi tipped over until he was curled up on his side, and there was a thump as one of the warriors was jostled off of his mount.

"But if you wanted to impress someone with your tolerance, you shoulda gone to Huifang's House of Hurt. It woulda been a lot less painful than what I'm about to do to you and your boy's club."

What followed that pronouncement was not a battle.

No.

It was pure chaos.

The deserter was frozen in place.

Silence.

There really had been no way to parse what was going on, before. It was just screams and panicking steeds and an earthquake all in one. Soon, however, everything went quiet.

Shi kept his head down.

"Hey."

If I stay still, maybe she'll think I'm dead…

"Wuss. I just pulled your butt outta the fire. Because of me, now you can say you're the third guy to desert the Fire Nation Army and live. How sweet is that, huh?"

Goawaygoawaygoaway…

Her voice was coming from directly above him, now. "Pfff. Fine. I've got places to go, anyway. I'm not here to listen to you wax poetic with your whining, bub. You think you're the only one in the world with problems?"

Shi shifted his head to glimpse upwards.

Fogged-over gray-green eyes greeted him.

She's… She's blind. Agni above…!

"Oh, good. Now at least you're lookin' at me. Ya need to be able to describe me to the rest of the bar, anyhow," she grinned cheerfully. The girl had a bag hefted over her left shoulder, now, where before she wasn't carrying anything (No travelling supplies? Why? How?).

He looked around, wanting to have a better grasp on what happened during the fight.

The komodo-rhinos were all gone. Understandable. He felt like running, too.

Then he caught sight of the pile of bodies further behind the girl. All the Rough Rhinos, with the leader slumped on top.

Somehow the girl must've sensed where he was looking, because she waved her free hand dismissively and answered the unasked question with, "Unconscious."

Shi barely knew where the words came from, but they were blurted out, nonetheless.

"Who are you?"

A smirk.

"To you? I'm just a Blind Bandit."

Then she dropped the bag she had been holding in front of him, and Shi startled at the solid thump and the chingling of a bag full of coin.

"Alright, here's what you're gonna do…"