Beta-read by Scribbles I

Healed and Hunted

Sport

Chapter Two

Mosh Pit

Toph

Wearing shoes didn't make a difference to her sight in this place, but it felt wrong nonetheless. If the floors were just concrete, she could at least have some kind of picture. Most of the other world used concrete, but this school decided to apply linoleum to the floors. There was no seeing in this place. She had to rely completely on Aang or Kat, since she refused the walking sticks.

She used to hate it. Especially when they were kids. That was twelve years or so behind them, though. Now she simply accepted it, as if there were anything else to do about it. She wished the world were just dirt roads, or even all concrete. Feh, she also wished she could bend in public without people running away from her in terror.

Fat chance.

She and Kat were due for another match with Aang today. They were getting to skip "Life Skills" to do so, so neither of them minded. Toph hated life skills. She, for all the skills and abilities she had, was considered an invalid. There was no job she would be able to do. Not that being blind kept her from working. It was being blind and an Inheritor that would keep her an invalid. Aang had already told her his plan for her.

For now, she told him to hold off on that. That was neither here nor there. She failed to see how that particular solution solved all her problems. Toph shoved that out of her mind. She had to focus, or they were going to lose quickly. As good as Kat was, Aang was better. They all knew it.

"Ready?" Aang asked, letting a breeze even out the ground. Toph was grateful that the pit no longer had sharp rocks or other objects near the doors. The teachers had tried to cut her advantage. (Of course, when she was paired with Kat, the pain was pointless as the Water Inheritor would just heal the wounds.) They learned not to try. Aang had nearly destroyed the pit when they cut Toph's feet without Kat in the room.

The air suddenly dried when Kat's arms swung above her head. Toph saw Aang flip off into the trees, almost blinding her to him. Almost.

"Here we go." Toph lifted Kat and hurled her after the Air Inheritor. Toph had no idea what happened while the other woman was in the air, but she saw the landing. Toph wasn't the most graceful person she knew, and neither was Kat, but the Earth Inheritor had to admit, the girl had battle-presence. When she landed, Toph took off towards Aang's next jump site.

She arrived two seconds after he did. He tried to send her back with a water wave, but Kat ran interference on that. Toph lifted him up - which of course was pointless - and he went on again. The idea of this cat and mouse game was not to injure each other. It was to waste time - today it was about missing life skills - and make Aang a faster bender.

"Hey! I thought of something!" Kat yelled over their constant back-and-forth bending. It was about an hour in, after they had gone through the basic forms. They were reverting back to dirty tricks they had learned in the past, before they had settled down.

Aang laughed. "What? Shouldn't you be focusing?"

"If we don't have life skills - what are we going to do?" This was a joke. At least, mostly. Indeed, what were three Inheritors - even the Ava - supposed to do in the 'real' world?

Toph thought for a moment. Aang seemed to still, also. Suddenly, he was pinned down by what Toph assumed to be ice. It wasn't something she could see through.

"Shouldn't you be focusing?" Kat called out as she landed next to Aang. This made Toph smile. Aang should have been paying attention. Aang sighed and held up his hands.

"So I should. What's that bring the score to?" The bald man was helped to his feet. He wiped himself off and they all began to walk toward the door.

"You're still up by three," Kat informed them all. She handed Toph her shoes from the perch, then she and the Ava moved to gather their own things.

Aang sighed. "Very uncomfortable lead."

"I'm sure by next month, we'll have surpassed you greatly," the blind girl said. She strapped the shoes on and waited for her family to lead her on. It was, unsurprisingly, Aang who did so. She was glad Kat had the good sense to go before them, leaving Toph to her awkward stumbling. She would never get used to being lead around.

"Well, that was two hours. Now, I'll see you both later." Toph listened as Kat's voice grew quieter. Eventually, the sound of footsteps faded and she and Aang were alone.

"Time for history. Do you need to get your things?" Aang asked her.

Toph shook her head and answered, "No, I left what I needed there. Are we going to be on time today?"

She felt Aang's arm move. "Nope. Few minutes late. Like always."

"Gee," Toph said, "I love lectures about punctuality."

Aang laughed, "At least it's not notes."

Lunch

Aang

The bruises were a little hard to deal with, but he did so quietly. Kat had more things to worry about than his sore limbs. The first thing she told them was that she had another pit-match scheduled. She had never heard of the guy, she said. He was just one of the Nations.

They ate in silence, all dreading the fight. They hated pit-matches. It was different when it was each other. The standings never went down, for they all owned their respective elements. No one challenged their ranks. But the Nations were another matter. The man was of course, an unknown.

"Who scheduled it?" Aang asked. Sometimes, when 'teachers' saw that two students had some kind of a quarrel, they would assign a pit-match. To settle things as amicably as possible. Unless someone died, of course. Then it was all business and the pit was cleaned, and it never, ever happened. The bodies were just... sent home.

"I don't know. It doesn't say anything. At all. Not even his damn name." Kat was on edge. She was nervous, and angry. And scared. Aang watched her place the emotions in the right order.

"It'll be alright, you know," Toph said, trying to sound helpful. Toph was not the most... sensitive person, but she was making an effort. Aang saw said effort made Kat smile.

"I know. I just don't want a repeat of last time." Her voice was solemn.

Aang didn't want to think about that last time, but he did anyways. It wasn't the first time one of them had seriously injured someone else. That particular fight... had been gruesome. Not only for the other person, whose name they had not even learned. Kat had been bedridden for a week after the fight. The other person, regrettably, died later. Kat blamed herself, but Aang blamed the teachers who set the pit-match.

"Yoshi's hair is getting so long," Aang commented, in a hurry to change the subject. Everyone was ready, so they accepted with grace.

"She's missing a patch in the back. She said she cut it, just because Sokka said not to. I didn't want to tell on her." Kat laughed, picking a spot in her own head.

"That's not like her mom or aunt at all." Toph snorted.

Aang added, "Of course not. Where would she get that attitude?"

"Definitely not from her uncle," Katara said under her breath, but loud enough to be heard. Table seven laughed and laughed. The cafetorium cared not to hear them, but rather to overcome the noise with its own brand of humdrum sounds. Aang was grateful when the PA came on, announcing it was time for class. Everyone grew silent and the instant, stark peace almost gave him a headache. He would rather have the headache.

The Pit

Lee

Another pit-match. This made the third this month. The third. Most only had one match, unless they requested otherwise. And this was his third. It was outrageous. He wasn't about to complain, however. The more pit-matches he won, the higher up the ranks he went. The better his chances of making it out of this place alive.

The tops of the lists weren't technically guaranteed a graduation, but none had ever failed. It may have been coincidence. To be a the top, you had to be the best. And the best were able to leave this place.

She was a Southern Tribe, he saw. Powerful, top of her list. He had been given a packet, on her fighting styles and weaknesses. He dreaded to think she had been given the same thing. He would already be at a disadvantage - the school always seemed to alter the pit when he battled Water Inheritors - and he didn't want her to know too much. So he studied for the week he was given. When the time came, he knew her strategies backwards and forwards.

She was waiting by the door, her back to him, and her hands doing something in front of her. The proctor rolled his eyes when Lee approached. Late, of course. But only by a few moments, he thought. Or minutes. It didn't matter.

"We can start now," the man said. Lee saw the glint in his eyes. He had known the teachers got off on this kind of thing, but to see it so close made his blood boil. The girl turned to him. She seemed familiar for some reason or another.

"It's you." Her eyes blinked quickly, "Please be careful out there."

Lee's brows came together in confusion? Him? Where did he know her? And then, when she turned her head, he remembered. The girl on the bus. Her name was Katara. She had an injured left calf she occasionally favored. She knew how to take water out of plants. She was a Southern Tribe. Most of this information was supplied by his packet. What it didn't tell him, however, was how unimposing her figure was. She was small and shy-looking. He doubted her shyness was sincere.

"I have no intentions of playing nice, Katara," he said menacingly. He had meant it to be a threat, to worry her, but he saw that it only confused her. He didn't have to wonder why for very long.

Her hands fell to her sides. "You know my name? And yet I do not know yours. I know nothing about you." She was questioning him again. Wanting to know the simplest of things - yet he would not answer. He left her there and went to his door. He could feel her stare after him.

He was surprised when he entered the pit. The barriers had been lifted to show the massive crowd. Said crowd consisted of several hundred fans who purchased tickets or held season passes to matches such as these. Students and teachers alike were also here to watch this. How many, he wondered, were there voluntarily?

He dropped down into it, and could immediately see what the teachers had done: there wasn't a drop of water on this field. Everything was dead and ready to burn. There was nowhere to hide; it was completely open and exposed. They had all but given him this round. They had stacked things against her, and he knew she could see that, also. Her shoulders sagged, and her head hung. For a moment, her hands came together near her face.

It seemed she was praying.

But then she looked at him, and he took two steps back. It wasn't something he decided, but something his body did naturally. Ah, he thought, her true nature is revealed. She was as much a monster as this place had intended her to be. She would not give pause in this battle.

The large screens above them chimed off the countdown - 3,2,1 - in familiar pings. Once the announcer's voice told them to begin, the crowd cheered. Lee looked up to see himself on one screen and her on another. He focused back on the battle, not knowing exactly what to expect. Not entirely predictable, the packet had said, unknown background training.

He lit his hands and calmly walked forward. There was no sense in running to her: he wasn't eager to feed these sports fans. He was, however, wary of her inconsistencies. Before the match she had told him to be careful of all things. Not to watch himself, or prepare to lose, but to please be careful out there. And that didn't match the woman in front of him.

This woman looked angry, sad, and slightly hostile. None of that seem to be directed at him, however. Lee tossed a few flickers down to the ground, moving his arms so that the burning grass circled the two of them, leaving enough room to maneuver in, but not enough for a full on fight. He hoped to end this quickly. (And yet, part of him ached for a good fight.)

The girl raised her hand, as if to answer a question. Lee raised an eyebrow.

"I concede," she said.

The arena fell silent.