98 A.G
Lin entered the mountain arena with firm steps, her shoulders staying level as the noise rolled down from the upper rings like heat from a forge, and she let the sound wash past without taking it.
It was clear that the arena was a recent acquisition and hadn't seen many years of use. As the crowd cheered for their favorite, she ignored the taunts yelled at her; she had come for two reasons that mattered, and nothing else.
The first reason stood across from her, in common clothes that did not sit naturally on a child who had been raised with servants and tutors. It was clear from her posture that she was royalty. Her chin was held steady even while her mouth threw crude jokes toward the crowd.
Lin recognized the pattern because her mother had drilled it into her as thoroughly as any of her other teachings. Royalty liked to play games, especially to gain favors in the Fire Nation, and she had been taught to distinguish any of them regardless of their disguise.
Her body continued to speak in a language that she could easily pick up, with the spine straight, her feet planted with ownership and pride. Sometimes, even when she remained still, she could see how they had even practiced not moving.
A royal child in an illegal tournament made no sense at face value, which meant the reason could be an opportunity, something that her unit had not pieced together yet. If there was something deeper going on, she refused to ignore an unknown element so close to their operations, especially if it gave them an edge.
The second reason was linked to the first. The blind bandit's reputation had spread through the earthbender underground, so that must mean that she had participated in the tournament multiple times already. That the girl could defeat other powerful benders who were also training as combatants meant she was truly a prodigy.
But being a prodigy doesn't mean maturity. Her youth became leverage and an opportunity to recruit someone from the other side who was truly powerful. It also meant they could be indoctrinated. They could be moved by flattery, by lies, or by a carefully placed promise.
Judging by the clear effort of hiding her nobility, she was sure she could be moved by the simplest offer of freedom that sounded genuine. No child with permission to do this fights in this arena without their parents present, even if they are confident in them. No one in the crowd was royalty, she had taken her time to check.
Her first guess was that she was using this as an escape from her royal life, something that happened frequently in the Fire Nation as well. She even knew of a girl who wanted to join a circus instead of being a royal. Truly incomprehensible, but it was her life, not Lin's.
Their unit required eyes inside the city and inside the royal orbit, and if royalty itself had wandered into the ring, then the path to the inner workings of the city's nobles could be even shorter than they had imagined.
Earth Kingdom people are naturally stubborn; having them listen to you is challenging. There is no better way to connect with one another than fighting each other. She just had to make a good first impression.
Lin walked to the center of the fighting platform. Her arms rested at her sides, her obscured metal plating was hidden beneath the cut of her uniform in a way that kept the outline human enough from a distance.
Still, it was clear that she couldn't hide them for long and the murmurs had already begun. As the upper back vents remained visible, when she turned they caught the torchlight with a dull sheen like tempered steel.
Across the ring, the small girl stood barefoot, hands loose, head slightly tilted as if listening to the stone rather than looking at Lin. She could see there was confusion on her face but as to what confused her, she had no idea.
"It seems you are quite heavy, Lady. Do you like food that much?" The girl taunted.
Lin bowed, showing a little respect could go a long way after all. She watched the girl's face shift into even more confusion for a brief moment. Clearly not used to respect in this type of duel where each combatant is trying to taunt the other and win the mental battle.
The child's mouth opened, already preparing another comment for the audience, and Lin cut across it with a voice that stayed calm and flat.
"Let us begin."
She settled into a stance, a bit different from her usual one as she couldn't really use her element or they would be discovered. She would not rush her yet, waiting to see how the young earthbender would initiate the fight.
The crowd grew impatient, the noise turning sharp and a bit annoying for the blind bandit. She finally moved first, the stone under Lin's feet shuddering as slabs of rock tore upward in a staggered pattern, pillars forming from the ring itself, snapping toward her at an angle from left and right, then from behind, the timing designed to trap her between impacts.
Lin moved reactively, stepping through the narrow gaps, twisting her shoulders to let a pillar brush past her back plating, then driving her fist into the next slab with enough force to fracture it into chunks that scattered across the platform.
The child's eyebrows drew down, irritation leaking through her practiced bravado, and she earthbent again, more aggressive now, thicker slabs lifting like shields, attempting to compress the space Lin had to work with.
Lin jumped, boots leaving the stone as another pillar surged where her head had been, and she landed lightly, letting her knees absorb the shock. Only for the ring beneath her to become unstable as the blind bandit pulled at the earth below, trying to roll the surface and throw her out of position.
Lin shifted sideways at the last moment; she felt the ring lurch where the stone had been forced into motion beneath her. The moment she touched down again, the ground opened under her legs. Stone rose around her shins like jaws closing, and in a breath her feet and calves were buried, locked into the ring itself.
The crowd roared at the sudden advantage. Still, being anchored and trapped only worked if she stayed there, and there was still an easy way out. With gathered strength, she drove both fists down in a powerful strike.
Her metal knuckles hit the stone with a hard crack, and she tore herself free by brute force, fracturing the earth that held her. Dust and grit erupted upward, and the dust cloud surged across her face. Lin had to close her eyes to keep it out, trusting her body and hearing more than sight.
She felt the next attack through sound and air displacement, the weight of a boulder being thrown, and she leaned aside at the exact instant it crossed her position, the rock passing close enough that she felt its wake.
Another slab followed, then another, and the timing suggested the child was trying to overwhelm her senses by forcing constant movement while keeping the ring unstable. The earthbender could clearly locate her even inside the cloud, which meant her opponent had the advantage.
'But could she locate incoming projectiles as well?'
Lin's hand moved to her belt, fingers finding a small knife by habit, and threw it in the direction from which the last rock had come from, trusting her sense of the angle and the line of attack where her opponent had tried to overwhelm her. The knife left her hand with a clean flick, and she knew it would reach her opponent if she was still there.
A heartbeat later, the earth answered her with a pillar that rose from the ring behind her, and it hit her squarely across the upper back. The impact rang against her vents with a sharp metallic sound that cut through the crowd, and the force hurled her forward, her body skidding across the stone. Her eyes scanned in which direction she was going as fast as possible, and finally the dust cleared just enough that she saw the ring's edge rushing closer.
Lin caught herself with her hands, her fingers and plating scraping as they dug to the arena floor. The ring's boundary sat a breath away. The crowd screamed for the finish, and Lin pushed herself back from the edge. Her boots found traction and she could see where her opponent was again.
She lifted her head with renewed determination and sprinted with all of her strength toward the blind bandit, a wide maniacal grin on her face.
----0000----
Toph was confused, all right. The ring carried every vibration like a drum, and the moment the fight began her seismic sense told Toph that her opponent was very heavy in the wrong places and light in others, and full of rigid structure that resonated even more than a regular person.
Her way of sensing everything around her had never lied to her, which is why she was confused to find that this lady was partially made of metal. If it were just boots and armor, she would feel that, but it wasn't.
Toph loved a challenge, though, and she could always ask questions later. She began her attacks, sending pillars from the ring, throwing slabs from the side, building the tempo until the metal lady had to move or get crushed.
It should have been easy, because most fighters panic when the earth shifts under them, and panic always shows in their feet, and Toph used that. This lady was extremely calm for someone facing a fight, even when dodging and exerting herself, she could feel her heart beating slowly through the vibrations.
The vibrations stayed steady, controlled, and when Toph launched a rock toward her, the girl destroyed it with her hands, punching slabs apart like they were brittle, almost as if she were an earthbender.
Toph's mouth opened in a grin despite herself, because that was cool, it made no sense, and made her want to know how.
"Come on fatty!" she called, loud enough for the crowd to hear, because the crowd liked taunts, "Are you just going to stay there and take it?"
The metal lady did not answer. Her breathing stayed even, and Toph could feel that her head did not turn toward the sound at all, which made Toph's grin widen because it meant the girl did not care, and that kind of calm felt like a challenge.
Toph pressed harder. She buried the girl's legs again and watched her struggle, expecting the usual stumble, and she felt the girl tense, then break free by sheer force, tearing stone apart and sending dust everywhere, and the ring trembled with it. Toph laughed with delight, and continued attacking her.
At one point Toph felt the lady throw something, and Toph shifted her feet and let it pass, because she could sense exactly where it was going, and her toes barely had to move. Still as it passed her, she could feel it was small and fast.
As it struck the walls far behind her and bounced off, it made a metallic ring. So probably a knife, after realizing this, her heart began to beat a little faster as the lady finally presented a real threat if she had the means to attack her.
Toph kept attacking, keeping the ring unstable, trying to herd the girl toward the edge. The metal girl resisted longer than Toph had expected, which made it better, because most fights ended too quickly, and Toph liked it when someone tried really hard.
Toph felt the metal girl's legs load up, a deep surge of pressure building in the stone, and Toph anticipated a leap, so she tried to bury her again, softening the earth up like a trap, expecting it to clamp and hold.
The girl sprinted instead, pulling buried legs free without slowing, the arena floor cracking under the sudden drive forward, and the speed was wrong for someone who had just taken several hits. Toph's eyes widened for a fraction of a second, then prepared properly, setting her stance.
If the girl landed a hit, Toph would go flying, because the strength in those arms felt like an adult boar-q-pine. Toph raised a wall, thick and solid, and punched it forward toward the charge, expecting the girl to smash through it with her hands, expecting the broken rock to blind her for a moment.
Toph shifted sideways at the same time, sliding over the stone with a quick earth-assisted movement, and she sent three diagonal pillars from the side, timing them to strike as the metal girl broke through the wall, so the hits would catch her mid-motion and throw her off line.
The plan worked, almost perfectly, because the pillars hit hard enough that the metal girl's body lifted, the impact forcing her sideways and out toward the edge, and Toph felt the ring vibrate with the force of it. Toph's grin returned, because she could already imagine the crowd's reaction when the metal girl fell.
But then Toph felt it through the earth, hands slamming into the ring, then legs, buried deep with brute force, the impact so strong the arena tilted a fraction and the stone under Toph's feet wavered. The metal lady had turned mid-air and twisted hard enough to grab hold of the ground yet again! How?!
Toph stumbled, caught herself, and stared at the space where the girl had landed, incredulous, because a nonbender shouldn't have been able to withstand the strength needed for that without bending. The metal girl rose from the ring's surface, dust rolling off her plating, and the vibrations telling her she was ready to try and close the distance again, as if she had never been thrown at all.
Toph drew a slow breath, still grinning because she was excited now, and she dropped back into stance.
"Do you ever get tired?" she muttered, mostly to herself.
Toph decided to do something stupid because she was curious, and she had always liked facing any challenge head-on, even if it involved some risks.
She let the metal lady close the distance, and she listened to her movements as the girl's boots bit into stone, the forward pressure building into an aggressive approach. The lady's punches felt powerful and she knew that any impact she suffered would hurt a lot.
Toph shifted, dodging the first punch by a fraction, then the second, then a kick that came fast and low, and she felt the air move around it even though she could not see it. The metal lady's strikes landed where they intended, and the speed stayed consistent even after everything Toph had thrown at her.
She used rocks and boulders to block some of the hits, but she had to constantly pull more from the ground as she was moving, because they were getting destroyed in her defense. Toph continued the dance, circling around the center of the ring.
It was clear for the young bender that the metal lady was expertly trained and could be a deadly opponent to anyone she had faced so far in the tournament. Her mind searched for cool occupations she could have been trained for. Maybe an assassin of some sort or a bounty hunter. Whatever it was, obviously the metal lady had put a lot of effort into reaching this skill level.
Toph stepped in, close enough to feel the heat coming off her opponent, which was a bit odd now that she noticed it, but committed to her attack, she drove her forehead into her opponent's stomach with a sharp, confident headbutt, expecting to feel muscle give, or the satisfying jolt of a clean hit.
Instead it felt like headbutting a rock, which made Toph blink in surprise. It was surprising how little it hurt, and how solid the lady actually was; she laughed out loud because it was ridiculous, fun, and unbelievable.
"All right…" she said, breathless with excitement, "You are weird."
The metal lady's response was a punch aimed at Toph's shoulder, and Toph slipped away, planting her feet, and she threw a wall up between them to force distance again, because close combat was thrilling, yet also how you got launched off the ring if you misjudged by a single hair.
Toph pressed the attack with quick movements, walls and slabs forcing the metal lady backward, and she could feel the woman's limbs strain under the constant pressure. Still her adjustments grew faster, the ring carrying enough vibrations for her to keep track of every movement.
Toph kept her fast attacks, hoping to tire her opponent and force her into a mistake. Toph realized with a bright spark of pride that this was the most entertaining duel she had fought in her entire life. She didn't have that many yet, but considering all the previous fights had been against trained earthbenders it made no sense.
The metal girl punched through another slab, stone cracking, and Toph took the opening. She commanded the ground to stab at her wrist, then shaped the earth around the girl's arm into a cone and locked it in place, then did the same to the other arm, trapping both forearms with thick stone.
Carefully, she lowered them so that the girl didn't have enough leverage to try and get herself out of her situation. The metal lady tried, and the ring vibrated with the effort, but Toph was already moving, sinking the earth under her opponent, folding the ring up around her torso like a prison.
The metal lady finally stopped moving, although it wasn't because she had given up, and Toph could feel that, because the tension stayed in the girl's body, yet she understood the situation and accepted the current limitation with an odd calmness. Toph stepped closer, planting her feet with theatrical confidence, letting the crowd see that she was in control.
She raised her fist in the air and the crowd cheered for her. She leaned forward slightly, smiling in the direction of the trapped girl as if the girl could see it.
"That was the best fight I've had. It's a shame you decided to fight the best earthbender in the world." Toph continued, enjoying the roar of the crowd, "You would have thrown the rest of these guys out without even trying."
The metal girl's mouth curved into a small smirk, and her voice stayed calm.
"I will face King Bumi in battle next." the lady said, "We shall see who holds the title after that."
Toph froze for a fraction of a second, her mind going a thousand thoughts per second. Her initial assessment of an assassin or a simple bounty hunter might have been wrong. No normal combatant could have an audience with someone as important and famous as King Bumi, and even more unlikely to be granted a duel against the old monarch.
Toph's family had spoken about Omashu many times, they were trade partners at first. Nowadays with the war finally closing in on Gaoling, they had become allies to face the Fire Nation. For Toph it was all very boring and she didn't really care about the war.
Still, they had spoken about King Bumi with a lot of respect, and most people in the Earth Kingdom called him the best earthbender in the world. Toph had imagined fighting him, because Toph imagined fighting everyone that looked worthy enough.
"You're going to fight the King of Omashu…" Toph said, and the crowd noise faded slightly in her focus, "How? Why?"
"Oh, I could tell you more, but I would suggest you finish the duel first."
The metal girl did not explain more, and the smirk remained, which told Toph that the girl either had a direct path to him or she believed she did, and both options made Toph intrigued.
Toph shook off the question for the moment, because the fight still had to end, the crowd demanded it. With a firm motion, she pushed the earth prison outward, sliding it toward the ring's edge, and with another controlled thrust she ripped the whole mass from the arena floor and sent the metal girl and slabs of rock tumbling out of bounds.
The crowd erupted, screaming for the blind bandit, and Toph walked to the center with the easy swagger of a champion. She punched the air, belt and winnings waiting, and she soaked in the sound while a new thought settled into her mind, stubborn and bright.
If that metal girl really went to Omashu, then Toph would find a way to go too. She couldn't miss that!
----0000----
Azula kept her face calm as they moved through the tunnels, yet anger sat beneath it, hot and boiling. Watching Lin lose to a barefoot child made the world feel briefly wrong.
She understood the logic of it even while she hated it. Lin's bending could not be used in that arena without exposing them, and the metal in her body drew attention already. The blind bandit was good; she would give her that. She had used her environment well and managed to defend against Lin's closed combat attacks for almost two minutes.
The small earthbender had also forced Lin to fight under constraints that favored her at all times. And through some whispering at the crowd, Lin had still made it the longest fight anyone had witnessed of the Blind Bandit. The loss tasted bitter, though, because Azula measured value by outcome, and Lin's outcome in front of a crowd had been a fall into the pit like any other fighter's.
They found Lin outside the arena's mouth. Lin was already scraping dust and rock fragments from the edges of her plating with a small tool. It was calming to see her expression untroubled and her movements steady, and Azula felt irritation flare again because Lin looked pleased with herself.
The princess knew by now when the commander looked happy, even if she hid it for the rest. Azula stepped closer, eyes scanning the back vents, the plating seams, the shoulders, looking for damage severe enough to justify the rage she wanted to indulge.
Lin lifted her gaze and smiled, a quiet thing that made Azula's cheeks warm.
"She is a royal child." Lin said.
The men behind them exchanged confused looks, and Azula's fingers flexed once at her side.
"You could have won." Azula said softly. Lin's smile did not even falter at her statement.
"I know, but that either would have killed her or hurt her quite badly, they don't know what a pellet is, much less how to heal a wound caused by one. They probably would have asked what I used to beat her as well and that is technology we shouldn't share with the world yet." Lin replied.
Of course, Azula already knew all of that, but she still would have won. Lin, using the dust as cover, could have used her gun freely without anyone seeing what it was, and then disappeared if she had wanted to escape from the tournament host and organizer.
"It's not as if I really lost anything. And we did gain something." Lin continued. "We could have a potential ally they would never expect."
Azula followed Lin's gaze toward the ridgeline, and she felt the faintest scrape of stone against stone as someone shifted behind cover. The blind bandit's presence was obvious now, she had followed, and Azula's mouth curved into a small, satisfied smirk as she realized what Lin had done.
As Lin explained the situation to the rest of the unit, everyone started acting more like friends to keep appearances for a bit. It wasn't that they were not friends to begin with, just that in front of the commander, they usually behaved quite stiffly, showing too much respect for their commander.
They left the mountain and returned to the city's edge, moving through narrow streets toward a safehouse that sat among abandoned buildings, places swallowed by debt and fear. The unit filed inside, securing doors and windows, and Lin stayed outside with Azula, facing the open ground and the scattered rocks beyond the property line.
Lin spoke to the air, her voice carrying with calm certainty.
"You can come out now."
A pause followed, then stone shifted, and the small girl stepped from behind a boulder as rocks slid off her shoulders, her chin lifted with stubborn confidence. Azula smirked knowing she had walked into their hands willingly.
Lin inclined her head slightly, acknowledging her.
"Good evening, my name's Lin, and by me is Azula. May we have your name?" Lin said.
"Toph." the young girl replied.