Title: The Long Game

Author: Taz

Summary: The group stands divided over upheaval in the Fire Nation as something dark and ancient rises from the Spirit World

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, I just like to play in their sandbox

Spring was here.

The faint smell of new growth that permeated the world was lost out amid the endless salt-spray scent of the ocean but the wind was a touch warmer and the press of the sun on her skin was just a little firmer than it had been the week before.

Toph leaned over the railing and vomited spectacularly.

A deck hand absently patted her back as he passed behind her, his vibrations even on metal, blurred by the crash of waves against the hull.

Almost there, she tried to reassure herself as she spit again in an effort to cleanse her mouth of the rancid taste of bile. Almost there.

She had traveled as far as she could across the Earth Kingdom, but even on the fastest of ships it was three days to the Great Gates of Azulon. Three days in which Toph had barely been able to keep down more than water. She had wanted to wait for an airship but Katara had begged, pleaded and cajoled so Toph was coming by horrible nauseating deathtrap.

In truth she had been glad for the excuse to leave. After the upheaval of the previous fall and the influx of new earthbenders who were not just students but wards to the school, Toph and her team of fighters – generally referred to as the Bei Fong Bandits – had hunkered down for the winter, building their new charges' skills and confidence, even as she tried to rebuild the lines of division that had broken between her fighters.

It had been a long and quiet winter.

Almost seven months – it was the longest Toph had gone without travelling since the day she'd left home at the age of twelve and apparently it didn't agree with her – if her second in command shoving Toph into her armour, throwing her a pack and propelling her forcibly out of her own dojo was any indication.

"Go see Master Katara, Sifu. Give us time for the bruises to heal."

Ingrates.

Not that there was much for her to do at this point in the year. The beginning of the planting season was a traditional time of holiday as the whole of the Earth Kingdom welcomed the waking of their element after winter's long dark.

The ship struck another cresting swell and Toph trembled slightly, clutching her stomach and sliding down to huddle against the railing. She tipped her face towards the sky in an effort to relieve the spinning nausea, wishing plaintively for dry dependable land. Even Appa's back would have been preferable to a ship on the ocean. What was the point of having an airbender of her very own if he was never around to give her a lift?

Aang.

She breathed deeply and tried to focus on clearing her mind the way he'd been trying to teach her. Toph would rather have swallowed her championship belt whole than admit it, but she missed him. In the last six months they had spent a grand total of one week together, never more than three days at a time. The Avatar's return after such a long absence necessitated a visit to every important court, endless demands from the Sages and the Council of Four Nations, and a trip to every place of spiritual power. Since the day Twinkletoes had asked her to travel with him they had managed exactly one day of actual travel – back to her school outside Omashu.

And precious little else.

Toph couldn't suppress a snort even though there was no one around to appreciate her predicament. Perhaps Katara would be sympathetic, but considering the vibrations between her and Sparky the last time they had all been together, Sweetness was more likely to be smug.

A shout went up from the crew signalling the ship's arrival at the gates of the harbour. She staggered to her feet with a groan of relief and rushed below deck to gather her belongings.

Toph only just suppressed the urge to collapse and spread herself across the flagstones of the pier, listening as her seismic sense resolved itself into a clear picture of the open plaza they had once laid siege to. Now the harbour was teeming with life; shouting sailors, haggling merchants and the tearful reunion of families long separated made her smile, but her jovial mood evaporated at the sound of a group of four men attempting to disguise the clank of heavy armour under whispering robes.

Nice try, Zuko.

Ever since Toph had accidentally gotten herself named princess of Omashu in an attempt to give him a heart attack by placing herself at the top of his list of prospective brides, it had become the perpetual goal of the new Fire Lord to escort her to the palace in a manner befitting her station:

Palanquin.

She, Toph Bei Fong, who got motion sick on every mode of transportation not attached to her ankles.

The first time it happened she had wandered right past them, never imagining someone would send such a thing for her. The second time they had chased her down. Airship or ocean, alone or with companions, every single time in the last five years she had set foot in the Fire Nation there had been someone trying to make her ride in one of those shaky deathtraps.

With her stomach still churning after three days at sea, she was in no mood to play old games. Toph dipped her head forward, tilting the wide brim of her round hat forward to shadow her sightless eyes, and hefted the pack that bulged with her armour higher on her shoulder, trying to stay in the depths of the crowd where she wouldn't be noticed. The vendor she had bought them from assured her that her clothes were exactly right for middle class citizens of the Fire Nation colonies. They had already caught her once in Earth Kingdom greens and a second time trying to pass as a down on her luck beggar.

She stepped carefully into the thick of a crowd, keeping two heavyset men with officious pride in every step between her and the guards, making her way past them up the Royal Plaza.

"Princess Toph?"

An unsure voice called behind her. New guard. She sighed and heard his fellows groan. Apparently no one was in the mood for this merry chase. Lifting the brim of her hat she turned her fogged eyes in their direction. "Can we just pretend you didn't see me?"

For a moment she thought that they might actually agree. The job was a essentially a one way ticket to a humiliating beating at her hands, reserved for the members of Zuko's royal guard who made stupid mistakes. The last time a team of guards had managed to get her on the palanquin she'd been sixteen and running a fever. Most of them knew what she could do and if the trepidation in their heartbeats was anything to go by they weren't excited for her stony vengeance.

"Your highness, His eminence the Fire Lord was insistent."

Everyone except that accursed new guard.

"Remember that you brought this on yourselves," she called, dropping into an earthbending stance and tossing a boulder their way. There was an outcry of panic as people on the docks scrambled out of the path of the flying stone. It was barely moving, certainly not capable of much more than knocking the unlucky away, but the hordes on the dock reacted as though it were another day of black sun. Eight years since Ozai fell and the borders were reopened, and the Fire Nation was still surprised by earthbenders.

Not waiting to see whether or not the enormous rock had actually hit her target, Toph darted away through the crowds, using her small stature to slide quickly between the crushing throngs of people who were moving toward the harbour to see what all the fuss was about.

Her thighs were burning with effort by the time she reached the end of the Royal Plaza, sounding out the winding path that led up the mountain to the Caldera City. Ridiculous, ostentatious Fire Nation. Though it had been a formidable line of defense on the day of the invasion, the endless paved space was unwieldy for normal use.

And it was giving Sparky's lackeys far too much of a chance to catch up with her. Apparently palanquins could move pretty fast when no one had to worry about a passenger. Sighing with irritation and exertion Toph hoisted her luggage higher and set off running again.

One of these days she would reach the Fire Nation Palace and not be out of breath and sweating.

"I don't see why Sparky was so mad," Toph grumbled as Katara's hand in the small of her back shoved her out into the open courtyard. Geometric shapes of well-tended formal gardens edged a neatly tiled path, ringing an ornamental fountain that tingled like music. Toph dug her toes in, heedless of the marks that they left on the stone and tried to stop her friend's instant pushing.

"Because your honour guard interrupted a budget meeting." Katara seemed to be walking a fine line between deliriously happy and totally exhausted. Every time she and Sparky looked at one another their heartbeats went from erratic to steady. She even smelled like Zuko. But her footsteps were heavier and more carefully measured, lacking her usual waterbender's grace.

"I wasn't even with them," Toph protested, ensconcing herself on the edge of the garden's fountain.

"No," Katara's voice was wry and scolding all at once. She stood before Toph with her hands on her hips. "You let them chase you right to the palace doors and then gave them the slip."

Zuko hadn't stepped down from the throne to greet her when she'd sauntered in looking totally relaxed behind her panting, embarrassed palanquin bearers. He hadn't gotten all flamey and annoyed, which was an equally time honoured form of welcome between the two of them. He had barely managed a hello before an advisor had appeared at his elbow and demanded his attention.

Too busy to greet every random foreign official arriving at the Fire Palace was one thing, but being too busy to welcome her was quite another. There was something fishy in the Fire Nation and Toph was willing to bet her championship belt that it was the court sharks circling her friends, looking for blood in the water.

Still, she had come at Katara's behest and she would help the best way she knew how:

By giving her something clear, concrete and relentlessly annoying to focus her frustrations on.

Toph grinned. "It was pretty good wasn't it? I didn't think they would actually go in."

The waterbender threw up her hands in exasperation. "Why?"

"Same reason he sent the spirits blessed idiots to pick me up." Toph picked absently at her fingernails. "You may love him with all your soft and squishy heart Sugar Queen, but Zuko is every bit as vindictive as I am."

Katara couldn't suppress a fit of giggling, but she attempted to school her voice back to sternness. "He's the Fire Lord. Zuko has to welcome you according to your station."

"Well he should check his information. Bumi appointed Mr. Mustachio a month ago. I am just another fabulously wealthy Master Earthbender."

For a moment Toph thought she might sit, but Katara just turned to pacing, her heartbeat erratic with pent up energy. "You're still second in the line of succession. Unless Haru has a baby anytime soon…"

"There's a thought." Toph snapped her fingers and reached up to flick the golden Fire Lady symbol that encircled the pendant of Katara's choker. "Forget being Hothead's girl and come marry Moustache instead. That way you'll be closer to me!"

"You marry him," Katara retorted childishly.

Toph snorted. "Oh yeah that would go over well. 'Hey want to be my sweet dish on the side?' He'd love the idea I'm sure." She broke into giggles for a moment before she realized Katara had stopped pacing and was staring at her.

"What do you mean?" she said in a low voice. "Go over well with who?"

"No one," Toph cursed inwardly as her voice came out a full octave higher than normal. "Just in general I mean…"

Katara crossed her arms over her chest. "You know Toph, for someone who always knows when others aren't telling the truth, you're not much of a liar."

"Whatever Sugar Queen." She stood, heading for the archway that led back inside. "Come on, I'm starving."

Water lifted from the fountain and snapped towards her ankles so fast that Toph barely heard it before it had frozen her feet to the ground. "Oh no, you're not getting away that easily. I haven't had a girl chat that didn't involve courtly rat-viper double talk since the last time Suki came to visit and I want details."

"I don't do girl chat Sweetness," Toph groused, and was completely ignored.

"It must be someone I know, or you wouldn't bother hiding it from me. Is it that boy your parents tried to get you to marry? The Duke – I heard he's gotten pretty handsome." She paused in her speculations for a moment and her voice turned plaintive. "You're not dating Chen again are you?"

"I was sixteen when I dated him! And at least Chen never tried to kill the rest of us," she coughed, making no effort whatsoever to disguise the name Jet under the noise.

"Teo is engaged… hmm is it Administrator Shoji? He seemed taken with you the last time you were here," Katara continued on blithely, oblivious to Toph's mounting temper. "Oh! Oh! Is it the Earth King? Are you going to be consort number eight?"

Stone burst through the ice crust, shattering it like glass.

"It's Aang, alright!"

"Aang?" Katara sounded incomprehensibly bewildered. "Aang the Avatar?"

"Dammit Sugar Queen! We've traveled just about every place on this spirits blessed planet. Have we ever met anyone else named Aang?"

"I heard it's become a fashionable name for babies in the Earth Kingdom lately."

"Katara!"

"Sorry it's just a …surprise."

Toph crossed her arms over her chest and thrust out her chin defiantly. "What, didn't think he could ever like anyone but you?"

"Don't do that," Katara admonished, her voice slightly hurt. "Don't pretend you think I'm that petty."

They stood silent for a moment, not facing one another before Toph turned back, heaving a giant sigh. "Earth you are making me into such a soft touch." She belied her words with a punch to the other girl's arm. "I didn't really think you would be mad."

"Then why were you hiding it?"

"Hey, I don't hide anything from anyone," she insisted, unbalancing Katara with a blunt spike of earth. "It's more a matter of not wanting anyone's scrutiny yet." Another coil of water rose from the fountain and sailed towards her. Toph took a half step back and raised an arm, shearing a thin shield off of the ornamental tiles and neatly deflecting the twisting ribbon. "We've hardly seen one another since his birthday anyway. We're still just sort of friends."

She turned her defense into slim spikes and sent them sailing towards Katara, watching the shifting vibrations of water over the ground as her octopus form snapped each one almost lazily out of the air.

"And that's not what you wanted."

Fissures in the ground broke the water creature apart before Katara had a chance to turn it to the offensive, but she reduced the form back into a swirling torrent around her body, then used the momentum to blast the column at Toph.

"Not exactly."

With the speed of a thought Toph heaved a boulder from the earth and set her feet, wavering only slightly at the impact of the water when it broke upon the rock.

"That's frustrating." Katara nodded sympathetically.

Toph bent the stone beneath them up into slabs that encased Katara's wrists. "What about you?"

"I live here now, Toph." Taking her weight onto her arms Katara spun her legs out in a graceful circling kick that sent another stream of water slicing neatly through the rock, a move they had practiced and perfected years ago. "I see Zuko every day."

"I meant how are you doing here?" Toph wrapped a coming wave in dirt bent up from the gardens. "Not everything is about boys, Sweetness." The water turned to mud and allowed to Toph seize control of the sludge, spinning it back at her opponent in a waterbending move Katara had taught her.

"Things are good. The Fire Nation is a fascinating place and it's been interesting trying to learn all the duties of Fire Lady."

Katara pulled the water free of the mud before it could reach her, leaving a puff of dirt behind that obscured the air between them, and leapt just in time to avoid the boulder that came hurtling through the dust.

"You know you haven't distracted me enough that I can't tell you're lying!"

Toph shifted and dropped, pulling a shield of rock out of the ground to block the snap of a water whip across her face and stepped forward, ready to push up a stone pillar and send Katara flying away.

She would recover quickly and blast at Toph with water, they would keep up their dance until they became tired or someone came to interrupt them or they reached an impasse. They were both masters of their elements, they knew one another's strengths and weaknesses inside and out.

Bending against Katara was a challenge but never a surprise.

So instead of blasting her friend Toph moved closer, right into the path of Katara's arcing arm.

The blow was so jarring she cried out.

Toph hadn't cried out in pain during a fight since her second time at Earth Rumble.

The exploding burst against her cheekbone made her dizzy. Katara's bending didn't use strikes the way Zuko's firebending or traditional earthbending did, but there was effort and force behind every flowing movement – Toph was on her back in the dirt before her awareness settled enough to see Katara fall to her knees next to her.

"Toph," she gasped. "Toph I'm sorry, I thought you could tell I was moving. Are you okay?"

"No," Toph's voice was a hysterical burble of laughter. "I am fantastic Sugar Queen."

She reached up and seized Katara by one shoulder and her hair and flipped her over onto the ground.

"Hey!" the waterbender shrieked indignantly, recovering fast enough to kick Toph's legs out from under her as she scrabbled to her feet and leapt.

She fell onto Katara, her nose smashing painfully into her friend's abdomen, digging in the point of her chin as she landed and taking the opportunity to strike Katara hard in the stomach.

There was no elegance in the way they fought. They didn't use a single one of the combat moves Suki had so painstakingly taught them; there was no thought to dodging or blocking. There was only the sound of their breathing, pounding blood in their ears and the white hot pain of catharsis.

Katara was bigger and she could see, Toph was a scrapper but she kept losing her vibration sight within the force of strikes and in the end with Katara sitting on her ribs, she caught a punch before impact and gasped. "Stop."

The weight lifted from her chest and she rolled to one side to spit blood against the ground. She'd cut the inside of her mouth against her teeth, her stomach hurt and she could feel a purpling black eye forming. She felt amazing.

"Dear Spirits," Katara breathed. "Why did we do that?"

They scraped themselves off the ground and staggered closer to the fountain so Katara could heal the worst of their bruises. Toph sat in the churned earth, with her back against the low stone wall of the basin.

"Exactly how frustrated are you, Sweetness?"

Katara scoffed as she pressed her water-coated hand against Toph's swollen eye. "I'm not frustrated at all."

"Oh yeah, my face feels like raw meat because you're blissful."

"Well why are my ribs bruised then?"

Toph tipped her head back against the cool stone and felt her muscles relax as the pain ebbed. "You know when the last time I fought all out was? The last time I was really thrilled by fighting?"

"The volcano," Katara answered without thought or hesitation.

"Exactly." She breathed deeply, remembering the swirl of ash in the air and the certainty that they were all about to die, even as she pushed her abilities to the limit. "I can't seem to settle and it's driving me mad. I used to love bending, I still do, but it's not fun anymore. The school is strong, my students keep improving, I have autonomy and influence. I'm exactly where I want to be but I feel like I'm going crazy with restlessness..."

"Everyone here hates me," Katara blurted over Toph's faltering explanation. "The nobles all think I'm peasant trash – they look at me like I've worked some spell on Zuko. And the people… no one will let me go outside without a retinue and a palanquin. The servants insist that I shouldn't be walking. How can I prove to the people that I can be a good ruler if they don't even know me?"

She pulled the water away from Toph's face and set it swirling over her own bruises. "Zuko says that's the way they do things here. That royalty are supposed to be removed from the common people. But how can you rule effectively if you don't know your citizens? That's not the way we lead in the tribes."

"The Water Tribes are a lot smaller than the Fire Nation," Toph felt obligated to mention.

The stream of liquid hit the fountain and shattered as both froze under Katara's ire. "I know that, but the principle is still the same isn't it? A leader should be able to connect with those who follow him." She lay back across the wide lip of the fountain. "So I'm trying to make friends at court, learn the protocol. But nothing seems to be helping."

Toph shuddered at the thought of all the parts of Katara that weren't maternal and overbearing being subsumed under careful courtly behaviour. "That's because you're doing it all wrong Sugar Queen."

"I am doing everything right," she insisted. "I'm working myself to the bone to make sure I do everything right."

"But it's not you so it isn't working." She knocked her head back against the stone, trying to figure out how best to explain. "Katara, if there's one thing you are fantastic at, it's getting people to open up to you, whether they want to or not. You're just so nauseatingly good-hearted that everyone falls in line. You should be out putting your hopebending powers to use."

Katara shook her head. "No I can't –"

Alright, enough.

Gentle encouragement was never going to be Toph's teaching style.

"Hey didn't you used to be the first woman ever to be trained as a warrior waterbender in the Northern Tribe? Who ruled the Council of Four Nations with an icy stare?" she queried with false surprise, lifting her head to pin Katara with a useless glare. "She sounded kind of like you, but your heartbeat is full of wussy!"

"I don't want to mess things up for Zuko okay?" she snapped, the glare so evident in her voice Toph could practically see it. "He's worked so hard to get everyone behind him and the Fire Nation back on track. The economy is finally stabilizing; the war ministers are almost pacified. No one has tried to kill him in nearly two years. I refuse to be the thing that comes in and sabotages the balance." Katara's words sounded like an oft repeated mantra. "I am going to be a good wife."

Toph held up a hand to stall the flow of rationalization. "As much as it makes me feel gross to say this, you're going to be a good wife because you love him. If you want to be a good Fire Lady you're going to have to start doing things your own way." She stretched her legs out and folded her arms behind her head in the very picture of smug relaxation. "Take it from someone who grew up in high society. If you try to win favour with their rules, all you'll ever be is the peasant girl who doesn't understand the game."

She heard Katara sigh and knew she had won. "And what would you suggest?"

"Forget trying to win over the nobles." Toph grinned. "Get out your finest, most tawdry peasant clothing out, Sweetness. Tonight we go and meet your people."

"So I hear you and Toph were…" He coughed unconvincingly, "sparring earlier."

Katara felt her cheeks go hot but she kept all her attention focused on separating her koala-lamb from the bone with as much ladylike delicacy as possible. They didn't often get to eat together without family or guests intruding, and since Toph had opted for a nap instead of joining them Katara was determined to make this a pleasant meal and not rise to the bait.

Zuko took far too long to wipe his lips, but couldn't quite manage to remove his smirk along with the napkin. "So was there mud involved? Because Sokka and Aang told me some stories about you two."

As mortifying as the situation was, becoming indignant did give her the perfect excuse not to spend time with him this evening.

"Shouldn't have said anything," Katara heard him mutter over the pattering sound of wine dripping from his dark hair.

"You call this meeting the people?"

"They look like people to me."

Katara sighed at the old joke, smoothing out her simple tunic dress and looking around nervously. The only thing she'd had that fit Toph's description of peasant wear was a training uniform in Kyoshi indigo she'd had made when bending practice on the island had become far too hot. She had only packed her most formal clothing for the move here from the South Pole and every time she'd asked for training gear her handmaidens had brought something gold embroidered or armour plated – garments fit for a noble of the Fire Nation, not for sneaking out to seedy bars.

And the place Toph had chosen was the very definition of seedy.

It was two floors of a rundown old building on the edge of a part of the capital city that might charitably be called disreputable. The room smelled of smoke, stale beer and ennui and the bar was sticky and shaded with the patina of a thousand spilled libations. Some of the chairs seemed to be remaining upright by force of will alone, groaning under the weight of the rough looking patrons. The clientele seemed to be an even split between a mercenary looking element and the tired looking souls who obviously used the place as a local watering hole, interspersed by the odd scantily dressed but glaring waitress.

There was a game she didn't recognize going on in one corner amid raucous cheers, but most of the customers seemed to be there only to drink. And look intimidating.

Katara felt horrifically out of place. Toph looked right at home.

"They look like…."

"…like pirates?" Toph gave her a wolfish grin. "Oh sweetness, should I go get Zuko?"

She felt her eyes pop and her face grow hot with embarrassment. She would never be able to live this down. Dear Spirits, Toph would surely tell Sokka too. "He told you!"

"No, but your heartbeats still skyrocket whenever the two of you hear that word so I assumed there was some kind of perverse story," the younger girl flat-out cackled. "And I was right!"

"You are such a brat." Katara slugged the younger girl in the upper arm, though the blow lacked the strength Toph usually put behind her gestures of affection.

Catching her arm, Toph pulled them both toward a set of open stools at the bar before she could make an escape. The whole room was visible from their seats and long cultivated instinct had Katara sizing up threats before she was consciously aware of herself. There were a half dozen men at one low table, with faces not even a mother could love and matching crimson armbands, who were drinking heavily and lounging about as though they owned they own the place. Perhaps they did, she reflected.

"Hey!" Toph shouted to the greasy bartender, throwing him some incomprehensible series of hand gestures. Katara barely had the chance to wonder how a blind girl had learned to signal for drinks when a warm, long necked bottle and two small cups were dropped unceremoniously before them.

She surveyed the half full carafe with a dubious expression. "You've been hanging around bureaucrats too long Sugar Queen," Toph said, pouring two cups of the sake with a practiced hand. "The best place to put your ear to the ground is the place where everyone's tongues are loosest. And there are no nosy servants to tattle on us here."

Katara couldn't help but groan. Apparently the servants to the royal family had been the first to catch sight of the foolish spectacle and had kept others away. After they had passed the story on to the Fire Lord of course.

She took a deep pull of her drink and winced at the burn - she was losing her tolerance around all these soft Fire Nation folk. There wasn't much liquor served at the palace, firebending and alcohol being a notoriously dangerous combination – trying to silence the little voice in her head that was shouting about how Toph's plans always seemed to end up with someone bleeding, broken, or blown up.

"So what do we do now?"

"We wait and hear who has a problem that needs solving."

"Toph!" she cried in frustration. "I thought you said we were going to help people. If you want to play vigilante, go back to your vigilante group!"

"The Bandits are not vigil – alright we completely are, but how else do you want to make a name for yourself?"

"You said you had a plan."

"I never said that, you're thinking of Sokka." She cocked her head to the sound of a particularly loud roar from the corner. "We could go over there and win that game they're playing."

"No scams," Katara said without thinking.

"Well I'm out of ideas." Toph shrugged, refilling their glasses and shaking the already empty bottle with a look of displeasure on her face. "Barkeep, another round!"

Katara looked from her glass to her friend and back, bemused for a moment before everything suddenly clicked. "Oh come on Toph."

"What?"

"Why can we not just talk about things?" she asked reasonably. "Why do we both have to be drunk before you can discuss your feelings?"

"I'm really a guy," Toph said without missing a beat.

Katara raised one eyebrow at Toph's considerable cleavage. "You hide it well."

"You were the one who wanted girl talk Sugar Queen." Her shoulders hunched defensively in a reaction that Katara was absolutely certain Toph wasn't aware of. "I figured you'd want a chance to brag about how Sparky takes your breath away and I could be a good friend and restrain my urge to vomit."

A wicked grin bloomed across Katara's face. Buoyed by the sake warming her cheeks, she leaned in close enough to whisper. "Is Aang not making the earth move for you?"

Toph turned purple.

"Oh go back to Sparky's dancing dragon," she muttered mutinously.

They both burst into laughter.

"I cannot believe you just said that."

"You started it Sugar Queen, I thought you were supposed to be the sweet one."

Katara slumped over, faint shrieks escaping her mouth as she tried to smother her laugh on the back of her hand. The barman returned, not precisely smiling, but certainly scowling a little less now that they had spent some coin. "Can I get you ladies anything else?"

She held up a finger and tried to choke back her giggling, but Toph answered for her. "Who are the big hogmonkeys over there?" She jerked her head towards the table of rowdy men with red armbands.

"You pretty girls should stay away from men like them. Crimson Spear Tong, one of the big gangs in this city. These though," he scoffed and spat, producing a ringing sound from the brass spittoon behind the bar. "Useless thugs with bad attitudes. I pay protection and the Tong sends them around so they can scare off my customers and demand to drink for free."

"There are tongs operating in the Fire Nation's capital?"

"Crime is everywhere girl." He poured them each another measure and then retrieved a glass for himself. "Used to be they kept the soldiers in line, kept 'em from roughing up the girls or burning the place down around your ears. Now they got no one to fight so they've turned to bullying honest workers."

"Doesn't the local prefect try to keep them out?"

"Lady Wu Qing?" The bartender shook his head. "Tong has her so tied up in regulations she's gotta sign three forms before she can take a piss. They pay off the magistrate and they can do anything they want."

"Well," Toph quirked an eyebrow at her pointedly. "Isn't that an interesting dilemma? I suppose it would take someone with political authority to help resolve the issue."

"All I know is that," he jerked his head towards the group of thugs, "is trouble."

One of the prettier waitresses had been hemmed in by the rowdy men. Their leader had his arm around her waist. Her struggles weren't panicked but they were certainly emphatic enough to keep the brigand's hands full while his companions laughed uproariously.

"Come on little flower," the leader leered. He was a firebender. Katara could tell by the way he held himself, keeping at least one palm free at all times. Not military though, he didn't have the confidence of bearing that came from the extensive training regime that the Fire Nation army put their soldiers through. Which meant his bending was mediocre at best and he'd been working for the Tong long enough that they had kept him out of military service. He wore no weapons, indicating undeserved confidence in his abilities, but his team was heavily armed. The man was missing teeth, those which remained were blackened or stained and he was covered in tattoos of indeterminate pattern. Even without the unprovoked molestation of innocent waitresses, he was odious to behold. "I'm so terribly lonely without you."

The girl was protesting, more calmly than Katara had expected. She glanced at the proprietor, expecting to see him readying to defend his employee's honour, wanting him to know she was ready to move in and help. The barman cast about as though looking for something to use as a weapon, his fists clenching helplessly, before lowering his head and levelling a helpless glare at the bar top. A thread of panic began to weave its way into the waitress's voice.

Seemingly spurred on by her fear the thugs' jeering intensified as their leader lifted both himself and the captive out of the chair, forcing the waitress face first down onto the table. He pressed himself against her, one hand jammed into her back, pressing skin further into wood.

Katara was on her feet and halfway across the room before she'd made a conscious decision to act.

"Enough," she said harshly, feeling the drinks of everyone within ten yards ice over.

The brute's head snapped up and his eyes narrowed, but it was one of his lackeys who stepped into her path. "What do you think you're doing, blue girl?"

Fury made her voice tight. "Stop it. Now."

Behind them the leader laughed over the faint whimpers of the trapped waitress. "Why, you want to take her place?"

"Hey look at her Kim; she's one of those water savages" one of his cohorts chuckled. "Wouldn't get too close to that, never know what them ice freaks are carrying."

"Shouldn't be here anyway," another swore, giving Katara a dismissive sneer. His statement was met with a chorus of approval from the Crimson Spear thugs.

"Yeah, get your barbarian hide out of our country, trash. We don't want water people here."

"Oh yeah?" Katara had honestly forgotten she wasn't here alone before Toph sauntered up behind her. "What about earthbenders?"

"Hey," came the shout of a man from the gaming table across the room, whose bright green eyes marked him as an expatriate of the Earth Kingdom. "You're the Blind Bandit! I saw you at Earth Rumble XII."

Toph tossed him a lazy salute as he elbowed his compatriots, drawing their attention to the impending scuffle.

The Crimson Tong seemed unimpressed. "I don't care if you're the bloody Avatar! Back off!"

"Get out and don't ever come back," Toph commanded. "And we'll think about it."

Katara uncorked the waterskin strapped to the small of her back. "Let her up."

The girl on the table jerked, attempting to kick her attacker in the groin. The Tong leader brought his arm back to strike her in the face.

Katara snapped out a water whip and yanked back his hand before he could complete the strike.

The man turned his glare back to her. "Get them!" he roared.

Out of the corner of her eye Katara saw Toph shift into a fighting stance with a wide grin. "Big mistake."

She froze her whip, immobilizing Kim's arm. The man recoiled, trying to break, then melt away the ice and giving the beleaguered waitress an opportunity to dive under the table. Katara liquefied and refroze the water in an instant, trapping both his hands together just as Toph bent her knees and pushed her hands upwards, forcing precision pillars out from the ground to crush three of the Tong against the ceiling.

Behind them the man who was a fan of Earth Rumble cheered.

Katara arced her arms outwards, snatching up every drop of liquor from the table to form a stream that was more club than whip, snapping it forward and sending the two remaining brigands crashing to the floor. She stepped neatly over a crumpled form and got right into Kim's personal space.

He was cursing her before she even had the chance to speak.

"Waterbending whore! No one crosses the Crimson Spear. We'll hunt you down and you'll beg us for death before we end you!"

"I shouldn't even get the guards," she snarled back. "I should just leave you to these people. Let them decide how to punish you."

He barked out a laugh. "For putting a tribal bitch like you in her place? The guards are for Fire Nation problems. When they-" A stone band flew out of nowhere and clamped over the man's foul mouth.

"Yeah, get him Bandit!"

A quiet noise of pain from beneath the table drew Katara's attention away from their unpleasant prisoner to the waitress on the floor. Offering a hand down, she drew the frightened woman out. There was a series of rough scrapes across one side of the girl's face from the unpolished wood of the table, a few of the cuts still weeping blood. Katara bent the last of her clean water around her hands and put her focus to healing, Toph's voice an absent hum behind her.

"The guards may not be too interested in a bar scuffle," she admitted. "Especially when you slug-eels clearly needed your heads beaten in –" That remark drew a roar of approval. "But I notice they're not too big on treason here. You see that waterbender? The one you were so keen to teach a lesson to, Flame-for-brains? She's your new Fire Lady."

That snapped Katara instantly out of her healing trance. "Toph!"

"What?" The younger woman was grinning fit to split her face in half.

Half the patrons of the establishment had genuflected the instant they made the connection between Toph's remarks and Katara's appearance. The rest of the room including the bartender looked completely poleaxed.

Their trapped Tong looked just as shocked, but for the first time there was terror in his expression.

Longstanding paranoia and the political upheaval caused by a century of war had led the Fire Nation to develop particularly harsh punishments for those accused of treason, especially when it concerned the personages of the royal family, as they were a physical embodiment of the nation itself. A conviction of treason did not just mean death for the accused, but their entire family as well, and anyone in regular continued contact or correspondence could be expected to undergo harsh torture at the very least.

Anger still sparking along her nerves, Katara was half ready to denounce the man and call for the city watch when the implications of such a move brought her up short. With Mai as head of security for the Fire Lord and Zuko's natural tendency to get personally involved in every conflict that happened within a hundred miles of him, such harsh measures had been scaled back slightly. But if she turned this into a matter of assault on the royal family, every person in the bar would be detained, questioned and likely charged with some offence or another.

Katara resisted the urge to curse vehemently, resigned herself to never living this story down and decided to make the best of her newfound ability to overawe.

"Petty thugs and intimidating bullies will not be tolerated," she instructed in her most stern and imperious council voice. "You will leave and never trouble these people again. Or I will send you to the Boiling Rock for the rest of your short and miserable lives."

The ice and stone melted away from the cretin's body with the smallest gesture she could manage, Toph releasing the captive as soon as she moved. He stood riveted for a moment by her stare.

"Now!" Toph shouted at the top of her lungs. The man leapt and sprinted away as though she had lit him on fire. "Tell your friends all about how you got your ass handed to you by the Fire Lady and the Blind Bandit!"

She laughed at what must have been the vibrations of the retreating thug and was almost instantly accosted by the Earth Rumble fan and his friends, but Katara observed the damage they'd caused with dismay. A few sweeping motions and the various liquids that coated the floor and nearby furniture swirled themselves into a ribbon and poured into a half empty basin behind the bar. Toph sighed in irritation at the idea of cleanup, but broke away from her fans long enough to carefully smooth the broken stones of the floor back into place.

Pulling her purse free of the pocket of her tunic, Katara pressed a number of gold coins into the bartender's hand. "I am sorry for the damage and the trouble. We'll go as soon as Toph can tear herself away."

"My lady!" The waitress fairly leapt across the room and threw herself down at Katara's feet, pressing kisses to the back of her hand. "Thank you, thank you so much."

Mortified, Katara barely resisted the urge to jerk away, managing to ease back gently and pull the girl back up. "You don't need to, ah, do that. I just wanted to help."

"Thank you," the bartender repeated, looking satisfied. "I don't care what comes of all this. It was worth it to see those boys sent running for their mommas."

Katara looked up at him sharply. "You think they'll be back?"

"If not them," he shrugged, "then some other jumped up Tong grunt. It was worth it to see you fight, your ladyship, you and the earth mistress, like the return of Princess Azula herself!"

Behind her, Katara heard the grind and crunch of stone as Toph moved into a defensive stance at the sound of Azula's name. She could practically smell the ozone in the air, striking fiercely to the accompaniment of maniacal laughter.

She coughed and cleared her throat, but her voice still came out strangled.

"I beg your pardon?"

A/N: I'm back baby!

Honestly I couldn't stay away. This fandom is too much fun not to play with. The rest of the chapters will probably be a touch shorter than this but the combined awesome of Katara and Toph refused to be divided.