Okay, so firstly I would like to apologize to anyone who's been waiting for me to update Avatar: The Next Cycle, but I got distracted when I started writing this story and for some reason I just couldn't stop. Just a heads up, this story is COMPLETE, but I will be updating the chapters periodically. Rest assured that I will now go back to writing my other stories and this monstrosity is no longer a distraction. That being said, hopefully you enjoy it.

I do not own Avatar or any of its characters. And if you think I do, I'm flattered, but you're a crazy person.

That was the last time Toph let Heng choose where they stopped for dinner. At least she assumed that's what was going on. Her meal from last night's patrol was the only thing she could think of that could be causing her this kind of distress, but she wasn't about to let a simple upset stomach keep her from going into work that morning. She had things to do damn it!

Maybe she wouldn't be skipping work today, but after crouching in front of her toilet for half an hour, Toph knew she was going to be late. It didn't matter though. She was the Chief of Police and while she might get some light hearted ribbing from her officers, there was no one around to get her in actual trouble for being a little late to work. She could power through this and be on the streets again by lunch.

Actually, maybe lunch wasn't such a good idea.

Eventually her stomach settled down just as the shrill ring of her telephone began to assault her ears.

"Yes, what is it?" she croaked into the receiver.

"Chief?" Oh, great. It was Heng. He was probably wondering why she wasn't out on patrol with him yet. It was his stupid fault anyway.

"Who else would be answering my phone exactly?" she snapped. He didn't deserve it but... no. He deserved it.

"I just thought... sorry Chief. You were supposed to be at work twenty minutes ago and we were waiting for you-"

"Get to the point," Toph said. People tended to get flustered around her when she sounded angry and while she was used to it, it was still very annoying.

"We have a lead on the whereabouts of the leader of the Dong gang. We were kind of hoping-"

"The Dong gang?" The Dong gang was a group of waterbenders that specialised in fighting with ice. They'd been sending death threats to city officials for months trying to intimidate the police into leaving a part of the city alone for their own personal exploits. Like Toph was going to let that happen.

"Uh, ya. We were hoping to send a team to apprehend them..."

"I'm on my way to headquarters now," Toph said. "Don't do anything stupid until I get there."

"No, of course not Chief. We'll leave you in charge of doing anything stupid."

"Don't get smart with me Heng," Toph said, though her voice had softened somewhat. She just needed some routine to distract her from the churning in her stomach, and a little friendly banter was apparently just what the healer ordered. Now that she very likely had a good old fashioned fight to look forward to later in the day, Toph grinned.

She was beginning to feel better already.

It took Toph about ten minutes to walk over to the police station, but when she got there she was feeling much better. Her stomach was still off, but she was getting hungry and had managed to grab some bread from a bakery on her way there. All in all, she was in a pretty good mood when she and her officers rode up to the apartment complex where they believed the leader of the Dong gang was hiding.

The entire street was very quiet, which Toph found odd. It was a beautiful warm day, which would usually find a neighbourhood like this one crawling with parents and their young children, trying to make the most out of the weather. Today there was a young couple wandering at the far end of the block, but aside from that, even the park in the middle of the street was devoid of human activity. Toph gestured to her officers to stay put while she felt around with her seismic sense.

The apartment building they were raiding definitely had people in it, and not just in the apartment where they expected to find the Dong gang's leader. There were groups of people in each apartment, mostly huddled together as though they were expecting something. Some kind of danger.

"Ling?" Toph asked quietly. One of her younger officers jumped, startled at being addressed.

"Yes Chief?" she said.

"Who exactly did you get the intel from about the Dong gang?"

"Um, someone came into the office this morning who had been attacked by them..." Or claiming to have been attacked by them. Toph cursed herself for not asking more questions before they headed out. She should have interrogated the alleged victim herself. StupidstupidSTUPID!

"Everyone stay on your toes. They're expecting us."

"How do you- OW!" Heng stumbled back slightly, a hand flying to his neck. "What the fuck!?" There was something small stuck in his neck. A shard of ice?

Toph heard another officer hiss in pain as he was struck as well. She growled in frustration, reaching out with her seismic sense to figure out who was shooting ice shards at them. She felt Heng's pulse slow as he stumbled sideways while one of the ice shards embedded itself in her own bare foot.

Fuck. They were being drugged.

She could feel a vague numbness in her foot around where the shard had struck and kicked sharply at the object to get it out of her skin, though she knew it was probably too late to stop the drug from taking hold. Her seismic sense in that foot was already becoming slightly muted and Toph found herself having to concentrate extra hard in her search for their attackers as she backed her officers up into an ally in an attempt to give themselves some cover. She felt one of the families in the apartment building next to them break apart from each other and head for the window.

ShitshitSHIT!

"Get ready to defend yourselves!" she hissed to the people behind her.

"Against who?!" Shouted Ling, who had been dragging a partially conscious Heng beside her. Her question was answered as the "family" from the building next to them revealed themselves to be members of the Dong gang, and they were wielding large leather pouches of water.

One of them shot a coating of water at the ground beneath them, covering it in a slick layer of ice. Toph quickly shot one of her hands upwards, hitting their nearest attacker with a pillar of concrete that shattered through the ice above it. It hit the man in the shoulder, which wasn't exactly where Toph had been aiming, but the ice under her feet left her with a barrier of unbendable material that was making it harder and harder for her to see. She was also starting to feel dizzy.

Luckily her officers had taken their cue and started their own assault. Toph sidestepped her way across the frigid surface, trying to find a spot of solid ground to help her see better. She numbly felt someone closing in on her from the left and she launched a metal whip in their direction. As soon as it made contact Toph was rewarded with a detailed feel of the man's movements and she let the cable wrap around his ankle before yanking him onto his back.

Two more of her officers had fallen over, likely due to the drug. Toph was now making her way quickly to the wall of an apartment building she knew was made of beautiful, earthbendingly visible stone. She launched another pillar of rock at someone who was drawing their arm back for an attack, but her movements were becoming sluggish. She felt another ice shard hit her in the neck before she ripped it out and threw it on the ground.

Ice crept up around one of her feet, but Toph had made it to the wall and slapped a hand against it. The stone gave her a better feel for her surroundings and she was able to identify who was controlling the ice that was already half way up her calf. It was one of the four people who were closing in on her. She launched a piece of the wall at the man and stomped her free foot to shake the ground under her and crack open the ice around her leg.

Only one of her officers was still standing, but Toph didn't have time to try and lend the man a hand. She needed to get off of this ice.

Ice was once again trying to creep its way over her feet, but Toph was having none of it. She threw a whip at one of the women trying to trap her, wrapping the metal around the woman's wrist and launching her into the man standing next to her. She was able to rip one of her feet out of the ice and stomped it on the ground, hitting the other woman with a pillar of concrete.

Why was her neck stinging? Was that another ice shard? Toph threw another piece of wall at one of her attackers. There were four gang members lying unconscious around her now, but more were coming. Toph stumbled sideways. Were all of her officers down? She grabbed the wall again just in time to dodge as one of her attackers threw an ice spike in her direction.

Yup, she was the only one still fighting.

And then she was falling over. She felt one of the gang members step on a patch of ground that wasn't covered in ice and Toph used the opportunity to trap the man's foot in the pavement. She rolled onto her back and tried to throw another piece of rock, but the ice under her grabbed her by the arms. She struggled weakly but her strength was failing, her seismic sense was fading, and Toph couldn't figure out where anyone was anymore. She was trapped, blind, and quickly losing consciousness...

Toph woke up feeling nauseous. She was lying on something hard and was displeased to discover that it wasn't rock.

"Chief?" That sounded like Ling, and she was close. Probably close enough to touch.

Toph opened her eyes, not that it did her much good. "Where are we?" she croaked. She was surprisingly not too banged up from her fight, but whatever had ailed her that morning was not mixing well with whatever drug had knocked her out. Her stomach churned and she prayed she could keep it under control.

"Some kind of wooden cell," said a deep voice from farther away. It was one of her other officers, by the name of Nu. Who else had she brought with her? Heng, Gan, Kai... heck, there were a whole bunch with her that weren't metalbenders as well. Were they all there? Toph hated not being able to tell.

"Is everyone okay?" she asked as she tried to push herself upright. She managed to prop herself up on one arm but swayed dangerously. Somebody grabbed her shoulder to stop her from falling over. Smaller hands. Probably Ling.

"Ya, you're the last one to wake up," said Nu. "I think you got hit with a few more of those ice darts than the rest of us."

Toph grunted and managed to sit completely upright. Maybe it wasn't the smartest move what with the way she was swaying, but she didn't intend to stay lying on the floor. She picked at the sleeve of what should have been her uniform, only to discover that she was wearing a shirt made of some kind of rough fabric. Who had changed her? Her hair was down too. Someone had taken her headband.

She fell back slightly, managing to catch herself with one hand as Ling steadied her again by the shoulders. Toph fumbled blindly behind with her other hand, trying to find something to lean against and steady herself.

"Are you alright Chief?" asked Ling.

"Where's the damn wall?!" Toph snapped.

"Right, sorry. It's right behind you, not far." Ling helped guide Toph so she could lean her back against the wall of the cell.

"Thanks," Toph mumbled. She ran a hand along the thick wooden bars. They felt sturdy. "Have our captors come by to check on us?" she asked.

"Not yet," said Ling.

"Hm." Toph leaned her head back against the bars and blinked lethargically. "Ling?"

"Ya?"

"Did they leave us a bucket or anything to piss in?"

"Uh, ya... why?"

"No reason... I just-" Toph swallowed. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Toph in general felt like shit, but apparently she wasn't the only one. The drug had left all of her officers feeling vaguely ill, but Toph was the only one to actually throw up. It was embarrassing, but she reminded herself that she had been significantly more drugged than the others.

Her officers also weren't used to seeing her so frail and... blind. It pissed Toph off that there was nothing she could do about that. She wanted to fling rocks, but either she was too far away from any earth to feel it, or that drug had seriously messed with her ability to bend.

Now, an hour after waking up, she was leaning against the wall with her piss bucket close at hand in case she needed it again. She heard what sounded like footsteps coming up a flight of stairs to her right and lifted her head to hear a little better.

"What is it?" asked Heng.

"Someone's coming," Toph said. She glared in the general direction of the noise.

"Try not to get too verbal with them," said Heng. "I don't particularly look forward to being beaten to a pulp because you decided to piss off our captors."

"Oh please, Heng. I'm smarter than that." Toph turned her head in the direction of his voice and grinned toothily. "I'm just sometimes lacking in self control."

Heng snorted. "Ya, sometimes."

The footsteps had apparently made it to the top of the stairs and were now heading towards them. They sounded heavier than the average non-earthbending woman, so Toph came to the conclusion that it was probably a man. The footsteps stopped not far off to her right and Toph was faced with an infuriating silence.

"Well?" she snapped. "You gonna tell us what we're doing here?"

"Patience, Miss Beifong." The voice was male and possessed a soft, comforting quality. Toph wanted to punch it.

"That's Chief Beifong," she said.

"Uh huh."

Toph clenched her fists, but remembering the position they were in she chose to keep her retort to herself. Being in a responsible leadership position really was the most frustrating part of her job.

"Are you going to tell us what you plan on doing with us, or not?" she said after she'd calmed her breathing somewhat.

"We plan on keeping you in this cell for now," the man said. "The rest of our plans aren't really important to you for the time being."

"Not really important?" started Heng, but Toph quickly shushed him.

"Why are you here then?"

"I'm checking up on you. Making sure you're all still alive before we start making our demands." There was a rustle of fabric as the man stepped a couple of feet away. Toph wished she could see what he was doing. "I suppose you'll be wanting something to eat eventually."

Toph grimaced. She didn't really want anything to eat, but the others might. Still, she couldn't keep her sarcasm to herself. There was no way the man hadn't noticed her bucket of puke. "That's very generous of you," she deadpanned.

"Generous, yes. Someone will be by later with your food." He walked away, leaving Toph and her officers alone in their cell.

"So... we're being ransomed?" This time it was Kai who spoke. His voice sounded small. Frightened. Toph didn't know him very well, but she knew that despite his skill in metalbending, he was still young and inexperienced. It wasn't fair for him to be stuck here with the rest of them.

"It's more likely Chief Beifong is being ransomed. I can imagine they'll want to use her as leverage against the other city officials," said Nu.

"So we're disposable..." she heard Kai say quietly.

"Enough!" Toph sat up straighter, trying to pull off as authoritative a posture as she could. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. If anything, I'm the one who's in danger. As long as you all keep your heads down, they shouldn't have any reason to hurt any of you. So keep your mouths shut and let me do the talking, understood?"

There was a general mumbling of agreement between her officers, but it seemed half-hearted. Toph sighed. She just needed to keep everything together long enough to figure a way out of this damn place.

Two days later they were still stuck in the same damn wooden cell. Their captors hadn't spent much time with them, except to bring them food and to rough up Toph's face for a photograph they were presumably going to send to the council. Toph had been given a bloody nose and a few bruises, but nothing serious.

She was beyond frustrated and wanted nothing more than to fling some rocks, or to beat the crap out of somebody, or even just to pace around a bit. But there was no earth to bend and she was as blind as a wolf bat- scratch that. She was even more blind than a wolf bat. Besides, there was food sitting around their cell and she didn't fancy the idea of accidentally stepping in someone's rice because she couldn't be bothered to sit still.

So she stayed sitting in the same place for as long as she could. Fumbling around the cell would only remind everyone of just how painfully helpless she was at the moment, and Toph hated looking helpless. She couldn't act, she shouldn't act, so she just sat and waited.

As she was contemplating the consequences of smashing her fist into comforting voice guy's face, Toph heard the sounds of footsteps coming up the stairs once more.

"Again?" asked Heng as Toph tilted her head in response to the noise.

"It's a little soon for them to be bringing us food, right?" said Nu.

"Quiet," Toph snapped. "Remember what I said about keeping your head down."

"Yes Chief."

She heard Heng moving on the other side of the cell and Gan snickered. "I swear, if you're making rude gestures at me-" but she stopped speaking when the footsteps made it to the top of the stairs. There were three people this time. Definitely not a food delivery.

When they entered the room, Toph was sitting as upright as possible, her blind gaze directed towards the door of their cell. "What do you want now?" she asked.

"Things aren't progressing the way we intended," said comforting voice guy. Toph snorted.

"You were expecting some money for me or something?"

"Not quite." The group was stepping closer to the cell and Toph tensed. They were coming in for her.

"What do you think you're doing?" exclaimed Heng.

Toph slowly got to her feet, keeping her face turned towards their captors. "Relax. They probably just want to take some more pictures of my bloody face," she said.

"They don't have a camera."

The cell door clicked open. There was a quiet crackle of ice being formed as three sets of footsteps advanced towards her. Toph's heart thudded in her chest, her eyes widening. She couldn't defend herself. Not like this!

"Stay away from her!" Heng appeared to be standing now, and was moving towards their captors.

"Heng, back off," Toph said. But her warning had no effect. She heard flesh meet flesh and the shuffling of feet as a scuffle took place. Heng grunted, his body thudding to the ground.

"Get off of me," he growled.

"Leave him alone," Toph warned. Her voice was low, eyes narrowed.

Someone stepped towards her. "Or what?" said the calm voice of their captor. "We needed something to send to the council. We were thinking a finger, or maybe... a toe?" Toph's toes curled at the thought of being mutilated. "But maybe a dead cop will do the trick."

There was more ice crackling behind him and Heng's fearful cries became muffled as something covered his mouth. She heard Gan and Ling shout out, but Toph knew what she had to do. They wanted her? They would have her.

Toph yelled as she charged head first at the man in front of her. He stumbled backwards while Toph latched her arms around his midsection. They tripped, and the two of them fell into a tangled mess of limbs as people scrambled to get a hold of her. Toph could smell Heng's sweat, and the sweet scent of a feminine perfume. Hands grabbed at her legs and someone kneed her in the ribs. Toph grunted, but when she felt the fabric of someone's sleeved arm pressing into her face, she bit down and revelled in the pained cry that followed. Something collided with the side of her head and a dazed Toph allowed herself to be hoisted upright.

Ya, she hadn't expected to win that fight.

"Chief!"

"Stay put. That's an order, Heng."

"You want to lose a toe so bad?" said their captor. "Fine."

Toph was roughly shoved against the wall of their cell. Two sets of hands pinned her arms on either side, but her legs remained free. When she felt the heat of her captor's body in front of her, Toph kneed him hard. She grinned.

And then something collided with her abdomen.

Toph hadn't expected the pain that followed. It felt like her insides were being shredded. She wanted to cry out, but the only noise she was able to make was a strangled gasp.

What the fuck?!

She wanted to curl up into a ball, but she was still being pinned to the wall. Instead her legs tried to curl upwards which only resulted in adding extra pressure to her burning gut. She groaned.

"The council is going to give us what we want," said the man. "They just need proper incentive."

He grabbed at one of her legs, but Toph was in too much pain to put up much of a struggle. She felt tears spring to her eyes. She really didn't want to lose a toe.

The only sounds present to Toph were the beating of her heart and her own uneven gasps for breath. She felt like she was going to throw up again. Why did this hurt so much? What did he do to her?

Why isn't he cutting off my toe?

That's when Toph heard it. The faint sound of heavy gusts of air far below them. Solid objects hitting solid objects.

Aang!

"Leave her for now," the man said.

"But," said a female voice.

"We'll finish this later."

The hands let go of her and Toph crumpled to the floor. She wrapped her arms around her midsection with a groan and curled into a ball.

"Oh please. I didn't punch you that hard."

"Fuck you," she ground out through clenched teeth.

Their captors rushed out of the room and the cell door clicked shut as they left. Toph was breathing heavily, waiting for the pain to subside. At least it was starting to get a little more bearable.

A hand grasped her arm. "Are you okay, Chief?" asked Nu.

"I just need a minute," she said hoarsely. "How's Heng?"

"I'm okay," he said from somewhere in front of her. He appeared to still be on the ground.

"Good. Then I won't feel so bad about killing you later," Toph growled.

The pain had definitely gotten better, but it still hurt like a bitch. She tried focussing on her breathing, but it wasn't helping any. She was beginning to wonder just what kind of major damage had been done when a pair of light footsteps all but flew up the stairs.

"Toph!"

"Hey there Twinkletoes," Toph grunted. "How are the kids?" Just then the pain intensified tenfold. Toph gasped and curled in on herself even more, her eyes screwed shut. Aang's soft hands touched her side and Toph jumped slightly. She hadn't even heard him run over.

"Toph, what's wrong?"

"What makes you think something's wrong?" Toph asked sarcastically. She groaned at another wave of pain.

"Uh, Chief?" said Nu. "You're bleeding."

"What? Where?" Toph's eyes grew wide. She heard people moving around her before Aang gently pulled her leg forwards. Under normal circumstances Aang's face would have been knuckle deep in fist city by this point, but Toph was in too much pain to reprimand him for touching her inappropriately. Besides, he probably had a good reason for what he was doing.

"I'll get Katara," he said. There was a note of fear in his voice.

"You brought your pregnant wife with you to a gang raid?"The pain was beginning to subside again and Toph relaxed a little.

"She stayed outside during the fighting," Aang said. "Try not to move too much, okay?"

Aang didn't go down the stairs. Instead there was a gust of wind as he disappeared off to the side. He'd apparently jumped out the window.

Hang on, why had Aang been touching her leg? She'd been hit in the abdomen. "Where, exactly, am I bleeding from?" Toph asked carefully. Her question was answered by silence.

"Um..." she heard Heng say eventually. It didn't matter anyways. Toph was becoming aware of a sticky wetness between her legs. She felt the blood drain from her face. No wonder the Avatar sounded so worried.

When Katara showed up she was moving very quickly. The waterbender dropped something on the floor next to Toph before kneeling down carefully.

"Oh, Toph," she said. The earthbender would have rolled her eyes at the pitying tone her friend had put on, but at that moment there was another wave of cramping that caused her to curl tightly around her abdomen.

"Hang on," Katara said. There was a popping noise followed by a swish of water and Toph felt the cool liquid meld over and around her tightly clasped arms. The pain began to subside as Katara worked, and Toph started to relax. Eventually she moved her arms to give the healer better access to her wounded gut.

Her officers were completely silent. Toph imagined they were all watching her with worried eyes, but she didn't need their pity and she really didn't need them to see her having a weak moment, so Toph glared and hoped it was enough to make them uneasy.

Eventually, Katara stopped. She returned the water back to whatever container she had taken it from. Toph was feeling much better, but there was still a deep, dull ache where Katara had been working.

"You're stable for now," Katara said. "But we should get you to a hospital for proper treatment. And Toph?"

"What?"

"You should have told me you were pregnant."