Chapter 14: By The Merits of Incompetence

Azula was someone very used to being escorted, regardless of the destination. She had grown up constantly being under the watchful eye of her father's subordinates, but that was a great deal different than the wary gazes of the men that watched her group as they were escorted into the residence of the Beifong family. Not that Azula could claim she was unused to such a scenario; her mother, when she had still been around, had often recruited servants to the noble cause of reporting all of Azula's misdeeds. And naturally, Ursa had seen almost everything Azula did as some sort of heinous crime, so that was always a hassle. On the bright side, Azula often scared said slaves into silence with threats of being burned alive. She had always found it amusing that they wouldn't dare report the worst thing she actually did.

Point being, there were six of the Beifong's guard detail escorting them to what she presumed would be the family head himself, and despite the fact that their unknown identities clearly worked in their favor, she felt somewhat irked that they had received such a small detail to keep an eye on them. She alone was deserving of far more guards than this to even try and keep her in check. And taking her friends into account, the Beifongs should have had a quintessential army out here.

But of course, they were just a group of sell-swords to these blissfully ignorant fools. If only they knew who they had let waltz right into their midst, they'd probably have a heart attack.

The quartet of Fire Nation infiltrators was escorted past many different symbols of wealth, though not a one of them really understood how they served such purposes, since they mostly came in various different models of winged boars. Whether it was green tapestries with golden embroidered pigs or actual stone statues of the aerial hogs, it seemed to be a well-respected animal around these parts. Whether the Beifongs had adopted the symbol because it was revered or if the animal had become respected thanks to the family's prestige was a mystery. But for the likes of Fire Nation natives, no amount of explanation could convince them that a pig with wings was a noble animal of any sort. Probably had something to do with the array of vastly superior and formidable fauna that inhabited their island homeland. It was difficult to respect flying bacon when big scary reptiles were the norm.

Their destination was, of course, a halfway refined room that likely served as the Beifong's place of reception for guests they wished to impress. Despite the Earth Kingdom's many primitive ways their nobility apparently still had some sense of decorum, though compared to Fire Nation nobility the room Azula's group was ushered into was rather plain. While the subdued green carpets and pale chalky walls were clearly made of prime material, the only real piece of 'prestige' to be seen in the chamber was the large double throne of sorts that the Bei Fong patriarch rested in, alongside his wife. It was an odd piece of furniture that seemed much too large for its intended purpose, especially since there was a large divider between the two people that used it. What was the point of sitting in a position of prominence alongside your spouse with such separation between you?

Understanding of the culture aside, Azula was not at all impressed by the head of the Beifong family, a rather unusual man with a long mustache and a likely permanent expression that seemed adverse to fun or amusement of any sort whatsoever. His wife was a very pretty woman with narrow eyes that bore the light of naivete in them, in a way that was somehow even more clueless than the kind Ty Lee had. As much as Azula ribbed her childhood friend about being an airhead, she knew the brunette was actually wise in her own way. It was just a particular set of knowledge that she carried.

But the time for such admittance was over, because considering the situation at hand, Lao Beifong wasn't going to give his guests much time to think. "You had better do a very good job of convincing me why I shouldn't have my men throw you in a cell. How dare you come to my doorstep with a threat against a member of my family!"

Now, while people often gave Azula credit for her acting ability, very few truly understood the depths of her prowess. She was so good at pretending that she was even capable (begrudgingly so) of acting subservient to an Earth Kingdom noble, folding in half at the waist in a sign of reverence. Even though none of her friends could see her face at that moment, it was obvious that her soul was hurting from the motion. Her dedication to the cause really couldn't be questioned, that was for sure.

"Esteemed Master Beifong, I'm sure you have already realized the implications of our presence here, we-"

Lao cut her off, something that almost broke Azula's sturdy facade. "Indeed I have! You have a contract of sorts for the head of my daughter, and you are mercenaries, are you not?! It seems quite clear to me what is implied by your presence!"

Mai resisted the urge to make an exasperated motion of any sort. Apparently this man had come to the conclusion that they were here to capture his daughter; and instead of telling his men to keep them at bay or outright attack them, he had them brought right into the confines of his home? Didn't this just mean he was a moron?

For those familiar enough with the girl to detect it, it was obvious that Azula thought the same thing. There was that slightest bit of condescending frustration in her voice that she just barely failed to mask.

"Master Beifong, while we are indeed a mercenary group, surely you don't believe we would declare our presence and our intentions so blatantly? We've no desire to see harm come to your daughter, from our hands especially."

While still wary, Lao admitted to himself that it wouldn't make sense for anyone that wanted to hurt Toph to announce themselves at the front gate. There were still many questions to be asked however, though Poppy beat him to one of them.

"Why is this happening? Who would want to harm our darling Toph? What kind of person would even think of something like this?"

Momentarily ignoring his wife's duress, Lao focused on the more important question. "I'm more interested in 'how' this happened. No one in Gaoling should even know that Toph exists, save Master Yu. And considering how much he gets paid to teach her I doubt he has any interest in misfortune befalling my daughter. So, mercenaries; who hired you to come here?"

While the only acceptable outcome of this situation was to get on Lao's good side, Azula had to at least make it seem like her only concern was personal gain. "With all due respect Master Beifong, revealing that now would only deprive my comrades and I from a handsome reward..."

While dense in many regards, Lao didn't miss what Azula was implying, though he certainly wasn't happy about it. "You wish me to pay you just to leave without trouble? I have more than enough guards to evict you with no such loss to my wealth."

"Nothing of the sort, Master Beifong. We may be... entrepreneurial freelancers, but we expect to carry an appropriate amount of weight for our pay in any situation. Rather than paying us to leave without trouble, it would be more beneficial to both parties to hire a little extra security, wouldn't you say?"

Lao frowned immediately, torn on whether or not he actually approved of that idea or was suspicious of it. "Once again, I say I have plenty of guards to keep my home secure and my daughter safe. What need do I have of such young and inexperienced brigands?"

Azula was sure the whole group had taken some offense at being labeled as brigands, as she did as well, but things were actually playing out in their favor. "Young we may be, but it has no bearing on our skill. I mean no offense to your guardsmen, but, well... we've dealt with their caliber plenty of times before, and warriors of our skill are fairly common in the Guild..."

From the downright terrified look on Poppy's face, it was clear that Azula had her caught already. The woman would probably buy into any tall tale that could be spun. Azula could probably say that dragons would descend on Gaoling to raze it to the ground, and Poppy would rush to prepare for the apocalypse.

Lao on the other hand had a healthier degree of skepticism, though he was quite far from the toughest nut Azula had ever crushed into pieces. One more move would be enough to secure their position here at the Beifong estate, especially with the anxious whispers Poppy sent her husband's way, though her nervousness failed to keep the volume down.

"Lao, your men haven't fought anything more than a stray thief in years! If experienced warriors come after Toph, s-she'll be-!"

With a deep breath, Lao eyed the strangers before him again. No matter how he tried to picture it, he couldn't see them as being dangerous at all. Aside from the fact that none of them appeared to be over eighteen, three of them were girls. Only the young man in the back, with the clear musculature of a seasoned warrior, looked like he could pose any threat to anyone.

But despite his own skepticism, there was an easy enough way to prove the worth of these unusual soldiers for hire. "If you're so confident in the incompetence of my men, I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to prove your worth against them. If you can defeat the ones who escorted you here I'll hire you to protect my daughter alongside them; and expect you to share what you know about this contract. Fair enough?"

Absolutely confident in their ability to prove exactly that, Azula donned her trademark smirk for the first time in this meeting. "Absolutely. I presume we are going to do this outside?"

Lao motioned towards the door rather than answering, starting the small procession that was himself, his guards, and the strangers in his home. Not one to appreciate violence in any form whatsoever, Poppy stayed behind, going to check on her darling daughter out of some misguided attempt for solace.

Despite being a mansion, the Beifong estate was actually a relatively small one, and it didn't take long for everyone to make it outside. They stopped in the gardens, for the implied reason that there was no particular grounds for intensive combat training. Lao didn't look very happy about that, for the easily made assumption that at least one of his men was an Earthbender. Then again, if that were true that same Earthbender should have reasonably been able to fix whatever damage he caused after the fight: provided that he was in any shape to do anything at all.

In fact, with enough space between them and their would be opponents to at least whisper without fear of eavesdropping, Azula made one thing clear to the currently deadliest member of their crew: Ty Lee.

"Take it somewhat easy on them Ty Lee; we all need to look good here."

The girl in question folded her arms and pouted, only pretending to be disappointed. She did like showing off, but she didn't enjoy fighting very much, so she didn't mind holding back so her friends could do more of the heavy lifting.

And of course, since neither Azula nor Xisheng could do any Firebending, it was true that Ty Lee would be the most formidable in this situation. It may have been Mai if they were aiming to kill the opposition, but since it was coming down to hand to hand combat that wasn't the case. Of course, if there was an Earthbender to contend with, Mai could be the solution to that problem.

As for Xisheng, he would have been mildly concerned if not for the allies at hand. Firebending definitely possessed one of the more practical forms of utilization compared to the other elements; the martial art used for Firebending was much more useful in actual hand to hand than say, water or air bending. Fortunately for Xisheng, his experience on the defensive line meant he was even more skilled in using that medium for real combat than most Firebenders. Still, possessing a valuable skill like Ty Lee's would have been useful for these types of situations.

Regardless, Azula was certainly not one to waste time or mince words, especially since there was only a limited window for everything to occur before the Avatar inevitably showed his face.

"We're ready whenever you are, Master Beifong. We'll be sure to leave your security detail able-bodied by the time we're through."

As always, Azula's demeanor didn't go over well, but it served its purpose in getting things underway without unnecessary pomp and circumstance. Clearly Lao didn't like the way such a young girl was talking to the noble head of a wealthy household, so he hoped his men would be able to teach her and her friends a well-earned lesson; even though Poppy was right in saying they may have been out of practice.

"I hope for your sake your skill is as great as you say. Yan, go ahead and begin!"

His command clearly received by whichever beige clad guardsmen was Yan, he and his five comrades made their move, albeit slowly. It was clear by the looks on their faces that none of them felt comfortable attacking a group of teenagers that comprised of three girls. The Earth Kingdom had always been a little slow on the uptake; women that could fight were infinitely scarier than men.

It was easy to tell which men were benders long before they managed to lift any rocks. For one, the two that there were carried no weapons, unlike their other comrades. On top of that, their first movements were large, heavy ones that telegraphed their intention to shift the earth in some way or another.

The first Earthbender that attempted to lift his foot found it nailed to the ground by two expertly placed knives. Xisheng found it kind of disturbing that Mai could place steel that close to the body without actually cutting anything, but apparently the soles were large enough targets to hit as opposed to toes.

It was obvious from the awkward movements of the armed men that they weren't sure how aggressive to be considering the unarmed nature of most of their opponents, but once Azula planted her heel in Yan's abdomen, that hesitation quickly faded.

The tip of a spear was the first thing to come Xisheng's way, stabbing at him in a rather textbook frontal assault. Said assault allowed the seasoned bender to sidestep the attack, then stomp the outstretched blade into the ground. Snapping the shaft in two with an axe kick was a simple follow up, considerable strength notwithstanding.

Ty Lee on the other hand had no such need for nullifying the weapons of the enemy. There was simply no danger to her, as her reflexes and flexibility avoided every swipe of the blade. Even with two men focused on her alone, she seemed to be dancing for fun more than fighting, leisurely jabbing her knuckles into a limb when she saw an opening. Considering that she had landed six hits already but her opponents were still standing, it was clear that she truly was playing around.

By this time the Earthbender that wasn't trying to yank his foot out of the ground had managed to lift a decent chunk of earth, but his means of attack was about all that could be expected. To be fair, the majority of Earthbending was just throwing rocks in one fashion or another.

Unfortunately that did pose a threat to Xisheng since he couldn't Firebend, which would have allowed him to kick a projectile of this size into dust. As it was he had to settle for evading the boulder, which harmlessly soared past him for a brief moment. It was a surprise however, when the Earthbender recalled the projectile after it missed the mark, forcing Xisheng to avoid it much less gracefully since it caught him off guard. He hadn't seen that kind of maneuver employed before.

The same Earthbender split the rock in two once it was in his grasp again, this time aiming for targets that weren't paying attention to him in the form of Ty Lee and Mai. Unfortunately for him, splitting the chunk of earth made the two projectiles small enough for Xisheng to destroy in the middle of their flight. But unfortunately for Xisheng, he was used to smashing such projectiles with both the aid of his bending and the steel plating of his uniform; in fact, he had done exactly that so many times without injury that his leg was already slicing through the air before he realized that this time it would actually hurt.

Thankfully he had still kicked with good form, using the heel of his foot rather than his toes, so he avoided any broken bones. What he didn't do was avoid enough pain to resist cursing after demolishing the projectiles.

"Shit! Argh-fu-!"

He found a hand clasped over his mouth before he could finish, courtesy of a mockingly irate Ty Lee. "Nope, none of that! Shame on you!"

Xisheng tore her hand off his mouth as he furiously tried to rub the pain out of his heel. "I think I'm justified with this one!"

Mai almost leisurely backed away from the edge of a sword, overhearing the brief exchange as she did so. "You kicked a pair of rocks, you're not justified in the least."

"I'll keep that in mind with the next one that comes your way!"

With no appropriate retort to that, Mai left him alone, instead focusing on the 'fight' that was already looking grim for their opponents. The two men that Ty Lee had struck were feeling weak and wobbly, rather than completely paralyzed since she hadn't gone all out. Mai was more or less screwing with the same Earthbender she had started with, repeatedly nailing both of his boots to the ground every time he managed to free himself. By now he was just using his arms, but with two of his limbs immobilized he wasn't capable of performing any overly creative or powerful moves.

Azula had already knocked out the man she had struck first, with a very similar attack judging by the vaguely foot shaped bruise on his face. She was already pressuring another victim with a flurry of strikes that utilized her claw like nails.

In short, Xisheng was the only one who hadn't contributed overly much, and despite being mostly practical and cool-headed, it still kind of stung his pride to be shown up by a trio of girls with no 'real' combat experience. He was practically a veteran soldier by now, he couldn't be so inept as to get carried to victory.

So, he settled on taking out both Earthbenders, since Mai couldn't really do anything other than repeatedly immobilize her target.

The first step was to take vengeance for his poor bruised heel, so Xisheng began a steady advance towards the Earthbender that had damaged him, preparing for a similar onslaught to the first. Ironically this was exactly what had gotten him hurt in the first place.

The Earthbender, naturally preferring to keep his target at bay, began lifting and throwing fist sized rocks at Xisheng in a relatively steady stream. Thing was, Xisheng had actually punched a lot of rocks in his lifetime. Usually it was with the aid of his Firebending, but at times he had been caught off guard and forced to physically counter such projectiles, and so long as they were a manageable size, he was actually pretty good at deflecting them. He'd only hurt himself smashing the other rocks because he acted without realizing that he didn't have the usual boons in this situation, that being his bending and his armor. Now that such deficiencies were in focus he would be able to minimize damage to himself.

The key to physical deflection of small boulders was all about negating the incoming force of the projectile. In fact, you weren't even trying to smash it; you just wanted to direct it away from you. Like any projectile a bent boulder only had significant force in one direction. Applying an equally significant force in a different one often nullified the danger, as long as you weren't stupid enough to try and apply that force in the exact opposite direction. Generally the human hand lost against rocks.

And Xisheng had done this enough times to know how to properly hit said rocks to avoid broken fingers, so he continued to steadily advance even as he batted aside incoming stones with precision chops and hooks. Since he was aiming to deflect rather than destroy, he didn't even have to hit them all that hard, which helped in avoiding serious injury.

The Earthbender, openly intimidated by the ineffectiveness of his assault, nevertheless continued it as he tried to retreat backwards. Unfortunately he wasn't backpedaling as fast as Xisheng was moving forward, and only a few more rocks got in the way of a quick melee. And unfortunately for that out of practice guardsmen, it was quick indeed. Many benders were less than adequate in melee combat because of how much they relied on fighting at range. And even though Xisheng considered his CQC less deadly than his bending, he was actually quite proficient at it in comparison. The frenzied battles on the EK Defensive Line often devolved into merciless brawls, and one didn't last long there without gaining some semblance of skill on the matter.

Xisheng's first strike was, naturally, a solid blow to the solar plexus, which doubled his target over immediately. This was followed up by a swift punch to the side of the head, with just enough force to push his opponent to the side. With his head now in position, a solid kick to the forehead snapped the man backwards and landed him flat on his back. In a more lethal combat Xisheng would have used an axe kick to crush his skull; but he was certainly not going to employ that technique a second time if it wasn't needed. He had never been too terribly comfortable with the first incident.

Glancing back at the remains of the brief scuffle, Xisheng saw that Mai had already taken care of his other target. Perhaps realizing that she too had not contributed much, the uncannily accurate marksman had methodically pinned her original target to the ground, entirely immobilizing him with a dozen knives nailed through various points on his clothing or gear. Acknowledging that they all could have been in veins or organs if she wished was objectively terrifying enough to offset the amusement of the Earthbender's situation.

The rest of their foes had likewise been dispatched by now, with Ty Lee really putting her opponents down once she saw that the scuffle was coming to a close and Azula having knocked out the last remaining man with a display of martial prowess that Xisheng had not borne witness to. In actuality the man Azula had faced just wasn't very good, but she chose to mark it up to talent rather than massive skill variance.

So in total Xisheng had only defeated one of their six foes, and honestly that kind of stung a little. Now more than ever he really hoped he could find time to learn some things from Ty Lee. Obviously Firebending would probably always be his main means of fighting, but it certainly couldn't hurt to know more martial skills. It obviously would have been useful in this situation.

Either way, the point had been made; the men that guarded the Beifong estate were no match for talented fighters. And 'surely' mercenaries of this caliber were fairly common, meaning Lao would have a serious issue on his hands when those equally talented brigands came his way.

Of course, there would be no other mercenaries coming after his daughter, and the adversaries that showed up at his door step would be nothing other than a bunch of kids. In that sense, this whole plan would have been ridiculous; what kind of idiot would ever believe that a trio of barely teen children were mercenaries, hunting an equally young child for coin? A very particular type of idiot, of course. A paranoid one that would place stock in any type of danger, no matter how asinine.

The kind of paranoid idiot that was so afraid of everything that he locked his own daughter away from the world to keep her safe.

Naturally Azula had not been aware of that particular fact at the time she had formulated her plan, but then again, the initial purpose had just been reaching the target before the Avatar. Her allies had probably believed that she had a fool-proof plan from start to finish, but the reality was that plans hardly came into being that way; they were usually constructed one step at a time. Azula had reached her first goal without a hitch, and thanks to it had learned information that would aid in the second phase. Fortune had done half the work for her.

Not that she would admit that to anyone.

As equally stunned with the performance of these strangers as he was appalled by that of his men, Lao nevertheless tried to hide the latter, doing hid best to appear pleased rather than disgruntled with the results.

"Well... I must say, your looks are truly deceiving. I would never have guessed that a group of... individuals such as yourself would be so skilled."

It was obvious from the hesitation in his voice that Lao thought better of what he was initially going to say, though it wasn't like anyone was dumb enough to somehow miss the implication in the first place. He was either shocked that they were so competent being primarily female or because they were so young. Either was rather insulting, but at least he had tried to conceal the notion.

Azula couldn't quite find it in herself to be irritated at the moment anyway, since things were proceeding so very smoothly. "Why thank you, Master Beifong. I hope this proves my point in regards to a little extra help protecting your daughter. No offense to your men, but they do seem to be a bit out of practice. The mercenaries that will come after your daughter have spent most of their lives fighting, so I believe the odds are obvious."

It was clear by the tone of her voice that Azula had long since dropped the charade of subservience. It was no longer necessary, seeing as how she had planted all of the seeds required to checkmate her opponent. Lao was of the mind that his daughter would soon be assaulted by enemies of sufficient skill. He was also convinced that his own guards were insufficient in protecting her against said enemies. He had no choice now but to do exactly what Azula wanted, unless he was willing to risk the entirely fictional yet potential danger to his daughter.

And for his many flaws, Lao was at least a man that cared for his child. He had plenty of money to spare if it meant protecting her from danger. And while he was far too paranoid to blindly trust Azula and her band of competent fighters, he could do the apparent math. If they were this skilled, and were only here to capture Toph, there would be no need for subterfuge of any sort. They could have easily plowed through his security and taken her by force. There was no need for any of this sneaking about, and they weren't wrong in their thinking: the Beifong family was the richest in this half of the Earth Kingdom. Lao could pay them far more for their services than whoever had hired them to attack Toph in the first place.

"As much as it worries me to see this level of incompetence from my men, I hope this is a result of your skill more than their faults. I won't lie; it pains me to rely on people of your profession for something as crucial as protecting my daughter, but your point has been made. If the others that come after Toph are as capable as you, I need your services. I suggest we return indoors to discuss your no doubt substantial fee."

Azula folded her arms behind her back, obviously pleased with herself, though for a reason Lao obviously misconstrued. "Don't look so glum, Master Beifong. Remember, you'll also be getting the identity of the man who ordered this contract. I believe that, along with our protection of your daughter, will be worth a fair sum, don't you?"

Unwilling to outright agree even though he very much did, Lao motioned to the men that were finally managing to get back to their feet after their rather embarrassing beat down. "Return the garden to how it was. And I suggest you all get some very much needed practice. Even with these youths on hand, I expect all of you to be vigilant; and preferably more useful against the next mercenaries than you were against these ones."

Utterly humiliated at this point, the six men that had been bested by a bunch of teenagers bowed deeply to their employer before getting to work on the garden, which fortunately for them had only been slightly damaged in the scuffle.

As Xisheng followed Lao back into the mansion alongside his other companions, he felt especially bad for them; while it was definitely their fault for not maintaining a greater level of proficiency in combat, it wasn't really fair to expect them to hold their own against the kind of opponents they had faced today. After all, they had probably spent the last couple of years standing guard around a girl that had to at least pretend to be blind and helpless.

Halfway back to the room in which they had first met Lao Beifong, Azula rose her voice to make a rather important statement. "Master Beifong, if I may be so bold, but I think it would be best if you directed my comrades to your daughter as quickly as possible. We needn't all be present to discuss monetary affairs."

For some reason Lao seemed to find this notion preposterous, as evidenced by the arch of his brow. "That seems wholly unnecessary. What need is there to begin your watch before the terms are even set?"

Azula returned his look perfectly, though hers was questioning his intelligence. "We arrived this early in the morning, did we not?"

Unable to miss the implication of that sentence, Lao reluctantly conceded. "Very well. When we get back I'll have one of my men escort your comrades. To think, I was worried about Master Yu increasing his fee last night..."

The rest of the trip back to the estate's reception room only took a few minutes, and upon arrival, they found that no escort to the daughter in question would be required. After all, the diminutive blind girl was currently in the room, sporting the most displeased grimace Xisheng had ever seen on anyone as she was unwillingly coddled in her mother's lap. Apparently Poppy felt that now was the best time to pointlessly fret over her daughter's safety.

Considering how capable she had proven herself to be during Earth Rumble VI, Xisheng could understand why being treated in such a manner would be infuriating.

He got the feeling she wasn't overly fond of the stuffy appearance forced upon her by her parents either, if the aesthetic she chose to take in the ring was any indication. Truth be told though Xisheng could level with the girl there. The white and beige silks she was wearing might have been comfortable if only they weren't bound so tight around her body. Regardless of the sightless nature of her eyes, it was still all too easy to see the malcontent in them. It was no wonder she led a double life of combat and glory. Any sane person would go mad if left to this situation.

Seeing that there was no need to direct his new and hopefully brief employees, Lao simply led Azula away to a different room after briefly informing his wife of the new situation, not wanting to concern her or his daughter with monetary affairs. In truth, perhaps he just didn't want Toph to hear him haggling over how much her safety was worth.

Either way, Azula didn't bother telling her compatriots to stay, since it was already obvious that they should. Unfortunately, this left said compatriots in a rather awkward situation, since they were now alone in the room with only their soon to be charge and her mother. It was obvious that neither Ty Lee nor Mai quite knew what to do with their current personas, but Xisheng had done enough soldiering to know what his role would normally be in this situation. In fact, now that he thought about it, he could have a pretty decent career in mercenary work if he wanted to. But, he was much too driven by loyalty and honor and whatnot to really consider that. Besides, all things considered, he much preferred the company he had now compared to whatever theoretical group he could work with elsewhere.

Either way, he did exactly what he would have done in any other scenario that involved guarding an individual in a room; he watched the door. More accurately, he positioned himself in a place that allowed him to see every potential entryway into the room, at least in his peripheral. Mai caught on to what he was doing quickly, wasting no time in pretending to watch those same entryways, but Ty Lee was utterly clueless, simply standing around with her usual smile on her face. Even Poppy found it to be a little odd.

In fact, despite her own lack of uncanny wit, Toph's mother felt the awkward tension in the air and sought to rectify it. Unfortunately, the way she went about doing that was awkward simply because of the tone of voice she addressed her daughter with. For some reason, Xisheng found it a more fitting way to address a pet than your child.

"Toph, these er, 'kind' people are here to keep you safe. I'm sure they're very talented and capable, so you have nothing to worry about. I'm sure this strapping young man can handle anyone that would try to hurt you."

Toph cocked an eyebrow, maybe questioning why Xisheng had been singled out in particular, and it was clear that Ty Lee felt the same way, though why she felt the need to speak was beyond Xisheng or Mai. "Um, what about us? We're really good too y'know!"

Poppy gave Ty Lee a disbelieving once over before returning her gaze to her daughter. "Yes, I'm sure you are. Anyway, as I was saying..."

Being completely disregarded was practically number one on Ty Lee's list of awful, terrible things, but she at least had the wits about her to not go off on some sort of tirade against the wife of the household. It didn't stop her from fuming of course, but Poppy didn't seem to notice that either.

Poppy continuing rambling about all the terrible dangers her darling daughter needed to be protected from, managing to go on for a good sixty seconds before someone stopped her. Surprisingly, it was her own daughter who did so. More surprisingly than that was how dainty she managed to sound while doing it.

"Mother, I need to relieve myself. May I be excused?"

Something about the notion of having to ask for that struck the Fire Nation natives as strange, but since Poppy didn't react in any untoward way, this must have been what she typically expected.

"Of course dear; I suppose one of the ladies will have to do. Maybe both should go, to make up for-"

"I want the 'strapping young man' to escort me. You said he could handle anyone!"

To anyone that wasn't a complete idiot, it was obvious that Toph was having a ball with the way her mother reacted. How she could tell Poppy looked aghast was beyond Xisheng, but maybe she didn't even have to perceive it. Maybe she just knew.

And yet, aghast or not, Poppy still submitted to her daughter's wishes, much to the surprise of everyone else. The older woman gave Xisheng a severe gaze that was a symbol of affirmation, but also a threat of some sort. Xisheng for one was outright offended at what she was worried about, but also a little amused; even if he did commit some heinous crime, what could she do about it? Send her incompetent men to inflict punishment? It was obvious how that would go already.

Either way, Xisheng knew that Toph was completely joking about this matter. He didn't know how anyone could misinterpret the tone of her voice, seeing as how it sounded like she was struggling to contain a laugh even now. Granted, the shock on Poppy's face had been rather funny.

All things considered, Xisheng decided it would be best to just play along. If Poppy were truly so worried regarding his integrity she could send some of those aforementioned incompetents along.

"I will do my utmost to see the lady to her destination. I'm willing to give my life for this noble cause."

Toph snickered, perhaps realizing that Xisheng was on the same page as her. Unfortunately even Ty Lee and Mai gave him wary looks, but honestly he didn't think they were genuinely concerned. He was fairly certain he had established himself as a respectable enough individual.

The girl in need of a break rose from her mother's lap, offering a hand to her soon to be escort. She was 'blind' after all, so this was probably how she had to pretend to act around her parents. Assuming this was still part of her personal amusement, Xisheng nevertheless did what was expected of him, allowing Toph to lead him out of the room at a clearly faked slow pace.

The moment they were out of Poppy's sight, the young girl began moving at a pace fitting of any normal person, though she didn't let go of Xisheng's hand for some reason. If he had to hazard a guess, Xisheng would say that maybe she was trying to figure out what he looked like. She was obviously blind, but she clearly still saw the world around her in some way. Being an Earthbender he would guess it had something to do with vibrations or some such, but if that were true he never would have guessed that such a method could be so effective.

It occurred to Xisheng as they walked that he had to act as though he had never seen Toph before, lest he come off as suspicious. He knew she wasn't helpless or even truly blind, but he had to pretend he didn't. It put a bad taste in his mouth though, since it felt kind of insulting to treat a capable fighter like that.

Thankfully, he wasn't completely inept at word-crafting, as Azula had pointed out more than once already.

"Your knowledge of this estate must be flawless, to move about it so quickly."

Toph snorted in what sounded like derision, as much as such noises could be interpreted. "You can cut the crap y'know. You know who I am already, and you know I'm not blind; well, not like, really blind. You know what I mean."

For a brief moment, Xisheng panicked, wondering if he were about to get into a fight with who was probably the most skilled Earthbender he had ever seen. But Toph kept walking to her destination unperturbed, and she didn't seem any more aggressive than she had sixty seconds ago. She'd simply stated facts.

And facts they were, because it was definitely the truth, but now it was a matter of how she knew. Perhaps it was as simple as Azula had claimed it to be; a girl of her talent couldn't be a total simpleton. No prodigy was an outright idiot.

Deciding to play it safe nevertheless, Xisheng returned to a state of normalcy. He was pretty good at keeping calm when the need truly arose.

"How do you figure?"

Toph led her completely unnecessary escort around a corner, still latching onto his hand. "There's one guy in all of Gaoling outside of this estate that knows who I am outside of the Blind Bandit thing, and that's Xin Fu. If you know him, you've probably seen me in action at least once. I doubt you showed up at my doorstep actually thinking I was a helpless little blind girl."

Xisheng resisted the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. The only thing Toph had managed to deduce was their cover, and not even the fact that it was a cover. Everything was still safe for now.

"Fair enough. I guess that was pretty obvious."

"Yeah, but you know what's not? Why he sent you guys at all. The heck could Xin Fu possibly get out of placing a hit on me? I mean, I'm the one who makes all of his money! People show up at those fights for me! Ungrateful blockhead..."

For some reason, the word 'blockhead' reminded Xisheng that he was conversing with a twelve year old more than anything else, including her height or her voice. And considering his partner's age, he wondered how well it would go over if he simply kept silent regarding the details of their presence here. Azula had more or less ordered him to stay quiet, but this situation was pretty unavoidable. Moreover, would Toph even accept silence as an answer? Kids weren't known for being the most reasonable human beings around, and this kid in particular could actually do something about it if she were unhappy.

He figured the best thing to do was to just reinforce their cover as innocently as possible.

"He thinks you conned him out of the night's winnings with that kid that challenged you during the tournament."

Toph arched an eyebrow at nothing in particular. "That sounds really dumb. For one, I'm rich already. Two, I don't know who that cheater during the tournament was, but as much as I hate to admit it he knocked me out of the ring against my will. Not with Earthbending of course. Whatever he did was definitely cheating. If it weren't for the rules I would have shoved that stupid hat up his butt..."

Unsure of how to respond to that, Xisheng simply didn't, giving Toph ample time to continue.

"That said, I don't understand why he sent all of you. No offense, but there's no way you can take me in a fight."

Seeing as how the girl had probably not witnessed their fight against the guards, however she would have gone about that, Xisheng decided not to take offense. Part of that may have been because he didn't necessarily know if she were wrong about that. Having seen her in action, he didn't know if they could actually take her down in an all our brawl.

Not that he had no confidence whatsoever. There were four of them after all, and Azula was this girl's equal at the very least when it came to raw bending prowess. On top of that, if her means of sight really did work through the earth somehow, it was possible that Mai's projectiles could be all but invisible to the girl.

Either way, if all went according to plan, they wouldn't come to blows with Toph.

"That's a rather unfair statement considering that you don't know what we're capable of in the least."

Toph merely smirked at his reply. "I don't have to. Nobody can beat me."

At this, Xisheng smirked back. "That kid beat you."

The young Earthbender's grin reversed immediately. "Alright wiseguy, don't get too cheeky. I could bury you in one of these walls and no one would ever know."

"I think someone would manage to connect the dots. And I think it might make my companions unhappy? They might try to avenge me. I hope..."

"Even blind, I can see that you aren't sure of that. Guess being the only dude in a troop of harpies isn't all it's cracked up to be, huh?"

"I'd hardly call them harpies; witches, at the most."

Toph giggled, glad to find that this stranger that would apparently be hanging around her for a while had a sense of humor. Truth be told she had been a little sour of the idea of having even more guards stalking her than usual, but the distaste had faded with the realization that these ones would probably know what she could actually do, and would treat her as she deserved.

Of course, knowledge of that led Xisheng to ask a particular question. "Seeing as how you don't have to maintain appearances without your mother here to see it, why are you still holding my hand?"

Toph pretended to be offended. "What, shouldn't you be happy? I'm not just any girl you know, I'm both a lady and a strong warrior. How many girls can say that?"

Xisheng quelled the desire to mention that all of the girls in his party were exactly those two things, though Toph misinterpreted his silence as awe or something and continued with her explanation.

"Anyway, you obviously know by now that I'm not totally blind. I mean, I am as far as my eyes are concerned, but I can still sorta see stuff. Unless you're a complete moron you've probably figured that already."

"Based on your performance in the tournament, I assumed it had something to do with Earthbending."

"Kinda. Technically it's just vibrations traveling through stuff, and my Earthbending ability makes it easier for me to use them to my advantage. I guess if you wanted to be exact I'm not actually using my Earthbending to see, it's just a bonus of being an Earthbender. Even chumps like The Boulder could do it if they put some effort into it."

Xisheng wondered how many Earthbenders ever actually employed a technique such as this. Considering the general consensus that bending was only good for combat, and that most Earthbenders probably weren't blind, he imagined that it wasn't a lot. It was a shame really, how rare techniques like this were; with the ability to manipulate the elements, there were so many things humanity could achieve, yet all they ever managed was the invention of new ways to kill things. He would have said the Fire Nation was different, but as things stood now, even their many new innovations for non-combat Firebending still existed for the ultimate purpose of combat.

To be fair, it was wartime though. Once this conflict was finally won the benders of the world could turn their attention to developing more useful techniques for their arts.

"That's extremely fascinating, but... none of it really answered my question."

Toph shrugged, leading Xisheng around another corner. "I'm just trying to figure out what you look like. Or what you're shaped like, I guess. Normally I could do that without touching you since you're walking so close, but I'm wearing shoes. Holding onto you gives me a different way to read all those vibrations going through your body whenever you take a step."

Fascinated, Xisheng couldn't help but ask for more information. "Really? So... how much can you determine like this?"

"Just basic stuff. Jawlines, cheekbones, the size of your forehead; just the overall shape of your face really. Gotta say, you aren't as rugged as I was expecting."

"Is that so?"

"Just saying, you're the only guy in a group of girls. I figured you'd be all brawn and a square chin or something. Like The Boulder. Uh, no offense."

Seeing as how The Boulder had actually been a pretty skilled fighter, Xisheng didn't feel slighted anyway. Meanwhile, Toph had finally reached whatever her destination was, which just seemed to be a solid wooden door in some hallway in the back of the estate.

"So what is this?"

The girl he was 'escorting' turned slightly in his direction, with an expression that questioned his intellect. "What, didn't you hear me earlier? It's the bathroom."

"Oh, I uh... thought that was just an excuse to get away from your mother..."

"Don't be ridiculous. I never lie about serious business."

With that, the young girl finally detached herself from her escort and retreated into the room she had come to visit. As for Xisheng, he felt so terribly awkward that it came full circle and simply let him accept the situation. With little choice in the matter, he leaned against the wall next to the door and stood guard. Wasn't like he didn't have experience in that.

---

Knowing full well that her mother would assume the worst if she were out of her sight for more than ten minutes, Toph quickly finished her business and returned to the woman's side. Not to really placate her specifically, but more because she didn't want to deal with any of the fallout if Poppy freaked out. By the time the unlikely duo made it back, Azula had already finished her business with Lao, and the two of them had returned to the room. The family's patriarch was in the midst of a conversation with his wife at the moment Xisheng and Toph returned, with the latter once again pretending to be helpless.

"-a man named Xin Fu! Some sort of criminal that runs a fighting ring. I'm heading into the city right away to issue a warrant for his arrest!"

Xisheng noticed an alarmed expression from Toph, perhaps because she had realized that questions would be asked if Xin Fu were caught. Namely, how he knew about Toph at all. And even though the two of them had more or less been business partners of a sort, she doubted Xin Fu would do her any favors in keeping her identity a secret from her parents.

Personally Xisheng couldn't see what she was worried about. Realistically the chains that bound Toph were completely of her own making. She was obviously strong enough to do whatever she wanted, there was no way her parents could really detain her in this estate. Then again, maybe children held greater respect for their parents in the Earth Kingdom. Ironically, even though the Fire Nation placed supreme value on loyalty, they also taught their children to never let anyone hold them back from reaching their full potential: a set of values that could easily come into opposition with one another.

As for Poppy, she seemed stricken by the prospect. "Are you sure Lao? Will the guard even do anything?"

Xisheng was honestly surprised that someone of Poppy's nature was even aware of the corruption in her own city. She had a point; the city guard was so lax in its punishment of mercenary work that said mercenaries had their own hub, and the building itself had signs that led to it. Granted not all mercenary contracts were immoral or illegal, but the soldiers that policed the city sure didn't make much effort to root out the ones that were.

Lao on the other hand must have figured that the best way to get things done was to take advantage of that corruption. "They'll do it for enough money. You know how those leeches are, they won't even care who he is if I pay them enough."

There was a look on Azula's face that said she was appalled by the notion of justice being meted out based on funding, but Xisheng got the feeling that she had a somewhat biased view of things. The Fire Nation may have been superior to its counterparts in many ways, but it was not without corruption of its own. There was generally a higher level of integrity among its troops, but a big part of that was because more was expected of them. The Fire Nation military was more unforgiving than the Earth Kingdom's in many ways. Looting was ruthlessly punished. Coercion of the public would almost always result in a court martial, or worse. Deserters were struck down with worth equal to that of the enemy or outright traitors. The men and women of the Fire Nation military behaved, and not because they were all perfect soldiers.

Yet corruption still existed in their ranks to some extent. More then a few Fire Nation soldiers had taken advantage of occupied towns or prisoners, in ways that brought shame to their nation. Such thugs and lowlifes were often swiftly dealt with, but that didn't erase the mark they left on their country's honor.

Regardless of who was in charge of the world, Xisheng doubted such things would ever change. Still, that didn't mean it wasn't a cause worth fighting for.

Understandably furious, though for reasons that could have been disputed, Lao was quick to assemble an entourage of his men, though for some reason it ended up being almost all of his available guards. Considering the fictional threat he nevertheless believed was coming for his daughter, Xisheng figured that the man would have left more of his meager security with her. Apparently Poppy thought the same thing, as she wasted no time voicing as much.

"Lao, should you really take such a large portion of your men? If Toph is attacked while you're away..."

"All things considered, it seems our new employees are rather close to the worth of the men I'm taking with me. I'm at least paying them enough to be, that's for certain."

Not completely sure of things, Poppy eyed their newest acquaintances. She really didn't like the look of their leader. "Do you trust them so easily Lao...? While you and your men are away..."

Catching onto her meaning, Lao sought to placate his wife. "I'm not a complete fool dear. These mercenaries aren't being paid in advance. Until the situation is rectified they will not see a single piece of gold. Besides, I'm not taking all of my men with me, Yan and Purut will stay here."

Even Ty Lee could do the math here, noting that the two men Lao was leaving behind wouldn't be able to really prevent them from doing anything, considering how they had easily trounced six earlier. Perhaps the man had faith in the money involved; as far as he was concerned, Azula and her troop wouldn't settle for the sum their contract on Toph provided when they could serve his needs and get paid triple. That was hardly an objective guarantee, but for Lao, money had never really let him down in life. In his experience, people always followed the path that provided them with the most money.

He had yet to meet anyone that didn't value money enough to dictate their decisions, which was, ironically, exactly what Azula's entire group was. Obviously Azula and Mai had been born into enough money to have no need to pursue it. Ty Lee just flat out didn't care. And of course Xisheng's greatest value was loyalty to his comrades and country.

But they could pass for money-grubbing lackeys apparently, which was enough for Lao to make an objectively ridiculous decision in leaving his daughter almost entirely in their care. On that note, Azula decided there was no reason to let things stay only partially in their favor.

"While I'm confident in my troop's ability to protect your daughter Master Beifong, I don't know if the four of us, plus your two guards, will be enough to defend both her and your wife."

Lao looked confused about this statement, which Azula found pathetic.

"My wife? What danger could she be in?"

"Well, obviously any mercenaries that come for your daughter already have no qualms about making a move against your family. If my allies and I are able to prevent them from taking your daughter, who is to say they won't try to take your wife hostage as a backup plan? And as I said, we are capable but few. We might not be able to keep both of them safe simultaneously. It's just a potential risk though, there's no guarantee such a thing will occur."

As the expression on Lao face took on a strange mix of abject fear and contemplation, Xisheng tried to decipher the Princess' angle. He couldn't really see a reason to get both parents out of the picture; their plan was to ingratiate themselves with said parents (and Toph) just enough to come out on top in a contest of trustworthiness when the Avatar eventually showed up. They were missing good opportunities to do that by getting rid of witnesses.

Unless of course, a lack of witnesses was exactly what Azula wanted. If she were certain the Avatar would show up eventually, it was quite possible the ultimate plan was just to kill him here. After all, why not? He would be walking right into a trap basically, even if it was a basic one. And if they failed to defeat the Avatar, her backup plan could just be to kill Toph and deprive the Avatar of a powerful teacher and ally.

Then again, why bother with all of this then? Quite frankly the presence of Toph's parents and these half-assed guards wouldn't stop them from making a lethal move if that were the plan. Theoretically they could just kill them all, especially if they were going to go all out and use their Firebending.

Not that Xisheng was in favor of this plan of course. While he could acknowledge it as a tactically adept move, he couldn't condone killing innocents in such a manner. He could only kill combatants in good conscience.

But he was jumping to conclusions, and even now he already knew better than to try and speak for Azula's planning. He could theorize, but there was never any way to be sure.

Either way, whatever her apparent goal was in getting Poppy away from them, Azula appeared to have succeeded in it, since Lao was quick to make a suggestion. "While she said herself that it was only a possibility, I believe our young entrepreneur may have a point, Poppy. I think it would be best if you came with me to the guardhouse. If we do that we'll have a roughly equal amount of protection."

"In that case, why not just bring Toph with us? If we all go together-"

While this was definitely the safest course of action objectively speaking, Lao cut his wife off immediately. "You know we can't do that! Knowledge of Toph's existence is what caused this situation in the first place. Besides, to reveal her now would lead to a massive scandal, who knows what the people of the city would think, knowing we kept her secret all these years?"

Based on the angry expression on her face, Xisheng could tell their false charge had something she really wished to say about that. Yet, for some reason she held her tongue. The Fire Nation trooper just couldn't understand why she wouldn't reveal her prowess. He supposed there could have been some sort of abnormal factor; maybe Lao had lost someone close to him from Earthbending or something. But considering that some of his guards were Earthbenders, he didn't seem to have a qualm with the art in and of itself. Still, Xisheng was running out of excuses he could think up in Toph's favor.

Lao wasn't entirely without a point though, twisted as it was. It was unlikely that any society would smile upon the steps required to keep a child secret for over a decade. While it may not have been technically illegal, especially since Toph seemed well-treated for sure, but it still basically amounted to imprisonment.

Apparently Poppy saw the point her husband was getting at, because she ultimately agreed, though not without concession. "Then leave some more of your men behind with Toph. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't seem prudent to leave her alone with complete strangers. We don't even know their names!"

Strangely enough, Poppy had a point there. No one had bothered to ask them their names so far. Perhaps Lao didn't think it mattered, since they basically amounted to hired help.

"Fine, Uho and Jagi, you two will stay here as well. I don't foresee any problems, but stay on your guard."

Content that he had satisfied his wife's concerns, and for some reason having misguided confidence in a group of teenagers he had just hired not an hour ago, Lao decided that everything was going according to some sort of plan, and in a moment he and his wife were making their exit in order to pay off the city police force.

This left Toph with a total of eight guards, though she had reached the same conclusion as her Fire Nation counterparts already. Theoretically speaking, the four trusted protectors her parents had left behind would be less than useless if her new guards actually wanted to do anything bad. Or at least, that was definitely the feeling she got from the way her mother had spoken. She hadn't actually witnessed the sparring match they had against her usual unwanted retinue. Which was kind of sad, since she was interested in seeing just how good they were. Part of being an amazing fighter included always wanting to know how strong other warriors were.

Which made it unfortunate that the room was now occupied by four of her parent's guards, since Toph wouldn't be able to hold a halfway honest conversation with her new ones while being forced to act. Thankfully, being waited on hand and foot did have some benefits. It was actually quite easy to get rid of her father's men when their presence was irritating her.

"It's so scary to think that bad guys are out to get me. Especially since no one is watching the gate right now. The bad people could climb right over the wall and no one would know!"

Toph's usual guards exchanged looks of uncertainty, but didn't seem like they were going to actually act. Fortunately for the young fighter, Xisheng caught on to what she was trying to do.

"She has a point. With all of your comrades protecting your master, there's no one to man the perimeter. It really isn't prudent to let intruders past the first line of defense so easily."

One of the younger men, Jagi perhaps, frowned at the implication. "Master Beifong instructed us to protect Toph. We aren't leaving this room."

Xisheng folded his arms in disdain. "Don't any of you have some tactical sense? It's better to have multiple lines of somewhat equal defense than one large final line."

While it was impossible to guess why Mai would be even remotely invested in the conversation, she offered valuable input to the cause anyway. "This room has multiple points of entry, but there's no point in having two people watching each one. It's better to have more choke points we can use to identify the enemy and alert the rear defenders. That way some of the defenders have time to prepare for action, rather than all of us getting jumped simultaneously."

Surprised by the tactical truth more than any of the others, Xisheng gave the girl a questioning glance, curious as to where she learned such strategy. It was basic tactics of course, but still something that most people needed slight amounts of experience to know. Unfortunately for his curiosity, all Mai did was shrug, apparently considering the knowledge common sense.

Meanwhile, the same guard as before objected. "In that case, it only makes sense for all of you to assume outer positions."

This time it was Azula who countered. "Don't be ridiculous. You can't build an entire defense around the final line, but that final line still needs to be the strongest one. There aren't enough of you to patrol the entire area anyway, so if the enemy slips by undetected the strongest fighters will still be congregated here. This is simple logic, of which all of you seem to be lacking."

Another one of the guards spoke up in outrage. "How dare you! We're not pushovers and we're not fools! We have far more experience than all of you brats!"

Azula's hands went to her hips. "As evidenced by your stellar six to four victory against us, right?"

The man that had spoken up glanced at the floor. "W-well, I wasn't one of the six..."

"Then by all means, try us. But that does seem like a waste of valuable time, which you could be using to patrol the outer perimeter. Don't you agree?"

In its own way, Azula's means of coercion and intimidation against physically larger and older men was kind of hilarious. On the other hand, it was frightening, because it didn't look like Lao's men had anything to say back to her. This was kind of pathetic on their part though, since they didn't even really know what Azula was capable of.

Granted, she was plenty frightening without that knowledge.

Still, they at least had the guts to ask what Toph wanted them to do. Technically she was allowed to order them around.

Unfortunately for them, she was voicing her decision before any of them could even ask.

"I think I'd feel safer with someone watching outside, but I want to have strong people to protect me too."

The by now unofficial spokesperson of Lao's guards knelt down beside Toph. "I understand that, but don't you want at least one of us to stay here with you?"

Even Xisheng could feel the sting of her lack of hesitation. "Nope. Like she said, the strongest need to be the final line of defense."

One of the men that had yet to speak finally found reason to do so. "Alright, I won't dispute that these thugs are better fighters, but how can they be trusted?! We don't know anything about them, even their names! We can't just leave Master Beifong's daughter alone with them, they came here for her in the first place!"

With a sigh of frustration, Azula folded her arms. "Your master left us here alone with your daughter, with only four men he already knew we could best to keep watch. Do you know why that is?"

The black bearded guard that had spoken naturally did not have the right answer. "N-no?"

"Tell me, what is the career of myself and my comrades?"

"Y-you're mercenaries..."

"Yes, and what is it that mercenaries do?"

The man racked his brain for a moment to come up with a the most exact answer. "They... take on various kinds of work for money, I guess."

Clearly in the midst of thinking this man was an idiot, Azula continued. "Very good. Now, use your brain for this next one. The man that paid us to capture your charge runs an underground fighting ring, where the vast majority of his funds comes from bets and gambling. The man that paid us to protect your charge is the patriarch of one of the Earth Kingdom's richest families. Which one do you think is paying us more to follow their wishes?"

With the answer too painfully obvious to bother saying, the suitably whipped man ceased his petty resistance, and one of the guards who hadn't been treated like a moron conceded as well. "We'll begin patrolling the estate... b-but mark my words, if anything happens to Toph you'll have all of the Gaoling guard hunting you down!"

Naturally this threat scored no purchase with the Princess of the Fire Nation. "Yet another reason we wouldn't do anything in the first place."

Probably tired of being mocked to the ends of the earth, the four men Lao had left behind simply to placate his wife made a hasty exit, not really comfortable with the situation but more or less trusting in the greed of their new allies. It was ironic, as Azula herself considered greed to be a very good indicator of potential loyalty, but they were obviously not here for the money.

Toph on the other hand, immediately dropped her facade the moment she could no longer sense her father's men, loosing an impressed whistle. "Wow, you are one seriously harsh girl. You win fights just by insulting people? Because honestly I could believe it."

Altogether pleased with the outcome of the current scenario, Azula smirked. "Don't be ridiculous. Breaking their spirit is only half of the battle. The fun part, naturally."

Having been quiet due to a lack of familiarity with her supposed position as a mercenary, Ty Lee nevertheless spoke up now. She really couldn't help it. "That's really, really not something to be proud of you know."

Toph snorted, having completely shed the persona of a noble girl. "Well, guess we know which one of you is the party pooper. You're the boring self-righteous one right?"

Because they all knew who the real square usually was, the Fire Nation group got a kick out of it, sans Ty Lee of course. "Excuse me?! I am the most fun, cheerful, and energetic person you will ever meet! My profession is cheer! I do fun and games for breakfast!"

Xisheng found it amusing that Ty Lee took such a comment to such a deep personal level, but nevertheless rose to defend her. "To be honest, she is the fun one in this dynamic. There's no question about that."

Perhaps in a slightly joking mood due to the situation, Mai countered. "I'll remember you said that later."

'Watching' this strange group of four interact with each other, Toph smiled. Outside of her family and their employees, and the people she fought in the ring of course, she'd never spoken at length with anyone. She was pleased to find that her new acquaintances seemed to be a lot of fun.

"So I know I've only known you guys for like, an hour, but somehow you're still better than the people I've been around my whole life. Though now that literally everyone has mentioned it, what are your names anyway?"

There was a brief moment of silence in which the Fire Nation natives briefly exchanged glances, wondering what they were supposed to say. Of all the details they had somewhat ironed out before this, false names weren't one of them. Then again, the only one of them that had enough knowledge of Earth Kingdom culture to even think of appropriate names would have been Ty Lee.

Thankfully, Azula had a quick cover, and one that didn't raise too many questions. "Our names are need to know. Safety precaution, you see."

Toph cocked an eyebrow in her general direction, not buying it right away. "Safety from what?"

"Not all guild activities are legal, mind you. Keeping our names to ourselves is a great way to ensure no client turns us in later for a reward. Granted, this job is legal, but the means through which we landed it is not. Surely you understand."

While the youngest among the five furrowed her brow for a moment, eventually she shrugged, not taking the secrecy personally. Besides, as far as she could discern, Azula had told the truth. And Toph knew from personal experience that she was pretty good at telling that.

"Well gee, thanks for trusting me."

"No hard feelings."

It almost looked like she was about to agree, but in the end Toph didn't. "Actually, there are some hard feelings. Did you have to tell my dad about Xin Fu? That guy won't keep his mouth shut. Heck, dad will probably ask how he knew about me in the first place! A little consideration would have been nice."

Azula shrugged, not at all bothered by such things. "There really was no choice, but part of our new deal was revealing the identity of the one who placed a contract on you. Besides, it's your fault for being so weak in the first place."

Naturally, Toph didn't take this comment very well. "Excuse me?! Weak? I could bury all of you in a heartbeat, who do you think you are?!"

Aware that they were indeed surrounded by stone, Xisheng attempted to placate the young Earthbender. He didn't know how malicious she could be, but she did seem to be quite brash. "I don't think she means as a fighter. We watched you at the tournament, you're obviously a powerful bender. But, that being the case, why put up with this act you clearly despise? There's nothing your parents can really do to stop you from doing what you want."

"Well, that's true, but... I mean what am I supposed to do, threaten them into treating me right? They're my parents!"

Azula was the first to jump on this. "But of course, what's wrong with that? They're holding you back from your full potential, which is downright criminal in my book. You're nowhere near as good as you could be and it's all their fault. You have every right to be furious."

Toph leveled a somewhat astonished expression in Azula's direction. "Wow, so we know who the lame one is and who the scary one is. Anything you two want to reveal?"

She was obviously speaking to Xisheng and Mai, the two she had not yet labeled. Naturally, Mai shrugged. "I can be the fun one if you consider stabbing things with knives fun."

By now Mai allies knew how to read her jokes, but considering the deadpan nature of their delivery, a stranger like Toph naturally did not. "OK... two scary ones, I suppose...please tell me you're kinda normal?"

Having tilted her head towards Xisheng, he decided to give her some semblance of comfort. "Of course. Just call me the last sane man in an insane world."

"I'd buy it. Seriously, why even subject yourself to this kind of torture?"

While slightly worried that he may pay for it later, Xisheng smirked. "Oh it's hell in some ways, but c'mon now; I have the company of three attractive women all to myself, it has its perks."

While young, Toph wasn't naive enough to miss the implication. Probably had something to do with all of interaction with unsavory thugs in underground fighting rings.

"Oh, so that's how it is? Someone's lucky."

Xisheng almost continued, but he noticed that both Mai and Azula were glaring daggers at him. Naturally Ty Lee had no qualms with the suggestiveness of the message. Still, Xisheng was feeling in a relatively lucky mood since no one could outright kill him here, so he decided to flip and go the opposite way.

"I was just kidding. Those two are actually horrible and I would never dream of it."

He obviously didn't include Ty Lee in the setup since she was generally good to him, but of course his words earned even more heated glares from his other two companions. Xisheng simply shrugged back to them.

"You can only be mad about one or the other you know."

Toph released a short laugh that said she believed otherwise. "Don't be ridiculous; they're women, of course they can be mad about both."

With two out of three of Xisheng's companions suitably irritated, it was up to Ty Lee to offer any sort of response. "You're a woman too, though."

"Actually, I'm just a girl. And a really tomboyish one at that. I'm reasonable and probably will be for the rest of my life."

This time it was Mai who seemed amused. "We'll see what puberty has to say about that."

Being the only person who hadn't experienced that so far, Toph stuck her tongue out in some sign of displeasure. "Ick, don't even. Let's just go back to talking about how strong I am, that was much more interesting."

More than willing for various reasons, Azula accepted her wish, though not in the way Toph would have liked. "Actually, I mentioned how strong you could be. As you are now you aren't nearly as special as you think."

Naturally this led Toph to scowl again. "Seriously, you did see me at Earth Rumbe Six right? I'm the best Earthbender in the whole world!"

Azula just scoffed. "And you know this because you've fought a handful of incompetent foes that all hail from this one small corner of the world, I take it?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

The princess of the Fire Nation held out her hands in a placating manner. "Don't mistake me, you're good. Very good. But do you honestly believe you're the only one of your class out there? A world at war is full of 'very good' warriors. It's also full of warriors with much more experience than you. You have undeniable skill, and obvious incredible potential; but you've hit a plateau. There's no room for you to improve here in Gaoling, none of the opponents you have the opportunity to face push you beyond the limit. Put aside your pride for a moment and answer this truthfully; how much has your skill improved since you began fighting?"

Xisheng and his comrades were honestly surprised to hear Azula giving such genuine advice to a total stranger, but Toph actually took said words seriously. Unfortunately the length of her silence was answer enough, prompting Azula to continue.

"My point exactly: you have no challenge here, no real test of skill. The Earthbenders you face regularly are mostly actors more than fighters, and they're all so grossly incompetent that you'd have to be an amateur yourself to lose to them. Which of course, begs the question: are you really that good, or are your enemies just that pathetic?"

Toph was speechless for a moment, unsure if she had ever heard such a withering speech, even from her parents. "Geez... I know I said earlier you were harsh, but this is outright soul-crushing. Do you practice this kind of stuff in the mirror or something?"

The princess in question donned her trademark smirk. "Only occasionally."

"Well then, since you've clearly got so much experience under your fancy belt, what am I supposed to do? There's no one else to fight but those buffoons in the ring."

"I said it once already didn't I? Your parents are holding you back. There are plenty of strong warriors to test your ability against in this world. Regardless of how good you might be, there are always dozens, even hundreds of fighters superior to you. And the only way to really surpass them is to actually fight them. Even if you lose, experience against those superior fighters is what makes you stronger. As things stand now, you will never surpass your current strength. Even worse, you'll never know what your true strength really is, because the only means you have of measuring it is trouncing those clowns you call Earthbenders in a mockery of combat."

The whole room was silent for a moment, reeling from the miniature tirade Azula had unleashed on a matter no one thought would personally interest her. That said, Xisheng felt that she was being a little presumptuous, seeing as how Azula herself had obviously never fought in true combat, sans their one scuffle with the Avatar. He supposed she could have trained with her father, the strongest Firebender in the world, but obviously at fourteen and having lived in the palace her whole life, Azula was quite short on experience herself.

Perhaps she was fully aware of the deficiency.

Either way, Toph ultimately released a sigh, maybe realizing that Azula wasn't wrong in most of her words. "Well... gotta say, getting this kind of heartfelt advice from a mercenary of all people wasn't exactly what I expected today."

Possibly realizing how long she had droned on, Azula looked mildly flustered, and maybe a little irritable because of it. "Don't take it personally. I just hate to see promising people waste their potential is all."

Where the conversation may have gone from there was anyone's guess, since it didn't get to go any farther. After all, one of Lao's men returned at exactly that moment, and he wasn't alone.

"Before you berate me for letting these people in, this boy showed undeniable proof that he's the Avatar!"

Xisheng felt his breath hitch as another potential battle made itself known, but Azula was all calm as she turned to face Jagi and the trio of shocked children that was the Avatar and his Water Tribe comrades.

"Hello there; what can we do for you today?"