History of Toph Beifong (100 AG - 102 AG)

Following the end of the Hundred Year War, Toph Beifong and her allies set about restoring peace to the world.
== Helping The Boulder ==
Soon after the Hundred Year War concluded, Toph visited her former wrestling rival, The Boulder, at his home. To her great surprise, the seemingly tough wrestler had a secret pet crococat, named The Pebble. Happy to see Toph again, The Boulder requested her help in handling the small but fierce animal that had become extremely ill-tempered and gluttonous for no apparent reason, loudly meowing around the clock. She agreed to assist The Boulder, but all their attempts to still the Pebble's hunger failed miserably. Both became desperate until noticing that the crococat had disappeared and stopped meowing. Using her seismic sense, Toph located the animal and happily revealed that The Pebble had given birth to a litter of young. Overjoyed that his beloved pet was alright, The Boulder earnestly thanked Toph, but also requested that she kept The Pebble a secret. His devotion to the small animal did not fit his persona as a tough wrestler, and he feared for his reputation. To his relief, Toph agreed to tell no one.
Sometime later, Toph reentered the Earth Rumble tournaments, once again facing The Boulder in the ring. Before their fight started, he publicly revealed The Pebble and her kittens, as he had realized that they were more important than his stage image. Confident that he could not lose with his pets' support, he challenged Toph for her title of reigning champion. Though initially surprised and somewhat confounded by her opponent's sudden shift of priorities, Toph quickly shrugged off the events and easily defeated The Boulder.Goetter, Sara (writer & artist), Toph and The Boulder (2019), Dark Horse Comics.
== Troubles as metalbending instructor ==
Toph also began to travel the world to teach metalbending to other earthbenders, founding an academy for the art near the former Fire Nation colonial city of Yu Dao. Her first known students were Penga, The Dark One, and Ho Tun, whom she chose due to the fact that her meteorite bracelet would shiver in the presence of these "super emotional people".
Toph met Team Avatar while they were on their way to Yu Dao when they were visiting the colony to learn of its situation. On their way toward Ba Sing Se to inform Earth King Kuei about Zuko's decision, Toph decided it was time to go back to her academy, and she left the team, accompanied by Sokka. He inquired her about her initiative to start the school, to which she answered that she had felt a "calling" to teach what she had discovered. However, Sokka did not believe this and realized the real reason was that she liked to tell people what to do. When they arrived at the academy, Toph caught her students leaving, but they excused themselves saying they had been kicked out. The earthbender proceeded to the academy and saw Kunyo and his firebending students, and ordered him to leave the place; the firebender refused, stating it was his school before the Harmony Restoration Movement. When they were about to fight for the academy's possession, Sokka interrupted them and proposed a "match to the sit" between their students in three days, which both instructors accepted.
Toph told Sokka how she had chosen her three students, but was unsure whether they could metalbend, so Sokka offered to help by being a "motivational bender". However, after two unsuccessful attempts to get the pupils to bend, Toph gave up and confessed to her friend her feeling of failure as she was trying to make her students something they were not; she stated her intention to surrender on the day of the battle. That day, at their opponent's arrival, she began sitting down but was interrupted by her "lily livers", who demonstrated they could metalbend and attacked the firebending team with metal coins, easily defeating them and making Kunyo sit down. Toph, happy at her students' victory, renewed her trust in them and continued with their training.
== Yu Dao crisis ==
Later, Toph was waiting with Sokka for Aang and Katara to pick him up. However, instead of greeting the pair, Suki arrived in a Fire Nation war balloon and explained that Kunyo had complained about a "dirt girl" and a "snow savage" taking over his school near Yu Dao. She continued to say that they were both needed to help her stop Zuko's army from going to war against the Earth King. Complying to the request, Toph left her students, telling them once again to practice their forms in her absence.
During the battle for Yu Dao, she earthbent an underground slide that led directly under Zuko's army. Emerging underneath the Fire Nation tanks, Sokka told Toph to metalbend the screws, effectively dismantling all of the invading tanks. When Suki and Toph found themselves outnumbered against several firebending soldiers, Toph's metalbending students arrived to save them.
After the conclusion of the battle, the fame of Toph's school rose, and she had to decline a request from Zuko to come to the Fire Nation Royal Palace for a very important task as she had too much work to do at her school.
== Yangchen's Festival ==
When the peace talks in Yu Dao came to an end around a year later, Toph and the rest of Team Avatar returned there to witness the introduction of the city's new coalition government. Afterward, she attended a banquet in celebration of the election with her friends, during which Katara inquired about the state of her metalbending academy; she answered without excitement that her school was doing well, to the point that she had more students than she could properly house. When Sokka suggested charging tuition in order to be able to finance the school's expansion, Toph promptly refused, stating that her school was doing something innovative and important, something from which she did not want to profit by developing it into a business. When Aang finally joined them at dinner, she seemed unenthused to learn that he would be taking her and the others on a field trip the following day.
Nevertheless, she accompanied Aang, Sokka, Katara, and three Air Acolytes, Xing Ying, Yee-Li, and Jingbo toward a cliff overlooking the ocean where they would commence the celebration of Yangchen's Festival by bowing to a stone statue. Aang failed to enlighten the group to the reasons behind the festival, brushing off the inquiries to the identity of the woman depicted by the statue to which they would be bowing by stating that that was just how things were done, reminding Toph of her childhood during which her father had used exactly the same reasoning to justify every rule and action he imposed on her. For this reason, she subsequently refused when Aang asked everyone to bow, stating that she bowed to no one, and ended up denouncing the festival entirely as unimportant when he tried to convince her to participate regardless of a lack of detailed reasoning.
Toph's attitude toward the festival's celebrations did not improve during the next part of the ceremony, given that they were to walk toward a sacred meadow where they would eat a ceremonial, vegetarian meal. Along the way, the Air Acolytes and Aang created traditional Air Nomad music to accompany the group's walk, visibly irritating Toph to the point that she used her metalbending to destroy Yee-Li's cymbals. She tested Aang's nerves further by loudly announcing that she thought she had done away with the need for "fuddy-duddy rituals" when she left her father's house; it did not evolve to a conflict, however, as the group arrived at a town with a large refinery built on the meadow. Contrary to the others, Toph and Sokka were delighted to find the settlement and they promptly parted from their friends in order to find a decent meal of meat. They later reunited with the rest of the group on the grounds of the Earthen Fire Refinery, where the factory's interim boss, the engineer Satoru, became starstruck by Toph. She accepted his offer of a guided tour of the refinery, with her friends tagging along as her entourage. After being shown the factory's bender and mechanical production lines, Toph commended Satoru on his factory and in turn earned his praise when she managed to fix the motor of a forklift in mere moments through the use of metalbending. When he offered to sponsor a new school building for her and her metalbending students in exchange for their coming by the refinery on a regular basis to help out with the machines, she enthusiastically agreed to his offer by stating that she would love to be in a partnership with him, though immediately corrected herself by saying that she meant the refinery.
Their conversation was cut short by Aang, however, who told Satoru that the refinery should never have been built on sacred grounds and accused it of being the culprit of the river's pollution. When Satoru refuted the accusation, Toph used her seismic sense lie-detecting abilities to corroborate the engineer's story and took his side in the argument, once again preferring the future over the objections of the past. She was subsequently pulled aside by Aang, who told her he was under the impression that the only reason why she believed Satoru was due to a crush she had on him; Toph countered by rhetorically asking him whether this impressionability was similar to having a skewed perception due to a nostalgic affinity to cultural rituals. Pointing to the refinery, she continued by saying that it employed the same ethic as the one they desired in Yu Dao: a place where people worked and lived in harmony, regardless of where they came from. She ended her reasoning by asking him if he really wanted to sacrifice what she and Satoru deemed to be the future for a "stupid, backwards holiday". Aang took the insult personally and their talk rapidly evolved in a heated argument. The verbal fight was cut short, however, when the ground suddenly began to shake, causing Katara and Sokka to run up to them to ask them to remain calm; when Aang deftly deflected the accusation, Toph took offense at his implication of her being a novice earthbender who could not control her bending. While she complained about this, however, a second, even more powerful quake occurred, causing Satoru to ask them all to leave, increasing Toph's annoyance. Before they could heed the engineer's request, they heard a factory worker cry out for help, as the quakes had left him trapped under a haywire machine. Toph and Aang instantly set out to free the man and managed to rescue him due to teamwork. With the crisis averted, Toph easily accepted Aang's apology and apologized as well, though she asked him if he was not trying too hard to hold onto his past. He conceded that perhaps he was, but retorted by asking if she was not trying too hard to escape hers, to which Toph replied that some people simply had to run away in order to live. The conversation was cut short by the arrival of the two owners of the refinery, bringing Toph face-to-face with her father, Lao Beifong, for the first time in two years.
== Facing her past ==
Toph was shocked to hear her father say that she was a confused young lady, rather than his daughter and she grew angry upon hearing him command the Rough Rhinos to escort her and her friends off the refinery's premises. She refused to leave until she had spoken to her father, leading to a violent confrontation with the Rough Rhinos. She used an earth pillar to catapult one of the members into the air after he had nearly sliced her with his chain blades. Her action, however, earned her a reprimanding speech from Aang, much to her annoyance. She told him to stop talking to her like she was one of his Air Acolyte children and left to continue fighting her way. She encountered Ogodei, who had successfully captured all the Acolytes, and used her metalbending to chain him down with his own weapon. When she learned that the Acolytes did not fully defend themselves because they were following the precepts of Air Nomad philosophy, she got mad and told them to care more about the present than the past, lest they would have no present to care about anymore.
Toph left to go find her father, breaking down a factory wall to gain access to the refinery's grounds. She was pointed in the direction of her father's office by Satoru, who quickly joined her to guide her to him himself. When he offered his help, however, Toph coldly asked if he was sure he wanted to do that, mocking his earlier respectful action toward Loban to have been groveling. Entering her father's office, Toph was once again told by him that he was not his daughter, as he had raised a poised, demure, obedient young woman. Toph acknowledged that she had put her family through a lot, but she tried to get her father to realize who she really was and revealed that she had just been acting to be a quiet little girl in order to please them. She was hurt when her father did not react to any of her accomplishments, concluding that talking to him had been a mistake and that she would never bother him again.
When Sokka barged in and told Lao to follow him down toward the iron mine, Toph accompanied them. Upon learning that Loban excavated an unstable iron ore deposit site, she chastised him for it, telling him that he needed to start caring more about people's lives as opposed to just money. When Satoru came to his uncle's defense, Toph told him to trust her that she was right, as she could feel the earth and ore shifting around them, making the mine a dangerous place to work in. As the mine subsequently collapsed after Kahchi accidentally broke one of the support beams, Toph used her metalbending to keep all the trapped people from getting crushed by the debris.
While continuing to support the weight of the ore as best as she could, Toph was given the water in Katara's water skin by Satoru. After finishing the drink, she asked Satoru to stay and talk to her, assuring him it would not be a distraction. She learned that the scientist had run away from home and, after hearing his story, said he was not a "sniveling flunky" as he claimed for not confronting his uncle. Lao interrupted to talk to Toph himself about what had happened in the time between her disappearance and the present. Knowing it may have been their final moments, he tried to make amends, saying he had always thought about her, bringing tears to the young earthbender's eyes. She soon responded by saying that if he really knew her, there would be no doubt as to whether they would survive because she was the greatest earthbender of all time. After her students freed them, she made an out of breath remark that their work was not bad, but soon passed out, falling into the arms of her father.
== Protecting the refinery ==
After waking up and seeing Lao and a refinery worker in panic, Toph asked what was happening. She rejected his advice to lay down and stay safe, demanding to know the situation. She grew shocked when her father told her that Aang intended to destroy the Earthen Fire Refinery for no apparent reason. After being told it would not only ruin him but eradicate a symbol of international peace, Toph vowed to stop him, calling on her students to join her. The group blocked Aang's initial strike, telling him they were there to stop him. She refused to stand by and let him destroy what the people had built. The foursome was attacked by air rings, though Toph was able to dodge the one targeted for her with an earthen wall, which she used to launch several attacks at the Avatar. She soon changed the attack method to metalbending, asking Aang if he realized how ridiculous the situation was. They were soon cut off when her students called their attention to the spirit General Old Iron approaching the town.
As Aang tried to fight off Old Iron, Toph again called on her students, this time to help the Avatar. They realized that they needed to peel off the spirit's iron armor to give Aang any chance, which was like the exercise of "Forest Bowing to the East Wind". The four quickly removed the armor, prompting the earthbender to tell Aang to give General Old Iron an Avatar State-induced blow to the chest. When General Old Iron realized the metalbenders were responsible for the removal of his armor and targeted them, Toph told her students to run while she would hold him off. After Aang defeated General Old Iron and the spirit vanished below the sea, Toph went to him at the shore, remarking that it could not have been easy for him to battle the spirit. She thanked him for saving her and her students and the two embraced as the sun emerged from behind the clouds.
Afterward, Toph heard her father giving his workers a motivational speech, remarking that while it was not as good as the ones she gave at her school, it was not bad. Three months later, she oversaw Satoru's work in the redone refinery, punching his arm while wondering why he was yet to invent anything and remarking that her father raised her better than waltzing in on someone whenever she felt like it.
== Helping Ty Lee ==
Sometime later, Toph visited the Fire Nation Capital to discuss political matters with Zuko and Aang. After the meeting, she came by the training Kyoshi Warriors. Noticing Ty Lee sitting nearby, Toph greeted her with a punch on the arm, briefly cheering up the young chi-blocker. Asking if she should not be training, Toph learned that Ty Lee needed a break as nothing felt right to her anymore. Believing to know what was needed to "punch [her] aura back in place", Toph dragged her friend off to the Fire Nation circus. There, Ty Lee immediately became excited, prompting Toph to question why she never went back to being a circus acrobat. While Ty Lee was explaining, her old circus master pushed her into a nearby tent, and following her, Toph quickly became startled upon seeing "a whole bunch of [Ty Lees]". Ty Lee introduced her to her twin sisters, with whom she had long lost contact. After the family reunion evolved into an argument, causing a frustrated Ty Lee to storm out of the tent, Toph tried to cheer up the chi-blocker by saying that she was her favorite out of all the Ty sisters. She also convinced a still annoyed Ty Lee to stay at the circus and attend a performance to show support for the platypus bears.
During the performance, Toph attempted to encourage the platypus bears to rebel against their trainer while listening to Ty Lee's realization about the reasons for her depression. As they headed out after the show, right before the Ty sisters' performance, Toph heard two people plotting to burn the tent down. Confronting the men about their plans, Toph was met with scorn, causing her to mock them before burying the firebender in a wave of dirt with her earthbending. At her urging, Ty Lee attacked the other offender, though she could not overpower the large man. Before Toph could help the chi-blocker, however, her identical sisters overwhelmed the man, much to Ty Lee's joy. After returning to the capital, Toph told Suki of Ty Lee's intention to leave the Kyoshi Warriors, though Ty Lee had changed her mind.
== Growth of the academy ==
The prosperity of Earthen Fire Industries meant that Toph's academy gained a new sponsor. Toph was able to use the funds for new buildings and facilities in the school, such as dormitories for the students, as well as being able to offer free tuition. She was able to hire scouts, who searched the Earth Kingdom for prospective metalbenders, as well as assistants who handled her finances. As her first three students had reached a level of competence, she let them handle some beginner metalbending classes. Even though this meant that it became much easier for Toph at the academy, she began to grow bored at the monotonous routine of teaching new students every day by the time Sokka and Suki paid her a visit at the academy.
Hoping to cure her boredom, her friends took her to Trustfully in Love's concert in Yu Dao, although it did not impress Toph. The same night, she sensed odd vibrations in the city, leading her to an underground bending tournament where Sun was lavabending. Toph was impressed, although once another spectator noticed her presence, the crowd dispersed, fearing that Toph had come on behalf of the authorities.
The following morning, she met her first three students at the academy to listen to their weekly report. Ho Tun and Penga noticed Toph's grouchiness, but she told them that the problem was that everything was in fact perfect. She returned to the abandoned house that night, asking a passerby about the bending tournament, but they ran away from her. Hearing the strange rumbling again, she headed outside to find Chong hiding from his fans. He asked her why she was sad, and she explained that even though she was once the Blind Bandit, tournaments thought she was going to shut them down. She told him she was proud of her academy, but she now had no challenges, and that everything felt routine. Chong told her that he understood, and compared her experience to his own doubts about performing for money and fame instead of his love of music. Toph asked him why he did not perform for love again, but Chong told her that the money was partly worth it, as it meant they could live comfortably. Toph agreed with Chong, and started to escort the nomad home.
Walking through the streets, Toph told Chong that the city was clear of fans, but started to feel the same strange vibration as the previous night. They came across the underground bending match, but Toph launched the pair onto the roof so that they could avoid detection. Toph caught Chong from slipping, before the musician described the people inside to her, including Sun, Ho Tun, Penga, and The Dark One. Toph was frustrated that her own students had come, thinking it was no place for them. Chong expressed his dislike of violence, and Toph mused that as much as she was proud of her own fighting days, she created the academy so that students would not have to learn in underground brawls. As she observed Sun's matches, Toph was again impressed to see the youth lavabend, but the attack had caused damaged to the building's foundations. She was impressed to see Penga hold the building steady with her metalbending, and lowered herself down to the ground by bending the plaster on the side of the building. She rushed inside just in time to stop a metal panel falling on Sun and his friends.
After the building collapsed, she apprehended Sun by wrapping him up in a metal coil, telling him that they needed to talk about what he did to the abandoned house. His friends defended him, as he could not control his lavabending, but Toph gave Sun and his friends the choice to join the Beifong Metalbending Academy. Although the youths expressed distrust at Toph's affiliation with the Avatar and other authorities, she told them that they would always have a roof over her head, and that they would always be free to leave. Sun agreed to join so that Toph could help him truly control his lavabending. The next afternoon, she saw off Chong and the other musicians as they began to travel the world for love yet again, before Toph returned to school with a renewed passion for teaching.
== Southern Reconstruction Project ==
After Maliq and Malina partnered with Earthen Fire Industries, Toph was sent as a representative of the company to help with the Southern Reconstruction Project at the South Pole. She arrived outside Maliq and Malina's family wearing shoes and a heavy coat, telling her new partners that she was looking forward to working with them, and warmly greeted Sokka and Katara.
Toph attended a festival that evening. When Sokka excitedly pointed out a high-striker booth, Toph resolved to try to beat it. Toph and Sokka were later found by Aang and Katara, having won many stuffed animals from the festival's competitions.
As Malina began her speech on the Southern Reconstruction Project, Toph continued to play booth games. When Malina introduced Toph and her partnership with Earthen Fire Industries, the earthbender began to sense an object rising toward them through the ice beneath her feet; the shoes she was wearing muffled her seismic sense and kept her from sensing it any sooner. Just as Malina asked her to say a few words to the audience, Toph screamed at them to flee for safety. Seconds later, Gilak's drill burst from the snow along with the Southern nationalist soldiers. Gilak and Thod stood atop the steel machine, the former addressing the crowd on how Malina and Maliq planned to give plan of the oil to the Northern Water Tribe.
After Gilak ordered his troops to attack Maliq and Malina, Team Avatar rushed to the siblings' aid, with Toph and Sokka fighting the Southern nationalists. She rushed to the stage where Noa, Kam, and Soonjei were standing. Seeing the earthbender among them fashioning earth gauntlets, Toph used a much larger version to knock them unconscious.
Toph and Aang waited outside Kanna's hut while Katara tended to Hakoda's stab wound that he received from Gilak in the fighting. When Katara and Sokka left the hut, Toph reassured the waterbender that she would have never partnered with Maliq and Malina had she known of their intentions to give control of the oil to the North.
The next morning, Toph and her metalbending students began doing construction work on Maliq and Malina's factory as protesters gathered at the fence surrounding the site. Her students began to raise complaints about the task, as construction work in the South Pole would be difficult without waterbenders to help, but Toph noted that Katara was not interested in helping with the factory, and she could not work with any Northerners due to the political situation, and that Malina, though an exception, still had to keep a low profile.
Toph joined the rest of Team Avatar for Hakoda's conference on the Southern Reconstruction Project after Zuko and Earth King Kuei arrived in the Southern Water Tribe. The meeting was ambushed by Gilak, who had escaped prison, accompanied by Southern nationalist soldiers. When she was confronted by one Southern soldier, she bent her meteorite bracelet and showed it to him, boasting about her space rock as she bent it into a hand shape and slapped the soldier across the face. Although the attempted kidnapping of Hakoda was thwarted by Team Avatar, the Earth King had been taken by the Southern nationalists.
Team Avatar received a message from Gilak, offering terms to exchange Hakoda for Kuei. Sokka, after reading it, added the exchange was to take place at the Bridge of No Return, a place where the village used to deal with their criminals. Katara explained further that if anyone in the village ever did anything unforgivable, they would be forced to walk across the bridge, and never return. Sokka added that the terrain there was the most dangerous in all of the South Pole and how nothing could stay alive there long. Sokka elaborated on the plan Gilak proposed: While Team Avatar and Gilak's army would remain on either side of the bridge, Thod and his two disciples would cross over to chi-block all Team Avatar's benders, and as soon as Hakoda would start to walk across, Gilak would send over Earth King Kuei. Zuko, remarking he knew how villains thought from his past experience, was sure that Gilak would cheat and cut the rope bridge, so Sokka came up with a plan in case that would happen.
When they got to The Bridge of No Return, nobody was present yet. Katara lamented the lackluster and tumultuous trip back home, but Sokka wondered what the Southern Water Tribe was even like before the war, concluding the idealistic vision Katara had of it never existed. Gilak arrived on the other side with the Earth King. As planned, Thod and his disciples came over and chi-blocked Aang, Katara, Toph, Zuko, and Sokka. Right after that, Hakoda started walking over to the other side of the bridge and, at the same time, Gilak sent over the Earth King. As soon as they got to the middle of the bridge, Gilak took out his sword and was about to cut the bridge, but Malina stopped him from behind, followed closely by The Dark One, Penga, and Ho Tun. The group took out Gilak's guards while Aang, Katara, Toph, Zuko, and Sokka suddenly jumped up and took out Thod and his disciples. Thod asked Sokka how he did it, Sokka replied delightedly, showing and telling Thod the chain mail armor he and Team Beifong had designed. Aang managed to save both Hakoda and Malina, but Gilak fell to his death in the ravine.
After the ordeal, Kanna, Pakku, Hakoda, Malina, Kuei, and Bosco gathered around Kanna and Pakku's igloo. Aang, Katara, Toph, and Zuko were in the kitchen cooking, and later joined everyone for a meal from their respective cultures, Toph having cooked braised turtle-duck from the Earth Kingdom.
== Trouble in Cranefish Town ==
As Team Avatar was flying to Yu Dao on Appa, Toph convinced Aang to stop by Earthen Fire Industries so she could talk to her father. She warned the rest of the group that Cranefish Town - the settlement that had sprung up around Earthen Fire Industries - had changed a lot since they last visited, claiming it had grown bigger than a town.
Lao welcomed the group, and Toph went to greet him, though her father merely thanked her for bringing Aang to Cranefish Town in its hour of need. Confused, Toph told her father that she thought he wanted to see her for business-related reasons, and Lao stated that though he was happy to see his daughter, the town needed the Avatar's wisdom and guidance. Toph's father explained to Aang that as a result of Cranefish Town's expansion, there were dozens of factories besides the Earthen Fire Refinery there, as well as new challenges to deal with. Aang asked about these challenges, and Lao informed him that since Cranefish Town had no official government, he and other business owners had formed a committee known as the "Business Council" to manage the city's growth.
Upon seeing a brawl break out between a gang of earthbenders and a gang of firebenders, Toph forcibly separated the two sides and started to attack the gang members. An earthbender was knocked into one of the new buildings during the fight, damaging it and forcing Toph to use her bending to keep it from collapsing. She called on Aang to help her, and Aang flew in on his glider and carried her away, allowing the building to fall down. Toph clarified that she wanted help holding up the building, but Aang replied that the building was already destroyed and that whoever built it had done a poor job.
When Lao once again asked Aang to attend the Business Council, he reiterated his agreement, though he insisted on first helping the people who lost their homes in the building's collapse. He and Toph offered to repair the building, but their help was rejected, a woman telling them that she and the others did not want to have their home repaired by benders after it was destroyed by benders, which Aang reluctantly accepted. Toph declined to attend the meeting, wanting to see if Satoru had come up with any new inventions since her last visit.
Toph and Katara arrived at the now larger Earthen Fire Industries factory, where they were greeted by Satoru, who agreed to show them around. As they headed inside, Katara noticed a pair of people dressed like Lao's bodyguards, whom Satoru explained were guards hired to deal with break-ins at the factory. Katara asked what happened to the old guards, Satoru claimed that the explanation was complicated, to which Toph pressed him for a more detailed explanation. He explained that. as a result of the upgrades, machines and nonbenders were able to do all the work in the factory, and some bender employees were subsequently let go in order to save money. The remaining bender employees resigned in protest, believing that they were being replaced by machines, though Satoru assured Katara and Toph that this was not his intention; he merely wanted to improve his machines and the factory's productivity. He went on to say that benders across the city had lost their jobs as other factories installed machines like his, and that some benders refused to work for factories owned by nonbenders as a result, the earthbender guards who used to work at Earthen Fire Industries being an example. Toph considered the bender dislike of the machines to be "crazy", stating that she loved them despite being a bender, though she told Satoru not to invent any machines that could metalbend.
That night, Toph was woken from her sleep by a clanking sound coming from the Earthen Fire Industries factory, and she went to investigate, discovering one of the machines to have been deliberately jammed. The machine exploded seconds later, alerting Satoru and the rest of Team Avatar. Toph survived the explosion with her metalbending and sensed two people running away, guessing that they were responsible for the sabotage. She and Aang pursued them, but were attacked by one of them, who turned out to be a firebender gang member. Toph was left to deal with the current attacker, as Aang used his glider to pursue the other saboteur. When morning came, Aang returned to Earthen Fire Industries, informing Toph, Katara, and Sokka that the saboteur, out of gratitude to Aang for saving him, revealed that he had been hired by a pair of teenage girls, one of whom was a skilled earthbender.
After getting dressed, Team Avatar talked to the owners of the attacked factories, learning that they all produced different goods, ruling out the attacks being attempts to eliminate competitors. They also learned that the attacked factories were all owned by nonbenders, while the damage looked like it was caused by benders. Sokka and Aang then talked about how the invention of machines has made things more equal between benders and nonbenders, with the result that some benders might feel threatened and become desperate enough to attack factories.
Hoping to bridge the divide between benders and nonbenders, Aang decided to try and convince the bender-owned businesses to help their nonbender counterparts, starting with Councilwoman Liling. Team Avatar met with her, and Aang managed to convince the councilwoman to support more nonbender owned businesses. When Liling introduced Ru and Yaling to the group, Toph had a reaction to the sounds of their footsteps. She acted unimpressed with Yaling's earthbending demonstration, revealing her own metalbending, which caused the other girl to become awestruck. After talking about metalbending, Toph asked Yaling if she had been up the cliffs near Tienhai's statue, to which Yaling replied that she had not.
As Team Avatar walked down the city streets, Toph claimed that Liling was involved in the sabotage of last night. She revealed that she heard Ru and Yaling's footsteps after the explosion at the Earthen Fire Refinery, and that Yaling's claim about not being up the cliffs was a lie, guessing that she was the earthbender who nearly killed the saboteur. Aang recalled the saboteur's claim about being hired by a pair of teenage girls, and Toph stated that Ru and Yaling were almost certainly the teenage girls in question. Sokka asked how they could prove Liling and her daughters were the ones sabotaging the factories, to which Toph replied that she planned to question Yaling about it while pretending to teach her metalbending.
When the group returned to the Earthen Fire Refinery, Sokka found himself reunited with Suki. Not wanting to hang around the couple, Toph headed into the refinery and started repairing the damage with her bending. As she worked, Satoru came up to her and admitted to feeling responsible for the current situation in Cranefish Town, since he created the machines that many benders felt had replaced them. Toph replied that there would not have been enough jobs in the town for all skilled benders even if he had not made the machines, claiming that people were just looking for someone to blame. Satoru asked if she was telling him not to feel guilty about what he had done, and she agreed.
The next morning, Toph met with Yaling at the beach to teach her metalbending. Yaling had no success at first, but Toph told her to be patient as she had only been learning for one day. She added that she once tried to teach Aang, who failed to learn because, as an Air Nomad, he did not have the necessary fortitude or feel for metal, while an earthbender, on the other hand, will have what it takes. The two girls then talked about yesterday's meeting and Liling's efforts to help the nonbender owned businesses, Toph claiming that she would not mind if the machines were not repaired immediately, and downplaying her friendship with Aang to gain Yaling's trust. Yaling told her that many people in Cranefish Town felt that things had gone wrong since the end of the Hundred Year War, with particular regard to the relationship between benders and nonbenders. She asked Toph if she wanted to attend the meeting Liling was holding that night, saying that it was for concerned citizens who wanted to restore things to the natural order. Toph agreed, and Yaling told her the password.
Toph returned to Team Avatar with her information on the meeting, proposing that they go and subdue those attending. Katara advised otherwise, saying that they did not know why the factories were attacked or the extent of Liling's involvement, and that they could not arrest her without evidence. Toph replied that they could find out what they needed while attacking the meeting, but Sokka suggested that instead of using violence, Team Avatar could go undercover to infiltrate the meeting and gather information, Toph going as Yaling's guest and the others disguising themselves. Though feeling that this approach would be less enjoyable, Toph agreed, as she wanted to catch the people who attacked her father's factory.
That night, Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Suki followed Toph as she accompanied Yaling to the location of the meeting. The two girls headed through a door watched by a guard, the others following by giving the password: imbalance. They found themselves inside one of the town's old mines and made their way to a large cavern where many benders were gathered, including members of the town council.
Team Avatar listened to Liling's speech. The crowd reacted in anger at Lao's proposal to ban public bending, and the councilwoman went on to claim how the abilities of benders made them greater, more valuable, and more suited to lead than nonbenders. Having heard enough, Aang quietly suggested that Team Avatar leave before they all saw Toph walking up onto the platform with Yaling. Ru was shocked to see Toph there, but Yaling replied that Toph supported their cause. The metalbender, however, chose this moment to reveal her true allegiances, and attempted to detain Liling, prompting Yaling to attack Toph, declaring her a traitor and accusing her of choosing the nonbenders over her fellow benders. Toph replied that the nonbenders in question were her friends and family, and she would always choose to side with them.
As Aang, Katara, and Sokka leaped into action, Toph continued to fight Yaling, who called her a poor teacher for not teaching her any metalbending. Toph replied that she had taught an entire school of earthbenders how to metalbend, and that Yaling failed to learn because she was a terrible bender. She succeeded in knocking her back with an earth pillar, but Yaling got back to her feet and claimed that she was a better bender than Toph. The other girl told her to prove it, and the two of them charged at each other with earth gauntlets. Both were sent flying away from each other in the clash, with Yaling coming to land besides Ru, before they were both confronted by Sokka and Suki.
With Team Avatar having overpowered all of Liling's supporters, the councilwoman attacked them with a burst of powerful earthbending, before bending a tunnel in the cavern and telling her daughters and supporters to escape while she held the team off. As the others escaped, Liling started collapsing the cavern with her earthbending, but Toph managed to prevent it with her own bending, and Liling was subdued by both Aang and Suki and then taken under arrest.
Liling was imprisoned within a metal cage of Toph's design in the Earthen Fire Refinery. Toph assumed that they could simply capture Ru and Yaling and bring an end to the crisis, but Sokka replied that the situation was more complicated than that, since the rally demonstrated that Liling had support from numerous benders within Cranefish Town, including criminals and council members. Aang said that they needed to deal with Liling and talked about contacting the Earth Kingdom authorities, but Toph proposed another solution: Aang should do what he did to Fire Lord Ozai and take away Liling's bending in order to make an example of her and discourage her supporters from causing further trouble. Aang and the rest of the group were left shocked at this prospect. When Toph questioned why, they all went quiet, but she insisted on her idea, claiming that Liling could not lead a bender supremacist movement if she was not a bender. Katara raised that the decision could not be taken lightly, while Aang remained silent. When Toph asked what his take on this was, the Avatar said he needed to think about it.
After a frantic Satoru approached them with the news that the Business Council building was on fire, Aang, Katara, and Toph jumped into action, and Satoru explained that Lao and the rest of the council were still inside. Aang and Katara used waterbending to douse the fire while Toph broke down the door of the building, guiding her dad and the others out. That night, an exhausted Aang, Katara, Toph, and Satoru returned to the factory.
After Liling was freed by her daughters, Toph was present for Team Avatar's confrontation with the bender supremacists. When Liling's followers approached, the walls suddenly began to move, being controlled by Toph. She bent one of the walls away, revealing Suki and a group of chi-blockers that joined the battle. A group of benders was trapped by Toph, who enclosed them in between metal walls. Liling commanded Yaling to go after Toph, and she managed to knock the blind bender down by attacking her in the air. The two girls earthbent at each other, and Toph ran up the side of a wall, luring Yaling to the roof. Yaling sarcastically asked why she was not trying to say they could peacefully resolve things as she attempted to hit her with a long earth pillar. Toph said that that's more of Aang's thing as she made a metal glove for herself, deflecting Yaling's pillar. Eventually, their fighting bust a hole in the roof and both fell through. Yaling fell into the rubble, while Toph slid down on a metal cable. A group of benders charged at her, and she nonchalantly trapped them in some metal walls. Yaling proceeded to knock Toph off her feet but, as Toph hit the ground, Yaling loomed over her with a large rock and called her a disappointment for being stupid enough to side with the nonbenders. Toph said she had never been stupid enough to think she was better than him just because he was a nonbender. Yaling was confused and was suddenly hit on the back of the head by Sokka's boomerang. He went to check on Toph, who thanked him for saving her and gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder.
Three days later, Toph was present when Team Avatar walked through the city. Aang said that Liling's problem was not her bending, but her bigotry. Feeling a special connection to Cranefish Town, Toph resolved to stay there and help it grow and prosper into a city later known as Republic City.
== References ==
== See also ==
* History of Toph Beifong (Spring 100 AG)
* History of Toph Beifong (Summer 100 AG)
* History of Toph Beifong (174 AG)
Category:A to Z
Category:Character histories
Category:Toph Beifong