The sun had set, the only light now was from the moon, and few stars. Not that it made any difference to Toph. But it did help here get about with out being noticed. She was going back to the cells. She had to do something to put an end to this, for good.

She had waited in her room till she was sure that Zuko had gone to sleep. His room was above hers and Iroh's was along the corridor from Zuko's so she didn't have to try very hard to read their hearts rates.

Since the previous summer, Toph had changed. She now wore her hair down. It was almost as long as Katara's. She no longer wore the headband instead she had turned what was the meteor bracelet into a headband that had a second part that came over her forehead, Most of this part was hiding underneath her bangs. There were also two brads that started above her ears and tied together as the back of her head.

She had also slightly changed her travelling clothes. Instead of a green top she know wore a white one with shorter sleeves. The rest of the outfit was the same. Except she no longer had the belt, instead she had a long green ribbon that she tied around her waist rather than her hips. This made the whole then flow more, it also made her seem taller and older. Toph hadn't thought about the changes she made they just happened naturally.

Once she had crossed the court lard under the cover of night, she reached the door to the cells. she took off the meteor headband and turned it into a key. Leaving the door open a little she made her way along the corridor without making any sound. She reached the door she was aiming of.

For a second she stopped, to gather her breath. She felt that she was doing the right thing, but she did feel guilty about going behind Zuko's back. The way she justified it to her, and would to him if she had to, was that she still owed him for burning her feet, this was pay back. Quickly so that she didn't have a chance to turn back, she unlocked the doorit with the meteor key.

"Sorry did I wake your beauty sleep" she had slammed the door behind her, to make sure he was awake. If she was going to try more than normal to keep her cool, act like she didn't care. A large part of her wanted to beat the pathetic figure on the other side of the bars, till he told her want she wanted to know, then kill him. She still couldn't understand how Aang had been able to let him live. Was he stronger than her, or was it being weak, she still didn't have an answer. She hoped that she would never have to be in a situation were she would have to find out.

" a petty young lady, I'm honoured. Tell me have I had the pleasure of seeing your lovely face before" Ozai asked, as he lifted himself up, and moved closer towards the bars. His words made Toph want to bend the ground under him up, till it hit the ceiling. Crushing him.

Toph pulled Zuko's chair closer to the bars and sat down "you tell me"

"Ah yes, the avatars earthbending sifu. I have heard a lot about you. Know I see you I realise, it must have been greatly over exaggerated"

"Believe me it wasn't" she knew he was just trying to get her to lose her temper, and she wasn't going to mess up her only chance to talk to him.

"I can read you like a book. You are punishing Zuko for something you think he did" sliding forward, her face fell into pool of light from the moon "But you know what, your wrong. What happened to Azula wasn't his fault. It was mine" Toph felt his heart rate get faster. His blood pressure boil, if he still had his bending he would have exploded by now. Toph leaned back into the chair, getting ready to continue.

" She got away, a few days after the end of the war. Zuko and Aang went after her. The rest of us stayed here, waiting for them to come back, so we could go to Ba Sing Sa. After two days they weren't back, so we went after them. They had made it very close to the coast, we think she was planning on going to the earth kingdom. Zuko and Aang must have chased her into a mountain, that had all these tunnels. There must have been a fight, cause the structure of the mountain was about to collapse in on it's self. I stayed outside with Appa, so I could keep the whole thing from falling down on us" Toph stopped, the next part was going to be the hard part, for her to have to think about again, and to say and for him to hear.

"I felt everyone come out except Aang, and Azula, so I went in after them. I found him lying unconscious, under some rubble. The whole mountain was going to come down, so I used all the dust gravel I could get a created a shield around use, there wasn't anytime for me to try and move him while I looked for Azula" she felt she had to make this point, and she didn't know why. Why should she feel the end to justify herself to this man, and why should she have to justify her choice about saving a friend, over someone that tried to kill her and her friends time after time "Then I felt some thing move, it was Azula. I put out my hand to help her but she wouldn't take it. Then the whole thing came down"

She wasn't going to tell him any more. She wasn't going to tell him, that she was sure that as the mountain crumbled around them, Azula had a smile on her face, because she knew that not being able to help her, the sister of a friend was going to stay with her for a long time, the guilt. She would look at it as winning the battle, but losing the war. Toph was also not going to tell him, about holding Aang in her arms, feeling his heart rate slow down as the shield of earth that was circling round them lowered to the ground.

She was defiantly not going to tell him about how her breath had caught in her throat as she lay Aang's head on a rock, she was waiting for the other to get there, for Katara to get there to do her healing thing. Mainly she was holding her breath, waiting for Aang to open his eyes or move. Once she felt his eyes flicker a little, she knew he would be ok, and allowed herself to finally stop. As Aang's eyes opened again hers closed, as she few the meaning few inches to the earth. No she was defiantly going to tell him that.

Ozai didn't say anything. Toph didn't like telling him this but she thought, hoped that if he knew what really happened. He might be more willing to tell Zuko what he knew about his mother.

"I can see now the stories weren't over exaggerated"

She for the first time in her life was at a loss for words.

"I looked for her, but I dint find her. I don't believe that she is dead" she didn't know why she was trying to comfort him, all she could see at this moment was a father who might have lost a daughter. She wondered if her father had been like this when she left.

"You can still bring your family back. Just tell Zuko what you know. Don't punish him any more. He really doesn't deserve it"

"You are so young. With so much to learn, I wish I could she your face when you learn the truth" Toph couldn't tell, but ?Ozai was looking at her with a look pf hate, and a dawning realisation had just hit him.

"Your lying"

She got up to leave. The second she was on her feet Ozai was on his too. He made for the bars reached through them to try and grab Toph by the throat, as she moved to stand and her head came closer to the bars. His hand meet with a small wall of dust, sand and coal. following the trail you could see that it had came from the pouch that Toph had tied to the ribbon on her waist. She had began to use this as a way of being able to fight in hand to hand combat. She bent the powder in her hands, and blocked any coming attack with the stream of powder that fowled her hand.

For the smallest of moments their eyes meet, and Ozai slumped to the corner, And Toph made her way out of the cell and back to the palace. Hoping she had made a difference, and not made things any worse, only time would tell.

I hope you liked this chapter, that it gave some answers to the questions left from the last chapter.

Question for this chapter

One. Dose this new added back-story make sense.

Two. What do you think of Toph's actions, do you think she did the right thing.

Three. What would you like Zuko's reaction should be when he finds out about what she did.