Thank you for reading, I hope you like this chapter. I still can't believe that I have written, or more accurately, rewritten one hundred chapter, and I am only half through the whole story.
I know that people are reading the story and that is great. It just feels like there is a real lack of interest in the story, most of the time. Then I feel like is there any point in going on. I see story's that have hundreds of reviews. I have friends that write here too, and they have readers that also PM them, just to talk about the story. Now I am not asking any one to review if they don't want to or PM or anything. I just felt that I should point out that, while I do want to keep writing the story, I do feel at times that there is no point. As I feel like not a lot of people care, and as much as I am written for myself, I am also writing for you all. Therefore there maybe times when it will be a bit of a gap between chapters. This doesn't mean that I have stopped writing, just that I need a bit of time to feel like there is a point to going on.
Sorry for going on, I just thought I should explain why there may be times when I don't up-date as often. I will finish the story, however long it takes me. So on with the story .
To enjoy this chapter more please listen to hanging by a moment by lifehouse. The fact that the song say, falling more in love, doesn't mean that Aang is in love with Toph. It is more a friends kind of love.
Aang continued to rise into the air. The air he bent began to move the earth around him as well. He wasn't concentrating on any of this, as he wasn't focusing on what was happening around him. All that was going through his mind, all that he was aware of were memoires of Toph. The first time he had seen her, in the swamp. Then in the earth rumble. She seemed like two different people. The more he got to know her the more he realise that it wasn't two different people, it was just another side to who she was. The heir to the Bei Fong family, and the blind bandit were one and the same. More alike really than she would want them to be.
Not long ago she had said that her and himself were more alike than they had first thought. He never fully understood that. He had wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but he hadn't had the chance. Now maybe he never would. He badly wanted to know the answer now.
His mind didn't go to happy memoires, sandbending on Ember Island, the dance party. Instead they went to, the last glimpse he had of her before he went into the drill, leavening her to deal with the outside on her own. The way he yelled at her, after Appa was taken. Seeing how weak and beaten she was after the final battle. The memory that flashed in his mind the most was the look on her face when he had slapped her in Ba Sing Sa. It was a look of shock and hurt, and the worst, embarrassment. She had been more embarrassed that he had hit her, then she was mad at him for doing it in the first place. Then the events that had just happened came to his mind.
The anger burned from him, causing the very air to burn with its fury. The earth that was being swept around him, too start to burn to ash. The air became stronger as it moved faster and with more force behind it. If it went on much longer then it would be strong enough to cut through the mounds of earth that scattered the area. He didn't see or really feel any of this. He didn't care about any of it, didn't think of the damage he was doing. All he cared about was Toph. The thoughts of her in his mind were all that he saw and felt.
"Aang" He could hear her voice in his mind. It seemed to be pleading with him to stop. This low voice, was the only thing that reached him. Through the burning earth, and screaming wind. It was all he heard.
Slowly he started to feel the world around him. He felt the heat, rising steadily. He very slightly became more aware of the air around him. It seemed to be contained around him, forced back into an area. It wasn't reaching as far as it should have been, as it had been.
"You have to learn to focus your anger into your bending. If you just let it control you, you are going to lose control of the fight." Her voice was clear, as if she was standing next to him like when she had said it to him. Not like her voice a minute ago, when he was sure she had called out to him. This had been the last piece of training she had given him, before he had faced the fire lord. It was still as true now, maybe more so.
He started to calm down, he concentrated on his breathing. He slowly began to descend to the cold hard ground. When he landed, he opened his eyes, finally able to see what was around him. He didn't see the sunlight, like he expected. It was blocked out by a dome of earth. That had been built up around him, and a small part of the surrounding area. In a second he turned to where he knew Toph had fallen.
He had to strain to she her in the dark of the dome. It then started to slowly fall back into the earth. He could finally see her. She was leaning agents a rock. Her right arm was bent slightly above her head, the left was pressed tightly agents her stomach. Not that it was doing any good. It was now covered in blood, her green tunic also had changed colour. He was sure he saw a faint smile, and look of relief on her face. That hurt him more than seeing her in pain. She had been more worried about him, than she had been about herself. Now she was bleeding heavily, in a bad way, but she was happy to know he was ok.
Before her arm dropped, taking the rest of the dome with it to sink back into the earth it came from. Aang was at her side, catching her before she too sank onto the earth. He lifted her head up with his right hand, his left crossed over her red stomach holding her at the waist. She was covered in tiny cuts, and faint burns. He had done that. The dome had kept all of his power contained, causing the hot ash and earth to move around it at a faster speed. She had been hurt by the debris caused by his lack of control. Her heart beat was slow and faint, but it was there.
Despite the sun he felt like ice, his whole body was shacking. He noticed his right hand was the coldest part of his body. He slid Toph's head along his arm, to rest at his bent elbow. His blood turned to ice when he saw his hand, it was red. Blood was meant to be warm, but he had never felt anything so cold, not even ice. The ice in his body stopping him from moving.
She must have hit her head, when she crashed into the mound of earth. He remember how white and drained her face had looked before they split up. He lowered her onto the ground very carefully. Like she herself was ice that would break at the slightest touch. He ribbed of a strip of material from his robe, then ribbed that in two. He tied one around her head, and the other around her stomach. The orange robe was red in a few seconds. It was like trying to stop a waterfall with a pebble.
He wanted to say something, in case she could hear him. Something to let her know he was there, he wouldn't leave her, that he would make sure she was going to be ok. She would have hated that. She liked people to just get to the point. So he stayed quiet. There was nothing he could say that she would want to her. Because she would want the truth, and the truth he couldn't bring himself to say or even think about.
He blamed himself for all of this. She wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. If he had never came into her life, she would be safe. He tried to think about what his life would be like if she wasn't in it. If he hadn't found her at the earth rumble, then followed her to her house. These thoughts only lasted for a few seconds, because he couldn't think seriously about a life without her, without any of his friends. It was selfish, but he didn't want to think about life without his friends. Even if they would have been better off without him.
He placed her hands onto her stomach, resting on the wound. He then slipped his right arm under her head again, and the left under her knees. He then pulled himself to his feet. Taking his time as not to move her around to much. He tried to take a step forward, but his legs couldn't move. He had been running on adrenaline the whole time now he was spent.
He looked at her face, she didn't look like Toph at all, all the life had gone out of her. There was no colour in her face. He closed his eyes. As he did a tear fell, he hadn't realised that the tears had been building up this whole time.
"You've got the stuff twinkles." Her voice rang in his ears.
She had always been the strong one. She tried to teach him to be strong. as so many people depended on him. She never had though, she had always gone her own way, never shared her burdens. She helped him cares his as-well as her own, she still did. Now he had to be strong for her. He moved his legs, one step after the other. They were about less than an hour from the fire nation capital. He didn't have the energy to use bending to get them there any faster. He was going to have to do it the hard way, one steady step at a time.
He mental cursed her for wanting to walk the last few miles to surprise Zuko and Katara. One look down at her and he cursed himself for thinking like that. It then dawned on him that that is exactly what Toph would have been thinking, if she was in his place. She would be blaming him. That gave him some comfort. He had learned from her. This also made this all seem worse too. She had always been so spirited, quick to act, strong. Now seeing her like this, the contrast was extreme, so he looked at her, and the person he knew was nowhere to be seen. He had never seen her or anyone look so frail and weak. He realised that he was starting to think of her as already being dead. She wasn't, there was still hope.
He made a promise to himself on that long walk to the gates of the fire nation capital. That if she made it then he would never let anything like this happen to her or anyone he cared about again. He didn't care what he had to do to keep that promise. If he had to go against the beliefs that the nomads had given him, then so be it. He was never going to lose another friend.
