A strong gust of wind blow over the desert, lifting the cloak the jade bandit was wearing. The strand of loose black hair also lifted into the air. The sound of the wind blowing past them was the only sound that was heard, neither of them had spoken. Aang was keeping his gaze on the jade bandit, his eyes though finally blinked. When they opened he saw the sand-sailor that was speeding away, with the emerald he was meant to be looking for.
He moved to pull out his glider, so he could go after the sand-sailor. He had been so focused on finding put who the jade bandit was that he had forgotten why he was here in the first place. Now he was sure he knew who the jade bandit was, then he could deal with them any time he wanted too, he had to act now to get the emerald. Before he was able to fully pull out the glider, and stream of sand came down on top him.
As be pulled himself back onto his feet, he looked over at the figure in-front of him. They had changed position, they were now leaning forward on their right leg, hands out in-front of them. Things were starting to make more sense. "You bent a rock at the back of my head the other night, didn't you." The figure slipped back into their standing position again, as they nodded their head. "Aren't going going to say anything. I already know who you are." The jade bandit tilted their head to the right. It was like they were saying they didn't believe them. Like they were mocking him. Moving the glider in-front of him, Aang bent a string air current that hit the jade bandit on the side of their head. They brought their arms up to block their head, but they were still hit. Once they arms lowered back to their side, the half mask started to slip. Aang saw a small crack on the right side of the mask, that was slowly getting bigger. The mask finally broke in half and fell onto the sand.
Aang wanted to look them in the eye, know for sure, no questions, but he couldn't. He kept his eyes on the sand at their feet. He noticed their hand twitching a little. It looked like they where trying to decide whether or not to lift their hand or not. Eventually they seemed to make up their mind. They lifted their right hand, took hold of the black mask they wore that covered all of their face. In one quite move they pulled the mask off. Then let it drop onto the sand like the half mask.
"Toph" His voice was so quite it was almost lost in the strong wind. Her long hair was blown into her face, for a minute he wondered if he had just been seeing things, that it wasn't really her. He had been sure it was her from the minute he woke up chained to the bed and she was gone. There was still apart of him that wanted to have a little hope that is wasn't.
"You sound surprised. I thought you said you knew it was me." There was nothing Aang could say. "I'm a little surprised. I would have thought that you would have been completely sure before you bent a fire ball at me." She felt him winch a little at this. It was a bit of a low blow.
Again he moved to pull his glider out, and again she moved faster. She bent a sand whip that hit him at his knees. He didn't fall over he used the glider to keep him standing, then used it to bend another air swipe at Toph. She pulled up a small shield of hardened sand. As it fell she held out her arms out, them lowered them. Aang was again trying to move, but found he couldn't. The sand around his feet and hardened, trapping his feet. The first bending Toph was able to do with sand. "I'm not going to let you pass."
"So I don't stop you from keeping the emerald for yourself."
"No. So you don't stop me doing what I promised Lord Hong that I would do. Make sure that the emerald goes to the people of the village."
"You said that you stole it for yourself."
An slightly evil grin crept across her face. "I never said a word to you as the jade bandit till now. As Toph I told you what was going on. I never lied to you as Toph." He could see the glint in her eyes as she was able to get out of this on a technicality. At the pleasure she was taking in mocking him, Aang found his rage rising again. Focusing as much as he could, as not to do to much damage, he bent a large stream of fire from his mouth at the sand around his feet, freeing himself. Toph may be the better sandbender, that gave her an advantage. If he was to try and sandbend mainly against her then it would be harder for him. Firebending was the best bet, she was weak against it, and with no water around it was his only real alternative, if he wanted to attack her and not just evade her attacks.
Using the sand to lunch him, Aang lifter into the air, and came down next to Toph. He picked up his glider, and tried to knock her over by hitting in at the knees, like she had tried to do with him before. Like himself she wasn't knocked over. she like him again used the sand to lift herself into the air. Unlike him she used the sand in a different way. She bent it to follow after him. It looked like she was riding a sand wave. Aang bent a air swipe to cut it down. Toph brook her fall by tucking and rolling to a knelling position.
Aang remained standing, giving her a chance to get to her feet. Once standing, her sightless eyes locked onto his. "If you want to get past me. You are going to have to come at me with the intention of killing me." She felt a slight wave of horror was over him. "Come on. You know your as bored as I'm, most of the time. Don't tell me you don't want to push yourself. Fighting a grand master to the death. That must give you a rush too." She now sent a stream of sand, with a sharp pointed end, right towards his chest. Aang bent an air shield that shattered the sand stream when it hit against it. "I'm not going to hold back, so if you want to live you better not either" He knew that in part this was a lie. She was going to hold back, she wasn't going to use bonebending. She wouldn't use that in a fight, unless it was life or death.
"Why dose this matter to you so much."
"I made a promise." As she spoke she ran towards him, hands bent at her sides. A large stream of sand followed after her. Rather than hitting into him, the sand stream wound its way around him, getting closer and closer. When she was closer she stopped an kept moving her arms in a circler motion. The sand speed around Aang encasing him. Toph kept the sand moving at a fast speed. She knew that she couldn't keep this up forever, but it gave her time to think of what her next move was going to be. Aang felt the sand moving in closer, if he touched it he would be cut by the rough, yet sharp substance. Bending fire from his hands he burnt the sand, gaining his freedom.
Not wasting any time he opened his glider and speed towards Toph. Who bent the sand under her like she had done before, to lift her into the air. Aang turned and dove straight into the stream of sand Toph was riding. He cut it down, causing Toph to fall to the ground. This time she wasn't able to land properly.
As she slowly pulled herself up, Aang took his change to make his next more. He bent the largest fire wave he could towards her. Toph just had time to bend the sand around her as a shield, that completely surrounded her like a dome, before the wave of fire surrounded her. Aang could only watch what he had done. When the fire faded and he saw the burnt, but still formed sand shield the extent to how far they were taking this became clear. They were both incredibly skilled and could be deadly if they wanted, but they never did. They had know how far to go, what the limits where, till now. The anger he felt for her was slipping away, and was replaced by worry. He was worried that he had really hurt her. He then remembered that he already had, he had hurt her right shoulder, before he was completely sure it was her.
Before he could speak, or take more then one step closer to the sand shield, it came undone. Then formed into hundred of sharp sand spiked that speed towards him. Instead of watch them, he looked passed them, to Toph. She was kneeling with both hand out in-front of her. He was going to let her attack hit him, just a little. He felt she deserved to get a hit in, he was going to let her get one, a little one. He wasn't an idiot. When he focused on the sand spikes again, they were much closer then he thought they would be. He wasn't going to have enough time to block the majority of them. The one hit he was going to let her have was going to be a big one. He started to move his right hand to bend an air swipe in-front on himself, but before he could the sand spiked stopped in the air, then fell to the ground. He looked back at Toph her arms had lowered to her sides.
His eyes met hers, and he saw that she was feeling the same thing he was, disappointment. Not just at the other person, but at themselves too. He saw her mouth open slightly to speak, but she didn't say anything. She quickly undid her cloak and turned it the other way round. The underlining of the jade silk now shone in the sun. She pulled it around herself closely. Her head was lowered to the ground. He could almost see the wheels in her head working overtime, but he wasn't sure why.
A few seconds later it became clear. He felt the sand sifting behind him. When he turned around he saw a group of three guards from the palace coming towards them on what looked like a carriage from the rail road the ran around the city. Two of the guards where bending the sand to move them forward on either side, the third stood at the front of the carriage look right at Aang.
Aang moved over to stand next to Toph who was still kneeling in the sand. He only glanced at her for a second. She didn't seem to be scared or even a little worried that she was about to be exposed at the jade bandit. He started to worry of she had only stopped her attack because the guards were coming, or if she would have stopped it any way.
"Avatar Aang, General. We have been sent to find you by the king."
"How did he know we where in the desert." Aang was starting to get a little paranoid now. He was starting to think that maybe the earth king was also involved in all of this.
The third guard who had not been bending the sand answered. "The look out saw you leaving. We assumed the general was also with you."
Aang nodded. He didn't know what to saw. He should get them to help him restrain Toph and bring her back to the city to face the king. He just couldn't bring himself to saw any of this though. What ever she had done she was still his friend, and he wanted to give her a chance to explain properly. While he was trying to find the right words, Toph finally pulled herself up, still holding the cloak tightly around herself, hiding the jade bandits clothes. She stumbled a little, falling a little onto Aang's shoulder.
"We got a lead from a source last night, that the jade bandit was leaving the city this morning. With the emerald. We kept a look out for them. A few minutes ago we saw them, caught up to them and fought them. We unmasked them, so we know who they are." Toph gestured with her hand towards the broken half mask lying in the sand. "We also know where they are headed. I have been hurt on my shoulder, so Aang wanted to return to the city. Where I could rest then leave tomorrow on Appa to catch up with them."
There was no reason from Toph to tell them all of this, if it was true. She was a general, she out ranked them. The fact that she was lying so easily to them, was not pleasant for Aang. He had always thought that she was always honest, that he could count on her to be honest with him, but now he didn't trust her. She had shown herself to be manipulative and amoral.
The guard was clearly not sure what to say or do. It took him a few seconds to speak again. "We'll take you back to the palace. The king wanted to see you both when you returned." He then turned away from them, to change places with the guard on the right. It seemed he would be helping to take them back to the city.
Toph was the first to move towards the carriage. As she did she again stumbled. Aang was next to her in a second, his strong arm around her shoulder, holding her tightly. His hand resting on her upper arm. Toph could feel his finger tips digging into her arm, just under the burn from his fire ball,as he helped her to the carriage, like he was keeping her from running away. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't. The second time she had fallen to the ground, she had slightly twisted her ankle. She didn't want to bonebend it to dull the pain in-front of Aang. So she would wait till she was on her own. She realised that she didn't know now if that was going to be in a cell or her room.
That was up to Aang now, and she had no idea what he was going to say to the earth king. Her life was in his hands. He had let her lie to these guards, gone along with it. He had had the chance to turn her in and he hadn't. She knew that this was more to with him wanting answer, then wanting to help her. Never the less she as grateful. She also wanted the chance to explain everything to him.
He lowered his arm from her upper arm to her waist and placed his other hand on the other side of her waist, then lifted her on to the carriage. The was a roughness and force with which he did these things to help her, that told her that he was still very angry with her. When he was on the carriage to and they were speeding back towards the walled city, Toph moved to sit at the back of the carriage. As she passed Aang her good left shoulder brushed past his right one. In this action, because he knew she had done it on purpose. She had told him that she was grateful that she had given her a chance to explain, but not that she was sorry for what she had done, buy maybe for hurting him. His hands that held onto the bottom of the open window he was looking out of held on tighter. He didn't know if she was trying to manipulate him into keeping her secret, or she was being honest. He was also angry that she could read him so well, knowing how to speak to him without having to say a word. He angry that she could read him, and he couldn't read her
thanks for reading. I hope you liked it. I would love to know if anyone had figured out that Toph was the jade bandit before this. I sure most of you did. I made it a little to obvious, though I did try and hide it.
I was looking forward to writing this fight, but then I go to it and I was really hard. I wanted it to be a really harsh fight between them, but I really don't think it worked that well. I was basing a lot of Toph's bending in here on garra from naruto. I don't think that worked out that well either, unfortunately. I always think that fight are great in the story, then I get to write them and it takes longer, and they never work out. I just nor very good at writing them.
I should also point out the carriage that guards arrive in was based on the one that the group ride in the drill episode to get into the city. This also took a long time. Trying to find a way to get them there.
In the next few chapters I will explain what has been going on. I will also up-date sooner I hope, because this will mainly be dialogue. Like always I would love to know what you think.