The sun had began to set. Dinner had been served in the smaller dinning hall, the dishes had been cleaned and put away. The maids had turned down the beds for their guest. All of this had happened and Aang had still not left this room. Some food had been brought to him, but he had eaten none of it. He paced the room thinking over all the events of the day. It seemed life a whole season since he had woke up to find Toph gone and himself chained to the headboard of a bed. It felt like everything had changed. The thing that he couldn't get out of his head was Toph handing him her dagger, asking him to kill her. No she hadn't asked him to kill her. She had understood what the earth king had asked of him better than he had, and she had given him the opportunity to carry out his orders. Did she really think that he would have taken that opportunity. There was no way that he would hurt a friend or anyone on purpose, unless he was provoked first. He had always thought this about himself, but now he wondered. He had bent a fire ball at her, when her back was turned. He could try and argue that he didn't know it was her for sure, but that was a lie. She had given him enough provocation though, hadn't she. She lied to him, used him. If that wasn't striking the first blow then he didn't know what else it was.

He needed to talk to her, really talk to her. He needed to hear from her all that had happened. What she had done. Focusing he tried to feel her footsteps or heartbeat from her room, but he felt nothing. She wasn't in her room, she had gone again. Like before Aang had a good idea where she would have gone. He walked over to the half open window, opened it fully and leaned out. There where no guards patrolling this part of the palace at this time luckily. Bending a stream of air to wined around him, like a tornado he lifted out of the room and into the air. He bent the air stream higher, till he was level with the roof of the palace. He bent himself over the roof a few feet before dropping himself onto a flat area of the roof.

The roof was made of dark green tiles. Around the edgers they slopped upwards. In the centre the stopped, and the roof was flat stone. He turned to look out over the city, as the lights of street lamps and houses where lit up. His room over looked the ground of the palace, he hadn't really seen this view of the city in almost six years now, when he was thirteen.

A few feet in-front of him sat Toph. She was sitting on the edge of the flat roof. Her legs where bent and pulled into her chest. Her arms hugging them in tighter. She looked like she as warming herself from the cold night air, with her head resting on her knees, shoulder pulled up. That would be if it was a cold night. The sun was still in the sky giving the last raise of warmth to the city. She knew that he was standing a few feet behind her, watching her, of course she did. She just didn't say anything, or make any movement. She waited for him to speak first.

"Why did you hand me your dagger."

"So you could kill me."

Her answer was so short so simple, for what she was saying, for all that had happened he couldn't believe it. "Why would I kill you."

She lifted her head now, and he was sure he heard her sigh. "You were ordered to kill the jade bandit. I'm the jade bandit..."

"That doesn't mean that I'm going to kill you, or whoever the jade bandit was."

"I know."

"Then why did you do that. Was it some kind of a test."

She tilted her head back a little. Like she was looking up at the stars. "I don't know maybe. The truth is I don't know why I did it." Her head lowered again.

"The truth." Aang was now walking towards her. She still hadn't turned to face him. "Tell me what the truth is. Tell me what has been going on behind my back, all of it." He was now standing by her side.

She was silent for a few seconds, before she lowered her head again. "What do you want to know."

A flash of anger took over Aang. He bent down, grabbed hold of her right arm and pulled her onto her feet. "Stop playing games. I just want the truth, is that so hard for you. I though that you..."

"Shut up." Toph for the first time since they their fight in the desert ended, seemed like her old

self. "I do try and always be honest. There are just times when you have to do whatever it takes..."

"Damn the consequences."

"Yeah." Toph turned away from Aang again, back to face the city. "I'm the jade bandit, I always have been." While she spoke she lowered herself to sit back down on the edge of the flat roof. One leg was pulled back into her chest. The other straightened out in-front of her hanging slightly over the tilted tiles. "I used what I know about the nobles of the earth kingdom to take what they don't need and give it to those that do need it. Those that have had their lives ruined by the war." This he knew was meant to soften him a little, but it didn't work. "Soon those that had a lot asked for me to take things from them, that would go to people they didn't like in their will. Or something like that. Then to give it to people that needed it. I was impressed and surprised by the generosity of some of the better of in the earth kingdom."

Aang found his legs giving out under him. After their fight he had spent most of the rest of the day pacing his room, his legs were tired. He let himself slowly bend down to sit next to her. He crossed his legs underneath himself, but found his left knee touched Toph's right thing, so he slide away from her a little.

"Lord Hong did do as I said. Asked me to take the emerald. I did, then sent it here. To Changpu, he kept it for me till I cam here for the banquet." She felt Aang's shock at this. He believed that she had had no idea that the banquet was in her honer. She had been so shocked when she had been sung to. "I knew about it. I didn't let him tell any of you, I didn't want you there. I wouldn't have gone myself if I didn't have to pick up the emerald."

"Why did you send it here."

"So it would be far away from me, and no one would think I had anything to do with any of this."

"You had it all planned out pretty well. Well done."

For the first time since she had started to explain everything, Toph turned to face Aang. "I did till you came along. Like you always do. I have things clear in my head and then you swoop in and I don't know what I'm meant to do any more." He knew this wasn't just about him showing up at her academy. It was him turning up at her political wedding to Zuko. Before that it was him crashing into her life, changing it all. He had never really looked at all of that from her point of view, it must be very unsettlingly. "I cam here with you. I didn't expect the way the king greeted use. So I wanted to go and see Changpu to make sure everything was still the same as planed. I got you to come, to keep you close. I told him to keep hold of the package, till the jade bandit came for it."

Aang was now turned to face her as well. "So he knew that your..."

"No." She looked like she was going to go one but she stopped herself. After a brief silence she went on, very reluctantly. "Aang, he was learning at me, I could tell. I got angry, shaped at him. He...he grabbed me by the throat. The bruise on my neck. I didn't get from when we fought after we where chained together, I got it from him. You didn't hurt me then."

As he had started to hear what she was saying, angry welled up inside him. He was terrified about what she was going to say, what that creep had done to her. Then he felt hurt, hurt that she would let him think that he had hurt her. Yes he had hurt her earlier that day, but that had been when they were on opposite sides on a real fight, not on either side over a small disagreement. "Why would you le..."

"I'm Sorry. I couldn't tell you the truth. I had to cover my tracks. I couldn't let you ask to many questions."

"What happened then." He turned away from her now. She slowly did the same, facing the city once more. "You know. We were chained together, you read the reports. Then we went to the banquet. Went to see Lady Shou. I left that night, as the jade bandit. I met you."

"I should have known for sure it was you then. Only you could knock someone out with a small rock. What was the jade bandit doing that night."

Toph had noticed that he had never really refereed to the jade bandit was her. It was like he saw them as two different people. Maybe that made it essayer for him. She didn't want to make it harder for him, but the jade bandit and the Toph he knew were one and the same, he had to accept that. "I was picking up the emerald. I hid it in your room yesterday. I figured you wouldn't be going back there while we where chained together. We went to the jasmine..."

"I know the rest., but what were you doing in the desert. Who were..."

"I was delivering the broken emerald to sandbenres that would take it to me academy. From there it will be sent to the village that Lord Hong lived at, by my assistant. The village he wanted to have the emerald. It would be to obvious to give the village the whole emerald, so I bent into little pieces, that can be distributed around the village to everyone."

He could understand this, all of it. He could see why she was doing what she was doing. She had had the best of intentions. Maybe she hadn't gone about it in the right way, but in the end she was doing what she was asked by a dyeing man. That had to count for something. Despite himself he was finding himself feeling guilty about how harsh he had been on her. She maybe wrong about a few things but she didn't deserve to he exposed, or have him being so cold towards her.

"I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm leaving tomorrow, I'll send word in a few days to the earth king that I have dealt with the jade bandit."

A faint smile slowly spread across her face. "Thank you." He turned back to face her again. "I really am sorry about..."

"Stop, I know. I also now how hard that must be for you to say once. I wouldn't want to make you suffer saying it again." He also now had a slight smile on his face.

They sat on the roof, under that stars with the lights of the city spread out in-front of them , in silence for a few minutes. Till Aang choose to break it. "So where am I dropping you off this time, the academy, Oma..."

"What are you taking you about." There was a shock in her voice he hadn't heard before.

"I didn't trust you again. Like before, your hurt and don't want to travel with me any more. so where do you..."

"Don't tell me hoe I feel, or what I'm going to do." Her voice was sounding more like herself now. "I think I figured something out." Aang leaned back a little, ready to listen to what she was going to say

. "We're not as different as we would like to think. You have all this pressure on you. Being the avatar, people look up to you, expect you to have all the right answers. To be an example of fairness. So you can't get involved with things like, war criminals, will disputes. You leave that to people like me. Because I can do what it right,not worrying about what people will think of me because of it. I don't have that kind of pressure on myself. It's not that you don't agree with what I do, you do. You just have to remain impartial."

Aang was taking in all that she said. She made a lot of sense. He could see her point of view, most of the time, but knew that he couldn't do what she did. "Do you think knowing all this, is going to make it simpler for us to get along."

"I don't know. I hope so though." He hadn't expected that. "I won't stop doing what I believe in. I can't, but I will be more understanding of how hard it all is for you. Being the avatar it a hard job, I don't envy you."

The tension that had been between them the whole day had lifted. It was like they were friends again. With a better understanding of each other. That would hopefully lead them to get along better. At the very least have fewer fights.

"So were are we going." Toph spoke in a rushed voice. She was clearly still a little awkward with him. He did admire her forth rightness a little.

"You are the most frustrating, infuriating person I have ever met in my life." once he stopped talking he let out a very low laugh.

Toph laughed a little too. Glad that they were ok again. "You wouldn't have me any other way though, would you."

She felt a little panicked that she had been that light so soon. Aang felt her heart race a little. "No, I don't think I would." He reached out and took hold of her hand closest to him. "You wouldn't change me either though." his heart started to beat very fast now too, realising how close he had gotten. He let her hand go, but gave it a slight squeeze first.

Toph thought of a few comebacks for that. I would change your big ears, make you shorter. She didn't say any of these, not because she knew they weren't true, but because she didn't want to ruin things.

"I was thinking we could go to the southern air temple. I still have to show it to you."

Toph didn't say anything to this either. She gave a slight nod and kept looking out to the city. Wishing a little that she could see it, because Aang's heartbeat was still a little fast from looking at it. It must be very beautiful. She had only know his heart to beats that fast when he was around Katara, and was in love with her.

I hope that this chapter explains what has been going on in the story. If there is still anything that is not clear, then please let me know. The next chapter will be the last one. It will be much litter than the rest of last few, and lead into the next part.