Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Toph slowly came around. She felt around in her surroundings and realized she was sitting in a jail cell. She was a prisoner, a prisoner being transported to the fire nation. She had lost. Her cause had lost and so had her people, but how could she Toph the proud warrior who taught the Avatar lose.
Where were the people who had fought besides her? Where were her men, who she had trained and led? Was she by herself, did the fire nation kill everyone but her?
She was held together in a small space and she was obviously surrounded by some pretty strong metal because she could barely feel any vibrations.
"How am I going to bend this stuff?" She said quietly to herself.
"You can't," a voice said coming from outside her cell. Curse this metal. She couldn't even feel whoever it was who was standing outside her horrible chamber.
"And who are you," She said roughly, "Are you the damn person that put me in this cage?"
She was greeted by an icy laugh, "I am the one in charge of making sure you and these other prisoners make it back to the fire nation. I was the commander that attacked your people."
Oh good, she wasn't alone. Some of her men weren't dead, but the fate she was going to could be worse.
She recognized that voice, except it was colder than she had remembered it last.
"So, it's you. I should have known it would have been you Prince Zuko. After you were a traitor to your Uncle, after you turned to Azula, after you started killing and hurting I'm not surprised it's you."
"Shut up," he said coldly, "There are punishments for people who behave like you."
"What could you do to me that your people already haven't? What could you do that would make me feel pain that I already haven't felt?" She shouted.
"You don't know what I'm capable of," he said bitterly.
She just snorted. "I'm sure you're capable of a lot; rather I care or not is my business."
"Prince Zuko, there is a problem on deck," a soldier said running up to where they were standing.
"Seems like your duty as a commander is calling you to help the incapable people who work under you," she said resentfully.
Zuko gave her a deathly stare, which he realized was lost on her.
She was happy he had gone. He was not her idea of a good person to keep her company, but if she got everything she wanted, the war would be over, the Avatar wouldn't have disappeared, her parents would have accepted her, and she wouldn't be sitting in a jail cell alone.
"Here's your dinner," a guard said gruffly to her breaking her from her stupor, "You get one meal a day and don't expect me or anyone to give you extra food. You may be a girl, but we were given specific orders." He slipped the meal under her door and peered in through a little window to see what she would do.
"Excuse me," she said indignantly, "The day I beg you for food is the day that the fire nation loses to the Avatar, who somehow magically appears and all the prisoners you stupid people have locked up will be free."
"If I could get in that cell, I would break your skinny little neck and smash your pretty little head into the metal wall," the guard said hotly.
"You want to know what I think," She said smirking, "I think I could beat you without even using my earth bending because I have a feeling you're such a bad fighter that you couldn't even beat a five year old girl."
"If I had permission to get in your cell, I would kill you," he said angrily.
"Then why don't you get permission, unless your to afraid your pathetic prince will scold you or are you afraid because you think I'll beat you and that wouldn't look tough in front of your scary fire nation friends," She said smirking even more than before.
She could hear the guard banging something on her door, probably trying to scare her. He really was kind of pathetic, not to mention stupid.
"You hear that noise," he said in a threatening manner, "That will be the sound of your head bashing into my iron spear when I get a hold of you."
"Oh, I'm really scared. Now I know which guard I should stay away from because I really don't want my head to be smashed," She said trying to sound frightened.
"That's better," he said haughtily obviously thinking he had shown her who was boss.
She just turned to her food. She wouldn't get anymore pleasure from this annoying guard, he was too thick headed. She should be thinking of a way to escape, but how was she going to anyway in a chamber of thick metal. She was stuck. She had no way to get away.
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Zuko walked slowly back up to his room. He had just finished taking care of the problem they had on deck. Something had gone wrong in the engine room and the ship wasn't running like it normally would. It had taken him almost an hour to locate the problem because everyone else was incompetent of doing it.
He lit the candles around his room. Red walls and banners glistened back at him. He had two broad swords hanging on the wall by the door incase he needed them. He still used his swords and he still liked to practice, but in his nation fire bending was the only thing people saw as real fighting.
He lightly traced the tip of his swords, being careful not to cut himself. One slice and his finger would be cut off. He sharpened them everyday in the quietness of his room and he was always ready to use them.
He sat down on his bed, where was he going with his life? Was he always going to be Azula's play thing, her toy? He was leading his life in her shadow, but he had made that decision when he turned to her. She was the one that took charge. She was the one that made the Fire Nation rise to power. He should be thankful to her.
Thin streams of moonlight flowed in through the little window in Zuko's room. He was trying to sleep, but he kept waking up to a pounding. This was the sixth time he had woken up and he knew that it wasn't the ships engine making the sound; it had to be the girl.
He quickly walked down to the dungeon. He was not going to be woken up one more time. In a few days he would be back home, but until then he wanted peace. Here he didn't actually feel like he was going to be assassinated in the middle of the night.
"You, if you don't stop that knocking I'm going to chain you up to the wall," he yelled at Toph seeing her in an earth bending pose with sweat dripping down her face. She had not even made a dent in the wall.
"It's not worth your time. The wall won't break and it's just a wasted effort," he told her bitterly, "I've seen the metal these walls are made out of, I've seen how thick they are, but you can't because your vibrations don't work here. This cell was made specifically for you."
"How do you know I can't do it? I'm Toph, the greatest earth bender in the world, you can't stop me."
"I can stop you," he said motioning for a guard to come towards him, "Tie her up."
"What are you doing? Get away from me," he could hear Toph's yells from down the hall. She had not listened to what he had said and she had to pay the consequences. He had warned her.
He went back up to his room, but he didn't sleep as well as he thought he would with Toph's pounding stopped.
The next day he walked down to her cell. She was still in chains tied to the wall.
"You want to be untied?" he asked her unemotionally.
"Do you treat all your prisoners with such respect and kindness?" she asked him sarcastically, "Because if you did, no one would ever leave."
"Do you want to be let down or not?" He replied to her in a bored tone.
"Well, I will have to think about it because it is rather comfy hanging from the wall."
"If you stop being obnoxious, then maybe I'll let you down, but if your going to try and pound through the wall again, then I'll leave you to hang."
"Sure, why not. You can let me down if you feel like it because either way it doesn't matter to me." She had a sly grin on his face and he didn't really want to be attacked by and irate earth bender. He signaled to three gaurds to come over to him.
"Take her down, but keep one of the chains on her arm," he ordered them.
"Are you to afraid to take me down yourself?" she asked him rudely. She did not seem like she was born into a wealthy family.
Two gaurds pinned her to the wall and the other unlocked her chains. They hurriedly got out of the cell and her chained arm prevented her from going after them.
He just nodded his head at the gaurds and signaled for them to get back to work. He walked up to the deck. Tomorrow afternoon they would arrive in the Fire Nation. The fifty prisoners that they had captured would need to be transported into different cells.
Toph would go in the middle of the dungeon where the bulk of the cells were. Even if she would be able to escape from her cell, gaurds would capture her before she even made it out of the prison.
The rest of the earth benders would go in cells around her until Azula found something to do with them. They would either join other earth benders, where they were forced to work for the fire nation. Some of the prisoners would stay in the prison and others would be killed. Prisoners come and go and cells have to be cleared for the new arrivals.
The other battle ships were sailing peacefully behind him, their ripples coming up to the top of the water. They reminded him of his Uncle. Water and fire living peacefully together, which did not happen. They were nature's opposites. Fire was chaos, it only hurt people, water was gentle and it healed people. Water put out fire.
Earth and air were opposites. Rugged earth stopped air and air blew over earth. Earth and air lived in harmony together, but fire did not live in harmony with anything. Fire was the outcast, but it was the Fire Nation's fault. They had started the war and they had ended it as a winner.
Azula was proud of her conquered nation. His father had been proud of her and he had loved her. Azula was now ruler of the Fire Nation. She had Mai and Ty Lee right behind her. They were being trained in Azula's way of thinking, though they hadn't really changed. Ty Lee was still the total opposite of Azula and Mai was still the depressed dark girl he had known since he was a child.
He would be back to them soon and hopefully he would survive longer under Azula's insane rule. He had been surviving and in one false move he could be killed. If Azula wanted to kill him she would just accuse him of plotting treason or attempting murder on her, but she would most likely not even need a reason, she would just kill him.
They sailed on and soon the moon was overhead. Tomorrow was the day, the day he would be back to them.
Ch.2 is done, so please REVIEW.