The shadows on the prison walls returned once again, except this time the first and taller shadow was practically jumping with anxiety and excitement. The other, we all know and love as Melon Lord Toph…not so much. Time passed on, almost proving deadly to the Fire Lord, and soon they had reached the Princess's cell.

"Ready, Sparky?" Toph asked, smirking. Zuko ignored her, not wanting to say anything rude out of his nervous state, and told the guards to let them in. Toph started to get nervous the second she stepped through the first door. She could feel the vibrations Azula was making, even though they were small. She felt the Princess's emotions clearer than before when outside, waiting for Zuko, and it almost made her start to wonder how she got that way. But she remembered what Zuko told her and immediately started cussing and apologizing in her head.

"Are you ready?" Zuko asked, glancing over his shoulder at Toph. Toph nodded, curtly, and waved her hand to tell him to just open the damn door. Zuko nodded out of habit and held his hand up, telling the guards to open the door for him and Toph. The guards followed the order and bowed their heads as they walked into the cell.

Toph nearly ran back outside at the stench inside the cell. She almost instantly identified the smell as fresh and old blood. Zuko didn't seem to be affected by it, so she followed him over to the dainty woman chained to the walls. Toph stomped her foot slightly to get a good vibration and felt the chains tied to Azula's hands, tightly. She knew they kept her from lashing out with her hands. She also felt chains at the Princess's ankles, keeping them on the floor.

"Azula," Zuko called out, attentively. Azula shook, visibly. She had heard him. "Hey, squirt." Toph nearly laughed. Hearing Zuko call someone 'squirt' was hilarious, but knowing he called Azula 'squirt' was just…wow. Toph heard Azula growled something, but it probably wasn't all that bad since Zuko merely laughed and knelt down in front of her.

Zuko was in a brighter mood for sure. Even he noticed his upbeat behavior. He tipped her face upward to look at her like he always did when he visited and almost smiled at the sight. Azula's eyes seemed to have regained normal posture instead of too-big irises and her face was obviously cleaner than it was the day before. His first thought was, She really is beautiful. His second thought was, But who cleaned her face up?

"What are you doing here, Zu-Zu?" Azula snarled. "Haven't tormented me enough, yet?"

"Azula, I haven't done anything to torment you."

"Yes, you have!" Azula argued.

"When?" Zuko questioned.

"Yesterday!" Zuko blinked and quirked an eyebrow.

"Azula, the only thing I did yesterday was talk to you an—"

"Wrong! The only thing you did yesterday was—"

"What? What did I do?" Zuko asked, agitated. Azula glared at him and shook her head, lowering it at the same time. Toph felt like she was intruding, but she didn't leave anyhow. "That's what I thought."

"Go away," Azula said, shakily. Zuko's gaze softened and he lifted her face up again. She put up a struggle, but it was weak and easily overpowered by Zuko. Her eyes were puffy and red and Zuko knew she was about to cry.

"Azula, I didn't come her to torment you," he assured her. "I didn't do anything wrong to you yesterday or any of the days I've come to visit you. No matter what you think, I didn't. I've come here to tell you that—"

"That you love me, right?" Azula glowered.

"That's not why I came here, Azula. I do love you, but—"

"But what?" Azula snarled.

"But I came here to tell you that I'm giving you a chance," Zuko said in a firm voice. Azula's eyes widened. "I'm letting you come back to the palace, but you're going to be watched around the clock by the highest of security. I'll give you the details later, but right now—"

Azula suddenly screamed, her eyes cloudy once more. Zuko tried to quiet her with words, but she only screamed louder and more painfully. Toph winced and covered her ears with her hands while Zuko shut his eyes and bowed his head, waiting for her to stop. Azula stopped after a couple moments to get a breath of air.

"Azula, please listen to me!" Zuko pleaded while Azula continued to gasp for air. Azula shook her head, violently, and tried once more to free herself from the chains. After a moment or so of that, she stopped and hung limply in the chains. Zuko went to say something, but—

"LEAVE ME ALONE, MOTHER! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! I DON'T NEED YOU AND YOUR LIES! YOUR PATHETIC LIES! YOU LEFT ME FOR ZU-ZU SO DON'T EVEN TRY TO TELL ME YOU LOVE ME! BECAUSE YOU DON'T!" Zuko glanced at Toph who felt his sudden confusion and shrugged.

"Azula! I'm not Mother! I'm Zuko, remember?! Your brother! AZULA!" Zuko yelled, trying to get Azula to stop hallucinating. In the process, he had put his hands on the sides of her picture perfect face, trying to get her to stop jerking around. "Azula, please! Stop screaming! There's no reason for you to scream anymore, Azula!"

Toph froze, as did Azula. Apparently, both had noticed he said 'anymore' in that sentence. Toph knew Azula caught onto what he meant, being the clever seventeen-year-old she was.

"How'd you figure that out?" Azula asked, breathless and hardly above a whisper. Her voice was raspy and shaken, her body pulsing with anxiety and pain from revived memories.

"Father told me," Zuko responded, pulling his hands away. Azula's eyes widened, showing just how shrunken her pupils were. Tears strolled down her face and she started shaking, trying to jerk herself free again, and screaming. But this time, the screaming seemed more like a plead for help rather than what it normally was.

"HELP ME! GET HIM OFF! PLEASE!" Azula shrieked. Zuko's eyes widened as he realized what was happening. "FATHER, PLEASE STOP! IT HURTS!" A wail escaped her lips as the tears suddenly brought on a new level, practically blinding her.

"Toph, what do I do?!" Zuko asked, desperately.

"How should I know?!" Toph asked rhetorically. She had found herself standing next to Zuko, a strange sense of panic and worry overcoming her. Neither one of them knew what to do, and as if it was bad enough already, both were about to join Azula in the screaming because of their frustration.

"Azula, stop! Nobody is on you!" Zuko told his sister, although he was sure she wasn't listening to him. "Father isn't even the room, Azula!" Azula continued to scream for help. Soon, both Zuko and Toph found themselves with tears in their eyes. "Azula, please," Zuko pleaded, shakily and desperately. He hung his head and put his face in his hands.

Toph felt a sense of leadership overcome her as she looked down at Zuko then at Azula. She got down on her knees and, putting a hand on Zuko's back, put her arm around Azula's shoulders, using her hand to pull the Princess's head onto her shoulder. I don't even know her, Toph noted to herself. This isn't what surprised the Melon Lord though.

Azula started sobbing instead of screaming. "It hurts, Mama…" she muttered. Toph's unseeing eyes widened. Instead of telling her what she wanted to, Toph merely rested her cheek on the Princess's head and rubbed her shoulder.

"Its okay, Azula," Toph assured her. Azula shuddered and wept, helplessly on the fifteen-year-old's shoulder. Zuko shook and Toph realized he was also crying. But a second later she also noted that she—Melon Lord Toph, master of earth, metal, and melons—was crying as well.

"No, it isn't," Azula sobbed.

"Zuko, get up here!" Toph commanded in a yell-whisper voice as she removed her head from Azula's. Zuko looked up at Toph and then at Azula. He almost said something out of shock, but he quieted himself and got up on his knees. He gave Toph a look, but Toph couldn't see it, so he merely wrapped his arm around Azula and rested his chin atop her head. Toph resisted the urge to yell "GROUP HUG!"

"Hush, Azula," Zuko soothed, rubbing her back. Toph withdrew herself slowly so Azula could adapt to the change. She did by switching to Zuko who gladly accepted her.

"Zu-Zu."

"Its okay, Azula," Zuko reassured her. "I'm here…" Azula sobbed and went limp. Zuko wrapped his other arm around her and shut his eyes. Oh how he wished he had his Azula back…the sane, happy one from his early childhood. It pained him to see her breakdown, especially after all the will-power she was almost always showing. He sighed. "I'm here."

--

"Azula?"

"What?" the Fire Nation Princess snapped, getting to her feet. She was utterly pissed off at everyone who now sat in her cell, mainly because they had even thought to touching her, more or less hugging her, and if it wasn't worse enough, when she was in a weakened state.

Zuko was sitting directly in front of her with a content look on his face while Toph was sitting next to him, hand on the metal floor. She was picking her toes with her other hand and Zuko was constantly reminded of how the old Toph remained in her still, even after all the bodily and mental changes she had undergone.

"I have come here for a reason…a proposition," Zuko responded.

"Oh?" she asked, a smirk appearing on her face. Zuko and Toph were both amazed at how fast her emotions and mood could change—one minute she could be screaming and crying her lungs and eyes out, the next she could be laughing ridiculously, and the next she could appear to have resorted to her old self.

"You should know why you're in here," Zuko said, carefully.

"Of course I do," Azula scoffed. "A life's worth of killing and manipulating would do well to get you in jail. No matter how lost you think I am, I still understand these things, you know."

"Then you…you know that…um—"

"You're crazy, Azula," Toph interrupted, pointing at the Princess with a slender finger. Zuko stared at her with a warning written all over his face. Zuko was going to tell her eventually, but Toph's bluntness of the matter made him feel a little angry at her. One could only imagine how animal-like Azula felt. But if she was feeling that way, she wasn't showing it.

"I'm well aware of that," she responded, not changing the look on her face or the tone of her voice. "You don't think I've noticed all these hallucinations and such. The screaming and crying ridiculously…You know why I do all of those things?" Azula asked, dangerously. Zuko seemed to catch the tone of her last words, for his eyes narrowed.

"Why?" Toph asked, aloofly. Zuko shot her a glare, but as Azula was about to answer the Earthbender, he looked back up at her with a cautious look in his eyes.

"It's all because of Mother," she said, her voice dripping with venom and disrespect. It was quite apparent she was trying to get something out of her brother, even though all he did was continue to stare at her like she was about to rip free from her chains and murder everyone in the prison. Her smirk widened as a satisfactory noise emitted from behind closed lips.

"Why not your father?" Toph asked, again aloofly. Zuko slapped her arm. "What?!" she asked, putting a hand over the red mark on her arm. A look of realization overcame her. "Oh…uh, sorry?"

"Don't be sorry, peasant. You should be overwhelmed with mixed emotions for even knowing about my past and being in my presence," Azula said, smugly. Toph narrowed her unseeing eyes at being called a peasant and was about to whip out a rant about being the richest family in the Earth Kingdom, but Zuko gave her a "shut up, Toph" look.

"Why don't you just answer the freakin' question, Crazilla," Toph said angrily and rudely as she flicked something off her finger onto the floor a couple yards away. Zuko snickered mentally at Toph's nickname for his sister. It set off some better left unknown questions in his head.

"You'd do well to address royalty as such, not as childish nicknames," Azula said, glowering at Toph. Azula's shoulders did something associated with a shrug and her glare disappeared to be replaced with a nonchalant look on her face, almost as if she didn't care at all. "Because Father actually loved me and gave me everything I could've ever wanted. But then Zuko here came and took that away," she finished with a glare at her brother.

"Azula," Zuko sighed with a tone that would've said everything he'd worked for just took a step backwards. In a way, it did. He'd spent the past years trying to tell Azula that their father didn't love anyone and only gave her everything she wanted so she would obey him…She seemed to understand it or at least accept it a couple weeks or so ago, but now she was back to what she believed when she was first put in prison.

"What? I'm right here, all you have to do is look at me, Zu-Zu," Azula said, her voice once again dripping in venom. Zuko looked up at her with a blank look on his face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because I'm not sure how to address this…?" Zuko said, almost humorously with a tone of instability and uncertainty. Azula pursed her lips and turned her head to the side, slightly, her eyes still on Zuko. Her lips twitched and Zuko knew she was probably trying to hide her laugh, unlike Toph who was already congratulating him on making her laugh without saying anything lame.

"Well, stop it," Azula commanded. Zuko shrugged and offered her a weak smile. She muttered something about Zuko's actions not having anything to do with her recent order. It was strange how one small tone of humor and confusion could cause the atmosphere to lighten up, compared to how one small glare or tone of venom could cause the atmosphere to make everyone panic and feel like running.

"Do you even know what you scream about, Princess?" Toph asked, using Azula's "advice" in sarcasm. She was still angry over the peasant remark and was already thinking up ways to get back at her. And being the scheming little girl she used to be, she learned even more over the years, even help from Sokka came her way with the nicknames. Azula glared at her.

"Of course I…" She faltered. A look of insecurity overcame her features for a split second, but was replaced with a look of anger and one of those know-it-all looks. "Of course I do!"

"Then what do you scream about?" Toph asked. Checkmate.

"…Things…" Azula said with a tone of unknown emotion in her voice. Zuko glanced at a smirking Toph and then at a frowning Azula. He raised an eyebrow. How the heck was he going to explain what she screams about to her? Maybe Toph could…?

"Wrong, Crazilla," Toph said, easily. "You've been screaming about—" Zuko tackled her, hand over her mouth, glaring. Azula raised an eyebrow as she watched the two wrestle, trying to get the dominant position on top of the other. "Sparky! What the hell?!" Eventually, Zuko sat down on her, preventing her from moving.

"Don't tell her…" he growled.

"Why not? It was obvious you were going to have trouble telling her, so why not let me just blurt it out?" Toph asked. During Zuko's bewildered silence, she shoved him off, yelling, "And get off me, Sparks!"

"Will someone tell me what the hell you two are squabbling about?!" Azula's voice echoed in the cell, causing the guards outside to look between the bars to get a look at what happened. Zuko looked up at her while Toph got to her feet and approached the Princess.

"Sparky over there doesn't want me to tell you what you've been screaming about because he's afraid you'll get angry about him reviving bad memories," Toph said, jabbing a finger at Azula's chest. Azula glared at her and growled, jumping forward, but the chains held her back a good inch from mauling Toph. Toph didn't so much as flinch.

"Toph!" Zuko scowled.

"What? I didn't tell her!" Toph defended, walking over to the cell wall. She leaned against it as Zuko glared at her and approached his sister. He sighed irritably before looking Azula in the eye with a content and determined look all over his face and in his eyes. But in his brain, he was worried about how Azula would react to what he told her.

"Azula, I know you remember what happened after I left to find the Avatar…" Azula's eyes widened slightly at the mention of it, but she shut her eyes the next moment and hung her head to hide her surprise and anguish. "That's what you've been screaming about," Zuko said, carefully. "Sometimes you'd even think I was Mother—"

"Don't mention her, Zu-Zu!" Azula screeched, looking up at him with red eyes and an even redder face. "She's a bitch and you know it!"

"Azula! She is not!"

"You're only saying that because you were the one who got all of her stupid 'love' and praise for doing absolutely idiotic and hopeless things! Father was the one who loved me and here you are, telling me he was a bastard and didn't love me! You're a dirty hypocrite, brother!" Azula yelled, inches away from his face.

"Hey, shove it, Crazilla!" Toph yelled suddenly, bending a slab of metal around Azula's mouth, holding onto her head to keep her mouth shut. Azula seemed to have had her effect on Zuko though, for he had fallen over backwards on his bottom, purposely, with a guilty and bewildered look on his face.

"I…" Zuko stuttered. "I…I can…what?" His mind seemed to have exploded. Toph could see why, though. He'd been believing their mother loved the both of them and their father didn't for practically his whole life, but then Azula calls him a hypocrite…and it turns out to be true. He was always calling their father names and when Azula said otherwise, he objected…and when Azula called their mother names, he told her to shut up or something closely related to it.

"I…I am a hypocrite." Realization had struck.