Tuesday, October 9th, 1900, Tower Prison, 6 AM

Zuko removed his hood. The room was dark enough, only being lit by single electric light bulb He was in one of those special rooms that only had on cell. The bars divided the room with the cell getting about two thirds if the area. The other third of the room was bare except for a plain wooden chair. Zuko took that chair and moved it closer to the bars. He was trying to get a good look at her. He wanted to see what his sister had become. He sat down and looked into cell, examining the black walls. The lightbulb was behind Zuko on the 'free' side of the room. The light cast a long shadow into cell,but he could make her out. She was laying on her side, on the cot, which was flush onto the far wall. She was facing the wall, looking away from him. The sun was starting to rise, casting a dull red light into the black room. She was wearing all black. It resembled the uniforms that she wore during the War.

"Hello, Zuzu," Azula said coldly, sensing his presence, her eyes wide open, staring at the wall, "It's so good to have the crown prince visiting me in my lowly cell. You want to give me a bit of respite from my destitution and desolation." She was already trying to get under his skin with the 'crown prince' comment. Or was she? Did she seriously believe that?

"I am the Fire Lord, Azula." Zuko said calmly. He was emotionless, the same way Aang was with Koh, the Face Stealer.

"Ha," Azula made a sound that was a shadow of a laugh, "Our father is the Fire Lord Zuko. Ozai who married Ursa, you know, our mother"

"Our father's dead, Azula. And so is our mother."

"It's treason to speak about the Fire Lord's death, Zuzu. And as for our mother, she loved you and only tolerated my existence. Even you should know that bonehead."

"Our father is dead and I am the Fire Lord. Do you really think our father would lock you up?"

"Who said you could come into my bedroom anyway?" Azula was really far from being coherent. "Get out, you have to knock when you come in Zuzu. Did you learn any manners?"

"I have some questions that I want to ask you. And I advise you to be very careful. Your life, your destiny, your fate depend very much on the answers you give me. I hope you understand that." Zuko was not ignoring her incomprehensibility, but he needed to figure out if it was real. Something in his gut was making him believe it was, but Azula was a mistress of calculation. She knew that the Star Chamber would find her guilty. She knew that Zuko wasn't so much of a bitch as to let her get off free. She knew that she was in a precarious position and that holding her tongue might just save her head. Well, she would know these things if she was still sane.

"Ask away, dearest brother. I'm quite the captive audience."

"How are you?"

"What do you mean how am I?"

"I mean, are they treating you right? Are you warm at night? Are you being fed well? I'm asking after your general condition, as any caring older brother should."

"Oh, you care?"

"I do." That was the truth. "I actually do. I am responsible for you. Both of our parents are dead. And my sister is unwell." Zuko's voice was almost a drone. No emotions to glean from him, "I've come, at least in part, to see how you're faring."

"What if I said that they were abusing me?"Azula asked, trying to be slick.

"You haven't, so they aren't."

She grimaced. "But what if I said they were?" She posed the query again.

"Than I would take appropriate action."

"And what would that be?"

"If I were to tell you, you would be privy to more information than it is fit for you to know. If I were not to tell you anything, I would be withholding information that it is right for you to know."

"So?"

"So I will tell you…"

"What?"

"I will tell you that I will take appropriate action." Zuko answered.

"And what if they are not abusing me? What if they were treating me like… treating me like a princess?"

"I would take appropriate action."

"What?"

"I may act or not act as I see fit. Being Fire Lord permits me a great deal of discretion, Azula."

"You'll be Fire Lord the day when people can walk on water."

Just then, Zuko remembered Aang and Katara using their waterbending to do that in particular. "So, I come back to the original question. How are you?"

"What?" She sounded off, but he could never remember seeing anyone asking after her, except their mother. He cannot remember any man truly being concerned about her. Their father did not demonstrate emotion, he only expressed praise when she did something that pleased him. Not that he thought about it, Azula took after the cold, austere psychopathy that his father showed. She just added her own twist to it. She never gave affection or concern for anyone. In turn, she did not know how to receive it or take it in.

"Okay, I'll ask more simply. Are they feeding you?"

"No comment." She answered, trying her damnedest to mess with him, Not that it was working in the slightest. Actually that answered steeled his resolve to seek the truth from the infamous and expert liar.

"Are they giving you enough water to drink?"

"No comment."

"Are you being given adequate clothing?"

"Are you receiving adequate opportunities to exercise?"

"Not telling."

"Has anyone been abusing you physically?"

"What do you care?" She asked.

"I have already declared unequivocally what my interest is. You can say yes, no, or plead ignorance. Are you being physically abused?"

"I'll plead ignorance."

"Are you being emotionally or mentally victimized?" He asked again, his voice level, flat, and boring.

"You mean besides right now?"

"Yes." He said, not letting her provoke any emotion from him.

"No comment?"

He switched up on her, "What year is it, Azula?"

Azula paused. Zuko couldn't see it but her eyes were darting for a response. She didn't know whether to lie or to tell the truth, "What kind of question-"

"It's a simple one. What year is it? Or do you have no comment for that simple question either?"

"1776." Azula blurted out. "It's 1776."

"Is it really?" Zuko's tone was flat, which made Azula quite angry. She didn't want to turn around, but she needed to see his face. She needed to see if the manipulation was working. His voice gave no sign.

"Yes, Zuko it is. This is the year our great-grandfather took the throne," Azula answered, "Is it not a magnificent achievement for the Fire Nation. In only a couple of decades he would start the righteous conquest of the Earth!"

"If our father, or our grandfather weren't born the year Sozin took the throne, how are we here?" Zuko asked flatly. "You know better than that, Azula. You know better and so do I."

"Okay, fine, Zuko. If you want to pass yourself off as some sort of inquisitor, it's 1900." Azula admitted. She nodded to herself strangely, "Yeah, 1900."

"So, you are with me in the present. Very good, Azula." Zuko's plan was starting to work.

"What month is it, Azula?"

She flipped over and looked towards Zuko, "What are you doing, Zuko?" Azula asked, "What are you playing at?"

"I'm not playing at anything. I'm just having a pleasant chat with my little sister. I came to see how she was. She's apparently well, and now I'm having a talk with her. I hope you don't mind." Zuko was so emotionless that he looked bored, tired almost. "And this is a lot of fun, and I'm enjoying myself."

"You think I don't know what you're doing? Huh," Azula stood up and walked towards the bars. He saw then, in the increasing light in the room that her hair was matted, and her clothes were soiled. She smelled like she had given up bathing. This was something of note, but he did not let his receipt of that observation show. "You think I don't remember the Star Chamber coming in here and interrogating me?"

"I don't think anything," Zuko answered, "No, I tell a lie. I think you don't know what month it is."

"We are both firebending masters Zuzu." She mocked, "You, me, the both of us know the date, based on how the sun moves across the sky, how it dances from east to west."

"So what's today's date? Don't you know? Or have you slipped?" He jibed without sneering. He pricked her calmly, coolly. She couldn't fucking stand it. "Or maybe the better question is- How far have you slipped?"

"I see what you're trying to do. You're trying to be like that bitch Mai. You're trying to act all emotionless and sophisticated. But look at how that turned out, she's dead, and the two of us are alive. It's you and me, Zuzu. I know you. I know what you are. You're nothing but a little boy who's afraid of fire. A bitch who's afraid to win, ashamed of being a citizen of this great Fire Nation. You're ashamed of of heritage, our history, our blood, our ability to bend, to burn. You hate us, you hate yourself, you hate everything about our identity. You're seething underneath that fake austerity, this false unflappability. And it stinks, Zuko. It's nothing but an act, you're not cool, calm, and collected, you're not. You're nothing but a phony. A liar, and a damn hypocrite. You should be ashamed."

Diatribe done.

The Fire Lord clapped slowly, mockingly, loudly. The sound reverberated uncomfortably throughout the room. "That was an absolutely fantastic performance. You should get an award. If anyone knows about acting, it is you, Azula."

"Whatever, Zuko." Notice it wasn't Zuzu anymore. It didn't bother him, so she abandoned it. She would probably try it again later. "I see right through you, like the nothing you are."

"Likewise." Zuko said, no need to think of anything to say back.

"Oh, no clever quip, brother? Where's the wit? There you are sitting there blankly, probably gaping, struggling with that lame brain of yours for a reply."

"What's today's date?" Zuko returned to the question.

"October the eighth." She blurted out. She never used to have outbursts like that, "What's he doing to me?" She asked herself inside. "What does he want?"

"Close enough. You're a little sloppy, but we nobody can be perfect all of the time, not even you."

"You're a phony Zuko. I can see right through this. You're a terrible actor"

"You've said that already. Did you forget that you said it?"

"No," She shook her head again squeezing her eyes shut, gritting her teeth, "I'm saying it again. I'll tell you what a weak little Fire Lord you really are!"

"So, I am the Fire Lord?" Zuko asked her.

She twitched a little. She was caught. "The Fire Lord reigning you will be when-" She couldn't even splice the words together in the right order.

"The mask already slipped, Azula." Zuko replied, "And that's fine, even the best actresses slip up."

"And you've glued yours quite firmly onto your ugly, scarred face. I hope no one gets angry with you for talking out of turn and burns it." She tried to go after him, get down into his souls, using the most physically painful day of his life.

"I am glad that you are so concerned with my well being. Mind you, I think you shoehorned it in just a bit."

"You weren't strong that day," that's the non sequitur shit she came up with. She thought she was getting some ground on him. The mental gymnastics was going to go on for a while, and she felt that she was ready. "What a great day it was, your screams filled me with great delight. Great satisfaction. The first time I ever was so gratified."

"That is good to know, and it has been noted."

"I bet you're crying inside, Zuko. Father loved me more than he ever loved you-"

"So, Ozai is dead?" Zuko asked, his strategy was working. "Just a few moments ago, you said that he was alive and well, sitting on the throne. It can't be both, Azula. You know that."

"Our father is not dead, the dream lives on," She was grasping for a reply, and they both knew it. "The Fire Nation will be all and end all. The dream is alive and well with me."

"But the man has been picked apart by scavengers." Zuko stated. "You're the one who's acting, Azula. You're still just as clever and cunning as ever. You know very well what's going on."

"And what if I do, Zuko? Huh? I have all the power." Azula started to scream, "I HAVE ALL THE POWER!"

"I think that you're on the wrong side of the bars to have all the power," Zuko brought them back to reality, "Let's come back down to earth. I know and you know that you're in control of your own thoughts and actions. You may have tricked the Star Chamber, but you can't fool me."

"Do you feel smart?" She asked. "Feel like a real detective? I bet you think yourself the cleverer of us."

"I've gotten a fact straightened out that I needed to." He answered. He just proved that she wasn't practically insane. That is to say, she was aware of where and what and who she was. Azula was self aware and therefore could understand, truly comprehend being condemned to death or spared. And now to figure out is she knew what she was doing when she killed them. Did she know it was wrong?"

"Well, good for you." She said.

"Why'd you kill Mai?" He asked outright. Still completely frigid, devoid of expression.

She turned her lip up and shouted, "Because she disobeyed me!" She took a deep breath, "She betrayed ME! Me, how could anyone betray me?" Azula walked up to the bars and grabbed them firmly in her hands. Her knuckles went white.

"You're an articulate young lady, I'm sure that you could say more than that."

"I don't want to hurt your feelings," She smiled that manipulative smile, that fucking smirk of doom. "I really, really don't, big brother. I don't want to burn your delicate feelings."

"Try me."

"She said that," Azula started pacing back and forth, "She said that she loved you more than she feared me, and I knew right then, right then, she had to die. What a weak bitch! Weak, feeble. The weak, those who submit themselves to those little, vain emotions: love, lust, empathy, hope, faith, they must be killed. I was culling the herd, big brother. The strong must take out the weak. The weak must make way for the ones who have the divine right to rule the world."

"The man who did it for you, you know, the tarring and the scolding. Is he strong?" He needed to see her reaction.

"Yes," She answered with a strange, gleeful smile on her face.

"Well he's dead." He said plainlu

"When?" She looked a bit panicked, "WHEN?"

"Last week, Wednesday, I think. Tarred, hung, drawn, and quartered. Tried, convicted, sentenced, like any criminal." Zuko puffed out a couple of smoke rings using his firebending.

"He is a martyr and an artist. One of the heroes of the revolution to take Fire Nation into our destiny."

"Likely to be forgotten, even by me." The Fire Lord was persistent in her degradation, "How did you feel when she was tarred, Azula?"

"I thought that it was fantastic. I thought that it was beautiful, marvelous, wonderful. I got the greatest sense of satisfaction from their screams," She repeated the same line, and it rung in his ears as nasty, harrowing truth. Using his reserves of peace, he kept a straight face as she continued to talk, or spew "I knew that she wouldn't die right then, but those screams were wonderful Zuko. The smell of her flesh being fried by that hot tar. The looks of horror on all their faces. Mai's uncle, the warden crying like the little weak bitch he is." She went up to the bars again and pressed her face into a gap between them to get closer to Zuko. "I had never been so hot and wet in my life, Zuzu." Azula started grinding her hips.

Zuko's face remained disinterested, but he spoke, "The man who did it, the man who actually poured the tar, you took him with you?"

"Yes, Zuzu, we went back to the airship and I congratulated him on his victory, our victory against treachery. And I, we, the two of us, celebrated in best way two adults can."

"Tell me what you did?"

She sort of swooned and sat back down on the bed, still looking at her brother. She started to rock back and forth and rubbing her legs. Her hands started to drift towards her crotch, but stayed outside of her trousers (for now). She was in ecstasy as she spoke of the details. "He grabbed me, he was strong, a real man, like father." She took a breath through gritted teeth.

"In his testimony, during his trial, he said he spoke to you. He said hissed at you." Zuko's eyes were open attentive, but cold, "What did he say?"

"He said." She started to move her hand towards the hem of her pants, and she gulped a bit, "He said, 'I can smell your cunt.'"

"I see. I, myself, would not want to. So, what happened next?"

"I pressed my face to his, and he dominated my mouth, like a real man, like father. I reached down and I felt the warmth in his pants. He had quite a length, and quite a girth, Zuzu. He reached his hands into my uniform. One hand went and played with my breasts. The other reached down and started to use his skillful fingers." She stopped her story and stopped reaching into her pants, "I know you're aroused Zuko. I know you want to know more. I see the bulge under those robes."

She did not know how far from the truth she was. It was not particularly cold in the room, but if you could see his lower half, it looked as if he was naked at the North Pole in January.

She didn't wait for a response before she continued, "We went up into my quarters and he made, mad, passionate, animalistic love to me. He had a talented tongue too, brother. I came so hard, that I get wet thinking about it," By this point she was out and out playing with herself in front of him. Her hands were underneath her pants but it was apparent to the Fire Lord knew what he was looking at. She continued, starting to moan and curse in whispers, before quivering, with her eyes closed. She let out almost a manly grunt before bringing her hands back into visibility. She wiped her moist hand on the side of those black pants unceremoniously. She open her eyes again, and was greeted by the same tired face that had been interrogating her.

It fucking drove her crazy that he was unflinching and peaceful about these thing. Maybe he had made his peace with all of the facts. He wasn't devastated or disgusted and it made her… it made her… afraid.

In that moment she finally understood what 'afraid' meant. It was the first time she had been faced with the consequences, and what did she just do? She just came thinking about murdering the girl her brother, the Fire Lord. She was deep in now. And she knew it. Her eyes darted back and forth a couple of times, while she thought about what she was going to do to dig herself out of this one.

"What kind of sedative are you on, Zuko?"

"Nothing, I came here to observe and have some of my questions answered."

"Surely you didn't need me to tell you what year, or month, or day, or time it is. You've come here for something else."

"I did come to have some questions answered, after the Star Chamber already answered some for me."

"Star Chamber?"

"Well, from what they were able to understand from the evidence and testimony of all of the witnesses, including yourself, they were able to accuse you of a crime and prove that you committed it beyond a reasonable doubt. They could not however think of a punishment."

"What it the crime?"

"First-degree murder."

"Why is that?" Her fear was coming out as her voice became squeaky, almost mousy, "Why was I not allowed to face my accusers?"

"Because, they're dead. And you did face those who accused you, the Star Chamber is made of advocates for justice. Since you're on the wrong side of it, they were you're accusers. They questioned you five times."

"Yes, and?"

"And they compared what you had told them to the testimonies of others and to the evidence. Not only did you do, but you admitted it, and from your display just now, took pleasure in it. Not only did you feel that it was within your right to kill people, and you are gratified by it."

"First-degree murder?" She starting twitching

"And now, I have the prerogative, the mandate, the obligation to punish you."

"And did they find aggravation with my conviction?"

"That was what I was trying to determine, Azula. That is what this whole chat was about Azula. I wanted to see if anything aggravated or mitigated your crime."

"And?"

"Do I really need to tell you?"

"I would like to know."

"You seem to know what exactly you did, and why you did it. Given that you also seemed to take a great amount of pleasure, sexual pleasure from the depraved murders of two innocents. Then, in an attempt to diminish what you had done, you lied. Now, the lying is of little consequence to me, but by trying to disguise what you had done you proved something very important. The evidence you have given me with all the drama and noise aside is really what I was after. It was all I wanted to know and it gives me a sort of assurance of something that had always pestered me. Something I always truly wondered about you."

"What are you going on about Zuko? You're starting to sound like our crazy uncle. Philosophy and talk but nothing else." She spat the words, "He's an old fuddy duddy and you want to be a young troglodyte."

Zuko continued, his voice still not changing its calm, measured demeanor, "I always knew you were smart, Azula. Using that big word for cave dweller is proof of that. Ou whole family is smart, our mother wand our father were, and Uncle Iroh is a man of great wisdom. Your whole web of lies proves how smart you are, how in touch with reality you are. But as I say, you have given me the answer to the question I had always wanted to know"

"Would y-"

"Do you know the difference between right and wrong? Good and evil? The difference between the acceptable and the unjustifiable?"

"And, since you seem to be psychoanalyst, judge, jury, and executioner, do you think I know the difference?"

"Yes."

"I-"

"You know the difference better than me. You are an expert at manipulation, Azula. And do you know what that means?"

"What?" She sounded fed up, though the fear was still in the back of her head.

"It means that you understand the ins and outs of human relationships better than the average person. You understand what we, the civilized people of any society, view as right and wrong. You are smart enough to know what people can accept and what they abhor. That only brings me to the worst possible conclusion that one can reach about another's character, another's soul."

"You're so dramatic, Zuko."

"That conclusion is that you know what's right and wrong, but you simply don't care. You premeditated the deaths of two people, understanding fully that killing is wrong, and you simply did not give a damn."

Azula started to chuckle, "All of that hot air to say that you think I'm evil. You're almost as bad as that Water Tribe peasant girl. Are there any more sermons, any more lectures from on high?"

"No, there aren't any more sermons or lectures, Azula. As I have said, I am now faced with the real choice of what to do with you. If it were a person in a lower station in life, a jury would consider the two options of punishment for a crime as infamous as this one: life imprisonment or death."

"Death?" She asked almost smirking, "The people won't let you kill me."

"Maybe not right now, but after the Star Chamber's report is plastered on the front pages of the newspapers this morning, they may have a different opinion. I think when they read about what you have done, they might change their minds. You won't be the cute princess that all love."

"The people won't allow it." Azula's voice was starting to crack. "They WON'T let you do it!"

"Thousands upon thousands of people are waking up as we speak Azula. They'll go to their local market, their local drug store, their local diner and buy a copy of their prefered newspaper, The Times, The Gazette, The Daily News, whatever you like. And they will read the details, the minutiae of what you did. I don't think the people, whose very sense of decency you understand but ignore, will be rallying around and calling for leniency."

"Do you think you have beaten me, Zuko?" She continued shifting swiftly and sharply between smug and startled.

"I don't think this is a game. I'm holding your life in my hands. I could have you executed today or I could put you in a cell like this, lock you up and throw away the key."

"If you think it will be you who has the last laugh, you're sorely mistaken," She was sneered at him.

"I'm not laughing." He said, "I just want you to know that."

He stood up and stood behind his chair getting ready to leave. His black hood hit the floor again and he looked like the grim reaper as he looked into her cell.

"So what are you going to do, Zuko?" She looked up at him from the bed. The question was posed with a sort of defiant tone. There was a glint in her eye. He saw it and knew what it meant. She was trying again to exploit any weakness that she could find. "What are you going to do to the last real family you have? What are you going to do to the person, the only person who could reasonably take forward the royal institution, our glorious Monarchy, if, heaven forbid, you die before you can provide an heir? What are you going to do with me, the one our father actually wanted on the throne?"

"I'll take appropriate action."