A/N – That last chapter wasn't exactly very good writing, was it?

I'll try harder, I promise. :) Constructive criticism is welcomed and loved.

Zuko's immediate response was 'no', or something to that effect. He needed to be the one to question the girl. Had the assassin caught up with them yet? Was he on their trail? Did they get separated?

But he wasn't stupid. "I want to go with you," he said shortly, folding his arms across his chest.

Azula gave him a sharp glance, her dangerously beautiful face still and unmoving. "All right," she replied. "But I ask the questions. You watch."

Zuko didn't bother to nod. She had already started up the steps anyway, with the guards and the girl close behind. The prince joined the entourage, trailing at the end, lost in his own thoughts.

-x-x-

Toph was tied to an amazingly comfortable chair. Nice silk-covered cushions, armrests that were perfect for her height, a straight back…It was nice and warm in the room, assumably from the roaring fire that she could hear over to her left.

Funnily enough, she had thought she was being taken to a dungeon—apparently not.

"Where is the Avatar?"

"Right behind you."

Azula didn't even grace that with a response. Instead, she began to pace slowly; Toph could hear her rhythmic, purposeful steps going back and forth, back and forth. "Where is the Avatar?" she repeated.

Toph's voice took on a mutinous tone. "You killed him," she replied with a scowl. "He's dead."

Azula stopped. "It was Zuko, silly girl," she said in that low, dangerous voice she had first used. "Don't forget it." Zuko shifted a small bit near the wall behind Azula—she could hear his clothing moving.

Shrugging, Toph responded with despair, "It doesn't matter. The Avatar is gone again. Aang is gone."

She heard a sigh from the Fire Nation princess as she began to pace again. It was obvious Azula didn't believe a word she said, but apparently she was trying a different tactic. "Where are your friends?"

"We had a fight," Toph said sadly, lying through her teeth. "Katara blamed herself for Aang's death. I told her to quit moping; that it was going to drive me insane. Sokka yelled at me, Katara told him to stop…" It was so easy, this acting. She had no idea she was so good at it. Tears welled in her eyes. "We didn't see each other after that. I went to the city. I think they went back to the North Pole."

-x-x-

She was an excellent actor.

Zuko knew the Avatar was alive, he just knew it. And if the Avatar was alive, the group had never split up. Which meant the water tribe siblings were out there, waiting with the airbender. Would they risk revealing his existence to save this girl?

They'd better not. His 'hired help' would have to get to them first.

Fear suddenly gripped at his heart. What if he didn't? What if they came, trying to rescue the earthbender, and displayed for the entire world to see that the Avatar was alive, and Zuko had failed? What would happen to him?

Azula backslapped her across the face. Tied to a chair, it made the entire seat rock. "I know you're lying," she said simply, as if it were a normal conversation. Toph's face was turned towards Zuko now; he could see anger building in her clouded eyes.

"Oh, do you now?" she responded furiously, facing her persecutor. "No you don't! You have no idea how I feel! I just lost all the people who had ever been nice to me, who had ever seen me for who I really was! They accepted me! Now…" Her voice broke. Zuko was amazed at her ability. "…Now Aang is dead. Sokka hates me, and Katara never wants to see me again. Which means I'm trapped here in this trash pit with you, probably until I die. I have no one and nothing to go back to." Tears streamed down her face.

Zuko made a mental note that he had to talk to her alone, and soon. He needed to attack her defenses before she came up with a solid story, then she might be more willing to tell him the truth.

He was hesitant to use more forceful means of extracting information.

Azula sighed again. "Fine," she exclaimed. "Just go ruin my fun. And here I was thinking the Avatar was still alive."

-x-x-

Toph's ears focused on Azula's words now, although she kept her head down. Why would she think the Avatar was alive?

"Zuko had been acting so strange…" She could hear the princess turn her head towards her brother. "I knew he was hiding something. I know he believed the Avatar to have survived, even if he didn't know it for sure. Didn't you, Zuzu?"

"Zuzu?" Toph repeated with a laugh, hearing Zuko growl quietly in his throat.

With that, the interrogation was over.

-x-x-

Zuko stalked down the stairs, fuming. Firstly, he had been expecting Azula to be more forceful with the girl. But instead, she was satisfied with just slapping her once.

That wasn't Azula.

She must have been trying to get the girl to confirm that the Avatar was dead, in front of him. Then he would give up his efforts to find and kill him, the Avatar would return, and Zuko would be shamed once more in front of his nation.

Well, that wouldn't happen.

Secondly: she had called him 'Zuzu' in front of someone else.

He forcefully threw the door open, walking into the healer's room with his face contorted in a scowl. The scene he had walked in on froze, like a painting: the earthbender girl was twisting in the grasp of two guards, her feet unbound and shining red; the healer was looking flustered and scared; the tiles around the room were broken, thrown, or uplifted and piled on top of one another; and Ty Lee stood off to one corner, looking satisfied.

"What happened?" Zuko demanded.

"We unwrapped her feet for the healer to see," a guard began, struggling to keep hold on Toph's arms. "But as soon as her feet touched the floor, she began to earthbend. Ty Lee struck her just in time."

"She won't be able to bend for three days," the acrobat said happily, flipping her braid over her shoulder. "I only came up here to see what she looked like. She's an ugly little thing, isn't she? Are all Earth Kingdom people like that?"

Toph's struggles became more profound, more desperate and angry. Ty Lee, apparently not expecting a response from the stoic prince, angry guards, writhing prisoner or shellshocked healer, struck several choice points on the girl's body with the precision of a needle.

Toph became instantly limp.

"There we go!" Ty Lee said in a singsong voice. "She won't move for a while, an hour at least."

"Thank you," the healer said in a rush, as sighs of relief came from the guards. "Thank you very much."

"Welcome!" she replied, cartwheeling out of the room. Zuko quickly stepped out of the way as her feet whizzed by his head.

"I'll be back here in an hour to pick her up," he said sharply, whirling and closing the door just as the guards lowered her into a chair. Out in the hallway, Zuko could only just hear the healer's next words:

"These are really bad burns."

And Toph's response: "Go to hell."