Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Here's ch.4, so read and enjoy (Well, hopefully you'll enjoy it) and don't forget to review!!!

Breakfast was short and stiff in the royal dining room. Zuko didn't usually eat with Azula and her cronies, but today for some reason he did. The day already felt like it was going to be unusually long. Azula had a look of determination on her face and it wasn't a look that would make you want to go pat her cheek and tell her what a good girl she is. It was a look that would make you want to turn the other way and run down the hallway screaming.

Ty Lee chirped away happily and ate her bread and jam. Mai listened, saying what few words she could without everyone thinking she was dead. When everyone was done Azula ordered everybody to follow her to the war room. Soon, Mai and Ty Lee were sitting next to Azula. Zuko was positioned across from them and some unimportant soldiers were sitting by him.

"Today, we are going to visit Toph. I want to know where the other rebel groups are hiding and I believe Toph can tell us this. If Toph tells us, we can exterminate them before another war breaks out, but first we need to get her to talk," Azula said in a commanding sort of tone.

"I want you all to be there. I want you all to hear her scream. I will get her to talk, I have no doubt in that, but I just don't know what measures I will have to take before I get her to," Azula said coldly.

Zuko swallowed uncomfortably. Saliva caked his throat. For some reason, he was afraid. He was afraid of what Azula was capable of doing to her.

They all followed her to the dungeon on her command. She had a confident look on her face, obviously thinking she was going to get what she wanted, but Toph is stubborn, more stubborn than she knows.

"Okay Toph, are you ready to give me answers today," Azula said unlocking Toph's cell and walking up to the chained Toph on the wall.

"It depends on the question," Toph said looking right at Azula, with a very chilling face.

"First, I want to know how you learned how to bend metal," Azula said unperturbed.

"That's an easy question, so last night I thought about it and I think that would be one I could tell you. I learned about my talent, because I got captured in a metal cage."

"Why were you captured in a cage," Azula said, actually having a look of curiosity on her face.

"This is hard for me to talk about," Toph said very sarcastically, "But a wise person once said, it is better to talk about your problems, than keep them bundled up inside. So I must tell you, for the sake of my own mind." Every word she said was coated with sarcasm and Azula looked like she was starting to get annoyed.

"Okay," she continued, "To make a long story short, I ran away from home, my dad hired two over confident, arrogant guys to come after me, and then they sent me a fake letter from my mom telling me to meet them at some house. I went to the house, got locked up in a cage, and then when they left and we were on the road, I learned how to bend metal and then I shut them in my own cage, the stupid bastards."

"Very interesting," Azula said slyly, "Now I have some background information on you."

"I know, because me life is so interesting, so I can see why you want to learn about it," Toph replied very sardonically.

Azula chuckled, "If you weren't my enemy I might actually like you, but since you are, you're just an annoying little brat, who doesn't know her place."

"Thank you," Toph replied happily, "If you liked me I'd be a little upset because I'm not trying in the least to make you want to be my friend. In other words, I'm trying to piss you off."

"That's nice, but you're my prisoner and if you piss me off to much, I could just kill you."

"You don't want to kill me, you won't because I know things that no one else in this dungeon knows, not even my soldiers. I know valuable information that you want, but of course I'm not going to tell you, so we might as well carry on whatever stupid plan you have in your head to make me talk."

"Well, then I'll get right to the point," Azula said smirking, "Tell me where the other rebel groups are hiding."

"No."

Azula lit a fireball and brought it over to Toph's leg, "If you don't tell me where they are, I will burn the flesh right off your skin."

Toph looked nervous for a second but replied firmly, "No."

Azula brought the fireball to Toph's leg. She started flinching trying not to scream. Pain was written all over her face. Zuko couldn't look. She couldn't do that to Toph, not Toph.

"Azula, you should stop." Why the hell did he just scream that at Azula, no one tells Azula what to do?

She looked at him hardly, "And why should I stop?"

"Maybe, I could get her to tell me, without burning her," he said quietly.

She laughed harshly, "No Zuko, I think you're too weak to do it."

"If I don't get her to talk, than you can do whatever you want to her, but I can at least try and maybe I could even get some information out of her," he replied sternly. Azula had burned and tortured plenty of people before, but why was he doing this? He would just make Azula mad and end up in a cell himself.

"Fine, but if you make one false move, if you do anything I don't like, I won't show mercy on you. You could end up just like her. Weak and alone, stuck in a cell, scared and helpless. "

"I understand," was all he could muster to say. What he was going to do was not worth it. She was just a dirty earth bender, who tried to fight the fire nation. She was just stupid. Why should he care if she was dead or alive?

"I'll give you two weeks," were Azula's departing words as she walked away and out of the dungeon. Mai and Ty Lee followed her and all the guards went back to their normal positions.

Zuko just stood there, looking at the earth bender. A patch of skin on her leg was red and inflamed. It was almost as big as his scar and if Azula had kept going it would have been. She looked hurt and there were a couple tears that had traveled down her face. One of the guards had untied her before he left and she was lying on the stone floor, stilly and silently.

"Are you still there?" She said barely above a whisper.

"Yes, I am."

She didn't answer back, but just curled up in a ball in the corner. She was still just a child. She was too young to have fought in a war; she was too young to be in a cell. But he was also too young to have a scar on his face, to have killed many men, to have betrayed his uncle. Azula was too young. She was too young to be ruling a nation with malice and hate. She was too young to have tortured and killed many and to have so many people scared of her.

The war had changed a lot of people, too many. The world was messed up and it was his fault, it was his sister's fault, and it was his nation's fault. He had hurt people he cared about. He had hurt his uncle, the only person he knew who really cared about him for who he was.

He walked away from the cell. Tomorrow he would try and talk to her. He wouldn't let his uncle down. He would try and help her for his uncle. His uncle had liked her and he would be proud if he could help her. But then what would happen if he did get information out of her. Azula wouldn't let her go. She was too dangerous in Azula's eyes. Once she got what she wanted, she wouldn't hesitate to kill her.

Toph was Azula's enemy. Azula would either kill her, or just leave her in the cell until she died. What was the point, the point of trying to do something that would get you nowhere? Toph probably was as good as dead.

Fourth chap is done.