Toph groaned and rubbed the back of her head, which was pounding. The ache was caused by a bump located to the right and about halfway down the back of her skull. Damn that Dai Li agent, he only got her using some cowardly cheating tactic. If he'd have just fought her like a man and she'd been of full ability, she wouldn't be in this situation.

She pushed herself up off of the ground, the sudden movement causing another pain at the back of her head, and sat with her back against what felt like a wall behind her. Deciding to try to assess where she was, she planted her palms face down on the ground, and panicked slightly when she became more alert and realized that she couldn't feel any vibrations coming from the environment.

She took a deep breath and tried to focus on her other senses. The room was average temperature, but dry, and smelled earthen, confusing her as to why it wouldn't give off any readings. Wherever she was, it was nearly silent, the only noise being the soft, nearly invisible tune of a harp nearby. Harp…

She knocked her head on the wall behind her, immediately regretting the gesture as another sharp pain shot through her skull, but she deserved the pain. How could she be so ignorant? Toph tried to force up the earth next to her, and her suspicions was confirmed; that music was blocking her bending. Again.

She heard a quiet moan beside her, causing her head to immediately whip towards the sound.

"Teo?" she asked, hopeful that he was here with her. She knew that it sounded imbecilic, but she'd much rather be powerless with him rather than some stranger, or worse, an enemy.

"What's going on?" Teo's voice responded groggily, and she laughed at her own sigh of relief.

"I don't know, I can't even tell where we are!" She exclaimed, still frustrated.

Teo was quiet for a second. "I think… that we're in some kind of cell," he muttered.

"What?" Toph asked in disbelief, jumping up, feeling the blood rush to her head in the process, causing her head to pound again. She felt her way along the wall and around the cell, noting the small length of the walls, until her hands grasped thick wooden bars.

She leaned her forehead against the bars. "Damn…" she muttered, again cursing the agent."Grah! Let us out!" she shouted through the bars, trying to attract the attention of somebody, anybody.

She heard someone enter the room outside of the cell, and Teo gasped behind her.

"Not until you come to your senses," said the person sternly. It only took the sound of his voice to make her blood boil…She gripped the bars tighter in anger, and grit her teeth. She shouldn't be surprised, but the realization that her father was lowering to locking her away again sickened her.

She scowled wordlessly, and Lao tisked.

"Now Toph, you must understand. It's not that I want to do this to you, it's just that as you're getting older, it's becoming more and more desperate that I reach you," he said, softening his tone slightly.

Toph made a face of disgust, unable to believe what she was hearing. He made it sound like she was some kind of project!

"By this point, you've left me no other choice," he continued.

Toph's hands few off of the bars and she awkwardly attempted to storm away from him. Having to feel her way along the wall to locate the corner slightly ruined the effect, but she turned around and sat, refusing to speak to him. She knew it must appear childish, but this was getting beyond ridiculous! She was seething with anger…if she was able to bend, she could've crushed him.

She sensed Teo's hand hover awkwardly above her shoulder for a second before pulling away.

"You are going to stay in here until you begin to see things my way," Lao said. She heard the door to the room outside shut.

"I can't believe him…" she muttered angrily.

She heard the creak of Teo's chair as he wheeled closer. "So, how are we gonna get out of this one?" he joked, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. She shrugged it off and glared in his direction. "Don't worry, we'll figure out a way to escape," said Teo optimistically. "We always do."

Toph sneered again in the direction of his voice. "How?" she bit, her mood not showing any sign of brightening. "I can't bend! Unless you managed to swipe a key, we're stuck."

Teo was quiet for a minute. "Well, he said that we couldn't leave until you see things his way, which probably means he wants you to be more like Sadako…Maybe you could pretend to do what he wants, so he'll let us out," he offered.

Toph scowled deeper. "No…there is no way I'm going out of my way to please him. I'm sick of that senile old loon trying to run my life!" she yelled.

Apparently stunned by how quickly she reacted, Teo remained silent. The only sounds in the cell were that of the harp playing softly behind the bars, and their own breathing; Teo's barely detectable, her own ragged. She continued to simmer in the corner, becoming more enraged with Lao as the minutes ticked on. Well, they could have been minutes. Or hours. She couldn't tell, and to say the least, she couldn't care.

After quite some time, she could hear Teo's breath deepen and slow down; he must have fallen asleep. Her eyes began to droop as she sat, yet despite her tired eyes, her mind and body were less than drowsy. But the adrenaline from her anger was quickly fleeting, and she began to grow weary.

She focused on the chiming harp, not wanting to succumb to sleep. The melody, she noticed, differentiated with what it was being used for. The pattern that had immobilized her had been quicker, more of a staccato, and with higher notes; the one playing now contained slower, smoother tones of lower pitch, and was being used to clock out her ability to bend.

Toph glowered yet again at its purpose. Because of that music, she was disconnected from the earth, as blind and as powerless as she could possibly be, and she hated it. She remembered back when she'd used their old harp to restrain the agents a year ago, totally destroying the instrument in the process, and wished that she could do so again. She couldn't stand the feeling of helplessness that the separation from her element brought it; it angered her even more to think that a simple string being plucked could humble her power.

The music of a harp was supposed to be calming, elegant. Toph was quickly learning to loathe it.

Her mind drifted to how she could get away from the wretched tune, and away from the cell. Immediately she thought of Teo's suggestion earlier, and some of her anger gravitated towards the boy most likely sleeping beside her; she couldn't believe that he could even come up with such a vile idea. Sure, there was logic behind it, and almost every other girl in their situation would at least give it a shot, but that was the thing. She wasn't other girls; he or all people should know that. And add in what happened last time she complied with her father, whether it be willingly or not, she'd ended up cut off from the rest of the world. There was no way that she was going to give that nasty old man the satisfaction of thinking that he'd broken her. She wasn't a "daddy's girl", and there was no way in Hell she was going to pretend to be.

She rested her forehead on her knees, which were curled up in front of her and wrapped her arms tighter as she began to register the chill of the cell. A quiet yawn escaped her mouth, and she realized that she was exhausted. Toph decided that, for now, their best chance was to hope that the gaang noticed that they were missing, and came looking for them; although, if it were anything like the last time, that wasn't likely, and with it being so close to the wedding, everyone's minds would be elsewhere.

She could always try coming up with a plan in the morning, she thought as she felt herself begin to grown limp, giving into her need to sleep. It had been a long day, and she needed the rest.

She was nearly asleep when she felt a calloused hand rest on her shoulder, for a moment putting her on alert, making her tense up and cause the fading pain in her head to spike again.

"Hey," Teo said quietly. She lifted her head up, and turned to face him, shooting him a 'what do you want' glare.

"Er…sorry about earlier."

His hand left her shoulder and moved to her face, his thumb gently rubbing her cheek. Unintentionally, she leaned her face into his hand, closing her eyes. Damn it, she scolded herself, she was supposed to be mad at him.

"The last thing we need is to be fighting right now. We have enough to worry about," Teo said, and Toph realized that he was right.

She nodded silently and slowly wincing when his hand brushed against the bump on her head, causing it to pound again.

Teo kissed her cheek and removed his hand. "Get some rest. We have a long time ahead of us."

She nodded again and let herself slide into a lying position on the floor, her head resting gingerly on her outstretched arm, somehow totally calmed down. She scolded herself again, not sure how Teo could always tell what she was thinking, and why he always managed to lighten her mood. She knew that she was in love, but she just wished that the universe would stop using it against her; it was getting very inconvenient.

Hearing how ridiculous that sounded, she shook her head and allowed herself to drift off to sleep, Teo's presence evident beside her.

Aaand it's up!

How will they get out of this one?

Has Toph gone totally insane?

Has Lao gone completely insane?

Review please!