1 - Dawn
It was said, by those with too much time to think, that starting a journey at dawn would bring good fortune and a positive outlook.
Mai was fairly confident that she was in the process of conclusively disproving the entire notion. Princess Azula had seen her off at the crack of dawn this morning to act as a glorified messenger to the back-end of Nowhere (which was of course in the Earth Kingdom), but the day had brought nothing but rain, boredom, and sentiments like "the back-end of Nowhere." At least the job came with a fairly comfortable carriage that kept her out of the rain. But sitting on a cushioned seat in a windowless box as the Earth Kingdom landscape rolled by unseen was hardly the most engaging activity.
Mai like to be engaged.
That's why she had thrown in with Azula's mission before even knowing what it was about. Living in Omashu (er, 'New Ozai') had offered her nothing but the company of her family. Needless to say (but Mai was bored enough to say it anyway), the chance to be continuously berated for failing to be both sufficiently quiet and sufficiently enthused was not how she wanted to spend the rest of her teens. It seemed, at the time, that anything the princess had going was bound to be an improvement, especially if Ty Lee was once again involved.
Sure, Azula could be a jerk, but Mai was a jerk, too. And yes, every so often Azula made Mai actively fear for her safety and life, but the princess also bestowed many special freedoms and privileges on those who served her, so it probably evened out.
And then there were Azula's cruel tests, the little challenges to do things like give up her baby brother to rebel kidnappers as a demonstration of loyalty and practical thinking, but that was basically just life in the Fire Nation. If you weren't being challenged to commit a betrayal that felt like a cold knife sawing through your stomach, then you probably didn't have any friends. Or money. Or power. Or anything, really. Go home, peasant; be sure to set out at dawn.
But it had turned out that Azula's mission was hunting down her brother Zuko.
(And her uncle, General Iroh. Whatever.)
Mai remembered Zuko.
He had been nice.
He had been nice, and because of that, his father had lit his face on fire and banished him.
(Typical Fire Nation. Because that was normal. It was. Everyone said so. It was expected and it was okay and that was part of what made their nation so glorious. And contradicting the Fire Lord was treason, so shut your mouth and get on with your life. Preferably starting at dawn.)
Mai liked the idea of seeing Zuko again. But then, after they had left Omashu, it came out that Zuko (and Iroh, whatever) might not want to come home. And he didn't have a choice in the matter. Because he still hadn't captured the Avatar, which after three years of doing just that was suddenly a crime. As if still being banished wasn't punishment enough for Zuko, now the Fire Lord wanted to throw him in jail. And contradicting the Fire Lord was treason.
Learning the full situation had left Mai feeling like she needed to make a decision, except there was no decision to make. Refusing Azula wasn't an option, not now and not ever. There was nothing that could be done to save Zuko. And Azula wasn't even that keen on chasing him, because she had stumbled across the Avatar himself, Zuko's old mission, and the only thing Azula liked more than terrorizing Zuko was doing his hobbies better than him. So now they were all chasing the Avatar. Yay.
Mai sighed and shifted on the nice cushioned bench. It turned out that chasing the Avatar was boring if you couldn't find the Avatar in question. The only thing more boring was a courier assignment to Nowhere, Earth Kingdom.
The carriage rattled down the packed dirt of the road, and the roof echoed with the tapping of rainfall, but Mai was otherwise isolated in the windowless cabin. Supposedly, it provided security, but that left nothing to look at, aside from the message tube she was delivering. Nothing to do but think, and be lost.
Mai wondered if messenger hawks could get bored. At least they could take a break to hunt a mouse, or something. She wasn't even the one driving the carriage, so she couldn't decide to stop and seek out a diversion. She'd have to knock on the front panel and ask nicely if she even needed to get out and pee. So classy.
She wondered where Zuko was, right now. No doubt he'd run far away from his sister. Would he remember Mai, if they met again? Would he still know her name? She had so rarely spoken to him, had always looked away first whenever their eyes accidentally met. She wondered if she'd be disgusted by his scar. She couldn't even handle changing Tom-Tom's nap-nap when Mother was too busy. Why couldn't she be stronger? Had Zuko learned to kiss from Earth Kingdom girls? Or maybe a pirate princess? Wasn't there a 'Jojo the Kissing Bandit' running around this countryside who Zuko could have encountered?
Mai decided that it was time for a nap. Sleep could do for attitudes what dawn had utterly bungled.
Then the whole carriage jolted and tilted and flipped.
Mai suddenly found that the gravity that had been keeping her almost-comfortably settled on the cushioned bench now yanked her head-first towards the wall on her left. She kicked out with both feet to shift her weight and spin as she fell, allowing her to land on the left/bottom door in a crouch. Another moment brought a set of needles ready between her fingers.
She waited.
Above the din of the rain, a man's voice rang out in surprise and maybe a little pain - the carriage driver, no doubt - followed by a brief sound of clashing weapons. Then the world surrendered to the tappity-tappity-tap of the rain again.
Mai inhaled.
The right/ceiling door burst open, letting the rain in to splatter on her head, while a shadow in the shape of a person rose to fill the space-
-Mai threw her needles in a spread-
-and there was a flash and motion that could have been silent lightning but was actually a pair of broadswords moving to deflect them all.
Oh.
Not another one.
It was bad enough that The Water Tribe Boy could intercept her blades, but now she was seeing the same thing in a random highwayman-
-who had somehow knocked a whole carriage on its side and taken out the armed driver in moments-
-and was wearing the opera mask of the Blue Spirit-
-and was posed in the doorway with his head tilted as if surprised at the sight of her even though he hadn't hesitated to knock aside her needles-
-and wait, hadn't Mai seen something about a very dangerous Blue Spirit rebel on a Wanted poster?
The Blue Spirit's head moved, almost as if he was looking around the carriage's interior. Mai took advantage of the distraction to twist her wrist and summon a razor disc that she had flying even before it had fully snapped open. The Blue Spirit flicked the twin broadswords again to bat it out of the air, but in that time Mai had already jumped up, kicked off the wall/bench to give herself some more height, and grabbed onto the doorframe above. The Blue Spirit's gaze tried to follow but her momentum was swinging her up and around to kick with both feet-
The Blue Spirit was fast, all right. His dodge was just enough that her kick only struck at his left boot instead of something more vulnerable and centrally located, but she still hit with enough force to make him slip on the rainy surface of the carriage's side.
The Blue Spirit fell.
The Blue Spirit fell through the carriage door.
Which meant the Blue Spirit fell right onto Mai.
Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly a tactical decision worthy of Azula.
They crashed on the other door (the one currently serving as the floor) with twin grunts, his noticeably masculine. Mai shoved the Blue Spirit off of her, then grabbed a hinge-claw blade from her belt with each hand and came up only to find that he had retrieved his swords. Her attempts to cut and stab were deflected with the flats of the blades.
She feigned hesitation, and as predicted the Blue Spirit sliced in at her. But she was ready to duck beneath the swords and drove her blades towards his knees, sure that she was about to end this fight. Then she was reminded why optimism was a terrible thing when he twisted at the last moment and threw a kick at her side. His boot slammed into her ribs hard enough to make her gasp, her weapons dropping from her hands, and she skidded across the wet floor to the other side of the carriage.
There was a sound of air against sharp metal, and Mai hurriedly turned around to face her attacker, scrambling to pull one of her long stabbing-knives from a sleeve, and looked up just in time to see the Blue Spirit coming in with wide pincer-like slices of his sword arcing in at her-
-she wouldn't be fast enough-
-and each of his blades hit the walls on either side of the compartment and stuck there.
The Blue Spirit looked back and forth between them with frantic glances.
Huh.
Close quarters weren't this guy's preferred fighting ground, either, then.
Mai lunged at him with her knife-
-and he let go of his stuck swords and caught her wrist and twisted-
Her hand involuntarily dropped the knife, but that was fine, as she had come prepared with a second hand. She didn't have time to grab another weapon, so she just delivered an open-palm smack straight to the Blue Spirit's mask. It turned out to be hard enough to sting, but that same solid material was being smashed against its wearer's face by the blow. He made a sound like he wasn't having any fun and let go of her arm.
It all happened so quickly that her knife was still in the process of falling to the floor.
Mai grabbed for it-
-but the Blue Spirit got it first.
He brandished the knife.
She grabbed its twin from her other sleeve.
She looked her opponent right in his blank painted eyes.
And then the knife-duel began.
Apparently, broadswords weren't the only weapons the Blue Spirit liked. He deftly deflected and thrusted and sliced and parried. Mai preferred throwing her weapons, but she hadn't neglected her dueling, and met his every attack even as she found his defenses to be utterly impenetrable. The rain fell down on them through the open ceiling, and their knives sparked from the force of their strikes, but the sounds of the battle were drowned out by their grunts and cries of triumph and snarls of frustration.
It was the most alive that Mai had ever felt.
And it lasted less than a minute.
Then one of her dodges landed her right foot on something much more round and moveable than floor, and it rolled out from under her fast enough to send her crashing down on her back. She grabbed for the long round object when it dropped back towards her face, but then her attention was stolen by the approach of the Blue Spirit.
She expected him to drive his stolen knife into her body and steal her breath forever.
Instead he plucked the treacherous rolly-thing out of the air and looked at it.
And then Mai recognized it. It was the tube containing the message she was supposed to deliver, the one with Azula's personal seal on it-
The masked head shifted, and she could tell that he was looking at her.
Despite the mask's lack of expression, she knew exactly what he was thinking. He was going to take her letter. She'd have to go back to the princess and explain how she had failed to stop a highway thief. It was one thing to lose to a ten-ton Airbending animal, but a random masked robber? Even one who fought like a demon?
She flexed her wrist and shot a sharpened bolt at his neck.
But the Blue Spirit still had her knife, and he deflected it with a wild cry of surprise.
Hm, something about that sounded familiar-
But he was jumping now, landing with spread legs on the blades of the broadswords that were still stuck in the walls. He jumped again, grabbed the doorway in the ceiling, flipped around so that his feet were hooked on the doorway and he could reach down to retrieve his swords, flipped back up and climbed his way out-
-and then Mai remembered that she wasn't just this guy's audience. She raised her other wrist and filled the air with bolts.
All but one missed, but that one landed home in the Blue Spirit's masked forehead just before he disappeared through the door and into the rain. Mai thought for a moment that she had lost him.
Then there was a thud on the roof.
The message tube rolled back in through the open ceiling and fell down into Mai's lap.
As she looked at it, not quite able to believe her luck, the ceiling echoed with the squeal of scrambling boots. He the Blue Spirit tripped just because she'd tagged him before his last flip? Ha, what a dork.
By the time she managed to climb back up and poke her head into the rain again, the dork in question was gone. Even as the rain full soaked her, she had to smile. This hadn't been boring. And it had nothing to do with Zuko. Now she supposed she should see about the driver who was supposed to be taking her to her destination. And she'd probably have to help get the carriage back on its wheels. Unless, that is, she wanted to walk the rest of the way in the rain.
She sighed and climbed out of her stupid box.
So much for the dawn bringing good fortune.
The rain had died down to a chilling dampness by the time Mai arrived - changed into a new set of clothes, her hair as tamed as it could be by only a single brush and no mirror - at her destination that evening.
That was about only the positive aspect of the situation.
After an exchange of hand signals, stamped papers, and probably some tedious complaints about military life, Mai's carriage was waved through the gate into the main grounds of the Mantapsan Armored Facilities. She was fortunate that the Blue Spirit hadn't killed her driver, because she had only a vague idea of how to deal with a security checkpoint when the people manning it were on her side. Security checkpoints belonging to the enemy were much more straightforward.
The carriage came a stop, and soon the door was opened for her, letting in a breeze that was heavy with the stink of smog and hot metal. Just like Omash- er, New Ozai had been getting by the time she left.
Mai grabbed the message tube that had brought her all this way through rain (and stupid masked bandits) and stepped out into the twilight air with all the grace she could muster. She was on the job, now, so she kept her face as still as a doll's and her head leveled at the precise angle of 'not royalty but close enough to order your death.'
It was wasted on the guard waiting for her, but he wasn't the primary audience for the performance. At least one person at this base would be expecting Mai's best behavior, and there was no telling if she was watching right now.
The guard motioned her to follow and set off towards the Mantapsan's main complex.
Whatever 'Armored Facilities' were supposed to mean, the place was more elaborate than anything Mai had seen yet in the colonies, more like a city such as Omashu than an outpost. There were factories and residences, a train station and depot, military offices and construction grounds, soldiers and technicians and slaves and servants. Rows of tanks waited to be loaded onto cargo trains, vast machines surrounded by skeletal scaffolding glowed with the work of welders, and smelters belched black smoke into the sky. And amidst it all, tubes ran everywhere, pumping water from a river bisecting the grounds of the whole facilities.
It was what Father had been starting to turn Omash- er, New Ozai into.
The guard led Mai quickly through the maze of machinery and people, bring her past a line of chained Vocational Prisoners carrying boxes under the supervision of a pair of armed handlers. One of the prisoners raised her eyes to stare back at Mai, an act that technically deserved punishment, but it wasn't worth making a fuss. There was no excitement to be had in torturing an enemy who was already defeated. Victory, as Mai often insisted, was boring.
They reached the Mantapsan Command Center shortly after that, and Mai's escort led her through the dull metal corridors and up steady, reinforced stairs. Their destination proved to be on the second floor, surrounded by offices full of drones doing paperwork. The guard knocked once on a certain heavy door, and Mai waited.
A familiar voice echoed, "Enter."
Mai was ushered into a room that was half-office and half-museum. A massive desk dominated one side, while the other was lined with shelving that displayed miniature models of military machinery- some of them quite familiar. She was surprised to find War Minister Qin leaning over the desk; she would have expected him to be somewhere in the vicinity of Ba Sing Se these days.
She was less surprised to see the tall figure standing up from the desk. After all, this was the person she had come to talk to. The gold edging of the dark armor gleamed in the lamp-light, and the sash of command couldn't be more precise in its draping.
Mai bowed. "Commander Minh, thank you for receiving me. I come on behalf of Princess Azula with a work order." She took the message tube from her belt and held it out atop her palms.
Qin cleared his throat and moved away to browse the displays.
The commander, meanwhile, remained standing behind her desk. "Welcome to Mantapsan. I must say, this is an unexpected surprise. Your mother's last letter said you were just settling in at Omashu."
Mai raised her head just enough to make eye contact. "The princess renamed the city New Ozai when she came to request my services. We are on a special mission for the Fire Lord."
"Ah, quite the opportunity." The corner of the commander's lip quirked in what Mai had learned to recognize as a smile. "But I would expect nothing less of my favorite niece."
Comm- No, Aunt Minh was in a family mood, it seemed. But Mai knew better to lower her guard. "You honor me. I had no idea you valued me so."
"Of course I do. The nephews are hardly worth thinking about, and of all the nieces, you alone seem to have more in mind for your life than a favorable marriage." Aunt Minh tilted her head, and her gaze went to the shelves that Qin was perusing. Mai gave enough of a glance to confirm that the object of attention was a model of a set of extending bridges, not unlike what were used to invade Omashu. "Besides, I introduced your parents to each other. In a way, your existence is my responsibility. Perhaps I should have played matchmaker for more of my sisters."
Mai didn't even like to acknowledge the fact that Mother had carried and birthed her, never mind letting Aunt Minh claim credit for her entire existence. But then, expecting this particular aunt to display some level of perspective and humility was like expecting Ty Lee to read a whole book by herself. Auntie Mura was the only relative on this side of the family who Mai would actually deign to spend time with voluntarily.
But Mai didn't have a death wish, as evidenced by surviving Azula's friendship for all these years, so she just dipped her head again and said, "Well, only peasants have to love all of their relatives."
Aunt Minh barked a laugh and finally stepped out from behind her desk. "Indeed. You're also the only one in the family with any wit. But let us see what the princess requires of the finest assembly facilities in the colonies."
Mai held out the message tube again. Aunt Minh took it and admired the Princess's seal for a moment before breaking it and retrieving the message within. Mai stepped back and kept her head lowered, the very picture of a humble niece. Mother would only take away your dinner for interrupting something important; Aunt Minh was more the type to have you locked in a closet for a day. And then there was what she'd done to Cousin Mihoko that time and the resulting limp-
But keeping quiet didn't mean Mai was going to ignore what was going on around her.
Like the war minister, over there. Qin was pretending to look at a model of the bridges Father had designed for the invasion of New Ozai, yet he was also paying close attention to the little family reunion. He was probably worried about Mai acting on behalf of Father for some political thing. Father used to work for Aunt Minh, after all, and now he was a governor here in the colonies. Maybe Qin thought they were plotting to oust him and take over the Royal Engineering Core, or something stupid like that. But then, maybe they were. Mai never listened when Father and Mother talked about politics. It was always boring, and besides, if she knew anything, she'd have to tell the truth when Azula asked.
Aunt Minh lowered the paper. "I'm afraid the needs of the princess can't be met by any of the units currently in stock. We do have a suitable chassis available that we can use as a base, but we'll need to manufacture additional parts and put an engineering team on meeting the full list of requirements. I don't suppose I can persuade you to make do with something slower?"
Mai had to shake her head. "Azula is adamant about the speed and durability. It's possible we'll be attacked by a sky bison."
"The Avatar?!" War Minister Qin's squeak echoed through the room as he spun around. "The princess is chasing the Avatar?"
Mai didn't bother answering. She kept her eyes on her family. "How long will it take to complete the work?"
Aunt Minh moved back to her desk and slid a long sheet with a grid on it out from under various other papers. "Our lines and facilities are fully occupied right now. We'll have to shift some things around, but I think we can-"
"No," Qin barked. "The completion of the Ba Sing Se project is our highest priority, by order of the Fire Lord himself!"
Aunt Minh's face went blank. "And yet this latest order comes from his daughter, for a mission he himself assigned. Perhaps, War Minister, we should send a hawk to confirm or clarify your orders. In the meantime, a lead engineer can be designated and briefed, and I will begin exploring the options for shifting the work being done in my facilities. Mai, I'll have someone show you to the nicer guest residence. I presume you'll be remaining onsite until the unit is ready?"
"I will." Mai liked the sound of 'nicer guest residence.' But then, if the likes of War Minister Qin were hanging around, it would make sense to have someplace with real beds and a minimum of elephant-mice. "I'm to send word when the unit is ready, and a pair of drivers will come to pick it up. Then we'll rendezvous with the princess."
"Ah. A shame that Azula herself won't be coming. I've heard such wonderful things about her."
"Yeah, a shame." Aunt Minh had that much right. Azula was everything great about life in the Fire Nation, right down to the chance of getting your face burned off for having a little bit of human compassion in you. "I think she'd like you."
It turned out that the base's nicer guest house was something like a luxury inn. It had servants (more Vocation Prisoners from the Earth Kingdom, but none of them smelled bad), and hot running water, and even a staffed kitchen that would deliver food on order. It was as posh as life got outside of the Fire Nation, ignoring the smell of smoke and industry on the air, and even that was mitigated what had to be a liberal infusion of perfume into the decor.
Mai was shown to a suite on the top floor, and she immediately demanded that a bath be prepared for her in her rooms. It was ready by the time her order of a bowl of fresh fire-flakes was delivered still sizzling, allowing her to soak and eat away the memory of her earlier brawl in the rain.
She appreciated the comforts, even if they did little to improve the overall situation. Zuko was out there, somewhere. As was the Avatar. (She wasn't sure whether to hope that they were somewhere close to each other.) And here she was, sitting around without even a Ty Lee to entertain her while Aunt Minh put together a new toy for Azula.
At least the Blue Spirit had provided a little diversion.
By the time Mai got out of the bath, her luggage had been brought up from the carriage, and a new robe had even been laid out for her use. Aunt Minh might have once disciplined Tom-Tom so hard that he still wouldn't go near her, but at least she knew how to treat an important guest. Mai completed her daily rituals of brushing her hair with a hundred strokes and then sharpening her full collection of weapons, and then decided that she might as well go to bed. She'd been traveling since dawn, after all. And it had thoroughly failed to deliver on either good fortune or a positive outlook.
She left one oil lamp burning on its lowest flame, providing just enough light that if she had to get up in the night, she wouldn't kill herself navigating an unfamiliar room. Then she slipped a folded razor-disc under her pillow, laid her head down, and allowed sleep to take her away.
She might have dreamed, might have imagined finding Zuko and being ordered by Azula to put a knife in his throat, but then again, it might have just been the swirling of her regular thoughts as she drifted off.
She was brought back to wakefulness by noise. Annoying noise. Noise from- the ceiling? Thuds and slamming? Was there a marriage suite up on the roof or-
A sound like the roar of an undead dragon jolted Mai so badly she nearly jumped out of bed. Pieces of wood and tile rained down on her, and she looked up to see something dark and textured stabbing down through the ceiling. What in the world-
And then a demon crashed through the ceiling to land beside her on the bed.
A demon with a familiar face and twin swords in his hands. A demon with had a dent in his mask where a bolt had been pulled out of the forehead.
The Blue Spirit.
TO BE CONTINUED