Their eyes meet for the smallest of seconds. She wishes she could drop her blades, pretend like she wasn't forced to kill him, and run straight into his arms. She can see in his wistful stare that he wishes something similar. He sees the way her posture is attack ready and a muscle in his jaw twitches, his stance falling slack. Though he is too far away for her to hear, she can see him croak,"Mai?"
A knife slices through the air, barely missing his temple. It instead drives into a tree, the blade quivering in the bark. His face looks shocked, before becoming angry. She readies her blades once more, narrows her eyes. This is what they have been waiting for. She can hear Azula's mocking tone as she jeers at her exiled brother, but she does not bother listen. She can only focus upon his enraged eyes as he stares at her. He is saying the same thing she is thinking. You are a Monster . His hurt expression turns to one of utmost disgust, and he lets out an animalistic snarl, flames escaping his clenched fists.
She sees movies in her head, the flashing images causing her gut to wrench painfully, and she barely manages to swallow the bile that rises up in her throat. The friends of the Avatar attack, along with Zuko. The Avatar apparently has gone to attack Ozai. The earth shifts beneath her feet, and she is forced to leap forward, executing a rather complex flipping move, landing before the earth bender. The moment her feet touch the ground however, she is sent hurtling upward on a pillar of bended earth that shoots at least fifty feet up. It shoots back down almost immediately, sending Mai down with it. With her amazing agility she manages to jump off last minute, a crudely shaped ball of earth in her hand. With a flick of her wrist, she sends the earth spiraling.
THUD!
The earth came in contact with the Earth Girl's head, and her body falls limp. Her silver eyes scout the battle field. Ty Lee has managed to paralyze a single arm of the water bender's, her oafish brother is attempting desperately to protect the both of them, and Azula still chases after Zuko. It is obvious who she decides to help. Her blades whiz out from the holster upon her wrist, pinning the water warrior by his wrists to a tree. Ty Lee winces at the shout of pain and the blood that squelches from the warrior's wounded wrists, but Mai's face is stoic. Her pale eyes dart to Azula, who apparently had Zuko pinned, a bolt of lightning crackling at it wrapped around her fist.
(Zuko and Azula, fightscene)
"You're going to die like our disgusting mother, slowly and painfully," He roared with anger at her statement, firing a blast of fire in her direction. It was dodged with skillful ease. Azula's blue flames licked the side of his scar faced, and he had to grit his teeth not to yell out in pain. He managed to dodge to next blow, but that was only one minor victory. He was struck in the gut by her flame encased fist, her armored feet sweeping his from beneath him. He fell to the ground quite painfully. Azula had him pinned in the time it took for him to blink.
"Tell mother I said hello," she whispered scathingly in his burnt ear, her sharp nail tracing the angry burn marring his face. Her fist sparked with the electricity that would soon pierce his chest. He struggled against the binds she had, but he knew it was worthless. He would die. Suddenly, Azula fell limp against his body. Her blood spilled upon his hands, and he shoved her lifeless form off of him, startled. Imbedded in her neck was a stiletto blade, the symbol imprinted on the handle enough to give him clue who had done it.
Mai.
He looked up, trying to find her in the chaos that was battle. He didn't know what he would do if he saw her, but for reasons he could not explain, he needed the sight of her. His golden eyes scanned the battlefield. But she was gone without a trace, vanished like a spirit, and he sees that Ty Lee is gone as well. He sees a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, and turns to face it. She is slipping away into the trees, gently herding Ty Lee ahead of her; the acrobat is not putting up much of a fight as it is, for she is eager to escape the bloodshed. Her friend vanishes into the safety of the trees, and for a brief moment Mai looks back.
Her pale eyes lock with Zuko's, but there is emotion in them now, a quiet sort of pain that he cannot understand, for he has not killed. I am not a monster. And then she to slips away into the trees, melting into the shadows as though she never existed. And although she is gone, although there is no real way of knowing if he will survive or not, Zuko knows that they will meet again. In the shadows, she knows as well. And she smiles.
AN: I'm soooo sorry I haven't updated in forever, but this is my desperate attempt to get back into the rythym of things. I wanna thank all you people who ever reviewed my work, I know it's not the best, but your reviews give me the encouragement to continue. Thank you all. I expecially want to thank RadiantBeam, who helped me through a bunch of Writer's block, and also wrote the last bit of this story(That's probably why it's the best part).