Author's Note: Hey, guys! Here's chapter three, but before I get to that, I have more people to thank: Bumblebee's Honey, The Dark Lady55, xxfluffychickxx, xxfluffyxx123, and ZamoNero. Thank you guys so much for your support! Okay, here's the chapter. Enjoy! - Fira
Three
The next morning, they all got up early. Uncle told them almost immediately that he did not plan on going with them. Maya was saddened by this. She was probably never going to see Uncle again. Zuko also seemed sad, though he didn't show it as much as she did. They all said their goodbyes. It was odd, Maya thought to herself. It seemed as though Uncle was almost shoving them out the door, even though the night before, he had not wanted them to go at all. Maya tried not to let his sudden attitude shift offend her. After a few minutes, she and Zuko were on their way down the long, winding staircase to the coastline.
Maya admired the beautiful red trees that lined the stairs on either side. They were odd-looking trees. She didn't think she'd ever seen them before. The whole staircase in itself was quite beautiful, carved straight from the whitish stone of the cliff it was set into. When they had gotten about halfway down the path, they heard a shout from behind.
"Wait!" It was Uncle's voice.
Maya and Zuko smiled at one another, and then turned to greet him.
"Don't leave without me," he said, as he caught up to them.
"Uncle," Zuko said, his face breaking out into an even bigger smile. "You've changed your mind."
"Family sticks together, right?" Uncle said, placing a hand on Zuko's shoulder. He smiled at Maya. "That means you, too."
Maya blushed, humbled.
"We're finally going home," Zuko said, and turned and began walking down the stairs again. He took Maya's hand and squeezed it for a moment, and then let it go again.
Maya turned and smiled up at Uncle, and was surprised to see him looking down at the ship with a scowl on his face. That was when she realized that he was still suspicious of Azula, and had decided to go with them to protect them from harm, should anything bad happen.
A few minutes later, they were down at the dock. That was when Maya got a bad feeling about the whole thing. In order to walk up to the ship, they had to go past twelve guards. The guards stood on either side of the dock, six on each side. They all wore helmets that completely covered their faces, and they all stood motionless, as if the suits of armor were empty decoration. It was very eerie.
Maya looked ahead of her, to avoid having to look at all the guards who seemed to be tracking her every movement, and saw Azula standing at the top of the gangplank. When they all stopped in front of it, she spread her hands wide, as if enveloping them from a distance. From what Maya could see, she seemed perfectly normal and genuine.
"Brother," she said. "Uncle. And – Maya, was it? Welcome." She bowed.
Maya and the others bowed back, as a sign of respect.
"I'm so glad you decided to come," Azula continued.
Maya could sense movement behind her, and opened her eyes. From her peripheral vision, she could see the guards closing in on them. She lifted up from her bow. Zuko looked over at her and flashed her a grin. She smiled back faintly, but she could sense that something was off. She could tell that Uncle was also on edge. He kept glancing around at the guards, as if expecting one of them to jump him suddenly.
"Are we ready to depart, Your Highness?" the lead guard asked, looking up at Azula.
She smiled down at him. "Set our course for home, Captain," she said.
"Home," Zuko repeated, and began walking up the gangplank.
Maya and Uncle followed behind him.
"You heard the princess!" the lead guard yelled to his men. "Raise the anchors! We're taking the prisoners home!"
Maya stopped short, as did the others. Her head snapped up to look at Azula. The girl looked absolutely pissed.
"Oh shit," Maya said, not realizing she had spoken aloud. She took a step back and bumped into Uncle.
"Your Highness," the lead guard said, voice trembling. "I –
But before he could finish, all hell broke loose. Uncle spun around and used his luggage bag to smack one of the guards into the water. Then he kicked the next one. After that, it was too hard to follow. Maya ran forward and kneed one guard in the groin, shoving him off the gangplank with her foot when he went down. She felt a hand on her shoulder and spun, karate chopping the man in the neck and grabbing him by his robes. He was bigger than she was, so she used her momentum and his body weight to swing him around and throw him into the water.
After that, there were no more guards surrounding her. Quickly, she realized she had lost Zuko. She looked up at the ship. He was walking up the gangplank toward Azula. He grabbed the guard who had gotten in his way and shoved him into the water. "You lied to me!" he yelled, clearly speaking to Azula.
She was smiling one of her creepy smiles again. "Like I've never done that before," she said, lifting a hand as if brushing him off. Then she turned, and walked away.
The two guards on either side of the top of the gangplank took her place and shot fireballs at Zuko at the exact same time. He used his firebending to push the flames aside, and then jumped and kicked them into the water, using one foot for each of them. In another second, he was in a ready stance atop the deck of the ship.
Maya didn't know what to do. There were more guards fighting Uncle, and she wanted to help him. But at the same time, she wanted to help Zuko. She shuddered. On second thought, she wasn't sure she wanted to have anything to do with Azula. With that, she turned and ran to Uncle, who was, at that moment, ducking under a fire blast. After the guard ran out of fire and lowered his foot, Uncle straightened up and sent a fireball at him, sending the man careening off the side of dock. Uncle grabbed another guard around his neck with his arm, momentarily rendering him defenseless.
"Zuko!" Uncle shouted. "Let's go!" Then he shoved the guard away from him. The last guard came forward and tried to rush Uncle, but Maya got in his way and threw her foot out in front of him. He lost his balance and she pushed him the rest of the way into the water.
Maya looked up to see what was taking Zuko so long. At the moment, he and Azula were having some sort of a standoff.
"You know," Azula said, "Father blames Uncle for the loss at the North Pole, and he considers you a miserable failure for not finding the Avatar!"
Maya could not see Azula's face, but she could imagine the smirk that was probably on her too-pink lips right at that moment.
"Why would he want you back home?" Azula continued. "Except to lock you up where you can no longer embarrass him?"
Maya flinched. She could not imagine the emotional pain Zuko must have been in right then.
Zuko let out a wordless shout of unspeakable rage and rushed at Azula, shooting flames at her from his feet.
Oh, thought Maya. Maybe I can imagine.
Azula jumped back away from the flames, but was not quick enough to avoid Zuko in close combat. At some point, Maya guessed Zuko got too close to her for comfort because suddenly, there was a loud thwack and he stumbled away for a moment. She had smacked him across the forehead. Even from the dock, Maya could see the mark over his right eye. He was bleeding.
After that, Zuko became increasingly more desperate to win in his fight with Azula, his moves becoming more sporadic and unbalanced. Azula fought him off easily, until, with a single roll of her wrist, she had Zuko's own wrist in her hand. They locked eyes. Everything was still for a moment, and then Azula shifted just barely, and Zuko bent himself backwards as she shot blue flame straight at where his face had been a second before.
Blue flame! Maya thought. That's impressive. And terrifying.
In Zuko's attempt to save himself, he had lost his balance and rolled head-over-heels down the ramp to the deck. Before Maya could stop him, Uncle was running as fast as he could over to Azula. Maya knew better than to say anything out loud, in case she made the Fire Princess aware of Uncle's presence. Instead, she watched from the dock as Zuko struggled to get up.
Suddenly, Maya gasped, understanding dawning in her mind. Azula was making strange movements with her arms, and her fingertips were beginning to spark. So, Maya thought. You know how to create lightning… Great.
Just as Azula released the lightning, aiming it straight at Zuko, Uncle appeared in front of her, grabbing her hand in his own and directing his other hand towards the seaside cliff, where the lightning wouldn't harm anything. It shot from his fingers in a bright flash of light, ramming into the cliff and causing an avalanche to cascade into the water below.
Before Azula could start struggling, Uncle yanked her down by the hand he was holding, and then kicked her in the face so that she tumbled back into the ocean. Uncle grabbed Zuko and they ran back to the docks as quickly as they could. On their way past her, Zuko grabbed Maya's hand and yanked her along.
They ran for what seemed like hours, but was really only a few minutes, until they were a somewhat safe distance from Azula's ship. Here they collapsed, kneeling beside a pool of water that led out into the ocean. The red-leafed trees that Maya had so admired before surrounded them, and there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean. Despite their current circumstances, Maya thought it was a nice day.
Uncle and Zuko huffed and puffed beside the pool of water, still on their hands and knees. Maya knelt beside Zuko and placed a hand on his shoulder. Briefly, he touched her hand, and then he took a knife from inside of his robes. Maya saw that there was an inscription carved into the metal, but he moved it too fast for her to read. She watched him curiously, as did Uncle.
Zuko brought the knife to the back of his head, and held his ponytail in the other hand. In one clean swipe, he cut off the ponytail, and then handed the knife to Uncle. Uncle looked down at the knife for a moment, and then cut off his topknot. They both dropped the pieces of their hair into the stream, and watched silently as they drifted away on the current.
Then, they both stood and stared out at sea. Both of their faces wore expressions that were too sad for Maya to look upon. Quietly, she stepped away from the scene, and went and sat on the ground a few feet away. There she waited, until they had calmed their emotions enough to move on.