If there was one thing she knew, it was that she should not trust him. Ozai lied. All the time. She was certain he was just playing her, using her. But right now Mai did not care. All she cared about was making those two pay; as long as she got what she wanted, it did not matter how she went about it. The ends would justify the means.

She had never done anything like this. Contemplated crazy things like this, maybe, but had never actually had the grounds to carry them out. She would be thrown in prison, possibly for life, if she were caught. And that was if she were lucky. The more likely punishment for aiding in the prison escape of a former war criminal and tyrant would be execution. She knew the risks involved, but she was desperate, and desperation was the mother of ingenuity.

The wound in her heart had been festering and was becoming infected with her consuming desire for revenge. It gave her just the edge she needed to go forward with the plan. Mai had managed to obtain the key for Ozai's prison cell with relative ease. When it came to the most dangerous prisoners, such as Ozai, extra precautions were taken which included keeping the actual prison cell key safely locked away in a separate heavily guarded room within the facility. Not even Jiao was permitted to carry it with him. He was given exclusive access to the key for the heavy wooden door outside the cell, but that was the extent.

Mai had gone back to the palace and had returned to Capital City Prison the following night under the cover of darkness. The storm had still not let up and she arrived once again soaking wet. This time, however, she had made her way directly to the Key Vault Room where she was greeted by a pair of middle-aged guards.

"I need the key for former Fire Lord Ozai's cell," she had instructed the guards coolly and confidently. "Orders from Fire Lord Zuko." She had noticed their surprised expressions and the guards glancing over at each other warily; a pang of nervousness nipped at her stomach, but she remained completely composed on the outside. They returned their cautious gazes back to Mai and one of them raised a leery eyebrow.

"Usually we need these kinds of requests in writing when the Fire Lord sends someone in his stead," the guard had said, suspicion rising in his voice. "Why didn't the Fire Lord come to request it in person?"

"The Fire Lord is otherwise preoccupied at the moment. It was a matter that demanded immediate attention, so he sent me in his place." Mai had tried to sound as professional and unchallengeable as possible while studying the faces of the two guards scrupulously. One wrong move and the truth could be snuffed out, and they were starting to ask questions. She had expected as much; after all, that was what they were paid to do. But now that she was there and risking her life, her nerves were getting to her more than she had anticipated. Still, she had maintained a rigid exterior, her confidence never appearing to wane.

"What reason does the Fire Lord have for requiring this key?"

"It is a strictly confidential government matter, I am unauthorized to disclose any information." She had hoped to Agni that her fabricated explanation would be enough to satiate the guards. And after several moments, to her overwhelming relief, their tense bodies relaxed and their expressions became more resigned.

"I'm sorry," one guard had conceded. "We're trained not to take anyone at face value. We are required to interrogate any person who requests a key for one of the restricted cells. You just never know when someone might be planning something crazy."

Her mouth twitched in the faintest trace of a smirk, undetectable beneath her solemn guise. "I understand completely. The Fire Nation is fortunate to have such vigilant guards enforcing the security of our prisons." And a moment later, she had walked back down the barren corridor toward Ozai's cell with the key securely in her grasp.

Mai finally rounded the corner where the lengthy corridor branched off into the small wing that housed Ozai's cell. Jiao was standing guard as usual outside the heavy door, looking perfectly at ease and nonchalant. Any passerby observing the scene would have no reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary, but the cell was in a secluded area of the prison so even a mild disruption in their plan was unlikely.

Jiao nodded to her as she approached. They remained silent as he unbolted the door and gestured for her to move inside, following closely and pulling the door shut behind them. Once they were safely out of earshot, he spoke. "You were able to retrieve it, I assume?" It was more of a statement than a question, to which she nodded in confirmation.

"Yes. And how did things pan out on your end?"

"Like clockwork. I was able to barter off an unmarked ship from a fisherman just this afternoon, and it's docked and waiting for us at the harbor."

"Excellent," Ozai said in a silky murmur. "After two long, torturous years, I will finally be free of this hellhole."

"Here, my lord. You will need to put these on." He reached into his cloak and pulled out a heap of clothing that he had been concealing. Jiao handed the bundle through the bars to Ozai who unfolded them and studied them before undressing to swap them with his dismal prison clothes. Mai turned away awkwardly, blocking her peripheral vision with her hand, to avoid seeing more of the man than she wished. Ozai smirked briefly at the girl's embarrassment and then turned his attention back to his task. "It's my extra prison uniform," Jiao explained, "and the cloak that we often wear when going out at night." He let out a cynical chuckle. "I won't be needing them anymore." Both Mai and Ozai understood what he meant. As soon as it was discovered that Jiao had allowed the former Fire Lord to escape, he would be hunted down and, if found, wind up on the opposite side of the bars that he had helped to guard for so many years. Ozai's return to power would need to be swift if he were to ever have the means to properly care for his ailing wife.

Once Ozai had finished dressing, Mai turned around again to see a very different Ozai than before. The guard uniform transformed him at once from a lowly prisoner to an adept and stately prison guard. The clothing complimented his physique nicely: the shoulder plates served to further enhance his broad frame, giving him a more daunting presence than usual; the dark grey close-fitting shirt underneath hugged his figure just enough to outline his well-developed chest and abdominal muscles, and the matching dark grey pants hugged his waist, flowing outward down to below his knees until the base clasped snuggly around his upper calf muscles; a long dark red sash draped from around his waist and ended in a point at knee-level; and the crimson high-stretching boots reached up to cover the base of his pants at the top of his calf muscles.

Mai could see that he looked somewhat disgruntled. He probably felt ridiculous, she figured – the once fearsome and powerful Fire Lord Ozai reduced to donning a prison guard uniform in order to secure his freedom. The thought of the humiliation he felt, however slight, made her smile scornfully on the inside. She may have been resentfully willing to rely on him for the sheer purpose of revenge, but that hardly translated into any sort of fond sentiment toward the man. If she could have carried it out with as much ease by herself, she certainly would have.

"Are you ready?" Jiao asked at last. "Once we leave this prison cell, there can be no turning back."

Ozai draped the charcoal cloak around his shoulders and clasped it just beneath his collar bone. He breathed a deep, bitter sigh, and looked up at Jiao menacingly. "I'm ready," he said gruffly.

Mai stepped forward and unlocked the cell door; it opened with a wailing moan like some weary banshee that had just been awakened from the grave. Ozai walked past the metal bars for the first time since his imprisonment nearly two years before. His eyes locked with Mai's, but she was unable to discern their message. They seemed to carry a hint of gratitude mixed with an alarming glimmer of danger. For a moment her gut clenched in apprehension; what had she done? She felt as though she had just cut the safety net that kept the world from plummeting into chaos and there was no easy way to repair it now. Her feeling of panic began to grow; but then all of the events of the past several months suddenly came rushing back to her and she remembered the reason why she was here. It was the fuel that rekindled the nearly smothered cinders of her bitterness. She stepped aside and let Ozai walk past her to stand before Jiao.

"You and Mai will exit the prison and fly to Ember Island on the Avatar's bison tonight," Jiao stated, reaffirming the plan they had concocted earlier. "She'll drop you off on the far coast of the island at Yinchen Grove and proceed to the beach house. Once she's coaxed your son and the waterbender to the designated meeting spot and you've captured the girl, I'll be waiting for you with the ship at the bottom of the cliffs on the coast."

Ozai nodded, before reluctantly pulling the guard helmet over his head, which concealed most of his face. The sides wrapped around to the middle of his cheekbones and down to his jaw line. He pulled the visor down over his eyes, which covered the upper part of his face except for the eyeholes, and then drew the hood of his cloak up over his head to conceal his tell-tale hair and as much of his beard as possible. Mai did the same with her hood and Jiao opened the heavy wooden door as she and Ozai exited out into the corridor.

Mai and Ozai made their way down the long, bleak hallway, the echo of their footsteps filling the silence between them. She knew that the best way to ward off any suspicion would be to act normal, to make eye contact with the guards at the exit, and keep any words exchanged short and sweet. Hopefully they would not have received word about her request for the key and would have no reason to suspect that she was walking out of the prison with one of the most dangerous criminals in the world.

As they neared the exit of the prison, the guards that were keeping watch came into view. Mai held her breath as she approached; Ozai was following behind her, so she could not see him but she imagined that he was a bundle of nerves as well. The two guards were engaged in a lighthearted conversation when they looked up at the approaching pair. This is it, she thought. She gave them her usual uninspired version of a smile and simply said, "Goodnight," as she and Ozai continued to walk right past them unhindered.

"Goodnight," the guards responded in unison before resuming their jocular discourse.

The two of them proceeded out of the prison and into the pouring night rain. Mai's heart began to race, her adrenaline pumping, as she realized that they had gotten away with it. She was too afraid to say anything about it to Ozai until they were in the air on Appa, but she cast him a triumphant glance as they made their way toward the palace.

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

Manipulating people was so easy he had almost resolved to stop doing it. Almost.

Jiao perhaps had not been manipulated as much capitalized upon. The man's loyalty to him had remained surprisingly unwavering and Jiao desired to see him rise to power once again as Phoenix King, supreme ruler of the Fire Nation and the world. But he had not agreed to help make that happen until he had received something he wanted from Ozai as well. What Jiao failed to realize, however, was that men like Ozai were true to their word only as long as it was profitable to them. When push came to shove, he was not about to tend to another's needs if it infringed in any way on his own, dying wife or not. It was not his concern.

Mai, however, had played right into his plan. Vengeful women could be so predictable; all he had to do was exploit her frenzied, irrational state of emotion and sit back as she became like pliable clay in his hands. She believed that he was helping her simply as an act of gratitude for her breaking him out of prison, completely unaware that his capturing the Water Tribe girl served to benefit him just as much as it did her. She was under the impression that he would wait to depart from the island until she had joined him, but he was quite certain that she would be unable to escape Zuko once he had realized what had happened. He could not allow her to slow him down.

Water was dripping from his hood like a small stream in front of his face as the two of them reached the palace grounds, snaking in and out of lighted areas to avoid being discovered. The pouring rain helped to drown out any sound from their careful footsteps and they were able to arrive at the palace stables with ease. Mai opened the stable doors and they advanced into the dimly lit building. At once the musky, pungent odor of hay and animal droppings assaulted his senses, sucking the breath from his chest momentarily. A faint groan came from the back right corner of the stable and as they approached, the Avatar's large air bison came into view. Was it technically a bison or a buffalo? He was unsure of the difference. What he was sure of was that the animal was much larger than he had anticipated.

The bison appeared content to see Mai for a moment, but then became noticeably more agitated as Ozai came into view. It began shuffling its feet and groaning more loudly and frequently, snorting and angling its horns toward him. If it kept this up, someone was sure to hear the commotion and come to investigate. Mai stepped forward and gently placed her hand on the animal's muzzle.

"Shh, Appa, it's okay," she soothed the bison, petting its nose and crooning words of assurance. To their dismay, her efforts seemed to have very little effect on its distress and the groans only seemed to escalate. Something needed to be done, and quickly.

"Listen, Appa," Mai continued in her singsong tone. It sounded so foreign coming from her, he thought. "I'm going to take you back to see Aang now." This seemed to stall the beast's anxiety for a moment. Ozai was surprised to see that the animal actually seemed to understand her. Mai took advantage of its hesitation to play on its affection for the boy. "That's right, we're going back to Aang. But I need you to take both of us, Appa. This is very important. Can you do that?" The bison remained silent and unmoving, appearing to weigh the two options. Finally he let out a quieter snort and nuzzled his head into her hand. Mai closed her eyes and sighed in relief. "Thank you, Appa."

The girl took the bison's reins and led it out of the stable and into the rain. She climbed onto its tail and gestured to Ozai to follow suit. He would have been lying to himself if he did not admit that the massive size of the animal did not intimidate him. He had never been in the presence of an animal so enormous, and he was expected to just climb on its back casually and allow it to carry him over the open ocean after the beast had made clear its loathing of him. But he knew he had no choice; he had to remain focused on the bigger picture. After a moment's hesitation, he climbed cautiously onto the bison's tail and was subsequently catapulted onto the saddle on its back. Mai crawled to the front and took the reins while he situated himself against the back of the saddle, trying to shield himself from the rain as much as possible.

"Yip yip!" he heard Mai cry out and suddenly the bison's feet left the ground as they began soaring higher and higher into the air. He gripped the side of the saddle with one hand while pulling his aggravating helmet off with the other and sent it hurling over the side, spiraling away and disappearing into the darkness below. The pellets of rain stung his face as their speed accelerated, but he hardly noticed. His thoughts were preoccupied with the details of the impending events. Every move had to be executed with unfailing precision; one slipup and his entire plan could be foiled. With every passing moment, the formidable heat of his firebending grew ever closer within his grasp. He knew it would not be long now.

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

The palm trees bowed beneath the force of the wind, appearing like lost souls in the darkness of night, as the storm that had begun the evening before continued its assault ceaselessly. Sokka, Suki, Toph, Katara, and Zuko sat slumped on the top step of the covered terrace of the beach house, watching the rain fall in torrents in monotonous silence. They had spent countless hours indoors that day trying to entertain themselves, and had subsequently come down with an acute case of cabin fever.

Suddenly Suki perked up from her lifeless position. "Hey, look guys!" she called out. "I think Appa's coming back!"

"Finally," Toph sighed in relief. "This vacation's kinda crashed. I don't think I can take another day of sitting around in awkward silence, waiting for Aang to return so things can get even more awkward. I'm ready to just go find Aang and get it over with so we can get the heck off this island."

Katara and Zuko sighed and fixed their gaze on the ground. They, too, dreaded the return of Aang but it was necessary to wait for him so that they could all go back together, and they knew that they would have to face him eventually.

The five of them of them gazed up toward the sky, relieved to see their only means of transportation emerging in a vague form through the obscuring rain. But as the bison slowly grew closer and more discernable in their vision, both Sokka and Suki frowned uncertainly and squinted to better focus on the approaching figure.

"Is that…" Sokka trailed off hesitantly, "… Mai?"

Zuko's head snapped up at the mention of the girl's name. He could feel his heart begin to speed up as his mind raced through all of the plausible reasons she could possibly have for returning. His gut instinct told him that something was amiss; it just was not like Mai to show her face again so soon after such an incident. Normally she would spend hours or even days blocking out everyone else and just steeping in her own anger. This can't be good, he thought.

He rose from his seated position as he and the others watched Appa come to a landing a short distance from the beach house. Sure enough, a devastatingly familiar figure jumped down from the saddle and began walking toward them. Zuko's muscles tensed in trepidation as he left the others on the steps and descended to meet Mai on the ground halfway between Appa and the house, coming to stand within a few feet of her. He became drenched almost instantly, the rain dripping from the long fringe of hair that fell in front of his face.

"What are you doing here, Mai?" He realized as the words left his mouth that it was probably not the best greeting, but it was pointless to stand on ceremony at this point.

"What, I'm no longer welcome here?" she asked sarcastically. Before he could respond, she continued. "I took some time alone to cool down and work through some things. I think we should at least talk about what happened, and why, before we officially decide to call it quits. After so many years, I deserve the truth and a reasonable explanation… and I suppose you deserve a chance to explain your side of things."

Zuko felt uneasy. Mai could hold a grudge the way a skilled architect could construct a building or a proficient painter could bring to life a blank canvas; resentment was her true art medium and she was a master. He could not understand how she could come to such a rational conclusion so quickly, if at all. But part of him, whether out of guilt or sheer curiosity, wanted to hear her out. Perhaps the reality of losing him had tempered her anger slightly and allowed her to think clearly. If she wanted to reconcile their romantic relationship he was not interested, but he could at least give her the opportunity to talk about things and gain some closure to it all.

"All right," he consented.

"But not here," she clarified. "Yinchen Grove. It's more private there and we can talk without being disturbed."

"They aren't going to –"

"I would just feel better about it. And I would like Katara to be there as well. She was a part of this too."

Zuko sighed and looked down at the ground, watching as the raindrops spattered in several small puddles around their feet. He was trying to ignore the voice of reason that was pointing out the red flags in her proposition. Why was she not okay with talking here? They could walk around to the back of the beach house and talk in peace there; he knew the others would not bother them. And why did she suddenly want to talk to Katara as well? It could be some kind of trap in a scheme to take both him and Katara out. But he did not want to believe that she was capable of doing something so vicious, as vengeful as she could be. After what felt like several minutes, he finally succeeded at pushing the voice out of his head and looked back up at Mai.

"Okay," he agreed, giving her the benefit of the doubt against his better judgment. "I'll need a minute to talk to Katara. You go ahead and we'll meet you at Yinchen Grove shortly."

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

Zuko and Katara trudged through the soggy turf as Katara bent a shield of water over their heads to shelter them from the rain. The constant rainfall murmured a melancholy lullaby, interrupted every now and then by the occasional croak of a turtlefrog. The lamps that were burning in the distance on the terrace of the beach house were fading into the darkness behind them as they made their way up the rising knoll to the crags on the edge of the island. On the rim of the precipice was a small grove of palm trees that were thickly ingrown with juniper trees. The grove formed an imperfect circle with a small clearing in the center. Even in brilliant sunlight, the wall of trees and the dense canopy above shielded the clearing from most of the sun's rays resulting in a rather shadowy, dusky, and sometimes gloomy effect. It was at this place, Yinchen Grove, that Zuko had agreed to meet and talk with Mai. Katara had also consented to the request, somewhat more graciously than he had. In fact, she had seemed almost too willing, as though she was eager for him to talk to her. He could not say with absolutely certainty, but he had understood it almost immediately to be an act of guilt. She had been quiet and pensive most of the day and even more so during their trek toward the grove. If Mai had continued to be furious and spiteful, it would make it easy for Katara to ignore the fact that Mai had a valid reason to be angry. What they had done was wrong. But if Mai had come back in an attempt to smooth things over and talk it through like civilized people, it would be much more difficult to paint themselves in a guiltless light.

The outline of Yinchen Grove finally began to emerge up ahead of them. The contrast of the sinewy palm trees and the stout juniper trees created an irregular, almost jagged, silhouette jutting up from the edge of the precipice. When they had nearly reached the outer edge of the grove, Zuko could see the tall and thin outline of Mai waiting for them, her arms folded across her chest in her typical stance. She shifted her weight slightly when she noticed them approaching and wasted no time speaking once they arrived.

"I'd like to talk to Zuko privately first if you don't mind," she said. He could hear a vague hint of disdain in her last three words, but he chose to ignore it.

Zuko turned to Mai and gave a faint nod. "Alright. Just give us a second first." She did not outwardly respond but yielded to his request by turning and disappearing into the grove to wait for him. He turned back to Katara and placed his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "I'll only be a minute, and then I'll come back to get you. Just wait here." He could see what appeared to be a hint of concern in her eyes, so he emphasized, "I'll be right back, I promise." Zuko gave her arm one last reassuring squeeze before turning to enter the grove when he was suddenly tugged to a stop.

"Zuko," Katara finally spoke, catching hold of his sleeve. "Are you sure you really want to do this? I mean us. Maybe this was all a mistake. You heard what Mai said; she wants to talk."

"Katara…" he tried to interrupt, but was swiftly cut off.

"Maybe it's not too late to tell her you're sorry. Maybe she'll forgive you –"

"Katara!" he raised his voice boldly to shatter her frenzy. "Listen to me." His tone softened as he cupped both sides of her face in his hands, staring deeply into her sapphire eyes. "I don't want her back. I want you. This," he said, kissing her softly, "wasn't a mistake. Sure, it was safer with Mai, easier, more predictable maybe. But standing forever on that side of caution meant that I would always be too far away from you. I couldn't pretend anymore; that's all it's ever been with Mai – pretending." He looked into her eyes earnestly and wiped away a tear that was trickling down her cheek. "She can't hold a candle to you," he whispered tenderly as he placed his lips on hers again, more passionately this time, before turning to enter Yinchen Grove.

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

Katara sighed, shifting her weight on her feet as she tried to get a glimpse of the scene progressing within the grove, but the foliage was too dense and the lack of moonlight made it difficult for her to get much of a picture. Occasionally a vague movement caught her eye through a break in the foliage, but it always disappeared again just as quickly. Her arms were getting weary from holding the shield of water over her head. She hoped their little meeting would not take too long.

A faint rustling from behind her made her jump and spin around quickly. She scanned her surroundings anxiously, trying to pinpoint the culprit. Suddenly an owlcat took flight from a nearby tree and swooped down to snatch up an unsuspecting turtlefrog that was emerging from the undergrowth behind her and then flew into the night with its prey dangling from its talons. A sputtering sigh escaped her as she realized the cause and she willed herself to relax slightly, chastising herself for being so jumpy.

The unexpected disturbance made her suddenly aware of how alone she was outside of the grove. With the moon invisible behind the dense storm clouds, the night was unsettlingly dark. With the rain accounted for, she could not see much further than ten feet in front of her. She tried to convince herself that her imagination was trying to deceive her, but she could not shake the feeling of being watched that had rapidly descended upon her.

Thunder clapped in the sky. Katara shuddered. She could not explain her sudden wariness, but something seemed out of place. A terrible feeling was churning in the pit of her stomach, a foreboding feeling that was telling her something was about to go horribly wrong. She tried to chock it up to the fact that she had been left alone in the dark in a rainstorm and awaiting an uncomfortable confrontation, but she knew deep within that there was something else. She just could not place it.

She was so transfixed on searching what little landscape she could make out before her, giving special attention to the hill she and Zuko had ascended which might lend an ideal hideout for anyone wishing to sneak up on her, that she did not see the hand that suddenly shot into her peripheral vision and clamped down around her mouth. She inhaled sharply through her nose and tried to scream, but the cry was stifled by the hand over her mouth. She flailed and squirmed to try to free herself of her assailant, but another hand came down swiftly on her shoulder, the firm grasp bringing her struggling to a halt.

"If it isn't the master waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe." A deep masculine voice hissed into her right ear, the warm breath grazing the side of her face. "I was expecting it to prove more of a challenge to ambush such a skilled combatant. It's rather disappointing really." The voice was dripping with disdain and arrogance, taunting her with a tone that both frightened her and made her blood boil. "Now you're going to come with me, little girl. And if you're thinking of screaming or struggling again, it would be wise of you to reconsider."

Katara's feet moved forward against her will as her assailant began to force her ahead, half dragging, half carrying her away from Yinchen Grove and toward the edge of the precipice. She tried to use the heels of her feet to ground herself in attempt to slow the man down and twist her body around to give her more control of the situation, but his brute strength was far superior and her efforts did little to thwart his progress. She made a desperate attempt to look around the man's arm, hoping to see Zuko returning for her but the scene was dishearteningly still and her shoulders were quickly whipped back into place. She could scream again, but she knew that would only serve to hasten her attacker's efforts and Zuko would never reach her in time anyway. Her only chance of escape was to fight back and she would have to be quick and precise.

She raised her lower arms forward just slightly, though still beneath his line of vision, in a slow and subtle movement, careful not to attract any attention to her actions. She only needed a small amount of arm function to inflict a damaging enough blow to catch him off-guard and allow her the time she needed to race back to the company of Zuko. If he pursued her, which she doubted considering the odds of two against one, she was certain the two of them could take him. She extended her fingers in a wide fan and concentrated on the man behind her and the driving rain hammering around them. In a swift and sudden motion, she lurched her hands downward; the raindrops above and around the attacker immediately turned to shards of ice that were sent hurling toward him and swiftly embedded themselves in his flesh, not too deeply but just enough to cause him to release his grip on her and let out a throaty grunt of pain.

Katara did not waste a moment. She spun around quickly to run back toward the grove, pausing for a fleeting moment to risk a cursory glance at her assailant, when a knot in her stomach caused her to come to a stunned stop. She let out a sharp gasp and her eyes widened in horror at the man who was staggering before her from the sting of her attack, his golden eyes glaring dangerously up at her as he fought off the pain. Those eyes looked so familiar; suddenly the gravity of the situation dawned on her as she realized exactly who she was up against. She blinked in shock, not wanting to believe what she saw, but her fears were confirmed when he finally regained his footing and stood at his full height to tower above her, his face in full view now. The resemblance to Zuko was striking and there was no mistaking now exactly who the man was standing before her.

The moment of hesitation was all Ozai needed to regain his control over Katara. He lunged forward and grasped her arm, flinging her around to catch her other arm and clasped both her wrists tightly behind her back. He was not about to let her try another move like that again. The shards of ice that had been protruding from his flesh had mostly melted and were mixing back into the rain streaming down his skin.

Katara knew her battle was almost lost. All she could do now was scream despite Ozai's former warning and hope that Zuko would hear her before she was dragged away.

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

A sharp virile grunt pierced the thickness of night from somewhere to Zuko's left beyond the barrier of trees outside the grove. The unexpected outcry made Zuko jump and his focus on the conversation at hand was instantly shaken. He hesitated a moment as he tried to listen for any further commotion, wondering if he had only imagined it. But the sound was soon followed by a shrill, frightened scream which he recognized immediately.

"Katara!"

He spun around and dashed like mad in the direction of the clamor when he felt something whiz by his head, nearly grazing his face, and lodge into a tree directly in front on him with a dull yet momentous thud. The disturbance startled him to a stop as he nearly lost his footing on the muddy terrain. A long streamlined blade jutted out from the tree at a point exactly level with his head. He whisked around quickly to see Mai standing where he had left her, holding a matching throwing knife in her right hand.

Damn it! he screamed internally. They were set up! He should have known better than to believe Mai would have a change of heart. He knew what she was capable of; why had he given her the benefit of the doubt? Now both his and Katara's lives were in danger. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to her. The moment he had seen Mai returning to the beach house, he should have known they were as good as dead. But Mai had spun a shrewd and convincing web, lurking there and waiting for them just like a spider, and like naïve fire ants they had walked right into it.

Zuko could see she was quivering slightly and from the look on her face she was not entirely bent on taking his life. In fact he knew all too well that if she had truly meant to kill him she would have succeeded before he had even realized what had happened. Her brows trembled as she fought back oncoming tears and then suddenly sped off in full tilt, running like wildfire out of the grove toward the direction of the commotion. Zuko's feet lost traction briefly on the slimy, sopping ground as he darted after her, giving Mai a head start. He crashed through the trees and underbrush, shielding his face from the brambly limbs, to see her sprinting toward the edge of the precipice.

Katara was nowhere to be seen, but he could still make out her now fainter frantic cries coming somewhere from the underside of the cliff, which was clearly Mai's trajectory as well. He knew he needed to get to Katara fast, but the attacker would soon have help if he did not deal with Mai first. Lunging forward to close as much distance as he could, he shot a wall of flames forward and maneuvered it to create a blockade between her and her intended route of escape. She skidded to a stop, looking around frenetically for another way out. She tried a desperate dart to the left, spotting an opening in the flames, but Zuko was already upon her. He tackled her to the ground, pressing all his weight onto her back and arms to hinder her retaliation. She groaned and struggled for a moment and then finally relinquished her efforts in a mix of both exhaustion and anguish. Sensing that the fight in her was no longer a threat, he released some of his weight on her to clasp both of her wrists behind her back before bringing her up to her knees. With a wave of his hand he doused the flames and turned his attention to the drop-off. He was not about to release his hold and risk another attack on his life so he dragged Mai over to the edge of the cliff and searched arduously for Katara and her captor.

It was difficult to make out anything through the impenetrable darkness, but his eyes followed the sound of Katara's screams to a single fisherman's ship docked along the rocky bank below. A dark, indistinct shadow moved onto the deck of the ship as another shadow untied the vessel and shoved it fully into the rippling sea. Katara. He jumped up to chase after the ship, but reason took over and he knew he would never catch it in time. Perhaps he could extract some information from Mai and catch up to them on Appa.

Katara's cries continued to rise up and Zuko strained to discern what she was trying to tell him. The rain seemed to shatter and muddle most of the words before they reached his ears. But suddenly a chain of very distinct phrases got through to him that made his stomach contort and constrict.

"It's your father!" her voice screamed out. "Ozai, he's –!"

Her coherent shouts gave way abruptly to muffled gibberish as a gag was placed over her mouth. Zuko watched as the ship sailed further away, engulfed by the darkness. He whipped around to Mai whose wrists remained clasped tightly in his hand and turned her around fiercely to face him.

"What have you done?!" he roared. She refused to look up at him; her shoulders sagged in a dejected slump as she stared toward the ground with a mix of anguish and bitterness. He seized both her shoulders and shook her forcefully. "Tell me where he's taking her! What does he want with Katara?!"

Her lower lip quivered as tears began to stream down her face. Slowly she turned her face to look at him. She had let Ozai manipulate her vindictive feelings, and in her vulnerable state she had actually believed that he was doing this for her, that he only wanted to help her. Now she realized that he had been planning to do this all along, obviously wanting to use Katara for something, and had capitalized on her situation in order to achieve his freedom. She still felt resentful toward Zuko and Katara; but by not helping him, she would be letting Ozai get away with all he had done, and she was not about to let that man get away with one more sleazy thing. Helping Zuko was the lesser of two evils.

"I don't know much," she began in a defeated whisper. "But I'll tell you what I know."

A/N:

Please don't forget to leave a review (what you liked, loved, didn't like, hated, would like to see, could be improved, etc.) – your feedback is really important to me! Thank you to everyone who has already taken the time to do so, I appreciate it so much!

I really like everything in my story to have a meaning, so I try to do some research before adding details. In case anyone's interested, Yinchen (阴沉) means "gloomy" in Chinese.

Over and out. Until next time… flamio, Sifu Hotman!