Chapter Four:

It wasn`t like Azula to pout, but sitting in that prison day after day was tiring, and the Dai Li still hadn`t come again. It`d been a whole day! Maybe they really were traitors. She`d been right to banish them. She let out a gargled shout of anger and punched the wall.

But, no, she needed them for the time being. Calm down, she told herself. Even if they do intend to double-cross you in the end, you can still use them for the time being. Like you used Long Feng. The thought brought self-satisfied smirk to her face. The clueless man, he`d made the mistake of underestimating her and it cost him everything. She laughed. Let anyone try to double-cross her. She could best them with both hands tied behind her back, even without her bending.

Though being able to bend wouldn't hurt, of course.

The day that her fire-bending had been taken away still haunted her dreams. The feeling of the energy flowing through her body, trying to take over her, burning her with more heat than the strongest fire had ever down. When she was tired and sitting in her cell, fighting sleep and being driven mad with the lack of it, she'd once again feel the pulling sensation of the Avatar grasping and yanking her bending away from her. And then the emptiness that was left; it was an emptiness that she felt every second of the day. It would have been better to have a limbed severed, for losing her bending was like losing a part of her soul, not her body. She would never forgive any of the people who had worked to make her defeat possible. Never!

"But," she said aloud to the air. "Enough! My time for revenge will come, but only if I work." She shrugged off her brokenness as best she could and rose. Already walking had become easier and now she practiced running across the cell as far as the chain letter. She didn't resent the chain and ball that dug into her ankles. It would only make her stronger in the end.

She only managed to do five laps of running before getting out of breath. It was pathetic. She dropped down into a push up and managed to lift herself up once before her arms gave out and she collapsed on the metal floor of the prison with shaking arms.

Breathing heavily she pushed herself into a sitting position with her back and head resting against the wall. It was here she was sitting when Wei of the Dai Li arrived with more news. When his quiet voice flitted through the window and into the stifling air of her cell she smiled dangerously. She sat up straighter, crossed her legs, and listened with great care all that Wei had to report. The two of them had plans to make.

It was a week later when Zuko and Mai received the messenger hawk. They were in disguise and haunting the Dai Li's temporary home. While most of the Dai Li were obliging with Zuko's request and helping to speed along the rebuilding of the city, there were always a few missing, yet whenever they were tracked down and followed they only led to inconsequential places. Only once had one even gone in the directions of the prisons.

Yet this day looked promising. Wei had stayed behind himself which had never happened before, and was skulking off. He was good, Zuko had to admit, and the pair almost lost him more one than once. The general direction wasn't the opposite one of the prisons, which was progress. He shared an excited look with Mai (well, he looked excited, she just looked slightly less bored which, for her, was practically the same thing.)

And then the messenger hawk came. It landed on Zuko's shoulder and he had to stifle a gasp so that Wei wouldn't be alerted. Silently, he and Mai crept back the way they'd come until they were further in the open and a good distance from the Dai Li leader.

"Who's it from?" Mai asked as Zuko brought the hawk down to his arm and took a rolled up piece of paper from the canister.

As he read, his eyebrows fused together and his mouth became drawn. He finished reading and then ignited the paper and then scattered the ashes in the wind. "It was from Sokka."

"What'd he say?"

"Do you want my summary, or his exact words?"

"Exact words please."

Zuko cleared his throat and spread his hands, before beginning to speak, attempting to adopt Sokka's voice and failing. "To our most favourite, and Flaming Fire Lord Zuko, I am entrusting this most important message with the most trustworthy Hawky. Bring him with you when you come, and remember, he likes minnows, but only the orange ones. And the little blue ones that are a little bit purple..."

"Okay, okay," Mai held up a hand. "Give me the summary."

"That's what I thought. He says that things aren't going well in Ba Sing Se and that if possible; we should travel there as soon as possible. He isn't giving us much information, but says that Aang's life is in danger. He also added something about revolts in the city."

"Sounds serious," she said. "Maybe we should go."

"But who'll watch the Dai Li."

Mai sighed and reached up to scratch the back of her neck. "Looks to me like we'll have to go back to the earlier plan and get Ty Lee to do it."

"But you yourself said-"

"I know what I said," she interrupted. "But it looks like she's the one who'll have to do. I trust her more than the other warriors. She saved my life you know."

"I know," Zuko smiled down at her. "Right after you saved mine."

"Yeah, yeah, thank me all you want while we walk. Do you want to brief Ty Lee on the case or should I?"

Zuko blew out a blast of air and rubbed his temples. "You do it; I'm going to get things ready for traveling to the Avatar in Ba Sing Se. Sokka urged us to come immediately, so we should probably leave today under the cover of night."

Not an hour later, Ty Lee came cartwheeling into Azula's old bedroom. This had been a common room for the girls in the past, and even now Mai and Ty Lee met there. It was a habit that neither of them were able to break, no matter how many bad memories were recalled.

Mai was sitting on the edge of Azula's bed and holding one of her shurikens in both hands, turning it this way and that.

"That was the one Azula gave you for your birthday, isn't it?" Ty Lee asked quietly, coming to sit next to her friend on the bed. Ty Lee was completely outfitted in the Kyoshi uniform, right down to the face plastered in make-up.

"Yeah," Mai said, lifting the shuriken up the light. It was obviously of high quality craftsmanship and it had a flowering design engraved into it, as well as Mai's initials. "Maybe it's wrong, but when I think of Azula, I still remember a lot of the good times we had with her back in the Royal Fire Nation Academy for Girls."

"I do too," Ty Lee admitted. "But then I remember her last year, and I just shudder. She was always a bit scary, but she crossed a line."

Mai nodded and then tossed the shuriken onto the bed. "Ty Lee, I have something to tell you."

Mai recounted the details of the Dai Li and the worries she and Zuko had about what it might mean, and then asked Ty Lee to keep an eye on them.

"Of course!" Ty Lee beamed. "It's been ages since I've hung around with the Dai Li. It'll be a pleasure to watch them from the other side."

Mai allowed herself a small smile that faded as her eyes were once more drawn to the shuriken, and then around the room. There were so many things to remind her of days past in this room. So many painful things. "Ty Lee..." Mai began, hesitant.

"Hmm?"

"Can I ask you to do one more thing?"

"What?"

Mai beckoned her closer and then whispered something in her ear. Ty Lee drew back, eyes wide and fearful. The fear faded quickly though, leaving something that was rarely seen. A tired, mournful expression on Ty Lee's usual happy face. She nodded seriously to Mai, and then bent backwards until she was on her hands. Backwards and on her hands was how she exited.

Mai sat there for a minute longer in a stupor, and then shook herself into action. She grabbed her weapon and tucked it into her shirt, near her heart as a token to remind of her times when she was a more normal girl, with happy friends. Then she got up and left Azula's room, blowing out the light as she did so and closing the door firmly. It was time to find Zuko, who had probably packed their things and readied an air balloon to take them to Aang in the Earth Kingdom.