Age of Maikka - Compromise
Mai hated having sweaty palms. Aside from generally loathing the experience of sweating, it was also a significant source of danger for someone who handled knives frequently, especially with the variety and breadth of Mai's signature styles.
The scouts had reported in quickly. The Avatar and his group were on the move, but they weren't flying. A massive, distinctive trail was being left by what was presumably the injured Sky Bison; it was hard to be sure, given that the Avatar, and possibly his Earthbender, were erasing the marks on the ground. Still, one couldn't move ten-tons of meat and hair without leaving behind some signs, and Azula was employing only the best trackers.
So the Princess' Fire Nation task force was on the trail. Azula herself led the way, followed by Mai and Ty Lee, followed by a detachment of the Crimson Royal Guard.
Azula had said that this was the critical moment in the long chase. It was impossible to be sure, given the erratic path that had begun with the detour through Foggy Swamp, but it looked like the Avatar was making his way to Ba Sing se. (Mai had purposely never asked Sokka such things.) If he succeeded in getting past the Great Walls, nothing short of an invasion of the Earth Kingdom's last stronghold would be able to target him again. Full Moon Bay, the launching point for a ferry that sailed directly into Ba Sing Se, was only a day's march away, and that little holdout was famous for both its security and the various ways it could be brought down on top of any invaders' heads in the event of an attack.
One way or another, it was all going to end today.
Which meant that the time to choose and act had come for Mai. She either had to choose Azula, and the comfortable life she offered, or throw it all away for a boy that Mai really didn't know that well. The fact that Mai was even considering such a ridiculous choice was proof that had lost all common sense.
She should have just killed herself back in the swamp.
It all ended that afternoon in a pleasant box canyon.
A waterfall fell from the tall cliffs to feed a deep pool in the center, and it was there that the Avatar's group could be found. The little Earthbender was sitting with her eyes closed on a large rock right next the water, and the older boomerang boy was lying, seemingly asleep, on the ground nearby. The Avatar, his Waterbender, and the Sky Bison were all in the shallowest part of the pool, doing something with the water and the Bison's tail that produced a faint glowing effect.
As soon as Azula set foot in the canyon, the Earthbender's eyes snapped open. "They're here."
The Fire Princess smirked. "Interesting place you've chosen for a last stand, Avatar. Nice of you to trap yourselves for me."
Unsettlingly, there was no panic. The Avatar and the Water Tribe girl calmly turned to face the invaders and took Waterbending stances. The boomerang boy hopped to his feet, strange club-like weapons in hand. The Earthbender clambered to all fours atop her rock.
There was a moment where there should have been at least a little taunting, but no one spoke. The sounds of the waterfall and the feel of the pre-battle tension were all that filled the air.
Then all Inferno broke loose.
Fire flew, warriors dashed forward, water traveled in strange patterns, a rock the size of a fat merchant leapt up from the ground, and an ice dome rose from the pool to cover the Sky Bison. Above it all, a flying lemur twirled in panicked circles.
It was on.
Mai had to admit that she was surprised. The Avatar's group had never struck her as a particularly effective fighting unit; granted, they were good warriors, individually, and worked well together in larger battles, but there was a distinctly amateurish quality to them that they never seemed to overcome.
This, though? This ambush was proceeding with military precision.
As Mai threw herself to the side to dodge a flying boulder, tossing a group of small blades meant more to discourage further attacks than actually hit anything, she couldn't help but appreciate the chosen battlefield. It was made of rock, from the ground to the tall walls surrounding everything, and with the waterfall and pool, offered a limitless supply of water to bend available readily in large quantities. The size of the dead end allowed more than enough room to fight and maneuver, but denied the Firebenders the distance to perform a long-scale bombardment.
Maybe Mai wouldn't have to make a choice. Maybe she would die before it ever came to that.
Mai brought her hands up and scanned the scene with her wrist dart-launchers at ready, but before she could choose a target, a wave of water hopped into the air and threatened to complete a parabolic arc right on top of Mai's heard. The knife-thrower dodged, throwing herself into a backwards roll that was surely dirtying her clothes and playing havoc with her hair. She came to a stop in a crouch, and once more turned her gaze from side-to-side in an attempt to make sense of the scene before her.
That's when a set of set of strong arms grabbed Mai from behind and pulled her against a petite armored body. "Gotcha!"
Azula was on the defensive.
It was... disconcerting.
The Avatar was giving her his total focus, switching between Air and Waterbending at will, keeping up a steady stream of attacks that Azula constantly had to defend against. Normally, he fought rather passively, preferring to dodge and evade, retreating with his friends at the first opportunity. This time, though, his face was hard and fearsome, and he was standing his ground more like an Earthbender than anything he had been before. Of course, he was still an Airbender by nature, and when Azula managed to build up enough fighting momentum to push back with an attack, he scampered away from his position and towards dry land.
Except Azula couldn't press her attack, because the Waterbender girl easily shifted her attention away from keeping Ty Lee at bay- even the acrobat's best maneuvers hadn't yet managed to close the distance towards an angry Waterbender with an entire lake at her disposal- and turned to lash at Azula with tentacles of water. Before Azula could even think of a way to counter that, the Avatar was back in the fight, pushing head-sized boulders at Azula in a pattern that forced her deeper into the water. Azula quickly scanned around for the Sky Bison, hoping to use an attack on him as a distraction, but all she could see was a massive, very thick dome in the center of the lake. Her fireballs dissipated harmlessly against the ice walls, and even the little amount of melting she induced was off-handedly repaired by the Waterbender as she launched ice darts at Ty Lee with her other hand.
Had they practiced this?
And where exactly were Azula's minions? Ty Lee, she had accounted for, but as she tried to dodge back towards land, Azula noticed that her entire division of elite Firebender guards was being thoroughly trounced by the little Earthbender girl, who was shouting taunts like, "Finally, we're standing our ground! And that's trouble for you!" and, "What's the matter? A little blind girl too much for the big bad Firebenders?" with outright glee.
Who was that girl?
And where the blazes was Mai?
"Let go of me you-" Mai was ready to fire a dart from her ankle-launcher into her ambusher's foot, when a new voice arrested her motion.
"Hey, Mai, stop it! Truce!"
Sokka.
The girl holding Mai secured her grip. "So this is the one. The pink girl is cuter."
"Hey, come on, Suki, play nice. Please."
"It's okay, Sokka." The ambusher- Suki- shifted so that her head was right behind Mai's ear. "I'm going to let you go now. Sokka wants to talk to you. Don't make any threatening moves, and I'll let you two have your privacy. Okay?"
Mai didn't know what to do.
"Come on, Mai," Sokka pleaded, stepping up close to her. His was visibly anxious, wringing his hands together. "This is important."
Mai nodded dumbly.
Suki let go, and took a step back. "Okay, you two say what you need to. I'll bring in the other Warriors as cover." Mai turned to glance at her ambusher, and was mildly disgusted. The girl was dressed in a green dress, over which she wore chest armor, and her face was painted in a manner that would have proclaimed her a prostitute in the Fire Nation. Really, the whole ensemble was colorfully tacky.
The characteristic disgust helped Mai center herself. Things were okay if she could make harsh snap judgments about people.
Then Suki whistled.
The Avatar glanced up at the sound of someone giving a sharp whistle. Azula was tempted to exploit his distraction, but good tactical sense told her that he was still attentive enough to notice a big blue fireball flying towards him, and besides, the whistling might be important.
Azula looked up where the Avatar had.
A group of girls in battle-dresses, their faces painted like Avatar Kyoshi, had revealed themselves at the top of the canyon and were repelling down the sides to join the battle, metal war fans and katanas in hand.
Oh, come on!
Didn't these people know that Azula was supposed to conquer them?
"Mai."
"...Sokka."
"Um. Well, I known this is kind of sudden, and we don't know each other that well, but do you want to escape Azula and join our gang?"
What.
"We, uh... well, I had the idea that we could ambush you guys, and use the battle to give you the opportunity to escape Azula. If you wanted. Suki helped me work out the timing. Anyway, I know we've only known each other for a little while, but..."
Mai couldn't help but stare at him.
"I was at the North Pole when Zhao attacked it. I lost... someone really special to me, there. I failed at being a real warrior, and she didn't have a choice but to give her life to make up for my mistakes. I didn't think I'd be able to recover from that."
What.
"But then I met you, and you were trying to kill me, I think. Or at least take me prisoner. But we met in the swamp, and you actually turned out to be okay. Mostly. And after that... Mai, I really like you. The same way I felt about the girl who died because of me in the North Pole."
Mai couldn't help but notice that Suki was paying close attention, despite being several feet away.
"I don't know how it happened, or why, but I couldn't let the same thing happen to you, after you saved Aang the other night. I don't know why you did that. I hope it's because you're a good person, and that you like me, because that's what the brain inside my chest tells me. It would be a nice ego boost, too. But I got worried, about what Azula would do to you if she found out, and decided that I couldn't fail another girl I cared about. So, this is it. If you want to come with me, I would be really happy. If you don't, we'll let you go, and go to Ba Sing Se. Hopefully, that means we won't have to fight again. But I'm really hoping you want to come with us. So... reaction? Anything to say? You're doing that thing where your face pretends it doesn't work right."
Mai thought.
Azula was thinking furiously. There had to be a tactical advantage here. Something she could exploit.
And where were her ash-choked allies? Couldn't she depend on anyone?
Azula gave a scream of intimidation, stomped a foot down, and a blossom of fire exploded from beneath her and launched water and steam all around her. The Avatar quickly brought up an Earth wall to protect himself, but that blocked his vision. Azula took the opportunity to focus on him, letting emotion wash away and leave cold, soothing intent in its place. She swung her arms, and electricity crackled between her hands and the surface of the water.
She'd have to have an iron will, to keep the lightning from frying her where she stood in the water.
Perfect.
Just as she was about to let the storm out, a tsunami fell down on her, breaking her stance and absorbing the middling amounts of electricity that had been generated thus far. Azula felt her skin tingle and hair dance, but that was all. There hadn't been enough power yet to injury anyone.
Of course, now she was underwater and unable to breath. Bother.
Before Mai could say anything, Suki broke into motion. "Sokka, watch out!" The painted warrior dashed towards the Water Tribe boy, but a pink blur intercepted her and sent Suki crashing to the ground with a series of blows too fast to make out.
Ty Lee held her hands out in placating gesture as Sokka raised his club. "No fighting no fighting no fighting! I came to rescue Mai, but..." The acrobat turned to look Mai in the eyes. "If it would make you happy, I think you should go."
What.
"Mai, remember how I ran away to the circus? That was to be happy. We always had that in common; neither of us really liked our world. Azula was always different that way, I think. It's hard to say, because she actually keeps herself bottled up more than you. But, I've seen you since you got back from the swamp. You may not have thought so, but I know what you did when the Avatar went all glowy. Mai, you can't deny yourself. That will really mess up your chi, and then you'll get hurt, and then..." She smiled. "I want you to be happy."
Huh. Mai always knew that Ty Lee was smarter than she let on, but this was a little too much, considering how many other surprises had been popping in the last half hour.
Now all Mai had to do was decide.
She stepped towards Sokka, grabbed him, and kissed him deeply.
A while later, there faces came apart again. Sokka's eyes were wide. "Does that mean you're coming?"
Mai smirked. "No. That was just a test. To see if I liked you. I think it's safe to say I do." She turned to their audience. "Thank you, Ty Lee."
"No problem. I gotta go now. Write to me, if you can!"
The battle finished in a spectacular manner. The little lake exploded, as though a Fire Nation bomb had gone off beneath the surface, and Azula came flying out, propelled by jets of flames on her hands and feet. She landed on the canyon wall, and climbed quickly to the top. Ty Lee, using one of the Kyoshi Warriors' scaling lines, followed. The two girls absconded, leaving their allies behind.
Earthbender soldiers from Full Moon Bay arrived shortly after that, having sensed the fighting. They took the thoroughly beaten and mostly unconscious Firebenders into custody, and said it was a real coup to capture alive a set of soldiers who had personally served the Fire Lord and his family.
Katara healed everyone's injuries, and the group was ecstatic in their success. They had beaten back Azula, and successfully made their way to Ba Sing Se! The Avatar's gang and the Kyoshi Warriors came together to celebrate.
There was one last thing to take care of. Sokka and Mai, a recovered Suki trailing behind them, approached their friends. Mai's face was blank, but Sokka was blushing and running his hands through his loosened hair. "Um, everyone, this is Mai, for those who haven't met her yet. She's on our side. Katara... uh, you're going to have to share your comb. Mai's stuff is still back at Azula's camp."
END