Chapter Nine: Broken Pieces

Luckily the water was calm and the night was overcast. Katara wouldn't need to make any cover if the Fire Nation caught up to them. Sokka had found the control car and figured out the controls with the help of Haru who seemed to know a lot because of the guards around him.

The ship was now on autopilot and the whole ship had a feeling of contentment about it. Suki had started teaching Sokka the style that the Kyoshi warriors used again and he was just happy to be around her. Katara and Aang were out on the deck: training interspersed with reminiscing. The end of their journey was within sight, so they couldn't help but drift into nostalgia. Haru was trying to take care of Appa but was still moving slowly.

Toph was wandering around the ship when she found herself in the hold, which was where Appa was being kept. The top was of course open. Haru was trying to feed Appa at this point but was finding it hard to get the hay into the makeshift trough and remain standing.

He blushed in embarrassment when he noticed Toph staring at his vain efforts, "I'm not normally this useless."

"If Katara's story is half right, then that was already obvious to me. Want some help with fuzzy?"

"Thanks, the help would he appreciated."

"You know you weren't doing to bad a job until the feeding part."

"How long've you been watching me?"

"I've been watching everyone. Sokka needs to get a room. He should be embarrassed it's so obvious. I don't know how Suki puts up with it."

"Even when I first met him, Sokka wasn't the most controlled guy. His emotions are easy to see, uh sense?"

"I stopped taking stuff like that badly a long time ago."

"Okay, and I think Suki appreciates it."

"I really didn't need the whole insight thing, but thanks anyway." Toph had just finished loading the trough.

Eager to keep the conversation going Haru started onto a different subject, "So how did you meet them, you know my story, what's yours?"

"I was in Earth Rumble for a long time, then they showed up and Aang ringed me out with air ending and that was the start of our beautiful friendship. After that they tracked me down again at my home. My parents though I was a defenceless little girl though and wouldn't believe them. Even after we showed them how good I was they still wanted me locked in a room 'for my own protection'." The bitter sentiment was obvious, "After that I got fed up with them, packed whatever I had and left with Aang and everyone."

"You just left? Doesn't that make you feel bad at all? You should have at least left them a letter…but you couldn't have done that could you?"

"Nope, and why should I? They would have had me spend the rest of my life tucked away in some room. Now I'm traveling all over the world and doing whatever I want! Which life would you choose?"

"I agree with what you did, but you probably hurt your parents badly."

"They thought the avatar, the avatar, kidnapped me and they sent two earth bending masters to capture me and bring me home. Yeah, lot of sadness there."

"Sorry I asked." The anger that was coming from Toph now made Haru drop the subject before Toph blew a gasket. It was obvious she had quite a few emotions bottled up inside, but he didn't really want to be the one to make them blow.

"So how long have you been a guard?" The question was met with silence. All of Iroh's attempts at talking to his guard had proven futile because the man had stood rigidly in place without batting an eyelid. Iroh didn't know how he hadn't passed out already.

No more than a minute after his last attempt the door to the cell opened and the guard snapped into a fighting stance.

"Leave us." Iroh recognized the voice immediately, but the guard didn't and stayed where he was until the figure lowered his hood and the scar became visible on Zuko's face. The guard bowed and left the room, presumably to get the blood flowing in his body again.

"Would you please talk to me this time?" Zuko's expression was clearly pleading, something that was almost never shown.

"It's about Rayk isn't it?" The fact that Iroh was talking to him again surprised him almost as much as him guessing the reason for his visit. An involuntary smile showed itself because of Iroh's adeptness at reading him.

"I don't want to know how you know that, but yes, it is. He's worse than Azula is and they're both in on something. I don't know what it is, but I can tell. Whenever I see them it's like he's been pleading with her about something and he would never do that from the way he acts normally."

"If they were going to strike at you they would want to make you something useless. What's useless in Azula's mind?"

Zuko gave a snort of disgust, "Pretty much everything. The only people she doesn't seem to hate are dad and Rayk. She might actually like Rayk if dad hadn't made him her fiancée."

"He made Rayk her fiancée? Hahaha, I really wish I could see that, it must be pretty funny. Thos two should drive each other crazy!" Iroh's outburst startled Zuko and aggravated him. He cloaked the little bit of happiness he felt at seeing Iroh laugh again.

"It's not funny Uncle! They both have to go through me!"

Iroh suddenly became serious again, "You're assuming they're going after the throne."

"It doesn't matter what they're going after, I can tell I'm in the way and not knowing how I am is driving me crazy!"

"How would they make you useless?"

"You mean besides kill me?" Zuko became very thoughtful, "They'd need to make it so I'd never be able to recover so it would have to be in the public's eye, but Azula's so socially hopeless that it'd be impossible. They'd try something that would make me do it myself."

"You're getting there."

"If you know what they're doing why can't you just tell me?!"

"Because I'm not always going to be around to help you like this."

When he heard that something clicked in Zuko's head, "They'd make me like you."

"And what's the difference between you and me right now?"

Zuko's anger towards Iroh for getting thrown in jail in the first place chose to surface now, "I remained loyal to my country?"

"That's the reason I didn't want to talk to you in the first place. I was hoping that you'd rethink your decision. Instead, you sided with Azula." Iroh's voice had become far more potent, "Think about what that means Zuko. You joined her ranks the second you chose to fight the avatar. You got everything you wanted at the price of becoming more like her!"

Zuko's first epiphany was followed by a second, "They'd kill Mai to make me like you."

Iroh gave a sad smile to show that his rant hadn't been pointless, but Zuko barely saw it when he ran out of the room. Iroh's smile persisted when the guard came back in, he felt bad doing that.

Zuko didn't even need to round the corner to Mai's house to know he was too late. The sky was tinged orange and he'd seen the pillar of smoke as soon as he'd stepped out of the jail. He'd raced towards her house anyway, pleading with the spirits that he wasn't too late and that he could help somehow.

He rounded the corner and ran up to the military officer standing near the house, "What's going on here?"

"This family has been convicted of treason. We've been ordered to arrest them so they can stand trial." Zuko's rage filled up to its limit when he thought of Azula sitting happily in a room somewhere, gloating over screwing him over for the millionth time in his life. His rage spilled over when he saw Mai led away with the rest of her family, in chains. Azula would answer for this.

Rayk knocked politely on the door and entered when no words of protest were given. Azula was sitting with her back to the door and staring at something on her desk. He walked over to the desk and looked over her shoulder at the piece of paper that had paralyzed her. It was a court summons with Mai and Ty-Lee's names on it.

"I thought you had been lieing up until now. I never thought dad would do something like this…"

"Well don't say I didn't warn you. You know what the next step he's going to take is so you might want to start cooperating with me before it's really too late."

Azula was still in shock and when she finally spoke again Rayk wasn't sure she'd heard him, "You know I used to think that dad sort of idolized me and that I could use him as a cushion to fall back on."

"Okay, so your world got shaken a little bit, are you going to let you reputation fall to bits now?" Rayk was getting a little panicky; he hadn't expected her to come close to falling apart this easily.

"I always thought I'd have those two to fall back on…"

"Okay seriously, I know you can hear me so start acting like you actually are." Rayk bent down and put his hands on her shoulders to get her to focus on him.

It was unfortunately at that exact moment that Zuko came running into the room with a murderous intent. This melted away as it looked like Rayk had been moving in for a kiss. The look of confusion on his face was so overwhelming that it spread to show through his entire body.

Rayk rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh, "Why does karma hate me so much…I don't know what you're thinking right now, but nothing is what it looks like now. We got blind sided with this just like you." He held up the court summons, "We were trying to figure out what to do from here."

"You mean Mai wasn't the only one?" Zuko rage diminished a little when he heard that.

"Yeah, daddy dearest over there," Rayk nodded in the direction of the throne room, "got a little jumpy because your sister,"

"I am right here you know", Azula had evidently recovered, but Rayk ignored her, "and decided to get rid of the most likely accomplices."

Zuko rage started to come back, "So this is all your fault!" He made a threatening step towards Azula, though he knew that he still didn't stand a chance against her.

Rayk stepped between them, "Relax, right now we should try to figure out what to do. If your dad's gone this far there's no telling what he'll do next."

"I already know what I'm doing: I'm getting Mai out of jail and getting out of here with her!" Before Rayk could stop him he'd turned and left.

Azula started speaking behind him, "Rayk, I just had an epiphany."

"I suppose you're going enlighten me?"

"The throne is dead. Zuko is going to run away and father doesn't trust me so when he goes too far and there are uprisings in the capital the royal family will fall."

"You have no idea how to fix this, do you?"

"None that we have time for."

"Well, I know one person that we could get advice from."

"Please tell me you don't mean uncle?"

"You remember me saying that I beat him at pai sho? Well that was after a few games."

Zuko's step had acquired an aura of unmovable determination that only came when you're hell bent on doing something. He went to his room and collected what he needed from it: his broad swords, 'peasant clothes' as he called them, a travelling pack, and the clothes he worn when he'd become the 'Blue Spirit'. He put a cloak on before he left and made his way through the city towards the prison. This one was located nearer the hub of the city because it held lower grade criminals.

When he was halfway there a wave of nostalgia hit him and he was drawn to a small stand on the side of the road. The man running had masks lining the cart. Zuko scanned them and picked one out once he was sure the original one wasn't there. His new identity had a red face with curving fangs coming out of the moth into a psychotic grin. The eyes were circles trimmed in white and there was a white crescent moon turned into a 'U' on the fore head.

Mai and Ty-Lee were in cells across the hall from each other near the front of the building because 'they wouldn't be here long' as the guard had put it. As soon as she thought of that she heard thump outside the door. When it opened the guard's body fell into the room with a trail of blood leading from his head to the ground.

Standing over the body was somebody dressed almost all in black but wearing a mask in the shape of a grinning demon. The person darted into the room and the mask stopped directly in front of Mai.

She peered through the eye holes, "Zuko what are you doing here?" She actually sounded shocked and Zuko actually stumbled backwards because of it.

Once he'd recovered he came back over and started to pick the lock, "I'm getting you out of here. My father's gone crazy. He'll be after me, Rayk and Azula next." He was talking fast because an unconscious guard bleeding onto the floor was definitely going to attract some attention.

"So you're coming with us?" Ty-Lee's voice cut through the darkness the place seemed to get a little lighter there was so much joy in it.

"No, you're both getting out of here. I'm staying to try and stop him going after you. Remember the cottage? Go there and wait, I'll come eventually, probably with Azula and Rayk." Zuko had finished with the locks and the doors swung open.

"Go through the window," he pointed towards near the back of the room, "I'll distract,"

"There he is!" A new batch of guard had shown up at the doorway.

"GO!" Zuko yelled as he took out his two broadswords and got ready to fight.

Five minutes later a shadow with a red face crept out of a window in the jail and slipped away into the night.