Thanks to my anonymous reviewers for their reviews on last chapter, and also thank you to everyone else who reviewed. :) Love you guys.

Dun dun dun, so here's another chapter. Now just remember, I need four (4) reviews or no update! I love you all, now please read and review and enjoy!


9. Strike Two

Mai sighed as everything came back to her. Sitting there under the apple tree, she heard Toph's words replaying in her head.

"But I hope you're happy, because you'll never have him back! You'll never have him back! You'll never have him back! You'll never have him back! You'll never have him back! You'll never have him back!"

It just kept going and going, like a choir of scolding voices, telling her the plain and ugly truth. She knew when she had kissed him that she was doing the wrong thing, but it hadn't stopped her. She had wanted it to stop her, but it hadn't. She just hadn't been able to control herself.

Damn it! Spirits above, damn it to hell! Why the hell did I just go and do that?! I totally just screwed the both of us... and probably Toph now too! Ugh! They're all gonna be so pissed at me now...

As Mai scolded herself for her so-not-genius idea, a leaf from the apple tree drifted down to rest on her head. She brushed it out of her hair in annoyance and sighed as she stood up. Then, she looked up at the cloudy sky.


"What's this?" Katara asked, picking up a small and vaguely familiar looking parcel sitting on her father's bed as she sat on its end. She tried to concentrate on the water rocking the ship, hoping that her element would take her mind off her heartache.

"Oh that? Um... well, it was my wedding present to you and Zuko... but I didn't get a chance to give it to you before this all happened," Hakoda explained, slightly nervous about bringing up his daughter's quickly failed marriage. At the same time he tried to stop himself from exploding with fury. That little bastard hurt his little girl!

"Oh... what was it?" Katara asked, once again picking the small parcel up and shaking it gently. Again, she heard that gentle, musical jingling.

Hakoda smiled, "Why don't you open it?"

Katara looked at the parcel uncertainly as she weighed it in her hands. Her father watched her with a hint of concern in his eyes. He could tell from the pained expression on her face that she was thinking about him.

"Or... maybe you should go and stay with Sokka and Suki. I'm sure you could all use some rest – you all had pretty full on days yesterday. First you all got married and then you had the party and then you were upset all night because... well, you know," he trailed off, knowing that his words weren't helping her at all. Hakoda hated himself just then, because he knew that there was nothing he could say or do that would make it all better.

But Katara didn't answer him or take her eyes off the parcel in her hands. Instead, she gently lay it down on the bed and started to pull off the wrapping paper, very gently.

Inside were two necklaces – a thin, black, leather strap to go around the neck. But the pendent for each of the necklaces were different. On one necklace, the pendent was Yin. And on the other necklace, the pendant was Yang. The pendent on each necklace was made of glass, and tainted the colour either black or white. When they bumped into each other, they made a little jingling sound and Katara would have smiled were it not for the pain she was going through.

"What are you going to do with them?" Hakoda asked after a long while. Katara looked at him, slightly dazed by how suddenly his voice had penetrated the silence and brought her out of her trance.

"I can't keep them… I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about him if I kept them."

"Maybe you should get rid of them," Hakoda suggested, half grudgingly. "Maybe you should leave them here and we'll go to the South Pole and leave them both behind."

Katara considered this for a moment as she picked up both of the necklaces. In her mind, she pictured it – she was standing next to Zuko, his arms around her waist as he held her. Her engagement necklace tied around her neck and the white Yang pendant dangled in front of her chest. Zuko's black Yin pendant got tangled in her hair and he took his time untangling it, playing with her hair and running his fingers over her ear, sweetly.

The waterbender shook the all-too-perfect image from her head with a sigh.

"I think I'll go and bury them out in the sand. I wouldn't mind a bit of a lonely walk on the beach just now. How long do you think it'll be before we're ready to leave?"

"I think you've got about an hour. Are you sure you want to go alone?"

"I'd rather be alone, yes," she murmured. Hakoda nodded silently as his daughter left the room.


"Oh, Mai… why does love always have to make a fool out of people?" Yue asked sadly. Azula stood behind her, looking over her shoulder as she bit her lip, hard. If she were human it would have been bleeding. Azula was quite surprised that it wasn't bleeding – she still managed to cry even though she was a spirit. Why not bleed? But still, she didn't.

A single tear ran down Mai's right cheek as she looked up at the grey sky.


"I'm sorry," she whispered to the sky.

Suddenly, she snapped out of it. That was a strange feeling that had overcome her. What's it called? Remorse? A deep sense of regret… yes, remorse.

With a sigh of defeat, she left the garden.


"You can still fix it… or try to anyway," Azula whispered, even though she knew that the girl could not hear her. "It will be hard, but you could at least go and apologize to her."

Ursa put her hand on her daughter's shoulder and Azula pursed her lips and said no more.


No one saw the two necklaces that Katara was clutching to her chest as she left the ship.

She walked silently along the beach, heading for a mass of rocks that was a collapsed part of the cliff that surrounded that part of the beach. She was going to bury the necklaces on the other side of those rocks.

I think I'll have time to get over there. Anyway, Dad wouldn't leave without me.

As she moved along, she looked back to see her footprints, imprinted in the sand. She sighed as she tried to stop herself from imagining another set of footprints next to her that Zuko would have left there as he had walked with her. But it was useless – her imagination seemed to want to cause her more and more pain.


"Where am I?" Aang asked weakly as Long Feng entered his cage-like prison. He lifted his head weakly as that other man came in behind him. But the Water Tribe man was nowhere to be found.

"Far away from where you want to be," the second man informed him. "I am Admiral Shang if you didn't know."

"Let me go!" Aang said as loud as he could. It was pretty weak. He was weak.

Both men laughed cruelly.

"I'm sorry, Avatar," Long Feng smirked. "But you won't be going anywhere."

"What are you planning?!" he demanded to know, his voice chocked.

"Why, isn't it obvious? Why would a couple of powerful men decide to capture the Avatar?" Long Feng asked rhetorically. "Why else, but to rule the world?!"

"You'll never win this game. You will never be able to rule the world. My friends will come and find me and save me and they will destroy you like we destroyed Fire Lord Ozai!"

"Ozai was weak! He was a fool, blinded by love, for his wife!" Shang spat. "Those Dai Li agents saw for themselves the way he looked at her when she suddenly appeared in the throne room. He was weakened by love, just as your friends were when we sent Windu for you."

"What are you talking about?" Aang asked weakly as he tried to get up. But there was a searing sensations right through his chest when he raised himself off the floor and he dropped himself back down with a sharp gasp. "What have you done to me?"

Long Feng laughed evilly, "Avatar, do you know why Fire Lord Zuko was found sleeping with Mai the night he married Katara?"

Aang's eyes grew very wide at the mention of the mishap of the night before. How did Long Feng know about that?

"Because… he was cheating on Katara?" It was a question, not a statement. As soon as Long Feng mentioned it, Aang knew he must have something to do with it.

Both men laughed at Aang's statement, "Then why did he go through with the wedding? Why weren't the two of them found together sooner? Do you really think that Zuko did not really love Katara? Do you really think that he slept with Mai on his own free will, or that Mai slept with him on her own free will?"

"You know something! What did you do?! Long Feng, what really happened?!" he asked as he once again tried to lift himself off the ground. He almost got onto his knees, but then Shang kicked him in the back and he fell back to the ground with a harsh thump.

Aang's breath came in hash and sharp gasps. He coughed and could taste blood in his mouth.

"What… what have you done to me?"

"We got the boy who captured you to drug you with a heavy antithetic. We've given you the highest dosage of it we can give you without killing you. Any more and you would already be dead," Long Feng informed him. "They're starting to wear off now, so that's why you're awake, but it's made you sick. And as for what we did… Shang, it was your idea, would you like to explain?"

"Certainly," the Admiral smirked. "You see, Avatar, we needed a distraction so that we could capture you. So we made our little… um, well, we'll call him a servant, knock out Zuko and Mai and put them in bed together so that it would look like something was going on the night of the wedding. While everyone was upset and distracted by what you all thought had happened and Zuko and Mai were confused, we decided that it would be the best time to get to you. And we were right. Our servant got in and out with you and without being caught."

"You… you… you put Mai and Zuko together like that?! So he wasn't cheating on Katara? And she wasn't sleeping with him on purpose? It… really was an accident?!" Aang didn't know what he should feel right now – should he be angry at the two despicable men in front of him or should he be relieved and happy that Zuko and Mai weren't really together behind backs? Either way, he needed to tell Katara that Zuko loved her and that he never meant to hurt her so that she'd stop crying.

"That's right, Avatar, they're both innocent of what you all accused them of."

"You…"

"And just to make sure this isn't resolved too fast, we're going a step further and twisting everything up even more," Long Feng added, before Aang could say what he thought of them.

"What are you talking about?"

"Strike two should be occurring in…" Admiral Shang extracted a pocket watch from somewhere within his robes.


No one saw Mai as she slunk down towards the docks. The Water Tribe ships were still anchored there and there were a few men moving quickly from the ships to the units and back again. And heading over to where the cliff had collapsed and scattered its rocks across the sand were a single set of footprints. Mai knew who they belonged to and without being seen by anyone else, she followed after them.


Katara sighed as she stood on top of one of the rocks, out of sight, hidden by the bigger ones she'd already climbed over. She looked down at the sand as she sighed.

The two necklaces were in her hands and she looked at them, half wanting to put one of them on, just so she would know how it would have felt to wear it. But she shook her head and forgot about it. Doing that would make her think about him more, and it would just make her hurt more.


"Ten," Shang started his countdown.


"Katara?" a hoarse voice spoke from behind her. Katara almost jumped as she turned to see her.


"Nine…"


"Mai," she hissed. "What do you want?"


"Eight…"


"I just want to talk to you and… Katara listen, I'm sorry, it's completely my fault, I –"

"Mai, I don't know who you think you are, but –"

"Would you just listen to me?!"


"Seven…"


"Why the hell should I do that?!'"

"Because I don't want you to blame Zuko for what you saw in the gardens! It was my fault. Completely my fault!"


"Six…"


"I threw myself at him when I heard you coming because I didn't want you two to end up together again," Mai confessed. "And I let jealousy get the better of me."

"So, you really are a selfish little –"

"Well look, maybe I am! And you know what, I'll admit to that!"


"Five…"


"Oh, sure you will! I'd like to hear that!" Katara snapped.

"Fine, I'm a selfish little bitch!" Mai yelled in her face and Katara felt her belly flip-flop at how she had done it. She meant it.

"Mai…?"


"Four…"


"Alright, there, it's my fault! I kissed him! And he's pissed at me for it! It wasn't his fault! It was my fault! It's all my fault! And I don't know what happened last night, but that was probably my fault to! Without even realizing it, it was probably my doing! I probably did something without meaning to that started this whole thing!" Tears were threatening to spill from Mai's eyes as she spoke, her voice holding an alarming amount of emotion, so much in fact, that Katara was stunned.

Katara wasn't so sure how to feel. Should she go off her head at Mai like she was telling herself to or thanking her for telling her that it wasn't Zuko's fault? But then, was it really all Mai's fault?


"Three…"


"But you know what, I give up! That was stupid of me to start kissing him out in the garden. Even if it had ruined you two forever, what good would it have done me?!" Tears started running down her cheeks. "It's like Toph said, I'll never have him back!"

"Wait –"

"Katara! He's yours, damn it! None of this was his fault!" Mai yelled at her.


"Two…"


"You should hate me! I deserve the world to hate me! I'm selfish and stupid and I've tried to rip you and Zuko apart because I'm hurting!" she sobbed. "But hurting everyone else… it – it isn't going to help me. Is it?" Her voice went back to its usual emotionless tone, but her face still held pain and defeat and misery.


"One…"


"Zuko?" Toph whispered.

"Yea?"

"What was that you said your mother said in your vision about protecting Katara?"

The Fire Lord slowly took his face out of his hands and looked up, and slowly turned to face Toph. She stared blindly at him for a long while.

"Oh, dear Agni…"


Katara saw him – Windu, creeping quickly behind Mai. He had a club in one hand and small potato sack in the other.

"Mai!" Katara pushed the girl to get her out of the way, but Windu swung the club anyway and hit two birds with one stone.

The last thing either of the girls heard before they lost consciousness was a soft jingling sound, and then the distant sound of small glass objects shattering as they hit the rocks.


Admiral Shang smirked, "Done!"

Long Feng looked to see Aang's reaction. He was glaring at the two men before him, absolutely fuming.

"What have you done now?!" Aang demanded.

"That's no way to talk to us, Avatar," he scolded.

Shang kicked him in the head and he lost consciousness.


Ta da! What did you think of that one? I really hope you liked it. Mwahahaha, and the plot thickens! ^_^ Tell me your thoughts and predictions in a review. And remember, I need 4 of them to be able to update!

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