More Than Blood Can Stand

Chapter 28: Fog of War

When Ursa had asked to help Master Piandao to save Zuko, she had envisioned sitting in a safe room and using her considerable calligraphy skills to design propaganda posters. Low risk, high reward. And initially, that is all she had done.

But the combined problems of ever-expanding operations and losses of operatives to imprisonment - or sometimes death - had by necessity led her to increase her role to include riskier activities: hanging posters in the middle of the night, recruiting more operatives, and rarely, outright spying.

She hated taking this kind of risk. Her forced engagement to Ozai, his treatment of her and her children during their marriage, and Zuko's adoption had taught her that risk avoidance was survival. Keep your mouth shut, keep your head down, and keep out of trouble. That was the way to survive in the palace. But even though her heart raced and her palms grew sweaty every time she left Piandao's home, she would do what was necessary to right her husband's wrongs.

If only she hadn't been so bad at it.

She sighed and let her head thud against the cool stone wall of her prison cell. Ozai would be here soon. She didn't want to imagine what he would say. Or do.

Nevermind. She would just have to be strong. She wouldn't say a word, she would maintain her composure, she would be an enigma. She would-

The door at the end of the hallway creaked open, and footsteps thudded through the hall towards her cell.

She gulped and unconsciously slid back as far against the wall as she could as his face appeared through the bars. He had bags under his eyes and he seemed drawn and weary. But there was still that unsavory gleam in his eyes that made her shudder.

"Hello, Ursa."

As soon as Mai was sure she was out of Zuko's sight, she sat down on a rock and put her head in her hands.

What had she done?

Telling Zuko about Fire Lord Iroh was always going to make him angry at her; she had known that for months now, and had accepted its inevitability. But she had never expected him to react like this. He was hotheaded, yes, like most firebenders, but he had always seemed to be able to control it. She tried to think of a time when she had seen him completely lose his temper, and came up short. Apparently this had been his breaking point.

She should have kept her mouth shut and let him find out about his uncle along with the rest of the world, when he revealed it himself. But last night, seeing him so heartbroken over Hinata, hearing him say she was the only person he had left… Her heart clenched now remembering it. No, she couldn't let him continue to believe that. She had to give him hope.

That hope is going to get him killed.

She balled her fists and shook her head. What a fool she was. How could she protect him now? Azula almost certainly had her forces combing the forest right now. She would find him before Mai even had a chance. And with no one there to protect him…

No. She wouldn't let that happen. She would do anything to prevent that. She stood up and, suddenly sure of herself, started walking towards the camp.

It was time to go back to what she did best. It was time, once again, to be a spy.

She entered the clearing cautiously, not wanting to become target practice for any lingering Yuyan, but the place was empty. The funeral pyre was still burning, though much of it had been consumed.

Checking the clearing once more to be sure she was alone, she leaned close to the fire, close enough for the hem of her sleeve to catch fire. She knew silk burned slowly, more smoldering than igniting, but her heart still raced as she backed away, watching the trail of smoke creep closer to her skin and trying to gauge how long she could afford to wait before extinguishing it.

When she couldn't stand it anymore, she fell to the ground, covered the singed fabric with dirt, and began to roll it on the ground until it stopped smoldering. Then she dusted it off and surveyed the damage.

The edge of her sleeve was black and ragged, curling back at the edges, and in a few places nearly three inches shorter than it had been. Her gloves had mostly protected her hands, but there was some very mild burning on her wrist. She allowed herself a small nod. That was exactly the effect she had been going for.

She considered lighting the other sleeve, or the hem of her dress, but decided against it. She only had one change of clothes in her pack, and she didn't want to ruin this outfit any more than was necessary.

Instead, she walked into the center of the clearing, sat down cross-legged, and waited.

She did not have to wait long. Not more than ten minutes later, Azula, Ty Lee, and Ling came into view.

"Mai!" Ty Lee squealed and ran towards her, arms open.

She stood up and dutifully accepted the proffered hug. "It's good to see you."

And it was. A part of her had wondered if Ty Lee had survived her injury in Ba Sing Se, and seeing her alive relieved at least one worry she had been carrying inside.

"What are you doing here?" Ty Lee asked as she backed away. "We thought you were traveling with Zuko and the Avatar's friends."

Ty Lee obviously had no deeper motive for asking this, but Mai could see the suspicious glint in Azula's eyes and knew that what she said here would make or break her story. Lying to Azula was difficult at the best of times, when she wasn't already suspicious…

She smiled wryly at Ty Lee. "They all left me."

"Where did they go?"

"The waterbender and the blind girl went off to rescue the Avatar." She was fairly certain the Yuyan were already expecting that, so she didn't think saying it out loud would put Toph and Katara in any extra danger. "I don't know where Zuko went."

Azula frowned. "And why is he still alive?"

Rolling her eyes, Mai gestured towards the fire. "Hinata." She did her best to inject her voice with a hint of venom. "He never trusted me, was always following me around, watching me, and keeping me away from Zuko. I thought once he was dead I'd get my chance, but the blind earthbender kept too good a watch.

"When she left this morning, I made up my mind to do it." She grimaced and raised her sleeve for them to see. "We fought. He got away. And good riddance, if you ask me. I'm sick of living like peasants."

"I expected better of you, Mai," Azula snapped, and Mai gritted her teeth and settled in for a long, furious rebuke.

But she didn't care, because the fact that she was getting yelled at instead of executed meant she'd been believed.

It hadn't taken Appa long to get within striking distance of where the Yuyan archers were holding Aang and Sokka. Katara guided him just close enough to catch sight of them - and draw a volley of arrows in their direction - before flying away to find a hiding spot. The hope was that the Yuyan would think they had decided against attacking and were running away, instead of scouting their position so they could sneak in later.

That was probably a false hope, but on the off chance that it worked, she would be really proud of herself.

The only conversation they'd had in the air was to discuss the details of their plan. It was a good plan, as good as any they could have under the circumstances, but after their rather catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Yuyan last time, neither of them had a great deal of confidence that someone wasn't going to end up injured again - hopefully not critically - and that they would be in a worse position than before.

If only she had learned to heal! Why had she so foolishly clung to the idea that she had anything to prove? Yes, the Northern Water Tribe subjugated and underestimated their women. That was undeniable. But why had she been so blind that she couldn't realize the power those women did have?

Learning to fight, to kill, may have seemed more glamorous, but the true power lay in healing. She saw this now, and she vowed that if she ever made it back to the North Pole, she would immediately go to the healing hut, apologize to Yugoda, and ask permission to be her student.

She shook herself from her thoughts as Appa landed in a dense thicket of trees. Time to forget about what could have been and focus on what she could do now. She was a powerful waterbender - Master Pakku had seen to that - and if she did her job correctly, they had an excellent chance of rescuing Aang and Sokka, and maybe even of escaping.

"Are you ready?" She asked Toph once they were both on the ground.

"Yep." Her lips were set in a grim line. "Did you see a water source?"

"There's a river between us and them. I should be fine."

The trek back to the convoy was a lot longer than it had seemed from the air. It was late afternoon by the time they reached the river, and they were both hungry and tired. They drank some water and forded the river at a shallow spot, and then took a brief rest before continuing on.

Katara, especially, was going to need all the strength she could get, because this was where her job began. She closed her eyes and held out her hands over the water, gathering up as much as she could control, and then separated it into droplets, dispersing it into a massive, thick fog that enveloped an area the size of her village back home.

She couldn't see a thing, but that didn't matter because Toph could. She grabbed Katara around the waist - her arms were busy bending - and led her down the path.

She had begun to wonder just how long it was going to take, when she heard a voice from up ahead.

"There's a fog rolling in from the southeast, sir."

"That's odd," a second voice said. "Not the right kind of weather for fog."

There was a pause, and another voice, tense and commanding, spoke up. "That's not a natural fog. It's the waterbender! Fan out and move into the fog."

Katara broke into a nervous sweat. This wasn't how the plan was supposed to go. They were supposed to actually get into the midst of the convoy before they got suspicious.

"What do we do?" she whispered.

Toph's arm clutched her waist tighter. "Can you control that fog if you can't see it?"

"I don't know." She bit her lip. "I think so?"

The words were barely out of her mouth before she felt the ground dropping out from under her, and she and Toph fell into a deep pit. She barely retained control over the fog as she hit the ground, but there it was, niggling at the edges of her consciousness, still suspended in the air above ground.

At least, she thought it was. The pit was so profoundly dark and unnaturally silent that it sent chills down her spine. Toph had closed the top of the pit. They were hiding underground.

"Can't get hit by arrows down here," Toph said, voice unaccountably light and cheerful.

"I hate this," Katara shuddered. Growing up in the South Pole, she had become used to prolonged darkness and confined spaces, but there had always been a fire. With no source of light, the walls and ceiling of the pit seemed to close around her, suffocating her. Her breaths came in shallow gasps, and a rushing sound filled her ears.

She took a deep steadying breath, blocked everything else out but the water droplets above ground.

"Come on, Sugar Queen." Toph tugged on her again, pulling her in some unknowable direction. "We don't have all day."

It's the waterbender, the commander had said.

Aang pulled against his restraints so he could peer through the bars of his cage, heart beating. The thickest fog he had ever seen was slowly creeping towards him.

Katara! What a relief that was; she had finally showed up to rescue him. But dread quickly followed relief, as a dozen or more archers disappeared from view, bows ready. He waited with bated breath for Katara to lose control of the fog, to hear her cry as she was found. But it never came.

The fog rushed forward, inexorable, until it had overtaken the first line of archers, then the second. They called out to each other, orders being shouted all the while. And still the fog came. In another moment it had reached him, seeping through the bars and obscuring his view. The temperature around him dropped several degrees with the advent of the fog, and he shivered. He wished, not for the first time, that airbender robes weren't so thin.

Time seemed to pass slowly, each minute an eternity. When would they get to him? The voices of the archers calling to each other was still far off, but it was only a matter of time before someone found their way over to him.

Then, out of nowhere, there was a rumbling sound from below and Katara's voice hissed through the fog.

"Now what? I can't see!"

"Join the club," Toph's voice bit back.

"But you have your earthbending. You should know where the cages are!"

"All I can sense are wheels. Probably on wooden wagons, but I can't sense diddly squat past them."

"Then how are we supposed to know-"

"Katara! Toph!" he interrupted. "I'm up here!"

"Aang!" Katara called.

"His voice came from that direction," Toph said. "Come on. I think I know which wagon he's on."

The next thing he knew the fog had thinned. He could see the bars of his cage, though he still couldn't see anything beyond it. And he could hear the distinct sound of waterbending from beneath him. Several moments later, the wagon lurched, creaking loudly enough that he was sure it would attract the notice of any nearby archers.

Then there was a grinding sound like metal on metal, and the floor dropped out from beneath his feet. He yelped at the sudden pain in his shoulders, which were still chained to the sides of the cage, and kicked his feet out to the sides until they hit the walls, slowly walking them up until his arms no longer felt like they were being ripped off his body.

He could just barely see Toph's face below him. "Nice catch," she grinned up at him. She shimmied herself up through the hole and started crumpling the cage onto itself, until she was almost eye-level with him.

She grabbed the chains holding his arms and tore them off his wrist. He dropped down through the hole and rubbed his wrists as they crouched together under what was left of the wagon.

Katara gave him a quick hug - she was close enough that he could see her - and smiled. "Where's Sokka?" she whispered.

"I think he's in the next wagon over." He hoped he was right; he had heard Sokka a time or two, but he had never actually seen him; the bars on his cage faced the wrong direction.

"Then let's get moving!" Toph grabbed them both by the wrists and dragged them several yards in what Aang thought was the direction of the wagon Sokka was in. It was so hard to tell in this fog.

"Sokka!" Katara called in a half-whisper. "Are you in there?"

"About time," came the sarcastic reply. Aang grinned and settled just next to the wheels to keep watch while Katara used her waterbending to start cutting through the wooden bottom of the wagon. It was slow going.

Then, from much nearer than any he'd heard before, came a cry from an archer. "There they are!"

Aang watched as a half-dozen figures appeared out of the fog.

"Guys, hurry up!" he said, glancing back.

"Got it!" Katara called with satisfaction. "Toph, get over here!" She grabbed Toph's hands and guided them towards the metal cage.

But any relief he felt melted into fear when he turned back and saw all of the archers with arrows on their bows, aiming…

He reached out to the fog for some water to form a barrier for them, but Katara had too tight a hold on it, and she was distracted.

They pulled back on their bowstrings.

Air wouldn't block arrows…

He acted on instinct the same moment the arrows left the bows, the only thought in his mind that if he didn't do something now, it would be too late. He sank into a horse stance, grounded himself to the earth, and pulled up with his hands. A wall of earth rose up before him just in time, thin and flimsy, but serviceable.

Almost too thin. One of the arrows had sunk so far into the wall that Aang could see the tip peeking out on the other side, just inches from his face.

But still. "I did it," he breathed. "I'm an earthbender!"

"Nice job, Twinkletoes, but better save the celebrations for later."

The next thing he knew, the floor had dropped out from beneath him and all light had vanished. Someone grabbed his hand and they started walking blindly - all except Toph, he reminded himself - through what appeared to be an underground tunnel.

"Ugh, so dark." Sokka complained after a few moments. "Where are the firebenders when you need them?"

Normally this is where Toph would make a sarcastic blind joke, or Katara would tease her brother, but both girls were strangely, uncomfortably silent.

"Um, where exactly are they?" Aang asked when he couldn't stand it any longer.

Toph blew out a sharp breath. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Don't want to talk about what?" Sokka asked warily, at the same time that Katara said, "Fine, I'll tell them. But not here."

Now Aang was beginning to feel panicked. "Tell us what?!"

But neither girl responded.

"Seriously?" Sokka said. "If you're going to say that much you may as well-"

"Hinata's dead," Toph said flatly. "Zuko and Mai are burying him, and we'll meet up with them later. And that's literally every word I'm going to say on the subject."

Aang felt like the world had dropped out from underneath him for the third time today, but this time it wasn't because of earthbending.

Hinata dead? That just seemed impossible. Sure, Azula and the Yuyan had been chasing after them, but that was to capture them, not kill them. Right? Suddenly the underground tunnel felt more like a tomb.

"Katara," Sokka began, but she cut him off immediately.

"Later. I promise I'll tell you later."

The rest of their underground walk took place in utter silence.

When Zuko woke up the next morning, the first thing he felt was regret. Not for his anger - that was justified - but for allowing his anger to control his actions.

All he had wanted, ever since the soldier had entered that meeting and told him that Uncle was dead, was to see him one more time. Mai had told him that was possible, was about to tell him where Uncle was, and instead of jumping at the opportunity, he had turned his back on it.

Knowing Uncle was nearby pulled his heart in all directions. Furious at Uncle for lying to him, aching with the longing to see him, and the simultaneous relief and disappointment that he wasn't really Fire Lord anymore, that he didn't have to fight his father alone, but he had also lost the chance to prove himself on his own. It was a confusing and overwhelming mix of emotions.

And Mai… the hurt and anger he felt towards her was still fresh, but now lurking just behind the anger was concern. What if she had been found by the Yuyan? Or worse, by Azula?

He considered walking back in the other direction to try to find her - hiding out of sight, because he still had no desire to speak to her - but quickly dismissed that as futile. He was hours behind her. If she had avoided getting caught yesterday, she had a pretty good chance of meeting up with Katara and Toph. And if she hadn't, there was nothing he could do about that now.

So what should he do?

He ought to make his way to the meetup point so that Katara and Toph didn't have to wait long. But that would mean either having to deal with Mai again or having to explain why she was missing.

And Uncle was nearby.

The Order of the White Lotus, Mai had said. Sounded like some kind of Pai Sho club.

What was it Uncle used to say? "Most people think the lotus tile insignificant, but it is essential for the unusual strategy that I employ."

Uncle had somehow never gotten around to explaining exactly what that unusual strategy was. Zuko had a feeling he could figure it out, now.

Convincing himself that a few more days wouldn't make a difference to Katara and Toph, he put his Blue Spirit mask back on and picked up his pack, and continued in the direction he'd been traveling yesterday. If he wasn't mistaken, he was fairly close to Chin Village.

A good game of Pai Sho might be just the thing to fix his messed-up life.