Tinderbox – Part Four
Disclaimer: Nickelodeon owns questionable Earth Kingdom fashion choices and all other Avatar-related trademarks. I own a three year-old green jacket. Who do you think is making the profit here?
---
Wildfire danced on the horizon. The charred corpses of dead trees stretched out before him. Zuko could make out thin lines of ash and ember among the black.
The late hour didn't hamper his vision. Flame cast the area in hell's own twilight.
A bone crunched beneath the heel of Zuko's boot. Something squished against the leather. He ignored it. Oily smoke and the scent of burnt flesh fold him all that he needed to know, and the Firebender preferred not to dwell upon the latter.
All the fauna fit to travel had left the area hours ago. Nocturnal birds did not break the peace. There were no leaves left for the wind to rustle. Here, in the wake of the great blaze, Zuko was entirely alone.
Too alone for comfort.
Where the hell was Azula?
If this was Azula's idea of a trap, then she hadn't left herself much cover to work with. The idea that his sister would spring out at him from under a mound of ash was laughable. Azula wouldn't take a win that involved crawling in the dirt like a bandit. Not when it came to showing up her brother.
The ruins of Azula's tank gaped open a mere forty meters away. Zuko eyed the wreckage warily. He'd expected to be in the fray by now. Heading to the scene of the crime had been an excuse to run into trouble and kick it until it bled. No muss. No fuss. No running and hiding and compromising his dignity as he'd been forced to for months on end. After taking on the enemy Zuko could join Uncle without having to worry about what might or might not follow him.
Yet fate, as usual, refused to cooperate with Zuko's best intentions. No one was left here. Azula and her other crony would have attacked him by now if they were around. He didn't see any rampaging beasts, spirits, mercenaries, or soldiers.
There was only peace and quiet. That meant he could go to Uncle, didn't it? They could leave without further stress, right? Everything had worked out in his favor.
Maybe.
Zuko started walking towards the tank debris at a slow, measured pace. There was no discounting the possibility that there was a booby trap in the ruins. Walking into one might actually be relieving. He was growing habitually suspicious of situations where he didn't have to struggle to get what he wanted.
Bushes rustled from behind him.
Zuko whirled into a Firebending stance.
A dark figure burst forth from the untouched forest.
Zuko hadn't expected an offensive from that direction, but he refused to be surprised. His tension drained away. Uncle said that the most power lay in a relaxed and confident stance.
Zuko was relaxed. He was also confident. This fight was exactly what he'd been looking for.
The figure charged forward with arms trailing. Its coat flapped behind it like the wings of some demented carrion bird. Zuko didn't know what this person was trying to pull by running up on his blind-spot without taking a combat position, and he wasn't going to wait around to find out.
The Firebender exhaled sharply, and made a chopping motion with his right hand. An arc of flame shot out to intercept his opponent. The ground before her feet erupted in sparks – the embers of the wildfire reignited. She leapt over his warning shot fearlessly, wreathed in acrid black smoke.
Zuko could make out a girl's face in the firelight. Her features were as pale and sharp as carved bone. Her expression was closed and without flaw.
Mai.
Unbelievable. The thing that came after him was the one thing he thought he'd settled.
Mai's steps were light. She wove her way through fallen tree-trunks as though they weren't even there. Soon she'd pass right by him. If she reached the ruins of the tank then she could use the frame as a shield.
That was unacceptable.
Zuko refused to feel disappointment or self-reproach over his failed containment strategy. He was stronger than that and he would prove it. He would summon up some anger to cauterize those annoying feelings and return his attention to the task at hand.
The Firebender sunk his weight into the earth, and then pushed with the balls of his feet, launching himself upwards. His torso twisted in midair as he executed a flawless lateral spinning kick.
All that he managed to kick was the ends of Mai's pigtails. She'd flung herself into a somersault the second she saw Zuko pounce. He could hear the raggedness of her breath.
Zuko landed in a crouch. A circle of flame briefly flared and spiraled out around him – a precaution in case Mai got any more brilliant ideas about imitation acrobatics. It disturbed the charcoal on the ground and released another cloud of thick black smoke. Zuko's bad eye stung with remembered pain. He struggled to bite back a curse.
The distraction gave Mai sufficient time to recover from her roll and continue forward.
"What do you think you're doing?" Zuko stalked out of the haze. The contours of Zuko's rage were as worn and familiar as the leather grips of his broadswords.
Mai didn't reply.
"I want answers!" Zuko barked, all too aware that he couldn't provide a bite to match. Ground strikes would give her more cover in these conditions. If he aimed for flesh he wouldn't miss.
A Prince wouldn't be so weak as to hold back and place himself in peril for a weak-hearted ideal of aristocratic behavior. But Zuko wasn't a prince anymore.
Zuko's fingertips grazed the handles of his broadswords, reflexively. When he realized what he was doing he withdrew as if scalded.
He charged off in pursuit, empty-handed.
---
Tsk, such dramatics. Flair for the theatrical was one of the few things that Zuko had in common with Azula. So was command of superhot magical flames. Were she not long inured to the Princess' antics, Mai undoubtedly would have been terrified.
Instead she felt inexplicably lighthearted. That wasn't a very sensible attitude to have when you were caught between a wall of flame and an ornery Firebender. Perhaps it had something to do with heightened combat chi flow. Mai might look it up, back home, if she miraculously discovered that she cared.
As it was, Mai was thankful that she'd made it to the shell that had once been Azula's prized tank. The scorched earth was rough - cracked and oddly uneven. It had taken all of her concentration not to fall on her face during the Prince's onslaught.
Mai ducked back behind the tank's skeletal frame. Her eyes searched frantically for any sign of gleaming metal in the debris. There was no time to be dismayed about her clothing or her scrolls. The weapons locker at the aft was made of the finest Firebender-tempered steel, and Mai's spares were in there.
"Whatever you're doing, stop." Zuko's voice was heavy with warning. He'd slowed his pace. Evidently he'd noticed that the chase was off.
Mai attempted to open a cabinet door, and hissed in pain. The metal hadn't cooled.
"No," Mai refused. She was glad that her breath had returned.
She drew a kitchen knife from the heavy folds of her sleeves.
"If you come near me, I'll stab you," Mai bluffed. She had no idea how far Zuko's martial skills had progressed, since Azula was rarely an accurate source of information about her brother. Maybe Mai'd be able to get the hit in before Zuko overwhelmed her with physical strength. Maybe she wouldn't.
Zuko would have to gamble on it. Before that, he'd have to think, which left Mai with a few precious moments to try prying the weapons locker open with her spare hand.
"So?" Zuko flicked a tendril of fire just over her head. Mai ignored the rush of heat and wrapped a sleeve around her free hand. Then she grabbed the door handle and heaved.
"You're not going to set me on fire," Mai informed Zuko. He'd spent all day being predictable. There was no reason for him to stop now.
"I don't need to set you on fire."
"Is that so?" Mai arched an eyebrow. The effect was entirely spoiled by the effort that she had to put into tugging on the cupboard handle. The force of the explosion had really jammed that door in there.
One more good pull and she'd have it.
"Yes," Zuko said, through clenched teeth. He looked frustrated enough to chew rocks.
"Get close enough to punch me, and I'll stab you. Flesh can't block a blade," Mai retorted. She put all of her strength into one final, desperate effort. The door came free and she nearly tumbled backwards.
A shelf's worth of throwing knives awaited her.
She reached forwards, and got her hands on a pair of stilettos just in time to block the broadsword slashing towards her side. The blade was heavier than her daggers, and its wielder possessed a practiced strength. Mai's wrists stung with the impact. Forget close-range stabbing. There was no way she could beat the reach of Zuko's glorified cleavers.
Mai threw herself to the side, dodging wildly. Her thoughts had come un-shuffled. She needed a moment to put them back together.
Instinct told Mai that Zuko would not give one to her.
"Those weren't for show," she stalled. If she could back up and get the distance for throwing, she might be able to upset Zuko's advantage.
Charred flora crunched beneath her feet. She could feel the cracks in the soil beneath the thin soles of her slippers.
Zuko's shoulders flexed, and he spun his swords in a deadly figure-eight. He used the deceptively lazy-looking movements of the extremely well-practiced. That was all the response he was going to give her.
No. The swords were not, as Mai had assumed, a show to keep robbers off his back.
Mai was in trouble.
She sacrificed one of her knives to the greater good, throwing it towards an important tendon in Zuko's forearm. A test.
The broadswords flashed. Mai's knife skittered to the side.
Her eyes widened, imperceptibly. Zuko kept advancing forwards. Mai kept stepping back.
"Ox-tail broadswords? What happened to you? You've only been with the peasants for four months."
Zuko's mouth twisted into a grimace. He almost looked embarrassed. What need would a Firebender Prince have, to use such a lowly civilian weapon?
"And what would you know about where I've been?"
Touche.
Zuko was steering Mai away from the tank and towards the forest fire. The scraps of her possessions receded from view. She needed a plan.
"I don't want to hurt you," Zuko told her, advancing. Sentimental again. It explained why he hadn't already tried to end this. "Tell me what you're doing out here. I want information on my sister."
Mai looked back at the ruined tank. Ty Lee's Feng Shui board caught her eye, since it was festooned with gaudy pink characters, and beyond that was the insulated weapons locker that she'd just opened.
Of course.
Mai had her plan.
"I only wanted my weapons. You're blowing things out of proportion," Mai drew the largest of her knives and shifted it in the palm of her hand. Zuko crossed his blades warily. Metal flashed in the wildfire. Infernal light made Zuko's scar look less like hideously melted skin and more like the hide of some strange spirit.
"I don't believe you."
"You don't have to."
With that, Mai snapped her arm back, and threw the knife as hard as she could. It flew straight across the wall of the cabinet that she'd just opened, striking sparks across the steel, before embedding itself the trio's bag of blasting compound. The volatile black powder spilled out onto the ground, innocuous as sand.
Until it made contact with still-smoldering embers.
An explosion blossomed against the night sky.
Zuko'd thrown himself at Mai the second that she let loose the knife, but she'd created her distraction, and if his attention wavered she'd twist free and run even though she had no place to go and-
The unstable earth beneath the pair collapsed, and Mai's plan ceased to matter.
---
When the world collapsed around Zuko, he'd been halfway through an improvised takedown. His superior weight was meant to pin Mai for interrogation.
Now, Zuko's superior weight was half-buried in shale, his legs half-drowned by shards of rock. Some of them dug into his calves painfully. He could feel blood trickle down his right leg.
Zuko's breath was short. That was what came of slamming into the side of a crater ribcage-first. The collapse had kicked up clouds of charcoal. Flakes of ash seared at his skin.
He opened his bad eye, since his good one was still pressed into the dirt, and he hadn't the will to lift his head just yet.
The blurry figure to the side of him was Mai. He knew this because his left arm was flung over her abdomen. Mai's face was an abstract blob in his vision, but there was no one else it could be. He could feel the rhythm of her breath against his bicep.
Something tickled against his fingers, in contrast to the dull pain of impact. Mai's hair had come loose.
Zuko felt the fight seep out of him.
"Earthbenders," Zuko grunted, once he'd regained his breath.
"Earthbenders," Mai agreed, quietly.
Careless or excessive Earthbending could create seismic disturbances. Any half-educated baboon knew that.
"Shrapnel?" Zuko enquired, because it seemed like the right thing to do. Or maybe because he'd jarred his head and wasn't thinking clearly.
It was just that he was tired – so tired of battling things that could not be fought.
Mai cracked her back. The sound wasn't pleasant. Then she raised her right hand. A nasty bruise darkened on her wrist.
"Clipped by Ty Lee's feng shui board."
"Ah."
The offending object was embedded in the dirt just above them.
Silence thickened.
"They couldn't have been very skilled Earthbenders," Mai muttered darkly. She tried to push herself up into a sitting position, and then sagged back into place. Mai's hands must be lacerated. Her palms left dark patches on the shale.
"I've fought Earthbenders. They throw rocks," Zuko snorted with derision.
"One threw an avalanche at us," Mai responded evenly.
And that was supposed to be impressive to him?
"That's still throwing rocks."
"They are peasants," Mai allowed.
"With no education," Zuko agreed. "These provincial towns have no purpose beyond survival. It's all the same."
"It is," Mai drawled. "That's why we crusade for change."
"Right." Zuko dismissed her sarcasm. If more people would say what they meant, and act as they said, then none of this bullshit would be happening.
"It's all the same," Mai threw Zuko's words back at him. Except her voice was bone-dry, and it still retained the clipped inflection of Court. Zuko hadn't realized how stilted and rough his speech and become until that moment. "I thought it would be different."
"The towns?"
"The world. Sook Yin – the headwoman – she wants something. It's like being in the Fire Court except with soggy food and no good porcelain."
Zuko couldn't remember the last time that he'd eaten off of porcelain. It was impractical to carry breakable things aboard-ship. He tried valiantly to recall what it looked like to see fine porcelain in candlelight, or sit through a state banquet, and found only vague impressions.
Home was fading. All it left behind was the chilling premonition that one day he really would be nothing but a filth-covered Earth Kingdom fugitive.
"So go back. You're not wanted here," Zuko said pitilessly. Zuko was an old hand at bitterness. If Mai wanted to beat him at that game, he'd like to see her try.
"Right." Mai rolled her eyes.
Azula. Right.
Everything about this conversation was surreal. Zuko's old life pained him like a phantom limb.
The Firebender withdrew his left arm awkwardly. He wasn't comfortable with surreal. The real gave him enough problems.
"I still want my answers." Zuko heaved himself up by his elbows. Sharp rocks scraped against his belly. With enough leverage he should be able to free his legs.
"I already gave them to you."
Zuko glared at Mai. She stared back. It was jarringly unlike when they were children.
"You think I planned this?" Mai snapped.
"I don't know."
"I-"
Voices in the distance. Zuko clamped his hand over Mai's mouth to keep her quiet. For some reason that prompted Mai to bite down on the fleshy base of his thumb, but Zuko managed to choke back any verbal reaction.
"Quiet," he whispered.
"What happened here?" A male voice snapped, irate. Zuko flattened himself against the wall of the crater. Shadow and angle should conceal the both of them.
"You think it was the fuel tanks, sir?"
"Dammit, I knew we should have brought an engineer in to examine their disgusting war-machine after the fight. Get Sergeant Shigure out here. He's with the Earthbenders trying to rout the eastern edge forest fire."
"Sir! Yes sir!"
"General Fong isn't going to like this. We're meant to be undercover ops," the officer muttered. A rustling sound followed.
The Earth Kingdom Army. That was bad news.
Zuko and Mai remained motionless until it was clear that both soldiers had left.
"Let's go," Zuko decided. He dug his legs free, ignoring the way the shale scraped at his flesh, and then helped to pull Mai up from the debris.
Mai dug her knife-belt out of the ash. Then she retrieved that stupid Feng Shui board. Zuko didn't take long to find where his own swords had fallen. This wasn't the time to be self-conscious about not fighting like a real Firebender. What was done was done.
Zuko set off for cover in the un-burnt forest. Mai followed at her own, reluctant pace. It belatedly occurred to Zuko that she might be worried.
"We'll return to the village," he said, gruffly. "We need rest."
The rest could sort itself out later.
"We?"
"Yeah."
Zuko kept walking.
"Who cares about this pathetic territory?" Mai complained, agitated. "These stupid power-struggles are all the same. Only idiots care about things this boring."
Zuko paused.
"I care."
Zuko heard a soft sigh, before Mai quickened her pace. Somehow his challenge cemented their truce.
The pair walked back to town in silence. ---
Author's Note OF DOOM: All the technical detail in this episode is as accurate as this history nerd can make it. I think I can live with it if a future episode of Avatar contradicts me. That said, I should probably use this author's note to explain myself! I don't want anyone to think that I'm pulling Zuko's sword-angst out of my ass.
In The Blue Spirit, when Zuko fights other Fire Nation swordsman, you'll notice that their blades are much straighter and narrower than his. The sword types are very different.
The Fire Nation army appears to use jain straight-swords and willow-leaf sabers - standard weaponry for ancient Chinese military and government officials. Zuko uses ox-tail sabers – a style of broadsword that was never adpoted by the respectable classes. Peasant rebels invented the ox-tail saber. Most peasants had no military training; it was easier for them cause damage with the heavier, wider ox-tail sabers, than make precision strikes with thinner swords. The ox-tail saber was used in several anti-government uprisings during the Qing dynasty.
People who used ox-tail sabers were often self-taught, sometimes bastardizing techniques from martial arts schools. Iroh doesn't seem to know about Zuko's swords, so Zuko is probably mostly self-taught as well. It explains a lot about Zuko's reluctance to pull the swords out in front of anyone that matters, if he's using peasant weapons. Shame and pride get in the way of his kicking ass.
That's my theory and I'm sticking to it! So much love to the Avatar writers for the martial arts detail they stick into every episode.