Finishing this. Today. Avatar still isn't mine, naturally.

~Taidine

Chapter Thirteen: Of Rescues and Revelations

"Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be." – Ophelia

Katara and Aang watched in shock as the train drove off with their entire group, leaving them all but alone on the platform. "What… what do we do now?" Katara asked tremulously. "Should we go after them?"

"We activate the Amulet," said Aang. "I know Azula can't be trusted, but I don't think she'll hurt anyone – not until she gets what she wants."

He looked down at the first stained glass reflection on the concrete, bit his tongue, and swirled his hand delicately. A filament of air threaded along the colored light, following a shape that had been tiny white flowers in the window, but spread and smeared on the ground into elegant spirals.

"Hold these." He placed the fragments of the Amulet on Katara's palm, red, green, yellow, and blue, and began to walk, down to the next window, the shaped air rising and following him. "Water," he said, and Katara opened another Poland Spring bottle.

Down the platform they walked, commuters moving dazedly out of their way. A whip of fire, a stream of pebbles and dust motes, all wound and braided together in constant motion. Aang brought it up, like some kind of basket woven from the elements, twining around the fragments, following the instructions in the colored shadows cast by the stained glass.

Katara looked up worriedly – the clouds were returning, the window of sun shrinking. Soon the shadows and colors would disappear, the instructions becoming unreadable. But they were nearly to the end of the platform now…

Aang brought his hands together and the twisting elemental strands pulled like strings into a knot, tightening around the fragments. There was a burst of brilliant light, and a crash; the final window shattered, the lead soldering that had held the panes in place flying out along the lines laid down by Aang's bending, twisting, shaping itself into an intricate setting. When the light died down, the sun had gone behind a cloud; but glowing faintly in Katara's palm was a gemstone of swirling, marbled colors, bound by a lacework of lead.

"Nice," said Katara, and held it out for him. "Now what?"

"Now?" said Aang, looking down the train tracks. "Now we bring everyone home."

I don't know what the commuters on the train saw. Obviously not Fire Nation troops in full uniform, with a couple of struggling teenagers in custody, but whatever it was, they gave us a wide berth; when we came to the stop after Pelham, the car more or less emptied out. We all got seats, which is pretty amazing on a car in the middle of the two train, even on a Sunday morning. Of course, it's a little hard to enjoy a seat if you're being held down on it by a burly Fire Nation soldier, smelling eye-smartingly of smoke and char and the leather of his armor. Not fair. When Zuko smelled like smoke and char from firebending, it was a good smell.

We got off at the next stop and transferred back downtown; we got that car all to ourselves as well. Presently, the shock began to wear off.

It was Zuko who spoke first. "So that's it? You're just going to go back and leave us stranded here?"

"Mm, tempting," said Azula. She was the only one standing, holding the pole in the center of the car with one long-nailed hand. "But no. I want everyone to get home safely, believe it or not."

"Wait, you're a good guy now too?" asked Sokka in frank disbelief.

"Not as you're using the term," said Azula. "But I did my homework. Leaving anyone behind would be very, very bad. I don't want anything to happen to the universe – you can't rule without a kingdom now, can you?"

"But you don't have everyone," said Zuko triumphantly. "You can't do anything until you find Mai."

Azula looked heavenward in exasperation. "Zuzu, your girlfriend is right next to you."

I almost laughed. Almost. But obviously if people have been this stubborn in mistaking me for Mai, you must have guessed I don't show much emotion. "We've been through this. I'm not Mai."

"You sound so sure," said Azula, smirking and leaning in close. "But you're wrong." She straightened. "Ty Lee!"

"Mmhmm?" went the acrobat.

"Before Mai went through the portal, did she try to use the spirit chant on the walls?"

"Mmhmm," Ty Lee answered, nodding.

"All right, Zuzu, I'll explain. Do try to keep up. There was writing on the walls of the portal cavern. Instructions. If you follow them correctly you cross over without creating a new identity. You know exactly who you are, no questions. But." She held up one beautifully manicured finger. "They're very complicated instructions. And if you follow them wrong…" She brought the finger down, placing the tip under my chin so I had to lift my head. "Well, let's just say dear Mai is buried so deep she might not even remember who she is when we get back to our corner of reality."

I drew a short, sharp breath, and Azula released me, grinning at the way Zuko's face went blank. I shook my head. No, she was lying, or mistaken. I wasn't Mai, he couldn't lose hope.

We got off the train at Rector Street.

This is the last geography lesson, and it isn't much of one. Battery Park City is the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Its most notable features are the ferry terminal, which we have visited already, and the rather expensive apartments (some may argue Battery Park and the World Trade Center memorial should be included in this list; I say the former is not impressive enough to be worth mentioning and the latter is not, in fact, within BPC). The Winter Garden is an interesting but not especially noteable location within BPC; it is one of those large, indoor gatherings of shops which is not quite a mall; it's almost all window, and the main foyer in particular is really a greenhouse, with palm trees grown from the floor. Benches are scattered throughout, and at the end opposite the large glass doors, a half-circle of stairs rises like an ancient amphitheater. Halls spring off to either side on the main floor and the floor above, if you walk up the myriad stairs. It had a certain roman arena feel to it, and would be an impressive place to open a portal, I could imagine. That was probably why Azula chose it.

When Azula led her squad in, the people on the benches cleared out. Again, I don't know what they saw, but within minutes the main floor was silent, empty, an abandoned greenhouse except for Azula, her troops, and us captives. She had us in a group behind her, each with our very own guard, on the steps; the remainder of the soldiers spread out around the room. And we waited.

We didn't have to wait long. We saw Aang and Katara before they saw us, of course, through the glass front of the building; they walked up, warily, with grave decorum, to the doors, and entered cautiously. In one hand, Aang held something bright and shiny; the Amulet, I assumed. Azula gave it a covetous glance.

"Okay, Azula, we brought the Amulet," said Aang. "Now let my friends go."

"Hm. No. Open the portal first," Azula responded. "We go through on my terms."

Aang looked momentarily conflicted, then nodded, and placed the Amulet down in the center of the room, between the palm trees, on the marble floor tiles. It was brilliantly colored, and shone like some poisonous insect.

Azula turned to the Fire Nation soldiers holding us and instructed them in a voice to low to carry out to Aang and Katara: "As soon as we get through, you can kill my useless brother. The others could still be useful. Or at least entertaining."

Her smirk seemed directed particularly at me. Had Azula always been sadistic as well as cruel? I should have been much more scared of her; she was going to drag me into a world I only knew about from television. She was threatening to kill people.

But mostly I was just mad. After all, the person she was threatening to kill was Zuko. And…

…I love Zuko more then I fear you.

Mai's line. I know. But here's the peculiar thing: I was remembering, in an odd doubling, both watching it – and saying it.

I had been half expecting the real Mai to show up, kind of a deus ex machina, smashing though the glass with her stilettos to save us all. After all, she was the only wildcard left. But quite suddenly I realized Azula, as so often happened, was correct.

Of course I'm Mai. I had been all along.

Aang closed his eyes and began working the Amulet to open the portal, using some of the most intricate bending I had ever seen. Earth, water, fire, air – how did he handle all of that at once? He was feeding them into the Amulet somehow, and I didn't want to stop him. We all wanted the portal open; we just needed to get through on our terms, not Azula's.

The grunt watching me still wasn't paying close attention; of course not. He wouldn't expect any resistance from a girl like Liz, someone with a demonstrable lack of combat skills. I dipped my hand into my tote, closing my fingers around the shard of glass I had picked up that morning. It was sharp and cold and heavy – badly balanced, but I could make it go where I wanted. I would only get one shot. My eyes flicked briefly over to Zuko, muscles tensed uselessly against his captor, but from a purely dispassionate angle, I didn't think he'd do the most good.

There was a great, ripping, roaring noise, a burst of wind and heat. I looked back to the center of the room, where, hanging above the amulet, was the shining sphere of the portal, casting a varicolored light over Aang, Katara, and Azula.

"Well done," said the Fire Nation princess. "Seize them." She said it very casually, flicking a finger at Aang and Katara. Several of the soldiers rushed forward.

Our captors were distracted by the drama below. Excellent. I yanked the shard of glass free of my tote and jammed it backwards into the man holding on to me. He cried out and let go; I dove forward before he could catch me again and hurled the glass shard at the soldier pinning Toph's arms behind her back. "Now, earthbender."

Aang and Katara must have been half-expecting Azula's treachery, because they moved quickly; he flung out his arms, sending a scythe of air to tumble the guards backwards, and she uncapped her plastic bottle and summoned a whip of water, tangling Azula's feet and momentarily distracting her. I saw faint blue sparks around the princess's hand – she had been calling lightning – but they fizzled out as she stumbled.

Toph wrenched her arms free as the glass knocked back her captor, and was instantly on the offensive; a single gesture cracked the marble tiles beneath the soldier who had been restraining her, dropping him into the basement of the Winter Garden. She lifted her hands and more tiles rose from the floor, spinning around her; she motioned quickly, and sent several flying outward like lethal Frisbees. Ty Lee did some odd flip, putting her captor in the path of one; another took out my guard, then shattered on the floor at my feet. Ah, more pointy objects. I snatched up the broken stone.

The firebenders were realizing what was going on now, flames springing to life in the air around me; I threaded through them, and there was Zuko, muscles tensed against the pair of soldiers holding onto him. I let fly with my chips of stone – they were really heinously balanced, and wound up whole inches from where I had meant them to be, but the soldiers flinched, and Zuko came free. I skidded to a stop in front of him.

"I can't believe I'm saving you again," I told him. "Let's not make this a habit."

"Mai?!" he exclaimed, golden eyes wide with an infectious, irresistible joy.

"Start bending," I advised, and ducked out of the way as another Fire Nation guard came up behind me, in stance. Zuko flung out his hand, and I felt the heat as flames roared past above my head, meeting and dissipating; then the soldier collapsed, revealing Ty Lee behind him. She grinned, waved, and cartwheeled off to make short work of the guard holding Sokka.

"Stay close," Zuko commanded; he was fighting defensively, blocking incoming washes of flame from the firebenders that surrounded us. I took a moment to look around; most of our party were doing the same, from Aang and Katara, barely fending Azula off, to Toph and Ty Lee, hiding behind hastily thrown up walls of floor tile. We couldn't hold out for too long – we were outnumbered, badly.

Then I saw Sokka, dodging a stream of fire, grabbing my tote bag (must have dropped it as I pulled free) and skidding down the stairs on it. Maybe Sean had been a skater. He came to a stop directly in front of the portal, and leaned down to snatch the Amulet off the floor.

"Aang! Heads up!" he called, and tossed it.

Azula turned, momentarily distracted, but the shining Amulet flew past, far above her head. Aang leapt into the air, and he must have been airbending, because the height he reached would have been physically impossible otherwise – lifted his arm – and snagged the artifact with one hand. "Everyone through the portal!" he shouted, and as he landed, holding the Amulet securely, Katara grabbed his arm and plunged into the swirling sphere.

Azula's furious expression was priceless. "After them!" she snarled. And exactly what happened after that I can't say, except it ended with all of us racing, tumbling, stampeding, falling into the manic colors of the portal.