IT'S BEEN A WHILE HASN'T IT? WELL YOU ALL MAY KNOW THAT I HAVE AN AWESOME FRIEND THAT HELPED ME BY WRITING TWO CHAPTERS IN THIS STORY. WELL, HE CONTACTED ME AND OFFERED TO WRITE IN A CHAPTER ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO MAI AND TY-LEE AFTER THE BOILING ROCK, AND THE RESULT IS ONCE AGAIN AN AWESOME CHAPTER. ANYWAY, AS ALWAYS, TRANSFORMERS IS OWNED BY HASBRO AND AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER IS OWNED BY NICKELODEON.
Chapter 21: The Tale of Mai and Ty-Lee
After her and Ty-Lee's betrayal at the Boiling Rock, both Mai and the acrobat were sent to a Fire Nation prison in the Earth Kingdom known the Iron Gates. While it wasn't as infamous as the Boiling Rock or the royal prison in the Fire Nation's capital, The Iron Gates was still a place you didn't want to be sent to. The location of the jail was out in the hot plains of the Fire Nation, hundreds of miles away from any civilization, so if someone did escape, they'd more the likely die of a heat stroke or starve to death. The living conditions for inmates were deplorable as well. The food was poor even by prison standards, the water was contaminated and the guards had a track record of frequently beating the inmates for the fun of it. Azula wanted them to suffer for turning against her and she certainly got her wish.
When the two girls arrived at the Iron Gates, they were immediately separated and taken to different levels. Mai was currently being dragged by two guards into an empty cell, which they then forcefully shoved her into.
"Make yourself at home traitor" one of the guards sneered at the girl before locking the door behind her "You're going to be here for a long time"
Mai said nothing to the guards and she got back on her feet. She only shot them steely glare before they walked away. Mai then turned around to see her new surrounds, which was nothing more than a stone floor and a bucket in the corner that smelled like it hadn't been poured out in weeks.
Just then the sound of someone clapping their hands together, she turned around to see a short, skinny man with and an eye-patch over his right eye with a short cut beard on his chin. The skinny man had a wicked smile on his face as he approached the young woman's cell. Mai's eyes narrowed in distain at this newcomer, but she couldn't shake the feeling that heat he wasn't just another guard.
"This is truly a great day for me" the man began slyly "Mai, the lover of the traitorous son of Fire Lord and her circus freak friend, guests in my prison. I have to say I'm bit star-struck."
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're the warden right?" Mai asked dully, as if her life wasn't at stake.
"Chi-Po at your service my lady" he replied with a mock bow. "Or should I say you'll be at my mercy."
"We're did you take Ty-Lee?" Mai demanded sharply.
"Oh I wouldn't worry about your friend; the guards are taken good care of her" Chi-Po answered "Like they always say: spare the rod, spoil the child."
"If you hurt her I swear I will-" Mai tried to threaten.
"You'll do nothing!" the warden snapped back. "You're not in any position to make demands!"
The warden then stepped closer to the cell until he was only inches away from the bar.
"While you're in here I want you to think of everything you could've done to stop this from happening to you," the warden informed her in a dark manner. "I want you to realize that this is hell."
Now it was Mai's turn to walk up to the bars, she showed no sign of fearing the little man before her.
"You don't know what hell is," she said in dark tone. "Because here's what's going to happen: First, I'm going to break out of this cell. Next I'm going to find Ty-Lee, and then...I'm going to cut out your heart. That is, if you even have one."
He didn't show it on his face, but Mai could see it in his eyes that he was afraid of her. He scoffed at her words before steeping back a few feet, mostly to keep himself out of reaching distant of her arm.
"I doubt it my dear," he replied with a chuckle, still trying to hide his fear. "Remember that you are my prisoner Mai, and I will not tolerate your brutish threats"
"Who said they were threats?" she commented with cold look in her eyes.
The warden said nothing. He instead let out a an irritated grunt before walking away, leaving Mai feeling triumphant for all of two seconds before being reminded of her situation and worrying about her acrobatic friend.
"Well, I've never seen that happen before," a female voice spoke up from one of the cells. "It almost looked like the warden was going to pee his pants."
Mai's head turned to the right to see a young girl almost her age, standing in behind the bars of her cell that was across from hers. Her hands clasped the bars as she glared daggers at the former daughter of a noble family. The emotionally repressed girl couldn't help but feel like she had met this other inmate before.
"Do I know you?" Mai asked bluntly.
"You should, because you're the reason my friends and I are here in the first place!" the girl snapped.
It didn't take long for Mai to figure out what she meant by that.
"You're one of the Kyoshi Warriors" she said in acknowledgement
"Yes, and I have to say, it makes me feel a bit better knowing that you're trapped in here with me and my friends," the imprisoned warrior darkly answered.
"Actuality it's the other way around, you and your friends are trapped in here with me," Mai corrected "But we don't have to be enemies."
"And why's that?" the Kyoshi Warrior inquired sharply.
"Because right now we're on the same side," Mai explained. "Are the other warriors in this prison too?"
"All except Suki," the warrior responded somberly "She was sent to the Boiling Rock since she was our leader."
Mai thought back to the other prisoners Zuko and the water tribe boy had rescued. She noticed a young girl with great fighting abilities battling Ty-Lee and Azula alongside her lover. If she had to take a wild guess, she figured that was the leader her fellow inmate was talking about.
"I should tell you that your leader escaped the Boiling Rock with Zuko and some other inmates" Mai began.
"And just how do you know that?" the Kyoshi Warrior hissed back.
"Because I helped them escape," Mai replied before getting a glare from the warrior. "What did you think I was put in here for fun?"
"That still doesn't mean you helped her," another voice cut in.
Mai's eyes looked further down the cellblock opposite to her to see a large cell with a force field in front of it that she did not notice before hand. Mostly due to the fact that the guards had dragged her in here. The prisoner in question was a bright yellow Autobot with bright blue optics and cell he was in was obviously a gift from the Decepticons to the Fire Nation.
"I thought all of the Autobots were locked up in the Fire Nations Capital Prison. Why are you here?" she questioned.
"Several of us were transferred to other prisons throughout the Fire Nation," the yellow Bot explained. "Me and my brother Sideswipe were brought here only a week before you and your friend came along."
"His name's Sunstreaker in case you were wondering," the Kyoshi Warrior added on.
"Well I wasn't so thanks for nothing," Mai replied "And I don't care if you believe me or not, I just want to find Ty-Lee and get out of here."
"Looks like we all have someone to save in the prison," Sunstreaker commented. "And I think your right Mai. We don't we need to be enemies at all."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're planning something" the Kyoshi Warrior remarked.
"That I am Min," Sunstreaker responded with a smirk. "And Mai's just the human to pull it off."
*QUE TRANSFORMERS PRIME OPENING THEME*
Later that night, one of the guards made his rounds, making sure that inmates were asleep. As he walked down the hallways, he noticed the prison's newest inmate still awake and sitting on the ground, causally picking dirt out of her finger nails.
"Hey, get to sleep!" he ordered.
"I don't sleep much," Mai replied in her usual uncaring tone while not looking at him.
"I wasn't asking..." the guard order warned darkly as his fist ignited. "Now get to sleep before I make you go to sleep!"
"Ooh so scary," Mai sarcastically answered as she rolled her eyes. "I'd like to see you try."
With an angered growl, the frustrated guard took out his keys and opened the door to Mai's cell, ready to send the young girl to the infirmary. As the guard opened the cell and stepped inside, Mai stood up and calmly stretched, as if she didn't care he was about to burn her face off.
The prison guard shot out his fist in order to launch a blast of fire at her, but in a flash, the young girl grabbed the man's wrist and broke it with ease. Before the guard had a chance to scream in pain, Mai covered his mouth with her free hand and snapped his neck in one quick move. After she dropped the guard's lifeless corpse to the ground, she then reached down and took the keys off of his belt and proceeded to let herself out.
"Did you really need to kill him?" Min asked. "Couldn't you have knocked him out or something?"
"If I did that, he would've woken up and alerted the other guards," Mai elaborated "Now do you want me to let you out or are you going to just stand here and discuss ethics?"
Even though Min still felt uneasy about this alliance, she needed to work with Mai's in order to find the other warriors. She nodded to her new partner, silently telling her to open her cell, which she did.
"Good, now we need to free Sunstreaker" the Kyoshi Warrior said. "The guards have some kind of code they type on that control panel next to his cell to keep the force field up."
"We don't have time to stand around and try to figure it out," Mai responded
She then walked back to the dead guard's body and took his night stick from his belt and with pin point accuracy, hurled it into the control panel, causing it to malfunction and shut down.
"Good work Mai," Sunstreaker complimented. "Now let's get going before it's too late."
"But how are we going to find everyone in this prison?" Min asked. "We have no idea where they we're locked up nor do we have the time to check every cell."
Just then another guard walked into the cellblock, before he could say a word, Sunstreaker snatched him up and held the human to his Optics.
"We need to find some our fiends and you're going to tell us where they are," he commanded. "Or I'm going to start squeezing?"
"T-they're keeping the circus girl and the other Autobot in cellblock eighteen," the guard stammered out. "And the other Kyoshi Warriors are being held in different cells in multiple blocks."
"Ok, so here's what's going to happen," Sunstreaker said. "You're going to go with my friend Min here and you're going to show her where her friends are being held, then you're going to lock yourself up in one of the cells and stay there, and if you try to call for help, I will find you...and I will kill you."
The now petrified guard quickly nodded in response before the giant robot set him down. He then followed Min, all the while sweating in terror of being stepped on or something worse.
"And as for the rest of you," Sunstreaker continued to the inmates who had woken up due to the commotion. "If anyone of you try to call the guards or ask to be freed, I will personally make sure you regret that choice; understand?"
Needless to say, the inmates got the message pretty quick.
"I thought the Autobots were all about peace and love," Mai said.
"I'm one of the exceptions," the yellow Autobot replied in a cold tone. "Now come on, let's get your friend and my brother."
It took the unlikely duo over a half hour to reach the cellblock that was holding Sideswipe and Ty-Lee due to the fact they had to avoid the other guards that patrolled the other cell blocks. The two searched through the prison cells until they came upon a large holding cell like Sunstreaker's that held his brother within it.
"Is that you bro?" Sideswipe asked in almost a whisper.
"Yeah Swipes, it's me," his twin answered. "I'm busting you out of here."
"What's she doing here?" the red Autobot questioned as he noticed Mai.
"She's with us," his brother explained before getting a puzzled look from him. "Yeah, I know it's weird, just go with it."
Sunstreaker then began to press a few buttons on the cell's control panel, attempting to override it so he could free the other Cybertronian.
"This may take a while Mai, go find your friend and meet us back here," Sunstreaker informed her.
The girl nodded before swiftly running down the hallways, hoping to find her acrobatic friend. As she ran past the prisoners, she could see all the suffering and torment in just their eyes alone. It was at that moment she started to see why Zuko had left his homeland in the first place. It was then that she heard a tiny, yet familiar voice spoke up from one of the cells.
"Mai, is that you?" it asked weakly.
Mai then stopped and turned in the direction of where she had heard the voice and found her friend hanging against a wall of her cell with her wrists cuffed on each side. Even in the darkness Mai could see the cuts and bruises all over her body. Mai quickly got the door open with the keys she had stolen and ran up to Ty-Lee.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
"Th-they beat me for harming Azula," Ty-Lee explained weakly.
"Don't worry, I'm here now," Mai said reassuringly as she unlocked the shackles on her wrists and helped her down. "Now come on, let's get out of here."
"B-but Mai, I can't!" the acrobat whispered.
"Of course you can Ty-Lee, you just need to-" Mai attempted to say before being cut off.
"No, you don't understand!" Ty-Lee interrupted. "Th-the guards broke my legs, I can't walk!"
Mai looked down at her friends legs and gasped in horror at the sight of the bones sticking out in her legs. It almost made her vomit on the spot, but she resisted the urge.
"Just leave me Mai," the normally spunky girl said with tears rolling down her face. "Get out of here and go find Zuko."
"I'm not leaving you behind!" Mai answered, tears in her eyes as she scooped up her friend in her arms. "We're leaving this place together."
"Mai there's something you have to know," Ty-Lee whispered. "I overheard the guards talking about the Boiling Rock, and they mentioned your uncle."
Mai's eyes widened in shock at hearing that. She then realized that the whole time she was at that hell-hole of a prison, she never once saw her uncle or even thought about looking for him while she was there. She was so wrapped up in seeing Zuko that she completely forgot of even trying to find the only member in her entire family that ever gave a damn about her.
"When Shockwave came to take control of the Boiling Rock, your uncle refused to give up his position as warden to him," the acrobat explained as she fought through the pain in her legs. "Shockwave made him his first test subject for the Extremis steroid. They said he died horribly...I'm so sorry Mai."
It was almost as if the whole world stopped in Mai's mind. She had just found out that not only was her uncle dead, but he also died as nothing more than a lab rat to one of Shockwave's sick experiments. Her body then began to course with a feeling hardly ever felt: rage. In that moment she made a promise that to herself that before this war was over, she was going to make both Azula and Shockwave pay for what they did to her uncle and her closest friend.
"Hold it right there!" a voice commanded from behind the girls.
While still holding Ty-Lee, Mai turned around to see a guard in a fire-bending stance, ready to incinerate them on the spot.
"You two are coming with me to see the warden right now!" he ordered. "Or I will use deadly for-"
A strong blow to the back of his head made the guard slumped to the floor, knocked out by an unseen attacker. The mysterious person in question who had saved the two girls was indeed Min, who was standing alongside her fellow Kyoshi Warriors as well as the Autobot twins.
"Looks like we've got everyone," Min said. "Now let's get out of here before we're caught."
"You guys go ahead" Mai replied as she handed Ty-Lee to Min. "There's something I need to do first."
"No Mai, we won't leave you behind!" Ty-Lee cried out in a panic. "Please come with us!"
"I'll be right behind you, I promise," Mai assured her friend before addressing the rest of the group. "Get her to safety. If I'm not with you at the prison courtyard fifteen minutes, go on without me."
Despite the acrobat's protests, the Autobots and the Kysohi Warriors headed toward the courtyard in order to begin the next phase of their breakout plan. The weapons master then took a knife from the knocked out guard's back pocket and walked in the other direction. She had a promise to keep to the warden.
Chi-Po was getting nervous. Some of his men weren't reporting in from their night shift patrols. At first he figured they were just being late or beating a few noisy inmates to keep them in line, but as the hours went by, the warden still heard nothing. As he sat in his office, all he could think about was Mai's threat she made to him earlier today. Did she break out and start killing off his men one by one before coming for him? No, that was a silly notion, she was only trying to scare him and he would not give into his fears.
At that moment however, a dark shadow loomed over his desk, engulfing him in its darkness and there, standing before him was Mai with a knife in her hand.
"Welcome to hell," she said in almost a whisper.
And with that, she showed Chi-Po that she was indeed a girl of her word.
"She's taking too long," Sunstreaker said impatiently. "Let's just get going."
"Hold on bro, she's still got about five more minutes," Sideswipe reasoned. "Just take it easy and wait"
The yellow Autobot grumbled to himself, clearly not liking the idea of waiting any longer. Just then, Mai walked out into the spot where they had all agreed to meet in the courtyard: a blind spot in the guard tower's sight.
"I'm ready, let's go," was all she said.
Ty-Lee then noticed something that covered her best friend's hands: blood.
"What did you do Mai?" she questioned.
"Let's just say that I had a promise to keep," Mai answered.
At the time that the group of escaped inmates were almost in range of freedom, a pair of guards headed toward their boss's office. They had discovered one of their fellow guards dead and other knocked out as well as several empty cells. This could only mean one thing: a breakout had happened.
"Do you want to go in there?" of the men asked.
"Hell no, the warden is going to flip out when he hears this and I do not what to be the one to take the brunt of it," the other one replied.
"Oh fine I'll tell him, you wuss," the first guard sighed before walking into Chi-Po's office.
It took less than five seconds for the prison guard to walk in and then walk back out, only now he looked as pale as the dead.
"Where's the warden?" the other guard inquired.
"...see for yourself..." the first guard replied.
The other guard was confused by his co-workers statement and decided to look into the room himself. He instantly covered eyes once he saw the horror that was in the warden's office. There was the warden's body sitting at his desk, with his heart cut out and sitting on his desk like an apple sitting on a teacher's desk.
"Someone sound the alarm!" the guard shouted "And get on the radio, I want Decepticon assistance now! We are going to find the ones who did this and make them suffer!"
The sound of the alarm echoed throughout the prison. Searchlights came to life as they shined on every dark corner of the facility. This of course made the inmates task of escaping even harder than before.
"They know!" Min exclaimed in shock.
"You want to tell me what did Mai!?" Sunstreaker shouted in anger.
"I killed the warden," Mai replied dryly.
Everyone, even Ty-Lee, looked at the dark-haired girl in disbelief. Not only did she blow their cover, but she also did something that could endanger all their lives as well.
"What the frag were you thinking!?" Sideswipe scolded. "Did killing that man mean that much to you, even if it meant costing all our lives!?"
"I just lost it okay?!" Mai snapped back. "At first I was just trying to scare him, but while I was looking for Ty-Lee, I saw all of other inmates in the prison and when I saw what the guards did to Ty-Lee I lost control of myself!"
"Well I hope you're happy, because now we might never get out of here alive!" Sunstreaker yelled in rage.
"We'll talk about this later, let's just focus on getting out of here," Min cut in.
"I think that might be a bit harder than you think Min," Sideswipe mentioned as he looked up.
"Why's that?" one of the Kyoshi Warriors spoke up.
"Because of him!" Sideswipe exclaimed as he pointed up at sky as an object flew down on them.
The object was a purple and tan jet that rocketed down on the group like a missile. It didn't take long for Mai, Ty-Lee and the twins to figure out who was attacking them.
"It's Blitzwing!" Sunstreaker exclaimed in horror.
The Decepticon fire a volley of laser fire down on the escapees, forcing the bots to shield their human allies with their bodies. The jet then pulled up and flew off a bit further before turning around so he could unleash another attack.
"Don't you guys have weapons!?" Ty-Lee questioned the machines.
"The Cons confiscated all our weapons when we were captured!" Sunstreaker explained.
"All except one that is!" Sideswipe added before he activated his shoulder cannon.
The red Autobot began to fire his only weapon at their aerial attacker, who easily bobbed and weaved out the way of the laser fire. The triple-changer then flew lower to the ground before changing into his tank form and advanced toward his targets.
"Die Autobot trash!" he shouted as fired off more rounds at them.
The Bots and the girls ducked out of the way as Blitzwing continued his assault. Sideswipe shot back with his shoulder cannon, however it seemed ineffective against the tough armor Blitzwing's second vehicle mode had. Sunstreaker then transformed into his vehicle form and drove up to the much larger Con. Once he was close enough to his enemy, he transformed back into his robot form and jumped unto the top of the tank. The yellow Autobot grabbed a hold of the turret and pulled it away from the direction of his twin at the last second before he took a shot toward the prison wall, destroying a section of the wall with a single shot.
"Chew on that Decepti-jerk!" the yellow Bot joked
In response to that, Blitzwing transformed into his robot form before he grabbed Sunstreaker by the throat and slammed him into the ground.
"Hey watch the paint job!" he snapped.
He tried to make his adversary let go by punching him in the face several times, but the triple-chargers grip was like a vice. He then picked up the smaller Autobot and started to pull on his arms and legs.
"You want a piece of me!" Sunstreaker shouted.
"No, I want two!" Blitzwing replied as he started to pull harder.
"Let my go brother you fragger!" Sideswipe ordered before shooting more rounds into Blitzwing's chest.
While the laser fire didn't do much damage to the Decepticon, it did make him let go of Sunstreaker as he stumbled backwards. Sunstreaker then changed back into his vehicle mode and sped back to his brother's side.
"What were you thinking!?" Sideswipe scolded.
"I was thinking he just found our new way out," Sunstreaker answered as he pointed to the now destroyed wall the Con had made by accident.
"You're not getting away from me that easily!" the triple-changer remarked as changed back into his tank mode and kept firing.
"We need to get out of here now!" Mai said as she ducked down from the laser fire.
"I've got an idea," Sideswipe spoke up. "Blitzwing may be able to transform into three different things, but that doesn't mean he can split into three different Cons like Sixshot can."
"I know what you're trying to say Swipes and it's not going to happen!" his twin shot back. "I'm not losing you again!"
"We've got no choice Sunny," the red Autobt replied. "I'll take the Kyoshi Warriors and you take the other two girls. Blitzwing can only follow of us, so the one he doesn't chase after can get to safety. And since I've been shooting at him, I think it's safe to say he'll come after me."
Sunstreaker did not like this plan at all, but his brother did have a point. Right now they were out gunned and human civilians were in danger. As much as it pained him to do this had had to be separated from his twin once again.
"Good luck brother," he said before changing back into his vehicle mode.
"Likewise Sunny" Sideswipe answered before doing the same.
"Good luck to you Mai," Min said as she handed Ty-Lee to the dark haired girl.
"You too," Mai acknowledged.
With that, the Kyoshi Warriors quickly piled into Sideswipe while Mai carefully placed her injured friend in the back seat of Sunstreaker before climbing into in the passenger side in the front. The two Autobots then sped off out of the destroyed wall and split into two opposite directions. Blitzwing, enraged at being shot at, transformed into his jet mode again and took off after Sideswipe as predicted. For a moment, the yellow robot wanted to turn around and try to help his sibling, but he knew that it only get them all either captured or killed, so as painful as it was he kept on driving.
Now that they knew that Megatron was somehow still alive, finding either more troops or more information became top priority for both the kids and the bots. While Aang would train with Katara, Toph and Zuko, the Autobots, as well as Sokka and Suki, would perform recon missions into the Fire Nation, trying to find anything that could give them an advantage over the Fire Nation and their Decepticon allies and despite the danger, they all knew it was worth the risk.
Today, Powerglide was on one such recon mission. His task was to fly into the far western territories and try to find any unused routes that they could use in order to sneak into the capital, however the aerialbot was having no such luck. Suddenly he began to pick up a distress signal on his radio. At first he thought it was a Decepticon trick until he heard a familiar voice.
"This is Sunstreaker calling to all Autobots, can anyone hear me?" the voice called out. "I am at these coordinates and request assistance at once!"
"This is Powergilde, I got your message and I'm headed your way buddy!" the flying Autobot answered before kicking up his thrusters into full gear and headed off to save his friend.
Meanwhile, with the rest of the kids, they had spent a long day of training and when Sokka discovered a play had been written about them and the Bots by two men named Mako Bay and Shama Lan. They decided to take a break for the night and go see this play for themselves alongside Smokescreen, Ironhide and Bumblebee who were also curious about the play.
It goes without saying that they didn't enjoy it.
"That...wasn't a good play," Sokka said as they left the theater in a rut.
"That's an understatement kid," Ironhide replied. "It was a dumber then a sack of scarplets!"
"I'll say" Aang added dejectedly.
"By the Allspark that was just horrible!" the old Bot continued.
"You said it," Toph mentioned.
"But the effects were decent," Sokka reasoned as he walked with Suki.
"Oh you mean the random explosions everywhere? Yeah those were so cool," Smokescreen sarcastically remarked as he rolled his optics.
"(And I do not sound like a talking radio!)" Bumblebee beeped in anger. "(Seriously did those guys do any research on us before making this play?)"
"Hey at least you didn't get killed off randomly and have no one care about it," Hide replied.
"Or get turned into some bland piece of eye-candy!" the water bender added. "That Ma'gann Fox is a terrible actress."
"And all my actor did was shout for 'Optimus' and look surprised all the time" Zuko mentioned.
"And Sokka and Aang's actors were just two exposition spewing sticks in the mud!" Smokescreen added.
"And us earthbenders do NOT earthbend like what you described to me!" Toph shouted.
"Maybe we should've seen that Blue Spirit: Turn off the Dark musical instead" the Avatar said.
Just then Ironhide received a message over his com-link directly of Ultra Magnus himself. The older Bot stepped away from the group in order to hear what his commanding officer had to say. When he was done speaking with Magnus, he rushed back over to the group.
"Guys Magnus just told me Powerglide found an Autobot while his recon mission!" he informed them.
"Is it Optimus?" Smokescreen asked in an excited tone.
"No, it's Sunstreaker," Ironhide answered. "But that doesn't matter, right now we have to head back home. Streaker he has humans with him and one of them needs immediate medical attention."
The three Autobots changed into their vehicle modes and allowed the humans to climb into them before driving back to the base, hoping that the newly found Autobot had any good news.
Once they had arrived back at the campsite, the group found the new Autobot still in his vehicle mode surrounded by Magnus and the other Bots, when they noticed the rest of the group joining them. They stepped aside to let the humans get closer.
"You said you had someone in need of medical attention?" Katara questioned Sunstreaker. "Who is it?"
At that moment, an all too familiar girl stepped out of the passenger side of the robot. It was someone who they all knew, Zuko of course the most out of all.
"Mai!" he cried out in happiness before running up to her.
"Zuko!" she said in a mixture of both shock and happiness.
The two lovers ran up to one other before embracing one other tightly, they then kissed one another deeply; ignoring everyone else around them.
"These humans have odd ways of showing their affections toward one other," the current Autobot leader mentioned to Ironhide, to which he nodded.
However, not everyone was as happy as the former prince was to see Mai, Suki first and foremost.
"Step aside Zuko, me and miss gloomy have unfinished business!" she ordered before taking a fighting stance.
"Just hold on Suki, Mai was under Azula's orders to attack the Kyoshi Warriors," Zuko explained. "It wasn't her fault."
"She's still one of Azula's friends," Katara added.
"Yeah we were such good friends that she locked Ty-Lee and I in a prison just for giggles," Mai deadpanned.
"Come on guys your treating we exactly how you treating me when I first joined the group," the firebender remarked. "Mai helped Sokka, Warpath and I rescue your father as well as Bee and Hide."
"Is that true?" Katara questioned her brother.
"Yeah, she gave us time to escape by distracting Shockwave's soldiers," he explained.
"Plus, she kinda helped Sokka, Bee and I find the medical supplies needed to save Ironhide," Aang added.
"(Not to mention she snuffed an Insectitcon by herself with just a sword,)" Bumblebee said, which impressed the other Bots.
"And furthermore, she helped not only me and my brother escape the prison, but also the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors," Sunstreaker added.
"Their alive?! Where are they?" Suki demanded.
"When we broke out of the prison, we we're attacked by Blitzwing," Mai explained. "We were forced to spilt up. The Kyoshi Warriors went with Sideswipe while Ty-Lee and I went with Sunstreaker."
"But Blitzwing chased after Sideswipe. We don't know what happened to them after that," Sunstreaker finished.
"Toph, is she telling the truth about my friends?" Suki asked the earthbenber.
"Every last word of it," Toph answered.
"Wait, you said Ty-Lee was with you, where is she?" Katara spoke up.
In response, the newcomer opened his back door to reveal the acrobat, who had passed out from all the pain she was going through. Both the humans and robots gasped in shock at the sight of the girl's legs.
"The guards broke her legs" Mai informed them before looking to Katara. "Can you help?"
Not in a million years did Katara ever think that one day she would help a person that could render her bending useless, but as she looked at the wounded girl laying their so still, there was no way she could say no.
"Bring over to my tent," she said. "I'll do want I can to heal her legs."
Zuko carefully reached into Sunstreaker and gently pulled out the unconscious acrobat and followed the Water Tribe girl into her tent with Mai right behind him. This gave the yellow Autobot a chance to transform back into his robot mode and walk up to his commanding officer.
"Sir with you permission, I'd like to go search for my brother and bring him back here," he requested.
"I'm sorry, but your request is denied," Magnus replied. "We need everyone here with us for Sozin's comet."
"Besides Sideswipe is a great solider. I'm sure he can get away from someone like Blitzwing without a problem," Arcee mentioned.
"And he has my warriors to back him up," Suki added.
Suntreaker absolutely hated the idea of not being able to search for his sibling, but there was no way he could find his twin all on his own.
"I swear to you solider that once he have dealt with Sozin's Comet we will search for you brother," Ultra Magus assured as he put a hand on his shoulder."
"Thank you sir," he answered.
It was a long night for Katara as she continued to heal the damage done to the circus girl's legs. She did help heal the wounds her father had been inflicted with, but this was different. If she messed up at all, Ty-Lee may not be able to walk again. Suddenly, the acrobat's eyes slowly opened, which made the waterbender very nervous. She feared Ty-Lee would freak out and attack her, but instead she only gave her a weak yet warm smile.
"...thank you..." she said.
Katara said nothing, but she did return the smile with one of her own.
"How is she doing?" Zuko questioned as he, Sokka and Mai walked into the tent.
"A lot better," Katara began. "I managed to stop an infection from spreading into her body as well as heal most of the broken bones, but she's going to have to take it easy for awhile."
"You mean I can't run or even do a cartwheel?" Ty-Lee spoke up with a tear coming down her face.
"Unfortunately yes, but only for at least a week or two," the Water Tribe girl explained.
"I feel so useless..." Ty-Lee said, now on the verge of tears.
"Hey now you can know what it feels like when you take away someone's bending," Sokka blurted out as a joke, which only got him angry glares from everyone in the room ."I'll...just be going now."
As he attempted to walk out of the room, he accidently tripped over some bowls of water that Katara was using.
"Sokka, I needed that!" Katara snapped, which only made him make a B-Line for the door.
Once the Water Tribe warrior had dashed out of the tent, Zuko turned his attention to his lover. He led her out of Katara's tent and to his own so he could speak with her in private. Once they were alone, the Mai told her lover everything, from her imprisonment to finding out her uncle's death, which of course stunned Zuko.
"I wish I had taken you with me when I left in the first place," he began. "Then all of this would've been avoided."
"Well I'm here with you now if that makes you feel any better," Mai remarked with a warm smile. "But promise me one thing Zuko."
"What is it?" her boyfriend asked.
"Before this war ends, I want to be there when you take down Azula and Shockwave," Mai said. "I want to make them suffer for what they did to Ty-Lee and my uncle."
"Of course Mai, you need that closure," Zuko replied. "And I'm going to need you with me when I face my sister again."
The two kissed each other deeply before Zuko used his bending to snuff out the candles in his room, allowing the darkness to cover them both.
Meanwhile, Aang and Smokescreen stood on the edge of the base and watched the stars in the sky shine down upon them. They were also taking in everything that had happen in the past few weeks as well as what was to come next.
"It's kind of funny when you think about it; first Zuko joins our side; now Mai and Ty-Lee are with us and from what Ironhide told me about them, they sound pretty tough," the young Autobot pointed with a chuckle. "What's next? Is Sixshot going to switch sides too?"
"It just goes to show that anyone has the capacity for becoming good," Aang replied with a smile.
"Spoken like a true Prime," Smokescreen complimented. "I just wish that saying went the same for Ozai and Megatron."
The airbender didn't want to answer that, instead he just continued to look up at the sky, fearing what was soon to come upon them in only a few days time and how he going to handle the situation.
*QUE AVATAR ENDING THEME*