Twenty-Five

The trek through the rough waves to the crescent-shaped island took maybe forty-five minutes. Throughout those forty-five minutes, Zuko and Maya sat in silence. Maya wanted to talk to Zuko, but she also didn't want to disturb him. He was probably thinking about some sort of plan for once they got inside. But then, planning and Zuko never seemed to go very well together.

"Zuko," she said.

He looked up. "What?"

"What are we going to do once we get inside the temple?"

"I don't know."

She laughed. "Great."

He huffed. "How about instead of making fun of me, you come up with the plan!"

Maya stopped laughing. "Oh, Zuko," she murmured. "You're so sensitive sometimes. I wasn't laughing at you. I was just laughing – in general. Am I not allowed to laugh?"

He turned away and didn't respond.

Suddenly, she was angry. "You know, for a minute there last night, I thought you were going to start being nice to me, but I guess not." She folded her arms over her chest and hugged them to her body tightly, as if trying to make herself smaller so that Zuko wouldn't be able to see her anymore.

Zuko sighed heavily and put his head in his hands for a second. Then he looked up. "What do you think we should do once we're inside?"

"Nope. I'm not helping you until you apologize."

He scoffed. "Never mind, then."

It had taken many twists and turns and secret passageways to find Aang, but they had finally done it. And the whole time, they hadn't spoken a word to each other. Secretly, Maya was impressed, but she would never admit that in a million years. She was done trying to be nice to Zuko.

When they'd gotten to the large open room with the ornate, jewel-covered door at the back, Zuko had stopped. Maya hadn't noticed, as she'd been expressly ignoring him for the last hour, and had run into his arm, which he'd stuck out as a deterrent. She was about to yell at him, but then she noticed his expression, and the other voices in the room. Aang was here. Along with his friends, and a few old men in Fire Nation Red.

It seemed some sort of a struggle was going on. Maya watched as the Water Tribe girl and boy attacked and restrained two of the old men. One of the men turned and attacked his own colleague. That meant he was on the Avatar's side. And then the Water Tribe girl yelled, "Now, Aang!"

Maya waited for Aang to do… something. But nothing happened. And then she saw that, while she had been distracted, watching the Fire Nation men get their butts kicked, she'd missed out on Zuko apprehending Aang. Zuko held his wrists behind his back, and was carting him towards the stairs. But then Aang used airbending to knock Zuko down, sending him flying down the stairs, and began running as fast as he could towards the swiftly shutting doors.

The next thing Maya knew, there was a hand clamped down over her mouth, and dragging her over to one of the columns in the chamber. She struggled, and stomped on her assailant's foot, but he did not let up, though she was pleased that he had made a loud grunt of pain with the impact.

Maya was not exactly sure what was going on anymore. There was much chaos in the room, and she could hear Zuko shouting. And then she recognized another, deeper voice, and shuddered. Somehow, Commander Zhao was here. Slowly, she turned her head, and her eyes narrowed in on the big man with the sideburns. His face was up in Zuko's face, and he was still grinning. Maya wanted to smack the man so hard, but she was currently being chained to a column. Her arms chafed against the metal chain, so she stopped struggling. At this point, they were probably all going to die, anyways. She yelled at herself silently for being so easily distracted. She'd let her anger at Zuko get in the way of her instinct and judgment.

After Zuko and Commander Zhao were done yelling at each other, Zuko was also chained the column. When the guard who had chained him was out of earshot, Maya leaned close to Zuko and said, "What now?"

He just turned and glared at her. Then he sighed. "Now we wait. While you were busy getting chained to this thing, the Avatar somehow got inside Roku's sacred room, and Roku's spirit sealed the doors shut."

"So that's what that random flash of light was…"

Zuko scoffed. "I was right. You're completely useless. I told you that you'd get in my way."

"Zuko, I was never in your way! In fact, I specifically stayed out of your way the entire time just so that you would not be able to yell at me for it." Maya was getting angry again. She forced herself to calm down. She would not let anger impede her judgment again.

"You could've helped me, though. After the Avatar knocked me down, he ran straight past you! Why didn't you grab him?"

She sighed. "Number one, because I have never agreed with this whole thing about you capturing Aang in the first place, in case you haven't noticed yet. And number two, because while you were picking yourself up after being thrown down a flight of stairs, I was being assaulted by a Fire Nation soldier and tied to a pillar. Even if I had wanted to help you capture Aang, I wouldn't have been able to."

"If you hate the idea of me capturing… Aang so much, then why did you come with me in the first place? In fact, why haven't you gotten off the ship and stayed at some town that we stopped at yet? Why are even still with us?"

Maya did not have an answer. She stared at Zuko for a long time, opened and closed her mouth once or twice, and then looked away and shrugged, furrowing her eyebrows. The reasons behind all those questions he had asked had seemed to make so much sense in her head when she had thought of them herself. But now that he was throwing them in her face, she seemed to have forgotten all of her answers for them.

A few minutes later, Maya heard a loud grating sound.

"The second you see the Avatar, unleash all your firepower!" Commander Zhao shouted.

Maya turned and watched as the doors opened. In another second, she saw a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness, but nothing else.

"Aang, no!" the girl named Katara yelled.

"Now!" Zhao commanded at the same time. He, along with all the other soldiers and fire sages unleashed a great torrent of flame into the area where Aang's glowing eyes were. And then the flames were separated, and between the two columns of fire was… Avatar Roku!

Maya and Zuko gasped. How is this possible? Maya asked herself. Did Aang turn into Roku somehow? Or is it just an illusion?

She didn't have any more time to wonder, though, because now there was a giant wave of fire coming straight at all of them. She turned away, expecting any minute to burn to a crisp, but then suddenly she felt the tightness on her body from the chains go away. She opened her eyes and looked down. The chains had somehow melted away, but she and Zuko were completely unharmed. Before she could start questioning things again, Zuko grabbed her wrist and pulled her along as he raced down the stairs.

The second he knew she was following him, he let go of her and they fled the temple as quickly as they could. By the time they made it back to their little boat, there was lava spewing from every window and crevice in the temple, and the tower at the top was leaning to the side, slowly melting. She and Zuko watched as Aang and his friends flew away on their bison. She didn't know if any of the others made it.

Later, when they had safely made it back to the mother ship, Maya wearily said a few words to Uncle that she did not remember later, and then went into her room and crashed in her bed. It had been an exhausting few hours. If this was how the rest of her time with Zuko was going to be, she thought maybe she really would have to get off at the next stop, as a safety precaution more than anything.

With a smile, she fell into a long, dreamless sleep.