disclaimer: Mike and Bryan own the ATLA universe; Mariko belongs to me (: enjoy!

Shuriken Family Reunions

How they ever managed to conquer Omashu was beyond her.

She gave the dark smoke that chugged out from the various smokestacks another look before her brow furrowed into a soft frown; given that the esteemed-untouchable stronghold was only second to Ba Sing Se, it still left a bitter taste in her mouth to see that the Earth Kingdom capital truly was the last city left standing.

Going through the front gate would be both suicidal and just-plain-crazy… So they had to get in by some other means.

"You've got to be kidding." Mariko was the first to complain about their secondary option, wrinkling her nose at being met with the large drain that led from the sewage of Omashu.

"It's either this or risk getting caught and probably maimed by the Fire Nation." Sokka pointed out blandly, not too keen on the idea either.

Pulling the hood of her cloak onto her head to cover her wild black hair drawn up into a ponytail, she huffed. "I'm not in the mood to get caught red-handed for being a runaway… Let's just get this over with." She bit out, flicking his ear as she traipsed inside after Aang and Katara, letting him be the last one in and inadvertently to be the one to cover their entrance with the drain grate.

Lifting the manhole cover just a little to be able to peek at the surface world, Aang noticed automatically that the alley they'd came into was vacant of life and that night had already fallen on the city.

Luck was with them.

"That was easier than I thought," Katara commented as she and Mariko shook their cloaks and pants of water.

Low groaning sounded from the sludge-coated Sokka that followed them out of the manhole, briefly spooking the trio, before he was washed of the sludge by some waterbending from Katara and air-dried by a gust of wind from Aang, leaving him standing there with no sludge; he started flailing when he noticed that there were two purple sucker-creatures stuck to his cheeks. "They won't let go!" He cried, trying to pull off the small creatures.

Aang reprimanded and hushed him quickly, "Stop making so much noise. It's just a Purple Penta-Pus." He rolled his eyes when the older boy grimaced at the newly christened bottom-feeders, rubbing the back of the sucker stuck to his left cheek and coaxing it to let go, letting him do the same for the one on his right cheek as he pulled off the one on his neck, leaving him with at least thirty-six or so dots from the suctions.

"Hey! What're you kids doing out past curfew?" A gruff voice barked from the end of the alley, making the quartet freeze before the siblings shuffled close to cover the airbender who covered his head with an orange scarf, all four smiling innocently.

Being the first to speak, Katara lied, "Sorry, we were just on our way home." The quartet turned about to head down the more-vacated end of the alley and leaving the guards in their wake.

"Wait, what's the matter with him?" The talkative guard demanded, making them halt.

Better at lying, Mariko turned slightly to them, "He has Pentapox, sir. It's highly contagious," she added the last three words pointedly as the guard approached them, especially the 'riddled' boy.

At a pointed nudge from his sister, Sokka put on the theatrics, groaning and taking on the deathly-ill pallor of a dead man, groaning, "Ugh, it's so awful I'm dying…!" As he stepped closer to the guard said man backed away warily.

"And deadly!" Katara chirped.

"H-hey, I think I've heard of that; didn't your cousin Chang die of Pentapox?" He asked the masked guard on his right.

He stammered, "I think so; we'd better go wash our hands," at the haggardly coughing zombie-esque Sokka that took one step closer to them, he added as they scrambled away, "and burn our clothes!"

The firebender slapped him lightly on the back as Aang thanked the Penta-pus he had in hand. "Smooth."

::::::::dOb::::::::

"Where would they be keeping him?" Sokka asked quietly.

Mariko looked past the pile of boards they'd hidden behind at the rest of the city and various smokestacks placed here and there, slightly furrowing her brow, glancing at the tall framework surrounding a dark statue of some sort on all sides.

If I was the one who'd imprisoned a powerful earthbending king, it'd be somewhere he can't bend earth…

"Somewhere he can't earthbend… somewhere made of metal," Aang was on the same thought-track she was on, looking at the rest of the sprawling city, the smoke dancing slowly into the night air.

The quartet took off into the darkness, starting to cross a four-lane delivery chute when a low thud sounded, a trio of large boulders following the loud noise that were flying down the chute towards a group of six walking below; without much thinking, Aang shattered the boulders with a sharp slap of air, making dust fly from the collision, showing the group below just where they were.

So much for sneaking in and out of Omashu without trouble.

"The resistance!" One of the six, a woman prolly, cried; the four on either side (now that she noticed, both figures in the middle of the group were women) scrambled into action as at least five shuriken were projected at where the quartet were.

Narrowly dodging, the teenagers hurried into the darkness' safety but not without two of the guards catching up to the waterbender; summoning a whip of water, she sent both men flying back with a sharp crack, putting up a tall ice shield when another round of shuriken flew in her direction from the second woman.

A crack of a whip sent the oncoming woman skidding back as the firebender dove in, the fire-whip in hand, amber eyes narrowed beneath the covering of her cloak's hood. She looked at the woman's hazel eyes and felt a wave of recognition roll down her spine as it hit her that this woman wasn't an ordinary knife-thrower.

… Mai?

Several shuriken were thrown, one in particular narrowly coming into contact with her right cheek, ripping her from the shock of seeing the familiar face; she ducked in time, relinquishing the whip to a mere fireball she threw at her as she lunged, bolting after her friends at top speed, distinctly hearing her opponent give chase.

Damn, why here? Why Mai? She was her cousin, for God's sake! Why did she have to be here in Omashu of all places…?

A loud crash sounded behind her, making her look to see Aang had used airbending on a nearby towering scaffold, the boards clattering in the way of her pursuer; the girl sent another shuriken jetting at the airbender.

Drawn from the scabbard at her back, Mariko deflected the oncoming sharp object with the side of her katana, lowering it and grabbing his scruff as she hurried away to group with the Water Tribe siblings; the cement flooring beneath them shook and she yelped an oath before they were enveloped in the darkness of an underground chute.

Once her head stopped spinning, she looked at their new surroundings to realize three things.

One; they were surrounded by earthbenders.

Two; somehow or someway, she just had a hunch, these guys were the resistance that woman (her aunt, she had to remember) had accused them of being affiliated with.

Three; Mai was here in Omashu with her aunt and uncle, the former her father's younger sister.

Things just got infinitely worse.

::::::::dOb::::::::

She wouldn't let those things put spots on her, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to help do it to the people they were helping escape Omashu.

Katara had given her a weird look when seeing she pulled her cloak hood over her head again, making a note to ask about it later once everyone was safely out of the city.

Night had fallen and they –that is to say Mariko, Sokka and Katara plus Appa and Momo—waited for Aang to return hidden between two jagged hills along with the residents of Omashu.

The trio perked up when Aang came forth from the darkness alongside a tall rabbit-eared gorilla, abandoning the campfire to step closer to him and what appeared to be King Bumi's pet.

"We looked everywhere; no Bumi." Aang informed, crestfallen, letting Katara hug him as Sokka did the same for the large animal.

"We've got a problem, we just did a headcount." Yung, the earthbender who had been the king's defense advisor, informed the group as he came to stand next to the firebender, garnering the quartet's attention.

"Did someone get left behind?" Mariko wondered.

He shook his head, "No… we have an extra." He gestured behind them to a toddler clinging to a struggling and complaining Momo.

After getting comfortable around the campfire the quartet began brainstorming how to best deal with this dilemma.

"No, bad Fire Nation baby!" Sokka snatched his club from the toddler's small hands sharply, making him blink once before starting to cry and wail.

Mariko rolled her eyes as Katara hit him across the chin lightly, taking the club from his hand and giving it to the toddler, pulling him into her lap and watching him play with the shiny blue orb on the top of the club.

"How… Since when are you good with kids?" Katara asked in slight surprise, she and the boys giving the firebender odd looks.

"I have a soft spot for babies, sue me. Besides, it beats having Sokka babysit the squirt." Mariko answered in an absent-minded tone, ignoring the scowl from said boy, smiling down at the toddler and tousling his black hair affectionately. This must be Mai's little brother, then; he looks a lot like her, she thought.

"That much is true; he's so cute, too," Katara chuckled, cooing to the occupied toddler in her lap.

Yung deadpanned, "Sure he's cute now, but when he's older, he'll join the Fire Nation Army. You won't think he's so cute, then; he'll be a killer." He pointed out.

"Does that look like the face of a killer to you?" Katara countered, taking the toddler from her friend and lifting him up for emphasis, once again receiving a deadpan stare from the earthbender.

A caw sounded then before the sight of a messenger hawk came into view and the bird dropped to perch on a rock nearby. With some coaxing, Aang took the message secured on its back and unraveled the paper to read it aloud before the campfire.

"It's from the Fire Nation Governor; he thinks we kidnapped his son. So he wants to make a trade… his son for King Bumi!" Aang declared, gray eyes going wide in response to what the message said.

Once again she wore the hood on her head, and once again she earned a curious look from the waterbender.

Katara made to open her mouth and ask –if only to keep the tension at bay—but closed it, contemplating asking her about it at an easier time… she only hoped it would be once they were gone from Omashu.

Mariko looked up past Sokka at the statue that was under construction and felt like someone had punched her in the gut, cutting her gaze away as the muscles in her jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed under the shade of her hood.

A statue of Fire Lord Ozai was to be placed as a sure-enough sign that Omashu had fallen, and it sickened her.

It was only a few moments later before the trio who had come in place of the Fire Nation Governor appeared on the opposite side of the scaffolding, all three faces that she recognized and had known since she was a child… How could she forget, after all? They were old 'friends'.

The girl from the other night had indeed been her cousin Mai, as much as she had vainly hoped it wasn't, with the pink-clad circus girl Ty Lee on her right side, and the cold princess Azula on her left.

Tui and La she was screwed.

A snorting chortle sounded from above, making the quartet look to see a sarcophagus-caged King Bumi being lowered on the side of the scaffolding, voicing a cheery greeting to Aang.

"You brought my brother?" Mai asked blandly, hazel eyes on the toddler held in Sokka's arms.

Aang nodded, calling back, "He's here; we're ready to trade."

Mariko bit down on her lower lip, a habit she had learned when she was younger, knowing this wasn't going to end well; not with Azula here… nothing good would come of having her leading this mission.

"I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me… Do you mind?" Azula spoke up clearly, the question meant for the governor's daughter even though the first part of her sentence was to be heard by the quartet on the opposite side of the scaffolding.

"Of course not, Princess Azula." The knife-thrower complied calmly.

"We're trading a two-year-old for a king; a powerful earthbending king. It just doesn't seem like a fair trade, does it?" The princess pondered, her tone mildly condescending towards the end of her sentence.

Aang wasn't going to be happy about this.

Taking a brief tension-filled moment to ponder on the question, her cousin finally conceded, stepping forward. "You're right; the deal's off." With a gesture from her, the king was lifted back up by the chain holding onto his cage, not without Aang rushing forward to stop his prison from pulling him away from sight, narrowly missing a jet of azure flames from the princess.

Mariko's blood ran cold when the makeshift wrap on his head fluttered in the wind he'd propelled himself with, showcasing his pale blue arrow tattoos prominently. "Damn…" She reached for the daggers secured in the undersides of her crimson wristguards.

"The Avatar… my lucky day." Azula smirked coldly, giving chase to the airbender and leaving the trio to face the two girls.

"We've gotta get the baby out of here," Katara declared as they ran in the opposite direction as Sokka was blowing on the bison-whistle.

Sokka smiled, "Way ahead of you!"

"Katara, take the girl in pink," Mariko ordered, seeing her blue eyes sharpen at her grim tone; her amber eyes tightened. "The knife-thrower's my problem." Moreso a family reunion, she inwardly added, watching the girl run off, noting the knife-thrower skid to a halt at seeing her stop running to face her.

Mai regarded the hooded girl with mild interest, a few shuriken on hand, noting sunlight winked off the sharp edges of the girl's two daggers she drew. "This is a surprise, you're not running like a baby." She said coolly in that scratchy voice her cousin knew her by.

"You're more talkative than you used to be; guess time matures you after all." Mariko drawled calmly, charging forward at a sprint, right foot making to connect with her torso before her opponent swerved to the side and threw a shuriken at her head. She hopped out of the way and countered with her dagger, the blade sailing past her left arm and nicking the cloth of her maroon sleeve, briefly earning a glance from her cousin.

Taking the miniscule opening, she lunged and sucker-punched her in the nose, sending her skidding back.

Digging her heels into the scaffolding, Mai glared venomously at the offender, noticing she was rubbing her left fist gingerly from the punch, and she caught onto something; before she'd begun her proper firebending training, her cousin had liked sparring with her when they were younger, and she would always be predominantly left-handed… Just like… "Well I'll be damned; I'd heard the rumors, I just didn't think they were so true. It's been a long time, Mariko."

She briefly froze before quieting, huffing softly. "It has, hasn't it?" Running her thumb along the second dagger's blade, she lunged again, ducking a shuriken that made to cut her cheek, right hand flying to slap the third throwing star from her hand, growling an oath when she lashed out with her free hand and smacked her in the cheek, her manicured nails scratching the skin of her upper right cheekbone, forcing her back.

She sent another array of throwing stars at her cousin, forcing her to draw back again and again until she had a sinking feeling she'd backed her into a proverbial corner, and with a glance over her shoulder at the steep drop from the scaffolding to the delivery chutes, she was right.

Crap.

"Three years away from home have made you weak, cousin." Mai huffed, hazel eyes steely, a cocky light in her face, a switchblade in hand.

Mariko slid her eyes closed and inhaled, faking her out by letting herself fall over the edge.

Balking, she moved to see where she'd fallen before a sharp kick to the chin sent her sprawling.

She hovered higher into the air by her fire-rockets, hearing a low groan sound from the other side of the scaffolding, signaling her ride was there. With a final look at her cousin she'd conked out, she exhaled and dropped to rush to her ride and leap onto the saddle just as Katara was scrambling on.

"Is the baby okay?" Mariko asked, blinking when seeing Momo trying to dodge a few clumsy grabs from said toddler; her shoulders slumped and she smiled in relief.

"Mari, your cheek's bleeding." Sokka declared with another glance at the firebender cradling the toddler.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, compliments of Mai." She replied, tucking the dagger back into her right wrist guard. "Sorry I kinda forced you to fight Ty Lee; she doesn't look it, but she packs a punch." She looked to his sister with an apologetic look, eyeing her left arm she was rubbing gingerly.

Katara blinked once before looking at her with mild surprise and curiosity, "You know those girls?" She asked.

Mariko nodded, a sad light flickering in her amber eyes. "I'll explain when we get Aang and give the baby back." She promised.

::::::::dOb::::::::

"You grew up with them?" Aang was the first to ask once she'd told her friends of her ties to the trio they'd faced earlier.

Mariko rubbed her left arm gingerly, "It's not like I enjoyed it much. Azula was the princess, so naturally I had to get along with her for my parents' sake, Ty Lee was okay when she wasn't being a total ditz, and Mai… well, she's my cousin, so of course we were required to get along 'swimmingly'. So said my mother." She smiled a little even though it didn't reach her eyes, looking at the milky face of the moon.

"That's why you knew Zuko so well, because you grew up with his sister and her friends." Katara surmised, slightly bitter about the prince.

Aang and Mariko glanced at one another for one miniscule second before the latter nodded, exhaling. "Yeah; between them and him, he was the better friend." He was the only friend I had.

"That explains why I didn't trust you so well when we met, then." Sokka mused from steering the bison onward past the mountain ranges.

Mariko rolled her eyes, crossing her arms behind her head as she relaxed in the saddle. "Or it's because you were half an asshat when we met." She joked.

"Bite me." Sokka groused, looking away with a 'humph'.

Katara smiled wryly at her brother; Aang chuckled, glancing at the placid smile on Mariko's lips and looking away.

Zuko had been her childhood best friend even though they were betrothed to each other… He couldn't help but wonder if the prince felt as much for his old friend as she did him.

Did he?

A/N: yo, sorry for the prolonged update. my comp's OS was updated and i lost the original file for this fic so i had to start fresh and, even tho i already covered the first book, i had already covered a few eps of the second book on the old file.. anyway, here's the ninth chap, hope you lot enjoyed.

also, shoutout to my doting readers who've been reviewing, thanks a mil for the feedback, you have no idea how good it makes me feel to know people love what i write. honest. (: and another shoutout to thehomiewhowrites for the favorite on this story. srsly, your review made my day. thanks again! ^^

a little preview into next chapter:
'Although blind, this girl packed a punch... She had a feeling they would get along just swimmingly.'