...

The muscles in Xiaobao's arms strained as he lifted up a wooden beam that lay through the strewn debris field of scattered bricks. Then he grunted and something in the partially collapsed house shifted, making the broken rafter slightly easier to hold. One last heave allowed him to transfer this end of the beam up onto his shoulders. If any of them survived the night, the construction business in Kuang Harbor was going to be booming. Shouts and screams echoed in the distance.

"There you go," he said. "Grab stuff quick."

The woman beside him dropped down and crawled over the clacking pile of fallen bricks, desperately sifting through the shattered remains of a wooden chest for what clothes and items she could salvage. "Spirits bless you! Thank you so much! This is all I have in the world and I was sure I was going to be penniless on the street and-"

"It's ok, really," Xiaobao said through gritted teeth. This beam was biting into the flesh of his neck. "Just...quick."

A few last bricks were thrown aside and then she hopped back. "All right, done."

Xiaobao breathed in and out, then shoved the beam back off his shoulders and let it fall. The loud crash rang out in the night. He stood there breathing heavily for a second and rubbing his sore neck as he tried to fend off the grateful woman's attempts to bestow more thanks on him. There were too many destroyed homes tonight. Between the earthbenders, the Masks, and the spirits he wasn't sure which were worse. Then someone shouted his name from off in the dark:

"Xiaobao!"

Jiang gingerly poked his way around a corner in this damp and narrow street. He still didn't seem to like even walking around these warren-like neighborhoods as it seemed to pose of a risk of him touching something or, even worse, being touched by something from outside the city walls. But Xiaobao had to admit the two students had been invaluable tonight. Having someone who could even pretend they knew what they were doing made things so much easier.

"What are you doing out here?" Jiang said. "There are other people who can do stuff like this, you're too important. Come back, I think people are getting mad at Zhangyi."

Well, that last bit at least sounded believable even if the rest was nonsense. The woman had her possessions so Xiaobao followed Jiang back to the wider street where a bit of a rough command center had accidentally been established. As Xiaobao stepped into the lane, a number of men wearing black headbands nodded at him. Xiaobao didn't recognize half of them. After the disaster at the theatre the neighborhood watch had spread across the town, freely deputizing any crew who wanted to help. Really, it wasn't like they had real authority to do any of this so they might as well go all out.

Now they'd reached where the harbor streets met the Riverwall, hoping to form some sort of barrier of resistance across the town to cut off the Bed and the town's north from the southern half where the worst of the fighting between the government and the Masks was taking place. The Masks seemed to be sticking close to the canals for some reason, so that at least gave them some hope of predicting their movement and countering it. If that forced all the Masks to go fight with the Exclusion then so be it. The firebenders seemed more capable than most of defending their own. Xiaobao had seen too many people die already tonight.

At the center of a knot of people, Zhangyi was standing on a box and loudly saying something about "organized devision of structured labor". He was wearing a wide black headband and surrounded by people who looked about ready to shove him in the canal. Xiaobao had expected that. What he hadn't expected was Ayika's mother suddenly materializing in front of him to jab her finger in his chest.

"Maolin! Where's Ayika? And what's this I hear about you being in charge around here?"

Instantly Xiaobao felt like he eleven again. He'd spent so long watching after Xinfei as his brother played with Ayika that Maekayae had wormed her way into his head in a second mother. Then, after his father's death, though he hated to think about that way Maekayae had become nearly their only mother as his own retreated further and further into her sad private world.

"Uh, hi mam. Oh, don't worry. Ayika's...safe. She's...off that way?" He gestured vaguely behind him towards the safer part of town. He hoped his smile wasn't as guilty as it felt.

"Don't lie to me, boy," Maekayae glared up at Xiaobao in a way which managed to make him feel very small indeed. "Who's she with? Xinfei? Or is it that Yaki girl?"

"Yaki? Who's-"

"You know, the girl who looks kinda Fire Nation. Talks posh with an accent. I know Ayika's been spending time with that one."

Xiaobao blinked. He only had the barest idea what was going on. Ayika's stories always tripped him up but he had to guess that Yaki was Muzumi. "...yes? Yes. Ayika is, um, with both of those people. Uh, don't worry, Xinfei promised to look after her. She's...helping us out?

Maekayae narrowed her eyes at him. "You're a lousy lier. But that's a good thing, it's why these people are trusting you. My girl's the better lier, but I still spot it." She muttered, "With Yaki. Great. I saw how that one went on. Definitely got some war-time parentage in her. And everyone knows how that sort is."

Then she crossed her arms and sighed, more weary than angry now. "Sigh. I should have seen this coming. First you then Ayika. I knew there was something in the water here, doing this to the kids. Why won't the government do anything about that?"

She wasn't even looking at him anymore but Xiaobao was in the meantime just trying to stop choking. "Gah, pah! Uh, what? What about me then Ayika? What to us?" No, she couldn't mean what he thought. There was no way she could know his deepest secret. Hell, it had taken years for him to know! He'd never even acted on it.

But Maekayae wasn't paying him any attention. She just tapped her foot as her mouth twisted in worry. "At least Xinfei turned out right. Knew that when he turned eleven and started staring at my chest. 'Course that boy has enough trouble just being him, so I suppose it's for the best," she shrugged wearily. "Just...When you see my girl, tell her to come home."

Xiaobao felt faint. He frantically looked around to see if anyone was listening. Some of the younger guys were snickering at big Xiaobao getting chewed out by a woman who didn't rise past his chest, but the older men cuffed them into silence quickly enough. Any sensible man knew that just standing up to a Bed mother on the warpath was heroic enough for ten men. Xiaobao swallowed. This all felt unreal, no one seemed to have registered anything that Maekayae'd said. He was starting to think the spirits were addling his brain now and he'd imagined the whole speech. Wait, he hadn't right? Had Mua ever mentioned how to tell about the spirits?

Then Xiaobao saw Ayika's father Kadat coming up and then Maekayae jabbed him in the chest again. "And not a word to my husband. Women's business or so help you, boy." All the protective fierceness returned in an instant.

Xiaobao was only too happy to nod. "Hey Kadat! Glad to see you, ha ha!" He hoped he didn't sound as frantic as he felt.

Kadat just held out his hand and firmly clasped Xiaobao's arm. His eyes were hard and for once his voice was firm and decisive. "It's them again, isn't it? The ones who killed Chouyu."

"Yeah. It's... it's worse tonight."

Kadat nodded. He just said, "Then what can I do?"

Somehow from across the lane Zhangyi heard that and instantly materialized at Xiaobao's side with a notebook and pencil. "Excellent, additional recruitment! Sir, now if I could just get you name and place of employment." Kadat blinked in confusion at this young native man who looked like a prince and yet was addressing him as 'sir'. Zhangyi didn't seem to notice. "If your work team hasn't yet been integrated then the most important thing you can do is seek out your coworkers and recruit them to come back and help. The name of the game tonight is manpower."

The distant thud of an explosion somewhere across the town only made Kadat's eyebrow climb still higher. Zhangyi wavered slightly, "Well, fire prevention too, but again that comes down to membership numbers. And when victory over these insidious spiritual forces is achieved, think of all the good a unified force of the working class can accomplish for our great nation! See, I just signed on an entire cartdriver's collective."

Xiaobao wearily glanced over at the men Zhangyi was gesturing to and then instantly bellowed when he saw what they were carrying on their belts. "Hey, what did I say! No knives! I don't care if the guards aren't going to be enforcing tonight, if you're the one who goes spirit crazy next we don't need you slicing us!"

A new brisk female voice broke through the street noise. "That's sense. Keep it up with the firm hand, just as long as you don't try extending that rule to any of my people."

Xiaobao spun around. "Huh? Mrs Anyakya!"

While most of the people out on the streets tonight held expressions of barely contained terror, Anyakya the laundry owner appeared irritated more than anything else. Of course she was flanked on each side by men even bigger than Xiaobao so that might have had something to do with it. Both of them had heavy clubs hanging from their belts alongside cloth wrapped items that looked suspiciously like long vicious knives. Most of the Black Bands looked confused by this woman marching in like she was queen of the world, but Xiaobao noticed that all the other tribal people gave her respectful nods. Folks knew Anyakya.

Then she planted herself in front of Xiaobao. She was looking up to inspect him and he found himself really wanting to not be found wanting. He also wished that he'd listened to Ayika explain this woman a bit more.

Anyakya sniffed, not impressed. "So. Bao. You're the one behind all these headbands."

"Well, see, it's kind of a weird story and-"

"Yeah, spare me. This town needs some order right now and damn if the government's giving it. If you're what we've got then you'll at least look the part if I have anything to say. Otherwise it'll just be a stampede people'll be looting here in a heartbeat." She snapped her fingers and one of the burly men beside her held out a bundle to Xiaobao.

Xiaobao grabbed the thing on reflex and then held it up. It was a vest, but of good dark blue fabric and embroidered in white with the characters "Kuang Harbor". There was a wide black stripe that wrapped around the waist. It looked...official. "Oh wow. You made this?"

"Ha! Hell no. I've got too much money to sew, that's why I've got girls." She waved her hand. "And don't worry about paying. Nah, I'll give you time to set up your organization's collection tithe and get your finances in order before that bill comes due."

"Uh, wait. What? My what?"

"Just as long as you and your workers-together buddies stay far away from any of my employees. You got that? I think you'd be mighty unhappy if you crossed me here, right Sang?"

The big man on her right grunted, "Right. Very unhappy."

Xiaobao felt light headed. He'd completely given up on understanding tonight. If the Masks didn't tear the whole town to shreds then it was all these water tribe women who were going to be the death of him.

As if on queue, Anyakya said, "Oh, and tell that Ayika girl she's fired." This was an afterthought and she continued to grumble to herself, "I go to the trouble of hiring an in-house shaman and of course she goes awol as soon as violent maniacs start running around telling people they're spirits. Should've known, tribal folks always buy into that spirit world stuff way too much."

Xiaobao just hoped that Ayika and Xinfei were getting close to whatever shamany solution they were hoping for. Then all those thoughts were interrupted by another burst of screaming, this time followed by wild roars like fire and shattering wood. Suddenly, Xiaobao wasn't worried or confused anymore. He couldn't afford to be.

"All right men!" He called out, running forward against the people fleeing the other direction. He didn't bother looking back to see if anyone was following. "This is why we're here!" He could hear the Masks up ahead, playing in their infantile cruelty and so he planted his feet in the middle of this dark dirty street. Those creatures were wandering this way, so it was up to him to dissuade them. There were people to protect. That at least made sense.

"This is our home and we will hold!" he yelled and somehow there were half a hundred voices yelling with him.

...

Mizumi fought her way through the packed streets, jabbing out with elbows and shoving with her shoulder to make some avenue through the press of fearful people. At least that was one useful technique this city had taught her. Just ahead, Ayika gripped tightly onto her wrist to keep from being separated. Mizumi couldn't see any of the others. The neighborhood ahead was the heart of the chaos in the Lower Ring. It represented the point where the people who were fleeing the advance of the furious guards met those who were fleeing from the maelstrom of fire and spirits and Masks that represented the epicenter of the disturbance between the worlds.

Mizumi then turned a corner and came face to face with a solid stone slab filling the mouth of an intersecting street. There were screams and shouts coming from the other side.

At her side, Ayika cursed at the barrier. It was not the first they'd seen tonight. She said, "Damn it, the guards raised the blocks here too. But that's the right direction. The ghosts are getting more the closer we get. But it sounds like there's people past this and they'll all be affected. If we could find a way-"

"Ayika!" Mizumi pulled her back as a man climbed over the top of the slab wall above them dropped down, landing heavily where Ayika had been standing a moment ago. More people were climbing out of the second floor windows on each side of the raised slab, piling over each other as the buildings creaked and cracked from the press of people shoving their way up and through them. One woman slipped as she lowered herself out of a crowded window and landed wrong on the street below, suddenly screaming out a shriek of pain as her ankle broke. Mizumi recoiled from the wide-eyed fear in these people's soot stained faces, the kind of fear that would lead a person to do anything to protect them and theirs.

Mizumi looked back the direction she and Ayika had come from. "Did we manage to stay with any of our other friends or...?"

She broke off speaking as she recognized the one person on the street with them who was not running. Ma'er was still here. The man dark green robes walked up to the wall that blocked the road, finding a place in the empty space directly in the center away from the sides where climbing people spilled over, and planted his stance. Then he thrust out his hands, transitioning between powerful, firm magical gestures.

Mizumi just had time to turn towards Ma'er and thank him before she was stopped by a sudden crashing sound. A glowing Mask fell from the cloudy, smoke-filled night and landed with a thud on the half-fallen barrier. People tumbled back, screaming, while the thing wreathed in a blue aurora roared out like the grinding of glaciers. Then half of a building facade exploded outwards to crash into the possessed monstrosity.

Ma'er was on the attack. He wasted no time telling the girls to run; he had enough faith in their own sense for that. Indeed, they were already scrambling past the barricade as Ma'er spun into a series of punches that tore up pieces of the street to launch at the Mask. The monster dodged to the side, spectral blue claws sinking into building walls at it dashed along vertical slopes before grabbing onto a falling chimney which Ma'er had just ripped free. It struck back but the ground had already flung Ma'er up and out the way.

From behind her Mizumi heard these sounds, shattering tiles and crunching wood and the laughter of angry spirits over the terrified screams of helpless people. All she could do was scramble over the half fallen wall and to keep running. Ayika was beside her.

When the two of them were around several corners and out of the immediate conflict they took a moment to catch their breath, leaning against a boarded up storefront. On the dirt below their feet lay scattered debris of personal effects that had slipped through the hands of evacuees. Down the narrow street a tall apartment building, hopefully empty, had transformed into a towering inferno, turning the black night orange. The flames were spreading to neighboring structures and there was no chance of help arriving to stop it. Even in a best case scenario, tonight an area larger than Mizumi's home town in the Nation would burn to the ground. And that was if Ayika actually succeeded in her mission.

Mizumi looked over to meet Ayika's eyes. In such a short time they were all that remained the group that had set out from Kuang Harbor. The others had all been lost in the chaos. They had no idea if Ma'er would be able to win his fight or if he would be able to find them again. However, they couldn't afford to stay. Things were getting worse by the moment. The free spirits and the Masks were both growing still stronger and by now even Mizumi was starting to see the dim suggestions of grey ghosts flitting slowly across the streets. She flinched away as one drew closer and she felt a shiver of anger, fear, and hunger for everything she'd never had. Ayika's grimace confirmed it. The ghosts were all around them, and even Ayika's shaman abilities couldn't keep their influence for more than a moment. This world was coming apart at the seams. On Mizumi's cheeks the cold of night mixed with the harsh radiating heat of the fires.

Suddenly, there was a sound of pounding footsteps behind them. Four people, three men and a woman came barreling around a shadowed corner and stopped, supporting themselves bent over with hands on their knees as they regained their breath. Mizumi saw Ayika look up at them and briefly her eyes showed a desire to help them before becoming weary again. Mizumi understood why. She could see the faint suggestions of grey shadows that were now inching towards those newcomers who weren't protected by the authority of even an untrained shaman. They would be maddened very soon.

The woman in the fleeing group straightened up and saw the two girls on the other side of the abandoned, half-burnt street. She called out, "Hey, are you all right? That blue thing attacked back there at the district border, we'll need to head another way out."

Ayika silently shook her head, too tired to deal with this. They didn't need to find a way out. They were heading deeper in and that path would lead these people only closer to danger. Mizumi took her lead and began to walk away from the small group, angling towards a small street mouth that seemed to be going in the direction they had been heading.

One of the men stepped forward. "Hold on a minute! It's ok, you can stay with us! We live over on Paniu road; We know other ways out of this district."

His friend now put an arm up as he moved in the same direction. "Wait, Wenpu, look at that girl. She's one of those foreigners!"

Mizumi tensed up, ready for what was coming next, but he continued, "She's a Tribal! That's why she's refusing to talk to us!"

For a moment Mizumi felt flat footed. Then she realized that on a dark night and in a local style dress, a woman from the Fire Nation might pass for a native of the city. However, Ayika's brown skin marked her out. Ayika finally yelled back, letting her thick local accent out to prove her residency. "Where the hell do I sound like I'm from? You all get out now! We've got to run back and grab an heirloom before everything burns up!"

However, Ayika's alibi didn't go over well. "What the hell kind of heirlooms would a Tribal have here? And with a friend dressed like a freaking courtesan." Those previously concerned faces were now clouded with suspicion. The four of them continued moving towards the girls. "Those Tribals are always involved with spirits aren't they?"

Out of the corner of her eye Mizumi saw a faint grey ripple creep through the air towards the woman. That lady lowered her brow as something passed behind her eyes. "Yeah, they are. Their witchdoctors unleashed a bunch of spirits back during the war. Killed a whole Fire Nation fleet, I heard. So what's one of them doing here?"

"I saw that thing which attacked back there, it was glowing blue and had transparent tentacles. Fought that earthbender. That sounds like spirit magic to me. And I heard that foreigners killed a minister up in the Inner Ring."

Mizumi wanted to scream at them that they'd gotten absolutely everything wrong, but one hint of her accent could only make things worse. Not that she immediately saw how that could be, there were already nearly invisible shades of the hungry ghosts clutching at these people. The ghosts were unseen by their victims but Mizumi noticed a feverish expression of fear as the touch of the the other world began to cloud their thoughts. Ayika was still trying to convince them to go their way, but their addled minds had reached their own conclusion. The four locals advanced, spreading out into a semi circle.

No, diplomacy had failed. Now it was time for another approach. Mizumi reached in her jacket sleeve and drew forth her knife. Those people were paying attention to her now. Abandoning concerns about her accent, Mizumi said, "Just go on your way away from the danger. We are heading the opposite direction so there is no need for this meeting to be prolonged." She had to do something, even if she heard Ayika hiss in regret as she saw the knife be drawn.

The local residents flinched back from the bared blade, but they frowned more and they did not leave. "What's with that voice? She a foreigner too?"

"Yeah, she looks a bit funny now that I see. Foreigners sneaking around behind the evacuation? I bet they're part of this! They probably set the fires themselves! Them and their spirit magic allies!" That man leaned down and grabbed a metal candlestick off the street that someone had carried all this way only to loose a grip on. Sweat beaded on his brow and his eyes were wide, darting back and forth as dim grey shadows flitted through his brain.

Ayika tried to bring some sense back. "No! We're just trying to...!"

The ghost-addled people moved forward. Mizumi brandished her knife, but they still forced her a few steps backwards. Too late, she realized that they'd managed to almost separate her from Ayika. One of the men lunged. Mizumi yelled, Ayika's leg kicked out, and the man grunted in pain as he crumpled into himself clutching between his legs. However, the next man bowled into Ayika with his entire weight. No matter how many tricks Ayika knew, she couldn't do anything about the fact that this man was a foot taller and almost twenty kilograms heavier than her. She fell back onto the street heavily.

In that instant all Mizumi's innate reservations about using a weapon against another human vanished. The constant, frightened monologue of her thoughts blinked out of existence and in two deep breaths she was at Ayika's side as if she'd skipped the intervening space. A man and a woman screamed behind her, clutching their bleeding new slashes. Mizumi turned back, eyes narrowed as her heart continued to thud in her ears. In that dash, someone had struck her but she couldn't feel it over that heartbeat. She was ready to move again, knife prepared to stab instead of cut this time. A drop of blood dripped from the blade.

Luckily, in their assailants' fear had finally been pushed over the edge from aggression to terror. They stumbled back, beginning to retreat. Mizumi glanced over to check on Ayika and after receiving a nod they both stood up and watchfully slid across the rest of the street for another path out of there. The four ghost addled citizens slowly vanished from view around the corner. Then Mizumi and Ayika turned to run.

At the next street intersection it was clear they weren't being pursued. Mizumi panted as she turned around, trying to regain her bearings. "All right, I believe that this is the direction we were heading in. I think..." She raised her arm to point and winced as a new rising bruise made itself known. The edge of that metal candlestick had struck her shoulder fairly hard. Luckily it wasn't the same shoulder that Naruhama had burned.

However, Ayika still noticed that flinch. She grabbed Mizumi to hold her still and eased the jacket half off as she looked closely at the new injury, seemingly grateful that the golden qipao underneath was at least sleeveless. As she came in close, Mizumi hurried to awkwardly move the knife away. The vicious rage she'd felt a moment ago was now resurfacing in her memory and she didn't want Ayika to think of her that way. Ayika noticed that too.

Ayika reached out to put her hand on Mizumi's wrist right above where her clutched hand held the knife. Ayika looked up to meet Mizumi's eyes. "Thank you. That blade saved me, I know it. I'm not afraid of it. Hell, I bless it."

Despite her weariness and the thudding pain which now seemed to come from every part of her body Mizumi felt the corners of her mouth twitch up into a smile. Ayika was covered in soot and dirt, her hair growing wilder as it slowly escaped from its braids. And yet she was so beautiful. Mizumi knew that she was just as filthy, with the addition of a few spots of blood, but when Ayika looked back at her like that she felt beautiful too. They didn't say anything else to each other but they turned and walked off, deeper into the heat and the flickering dark of the endless burning streets.

...