Chapter 94: Chapter 94
Blue pointed his sword off to the right, tracking the slow progress Mai was making.
"You want to take on the gloomy one again?" Sokka interpreted. "Okay, then I'll face the cute- I meant the acrobatic one again!"
...
Toph internally sighed as she picked up the telltale sign of Sokka heartbeat quickening. Letting a pretty face distract him? What an idiot. One thing she was grateful to her blindness for was the immunity it gave her to swooning over charming appearances.
Blue and Sokka split from the group, and across the river Tanya shot them a smug grin, as if she'd already known exactly how they would react to her move and was watching them play right into her hands. At this point Katara was seething: she hadn't taken her eyes off Tanya from the moment she appeared, and was clearly ready to take any opportunity to lash out with the first blow.
Then Tanya took a step into the river.
It was a ballsy move, stepping into the natural element of someone who wanted very badly to hurt you right in front of them. Toph would have called it arrogant, if not for two things.
First was her reputation. Tanya the Devil was the boogeyman of the Earth Kingdom for a reason.
Looking past all the nonsense stories about her eating the hearts of her slain enemies, or being born from the coupling of an evil spirit and a wolf, it was undeniable that she possessed a terrible brilliance for both firebending and military strategy that had allowed her to conquer the capital of the Northern Water Tribe on the night of the full moon.
One had to have confidence to achieve both of those things, but arrogance would have hindered her.
And second was her heartbeat. Despite the cocky front she was portraying, Toph could tell from the vibrations she was picking up from inside Tanya that the small girl was every bit as livid as Katara was. The feud between them had long since past the point of getting personal. If the devil was making the effort to disguise her hatred, it was likely that she had a trap in mind.
"I must commend you, water peasant." Tanya called out to Katara haughtily. "It takes a certain amount of maturity to accept your mistakes and learn from them. After how badly I thrashed you last time, I had expected you to try and take me alone again out of some misguided spite. It was wise of you to recognise that you simply aren't good enough, and recruit a child even younger than yourself to help you out."
Oh, so the devil liked to talk trash did she? Well two could play at that game. "I may be young, but I'm still taller than your midget ass." Toph shot back. "Careful in that river, it must be at least knee-deep. We wouldn't want you to drown."
For the first time since she'd arrived Tanya broke eye contact with Katara, turning her head to face Toph. "Oh my, your new little pup has quite the mouth on her." She sneered. "Go home kid. I've buried earthbenders tougher than you by the thousands, but I am not completely without mercy and you have done little to try my patience yet. Your presence here will only be a minor irritation at best."
Rather than let it get to her, Toph laughed the insult off. There had been plenty of smack-talk before earth rumble matches, and those who couldn't let it slide didn't stay popular with the crowd for very long. The tiniest scowl she detected tightening at the corner of Tanya's mouth in response to her reaction proved that she was on the right track. The devil was counting on making them lose their tempers.
Thankfully Katara seemed to be catching on too. Though she remained sharp and ready to spring into action at any moment, her breathing began to settle into a deeper, more even rhythm as she started to reign in her temper. "Those tricks you pulled last time won't work, Tanya."
Tanya's face dropped from a smirk to an outright sneer. She raised her other foot, as if to take another step forward, but right before it touched down on the surface of the water a small but intense flame burst from it, sending a thrumming pattern of ripples across the water.
Then she lifted her other foot off the ground.
Toph waited for it to come back down and touch the earth again, but as the seconds ticked by it never came. Her stomach sunk in horror as she suddenly recalled just which technique Tanya was most infamous for: jet propulsion, a tricky form of firebending that allowed for extended flight. Tanya had the potential to go the entire fight without setting so much as a toe on the ground unless she wanted to.
And unless she did, Toph had no way of seeing her!
...
Mai readied her knives, and watched as, across the river, The Blue Spirit drew his swords in one fluid motion. They had both wandered far enough to see Tanya in the distance, but to most assuredly be out of earshot. An intentional move on Mai's part.
With a wide sweep of her arm, Mai launched a heavy knife that rocketed across the river with pinpoint accuracy. The Blue Spirit wisely dodged and began to run forwards, wading into the river. As the one without a ranged option, it fell to him to tackle the difficult terrain or else be forced to stay on the defensive the entire time.
Naturally Mai didn't make it easy for him. The moment the water got up to his knees she unleashed a blizzard of sharpened steel, pelting him over and over with practically every scrap of metal she had on her person without reprieve. With the water hindering his agility, The Blue Spirit was forced to try and deflect every single one of them whilst trudging through running water: an exhausting feat.
To his credit he did a better job that anyone could have reasonably expected: his whirling blades swatting the knives out of the air with remarkable precision, but the odds were not with him. Every step he took saw another thin blade sink deep into some non-vital part of his body, and by the time he staggered out onto the other side of the river bank he must have had at least two dozen needle-like knives sticking out of him.
Any reasonable person would have been exhausted by such a feat, and the slouch in his body language betrayed that he was, yet The Blue Spirit still somehow found the energy in him to rush forwards at Mai, swinging his blades in wide, aggressive arcs. Mai ducked under the first and hopped back to avoid the second, letting herself be harried backwards toward the tree behind her, and readied herself as The Blue Spirit flowed into a new stance, bringing his blades up to attack again.
"Zuko."
The name slipped from her mouth with all the subtle sharpness as one of her knives. The Blue Spirit faltered, surprise causing him to misstep and fumble his next attack. He was open, vulnerable to a critical strike if she was so inclined, but Mai had no interest in that right now. Pressed up against the trees like this, they were finally out of sight of anyone else.
"Zuko. It's you, isn't it." Mai repeated, her tone deceptively neutral.
The Blue Spirit was still, silent for a long stretch of seconds. Then finally a voice, a little deeper and raspier than she remembered but unmistakably his, whispered out from behind the mask.
"How did you know?"
Mai allowed herself just the tiniest of smiles. She'd been almost certain, but having it confirmed was a relief she didn't realise she'd needed until now. "Come on, do you really think a mask and a pair of swords is all it would take to disguise you from me? It's been a while Zuko, but not long enough for me to forget you."
It was hard to tell what Zuko was thinking with his body tensed up like a coil, and a frustrated part of Mai wished he'd take off that stupid mask already, but to her irritation he didn't. "Does Azula know?"
Mai shook her head. "She believes that you're stuck alone and resourceless somewhere halfway across the Earth Kingdom. Knowing how you've pursued The Avatar already, I don't think she's even considered the possibility that you might have joined up with him." The last sentence was delivered with an accusatory tone, which made Zuko recoil uncomfortably.
"It's not-… I haven't really joined him." Zuko sputtered defensively. "But I realised that without a vehicle to follow him and men to subdue him, my options were limited. This way I can stay close to him, and the moment his companions aren't looking I can steal him away."
Mai gave him a searching glare. The awkward hang to his shoulders was the same look he'd had as a boy when he knew his plan was stupid, but was determined to stick to it anyway. What a mess this was becoming.
"Do you realise what will happen if the others find out?" She pressed. "They'll report it to The Firelord for sure. Paint you as the worst traitor the Fire Nation has ever known."
"Well what choice do I have?!" Zuko bit back angrily. "I would love nothing more than to do this the way I was meant to: defeating The Avatar in honourable combat. But I don't have that option anymore, because I don't have a single ally left! Even if I did capture him, I have no ship to hold or transport him in! This is the only path I have left that takes me home, and so I'll take it no matter how steep it gets."
Oh Zuko. Poor, sweet Zuko. It always did seem like fate conspired to rob him of anyone who'd take his side, leaving him to fight the world alone. First his mother, then his nation, and now his uncle.
"… I can help you." Mai declared gently.
"What?"
"I can arrange for transportation, and an elite guard force to help you keep him subdued." Mai continued. "They wouldn't have to even know it was you under the mask. I could just tell them I'd used dad's wealth to buy a traitor. You wouldn't have to show anyone your face until you and The Avatar were right before The Firelord's throne. Nobody would be able to deny your accomplishment."
"You'd do that? For me?" Zuko asked, doing a remarkable impression of a gaping fish.
"I would." Mai answered as tonelessly as she could. It was too embarrassing to tell him why exactly she was so keen to help him. "I've seen Azula's intel. We have a large military force currently laying siege to the outer wall of Ba Sing Se. I can make the preparations, and all you'd need to do is catch him at just the right moment."
"And then father will restore my honour!" Zuko breathed reverently.
Zuko had more honour in his little finger than his father did in his entire body, in her opinion. But to say that out loud, especially in front of Zuko, would be a foolish decision. So instead Mai did as she had learned to do with Azula long ago: keep her true thoughts to herself. "Yes." She agreed. "Yes he will."
...
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