#asks for them to teach her how to both defend and attack better; more coherently. more carefully. more ruthlessly.

[meatriarchived]

the thing about maria in her dire au's is at the beginning, at the start of her being taken in those initial weeks, its all the attempts she made - completely in vain, completely orchestrated and carefully planned / observed by johnny the entire time - take such an exhausting and debilitating toll on her.

its a constant beatdown mentally and emotionally that no matter what she uses, no matter what turns she makes, no matter how thoroughly or well thought-out she tries to plan, no matter what routes, what mindgames, what anything it seems that she tries?

she's always followed. always in view. always in vain. always failing.

by the time lee's brought down in nosy its just...

she's already so jaded, so bitter, so tired, but he isn't yet and so he's so determined, so hopeful still - like she was, all those weeks before - and she doesn't want to trample on it, and that small flickering hope still in her is thinking okay if its both of us, if its both our heads trying to work things out, both sets of hands and feet to get what we need, get to where we have to go, then yes, we can do this, we can make it-

but its still the same end. time. and time. and time, again.

over. and over. and over.

she's already been through so many attempts to get out. and then the next full batch of lee racking his brain trying to think of other ways, other methods, other routes to chance from how she did it the first time(s) and its still not enough.

it just breaks her.

she doesnt understand why they keep failing. how johnny's always steps ahead. she wishes she was strong like danny or lee or donnie, resourceful like connie or danny. brave like her little sister and julie, smart like sonny - but she isn't. not in her eyes. she feels so useless and inadequate and lost at it all. she hates that he's stuck down there with her, when he should've also been out, free, with the rest of them.

[meatriarch]

the thing about maria in her dire au's is at the beginning, at the start of her being taken in those initial weeks, its all the attempts she made - completely in vain, completely orchestrated and carefully planned / observed by johnny the entire time - take such an exhausting and debilitating toll on her.

its a constant beatdown mentally and emotionally that no matter what she uses, no matter what turns she makes, no matter how thoroughly or well thought-out she tries to plan, no matter what routes, what mindgames, what anything it seems that she tries?

she's always followed. always in view. always in vain. always failing.

by the time lee's brought down in nosy its just...

she's already so jaded, so bitter, so tired, but he isn't yet and so he's so determined, so hopeful still - like she was, all those weeks before - and she doesn't want to trample on it, and that small flickering hope still in her is thinking okay if its both of us, if its both our heads trying to work things out, both sets of hands and feet to get what we need, get to where we have to go, then yes, we can do this, we can make it-

but its still the same end. time. and time. and time, again.

over. and over. and over.

she's already been through so many attempts to get out. and then the next full batch of lee racking his brain trying to think of other ways, other methods, other routes to chance from how she did it the first time(s) and its still not enough.

it just breaks her.

she doesnt understand why they keep failing. how johnny's always steps ahead. she wishes she was strong like danny or lee or donnie, resourceful like connie or danny. brave like her little sister and julie, smart like sonny - but she isn't. not in her eyes. she feels so useless and inadequate and lost at it all. she hates that he's stuck down there with her, when he should've also been out, free, with the rest of them.

[star-spangledstud]

SELF-DEFENSE

Request: Um can I request something with steeb🥺🥺👉👈 Maybe him teaching a reader to fight or drive or work out! Thank you❤❤ @donutloverxo​

Pairing: Steve Rogers x (female!) reader

Warnings: smut (18+), PIV, lil bit of slapping, nothing crazy. 

Word Count: 3062.

Note: Thank you for the request. Sorry it’s taken me so long, I’ve been afk from Tumblr for a while. Hope you still like it!

It’s entirely too early in the morning when your phone rings. Shrill, high tones jolt you out of peaceful slumber. The sound forces you to open your eyes, brain ripped from the dream you were having but already can no longer remember.

With a groan, you roll over in bed, body tangled in pink satin sheets that you’ve managed to wrap entirely around yourself during the night. Blindly, you reach for your phone. Your hand slaps across the wooden nightstand next to your bed until you finally feel the vibrating device cramped between your stiff fingers. 

Ready to curse at whoever dares to call you at this ungodly hour, you don’t bother looking at the screen to see who’s calling you. A single swipe and the phone is pressed up against your ear, breath coming out through your nose in short bursts of annoyance while you purse your lips in preparation for what’s to come. 

“Good morning, peach,” you hear on the other end of the line.

Your breath hitches in your throat, and you instantly swallow the curses you were ready to spit at the caller down. A smile you didn’t know you were capable of this early in the morning blossoms on your face instead, anger long forgotten by the time you manage to form a coherent reply. 

“Good morning, stud,” you say with a raspy voice, followed by a soft, sleepy chuckle.

“Did I wake you up?” he asks, a hint of amusement in his tone when he hears you yawn on his end of the line.

“Nah. I always get up at,” you look at your alarm clock, “five in the morning.”

“I’m sorry peachy,” he doesn’t mean it; If it were up to him, you’d never sleep, “I just wanted to hear my girl’s beautiful voice.” 

With cheeks heating up quickly, you smooth out the soft fabric of your red nightgown. Buying it was, of course, Natasha’s idea. It’s not really your style, but somehow, she managed to convince you it is.

“How was your run?” you ask as you lay back down on the bed and take a moment to stretch your limbs. 

“Wet,” he’s grinning, you can tell, “it’s raining.” 

“It always rains in New York, big guy. You leaving tonight?”

The silence on the other end of the line confirms it; Steve leaves for another mission tonight. You’re used to it by now, but worrying about his safety sucks nonetheless, and a lump forms in your throat at the thought of missing him again.

“I was going to ask you what time you get off work. I want to see you before I leave.”

“One, I think.. two if it’s busy. Why?” 

Steve sighs and shifts in his chair, “you know I don’t want you walking home alone at night.” 

“Steve, I’ll be fine. I do it all the time. I’ve lived here my whole life, remember? I’m no stranger to this city.”

“I know you have, but I feel better if I walk you home. I’ll send an agent to pick you up. I have to go now, gotta get ready. I’ll call you tonight to make sure you’re home safe.” 

Before he has a chance to hang up the phone, you interject, “you could teach me self-defense.” 

It’s silent on the other end. For a brief moment, all you can hear is Steve’s quiet breathing and the clinking of coffee cups in the sink. You’ve suggested a self-defense class to him before, but the reply is always the same.

 “We’ll talk about it when I get back, okay? Be safe, peach. I’ll call you.”

  “Fine,” you sigh, “if you don’t wanna teach me, then guess I’ll just sign up somewhere in the city.”

  “Don’t say that,” he groans audibly, “you know why I don’t want to teach you these things.”

  “Steve, you can’t stay by my side every minute of every day. I don’t expect that from you. Nobody does. If something happens while you’re away, I need to be able to defend myself, and let’s face it, nobody is better at this than you.”

  “I know,” he admits finally, “I just don’t want you to get involved in any of this stuff.”

  “I’m not. I just want to be able to protect myself. Promise you’ll think about it?”

  “Okay,” he says finally, “I promise I’ll consider it.”

Two weeks pass after that phone call. Steve gets back from his mission with only a few scrapes and cuts, but all of them heal before he’s even had a chance to see you. He’s glad because he knows you hate seeing him hurt, and you worry too much about him as is. 

The sound of distant thunder outside the walls that currently surround you alerts you that Thor is in town again. Still, the raging storm outside isn’t the reason why you’re shaking in your boots. 

You tug on the sleeves of your t-shirt and straighten the hem, wondering for a moment if you should’ve picked something more... baggy. In this giant room, you feel very exposed. The gym is a lot bigger than you thought it would be. Granted, you’ve never had a reason to come down here before, but knowing Steve spends so much of his spare time here makes you feel only a little bit at ease. 

Steve watches you standing next to the shoulder press machine with your arms crossed when he enters the gym, duffel bag slung over his broad shoulders. He’s carrying two bottles of icy cold water in his hands; one for himself and one for you. He smiles when he sees you’re wearing the Tiffany’s necklace he got you for your birthday, and he can’t help but think you look adorable in your pink t-shirt and ruby work-out leggings. 

“Hey peach,” he greets you with a small peck on your lips, “you ready for this?” 

You nod and smile gently to assure him, but he can tell you’re nervous. A pang of guilt hits him deep in the chest when he eyes you carefully, afraid he’s pushed you too far this time. It’s one thing to expect his civilian girlfriend of one year to wait for him while he’s out kicking ass for sometimes months at a time. Still, it’s another to immerse you into the lifestyle, much less teach you fighting techniques. 

“Born ready, stud,” you respond, sending him a playful wink.

He takes some time to go over general self-defense rules. He tells you to watch your feet, be aware of your attacker’s arms, and to keep your fists as close to your face as possible at all times. He touches your bare skin when he adjusts your posture a few times, and each time his heart twitches because the thought alone of you fighting off a mugger nearly has him losing his fucking mind. 

He’s careful with you when you spar for the first time. Even though he would have absolutely no trouble sending you flying to the mat with only one hand, his touches are feather-light and soft. He allows you to hit him a few times, but he can tell he’s not the only one holding back. Steve wants to take it slow, but the sensical part of his brain knows he can’t teach you anything if he doesn’t apply any brute force.

“Peach,” he breathes after taking a break to think, “I need you to hit me.” 

“What?” you gulp and bite your lip, doe-eyes widening when Steve places his hands on his hips. 

“Is this how you’re going to fend off an attacker? By swatting their hands away from you? By pouting your pretty lips and batting your eyelashes?”

“N..no, but,” you stammer, “I don’t..”

“Come on then,” he urges you to step forward, “take a swing at me. Take me down if you can.” 

You take a deep breath, mustering all the courage you have to swing back your fist. Before it connects with Steve’s jaw, he blocks it, twisting your arm behind your back until you’re facing away from him.

The sensical part of your brain quickly realizes you’re never going to win a fair fight, not against Captain America. Then again, you muse, he never told you you can’t fight dirty.

You think quickly, taking only a few seconds to concoct a plan that would make even Natasha proud if she saw it unfold before her eyes. Steve’s already tense, you can tell by how his jaw is clenched tight, and his grip on your arm is firm.

“That all you got, peach?”

He breathes down your neck, causing goosebumps to rise along your heated skin. In a desperate attempt to prove him wrong, you hook your leg under his and bend forward, trying your hardest to pull him down to the ground. Your ponytail flies in his face, allowing him to take in the scent of your shampoo while his rough, calloused palms find their way around your waist to steady you on the mat. Suddenly, you can feel it, pressing up against your lower back. You smirk for a split second, afraid he might see and realize what you’re trying to do, before pursing your lips again into a thin line.

Steve momentarily forgets what he’s doing when he feels you arch your back. His mind trails off, away from the objective of staying upright in position. You turn your head slightly sideways, hot breath fanning against his exposed neck in another attempt to distract him.

You sigh audibly when Steve’s lips press firmly against your throat, lips parting when the feeling of Steve’s muscles pressed tightly against your back becomes a sensation you’re both hyper-aware of. His t-shirt is thin. You can feel every ripple of muscle underneath the tight fabric that is stretched so thin you wonder how the fuck it hasn’t ripped.

The hammering of his heart and the rapid rise and fall of his chest causes your own heartbeat to speed up. In a final attempt to take him out, you once again shove him, sending all your weight into his trembling body. With a loud grunt, Steve loses his balance. His grip on your hips tightens when he allows himself to fall down onto the mat, taking you down with him in the process. The two of you wrestle for a moment. Still, Steve finds himself on top of you before you can protest, left hand tightly gripping both of your wrists while the other gently brushes a strand of loose hair from your forehead.

He leans down, lips ghosting your collar bones and neck before settling on your earlobe. You turn your head, but Steve grabs your chin with his free hand. Your entire body tenses up when his voice coats your skin in more goosebumps, and you wiggle against his iron grip when he whispers in your ear.

“Do you think this is fair?” he mutters, “wearing these tight leggings in front of me. You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”

Your pupils dilate, eyes darkening at the deliciously deep grumble in his voice.

“No,” you lie, “I swear.”

He’s needy. You can tell by the way he’s subconsciously grinding his hips into yours. You can feel every inch of his cock through his sweatpants through the thin material of your leggings, and the sheer size of it nearly sends you over the edge then and there.

Steve roughly kisses your lips. Teeth and tongues mash together harshly for the first time in over two weeks. He doesn’t usually kiss you like this. Still, you welcome it, lifting your head off the mat instead into a bruising competition of lips.

Your eyes glance towards the door, and you push against Steve’s heaving chest. He’s already grabbing for the hem of your t-shirt, warm fingers grazing your bare skin when you build up the courage to stop him.

“Wait,” you say, pulling away just as Steve’s hand glides underneath your top, “here?”

“I’m gonna take you right here, peach,” he says while groping your left breast and fondling with your nipple, “right on this mat.”

“What if someone comes in?” you ask, back arching when Steve’s lips once again latch onto your neck.

The warm, wet sensation of his mouth against the most delicate spot on your bare neck has your mind drawing a blank. Suddenly, you can’t remember why you even questioned him. Who the fuck cares if someone walks in, anyway?

“Fuck it,” you reply to your own question, “want you, Steve.”

His hand releases your wrists, allowing you to reach down to the hem of your top. You rip it over your head in one swift motion and toss it next to you, followed by your sports bra. Your tits spring free, bounce in his face. The moment the fabric lifts over your head, Steve’s mouth is on your already tweaked nipple, licking and sucking it how you like it best while you wiggle your way out of your leggings.

“Leave them on,” he orders, grabbing hold of the smooth fabric before you can pull them down all the way.

With your leggings and dampened panties stuck around your knees, your movement is limited. You struggle to open your legs when Steve’s fingers run along your wet folds and groan in frustration when he dips two fingers into your throbbing pussy.

You yelp when he takes his fingers out again and softly slaps your cunt twice with the palm of his hand. He takes his fingers and pushes them into your mouth, chest swelling when he realizes he doesn’t have to tell you to suck on them because you do it instantly.

Three fingers disappear into your pussy now, coated in your saliva and sweet, delicious juices.

“You’re so wet already,” he comments before claiming your mouth with his again so he can taste you on your own tongue, “tell me what you want.”

“I want,” you gasp when he curls his stroking fingers, “your dick inside of me, Steve.”

Your fingers grab at his sweatpants. You yank down the soft, grey material that separates his flesh from you until it falls past his hips and under his toned ass. Steve’s cock, fiery red at the tip and hard like granite, springs free from its confinement and twitches when you allow your fingertips to graze its entire length slowly up and down. Steve bites his lip and holds his tongue to stop himself from cursing, but a small fuck escapes his throat when you fist his dick and guide the tip to your entrance.

“Put it in,” he commands through clenched teeth.

You don’t waste time giving Steve what he desires. After quickly wetting his cock with your slick, you plunge it inside of yourself with a fiery need. A sinful moan escapes your pink, swollen lips, and Steve presses another hard kiss to your open mouth when your hands grab hold of his ass.

He thrusts slowly at first to get your walls stretched nicely around him. No matter how many times the two of you have sex, it always feels like the first time, tight and warm, and oh so delicious. His dick pulsates when he picks up the speed, relishing in the feeling of your fingernails digging painfully into the plump skin of his perfectly round ass.

“You like that, peach?” he locks his hand around your throat, “like it when I fuck you like this?”

“Y-yes,” you manage when he begins to squeeze, “feels so good, Steve.”

“Anyone can walk in and see you like this,” he moans, “you like that, don’t you?”

You arch your back into his chest, eyes screwing shut at the feeling of his weight nearly crushing you. When he reaches down to rub your clit, you almost lose your fucking mind, and he has to bury his head between your tits to stop himself from cumming before you do.

Your bodies are beginning to stick together. The scent of sex is now heavy in the air. If anyone enters the gym looking for a late-night run, they’ll find something they can never unsee—the unmistakable thrill of getting caught red-handed drives both of you nearly over the edge. However, at this point, neither of you can stop if that were to happen. Nothing exists except for the sound of rough breathing, explicit moaning, and skin slapping against skin.

Every sense in Steve’s body is on high alert. He can feel it every time your walls flutter around his aching cock. You can feel it too. His weight on top of you feels amazing. The soft, blonde hair that grazes your neck while his tongue swirls around your nipple feels even better. The sheen of sweat that drips from his chest onto you, you want nothing more. You never want this feeling to end.

“You gonna cum for me, peachy?” he mumbles against your bare skin.

You whine at the knowledge it will end because you feel the coil inside of your underbelly is close to snapping. His thrusts become sloppier, less consistent, and it feels as if he does deeper and deeper with every snap of his hips. There are marks on his ass from where your nails dug into the delicate skin, but it’ll heal quickly.

Your cheeks are red with heat when you cum, lips deliciously parted, and eliciting the most beautiful moans Steve has ever heard. Your entire body vibrates when the orgasm flows through you, breasts glistening with sweat as they bounce while Steve fucks you through it. He fucks you, continues to fuck you until his own orgasm rips through him. Hot spurts of cum cover your insides, and he nearly collapses on top of you, barely careful enough not to actually crush you with his bodyweight.

He stays inside of you for a moment while both of you catch your breath. After he pulls out, he hoists his sweatpants back up over his hips. He kisses you softly while he pulls up your leggings. They snap against your skin when they reach your waist, and he grabs your hand to pull you up off the floor. His cum is still inside of you, dripping into your underwear when you take his hand and follow him out of the gym.

It’s fine, you think, I’ll learn self-defense some other time.    

[gumnut-logic]

The Hero (Part Three)

Title: The Hero

Sequel/companion piece to The Joker

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Author: Gumnut

3 - 12 Nov 2019

Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS

Rating: Teen

Summary: Thunderbird Two, with Virgil and Gordon aboard, is hijacked and stolen. With Virgil injured, it is up to Gordon to save his brother and his ‘bird. Sequel/companion piece to ‘The Joker’. Gordon is far more than he seems.

Word count: 3016

Spoilers & warnings: Violence, WASP!Gordon, Military!Scott, whump.

Timeline: Sequel/companion piece to ‘The Joker’.

Author’s note: For @corbyinoz because she has written some magnificent Virgil and Gordon fics and is a great inspiration. Thank you for all your wonderful words.

Oh god, this one’s a hard one. Just ask @vegetacide I’ve been whining in her ear for the last hour or so. I am so not sure about this. I really hope I can pull this off, but I’m chewing my fingernails into stubs. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

It started with ‘The Joker’. I got interested in WASP!Gordon and decided to explore his side of the story. Then PLOT happened. Now I have no idea what is going on.

Many thanks to @vegetacide and @scribbles97 for putting up with my crazy.

Disclaimer: Mine? You’ve got to be kidding. Money? Don’t have any, don’t bother.

-o-o-o-

Gordon held position, his eyes tracking his opponent.

“Left foot, Mister Gordon.”

Green eyes punctuated that statement, targeting the offending limb. Gordon shifted it back into form.

Kyrano circled and Gordon felt sweat break out on his forehead. Every sense was alert. Kyrano had that effect on him.

The security specialist was small in stature but deadly. His slowly greying hair hid his youth and his fitness. If the swimmer wanted to admit it to himself, the Malay scared him.

But his need outweighed his fear. He had to do this and Kyrano was the most capable of teaching him how.

Like a snake the man struck. Gordon fumbled to defend and for a moment he thought he had succeeded, but a sudden lack of limbs in contact with the floor saw him falling flat on his ass.

“Focus on your left foot and you forget your right.”

Gordon sagged into the mat.

“You wish to become WASP, yet you allow such vulnerability.”

“Doing my best, K.”

“Do better.”

He looked up to find those same green eyes staring at him beyond an offered hand. He reached up and took it.

And found himself airborne.

Ah, shit.

It was the only thought he could manage before the mat was again attempting to slap him into next week.

But this time he rebounded, using his centre of gravity to pivot and bring his flailing feet around in an arc in an attempt to take his teacher’s feet out from under him.

Of course, he failed, the Malay simply stepping back, but the glint of approval in those green eyes made it worth it.

Gordon followed through on the arc and used his momentum to spin himself to his feet.

He automatically shifted into form, body ready for another attack.

Kyrano eyed him. “You have some promise.”

On the sidelines, Virgil grinned at him.

Tin was no where near as impressed, but the subtle curve of her lips said it all.

“Perhaps you won’t die in your first fight.” Gordon grinned at Kyrano. “You’ll only be maimed.”

The grin became a glare. “Is that a bet, K?”

“Currently, it is a certainty.”

Gordon rolled his eyes. “Then teach me to kick your butt and I’ll prove you wrong.”

The small smile on Kyrano’s face was satisfying.

-o-o-o-

Gordon spun Thunderbird Two midair, coming to an abrupt landing that shook her frame and would have had her pilot swearing at him if he had been conscious.

The aquanaut shoved off his harness. “John, get the medics in here.”

His brother’s efficient “FAB.” was lost to Gordon throwing himself out of his co-pilot’s seat and hurrying to Virgil’s side. A quick vitals check disturbed the pilot and he muttered something incomprehensible.

“Hey, Virg. Hold on, bro, we’re getting you some help.”

“Gordon...”

He had never heard his name uttered with such faith and yet such vulnerability.

His chest tightened.

But he had no time for emotional response.

Dashing across the cockpit, he deployed a hover stretcher and dragged it over to the pilot’s chair.

Virgil sagged in his seat, muttering. Gordon gently nudged him upright and his brother moaned.

This was going to hurt.

“C’mon, Virg, let’s get you horizontal.”

“Need to protect...” And the sentence became incomprehensible.

Gordon levered his brother out of the pilot’s seat. Virgil flailed, his pain obvious, his coherency lost.

A clunk and the lower hatch deployed, John actioning Gordon’s request. Moments and hands were helping him lower Virgil onto the hover stretcher.

“Gordon! Gordon, no!”

Shit!

“Virgil! Virgil, I’m here! You’re safe. We’re both safe.” He desperately attempted to get his brother to focus on him, but whatever they had given him denied the man relief and his only understanding appeared to be the fact he was surrounded by strangers.

Virgil exploded.

The little energy the exhausted man had left, he threw into his muscles and attempted to leap off the gurney. Even weakened, Virgil was a big man and two of the medical personnel were thrown across the cockpit.

Gordon grabbed a flailing arm and bent it behind Virgil’s back, desperate to restrain him. “Virgil! You’re safe!”

“Gordon! Have to pr’tect G’don!” It was a bellowed slur and Virgil tipped sideways, barely catching himself. His other arm shot out uncoordinated and Gordon grabbed it, twisting his brother on the stretcher as the aquanaut climbed on top of him and held him down.

A medic appeared with a hypodermic.

“God, no! No sedative! He’s been drugged enough already.”

Virgil was wailing Gordon’s name over and over again, struggling to get free, but his body was giving out on him. Blood smeared on the mattress cover.

“Get us moving. Get some restraints.” Gasped out as Virgil wrenched his arm. “I’ll hold him.”

And International Rescue entered the military hospital, one member holding the other while he cried out his brother’s name over and over again.

-o-o-o-

Gordon eyed his former mentor. The man looked well; silver hair cut short except for the short braid at the nape of his neck. Simply dressed as always, black and silver embroidered tunic, loose black pants, both giving him the freedom of movement he used to attack at will. “Long time, no see, K.”

“Not long enough for that moniker to be any more acceptable.”

The aquanaut grinned. “You love it, just won’t admit it.”

Those green eyes, so similar to his daughter’s, flicked to Scott. “How is Mister Virgil?”

Beside Gordon, Scott’s stance shifted to one of weariness. “Recovering slowly. You have my briefing on the details.”

Kyrano straightened. “Yes, I do. Though it appears to be lacking some information.”

Scott’s stance shifted again and Gordon was reminded that Kyrano’s verbal sparring skills matched his physical skillset. “You have what is necessary.”

“But perhaps not everything that is needed.”

Scott tensed and Gordon frowned. “What more is there to tell?”

“What did you learn from Virgil?”

Gordon couldn’t help himself, he stiffened. “Nothing relevant.” But he knew it was a lost cause. Kyrano knew him too well.

“You have what is necessary.” The Commander of International Rescue made sure it was final. Scott straightened up beside him, his height, as always, to his advantage.

Kyrano eyed him a moment. “Very well.”

The tension in the air spiked a moment and Gordon found his feet automatically shifting into form.

Shit.

Kyrano smiled at him, green eyes sparkling. The man knew how to play a room. “Relax, Mister Gordon. You are among friends.”

“That remains to be seen.” And Tin spun on her heel and stalked out.

Scott sighed. “C’mon, Kyrano. I don’t know how you got onto the Island and I’m pretty sure you’re not going to tell me, but let’s get you set up in your old rooms.”

Gordon’s lips thinned. No doubt Tin was off scouring the security network looking for the hole her father had used.

“Thank you, Mister Tracy.”

As Kyrano turned towards the door, Gordon shuddered.

Mister Scott was no more and it hurt.

-o-o-o-

Gordon had no idea what time of day it was. His body ached and the remainder of the day had become a blur. Skipping across the Pacific was going both backward and forward in time and the sun had risen in the west.

Now everything consisted of the four walls holding his brother’s whimpers in the room.

They couldn’t sedate him and Virgil was caught in some kind of paranoid nightmare continually calling out to Gordon, terrified his brother was being hurt. Gordon had tried repeatedly to make himself known. There were moments where recognition set in and Virgil found the briefest of relief, but then his eyes would fog, memories reset and he would lose it again.

It was exhausting.

They had been forced to use strong restraints both to protect the staff and to protect Virgil from hurting himself.

It took the Commander of International Rescue a good twenty minutes to make it to the scene. John had reported Scott caught up with a mid-air collision over the Atlantic while Gordon had been hurtling across the Pacific.

The roar of One blanketed the base as she tore in to land, presumably beside Two. The blue-suited figure who strode into the room while the doctors were attempting to examine Virgil, flung out sharp and clipped questions demanding immediate answer, his eldest brother shielded by the military man who protected them all.

Virgil didn’t recognise Scott any more than he did Gordon.

Gordon watched as his big brother tried everything to calm the distraught man. The gentlest of touches, his fingers in Virgil’s hair, soft words.

Virgil only cried out more, tears in his eyes.

“Gordon, h‘s going t’ hurt Gordon. Can’t…can’t…”

Scott’s face turned to stone.

More sharp questions to the doctors revealed nothing. They had no idea what the hell was going on. Timelines told them that if Virgil had been dosed with anything at the time suggested, it should be wearing off now.

It wasn’t.

It was getting worse.

Three hours in, Virgil finally fell silent and slipped into unconsciousness.

His vitals took a dive.

-o-o-o-

When their father went missing, they lost more than just Jeff Tracy.

Kyrano took his loss as a personal affront and between one day and the next, upped and vanished.

The brothers still reeling in loss had no idea what to think.

Kayo was furious.

Gordon remembered his sister shifting from sorrow to anger when they discovered her father missing. He had left a note, detailing what he considered a personal failure, adding an equally personal vendetta to his reasons for leaving.

He neglected to even say goodbye.

It was like losing a third parent.

For all of them.

For Gordon it was also losing a mentor. The security specialist had been his guide in so much during those years. In training for WASP, his tenure, the accident that tore him from it and the long recovery that followed…Kyrano had been his spiritual lead. His brothers kept him afloat, but Kyrano had been his rudder in a time of turbulence.

Losing their father caused more pain than all of it and Kyrano left them all high and dry.

He had to respect the man, he had the right to mourn in his own way, but it hit Gordon hard.

But not as much as Kayo. She had never forgiven him for that moment. When he did eventually return, it was obviously with reluctance and on his own terms.

The one-sided screaming match between father and daughter had been heard across the Island. Gordon had the honour of seeing her flee the scene in tears.

He couldn’t remember the last time Tin had cried over anything.

She had barely tolerated the man ever since.

It left Gordon wondering if there was more to the equation that he wasn’t privy to. Virgil had attempted to follow up with Kayo, but she rejected everyone’s enquiries and eventually they all gave up, resorting to watching from the arms-length she kept them all at.

But each time Kyrano arrived back on the Island, always on his own terms and straight through her security, her anger returned.

Kyrano apparently ignored it, but Gordon was willing to bet his considerable fortune that it was all a façade.

Because Kyrano had always loved his daughter beyond reason and it just didn’t fly that her scorn could not affect the man.

“You hacked Four’s launch bay?!” Gordon stared at him. “What the hell, K? You’ve disabled her elevator! What if we’re called out?” Goddamnit.

“What if I wasn’t a friendly?”

“You could have just reported the vulnerability.”

“Demonstration is always the most efficient form of communication.”

Brains came running into the room, summoned by Scott. With Virgil out of action, the engineer was their primary fix-it man. The moment he caught sight of Kyrano, he took a step back. Brains had never been comfortable around Kyrano. Kayo sometimes gave the engineer the heebee jeebies. Her father multiplied that factor several times over and it put Brains in uncomfortable territory.

Even more when the specialist found holes in his creations.

Scott’s frown said it all. “Brains, we need repairs on Four’s chute and a security hole plugged. Kayo will give you details.”

The woman was back to her stone-faced glare, targeting her father from across the lounge.

“Y-Yes, Sc-Scott. I’ll get r-right on that.” He darted across the room, Max buzzing along behind him, camera trained on Kyrano in curiosity. Kayo pushed off from the lounge and with a final glare, followed the engineer out of the room.

Scott rubbed a hand over his face and sighed. “I really wish you’d stop doing that, Kyrano. A notification would be enough.”

Kyrano shrugged. “I do what I think is best.”

“K, you mess with my ‘bird again, you and I are going to have words.”

“I’ll remember to bring my dictionary, Mister Gordon.”

Scott sighed again. “Kyrano, I need your assessment of our security.”

Green eyes flicked in the Commander’s direction. “I stand before you, do I not?”

“K, you set up security here. Foiling your own work hardly constitutes an assessment.” Besides Gordon had gone over security with both Kayo and Scott and there had been no sign of a vulnerability in Four’s launch bay.

His mentor’s lips thinned and he turned to look out towards the balcony and the ocean beyond, his whole body a picture of ease, one hand holding the wrist of the other in front of him.

A sudden hiss followed by a roar and something swooped in low over the ocean, leapt up the cliff in front of the villa and came to an abrupt halt, hovering above the pool.

Gordon stared at the frozen projectile. VTOL flickered orange and angry.

Not a single alarm was raised. There was no call from John or Eos.

“My assessment is that you are very vulnerable.”

Scott was a vibrating mass beside Gordon. “You said you fixed security after the Hood invaded our home.”

Gordon glared at the man. “And we don’t usually have to worry about Thunderducks being thrown at us, K.” The little arrow of an aqua-vehicle had gone missing with Kyrano and it was a given the man had taken it with him. They hadn’t seen it and it hadn’t been mentioned the few times Kyrano had been called back to the Island, but Brains had not been concerned. The craft was very low tech on the Thunderbird scale and besides, they had gifted it to the man.

Green eyes fastened on him. “How about Thunderbirds, Mister Gordon? Did you not lose one just recently?”

Gordon stiffened. “We got her back.”

“But what if you hadn’t?” The Thunderduck nudged a little closer to the open balcony doors.

“Your demonstration has communicated what it needs to, Kyrano.” Scott’s voice was controlled within an inch of its existence.

Kyrano eyed the Commander a moment and tilted his head a little. “Very well.”

The Thunderduck lowered quietly into the pool and settled there.

Gordon groaned. Now he would have to clean the damn pool.

“Your biggest vulnerability is yourselves.”

“And how exactly do we fix that?” Scott’s teeth were gritted, Gordon could almost hear them grinding.

Those green eyes just smiled.

-o-o-o-

As they watched their brother slipping away, Scott threw more questions at the doctors. The medical staff did what they could, but Virgil refused to respond to anything they did.

The drug should be flushing out of his system, but instead it was almost as if someone was upping the dose.

But there was nothing. The hospital had scanned his brother, there were no foreign objects in him or on him or…

Gordon’s eyes widened as his stared at his prone brother. “Shit.” It came out of him in a rush. A blink and he was up and moving.

“Gordon?!” Scott stood up abruptly.

He didn’t bother to answer his brother, his beeline for Two more important than anything. A fumble through the medical equipment locker and he dragged their IR medical scanner into the hospital.

Scott asked him questions with his eyes, but helped him set up the equipment beside Virgil.

Five minutes later, with the superior technology of International Rescue, they discovered why Virgil was deteriorating.

“What the hell is that?” The question burst from Gordon at the sight of the electronically camouflaged, pill shaped object lodged in Virgil’s oesophagus. A swipe of his hand and an enlarged hologram of the object appeared above his prone brother. The hologram flickered, plagued with interference as the object attempted to diffuse the signal.

A word to John, a tie into the scanner and the image cleared.

“Brains? What am I looking at?” The signal was thrown at Tracy Island.

The analysis came back ten minutes later, Brains’ words stabbing.

It was tiny, but it was a fully engineered death trap. Partly it was drug delivery. The drug likely immobilised the victim, and initially made him subject to suggestion, a simple torture device modulating the dose over a longer term than a hypodermic was capable.

But there was more.

A molecular scan of the object revealed it contained a manufactured substance that when it eventually came in contact with the hydrochloric acid in Virgil stomach, was going to leave a sizeable hole where the hospital currently stood. The capsule was designed to corrode.

It was only a matter of time before the container eroded and the resultant explosion obliterated everything in a good five hundred metre radius.

The only reason it hadn’t was because it had gotten stuck on the way down, caught in the oesophageal wall, and the acid concentration was low where it had lodged.

There was a frozen moment of silence after Brains delivered the diagnosis.

It was broken by a single whimper from the bed, Virgil struggling against his own unconsciousness.

“Fuck.” It came out in a rush of pain, anguish and fear.

-o-o-o-

End Part Three

Part Four

[imagine-loki]

Loki and the Witchling

TITLE: Loki and the Witchling 

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 59/76

AUTHOR: nekoamamori

ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine you’re a healer working with the Avengers when Loki comes to join the team

RATING: T (so far) 

NOTES/WARNINGS: Also on AO3 click here

    You groaned when you finally woke again. Your head was on fire, your mouth was dry, and you had a swimming feeling in your stomach that made it seem like throwing up was going to be inevitable. You made the mistake of cracking open your eyes and instantly regretted it. You shut them quickly, clutching your head and making the most pitiful pained noise as the morning light fried your eyes and drove the migraine in your skull up about ten pain points.

    In short. You were very hungover.

    Though you’d had no alcohol.

    “Back among the living, I see, witchling,” came Loki’s voice from nearby. You whimpered, curled yourself in a tighter ball, then remembered, remembered what you had done and what Loki had been through.

    You made the next mistake of jolting upright, forcing your eyes open so you could check on Loki. He’d been through so much. You whimpered at the movement, fought back the wave of nausea and dizziness and tried to focus on Loki. Tried. Really tried. Your eyes wouldn’t focus.

    There was movement on the bed as Loki joined you. His hands steadied you and propped you up against the pillows. “I should leave you like this to teach you a lesson,” he told you. He wasn’t happy with you, but his tone was light, this at least was a joke.

    “I’d do it again if it meant saving you from that hell,” you croaked through dry lips and a fuzzy mouth. “Fuck, I’d do it a thousand times to keep you from going through that,”

    “Healers…” he sighed. “You are incorrigible, my darling. I still should leave you like this so maybe you’d learn to never overdose on magic like that again, but we need to discuss what happened over the last few days, so you need to be coherent for that. Now, hold still. I have enough healing gift for this.” His cold fingers were on your temples and instantly the pain began to ease.

    “Thanks,” you murmured when you were feeling human again. It wasn’t feeling Asgardian again, but you’d take human over whimpering ball of misery. You raised your hand automatically to summon a glass of water.

    Loki grabbed your hand. You saw then the emotions he was fighting. He wasn’t happy to say the least. “Stop that. You have used quite enough power, witchling,” he told you firmly. He handed you a cup of hot tea and you gave him a small smile. He didn’t return it.

    You took a sip of the tea. “How pissed off are you?” you asked him softly.

    “That is going to depend on the story you have to tell me, witchling,” at least he wasn’t pissed off enough yet to drop the terms of endearment. That was about the time he got dangerous.

    “Thor didn’t tell you?” you asked instead of starting the story. Damn Thunderer was supposed to tell him so he wouldn’t worry.

    “He told me you did something stupid you did not wish for me to know about, that you said you would be fine, and that I should not worry. Since then, they have all been busy with the strays you told them to bring back,” Loki growled and his teacup exploded in his hands.

    “Loki!” you dropped your teacup and it floated in the air next to you. You took Loki’s hands to make sure he wasn’t injured as the broken teacup and mess disappeared. You reached a hand up to cup his cheek, brushed your thumb over his lips, before you leaned up and kissed him. You had to check your handiwork, had to make sure he was really safe. You wrapped your arms around him. “I was so worried about you,” you told him.

    He held you too tightly for a moment. “I was terrified for you when you arrived at that place,” he admitted. “I never wanted you to come after me,”

    You scoffed. “You should have known better,” you told him. He inclined his head with a small smile.

    “I should have,” he agreed softly. “I never wanted you to have to use your powers like that,” he told you sadly.

    “I never wanted to either, but they hurt what’s mine,” you snarled softly. Loki kissed the top of your head.

    “I love you too, witchling. Now tell me what happened.” His voice had gentled. He understood your motives, though he wasn’t pleased. He also still couldn’t quite believe you cared enough about him to do that.

    You curled yourself more comfortably in his arms and your teacup floated back over to you. You began the story from the moment Loki was taken. “You drank what?!” he demanded when you got to the part about the coffee.

    “And that’s why I told Thor not to tell you about that,” you said softly, looking at you cup of tea. “I needed the power boost,” you added softly. He sighed and couldn’t argue that point. He knew how drained you’d both been after healing the children and how little you would have recovered by the next morning.

    “And that my darling witchling is why you overdosed on magic and why you were so very, very hungover,”

    “I realize that,” you told him grumpily. “I’m very aware why you told me not to boost my powers like that.” You’d known and done it anyway. You had been kinda desperate. He didn’t protest anymore so you continued the story. “I’m sorry I lost your lovelock,” you told him when you’d explained how you’d given it to Strange so you could find him.

    He kissed the top of your head. “I’ll give you a new one,” he told you softly. He sounded impressed that you’d used it to find him.

    Then you had to tell him about the rage and pain of seeing him in that place, of how he’d been bound and chained. About how they’d sewn his mouth shut. They had tortured your Loki and they’d had to pay.

    Loki pulled you more tightly into his arms, holding you safely, and kissing the top of your head. “You should never have come there. Thor should have known to stop you. They were after you, my love,” his words were harsh with emotion, with the pain and horror you had seen in his eyes when you had removed the blindfold on him in that place. “I stopped them from taking you… and you still went there anyway,”

    “I had to get you back. They were torturing you. They. Those fucking pieces of shit sewed your mouth shut,” you reminded him, wrapping your arms around his waist to hold him too tightly too.

    His voice was haunted when he answered. “They…they said they had to silence my silver tongue before I recovered enough to use it against them. Before they got ahold of you. They thought when you showed up that I would talk you out of doing whatever it was they wanted you to,”

    “I would have done anything to save you.” And you had. You had exploded every single person in that place. That knowledge was finally sinking in. You’d never killed before, and you had thoroughly destroyed all of those people.

    “No,” Loki told you firmly when he sensed your change in thoughts. “Don’t you do that to yourself.” He felt your emotions and could hear thoughts when you were projecting too loudly. He tilted your head up and kissed you. “Sometimes killing is a necessary evil. I never wished for you to have to use your powers like that. I know you’re a healer to your core and I love you dearly for it, no matter how exasperating it can be. I know you, my darling, I know that you would never do anything like that except in the most dire of circumstances. The circumstances the other day were very dire indeed,” that was an understatement. They had tortured your Loki. “You’re not a monster, love. Don’t even think for an instant that you are,”

    “I love you,” you told him and laid your head on his chest while he ran his fingers through your hair. You weren’t convinced you were going to get over killing all of those people so easily, but you knew it hadn’t been the wrong decision. It wasn’t the best decision, you knew the legal system was there for a reason…

    “Never anger a Lady of Asgard and never enrage a healer,” Loki said softly, more like he was voicing a memory than anything.

    “You knew?” you asked him just as softly. He kissed your forehead.

    “Of course,”

    “You should have told me,”

    “I never wished for you to have to use that aspect of your abilities. But I saw it once before. There was only one occasion when Thor and I had reason to witness the depth of a healer’s rage,” he kissed you lightly. “I can’t tell you how much it means that you love me that much. Only that level of love can illicit that response from a healer,”

    “You said you saw it before?” you asked, curious.

    He shuddered. “Once. Thor and I were seven or eight at the time. We went out on a picnic with Mother outside the palace. This was before Thor had Mjolnir, before I knew more than very basic magic. We hadn’t taken any guards with us. It was supposed to be close enough to the palace to be safe, just a mother having a picnic lunch with her sons. We were attacked by bandits. They were going to take us hostage to ransom the queen and the princes for gold. Even at that young age, Thor and I weren’t going to stand by and let Mother be hurt. I summoned a blade even then and Thor had his practice sword. We were horribly outmatched, even with Mother. Until she saw that I was injured, bleeding. Until she saw the full extent of the danger. Until my pain and our fear ignited that same healer’s instinct to protect the ones she loved. She grabbed us both, held us in her arms, and shielded us from the red rain as the men around us…popped and screamed and died. I don’t know how Father knew…” you knew he was lost to the memories and the story if he was actually calling Odin ‘father’ again. “He was there a minute later with a full squad of the army. They looked horrified, until Father reminded them that it is unwise to anger a Lady of Asgard, and more unwise still to injure the loved ones of a healer. He kissed her, told her he loved her, and how brave she was to defend her family. She was distraught, but she calmed when she realized we were all safe,” he told you.

    “Frigga-?” you would never suspect the mild, gentle, caring Queen of such violence.

    “Yes, darling. My Lady Mother. If Asgard’s queen can take such an action to defend the princes without being a monster, then so can her princess,” he told you warmly.

    “You’re really ok?” you asked him. He smiled softly and kissed you again.

    “Very much so, darling. Thanks to you. However, I would very much like to go find something to eat and you’ve been unconscious for over a day, so I can’t imagine that you aren’t starving too,” he told you warmly as both of your stomachs began to growl more insistently. You burst into laughter and finally, finally things seemed like they would be ok.

    *

    You insisted on getting a shower before you went downstairs. You were still covered in the remnants of the red mist from the warehouse. Loki joined you. You didn’t mind as you still weren’t steady enough to want him out of your sight. You had a feeling he was experiencing similar emotions.

    Clean and freshly dressed you made your way downstairs, Loki’s hand tightly held in yours. “Darling, relax. We’re safe in the tower,” he reminded you. “We’re safe,” he said again when you gave him a look.

    “They hurt you,” you protested. “You’re a god…” why didn’t he understand?

    “That was a very extenuating circumstance, witchling. We were both drained to the point of passing out from healing all of those children. It was a clever trap. They knew they’d have to incapacitate me to get to you. It is not something that will happen again. The team is already making plans. Cap is very boring about it,” he rolled his eyes and you laughed. You knew Cap’s lectures well. They were very boring.

    “Hey, we were wondering when you two would show your faces,” Nat greeted you when you made it to the kitchen. “Thor said you were sleeping off that shit you drank to save Loki,” she added.

    “Yeah. He’s still mad at me for drinking that shit,” you told her with a smile. “Any food around here?”

    “Stark ordered about a thousand pizzas. If you don’t want to cook that’s what we all had for breakfast,” Nat gestured to the fridge. “Cap wants to see you down on the detention floor when you’ve eaten,”

    “Pizza ok with you?” you asked Loki, who just shrugged. So you dug pizzas out of the fridge. “What does Cap need me for?”

    “We’re having trouble with the man we rescued,” she looked haunted for a moment before she continued. “I recognize him from before. We met five or so years ago. He goes by The Winter Soldier. We haven’t been able to get him calm enough to remove his mask or eat anything or do anything besides try to kill anyone who enters his cell. Cap thinks you might be able to help,”

    You nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. What about the kids?”

    “They’re upstairs in guest rooms the floor below yours. Don’t know if they’re staying yet or not, but they seem to be doing ok now that they’re out of that hell. Oh, the man you left alive is currently being ‘questioned’ by SHIELD. Don’t worry, he’s not enjoying it. At all. I’m sure Coulson will have intelligence for us soon,”

    “Darling, shouldn’t you heat that up?” Loki asked as you pulled a slice of pizza from the box to shove directly into your face.

    “Wha? Cold pizza tastes just fine,” you told him as you swallowed said mouthful of cold pizza.

    He just sighed. “Sometimes I forget that you grew up on Midgard and not a civilized place like Asgard,” he said mournfully. You rolled your eyes and proceeded to shove yet another slice of pizza into your face. Asgardians could eat. Starving Asgardians were a danger upon anything edible in their vicinity. You were beyond starving. You’d pushed yourself and your abilities way too hard to rescue Loki. You handed a box of pizza to Loki.

    “You’re welcome to heat yours up. I don’t feel like waiting that long when pizza tastes just fine cold.” With a wave of his hand the pizza was piping hot. “Cheater,” you told him and stole a slice from his box. He sighed heavily and waved a hand over your box of pizza too, looking put-upon. Nat didn’t comment as you each devoured an entire extra large pizza. “You coming with me to meet this winter soldier?” you asked Loki.

    “Of course,” he replied as if that were obvious.

    “You don’t have to protect me, love,” you didn’t want him in potential danger either.

    He raised your left hand to his lips to kiss your engagement ring. “Together,” was all he had to say.

[loopy-atla-fanfic]

Samsara - Chapter 3

Rating: T

Characters: Mai, Zuko, Ty Lee, Azula

Story Warnings: Ableism, Suicidal Thoughts

Written for Maiko Week 2017

EPOCH 3

Eventually, even complete despair becomes boring, and if there's anything Mai absolutely could not tolerate, it was boredom.

("Come on, Mai. It's time to embrace the day! Hey, that rhymed.")

But what was the alternative? The only experts within reach had no ideas for ending the curse. Convincing Zuko not to elope with the Avatar was just an exercise in frustration. And trying to get Azula to handle the problem for her-

That had proved disappointing.

(At the far end of the mattress, Ty Lee began her bouncing.)

Mai felt an absurd desire to talk to her parents about it all. Not that she expected them to have anything helpful to offer, not even a minimum of, "There, there," comfort, but she was running out of authority figures to foist the problem on and she had no desire to sit down with the Fire Lord and explain the situation.

(The ceiling went 'thunk' and Ty Lee said, "Owie!")

The sound of Ty Lee's skull impacting against a decidedly less-dense solid finally prompted Mai to throw off the bed covers and sit up. "That wasn't even funny the first time."

"What first time?" Ty Lee was still massaging her head.

"Never mind." Mai rubbed her eyes. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Yes, the bathroom's open. I got up early so that I could finish in there before you needed it. I'm just such a nice person that way."

"No, something else. I suppose it's a matter of philosophy."

Ty Lee grinned, and hopped up onto the bed so that she was kneeling right in front of Mai. "I have been waiting my whole life for you to say those words to me."

"Swell." Mai took a moment to gather her thoughts and plot out an escape route in case this turned violent. "If you knew for a fact that none of your actions could ever have an effect on the world- if everything stayed the same no matter how drastically you tried to change things- what is there left for you to do? Besides be bored."

Ty Lee looked up at the ceiling as she thought about it. "When you say 'the world,' do you mean your external environment? Everything separate from the Self?"

Mai blinked. "Sure, let's go with that for now."

"Oh, well then that's easy!" Ty Lee looked back at Mai with a look in her eyes that made so many people over the years assume a chemical addiction of some kind was in play. "If you can't change anything besides the Self, then the Self has to become your whole universe."

"Um?"

"Forget about what can't be changed and focus on how you respond to it. Change yourself according to the world you want to live in. It's all just a matter of perspective, really. You define your world, so define it so it serves and fulfills you. It's like how I hated being part of a matched set with my family, and since I couldn't change having six identical sisters, I focused on my own uniqueness and embraced it."

"Huh." Stripped away of the more philosophical jargon, that was actually fairly coherent for a statement from Ty Lee. Moreover, it even made sense. Put simply If Mai couldn't get Tomorrow to come or get Zuko to really love her instead of running off to an Avatar, then she had no choice but to focus on herself. "Okay."

She could make herself a world with no Avatar in it.

"See, that wasn't so hard. What made you think of it? The last time I tried to talk about the nature of the universe with you before breakfast, you threw a hairbrush at me and wound up putting your clothes and knives on backwards."

Mai snorted as she climbed out of bed. "Let's take the easy route and say weird dreams."

"And what's the hard route?"

"Believing that I've stumbled across a unique problem in my perception of time."

"Ugh, time stuff. That always gives me a headache."

"Exactly."

Mai went ahead and dressed as usual, but elected to start exercising her ability to control her universe by forgoing any hair-styling. She let her tresses hang long and free down her back, a style that would be trouble in combat, but she wouldn't have to worry about it. After all, she knew exactly where each and every fight was going to happen today, and she could skip as many of them as she wanted. It was like school, only with dangerous combat instead of boring classes.

(Well, more dangerous combat.)

Mai made sure to give the appropriate responses to get Azula's quicker briefing, and the princess didn't comment on the new hairdo. Mai did have trouble not letting her eyes wander to Azula's smooth white throat, to the spot that had once hosted a razor disc, but thankfully neither of the other girls noticed.

After the briefing, she and Ty Lee hit the palace's breakfast buffet, and this time she really indulged, trying everything that looked interesting. After all, it wasn't like she'd have to worry about fighting on a full stomach.

(Sadly, Mai couldn't properly revel in casting aside worries about eating what she wanted without getting fat; her metabolism had always made her have to work to keep from looking sickly. She didn't personally have a problem with looking like she had one foot in the urn, but constantly getting asked what she was dying of got boring after the first few sarcastic responses. Maybe tomorrow she'd enjoy just having a cup of water without agonizing about losing what little fat she had managed to cultivate.)

On the way to the temple, Mai enjoyed the feel of the breeze in her unbound hair. She shook her head and whipped it around a bit as Ty Lee babbled something about the health effects of eating eggs.

When they arrived at the site of Operation Springback, Corporal Lee was of course there to meet them. "My Ladies, Colonel Lee reporting! I've successfully evacuated the Fire Sages, and my soldiers are stationed throughout the first floor of the main temple building. I have an elite force ready to spill out into the courtyard at a moment's notice, and my subordinates have been given a plan to rapidly deploy continuing waves as required. Naturally, we've saved some space for you two right with that first wave."

"Wonderful, darling," Mai said, giving her hair another shake and successfully suppressing laughter. "I’m oh so excited for the chance to fight some barbarians today. I've never been in a battle before, but everything I've read makes them sound thrilling! I'm eternally grateful that the princess gave me the chance to try that whole 'stabbing' thing. I bet it's fun. Is it fun, Corporal?"

Ty Lee was staring at her.

Corporal Lee's jaw worked like he was trying to do math in his head and kept coming up with Purple. "Um, some people- um, some find it fun? My lady?"

"Wonderful! We'll go inside and pick out our spots. Let us know when the Avatar comes knocking." Mai grabbed Ty Lee's arm and hurried her friend away while trying to keep from giggling. Making fun of people was better when the people in question didn't realize they were involved in the making of any fun.

Once they were inside the temple, Ty Lee said, "Are you feeling okay? Your sense of humor is usually more about laughing at gravestones."

Mai shook her hair again. "I'm trying something new. And anyway, we're not going to be attacked. This whole Springback thing is a waste of time."

As she and Ty Lee passed by the gatherings of soldiers discussing the quality of the breakfast rations, Mai wondered how she should spend her day. She had to focus on herself, as Ty Lee had advised. The only problem was that Mai had never really focused on herself beyond constructing her whole life and personality as an insult to the people around her. She supposed that she could teach herself to dance here in the temple, which was both lewd and a blasphemy, but offending a bunch of random soldiers didn't really appeal to her, and besides, Ty Lee might actually join in.

Then Mai realized she was surrounded by soldiers, and most of them weren't Firebenders. Spears were leaning against the temple walls in bundles, and quite a few scabbards were hanging from belts.

Hm.

If you can't define the world, define yourself in response to the world.

As for the response she wanted to make-

She walked up to one particular soldier, a thin guy who didn't seem to be any older than her. He was standing on the periphery of a large group, so subtly excluded that he probably didn't even realize it.

Mai tapped his shoulder and gave him her best Azula Stare. "Teach me how to fight with a spear."

He blinked at her. "M- my lady?"

"Exactly. I'm just an heiress in the middle of a war with no way to protect herself. Teach me how to use a spear in case barbarians try to drag me away to force me to dance with them." She shook her hair again, in case that helped.

The young soldier swallowed. "O- okay. Well, I- I guess we should start with how to hold a spear..."

He blinked at her. "My lady?"

"Exactly. I've already been taught the basics by the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. Just show me a few more tricks so I can properly defend myself when the barbarians try to drag me away to force me to eat their vegetarian food." She shook her hair again, in case that helped.

The young soldier swallowed. "O- okay. Well, I- I guess I could show you how to use the whole shaft of the spear to keep enemies from closing in on you..."

He blinked at her. "My lady?"

"Exactly." Mai took the spear from his grip, twirled it fast enough to blur the shaft into a brown smear in the air, brought it to a halt with a diagonal slice of the metal tip, shifted her grip, and then stabbed out into the empty air. "I've already had an advanced education in combat. I'm just looking for some pointers from a soldier who's seen some real combat against barbarians." She shook her hair again, because it probably looked kick-butt.

The young soldier grinned. "Wow. Okay! Well, my favorite trick is..."

Mai saw Ty Lee walk over, and spared a nod for her friend. That was all she could do for the moment, what with twirling two spears at once. Mai tightened her fists around each spear, bringing their spinning to a stop for the next phase of her demonstration. Fighting with two spears at once was tricky, as their length made it easy to knock them into each other, so she had to move them in a pattern that would keep the shafts out of each other's way, stabbing with one while swinging the other, using quick twirls as necessary to change directions, using blade and shaft and butt to hammer at a legion of imaginary enemies.

When they were all imaginary-dead (or at least imaginary-lying on the imaginary-ground and imaginary-moaning and imaginary-bleeding and imaginary-cursing their imaginary-fate), Mai brought her spears to a halt, propped them up on the floor, and bowed to her audience.

The soldiers all started applauding. Her young teacher (how had she gone this many iterations without learning his name?) accepted congratulations from his comrades for his instructional skills while Mai handed the spears back to their owners and went over to Ty Lee. "What's up?"

Ty Lee frowned. "Sorry, did I interrupt you?"

"Nah. Spears are getting boring. I'm done with that now."

"Um, since when did you learn how to do that? Private Li Quang did not just teach it to you today."

How did Ty Lee know- never mind. Mai would probably be better off without that knowledge. "Oh, you know me; I get bored easily and need something to occupy my hands."

"Right." Ty Lee gave a look that five parts skepticism and one part insane belief in auras. "You've been looking very red today."

"Thank you?"

"It's not- not important. Anyway, Private Fan said the invaders got past the harbor gate. We should probably get ready."

"Yeah, sure." That was the one problem with these lessons- the soldiers still thought they had to do their job and get into position for an Operation Springback that would never happen. It was a good waste of twenty minutes. Not that Mai was on a time budget, but waiting for rebels who wouldn't come was boring.

Unless-

As Mai kneeled down beside her friend just inside the temple's foyer, she whispered, "Hey, when this is over, I've always admired how your acrobatics let you dodge pretty much any kind of attack..."

"Hey, as long as we have time, I've always admired how your acrobatics give you so much flexibility..."

"Hey, while we wait, I've always admired how you can touch the back of your knees with your tongue..."

"Hey, while we wait, I've always admired how your Qi-blocking messes with Benders. The fear in their eyes is sweet. Do you think you could show me how you do it?"

Ty Lee frowned. "Nope."

Mai blinked. "No?"

"Well, probably not."

"If it's about speed and flexibility, I've actually been teaching myself acrobatics when I haven't been spending time with Zuko-"

"No, it's not that." Ty Lee gave Mai a look that started at her toes and ascended like the sun. "You're looking very red today."

Mai snorted. "Yeah, you said that already."

"I did?"

"Never mind."

"Well, what I'm getting at is that Qi-blocking isn't about memorizing pressure points. I mean, yes, it is, but it's also not. It is and isn't at the same time."

Mai sighed. "Is this about time?"

"Ew, no, time stuff gives me a headache. Qi-blocking needs a certain something. A- way to look at who you're fighting and really see them." Ty Lee brightened. "See what they're feeling. And how their energy is flowing! A hit to a pressure point can hurt, and even make an arm or leg or whatever too numb to move. But if the muscles are in the right state of motion and tightness and vibrancy, then when you hit the pressure point, you get something special. Bending won't work. Fear leaks into their aura. Have you seen how the Avatar's Waterbender looks at me? She's terrified of me! That's because of how I hit her. She felt what I did. Her brother is harder to hit, so I never tagged him as good."

Mai was almost sorry when Ty Lee stopped talking. She had really been getting into that explanation. "I never realized. I thought you just- you know, hit people. I thought-" She couldn't meet those big gray eyes. "I thought what I did was harder, because I do it from a distance and need to know how each of my blades flies through the air. But you know how to punch fear into people. That's- that's amazing."

Ty Lee reached out and raised Mai's chin, so that their eyes were meeting again. "It's not punching fear into people. It's slowly building cracks into their emotions by attacking where their bodies generate those emotions. But I'm glad you appreciate it."

"So, if I wanted to Qi-block like you, I'd have to think I see auras?"

Ty Lee giggled. "Well, it's not necessary, but it would help."

"Except," Mai said with a smirk, "auras aren't real."

Ty Lee's expression needed no words.

Mai indulged in a single dry laugh. "So, even if I can't fight like you, you can at least teach me where pressure points are, right?"

"Sure, if you want."

Learning hand-to-hand combat was harder than Mai expected. She had lost track of the days she had spent getting lessons from Ty Lee, discussing pressure points and the various kinds of fists. (Mai had always assumed that a fist was a fist, perhaps defined by the number of working fingers and knuckles the thrower had available, but no, there were as many ways to smack someone as there were to stab them.) Her existing fighting instincts seemed to work against what was needed to get a good solid hit in, and forming another set of instincts she could jump to when necessary was taking a lot of practice.

She decided to take a day off and indulge in an idea that had occurred to her a while ago. It involved escaping the temple without being seen, but she didn't even have to think to do that anymore.

It did take some work to set up what she had planned, as all worthwhile things did. First, she had to find a tea cart large enough for her to lounge on top. She broke into a dozen different mansions before investigating General Iroh’s sealed suite in the palace and finding three of them. Then she needed to find a square of wood light enough for her to lift over her head, and wound up prying someone's portrait of an honorable ancestor off the wall and using the back of the frame. Then she needed to paint her message on the sign, and get everything down to her house before the invaders stormed the capital.

On the way, one of the army runners passed by on some errand. The woman was making an odd sound as she ran, and Mai looked to see what was causing the metallic-

Oh.

It was Private Fan, the lady with the metal leg.

Fan slowed and stared at Mai as she pushed her tea cart down the street. "Um, do you need assistance, citizen? This area is supposed to be evacuated. Enemy military forces are on their way."

"No, I'm okay." The cart's wheels squeaked as Mai shifted its direction. "I'm on a special assignment for Princess Azula." Technically, that was true, even if the special assignment in question had more to do with the temple than teacarts.

"Oh. Well, uh, carry on, then!" Fan started jogging again, her metal leg clanking against the stone street.

Mai recalled, back in the iteration of her greatest failure, observing a runner getting hit by a boulder. There had been too much distance, looking down from the window in Zuko's bedroom, to tell who that runner was, but Mai recalled making a joke back on the first day about Fan's death, how both her missing leg and the rest of her body were crushed by separate boulders. On impulse, she called out, "Hey!"

Fan stopped and turned around.

Mai said, "Try to stay away from the park when the invaders get into the Caldera. We're expecting a lot of Earthbender activity near there, and even an empty street can wind up getting a sudden rain of poorly-aimed rocks."

Fan nodded and then jogged away.

Mai wondered if that would actually accomplish anything.

Oh, well. On with the plan!

She got her teacart and sign to parents' mansion house, hauled them up the front stairs, and then positioned them right behind the main doors. After that, it was a matter of working out angles and velocities while she waited.

The light outside eventually dimmed. The eclipse had arrived!

Give it a few minutes for the invaders to make their way to the palace-

-another few to let them line themselves up around the palace-

-maybe hold off for a few more moments so that the timing will be perfect-

-and then Mai ran up to the teacart, jumped up on top with all of her momentum intact, and rode the thing down the front steps of her house-

The teacart tipped over on the right and Mai hit her head on the corner of one of the stairs.

Give it a few minutes for the invaders to make their way to the palace-

-another few to let them line themselves up around the palace-

-maybe hold off for a few more moments so that the timing will be perfect-

-and then Mai ran up to the teacart, jumped up on top with all of her momentum intact, and rode the thing down the front steps of her house. She leaned to the left to offset the tipping and the cart landed with a jolt in the street, still coasting along.

Across the street, the assembled warriors and tanks of the invading army loomed. She saw people looking over at her, after the sound of the crash, and more than a few readied weapons.

Mai ignored them, grabbed the sides of the cart, and swung her body to the side. The cart twisted on its wheels, bleeding off a lot of its speed, and executed a more or less passable left turn. She was now no longer headed towards the invaders, riding parallel to their defensive line.

Mai then grabbed her painted sign and held it up as the cart slowly and squeakily passed by the staring rebels.

The sign read, 'The Avatar smells like bison poop.'

Squeak, squeak. Squeak, squeak.

No one reacted.

Squeak, squeak. Squeak, squeak.

A second later, Mai had drifted down another street, out of the sight of the invaders, just as the Avatar's sky bison swooped through the sky to land by the waiting army.

Before the Avatar could pass on the news that the entire Invasion effort had been pointless and they were all about to suffer a fate worse than death, Mai heard someone bark a single laugh.

She waited some more. There was talking, what sounded like a stirring speech in a voice that was trying hard not to crack, and then the noise of the invaders' retreat began.

What?

One laugh?

After she had gone through all that trouble?

It later turned out that Private Fan had been run over by a tank on a street near the temple.

"Come on, Mai. It's time to embrace the day! Hey, that rhymed."

One.

Laugh.

Really, what kind of barbarians were these people?

Mai ducked under Ty Lee's punch and twisted so that she was facing upward. Her friend's arm was stretched out above her, and even as the muscles shifted to start retracting the limb, Mai reached up and tapped a spot near the elbow.

"Good!" Ty Lee pulled her arm back and gave it a shake. "I felt that in my bone! If it was real hit, I'd still be able to use the arm again in a few minutes, but that'd be a few minutes without being able to throw a punch from this side."

Mai almost smiled. "I could do something with that." She looked behind her, and noticed that quite a few of the soldiers stationed here in the temple were watching the sparring.

Ty Lee had noticed, too. She smiled that smile, the one that made all kinds of promises about long summer dates, winters spent huddled together, a lifetime of mutual respect and partnership, and most importantly a lot of groping in the very near future.

And so Mai was treated to the sight of a small army's morale rising in real-time.

Huh.

"Hey."

Ty Lee shifted her gaze back from the soldiers. "Hm?"

"Teach me how to flirt."

Ty Lee blinked. "You mean all this time you've never flirted with Zuko?"

Mai suppressed a frown. "Not well enough to keep him happy, apparently." Ty Lee was going to ask the obvious question, but Mai cut her off with a waved hand. "I was talking more about the type of flirting that gets most males to do whatever I tell them."

"Oh, that. That's easy..."

Lessons from an expert were certainly helpful, but Mai firmly believed that the most essential learning came from practice. Certainly, it was the only conclusion to draw from the fact that spending hours throwing broken mirror shards at her bedroom ceiling had eventually turned her into a certified Flying Daggers master.

She started with one of the soldiers in the temple who had been watching her and Ty Lee the 'other day.' She walked with an extra bit of sway on her hips, shook her loose hair, and leaned forward. "Hey there, baby."

The soldier blinked. "Do you need something, my lady?"

"Yes. Let's cut to the chase. I'm attractive, you've noticed, and I want you to teach me how to gut someone with a sword. Shall we?"

The soldier blinked again. "Um, perhaps you should talk to my commanding officer?"

What, really? Mai sighed. "Never mind, then." She went over and sat down by Ty Lee in the main foyer.

Ty Lee giggled. "That was better than Azula's first try."

"Gee, thanks."

"Don't ever cut to the chase."

"Metaphorically, or literally?"

"Oh, you."

Mai slowly licked the throwing knife she had been twirling. "This is my blade. How about you show me yours?"

This time, the soldier just gave a quick bow and all but ran away.

"You know," Ty Lee said, "the blatant approach isn't right for everyone. Maybe more subtlety would work for you?"

"Come on, Mai. It's time to embrace the day! Hey, that rhymed."

Mai sat up in her bed. "It's absolutely imperative that you show me how to wear makeup in a way that won't terrify people!"

Ty Lee paused in the process of climbing on the bed for her bouncing, and then straightened and actually snapped a quick bow. "Mai, I'm honored that you've chosen to let me finally save you from yourself. I promise I will give this responsibility all due effort."

"Ha, ha."

No extra hip-swaying, just the hint of a smile on her lips (coming more from the makeup than any actual effort) and shy eyes. "Excuse me, sir."

The soldier looked at her, and she clasped her hands behind her back. "I've long been fascinated by swordfighting, and you look like you know your business." She lowered her eyes for just a moment, as if thoughts passed through her head that she didn't dare articulate. "Do you think you could show me- um, things?"

(She did indeed have thoughts passing through her head, but the reasons she wasn’t speaking them was because, "If you fall for this I will never respect you," would probably ruin the whole effect.)

"I would be pleased to show you whatever you want, my lady."

Yeah, Mai just bet he would. "Thank you so much!"

"Well, the idea behind this kind of sword, the dao, is that it has a single cutting edge, the curved one, and so the style for using it encourages chopping attacks..."

She gave him the full, worshipful attention of a pretty girl, which is really what every guy secretly wants (according to Ty Lee).

Mai gazed down the length of the sword, to where the tip curved up just beneath the soldier's chin, and let her expression fall into its natural blankness. "I win."

He swallowed very, very carefully. "Are you sure you've never done this before?"

"I guess I'm just a natural." She pulled the sword away, twirled it in her hand so that she held it in a reverse grip, and raised it so that he could take it back by the handle. "So how do I fight with two of these?"

The soldier frowned. "You don't want to learn that. Dual swords are just for showing off. No one seriously fights that way- er, no one fights well that way. The people who try just get hurt."

Mai thought of one particular swordsman who she knew who would probably object. "You don't say?"

Mai sat on the foot of her bed, in the exact spot where there would be a rolled up note waiting for her at the end of the day- where there was a rolled up note waiting for every day. She had long ago stopped reading it- them- whatever. The words were burned into her mind:

I cannot allow the Fire Nation to make the second great mistake of its history. I have come to believe that we never should have started this war, and I will not let the war finish with the death of another nation. I will confront my father, and if he does not abandon this path, then I will join the Avatar to restore peace and balance to the world. I hope you understand, but it is unlikely that I will ever know. If we do not meet again, I want you to know that I love you, and that you have been the source of my only real happiness here.

Goodbye and good fortune. -Zuko

She wasn't even sure why she was here. Yeah, it was supposedly to learn how to fight with two dao blades, because Zuko was someone who knew how to do that-

-had taught himself how to do that, he had told her, just like she had taught herself how to throw sharp things-

-but now that she was here, she remembered that he was so much more.

So much better, and show much worse.

He was leaving her to go to the Avatar.

She got up, and went over to her desk. She spread out a piece of paper, prepared her ink, tied her sleeve back, and took up her brush. With the same precision that usually reserved for putting sharp bits of metal where other people didn't want them to go, she wrote out a letter:

"Zuko,

"I don't care about the world.

"Goodbye and lick ash. -Mai"

Then she left it on the foot of her bed and went to go explore the city's empty mansions.

Mai hid in her closet, listening to Zuko's slow footsteps across her bedroom. They went silent, and Mai could just imagine Zuko picking up the note that had been left for him, could picturing him with confusing twisting his scarred features as he read out loud, "Zuko, I'm pregnant- WHAT?!"

She grinned.

"Zuko,

"I cannot hide it anymore. I'm madly in love with Ty Lee, and I've run away to marry her in the colonies." He was silent for a moment too long. "Mai always did weirdly tolerate her."

She had to cover her mouth to stifle the laughter.

"Zuko, your sister is behind you right now."

There was a cry, and then the glue Mai had spread out over that spot on the floor must have done its work, because there was a loud clump like a body slamming to the ground.

"Zuko, you idiot, the Day of Black Sun isn't until tomorrow."

Of course, there wasn't a handy calendar with which to confirm the date in the entire palace. Not anymore, at least.

Mai wasn't sure that the gag was worth the effort.

"Zuko, the Avatar died. He said you can have his scalp razor and the weird whistle that calls the bison."

The whistle wrapped in the letter didn't actually do anything, but Mai could hear Zuko trying it anyway. She wanted to laugh at how gullible he was, but instead she just sighed.

"Zuko, good luck with your Avatar. I packed you a lunch. Don't forget to wash behind your ears."

Even when he opened the lunch box to find the angry fire ferret, Mai had trouble mustering up any amusement. No matter what, he still always left.

By the time Zuko was being yanked off the ground by the rope trap Mai had set up and left to dangle in the center of her bedroom, the she was forced to admit that this was no longer funny.

If it had ever been.

It certainly had never made her feel better about his leaving.

Hurting other people could be amusing. Other people's pain, in general, could be amusing.

But it didn't make Mai hurt any less.

She might be defining a new reality for herself, but was it really any better?

This time, Mai was once again sitting on the foot of the bed instead of any prank notes. Zuko stopped short, as he always did when he found her, and walked over. "Mai?"

She looked up at him. "I wanted to find you, so I could ask you to show me how to fight with two swords. But you're leaving. And that's the most important thing to me right now."

Zuko sighed and sat down next to her. "I need to do this. I need to go help set the world right."

"I don't care." Mai closed her eyes and leaned again him. "I don't care about the world. I don’t care about the Avatar. I just care about you and me."

Zuko put an arm around her. "I know. That's why I have to leave."

"I'm sorry I'm not a sweet, flirty girl who can care about that kind of stuff."

"It's- I wish you did care, but I don't want you to be anyone other than who you are. Does that make any sense?"

She snorted. "Does it even matter?"

"I guess not." He stood up. "I have a little bit of time. Do you want a quick lesson? It can be something to remember me by, in case I- Something of me you can keep hold of, inside of you, no matter where I am."

Something of Zuko to keep inside.

Something that would survive the cycle of Days of Black Sun, even as he left her every day.

"Okay."

He nodded at her. "You obviously know what you're doing with dual weapons. But you don't know the exact techniques for a single cutting edge like these swords have. Don't be afraid to cross your arms for transitions like this..."

"Remember to counter-balance..."

"The reverse-grip requires a whole new technique..."

"So while the Avatar kept us afloat by spinning that stuff, I hung from his legs and deflected the spears they were throwing at us from the ground. The wide sweeps of the blade knocked the spears completely off course, so there was no danger of them getting to the Avatar."

Mai practiced some of those wide sweeps with Zuko's swords. "What is it about him?"

"Who?"

"The Avatar."

Zuko straightened from the demonstration he had been giving. "So what is what about him?"

"Why him?" Mai straightened and let the weight of the swords lower her arms. "If you really feel the need to save the world from your father, why go to the Avatar? Azula nearly took him down once already."

Zuko's gaze lost its focus on her. "He believes in the world. In the idea that the nations can unite. Despite the way I chased him, he wanted to be my friend. I don't know if he still does- not after the times I refused his hand, and helped Azula under Ba Sing Se- but I have to try. His friends probably hate me, but I think- despite everything- there's a chance. He has a good heart that way."

Mai considered that. "He's a sweet kid."

Zuko snorted. "I guess he is."

"Huh."

As Zuko watched, Mai danced across her bedroom. It wasn't real dancing, no; even she wasn't audacious enough to shame her bloodline by shaking her body in time to music, especially not in front of a guy who would be her boyfriend for the next seven and a half minutes. Nor was this a lead-in to seducing Zuko, because apparently she needed to be bald and want to hug the entire world to do that.

No, this was a dance of death.

Or simulated death with no chance of nicking anyone.

She swung Zuko's swords in sequence, air whistling around her like she wished her boyfriend would when she strutted past him, working those cutting edges like she worked her cutting remarks, stabbing the points out with the precision of clockwork.

Mai was all about managing time, now.

She finished by slicing her divan in half, because why not? Zuko made a surprised sound at that, but she turned and smirked at him to let him know that she hadn't all of the sudden been consumed in a blood-red cloud of all-consuming rage. "Pretty good for one lesson, huh?"

Zuko managed to find a smile for her somewhere in his junk pile. "If I didn't know better, I'd wonder if you'd been playing with my swords behind my back."

No, he was the one who was cheating on her with a desire to save the world. "Let that thought keep you warm at night when you're camping in the wilderness with Snow Barbarians."

He lost his cheer. "I'm still sorry I need to leave you."

She placed the swords together, slid them back in their single sheath, and tossed it back to Zuko. "Sorry is for actions you regret, not the things you keep doing to people."

He was silent as he took his leave, probably because he knew she was right, even if he didn't know how many times he had left her already.

The Avatar sank to his knees in the throne room, bowing before an empty dais. "No. No, no, NO!! Fire Lord Ozai, where are you?!"

That's when Mai stepped out from the hidden observation point on the side of the dais. Tracing the echoes to this room, to the Avatar himself, hadn’t been hard, and she needed a new hobby. "Will I do?"

The Avatar snapped to his feet and hefted his staff in front of him. "Where's the Fire Lord?"

"Oh, hanging around somewhere. Who cares?" Mai trotted down the stairs from the throne, enjoying the swishing of her hair-tails. For the first time in a long time, she was wearing her hair in its regular style, the ox-horn buns with the tails that framed her face and a fringe above her eyes.

He watched her with wary eyes. Smart of him. "I care."

"Don't I know it!" Mai hopped down from the last step. "That's why you're so important, isn't it? Because you care enough to be the one who saves the world, the one who assassinates the Fire Lord and brings the evil Fire Nation crashing down."

The Avatar blinked. "I don't want to assassinate anyone or bring anything down! I'm just trying to stop the Fire Lord from ordering anything else that will hurt people!"

"Huh." Mai let her sleeves fall down over her hands. "Good luck with that."

Then she threw a razor disc at his face.

The Avatar was still as quick as he was at Omashu, she had to give him that. He shifted his staff up, even as he made a little squealy sound, and intercepted the disk. It sank into the wood, but flew free when he swung the staff out in front of him.

Mai only realized he was Airbending at her when a breeze tugged at her hair and clothes, and before she could even think of dodging, a wind that somehow had the solid density of a good boot slammed into her gut.

Gah.

Okay, mental note: Airbending was invisible in a room that was dusted daily.

By the time she pushed herself back to her feet, the Avatar was gone.

Yeah, he better- guh- run.

Mai decided to stay on the floor and wait for her stomach to stop hurting.

The Avatar shifted his staff up, even as he made a little squealy sound, and intercepted the disk. It sank into the wood of the staff, but flew free when he swung the staff in an arc.

The dirt and dust Mai had collected from the halls of the underground bunker, where Azula and the Fire Lord were even now waiting for a shot at this kid, responded to the shifting air and made visible the arc of solid wind headed for her gut. She threw herself forward into a butterfly kick that carried her over the Airbending attack, and even as she landing she was unsheathing the dual swords she had pilfered from one of the Fire Army supply dumps.

His quickness extended to his feet. He danced along with her as she loosed a chain of attacks on him, dodging each slice and stab. Those he couldn't evade he deflected with his staff, and he even had the skill and presence of mind to only touch his staff to the flat of her blades, not trying to test the wood of his weapon against the steel of hers.

For a kid, he knew his stuff.

The whole time, he moved backward, giving ground until he judged himself close enough to the door to make a break for it. As soon as he turned and ran, Mai filled the air with blades, but he somehow dodged them all, leaving her behind in the dark and the dust.

No wonder Zuko had been chasing this kid for so long. He was a slippery one.

For a kid, the Avatar knew his stuff.

But Mai knew what he was planning. Even before the thought formed in his mind to make a break for the door, she sheathed one of the dao swords and filled the air with razor discs that flew on curved paths. They formed a little storm of deadly metal, and in the eye, Mai and the Avatar battled.

He renewed his attack, meeting her blades with his staff but taking moments here and there to let go with one hand and blast her with small tunnels of air. Each one hit like a fist and slowed Mai's ability to react until she left an opening long enough for the Avatar to spin-kick a cyclone into her face.

She didn't even notice him leave.

Sleepy time, now.

The razor discs formed a little storm of deadly metal, and in the eye, Mai and the Avatar battled.

She swung her dao swords in a double-attack that required his firm grip on the staff, and he certainly wasn't expecting it when she let go and threw a punch with her right hand that struck a certain spot in his left shoulder.

He cried out, "Yeowch!" Because, apparently, him being bald wasn’t the only way in which he was a little baby.

Mai smirked.

For the next thirty seconds, his left arm moved like an employee who had been roused to come into work on a weekend- that is to say twice as slow and three times as expensive- and she took full advantage with a series of palm strikes to his face, and then a rain of slashes from a razor she had been hiding up her sleeve.

She thought she had the fight won when he threw himself backwards in a spinning jump that sent dust and dirt swirling all around. Mai raised an arm to keep it out of her eyes.

But it wasn't an attack. It was an unfocused ploy to get away. The Avatar was running for the door again, so Mai threw both of her arms out and shot a series of bolts from her wrist-launchers to persuade him that the particular direction he had chosen might not be as not-deadly as he first thought. He stopped short, turned around, and jumped into the air, snapping out the glider wings from his staff and taking to the air.

He swirled around the ceiling of the throne room, building up speed for a swoop at the exit.

Mai, meanwhile, ran for a particular spot on one of the walls. She tore down the tapestry that hung there, revealing the spears she had placed there earlier. There were enough to waste with throwing, which was exactly what she did, sending pointed shaft after pointed shaft up.

This time, the Avatar didn't have a Blue Spirit to protect him.

One of the spears finally stuck a glider wing, and the Avatar dropped like a stone. Mai was already throwing razors to box him in before he could make a serious effort to dodge, and then came in at him with her last spear.

She twirled it and swiped with it and knocked the Avatar's staff out of his hand and then shoved the shaft against his forehead and then shifted it as he stumbled back and then stabbed with it and then the Avatar screamed in pain and she pulled back and stabbed again.

He died just as she did, that first time.

For all that he was the Bridge Between Worlds and the Culmination Of Ten Thousand Lives and The Fire Nation’s Deadliest Enemy and The Avatar, he died like a normal person.

That is, to say, full of very leaky holes.

She had killed the Avatar.

So much for him being a sweet kid.

If Mai couldn't be sweet, then she could spend her days destroying everything that was working against her-

-everything that was keeping her away from Zuko for an eternity.

She had made herself a world with no Avatar in it-

-for less than twenty-four hours.

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW

"Come on, Mai. It's time to embrace the day! Hey, that rhymed."

Mai laid in bed and thought about what she had done.