The Girl He Won't Remember

Chapter 11

Everyone spent the night arguing; and, by everyone, I mean Aang and Sokka. The governor gave us an ultimatum: his son in exchange for King Bumi. Sokka refused to believe that this wasn't some sort of plan to trick us into walking right into our own demise. He was convinced that we would be ambushed. Aang didn't agree. He was sure that the governor wanted his son back just as badly as we wanted King Bumi, though we all still had our doubts.

The four of us, plus the baby, waited at the construction site for the governor to arrive with King Bumi. My stomach churned the longer we waited. What was taking so long? I looked at the others, who exuded confidence and bravery. I took this as a cue to not break character. Eventually, three figures emerged several feet ahead of us. There was no mistaking them now: Ty Lee, Mai, and, my least favorite, Princess Azula. Nothing about them had seemed to change. Ty Lee was still clad in pink, Mai remained malcontent, and Azula... Well, she was still as terrifying as she'd ever been. Part of me wondered if she remembered me, the rest of me hoped that she didn't.

"Well, if it isn't our favorite little street rat of a playmate," Azula narrowed her eyes at me, reminding me of a viperbat. "I see you've come out to play again." I didn't reply. I kept my gaze forward, shaking ever so slightly. Mai stared; it was difficult to tell whether she recognized me or simply didn't care. Ty Lee only tilted her head, clearly trying to catch on to Azula's reference. Azula poked her bottom lip out mockingly. "Someone's become quite rude."

Above us, King Bumi was being lowered by a crane, held in a coffin-like confinement that only exposed his head. "Hi, everybody!" He laughed and snorted. I saw Aang smile slightly. 

"Brought my brother?" Mai asked, her expression stone cold.

"He's here," Aang replied. "We're ready to trade." The baby pawed at Sokka's face. He was so lucky, I thought, to be absolutely clueless of the situation he was in. 

Azula glanced at her gloomy sidekick. "I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me. Do you mind? We're trading a two-year-old for a king. A powerful, earthbending king." She flashed her classic, sinister smirk. "It just doesn't seem like a fair trade, does it?"

Mai seemed to think it over. "The deal's off." She waved her arm, and King Bumi was lifted away. Without hesitation, Aang ran for his longtime friend. He blasted a gust of wind underneath him to reach the rising cage as well as avoid Azula's wave of blue fire. That was a sight I most definitely did not miss. Realizing Aang for what he was, Azula was quick to chase after him, leaving her two friends with us.

Ty Lee was still looking at me, suddenly grinning and gripping Mai's arm. "Mai! Mai! That's the Water Tribe girl that lived in the palace and played with Zuko all the time! I remember now! Do you remember? It's her!" She had always been my favorite of the three. Such a sweet girl. Mai, however, scowled at me. It was an upgrade from her vacant stare, I'll give her that.

"It's good to see you, too, Ty Lee," I nodded. 

Mai suddenly sprinted forward, knifes between her fingers as she prepared to launch them at us.

"We have to get the baby out of here!" Katara shouted. Sokka was already one step ahead, blowing on a bison-shaped whistle. We sprinted away and headed towards the edge. I wasn't sure of the plan. Appa wasn't waiting below, but I followed anyway. Sokka tripped over something and twisted to land on his back, holding Mai's brother protectively. Ty Lee leaped up from a hole (which I then realized she used to trip Sokka) and sprinted towards him. Behind me, Mai had her focus on Katara. "Go help Sokka!" She ordered. I nodded, and immediately ran to his aid. I bent water from the steam billowing from a nearby factory and created a tentacle, wrapping it around Ty Lee's ankle and yanked her backwards. 

"Hey!" She yelped. "That wasn't nice, Saki."

"Sorry," I shrugged, "but you're trying to hurt my friends." She flipped onto her feet, thrusting her fist towards my chest. I swatted her hand away with my forearm and bent the water directly at her torso, knocking her over the ledge. I turned around to help Katara, and came face-to-face with a flying blade. A squeaking noise escaped my throat as I bent the water into a shield of ice, just barely stopping it in time. One second more, and I would've had an additional eye socket. 

Katara yelped next to me, and suddenly the water she was bending had dropped to the ground. Ty Lee had jabbed her repeatedly in different spots, then somersaulted and gracefully next to Mai. Katara moved to bend the water again, but achieved nothing more than a ripple. She looked at me with horrified eyes. 

"How are you gonna fight without your bending?" Mai asked in her ever-monotone voice. 

"Shouldn't be that hard," I cut in. "After all, you do it." She glared at me and pulled out another blade, raising it to throw at Katara. I raised my hands to bend the fallen water, but Sokka's boomerang beat me to the punch. He steered Appa down to a landing, the bison using the impact of his tail to toss the two girls backwards. Katara and I quickly climbed onto Appa, and we were lifted away. "Are you two all right?" I asked. They both nodded. 

In the distance, flashes of blue flames caught our attention. "There's Aang!" Katara called out. 

Sokka shouted back, "We can catch him!" Appa lowered enough so that we were flying alongside Aang, who was sort of surfing on Bumi's confinement. He shouted something to the king, and used his airbending to pushed them both into the air. Katara, Sokka, and I reached up to grabbed them and pull them into saddle. But Aang had pushed too hard, and they soared right over us, only inches from our reach. 

"Aang had better have a Plan B," Sokka frowned. 

Katara shook her head. "Aang can handle anything she has."

"No, Sokka's right," I said. "Azula is insane and ruthless, and she'll do whatever she has to in order to win."

That night, we returned to the governor's home, and Aang silently returned their son. Just before we soared off, I caught a glimpse through Mai's bedroom window. She angrily threw her knifes one after one into a picture on her wall. As I struggled to look closer, I saw that the picture was of myself and Zuko when we were younger, sitting in the garden when Fire Lady Ursa. The knives, however, were only landing on one person: me.

I'll never understand what I did to make her hate me so much.