Accidental Avatar 3.5: The Burn Book

Mazes or something

Mangetsu cursed under his breath as he turned yet another dead end.

"Who builds a city like a damn maze?" he snapped, turning back. "This is ridiculous and absolutely her fault."

"Why are you so angry?" The ghost asked.

"Because screw you!" he snapped, turning down another alley.

"I wouldn't turn down there," she sighed.

"Dammit," he cursed, punching the wall.

"I feel like you're taking your anger out on that poor wall," she commented. "But the wall didn't choose to be built there, you know."

"Shut up!" he snapped, storming past her again.

"I feel like there's a lot of pent up aggression here," she said lightly. "So, who are you really angry at?"

"What? You want me to get all emotional and say it's really me that I'm mad at?" he snapped, turning down yet another dead end. "Well, it's not. I didn't choose any of this. I didn't choose to be their monster!"

"Whose monster?" Amaya asked.

"Theirs! The whole gang!" Mangetsu snarled, jumping through an open window. "They don't want me. I'm not you, and you left them, so now they're left with me."

"You make it sound like there were so many choices involved," Amaya laughed.

Footsteps pattered across a road nearby. Mangetsu's head snapped towards the direction of the sound.

"Uh, I wouldn't go that way," Amaya warned.

"I need to get out," Mangetsu challenged her. "So I'm going to follow anyone who sounds like they are going somewhere."

"Yikes, stubborn, aren't ya?" Amaya said. "But then, so was I. And Zuko..."

"I'm nothing like you," Mangetsu spat, chasing after the retreating footsteps.

"We are more alike than you think," the girl reached out to him.

"Don't touch me," he pulled his arm away.

"Stop pushing people away," Amaya called after him. "You're worse than Zuko!"

"Kiss my ass!" he yelled back, leaving the spirit behind, as she sighed heavily.

"I probably deserved that," she muttered.

Mangetsu ran after the retreating footsteps as silently as he knew how. They pattered down alleyways and into the main road. The little waterbender rounded the corner just in time to see his benefactor duck into a large building. Looking around, he could see a caterpillar tank cresting the edge of the crater. Then he turned his attention back to the dark figure.