The city looked different, everything had seemed to had lost its innocence and shine. Dullness covered the beautiful blue sky that she normally looked up at, clouds coated the canvas like water brush strokes that shifted with the wind, Mai sighed at the dull tone. People watched her, normally giving small smiles and nods, to Mai they were all suspects at this point. She was hoping that one day her hate and anguish for people around her would dissolve, but for the time being, everyone was her enemy.

The tunnel Akai had suggested was over the other side of the city, she had made good time and Akai would've had a lot of catching up to do. Her heart ached at thinking about him, she had told him that she had loved him, finally owned the feeling and then walked away. He would not forgive her for leaving, but she couldn't allow anyone else to get hurt, they had already gotten to Nilak, Zei and her family, she hoped her brothers were holding up well. All the thoughts that ran through her head made the walk feel very long.

As she got closer to the area, she noticed a shift in the air and more noticeable burley looking men and women lingering around the fence's entry points, however she didn't recognize the uniforms they were wearing. In Republic City the city was surrounded by ocean, however a lot of the places were inaccessible due to military docks and shipping docks. The place Mai had followed the map to was surrounded by large wire fences, she was very aware this was a military dock which was why the tunnel would've been blocked off. She slowly backed away walking, looking behind in the small streets that lined the streets heading up to the docks, she headed into a small local shop nearby and sat down. It would be harder to attack her in a public space with police officers around, they wouldn't want to draw attention to themselves. Pulling the map out from her pocket she examined the entry, one way in via the tunnel that lead to the warehouse. The warehouse would be harder to access as there was more room for her to get into a lot of trouble and be stuck. The entry to the tunnel was the best bet, at least if she had to get physical, she couldn't be ambushed from all sides.

A young girl with a sweet face walked up to her with a note pad smiling. "Can I take your order?" She had an upbeat voice with kind eyes. Mai smiled back and looked down at the menu.

"Can I please have a tea?" Smiling the young girl walked away to prepare her order. Mai put her had back down low strategizing in her head. She was stunned when the chair across from her pulled open and a sweaty Akai sat heavily down in it. Mai looked stunned wide eyed at him. Before she could say anything, the young girl sat the tea down in front of her and smiled at Akai staring a little too long before walking away. He leaned over and grabbed the tea from in front of her and took a sip. "Good morning." He said flatly.

"How did you get here so quickly?"

"I ran, the whole damn way." That explained the sweat.

"You shouldn't be here Akai; I don't want you to get hurt."

"When are you going to get it? I'm not going to leave you to do this by yourself." Akai's face was set in stone and she had never heard him speak with such conviction. However, it had seemed the conversation they had about their feelings had been put on hold, as he didn't mention anything about it. He took another sip of the tea before his eyes widened; Mai looked behind her curiously before her chair was kicked out from underneath her. Falling to the ground Akai jumped up of the table amidst of screaming guests, the young girl that had served her and two men were standing in the shop weapons in hand. "Your mother is waiting for you." The young girl smirked. Akai jumped forward kicking flamed over Mai's head directing them at the trio. Mai jumped up quickly running up to the young girl pulling her sais out of her thigh holsters, Akai was preoccupied with the two men so Mai ran up to one of them stabbing him directly in the thigh, as he dropped, she dropped her elbow to his nose sending him down to the ground cold.

Mai felt a tug come to the back of her head and then she felt her hair being pulled so roughly Mai thought her hair and been pulled out of her head. Kicking into action she ran her heal into the ground balanced herself and reached backward grabbing her wrist and twisting it, she let out a small scream before Mai was able to loosen herself enough to throw herself out of the hold. Turning around Mai balled her fist and threw a hard punch directing it at the girl's face, she dodged backward as Mai took another step forward to counter her attack. The young girl smirked looking at Mai.

"Looks like your bending isn't working." She smirked.

"How did you know we would be here?"

"I stumbled across you by chance, and when you came in here i hit the normal tea server very hard in the back of the head." Mai felt sick that some poor young girl had come to harm due to her. Mai once again inched forward trying to land an attack on her. As she launched forward for one more attack the girl reached back into her back pocket and pulled out a small knife that was about half the size of her sais and threw it directly into her shoulder. Mai grunted as it plunged into her skin, but didn't skip a beat as she ran up to the girl kicking her into the stomach, sending her flying back into the counter. Before she had time to get up Mai jumped onto her with one final blow to the head. The girl was out cold. Just as she had finished Akai had seemingly sent his perpetrator out of the window, when he didn't get up Akai brushed off his dark red coat. She turned to him and his eyes went to her shoulder. She put up her hand as he about to speak pausing his sentence, reaching up with her right hand to pull it out she grunted as it dropped to the ground. Grabbing the nearest table cloth she ripped it into a smaller cloth and applied pressure to the wound.

Akai walked up to her without speaking and wrapped the cloth over and under her shoulder pulling it tightly. "They're everywhere, that girl seen me out of chance. We need to move quickly so no one else spots us." Akai nodded, as Mai moved out of the window that Akai had smashed the street was empty, people must had run away from the chaos. Circling back around they approached slowly to the tunnel acutely aware that if that girl knew who Mai was then surely other people would as well.

"I can't believe you ran off like that." He whispered.

"This is not the best time to talk about it." She snapped as they reached the entrance point to the tunnel. It was covered in mud, and had so many spider webs covering it Mai felt ill.

"We said that we loved each other and you just leave? To go and face all of this on your own?" Akai snapped back with hurt lacing his voice.

"Because I actually want you to survive today, and go home and be the person you are meant to be and not waste your life on me and all of this bullshit." He stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her, grabbing her good arm. He went to open his mouth before a shattering scream came out from the end of the tunnel. Mai froze all the blood draining from her body. It was her mother.