Disclaimer, this story is mine, but the characters are not, nor is the world it takes place in. I don't own anything.
Note: This is not a slash story. Sorry if you like that pairing, but you can either pretend or just not read it. They will however interact a lot. I got the idea for this story in part from the extras edition of AtLA which reveals that The Blue Spirit was almost named The Red Spirit. Then I thought about Jet and Zuko in Ba Sing Se, and couldn't resist the urge to write this. But it did take me a while.
Jet glared at the two men he had traveled with. The fact that they were able to live peaceably undetected in Ba Sing Se drove him mad. "Those two are fire benders!" he shouted.
Two earth kingdom soldiers shifted uneasily in their seats, looking at the youth's hook swords. "Now take it easy kid, there's no reason to get all worked up about these things. I'm sure you're mistaken." said one.
"Oh no, they're fire benders alright."
Zuko stepped out of the shadows. His broadswords were ready at his side, but they were still sheathed. "If my uncle is any kind of bender, he's a tea bender." he said.
Iroh stepped forward. "No, I'm a fire bender alright."
Everyone in the teahouse gasped, and some people dropped their tea cups. Jet smiled triumphantly.
"Uncle, what are you doing?" asked Zuko.
Iroh stepped closer to his nephew. "Go with the flow." he said, then returned his attention to Jet. "We told you we were refugees. That was true. You only assumed we were from the earth kingdom. The fact is, we were born and raised in the fire nation colonies, but the war hurt us every bit as much as it did the people of the earth kingdom. You see my nephew's scar? He didn't get that from an earth bender. An authority in our own village did that to him. That was when I decided it was time he and I got out of there as quickly as possible." He looked specifically at Jet. "As I understand it, you know firsthand what it is to suffer at the hands of the fire nation. Surely you don't think they treat their own people any better than they do yours? I was alright there, I had good food, and a job. My poor nephew here practically lived in a gutter. We had to get out, and where to refugees from the war with the fire nation go exactly? They all seem to congregate in Ba Sing Se, and I had always wanted to see this city anyway. I'm not proud to be a fire bender, it's not an element I would have chosen. It's too destructive, and as long as people like you barge in on us it will continue to make things difficult for me to live peacefully here. But I'm not going to lie about it openly when it's confronted. That would be dishonest."
Something in his words seemed to gradually disarm Jet, his voice ranging over topics he knew the boy would find sensitive.
The soldiers looked at each other uncomfortably, and whispered amongst themselves.
"I've got my eye on you. And now so does everyone else." Jett turned to leave.
"Won't you have a cup of tea first?" asked Iroh cordially.
Jet laughed.
One of the soldiers stood up. "I'm sorry sir, but we're going to have to detain you, at least temporarily. We can't have fire benders here unchecked."
"I understand completely." said Iroh.
Zuko gritted his teeth. The situation was not one he cared for.
They were escorted outside, and down a street, until they met with a pair of Dai Lee agents, to whom the soldiers turned them in.
In prison, Zuko paced rapidly. "Why did you have to tell them?" he asked. "We could have handled that situation perfectly fine without you blowing our biggest secret. Now we're here, and we'll never find peace. No matter how long we live here, this is something we will never live down!" he kicked a moldy pillow at his uncle.
The old man studied it as though wondering if a good tea could be made from that coloration of mold. Probably not.
"I'm sorry, Lee, but I got a strong feeling of foreboding about the idea of letting you two fight it out with swords. I'm sure you'd be just fine, but I don't think he would have been, and he was quite kind to us on our way here."
"So in short you can't even do what's best for yourself in a 'me or them' situation?"
"I would simply rather not. We'll be fine, you'll see. I got the impression he wouldn't have been. That's all."
The next day, they were brought out of their cell and taken out of the prison house by six Dai Li members. The agents led them down several streets, and Zuko recognized the way to the earth train station. "Where are we going?" he asked.
"Don't ask questions." said one of the agents.
"We're going to the train station. Are you deporting us? We haven't done anything wrong, you can't send us away just because we're fire benders."
"Not to worry, soon you will be safe again, inside our walls."
"I don't need your walls in order to be safe, I need to know what's happening to me."
"Here you are safe."
Zuko growled.
Under lake Laogai, a green crystal circled Uncle repetitively. "There is no war in Ba Sing Se." said the Dai Li agent in charge of brainwashing him.
"I have a question."
"There is no war in Ba Sing Se."
"No, but there is a question in my mind."
"Here we are safe."
"But apparently we are not very good listeners. I would just like to ask if I could have a cup of hot tea while I wait for you to say something relevant."
When it came time for Zuko's turn in the chair, he stared blankly out at the people around him, glaring as though they were about to kill him. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Hush. You are safe now."
"Obviously not."
"You are in Ba Sing Se."
"No I'm not, I'm underneath a huge green lake."
"There is no war in Ba Sing Se."
"Only to people who don't listen. Like you."
In the end, both Zuko and Iroh managed to fake being brainwashed well enough to escape with only minor headaches. As they rode the train back into the city, they stared blankly ahead of them, pretending not to know each other. When the train dropped them off, and they were well out of earshot of the Dai Li, Iroh's lips curled up into a gigantic smile. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked.
Zuko grumbled, as usual.
When they got back to the tea shop, they found Jet waiting for them. "Sorry about last night." he said. "It's just, like you said, I've seen first hand what the fire nation does to people. And you were also right that I'd never considered what the fire nation must do to its own citizens. It may not mean much to you, but I'd like to offer my apology."
Before Zuko could say something snide, Uncle said "Apology accepted. Would you like some tea?"
"I'd be glad of some."
"Hold on!" said Zuko. "Do you even know what we just went through because my uncle had to go and tell the truth. It was mind blowing. In fact it almost was literally."
"What?"
Uncle shook his head sadly. "The Dai Li tried to brainwash us. It didn't work, but it may be a while before our headaches subside."
"They tried to what?"
Zuko clenched his teeth. "They tried to tell us there was no war, and that we'd be safe here. It hurt my head."
"Gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize..."
"How much like the fire nation this city was? Well get this, the treatment we just received is something I wouldn't have expected to find anywhere but there either, but now, it's right here under your own feet."
"Wow."
"I'll say." Zuko's golden eyes glared at Jet as if daring him to defend himself.
"About that tea." said Uncle, and set about readying some.
That night, Jet sat with Smellerbee and Long Shot outside a local restaurant. The three of them had ordered noodles, and the bowls were hot and steamy in their hands.
"I never stopped to think about these things." said Jet. "The fire nation has always been my enemy. But now I see that some things about the earth kingdom are just the same as they are there, and not all the people from the fire nation are as bad as I thought they were either. A small band of freedom fighters might be what a little fire nation outpost needs to keep it in check, but I think I can finally see what Katara and the others meant. Finally, I see why they did what they did. In stead of just regretting what I did and not knowing why it was wrong, I finally have a clear picture. It all makes sense now. I should have realized that it's not any nationality or group that's good or bad, but each individual. I should have known that before, but I was too blind to realize it."
"Jet, it's great that you finally understand, but fighting the fire nation has always been our drive. Now that we see the world more clearly, what are we going to do?" asked Smellerbee.
"Fighting fire nation is still our drive. But now we can do it better. The avatar is still fighting it, and now if we ever meet him again, we'll be prepared to do things the right way. No more sacrificing villages, no more universal hatred. We have fight the fire nation for the freedom of other people, not because we think it's evil. We have to fight it for the good even of its own citizens. Now that I understand, I think I'll start recruiting again, but slowly at first. I doubt I've got everything figured out yet, and I want to have some time to think before things get out of hand. Does anybody know where The Duke and Pip Squeak went off to?"
Neither of the other freedom fighters said a word, but Long Shot dipped his head.
"Oh yea, they didn't say. And they were angry. Well, if we ever meet up with them again, I'll apologize and see if we can put things right. In the mean time, I think we can do some great good for the earth kingdom's chances in the war right here in Ba Sing Se."
"What do you mean?" asked Smellerbee.
Long Shot silently echoed her question.
"Lee said that the Dai Li tried to convince him that there was no war, and that nothing could touch him inside these walls. It sounds to me like the Dai Li stand in the way of the good of the general public. If we attack them, and bring them down, then the war will be laid out in the open for everyone to see. And then people will swarm to enlist in the earth king's army."
Long Shot looked pointedly at Jet.
"I doubt it. They don't seem very diplomatic."
The other boy nodded, and returned to his soup.
Later that night, a lone Dai Li agent was walking home when he was accosted by a figure standing about ten feet in front of him. The agent stopped, and squared his shoulders. "Who are you?" he asked.
The figure said nothing, and did not move.
"Get out of my way."
Then the figure moved, and when it did, it moved so quickly that the agent did not even have time to see what it did. A sword flashed in the moonlight, just for an instant, and then the figure was alone on the street. The Blue Spirit vanished into the shadows, not to be seen again that night.