A/N: Sorry its been so long, been busy with school and stuff(and my Beta wouldn't Beta it...grr). Well, here's Chap 3, have fun!

Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Avatar, its too well written and non-Zukocentric

Long Feng finally reemerged from the ground, gulping down the fresh air greedily as he barely managed to keep his balance.

After catching his breath, he took a few moments to take in his surroundings. He was in an old warehouse on the far side of the Middle Ring. It was, in fact, his own warehouse. He had it built years ago as a storehouse for various goods he had shipped in from villages within the Outer Wall and the outskirts of Ba Sing Sei. Now, since he had long ago left his business in capable hands while he advised the king, it had become one of many such buildings throughout the crowded city.

Well, so far so good he thought to himself. The escape was a little closer than I had hoped for. I'm going to need to step up my plans if I want to stay alive and out of the clutches of my former captor.

He then began to search through a few of the crates lining the walls, looking for anything he might be able to use to help disguise himself. If I recall, I mostly used this for clothing and furniture storage, so there should be something I can use here if things haven't changed drastically since I last checked with my associates.

After turning a few crates of pillows over and rooting through crates of fancy, well-tailored clothing, he finally found an outfit that would at least allow for him to pass for an upper-middle class citizen, along with a wide, straw hat. He quickly tore himself out of his tattered dress robes and changed into the street clothes, then slowly opened the large, wooden doors at the far end of the warehouse, and swiftly melded into the traffic of one of the city's main thoroughfares, headed back in the direction of the Upper Ring.

"So, General, what can I help you with...exactly?" Said Peng as he took the teapot off of the small burner inlaid in the table and carefully poured the tea into 2 cups, one for Suian and one for himself.

Suian picked up the cup and took a large gulp of it, the scalding liquid not phasing him at all as it poured down his throat. The youth, in his finest military dress, was sitting down across from the elderly Peng on a stone couch covered in soft, luxurious furs and pillows, his helmet resting next to him on his right while his aide, Major Zhong, stood on his left.

Suian took a moment to look over Peng. Peng bore the title of Lord, something granted to him by the last Earth King due to his vast influence over trade and commerce within the city. All in all, he wasn't very impressive looking. He had a long, wispy gray beard and mustache, his scalp having lost its hair long ago. Suian marked him in his late seventies to mid eighties, impressive considering his barbarian heritage. Then again, they are said to live a long time. Must be that their savagery fuels their heart to keep on pumping so they can continue to pound each other to dust. Yes, that must be it. Regardless, he is old, even by these people's standards, and far too frail to pose a significant threat. No, the old man will, no doubt, simply keep his head down and his mouth shut, just wanting to be left alone.

"Well, as you may have heard, a certain prisoner escaped from the palace late last night," Suian began, smirking slightly in an attempt to control his anger at the memory of those events. "I, having learned about his past from my various agents in the city, thought that this would be a good place to begin, given your shared history."

"Ah, I understand." Peng replied as he slowly brought his cup to his lips. "Well, I can honestly tell you that I have not had any contact with Long Feng in roughly 3 months. Once he became the former king's chief advisor, it was obvious that it would be difficult for him to oversee the day-to-day operations of the businesses that he expanded upon from his father's holdings. So he left them to me, on the grounds that I was someone he knew he could trust and on the condition that he would have the final say on any major decisions and would be present at the meetings of the various owners and major executives. In recent months, various matters of state drew his focus, and he has not been able to participate even on an administrative level. And, given the recent power shift within the city and his subsequent imprisonment, he has, as you can imagine, been even less able." He chuckled at this last bit, and took a small sip of the jasmine tea, placing his cup back on the polished marble table.

"Hmm, I see," Suian murmured, not really focusing on the words of the aged caretaker, his attention being drawn to the odd rustling of one of the curtains lining the side of the room. Hmm, the balcony is open, but the wind is blowing in the opposite direction. That's unusual. He shook it from his thoughts and went back to the task at hand.

"Well, I completely believe you, Lord Peng. You have been nothing but compliant with our forces and helpful in our attempts to smooth our relations with the local lords and nobility," Suian calmly responded, not failing to notice how the curtain continued to shift, almost too subtle to notice.

Having finished his tea, the youth and elder stood, the former tucking his helmet under his arm as he politely bowed. "Alright Major, we have no further business here. I am sure that you will be certain to let us know if you have any contact with our mutual friend, my Lord?"

Peng simply smiled. "Of course, General Suian. I would have no reason to act otherwise. You do, after all, control the fate of every life within Sozin's Jewel." He put emphasis on the last two words, making his acceptance of the Fire Nation's control over the mighty city perfectly clear. "Good luck in your search. I only hope this matter can be solved quickly and with minimal loss of life."

"As do I," Suian concluded as he began to move towards the front door.

On his way out, he turned sharply and threw aside the curtain, exposing nothing but the bare rock wall behind it.

"...Is something wrong, General?" Zhong inquired as he observed the odd look on his commander's face.

"No...no, of course not!" Suian snapped, now out of earshot of the elderly Peng. "Come major, we must continue our hunt for this barbarian before he manages to slip through our fingers again."

They quickly exited through the extravagant doors, the general climbing up onto his War Rhino, a large, highly muscular specimen with almost black skin and dressed in gleaming crimson armor. His aide followed suit on his own, less extravagant mount. Suian quickly turned to him and said "go to the edge of the Upper and Middle rings, be certain the guards there are alert and are check the passes of every citizen that passes through. I am going to head back to the palace and question these Dai Li agents. The Princess seemed satisfied with them, but I need to be sure they didn't somehow have a hand in this." With that, he shouted and his mount began to charge down the road towards the main street back to the Palace, while his aide's mount turned and headed the opposite way, back towards the small dividing wall between the Upper and Middle Rings.

Peng, having heard the main door close, slowly turned to the stone wall on his left and simply stated: "You can come out now, old friend."

With that, Long Feng emerged from the stone, once again doubling over and gasping for breath.

"You're lucky I taught you such a useful trick, my pupil, otherwise you would have been caught when you were stuck behind that curtain."

"Believe it...or not...that's the...second time...that its saved me today." Long Feng said between gasps, finally managing to catch his breath. "Aren't you curious how I managed to get inside?"

"Simple, you used the complex tunnel network that crisscrosses under parts of the upper city, Earthbended your way up into the garden, used more earthbending to scale the side of the mansion up to the balcony, and, once you got inside, realized that the general had just knocked on the door and carefully hid behind the curtain. Once you came to the conclusion he was about to leave, you went into the wall to avoid being caught as he walked past. Quite impressive, but I would expect more from you. You must be slipping in your old age." Peng smirked at this, looking Long Feng up and down. "You look terrible."

"Oh, don't start, ancient one" Long Feng replied, chuckling softly. "Now, are you so senile you forget to offer your guests tea, or am I just a special case?"

"Ah yes, of course." Peng nodded, waving Long Feng to the couch Suian had occupied not ten minutes ago. "And, while we enjoy this tea, do you intend to outline your plan for retaking our beautiful city from the Fire Princess' pet general?"

"I was planning on it, yes," Long Feng responded. "But then I heard how close you and our "mutual friend" Suian seem to be and wonder if it is wise to trust you. After all, you do seem to enjoy the way the name Sozin's Jewel rolled off your tongue."

"Merely acting and manipulation, my young student." Peng replied smoothly. "Maybe if you were better at those yourself, or at seeing them in others, we wouldn't need to have this conversation, and Azula would be the one in the cells instead of you."

At this, Long Feng stood and looked angrily down at his aged caretaker. "Don't EVER use that name in my presence." he replied, not able to completely control the anger in his tone. "Now, would you care to listen to my plan, or should I just leave now, before you call your newfound friends down on me and I get reacquainted with that damn cell I've been rotting in for 2 weeks?!"

"Calm yourself, Long Feng. You know I only jest." Peng chortled, loving the reaction he could still get from Long Feng after all these years. It had been the same since he was a mere teenager, when Peng had simply been his father's business partner, brought in to help Long Feng manage his newfound talent for bending the dirt and stone. "Now, how about you start with how you managed to escape those craftily built cells of yours? As you described them, they would be impossible to break out of without extraordinary talent or a bit of outside help. I know you did not have the latter, and I would think the amount of skill required to escape would be beyond even you."

"I will show you, watch." Long Feng replied as he reached into his tunic and held out his hand, showing Peng 3 simple metal chess pieces, a knight, a pawn, and a rook.

"Hmm, do they, perhaps, contain a key to your cell?" Peng inquired, looking at the pieces, still skeptical.

"No, old fool, just watch." Long Feng simply clenched his fist around the pieces, then unclenched. Now, in his hand he held a perfect half-sphere of metal, which he let fall to the table with a loud clatter.

Peng simply stared for a moment, his mouth opening and closing several times as he attempted to comprehend what he had just witnessed.

"What, nothing to say, Sifu Peng?" Long Feng smirked, leaning back onto the couch as he watched his caretaker and mentor's reaction to his newfound talent. "Of course, it isn't as elegant a form as I would like to be, yet" he added. "But, it was enough to get myself out of a trap I never expected myself to be in. After I regain control of Ba Sing Sei, remind me to build a way out of those cells in case I ever find myself there again."

"Long Feng, my student, this is..." Peng waved his hand at the lump on the table "Unbelievable! I mean, no Earthbender has been able to do this since, since..."

"Since the time of Avatar Kyoshi, the most accomplished earthbender as well as the oldest and, quite arguably, the most skilled Avatar to have ever lived. It is said she taught some of the original Dai Li the talent, although none of them truly managed anything beyond what I have produced here." He gestured to the simple dome of iron. "Of course, that's not the full extent of my ability, I crushed the hinges on my cell door and blew it across the room, crushing a poor fire nation bastard with it."

"Oh!" Peng said, eyes wide in amazement. "That you manged even THIS much without someone to teach you is astounding! I mean, this art has been lost for nearly 500 years, and you, my star pupil, were the one to rediscover it! I knew you had talent, even when I first met you, but this..." Peng trailed off, still having trouble believing what was right in front of him.

"Well, Peng, we must not dawdle on this, as remarkable as it may be." Long Feng continued, now pacing through the room, "We need to discuss my intentions and plans from here on in. Now, you seem to be in close with the good General" Long Feng gestured towards the Palace at this, "be sure and keep it that way. There's no reason for you to alienate yourself and potentially harm all our holdings just because of a mere disagreement with a simpleton like Suian. Be sure and assist him in my capture any way you can, just don't actually lead him to me. I'll be hiding somewhere I doubt anyone, even these new 'Dai Li', will be able to find me."

"And where, my Metalbending prodigy, would that be?" Peng inquired, finally snapping out of his shock at what he had witnessed Long Feng do.

"Do you remember me mentioning a certain underwater fortress at Lake Laogai?" Long Feng inquired.

"Yes, and I also remember you saying, in a brief meeting before you were imprisoned by your beloved puppet king that you destroyed it before the Avatar and his friends could expose it."

"Well, I did destroy it, but I went and rebuilt a considerably large piece of it near the heart of the lake, without the Dai Li's knowledge. I intend to rebuild a few more select parts of it, and plan from there."

"Oh, good plan" Peng replied. "And what do you intend to do with that? Just wait out the Fire Nation? Putting a lot of faith in your adversary Avatar Aang, aren't you?"

"No, of course not." Long Feng waved him off, focusing again. "When I used...her" he spat this last word, lacing it with all the bile he could manage, "to try and retake the city, the Earth King's generals were kind enough to impart me with a piece of information: the date of a solar eclipse. It is on this day, the Day of Black Sun, as they call it, that I intend to strike."

"Hmm" Peng contemplated this. "You ARE aware that these eclipses last for a span of mere minutes, right?"

"Of course, of course." Long Feng muttered. "That, is where YOU come in, my old friend. While you make nice with dear Suian, you will use your influence and wealth in the city to slowly spread dissent amongst the citizens. We own storefronts and shops throughout all the rings, it should be easy to artificially raise prices, blame it on tariffs set down by the Fire Nation, restrict amounts of our more luxurious items as well. We have a lot of pull in the upper levels of society, at least on the Earth Kingdom side. Try and convince some of our business partners and rivals to do the same with their stores, they can't like the occupation of our beautiful utopia any more than us. You see where I'm going with this?"

"Yes, yes...I see." Peng contemplated, "You really ought to keep the rest to yourself, in case a certain General doesn't exactly buy my ruse. I can fill in the gaps on my own, but if I don't know for certain...well, I can't divulge information I don't know, can I?"

Long Feng thought about this. "Hmm, you're right, I'll fill you in more once you set this in motion." he said as he moved to the balcony, the sun already beginning to set in the western sky.

"Where are you going?" Peng questioned. "The tunnels that way will just lead into the main Chambers of Old Ba Sing Sei, under the Palace. You will have to go out of the city on foot or make your own tunnels to get to Lake Laogai."

"I know that, Ancient." Long Feng smirked. "There is someone else I must see first, someone whose cooperation is almost as important as yours." With that he jumped off the balcony, once again gliding smoothly through the earth, into the tunnels of the Old City.

"Alright, that will be all for now." Suian called, the new Dai Li lined up in front of him. "Lieutenant Rang." He called to the agent standing in the front. "You may take command again, I have pressing matters to attend to." As Suian left, Rang heard him mutter "Damn rock-tossing savages", and it took all of his discipline not to crush Suian right then and there.

The most distinguishing feature about Rang was his size. While most Earthbenders were large and muscular, Rang was on the high end of even that, standing around 6'10", and the casual observer could tell just by looking that he was well muscled, despite the loose fitting Dai Li uniform he wore.

At the age of merely nineteen, Rang was the only senior member of the Dai Li still left in Ba Sing Sei, the others having departed with the Prince and Princess weeks ago. Of those original forty or so, Rang was one of only five or six that wondered if they had done the right thing, turning against Long Feng. After seeing how Suian treated the Earth Kingdom citizenry and the Earthbenders under his command, Rang knew that this had been a bad move. He also knew it would be foolish to try and take on the Fire Nation occupation on his own, he still couldn't be sure of these raw recruits he'd been put in charge of, there was still a lot of weeding out to do to get the maximum fifty that Suian would allow, not that he saw them as a threat anyway.

"Alright men, we're done for the day, get some food and get on home. We have a big day ahead tomorrow."

"Um, sir?"

Rang turned and looked at the individual who had spoken up. What was his name again? Sha? Yeah, Sha. "Yes, Corporal Sha?"

Sha, having been recognized, spoke nervously. He had never been good at speaking in front of others. "Um, is it, uh, true that The Betray- I mean, Long Feng, broke out last night?"

At this, Rang merely stared. How did Sha hear about that? I had only heard the rumors, but I knew they wouldn't hold him forever.

"You are all dismissed" Rang said, not even answering Sha's question.

After they had all gone, Rang began walking through the Palace to his room in the underground barracks. Since he was an officer and in charge of the Earth Kingdom Royal Guard, Suian let him keep a decent-sized room here, more for the purposes of not alienating the Earth Kingdom nobles entirely than any measure of real respect.

Once he got inside, he left the door open and sat on the bed as he took off his robe and slid into a loose fitting tunic. He then got up and went to shut the door, and, upon doing so, turned to see a figure standing at the back of the room, the glow of the green crystals embedded in the walls illuminating his face.

"Sargeant Rang," Long Feng said calmly, staring straight into his eyes. "I have an offer for you" he smiled slightly at this, "and I don't think you'll want to refuse."