Azula
In
THE MISSING LINK
Chapter Four
Triple Threat
Mai knocked on the door to Katara's bedroom. She stood alone with Azula because Tylee had gymnastics class, Jet was out of town, and Zuko had been asleep by the time the girls were ready to leave.
"Got everything?" Azula asked.
Mai nodded. "Tape recorder, pencil, notebook, and tape from your interview with On Ji."
The door opened to a smiling Suki. "Hey," She said. "Katara! Azula and Mai are here!" She called backwards.
"I'm right behind you, you don't need to yell," Katara approached them. "Hey, come inside." She beckoned them in.
Azula and Mai walked in and sat down on her bed across from Toph on the beanbag chair. The room was horribly messy with things strewn everywhere. Azula noticed that all three of the girls were wearing the 'triple threat' T-shirt in different colors. Slowly, as no one was watching, Mai slipped the tape-recorded half behind a lamp on a nearby nightstand.
Katara closed her door behind her and walked over to the computer chair. "Excuse the mess; we're trying to sort things."
"So, what brings you here?" Suki asked.
Mai decided to speak first. "We wanted to talk to Katara about On Ji."
Katara gave a halfhearted smile. "On Ji? We haven't spoken in years."
"Yes, we know," Azula nodded. "What we want to know now is why."
Katara and Suki seemed to exchange some sort of look. "Well," she began. "Back in about fifth grade, On Ji used to tease me about liking Aang. And, you know, it got around the school, so after that I never spoke to her again."
Azula gave an annoyed glance to Toph, who was sticking iPod earplugs into her ears. "That's not exactly what someone else has told us…"
Mai cut her off. "Azula and Tylee talked to On Ji yesterday," She gave Azula her don't blow it look. After all, they couldn't prove that either of them were lying. Could be just point of view, She thought.
"What did she say about me?" Katara asked.
Azula shrugged. "Oh, nothing. Just the reverse of the story."
"Of course," Suki rolled her eyes. "Blame it on Katara when she's already going through so much. That sound just like something On Ji would do." Toph nodded, not seeming to be paying any attention to the matter at hand.
As Azula continued to ask questions, Mai went over things in her mind, like how all three girls were so quick to blame On Ji.
"Anyone else that might have a reason to hate you?" Mai skipped over the fact that On Ji was helping in some of the online harassment.
"Maybe… Meng Forrester." Katara said.
Suki laughed. "Yeah, she's got, like, the huge disgusting crush on Aang."
"We'll need some information about her." Mai said, steadying her pencil above the papers of the notebook.
"Well, she lives in the old Haunted Manse house on Rochester Street." Toph decided to interject at this point.
Mai looked to Katara to make sure Toph wasn't just lying. Katara nodded.
Toph went on. "I don't know the exact number of the house, but you'll know it when you see it. It just looks distant."
"So, you've been there?" Mai asked.
Toph bobbed her head up and down with the music from her iPod as if she hadn't heard, but Mai knew she had. Something about Toph wasn't right. She was trying to avoid something, just like On Ji.
"Anyone else?" Mai prompted.
Katara almost jumped in remembrance. "Oh! Yue Yin! She used to live next-door."
"What's that story?" Azula asked.
"Well, she used to be Sokka's girlfriend," Katara began, catching a glance at Suki. "She was really sweet, but just too nice. She would do anything Sokka told her… or anyone, for that matter. She was really devoted to him, but she just got too obsessed, and was over here almost every day. I told Sokka that I couldn't take it anymore; Yue was just like a stalker. Apparently Yue had overheard, packed up her things, and moved across town without even saying goodbye… I think she would be just a bit angry with me, I guess."
Mai nodded. "She lives across town, you said?"
"Yeah, off of Islington Road, on the water," Katara supplied. "I know because I saw her walking straight off into the woods, there."
"Anything else you could tell us about Meng or Yue?" Azula asked.
Katara nodded. "Some things you should watch out for," She turned to start sorting through things again. "Meng will ask if you want tea if she feels uncomfortable with the question you're asking, if you answer yes she'll come back with your tea and change the subject." She flicked a small piece of paper from her dark brown hair. "But Yue will start crying on impulse if she doesn't like where the convo is going. She'll say something like, 'I've just been so lonely for so long' or 'I don't know what you want from me'… something along those line, to get you to feel bad for her."
When Mai finished writing all of this down, they stood to leave. She subtly took the tape-recorder from its hiding place and she and Azula quickly whisked out.
"Are we going to interview Meng and Yue?" She asked as they hopped into Azula's expensive car.
Azula shook her head. "Time for some inside investigating, first."
Mai sighed; sometimes she didn't know what Azula meant by anything.
Later on, Azula was messing around on Facebook when an alert popped in the corner. She clicked on it, and read the words that stood in front of her.
The_Missing_Link has sent you a message!
She clicked the link that rested in the word message and it sent her straight to her inbox. There rested the name. TML. The title of the message was: Clever Little Girl.
My, u r a clevr lttle grl, aren't u? Katara thinks ur tryin 2 hlp hr, wen really, ur wrking agenst hr rite undr hr plastc nose! Ur on my good lst now, but if u slp up & tll Katara N E thing, u r ded… literlly. U wll suffr if I ctch u mking N E mstakez, so wtch it Azula.
Azula just sighed; she'd better do some investigation before she got in too deep. She didn't know how long she was going to be one of Link's Chains before she solved this case, but she was pretty sure she was getting close.
She looked at some of link's chains' pages. Most of them posed no picture to indentify them with, but some did have pictures of things, like cats or dogs or goldfish. The majority of the ones with pictures were of animals, but three stuck out to Azula for some reason.
Link's Chain_22's picture was a house by the water, Link's Chain_08's was a blue sapphire necklace, and Link's Chain_34's picture wore a weird tangle of lines that Azula couldn't figure out. Hm…
"House by the water, sapphire necklace, tangled lines." Azula said aloud, trying to match people with the pictures. With no luck, she sighed and began to text Zuko.
Zuko: Y r u texting me? We liv in the same house.
Azula: We r goin out!
Zuko: Stll on the case? I hpe we actually fnd out something useful ths tme.
Tylee: Azula! U hav to com c wat I found!
Azula: wer r u?
Tylee: At the coffee house wer On Ji took us.
Azula: Zuko, meet me at the coffee house.
Down at the Coffee House Tylee waited in the same seat she sat in when On Ji was with her. She smiled unceasingly as Azula and Zuko approached the table.
"Well?" Zuko said.
Tylee nodded. "I was walking down Islington Street when I saw something shiny in the woods…"
"And of course, you went for the shiny thing." Zuko rolled his eyes.
"Yes," Tylee answered. "And when I got to it I found out it was a necklace, stuck between two rocks because it was caught by a metal piece sticking out from them. After unhooking the necklace I searched around for anything else and found this cellphone." She put the two items in the middle of the table.
Azula was taken aback. Out in front of her on the table sat a brilliant sapphire necklace, just like the one from the picture on Facebook. She picked it up carefully
Zuko examined the cellphone. "It works!" He sounded astonished. With a few clicks on his fingers on the buttons, his eyes grew wider.
"What?" Tylee asked.
He shoved the cellphone to the middle of the table, and Azula immediately snatched it up. There, before her eyes, were text messages about the online bullying.
She's so stupid; it's amazing she hasn't figured it out yet.
Ya, I know, it's pitiful
We don't even need the internet to make fun of her!
Its sitting right there in front of her eyes and she can't even see it.
I've never really liked Katara…
Then why did you date her, genius?
She stopped reading then. Then why did you date her, genius? That was obviously past tense, so it wasn't any current boyfriend Katara had… So… it must've been Jet. She didn't want to believe it, but it was right there on the phone. The address the text messages were to wasn't Jet's phone number, but if there as incognito as they seem to be, Jet's being very crafty. Azula angrily threw the phone back onto the table as she realized why Zuko hadn't told them right off what was in the phone. He proceeded with a nervous glance her.
This was a lot to cover in one day… everything just fell into place after that. Azula and thrown the phone onto its front, and the visible back had a sticker of those tangled lines.
"What are those?" Zuko pointed.
"Celtic knots." Tylee shrugged.
It just clicked right then: The pictures. Yue Yin lived in a house on the water, probably that one in the picture, on the back of the phone was the Celtic knots in the next picture, and here was the sapphire necklace.
All she had to do now: figure out who owned the cellphone, then the necklace, and finally confront Jet and the mystery was solved. Only, Azula wasn't exactly warmed up to the third task… she knew Jet would never do something like this, but he'd lied to her in the past… about Katara… Azula had been sort of 'the other woman' as most people had called it. Katara had warmed up to Azula in the past few days in a speed that Azula couldn't take in. It's like nothing ever happened between the three of them.
Azula snatched up the necklace, and Tylee offered her the cellphone, to which Azula replied, "You keep it, I just… Can't…" And she was out of the door without even waiting for Zuko.
Zuko found his sister leaning against the car with her arms crossed, looking deeply in thought.
"Listen," He said, unlocking the car. "I know you don't want to believe that Jet would do…"
"He didn't." Azula prompted.
"Jet's been trouble from the beginning," Zuko told her mercilessly. "When you think about how you two actually got together, it doesn't make sense that you're still around… as a couple."
"He was a jerk at first, but he would never stoop to this." Azula said. "He told me that he talked it out with Katara."
Zuko shook his head. "And how many other things did he tell you, Azula? He can tell you anything."
"Shut up, Zuko!" Azula raised her voice. "I don't want to talk about this right now."
There was silence as Zuko drove. Finally, he sighed. "Listen, I'm sorry… I'm just trying to protect you… you're my little sister, you know?"
But Azula didn't respond, she was too deep in thought about how to handle everything. And plus, she didn't want him to know that she was crying. If Jet had done this, what else had he been lying about? And why was he out of town? He hadn't told her.
It was overwhelming. She now had three new suspects on her lists; Yue, Meng, and Jet.
Triple threat.
A/N: who thinks Jet did it? Review and tell me! And what about Yue and Meng? On Ji, perhaps? And Toph has been on the list! REVEIW AND SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS.
