Chapter 24: The Lake
Following the agents that arrested Zuko was easy for Azula, until they entered the Agrarian Zone outside the lower ring. Convenient dark alleys and shadows ended at the wall, on the other side only wide plains of crops filled the gap between walls. Though her disguise as the Blue Spirit hid her identity, Azula had to keep her distance to avoid being seen. The night was still young and a nearly full moon was rising tonight.
The agents headed straight to a lake in the Agrarian Zone, one with an island in the center. From Azula's view the agents appeared to walk onto the surface of the lake, then disappear into it. Getting closer she found a stone path leading into the lake, with a metal hatch at the end. One agent stayed above the surface and walked back to the shore.
Alone the agent prepared to earthbend the stone back into the lake. Azula fired lightning into the agent's back, then dumped the body into the lake. She walked over to the hatch and opened it, finding a ladder leading down into an underground base. Azula climbed down the ladder and closed the hatch behind her.
Inside the base Azula observed the dark corridors, sparsely lit by torches far from each other. She could hear distant agents talking, but the sound was too garbled to make anything out. Sticking to the shadows in the base Azula explored the hallways, ducking into dark corners whenever agents passed by. Azula wasn't certain what she might find, but the sound of women chanting caught her attention. Following the sound to a side chamber Azula looked inside a barely open door, finding over a dozen women in a trance.
"I am Joo Dee, welcome to Ba Sing Se."
At the other end of the chamber a door opened, revealing three agents dragging another girl inside. Though the armor and weapons had been striped and the makeup removed, Azula recognized the Kyoshi Warrior. The agents forced Suki into a chair with manacles attached, locking her into place behind the chanting women.
"Let me go!" Suki demanded, struggling against the manacles.
Ignoring Suki, one of the agents bent stone onto her face to force Suki to look at a mindbender at the front of the room and a bright lamp behind him. "Another one to mold," the agent said.
The mindbender only nodded, not breaking the chant he spoke to make the Joo Dee's repeat.
Slowly Azula backed away from the door, finding the implications of the chamber more troubling than any form of torture she knew existed. This would be her fate if the Dai Li caught her here, assuming they didn't execute her instead. She started to regret using Zuko as the bait, if only because him losing his identity would be a waste of a firebender.
Another hour of searching found more chambers like the first one Azula found, some with more women and others with men becoming unwilling Dai Li. A few contained a single individual each, being forced to either disclose information or to forget that the war existed. In one room Azula discovered Zuko shackled to a chair, forced to face a mindbender with a bright lamp circling him.
"Who are you working for?" the mindbender asked.
When Zuko didn't respond Azula smiled behind the mask. Her brother was smart enough to not say anything at all, not when the bright moving lamp distorted his perception of reality. Zuko didn't even react to Azula sneaking into the room, crawling beneath the track the bright lamp moved on around the mindbender. Even when Azula shot blue flames into the back of the mindbender's neck, Zuko still didn't respond.
Only smashing the bright lamp with the mindbender's corpse got a reaction from Zuko. "About time someone broke that thing," Zuko said. He smelled burning flesh and quickly figured out who could be behind the Blue Spirit mask. "Azula, you're the last person I would expect to come to my rescue."
"Who did you expect, Uncle Iroh?" Azula asked while she took keys off the mindbender. She walked over to Zuko's chair and started unlocking the shackles.
"Is Mai with you?" Zuko asked as he was freed. Standing up Zuko rubbed his sore wrists. "I told her to follow me."
"Haven't seen her," Azula answered. She stepped over to the door and listened for any approaching agents. "Come on."
Zuko followed Azula into the hallway and deeper into the base. "Isn't the exit the other way?" Zuko whispered.
"We're not leaving just yet," Azula answered. She peered into another chamber, spotting the Avatar's earthbending teacher in a group of soon to be unwilling Dai Li. "The Avatar is here, likely being brainwashed into a weapon of mass destruction."
Not needing any further convincing to remain in the base, Zuko silenced himself while following Azula through the base. Deeper in the base the patrols from Dai Li increased in frequency, slowing down their progress. Soon they reached the point of no return, a larger hallway with a dozen Dai Li standing guard. They'd have to fight if they wanted to continue.
Zuko observed the guards from behind a dark corner, estimating the odds. "Do you think it's time we stopped hiding our firebending?" Zuko whispered.
Azula nodded. "On three," she whispered. "One…" Azula posed for a lightning strike while Zuko did the same. "Two…" They both started charging lightning, making the guards wonder what was causing the noise. "Three!" Together they stepped out from the dark corner and fired lightning into the guards, killing half of them instantly and shocking the rest into unconsciousness.
With stealth gone Azula and Zuko ran past the fallen agents into the chamber they were guarding. More agents were inside guarding a mindbender. They weren't expecting firebenders so deep in the base, and were not prepared for the fireblasts that struck them. The mindbender threw his hands into the air, surrendering to the intruders.
After shutting the door Zuko observed the room. The whole thing was made of metal, intended to hold even the strongest of earthbenders. The surrendering mindbender was in the middle of a circular track that moved another bright lamp, and in a chair the Avatar was shackled. The Avatar's eyes were dilated, and he didn't seem to respond to the commotion around him.
Azula looked at her vulnerable enemy, and lit a blue flame in her hand. "Not the ending I had in mind, but it will do."
"Wait!" Zuko shouted.
"Why?" Azula demanded. "Let's just kill him here and now."
Zuko crossed the track around the mindbender and walked up to him. "Is the brainwashing working on the Avatar?"
Scared for his life, the mindbender believed that he would be killed if he lied. "We've never done this on an Air Nomad before. But he seems ready to be molded."
"Can anyone do the brainwashing?" Zuko asked.
"Of… of course, the technique is rather simple."
"Good," Zuko said. "Teach it to me, now!"
Toph was on her way home at night when she noticed something that simply should not be there. A six-legged bison was sleeping in the backyard of Zei's house. She could also tell that Sokka was inside, seemingly not caring that the bison was there. Toph walked into the house and slammed the door behind her, making certain to get Sokka's attention.
"What in the world is that thing doing in the backyard?" Toph demanded.
Getting up from the couch Sokka faced his friend. "That 'thing' is the Avatar's sky bison. It's here because my sister is in trouble somewhere in the city."
"And what exactly do you plan to do about it?" Toph asked.
"I've already got a friend working on it," Sokka explained. "I couldn't follow past the wall, so I came back here to wait for you."
Toph hummed and thought for a moment about where prisoners might be kept outside the inner wall. "Long Feng might have an underground base somewhere past the wall. He's certainly got enough earthbenders to make one."
"Do you know where it is?" Sokka asked.
"No," Toph answered, shaking her head. "But I could find it easily."
"Then let's go," Sokka said. He ran out the back door into the backyard, up to the sleeping sky bison. Sokka leapt onto Appa's horn and shook the bison's head, waking him up. "It's time to find your buddies."
"Do you really expect me to ride in that thing?" Toph asked.
"Yes," Sokka answered, dropping back onto the ground.
After Sokka and Toph got into the saddle Appa took off into the night sky. Toph couldn't help but scream the moment she was in the air, cut off from the earth that let her see. Flying was the opposite extreme of sailing, lack of vibrations instead of overwhelming. It only took Toph minutes to figure that prolonged flights would mess with her just as much as a long boat journey.
Huddled in one corner of the saddle, Toph hung on for dear life. "Please tell me you're only renting this beast!"
Sitting at the reins, Sokka looked back at Toph. "Hey I'll gladly give it back once we find its owner."
The few minutes it took to reach the Agrarian Zone could not end too soon for Toph. Once Appa landed outside the inner wall Toph immediately leapt out of the saddle onto the ground. Sokka got off the bison as well, surveying the moonlit surroundings for anyone watching. He figured that the Dai Li must know they were out here, even at night a sky bison is hard to miss.
"See anything?" Sokka asked.
Toph crouched and placed one hand on the ground, focusing on what she could see below. "Not here" she said. She punched the ground to earthbend a ripple through the earth, magnifying the vibrations and extending her range. "I've got something, beneath a lake."
"Lead the way," Sokka said.
Walking to the lake only took fifteen minutes, though Sokka found a lack of sentry agents suspicious. Those suspicious feelings waned a little when he saw a dead body floating in the lake, a sign that someone had already cleared the way. On one side of the lake a path reached onto the surface, ending with a metal hatch.
"Guess that's our way in," Toph said as she walked towards the hatch.
Sokka looked at the hatch, then at Appa, then back to the hatch. "Yeah, I don't think our furry friend can come any further," Sokka said. Then he pointed at Appa and then to the sky. "Go fly somewhere for a while, anywhere."
Appa roared and took off, flying southeast.
Toph reached the metal hatch and opened it. "Ready to go down the rabbaroo hole?"
Together Sokka and Toph climbed down a ladder into the Dai Li base, entering the dark corridors. Instead of sneaking like Sokka wanted, Toph just walked through corridors like she owned the place. Still on the Dai Li payroll, Toph believed that as long as she looked like she was on Dai Li business the other agents wouldn't stop her.
She was wrong.
A group of agents were walking down the corridor when they spotted Toph. "Hey! Recruits aren't allowed down here!"
"Crap," Toph complained. Immediately she attacked the agents with blocks of stone, hitting and tossing them back. The noise echoed through the corridor, alerting more agents deeper in the base.
"In here," Sokka said, spotting a door leading into a chamber. He forced it open and entered with Toph behind him. To Sokka's surprise he found two dozen women chanting inside, one of which was bound to a chair.
"We are so lucky to have our walls to create order."
"What in the world?" Sokka muttered, horrified by the sight. Then he noticed the mindbender with his bright lamp. The lamp gave him the creeps, prompting Sokka to throw his boomerang and smash it.
Immediately the chanting women snapped out of the trance, some collapsing while others looked around in confusion. The girl bound to the chair let out a sigh of relief, struggling harder against the manacles. A few of the women rushed the mindbender, venting rage on the man that tried to strip their identity. Some even dropped to their hands and knees in front of Sokka, thanking him for stopping the mindbender.
"Get out of here!" Sokka ordered, pointing towards the exit.
Most of the women immediately obeyed the order, some of them carrying those too tired to walk. One retrieved Sokka's boomerang and gave it back to him before leaving. While the women left the chamber Sokka hurried to the girl in the chair and broke the stone holding her head in place. Lacking the keys to the manacles, Sokka started hacking at the hinges with his boomerang.
Suki looked at Sokka, wondering if she had fallen asleep in the chair. She'd seen him before, but thought it was nothing but swamp gas messing with her head. But there was no mistaking the Water Tribe boy, so similar to Katara. "Who are you?" Suki asked.
"Sokka," he answered. He hit the left manacle hard and often enough to break it open. "You?" Sokka asked as he started with the right manacle.
"Suki," she answered, flexing her free hand. "Are you related to Katara?"
The manacle snapped as Sokka struck it harder than he intended. "She's my sister. Where is she?"
"I don't know," Suki admitted, standing up. "I'll help you find her."
Rumbling earth sounded outside the chamber, and Toph walked into the room. "I kinda blocked the way forward…"
"You!" Suki yelled. She grabbed Sokka's boomerang and threw it at Toph. The weapon curved in the air around Toph's head, returning to Sokka.
After catching the boomerang, Sokka got in between Toph and Suki. "What did I miss?" Sokka asked, looking back and forth between the two girls.
"She attacked me and my friends!" Suki yelled. "She works for Long Feng!"
"I didn't know about any of this!" Toph shouted, gesturing to the dead mindbender. "I'd have never taken the job if I knew!"
"Do you expect me to believe you?" Suki questioned.
"Nope," Toph said. "If I were in your shoes I'd be trying to hightail it out of here."
"Can we argue this later?" Sokka asked. "We've all got people in here that need rescuing."
"Are you certain that Katara is even here?" Suki asked.
"Even if she isn't, we have to shut down Long Feng's operation," Sokka said. While he knew this would ruin the deal he made to have Long Feng's support during the solar eclipse, it wasn't worth tolerating his crimes against humanity. Even if the plan worked, it would only trade one dictator for another. "Toph, make a path through this place."
"You got it," Toph said. She bent the stone wall of the chamber, forming a new tunnel leading into an empty chamber. "Come on before they get wise to this trick."
Together Toph, Sokka, and Suki ran into earthbended tunnels, moving from one chamber to the next and bypassing the corridors. Some of the chambers had been hastily evacuated, while others still had prisoners entranced by more bright lamps. Sokka smashed the bright lamps whenever he could while Toph dealt with agents and Suki directed the prisoners to the exit. After freeing a handful of dissidents and political prisoners, they found a chamber filled with three dozen entranced men.
Suki only needed a second to recognize one of the people in the chamber. "Haru!"
"Who?" Sokka and Toph asked.
Instead of answering, Suki ran for the mindbender beside another bright lamp. She tackled the man, gripped his clothes and threw him into the bright lamp. Before the mindbender could get up Suki slammed her foot repeatedly into his face until he stayed down. Sighing when she finished, Suki turned to see the men breaking out of the trance.
"Haru, are you alright?" Suki asked, hurrying to her friend.
On his knees and holding his head in both hands, Haru groaned as he felt a headache form. "I'll be fine, just a little woozy." Haru looked up and saw Toph standing behind Suki. "Oh for Aang's sake, not again."
"Relax," Toph said. "This time I'm on your side."
Sokka looked around to see all the other men still in the chamber. "What are you guys waiting for? Get out of here!"
Not one of the men left, all of them facing their liberators. All earthbenders, all were being forced into becoming unwilling Dai Li agents, all wanting vengeance against Long Feng. They had no place in Ba Sing Se anymore, not while the Dai Li knew their names and faces. Every last earthbender in the chamber bowed to Sokka, and had nothing left to lose.
"We shall stand with you."
Waiting for an opportune moment to infiltrate the Dai Li base was testing the limits of Mai's patience. She had first arrived at the lake's shores in time to see the Blue Spirit enter, and had to wait until either she was safely inside or the alarm sounded. Right when Mai figured she had a chance to get in a bison dropped out of the night sky nearby, then walked with two people to the shore. After the bison flew away and the two newcomers entered Mai had to wait again, just to be certain that the two didn't alert the Dai Li.
Once Mai was certain it was safe to sneak inside she left her hiding place in the bushes, walking onto the stone path leading onto the surface of the lake. She reached the end and opened the hatch, wielding a knife in one hand just in case. To her surprise Mai heard the voices of several women coming from inside, and when she looked down she spotted a few climbing the ladder.
"Just my luck," Mai muttered. She helped the women finish the climb out of the base, pulling them out of the hatch. Behind the two dozen women were a handful of other former prisoners, glad to find someone on the outside helping them. After the last person was out Mai peered inside the base, hearing all kinds of commotion from agents moving inside. The base was clearly on alert now and stealth would be impossible.
When Mai turned around she found the women on the lake shore, uncertain where to go now. One of them looked at Mai. "Please, help us."