EDIT 4/13/18: Wow. I finally got the chance to reread this chapter and give it a good edit and holy crap there were so many errors. *hides* I'm so sorry. I've fixed as many as I could find. If anyone sees more after this edit, please let me know. This is so embarrassing. I must've been a lot more tired than I thought I was last night

A/N: And everyone never shut up so this chapter is almost all dialogue. Sorry about that. At least I snuck a pun in the title. Again.

Chapter summary: In which Roulan is not impressed by posturing exes, plays peacekeeper between emotionally tense brats, and learns a thing or two she might wish she hadn't.


48: Ex-tra Tension

"That's enough!" Tengfei shouted.

Earth rumbled and Katara suddenly found her knees covered with a thin but strong blanket of stone preventing her from standing and adopting a fighting stance. Jet wasn't much better. His feet sank up to his ankles in the stone floor and rock gloves distinctive of the Dai Li gripped his biceps, holding him in place and preventing him from wobbling.

"You make one more move, young lady, and you'll be banned from this establishment," Roulan snapped, glaring furiously at the waterbender threatening Jet. "And I'll make sure to spread the word to the other healing clinics too until every establishment in our guild knows to kick you out if they see you."

The girl's bright blue eyes stared at Roulan in dumb shock, but the healer didn't waste her breath. "And you Jet," she said, washing her hands in the nearby bowl and toweling off her hands. "You want to fight? Fine. Take it outside. This is a healing clinic. You want to hurt each other? Be my guest. Outside. "

Jet spat and the only reason Roulan didn't smack him a good one was because the boy had spectacular aim. Right at young Katara's cheek. The girl looked absolutely mortified and disgusted. Frankly, Roulan had seen worse, gotten worse. This was nothing. But Katara acted like she'd been slapped.

"That is enough, Jet," the Dai Li Tengfei commanded, tightening his grip on the boy's arms with his rock gloves. "Control yourself or you will be removed."

"Like hell," Jet snarled, struggling in his earthen bindings. "She froze my fucking boyfriend! Fucking bitch!"

Roulan's eyebrows flew to her hairline. Well. No wonder Jet was in such a state. She could hardly blame him. "Katara," she said sternly, fixing her gaze on the temporary patient and healer in her clinic. "Is that true?"

The girl looked like she'd swallowed a fish whole. "Yo- You're boyfriend?!" she cried, completely ignoring Roulan. "Zu-"

"Katara!" the Dai Li said, cutting off the waterbender's words. "Choose your next words carefully."

Why would the Dai Li stop Katara from-

"I have chosen carefully," Katara hissed angrily. "You people are obsessed with wiping every hint of the war-" Roulan flinched and Tengfei's gaze sharpened dangerously in warning- "from these people's minds until they're all nothing but pig-sheep. Zuko is Fire Nation!"

Three things happened in the span or time it took Roulan to blink. First, everyone in the clinic who was still conscious and aware enough to hear and understand Katara's words tensed, shocked by the waterbender's words. Second, Tengfei formed a brand new rock glove and launched it right at Katara's mouth, silencing her. And third, every bit of water in the clinic became solid ice.

Jet tugging his feet uselessly against the earth that entrenched them and raged, "Who fucking cares who his parents fucked! They're both dead now. He lives with his aunt and uncle who just so happen to by Earth! And you want to drag Li's name through the coals just because he's got gold eyes!?" The hate visible on Jet's face was intimidating even to someone as jaded as Roulan. "Funny that. I seem to recall back when we were dating -" what? "-a certain someone freezing me to a tree and lecturing me about how wrong it is to hurt someone just because I don't like something about them. Maybe you should take some of your own medicine, Katara. I hope you choke on it."

Roulan stared into the silence that hung thick and heavy in her clinic. One glance back at the front entrance showed an equally stunned silent Little Tang. GuoGuo and Master Xiu were leaning around the open back door to watch the fallout: GuoGuo with an awed expression and Master Xiu with a wry expression that bordered on amusement. He alwaysvwas an odd one.

The Master Healer caught Roulan's eye and sighed, vanishing briefly before walking through the door into the clinic. His blue and green uniform declared his mixed heritage as loudly as his words never would. His dark blue eyes rolled lazily over the tableau with an air of mild frustration. Roulan made a mental note to slip him a stiff drink later.

"If you're both quite finished," he drawled, reaching his arms up to the ceiling in a full body stretch that drew more than a few wine-worthy pops, "then I'm going to ask you to keep your voices down. If not, then feel free to settle your dispute outside where none of my patients will be further harmed and where the Dai Li can make sure nothing gets out of hand."

He looked directly at Katara for several seconds before meeting the Dai Li's distrustful gaze with a friendly smile. "Many of these patients are a bit dizzy and are having trouble understanding what's being said. But all the loud noise is still not good for their ears, hmm?"

Was he…? That clever bastard. Roulan held her breath and watched Agent Tengfei's face closely, releasing it in a relieved sigh when the man nodded.

"Of course," Tengfei said slowly. "I'm sure quiet would help everyone," he looked at both Katara and Jet significantly, "calm down."

Master Xiu smiled and dropped his deceptively simple gaze to the bundle of blankets curled up and shivering by the stove. "Since your earthbending friend is still recovering from her bout with that Spirit fog," he began easily, "I'll offer the back garden for your use. It's mostly empty at the moment if you need to discuss anything. Otherwise, I'd like you all to leave."

"I'm awake," Toph muttered from her blanket nest. "I heard everything."

The blankets got slightly taller as the girl buried within them stood and began weaving her way through the clinic to the garden in the back. How the little blind brat managed to pull off stuff like that still boggled Roulan's mind.

"I'll make sure they keep their voices down," Roulan said, crossing her arms. "Get GuoGuo back in here and I'll take over watching the water so they don't boil over."

Master Xiu clicked his tongue "A watched pot never boils, Roulan," he said, shaking his head as he turned to pull Journeyman GuoGuo in to replace Roulan on duty.

Roulan watched him go incredulously.

"Is he really always like that?" Tengfei asked.

She snorted. "Try living with him," she scoffed. "You two," she said, pointing to Katara and Jet who were somewhat behaving themselves for the moment. Although Jet looked like he was just barely keeping a lid on his temper. "To the back garden. Now."

She waited until Tengfei marched the two brats after the little blanketed earthbender before falling into step behind them. Once they were all on the grass where she could keep a sharp eye on them, Roulan waved permission for Tengfei to remove his earthbent bindings on the children.

"Now," she said, before either brat could raise their voices, "you want to fight? Fine. You'll do it with your fists, feet, and teeth. You want to fight with bending? You go out front and do it in the plaza. You want to shout insults? Do it here but, for Yu Huang's sake, keep your voices down. Understood?"

Honestly, it was a miracle she got them both to nod considering how viciously they were glaring at each other.

"You froze him," Jet hissed. "You fucking froze him."

"Of course I did!" Katara snapped back, furious. "He's Zuko! I got him before he could get me."

"Oh really?" Jet snarked.

"Yes, really."

"Then tell me, little miss perfect-in-every-way," Jet sneered, crossing his arms and glaring down at Katara arrogantly, "what was Li," he emphasized the name, "doing that was oh-so threatening to you?"

Katara sputtered. "It was… It doesn't matter," she said, regaining some of her energy. "I caught him off guard."

"Meaning you froze him before he even had the chance to react," Jet said, narrowing his eyes. "You know, like what you stopped me from doing when we broke up."

"That," Katara said, stabbing a finger at Jet's chest, "was completely different. You were going to kill all those innocent people-"

Kill?!

"Like you were going to freeze Li to death," Jet said.

"And suffocate."

Everyone looked at the bundle of blankets where Toph's head was beginning to emerge, her blind eyes fixed in the middle space between Jet and Katara.

"You froze his head too," Toph said. "He couldn't breathe."

Jet lunged for Katara's throat, only for a rock glove to snag the back of his shirt and haul him back. Katara received a similar treatment when she bent some of the water from the flask at her hip in retaliation causing the water to splash harmlessly on the ground.

"No bending," Roulan said, glaring at Katara. She looked up at Tengfei and nodded her thanks. The Dai Li rolled his eyes in exasperation and she couldn't help but agree, enthusiastically.

"You tried to murder him," Jet snarled, his face twisted in a mask of fury. "You tried to murder him."

"He's tried to do the same to me and Aang for almost a year now!" Katara shout in exasperation.

"Oh that is rich," Jet drawled. "I literally just talked to Aang-"

"You what?!" Katara cried in genuine shock.

"You know the Avatar?" Tengfei gasped, his focus snapping to Jet in surprise.

"The Avatar?" Roulan breathed.

"Oh yeah," Jet said grinning viciously. "You know what he said, Katara? He said Li saved his life."

Katara gawked in the ensuing silence. "That is a lie!"

"You calling Aang a liar, Katara?" Jet said, tilting his head tauntingly.

"No, but-"

"Well you just said what Aang said was a lie," Jet said, shrugged casually.

"He's telling the truth," Toph said, her head fully out of her blanket nest now.

"Thank you Toph," Jet said, waving at the little girl. "You wanna know something else, Katara? You wanna know what Li was doing out there? He was getting water for the place he works at."

Katara scoffed. "Oh like Zuko would ever stoop to working anywhere," she said, crossing her own arms.

"Are you for real right now?" Jet said. "His boss sent him and Jin to go get some water because they were running out. He works at a tea shop, Katara," he said, leaning forward and biting out his words. "A fucking tea shop. He's a waiter. Has been for a couple weeks now."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"And what was he doing before that?" Katara shot back.

"Working with his aunt and uncle as a potter," Jet answered promptly. "I saw him there. He can't work with clay to save his life but he can remember who ordered what, when, and where they were sitting without having to hear the order a second time or check the dining room to be sure of the customer's seat. He blushes at the just about everything, he stutters when he gets nervous, and he happens to be my boyfriend."

Katara covered her face with her hands, rubbing vigorously. "I cannot believe this."

"You attacked my boyfriend," Jet growled. "You tried to murder my boyfriend."

"He's Fire Nation," Katara said, her voice muffled by her hands.

"And you and Aang once told me that that wasn't a good enough reason to kill someone," Jet said.

"Jet," Katara said, her voice sounding sad and a little bit desperate. "It's not just that he's Fire Nation." She lifted her head and stared pleadingly at the boy in front of her. "He's Zuko."

Jet pursed his lips and shook his head. "I don't care," he said firmly. "He's been Li for as long as he can remember and he'll continue to be Li until he tells me otherwise."

"What do you mean 'for as long as he can remember'?" Katara demanded.

Jet flinched, standing taller and looking away. "He told me something in confidence," he said. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone."

"You-" The waterbender stopped and held up a hand to stop Jet from talking while she processed. "I can't believe this. I cannot believe this."

"If you're both done," Roulan said when the silence began to drag, "I have a few questions." No one objected. "Where are Li and Jin right now? If Li really was frozen, then he needs to be warmed up properly. The same goes for Jin."

"That won't be possible, I'm afraid," Tengfei said grimly.

No. Oh no. Roulan met the Dai Li's green gaze and felt her heart plummet.

"Why not?" Jet said, eyeing the green garbed agent warily. "Where's Li?"

Tengfei sighed. "He's been arrested with the girl Jin," he said.

"What?!" Roulan watched as all the blood drained from Jet's face and he started shaking. "No. No! But- He didn't do anything!" Jet cried.

"That may be true," Tengfei said, drawing the healer's attention. "But Katara denounced him as Fire Nation in the open. There were witnesses. Several of those witnesses also saw the ice she froze him in turn to fog. We had to arrest him. We took Jin in as well to be sure she wasn't an accomplice."

Jet wobbled on his feet, staggering backwards a step. "But…" His voice was thin and wavering as mist. "But you said the Woman in White was there!" he said, his brown eyes sparkling with fearful accusation. "I saw that dead guy. Li never takes his swords to work. He couldn't have done that."

"He didn't," Tengfei confirmed. "The Woman in White did."

Roulan shuddered. Spirits. She knew of them. She respected them. But she never ever wanted to deal with them. The fact that a Spirit, a murderous Spirit had manifested so close to her clinic, her home, had left her shaken to the core. Knowing Li had been tangled up in that, and poor Jin too… She shook her head.

"But Women in White don't kill like that," Jet argued. "I've never heard of-" He stiffened. "Li. Did she hurt Li?"

Tengfei shook his head. "We managed to stop her before she could do anything to him," he said.

Why would a Woman in White go after Li? Unless Li was... unfaithful….

"Agent Duyi and his partner Honghui were assigned to watch Katara and Toph," Tengfei explained.

Watch them? The Dai Li were watching Katara and Toph before all of this? Why?

"That damn Spirit murdered Duyi and slashed Honghui's face," the Dai Li said with a pained grimace. "It's bad enough she's targeted the people of this city. By taking the life of a Dai Li, she's made all of us her personal enemy."

"Wait," Toph said, speaking up finally, "what do the Dai Li have to do with Spirits? I thought that was more of the Avatar's thing."

"In case you haven't noticed," Tengfei said, dropping his gaze to the little earthbender, "the Avatar's been gone for the past century. The rest of the Spirits weren't. We did the only thing we could do. Our job."

"Okay. Then what's a Woman in White?" Toph asked.

Tengfei opened his mouth to explain, then shut it and cleared his throat. Well if he wasn't going to do it-

"She's the Spirit of a woman of whose partner cheated on her when she was still alive," Roulan said, propping her hands on her hips.

Agent Tengfei looked distinctly uncomfortable. He might not like discussing such things to a little girl, but Roulan was a healer. She sometimes had to tell children they were dying. Explaining someone couldn't keep their penis in their pants was nothing by comparison.

"So she was once Human?" Toph asked, tilting her head up in Roulan's general direction.

"She was, yes," Roulan said easily. "If you're faithful to your romantic partner, you don't have anything to fear from her. If not…"

Jet snorted. "She went after Li, twice now," he said, looking up at the Dai Li. "He never cheated. I don't think he's even capable of it. Besides, Li told you she wasn't really a Woman in White anymore."

"And the more I learn about her firsthand, the more I agree with that assessment," Tengfei said.

"Li's been helping you?" Roulan said. "Why is he involved with Spirits? Other than that fox Spirit of his."

"Fox Spirits?" Katara blurted. "Wha- You mean that coyote-fox-thing? I swear it was talking."

Toph and Jet snorted but it was Toph who spoke with a grin. "That's 'cause she was," Toph said. "She's not a coyote-fox. She's a kitsune, a fox Spirit." Her grin faded. "She's a Knowledge Seeker of Wan Shi Tong."

Finally, a Spirit name Roulan was familiar with. She watched as surprise was steadily replaced by dawning fear in Katara's face. Why? The Knowledge Spirit wasn't a particularly violent Spirit.

"Wan Shi Tong?" Katara breathed. "But firebenders destroyed part of his library-"

"They what?" Tengfei gasped.

"-why would he ally himself with Zuko of all people?" Katara continued. "Why would a Spirit want to have anything to do with Zuko at all?"

"Stop calling him that," Jet said.

"It's his name," Katara shot back, earning her a glare from Jet which she ignored. "You don't have to like it, but that's the truth."

"He's not Zuko," Jet insisted. "He's Li. If you call him Zuko, he won't answer."

Katara shrugged. "That doesn't change the fact tha-"

"Look," Tengfei said, raising his voice so he was heard, "it doesn't matter right now what his name is. But I highly suggest you call him Li where someone, anyone else can hear you. 'Zuko' is a recognizably Fire Nation name." His gaze caught Jet's. "As is Zenko, for that matter."

"I don't care," Jet hissed. "Where is Li?"

The Dai Li remained unmoved. "I can't tell you that," he said grimly. "I had Shanyuan be the one to arrest Li." He held up a hand and the rock glove still holding onto Jet's collar jerked the boy back before he could pounce at him. "He knows when to keep his mouth shut," he said sharply. "Besides, Li has my Apprentice nearly convinced he's a waterbender. Would you rather I let someone else take Li in? Someone who believed Katara's word without any viable proof otherwise? Li was barely conscious and the Knowledge Seeker was nowhere to be seen. At least with Shanyuan there, he had a chance."

Jet stopped trying to scratch out Tengfei's eyes with hooked fingers but his glare remained vicious. "A chance, my ass. You want help dealing with that bitch Spirit? You'll need Li's help. And Zenko's. Where is she? She should be here," Jet demanded, turning his glare to Tengfei. "She's never far from Li."

"Li did something," Toph said suddenly. "Zenko told Katara to shut her eyes. She kept the Spirit lady distracted long enough for the Dai Li to get there."

"Zen- The fox spoke to you?" Roulan gasped in shock.

Toph nodded. "Well, not me specifically," she admitted. "But I could hear her voice in my head. She was talking to the Spirit lady. But she didn't call her a Woman in White. She called her Kuchisake-onna." She jerked her head to Tengfei and pointed directly at the Dai Li's chest. "You know what that means," she declared. "You know and it scares you. Why?"

Roulan looked at the Dai Li and was unnerved when she saw genuine, unmistakable terror in the man's face pulling the thin, ropy scar on his right cheek taught. She had never heard of any Spirit called a Kuchisake-onna. It sounded like a Fire Nation Spirit. But Tengfei certainly recognized the Spirit. Recognized and feared.

"Agent," Roulan said. "What is it?"

The Dai Li tried to form words but failed. Swallowing roughly, he said in a rough voice, "A hunter. Her victims die. With very few exceptions. And most of those exceptions prefer death after what she does to them." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "If she speaks to you, do not answer. Just run. Run and find a Dai Li to deal with her. She will kill you otherwise. Damn. We've been hunting a spider when we should have been hunting an enraged dillo-lion."