Work was as mindless as ever. Smellerbee kept an eye on Longshot throughout the day, searching for signs of something wrong, but he seemed back to himself. She took that as a good sign, and as the days passed, he showed no signs of wanting to dwell any more on the things he had revealed to her. She didn't push him.
They still spent a lot of their free time walking the streets of Ba Sing Se, looking for Jet. Consequently, they were learning the city's streets very well. In a strange way, it reminded Smellerbee of the months they spent treading and even making forest paths. She felt certain she could have found her way back to their treehouses if dropped anywhere in the forest. Now the streets of the lower ring were becoming similarly familiar. Smellerbee knew the faces in the crowd, the names of the local businesses, and even found herself noticing whenever window displays changed. It was a strange feeling, becoming ever more familiar and comfortable with the city itself while increasingly anxious about Jet. She never imagined he would be gone so long.
One afternoon they were coming the alleyways that connected the larger streets when Smellerbee said, "Maybe we should check by that old warehouse again." They'd discovered it a week previously, always shuttered tight with no visible windows, which naturally caught their attention.
Longshot shrugged in agreement and they wound their way towards the warehouse. When they emerged from the adjacent alley, Smellerbee froze for a moment. She felt Longshot freeze beside her and knew that Longshot saw him, too.
"Jet!" she called, bolting across the street to him, Longshot close behind. She couldn't believe he was standing there so matter-of-factly, and she didn't even care he was standing with the Avatar and his friends. Her heart was leaping in her chest and she even felt tears stinging her eyes. She nearly knocked Jet over as she flung her arms around him.
"We were so worried! How did you get away from the Dai Li?" She looked up at him, looking into his face for signs of trauma or pain. But he looked, if anything, startled.
"The Dai Li?" Katara said furiously, glaring at Jet.
"I don't know what she's talking about," Jet said, looking confused. Smellerbee's heart sank. Was he lying to the Avatar again? Had he fallen back so far into his old habits? Or, even worse, had he been trying to stay away from them all this time, as she'd feared?
"He got arrested by the Dai Li a couple weeks ago. We saw them drag him away," Smellerbee explained, desperate to find an explanation that didn't make Jet a traitor.
"Why would I be arrested?" Jet asked, sounding so genuinely baffled Smellerbee didn't know how to react. "I've been living peacefully in the city."
One of the Avatar's friends, a short girl in green with dark hair, knelt to the ground between Jet and Smellerbee. For a moment, Smellerbee thought the girl was about to earthbend, but instead she just put her hand to the ground, as if feeling for something.
"This doesn't make any sense," the girl said. "They're both telling the truth."
"That's impossible," Katara said, and for once, she and Smellerbee were on the same page.
"No, it's not," Sokka said. Everyone looked at him. The world had turned upside down, it seemed, that everyone else was so lost and this idiot knew what was happening. "Toph can't tell who's lying because they both think they're telling the truth." Then, pointing an accusatory finger into Jet's face, he said, "Jet's been brainwashed!"
A look of panic came across Jet's face now. "That's crazy!" he said, shaking his head. "It can't be." Everyone started to move closer to him and he almost shouted, "Stay away from me!"
"We shouldn't have this conversation in the street," Aang said, his voice hushed.
"But we have to figure out what's going on," Smellerbee insisted. She was not going to let Jet out of her sight.
"I'll show you my apartment," Jet said firmly. "That'll prove it!" Smellerbee stood back, expecting him to walk past her, in the direction of their shared home, but instead he turned his back and started walking in the opposite direction. Aang, Katara, Sokka, and this new girl, Toph, followed close behind. Smellerbee, stunned, hung back for a moment. She turned to look at Longshot, lost for words.
:–:–:–:
They followed Jet to a small apartment building that was sparse but clean, one that Longshot and Smellerbee had often passed but never given much thought to. Jet pulled a key from his pocket and let them all into a small, one-room apartment with a bed frame and not much else.
"See?" Jet said, looking around, arms spread wide. "This is where I've been since I got to the city."
"No, you've been living with us ten blocks south of here," Smellerbee said, closely studying Jet's face.
"I didn't even know you were here!" Jet insisted.
This was wrong, This wasn't like him. Something terrible had happened. Of that, Smellerbee was sure. She knew him well enough to know when he spun deceptions. There was always a smoothness, a casualness in his voice. A certainty his lie would be accepted. That was gone now. He sounded lost and confused, and desperate for them to believe him.
"Maybe you should sit," Aang said.
"I don't understand," Jet said, dropping onto his bed while the others stood around him.
"I told you, brainwashing," Sokka said.
"But why though?" Smellerbee asked. Katara wasn't paying attention, though. She was looking at Aang.
"The Dai Li must have sent Jet to mislead us, and that janitor was part of their plot, too," Katara said.
"I bet they have Appa here in the city! Maybe he's in the same place they took Jet," Aang said. Smellerbee remembered the massive sky bison the Avatar traveled with. He must be missing, and Smellerbee felt some sympathy for the boy. Missing his friend could not be easy. She knew that all too well. "Where did they take you?" Aang asked, looking at Jet, whose head was hanging down, his elbows on his knees, his hands hanging limply. He looked deflated.
"Nowhere," he said. He looked up at Aang, hopeless. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"We need to find a way to jog his real memories," Aang said.
"Maybe Katara could kiss him," Sokka said, eying Katara. "That should bring something back."
"Maybe you should kiss him, Sokka," Katara said irritably.
"Hey just an idea," Sokka said.
Smellerbee felt a flash of annoyance at both of them. She was thinking of Suzume and how she was the one Jet would want to kiss. If Suzume was here, Smellerbee thought, she might have a way to coax Jet's memories out of him. She'd always had such a positive effect on him.
Smellerbee heard the Avatar muttering in irritation but no one else seemed to notice.
"Ooh, wait, I got it," Sokka said, and he pulled a piece of straw from Jet's mattress and unceremoniously shoved it into Jet's mouth, so it looked like his signature twig.
"I don't think it's working," Jet said after an awkward moment of silence. He spat the straw out on the ground.
"Try to think of something from your past that triggers your emotions," Toph said.
"The Fire Nation!" Smellerbee exclaimed. "Remember what they did to your family." She didn't want Jet to be in pain, but she wanted him back. And she knew he'd want the truth, no matter how bad it might be.
"Close your eyes," Katara said. "Picture it."
Jet closed his eyes. Smellerbee could see the anguish on his face and held her breath. Jet's eyes snapped open and she gasped involuntarily. Jet sank down into his bed, the fight gone out of him.
"No," he said. "It's too painful."
Smellerbee exhaled. She couldn't blame him for being reluctant to remember.
"Maybe this will help," Katara said, and she withdrew water from a skin she carried. She bent the water into two spinning discs, one on each hand, which she held on either side of his head as the water spun quickly and began to glow.
Jet stared at the floor, at the dancing light and shadows caused by Katara's healing glow. He was clearly seeing something beyond that, though. Jet's eyes grew wide, and Smellerbee could tell he was seeing something beyond what the rest of them could see.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he opened his eyes again, he was back.
"They took me to a headquarters under the water, like a lake," he said, looking up at them as if for confirmation.
"Wait!" Sokka said. "Remember what Joo Dee said? She said she went on vacation to Lake Laogai."
Jet leapt to his feet. "That's it!" he said, his eyes alight once more. "Lake Laogai."
