Chapter 32: The Break-In
"This….is a stupid plan," Toph growled under her breath.
"What? Why? This is a genius plan!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Well, genius, do you even know where we are right now?" Katara questioned, following the group from behind.
At the moment, everything was pitch black, which made sense considering the group was currently travelling about 15 feet underground. Toph was heading the team, earthbending her way through the condensed layer of rock and mud, forming a make-shift tunnel; effortlessly moving the pounds of earth to the side was the easiest part of the plan - the hard part was knowing when to finally emerge to the surface.
Sokka's plan was simple - dig underground, move past the guards, and come up inside the palace. Unfortunately, the practical executions of plans were rarely as easy as they were on paper.
"We're passing underneath the two guards," Toph relayed back to the group as she kept bending a path forward.
"Wow. That bending sight of hers really comes in handy," Izuku noted, following immediately behind Aang.
The team moved a few more meters forward, eventually slowing to a complete stop.
Due to the darkness, Sokka accidentally walked into a still Toph, "Hey, what's the hold up?" he demanded.
"Shhhhh. Quiet down," the blind girl responded, "I'm trying to concentrate. There are guards in almost every hallway. It's not gonna be easy to find a nice, secluded place that we could come up from."
"What about a closet of some kind?" Katara suggested, "or maybe even a vacant room?"
"I don't see one yet," Toph answered, "I'll keep moving. See if I can find some."
Beginning their march forward once again, the team progressed even further into the tunnel of rock and sediment, keeping a steady pace behind the earthbender. It was hard to track how much time had passed, but eventually the end of their journey was marked by Toph halting in place a second time.
"Finally," she said with a sigh, "there seems to be an empty room right above us," she informed, shifting the layers of minerals and soil out of the way.
A refreshing beam of light was finally opened to the group as Toph created a hole above them through which the team could crawl out; the teens emerged out into the room one after another, as though in single file.
"Thank god!" Sokka exclaimed, I thought I would never see the light of day again, he joked.
The room that the group found themselves in was relatively small (at least as small as palace rooms go), and it had been filled with a variety of furniture and decorations. At the opposite end of the room, close to the eastern corner, sat an open window through which the warm light of the evening sun washed into the room and bathed the space in its presence. A few feet away from the window sat a wide desk, which had been positioned at an angle, possibly to get the optimal amount of light for whoever was using it. Arranged along the wall closest to the desk were three shelves that housed an impressive array of books and scrolls, the later of which was carefully wrapped with various ribbons. Stacks of papers were on the desk, followed by a brush pen which had been left dipped in a small bowl of ink.
Upon taking a good look at the space they were in, it quickly became clear to the group that this room was an office of some kind; probably belonging to someone quite important within the royal government.
"Some of the ink hasn't dried yet," Katara noted, glancing down at the black words that had been written on a piece of parchment, "it probably means that they just left."
"Well, we have to assume that they'll be coming back soon, then, Sokka voiced, "which means we have to move fast."
The other teens nodded in agreement.
"Ok. Toph, close up that hole," Sokka commanded, "we don't want anyone finding out that we snuck into the palace."
Without another word, Toph kneeled down next to the hole, and, with a minimal amount of effort, was able to fully close it back up. However, some of the floor tiles within the room had been broken due to the team's entrance.
Thinking fast, Izuku was able to cover it up by moving a rug directly over it.
"This won't trick them for long," Sokka noted, earning a knowing glance from Midoriya.
"I know," Izuku responded, "but it'll buy us some time."
With that, the group carefully made their way out of the room, hoping that they would soon be able to find the Earth King.
Back with Zuko….
Walking through a small alleyway, the young Fire Prince cautiously made his way into a darker and much more worrying part of the city; it was here where many illegal and hard-to-find items were often bought and sold on the black market. Even during the day, this particular spot was usually still open to customers, although some of the more illegal items were often not yet available.
Currently, he was on break from his job at the tea shop; he had informed his uncle that he would merely be taking a brisk walk around the city to 'clear his head'. This would have perhaps been a pathetic attempt at misdirection had he been living in the Fire Nation, but the meger prospect of walking around the city as a recreational activity was one that was quite common in Ba Sing Se. Iroh agreed to it and decided to let the boy take his break.
Now, in a run-down area of the city, rather than taking a 'brisk walk', Zuko was busy searching for something - something he wouldn't be able to find at a common store in Ba Sing Se.
Coming to a stop in front of a poorly constructed stand, Zuko glanced at a man who hunched angrily over the base of the platform. On the surface of the stand's frame was displayed a series of items and trinkets that had been wrapped carefully in strips of cotton-woven towels.
"What do you want, kid?" the man's gruff voice questioned before he absentmindedly spat down at the floor.
"I'm here to purchase something," Zuko responded, glancing at the objects on the platform that had been concealed by white wrappings, "specifically some of your more...less-than-legal products."
His voice became a hushed tone, and his eyes flickered up to meet the man's gaze; the man leaned forward - his body and size became more pronounced as he grew closer to Zuko.
"What do you mean?" he said innocently, with an awfully telling smirk, "Everything I sell here is completely legal, kid."
Zuko sighed, "I'm not here to play games with you," the prince groaned as he took out a sack full of coins and dropped it roughly on the platform, "I'm here to pay."
The man eyed the bag of money for a moment before then switching his gaze back on the boy, "Oh?...and what exactly might a young lad, like you, be looking for in a part of town like this?"
"Shirshu venom," Zuko calmly replied.
The man's brow twitched slightly, but he managed to keep a stoic expression.
"And...what would you want to do with such a product?" he pressed.
"That's none of your concern," the fire prince snapped, "are you willing to sell it to me, or not?"
Biting his lower lip, the man looked over Zuko's figure for a moment, as though studying him, and silently glared back down at the lonely sack of coins on the table.
Opening his mouth suddenly, the man spoke, "IF, let's say, I had this particular product you were looking for, how much would you be willing to pay for it?" the man asked, crossing his arms in front of him with a grin.
"Everything that's in the bag," Zuko responded, "IF, you have it, of course."
Giving the boy a thoughtful stare for a few seconds, the man turned around and appeared to ruffle around quietly in a crate that was positioned behind him; Zuko couldn't tell what exactly was in there, but he could see at least a dozen items that were illegal to sell within Ba Sing Se's walls.
Yep. This guy was definitely part of the black market.
After slamming the crate shut, the man turned back around to face the teenage boy, holding a small vial of clear fluid in his hand; to common, everyday folk, the liquid probably didn't look that different from certain types of body oils, but Zuko knew better than that.
The liquid in the container was the saliva of a creature known as a Shirshu - highly toxic and capable of paralyzing even the largest of men for a matter of minutes.
"Now then," the man began, placing the vile on the platform between himself and the teen across from him, "let's say that 'IF' you were looking for this particular product and I just HAPPENED to have it, then we can say that I MIGHT'VE just sold it to you."
"Well then," Zuko said, sliding his arm across the table, "IF that was the case...then it was a pleasure doing business with you," he grabbed the vile and placed it delicately in his pocket while the man did the same with the bag of coins.
Neither of them said any more words to each other as Zuko turned around and made his way back through the narrow alleyway, eventually disappearing beyond the corner of a building.
Meanwhile, in the Earth King's Palace…
Sneaking through the ornate halls, darting into empty rooms now and then to avoid being seen by the guards, the group of five carefully made their way further into the maze-like structure of the palace.
"Izuku, you've been here before, right?" Sokka whispered, "Where do we go from here?"
The green-haired boy looked around helplessly, "I-I don't know. I don't recognize this part of the palace."
"Crap. What do we do now?" Toph questioned.
Before anyone could answer, however, the group heard a pair of voices coming further down from the hallway; panicked, the teens took refuge behind a set of nearby columns that all stretched up to the ceiling.
"What is it? I'm busy," one of the voices stated.
Aang twitched at the sound of the man's voice - he recognized it; it was Long Feng.
"Sir, it seems that one of the avatar's friends came to the palace this morning looking for the Earth King," a guard informed him.
"And? What worry is that of mine? Many people seek conversation with the King. I suppose you pushed him away, correct?"
"Well, yes sir, but-"
"But what?" Long Feng interrupted, mildly irritated.
"But...he claimed that the Earth King himself was the one who invited him," the soldier answered.
Long Feng stopped in his tracks, staring mindlessly down at the floor for a few seconds before turning back around, "...what?"
"It's true, sir," the soldier responded, "What's more, he had a note, sir - it was written by the King."
Long Feng stared up at the guard, "and where is he now? This...friend of the avatar?"
"I'm not sure, sir," the man said, "I was told by the guards on duty at the time that he simply turned around and left."
"...did they see him leave?" Long Feng demanded.
"Sir?" the guard questioned, a confused expression on his face.
"Did. They. See. Him. Leave?" the secretariat repeated.
"I...I don't know, sir," the soldier admitted.
Long Feng's face twitched slightly before he began to continue walking down the hallway again.
"I want you to form a guard detail and head over to the Earth King's room," he instructed, "make sure no one gets in or out of that room - I don't want anyone talking to him."
"Yes, sir," the guard said as he lowered his head in acknowledgement.
As the two of the men came to a fork in the hallway, they broke off, with Long Feng taking a right and the soldier turning left.
Sokka was the first one to emerge from behind the column, "If that guard is going to be protecting the Earth King, that probably means that he knows where he is."
"Yeah, that makes sense," Izuku agreed, "If we follow him, he might lead us right to the Earth King."
"We have to be careful though," Katara said, "we don't want to get caught. Not when we're so close."
The other teens nodded their heads in understanding and slowly made their way down the hall, turned left, and set their sights on the guard, who was now conversing with a pair of soldiers further down the passageway - probably recruiting them to help watch over the Earth King.
After the soldiers agreed, they were led by the original guard down the hallway once more; trying their best to keep up, the group of teens emerged from beyond the corner and followed the trio of soldiers.
The next few minutes were a series of turns down an unending set of hallways and passages that seemed to span for miles; the detail of guards began to get larger as the group ran into more and more soldiers. Eventually, the long journey came to an end as the guards came to a stop in front of a large, decorated door at the end of a corridor.
The teens peered around the last corner, careful not to expose themselves to the guards and alert them.
"That must be where the Earth King is," Sokka whispered, gesturing to the massive door.
"Nice," Toph huffed sarcastically, "Now, how do we get inside?"
"I dunno. Maybe we can beat up the guards," Sokka suggested, earning a disappointed look from Katara.
"Great idea, genius. Beat up the guys protecting the freaking Earth King - the most powerful man in the city!" she spat, "You might as well just beg for the entire government of Ba Sing Se to track us down and execute us!"
"She has a point," Izuku stated, staring back at the army of guards, "if we attack the guards now, Long Feng will probably just use that as an excuse to consider us 'enemies of the state' and throw us in jail. No, we need to do this with as little violence as possible."
"How do we do that?" Aang asked.
"Simple," Midoriya said, turning to face the group, "we form a distraction."
It didn't take long for Izuku to explain the plan to his fellow teammates, and within the next few minutes, they were ready to enact it. Firstly, Toph walked out into the open hallway, just far enough for the guards to notice her; after a few moments of ruthless taunting and scathing insults being levied at them, most of the soldiers angrily left their posts as they attempted to pursue the intruder. Even though Toph's distraction had managed to lure away most of the soldiers, there were still a few of them who remained at their posts. By this time, Katara emerged from behind the corner and, just like Toph, she was able to draw the remaining guards away until no one was left in front of the Earth King's door. Once the guards had left, Izuku, Sokka, and Aang quietly made their way down the corridor towards the massive entrance. Since the door was much too heavy to open manually, Aang used a bit of his earthbending abilities to move the large objects until they opened to reveal a wide, spacious room.
Ignoring how big the chamber was, the three boys immediately set their sights on a figure who sat in a chair in the middle of the room. He appeared to be reading a small, hand-held book in his lap.
"Kuei," Izuku exclaimed, earning the attention of the Earth King from his chair.
"Ah, Izuku," the man stated happily, "where have you been? I've been waiting for you."
"Kuei, you have to listen to me when I say this," Izuku began, surprising the Earth King a bit by how distressed he sounded, "your assistant, Long Feng, he's been trying to keep you from talking to us."
"What?" the man responded, startled, "What do you mean?"
"Kuei, we had to SNEAK into the palace and avoid the guards just so we could meet with you," Midoriya continued.
"W-wha…..I….I don't understand," Kuei said, becoming more confused by the minute.
"Long Feng has been using his own influence as Grand Secretariat to manipulate the information that gets to you by ordering the guards not to let us in," Sokka explained.
Kuei rose from his chair, "What? Why would he do that?" he asked, his mouth trembling.
"Because he wants power," Izuku said.
"And since information is a form of power, he's been able to control you by controlling the type of information you receive," Sokka continued.
The Earth King's face was one of astonishment and disbelief; gently gripping at the sides of his head, the took a seat back into his chair, staring blankly at the wall in front of him.
"But….Long Feng has been a trusted advisor of mine for so long. How could he-"
Before the Earth King could finish his sentence, the sound of the doors moving startled everyone in the room, and they all froze as they watched the entrance open; it didn't even have to open up all the way for the teens to know who was beyond the threshold.
The thin mouth and narrow eyes of Long Feng emerged from beyond the entrance, followed immediately by at least a dozen Dai Li agents who were organized single file behind him.
Things were about to get difficult.
End of Chapter 32
Author's Note: Surprise Everyone! I initially planned on uploading this chapter on April 1st with absolutely nothing written in the chapter, but that would've been pretty mean to do to you all. So instead, I started actually working on the next chapter. Interesting little fact about this, it's been about 102 days (14 weeks and 4 days) since the last time I updated this story.
I hope you all enjoy the chapter. If you liked it (or didn't), please leave a comment. If you would like to express how much you hate me and my upload schedules, please leave a comment. :)
Thanks and bye!