Well, it's been a long time coming, but I've finally reached a point in this fic that I've been looking forward to for quite a while, in which Hong faces his own crossroads of destiny.
This chapter contains a smattering of swear words, and that's pretty much it for content.
Enjoy the show.
"Dirty deeds/done dirt cheap/"
From the song of the same title by AC/DC, 1981.
"There's gotta be a limit, kid. Y'know, a point where even assholes like us say, 'Enough is e-fucking-nough.'"
From Grand Theft Auto V.
"Mmmph-hmmmph-ummpph!" Zuko mumbled in rage through the stone glove wrapped around the lower half of his face, amber eyes blazing as he was grabbed under each shoulder and hauled down the hall by two of Hong's colleagues, Agents Wulong and Donghai.
"Save your breath, Zuzu," Azula sneered as the trio passed by. "And I can't tell you how satisfying it is to have found a way at long last to make you shut your stupid mouth up," she added with a malicious smirk.
"But make sure to remove that gag when you toss him in with the Waterbender girl," she addressed the departing pair of agents. "I suspect they're going to have no end of things to talk about," she said in knowing amusement.
Donghai and Wulong nodded under their hats, then went earth-skating down the hall with their captive. She wasted no time on gloating, but turned back to the rest of them, giving them a brief once-over.
"You, and you," she snapped, gesturing with a manicured, deadly pair of fingers at Agents Nikan and Nienhu, producing an involuntary little flinch from the scarred agent as she ordered, "follow and detain my uncle! There's no telling what sorts of problems that traitor might cause if he throws his lot in with the Avatar!"
They were off like a flash, their robes billowing like sails as they leapt out the hole the former general had blasted, and hit the ground skating.
"As for the rest of you," Azula said in slight annoyance as she turned her attention back to them, "it seems as if my uncle's dragon trick has done some unsightly damage to your faces."
No, really? Hong thought sarcastically through his stinging misery. While the contact with the jet of flame had been brief, blisters were already starting to form.
Then she gave a little smile. "Fortunately, I expected possible casualties, and planned ahead. No need to thank me."
Hong had no clue how or when Princess Azula had tracked Healer Siqiniq down in the hours before dawn, after her meeting with Long Feng, nor what threats, charms, or persuasions she'd used to ensure the middle-aged Water Tribe woman's compliance and cooperation in her schemes. Perhaps just tossing some gold pieces at her had been sufficient.
All he knew is that it was both an unexpected and welcome sight to see her somewhat familiar, stocky brown figure waiting for them in the sealed-off chamber Azula had directed Hong and his other lightly seared comrades to, located only a short jog from the Tea Palace.
Her blue eyes were wide and baffled in the light of the glowstones as the Dai Li filed in, filled with questions and apprehension. But she knew better than to say anything as, one by one, each agent took off their bamboo and leather hat and laid back on the wooden table, accepting a brief massage to the face and throat from the luminous sphere of water suspended between Siqiniq's palms. It did the trick within a minute of being applied.
After that, there was no time for dawdling.
But Hong still had a brief stretch to mull things over as he impatiently waited his turn under the water healer's hands, knowing that he had to get back to his dubious duties as fast as possible. Most of it concerned the next major step after this, how he and Guozhi would be meeting up shortly with Captain Tengfei, to assist in arranging a surprise for General Xicheng.
There was also a portion of him that was naturally rather irritated right now, partly because getting a fire blast across the face wasn't much fun, and partly because this was the second time now that he'd been proven lacking against an unassuming looking bender, whose moves he'd thought he could anticipate-but had then proven to have a trick up their sleeves every bit as nasty as one of his surveyor's chains. An embarrassing outcome for an elite, well-trained fighter like himself.
However, there were two ways a soldier could respond to being bested by an opponent: You could brood in resentment while you licked your wounds-or you could use your head and study, practice the methods your foe had used to vanquish you. So you could return the favor later on. And Hong wasn't too proud to learn from example.
That blind Toph girl, for instance. Down in the storage chamber, she'd been holding her hands, moving her wrists and forearms in a totally different style of earthbending than any he'd ever seen practiced before. Rather like the postures of a mantis, actually…
He was jolted out of his thoughts by a gentle cough from the healer, to get his attention.
A brief flash of embarrassment came and went before he also laid back on the wooden table, removing his hat and placing it over his knees as the Water Tribe woman went to work with that soothing sphere of her element.
After the procedure was complete, Hong briefly slid the stone tiles of his right-hand glove up his arm before feeling of his face, testing the results. No more pain, stinging, or blisters, thank Hou-Tu. He could only spare the time to slip his hat back on, then give a quick bow and a "Thank you, Healer Siqiniq," before speeding out of there to resume his role in this fast-paced, insane, history-changing scheme.
A little over an hour later, Hong was silently wishing he'd asked Siqiniq to do some deep-tissue water healing on his stitched-up calf, for all this activity was really making it itch and throb again. But he made no complaint and kept his posture locked straight as he, Guozhi, and several other agents stood in a loose group around Captain Tengfei, expectantly looking up at a square patch of sky crosshatched by steel bars as they did what earthbenders did best. Practicing neutral jing.
Parts of the palace compound could get dreadfully hot during the summer, leading to misery for any residents, staff, and passerby who had to spend any length of time in those areas. One way in which previous Earth Kings had responded was to build shady pavilions, whose entrances were designed to carefully take advantage of and funnel in the prevailing breezes.
But another had been to have a system of several great, stone-lined tunnels and vertical shafts bent out underneath the vast grounds. Each of these cooling shafts brought up great volumes of cool, moist, refreshing air from deep underground, helping to produce a more favorable microclimate for a dozen paces around its mouth, lowering the temperature during the summer while also serving as a welcome oasis of comparative warmth during Ba Sing Se's icy winters.
Naturally, one didn't want oblivious ostrich-horses, servant children, visiting dignitaries with failing eyesight, wandering dogs, and the like to be taking fatal falls into these air wells on a regular basis. So protective metal grids spanned the mouth of each one. This particular shaft they'd taken up position at the bottom of was close to the royal storehouses, Hong knew, enjoying the sensation of the somewhat clammy, upwelling breeze against his face as it made his robes gently twitch and flutter. General Xicheng also appreciated the respite from the heat these updrafts provided, whenever the sun grew forceful. It was an attraction which was about to cost him.
"Are you sure that he's going to come this way in time, sir?" Muduri, one of the apprentice agents, murmured to Tengfei. "He could choose to veer off in a different direction whenever it suits him, not come along this route until much later, or even do it at all today."
Tengfei gave a small, amused smirk. "You have little need to worry," he assured Muduri. "As Dai Li, we know his habits and schedule even better than he does. He'll show up soon enough."
Agent Shing nodded nearby. "If you're the sort who hunts fairly often, or just spends a lot of time observing animals, you quickly discover that all living creatures are predictable in their behavior-including human beings."
They all went silent once more. Perhaps another forty-five minutes went by. During that time, several members of the palace staff came close to the mouth of the cooling shaft for relief from the heat, with a young, noticeably pregnant maidservant actually standing atop the grid for a couple minutes with her three-year-old son, held in her arms. If either she or the fussing boy she was soothing noticed the agents standing beneath them in the shadows, there was no indication, and the maid soon moved on.
Then, faint at first, but steadily growing louder, came a cadence of footfalls, a certain style of breathing, that Hong was as familiar with as the halls of his own home. Not for the first time, it struck him as both amusing and astounding how many people out there were unaware that, even if they were silent and out of your field of view, they still gave their identities away to any sufficiently practiced ears as blatantly as if they'd yelled their name to the sky every couple of minutes. Just by moving around and being alive. Including seasoned members of the military.
Brief glances under hats were exchanged to conform readiness, before Hong angled his torso back slightly and cocked an arm upward in tandem with the others. His stitched calf protested at the shifting of his body weight, but he ignored the twinges of pain as he reached for the little spheres of stone encased in the joints of the weighty steel surveyor's chain anchored around his right bicep.
While they were wonderfully effective for capture and restraint, able to be whipped seemingly out of nowhere like a chameleon's tongue, learning how to fling a surveyor's chain accurately, to push the stone joints away from your fist in that smooth, correct sequence, to send it though gaps which might be only the size of a hand mirror in diameter, in dim, poor lighting conditions, could hardly be called easy. But Hong had developed the finesse for it.
So had his companions, and once an oblivious General Xicheng had calmly strolled onto the center of the grid, seeming to be little more than a pair of dark boot soles and swinging hands from this perspective, Hong sent the stone lined cuff flying upward in perfect tandem to seize Xicheng's right wrist, pulling down with both his bending and physical strength as soon as he heard the telltale click of it snapping into place. It must've been as if some metal version of one of the devil squid-swordfish that roamed the depths of the open seas had sent clinking tentacles surging up through the grate to seize and pin the general against it.
"What in Koh's Cav-?" Xicheng cried, his long eyes wide with panic and confusion as he tried to buck himself free from his spread-eagled position, making the edges and upper walls of the shaft quiver and crack slightly with desperate, random swipes of his chi at the stone. But with the cuffs of the chains so tightly constricting the meridians in his wrists and ankles, that was all the general could really do.
Then he glanced down at where the chains had come from, at them. "Captain Tengfei?!" Xicheng cried in a mixture of shock and rage. "Why are-What in Shu's name are you and your agents doing, damn it?!"
"We are placing you under arrest until further notice," Tengfei coolly replied, even as he gestured to the rest of the group to start climbing the walls of the shaft with him, two agents on each side, as had been planned.
And Hong did so along Guozhi, both partners drawing back their chain into their capacious sleeve joint by joint, never letting the tension slack.
"Arrest?!" Xicheng roared, his voice amplified by the stone walls. "Are you kidding me? You know damn well that I've been a loyal, blameless member of the Counc- "he began.
Then Hong saw the realization creep over Xicheng's face as they climbed ever closer, the jade eyes narrowing with hate and disgust before he tried to struggle free with renewed vigor. "You backstabbing rat-jackals!" he cried. "You shifty bastards just couldn't resist making that final power grab at last, could you!?"
"There's no need to be concerned," was Tengfei's only response. "You will be treated humanely as a captive, and not be harmed." Well, not by his fellow Earth Kingdom countrymen, at least.
They bent a gap though the stone on one side of the grid, passing the restrained Xicheng inside before sealing it up again.
Before Shing muffled the general with a stone glove, he spat at them in more ways than one, telling Hong, Tengfei, and the rest that Wu Sheng would blast them, that they'd shamed Avatar Kyoshi. But most woundingly and infuriatingly of all, he cursed all their ancestors to the tenth generation. For that remark, Xicheng was extremely lucky that they'd all somehow shown just enough composure to not bludgeon him bloody with their fists before they frog-marched him away to one of the metal cells in the palace jail, his eyes raking them with silent, betrayed hatred all the way.
Other groups of Hong's fellow Dai Li arrived and joined them in the metal halls with the other four top generals. The operation had obviously been carried out perfectly. Just as planned, How had been seized from behind the cover of two pillars, Sung snatched off his feet and dragged into a hall, with the other two finding themselves yanked from the floor on which they stood by the ankles and left helplessly suspended in the air, as if they were an ant or cricket who'd had the ill fortune to brush against one of the taut vertical, silken strands of a deadly goldback widow spider's web.
All five of the generals were impaling them with glares which were lending an awful lot of credibility to the idea of looks being able to potentially kill right then, making the metal floors ring like gongs from their stomps and struggles.
But for even these immensely strong, battle-hardened men, resistance got them nowhere as they were each bodily hurled into a separate cell, the crushing metal clamps removed from their wrists and ankles, the door slammed shut and bolted before the desperate general slammed his shoulder against it in a last-ditch effort at escape.
Hong couldn't help but feel a degree of pity for the five new captives, and it really was unfortunate that things had had to come to this. While he'd freely assisted in keeping the top generals in the dark about a lot of classified matters, hindering their own agendas for dealing with the war, and took great satisfaction in the awareness that his skills at earthbending surpassed even theirs, he'd never been the type to openly disrespect them either, or go rub his elite status in their faces like so many of his fellow Dai Li enjoyed doing.
When you got down to the bedrock, the Council of Five weren't his friends-but they weren't his enemies either. And he didn't want to think about what the Fire Princess probably had planned for them. Kuei too.
But there also wasn't any other choice, Hong reminded himself. It had come down to either The Monkey King and his top generals being tossed into prison-and very likely either left to rot there or facing execution-or he and the other Dai Li suffering the same fate. His own life and liberty came first, thank you. Sorry, not sorry.
As soon as the tiles of five stone gloves were withdrawn from their mouths, the generals wasted no time hurling verbal abuse at them as Hong made to leave with the others, swearing and threatening. He'd heard it all before.
But then General How aimed a parting shot right at him, as he noticed Hong's passing figure. "Well, fancy seeing you here, Agent Hong," How said sardonically. "I wonder what that beautiful Tenjikuan woman you were with last time I saw you would think if she could see you right now, you pile of refuse!" he snarled. "A backstabbing son of a dog like you isn't fit to be the lover of such a dece- "
At that, Hong gave an ugly snarl of his own, and whirled, leveling his right arm and starting to shoot the tiles of the stone glove right for the spaces between the bars, bury them in How's bearded face before he could dodge. But in the next instant, his partner's own rock glove had clamped over his hand, holding the deadly darts in place.
Guozhi gave him a firm stare and a little shake of his head under his brim. Don't give him the satisfaction. We have way more important things to be doing right now.
He managed to douse the flare of fury, and yanked his hand free from his partner's grip before falling into line with the rest, their stone boots lightly clanging against the metal floor. Yes, they most certainly did. Their chief objective being, now that they'd added five eminent prisoners to the jail's population, to take a short stroll down its corridors to meet Commander Quan and subtract from it by one. For a while, at least.
After that, it would be off to the throne room. There, Hong knew, things were going to get very touchy-not to mention humiliating-for their leader, as delicate of an affair as walking any tightrope. He might very well end up falling to his untimely death too, so to speak.
But he'd accepted that possibility. And all they could do at this point was just keep going.
He briefly wondered then what Rajata was doing at this moment, in her state of ignorant bliss behind the spice stall counter.
They were having another lull in the day's business, and to pass the time, Rajata and her mother were placidly singing together while Ashwin listened in appreciation, voices rising and falling as they sang alternate verses of a lullaby Madhuri had often sung to Viyan as a little boy. It was about how Shiva had assigned each living creature and caste of people their own type of food, and in a playful mood, his wife, the goddess Parvati, had tried to pull a fast one on him by hiding the grasshopper under her choli. But with his divine ability of supreme perception, Shiva was not fooled.
"Wheat he gave to rich folk, millet to the poor," Madhuri sang.
"Broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door," Rajata replied.
"Cattalo to the tiger, carrion for the goanna-kite."
"And offal and bones to wicked wolves outside the walls at night." A rather dark line, it occurred to Rajata. And the symbolism plucked at her simmering unease about the day for a second or two. Not least because sometimes the wolves found their way inside…
But come on, they were just lyrics in a soothing children's song.
In the street, sparrows bathed in the dust and hopped about in search of any seeds or crumbs, while a stray cat-dog slunk around the front of the stall across from where she stood on its own rounds. Flies circled in the hot air, and people went strolling by, often holding their hands together in front of their chests, concealed by the meeting cuffs of their sleeves in a traditional gesture of politeness, or just letting their arms casually swing limp.
Ba Sing Se was every bit as peaceful, unchanging, and ordinary at this moment as it must've been a thousand years ago, and it would no doubt continue to be that way for a thousand more years after this day came to a close. An unbroken, reliable chain of tranquility and stable governance.
"None he found too lofty, none he found too low," Madhuri sang on.
"Parvati beside him watched them come and go," Rajata smiled.
Formally at attention once more as he followed the released Grand Secretariat into the throne room, fourth from the left in the third of the rows of agents trailing Long Feng, Guozhi and Liu Cun standing abreast of him on each side, Hong was just in time to see Azula holding a self-generated blue flame extremely close to the cowering Earth King's neck on the dais, while one of their fellow agents sent both his stone gloves whizzing through the air to encompass the body of the fleeing flying lemur, sending the perplexed creature thudding to the floor in a rock straightjacket.
It landed right beside where the cheery Ty Lee crouched between an inexplicably incapacitated Miss Beifong and that Sokka kid. He softly grunted in surprise. How she'd managed to lay that extraordinarily formidable blind earthbender low and helpless, with no blood, burns, or boulders that he could detect, was beyond his ability to puzzle out.
At any rate, it looked like everything was satisfyingly under control here, and Azula proved it by contemptuously hurling the Earth King from his throne in a supreme act of humiliation as she ordered, "Get them all out of my sight and locked in a cell. I'm sure my father will be highly pleased to have them brought into his presence as trophies of conquest," she smirked.
"Can I keep the bear though?" Ty Lee piped up.
Azula lightly sighed. "Yes Ty Lee, I'll let you have the bear."
"Who said that anyone's taking Bosco?" Kuei said shakily from his sprawled position on the floor.
He was ignored by all present as Ty Lee gave a radiant grin of pleasure.
Hong couldn't help but inwardly smirk and gloat himself as he stolidly watched the little procession of captives be bodily dragged and led away out the side entrance on the right. Including the blind Beifong girl, held under the shoulders by Mai and Ty Lee, legs trailing.
Not so cocky and great now, are you, snotnose? Agent Fan had been avenged.
Finally realizing that bad things were going down involving his master, Bosco laid back his minute ears, and began to huff, to visibly drool, in concern and mounting belligerence. As the Earth King worked to regain his footing, Bosco loped in front of him, the bear facing Agent Qiang as he champed his foaming jaws twice, with loud, popping clacks.
In response, Qiang began to throw his hands out and reach for the stone, intending to send all the bear's huge paws sinking into the floor, then squeeze the rock surrounding them into huge stone clogs, rendering the animal powerless. But the gesture wasn't necessary.
"No Bosco!" Kuei shouted desperately as he stood, holding out a hand. The act gave the bear pause, and he looked around at his master, confused. "It's okay, Bosco," Kuei said in a softer, reassuring tone, as he took the animal's short leash and led him the short distance to Agent Qiang, giving him a brief, enraged, betrayed glance before allowing the Dai Li to grab his left arm in a stone-mailed hand. "We'll see each other again soon, and everything will be fine."
But Bosco knew better, and lowered his immense head in the same defeated manner as his human friend, uttering a low, upset moan as he was escorted out alongside the now former king.
What a pathetic creature, and in more ways than one. If they'd seen their master being overpowered and hauled away, Hong thought with a mental scoff, a certain Yisai terrier and giant otter-shrew would charge in and try to protect him to the end.
"What a touching display," Azula said in derision, as she briefly watched her prisoners disappear from view, her expression smug and triumphant. Another major objective in her-in their-scheme to seize control of the Impenetrable City had been ticked off the roster.
Then her bronze gaze snapped upward, and hardened into twin knives as she noticed Long Feng coming her way, as grim and purposeful as an onrushing thunderstorm, with both his hands and captains at his back.
Like the rest of his comrades, Hong stood rigid and maintained his detached expression underneath his liangmao as their leader smoothly said, "Now comes the part where I double cross you. Dai Li, arrest the Fire Nation Princess!" he ordered gravely.
They could've done it easily, with their skills, in this room made of stone. Indeed, Long Feng and the Dai Li captains alone would very probably have been able to do the job. But no one took their hands out from behind their back with that mantis swiftness. The stone of the floor didn't so much as tremble or crack. Silence was the only response.
Long Feng looked back over his shoulder at them, glaring in both irritation and puzzled shock. Deciding that he somehow hadn't gotten through to his underlings, he tried again, pointing at Azula as he urged, "I said arrest her!" But even as he raked them all with the same harsh, penetrating stare that had been known to make even veteran commanders in the Earth Army cringe in fear, Hong remained as motionless and indifferent as a statue along with the others. Neutral jing was fully in play.
"What is wrong with you?!" Long Feng snapped a moment later, a tone of true anger finally starting to enter his voice.
Then he whipped around to face Azula again as she knowingly said, her voice silky, "It's because they haven't made up their minds. They're waiting to see how this is going to end."
"What are you talking about?' Long Feng growled, a tone of both suspicion and concern in his voice as he briefly glanced away from her to his captains, the members of the Dai Li who he trusted the most out of all of them. Until now.
Azula was no fool. She had to know full well that the odds of her actually getting out of this throne room if a fracas broke out right now were very much stacked against her, no matter how many members of the Dai Li she struck down.
Yet she stood to her full height in her Earth Kingdom garb, and her expression was smoothly knowledgeable, gloating, as she told him, "I can see your whole history in your eyes. You were born with nothing, so you've had to struggle, and connive, and claw your way to power." Hong saw Long Feng's body tense for a moment from combined shock and fury at her words-but in the next instant, he seemed to think better of either denying them or talking back.
Holy Hou-Tu, she is chillingly perceptive, Hong thought in momentary amazement. And while he personally hadn't needed to do all that much in the way of conniving or clawing to attain his position as a member of the Dai Li, that first half of her deduction could just as easily have applied to his own start in life, as a lowly farmer's son. "But true power, the divine right to rule, is something you're born with. The fact is, they don't know which one of us is going to be sitting on that throne," she said as she pointed back to the Earth King's now vacant seat, "and which one is going to be bowing down."
"But I know, and you know," she told a now noticeably worried, not so confident any longer Long Feng, before stepping a couple paces backward and taking her seat on the Badgermole Throne as comfortably as if she'd practiced the act her entire life. Perhaps she had. "Well?" she insisted, a tigress ready to accept any challenge to her new domain.
Hong saw the skin of Long Feng's neck turn a shade paler, and sweat begin to glisten and drip over it, felt a gentle trembling and the hard thudding of the Grand Secretariat's heart through the onyx floor. And it wasn't entirely a staged performance. He truly was awed and respectfully fearful of the Fire Princess.
But he couldn't do anything in retaliation. Wouldn't. He slumped in acquiescence, and then walked up to the dais to bow before her, under her coldly beautiful, victorious gaze. And she was still only a girl in her mid-teens.
"Don't flatter yourself," she replied, nonchalantly scornful. "You were never even a player."
Hong couldn't help but blink, and give a barely audible, but no less awed gasp along with his fellow agents in response to that. Of all the humiliating comments he'd ever heard uttered, Princess Azula's had just officially taken the cake. It was an epic one.
Along with the rest of the Dai Li, Hong lowered his head then in a truncated, standing bow, seemingly paying homage to their newly crowned ruler and leader. But his lips then twisted into a slight smirk underneath the brim of his hat.
They'd done it. As terribly hard as he knew it had to have been for Long Feng to pretty much give up everything he'd ever worked for just now, the ruse had worked. In this moment, the Dai Li as a whole had, beyond any doubts left in her mind, convinced her of their loyalty to her cause, their recognition of her superiority, allowed her to seize the throne and the day as the winner she was meant to be.
And it needed to happen this way. If the Fire Princess had been arrested by now, and then treated the same as any other spy-imprisoned, brainwashed, put to death-no matter how hard the Dai Li tried to keep it under wraps, Fire Lord Ozai would eventually hear about what'd happened to his "golden child." Or he'd figure it out on his own.
And at that point…well, everyone in Ba Sing Se that wasn't willing or able to run for the Taihuas in that situation might as well just kill themselves when the vengeful, pissed-off Fire Lord rocked up with all the force of his armies. They'd avoid a great deal of suffering that way.
"I suppose my fate is in your hands now, Princess," Long Feng said quietly as he stood back up, displaying no hint of aggression.
Azula's lips quirked thoughtfully, and everyone slightly tensed as she said, "It most certainly is. Since I can't afford to keep someone as duplicitous in their nature as yourself around me, or risk the chance of you influencing or manipulating any other pretenders who come along from your prison cell in either this city or the Fire Nation, I think I'll cast you into exile."
"But- "
"Be glad I'm not executing you on the spot. I guess you'll just have to start your life back from the bottom up again," she smiled glibly from her seat. "Take care who you fall in with next time. But for now, bring him back to the dungeons," she ordered as she stood back up, gesturing to the captains behind him. "We have one final target to trap in our net, so be swift."
The surveyor chains flashed out, and seized Long Feng by the wrists and ankles. This time, he did earthbend somewhat in protest, as he irately cursed and rebuked his captains, his agents as turncoats and traitors, forming divots in the floor, cracks through it, pushed up little hillocks and knobs of stone. And his impotent rage might even have been truthful.
In tandem with the others, Hong made a stately turn to watch, without comment, as the Grand Secretariat was bundled up and frog-marched away like the generals had been, stone shackles brutally tight around his wrists and ankles as he spat saliva and swear words, queue flailing.
Hong longed so much at that moment then to rush in and help his boss out, damn the consequences. He could tell that many of the other agents with him were likewise tempted.
While it was true that least he'd remain alive, thank merciful Guanyin, the knowledge that Long Feng would now face being permanently cast out from the familiarity and relative security of Ba Sing Se, all that he'd ever loved and known, to fend for himself as best he could, naturally distressed Hong. But it wasn't his place to make a fuss.
And it wasn't his role.
The mending slice in his calf was downright burning with pain now from all the exertion of the day, but Hong paid it no heed as he watched, with his fellow brothers in the Dai Li, the extraordinary, quite literally elemental struggle taking place beneath and before him in what'd once been the main apartment plaza of the Crystal Catacombs. It was wonderous and dynamic and violent all at once, especially in both the way the Water Tribe girl used her bending, and the Fire siblings wielded their deadly element. He'd never seen anything like it.
And there was plenty of time to take it all in, for Azula had ordered them on the way down there to stay hidden, not get involved or intercede in her process of tempting Zuko back to her side, her duel against both the Avatar and his Waterbending teacher, unless she either gave them the signal or things well and truly started to get ugly for her. It was even possible that she might end up not really needing them to step in at all.
Perhaps the most awesome part of the three-way battle, in his view, was when Zuko formed immense whips out of fire to lash at the Avatar, and then the Water Tribe chick bent whips of water around her own arms to counter him, both elements crashing together in gouts of hissing steam. And when the Fire Princess used her blue flame to rocket over the stone, then the Avatar responded by bending the glow crystals into a protective suit of luminous stone as he charged her in his turn-now that was just plain cool.
And as the agents all watched with rapt attention from their concealed perches in the blots of shadow on the walls, atop the rat-inhabited ancient square houses, Hong wasn't merely observing either. He was studying.
He took in, committed to memory, the way the Fire siblings blasted out their jets and whips and balls of flame in short, savage punches and kicks. The evasive leaps and dodges and circling the Avatar used whenever he bent his native element. The fluid, graceful manner in which the dark-skinned girl moved her limbs as she commanded the water in the canals.
He resolved to practice them all, later on.
But soon enough, inevitably, it was time for their elite squad to stop waiting in the wings. This fight had gone on long enough, and the Avatar was getting worn out anyway.
When he charged the Fire siblings on a rolling mound of bent rock, the stone rumbling and clacking under his feet, the princess briefly wreathed the tips of her fingers in azure fire, and then let it vanish as she glanced around the cavern for a second or two. It seemed like she'd had a momentary spell of indecision.
But all the Dai Li knew differently. This was their cue.
Commander Quan himself leapt from the roof first to land squarely in front of the onrushing Avatar, and punched both his stone-mailed fists upward, propelling the yelling, flailing airbender high into the air. As he fell, the Avatar had just enough time to bend the stone right beneath him into gravel, before hitting and sliding into it with an awful smack on impact.
At that, Hong tensed his legs and jumped in perfect coordination with his fellow Dai Li to the floor of the chamber, bracing himself for the impact while also, just as he'd been taught, bending his stone boots completely into the rock on contact before rising back up and out, so as not to twist an ankle. His calf screamed at the harsh jar, but he bulled through it.
It was the Water Tribe girl Hong went for, while all the time keeping part of his attention on what their real prize, that meddling goody-goody brat who answered to Aang, was doing. Desperate and tiring herself, she got to her feet, and pulled water from the channel, forming it into a writhing mass of liquid tentacles around her. They spread out and circled her.
One by one, again and again, Hong and the others tried to snatch her wrists, her ankles, with stone gloves and surveyor chains. But incredibly, against all odds, she formed the upper portions of each water tentacle into ice, and used them to block or slap away everything they threw at her.
Holy schist, she was good!
Still, she was near the end of her strength. It wouldn't be long now.
She couldn't afford to think, only fight. Whip and block and parry against the weapons of these hateful Dai Li.
For an instant though, underneath one of those conical hats as she spun and lashed around, an overwhelmed Katara thought she recognized one of the agents from the first real battle they'd had with the secret police, under the lake.
He was looking at her with a businesslike, but also oddly attentive expression, quite different than the set, grim ones his comrades bore. He seemed to be downright fascinated by what she could do, even jealous.
And impossible as she knew it was-could she have seen even a slight bit of pity in those hard jade eyes?
"Yes, she thought, I know a thing or two about love. And with that, she opened her steel-trap jaws and struck!"
The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt, 2008.
Hong's attention, everyone's attention, was suddenly yanked away by a sudden, uncanny glow in his peripheral vision. It came from a tent of the great, luminous crystals, he saw, as he instinctively turned to face the source. And he knew, an awful knot forming in his gut, that this was no trick of the eye, no damn way that the glow-stones themselves were causing it.
Although Hong and his "brothers" in the secret police were afraid of very few things in this world which drew breath, human or beast, ever since he'd entered their city, the question of Aang's ability to go into the Avatar State at will had been a constant, hushed, fear-laced topic of discussion in the barracks rooms and offices.
It was eventually agreed upon-or hoped, maybe-that while the airbender could spontaneously enter that dreaded state when he was in the grip of intense anger, anguish, or other strong emotions, he was probably still too young to do it by choice yet. Besides, the chances of anyone still being alive who knew how to train him in such matters were so astronomically small that they didn't even warrant consideration.
But now it looked like they were all being proven wrong. Dead wrong.
Oh Goddess, Hong thought helplessly as his muscles began to tremble, it's coming, he's somehow figured out how to induce it, this is bad fucking news.
He began backpedaling with the others as, in the very next instant, with a glassy crash, the top of the shelter of glowstone went exploding up and out in all directions, the resulting shards somehow managing by a miracle not to hit anyone.
And at the same time, all Hong could do was wince away and bend his feet down into the floor up to his shins to keep from being sent sprawling as the shockwave from the burst collided with them, the blast of displaced air making his robes snap like sheets drying in a strong wind, yanking even his queue with such force that it made his scalp hurt. It was like being hit by a charging elephant mandrill, a speeding Earth tram.
"SHIT!" he reflexively cried, not entirely sure if he'd said it out loud or merely shrieked it in his mind, too terrified to utter a sound. He certainly heard similar oaths from some of his fellow agents though.
He also heard the Fire Prince clearly say, "Oh, fuck," as a brilliant, painfully bright shaft of light seemed to slam into the chamber's roof. Levitating within it, eyes and tattoos glowing like white-hot metal on the forge, was the figure of a being beyond comprehension, beyond reality, beyond the natural order, with all the power of the universe channeling through him.
While it might not have been very dignified or becoming, Hong began to bend himself down into the floor even further, his gut and butt puckering as he found himself torn between the instinctive desire to hide concealed within his element, and still seem at least somewhat resolute in front of the princess. It didn't matter either way though, now that the Avatar was gearing up to strike.
Now, he thought sickly, I truly am a dead man. And he wondered if Rajata would ever learn the truth someday about how he'd died down here-
Suddenly, the world seemed to explode, a blinding, blue-white streak in the shape of a gnarled branch shooting from somewhere else in the cavern to blast the glowing figure of the Avatar in the back. His body contorted, heaved backward, in shock and agony as a deafening whip-crack of thunder boomed through the catacombs, making Hong's ears ring.
For a fraction of a second, he thought that he'd just been killed himself. In the next, he realized what'd just happened. The Dai Li and the Fire Prince had cowered in the face of the Avatar's power.
But Azula hadn't. She'd shot him right in the back with a bolt of her lethal lighting, he marveled.
Hong had no idea what his fellow Dai Li were thinking at this extraordinary, shocking moment. But as the implications, the full horror of what he'd just been complicit in, began to register, it was like the subterranean chamber suddenly contained an entirely different type of reality, in which time slowed to a surreal crawl.
He'd wanted to see the Avatar get a taste of his own medicine, wanted him forced out of their city by any means necessary, to be free of his meddling and interference for good, helping Azula to pin him down before she triumphantly took the airbender far away, to the Fire Nation.
But he'd never wanted or expected the boy to be callously murdered, for Hou-Tu's sake!
Oh spirits, what had they just done, his mind screamed as he watched Aang, his slender body limp, smoke rising from his burnt clothing-still just a child when all was said and done-start to fall with a strange slowness.
Even worse, he'd heard speculation, accounts of personal testimonies from previous Avatars, among the theologians at Ba Sing Se University which seemed to point towards the conclusion that if an Avatar was ever slain while in the Avatar State-then that would be that for the Avatar cycle. For good. If so, he'd just helped to sever the link, to kill the mediator between the human and spirit worlds, forever.
A rushing, liquid churning sound at his right diverted his attention. He had no time to react, much less brace himself, before the looming wave, crowned by a wildly irate and desperate Katara, smashed into them, sending him sprawling and tumbling as the water burned in his lungs. Seconds later, he found himself coughing and spluttering on his hands and knees, soaked robes heavy as he struggled erect.
Once he'd blinked the water out of his eyes well enough to see clearly again, the first thing he saw was a broken, desolate Katara, Aang's lifeless figure held in her arms as she kneeled, her face tearful and numb. Yes, it was her who'd just knocked him down, half-drowned him in her furious haste to grab an already dead Aang before he smashed against the stone.
And yet, Hong found to his surprise in that moment that he didn't hate, couldn't blame her for it in the least. Not even for a second.
Then, in the next beat of his heart, something shifted within Hong Yan. Thoughts, memories, impulses, whirled and formed new patterns within him during those next few throbs of his pulse, like dead leaves twirling in a spiral of wind.
He thought of Mother Kyoshi, of the face paint she'd worn during life, and was portrayed with. The white symbolized duplicity, an ominous, shifty nature, distrust of others who weren't part of your circle, and having no hesitation to subject them to awful things. Well, the Dai Li had sure been doing a bang-up job of late when it came to engaging in that sort of behavior.
But Kyoshi also wore red, a color which symbolized honor, loyalty, heroism, doing the right thing no matter what.
As he looked at Katara, he also thought of Gyunghui lying dead before him on her sickbed all those years ago. And how her dark skin, her expressive eyes, reminded him of another woman he knew.
He pulled the brim of his hat down as much as he prudently could, hoping it would be enough to effectively conceal his identity within the crowd of recovering, onrushing fellow Dai Li. It would only take a minute or two.
Part of him had no idea why he was even bothering to do such a reckless thing, one which could easily see him get killed by the Fire Princess as well, before he had a chance to even flinch. The Avatar was clearly beyond any help now.
Was it to give Katara at least, a chance to escape? To prove a point to her and to himself? To give the dead Aang the respect and dignity of being buried in private, by the people who loved him the most, instead of being paraded around the Fire Nation like some grotesque hunting trophy? Hong didn't know.
But like any good earthbender, he tensely waited for the right moment first.
The siblings charged Katara, Zuko getting ready to punch out fire, and lightning starting to crackle around the tips of Azula's two fingers as she aimed, Hong and the rest of the Dai Li running to catch up-
It was the perfect moment for Hong to lightly stomp.
His qi streaked through the stone with barely a ripple, before he pushed a loaf-sized half oval of sandstone up right in front of Azula's feet. She tripped, and cried out in surprise as her shot of lightning went wild, hitting the ceiling as she nearly fell before regaining her balance. It gave Zuko pause too, distracted him.
The lump of rock could easily have been mistaken for a stalagmite, or one of the many chunks of stone which'd already fallen from the roof during the battle. But Azula was no fool.
Whipping her head around, she gave them all a suspicious, angry glare, even as she and Zuko fired on a helpless Katara again, a jet of blue and a jet of orange flame bursting from their hands-
Only to be deflected by a sudden shield of fire zooming across the chamber from the right. His hat still lowered, Hong tilted his head up and craned his neck to see where this new source of fire had just come from.
He had no idea how he'd managed to break free of his crystal shackles, but there stood General Iroh, on a thin ledge of stone in a more typical firebending stance. And even though he'd lashed his face with fire breath earlier in the day, Hong was almost glad to see him in that moment.
With that deceptive agility, the Dragon of The West leapt to the ground and charged right in. Instantly, he was between them and Katara, the expression of this man whom Hong had once known as Mushi the friendly tea server fiercely resolute as he got into a fighting stance and shouted over his shoulder at her, "You've got to get out of here! I'll hold them off as long as I can!"
She obeyed, hesitating only briefly before somehow finding the strength to haul the dead Avatar to his feet and carry him away.
Just before the former general began viciously punching out fireballs, even though Hong knew there was no way the older man could hear him, or probably even see his lips move, for that matter, he still met his bronze gaze as best he could while hurriedly mouthing, Don't aim those shots at me. I'm with you.
He still had to keep up appearances though, look like he was an obedient attack dog. Stone gloves smashed the outnumbered general, bludgeoned him as he grunted and gasped in pain. But he stayed firm, didn't go down as he shot back with scorching fire blasts and arcs of his own.
None of them landed on Hong though, and when he sent a stone fist whizzing at Iroh's solar plexus, he flicked his fingers apart to make it explode just before it made contact. An effective ruse.
Beyond him, Hong saw Katara reach the waterfall which fell from above into the stream. With that fluid grace, clutching Aang's body under one arm, she bent water from the stream into a rising coil, riding on top of it towards the roof of the cavern.
But Azula noticed too. Jets of that unearthly blue fire spouted from her feet, and she shot forward across the stone again. Iroh tried to block her, but it was already more than he could do to keep his nephew and the Dai Li at bay.
And Azula got past him, rushing through the shallow stream with all the feral eagerness of a dog hoping to drag down a squirrel before it could climb out of reach, preparing to shoot Katara down.
Here goes nothing, Hong thought, before punching out in Azula's direction. Somewhere beneath the surface of the water, a pit formed just in front of the Fire girl's feet. She cried out, stumbled, fell to her knees in a spray of water as Zuko shouted, "Azula!" By the time the princess had gotten back to her feet, the lower half of her body soaking wet, Katara and the fallen Avatar were long gone.
An instant after Hong had bent out the concealed pit, knowing that there was a high chance this second time around that he'd be noticed, Iroh suddenly broke away a few paces to the left before engaging him personally for a few seconds, both men parrying each other's strikes with their bending.
Hong was shocked. There was no way this was a coincidence. And he was also touched. He understood what Iroh was doing, and inwardly smiled in thankfulness.
In the next moment, Iroh, his purpose achieved, suddenly lowered his hands in surrender. On the instant, Captains Hyun and Li Jun darted forward to punch out, up, and encase him tightly in an open-topped cone of glow crystal.
He made no protest, no attempt to struggle, giving his nephew a disgusted, betrayed glare for a long moment before averting his eyes. Then he opened them again, and just for the briefest flicker, met Hong's gaze again, with an expression that almost seemed-impressed? Pleased, even?
Meanwhile, Azula remained standing where she was as the waters of the stream flowed around her calves, looking up at where Katara and the proof of her supreme victory had disappeared, her face that of a cheated creature.
Steam began to rise from around her legs as Quan approached her, saying, "Princess, would you like us to go and attempt to apprehend the Water Tribe girl before she leaves the palace grounds?"
"Yes," Azula said lowly. "I would like that very much, if you can. But only take the captains with you, since I want the rest to remain with me here."
"Any particular reason for that?" Quan asked.
"Why yes, as a matter of fact," she said as she stepped out of the stream and strolled back towards her allies, fixing them with a sting-hawk's glare. Then she looked at Hong, and his heart leapt up into his throat as she went on, "Because it seems to me that my tea-guzzling uncle over there isn't the only traitor in this cavern anymore."
Hong, needless to say, is in some very hot water right now...
The song Rajata and her mother sing together is an actual Hindi lullaby.
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