Well, if Agent Hong and Rajata's romance wasn't placed on the back burner already, it sure is now, as things get very, very, very intense for him and the rest of the Dai Li. This chapter takes place during the episodes "The Guru," and "The Crossroads of Destiny."
This chapter contains:
A couple dirty jokes.
A reference to animal sacrifices being performed.
Bagheera: "But it's an emergency, Colonel! The man-cub must be found!"
Hathi: "Man-cub? What man-cub?!"
Shere Khan: "How interesting…"
The Jungle Book, 1967, Walt Disney Productions.
The next morning, Hong had a breakfast of sweet rice porridge, wontons stuffed with fish and prawn, and spicy, steaming wheat noodles in the Dai Li's underground cafeteria. The atmosphere among his fellow agents was a subdued one, without much conversation to be heard from the occupied tables.
Everyone was waiting for the other stone shoe to drop.
And for Hong, there was an additional matter pricking at his mind, a question which had been slowly turning in the back of his head, ever since he'd first laid eyes on the delegation of Kyoshi Warriors, gotten a good look at their strange eyes. A sense that things weren't at all what they seemed.
While Agent Zheng had written a detailed report about the quartet's dealings at the ceremony on their behalf, Hong decided he'd share his concerns with his captain anyway-and after leaving his wooden tray for a Joo Dee to collect, he went right to Li Jiu's office.
He knocked on the sealed stone door with a rock-mailed fist, producing a husky "Who's there?" from within.
"Agent Hong, Captain Lau, sir. May I enter?"
"Come right in."
As Hong bent the door up into the roof with an upward push of an outstretched hand, a weary looking Director Li Jun still managed a small, leisurely smile and leaned over his desk slightly as he put down a scroll he'd been reading, resting his bare hands on the polished wooden surface. Like Hong, he wasn't wearing his conical hat at the moment, which allowed a good view of his distinguishing scar, a pale, diagonal slash across his hairline.
"Good of you to stop by, Agent Hong. I assume you have something to discuss with me?"
"I do indeed sir. To be more specific," Hong replied, as he stood before his captain's desk, hands held behind his back, "ever since being present to greet our sisters in Mother Kyoshi yesterday, I observed some things about the girls which-well, while I wouldn't go so far as to say that they trouble me, are cause for suspicion in my book."
"It was their eyes, wasn't it? How they weren't the typical, expected blue in color."
Hong was impressed. "Correct sir," he replied with a nod. "They seemed to have strong Fire Nation accents as well. But how did you know?" Even as he asked the question though, Hong realized he already knew the answer.
"Agent Zheng not only mentioned that in his report, but personally informed me about it on submitting it," Li Jiu said. "I'll agree that it's pretty suspect."
Hong thoughtfully nodded.
"What do you make of it yourself, sir?" he asked his superior. "I mean, Kyoshi Island's people have always maintained a firmly isolationist position towards this war, as we both are aware-and the Fire Nation has respected their position in return, more or less."
"Which means it's pretty unlikely," he went on, "that these girls are the pure-or half-breed-children of any Fire Nation soldiers or colonists. Personally, I smell a rat here," he ventured.
"The evidence certainly points that way," Li Jiu concurred.
"Now I'm really thinking that Nienhu was right on the money," Hong reflectively muttered, lightly shaking his head, speaking more to himself than his captain. "I should've gone and had a chat with Shongshu indeed."
"What about Shongshu now?"
"Nothing of importance, sir," Hong assured Li Jiu. "He'd share my deep suspicion at this time that our visitors are infiltrators, that's all."
"And so do I," Li Jiu droned in agreement. "As you said, the chances are certainly good that they could be acting as spies, although we have no solid proof as of this moment. But for the sake of giving them the benefit of the doubt, the only other possibility for their features that I can think of is that these girls got their Fire Nation eye colors, their accents, as a result of at least one Firefolk parent who either chose Kyoshi Island some time ago as a place to take refuge from their own enemies in the Fire Nation, or settled there to do business as a foreign merchant-Goddess knows that such minor things as war and hostilities between nations can't totally stop the wheels of business and free trade," he knowingly smirked.
"Money and merchandise have never cared that much for patriotism," he agreed, mouth twitching in return.
And for better or worse, neither do we Dai Li.
"Quite true. Anyway, we'll find out the truth about our teenage visitors and their intentions in short order," Li Jiu confidently went on as he lightly stretched. "In fact, I've already dispatched a pair of our fellow Surveillance Division agents to keep watch on them."
Hong nodded in satisfaction. "I figured you would've. Well, having gotten that particular rock slab off my chest, I guess there's nothing more to talk over," he said, taking one last glance around the green-lit room as he started to pivot on his stone-shod right foot. "For that matter, it looks like there was really no need for me to stop by in the first place."
"Seems that way. But I still appreciate you sharing any concerns you might have, anything out of place that you've recently noticed," Li Jiu told him. "Wu Sheng knows we need to keep our ears to the stone and our eyes wide open more than ever now," he grunted.
Hong gravely nodded. "We're certainly living in those dreaded interesting times," he deadpanned. "No thanks to you-know-who."
"Heh, is that ever true, unfortunately. Speaking of the Avatar, how is your leg doing?"
"The sword cut sir?" Hong said, gesturing down towards his calf. "It's healing up well enough, to the point where it's more just annoying now than an actual hinderance. I'd say it's maybe three-fifths of the way back to being whole, and I'm still very much mobile."
"Good to hear. Still, don't go and push it any further than you have to. In fact, I'd recommend going back to your quarters and taking the weight off it for a while-or better yet, sending for one of our healers to treat it with a massage and some salve to help the healing process along."
"I shall do that, Captain Lau, sir. Thanks for your concern," Hong replied, as he gave a slight bow, then left.
Two hours later, after his calf muscle had been anointed with ointment and assiduously, soothingly rubbed for a time by the expert hands of Healer Wao before being bandaged again, Hong laid back and dozed for a time in his barracks room, glad to escape from the tension and uncertainty the Avatar had brought to his waking hours, if only for a while.
And it also blocked him from contemplating the onrushing arrival of the comet, when Ba Sing Se could do little more than face whatever fate might await it, as that heavenly body would turn the sky blood-red, supercharging the power of the Fire Nation's already formidable forces. While Hong had seen firebenders wield their element in battle only a handful of times in his life-usually from a great distance-it had still made an indelible impression on his mind. So had the resulting burn injuries on the earthbender soldiers.
They spawned an unnerving dream now, that the leader of the Kyoshi Warrior trio, the girl with the penetrating gold-bronze eyes and serpentine voice, could generate fire not just with her feet and hands, but her very gaze as well, maliciously grinning as she made a bush burst into flame as a demonstration with that focused stare. At that, Hong came halfway awake.
He sank into slumber again, and this time dreamed that Rajata was lost somewhere out in the vast, desolate expanse of the Si Wong desert, from which most Fire Nation assaults on the city came. In this dream, he was doing his best to locate any sign of her tracks among the sand and weathered rocks, to just plain find her. But for some reason, the backs of both his thighs had been slashed open by the hook swords of a now long-vanished Jet, hamstringing Hong, preventing him from being able to do much more than lurch and stagger along in torment under the roasting sun, his blood trickling down onto the tawny sand.
And that made the situation all the worse, because Hong just knew that wherever Rajata was, scared and confused, the Fire Nation girl with the gold-bronze eyes was out there searching for her as well.
But not to rescue her.
Azula felt like ten thousand gold pieces as she spared a few moments to watch the power behind her element, the orange orb of the sun, sink behind the compound wall from the palace's western entrance.
After having Mai and Ty Lee accidentally-on-purpose reveal just who and what the three of them truly were, in seemingly innocent conversation, there were other weiqi pieces for a satisfied Azula to collect before she could bring them into play. Many of which had just all but fallen into her lap.
To have the Avatar's waterbending teacher-and presumably, girlfriend-come bolting into the throne room that evening though, completely out of the blue (and a part of Azula laughed inside her head at the unintended pun) yelling that Zuzu and her spineless turncoat of an uncle were also in the city for the capturing, not realizing she was running headlong into a trap until it was far too late, was a bonus beyond anything even she could've anticipated, a stroke of luck that only divine favor could've granted.
Once Ty Lee had dropped the waterbender in her tracks with chi-blocking, it'd been a simple matter to go find a pair of ignorant Imperial Guards and tell them, while the girl was still mute, that she'd just come charging into the Earth King's throne room with a waterskin, probably intending to assassinate him. But the brave Kyoshi Warriors had stopped her, thankfully.
So now that this waterbender had been taken down, could they please bring her to the palace dungeons and place her in shackles on the trio's behalf, while they dealt with other, more important matters in the meantime? And leave the task of notifying either the Earth King or his generals about this incident strictly to them, put it out of their minds and mouths?
The guards obeyed her requests wonderfully. She'd figure out just what to do with the Water Tribe peasant later-as well as how to get news to the Avatar about her capture.
Meanwhile, there was already much to celebrate. She had the strategic plans for exactly how Ba Sing Se's military forces intended to position themselves, mobilize, and attack Caldera City on the day of the eclipse. A hostage which was guaranteed to draw the Avatar out once he became aware of her imprisonment-and right into her hands.
The knowledge that Dumb-Dumb Number 1, and tea-obsessed Dumb-Dumb Number 2 weren't all that far away, ready to be tricked, captured, and hauled back to the Fire Nation in their own sets of shackles and chains whenever it suited her. And she didn't intend to wait long.
She was almost giddy from all this unexpected good fortune being heaped upon her during the past several hours. But this was no time to get smug, at least not yet. After all, everything hinged on her being able to reel in one very big, very crafty fish tonight, the axle that the wheel of her main plan couldn't turn without.
That evening, she looked over the deceptive "invitation" to serve his moronic majesty tea tomorrow morning that Mai had just written on her behalf in their guest house, her friend's dull gray eyes aloof yet questioning as she regarded Azula from her chair.
(She was the only one of them that could write the forged message, really, Azula knew. For one thing, Ty Lee's handwriting was only a few notches above the level of something that a coati-baboon would churn out, and although she'd become fairly skilled at writing in other styles than her own, there was still too much of a risk that Uncle at least, might recognize his niece's penmanship.)
"Very good Mai," she pronounced approvingly, the corners of her mouth turning upward slightly. "The style, form, grammar-there's no reason to believe that it wasn't written by either a royal hand or scribe."
Mai gave the smallest twitch of her mouth. "Thanks," she droned, as she backed the chair away and got to her feet. "Who knew all those boring hours of being tutored in how to 'write like a proper lady' would actually be good for something?"
"Looks convincing to me too," Ty Lee perkily agreed as she came up on Mai's left and quickly looked the scroll over, held flat while the ink dried by two stone weights, before giving an enthusiastic thumbs up. But then she began to lightly fidget after a few moments, gray eyes meeting Azula's gaze.
She swallowed before warily saying, "Don't take this to mean that I don't have faith in you Azula, but this part of your plan that's supposed to happen tonight-what if-what if we don't have their support yet by that time tomorrow?" she asked, pointing at a string of several characters for numbers on the scroll. "I mean, just the three of us against-against both of them? And especially-him?"
Azula knew just what her old friend meant. While facing Zuzu as an opponent didn't worry her all that much-well, there was also no denying the fact that, kooky and apathetic though he might be, her uncle was still a former general and a master firebender who'd gotten the better of her in the past. So Ty Lee's apprehension about possibly needing to engage him directly was legitimate.
But she'd also nearly killed Uncle with a lightning bolt to the chest, without any backup required. And as for Ty Lee's concerns about the Dai Li, their jailed leader, not being willing to play a role in this secondary plan of hers by that time?
She gave both her companions a slight smile, scornful and confident.
"We'll have the manpower we need to deal with those fools by then," she coolly assured Ty Lee. "You can count on it. In the meantime, make yourself useful and find a court messenger to deliver this," she told her, removing the stones and allowing the scroll to roll itself up before handing it over.
Ty Lee gave a short, businesslike nod, even as her eyes twinkled.
"Sure thing, Azula," she cheerily beamed, before taking the scroll and heading out the door.
By the time the former acrobat returned about forty-five minutes later, it was time for bed.
"Get what sleep you can, girls," Azula told both of them, as she used her bending to snuff out the lamps. "We're going to have a rude awakening within the next few hours, after all, and then a very busy day of political intrigue after that."
"I just hope the Dai Li don't smash the door into splinters when they barge in tonight," Mai sighed, before yawning and laying back on her bed, resting her head in her folded arms and on the tube-shaped, silk-upholstered pillow. "That'll make it rather hard to have some privacy around here after that."
"They'll probably come in through the open windows," Azula said. "And besides, what's a broken door or two when compared to a conquered city?" she added with a knowing smile, as she laid on her side and got comfortable.
"Fair enough," Mai conceded.
"Remember girls," she told them from her reclining position before shutting her eyes, "as tempted as you might be to loyally leap to my defense, there is to be no resistance, no fighting back against the Dai Li when they come for me. You are to only act suitably shocked, and shout in response, even if they take both of you away for questioning as well. Understood?"
"You bet, Azula," Ty Lee replied cheerily.
"Sure-although the idea of having to pass up a perfect chance to use my blades sure is a bummer," Mai sighed wistfully.
"Good," Azula purred, as she surrendered to sleep.
Three hours later, when four Dai Li agents charged into their sleeping quarters, two through the window, the other pair hurling open the unlocked wooden door, Azula having just enough time to sit up in seeming panic before stone gloves clamped onto her forearms and dragged them behind her back, Mai and Ty Lee shrieking like girls half their age, the presumed leader of the foursome snapped out from under his conical, plumed hat, "Submit and come quietly, Fire spies!"
Even as she cried out, "What!? I am no spy! Who filled your heads with such lies?" Azula was more than eager to oblige his request.
Ready, set, go.
Half an hour or so after being dragged out of the guest house's bedroom, Azula allowed herself a subtle, wry smirk of victory and accomplishment as the pair of hulking Dai Li agents-quite a bit taller than the majority of men in the Fire Nation-escorted her away from the disgraced Long Feng's cell.
As much as she reflexively loathed the idea of engaging in any pastime closely associated with Uncle, Azula decided then that it might not be a bad idea to take up Pai Sho herself in the future, after this greatest of cities had fallen to her and come under Fire Nation control.
No doubt she would be just as cunning and masterful at that as she was at everything else.
At their core, members of the Dai Li were military men, and as with all soldiers, many of the jokes they exchanged weren't exactly fit for polite company. Still, not only was telling them uproarious fun, but a great way for patrol partners to kill time together in the barracks rooms-especially now, when humor was needed more than ever.
Which was just what Guozhi was doing after breakfast the next morning, seated in his wooden chair as he faced a grinning Hong, currently partially lying on his side on his bed to give his leg a further session of rest. His black hair fell loose over his neck and arm, as he laughed at one dirty joke by his partner after another, sometimes telling one of his own in return.
"Hey, Farm Boy?" Guozhi started.
"Yeah?"
"Answer this one: What type of bees produce milk, and can hypnotize men?"
"I don't know, what?" Hong smirked, as he gave a little shrug.
"Boo-bees," Guoshi grinned, drawing the term out as his partner bared his teeth in laughter.
"Boobees," Hong repeated through his guffaws. "That's a damned good one. And yeah, those sure focus your attention," he agreed, laughing again-Guozhi was briefly tempted to make a crack about how Rajata's must do an especially good job at that, but then decided that might get him in some trouble-smirking.
"Now here's one for you."
"Lay it on me."
"Okay. What does tofu have in common with a dild- "he began with a ribald grin.
He was cut off by a sudden knocking at the sealed stone door.
"Guozhi? Hong? Are you both in there?" came Xiaobo's voice.
"That we are," Hong shouted back as he sat up, exchanging a brief glance with Guozhi as he did so. "Need something?"
Without even bothering to ask if he could come in, there was a grinding of stone as the door to their quarters slid aside, and Xiaobo came striding in, in uniform, his breathing rapid.
"How polite," Hong drawled in irritation. "One of us could've been kicking back in the nude, you know."
The idea-and image-made Guozhi internally blanch. While both patrol partners were pretty much brothers in every way save blood, as casual and free with each other as they were with their concubines, there were still some boundaries of decency which you just didn't cross if you could help it, thank you.
"My apologies," Xiaobo said simply. "But Commander Quan has just ordered all of us, trainees included, to be in the Chamber of Enduring Emerald and Gold in fifteen minutes, in full uniform, for an emergency meeting."
Guozhi stiffened, and exchanged a glance with Hong once more, seeing the same carefully controlled apprehension in those long jade eyes that he knew must also be visible in his.
Even as they both stood up, Guozhi saw Hong give Xiaobo a slight, sidelong look as he said warily, "You're not yanking our surveyor's chains, are you? Because if this is another practical joke, I'm telling you right now that I'm in no fuc- "
"I wish it was," Xiaobo replied, with an uncharacteristic grimness that made Guozhi's stomach clench, even as he undid the strap buttons on his shamrock green linen lounge shirt. "But I've got other barracks rooms to check for any occupants. Just be there," he said, before slipping back out into the green glow of the arched hallway.
The Chamber of Enduring Emerald and Gold was every bit as opulent as its name suggested, a grand, arched vault festooned with its namesake precious gem and costly metal. The illumination of glowstones, of lanterns in their cloisters, sparkled off the emeralds which served as the eyes of hunched, half-sized badgermole statues, fashioned out of granite and marble and bronze, of double-sized stone tigers and lions with bared teeth and claws, that studded the walls of this manmade cave and thick supporting pillars of carefully polished bedrock like green stars.
Every one of these pillars was gilded at its top and bottom, the strip of gold several feet deep. On the walls in bas-relief, the huge, gold-plated figures of ferret-foxes with emerald eyes chased after and bit down on sneering, defiant, formidable-looking rats rendered in black onyx, and cat-owls mantled their wings protectively over priceless works of sculpture, pottery, paintings, archaic clothing and tapestries, used their wings to blow out fires that threatened to incinerate libraries, chased away looters and vandals from museums and ancient tombs with extended talons, teeth bared in a feral hiss.
The symbolism was obvious enough for even the most rock-headed visitor.
And of course, there were also the bas-relief forms of Dai Li agents in uniform, telling fascinated children about Ba Sing Se's long history or traditional legends with the help of moving stone figurines, using their surveyor's chains or stone gloves to snatch kidnappers and thieves off their feet, bravely engaging earthbending thugs in pitched battle, and performing other noble acts.
Most of the chamber's floor was covered in a veneer of green onyx, except for a twenty-foot broad avenue of jade tiles running down the center, each carefully cut to interlock and a rich green in color. A two-foot-wide strip of gold bordered each side.
The jade path ran exactly a thousand feet from the opulent wooden door to the raised marble dais at the far end of the hall, a hundred feet from end to end and dominated by the two-story, imperious painted figure of Mother Kyoshi in her immense alcove, its walls set with yet more emeralds and jade and tessellated patterns of gold, flanked by the several paces shorter figures of a maternal, gentle-faced Hou-Tu, and a glowering, bearded Wu Sheng. The Dai Li's holy trinity.
It was a place where official speeches were made, sacrifices were performed (but contrary to what quite a few people in this city sincerely believed, none of them involved any bound, shrieking prisoners-although eland-oxen, capybara-sheep, bull-boars, ducks, and chickens would be ritually slaughtered from time to time on the dais by one of the captains, and presented as a holy offering before their physical flesh was butchered and cooked up to fill the mouths of the agents).
Where new heads and commanders and captains of the secret police were sworn in, trainee agents became apprentice ones, apprentice agents became full-fledged members, the psychology degrees from Ba Sing Se University that were a compulsory part of every agent's training were presented, and aging agents were formally retired from duty.
It was also a place where fallen members of the Dai Li laid in state and were paid a final tribute, before being returned to the earth they understood, loved, and manipulated so well with military honors. Many of those had entered this hall far too soon.
And Guozhi really didn't want to think about the most recent time he'd been here with his fellow Dai Li, a mere few days ago, attending a similar ceremony for the recovered body of Agent Fan Kuang before his public, above-ground burial ceremony had been conducted later that afternoon in the open sunlight with family and friends. Poor Junjie. Masculine tears had definitely been shed among the crowd, of both grief and anger.
A pang of both remembrance and sympathy flashed through Guozhi at the raw memory. If Hong was ever killed off, he'd be totally wrecked as well. And then having to tell Rajata...
But a quick, sidelong glance from under the brim of his hat confirmed that Hong was very much alive and present, standing at his partner's left in his stone boots, queue hanging down between his wide shoulders as they both patiently stood at attention among dozens of their colleagues, hands held in the small of their backs.
A clicking of stone soles against polished marble, repeated six-fold, and Guozhi casually shifted his gaze to the right of the dais, watching in respectful silence with the others as the figure of Commander Quan Hsiao-now their acting leader in Long Feng's absence-trailed by the Dai Li captains, emerged from a side tunnel and ascended the short flight of steps on the nearest side, stately and stiff in his gait and posture.
On reaching the large painted, coin-like Earth Kingdom symbol which adorned the center of the platform, he stopped and turned to face his subordinates, waiting as his captains took up positions on either side. Then he whipped his stone-gloved hands out from behind his own back and slammed them together with a sharp, resounding clack at the level of his heart, in the Dai Li salute.
A split second later, Guozhi and Hong returned the gesture, in perfect harmony with the others.
"My brothers in the Dai Li," Commander Quan declared then, his husky voice ringing through the hall, "fellow guardians of the Impenetrable City's culture, traditions, harmony, and people, today we find ourselves at a strange and awful crossroads, a challenging, desperate moment like none we've ever faced since our founding."
Yeah, no schist, Guozhi thought, in a mixture of frustration, tension, and misery, as he glanced up at the painted face of the Kyoshi statue.
He was frankly surprised that the Monkey King's actual military hadn't been dispatched yet to arrest as many of them as they could, and then put them to the sword-or worse. Death by a thousand cuts came to mind.
"I'm not one to beat around the bush here," Quan continued, "and neither can we afford the time, so let's get to it. Yesterday morning, Agents Chaoxiang and Xu, of the Surveillance and Patrol Division under the command of Captain Li Jiu here- "and Li Jiu gave a brief nod of acknowledgement under his hat- "overheard definitive proof that the trio of alleged 'Kyoshi Warriors' currently residing in the Imperial Palace are actually Fire Nation spies in disguise, operating under the pretense of a diplomatic mission."
Guozhi blinked in mild surprise, concern, then gave Hong, who'd actually been present to greet them, another quick, sidelong glance. Hong responded with a tiny shrug and a silent, knowing Told you so look back before returning his attention to the dais. But he didn't exactly look delighted to have been proven correct in his suspicions.
"I assume they were placed under arrest?" Agent Dingxiang spoke up.
"They were," Quan confirmed.
Well, that's good, Guozhi thought. Irate, incompetent Earth King in the mix or no, there was still no telling what sort of harm the ashmaker girls could cause with such unrestricted access to Ba Sing Se's most important officials and secrets. And it would be the perfect way to get the Dai Li back into Kuei's good graces, come across as hero-
"And incredible as it may sound, their leader is none other than the Fire Princess herself, Azula."
Well, that was an eye-opener.
Once more, Guozhi couldn't help but exchange an amazed "What the schist?" look with Hong, then with Agent Simu on his right. The Fire Princess was actually here, in a city filled with hundreds of thousands of her enemies? A bold-and probably desperate-act if there ever was one.
"Has she admitted to any particular motives for entering the city?" Agent Bingwen asked.
"She has," Quan replied. "When questioned last night by Minister Long Feng, she stated that she had two main goals in mind: First, to succeed where her brother has failed and capture the Avatar-and second, if she can find a way, to conquer Ba Sing Se in the name of Lord Ozai."
The very idea made a sardonic smirk cross Guozhi's features. Three teenage girls thought they actually stood a chance of taking control of this city? True, the princess was said to be a prodigy of the first order, skilled beyond her years in so many areas-but if she thought even her finely honed talents would be enough to get the better of Ba Sing Se's military forces, she was going to receive an unpleasant reality check.
"And per Long Feng's orders, with us serving his will, we are going to help her in achieving both those objectives."
Astonishment swept across the assembled group of agents like a wave, and Guozhi felt his jaw slightly drop in shock as Agent Wulong blurted out, "Are you serious, sir? Are you saying that we are going to help the Fire Princess take over Ba Sing Se?!"
"I'm quite serious," Quan droned coolly, as he shifted his position to meet Wulong's gaze. "In fact, we have very little choice."
Next chapter, Hong meets Azula, gets a huge shock concerning Lee and Mushi, squares off against the Avatar, and faces his very own personal crossroads on that momentous day...