"Young Avatar let me assure you that the Earth King is very busy right now."
"I know that but we really need to talk to him."
"I'm sure His Majesty will call for you once he is ready." Joo Dee smiles before leading the group off the train. "This is the Lower Ring." She doesn't react to the stench that leaves everyone else choking.
"What're the walls for?" Katara asks, looking at the thick stone separating the Lower from the Middle Ring.
"Oh," Joo Dee laughs, "Ba Sing Se has many walls. There are the ones outside protecting us and the ones inside to maintain order. This is where our newest arrivals live, as well as our craftsmen and artisans, people who work with their hands. It's so quaint and lovely." The smell of rotting fruit and refuse is neither quaint nor lovely.
Toph blanches as they all climb into a carriage and set off. Katara gazes out the window, surprised by the plump, happy faces contrasting sharply with the smell. "Everyone here looks so happy."
"They are in the safest city in the world, there is no reason to be unhappy."
"Yeah but the smell," Sokka gags, laughing.
"The smell is simply from so many people being here. After a day or two I'm told they don't even notice."
Toph raises an eyebrow, fixing Joo Dee with a surprisingly accurate icy glare. "I'm sure you've never had the chance to experience it, to see how quickly the smell fades," The young brawler asks daintily, every inch the lady she was raised to be.
Joo Dee chuckles, almost uncomfortable. "I'm afraid my job keeps me too busy to enjoy the comradery of the Lower Ring."
"Yes, I'm sure they all consider each other friends when they're packed shoulder to heel."
Joo Dee gestures out the window. "As I'm sure you can see, there is plenty of space for everyone." The carriage draws a collective breath.
"I'd love to see," Toph deadpans.
Realization dawns on the guide's face. Her eyes go wide and she hurriedly bows, "Please forgive me Mistress Beifong. I meant no offense!"
Toph shrugs. The rest of the Lower Ring tour passes in relative silence. Joo Dee points out various attractions and markets, all filled with happy smiling people. A group dances in the market, twirling to the beat of a drum. They even pass by a clinic, happy doctors outside waving as they go by.
The carriage eventually stops at the train station, the circuit of the Lower Ring completed. A shout rips the air, "Avatar!" A lanky gaunt woman with eyes sunken into her face bolts out of a nearby building, falling to her knees in front of Aang.
"Avatar Aang," Joo Dee Intones, "we should leave."
Aang ignores her, crouching down in front of the now crying woman. "What's wrong?"
"They took my daughter! Please Avatar," she clutches Aang's robes. "Please, they took my daughter away. It's only been a week, she may not be a -" Several Dai Li agents appear seemingly out of nowhere, one of them quickly breaks the woman's hold on Aang's clothes while the other two step between them.
"What are you doing?" Aang demands. Sokka unlatches his boomerang.
"They'll turn her into a monster! They're going to make her a J-" The shouts suddenly stop as the woman is drug into an alley.
"What's going on?" Aang points his staff at the Dai Li agents in front of him, the air swirling slightly around him. Katara's water skin is uncorked, Zuko balls his fists, Sokka unsheathes his boomerang, and Toph, with sweat running down her neck, falls into horse stance, ready to defend herself.
The Dai Li looks down at him, his voice calm and confident. "She was obviously a mad woman. There is no reason for you to be concerned with her delusions."
"Get out of my way, I want to see her!"
"I don't think that's necessary."
Sokka steps forward, "When the Avatar says get out of his way, you get out of his way." He shoves the Dai Li's shoulder roughly only to find himself slid five feet backwards. Katara whips out her water, shooting it forward only to be met with a rock wall. More Dai Lee walk up, forming a half circle in front of the group.
"I think it's time for you to go back to your house in the Upper Ring."
"No, not until we see her!" Aang's bending is also met with rock.
"There's nothing to see." The earth beneath them rumbles and they're pushed into a traincart, the door quickly slammed shut and the train shot forward on the tracks.
. . .
"What the hell was that about?" Sokka roars. They'd been 'escorted' back to the house as soon by more Dai Li as soon as the train had stopped in the Upper Ring. Now a Dai Li agent stands outside the front door 'so they don't get lost if they decide to look around the Upper Ring'. "And what was all that about them being packed together Toph?"
"Yeah and why did that woman look so different from everyone else? She looked like how the Lower Ring smelled."
"That's because we weren't seeing the real inhabitants of the Lower Ring you numbskulls," Toph hisses. "I couldn't tell at first what was going on but they had everyone crammed inside of buildings where we couldn't see them. They wanted us to think everything was fine."
"Why would they do that?"
"Maybe because they think you'll try to help? Because they think you'll mess with their precious power?"
"Well maybe someone should!" Aang snaps. "And what did she mean by they'd turn her daughter into a monster?"
Toph shrugs, "I have no idea."
. . .
"What're you doing?"
Zuko turns, spluttering, one hand on the windowsill. "What do you mean what am I doing? What're you doing? I thought you were going to sleep." They'd been given separate rooms and she'd gone to hers over an hour ago.
She huffs, "The people in the Lower Ring need help. When we flew over it I thought we couldn't help. I thought we needed to see the Earth King more than anything but maybe -" her words trail off.
"We need to find out more about the Dai Li."
"Yeah," Katara nibbles her lip, "That too. Come on, let's go."
"No, you stay here. If the Dai Li catch-"
"If the Dai Li catch you it'll be a bit worse than if the Dai Li catch me thank you very much."
He sighs, "You need something different to wear then." Zuko gestures at the all black outfit he picked out when he got his other new clothes. His swords are strapped to his back.
"Do you have any extra?"
"They won't fit you."
Katara ends up pulling an oversized black shirt on over her dark pants, it looks more like a short dress than a shirt but it does the job. She swirls charcoal from the burnt out fire onto her face and slings water bags over her shoulders as Zuko puts on a Blue Spirit mask. For a second her fingers hover over the mask, remembering the ship and how she left. He'd saved the Avatar for her, perhaps not for her but he'd still saved Aang. She trusted him back then and she trusts him now as they climb out of the window into the streets of the Upper Ring.
The secrets of the Dai Li are left for another night as neither of them knows where to even begin with that. Instead they slink down to the Lower Ring, riding atop trains and dodging guards along the way. The wind whips Katara's long braided hair and tugs at Zuko's hood as the train speeds underneath them. A giggle erupts from her. "I can't believe we're doing this!" She shouts.
Zuko nods but holds a finger to the mask's lips. The demon mask staring at her in the moonlight unnerves her but she ignores it as the train begins to slow.
"We're here." The stench isn't as bad at night but it still washes over them as they slide onto the ground and off into the shadows. "So what now?"
"What're you looking at me like that for?"
"Don't you have a plan?" Katara demands. "Haven't you done this before?"
"Help peasants deal with the struggles of their life under an oppressive regime in the dead of night with only one other person knowing I'm here? No, actually I haven't."
She glares, the charcoal making her look even more fiercesome. "Well you had the mask before so I figured you'd have some idea of what to do," she mutters.
"Well I don't," he snaps then sighs. "Sorry."
She shrugs. "Did you see clinic when we were down here earlier? Let's go there."
"If that even was a real clinic."
They set off, sticking to shadows and hiding in alleyways. They dart through moonlight, flitting to the next patch of safety. It's not like there's anyone who'd see them though. People are out and about but none are looking. It's all women and a few men with too much makeup and not enough perfume baring themselves for whoever is willing to pay or even just buy them a meal. Zuko look away while Katara clenches her fists, angry and the gaunt cheeks and sunken, soulless eyes. A few people from the Middle Ring are here - discernible by the lack of patches on their clothes and their backs that still stand straight like there's something worth living for. Most seem to be looking for a cheap lay but as the pair of benders round a corner a new scene unfolds. Three Middle Ring men stand laughing in front of several of the Lower Ring inhabitants, two of them with swords slightly drawn as if daring the poor to try something. One of the rich men says something and the trio laughs before the Lower Ring inhabitants dive for the ground, scrambling and fighting each other to pick something up. One man howles and backs off from the crowd, part of his ear missing. There's glint in one of the rich men's hands and he tosses something onto the ground. The peasants again scramble, clawing at each other.
Katara fumes. "They're throwing money and making them fight like animals," she hisses.
Zuko's jaw tightens under the mask
There are sewers underneath the entire city and as one of the men pulls out another coin water -so small and fast he doesn't see it - slices quickly across the back of his hand. He yelps, dropping the coin as a cloud of sewage mist rises up.
"What the- Who's out there?" The man draws a sword, not sure where to look. He's met by a hellish figure charging at him through the mist, swords drawn. Katara manages the other two, water whips curling around her and shooting out at them, tripping them as they run away. Their coin purses jingle at their waists and she hates them for it. How dare they come down here and do such a thing! How dare they try to turn these people into animals! How dare the Earth King allow such poverty in his walls! They don't even notice when she cuts their purse strings, they're too busy fleeing for their lives. The third one isn't far behind, sporting a fresh cut across his face.
Katara grabs the coin purses and walks back to where the mist is settling. During the fight the poor had run away, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.
"Well now what?" Zuko questions.
Katara weighs the bags in her hand. "This has got to be enough to get some supplies that clinic needs, I'm sure." They continue on, not running into anymore trouble.
It's dark inside. A few flickering candles dance beside crowded tatami mats but it's not enough to lift the oppressive night. It smells like death. There are some coughs but mostly just the groans of those left to waste away.
Katara crouches beside a sleeping middle aged woman, trying not to gag from the smell wafting up from the yellow ooze on the woman's arm. If there had ever been bandages, Katara had no idea. The water bender pulls liquid from a bag at her side, pressing it against the wound. The water begins to glow and the woman wakes with a start.
"What're you-"
Katara makes eye contact and shakes her head. Zuko hold a finger over the mask's lips and the woman nods. Katara continues healing, pushing water into skin and pulling out ooze. It takes time but soon enough the infection is gone.
"How did you do that?" The patient asks, awed.
Katara just shakes her head and they move on to the next person. It's a little boy who's sick with a fever. He shakes in his sleep but Katara's water coated hand soothes him.
By the time they move on to the next person the patients have started to take notice. There's less groaning, more watchful eyes wondering at the pair of miracle workers. When they move to the next person a chorus of cries, pitiful moans, and gasps of despair as everyone tries to draw their attention. Everyone wants to be healed.
It takes everything Katara has not to turn around, run out of the hellhole and cry. No one should live like this! No one should be left without bandages and medicine. They could at least get a healer in here. The Earth King probably doesn't know Zuko had said. She'll make sure he knows by the time she leaves Ba Sing Se and its cursed walls.
She manages to heal twelve people, most of them had infections that weren't too severe. Zuko stands watch silently through the whole thing, listening for any trouble outside. Katara would have kept healing people, kept trying to help if he hadn't pulled her away when she started to sway on her feet, the long days in the desert still affecting her. As they leave, they drop the coin purses by the door, hoping no one will take it before the people who run the clinic get there in the morning.
They don't encounter anyone on the trip back to the Upper Ring. They hardly say anything to each other as they slide between alleyways. Zuko is more awake, after all he wasn't healing anyone, but still he's drained. His nerves are frayed from listening for danger. Every pebble falling is a Dai Li agent ready to arrest them. Every flicker of a candle is a robber moving in the shadows. They crawl back into the apartment exhausted. If it wasn't for the charcoal rubbed onto her face Katara would have no problem falling asleep right there on the rug.
Zuko tugs off his mask and pulls her up from the floor. "Come on. You need to get cleaned up."
She wobbles as she stands but sasses back sleepily. "You're no bed of roses yourself."
"You're the one who decided to make mist out of the sewer water."
Katara shrugs, "It was convenient."
"And disgusting."
She chuckles, "That too." They walk to the bathroom - Ba Sing Se does one thing right at least and that's running water. "Zuko," she looks up at him. The smell doesn't bother her, the ridiculous hood he's still wearing doesn't bother her.
"Katara?" Her eyes are tired, dark bags underneath them but they still shine so brightly his breath catches in his throat. The hand he used to pull her to her feet is still on her waist and her suddenly her ash smeared lips are much more interesting than even her eyes.
"Um," she can't think straight and is instead wondering when her hands started gripping his biceps and when he'd gotten so close. She can't make a pass at him. It'd be weird. He'd think she was weird. What if he rejected her? He already has twice before. She won't do this to herself. She breaks away. "I need to go wash my face. I had a great time tonight."
The door closes behind her, leaving a very confused Zuko staring at the paper screen before headed back to his room. Dammit, he shouldn't have stared. He should have moved his hand. Anything. He peels his Blue Spirit clothes off and sighs. She doesn't like him like that, of course she doesn't. He was an idiot for doing, he wasn't sure what to call that. Well whatever it was he was an idiot for doing it!
It's been too long! I'm going to go back and reread the entire story so far so I can make sure to keep everyone's voices and personalities correct. I have no idea when I'll update since the convention I'm doing this weekend kicks off a slew of cons almost every other week until July. Add to that that I'm getting married in July. This is going to be...fun. Thank you everyone for sticking with me so far! There are still people following this story and honestly the emails I get from ff saying I got a new follower are just enough to guilt me into writing more.
Holy cow, I just looked and it's been about a year since the last chapter. I'm so sorry and this started back in 2014. Just wow. I remember sitting on my fiance's parents' couch writing the first few chapters. So much has changed since then.
2019 edit: well I did go back and editing that's for sure. After the first several chapters it started needing less and less editing which is good. Btw got divorced THANK GOD. Don't ever get married because you think you're supposed to or you've been with someone for x amount of years. And women, always always ALWAYS keep some money aside that your s.o. doesn't know about or at least can't touch, k?