Book 2: Earth

Chapter 17: Lake Laogai

"Any news?"

Zuko traipsed up onto Appa's tail just as the bison heaved himself into the sky, carefully balancing until he reached the saddle and sat down among his friends. "Yes," Zuko said, but Aang didn't like the somber look on his face. "Big news. A rebellion formed to take back Ba Sing Se."

"What?" Katara exclaimed. "Isn't that good news? How come we haven't heard anything about that? We're pretty close to the city now!"

"They lost," Sokka stated. He didn't even look up from polishing his sword. "Didn't they."

Zuko brushed his hair out of his eyes. "They were crushed. Completely. No survivors, according to this report." He held up the documents he had stolen from an encampment and Aang could see half of the Fire Nation insignia on the wax seal.

Toph fidgeted with her meteorite bracelet, a habit she had developed for all the time they spent in the air. "Anyone we know die there?" She spoke with a tone so casual she could have been asking about the weather. It was easier that way.

"Yeah. Well, you guys knew him, anyway," Zuko said. "The Earth King. He was the one who led it, rallied up all those people. It mentions his bear, too."

"Who would've guessed?" Sokka remarked. He still didn't look up from his sword. "Never would've thought he'd have it in him."

"Took him two years," Toph said. The bracelet snaked around her fingers. "Wonder what he'd been doing all that time. I figured he just stayed in hiding."

"He could have come to us for help," Aang said, his arms crossed. He ignored Momo's attempts to play with him and the lemur flew to Katara's shoulder instead. "Sent word to us somehow. Maybe things could have been different." He couldn't muster the energy to feel strongly about Kuei's loss. It was a shame, no doubt, and he wished he could have done better, but they had already lost so much. The ache was a familiar one.

"We can't think like that," Katara said, but Aang knew her well enough by now to know that she was the one who thought that way the most - who yearned for what could have been. She sniffed the air and then grimaced. "I smell something burning."

Sokka finally looked up, glancing around for the sight of smoke, but the sky had been clear and blue the whole day. "Ash?"

"No," Zuko said, drawing two fingers to his scar. "I know that smell. That's not ash."


The fighting ended as abruptly as it had begun.

Jet spirited them away into tunnels beneath the palace while his Freedom Fighters stayed behind to cause a distraction. An earthbender who worked alongside Jet - a man who was very much an adult - led the way, carving a path for them and digging deeper and deeper below the palace. Burning curiosity propelled Aang forward as chaos ensued overhead and he felt more and more like things had been ripped out of his control. He still didn't know if the Creeping Crystal could be friend or foe, if Jet might be leading Aang, Azula, and Mai into a trap, who the palace raiders could even be or what they had intended to do.

He didn't know where Zuko and Toph could be, either. Aang had to take Jet's word that they were safe and they'd meet at a rendezvous point.

After their ensemble escaped below the palace, everyone else seemed to as well. The attackers scattered using the very same tunnels, intersecting only occasionally with Aang's group where they had easily fought them off. Dai Li combed the tunnels as well in pursuit of the attackers, which Jet and the Creeping Crystal earthbender avoided because they said this was to be a secret mission and the Grand Secretariat viewed them as an enemy. Aang felt like they were ferret-mice scurrying in their burrows, unsure of what they'd find behind every bend and descent.

"Longshot and Smellerbee will be fine," Jet said, as if assuring himself. "They'll get out of the palace too. And Zuko and Bandit are with Pipsqueak and the Duke. They're not far now."

"Assuming Toph even went along with them," Azula pointed out, her blue flames giving them an eerie light to show them the way. "I'm sure you remember what happened when we all first met." Her snide remark seemed to have no effect on Jet.

"They had no other choice but to get out of there with my gang," Jet said as they paused so the earthbender could map out their route. He smirked at Azula. "Aren't you glad we came to rescue you?"

Aang was glad to see Azula roll her eyes. "You don't know Toph as well as you seem to think you do," Aang said. "She'd make a new choice if there were no others, always."

"You kids keep it down," the earthbender shushed, pressing his back against the tunnel wall. He dropped his voice to a whisper, his bristly white mustache quivering. "Someone's coming. I think Dai Li again."

Aang thought back to the palace assailants and the way he noticed they had fought. Like Dai Li, shooting small stones to grapple and restrain. Quick and precise.

The floor fell out from under them. Aang saw a sudden brightness before he realized they fell through open air, the ground far below them - they had fallen into a cavern. Aqueducts flowed by far beneath them and he hurried to pull at the water with his limited bending knowledge and slow their fall with a gust of air, catching Jet and Mai in the stream. Azula caught herself on jets of flame and lowered gracefully to the floor while the earthbender guide softened his landing with a shockwave.

"Thanks," Mai said, holding out her waterlogged sleeves with a grimace.

Aang grasped the water and dried her, looking around at the cavern where they'd found themselves. The brightness he had seen was green crystal; they'd arrived at the catacombs. He felt a chill go up his spine. The memory of his own death flooded back to him.

"Sorry, folks," the earthbender guide said. Aang looked up at where they had fallen from and noticed the earthbender had managed to seal the hole as they fell before the Dai Li had seen them. "I just expected there to be another tunnel under us. We're further along than I thought."

"That's fine," Jet said. "Let's keep moving."

Azula smoothed out the folds in her dress. "Can't you tell us anything yet?"

"Not yet," Jet replied, running ahead with the guide. Aang shook his head to clear the fog, the memory of death and betrayals and lightning. The memory of the last time he had been able to access the Avatar State in his world.

They continued without incident from then on, following a labyrinth of passages that only Jet and the guide seemed to know. They passed no Dai Li nor the still unknown assailants, but they did find a few other members of the Creeping Crystal - fighters and earthbenders who operated with professional efficiency. Aang observed that they backtracked, wound around different and roundabout paths, and tread certain passages multiple times, perhaps in an effort to conceal their destination or shake off any pursuers. The earthbenders rarely carved their own tunnels; instead, they just opened up paths to existing ones.

The tunnels began to ascend again after what felt like hours later, high enough that tree roots soon began to pierce the earth above them and crisscross in a web over their heads. Soon after, the air started to feel damp, droplets of water dripping onto their heads. Aang's formal robes felt soiled by dirt and battle, but he didn't want to shed the outer robe yet and leave it behind for someone to track him.

The guide broke through a final wall into a series of interconnected chambers and recognition flashed into Aang's mind at once. He knew the high, cavernous hollows interlocked with layers of brick and rounded tunnels, branching off into multiple holding cells - a vestige of this place's history as a prison, lit by the ominous glow of lanterns lining the edges of the floors.

They were underneath Lake Laogai.

Aang took a fighting stance and faced the earthbender guide and he was glad to see Azula and Mai trusted him enough to follow his lead. "You took us to Lake Laogai," he said, eyes narrowed. "The secret headquarters of the Dai Li… this must be a trap!"

The guide put up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Whoa, there! I did no such thing - this is the headquarters of the Creeping Crystal!"

Jet crossed his arms, unfazed by Azula aiming her fists at him. "This is the thanks we get for bringing you to safety? We don't know where the Dai Li keep their headquarters but it isn't here."

"You expect us to trust you?" Azula asked, eyes narrowed.

"I told you, I've turned over a new leaf," he said. "Me and my Freedom Fighters came to Ba Sing Se to help in the war effort. You guys inspired us to make a real difference… but we found ourselves among these guys." He regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "And that's pretty rich, coming from you. If I remember correctly you had no problem going along with my plan to blow up that town. Wasn't that long ago, was it?"

Azula seemed ready to snarl a response but Zuko and Toph rounded a corner. The sight of them unharmed heartened Aang and he straightened his stance. Both still wore their formal clothing as well, though Toph's pale green hanfu had even more dirt on it than Aang's robes and she had lost her headdress just like Azula.

Zuko rushed over to Mai's side, grinning. "Hey, you're all okay!"

Toph had apparently sensed Jet and kept her distance. Jet, for his part, said nothing and averted his gaze from her. Aang didn't know yet what to make of this new Jet who had joined a different resistance group, but he supposed it depended on what sort of group they were.

"We don't normally operate so close to the palace grounds," the guide said. "Or even the city. But we caught wind of an attack and had to go help. Besides, we knew you were there."

Azula plucked the pin out of her headpiece that Zuko currently wore and pulled her hair up into a partial topknot, putting her headpiece back in its rightful place. He tried to protest but she stuck her tongue out at him and then turned to the guide. "So you've been spying on us, have you?"

"Our leaders have been very interested in the Avatar's actions and whereabouts," the guide continued. "We'll bring you to them."

"This is where I leave you guys," Jet said, heading off for one of the divergent tunnels. "For now. I've gotta find my gang."

Toph let out a sigh as he departed.

"Are you okay, Toph?" Zuko asked, brow furrowed in concern.

"You know what?" she said. "I'll catch up with you guys later." She ran off after Jet, leaving Aang, Zuko, Azula, and Mai looking at each other with noncommittal shrugs. Aang pushed that worry from his mind - he had too many other concerns right now, and he trusted Toph to make the right decisions.

They passed by several old holding cells, many of which seemed to be converted to temporary living quarters for small families that Aang assumed to be refugees. Barrels and crates of supplies filled other rooms, locked behind metal bars. The Creeping Crystal headquarters bustled with activity even outside the cells as people swarmed past their group in a general state of unrest. The guide explained that many of them were earthbenders who worked around the clock to ensure all the tunnels leading to Lake Laogai constantly changed. As far as the Dai Li and Council of Five were concerned, this underground prison had been collapsed and flooded a century ago.

Aang knew that the Dai Li also used the secret network of tunnels beneath the palace to make their way around the city, so if the Creeping Crystal also managed that without attracting much notice then the breadth and depth of the catacombs seemed much more expansive than he had previously thought.

The guide left them at a plain metal door and said the Creeping Crystal's leaders were just through it. Aang pulled open the door, its hinges screeching in protest, and found himself in the widest chamber yet beneath Lake Laogai. His eyes passed over the chains and shackles hanging from the ceiling, falling on the war table in the center of the chamber where a handful of men and women sat. Most noticeable of the occupants was a brown bear and a goat gorilla resting together, but after them Aang's gaze fell on an ancient man with a two-pronged feathered hat and fur-lined brown robes.

The old man turned to face him and spread his arms wide. "You must be the Avatar!" he said. "Welcome, welcome!"

Aang responded by running up to the former king and throwing his arms around him in a hug, burying his face in the man's robes. He was the same as ever and his heart swelled with fondness and relief. "Bumi, you mad genius. It's good to see you again."

The old king put his hands back in surprise for a moment but returned the embrace. "You know it's me? Oh, you ruined my fun - I'd hoped to play a trick!" He chuckled, his snorts giving Aang an ache and longing for his childhood when everything was different. "Aang, I've missed you. And I always thought you were naturally bald!"


Toph followed Jet, unsure of what she would say or what she would do and thinking that it probably would have been better to just ignore his presence. But she couldn't. She wasn't ready to see him again so soon after his betrayal but she knew she had to do something.

He stopped in a deserted corridor, keeping his back to her. "I know now that I went too far with what I tried to do," he said. "And I messed up. But I'm gonna fix it now by doing some real good, here with the Creeping Crystal."

She clenched her fists. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

He turned around to face her. "What do you mean? Of course you know. You always know when someone's lying."

"Do I?" she retorted, voice laced with anger. "You manipulated me all that time. Kept secrets from me. Used me. And I am no one's tool." Somehow, he had been able to beat her lie detection. The fact that he had been able to deceive her and she didn't know how frustrated her the most.

"That's not true," he said. "I just… I didn't know how to tell you. You were always my number two. No, my partner. My equal."

She pointed a finger at him. "Don't insult me like that. I'm better than you. I never wanted to hurt innocent people. You just tried to keep me around as your muscle all that time!"

His posture leaned forward, his arms pumping as he tried to argue with her. "No way! C'mon, Bandit. I made some mistakes but now I'm trying to make things better. You gotta give me that chance. Smellerbee, Longshot, and all the rest… they all miss you. We want you back, Bandit."

She turned away from him, walking back to where Aang and the others had gone. "I've got a different calling now," she said. "I'm doing some real fighting against the empire. Training Aang so he can beat the big bads. So no, I'm never gonna join up with the Freedom Fighters ever again." She took a deep breath, trying to settle her own surging heart rate. "And it's not Bandit anymore. My name is Toph."

His shoulders fell and he said nothing more as she departed.


Bumi released all of his soldiers so he could talk privately to Aang and the others, along with the other person who led the Creeping Crystal alongside him - the former Earth King, Kuei. Kuei was significantly more muscular than Aang had remembered, accentuated by his layers of armor and shoulder pads. Otherwise, he wore a green velvet hat with a tassel and his spectacles that remained as always. An enormous war hammer rested in easy reach, with Bosco the bear and Flopsie the goat-gorilla playing with each other beyond that. They all sat down together at the table that reminded Aang of the one in the Council of Five's war chamber, though this one was more crudely carved from earth.

After introductions had been made, Zuko and Azula fired off with the questions that had been brimming in their minds. But now that Aang knew Bumi was alive and safe, he wanted to push aside all of his worries for a little while, to free himself of the weight of the unknown, to just run and laugh and play pranks with his oldest friend.

Mai leaned forward to catch Aang's gaze. "Aang, focus," she said. "You're daydreaming about something."

He had been staring ahead at Flopsie and Bosco, but looked back to Mai with a sigh gloomy enough to match one of hers. "Sorry. Yeah, you're right."

"Do you know who attacked the palace?" Zuko asked. "I have my suspicions, but…"

Bumi peered at him with one eye narrowed and the other opened wide. "Suspicions, hmm? Might you share some of them, just to see if we're all on the same page?"

"The Dai Li," Zuko responded. "Attacking themselves. I don't know why, but there's so much distrust in the city that someone must be trying to manipulate things." Aang nodded in agreement - he had a similar thought, and was glad to see Zuko shared that.

"You're a sharp boy," Bumi said. "But you aren't thinking it through enough. Consider more of the possibilities!"

"You're partially right," Kuei explained. "We captured some and haven't been able to interrogate them fully, but we believe Long Feng is the culprit, all the way from Jie Duan. His city in the Fire Nation." He scowled and clenched his fists. "He took some of his agents with him when he fled from here five years ago."

Aang frowned. "What could he want? Is he trying to take back Ba Sing Se?"

"Perhaps indirectly," said Kuei. "He shouldn't know that I stepped down, but he likely has spies under Grand Secretariat Wu passing information along to him."

"I don't know about that," Azula said, tapping her lips. "We met him months ago and he asked us to assassinate you. So unless he learned otherwise relatively recently, he still thinks you are the king."

Kuei steepled his fingers and gazed over the table, which held a map of the city and the surrounding area. "Is that so? Well, either way, he must suspect it. I think he attacked the welcoming feast because he assumed I was there and planned to assassinate me or expose the false king to the world."

"Well, why don't you just expose yourself?" Azula said, but her face reddened in a most un-Azula-like way and she stammered while Zuko and Bumi barked out in laughter. "U-um, well, that came out wrong. You know what I mean!" The animals perked up when they heard, heads tilted in confusion. Mai simply yawned.

Kuei's face flushed in embarrassment and he took off his glasses to wipe them clean. "Well, erm, indeed." He put his spectacles back on his nose, cleared his throat, and put on a straight face. "If we did that, the people may think I am just a pretender king at this point, and I would be unable to do what I have been doing here. This allows me more freedom to do what I can to help in the war effort in a more direct way. As a king, I was nothing more than a puppet who danced in ignorance until Bumi came here and told me the truth."

Azula pursed her lips. "Well, what have you been doing? You're both kings! You could have all the power, but instead you're here floundering about underground. You could go back and rule and make all the decisions you want whether your subjects like it or not. And that includes the Council of Five, Wu, the ministries - all of them."

"It's not so simple," Bumi said. "Kuei made the right choice to step out of that complex web. Instead, he is here to wait and listen for the right moment to strike so this city doesn't fall to the same fate as Omashu. Have you seen Omashu? Now it's O-mashed up!" He snorted in laughter that no one else shared. "Oh, I know, I probably shouldn't make light of it but I couldn't resist. Don't worry, much of the tragedy was averted. Many of my people live in Ba Sing Se now, or in the mountains outside of the city."

"The Creeping Crystal does a lot of work to settle as many refugees as possible," Kuei said once Bumi had settled down. "We sneak them into the city or settle them in the mountains, like Bumi said. Long ago there used to be a town claimed by the daofei - or outlaw groups - out there, but it has since been abandoned so we moved them in. We fight to protect them from the Water Nation but also work to mitigate some extreme measures taken by the Council of Five. And recently we've begun to coordinate with other independent groups against the Water Nation, like your friends the Freedom Fighters."

"Extreme measures taken by the Council?" Zuko asked. "Like what?"

"That is some exposition for another time!" Bumi said, standing up. "Your Roku Warrior friend seems very bored and frankly I am, too!"

"Thanks," Mai said, but Aang wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

"You kids need to get back to the palace before everyone gets suspicious," Bumi said. "And your nice fancy clothes are really dirty!"

"I want to go back for Appa and Sabi," Aang said. He felt nervous enough leaving them alone for that long. "But after that, we have no reason to stay anymore. We'll come back here."

"I'm not so sure if you should," Kuei said. "We could use their help to plan an invasion. We'd need as big of a force as we can."

"We tried to get them to help, but they wouldn't," Zuko said. "They're just focused on defending rather than attacking. We even found out about an eclipse where waterbenders would lose their power but they said it would be useless."

"Maybe so," Bumi said. "It's been done, the Water Nation knows to expect an attack during the eclipses over the years. But we can plan one for any old day! They might just expect it less!"

"As long as it's before the second moon comes," Aang said, and he thought of Sozin's Comet blazing across an orange sky. He considered the merits of the idea. "Before they unleash complete devastation."

Bumi looked at him with something Aang couldn't determine, but then shrugged. "Yes, of course. We would distract them enough for you to sneak on in and defeat the Water Emperor."

"Can we trust Wu?" Aang asked. "And the Council of Five? At least long enough to plan the invasion?"

"The Council likes their power," Kuei said. "And their security. I fear they view Wu as weak and undeserving of her position." He adjusted his glasses. "And Wu is a paranoid woman, seeing enemies in every shadow."

"I got that impression of Wu," Aang admitted. He remembered what she said about the White Lotus being a group of insurrectionists.

"Honestly, she has every right to be suspicious," Kuei admitted. "Thrown into a leadership position after Long Feng fled and I abdicated the throne, she has had to contend with enemies from all sides. She knows next to nothing about the Creeping Crystal and likely thinks we're some rebel group trying to grasp for power. I don't think she's working with Long Feng - though I am aware it is a possibility - and I am sure she constantly wonders if he's using her own Dai Li agents to spy on her."

"I don't like the idea of going back to all that, but we'll do what we can," Aang said, standing. "Thank you both for telling us all this. It makes me feel a lot better about everything."

"Of course," said Kuei, smiling. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Avatar Aang."

Zuko, Azula, and Mai filed out of the chamber ahead of Aang while Kuei departed with Bosco, but Bumi held out a hand to stop Aang from joining his friends. "Wait, Aang. Before you go, I'd like a word."

Aang glanced back at his friends and nodded at them to continue. "Yeah, me too," he said.

"We'll go and find Toph," Azula told him. He noticed how she avoided looking at him in the eyes, and when she turned he couldn't help but stare at her swaying hair as she walked away, lost in thoughts of fireflies and plum blossoms. He hadn't had the time to think about her confession at all, and wondered if he would get the chance to talk to her about it.

Bumi went over to scratch Flopsie's belly when the gigantic creature turned over on his back, tongue lolling out in pleasure. "Ooh, my Flopsie-wopsie-poo. You're such a good boy." He glanced over at Aang. "Come on over, Aang - Flopsie loves this!"

"I'll pass," Aang said, giving him a sheepish smile. "Gotta get back to the city soon, like you said."

Bumi frowned. "Who are you?"

Aang's stomach dropped. "What do you mean? I'm Aang!"

"No, you're not," Bumi said. "The Aang I know wouldn't pass up the opportunity to play with any animals, no matter how pressed for time he was."

He shrugged. "I had to change. I'm the Avatar now. Gotta grow up eventually, right?"

"I'll have you know that I am one hundred and twelve years old and I have no intention of 'growing up' any time soon," Bumi informed him. "And you're, what, still twelve?"

He scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, well…"

"Aang, what happened to you?" Bumi asked, the sincerity in his voice shaking Aang to his core. He saw sadness well up in the old king's eyes. "After all these years, you're still my oldest friend. And my youngest, but that's beside the point. I know you, and I know that this isn't you. This stern little boy who mostly kept quiet and still during our talk, who calculated and carefully weighed his words before speaking them, who spoke of destruction as if he witnessed its despair himself… I have no idea who that is."

Aang took a deep breath. "I need to know. Are you a member of the White Lotus?"

Bumi seemed taken aback for a moment, but something like disappointment flashed into his eyes before he replaced it with a shrewd glance. "That's a secret."

"So yes," Aang said. Any lingering doubts he had about Kanna and Piandao evaporated. "Wu is wrong about you being insurrectionists."

"Well, we are, from her point of view," Bumi said with a shrug. "We do a lot of things that she and the Council of Five wouldn't like. So she is right, but from a different angle."

They stood in silence for a moment, looking at each other as if measuring up the other. Aang let out a sigh, breaking the stalemate first, and came to a decision. If he couldn't trust Bumi, who could he trust?

"So I may look like I'm twelve, but I'm something like fifteen or sixteen…"

"One hundred and fifteen or sixteen," Bumi corrected him. "Wait, so that makes you older than me?"

"Well, I kinda feel like it sometimes," Aang said, grinning. Typical of Bumi to focus on a detail like that. "I know you said you were bored of exposition, but I've got something to tell you."


Katara had spent most of the following day with Jet.

Despite being fairly new to Ba Sing Se himself, the boy was well informed. She feigned ignorance as he gave her a tour of various neighborhoods in the Lower Ring, introduced her to members of his little gang, and explained the inner workings of life here. He had formed a rapport with plenty of cooks and shop owners and other notable members of the community, helping to keep the other kids fed. In return, he and his other 'Freedom Fighters' kept the neighborhoods safe from rival gangs and smuggled various medicines - legal or not - around the city. He even hinted at more secretive work that involved helping with the refugee situation.

He also insinuated, on several occasions, that they were recruiting.

She had laughed him off every time. Downplayed her own skills. Given a faulty demonstration of the way she wielded a short, thin blade. But it seemed to make him want to recruit her all the more. She led him along as he guided her through the city, unintentionally showed her key access points to the waterways underground, and explained how nobody liked the Dai Li so he knew all the best ways to avoid them.

Late in the afternoon, she went back to the cramped apartment and ran into Sokka and Ghashiun out front, who had just returned from gathering supplies.

"And where have you been all day?" Sokka asked, shooting her with an accusing glare.

"Oh, I met someone," she responded. "He gave me a wonderfully enlightening tour of the city."

Sokka practically hissed at her and drew in close. "Are you crazy? What if you let something slip? We're here trying to do what we can to not draw attention to ourselves. Yue's been underground with all of our men for days. And you're out there just going native?"

She lowered her voice and the air around them chilled. "Don't you dare talk to me like that. I'll have you know that I learned all kinds of useful information from this person. So much that if we never even meet Ghashiun's sister we would probably be fine."

"We will find Nagi," Ghashiun said at once. His dark eyes hardened. "Do not back out of our deal."

Sokka pushed Ghashiun along toward the apartment, rubbing away his goose prickles. "Yeah, yeah, no one's backing out of anything. We might even be meeting her later tonight. But don't worry, Katara, I'll pick up the slack in your grand plan."

She spun on her heel as they walked off, deciding that she didn't want to go back with them quite yet. Picking a random direction, she stormed off toward the entry point to any of the underground waterways, hoping to do some waterbending away from any prying eyes. Katara reminded herself that it was stupid and reckless but waterbending was one of the only things that managed to calm her when she was angry.

When she turned the next corner, she almost bumped into Jet. "What're you doing here?" she asked him, wondering what he might have seen. "Are you… following me?"

"Did you know that guy?" Jet asked, glaring toward the direction of the apartment. It felt as if he didn't even see her. "The one with one eye?"

He knew Sokka? She improvised with the first lie that came to mind. "I only just met him," she said, putting a hand to her chest and trying her best to sound hurt. "I took pity on him. I saw an eye like mine and wondered if someone had taken out his other eye in some false sense of retribution. When I tried to offer some kind words, he blew me off. He's just a sad, bitter man."

"I've met him before," he said, switching his gaze downward to her. He stood close to Katara, almost protectively. "That guy's a waterbender, June. We have to do something!"

He moved to go past her, hands twitching to his swords, but Katara put a hand on his arm to stop him. "Wait, Jet," she said. "If what you say is true then we shouldn't make a scene. We need to warn somebody. The Dai Li."

Well, it had been fun. Now she had to bloodbend him somewhere no one would find his corpse.

"Not them," he said. He clenched his fist and let out a frustrated sigh through gritted teeth. She thought he was going to punch something.

"Are you sure he is who you think he is?" Katara asked. "What if you're mistaken?"

"I'm not," Jet said. "He was traveling with the Avatar. I met them together weeks ago, and now the Avatar's here in the city, too. I don't think he knows."

"The Avatar?" Katara's eyes lit up. "You know him?" She was careful not to put the emphasis on the word 'you' to avoid offending him. "Then we should go tell him! He can do something!"

"You're right," Jet said, straightening. It seemed like it took an enormous effort to hold himself back from ambushing Sokka right then and there. "Aang's in the Upper Ring. Let's go!"

Katara was lucky that he didn't see her smile.


Aang paced back and forth in their house while the others watched him and waited for him to organize his thoughts. His conversation with Bumi had gone well - the mad genius didn't doubt him one bit. He felt a lighter burden every time he revealed his secret, but at the same time it felt like his friends from back home faded further from him, becoming less tangible; like they were becoming a story instead of part of his past each time he shared them.

"So are you gonna stop pacing anytime soon or tell us what's on your mind?" Toph asked, leaning with her fist pressing into her cheek. "You might actually start digging trenches into the floor."

"I'm just trying to make sense of everything," he said. "Things are going a little bit differently than they did back home and it's kind of confusing."

"Because Long Feng isn't the Grand Secretariat here?" Mai asked.

Aang nodded. "I guess so. Princess Azula infiltrated the city and took it over from the inside by gaining control of the Dai Li."

But this time there seemed to be even more factions to worry about. He didn't know if he could juggle them all, find a way to stay on top of things when he still couldn't be sure where his enemies lurked. He had relied too much on his foreknowledge up to this point, and now that things had changed it left him feeling frustrated that he couldn't predict things anymore.

The Council of Five. The Grand Secretariat and the Dai Li. Both paranoid, both indirectly working against each other, but if Ba Sing Se was to avoid being conquered they would need to work together.

The Creeping Crystal, White Lotus, and Freedom Fighters - at least they had a tangential connection to each other. And Jet didn't seem to be brainwashed this time. Thinking back, he allowed a moment of morbid amusement at the fact that now Jet worked for a faction that operated out of Lake Laogai, the place of his death. Regardless of where Jet stood, he wanted to try and save him this time. Or would those events leading to his death never even come to pass?

Long Feng, who still played the game but lurked beyond it. Aang had no idea what to do about him all the way in the Fire Nation except to stay vigilant.

Sokka, Katara, and the Water Nation. The most important piece to consider, but he wasn't sure how they'd factor into things here.

The whole thing just gave him a headache, like playing a Pai Sho game without knowing any of the rules or strategies.

"You're sure you can trust that crazy old coot with your secret?" Azula asked. She tapped her fingers on the tea table, nails clacking against the wood in a rhythm Aang found distracting. "He doesn't seem like he's all there, you know."

"I'm aware, and I do trust him. He's a mad genius and one of the greatest earthbenders in the world. Just like Toph," Aang said, his face set in a way that he hoped would brook no arguments. Toph whooped but said nothing. "Zuko, you sent word to the palace?"

Zuko nodded. "Yeah. Everyone's alright, and Wu said she was glad to hear of our safety. They're still trying to figure out who attacked so they've been trying to track them through the tunnels all day and night. They didn't catch anyone in the Creeping Crystal or Freedom Fighters either, from what I can tell, so that's good."

"The Roku Warriors can act as your liaison to the Creeping Crystal while we're here in the city," Mai offered. "We'll send any messages back and forth that you need us to."

"Great, thank you," Aang said, smiling. Mai's aid in this world was welcome, too.

With so many factors that had changed in this world, he felt confident that Ba Sing Se's fate would proceed differently - but for better or for worse, he couldn't say.


Ghashiun had kept busy during their time in the city, Sokka learned.

The sandbender had scavenged for information on the Dai Li since they arrived, trying to find any word of his sister. Women among their force - especially those as young as Nagi - seemed to be rare, so he'd been able to narrow down his search. For their first two years of service, agents were confined to the Lower Ring to keep the peace, so Nagi should have been among those. Ghashiun had also learned that those Dai Li seemed to have no known headquarters in the Lower Ring - they mostly used the tunnel system running under the city, which made Sokka anxious to find Nagi as soon as possible.

Sokka begrudgingly admitted to himself that they would need her if their men were to avoid any Dai Li patrols. As it was, the city was on high alert due to rumors of an attack on the palace the previous night, so Yue and the Water Nation soldiers withdrew to the caverns in the Outer Ring. He feared the raid would set back their own planned attack and once again considered the idea of canceling the whole thing and cutting their losses to retreat.

He looked ahead at Ghashiun, wondering once again what the sandbender would gain from helping the Water Tribes take over the Earth Kingdom capital. Did he really have no allegiance to his own people? He walked through the streets with purpose, unheeding of the people who rushed by them to return to their homes. Ba Sing Se felt empty, but Sokka assumed the Dai Li must be watching everything, unseen, as they hunted for the culprits behind the palace attack.

"Hey," Sokka said under his breath, just loud enough to get Ghashiun's attention. "I have an idea. Play along."

Ghashiun hesitated just long enough to indicate that he heard Sokka, but kept walking.

"You! Sandbender!" Sokka shouted suddenly, pointing an accusatory finger at Ghashiun's back. "You're one of the ones who attacked the palace, aren't you?"

Ghashiun whirled around, eyes wide, and in one quick motion he shot his hand toward Sokka. Sand rushed up from the ground at Sokka's face, but he ducked underneath the blow and ran the other way. The ground shifted below him as sand rose up to entangle his feet, but after stumbling briefly he managed to regain his footing and run toward an alley.

"Someone help!" Sokka yelled out, grabbing a pole from a fishmonger's stand that had closed for the night. The wooden pole had an iron hook at the end that he brandished at Ghashiun, but sand rose up to grasp at Sokka's weapon and rip it from his hands in a very waterbender-like way. He'd never known that sandbenders used waterbending forms - could he have learned it from Katara?

He turned around and ran into the shadows of the alleyway, but Ghashiun reached him and spun Sokka around to pin him against the wall, holding him in place by clenching the front of his shirt. "What are you doing?" Ghashiun hissed, close enough so that Sokka could feel his warm breath on his face.

Sokka smirked, unfazed by the murderous look in Ghashiun's eyes. "Trying to get you arrested," he said in a low whisper. "I figured that'd be an easy way to see your sister, and she'd get you out of there once you explain you did it to find her. And if it doesn't work and I never see you again? Big deal."

Ghashiun held the position, his calculating eyes boring deep into Sokka. "That's a reckless plan."

"Better than wandering around aimlessly, though," Sokka replied. He cleared his throat, feeling uncomfortable with Ghashiun pressed so closely to him. "Are you gonna let me go now so we can continue this charade?"

Ghashiun let go of his shirt and stepped back, allowing Sokka space to continue running from him. Before Sokka could get more than a few paces, sand snaked around his ankles and tripped him up, sending him face first to the ground. He turned back to glare at Ghashiun, who had a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. He was enjoying this.

Sokka scrambled to his feet again and ran, shouting as he went, but before he reached the end of the alley a shadowed figure appeared in front of him, standing straight, an ominous figure with the light of the street lantern behind him. The figure wore long robes and a cone-shaped hat. "You've come to rescue me!" Sokka exclaimed, clasping his hands together in a gesture of gratitude.

The Dai Li agent jabbed forward, encasing Sokka's enjoined hands in stone, and bound his feet right after, making him fall to the ground. Behind him, he heard chains clinking as Ghashiun fell to the ground as well.

"You're both under arrest for suspicions of crimes against the Earth King."


Author's Note: Bit of a set up chapter as we head into the Book 2 finale soon! Please review, I thrive on them!