Author's Note: You may be wondering why my updates have been so often and I just have to say, I have no life. Please enjoy the newest chapter :)
Kai's blue eyes raked over the tranquil streets of Ba Sing Se curiously. How could a city so full of people be so peaceful, especially with a war raging outside of its walls? She continued her walk through the middle ring, observing the citizens as they went on with their daily lives. Were they even aware that there was a war? Besides the strange men that had come to take Jet, she hadn't seen any kind of soldier or guard anywhere. Were they at the palace protecting the Earth King?
She was pulled from her thoughts when she noticed someone taking down posters from a wall. There was a line of them leading down the street in a haphazard pattern. Curious, she walked up to one and pulled it off the wall. Her eyes scanned the message written on it. The Avatar was in Ba Sing Se? She glanced around quickly before taking the poster and walking away to find somewhere else to study it. She reached an alley and unrolled the poster to examine it. He was looking for his flying bison. That must be the cow-thing he rode. She tucked the poster into her cloak and left the alley to look for the Avatar. If she could find Aang and his little group, maybe she could join them. Maybe he could help her find her way. She spotted a figure just down the road putting up posters and smiled to her self when she realized it was the waterbender. What was her name…Katara? Yes, that was it.
"Katara!" she called, walking briskly toward the girl. Katara looked up at the sound of her name and a wary expression took over her tanned face.
"Who are you?" she asked, tensing at the sight of the hooded stranger.
"It's me," Kai replied, once she reached her. She lifted the hood from her face just enough for the girl to recognize her before letting it fall back in place. Katara's blue eyes widened in recognition and she took a cautious step back.
"You're alive! We thought something had happened to you when you stopped showing up with Zuko." Her eyes flitted around the street and Kai could tell she was looking for the banished prince. She must think they were planning an ambush.
"I left him to go off on my own," Kai explained. "Don't worry. I didn't come to hurt you. I, um, I wanted to-"
"Katara!" A familiar voice cut Kai off and both girls spun in surprise. How was he here? "I think I can help you," Jet said confidently as he strode toward them.
Without warning, Katara's arms moved in a downward arc and a wave from the fountain near them splashed over Jet.
"Katara, I've changed!" he protested as he was swept into an alleyway. Kai watched the exchange in fascination, curious as to how the two knew each other.
"Tell it to some other girl, Jet," Katara said angrily, forming a sphere with a small puddle and freezing it. She turned it into frozen spikes and sent them straight for the Freedom Fighter. Kai was impressed with how much she had improved since she had seen her struggling with waterbending a few months before.
Jet drew his hook swords and used them to block the attack. "I don't want to fight you! I'm here to help," he told her, letting his swords fall to the ground as she drew closer. She hesitated at the movement and then sent more ice spikes at him when he moved his hand behind his back, pinning him to the wall. Footsteps pulled Kai's attention from the fight and she saw the Avatar, the water tribe guy, and a younger girl running toward them.
"Katara, what is it?" Sokka asked once they reached the scene.
"Jet's back." She glanced at him with a frown on her lips. "We can't trust anything he says."
"But we don't even know why he's here," Sokka said.
"I don't care why he's here. What ever the reason, it can't be good!" she said with hostility, making Kai wonder what had happened between them in the past.
"I'm here to help you find Appa," Jet interjected. That must be the Avatar's flying bison. A leaflet fell from the hand pinned behind him and Aang bent over to pick it up and read it.
"Katara, we have to give him a chance," he said.
"I swear, I've changed," Jet insisted. "I was a troubled person and I let my anger get out of control. But I don't even have the gang now. I've put all that behind me."
Kai bit back a retort to his words. He had come to the city with half of their gang to recruit more for their cause. She hated his lies.
"You're lying!" Katara accused.
"He's not lying," the younger girl who had arrived with Sokka and Aang spoke up.
"How can you tell?" Sokka voiced the question everyone was thinking.
"I can feel his breathing and heartbeat. When people lie, there's a physical reaction. He's telling the truth," she explained. What was she talking about? Kai studied her for a moment and noticed her eyes were vacant as she stood there. Was she blind? But how could she feel his heartbeat. Besides, Jet was lying. Her blue eyes went to him and she saw him curiously looking at her. It was like he didn't remember her. What had those strange men done to him?
"Katara, we don't have any leads. If Jet says he can lead us to Appa, we have to check it out," Aang said beseechingly.
Katara's shoulders fell as the fight left her. "Alright…but we're not letting you out of our sight," she said, pointing accusingly at Jet.
"Well, now that that's resolved," the blind girl said, turning to Kai. "Who are you?"
Kai glanced around to make sure they were alone before pulling her hood down. Sokka gasped and pulled out his boomerang, pointing it at her. "You can't have Aang!"
Suddenly, her feet were encased in rock and her eyes instantly went to the blind girl. She was an earthbender. How could she bend when she was blind?
"Wait!" Katara interjected. "She's not with Zuko."
"What?" Sokka said in surprise, letting his arm drop to his side. "But…"
"I left him months ago," Kai explained. She chose not to add that she had stayed with Jet. She wanted to investigate what was wrong with him before saying anything. Instead, she looked at Katara. "Like I was trying to say to you earlier, I want to take up your offer and train the Avatar in firebending." Her eyes went to Aang and she bent over into a bow of respect. "If you'll have me," she added.
"I, um, please don't bow," Aang said with an embarrassed look on his face. Kai straightened and a small smile graced her lips.
"I apologize, Avatar," she said, using the formal language she learned in the palace.
"Just call me Aang." His brown eyes went to the earthbender. "You can let her go, Toph. She's not going to hurt us."
The rock blended back into the ground and Kai shuffled her feet to get feeling back in them.
"I don't think I can learn firebending," Aang said, looking at Katara meaningfully.
"Don't say that Aang. You need to if you want to stop the war," Katara said, returning her gaze to Kai. "You can join us."
"Thank you," Kai said gratefully, relieved that they had accepted her. Now she had a direction to go.
"Hold on, don't I get a say in this?" Sokka piped up. "She tried to kill us! Why would we let her join us?"
"I never tried to kill you. I never touched any of you."
"You fought with me when you attacked Kyoshi!"
Kai frowned, remembering the attack on the island. "You were…the one with the make up?"
Toph and Aang broke into giggles and Sokka shot them an angry look. "It's respected warrior paint!"
"She's not going to hurt us, Sokka. She's joining the gang," Katara said with finality.
"Fine," Sokka mumbled in agreement.
"Now let's go find Appa," Aang said.
Jet led the group into a dimly lit warehouse in the lower ring, empty except for a few sacks and a pile of canvas and rope. "This is the place I heard about."
"There's nothing here," Aang said dejectedly.
"If this is a trap!" Katara shouted angrily and turned on Jet, falling into a waterbending position.
"I told you, I work nearby! Two guys were talking about some giant furry creature they had. I figured it must be Appa," Jet explained, holding his hands up. Kai looked at him with narrowed eyes. How could he have found a job when he had been arrested weeks ago?
"He was here!" Toph called from further away, breaking the tension that had filled the room. Everyone rushed to her side and she displayed the clump of white fur in her hand.
Aang took the fur and slumped to the floor, stroking it sadly. "We missed him…"
A janitor walked by with his push broom and paused, glancing down at the clump of fur with distaste. "They took that big thing yesterday." Aang leaped to his feet and turned to look at the man with wide eyes. "Shipped him out to some island. About time. I've been cleaning up fur and animal crap all day." He began to walk away, muttering something about how it wasn't his job to clean up after animals. Aang gawked at him for a moment before hurrying after him.
"What island? Where's Appa?" he demanded franticly.
"Foreman said some rich royal type on Whaletail Island bought him up, guess for a zoo or such, though could be the meat would be good," the janitor answered wearily.
"We've gotta get to Whaletail Island," Aang said anxiously, turning back to the group. "Where's Whaletail Island?"
Sokka pulled out a map and began to study it. A sigh escaped him and he spread it out on the floor. "Far. Very far," he responded glumly. He pointed out an island near the bottom. "Here it is. It's near the South Pole, almost all the way back home."
The group knelt beside the map and Kai's eyes scanned it.
"Aang, it'll take us weeks just to get to the tip of the earth kingdom. And then we'll need to find a boat to get to the island," Katara pointed out.
Aang got to his feet. "I don't care. We have a chance to find Appa. We have to try."
"You're right Aang," Katara said kindly, placing a hand on his shoulder. Right now, our first concern has to be finding Appa. We can come back when we have him."
"All right, let's get moving," Sokka said, enthusiastically.
"I'll come with you," Jet offered, stepping forward.
"We don't need your help," Katara said firmly, a scowl appearing on her face.
"Why won't you trust me?" he asked, walking after Aang and Sokka.
Katara crossed her arms. "Gee, I wonder…" she said with heavy sarcasm, turning away from him.
"Was this guy your boyfriend or something ?" Toph asked as she and Kai walked up to Katara's side, Kai with her hood replaced on her head. She was glad Toph had asked the question. She was curious what her history was with the Freedom Fighter.
"What ? No!" Katara denied, turning her face away.
Toph grinned and looked up at Kai. "She's lying. I can tell."
Kai looked at the waterbender curiously. She and Jet had had a thing? What had he done to have made her so angry? Her blue eyes traveled to Jet, who was trailing after the other boys. She didn't like him, but she wondered if she should have a different reason for that besides his over-confidence and bossy ways.
Katara stomped off angrily and Toph glanced at Kai with a mischievous grin. They laughed and then caught up to the others.
"We can take the train out to the wall, but then we'll have to walk," Sokka was saying.
"Don't worry! On the way back, we'll be flying!" Aang said cheerfully, his hope newly replaced.
"We're finally leaving Ba Sing Se," Toph said with exaggerated relief as she threw her arms in the air. "Worst city ever!"
Just then, Smellerbee and Longshot appeared from around a corner, there expressions changing to astonishment at the sight of the group.
"Jet! Kai!" Smellerbee shouted. Kai paused hesitantly and glanced at her former companions. They looked past her in bewilderment as Jet kept walking.
Katara turned in surprise and then shot Jet a dark look. "I thought you said you didn't have your gang anymore!" she accused.
"I don't!" he said, stopping and looking back at the other Freedom Fighters. Smellerbee reached them and threw her arms around him with a look of relief. Longshot gave Kai a small nodded of greeting, but she could still see the glimmer of suspicion in his dark eyes.
"We were so worried! How did you get away from the Dai Li?" Smellerbee asked.
"The Dai Li!" Katara said, aghast. Kai glanced at her curiously. They must be the men who had arrested Jet.
"And where have you been, Kai? You just disappeared when Jet did."
"I-um-" Kai began.
"I don't know what she's talking about!" Jet said with a scowl on his face. Everyone else in the group stopped and came closer.
"You were with them?" Sokka asked Kai with conviction.
"He got arrested by the Dai Li a couple weeks ago. We saw them drag him away. And she turned and ran from the tea shop guy right after," Smellerbee explained.
"Tea shop guy?" Aang asked curiously.
"Why would I be arrested? I've been living in the city peacefully!" Jet said with a baffled look.
Ignoring Sokka, Kai glanced at Smellerbee. "He didn't recognize me earlier."
"This doesn't make any sense. They're both telling the truth," Toph interjected.
"That's impossible," Katara said.
"No, it's not," Sokka said thoughtfully. "Toph can't tell who's lying because they both think they're telling the truth. Jet's been brainwashed."
"That's crazy. It can't be," Jet said, backing away from them. His eyes flicked around in panic as he looked for some way to escape. "Stay away from me!"
A/N: Wow, things have gotten really complicated. But Kai's with the Avatar group now, which should make a few of you happy. And, ugh, Jet is back. But not for long :D