Chapter 17

Two days passed without incident or sighting of Jet. Katara kept mostly to her room, coming out only for meals, but she didn't speak much then and left quickly when she was done. Zuko was still having old rooms in the palace furnished to accommodate all of his guests, who showed no sign on wanting to leave. Sokka and Suki had taken the job of accompanying Katara's door guards during daylight hours, while Toph and Aang followed Zuko around all day. Momo had decided he really liked Haru, so wherever Haru went, a small chattering sound was not far behind; Aang knew he was in good hands and left his small friend in the care of his moustachioed friend. Appa was kindly being looked after by the housekeeping staff, in a large grassy overgrown courtyard in the semi abandoned section of the palace. Aang was grateful to not have to worry about his more dependent friends.

With his guests obviously not going to leave until this problem was resolved, Zuko had made the decision to have ramps built in areas of the palace where there were a lot of stairs, to aid Kanna and Pakku, who were not the youngest anymore, and Teo, who wasn't heavy, and no one minded carrying him upstairs, but it allowed Teo some independence. Taking on tasks like that kept Zuko's mind from thinking about an impending assassination attempt, and the state that Katara was in.

On the morning of the third day since the attempted attack on Zuko, the group gathered for breakfast. Katara sat in silence at the far end of the table, opposite Zuko. He couldn't help but study her face, and notice the tension and the worry lines that had not been there as prominently as before.

The conversation at the table came to a standstill. Aang fidgeted, and stood,

"I can't take this anymore! We need to do something about Jet and whatever he plans to do, now! I can't just sit around anymore."

Zuko's hands slammed onto the table and the candles in the room blazed;

"When you have a plan, then you can complain about sitting around! Right now, it appears no one has a plan, or any intel, but please Aang, if you have some information that you have been with-holding, do share it!"

Aang looked stunned at his friend, and slowly sat down. Katara met Zuko's eyes across the table; Zuko instantly softened his face and lowered his tone to speak again,

"Aang, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped, it's just been a stressful few days..."

His young friend looked sympathetically at the Fire Lord,

"Zuko, don't apologise, you are stressed and worried, and I'd imagine very angry, and I shouldn't have spoken out, like you said, without a plan."

Katara rolled her eyes playfully. The Avatar was ever the diplomat, she thought, trying to find the quickest way to peace. A smile tugged at her lips; this did not go un-noticed by Zuko, who felt some of his own stress ebbing away.

Hakoda spoke out,

"We do need to make a plan your Highness."

"Hakoda, for the last time, call me Zuko," The Fire Lord smiled at his diplomatic equal, and a man who was slowly becoming a close friend, and Zuko hoped, one day, he would be his second father, side by side with Uncle Iroh,

"But you are right, we should at least figure out how he got in undetected, and managed to mingle with the crowd so freely and was not noticed by any of the six of us who knew him."

Sokka jumped up so quickly, he nearly fell over, "I have a thought on that!" and ran out of the room.

"Well, thank you for sharing Sokka." Zuko said, looking at the swinging doors.

Five minutes later, Sokka came speeding back into the room, carrying rolled up maps and blueprints.

"We talked about this the other night, all of us," he gestured to the people at the table, except for Zuko and Katara, "Using Iroh's knowledge of the Palace, and Pipsqueak and The Duke's knowledge of Jet's tactics, we have narrowed down where he could have got in to three possible places."

Zuko looked at him expectantly.

"Snoozles, get on with it." Toph said impatiently, lifting her foot onto the opposite knee and beginning to pick at her toes.

"Right..." Sokka unrolled three maps, showing the Palace in great detail, moving breakfast bowls to hold them flat. Zuko looked at him indignantly as his bowl of mango was taken from in front of him, and placed on the far corner of the map. Katara covered her mouth with her hand, and stifled the giggle with a cough. "So, we have deduced he entered through one of the following three places. First option is the abandoned area of the Palace, where Appa is staying right now, which has little to no security, as the area hasn't been actively used since Sozin's day, and has grown over with a lot of grass, making it perfect for Appa, and it's dark and quiet, so perfect for Jet; Aang provided information that led us to believe Avatar Roku partially destroyed that area when he challenged Sozin and attempted to put a stop to his plans with the comet, and after that Sozin was otherwise occupied and too busy to rebuild it. Then Azulon and Ozai seem to have forgotten about it. Jet could have got in undetected; however, he would then have had to make it through pretty much the entire palace. That makes this area slightly implausible; we know Jet is stealthy, quick and resourceful, but this route still seems too much, especially considering the condition he was in, as described by Katara." His eyes flickered to his sister, and he smiled.

"The second option," Suki took up, "Are the bedrooms, specifically Zuko or Katara's." She fixed her gaze on Zuko, "Your guards accompanied you to the ballroom, and then joined the party as instructed, so your room was unguarded. In fact, pretty much the entire corridor was unguarded for an hour previous to Jet's appearance at the ball. He could have slipped into your bedroom from the garden, after scaling the outer and inner walls. We know he is an accomplished gymnast, and could climb trees well enough, so a wall wouldn't present much of a challenge to him. We can assume he knew the ball was taking place, with Smellerbee and Longshot personally invited. The invitations were sent out weeks in advance, plenty of time for him to plan, and he would know exactly where everyone, but specifically Zuko, was, and would know where he could make a show of what he had planned to do. To support this theory, we think he must have had someone on the inside, so he would know the guard schedule and would have been able to time it just right for no guards to be within spitting distance of him. He'd also probably need someone who knew the Palace like the back of his hand; Jet as far as we know, has never been to the Fire Nation capital, let alone the Palace, so how did he know his way to the ballroom?"

"I arranged Nephew, to have your father and your sister put under extra surveillance both for their protection and suspicious purposes. Either could be Jet's informant, or could be just as much at risk as you." Iroh informed Zuko

Zuko nodded his head, "I also think we should run additional background checks on the house staff and guards, see if anyone, even though they are all Fire Nation born, has ties to the Earth Kingdom, maybe the colonies, maybe Yu Dao, and I think we should conduct some interviews, see if anyone reacts or has seen Smellerbee's or Longshot's faces before." He paused for a moment, "Maybe I'm being over cautious. I don't want to seem like I'm accusing anyone without just cause or evidence..."

"Zuko, the path to justice is a bumpy one. Unfortunately, you cannot keep everyone happy for the sake of not finding who is aiding an assassination. Feelings are going to be damaged, but in the long run, you will have peace of mind, knowing you can trust your staff, and even if they aren't happy about it, they will be happy to know you aren't just going to make arrests because you feel the need to, but because you feel you have just cause." Hakoda said to the young Fire Lord

Zuko nodded in gratitude at the older leader, and turned to Sokka, "What's the third possible location?"

"The kitchens. Like with the bedroom theory, there wouldn't have been many staff around, many of them doubled up on ball night as servers, and those that didn't, went home to join the celebrations throughout the city. So the kitchens would have practically empty except for the aging pastry chef, who is pretty much blind and pretty much deaf, so it isn't even worth asking if he saw anything. Unlike the bedroom theory though, Jet wouldn't have needed an inside source to get in through the kitchens; the back door is public knowledge, and everyone knows where it is. The citizens bring individual food items to the door for you Zuko, all the time, and it's been like that since Azulon's day. Deliveries for the ball were coming all the day before and right up until about an hour before the first guests arrived, and then the kitchen just emptied. He could have posed as a deliverer, posed as someone collecting the delivery at the back door, and just kept his head down so the other staff didn't notice, or he slipped inside a delivery box or sack and was pardon the irony, delivered to you. Out of the three locations, this seems the most likely. It's the easiest way in to the Palace, wouldn't cause anyone to think anything was out the ordinary, which could have caused an alarm to be raised, and it is the closest and the most direct route to the ballroom, and guess where the secret staff passage is from the ballroom back to the kitchen?"

"Behind the plant, the plant I spoke to him behind. In the corner." Katara croaked.

"Exactly" Sokka met her eyes uneasily, "It would have been easy to get out, and leave Smellerbee and Longshot to finish the job. It also would have been easy to get out if things had gone south for him."

"I think we can assume that was his point of entry and exit." Zuko said glumly

"If he left." Aang said, a stoic look on his face, nudging The Duke.

"Jet likes to revel in his successes and he likes an audience, hence why he chose the ball. He would have stuck around to watch Longshot take the shot, because that's how he works. Then he would have left, but I think as soon as he saw Katara spot Bee and Longshot, and take control of them, he would have gone through the door, but may not have left. He's not stupid, and we can't underestimate him. There is a chance he didn't leave, so he could finish the job, with or without his audience." The Duke told them, a grim tone to his voice.

Pipsqueak continued "However, if he's working with someone, maybe Long Feng, he would have gone, to deliver a report and come up with a plan B. I think we can assume he won't try and break Smellerbee and Longshot out, he'll just consider then collateral damage"

"Like the people in the village by the dam." Katara said, anger apparent in her voice. Each pair of eyes at the table went to her, "He is under the impression he's working for the greater good, that being a world without a Fire Nation, and anyone affiliated with it will be a better world. He doesn't understand the balance, and the peace we are achieving and his downfall is that he doesn't care about the innocent people that get in the way, as long as his goal is achieved." She looked at Aang, Toph, Suki, Sokka and finally Zuko, "I think Team Avatar is back, because saving innocent bystanders is what we do."

A/N Hi guys! You miss me? Aww, thanks, so sweet. Anyway, here we go. I have been trying to write this literally for weeks. And tonight, I just bashed it out. I was feeling the inspiration. Team Avatar is back! Air! Water! Earth! Fire! Fan and Sword! Plus, all the additional people, Haru, Teo, the 'bunch of old guys', Pipsqueak, The Duke, Hakoda, and Iroh.