Thanks again to everyone who comments, you really help a lot. The only reason this chapter has a name and the others don't is because it's significant, and I wanted to, so yea. And as long as I'm saying this, I might as well remind everyone, I do not own the characters, the world, or any other aspect of Avatar the Last Airbender.
"Ok, so what's this about?" asked Jet. Lee had insisted on bringing them upstairs to talk about his life, and as interesting as the living quarters were, Jet could not stand pausing to admire them when there was something so much more interesting going on.
They all sat with their legs crossed on the floor, Smellerbee on Jet's right, Long Shot on his left, and Lee across from him. Jet's back was to the door.
"Ok," said Lee, "Well, when I first met you three, I was a refugee desperately hoping not to be noticed in territory I had grown up thinking of as enemy land. So my uncle and I lied to everyone, including you, and pretended to be from the earth kingdom."
"Nobody could blame you." said Smellerbee. "I mean it would be the same for us if we were looking for refuge in the fire nation."
Lee smiled grimly. "Except that that would never happen, would it Jet?"
"Probably not, no."
"I thought so, and I don't blame you either. But then when we were discovered because my uncle had to be so dumb and actually tell everyone we were fire benders, we had to tell a little bit of the truth. But it still wasn't everything. We couldn't say it all with so many people right there. If he had, the Dai Li might have killed us." Lee looked at the floor, breathing heavily. "Before I say anything more, I want you all to know that I'm as much on your side of the war as you are, or at least I am now."
"Of course." said Smellerbee.
Long Shot nodded.
"I trust you, to a certain extent." said Jet.
"Ok. Thanks guys." Lee looked at the ceiling. "My uncle and I aren't really from the fire nation colonies. We're actually from the fire nation itself."
Jet and Smellerbee seemed a bit surprised at that, but Long Shot only smiled, and Jet made no immediate move to attack Lee.
"Actually we were nobility there. Some of what we told you was true, my father did give me this scar, right before he banished me from our home. I spent three years chasing the avatar because I thought it was the only way to regain my honor, and I caught him several times, but he always got away. Then my sister showed up, and tried to take me back to the fire nation in chains, but my uncle was wise and strong, and we escaped. After that we came here, both branded as traitors, and both enemies of the fire nation. And we met you, and things went on from there." He paused before continuing. "My name is Zuko."
"I thought so." said Long Shot.
Surprised as they were by Lee's revelation, Long Shot's reaction made it look like peanuts to them, and they sat gawking at him for a second.
Then Jet recovered. "Wow, I didn't realize just how much Long Shot cared about you, or how perceptive he was."
"Are you angry?" asked Zuko, as though he was afraid Jet would try to kill him right there.
"Just little. I'm more angry at myself than at you. You had to lie, but I should have known. Dude, you have three identities now. The silent warrior, the refugee, and the fire nation prince. That's awesome. And quite frankly, I never thought I'd respect anyone from the fire nation as much as I do you."
Zuko's eyes fell on the rug again, shining with relief. "Yea, The Blue Spirit is what I rely on when I can't do anything with who I normally am. Lee is a pathetic kid always having to save his uncle from dangerous plants. And Zuko is prince of a nation bent on expansion, constantly searching for a final hope of redemption. A prince in exile, banished and disgraced."
"I don't think so." Jet said. "I think that in truth you weren't banished at all, you were freed. And what you perceive to be your greatest shame shines to us as a badge of honor. You left the fire nation, even though you were so high up. It doesn't matter how or why you did it, the fact is that you're on our side now. You've seen what your own people will do, and you don't like it any more than we do. I think you behave more honorably in exile than you ever did in the fire nation. Of course…I never saw you in the fire nation, I've never even been there. But I'd be willing to bet."
"Thank you." Once the initial shock was over with, the rest came easily. Zuko told his friends all about the fire nation, and why he had been banished, and his family, and the avatar, and generally everything about himself. When he was finished, Jet told about his own encounter with the avatar, and the shame of what he had tried to do to the village under the dam. He also told about his family, and what the fire nation had done to them.
When the friends parted ways that afternoon, they all appreciated one another more than they had before, and Jet's "See you tonight, Spirit" was enough to imply that the Dai Li game was still on.
And it was still on. That night, the four met on the flat roof of a building several miles from Uncle's tea shop, and they made a night of it. Their score had never been higher, and all went to bed that night feeling that everything would be alright.
The next morning however, things took an unexpected turn.
Zuko woke up bright and early, satisfied that things were going well. He walked over to see what his uncle was doing.
"What are you cooking?" he asked.
"I don't think you'd like it." said Uncle.
"Well it smells delicious."
Surprise overcame Iroh's face, but he was glad for it, and accepted it as a blessing.
But later that morning, Zuko came across a poster on the bulletin board nearest the shop. On it, he saw a shape he knew very well. It was Appa.
Quickly he climbed to the roof of the tea shop and looked around for any sign of the sky bison, but he didn't see anything.
Later, Jet and the other freedom fighters came to the shop again.
"Hey, what's up?" asked Jet.
Zuko slammed the poster down on the table. "An old friend of ours is in the city, it would seem."
Jet stared at the paper. "Aang."
"And Katara." said Smellerbee, mischievously.
"Probably." said Jet. He looked up at Zuko. "Are you thinking of going after them again?" he asked.
"Of course I thought about it. It figures this would come out just as I was starting to be able to forget about it. After three years of my life spent chasing him, and little more than a month to recuperate, of course the idea crossed my mind. But I can't just get up and go. Even though every fiber in me wants to go chasing after him, I have to stay here. I can't blow my cover, and I can't bring myself to destroy the last hope the earth kingdom has of winning this war. But believe me, every part of me wants to."
"Well if we're not gonna do anything about it, then why is this significant?" asked Jet.
"We have to do something, don't we?"
"Well, what could we do?"
"If I'm not going to capture the avatar, then I might as well help him. The avatar is the only one who can defeat my father, and as long as he's missing his bison he's vulnerable and weak."
"Ok, but how do we find his bison? It could be anywhere."
"No it couldn't, not just anywhere. These posters are all over this city. My guess is that the avatar thinks his bison is here in Ba Sing Se. And who do we know who know everything that happens in this city?"
"The Dai Li."
"Exactly. And if the Dai Li have him, or information about him, where would they keep it?"
That temporarily stumped Jet, but then he remembered what Zuko had said about the Dai Li's headquarters. "Lake Laogai." he said decidedly.
"Precisely."
"But we can't go into the lion-turtle's den, can we? We'd be disintegrated before we got to the front entrance."
"That's why we need the avatar. It's his bison, he can get it back. All we need to do is show him where to look."
"Ok," Jet said, looking a little sheepish, "but which one of us gets the unlucky task of letting Katara know we're in the vicinity? She's a bit ticked off at both of us you know."
"Well not you as much as me. I think Smellerbee and Long Shot should break the ice, no pun intended, and let them know you're here and that you want to talk to them. Then you can explain things, and when they understand I'll come out, and we can all go to the lake together."
"I don't know if we'd better introduce you to them." Jet said, looking doubtful. "They might think it was a trap. If you could get into the headquarters independently it would probably be better. That way you can us stealth to clear the way a little while we just work on getting the avatar in. It'll work much better that way, and they never have to know that you're involved."
Zuko though for a few long seconds. Jet's idea seemed to make perfect sense. The avatar would have to a fool not to suspect a trap if he knew everyone who was involved.
"You make a good point." he said. "Alright, lets do it that way."