Ch 7 Lake Laogi
Olivier exited the house and randomly walked around the city. She bought some detailed maps of the city, and made her way to a weapons store.
"I'd like to buy broadswords, and 4 scimitar knives." Olivier said.
"Anything else?" the owner asked.
"Yeah. Can you engrave words on the swords?" Olivier asked.
"Of course." The owner said.
As the owner went back to grab the weapons, Olivier smirked. She already planned what she would write on the blades.
"What's with the swords?" Sokka asked, as Olivier walked into the house, her new weapons in hand.
"Bought them. These are shorter, so they'll be more useful in the close quarters of the city." Olivier said, drawing out a broad sword.
"What does it say?" Aang asked, seeing the letters on the blade.
Olivier showed them. One of the blades had a grim message. If you can read this, one of us is already dead. The other had a lewd message. Free anal/colonoscopy.
"What's anal?" Aang asked.
Sokka and Olivier looked at the bald monk. They decided not to tell him.
"You'll learn later." Sokka said.
"What are you drawing?" Olivier asked
"I'm drawing Appa." Sokka said.
"That's not him at all." Aang said, reaching into his shirt, and pulling out papers, showing a professional drawing of the animal.
"Wow. I'm impressed." Olivier said, noting just how fine the details were. Apparently the Avatar was a good artist.
Aang and Momo left to distribute the pamphlets. Olivier knew that they would run into trouble, long before they ran into help.
"This is gonna hurt us." Olivier said.
"What do you mean?" Toph asked.
"I get the feeling Long Feng will try to stop this right away." Olivier said.
She was proven right, as Joo Dee appeared, surprising everyone.
"What happened to you? Did the Dai Li throw you in jail?" Sokka asked.
"What? Jail? Of course not. I was sent on a vacation to Laki Laogai. It was quite refreshing." Joo Dee said.
"What are you here for?" Olivier asked.
"Dropping fliers and putting up posters isn't permitted within the city. Not without proper clearance." Joo Dee said.
"We can't wait to get clearance on everything." Sokka said.
"You're forbidden by the rules of the city to continue putting up posters." Joo Dee said.
Aang stepped forward, and snapped.
"We don't care about the rules and we're not asking for permission! We're finding Appa our own way and you should just stay out of our way!"
Aang slammed the door and fumed in anger.
"That's gonna bite us in the blubber." Sokka said.
"I don't care. From now on, we do whatever it takes to find Appa." Aang said.
Toph was only too happy to comply.
"Alright. Lets break some rules!" She said, and tore down a chunk of the house with her earth bending.
After putting some posters on a wall, Olivier went with Katara to help. They were caught off guard by someone calling Katara's name.
"Katara?" he asked.
Katara looked to see the last person she'd ever want to see. Jet.
"I think I can help." He said.
Katara lost her shit, and started attacking him with large amounts of water.
"Katara, I don't want to fight you!" Jet shouted, tossing down his swords.
Jet reached behind him, and Katara quickly pinned him to a wall with ice. Everyone else heard the noise and came.
"Katara, what's going on?" Aang asked.
"Jet's back. We can't trust anything Jet says." Katara said.
"But we don't know why he's here." Sokka said.
"Doesn't matter. Whatever the reason is, It can't be good." Katara said.
Talk about anger issues. Katara could be real angry when she wanted to be.
"I'm here to help you find Appa." Jet said, showing a flier of the animal.
"Bullshit. You're lying." Katara said.
"No. He's telling the truth." Toph said, kneeling next to Katara.
"How can you tell?" Sokka asked.
"When people lie, there's a physical change. He's telling the truth." Toph said.
"Katara, we don't have any leads. We have to take him." Aang said.
"All right." Katara said, before rounding on Jet. "But we're not letting you out of our sight."
As they followed Jet, Olivier revaluated her opinion of Katara. She was just as a brat as the rest of them, if not more. Sokka and Aang were willing to let Jet help them. Olivier figured Katara had major trust issues. She would not fare well at Briggs fortress. You had to have trust in your team. Even if shit happened, that was left in the past.
"This is the place I heard about." Jet said, taking them to a large warehouse.
"There's nothing here." Sokka said.
"If this is another trap…" Katara said, pulling out some water.
Olivier added another note to Katara. To narrow minded. She believes everything is one way. She seemed unwilling to be open to other ideas. Aren't water bender supposed to be flexible and adaptable? Katara was just proving the complete opposite.
"He was here." Toph said, holding a piece of fur.
"They moved him. But where could you hide a flying bison?" Olivier asked.
"Yeah. They shipped that large creature to some island." An older man said, sweeping the floor.
"What island?" Aang asked.
"Whale Tail island." The man said.
Sokka looked at a map for the island. And he had bad news.
"That island is very far away. Practically at the south pole." Sokka said.
"Aang, it'll take us weeks to get there." Katara said.
"I'm going after him." Aang said, walking out of the building.
"I'll come with you." Jet said.
"We don't need your help." Katara said.
"Why won't you trust me?" Jet asked.
"Gee. I wonder." Katara said.
"Was this guy your boyfriend or something?" Toph asked.
"No he wasn't!" Katara snapped.
"I can tell you're lying." Toph said, almost singing it.
As they walked towards the outer wall, Smellerbee and longshot found them.
"Jet!" Smellerbee said.
"I thought you left them behind." Katara said.
"I did." Jet said.
"How'd you get away from the Dai Li?" Smellerbee asked.
"The Dai Li?" Katara asked, wondering what was going on.
"He got arrested a couple of weeks ago. We saw them drag him away." Smellerbee said.
"Why would I be arrested? I've been living peacefully in the city." Jet said.
"That's strange. They're both telling the truth." Toph said.
"That's impossible." Katara said.
"Wow, Katara. Your sense of ignorant bullshit never ceases to surprise me." Olivier said, earning a glare by Katara. Olivier glared back.
"Toph can't tell who's lying because they both believe they're telling the truth. Jet's been brainwashed." Sokka said.
Everyone surrounded Jet, and took him to an abandoned building.
"The Dai Li must have sent Jet to mislead us, and that janitor was part of the plan." Katara said.
"I bet they have Appa here in the city. Maybe he's in the same place they took Jet! Where did they take you?" Aang asked.
"Nowhere. I don't know what you're talking about." Jet said.
"We need to find a way to jog his memories." Aang said.
"Maybe Katara should kiss him. That should bring something back." Sokka teased.
"Maybe you should kiss him, Sokka." Katara spat back.
"Hey, just an idea." Sokka said.
"A bad one." Aang said.
"Try to think of something from your past that triggers your emotions." Toph said.
"The fire nation! Remember what they did to your family!" Smellerbee said.
"Bad idea. He's a refugee in the city, not even 18 years old. You want to see posttraumatic, you'll see it. It's not a good thing. Try something else." Olivier said.
Katara bended water on Jets head, as he remembered his past.
"They took me to a headquarters under the water, like a lake!" Jet said, remembering.
"Wait. What did Joo Dee say? She went on vacation to Lake Laogai." Sokka said.
"That's it." Jet said, standing up. "Lake Laogai."
Jet took the group to Lake Laogai, and this was eerily similar for Olivier. The higher ups at central in Amestris, had plans to create an undead army, using philosopher stones. They were in league with 'Father' and almost destroyed the world. A similar thing, on a much smaller scale, was happening in Ba Sing Se. The higher ups of the city were conspiring to keep the city in ignorance.
Olivier snorted in disgust. Tyrants always feared their subjects, because one day the subjects will figure out what's really going on, and rise up against them.
"So this is where the headquarters is?" Sokka asked.
"Under the water, I think." Jet said.
"There's a tunnel right there by the shore." Toph said, and earth bended a slab of rock with an entrance.
Inside the fortress, they passed several rooms. One room had a bunch of women being brainwashed to be multiple Joo Dees.
"I think there's a cell big enough to hold Appa. Right here." Jet said, opening a door.
The group entered the door, and saw multiple agents hanging from the ceiling.
"Now that's something different." Sokka said.
"You have made yourself enemies of the state. Take them into custody." Long Feng said.
The Dai Lee agents jumped from the ceiling and started fighting with the gang. Olivier pulled out her sword and quickly cut the head off an agent. Seeing Jet dueling one agent, she ran towards the agent and stabbed him dead.
"Duck." Jet shouted, and swung his sword, killing another agent.
"Thanks for that." Olivier said.
"Long Feng's running." Aang said.
Aang and Jet ran after him, leaving the rest to contend with the Dai Lee agents. Olivier fought back to back with various members of the group, whether it be Sokka, Katara, Toph, etc.
"How many agents are their?" Sokka asked, blocking a rock glove, allowing Toph to dispose of him.
"We're almost done here." Olivier said, slashing her way thru the Dai Li.
When the carnage was over, everyone ran to where Aang and Jet went to.
"Shit." Olivier muttered, seeing Jet lying on the floor, covered with several wounds.
"This isn't good." Katara said, trying to heal Jet with her water bending.
"You guys go and find Appa. We'll take care of Jet." Smellerbee said.
"We're not gonna leave you." Katara said.
"There's no time. Just go. We'll take care of him. He's our leader." Longshot said, speaking for the only time. That caught everyone by surprise.
"Don't worry, Katara. I'll be fine." Jet said.
Olivier looked at him, and knew he wasn't fine. He was gonna die. They finally reached Appa's hold, only to discover he was gone.
"Appa's gone! Long Feng beat us here." Aang said.
"If we keep moving, maybe we can reach him." Sokka said.
Escaping to the beach, they were ambushed by dozens of Dai Li agents.
"You think we can outrun them?" Sokka asked, as they ran away from the threat.
"I don't think that' gonna matter." Aang said.
Soon, they were cornered by the agents, and Long Feng himself. Olivier pulled out her broadswords and got ready to fight.
"Shit." Olivier muttered, knowing that they weren't gonna win this round.
Momo came to Aang, in an excited manner.
"What is it Momo?" Aang asked.
A loud and heavy roar was heard, as Appa gave out of nowhere. He knocked the Dai Li agents back, leaving Aang and Toph to take care of the rest. Appa and Long Feng faced each other down.
"I'll take care of you myself." Long Feng said, moving to attack. Appa quickly tossed Long Feng into the water like it was nothing.
"Yeah, Appa!" Sokka shouted.
"I've missed you buddy." Aang said, shedding tears.
The group flew on Appa, sans the saddle back to the city. Olivier hoped that this would be the end of their troubles. But something told her otherwise. She had a gut feeling that thing's would get worse, not better.