disclaimer: Mike and Bryan own the ATLA universe; Mariko belongs to me (: enjoy!

Truthfully Ignorant

A thoughtful frown formed on her face as she lifted one of the leaflets he had sketched on, tilting it to one side and then the other. "Is this supposed to be Appa, or a giant bug…?"

He snatched the paper back, pouting. "It's supposed to be Appa! Can't you tell by the horns on his head, and the arrow on his back?"

"Of course it's Appa; geez, Sword Girl, can't you tell?" Toph chimed from lounging near them.

"Thank you, T… You're a mean little person." Sokka scowled annoyedly at the younger girl.

Mariko snickered, nudging her friend with a toe, who in turn smirked impishly.

"We found a printer for our posters!" Katara declared as she and Aang returned from town, both teenagers beaming as the waterbender lifted up a detailed illustration of their missing bison.

"Wow, that's really good. We'll definitely get the word out better with these," Mariko beamed.

"Rub it in, why don't you…? And I thought I was in charge of the 'Appa Wanted' posters! I've been working on my Appa." Sokka barked, showing off the illustration previously critiqued by the firebender, which was an eight-shaped version of the bison with a poofy bunny-tail and a long arrow running from the drawing's backside to the top of his head, where two curved horns projected, and three bug-legs protruded from both sides of his fat abdomen.

All in all, a crude drawing.

Katara snorted and covered her mouth to hide a giggle as Aang chided, "Sokka, the arrow's supposed to go on Appa's head!"

Mariko rolled her eyes when both younger teenagers critiqued his drawing (albeit harsher than she had), the argument ending with the ridiculed artist (Sokka) ripping up the questionable image in frustration. "An artist's work is seldom appreciated until the artist is dead." She mused to Toph, who in turn scoffed.

"C'mon, let's get busy!" Aang exclaimed excitedly, digging his hands into his bag and holding out two handfuls of printed leaflets.

::::::::dOb::::::::

It had only been a few hours since the leaflets had been dropped off (courtesy of Aang), and said bison owner seemed to be antsy.

"Aang, it's only been a few hours," Mariko offered patiently from observing the card game between the siblings, glancing over at the boy who had plonked down on the opposite side of the table with his head in his arms.

Katara chimed, "It's only been a day; just be patient."

A polite knock sounded not long after she told him to wait, and the boy zipped up to answer it with a cheery, "Wow, you're right; patience sure pays off!"

The bright smile on his face dropped swiftly when he was soon face-to-face with the original Joo Dee (from what Katara had told her of the night of the King's party, the Dai Li had replaced the original Joo Dee with a different one with shorter hair). "Joo Dee?" Aang blinked. Said woman invited herself into the common area with a sweet reply, "Hello Aang, and Katara, and Sokka, and Mariko and Toph."

"What happened to you; did the Dai Li throw you in jail?" Sokka was the first to ask, regarding her with caution.

Joo Dee scoffed slightly, "What, jail? Of course not!" She dismissed the ludicrous accusation with a hand, "the Dai Li are the protectors of our cultural heritage." Riiight, and I'm a hog-monkey actress.

"But you disappeared at the Earth King's party," Toph pointed out.

"Oh, I simply took a short vacation to Lake Laogai, out in the country. It was quite relaxing," Joo Dee informed brightly despite the five sets of raised eyebrows.

Mariko discreetly nudged the waterbender's ribs as she made to say something, speaking for her with a stoic expression, keeping a brow arched, "Sounds replenishing. So, what brings you to our humble abode?" She drawled with heavy sarcasm on the last two words.

If she heard the sarcasm and clear distaste for her lying to them straight-out, it didn't derail the woman as she pulled a wanted leaflet from her sleeve, the depiction of Appa on the paper spoke volumes. "Dropping flyers and putting up posters isn't permitted within the city. Not without proper clearance." Joo Dee answered.

"We can't wait around to get permission for everything," Sokka protested, trying to bring up the topic of their lost bison again.

But Joo Dee was resilient, for once dropping her mechanical smile, and the firebender was glad for the sudden change (momentarily). "You are absolutely forbidden by the rules of the city to continue putting up posters." Joo Dee said, words meant as a threat, but her infernal smile's comeback threw anyone that didn't pay close enough attention off completely.

"We don't care about the rules and we're not asking permission! We're finding Appa on our own and you should just stay out of our way!" Aang exploded angrily, his face turning tomato red and he puffed up to at least twice his size as his loud outburst backed the cowed Joo Dee into returning to the doorstep, and he slammed the door shut on her face.

"That might come back to bite us in the ass." Mariko commented dryly after clapping at his performance, making a mental note to not ever piss off the young airbender for as long as she lived.

Aang leveled a stony look at the door as he returned to normal, "I don't care: from now on, we do whatever it takes to find Appa." He stated firmly.

"Yeah, let's break some rules!" Toph cheered, throwing her arms up in the air happily before sliding both left arm and leg out swiftly to shatter the front-left corner of the house, a cloud of dust flying from the blast.

"Toph!" Mariko and Katara barked reproachfully in unison.

Toph smiled sheepishly, rubbing her neck, "Hee."

"So, what all did you do the other day?"

"Which day?"

"Toph and I went out to a spa and when I went to get you to ask if you wanted to come, you had already left… Sokka said something about you having something to do?"

"Oh, that day! I just went to go explore more around the Lower Ring to see if anyone had news about a missing bison. No luck, though."

Her blue eyes rested on the older girl whose back was turned as she was pasting a poster on the side wall of an alley opening, brow furrowing. "You looked high and low, then." If she spent most of the day out on the town.

"Ah-huh, top to bottom. I just heard that everyone keeps mum about things around the Lower Ring because they're afraid they'll disappear in the middle of the night… Y'know, Dai Li." She answered absently, turning to her when she finished putting up the poster, dusting her hands off.

She nodded, finishing up with her own poster. "Sounds about right; the Dai Li issue still throws me off, but since they're labeled as 'the protectors of our cultural heritage', then they really are double-minded…"

"Katara, Mariko?" Both girls froze at hearing that cocky voice, turning to see his familiar head of bushy brown hair striding out from the shadow of another alley, his lazy smirk plastered to his lips. "I think I can help you."

A growled expletive escaped the latter's mouth as the former sprang into action and summoned twin wings of water from the nearby creek to send them barreling straight for the surprised vigilante.

"W-wait, Katara, I've changed!" Jet cried before the torrent of water threw him into the alley he was standing nearby.

Katara was unrelenting, skidding into the alley and summoning water from one of the puddles her attack had left, "Tell that to some other girl, Jet!" She snarled, icicle-daggers screaming at him, being deflected by his swords.

Mariko bolted forward to deliver a sharp kick to his belly, knocking him into the wall behind him with a muffled 'oof'; her two daggers were thrown to pin him by his elbows as her katana was at his throat in less than seconds, sunlight winking off the blade. "Move one muscle and you die where you stand." She threatened lowly, amber eyes mutinous.

"I don't wanna fight you, Mariko; I'm here to help!" Jet protested, glaring into her narrowed gaze.

Katara was right there to counter, "Oh yeah?" She spat bitterly.

Jet leveled both girls a hard glare before his wrists twitched and he dropped his curved swords, briefly surprising the two benders.

The firebender lowered her katana reluctantly and backed away, jaw set; he looked at her and smirked in something she pegged to be triumph, reaching into his pocket for something.

The waterbender grunted and sent six thick ice-daggers at him as the firebender growled and lifted her sword to his neck sharply.

"Girls, what is it?" Sokka's voice sounded from behind as he, Toph and Aang rushed into the alley.

Katara straightened as Mariko bit out, "Jet's back."

::::::::dOb::::::::

"Whaletail Island? It's physically impossible to get an animal as big as Appa that far out in such short time, especially that close to the South Pole." Mariko rationalized as they filed out of the site of the supposed lead, arms folded as she walked as far from Jet as possible, sticking between Toph and Aang.

Katara once again picked, "I knew it was a lie!" She rounded on the unwanted sixth member of their pack.

Jet scowled at her, "Why can't you trust me?"

"She's not the only one…" Mariko muttered, even though one small part of her was glad to see that the waterbender, who had once had a huge crush on him, was now not persuaded by his killer smile and lies anymore.

"Kat I understand because I get the vibe he used to be like her boyfriend, but why you?" Toph muttered, nudging her.

"He attacked my friend a week or so ago." She answered in a murmur, a biting edge to her tone that the younger girl caught wind of.

She nodded sagely. "Ah."

"We can take the train out to the wall, but after that we're gonna have to walk." Sokka theorized in the lead, seeming to bypass what the firebender noted moments ago.

"Don't worry, on the way back we'll be flying." Aang chirped brightly if to alleviate the damper mood settled on their group.

Toph grinned giddily, "We're finally leaving Ba Sing Se… worst city ever!" She cheered, throwing her arms up in the air again. Mariko smiled wanly, thinking of Zuko and Uncle Iroh, traipsing ahead of her, "…Yeah, worst city in the world." The only city I got my first kiss in.

"Jet!" A familiar scratchy voice exclaimed from behind, making the group turn as five out of the six teens recognized a short skinny girl to be Smellerbee and a lanky pale-faced boy to be Longshot, both ex-Freedom Fighters looking at them in surprise.

Katara rounded on said boy, "I thought you said you didn't have your gang anymore!"

"I didn't!" Jet protested before Smellerbee threw her arms around him, surprising her leader.

"We were so worried; how'd you get away from the Dai Li?" asked Smellerbee, looking at him in confusion.

"'The Dai Li'!?" Katara blanched; Mariko's face darkened at the memory.

"I don't know what she's talking about!" Jet barked, pulling away.

"He got arrested by the Dai Li a couple weeks ago; we saw them drag him away." Smellerbee clarified, a slightly wounded look crossing her face before it faded swiftly.

"Why would I be arrested? I've been living peacefully in the city." Jet demanded, confusion and rising irritation showing in his tanned face.

Toph crouched to place a hand palm-flat to the cobblestone ground, deducing, "This doesn't make any sense; they're both telling the truth."

Mariko regarded the boy with a grim look, "No, Jet thinks he's telling the truth. Smellerbee's right." She informed quietly.

"Mariko's right; Jet's been brainwashed!" Sokka clarified, pointing a finger at the confused boy.

"T-that's crazy; it can't be!" Jet exclaimed, trying to shrug it off, but for the grim looks on the group's faces, he started to back up, brown eyes growing fearful.

Dread did a funny thing to your senses. It could either numb them to the point where you don't see your enemy coming… or it could heighten them so high, you'd be sensitive for weeks.

Today… it was the latter.

After figuring it was Lake Laogai where Appa had been stowed away, the group of eight –the Team Avatar (dubbed by Sokka) plus the trio of Freedom Fighters—snuck their way into the catacombs highlighted with green lanterns held on the high walls that gave off an eerie glow as they passed through one corridor after another. Following Jet's hunch regarding one particularly cavernous room up ahead that could house a beast as large as Appa, the group continued in that direction, trying to be as discreet as possible. And praying to God that they weren't followed or spotted.

Once reaching said room, they opened the door and slipped inside, keeping on their toes and with their weapons on hand. By this point the firebender's senses were on red alert, each step she took further heightening the dread and adrenaline slowly pumping into her veins.

Spirits please let Appa be here… This place is giving me the creeps.

The hollow sound of the stone door behind them slamming shut rang out deafeningly, the eerie green lights springing to life around the group; her blood ran cold when she laid eyes on the ones who had waited for them to enter the spacious room.

Well over several Dai Li agents hung from the stalactites overhead, and as the lights came on near the back area of the cavernous room, several more stood behind a serious looking man with a thin moustache and black braid, his dark green garb matching that of the Dai Li agents.

This was Long Feng?

Mariko fought a shiver at noting he almost resembled her father, save that he was an earthbender and the King's Advisor, not a firebender and a twenty-year-tenure admiral serving under Fire Lord Ozai.

But still… Long Feng looked just as serious as her father did.

"You have made yourselves enemies of the state… Take them into custody." Long Feng stated lowly, gesturing his men converge on the teenagers preparing for a fight.

At least seven or nine Dai Li dropped to land nimbly in a circle surrounding the group, two springing into action, sending twin sets of earth-cuffs at the front of the group, their attempt failing when Toph countered and shattered the cuffs, summoning twin pillars to jet up from the ground and break their footing had the twins not hopped off to regroup.

Jet undermined the footing of one agent, and would've gotten his partner had twin daggers not been thrown in his direction and pinning the man to the far wall, his brown eyes lifting to meet the firebender's amber; both shared a miniscule nod of respect before the girl dashed forward to help take down the rest.

Mariko flicked her wrist and cracked her flame-whip to life, punting one agent away from striking at Aang's blind side, feeling like she was being watched; she jerked her stare in the direction of Long Feng and narrowed her eyes, bolting for him at top speed, the whip slithering and dancing alongside, before a rift of rock blocked her path and a set of earth-cuffs was sent streaking at where she was. She growled in frustration and thrust her right fist into the air at the oncoming cuffs, a blast of fire shattering them and streaking up to hit her opponent in the face hard, sending him flying backward.

Another Dai Li agent almost confiscated Toph from behind before both Jet and Longshot intercepted; a jet of flames from her left hand sent the agent flying to crash back-first into the far wall.

"Long Feng's escaping!" Aang exclaimed, and he and Jet bolted after the fleeing earthbender.

Twin agents made to intercept again before a rift of rock barred their way, a wide flamethrower screaming at them and sending them flying back.

Toph smirked wryly at sensing the searing heat from her friend's fireblast, nudging her. "So, how's the old man?" She wondered.

"He's doing fine, actually." Mariko chuckled, nudging back, noting the siblings had the remainder under control, with some help from Longshot and Smellerbee; she broke away to retrieve her daggers, tucking them back in place.

"I guess the Dai Li don't take too easily to firebending." Sokka commented once the agents had fled back into the shadows like the corrupted slime they were, looking at her pointedly.

Mariko glanced at the two slightly weary, slightly angered faces of Longshot and Smellerbee and she smiled sheepishly. "Guess I forgot to mention that, then… Sorry. At least noone died! That's something." She added lightly if only to keep from getting the stink eye much longer.

"I think Aang and Jet went down this way," Toph saved her from further interrogation, hurrying off down a stone entryway and leaving the others to follow, Katara and Mariko tailing her shortly.

It took some force, but they got into the large room at last, and her stomach knotted as they rushed in to see Aang kneeled by a felled Jet's side.

Katara shoved past her to drop to her knees at his other side, and she flinched slightly at the horrified look that crossed her face; the healing water glowed blue on her hands as she hovered them over his chest. It was several agonizingly-long seconds later that she looked up at them with a stricken expression on her brow, "This isn't good."

"You guys go find Appa; we'll take care of Jet." Smellerbee assured, a hoarseness rising into her scratchy voice.

Mariko looked away and bit on her lower lip, wanting to apologize to him for that brawl in the street a week ago, to say something… but no.
Her world, one side tied to Zuko, the other side tied to the friends she'd made, should stay the way it was: separate.

It would crumble if they were to ever collide.

::::::::dOb::::::::

A breath of fresh air made its way into her nostrils, and she was grateful.

Aang's jerked stare past his shoulder at their wake earned a look from her before she followed his gaze and swore at seeing seven green-clad agents sprinting on them, and gaining.

"Go, I'll handle them!" Mariko snapped, skidding to a halt to round on the agents and send a wide cartwheel of fire screaming at them, breaking their footing; the sound of rocks breaking and forming shape sounded from the cliffside to her left, and five more agents were skiing down at her from the ledge above. She quickly formed a flame-shield to prevent from being cuffed, grunting and twisting on her heel to send a wide fire-spin at the offenders, chucking some of them into the river and others to crash into the cliffside. She wasted no second in bolting headlong after her friends, perking up as the ground shifted beneath her and a pillar jetted up to seize her right foot; twirling around, she delivered a vicious blast of flames at the still-standing agent, doing a small somersault to hit the ground running, soon catching up to her friends.

Mariko skidded to a halt just short of running into Katara and perked up to see Long Feng plus five or so agents flanking him, lifting up a high wall with the earthbenders astride, and another wall rose up behind them by the use of the recovered agents, caging them in.

Aang blinked when Momo began chittering excitedly as he hopped onto his shoulder. "What is it, Momo?" The lemur flew high up and twirled once higher into the air before a large silhouette came into view, diving down onto the scene.

"APPA!" Aang cried.

In one fell swoop, the bison batter-rammed both walls, sending the agents flying into the water like skipped rocks, and both Aang and Toph sent the remaining five (who were awaiting the moment to descend from the cliffside; crafty bastards…) flying into the river.

Movement came into view as Long Feng pulled himself out of the ruined wall just as Appa touched ground right infront of him. "I can handle you by myself!" Long Feng snarled as he made to earthbend against a highly-irate bison, only to have his extended leg be snagged in said beast's teeth and then sent skipping across the riverfront by a sharp fling from Appa.

Appa spat out his slipper just before the five teenagers launched themselves at him from the side as he flopped down onto the ground, happy cheers going all around at finally having him back.

The group was back together again.

A/N: not much to put, but the big finale of Book II is coming up~ stay tuned!

preview of the next chap:
'Three years alone apparently garnered a silver tongue.'