Book 5: Humanity

by Freedom0153

Korra wanted peace after defeating Kuvira. Then life happened. During her Spirit World vacation, an unlikely gift from an old friend caused a great rift between many spirits and humans. Even conflict with the Earth Empire wasn't over, Kuvira's surrender opening a vacuum. To restore balance, Korra needs any allies she can get, finding her growing love for Asami giving Korra peace.

59. Chapter 59: The Camp: Solid Foundations

Author's Note: Due to real life heating up, chapters will definitely be shorter, and likely more infrequent.

Chapter 59: The Camp: Solid Foundations

Now out of someone else's inner dream world, intending to stick to schedule and what was relevant as best she could, Jasmine felt her head swimming as she processed everything she had been infobent - some much more personal than other things. Jasmine had gotten every design she had asked for, and then some. Jasmine did not really understand why the Avatar had - no, Korra, she didn't like being called Avatar, let alone "Master Avatar"… Why Korra had included everything even remotely relevant, or why Raava thought a few glances at Baatar Jr. and small interest warranted giving her such… personal information about him.

Getting up, feeling her new scar sting slightly as she gathered some drawing supplies, Jasmine was not entirely sure which was more annoying, finding her thoughts scattered. Starting to reproduce the simplest systems carefully, beginning with what she had decided to call the "put-put cart" and "Meesile cart," her mind wandered, thinking as she traced out their designs painstakingly, hoping to understand why she'd been given part of what was bugging her, "I don't know what's 'worse'. Knowing details about weapon systems I can never hope to produce in the camp without mover acid, not even having the sulfur necessary for weaponized sparkpowder, 'Lipowder'… or knowing admittedly intriguing things about Baatar Jr. I wouldn't feel comfortable telling even Kuvira, let alone his own mother." Remembering with annoyance Raava's flimsy reasoning for dumping all that on her, but still finding herself… interested nonetheless, Jasmine internally groaned - knowing Raava had been right in her assessment given how the latter ate at her mind just as much as the weapons situation, grumbling as it took up more of her mindspace than she would have liked, "Ugh, wish I could just tell my head to shut up, like I've told Aye-zul to. All that personal stuff's about as relevant to the camp as the spawning habits of elephant koi."

Finished drawing the criminally simple put-put cart, sure it would be very effective should the point ever come when they needed to use Lipowder in any form, she frowned slightly, thinking as she moved on to the Meesile cart, " I guess there is one thing that's sort of relevant - Baatar Jr.'s actions before his change of heart. 'Criminal' - I might have been a good-intentioned cog in Baatar Jr.'s machine, the one he shared with Kuvira and Jinshu Kuangmai until recently… but… I was still their 'Chief Containment Officer.'" Feeling a bit down, Jasmine found herself sighing outwardly as she drew the small crude Meesile's schematics, if you could call them that, little more than glorified fireworks, "I always wonder if I did enough. Could have pushed the boundaries a little harder, fed people better," asking no one in particular, "What would have I done, tonight, had the Avatar never found out about what Jinshu Kuangmai wanted to do? Never contacted me - would I have tried to stop it? Jinshu Kuangmai's sick little dinner party?"

Frowning at the paper in disgust, knowing full well the answer was yes, Jasmine was much bitterer when she asked no one in particular, "Left more alone than Baatar Jr. was, in that box, him at least having Ikki to help. I would've had some hungry and reluctant prisoners at best… Would I have been able to DO ANYTHING about it? Some of the defectors said - said that without those spirits scaring them off the fence between rebellion in favor of conscience and following orders to stay alive, they would have gone along with it. Carried out the orders - I would have died alone, without the spirit's help... Even Chin and his men would have taken me down, given they didn't turn in reality," crying a little as she said, "I told Korra the weak 'why' behind him staying - but it still makes no sense. I'll never understand… I don't want to. And I hope Jinshu Kuangmai doesn't find their families, have his vengeance that way…," smiling at the irony when she finished, "All I can hope is that they're so busy with me and my camp that they forget about the little things."

The only acknowledgement she gave a light rapping outside the door was a much more authoritative, "Not now - I'm busy," Jasmine shook her head, thinking, "Less whining, more working. I'm acting more like my new 'allies' did in that meeting earlier - emotional buffoons. Felt like President Raiko and Yangchen were the only ones on the same wavelength as I was." After the fact, fumbling out more drawing supplies and turning the lights on dimly, Jasmine remembered that wasn't entirely true - Baatar Jr.'s friend Ikki had been the one to get the Avatar to hurry up and give her what she needed in the first place, instead of a bunch of "pie-in-the-sky" modern designs…

Jasmine didn't even know if she'd be able to make basic fire-earth, and that optimist Korra was giving her the designs for Varrick guns. Finally finding a ruler, Jasmine re-touched the blueprints, making sure the multiple rows and barrels of the put-put cart were perfect, thinking, "Meesile cart - it doesn't matter if it's sloppy. This one, on the other hand… The other weapons - I guess knowing can't hurt. And not knowing could hurt, if some sort of miracle occurs. Who knows the next time I'll get to 'talk' to her, spirit's help or not," idly as she mindlessly corrected the initial sloppy drawing and made a few changes to make the design to better incorporate firebending and earthbending into its use. The modifications were simple enough - the tubes bent open and re-sealed with metalbending after jamming in Lipowder behind the metalbent-in projectiles using earthbending, everything lit by firebending the Lipowder hot enough to combust through the metal…

Remembering that not every firebender in the camp would want to fight, only slightly over a fourth of the 2,000 some waterbenders and 2,000 some firebenders inside her camp willing to fight, she was tempted to crumple up her changed blueprints in frustration, not sure she wanted to use the ones willing to fight or Aye-zul as glorified lighters. Aye-zul would rather be fighting himself, rather than servicing some gun… Remembering how even the reluctant fighter Sura had eventually started helping, saving what Jasmine knew to be a high-security prisoner's firebending daughter from death by killing the man's attacker herself, Jasmine let the blueprints be.

Sighing deeply as her mind wandered back to resignation at her situation, knowing she'd have to keep her "business face" on shortly, need to be strong and focus on the doing and not the feeling or excessive thinking, she decided to sketch out a few other weapons she knew the blueprints for. Thinking for a moment, she opted to sketch a comparatively primitive "hand-cranked 1876 Gatling Gun" and "repeating Winchester Model 1894 Rifle" instead of either model of the much more complicated Varrick guns, recently designed "Agni Kai" rapid-repeating rifle or any other advanced Lipowder weaponry Korra had seen fit to include. Not having a clue what the numbers meant, only that the weapons were simpler and came from another world, Jasmine mused as she finished the smaller weapon's sketch, "These 'boom-sticks', I believe is the English phrase… We might not even be able to make these, let alone the Gatling gun. Even if they do look like rubbish compared to what Yangchen can make in Omashu, children's toys compared to the Raging Shark Whale or now-wrecked Colossus… I thought Wan Shi Tong wasn't supposed to give humans things for war, let alone things from another plane."

Not expecting a response, Jasmine jumped slightly when she heard a familiar feminine voice say from behind a closed door, "He isn't the only one outside his 'comfort zone'," Jasmine bending the door open and asking, "Hey, uh… how much did you hear of what I said, Painted Lady?" The spirit came into her now-brightly lit quarters slowly, Jasmine feeling torn between annoyance and feeling consoled when the Painted Lady said, smiling as she held out a white hand, "Enough. Enough to know there's a Jasmine other than the one that's made sure her camp's 'orderly'." Jasmine smiled when the Painted Lady continued, hearing some noises outside her quarters again, "Keeping things together outside, to better protect those inside these walls. What I want to do - protect people," Jasmine remembering better what they might be up against when the spirit continued, clearly pained, "I'm a long ways from 'home', Jang Hui - mainly because of what Jinora showed me, about those horrible weapons. Death of more than a city - death of a world…" Vaguely recalling something about Jinshu Kuangmai wanting nothing to do with the weapons, Jasmine asked as Aye-zul came in, blue fire adding illumination to Wan Shi Tong coming behind him and part of Hei Bai's form outside the door, "Didn't Jinshu Kuangmai say he wanted to rule - not see everything turned to ash…?"

The Painted Lady not looking convinced, she said, "I am not entirely sure what you have seen - I only know the reason I left Jang Hui: to protect it and the rest of the Fire Nation from suddenly no longer existing. People are as ever-changing as water, Jasmine - what someone says today can be gone tomorrow," deferring to her other large spirit ally, Aye-zul looking annoyed to be passed over in favor of Wan Shi Tong. The knowledge spirit let out a low sigh after Jasmine bent the light switch to fully illuminate her quarters, stating, "Indeed - human's habit of changing their minds, or simple duplicity were two of the biggest reasons I made my library inaccessible to mortals until recently. I had many people come to my library for one purpose, leave with something else, most often for war," blue eyes glinting temporarily as he said, "Including those who have the right motivations, even if I did not always understand the reasoning behind them. Perhaps it was just that Sokka got on my last nerve, tricking me and stealing after I told him not to… but that is seventy years past," continuing after coming closer, Jasmine feeling slightly threatened, "But my assistance of a man most foul, Unalaq, is not. He told me plenty of pretty lies as well, for a much darker purpose," Jasmine relaxing again when he continued, "Do not worry, Jasmine - I appear 'angry' because I am feeling you humans call 'consternation'. At the time, I thought no human would manage to trick me again - and Unalaq… he tricked me far worse than with some knot, or stealing something to help defeat an out-of-control human empire." Looking annoyed more than anything, Wan Shi Tong seemingly finished, "He even told me Jinora was wrong about men in tiny boxes. He played to my former arrogance, off my own ignorance of mankind, believing him when he told me he was looking out for spirits and not himself, that humans were repeating past mistakes again. Deserved ten thousand years of darkness when they did not. I 'heard' you pondering why I allowed the Avatar access to those outdated weapons - your allies have already far outstripped them, so I do not see the harm in releasing them." Jasmine was puzzled when he added, knowing what he referred to, wondering what a tuber-vine powered piece of equipment like the Raging Shark Whale had anything to do with her camp, "Or, for that matter, the variable-wing geometry Korra 'stole' earlier for the Raging Shark Whale - a careful metalbender in an aircraft could do far better than any mechanical contraption could. No matter - that is Raava's business, not mine. Though I do not understand… enough of that. Sweeping and adjusting wings, even my library for most of its old and new contents - they have nothing to with the camp."

Wan Shi Tong turned his head to the door, saying as Aye-zul hopped up and down madly, "Enough talking. I can tell you more of Unalaq at some other time - clear up some misconceptions he planted in my mind, and perhaps you or Avatar Korra would find something useful in my babble as well. Knowing you and your punctuality, preference for order, I only have this to say: the day is waiting," Wan Shi Tong hissing lightly in exasperation when Aye-zul said, "Yeah - plenty of metaltossers to rough up, with my buddy Hei Bai!" Jasmine frowned with concern to notice Hei Bai seemed excited from what little she could see of Hei Bai's massive body through the door, not unlike how she had heard Naga might have acted hearing her master say "fight". Pointing at Aye-zul, she said, Wan Shi Tong looking pleased to see she had gotten his drift, "Yes - let's go," saying as she left, thumbing the Gatling gun's blueprint to the top, "Aye-zul - quit asking for a fight. I'm hoping we don't get one. Omashu's better equipped to deal with an attack than us. Hopefully Wuqing's dumb enough to not see that. Anyways - I've got four blueprints here I want to get every one of Jinshu Kuangmai's former scientists looking at. Maybe give that train another personal inspection."

Exiting her quarters, quickly taking in the high, extra-thick, barbed-wire topped metal walls of her camp without any real interest, having seen them many times before now, even the new spirit weapon turrets fashioned from metal using spirit weapons carried from the Train of Death as the "sexually interesting" had taken to calling it, her focus shifted to looking down. Down at the primitive weapon's blueprints in her hands in the strengthening morning light, and knowing it was still miles ahead of anything they'd be facing at first. Jasmine smiled tentatively, grinning broadly as she said, very close to the large group of "sexually interesting" prisoners, "He made a huge mistake. If those scientists are more cooperative than the prisoners, maybe we'll have equipment better than this, rehaul our spirit weaponry if we get synthesis working. The 'normal' prisoners weren't threatened with death, aren't, if our little resistance fails… the 'sexually interesting' have a lot more to lose. The Train of Death… I can't imagine any of those scientists are too pleased with Jinshu Kuangmai." Looking at the blueprints in her hands again, standing still near Hei Bai, Jasmine frowned slightly, saying, "Well… none of this looks non-lethal," no longer frowning as much as she realized, "On a squishy target, that is - and with how many mechasuits you guys - and gal, Painted Lady, sorry - saw being ferried to the front last night, there shouldn't be a single exposed soldier among them." Aye-zul shrugged and asked incredulously, "How's that a good thing, exactly?" as Hei Bai growled lowly for a while, Jasmine not sure why Aye-zul was nodding smugly, even after she said, "Wh - hey! I know a lot of those guys outside our walls - Chin's men! And if the Avatar's right about the barriers, I'd like to keep the killing to a minimum." Aye-zul laughed derisively, saying, "Miss Stinky's crazy - barrier, shmarrier. We have to fight Long Yumao sooner or later anyways. Enough about the Avatar - I'll 'deal' with you first. Jasmine, are you not listening to Hei Bai? Sheesh."

Jasmine shook her head, frowning slightly when Aye-zul laughed derisively again after she said, "No, I can't understand him - and whatever he has to say doesn't change my position! I'll only kill if I really need to, like that spy!" Recollecting himself, Aye-zul said as Hei-Bai stopped "talking" for a while, "If we don't knock these guys out, you humans might not be able to survive the first punch they throw, with this death particle weapon thing I've heard rumors about. Us spirits would be just fine, as long as we avoid the blast, maybe even if we get hit. You squishy humans… wouldn't even be able to stand a good dose of the death particles. Even Wan Shi Tong and the Painted Lady agree with me on that." Neither the Painted Lady nor Wan Shi Tong were nodding in agreement any longer when Aye-zul held out a blue flame, eliciting obvious nodding agreement from Hei Bai when he said, "Forget those metal spirit weapon things - we've got four of the ORIGINAL here! Mad spirits! And we're not the only spirits around either! Just call for Alyssralove's help - go make sure they can't do anything! I say, the best defense's a good offense." Pausing for a moment, Aye-zul said, touching a finger to his chin, "There are a lot of them, though… Going on the attack - maybe not until you get your human friends to make those things you drew. That could just be the hotheaded fire 'talking'," returning to a smug knowing look, saying, "Still think we shouldn't hold back." Looking back at Aye-zul's massive friend, Jasmine was not sure how to read the giant black and white spirit's body language, swearing Hei Bai looked uncomfortable with going all out, Hei Bai "spoke" again, Jasmine smiling slightly to see Aye-zul look a little ashamed.

Then again, she couldn't understand Hei Bai's speech, only its effect on the other nearby spirits… and the great black and white forest spirit did seem to be going on for quite a long time, Jasmine noticing the Painted Lady was not the only one nodding by the end.

Jasmine felt less bizarrely upbeat about the whole thing when Wan Shi Tong translated for Hei Bai, saying, "Jasmine, you would do well to remember who we are fighting… as odd as those words seem, coming out of my beak. Fighting with humans, against other humans - this will take some getting used to, to say the least. It seems to me Raava did not think through the long-term implications of soliciting spirits to fight in human wars… then again, without the Spirit Civil War propagated by a power-hungry spirit who does not care about such trivialities such as morals, I would likely be sitting in my library right now, wondering how a radio works - receiving news from one of my assistants about spirit weapons. One thing hasn't changed about Vaatu, or the people that follow him, though: they sure do not like the truth being told." Re-focusing on an antsy-looking Aye-zul, Wan Shi Tong said, "Oh, quit hopping about! You're as high strung as a toddler on sucrose right now," Aye-zul looking slightly offended when the knowledge spirit continued, "That's sugar, in case you didn't know. Regardless, I do not share the same view as Hei Bai on these men, let alone going the extreme Aye-zul seems to prefer - my first time fighting, I did not kill anyone, let alone toast and shock an entire platoon or two's worth of soldiers to their next life, or the equivalent - mass suffocation. Aye-zul seemed a little too… eager for my tastes." Aye-zul sighing in irritation, Jasmine noticing they were no longer alone, Wan Shi Tong continued, "In case you didn't understand what Hei Bai said, here is a rough translation: 'Bad men came in metal suits to protect metal head soldiers. Who tore up my forest for ore, experimented on the trees near shrine. Because they had heard I live there, in the woods - a forest spirit. Put pieces of wood in funny capsules, decided it wasn't worth fighting me for what they wanted. I won. Different men came back later with small spirit weapon in dead of night. For another job, look for funny yellow rocks. I fought when they started ruining forest for funny yellow rocks - and lost. Those men and women meaner than first group, taunt me as I lay injured. Only reason not red line and purple as well as black now is because Jinora and Kai remind me humans can be good or bad, like her grandfather. Remember him well. Also still smell many of the men and women who came to my forest nearby… no spirit cry for their death. Not even Raava, I think. But think hothead aye-aye spirit partially wrong - try not kill. Not people like in first group. Otherwise, worse than first people who came to my forest, as bad as second 'smelly' group.'"

Jasmine rubbed her eyes in disbelief, hoping Hei Bai would understand her when she asked, "Hei Bai - can you remember anything about those funny yellow rocks? Did they emit bad energy like the stuff you've sensed recently?" The great spirit appeared to mull it over, Jasmine was surprised when it seemed to laugh, sending a gout of blue and white spirit energy skyward as the spirit hit the ground with one of its extra arms so hard Jasmine needed to use earthbending to stay upright. Wan Shi Tong said with relief, "He just remembered what gold ore looks like - that's what they found," saying preemptively, "No, Jasmine, they did not find Korranium there." Asking Hei Bai one last question for now, Jasmine said, "Did they seem happy to find gold?" her stomach sinking when the spirit shook its powerful head, grumbling something that Wan Shi Tong translated as, " 'Bad men and women took out their frustration on me for not find right yellow rock before Jinora and Kai come. Wanted something else - other yellow rock. Took other yellow rock to help find other yellow rock. Not understand how gold help find… Think must be what you call 'Korranium'. Bad name, if rock bad, like men and women.'"

Jasmine sighed, saying, "And they had a small spirit weapon… something Kuvira never used, only Jinshu Kuangmai seeing fit to hand out the prototypes, ramp up production of them. Looks like the Painted Lady's definitely right to be suspicious of Jinshu Kuangmai. Thank you, Hei Bai." The spirit lowered its massive black and white head in what appeared to be a bow, Jasmine asking as she look at the spirit's admittedly light blue but still sharp teeth, "Uhm… would you mind being a panda instead, Hei Bai? I know I've asked you this before, but I'd - "

Interrupting her before she could say, "Appreciate it," the spirit roared, Jasmine able to see his teeth plenty well as he gave her the same strong "white and blue answer" it had before. Jasmine was finally glad to "understand" when Aye-zul said, "No, he's not switching forms! Quit asking that! He's angry at both groups of metaltossers who ruined his forest home, the people they work for, Long Yumao for almost tricking him! Of course he's not going to be cute and cuddly! It's like when a human's face flushes - but a lot more impressive!" Jasmine bent a small rock at Aye-zul, saying, "A flushed face is plenty impressive, intimidating - it just depends on who's making it," laughing lightly when he said, "Hey, quit that! You know it's true! And you should be glad I decided to put my fancy new claws away earlier, not asking for more, like some kind of metaltoss - oh. Whoops. Bad metaltosser." Laughing slightly at Aye-zul's weak "save", hoping he could properly discern between friend and foe with his weird spirit sight when the time came to fight, Jasmine nodded when Wan Shi Tong pointed out, "Hei Bai's larger form does afford more combat capability, just like my own - and it is what is inside that counts the most anyways. The energy of Raava, and not Vaatu or Long Yumao. Now why don't you see what these other humans want." Jasmine snickered when the person nearest her protested, "Hey - I have a name, you know, Wan Shi Tong!", Wan Shi Tong sighing in irritation, "One which I do not know. Even the humans who managed to trick me over seven decades ago did not recognize me immediately, despite knowing they were in my library, and the name of said library. Even their esteemed Professor Zei did not put the pieces together, too busy gawking at architecture."

The man by now biting his fingernails, Jasmine wondering if Aye-zul was right and that they should just try and scare the enemy to surrender or death with spirit power, she asked his name as she handed him the drawings, giving him a glare when he seemed more interested in the blueprints. Wan Shi Tong giving him a slight glare as well, the spirit sighed, "Complaining about names, forgetting it when you get to see some shiny new blueprint - I will never understand humans, even if I do understand which ones are the bad ones," Jasmine bursting into laughter when the man asked without a hint of the irony, "Oh, wow - where did you get this thing, Jasmine?!". Wan Shi Tong now had both wingtips over his face, asking seemingly no one, "Why must you humans ask so many questions?", adding with wings back down, as he stared at the nervous scientist, "My library, for what it's worth, whoever you are - though not a section you can just stroll into, should you manage to meditate into its Spirit World home in the first place. Even the Avatar is not completely free to browse those sections as she chooses."

Still looking nervous the man said, "Ooookay - still not used to talking with spirits," gulping slightly when Aye-zul asked, "What are you used to doing with spirits - putting their home in a capsule and using it for war?" Jasmine groaned, saying hotly as the man made to slink away, "Sorry for my spirit ally's conduct. Uhuh- no you don't. Get back here - don't you want to help beat off the people we both used to work for?" The man nodded, saying, "Yes - the name's Fai," Jasmine saying, "Good, Fai. I've got a few other things for you to look at before you go. Just give me a second… AYE-ZUL! Quit being crotchety. Fai is on our side, idiot," wondering if Aye-zul needed to burn off some steam or something when he retorted, "He's got a fancy suit on, didn't run away when Jinshu Kuangmai took over - and for that matter, same for you! Still wearing that armor too!"

Hei Bai turned to face Aye-zul, the smaller spirit shrinking back as Hei Bai opened his mouth, Aye-zul saying, "Alright, alright, yeesh! I'll calm down," adding not a second later, "Though, I do feel like I need to do something! Preferably bending!" Jasmine smiled slightly, asking both Hei Bai and Aye-zul, stepping closer to Hei Bai and noticing she felt safe and not intmidated, "Do you know how to make the 'put-put cart' - or do you need the blueprint?" Both spirits nodding, Jasmine realizing she hadn't had her question answered, she leaned her hand against Hei Bai's closest large white limb and its odd blue badgermole-like claws. Looking at Hei Bai's white "hand", knowing enough about spirits even before recently to know his hands had shifted in shape to hold the new claws much like a dog's paw might, Jasmine saw something she hadn't before. Up close, Jasmine now noticed they had metallic edges. A certain metallic sheen, closer to images she'd seen of Alyssralove's claws secondhand than any badgermole. More than just a sheen…

They must have been pure metal. Just like her own weapons... except it looked alive.

Jasmine remembered aloud as she looked at her hand, extruding her armblade briefly, noticing a bit of blood still there, "Metalheart - bad all the time, but not always a bad thing. It can help you make tough decisions… Maybe I'm being a little harsh on you and Aye-zul, Hei Bai - I did kill a man not too long ago with my armblade, after all, and with less thought than what you had, based on the Painted Lady told me later… I just lopped that spying elephant rat's head off automatically. You had some hesitation - not much, but some." Noticing that the blue diamond on Hei Bai's forehead was pulsing oddly, feeling strange herself, she gave Aye-zul a glare upon seeing his smug look, the spirit saying, "Maybe you won't be annoyed if I 'automatically' zap some people later then, miss high and mighty human?", she said, "Haha - very funny. You've got a direct link to Raava herself, and some primitive ability to judge people from afar on top of that - all I've got is my own judgement, so wipe that look off your face." Aye-zul predictably not doing so, Jasmine wondering just what in the hell Avatar Wan and Korra had to do to gain his implicit trust before this, she said tersely, "Enough. Now, before - which one were you nodding to? Yes, you need the blueprint, or yes, you already know?"

After a slight pause, finally noticing a sensation not unlike that she experienced when the Avatar was infobending coursing through her in reverse, Hei Bai grumbled something that for all the world sounded like a bear trying to say, "See". Jasmine confused, the earth beneath her feet began move slightly. Jasmine jumped back, noticing Hei Bai was moving his smaller arms, a small-scale model of a Varrick gun made out of earth now in front of her. Rubbing her forehead, saying, "The 'hell' - don't recall being able to infobend," Jasmine was still puzzled as Fai looked over all this when the Painted Lady said, "That's not infobending - something relatively new. Jinora did it to me recently… seems like you're more advanced than you give yourself credit for." As Hei Bai bent a representation of another out-of-reach weapon, appearing fascinated by his handiwork in re-creating the Avatar's personal bladed weapons, Jasmine knowing there was no way they could ever produce spirit wire without tuber-vines, the Painted Lady explained, "Jinora transmitted a vision of Earth's destruction via touch a few days ago. She said her grandfather once did something similar with Hei Bai, despite not having learned energybending at that time to my knowledge," Jasmine feeling conflicted when the Painted Lady insisted, "From what I've gathered, only someone who's fairly enlightened can do that."

Looking down at her chest, seeing the metal drop of blood she still hadn't gotten around to bending off, Jasmine did so with disgust, saying as she held it up, twisting and warping the red metal, "Look at this thing I just took off my chest - symbol of evil. And I worked for the old Earth Empire for a long time - just like Fai and the rest of these 'special' prisoners. Jinora helped save the world - all I did was mole work, still technically helping the Earth Empire," nodding when Fai finally spoke, saying, "Even if Jasmine did do more than I did, risking her neck for people like me… the only time I questioned what was going on was when I was outed by Jinshu Kuangmai… we both still worked for the Earth Empire. And knowing my work helped the old Kuvira and her replacement… I don't feel proud of myself. Even Jasmine - basically saying she's as advanced as Jinora, someone whose family my old old boss almost killed, that Colossus… How can you say that?" The Painted Lady giving her a look that made Jasmine feel like she was a foolish child, the spirit said, "Perhaps you will need to see this on your own time and your own," Fai looking similarly small when the Painted Lady told him, "Focus on protecting what you've got right now, your fellow prisoners, the camp - not what past misguided or evil boss you helped protect before now."

Fai nodding, Jasmine noticing both Aye-zul and Hei Bai looked ready to act, she smiled slightly when the Painted Lady asserted, "I used to be human, just like Iroh. They don't immortalize just anyone, you know," Jasmine responding, "Let's see what the day has in store for us. Aye-zul, Hei Bai - go try and make a put-put cart and Meesile cart for testing." Aye-zul holding out a hand, at first not sure why, Jasmine extended her hand when he said, "C'mon - I need the plan too!"

Touching the spirit's long fingers, thinking about nothing and everything at once seemingly, feeling a similar information transfer take place, Jasmine's face flushed when Aye-zul laughed slightly, saying incredulously, "Wait a minute - his girlfriend almost kills him with a huge spirit weapon, he turns on her, and he's worried about that?!" Jasmine blushed deeply when Aye-zul snorted, "Love to see you two whining with each other," saying in an even higher mocking voice, "'Oh, I let the Avatar know how to beat Kuvira's Colossus, got through my mom leaving me in a box like an animal when I didn't want to give my very ex-girlfriend hugs and kisses, and I still have something to prove!", continuing in a voice that sounded somewhat like her own, " 'Oh, I let the Avatar know about a miniature genocide that was going to take place, risked my life to take a stand against Jinshu Kuangmai without knowing I'd get spirit help before-hand, but I helped the Earth Empire, so that doesn't count!' You humans are baffling." Still fuming, Jasmine stating coolly, "You'd understand if you were human," adding pre-emptively when the Painted Lady looked like she was going to say something, "And experienced the same things as I have." She was relieved when Aye-zul said with a final air, "Yeah, I got what I needed - and a bit more, if you didn't notice. I'll try to keep my yap shut - for now. Just give me and Hei Bai some metal to work with," chuckling slightly when Aye-zul looked exasperated when Jasmine pointed at the "Train of Death" that was at the other end of the camp.

Aye-zul smiling and saying, "Even if I can't metalbend… Love to tear that thing apart some more as best I can," his own teeth showing afterwards as he jetted off, Hei Bai apparently picked up on the implicit command, the massive spirit leaping over the other two spirits and the crowd of "sexually interesting" prisoners that had gathered towards the train's direction. Jasmine turned to face the Train of Death, noticing the large red blood drop in the center of Jinshu Kuangmai's new Earth Empire symbol on the lead car's warped and diminished side, she said, "Come on, Fai - bring whatever friends of yours can bend, or want to see what I've got for you. We can talk while we work, tearing into that train again." Walking off after Fai nodded, not waiting to see what if anything he was going to do, Jasmine took another good look at the train's front, saying with a smile, "And I know just what piece of metal I'm removing first."

Laughing slightly when she heard Fai's voice say, "No - I want to remove the drop of blood!", Jasmine jokingly said, "I'm calling rank," swearing she heard Wan Shi Tong sigh in the distance when Fai said, "Yes, Ma'am!" Walking faster, not having expected a response from anyone but Fai, Jasmine heard a woman say, "That red drop - you've got competition. I want to crumple it up real good." As she approached the walled-off train and the bent-in stairs that led to the train's resting place outside the camp's thick walls, Jasmine said as she realized something, "We better make this quick, bend the train away from the walls after, or we've got what amounts to a ramp leading in here." Hearing the same voice respond, "Yeah - had thought of that, and I've got every reason in the world to want these walls to not be compromised," Fai saying, "Same here," Jasmine stopped and gave the woman a quick look as she prepared to launch herself at the train with bending, saying quickly, "Stop - I'll catapult all three of us there. What was your name, again?"

Stopping, Jasmine noticing she had a stained white unisex coat just like Fai had on, the woman said after adjusting her brown glasses, "I overheard a lot of what you were saying around Fai earlier," sighing as a lone tear formed in the corner of one of her sad green eyes, "Until Jinshu Kuangmai had his 'fun' after the conference, just like Fai, I was going along with what was happening. We both were even present for the Spirit Weapon's first test, worked closely with Baatar Jr…" Having gotten so much personal information about Baatar Jr. from Raava, Jasmine felt like she needed to say something when the woman asked, Fai looking concerned as she spoke more, "Sort of like Baatar Jr. in that way, I guess - forced to listen. Him, when Kuvira fired on him, us, when… well, you know. Last I heard of Baatar Jr., he had finally listened to his conscience, sounded just fine. What's this I heard from that firebender spirit about him being locked up in a box?" Sighing deeply, the woman finally saying, "Name's Maylin, by the way," Jasmine was not sure if she'd rather talk about Baatar Jr.'s special program or what those morons did with him and the box. Jasmine sighed, abandoning the idea of catapulting, "The only people on the same page as I am earlier were President Raiko and Yangchen… And given what Suyin did to Baatar Jr., I half wonder if all the old propaganda about Suyin was true." Maylin giving her an odd look, Jasmine said as they approached the earthen staircase, "Let's just say even though I'm fighting against the Earth Empire now, I wish my new allies would display some of the same sense Kuvira, hell, even Jinshu Kuangmai did."

Getting an odd blank look from Fai that quickly turned to anger, something closer to murderous from Maylin, anger plenty visible behind her frumpish glasses in glinting jade eyes, Jasmine backtracked, saying as she covered her face, "Sorry. Didn't think - sentencing top scientists to death just because of who they want to bone makes no sense. Not to mention, evil…", glad to see Maylin smiling again after Jasmine said, "Not that evil ever makes sense." Nodding, making Jasmine laugh when he asked, "You'll have to tell me more about this… 'herr', no, 'hell' place - never heard of an underworld, just the Fog of Lost Souls," Fai mentioned something Jasmine didn't know about, slightly incredulous at first, "We're not the only top scientists top get caught in the dragnet. The two guys, a couple, were behind making Varrick's… initially ridiculous and sometimes hilarious mechasuit designs a reality. They even managed to make the chainsaws work like Varrick wanted, designed soldier's armor - including Kuvira's. They got 'busted' too." Blushing slightly, Fai said, rubbing his military haircut as his green eyes darted back and forth, "I… won't say how busted, even if… let's just say, once you got to know them they'd likely tell you how without blushing at all. Probably laugh about it."

Jasmine laughed slightly, able to put the pieces together, thinking, "Surprised Jinshu Kuangmai didn't just execute them there and then," as they approached the top of the wall separating them from the cordoned-off train. Examining the handiwork that she had wanted to oversee instead of attend the Avatar's meeting, though she was glad in the end she had "forced" herself back to sleep, still plenty tired as is, Jasmine was pleased to see that seven of the ten spirit weapons she had salvaged from the train's contents had been fitted into turrets on the impromptu earthen wall. Someone had even commissioned adding on a sheath of metal to the wall as well as tweaking the spirit cannon turrets slightly, the new design looking like it had a wider arc of fire. Jasmine curious as to who had done this, she pointed out, "Don't remember asking for metal sheathing and barbed wire on top." She smiled when Maylin said proudly, "Me, Fai, Aiqing, and Maxiu were behind it. The couple we mentioned. We were the ones who helped Jinshu Kuangmai with the miniaturization prototypes of the spirit weapons and helped Baatar Jr. with the original, and they helped Baatar Jr. design all the Earth Empire's walls and defenses, pulling from classical Earth Kingdom design some. Both of us like to tinker with stuff as a hobby, let alone a job - Aiqing and Maxiu are into 'classic' weapons and armor, and with mechasuits, their hobbies are sort of relevant." Approving, knowing the other two's hobby of classical weapons might come in handy should they get out and back to either Omashu or Republic City, Jasmine said, Fai and Maylin blushing at first, "Sounds like you are all pretty overqualified for working with what I've got for you then. I might even have work for them with 'classic' weapons. Once we're done here, I want to talk to Aiqing and Maxiu. We've only got a relative handful of mechasuits - if they can do for them with your help what you did with the wall, we'll be in much better shape."

Pointing at the train, seeing two familiar allies already at work on it, Hei Bai and Aye-zul still having no luck penetrating a few cars Jasmine suspected were coated in platinum, Jasmine said, "They're trying those cars again," noticing other parts of the train's carcass warping as she said, "Looks like they're not the only ones doing something. Let's get to work - maybe I can tell you more about Baatar Jr. then, since you seemed interested." Spotting two men working side by side under the watch of a third, Jasmine recognizing the third vaguely, she said, "There - them. Let's go help them," smiling when Maylin said, "Hey - look, Fai! That's Aiqing and Maxiu!", missing something from Fai as she finally placed who the third man was as she got closer, Jasmine saying, "Hey - that's the train's conductor!"

Looking up at the massive train, able to see plenty of evidence of the previous night's fight, Jasmine said as she bent off the train's red blood drop from the center of the Earth Empire symbol, "Hey, conductor - never got your name. What was it, again? And what do you have Aiqing and Maxiu working on?" Setting down the red metal nearby, not sure what she'd do with it, Jasmine listened as the man responded, trying along with Fai and Maylin to rip off the train's battered and slightly scorched large front metal point, "My name is Fudan, 'Chief Containment Officer' Jasmine," Jasmine so distracted by this odd title usage she stopped being. Putting her hands on her hips, she said, "I thought people weren't supposed to call me that!", Fudan smiling and responding, "Technically, yes - but from what I've gathered, you want to keep these walls up still. A container can be to keep people in - or others out…"

Jasmine shook her head, saying, "Might be clever and true - but I don't want to be called that," Fudan saying, "Fine - thought I'd try and bring a little humor in. I'd heard rumors about your camp - a nice but serious place. Guess even if you are working for the Avatar you're still boss," Jasmine glad when he finally explained, "Earlier, while you were asleep, I was looking through the train's cabin, before people started taking it apart. Found a manifest of some sort when one of the 'rebels' bent open a combination lock in the cabin for me." Holding up a piece of paper, Jasmine noticing it had something threaded to it with a small piece of metal, Fudan said, "There was some sort of unofficial add-on the guy who got this for me said he didn't remember. Jasmine - have any idea who might want to give Chin a gift, and what it might be?"

Thinking for a moment, Jasmine's eyes widened, saying, "No - have no clue who'd be giving him a gift. But I have a pretty good idea what it might be. Here - give me that, please." Fudan nodded, saying as he unthreaded the metal holding the two sheets of paper together, "There was another unbendable box in the train's conductor station. Nobody knew the contents or combination. Seems like there's something Jinshu Kuangmai didn't want finding on this train." Jasmine nodded, yelling, "HEI BAI! AYE-ZUL! Don't bother trying to bend that metal - I'm pretty sure it's platinum !", laughing in a mix of annoyance and bitterness when Aye-zul shouted from the train's other side, "No! I need to get my anger out on something - Raava's my boss, not you!" Turning her attention back to Fudan, Jasmine sighed, "Maybe that's just the way the 'good guys' do things - insubordination and sass talk, not listening to common sense because feelings." Fudan shrugged, saying, "Who knows - and both Kuvira and Jinshu Kuangmai made plenty of worse decisions based off feelings," still insisting, "Forget mouthy spirits and the past. The other two spirits seem more willing to take 'orders' anyways from what I've seen -maybe those two will come around. Take a look at what I gave you - see if you know what is going on."

Inspecting the list in the early morning light, at first Jasmine didn't notice anything odd, reading, "Chin gets what he asks for - even if his boss doesn't know about it," pursing her lips before reading, "One of my kids is in your battalion - I hope this will help make sure nothing bad happens to him. I got the replacement mechasuit parts you requested." Feeling a bit guilty, knowing full well this mother or father's child might be going up against them soon, likely against equipment repaired with stuff meant for the unnamed child and his or her compatriots, Jasmine rattled off the list. Done, she commented, "Hmm… fuel supplies, spare parts, food, blankets, water, all that kind of basic stuff - sounds like a car we sifted through a while back. Or rather, Hei Bai tore open for us. We already gave that stuff up to the prisoners." Jasmine wondering if she'd find anything of real value as she scanned on down the list, she read, "I don't know much, but I hear you're working on something that needs funny supplies. The other higher ranking guy I talked to in supply parted with this stuff a lot easier than what's… in the second and third car?"

Now intrigued, taking note of which car the letter was talking about, Jasmine read, smiling broader and broader, "I got you some yellow stuff that they say comes from volcanoes - I heard through my son you needed 'sulfur' to make him and his platoon something to help them out. If the guy I talked to came through, Car 9 should be filled with that, plus the other funny stuff - charcoal and saltpeter." Reading the rest, saying, "Car 10 should have - ", stopping she was so happy at her stroke of luck, Jasmine forgot herself, fist-pumping into the air and saying, "YES!" loud enough for people on the other side of the train to hear her. Jasmine grumbled slightly when she heard Aye-zul snark from the other side, "Haven't heard you yell like that before. It's almost like you're not super serious! You becoming more like Miss Stinky or something? More 'human-y'?"

Normally, Jasmine would be tempted to go knock Aye-zul a peg down or two with a few pebbles to the face, too happy to do so, glad nonetheless to hear a familiar roar followed by the aye-aye spirit saying, "Okay, okay, Hei Bai! You don't have to curse. Sheesh."

Looking at the list again, she read the best part out loud, saying, "Car 10 should have some really weird stuff in it. My son Hanxu says you need mover acid for something, to prove to your boss that your idea has merit. The stuff that should be in Car 8 and 9 was hard enough to get. He wouldn't give it to you outright," beginning to laugh when she read, Fudan looking baffled, " This sounds like Jinshu Kuangmai's priorities. 'But the mover acid was much harder to get lined up to be snuck on. Jinshu Kuangmai wanted to use it in Omashu to start producing propaganda against Kuvira and the Avatar. I'll just say this - I won't be around when he finds out, though I have every confidence in Chin that he'll show he has a much better use for it.' What a vain idiot."

Fudan still looking baffled, Jasmine wondering what kind of guts this Hanxu's parent had to go behind Jinshu Kuangmai's back like this, noticing that Fai, Maylin, Aiqing and Maxiu were also staring at her, she said, "Let's go open Cars 9 and 10 - I'll explain why mover acid's such good news on the way there," explaining "fire-earth" in more detail on their way over from what she knew from Chin himself and what the Avatar had told her. About to begin explaining the use of mover-acid and why the other powder wasn't what they needed, she noticed Fai and Maylin were both nodding by the time she finished, Maylin saying, "That all seems familiar. I think I remember a bit more now - the, well, mover acid helps make the same crunchy 'go boom' stuff that was in Varrick's older mover films. Until you told us about the Avatar and her allies buying into this stuff, we had just discounted 'fire-earth'. Our job is spirit energy related everything, not Chin's pet project."

Looking down at the ground, Maylin said, "Or rather, was our job, before…", Jasmine interrupting as she started opening Car 9, "It still is your job - just you're not working for any confused abandoned 'orphans' anymore." Jasmine's eyes widening slightly when she heard Fai point out, "Only confused orphan I ever worked for was Kuvira," she was glad when one of the two gay couple came to her "rescue", not sure if it was Aiqing or Maxiu who said in a deep voice, "Whatever, Fai - need more than just this car's contents right now. Need the metal itself too. Let's do our job so we don't fall back into Earth Empire hands." Fai nodded, saying, "Okay - just not sure what myself and Maylin can do other than bend, Maxiu. You guys took more interest in fire-earth than we did," what must have been Maxiu saying as the glassless metal portion of Car 9 warped, "Well, part of this involves spirit vines, and you know from working with Varrick after the first accident they can be… volatile. Don't want to have anything other than Aiqing explo - " Jasmine laughed lightly when Fai interrupted, "Hey!", noticing he was blushing slightly when Maxiu quipped, "You're just jealous," as he bent down a large slab of metal, Fai saying, "Maybe. Whatever. Let's work!"

Jasmine noticing a large piece of metal ripping off the upper portion of the car and quickly suspended the scattered glass remains of the windows in the air, wondering if Aye-zul would be willing to be productive and melt the glass down instead of attacking platinum, she paused for a moment, curious about something else. Following the slab of steel out of curiosity as it morphed slightly, assuming the rough shape of an outsized "classic" Earth Empire symbol, what must have been Aiqing saying, "Our uniforms, mechasuits, everything except the 'new' stuff - it's got Jinshu Kuangmai's version of this on there," realizing he was talking directly to her when he asked, idly messing with his decidedly not military haircut, "Jasmine - how are we going to tell the difference between friend and foe when we're fighting?"

Not needing long for a response, Jasmine said as she lowered the glass shards back down to earth, trying her own hand at re-joining the pieces back together and succeeding, "Well, our spirit allies can judge that sort of thing from a distance - blue, 'good', red, 'bad'. It worked fine enough initially." Aiqing laughed slightly, no longer messing with his longer brown hair as he said, "Silly, I'm not worried about the spirits - I overheard a little of that when they first appeared! It's the people I'm worried about." Mulling it over for a little bit, Jasmine looked down at her metal-clad chest, smiling slightly as she pointed at what wasn't there, saying, "We'll just take that stupid, sickening drop of blood off everything. Red's pretty obvious," feeling a little exasperated when Aiqing pointed out, "Uh - not everyone was 'fancy' enough to get that suit of armor you've got on there, and the Private and Corporal's mechasuits don't have that on them."

Sighing, Jasmine was glad to hear Maylin point out from behind, "Given we're inside large walls, and they're outside… I think it will be plenty obvious who's friendly and not. The whole 'trying to tear down the walls' thing," Jasmine pointing out after a moment, Well… those walls are made of metal, concrete," continuing anyways despite everyone around her looking disturbed and Maxiu slapping himself in the forehead, "Given we're fighting against a whole ton of earthbenders and only slightly less metalbenders, to me, it's not an if the walls fall - it's a when. Before that time, I want something to distinguish friendlies." Maxiu sighed, saying as he put an arm around Aiqing, "She's right, as much as I hate to admit it. We helped Baatar Jr. design those walls, after all," bringing Aiqing a little closer as he finished, "I guess we'll just have to use good judgement, hope it's as good as what those spirits have. Let's get this stuff out of here - maybe someone will think of a more concrete symbol for us to wear."

Jasmine making short but hard work of getting the car's contents out with help once Fudan pointed out where some odd metal offloading ramps were located on the car, she caught her breath for a moment, whistling loudly and yelling, "Hei Bai, Aye-zul! See if you can get this stuff back inside!" After a slight pause, Jasmine's eyes widening in terror at first to see Aye-zul jetting over the remnants of Car 10's top, not knowing if what they had was flammable, nothing bad happened even when he accidentally heated one of the mover acid barrels, Jasmine groaning slightly when he asked indignantly, "What, are we just beasts of burden to you?"

Not feeling like putting up with any guff, she tersely said, "No - as far as I know, spirits can't get tired, but as you can see, humans can," covering her face in frustration when he snickered, laughing, "Ahah-ahah! Guess that not being serious earlier was a fluke. I was kidding, Miss… Serious! That's it. Though you do sort of smell - but Miss Stinky. That's the Avatar's name, not yours," Jasmine grumbling, "Call me by anything but my name, I'll tell everyone in this camp to call you Long Fingers the Annoying. Got it?" When Aye-zul shrugged, saying, "I don't care," Jasmine sighed, "I guess you wouldn't. I think you're just you - Raava wasn't this ridiculous." Feeling the earth shake and someone else joining them, Jasmine turned to what she could only assume was Hei Bai, noticing with a frown he had nearly landed on top of a mover acid barrel. Wondering just how the massive spirit had gotten over to their side, she looked up, noticing one of the turrets looked knocked out of place slightly, saying tersely as she tried to fix it, "Hey - Hei Bai, watch what you're doing! Almost landed on a barrel of acid, knocked a turret out of place…"

The great black and white spirit looking sort of sad, realizing she had just taken her annoyance with Aye-zul out on the gentle giant, Jasmine apologized, telling Aye-zul after, "Knock it off. I'm going to be very busy soon, hopefully using this stuff in testing those two weapons I wanted you and your friend to make…" Stopping, noticing the spirit looked a bit koala-sheepish, initially feeling like she wanted to lay into him, she refrained when she saw his odd tooth necklace pulse blue and white for a brief time, gabberflasted when he bowed when it stopped glowing, saying, "My apologies, Jasmine. Raava just told me very clearly to work with you as I would Avatar Korra." Aye-zul still smirked slightly, saying, "Can't guarantee no snarking at all, or no use of 'Miss Serious'," Jasmine finding herself caring less about this and more when he said, "I wasted my time and Hei Bai's trying to bust through that platinum on the two cars behind this one - after this, we will get your boom things made once you get this inside with Hei Bai."

Glad to have the spirit's somewhat respect finally, Jasmine helped get the large haul inside, saying after getting the most important items in first, "Hei Bai - bend an earth tent over the mover acid," demonstrating over a single barrel when the large spirit gave her a confused look.

Hei Bai imitating her, quickly covering each individual barrel of mover acid with its own personal tent, she remembered something that had happened earlier, thinking as she nodded, "Hope this works again, that the first time wasn't a fluke," hoping she didn't come across as annoyed when she said, "Hei Bai - just come here, please. I need to show you something."

The spirit obeying eagerly, Jasmine put her hand against his own, intending to just think of and transfer proper earthbending terminology to Hei Bai at first, ending up thinking about human nature as well instead, hoping it might help the spirit understand what and who he was fighting for and forgive people's slipups like her own earlier.

Thinking, "I wish everyone was as motivated as you are, willing to fight," and removing her hand, noticing there were now a few blue lines on Hei Bai's massive arms, the lines having a vaguely familiar shape, swearing she saw a white and blue yin yang symbol on his shoulders as he kneeled down, Hei Bai surprised her by temporarily shifting to his more friendly form. The forest spirit giving her a big bear lick, Jasmine laughed, "Hey, stop that!", laughing harder when the panda spirit obeyed, sitting on its haunches confusedly.

Hei Bai looking towards the other end of the camp, gazing as if he noticed something, Jasmine was curious when he got up, wandering over towards where she knew the bending "prisoners" were. At first deciding to fix Hei Bai's "mess" with the excessive earth tents, Jasmine was a little creeped out when the spirit turned to face her literally just before she did so, getting the sense the spirit… wanted her to come as it walked off?

Looking around quickly, noticing there were others nearby aside from just Fai, Maylin, Maxiu or Aiqing, Jasmine only feeling more creeped out when Fai said from behind her, "Jasmine - do you want me to follow that weird… urge to go with Hei Bai, or stay here?" Pausing for a moment, still looking at Fai, Jasmine said, "Stay here, add to his job and get these barrels covered, start the process for making smokeless Lipowder and regular Lipowder. We'll be using both, if it comes to that. I'll explain more later. I'm going with him - and then radioing Yangchen. This find is big news." Maylin nodded, saying, "Sure thing - we'll want to get some more of those fascinating transformed vines near here, though. Both Fai and myself watched what your spirit friends were doing - a while before you came over, when we weren't able to sleep, and we came up with some theories about spirit vines and their energy that we want to test."

Remembering the last time a by now very former Earth Empire scientist tested theories to do with spirit vines and that the result had been catastrophic, even Jasmine as Chief Containment Officer hearing about the test gone wrong soon after, she said, "Just try and be more careful than Varrick was at first," intrigued when Fai smiled, saying confidently, "There is one thing we're very sure of, after watching the transformation process - these 'new' spirit vines are a lot more stable than their predecessors." Jasmine wanting some proof and saying as much, her eyes flared in anger - though not at Maylin - when Maylin laughed, saying, "You weren't awake at the time, but… let's just say Aye-zul helped with that burden of proof. Accidentally hit a bunch of them that were hooked up to a spirit weapon being fitted to its turret with a lightning bolt while messing around with some hotheaded young firebender - and given we're still here, they obviously didn't explode."

Feeling tempted to go track down Aye-zul and yell at him to be more careful as she had with Hei Bai, she shook her head, thinking, "Respect is a two-way street," saying, "Good luck with the Lipowder - I'm going to go see what Hei Bai ambled off to do," realizing as she walked away that she never had talked to Yangchen about her find, or Fai and Maylin about what happened to Baatar Jr…

Making her way over towards the bending prisoners, she noticed she wasn't the only one to come to investigate whatever Hei Bai was doing, only knowing two - or rather, four - of the fellow "investigator's" names. Getting Sura's attention, not sure if she was holding the newborn Sokka or Katara, Jasmine reminded herself to not make any mention of another piece of information she wished Raava had never given her before speaking. Wondering why Raava had seen fit to let her know about Sura's children's past lives and not mentioned anything about Yangchen's baby, not sure what could be worse than, well, "Amon", Jasmine said, "Hey, Sura - I got up a while ago. I was going to radio Yangchen about something I found on the train after I see what Hei Bai's doing over here." Sura holding out her baby for a moment, saying, "I was just going to see a friend of mine - see if I can get her to talk to me again…", Jasmine had not a clue what problem someone had with Sura, turning to face a vaguely familiar man who said, producing a flame as he stopped, "I don't see why you're bothering. Blaming the Spirit Civil War on the 'sexually interesting', not talking to you when I mentioned my other daughter, Lumang… shameful. I do not see what you hope to do. Like so many of the waterbenders, your friend Ogawa did not fight at Garzai when Kuvira broke our walls two years ago, and now she has an excuse other than cowardice to not fight. Prejudice…"

Jasmine still not placing the man, Sura stopped for a moment, saying, "Hey - keep in mind I didn't fight until last night either, even with my talent…! And it's worth a try - and I don't want her to fight, just… talk again. I'm not going to make excuses for her opinions, but… Aside from my husband, and I guess you too Jasmine… Ogawa's one of the few people I know here well. Not everyone in here was from your old home, Gurinto," adding delicately, "From what you told me after I saved your youngest daughter Hihasu last night… there weren't that many people left there to begin with." Jasmine surprised to see the man's flame flare momentarily, she frowned slightly when he said, only vaguely remembering someplace called "Garzai" as he spoke, "Garzai was once second in population to Yu Dao - and after lily-livers fleeing over the years, it is a wonder we were able to put up any resistance at all," seemingly reminding himself with a shake of his head, "I may have been 'mayor'… but I had the hand I was dealt. It is not my fault cowards and scared souls left over the years. Even in Avatar Aang's time. With everyone who left, maybe we could have stopped Kuvira!"

Looking this Gurinto man straight in the eye, noticing a young girl agreeing with him silently as someone who looked like her mother shook her head, Jasmine stated blandly, "I do not know of the details of 'Garzai', but I will say this - a good general knows when to retreat. Only a fool fights all the time. For all intents and purposes, I am your general until we have gotten out of the Earth Empire. Raava has told one of her spirits to better obey me - I hope you will show the same sense, not insist on fighting to a hero's death at the walls when everyone else is leaving," stressing, "I am a realist - one who knows more about Earth Empire affairs than you do. Even if I'm not on their side anymore, I still see the Earth Empire's initial defeat as a miracle, from what I have seen of the workings of the other side. Even ignoring organizational and commitment issues… I have talked to the Avatar, seen what she has seen - even she was hard pressed fighting against the Colossus. By two years ago, as I recall, the first mechasuit production models were coming off our lines in Ba Sing Se, my camp receiving the prototype dregs at first. With all due respect, unless you had a whole division's worth of seriously good fighters in your town, it would not have been long before it fell, you joined me in this camp. And the odds are similarly stacked against us here, so close to Zaofu, that rail cannon of unknown capability - and every word I say to you only makes defeat more likely. Talking is time," adding as she pointed to the morning sun, "The sun's a little higher than before. Right now, time is not on our side. Time is life."

Able to see she hadn't gotten through to him totally, Jasmine said as she started walking again, "Enough - I will not be delaying our eventual departure from this camp for headstrong fools. Misplaced pride and honor in fighting to the death, when you could be alive elsewhere - foolishness. Retreating - that's exactly what Yangchen and myself would like to do." Seeing the daughter looked more accepting than her father Gurinto, Jasmine nodded in agreement when the woman piled on politely, "Honey, listen to her," continuing as he looked down at his own footsteps, "We tried our best, but lost. That fight is over - and hopefully so will this one shortly enough, finally in the United Republic both of our parents and grandparents wanted to be a part of. We have Jasmine to thank for our stay here over the past two years being as tolerable as it was. A stay I want to end. Running away is not always bad." Gurinto sighed, saying, "I'm acting more like our other daughter, Lumang - you're right, Jiedi," garnering a supportive tap on the shoulder from Sura and Amaguq when he said, crying a little, "I hope she didn't really join the Earth Empire army like she said she was."

Closer to Hei Bai, seeing with a quick glance he appeared to be waiting, sitting down on the ground, Jasmine thought for a minute, saying, "Wait a minute - you said there was something 'special' about your other daughter, I think. Where exactly was Garzai?" Stopping in his tracks momentarily, Jasmine tapping her wrist and looking in the sun's direction, he started walking again, Gurinto saying, "North of Omashu, on a peninsula, close to the sea, but not right next to it. Just like Yu Dao. And she's just like Asami Sato, from what you've told us about her in bits and pieces - not interested in men. Why?" Thinking of what province that likely was, how the Earth Empire division, regiment, company, battalion, platoon system worked, Jasmine said confidently, "That would be in the Zhansheng Huo province. As Kuvira re-named it from the original Hu Xin after 're-uniting' it from your control, 'Victory Over Fire'. Huh - you're a firebender, probably descendant of Fire Nation colonists… guess that's the reason for the new name. Anyways - I have good news. Unless she joined another province's regiment, which is very rare, given she is not in this camp, and that was one of the first regiments Jinshu Kuangmai 'interrogated', for more than just the sexually interesting, your other daughter Lumang never enlisted in the Earth Empire army. I think I would have noticed a 'sexually interesting' earthbender prisoner as… passionate as your family is. Probably would have talked to me already." The family beaming, she continued anyways, "The only battalions based in or drawing from the western regions Jinshu Kuangmai never got around to purging were those under Wuqing and Chin. Good thing he didn't do his human lie detector there, or in Omashu itself…" Jasmine wondered to no one but herself as she stopped near Hei Bai's furry side, glad to see the family relieved-looking, "Alyssralove only saw one battalion under Wuqing near here last night, based on their headgear, Chin's men not having an elite's helmet… Wonder where Wuqing's other two battalions went - haven't heard hide nor hair from them in a while."

Hearing Hei Bai growl lowly, Jasmine wasn't sure why she felt tangible dread attached to her question now, Hei Bai grumbling lowly and non-threateningly when she shook her head, saying, "One thing at a time - and even if I know Wuqing to be hot-headed, I wouldn't be surprised if he was with Jinshu Kuangmai right now, getting elites fitted for battle…" Seeing a few people she recognized as camp guards nodding in the foreground, feeling better when one said, "Must be - can't imagine what would cause Jinshu Kuangmai to rely on Chin over him. Chin's probably too 'soft' for that madman," the woman looking a little ashamed when Gurinto asked hotly, "If you thought that of him, then why in the blazes did you stay past the first day post Great Uniter? Jasmine's mentioned some sort of revolt before this one in Ba Sing Se."

Jasmine getting ready to chastise Gurinto, partly out of empathy for the hapless turncoat guard and partly out of knowing what the surly firebender said could just have easily been directed at her, she smiled slightly after Sura said tersely, "Enough with the bitterness - it's not helping anything." Gurinto still looking a bit angry, pointing out, "That guard's not the only one at 'fault'. We could have taken the whole camp with your skill, Sura - you were just too afraid to use it before," Sura's face now shadowed by guilt, saying half heartedly, "But - I did save your daughter." About to lash into Gurinto, Jasmine laughed after Hei Bai shifted temporarily, giving Gurinto a light show that dwarfed any she had received before. Gurinto looking meek, for now, Jasmine getting the sense he wouldn't be making snappy comments from a now placid panda Hei Bai, she asked the spirit, "Enough about that. What did you come over here to do?"

Hei Bai managing to grumble out, "See," once more, Jasmine stood back and watched as the forest spirit stamped his black front paws on the ground a few times, getting the impression he was going to try and tell a story of some sort to the bending prisoners in front of him. After a final stomp, getting the impression Hei Bai was done and about to "start", Jasmine noticed the earthen figures in front of her begin to move through a crude forest, headed towards a shrine of some sort. Looking at their armor, Jasmine was able to tell even without these odd "impressions" she was getting from the great black and white mute spirit that the group of human earth dolls he was bending through the forest weren't alive anymore, certainly not anyone who had bothered his forest recently.

Three were wearing old-style Fire Nation army uniforms, one holding out a large earthen "flame". The group stopping near the shrine, Jasmine watched as the dolls moved, mute - but getting the sense that this was something Hei Bai did not hear the details of until many years later, from… one the soldiers present?

Who wanted to make amends for what he helped do to Hei Bai's forest…?

The earthen dolls beginning to move again, Jasmine heard someone protest, "What do you mean one of these soldiers made nice with you later?", surprised to see it wasn't Gurinto, but his daughter. Getting the sense Hei Bai wasn't going to "answer" any question until he was done, the dolls began moving again. After a low groan, getting the sense Hei Bai had just called over his other spirit allies, the dolls suddenly clattered to a stop before they reached what must have been Hei Bai's shrine. This forest apparently represented the one outside Senlin - like so many older settlements, no longer a village, from what Jasmine knew of the area and former Earth Kingdom as a whole.

Closing her eyes, thoughts of progress randomly drifting as they waited on something, Jasmine did a double-take when the idle thought of, "A lot of those small towns and villages, better off after what Kuvira did for them over the past three years. Bringing back order, and more," entered her mind, taking a deep breath and internally countering, "Yeah - for ones that played nice, rolled over. Garzai's certainly not any better off, from what little I know of the place."

Half expecting to see some kind of image, a different version of something she had heard others might have dealing with unwanted thoughts, Jasmine was confused. Nothing she felt was relevant came, aside from some concept she couldn't fathom, and a brief flash of an obscured young man standing up to his father...

Opening her eyes after hearing the scrape of earth again, thinking before she watched the "play" again, Jasmine noticed Hei Bai was no longer the only spirit present. Seeing events the better parts of seven decades past play out in front of her, Jasmine wondered aloud, "You going to show us anything more relevant, Hei Bai? Have you forgotten we have a time table?" After the fact realizing she had been too harsh when the dolls stopped moving, Jasmine did not feel in the least bit indignant when she heard Aye-zul snark, "Screw your time - this is relevant! It doesn't matter if his forest's set on fire or dug up by humans - it's still bad. The bad firetossers messed up his forest back then - and the 'good' elemental tossers, benders, back then, a lot of earthbenders are on the bad side now. You have no idea where he wants to go, or why - but I do. You humans never change." Someone protested, "If you think so bad of us, why are you fighting for us?", Aye-zul snarled slightly, re-composing himself after a loud hoot. Jasmine nodded when she heard Wan Shi Tong add from behind, "Just wait and see where Hei Bai is going with all this. And do not squabble - Jasmine, Aye-zul, all of you. It is counterproductive."

Feeling quite guilty, Jasmine apologized, "I was wrong - sorry. It's just… I'm worried about time, didn't realize to a spirit time's as irrelevant as food, living forever and all. Please - go on," laughing when Hei Bai turned his head slightly and licked her before resuming, feeling a tiny hint of smugness when Aye-zul said, "Then again… maybe humans do change. What you said sounds like something Wan would say - and I guess we do need to be concerned with your 'time', given our situation," the dolls moving a lot faster after Aye-zul said, "Hei Bai - skip a bit. I think everyone's got the idea that bad firetossers wrecked your forest seventy four human years ago, and I can tell re-enacting that part's not exactly making you happy."

The play's earthen materials shifting massively, cracked trees and Fire Nation soldiers replaced by a sleepy village, Jasmine got the impression the next part was going to be harder on Hei Bai than the first, watching as a representation of the great forest spirit attacked what must have been a hapless Senlin village. A tattooed bald monk Jasmine had seen "in-spirit" last night helping calm the raging spirit that was standing next to her with an acorn, her mind wandered as the scene shifted again, thinking, "Wow - to four of my biggest allies… seventy years ago was like yesterday, and to me? Kuvira's 'failure' in Republic City seems an eternity ago, even though it's only been less than a week. Time crawls when you're under stress… well, to a human, at least. Ten thousand years - practically yesterday to a spirit."

The scene now shifted to that of an enraged but not actively attacking Hei Bai and a man near the spirit's shrine, and Jasmine got the sense that this took place during a summer solstice twenty years later after the war's end, the man aged from twenty to forty. Jasmine watched as the man assumed a submissive posture, getting the impression the man wanted to atone for past crimes against Hei Bai's forest. Enraged by some unspecified comment on human nature that confused him, the earthen Hei Bai reacted by shifting to its Dark Spirit form at first. Jasmine saw the man kneel before the great spirit, feeling moved even though she did not know what was being said. She only knew that the man was deeply sorry, and willing to do anything to make amends. To repay the "price of ash" he had exacted on the spirit's forest twenty years before in foolishness with his own blood, if the spirit so wished - feeling this drastic offer was the only way to blank out the bad karma his act had given him…

The earthen Hei Bai seemed to mull it over for a moment, ultimately not attacking but not appearing any less hostile either, the representation of the spirit picking up a small object from the regrown forest floor. Holding it out to the man, the earthen representation of Hei Bai cocked its savage head, as though asking what the man might do with a second chance. After the man picked up the small pebble out of the spirits' hand Jasmine got the sense the pebble represented an acorn, studying it closely, the man moved again, seeming happy. Some unknown strong promise by the man put the great spirit's earthen doll at ease, no longer hostile-looking in its posture. The man standing up, apparently saying something else after picking up more acorns, the earthen Hei Bai friendly nodded, much as the spirit might have to Jasmine - though the earthen doll was still in his dark spirit form…

The play stage shifted slightly, Jasmine getting the sense ten to twenty years had passed, a little frustrated that Hei Bai apparently couldn't remember the exact time scale, mumbling as much under her breath. Not knowing the timescale at first ended up not mattering, even after she heard Aye-zul say, "Fourteen years, for what it matters - now shush," she watched as the man approached the great spirit again at another summer solstice, seeing he was not alone as more earthen forms came into being.

Appa the most obvious, given his size, what she could see clearly as Aang, Katara and their three children, Zuko's family, and what she assumed was an elderly Iroh as well as some other earthen figures she didn't place immediately entered the grove. Seeing one of them jump backwards slightly and unsheathe a long sword and a woman next to him begin to laugh before anyone else, Jasmine finally placed the pair as Sokka and Suki, guessing the cartwheeler to be Ty Lee. Ever the pessimist, Jasmine's lip curled slightly, laughing lowly, "Heh - figures. Guess Toph couldn't be bothered - just like Mai," her blood curdling slightly when she got the sense that a devious spirit had recently taunted Hei Bai internally along similar lines, but worse…

Refocusing on the "present", blushing slightly in annoyance when Aye-zul said, "You could do to be more like Ty Lee, Miss Serious," she laughed weakly as she watched the scene play out. The now much older man held out a small square of earth, Jasmine getting the sense it represented a photograph of something the man had been working on for years, smiling when the earthen Hei Bai shifted forms. Walking forward, Hei Bai "licked" the old man, actually laying down by his side, Sokka's figure running off to get something afterwards. The old man bowed towards Hei Bai and then Zuko, Jasmine getting the sense the man had been told something about honor by the then Firelord, Iroh appearing contented.

Thinking the scene was done as she saw Aang and Zuko try to get their kids in one spot with everyone else, getting the sense a group photo was to be taken by Ty Lee, Jasmine frowned deeply to see what must have been Bumi and Kya break off after one photo in some sort of protest. Able to clearly see that Aang, Katara and Sokka especially were not happy, even Iroh displeased with Bumi and Kya as well, Jasmine got the sense as the stage shifted again there was only one photo taken, some argument about vacations Hei Bai still didn't understand having taken place.

The scene now a blank slate, Jasmine wasn't quite sure why Hei Bai had stopped bending. Even after her earlier apology, some part of her mind nagged Jasmine, "Just how long is this taking?", Jasmine shut it up once she saw how transfixed the crowd was, noticing some of the bender prisoners she had been unable to convince to do anything to help in the camp looked angry.

The scene shifting significantly and then stopping once more, hearing a sad moan from her panda ally, Jasmine got the sense Hei Bai might need a little bit.

Wanting to make the best use of her time if Hei Bai was going to be a while, Jasmine whipped out her radio, trying to make contact with Omashu and share the good news about Lipowder, frustratedly muttering under her breath in English, "Come on, Yangchen - what the hell are you doing?"

Startled slightly when she heard Wan Shi Tong say from behind, "Jasmine, do not worry - I can communicate directly with Alyssralove," Jasmine turned her head around as far as someone who wasn't an owl could, saying, "Uhm - what? Why didn't you just tell me that earlier," adding on a question in English that made Wan Shi Tong sigh in exasperation, "And if that's true, can't you tell me what she's doing? What the hell has she been doing? And that last part was interesting, touching - but what does it have to do with anything?"

Slumping his wings slightly, Wan Shi Tong admitted, "Past the fact that there have been many people coming and going from her quarters, I do not know," Jasmine raised an eyebrow when he advised, "I may not have much experience with 'human-y' things, but given I can easily communicate with my counterpart in Omashu, I do not see the need for radio contact. If you are about business, you do not need to talk with Yangchen over the radio, even in 'code'. And Hei Bai can show you once he is ready how that was relevant." Knowing logically Wan Shi Tong was right, Jasmine said, "Yangchen - I still want to talk to her, the former overseer of Omashu Yuehan if I can." He replied, "Very well - but know it is not vital you make contact," adding after leaning closer, "Given her visitors and that she has yet to make contact, it appears some of what she is doing right now is business, the rest, social - just as you have been doing. To use an English phrase - 'the pot should not call the kettle black'."

Jasmine grumbling, "Hard to see how what I'm doing is the same," Wan Shi Tong ruffled his feathers slightly, saying as a few quills pulsed blue, "Raava is correct - humans are most fascinating. It is a wonder I can manage to 'understand' the complaints Hei Bai did not. Though that does not mean I see Bumi and Kya's moaning as valid. Quite the opposite. Now leave me be, and remember - don't call the kettle black." Protesting, "Wha-!" in frustration, Jasmine turned back around, thinking, "I found a bunch of mover acid - Yangchen's going to have a hard time topping that. Maybe that owl's still a hypocrite."

Turning around after hearing a cough, Jasmine said, "Fai - how'd the Lipowder production go?" Jasmine's eyes widened when she saw that Fai was pointing to his watch, the scientist saying, "I got a production line set up fairly quickly, even got it automated just like it would be in Omashu with Aiqing and Maxiu's help - but some sentries came to me, asking where you were. They said they spotted movement far beyond the wall," Jasmine cursing in English when he said, "Towards here, and not Omashu."

Some part of her tempted to walk away and let Hei Bai do his own thing, she stopped when Fai asked, "What's going on here? Some sort of a play?", surprised when she finally got a clue as to what Hei Bai was trying to do… getting the sense the great bear spirit was sharing his story to see if it would be of any impact, not liking how many of the prisoners didn't want to help. And that he wanted to try speaking himself for this next part, when he was ready - finally answer why Bumi and Kya's antics mattered recently…

Expecting some sort of smug statement from Gurinto about the other prisoners being cowards, Jasmine got nothing, getting the impression she should start watching again, and that she shouldn't spoil the surprise for others. Laughing slightly when a confused Fai said, "Oooookay. I guess you have a psychic bear friend now," Jasmine shrugged, saying as she saw Maylin come closer, "Eh - you can get what a dog wants from his body language. Figure after all these changes since that new portal popped up, it's nothing too weird. Spirits are just one step up. And I've had weirder - infobending, for one!" Fai and Maylin nodding, Jasmine said as she saw Aiqing and Maxiu approaching, "Good - they're done too. I'll have to see what this Omashu-worthy automation you guys made is. Come on - as far as I know, nobody but Jinora and Kai or Hei Bai's spirit friends know much about why Hei Bai's here and not trying to smash Republic City. For that matter, Zaofu…"

Hearing Hei Bai roar loudly right after Jasmine said Zaofu, she laughed weakly when she heard Aye-zul say, "That's the idea - forget restraint!", surprised when the aye-aye spirit added as she turned around, "Maybe even forget this. You can't make a fighter out of a cowardly armadillo lion." Someone protesting, "I'm not a coward - I'd just rather stay alive!", Jasmine found herself laughing when Aye-zul pointed out, "Then that makes you a coward, doesn't it?" getting the impression after a loud roar Hei Bai wasn't amused and just wanted to finish.

Looking at the stage again, Jasmine noticed the forest looked healed, Jasmine knowing it was to be short-lived. Sure enough, a few elite metalbenders sprung into existence, noticing they were guarding a few figures in white coats alongside some mechasuits. Noticing the mechasuits had three chevrons on their upper arms, she asked, "Is that Baatar Jr., Hei Bai?", finding out it was without any sort of impressions from Hei Bai when the mechasuit's helmet dome opened, revealing Baatar Jr.'s face.

Looking like he was preparing for combat, Baatar Jr. said something as his mechasuit came closer to two other three-chevron mechasuits , though no words were audible. After two of the mechasuits latched onto one of the larger trees nearest Hei Bai's shrine, cutting into the tree on Baatar Jr.'s command, Jasmine smiled slightly when the earth inside the shrine rumbled, Baatar Jr. shouting something at the other two Sergeants as the scientists looked at the statue nervously.

A familiar large spirit's form beginning to take shape, Jasmine was confused at first when she heard someone say, "He said 'Get that tree down as quickly as possible - we'll likely have incoming soon! This may not be a solstice - but who knows what will happen with the Portals open!' I… I could narrate this. I remember this like it was yesterday," with great guilt, turning to see who had spoken. Now staring straight at Maylin, noticing she was crying, Jasmine asked incredulously, "Wait - you were present for this?"

Seeing Fai nod next to her, Jasmine noticed out of the corner of her eye that the play stage was no longer moving, Fai saying with regret, "Yes - we both were. This was before we discovered the Great Banyan tree was a viable source for spirit vines," smiling weakly as he said, "We came for one sample, thinking these trees might be special and close enough to spirit vines to work in our spirit weapon, the forest 'belonging' to a specific spirit - aside from Hei Bai chasing us off after we got out sample, nothing came of it." Looking guilty again, Fai said, Maylin nodding, "I hadn't really thought much of it until last night, when the same spirit I helped wrong a few months ago helped save me," smiling slightly as he finished with a hint of happiness, "Last night, I didn't understand why he helped, much less seemingly forgave me for what we wanted to do, given how he licked me after I apologized over and over. But seeing him make peace with that firebender, who helped do a whole lot more than steal one tree 'for science'… I guess it makes sense now."

Jasmine smiling, she turned back to the play stage, noticing the events Fai had described now taking place, Hei Bai growling a little after Aye-zul said, tapping a long finger on a small earthen tree, "Okay - next. We know you beat these guys - and that they got away with their thankfully dud sample. Something nobody here has seen," Jasmine's eyes widening when Aye-zul asked as the stage shifted, "Hey, Miss Serious - I know your seriousness lets you lie to truthsensers, like Ton- err, Jinshu Kuangmai. I also know my buddy and Alyssralove detected funny energy nearby earlier, Hei Bai himself 'saying' the second ruder group of metaltossers were likely looking for Korranium, death metal. Think… someone else has this talent of yours? Lying like Azula?"

Straining her brain as she watched the scene finish shifting, seeing whoever had paid Hei Bai a second visit recently had brought more mechasuits than Baatar Jr. had and even some portable spirit weapons mounted on jeeps, Jasmine shrugged. "Drawing a blank", she said as a mechasuit helped a jeep topple a tree with a tow rope, "I have not a clue. From what I hear, the only people beneath Jinshu Kuangmai in this region who might have the resources to pull off an operation like this are Chin and Wuqing. Chin doesn't have anything to hide - he's been pestering Jinshu Kuangmai about fire-earth a lot," continuing as the forest was further destroyed as elite metalbenders began bending up ore, "And he wouldn't condone use of any such weapons. Wuqing might, be he's a hotheaded idiot - and I've seen Jinshu Kuangmai catching him in a lie before." Getting the sense Hei Bai was about to show up, Jasmine worked in a quick dig at the person who she was pretty sure had a fake name just like Jinshu Kuangmai, "Wuqing wouldn't be able to strategize his way out of a paper bag. From what I've heard, mindless bullrushing every time he was tasked with taking a rebel-held city."

Gurinto speaking for the first time in a while, Jasmine wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or make excuses when he said sarcastically, "Like the Earth Empire has ever done anything but bullrushing, propped up by fear, fancy equipment or metalbending." Hearing a noise that sounded like a bear coughing, getting the impression something important was about to happen, Jasmine idly adjusted her long ponytail as she waited for Hei Bai to get on with it, grumbling slightly when she heard Aiqing point out, "See you like hair style too - heard Kuvira wanted to have a similar style."

Aiqing about to say something else, Jasmine feeling like she wanted to cut it all off now, she saw the play resume. Having wondered what the delay was for, she was taken by surprise when one of the jeeps somehow shot fire at an enraged Hei Bai's arm, getting the impression its driver had threatened to shoot the spirit in the head if he did not back down. Hei Bai backing down after another warning shot, nursing a chunk taken out of his arm tenderly, Jasmine watched sadly as the forest's very foundation was uprooted in the quest for gold to fund some mystery project.

Some part of her saying, "I remember what Raava showed me. Just how Baatar Jr. helped fund the Colossus with his little personal trick," Jasmine felt sick not just because of what she was watching, getting the impression the soldiers were making away with much more than gold ore as the play's Hei Bai slumped further and further down to the ground, taunted by the soldiers the whole time. She remembered how shocked the world had been at the Colossus and had a nasty gut feeling a similar surprise involving "Korranium", "death metal" lay in store for them, the fact that she wasn't sure if the surprise was condoned by Toph's wayward son Jinshu Kuangmai or not doing nothing to alleviate her concerns.

Anyone who developed such a technology would have to be mad, desperate, or both - two things Jinshu Kuangmai certainly was. But from what she knew of him, just as he had said in someone else's "dream", he wanted to rule everything, not rule a wasteland.

Someone whose men weren't even anything close to reasonable in victory, willing to use a weapon that would help end life on the planet to achieve his aims, but competent enough to pull it off… she just didn't know anyone who fit the bill.

Could there be some sort of traitor to humanity working inside the Earth Empire, seeking to wipe out life using death metal on Long Yumao's behalf, so that spirits could reign supreme unchallenged…?

Even that didn't fit - from what she knew of Long Yumao, he seemed to want at least some people alive so he could savor their suffering in slavery…

Feeling someone tug on her long ponytail, Jasmine said, "What the - hey! Knock it off!", grumbling slightly when she heard Wan Shi Tong's voice say, "I have read that is a good way to get a human's attention, and it appears they were correct." Noticing the play was shifting again, Jasmine covered her face with her hands, saying, "Sorry I zoned out for your story, Hei Bai," Jasmine getting the sense everything Hei Bai had wanted her personally to see had already been shown, Wan Shi Tong saying, "You did not miss much. And I do not imagine you or anyone else would want to watch Hei Bai sit in his destroyed forest all alone, taunted by Long Yumao internally with no dialogue."

The stage reformed again, part of Jasmine wishing Hei Bai could speak, thinking, "Long Yumao is tempting spirits… and Jinshu Kuangmai's tempting people. No, both…", swatting away the errant thought of, "Vaazula - and my theory about a Long Yumao agent being behind development of death metal. Maybe there's more overlap in temptation than we think…"

Watching what happened next, seeing two young people she got the impression were Jinora and Kai approaching a sullen almost truly Dark Spirit Hei Bai, Jasmine groaned slightly when she heard Maxiu say lowly from behind, "Wow - look at those staves. So odd. Errr - probably should be paying attention to something else, but… I can't help it. The end's obvious enough - a blade. Mind telling me how they work after this, Jasmine?" Jasmine nodded, saying in low tones, "After I contact Yangchen," watching as Jinora and Kai tried and failed to get closer to the sullen Hei Bai, getting the sense they had tried everything from singing to rolling acorns his way, all met with hostility. Hei Bai started to act openly hostile, Jasmine getting the impression Long Yumao was trying his best to whisper slanderous things about humans…

And that much of what he had said was either too close to the truth for her tastes, or the truth outright, Hei Bai only remembering that Long Yumao somehow knew of every time a human had wronged him, from ancient history predating the Fire Nation, to the charring of much of his forest, to more recent events there…

Puzzled when she saw the play's scenery shift and follow Jinora and Kai as they went away and sat down on a rock and apparently argue, leaving Hei Bai behind and angry, Jasmine found herself dying for dialogue as the argument heated up. Her eyes widened when she saw Kai storm off from a pursuing Jinora, laying down before the great forest spirit. Hei Bai apparently angry and confused, he made to swipe at Kai, knocked backwards by what Jasmine assumed was an air blast from Jinora, the teenage girl's figure appearing as though it were speaking. Hei Bai responding by charging at Jinora, she winced when Kai put himself between her and Hei Bai…

Kai knocked backwards a short distance, getting the impression it would have been much further without Kai airbending, Jasmine was puzzled when she saw Hei Bai slump down, smiling when she saw Jinora and then Kai touch his forehead, getting the impression the raging spirit had been calmed, was getting information from Jinora that Kai had imparted in part by earlier physical contact.

Jasmine watched as the two teenagers interacted with Hei Bai a little more, getting the impression the spirit was still mad - just not mad at all humans. "Only" the bad ones who had wrecked his forest. Jasmine wondering if Hei Bai was going to show Jinora and Kai convincing him to not go on a rampage in Zaofu, Jasmine nodded in agreement when Aye-zul said, "Based on these looks you're getting, Hei Bai, I think people got it - we still do have a time table," Aye-zul laughing slightly when Wan Shi Tong stated matter-of-factly as the earth shifted again, "I remember Kai diving between my beak and one of my incompetent assistants two days ago or so. And again with Hei Bai. Given something he mentioned about taking combustionbending blasts, I guess that's his thing."

The earth now perplexingly forming some familiar figures, the pit of Jasmine's stomach dropped when Wan Shi Tong said coolly, "I hope he knows better than to try and block a spirit weapon beam or any kind of fire-earth projectile," thinking, "Uhhh… do we have anything to block spirit weapon beams? They'd cut through our walls like a hot knife through tofu…"

Jasmine wasn't entirely sure why Hei Bai was "silent" or why one of the brown earthen figures looked like her - her brown ponytail, earth the same color as her own hair, the three strips of shoulder armor and the Earth Empire chestplate she still kept on for combat purposes because she had nothing else appropriate, even her scar and taller than normal stature. All were clearly visible - and that she still clearly looked like an Earth Empire officer, her larger than normal boots even reminding her of Jinshu Kuangmai's appearance! The only thing she got from it for now being that she wanted Aiqing and Maxiu to design her some armor she didn't hate wearing, had hated wearing ever since she was asked to oversee what she had innocently thought two and a half years ago were "containment" camps only, Jasmine turned and asked Fai, "Fai, Maylin - do you know of any way to absorb and dissipate spirit weapon fire? I know one way, but it requires something powerful we don't have here - tuber-vines, both to absorb the power, and create the spirit wire that the power's…"

Getting blank looks from them both, Jasmine smacked her forehead, saying, "Oh crud - I've got a lot of explaining to do. Unless… Uh… Aye-zul, Painted Lady, Wan Shi Tong, Hei Bai - you couldn't happen to be able to infobend?" Getting no answer, assuming the answer was "No,", Jasmine sighed, saying, "Very well," her ears perking up when Maylin said, "I have no idea what you're talking about - but maybe we can try testing and then getting some of our theories into practice faster. Including more than spirit weapon resistant metal. Maybe much more." Maylin's jade eyes darting towards Hei Bai, she said, adjusting her glasses, "That's for after whatever your spirit friend here wants - I don't think one of those things he made looking like you is an accident, Jasmine."

Hei Bai grumbling right after, Jasmine getting the impression Maylin had been correct, she said before turning around, "Wish he could talk like a 'normal' spirit," hearing Wan Shi Tong's voice say as she fixed her gaze on her own earthen figure, "He is normal for himself - just like the 'guests' we helped rescue from the Earth Empire's clutches last night." Sighing exasperatedly, Jasmine said as the figures began moving again, swearing she saw what looked like a middle-aged Zuko, "I didn't mean anything deep by that - I just wish he could talk! It'd be so much faster - just have Aye-zul talk. Getting a vague idea of what he means only goes so far," smiling slightly when Wan Shi Tong responded drolly, "Oh. Or that."

Getting the impression Hei Bai was going to save his message for her and other former Earth Empire "employees" for last, Jasmine saw her own figure, Baatar Jr. and Jasmine's old boss Kuvira herself settle down to the ground. Seeing a figure she recognized as the former Fire Nation soldier draw close to the figure of a middle-aged Zuko, breathing a sigh of relief that someone was finally providing concrete narration when Aye-zul said, "Hei Bai was wronged by this less-famous man, eventually forgiving him when the man repaid his karmatic debt, and then much more, planting seeds from Hei Bai's forest far and wide. Thanks to someone here teaching him a bit more about human nature, Hei Bai now fully understands that he was venting his anger and frustration on the wrong target, out of ignorance attacking nearby Senlin village. And even back then, Avatar Aang reminded him of the world's ability to heal, in the form of a solitary acorn."

Getting the sense Hei Bai was going back slightly on saving his message for her last, both earthen dolls turned to face herself, Fai, and Maylin, Aye-zul said with a slight smirk, "In time, the man came to forgive himself for what he had done, and apparently I'm not the only one who thinks some people are whining about their past too much." Opening his long-fingered hand and producing a flame, Aye-zul said as the figures shifted again, "From what Avatar Korra showed me earlier, humans have done much worse than some of you standing before me over the past ten thousand years." Smiling mischievously as the figures stopped moving, larger ones replaced by a multitude of smaller ones, Aye-zul said tersely after Hei Bai made a low growling noise, "I'll get that in a minute!", saying with more composure, "Anyways - guards, defectors from the train itself, literally outed Earth Empire officers and scientists, 'even' Jasmine - it's not like anyone here almost killed the Avatar Spirit, unlike one of these figure's sister." Jasmine not entirely sure what Aye-zul meant at first, she laughed bitterly when the spirit generated lightning and said in an imitation of someone long dead, "The Avatar's dead. I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, Zuzu," accentuating it by letting loose the generated charge skyward.

Jasmine's laughter bitter because she remembered stories from her mother and father of that dark time in Earth Kingdom history, feeling that the entire nation had thrown its legacy away as of late, she laughed weakly when she heard someone say, "Wait - our problem. Lightning, electricity… conversion of energy from one form to another!", recognizing it as Maylin's voice as she said, fading, "Be right back - I've got to write something down!" Jasmine chuckling when Aye-zul said with great irritation, " 'Lightning? I'll show you lightning!' You scientists are a scatterbrained lot. My point was, the same that Hei Bai wanted to show with dolls - unless one of you is a secret psychopath or was seriously considering executing someone like Maylin in cold blood, then you don't have anything to be ashamed of." Jasmine seeing a guard shift uncomfortably, the woman saying, "Uhhh…. What if you were going to do it because you didn't want your family to die?", Aye-zul said with clear disdain, "Then you're a lily-livered coward."

The woman starting to cry, Jasmine found herself saying automatically, "Aye-zul, knock it off. Life as a human's complicated enough as is without some spirit animal thing giving you lip," Aye-zul sighing as the many small figures moved, "And I thought Wan was confusing. Forget the Avatar being a bridge between our worlds - she can have the whole 'human-y' thing as well." The figures no longer moving, Jasmine swearing they were arranged much as the prisoners nearby were, Aye-zul shrugged, resuming, "Then again, if you feel like I did last night in the spirit world, torn between three different paths, all the time… maybe you humans are doing good just to be here. Anyways - Hei Bai thought about how some of you are acting in the camp, and the Spirit Civil War itself. You didn't hear any of it, and you're not going to, but suffice to say he was taunted by Long Yumao internally. Everything from Avatar Aang's poor family life - Bumi and Kya acting like immature whiners," swearing Aye-zul was looking directly at herself when he said "whiners", the spirit finishing, "To the destruction of his forest by bad Earth Empire metaltossers. When Jinora and Kai found him, he wasn't in a good way, and they helped him realize that slithering liar was telling half-truths. Someone in front of me helped him realize something else, even if she doesn't know it yet."

The aye-aye spirit pausing for a moment, Jasmine noticing that he looked a little nervous for what must have been the first time ever, the spirit said, first pointing to Hei Bai, "Jasmine the first person to bother trying to 'explain' humans to him - if you ever could do such a thing totally - Hei Bai realized his anger at the Fire Nation taken out on Senlin village was a lot like certain people here. Those blaming the 'people like Fai or Maylin for the Spirit Civil War," saying as he pointed a long accusing finger at a partially hostile, partially ashamed crowd, "They aren't to blame for anything. 'Angry Bird', 'Long Yumao the Opportunist' - I actually got a little from him, when I was on the edge." Hei Bai preemptively nodding, as though he either knew what Aye-zul was going to say or had been there himself, likely both, Aye-zul said, producing a blue flame, " 'Wanting to put humans in their place', 'Raava showing the Avatar and humans favoritism', with Raava's two initial gifts - both things to say to help him gain power first, true motivations second. He's called the Opportunist for a good reason, and what Raava did admittedly did provide him with a good opportunity. But over the past three years, despite peaceful appearances, there's been a growing rift in the Spirit World, one that's spilled over into your home." Wondering when Aye-zul would get to the point, Jasmine nodded when the spirit said, flame blooming, "A rift between spirits who'd like to go bash in some human heads but had no leadership, those that simply thought Raava was getting too 'soft' with her close connection with her human Avatar and needed to be corrected, the true neutrals, and spirits that have gotten along with humans just fine. You might have seen lots of the last group - but there's a lot more spirits than the ones who are happy to share their homes with humans." Aye-zul looking down at the ground slightly, he said, "Until recently, I wasn't in the last group, caring to stay in the Spirit World - not wanting anything to do with any human other than Wan. Three years ago, I thought he was gone from Korra and Raava forever… we were all wrong. Anyways - Beakface the Liar. In the end, it wouldn't have mattered if Raava had helped Mako and Korra have a kid in the same way - that serpent would have done the exact same thing. And since I've come on out - much as a lot of these people did about who they were attracted to, but forcefully - I've seen…", pausing slightly before saying with a pleased smile, "There's a lot more humans like Wan than I thought," adding with a snarl, "Humans Jinshu Kuangmai would like to see obedient, or dead! Don't roll over or refuse to help - Wan faced down Vaatu. Surely you lot can handle a metaltossing brat's men!"

Hei Bai letting out a roar, Aye-zul added as the figures shifted again, the crowd mute for now, "Oh - and Hei Bai reminded me that there's more than a few of you that would die even if every person and spirit in this camp surrendered." Someone finally speaking, the woman said loudly, "Still don't feel like helping defend unnaturals. I didn't do anything except waterbend to warrant throwing me in here. For all I know, those other people could've been planning to start helping the Avatar, given all the law passing malarkey lately. And I still don't buy your talk about that stupid spirit's motivations - and isn't he locked behind something right now?"

Aye-zul sighing in frustration, Wan Shi Tong grumbling, "Humans," Jasmine turned to face the woman, saying, "I'll keep this short - we've already spent enough time trying to convince your ilk to help. You might not buy what they're saying - but I controlled what comes in and out of this camp, information and all. You've heard plenty about Wuqing being bloodthirsty, Jinshu Kuangmai spinning whole groups of bandits in the sky as sick entertainment, slaughtering Shiro Shinobi's family recently as a show of determination. Wuqing's in charge of those troops outside, and the relatively merciful Chin's not here to command his men, from spirit recon we've gotten." Pointed her finger directly at the woman, she asked, "What makes you think any of those troops under Wuqing are going to discriminate between people who are or are not fighting if those walls come down?" Seeing the woman and quite a few others looked shocked, she added, "Like it or not, I listened to my conscience and broke off from him. I'm no coward. We're just fortunate we have these spirits here to help us, and brilliant 'deviant' minds like Fai, Maylin, Maxiu and Aiqing to help defend us. You could be sitting in the corner sucking your thumb like a baby and one of his soldiers would still see you as complicit, a rebel, someone to be killed!"

Noticing she had the attention of the audience, Jasmine said, "The way I see it, you're going to either die on your feet or your knees. Or if Jinshu Kuangmai gets involved, choked to death slowly. You know, what he wanted to do with these 'sexually interesting' prisoners for a dinner party before I took action with the Avatar's help. And if more people don't help, it could all be for nothing. Now come on - FIGHT!"

Few people in the crowd looking uncooperative still, Jasmine's shoulders slumped slightly when the woman she had been talking to said, "Okay, Jasmine - I guess. But that still doesn't change the fact we're a bunch of admittedly only slightly hungry and out of shape prisoners versus three battalions of rested and well-fed troops." Thinking for a moment, she turned to face Hei Bai, saying, "Get angry!", turning back after the spirit shifted to his Dark Spirit form, Jasmine saying confidently, "That may be true - but we've got something they don't. True spirit power," letting Aye-zul take over as he said, jetting upwards, "Spirits that can bend! Look at this! I don't need food or sleep, and my friend Hei Bai here says he's taken all sorts of hits and lived! He even healed that chunk taken out of his arm!"

Jasmine smiling, hearing what she was pretty sure was her radio underneath the voice of people volunteering to help, even some of those who were not able bodied volunteering to help with simple tasks, she heard a tinny voice say, "Jasmine!" Realizing someone in Omashu was trying to contact her, she asked Aye-zul, "What did Hei Bai want to show me? I've got an incoming call," laughing slightly when Hei Bai let out a low groan, Aye-zul saying something which she rolled her eyes at, "That everyone in the world who used to or is wearing an Earth Empire uniform but doesn't fight for it anymore needs to make like that man in his forest did. Move on from the past and forgive yourself. You've restored your own honor."

Jasmine laughed when Aye-zul said, landing nearby and arching an eyebrow, "Aside from the honor part, nothing I haven't told you before, Miss Serious," smiling with a hint of bitterness when he said, "Though given what I've seen of you, Baatar Jr., and Kuvira, you're the only one who should do it right away. You never really lost your honor, for all your whinging. They're a different story. They've got a lot more to account for, what with your - No, Wan Shi Tong, I don't care who 'Shin Di Ler' is! Do your talky talky to whoever that is, Jasmine - and I'll try to see if the Painted Lady can tell me why you humans are so weird. Or for that matter, why Wan Shi Tong is," laughing nasally, "Egghead - literally!"

Only part of her agreeing with what Aye-zul had to say, thinking, "Forget that spirit. I still should have done more - maybe discreetly warned people about the coming sweep for waterbenders and firebenders, like I did for my mother…", Jasmine turned to her radio. Laughing slightly to hear Wan Shi Tong saying, "I am the Spirit of Knowledge - I take that 'insult' as a compliment. Not sure what you're the spirit of, Aye-zul, impetuous 'firetosser'," Jasmine didn't catch Aye-zul's comeback as she heard a familiar voice say over the radio, "Jasmine - just what in the name of the Earth Emp- err, name of the Avatar's going on?" Hearing a nasal voice say indignantly, "I didn't ask to be a firetosser - quit calling me that!", Yangchen sighed, telling the man on the other end of the radio, "Just a minute," telling a dour Aye-zul before walking away from him and Wan Shi Tong, "I know given your history you're not happy with Raava's choice of element for you - but watch your mouth. There's a lot of firetossers in this camp," adding as she headed towards what she assumed was Aiqing and Maxiu's handiwork, "For what it's worth, my mother is a firebender too. Told her and my father to get out a year ago while they could, into the United Republic, before the first truly indiscriminate roundups. Now quit arguing with Wan Shi Tong, and start making the put-put cart and Meesile cart test models with Hei Bai! I'm going to check out this automated Lipowder creation apparatus, take this call. BYE."

Satisfied to see Aye-zul looking koala-sheepish, Jasmine's eyes widened slightly when she heard the man on the radio's voice say, recognizing it as the former overseer of Omashu, "Your mother, a firebender. Huh - I didn't know that, Jasmine, for all of our… former work relationship, Omashu and your camp." Jasmine asking, "Anything else you don't know that should have been obvious, Yuehan? Do you not remember meeting me face to face before Kuvira's big push? I didn't get my yellow eyes from my father, that's for sure," she got no response at first, apologizing, "Sorry. I'm on snark mode, dealing with one of the spirits here, Aye-zul. Alyssralove giving you any sort of trouble?"

After a short pause, Yuehan responded, saying, "No," Jasmine growing concerned when he stated, "I'm calling because Yangchen's husband asked me to, check in on you. She can't talk right now - she passed out. We don't know exactly what it is, but I have a hunch. I don't know what she ever did to deserve it, but… she might be fighting something inside. She's acting sort of like I've heard Zuko did seven decades ago." Wondering aloud just how Yuehan would know such a thing, she realized they needed to be careful in what they said due to monitoring concerns as he said, "When… when I was just an ordinary citizen in the Middle Ring, I'd sometimes go to the Jasmine Dragon, even talked to its new owner who said she knew Zuko well, Jin. Anyways - Yangchen 'found' something about 'Garzai' in Omashu? Not sure if that means anything to you - I do know you'll be glad to know this unexpected good - "

Remembering Wan Shi Tong's advice about security, Jasmine cut off Yuehan before he could say anything that might be sensitive, saying, "Wait, no, shhh! If you've got something I'd be glad to know - route it through Alyssralove, or get Yangchen up and awake. I can talk to her with a 'code' - something the Avatar gave me." Wondering after the fact if she had said too much, she was relieved when Yuehan took it in the spirit with which it was meant, saying, "Oh - thank you for catching that. I'll ask Alyssralove to… do whatever it is she'd do. I don't know much about spirits. Anyways - I recall something about Wuqing crushing his high-quality radio equipment in a fit of rage last night, but it's likely been replaced by now, with all the traffic between the front and Zaofu in those modified airships of theirs. Wish we had spirit engines…" Jasmine wishing she had some spirit engines of her own, not sure if Fai and Maylin could replicate whatever one of Jinshu Kuangmai's men had done last night, finding it very unlikely that vengeful hunk of flesh had come up with it himself, she listened as Yuehan continued, "I don't know any code - so we'll just have to be vague," chuckling slightly when he asked, "Uh… think Alyssralove could help me with the code? Is it simple?"

Sighing, not wanting to explain much at all, let alone English, Jasmine said, "No, sorry. I do think I might have an idea, though. It's not a simple cipher - it's a whole other way of speaking. Think of it… like being able to 'talk' like a spirit, but nobody being able to understand unless Korra's done something special to you. Regardless - you any good with phonetics?" Yuehan not giving any immediate response, Jasmine said, "Whatever - try seeing if you can mimic this anyways," saying in exaggerated and enunciated English, "Jas-mine found in-gred-ients for Li-powder in train." Yuehan echoing, " 'Jas Myn sind Lin grid-Yints fur Ri Po Der tain.' That it?", Jasmine sighed, repeating herself a few times, asking, "Are you sure Yangchen isn't up yet?", sighing again when Yuehan said, "No. She's still knocked out - her husband Xingyun's trying his best to get her awake again. Anyone else in this city happen to know this 'code'? Does Alyssralove?" Jasmine said, annoyed, wishing Korra had thought to drag in more people, at the very least Yangchen's husband, "Yes, she does - but getting her involved in this defeats the whole point. I wanted to get this across quickly," repeating herself in much greater detail a few more times, saying normally after hearing some hooting, "Okay - this is going nowhere, and I swear I hear an owl laughing in the background. Apparently, Wan Shi Tong finds this amusing - or my refusal to just let the spirits do all the work. At least I know he has good hearing. Tell Yangchen we've got phosphorous, 'yellow volcano earth', and burned wood in great quantity, and even acid Varricks might make to produce Nuktuk."

After a brief pause, Yuehan asked, "How is that good news, exactly? And if it was all where I think it was - Jinshu Kuangmai should know you have it by now; why the need for secrecy?" Yuehan having a good point, having a hard time believing someone so controlling as Jinshu Kuangmai wouldn't have noticed the missing supplies by now or one of his obsessives like Jang spotting the inventory reduction, Jasmine said, "You're sort of right - he didn't know about it, but I guess he should by now, if he's the least bit competent. We found supplies in one car that weren't officially authorized, based off the note I found with the train conductor's help. Besides that, phosphorous, sulfur, charcoal in another train car - a bunch of mover acid barrels in the other. Packed jam full. Yangchen will know why this is good news." Yuehan asking, "Should I know what those are good for?", Jasmine said with a final air, "You don't need to, yet. Given the way our scouts have seen troops moving, you're likely to not need to use any such things any time soon. Looks like we're the first target." Taking her mind off the fact she might be under attack soon, Jasmine said, "Anyways. The first three things - yes, you should know what they're for, given what those airships your new boss helped commandeer last night were outfitted with - fire-earth weapon prototypes. We've now got the capacity for those primitive weapons, and I can't imagine a big long metal tube being hard to make, unlike a Varrick gun. The fourth - not really, unless you've been around Chin. Yangchen will know what it's for, and that's all that matters. Just tell her 'The camp will be making Jinshu Kuangmai better surprises than we thought we could'," adding with a smile as she realized the full implications of smokeless Lipowder, "And that the Avatar throwing in a bunch of extra designs earlier wasn't for nothing after all."

Getting a quick response from Yuehan, perhaps one that was too quick, Yuehan said tersely, "Didn't catch that last part. Family drama. Gotta go - looks like things could get ugly." Jasmine was left perturbed when the radio let out a loud static, demanding of no one, "Damn, what - fool! What could be more important than her knowing we can possibly make Varrick guns?! And you don't just tell someone 'things could get ugly' and shut the radio off! And what family drama?" Remembering her earlier issues with everyone but Yangchen and President Raiko, the Avatar's allies having struck her as undisciplined, she sighed, covering her face with her hands, the scar under her left eye stinging from the contact, "Ugh - I hope Yangchen's okay. Because I don't know who else I can stand dealing with in a stressful situation… 'bloody idiots'. Even someone who worked for the same boss I did until recently…"

Looking up and away from her radio, in the back of her mind wondering when they'd be under attack, she noticed she wasn't alone. Seeing all four former Earth Empire scientists nearby, she smiled, saying, "Good - you're all here. Now why don't you explain all these mechanical contraptions you have set up. Especially what looks like an… automated spirit vine cutter?" Having already noticed all four looked slightly depressed and gone ahead anyways, she thinned her eyes slightly, feeling annoyed when Aiqing said, "Yes - but… I just wanted to ask you something first, for all four of us. On what Hei Bai 'said', through that other spirit Aye-zul - we don't know what to make of it. Especially what Maylin didn't hear personally - Aye-zul's comment about you, Kuvira and Baatar Jr."

Suppressing the urge to say, "Not now - business first," after noticing how disturbed all four of them looked, Aiqing explained, Jasmine able to tell he was masking his emotions, "You, Jasmine… You've been 'in it' since the day Kuvira came to Ba Sing Se, heard rumors from guards since I… 'joined' this camps' population last night you and your family were fighting looters even before she arrived with all that hardware, put the smack down on looters in Ba Sing Se. You stayed on the right path even as Kuvira, everyone else went down another, darker one. Fully aware of what was going on, unlike people like Bolin, or those idealists you've told us about defecting near a week ago. Likely staying behind after Kuvira's 'downfall' to help others, and keep Jinshu Kuangmai from doing anything horrible. I already know he wanted to kill or work the firebenders to death, and you stopped that. And even you're having trouble with guilt, did what you had to do to keep the façade up," finally showing more emotion as he broke up and said, Maxiu hugging him for comfort, "Us? The others Jinshu Kuangmai 'ratted out' - officers in the Earth Empire army, scientists like us, normal enlisted men and women alike? We didn't stop working when that… that monster took over. We've been 'in it' all along, but on the wrong side, not starting to undermine the Earth Empire when you did, from what I've heard. Maxiu and myself helped Varrick perfect the mechasuits, assisted Baatar Jr. on the Colossus' design - Mai and Faylin worked on the spirit weapons with Baatar Jr., and helped Jinshu Kuangmai work out the few bugs and issues that still existed in smaller spirit weapons. Without Jinshu Kuangmai… deciding that just because we're different sexually, like Asami Sato or Korra, that we deserved to die - we'd still be back in Zaofu, most likely." Gulping, Jasmine feeling like they were no longer alone, Aiqing asked, staring Jasmine straight in her face intently, "I know we need to suck it up, power through all these conflicting emotions, being forced onto the right track by pain of death - but do you know anything, have anything for us that might help deal with going from darkness into light?"

At first, Jasmine didn't have an answer, internally asking no one in particular after closing her eyes, "I'm no spiritual woman - but if there's anything I can think of, the perfect words, help me, please," she was surprised to hear a familiar roar from behind her, followed by what must have been Hei Bai saying, "Kuvira. Nightmare."

Eyes still closed, Jasmine tried recalling details of that portion of what the Avatar had shown her, able to remember much after feeling a nudge against her back, saying, "Last night, Kuvira had a terrible dream - a fight for her sanity, yet again, while she slept, struggling against old bad habits and her mind, as well as older darkness. I'm sorry to say, while I don't think any struggle you might have would be as bad as hers - you weren't the 'Great Uniter', for all intents Empress after all - that struggle will never truly be over." Noticing all four's eyes widen, Jasmine smiled slightly, saying, "But that's no different from anyone else. Even the Avatar has issues that will dog her, time and again - but there is hope. Aiqing, Maxiu - you have each other. Fai and Maylin - I get the impression you're good friends, even if that's all it will ever be. Kuvira didn't win her fight last night by fighting prowess - the struggle was internal, and the only way it could be 'won' temporarily was through both love and friendship. I won't say who right now - but in the middle of her nightmare, someone told Kuvira, 'No matter how bad things get, I'll help make sure you stay the real Kuvira – the humane one, the new one. Even if we're repeating this dream long after the world is at peace.' Given something else she heard, following an attempt to end the fight in very much the wrong way, from 'someone' very close to her, that, 'It is the fate of all mortals to struggle with good versus evil until the day they die, Kuvira. You cannot simply kill your inner darkness, and be done with it,' it's what everyone faces," adding seriously, "It's not like you have a multitude of sins staining your soul, beyond helping the wrong side and sticking around even after Kuvira's surrender. Kuvira, Baatar Jr. - they're the ones with real weight on their minds. Both almost went insane - Kuvira, twice."

Hearing Hei Bai let out a loud roar, wishing she could understand, she nodded when she heard Aye-zul say, "Remember your history - from what Korra showed me of history between Wan's time and hers, Zuko wasn't exactly honorable or in the right for good parts of his early life. And he helped bring the world into a new era, just as much as Aang did," finishing as he came into view near a working machine, "The best way to make sure the world stays that way… is to get to work! Even if it is making things for the exact same purpose that Jinshu Kuangmai would love to use them for - to kill people!"

Noticing Maylin and Aiqing looking slightly uncomfortable, Jasmine said drolly, walking towards Aye-zul and admiring the engineer's work, "You've already made these wonderful machines with your bending, and what appears to be spirit energy as power, to automatically produce Lipowder. That's what all this machinery is for - to kill people. I'd prefer it if the weaponry fueled by their products is never used, and if so, that as few as possible of Chin's men die to bullets, safe in their mechasuit. But I could care less about Wuqing's men - and they could care less about you. Remember what Jinshu Kuangmai wanted to do to you - choke you to death, just because of who you are. Me - probably wants to dice me into little bits, slooowly. Even the Air Nomad monks defended themselves when they were under attack by the first wave of Fire Nation attacks. Now, help me get more things up and running, in motion just like these machines - unless you want to end up like the Air Nomads."

All four nodding slowly, Jasmine gave Aye-zul an approving look when he said, "Yeah - no genocides! That's the whole reason we got… plopped here, got bending - to stop that brats' sick 'party'. Now someone bend me a way down below, beneath the earth - Wan Shi Tong's told me these things are nosiy, and we don't want them hearing us testing them. Get me and Hei Bai some more metal to work with - we've got stuff to make!"

Some part of her mind quibbling, "I thought I told you to get started on that already?", about to say something before she heard a pleased grumbling, getting the impression that Aye-zul and Hei Bai had already done some work on their job, Jasmine said nothing, simply saying, "Sounds good, Aye-zul." Aye-zul confirming the impression by saying, "We already have some metal - we just need more, a place to work and the boom stuff to start," Jasmine nodded grimly when she heard Wan Shi Tong say from behind, "Listening to you speak with an open mind, Jasmine - you have helped me see things an army of foxy spirit assistants and hundreds of tomes could not teach me. Things uniquely human, things I have heard before, but never truly listened to, when someone tried to explain why they 'needed' a design from war from my library. 'Kill or be killed,', 'It's us or them,', 'A time for peace, a time for war,', 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,' - I did not fully grasp these until now. I did not even fully grasp the advice Aang received over seven decades ago from his past lives, which I recently attained access to, courtesy of his successor, Korra." Wan Shi Tong pausing for a moment, he continued, "Humans can die very easily, and there is no resurrection - only reincarnation, the Avatar the only one who can see their past lives. Spirits are immortal but not invincible, only the Avatar able to kill us, as Kuruk almost did Koh centuries ago," finishing ominously, "Now that I remember more, of human's requests for war knowledge over the ages, and the reasons - perhaps I should have granted one group their request, to try and stop something close to the Air Nomad genocide. Not understanding humans, thinking they wanted an advantage over their enemies rather than something to help preserve their people as they claimed, I refused - and they faded into history… I will not go into the details that I can recall right now - it would distract from the work you need to do, to prevent another smaller genocide from occurring. Everything I truly heard for the first time about humans and war, violence, death - let us hope I never have to apply these lessons, as Aye-zul already did last night."

Closing her eyes for a second, intending to steel herself for work, to quell any questions she had on this past event, Jasmine saw something that was hazy at first, her sense of unease growing as the image clarified - but not because of what it showed. Jasmine saw charred mechasuits with their helmets apparently bent off, given the warped metal, coming into existence. Their occupant's heads now surrounded by swirling air, she heard something faint ask condescendingly, "Surely, you must know who is doing the asphyxiation? Oh, noble soul - is this what you want? To help the Spirit of Knowledge learn what it is to kill?" Opening her eyes, Jasmine felt torn - without context, she had found the image undisturbing. Logically, and emotionally - well, mostly - she had no qualms with helping carry out that sequence of events, but… context was everything. She only "wanted" death if it were necessary - but the condescension of that voice, coupled with the image not disturbing her…

Jasmine took a deep breath, knowing only the present as she asked, hand near an automation machine, "How do these things work?" Part of what Wan Shi Tong had said pushed to the back of her mind even before she asked her question, Jasmine focused to keep her mind fairly blank of anything but Fai, Maylin, Maxiu and Aiqing's words, and focused on explaining what she knew that they did not as far as technology was concerned. Learning more about these machines and hearing some of her "Fab Four's" input and ideas and how to best defend the camp was of the utmost importance.

She didn't want to think about defeat - or victory, and the death it might bring, hoping Yangchen would stay "strong" if she did not. Jasmine was not sure if already being "strong" last night with Jinshu Kuangmai's spy was good thing or not.

Thinking back over what Wan Shi Tong had said, she thought, "A genocide, other than that of the Air Nomads… I have never heard of that before. Perhaps he is imagining things? Tiny men in radios… regardless, that wasn't the important part of what he said. The things about death were. I will simply have to wait and see what the day brings." Aiqing breaking off from technical speak for a short while he said incredulously, "Enough about death - something about life. Had this crazy dream last night before that tyrant woke me and my boyfriend up - kids. And not orphans, like what we had talked about maybe taking in some day - kids that looked like us. All these fancy weapons, leagues ahead of anything I worked on before, or even what I saw of Chin's work - you've obviously talked with the Avatar. Maybe even been… infobended, was it? Know what the dream could mean?"

Hazily remembering something to do with President Raiko and Buttercup, children in a dream, Jasmine dismissed the thought that came to her mind, thinking, "Two men having children - impossible," remembering that not too long ago, she might have said the same of two women, spirit shenanigans and all. Dismissing the thought nonetheless, Jasmine said, "Not anything that would be remotely possible, sorry," Maxiu smiling and saying, "That's what I thought - dreams can be crazy." Even if she thought the dream was ridiculous, Jasmine still ended up feeling something as a result of his question.

More determination to do her job, even if it meant killing Chin's men. They had minds of their own - should be able to tell right from wrong. No excuse about personal or familial safety and preservation in the world was enough to justify following genocidal orders. One genocide in history was one too many - and if what Wan Shi Tong said was true at all, there was an even older one the world had forgotten.

And she wasn't going to let another one happen, or the people inside this camp fade into the night, forgotten. She wasn't going to let Earth Empire troops kill anyone like Aiqing unopposed. These two men obviously loved one another, to have planned to adopt children, possibly even taking in someone like Kuvira.

Abandoned. Just like Jinshu Kuangmai… or rather, Tonga Beifong.

---

Now finished addressing her father's men, hoping she had done as good of a job as he would have, Jayashri pocketed her notes. Intending to leave at first, she stopped when she remembered some of the things that deceptive rebel airbender Yangchen had told her earlier. Jayashri tried speaking off-the-cuff to the two battalions her father Chin had entrusted her with in his absence, saying, "Earlier, while I was preparing to come out and address you all, one of the rebel leaders visited me - projected, telling me contradictory things. That she'd rather not kill - but would fight tooth and nail 'if' it looks like we will take the other traitor Jasmine's camp, or Omashu itself." Taking a deep breath, she said, keeping emotion from her voice and face, "Given we are going to take both Omashu and the camp back, my father's technology helping 'even' nonbenders like myself fight well and be protected, I know I will not see some of the faces before me right now tonight." Pointing towards Omashu in the far distance, and then that double-rat Jasmine's camp, she said, "Omashu, the camp, that train they hijacked and looted last night - we all know what kind of equipment was in there. The spirits that have been sighted in our area do not help matters any either - the Avatar, abusing her position by getting her spirit partner to grant them bending."

Thoughts of the Avatar bringing her to her next point, Jayashri said, "What we face is no pushover like Zaofu - that city fell after my father's former leader soundly beat a weakened Avatar there, the people of the city surrendering like meek koala-sheep. It will not be as easy this time around." A few people murmured when she said, "Think the kind of resistance Kuvira met at Garzai, except they have spirits who can bend, spirit weapons, the fire-earth they stole, and many more people than the relic of Fire Nation tyranny Garzai had. Whichever we are sent to attack first, it will be hard. But with the technological might of the Earth Empire behind us, I am confident that we will prevail." Smiling slightly to notice people were cheering again, she continued, "I feel safe saying this around you, my father's 'second family' - he is working on and trying to convince Jinshu Kuangmai to support technologies which will change the very nature of war, and as far as I know, the enemy have nothing to compare." Wishing she could bend like her father, or anything, she made do with speaking loudly to accentuate her final words, saying, "The first Colossus was nothing in comparison to what is coming! Even better, his technology does not require bending to work - we will be EQUALS to any 'elite'! Determination won't save these rebels. All we need to do is hold out and follow orders until that equipment arrives, finish business here - then, to Ba Sing Se, then Republic City!"

Her father's men excited, hoping her father would deliver sooner rather than later, Jayashri quelled a creeping concern in her mind, thinking as she bowed and stepped off the podium, "Just because I talked to Yangchen about not killing innocents, doesn't mean I can't do my job. I can't let my father's men down - or my father." Remembering just how many people lived in Omashu, Jayashri got angry all over again, thinking as she approached her "commander" General Wuqing's large tent, "We can't afford to lose over a million people. Not when the odds are already stacked against us." Close enough to hear Wuqing's voice, she said out loud, "Maybe if we can manage a quick knockout strike, or even capture Yangchen, they'll lose their will, just like Zaofu did when we took Suyin Beifong."

Surprised when she heard a response to her musing after opening the tent's zipper, Wuqing's voice was laden with derision as he said, "Little girl - there is no place for optimism in military strategy. Though, given what your and your father's troops' role will be shortly enough - keep it. You will be following, not leading, for all your speechifying to your fellow peasants."

Jayashri's eye twitching slightly out of anger, she said, trying to get the mustachioed smug General to look at her, "I'll still be leading - my father's men!", wishing she could set Wuqing's stupid mustache on fire when he said derisively, "Yes - following my commands. I am as old as your father, you - a mere twenty years old." Smirking slightly, he asked, "Can you make one contribution besides that which you've been assigned to do?", continuing, Jayashri getting an idea as he spoke, "Or are you so much hot air, like what little I heard of Jasmine 'coming out' as traitorous?"

Remembering something her father had mentioned, even given her the blueprints for along with her newer-model personalized mechasuit early in the morning, Jayashri said, "Yes. Earlier, I caught that airbender woman spying on my own tent with projection." Wuqing's brown eyes widening and his mustache twitching with displeasure, Jayashri pushed her luck a little, saying, "I assume even someone like you who is not trusted with airships while his 'little girl' subordinate is can see the problem there."

Swearing Wuqing smiled for half a second, he said with anger that struck Jayashri as forced somehow, "Wh- such insolence!", oddly silent when Jayashri said, "I have an idea - my father Chin left me more than a new-model custom fabricated metal mechasuit. He left blueprints, including for Jang's 'spirit security' towers." Walking over to and picking the blueprint out of storage, Jayashri examined it, saying as another idea occurred to her, being polite out of not respect but a desire to get what she wanted, "General Wuqing - correct me if I am wrong, but I believe your men and the other battalions assigned to excavating the subterranean reinforcement caverns found ores much more valuable than copper, iron, aluminum when they were digging." Pointing to such a sample that was on Wuqing's desk, along with a Vaatite crystal just like the one in her custom mechasuit, Jayashri said, "I can see some on your desk right now - spiritsteel, in both its forms. On these blueprints, I find no mention of Jang using spiritsteel, let alone a Vaatite crystal, in any of his designs - they predate my father's greatest discovery."

Having expected to need to explain her idea to Wuqing, never having seen him as anything beyond an angry merciless pile of short fuses prone to going off at the slightest insult, she was genuinely surprised when he said, saying her suggestion before she could, "You want to set up modified towers around this tent, and yours - so that they cannot see inside." Standing up and then picking up the Vaatite crystal, he said, rubbing it tenderly, "Very well - it is obvious you have a brain, even if you do not have experience," continuing as he walked to one of the tent's exits, "Come - see what I was setting up, even before you apparently conversed with this Yangchen woman and babbled to your battalions. Jinshu Kuangmai was busy shuttling mechasuits to your peasants - I was doing other things."

Jayashri following after grabbing the tower blueprint, never having gotten anything close to respect from the man before, peasant insults notwithstanding, she watched as he went into a horse stance. Wuqing said, as he moved his arms and the earth before him moved like a hinge, "With bending, I got things accomplished that no amount of technology can mimic. All that time helping set up those underground caverns let me perfect the art of rapid earthbending construction."

The hole in the ground emitting an enthralling red glow, Jayashri followed Wuqing down, the man she wouldn't have trusted with her own dog a few minutes ago saying as they walked down lower, "Beneath the surface, I've set up the fabricating room you see here. I, too, went to Zaofu last night," adding bitterly, "Though, I do not know what their hush-hush project is. No matter," Jayashri feeling as though Wuqing had left something unsaid.

Arriving at what looked to be the entrance to a large cavern, Jayashri was taken aback to see how much ore, crystals, and other resources lay within, Wuqing saying, "The earth that we excavated may not have been densely packed with these resources, but raw volume accounted for a lot." Spotting some rare things, like gold, diamond and what appeared to be a small amount of platinum, Jayashri asked, "Why haven't I heard of this before? Isn't this technically Jinshu Kuangmai's?" Wuqing turned around and said tersely, "Yes - in the same sense that your father's men are his, or you are Jinshu Kuangmai's daughter. My men and myself did this work - not him." Jayashri making mental note to bring this up to Jinshu Kuangmai, along with the killing of innocents to her father, Wuqing continued, "Regardless, I will use this to further the Empire's interests - as you can see by the fabrication room. Even give your men some of the equipment, to those who are competent. Perhaps I was wrong in my assessment of you - would you have me waste valuable time transporting these riches to him, when that traitor Jasmine has cut off our railway supply line? You can't fit all this into an airship, after all."

Not sure what to make of Wuqing's statements, Jayashri said, "Let's get out of here, in case that airbender woman decides to project to me again," smiling slightly when Wuqing's eyes widened, saying as they left in haste, "You may be no bender - but I suppose your father's cleverness rubbed off 'enough'."

Knowing that even with fabrication that time was not their friend, Jayashri said, "Forget the tents - the first towers should go up around that place," as they left, Wuqing saying as he shut the "door" again, "You say this woman already knows of you, our tents - perhaps we could leave some misinformation behind for her to project and find…"

Walking back to the tent, Wuqing seeming to be scheming something else, Jayashri idly inspected the blueprints once they were back inside, copying the bare form to a piece of scrap paper, a solitary Vaatite crystal placed into the jamming portion's heart and the body now made of spiritsteel. Hearing Wuqing mumble something about attack, Jayashri recalled something she had heard her father got from Jinshu Kuangmai on these mysterious spirits, smiling as she said, "Normal tower - keeps the spirits from being anything but physical. Spiritsteel tower with a Vaatite crystal - who knows what might happen. Maybe we can even turn their spirits to our side, the strong one - Wan Shi Tong's already helped Vaatu once, after all."

Getting another idea, Jayashri drew in a radio-jamming suite, her respect for Wuqing increasing when he said, "A radio jammer… I have an ongoing 'offensive and defensive' project involving underground spirit weapons, as per Jinshu Kuangmai's orders." Jayashri lost him when he sat down and said, drawing on his own piece of paper, "If we can sneak these things underground and surround the camp well enough, and make the 'right' kind of attack - we might be able to pull something off like this."

Standing up and looking at Wuqing's piece of paper, able to follow the theory and execution of the tactics drawn onto it after a while, Jayashri said, amazed, "What… that's something my father would have needed a few hours to come up with, and you, mister 'brainless' - did it in under a minute." Wuqing smiling smugly, he said, grabbing larger pieces of blueprint, "And I thought you would have been totally averse to what the tactic would require, how your father's precious peasants would be used, or even my usage of yourself."

Still having a hard time believing Wuqing had come up with this on his own, Jayashri said, "I drew on my father and Jang's work for the tower idea…. Where did you draw for your ideas?" Wuqing simply smiled, saying with great pleasure, Jayashri detecting no real hostility in his voice, "This is a tactic that my long-deceased ancestors used in battle, updated and made more sophisticated. Extensively modified to work in an attack against a wall instead of in an open field. 'Little girl' - there is much more to me than meets the eye."

Wuqing bowing his head ever so slightly, he said, "Apparently, the same is true of you," smiling when Jayashri asked him, "Why so… well, grating, angry, up until this point?". Wuqing said with a final air, "Just as everything in what I drew for you has a reason - so too do my actions. That is what I miss about Kuvira - not only do I think she was closer to my ancestors, based on her name, she was closer to a Pai Sho player in strategy. Each move, carefully calculated - not simple rushing and force, reserved emotions and not angry blood-iron bending bluster."

Working together a little more, part of her not liking how her battalions would be used, but knowing if the enemy had any interest in killing as little as possible her men would be okay, Jayashri felt at ease, and yet, not. Remembering that Wuqing until recently struck her more as a Jinshu Kuangmai and less of a Kuvira, she was left with only two questions, their plan perfectly clear and intricate.

If Wuqing had plans for himself that did not involve Jinshu Kuangmai - and if he did, whether she'd support the incumbent known factor Jinshu Kuangmai or the possibly rebellious unknown sitting next to her. All on the off chance the "real" him might be closer to her father than Jinshu Kuangmai...