Zuko
Sam and I got up much the same like we had yesterday. Sam went over to help Izumi get ready for school but Chang would stay home today. She was still sick and we didn't want to push her to go back before she was ready. While Sam was helping Izumi, I decided to check on Chang. I knocked and went into her room. To my surprise, Azula was still there. She was asleep but Chang was awake.
"Hey, Chang. How are you feeling?" I asked her quietly as to not wake Azula.
"I feel a little bit better I think." she said, moving to get up. I placed my hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her down.
"Oh no, kiddo. You're staying here today." I said much to her disappointment.
"Izumi is going to school, right?"
"Yes, she is. But she isn't sick." I said. Chang looked uncomfortable.
"What's the matter?"
"I…If no one else is staying home, I have to go."
"What do you mean?"
"You and Sam are leaving right? And so will Azula."
"Yes, but Nan will be here." I was having trouble understanding what the problem was. Then it dawned on me. "Did something happen if you were the only one who stayed home? With your parents?" She was hesitant but ultimately answered my question.
"If I was sick I had to go to school anyway. My mommy and daddy would get angry because they had to go to work. If I wanted to stay home, my daddy would hit me."
What in the name of Agni was wrong with these people?! I walked over to her and sat down on the bed next to her, aware that I would probably rouse Azula. "Listen to me, Chang. If you are sick, you will stay home until you feel better. No matter what Sam and I are doing, you are a priority to us. Meaning you are important to us. If you are sick and one of us needs to stay with you, so be it. We will never hit you or punish you for being sick. Do you understand?" I asked her. She pondered for a moment and then spoke.
"Yeah. Zuko?"
"Yes?"
"Why are they so mean?" I knew she was referring to her parents.
"Some people just don't know how to treat others and they think it's acceptable to be mean. Some people don't know how to be parents." I explained. I wished Sam was here. She was so much better at these talks than I was. Despite my inexperience, Chang seemed to understand.
"So…even if I'm sick, I can stay home and feel better?"
"Yes, you children are our top priority. You are more important than a day's work. So don't worry, ok? There will be no punishment for being sick." I said. It felt ridiculous to say. Who on earth would punish a child for being sick? It isn't like it's her fault. I urged her to lay back down, "go on and lay back down ok? Get plenty of rest. Sam or myself will be in later to check on you. Ok?"
"Ok, thanks, Da-, Zuko." she corrected herself.
I stood up from the bed, surprised that Azula didn't wake, and I walked out of the room. Izumi and Sam were in the hallway.
"There you are! I was looking for you. We are ready." Sam said.
"Yes, I wanted to check on Chang. She is going to rest today." I said and looked down at my daughter, "what do you say to a ride, turtleduck?"
"Ok!" she said jumping up and down.
"Well, you have to get into position first, silly." I said, laughing. I lifted her up and plopped her on my shoulders. The three of us walked down to the entrance to meet up with Geshna. Once there, I picked her up off my shoulders and set her down on her feet. "Good morning, Geshna. It will just be Izumi today." I explained. She nodded.
"I suspected as much, Fire Lord." she said. She looked down at Izumi, "You ready for school, kiddo?" she asked.
"Yeah!" she said and, as standard practice, she took Geshna's hand and they both walked to school.
"What do you say to seeing the women again?" Sam said.
"Yes, definitely. Let's head on over there." I said. "By the way, something happened with Chang." I said.
"Really? What?"
"She was scared to stay home from school. She said that if she made her parents lose a day's work she would be beaten. They usually just made her go to school sick." I said.
"What the fuck is wrong with people?!" Sam practically shouted at me.
"I don't know. I wondered the same thing." I said. "Meanwhile, Azula had been with her and was still sound asleep next to her when I went in there. She didn't even rouse when I talked to Chang." I said.
"Well, she probably was up a lot during the night if Chang is still vomiting." Sam said. I didn't think to ask if she was or not. I just knew she didn't feel well.
Sam and I walked through the city and, like always, were greeted by our people as we made our way to the shelter. We finally arrived and, much to our relief, Fu Sen had all of the women gathered already in our meeting room. We arrived inside and Sam spoke.
"So, have you ladies had time to think about things?" Sam asked. One of the women spoke up.
"Yeah. I want to nail these bastards. I'm in." she said. I was surprised at her quick willingness. It was a welcome surprise though.
"I want to help too but I don't want to have a target on my back."
"Like we said yesterday, we will do everything in our power to keep you all safe. We have put processes into place to ensure that." I explained.
In the end, out of the fourteen women who where there, eleven decided to help us. The other three were just too scared. I didn't blame them. And it wouldn't be held against them either.
"Perfect! Then we will have you come today to check on these people. Fire Lord, you should probably write another note that they will not be in today. Fu Sen, would you be willing to deliver these to their employers?" Sam asked.
"Yes, of course, my lady." he said, bowing. Sam smiled and gave a nod of agreement.
"Perfect, I will also tell them that they must pay you your day's wages."
"What if they refuse?" one of the girls asked. It didn't surprise me. I remembered my time away from the palace when I was a teenager. Money was hard to come by and when you had it coming in steady, missing a day was a big deal.
"They can't. Paying you your normal wages for the day will be an order, not a request." I clarified. They all relaxed a bit at this. "As discussed before, to mask why you are going to the palace, I will have some guards come to bring you to the palace for your meetings with Sam." It had been a while since she met with these women. Everything that was going on, especially with Chang, didn't afford her much time to fulfill other duties. At this proposition, the women seemed to feel more secure. "The rest of you who chose not to participate may go on with your daily business but you will meet with Sam at your normal time." The three who decided to sit this out, got up and left to work.
Sam and I stood and headed back to the palace. We wanted to get things ready for the girls to come ID these people. We went back to the interrogation room. We had the table taken out of the interrogation side. We also called a meeting with our servants for a special task.
"Thank you for meeting with us on such short notice." Sam began. "We will need volunteers for a task today. We will need three men and three women." she said. She gave the general description of Buzi and Shira and asked for people who resembled them to step forward.
Within seconds, we had our six people. "Thank you, the rest of you may get back to work."
"We will need for you to change your clothes. Jok will be providing temporary clothing for you. We need for you to wear prison uniforms. By doing this, you will blend in as much as possible. You will be helping us to hopefully nail some of the people who have been involved in the trafficking." Sam explained. I didn't know the details of her plan but it was obvious she had put a lot of thought into this. "Once changed, please report back here." she said. I had also told the guards to fetch Buzi and Shira and keep them in separate rooms and separate from our volunteers.
In a few minutes, the volunteers were back and changed into the uniforms.
"We are going to ask for you all to stay in this room until we come get you." Sam said, gesturing to an empty room near the interrogation room.
After a few minutes, everyone was where they were supposed to be. Now we just had to wait for the girls. The guards would bring them one at a time. They would bring one, leave her here, go back to get the next person, by the time the first girl was done, with IDing and with their meeting, they would be here with the next girl. This was a similar practice of how Sam did her regular sessions. Except her sessions with these girls were only once a week. There were just too many of them to meet her normal three times a week. The first girl was brought up to us.
"Thank you for coming. Please, step into this room. Fire Lady Sam will stay in here with you. I will be right back." I said. I went to fetch Buzi and the three male volunteers. "Alright, everyone get into a line." I ordered and they did as commanded. "Now, file into this room and stand with your backs against that wall." I said pointing to the wall I was referring to. They did it and I stepped out, leaving them with Buzi's guard. I went into the secret room with the first girl and Sam.
"Alright, do any of these men look familiar to you?" Sam asked. The girl looked at all of them and then her eyes went wide and she started to fidget and was clearly uncomfortable. "Are you alright?" Sam asked, concerned. The girl held her hand up and pointed.
"That's him." she said, pointing to Buzi.
"Are you sure?" Sam asked.
"Yes, I'll never forget that face." she said, her face now dropping to a scowl. I walked out and dismissed them and them brought in the four women.
"Her." she said, pointing to Shira. "She's the bitch." the girl said. I was surprised at how well this was going. I went out and dismissed the four women for now. I then went back into the secret room and lit more lanterns. I brought over the photograph of Xinche and held it up to her.
"Does this man look familiar?" her face instantly went pale. "What is it?"
"Yes, he is the…he decides who goes where and who is 'worthy' of being one of his girls. He is a foul man." she said. I nodded my head and smiled.
"Alright, your work is done. I will take you to our meeting room until the next girl is ready. Then we will have you write down your statement. Once that is completed, you are free to go. You will have the rest of the day off and be paid for it. Don't worry about that. Ok? You may find you need rest after this whole ordeal." I said.
"Yes, your majesty." she said bowing.
The rest of the day went by much the same way. The men would file in. She would ID the man. They would leave and the women would come in. Then we would show them the photograph of Xinche.
By the time they were finished, it was time to meet Izumi. Sam and I went to the entrance and greeted Izumi.
"Mommy! Daddy!" Izumi shouted, running to us.
"Zoom! How was school, button?" Sam asked.
"It was great! I drawed a picture of our family!" she said, holding it up. I noticed there were five of us. She had included Azula and Chang.
"Drew hunny." Sam corrected. "This is very nice! And it was a kind thing to include Chang in this." she praised Izumi.
"She's my bestest friend!" she said. I smiled at her unbridled kindness for others.
"Sam will take your things to your room and you can go outside to play with the other children." I said. "Do you want a ride again?"
"Yeah!" she said, excited. She handed her bag to Sam and then came over to me and I hoisted her to my shoulders. After we took her bag to her room, she and I went out to the Turtleduck Garden. Sam was also going to check on Chang.
We walked out and, sure enough, the other children were hard at play. I walked over to Aang and we greeted each other.
"How did it go with the girls?" Aang asked, getting straight to the point.
"It went very well. Sam and I were going to request a meeting with you all after dinner."
"I think that sounds perfect. I can't wait to find out what you have."
"We can't wait to share it." I said, looking sideways out of my eye. I could tell Aang was very happy at this declaration. The rest of the evening went smoothly. The children played, Chang rested in her room with Azula, who didn't go to work today, and dinner went well.
Once dinner was over, we decided to have all of the children go to bed early. We wanted to talk about what we found and it was too urgent to wait any longer. We all went our separate ways to put the children to bed. We went to find Izumi, who was in Chang's room, spending time with her ailing friend.
"Izumi, time for bed, sweetie." Sam said. Izumi looked at her, then at me and then back at Sam.
"Am I in trouble?" she asked, concerned.
"No, sweetheart. We just have to send all of you children to bed a little bit early today." Sam said.
"But I wanna stay with Chang! I haven't saw her all day." she said looking over at her friend. I looked at Izumi disapprovingly.
"Izumi. Have we talked about backtalking?"
"Yeah, but Daddy!"
"No, buts. Let's go." I said, holding my hand out for her to take. She lowered her head and leaned down to hug Chang good night. She walked over to me and took my hand. "Chang, we will be back in a few minutes to tuck you in as well." We went over to Izumi's room and helped her under the blankets.
"I don't understand why I have to go to bed early." Izumi questioned.
"Because, us grown ups have things we need to talk about and it's best if you children are in bed before we do that." Izumi opened her mouth to argue. "No, Izumi. No backtalk, remember?" This was something that Izumi had recently started doing. Sam said it was because she was finally learning she has a voice and she was still trying to use it even when she knows she shouldn't.
Sam and I tucked Izumi into the blankets. I did my normal bouncing her up and down on the bed, tucking the blankets under her while she giggled. It still never got old.
"You nice and snug?" I asked her.
"Yeah, Daddy!" she said. I leaned down, kissed her forehead and stroked her hair. Sam went to the other side of the bed and kissed her all over her face making her giggle anew. Then we went over to do the same for Chang. Azula watched us from the corner of the room as we tucked her in.
"She likes that, you know." Azula said.
"Yeah, she does. And we love hearing her giggle."
"You're a good dad, Zuzu." Azula said.
"Well, I do my best." I said, humbly. "Are you going to stay in here with her?"
"Yes, I am. I will have to go to work tomorrow. But I'm hoping she will be ok until I get done."
"She will be. She's a tough kid." I said. We all said our good nights and Sam and I made our way to the dining hall to reconvene with everyone.
I took my place at the head of the table and Sam to my right. Shortly after we settled down, everyone came back in.
"Thanks, everyone, for meeting us on such a short notice. We have some interesting information for everyone." I started. Everyone looked at me with anticipation. "Sam, would you like to share?" This was her baby so I thought I would let her present the findings.
"Sure. We had several of the girls try to pick out Buzi and Shira. We brought in Buzi with three other men and then Shira with three other women. We also showed all of the girls the picture of Xinche." Sam explained.
"And? How did that go?" Toph asked.
"Out of the eleven women, eight of them were able to positively ID Buzi. Nine ID'd Shira. And all eleven of them confirmed Xinche." Sam declared.
"Really?! That many?" Sokka asked, surprised but pleased.
"Yes, and we had all of the girls write their statements down to be used against everyone when it comes down to it."
"So, do you feel we have enough evidence to confront Xinche?" Aang asked.
"I think we have more than enough." I said. "Sam and I feel that we can confront him now. He won't have anything to say about it and won't be able to deny it."
"So, when do you think we can do this?"
"As early as tomorrow." I said.
"I think that's perfect. We can leave first thing in the morning." Aang said.
"I'll stay back with our kids, Aang. I think it's important that you go." Katara said. I understood her reasoning. I probably would have done the same thing.
"I'll be going too." Sam said. My head snapped over at her and I saw her look at me out of the corner of her eye.
"No, you won't. You need to stay here."
"Zuko, like you said, this is my baby. I want to be there." Sam said. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I looked at everyone.
"I think we all should get to bed and get rested. We will need it tomorrow." I said. Then I spoke to Sam. "We will talk about it tonight." I said before Sam could question my omission.
"Sounds good. See everyone bright and early!" Aang said. I was a morning person but Aang took it to a whole new level.
After we convened, Sam and I headed to our bedroom. We talked as we changed into our night clothes.
"Zuko, I need to go." Sam said.
"No, you don't. Someone needs to stay here."
"I'm sure Azula will look after everything while we are gone. It should only be a couple of days."
"Sam, remember what I said when I was taken by the traffickers? We can't both be at risk."
"I am not convinced there will be much of a risk. Xinche is a coward. He hides behind girls and his recruiters. He won't be a problem."
"He will likely have guards, Sam." I said matter-of-factly.
"Yes, and we will dispell them easily." she argued. I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Sam, no. You can't come. You have to stay here on the home front and you have to watch over Izumi." I said. Sam closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Zuko, I have been the one in charge of the whole trafficking thing since it came to light over a year ago. I have been the one who worked with the girls. I heard their stories. Their nightmares. Their abuse. I have been involved with the shelter that you opened. I have been involved with the interrogations and the mirror. I have orchestrated everything in some form or another. I have a right to be there, Zuko. You know it." she said. I could see what she was saying. She felt robbed if she didn't attend.
"Alright, let's talk to Azula in the morning. If she can't do it then it WILL have to fall back on you." I declared.
"Fair enough." she said. She climbed into her side of the bed and I climbed into mine. We both settled into our favorite position and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a big day.
