Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. Avatar: The Last Airbender is owned by Nickelodeon, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone.
Chapter 14 Riot.
Four days had passed.
Katara and Aang went to the middle ring in search of a professional printer. They hadn't had high hopes, what with the Dai Li over their shoulder, but the first store they entered, the printer, a master of his trade, greeted them, and smiled at the prospect of printing something that he "wasn't supposed to."
"So you know about what's happening in the lower ring?" Katara asked.
"We get news up here too, you know." The printer said, as he began creating a master copy. "Usually, I wouldn't print something like this, especially with the Dai Li closing down paper companies, but after I read the Ba Sing Se Bulletin, I thought to myself, if they couldn't stop that rag from printing a smear piece, what the heck." The printer said, as he finished the description. "I'm all for a little civil disobedience when I can get away with it. Just won't put my signature on the work."
"We appreciate your help." Aang said with a small nod.
Azula sat around the apartment's low table. This was a usual thing. The team did evening reports after a day's work of collecting information and suggesting escalation towards conflict, knowing full well that The Avatar as a being of order would eventually have to expose himself and attempt to correct the people's uprising. But Azula had reached a block. She assumed that the government was feeling pressured, but until they were also escalating things openly beyond making a few people disappear and restricting newspapers, something needed to be done to provoke them, and in turn The Avatar. A large source of the crown, or more accurately the Dai Li's, revenue came from taxes on goods that they provided for the people of the city. Spices, tea, anything other than basic substance food really. She looked at Connor. "What was it your people did in protest of a tea tax during your revolution?"
Connor looked up from cleaning his pistol. "Dressed up like savages, boarded a ship full of the stuff from England, and tossed it all in the harbor… Why?"
Azula smirked. "I have a wonderful idea."
Later that night, the team, covering themselves in cloaks, made their way to the lower ring on foot. There was an unusual amount of people on the street, converging on the lower ring's largest pepper processing mill. Standing on the top of an ostrich-horse carriage, there was a young man, only a few years older than Connor, speaking to an increasingly loud crowd.
"-on granulated peppers, second only to the cost of tea farmed by the king's laborers on his land. The products of which we are forced to buy, by way of bullying competitors, and prohibiting importation of the same products. This extraordinary tax on a most common spice is yet one more attempt to keep the denizens of the lower ring perpetually poor! All the while his majesty and the nobility feast in celebration of the king's pet!"
Azula looked at Connor, he nodded, and stepped forward. "I say we burn it down!" He shouted.
"Yeah, make the king pay for his own party!" Someone, who heard Conner shout, spoke loudly.
"Torch it!" Came someone closer to the front.
"Burn it down!" Someone echoed.
"See how the king likes it when he doesn't get his extortion pay!" Came a woman's voice from behind Azula.
"Burn it down!" Connor shouted.
"Burn it down!" someone beside him said.
"Burn it down! Burn it down! Burn it down!" The sound of the crowd grew, and Azula smirked, as Connor made his way back to her. Mai held up a stick with an oil soaked rag wrapped around it, which Connor took in his hand. Azula snapped her fingers creating a spark onto the rag, and the torch burned a vibrant orange. Connor raised the torch over his head, and continued to chant with the crowd as he quickly made his way to the front. "BURN IT DOWN! BURN IT DOWN! BURN IT DOWN!" Connor loosed the torch in the air, sending the flaming stick through a paper shaded window, setting it and the frame on fire. Not long after, more torches were ignited, and several were tossed at and into other windows of the building. Before long, the pepper mill lit, and the small flame's inside turned into a raging blaze.
Aang and the others looked out of the window of Jet's apartment, having just gained the location of the Di Lee headquarters from their former rival. There was smoke rising over the city skyline, and chanting could be heard off in the distance.
"Is it always like this?" Katara asked Jet.
"No, but you wouldn't know being in the upper ring. There's been plenty of protests and stuff lately, mobs in the street, but not after dark… And they definitely never set anything on fire before." Jet said, as he stood from his chair to look out the window with the others.
"Think the Dai Li are out there right now?" Sokka asked.
"They're everywhere." Jet said, narrowing his eyes.
Two Dai Li, wearing plain clothes, silently slipped into the crowd of people burning down one of the state owned pepper mills. Their target was an easy man to spot all things considered. His size and skin color stood out among the crowd around him. The two approached Gong from Omashu, stone gloves on each hand. This would be the last anyone ever heard of him…
Azula looked at her handy work. A few words and a single snap of her fingers was all it took to whip the people of Ba Sing Se into a full riot, and at the center of it all was Connor, shouting along, and enjoying himself immensely as it seemed. Azula would admit, there was a personal satisfaction to be had, seeing a part of the city burned by her flames, though she could only imagine what Connor was feeling, emulating his own people's supposed heroes and liberators.
Only just then did Azula spot something odd out of the corner of her eye. There were two people dressed as many others were, that were not celebrating, or shouting, or throwing rocks at the burning building as the mob was. Just like Mai, Ty Lee, and her, these two seemed to be focused on something. Azula looked back to Connor, and made the connection. "Ty Lee, get to Connor!' Azula said.
"What?" Ty Lee asked, surprised by the command.
"GO! Get to Conner now, and protect him!" Azula said loudly, before the girl dropped her cloak, and made a dash for her friend. No sooner had she leapt over top of the crowd, and began stepping off of people's heads, had the two strange men grabbed Connor by the shoulders. As Ty Lee went in for a flying kick, the men sank into the ground with Connor, and the hole created shifted closed just before she landed.
"CONNOR!" Azula shoved her way through the crowd as she shouted his name, coming to find Ty Lee standing in a small clearing, Connor nowhere to be found.
When Connor woke up next, he was being dragged by his arms through a stone corridor. He was unceremoniously tossed into a hardwood chair, and locked in place by earth bending shackles. "ɔːlˈraɪt, wɒtˈɛvə juː ˈpiːpl wɒnt, aɪm nɒt ˈɡɪvɪŋ ɪt tuː juː." Connor said, earning a confused look from one of the three agents in the room. Connor's head was then restricted against the chair with a ring of earth, his conical hat being removed. "juː nəʊ aɪ kæn breɪk ðiːz? jʊə ˈrɪəli ʤʌst ˈɡɪvɪŋ miː ˌɪnfəˈmeɪʃᵊn." Connor continued. A metal ring with a lantern on it was bent up through the floor by the agent standing in the middle of the room. "aɪ kʊd seɪ wɒtˈɛvər aɪ wɒnt raɪt naʊ, ænd juːd hæv nəʊ aɪˈdɪə wɒt aɪm ˈtɔːkɪŋ əˈbaʊt. aɪm wɪð ðə ˈfaɪə ˈneɪʃᵊn. maɪ ˈmʌðəz ˈmeɪdn neɪm wɒz əʊ, ʃeɪ. aɪm nɪə dɛft ɪn wʌn ɪə." Connor continued, his rambling going unrecognized by the agents.
The lantern on the mental ring began to spin around, and the agent in the center spoke. "There is no war in Ba Sing Se."
Connor let out a burp. "ˈsɒri, dræŋk æt ˈdɪnə." he apologized.
"The Earth Kingdom is a prosperous country."
Connor rolled his eyes. "ʃʊə bʌd, wɒtˈɛvə meɪks juː ˈhæpi."
"There is no need for senseless violence."
"aɪ kæn sɪt hɪər ɔːl naɪt juː nəʊ. aɪv ɡɒt frɛndz ˈlʊkɪŋ fɔː miː." Connor said. "So kiss my white ass, stone chucker."
Long Feng stood in his office within the Dai Li headquarters. He was waiting for the initial brainwashing of the agitator to be finished before he could implant the trigger phrase, and render total control over the young man. An agent stepped into the room. "Is it done?" He asked.
"No, Sir. The freak seems to be completely resistant to the treatment. He's only spoken once in a way we can understand him, and it was to issue a racial slur." The agent said.
Long Feng turned and looked at the agent. "Is he ill of mind?"
"As far as we can tell, no, Sir." The agent said.
Long Feng narrowed his eyes. "Keep trying. They all break eventually."
Azula slammed the door to their apartment closed behind her as Mai and Ty Lee took seats around the table. "Those wretched stone chucking, heathens!" Azula said, nearly snarling. "No one takes one of my own as their prisoner." Azula said as she narrowed her eyes. "We lack the resources to track Connor..." She started pacing back and forth in front of the door. "... But I will be damned if I don't burn this city down for the Dai Li's arrogance! We're going to have to step up our game, bring them to the negotiating table. Speed up the revolt…" Azula looked at Mai. "... It's time the Middle Ring joined the fight."
Some time around the eight hour, Connor flexed his back in the chair, though reminded bound. The Dai Li had rotated out several times now, and new agents came in once or twice. The three agents in the room looked between each other, and then left, but not before dropping the metal ring back into the floor with their bending. "Tired already?" Connor asked, knowing that he'd well and truly agitated his captors. He'd faked convulsions just to spit on them, and continued to torment the agents by singing in English. They hadn't resorted to any form of beating yet, and Connor took that as a good sign.
The door opened, and a mustached man entered. "So who are you, my lawyer?" Connor jested.
"I am Long Feng, head of the Dai Li, and your resistance has worn my patience thin." The man said. Connor nodded at this as best he could with his head restrained. "I know that your name isn't Gong, but it's hardly relevant what you call yourself. What I do know is that you and the women you came to this city with are from the Fire Nation, and at every turn of the insurrections taking place in the Lower Ring you've been at the center of it. I know you weren't the one who wrote that treasonous trash, you don't look smart enough for that..."
"It's just My handwriting that's illegible." Connor said with a shrug.
"... Most likely that was one of the girls then, but I have reports that you hand delivered copies of it to all the papers in the Lower Ring. I know that you attacked my agents to incite protests against the security forces of the district. And I know it was you who threw the first torch that set the pepper mill on fire. Your team's attempts at destabilizing my Kingdom are futile at best. The Dai Li, and the army have the ability to keep the people in check if it comes to it. Without bending, most of them are powerless. And now I'm going to handle you the old fashioned way… By giving you a choice."
"Pardon?" Connor asked, eyebrow raised.
"I'm giving you a choice. I know how much it would mean to the Fire Lord if The Avatar was captured and put in his custody. If the Fire Nation is willing to cease all attacks on Ba Sing Se, it can have the remains of the Earth Kingdom, and our two countries can live in peace. In exchange, I am willing to forgive your transgressions here, and hand over The Avatar." Long Feng said, as he released the restraints from Connor's head and arms.
Connor rubbed his wrists reflexively, and then scoffed. "You have The Avatar locked up down here too?"
Long Feng smirked. "Any moment, The Avatar and his friends are going to enter the compound looking for his lost pet, and step squarely into a trap I set for them over a week ago."
Connor chuckled. "Sounds about right… I'll take that offer... I'd like my sword and gun back though." The door behind Long Feng opened, and an agent Carrying Connor's belt held it out. Connor stood from the chair, and took his weapons. Strapping the belt around his waist, he smiled at the shorter man. "Now let's go get that kid."
Aang and the gang lurked through the dark halls of the Dai Li headquarters under Lake Laogai, following Jet's lead, the freedom fighter remembering the way despite his foggy thoughts. "I think it's through here." Jet said, before sliding open the door, revealing what appeared to be a dark and empty chamber.
The door behind them slid closed, and the crystal lamp light from above revealed more than a dozen Dai Li agents hanging from chains above them. At the end of the chamber, several more stood on a raised wooden platform, along with Long Feng, and to the surprise of everyone who could see him, Connor.
"Well that's different." Sokka said, raising his thunderstick.
"You have made yourselves enemies of the state." Long Feng said, before the Dai Li dropped from the ceiling to surround the team, as they all drew their weapons.
"What's Connor doing here?" Toph asked, pointing to the young man as he stepped off the platform behind Long Feng.
"I'm glad you asked. The Fire Nation is willing to pay nearly any price for the capture of The Avatar, even giving up a city such as Ba Sing Se." Long Feng said.
"You're selling us to him?" Sokka asked.
"Who is this guy?" Jet asked, sword's raised.
"He's a mercenary in service of the Fire Nation." Katara said, drawing water from her pouch. "An earth bender who sold out."
"Earth bender?" Long Feng asked in confusion, before there was a click from behind him. Connor stood with the muzzle of his gun pointed at Long Feng's back. His pistol in his left hand, and his sword drawn in his right.
"Now I might be a mercenary, but I'll be damned if I ever give up on my beliefs." Connor said, before smirking. "Sorry, Long Feng, I'm boycotting you. The Fire Nation may want The Avatar, but me? I want to see this city set free first. Sounds like we've got a common goal then eh Avatar?" Connor asked. "What say, I help you find your pet, if you help me out of here?"
"Wait… You're the one who wrote the crazy letter in the news?" Aang asked, lowering his staff in confusion.
"Actually it was Azula who wrote that, but you could say I gave her the idea." Connor shrugged. "So what'll it be ya' tyrant? Liberty or death?" Connor asked Long Feng.
"Did you honestly think I would give you back that thing without unloading it?" Long Feng asked rhetorically. Connor frowned, before pulling the trigger. There was a flash in the pan, but the gun didn't go off. "Arrest them all." Long Feng said to his agents.
Connor spun, and sliced two rock hands that were thrown his way, before Toph sent the agents that threw the stones flying out towards the walls with protrusions from the ground. Jet took the rear, rushing down a Dai Li agent, hooking his foot, and pulling the man into a spin that threw him flat on his back. Aang moved towards Long Feng, blowing an agent away with a gust of hurricane force wind, before sending another into the air with a pillar from the floor.
The Water Tribe siblings both spun, as Katara sliced two more rock fists out of the air with her water, and Sokka lined up his best shot on the agent nearest him. The Dai Li agent dropped into the floor to avoid the blast, just as Sokka pulled the trigger.
Toph created a raised pillar of stone to fight from, and as two agents tried to reach her, she sent chucks of the pillar at each of them. Two more crawled up the walls, before pulling thick columns out to crush her with. Having sensed the attack, Toph jumped over the incoming stones, and landed on top of them, before pulling boulders from both of the pieces, and sending them hurling into the agents that had tried to crush her as they ran up the rock-face towards her.
Connor, took note of the abundant amount of bendable stone in the room, and looked at one of the few remaining agents. He dragged the tip of his blade along the floor, and pulled it up sharply, first creating then directing a jagged fissure to rip itself out of the ground, before slamming into two of the agents.
Seeing that he was becoming outnumbered, Long Feng made his way out the door.
"Long Feng is escaping!" Aang said loudly, being followed by Jet.
Rather than follow The Avatar, Connor turned to the rest of the room, seeing the remaining agents all on the ground moving very little. "So… I suppose you all are willing to set aside past wrongs and cooperate?" Connor asked.
Katara narrowed her eyes at him. "Why shouldn't we just kick your butt and leave you here for Long Feng?"
"Like The Avatar said, I had a hand in the people's revolt against their unjust king." Connor said. "That's gotta mean something."
"The Earth King isn't the problem here, he's just a puppet for Long Feng." Toph said.
"The King doesn't know about the war, the corruption, any of it." Sokka said. "This entire time, Long Feng's been keeping him in the dark so that he can control the city. He doesn't care about what's happening outside the walls."
Connor rubbed the head with the brass butt cap of his pistol. "Well… Wait…"
Katara took a step forward. "Why would you and your little team of killers be trying to overthrow the Dai Li anyways? Did you just have a change of heart?" She asked sharply.
"We're doing it to end the war." Connor said simply. Almost everyone looked at Connor like he was crazy. He sighed. "If the people of Ba Sing Se are free, then the Fire Nation will stop the fighting, and peace talks can start."
"I don't believe that for a minute." Katara retorted.
"Yeah, but he does." Toph cut in. "He's not trying to lie to us. Connor seriously thinks that the Fire Nation would end the war."
"If you really believe that, then help us get in contact with the Earth King, help us free Ba Sing Se." Sokka said.
"I swear by the Campbell name, if Long Feng is removed from the picture, and the Earth King isn't a dick to his people, the Fire Nation won't step one more foot past where they've gone already… Or at least I'll carry the bargain on to Azula." Connor said, as he put his pistol away.
"Alright, we've wasted enough time. Let's go get Long Feng." Smellerbee said hurriedly.
By the time Toph was able to find Aang and Jet, it was already too late. Connor quickly but gently pressed his fingers into the boy's chest, and felt near every one of his bones shifting in unnatural ways. As everyone else moved on amid their mourning, Smellerbee and Longshot stayed behind to watch over their fallen friend.
The gang, and Connor, followed Long Feng's only route of travel down a hallway until they found a right turn, with a half opened door at it's corner. Aang opened the door, only to find iron chains and shackles strewn across the floor.
"Appa's gone." Aang said.
Sokka looked down the hall to his right. "If we hurry up we might catch Long Feng, he's gotta know where Appa is."
The team took off, finding a tunnel that led straight up. Toph pulled a section of the floor free for everyone to stand on, and lifted them all up to the exit with Aang. "A little help here?" She asked, looking at Connor for emphasis.
"Sorry." Connor said, before he put his sword away, and mimicked her movements along with Aang, speeding up their ascent.
Once at the hatch in the ceiling, Toph forced the tunnel open, and the group leapt out into sunlight. Connor looked around and nodded. "Ok, base under a lake." He said, before following the gang.
As they ran along the shore, Aang looked back and saw eight Dai Li agents exiting the same tunnel they'd come from.
"Think we can outrun them?" Sokka asked.
"I don't think it's gonna' matter." Aang said, as the team slid to a halt, as six more Dai Li agents erected a wall to cut them off. The agents behind them pulled another wall up, as yet more Dai Li slid down the side of the nearby cliff, and looked over them. Long Feng looked down onto the gang from the wall in front of them.
"End of the line Avatar!" Long Feng shouted. Momo, from Aang's shoulder, looked up towards the sun, and flew off. "There's nowhere to run."
From the sky above there was a loud grumble, and all eyes turned to see a giant white bison descending from the glare of the sun. "APPA!" Aang shouted, before the great beast slammed through the two stone walls entrapping the gang.
Connor, not too keen on being crushed, used his bending to stop the falling debris created by the crumbling wall from hurting anyone, before he pushed it back along the shoreline. As Connor kept the team alive, Aang and Toph slammed their fists into the cliff wall, ejecting the Dai Li from it, and sending them careening off into the lake.
The sky bison landed at Long Feng's feet, just as the head of the Dai Li stood up, having parted the volley of loose stone Connor had thrown at him. "I can handle you by myself." He said, moments before rushing forward… Long Feng could not in fact handle the ten ton bison by himself. As he tried to send a wave of earth at the animal, Appa bit Long Feng around his leg, and tossed him into the nearby lake, skipping him twice, before the man finally sunk under the water. Appa, finding something distasteful in his mouth, spit out Long Feng's shoe.
At the sight of a full grown man being tossed like a smooth stone over the surface of the body of water, Connor broke into laughter.
The four members of Team Avatar ran towards the bison with cheers. As Aang jumped up to hug his best friend, and the others piled on, Connor finally calmed himself, then slowly approached. Appa took notice, and growled at him. The gang all turned to look at Connor, as he stopped moving.
The redhead tensed up for a second, remembering that he'd shot at Appa in Omashu. Connor took his pistol out, and Appa growled more. Connor looked at the gun, before tossing it into the lake. He could get another.
Appa ceased growling, as Connor slowly approached. "So this is your pet bison…?" He asked Aang. "I've never seen such a great beast…" He held his hand out high. "kæn juː fəˈɡɪv miː fɔː wɒt aɪv dʌn tuː juː?" Connor asked, looking the bison in the eye. Appa grunted, before putting his head forward to be pet. Connor held back laughter, as he rubbed Appa's soft fur. "I don't believe it." Connor looked over to Aang. "I hate to ask, but you wouldn't mind giving me a ride, would you?" The six legged bison licked his hand.
Aang smiled, as he watched a known enemy and his lifelong companion getting along. "Think you can handle flying without a saddle?" Aang asked.
"Can't be much worse than sailing." Connor said with a shrug, before everyone climbed onto Appa's back, and held on as he jumped into the air, flying high over the lake, back towards the inner ring.
Author's note.
2 guesses as to why Connor can't be brainwashed.
Also, I just loved writing the scenes between Connor and Long Feng. They're both completely opposed ideologically, as one's a tyrant, and the other is a rebel in every way, so the back and forth plans of deal making, fighting alongside other enemies, and backstabbing is just *chefs kiss.*
For those of you who remember from the show, Appa is intelligent enough to understand human language...