Ursa had no idea where she was going.
She had managed to find a small boat that was leaving the docks from the Fire Nation capital. Thankfully, nobody had seen her and she was able to get on the boat with little to no issue. The first part of this challenge was complete: getting out of the Fire Nation. Now came the second part of the challenge: finding a place to go. And just where was this ship going, anyway? She knew that her banishment stated that she had to leave the Fire Nation entirely, but a small part of Ursa hoped that the ship was taking her someplace not too far away from the capital. Maybe it was going to one of those fishing villages. If it was, she could possibly come up with a plan to get back to the capital undetected, get Zuko and Azula, and….
Thinking about her two children made Ursa feel a lot of things at once, mainly sadness. She had made sure to say goodbye to Zuko before she left, even giving him some encouraging parting words. But she didn't say goodbye to Azula. What would the little girl think when she woke up, only to find her mother gone? What would she think when Zuko would inevitably tell her that Ursa had said goodbye to him, but not to her? Would Azula hate her for it? Ursa certainly wouldn't blame her if she did.
Ursa sighed. Thinking about this right now was doing her no good. It just made her want to jump off of this boat and go back to her children, which was dangerous at the moment. For now, all she could do was rest and hope that Ozai would keep his word about keeping the two of them safe….
To Ursa's luck, the ship didn't end up going too far away from the capital. It docked at Ember Island, a place that she was all too familiar with. She waited for the crew to get off the ship before doing so herself. Pulling her hood up, Ursa made her way towards the one place she could think of.
Her family beach house.
As she stepped through the door, Ursa stopped. She was immediately flooded with memories of all the times she spent here with her family. Taking walks, going to see plays, playing with Zuko and Azula, making sure they didn't try to kill each other….
Fun times indeed. Times that Ursa knew they could never go back to.
She found some clothes that she would wear whenever they were out and about and didn't want to be discovered, quickly put those on, and left. Perhaps they couldn't go back to those times ever again, but Ursa would make damn sure that they would have times to look forward to in the future.
"Joo Dee?" questioned Long Feng. She had spaced out while giving her report about the avatar to him.
"Yes? I'm sorry, it's just that…for a moment there I began to have all of these different memories at once. But the strange part is that I don't remember having done any of that."
Long Feng didn't say anything at first. Could it be possible that her memories were coming back to her? That wouldn't be good if that was the case.
"Perhaps you should take another vacation, Joo Dee. I hear that the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai again."
The look in Joo Dee's eyes suddenly went blank as she stood up and said, "I would be honored to accept his invitation
"So what's the plan? Anyone have any ideas on how we can see the Earth King and save Azula's mom?" Aang asked.
"That's even if they would want anyone to know about the drill in the first place. Sokka, you wouldn't know this since you were with the tiny princess, but the whole time that lady was showing us around the city, every time we would ask someone about the war, they would either get quiet and act like they didn't know what we were talking about, or glance at Joo Dee and suddenly get nervous and change the subject. It was weird. It's like these people aren't allowed to bring up what's going on outside of these walls." Toph explained.
"Control," Mai said.
"Control?"
"Oh, I get it! Mai's saying that whoever is actually in charge here wants Ba Sing Se to seem like a safe haven for its citizens. How do you do that? By pretending that everything is fine, that Ba Sing Se is impenetrable and nothing can break it's walls, and making sure that nobody talks about the war. Creating the illusion that the war doesn't exist. In other words, there is no war in Ba Sing Se."
The look in Joo Dee's eyes suddenly went blank as she stood up and said, "I would be honored to accept his invitation.
"Are you saying that people are not allowed to talk about the war? That's crazy!" Katara exclaimed.
"It is crazy, but when you think about it, that's the only thing that makes sense in regards to what we've seen so far." Mai said.
"That leaves me with a question, though. What do you think happens to people who actually do talk about the war?" Ty Lee asked.
Nobody had an answer for her.
It had been a few days since Zuko and Iroh got into Ba Sing Se, and to say that the boy was pissed off was an understatement. He had told uncle of his plan to capture both the avatar and Azula, and what does the old man say?
"Prince Zuko, I don't think you should do anything too rash. We do not want our identities to be found out."
"So then why are we even here?!"
He couldn't believe uncle! If he wasn't allowed to capture the avatar and Azula, then what were they even doing here? Why did he suggest that they go to Ba Sing Se in the first place? And besides, if the old man was really that worried about their identities being discovered, that guy named Jet posed a much more serious threat to them in that regard. They hadn't come across him yet, thankfully, but Zuko knew that it was only a matter of time before they did.
Which was why he needed to find his targets so that they could get out of this city.
Iroh had managed to get him and Zuko some jobs working in a tea shop. As much as Zuko hated to admit it, it was a good cover for the both of them. It gave Zuko plenty of time to think about what his next moves would be. Moves that he hoped to put into action soon. He just couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched while. Perhaps it was that Jet guy-
"I'm tired of sitting around and waiting! Those two guys are firebenders!"
Correction. It was indeed Jet who had been spying on them. He told uncle to stop heating up his tea with firebending!
The people in the shop looked around and began to whisper amongst themselves, trying to figure out what was going on.
"This boy is confused! My nephew and I are just two refugees hoping to start a new life together in Ba Sing Se. I assure you that we are not firebenders!"
"Oh yeah? Why don't you show them that trick you used to heat up your tea? Actually, I have a better idea. Why don't I attack you, and then you'll have no choice but to defend yourself by using firebending!" Jet said.
Things were escalating way too fast for Zuko's liking. He couldn't let this fool ruin his chances of going back home. He reached behind the counter and took out his two swords.
"You want a show?! I'll give you a show!" Zuko shouted, readying his swords.
Jet smirked. He would have these two arrested in no time.
"Hey, wait a minute! Why are you guys arresting me?! Those guys are the firebenders! You should be arresting THEM, not me! Don't you want this war to end?!" Jet shouted as he was dragged away.
"There is no war in Ba Sing Se."
What were these people talking about? Of course there was a war going on!
"'There is no war in Ba Sing Se'? What does that even mean?! There's a war going on right outside of these walls, and has been for a century now. You guys nearly fell victim to it yourselves when the Dragon Of The West laid siege to this place for 600 days!"
All of a sudden, they stopped. Jet was about to ask why when a blow to the back of his head knocked him out.
Jet slowly regained consciousness and found himself in a dimly lit room. He tried to move around but realized that he was strapped to a chair.
"Is this the boy that was causing a ruckus in the city earlier?" he heard a voice ask. Jet looked up to see a man staring at him, along with the Dai Li agents who arrested him.
"Yes, it is. What shall we do with him?"
"Let me talk to him first," Long Feng replied, walking until he was close enough to grab Jet's face and force the boy to stare at him.
"Now then, care to tell me why you were disrupting the peace that I have established in this city?"
"There's two firebenders here! I tried to get them to confess, but these two guys stopped me. You have to believe me!"
Two firebenders? Now this was news to Long Feng. He turned to his agents.
"I want some of you to keep tabs on these two individuals that the boy mentioned. If he's right, then we have a problem on our hands."
Despite his current predicament, Jet smiled. This man actually believed him!
Long Feng turned back around to stare at Jet, and the look he gave him caused the smile to disappear from Jet's face. Why did he get the feeling that he wouldn't like what the man had to say next?
"As for the boy, we can't have him going around and talking about the war. You know what to do, yes? Start the procedure." Long Feng said, and left the room, taking one of the Dai Li agents with him.
"Wait, what was he talking about? What procedure?" Jet asked, not liking the sound of whatever this procedure was.
"As I told you before…", the Dai Li agent left in the room said, grabbing a lamp and putting it on some sort of contraption.
"There is no war in Ba Sing Se."
Back in his headquarters, Long Feng stared at the group of Dai Li agents bowing before him. They had said that they had an important matter with him to discuss. About what, he didn't know, but he supposed that he would find out soon.
"What is it that you wished to discuss with me? Is it about what that boy said?"
"No, sir. Something else. It's about the avatar."
The avatar? Now he was intrigued.
"A rather peculiar incident took place when the avatar and his friends were greeted by one of the Joo Dee. A small girl had referred to her as 'mother' and appeared to get angry when Joo Dee had no idea who she was."
"...How very interesting. It would appear that we have an unexpected visitor in our city: the princess of the Fire Nation."
And if she was here, Long Feng had a pretty good idea as to who the other two firebenders were. He had no idea why she would be traveling with the avatar, but he did know one thing. She could not be allowed to discover the truth about the Joo Dee's, or his plan to overthrow the Earth King. With these thoughts in mind, he set a plan into motion.