Two shadows leapt from one rooftop to the next. A moment after they passed, the full moon came out from behind the cloud cover, and they ducked behind a chimney out of sight.

Suki leaned over to breathe in Zuko's ear, not pulling down her black fabric mask. "I haven't seen Dai Li in three blocks," she whispered.

"Yeah. Do we keep going stealthy, or speed up?"

"Stay patient," she replied. He nodded.

There was a long pause.

"You don't like me," he murmured.

"You burned my village," she said.

"You ambushed my men inside your village."

"Did you think you had the right to invade us?"

"If you shelter the Avatar, you can't claim neutrality."

"Kyoshi Village is proud to stand with the Avatar."

"Then –"

The moon went back behind clouds.

"Go," she hissed, and took off.

They hopped from rooftop to rooftop and finally got to their target: a small but upmarket shop in the Middle Ring. The Sarcasmbenders weren't at the rendezvous yet, so they found another shadow to hide in and wait.

"That was then," he whispered. "I'm with the Gaang now."

"Yeah, I know," she said. "You told us about Guru Pathik, and he taught Aang how to clear his chakras and use the Avatar State. That'd be stupid if you were still working against us."

"So …?"

"So I'm the Custodian. Avatar Kyoshi personally entrusted me with Aang's safety. And you're the Lost Prince who fooled them all for four months while you were working with Azula."

"I only helped her for one night."

Suki gave him a look of Are you for real that suddenly made Zuko feel much better about Katara: when she gave him the same glare, she always managed to infuse it with fond exasperation rather than straight hostility.

"I mean," he backtracked, "fine, I'm not perfect, but I helped the Gaang. Lots of times. Ask Katara, or Sokka about the battle at Agna Qel'a, or at Omashu, or …"

She was shaking her head. "Look. I can work with you, if Aang or Sokka say so. But I can't trust you. You're a good enough liar that even Toph didn't realise you were planning something back then. If you really are good now, you'll respect that I'm doing the best I can for the team."

Zuko, never one to admit defeat, cast around for some other counter-argument; but at that moment, they heard the clacking of a gemsbock bull, and they fell silent. He caught Suki's eye; she nodded, gestured, and they dropped down, through an open window, and into the shop.

Their first target was a middle-aged Joo Dee polishing a glass display case on the second floor. Zuko rushed her head-on, traded punches and blocks, buying time for Suki to swipe a ribbon round her wrists and gag her. She'd barely fallen to the ground before they were dashing down the stairs to where another Joo Dee was handling the books and a third was sweeping the shop floor. Zuko leapt down at the one doing the books; she got her arms up to block, but his sheer momentum crashed straight through her guard and got her on the ground. She was good – maybe using shared Kyoshi Warrior training, maybe using some sort of spiritual skill – but so was he, and he was on top and had sixty pounds of muscle on her. He got her in a lock, stuffed a gag in her mouth, and tied her up. He finished at the same time as Suki with her Joo Dee.

Zuko got up, pulled out three vials Sokka had bought from an apothecary named Don't Ask Questions, and poured one down each Joo Dee's throat; they all went limp, semi-conscious, and he untied them. Meanwhile, Suki took off her black ninja outfit, revealing a modest green civilian dress, and opened the shop door. Sokka was waiting in a covered rickshaw, disguised as a driver, with a ridiculous beard that worked by making people too embarrassed to get close enough to him to tear it off.

"Rocky's the name," he declaimed. "Rocky Lee, rickshaw driver for forty years. And this is my grand-niece, Rhoda."

Zuko facepalmed, but Suki kept her composure. "My friends partied a little too hard," she said. "Can you give them a ride home? They live in the Upper Ring. We have papers."

"Of course, young lady," said Sokka. "It's a tale as old as time, almost as old as me! It takes me back thirty years, once when I …"

Zuko and Suki threw colourful cloaks over the Joo Dees and carried them out one by one, trying to hide them with their bodies and move quickly to stop anyone watching from seeing. It only took a minute, then they hopped in and Sokka flicked the reins.

Toph was lounging under the canopy, wearing a nondescript Ba Sing Se dress. Zuko sat next to her.

"Pleased to meet you, Rocky Rhoda," he said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

"What?" Sokka asked over his shoulder.

Zuko just shook his head. He'd figure out how Earth Kingdom names worked sooner or later, and in the meantime, his confident blustering somehow worked half the time.

This time, somehow, they got past the guards between the Rings and offloaded the Joo Dees at their house. They carried them inside, where Katara and Aang sat with empty cups of tea.

"Any trouble?" Aang asked as they entered.

"No, it was a twenty minute adventure, in and out," said Sokka. Toph, who'd ridden Zuko piggy-back, dropped off, went to the kitchen, and got a bottle of grape juice from the pantry. Katara and Suki went over to the Joo Dees: Suki re-tied them, and Katara ran healing water over them, which apparently helped cancel out the sedative. "There's a lot more jobs we can handle with two teams than just one. Thanks, Team Impotence!"

Zuko glared.

Note to self: kill Sokka.

"How long does this take?" he asked.

"Usually about half an hour," Sokka said. "I think it's been getting faster as he gets the hang of it more."

"Something like that," said Aang. "I want to do something different this time, though. I've been thinking, what if Joo Dee is like Hei Bai?"

"Who?" asked Toph.

"A spirit we met a while back," Katara said. "It was rampaging, because the Fire Nation had burned its forest."

Zuko leaned over to Toph. "Katara blames the Fire Nation for something, take a drink," he undertoned; they each took a sip of her bottle.

Katara motioned, and the juice spurted up Zuko's nose: he coughed and spluttered it out.

"It doesn't count when it's actually the Fire Nation's fault," she said, and went back to her detox.

"The point is," Aang said, "everyone thought it was this big scary evil spirit attacking the village for no reason, but when I just tried to understand why it was so upset and showed it things would be okay, it calmed down and let everyone go. Maybe Joo Dee is the same? Anyone can talk to her on a basic level, but it's not getting through. The Avatar is supposed to bridge the spirit and material worlds. Maybe I can do better, make her understand someone's been messing with her remains, and she'll let everyone else go."

"I guess that's worth a try," said Toph.

"So, Zuko," Aang went on, "I wanted to ask, do you have any advice? You said Fire Princes were trained for dealing with the spirits."

"You're always supposed to ask someone who knows the spirit, they're all unique and some have rules you really don't want to find out the hard way, but if anyone here knew how to handle Joo Dee, they would've handled her already. Assume nothing and concede nothing. Imagine you're visiting a foreign land: any action might offend someone if they have different etiquette, so be careful; but also, there are scammers who'll take advantage of you if you let them, so don't let them push you around either. Always address them as Great Spirit, some take offence to being called by name. Never say thank you, some consider that to mean you owe them a favour. Never lie or impersonate anyone else, especially another spirit. Don't make any promises, try not to show any emotion, and whatever you do, don't touch anything."

"I think I got all that," said Aang. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck," said everyone, even Zuko, and he sat cross-legged and shut his eyes.

The others sat back, more excited to see if Aang got anywhere than tired and wanting to go to bed.

"Hey, Suki and Toph," Katara asked, as Sokka went to rummage around in the pantry for a snack. "Can I ask you both something? You've heard of Izumihanto, right?"

"I don't think so," said Suki. "Is it Fire Nation?"

"It's a colony in the far north," said Toph, "on Ping land. Dad used to go on about it."

"I've asked around," said Katara, "and the Water Tribe, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads all have different ideas about who it should belong to and why." And everyone thinks it just happens to be what's most convenient for them. "General Fong said it should belong to the Earth Kingdom, but we didn't get into it. Can you try to convince me why?"

"Be…cause it's ours?" Suki said, perplexed. "When you rob someone, you don't become the rightful owner of whatever you steal."

"Okay," said Katara, "but the Earth Kingdom wasn't even using the land, I heard. And the people living there now were born there."

"So?"

"So … isn't it a bad thing if there's good land and no-one is using it, and people can live there for generations but get chased off years later even if they don't do anything wrong?"

"Yeah, you've got a point," said Toph, and she picked up Sokka's boomerang, which he'd left on a table. "How much do you think I can get for this?"

"Hey," Sokka said, standing up and swiping at it, "that's mine –"

Toph stomped, and an earth spire shot out and shoved him back into his seat. "You weren't using it. Finders keepers, right Katara?"

"That's different," Katara said. "He only put it down for a moment."

"Okay," said Toph, "then how long does it take to use it or lose it?" She tossed the boomerang up and made to catch it, but, being a boomerang, it swerved in mid-air, bounced off her hand, and clattered to the floor. Sokka rushed over and snatched it up, cradling it protectively to his chest. "A day, a year, ten years? But ten years minus one hour and it's still yours? What if they don't remember exactly how long ago they put it down? Is it the same for every object? Where's it written down where everyone can see?"

Katara looked to Sokka. She despised boys being in charge by default, but she had no idea about the finer points of Water Tribe law, whereas he loved that sort of argument.

"It depends," he said. "On a lot of things. It's obvious Boomerang is mine, but for something like Izumihanto, the Chiefs would have to make a ruling."

"I bet," said Suki. "The Fire Lord's making a ruling about the entire world right now."

"That's not a ruling," said Sokka, "that's an invasion." He looked to Zuko.

Zuko shook his head. "Leave me out of this."

"Fine," said Sokka. "The Fire Lord is evil, and his rulings are evil. But the other day, I met a bureaucrat who tampered with the land registry to steal land for a lord who'd bribed him. Does that mean your laws are evil too?"

"That was against the law, though," said Suki. "The Fire Lord is the rightful ruler of the Fire Nation, that's not the problem. The problem is him invading everyone else."

"Was it really against the law?" Sokka countered. "Because if I reported him to a judge, I don't think he'd go to jail for it. And if that's just a bad judge who doesn't prove judges are a bad system, then the Fire Lord is just a bad chief."

"That's different," said Toph, then paused to think of an argument to support her conclusion.

"Since when are you such a stickler for the law, anyway?" he asked. "You steal things all the time."

"Yeah, because I want them, but I don't say I'm the rightful owner after. You stole Izumihanto and then called us the bad guys when we wanted it back."

"Hey, time out," said Zuko. "No personal attacks."

"I wasn't –"

"No personal attacks. Not for things you didn't do, that you weren't even alive for," he said, glancing at Aang, who was still meditating. "Katara, you got your answer. You can talk more once you all cool down. Someone, change the topic."

This was about as clunky a subject change as possible, but after a moment, Sokka perked up.

"Hey, Katara. What do you think about rice? Yea or nay?"

"It's fine," she said. "You have to have some vegetables."

"Right, some is okay. But do you really need rice for every meal?"

Zuko and Suki exchanged glances.

"It's rice," said Suki. "What do you mean it's okay."

"Are you trying to manipulate the two of us into agreeing with each other on something?" asked Zuko. "Because it's working."

"I mean it's okay," said Sokka. "We'll eat it, but we're not addicted to it like you Eartheners are. I guess because it doesn't grow in the poles? I'm just saying, there are other vegetables."

"It's not addiction," said Toph. "It's rice. What do you even eat without rice?"

"You eat non-rice food all the time."

"Yeah, and I wear clothing other than knickers all the time, that doesn't mean I don't –"

Luckily, at that moment there was a BANG that tossed everyone around the room except the three Joo Dees. One wrenched a hand out of her ropes, clicked a dislocated thumb back into place, and gracefully stood, letting the ropes fall to the floor.

"Excuse me," she smiled. She untied the other two, and all three left.

Zuko was back on his feet first; he went to Katara first, found her rubbing her head but fine, then took her to Toph, who wasn't moving. She broke out the healing water.

"Urgh," said Suki. She and Sokka went to Aang. "Aang, what happened?"

Aang winced and sat up. "Oops," he said.

"Don't say oops," said Sokka. "Oops is bad. What did she say?"

"It wasn't what she said," said Aang. "It was what she felt, when I told her someone was messing with her bones. Which was … I don't know how to put it. Slightly annoyed is to absolutely furious as absolutely furious is to, finish the sentence."

Suki went over and opened a window. "Uhm. I see four Joo Dees, not three. And they're going somewhere."

Aang went over too, then took his glider, hopped outside, and zoomed up.

Toph stirred. "Urgh," she said. "What happened?"

"Joo Dee went nuts," said Katara.

"It wasn't even slightly my fault this time," said Zuko.

"Maybe you gave Aang bad advice?" she suggested.

He got the bottle of grape juice, took a sip, and offered it to Toph.

Aang landed outside, blew his bison whistle, and hopped in through the window.

"Aang!" said Sokka. "How many Joo Dees did you see?"

"All of them."

"You mean –"

"I mean all of them. The entire city is full of them, the Lower Ring is wall to wall. And they're all heading south-east."

"Lake Laogai," said Sokka. "Ooh boy."

"What are we going to do?" asked Suki.

"Are we doing anything?" Zuko asked.

Katara gave him a look. "That many people is a stampede. Anyone in their way will be crushed. And this is our doing. We're responsible. We have to help."

Aang nodded and patted his bison whistle. "It'll take them time to reach the lake. If we can get ahead of them, find her mortal remains, and bring them out, we can give her what she wants before anyone gets hurt."

Appa swooped overhead. They climbed on, and he grunted and rose back up and set off toward the lake.

From the air, they saw street after street first with individual women and the odd man visible under the lamp posts, then packed into a flood when they reached arterial roads, all walking with a single purpose. There were women young and old, from children to grandmothers, most neatly dressed, some with bed hair, a few who'd surely been bathing and barely took time to throw on a bathrobe. The only people Zuko noticed weren't there at all were Water Tribe: whatever rules Joo Dee followed, foreigners were exempt.

They couldn't see many civilians on the streets: they presumably had the sense to get to cover. Some soldiers at the walls between the Rings panicked and tried to lock the gates; earthbender Joo Dees tore holes through the walls, barely breaking stride, and the flood kept going. Aang would swoop down on his glider, air-blast soldiers or the odd civilian out of the path of the Joo Sea, then land back atop Appa. The Joo Dees either ignored him or gave him a friendly smile and kept going, unstoppable.

The Joo Dee infestation hadn't been quarantined to the city. The rice paddies outside the walls were too dark to see easily, but from directly above and when the moon peeked out from behind the clouds, farmer girls were walking along raised stone paths, all heading toward Lake Laogai.

Ba Sing Se was so large it took them half an hour to reach the Lake, which was enough time for hundreds of Joo Dees to reach it too. They weren't the only ones: platoons of Dai Li had sprung up and were fighting the Joo Dees. The area was torn up like only an earthbender battle could do: makeshift walls everywhere, some knocked down, missed boulders. With the Lake right nearby, water was seeping up into the depressions this left. Past the beach was a stone walkway leading to a platform with a hatch and a ladder leading down into inky black. The Dai Li were holding, for now: they had the numbers, training, and organisation, and they were all benders, where only one Joo Dee and twenty was, and they weren't very good.

Appa hooked around and landed on the beach, behind the Dai Li, near the walkway. One agent ran over to meet them.

"Avatar Aang! Thank goodness you're here! We need your help!"

"Right," said Aang, hopping down, along with the rest of the Gaang. "Where's her remains?"

"Uh," the agent said, taken aback. "Whose?"

"Joo Dee's. Her remains are buried here. That's what you're guarding, isn't it?"

"Uh," said the guard. "Is Joo Dee even a real person?"

Aang blinked. "You don't know anything about what's actually going on."

"I'm just a guard," said the agent. "They don't tell us anything. But I'm pretty sure we're not guarding … a tomb?"

"Then what is this place?"

The agent sharply looked off to the side. "Reserve platoon one! North flank!" Six agents ran off to the right, where a fresh wave of Joo Dees had walked out over a large mound of rubble. "Avatar Aang, this doesn't matter, we're being overrun –"

"This matters! Tell me the truth!"

The agent gritted his teeth. "It's a Joo Dee conversion prison. They bring women who're supposed to become Joo Dees here, they do I don't know what, and they turn. It wasn't my idea. I'm just following orders."

Aang gave him a furious look and opened his mouth to tear into him, but Sokka elbowed forward.

"That doesn't make sense," he said. "The pattern of spread, how many there are – you couldn't have gone through literally a million women in a month."

"A million?" the agent repeated. "No, it was only a few hundred. A thousand at most."

The entire Gaang stared at him.

"Oh you stupid pile of hog monkey feathers," Aang said, facepalming. "You have no idea what you're dealing with. I'm going in."

"Wait," the agent said, "we need you –"

At that moment, Katara swept up an ice shield to catch a hefty boulder, which shattered it to reveal another agent. His hat was askew, showing a wide, vapid smile. The nearby Dai Li did double-takes, and one swatted him down with a boulder of his own, but their line still sagged inward as more Joo Dees pressed forward.

"Hold the line!" shouted the agent, and he headed over to help. "HOLD! Avatar Aang, we're going to be overrun, we need your help!"

"Do it," Sokka said. Aang glanced at him in surprise, then nodded and joined the battle.

He airbent a cluster of Joo Dees flying back and bent an ice wall before them, an element they couldn't just tear down directly. Suki ran over to cover his back; Appa hovered overhead, lashing his tail, knocking dozens of Joo Dees down. It was enough to push them back, for now.

"Toph, Katara," Sokka went on, "get down there and figure out what's going on. Find the remains, patient zero, whatever, and bring it up here for Aang to give to the horde. Zuko, you and I watch from the air and reinforce whoever needs it. Go! Hurry!"

Toph and Katara nodded and ran along the stone walkway to the hatch into the Lake Laogai caverns. Toph suddenly swayed on her feet; Katara caught her.

Zuko and Sokka followed over. "Are you okay?" Sokka asked.

"Y-yeah," said Toph. "Just a little tired. It's late."

"Katara, you go first," said Sokka.

"Okay," said Katara.

There was a beat.

"Katara, did you hear me?"

She jumped. "Y-yeah! Sorry, I just …"

"Are you okay?" Toph asked. "Your heart's going crazy."

"It – it's nothing. I'm just a little …"

Zuko shook his head. "Change of plans," he said. "You're out. Toph and I go down. You cover us from the air."

"What?" said Katara, her voice cracking a little. "No, you need a waterbender, what if there's a leak –"

After I was buried alive, he said in Kotoba, I couldn't go underground for six months.

"," said Katara, looking at her feet.

"What?" said Sokka. "Guys, seriously, now is not the time to speak in a language half of us don't understand –"

"You said we were supposed to be reinforcements," said Zuko. "I'm reinforcing. Katara, buy us time."

"," said Katara. "Okay."

"I don't –" said Sokka.

"I'm going," Zuko said. "And I want a way back out. C'mon, Toph." And he climbed down the ladder.

Outside was lit bright by the full moon, quite bright so far from the city lights. The facility was lit by dim fixtures of glow crystals. Stone corridors led off in three directions, one with a train parked near the ladder. He could hear yelling and the tromp of boots from the other two. Toph slid down behind him.

"What do you hear?" he asked, pitching his voice low.

She tapped her foot. "Men arguing about reinforcements. Someone's trying to get more people to go up to help fight, another say they have to stay down here. Someone else says they should let 'the girls' go, I don't know who."

"Can you tell what's each way?"

"That way's a train line. Speaking of, there's one coming." He was pretty sure it led directly to the city proper. "That way's a living quarters, I think. Lots of men, and it feels like beds and food and stuff. That way is full of metal rooms that I can't feel through properly, but I heard a woman's voice from there. It must be the prison."

If Sokka's infection theory is right, they could just lock a girl in a cage with a Joo Dee for long enough, and Two Dees would come out.

Yeah, but that guy topside didn't realise Joo Dee had started spreading herself, which means they have to have had their own way to spread her, at least at first.

"The prison," he said, and they set off that way.

From time to time, a squad of Dai Li would run past; they'd find shadows to duck into and hide. It was easy: the Dai Li were too busy to pay much attention. After a few minutes, they came to a metal door. One agent was guarding it.

From inside, there came a steady susurration of Joo Dees saying, "Please open the door. I have important business to attend to."

A girl screamed from the same cell. "Let me out! Everyone's going crazy! I'm sorry! Let me out!"

Zuko dashed at the guard, but Toph was faster: she swiped at him, and a stone pillar launched him into a wall. Zuko searched him, found a keyring, and unlocked the door. Inside were thirty Joo Dees pressed up against the door, all wearing identical grey-brown prison tunics.

"Thank you," the first beamed, and they started filing out.

Zuko and Toph backed up against a wall until the Joo Dees were all out, then looked inside. A skinny girl was backed up against the far wall.

"Are they gone?" she asked, wide-eyed. "Who are you? My name's Jiayi. Are you letting me out?"

"Don't worry," say Zuko, "everything's under control."

There came an echoing crash from behind them, followed by more panicked yelling. "Breach in the prison!"

"Have you seen a catacomb?" he went on.

Her eyes went even wider.

"Uh, not that you're going to end up there," he reassured her.

"I – I just got here," she said. "There was a room with a spinning lamp, and men with boxes, and …" She trailed off, suddenly looking sleepy.

"We're looking for a tomb," Zuko repeated. She didn't react. "A tomb. Maybe they took out a box with bones, or some other relic? I don't know, a comb or something? Toph, what's an item a girl would have?"

"What are you asking me for? I had a cane when I was little."

"Or maybe a Joo Dee who's been here awhile? Wake up!"

Jiayi suddenly looked up and smiled at them.

"Welcome to Lake Laogai," she said. "On behalf of the Earth King, I hope you enjoy your stay."

Zuko and Toph stepped back, slammed the door shut, and locked it.

"What now?" asked Toph. "Do we just give up and go home? I don't think we have time to search this entire place, and if the civilians are all turning, it's only Dai Li left, and they deserve whatever happens to them."

Zuko couldn't disagree, but however far he'd fallen, he was still the man who'd refused to burn Zhao at their Agni Kai. He shut his eyes to think. "That lieutenant didn't know anything about the Joo Dees. This entire operation is compartmentalised. Whoever's running it is incredibly paranoid. He's the only one with access to the relic. It's not here. It's close enough to use, but not close enough for the rank and file to stumble on. Are there lower basement levels?"

Toph dropped and pressed her palms to the floor.

"Yeah," she said. "Ish. It's not cut stone like this. Rough cave floor, limestone, and there's water everywhere. I can't feel too well through so much water. I think it's only waist deep? It's still messing with my seismic sense."

"That's it," Zuko said, trusting his tracker's instinct. "Is there a stair? It'd be behind a locked door …"

"Not nearby. Maybe at the back of the barracks?"

"Too far. Let's go express."

"Got it."

She punched the floor. Stone twisted and wrenched itself out of the way, clogging up their corridor, and they dropped. A huge plug of stone plunged twenty feet and splashed into a huge cavern, forty feet deep, and wide enough they couldn't see the far walls, even though there were glow rock formations every twenty feet or so. Stalagmites reached up toward stalactites. Most of the floor was flooded; here and there, little islands rose out of it. He oriented himself, figured out which direction the barracks would be, and squinted into the twilight, looking for movement other than the dust and ripples their landing had thrown up.

"There."

Toph kicked rocks, and a walkway stabbed out of their island to the next. They dashed over to the next and then the next, until they reached the final island, where Long Feng stood over a casket.

"Hello, Lady Beifong, Prince Zuko," he said with a bow. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Save us the cutesiness," said Toph. "We've caught you red-handed."

"Red-handed?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "Doing what?"

"You've been messing with Joo Dee. You've been kidnapping people, and having them brainwashed, and –"

"I assure you, I have no idea what you're talking about," he said calmly. "You're right, I was concerned, and had her remains exhumed and investigated. Do you have theories about why she's been behaving so erratically?"

"I said save it! You got here before us, which means you knew to come straight here!"

"Surely you don't think it's surprising that I might have anticipated trouble from Joo Dee?" Long Feng asked. "Not after her behaviour over the past two months? I've been planning for such a contingency for a while now."

"Yeah," said Toph, "but –! You –!"

"He's not going to confess," said Zuko.

"If you believe a crime has been committed," said Long Feng, "by all means, you're entitled to present your evidence to the courts or the King, if you can persuade him to hear you out. But I assure you, this would be a waste of both our time."

"We can still beat a confession out of you," said Toph.

"I'm sure a bender of your skill could beat anything she wanted out of me," Long Feng said mildly. "Of course, it would be a major felony to assault or even threaten a public official, and an international incident, and a confession extracted under duress would be inadmissible in court. But please, don't let that stop you."

Zuko balled a fist. "Fine," he said. "You won't talk. But the Joo Dees are coming, and when they find you with her remains …"

"You mean, when they find you with her remains?" Long Feng asked. "I wonder how an earth spirit would feel about a firebender trespassing on her casket."

"," said Zuko. "Fine. You can slither away again. But hand over the casket."

Long Feng shrugged and stepped away from it. "I should warn you, stealing a cultural relic like this is also a major felony, but I certainly can't stop you."

"Add it to my tab," said Zuko. "C'mon, Toph. … Toph?"

She smiled vacantly at him. "Welcome to Lake Laogai," she said. "The Earth King hopes you enjoy your stay."

Zuko's mouth fell open.

"Joo Dee!" Long Feng snapped. "This firebender is desecrating your remains! Stop him!"

Toph jabbed, and rock spires shot out of the ground and jabbed at Zuko's gut; he skipped back and to the side.

"Toph! It's me! Snap out of it!"

She stomped, hefting large boulders before hurling them forward. Zuko weaved between them.

"Stop it!"

Long Feng pulled up boulder of his own. Zuko couldn't dodge both of them: he turned and ran.

"Joo Dee! Stop him!"

Toph kicked and bent up walls, blocking Zuko's escape; he leapt against one, hoping to punch through, failed, leapt off it instead, ducked behind a stalagmite, and slid into the knee-deep water, where she couldn't feel him properly, and out of the light of the glow rocks. He scooped up a handful of rocks and tossed them in all directions: splashes echoed around everywhere, masking his position.

"Joo Dee. Lock this place down."

She stomped, bending walls all around them in a circle. No gaps, no way out.

"We could simply wait for the other Joo Dees to find their way here," Long Feng went on conversationally. "It must be uncomfortable standing in the cold water, though. Even for a firebender. We could make it much quicker for you."

Zuko hesitated, then unbuckled his sheath and tossed it onto the island. "I'll surrender," he said, "if you tell me the truth. I'm really curious."

"The truth?" Long Feng asked, amused. He jabbed: a layer of stone rose and folded itself over the sheath and swords. "Well … Why not?

"Joo Dee serves the Earth King, has for millennia. That connection grants him many abilities some might consider … unnatural. Such as how he could tell you were a firebender. I suppose it was a very small leap to guess your full identity. He's probably seen portraits of your father."

"Did you plan to invite Fong to that party?"

"Believe it or not, that was a clerical error. I fired the scribe and hired a Joo Dee, naturally. I had the idea years ago of … fine-tuning her alignment and abilities, so she could as effectively serve the King's most trusted deputy. I commissioned some of the finest earthbending sages to help develop my methods. Yes, it's fine to say all this in front of her," he patted Toph on the head. "It doesn't matter what a body knows. They have to obey me either way. The only one who can overrule that is the spirit, and that can't understand humans other than the Earth King. Not even me, not even her own bodies. It makes her a little stupid, but the pliability is worth it.

"Of course, only I could be permitted to actually use these techniques and control her. Her help securing and stabilising my city has been invaluable. It worked so well I expanded her into more and more of the public service. And because different bodies can share knowledge and skills, the more bodies I added, the more effective they each became. All loyal to me. It was perfect. But the Fire Nation remained a threat. How could I deal with that?

"Your little group gave me the idea with your exploits at Agna Qel'a. A Water Tribe messenger told me the Avatar merged with a great water spirit and destroyed an entire Fire Nation fleet in minutes. Well. An idea that works once might work twice, mightn't it?"

"But you needed a great spirit," Zuko realised. "You didn't have the ocean or moon, just Joo Dee. So you had to give her as many bodies as possible, make her strong enough that if she merged with the Avatar, he'd have enough power to wipe out the Fire Nation again. But you pushed her too far. You broke her. And she broke out of your control, and started spreading herself. Even to your Dai Li. Getting stronger and stronger, until you can't hold her any more."

"Yes, that was unexpected. Still, I only need to retain control until Sozin's Comet arrives. The Avatar is also a firebender, so he'll be made stronger then too, won't he? The Fire Nation will commit to a battle of annihilation, and will itself be annihilated. Not only will Ba Sing Se be saved, but by husbanding our strength until then, we'll have the men to retake the entire Earth Kingdom. And who knows? Maybe even sail on the Fire Nation itself."

"That's why you wanted to kidnap me and Toph and Katara. It wasn't anything to do with me, was it? It was that the Avatar would do anything for the girls. You could blackmail him into staying here so he'd have to protect the city."

"The world doesn't revolve around you after all, Prince."

"So you got the best sages in the world to help you mind-control Joo Dee into helping you take over the world," said Zuko. He waded up onto the island. Long Feng smirked and Toph grinned toothily at him. "But then the Avatar spoiled your game. Now she'll find this place and know it was you. If you used earthbending spirituality to tamper with it, it can't have been me."

"Actually," he said, "I didn't. I asked earth sages to develop the method, but it's quite mundane to execute. Even a non-bender could do it. All I have to do is swap this casket out with a fake – yes, there are fakes around, I've thought this through – tell the Joo Dees you were responsible, and have this body make herself scarce. A scapegoat will satisfy Joo Dee just fine, and with two of his friends missing, the Avatar will have no choice but to stay in my city."

"Very neat," said Zuko. "And if I escape and testify?"

"Not a risk I need to take," said Long Feng. "Joo Dee, crush him."

There was a pause.

"Joo Dee!" Long Feng. "I said crush him! Crush him now!"

Toph slowly lifted a foot and stomped: a shell of rock bubbled up and wrapped around Long Feng's foot.

"What?!"

"And Katara calls me a drama queen," Zuko said. "My swords?"

Toph scraped her foot along the ground. "How'd you know I was faking it?"

"I pay more attention at your training sessions than your actual student does. Earthbending's all about stubbornness, standing your ground. There's no way a master would let a spirit take her body. That's probably why all the bender Joo Dees are rubbish at it. Besides, if you had, you wouldn't have jabbed at my gut. That's an Earth Rumble move, I could see it coming and it wouldn't stop me even if it connected. You don't fight like that when you're actually trying."

"Tch," Long Feng said, tugging at his foot, but Toph skipped and countered his move. "You got your confession. But you still can't prove anything to anyone."

"Maybe not in a court of law," she said. "But did you know Sparky taught me to write? I've been transcribing this entire conversation to the surface, and Twinkletoes can communicate with Joo Dee. The spirit, not just the bodies. So you have until he finishes telling them everything to –"

There came a crash, and the ceiling collapsed. Toph stomped up a stone tent over them; rubble fell all around, with a torrent of water. The Dai Li compound had been blasted apart by earthbenders, and it was packed with Joo Dees. They'd breached the ceiling: the Lake was flooding in.

"I can't –!" Toph began; the water pushed her off her feet, and she panicked, flailed, and inhaled water.

Zuko grabbed her, and hefted her up and out of the water that was rising fast enough to flood the island, staggered, slipped, banged his shin, got back up again. Twenty feet away, Long Feng fought for his footing.

Joo Dees skated down scree to the island. He noticed Jiayi was one of them. They walked past Zuko and Toph toward Long Feng.

"No," he said, panicking. "Stop – stay back! It was all lies! You can't – get away from me!"

Zuko took a step toward him, but Toph was coughing and choking and he could barely keep his footing with so much water rushing in. He could only save one. He stumbled, tripped, went underwater, pushed Toph to the surface first, got his feet under him, stood, and backed away.

"Let go of me!" Long Feng shouted.

The Joo Dees smiled.

"There is no war in Ba Sing Se," they said, closing in until he disappeared from view. "Here, you are safe. Here, you are free."

Zuko scrabbled at piles of rubble, barely keeping his and Toph's heads above water as the Lake poured in and lifted them up and out of the facility. Finally, they made it to the surface. A water tentacle wrapped around his midsection, lifted him up, and placed him on the beach: he rolled Toph into the recovery position and took her pulse.

Appa swooped down, and Suki, Sokka, and Katara jumped out. Katara bent water out of Toph's lungs; she coughed and sat up. Zuko finally noticed Aang dancing around the original entrance to the facility, furiously earth- and waterbending. The ground tore itself open and water tentacles swirled everywhere, lifting people out of the ruined facility. Katara and Toph went over to join him.

The shore was packed with women, standing or sitting around, disoriented. Presently, Katara bent a tentacle and lifted out Jiayi. She bent water out of her lungs, and she spluttered and recovered. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Oh," she said. "I'm really free to go? How'd all these people get here?"

"Yeah, how did we get here?" asked a plump girl in a bathrobe.

"Do I know you?" asked a more completely dressed middle-aged woman.

Zuko ignored these conversations breaking out everywhere and went over to Toph. She, Katara, and Aang had about finished.

"I can't feel anyone else down there," Aang said.

Katara nodded. "We got everyone out. I'm sure of it."

"What happened up here?" Zuko asked.

"We held them off for as long as we could," said Katara, "which wasn't very long. There were so many of them, and we couldn't hurt them, just knock them down, so they'd just get back up, and the Dai Li were turning too. Then they started making tunnels down through the lake and dropping rocks in and out to pump water out, so we couldn't just defend the one spot any more. We got overwhelmed and took off. We were trying to figure out how to get you out when we saw Toph's writing, and Aang meditated again to tell Joo Dee to leave everyone else alone. Then the Joo Dees tore the entire place apart."

Sokka and Suki pushed over. "Is everything taken care of? What happened to Long Feng? I don't see him."

"Joo Dee took him," Zuko said. "One way or the other, he's out of the picture. Permanently."

There was a moment of silence.

"We have to get everyone back to their homes," said Katara.

Aang nodded. He hopped on Appa and took off twenty feet, just high enough to be seen by however many thousands of former Joo Dees. "Everyone!" He amplified his voice, it had to be some airbending trick. "Someone attacked a spirit and it retaliated, and you all got dragged out here to Lake Laogai. I'm sorry. But it's over now. It's time to go home. If anyone's badly hurt, come here to the Lake. My friend's a water-healer, or Appa can carry you to a hospital."

Roughly one ex-Joo Dee in ten was either selfish or stupid enough to try to get a seat on Appa, meaning thousands of women queuing for under ten places. Aang, Suki, and Sokka tried to manage them; they quickly gave up, picked out a dozen women who'd broken legs in falls or crushes, loaded them onto Appa, and sent him off. Meanwhile, Toph yawned, sat down, and fell asleep; Katara sat beside her and set to healing women with scrapes and bad bruises; and Zuko stood behind her, watchful and silent.

"Zuko," she said at length, not looking at him. "Thanks."

He nodded and kept his vigil over her while she kept healing the people they'd rescued.

AN: Candidate titles included 28 Dees Later and Train To Ba Sing Se.