꧁ chapter fifteen ꧂
lake laogai

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"WE FOUND A printer to make our posters!" Katara announced cheerfully, entering the house.

"I think Sokka's got it handled" Meiluna bit back a laugh, watching him draw.

"I've been working all day on my Appa!" He said as he showed his crudely drawn picture with a proud smile.

Katara tried her best to hold back her laughter.

"Sokka, the arrow is on Appa's head" Aang pointed out.

"This is his head" Sokka replied, looking dismayed.

Katara took the drawing out of his hand,

"Why are feet coming out of it?"

Sokka snatched the drawing back indignantly,

"Those are his horns," He rubbed his head sadly, "I haven't seen him in a while, okay?"

"It looks just like him to me!" Toph mocked.

"Thank you, I worked really-" Sokka paused, realising his mistake, "Why do you feel the need to do that?"

"Let's just stick with the professional version" Katara laughed.

Sokka angrily tore up his drawing while Meiluna patted him on the head,

"I liked the drawing!"

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"I just finished dropping all the leaflets. Has anyone come in with news about Appa?" Aang asked eagerly.

"It's only been a day" Katara replied, "Just be patient"

Aang's face fell slightly as Meiluna tried to assure him,

"We'll find him, Aang"

Just as he smiled at her, they heard a knock at the door.

"Wow, you're right! Patience really pays off!"
Aang jumped up and ran to open the door,

"Joo Dee?"

"Hello, Aang, and Katara, and Sokka, and Meiluna, and Toph" The original Joo Dee greeted as she entered their home.

"What happened to you? Did the Dai Li throw you in jail?" Sokka questioned.

"What? Jail? Of course not. The Dai Li are the protectors of our cultural heritage" Joo Dee recited.

"But you disappeared at the Earth King's party" Toph reminded.

"Oh, I simply took a short vacation to Lake Laogai, out in the country. It was quite relaxing"

"But then they replaced you with some other woman who also said her name was Joo Dee" Katara said skeptically.

"I'm Joo Dee" The woman replied, feigning surprise.

"Sorry, but why are you here?" Meiluna asked curiously.

"Dropping fliers and putting up posters isn't permitted within the city," She explained, "Not without proper clearance"

"We can't wait around to get permission for everything" Sokka said, getting annoyed.

"You are absolutely forbidden by the rules of the city to continue putting up posters"

"We don't care about the rules and we're not asking permission! We're finding Appa on our own and you should just stay out of our way!" Aang yelled angrily before slamming the door in her face.

"That might come back to bite us in the blubber" Sokka said, looking at Aang.

"I don't care! From now on, we do whatever it takes to find Appa!" Aang said, still feeling angry.

"Yeah, let's break some rules!" Toph said excitedly before using her eartbending to take out an entire wall of the house.

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"Katara, what is it?" Sokka asked as the four approached her.

"Jet's back, we can't trust anything he says"

"But we don't even know why he's here!" Sokka countered.

"Uh, who's Jet?" Meiluna asked quietly to Toph who simply shrugged.

"I don't care why he's here, whatever the reason is, it can't be good!" Katara yelled.

"I'm here to help you find Appa!" Jet appeared, looking as though he'd been chasing after Katara, opening his hand to reveal the missing poster.

"Katara, we have to give him a chance" Aang said.

"I swear, I've changed! I was a troubled person and I let my anger get out of control, but I don't even have the gang now! I've put all that behind me" Jet begged.

"Maybe we could let him help us find Appa" Meiluna suggested, feeling slightly bad for the boy.

"He's lying!" Katara said, pointing angrily at Jet.

"He's not lying" Toph spoke as she felt the wall behind Jet.

"How can you tell?" Sokka asked.

"I can feel his breathing and heartbeat. When people lie, there's a physical reaction," She explained, "He's telling the truth"

"Katara, we don't have any leads. If Jet says he can take us to Appa, we have to check it out" Aang reasoned.

"All right," Katara gave in before looking angrily towards Jet again, "But we're not letting you out of our sight"

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"This is the place I heard about" Jet spoke as he lead everyone into a dimly lit warehouse.

"There's nothing here" Meiluna observed, looking around at the piles of canvas and rope.

"If this is a trap-"

"I told you, I work nearby" Jet cut Katara off,

"Two guys were talking about some giant furry creature they had, I figured it must be Appa"

"He was here!" Toph exclaimed, holding up a clump of the bison's fur.

"We missed him" Aang slumped sadly.

"They took that big thing yesterday," An old man spoke as he swept the floor, "Shipped him out to some island. About time, I've been cleaning up fur and various, uh," He paused with a disgusted look on his face, "Leavings all day"

"What island? Where's Appa?" Aang asked, stepping closer to the man.

"Foreman said some rich, royal type on Whaletail Island bought him up. Guess for a zoo or such. Though, could be the meat, that'd be good"

"We've got to get to Whaletail Island," Aang hesitated for a moment,

"Where's Whaletail Island?"

"Far, very far," Sokka answered, looking at the map, "Here it is. It's near the South Pole, almost all the way back home"

"Aang, it will take us weeks just to get to the top of the Earth Kingdom. And then we'll need to find a boat to get to the island" Katara said dejectedly.

"I don't care. We have a chance to find Appa! We have to try" Aang insisted.

"Must be nice to visit an island. I haven't had a vacation for years" The old man spoke from behind the group.

"Don't you have some more hair to clean up?" Katara asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Shuffle on, I get you. No more need for Old Sweepy"

Katara turned back around to face the Avatar,

"You're right Aang, our first concern has to be finding Appa. We can come back when we have him"

"All right, lets get moving" Sokka said as he began packing up the map.

"I'll come with you" Jet offered.

"We don't need your help!" Katara replied in an irritated tone, walking away.

"Why won't you trust me?" Jet asked, following after Sokka and Aang.

"Gee, I wonder" She said sarcastically.

"Was this guy your boyfriend or something?" Meiluna asked curiously, sending some tension between the two.

"What? No!" Katara said, crossing her arms defensively.

Toph had a playful smile on her face as she spoke,

"I can tell you're lying"

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"We can take the train out to the wall but then we'll have to walk" Sokka explained.

"Don't worry, on the way back we'll be flying" Aang spoke optimistically.

"We're finally leaving Ba Sing Se!" Toph announced in celebration.

"I don't know, it wasn't that bad, was it?" Meiluna asked the short girl who crossed her arms in response.

"Worst. City. Ever"

"Jet!" A voice called out.

A boy and a girl made their way over to where the group stood.

"I thought you said you didn't have your gang anymore" Katara turned to Jet angrily.

"I don't!" Jet assured, looking at the girl in confusion.

"We were so worried. How did you get away from the Dai Li?" The short girl asked as she engulfed Jet in a hug.

"The Dai Li?" Katara asked in shock.

"I don't know what she's talking about!" Jet argued.

"He got arrested by the Dai Li a couple of weeks ago. We saw them drag him away!" The girl explained.

"Why would I be arrested? I've been living peacefully in the city" Jet said, confusion prevalent in his voice.

"This doesn't make any sense," Toph spoke as she felt the ground, "They're both telling the truth"

"That's impossible" Katara rejected.

"No it's not!" Sokka said,

"Toph can't tell who's lying because they both think they're telling the truth"

"So, Jet's been brainwashed?" Meiluna asked, not quite understanding what was going on.

"The Dai Li must have sent Jet to mislead us, and that janitor was part of their plot too!" Katara exclaimed, "Appa's probably right here in the city"

"Maybe he's in the same place they took Jet! Where did they take you?" Aang asked facing him.

"Nowhere! I don't know what you're talking about!" He sputtered out.

"We need to find a way to jog his real memories" Aang spoke, thinking of different strategies.

"Maybe Katara should kiss him, that should bring something back" Sokka teased.

"Maybe you should kiss him Sokka!" Katara fired back.

"Hey, just an idea" Sokka retreated.

"A bad one" Aang mumbled, looking over jealously at Jet.

"Ooh, wait! I've got it!" Sokka plucked a straw from his mattress and poked it into Jet's mouth while regarding him thoughtfully.

"I don't think it's working" Jet rolled his eyes, spitting the straw out.

"Try to think of something from your past that triggers your emotions" Toph suggested.

"The Fire Nation! Remember what they did to your family" The girl reminded.

"Close your eyes. Picture it" Katara spoke calmly.

As Jet closed his eyes, beads of sweat began to form on his forehead before he snapped his eyes open again,

"No! It's too painful!"

"Maybe this will help" Meiluna said softly before taking some water, putting it around his ears, using her healing to clear his mind.

"They took me to a headquarters under the water, like a lake" He recalled.

"Wait! Remember what Joo Dee said? She said she went on vacation to Lake Laogai!" Sokka exclaimed.

"That's it!" Jet said standing up,

"Lake Laogai"

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"So where's this secret headquarters?" Sokka asked as the group stared out at the large expanse of the lake.

"Under the water, I think" Jet spoke uncertainly.

"There's a tunnel right there by the shore" Toph said pointing to the side.

She used her earthbending to bring up a slab of rock with an entrance to the surface of the lake.

Jet led everyone through the dark tunnel,

"It's all starting to come back to me"

Meiluna followed closely behind Sokka when she passed a room where a member of the Dai Li stood in front of a large group of women.

"I think there might be a cell big enough to hold Appa up ahead. I think it's through here!" Aang spoke excitedly.

He opened the door to reveal an empty room. The group slowly made their way inside, checking for any signs of the flying bison when all of a sudden, the door closed behind them and the lights turned on, revealing several Dai Li agents surrounding them.

"Now that's something different" Sokka said, looking around.

"You have made yourself enemies of the state. Take them into custody" Long Feng instructed.

The Dai Li agents jumped down from the ceiling, closing in on the group. Two agents fired rock gloves at them but Toph managed to break them up and sent the two agents flying through the air with rock pillars.

Jet ran towards the agents and broke two other gloves fired by the agents with his swords and tripped another.

A full battle ensued as Aang and Meiluna dealt with a pair of Dai Li agents while Sokka and Katara destroyed two Dai Li gloves when a second pair managed to grab them.

Toph saved them by creating a rock wall and raised the ground up. She knocked away the four Dai Li agents that attacked her just as another glove captured her and Meiluna.

Jet swung by while an agent fired his rock glove at him which Longshot deflected quickly as he fired an arrow, destroying the glove. Jet jumped in front of Longshot to hold off more of their rock attacks.

"Long Feng is escaping!" Aang cried out while he knocked away two agents with airbending. He and Jet quickly chased after him.

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Sokka, Katara, Meiluna and Toph eventually managed to escape the Dai Li agents and rushed over to the headquarters where Aang and Jet were.

Meiluna rushed over immediately, seeing Jet being crushed underneath a large rock.

Katara snapped out of her shock, running over to Jet and kneeling down, trying to heal him. She held her hands over his chest, watching the glow of the water fade, as the liquid stained his clothing.

"This isn't good" Katara spoke quietly.

"You guys go and find Appa. We'll take care of Jet" Smellerbee insisted.

"We're not going to leave you" Katara replied with a frown.

"There's no time. Just go. We'll take care of him. He's our leader" Lonshot spoke up.

"Don't worry Katara, I'll be fine" Jet spoke with a weak smile.

The team slowly made their way to the exit, when Toph softly whispered to Meiluna and Sokka,

"He's lying"

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"Appa's gone! Long Feng beat us here" Aang said in defeat.

"If we keep moving maybe we can catch up with them!" Sokka said, leading the group to make their escape when several Dai Li agents jumped out from behind them.

"You think we can outrun them?" Sokka asked.

"I don't think it's gonna matter!" Aang yelled out as Long Feng stood in front of them along with another set of Dai Li agents, boxing them in.

Momo flew onto Aang's shoulder and began chittering.

"What is it Momo?"

All of a sudden, Appa flew down, smashing through the rock walls, scattering the Dai Li agents.

"Appa!" Aang smiled.

"I can handle you by myself" Long Feng spoke menacingly, looking at Appa.

He charged straight at the bison but Appa instantly grabbed his leg and hurtled him into the lake.

The team ran towards Appa.

"Yeah! Appa!" Sokka cheered.

"I missed you buddy" Aang cried happily.

Meiluna placed a soft kiss on Appa's nose,

"I'm so glad to have you back"

☆☆☆