Azara hummed to herself as she laid out on the ground, glancing through a pamphlet, as Sokka attempted to draw pictures of Appa for the missing posters beside her. "How's this one?" Sokka asked, holding up another drawing for Azara to inspect. Looking over the drawing, Azara smiled at Sokka, though her eyes told another story.

"It looks great!" she replied, Toph snorting across from her, causing Sokka to shoot her a look.

Azara looked away from Toph as the door to their house opened, Katara and Aang running inside. "We found a printer to make our posters!" Katara explained, holding up a poster for Sokka and Azara to see as Aang pointed to it excitedly.

"Hey, I thought designing the lost Appa poster was my job! I've been working all day on my Appa!" Sokka stated, holding up his latest attempt at drawing Appa. Katara tried to hide a laugh behind her hand as Aang looked closer at the drawing with a confused expression on his face.

"Sokka, the arrow is on Appa's head," Aang pointed out as Sokka reexamined his drawing.

"This is his head," Sokka replied, starting to sound agitated, pointing to his sketch.

"Why are feet coming out of it?" Katara questioned, taking the drawing from her brother to inspect it further.

"Those are his horns," Sokka retorted, grabbing the picture, and hanging his head. "I haven't seen him in a while, okay?"

"It looks just like him to me!" Toph called from the floor mockingly, causing Sokka to perk up momentarily.

"Thank you, I worked really—" Sokka cut himself off once he remembered that Toph was blind. "Why do you feel the need to do that?"

"Let's just stick with the professional version," Katara insisted, causing Sokka to angrily rip up his drawing. Azara placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"I thought it was a good drawing of Appa," she smiled supportively, but Toph smirked at her words.

"I can tell you're lying," Toph spoke in a sing song voice, causing Azara and Sokka to shoot her another look.

"Come on, let's get busy!" Aang exclaimed, holding up some pamphlets. While the rest of the group wandered around the rings of Ba Sing Se distributing the fliers, Aang flew over the entire city, dropping pamphlets along his path. Having run out of pamphlets, the rest of the group decided to return to their temporary residence for a snack and to relax until Aang returned.

Azara looked up from her scroll as Aang entered the house, striding over to Sokka and Katara, who were in the middle of playing a game. "I just finished dropping all the leaflets. Has anyone come in with news about Appa?" Aang asked, causing Katara to look up from the game.

"It's only been a day. Just be patient," Katara told him, which caused Aang to sit on the ground with a bored expression on his face. No later than the moment he had sat down, a knock came from the door. Aang jumped to his feet and sprinted over to the door.

"Wow, you're right! Patience really pays off!" Aang threw open the door with an excited expression on his face but straightened up when he saw who was on the other side of the door. "Joo Dee?" he gasped out, surprised to see the original Joo Dee in front of him.

At the mention of that name, the rest of the group stopped what they were doing and walked towards the door, their eyes falling on the familiar woman. The original Joo Dee entered the room, her fake smile still plastered on her face. "Hello, Aang, and Katara, and Sokka, and Azara, and Toph," she greeted, bowing lightly.

"What happened to you? Did the Dai Li throw you in jail?" Sokka questioned, looking over her with an odd expression on his face.

"What? Jail? Of course not. The Dai Li are the protectors of our cultural heritage," Joo Dee insisted, causing Azara to raise an eyebrow.

"But you disappeared at the Earth King's party," Toph pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest as Joo Dee chuckled.

"Oh, I simply took a short vacation to Lake Laogai, out in the country. It was quite relaxing," Joo Dee responded as the group continued to look at her skeptically.

"But then they replaced you with some other woman who also said her name was Joo Dee," Katara explained, causing Joo Dee to look surprised for a moment.

"I'm Joo Dee," she spoke, pointing at herself as Azara found herself growing tired of this exchange.

"Why are you here?" Azara interjected, redirecting the conversation.

"Dropping fliers and putting up posters isn't permitted within the city. Not without proper clearance," Joo Dee replied, pulling out one of their posters and holding it up.

"We can't wait around to get permission for everything," Sokka shook his head as Joo Dee plastered the same smile on her face.

"You are absolutely forbidden by the rules of the city to continue putting up posters," Joo Dee scolded passive aggressively, causing Aang to lose his temper on the woman.

"We don't care about the rules and we're not asking permission!" Aang yelled, waving his arms around as his face turned red. Joo Dee backed up, a scared look on her face as Aang advanced forwards. "We're finding Appa on our own and you should just stay out of our way!" Aang snapped before slamming the door shut in her face.

"That might come back to bite us in the blubber," Sokka sighed as Aang continued to glare at the door, though his skin returned to his normal coloring.

"I don't care! From now on, we do whatever it takes to find Appa!"

"Yeah, let's break some rules!" Toph cheered before breaking one end of the house with her earthbending.

"I don't think that's what he meant, Toph," Azara spoke softly as Momo flew out of the hole.

After taking a moment to gather more posters, the group walked out of their partially destroyed home and back out into the city streets to hang up the posters. Taking a poster from Sokka, Azara plastered some glue on the wall before pressing another poster to the wall, smoothing out the paper on the brick.

"We should split up to cover more area. Toph, I guess you should just come with me," Sokka offered, causing Toph to push off the wall in a huff.

"Why? Because you think I can't put up posters on my own?!" Toph snapped, grabbing the paintbrush out of Azara's hand and a poster from Sokka's bag. Throwing some glue on the wall, Toph smacked the poster onto the glue patch before pausing, her anger instantly dissipating. The poster was on backwards, the blank back facing out towards the street, causing Azara and Sokka to share a quiet look. "It's upside-down, isn't it? I'll just go with Sokka."

"How about we meet back at the house in an hour or so?" Azara agreed, causing Toph and Sokka to nod. When Katara and Toph had already turned their respective directions, Sokka leaned forwards and pressed a peck to Azara's lips. "Sokka!" Azara giggled, blushing as she jokingly pushed Sokka away from her and towards Toph. "Go! You have posters to hang up!"

"I'll see you soon," Sokka smiled, before jogging after Toph. Azara caught up easily with Katara, who had a smirk on her face.

"Not one word, Katara," Azara warned, though her tone was teasing.

"I've never seen him so giddy before," Katara commented offhandedly, a light chuckle falling from her lips as Azara blushed again. "But it's nice to see the both of you so happy."

"Thanks, Katara," Azara replied, a soft smile on her face. "Now all we have to do is find Appa and everything can just settle down for a bit."

They ventured further into town when Katara and Azara paused in front of a large fountain. "Why don't you get those streets, and we'll meet back here in a few minutes?" Katara pointed down the street, causing Azara to nod in affirmation. Walking away, Azara prepared to place another poster on the wall when she froze at the sound of a familiar voice.

"Azara?" Jet called, causing Azara to spin around, her eyes wide in shock. "I think I can help you," Jet offered, the smile on his face unnerving Azara. The thin scar on her shoulder burned at the sight of him. With a furious yell of anger, Azara spun around, sending a fire slice right at Jet's head, who dove out of the way. "Wait! Azara! I just want to talk!"

"Well, I don't!" Azara growled out, her fists clenched as she sent a fire blast at his feet, causing him to jump back.

"I've changed!" Jet insisted as Azara's glare intensified. She sent more fire blasts at him, but he managed to dodge them. Jet pulled out his hook swords as Azara readied herself for a fight. "Really, Azara! Please, just hear what I have to say!" Jet pleaded as Azara remained unmoved. He took a step forward, causing Azara to tense.

"If you take another step forward, I'll—" Azara was about to threaten when the fountain next to her suddenly rose up. Azara relaxed as Katara jumped out from behind her, sending the full force of the fountain at Jet with a yell.

"Wait! Katara, I've changed!" Jet shouted before he was swept back by the sheer force of the fountain.

Azara and Katara rushed forwards as he was knocked back into a side street. "Tell it to some other girls, Jet!" Katara scoffed, before sending a series of ice picks at Jet. He knocked a few of them away from himself with his hook swords before spinning around to stare back at them.

"I don't want to fight you, I'm here to help!" Jet yelled, causing Azara to shake her head.

"Heard that one before," she huffed as Jet threw his swords down and reached for something behind his back. Katara yelled out again, throwing ice crystals at him, pinning him to the wall. Azara's fists clenched at her sides as she heard Sokka, Toph, and Aang come up from behind them.

"Katara, Azara, what is it?" Sokka asked, before his eyes widened at the sight in front of him.

"Jet's back," Katara spit out as Sokka stepped in front of Azara, glaring at Jet, who merely stared back at him. "We can't trust anything Jet says," Katara snapped, turning around to her friends as Azara continued to glare into Jet's soul.

"Why is he even here?" Sokka questioned, turning back to Azara and Katara.

"I don't care why he's here, whatever the reason is, it can't be good!" Katara huffed as Jet called out to the group from his place on the wall.

"I'm here to help you find Appa!" Azara looked over at him at the sound of paper crumpling and spotted a missing Appa poster in Jet's hand. "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 explained, causing Katara to step forwards.

"You're lying! You think you can just show up here after what you did to Azara and we'll just listen to you? Well, you're mistaken, Jet," Katara continued as Toph walked forwards calmly. Placing her hand flat on the wall, Toph felt for vibrations.

"He's not lying," Toph announced, causing Azara to furrow her eyebrows.

"How can you tell?" Azara asked, stepping around Sokka, her gaze never leaving Jet.

"I can feel his breathing and heartbeat. When people lie, there's a physical reaction. He's telling the truth," Toph repeated, causing the group to look at each other again.

"We don't have any leads—" Aang tried but was cut off by Katara.

"—We can't accept help from him," Katara snapped as Azara looked back over at Jet. "Not after what he did."

"What do you think, Azara? Sokka?" Aang questioned, turning to the couple.

Azara didn't move to speak, thinking over their options, allowing Sokka to speak first. "I don't like Jet and I'll never trust him," Sokka started, glancing at Azara out of the corner of his eye. His memories briefly flashed back to the time he found her at the dam, bruised and hurt because of the Freedom Fighter in front of him. "And if I had it my way, he wouldn't even be standing here to talk to us." Sokka paused, glancing at Azara again, before turning back to Aang. "But I'll do whatever Azara feels comfortable with."

"Azara?" Aang asked, but Azara seemed to ignore him as she walked towards Jet, her eyes narrowed, and her fists clenched at her sides. "What do you know?" Azara demanded, flames bursting from her hands threateningly. "And tell the truth, because Toph will know if you're lying."

"I overheard some guys talking about moving Appa in a shed near where I work," Jet explained as Azara turned to Toph, who nodded in confirmation. Jet was telling the truth. Turning back to Jet, Azara's glare didn't lessen as he opened his mouth to speak again. "I really am sorry for how I hurt you back there, Azara, I was a completely different person—"

Before Jet could finish his sentence, Azara jumped forwards, a fire blade in her hand, which was dangerously close to Jet's throat. "Let me make three things abundantly clear to you, Jet," Azara growled in a low voice, her golden eyes flashing with anger. "I don't like you. I don't trust you. And I won't hesitate to take you out if you give me a reason to. Understood?" she threatened, causing Jet to nod.

Straightening up, Azara walked back towards the group, her face emotionless. "We can work with him, but the second he's useless, we're dumping him," Azara agreed, crossing her arms over her chest. Aang nodded in thanks as Katara glared at Jet. Walking over to Sokka, Azara didn't say anything as he wrapped a protective arm around her waist.

"But we're not letting you out of our sight," Katara warned, jabbing a finger at Jet for emphasis. 

A.N. Here's the first half of the Lake Laogai episode! Thanks as always for reading, commenting, and voting on this story! It is thoroughly appreciated. Next update should be somewhat soon as I'm hoping to crank out the rest of Book 2.