A/N; Aight, I got good news, and I got bad news. Good news; you get a new chapter (yay!), and it's long as fuck, so that should give you all something to fill your time - assuming you have too much free time of course, like I do. Personally, I'm still consuming other fics at an alarming rate, but nevermind that lol.

Bad news; this chapter is so long, that I had to crop a few scenes from this episode because they ultimately didn't change, even if there were some great, iconic moments from them. Realistically, including all of them would probably require this chapter to break 8k words or close to it, and I just had to call it - I'm willing to push 7, but after that is just unreasonable. And I wasn't willing to split this chapter up either, soo... necessary sacrifice, I guess ;-;

That being said though, let's change things up - I hope you all hate this chapter >:)

(bet you didn't see that one coming, HUH?!)

((no but fr I hope you guys like it i worked vewy hawd pwease wike and subscwibe-))

Azami P.o.V.

"O-oh yeah, that's the spot. Now if you could just do it a little harder- wow, that feels great... you're really good with your hands, you know that?"

Azami rolled her eyes at her new boyfriend. "You know only I agreed so long as you're doing this for me next, right?"

"Yeah, I know, just... don't stop," Sokka groaned as she worked out the latest knot she'd found in his back. Currently, he was lying face-down on the floor of the house while he worked on his drawings of Appa - which Azami thought were frankly hideous, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings, so she kept quiet about it as she continued giving him his back massage.

She frowned as she kept working at it, finding a seemingly endless mess of twisted muscle in his back. "Spirits, Sokka, I know that fight was only yesterday," Azami muttered. "But how on earth did you manage to screw it up this bad?"

"Well, I think it was that combined with us sharing the bed last night," he admitted. "Normally, my body's free to do whatever it wants, but I didn't get to sleep normally because of it."

Azami paused in her efforts, glaring slightly at the back of his head. "Oh, so now it's my fault?" she demanded.

"Hey, I didn't mean it like that!" Sokka protested, putting down his pencil so he could glance over his shoulder to meet her gaze. "It was just, you know, a side effect. That's all."

The firebender raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by his answer. "A side effect, huh?" she asked skeptically, and the boy just let out a nervous chuckle. "Well, you know what an unfortunate side effect of putting yourself in this position is, Sokka-"

Without waiting to finish, Azami quickly grabbed one of his arms and started twisting it slightly behind his back - not enough to actually hurt him, but still enough for him to yelp from the brief flash of pain. "Okay, I get it, I'm sorry!" he pleaded, and she reluctantly let his arm drop. "Look, I didn't mean for it to come out like that-"

"Then in that case, make sure it doesn't next time," Azami snapped, and he had the sense to simply nod before returning to his latest drawing. In truth, she wasn't as upset by it as she was letting on - but she still wasn't happy about it either, so she went a little more aggressively at Sokka's back as she resumed her 'treatment', and it clearly didn't go unnoticed as he occasionally winced in pain.

After a while, he finally finished his drawing, and he lifted it to show Azami, almost like he was proud of his work. "So?" he asked eagerly, giving her the big 'puppy' eyes. "Do you like it?"

"I, um..." her voice trailed off, not really sure how to approach this without lying through her teeth - especially since Toph was also sitting right next to them, and she'd absolutely be able to call her out for it. "I think the real question is if you're happy with it, Sokka," she decided, hoping it would bail her out of this.

Sokka took another look at it, and he smiled as if he were a child again. "You know what, I think I am," he announced proudly, and the firebender sighed in relief. "I can't wait to show the others-"

As if on cue, the door to the house suddenly slid open, revealing Aang and Katara, who both walked in eagerly. "Hey, we found a printer to make our posters!" the waterbender informed them, holding up a drawing with an extremely detailed - and frankly, lifelike - depiction of Appa.

"I- I thought designing the lost Appa poster was my job," Sokka whined as he held up his drawing beside his face, which more closely resembled the outline of a squash with sticks coming out of it, plus a random arrow drawn on than the actual bison. "I've been working all day on my Appa!"

Katara snorted as she and Aang both tried to contain their laughter at it. "Sokka- the arrow is on Appa's head!" the airbender berated him.

Sokka frowned, rotating the drawing so he could point at the part with the arrow and two weird squiggles coming off of it. "This is his head."

"Why are feet coming out of it?" his sister wondered as she took the drawing, giving it a closer look.

The teen snatched it back from her, clearly frustrated. "Those are his horns! I haven't seen him in a while, okay?"

"It looks just like him to me," Toph offered eagerly from where she was lying on the floor.

Azami had to forcibly suppress the disappointment she was feeling as Sokka grinned, falling easily for the earthbender's trap. "Thank you, I worked really..." his voice trailed off as his expression fell, the truth slapping him upside the head. "Why do you feel the need to do that?"

"Let's just stick with the professional version," Katara insisted, which really didn't help - her brother looked about ready to lose it.

In a last ditch effort, he did the one thing Azami hoped he wouldn't do - drag her into this. "Well, at least Azami thinks it's good, right?" He turned eagerly towards her, only to frown at the sheepish look covering her face. "Um... you did say you liked it, right?"

She winced, already knowing how this would end. "Well... I mean, I technically just asked if you were happy with it... so I didn't really say that - but at least I didn't say that I didn't like it, right?" she offered, trying to placate his growing frustration.

If the shredded paper that was covering the both of them a second later was anything to judge by, Azami probably failed at that goal.

"Do you think the Dai Li are gonna notice?" Azami whispered in the silence that had overtaken the room.

Everyone else turned to glare at her, but she just shrugged - it was kinda hard to miss the giant hole where the bathroom used to be. After Joo Dee had showed up and told them putting up posters was illegal, she wasn't surprised by Aang's reaction... or Toph's, for that matter, but still - this was not gonna end well for them.

"Well, if we weren't annoying them before, we definitely are now," she sighed. "I guess if the Dai Li are gonna evict us from the city anyways, we should probably put those posters up ourselves while we still can. Let's get going."

Cue the trip to the lower ring, and Azami didn't even need Toph's bending to know they were being followed. Even if what they were doing was perfectly fine - which, in the city's eyes, it wasn't - destroying property gifted to them by the Earth King probably wasn't the wisest idea. Hopefully, they could find Appa soon and put this all behind them.

Pretty soon after they had arrived in the lower ring, the gaang decided to split up with their own sets of posters - the only exception being Toph, who went with Sokka after a failed attempt to put up a poster of her own. There weren't a lot of times where Azami felt bad for the young girl - most of the time, she almost seemed proud of her condition since it allowed her to become an even greater earthbender - but this was definitely one of those moments where Toph struggled.

For the first fifteen minutes or so, everything went pretty smoothly - paint the wall with glue, stick a poster onto it, move down about twenty feet or so and repeat the process. Honestly, she thought they would be interrupted by now, but for some reason the Dai Li were keeping at bay. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

That is, until she heard a nearby crash of water, followed by a familiar girl's shout.

Ditching her current poster, Azami raced to find Katara, hoping that the waterbender hadn't been attacked the way she and Sokka were yesterday. As she was running towards the source of the noise, she saw Sokka and Toph come up from a seperate street, and the three set off together.

"Do you guys know what happened?" she asked them, not breaking stride.

Rather than answer, Sokka simply shook his head, seeming just as uncertain as she felt. Within moments, they found a fairly large courtyard area with a mess of water all over the place, and shouting coming from a nearby alley. Naturally, they all followed it, and as they rounded the corner the familiar girl in blue clothes entered Azami's view - and, thankfully, she seemed unhurt.

"Katara, what's-?"

Azami's question died in her throat as she looked past Katara, and she felt the blood drain from her face as she saw someone she'd hoped would never appear again. Even months after the incident, she suddenly felt a twinge of discomfort around her ribs, remembering how they'd been brutally broken the last time they met, along with several scars still lining her arms.

In spite of her usually proud demeanor, she couldn't help reaching for Sokka's hand for support, feeling unsure of how she'd react. Part of her wanted to curl into a ball and hide, while another wanted to bash the freedom fighter's face in so that he could feel even a fraction of the pain he put her through - but she wasn't willing to indulge either side at the moment.

At least... not yet. Still, though, when his eyes met hers... she could feel her restraint failing by the second.

"Jet's back," Katara announced to them bitterly.

Sokka P.o.V.

It didn't even take a second for Sokka to pull Azami behind him, trying to limit Jet's view of her. Obviously, he knew that she was more than capable of defending herself, but the last time the two had crossed paths, Jet nearly killed her. He wasn't taking that kind of a risk again, no matter what.

"Wait, guys!" Jet protested from where he stood. "You don't know why I'm here, I'm trying to help-"

"You think we care?" Sokka spat, a viscious desire to lash out curling in his gut. "Not one of us is interested in hearing it."

The freedom fighter seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, before a small sheet of paper unfurled in the same hand that was pinned to the wall. It didn't take long for Sokka to recognize the poster for Appa, but even still... he didn't want to hear the boy out. He didn't want anything to do with him.

"I'm trying to help you find Appa!" Jet insisted, his voice definitely sounding genuine.

Aang's stance relaxed almost immediately as he took a closer look at the sheet, and when he recognized it his expression fell. His gaze turned to the two water tribe siblings, and even before he spoke Sokka knew what he was going to say. "Guys... if he really does know something, we have to give him a chance."

"You're actually willing to trust him?" Sokka demanded, and it was nice to see Katara was in agreement with his sentiment. "He betrayed all of us, tortured Azami and then tried to kill her, along with over a hundred innocent civillians, and you think he deserves a chance?!"

Behind him, he could feel the firebender shifting uneasily - though whatever she was thinking, she didn't voice any of it.

"I swear I've changed," the freedom fighter begged, clearly pleading with them. "I was a troubled person, and I let my anger get out of control, but I don't even have the gang now, and-"

Any doubts he'd previously had vanished almost immediately, and if it wasn't for the girl behind him - who was now struggling to hold him in place - he would've beaten Jet to death then and there. "Out of control?" he nearly screamed. "OUT OF CONTROL?! You didn't get out of control, you're a sadistic psychopath! Why would we ever believe that you changed?"

Katara nodded. "He has to be lying, it's the only explanation."

"Actually, he isn't," Toph suddenly announced, much to everyone's surprise. She walked right up next to Jet, placing a hand against the wall beside him. "I can feel his breathing and heartbeat. When people lie, there's a phyiscal reaction - and I can't feel any here." The earthbender turned towards them with a slight shrug. "He's telling the truth."

"Look, we don't have any leads," Aang pointed out. "If Jet says he can take us to Appa, we have to check it out." He hesitated for a moment, before meeting Azami's gaze - and, hesitantly, Sokka looked away from Jet so he could see her reaction too. "Azami, you're the one that Jet actually hurt, and the one who's at most risk with having him around. Are you willing to give him a chance?"

With everyone's gaze on her, it was obvious that she was feeling immensely uncomfortable - not to mention, still probably terrified by Jet's reappearance, as her still-pale complexion would indicate. Trying to comfort her, Sokka gave her hand a quick squeeze so she knew she wasn't alone - and after sending him a weak smile, she nodded, albeit reluctantly. "Seeing as we've been here for over a month, and found nothing..." she sighed, eyes trained on the ground to avoid the others'. "If you really think this is worth it, Aang, I'm willing to give it a chance."

Jet's face instantly brightened. "Thank you for trusting me, I promise I won't-"

Azami's gaze instantly whipped to meet his, her discomfort being replaced almost immediately by a loathing hatred. "Don't think, for one second, that I trust you," she hissed, the venom in her tone surprising even to Sokka. "I'm doing this for Aang, and for Appa, not you. Give me one reason to think you'll turn against us..."

She let the threat hang, and even though she didn't really finish it, she didn't have to. Everyone knew what it meant.

Azami P.o.V.

"This is the place I heard about," Jet announced as the gaang entered what looked like a cross between a barn and a warehouse. The place, as expected, was empty, save for a few hay bales and an old guy sweeping in the corner.

Aang hesitantly walked in, no doubt spotting the obvious problem with this. "There's nothing here."

Understandably, Katara almost immediately became skeptical, turning to glare at the 'ex' freedom fighter. "If this is another trap-!"

"I told you, I work nearby!" Jet insisted. "Two guys were talking about some giant, furry creature they had. I figured it must be Appa."

Feeling unsure, Azami hesitantly walked into the area, trying to see if she could find any clues. At first glance, there didn't seem to be any footprints, or his saddle - but, on closer inspection, something white caught her eye in the corner. Walking over to it, she picked up the small clump of fur, running it through her fingers.

It was fairly old, at least several days - if not longer - but she still recognized it. "Aang," she called out to the young Avatar. "I think he was here. Come look-"

She didn't even get the chance to finish before the airbender had raced over, gently taking the fur in his hands. Rubbing it gently, his expression turned thoughtful - which, admittedly, was an improvement over the despair he'd had for nearly two months now. "We missed him," he muttered.

"They took that big thing yesterday," the old sweeper guy announced as he passed behind them. Everyone immediately dropped what they were doing and stared at the old man in disbelief, unable to believe that they'd actually found a lead. "Shipped him off to some island, and about time, too - I've been cleaning up fur and various, uh, leavings all day."

"What island!?" Aang exclaimed excitedly. "Where's Appa?"

The elderly janitor shrugged. "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."

Everyone, even Jet seemed to share a universal disgust at the thought - there was absolutely no way they'd let something so horrible happen to Appa. "We have to get to Whaletail Island," Aang declared, before glancing around nervously. "Um... where is it?"

Hearing a rustling sound beside her, Azami glanced at the map Sokka was pulling out, and it didn't take long for her to feel like she'd just gotten kicked in the gut. The island... they'd never make it in time.

"Far," Sokka replied defeatedly. "Very, very far."

Azami sighed, kneeling down beside her boyfriend as he placed the map on the ground. "It's basically back to the South Pole, Aang," she announced sadly. "We'd have to go back across the Serpent's Pass again, and the desert... plus around a thousand miles of sea with no transportation of any kind. Even if we get lucky, we still might miss the eclipse - and we'd be alone in that fight."

Toph frowned, as though a rather disturbing thought had hit her. "And if we aren't lucky?"

"We may not even get there until after the comet," the firebender admitted. "We've only got a little over four months until it arrives, and this trip would take us two, easily. And that's not even considering how long it would take if we didn't get the sandbender's help crossing the desert again-"

"It doesn't matter," Aang snapped, clearly not happy to be reminded about the people who stole Appa in the first place. "We have a chance to find Appa, so we have to try. We can just fly back once we have him."

They all just stared at the map in defeat - save Aang, who was glaring at it with a type of defiance - wondering how they could get everything done in the limited time they had left.

"Must be nice, to visit an island," the old janitor croaked. "I haven't had a vacation for years-"

Apparently, Katara was getting tired of his droning on in the background. "Don't you have some more hair to clean up?"

"Sure, shuffle on," the old man sighed. "I getcha. No more need for old sweepy."

The waterbender rolled her eyes at him, before softening as she rested a hand on Aang's shoulder. "You're right, Aang. Right now, our first concern has to be finding Appa. We can come back when we have him, and besides - it's not like the King is of much help to us anyways."

"I guess that's fair," Azami reluctantly agreed as she got up. If her meeting with the man last week was anything to judge by, then there wasn't much of a reason to stay in Ba Sing Se. Not if Appa wasn't here anymore. "We should get moving, if we're doing this - we'll need as much time as we can get."

The gaang all started getting ready to leave, when suddenly Jet ran up beside them. "I'll come with you," he offered.

Instantly the firebender's gut twisted - no way was she going to travel with this guy. Whether he'd helped them or not didn't matter - she was barely willing to go along with him for today only, so there was no chance she'd give him another shot at killing her in her sleep. And, fortunately, she wasn't alone on that.

"We don't need your help," Katara firmly replied.

Jet sighed, switching his gaze over to her. "Why won't you trust me?"

"Why?" Sokka demanded, looking ready to smash Jet's already damaged nose in again. "Do you think we're idiots? I don't care how much you say you've changed, you've done nothing but try to hurt and use us in the past. Thanks for this tip, but we're not bringing you with us."

The freedom fighter looked ready to argue, but with everyone - even Aang - glaring at him, he decided against it, probably recognizing it wouldn't get him anywhere.

"Fine," he muttered reluctantly. "I'll leave you guys on the way back to the main station."

Sokka P.o.V.

Needless to say, the whole walk back to the train station was awkward. For some reason, Jet kept going with them, even after he'd had plenty of time to leave... and honestly, it was starting to bother him. He already knew the freedom fighter was crafty, and even at the best of times was still dangerous.

So, after a while, he finally voice his concerns, coming to a complete halt in the middle of the street. "Alright, enough is enough," he insisted, grabbing everyone else's attention. "Jet, we told you not to come and agreed. Why are you still following us?"

The freedom fighter looked uncomfortable as the gaang all turned to him for an answer. "I said I'd leave you guys on the way, and... the place I'm staying at is pretty far, so I don't see why I should leave you so soon. The lower ring can be a bit dangerous at times, and since I don't have the gang anymore-"

"Jet!" a female voice suddenly cried, and Sokka looked over in shock to see two other freedom fighters emerging from a side street, looking just as surprised to see them.

Immediately, his gut twisted - he knew he had a bad feeling about this. "So much for not having your little gang anymore," he spat accusingly towards Jet, who was staring at the two newcomers in disbelief.

"I don't," he repeated, confusion evident in his tone - though that was contrasted by the girl running straight into his arms.

"We were so worried!" she exclaimed, pulling back to look up at him. "How did you get away from the Dai Li?"

Katara gasped. "The Dai Li?!"

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

The girl - who Sokka was pretty sure was called Smellerbee - kept pressing her version of the story, despite Jet's claims. "He got arrested by the Dai Li a couple weeks ago! We saw them drag him away!"

"Why would I be arrested?" the leader demanded, now looking thoroughly confused and irritated. "I've been living peacefully in the city."

"This doesn't make any sense," Toph wondered as she listened closely to the earth. "They're both telling the truth."

Katara's eyes widened. "That's impossible!"

"No, it isn't," Sokka announced as a horrible thought occured to him. It may have been a little far-fetched, but with the way that Jet was acting... and, now that he thought about it, the way some of the people in the city - including Joo Dee - acted, it was starting to become a real possibility in his mind. "Toph can't tell who's lying because they both think they're telling the truth. Jet's been brainwashed!"

Jet's expression twisted into one of panic, his eyes darting around everywhere. "That's crazy!" he insisted. "It can't be! Stay away from me!"

Terrified, but absolutely sure he was right, Sokka and the others all started to circle Jet as the boy seemingly became paralyzed by fear.

Lake Laogai.

After spending over half an hour trying to break through whatever the Dai Li did to Jet's mind, that was the place they finally settled on for the Dai Li's headquarters. Joo Dee's supposed 'vacation spot', as it were. Something about the place... even the name, just had a sense of foreboding about it. Whatever the gaang was about to uncover, Sokka was sure they weren't going to like it.

Accompanied by Jet's companions, Smellerbee and Longshot, they set out as fast as possible. Waiting even a day may have given the Dai Li too much time - they were now racing against the clock, and every minute counted.

Unfortunately, the train only took them most of the way outside the wall, not the entire length of the trip - leaving them with an hour-long hike to the lakefront. While they were walking, Sokka tried to anticipate what they might find - a fight with the Dai Li seemed inevitable, whether they found Appa or not, but was that all they'd find?

He knew now that they had at least two women who were brainwashed into thinking they were Joo Dee - it was probably reasonable to expect more of them, too.

More creepy smiling women. Great.

That wasn't all that he thought of, though, and for the past few hours now, something had actually been nagging in the back of Sokka's mind. Something that was seriously starting to bother him, though he didn't quite understand why. An idea, or rather a memory, that was trying to surface - something that had only just now come up. Something to do with Jet and Azami.

They were still missing something about all of this. Some piece of the puzzle, and Sokka still couldn't see the full picture yet.

Why did this all feel so... easy? Shouldn't the Dai Li have stopped them now? Wouldn't they have been watching over Jet, if they really did brainwash him to distract them? If that really was the only layer of their plan, then they must have been really confident in their ability to brainwash people. No doubt, they were probably practiced enough to make it seem almost natural - with the differences being so subtle, even Toph couldn't tell anything... was wrong...

Oh... oh, spirits, no...

Sokka's eyes widened in horror as a thought hit him - the way Jet acted was so close to normal, but there was just that slight twinge where Sokka could tell something was wrong. Now, as he realized it... he had seen someone else act similarly, someone who even Toph didn't call out for lying about anything.

His beautiful, kind, and sometimes downright terrifying girlfriend. Azami.

He'd nearly forgotten about it by now, but over a month ago, on their second day here... she'd just disappeared, apparently, into meetings with the Dai Li and the Earth King's generals. Or, at least, that's what she told them. But there had been something off, something about her story, or the way she told it... things just didn't line up. All of it made sense, yet for some reason, none of it did.

Was she brainwashed by Long Feng too?

It was a hard idea to accept, that was sure. Outside of that one evening, she'd acted perfectly normal the whole time they were in Ba Sing Se - even when they were discussing things like the war, or Appa, which the Dai Li were obviously desperate to keep out of the city. She'd still used her bending, albeit in private when she was sure it was safe, and they'd fought against those bandits... which definitely didn't line up with Jet's whole 'living peacefully in the city' line, or anything like that.

Perhaps most telling, too, was that she had still remembered being kidnapped by the Dai Li, whereas Jet denied having ever been taken prisoner by them in the first place. The more he thought about it, the less sure he became. Surely, if Long Feng was so desperate to get rid of them, wouldn't he have also had Azami try to convince them to leave? She'd been the loudest voice in arguing against leaving the city, which again, didn't make much sense if-

"Sokka? Are you okay?"

His eyes widened as he looked over at Azami, who was watching him with a concerned look. Meeting her gaze, he saw nothing suggestive - Jet's eyes seemed almost slightly glazed over, if barely - but hers were the same clear amber they'd always been. "Y-yeah," he replied hesitantly. "Of course I am, why?"

"You started turning pale," she admitted. "Plus you got this really scared look, and... I honestly thought you might be having a panic attack or something."

He shook his head, trying to steady himself - having been pointed out, he did notice his skin was feeling a little clammy. "Just... just nervous, is all."

"Hey, we'll be alright," she assured him, her thumb rubbing against his gently. "As long as we all stick together, we'll find Appa - and then we can do whatever we want, right? Long Feng won't be able to use him against us anymore."

Sokka sighed, glancing ahead as they climbed the crest of a hill, revealing the shimmering blue lake ahead of them. "I hope you're right."

Azami P.o.V.

Fortunately, getting into the secret headquarters proved to be easy enough. Apparently, all it took was a blind earthbender who could see through the ground. That wasn't too uncommon, right?

What a flawed defense system.

The unfortunate thing, though, was what happened once they got inside. Sneaking around without being detected proved a bit of a challenge, considering that with Jet's group they now numbered eight people, but they still managed to slip by undetected. At least, it appeared that they did.

As they were walking, Azami couldn't help wondering if this was where she had been taken when the Dai Li kidnapped her a month ago, but it just felt... wrong. Even by taking the train a fair distance, the journey out here was far longer than she remembered being dragged through those endless corridors beneath the palace.

The green lighting was definitely familiar, though.

Perhaps the most creepy aspect of the entire place was a room they passed by, where they could see a dozen or so women dressed exactly like Joo Dee, all with their eyes glossed over. They kept repeating the lines the Dai Li agent told them, and... honestly, Azami had no issues with saying it was a little terrifying. It was like those women weren't even people anymore, but simply mindless puppets. Honestly, she couldn't really imagine a worse fate than that - losing everything that makes you, you, and becoming nothing but a shell.

As they finally arrived outside a large chamber - where Jet supposedly claimed Appa was being kept - Azami tried to push that image to the back of her mind, where it would hopefully never bother her again. Taking a deep breath, she walked in with the others, not entirely sure what to expect - though a friendly bison was definitely the ideal.

Which meant, of course, that things had to be worse. So, so much worse.

The second they had all reached the center of the room, the door behind them shut, allowing the dim lighting to brighten slightly - revealing dozens of Dai Li agents hanging from the ceiling like bats. And standing there, less than twenty feet in front of them, was their leader.

Long Feng.

"You have made yourselves enemies of the state," he snarled. "Take them into custody."

After a few minutes of fighting, in which the Dai Li were clearly proven to be outmatched, Long Feng eventually chose to flee, heading down a side passage he'd opened up at some point - though not without being noticed.

"Long Feng is escaping!" Aang cried, blasting several Dai Li agents away with a gust from his staff.

Glancing quickly at Sokka to see if he was okay - which he confirmed with a brief nod of his head as their eyes met - Azami raced after the leader, Aang and Jet following right behind her. Toph alone could probably handle the other Dai Li, not to mention with the help of Sokka and the others - right now, the firebender's only focus was to catch that slimeball before he could escape and warn the Earth King.

The three ran down the corridor for ages before they finally arrived in another large cavern, this one with several pipes of water emptying out into the area. Like the others, it was lit by a dull green light from glowing crystals - an aesthetic that was eerily similar to the place she'd first met Long Feng, though they were definitely not the same place. It made her wonder just how extensive the Dai Li's tunneling had become throughout the city.

Once they were about ten paces or so into the area, the path behind them suddenly slammed shut, a wall of earth cutting them off from the others. Only one person stood before it - Long Feng himself. Glancing around for threats, Azami felt a strange twist in her gut as she found none. No other Dai Li, no traps, nothing.

This is too easy, she thought with a frown. It seemed like he was almost surrendering to them.

"Alright, Avatar, you've caused me enough problems," the man sneered at them, clearly savoring this moment. As if somehow, it was his victory. "This is your last chance... if you want your bison back."

Azami's eyes widened in shock - she'd suspected it, of course, but it was something else entirely to actually know their lost friend was being held prisoner. Aang, clearly, was similarly surprised, as he gasped before pointing his staff towards the leader of the Dai Li. "So you do have Appa!" he exclaimed. "Tell me where he is!"

"Agree to exit the city now, and I'll wave all charges against you and allow you to leave with your lost pet," Long Feng offered.

Scoffing, Azami pulled out a blue flame in each hand, ready to burn this place to the ground if it meant finding Appa. "Right, because that's such a generous offer," she spat. "How about a counter proposal? You tell us were Appa is, and I let you keep your face. Does that seem fair?"

The man snarled, having clearly lost his patience with them. "You know, you really should get a muzzle for your attack dog," he replied nastily. "I stand by what I said, though - accept my terms, or you will never see your bison again."

Realistically, she probably would've killed him right then and there for that comment, but Aang stepped in before she had the chance. "You're in no position to bargain," he threatened. "Return Appa to me. Now."

"I'd hoped you would be more co-operative," Long Feng sighed. "Really, I was looking forward to it... but you leave me with no alternative." His gaze tilted towards Jet, who until now had been silent, merely standing at the ready with his two hooked swords.

"Jet, the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai."

The freedom fighter seemed to struggle to breathe for a moment, before his face became a mask of calm, his eyes glossing over as his pupils dilated. "I am honored to accept his invitation."

Without warning, he suddenly shouted as he lashed out with his swords, nearly cutting Azami's head off had she not already been ready for a fight. He swung viciously at both of them, seemingly unfazed by the lethality of his attacks. It only took a few moments for the two benders to start sweating from the exertion of the fight - although in truth, their fight was actually made difficult by themselves, not by Long Feng or Jet.

The freedom fighter - while a strong fighter normally - had turned into a mindless zombie, simply slicing away with his swords as much as possible. It was as if in being brainwashed, all of his talent and skill had been suppressed along with his true self. Was he still dangerous? Sure, but not as much as he normally was. No, the fight was instead made hard by a simple problem - Aang, and even Azami, refused to fight back against him.

For some reason, even remembering the horrible things he'd done to her, she just couldn't bring herself to hurt him now. He wasn't even control of his own body anymore, and it just felt wrong to fight him in this state.

Unfortunately, his brainwashed mind had no such qualms about hurting them.

After a minute or so, Jet started to tire, making it easier for the two to try and talk to him. With one last ditch effort, the freedom fighter tried to attack Aang, who blasted him backwards with a gust of wind. "Jet, I'm your friend!" he insisted. "Look inside your heart!"

The boy hesitated, struggling with himself.

"Do your duty, Jet," Long Feng commanded, egging him into raising his swords one more time.

Azami winced, not liking what she was about to do - but, nevertheless, she was almost certain it would work. "He can't make you do this," she insisted. "Remember what the Fire Nation took from you, Jet. Remember who you are. You're a freedom fighter."

He gasped, his back straightening as he stared off into the void behind them - and finally, the fog over his eyes cleared up entirely, his pupils shrinking back to their normal size. Or at least, it looked like they did - it was still a bit hard to tell in the dim lighting.

"Do it," Long Feng spat. "Do it now, you worthless fool-!"

Azami snarled, officially tired of this man's antics. She'd faced a lot of threatening people before, but someone who enslaved the wills of others? That was over the line.

For the first time in months, she summoned her lightning to her side again as she turned to face the Dai Li's leader, the familiar exhileration of power running through her as the energy arced all around her body. "Rot in hell, asshole," she growled before thrusting outwards with both hands, aiming straight for his heart.

Now, lightning was fast. Insanely so. Most of the time, any firebender with the talent could use it in full before their opponent had time to react - and, that was what happened against Zhao, a fellow firebender. Even skilled firebenders would struggle - in theory, anyone else who couldn't use it would be even less prepared.

So it naturally came as a surprise to her when Long Feng reacted almost inhumanly fast, replying with a wall of earth heading straight for her that not only absorbed the blast, protecting the earthbender in the process, but also continued past it at an alarming rate. It was the single fastest, and probably most lethal earthbending move she'd ever seen - and Azami's eyes widened in fear as she realized that this time, she was the one who was out of options.

Right before it could collide with her, she was suddenly knocked to the side, and the echoing sounds of both explosions continued to ring in her ears - one from her lightning, the other from the earth's impact with whatever it hit. Dust clouded her vision, making it nearly impossible to see - but, fortunately, they had an airbender on their side, and he quickly sent out a gust that wiped it all away.

When the dust cleared, revealing the aftermath of both attacks, Azami couldn't help the horror that filled her as Jet's body laid motionless only a few feet from hers. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Long Feng making his escape - but right now, she didn't really care. Her concern for her former enemy outweighed her hatred for her current one.

It wasn't hard to understand what had happened - for whatever reason, the same person who tortured and even tried to kill her, had just saved her life.

Kneeling down beside him, it barely took her a second to see that he was trying desperately to hide his pain. Having done so on many occasions herself, she knew what to look for - and she didn't like what she found. Even if she didn't explain what was happening to Aang, there was no denying the truth of the matter.

Jet was dying. He'd traded his life for hers.

"Hey," he muttered weakly as his eyes fluttered open. "That turned out well, huh?"

In spite of herself, Azami could feel her eyes watering slightly. "You idiot," she whispered. "Why would you take that hit for me?"

"Any chance you prepared some flowers for me?" he joked, clearly trying to lighten the mood, but it didn't work well as he coughed, a bit of blood coming up with it. "I guess it doesn't matter... but to answer your question, it's the least I can do, considering..." His voice trailed off as he sighed, almost like he was resigning himself to a difficult truth. "It took me a while to realize it, but I was wrong, okay? You proved that to me, even when it was just stuff I heard about your actions elsewhere. You showed me that the world isn't as simple as I thought - that clearly, not all firebenders are evil, but... maybe more importantly, not all cruel people are firebenders."

Azami's gut twisted as he paused, a look of remorse crossing his features as he seemed to accept his own mistakes - his own cruelty. "I know it doesn't make up for what I did, but... I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me."

The firebender stared at the ground, feeling more than a little troubled as she debated over his request. While she was trying to decide what to do, she heard the tunnel they came through open up again, followed by the sounds of people gasping before running over to join them. Someone - and she had a pretty good guess who - knelt down beside her, wrapping one arm around her shoulders comfortingly, and it helped her come to a decision.

Glancing up, she met Jet's gaze rather harshly, and she could see him gulp in fear. "You put me through more pain than anyone else ever has," she accused him, and the room was silent as her words sank in. "Even when I did nothing to you or your family, you took out all of your anger on me. You did everything in your power to make me suffer, just to satisfy your lust for revenge."

"I know," Jet whispered, his eyes tearing up slightly. "I don't know why I thought... it's alright, you have every reason to hate me."

"You're right," Azami agreed rather bluntly. "I do, but... that doesn't mean I have to." The freedom fighter's eyes widened, shooting up almost immediately as they sparked with hope. "I know I don't have to forgive you - and frankly, I'm not even sure you deserve it," she admitted, causing the dying boy to wince at the truth in her words. "But I honestly don't see a point in holding a grudge against you anymore. Not after this."

The boy grinned. "I guess this means we're even then?" She glared at him, and he laughed weakly. "Sorry, that was uncalled for... but I mean it, when I say thank you for this. I'd rather go out, doing the right thing, than... than living forever with guilt."

Azami nodded, not really sure what else to say - if there even was a point in doing so. She'd said what she wanted to, despite how conflicted she still felt about her feelings towards him, and as Jet had said - hopefully, it would allow him to die with a little less of a weight on his heart.

The others started to pile in, now that their 'moment' had passed, with the rest of the gaang and the two remaining freedom fighters all kneeling around Jet's broken body. Katara had tried to heal him for a bit, but she pretty quickly seemed to accept what Azami already had - there was nothing they could do. His life was beyond saving now.

His former allies - and now, friends - both had solemn looks on their faces. "You guys go," Smellerbee offered. "Find Appa. We'll take care of Jet."

"We're not going to leave you," Katara protested, but much to everyone's surprise someone actually spoke out against her statement.

"There's no time," Longshot insisted. "Just go. We'll take care of him. He's our leader."

Reluctantly, the gaang all got up to leave, all of them looking back at least once. When Azami did, she didn't have the strength to meet Jet's gaze again, instead only looking at the ground before them.

"Come on," Sokka gently encouraged her, pulling her along with the others towards the exit. "I know it feels wrong, but we can still find Appa if we hurry."

Azami reluctantly nodded, her free hand curling into a fist as smoke started trailing from it. Long Feng is going to pay for this, she vowed.

A/N; Sheesh. I know I keep breaking the record on my chapters, but I think I once again set a "new longest chapter" record for this fic. I really need to learn how to edit things down xD

But unfortunately, today is not that day, so suck it - I'm lazy and y'all just have to deal with it.

Also, real talk - should I keep doing these A/Ns, or no? At times I kinda feel like they detract from the tone of a chapter, and I usually only leave them out for genuine part 1 cliffhanger endings atm. Feel free to be honest btw, I won't take it personally or judge (probably).

Anywho it's like 11pm and I have work at 8 and I only got like four hours of sleep last night so I'm done with this lol bye-