The wet blanket of a morning scarcely made an effort to let the sun dispel any of the gloom hanging over the still smoky town after the inexplicably ineffective Fire Nation raid. The streets were still lined with buckets to douse fires that never really came, from firebenders that just tangentially poked the most remote structure available, only to evidently flee at the mere sight of sleepy militiamen wandering about and yawning at the night.
Someone's curtain had actually caught fire from drifting embers, but it went out on its own before anyone noticed. Nevertheless, several of the actual professional soldiers from a nearby garrison, who arrived just moments ago, were crowded around it like it was worthy of a deep discussion.
Aang sat cross-legged on a crate, one of the very few of the every single one of them that survived the unambitious flames, and sharply nodded his head at a moderate and regular pace, taking a deep breath every four beats, and releasing it after another four. Bong Li and Bao were not cross-legged because they were respectively shapeless and inflexible, but they did their best to pretend.
Bao breathed out through his nose, "damn, this Avatar kid knows his stuff," he said gruffly, and he warbled out an inexplicably lyrical, "and I feeeel yoooung agaaaain…"
"Ooh, yeah, how's that work? Haha-hoo, I feel it!" Bong Li perked up and excitedly asked.
"Yeah-yeah, uhh, see I think my friend said it was… like… vapors from the root get stuck up in your nose, or maybe your brain? Something like that," Aang explained in a wandering and bubbly tone. "Morning after: you can shake it loose and get a second ride for free! Otherwise you blow it out your nose or ears or whatever and miss out."
"Your friend sounds amazing," Bao flatly stated.
"Yeah… he was," Aang said, just a bit sad, but he opened his eyes and hopped up to his feet to say, "ya know, he only ever gave me a little bit at a time, but it's way more fun when you just stuff the whole root in your face, hahaha!"
Bao and Bong Li both happily laughed along.
Katara really had better things to do than berate Aang for being an absolute clownmaster about unregulated hallucinogens, but she still hung her head in disappointment and let her fingers dangle limply to blow in the wind in response to Aang's very suspiciously comprehensive drug knowledge.
While out of earshot with her, Sokka casually suggested, "maybe Avatars can just handle it better or something?" invoking an instant death.
But the execution was cancelled again at how important and loved Sokka had made her feel back at the goblin closet, so instead of beheading her idiot brother with her bare hands, she simply twitched an eye his way.
"You're right, you're right…" he backed off, hands up.
"I'll talk to him about it after we leave. I don't have time for this. I cannot believe he is doing this when Raven-" she started, and clenched her teeth, having to look away to the ocean.
Sokka stood a few steps away with his arms folded, keeping out of range of her guillotine grasp, and actually sounded like he was trying not to annoy her for once as he suggested, "it had to be that Zuko guy. Like some other firebender that good just popped out of the woods and jumped her?"
Katara paced like a caged animal that had been given damp bedding, and barked, "Sokka!" before her eyes widened, and she stopped herself to lower to a hush, "she was practically naked the scouts said, and you saw those weird looks they gave, there's something they left out! That's… really bad!"
"We watched him not kill her when he probably should have, like ten times, Katara, they probably just burned each other's clothes off. Again," he suggested.
Katara gave him a look like he totally missed what she meant, but threw her hands up and almost wailed, "that's not even the only problem! We're such… stupid jerks! I have to convince people that wasn't really Lady Jade!"
Sokka raised an eyebrow, clearly not following.
"There's a real Lady Jade? Like you said? Kidnapped by Raven's psycho dad?!" she hissed as she stomped up to him, sticking her nose to actually just barely touch his.
Sokka slowly nodded. "Hmm… yeah, they're super not gonna ever look in the right place for her."
Both of them jumped at a high-pitched voice just behind, "Real Lady Jade? Jade Beifong? Kidnapped you say?" Lo Pei asked with an unreadable wide smile that was so bright and charming it almost distracted from his unkempt wispy whiskers and perpetually mismatched attire.
"Yes!" Katara blasted at him, but he didn't even flinch as he held up a piece of parchment. "She's on the Glittering Isles! But we sort of kind of—completely actually—tricked everyone into thinking Prince Zuko kidnapped her! I need to find someone in charge."
"Wassat," Sokka scowled at the parchment.
Lo Pei appeared delighted to be asked, and said, "Lady Raven left it for me," and he turned it around so they could read it to confirm. "She… left us a writ of passage, so we can wait for her at House Arza's private and highly secure estate without being turned into skeletons—her wording—and I believe…" he trailed off as they read, nodding, and both gave each other a look like "oh."
"Lady Jade would totally be there, wouldn't she," Sokka flatly said, and Katara rapidly nodded. "Okay yeah, that's like fate, right?" he went on.
"Hey Bao!" Lo Pei suddenly called out, loping his lanky self over to the blissfully on-the-root pile of tanned muscles. "Want to go break a noble lady out of an Arzayan dungeon?"
Bao slowly turned to look at him, and gave a wary, squinting stare. "How noble," he demanded.
"Beifong," Lo Pei said, like it was worthy of worship.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Bao demanded again, this time like his captain was an idiot, and he was already on his feet, grabbing an unloaded barrel of supplies or maybe somebody else's fish and hustling back on board.
Katara glanced between Lo Pei and Bao a few times before letting out a nervous, "really?"
"I bet I could capture the Avatar better than those guys last night," Aang said to Bong Li, who gave him a dopey smile that conveyed no information. "Wait… hahaha… hahahahaha!" he burst out laughing, Bong Li chuckling in high pitch along with him.
"Aang… please run out of that horrible stuff," Katara grumbled, fingers running down her face in frustration at the Avatar's just garbage timing on a sudden apparent interest in recreational substances. She took in a breath, getting that look like it was all up to her as usual, and lowly said, "I'm still going to find the commander of those soldiers. Glad they want to help, but I don't trust Raven's crew to even find the Glittering Isles, much less manage a prison break."
Sokka nodded. "That is totally fair."
* * *
The commander of the local Earth Kingdom forces had appropriated an abandoned house near the river; it was in good condition but many people had already fled for Ba Sing Se, of course. Two spearmen stood outside it, leaning on their weapons like the night had wrung them out and left them to dry, which was at least reasonable, since they had a forced march from the nearest garrison the instant word reached them.
"That cute Water Tribe girl sure was loud," one of the commander's guards sighed. "I was almost asleep… why are the pretty ones always so annoying?"
The other yawned. "Weird raid, too," he muttered. "What'd that curtain do to offend the Fire Lord, ya think?"
The other one snorted. "He seems to take anything not being on fire as a personal insult. But was it even real? Maybe it was an accident? Mistook a wildfire for a raid?"
"It was Fire Nation," the first insisted, rubbing at the soot on his cheek. "People saw soldiers, and someone out at night got captured?"
"But not the Avatar," the second said. "Who's just… wandering around like nothing happened."
The first spearman tilted his head. "This town is weird. I wanna go home."
Then Katara came stomping back into view, her hair looser than a moment ago, strands swaying in front of her face as she inefficiently pushed them back with a balled fist. She was half their size, but the raw energy of her caused both men to stand straight at attention for a moment, easing back down from the fatigue a breath later.
She didn't greet them, and instead thrust both hands forward, such that they almost thought they were about to be knocked over the fence behind them with a gush of waterbending, but she merely showed them two things, like they were her badge and warrant for their arrest.
Katara hefted the ivory pin carved with the Beifong flying boar motif, the kind of jewelry that screamed 'wealth.' "Tell me one of you lazy jerks at least knows what this is?" she growled.
"Nice earring," said the guard closest to her hand that held Shyu's Arzayan holy symbol.
"Those look different!" Katara barked, and did not elaborate.
The other spearman had to stare for a moment, but did finally admit, "looks like Beifong, I guess."
Katara's jaw clenched. "Yes," she snapped. "It is. Let me in! Some people don't have the luxury of lazing around all day like useless drunks!" And they reeled back, blinking at their blinding lack of context, and she wasn't in a sharing mood but said anyway, "I need to catch up with my friend! Who was dragged off by the Fire Nation Prince, who doesn't have Lady Jade Beifong, but the Arzayans do, and they're a freaking crazy cult!" And she raised her hands in frustration, causing matching fountains to burst forth from two water barrels and freeze into honestly impressive matching decorative spines of ice, especially since she didn't even look… or seem to notice.
The two exchanged a hasty glance, and stared at the new ice sculptures now exhaling a haze of scintillating mist in the bright sun.
"Uh… please calm down, young miss," one of them gulped.
"If someone else gets hurt by that crazy old witch because you won't let me see your boss…" Katara menaced, and swiftly moved her hands to her sides, on instinct sliding her feet into a balanced stance. "I'm coming back for you."
The two men were stiff as boards.
"Get. Out. Of. My. Way."
She took in and let out one deep breath, and the sinister sculptures vanished into mist in an instant, drifting away down the road and wasting the emergency water for fires entirely.
The two men nodded quickly, and shuffled aside.
"C-commander!" one yelped, and jerked at her sudden glare, eyebrow raised. "Uh… chief's daughter f-from S-southern Water Tribe! Here! To see you!" And he quietly whispered to Katara, "…right?"
She just kept an eye and finger pointed at him as she stormed her way up the short flagstone path in the overgrown grass, and the instant she was through the door, they both finally breathed out.
"More like bitch queen of the ice wolves, what was that?!" the other guard whispered, flailing his spear towards the still steaming barrels.
"Commander Wei, right?! You know what this is, right?!" she started ranting before so much as saying hello, storming past an older man in robes writing some kind of orders, and nearly knocking him off his stool.
Inside the appropriated central living room cleared of all but a large wooden table for spreading out maps and documents, Commander Wei's gaze dropped immediately to the ivory pin in Katara's hand, and his expression changed from a shade of patriarchal exasperation to focused and serious in an instant.
"Where… did you get that?" he said sharply.
"An Arzayan," she firmly stated, not wanting to implicate Raven, so she held her tongue for a moment as she brought out the golden spearhead trinket. "...Lord Arza took Lady Jade Beifong, at sea. They're holding her at the Glittering Isles, I'm sure of it."
Commander Wei accepted both from her, turning the pin back and forth to quickly be satisfied it was genuine, then peering closely at the golden trinket, holding it just before his olive eyes.
"And… you're a chief's daughter?" he cautiously asked, turning to a world map like she should point out the precise tribe.
Katara slammed her finger down at her home. "Chief Hakoda! Yes! My name is Katara. And we're helping you against the Fire Nation, so please listen to me?" She started angry, but was desperate by the end.
Commander Wei quickly pulled a few other documents and another map, running his fingers along as a lieutenant stepped into the room with a hot cup of tea, saw a pair of 'get outs' in their eyes, and he smiled, and slowly stepped back out.
Then his eyes lifted to her. "Checks out." And he quickly glanced her up and down, searching for something, until pausing on her rather fancy and finely crafted choker. "You look the part, at least. That's not peasant jewelry. Lucky guy, I'm sure."
Katara just blinked at him, and figured he must have meant her father?
"And you said…" he began, hoping for clarity.
"It's… complicated. A friend of mine was taken by the Fire Nation—she was just joking…" Katara trailed off, and almost looked lightheaded she was so fed up with herself, "we were being stupid, I'm sorry, and she was just pretending to be Lady Jade, so when people saw the Fire Nation take her, people thought…—anyway, I'm with the Avatar, we're going after my friend, but the real Lady Jade really was taken by Lord Arza! He's a total monster!"
Commander Wei's brow furrowed. "Lord Arza, huh," he repeated slowly, as if the name was something he'd heard in passing and never expected to matter.
Katara's anger cracked, and she sniffled as she put a palm on the table, and squeezed her eyes shut. "I couldn't do anything to stop her! I didn't even know she'd left!" she said in a failing shot, talking about Raven, of course, but that was hardly clear. Then she outright cried, "I finally made a friend, and now she's gone, and it's like nobody even cares but me!"
The commander, a very tall and wide man with a thick black beard, raised up his weathered hands to calm her once he saw a tear run down her cheek. "I care! I care!" He insisted. "Chief Hakoda has been a great help to us, but I am no naval commander."
She gave him the most pleading puppy eyes in the world, like he better not dare say he won't help.
Clenching his teeth and trying to sound nice, he clumsily offered, "uhh, the Beifongs are rich and powerful, Katara. They're not going to just roll rocks around in their fancy gardens if I send them this and tell them who has Lady Jade." And he tapped the ivory flying boar pin twice.
"...really? You'll make sure?" Katara peeped, sniffing again and rubbing her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm sorry, I was really worked up… I'm so mad at myself. I'm really sorry."
Commander Wei nodded, then sharply turned his gaze to the front door swinging open with a gust of wind, loudly rattling against the wall, followed by a hopelessly smiling bald twelve-year-old and his current unqualified handler.
Katara didn't even have time to tell Aang to shut up and go away before he blurted out, "IT WASN'T ME! I DIDN'T LEAVE THE GOBLIN CLOSET OPEN! IT WAS SOMEBODY ELSE!" And the instant he saw her, he gave a totally calm, "oh, hey Katara!"
"Hi, Aang," she flatly replied, deflating so far she crumpled onto a chair that Commander Wei barely got under her butt in time. Her head lolled towards the commander, and she said like it was just absolutely breathtaking, "the Avatar…" and she sighed. "He's usually not like this… I've been saying that a lot lately, though."
Wei still gave a respectful bow. "The Avatar, I am honored," he said.
Sokka swatted Aang atop the dome, which he barely noticed, and he said, "c'mon Aang, nobody knows about the goblin closet."
"Right, right…" Aang went on. And he stood there smiling like an idiot just long enough that both Sokka and Katara started to try and say something, but he spoke over them. "Somebody tell the big guy about the goblin closet."
The poor man just gave Katara a look like, 'help.'
It wasn't long before Katara was shoving Aang and Sokka back outside, and only a few minutes later before she got the idea across that: 1. Crescent Island bad; 2. Arzaya bad; 3. Avoid both.
And after the put-upon really-not-that-high-ranking commander promised to send letters of warning to anyone he thought would listen, Katara had a spur of the moment idea to add a finishing touch of apology or maybe respect when she saw a half full cup of probably room temperature tea.
"That's everything, thank you for your time, sir, and really thank you for listening…" she trailed off a bit as she held her hand open and towards the abandoned tea cup, where she almost touched the surface of the liquid before bending it with a flick to pull up into a tiny swirling shape much like the curved claws she had brought forth from the tops of barrels before without even realizing it, and it froze into a slightly more opaque but tiny replica, which let off an aesthetically pleasing fine mist.
Commander Wei gave it a look, impressed but uncertain. "Of course," was all he said.
"A uh, traditional… Southern Water Tribe, sign of respect," she almost said like she had any idea what she was doing. "Ow!" she peeped, having touched the most needle-sharp edge of the thing by mistake.
Wei's expression barely flickered, and he gruffly stated, "appreciated."
Katara wasn't having any embarrassment or blushing, it wasn't allowed. So she backed away, didn't even come close to tripping over the bunched up rug, really, and gave an oddly emphatic gesture that seemed to signal mission complete, don't test me, and she was out the door.
Where she immediately screamed.
"AANG! Where are your pants?! Sokka you were supposed to watch him! STOP. CHEWING. MILKROOT! AAAAHH!"
And there was a sound of panicking guards backing into and causing the catastrophic collapse of their emotional support fence.