A/N: Hello. I apologize for the delay. Life happened, then a heavy workload, then COVID-19 hit and everything went to crap. How are you? Are you safe and healthy? Please stay that way. This chapter is for you.

Chapter summary: In which Qiao makes a decision and Katara decides the enemy of her enemy is the more imminent threat, and Tengfei finally sleeps. Sort of.

79: Merging Plans

Jet wasn't the smartest guy in the world. He knew that. But just because he couldn't read and write like a noble didn't mean he couldn't read people like a book. It wasn't something he could put his finger on really. He could just tell when something wasn't right.

If he was being romantic, he'd describe it was reading a person's aura. But he wasn't a romantic. He was a realist. The world was real and painful and war torn and raw. So was Jet. So when Li came back into the room after speaking to Tengfei, Jet could just tell something had changed. It was like a subtle, quiet breeze suddenly rustling a dry leaf in a still forest.

Li's face was surprisingly calm but his expressive golden eyes were tense. Jet counted it as a point of pride when some of the tension faded the moment he caught Li's gaze. Whatever Li and Tengfei talked about must've been important. Tengfei looked about ready to burst from tense energy. The exact opposite of Li.

"What happened?" Jet demanded.

Tengfei stopped, tucked his hands in his sleeves, and drew a long, slow, deep breath. Oh boy.

"It would seem," the Dai Li said in a controlled voice, "that my warnings regarding the dangers of dealing with Spirits have gone ignored." The man shot an exasperated glare at Li before shaking his head. "That said," he turned his green gaze to Jet, "would you be ready to leave Ba Sing Se right now?"

"What?" Jin gasped, her bright eyes flashing between Jet and Tengfei.

"Why would I let him leave?" Qiao demanded, narrowing her eyes in warning. "He answers to me now. Not you."

Despite himself, Jet snickered. "Technically, she's right. Although, I guess I could leave now," he said, considering his words carefully. "But I don't know why I would. There are people I care about here in the city."

"Li would be with you."

"Not just Li," Jet said, shaking his head, "I've got frie- Wait. What?"

"I'll be with you," Li said patiently. "Azula is in the Earth Palace."

Jet grimaced. "Shit."

Jin frowned in confusion. "I don't understand. Who's Azula?"

That sounds like a Fire Nation name," Qiao said, gazing astutely at Li.

Jet couldn't blame her for her suspicion. But he was relieved to see she wasn't immediately jumping to hatred at the mere mention of anything related to the Fire Nation. She was handling this much better than Jet ever had. It was shameful really.

"It is," Li confirmed. "Azula's my sister. She's…" He hesitated. "She's acting as a spy. If she has access to the palace already, then it's a matter of days before the city falls."

"Ba Sing Se fall?" Qiao said doubtfully. "While I'm impressed by your belief in your sister's capabilities, I highly doubt one person, spy or not, could bring down the city."

"If you truly believe that," Li said grimly, "then this city will fall sooner and more people will die. My sister is many things, but incompetent is definitely not one of them. She's clever and a master of manipulation. She's not stupid. If she's here at all, then it's because she knows she'll succeed."

Qiao pressed her lips together and frowned, her eyebrows dropping low over her dark eyes. She gracefully lifted her hand, hiding her mouth with her sleeve for a moment. When she lowered her hand, her face was a near perfect mask of impassiveness. It was impressive.

"I see," she murmured. "I'll take this seriously then. However, you still haven't told me why Li and my employee must leave Ba Sing Se."

"I need to speak to her," Li said grimly, coming over to kneel on the floor by Jet's side. He waited for Zenko to get comfortable in his arms before continuing. "She wants me dead. She's tried to kill me before. But I have information she needs to know and I made a promise to give it to her. Besides," he smiled wryly, "we need her out of Ba Sing Se. I may be able to do that if I give her something to chase."

For a brief moment, Jet was furious. It took an enormous amount of self-control to not immediately snap and say something he would regret. He promised himself he would try to start thinking before reacting. Slowly, his mind did begin to catch up to his emotions and he realized something. Li was leaving, but so was Jet. Azula had access to the palace. Azula wanted Li dead. Li wanted her to chase him.

Well, I'll be damned.

"Where are we going?" Jet asked, hoping he'd come to the right conclusion.

Li sighed. "I don't know exactly. But I have an idea." Jet waited, staring at his boyfriend until Li's cheeks flushed a light red. "Northwest," Li admitted reluctantly. "I'm going to ask Professor Zei for advice tonight, if I can."

Well, it could be worse. Jet was curious about the Dai Li's odd twitch at the professor's name, but that wasn't important right now. Instead, Jet wrapped an arm around Li's shoulder and squeezed. "Right. We're going on the run again," he said, a toothy grin on his face. "Nothing new to me. So, how're we going about this?"

Tengfei knelt by his sleeping apprentice's side. "I need to alert Longfeng and the rest of the Dai Li that the kuchisake-onna has been dealt with and that I'll be staying with my apprentice for the time being. I'll need to send an informant for that." He looked straight at Jet. "If that informant happens to already be a messenger in the service of the lady offering me shelter, then all the better."

"Clever," Jet said, chuckling.

Tengfei shrugged. "It was Li's idea."

Well, well. Jet smirked and slipped his hand to the back of Li's neck and squeezed. "What can I say? I've got a clever boyfriend."

Li flushed but smiled nonetheless.

"I see," Qiao said. "And if my messenger went missing coming back, well," her painted lips lifted in a sly smile, "I have another. Jin."

"Yes?" the other girl chirped, sitting up straight.

"I would like you to maintain your connections with your former employer," the noble said, folding her hands delicately in her lap. "Everyone knows pleasure tends to loosen otherwise silent tongues. If this Azula has already positioned herself in the place, then I want to know what's going on in this city. I don't trust the Dai Li," she said, bluntly, shooting Tengfei a guarding look. "However," she added, "I do trust you."

She dropped her gaze to the slumbering young man before her thoughtfully. "I have decided to court your apprentice, Master Tengfei," she said abruptly.

"You can't do that!" Jet cried, seeing the sudden pale horror on Jin's face.

"Jet," Li said gently, freeing one of his hands to grasp Jet's thing firmly. "Wait."

"As I was saying," Qiao continued calmly. "I have decided to court your apprentice. It's hardly uncommon for a healer to fall in love with a patient and vice versa. I may not be a healer, but I am offering him protection which could be seen in a similar light. I will, of course, conduct myself with the upmost dignity and restrict any communication between us to messages passed by Jin," she said, nodding to the girl in question.

Jin's face slowly began to regain its color as Qiao continued speaking, hope kindling in her eyes.

"She is trustworthy and honorable," Qiao said. "Some of my messages may be long and personal in nature and thus, often sent late at night for proprietary's sake. As such, I expect a certain level of hospitality to be extended to my messenger. Given your apprentice's current state, it wouldn't be unusual for Jin to remain here acting as a mediator between us if we must be in the same room together. Let no one ever say I was untoward."

Jet may not be familiar with the noble preference for speaking in circles with flowery words, but even he caught the gist of this. "You sly weaselmouse," he said, grinning viciously. "I didn't know you had a heart."

Qiao harrumphed and stuck up her nose. "Whoever said anything about having a heart?" she replied. "This is beneficial to me and my house."

Jin giggled joyfully. "Of course. We won't tell."

There might have been a tad bit of extra color in Qiao's face than her makeup could excuse. Jet snorted.

"Alright then," Jet said, grinning. "Now that we have that settled, I've got a proposition for you, Noble." When she glanced at him, Jet sent up a prayer that what he was doing was a good idea. "If you're interested in spreading your network of messengers, I've got a couple suggestions."

Interest sparkled in Qiao's eyes. "I'm listening."

Jet smirked. "You heard of the zoo down in the Agricultural Ring?"

Katara leaned against the door and chewed her lip. That was a lot to take in all at once. She wasn't even sure where to start comprehending all of it. Her instincts screamed at her to fight Zuko! He's right there. But after what she'd just heard, she wasn't sure that'd be wise.

Azula was in the Earth Palace. Azula! And Aang wasn't here! Toph was off somewhere visiting her family which Katara could completely understand, but it left Katara in a bit of a bind. She was currently the only one of the gang who knew Azula was in the palace and she had no way to contact Aang or Sokka. She might be able to find Toph, but she didn't know where to start looking.

She didn't know Ba Sing Se all that well. They'd only been to the city for a month and they'd been basically kept in the Upper Ring with a few careful coordinated excursions to the Middle Ring. Getting to the Lower Ring was a challenge, especially with the Earth King. But Aang managed it with Appa's help.

The Earth King! He was in the palace with Azula!

None of this made sense. Azula was the Fire Nation princess. She bent blue fire. She couldn't just sneak into Ba Sing Se without someone noticing.

Except Zuko had and he'd managed to gain himself allies who believed he was innocent and not Fire Nation. Zuko was obnoxious. If Zuko could pull it off, then it wasn't completely unbelievable for Azula to try the same thing. Were they working together?

The conversation she'd just overheard suggested they weren't, but she couldn't' be sure. The Fire Nation was sneaky and conniving. Why wouldn't they try something like this? Sneak into Ba Sin Se, ingratiate themselves with the people and aristocrats, then take over together. It made perfect sense.

It also didn't make perfect sense. Zuko was loud, obnoxious, driven, and relentless. He never stopped hunting Aang. He'd blasted his way through the Northern Water Tribe's capital just to capture Aang. And he'd done it too. He hadn't gotten far, but he had captured Aang. It had been scary there for a bit.

But the Zuko Katara faced in the Lower Ring had been skittish. He hadn't firebent to defend himself. He hadn't done anything actually. He'd just stood there and let Katara freeze him in place. He'd only broken free when….

How had he broken free? She'd frozen his mouth and nose. Firebenders couldn't bend if they couldn't breathe. She hadn't realized it before but this could be a serious problem. If Zuko managed to figure out how to firebend without breathing, then that might change the game entirely.

Oh Spirits! Zuko had figured out how to firebend without breathing and Azula was in the Earth Palace! That mean Azula might have access to the Generals' war room. If she learned about the Day of Black Sun, then the Earth Kingdom would lose the edge of surprise. Azula needed to be taken out.

Something which Zuko also supposedly wanted. Katara seethed. She most certainly did not trust Zuko. But it seemed they both wanted Azula away from the Earth King and the war plans for the surprise attack. She knew what she had to do. She just did not want to do it. At least Aang wasn't here.

Steeling herself and trying not to grit her teeth, she pushed off the wooden wall and slid the door open. The startled looks on the faces of the room's occupants would've been funny if Katara hadn't been in a mood. She stepped into the room and slid the door shut behind her. Without looking at anyone, Katara stalked forward and knelt in an open spot on the floor by the still unconscious Shanyuan.

With a deep sigh, she crossed her arms and huffed in frustration. "Look," she said, hating herself for doing this but knowing she had to, "I know we didn't get off on the wrong foot-"

Jet snorted and she bend a thin, needle of water from her canteen up so the tip pricked Jet's chin. "Don't even start with me, Jet," she hissed. "After what you did, you're lucky I don't freeze you to the wall."

To his credit, Jet did back down and the frustration did flicker out of his eye replaced by something else. It couldn't possibly be embarrassment, despite how much it looked like it. Interestingly, Katara did notice Zuko out of the corner of her tense at the show of waterbending. She huffed.

"As I was saying," she continued, bending the ice needle back into her canteen, "I know we didn't meet each other under the best of circumstances. Zuko," she looked directly at the Fire Prince, ignoring his visible flinch and the fear in his eyes, "you've been hunting Aang, me, and my brother for months now, attacking whenever you saw us. I had every reason to assume you would try the same thing when I saw you in the Lower Ring. And I won't apologize for my actions."

Zuko gulped but didn't look away from her. In fact, there was a hardness to his gaze that hadn't been there when Katara attacked him earlier. It wasn't the same hardness that had burned when he'd attacked their traveling gang. It was different; less fury and hate and more determination and stubbornness.

"But," she admitted, fighting against the bile in her throat, "it seems we both want the same thing here." Zuko's golden gaze sharpened abruptly. "Azula," Katara's gaze slid to Tengfei, "is she really in the Earth Palace?"

The Dai Li studied her intensely for a moment before sighing and nodding as his shoulders drooped. "I believe so, yes," he said. 'I don't know what Azula looks like, but I believe she is who I think she is. And," he glanced at Zuko briefly, "Li should be able to identify her by sight."

"I can too," Katara said firmly, startling everyone in the room. "We've fought her before. We won."

"Surviving isn't necessarily a win," Zuko said, his voice quiet and softer.

It wasn't a tone Katara was used to hearing from him. It wasn't the firm, sharp-edged tones she'd heard over the past several months. It was actually kind of… surprising. He almost sounded unsure.

"If I live to fight another day, I consider that a victory," Katara said in a voice that brooked no argument. "Sometimes you don't have to destroy the enemy in one attack. Even fi that's what we'd all want," she admitted. "Sometimes it's best to wear them down, then take advantage of their weakness and strike when and where they least expect it."

Zuko considered her words, eventually nodding. "I can agree with that," he said slowly.

The fox Spirit in his lap wagged two of her tails and flipped her ears up briefly before relaxing once more. Katara reorganized her thoughts and focused on the reason why she was here in the first place.

"Azula needs to leave," she said. "You want that too." Deep breath, Katara. "I'm willing to help you get her out."

Zuko…blinked. Jet smirked, the jerk. The girl from the Lower Ring looked excited and the noble girl Qiao appeared interested but it was hard to recognize anything else behind that painted face. Darn her.

But the Dai Li was sitting silently regarding her with narrowed green eyes and a stern expression. He was the one Katara would have to convince. Tengfei was a Dai Li loyal to Longfeng. Katara wasn't sure if she would ever truly trust the Dai Li organization. But this Dai Li she would try to trust. She'd seen Tengfei's icy facade crack when his apprentice almost died under her care. In that moment of weakness, Katara had seen a father.

That was the side of the Dai Li she had to convince.

"Your brother and friends stopped by to visit you," Qiao said suddenly. "They wanted to check on you, but I forbade them from waking you. You were sleeping deeply and while I may not be bender myself, I am aware of the exhaustion that comes with overexertion."

Katara was slightly annoyed that she missed a chance to see her brother, Aang, and Toph, but she really had been tired. She nodded. "Thanks," she said. "And thanks for leaving that note where I could find it."

Qiao nodded gracefully. "Of course. Messages between siblings are very important."

It certainly had been. Katara had learned a lot from Sokka's short note. Where Toph was, where Sokka had been going -she was still processing the fact her father was nearby!- and where Aang had gone. While she missed Aang and was jealous of her brother for leaving her behind to visit their father, she knew someone needed to stay behind to help plan the invasion of the fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun. Besides, if she hadn't been left behind, she would never have learned Azula was here.

Besides, there was another tidbit of information that she knew would solidify her position and potentially undermine the Dai Li's.

"Longfeng has been arrested," she announced.

Oh. Perhaps she should've been a bit more delicate about it. Granted, she hadn't expected a Dai Li to faint.