Chapter 7

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Chapter 7 We've been putting posters up all around town, asking if anyone has seen Appa, but no one has. We've finally decided to take a break and return home. That's when Joo Dee—the original Joo Dee, not the second one—knocked on our door. "What happened to you?" Sokka asked. "Did the Dai Li throw you into jail?" "Of course not," she said. "I simply took a short vacation to Lake Laogai." "Why are you here?" Aang asked. "Putting up posters is not permitted. It's against the rules." "We don't care about the rules!" Aang yelled. "We're finding Appa on our own, and you should just stay out of our way." All right, Aang! I've been wanting to say that since I set foot in this place. Time to break some rules! So we headed back out. While we were putting up posters, Katara ran into this kid named Jet that she knows from before. I don't know what he did to her in the past, but she's really mad at him.

"Katara, I swear I've changed," he pleaded. "I don't even have my gang now. I've put all that behind me. I'm here to help you find Appa." "You're lying!" Hmm, that's odd. I can feel his heartbeat and the vibrations his body's making as he breathes in and out. He's feels perfectly calm. His breathing is normal and his heart rate is steady. If he was lying, his heart rate would speed up and his breathing would grow faster and unsteady. No, this guy is telling the truth. "He's not lying." Even though Katara is still skeptical, we've decided to follow Jet to this warehouse where he heard they were keeping Appa. This place is empty! Appa's certainly not here. Maybe Katara is right about this guy. Maybe he's leading us into a trap. Maybe—Wait a minute. What's that? I'm stepping in something that feels very familiar. It feels like—oh. "Appa was here," I announced, reaching down, picking up a handful of his fur. "We missed him," Aang said sadly. "They took that big thing to Whaletail Island— very, very far from here," said an unknown voice. Apparently the building janitor has seen Appa.

Aang's insisting we go, no matter how far away it is. Jet said he'll help, but Katara still doesn't trust him. Boy, oh boy, is she steamed up! Her heart is pounding like a hammer and her breathing is all over the place. Katara really likes this guy! "Was he your boyfriend or something?" "No!" Ha! She's totally lying. No wonder she's so mad at him. As we got ready to leave, two people came running over to Jet. They seem to know him. "How did you get away from the Dai Li?" one of them asked him. Then she turned to Katara. "He got arrested by the Dai Li a couple of weeks ago." "I don't know what she's talking about," Jet insisted. Okay, now this is really weird. Impossible, in fact. The girl who's saying that Jet had been arrested, and Jet, who's insisting that he hadn't been, are BOTH telling the truth. Normal heart rates and breathing in both of them. How can that be? "They both THINK they're telling the truth," Sokka discovered, "which means that Jet has been brainwashed!" I guess he's not such a dud after all. That makes

sense, finally. "The Dai Li must have sent Jet to mislead us, and that janitor was part of their plot too," Katara said. "I bet they have Appa right here in the city," Aang said excitedly. "Maybe they took him to the same place they took Jet. We need to find a way to jog his real memories." So Katara's Waterbending a sparkling band of healing energy around Jet's head. Slowly he's beginning to relax. Soon his true memories are going to drift up through the brainwashing …and here it comes. Apparently, the Dai Li had taken him to their headquarters, underwater, beneath a lake. "Joo Dee said she went on a vacation to Lake Laogai," Sokka recalled. "That's it!" Jet cried. "Lake Laogai!" Okay, now he's DEFINITELY telling the truth. I hope Appa's there, I really do. I can't wait to put this whole Appa mess behind me. If he's really gone, I don't know what I'll do. We've finally arrived at Lake Laogai, but there's no sign of any kind of headquarters. There's nothing here. It's just a lake and—Whoa, wait a second! It's hollow beneath this rock! That's an entrance! "Got it!" I shouted. I'll just Earthbend this rock up and—there it is, a tunnel leading under the lake.

Okay, we're heading down now. It feels huge. …"I think there might be a cell big enough to hold Appa up ahead," Jet said. Again he's telling the truth. Please be in there, Appa. Please! Okay, we're in and— "Take them into custody!" Long Feng! But Jet was telling the truth! He expected to find Appa here. Oh, well, it looks like instead of finding Appa we're going to be fighting Dai Li agents. They're pretty good Earthbenders—very good, in fact. But nothing I can't handle, especially with help from the others. Is that all you got, Dai Li? You guys wouldn't even make it through Earth Rumble Six! You just—Oh, no! Aang said Long Feng's escaping! Good, Aang and Jet are on it. Katara, Sokka, and I can finish up these Dai Li wimps. By the time we caught up to Aang and Jet in the other room, Jet was lying on the ground. No sign of Long Feng, but things aren't looking so good for Jet. Katara's trying to heal him, but I can't tell if it's working. He's telling Katara that he'll be fine, but the sad thing is, this time, it feels like he's lying.