Chapter 8

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Chapter 8 Jet led us to the shores of Lake Laogai. "So where are the secret headquarters?" I asked. "Under the water, I think," Jet replied. Toph felt around with her feet. "There's a tunnel right there near the shore." Using Earthbending, she opened the entrance and we slipped inside. Beneath the lake we found a complex filled with hallways, rooms, and prison cells. We passed a group of women all being trained to be Joo Dee! It was definitely one of the creepiest things we had ever seen. "I think Appa's in here," Jet said, when we came to one of the doors. But when we stepped into the room, we didn't find Appa. Instead we found Long Feng and his Dai Li soldiers! Maybe Katara was right to be so wary of Jet. Maybe he did lead us all into a trap! "By breaking into Dai Li headquarters you have made yourselves enemies of the state," Long Feng said. Enemies of the state. I kind of liked the sound of that.

"Take them into custody!" That didn't sound quite as good. We battled the Dai Li, and Jet fought against them as hard as we did. There was no doubt that he was on our side. "Long Feng is escaping!" Katara shouted. Aang and Jet took off after him. Toph, Katara, and I stayed and finished off the Dai Li. When we caught up with the others, we found Aang kneeling over Jet, who was hurt. Long Feng was nowhere to be seen. Katara tried healing Jet, but he ordered us to leave, insisting that he would be all right. We didn't want to leave him, but we had no choice. We had to find Appa before it was too late. We hurried to a large cell, hoping Appa would still be in there. But when we got there it was empty. "Appa's gone!" Aang cried. "Long Feng beat us here!" "If we keep moving maybe we can catch up with them!" I said. Toph guided us through the maze of tunnels back up to the shore. There, Dai Li agents closed in on us from every side. "We're trapped!" Katara shouted. Then Momo suddenly got all excited and took off

into the sky. "What is it, Momo?" Aang asked. I looked up and gasped. It was Appa! We didn't know how he got free, but we didn't care. We were just glad to see him again. That big furball wasted no time in helping us. He knocked down the Dai Li, then bit Long Feng in the leg and tossed him into the lake. Then we all climbed onto Appa's back and headed up into the sky. It was just like old times. We came to Ba Sing Se for two reasons—to find Appa and to tell the Earth King about the solar eclipse. It was more important than ever that we complete the second part of our mission. "Now's the time to tell the Earth King our plan. We're going to need his support if we want to invade the Fire Nation when the eclipse comes," I said. "And now that we have Appa back, there's nothing to stop us from telling the Earth King the truth about the war and about Long Feng's conspiracy," Aang said. We flew back to the city and battled our way into the king's palace, fighting royal Earthbending guards who were trying to keep us out.

It was very strange—we were really on the same side, but we had to fight the guards as if they were the enemies, just for the chance to meet face-to-face with the king. I hoped it was worth it. When we finally did reach the Earth King's throne room we found Long Feng by his side, along with some Dai Li agents and some royal Earthbending guards. "We need to talk with you!" Aang told the Earth King. Immediately Long Feng jumped in. "He's lying! They're here to overthrow you." Overthrow the king? Well, that's really dumb. Why in the world would two people from the Water Tribe, an Earth Kingdom citizen, and the Avatar want to overthrow the leader of the Earth Kingdom? "No, we're on your side. We're here to help," I said. "You have to trust us!" Katara added. "You invade my palace, lay waste to all my guards, break down my fancy door, and you expect me to trust you?" the king replied. "He has a good point," Toph said. It was only when the king learned that Aang was the Avatar that he agreed at least to listen. "There's a war going on right now—for the past

one hundred years, in fact!" Aang explained. "The Dai Li have kept it a secret from you. It's a conspiracy to control the city and to control you!" The king was really skeptical, but was willing to let us prove the conspiracy theory to him, so we boarded a train for Lake Laogai. And get this, we found out that the king had never been outside the palace before. Never! No wonder Long Feng could keep him in the dark about what was really going on in the world. "Underneath Lake Laogai is the Dai Li's secret headquarters," I explained. "You're about to see where all the brainwashing and conspiring took place." But when we arrived, the headquarters was gone. "Oh, don't tell me!" I cried. Katara and Toph used bending to try to find the opening, but it wasn't there. "There's nothing down there anymore," Toph said. "I SAID 'don't tell me.'" "The Dai Li must have destroyed the evidence," Katara said. "This was a waste of my time!" the king said. We had to think of something else. We finally had the Earth King's attention, but now we had nothing