Blue Spirit Rising

Ba Sing Se

Jet squatted on the rooftop, looking bitterly down at the apartment the fire benders lived in. Seeing the younger, scarred one on the ferry, he'd felt an immediate sense of kinship, a belief that Li was someone who'd understand him. Then, when they'd docked, his uncle had heated up a tepid cup of tea. He'd done it with his bending. No one seemed willing to listen, even his friends, and he'd gotten desperate enough to be stupid. Loud, open confrontation which led, not to an attack by fire, but swords. Li, that spying Fire Nation scum, had readily disarmed him, then turned around and lied to the Dai Li to save him from arrest.

He wasn't very convincing until Mushi backed him up, claiming that Jet had lost his parents at a young age to bandits, including a rogue fire bender. Sadly, he sometimes drank when the anniversary of their deaths approached, Mushi added mournfully. He would see Fire Nation thugs everywhere.

He promised the Dai Li agents that they'd keep a closer eye on Jet. They accepted the story, seeming pleased with the web of lies. It let the crowd of onlookers continue to pretend that the war outside Ba Sing Se's walls didn't exist. And that's all anybody cares about, the young Freedom Fighter thought, seething. I'll deal with them myself if the so-called authorities won't.

So he glared into the enemy lair. The small apartment held few possessions but it was clean. There were plants in the window, a seeming bit of cheer. Jet wondered if they were a signal. If the plants' positions shifted from day to day he'd assume a code was in use.

Li stepped outside, striding down the darkening street with a package beneath one arm. Jet was tempted to follow, but what if Mushi did something? There was no question who was in charge. He was older and definitely a bender. He also struck Jet as more devious, while the younger spy was undoubtedly muscle. How many guys could stack dishes with sword blades?

Li's running Mushi's errands, then, Jet decided, rising to climb quietly off the roof.

Although Jet would have sworn the alley was empty, a shadow seemed to come to life and Jet found a knife's blade pressed to his throat, the lights of the street mere steps away. The shadow was a man in dark, snug-fitted clothing, including a hood that left only his eyes exposed, eyes the same pale gold as wild honey. Li's eyes.

"This has to stop," Li told him.

That voice, a little rough, was also distinctive. It left Jet with questions. Had his throat been injured when his face was burned? He shoved the thought aside, knowing there'd never be a time to ask. Li was his enemy.

"I'm not hiding from the truth like everyone else in this city," Jet declared.

Li's eyes narrowed. "You're a fool. You're a hair's-breadth from dying and you still want to do this?"

"If you planned on killing me I'd already be dead", Jet replied with assurance.

He noticed the slightest twitch of acknowledgement around those expressive eyes. They really thought he'd make a good spy? Jet thought. His face shows everything, even covered up like that.

That was one of the gaping holes in his spy theory, as Smellerbee had shouted days ago, when she and Longshot dealt themselves out of this battle.

The blade was withdrawn from his throat and Li stepped back. "Don't try anything stupid. Killing you would draw attention, but I'll risk it if you're more trouble alive."

Jet narrowed his eyes, offering his best threatening look. "Is this where you threaten me and my friends? "

"No. This is where I try to reason with you. You have to believe that my uncle and I are no threat to this city or anybody in it."

Jet leaned back against the brick wall, trying to look relaxed. "I know better. You're Fire Nation."

"We're refugees. We've lost everything to the war, just like all the other people who struggled to get here."

"You started it!"

Li shifted his stance, making Jet realize he'd snarled like a wounded wolf-bear and raised his fists.

"It's fine. I'm fine," he said. Li had already proven his fighting skills and had the advantage for now. Jet forced his body to relax, folding his arms and leaning back on the wall again to show he wasn't planning to fight. Not until he had a better chance, anyway. "Don't pretend your people didn't start the war."

"I'm not, but you have to understand. My uncle," he paused, either trying to formulate an argument or shape a believable lie.

"Take the mask off."

"Why?"

"I need to see your face."

Maybe Li understood, because he pulled the fabric up without comment. "Can I continue?"

Jet nodded.

"It's gone on too long, Jet. This war is poisoning everything it touches. My people may be the enemy, but day to day, who exploits refugees more? Who buys their last valuables for almost nothing, inflates the prices when they sell them supplies, then let them live on scraps once they reach what should be safety?"

The Freedom Fighter scowled. "Are you saying we deserve to lose the war because of how a few people act?"

"A few? Ever since we washed up in the Earth Kingdom I've seen the same things. I've even seen your soldiers rob or extort the civilians they're supposed to be protecting!"

"You're lying!"

"Refugees are told to move along when they look for help. They're mocked when they beg." There was a growl in Li's voice, outrage in his exposed face. "When they get here, to the seat of the Earth King himself, they're told that all their suffering meant nothing. It never happened!"

"The Fire Nation…"

"They're the enemy. Would you expect their help? Refugees should be able to expect better from their own people!"

"We aren't worse than you people," Jet said, trying to control his familiar rage.

"The war's poisoning us, too. I never imagined the kinds of crimes I've learned my people commit. It disgusts me. And I remember stuff I saw back home when I was a kid, stuff I was too young to understand. I get what's happening now and it needs to stop.

Jet stared at the quiet, intense youth before him. "Are you trying to say you're declaring war on both our countries? You and Mushi? "

"Huh? No, that's crazy!" Li was sputtering, struggling to keep his voice down, while Jet tried not to laugh.

It wasn't really funny. Just this was the boy he'd met on the ferry, as awkward as he was competent. The boy he'd liked enough to want in the Freedom Fighters.

Li scowled and Jet scowled back. Their burgeoning friendship had been another lie.

"Uncle doesn't want to fight anybody anymore. He just wants to live in peace, even if it is here. It has to be here." Li paused to take a deep breath before continuing. His rough voice trembled a bit when he said, "There are warrants for our death or capture in Fire Nation territory."

That surprised him. Mushi might be devious enough, but Li was just too earnest and direct to be a criminal. "What'd you do?"

"You heard that there was a failed attack on the Northern Water Tribe?"

At Jet's nod he went on. "We were there. The admiral in charge wanted to kill the Moon Spirit."

"That's impossible!"

Li shrugged. " It took the form of a fish, don't ask me why. Anyway, when Zhao attacked it my uncle tried to stop him. He sided with the Avatar against the Fire Nation."

"So you helped him?"

"No. In the Fire Lord's eyes I'm a failure. A disgrace. I guess declaring me a traitor's the easiest way to be rid of me."

Although the words were matter of fact, the misery, even shame, Jet heard in Li's voice were painful to hear. The grief in that expressive face was worse.

He's the enemy. I shouldn't feel this sorry for him, Jet thought, but he'd led the Freedom Fighters as much for his skill at reading people as any of his other talents.

Li was telling the truth.

"You're just hiding? Quitting? If we don't fight how can things get better? The Fire Nation will conquer everybody and then what happens? Everyone'll be running! At least the ones left alive."

Li seemed to flinch but he turned his head a little so Jet couldn't read his face as well. "Uncle trusts that the Avatar can bring balance back to the world."

"What about you?"

Those honey-colored eyes flew back to his, surprise clear to read in them. Jet realized that the hostility he couldn't seem to maintain toward Li had left his voice. He wondered what the fugitive saw in his face.

"I can't change the world. I can't even go home. If I could, I was never more than a joke to anybody. Nothing I could say would change what happens. No one would listen to me."

A sense of his own worthlessness permeated Li's words. Jet felt anger simmering through his body again, but this wasn't his comfortable rage against the Fire Nation itself. This was specific but as yet unfocused. Who had convinced someone with Li's talents and empathy that he was nothing?

Years of habit and experience insisted that he should reveal the enemy presence in Ba Sing Se, but he didn't want to see Li imprisoned or driven off by the Dai Li. Jet had never imagined not hating someone from the Fire Nation. "I don't know what to do."

"So you'll keep trying to expose us," Li said, his voice weary.

Jet couldn't explain why that was unthinkable, not even to himself. "You're convincing me not to."

He reached out, hand seeming to act of its own accord, to touch Li's scarred face. Li actually flinched as he stepped back.

"What do you want?" He sounded more panicked than confused.

Truth seemed to fold itself open in his mind like a young leaf, making Jet say, "You."

Li's eyes shut and his body sagged. The expression on his face twisted until a short, bitter bark of laughter forced itself out.

"Of course," Li said, "the great Freedom Fighter's no better than anybody else. Give you a little power over us and you'll use it. The way you've already gotten the Dai Li's attention, I couldn't kill you if I wanted to. It wasn't much of a bluff, was it?"

"Wait a minute…"

"Don't justify yourself. Why bother?" Li shrugged and shook his head. "I'm sick of being gullible. You want me? Fine, but if any harm comes to my uncle, if I find out you told anyone who we are, I will end you."

Angry words, and the anger was real enough, but Jet could see his disillusionment and hurt.

"I hope this is good enough," Li said, gesturing around the dim alley. "I won't bring you to the apartment."

They needed to talk, Jet decided, but not here, continuing as adversaries. "No. Let's…I live a few blocks away."

Li just nodded, looking resigned. It was approaching curfew so they avoided Dai Li patrols, traveling by alleys and staying in the darkness. Jet led the way, but Li moved so naturally, fluidly from shadow to shadow, that he got the strangest feeling that Li could have led him if he just named the street.

I'm good, Jet thought , but this guy's a ghost! He comforted himself with the thought that in the woods his own skills would be superior. Probably.

A flickering touch at his bicep alerted him to a pair of Dai Li turning toward their alley. His companion scurried up the wall, fingers and toes finding cracks in what Jet would have deemed a smooth surface. When Jet couldn't make it up, strong, gloved hands grabbed his. Li was upside down, gripping the roof with his lower legs and facing outward. Jet used his body as a ladder. Li's hands kept a grip on his clothes as he climbed. It was good to work with a partner he knew wouldn't let him fall, like back in the woods before the Avatar and his friends came.

He offered a hand when Li raised his torso, pulling him the rest of the way up. He'd replaced the dark mask for the journey, and who'd blame him with that pale skin, but his eyes seemed to offer silent thanks. He's Fire Nation, Jet warned himself again, pointing and letting Li take the lead. Li was better at this urban movement and Jet was growing more desperate to talk. A lifetime's hatred was warring with Jet's instinctive trust. His confusion was making the few blocks they'd traversed feel like the two of them were crossing the continent instead.

The Freedom Fighters' building was an old one, their neighborhood a bit rougher than Li and Mushi's. When he pointed out their window, on the second of four floors, Li just leaped to the building's roof and glided down the wall. Jet followed, grateful for the windowsills Li avoided using.

Jet entered first, freezing when he heard Smellerbee whisper, "One chance to leave, buddy. We're armed and we hate getting woken up."

"It's me," Jet replied, staying framed by the window where they could see him. I guess that's why Li stays off the sills, he thought.

A candle flickered to life. Longshot nodded a greeting in its dim light.

"Li's with me," Jet said, stepping aside to let him enter.

If his friends were surprised by the darkly clad figure they hid it well, though Smellerbee gave his lean frame a brief if appreciative second look. Jet supposed he couldn't blame her. Loose Earth Kingdom styles of clothing left everything to the imagination.

Longshot raised an eloquent brow. Jet sighed and replied, "Yes, I remember what I've been saying about him and his uncle. That's why he wanted to talk."

"What, you guys robbing houses while you talk?" Smellerbee asked, taking in Li's outfit again. Her grin lessened any sting they might have felt at her comment.

"I wait tables in a tea shop," Li said. His face, uncovered again, had reddened.

"Li thought if I saw him coming there'd be trouble again. I was watching their apartment, turned and there he was."

That earned Li a pair of respectful glances. Jet was usually the guy doing the surprising.

"He and I need to talk alone," Jet said.

"Now? We do have work in the morning, y'know."

Still, Smellerbee and Longshot took their blankets, lit a second candle to light their way, and slipped out of the apartment. There was a trapdoor leading to the roof at the top of the building's staircase. Tenants dried laundry up there and he'd been told it was a favorite sleeping spot on hot summer nights. It wasn't summer, but the night wasn't too cool, either. They'd slept in worse places.

Jet drew the curtain, which they rarely bothered doing since their window faced a blank brick wall. It felt right, like he was promising to keep Li's secrets.

He turned, watched Li staring at the tiny candle flame, and saw his proof that Li was a fire bender at last. The flame was rising and falling with his breaths, straight upward, not wavering sideways in the breeze created.

Jet swallowed. Li glanced up at the tiny sound, honey eyes meeting his. They held some of that determination he'd admired on the ferry. Refugee maybe, but neither downtrodden nor broken.

The fire bender took a quick pair of steps till they were almost touching. Those competent hands fumbled at the fastening of Jet's pants.

Jet caught his wrists carefully and stepped back, realizing he hadn't actually told Li they weren't going to have sex. "Easy," he said.

"I haven't done this often." Li's eyes left his again, a hint of his lacking confidence.

"Fine. We're not gonna do anything tonight but talk."

Bitterness crossed his face again. "If you're looking for state secrets I never learned any. I told you, my uncle and I are here because there's no place else for us to go."

"You told me. I believe you."

Li looked puzzled. "What else is there?"

"Your name, for one."

That eloquent face looked down, away from his own intense gaze. "Li's good enough."

"I said I wouldn't tell anyone."

"I don't think you did."

"Then I'm saying it now", Jet promised, " I'm not telling your secrets to anyone."

Behind his doubtful expression Jet could see the other boy's desire to believe him. "Your word of honor?"

"Yeah, and you already told me what'd happen if I got you and your uncle in trouble. Maybe we can skip the threats?"

Nodding, Li stepped back, freeing himself from Jet's grasp. He glanced around the long room, then took a seat at the square kitchen table. Jet took the opposite chair. We need an extra seat in case we have a guest, he thought, mocking himself. I wanted to be wrong. I wanted him with us.

"Zuko," Li finally said. He looked like he expected to be hit and maybe thought he deserved it.

Jet frowned. Sure the name sounded Fire Nation, but there was something else, too. It kind of sounded familiar. He remembered guards' gossip, heard while the Freedom Fighters were journeying to Ba Sing Se. "The Fire Lord's son. They say you're a traitor, that his own brother is, too."

Li/Zuko nodded, clearly expecting an explosion of rage, but he'd already explained their crimes and shock overtook any remaining anger. "The Dragon of the West is in the city", Jet said, voice rising in astonishment. "Probably the most famous general in any country's army and he's brewing tea!"

Li shushed him anxiously. "Keep your voice down. Didn't I tell you he's sick of war? Serving people tea makes him happy. He makes people happy."

And he's happy because he's making them happy? Jet wondered. Is that possible? The Dragon of the West!

It was much more shocking than Zuko's own identity. The prince had been in disgrace for years, not that anyone he'd met claimed to know why. If the other boy seemed classy, he'd never seemed, well, regal. Used to better things than a refugee got, unwilling to bow and scrape, yeah, absolutely. Jet just couldn't imagine him hauled around in a palanquin, dressed by servants and put on display, like people said of the Earth King. He didn't disbelieve Li, but it felt unreal. "You aren't happy, not working as a waiter."

"I can live with it."

"You said that the war needs to stop. Was that just talk?"

Zuko hesitated. "Uncle believes in the Avatar."

"What do you believe?"

"I…mess up. I've made some stupid mistakes." He made mistakes sound like something shameful. "Uncle almost died because I was desperate to capture the Avatar. He's the only way to regain my honor. Was the only way. They call me a traitor now. Home will never be an option. We can have something here. My uncle is happy. I can't ruin his life again."

"What about you? You want to take action, I know it."

A thoughtful silence fell between them.

"I can't figure you out," Zuko admitted. "When you said what you did in the alley, it sounded", he swallowed and went on, "then you touched me like… but now you know who I am and you're talking like you did on the ferry."

Confused himself, Jet didn't know how to respond so he didn't.

Zuko continued into the silence, voice growing a little shaky. "I'm sorry. I misjudged and insulted you. It would be shameful to put you in the same category as, as some people I've met."

The kind who'd use a refugee's desperation against him, Jet thought, to use him.

"Thanks," he said. He kept the anger out of his voice as well as he coul, but something just short of a flinch passed through Zuko's expressive body.

"I'm not mad, not at you," Jet said, feeling that strange, blooming feeling of truth again. The Fire Nation was dangerous, the monsters of his nightmares, but much of the reason he'd felt not rage but a sense of betrayal was that he'd felt a connection to Li right from the start." We saw some of what you're talking about on the way here. People like that disgust me. There are some bad people out there," he added. "They'll take whatever you've got. They even robbed my Freedom Fighters before we got together and became too strong to mess with. I also know some pretend to be nice. They offer a ride, food, help. You felt like you owed them, right?"

Zuko reddened when he realized what Jet was trying to say. "That isn't what happened! I never," he stumbled over the very word, "sold myself. I don't think I could ever…"

You almost did tonight, Jet thought, but was smart enough not say it aloud.

"We've all done stuff we wish we hadn't, Li. Zuko. Almost every person I've talked to did stuff they wished they hadn't to survive. Only if they hadn't, I never would've met them to talk to. See the problem?"

"I never," Zuko repeated, "Why do you keep talking about that stuff?"

"I want us to understand each other," Jet said. "I want you with my Freedom Fighters. I don't want us as enemies."

Zuko looked like he wanted to believe him but was still uncertain. He was so easy to read. Jet was glad that he wasn't because he was making guesses about the things Zuko didn't trust him enough to talk about yet. He isn't ready. Maybe I'm not, either, not enough to tell Longshot and Smellerbee who he is. We need to learn to be able to trust each other. "We can drop it if you want. We probably should. You'll want to get back to your uncle before sunrise, right?"

"Yeah. I should go. Thanks for listening to me." He actually bowed to Jet, all elegant and proper, before replacing the mask.

Jet restrained the amused grin that wanted to cross his face. "I wanted to."

Zuko slipped out the window and Jet stuck his head out to watch the shadow's graceful climb. Moments later it leaped to another rooftop and he lost track of it in the darkness.