Dai Li's Personal Spy

Chapter 19: "You don't think about me in any way, do you?"

"I did something... wrong, Laina." He said as we walked down the familiar alleyway to his apartment. I stopped, taken aback by the ominous sentence. "What is it, Cheng?" I asked him.

"I really, really like you, and I didn't think I'd like you this much before. If I had known how much I would, maybe I wouldn't of." I furrowed my brows, perplexed by this strange confession.

"What are you saying? I don't understand." I asked. There was this look on his face, a look of pure guilt. I became worried.

"Yua, I-" He stopped, realising what he had done. My eyes widened in shock.

"What did you just call me?" I asked, frozen. How did he know?

"I... called you by your name Yua. I sold you out to the Dai Li." My stomach dropped, dropped in hurt, disbelief, but most of all, in fear. I backed away from him, this boy I had liked became some scary stranger in a split second.

He reached out for me, but I swatted him away as if I never knew his touch. "You're lying. You have to be." I tried to convince myself in delusion. He looked at me so guilty. He knew there was no coming back from it.

"I had to. My parents aren't dead, they are imprisoned. They knew your secret, and they told me. The fire nation doesn't know they know, but the Earth Kingdom does. They refuse to tell the Dai Li, but I'm willing to if it will set them free. I told the Dai Li that I knew, and they made me work for them. I told them who you were, when you got banished and when you arrived here. Then they sent me out to gain your trust." I was practically backed up against the wall, trying to escape this horrific news.

"I trusted you. How could you? And I thought finally there was someone who actually liked me. It was all fake the whole time? I'm an idiot." I practically screamed out, hurt beyond words.

"I didn't want to, truly, but they're my parents Yua, you have to understand." He pleaded, trying to give a reason for his wrongs.

"Stop calling me by that name! There is no Yua, not in this city, at least. I'm leaving, don't even say goodbye." I spat out. His eyes were watering, the glisten picking up in the moonlight. How he had the balls to cry, I didn't know. This was all his doing.

"I should never have told you." I cried out.

A voice cut through the night like a knife. "Yes, you probably shouldn't have." The hairs stood up on the back of my neck as a chill sent down my spine. I turned to see a silhouette shrouded by darkness. Long sleeves, long robes, and his arms tucked behind his back. He stepped into the light.

Long Feng.

"We meet again, little thief, except under different circumstances, Yua." He echoed out like my name was a bad omen. I reached for the dagger in my waistband but couldn't feel the familiar cool touch of the hilt. It was gone. He had taken it whilst we were walking, I was sure of it.

I shifted my foot out and felt the earth beneath my feet. It was moulded and ready to move. I channelled the earth's pulsating energy into my feet and up into my core. I used my weight to lean forward and lock Long Feng into the ground by his ankles. Cheng attempted to use his Dai Li cuffs to restrain me, but I ripped a piece off the wall with my bare hands and hurled it at him, flexing my wrists to keep him down.

But the Dai Li were very good at hiding in the shadows. A pair of cuffs latched around my wrists, taking me back by surprise. Someone grabbed me from behind. I smacked my head up into his nose, causing him to let go, but it was no use. Another agent jumped out from the rooftops and held me down, my struggling futile. Cheng broke the rock that secured him to the wall, Long Feng getting out of my binds ages ago. I kicked and screamed and bit, drawing blood from his hands, but he stood still as a rock.