That night jing returned to the prison. Katara was meant to be in total isolation until after the battle so she wouldn't cause any problems. Extra guards were placed around all the entrances. jing
wasn't going to screw with his head by interacting with her at all. At least that's what he planned but something kept nagging in the back of his mind and he couldn't let it go.
When most of the guards were asleep or patrolling the outside entrances, he entered her cell. She was naturally still awake. She was in too much misery to sleep and still held up by her shackles.
"What do you want?" she asked weakly. She had been crying again and didn't bother lifting her head. Her clothes and face were both worn with all she had endured.
"Why didn't you kill me?" he asked calmly.
She tilted her head up for a second. "Hm that's an ironic question." He took a step forward. "Tell me why."
She stayed in the same position. "It doesn't matter. Why should you care?"
He became agitated. "You had me. You could have killed me and escaped. Why didn't you?" Now Katara was intrigued. She looked at him with a little defiance. "It sounds like you wish I did." He was insistent. "Why didn't you?"
Katara let her head drop again, her boldness gone. "I…I couldn't." That wasn't enough for him. "Why not?!"
She suddenly shouted, "Because you didn't kill me!" That silenced him. "Because…you're not like Long Feng! I don't think you're a bad person. Even though I told myself I had to do whatever it took to escape…I just didn't want to kill you."
jing remained silent for a long time. His pity for Katara had grown greatly when he learned she was meant to die at the end of her pregnancy no matter what. He didn't quite know what to say.
"You're a fool," was what he settled on. "What?!" Katara snapped with great offense.
"I'm your enemy" jing reiterated. "I played a part in the death of your husband. Showing me mercy is childish at best and stupid at worst."
Katara was angry now. "Well, the same can be said of you! You let me live when it was stupid to!" She thought he was going to snap back. But instead, he calmly replied, "Yes you're right."
That set Katara off. "What is wrong with you?! What the hell is your problem?!" jing responded with indignation, "Excuse me?"
"You don't make any sense!" Katara shouted. "Why are you like this?! Why do you show me mercy then remind me we're enemies?! Why do you work for Long Feng even though you're nothing like him?! Why do you help him do these horrible things?! Just…who are you?!"
"Who am I?" jing repeated curiously as if he didn't fully understand the question.
"I can't figure you out," Katara added. "I've tried to but I just don't know anything about you." She hung her head in sadness again. For a long time, they were silent.
jing sounded like he had worked a math problem out. "You want to hear my story." Katara looked up, confused. "What?"
"You want to hear my story to see if the way I am will make sense once you know more about me."
Katara was surprised he was volunteering this idea himself. She nodded. She knew she couldn't escape, not after the last attempt had failed, not when she was shackled and had no water to use. There wasn't much else she could do right now. And she really wanted to know more.
jing didn't know why exactly he decided to tell her about himself. Somehow because he knew he was only keeping her alive to kill her later he felt that he owed her. He would never betray Long Feng, but doing this much seemed right.
"Very well I will tell my story and you can decide what to make of me once I am done." He hoped doing this would clear up the confusion he had been dealing with for so long.
Katara sounded as satisfied as she could at the moment. "Thank you…jing."
jing nodded. He began. "My story begins like so many others in the Earth Kingdom. My brother poli, the one who's Long Feng's other attendant, the one who hates you…"
"I remember him" Katara said dryly.
"Yes" jing said casually. "My older brother poli and I lived in our little home village with our parents. Our mother was a powerful Earthbender and even though our father couldn't bend he was a great farmer who could grow anything. Our childhood was actually pretty happy. We played and lived together as a family. Even though we were poor we always had enough food and we were together so we never felt poor."
Katara couldn't help but notice how much that sounded like her family.
He went on. "But as with so many others who lived through the war the happy picture was not to last. poli was always a good brother who protected me from bullies. It's hard to believe that was ever my biggest worry but at the time it just seemed like the Fire Nation was never going to notice out town. But then of course it did."
Katara tensed up. She had a feeling she knew where this was going.
"The day the Fire Nation attacked my home it was like fire just rained down from the sky out of nowhere. I was so young I don't remember it with total clarity. My brother on the other hand…remembers it perfectly." He sounded very guilty. "We were badly outnumbered so my mother fought them off while my father took us and ran. He was heartbroken and emasculated to leave her to die but he had to protect us...although poli never really forgave him for leaving her behind." He turned his head to the side.
Katara could tell he wasn't trying to cast his brother negatively but also that he couldn't help but let out a little resentment towards him.
"After our village was destroyed, my father kept trying to find somewhere safe for us to settle and find work. Every time we seemed to find a suitable home the Fire Nation destroyed it. I got used to making friends and losing them to the war. My father eventually decided we'd only ever be safe in Ba Sing Se. It was a horrible journey but after years we finally managed to get there. It wasn't the solution we had hoped for though. Father was desperate to get us to safety. He had totally
exhausted himself on the journey and contracted a fatal illness. He died almost immediately after we made it to the city…poli called him weak and never even cried about it. I cried for weeks."
Katara couldn't help but say what she felt. "Your brother is very different from you."
jing didn't sound offended. "He endured far more pain much earlier in life than I did and was left solely responsible for me when our father died. It changed him, made him hard."
Katara couldn't help but be reminded of Sokka being left in charge of protecting the Southern Water Tribe when the men left to fight in the war, although he still never insulted either of their parents.
"I've always been a great burden to him," jing said. "He could have survived much more easily on his own, without having to worry about me, but he always said he'd never be like our father and abandon me to die because of his own weakness. We were young orphans on the streets of Ba Sing Se. No one would take us in or give us jobs. We learned to use our Earthbending to steal food but I was never as good at it as poli. I almost got us caught and beaten so many times because I felt guilty." He let out a sigh. "I've always been weaker than him."
Katara felt sorry for him. She had a feeling he only considered being nicer than his brother "weaker" because that's what poli always told him.
"It seemed hopeless for a long time. Until the day we tried to steal from Long Feng." Katara perked up, listening intently.
"When he caught us, we were surprised that instead of hitting us he expressed interest in our skill at using our Earthbending covertly. He was the son of a merchant in the Middle Ring of the city with big political ambitions. We were surprised. He took us in, gave us food, and taught us to master our Earthbending. We were already teenagers at that point but we were so notorious as thieves we never would have been able to get jobs in the Lower Ring. We became completely loyal to him in return for his generosity."
Katara couldn't believe Long Feng had ever done something that kind.
"He wanted our help with his political career. He was already trying to become involved in small political positions but he knew how much power the Dai Li held and that becoming the Grand Secretariat would be greater than being than the king himself. Back then the city was extremely inefficient especially in the way the refugees were handled. It was always on the verge of political riot and so many citizens were starving. He had a vision of how to fix Ba Sing Se and asked us to help him make it happen. We agreed without hesitation and did whatever it took to advance him. We stole money to fund his campaigns, intimidated rivals, and established connections with the criminals in the Lower Ring. He wasn't officially connected to us so he could maintain a perfect outward appearance while we did whatever was necessary to give him more power."
"You didn't feel bad about using tactics like that?" Katara asked.
"A little" jing admitted. "But we owed Long Feng. And I knew he could fix the city." Katara groaned in exasperation but let him continue. "Then finally the day came, Long Feng was selected as Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se, my brother and I were made the two top agents of the Dai Li. For the first time since I was a child everything was working out. We stopped crime. We each got a house in the Upper Ring with all the food and money we would ever need and I met…" He hesitated, clearly overwhelmed with feeling.
"You met your wife" Katara finished.
jing nodded solemnly. "Her name was Ning."
Katara couldn't help herself. "Between her name, yours and your brother's I'm sensing a theme here, "she joked. She meant no harm.
jing's face remained serious. She apologized. He went on like nothing happened. "She was a student at Ba Sing Se University. She had lived in the Upper Ring her whole life and studied political history. She had all these idealistic ideas about how the war could be ended with negotiation and one day there'd be peace between the nations again. poli thought it was nonsense; he hates the Fire Nation and wants to destroy it. I was young and naïve and thought she might be right. She was the kindest, smartest, most hopeful person I'd ever met. We fell in love and married. Things were perfect and we lived in happiness, she continued her studies and I helped transform Ba Sing Se into utopia. When we were expecting our first child, I had never been happier. But then…"
Katara was surprised. "Then?"
"Then Azula took over the Dai Li. Poli hated working with a woman from the Fire Nation but it was necessary while Long Feng was in jail. When she turned against Long Feng the other agents didn't hesitate to join her but poli and I were loyal to our leader. We feigned allegiance to Azula then tried to assassinate her. It didn't work though. The other agents caught on and stopped us. She looked at us with her evil grin and sent us off to a Fire Nation prison called the Boiling Rock without a second thought."
...
"That's a bad place" Katara acknowledged, remembering how her father and Suki had been incarcerated there.
"Yes, it is," jing agreed with pain in his voice. "There was no earth to bend and most of the prisoners were Fire Nation. My brother and I got into fights every day. If we didn't have each other, I doubt we would have survived. The guards found any excuse to put us in the cooler. Even though it wasn't to stop our bending it was still a horrible punishment. But they never broke me. Thanks to you lot we knew about the coming solar eclipse and figured that would be our chance to escape. But another prisoner overheard us planning and ratted us out. And when they found out…" He resolutely stopped. He seemed to have decided to skip whatever he was about to say.
"You asked me why I follow Long Feng. You know why I'm loyal to him now. If that's not a good enough reason for you the only other thing you need to know is that I hate the Fire Nation! If I wasn't already loyal to him the only reason, I would need to follow him is revenge! I want to destroy the Fire Nation and kill every single Firebender for what they did to me!"
Katara only became more curious with that vague explanation. "Why? What did they do to you?" "Leave it alone," was all he said.
"Why? You think I won't understand?" "I know you could never understand."
"Not only was my mother murdered when I was just a little girl but I just lost my husband. He'll never see our baby be born. I understand the pain of living through war!"
"You still will never be able to understand my pain." Katara wouldn't back down. "Tell me!"
His expression became stern and angry. "Fine you think you can handle it? You think you'll understand? I'll tell you." He only considered it because he knew Katara was intended to be killed one day.
He began his gruesome tale. "They dragged me into one of the isolated rooms. I knew they must have found me out but I was prepared to endure anything to make sure my brother wasn't implicated. I thought I was prepared. Then I saw them drag Ning into the room holding our newborn son. It was the first time I had ever seen him."