Avatar:Mission to Lake Laogai

"We have to make sure they can't come back to this place and rebuild it. We might not be able to stop them from making more Joo Dees, but we can at least destroy their base."

— Jin during the mission.

Template:Battle infoboxIn spring 100 AG, a group of revolutionaries consisting of Jin, Smellerbee, and Xuan conducted a mission to Lake Laogai, seeking to infiltrate the local Dai Li base and rescue Jin's friend Suyin Wen. The latter had been taken by the Dai Li months before to be trained as a brainwashed Cultural Ambassador. Yet the trio found the base's prison largely deserted, as Suyin and other prisoners had been moved to other secure locations. Regardless, the rebels rescued the remaining inmates, including General Sung and several "Joo Dees"-in-training. They subsequently used earthbending and explosives to start a flooding of the underground base, with Dai Li reinforcements unable to stop them.

Background

See also: Conspiracy of Ba Sing Se, Fire Nation conquest of Ba Sing Se

After the 51st Earth King's death during the Hundred Year War, Grand Secretariat Long Feng used the Dai Li secret police to establish a covert dictatorship. With the acquiescence of parts of the government, he set up the Conspiracy of Ba Sing Se to silence opposition and tightly control the Earth Kingdom capital. Dissidents were captured by the Dai Li and mainly taken to a secret base under Lake Laogai, where they were subdued through the use of brainwashing. The location was set up with rooms and special equipment for this purpose.

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At the Dai Li base underneath Lake Laogai, the "Joo Dees" were subjected to brainwashing.

Furthermore, the Dai Li systematically used brainwashing to create the "Cultural Ambassadors" (colloquially known as "Joo Dees") who acted as the Dai Li's public faces and informants. Some Cultural Ambassadors were covertly recruited from Lower Ring women and girls who were promised that their families' debts would be paid off in return for a servitude job, though the recruits were generally lied to about the job's true circumstances. One of those recruited through this system was Suyin "Susu" Wen, the best friend of Jin, a Lower Ring resident and refugee. Wanting to discover her friend's whereabouts and help her, Jin joined a revolutionary network known as the "Silver Fangs". With the help of her rebel comrades Smellerbee and Longshot, Jin ultimately discovered Suyin's fate.

A potential opportunity to rescue Suyin ultimately arose when the Dai Li launched a coup and aided the Fire Nation conquest of Ba Sing Se. At the time, most of the Dai Li was distracted by suppressing open resistance across Ba Sing Se, meaning that the secret police's bases such as Lake Laogai were left understaffed. An infiltration of the Lake Laogai base had been planned by Smellerbee and Longshot ever since they had previously entered it alongside Team Avatar. She shared her preparations with Jin and Xuan, and the trio concluded that the Lake Laogai base was the most likely location where Suyin was held.

After her grandfather Gong-gong died of a heart attack amid the Fire Nation occupation, Jin became even more determined to save Suyin and agreed to go through with the mission. Thanks to Smellerbee's scouting, the group knew how to get into the Lake Laogai base itself. Yet they still had to plan how to get into the Agrarian Zone where the lake was located. The group brainstormed various ideas in regards to entryways. They dismissed a highly complex proposal by Smellerbee to sabotage and scale the entire Inner Wall as well as Jin's idea to disguise themselves as farmers, instead agreeing to Xuan's idea to travel through a disused, large drainage pipe –previously used by Silver Fangs for smuggling– which connected the Inner Wall to the Agrarian Zone. Suffering from an injured leg at the time, Longshot agreed to remain behind at Jin's apartment during the mission.

Mission

Four days after the Fire Nation's advance into Ba Sing Se, Jin's team covertly entered the Inner Wall, initially disguised as servants. They moved through the wall's corridor network, using their earthbending and stealth training to sneak around the new Fire Army guards. In this way, the team successfully got to the old drainage pipe. After reopening it, they crawled its entire length, reemerging in the Agrarian Zone's east near Lake Laogai.

Smellerbee guided them to a hidden, narrow air shaft which doubled as one of the base's emergency escape routes. Using a rope, the trio descended into the underground base, discovering most of its rooms hastily abandoned. As they had expected, the base was nearly empty due to the ongoing events in the city. After some searching, the trio discovered two guards who were cooking a meal. With these two bored and distracted, Smellerbee and Xuan easily surprised and overwhelmed them. One was instantly knocked out, the other questioned whether there were more guards left. The man responded in the negative, and the trio left him as well as his comrade bound and secured behind.

Jin's team searched the Lake Laogai base for Suyin Wen's whereabouts.

The team continued their search for prisoners, though Xuan also took some Dai Li uniforms from one of the rooms for potential future use. Finally, they arrived at the prison wing, though it too was largely abandoned. However, they discovered a sleeping man in one of the cells who turned out to be General Sung, a member of the Council of Five and the Outer Wall's former chief commander. The trio questioned the officer who revealed that Avatar Aang had been killed during the coup, the Council of Five been arrested and sent to different secure locations, as well as some information on the Cultural Ambassadors. In return for freeing him, Sung led them to the cell where the Joo Dees were usually held. Seven women and girls were present, but Suyin was not among them.

Xuan and Jin told the prisoners that they were not part of the Dai Li, promising to free them. The inmates revealed that they were still trainees; their comrades –including Suyin– had been taken away and would only return occasionally to the base. Sung commented this by revealing that brainwashed Joo Dees had to be "recalibrated" every month at Lake Laogai; at other times, they were stationed at a wing of the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace. Jin realized that Suyin remained out of her current reach at the palace, though she was happy to get some clues on her friend's status from the trainees.

As the trio led the freed prisoners back toward their initial entryway, they discovered that the two incapacitated guards were gone. They had managed to get out of their bounds and were rushing to alert any Dai Li agents near Lake Laogai. Sung urged speed, while agreeing to assist in the escape of the Joo Dees-in-training. At this point, however, Jin felt overcome by a fury instilled by the injustices and horrors committed by the Dai Li in the base. She told the group that they should at least try to destroy the complex before they fled, whereupon Sung helpfully commented that the entire base could be destabilized by destroying key pillars. The group split up, with Xuan helping the Joo Dees-in-training get through the air shaft, Jin and Smellerbee using blasting jelly (found in the storage rooms) and earthbending to shatter several pillars, while Sung took care of the other pillars as well as covering their escape by fending off guards.

Ultimately, the rebels and freed inmates all got out of the base through the shaft, with Sung being the last person emerging from the underground. Seeing Dai Li agents emerging from underground gates in the vicinity, Smellerbee and Xuan hurried to get the Joo Dees-in-training to safety. Before Jin followed them, Sung told her about the upcoming Day of Black Sun. Afterward, the general distracted the onrushing Dai Li agents, leading them away so that Jin's group was able to successfully move back to the Lower Ring.

Aftermath

Main article: Rescue of Suyin Wen

After getting to safety in an abandoned house in the Lower Ring, Jin's team questioned the Joo Dees-in-training about their past and knowledge. Now free, four of the trainees were able to return to their families, but three had no place to belong. Jin managed to arrange for the latter trainees to stay and work at the Wen Bakery, where they quickly integrated themselves.

The Lake Laogai base remained flooded and abandoned by 171 AG.

The flooding of the Lake Laogai base seriously disrupted the Dai Li's brainwashing program, with the latter being relocated to an Upper Ring spa. Regardless, the new location remained much more limited in scope, with no new Joo Dees being trained over the next months. Furthermore, the damage to the Lake Laogai base was so extensive that it would never be restored.

Jin, Xuan, Smellerbee, and Longshot continued to plan a rescue of Suyin Wen, with Jin and Xuan eventually infiltrating the palace in disguise to achieve this goal. For this purpose, they used the uniforms taken by Xuan during the Lake Laogai mission. Despite temporary setbacks and great dangers, they managed to save Suyin after the Day of Black Sun.