The Fifth

As Kano talked to the woman, a very cute one at that, Miyuki went to a different route. She easy hopped into the room and sneaked into the 10th barracks. She had to sneak in and out of rooms a lot, because her... activities demanded it some of the time. She sat down and tried to cover her face, this was not the first time she snuck in here. Despite all of this, she waved to some of the warriors she had...meet with before, earning some blushes and a small wave. Kano finally walked into the room, and everyone turned to him.

"It's good to see you again, Chief Kanoei!" A woman said, Sergeant Liao, she guessed.

"We have a problem." Kano said. It was her turn to step in, she guessed. She stood up.

"And a pretty big one, at that." Miyuki said. She sounded serious. "Both me and the chief have reason to believe that a spy walks among us, General Sai Lu seems off. She doesn't act like the herself, in many different ways, so we think she is not who she says she is."

Sergeant Liao looked between the two of them for a moment, surprised. She heaved a sigh as she turned away and paced a bit, thinking. Then she turned back to Kano and said something that surprised him:

"We know."

"What?" Kano snapped. "What do you mean you know?"

"Well, to be more specific, we've suspected." she continued, folding her arms. "She's been acting strangely ever since the battle at the Western Air Temple. We didn't think much of it at first. We all saw and did some unsettling things there. But then she started giving strange orders and ignoring those that came down from top brass, even from Yu herself. She's had us combing the forest for something, I don't know what. I think she just wants to wear us out."

"Why?" Kano asked.

"No clue. But there isn't much of an explanation otherwise." Liao said, shrugging. "She hasn't told anyone what we're supposed to be looking for. How are we supposed to find it if we don't know what it is? I -- Why are you wearing that disguise?"

She had finally noticed his outfit and was looking him up and down in confusion.

"After you confirmed that my weapon actually did identify me, she elected to leave me in jail." Kano explained. "Apparently, she doesn't want one of the alliance leaders running amok about her fortress."

"Wait." Liao said, waving a hand to slow him down. "After we did what with what?"

"Didn't she have you look over my saber?" Kano said slowly, looking around. "That was how she was going to determine if I was telling the truth about being, well... me."

"She never brought us anything to look at, sword or otherwise." Liao said, shaking her head. "She must have lied about it. And you're right. If she's an impostor, even as a foreign leader, you still have authority by terms of the alliance. If you reported her to the capitol brass..."

"I know." Kano nodded slowly. "Question is... how do we get a message out of here?"

"It won't be easy." said Corporal Kuang, one of Liao's right hand women. "She's locked down all communications since we've begun searching and there's no way we're going to be able to convince the guards around the messenger hawk tower to let us through by feeding them this line. They're all veterans, but they're replacements from another legion. We took some heavy losses when the Fire Nation airships attacked and we needed to restore our ranks. They don't know Sai Lu at all. They wouldn't be able to tell if something's wrong if their lives depended on it. Tsch! Men! ... Sorry."

Kano waved the comment away. It didn't bother him at all.

"Sexist comments aside, she's right." Liao said finally after a moment's thoughtful silence. "Our only real hope of getting a message out is Makapu. But it's so far away on foot, there's little or no chance we'll make it without being caught. We'll have a hard time explaining being out and about without signed orders regardless of who catches us. And if you escaped from the jail, the clock is ticking on them starting the search for you regardless. In a way, the fortress is a prison. You can't get past the outer walls without approval. This is going to be very complicated..."

"In a way, the fortress is a prison. You can't get past the outer walls without approval. This is going to be very complicated..."

"What if we were to write a letter from General Yu to get us out? I can forge letters well, plus, she was incompetent enough to beleive that the General would foricate with me in the cell room." Miyuki said. She didn't want to just outright say she was a Shadow, but but if she did, it would make things much easier for her, and everyone else. If she did tell them, however, she thought Yu wouldn't be very happy with her. "I can mimic voices well enough too." She said, almost perfectly mimicking Kanoei's voice. "Oh, Captain! Please..." She smirked, and imagined the whole situation. She would pull him out of his cell, then reach down... She shook it out of her head and went back to work. "I could always just kill her, it would be too easy. I could even keep her captive."