Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. Nor do I own much of anything else.

A/N: I would love a pet turtle-duck, just so you know. Oh, and here's the regular speech. Reviews are nice. Nice people review. So on and so forth. Now that we've established that you may read and hopefully enjoy.

One

"The wages of sin are unreported."

-Unknown

Concise. Stainless. She had been taught early on to be discreet. Now as she prowled along the shadows, she felt assured that her mission had gone without fail. Not even the faintest smudge of ash had been left behind. By sunrise General Hisoka would no longer exist, his body incinerated and his name black-listed. No one would question his disappearance, for she had allowed time for the rumors to spread; rumors of the Fire Lord's displeasure with the general. And those that displeased the Fire Lord were forgotten, burned from living memory. That was her job and she did it well. By night she took care of the Fire Lord's more delicate matters. Men such as General Hisoka were beyond legal reproach. Their crimes were minimal; perhaps an ill-spoken word whispered to a friend, a complaint with the way things were done. Such crimes didn't warrant punishment in the courts, but any offense to the Fire Lord was punishable by death. Though everyone would know who ordered General Hisoka's assassination, no one would dare accuse their great leader for fear of meeting the same fate. And though everyone would know, she never left a shred of evidence.

Isa was one of a select society of assassins, hand chosen by Masao, master of the art of death. He disdained the filth and brutality of the battlefield, but worshipped the whisper of a blade and the sweet song of a final breath. He'd instilled Isa, his youngest pupil, with an appreciation for the delicate craftsmanship of killing. "Anyone can end a life, but only a few can find the beauty," he reminded her daily. Yet as his prized student, Isa had never become one of those few. She wouldn't admit it even to herself, but a deep fear was rooted within her. Death was the card she'd been dealt. She was the bringer and the bearer of it, but she also held it at arm's length. Master Masao relished in his victims. He felt their dying breath and waited for their bodies to grow cold. "The look in their eyes once all the life has left, there is nothing quite like it," he'd told her when she was a young girl. Isa never looked into their eyes, no matter how often he encouraged her to. She never confronted death, and in this way she separated herself from her actions. Concise and stainless. Cold, with the true heart of an assassin. A heart closely monitored and tampered by duty. She killed for her Fire Lord and for her nation. She killed because it was what she was told to do. What other choice existed?

Tucking away the night's deeds, letting the guilt of her actions be covered by shadows, Isa approached the palace gates. The guards let her pass without comment. She was no stranger to the Fire Lord's home. Often she was summoned for her services. Tonight was no different. Having completed one mission, Isa was moving without pause to her next. There was no rest for a fire nation assassin.

It had been seven years since the Avatar's downfall. Isa hardly remembered. She'd been a child at the time, a naïve girl fresh from the Earth Kingdom colonies and still in awe of the capital. Now the Avatar was nothing, a joke. Hope dimmed with his demise, but the rebellion had managed to survive, an echo of the threat it had once been. The war continued to rage, as it had for over a hundred years, and the rebels surfaced from time to time. Isa was kept busy. Aside from her secret, nightly errands, she was occasionally sent on rebel-wrangling pursuits. Isa suspected that tonight she was being summoned for one such assignment, because the order for her presence had been issued by Princess Azula.

Typically the Princess led the rebel scouring and she faithfully recruited her three loyal puppets to accompany her; Mai, Ty Lee, and Isa. Although Isa was much younger, it hadn't taken Azula long to register her value. It was an honor to be a member of the Princess' inner circle, but to Isa it was more of an inconvenience. She dreaded missions with Azula. Working as a team was not an assassin's forte. Isa preferred the solitude of darkness. However to refuse the Princess was suicide. Dutifully she served as Azula's lap polar bear-dog. Again, what other choice existed?

Isa made her way silently to the palace's inner courtyard, careful to avoid the guards on patrol. After a kill, she avoided everyone and everything. Of course she avoided everyone and everything at every other time as well. The deserted courtyard greeted her like a breath of fresh air. Soon Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai would intrude upon her moment of peace, so she would enjoy her time alone. Fire dragons knew she wouldn't find any silence in Ty Lee's company.

Isa moved to the turtle-duck pond, sparkling in the moonlight just up ahead, but froze as she caught the faintest stir of movement. Someone was reclining at the pond's edge. She took a step back, prepared to escape before they noticed her, when she heard the faintest whistling. She only knew one person in the palace who would whistle. Careful not to make even the slightest sound, Isa continued to the pond with a rare smile creeping across her lips. A mere foot away from the whistling man, she crouched low to the dew-kissed grass and sent a small shower of sparks into the air. They arched gracefully over the man. He leapt up, cursing, and hurriedly brushed the embers from his clothes before they could burn holes into the expensive fabric. Isa stood, laughing softly at the sight of Prince Zuko.

"Are you trying to set me on fire?" Zuko roared, still hopping from one foot to the other, shaking off the sparks.

"I don't try, Prince Zuko. I do." He looked up at his attacker for the first time and narrowed his golden eyes.

"Should have known it was you," he grumbled, folding his arms over his chest. Isa crossed the rest of the way to the pond and plopped down in the grass where Zuko had previously rested. After a moment he joined her. She unlaced her leather sandals, the ones she wore because they made less noise than cumbersome boots, so that she could dip her bare feet into the cool water. A few baby turtle-duck's waddled over and bravely nibbled her toes. Isa sighed, content, and fell back onto her elbows. Neither she nor Zuko felt the need to say anything. They shared a love for silence. It was a long time before Isa finally broke the comfortable hush.

"So will you be going with us?" She tried to keep the hope from tainting her question. If Zuko was joining them on this mission, perhaps it wouldn't be as tedious. However Zuko's confused expression swiftly crushed this aspiration.

"With who?"

"Your sister summoned me, for a little outing I suppose. Didn't you know?" Zuko looked out across the pond, scowling. His scarred profile was turned to Isa and she had begun to regret speaking in the first place.

"No, I didn't know," he murmured darkly.

"I just assumed that since you were here, where we generally meet, you would-"

"I didn't know," Zuko snapped. The turtle-ducks nipping at Isa's feet scattered, startled by his raised voice. "But it's no surprise. I'm never told anything," he continued. Isa merely rolled her eyes.

"Poor Prince Zuko wasn't informed of one itty mission. It must mean the entire Fire Nation is plotting against you."

"You don't understand!" Zuko hissed, rounding on her furiously. "Ever since I returned father's kept me in the dark. He keeps me locked in the palace like a prisoner."

"A finely dressed and fed prisoner," Isa chuckled, flicking Zuko's silk tunic. He flinched away from her touch, his scowl darkening. She sighed. "You have to stop pouting, Zuko, and be logical. You're the crown prince, heir to the throne. Did it ever cross your mind that maybe, just maybe, your father is trying to protect you."

"Protect me?" Zuko scoffed. "He has a funny way of going about that." Absently, he rubbed his scar, still livid all these years later. Isa pulled his hand away.

"You're right. He isn't protecting you. He's protecting his lineage to the throne. If you die hunting down rebels, who will replace him as Fire Lord when the time comes?"

"Azula," he answered without missing a beat, bitterness in every syllable of his sister's name. Isa had run out of arguments. She could tell him that by keeping Zuko within eyesight and sending Azula out into the field, Fire Lord Ozai was demonstrating that Zuko was the more valuable, the more loved of his children. But it wasn't in Isa's nature to lie.

"He thinks I'll become a traitor," Zuko whispered.

"Well, it's not like you haven't been down that road before."

"But I proved myself to him, didn't I? When I betrayed Uncle Iroh…" His words faltered. Isa had never met the famed Dragon of the West, but she'd heard enough of Zuko's stories to know how deeply he cared for his uncle. Whenever Iroh was mentioned, a flicker of pain leapt in the Prince's eyes.

"Yes, you proved yourself," Isa said softly. "And your uncle escaped. I'm sure he's playing Pai Sho in an Earth Kingdom teashop this very moment."

"Or being picked apart by buzzard-wasps." Both Isa and Zuko turned sharply to see a young woman step out of the darkness behind them. Beautiful and cold, Princess Azula bestowed them with a vicious grin.

"Still pining over the fate of our treacherous uncle, Zuzu? Honestly, you're always brooding and frowning. It makes you look so ugly."

"Tell me your excuse then," Zuko grunted, rising to his feet. Isa rose as well, bowing respectfully to her princess and simultaneously hiding a grin.

"Funny," Azula said in a clipped tone. "But remember it's your unchecked tongue that earned you that scar. Perhaps you'd like another to match."

"Oh, play nice, Azula!" Ty Lee swung lithely from the tall fire-oak she'd been inhabiting and landed between the bickering siblings. Mai stepped from behind the tree's trunk, twirling a strand of hair around her fingers. She glanced at Zuko briefly.

"He isn't coming with us, is he?" Mai said with a sigh. Isa felt Zuko stiffen at her side. Obviously the couple had been fighting again. It seemed the whole of their relationship was built on a foundation of break-ups and make-ups. Isa didn't bother keeping up. She couldn't comprehend why anyone would want to waste their time on such trivial matters.

"Don't fret," Azula chimed, her cruel smirk returning, "Little Zuzu is staying here where he belongs."Zuko took a step forward, sparks leaping involuntarily from his curled fists, but Isa intervened before the feud could come to boil. She side stepped into Zuko's path casually.

"Where are we going?" she asked, slipping back into her professional manner.

"Misty Palms Oasis," Azula answered promptly.

"Isn't that in the Si Wong desert?" Ty Lee chimed. "I've always wanted to go!"

"Miles of sand. Sounds thrilling," Mai added, lacking any semblance of enthusiasm. However, Azula, as usual, ignored them all and continued as though no one else had spoken.

"A troublesome group of rebels has nested there. We're going to smoke them out." She conjured a small handful of fire to accent the meaning of her words. Then she sent the little flame past Zuko, a near miss, to the pond, igniting one of the turtle-duck's tails. The miffed animal quickly dove underwater to quell the fire and resurfaced unharmed, much to Azula's disappointment. Zuko could still feel the heat from his sister's flame, but kept his anger in check with a great deal of effort and a warning nudge from Isa.

"Good luck then," Zuko said through gritted teeth.

"As if we need luck," Azula sneered. "Have fun playing here with the turtle-ducks, Zuzu." With that last insult taken care of, she turned her back on her brother and began the march across the courtyard. She didn't bother to see if Isa, Ty Lee, and Mai followed. She knew they would. They always did, slinking along in the shadow their princess cast over everyone she passed. Mai, with one last glance at Zuko, set after Azula dejectedly. Ty Lee twined her arm through Isa's and stepped forward, but Isa slipped from her hold.

"Go ahead. I'll catch up," she said in response to Ty Lee's questioning gaze. With a shrug, the older woman caught up with Mai in a series of cartwheels. Zuko and Isa were left alone once more. Secretly she wished it could stay that way.

"You don't want to keep her waiting," Zuko said after a moment, but Isa was in no hurry. She let her guard down, a rare occurrence, and focused on Zuko. He wasn't the same boy she'd first met seven years ago. He wasn't a boy at all anyone, but a man. Children didn't belong in the Fire Nation. Just sixteen years old and Isa had killed more men than she could count, not that she ever tried to keep a tally.

She couldn't remember her days of childhood. They were blurred by smoke, so that each time she tried to look back at them her eyes stung. Zuko understood. For a curtailed sliver of time they stood together in complete, unspoken mourning for lives they'd never live. Then just as quickly the moment faded, replaced by unflinching, uncaring duty.

Not quite knowing what to say, Isa turned to leave, and then paused. She didn't look back when she spoke.

"Do you ever regret coming back, Zuko?" There was a long pause before he replied and in that hesitation Isa found the answer.

"No," he stated.

"Of course not." Perhaps she'd misread his silence, because that wasn't the answer she'd heard.

Once more she plunged into the night to join Azula. It wasn't long before the turtle-duck pond was far behind her. Along with a moment of doubt. By the time she reached the others at the gate, Isa was an assassin again. Concise. Stainless. Heartless.