Protection

I'd introduce myself, but then I'd have to kill you. What I will do is leave you free to wonder if that was a joke.

My story begins in this little nowhere city in what used to be the Fire Nation Colonies. Only the colonies aren't the colonies anymore, and in fact this whole story is about making them something a little bit more than 'not the colonies anymore.' You see, the leaders of the world needed a place to sign these things called "the Republic Accords" that would make the Not The Colonies Anymore into a new nation called the United Republic. Apparently, this was a big deal or something. And so did they plan on signing the accords in Yu Dao, the first ex-colony to throw a hissy fit about having to actually pay taxes to someone? Nope. Did they want to do the signing in some economic hub like Yang City or Geum Gwuang that people actually pay attention to? Of course not, that would be too political for people like Zuko and Aang. They didn't even want to do it in the glorified camp they were calling Republic Center, because it couldn't handle the crowds they expected to show up for this "historic event."

No, they picked Guangchang City, because it had a nice plaza.

And it really was a nice plaza, I must admit, made from smooth interlocking stone plates and stretching out so far that even the Earth King's palace would have to show respect. Zuko and Aang visited the place before the signing, of course. The Fire Lord and Avatar led the tour (with a local ambassador guy bowing and bobbing in their wake), while all the usual suspects- Aang's wife Katara, Katara's brother Sokka, Sokka's whatever Suki, Toph (just Toph), and Zuko's bad-tempered wife Mai- ambled around and provided running commentary. "Oh wow," Sokka said at one important point, "this platform will be perfect to hold the signing." He motioned to this big circular marble platform at the center of the massive square plaza, where various local works of art were displayed on a rotation (probably determined by bribes). Even though everyone else tried to disagree with Sokka as often as possible on general principle, this time they all had to admit that he had a point.

Aang (he's the Avatar, in case you didn't know) used his Airbending to hop lightly up onto the platform, and spun around with a big grin on his face. For all that he was more or less a grown man now, and even beginning to grow a beard, he still had a tendency to act like a kid. It was probably a monk thing. When he finally came to halt, he said, "Yeah, this is perfect. We'll have a table in the center with the Accords on them, and Zuko and Kuei and I can stand together and sign the papers where everyone can see. Ooh, and we can have Chief Arnook and Chief Hakoda stand on the side here as observers, and on the other side we can have the Colonial Governors' Council."

At that point, everyone began discussing what kind of table they should use and what nation should provide it. Well, I lie. Not everyone was that inane. Zuko's wife- oh, Zuko's the Fire Lord, in case you've been living under a rock, pardon my language- Zuko's wife Mai is a thoroughly unpleasant person who hates people, so while everyone else was talking, she was looking out across the plaza a little ways from the rest of the group. After a bit, she walked over to local ambassador guy and pointed into the distance. "What's that?"

The ambassador looked to where she was pointing, and sure enough there was a tall tower bordering the plaza. All the other buildings on the plaza's edge were at most three stories, but the plaza was big enough that they practically disappeared in the glow of the sunlight off the ground. The tower, though, rose up and up like some kind of crass challenge to the sky, square and thin and topped with a pointed copper roof, dwarfing every other building in the entire city. The ambassador smiled and said, "Oh, that's the Tian Spire. It's officially the tallest building the Southern Colonies. When the war wasn't making traveling unpleasant, the Spire was something of a tourist attraction, and hopefully will become one again after the signing."

Mai, of course, didn't look impressed. She rarely does. "And how far away is it from here?" The ambassador named a distance, and it was a high enough number to finally get Mai looking impressed. She actually whistled, and then added, "You'd have to be a really good shot to hit someone from up there."

Everyone else suddenly became silent at that, and Zuko went over to wrap his arms around her. "That's why we're having the signing here. The plaza will accommodate a good crowd, but it's also big enough to leave space between the people and the platform. That's where we'll put guards. And that tower is too far away for assassins to use. Having the world's leaders gathered in one place is risky, but in this case being outdoors will give us the advantage."

Mai just said, "Hm," in response, and let everyone get back to their epic table discussion. That was very typical of her.

Ember Island is considered the most beautiful place in the Fire Nation, being one of those tropical beach paradises that people get so worked up about. I don't know what the appeal is, myself, but in the Fire Nation, 'retiring to Ember Island' is code for 'winning life with full points.'

Gongjian Shou had retired to Ember Island.

Technically, he was living on his daughter's beach estate. Shou's daughter was a popular and well-connected noble in the Fire Nation's capital, even serving Fire Lord Zuko in the newly created position of Educational Minister. She also came out of the Old War much richer than anyone but me could have explained, if anyone but me actually knew how rich she really was. Shou himself had no money to his name, and the very fact that he was alive was itself something of a secret. Or, at least, that was supposed to be the idea. A few weeks before the signing of the Republic Accords, Gongjian Shou was lounging out on his daughter's private shoreline, letting the salty wind caress his gray hair, when he received a visitor who came walking up the coast like any other beach bum. That visitor's name isn't important, but what he offered had the potential to change the world: "You're wanted for a job."

Knowing Shou, he probably played it cool and didn't even spare his visitor a glance as he replied, "I'm retired."

"It's worth a lot of money."

"Don't need it."

"More money than you ever earned before. By the guild's count, it's the largest bounty ever offered."

That would have caught Shou's interest. "Oh yeah? How much?" That's when the visitor would have named a number, and even though Shou was retired, he would have been drawn up short by size of it. "Well, that is... impressive."

"And it's just for you. It's a high profile target, and a specific opportunity that only you could ever take advantage of."

"They requested me by name?"

"They did."

"Huh." Perhaps Shou made one last effort to pretend to not be interested, but knowing him, I doubt it. "Who's the target?"

"Fire Lord Zuko."

"...I'll need to meet the client before I decide. And the usual supplies."

"We can arrange that. Glad to be working with you again, Gongjian Shou."

"I'm still worried about that tower," Mai said to her husband somewhere around the same time, back in their private sanctum in the Royal Palace.

Zuko may have been naive at one point in his life, but by now he had exactly the other problem. He was supremely confident because he had survived everything that the world had thrown at him, had been dragged down to his lowest point and found the strength to struggle back up. He had survived enemies and situations that would have killed pretty much anyone and the scars he bore were testaments to his strength and honor.

Don't you just hate people like that?

So Zuko's reply wasn't exactly reassuring, despite the easy assurance in his voice. "The tower? Between Aang and Toph, I don't think even trying to drop it on us will accomplish much."

Mai doesn't emote very much, even when she's ticked to the Spirit World and back, so she reacted to her husband's disagreement by staying slouched in her chair and speaking in her standard monotone. "I'm more worried about a sniper. Put an archer up there, and you'll never see the bolt coming. Earthbenders and Firebenders can catapult something down on your head, and Waterbenders could shoot off a rain of icicles. Put Azula up there and she can just lob lightning down on you all day long."

Zuko just shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. Lightning tries to get back to the ground by the shortest possible route. Even Azula couldn't shoot lightning that far. Even for an arrow, the distance would be ridiculous to precisely hit a target. Not even a Yu-Yan archer could do it, and they're the best there is."

Mai considered that before finally pronouncing, "I'm still worried about that tower."

It must have been a lot of fun for Gongjian Shou to visit his old guild palace. I heard that the people on hand even applauded for him as he strode down the hallway to see the Quartermaster. Now, that Quartermaster? She's a really good crafter. The Tiger-Jackal Guild is one of the best collections of individual warriors-slash-murderers in the world, and the only way you get people like that to join your little club is to offer them things they can't obtain anywhere else. The Quartermaster is one of those things. The weapons she keeps in her gallery- the weapons she builds herself- are right up there with the works of Piandao the Swordsman. And Piandao limits himself, both in the type of weapons he makes and the people he will sell to.

That day, the Quartermaster had a longbow ready for Shou's approval.

The guild staff got a real show. Shou smiled warmly as he approached the Quartermaster in her ornate workshop (there are more than a few rumors about the two of them floating around the guild headquarters) and they both bowed deeply to each other amidst the displays of weapons, both mundane and arcane. Then an assistant came forward with the bow, and a second with a quiver of arrows. The bow was a longbow, of course, possibly the tallest and tightest ever made. Any other archer would have balked at even trying to draw the thing, but Shou grinned and nodded as he felt the weight, and then held out a hand for an arrow. The arrow he was given was probably the straightest object that was ever carved. Shou checked the tip, sharpened to a point the size of a single piece of dust, and stroked the fletching. Then he gave a heavy nod, and the guild staff exhaled collectively.

Shou said, "Well, why don't we take it outside?"

The Quartermaster and her servants led the way to the guild's roof, to a flat perch that overlooked the walled 'garden' where guild members could hone their skills. A young lady was waiting up there, but we don't need to talk about her yet, and anyway she just stayed quiet and watchful for this next part. The Quartermaster moved to the perch's railed edge and pointed to a spot in the distance, out past the grounds of the guild's palace, where a trading village pulsed with life, oblivious to the workings of the Tiger-Jackal Guild. She described a little target on the roof of one of the buildings in the village, not even visible to most of the servants out there with her. Shou, though, stared with what looked to everyone there like professional purpose, and walked up to the balcony's railing with weapon in hand.

Then Shou drew his bow, notched the arrow, and let fly towards the village. The people moved on the streets and paths with no idea that a sharpened projectile was arcing through the air towards them.

Of course Shou hit the target. No one died that day, in that village.

Shou smiled again, and the staff applauded again, and he complimented the Quartermaster, because that was the purpose of this exercise, to affirm what Shou already knew the second he laid eyes on the weapon. Shou knew archery well enough to tell that it would serve his needs, even if his needs greater than any other archer alive. Other people, though, often had trouble believing in his reputation, despite Prince Imub of Omashu's still lying cold in a tomb beneath his crazy dad's palace. I've always wondered how the people who don't believe in Shou explain the arrow that rose up from beyond Omashu's walls- hey, beyond even the canyon that isolate the city on its own mountaintop- and just so happened to strike the heart of the Prince the day he just so happened to making a ceremonial tour of his city's defense. But then, I wonder a lot of things that most people don't think are worth their time.

"So," Shou said, turning to that quiet and watchful young lady, "that's all set. I think it's time we had our little talk."

The signers of the Republic Accords all arrived in Guangchang City early. You could be forgiven for thinking that they had nothing better to do, but they actually had a good reason. The extra time allowed the security staffs that all these important people had brought with them to get the lay of the land and set up everything they would need for the big day. But the signers themselves (along with their usual friends, spouses, and relatives) spent an inordinate amount of the duration just enjoying each other's company and having silly conversations. The only one keeping quiet at those gatherings was Mai, but not because she was nervous; she was just the type of person who didn't do silly conversations unless she was really, really bored.

"This agreement is going to start a new era for the world," Aang said at one lull in the otherwise inane discourses.

Katara smiled warmly at him (because she had that down to a science by now), and Zuko nodded with typical seriousness (he was very scientific about it, too), but just Toph stretched and tapped her feat against the floor. "What's the big deal? Yeah, this will finally square the colonies away, but the rest of the world should go on working, right?"

Aang shook his head and fixed his gaze onto some invisible distance, which you would think would look pretty goofy, but the kid always managed to pull it off. "The United Republic is going to change everything, Toph. It's going to be a place where everyone can live together, no matter what their past or family. It might not seem like much, but I have the feeling that bringing people together like that will bring out the best in all of them, and the things they'll be able to accomplish will improve everyone's lives. It's going to be the birth of a new world, and we all get to be a part of it."

On the edge of the conversation, Mai pretty much ignored him and played with her knives.

The inner offices of the Tiger-Jackal Guild are actually really nice. The guild is rich enough to afford all the best stuff, but because they're the world's greatest killers, they didn't feel the same kind insecurity that made rich people fill their homes with all kinds of gaudy junk.

After he finished with the Quartermaster, the staff ushered Gongjian Shou and the quiet, watchful young lady into a nice little receiving room. Now, let's talk about the young lady. She couldn't have been any older than Zuko when he finally found the Avatar during his exile, and perhaps she was even a year or two younger. She wore layers of red robes trimmed with gold thread and her eyes had no shine to them, but she was no Azula. Her long, glossy hair was a warm brown color, and she didn't quite have the poise of a leader. She was just a follower, yet. But I'm getting sidetracked.

Shou took a seat in one of the plush couches and said to the girl, "So you're the one with the deep pockets."

I can attest that the young lady- let's call her Proxy, for reasons that amuse me- remained very calm and collected, despite her age. She remained standing, and linked her hands within her sleeves. "I am the one arranging your employment, but your reward is the result of a combination of many rather deep pockets."

At that point, Shou would get serious, because he was very serious about money. "You should know the terms. The guild will hold the gold for us, and if I succeed, will take their handling fee and then pay me the rest. If I fail to eliminate the target, you'll get your gold back, minus their fee."

Proxy could have reacted with some surprise at that, but for such a young thing, she didn't get flustered easily. "That's not how the guild usually works. I thought the payment was non-refundable."

"That's how I work, my lady. I only accept the money if I get the target. I also have a condition on taking any job."

"Yes?"

"I always like to know why I'm killing someone. I feel like, even though I'm getting paid, it's still a personal enough thing that I should take an interest."

Proxy would nod, because everyone knows that Shou is a very trustworthy hired killer, despite his oddities. "I represent a group of people dissatisfied with Zuko's rule, but who find the methods of other traitors to be short-sighted and ultimately too destructive. They have been working on a plan for a while, and finally see a chance to enact it. After you kill Zuko, a man will appear claiming to be an illegitimate son of General Iroh."

"And is he?"

"No, but disproving that will be impossible, and enough key figures will support the claim that the man will be crowned Fire Lord to fill the power vacuum. The new Fire Lord will then lead our nation more in keeping with our traditional ideals, without dragging us back into a war that we're not yet prepared to refight."

And then Shou probably nodded, because he had no love for the Fire Lord who put out a death warrant on him, but neither did he need the business that the war had once provided. "Okay, then. I'll accept the contract. Pleasure doing business with you, my lady."

And then Proxy bowed again like a good little girl.

All those weeks spent thinking about the Signing of the Republic Accords, all that time spent by the security forces planning things out with a degree of paranoia that even Azula would find a bit much, and all those people supposedly looking towards the future to make the world a better place, and no one realized that the crowd might show up early and block the signers from their little platform at the center of the plaza. A path could have been cleared, of course, but then the leaders of the world have had to walk the whole way down the middle of a very large and enthusiastic crowd. The guard would have had fits about that. In the end, it was Sokka who suggested loading as many people on Aang's sky-bison as could fit, and then shuttling them out to where the Accords waited on a special table recovered from the depths of the Southern Air Temple.

I have to say, I found the controversy to be the most amusing part of the whole affair.

Eventually, they got everyone important out onto the platform- Aang, Zuko, the Earth King, a few big shot colonial governors, Arnook, Hakoda (with Katara, for some reason), and a flying lemur who liked peaches a little too much- and began giving the hour of speeches that would proceed the actual signing.

In that time, a gray-haired man carried a long bundle wrapped in canvas over to the Tian Spire. A short scuffle ensued with the overpaid guard stationed at the entrance (whose main job was to collect five copper pieces from anyone who wanted to enter), and then the gray-haired man carried both the unconscious body of the guard and his wrapped bundle into the glorified tourist trap. It didn't take the man- all right, it was Shou, no point in trying to hide it- the entire hour to ascend to the stairs, but he was still fairly out of breath by the time he got to the top floor. There was a very handy balcony that he could make us of, and even though it wasn't pointed directly at the plaza, the signing was still well within view. Shou calmly unwrapped his longbow and quiver, set up in a corner of the balcony, and began sighting at the platform oh so far away.

No one alive knows what it's like to see through Shou's eyes, but I imagine that it must be something like seeing through a hawk's eyes, picking out prey from high amidst the breezes that no humans but the Airbenders have ever felt. Perhaps Shou was truly part hawk, because he sensed the company emerging onto the balcony before he could even notch his arrow.

Shou turned to find himself completely cut off from any escape by a group of masked women wearing identical black suits, all them holding knives in their hands.

Perhaps he understood that his mission was a failure, but he would not be Gongjian Shou if he did not make an honest effort to complete his assignment. He reached for something in his belt- possibly a knife of his own- and the women reacted instantly, just as they had been trained. Faster than it took anyone on the scene to take a breath, all of the women were suddenly holding one less knife than before, and Shou was stumbling backwards with his blood leaking into the wind. His back struck the balcony's railing, and both he and his bow toppled right over it.

He fell with no more sound than the whistling of his passage through the air.

The women all waited a few seconds to make sure that things were truly finished, that Shou would not be improbably found gripping some protrusion on the tower with one hand, and then they silently departed.

Below and far away, Fire Lord Zuko added the characters of his name to the list of signatures on the Republic Accords.

It was another week before Zuko finally got the full story.

He met with me- his Minister of Intelligence, and I bet you're surprised- at my request once I had the last of the details. Not all of Zuko's ministers get private meetings in his office, but I don't get anything but. I brought along a guest, and Zuko stood up from behind his desk when we arrived to greet the both of us.

We took our seats and I began my debriefing of the Fire Lord: "The operation to draw out and neutralize Gongjian Shou was a complete success. As detailed in my original proposal, I sent an agent undercover to the Tiger-Jackal Guild as a supposed dissident to contract Shou for an assassination attempt against you during the signing of the Accords. We actually have some unexpected good news for the Treasury, because Shou refused to accept payment if he didn't succeed at his task. We're out only the guild's handling fee even though I think sabotaging Shou ourselves probably constitutes a breach of contract if it ever comes to light. Allow me to introduce the agent herself, codenamed Proxy. She has just returned from the field with both our gold and the details of the aftermath within the guild. Proxy?"

The girl- she was still only fifteen, for all the training I had given her in both combat and controlling her face- stepped forward and met Zuko's gaze with no visible lack of confidence. "Fire Lord, it is an honor to serve you. As milady said, the results couldn't have been better. The guild has no idea what happened to Shou, since the condition of his body didn't reveal anything but the fall from the tower, so our people were able to play dumb and pretend that everything we know comes from normal investigation of the 'accident' at Guangchang City."

I chose to cut in at that point, to make sure Zuko got the full picture. "I took the liberty of dispatching some very official and angry-looking members of the Royal Guard to the guild over this matter. They made it clear that we know of their connection to Shou and this job in particular, and in return for not being all arrested and thrown in the Boiling Rock, the guild accepted members of the guard as Royal Representatives who will provide oversight for all the guild's actions."

Proxy's expression lightened, and even all my training wasn't enough to keep her enthusiasm from showing as a sweet little smile. "Of course, the guild will do its best to keep those representatives in the dark about what's really going on, but we already have other informants in place. That's how we knew how to contact Shou. So the whole guild is thoroughly compromised, but will remain functional enough for us and our allies to make use of its members in the future."

At Zuko's confused look, I felt a smile of my own try to emerge. "Their Quartermaster is on our payroll. She's a fan of your policies. Apparently she lost some family in the war and was glad to see it end."

Zuko nodded, and I could see his body relax as he came to the realization that a number of stresses had been removed from his life. "Excellent work, both of you. Not that I ever doubted that I could trust you to handle this for me, but this definitely shows how reliable you are."

"Yes," I drawled, "that's a nice way of complimenting yourself for making the right decision."

Zuko sputtered at the implication, and Proxy actually laughed at her Fire Lord. I hope I have a daughter just like her. Once she calmed, she said, "I do have one question, if that's all right." Zuko just shrugged and nodded at her, so Proxy continued, "Why did we go to so much trouble to ensnare Shou in the first place? All indications were that he was happily retired until we dragged him into our affairs."

Zuko looked to me for the answer, of course. This whole operation was my idea, and I was the one to sell it. "That's a fair question, but make sure you learn from the answer. As far as we know, Shou would have stayed retired. For now. But as the Ministry of Intelligence, it's our responsibility to worry about dangers before they become a problem. Perhaps Shou would have stayed retired and died happy on his daughter's beach estate. But perhaps he would get restless, and take a job for our enemies. Or someone else might have come along and hired him to strike at the signing of the Republic Accords. Or another assassin might have been contracted through the guild to hit us in that plaza. Or even if we never had a problem with assassins at any point in time, someone might have tried to use Shou to turn his daughter against Zuko and taken advantage of her position as a Minister. This way, we solved all those problems at the cost of one man's life and one woman's temporary grief, and took justice for an assassin who did especially bad things during the war."

Proxy was nodding slowly, and I decided to do her a favor and spell out the full lesson. "That's what our life is like. Some people say we do the dirty work that has to be done, but that's not true. We'll likely never know whether most of it really had to be done or not, but we play it safe because the alternative would be much, much worse. Given a choice between Zuko and a retired assassin, I'll fight for Zuko's survival every time."

"But," Proxy said, "what keeps from becoming like Oz- er, the old regime? How do we know that we're right?"

"Because I trust Mai," Zuko said, and I- the Intelligence Minister who just arranged for a man's assassination by contracting him for a hit on my own husband- actually blushed in response.

Yes, I'm Mai. Zuko's wife. I'm also his Minster of Intelligence. I was there to notice the Tian Spire. I heard Aang talk about what the Republic Accords would mean for the world. It was my concerns that Zuko tried to assuage, even as I was taking action to make sure my worst nightmare never lived in the waking world.

I would apologize for deceiving you, but the truth is I don't really care if you're offended.

Proxy was satisfied by Zuko's answer, and I dismissed her with instructions to enjoy some time to herself before her next assignment. Proxy isn't the only girl I've trained to be an unquestionably loyal agent to me and Zuko, but I think she'll go especially far, if she wants to.

Alone at last, Zuko sat back down behind his desk, and had no sooner settled in than I was sitting in his lap. I caressed his face, an action I will never get tired of, and gave Zuko that special smile that I reserve just for him. "Thank you for trusting me. I don't really fit in with your friends, people who make the world better by being better, but I'll always do what I can to protect you. And what you want for the world."

Zuko nods, and leans his head into my hands. "You're better than you think you are, and you do improve the world. My world. You improve my world with every breath."

I'm the big bad spymaster, the knife in the dark, the monster who protects the heroes. I learned at the side of the notorious Princess Azula, and only got started in this job to stave off the boredom of being the Royal Consort. And Zuko's lines are corny, but they're also straight from his heart, and nothing gets my own heart fluttering like the love that pours out of his.

And for the rest of the day, we're not Lord and Minister, but Husband and Wife.

That day, and forever.

END