Legal Disclaimer: In the spirit of the Azorius Senate, I should mention that Magic the Gathering and the world of Ravnica belongs to Wizards of the Coast.

Author's Note: While not an official sequel, this story takes place some time after my original fic, To Protect and Serve.

The light of the late morning sun struggled to break out from the edges of the gray clouds which hung over the bustling streets of Ravnica. The springtime air was still cool and damp from a rain storm as the shoppers and merchants of the Tenth District took refuge into the warm safety of nearby restaurants and larger shopping halls. Once the storm began to pass over the towering spires of the district, citizens began to slowly filter back out along the main commercial thoroughfare of Tin Street. When they did, they made sure to give way for a man and a woman wearing the distinct blue and white guild uniforms of the Azorius Senate. The tall man was clad in the royal blue cloak and silver half plate armor of an Arrester while the greater ornamentation and devices identified him as a veteran officer of greater rank known as an Imperetor. Beside him walked an attractive female lawmage with blonde hair who looked to be about his same age, in her early thirties. Unlike her companion, she eschewed heavy armor in favor of a white dress with blue and gold trim signifying her rank as a Deputy of some sort. As the two strolled along past some elven merchants who were setting up their food cart again, the female lawmage gave them a nod with a calm reassuring smile. Her partner instead wore a more solemn look and kept a vigilant watch for any sort of dangers on the road.

They turned down a rain drenched sidestreet and continued walking on past a loxodon peddler hauling a wagon of goods and then some children playing in the puddles. The lawmage took in a deep breath and smiled, "You know, I just love it after a big rain, don't you Alexi? Everything is so calm and it smells so fresh and clean."

"Just wait for the sewers to back up, then tell me what you think Ana," the Arrester quipped with a stony expression.

Deputy Anastasia Radic slapped his arm gently and gave a sigh of mild indignation, "I swear Alexi Lazlo... do you always like being such a wet blanket all the time?"

"Only when it gets a rise out of you," he answered as he gave her a sidelong glance and then cracked a small smile.

Anastasia shook her head and gave a small laugh to herself. After having served as Alexi's partner for a year, the Boros Wojek turned Azorius lawmage had grown used to her comrade's ways. When she first met him and teamed up on an assignment, she had thought he was a cold and emotionally closed off Arrester. She had come to learn that he was disciplined and focused on the job, but still very lonely and mistrustful of others. It wasn't until they had uncovered a major conspiracy and outed a corrupt Azorius official that things had begun to change. Ana liked to think that she had slowly helped to bring her partner back out of his shell and that they both made each other better law enforcers. Perhaps part of that had been due to a mutual attraction and flirtation during their first assignment. They had shared a romantic night out before being made official partners, but since then they had been happy to keep that issue off to the side and carry on with a close but professional friendship on the job.

The two stopped at the door of a neighborhood hardware shop and Ana adjusted her belt, "Well cheer up partner. I know if there's one thing that puts you in a good mood, it's taking another criminal off the street. Are you ready to do this?"

"You're taking the lead on this one?" he asked curiously.

The lawmage shrugged, "Sure. We're just taking in an Izzet scientist. He's not going to be some wacko knife throwing cultist or axe wielding barbarian."

"He's an illegal arms dealer," Alexi pointed out but Ana patted his armored shoulder with a sweet smile.

"And it never hurts to have a little extra muscle on our side either. That's why I appreciate your backing me up here."

Alexi quietly rolled his eyes and followed her through the door of the dingy shop. Upon entering, the two Azorius saw that the shop went back a ways into the building with all sorts of supplies, and unusual magically-powered tools and equipment for home repair sitting on the shelves. Behind the main counter was a vedalkin man who had just finished selling some pipes and screws to a goblin customer and he looked up in surprise toward the two enforcers. The goblin clutched his shopping back and took one fearful look at the Arrester before scurrying out the door. The vedalkin shopkeep gave a nervous look to the Azorius and addressed Ana as she stepped forward, "Good morning. Uh... how can I help you folks?"

Ana approached with a calm smile, "Yolov Trul? I am Deputy Radic and this is Imperator Lazlo. We just came to ask you some questions."

"What kind of questions?"

Ana gave a thoughtful look and scratched her chin, "By chance, you wouldn't be able to tell us where we could purchase some mizzium mortars, would you?"

The vedalkin froze and looked at her with a startled face, "Mizzium mortars? No. Those are illegal for regular people to have."

"And yet some have been winding up in the hands of several street gangs who don't know how to use them properly," Ana continued with a dramatic sigh, "Why, just last week the last mortar one we found had already exploded and it roasted several gangers to a crisp. How many was it again?"

"Three," Alexi offered helpfully.

"Yes, thank you. At least three of the gangers," Ana said, "I imagine the gang leaders would not be happy with their supplier giving them such shoddy amateurish equipment, don't you think?"

The shopkeep's brow twitched slightly as he tried to ignore her veiled taunt, "I... have no idea what you're talking about, Deputy."

"That's odd, because your supervisors at the Izzet League seem to think that you're stealing spare parts and equipment from their labs to create weapons," Alexi cut in as he produced a written warrant, "And we have reason to believe that this shop is a front for your arms dealing business... and not an impressive one might I add."

The shopkeep fidgeted and defensively scowled, "I'm not going to let you poke around my shop!"

Anastasia hardened her features and grew serious as she produced her badge, "Yolov Trul, by the authority of the Azorius Senate, I'm placing you under arrest for grand theft, possession of contraband, and sale of illegal weapons to known criminal elements. If you'd like me to add obstruction of justice and resisting arrest, I can."

Yolov's facade began to crack as he panicked, "I... no. You've got the wrong guy. It isn't me!"

"Come with us Mr. Trul," Anastasia offered, "We can do things the easy way or the hard way."

The vedalkin criminal reached under the counter and produced a hand mounted mizzium apparatus that members of the Izzet League used to amplify spells for their experiments. He turned the cannon arm on the Azorius and fired off a small powerful burst of wind known as a blustersquall. Alexi grabbed his partner to shield her as the two Azorius were violently thrown backward across the shop, landing by the front door in a tangle of limbs and a clatter of armor. Yolov panicked again and began to make his escape out the backroom door as the two law enforcers slowly picked themselves up.

"Okay... the hard way it is," Alexi sourly muttered as he lay on the ground.

"Thanks for breaking my fall Alexi," Ana said as she untangled herself from his arms and hurried to her feet.

"Don't mention it," he groaned as he shook his head recovered to his feet as well. He drew a gladius short sword and headed for the door, "I'll go around back and cover the exit. Partner? Be careful?"

Anastasia gave him a quick nod and drew her own short sword before taking off after the rogue shopkeeper. As she pursued out the backroom door, she sprinted down a narrow hallway leading to a wider storage room. She heard a heavy rear door open and close as she rushed into the room. Standing in her way were two frostburn weirds. The strange hybrid elemental creatures created by the Izzet to assist in experiments and manual labor came at her to try and restrain her. The Deputy slashed one of the creature's icy arms aside before ducking under the guard of the second and slashing it. She turned her blade and thrust it a few inches into the glacial torso of the weird but stopped when she realized that it didn't have any vital organs and couldn't be killed like that. It swatted at her again but she tumbled backward and pulled the sword before spinning around to fire off a spell. Two ribbons of glowing golden law magic inscribed with Azorius runes sprung from her hands and coiled themselves around the icy monsters. The detained weirds toppled to the ground helplessly as Ana turned and headed out the rear door to continue her chase.

She burst out the door and into a side alley only to see Yolov running away with about a fifty meter head start. "Hey! Come back here! Hey!"

Yolov kept running and turned to glance over his shoulder at his pursuer but it cost him dearly. He didn't even see Alexi come from the end of the alleyway and blindside him. The veteran Arrester held out an armored forearm and violently clotheslined the criminal causing Yolov to fly head over heels and land on the pavement in a stunned heap. As Ana caught up from the alleyway, Alexi pulled off the mizzium apparatus and slapped handcuffs on Yolov. The blue skinned vedalkin groaned and protested from the now swelling bruises on his head, "Ow! Watch it! This is police brutality!"

"Yeah, yeah... why don't you shut up or I'll add a few more lumps to your misshapen head," Alexi sighed as he roughly hauled the criminal to his feet and looked to Ana, "You all right?"

"I'm fine," she said gratefully, "Thanks for the assist."

"Which reminds me," her partner said as he began to quote her in an exaggerated flippant impression of her, "We're just taking in an Izzet scientist. He's not going to be some wacko knife throwing cultist or axe wielding barbarian."

Ana sighed from the teasing and relented before giving him a grateful smile, "Okay, ha ha, you made your point. Good collar today partner."

Yolov grumbled sourly off to the side, "Oh geez, get a room you two."

Alexi roughly grabbed the criminal's arm from behind and twisted it to shut him up. He gave the lawmage a small grin and a quick nod as they dragged the villain away, "You're right Ana. I feel better already. Shall we?"

After depositing the rogue arms dealer at the local precinct office for processing and transport, the two Azorius officers made their way back toward their guild headquarters in New Phrav. There was sure to be a lot of paperwork to do and reports to be filed and the two weren't in any particular rush to dive into it just yet. They alighted from the carriage which had given them a ride across the district and they made their way down a familiar road toward the guildhall. In the distance, they could see the three large austere spires of the Azorius columns looming over the local skyline. To many in the district, they viewed it with trepidation and suspicion, but to the residents of the Second Precinct, it was a reassuring symbol of strength and order in the chaotic world.

Alexi and Ana strolled down a large trade road at the edge of the Griffin Heights neighborhood and the veteran Arrester took his moment to sigh in relaxation, "Well Radic, I don't know about you but I can't wait to get off duty later."

"Oh? Why's that?"

He brushed some dust off his blue cloak, "I was planning to go check out that new tavern that opened up near my home in Whitestone. O'Liry's Pub? I hear it's pretty popular with the other Arresters."

Ana nodded thoughtfully, "Yeah, I heard it was a pretty decent place. You want some company?"

He glanced back to her with a curious expression, "Not that I really mind, but why? We already spend all day working with each other. You still want to hang around after hours?"

"Well, why not?" she offered giving his arm a little nudge, "It's not often I get to see you loosen up a little and have some fun."

They turned a corner and he grimaced slightly as he weighed things over in his head, "Well, I don't know..."

Just then, they heard emergency sirens start to blare as a plume of dark smoke rose in the air from a few blocks away. Several Ravnican citizens hurried to find help and the two were approached by a group of locals. One of the men who looked like a butcher breathlessly rushed up to Alexi, "Oh Arrester, thank goodness! Please come quickly!"

"What's the problem, sir?" Alexi asked as they crowd pointed them in the direction of the smoke.

"There's a fire," the butcher said, "I think someone's been hurt and the building is burning down."

The Imperator nodded to the civilians, and pulled his partner along, "All right. Stay calm and make way. We're going to help."

Responding to an emergency fire was not exactly the way that either of them planned to spend their afternoon, but it was their job as first responders to help and protect the public. They hurried down several blocks until they came to the scene of the fire. A crowd of onlookers had already been cordoned off by a group of Arresters while the local fire brigade was busy putting out a fire in a ground floor tailor shop. A couple Boros Wojeks in their red tunics were already present and speaking to some people off to the side while two other medics were huddled over someone laying on the ground.

Alexi's expression darkened and he seemed to grow more anxious as they neared the scene. One of the rank and file Arresters straightened up and gave a salute to him, "Imperator. Do you want us to..."

Alexi ignored him and strode past the guard, heading over toward the medics. Ana followed him in confusion before some of the Wojeks spotted him and came over to bar his way. A younger Wojek with a lanky build blocked his path and raised a hand, "Imperator? Hold on. We're in the middle of an investigation here..."

"The hell you are. Get out of my way," Alexi snarled pushing past the Wojek with his forearm. The other Wojeks started coming over to help but Ana raised a calming hand and urged them to stand down and give them a few minutes.

Amid the chaos and noise of the scene, Alexi hurried over to the medics and saw that they were treating a young woman who was lying comatose on the ground. She looked to be about his age, pretty with long dark hair that was tied in a braid. It appeared she had been pulled from the fire as her face and her blue dress was stained with soot. What was more troubling was the sight of blood from a head wound. Although he could not get a totally clear view, Alexi had guessed it was blunt force trauma wound from a hard blow to the head. The woman's face had paled slightly and it looked like she had lost some blood too. He spoke up over the medic's shoulder, "How is she? Is she going to be all right?"

The medics ignored him and kept working to bandage her head and use some healing magic. The veteran Arrester grew more agitated and shook the shoulder of one of the Boros healers, "Hey! Did you hear me? Is she going to be okay?"

The medic turned and shoved his hand away with an annoyed look, "With all due respect Imperator, back off! We've stabilized her but she's lost a lot of blood and she's still unconscious. Please, stand back and let us do our job. You should probably go do yours."

Alexi stepped back with a growl and clenched an armored fist as he looked back toward the smoke and fire which was consuming the neighborhood tailor shop. Ana cautiously approached her friend and spoke quietly, "Alexi? What's going on here? What's wrong?"

He took one more look to the woman on the ground and turned away slightly with an expression of silent indignation. Ana picked up on it and turned her head to try and meet his eyes, "Something to do with her then? Who is she?"

"An old friend," he finally admitted in a quiet voice, "Someone I grew up with."

Ana waited for a long moment but got nothing else before Alexi straightened himself up and began walking toward the crowd of onlookers, "Alexi? Hey, where are you going?"

"I'm going to do my job," he replied in a tone of solemn determination, "There's been a crime here and I'm going to get to the bottom of it."