A/N: The Following is Rated C; for Circumspect.

It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E3 "The Painted Lady."

Reader discretion is advised.


Chapter 2 "The Painted Lady."


Autumn, year 11 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai

Something was off.

Zuko had been pouring over expense reports, wading through yet another scroll full of columns and numbers, when he noticed a disturbance, a subtle change in his sense of the room. His office was covered in maps, charts, tables, and graphs now. The bookshelf behind him, once bare, was now full to the very top. Full of scrolls of law, books of economics, texts pertaining to warfare, including two copies of LEADERSHIP (the newer one containing a rather scathing appendix concerning what Zuko had been pleased to discover was called the "Zhao Debacle.")

Zuko knew the room, was familiar with its details and with the feel of the space. Something was off. Something was out of place. Someone was here.

"Hello, Mai," Zuko rasped, looking up from his paperwork.

The young woman seemingly detached herself from nowhere and glided across the room to stand in front of his desk.

Must have come in through the window, Zuko thought.

The two of them considered one another for a long moment.

Zuko was surprised at how much, and how little, she seemed to have changed. She was taller of course, and she had, in his estimation, become even more beautiful. Classically beautiful; slender, pale skin, dark black hair, and tawny eyes. What hadn't changed was the look of complete and utter disdain she seemed to have for everything. The look of a queen deigning to lower herself to address the common folk. She had looked at everyone that way when they were younger, even him, and he was a prince.

He'd found it rather charming a long time ago.

Zuko put down his ink brush and steepled his fingers, unconsciously shifting to make sure the long knife he had strapped to his leg was still there.

"Is there something I can do for you, Mai?"

I will have to fling myself backwards, the arms of this chair make dodging to the side impractical.

"Your sister sent me," Mai said, her voice as still and inflectionless as her posture.

"Did she?"

Note to self: start locking the windows as NINJAS are much better climbers than I thought.

"She wants…" Mai trailed off, her face and voice remained as calm and placid as a frozen pound, but Zuko could see her hands tense ever so slightly.

Second note to self: If I survive this, maybe start wearing armor… at ALL TIMES.

Mai took a deep breath and continued. "She wants… me to seduce you."

Zuko stared for a moment, then blinked. Then he started laughing, deep whole-hearted incredulous laughter, probably the first time he'd laughed in months.

Mai tucked her hands into her adjoining sleeves and rolled her eyes.

"You cannot be serious?" Zuko managed in between heaving laughter.

"It's not like she knows, Zuko."

"But… why?" Zuko motioned to the chairs in front of him, asking her to sit as the last of his laughter gradually died away.

"She remembers that you used to have a crush on me," Mai said, gracefully folding herself into a chair. "She assumes I can use that to my advantage in getting close to you."

"Again. WHY?"

"So I can spy on you." Mai said it as though the answer was so obvious it caused her physical pain to have to spell it out for him.

"If Azula has questions, she only has to as-"

"You know that's not how this works, not how she thinks," Mai drawled.

Zuko sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do you have any suggestions as to how we deal with this?"

"…No."

"Oh, very helpful, Mai," Zuko said sarcastically. "…How would you have done it?" he said after a moment.

"What?"

"Seduced me, I mean. How would you have done it had you not been… had I not known what I know about you?"

"There are a variety of drugs which would create the desired effect, and you are much too trusting to have avoided them," she said flatly, seeming somehow entirely unembarrassed by the confession.

"And you? Are there drugs that would have given you the desired effect?"

"…we don't always get the things we want, Zuko."

"Mai…"

"Don't Zuko. I am not one of your 'problems' to solve."

Zuko raised his lone eyebrow.

"Your retainers have all the informational discipline of a gaggle of fishwives," Mai said, the barest hint of amusement coloring her dry monotone. "That's most likely why I was sent here, so that Azula can keep tabs on your 'projects.'"

"And will Ty be-"

"Ikoma Ty Lee is NOT a factor," Mai snapped, the venom now very audible in her voice.

They sat in silence for a long pause. "…It was the circus, wasn't it?"

Mai said nothing, which as good as a yes from her.

"Unfortunate," Zuko rumbled, "I always liked the idea of my two best friends getting along."

"We're not your friends, Zuko."

"No? And yet here you are telling me you were sent to spy on me. Not very sneaky."

"Maybe it is. Maybe I'm giving you a false rational so that you don't go looking for the real one."

Zuko sighed again and rubbed his face with his hands. "I'm not going to argue with you. You're smarter than me and will win." He rose from his chair and began slowly pacing back and forth considering the problem. Mai remained perfectly still, only her eyes tracking him.

"Fine," Zuko said after a few minutes of consideration, "consider me seduced."

"…What?"

"It's very simple, tell Azula that you were successful. Which, for her purposes at least, is true. You will tell me what she wants to know, and I will give you the answers she wants."

"I am NOT going to spy on your sister. She's much better at this than you, and-"

"Did I say spy on her?" Zuko snapped. "No. You will tell me what she wants to know; the questions at least will give me some idea of what's she's thinking."

"And… if I refuse?"

"Then you are just going to have to go back and tell her you failed to seduce me," Zuko said darkly, leaning over the desk at her, resting his weight on his fingertips. "I am sure that conversation will go over well. She will have questions, very pointed questions, and as you said she is much better at this than I am."

Mai nodded jerkily.

"I do have one request, however. I would appreciate it if you did not lie to me anymore."

"I didn't."

"…How long did it take you to figure out that I had no dead-drops and no way of blackmailing you?"

Mai scoffed in a rare display of mirth. "About a day and a half. You really should learn how to-"

"And yet you wrote me a letter, once a month, for the better part of three years."

Mai blinked in surprise. Half from his presumption of interrupting her, half from the realization that she had in fact done that.

"So don't lie and say we're not friends. You are pretty much the only friend I have."

Mai considered him for a moment, then rolled her eyes. "Must you always be so melodramatic with everything?"

"Must you always pretend that you don't care about things?"

"…It's safer that way. For me."

There were a lot of things that Zuko would have liked to tell her then. That he didn't care about who she was sleeping with, that she should forget the whole thing and just go back to New Ozai to be with her family, that he wasn't being melodramatic, she was really the only person he could really talk to who wasn't bound to him with oaths of fealty.

But he said none of them, she probably wouldn't have believed him anyway.

Fucking Scorpions.

Instead, the two of them sat in something shockingly close to comfortable silence as Zuko started reading the papers in front of him again while Mai quietly began sharpening knife after knife she pulled out of her sleeves.

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Zuko was having to learn to become more circumspect.

He found that he wasn't fond of it.

After he had executed the old minister of the treasury, the way forward had become much more difficult. Once it became common knowledge that he was on the prowl for embezzling and corruption the honorless leeches that seemed to infest the Fire-Nation's government had learned to become more cautious, more conservative, and scurried out of his sight like roach-worms in a recently lit room.

He still knew who the guilty parties were, he had a list, a very LONG list, but he couldn't move against them now without a nearly overwhelming amount of evidence. Gathering that evidence, fortunately, was a job that Jee excelling at.

But, infuriatingly, it was also much slower. Gathering evidence, taking statements, dragging the obviously guilty before the Fire-Lord and the Daijo-Kan and fending off their feeble excuses and outright lies.

It also had a failure rate, a fact which enraged Zuko to no end. Knowing that incompetents and outright thieves would not only be allowed to continue to keep breathing, but in some cases would be allowed to keep their jobs and positions, had him gnashing his teeth. His first impulse was to simply challenge all of them to Agni Kai, but hesitated in doing so before his father.

He remembered what had happened last time.

His arrangement with Mai, however, was actually proving rather helpful to him. She would appear, silent and sudden as always, and he would rant about whatever honorless pile of filth had most recently evaded justice. Mai, her tone somehow flat and yet acerbic and sarcastic, would interject comments. These comments, whether intentionally or not, were beginning to give him a better insight into his father's motivations. They were both Scorpions after all.

The key was the appearance of control.

At all times the monarch had to be seen to be in control of the situation. Zuko could not simply do what his heart told him was the right thing, namely setting a large number of people on fire, without allowing his father to be the one to approve it. So, in the future, when Zuko found himself thwarted in the normal methods of justice he would raise his eye to the shadowy silent figure behind the wall of flames.

Most of the time he would be met with nothing, complete stillness, and he would grit his teeth and sit back down to fume in silence. But on good days the Fire-Lord would give the tiniest nod of his head, and Zuko would let the challenge slip, savoring the sight of the blood draining from the guilty party's face.

The fact that his father attended each and every one of his fire duels also filled him with a heady sense of satisfaction.

Soshi Arashi was one of the lucky ones.

The Soshi family was one of the major aristocratic families of the Fire-Nation, and Soshi Arashi was the family head, Lord Soshi himself. This made him, for all intents and purposes, untouchable. Prosecution, let alone an Agni Kai, against a family head could only be done with the most serious of commitment and forethought as civil war could easily erupt at the mere suggestion of such a thing.

That didn't change the fact that Zuko wanted him dead.

The numbers on the scrolls didn't lie, Lord Soshi was dirty. His province was in the Fire-Islands of the eastern sea and the taxes and tariffs he reported were so ludicrously undervalued that, had they been true, he would have had trouble feeding himself, let alone an entire province.

Despite Jee's ability, he continually found nothing with regard to Soshi's dealings, and Zuko was forced to attempt to whittle away at the man by attacking his lower level functionaries.

Again, it was Mai who came up with a solution. She entered his room, much like some sort of incredibly self-possessed house-cat, and deposited a report from the river village of Jang Hui on his desk. The village was just down river from the major industrial complex that Lord Soshi had built into the side of his fortress… and it had been attacked.

Attacked, by a spirit.

Spiritual negligence was a crime as well. Preserving the peace in their areas of control was one of the first and foremost duties of a Lord of the Land.

Whatever had prompted this spirit's attack might be traced back to Lord Soshi.

Zuko decided to pay the village a visit.

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As Zuko finished packing his rucksack for the journey he heard a most unusual sound.

While it was not law, it was custom, for the palace to remain as quiet as possible. Servants communicated in hushed whispers, conversations held between ministers and other functionaries were kept to a minimum as they walked the halls.

So, the sounds of a baby's cries were quite distinct in the normally vast and repressive silence.

Zuko poked his head out of his door to find Rin and Bo having a muted argument as Bo tried futilely to silence the squalling infant in her arms.

"...far too dangerous," Bo hissed as Zuko quietly approached them.

Rin's eyes, quickly growing panicked, swept back and forth between his angry wife and his liege lord as Zuko approached.

"A problem?" Zuko rumbled as he stood next to the two of them.

"No," Bo said quickly, not taking her eyes from her husband. "Hold her please," she said as she thrust the still crying baby at Zuko.

Startled, Zuko found himself obliging her. Rin goggled at him as Bo continued quietly berating him, now gesturing wildly with both hands.

Zuko sighed, it was very much in keeping with Bo's character to remain focused on her target instead of her immediate surroundings.

Best artillerist in the fleet, he thought, not without a small measure of pride.

So... he thought lamely as he held the child up for inspection, THIS is a baby.

Zuko was amazed at how remarkably loud she was for such a tiny creature. Loud and... squishy. Zuko, relying mostly on instinct, softly bounced the little girl in his arms and her eyes popped open revealing bright hazel eyes. Her crying cut off immediately, and she looked at Zuko in a most puzzled fashion.

Zuko regarded her, equally puzzled, as his experience with children was precisely zero.

"So... what is your destiny?" Zuko asked the infant quietly.

The argument between the girl's parents seemed to have stopped and Zuko glanced up to see Bo's wide eyes, the same bright hazel as the infants, regard him with mortification.

"Highness... I..." Bo began, her voice still hoarse and whispery.

"What is the problem, lieutenant?" Zuko said still idly bouncing the little girl.

"…I want to come with you," she said, squaring her shoulders in determination.

"You think it... wise to bring an infant on a warship?" Zuko said, his voice darkening slightly.

"No Highness, but I don't want... You know, Rin broke four of his ribs the last time he went out on a mission without me?" She very pointedly didn't mention that it was Zuko who had broken those ribs.

"And you assume that, had you been there..."

"He would have never even been in that situation had I been there," she said quietly, but with a protective ferocity.

Rin rolled his eyes from behind his wife.

Zuko just snorted in amusement. "Her name?" he said indicating the small girl in his arms.

"Kyoshi," Bo said, sounding immensely pleased.

Zuko gave Rin a look, which the older man only shrugged at.

"He's already missed his daughter's birth, galivanting around the Earth-Kingdom. I would rather he didn't miss the rest of her life as well," Bo said quietly, smiling at her daughter.

Zuko considered the little girl named for a previous incarnation of the Avatar.

"...If it looks even remotely dangerous, you're both staying on the ship. No more sneaking into the assault team, Bo. I've neither the time, nor the patience, for your obstinance anymore."

"Yes, SIR!" Bo shouted, then clapped her hands over her mouth as her voice echoed through the palace halls.

Zuko shook his head and handed the little girl back to her mother.

"And Bo?... bring your biwa. I'm sure Haki and Taro will be most pleased to join you for music night."

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Zuko had been putting this off.

He knew that eventually he would have to face it, honor demanded it of him, but he had put it off for months.

He would have to go to the Spire.

After some consideration, Zuko was surprised at the number of things he did not remember about Otosan Uchi. It made sense, of course, he had been consumed with training for his gempukku during his childhood and the space of time between the end of that and his banishment was barely even three months. Hardly enough time to become acquainted with a city as big as the capital of the Fire-Nation.

Not that the Spire was in the city. You couldn't put a thing like that inside the caldera itself.

The Spire was a prison. A prison for samurai.

Maybe it was just his idle comment about music night, maybe it was his lack of certainty about his current path. Maybe he just missed the man.

Zuko needed to go and see his uncle.

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"Oh, you want to see that filthy old madman? Sure Highness, right this way," the guard at the entrance of the maximum-security level said with a genial, yet malicious, grin.

Zuko followed behind him, his face a neutral mask as they ascended to the highest level of the Spire.

"Here you go Highness. Don't see why you're bothering though. He's mad; disgusting old traitor. Honorless as they come, and he doesn't speak."

"What is his name?" Zuko asked, his voice carefully controlled.

"What? The prisoner? Here now, I thought you said you wanted to see your-"

"What. is. his. NAME?"

"Ah-Akodo Iroh?" the guard said nervously.

Zuko moved suddenly, unexpectedly, and grabbed the guard by his collar, lifting and slamming him into the wall outside his uncle's cell door.

"Yes, AKODO Iroh. And the next time I hear you speak about a member of my family that way I will PUT YOUR FUCKING HEAD ON A SPIKE!" Zuko roared.

With that, he grabbed the keys off the man's belt and dropped him like the sack of refuse he was. He unlocked the door and strode into the cell.

It stank.

It smelled of human waste and sweat and the sickly-sweet smell of rot, like dead flowers.

A pile of grey rags shifted on a straw mat as Zuko moved into the room. His eyes darted around the space, taking in the broken pottery of ruined cookware, the filthy rags his uncle wore, even the… feces he had apparently smeared on one of the walls. Iroh had even torn out one of his fingernails, scratching at the stone walls of his cell.

Zuko, lone eye wide, backed out of the room.

"Get me the warden," Zuko snarled to the man laying on the ground, his eye still locked on the grey mound of rags in the cell. "Right. NOW."

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The warden had been summoned, Zuko had almost killed him, but the man had prostrated himself and said in simple calm words the truth Zuko needed, if not wanted, to hear.

They had done nothing.

Iroh had not spoken a word since he had been brought here, and while the warden had been given no instructions regarding his personal comfort, he had served under General Iroh in the eastern campaigns and had a great deal of respect for him. The look on his face, of utter bewilderment at Iroh's condition, convinced Zuko just as much as all the other words he spoke.

The only conclusion was that this was Zuko's fault.

Zuko sat in the filthy cell for over an hour just staring at the listless creature behind bars that had once been his uncle, just trying to wrap his head around it, trying to figure out what to say.

How is this possible? He was just fine not even not even three months ago! Perhaps the madness… but that's couldn't have been right. All the madness Zuko had been familiar with in regard to his family was more in the vein of psychopathic fury, not listless withdrawal.

Perhaps father's refusal to allow him to commit seppuku was the final straw? Maybe this has been coming on for years?

It just hurt seeing his uncle like this. The man had always been so full of life, so exuberant.

Although, to be fair, most of that was just bluster so that nobody…

Iroh had told Zuko that he liked to overemphasize many of his more ridiculous traits so that no one would come running to him to take over when they didn't like the commands that Zuko gave. Being a tad ridiculous had its merits, he had said, and not being taken seriously had won him more victories than he had ever won on the battlefield.

Nobody takes a madman seriously.

If he wasn't a threat, nobody would bother with him overmuch.

It's a RUSE!

Zuko stared at his uncle, the man remained motionless.

"I suppose me coming here does not help you overmuch," Zuko said quietly.

Iroh remained motionless, yet Zuko could feel the tension in him, even if he gave no outward sign of it.

"I am… sorry, uncle," Zuko said. "I am sorry for… for everything." The quiet words began to tumble from his mouth, as close to pleading as a man like Zuko could get. "I'm going to fix it, uncle. Things aren't the way I remember them but… they CAN be. I will fix it. I won't let everything we've done be in vain. I WON'T." He rose to his feet and turned to the door to leave. "Thank you, uncle… for everything."

Even if Zuko hadn't been outside the cell he wouldn't have been able to see the ghost of a smile that flicked across his uncle's face.

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The bosun's whistle blew; low, high and then low again, as Zuko came aboard the HMS Victory. Her assembled crew snapped to attention and then bowed, many of them with entirely non-regulation grins on their faces.

"Welcome aboard, Your Highness," Lieutenant-Commander Dosei Taro said, bowing deeply, right fist in left hand.

"Commander," Zuko said tersely, returning the bow to a much smaller degree.

The crew was dismissed and moved to get the ship underway with all the efficiency and rapidity that Zuko expected of any crew under his former subordinate's command.

"I would offer you a tour, Highness, but you already know her almost as well as I do," Taro said as they both moved towards the bridge.

"I highly doubt that," Zuko said. "As it is, I will need to speak with you privately, as soon as is reasonably possible."

Taro stutter-stepped, almost falling before the hatchway to the command tower.

"Of… of course Highness, I stand ready for your judgment."

My what?

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Haki couldn't stop laughing.

"It was a perfectly reasonable assumption," Taro said mildly.

"Reasonable? We never even-" Haki continued laughing.

Taro seemed mildly embarrassed as the five of them sat around the table of the Victory's briefing room.

"It's not that funny," Rin said quietly. "You thought he was going to kill you as well."

"Yeah, but that's cause I actually scored a HIT!" Haki snorted. "Taro, all you did was drive the flaming BOAT!"

"Still, I was actively engaged in hunting his Highness down. And again-" he turned to Zuko, who was watching the exchange with a mild exasperation- "I must apologize Highness. Your sister-"

"Is… was the Crown-Princess. Your loyalty is commendable," Zuko said. "Which is why I extended the offer in the first place."

That Taro had been totally and earnestly prepared to commit seppuku had thrown Zuko off his stride quite a bit. But after a moment of startled silence, he managed to growl out a negation and offer Taro another spot on his "war council."

Taro had simply blinked once behind his spectacles and then, remaining in the same position on his knees, sworn fealty.

Not exactly how Zuko had thought it would go, but still acceptable.

After some light conversation and a few brief orders about the upcoming operation, Zuko withdrew to the cabin that had been set aside for him.

The briefing room just wasn't the same, either because it reminded him of the ship he had lost or, more likely, because his uncle wasn't there, puttering around and forcing his tea on everyone.

Zuko's several days of transit were mostly occupied with reading "Metaphysical Encounters and the Lessons of Such." It was NOT an easy read. The tome was as thick as Zuko's bicep and somehow the author, a long-dead Kitsu scholar, made something as awe-inspiring as encountering the spirits sound more boring that the expense reports that Zuko was used to reading.

There were several important parts of course. There was the ritual formulaic greetings for spirits, to assuage them and prevent their ire from immediately falling on the speaker. There was the warning to never try to bargain with them, for any deal struck would not only be mystically enforced, but it also would never conclude in the way one thought it would. Then there was a chapter on preventative measures, on how to avoid spirit occupations to begin with.

Generally speaking, the book said that the spirits became unsettled when the natural would fell out of balance or when whatever metaphysical phenomenon they represented was threatened. Tree spirits didn't care for lumbering activities, war spirits hated peace talks.

Much to Zuko's amusement the book actually had a chapter on the Grey Ghost, or at least the legendary figure he had been mistaken for on more than one occasion. Spirits who took the shape of humans, much like the one at Jang Hui was purported to be, were said to be exceedingly complex and, in fact, could be the most dangerous. They could pass for human very easily, often causing you to make some blunder by which they could entrap you. Often times they appeared different to each individual viewer, often being perceived as a person one already knew; a father, a daughter, an enemy or a lover. Their mood, their aspect, was reflected in whatever face the viewer saw.

Zuko admitted himself curious as to what this "Painted Lady" would look like.

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Circumspect, Zuko thought, adjective: careful to consider all circumstances and possible consequences: PRUDENT… you IDIOT.

Zuko hadn't given much thought to leaving the palace. Or at least not as much thought as he probably should have.

Prudent: adjective: characterized by, arising from, or showing a marked wisdom or judiciousness, shrewd management of practical affairs or marked by circumspection: DISCREET… you MORON.

He had grown used to simply going where he needed to be, showing up, and then shouting and glaring until he got what he wanted.

Discreet: adjective: having or showing discernment or good judgment in conduct and especially in speech: PRUDENT… again… you IDIOT.

That sort of behavior was NOT going to work with Lord Soshi.

The man had been prepared for his arrival, down to the hour. It was obvious, in hindsight, that the movements of the Crown-Prince would be of note to the important people of the Nation. Especially given that Zuko was on what was generally being referred to as "the warpath."

So now Zuko, having run headlong into a prepared ambush, was entirely trapped.

Soshi had never been a military man, he was a politician. Nevertheless, he had, with a skill that would have impressed even the most stoic of the members of the War College, set a trap for Zuko.

A trap of courtesy.

The Fire-Nation, being a country filled to the brim with warriors, all of whom carried a several-foot-long razor on them at all times, had long ago established ironclad rules of propriety and decorum when dealing with one's social equals. Generally, Zuko didn't need to bother with that overmuch, the number of people that fell into a category which might be termed his equal, was incredibly small. There was the Fire-Lord, his superior, to be shown deference and obedience at all times, there was his other immediate family (currently only Iroh and Azula), for whom decorum was only necessary in the public spaces, and there was the other ninety-nine out of one hundred people in the Fire-Nation who were subordinate to him and subject to his normal brusque demeanor.

Lord Soshi, and the other Lords of the Land, were the remaining one percent.

And so Zuko, and Haki, found themselves quite thoroughly trapped by polite distraction after polite distraction.

Still cursing himself for his own lack of circumspection, Zuko found very little time to curse himself for his other ignorance. Matsu Haki, while seemingly a simple ordinary soldier was, in fact, the grandson of the current family head. The Matsu clan was vast, and there were many branch families that shared the same family name, but Haki was the eldest child of the eldest child of Matsu Saeko, the ninety-three-year-old family head. As such, he was nominally in line to take on that role one day and thus constrained by the same social obligations.

Unsurprisingly, he bore them even less stoically than Zuko but, as dictated by tradition, was given a bit more leeway. The Matsu family was actually a several millennia old offshoot of Akodo, having requested permission to form their own family out of restlessness and hot-temper. It had been granted, and those traits, stubbornness, ill-temper, and restlessness had become marks of pride to them.

Haki was a very typical Matsu.

And Lord Soshi was the perfect host, never allowing his guests to become bored or idle, never allowing them a moment alone where they might begin to ask the very pointed questions Zuko wanted to ask. Formal tea ceremony, official tours of the more scenic areas of the province (nowhere NEAR Jang Hui), a firebending display by Lord Soshi's eldest daughter; Soshi Arashi was well entrenched with polite distraction after polite distraction.

Zuko was forced to adapt.

"With your permission, I should like to visit the steel manufactory, Lord Soshi," Zuko said, employing the exceptionally formal language he despised, on the fourth morning of his entrapment.

Arashi gave Zuko one of his now familiar side-long glances as he sipped at a cup of tea. "Surely Highness, a factory is no place for one of Akodo's blood? Observation of simple drudge work is most assuredly beneath you?" That had been his way, never outright refusing a request, simply asking pointed, somewhat disparaging, questions.

"Your steelwork is quite famous, my Lord. During my time with the Navy, it was my honor to command two of His Majesty's ships that contained a great deal of your steel in their construction," Zuko said restraining a grimace. "Surely you will allow me to honor their memory by visiting the place of their birth?"

Arashi's eyes narrowed in a minute expression of discontent. The appeal Zuko made was intentionally reminiscent of a request to visit the home of a passed-on fighting companion, or the forge where one's ancestral blade was created. It was not a request easily denied, yet it was plain Lord Soshi wanted to do so anyway.

"This… this might be arranged, Highness. I regret however that it will most likely be very dull indeed. As well, the factory is far too dangerous to visit during the day, while it is in major operations… we should have to go at night. I would be loath to disrupt your sleeping habits, Highness. As your host, I would not wish to-"

"And I would not wish overburden my host with such a personal request," Zuko said, pouncing on Arashi's words. "And so, I must insist that you remain behind that you might find your rest and continue to care for your other guest. A simple escort will be enough to-"

"Uh... I was hoping I could go TOO!" Haki said quickly, seizing on an opportunity to escape.

Zuko glared at him.

"Or… not," Haki said, wincing and visibly deflating.

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All subterfuge aside Zuko was actually looking forward to seeing the steel plant. He had read a great deal about them, about molten iron cascading in rivers, about heat so powerful it put the very volcanoes to shame.

Regretfully, he didn't get to see it in action.

Not a half mile from the factory the earth shook with the sound of many tremendous explosions, lighting up the pre-dawn sky with bursts of orange and red.

Zuko, and the retinue of guards Lord Soshi has sent with him "for his own protection," broke into a run.

The factory seemed to be half underwater when he arrived. Pipes and cabling lay wrecked and devastated all about as the night-shift workers struggled to put out the fires and extract their fellows from the wreckage.

"What in the Sun's name happened here?" Zuko said as he reached a knot of what, based on the uniforms, were the factory's civilian management.

"The flaming Painted Lady!" one of them shouted, eyes wide with superstitious dread. "She flaming well brought the whole river in through the south wall! The whole factory…" he grasped his hair by the roots, "it's ruined." He began to weep as though his favorite pet had just been run over by a carriage and was eventually led away by one of his fellows.

Zuko spent the next hour organizing the workers that remained and ensuring that everyone was accounted for. Remarkably, while many had become trapped as the explosions had ruined hallways and dislodged ductwork, no one had died, a fact that Zuko attributed to the providence of the spirits.

He was in the midst of hearing yet another account of how the Painted Lady had savaged the blast furnace when Jee found him.

"Sir… you need to come with me," Jee said quietly.

After it had become clear that Zuko was to be trapped in the Soshi household, he had instructed Jee to slip away to see what he could discover. Zuko, sending a letter via messenger hawk, had arranged to meet him at the factory that night to discover what he had learned.

Now Jee led him away from the ruined building to a rowboat on the riverside, to take him to Jang Hui.

The village made the ruined factory look sturdy and well put together.

Zuko was horrified. It reminded him of nothing so much as the stinking squalor of the lower ring of Ba Sing Se… but worse. At least the earthers had had access to clean drinking water and law enforcement as opposed to the fetid muck that surrounded this village.

Jang Hui was a river village built out of a multitude of wooden docks on the site of one of the fiercest battles in modern warfare, the battle of Water's Fall. Here the previous chieftain of the Unicorn, Moto Chagatai, had fought the armies of Fire-Lord Azulon to a standstill. Only by the timely arrival of Zuko's uncle Iroh, and the wave of reinforcements under his command, was the battle, and possibly Azulon's life, saved.

Azulon had been so impressed with the Unicorn, and with their chieftain's prowess and ferocity in battle, he had offered them an honorable armistice which had lasted until shortly after Ozai's ascension.

Now the river in which that great and important battle had been fought was filthy. The fisheries of the village contained only a scant amount of incredibly pungent fish, covered in grey-brown muck. The villagers themselves were largely ill and filthy as well; yet they were all in surprisingly high spirits.

The Painted Lady had come.

Jee introduced Zuko to the village headman, an obviously brain-damaged man who thought he was more than one person, and he (or rather his multitude of "brothers") showed Zuko to the town center where the villagers had erected a statue to the spirit who had conjured them food and medicine, as well as healed a great many of the sick and dying.

The villagers were venerating the Painted Lady in thanks for her care and protection and, for the most part, Zuko was inclined to agree with them.

If not for the importance of the steel mill.

Almost four out of every ten tons of steel produced in the Fire-Nation were made here at Jang Hui. It's location, near to the coal and iron reserves in the colonies, gave it an exceptional advantage in terms of cost efficiency. There was likely not a single warship that had been commissioned in the last five years that did not have some Jang Hui steel in its makeup.

And yet the headman (or possibly one of his brothers, Zuko had lost track of which one he was supposed to be at the moment) said that the river had been fishable until a few years ago until Lord Soshi had built the factory right at the edge of the water.

It will have to be shut down, Zuko thought. Not only were the villagers here dying, but angering a powerful spirit such as the Painted Lady was sure to have consequences. She very likely could place a curse on every ounce of steel that came out of the place. Shugenja would have to be sent for and the river ritually cleansed which Zuko's book had suggested would take a great deal of time and resources.

In the meantime, the villagers would have to be moved to a safer location. Lord Soshi should have done so as soon as the waters of the river turned brown, if not sooner. And the loss of production of such a major industrial center was going to be devastating to the Fire-Nation's economy. Zuko was already getting a headache trying to figure out ways and means of redistributing productive capacity so as to not see his country go down in flames.

So, understandably, Zuko was not in the best mood when more soldiers came down from the factory.

Soldiers who apparently had no idea he was there.

Zuko, curious as to their purpose, allowed their leader, a lieutenant Mung as Jee told him, to gather the villagers before him, to bluster and make threats… until the man started lighting buildings on fire.

"We are going to cleanse the world of this wretched village!" he had shouted as he bent a gout of fire at the nearest hut.

Fire, which Zuko seized and banished with the motion of a single hand as he stalked through the crowd of villagers towards the fool.

Finally, something he could beat into submission.

"Who in the Sun's name are-" Mung cut himself off, practically swallowing his own tongue as he stared goggle-eyed at Zuko's identifying scar and armor.

"What, in ashy burning PITS OF DESPAIR, do you think you are doing?" Zuko hissed, his yellow eye fixed on the bulky soldier.

"Sire! Uh- Sir! That… well… This village, sir- your Highness- it's… uh…"

"Starving?" Zuko spat, closing in on the man, "Impoverished? Disease-ridden? All things that you should have been PREVENTING?"

Mung took a moment to gather his wits before attempting to reply again. "Highness, this is a town of liars and thieves! They steal our food, our medicine, and they attack our factory and try to kill my men! They must be-"

"Attack the factory? Do you see weapons here, lieutenant? Fighting men? These people couldn't even fight a cold, let alone a fortified steel mill. And as for food and medicine," Zuko moved into the man personal space and snarled at him, "you had a duty to these people. They eat before you do, if they are sick you give them medicine. This. is. the. FIRE-NATION! Not some barbarian back-corner of the world!"

"Highness, with all due respect, if they didn't attack the factory then who did?"

"I assume you've seen the statue in the middle of town?" Zuko said stepping aside and gesturing at the carved wooden figure that was behind the kneeling mass of peasants.

Mung heaved an irritated sigh "There is NO Painted Lady," he snapped mostly at the kneeling villagers.

As if summoned by his words an eerie, howling, moan began to emanate from down the river. Zuko, enraged as he had been, only now noticed that the entire vista in front of him had been blotted out by a veritable wall of fog which advanced towards the village at a steady, if unnatural, pace.

"She's cooomming," a child's voice rang out in a sing-song from somewhere in the crowd of villagers. Zuko's hackles rose off his neck in superstitious dread.

A deep stomping rumble began to emanate from inside the fog, as though a giant were advancing on the town. For all Zuko could see it might have been so.

As the wall of fog hit the town, it began to circle around it in an unnatural fashion, as though Jang Hui was in the eye of some bizarre mid-morning storm. From somewhere deep within the mists Zuko swore he heard the mournful cry of the shakuhachi flute playing some lament.

The stomping cut off and the fog parted just enough for the assembled Fire-Nationers to see a lone figure in red ragged robes and a wide veiled hat standing in the middle of the river.

Suddenly it burst forward, propelled at impossible speeds across the fetid surface of the river towards the village, a plume of river muck rising up behind it. As it reached the edge of the village it lept, impossibly high, and touched down at the edge of the dock without a sound.

"Do… Something!" Mung shouted at his subordinates, grabbing them by arms and trying to push them forward.

"Stand DOWN, lieutenant!" Zuko barked as he moved past them. "Stand down all of you. I will handle th-"

Standing before him, wide terrible grey-blue eyes locked on him behind a veil, was Katara.

Zuko went stock still as her eyes fell on him and the temperature of the air around him seemed to drop directly into the heart of a winter's storm as she slowly moved towards him.

This… this is IMPOSSIBLE! She can't be HERE! Why would she be here! Spirits preserve- his thoughts cut off as he remembered the book about spirits he had read before his arrival.

They look how they want, to communicate their mood. This… is a very ANGRY spirit.

There were forms for dealing with the spirits of the Fire-Nation, long ago set down and codified by scholars and shugenja and, as a matter of course, they were reprinted in the book Zuko had just read. Despite that, Zuko found himself having trouble remembering them as the spirt slowly drew closer and the temperature around him continued to drop; the water under the dock he stood upon flash freezing to ice.

"H-h-hon-n-n-ored sp-p-irit," Zuko's teeth were chattering in the frozen air and he couldn't even begin to think about using heart of fire to warm himself. "I b-b-bid you welcome t-t-t-t-"

The Painted Lady didn't seem to care much for his speech. With a gesture, the entire river rose in a foul putrid wall behind her, ready to come crashing down on him.

Well… if this is how it's going to happen… at least it looks like her.

"Highness?" a voice called from behind him. Zuko managed to turn his head and saw Bo, holding her little Kyoshi in her arms, not five feet behind him.

"D-damnit it, Bo! I t-t-told you-"

"Maybe… you should let me talk to her, sir? I've heard that… female spirits prefer supplications from women."

"W-what? I didn't read anything about th-" Zuko's head whipped around to see the wall of water gently sink back into the river. Apparently, the Painted Lady agreed with Bo's assessment.

"Honored spirit? I bid you welcome to our lands," Bo said smoothly. As she walked forward the unnatural chill seemed to drop away.

"Maybe you could clear the dock, sir?" Bo said, not unkindly. "Get the villagers out of harm's way?"

Zuko nodded jerkily and gladly backed away from the spirit wearing his ex-girlfriend's countenance. As he did the fog rolled in, thick and grey, obscuring them from his sight.

"Everybody back in your homes! We will deal with this," Zuko shouted. He turned to face Lt Mung, a snarl splitting his face. "And as for YOU-"

"Highness, please? I was only following orders!" Mung said, falling to his knees and groveling, his eyes wide in fear of both Zuko and the angry spirit he now knew to be real.

"Orders? Whose orders?"

"Lord Soshi! He said to burn the villagers out, so that they would stop attacking!"

"Did he?" Zuko said, his snarl turning into a triumphant smile. "I seems that you will be returning with me to Otosan Uchi, lieutenant. I think the Daijo-Kan would be very interested to hear about how you were ordered to kill His Majesty's subjects."

Subjects that, by law, were the sole responsibility and possession of the Fire-Lord.

I have you now, Zuko thought.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The will of the Painted Lady, as communicated through Uesugi Bo, was simple. Why it had taken the better part of an hour to communicate was a bit of a mystery but hardly important in the grand scheme of things.

The river should be cleaned, the factory shut down, and villagers left in peace. Given that the factory was already entirely non-functional these were things that Zuko approved of wholeheartedly.

The High Court's findings were… adequate. Unfortunately, Lord Soshi was acquitted of the crime of assault on his Majesty's subjects, the situation turning into a simple case of Lt Mung's word against his. While Mung's testimony was not enough to earn Zuko the privilege of putting Soshi's head on a spike, it was enough to find him very guilty of spiritual negligence. He was officially censured, his factory shut down permanently, and the cost of restoring the river to its previous state his penalty.

Despite these victories, Zuko's mood was black. The conditions in Jang Hui had unsettled him, and on the way back to the capital he had taken stock of every village and city he passed.

The Fire-Nation was dying.

Zuko could reach no other conclusion based on the evidence of his eyes. The numbers on the scrolls in his office were one matter; the homelessness, disease, and starvation among the people of fire was another.

Zuko began to work himself ragged after Lord Soshi's trial, no longer simply focused on finding corruption, but on finding anything, any way he could save money and give it back to the people. Their safety was his duty after all. He had betrayed and abandoned the only woman he had ever loved for his people, and seeing her face staring him down in Jang Hui had reminded him of that very forcibly.

I can FIX this, he thought to himself as he spent another sleepless night reading, writing, and planning. I will fix my nation… or I will DIE trying.

Anything less was unworthy of her.


A/N: Hello fan-fic-fans! Welcome back the out designated Zuko time! I hope you've enjoyed this weeks selection but, as always, if you didn't please feel free to PM and tell me why. After all, how am I supposed to get better if I don't know what I'm doing wrong… or RIGHT! Feel free to review/comment about THAT too. My sensitive artist soul(/maximum sarcasm drive engaged) craves your approval.

All that said, I hope you enjoyed my version of the Painted Lady. Honestly, I wish I had been able to find a way to give K and Z another throw down, but I like the way this turned out. Actually, for some reason, the idea for THIS chapter was the one that got itself lodged so thoroughly in my head that I even started on this project. You would think that it would be more epic, being the cornerstone of the original idea… oh well, it is what it is.

META-BIIIIIIITS (/screaming rock solo)

Dirty Water: also as this chapter was foundational to the entire work, so too was a little song by the name of "Dirty Water," by the Foo Fighters. While I make no claim that this chapter is based on the song, the tone of the whole story I've told, its sort of rising power, is. If nothing else listening to this song on my commute while thinking about this crazy fusion idea I had gave me the wherewithal to stop thinking about it, and really do it. So, thank you, Dave Grohl. Thank you very much.

Maiko: So, let me be clear here, because I've heard rumors about the vitriol of this (I guess my) fandom. I like Maiko. I think that it could work out. I understand, from what I've heard of the comics that it doesn't though. So, anyway is what I'm trying to say is that although Azula happens to be a Maiko shipper on deck in this work, it is not intended as a disparaging comment. So, yeah, that's what I think I happening here. Azula is trying to set up her brother with her best friend in her usual tactless, bossy manner that she has when dealing with the two of them. She doesn't really need a spy that close to her brother, but it makes a compelling excuse.

Unfortunately for that plan, Mai is gay. (Just putting that in there in case some of you haven't read book 1)

However, at this moment in time, Mai is good for Zuko. She brings a much needed outside perspective that Zuko has not had a great deal of exposure too, and as I have said many times before this Zuko is a guy who learns through experience. A little enforced political drama is just a learning experience for him.

Rin and Bo: lots of interesting shenanigans going on in the background here. Bo is an aristocrat, a member of the mainline Bayushi (reads as founders of the Scorpion dojo) family and despite that is an entirely forthright human and a Lion to boot. Rin is basically the lowest rung on the samurai totem-pole a non-bender from the colonies and yet has married WAY above his station and is now a high-ranking officer and retainer to the heir to the throne. Apparently, I have a habit for writing about odd-balls. Also, I couldn't NOT name their daughter Kyoshi, it's just too cute.

Iroh: So, I've sort of turned the nob to 11 on Iroh's imprisonment. Mostly for time, I think. I didn't think this Zuko was the guy that would go frequently to his uncle's cell when he knows the man isn't going to talk to him. So, yes, in case it was unclear, Iroh IS faking. It's a rope-a-dope, a ruse, a feint. And considering that Ozai probably was probably evil-giggling in his evil pointy shoes about it, it is a successful one. He is in violation of evil overlord rule #3 "My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon." While Iroh isn't his half-brother the rest is still VERY applicable.

Jang Hui: shock of shocks, when Zuko actually looks around at his own nation he finds out that it's not doing so hot (hot? Get it?). Kinda makes him look like a jackass, when looking back at all the EK villages he sneered at doesn't it? That is the entire point. Zuko, is growing up, discarding the childish fantasies he had and really coming to grips with the way the world, and the FN, are. Yet ANOTHER reason he HAD to come home.

The Painted Lady: Yes, it's Katara. I threw all that other face changey stuff in there to give Zuko an out. And by OUT I mean a way which he walks away from this situation alive. Katara is pissed, and seriously on the brink of murder. Luckily Bo is there, avec baby. That calms her right hell down. I like to think that, while their interaction was limited, Bo and Katara hit it off during the events of "The White Lotus Tile." Bo, being a smart woman (who despite being personally forthright grew up among a family of manipulators) plays off the Spirit angle nicely and defuses the situation. She knows it's Katara, as there is no reason that she should be seeing her face there and then. So they spend an hour kibitzing behind a wall of fog, doing that normal girl chat thing while Bo calms her down from murderous rage. I imagine it was a good time.

That's IT. No more. I could introspect for DAYS but that's not actually getting this published is it?

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will continue to do so in the future.

Remember to like/kudos/subscribe/comment/review/tell-a-friend!

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NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...

Zuko is forced to use his vacation time, and sets things on fire.

TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!

Original post date: 9 December 2018