A.N. Firstly, thank you very much for your reviews and support! There's nothing like a few kind words in a review to brighten my day. So this chapter kind of ended up being twice as long as the first chapter on accident. That's the way it goes, sometimes, I suppose. Please let me know what you think.

Chapter 2

Reaching the closest Dai Li branch seemed to take forever. It was as though I was stuck in one of those bad dreams where, no matter how fast I tried to run, it felt like I could only run in slow motion. My feet flung icy water behind me as they pounded on the rain-slicked stone streets. To top it off, the particular street I was on had been worn smooth by centuries of foot traffic. Damn Earth Kingdom and their stupid tendency to build everything out of stone. It was hard to find good purchase in these conditions, which only added to the feeling of being unable to move forward.

I was nearly sent sprawling face-first into the ground when a drunk beggar stumbled directly into my path mid-run. As it was, I dodged to the side, barely avoiding a head-on collision with him. I thought I'd managed to maneuver past him without incident when my feet hit a particularly slippery patch of stone and they slipped out from under me. I landed hard, this time not managing to roll gracefully to my feet. If I wasn't already soaked to the bone, I would've been after this tumble into the muddy street.

I sprang to my feet and whirled to face the man angrily, "Watch where you're going!" Half of me was ready to burn this man's drunken eyebrows off. I was getting real tired of tripping into and over people this morning. I was about to continue my headlong run when I noticed something odd about the old man.

He seemed oblivious to my anger, merely holding out his arm before him, shaking the tin cup in his hand that held only a few coins. "Please, spare some coins? Any coins to spare, young man?" He drawled in a garbled voice. Then I noticed the thin strip of dirty cloth tied around his face to cover his eyes. A sudden realization hit me and I felt a small pang of something like guilt at my initial fury. This man was no drunk. He may have reeked, but not of booze. More like a cesspit. The only crime he was guilty of was blindness.

I was suddenly struck with a memory of my uncle and myself in a similar situation. We probably hadn't smelled much better after days on the run and no time or means to clean up properly. Almost everyone had treated us with contempt and scorn, but there had been a few people who had given us their own money. I glanced up the street in the direction I was heading. I couldn't shake my sense of urgency, but this would only take a short moment. I pulled out my money pouch and slipped a few small coins into the man's battered little cup. Pao, the tea shop owner, still paid us little to nothing, despite all the new business my uncle was bringing in, but I could spare these.

At the sound of more coins added to his meager collection, the old man beamed at me, his mouth opening to reveal yellow teeth. "Oh thank you, young man, thank you!" he said, "Your kindness is appreciated!" Suddenly, he reached out with his free hand. At first I thought he intended to strike me and my whole body tensed, ready to deliver a return blow. Instead, he merely touched my face, feeling its surface beneath his calloused fingers. I was frozen for a moment, ashamed at thinking the worst of this broken old man yet again, when his hand suddenly brushed over my old scar. We both jerked back violently and there was a moment of tense silence.

Finally, I took a step back. "I…need to get going." I said tightly, and set off at an even more grueling pace than before.

After that unnerving experience, I almost welcomed the blind rush to the Dai Li branch despite the reason I was heading there in the first place. When I reached its front, I noticed the sodden wooden sign hanging over the door to the small building advertising its purpose as the Dai Li branch of this particular section of the city. It was small, despite being two stories. It would house a small team of street keepers in the upper floor and a small area for the actual station itself on the first floor. I reached for the door handle and tried to open the door, but it didn't budge. Locked. Who locked a law enforcement building where citizens reported crimes? Didn't that defeat the purpose if those same people couldn't get in?

I snarled in frustration and pounded on the door. "Open up!" I shouted as loudly as I could. "I have a crime to report!"

For a moment, I heard nothing, but then I could hear what sounded like a wooden chair being scraped back from a table. I heard one voice hiss something angrily, and another responded gruffly in kind. It sounded like they were having some sort of debate about opening the door. I gritted my teeth.

"I'm here to report a murder!" I called out, pounding the door for emphasis. "The murderer might have been the Ice Killer."

I heard a nasal guffaw of laughter erupt from behind the door. "Ha! I told you, Po! Another mud scraper come here to tell tales."

Mud scraper? Did that low-level paper-painting good-for-nothing just call me a mud scraper? I'd heard a few Ba Sing Se natives use the term before. They'd used it cruelly and maliciously, and it was only later that I found out it was a derogatory term for the refugees who continuously flooded into the city. "This is serious!" I tried again, barely managing to keep my anger in check.

Before I could go on, the nasal-voiced man interrupted me, "Oh, you hear that, Po? He says it's serious! Tell me, boy, did you see a tall dark figure attack in the dead of night?"

I inhaled as deeply as I could and exhaled, feeling my breath come out hotter than it should have. It would not do to incinerate Dai Li agents, even if they were just low-level street keepers. "No, you idiot, I found-"

The cover to the small rectangular slit in the door slid open with a loud clack, interrupting me yet again. A pair of angry green eyes glared out at me. "Now listen here, boy," the nasal-voiced man spat, "You're talking to a bona fide Dai Li agent, you better mind your mouth!"

"I'll mind my mouth when you mind you duties!" I retorted.

"Why, you little-!" suddenly, the pair of eyes jerked violently to the right.

"Shut your whining trap, Fai." The gruff voice from before said, almost as an aside, then a new pair of eyes, heavy bags beneath them, peered out.

I felt a small glimmer of hope. Maybe this agent would be more reasonable. "I'm here to report a murder." I repeated.

"Right, by the… Ice Slicer, is that it?" his voice was heavy with skepticism.

Inhale. Exhale.

"Yes. Well, at least, I think so. He was sliced up pretty badly, and he had ice burns."

"Look, kid, I'm going to stop you right there. We've been getting nothing but false reports about the ice guy from people like you every day since the second murder. I'm going to need a little more to go on than regurgitated rumors to leave this place to head out in that godforsaken rain. I'd suggest you leave while I'm still in a good mood."

I was momentarily speechless. Since arriving in Ba Sing Se, I hadn't really viewed the Dai Li as anything other than a potential threat. A group to be avoided at all costs. But now it seemed like I needn't have bothered, as they weren't interested in catching criminals at all, even when information was brought straight to them. Still, I had gone all this way, I wasn't about to be shut down by some self-important, lazy, nobodies.

"Look, I know you'd rather sit around all day sipping your tea and warming your feet, but there's a dead body in the street, and someone else could be next."

Suddenly, the door clicked open and the man named Po stepped out. I'm not short by any means, but beneath his looming bulk, I felt shorter even than my uncle. His tired eyes glowered at me from beneath dark eyebrows and he sported a thick goatee. "Now I'm in a bad mood, kid. Leave. Now. This isn't a suggestion."

I refused to be intimidated by him and stood my ground. If I had learned anything from my father, it was to never back down from a fight, and this was important. I had found a dead body, and, however incompetent these men might be, I had to let the Dai Li know so someone with more sense could investigate. I saw a man who must've been Fai standing behind Po. In contrast to Po's tall bulk, Fai was thin and wiry and even shorter than myself. An anticipatory grin was on his face, as if he couldn't be more excited to watch me get my face pounded in.

Po squared his shoulders and took on a combative stance of an earthbender. "Can't say I didn't warn you, kid," He said, then abruptly sent a large chunk of earth flying at me. I easily dodged it, and I guessed this was his version of a warning shot. It was as this thought crossed my mind that I realized just how stupid it would be to get into a fight with this man. Not only was I trying to enlist his help, but I couldn't use my firebending and I had no weapons on me. I wasn't completely incompetent in hand-to-hand combat, but with his earthbending to contend with, it definitely wouldn't be easy.

"Fine," I threw up my hands in defeat, unable to hide my disgust as I turned my back on them, "Obviously I was wrong to think you guys were worth wasting my time on." Then I began to stalk away.

"What is the meaning of all this?" a sharp baritone suddenly cut through the sound of the pouring rain, causing me to stop short, jerking my head in its direction. I wasn't the only one who started to attention at the sound. Both Po and Fai stiffened, and from the look of the blood draining from Fai's face, they knew who was speaking. He was a tall man, not as tall or burly as Po, but he nonetheless struck an imposing figure. He must've been around my father's age. He had dark hair and green eyes like many of the earth kingdom's citizens, but he would be easily recognizable in a crowd for his sharp features and the self-assured way he carried himself.

"D-detective Lee…" Fai stammered gracelessly.

"Sir," Po gave a curt nod and saluted, Fai clambering to follow suit. "We were just dealing with a disturbance. It's been taken care of. He was just leaving." Po explained, as if that were the end of that.

"Actually, it hasn't been taken care of," I interrupted, "…sir" I added, catching myself at the last moment. I couldn't afford to offend this man as well, he may be my last chance. "I was trying to report a murder."

Detective Lee turned his attention toward me, considering. I felt as though I was being visually dissected, picked apart and prodded for even the smallest clue my appearance might give away. I struggled to stay still, a small part of me was thankful for my endless lessons in the proper posture in poise of a prince as a child. I guess my teachers hadn't been wrong when they'd said I'd thank them one day. His gaze flickered to my scar last and longest. It'd been a long time since I'd felt as self-conscious about it as I was today. "Who are you?" He finally asked me.

"My name is…Lee." I said. His gaze had been so penetrating, I had hesitated to lie to him. As though I thought he could read my mind and catch me in the act.

To my surprise, the detective cracked a small smile, "What do you know? Another Lee. There are too many of us running around these streets, I must say." He chuckled softly, but his gaze turned sober after a moment. "You said you were attempting to report a murder?" He asked.

"Yes, detective," came Fai's grating voice, "He claims he found a man killed by the Ice Slicer. We've had nothing but false reports claiming the same thing for almost a month now!"

Instead of berating Fai for interrupting as I'd hoped, Lee only said, "Is that so?" Then he turned back to me, "Lee, what makes you think it was the Ice Slicer?"

"Well, he had the ice burns on his wrists" I told him, "And he looked like someone had," I swallowed, "…cut him up pretty bad."

"Would you say there was one cut that was surely the one that killed him?" Lee asked.

I hardly had to think of my response, "Yes. His throat. For sure."

Lee continued to study me for a moment, then seeming satisfied, he turned to Po and Fai, both of whom were looking at me with wide eyes. "Did you realize that your witness here seems to know something about this case that only we, as investigating agents of the Dai Li, should know?"

Fai seemed to realize he was on thin ice because his tone was more respectful than I thought him capable of when he responded, "We didn't know, sir. No."

"Did you ask your witness?"

This time, Po responded, "No, we failed in that regard, sir."

"So, you failed to investigate a possible clue in a murder investigation because…?"

"No excuse can make up for our failing here, Detective," Fai said ingratiatingly, "We ask your forgiveness."

Both Po and Fai bowed. Detective Lee gestured for them to stand up straight and said, "Nevermind that now, if what this witness says is true, and I believe he is, we have a body to retrieve. Both of you, come with me. Lee, you'll lead the way."

"Finally." I muttered. Aloud, I only said, "Yes, sir."

Po and Fai disappeared inside the branch building and reappeared a moment later carrying a gurney made of wood. They had it tilted sideways between them and Po carried a folded woolen blanket in his free hand. Lee nodded in my direction, and I turned around to lead them back the way I had come. I steeled myself as we moved forward, disturbing the puddles that were everywhere and leaving small ripples in our wake. It was one thing to trip over a dead body, another thing entirely to come back to such an unwelcome sight. Still, I didn't hesitate. I had important work to do.

A.N. Congrats! You made it to the end again! Thanks for reading. I would really appreciate your thoughts on the story so far. Any speculation? Anywho, I have some great surprises in store for poor Zuko. Things should pick up in the next chapter. Thanks again for reading and reviewing!