A/N: Here it is. Chapter two. Okay seriously, I promise the sentence "okay, let's split up and search for clues" will come up in the next chapter! Swear!

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender. All characters don't belong to me. So don't sue! I don't have any money anyway.

Chapter 2: Body

Zuko at the lights was pale white. He was staring where his sister had been just moments ago. Everyone was looking at each other, frightened. How could she just have disappeared? It wasn't possible. Was it the séance? Had they angered a spirit? Questions were flying around the small circle.

"Guys!" Toph yelled. "Maybe she just got freaked out and ran."

They all sighed at that. Zuko moved from the lights to the door Azula had had her back to. He froze as he stared at it. Everyone's eyes snapped to his back.

"What is it?" Ty Lee asked in a small voice.

"The door," Zuko chocked out. "It's still locked."

Instantly, more chaos broke out. Toph ran over to stand beside him. The door was locked. Same as it had been before. But that was impossible. How could Azula just vanish and not open the door? There was a bang of a gunshot outside the store. All of a sudden it was very quiet. For a moment, no one was even breathing. And even though everyone already knew what happened, Zuko opened the door and headed out to check. No one said a word, but everyone followed behind. He headed for the stairs right behind Hot Topic; he almost seemed to know where he's going. Maybe he did.

The steps clicked under his feet as he took two at a time down. Sokka ran down right behind him and Toph behind him. Aang, Katara and Ty Lee bring up the rear. They didn't want to be the first to see what had happened. The dim lights that lit the stairs were flickering. Sokka vaguely wondered if they would go out soon. Suddenly Zuko stops short. He stood on the second to last step staring, turning white so rapidly Sokka was sure he would faint. There at the bottom of the steps was Azula with a bullet in her head.

"Is she, y'know…dead?" Katara whispered.

It was a pointless question. Of course she was dead. Living people didn't lie on the floor with a slight pool of blood matting their hair and their eyes wide open. Zuko headed down the last few steps and kneeled over at her side. He checked her pulse, already knowing she was dead.

"There's someone else in the mall," he said finally, voicing the words no one wanted to hear. "Someone who knew what was supposed to happen tonight."

"What do you mean by that?" Toph snapped.

"The séance was a set up. It was just supposed to be me, Azula and Ty Lee. Azula got the mall to close early and sent the guards home. Of course she paid them to keep their mouths shut. But then you guys were here and we had to bring you along so she wouldn't accidently run into you on her way out." He looked distant as he gestured to the door, as if nothing could shake him now. "The door is usually unlocked. Not many people actually take the stairs so not many people know that there is a door leading to the street here. She brought the key just in case. The candle was supposed to go out and everyone would be busy trying to put out the fire that no one would notice her sneaking out. I locked the door behind her. I don't really know why we did that. I guess she just wanted to mess with whoever was there. It is Azula," he snorted.

"Why would she do that? Why would she try to scare me?" Ty Lee whimpered from the corner.

"That wasn't the point at all, Ty Lee." Zuko looked up at the flickering lights. "She was supposed to use the key and sneak out of the mall. She was going to meet Jet." He turned to the others and explained, "My mom caught her sneaking out to see him a week ago and she forbade her to go out with him. But she really loves him. More than anything else I've seen. Including Dad." His eyes softened. "She asked me to help her out. 'Just this once,' she says. She promised she wouldn't run away with him. Not yet at least." He snorted and his voice got harder. "And I was worried about her running away. Now she's dead." He shook his head, angrily. "She was supposed to come back later tonight. Back to the house. She was going to say she got scared and ran out."

"But who could have killed her? All of us were in the room when we heard the shot." Sokka looked at Zuko. "Anything else you want to come clean about."

"I didn't kill her! Goddamn it, she's my freaking sister!" His shoulders were sagging slightly as he shook his head.

"I believe him," Toph said from her spot behind Sokka.

"Me too," Ty Lee agreed quietly.

One by one each of them agreed. Zuko was not it. Without warning, the lights went out.

"Omph! Sokka, that's my foot," Toph cried.

"Sorry."

"What happened?" someone else yelled. Ty Lee maybe?

"I don't know," Zuko called back. "Maybe it's just these lights. Like I said, no one really goes down here, so maybe they just forgot to check the lights. We need to get upstairs. If the lights are off up there, then we have the candles we can light."

"Wait, isn't there a store here with flashlights?"

"Yeah, but it's locked. We only brought the keys to the door, Hot Topic and Bath and Body."

So that's where he got the candles from.

"Fabulous," Toph sighed.

In a tangled mess, the all groped for the stairs. Everyone was bumping into everyone else. No one would admit it, but it was a relief to feel other people. At the moment, no one wanted to be caught alone. Caught by what, or who they weren't sure, but everyone knew that if they were caught, how it would end. Finally, there was the sound of the door opening and they stumbled blindly into the darkness of the second floor. Somehow, Zuko was in the lead and was heading for Hot Topic, knowing where to find it even in the dark.

"Over here," he called.

The heard him fiddle with the key against the door and then the whoosh of the door opening. He flicked the light switch experimentally, but nothing was working. He got down on his hands and knees and was joined by the others in searching for the candles.

"Hey, I feel something here. But it isn't a candle," Aang said after a minute.

"Hang onto it," Sokka commanded.

"Got one," Katara announced.

Zuko flicked on his lighter. He could make out the wick of the candle. Very slowly he lit the candle. Then using the light of the flame, the located the other candles. He was eternally grateful that he had agreed to take the thirty pack of candles because Ty Lee liked the way they smelled. He lit a candle for everyone and they could finally see.

"What's that you have, Aang?" Sokka asked.

Aang moved the object so it was in the light. It was a necklace. Silver with a delicate A pendant.

"That's my sister's," Zuko whispered. "Jet gave it to her for Christmas. She always wears it." He frowned and then his eyes widened. "She was wearing it when the lights went out. She was afraid it would get burnt when she knocked the candle over."

They looked at each other in horror. Whoever had killed Azula had come back to leave the necklace they had taken. It was clear now that there was someone else in the mall with them. And they had the keys to every store. There was no hiding now.