Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Avatar rights or copyrights or whatever. I only own a couple characters, and my ideas in my crazy head.

Warning: Rated T for some intense scenes, and one or two instances of...language

Chapter 7: I need you to do me a favor

It had only been an hour, and the woman they had captured was still giving them a headache. Or at least, Tenzin had a headache. He wasn't so sure about the rest of the men trying to extract information from her, but he knew she was extremely irritating to at least him.

"Look, just tell us if you know about the girl!" one of the men said.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" she retorted.

"The girl!" he shouted. Tenzin decided now was probably about the time that he should step in, if only to minimize on the ache growing in his forehead.

"She's probably telling the truth," he said, stepping up. "It's not like we've given her a very good description."

"So what should we do?"

Tenzin eyed the woman. She was about 30 or 35, with long brown hair caught up in a high tail, something usually seen in working women of the city. She had long pants and a vest over a simple shirt. Probably service industry.

"I'll take care of her. Leave." The men gave him a look, but at his stern gaze they shuffled out of the tent, and he pulled a chair up to in front of the woman's own, straddling it backwards. She glared at him and made a show of pulling at the ropes that tied her hands behind her back.

"Look, I'm just trying to find out something. Trying to find someone."

"So you abduct innocent people and tie them to a chair? Sounds like the way to do it to me."

"We didn't mean to take you. We were looking for someone else, you just got in the way!"

"Well, I'm sorry I foiled your kidnapping plans!" she shot back.

Tenzin leaned back in his chair, keeping his forearms firmly rested on the back. "What makes you think we were going to kidnap her?" he asked.

The woman snorted. "I'm sorry, I must have misinterpreted the half dozen hulking henchmen who jumped out of the tree above me. I'm sure you meant that to be sweet. I can see it, now."

Tenzin rubbed his forehead again. "Well, you aren't wrong." He stayed quiet for a long minute before rising from his chair and moving behind the woman.

"What are you doing?" she asked, nervously shifting.

Well, it's not like you gave her a reason to trust you, he thought.

He started to untie the bonds around her wrists.

"Starting over from scratch," he said. She warily watched him as she rose. "My name is Tenzin," he said, bowing shallowly. "Welcome to my home."

'The woman watched him for a long while before finally relenting. "Jia."

"Jia. A nice name," he said, smiling.

"Yeah."

"Well, Jia, I'd like to ask you a question. Have you seen a girl, a young woman, we believe her to be around 16 or 17? She would be carrying a pass and papers with the royal seal on them."

"Yeah, and I would be to. Passes all have the royal seal, it's custom."

"Ah, yes, but this young lady also has the official seal of the Fire Lord. Have you seen a girl like that? Or anyone out of the ordinary, for that matter."

Jia crossed her arms. "And why do you want to find her?"

This woman knew something. Tenzin smiled sweetly. "The pass is illegal," he lied. "A forgery. A very good one, at that, but still a fake. The woman is a wanted fugitive of the law."

"What did she do?"

He had to be very careful about this one. If the woman knew someone, and she didn't match the descriptions of the crimes he gave, she would shut down. Dismiss any information she had as a mistake. He thought carefully.

"She's been making these passes and selling them, very quietly, but not unnoticed. Not many passes are endowed with the ruling authority's seal. We've only recently caught up to her. It's a very lucrative business, you see, and she moves quite frequently with large sums of cash."

"We?"

He blinked and smiled to himself. "Yes, myself a small contingent of elite agents, a subsect of the Fire Nation Army. Very hush hush. We're dedicated to tracking down individuals such as this woman." Now he had her. He could see it in her eyes, in the way she shifted her feet and wouldn't look at him.

"Do you have information that you want to tell me?" he asked gently.

Jia looked at him with knowing eyes. He had to be careful with this one; she was smart, and one wrong step could cost him days of precious time.

"There was a girl…She stayed at my inn."

Now he had her.

Zuko stepped off the flying contraption and into Ba Sing Se with a content sigh escaping his lips.

"Happy to be on the ground again, sir?" Ping asked. Zuko shook his head.

"Happy to be on this ground." The Earth Kingdom was one of his favorite places to visit; most of the time, he could travel largely unnoticed and unaccosted—either because of his disguise, the fact that no one he met knew what the Fire Lord actually looked like, or because in Earth Kingdom culture, it was rude to pry—he wasn't quite sure which. But it didn't matter; all that mattered was he could travel without all the fanfare of the Fire Nation if he wished.

"Ping, what does my schedule look like for this afternoon?" he asked, deeply inhaling the scent of Earth and flora present in this Nation.

"Well, sir, it's pretty empty, save for a dinner with the Earth King and a few representatives from the Water Tribes two hours after sundown. We weren't expected until much later, but the flying machine met with favorable winds. Would you like me to schedule something a little earlier?"

"No, keep my schedule open. I want to visit an old haunt of mine."

"Shall I ready the escort, then?"

"No, I'd like to go without really—um, being recognized. I'll see you later tonight, yes? Let's say, sundown so I can prepare for the dinner." Zuko started to walked away, towards the exit he knew would take him where he needed to be.

"Ah, sir!" Ping called after him.

"What?" an exasperated Zuko returned, facing his attendant.

"Your, um, your robes, sir," Ping said, somewhat sheepishly. He did not like to point out his master's misgivings, but sometimes he could be so hotheaded.

"Yes, what about them?" Zuko asked, looking down. "Oh." He was still dressed in his royal finery, the robes he had worn for the formal exit from the Fire Nation for this trip. But looking up at the time, he saw he only had a few hours left until sundown, and he wanted to spend as many of them as he could in Ba Sing Se. He looked at Ping, seeking his faithful attendant to come up with some brilliant plan to help him with his needs. Then he had an idea.

"Ping…" he said sweetly. "Come here…"

"Yes, sir?" Ping asked as he approached. Zuko put his arm around him.

"Ping, I need you to do me a favor," he said, very quietly.

"What is it, sir?"

"I need you to give me your robes."

"Would you like to come with us?" Tenzin asked Jia as the men of his group prepared to head out farther along the road. It was just sunset, and they hoped to catch the girl, Katara, as Jia said, before she made camp.

"Why? Wouldn't I be in the way?" Jia asked. "Can't you just let me go?"

No. Tenzin could not let Jia go, much as he liked her—she couldn't be trusted once the Fire Lord discovered what had happened to the girl. She knew who he was, and what he looked like, and the location of his camp—not that he couldn't move, but he would rather keep her close than anything else. Once they captured Katara, they could decide what to do with Jia.

"No, not at all. You'd help us identify her if she came down the road or was setting up camp. You're the only person who's ever seen her."

Jia looked thoughtful for a minute, then she nodded. She still believed what Tenzin had told earlier was true.

Shame on you for lying! The voice of his mother in his head made Tenzin grit his teeth and struggle to keep his composure. He motioned for Jia to go ahead of him so she wouldn't see him grapple with his emotions.

I thought I raised you better than that! And why are you lying anyway? Why couldn't you have just settled down and been safe? The war is over! When you had kids, you could've brought their airbending talents to the eyes of the Avatar and—

And explained how we lived in fear of the Fire Nation and its Lords for a thousand years! That is why I am doing this: for you, mother. So that no one else has to live in the same fear that you did! Tenzin argued back.

Tenzin's own personal dialogue was not something he wanted to reveal to the others of his group, and so he kept it quite. Here, his past was unknown—he was simply the leader who had brought them all together—the one who had combined the group of people he had seen suffer under the previous Fire Lord, ones who had been suffering, like his family, for generations.

These were the people who had banded together for the cause, though they didn't quite know exactly what the cause was. Sometimes, in the dead of night, his mother's voice invaded his head, telling him what he already knew—it's wrong to do this, it's wrong to deceive them, it's wrong to tell them that their supporting what they're really not. He didn't like it, but he knew it was true.

He was a great leader; everybody said so. Determined, intelligent. A brilliant strategist. They thought he was fully committed to the cause, and he was. It just wasn't the cause they believed it was.

His inner monologue was interrupted when they arrived at the area where the men had gathered; packing up their things for the night, preparing for a (hopefully) successful evening. When the men saw Jia, their conversations hushed, the hustle and bustle that would've contained careless banter without her resolving into careful preparedness and strategic professionalism. No one wanted to give the secret away.

She's such a nice lady, and your lying to her. You're lying to all of them.

To quiet his mother's voice, Tenzin held up his hand and raised his voice.

"We leave in twenty minutes!"

He could hear her disapproval in her silence.

Zuko wandered through the streets of Ba Sing Se with a hood over his head, like he used to, long ago. Or was it really only a few months? He couldn't remember—the days felt like weeks, the weeks months, the months years. It had been such a long time—so many different changes had occurred in the city. While it had always been freer than most of the other nations, now Ba Sing Se whirred with a newfound hope. Refugees were leaving, returning to their villages. Soldiers were coming home; the economy—one of the few to have suffered very little during the Hundred Years War—was stronger than ever. The Fire Lord liked to see that—it gave him hope.

He finally had arrived outside the Jasmine Dragon, which was positively humming with good energy. Zuko smiled. His uncle would have it no other way.

"Can I help you?" asked a petite girl as he walked through the open doors into the warmth of the tearoom. Zuko removed his hood and cloak and handed it to the girl. "Oh! Fire Lord Zuko! Right this way, please."

He shouldn't be surprised that the workers at his uncle's tea shop knew who he was; there was a giant portrait of him and uncle, along with Katara, Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Suki on the wall. Uncle Iroh surrounded by the saviors of the nation. Zuko wondered briefly when Iroh had had that commissioned, and what he had used as reference for Zuko, since he knew he had never sat for a portrait for Iroh.

"Zuko? Oh, it is you!" Iroh rumbled over, all smiles and shaking bellies, accompanied by the petite serving girl, and—a baby. Zuko wondered what that was about. "I thought maybe Mayling was seeing things, she does get so overexcited!"

"I do not, Iroh!" the girl, Mayling, said. She placed her hands on her hips for emphasis. "And besides, how could I not recognize your own nephew? You talk about him all the time!"

Uncle let out a great belly laugh, and the baby he was carrying giggle her baby giggle along with him. "That is very true—you caught me there. Here, take Hope while I talk with my nephew, would you? And get us some jasmine tea." Uncle pulled out a chair and sat down after handing off the child.

"Uncle, whose baby was that?"

"Baby! Hope is no baby; she's nearly one! She's a friend's daughter, delivered by the Avatar and Katara—mostly Katara, as I hear—on her way into Ba Sing Se after her mother crossed the Serpent's Pass."

Zuko raised his eyebrows. 'That's quite a story. Any of it true?"

"All of it! Her parents were refugees with no papers, and Aang took pity on them, and the group helped them through the Serpent's Pass. Do you remember how we traveled to Ba Sing Se?" Uncle asked, his eyes going all dreamy.

Zuko shuddered at the though—his uncle, flirting, with a woman with a unibrow and a giant mole. "I'd rather not, thank you very much."

"Neither would I! That horrible tea!" Zuko rolled his eyes—of course his uncle would remember tea.

"Actually, you know, I've been thinking of expanding my business, first to the other rings, then to the traveling teamen at the docks, then—who knows!"

Zuko smiled. "Good for you, Uncle."

"Ah, yes. And now, what are you here for, nephew?"

"I was in town, couldn't I come to visit my favorite uncle?"

Uncle eyed him. "Right after you set down in the flying machine? And where did you get those clothes? From your assistant?"

Zuko looked down at the table nervously, then at the portrait on the wall.

Uncle leaned forward. "Do you want to talk about her?"

Zuko snapped toward his uncle. "What are you talking about?" he asked frantically. His uncle just watched him.

"You seriously think that I haven't noticed? I'm old, Zuko, not blind."

"I don't even know what you're talking about!" Zuko said frantically. He could feel nervous beads of sweat moving down his forehead. Why was Iroh's reaction making him feel this way? He was overreacting surely, but he still couldn't figure out why these stirrings in the pit of his stomach were acting up. That usually only happened when something he didn't want Iroh to know about, but the old man had a way of making his darkest secrets come out.

Iroh was watching him carefully. He glanced at the portrait that hung on the wall and sighed.

"I heard that you and Mai broke up," he said, still regarding the picture. "That must have made your advisors angry."

Zuko rubbed his head, thinking of the headaches he had gone through trying to explain to the advisors about his and Mai's personal business. "They weren't happy, yes."

"As your advisor, I wouldn't be, either. Mai was a like to the colonies—her family was also well regarded in the entire Fire Nation."

Zuko watched his uncle carefully, then turned his attention to the wood grain on the table.

"As your uncle, and someone who loves you, I am happy." Zuko's head snapped up. He was surprised. Iroh smiled. "Let's go into the back and have a talk. Mayling!" he called. The girl came gracefully over, a tray of teas in each hand. "You can handle everything out here, right Mayling?" She nodded.

"Of course, boss."

"Then my nephew and I will be going to the back. We have important business to discuss."

"Alrighty then!" the cheerful girl then slipped away between tables, dropping teas as she went.

"Come," said his uncle, leading him into a bright, warm kitchen, and further into the back. "Let's talk."

Katara was walking through the woods quietly, enjoying the relative silence of the forest. The wind rustled through the trees, the birds faintly moving about in the branches. She breathed in and out the sweet serenity.

She had been walking for awhile, her eyes growing used to the ever-growing darkness as the sunset, and her accustomed to the sounds around her. It was when the top rim of the sun finally set down against the horizon that her ears picked up something not quite right with the sounds of the forest. It sounded like faint whispers, like people moving stealthily through the trees, making the occasional out-of-place sound in the silent forest. When she picked up the sound of songbirds calling through the trees, she knew her feelings of trepedation were not unfounded—songbirds didn't sing that late into the night. Carefully, she placed a hand on her waterskin and popped the cork, using waterbending to make sure not a drop spilled or went to waste. She also expanded her senses, feeling the pull of the water in the trees, the plants, the air. When the men dropped down out of the trees, Katara was prepared, water out and ready for a fight.

Tenzin cursed silently as he watched the girl tense. She slowed slightly, a hand resting on her hip, then her waterskin. He watched the barely perceptible twitch of muscles as she uncorked the bag. But by that time, his men were already in position, already making their way out to ambush her.

It doesn't matter, he thought to himself. There are too many of them for just one waterbender to take alone.

His mother's voice stayed silent, her disapproval apparent even in his mind.

When they dropped down around her, his men, he saw the look in their eyes go from fierce pride to fear in the space of a few milliseconds. Katara, the girl, already had water out, was already bending, taking out his men in droves as they went after her. In the space of only a few seconds, ten of his men had been taken.

"Shit," he cursed. Why hadn't he known this could happen? Why hadn't he known that the girl could have been a Master? This was only going to end one way.

Tenzin reached behind him and into the quiver on his back. He carefully felt the feathers of the arrows, silently distinguishing one from another, never daring to take his eyes off the fight in front of him. The girl was still going strong, despite some of his men's repeated charges at her. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Tenzin pulled an arrow and carefully nocking his arrow and taking aim. He waited a few more seconds until the girl was in the perfect place, then let loose.

Katara thought she heard the slight sigh of the air as the arrow flew towards her, striking her square and strong. She arched around the shaft as it pierced her back, the water she was bending falling, useless, into a puddle beneath her as she herself fell into it, facing the night sky just as the stars were coming out. As her vision darkened, she thought she saw a man's face over her in the darkness.

Zuko remembered his uncle's voice, calling his name in the growing darkness. He could hear it, distant against the mind-numbing shot of white-hot pain in his back and his chest.

What's happening? he thought faintly as the darkness grew greater.

What happened?

A/N: I'm a bad, baaaaad, person, I know. But I'm already starting work on the next chapter? :_/

So, anyway, the reason we're all here-Zutara. Okay, weeeell, it's the reason I'm here. I only tagged Katara in this cause, mostly, the story revolves around her. But I'm pro'ly gonna change it to Zutara. YAY ZUTARA.

And YAY intrigue, I hope? Yeah? Let me just supply the questions rumbling through your mind: What's Tenzin's motivation? Why does he want Katara so badly? And why the hell does he keep talking to himself with his mother's voice? And what's up with that whole Haru thing? Are we ever going to see him again? And Jia? What the hell? Are you really that stupid? And what happened to Zuko? Why does he have pain in his back? Is he just old? WHAT?

If you have answers to any of these questions and you leave them in a review, I'll give you a cookie. ^_^

C'mon, I love reviews. I think I would even like them if they berated me for being so late. (No promises, though)

Anyway, now I'm done. Yay?