DISCLAIMER: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender

CHAPTER 20

Civil war was close. Too close. Zuko didn't like the idea of having troops assembled and stationed outside of Jazminra at all. The riots were becoming almost daily, and the threats weren't exactly nonexistent either. The Ozai supporters, now called the Phoenix Children, knew that their time was coming. All they needed was a little break in the chain to set the beast free.

Cinrae and Zuko had been missing for months. Actually, now that Zuko thought about it, their birthday was coming up in a few weeks. They'd be eighteen years old. If they were home, there would be a large, extravagant party bigger than their Sweet Sixteen. Cinrae would be presented to the best of the best of Fire Nation noble families, hopefully gaining a Fire Prince out of it. Zuko would pick from an extensive line of young nobel girls his Fire Lady. The line would continue. But now, the future was so blurry and uncertain, who knew what was going to happen next.

The Masacre of Lazcore was a whole new issue that had adopted an entire corner of his study desk. Explination? There was none. Only crazy stories from dazed "survivors" that flowed into the city like a viruse. The Fire Nation looked to Zuko for answers that he would never have. This only made the civil war more eminent. The loss of the Zen, the boy who could have been the next Fire Lord, was just the icing on the politically unstable cake.

He needed his mother. For the first time since his banishment, he admited that he needed, wanted, his mother there to tell him what to do. He always expected to Jasmine to be that for him. We all know how that turned out. He could only hope that things either got amazingly better, or gradually worse. The latter was the most believable.

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The sun creeped through the heavy curtains that covered the window into my small room, touching my skin and immediately heightening my senses. As soon as my eyes opened, I had the most nagging, terrible feeling that Manek and I needed to leave. Now.

"Get up." I said to Manek as I flung open the curtains to his room. He groaned and turned over, glaring at me.

"What do you mean 'get up'? It's, what, six in the morning?"

"5:45 to be exact." I threw a shirt at Manek's half asleep form, since he slept without a shirt on, and proceeded to pack his things for him.

"Cinrae, why don't you just tell me what's going on?" I stopped in my tracks and looked at him, an anxious, almost crazy fire in my eyes.

"I don't know." I finally said. Manek groaned, and fell back on his bed. "But, whatever it is, it isn't good. Some one is after us."

"Some one's always after us, if you haven't noticed." said Manek with a long, languid arm flung over his face. "I've come to accept it as a normal part of my day. You should follow my example." I ignored his obvious sarcasm, and continued to rush around. I now flew his packed bag at his head, recieving an annoyed glare.

"Us. Leaving. Now."

It was very early in the morning, and I didn't think that the doctor and his daughter would be up at that hour, but to my surprise, he was sitting in the kitchen, arched over a large scrool, sipping at his tea. His daughter was busy at the stove, cooking something that, even from the door, smelled delicious. The doctor looked up at us, and smiled, even though he was slightly confused by our presence.

"Well, um, good morning young ones. Good-very-early-morning." I quickly told him that something had come up that demanded our leave, and he didn't seem to mind, even though on the inside I knew he was sad for the absence. His daughter packed us enough extra food to feed the Earth Kingdom for a decade.

Outside, the village was just begining to wake, and the sleepy cloud was being shaken off. I looked around anxiously, waiting for the inevitable ambush. Manek nudged me, jolting me back into reality.

"So, just take this medicine if you have anymore pain, and try not to stretch that area. No archery. No jumping. No running into flying blades." said the doctor with a slight glint in his eye. Manek smiled and accepted the large vile of green liquid.

"Thank you for your hospitality, doctor. We owe so much to you and your daughter." I said bowing in thanks.

"The pleasure was entirely mine. Take care, and stop by some time." said the doctor. We smiled and nodded, and the doctor closed the door. I exhaled, and Manek and I turned and continued out journey.

We were only a few buildings away from the doctor's home, when that nagging feeling finally hit home. I felt this sharp, terrible pain in the back of my neck, so much so that it made me stop in my tracks. I slowly turned around, and my instincts once again proved correct. A group of dangerous looking men riding rhinos rode through the city gates. I grabbed Manek's arm, and pulled him into the ally.

"What the bloody..."

"Shh." I said, never taking my eyes off the men.

One was a bald man with a long, thick brown beard with streaks of gray running through it. He carried a halberd, a weapon that looked like it was everlastingly sharp. Another was extremely muscled, with the darkest skin I've ever seen on a Fire Nation man. His hair was up in a braided ponytail, and a long ring of chains hung at his hip. Another man wore a thick helmet, complete with red mask with angled slits in it. He was decked completely in armor, hiding his entire body from view. He had what looked like thousands of small explosives in bags strapped to his rhino. Another man looked to be the youngest of the group. He had long brown hair, and red paint on his face. A bow was strapped to his back along with hundreds of arrows. The last man was the most intimidating. He had short black hair that he kept up and decked with feathers. He wore an armored chest plate, leaving his muscled arms exposed. His short mustache was braided, with white hairs starting to show through. These men didn't play, and it was obvious.

"Friends of yours?" asked Manek in a whisper.

"Certainly not. They're the Rough Rhinos."

"Hm. Sounds like a boy band."

"Far from it." Suddenly, the leader with the feathers in his hair came to the home of the doctor. It took a moment, and after a moment of impatient knocking, the doctor opened the door. He looked up at the man with such calm confidence, I wondered if maybe he was familiar with the Rhinos.

"May I help you gentlemen?" he asked.

"We're looking for a runaway and an outlaw." said the leader. "Seen anyone fitting that description?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but I've been seeing my regular patients all week." The leader suddenly grabbed the doctor by his shirt collar and slammed him into the side of the building. The daughter attempted to run out of the building to help her father, but the man with the helbard and the archer stopped her.

"Listen here, you Earth Kingdom scum, we have heard directly from the people in this town that two suspecious characters stumbled into your building and stayed for two days. Now, you need to tell me the truth, or Yeh-Lu here will have to use his new explosives on your establishment here." The man with the armored mask fiddled with a small explosive in his right hand. The doctor glanced at it, fear starting to appear in his eyes, and then looked back at the leader who was gruffly pinning him against the wall.

"I assure you, I know nothing of an outlaw or a runaway. I am just a humble doctor, I help whomever comes to my door, I don't ask about their lives. Two strangers came to me with terrible injuries, and I treated them, then they left, that's all."

The leader sighed, and shook his head, as if he was disappointed.

"I don't believe you. But, you gave me enough." The leader dropped the doctor to the ground, and the daughter broke free to run to his side. The leader remounted his rhino, and looked down on the shivering father and daughter.

"You seem like a smart man, and the people of this town seem to think pretty highly of you, but you don't know when to let the strangers pass. Too bad you'll have to pay for it. Yeh-Lu." Suddenly, a small bomb was flung at the building, and withing seconds, it exploded in flame. I tried to run to help them, maybe being able to stop the fire, but Manek grabbed me and dragged me away. We kept running, keeping to the shadows until we were out of town.

We stayed off of the road, running through the thick brush until we were about a mile from the gates of the town. We finally stopped running long enough to catch our breath and comprehend what just happened.

"We have to go back and help them." I said, half out of breath.

"No, we are not doing anything until I, personally, know what's going on. Who were those guys?" I stood up straight, looking away from him.

"They're the Rough Rhinos, once the most feared division of the army. They put fear in the hearts of thousands of Earth Kingdom citizens by murdering, pillaging, and anything else they could do to cause fear and mayhem. They each are a master of some king of fighting art, and they aren't afraid to make it known. After years of following the demented rules of my grandfather, they broke free and did what they wished. My father exiled them as soon as he came to power. In my opinion he should have executed the bastards. I guess they've now turned to bounty hunting to get their sick high."

Manek looked at me, a slight smile on his lips.

"Has anyone ever told you that you are terribly intimidating when you talk about how much you hate evil?" I thought for a moment and nodded.

"Yeah, actually. I just wonder who would turn us over to bounty hunters. Certainly not my father." Manek groaned and sat down on a near by boulder and proceeded to rub his feet.

"Assasins, bounty hunters. What's next, rouge Spirits?" I shrugged, and ran my fingers through my hair. Manek did have a point. The most unexpected people were coming after me. Maybe someone was paying their checks. Someone who really wanted me dead.

"Well, we should be getting off." said Manek, standing. I was barely listening to him, caught up in my own thoughts. I felt him touch my arm, and I was jolted back into reality. I looked at him and managed a smile.

"Okay. Let's go." Staying close to the road, we headed for out next destination, our next adventure. But, we weren't alone.