Hello everybody and a happy new year for all of you. I'm back with a new chapter at the beginning of this new year. Within this chapter Zuko tries to prove his sister, that she can count on him and so he tries to help Zirin.

As ever, I wish all of you a lot of fun with this new chapter.

Between +...+ Zuko's thoughts

Hospital

Zuko watched his sisters escaping over the roof of one house. He felt, like he could cry, instantly. He had never seen her so desperate, so torn and so helpless before. It made him so desperate too, cause he didn't knew, what was going on with her. And he was angry. Angry, that he couldn't stop her and made her listen. Angry, that he couldn't stop her and let her explain.

+ She didn't trust me. How can I make her trusting me? +

He suddenly turned around and rushed to the girl on the floor. She was badly injured and unconscious. Her breath was weak and she was colder than she should be, but she was alive. But only the spirits knew how long.

+ Help her. +

He picked her up, quickly and started to sprint to his wagon. On his way he called for a soldier.

"Take a mount and return to the Palace with most haste. The healer, the Northern Water Tribe had send to renew the relationship between our Nations should make herself ready. I'll follow with a serious injured person."

The soldier nodded at him, as Zuko was placing the girl gently in his wagon. The man was about to leave, as the Fire Lord gave him a warning order.

"No word to anyone, beside my uncle. This must stay as a secret for now. I'll decide for myself, when or to whom I will give an information about her. And now make haste."

The man sprinted away, mounting a ostrich-horse and left quickly. Zuko also got inside the wagon, as another soldier came to him.

"My Lord. We have found five dead man, four of them dressed like soldiers."

Zuko closed his eyes for a moment. His voice was dark.

"And doctor Hong?"

The solder shook his head.

"Dead, my Lord. He has obviously fought against some of the other men as he died."

Zuko nodded grimly.

"And the others were mercenaries, dressed like soldiers, right? Black Hawks, I presume."

The soldier nodded again. Zuko took a sharp breath.

"Secure the house. I will send assistance, as soon as possible, who should watch over the investigations. It would be Toph or my uncle. No other person would be allowed to join you. Coachman! To the Palace and make haste."

The solder bowed while the wagon started to head back to the Palace.

+ You can count on me, Azula. I will help her. I think she can prove, what I'm suggesting. +

He watched the girl with great worries and hammered with his fist on the front of the cabin.

"Hurry up, her time is running low!"

Zuko's wagon hadn't even stopped completely, as the Fire Lord jumped out of it with the girl in his arms. He rushed towards the entrance of the Palace hospital. The healer was already waiting for him, as he had ordered. The guard was also standing at the entrance and his uncle. All of them made the way clear as he sprinted through the entrance.

"This way, my Lord. The second door on the left."

Rakana was dressed in the colors of the Northern Water Tribe. The woman was nodding with her head down the hall. Her dark hair was braided to a long plait. She was running beside him and had bent some water around her hands and started to check the girl in Zuko's arms. The water started to glow in a bright cold, blue while she was moving her hands over Zirin's beaten body. Her look got more and more worried with every further second. The group entered the room, hasty and Zuko placed the girl on a treatment table. Two assistants joined the woman.

"She has lost a lot of blood."

Rakana's voice was deeply worried and stressed. On of her assistants started to cut Zirin out of her fighting suit.

"All of you, except the medicals staff will leave this room, now!"

Her stressed but commanding voice made all men gasping in surprise, even in this situation. She had also recognized her insult, but the woman didn't stop with her work.

"You may punish me later for my insult, my Lord, but right now I'm more worried about her, than about my reputation, so..."

"Of cause..." Iroh's voice was full of understanding and he push his nephew and the soldier out of the room and closed the door behind them.

"Soldier, you will guard this door with your life, understood?"

The man bowed before Zuko and his uncle and took post beside the entrance of the room. Zuko grabbed Iroh at his shoulder and walked with him a few steps down the hall, so he could speak to him more private.

"Where is Toph, for Agni's sake?"

Zuko's voice was filled with anger and Iroh looked worried at the Fire Lord.

"I haven't seen her, yet, but I think she has left the Palace for investigations. She has given me some minor hints, that she might planning something like this, as we were checking the place of the ambush."

"She did what?!"

The flames of the candles down the corridor rose higher, as Zuko's anger grew even more.

"Why hasn't she informed me about this? Why haven't you informed me about this? I am the Fire Lord!"

Iroh gave him a sad look. Zuko noticed, that he was worried and still searching for a fitting explanation. And suddenly he knew, why.

+ Like Azula. Both are thinking, I wouldn't listen their point of view. I can't even blame them, if I look back at the meeting, yesterday. +

The candles burned lower again and Zuko looked down at the floor.

"Because both of you were thinking, I wouldn't listen. Both of you haven't trust me, that I would also consider your opinions."

Iroh's face showed signs of grief and he was about to pull Zuko in a hug, but he only shook his head.

"No, I have to apologize. Both of you are doing the best you can, and I just snapped at you, as your opinion opposed my own. Just like I did at Kiyi's."

He took a deep breath and faced his uncle.

"But now I will listen and so I ask you, to tell me everything. I promise I will consider your aspects very carefully."

Iroh looked with pride at his nephew. Both placed themselves on a bank at the corridor.

"Toph had found a used straitjacket in the forest. We must consider that Hong wasn't alone in the wagon and that this unknown second person wasn't transported by free will."

Zuko swallowed hard. He thought about the conversation, which had led to the investigations in the asylum.

+ But why didn't they arrested Hong immediately? Why didn't they reported me this fact? +

Zuko didn't followed his instinct to ask this questions. He frowned only and tried to remember everything what happened during the last two days. The conversations, the quarrels and all the hints, they had uncovered, including this new shocking fact. And he came to a conclusion.

"So Toph thinks, that Kokaso is linked too close with Hong and she feared I would have told him, that we have found out, that Hong wasn't only a innocent victim."

Iroh's jaw just dropped. He was simply speechless. Zuko couldn't suppress a little smile, cause this was a very rare reaction from his uncle. The disbelieve in his face was priceless.

"Okay uncle. Now that I have heard this new fact I will give you my suggestions in this case, to show you, that both of you should have trusted me earlier. Like Toph has told you, I suspected an even bigger crime could be linked with this wagon, otherwise Zao wouldn't have removed his marks on it so carefully. So Hong was suspicious to me right from the start. I also haven't missed the fact, that Kokaso did his best to defend him at the meeting. I think you and Toph have decided to hide this fact from Hong, to have an advantage in the upcoming interrogation, as you found the straitjacket, but both of you have feared, that I would tell this twist Kokaso and he might have warned Hong."

Iroh nodded at Zuko, still astonished. Zuko gave him a bitter smile.

"If you would have explained me this plan, I would have supported your decision. This case is too important for me and planning like Azula might do isn't always a bad choice."

Iroh now looked a bit embarrassed, but his face got back to a puzzled look.

"But why haven't you told us your conclusions, earlier? It would have made everything easier."

Zuko's smile faded instantly.

"Because it's about Azula. This troubles me even more, than I thought it could be. It hurts me every day, to know what my father has done to us, so I have lost focus and now things got worse."

His dark and worried face made Iroh nervous. He looked down the corridor to the door of the room, where the young girl was in.

"What happened to her, Zuko? Who is that girl and why is she injured? The sergeant only told me, that the guards at Hong's house were replaced, unannounced."

Zuko stared to the ground.

"Hong is dead. He was attacked by the Black Hawks and killed. I was about to start with the police raid at the asylum, as I got a report, that the guards were replaced according to a false order, so I checked his house for myself with some of my men. We have found four members of the Black Hawks and Hong, all dead. And we found Azula, carrying her."

He breathed hard to keep control of himself, but his eyes seemed to get wet again. Iroh looked shocked at him and closed his eyes with a sad face. Zuko continued with his report, after a few moments.

"She was so desperate, so helpless. I have never seen her so lost before. She has begged me to help this girl and has escaped even before I got a chance to let her explain what has happened. She also hasn't trusted me. She thinks, that I'll put all the blame on her."

"But you won't?"

Iroh watched him carefully and Zuko shook his head and watched his uncle in his eyes.

"No, I won't. The attack must have taken place not long before I reached the house. And the mercenaries have attacked Hong, that's for sure. I think this girl got injured, while she was defending him at Azula's order."

He looked also toward the room, where Zirin was in.

"Maybe she has observed his house for her own investigations. Someone tries to wipe out evidences and Hong was a major threat to anyone, who is also involved in this case. But this incident has crushed this plan. Even if she survives now, she will be in great danger. I have to protect her. She might have more informations about all this mess and Azula also. This might be a way to prove her, that I trust her, at least in this case and maybe she'll start to trust me again."

Iroh watched his nephew for a moment and then he hugged him.

"I do agree with you, Zuko. She has to be protected. As long as this case is unsolved, her life and Azula's life will be in great danger."

Zuko smiled thankfully at his uncle. Suddenly the door opened and Rakana looked at the Fire Lord and waved her hand to offer him to come back to the room. Both jumped up from the bank and rushed back to the wounded girl. She was now dressed with white clothes and placed in a bed. Her face looked better but her eye was still swollen and she was still pale, but her breath was easier and better, like it was before. The assistants were cleaning up the treatment table. Rakana looked exhausted and still worried, but also a little satisfied and proud.

"I could stabilize her. She's a fighter, that's for sure. Someone has cauterized the biggest wound at her waist. I think that has saved her life, but she is still in a critical condition. I will stay with her and watch after her. She will be in the best hands."

She gave the Fire Lord a determined look. Zuko faced the healer seriously.

"I will also stay with her. It must be a secret, that she's here and alive, otherwise her life will be in great danger."

The woman took a short look back at Zirin's bed and nodded at the Fire Lord.

"Not a word, from none of us, I promise my Lord. And no intruder will lay hands on her, as long as I'll be here."

She bent some water out of a big jar with fluid movements and turned it into dozens of sharp icicles, which stayed frozen in the air around her. She smiled at Iroh and Zuko, as she saw their surprised faces.

"Things have changed, since the Fire Nation has attacked the North Pole. Thanks to the Avatar and Katara, women are now also trained as fighters. If someone would try to do any harm to one of my patients, then only over my cold dead body."

She relaxed herself again, turned the ice back into water and let it float back into the jar. Zuko nodded at her.

"I'm glad to hear that. I'll change clothes and then I'll return to help guarding her."

The healer bowed before the Fire Lord.

"Thank you my Lord. And sorry for my insult against you. It won't happen again."

Zuko smiled a bit. The woman reminded him of Katara a bit.

"I think it will happen again, but if it'll be limited at situations like this, it will be excused."

Rakana bowed again and took place on a chair beside Zirin's bed. Zuko and Iroh left the room. They were heading to the Family complex, cause Zuko wanted to change clothes. His robe was covered with Zirin's blood and he didn't wanted the rumors spreading out far too easy. Both men started to walk faster. It seemed to become a long night for both.