Part II: Thirty-One

"Sokka of the Water Tribe," Kubra drawled, leaning against the opening in the wall as if he hadn't a care in the world. "I knew it was you. I knew all along."

Sokka's blood ran ice cold as Kubra's shrewd smile grew sharp. Then he glanced at Mai and his eyes flicked up and down her body. He took a step out of the hole in the wall.

"I don't know you, but I'm guessing you're no whore."

"You're damned right I'm not," Mai said and then moved out from under Sokka's arm before he could react. She pulled two red throwing daggers out of her sleeves before he could even blink. They caught the dim candlelight for one gleaming moment, and then Mai's arm snapped out.

Kubra saw the daggers and held up his hands. "Wait!"

The daggers caught him by the shoulders, pinning his shirt to the wall with a hard bang. He gave a cry, trying to wrench himself free, but Sokka got over his shock and surged forward.

"I'm try—" Kubra started, but Sokka slammed his fist into his face with enough force to break bones. Kubra slumped immediately, his body weight held up only by Mai's daggers buried in the wall. His head slouched forward, blood rolling down his nose and lips.

Sokka lifted his head up by the hair, his pulse thundering hard as he waited, but Kubra was out cold.

"He knew my name," Sokka growled. Mai had come up beside him. He felt her hand on his arm. "He knew who I was."

"He heard me saying it just now."

"But he knew. You heard him," Sokka said, letting Kubra's head slump forward onto his chest. "If he suspected who I was, then he told the Master. Kubra doesn't do anything without the Master's say so."

"We don't know that. Why was he here? Why did he reveal himself?"

Sokka backed up a step. "Better question, what the hell is this?" His eyes fell on the wall that Kubra had opened. He stepped past Kubra, shaking Mai's hand off of his arm. Stepping into the narrow passage, he could see that that it stretched out into the darkness. He couldn't see the end of the passage, but it looked like it ran the whole length of the building.

"Did you know this was here?"

"No. If I did I would have used it to eavesdrop on all the marks I've been after, don't you think?" Mai said, shaking her head. She reached for the part of the wall that had swung open. There was a tapestry on the wall, an intricate thing of swirling colors, showing an erotic scene of two lovers in a field of red flowers. The other side was blank wood, save a brass handle with a lock that could only be worked on the passage-side of the door and a thin brass plate at eye level. Mai saw it too and slid the plate open, revealing a narrow slit along the edge of the tapestry's border. Sokka peered through it, pressing his face to the slit.

Mai ducked back into the room and studied the tapestry. She ran her fingers along the opening as he watched her through the slit.

"It's well hidden. I doubt anyone would notice it was there if they didn't know," she said in a tight voice.

"You can see everything. The entire room. I bet you can hear everything too," Sokka said, and then slammed his fist against the hidden door, making it rattle in its frame. "We thought we were safe. They've been watching us."

"We don't know that," Mai said, as Sokka turned around and felt along the narrow passage between the rooms. He counted the steps and then felt along the darkened wall until he found another brass handle. The door was locked, but like their door, it was only locked to keep the people in the room from opening the tapestry and discovering the passageway. Anyone in the passageway would have access to any room they chose.

He found another brass plate and flicked the peephole open without thinking, putting his eye to the slit.

He gasped and immediately jumped back. He closed the slit with a soft snap. He turned to face Mai, who was framed in the open door to their room a few feet away.

"What? What is it?"

"I saw a penis," he said in a loud whisper.

Mai put an exasperated hand on her hip. "What did you think you'd see peeping into a room in a brothel? A puppet show?"

Sokka wiped a hand down his face and started back to the room. He was tempted to find the end of the tunnel, but he assumed he wouldn't like the answer.

He came back into the room but didn't bother to close the tapestry again. He didn't like the idea of someone sneaking up on them.

"It runs the whole length of the building."

"Make sense," Mai said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I always thought it was strange that none of the rooms were against the outside wall. No windows. I thought it was to keep clients from running out the windows without paying, but now that I think about it..."

"What?"

Mai ducked into the passageway and then turned to look at him. "If I were running a brothel and I wanted to make sure my ladies were safe in a room with a strange man I'd make sure I had way to watch them in secret too. And I'd have a way to get into the room in a moment's notice to stop things from going too far."

Sokka's stomach tightened at that and he glanced at the hidden door.

"I feel sick."

"I feel weirdly comforted," Mai said dryly.

"I don't. We've been meeting here for days, Mai. We've been calling each other by our real names. We've been discussing...everything! Who knows who was listening? Kubra, the Master, Madame Sakura? One of the bouncers? Who knows? And we've... Mai, we've had sex. Someone could have been watching us the entire time."

Mai didn't seem as bothered by that as he'd thought she'd be. She was frowning, rubbing her thumb across her bottom lip.

"You were just with the Master. Did he let on that he knew?"

Sokka licked his lips and thought a moment. "No. No, he still thinks I'm Ran. I'm certain of it."

Mai touched his chest and looked into his eyes. "Then let's assume he doesn't know yet."

"We have to be certain."

Mai's eyes flicked to Kubra, still slumped against the wall, dribbling blood onto the floor between his turned feet. Mai sighed. "I call good cop."

It took some work getting Mai's daggers out of the wall. Sokka took Kubra's weight onto one shoulder while he and Mai wrenched them free. Finally, Kubra sagged in his arms, and lifted him, bringing him over to center of the room and dumping him into a chair Mai had grabbed from the hallway outside.

That done, Sokka shoved Kubra back into the chair. "We need something to tie him up with. A sash or—"

"Here," Mai said, thrusting a length of silky rope into his hand. He looked up at her, startled. Her painted brows lifted a little. "Brothel, remember? There's a whole bunch of stuff in the dresser."

Sokka glanced at the dresser in question. He'd never paid it much mind. His eyebrow quirked. "What kind of stuff?"

"If we live through this maybe I'll show you?" Mai said, flashing him in a quick grin as she got on her knees on the other side of the chair.

"Maybe I'll let you," he said, wrapping the rope around Kubra's body and then lashing his wrists to the arms of the chair. He took one of Mai's daggers and cut the rope, then used the other half to tie his legs up. He used the strongest sailor's knots that he knew, tightening them with a wrench, until he knew the knots would be painful. It was what Kubra deserved.

That done, he stood and surveyed the man in the chair before him. Kubra's head had fallen back, exposing his throat. His mouth was open a little, and wind was whistling through his obviously broken nose. Two bruises were already showing around his eyes.

"How do you suppose we wake him up? I kind of feel like we're on a time crunch here."

Mai grabbed a vase of red roses off of the dresser. She tossed the roses aside and then unceremoniously splashed the entire vase right into Kubra's face.

He came awake with a gasp, sputtering and jerking away from the cold water. The chair rocked in place, but Sokka caught it, slamming it back down.

"Welcome back, Kubra," Sokka said, grinning as sense rushed back into Kubra's snake-like eyes. With water dripping down his bloody face, he looked from Sokka to Mai and then down at his body, lashed to the chair. He stretched his fingers and tried to twist his wrists, but they wouldn't budge.

He let out a little defeated gust of air and then licked the blood off of his bottom lip. "Fuck. Got more than I bargained for when I sneaked into Madame Sakura's tunnels, I guess. I just came for a show...and now I'm tied up and I didn't even have to pay for it this time."

"Gross," Mai said flatly.

"How long have you known who I was?" Sokka demanded, coming around to stand in front of him.

Kubra looked up at him through the wet strands of his dark hair. He sniffed and then moaned, wincing. "Think you broke my nose."

"I'll break more than that if you don't tell me what I want to know," Sokka said, crossing his arms over his chest. Mai went over to stand in the doorway of the open passage. He didn't blame her. "How long?"

"Since your first fight."

Sokka's eyebrows flew up and the glanced at Mai. "What do you mean?"

"You heard me. Your first fight. I was there, ringside. Bet a lot of money on your first opponent, but you beat his ass in the first round. I recognized you though. I'd seen you with her."

"Her?"

"Chief Beifong. Down in the tenement camps a few years ago. She was investigating all those rapes. Had patrols and shit in the camps. The Master was building up his business and I was recruiting for him. But ol' Beifong, she was already giving us trouble. Couldn't get any business done with her men crawling all over the place. I kept my eye on her though. Followed her a bit in the camps. Saw Councilman Sokka of the Water Tribe with her. Gotta admit I was a little starstruck. You're all big heroes and all. Friends of the Avatar...the Fire Lord... Everyone's heard the stories. I even saw a play about you once," Kubra sneered.

Sokka's lip curled. "It's not a good play."

Kubra let out a soft laugh. "Yeah, you're not that funny in real life."

Sokka ignored that. "If you knew it was me why didn't you say anything to the Master?"

Kubra smiled. "I wasn't sure it was you at first. You didn't look like the pretty Councilman from the camps. But no one really knew where Councilman Sokka went, did they? You disappeared for a year. Gave up your seat, right? Gone. Poof! No explanation. And then Ran shows up looking just enough like Councilman Sokka to make a man do a double-take. But I really wasn't sure. I couldn't imagine why you'd pretend like that."

"You suspected though. Why didn't you tell the Master? Especially when he started showing interest in me? In Ran?"

Kubra laughed ruefully, his tongue digging into his split lip. "Because the Master had already been hired to find Sokka of the Water Tribe. And kill him."

Sokka frowned, as Mai flipped a dagger end over end in her hand. "That doesn't answer the question."

"It does if you know who hired the Master to kill you," Kubra said bitterly, his gaze dropping to the floor. "I suspected who you were, but since I wasn't sure I decided to keep it to myself. Then I found out who wanted you dead, and I made it my mission to make sure that man didn't get what he wanted."

Sokka sat back on his heels, confusion marring his brow. He glanced at Mai, who looked equally confused.

"Wait," Sokka said slowly. "You...you were protecting me?"

"Yeah."

"Bullshit," Sokka said, getting his feet. He towered over Kubra, who looked up at him through his bruising eyes. "You expect me to believe that you suspected me the whole time and you protected me? You hate me."

"True. But not as much as I hate him."

"The Master?" Mai asked.

"No! The Master saved my life. I owe him a debt," Kubra started and then took a breath. "You don't understand... This man...the one who hired the Master... You don't know what he did to me. You don't know why I hate him, why I'd defy even the Master if it meant he didn't get what he wanted..."

"Then tell us," Mai said, as Sokka stared at Kubra.

Kubra looked between them for a long moment and then closed his eyes. He took another whistling breath and flinched.

"When I was eighteen I took work in the Fire Nation, with some rich merchant who was making a name for himself, moving up in society after the end of the war. Rich bastard had everything...including enough coin to hire a young swordsman to guard his daughter on her journey home from her rich bitch Firebending boarding school. Just my luck I fell in love with her the minute I saw her."

Kubra's eyes were far away for a moment, a longing and pain in his voice that surprised Sokka.

"She was rich and beautiful and out of my league, but I still young enough to think that didn't matter. She flirted with me and kissed me in her father's stables. She pretended she didn't know who I was when we were around other people and I still... I thought she loved me. Turns out she was just playing with me. Having fun with the Earth Kingdom guard because she could."

"Where is this going Kubra?"

But Kubra's eyes were distant, his jaw set hard.

"Her father was hosting a man from the Earth Kingdom one night a few months after I'd been hired. They were having a huge dinner, celebrating her father's new job offer or something. I didn't pay much attention to the guests. I only had eyes for her. I was supposed to be guarding her, but she pulled me into her room. We kissed in the moonlight and I thought... I thought I'd never love anyone else. I asked her to marry me and she laughed at me. She told me..." He cleared his throat. "She told me what I was too much of a fool to realize. What I should have already known. I was beneath her. She was just having fun with me. I was a toy to her and nothing more."

"What happened?"

"Her father and brother came into the room with his other bodyguards. He was angry. He thought I'd sullied his daughter's honor, but we hadn't done anything but kiss. He didn't care. He had his men beat me and then they hauled me out into the courtyard."

"And then?" Sokka prompted, as Kubra's eyes grew pained.

"He made his daughter watch as he set me on fire."

"Spirits," Mai breathed, one hand to her throat. Sokka swallowed at the rawness of Kubra's voice. He didn't know why, but he believed him.

"I still remember what he told her before he had one of his Firebenders set the fire to my flesh. 'This is what we do to trash', he said. 'You were meant to birth kings. He was born in the mud and he'll die in the mud.'"

He was quiet for a long moment, his hands flexing on the arms of the chair.

"You didn't die."

"The Master saved me. He was the merchant from the Earth Kingdom. He heard what her father said to me. He paid her father two thousand yuans on the spot for me."

"The Master bought you?"

"He saved me. I would have died there in that courtyard if he hadn't acted as quickly as he did. Her father agreed, if the Master would take me away that night. The Master agreed. We left that night for Republic City. I nearly died of my wounds on the journey, but the Master hired a Waterbender to heal me when we reached Republic City. She saved me."

Sokka's eyes flicked to Mai. "What Waterbender?"

"I don't know. I was out of it for a long time. I remember...she had blue eyes and she smelled like jasmine..." Kubra said and then lowered his head. "The Master saved me. He didn't know me. I was just a stupid boy who loved the wrong girl. He could have let me die that night. He could have let me die of the burns. He didn't. I owe him everything."

"Then why didn't you tell him about who I was when you realized he'd been hired to kill me?"

"Because the man who tried to burn me to death is the one who hired him."

Sokka stood still, staring at Kubra, who looked up at him. The truth swam in his bruised eyes, blood leaking sluggishly down his lip. Sokka unfolded his arms and took a breath. Then he stepped forward slowly, bending down in front of Kubra.

"What are you doing?" Mai asked, but he ignored her, reaching forward and slowly undoing the buttons on Kubra's damp, blood-drenched green shirt.

"If you wanted to get me naked you just had to ask."

"Shut up."

His hands shook as he pushed Kubra's shirt open, revealing a map of old scar tissue scattered across his chest. One nipple had been burned off. The flesh had been melted and put back together in patches, but the reconstruction had been well-done. Burns like this usually healed much worse if left untreated by a skilled healer.

The Waterbender who had treated him had known what she was doing. Just looking at it made Sokka certain he knew who that healer had been. He knew Katara's work when he saw it.

"Ugly, isn't it?" Kubra said softly, avoiding his gaze.

"You were telling the truth."

"I'm not a liar. Not like you, Ran. Tell me, why were you pretending to be some nothing street fighter?"

"That's a long story."

Kubra twisted his arms in his bindings. "Seems I have the time to sit and listen."

But Sokka shook his head. "Who hired the Master to kill me? Who did this to you?"

Kubra laughed. "You really don't know?"

"Obviously not. I've made a lot of enemies the last couple of years. I've been assuming he was a Smoke Demon out for revenge."

Kubra's head tipped back a little. "What would a former Councilman know about the Smoke Demons? I know you're friends with the Fire Lord, but that hardly puts a target on your back."

"I was undercover with them for months. That's how I know the Master was supplying the Smoke Demons the whole time. I knew he had something to do with Rinchaka Falls. That's why I've been pretending to be Ran. I needed answers and that was the only way to get close to him."

"The Phoenix Fire," Kubra said, understanding dawning in his eyes. "You were after the Phoenix Fire."

"In part. Where did the Master get the Fire?"

"Where do you think?"

"The man who hired him to kill me. What about the Princess? Azula."

"Don't know much about that. That was Lord Kun's part of the deal. The Phoenix Fire for the two of you. You and this Princess really pissed him off. But from what I hear, the two of you are getting off pretty lucky. He just wants you two dead for what you did. That other woman? What he's going to do to her..."

Sokka didn't know what that meant and he was running out of patience.

"Who is he? Don't think I don't realize you're stalling. Tell me his name, Kubra, or I will beat it out of you and then find the Master and beat it out of him for the sheer joy of it."

"If I tell you, will you leave the Master alone? I heard what you said, what you're planning to do. That's why I revealed myself. I could have gone to the Master, you know. I could have told him about you. You could be dead in a puddle of your own piss, with that pretty little whore of yours wrapped around my pole, but I didn't do that, did I? I took a chance. Thought maybe you were reasonable. I want this son of a bitch as dead as you do, but the Master... I owe him my life. I won't let you hurt him."

"You don't have much of a choice," Mai said sharply. "Tell us this man's name. What did Sokka and Azula do to him? Was he a Smoke Demon?"

Kubra shook his head. "No. He wasn't a Smoke Demon. He's something else entirely. He's powerful. More powerful than he was when he set me on fire. He's connected now. That piddly ass batch of Phoenix Fire he paid the Master and Lord Kun with? That's nothing compared to the cache he has stockpiled."

"Where did he get the Phoenix Fire? It was banned centuries ago."

"The Fire Sages?" Mai asked, and Kubra's eyes gleamed in her direction.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Horny men with too much wine in them like to talk. I like to listen," Mai said, twirling her throwing dagger.

"I could fall in love with a girl like you."

"You can't afford me," Mai said acidly. Kubra laughed and Sokka reached out, grasping his face. He glared at him.

"Tell me his name."

"Not until you promise to leave the Master alone."

"I could kill you and get the information out of him instead. You know that I could."

"You'd die trying and you know it. He's too well guarded. That's why you had to pretend to be Ran, just to get close to him. Just on the chance to get into his confidences. And you still don't know anything."

"Then what are you worried about? If you think I can't take him, then tell me what I want to know."

Kubra glared at him and then looked away, breaking his hold on his chin.

"I am not a man of honor. I lost that a long time ago, if I ever had any, but I owe the Master my life. I owe him everything. All that I am, it's because of him. I'm willing to die for him. He's a terrible man...I know that he is. He's ruthless and scheming. He's a gangster. He's cold. He'd throw me to the wolves if it meant saving his own skin. He'd have me killed if he knew what I'd kept from him. I know all of that... But he saved me, when he didn't have to. He bought me for two thousand yuans and I wasn't even worth two. I owe him a debt. The only bargaining chip I have is a name, and I'm not going to give it to you. Not unless I'm sure no harm will come to the Master."

Sokka stood and backed up. He glanced at Mai, who nodded at him.

"You say you're not a man of honor, but I am. I've lost myself the last couple of years, but I don't think I've lost that yet," Sokka said softly. "On my honor, if you tell me what I want to know, I'll leave this city tonight. Your Master will come to no harm from me."

"What about her?" Kubra's eyes flicked to Mai.

"Clever boy," Mai drawled.

"Mai."

"Fine. I won't harm the Master. Just tell us the name and we're gone."

"You really don't know?" Kubra asked, looking amused. "After what you did to him... He was so angry. He was willing to pay anything, not just with the Pheonix Flame. He paid the Master's best hitman a fortune just to try to kill you."

"His hitman is dead. Killed by a poison pill he swallowed."

"He paid for that too," Kubra said. "The man is serious about how dead he wants you. The hitman was supposed to kill you and claim his reward...but if he failed... Well, it was better that he died a quick death once the Master and this man finished with him. I didn't envy the job. The man even supplied the weapons. He was very specific about the daggers he wanted used to kill you. I don't know why."

Sokka frowned. Who would want him dead so badly...and why would they go to such lengths? He couldn't figure it out.

"If he's not a Smoke Demon out for revenge then I really have no clue who he is. Except you say he's not a Smoke Demon, but obviously he was involved in Rinchaka Falls. Is that it?"

Kubra shook his head. "He's got his hand in that, but no. That's not what you did."

"Then tell me. Give me his name, Kubra."

"You murdered his son."

Sokka frowned. "I murdered his son?"

"His bastard son. The one who beat me and dragged me into the courtyard. I can still remember the way he laughed and spat on me while his sister cried and told her father she was sorry for playing with me. He was a mean bastard, as mean as his father. He deserved whatever you did to him."

Sokka's mind whirred. Rinchaka Falls. He had slit the Fire Bug's throat after the explosion. It was the only thing his mind could come up with. He could still remember the way the blood had fountained out of the pyromaniac's throat. The way he had pleaded. The Fire Bug had wanted to die by fire, the one thing he had loved most. Sokka had ripped that away from him.

"The Fire Bug?"

"Who?" Kubra asked, shaking his head.

"I never knew his real name. He died in Rinchaka Falls. I slit his throat."

Kubra laughed. "He didn't die in some backwater Fire Nation town. You and that Princess murdered him in the Southern Water Tribe."

Sokka stumbled back a few steps. "What?"

"Rian. That's the man you murdered."

Phantom pains spidered out from Sokka's shoulder, where a dagger had pierced him a year ago. The wound had healed months ago, thanks to his stepmother Malina's gentle healing hands, but it had left a scar, a seam on his shoulder that bothered him on the nights he awoke covered in sweat and screaming, shattered by nightmares and old ghosts.

Rian had nearly killed him with that dagger. Rian, a Smoke Demon who had been obsessed with Azula, convinced that she belonged to him. He had chased them from the Fire Nation to the Southern Water Tribe after the fake assassination attempt on Zuko's life had left Sokka injured.

Rian had tried to kill him. He had burned Sokka's house to the ground. And he'd tried to take Azula...

My princess.

Sokka had lain in the snow, bleeding, while Azula had fought for her life against Rian. She had killed him, burning him to death with her lightning. There had been nothing left of him but a charred corpse, and as far as Sokka was concerned, that had been a better death than Rian had deserved.

"Rian earned his death. I'd hardly call it murder."

"His father does. You really don't know who his father is? I'm not surprised. He was the kind of man who might be ashamed he had fathered a bastard."

"No. Tell me the name."

Kubra licked his bloody lips. "On your honor?"

"On my honor. Tell me the name and I'll untie you. We'll leave tonight. The Master will come to no harm. Who was Rian's father?"

Kubra took a breath and then looked down at his hands. He shook his head. "Untie me first."

Sokka glanced at Mai, but she lifted her hands and shrugged. The decision was his. Sokka thought a moment and then cursed under his breath.

"Deal." Mai tossed him her dagger and he bent down, sawing through the ropes with ease. He waited for Kubra to attack him, but he just rubbed his wrists and waited for Sokka to undo the ropes on his feet. When he was finally free, he stood and flexed his fingers.

"Tell me the name, Kubra," Sokka said, standing.

"Sokka! Someone's coming!" Mai said, reeling away from the secret passageway.

"Close it!" Sokka said, as Kubra backed up to the hallway door. Mai reached for the tapestry door to swing it closed, just as something hard rammed into the hallway door. Kubra skidded backward as the door exploded inward, knocking it out of the frame.

Sokka had his dagger on him, and he pulled it, tossing Mai's back at her. She caught it and pulled two others, as Kubra cursed under his breath, falling to his knees before the door.

"He knows."

Sokka didn't need to ask who he meant. The Master's eyes gleamed like cold iron as he stepped into the room.