Part II: Thirty-Nine

"Nobu," Azula whispered as Zuko stared into her wet eyes, seeing the fear and hatred burning there as she stared at the man standing behind him. He couldn't turn his head to look, but he could feel the Smoke Demon's eyes on him. The air in the room had changed when he'd walked in. It was a cold feeling, like ice down the spine.

Zuko knew the name. Nobu had been, by all accounts, Shura's right-hand man. Zuko had been searching for other operatives within the terrorist cell for a year, but Nobu's whereabouts had proven elusive. Zuko had started to assume that the man had died in the warehouse. There had been twenty unidentified bodies found in the warehouse after the fire. The possibility had been there.

Clearly, that hope was gone.

"You remember me, Princess. I wasn't sure if you would," Nobu drawled, his voice echoing in the metal room. Azula's nostrils flared, eyes narrowing.

"Hard to forget Shura's little toady. Nice tattoo."

"Some of us haven't forgotten our oaths, Princess."

"Some of never meant our oaths in the first place."

"Traitor. But then...that runs in the family. How nice to finally meet you, Fire Lord Zuko."

"Nobu. I was beginning to think you died in the fire at Lady Shura's warehouse," Zuko said calmly, trying to flex his fingers, feeling heat filling his belly. It wasn't just his Firebending, begging to be released on his enemy, it was anger.

He could see the fear and panic still widening his sister's eyes. Nobu would pay for putting her in this situation. He'd make sure of it himself.

Nobu walked around into Zuko's field of vision. Zuko was a little surprised by his appearance. He was wearing black from head to toe, with two swords strapped to his back. He was pale, with startlingly red lips. His head had been freshly shaved, and there were black flames tattooed across the whole of his skull, rising up the back of his neck. His body was whipcord muscle, made for speed, as slender as a blade. He was shorter than Zuko had imagined, barely taller than Kikki, but every movement was precise.

Zuko knew a fighter when he saw one. This man was dangerous, a snake ready to strike. Chills ran up Zuko's back as their eyes met.

"I wasn't involved in that skirmish, I'm afraid. That's why Lady Shura's plan failed."

"It failed because she went after Suki. She overplayed her hand. She was an idiot. You can imagine how I feel about anyone who willingly followed the woman," Zuko snorted.

"She should have killed that Kyoshi Warrior from the start. I told her not to play with her food, but she was a vicious creature. She was jealous of the girl. You rejected Shura for her."

"Shura really was an idiot if she thought I'd ever touch her. Suki or no Suki. Shura disgusted me," Zuko said.

Nobu smiled. "She let her passions rule her, but she had a vision for the Fire Nation that was...singular. That's why I followed her. I believed the Fire Nation would be better without you on the throne. I still do. And now I'm the only loyal Smoke Demon left."

"That ought to tell you something about your cause, Nobu. You should have let the Smoke Demons stay dead."

"You've been following me, haven't you?" Azula asked. "For weeks I've felt eyes on me."

Nobu glanced at Azula and then smiled, tight-lipped. "I knew you could feel me watching you, Princess. You have no idea how closely I followed you. How many times I could have slipped a knife into your back..."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because I know how to follow orders."

"What do you want with us?"

"Me? I want you both to die. Azula, because she betrayed the Smoke Demons. And you...because you betrayed our people when you ended the war. Because of what you've done to the Fire Nation."

Zuko's brow lifted as he glared at the man. "You really hate the Harmony Restoration Movement so much? Everyone's a critic."

"You've corrupted our people," Nobu said, moving around behind Azula, who took in a sharp breath. "You've betrayed the Fire Nation. You've destroyed a century of work in less than ten years. The people of the Fire Nation are superior to every other race...we deserve to rule them all. We proved our supremacy when we destroyed the Air Nomads. The Earth Kingdom was so close to falling to us... The Water Tribe... It was only a matter of time. You took that promise, our divine right to rule, and you turned your back on it. You disgust me."

"My people are prospering in the wake of the war. We're at peace with the other Nations. We've made allies with the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes. Our trade is strong. Our people are strong."

"Your people cry out for justice! They mourn Ozai's fall, and they've watched you dismantle everything we've held dear for a century!" Nobu said heatedly. "You've made us weak! Everything you do...it turns my stomach. You look to marry a woman beneath you, of the Earth Kingdom... You'd corrupt the Royal line with your perversion. I don't know what's worse. Her, or the laws you passed protecting sexual deviants."

"Sexual deviants?" Zuko whispered, taken aback by the venom in Nobu's voice. The disgust was written plainly across his face. It took him too long to realize what he meant. A laugh left Zuko. "You mean the laws I passed protecting gays? I'm pretty proud of that one. Every single one of my people deserves to love who they want. I won't ever apologize for protecting them. It was my pleasure and my privilege."

"You're as perverted as they are."

"And proud of it," Zuko growled.

"You sound just like Rian. You remember him?" Azula said tightly. "He was a Smoke Demon. I killed him."

Nobu looked down at Azula, and the look in his eyes was amused. "Funny you should mention Rian, Princess. He's the whole reason you're strapped to that chair."

"What do you mean?" Azula asked. But Nobu just laughed, the sound echoing in the little room. "What does Rian have to do with anything? He's been dead a year."

"A year...a year in which my new patron and I have had time to plan your downfall, Princess. You and that traitorous Water Tribe whelp Tazeo. Or should I say, Sokka? I'd like to say I knew who he was the whole time, but I'm humble enough to admit that I didn't. I had no idea Tazeo was not who he said he was. Not until it was too late. I did warn Shura not to trust you, though. She should have listened to me. That's probably why she fell. Alas, we can only look back in regret. And kill those who took us for fools in the past."

Azula jerked against her restraint instantly, her face a mask of anger. "If you touch Sokka—"

"Relax, Princess. Sokka is safe from me, I'm afraid. Another of my colleagues has been tasked with finding him and putting him down. He's likely already dead. The Master knows the consequences otherwise. As do I. I learned long ago to follow orders."

"No..." Azula breathed, horror in her eyes. "Sokka..."

"I'd worry more about yourself, Azula. Your darling Sokka cannot help you now."

"What are you going to do to us?"

Nobu's smile was sharp. "Do you honestly think I'd tell you my plans?"

"Worth a try. Guess you're not as stupid as you look," Zuko snorted, but he was watching Azula. There was a devastated light in her eyes that he didn't like at all. It was pain and heartache that went deeper than the soul. He wanted to tell her that Sokka would be okay, but he didn't think he could make it sound convincing.

Not right now.

"Bold statement from a man strapped helplessly to a chair," Nobu said with a sizzle of anger in his voice, the smile dropping off of his lips.

"You think I'm helpless? You don't know me very well, Nobu. Or my sister. We've both broken out of prisons before. And into them too. You won't be able to hold us for long."

Nobu smiled, showing gleaming white teeth. "These chairs are bolted to the floor. Your hands and feet are encased in metal cuffs. The cuffs are welded to the chairs. How exactly are you going to get free?"

"I can still breathe fire," Zuko said, and felt the heat in his mouth. He tasted fire as he glared at Nobu standing over Azula's shoulder.

Nobu reached out, sliding a hand around Azula's bound throat. He leaned in and whispered in her ear. "Do you hear that, Princess? Your brother wants to breathe fire right in your pretty face. Perhaps he wants you two to match?"

"Get off of me," Azula ground out, drawing in a sharp breath, the panic back in her eyes again.

"Perhaps it can be a new Royal family tradition? It is your turn..." Nobu laughed, running his nose along Azula's temple. "But I think she has enough scars, don't you, Zuko?"

"If you don't get your hands off of her, I'll cut them off and feed them to the Earth King's bear," Zuko said in a low voice, the fire in his mouth hot, smoke wreathing his head.

"So protective. Where were you when she needed you the most, big brother? Where were you in the Green Heart, when those men raped her?"

Azula let out a gasp, her eyes rolling back, staring at Nobu with fear in her eyes. Nobu leaned away from her and smiled again, stroking her chin with his thumb. Azula took a shaking breath. Zuko met her eyes and felt pain spider out through his chest. He wanted to reach for her, to tell her that everything was going to be okay.

"How do you know about that?" Azula breathed. Nobu leaned in again, his lips against her ear.

"I've been watching you for weeks. All those little meetings with your friends. With that doctor. I learned so much about you, Princess. Such a tragic life. So much heartache. When you took a knife to your skin all of those times...I wonder, were you ever tempted to just cut your wrists instead? You should have."

Azula's eyes closed, her lower lip quivering. She was on the edge and Zuko knew it. He glared at Nobu.

"Leave her alone!"

But Nobu whispered in her ear, "Be honest, Princess. Isn't there some part of you that enjoyed it?"

"LEAVE HER ALONE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Zuko bellowed, seeing the panic and pain in Azula's eyes at Nobu's words. He strained forward against his bonds, trying to get to her, to put himself between the Smoke Demon and his sister, but he could barely move.

Nobu smiled and kissed Azula temple. She cringed away from him.

"I'm going to kill you for that," Azula ground out.

"You can try, little girl."

"Leave her alone. It's me you want, Nobu," Zuko said, trying to capture the man's eye.

"You're right," Nobu said flatly, letting go of Azula, whose eyes closed, a tear streaking her face. Nobu stood behind her chair, glaring at Zuko. "It's you I want, Zuko. But you're not an easy man to get to. I knew I'd never get anywhere near you with all of your bodyguards around unless I had a way in. The boy your sweet innocent sister spread her legs for was the perfect patsy. You know, I think he might actually love you, Azula. He was so desperate to keep you safe. The little idiot."

"Did you kill him?" Azula asked. "Did you kill my uncle when you took us?"

Nobu laughed, the sound like razors, cutting into Zuko. The fear he hadn't wanted to face rose up in him again, and he glared into Nobu's snake-like eyes.

"Did you kill him? What about the Warriors?"

Nobu paced behind Azula, his hands clasped behind his back. He turned his back on them, staring at the wall behind Azula.

"They're dead. I set fire to Iroh's tea shop and they all burned to death inside. If the fire didn't kill them, then the explosion did. My men told me they left one of the Warriors for dead in the courtyard. Perhaps there will be something left of her to bury. The rest are ashes. You know all about explosions, Azula. You remember what happened in Rinchaka Falls, don't you? I heard it was spectacular. All those poor children... What the smell must have been like, I can't imagine. Wait, actually, I can."

Azula's face went white and she slammed her eyes shut.

"You're lying," Zuko said softly, as Azula gave a soft sound of grief and disbelief. "I know you're lying."

"No one is coming to save you. I'll make sure of that."

"Who sent you to kill me?"

Nobu ignored Azula and walked around to stand beside Zuko. He bent down and ran his fingers over the scar on Zuko's face. He tried to jerk away from the man's touch, but he couldn't move his head. He felt revulsion swarm over him.

Nobu's hand slid up Zuko's face, over his hair. He grasped the crown in Zuko's hair, jerking it free, pulling out a hank of Zuko's hair with it and unraveling the long tie keeping his hair up in its half-knot. Zuko winced, watching as Nobu examined the flame-shaped crown, the gold catching the light streaming in through the ceiling.

"I thought it would be heavier somehow," Nobu mused.

Zuko said softly, "It's heavier than you could ever know."

Nobu smiled and then dropped the crown on the floor at his feet. He put his boot on it and ground it beneath his heel. "You don't have to worry about the weight of it any longer, Zuko. Soon there will be no more room for men who wear crowns on their heads. In the Fire Nation or anywhere else."

"Why didn't you kill us in the tea shop? Why go to the trouble of bringing us here if you're just going to kill us?" Zuko asked, his teeth gritted.

"Oh, you're both going to die. Don't worry about that. But not yet, unfortunately. If it were up to me I'd have cut your heads off in the shop. But it's not up to me. I've spent weeks waiting for the kill order on Azula's head, but then you decided to come for a visit, Zuko, and my patron's plans changed. Well, he's always known how to take advantage of an opportunity when he sees one. That's how he got where he is today. And you...you allowed him to rise at your side, Zuko. You fed the beast."

"Who is he?"

Nobu smiled. "That would be telling, and you're not ready for the truth yet, Zuko. Let's just say you'll be surprised. I'll be taking you to him soon enough. The both of you. He no longer wants me to kill Azula. He wants to do it himself. You really shouldn't have killed his son, Azula. He may have left you alone if you hadn't. Zuko... Well. You were dead the moment you asked that Earth Kingdom whore to marry you. She's the whole reason you're here."

"Call her that again. I dare you."

But Nobu laughed. "She's a whore, Zuko, and you know it. I heard the Fire Sages told you she was too impure to be married in the temple. That's what happens when you marry a whore."

Zuko's rage rose up and he glared at Nobu. "I'm going to fucking kill you."

"Another empty threat, Fire Lord Zuko. You're good at those."

"His son? You said I killed his son," Azula said slowly, and Zuko glanced at her. "Do you mean Rian? Rian's father? He hired you?"

Nobu smiled. "Get used to your thrones. You'll be here for a while." Nobu started to walk away, but stopped, bending down and looking into Zuko's eyes. "And perhaps, when it's all said and done, he'll let me be the one to gut you? You'll probably beg me to do it after you see what they do to your darling whore Suki."

Zuko jerked forward, but the restraints caught his throat, choking him. Nobu stood, a laugh on his lips. He walked away from them, banging on the door. The lock went and he walked out. Zuko heard the lock click back into place again, leaving them alone in the room.

Zuko's heart banged against his ribcage as he met Azula's wide eyes. She looked bleak, on the verge of another breakdown.

He took a breath and then tried to grasp at anything he'd learned in the last few minutes. He had to do something, anything because all he could think about was the hatred in Nobu's eyes as he'd called Suki a whore. His teeth tightened painfully. He was going to make him pay for that, one way or another.

"Rian was the Smoke Demon you killed in the South Pole?" he said, trying to distract both himself and Azula.

Azula's voice wavered, her eyes closing. "Yes."

"Do you know who his father is?"

"No. Rian and I didn't have much to talk about. He was obsessed with me, but it didn't go both ways. I was glad I killed him, but I'm starting to rethink it."

"Well, it doesn't matter. Whoever his father is, he's not going to get his hands on either one of us," Zuko said firmly. "We're going to get out of here."

"How?" Azula said. "I can't even move. We can't firebend."

"I don't know," Zuko said. "We'll figure it out."

"Zuko, what if he wasn't lying? What if Uncle Iroh is dead? What about Sokka?"

Zuko's eyes fluttered shut for a moment, then he opened them again. "We can't think about any of that right now, okay? We need to concentrate on getting out of here. Whoever Nobu is working for, I don't plan on meeting him any time soon, and I sure as hell don't want him anywhere near you. So help me figure out a way to get out of here."

Azula met his eyes for a moment and he saw her take in a breath as if to steady herself. Then she said in a bleak voice, "Whatever happens, I want you to know that I... I don't hate you. I never did."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me anyway. I should have been. I'm sorry," he said gently.

He could see by the light in her eyes that Azula knew what he meant. She smiled softly, sadly at him, and it broke his heart. "We're going to get out of here, Azula. I promise."

He just didn't know how.

The man's head rebounded on the wall as Nobu pinned him there. "What did you say to me, Huk?"

Huk's face went purple beneath his black mask, his voice muffled. "Alive...all of them... The fire... They survived."

Rage tore out of Nobu, his teeth baring. He let up on his grip and Huk coughed, a hand lifting to his throat as he sagged against the wall before him. "Where are they?"

"The hospital near the university," his man croaked, rubbing his throat. "It's your fault. You should have let us kill them in the shop instead of using the Phoenix Fire. You're not a Smoke Demon any longer, burning down anything you want! You work for Lord Kun!"

Nobu gripped Huk's chin, stilling him, his eyes flashing with rage. "I do not work for Lord Kun. I work for someone far more powerful than that. I follow his orders. And you follow mine. It doesn't matter that they lived. They know nothing. Not even that mealy-mouthed boy Shirong knows where to find us. He doesn't know anything. They can search the whole of the city if they want. We'll be long gone before they find out anything at all."

But Huk's eyes flicked to the side, fear in his gaze all of a sudden. Nobu stilled, following his line of vision. Another of his men was standing in the hallway, white-faced.

"What is it, Jinshi?"

"The bodyguard...the one in the courtyard."

Nobu's face twitched. "The one who killed six of my men? You told me you killed her."

"We..." Jinshi started, backing up a step. "She was bleeding out. She had a sword in her. She was as good as dead."

Nobu's voice dropped, his tone filled with ice. "What did you do?"

"He said to meet back at Lord Kun's. The girl heard it," Huk said.

Nobu's eyes closed, rage gripping him instantly. "Tell me she died. Tell me she didn't live through the explosion or the fire. Tell me you ended her life."

Jinshi hesitated, his head dropping. "She's alive, Nobu."

Nobu's hand flashed out, a fireball blooming for one hot instant. Jinshi couldn't avoid it. It caught on his clothing, engulfing him within moments. He screamed and attempted to run, but fell down onto the ground as the flames climbed over him. The hallway filled with light and smoke, the scent of charred flesh heavy in the air.

Nobu watched as Jinshi struggled in the flames, and then finally went still, his screams dying away. Beside him, Huk swallowed, unable to look away from the burning body. Nobu looked at him, and then back at the heavily barred down behind him.

"Lord Kun will be coming back from his trip to Republic City tonight. This can't land on his doorstep. Not now, when we're so close... Take my men. Go to the hospital. Kill the survivors."

"You didn't want to fight the Kyoshi Warriors for a reason, Nobu. Just one of them killed six of us."

"They're injured. They won't put up much of a fight. Kill the girl before she talks. Now!"

Huk glared at him, but did as he was told. Nobu made a note to kill him when he got the chance. He watched as Huk walked past Jinshi's burning corpse, disappearing down the corridor, leaving Nobu to lean against the wall. He ran a hand down his tattooed head and glared back at the locked door.

His hand twitched. It would be so easy to walk into that room and end it all, but he knew that he couldn't. He had orders, and the plans that everything hinged on meant that the Fire Lord had to die at the right time, and for the right reasons.

If he killed him now, all of that would fall apart. Nobu breathed out.

He just had to be patient.

"She's awake and she's asking after the Fire Lord," the doctor said as he came into the ward. Chuanwei stood from her perch beside Mei Lin's bed, her heart in her throat. "I didn't want to upset her. She doesn't know that he's missing."

"I'll see her," Chuanwei said when Mei Lin started to rise. She pushed her back down. "Mei Lin, stay here."

"I want to see Rin," Mei Lin said, but her voice a little slurry. The doctors had given her another shot of pain medication, and it was clearly kicking in. Her eyes were glassy and a bit unfocused. Without it, Chuanwei knew that Mei Lin would have been in excruciating pain. They'd changed her bandages while Chuanwei had watched, horrified at the extent of her wounds.

Mei Lin's hands would take months of healing, and it would leave scars. Besides Rin, Mei Lin had been the most injured in the blaze, and for that Chuanwei knew they had gotten all lucky. Because of Rin, and because of Shirong.

Thinking of the boy made her annoyed, but she couldn't deny what the others wanted to; he had saved their lives, as much as he'd nearly cost them. He had a lot to answer for.

"Please, Mei Lin," Chuanwei said patiently, pushing her back down. "I'll be back soon. I need you to stay here in case the others come back. They'll want to know that Rin is awake."

Mei Lin sank back down onto the bed with a groan, her thickly bandaged hands resting across her chest as her strength failed her. Her face was white and pinched, her dark hair tangled on the thin pillow. She nodded, wincing with pain. "Okay, Governor."

Chuanwei pulled the blankets up to her chest and then turned, silently following the doctor out of the room. He rounded on her the moment they hit the hallway.

"I didn't clear the others to leave," he said with agitation in his voice.

"If you think a few minor burns were going to keep my girls from going after the men who did this, then you don't the women of Kyoshi, Doctor Lam."

He didn't look impressed, his lips twisted as they walked. "General Iroh left as well, I presume?"

Chuanwei felt her lips twitch, a ghost of a smile attempting to form, despite herself. She could still remember the burning rage in Iroh's eyes, the fierce protectiveness as he'd launched himself out of the bed at Shirong.

The way he'd looked at her when she'd put herself between himself and the boy still made shivers course down her back. She hadn't felt threatened. She'd felt...

Well, it had been a long time she'd felt shivers like that, and she chided herself for them. She'd heard stories about the famed Dragon of the West for years. He hadn't been what she'd expected when she'd met him at the tea shop, covered in flour and happily serving tea, but she'd glimpsed something of the legend in him in that hallway, and it had both impressed and chilled her to the bone.

He'd stop at nothing to get his children back. Of that, she had no doubt.

"He went to the Earth King. He and the rest of the Warriors are searching for the Fire Lord. How is Rin?"

Doctor Lam pulled up short before a closed door, his mouth a grim line. "She still had the sword in her when they brought her in. It did a lot of damage, but we were able to remove it. She may lose some feeling in her arm, but I'm confident she won't lose the use of it completely. I was told they found her beneath a heavy table and that's probably the only reason she survived the explosion. She has several broken bones and internal injuries. She has a strange flash burn on her skin that I've never seen before. I assume it's from the explosion, but I've never seen an explosion do that before. There must have been an accelerant that I'm not familiar with. She also had a severe concussion. Probably from the table that saved her life. The fact that she's awake at all is remarkable. She's not out of the woods, but there's a lot of fight in her."

"She's a tough young lady. All of my girls are," Chuanwei said, as the doctor opened the door and lead her into the sterile little room. Chuanwei pulled up short, staring at the young woman in the bed, her heart in her throat.

She put one hand on her chest, feeling tears in her eyes.

"Rin," she breathed, coming over to the bed. Rin's eyes opened and she fixed her in a bleak stare. Rin's head was wrapped in a thick white bandage. She was lying beneath a thin sheet, another bandage wrapped around her shoulder, staining slowly red. She was bruised all over, her pale skin turning purple and black in splotches. Where her skin wasn't bruised it was red and angry looking, like she'd been flash-boiled. Someone had spread some kind of thick paste across the worst of it on her face.

"Zuko?" Rin croaked, fear in her dark blue eyes.

Chuanwei sat down on the bed beside her, taking her hand as gently as she could. Her hands weren't burned, but her grip was limp. "He and Azula were taken. We don't know by whom. We were all unconscious. The others are alive. Mei Lin was burned in the fire, but you saved her life. She'll be okay. We all have you to thank for our lives, Rin."

"Where are the others?" Rin whispered, her voice thready and weak.

"With Iroh and the Earth King. They're going to find the Fire Lord. They wanted to be here when you awoke, but I told them you'd understand."

"There's something... One of the ninjas..." Rin said, her eyes fluttering shut a little. Chuanwei glanced at the doctor in alarm.

"Her vitals are steady. We just gave her a large dose of pain medication. It's taking effect. She may not be conscious much longer."

"Rin?"

"He said they were... He said a name," Rin said, fighting now to stay above the pull of the drugs. Chuanwei gripped her fingers and leaned in.

"What name, Rin?"

"Lord... Lord Kun. He said Lord Kun," she breathed. "Taking Zuko...to..."

Rin went still, her fingers limp in Chuanwei's. Fear shot across the Governor's heart for a moment, but she could see that Rin was still breathing. She had just fallen unconscious. Chuanwei took a breath and then leaned forward, kissing Rin's fingers.

"Thank you, my brave girl. You may have just saved the Fire Lord's life," Chuanwei said, turning around and getting up off of the bed. "Thank you, Doctor Lam. You'll take care of her, won't you?"

"Of course," he said, and then choked off, blood bursting from his mouth. Chuanwei stared in shock at the sword protruding from his chest, and the blood spreading like a stain down his stark white shirt. His bloody lips moved for a moment, no sound coming from him. Then he hit his knees, falling forward onto the floor, leaving Chuanwei to stare at the man who wrenched a sword out of his back.

Chuanwei's eyes narrowed on the man, her shock gone completely as she met his merciless eyes, seeing her and Rin's death written across his masked face in an instant.

The man went for her, but she danced back out of the reach of his sword, grasping a bedpan from the table beside Rin's bed. It was made of heavy metal and she swung it as hard as she could, slamming it into the man's sword.

It made a loud clanging noise, sparks rising. She swung it again, a shout bubbling up out of her. Her fist punched out, jabbing into the man's ribs as his second swing went wild. She hit him across the head with the bedpan before he could recover. The blow made her entire arm vibrate, as she put all of her meager weight into the swing. She wasn't as strong as she'd been in her youth, but she knew how to make a hit land with devastating accuracy.

The bedpan made a hollow THONK! noise against his head. He grunted, staggering with the blow. She danced out of the way and saw that there was blood running down the side of his head.

"Ugly old bitch," he growled, lifting a hand to his head. His fingers came away bloody. She could almost see the sneer on his lips beneath his mask.

He went for her again, but she swung the bedpan, knocking aside the blade again. He spun and stabbed at her. She barely got the bedpan in the way, the blade jabbing into the center of the pan and the momentum shoving the pan straight into her stomach. She grunted with the force, but shoved back against him, turning the pan to knock the blade aside.

He struck out with his fist, smashing it into her chin. Her head went back and she stumbled, stars in her eyes. She clutched at her head for a moment, but when she opened her eyes, expecting to be attacked, she saw him going for Rin, still unconscious in the bed.

"NO!"

She lunged at the man, swinging the bedpan down before he could stab at Rin. He whirled on her with a snarl, pulling the sword back and then swinging it at her again, so fast she barely got the bedpan between her and the sword heading straight for her neck.

She let out a grunt, shoving her sharp knee into something soft in his unprotected groin that gave. He cried out, and tipped forward, allowing her to haul her head back and then rocket it forward, headbutting him straight between the eyes.

The blow was hard enough to make Chuanwei's own head spin. She didn't give herself a moment to recover though, slamming her elbow down into his sword arm. She hit him with the bedpan right across the face at the same time.

He went down onto the floor beside the doctor, falling into the spreading pool of blood. Chuanwei dropped the bedpan and grabbed his bloody sword. He tried to get up, but she brought the blade down into the back of his thigh, punching it straight through muscle and bone. She felt it sink into the floor, pinning him there as she put all of her weight and strength into it.

He screamed, his voice high-pitched with pain. He tried to get away, but she kept her weight on the blade. Chuanwei took a breath, her heart beating like a moth in her chest.

"Who sent you?"

But he just grunted, reaching back to grasp at the back of his leg, where the katana was pinning his thigh to the ground.

Chuanwei twisted the blade a little and his screams became high-pitched again.

"You bitch!"

"Wrong answer," Chuanwei said through her teeth, just as the door opened. A nurse stood at the door for a moment, her mouth open in shock as she looked between Chuanwei to the man on the floor. Her eyes fell on Doctor Lam's body, and she gave a cry.

"Doctor Lam!"

"Get help, girl! NOW!"

She had barely turned to get said help, panic plain on her face, when four of the Earth King's guards boiled into the room. They assessed the situation quickly, as Chuanwei let off of the sword, pulling it out the man's leg with a wrench.

"They're trying to finish the job," she said shortly. "Take him!"

They heard the authority in her voice and did as she commanded, converging on the man, who was breathing like a marathon runner, his leg bleeding dark red all over the floor.

"Don't let him die! Protect that girl!" she barked at them, stepping over the doctor's still form, knowing that he was dead. There was nothing she could do to help him and she knew it. "You! Come with me!"

She grabbed one of the guards by the collar of his green and yellow uniform shirt, yanking him into the hallway. She let go and he fell into a run behind her. He didn't ask questions. She wasn't surprised. She'd always found that men were, by and large, intimidated into silence by angry women carrying bloody swords.

Chuanwei and the guard ran through the corridors, past people who jumped out of their way, looks of alarm on their faces. When they burst into the ward where she'd left Mei Lin, Chuanwei skidded to a halt, her boots sliding on the slick tile floor. Her eyes tracked from Mei Lin's bed, where a katana was sticking out of the empty mattress, to the floor beside the bed.

Chuanwei stopped, her breath catching as Mei Lin lifted her head. Her face was bruising, her nose bleeding. She was sitting on a man's back, a piece of bandage in her teeth and wrapped around her bandaged wrists. The bandage was pulled tightly across the neck of the man struggling beneath her. His hands at his throat, nails digging in.

His eyes were wide, blood vessels popping as Mei Lin tightened her grip. His hand fell away. His legs twitched for one heart-stopping moment, as he made a choking rattle. Then he relaxed onto the floor beneath Mei Lin, his face purple and blue, his tongue protruding like a fat slug.

"Shit," the guard who had followed Chuanwei breathed beside her, sounding as stunned as Chuanwei felt, but much less impressed.

Mei Lin looked up at Chuanwei, spitting the bandage out of her mouth. "Motherfucker tried to kill me."

"Good job, my girl," Chuanwei said, smiling slightly. "Are you injured?"

"Got a couple of new bruises, but I'm okay," Mei Lin breathed and then hauled herself off the dead man's back. She sat back against her bed and let out a sigh. She lifted shaking hand and rubbed the bandages against her bloody lip. "I need a drink."

Chuanwei knew exactly how she felt.