Katara could not get Zuko out of her mind. She felt like she was seriously going bonkers thinking about their time in the gym. It made her hot and bothered just thinking about how he had pinned her down and got so close to her face. Ugh, curse his good looks. She had arrived at work early to prepare their next case. She was sitting facing the door with a cup of tea in one hand and her laptop in the other. She pursed her lips a bit, reading through the case file. She had learned very quickly that when you worked this job, you had to learn to separate your feelings quickly or else it could interfere in your daily life. her Grandmother was a surgeon so she had grown up seeing her perform surgeries, which had made both her and Sokka become desensitized pretty young. Katara continued to scroll through the countless number of crime scene photos until she heard the door open. Who would be here this early?

" Katara, what are you doing here so early?" Iroh asked curiously, pulling a chair to roll it towards her.

" I came in early so I could get ahead of the case today. "

" oh, the Arson I got a call about?"

She nodded a bit. " its pretty bad, you know. I didn't know bodies could look like that.

" Anything is possible when it comes this suspect you know. The scenes were violent and disarray. Whoever did this was extremely violent and reckless. He was covering something else up, I fear." He admitted.

" You and Zuko are from Caldera arent you?" Katara asks. They looked exactly like the citizens you would see there. The dark hair, golden eyes, pale skin.

" Is it that noticeable?" Iroh joked, sipping on his tea.

Katara smiled slightly. "yeah. It is. is there a reason you left?"

" Yes, but my reason is different than Zuko's. It isn't my story to tell and if he ever decides to reveal it to you, then it will be of his own free will. Caldera is not the city that it once was." Iroh said sadly.

Katara didn't dare push any further, but nodded obediently. The pair stayed silent until the rest of the team had filed in about thirty minutes later.

Katara waited until it was time, then stood up and straightened her suit jacket slightly. She nervously brushed off some lint off of the bottom to distract herself from glancing at Zuko. She felt like she was on fire as Zuko stared at her. How convenient. She walked confidently up to the board, then clicked on the screen with her finger, bringing up the images.

The room was silent as they kept their attention on Katara. She clears her throat slightly and then motioned to the board.

" So our case involves Arsons. There have been a series of violent arsons in the city of Caldera." Katara pointed to the scene, then began to scroll through the slides, showing the.

Zuko stiffened as soon as he heard the name of the city he had grown up in. Caldera was not a good city, he sure as hell did not want to be back there and relive his childhood.

Iroh gave Zuko a look, noticing the dramatic change in Zuko's demeanor.

" So why did they call us here for fires?" Toph asked, interrupting Katara before she could get any further into the case brief

If she could see, she would have seen the pictures which clearly encased that there were bodies, but of course, everyone usually forgot she was blind because it didn't define her. Suki leaned over to Toph, getting close as she whispered in her ear.

" Theres pictures of bodies."

" Oh. why the hell didn't you say so?"

" Sorry. That's my bad." Katara apologized sheepishly

" Well, you didn't let her finish yet either." Aang pointed out.

Toph shrugged a bit. " yeah, but you know we hate this part. Just explain the goods so we can get to Caldera."

Katara shot Toph a slight glare. " as I was saying before I was interrupted, I was explaining how the arsonist is violent and impulsive. He seems to be on a spiral if you look at the comparisons between the first scene and the last arson he committed. The first few are very neat, textbook perfect murders. as he spiraled slightly, the bodies that were found were in such a condition that the Caldera Coroner couldn't determine the cause of death." Katara trailed off.

" great. lets get this over with." Zuko got up, grabbing his bag as he looked around. "The Jet is gonna leave in ten minutes so be there or I'm going to leave without you." He was visibly tense and annoyed.

The team boarded their jet and sat in their seats. Sokka sat across from Suki, Iroh joined Aang, Toph sat beside him as she leaned on the table. Katara sat across from Zuko, bringing her knee up to her chest as she glanced at Zuko. He was really quiet.

" are you okay?"

" I'm fine. Thank you for checking on me." He lied and looked at her

" you're not, but I'm not going to press you. When you're ready to talk to me, let me know" she smiled a bit

" perhaps when we get back from Caldera you'll let me take you to a nice dinner and I'll explain what's wrong?" Zuko pressed a bit as he gave her a pleading look. He really liked her and he wanted to tell her the truth.

Katara looked at him with her eyes as big as the moon. " really?" She asked

" I mean- if you say no.. it's okay." He stammered out quickly

" I wasn't going to say no, Zuko."

He smiled again. " do you like pasta?"

" I love pasta." She affirmed.

Aang sat in silence as Iroh began to teach him the rules of Pai Sho. Toph was listening into their game, concentrating on the sounds of the tiles hitting the board.

The Caldera Police department reminded Zuko of home. Well, it was home. As a kid he used to spend a lot of time here with Iroh. It was one of the only places he knew he was safe at.

" it's not changed a bit" Iroh said affectionately.

Zuko cracked a small smile. " yeah. Still as shitty as ever. I bet they needed our help cause they were too backlogged to have anyone else to handle it. "

" that's not true."

" I know. I missed this place as much as you did, you know.

" I know. You have that light in your eyes." Iroh smiled and went to set up his communications at one of the computers.

hey hot shot." A female detective approached Zuko.

" Jun. It's great to see you again. " he grinned

" you too. Look at you in the big leagues now" she smiled softly, hugging him.

He hugged back and pulled away after a moment. " you got here just in time. There's been another hit on a retired lieutenant's house. "

" who was it this time?" He asked.

" Jee. "

" oh." Zuko remembered him well.

" yeah, he used to be that drunk dude that would get on top of those bar tables and sing" she laughed.

" he was arrogant" Iroh snorted, walking to the side as he looked at Jun and Zuko.

" Ah.. my favourite old man." Jun teased, hugging him tightly

Iroh hugged back and smiled a bit.

" so, you said Jee was the last target?"

She nodded.

" our team just finished up at the crime scene, but I can take you there."

Zuko nodded. " yeah, the team will follow you." He moved his hand out in front of him. " lead the way."

Jun walked passed them and got into her car, leading the team to the crime scene. She pulled into the parking lot at a house that was caved in and covered in soot.

Zuko parked and got out of his vehicle with Sokka, followed by the vehicle that Suki had driven that held Katara, Aang and Toph.

" wow. We're lucky that there's a house left" Sokka mumbled as they pulled up to the house.

" Sokka." Katara gasped, smacking his chest

" what. I mean that dude is toasty in there"

" Gran-Gran told us to never speak ill of the dead. Stop before you get dragged to the depths of hell." She glared a bit.

They got into the house and surrounded the body, but stayed a good distance away, surveying the scene.

Sokka moved to touch the body with the toe of his boot but Aang nudged him roughly. " stop. You can't"

" what? You're not curious?"

" not in the slightest. That's not our job." He huffed softly

" you're right, we're not the coroner's but it's kinda cool"

" SOKKA, you're digging your hell pit even deeper." Katara warned him.

" sorry." He huffed.

Katara began to look around the house, frowning a bit. " this was personal. Look.. " she motioned to some of the burn marks. " there's a message. He seemed really angry."

Aang steppes beside her and began to read out loud " you've disappointed the Phoenix King for the last time. What does that mean?"

" perhaps that's the arsonist's name?" Toph suggested

" that's the dumbest shit I've ever heard" Katara huffed.

" you're right. It's not a good nickname."

" kinda catchy. I think it'll grow on me" Sokka mused a bit.

The group began to debate about possible motives, but found there wasn't many. It seemed that this arsonist had a pretty large god complex though, or well, whoever the Phoenix King was did.

" you know. that one is pretty" Jun remarked to Zuko, smirking a bit as she pointed to Katara who was talking to one of the first responders to get some more details of what they had thought went down. ." I like her. She's just your type. Feisty and headstrong. Doesn't take shit from her brother, which means she probably wouldn't take shit from a man like you."

" Jun.. " he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, shaking his head

She laughed loudly and patted his back.

" next time you're in town I owe you a drink and you owe me a story. I'll let you handle this. I gotta get back to the station." She turned and left, waving at him playfully.

Iroh dialed Zuko's phone.

" uncle? What do you got"

" I got an address. 420 State Street. You won't miss this house"

The address sounded familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on why.

He flipped the switch on the siren, glancing at Katara.

" so, Jun?" She asked

" she's a friend. Long time friend. She graduated the academy before I joined, but she would always come talk to me when I was sitting with Iroh. She kinda sparked my love for solving crime"

" how inspiring. I'll have to thank her for that. If you hadn't joined the bureau you would've never met me"

" perhaps. " he agreed. He knew exactly what he would be doing if it wasn't an Agent. He shivered at the thought.

The cars halted to a stop in front of the address that Iroh had given him. Sokka got out of the car first, knocking on the door

" BSSB, Open up."

No response

He repeated his statement once more, shining a flashlight in the window, noticing that the lights were out.

" move over. " Zuko motioned to Sokka.

Sokka obeyed

Zuko then kicked the door in and the others piled in after him, taking their respective positions, ready to clear every room.

Katara headed up to a door at the top of the stairs. She squinted a bit. It was the only room that wasn't clear yet. She let out a soft grunt as she kicked open the door with her foot, heading into the final room. She held the gun up, cautiously moving around incase their suspect was around their corner and threatening to set fire to the house.

Katara saw a pool of blood and a bit of red fabric. She slowly walked over, then nudged the corpse with her foot gently in case the man was alive and lashed out at her.

" hello?" She said softly. There was no response. The amount of blood that was pooling from the man should've been enough to confirm he was dead, but humans were amazing creatures and sometimes pushed the limits.

" he's dead. " she said bluntly, looking up at Suki who had joined her side moments later

" you're sure?"

" feel his pulse for yourself, there's nothing. Plus he lost too much blood.."

" he looks like he was executed." Aang murmured from his spot. He had entered the room a little bit after Suki had, but had stayed at the doorway in order to not cause too much scene contamination.

Zuko stared at the corpse in front of him. " his name is Zhao." He said simply

" how do you know that?" Sokka asked

" cause I'm from here. He was an acquaintance of my father's. I didn't know him much, i only saw him every now and again." He said softly, wiping his mouth with the back of his jacket sleeve.

" you seem kind of okay with this.."

" I should've known. " he admitted. His eyes caught sight of a compacted, sleek black knife. He knew immediately what this was and who had killed Zhao. Zuko gritted his teeth a bit

" the coroner is here" Toph opened the door, glancing at Zuko.

He stood up and nodded " let them in and call the Crime Scene Unit. I'm gonna go back to the station. Keep your phones on you and don't go anywhere alone" he left the house and went around to the side, leaning against the side

Toph thought this was a weird request, but didn't question him.

Zuko fishes his phone out of his pocket and dialled Iroh's number frantically. " come on, please pick up." He grumbled over and over again until Iroh finally picked up.

" nephew? What's wrong."

" it's Zhao. I should've known that.. he was always so off every time I saw him. He always had a thing for setting dad's crimes on fire to hide it. I'm so stupid" he choked out

" Calm down. Deep breath. Where is he now?"

" Hes dead. He was killed, disposed of.. "

Iroh was silent as he began to stroke his beard in thought." is it who we think it is?"

" definitely. I think they know now that I'm not dead. They made my life a living hell, Iroh." He said shakily.

" get everyone back to the station. We can't do anything about it yet. It's only speculation, you know we don't have any-"

" I took the knife from the scene"

" Zuko." Iroh chided, sighing deeply. " why?"

" you know why. I don't want any of them involved in this. "

Zuko didn't bother listening to Iroh's rebuttal. He didn't care in the moment. He was going to get everyone back to the station and then he was going to go home and move on with his life. Maybe he was going crazy. Maybe they didn't know he was alive. He hoped that was the case, but deep down he knew he was dead wrong.

Zuko entered the house once more, stepping passed the investigators as he approached Katara and Suki who were standing around and looking around the scene." Hey, where are the others?" He asked the two women.

" Sokka is filing the report. The murder weapon was a knife, a special kind of knife though" Katara said softly.

Zuko knew exactly what type of knife it was. It felt like it was burning a hole in his pocket from the weight of it. He was doing a bad thing, but he just couldn't get them involved in this, it was too dangerous.

" Aang and Toph?"

" I just sent them off to the cars." Katara blurted, staring at Zuko. " what's wrong? Why are you rushing us out of the scene?"

" The case is closed. He's the arsonist. His reign of terror is over, which means we need to get out of Caldera Police Department's hair."

" Theres someone else that is involved though, it goes dee-"

" No, Katara. We shouldn't stay longer. We did our job, come on"

" no, we didn't. What has gotten into you, Zuko? We haven't done nearly enough. It was our job to catch the bad guy, but clearly someone else knows something and disposed of him for a reason. We need to know why."

" Do you trust me, Katara?" Zuko sighed, placing his hands on her forearms.

" You already know that answer." She looks into his eyes knowingly.

" Then please trust me when I say that it is way out of our capabilities.."

" Technically, it isn't" Suki blurted.

" Wh-" Katara stammered out.

" Don't mind me, just standing here and listen to you two talking about something I have no knowledge of. By the way, its very flirty and very sexy. Foreplay must be great for you two." Suki smirked

Katara and Zuko froze

" WE ARE NOT"

" SUKI WHAT THE HELL"

Suki placed a hand on her chest, feigning innocence. " oh so that isn't anything? Huh? Nothing is going on between you two? "

" Suki don't-"

" You're lucky that I saw you Instead of your brother. If Sokka saw you two on that couch cuddling he, for sure would've hit Zuko for being that cosy.. there was like no space between you two."

" that wasn't on purpose" Katara blushed.

" yeah, we just fell asleep watching a movie. It wasn't anything "

" Well, like Zuko said, we need to go." Katara glared at Suki, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the room. She walked to the car and got in. As soon as everyone was accounted for, Zuko was on his way back to the station.

Zuko had entered the bathroom of the Caldera police station, inhaling deeply. Zhao.. he couldn't believe that he was back. As soon as he stepped in and turned on the light he headed to the sink, splashing cold water on his face. He straightened and looked into the mirror at his own reflection, but paused. In scarlet red letters was a message. He knew who wrote the message. "No.." He whispered. Oh Spirits. Not them.

" you want to play, Zuzu, we accept your challenge. I made my move, ill be waiting for your counterattack, don't forget that I've always been five steps ahead of you, you were never even a contender in this game. Don't be a coward. Time for your move."

Azula and Ozai had found out Zuko was alive and they were plotting against him. " Azula always lies...Azula always lies." Zuko began to chant as he grabbed the ends of his hair, panicking slightly. He had to keep this a secret, if he involved anyone in his family drama he was afraid that they would be killed immediately for attempting to interfere. He refused to let Katara, Toph, Sokka, Aang, Suki or even Iroh get hurt. he would not let Azula or Ozai get his hands on them. He knew all too well they were about to make Zuko's life a living hell.