**AN** This is a repost from Ao3. The original was posted under the pen name Mauve_Avenger .

Chapter 1

He hadn't expected to be struck by inspiration so soon after his last project. She had no idea she had caught his attention. It wasn't unusual. Most people overlooked him, even through ones who spoke to him. He liked to think he was invisible. He wasn't, of course. Just careful. Especially with women. Women spooked more easily than men, he had learned. It didn't take much for them to put their guard up. So he kept his distance until he was ready.

There was a process to his art. First he found his muse. The had found this one when she served him his coffee at a random diner. She had caught his eye immediately. She had the most beautiful velvety umber skin he had ever seen, and eyes that rivaled the crystalline blue of the tropical oceans. How could any artist look past her? He surely couldn't.

The next step was to find out as much as he could about her. This part was easier than normal. She told him her name when she took his order. He had repeated it, tasting it like a new wine. She noted that she hadn't seen him around before, and he told her that he was just passing through on the way to nowhere in particular. When she asked for his name, he made one up. When she asked him about his work, he told her her was an artist. He turned the conversation to her.

She was a graduate student at the University of Republic City. She had lived with her brother- an engineer who would be out of the country for the next few months. She didn't realize that she had given him all of that information, of course. It was amazing how much people let slip in a casual conversation. You just have to know how to listen. And he had spent years learning how to listen.

After her shift ended, he followed her home. This part was easy. She hailed a cab, instead of waiting at the lonely bus stop in the dark. Neither she nor the cab driver saw him following. Even if she had turned around, it was too dark to see inside his car. When the cab pulled up outside of a nice townhouse he kept going, pulling into a parking spot a block away. The cab was gone when he doubled back on foot, and she had gone inside one of the houses, but he had gathered enough information on his newest project. Soon, he'd be ready to add her to his collection. He gazed up at the house he thought she had entered. The game had begun.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Detective Zuko Kaji knew something had happened the moment he stepped into the precinct. There was no obvious change. Everyone was where they were supposed to be- working at their desks or chatting by the coffee pot or running back and forth from the records room. Then he noticed how quiet everyone was. The conversations were unusually muted, the way they tend to be whenever there's a particularly juicy piece of gossip Eyes kept drifting towards the chief's door. Zuko frowned. The secretary noticed him and picked up the phone. A moment later she beckoned him over.

"The chief wants to see you," Biyu told him. Her eyes were wide, and her voice low.

"Can it wait until I've gotten in the door?" Biyu shook her head.

"It's serious," she told him. "He's expecting you." Zuko sighed and made for the closed door.

"He could at least let me grab some coffee first," he grumbled before he went to see what his uncle wanted, and why his office door was closed.

Iroh Kaji had implemented an open door policy when he became chief of police nearly fifteen years ago. He said he wanted all officers and detectives to feel welcomed to speak with him anytime. Since then, the door was rarely ever shut. When it was, it meant something serious had happened. The look on Iroh's face when Zuko walked in confirmed that it was something awful.

"You wanted to see me chief?" Iroh nodded towards the door.

"Please leave it shut," he said. "What I have to say is going to get out eventually, but I wanted to speak to you first." Zuko closed the door and sat down across from him.

"What's wrong, Uncle?" he asked. He prepared himself for terrible news. Was his father back? Had his sister found some new exciting form of trouble to get herself into?

"Koh is back," Iroh told him plainly. Zuko blinked.

"How...how do you know? It's been fifteen years. Why would he start again now?" Iroh sighed and ran his hands over his face. He suddenly looked every one of his fifty-one years and then some.

"His latest victim was found early this morning," Iroh said. "We haven't identified him yet, but the MO is the same. The body was ritualistically disposed by the river. He was naked and no personal belongings were found nearby, but there were no signs of sexual assault. And of course…"

"No face?" Zuko guessed grimly. Iroh grimaced and nodded.

"Surgically removed, just like the others." A loud bang out on the street made both men jump. Iroh glanced over his shoulder out of the window and saw a beat up tan car stalled in the middle of the street. Smoke poured from beneath the hood. Iroh shook his head sympathetically, but there was nothing he could do about it just then. He turned back to his nephew. Zuko leaned forward on his elbows and tapped his knuckles against his teeth.

"What are our next steps?"

"We'll need to identify the victim of course," Iroh said. "I'll have an officer look through missing recent missing persons, and the ME's office is searching for dental records. If Koh stays true to his MO, he will have had the poor man captive for at least a week, so we'll have to begin there and adjust our search as necessary. We must also start a task force, which I'd like for you to head up." Zuko's good eye widened.

"Me?" he asked. "I just made detective two months ago. You want me to head up something this big?" Iroh nodded. He looked grave.

"I trust you with this." Iroh steepled his fingers and rested his forehead against them. "You know better than most on the force what Koh is capable of. The detectives and officers who helped me the first time around are almost all gone. The ones still around are-understandably- not anxious to make this one of their last cases before retirement."

Zuko sat up straight and met his uncle's eye. He knew that Iroh knew he was going to accept, still, he needed to ask-

"Have you considered that this might be seen as favoritism?" To Zuko's surprise, Iroh chuckled.

"No one who has ever seen you work would ever doubt that anything but your talent made me choose you," he said. "I will, of course, be here to advise should you need me." Zuko nodded.

"Alright, Chief," he said. He rose to his feet and stuck his hand out to Iroh. "I accept."

From there, things moved quickly. Iroh called a department-wide conference and made the announcement that the oldest among them dreaded. The task force was assembled, and despite Zuko's caution, no one had any objections to his being named head detective on this case. Soon, a board had been started, with all of the information of the latest case at the top of the board and a timeline of the nearly two decade old cold-cases falling in line beneath. The total came to eleven victims altogether.

"This guy is sick," a rookie beat cop named Haru said with a low grunted in agreement.

"Very sick." Haru leaned in towards Zuko and lowered his voice conspiratorially.

"Is it true that your uncle was the lead on this case the first time around?" Zuko's mouth twisted into a parody of a smile.

"He was," he answered. Zuko had been around eleven at the time of the first murder, and thirteen when Iroh had been added to the first task force. Zuko had in almost grown up with the case, especially once he had moved in with Iroh.

"Where do we even, begin?" Haru asked. He looked over the board full of victims. All but the first had pictures with their faces next to the crime scene photos of their corpses. Haru focused his gaze on these, but Zuko reached up and tapped the picture of the latest victim.

"We find out who he is. Give him his face back." Lee nodded solemnly. "Then we make sure that this really is Koh."

"How?" Haru asked. Zuko wanted to roll his eyes, but he reminded himself that Haru was very new, and he needed to be patient. Instead, Zuko gestured towards the board.

"Koh has never left behind a usable piece of evidence," he explained, "but he leaves his signature at every crime." Zuko ran his hand lightly across the evidence board, and his finger landed on a copy of a note. "He begins by stalking his victims. His first contact is usually a poem or a letter left for the victim, but we believe he stalks them for some time. Probably a few weeks, to learn their schedules. Then, he kidnaps them."

"And then he kills them and cuts their faces off?" Haru looked at Zuko in horrified awe.

"No," Zuko said. "He keeps them for a few days. No one is sure why. There's never any evidence of sexual assault, and they victims are usually in good condition. Well fed; clean; otherwise unharmed except, well…" Zuko motioned towards the faceless corpses. Lee shuddered.

"How does he kill them then?" Zuko's brow furrowed at that.

"Most of them were strangled," he replied. "A few of them died of shock." Haru gasped.

"You mean, they're a-alive when he..."

"Yes," Zuko confirmed with a sharp nod. "We believe he works in the medical field. All of his victims had traces of succinylcholine in their system. It's an anesthetic that paralyzes you, but keeps you awake." Haru swallowed hard, and the blood drained from his face.

"Awake...?" He repeated. Zuko nodded.

"Awake." Haru turned back to the board. He swallowed again against the bile rising in his throat.

"That's horrible." Zuko grunted his agreement.

"Which is why we need to catch this guy. Fast." Another officer poked her head in just then.

"Detective Kaji," she greeted formally with a slight bow. "The Chief wants you in the interview room. It's...um...urgent."

"I'm on my way," Zuko said. He lifted his chin towards Haru and went to his uncle. As he had been told, he was in the interview room. He wasn't alone.

There was a young woman sitting across from him. Zuko paused for a moment at the door.

"You wanted to see me?" Zuko inclined his head slightly to his uncle, not acknowledging their guest yet. Iroh righted that immediately.

"This is Katara Imiq," he said. "I'm afraid she has a very serious problem."