There was the burning tree, still on fire in the light that filtered through the cracks in the ceiling, and the spirit fount glowing like a ghost in the corner. There was the chest that she had raided in a daze after the Water Dragon had spoken to her. It was all as she had left it on the day Sun Li had begun pulling her strings in earnest.

Wu shivered and closed her eyes. There were no good memories here. It had all been fear and confusion that day. First she had been sent into the dark to apprehend a destiny she had not understood until standing on the threshold of life and death and then there had been a series of homecomings that had only took her farther away from her home. The first had found Dawn Star kidnapped and a student murdered; the second had found fliers in the sky and smoke in the air.

Everything had changed so quickly - and all because she had been so eager to 'complete her training.' She had been such a fool.

Dawn Star's hand caught hers. "It is very peaceful here, Wu."

Wu opened her eyes. There was the tree, still living though trapped underground, and the spirit fount glowing like a firefly in the corner. There was the chest that she had gone through after the Water Dragon had appeared. It was all as she had left it on the day she had met him...

That was the one good memory.

The matches at the Arena were coming quickly again. Even though Tiger Lifts the Mountain was not popular with Kai Lan, she was quite the crowd favorite. But with popularity came problems. She was being recognized in the street and it was getting too difficult to lose Arena fans when she was trying to escape back to her friends.

Qui had become aware of her problems and her desire for privacy. He offered her a room in the Arena's tavern and she had taken it. Qui had also told her that by staying in the Arena, she would lessen her time on the streets. When she'd asked what he meant, he'd said the streets weren't safe for her.

Wu knew why. She had not pleased Kai Lan by killing his right hand man and the lesson she had wanted to teach - that one does not threaten her or her people - did not seem to be taking. She had angered the serpent enough that he had sent hired poisoned hands against her in the Arena, but he had not made an obvious move against her since that day.

He was waiting and so was she.

Since she could not leave, her companions came to her. The Black Whirlwind had become a permanent fixture in the Heart of the Empire tavern - running up a bill in her name while keeping a bleary eye on her.

The others dropped in on her as they could. Dawn Star and Wildflower came after matches with food from Hou. She had seen Silk Fox in the stands, forgetting herself and cheering Wu's victories like any other peasant in the crowd.

She and Sky had even fallen back into their old joking and comfortable ways, as if they had never spoken in private.

Only Zu did not show himself. She wasn't surprised. To strike at a man's honor was almost as dishonorable as what Zu had done to her. Almost.

Wu felt the weight of the air on her today. The humidity made her hair stick to her neck. A rain was coming and she could not wait for it to fall. Perhaps it would give her some relief. Her room, even with her open window, was too stifling.

She picked up the Dragon Sword. Her match wasn't until much later in the evening and she absolutely could not wait another hour in this place. It rang of noise at all hours and the smell of cooking and liquor had seeped into the wood. She could not stand the company of the other fighters and could not lounge in the tavern without being accosted by some fan.

She had to go outside into the streets. Perhaps she could find relief from the heat near the Golden Way. The nobles weren't such arena fanatics as those living in the Market District.

"Tiger!" Qui hurried down the hall towards her. "Where are you going?"

"Out," she said firmly, hand on the pommel of the Dragon Sword. She was hardly unarmed. Couldn't he see that?

"But the streets aren't - "

"I'm going out, Qui." She went for something he would feel. "Or do you want rumors to start about how Tiger is sick in bed? No one's going to stay and wait for the final fight if they don't think I'll show - assuming they come at all."

The promoter's thick eyebrows knit together in worry. "Just be careful. You won't be in any fights at all if you get injured outside the Arena."

She nodded, smiled, and walked away, feeling almost free. What an odd chance, to see the city alone and without an errand to run or a wrong to right.

Wu went to the Golden Way. The heat was no less oppressive up there than it was down near the working districts, so she retraced her steps, wandering past stalls and stores. The sun sank behind the hills around the city and the lantern-lighters came out. The city was so different than the country; a setting sun did not mean that anyone stopped working.

Wu found herself in the neighborhood behind the Arena, full of warehouses, cheap lodgings and even cheaper food. Her stomach groaned and her gaze skipped and hopped like a stone thrown on water, trying to decide what to eat.

She didn't know what she noticed first. Perhaps it was the way the movement of the crowd changed or perhaps it was the scent of something new and dangerous on the air. She wanted to turn around and confront whoever it was falling in around her, making a noose in the street, but there were too many people here and she couldn't get caught up in an incident with the city guards right before a match.

Wu walked away from the food carts and started for an alley. She allowed herself a casual glance and saw that those who followed her were no Assassins. They were poorly dressed, nothing more than ruffians, but there were many of them. They broke away from the crowd and followed her.

The darkness of the alley gave her everything she needed. She ran now, focusing on slivers of light in between buildings, until she found herself in front of a warehouse. The door was open and when she looked inside, she saw that the place was mostly empty, with only a few scattered crates in the corners. It would be perfect for what she planned.

It would be easy to lose them, but the snake need another lesson. Her appearance in the ring would annoy Kai Lan; the death of so many of his men would sting much harder. Let him understand that Tiger had claws.

Wu strode with confidence into the warehouse, just another Arena for her. She stretched, feeling the shadows get weight and form. The bottom-feeders were using the darkness to hide themselves, but they would have to show themselves eventually.

The first man came at her screaming, sword drawn. She felt it only fair to meet steel with steel. His head bounced away in the darkness as she crouched into a lower stance, waiting for the next one to come.

There was no 'one.' The men erupted from the walls like swarm of flies off the back of a water buffalo, leaping, running, converging on her in a mass. She jumped high, spearing one in the stomach, kicking another into the far wall. She reached and grabbed and caught a rafter, hanging there precariously, breathing hard.

There was a solid thump of a bolt in wood right next to her fingers. She swore and swung herself to the next beam, just as the one she had left became a pin cushion. She leapt and swung like the Monkey God himself had possessed her body, while every inch of wood she left behind became spiked like an angry hedgehog.

The Dragon Sword pulled on her left hand and her right shoulder was on fire. Either they would run out of arrows or she would become a reluctant and very dead hedgehog. She weighed her chances on dropping into the midst of them and she would have to make her decision soon because her fingers -

They shouted as she fell. The dirtpacked floor welcomed her with a hearty thud on her back and she leapt to her feet, hoping she could block enough bolts with the Dragon Sword to make an escape.

But the floor where she had landed was clear of men. Zu was in front of her, flourishing his fighting staff. "It seems you've made someone angry."

"They're - "

"Regrouping - and out of arrows." Shafts and arrow heads lay broken at his feet. "But they'll figure out soon enough that there is only one Assassin here."

She pushed herself to her feet. "They're the serpent's men."

"I know. I've been watching them."

"Watching me?" she asked. They were moving in the shadows again, watching them, perhaps wondering why an Assassin was defending their target.

"We could go now," he suggested.

A moment ago, she would have done just that, but her ambushers were confused and she was angry. More than angry; her focus was completely shattered, yet she didn't feel unbalanced. She remembered Smiling Mountain's words. The Way of the Closed Fist finds the eye of the storm, the center of chaos, and stands there, laughing.

She returned the Dragon Sword to its scabbard. "You can go if you want. I will be staying to finish this."

"And how will your recklessness save Master Li?" he asked.

"This is not for Master Li." A proper storm wouldn't be here for days, but she could feel its beginnings and she began to pull the cold air and lightning down around her. Her breath began to cloud the air. "This moment is mine alone."

He laughed softly, and behind his laugh, she could hear the nervous mutters of the men in the dark. "Then let's finish this quickly," he said, "or you'll be late for your match."

The ice began to fall and its sudden appearance only frightened the men more. Didn't they know who she was? Or had Kailan hired thugs and merely told them to kill a woman? What were they thinking now that they realized their opponents were an Assassin and a fighter who could summon ice from nothing?

Their fear made the air taste like copper and electricity. It strengthened her and she pulled the lightning down now, feeling it racing up her arms to her fingers. "Come," she said under her breath, so only Zu could hear. "Come and see, you fools."

Three rushed at them and three fell, one still twitching from the effects of the Storm Dragon. Again the men rushed out of the darkness, shouting in unison. It was the shouts of men trying convince themselves that running at a more powerful enemy is a proud and brave thing to do.

Wu pulled the Dragon Sword from its scabbard again and stepped away from Zu, clearing a swathe in front of her. Once, twice, she swung overhead until the edge of the blade connected with sinew and muscle. The thug screamed as his arm fell to his feet; she cleaved his head in two before he'd finished his yell. No one could say she liked to watch an enemy suffer.

And she smiled as she cut through another man and another. It was true; she didn't like to watch these enemies suffer. They weren't worthy of the time it would take to torture them.

Too quickly, the ones in front of her were dead, and she turned to see if Zu had any extras she could finish. He was difficult to make out in dark room, but the jangling of the rings on his staff let her ears follow him.

She stepped around the slivers of light, wanting to see more of Zu and the way she fought. She had watched him in battle once before in Tien's Landing, but here he moved much easier, with less caution. Was it because he'd had more practice since leaving the marshes? Or rather was it because he was more comfortable in the shadows of a city?

Each movement was fluid, as if he'd done it a thousand times before. It was a beautiful style and she now wished she'd had the foresight to ask him to teach it to her. Extension, swing, thrust; watching him was pushing her into a focus that she could almost not control.

The last thug hit by Zu's staff was thrown straight at her. Wu leapt into the air, dodging the body, and landed in a crouch. She looked at the man over her shoulder and then looked up. Zu was standing over her.

He offered his hand and she took it. There was blood on her fingers and now on it was on his, blending into his dyed skin. He pulled her to her feet, but too quickly and she stopped perilously short of him, her face and body inches from his own. His closeness stole the air from her lungs, like an unexpected blow from an opponent.

"You're cold," he said finally. He held her hand a second too long before untangling his fingers from hers and stepping away. "Dark places invite trouble. We should go."

"Yes," she said, trying to forget the heat underneath her hand. "And I should like to see Kai Lan's disappointment when I show up for my next match."

That night she defeated the golem so soundly that the crowd had not even had time to begin cheering her name before it had fallen in the sand, shattered at her feet. She smiled and bowed to Kai Lan's box seat. The old snake left while the rest of the city still cheered.

Yet for all her wielding of ice that night in the warehouse, Wu continued to burn. She listened through the thin walls as the other fighters retired for the evening. She heard Pretty Li Li giggling in the hallway and Iron Soldier's low tones. She heard the light footsteps of Doctor An as she visited another injured fighter. She heard the Sung Brothers, one laughing, one scolding, one confused, as they walked to their rooms.

She found herself staring at the ceiling.

Before the fires, her life had been mapped out. She would study in Two Rivers, then take over the school when Master Li allowed her, and she would teach other students there, and she would die. Before the day where everything she'd known had burned, that would have been enough.

Now Wu was aware of muscle and skin, of eyes and lips - and realized that she had been aware since one night's sparring in Tien's Landing.

Somehow, during the day, she had stopped herself from thinking and at night she had fallen asleep so quickly. But here in the dark dorms of the Arena, she could not stop her thoughts of Zu.

She knew that such feelings were natural - but they were also ignoble. Master Li had raised her with more sense, control, and honor than this.

Wu turned on her side and stared out the window at the Imperial Palace, lit up like another smaller moon in the sky. She had to remember why she was here.

The lotus floated over muddy waters on a calm surface. She had to remember that.

A/N: Thanks to all for reading. I wasn't sure what the reception would be for this pairing and I appreciate the encouragement I've been receiving.

PS - Yes, this story will earn it's M-rating, I promise.