A/N: This must be a record update for me :DD Enjoy!

Update: The antibenders are Equalists not Equalizers. Sorry about that ^^;

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender

Chapter Ten: The Equalist Movement

The sun was low on the horizon outside, a bloody stain upon the purple sheet of sky above. Somewhere, perhaps perched on a ledge right outside the bolted window, a cricket chirped loudly as though begging to be let in.

Inside the caravan car, Bolin was sitting on a three-legged stool. The firebending magician was sitting on the floor, riffling through a sheaf of newspaper clippings and lining them up on the floor so Bolin could see them.

"So your father lied about your being a firebender and those thugs just let you go?" Bolin asked incredulously. "Why? Who were these people? Why did they attack your father?"

"To answer your questions, this is all you need to know," Iriah said, gesturing to the row of newspaper clippings on the floor. "This –" she pointed at the very first in the lineup, "– is the answer to question number one."

Bolin leaned down and picked up the first article. A grainy photo of a man wearing a mask stood on top of a podium surrounded by a sizeable crowd with their arms raised as though they were either cheering in unison or booing the masked man off the stage. A quick scan of the article showed that, someone – presumably Iriah – had circled the reoccurring word "Equalists" with a black pen.

Riots Continue as Protestors Demand Equality

Riots in the city escalate as more voices immerge demanding equality between benders and non-benders in all areas of the city. The rioters – mostly non-bender students expelled from Republic City University last month for attacking members of the bender-exclusive sports committee – accuse benders of prejudice, mistreatment, and racism concerning what they have now dubbed "the non-bender minority". As the riots continue, many citizens are finding it increasingly difficult to leave their homes or shops unattended as these self-proclaimed "Equalists" wreak havoc on private properties as well as City Hall, Republic City Park, and, more recently, the Republic City Police Department Headquarters.

"We will not stop until all the bigoted benders in our society are expunged from our once harmonious community!" cried a masked protestor who delivered his impassioned speech amidst a crowd of nearly five thousand supporters of the Equalist Movement. "Republic City was built so all people could come together in a time of peace and togetherness! We will not let these monsters destroy what this city stands for!"

Meanwhile, police officials are working around the clock to detain protestors who lash out in violence at innocent people, non-benders included. Just last week, a thirty-year-old waterbender coming home from work, was assaulted, beaten, and robbed in front of witnesses by a middle-aged man who later identified himself as an Equalist. The man has since been arrested and sent to jail for burglary and assault.

"You have to understand that this rioting isn't helping anyone," said Chief Bei Fong of RCPD. "Some of these people couldn't care less about a fair society. They're just using this movement as an excuse to commit crimes and then blend with the crowd to avoid punishment."

Though some believe that inequality between benders and non-benders has become a serious issue within the community that (ctd. page 13)

"You're saying that these anti-benders, these Equalist people, were the ones who attacked you that night?" Bolin looked up to see Iriah's flash with anger.

"Yes. As you've already read, they attacked us because my father was perceived to be a threat to the Equalist Movement although that was just their cover story." Iriah began to place photographs on the floor in a neat row right above the newspaper clippings. She continued, "The mayor was too afraid to admit it but the movement was a political ploy right from the start; a plot to wipe out the benders and elect a genocidal maniac into office."

There was that word again, Bolin thought, a chill trickling down his spine. Genocidal maniac – but one who objected to bending. The irony.

"Then they killed your father just because he was a famous bender? That is…" Bolin paused to search for the right word. "…sick." He finished a little lamely.

It was an awkward feeling, sitting there in front of a person who he barely knew and listening to a very detailed personal account of something so tragically real. Despite having learned many things about Republic City through his father's letters, the riots were something Bolin had never heard of before. And now Iriah, the daughter of a murdered champion pro bender, was revealing all the secrets and laying them out at his feet. It was hard to imagine what she had gone through when she was investigating the Equalists, an anguished quest to get to bottom of her father's murder.

A few minutes later, Iriah finished laying out all the photos and invited Bolin to take a good look at them. Bolin slipped off the stool and examined the black and white pictures one by one. A few of them appeared to be cutouts from magazines while others were genuine photographs, probably taken without the subjects consent as most seemed unaware of the camera.

"This is your father," Bolin said, pointing to the sixth photo in the lineup. The former champion was much older in this photo than that of the family portrait. Although the smiling face and physique had changed little – perhaps a bit more thick-set and muscular – crow's-feet had begun to spread out of the corners of his eyes and around his mouth like weeds on a green lawn which put him around middle-age, maybe ten or fifteen years after the family portrait was taken.

Iriah smiled a little sadly at her father's photograph but didn't say anything. To Bolin it was a strange experience to be looking at the photograph of a dead man he had never met yet, through his daughter's words, he felt they had met in a previous life.

Bolin carefully studied every photo after that. He recognized none of the people although some of them might have been famous the way they had appeared in a magazine wearing fashionable clothes and baring their teeth in a superficial attempt at warmth. Most of the people were men though women also appeared in the lineup, some young ladies others middle-aged women with spectacles perched on their noses. The very last one was not a photograph but a newspaper clipping. In light of everything Bolin had learned that day, the headline read like a suicide note.

Equalist Revolt: Peaceful Protest or Political Propaganda?

"That," Iriah explained as Bolin picked up his father's article with shaking hands, "was published two months after your father was reported kidnapped. I don't know the official date but –"

"The 2nd of February," Bolin recited robotically, his voice wooden, his eyes disbelieving as they bore into the ink print. His father's words blurred before him and it was a while before Bolin realized that he was crying. As tears trickled down his cheeks, he made no move to wipe them away but made sure they didn't fall on the last relic he had of the man he had dreamed of seeing again. "How come they never told us he was kidnapped?"

Iriah shrugged. "The most likely reason is that they didn't want to. A lot of the mysterious kidnappings and murders were hushed up to avoid a public scare, not that people weren't already afraid of stepping outside their homes." She said this last bit bitterly. "But despite the fact that these protests were happening right outside my own backyard, I had to dig deep – really deep – to get half this information, your father's kidnapping included."

Silence blanketed the two, the only sound being the occasional sniffling of Bolin as he wept, unable to look away from the newspaper clipping. This must have been the confirmation Mako had received when he had first found out. Bolin could not possibly imagine what his brother must have felt when all hope had been stripped from his mind, his heart, and his soul.

"What happened to him?" Bolin managed to choke out. By this time, it was completely dark outside. He could hear the chatter brought by the first visitors of the carnival: lovers, friends, and families.

Family. Could they call themselves that after what had become of their father? Bolin had never felt so broken, so utterly shattered in his entire life. He thought of his siblings and his mother, how devastated they would be to hear this news.

"What happened to him?" Bolin asked again, more firmly when Iriah remained silent.

"I don't know exactly." Iriah stood up as she said this, walking over to open the top drawer of her wardrobe. As she dug around in it she added, "But I have a good idea." Lifting up a false bottom on the drawer, Iriah extracted an envelope which appeared to be blackened at the corners but otherwise unblemished.

"Remember when I told you I tracked down the vermin who murdered my father?" Iriah asked and Bolin nodded slowly. "Well, to be honest I can't say for certain that he was the actual murderer in your father's case but –" Iriah opened the envelope and drew out a folded piece of paper. "when I tracked down the killer, I found this in his house."

Unfolding the piece of paper, Iriah laid it flat on the floor and pushed it forward towards Bolin. Dabbing his eyes with the back of his hand, he placed his father's article beside him and picked up the piece of paper. It turned out to be a long list of names, occupation, and addresses with no title or other clue as to what these people had in common. The handwriting was rather difficult to decipher but appeared to be written in ink of high quality. Near the bottom of the list, Bolin's heart sank and anger bubbled in the pit of his stomach. The name Kenji Lee followed by his job and address.

"The killer went by the name of Goji but I suspect it was just another one of his aliases. He had several," Iriah added. "But when I interrogated him about the list, he confirmed what it was; a hit list of all the people the Equalists had a problem with. Some were opposing politicians, influential benders, police officers, and so on. In many cases, their entire families were taken care of if there were too many benders." She pointed at the row of photos she had lined up earlier. "The list itself was supplied by a secret source within the movement that even Goji didn't know about. But he also mentioned that he wasn't the only assassin the Equalists had on their side."

"But then," Bolin muttered, the color returning to his pale face, "you might have stopped him before my father was killed."

Iriah shook her head sadly. "Since there was a police report released saying that your father was indeed kidnapped, it's possible they wanted to interrogate him first for information. There is always the chance that your father escaped since no body was ever found but…" She trailed off, alluding the obvious.

"But then why wouldn't he have contacted us," Bolin finished for her. Iriah nodded sadly.

Loud chattering, the excited squeals of children and laughter could be heard outside. Apparently the carnival was in full swing. A few minutes later, repeated explosions signaled the start of a fireworks display. Bolin and Iriah sat in silence while listening to the happy people outside, the noise sounding strange to them as though it were being broadcasted from an alien planet.

Slowly raising his head, Bolin's green eyes trained on Iriah's black ones, he asked one last final question. "What did you do to Goji?"

For the first time that evening, Iriah grinned and snorted with laughter as though Bolin had cracked a clever joke. Bolin just stared at her, confusion all over his face.

"You wanna know why I joined a traveling circus?" Iriah asked, snapping her fingers from which red sparks flew. "A traveling circus is quite ideal for hiding. I doubt they ever figured out that the accident was a setup but if there's one thing I've learned while investigating, it's to never assume that a dead man equals a done deal."

Cupping her hands together, Iriah breathed slowly and, like a ghost town rising from the ashes, a miniature scale of Republic City blazed in her hands, the flames forming the bridges and buildings, some of them skyscrapers.

"I'm never going back, Bolin," she said softly as Bolin's green eyes moved from hers to the model-scale version of what used to be her home. "My mother passed away within a year of my father's death so it's not like I have any family there. And anyways –" A downward sweep of both hands extinguished the entire city. " – Republic City is no place for murderers."

Frigid beads of ice seemed to slip down Bolin's back as she said this. Strangely, he also felt elated somehow. At first he thought it was because he was glad Goji had got what was coming to him but he soon realized it was something else that Iriah had mentioned.

"… quite ideal for hiding… I doubt they ever figured out that it was all setup... a dead man equals a done deal..."

Bolin nearly fell over in shock, his whole body rigid, head spinning with realization. But it was impossible, wasn't it? He was holding the actual hit list and a police report claimed his father had been kidnapped but there was still something else, something he wasn't quite seeing.

'That's it!' Bolin thought, looking down at the hit list again. 'It's got to be the address!'

Bolin called out a "Gottagothanksferevrithinbye" at top speed to Iriah, dashing from the caravan car and slamming the door shut with his foot in his haste.

Outside, the smell of carnival food hit him full in the face but for the first time in his entire life, Bolin did not stop to investigate the enticing scents or to sneak a bite off an unattended plate. As he cut a path through the crowd of people enjoying the circus, there was only one thing in his mind repeating itself over and over again like a never ending merry-go-round. Dad's alive, Dad's alive, Dad's alive…

A/N: I'm so sorry I couldn't include the end of Iriah and her father's story. I also had Iriah's revenge on Goji edited out at the last minute. I just feel that graphic death would give this a T rating at the very least so my apologies to anyone who wanted graphic details on how Goji was killed.

Thanks for reading!