Spirits' Creed Chapter 8: Level 26, an avatar: last airbender fanfic

Spirits' Creed (formerly Spirit of Fire)

Chapter 8: Level 26

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender

Three days had passed since his orders were given to him by his Masters. He had found the Elder's beloved Champions; it was easy enough as the three fools were just pulsing with spiritual energy. Now he was planning for their demise, but how to go about it? There were so many ways to kill them, to make them suffer.

He could crush them, snap their necks with but a movement; force them to kill each other, or even rip them apart.

…NO! None of it was good enough. They had to suffer completely.

Hmm, the Earth Champion… She is the one connected to this city. She has the most to lose. …She will suffer.

The sun beat down unforgivably on the barren wasteland like rain from a hurricane. For miles and miles in every direction there was nothing, but dried dead ground. Truly, the Varsealm is a desolate place. The only thing around was what looked to be a tall dried-up dying tree and a lone figure walking towards it.

The figure walking to the tree was tall, over seven feet. His skin was like ash, grey and dull. He was clothed in a pair of black pants and a simple black tunic.

Once he had arrived at the tree, he stood in front of it and spoke, "Aku, the Masters have a mission for you. Three of the Elders have chosen Champions to stop the war. You are to do as you're instructed and destroy them. Do you understand?"

No words were given. The only response was a low rumbling of the ground.

The sky grew dark and red as lightning flashed across the sky. Suddenly, a large streak of lightning struck the tree. The bark of the tree began to crumble and fall away. Soon a tall dark menacing figure of evil was standing where the tree had once been. He was unrealistically tall with a height of fourteen feet. His body was all black; it was impossible to even see what his feet looked like due to his body appearing as one large pillar. The only distinguishable features were the six horns coming out of his head, three on each side, and his eyes. His eyes were not like normal eyes; they were two balls of yellow fire.

He was Aku(1) the shape-shifter and he was now free after five thousand years of imprisonment.

It was time to have some fun.

Aku looked down at the Master's messenger with indifference. Without warning a black tendril shot out of Aku's body and stabbed the messenger through the chest. With the messenger still attached to the tendril, he summoned it back inside himself, absorbing the messenger as he did so. A moment later his body rippled, like a pool of water that had a rock thrown in, and a skull shot out from his body.

So, the Masters wanted him to be their obedient dog? Perhaps they had forgotten the imprisonment they had given him. 'I'll destroy these Champions, while destroying everything else along with them,' the malevolent spirit thought to himself.

Aku's body than began to twist. It started at his head and continued; until the last of his body moved up into the air, it was like water swirling down a drain. For when the swirling was over, Aku was gone. The only evidence of anything having taking place was the fresh skull on the wasteland floor.

The air was calm and peaceful on the plain of the Elder Spirits in the Spirit World. Aoihi was enjoying her time reading. Kiirojimen, was meditating in the Eternal Falls room. Akaimizu, was enjoying a refreshing dip in one of the many fountains. Midorikaze, was conserving strength and resting in bed. Chi-chi, the Elder Spirit of Life, sat alone in her room. For the past several thousands of years, she had been lonely. While spirits don't marry, the Elder Spirits each had a companion, like the elements; fire to earth, and water to air. Even Yochi and Eien, the Elder Spirits of Space and Time, were partners. Chi-chi's own partner was Shu, the Elder Spirit of Death. Life and death co-existed side by side. For without death, there could be no new life.

Imagine a tyrant coming into power and being unable to kill him. The world would go out of balance. Ever since Shu had gone into the Varsealm, Chi-chi had been lonely, even though she had her fellow Elders with her. She knew he wasn't dead; though it was possible to kill an Elder Spirit, it was very hard to do. Plus, the backlash from such an act would have been felt everywhere. And so, Chi-chi sits alone in her room waiting.

Yochi was, like Kiirojimen, meditating in his room; feeling the passing of the Physical World.

Finally, there was Eien; the Elder Spirit of Time. Many who knew of her foolishly believed that she saw everything that had been, everything that was, and everything that will be. While she did see the future, Eien didn't see everything at happened. What she saw was the end of a journey and not the journey itself.

Eien was lounging by the Sensory Pool. The Sensory Pool was unlike many other pools. First, it wasn't meant for swimming in. And second, the surface of the pool moved depending on the amount of spiritual activity happening on the Physical World. Over the past several months the pool had been rippling more and more, indicating a vast increase of activity. Well, Eien enjoyed simple things, like watching the Sensory Pool ripple. Little did she know that today would be vastly different.

As she watched, Eien was startled as the pool suddenly stilled. This should never happen, due to the Avatar and benders. Less than a moment later the pool exploded.

Eien was thrown back with such force that she was bounced off of the tiled floor and landed in a heap on her stomach against the wall. 'What… what's happening?' The spirit asked herself. Whatever was happening wasn't supposed to be happening. Shakily she stood back on toned purple legs, only to fall once again as she began screaming in pain.

Her cry was heard by the other Elders, who came rushing to her aid. The five remaining Elders gathered around her, trying to see what was wrong.

"Eien, Eien what happened?" Yochi asked her, gazing at her with his glowing white eyes.

Taking a moment to gasp for breath, she replied, "Aku, has been freed and is now in the Physical Word."

This statement caused every Elder to freeze in horror. Aku was the reason they had made contact with the Varsealm; when the vile spirit sought the destruction of the Spirit World. Aku is what led the Masters of the Varsealm to corrupt the Avatar. The Avatar was only a child and had no defense against their manipulations and became insane. That led to half of the Fire Nation being blown up! The child's reason for doing it was that the exploding islands looked pretty and people sounded funny when they died. The Elders were forced to choose a champion to destroy the Avatar and remove the corrupt soul from the Avatar Line. New rules for the Avatar were placed, that they wouldn't know they were the Avatar until they were sixteen years old. Aku was to never be freed. To do so would disrupt time itself.

Chi-chi turned to the three Elder Elemental Spirits and asked, "Will your champions be enough for that monster?"

"They had better be," Aoihi replied grimly. "They're all we have."

Much had happened to Jin in the past few days. She learned that her boyfriend's name wasn't Lee, but rather Zuko. And, he wasn't just any Zuko, but Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation! Not only was he a prince, but also the Champion of Fire. Needless to say, Jin wasn't overly happy with Zuko when she learned about these things. However, they had reconciled and were back to enjoying being with each other. She also learned that the Champion of Water was the princess of the Northern Water Tribe and was named Yue.

The three of them had gone out on their first mission, to gather information on illegal activities that a brothel owner by the name of Gau-Loa. The night had ended with Gau-Loa dead, by Zuko's hand, and Jin the unexpected mistress of the brothel. At first, Jin didn't want to be the mistress. But once she had heard Zuko's reasons for making her the brothel's mistress and saw the depth of Gau-Loa's greed, she accepted it and took to it like a fish to water. In only a day, she had moved the brothel from a low standing in the Lower Ring to the very exclusive Crimson District of the Middle Ring.

The new building was much more spacious than the last one. Here, the building was four stories tall, with all the girls' personal rooms on the fourth floor. Each room was like a small apartment for the girls; there was a small kitchen, a shower, and a sink for each apartment. There were also two expanded bathrooms on the fourth floor; each of them able to handle five girls at any time.

The third floor was the most interesting part of the building, because of the simple fact that half of the floor was missing. It wasn't actually missing of course, half of the floor was actually a terrace that looked out from the front of the building and provided a great view of the streets in front of the building. There were several couches to lounge on and tables to sit at. The rest of the building was interesting because the rooms were large and themed. There was a barn theme, a throne room theme, a dungeon theme, and even a forest theme with dirt and trees in the room.

The second floor was rather plain, just rooms for bringing the clients to. The rooms were made to look nice enough with comfortable beds, colors of greens, blues, and blacks filled different rooms.

The main floor was all business. The main floor held Jin's office, a lobby to wait for service, a viewing room, a few bathrooms, the building's main kitchen, the kitchen pantry, wine room, and offices. Prices were listed in the lobby as well as a stern warning to anyone who tried to take more than they were willing to pay.

The building hadn't looked anything like this when Jin first bought it. When she and Ling returned for the girls, each girl was given a three hundred and fifty gold piece allowance and told to buy themselves new bedding, furniture, work clothes, and relaxation clothes. While the girls went out shopping, Jin did some remodeling on the building; making it into what it is now. The finishing touch was the large sign on the building that read in gold lettering, 'Taja's Playground'.

Their first night in the new building, Jin told them her real name. They basically held a small Q&A session, the girls learned about her and she learned about the girls. Which led to some interesting discussions…

Flashback

The girls were chatting excitedly with one another as Taja walked into the dining room. So much had happened to them today; their new Mistress had shown impressive skills in Earthbending and came through for them in moving them to the Crimson District. The new building they were now in was large enough for them to have their own personal rooms. And, the greatest surprise of all, they had each been given a good amount of money to go shopping with.

"Alright girls, calm down," Taja hollered over the talking. The girls quickly quieted down and looked at their Mistress. "I thought for our first night here, you could get to know me and I could get to know each of you."

The girls nodded at this and settled down making themselves comfy. Ling sat in the middle of one of the new large comfortable couches that dotted the lobby. On Ling's right sat Ayame and on her left sat Mar. Sitting at Ayame's right was Kin; and on Mar's Left was Xi. Piccola sat comfortably on Ling's lap.

Yori, Tigger, and Chan were lying down on their stomachs on the wonderful plush rug. Matoko, had also opted to sit on the floor; and Pu choose to sit in Matoko's lap. Finally, there was Ju-Li, who reclined comfortably on the chaise longue that was positioned to the right of the couch.

In front of them, Taja sat in a large single chair. Resting her arms on the chair's armrests she looked at each of them before speaking, "Who would like to go first?"

Ju-Li casually raised her hand. After being signaled by her Mistress to speak, she asked, "Why did you agree to become our Mistress?"

"At first, I didn't want to be," Taja replied honestly. "But then, after talking with my partner, I realized that if I didn't, word would soon spread about the brothel being without an owner. Once that happened, the place would have been ripped apart. Just because you sell your bodies doesn't mean that you should be treated any less than any one else."

Xi raised her hand next. "Why didn't that Firebender want to become our Master?" She asked

"He saw that you were all afraid, and didn't want you to be afraid. So, he gave the position to me as he thought that you would respond better to a fellow citizen of Ba Sing Se and a woman than you would to a man," Taja replied.

Kin was next in asking her question. "Why were you and others there, last night?"

Taja sighed for a moment, before replying. "We are all from the Lower Ring. So, we know about the war going on outside of Ba Sing Se, correct?" At seeing the girls nod, she continued. "I am a part of the events of that war. My partners and I, out of all of the Firebenders, Waterbenders, and Earthbenders, were chosen by the Elder Spirits themselves to end the war. Along with ending the war, we were tasked with removing the Dai Li from their position of power. Our first step in removing the Dai Li was here. We wanted to get information from Gau-Loa. Unfortunately, he decided not to give it up."

Matoko was next in asking a question, "Will the Firebender be returning?"

"Yes," Taja replied simply, before quickly deciding that she had better be more through in answer. "I noticed on the forms that several of you are Waterbenders and Earthbenders; I'm also not stupid enough to believe that not one, of the remaining eight of you, isn't a Firebender. So, who's a Firebender?"

Matoko and Yori timidly raised their hands, as though they were afraid of admitting to being Firebenders to their Mistress.

"We will be training the benders in their style of bending, as well as giving everyone weapons training," Taja finished saying.

Almost immediately, Yori, Tigger, and Chan's hands shot into the air.

"Um, …Yes?" Taja asked them, surprised at their enthusiasm.

As one, the three girls asked their question. "Can we have sex with your Firebender friend, Mistress?"

Taja's eyes widened considerably in surprise, she certainly hadn't been expecting that kind of question. "Why?" She asked them.

"Well, we've been looking for a guy for the three of us to enjoy together." Tigger began.

"So far, we've done it with non-benders, Waterbenders, and Earthbenders and none of them have been able to fully satisfy us," continued Chan.

"However, we heard a rumor that Firebenders have great stamina and we would like to try it out with him." Yori said, finishing their explanation.

Taja stared at them for a moment before replying in a deadpanned voice, "No."

"Aww… Why not?" Tigger whined as she hated being denied what she loved most.

"Two words girls, He's mine." Taja answered with a bit of force.

"Will you please share him with us?" Chan asked her Mistress hopefully.

Taja was surprised by this question. 'It's not like I know what he wants, maybe he would be into this sort of thing,' thought Taja before replying, with a soft blush on her cheeks, "Maybe, but don't bug me about it."

Ayame raised her hand, next. "Mistress, why would we need to be trained?"

Taja let out a sad sigh and replied, "We are not just facing the Fire Nation or the Dai Li. There is a third enemy, who is more powerful than the Avatar himself, more terrifying than the armies of the Fire Nation, and more silent then the Dai Li. If I don't see to it that you are all trained and this enemy finds any of you, you will die."

"Who is this enemy which you speak of Mistress?" Mar asked. Mar always enjoyed a good fight, but hearing about an enemy worse than the Fire Nation and Dai Li was something else.

"The enemy is from the Spirit word," Taja began. "They are faceless, without identity. The Spirit World is much more complex than most people know, including the Avatar. Just as there as places of warmth and light in the Spirit World, there are also places of coldness and darkness. The darkest and most evil of all places is a realm called the Varsealm. It is from there that the servants of the realm's masters are coming over to the Physical World to make sure the war doesn't end. The more strife, hatred, and war there is, the stronger the Varsealm becomes. If the war doesn't stop, everything will be consumed by the Varsealm and be destroyed."

Everyone was somber and silent as Taja finished speaking; none of them had expected that their world could end. It was indeed a chilling thought to most of the older girls. The somber moment was quickly ruined as Pu asked her question.

"Mistress, how large are your breasts?" Pu asked in her child-like voice of wonder.

"Why would you want to know that?" Taja nearly yelled, her face bright red with a blush. She really hadn't been expecting a question like that. The girls themselves looked at Pu as though she was half crazy.

"Because, Ling, has always had the largest breasts of any girl here and any woman who came in for service. Then you suddenly appear and your boobs completely eclipse hers in size." Pu explained as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'Damn, Pu and her obsession with breasts,' Ling thought angrily to herself. She had known it would only be a matter of time, until Pu asked their Mistress that, but she had hoped that a week or so would have passed. 'I wonder if it would be considered overly mean of me to hit her?'

'I don't know if I should be flattered or pissed,' Taja thought to herself embarrassingly. 'If it was Zuko, I'd be flattered.' Taking a moment to calm herself, Taja looked a Pu and replied, "Not that it's any of your business Pu, but I'm an H(2)."

Several girls let out a gasp of surprise, while Pu looked awestruck at her Mistress.

Addressing all of the girls this time, Taja asked, "Anything else?"

"Mistress, you said that you've been tasked with ending the war," Ling began. "It seems fairly obvious that you're going to have to leave Ba Sing Se at some point. When that happens, what will happen to us?"

All of the girls looked at Taja expectantly. Without her as their Mistress, they would be defenseless. They could be sold into slavery, for drugs, or even, if fate was truly cruel, for breeding.

"When that time comes, all of you will be coming with me. Just like my family," replied Taja her voice full of authority. "Now it's getting late and we have a busy day tomorrow, so everyone should head for bed."

The girls slowly climbed the stairs to their personal rooms, to enjoy their first night's sleep in their new beds and building.

End Flashback

The next day the girls were taken out to see the doctor. Each girl was surprisingly given a clean bill of health. Afterwards, they went to a nearby tattoo parlor to be marked as Jin's. Now, each girl had a bright red tattoo on her body saying, 'Property of Jin'. After they received their tattoo, Jin allowed the girls to get anything extra they might want; as long as they had the money for it. Several of the girls opted to get tattoos and piercings. With only four thousand eight hundred gold pieces being spent, Jin still had an impressive fortune of two hundred and eleven thousand two hundred gold pieces left.

That afternoon, the girls decorated their personal rooms and the work rooms. Jin had the new red lanterns prepared for hanging. The new lanterns were three feet tall each and bore the brothel's name in emerald against the red paper of the lantern.

On the third day, the girls started work. While Jin went to her job at Madame Xao's Formal Dresses for All Occasions, the girls, minus Ling, went out to start building up a clientele. Ling stayed at the building, cleaning up after breakfast and preparing the clientele list. At two that afternoon, they began servicing. However, their Mistress wouldn't be joining them for their opening night as she had an important mission with her comrades.

As quietly as humanly possible the Champions trekked through the corridors of the Earth King's Palace. Getting in had been easy. All the guards were positioned outside, so all they had to do was come up from deep enough underground.

'I can't believe there aren't any guards here,' Lee thought as he steadily walked from room to room. 'Back home, there were at least two guards in every hallway, unless it was the living area of the royal family.'

"Taja, any idea where this list is kept in the Palace?" Lee asked the Earth Kingdom native.

"It's supposed to be in the office of a man named Long Feng. He is the head of the Dai Li." Taja replied.

"Any idea where this office is?" Kimiko asked as she was getting tired of searching through the rooms.

"How should I know?" Taja asked. "I've never even been to the Upper Ring, until tonight."

"How come?" Lee asked as he checked around a corner.

"The Upper Ring is very picky about who is allowed in and who isn't," Taja replied. "They also look down on anyone who is beneath them."

At that moment, the three of them froze as they heard the opening and closing of a door; quickly followed by the shuffling of feet. From between two of the corridor's ornament pillars emerged a Palace guard.

'Please don't let him look over here,' Lee mentally pleaded.

Sadly, the Mistress of Luck was not with Lee at the moment; for the guard turned his head directly at them.

'Shit,' thought Lee as he bolted forward.

The guard's wits quickly returned as Lee was rushing him. However, it was already too late. As the guard turned to rush back into the room he had just left, Lee jumped. He ricocheted himself off the pillars on his right and jumped towards the wall on the other side, going past the pillars on the left side of the corridor. Lee then turned himself to intercept the guard. Just as the guard's fingers were mere inches from the door, Lee struck. In mid-air, Lee spun his body around and delivered a devastating backwards roundhouse heel spin kick to the guard's throat. Needless to say, the guard was sent flying back and landed in the middle of the corridor as Taja and Kimiko came running up.

"Shit," Kimiko whispered bitterly as she ran towards the fallen guard, who was slowly starting to change color.

"What's wrong?" Lee asked as he walked over to them.

"Your kick crushed his windpipe. He can't breathe!" Kimiko explained.

"I was trying to aim for his head, to knock him out." Lee replied. "I wasn't trying to kill him."

Using her bloodbending, Kimiko forced the man's windpipe to correct its self. She then held it there as she began to heal him. Moments later, the guard's throat was completely healed and there wasn't any sign of bruising of his throat. As a precaution, Kimiko moved her water over the man's skull and carefully bent the movement of his mind. It wouldn't erase the guard's feeling of something being off, but it would ensure that he never knew about the three trespassers in the Earth King's Palace.

"Let's see what was in this room, that he was trying to get back into," Lee whispered as Taja leaned the guard against the wall far from the door.

The three Champions stood in front of the door, together, as Lee pushed the door open. It took less than a moment in time for the three champions to realize what the room was. It was a bedroom. An occupied bedroom, whose occupant was standing just a few feet in front of them.

The occupier of the room was a woman. She was of average height, five feet seven inches, maybe a little taller. Her skin was lightly tanned and her hair long and black. Her beautiful brown eyes were wide with surprise that was quickly changing to fear. For in her room, before her, were three masked and armed strangers; while all she had was the silk nightgown she was wearing.

Before the woman could scream, or Lee accidently kick her, Taja and Kimiko both used their bonebending and bloodbending to keep the woman's mouth from opening. The three of them quickly moved in and closed the door behind them. Once the door was closed, Lee was the first to speak.

"Madame, we are not here to hurt you."

This, sadly, did not seem to convince the woman.

"Perhaps a gesture of good faith will convince you that we are not here to hurt you," Lee continued. "We are going to release you and trust you not to scream. Do you understand?"

The woman gave a quick nod of her head.

Seeing the woman nod, Taja and Kimiko released their bending hold on her mouth.

With her mouth free, the woman opened her mouth to make sure that her mouth was under her own control. Seeing that her jaw was her own again, she looked at the three intruders and in a scared voice asked, "Who are you?"

"We are the Champions of the Elder Spirits Aoihi, Akaimizu, and Kiirojimen," Kimiko explained, she then gently asked, "Who are you?"

"I am Macmu-Ling(3). The Earth King's fiancée," she replied. "Are you here to assassinate Kuei?"

Lee glanced at Kimiko and then at Taja, to see if the name meant anything to them. "We are here searching for the List of Dai Li agents," he replied. "Who is Kuei and why do you think we would kill him?"

"Kuei is the Earth King," Macmu-Ling replied. "I thought the spirits had become angry due to his ignorance about what is happening in the world."

"You're talking about the war, right?" Taja asked. At seeing the woman nod, Taja asked in a surprised voice, "How can the King not know?"

"Kuei became the Earth King at a very young age and has never left the Palace. The Grand Secretariat, Long Feng, and the Dai Li keep all mention of the war from ever reaching him. Any time I'm with him, there is always one of the agents present to make sure that nothing is said."

"We're here to change that. Will you help us?" Lee asked.

"Yes, I will do anything to get Ba Sing Se and Kuei out from under the control of Long Feng," Macmu-Ling replied firmly.

"We are searching for Long Feng's office to find the list of the Dai Li agents. With that list, we will know the location of their forces and be better prepared to take them down." Kimiko informed the Earth King's fiancée.

Macmu-Ling quickly told them were Long Feng's office was, which was surprisingly on the other side of the Palace.

Before leaving, Lee turned back and said, "You know, we could use an insider on activities happening in the Palace. Could you help us?"

"You want me to spy on Kuei for you?" Mucmu-Ling asked in mild shock.

"No. We want you to spy on Long Feng and his Dai Li," Lee corrected her. "We want to know if they are getting too close the Earth King. Is there any way for us to contact you?"

She thought for a moment before replying, "My school in the Upper Ring. You can contact me there eight nights a week; the school is closed every Protosday(4)."

The three champions bowed their heads and quietly left the room.

He sat silently in his room as he waited for his Masters' help to arrive.

The wait wasn't long as the air began to shimmer. A dark figure began to materialize in front of him. In a matter of seconds it was over.

"Aku," he said, as a statement and not a question.

"Yes," the ancient spirit of evil replied. "You are the new pet?"

He replied by silently nodding his head. Then with no movement at all, he earthbent a large spear of earth from the wall, directly behind Aku.

Just as the tip of the spear was a hair's width from striking the back of Aku, the shape-shifting spirit opened his body like a doughnut cake; allowing the spear to pass harmlessly through him. The spirit looked at the Earthbender and laughed. It was difficult to know what the spirit was laughing at; the failed attack or that the crazed bender thought he could kil, Aku.

Not seeming to care that he had attacked his supposed ally, the man turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Aku asked in a growl. No human would dare ignore him.

"Out," the man replied. He then shut the door and began to head for Madame Xoa's Formal Dresses for All Occasions; as his bait would soon be leaving.

Maki silently walked down the empty Middle Ring street as she headed to her house, behind her sister's brothel. Madame Xao had kept her over to finish the sewing on a special order; so none of the shops were open as Maki made her way in the dead of night. Maki didn't mind that it was night, as she preferred the night over day.

Maki was completely oblivious to the danger she was in as a figure with lightly glowing yellow eyes stalked her.

Lee, Taja, and Kimiko gazed in wonder at the size of Long Feng's office. It was quite possibly the largest office, in terms of size, that any of them had ever seen.

"Well, this is just great," Kimiko commented sarcastically. "His office just had to be the fucking Palace Library."

"Come on. Let's start looking for that list," Lee said.

The three Champions split up and began searching carefully throughout the library. Finally, after an hour of searching, they had found the list. However, they were perplexed at what they saw inside. Several names of Dai Li agents had been crossed off and some held different phrases under them in red; like 'drugs', 'breeding', 'gambling', and 'murder'.

Being the fastest writer of the three, Taja pulled out a small scroll and began to copy the names of Dai Li agents not crossed off. As she worked, Lee asked a question from behind her.

"Do you know what any of those red word phrases mean?"

"It's probably, reference to why some of the agents are on suspension. They've killed someone, did some illegal gambling, and/or took some drugs," Taja replied.

"What about that one? Breeding(5)?" Kimiko asked, seeing that Taja had left it out.

"That's not suspension," the Earthbender replied. "They're off to ensure the future generation of strong Earthbenders."

"How?" Lee asked; the breeding phrase was starting to raise some alarms in the back of the Prince's mind. The only way you had a future generation of benders was through reproductive sex. Breeding is what was done for the animals.

"In Ba Sing Se's Fifth Red District, many of the brothels are actually breeding houses," Taja began to explain. "Powerful male Earthbenders, mostly Dai Li, will go to these houses to impregnate the young fertile women, who are shackled up in the various rooms of the building. Once the woman gives birth any girls are killed, as they are not needed for the army, and any boys are raised in the Army orphanage; where in due time they will be trained and join the army to replenish lost soldiers."

"So, what you're saying is that these women are forcibly raped?" Lee asked his voice full of rage.

"Yes," Taja replied in a deadpanned voice. This wasn't a shining moment for the city. In fact, many people hated the breeding houses, but anyone who spoke against them was made into an example, publicly. "The breeding houses came into existence not long after Long Feng became the head of the Dai Li, some twenty-five years ago. And, before you ask, no, the King doesn't know about these breeding houses. If he doesn't know about the war, he doesn't know about this." As she finished speaking, Taja also finished copying the list.

As Taja went to put the list back, Lee commented allowed, "And they call the Fire Nation evil."

"Well, your nation did declare war on the rest of the world," replied Kimiko.

Before the waterbender could even take her next breath, she suddenly found her throat facing the very sharp end of Lee's Dao Swords.

"I'm not saying my nation is perfect. In fact, they aren't. They've fucked a lot of shit up and it's going to take a long time to make up for it," Lee growled out. "However, we don't rape women to supply our forces with soldiers. Understand?"

Kimiko slowly and carefully nodded her head.

Seeing his partner nod, Lee removed his blades from her throat and re-sheathed them.

"Everything alright?" Taja asked in a questioning voice at what she had seen.

"Everything's fine, Taja. Just a slight disagreement between comrades," Kimiko replied as Lee nodded.

"Then let's get out of here," the earthbender said and began to head for the door.

As the three walked to the door the door handle turned and the door opened, revealing a tall man with black hair and a small mustache, wearing very dark green robes with gold trim. This was starting to look very bad.

Long Feng, Grand Secretariat to Earth King and Head of the Dai Li, stared at the three hooded strangers in his office. He quickly came out of his shock and prepared to attack with his earthbending. However, he suddenly found himself unable to move.

"Who are you?" the hooded figure in black and blue asked in a woman's voice.

"I am Long Feng, Grand Secretariat of his majesty the Earth King," he replied evenly. "Now who are you?"

Instead of a reply, the figure in black and red turned to the last figure, who was in black and green, and asked, "So, this is the head of the Dai Li?"

Instead of replying vocally, the figure only nodded its head.

The figure in black and red turned back to face him and began walking closer. The hooded man stopped just a few inches from Long Feng.

"I ought to kill you," growled the hooded man, as he moved the cape on his left shoulder back revealing his hand on the handle of a sword. "But, I'll settle for this instead."

Without warning, Long Feng was hit with a powerful punch to the side of his head. As his world slowly turned black, due to slipping into unconsciousness, he felt his body being dropped.

After Lee had knocked Long Feng out, Kimiko stepped forward and uncorked her water skin. She carefully bent a hand full of water out and surrounded Long Feng's cranium with it. Her hand and the water began to glow a soft white as she worked on suppressing his memories. Once she was done, she put her water back into her water skin and Taja went to place him slumped over his desk. To make it appear, to Long Feng, that he had fallen asleep when he woke up.

"I was able to suppress his memories of us, but he will be suspicious," Kimiko said as Taja returned.

"What should we do?" Taja asked.

"For now, I would say we lay low," replied Kimiko. "We'll pay agent Guam a visit night after tomorrow."

Nodding their heads in agreement, Taja opened a hole in the floor and the three quickly jumped inside. Once all three were inside, the stone floor began to turn to its original shape. No one would ever believe that it had been earthbent.

The whore's blood dripped slowly from his Seal-Otter skin outfit. It had taken such a long time as he killed each of the whores and forced the girl to watch. All twenty-four of them died in a unique way. Afterwards, he moved on to the Mistress and Master of the brothel and made sure to take his time with them. After all, there was no need to rush such exceptional artwork. And besides, he had removed the lanterns, so no one would be coming. His truly crowning achievement was the bun in the oven. The girl screamed and screamed through her clenched teeth. She didn't stop until her body gave out and she passed out.

Now, everything was set to bring the Earth Champion into a never-ending nightmare.

Kimiko, Taja, and Lee silently ran over the rooftops of the Lower Ring buildings as they made their way back to the Elemental Chamber. As they ran, Kimiko suddenly stopped as she noticed something wrong. The area in front of them was now a black void. It wasn't the same as the night sky;that was filled with stars, while this had nothing. In fact, it almost felt like an intense sadness was coming from it.

"Any idea what that is?" the waterbender asked her partners.

"I'll give you three guess, but you're only going to need one," replied Lee.

"Varsealm." Taja said as she nodded her head.

From the shadowy void a figure emerged. The champions could see that it was shaped similarly to a human, but much shorter with its four and a half feet height. It had sharp claws at the end of its fingers. Its face was mouthless and only had two almond shaped glowing yellow eyes. From its head four long black tendrils were silently moving.

"Crap," Lee breathed out.

"Do you know what it is?" Kimiko asked him.

"Yeah, it's a Decmen6," replied Lee. "They're rather common according to the book. The only problem is that they are always in a pack."

"But I only see one of them." Taja said.

At about that time several more figures dropped from the void, just as it was closing. It had gone from one Decmen to fifteen Decmen.

"So are you still seeing only one?" Lee asked.

"Will you two love birds shut up and attack?" Kimiko shouted as they were charged.

Acting quickly, Lee pulled out his Dao Swords and set the blades ablaze with fire. As the first three neared him, he swung hard, separating their heads from their bodies. The downed monsters burst into black smoke.

Kimiko opened her water skins and bent out the full two gallons. Five of the Decmen were rushing straight at her. She formed the gallon of water in her right hand into a whip and tried to strike at them. Unfortunately, the creatures jumped into the air before the blow could land.

The water bender just smirked to herself as she sent the water in her left hand up and shot it forward at the Decmens. The water quickly became five spears of razor sharp ice. Each spear perfectly impaled the airborne Decmens. Once they had faded into smoke, Kimiko put her water back into her water skins and corked them.

As seven Decmens ran right at her, Taja unclasped her Guan Dao from her back. She lowered the long weapon to the ground as two of the creatures were closing in on her, one right behind the other. She slide the weapon between their legs and thrust up, catapulting them over her head. With the first two out of the way, she swung at the wave of four Decmen; slicing them in two. For her last opponent, she let her bending take control of the metal weapon and shot it forward. The Guan Dao ripped straight through the creature's chest, killing him instantly.

As everyone was putting their weapons back they heard the sounds of scuffling behind them. They quickly turned to see the two Decmens that Taja had launched over her head weren't dead and were intent on some payback. They had jumped into the air and were within a few feet of landing on top of her.

Kimiko quickly drew six of her throwing knives, three in each hand, and threw them as hard as she could at the creatures.

With only one of his swords in his hands, Lee pulled his arm back and threw the bladed weapon as hard as he could at the creatures.

Taja watched in morbid fascination as the creatures descended down on her, only to be struck down. Six knives came from her left, courtesy of Kimiko, and buried themselves in the creatures' face. From her right, one of Lee's swords came flying by and hit the creature on the right with enough force to go through him and impale the creature on the left. The two Decmens faded into smoke and the blades dropped to the ground.

"Thanks," Taja said a little shakily as her partners picked up their weapons.

As he sheathed his sword, Lee walked up to her and asked, "Jin, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just wasn't expecting them to still be alive," Jin replied.

"Okay, you and Yue go ahead and head back to the Chamber," Zuko said. He then quickly asked, "You wouldn't happen to know where one of those breeding houses is, would you?"

"Yeah, there's one in the Fifth Red District at Kyoshi Way and Conch Avenue. It's the building with the red and blue tile," replied Jin without thinking.

"Thanks love," replied Zuko. He gave her a quick kiss and began to walk away.

Jin quickly snapped to and ran after him. "What do you think you're doing?" Jin demanded as she jumped in front of him.

"I think I'm going to go and burn a breeding house down," he replied.

"Zuko you can't. People would freak."

"Jin, it's wrong what they're doing. It's one thing to choose the life or be sold into it because of family debt, but to be forced into it for government reasons is complete crap."

"I know it's wrong, but if you do this, there will be rioting."

Zuko reached up with his hands and tenderly held Jin's face in them. He quickly shot his head forward, kissing her roughly with his lips.

Jin gasped in surprise as she felt his tongue enter her mouth and brush against her own. She immediately responded, by moaning and returning the kiss with great enthusiasm. But all too soon for her liking, the kiss was broken.

"I love you, Jin," Zuko gasped out huskily. "But I have to do this, understand?"

Still dazed from the intense kiss, Jin replied dreamily, "Yes."

Zuko then let go and began to run as fast as he could to the Fifth Red District.

"JIN!" Yue shouted as she caught up to her partner and saw Zuko running full speed several rooftops away.

Jin let out a yell of surprise and quickly looked around. "Damn it," she bit out.

"What's going on?" Yue asked.

"Zuko is running off to destroy a breeding house," Jin replied angrily.

"But isn't that a good thing?" Yue was confused as to why this would be a bad thing.

"On the surface it would be good," Jin began. "However, it would lead several people to panicking about firebenders, some people would want to continue the destruction and attack the other breeding houses, and anarchy would run rampant through the streets. If Long Feng were to lose any Dai Li, a full investigation would be launched into finding anyone responsible."

Yue slowly nodded her head as she began to see the big picture.

"Come on, we better catch up to him," Jin said as she took off running.

"Do you think he'll need help?" Yue asked as they ran.

"It's not Zuko, that I'm worried about," Jin replied. "It's the aftereffects. We need to stop him."

He jumped high into the air and slashed the stone glove away with his left Dao Sword, before slamming his right Dao Sword into the Dai Li's skull.

'This is supposed to be Ba Sing Se's greatest Earthbenders?' He asked himself with a snarl. 'This is pathetic.' Granted he had only fought five Dai Li. The rest of the Earthbenders had been drunken soldiers or those of nobility.

Finding the building had been easy enough as it was the tallest building, at four stories, within a three block radius. He had stealthily slipped in from the top of the building and began his reign of terror as he firebent, slashed, and broke the neck of anyone who wasn't one of the many women chained up.

A hundred and eighty, that's how many women were in this building alone. It was three women to every room and fifteen women on every floor. Many of the women weren't even clothed. Several of them spread themselves open when they saw him; a few cowered away, most just sat there and stared at him with a dead look in their eyes, but all of them had varying degrees of shock on their faces when he freed them from their shackles and instructed them to run. They poured out of the building like rats from a sinking ship, never bothering to look back at the hell that they had been freed from.

'Time to burn this place to the ground,' Zuko thought happily to himself as he sheathed his swords.

Just as he was about to have his fire erupt from his hands, his body went ridged. His arms went straight down and he straightened up. His hands and mouth had become covered in sand. 'Jin…' He thought a little angrily at being stopped by her. His body whirled around and was greeted with the sight of both Jin and Yue.

"Don't you even glare at me, mister," Jin said as she walked closer. "We need to get out of here before this is made worse." Jin quickly made a hole in the ground and shoved Zuko down into it.

Fifteen minutes later, Jin, Zuko, and Yue were standing in the alleyway of Jin's entrance to the Elemental Chamber. However, they weren't making their way down to the Chamber as Jin was busy yelling at Zuko.

"What were you thinking?" Jin asked angrily. As Zuko opened his mouth to answer, Jin answered for him. "I'll tell you what you were thinking, you weren't thinking at all."

Zuko quickly closed his mouth and let Jin continue on her rant. "I know what was happening there was wrong. Believe me, I know. Remember, Zuko, I've been living here a hell of a lot longer than you have. Do you have any idea what would have happened if you had burned that building down, where all of the refugees trying to escape the Fire Nation could have seen it? They would have freaked, thinking that a Firebender was in the city. Right now, fires are bad in the city; especially, burning buildings. The people would have started tearing up the city looking for anyone to call a firebender and put the blame on them."

Jin sighed heavily, as she threw her hands into the air and continued, "And on top of everything, you killed five Dai Li agents, soldiers from the Wall, and nobles. Long Feng is going to want to know who killed his men and the nobles are going to put more pressure on the lower class than before."

Jin walked up to Zuko and gently cupped his cheek in her hand. "I know you're trying to help and you want to make things right, but please don't think that you have to do it all now and so violently."

"So what are we suppose to do? Just let them get away with it?" Zuko asked bitterly.

"No," Jin replied instantly. "First, we deal with this killer. Then, we take care of the Dai Li."

"How?" Zuko asked.

"By attacking their illegal business practices," replied Jin.

Zuko nodded his head in agreement with his girlfriend's statement. He then turned and began to head for the entrance.

"Oh, and Zuko?" Jin asked from him. Zuko turned back around to her and was pulled into a kiss on her soft supple lips. Jin then broke the kiss and said, "I love you, too."

The couple embraced tenderly and held each other close until they were interrupted by their mutual friend and companion.

"I love the both of you. Now move your asses into opening the chamber," Yue hollered at them.

Jin jumped and broke the embrace. "Oh, right. Sorry, Yue," Jin said with a heavy blush on her cheeks. Jin quickly walked over and opened her door to the Elemental Chamber.

Maki slowly opened her eyes. As the memories of the previous night returned to her, her eyes snapped completely open and she shot straight up. Suddenly realizing that she wasn't at her house or anywhere familiar to her, Maki carefully looked around and saw that she was in a destroyed bedroom. Seeing the door, she quietly opened it and eased out.

There were no windows in the hallway, the right side had doors and the left was just a solid wall. She went from door to door, carefully checking what lay beyond each of them. Each one of them was the same: bedroom, bedroom, bedroom. As Maki neared the end of the hallway, where some stairs led down, she checked the final room.

This room was different from the others. Yes, it was a destroyed bedroom like the others. But, this one had a decaying body hanging from the ceiling by some rope. Maki's eyes widened in horror; terror gripped her throat. The head of the body twisted and looked right at her, showing the young woman its fleshless face and the hanging left eye.

Acting like any sane person, Maki screamed. She screamed in pure terror as she jumped back, slamming herself against the wall. She stopped a moment later; maybe she had been imagining things. Unfortunately, she wasn't imagining what happened next.

"Why are you screaming," growled a deep deadly voice into her ear from behind her, "when I haven't even touched you yet?"

It was the voice of the killer! The one who killed the girls, her sister and brother-in-law, and their beautiful baby girl; now, she was all alone with him.

Maki took off from the wall as hard as she could and ran to the stairs as fast as she could. Not bothering to walk or run down the stairs, she grabbed hold of the railing and jumped over. There had to be a way out, there just had to be.

He smiled a little to himself. It was always so much more satisfying when the prey gave a chase.

Yes, this girl would be his masterpiece.

Far, far north, pass the Northern Water Tribe, a desolate camp of exiles was busy at work. They were the Rōdi, exiles of the Varsealm. They weren't exiles because they were bad. But rather, they were exiles because they were good. After centuries of mindless violence and death, they had grown tired of it and wanted it to end. However, this did not sit will with the Masters.

So, they were banished to the Physical World. They knew that they would receive no help in the Physical World, they were too different; if people saw them they would be called monsters. Besides, they were perfectly fine to live alone. They had carefully set up wards to deflect humans, so they only ever encountered the animals of the land.

However, their three thousand years of peaceful living was now over. They had felt the fabric of reality cringe and freeze. There was only one thing in all of existence that could do that-Aku the shape-shifter, the great destroyer.

The leader of the Rōdi was a tall male spirit by the name of Roctu. He stood tall at seven feet eight inches. His skin was light grey and covered in red tribal tattoos. For clothing he wore animal skins of the Polar Bear-Tigers.

"Is the summoning circle almost complete?" He asked, as he watched the sor-crafters7 work.

"It will be finished, just before the allotted summoning time, my Lord," replied Isis, the head sor-crafter.

"See that it is," Roctu growled. "We only have one chance to warn the world. If they aren't prepared, our peaceful way of life is over."

Jin leisurely strolled down the streets of Ba Sing Se's Lower Ring as she made her way to Pao's Family Tea House, for her daily 'getting-to-know-you-date' with Zuko, or rather Lee. Ever since learning, who the other really was, they had been meeting at Pao's and sharing about their lives. It was an enjoyable time for the both of them.

However, as Jin walked down the street a frown marred her beautiful face. She was busy thinking about what had happened at Madame Xao's earlier that day.

Flashback

"Jin, have you seen Maki today?" Mrs. Xao yelled from across the room.

"No, I haven't," Jin replied. "Is something wrong?"

"Maki never showed up for work this morning." Mrs. Xao grumbled out.

"Well, I'm sure it's nothing," Jin said reassuringly "Maybe she just got sick."

"Ah, maybe," agreed Mrs. Xao. "That girl is going to have a lot to make up tomorrow."

Jin nodded her head in agreement as she turned back to her work.

End Flashback

"It's probably nothing," Jin said to herself. After all, a best friend was allowed to be sick every now and again.

Deciding everything was for the best, Jin eagerly walked the last block to the tea house with a smile on her face; in hopes that Lee would enjoy the low-cut top of the robe she was wearing.

Zuko, or as most people knew him in Ba Sing Se, Lee was busy stacking the clean tea cups up in Pao's Family Tea House. The tea house had been packed as always, but today a large earful of gossip accompanied it. Everyone who was anyone, which was everyone, was talking about what he had done last night at the breeding house. Rumors from the Blue Spirit to a rogue Dai Li agent to a group of shadow warriors from the Spirit World filled the small tea house.

'I guess Jin was right,' Zuko thought to himself. 'She's never going to let me live this down.'

"Hi Lee," came the very familiar voice of his girlfriend. 'And speaking of Jin… there… she…' Zuko had started to think, but lost all track of thought when he saw what she was wearing. Jin wasn't wearing her normal work clothes. The pants were a much tighter than her usual baggy ones, showing off a shapely rump and well-structured legs. The robe was dark green with a dark yellow trim. The neckline of the robe was much lower than the average neckline giving Zuko an impressive view of his girlfriend's chest.

"What's wrong?" Jin asked in an innocent filled voice. But, looking into her eyes; Zuko could see that she was trying to bait him.

Despite his three years at sea and nearly no experience with girls, Zuko at least had some background knowledge. One was from a night he would never admit to unless it was under dire needs. The other, came from his men. His crew had been the foulest, rudest, most vexing crew in the entire Fire Nation and a little over half of them had trashy romance novels hidden in their bunks. After several months of practicing on the deck and plotting courses, Zuko was bored. There was only so much practice and plotting he could take, when he found the novel and learned of most of his crew's secret.

Flashback

Zuko angrily stormed down the Engine Room of the Awa. To most people, it would seem that Zuko was still angry about his banishment; as it was only three months ago. While most of those people would be right, his banishment was not at the top of his list of things making him angry.

The real reason he was angry was because he was so unbelievably BORED. There were only six things for him to do really; order the men around, plot courses, practice his firebending katas, stare out at the ocean, stare up at the sky, or listen to Uncle and his tea proverbs. Each one of them wasn't an option at the moment to pass his time. There were only so many orders he could give the men, He had already plotted the week's course and even the following two weeks, he had practiced his firebending katas enough to do them literally blindfolded, staring out at the ocean for too long made him a nauseous, staring up at the sky made him dizzy, and it would be best for everyone if he didn't have to listen to his uncle's tea proverbs.

So, he was now in the Engine Room solely because to provided a slight change in scenery. The men were at the mess hall and he had the place to himself for a few minutes. Zuko began wandering around the room, looking at the different things in the room, when suddenly something caught his eye. He walked over to it and picked it up. It was a book, a simple paperback book.

'The Burning Ice,' Zuko thought as he read the title questioningly. 'What a strange name for a book.'

Being the curious sort, not that anyone could prove it or live long enough to tell anyone about it, if they did, Zuko opened the book to a random page and began to read.

Her breath was short and strong as she panted in ecstasy. Her dark mocha skin glowed as the silver moonlight shone on her naked form. From between her legs, deep within her womanhood, her husband's manhood burned within her.

'No, this is wrong,' She thought dazedly to herself. 'He is my enemy, just a lone soldier in the army that attacked my people and killed my mother. So why does my body want him?'

The once proud princess was unable to stop herself from screaming in pleasure as her newlywed husband bit her budding nips.

Zuko quickly slammed the book shut, his face burning red with a heavy blush. How could such a…such a thing get on his ship? Hearing footsteps approaching, the young prince looked up to see several of his men returning from lunch and talking happily with each other.

'Time to ruin their fun,' Zuko thought with a grin.

Zuko coughed loudly, silencing all talking from his men as they turned to look at him. As he brought the book up and held it high, his men had looks of despair on their faces. "Who's is this?" He asked them.

All of the men started talking a once and loudly too. Unable to understand them, Zuko decided to establish some order. "Silence!" he yelled. Once the men had quieted down, Zuko spoke again, "Whose is this?"

This time it was one lone solider who raised his hand. "Mine sir," he answered.

Facing the man, Zuko reprimanded him. "This engine room is a work place. It is not your personal library. I will be confiscating this book for the next twenty-four hours. You will receive it back after your shift tomorrow. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." The man replied shortly.

Zuko then nodded to the rest of the men and walked out of the engine room.

End Flashback

So, with only allowing a blush to fill his cheeks, Zuko replied, "Nothing's wrong at all."

"Oh, that's good." Jin said with a coy smile. "Are you free for your break?"

"Yeah," Zuko replied with a nod. "Let me just tell Uncle. I'll meet you behind the tea house with some tea in a moment."

Jin nodded her head and walked out of the shop, to wait for Zuko in the back alley.

As Zuko walked into the kitchenette of the tea house to tell Iroh or Pao that he was going on break and get two cups of tea for him and Jin, a voice spoke from behind him. "You and Miss Jin seem to be getting close, Nephew."

He turned to see his Uncle standing by the door. "So what if we are," he asked with a shrug.

"I thought you were the one who was so concerned about her not finding out about anything." Iroh reminded his Nephew.

"Yeah… About that, she kind of knows." Zuko replied awkwardly.

"What do you mean?"

"Jin is the Champion of Earth." Zuko answered. "She's in this with me."

"Do you trust her?"

"I love her."

"Nephew, I didn't ask if you loved her. I asked if you trusted her." Iroh corrected.

"I do trust her." Zuko replied firmly.

"Then, I truly hope the two of you will be happy together," replied Iroh as he hugged Zuko.

"You aren't upset?"

"No." Iroh replied gently. "I would never be upset with you for following your heart."

"Thank you, Uncle. I'm going to take my break," Zuko said as he took two cups of tea out the back door.

Jin waited patiently on the comfortable wooden bench behind the tea house for Zuko. She only had to wait a few minutes, before Zuko emerged from the back door with a cup of Jasmine tea for her. "So where were we?" Jin asked, referring to their ongoing conversation about their lives and countries.

"We were talking about sports," Zuko replied. "And you had just finished telling me about the Earth Kingdom game of soccer."

"Oh, I remember now," recalled Jin. "You were about to explain the Fire Nation game of baseball. Before you had to go back to work."

Taking a sip of his tea, Zuko leaned back against the stone wall and began to talk about baseball. He described the field layout, team positions, and scoring. As he talked, Jin leaned over onto his left side and subconsciously he wrapped his arm around her. She sighed in a soft content tone, enjoying her time with her boyfriend.

Maki's eyes slowly opened, staring up at the shabby ceiling above her.

She had been unable to escape her family's killer. For nearly three hours he had chased her and all for his own enjoyment, he knew that there was no escape for her. Once he had grown tired of chasing her, Maki felt herself being picked up into the air and slammed into the walls. After about the third or fourth slam, she had passed out and awoke in a different place. She was in what looked like a warehouse, but wasn't able to see much as her naked body was restrained against the table she was lying on. She winced as she felt a sharp prick on her arm.

"Ah, you're awake I see," spoke the voice of her tormentor.

Maki tried to respond, but found herself unable to do so. Why? Why couldn't she respond? She tried to feel around the inside of her mouth and realized something; he had bolted her tongue to her jaw! Speaking would no longer be possible for her.

"I bolted your tongue, so you wouldn't swallow it. I then had your eyelids removed, so that you could see everything that I'm going to do to you. I injected you with a syringe of a supplement called adrenaline. It comes straight from the Fire Nation. It's forcing you to stay awake because I wouldn't want you to miss any of this," the killer said as he moved around her.

She looked on in horror as a highly polished slab of silver was brought over and hung above her; letting her see just exactly what had been done to her.

"There we are," spoke the killer. "Now you can watch me work." Interlacing his fingers with her's, he spoke again, "This will be quite the bonding experience for the three of us."

'Three?' Maki thought in shock. 'There are only two of us.'

Apparently seeing her confusion, the killer pointed to the slab of silver. Glued to the slab and a little off to the side was a hand sketched picture of a very familiar person.

'Jin? I don't understand,' Maki thought. Why was a picture of Jin up there? What connection did she have to this psycho?

"I thought you'd enjoy knowing why you were going to die," the killer explained. "You, your family, and your family's workers were all killed, just so I could get her attention."

From the slab of silver, Maki could see that the killer had some metal floating next to him. The metal began to flatten and smooth its self out. Soon the chunk of metal was a nice circle with highly sharp pointed edges. The circle began to spin faster and faster. It whirled as it cut through the air. Her eyes widened as the metal was brought closer and closer to her, by her legs. The metal stopped just a few inches from her skin. She looked at the man; wondering why he had stopped.

"And, here we go," he said as he looked back at her. Carefully, he pushed the spinning metal forward.

With the first cut into her, Maki screamed. Time seemed to slow with the increase of the pain. Her eyes traveled with the spurt of blood as it hit the slab of silver.

'Jin,' was all she could think. All of this was because he had wanted Jin's attention. The world became a painful blur of red and white and soon faded to black.

"My Lord, the sor-crafters have finished the summoning circle and have started the chant." A servant said as Roctu approached the site.

"Good. Now all we have to do is hope that the summoned will listen to us," Roctu muttered.

"Sir?" the servant asked, confused. Why wouldn't they be listened to? They had just as much to lose as everyone else.

"Their enemy is the Varsealm, which we were once a part of. Even though we have cut all ties with that place and have lead a different life for nearly three thousand years, we never told anyone this or tried to make any connection with anyone. So, why should the summoned see allies?" Roctu explained.

Before any more could be said, the place exploded in a wave of sound and light. Within mere moments the one with the potential to listen to their warning would be here.

Iroh was busy minding the three kettles of water and preparing the customers' orders, when he heard the door open. "I'm glad you're back, Nephew, the crowd has picked up."

"Don't worry about it uncle," Zuko said from behind him. "I'm on-" Zuko's voice suddenly vanished and all Iroh heard was the shattering of two tea cups.

Iroh quickly turned around, but Zuko was nowhere to be seen. All there was were two broken tea cups and a rumpled apron.

"-it," Zuko finished speaking. It was obvious that he was no longer in Pao's Family Tea House or Ba Sing Se or even the Earth Kingdom. There was far too much white everywhere. At about that moment, he noticed that he wasn't alone. Surrounding him, in a circle, were eight beings and standing past them were even more, enough to populate a small village. It was easy to see that they weren't human. They stood tall, at what looked to be seven feet. Their hair was snow white and their skin grey, marked by black tribal tattoos. For their clothing they wore animal furs that had been obviously cut and sewn into different styles. The most interesting features of their anatomy were the large Wolf-Bat like wings emerging from their backs and their dark yellow eyes…very familiar yellow eyes.

'Varsealm,' Zuko mentally screamed to himself, bringing his hands up in front of himself and calling upon his fire.

"Wait," called a loud deep rumbling voice.

Keeping his fire up, Zuko looked at the one who spoke. The speaker was male and looked similar to the rest, but at the same time he was different. Zuko couldn't really describe it, but this guy carried a lot of power. If he attacked, Zuko would never stand a chance.

"We mean you no harm," the man spoke. "I am Roctu leader of the Rōdi."

Zuko cautiously lowered his arms, but kept his fire up. "Where am I and why did you bring me here, Varsealm?" Zuko asked him.

At hearing the word 'Varsealm', Roctu's eyes widened slightly. But other than that, he showed no other signs of surprise. "So you have encountered the Varsealm," Roctu said. It was a statement not a question. "We used to be a part of the Varsealm, but nearly three thousand years ago we were banished because we refused to fight anymore. The Masters of the Varsealm sent us here. Since then, we have stayed away from humans and kept to ourselves. We lead a quite peaceful life. Unfortunately, our peace is now being disturbed by a great evil."

Zuko stood listening intently as Roctu spoke.

"The Masters of the Varsealm have freed Aku and he is now here in the Physical world. If he isn't stopped, the world will be torn apart."

"Why should I be concerned about this Aku?" Zuko asked.

"Aku is the only one who actually came close to destroying the world. He is a shape-shifter, so he can change is body into anything. He is also one of the original four Masters of the Varsealm. Aku never liked progressing humanity on the path of darkness. He wanted them to bow and serve him. However, this wasn't meant to be as most people can't see spirits; unless the spirit wills the person to see them. But Aku was different; due to his shape-shifting, his power was always changing so most couldn't see him. This angered Aku and he sought the destruction of everything. Eventually, Aku was stopped and imprisoned by his fellow Masters. He was supposed to be imprisoned for all time, but now has been freed. If he is allowed to recover enough of his power, he will be unstoppable."

"And just how is he supposed to be stopped?"

"His eyes are living Varsealm fire. No matter what form he takes, his eyes will always be flaming orbs of yellow fire. Put out the fire and you put Aku out."

"If this Aku is as bad as you say, why haven't the Elders warned us?" Zuko asked pointedly.

"The Elders cannot warn you. As long as Aku is here he is blocking all higher spirits from entering the Physical World."

Zuko was surprised by this. At least it answered the question as to why the Elders hadn't made an appearance in several days. Extinguishing his fire Zuko asked, "Why tell this to me?" After all, surely there had to be someone better than a banished prince to pick from.

"The summoning circle that you are standing in was crafted to bring us the most likely person to listen to us and fight against Aku," Roctu explained.

"Okay then, how do I get back to Ba Sing Se?" Zuko asked him. It was clear that they were at one of the poles; Zuko just wasn't sure which one.

"We send you back," Roctu replied with a grin.

Before Zuko had a chance to reply, he was gone.

As Iroh walked into the kitchenette, he was surprised to see Zuko appear before him. Zuko didn't fade into existence, and there was no noise accompanying his arrival; he just simply appeared.

"Nephew, where did you go?" Iroh asked, worried.

Turning to face his Uncle, Zuko replied, "I'm not sure. However, I need to go and talk to the others." He headed for the door. "I'll be back this evening," he called over his shoulder.

Long Feng sat is his office as he waited for his scouts to return. Ever since he awoke this morning and found himself asleep at his desk instead of his bed, he had the sneaking suspicion that something was wrong. So, after a quick breakfast and change of robes, he sent several of his Dai Li agents out to look into any recent disturbances. At that moment, the first agent entered and kneeled before him. "What have you learned?" Long Feng asked the agent.

"Sir, I went to Pao's Family Tea House in the Lower Ring to look into the accusation of his tea maker being a firebender. After several hours of observing the old man, I can honestly say that he isn't a firebender." The agent replied.

Mentally crossing the tea maker off his list, Long Feng moved on to other business. "How goes watching the Avatar and his friends?"

The Agent paused a moment before replying, "Everything is fine for now, but it's obvious that the young Avatar doesn't like his current predicament."

Nodding his head, Long Feng dismissed the agent. For nearly twenty-five years Long Feng had kept an iron grip on Ba Sing Se and he'd be damned if a snot-nosed group of children would remove him from power.

Yue was sitting at her apartment's table when a knock was heard coming from her door. 'That's strange,' Yue thought as she cautiously approached her door. 'I shouldn't be expecting anyone.'

"Who is it?" She called through the door; as she was not naive enough to just open the door.

"It's me, Lee." She heard the voice on the other side reply.

'What would Zuko be doing here?' Yue asked herself as she opened the door. Looking at her friend she asked, "Lee, what are you doing here?"

"We've got a problem," Zuko replied breathlessly. "May I come on?"

Nodding her head in the affirmative, Yue walked back to the table as Zuko walked in and closed the door behind him.

"So what's wrong?" Yue asked as Zuko sat across from her.

"It's like this," Zuko began. For the next hour or so Zuko told Yue what he had experienced and been told.

"So, what do you think?" Zuko asked once he had finished his tale.

"We are so screwed," Yue replied. After a moment of thinking she asked, "Do you think you can put out the fire?"

"I don't know. I went by the Chamber's Library before coming here. I looked for information on both Aku and Varsealm spirit fire. There was nothing on the spirit fire and only a three sentence passage on Aku." Zuko replied.

"What did the passage say?"

"Only that Aku was sealed away forever and if he was ever freed, it would be the end of everything," replied Zuko in a grim tone.

"So when do we tell Jin?"

"We can tell her tomorrow, as we plan for our meeting with Guam."

Walking up to the building like she owned it, which she did, Jin grasped the door handle and walked into her brothel. Looking around she saw that there were several single men, a few single women, and surprisingly five couples waiting to either be serviced by the girls or looking through the price books in the lobby.

"Good evening, Mistress," several of the girls said as she walked through the lobby towards her office. Jin greeted them in kind as she continued down the hall towards her office. Jin opened the door and was greeted by a naked Ling sitting at her desk going over the financial papers.

Seeing her Mistress in the doorway Ling immediately stood, saying, "Welcome Mistress."

Not batting an eye, Jin walked towards the desk while saying, "Thank you Ling."

Sitting down at the desk Jin began to look over the papers and was impressed at the day's high revenue. The day's profits alone would make up for half of the allowance that she had given the girls. Turning to face Ling; Jin leaned back in her chair and asked, "How are the girls?"

Ling, who had been daydreaming, snapped to attention and replied, "T-the girls are doing fine, Mistress. However, they are feeling a bit overwhelmed and were wondering, if you'd consent to getting more girls?"

"It didn't look over crowded in the lobby, even though every seat was filled. Why should I get more?" Jin asked the older woman.

"The girls are starting to burn themselves out. Everyone has performed at least five times within the last three hours. They are hoping you'd get more girls and start working shifts."

"Alright," replied Jin. "Start gathering applications together. I'll look over them during the weekend."

"Thank you very much, Mistress," Ling said as she bowed and got an eye full of her Mistress's bosom; causing her to blush.

Noticing the blush on Ling's cheeks, Jin asked, "Ling, are you staring at my breasts?"

"Wh-what? No, Mistress," stammered Ling.

(Warning: Yuri lemon ahead. If you don't like it, don't read it.)

Jin stood up, loosening the ties of her robe and opened it completely. "You don't have to hide it, Ling," Jin said as the robe fell to the floor.

Ling stared in wide-eyed surprise at her Mistress's voluptuous, naturally bronzed breasts.

Jin reached forward with her right hand and began to softly fondle her girl's swollen bounty. As she gently massaged the plump tit, Jin could see goose bumps forming on Ling's dark skin. Jin took the courtesan's right hand and placed it on her own sweetly curved mounds. Within a hair of a moment Ling began to move her fingers, rolling the ripe flesh of her Mistress's breast back and forth.

Jin moaned softly in pleasure as she leaned closer to Ling and captured the older woman's soft chocolate lips with her own. Ling's eyes lulled in pleasure as her Mistress's tongue slipped between her softly swollen lips. As the two continued the sweet invasion of each other's mouths with their tongues, Jin lowered her other hand on the petal-soft folds of Ling's womanhood.

Ling's eyes snapped open as she felt her Mistress's hand on her wet pulsing core.

Breaking the kiss Jin asked, as she plunged her fingers into the glistening moistness of her beloved courtesan, "Do you want me to stop?"

"No, Mistress," moaned Ling as she lowered herself more onto her Mistress's fingers. "Please don't stop." She begged.

Smiling softly, Jin delved deeper into Ling with each rhythmic push of her fingers. Ling began to breathe desperately as she bucked against Jin's hand. Soon, Jin was thrusting her fingers fast and frantic into the dark haven between Ling's legs. No longer wanting to hold back, Ling opened her mouth and screams of her pleasure filled the office.

Jin arched her eye brows in surprise as she noticed Ling's breast milk seeping steadily out, due to all the pleasure she was giving her. Not wanting to waste the opportunity Jin softly grabbed an achingly swollen breast with her free hand and captured the dark erect nipple between her soft wet lips.

Ling grasped her Mistress's hair as her tortured peak was sucked feverishly by the younger woman. Her eyes rolled up as the engorged tip of her breast spurted its white liquid bounty in to Jin's greedy mouth; pushing Ling all the more to her blood-rushing climax. As her Mistress's fingers thundered against her, Ling's body shook as her vision became white and wild wave after wave of pleasure erupted from between her silken thighs.

As Jin removed her fingers from inside Ling, her hand was washed in the spraying nectar of the woman's flower. She gently pushed back Ling's soaked lower lips; allowing the glistening spray of love to arch through the air and splash against the wall on the other side of the office.

Ling's body shook as the last of her juices spurted from between her legs. With a final shutter, her body collapsed onto her petite Mistress. Surprisingly, they didn't fall to the floor as Jin held firmly onto Ling. Picking the tall woman up bridal-style, Jin carried her over the couch where she proceeded to lie down with Ling lying on top of her. Gingerly, Jin cupped Ling's cheeks in her hands as she softly kissed her. Upon breaking the kiss Jin asked, "Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Yes," Ling replied instantly. "I enjoyed myself greatly, Mistress, but what if your boyfriend finds out?"

Jin giggled softly and replied, "This was his idea, Ling."

Ling's eyes widened at what her Mistress Just told her. "Why would he-" She began to ask, but was hushed by Jin.

"Don't worry about it," replied Jin. "You just get some sleep," she continued as she pulled the couch's throw over them and gently placed Ling's head on her right breast as a pillow.

(End of lemon)

As they lay on the couch, a muffled jingle was heard passing by the door.

"What's that?" Jin asked curious as to what was causing the sound.

"That would be Tigger, Mistress," replied Ling.

"You mean that's her-" Jin began to ask but stopped when Ling nodded her head in the affirmative.

"I'm surprised you let her get it." Ling commented.

"Yeah well, she wanted it and was able to buy it; so, I let her go for it." Jin replied. "Besides, Tigger, seems to like it."

Ling just shrugged and snuggled closer to her Mistress as sleep slowly began to claim her.

It had taken several hours for the girl to die, but what a piece of work she had been. For hours he had carefully cut away her skin and only the skin.

Afterwards, he carefully began to remove the top layer of her muscles that held everything together. It was during this, that she finally died. However, the work wasn't done yet. Cutting very carefully, he was able to remove her nerves and used them to sew her skin together. Her head had been left perfectly intact and was cleanly separated from the rest of the body. Each bone was then carefully removed and bent with masterful earthbending to form a large self-standing arch. Using the reminder of her small intestines, he strung her skin to the bones and at the top of the arch was her head.

He then painstakingly moved several large slabs of highly polished silver around the warehouse to reflect as much sun as he could onto the hide that had once been the girl. Now, it was only a matter of time for the Earth Champion to discover what had happened to her friend and lead her fellow champions into his trap. It would be quite the massacre when they faced Aku.

Now, all that was left was to get a peaceful night's sleep.

Kimiko sighed as she stretched out the kinks in her back. The afternoon had been very busy and tiring for her. After her talk with Zuko, they had gone to the training room of the Elemental Chamber to work on their fighting, most notably the combining of their attacks.

Flashback

"How do you propose we combine our attacks, Zuko?" Yue asked her fellow champion.

The two champions were standing in the training room of the Elemental Chamber. The training room was a large room with an underground lake and a life-size model of a city street. There were also several targets and punching bags spread throughout the room, including, one punching bag that was metal.

"Have you ever seen what boiling hot water can do?" Zuko asked. When Yue shook her head, he explained his plan to her. "If you get the water hot enough, it can cook your target alive."

"Let's try it." Yue said, eager to see what would happen.

Zuko began to heat up the water in the lake and within seconds the water was erupting in bubbles. As her partner continued to heat the water, Yue began to pull at the water with her bending. With a quick thrust of her hand she shot a high-pressured blast of water at a wooden training dummy. The end result was one shattered training dummy and two very surprised benders.

"Kick ass," Zuko exclaimed in surprise. He had expected it to be strong, but not that strong.

"You can say that again," exclaimed Yue in agreement.

For the next several hours the two trained on perfecting the technique, until Yue had to leave for work.

End Flashback

Now, she was relaxing on the couch in the employee's lounge room at Virgo; enjoying her break while Bull (a.k.a. Dak-Ho) and Hawk (a.k.a. Daiyu) took care of things down stairs. Unfortunately, she was brought out of her relaxed state by the soft bickering of two voices. Opening her eyes, Kimiko saw that it was both Lieu and Nu. The two girls always seemed to be arguing when she was around, for some strange reason.

"I take it you both have something you want to tell me?" Kimiko asked them, interrupting their argument.

"Oh, it's nothing Kimiko," replied Lieu with a soft blush at interrupting the beautiful bouncer's down time.

"Actually, I was wondering if you'd like to go out," Nu replied in her oddly pleasant monotone voice.

Before, Kimiko could even reply, Lieu rounded on her co-worker. "I'm asking her out. I was here first."

"I didn't see you moving," Nu snipped back.

"I'll go out with both of you," replied Kimiko cutting through the waitresses' argument.

Lieu and Nu turned to Kimiko to see if they heard correctly. "What?" they asked in unison.

"I said, 'I'll go out with both of you,'" Kimiko repeated herself. She then asked, "When should we go out?"

"How about we go out tomorrow night?" Lieu suggested.

"I'll be busy with some friends tomorrow night," Kimiko replied instantly. "How about Ogdooday night?"

"Sure that works," Lieu replied in the affirmative.

"Great, I'll see you both then," Kimiko replied as she stood up to head back down stairs.

"Both?" Lieu and Nu asked confused.

"Yes, 'both' of you. You both asked me out, I agreed to both of you, I just set up the time with both of you. So yes, both of you," explained Kimiko.

The white-haired beauty then gently kissed them both on the cheek, before exiting the room and leaving behind two very confused girls.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Zuko carefully began to bend the heat away from the newly forged steel rod arrows. Once enough of the heat was removed and the metal was cool, Zuko carefully loaded four of the arrows into the crossbow-gauntlet. He then loaded the freshly crafted belt with the spare arrows and went into the training room for target practice.

Standing roughly fifteen feet from the target, Zuko strapped the crossbow-gauntlet onto his right arm and turned the safety off. He aimed the crossbow-gauntlet at the target and pressed the firing switch. The four five-inch long steel rod arrows cut through the air with whistling streaks. The arrows smashed hard into the wooden target, going straight through it and embedding themselves two inches deep in the wall three feet behind the target.

"The crossbow-gauntlet is a success," Zuko said to himself. "I don't know what to expect from Aku or this killer, but better safe than sorry." He then went over to the wall to pull out the arrows and finish the design of the crossbow-gauntlet.

The night sky was clear as Sokka sat on the back steps of the temporary house they had been given and stared up at the waning moon. As he stared at the moon his thoughts drifted to a certain Northern Water Tribe Princess; that he had failed to protect. The more he thought about Yue the more a certain other girl began to replace the princess. She was Suki, the red-haired leader of the Kyoshi Warriors.

'Why did I kiss her?' Sokka thought to himself. 'I was still grieving over Yue. I never got to show Yue that I would have been a better husband for her than Hahn.'

The Southern Water Tribe warrior was soon interrupted by the voice of his sister. "Sokka, what are you doing out here so late?" Katara asked from behind him.

"Nothing," Sokka replied; not even bothering to turn to answer Katara.

Katara stared vexingly at her brother and then glanced up at the moon, before turning her gaze back to Sokka and said, "Sokka, you can't keep thinking about Yue. You need to move on."

"I wasn't thinking about her."

"Sokka, you were staring at the moon. What else could you have been thinking of?"

"I was thinking of the kiss I had with Suki on Serpent's Pass," Sokka answered.

Katara's eyes widened in surprise at what her big brother had told her. "You kissed Suki?" When Sokka nodded yes, she asked, "Why would you do that? Yue died two and a half months ago."

"Didn't you just say, 'I needed to move on'?"

"Yeah, but still… To go around kissing another girl so soon is just mean, Sokka."

"I'm not going to explain myself to you, little sister," Sokka said as he stood up. "I'm going to bed." He then brushed past Katara, heading for his room.

Katara stared after her brother for a moment, before shaking her head and heading in herself.

The next day the sun was shining brightly in the sky. The adults mingled about, the children laughed and played; even the birds were singing an extra sweet tune. It was as if everything was truly perfect in the imperfect city of Ba Sing Se. However, not everyone was feeling the happiness. Jin frowned slightly to herself as she walked to the streets of Ba Sing Se's Middle Ring Crimson District. She wasn't headed for her own brothel, Taja's Playground, instead she was walking towards the brothel her best friend's older sister owned, The Golden Dragon. The reason for her visit was due to what her boss had told her that morning.

Flashback

"Jin," Madame Xao called from behind the Earth Kingdom girl.

"Yes, Madame Xao?" Jin asked as she turned to face her boss.

"Has Maki reported in today?"

Thinking for a moment, Jin then replied in a slightly worried tone, "No, Madame Xao she hasn't."

"That girl had better have one heck of a sickness for missing two days of work in a row." Madame Xao grumbled as she shuffled past.

End Flashback

Jin had been friends with Maki seven long years. They knew each other better than anyone else and Jin knew for a fact that Maki was never sick enough to miss two days of work in a row. Something was wrong.

Walking up to Menthe's brothel, Jin took notice of two very curious facts. The first fact was that the lanterns were gone. Menthe's brothel was always open; nine days a week, five weeks a month, twelve months a year. It just didn't close. The second fact was that wasn't any noise. There should have been noise-noise of some kind. You didn't have twenty-four women and a growing family in a five-story building without some kind of noise going on.

Jin slowly opened the door and stepped inside. She gasped in shock at what she saw; the lobby of The Golden Dragon was completely destroyed. Directing her chi into her bending Jin used her Seismic Sense and a split second later she wished she hadn't as she felt everything in the building and her mouth filled with the contents of her stomach, as a result of it.

Dead! They were all dead. All twenty-seven residents of The Golden Dragon were dead and she could feel each and every one of them. The girls had either been crushed by earth, all of their bones shattered, ripped apart, bent at inhuman angles, or spikes of earth rammed through them. A couple of the girls had been stuffed with earth, until their stomachs popped. The worst out of all had been Menthe and her family. Menthe's spine had ripped out of her and used to pierce her husband to the wall. Their precious six-month old baby girl, Mali, was in the stone oven. Even though the oven cooling, there was still heat coming from it. All of this, all of it, Jin was able to feel.

With great effort, Jin swallowed the bile in her mouth and ran through the building. She bent the walls out of her way as she ran full speed to the other side of the brothel. With a flick of her hand she blasted the back door and its doorframe straight off the wall. Behind The Golden Dragon brothel was a spacious backyard and on the other side of that backyard was a little cozy two-story house, Maki's house.

As she approached the house, Jin shot her hand forward and activated her Seismic Sense. Pressing her hand against the wall Jin felt inside; the doors had been destroyed, walls ripped and slashed at, tables over turned, and furniture destroyed. But where was the body? Try as she might Jin couldn't find Maki's body.

'Wait, what's that?' Jin asked herself as she felt Maki's bedroom. There was an object there that had never been in her friend's room. It was a stone pedestal and it felt like there was something very light on it.

Jin opened the door and slowly walked through the house. There was no order to the destruction; it was if someone had let lose a Horse-Bull in a porcelain shop. Opening the door to Maki's bedroom, Jin could see that she was right. Everything had been smashed and pressed against the walls and in the center of the room was a simple four-foot stone pedestal and on it was a folded piece of paper. The words, 'To the Earth Champion', were written on the paper.

Jin's eyes were wide with surprise; only four people knew she was the Earth Champion. Picking up the paper, she opened it and read,

Do I have you attention Earth Champion? Yes, I know who you are. I know exactly who you all are. You have quite the large family; it would be a shame if anything happened to them. I hope you enjoyed the display of my strength. It was just a little taste all for you. I was rather proud of the little one in the oven. It certainly does give an ironic twist to the old expression, 'She's got a bun in the oven.' Doesn't it? Your little friend is with me and she will make an excellent display of my power.

"THIS WAS ALL TO GET MY FUCKING ATTENTION?" Jin yelled in anger. She screamed in rage and sadness at the unimaginable horror that had befallen her friend as tears flowed freely from her eyes. She had heard from her girls how the Dai Li did their best to keep this killer's actions a secret, but not this time. Jin wouldn't let them.

Jin turned back to the brothel and extended her arms. Keeping the support beams and floors in place she forced the walls down; forcing the citizens to look at the horror inside. Knowing that she couldn't be seen, Jin opened a hole in the living room of Maki's house and stepped in. With a heavy heart Jin fled the home of her best friend; most likely to never see Maki alive again.

She would find this legendary killer and rip him apart.

Zuko talked animatedly with Yue as they both walked down to the Elemental Chamber. At both of their respective places of employment, several of the customers had been talking about the grotesque multiple murders that had happened at a Middle Ring brothel. Rumors had covered everything from the victims being ripped apart to the Dai Li being the one's responsible. The one thing no one was sure of was how the walls of the brothel came down so cleanly.

"Maybe we could ask Jin. Her girls might know," commented Yue as they stepped into the chamber.

Before Zuko could reply a loud explosion was heard, deafening the room as it shook. The source of the destruction appeared to be coming from the chamber's training room. The two champions glanced at each other before rushing to the training room.

Cautiously, they opened the door and peered inside. It was easy to see by the amount of destruction that the training room had seen better days. The floor was ripped and in shambles, cracks covered the walls, and half of the single-story buildings were destroyed. In the center of the rubble was a very angry Jin. They watched as she raised her left arm and jerked to towards herself. This caused one of the buildings to come flying at her through the air. Without blinking an eye, Jin jumped into the air and delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to the building once it was close enough. The poor building never stood a chance against the unmovable will of the Earth Champion; the building broke apart into several large chunks and flew back with enough force that the rubble destroyed two more buildings.

"This looks like one of those couple's problems that I've heard so much about, so I'm just going to let you deal with her," Yue said right before she shoved Zuko into the room.

'I swear I'll find a way to get back at you for that, Yue,' Zuko thought to himself as he glanced back at the door. He then turned his head back towards Jin and began walking forward.

"JIN!" Zuko yelled over the rumbling and shaking of the room. "JIN, YOU'VE GOT TO STOP THIS!" Seeing that he wasn't getting through to her, Zuko ran at her as hard and fast as he could. Once he was close enough, Zuko leapt forward tackling Jin hard to the ground. Once on the ground, Zuko quickly turned Jin over so that she would know that it was him. "Jin, what is going on?" He asked her. He knew that his girlfriend was a diverse woman. One minute she could be happy, then the next sad. However, he had never seen her so bent on destruction. Zuko watched as realization appeared on Jin's face. Once she knew it was him, her eyes welled up with tears and she began weeping.

"Jin, what's wrong?" Zuko asked. Surely, he hadn't tackled her that hard?

"They're dead," Jin sobbed out. "They're all dead."

'Dead? Who's dead?' Zuko asked himself as he wrapped his arms around Jin in a comforting hug.

Not knowing what else to do, Zuko picked Jin up and carried her out into the main chamber. He gently sat down in one of the chairs, still holding her closely. As she began to calm down, he asked, "Jin, can you tell me who's dead?"

"You remember on the night of our first mission, I told you both that my best friend's older sister ran a brothel?"

"Yes, you said that they weren't doing anything illegal themselves," Yue replied from the side.

"Well earlier today at work, I learned from my boss that Maki, my best friend, hadn't been at work for two days in a row. I've known Maki since we were nine. When we started work together she was never sick enough to miss two days of work in a row. So, I decided to pay her a visit at her house after work…" For the next thirty minutes, Jin told them everything. From how she found everyone dead to the disturbing letter left by the killer to bringing down the brothel's walls. She ended it, by showing them the letter and saying, "After that I rushed home to check on my family. I saw that they were all okay and then came here to release my anger over what happened to Maki, her family, and her sister's girls."

Zuko and Yue read the letter in shock. Never before would they have thought that something like this would happen. Sure, they had both killed, they wouldn't deny it, but at least it was with a purpose. This? This was just mindless slaughter. The biggest question of all was how did this killer know who they were?

Looking at Jin, Zuko asked, "Will you be alright for tonight's mission?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Jin replied as she stood up from the chair.

"Then let's get ready." Yue said with a clap of her hands.

An hour later the three champions were floating high above the city thanks to Taja's masterful earthbending of the floating piece of earth they were on.

"So, what do we know about the target?" Lee asked as he peered down at the city.

"According to the information we stole, Guam is a veteran agent. He has been a Dai Li for thirty years. When Long Feng came into power, the two butted heads about informing the newly appointed Earth King Kuei about the war. In the end, Long Feng was the victor and since the Earth King was only six at the time it was easy keeping him ignorant. Guam felt that since there was no war in Ba Sing Se, he should be allowed to profit from the war outside of Ba Sing Se. It is rumored that, during the Dragon of the West's Siege of Ba Sing Se, Guam disappeared and reappeared sometime after the siege with a box of mysterious contents. The contents of this box were never known. However, soon after his return, people started to have drug induced hallucinations. The blame was never pinned on Guam, but he did get reassigned. His reassignment was the unexplainable killings in the city. Six months after his reassignment, he catches a break by seeing a killer flee the scene of a murder. He gave chase after the kill, but lost him. Two weeks later, his entire family disappears. His wife, her parents, his parents, their siblings, their children, and their sibling's children. In the end, a total of fifty-two people disappeared. Three weeks later, their severed heads were discovered in a house located on the southern mountains of the city's Agrarian Zone. It was noted that the house was made from the victim's bones. Since that time Guam has lived a life of solitude. He bought himself a small apartment complex in the Lower Ring's Magma District and leveled the place. He replaced the apartment complex, with a small house. He is now waiting to retire." Kimiko replied as she had taken to upon herself to memorize the information.

"So after we deal with this Guam, what do we do about this Aku you told me about?" Taja asked as she glanced back at Lee.

"We get the information from Guam and we find the killer. We find the killer and we find Aku. We find Aku and pray to the spirits that it's not too late for us to kill him," Lee explained.

'Well, I'm glad we've got such a solid plan,' Kimiko thought with a roll of her eyes.

"There's the house," Taja said and began the decent down.

As they got closer and closer to the ground, Taja silently bent the roof off the small house; allowing her and her companions entrance into the dwelling. Once they landed Lee turned to his partners and said, "I'll leave the set up to the two of you, while I go and get the guest of honor."

As Lee left the room, Taja began to push everything to the side and rose up a table of earth. It was easy to see that one level of the table was much shorter than the other. Kimiko looked over her water skins; making sure she had brought enough water. At that moment, Lee walked back into the room with a tightly bound man a little older than fifty, who could only be Guam.

Lee placed the man on the table and made sure that his head dangled off the lower end of the table. Taja then used her Earthbending to hold him in place. Kimiko bent down to the struggling man and said, "We have some questions, Guam, and we want you to answer them. You can answer them the easy way or the hard way; it's your choice. First question, what can you tell us about this Master Killer of Ba Sing Se?" She removed the gag so that he could reply.

"He has been murdering people for twenty-five years now. His current count of victims is over a hundred and fifty," The aged agent replied. "He picks and chooses his victims at random. They could be men, women, or children; it doesn't matter to him. In the past twenty-five years only one person has ever gotten a clear look at him."

"We already know about Roga," Taja interjected.

"Then you should know that it was because of Roga that we coined a name for the killer. No one knows how the kid's mother died. All anyone does know is that even a week after her murder, we were still finding slivers of her throughout the alleyway where she killed. When we found the kid in the alley all he could say was one word and that work became the killer's name. We called him Shkiit."

"Shkiit? What kind of a name is Shkiit?" Lee asked.

"Have you ever rubbed the razor's edge of two blades together? That's the sound they produce," Guam replied. "Several of the Dai Li have seen glimpses of him, but none have ever been able to catch him. In fact, we can't even say for sure if it is a guy. The only thing we can agree on is that the killer has to be an Earthbender. The way some of his kills and escapes are pulled off; he can't be anything but one."

"Why haven't the Dai Li done more to stop him?" Taja asked with concealed anger.

"Don't you think we've tried? Every agent who got too close to catching this guy either wound up dead or discovered their family dead," replied Guam. "It doesn't matter if it's in the Upper, Middle, or Lower ring-he will find a way to get to you if he wants to. He has even gotten inside the Earth King's Palace. Most of his murders we learn about are when he leaves information about it on Long Feng's desk. Within the past four months we believe his activities have increased as indicated by a vast jump in missing people claims. However, we don't know as he hasn't sent any proof to us."

"Okay, well thank you for all of that," Kimiko replied. "Now for the second question, who is your supplier for the Blue Bell flower petals?"

The old agent's eyes widened in surprise. "I'm not talking." He growled out.

"Fine then," Kimiko said with a shrug of her shoulders. She then turned to Lee and nodded her head.

Lee stepped forward with a wash rag and covered the man's face with it. With the rag firmly over the agent's face, Kimiko bent her water out of one of her many water skins and held the gallon of water above the man's head. She carefully began to loosen her control of it, allowing the water to pour down on the man's face hitting in particular his breathing passages. Once the gallon was used, she bent the water back into the water skin and motioned for Lee to remove the rag.

"Feel like telling us now?" Kimiko asked in a chipper voice.

"Fuck you," Guam gasped out.

"Oh well," Kimiko said with a shrug and had Lee cover his face again.

For nearly an hour the agent refused to say anything. But after a particularly malicious session in which Kimiko bent her water into a constantly spinning wheel of water and kept the agent under it for a full ten minutes. After that, the agent told them everything. From how he had left the city during the siege to how he originally met the Fire Nation merchant named Agas Jian, who was looking to expand his drug trade and offered Guam a hefty profit to be the one who oversaw the drugs making their way into the city. He gave them the drop-off points, the times, and current gross revenue. He even supplied them with rumors of other less-than-favorable activities that he had heard of the other agents being involved in.

Once Guam finished spilling his guts, Lee bent the heat in the agent's body to make him pass out and returned him to his bed. Kimiko and Taja got rid of all the evidence that they were there and returned everything to its rightful place. The three champions were now below the ground of the city; Jin bending the earth around them, pushing them forward as they quickly made their way back to their area of the city.

"Well, we got the information from the agent," Taja began her tone a little angry. "Now, what do we do?"

"We wait." Lee replied.

"WHAT?" Taja yelled. She stopped bending the earth around them and whirled around; facing Lee. "What do you mean, 'we wait'? I am not waiting for that ass-fuck, do you understand me? I want this man dead. When I say 'dead,' I mean seriously dead; beaten, broken. His-head-mounted-on-my-wall kind of dead! Do you understand that?"

"Of course dear," Lee replied soothingly. "But there's the tiny fact that we don't even know where Shkiit is located. However, he knows about us, so we wait for him to make contact with us. Once, he makes contact we then kill him and mount his head on your wall."

"Fine," Taja growled before turning around and starting to bend the earth once more.

Guam's eyes shot opened as he awoke with a gasp. Frantically, he glanced about his room, but saw no signs of three mysterious hooded figures. He slowly got out of his bed and made his way out of his bedroom. He checked the kitchen, the bathroom, and the living room and found nothing out of place. Shaking his head, the old agent headed back for his bedroom. It would be best to forget that anything ever occurred. After all, it wasn't like he could report it. If he did, he would be imprisoned.

"I must be going crazy," Guam commented to himself allowed.

"Oh, I wouldn't necessarily say that's true," a voice rumbled behind him as the hinges of his door creaked due to the door being closed, trapping him in his own bedroom.

Guam spun around just in time to see the towering black figure with eyes of yellow fire shoot out a tendril from its body and pierce Guam through his stomach.

"Shkiit, sends you his regards and says you were his best playmate, but playtime is now over," The six-horned figure said menacingly as Guam gasped for life.

As the life slowly began to fade from his body, Guam's final view was watching the monster that killed him shift into a raven still with eyes of yellow fire and fly out the window.

Zuko silently crept into his apartment. With how late it was, Iroh was bound to be asleep and Zuko didn't want to disturb his Uncle's rest. Plus, if his uncle awoke he'd want to know what happened and Zuko wasn't in the mood to tell his uncle anything at the moment. So, he placed his shirt in the hamper and his shoes by the bedroom door. Zuko then silently got into the futon and began to pull the covers up as he laid his head down on the pillow.

However, as his head made contact with the pillow a crinkling noise was heard coming from under the pillow. Zuko raised his head and moved the pillow to discover a letter that had been hidden under his pillow. He quickly glanced back and forth, before reaching for the letter. Opening it he read,

How was speaking with Guam, Prince of Fire? Oh yes it is me, cute little Shkiit. If your girlfriend wants to see what happened to her friend, she might be able to find something at the highest point in Ba Sing Se. I do hope that you will both enjoy my latest piece.

Zuko's eyes widened in fear and immediately sat up and activated his Heat Vision to get a look at everything around him.

Looking around the apartments, Zuko could see that nothing was out of place. Iroh was in the futon next to him peacefully sleeping, all five members of the Lang family were sleeping, and above him Yue was already asleep, by her body temperature. Everything in the apartment complex was as it should be; even though Zuko knew this and his body was tired, sleep was the furthest thing from his mind.

He carefully got out of bed and walked over to the window. 'How is it everything has become so messed up?' He thought to himself. As he stared up at the sky, Zuko noticed a small bird flying across the distant sky. The interesting thing about this bird was its small yellow eyes of fire. 'Shit, I guess Aku is here in the city,' Zuko thought as he backed away from the window. Zuko knew he would be no match for the monster without Jin and Yue to back him up. He silently kept watch until the spirit was out of sight. Once the spirit was out of sight, Zuko got himself a cup of water and after drinking it, went to bed. It was going to be a hell of a day tomorrow and he would need his sleep, if he was to survive.

Dawn.

The bright sun hung high in the cloudless sky as it slowly baked the citizens of Ba Sing Se.

'Damn, I always thought that it would be severally overcast and storming on the day I stood a chance of being killed,' Zuko thought morbidly as he stood on the roof of the apartment complex. 'At least then everyone would say my killer only got lucky because my firebending wasn't at full strength. Thanks to all this sunny weather there's no reason that I shouldn't be at full strength. Oh well, time to get started.' Zuko jumped down from ledge to ledge and, once he was on the ground, proceeded to enter the apartment building.

A few minutes later, Zuko was knocking on Yue's door. The door was soon answered by a groggy, Yue, who was pondering who would be stupid enough to awaken her at ten in the morning. "Lee, what do you think you're doing?" She asked once she saw that it was her friend.

"Get dressed," Zuko said not bothering to explain himself.

Arching an eyebrow, Yue asked, "And why should I?"

"We've got trouble and we need to get our asses moving, now." Zuko replied.

Knowing that the Firebender wasn't one to joke around, Yue went into her bedroom and started putting her clothes on.

Everything around her just seemed so pointless.

Just three days ago Maki had been alive. Laughing and joking right beside her. She had planned on popping the threesome question to Maki on their 'Girl's Night Out' Enatosday night, but now she would never get that chance for her two greatest loves to be together with her. Maki was probably in several pieces by now and was being feed upon by insects. All the while, everyone around her went on with their live like normal.

"Jin, you've got some visitors," hollered Madame Xao, distracting Jin from her thoughts.

Jin knitted her eyebrows in confusion and went to the front of the store and was surprised to see both Zuko and Yue in the store. "What are you both doing here?" she asked in confusion.

"I do not know," replied Yue. "Ask him. He told me we needed to come here, but wouldn't say why."

"Can you take a break?" Zuko asked as she turned towards him.

"Sure," Jin replied. She then yelled to the back room, "I'M GOING ON BREAK." She then took off her sewing apron and joined the others outside.

A little while later the three champions were standing on the roof of a nearby building. "What's so important for you both to come here?" Jin asked, breaking the silence.

Digging through his robes, Zuko replied, "When I was going to sleep last night I found this under my pillow." He pulled a folded letter out and handed it to the girls.

They unfolded the letter and began to read and as they read their eyes grew wide with surprise.

Once Jin and Yue finished reading the letter, Zuko spoke again. "It gets worse," he told them.

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but how could it be worse than this?" Yue asked.

"We now have visual confirmation of Aku being in the city," Zuko replied grimily.

"What? How," Jin asked in surprise.

"I saw Aku flying across the sky last night in the form of a raven," Zuko said as he recalled the event.

"How do you know that it was Aku?" Yue asked skeptically.

"The eyes of the raven were yellow fire. The same eyes Aku has no matter the form he takes," he explained.

"This has got to end," Jin said. "I say we go now and see what Shkiit has, and then kill him."

"We can't." Zuko told his girlfriend.

"Why not," Jin asked annoyed.

"You are in the middle of work, In a few hours my own work shift will be starting, It's bright and clear out so we would be more easily identified, and there's also the Dai Li to consider," Zuko replied listing the reasons why.

"What if we go at sunset?" Yue asked. Both of her companions turned to look at her. "If we go it sunset it will be that much sooner for us to end this. Plus, it will be harder for people to see us clearly, if the sun is to our backs."

"Okay then, we go at sunset," Zuko said with a nod of his head. He turned to Jin and asked, "Where is the highest point in Ba Sing Se?"

"It depends," Jin replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "If you are talking the city city, it would be the great spirit temple in the Middle Ring. However, if you are talking about everything within the Outer Wall; it would then be the Pharaoh Mountain Range, located just west of the main city."

"Which point do you think Shkiit is at?" Yue asked Jin.

"He can't be at the temple, it's too crowded there. Someone would have seen him. The Pharaoh Mountains would be the perfect place for him to hide; as no one is allowed to live on the mountain due to its instability," replied Jin.

"How unstable is it?" Zuko asked her. After all, his people lived around volcanoes, so how bad could a mountain be?

"Centuries ago, a man tried to build a house on the mountain and he succeeded. However, a month later the house slid and fell off a ledge. The rocks are sharp and deadly, the paths narrow and very rocky, and the crevices are deep and many. The Earth King had to make a decree forbidding the construction of any dwellings on the mountain," Jin said, as she remembered the history of Ba Sing Se.

The three quickly made plans to meet up that evening and soon left. Each of them to pass what could be their final day in their own way.

The day was busy at Taja's Playground. There was escorting to be done, dances to be had, and couples to excite. It was only their fourth day, at the new place, and already the girls were starting to pressured. Luckily, a blessing had come along in the form of girls who were eager to work at Taja's Playground.

"What are we going to do with all of these applications?" Ayame asked from the floor. She may not have been able to see them, but she certainly could feel them. All two hundred of them, that had been filled out and returned.

"We're going to finish picking up the applications that fell," replied Ling. "And put them on Mistress's desk. She wants to look over them."

"How many do you think she will acquire?" Ayame asked as her sightless eyes stared straight ahead.

"She plans to have day and night shifts, so I would say twelve." Ling said, giving Ayame her opinion of the situation.

Ayame shrugged her shoulders with indifference and continued to gather up the scrolls.

The sun dipped low as it touched the ground and bled the cloud-filled sky red.

'At least the weather has improved,' Zuko thought as he, Yue and Jin flew across the sky once more on a small piece of earth that Jin controlled with her earthbending. 'This is perfect weather to be killed or to kill.'

"So what's the plan?" Yue asked them.

"The center mountain is the tallest," began Jin. "We're going to hit that one and hit it hard."

The three looked down to see the mountain range below them. They were high enough that the mountains looked like nothing more than large bumps on the surface of the earth. "Ready?" Jin asked them as she laid stomach down on the floating piece of earth. Zuko and Yue followed her actions and once they were lying down with her they nodded their heads. With a flick of her hand, Jin incased everyone's bodies in earth to hold them firmly in place. Their legs, arms, and sides were all held firmly by the earth. Only their backs and heads were not covered in earth; even through their heads were carefully braced against the earth to cancel the coming whiplash. Slowly, Jin began to tilt the platform of earth until they were nearly vertical. "Hold on to your stomachs," Jin said right before she bent the piece of earth they were on back to the ground at break-neck speeds.

The wind howled in their ears as the ground grew closer and closer. Each of them wanted to scream, but none dared. It would be best if as few as possible knew about what was about to take place. When they were only a few yards above the ground Jin braked the falling earth hard. With their bodies securely in place, the effects of whiplash were negated. Jin was able to land on the ground without any trouble and as they recovered and started to stand, Yue let out a horrified gasp.

Seeing that their friend was looking at something behind them, Zuko and Jin turned around to see what it was and when they did they saw a sight straight out of a nightmare. A short distance from them was a tree. But it was not a tree of wood, a growing plant. No, this was a tree of corpses. A hundred bodies, all in various stages of decay, were inhumanly bent and twisted to form what would look like a dying tree if the viewer was far enough back. The worst part was at the base of the tree; there they saw an archway made of bones they were stretching out what looked like sewn human skin. At the center point of the archway was a severed human head. The head appeared to be female by its facial features and long brown hair.

"Maki," Jin choked out at the sight of her friend. "I swear I'm going to make him suffer."

"No you aren't," Zuko replied deadpanned.

"The hell I'm not," snapped Jin.

Zuko suddenly shot out a hand and grabbed Jin by the collar of her shirt. He pulled her close as he said; "Look at that," pointing to the carnage in front of them. "Do you honestly think you can make someone like that suffer or even regret anything? Every second you let him live is a second long you let him have life, even if it's only to torture him." Cupping her hooded face in his hands Zuko kissed her passionately. Breaking the kiss, he rested his forehead against Jin's own. "I promise you this, even if I have to tear apart this city, this monster will not see tomorrow's sunrise. We will kill him and send him to the afterlife. Allowing those he killed, to deal with him. They have had years to wait and plan for this. They will inflect more pain than we ever will be able to. Okay?"

Jin bowed her head, resting it on Zuko's shoulder. "Fine, just as long as he's dead," Jin replied as a lone tear fell from her eye.

"Quite an impressive accomplishment for a pathetic human," a deep voice rasped from behind them.

The three whirled around and were met with the sight of a fourteen foot tall spirit of darkness that had six horns and bright yellow eyes of fire.

"Aku," Jin yelled. "Where is Shkiit?"

"Not here," replied the aged spirit. "You three fools came here like flies to a freshly filled latrine pit."

"Fine, then-we'll kill you and find him ourselves." Yue barked.

"I don't think so," replied Aku. Defying the common laws, Aku's shadow rose from the ground and slashed at them with his right clawed hand.

Slamming her foot hard into the earth, Jin forced three pillars of earth to shoot up at blinding speeds; launching herself and the others into the air. "Keep him distracted," Zuko told her before he pushed away and ignited fire under his, feet allowing himself to stay airborne.

As she began to fall back to the ground, Yue bent her water out of her water skins and formed a platform of ice beneath her feet allowing her to say in the air. A second later Zuko appeared next to her and quickly said, "I need you and Jin to keep him distracted, I've got a plan but I need a minute."

"Alright," Yue replied as Zuko pulled back. Using as much of her bending as possible, Yue began to form several large spheres of water totaling eighteen in all. With her face full of concentration and determination in her eyes. Yue wildly began moving her arms in fast graceful strong motions. The spheres of water, each measuring a yard in diameter, surrounded Aku and. following Yue's movements, began to viciously attack Aku with powerful unrelenting water whips.

Joining her friend in the attack, Jin brought forth twenty-seven boulders from the surrounding mountains. Concentrating hard, Jin compressed each of them down to the size of a beach ball. Jin quickly placed each of them in the air to strike Aku from every angle. With a flick of her had, Jin sent pieces of the boulder flying off at blinding speeds. Within a second the area was thick with dust from the ground as it was blasted to bits.

Yue and Jin stopped for a moment to see what their combined work had done. Once enough of the dust cleared, they were shocked to see that Aku had changed his form into that of a giant scorpion and there wasn't so much as a single scratch on him.

Aku laughed deep and hard at their wasted efforts. "Childish, very childish," he rumbled as turned to face the two females. "Now die," roared Aku as he charged them.

The girl's efforts weren't wasted however, for Aku made a mistake. He forgot about the Fire Champion. High above them, Zuko had been concentrating. He had needed Jin and Yue to distract Aku, so that he could ready his most powerful current attack. Despite what was currently known about being able to bend lightning to firebenders at large, there actually were some lightning techniques other than just throwing it around. The techniques were deadly, in that that they were as likely to kill the user as well as the target.

Zuko held his right arm straight out to the side and slightly to the back. His fingers were straight out and pressed together; forming his arm into a blade. Or, in this case, a lance as the technique was the Lightning Lance. Clearing his mind and emptying his emotions, Zuko pushed nearly all of his chi into his hand and held it there letting the power build up. Within a few seconds his hand began to look like it was lightning. 'Please let this work,' begged Zuko. The longer the fight was drawn out the stronger Aku would be come and the weaker they would become.

With the technique ready Zuko shot back down to the battle ground, closing in on Aku faster than the spirit was charging the others. At the last possible moment Zuko struck, striking harder than ever before.

Barely from the top of her eyes, Jin noticed a flash as she watched Aku charge. Thinking quickly, the earthbender raised a high strong barrier in front of herself and Yue; just as the explosion hit and everything behind the barrier lit up in a blood red light.

On the Great Wall a lone guard named, Aadil, watched in a mixture of fascination and dread as the center peak of the Pharaoh Mountain Range suddenly glowed in a bright unholy red light. "Spirits! What was that?" he exclaimed, as he pulled out his telescope to try and get a better look. However, he was unable to see anything as the light was dying behind the mountain. "The general will want to know about this," Aadil said to himself and took off running for the general's bunker.

Aku screamed in pain as his was ripped apart. Pain, he hadn't felt pain in so long that he had forgotten the sensation. This human was good, he would admit to that and as a reward the firebender would die first. With the firebender killed the others wouldn't be able to kill him.

As the light died and sound returned, Jin lowered the barrier of earth. Jin and Yue saw Aku on the ground; whether the spirit was dead or alive was unknown to them. To the right of them, they saw Zuko standing on shaky legs; his entire right sleeve was shredded. Seeing them, the Champion of Fire slowly stumbled over to them.

"What in spirit's name was that?" Yue asked in a shock filled voice.

"Something that I need to work on some more, as that nearly killed me," replied Zuko with a grin.

"THEN THIS WILL KILL YOU, YOU SHITTY HUMAN," yelled Aku as he raised himself up to his knees and left hand. He thrust out his right clawed hand and shoot out a tendril. The tip hardened to form a deadly killing strike.

Everything around him moved in slow motion as he saw the tendril approach, but was unable to move himself or even try to defend himself. As the tendril closed in, Zuko felt his body being pushed away. He looked to his left to see, the girl who had come to mean everything to him push him out of the way and receive the blow herself. "JIN!" Zuko screamed in rage as time sped up once more and Jin was forced back by the blow and was slammed into a boulder. Turning to Yue, Zuko shouted, "Throw me!"

"What?" Yue yelled back not understanding and in shock at the fate of Jin.

"Throw me at Aku, now damn it," Zuko quickly clarified.

Not even bothering to question it, Yue used her bloodbending and launched Zuko straight at Aku's head as fast as she could.

As he sailed through the air, Zuko coated his hands in blue fire as he brought them in front of him. Slamming full force into the malevolent spirit Zuko's hands seared in pain as he grabbed the fire that was Aku's eyes and bent them to his will.

"You think you can kill me you pathetic human?" Aku rasped as he felt his energy disperse.

"Yes," growled Zuko savagely. He would have no mercy for this monster. It had killed Jin, the first person to truly know him as Zuko the person and not Zuko the prince or Zuko the traitor. This monster would die with Shkiit and then he would mourn. With a yell of rage, Zuko tore his hands away; extinguishing the fire that was Aku's eyes and life force.

"Y-you've killed me," rasped the dying voice of Aku. "This cannot be. No human should be able to overcome me."

"It is Aku," Zuko said without pity.

"Well then, you will find Shkiit at the abandoned Bay Warehouse at the city's Harbor District," Aku informed the ender of his long existence. "It's the one with the muilti-tiled roof."

"Why tell me that?"

"I'm about to cease to exist. What do I care, what happens to the Masters' pet?" Aku said. Before anymore could be said, Aku's body burst, sending a ripple throughout the space of reality.

Looking at the area where Aku's body had been one last time, Zuko then turned around to go to Jin; praying that she had been able to hold on long enough to say good-bye.

So this was it? Her life was going to end at the ripe old age of sixteen as she died to save her boyfriend. Well, she had lived a full life. Sure she never got to travel past the city walls since she arrived, let her business take off, get her own house, quit working for Madame Xao, become more intimate with Zuko, or even get the chance to tell her parents good-bye. But hey, it was a full life. Now she could in brace the sweet rapture of death and go on into the afterlife. It wouldn't be so bad…grandma and grandpa would be there, everyone who died from the pirate attack on her home village would be there too, and so would Maki and her family. All that was left was to get through the coming pain before finally dying. …Speaking of pain, where was it? Being pierced straight through your chest should hurt a lot and not feel like pins and needles of paresthesia8.

Jin slowly opened her left eye and saw the star filled sky above her. Opening both eyes she took in a careful breath and winced slightly as her chest constricted in slight pain. 'I'm alive,' she slowly realized. Unable to stop herself and not knowing why, Jin began to giggle uncontrollably.

"I don't see what's so funny," a voice spoke from in front.

Turning her head, Jin saw Yue approaching her. "Sorry," replied Jin. "I was just surprised to discover that I was alive. What happened?"

"Zuko was able to put out Aku's life force and now the monstrous is dying." Yue informed her. At that moment, Aku's body burst; existence forever gone.

As Zuko turned around, Jin slowly and carefully got to her feet. "Jin?" Zuko called, disbelief filling his voice. As Jin nodded her head to confirm that it was her and that she was alive, Zuko increased his speed until he embraced her firmly in a hug and passionately kissed her.

Hearing Yue cough to the side the two broke apart; their faces aglow with blushes. "Jin, how did you survive?" Zuko asked, curious as he had been so sure that she was indeed dead.

"I'm not so sure about that myself," she replied honestly. Looking down she noticed a cut in her shirt from where the tendril stabbed at her. Taking one of Yue's knives, she gently and carefully cut up. Once it was cut, Jin pushed the edges away and the three champions gasped at what they saw. On Jin's chest just above her cleavage, was an off-white protrusion that was five inches across and four inches tall. Carefully, reaching forward, Yue touched the foreign thing and realized what it was.

"Jin, that's bone," Yue told Jin and a surprised filled voice.

"How do you know that/it's bone?" Jin and Zuko asked together.

"Living in the Northern Water Tribe, I've seen enough bones to recognize them," explained Yue. "Jin I think you somehow subconsciously bone-bent your own bones to form a protective armor that saved your life."

"How?" Jin asked wide-eyed.

"I do not know." Yue replied shaking her head.

"Is there any way to remove it?" Zuko asked.

"If Jin could recall how she did it, it would just be a simple process of reversing it," replied Yue. "However she doesn't, so we need to get to the Chamber so I can use my healing spirit water and carefully pry that off."

"We need to move fast," Jin suddenly cried. "It looks like our fighting attracted some attention. I feel at least fifteen people on their way here now."

"I'll get us back," Yue said and quickly bent her water around their feet. They were anchored in place as a platform of ice formed underneath them and lifted them into the air.

"Wait," Jin said right as Yue was about to take off. She looked back at the tree of corpses and said, "I want you to burn it, Zuko."

"Are you sure?" Zuko asked as he followed Jin's gaze.

"Yes. No one should have to see that horror and those that were killed don't deserve to be left like that," she replied.

Nodding his head, Zuko thrust his hand forward; releasing a powerful stream of blue fire and incinerated the tree. Right before they took off, Zuko made sure to extinguish the fires; leaving behind nothing but burnt earth. Jin shifted the earth to cover up the burn marks. It would do them any good, for the soldiers to start think that the city was under attack.

Yue lifted them high into the sky and carried them away unseen.

Looking around they saw nothing. This was nothing on the plateau that looked like it would cause the city any problems. After all, it was nothing but earth and rocks; and there was plenty of that in the city already.

"Looks like we we were sent on nothing but a wild Duck-Goose chase, by General Sung all because he had to listen to that overly-paranoid idiot, Aadil," growled the leader of the small group of soldiers. "Come on, lets get back to the bunks and back to bed. We're missing sleep."

The guards began the long trek back to the Great Wall, each of them annoyed at having been ordered to suit up for nothing.

"Do you think you can remove it?" Zuko asked Yue, following her as she went to get a vial of spirit water from her room in the chamber.

"It won't be easy, but I believe I can." Yue replied as she picked up one of the vials of spirit water.

"Alright then, I wish you the best of luck then," Zuko said and began to head for his own exit to from the Chamber.

"Where are you going?" Yue asked before Zuko was even able to get two steps away. "Aren't you going to stay here and watch over Jin?"

"Aku told me that Shkiit is at the abandoned Bay Warehouse in the Harbor District. I made a promise that that monster would die this night." Zuko replied. "Now go help Jin."

'Shit,' Yue thought as she watched Zuko walk away. Zuko would need help, but Jin needed her help more at the moment. Acting quickly she ran over to the table where Jin was lying down.

"Where's Zuko?" Jin asked her.

"It seems that right before he died, Aku told Zuko where he could find Shkiit. Zuko is now on his way there to his promise to you."

"WHAT?" Jin exclaimed as she tried to sit up.

"Oh no, you don't." Yue said gently pushing Jin back down. "We need to work on healing you first."

"Fine, let's get to it, then."

"I want you to very carefully use your bone-bending to slowly break the bone on your chest apart from the bones that it is attached to in your body," Yue explained to Jin. "While you're doing that, I'm going to work on healing the area on any injuries."

Jin nodded her head and looked down at the bone on her chest. Reaching up with her left hand, she grasped the edges of the bone. Closing her eyes she began to concentrate on breaking the bone as she pulled it away from her body. While Jin did this, Yue focused her healing abilities into the spirit water and held it firmly over the area. After a moment a distinct cracking was heard and Jin's eyes snapped open as she began screaming in pain. Even though she was in pain, Jin didn't stop pulling.

'Will this night ever end?' Yue thought after another yell from Jin. She just prayed that things were going well for Zuko.

Emerging from his exit/entrance to the Elemental Chamber Zuko began to push his inner fire out from his feet, launching himself into the air. He know that after using the Lightning Lance, and the effort it took to overpower Aku's fire, that he shouldn't be over-exerting himself. But Zuko would be damned if he let this monster live. Blazing across the sky, Zuko saw the warehouse and shot right for it.

It was over. It had only taken them two minutes to completely remove the bone and heal any damage, but what any intense two minutes they had been. Now, Jin's chest was bone free without so much as a single blemish.

"Let's go help Zuko." Jin said as she started to get up from the table.

"I don't think so," Yue said stopping Jin in her tracks.

"Why not?"

"After what happened to you, you need to rest and recover. As your healer, I'm ordering you to rest," replied Yue sternly. Seeing Jin's angered look, she said softly, "As your friend, I'm going to bring your boyfriend back."

Knowing she couldn't argue the healer, Jin replied with a sigh, "Fine." She then sat down for the wait as Yue ran to the exit to catch up to Zuko.

After having smashed through the wall to enter the warehouse, Zuko was met with a surprise. While the outside looked like a warehouse, the inside was designed like an apartment complex. As moonlight filled the room, Zuko could see that there was nothing in the hallway. Walking down the hall, he began searching through the place with vigor.

He went from room to room and saw nothing. Four floors of nothing, that is. It wasn't until he reached the fifth and final floor that the scene changed. At the end of the long hallway a door was ajar with a faint light emanating from it. With great caution, Zuko approached the door ready to strike, pushing the door open he saw a bald headed man with his back to him. On either side of the man, two faintly burning candles stood.

"Aku failed." Said the man; as a statement.

"Yes and now you die, monster," growled Zuko.

"Tell me, Prince of Fire, you're not afraid of the dark are you?" Shkiit asked. At that moment, the candles were snuffed out sending the room into darkness.

Zuko shot his hand out releasing a powerful burst of fire. At that moment two things happened; Zuko discovered that Shkiit was no longer in the room with him and the stone walls broke down into sand and latched onto his burst of fire snuffing it out. Zuko shot out some fire a few more times and each time the fire was extinguished by the sand. 'Looks like I'm fighting blind,' Zuko thought to himself, realizing he would need something more than his firebending. 'Good thing I trained for this then.' Closing his eyes, Zuko slipped into his Heat Vision sight. Seeing the world around him caused Zuko to raise an eyebrow. Everything around him was dark blue and purple, the colors of coldness. Without making fire Zuko increased the heat of the air in the room; effectively giving him a double sense. He could see the area around him and if anything within the heat moved, he'd be able to tell right where it was.

At that moment, a spear of earth shot out from the wall behind him an incredible speeds. With his Heat Vision, Zuko was able to see the spear coming and dove to the left. Unfortunately, the spear was moving faster than he could dodge and as a result the sharpened tip snagged the fabric of the hood, tearing it away. Zuko was unable to contemplate the significance of having been so close to nearly getting head impaled; for at that moment several more spears shot out from the walls. Keeping with the momentum of his body, Zuko just kept moving as fast as he could; ducking, diving, weaving, and dodging his way from certain death.

Zuko had used up a lot of his strength in the past hour and as a result was starting to slow down. So it didn't come as a great surprise when the earth rose up and captured his hands. Zuko's hands were forced straight out to his sides and down; forcing him to his knees. With his Heat Vision still in use, Zuko watched as Shkiit emerged up through the floor. Zuko was breathing hard as Shkiit leaned in close and whispered to him.

"I'm going to kill you. Then cook you and feed you to your whore."

Despite being trapped, Zuko tried to lunge at the man. But it was to no avail. Zuko canceled his Heat Vision and opened his eyes; if he was going to die he would die staring right at his murderer. Through the darkened shadows of the room, Zuko watched as a large spear of earth formed in the air next to Shkiit.

"And now, you die," Shkiit said as he raised his hand and motioned the spear back.

"NOOOOO!" Screamed the familiar voice of Yue; loud and savage like.

With his eyes wide Zuko watched as for but a hair of a moment, Shkiit's neurocranium9 expanded; right before it exploded as it was unable to contain the swelling of Shkiit's brain that was done by Yue. The spear of earth fell to the ground with a clash and the earth holding Zuko's hands crumbled.

Turning around Zuko said, while lighting a small fire in his hands, "Thanks for saving me, Yue." Sadly, his was met with Yue's right fist smashing into his left cheek; sending him to the ground. "What was that-" he tried to ask, but was quickly interrupted.

"SHUT UP!" Yue roared. "Do you have any idea of the stupidity of your actions?" Before Zuko could even reply, Yue replied for him, "Shut up! After nearly losing Jin, you stupidly run off to fight a master earthbender; while in a weakened condition. And all because you made a promise. There's a difference in keeping your promises and just going Hog-Monkey shit stupid. If you ever do something as stupid as this again, I will beat you into submission. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah," Zuko replied as he stood up.

"Good," Yue said with a nod of her head. As Zuko lit a fire once more, they both turned to see the headless body of Ba Sing Se's greatest monster. "By the way, you're welcome," Yue said softly. "If anyone asks, you killed him. Got that?"

"Got it," replied Zuko; shooting his hand forward and releasing a blast of blue fire to burn Shkiit's body to ash.

"Good," Yue replied with a nod of her head. "Now it's been a very stressful couple of hours, so here's what we're going to do. I'm going to heal you and then go home. You on the other hand are going to go back to the Elemental Chamber get Jin and walk her home."

Nodding his head tiredly, Zuko stepped close to allow Yue to start her healing process. Never before had he ever come so close to dying or seeing someone he loved killed. Sure, Zuko greatly loved his Uncle Iroh, but it was vastly different with Jin. There was something there that had never been there before and he would make the entire planet suffer if only to protect it.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Zuko and Jin were slowly walking down the quite empty streets of the Lower Ring as they neared Jin's house. The couple walked in silence as they wrapped their arms around each other's waists. They had nearly lost each other twice that night; now they just wanted to be close to each other. Stopping in front of Jin's house, they held each other close as lips touched in a passionate kiss; Zuko, feeding from the sweetness of her mouth and Jin, capturing his mouth with a hungry urgency. Jin moaned softly at the sweet invasion of Zuko's tongue in her mouth. After several minutes they broke the kiss, their lips wet and swollen. Jin leaned her head against Zuko's chest as her breathing was labored.

"Zuko, could you stay the night with me?" Jin asked in gasps as her breathing returned to normal.

Pausing for only a second, Zuko replied, "Sure."

With her eyes full of surprise, Jin earthbent them under the door and carefully the young couple walked up to Jin's room. Walking into the room, they closed the door behind them. Turning to Zuko she asked, "Do you mind," pointing to some nearby candles.

With a wave of his hand, Zuko shot out a few small flares each one of them lighting the candles.

"I need to change," Jin said with a blush.

With reddened cheeks of his own, Zuko turned around to give Jin her privacy. He was facing her dresser, looking at all the interesting things she had. Jin had a few rings, a small jewelry box, a couple of necklaces, and a few well preserved hand drawn sketches of what Zuko assumed were her family. As he stood, Zuko noticed the movement on the wall and shifted his gaze to see Jin's shadow as she took off her shirt. He watched in silent fascination as her hands reached up to her well-defined, heavy, round, magnificent breasts and fondled them gently. The hands lifted the breasts up and dropped them. Zuko watched as the shadow of Jin's breasts jiggled and bounced as they were captured by the effects of gravity.

'She's doing this to me on purpose, isn't she?' Zuko thought in a deadpanned voice. Zuko wasn't an idiot, he wanted her. He wanted Jin so bad he could taste it. But it wasn't time. With the emotional effects of the past couple of hours it wasn't the time for them to become one. If they made love this night, they might regret it later. But soon, soon he would have her. Either that, or Jin would rape him; whichever came first.

Zuko looked away from the shadow and a couple of minutes later heard Jin say, "You can turn back now." Zuko turned around to see his love, lying in her bed with a simple, low neck, white shirt on; giving him a full view of her cleavage. Zuko took off his shoes, removed his shirt, and dropped his pants, leaving him in only his underpants; all the while Jin's gaze was fixed on him. Gathering up his clothes, he placed them in a neat pile to the side. Zuko climbed into the bed as Jin motioned for him to lie next to her.

Jin scooted closer as Zuko pulled the blanket over them. She rested her head on his scarred chest and sighed in content. She watched as Zuko waved his hands and the candles went out. It was there in the darkness of her room, cuddling with her boyfriend that Jin spoke, "I love you, Zuko."

"I love you too, Jin," Zuko whispered through the darkness.

The young couple closed their eyes, letting the sweet embrace of a peaceful sleep claim them.

Next Chapter: Tales of Ba Sing Se

There you have it folks the long awaited release of chapter eight. I hope you enjoyed reading it and please leave a review. As always feel free to ask me any questions you may have about the story.

Footnotes:

1) Yes, that is Aku from 'Samurai Jack'. There were some obvious differences though, for him to fit into the story. Mostly, he's in it cause I'm a fan of Mako.

2) It is a natural size. Get over it.

3) Yes, it's Madame Macmu-Ling from the 'Tales of Ba Sing Se' episode.

4) Since the flow of time was never discussed in any great detail in cannon, I made up my own.

5) There's a rumor that, that was done in some countries centuries ago.

6) Decmen are kind of like the Heartless's Neo-Shadows.

7) A sor-crafter is a crafter of sorcery.

8) That's a fancy way of saying numb.

9) The neurocranium is what holds your brain in.

Please leave a review.