a/n: Major writer's block. Sorry for the wait. Hope you enjoy this one! Reviews are welcome~!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender

+Zuko+

He had had a plan. It had gone miserably wrong. Positively miserably wrong. He had foolishly thought that he could threaten someone as twisted and evil as Clivian into talking but he hadn't seemed even the tiniest bit intimidated. A little shocked perhaps but not intimidated. Not even when he was dangling 19 floors off the ground. Zuko had been tempted to drop him but he had long since abandoned the ways of people like his father. And his sister.

He now stood alone in an empty room. It was an attic, actually. He had broken in when he had read the "For Sale" sign post on the front lawn. It was early morning and he was looking out the window at the house across the street. Or what used to be a house. It was a great big pile of charred wood and rubble now. The local fire department was hosing the last of the flames and a couple of uniformed men were talking to some of the neighbors who had rushed out in a hurry and were still wearing pajamas and slippers.

Zuko had heard all of it. He had arrived barely half an hour ago and he had heard all of it from the neighbors themselves. They had been huddled outside on the street, gawking at the blazing house with wide eyes the size of dinner plates. Zuko only had to hover nearby to hear them whispering about a shootout inside the residence. One of them swore they had seen two of them leaving on motorcycles just a little while before the explosion.

However, it had never occurred to any of them to call the police immediately after the gunshots because they had thought that someone else would surely call. Consequently, the police had arrived too late to have a good look inside the house and collect some real evidence. Instead, they would have to half-heartedly comb through the ashes and come up with nothing. A few bones maybe but not enough to get any names or identification of any kind. This was already a dead case. To them, anyways.

The firebender turned his back on the window. He would have to leave now. Katara had almost certainly been here. He had been able to track her with some effort and he was not about to back off now.

Pulling the hood of his stolen sweater over his head, his hand brushed against the fleshy skin of his scar. Surprisingly, he had not thought about his scar for a long time now. Granted, even back home he had not given too much thought to it after the war had ended but he had seen it every day up till then. Now the contact with his scar brought all the unhappy memories back to him. Unbidden, the clear faces of his sister and father floated to the surface. He then remembered the last time he had spoken with his mother.

"You know what you need to do Zuko," she had said softly, "Keep your friends close and, above all, never lose hope."

He remembered that she had pressed her lips to his forehead after these words. Unconsciously, he lightly touched the spot where his mother had kissed him. Zuko closed his eyes and tried to remember Mai's but he couldn't. In his mind's eye, a mental barrier blocked him from getting any closer. Silently, he wondered if he'd ever see either of them again.

+Jones+

It was around five in the morning when they parked in front of an inn a good couple of miles away from Heyday. Unfortunately, they had actually come back closer to West Verklay than they had been before but Ethan supposed that they would make it out of New York by tomorrow if necessary.

They booked one room pretending to be on a family. The innkeeper, a dumpy looking woman of fifty with coarse, wiry hair and a hooked nose, frowned at Katara who looked nothing like either sandy blonde Jones or short, Asian Yumi but she raised no questions. She handed them an old key and pointed them down the hallway with a grunt.

The room was tiny and smelled like a gym. Dark stains covered the carpet and the moth-eaten couch in one corner looked as though it had seen better days as did the TV, the side of which had been violently dented. In the middle of the room were two armchairs with a coffee table sandwiched between them. There was also one tiny bathroom which barely had enough room for the door to swing open properly and the spare bedroom had no bed. Instead, there was an ugly yellow futon on the floor with one severely deflated pillow and a small closet which was nailed shut.

After looking around at their dismal inn, he cornered Yumi while she was shrugging off her jacket.

"We had a deal." He said curtly.

"And so we did." Yumi replied coolly without turning around. She tossed her jacket onto the couch as there were no clothes racks. "Let's get it on with, shall we?"

+Katara+

She didn't really want to hear what the other two were going to say. She didn't even know them. They were, after all, strangers to her. Strangers who had just happened to help her in her time of need, that is. Normally this would have sufficed for her to trust them, and she had tried but it was impossible. They were, after all, people from a different world. Katara had no idea of their intentions and even though she admitted they seemed like good people, the waterbender couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something more. Something she couldn't put her finger on.

In order to avoid eavesdropping, she shut herself in the spare room and plopped down onto the futon which sagged miserably underneath her. Despair seemed to fill up her lungs until she found herself short of breath. What was she doing here, anyway?

Katara wasn't all that clear what was going on around her but she tried to collect her thoughts and sort them all out. She had wound up with Yumi and Ethan for one clear reason: all three of them had something against Clivian. This much was certain because Ethan had explained it all to her on their way to Raul's place. They had tried to kill both Ethan and Yumi, according to Ethan, and she had no trouble believing that Clivian was capable of such evil. She hadn't known the exact name of her faceless enemy before Ethan had informed her but there was no shadow of a doubt that he had been behind the assault at the park and possibly the person who had kidnapped Zuko the first time he had landed here. It was all becoming so clear and yet to confusing at the same time.

Head spinning from all the speculations, Katara lay down on futon and looked up at the stained ceiling.

'Perhaps,' she thought, miserably, 'I'll see them all again soon. Sokka, Dad, Zuko, Toph…'

The last name, she couldn't bear to even think in case it brought tears to her eyes. Was he still ill? Would he be okay? And then final question caught in her throat and this time, she let a tear trickle down her cheek before quickly brushing it away. Would anything, anything at all, ever be okay again?

+Jones+

This was it. The moment of truth. Yumi, for reasons he was dying to find out, had now decided that Katara and he weren't just dowdy bridesmaids in this disastrous wedding of hell. She had decided, against her better judgement, to let the cat out of the bag in return for their company which had now become a necessity instead of useless baggage.

Let the games begin.

Before he could fire off his first question, however, Yumi got up again and headed toward the minifridge in the corner and turned her back to him. After rummaging around in it a bit, she returned with a two glasses and a bottle of vodka which she set down onto the coffee table between them.

"If I'm going to go through with this, might as well take the edge off things." Yumi as she poured a generous measure into two glasses. When they were both full to the brim, she downed hers in one shot and started to refill.

"I don't want you getting drunk on me while I question you." Jones said as he watched her empty the second glass with ease.

Yumi surveyed him with a blank expression as she poured herself a third. Instead of downing at once as Jones had expected she left her glass untouched and instead slid his closer to him.

"Don't go all macho-interrogator on me, Jones. Just relax, okay? It's better if I start the talking."

She leaned back in her armchair and stared at him expectantly. Jones relented and downed his own glass in one. He immediately regretted it as the drink seared his throat but he pretended not to feel it.

"Okay, then." He said, trying to wince as he felt the burning trickle down into his stomach. God knew he wasn't much of a drinker. The last time he'd gotten totally wasted was years ago in college. And even then he'd only tried beer. "Get it over it with."

Yumi shifted in her seat before beginning, "So, you know the basics. I was transferred to West Verklay Police Department after my breakup with my ex. Chief Walter was the one who recruited me in after he heard about-"

"Wait." Jones stood up unsteadily sweat pouring down his face.

"Something the matter, Jones?" Yumi said quite calmly, peering up at him.

Jones had to grip the edge of the coffee table to steady himself. His vision was so blurred he could barely make out the person sitting in front of him. All too soon, the room began to spin. He felt nauseous and felt like vomiting.

"Oh, god. I-" the world churned again and in seconds, he was lying sideways on the floor with no recollection of ever falling. Sluggishly, he turned onto his back, looking up at the ceiling bleary eyed. The last thing he saw was the blurred face of Yumi Kim looking down at him, surveying him without the slightest trace of concern.

It might have been seconds later but when Jones opened his eyes, he was not lying on the floor but sitting up on a chair, facing the wall. Confused, he tried to turn his head but his body wouldn't move. Looking down, he realized he had been tied to the chair with electrical cords from possibly every single lamp in the hotel room. Shit.

"YUMI!" he roared, trying desperately to free himself. The cords were so tight he had no idea how he had survived the night without suffocating. Light was spilling in through the curtained windows but he couldn't see much of anything else except the spread of sickly pink wallpaper directly in front of him. Jones tried to stand up but his feet were tied to the chair legs. Damn it!

"Rise and shine." A voice called out behind him. With one powerful yank, his chair was roughly turned around. He came face to face with none other than his captor, Yumi Kim, who was standing over him with an expression of satisfaction.

"Yumi," he hissed angrily, taking care to glare straight into her eyes. "I don't know what the hell you're playing at but untie me this instant. NOW!"

Unperturbed by his outburst, Yumi smirked and did something so inappropriate in the current situation, he was momentarily quieted. Without so much as a warning, Yumi straddled him on the chair and loosely hooked her arms around his neck so that they were nose to nose with barely enough breathing space between them.

"Now, now, don't get all angry with me, Jones. You know what this is about. Even you're smart enough to figure it out." She breathed, her nose grazing his.

Jones didn't know what to say not least because he had no idea what the hell she was getting at. Tying him up like this could only mean one thing in her case and it either meant torture or, though he hated to even contemplate this, murder.

When he failed to reply, Yumi leaned in closer as though to kiss him but instead turned her head a faction so that he lips were a hair's breadth away from his left ear.

"I wanted to thank you so very much for helping me find Katara." She whispered quietly. His heart seemed to literally sink into stomach at these words. So Katara had been the target all along.

Yumi continued, "And thanks to you, I'm sure I'll be able to find Zuko now."

He pulled away from him just enough so that he could see the brilliant smile stretched across her face. She would've looked beautiful with the radiance of that smile had he not been feeling such acute hatred for her just then. He noticed for the first time that she had her hair untied for the first time since he had ever met her. She had obviously found time to curl it while he had been knocked out. Not only that but she was dressed in a clingy blouse and tight jeans as well. Yumi, it seemed, was dressed for the date of her life.

After this short exchange, Yumi gently slid off his lap and straightened herself, not taking her eyes off him. He just glared up at her, speechless.

"Don't worry about Katara, Jones." She said, watching him with the smile still playing around her lips. "She'll be safe… for now."

"Where is she?" he heard himself croak at last.

"Oh, she's fine. Sleeping like a baby inside the trunk of the car outside." Yumi replied calmly, raking a hand through her wavy hair. "She put up a little bit more of a fight then you did though. I guess she had it in her to doubt me even if you couldn't." she added as an afterthought.

"Yumi… Don't…" Jones began but she cut him off.

"I'd love to stay and chat Jones, but I've really gotta get going. Clivian's expecting me. By the end of this day, I'll have traded Katara in for the real gold."

As she started walking toward the door, Jones began to struggle against his bonds. "So this it?" he snarled at her retreating back. "All this… for money? Clivian's gonna kill her!"

Yumi stopped just long enough to say over her shoulder, "It's something more than money, Jones. Not that you'll ever understand." And then she left, slamming the door behind her.

a/n: Zomg! Weren't expecting that were you? At first I thought seduction and then decided spiking his drink would be a lot easier ^^ Thanks for reading!