Disclaimer: The following chapter is entirely fictitious. Any similarity to the history of any person living or dead is entirely coincidental and unintentional, except when specifically noted otherwise in the cast and crew credits. All celebrity voices are impersonated and no celebrities have endorsed any aspect of this fic.

Chapter Two: The Dark Deed

'-'

"Fire Lord Zuko, calm down," his assistant said blandly. "You don't have any meeting scheduled for a few months. I can arrange for your family to vacation in the Changbai Mountains—"

"I don't want to go anywhere with them," Zuko interrupted, walking away from the railing and down the corridor with his assistant at his side. "I hate that woman."

"Sir, I know arranged marriages can be a bitch, but your son—"

"How many times do I have to tell you? I don't share a room with that horrid woman!" Zuko turned to snarl at his assistant. "What would make you think that was my kid?"

"My bad," the man shrugged. "How could I forget Marukai's known for being a whore?"

"Damn right," Zuko mumbled. The two of them walked away from the railing, down the stairs, into the courtyard and into the cold winter air. Zuko inhaled the chill and frowned. He was fairly disappointed that their location on the planet would not call for colder weather than they had now. "How are my searches going?" he asked after a few minutes of silence. "Anything new?"

"No one knows anything about your mother, sir," the assistant frowned as he flipped his notes around. "One of the maids recommended a witch up in the mountain that seems to be pretty good at tracking people, but I figured you wouldn't be interested in that."

"What good would a witch be for me?" Zuko scoffed.

"Exactly," the assistant smirked. "You're a skeptic so I figured to throw that away."

"Okay," Zuko sighed, "well—"

"Fire Lord Zuko," a soldier appeared from the entrance of the corridor, "there is someone here to see you."

"Tell them I'm in a meeting," Zuko replied quickly.

"Fire Lady Marukai is trying to get rid of them, and I know how you feel—"

"Do you know what it's about?" he asked.

"No, sir," the guard replied, "but Fire Lady Marukai was talking to them and wouldn't let any of us near the people. I thought maybe you knew something about it." Zuko groaned loudly and headed to the front of the palace. The walk across the courtyard was long but from where he was he could clearly see a flustered Marukai snapping at several men and one woman who was dressed like the shrine maidens from across the mountains. He watched Marukai's arms flail and to see her trying to get rid of people who wanted to talk to him only aggravated him more with each step, even if he did not want to talk to them initially.

"Marukai!" Zuko shouted before he even reached the palace gates. Marukai jumped from his surprise appearance and turned to block the people from view.

"What are you doing here?" the sandy haired woman snapped at him. "I thought you were meeting with the Earth King?"

"I got out early!" he snapped back. "What the hell are you doing? Those people are here to see me and you're getting rid of them? Get out of here, you harlot!"

"Excuse me?" Marukai hissed, but not with shock or even a hint of surprise. "Is that any way to speak to your wife?"

"You know I hate you, you wench now get out of here!" Zuko shouted at the top of his lungs. Marukai glared at him but did not change her stance.

"This doesn't concern you, Zuko!" she snapped. "Just go away, I'll handle this!"

"Guards!" Zuko called and in an instant several men were at his side. "Send her away and make sure she doesn't try and interfere with my meeting." The men swooped in and took her without hesitation.

"I will get you for this, Zuko!" she cried. "You can't keep me locked up all day!" Zuko rolled his eyes but finally reopened the palace gate to allow the visitors in.

"Who are you?" were the first words Zuko said to them.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Fire Lord Zuko, but this woman has something she needs to tell you," the first soldier said to him. "She's with the Eikando Temple from across the mountains and she feels she needs to tell you something." The soldier beckoned the frail elder to step forward so that she would not have to speak so loud.

"Please forgive me for disrupting your day," the woman said in a quiet voice. "My name is Nobuko and I am the head priestess of the Eikando Temple. We recently were victim to a horrible crime. One of our shrine maidens was found murdered in her hut a few days ago and there seems to be no trace of any intruder."

"Okay," Zuko frowned, "but why are you telling me this? I think your local city militia can take care of this—"

"Well, that is the thing," the woman said slowly, "the woman who died actually left a note on the floor before she passed, and she made mention to you."

"Did she have any issues she wanted to raise?" Zuko asked almost sarcastically, but had to bite his tongue.

"No, I mean she left a message for you," the woman replied. "I was simply wondering if you knew her. Her name was Shihong."

"I don't know anyone named Shihong," he said and was ready to dismiss the older woman when she continued to speak.

"She was about your age, with scars on her face, black hair, she walked with a brown and gold cane—"

"Cane?" Zuko snapped unintentionally. "You said she had scars?"

"Yes, and two different colored eyes," the woman cheered. "She had a black fire rat as well. Do you know her?" Zuko's heart froze and sunk deep in his chest.

"You said," Zuko attempted to swallow the lump developing in his throat, "she was murdered?"

"Yes, I'm sorry Fire Lord Zuko," the priestess sighed. Zuko pushed the gate door open and beckoned the lady inside.

"What exactly happened?" Zuko asked somberly when the woman was finally on the inside of the gates, the two soldiers that escorted her still on the outside.

"Nobody knows, that's the thing," the woman sighed. "She had four huts next to her: two on either side, one in front of her, and one behind her. She did not come to our Morning Prayer session so one of our ichikos went to her hut to see if she was there. The ichiko said she knocked on the door and no one answered so she looked through the window to see Shihong on the floor. She was stabbed once, but it looks she fought back. One of the coroners' said she could have survived, but she was poisoned. Nightshade, he said it was."

"Hiashi," Zuko corrected quietly.

"Excuse me?" the old woman frowned.

"Her name was Hiashi, not 'Shihong,'" Zuko repeated harshly.

"Hiashi," the woman reiterated quietly. "Why would she lie?"

"She was in hiding," Zuko said through his teeth. "She wasn't like by a lot of people."

"We do not judge at the Eikando Temple," the woman frowned. "We do not give out information to any outside sources. She would have been perfectly safe."

"Which is why she would have lied," Zuko mumbled. "By lying to you too she gave herself extra protection. Even if you didn't tell anyone she was there, if they ever got a hold of anything they wouldn't find her." Zuko sat on one of the closest benches and buried his face in his hands.

"I am so sorry, Fire Lord Zuko," the woman said in a quiet voice, patting him on the shoulder. "You must have been really close to her."

Zuko was not listening to the woman. All he could think of was Hiashi. He thought she was taken from him only to find out eight years later that she was killed. Again the events paralleled his father's death in that no one heard her fighting. No doubt it was The Resistance. They were the only ones who would want her dead. When the woman told him that Hiashi was dead he was unsure of what to think. He had looked for her for eight years before finally deciding she was gone, and to find out she died only a while later… His heart was broken.

"I want to see her," Zuko suddenly said. The old woman was taken aback and she gave the Fire Lord a confused look.

"What do you mean see her?" the woman asked.

"The coroner should still have her," Zuko stated, springing to his feet. "You!" he shouted at his assistant. "Tell the chauffer to get ready! I'm leaving for Eikando right now."

"Right now?" the assistant asked. "Sir, if you leave right now, you're going to arrive at midnight. Why now wait until tomorrow morning—"

"Right now!" Zuko snapped finally striding off to his chamber. "I'm leaving right now!"

'-'

"The dark deed you requested is done, High Master Keme," Kurogane muttered in his office. The small grey tomb they were in was plastered with Resistance propaganda and posters of the planets they knew of. Bookshelves lined the empty spaces on the wall as did photos of the four nations. Several ornaments decorated either the floor or the small tables against the wall. Despite four friendly flowers hanging from the ceiling, one for every national color, the room always made Kurogane uncomfortable since she knew what went on in there.

From firsthand experience.

"Very well, Miss Kurogane," a man from behind a chair said in a deep voice. "This is your fourth very successful kill. If you keep this up you may be our best assassin to date."

"Thank you sir," she nodded slightly. "It was not hard at all."

"Nonsense," the man scoffed, pushing himself up to a standing position. "Hiashi was the most elusive hybrid we had and you found her. It took some of our best minds thirteen years to find her, but you found her in as little as eight. I would have to say that is something. Most of our assassins take a while to get into the ring of things, but you seem to be on your way."

"Killing is not that hard, sir," she replied curtly.

"Killing? No, of course not. Murder? That is an art, especially if you do not wish to be caught." The man walked up to the wall and began to thumb through the books on the shelves. "Why do you think we train you all at such a young age? When you learn an art you can't teach those who are older. They question everything given to them or sometimes they just can't handle it as well. Murder is just like playing the sungi horn or even painting a portrait. It takes a lot of skill and effort, and much time of practice in order to master the technique. You have yet to be caught and you are well on your way to getting close to the record of our top assassin, Jin-Ho. Very prestigious for a woman."

"Thank you, sir," she nodded again.

"I must say, if you do keep this up then I may have some more jobs for you. There is the case of some of the most protected hybrids in the world and you understand how hard it may be to get a hold of them, so if you managed to kill the Fire Lord, Hiashi, Kazuo the Great, and Chiasa Yang Wu, then who knows who else you can kill? You have truly mastered the art of mental manipulation, so your skills are very valuable to us. You take care," he finally finished, ushering her out of the stone tomb. "I will be in touch with you soon enough."

'-'

This was a really short chapter, I know, and I also know it's lame but I didn't want to sound too rushed so I'm saving most of the stuff for chapter three. So this is it for now. I will update again soon and remember I have a deviant art page. There's a link on my profile so take a look. Peace out peeps.