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 Thirteen: Tough Decisions

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Kurogane laid back and looked up at the stars above her, admiring how many she could see. Her skin could not have been rawer, since she had spent hours in the nearby hot spring, attempting to scrub off the remnants of Keme from her body, but she could not shake off the feeling of discomfort, even if it had happened so many other times before. And now she was given a job she could not refuse, though she wanted to. Though she always dreamed of becoming an assassin for the greatest organization to ever be created on their planet, she began to wonder why. As any line of work went, she enjoyed what she did, but for the life of her she could not get over the moral aspect, if maybe what she was doing was wrong.

On the one hand, she kept the world in order. From what she saw, people who were born from mixed race parents never did well. Normally the family and friends always had a certain disdain for the children in question and the parents of the children. And hatred for those people always led to trouble. Trouble between races was one of the reasons that started the war, the Fire Nation believing they were superior to everyone else. Separation was indeed best, especially since such a young population did not quite know how to coexist with each other.

Still, on the other hand, what happened to those who love those mixed breed children? Kurogane read the file of the family she was to kill and she believed in her best judgment that the family should live. They did nothing to affect the balance of their village, and in fact the village had nothing but praise for the couple. It was an infant. What could an infant possibly do? It was not even a bender, so how big of a threat could the child be?

And that was not the only child she had to kill. Not only did she have to kill the southern baby, her parents, her parents' family, the Fire Lord and his mistress, but Hiashi's remaining children and husband and her sister. Never did she have such a caseload, and never so close together. And absolutely never did she have to kill children. She always figured it was at least a little fair if her victims fought back, but children, they were not even a player.

"I was wondering where you went," a familiar voice chuckled from atop her. The girl took a spot right next to her friend and sprawled her arms and legs out into the grass. "What are you doing outside?"

"I was bathing in the hot spring," she said to her silver haired counterpart. "I needed to… think." She would never dare speak ill of Keme, especially in front of Darja, a woman who idolized him so much. Even if she did say what he does to her, she would never believe her.

"So I heard through the grapevine that you've got quite a case," Darja sighed, resting her arms behind her head. "What is it, like, fifteen people?"

"More like twelve, I think," she corrected. "And I have to work quickly."

"So why aren't you out right now?" her friend frowned. "Shouldn't you be getting started?"

"I don't have to right now, and even if I did, it wouldn't matter," she grunted. "Even if I had one of those high powered flying machines we've seen in the over worlds, well, they'd still beat me to the other family before I. I won't be able to take them all at once, and by that time they'll already know my tricks." She sighed loudly in depression and continued, "Besides, I don't know if I can take the life of a child."

"Excuse me, lady?" Darja coughed in surprise. "What are you talking about? It's mudblood and magblooded kids we're talking about. If they're not with us, then they're not worth keeping. Besides, those mongrel bastards need to die, so it's much easier to get them when they can't defend themselves."

"I guess, but I don't know, I just find it fairer if they get to at least defend themselves, you know? It doesn't seem as juvenile or deceptive. Kind of like sucker punching someone."

"Well, sucker punching isn't all that bad," her friend tried to say comfortingly.

"No, it is always bad," Kurogane said roughly. "Fighting a one-sided fight has no dignity in it. And how can we go ahead and justify our cause if we fight such one-sided fight?"

"Isn't that what you do on a daily basis, though?" Darja asked. "I mean, we train in our element longer than most people do, and we learn all this other stuff like bloodbending and junk just so we can beat our enemy quickly. Come on, we've fought five to one fights and still come out winners because the regular benders aren't very good and all they know is their regular element. I would think that those are one-sided fights, too, if you think about it. We sort of have an unfair advantage over them. And you've fought them before, so why do you care about unfair advantages?"

"Those are adults, though," Kurogane answered. "At least they can try and fight back. With children, well, they really can't."

"Well, don't think of them as kids, just think of them as dolls," Darja shrugged. "They shouldn't have any issues."

"It's not only that, but parents are always overprotective of their children, obviously, so I'm going to have a harder time trying to get to them."

"But you're really good at what you do. You're like the best of the best! Why else would you be the only one Keme trusts with this job?"

Kurogane wanted to vomit at the sound of his name. "He doesn't trust me," she mumbled quietly. "He just knows I'll do it."

"Which I would equate to trust," Darja said cheerfully, but there was nothing cheerful about it to Kurogane, who felt nothing but the need to continue to scrub herself clean again. Darja untangled her arms from behind her head and raked her fingers through her hair. "Ugh, I need a bath," she said, smearing her oily fingers together. "The hot springs don't sound too bad right now."

"You do whatever," Kurogane muttered. "I'm going to stay out here for a while."

"This isn't just about that baby, is it?" Darja asked quietly. "You're still upset about killing that magblood Hiashi, aren't you?"

"A little," she said honestly.

"What? Still? Really? Why?"

"With the questions?" Kurogane breathed angrily. "Do you even have to ask?"

"Oh, is this going back to that whole Hykiru think? That was your own damn fault for going out with a fucking Fire Nation person."

"I didn't want to," she growled. "I wasn't thinking—"

"Hell, I am so surprised Keme let you out of that one!' Darja laughed. "Seriously, I thought he was really ready to kill you! He's soooo intent on keeping the nations separate, but he must have been really nice to let you go." Kurogane clenched her jaw tightly, attempting to stifle the spring of horrid memories of the day Keme did find out about her relationship.

"If you so desperately wish to fuck around with people of the opposite race, then I might as well exploit it, you little tramp!"

"Of course," she said sardonically. "Keme is something."

"Man, why are you still obsessing over it?" Darja spat, shoving her friend's shoulder. "So she apparently defended you from him one time, what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that magblood or not, she helped me, even though she didn't know me. I'm starting to wonder if what we're doing is the right thing. Killing off people who aren't really doing any harm to us…"

"No harm?" Darja snickered lightly. "You do remember how many people she killed, right?"

"Those were all gangsters, and in her defense, one of them was a mudblood."

"So? So she killed one mudblood out of, what, one, two, three… five people she murdered? I don't think one mudblood justifies anything."

"Other than that, she was nice to me. She actually was on my side. Who knows, with convincing she could have joined us. She was so willing to be accepted for whom she was and I think she could have found it with us. But we didn't even give her a chance."

"She would have said no," Darja rolled her eyes. "Besides, what's the big deal of her saving you from Hykiru? You were already finished with your training by then; you could've taken him in a fight anyways!"

"Yes, but—"

"Besides! You killed him like a few months later anyways, didn't you? So what exactly did she save you from? She punched the guy in the face once and you were left alone with him after that, and you took care of him so easily! He wasn't even a threat to you!"

"That's true, but—"

"What do you owe her? You owe her absolutely nothing. You would've taken care of him yourself eventually. It wasn't as if it was hard to kill him, remember?"

Kurogane thought for a moment and remembered the day she killed Hykiru. It had been only a few months after the war really ended and it was another one of those days where he became extremely inebriated. He had thrown himself on her, expecting her to fall into submission, but she blatantly refused. So instead, she grabbed his head and crushed his skull into his brain and left. Indeed, it was not so hard.

"Eeeenyways," Darja stretched, "she was nothing more than a mutt, get over it."

"Yeah, but would you have helped me if you saw Hykiru attacking me?"

Darja pursed her lips together and thought for a moment. "Mmm, maybe, I mean, don't get me wrong, I would, but from what I know about Hykiru I probably wouldn't intervene, I already know you'd be able to handle it."

"Okay, but what about someone else? Like Keme?"

"Keme? Please, he wouldn't hurt a fly! Besides, if he even did do something to hurt you, I would probably assume you deserved it, no offense."

Kurogane eyed her friend, or rather, lack of friend, that lay next to her. After all her thinking, all her memories, all that she remembered of people who have passed before her and how they treated her, she realized what was going on. She knew for a fact that what she was thinking, all her anarchical thoughts were dangerous and foolish and though they were technically the right thing to do, doing her job was the only safe option. She knew, then, what she had to do. "Of course," Kurogane said under her breath. "None taken."

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This is actually an epic part in the story, although I'm not sure how epic. I'll probably be adding a picture of Darja later to my deviant art page, but we'll have to see about that. To Moonlight, yes, Keme is a complete douche, especially for an airbender. NEHO, like always please review, visit my deviant art page, and any art suggestions are appreciated. Until next time, Signing Off.