Plomistis sat alone in his usual spot. Outside the sun was only just starting to rise and so the bar was mostly empty. He was glad for that. The assassin was in no mood for the familiar, noisy crowd. Right now Plomistis was angry. That payday was going to be his big break. He had risked everything for it. He killed the purple dragon for it. As soon as he was identified he'd be the most wanted man in history. And how did his employer pay him? By trying to kill him.

Plomistis wasn't about to let him get away with that. No one pissed off Warfang's greatest assassin and lived. The panther closed his eyes, remembering the sound of his employer begging for mercy. Plomistis would make him do so again. And then kill him.

"You gonna drink that?" Plomistis was pulled from his vengeful fantasies by a deep, accented voice. The assassin opened his eyes and his blood ran cold. Standing across from him was the panda butler from earlier. He looked far less intimidating now, paying more attention to Plomistis' forgotten drink than Plomistis himself, but the assassin still felt a slight pang of fear.

He almost felt silly; Plomistis, the great assassin and killer of the Purple Dragon, felt intimidated by this overweight panda in a butlers outfit (top hat included). But after the night's events Plomistis wasn't exactly pleased to see said panda again.

"You can have it." Plomistis said, trying keeping the anxiety from his voice.

The panda emptied the glass in a single gulp. "Never liked this place much," He admitted setting the glass down, "I don't get why you're always here."

"It's quiet. I like that."

The panda shrugged, "To each their own. May I sit?"

"I don't see why not."

The panda slipped into the chair across from Plomistis with surprising grace for his size.

"So I take it you're here to kill me?" Plomistis asked.

"Eventually."

"Why not just get it over with?"

"I wanted to talk to you. Your work is inspiring. It's what got me interested in the job."

"You're a sick person if you consider me a role model."

The panda smiled a wide toothy grin, "You're just figuring this out? I thought you knew who I work for."

"I know nothing about my last employer," Plomistis admitted, hoping to work some information out of the butler.

"I won't bother enlightening you. It won't matter soon anyways."

"Than this conversation is over." Plomistis drew his pistol, pointing it at the panda's head.

The panda yawned as if bored. Plomistis felt something press to the back of his head, followed by the sound of a pistol hammer being pulled back. The panther silently cursed himself. He had let his guard down.

"Please, Mr. Plomistis, drop your weapon. We're not done talking yet."

The assassin set his gun down on the table, "So what do you want to talk about."

"I'd like to know why you did it. With your excellent track record, I was shocked you'd pull something so unprofessional."

"And what exactly is it that I did?"

"Why did you return, expecting payment, despite the fact the Purple Dragon is still alive?"

"What are you talking about. She's dead. I made sure of that."

The panda smirked, reach into his coat pocket and produced a newspaper, "This was released just an hour ago." He tossed the paper to Plomistis. The first article to catch the panthers eye was headed by the text; 'Attempt on the Purple Dragon's life! Fire Claw group lead suspect!'

Two things ran through Plomistis' head at that moment. The first was confusion. He didn't understand how she could have survived. He had no doubt that the shot was fatal. She had stopped breathing, and even if she had somehow survived the initial shot, she would have soon died of blood loss.

The second thought was less important in the assassins mind mind and was quickly forgotten. It was simply a mild feeling of amusement. Fire Claw had no reason to kill the Purple Dragon, yet once again, the media felt obliged to pin everything on the protesters. It was almost funny.

"I must have made a mistake," Was Plomistis' reply, "As a mortal, even I can make mistakes." But he knew it wasn't a mistake. The panther simply had no better reply.

"And to think I respected you," The panda drew a gun from his belt, "Farewell, Plomistis."

Plomistis sighed, "Not this again..."

Mura was conflicted. He wanted to be happy, the Purple Dragon was alive and everyone was safe. But as a Guardian it was his duty to find who was responsible for the attempt on Lila's life, and so he was up at ungodly hours staring into a small puddle of water with the slim hope that the Ancestors would decide to give him a vision of the assassin. The Fire Guardian grumbled unhappily to himself, he'd never been as good at interpreting the Vision Pool as Kopaka, but as leader of the Guardian Order the ice dragon had other duties to attend to, leaving Mura, the only other Guardian with The Sight to the job.

Mura had long lost track of how long he had been staring at the Pool for when he noticed something; the coloring of the pool had changed. The normally moss green water had turned a deep, dark crimson. The same shade of crimson as the blood that stained Lila's mattress. All trace of tiredness left Mura in that moment. Now he only felt dread.

The Pool spoke symbolically more often than it did clear pictures or events, thus many Divinators spent years learning to interpret these symbols, in fact Mura was an expert at decoding the Pool's riddles. But it didn't take a master to tell the meaning of the red water. The Pool was warning the Fire Guardian of an impending death.

Mura took a deep breath, focusing all his thoughts on the Pool. He needed more information if he wanted to prevent this foretold death. He mentally reached out and prodded the Pool's energies. Suddenly an image leaped to the Pool's surface.

Mura saw the Temple. Tongues of flame clung to it's walls, hungerly tearing them down. The ground around the building was littered with corpses. The Silver River ran red with their blood. He saw himself just outside the northern entrance, weeping over the body of a green scaled dragon. His son.

The vision was gone as quickly as it had appeared and Mura was left, staring horrified into a small puddle. "Ancestors save us..."