Zuko sits at the edge of his bed, his arms resting on his knees and his fingers are interlaced together pursed against his lips. He sits here in deep thought, recalling the day's events. Behind him on the bed, Jin lays fast asleep naked aside from the blanket that covers her. The room is heavy with the smell of sweat, it's warmed by the afterglow of their lay together. Hours prior, they had spent the day creating posters and fliers at the printing press. Aang's naivety had made him believe that they would find Appa that same day, but Zuko knew better. The question that's keeping him up so late still echoes in his mind, threatening to escape his lips if he doesn't find an answer soon. "Why was the Dai Li involved? I didn't see anyone leave the bazaar to get a guard or one of those agents... How did they know exactly where we'd be?" His thoughts echo in his mind like a hive of angry vulture wasps.

Across from him, he sees his dual swords sitting on the top of the wardrobe and even now he can hear Aang's subtle cries from the other room. Realizing sleep is out of the picture for tonight, he quietly gets out of bed and covers up Jin with the blankets once more. He walks over to the wardrobe and silently opens it, opening a secret compartment in the lowest drawer and pulling out a black box with its contents. He sets it on the foot stool on the opposite side of the room before opening the small wooden box. As the lid lifts away, the smiling visage of the blue demon mask looks up at him. He removes the mask from the box before pulling out the pitch black robes from beneath it. He dresses himself in the black robes before pulling up the hood of the shirt. It sits flush with his skin only exposing his face, and with one last look at Jin he lifts the mask over his face and ties it in place. He silently hides the box once again before grabbing his swords and sheathing them around his back. He glides along the ground, across the rug then out the window as silent as the air in the night.

He creeps across the back porch over to where Aang's room is before opening the window and stepping inside. On the bed, Katara lays awake gently rubbing Aang's head as the young airbender curls up tightly around her. Even in the darkness Zuko can still see the tears that stain Aang's face. The airbender lays with his head against Katara's chest, listening to her heart, taking in her warmth and comfort when he so desperately needs it. She sees the masked form of Zuko, looking up at him through sad and tired eyes. He merely nods to her before picking up the glider staff and leaves as quickly as he appeared. He silently walks over to where Appa would sleep in the stables before clicking the release for the glider. The fans spread out to their full length and Zuko throws it up in the air before jumping to catch the glider disappearing into the night.

The streets of the lower districts are only privy to sneaky thieves and street thugs this late at night. A small worn street sign reads "Peddler's Hollow." at the corner of the roads leading into the slums. Three men sit in the mouth of an alley, their chairs just blocks of stone made from bending. In front of them sits a small wooden table with playing cards and coins strewn across it. At the corner of the alley hangs a small lantern basking a few meager feet in its red light. "C'mon... spider snake eyes!" The grovely voice of one of the men says as he rolls a set of six sided dice onto the table. The two cubes roll out into a set of regular snake eyes causing him to scoff and another man to take the pot before he's made fun of. As he collects the few meager coins, a harsh chill washes over the alleyway. A wind that's far too cold for spring, it silences the flickering flame burning in the lantern leaving the alley only illuminated by the starlight and the waning moon. A dense fog crawls along the ground as the air seems to get colder and colder, only accented by the dead silence.

The man who had won the few coins takes a swig of a jug of rice wine before noticing the lantern had gone out. Staggering he stands and meanders over to the small lantern before striking a match to reignite it. As the match burns to life, the winds pick up again and snuffs it out. Cursing he stands back up and staggers, he squints his one remaining eye into the darkness and for a moment seems to make out a figure that's standing in the center of the street. "What the hell are you looking at Ro?" One of the men behind him asks, his bald and scarred head creating almost as much light as the lantern once did. "Who's there?" The man in the street, named Ro, calls out into the darkness. An uncomfortable pause of more silence washes over them as the fog continues to crawl along the ground. The only answer is a single clink of porcelain as the sake jug they had been drinking out of suddenly shatters.

From the darkness a figure appears: tall, all in black and completely still the only recognisable thing about it is the white grinning demon mask over its face. "Holy shit!" One of the men screams and they scramble for anything that could be considered a weapon. A dagger, a wooden board and an old chipped scimitar are all they have to defend themselves but it wouldn't be enough. With merely the motion of his hand being raised, the fog around them comes to life. Swirling vortices launch out of the fog like tentacles of an eldritch horror, ripping the weapons from their grasps before they could get into a proper stance. From behind the spirit, long tendrils of water leach out dyed a deep crimson with dark root powder but they don't know that. To them, this spirit attacks with the mist and fog, with tentacles of blood snaking out from behind its form.

It ends as quickly as he appeared, the fight ends. The thugs are strung up, hanging upside down by red ice and blood held at eye level with the spirit. "Where is the Sky Bison?" The blue spirit growls, his voice escapes his mouth with flame through the teeth of the mask. The men recoil in horror, screaming for help but the red tinted water wraps itself around their mouths muffling their screams. "Speak. Or Die." The Blue spirit demands, freeing one of the men's mouths allowing him to speak. "I know you saw it, he was taken right there. Horns, six legs, arrow markings and the size of a house. What happened?" He barks the question again, this time one of the tendrils on his back moves closer and the tip freezes into a razor sharp tendril.

"I don't know! Just saw some guy with a wispy mustache and a whistle! It landed, I couldn't hear what he said but the ground rotated and then the Dai Li covered up everything, that's it I swear!" He screams, staring into the empty expression on the mask. The blue spirit doesn't speak, instead he turns and walks away into the fog. The water holding up the men drops to the floor soaking them in fear. The only evidence he appeared at all is the faint smell of river water, and three petrified men.

"Of course the Dai Li are involved. I should've killed Long Feng when I had the chance." He monologues, flying over the city in the cover of darkness. Beneath him he scans the city streets looking for any of the guards but up here he wont find them. He'd have to continue his investigation on the ground, maybe make a scene in order to lure one into the open. The best way to do that would be making a lot of noise, or finding them when they're trying to make someone disappear. He flies a good distance away from where he had gotten the information out of those thugs, he lands on a more sturdily constructed rooftop, he closes the staff and scans the area beneath them.

Standing to his full height, he twists his arms and extends his fingers outwards causing gold sparks of lightning to arc between his fingers. Thrusting his hand outwards the bolt screams from his hand before striking the edge of an abandoned and crumbling building. An explosion rocks the more forgotten part of the city as the building crumbles to dust. "That should draw some attention." He says under his breath before going silent and waiting patiently. He isn't sure how long he stands there, scanning the road beneath him, but eventually a bit of movement barely visible beneath the lantern light catches his eye. A stone slab is moved away and a black robed Dai Li agent rises out of the ground. "There you are." He whispers, before jumping off the rooftop and extending the glider.

The Agent walks slowly along the cobblestone street, far in the distance the arcing lights of a thunderstorm illuminate the night sky. He stares for a moment, watching as lightning crawls around the storm and leaps from the top of the cloud to the ground. He breathes out a sigh of relief realizing it's just inclement weather and not any rowdy civilians or a turf war. Around him the fog begins to roll in, crawling slowly along the streets at just above knee height. As the agent begins to resume his patrol, the windy night suddenly falls completely still. The air settles but the mist keeps marching, getting closer and closer until it swallows his legs. He pays little mind to the fog, it was normal this early in the morning but the stillness of the air causes his heart to beat unsteadily. He continues his walk, passing underneath a gazebo where children would play during the daytime.

As he walks into the center of the gazebo, a single droplet of water hits the corner of his tunic. The warm liquid stains through the silk tunic and touches his skin causing him to stop dead in his tracks. Rainwater is never warm. Instinctively he looks up expecting another murder scene to be dripping down on him but the light of his torch illuminates nothing. Deciding to call his patrol short this evening, he turns and tries to make his way back to the hidden entrance but another drop lands nearby. This time he sees the red stain on the stony floor and he dips down to inspect it. The heat of his torch burns away the fog allowing him to see the red stained droplet. He runs a finger through the liquid, pressing it between his thumb and index before he recognises what it is. "Dyed water?" He says audibly but no one answers.

Looking up he's suddenly met by the visage of the blue spirit standing just feet from him. Eight tentacles made of blood extend outwards from his body like the arms of a spider. His sudden appearance causes the agent to drop the torch and fall backwards, attempting to crawl away. As the torch rolls to a stop at the feet of the spirit. The fire comes to life, crawling in two paths around the gazebo in a perfect circle ensnaring the man in the center. The fire licks the man's hands inflicting immense pain as portions of his robes catch alight, the large feather on the top of his conical hat ignites and burns to ash in a second. The agent screams as he tries to crawl away but the ring of fire blocks his escape. "Where is the sky bison?" The blue spirit's voice echoes from behind the mask. His red tentacles reaching out and grabbing the agent's limbs pulling them taught and suspending him in the air. He's helpless as the tendrils slam him against the stone floor before dragging him along the concrete. His robes and skin being torn from the assault before he's hoisted upright and held upside down. A lone sword is drawn from its sheath as he walks closer to the helpless man. "I'm not going to ask again." The Blue spirit says before leveling the sword up to the man's neck getting it so close that the hair on the man's chin is ever so slightly shaved away. The agent breathes heavily, panting rapidly and gasping for air as fear begins to overtake him. "ANSWER ME!!!" The voice of the spirit booms, echoing authority that only a dragon can wield.

"U-u-under the lake! Underneath Lake Laogai!" The agent screams his answer, his eyes closed and his head pulled as far as he can away from the blade. "W-we have him chained there. He's alive." He confesses, tensing he waits for an attack that will never come. Instead he feels his limbs being released and he's placed gently, almost respectfully back on the ground. When he opens his eyes, the blue spirit is gone and the lone trace of evidence is the mask's visage burned into the stone.

***

Deep in the heart of the refugee ring is a lone clinic, with barely three walls and a dilapidated roof overhead. Inside an old nurse works tirelessly tending to the wounded, the injured and the sick. The smell of burnt incense, herbs and old bandages fills the air as the caretaker holds a bloodied cloth to the mouth of a coughing child. The unnamed little clinic works day and night with little to no rest or respite from the suffering of those around. She pulls the bloodied rags away from the young boy's mouth before turning to wash them in a bowl of water and herbs. She sighs seeing the fog begin to roll in, a sign that the night was going to drag on through constant coughing from the thick condensation. As she turns to help another one of her patients a figure blocks the door. Tall, dressed in dark robes and a wide hooded cloak. The mask over his face is porcelain white and blue with a smiling visage. Her heart sinks when she sees him, fear overtakes her and with dozens of patients she's the only one healthy enough to stand against it.

"Please... don't hurt us," She pleads but the blue spirit says nothing and just stands as silent as a ghost. "We have no money here, we don't even have enough medicine to treat the sick." Her panicked voice breaks as she watches the spirit turn his attention to one of the beds.

Min the caretaker watches as the blue spirit glides across the fog itself, so effortlessly that it looks like his legs don't even move. From his cloak clear blue water leaks from his body and coats his arms. The long columns of water split into large tendrils that snake their way around the room. Some would wrap gently around the bodies of the sick, others would coil softly around burns and wounds and more would coat the chests and foreheads of those who are ill. The tendrils that snake out from his hands begin glowing brightly, bathing the room in soft blue light. The ethereal sound, like a choir singing echoes from the glowing water and to her astonishment she watches as flush faces have their color return, wounds close and the coughing stops. The healing waters from the spirit soothes the aches and pains, and for a moment the suffering is ebbed. The water is absorbed into the bodies of those the spirit heals and when the last wound closes he turns to leave.

"Wait... who are you?" She asks, watching as the smiling visage of the spirit turns and begins walking away. He stops for a moment turning back to face her through the smiling mask but he doesn't answer. Instead he brings his hands together and bows softly to her. He brings his hands up to his chest and folds them across his form before leaning backwards. The patients watch as the spirit falls backwards before vanishing into the fog.

***

Zuko returns home still under the pitch darkness of night, knowing that if he was to tell Aang the boy would want to go save Appa that minute. Silently he makes his way back into his room before disrobing and hiding away his disguise. He crawls back into bed with Jin, snaking his arms around her sleeping form. Feeling his warmth return, she rises from her sleep and turns over to look at him. Her emerald eyes are heavy from sleep still but she manages to ask a question. "Where'd you go?" her eyelids are almost too heavy to open but she manages to open her eyes to look at him. "Just for a walk." Zuko answers and it seems to satiate her curiosity. "Go back to sleep, my fire lily." He says before placing a kiss on her forehead. She rolls over, pushing him onto his back as her arms wrap themselves behind his neck. He feels her boobs squish against his chest feeling the urge to grab them like precious jewels. They spent plenty of time earlier that night exploring each other's bodies and he resists the urge to do so once more. He wraps his arms around her back, feeling the defined muscle along her shoulders and the small of her back. She shifts slightly as the ridges of her abs settle in against his own and she gets comfortable again.She breathes in deeply as sleep returns to her, and he rubs his hand up and down her perfect skin for a few moments until sleep finally takes him as well.