Ezra leaned back against the wall of their small rented room, her arms folded across her chest. Beside her, Hak stared down at Jaeha, his jaw rigid.

In the center of the room, Jaeha curled his long body into a tight ball, groaning through his teeth. Sweat beaded on his temples to drip onto the floor.

"What do you think he took?" Hak asked, voice tight.

Ezra's amethyst eyes darkened. "I don't know. I've never seen someone react to a drug like this."

The rundown village of Seto in the heart of the desolate Fire Tribe lands was not an easy place to live. Ezra distinctly remembered a few of her fellow village dwellers giving into the shady travelling peddlers who went from village to village, selling mysterious substances that they claimed would improve their lives. Ezra had watched as the drugs did the opposite. In the months and years that followed, the drug addicts in her village had withered away to nothing, leaving not even a trace of their existence behind.

She had seen quite a few drugs make their way through her ruin of a hometown. But not once had she witnessed a drug that drove its user to madness after the first dose.

"This is his first dose. He never could've hidden a drug addiction from us." It was both a statement and a question.

"No," Hak agreed. "Especially if it affects him like this. We would have known if he was up to something."

There was a light knock at the door.

"Who is it?" Hak asked.

"It's me," they heard Kija say.

"Is anyone with you?"

"Just Shinah. May we come in?"

"Yes."

Kija and Shinah quietly opened the door and filed into the room, closing it immediately behind them.

"How is he?" Kija asked, looking down at Jaeha with worried eyes.

"He seems to be in pain," Ezra said. "Hak and I can't figure out what drug he took. It's like nothing either of us have ever seen before."

"Do you know of any drugs that affect someone so strongly after just one dose?" Hak asked the Hakuryu.

Kija shook his head. "There were no such substances in my village."

Hak rolled his eyes. "Of course, I should've known. Sheltered White Snake."

Kija shot Hak a glare but didn't comment.

Just then, Jaeha's head snapped up. Sweat plastered his green bangs to his forehead and his eyes were bloodshot and wild. With his teeth bared in a feral snarl, he looked to Ezra like a caged animal.

Ezra stepped forward and knelt to the floor a few paces from the Ryokuryu, trying to appear small and nonthreatening. "Jaeha. It's me, Ezra." She said the words slowly, calmly. "How are you feeling?"

Jaeha growled at her, a low, predatory sound that came from deep in his throat. Ezra noticed his muscles tensing, and she pushed off the floor and was on her feet in the next second.

She wasn't nearly quick enough. Jaeha sprang at her, eyes wild. She instinctively raised her arms to defend herself, even though she knew she was too far off balance for the action to do her any good.

Suddenly she felt something solid wrap around her waist, wrenching her out of harm's way. She gasped as she nearly stumbled over her own feet when Shinah released his hold on her. With his free hand, the Seiryu delivered a swift chop on the back of Jaeha's neck. The Ryokuryu slumped to the floor with a low groan.

Belying the aggression he had just shown, Shinah gently picked up Jaeha's unmoving form and deposited him back on the bedroll in the middle of the room.

"This isn't good," Hak murmured. "He's rampaging."

"This soon?" Ezra asked quietly. She retreated back to the wall of the room, positioning herself next to Shinah. She glanced up at him to find him staring straight ahead, his jaw rigid. "Thank you, Shinah," she whispered.

Shinah didn't give any acknowledgement of having heard her save for a small blush that bloomed in his cheeks.

Her attention snapped back to the middle of the room when Jaeha let out a wordless yell, pounding on the floor with his fists.

That's a rampage, alright. He's in too much pain to even think clearly.

Ezra instinctively grabbed Shinah's arm, seeking something solid in the storm of worry and sadness that clouded her. She was stunned when Shinah seemed to flinch at her touch, though he didn't move away from her.

She looked up at him in surprise, but he continued to stare straight ahead.

"What's going on in there? What's all that noise?" Yona's worried voice could be heard through the door. "I'm coming in!"

Ezra sprang for the door to catch it before Yona could open it fully, shaking her head to clear it. "Hang on, I'll come outside," Ezra said, giving Shinah one last confused glance before exiting the room. She couldn't understand his reaction to her touch; it had never bothered him before. Why was he acting so strangely?

Ezra was so preoccupied that Yona had to snap her fingers in her friend's face to bring Ezra back to the main subject at hand. "Ez!" Yona said sharply. "What's going on? Is Jaeha okay?"

Ezra let out a sigh, letting go of thoughts of Shinah's strange behavior. "I'm not sure. Hak and I think that Jaeha was forced to take some kind of drug. He's in a rampage right now, so it's too dangerous for you guys to go in there." Ezra looked at Yun, then at Zeno. "We'll come get you when it's safe."

Yona's small face was lined with worry. Ezra wished she could say more to reassure her friend, but she and Hak couldn't figure out what drug Jaeha had taken. She couldn't anticipate the other side effects it would have on him, or when the drug would run its course. All they could do was wait and hope for the best.

When Ezra reentered the room, Jaeha was on his hands and knees, panting through bared teeth. His head snapped up at the movement, his wild eyes training on her with muscles tensed to spring.

"Don't do this, Jaeha," Ezra begged as she shifted into a more balanced stance. "I don't want to hurt you."

Her words had no effect. Jaeha pushed off the floor to throw himself at her. Ezra stepped to the side to avoid the attack and slammed her elbow into the soft spot of his neck. She caught him around the waist before he could fall and hauled him back to the middle of the room.

"Man, you're heavy," she sighed as she lowered him to the mattress.

Hak, Kija, and Shinah were standing against the wall of the small room, their bodies lined with tension. Ezra glanced at Shinah before taking the spot next to Hak, folding her arms across her chest and mentally readying herself for a long, arduous night.

The hours dragged on. Jaeha, who seemed to be in tremendous pain, continually tried to hurt either himself or one of the people in the room. Ezra, Shinah, Kija, and Hak took turns subduing his wild attacks. By the time Ezra stumbled into the hall to tell Yona, Yun, and Zeno that it was safe to enter the room, the sun was beginning to rise once more on the strange Water Tribe town.

When Ezra returned to the room behind her friends, she sensed, rather than heard, Shinah approach her.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

Ezra took a moment to study him, trying to figure out what was bothering him. What could she have possibly said after Hiryuu Castle that would put him so on edge? He hadn't been so guarded with her since the very beginning, when they'd first met, and she could safely say that she was not happy with the backward steps their relationship had taken. "No," she finally said, exhaustion pressing against her. Her gaze fell to where Jaeha was finally sleeping peacefully on the floor, his green bangs matted and tangled sweat. "It's been a hard couple of days."

Shinah stared at her, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what he was thinking. She longed to see his face, to read his expressions. Shinah was normally so stoic, but she could read all his thoughts in his eyes.

If only she could see them.

She turned away from him with a sigh. "We need to sleep," she said. She found an empty bedroll near the edge of the room and nearly collapsed onto it. She was asleep before she could cover herself with her cloak as a blanket.

She dreamed of water, of winding rivers and vast oceans. Her dreams flitted between different scenes with no apparent rhyme or reason, but only one thing remained the same in every scene; she and Shinah always stood at opposite banks.

~~~

The next day, Ezra was stirred awake by the sound of voices arguing quietly. She was laying on her side, bundling her cloak around her shoulders, which was strange because she didn't remember putting it on last night.

"I wasn't forced to take anything," she heard Jaeha say, his voice hoarse from yelling the night before. "I chose to take it."

There was a beat of silence.

Ezra sat up, her hair wildly sticking out in all directions, eyes wide with shock and anger. "You did what?" she hissed.

"I knew what it was before I drank it," Jaeha said simply.

Ezra snapped her mouth shut, afraid she would wake everyone up if she responded.

"Even if you had a good reason for doing something so stupid, you can't go doing things like that," Hak said, his voice seething with anger.

"Are you awake, Jaeha?" Yona's voice was rough from sleep and worry.

"Yes, I'm fine."

Ezra let out an irritated breath. "Don't lie to us, Jaeha," she told him, her eyes blazing. "We all spent hours last night holding you back from hurting yourself or one of us."

Jaeha had never seen eyes so cold, and he realized he'd never seen Ezra when she was truly angry.

"I'm sorry."

"I don't want your apologies," Ezra snapped. "I want to know what drug you took, apparently willingly. Where did you get it?"

"I was... I got it... in a back alley."

Ezra's eyes narrowed to deadly slits, reminding Jaeha eerily of a waiting snake. "I already told you not to lie to me, Ryokuryu."

Jaeha closed his mouth, averting his gaze from her.

"Jaeha..." Yona's voice was full of sadness and concern.

Jaeha turned to look at the princess. "I won't tell you. It's too dangerous." He had pronounced purple bags beneath his eyes; he was still suffering greatly from the side effects of whatever it was he'd taken.

Ezra scoffed. "I think that we will be the judges of what's too dangerous for us but apparently not too dangerous for you." She turned towards Yun. "Yun, do you have a sedative? Jaeha needs to rest more, and we have some investigating to do."

"No, I--" Jaeha started.

"I've got just the thing," Yun said, digging through his bag.

Hak immediately pinned the struggling Ryokuryu down, though Jaeha protested every second of the way.

Yun turned, triumphantly holding up a syringe of anesthetic. Ezra let out a most undignified squeak as she leaped away from the offending needle, only to trip over Shinah who'd been sleeping peacefully next to her. She fell to the ground with a loud thump, effectively waking up the rest of the group.

Yun snorted. He'd never seen Ezra move so gracelessly.

"Sorry, Shinah!" Ezra whimpered, cowering behind him. "Needle."

Shinah immediately sat up, his broad back hiding her from view. A few moments later, Ezra peeked around Shinah's shoulder to find Jaeha passed out in Hak's arms. Hak lowered the Ryokuryu to his bedroll and stood.

"Let's go," he said. "We've got some rope. Someone will need to tie Jaeha up and make sure he doesn't leave once he wakes."

"I will," Shinah said quietly, standing.

Ezra stared at his back as he took the rope from Hak and approached Jaeha. Had he volunteered to stay behind so he wouldn't have to be around her?

Ezra shook her head as she stood, following Hak and the others out of the room. She was reading too far into the situation. Besides, there were too many mysteries surrounding this town that she needed to focus her energy on. The rift that was growing between her and Shinah would have to wait to be figured out another day.

Even as she shifted her thoughts away from her friend, Ezra couldn't help but feel like her heart was sinking as she closed the door behind her, leaving Shinah behind.