Another one based on an AMAZING deviation by Acaciathorn on entitled Swamp Thing Katara. It is so unimaginable creepy and beautiful all at the same time….just wow. Acacithorn provided a mini-story to go along with this pic, and I am just going to be elaborating on it.
Yes, this is an ATLA fanfic, but first and foremost it is in honor of Acaciathorn and her beautiful artwork!
Acaciathorn's Mini-story
A year after the events of ATLA, Katara returns to the Swamp to learn more about botanical waterbending - she hopes to learn from the vine-bending master there. Unbeknownst to her, however, the Swamp is slowly being polluted by poisonous sludge from a fire nation factory upstream - one of the many that have been converted to civilian-owned enterprises since the war's end. Sickened and unable to defend itself, the Spirit of the Swamp grows desperate. Finally, seeing no other option, it possesses Katara and uses her to destroy the factory. While the Spirit waits to recover, it continues controlling her like some creepy marionette, attacking anyone who dares trespass within its borders...
On with the ooey gooey goodness!
A bead of sweat rolled down Katara's cheek as she crouched in a defensive stance. She manipulated a stream of water from her waterskin to encircle her, twining around her body like a giant snake, ready to strike at a moment's notice. She was surrounded. Firebender's cautiously marched toward her, caging her in. They moved slowly, knowing the damage the Waterbending master was capable of inflicting on the unwary.
Littering the ground were countless bodies, bloodied and broken. Some that had been charred still wore the fear and agony of their last moments alive before they'd been brutally murdered by the Firebenders. The streets of Ba Sing Se were crowded with Fire Nation soldiers, and the whole city burned relentlessly.
Tears streamed down Katara's face. Her expression twisted into pure rage and she pushed the water away from her. She froze the leading edge of the liquid serpent, turning into a razor-sharp disk of ice. She ruthlessly cut down the waves of soldiers coming at her, taking sick pleasure in watching their bodies fall, spraying out their essential life force in a crimson rain. She threw her head back and laughed, allowing the blood of her enemies to soak into her ruined clothes.
Her mind and spirit were utterly broken and she continued to laugh at the destruction she had caused. A single dark thought come to the surface of her shattered sanity.
Bloodbending.
She would make the bastards pay for killing her friends, for killing Aang.
The memory of his lifeless body strewn across the steps of their Ba Sing Se residence, fallen beside the spent bodies of her brother and Toph served to fuel the madness within her. She flung her arms outward, and with a shuddering breath she seized control of every living creature within the city's walls. As one, their bodies snapped to awkward angles as Katara commanded the very blood within their veins. Their agony was excruciating as the young woman played havoc within them. She pulled at them ruthlessly. She was their Master, and they her puppets. Their fear was intoxicating, swelling tangibly in the air.
She soon grew tired of this game. She wanted them to know true pain! She turned the blood still coursing within them to tiny razor blades to eat away at them from the inside. The city rang with the anguished screams of her "toys". As if she were pulling on a rope, she violently commanded all of that viscous liquid to come to her. It ripped free of their bodies in a scarlet storm, leaving them totally drained as they collapsed to the pavestones.
The sight of so much blood, so much death, startled Katara out of her insanity and she instantly relinquished control of the sea of blood. It rained down on the city, crackling in the fires and soaking the earth. She fell to her knees, sobbing.
"What have I done?" She stared at her hands in horror. Blood dripped from them, and she didn't know if it was hers or her victim's.
"Unnh…"
Her head whipped to her left, to the steps of their house. To her shock Aang stirred and tried to sit up.
"AANG!" she cried and she went to him, half crawling, slipping in the river of blood, inches deep, that flowed in the streets.
"Ka..ta…ra," he coughed and spat, blood staining his lips. His own blood.
"No…no…Aang, I thought you were gone," she sobbed desperately into her hands. He feebly reached towards her, but he didn't have enough strength and his arm fell back to the ground.
"Katara," he whispered. "What have you done? Why?"
She backed away from him, stung by the accusation in his voice. "I don't know! I thought you were dead! I… I just lost control! But you're alive. I can heal you!"
She fumbled with the cap on her waterskin and pulled the water out. But the water was no longer pure. Instead it was a sickly pink, stained with the blood of her enemies. She tried to separate the two liquids, but failed.
But an idea sparked in her. She pulled some of the blood from the street behind them and let it hover beside here. "Where is your injury?"
"It won't work, Katara. It's time, my love." His eyelids fluttered, fighting to stay open. "Please, let me have one last kiss from you, my beautiful waterbender."
"NO! It has to work! I can't lose you!" Tear streamed down her face, cutting clean paths in the grime on her face.
Her hands roamed his body, searching for the fatal wound. She found in on his side. With all of her concentration, she tried to force the borrowed life force into Aang's body, but it would not go. He screamed in agony, the sound reverberating in the empty city.
"My love, just let it happen. It's time," he breathed, pain coloring his voice. He cupped one hand against her cheek and smiled gently. "I love you, Katara. I've always loved you."
"I love you, Aang."
He was gone, and she was truly, truly alone.
She screamed into the night, crying out all her pain, rage and shame to an unforgiving world.
Katara bolted upright in her bed. Her hands frantically searched the sheets beside her in an effort to convince her that this was reality now, not that horrendous nightmare. She was soaked through with sweat, her hair clinging to her face. Trembling, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and took a shaky step toward the door and down the hall to the washroom.
She felt so off center. Her powers were so unbalanced. Even though she never used Bloodbending, it felt like a taint upon her spirit. She had to find a way to achieve order in her heart. She splashed her face with cool water, dried it, and returned to bed to lay awake the rest of the night, terrified to fall asleep.
A/N: That's one doozy of a nightmare, dontcha think? I'm kinda shocked at myself at the amount of violence in this first chapter. I was intended to make this purely kid-friendly, but apparently that went out the window. XD
Anyhoo, you really have to see this picture to get where I'm coming from. We all saw how dark Katara can be when she puts her mind to it, but this is going a step or two (or three thousand) further. Her expression in the pic, even though she's possessed at the time, is so purely "I'm gonna rip your **** off and feed it to you," that I wanted to explore this Dark Katara a bit further. Hope you enjoyed! Chapter 2 will hopefully be up soon, but I'm sure the holiday weekend will attempt to throw a monkey wrench in my writing time!
[h e a r t],
Nyx