The Other Side of Great
Disclaimer: I own nothing from the show and the characters were only borrowed for a while!
Rating: R
Summary: Katara sees a way to end the war, the hurt, and the pain through a rarely used ability. So she will embark on a path to do just that. Dark fic.
Katara watched Toph bend metal, a smile on the small girl's face. Useful, a very useful skill. She couldn't deny it and it made Toph so happy.
Katara looked at the water in her hands and poked it. It was so clear and pure. Toph could be the most powerful earthbender ever, but Katara held a secret deep inside of her about her own greatness.
She turned her gaze from the water to her hands that held it. She could see light lines of blue veins pulsing under her skin. Thump, thump, push and pull. Blood flowed, like the ocean.
The dark haired girl closed her eyes in meditation, and followed the water to its source. There, in her center, her core. The blood pooled and pulsed in her heart and outwards and inwards.
"The body is mostly water, which allows for us to use our bending skills to heal."
The words of the healing teacher echoed gently in her ears and with clarity Katara followed her words to the next conclusion. We can use our bending skills to kill.
How easy it would be to freeze the blood in the body, in the heart, in the brain or to simply stop its flow or to pull it out through the skin. Death loomed, sudden, quick, and efficient.
Katara worried as she contemplated the defeat and despair that faced the group now that Ba Sing Se had fallen. It was written on every face, in the lines of hunched bodies. Katara sat and meditated, and let go and let go.
She pushed Zuko's eyes out of her mind, she turned away from Aang's trusting face, Toph's tough girl exterior. And her brother, her brother. A warrior but not a bender. He believed in fighting fair. A warrior, but not a killer. The promise of meeting her father again. Of living happily ever after. She let it all go.
It was an age old debate. Is it worth one life to save the world? She couldn't say. But was it worth one girl's humanity to save the world? Could she give up hope and caring for others? Could she kill to give Aang a chance? Could she destroy all chance of a life for herself at a chance for life for everyone?
Yes. Because what Katara wanted most of all was for Aang to not have so much pressure to defeat the fire nation. He needed the chance to make peace, not the chance to fight in a war. She wanted for her brother and father to not die in battle. For Toph to find her place in the world. For families to not be torn apart by war. All that Katara wanted could be achieved if one used the right methods.
It was a dark path she began.
She didn't need skill and she didn't need stealth to infiltrate the Fire Nation. All she needed was to get captured by a squad of fire nation soldiers and not killed. All she needed was for Aang to stay away until she'd given him a fighting chance.
Looking every bit the abused captive, Katara was thrown roughly down in front of Fire Lord Ozai, Azula at his side, Zuko standing back and behind.
Katara saw his eyes widen at the sight of her. She must've looked a mess.
Dark eyes looked at the room calculatingly as the Fire Nation royalty exulted in her capture and their chance at the Avatar. She decided that to destroy them it had to be more public, on the eclipse when surely they would be prepared. When they would be arming for battle against rebels. Katara and her plans would wait.
Zuko walked into her cell, swaggering, confident in his regained status.
"I liked you better with hair." She sneered at his topknot and shaved head.
Whatever Zuko had been expecting it wasn't that. He stared in silence. "You seem different."
Katara grinned darkly. "So do you."
He was unnerved by the dark hue in her eyes, the reckless light and lack of fear. She was planning something; he could almost feel the confidence and power exuding from her. Zuko narrowed his eyes, but he kept his suspicions to himself –his father didn't trust him that much yet. And the Water Tribe girl was key to their strategy, their collateral against the avatar and his rag tag group of powerful benders and rebels.
And when the day came and Katara was a dim memory of a loving girl in her mind, she stepped up and put her skill to a terrible use.
Azula collapsed suddenly, dead from a frozen heart, Ozai followed. Zuko she made watch as she destroyed the Fire Lord's personal soldiers and made her way to where she could see the battlefield.
Closing her eyes she saw the pulses of lives, pulling and pushing like the water in the ocean. She was the greatest waterbender ever, and she unleashed her talent with a appalling result. The Fire Nation Army that still fought even after the death of their leaders was suddenly gone, the water sucked from their bodies with barely an effort.
Katara collapsed to her knees and stared with dry eyes from her vantage point at the thousands of bodies that lay on the fields. Over, it was over. She was no longer friend of the Avatar, and she was no friend of the Fire Nation.
Zuko stepped up behind her, fury in his every move.
"Don't make the same mistakes of your ancestors. Work with Aang and restore peace." Katara said flatly before he could kill her or open his mouth. "I have spared you for the sake of order, for peace."
She closed her eyes, hiding the sight of empty, dry bodies, hiding her handiwork. Katara followed the pulsing, pushing stream of life to her heart. She glowed blue like the moon in her mind. I'm sorry Aang. It had to be done and you weren't the one to do it. She froze her blood in her body.
I'm sorry Aang. It had to be done and you weren't the one to do it. The avatar screamed as her words echoed in his mind with a chilling finality.
Later he saw the usefulness of her sacrifice. Saw the hope she'd brought back into the world. And he was glad she'd never shown him that careful, dark and pragmatic side of her. He was thankful that he never saw her kill with awesome efficiency. Glad he never saw her face dry and blank after she'd murdered.
He hated her for doing what he couldn't. He hated her for leaving him to restore hope in a world when she'd taken away the only thing that had given him hope. But Aang couldn't hate forever and years later loved her for giving him a chance to find hope in the world again.
History books would lift her up as a villain and a hero. But when all was said and done, she was simply Katara, who did what needed to be done; she was the greatest Waterbender in the four nations.
AN: So I wrote this after a while of this plot teasing my brain. I've spent most of my Avatar energies drawing the characters and finally decided to post one of the oneshots I have. please review but remember this is a oneshot, there is no more coming! Enjoy!