AN: Canon compliant except for The Puppetmaster (Hama's episode, which you'll see soon) and up until Sozin's Comet Pt 2.
Hama swept her arm in a wide circle. The color dissolved from the red flowers beneath her.
Katara stared in awe. Finally, she was face-to-face with a real waterbending master. Someone who pushed the limits. Katara itched to do the same.
She glanced back at the desecrated blossoms. Although it was a shame, about the flowers.
The world around her faded to black. Sokka and Aang were fighting each other to the death before her eyes. She screamed and lurched forward, but her body crashed to a stop. Hama grinned at her, silhouetted by the light of the full moon. A gasp of fear escaped Katara's mouth as Hama forced her to her knees. Katara's own element, used against her. Her own body, turned to someone else's whim.
Fury bubbled low in Katara's stomach. She felt heat spreading underneath her skin, steam pushing into her chest and building angry pressure inside of her until she thought it would burst from her mouth in an explosion of light and heat. Katara bared her teeth. No more.
It was not willpower that pushed back against Hama, but the pure force of Katara's rage. As Katara fought her way to her feet, something like laughter flew from Hama's mouth. Katara fixed her gaze on Hama's eyes. She posed her arms in front of her, palms facing each other. She sent her spirit out and searched for the water flowing through Hama's veins.
There. The pull of liquid, flowing fast. Katara felt it, and she pulled. She splayed the fingers in her left hand out. She pushed her right palm down. She held the puppetmaster's own strings. She was a bloodbender.
Katara felt another flash of anger. This time, it was cold. Not the anger that boiled up and spilled out of her in a wave of action, but the anger that came from powerlessness. From being forced, through circumstance, to do something that nobody should ever have to do.
Hama was still laughing. Sokka and Aang dropped from the trees they had been thrown against.
For the first time, Katara really looked at Hama. Her crows' feet. Her wispy white hair. The unbalanced look in the dilation of her pupils. Hama blinked. Katara flinched black, suddenly realizing that she had crossed the clearing and come face-to-face with Hama.
"The Avatar will fail," Hama whispered, a trace of laughter still echoing in her voice, "But not you. Your spirit is unbending. Your anger -" Hama smiled "- reminds me so much of myself."
Hama threw her head back and laughed at the moon. Katara's blood ran cold.
Katara's eyes flew open. She gasped for a breath. She took stock of her surroundings. A green tent. Icicles hung from the tops of the tent. Katara must have frozen them in her sleep. She watched her breath condense. With a wave of her arm, Katara dissipated the ice.
Elderly, strong voices passing outside. The members of the White Lotus. Katara took a deep breath. Today was the day. Aang, she hoped, would return from wherever he was to defeat Ozai. And she and Zuko would take Azula together.
Katara tried to shake the memory out of her mind. Aang wouldn't fail her, wouldn't fail his friends. Aang would be there. Aang would restore balance to the world.
She shook her head and got ready for breakfast.
Katara couldn't tell anyone what she'd done. How could she? Aang - if he had killed Ozai and ended the war - would need her to comfort him. She couldn't do that if he didn't believe she, herself, was unwavering.
Sokka would look at her with worry and pity. He would blame himself. Toph wouldn't understand the gravity of the situation.
And Zuko. Katara had seen Zuko's face when she bent the blood of that Fire Nation lackey. What would Zuko say if he found out that, when the electricity had left his body, and Katara had healed the burns, his heart had stopped beating anyways and she had grabbed it and pumped until there was no doubt that Zuko was definitely, entirely, alive?
Would he say thank you? Or would he feel violated that she had been inside his body and refused to let him rest?
No. Katara was going to stay silent on this issue, and she was going to do more important things. Like make sure that she and Zuko stayed alive in this palace where anyone could be a spy until Aang came to get them. If Aang ever came.
Beside her, Zuko stirred. Katara put a hand to his head. He was burning up. She bent her water - her pure, clean water - to his chest. Her other hand, cloaked in water, pressed against his forhead. She pulled and pushed for his chakras, massaging him and his spirit until the heat went down. She was exhausted.
It had only been a few hours since Zuko became the Fire Lord. Katara had been bending ever since. Bending to keep him on his feet for the coronation. Bending to help him walk upright to his chambers. Bending to break the fever and soothe the scar left by Azula's lightning. Katara felt her own energy depleting and hoped she would not have to keep it up for long.
His friends had saved the Earth Kingdom for that day, but Aang had failed. Aang had failed to kill Ozai and failed to take his bending.
Aang no longer felt the air under his feet when he walked. The weight of the earth had long since left him, and there was no room in him for fire.
On Appa's back, with the Phoenix King hanging far below Appa's saddle in a cage of Toph's making, Aang felt as though he were submerged in water. There was nothing left for him.
Aang had failed. The chain of Avatars had broken. With his bending gone, Aang had looked into Ozai's eyes and seen only cruelty and disbelief. Aang had screwed up his eyes to prepare for the worst. He would go with dignity, like his fellow air nomads - he could no longer call himself an airbender - before him.
The only reason Aang's heart still beat was Toph. She had taken on Ozai in a battle long-forthcoming. Toph fought brave and strong, but she was just a child. Just when Aang thought he would have to watch Ozai kill Toph in front of him, Toph had stood.
She stomped one foot down, and the earth split between her and Ozai, exposing lava underneath. Toph bent the lava upwards, surrounding Ozai, ready to choke the life out of him with the clench of a fist. It could have been over. But Aang, high on his mountaintop, had stopped her. He screamed and screamed his voice raw.
Toph seemed to groan, but she listened. She solidified the lava around him, encasing the Ozai in a seamless sheet of solid metal. If he tried to fire bend his way out of there, he'd cook himself. And so, they took the Phoenix King prisoner.
Aang knew he should have been proud of Toph. Grateful she saved his life. Glad she saved the entire Earth Kingdom. Amazed by the pure power she had demonstrated. Worried for her now, as exhausted as she was. But, with his bending gone, he could do no more than lay on the other side of Appa's saddle and let Sokka and Suki fly them to the Fire Nation.
AN: Well that's it for this chapter! I can't believe I
(a) Brainstormed an entire plot
(b) Wrote 1.1k on it
(c) Uploaded the chapter
all in one day. Meanwhile my college essays are .01% complete and I can barely bring myself to look at them. Sorry this chapter is lame, but it's going places, promise.