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Chapter Three

Katara ran about the city looking for something she recognised. She had ran off with the intention of returning in ten minutes, she just needed some air, but as it turned out, the Gods had something else planned for her. She was lost, so immeasurably lost that she hadn't seen anything that sparked recognition for at least an hour. She rounded a corner and came face to face with Toph, a little girl Katara had met when travelling with Sokka.

'TOPH! You have no idea how glad I am to see you!' She hugged her fiercely and the blind girl reeled at her over-affectionate touch.

'Personal space!'

Katara nodded and stepped back. 'Do you know where we are?'

'Don't you?' Toph scoffed and pointed to a tea shop across the street. The Jasmine Dragon. 'And I thought I was the blind one.'

'I gotta go Toph, thank you! I'll see you soon.' Toph smiled and carried on walking. Katara ran through the streets until she found the inn she and Sokka had arranged to meet at before Mai had kidnapped both of them. She climbed in through the window, time was of the essence and she could not afford to make small-talk with the inn keeper.

'KATARA!' A shadow crashed into her and they collapsed on the floor in a hug. 'How'd you get away?' Sokka's voice was so familiar that she almost broke down crying from the comfort it gave her.

'I just left. They don't know I'm gone yet, I'll have to go back soon.'

'What? NO!'

'Yes Sokka, you're still in danger, Suki, your fiancé, is still in danger. Everyone I know is. I just I needed to see you.'

Jian clambered through the window and looked about. The room appeared empty, until a hand grabbed his foot and pulled it out from under him. Sokka still had Katara in his death grip hug when Jian had climbed through the window and stood right next to the siblings who lay on the floor.

Jian landed with a crash and Sokka's boomerang was quickly held to his neck.

'Who are you?' His voice was threatening and angry.

'I just came to get her, she shouldn't be out here. If the Gunners Lead hears about this we'll all be in trouble.' Jian was whispering, trying not to move the boomerang too much as it bumped across his Adam's Apple.

Katara stood on the sidelines, wondering what to do. She didn't want to go back but Jian had done nothing wrong to her and she would have to return eventually anyway. 'Sokka. Sokka let go.'

'What?' Sokka asked, he had barely listened to her, instead concentrating on the fear in the Gunners eyes.

'Let go, release, free, liberate, er' Katara stopped, out of ways to tell Sokka what to do. 'move your boomerang?' She finished.

'WHAT!' Sokka was surprised and angry enough to drop the boomerang and whirl to face her. 'He is going to make your life misery! He doesn't deserve to live.' With every 'he' Sokka jabbed a finger at Jian, who made to move until Katara shot him a warning glare.

She launched herself at Sokka in a final desperate hug and kissed his cheek, the way water tribe citizens did before saying a final goodbye. He froze as he realized the meaning and a tear rolled down his face, landing on the floor with a soft 'pat!' that was lost with the sound of the rain outside. He kissed her cheek too and the second he did she broke the hug, cast him a final glance, and jumped out the window. Jian followed after her.

oOo

'Don't you wanna know how I found you?'

'Don't you wanna know if I'm going to tell everyone if the Gunner's Fold how you were bested by my brother? An inexperienced teenage boy with a boomerang.'

Her tone made him wince and he saw that chit chat was not on the tables.

'You shouldn't have run off like that, if I had gone for the Gunners Lead instead of looking for you then your brother would dead right now.' Katara's fist flew in at him and he didn't block her, paralysed by shock. It slammed into his face with a sickening thump and he knew she'd drawn blood.

'Don't you dare ever blame murder on me. No matter who it is, it will never be my fault and I will never kill my own brother.' She spat at him and the journey continued in relative silence.

The rain pounded on his face and mixed with his blood. It was only a little cut but he refuse to wipe it away, stubbornness was something that they had in common. When they reached the Gunners Fold again Katara almost ran to her office before he caught her wrist. 'I came looking for you for a reason Katara.' She started at hearing her name come out of his mouth, he must have been with her and Sokka the whole time if had heard that. 'The Gunners Lead have found your first kill.'

Jian led her to his desk and they sat on opposite sides. He slid the file towards her. 'His name's Yon Rha. He was the leader of-'

'The Southern Raiders.' She whispered.

'Yeah.' He said brightly, thinking she was reading it from the open file.

'He's recently retired and lives in one of the Earth Kingdom colonies. Do you want to plan your attack or- Katara!'

She had dropped the file and ran away, into her own office. She fell asleep in the bathroom, the only room with a lock, crying and shaking.

oOo

Katara emerged from the bathroom after a week, starving and malnourished. A servant appeared at the door with her food, she could hear his footsteps down the corridor. She knew Jian had heard him too because he had walked out of his office/rooms and asked for the tray.

The door to her rooms opened and Jian entered with a tray full of steamed rice and vegetables, he set them down in front of her and sat with her looking expectantly, waiting for her to start eating again. The moment a piece of carrot passed her lips Jian looked at her to talk.

'So, what was that all about?'

'What was what all about?'

'You disappeared for a week Katara! This is second time you've hidden in your office now!' He froze and glanced at her. 'You didn't visit your brother again did you?'

'No.' She sighed. 'I wish I could have.'

'So why did you run off?'

'That's private, and I'm not about to give away my life to a member of the Gunner's Fold.'

Jian sighed. 'Well fine, but you have to do it soon because they want you to go on recon tomorrow and kill him next week.'

She choked back a laugh. 'You make it sound so simple.'

'That's because, after your first kill, it is.'

oOo

'I can't do this. I won't kill him, I just won't.' Katara shook her head adamantly and she felt tears spring to her eyes.

'You have no choice One, it's not in your control because if you don't we will kill your brother and his fiancé, Suki is it?' Mai's voice was cold and angry and Katara gasped at the sound of her naming her future sister in law.

'What if I fail?'

'For your brother sake, you'd better not.'

oOo

Jian led the way to a little boat in a port. She smiled at the sight of the oars. 'How quaint.'

They climbed aboard and Jian began to row furiously. She raised a hand in a sign to stop and then turned around so she was looking towards the land. Katara dipped her index finger into the water behind the boat and twirled it slowly. It had the effect of a mini whirlpool which made the boat speed down the sea at breakneck speed and Jian couldn't help but show his surprise.

'You're a waterbender.' He breathed, Katara simply nodded.

They were on their way to the island in the colonies where Yon Rha lived. Jian was sent with her to observe and intervene if she got into trouble, but also to help out where he could. So far, he had been useless.

Katara looked to him as he pulled a thick golden coin out of his pocket. It was completely smooth on one side with a raised rim, and on the other there was a small indentation in the shape of an 'X'.

'This is the coin that you dip in the blood of your victim to prove that he or she is dead. When you get a name, you also get a symbol and then all of your coins hold that symbol. It's going to be your killers mark.' He flipped the coin towards her and it landed it her palm. Katara looked down at it in disgust at the thought of what it represented and closed her fingers over it. 'It's called a Gunners Coin.'

'Is it solid gold?'

'Yes. Somehow it makes the blood look,' he paused, 'luminous, I guess. It's an old tradition. I know you don't need tonight, but I guess you should have it anyway.'

Katara nodded, unwilling to hear or talk anymore. She gazed out onto the water, the moon that was reflected onto its surface was rippling softly with the disturbances the boat created with its movement. The pull of the moon beset her with an incredible need to bend and she contented herself with making the boat move faster, but she knew that for the next few days she wouldn't get any sleep.

oOo

His home was far from the village, at the top of a very big hill – or a very small mountain. It was dark and secluded and Katara could feel the horror of her childhood returning, this was the man who had killed her mother. The roof was a typical fire nation pagoda roof, red and gold and she bet it was splendid in the sunlight. Jian followed her from the back of the house onto the roof and in through an open window on the second floor.

The inside of the house was shrouded in shadows and Jian almost tripped over a table, he flew through the air and ended up landing on his fingertips in a handstand before falling back gently.

Katara smirked at his mistake. 'Be careful you idiot.' She hissed.

'That was careful, I went out of my way to stay silent you know.'

They continued through the house and came to a corridor with several large oak doors that led to every possible direction. They paused outside each one, listening. Katara felt the pull of the moon pushing down on her, making it harder to breathe and harder to concentrate. She half ran to the final door, disregarding the others and pressed her ear to it. Not a single snore penetrated the silence of the night. She slipped it open, something telling her that that was the room. That was the room that evil slept in. It was barely open a crack, but she slipped through the gap and looked about the room. A man lay in his luxurious bed, swaddled by pillows and blankets made of what looked like satin.

Katara crept closer, and lifted the blanket slightly. The man beneath it was old and grey but she knew it was him. She knew from his brown eyes, and the cruelty within them, the eyes that had looked at her as a child with contempt and hatred. It took her a moment to realise that the eyes were open, that he was awake, and that he was staring right at her. She launched into action and pulled a dagger from her belt, one Jian had given her, and moved to cut him, but he had wriggled beneath the covers and disappeared in the numerous piles of pillows.

Katara walked backwards quickly, trying not to trip on her own feet. She stopped when her back hit the wall and moved so that she was in the corner. Yes that almost explicitly means she was cornered, but it also meant he didn't have a chance of sneaking up on her, and that was her biggest worry.

A part of the blanket shifted and she knew exactly where he was on the bed. She ran, tiptoeing, and jumped on the bed, making a stabbing motion as she did. She stabbed a pillow.

He jumped out from under the bedding and landed rather nimbly on his feet on the wooden floor. He had somehow grabbed a long pointed dagger, similar to the one she held and she looked down at her hand in disbelief at just how similar they were. She shook her head slightly, it was such a random thought and very much the wrong time to be thinking about it.

A heavy weight smashed into her and she was too shocked to scream. Where was Jian? He straddled Katara and grabbed her neck, throttling her and shaking her head while he did so. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her blood rushing in her ears and she stared dizzily at her captor.

In one final move of defiance, for she was sure she was going to die, she cut him with her dagger. It was shallow, because daggers are meant for stabbing not slicing, but he let go of her and clutched his thigh. Obviously it had hurt a lot. With oxygen returning to her blood stream Katara kicked out involuntarily, her leg pencil straight and it slammed into the back of Yon Rha's head. He flopped down in pain but grabbed her wrist and squeezed it tight until she dropped her dagger.

Katara slid out from under him and backed away, realising that she couldn't kill him, even in self defence. The battle had been a minute altogether and completely silent and in that time Katara had felt hatred, desperation, fear, strength and resignation. It had aged her greatly and she felt like a fifty year old woman.

During her tiny epiphany, Yon Rha had staggered to his feet and was running at her, holding her dagger. She snapped back to reality in time to notice and throw her arms up in the final line of defence. Her eyes screwed themselves shut and she cried out in fear and anticipation of the pain.

But it didn't come. She opened her eyes and glanced through the barrier of arms, unwilling to lower them. Yon Rha had frozen mid-step with the dagger in the air. She began to lower her arms, and as she did Yon Rha's knees began to bend. Her mind was far away, connecting with the sky, the moon and she realised she was in control of two bodies.

Somehow she had bloodbent.

She began to lower him to his knees, unsure what to do when she got him there. The door creaked and she flung her head to where Jian was letting himself in. Her arms hadn't dropped but she had lost focus and, with Yon Rha being old and not as flexible as he used to be, his knees went out from under him. Yon Rha had control of his body for the rest of his life, which was not a very long time because when he fell his head smacked the corner of a table and that was it.

'Oh no. Katara this is bad.' Jian looked at her his eyes wide in fear. 'You didn't kill him. The Gunner's, they'll go after your brother.' His eyes flickered to Yon Rha. 'It's ok, we can lie. Yes that'll work.' He paused. 'But they'll find out eventually. They always do, there's no secret the Gunners Lead doesn't know.' His brain flickered about erratically, a mixture of fear and desperation. Katara knew how he felt.

'I killed him.'

'He fell Katara, don't lie to me.'

'No. I killed him Jian.' Even though she hadn't, Katara had decided it was safest this way, not letting anyone know it had been an accident. To demonstrate how he had died she pulled the Gunners Coin out her pocket and bent some of the blood from the growing pool on the floor onto the coin. 'I'm a bloodbender.'

Alright guys just a heads up, I don't know about all of you but I'm on half term which is just a week off school and then the Queens Jubilee mixed in – which is just a cheat so we don't get extra time off – but anyways after Sunday I will be posting less because I will be walking to school, working, walking home, eating and sleeping. No homework though – I never do that :) Point being, prepare yourselves and love me while you have the chance.

Please review!

I took aspects from the series about Yon Rha but I decided to make it different in some ways too (Yon Rha didn't live with his mum and he was actually quite rich etc.), because the story was becoming quite similar to the episode 'the southern raiders' in this chapter. I'm really sorry about that, but it was the only person I could think that Katara would hate. (Just another thing, I know I said there was no war, but the fire nation still sent raiders around because they weren't a particularly nice nation, but the other kingdoms tolerated it.) So again really sorry about the similarities, I hope you didn't find it too much like a rip off of the episode. It had to happen for my story to progress..

PLEASE REVIEW!