A/N: This was hard to write because the next one is super exciting, so this is more of a transitory chapter. Hopefully I've built on the advice you guys have given me (keep it coming)... but still, I'm not too happy with it. The next update will be quick though! Promise!

Chapter 10 – Seeing without Eyes

Zuko jolted awake from a disturbing dream just before dawn, the last dregs of which were quickly dissipating into the lightening room. He replayed the scene from last night and considered how to approach the new day. Since they were earth bending he didn't think he should wake Katara for meditation. Besides, Toph being in charge meant there was no chance of starting early.

However, as the grey light of early dawn infiltrated the room, Zuko started to worry. Katara had hardly moved the whole night. He had to place a hand on her stomach just to feel her breathing, otherwise she may as well have been dead. She must have been in a very deep sleep and he was torn as to whether to wake her or not. Finally he decided that she would probably be mad if he didn't give her the choice - she was not one to look sympathetically at anybody who made decisions for her.

He kissed her gently on the cheek and called her name, drawing her out of her comatose sleep. Katara's eyes opened slowly - differently to her usual confused fluttering. This was weary, tired, and her gaze was still distant.

"Hey, its dawn, and we're meant to earth bend today," he explained softly. Katara's eyes closed with the same slow, deliberate movement she had used before. They stayed closed a few seconds before opening again to consider him. She reached up a hand and caressed his cheek, before letting it drop back onto the sheets.

"I'm… not… leaving… this… bed," she breathed. Zuko nodded. He didn't think he should argue with her - she seemed to be exhausted. There was only one problem though…

"Then we'll leave Toph to sleep - I bet she will be happy," he said, trying to conceal his disappointment. He had been looking forward to learning earth bending - he loved the strength it gave those who wielded it. Katara closed her eyes.

"You should learn," she said from somewhere very distant.

"You're the only one who can blood bend," he reminded her. She sighed and reached for his hand.

From her fuzzy state she didn't need to try to block out anything; it was already gone. She found his blood easily and followed a very bright chi flow in the darkness of her incomprehensibility. Katara had studied Toph's chi flow the day before, memorising the points where it differed from hers. She wasn't surprised to find earth bending focussed in the legs and feet. It made sense. In the back of her mind it reminded her of something, but she couldn't quite place it.

When she had altered Zuko's chi, she did her own.

"There, now we're both earth benders," she said. She hadn't moved or opened her eyes - Zuko had thought she had fallen asleep again. He kissed her again and quietly left to wake an undoubtedly grumpy Toph.

The sun rose just before six o'clock. Nothing official happened before nine o'clock, which meant that meditation, training, washing and eating took place in those three hours. Katara woke from her stupor at about eight, and decided to find her friends. She didn't bother hiding the black under her eyes, and she tied her hair up so it wouldn't look dirty. Going into her bathroom, she sighed in relief at her ability to blood bend. For all of the uses blood bending had, the most mundane was also the most useful. No longer did she have to soak her cycle cloths in boiling water for hours; she could soak them for five minutes or so and bend the blood off. It was amazing. If she ever lost the ability to blood bend this would probably be one of her main regrets.

Having washed herself and thrown on some clothes, Katara hurried to the indoor arena so see if Toph and Zuko were still in there. She opened the door quietly and slipped in, almost laughing at what she saw; Toph had riddled the stone floor with holes and dips, sharp spikes, inclines, and steps of all kinds. Zuko stood, looking somewhat weary, blindfolded in the middle of the maze.

"Hey Katara," called Toph from the other side of the arena.

"What? Katara's here?" asked Zuko, jerking his head about and trying to work out where the damned door was.

"What is wrong with you Zuko!" cried Toph, "You are a fire bender, that means you can feel heat! You should be able to sense her in the room with your own element!" She threw up her hands in frustration.

"Yeah well I'm too damned concentrated on trying to sense the fucking death traps you've set out for me!" he cried back, a glimmer of his old-Zuko anger in his voice. However, he didn't remove the blind fold. Toph growled.

"I do not understand why it is so hard to teach earth bending! With Aang what he needed was a forceful push, and I think you need the same. We are going to duel," she said definitively.

"Duel!" exclaimed Katara. "Isn't it a bit early for that?" She did not like the idea of a blind Zuko going up against Toph. With his eyesight they may have been equally matched, but he was at a distinct disadvantage here.

"Stay out of this Sugar Queen. This is between me and Sparky. Actually, you can play doctor when he gets his butt kicked. Right, Sparky, you can use any element you like - I will only use earth bending. But we are both blind. And you better start paying attention to the earth pretty soon because it will, quite literally, slap you in the face if you don't. Ready?"

"Toph I think this is a really bad idea," started Katara pleadingly. However, Zuko interrupted her.

"Please Katara! If this is what it takes I'll do it. But you shouldn't get hurt - wait outside till this is over."

"Absolutely not," she said forcefully, crossing her arms and not a little irritated that he was trying to tell her what to do, "I can defend myself, Fire Prince Zuko, and if I have to beat your arse again to prove it, believe me, I will!" And with that she leaned against the door, staring at the back of Zuko's head angrily.

He gulped. An angry Katara was far worse than a playful Toph. He would have to deal with that later.

"Wahey! Sweetness is getting Spicy!" laughed Toph. This is more like it, she thought to herself.

"Don't you dare make light of this Toph - I'm furious with you for doing this. You two are going to seriously hurt each other and I'm the one who is going to have to pick up the fucking pieces as usual!" she snarled, switching her cold stare from one blind person to another.

"Shesh! Calm down Spicy! Hey… Spicy and Sparky… I like it… although Sweetness and Sparky is like sweetness and light which is a lovely saying. Except I don't know what light is," mused Toph, completely unperturbed by Katara's outburst. She was more than used to it, but sensed that it had put Zuko on edge… maybe she should go easy on him after all. "Well, lets get to it!" she announced, stomping her foot on the ground and changing the landscape to something completely unfamiliar. Zuko didn't know it but it was actually easier to navigate than the previous one.

Zuko froze at the sound of grinding rock.

"You fucking changed everything again didn't you?" he growled.

"Yup!" replied Toph lightly.

He spun around in the direction of her voice and shot a fireball at her. However, he heard the usual creaking of the expanding metal as it collided with the wall.

"Yeah, how are you supposed to get me if you don't know in which direction I'm going? You are aiming for the past Sparky, get with it!" she instructed, leaping around and changing direction. Zuko tried to aim a few more fireballs but without success. "Not even close!" mocked Toph from yet another position.

Zuko could feel his frustration growing into anger. Anger at himself, at his damned inability to pick this up. He felt like a scolded child again, the worst one at fire bending, with his sister showing off to his father and grandfather moves that he still hadn't mastered. The familiar rage that he had harboured for three long years on his ship returned full force, contorting his body into well rehearsed moves. He growled through his teeth as he drew on as much power as he could and shot a sheet of fire, spinning as he did so, in order to make it reach every corner of the room.

He was left panting from his sudden outburst. After a few deep breaths things started clearing in his mind as he realised what he had done.

"Katara? Toph? Are you ok? I'm so sorry…" he reached behind his head to undo the blindfold and rush to the aid of his friends. He was resisting breaking down into sobs of self loathing.

"Don't you dare Sparky!" called Toph from a long way away, "This isn't over!"

"We're fine Zuko," said Katara from somewhere closer to his side of the arena, a softness in her voice that indicated that she at least partially understood what had prompted his rash gesture.

Zuko suddenly felt something hit him square in the forehead. Then something else. They were hard. Stones! Toph was throwing stones at him - he had just whipped out enough fire to destroy a palace and she retaliated by throwing stones. It almost made him laugh.

Almost.

Because she defended herself from his attack and he was incapable of defending himself from hers.

Right. He needed to find cover. Getting low to the ground, he moved along with his hands spread wide until he found a large rock jutting out. He moved so that it was between him and the rock-throwing Toph. It wouldn't take long for her to adjust her position to come at him again, but she had been the other side of the arena, so she would have to move quite a bit. At the very least it bought him some time.

A memory presented itself to him; a memory of himself as the blue spirit, living in the shadows and being impossibly quiet - breaking into the highest security prisons and freeing the highest security prisoners. Sneaking around wasn't going to fool Toph, and there was no wood to dampen his steps. He silently cursed himself for not having brought water in this morning - at the very least it might create some confusion!

But along with these memories came the less pleasant ones; being locked in cupboards, waiting in vents, sneaking through barracks, finding his way down the tunnels of Lake Laogai. In none of those situations did he have any light. He had done it by not searching for light - by instead focussing on what he did know and translating that into images. He remembered sitting very still, hardly even breathing, and listening with all his might to what was happening around him.

Marching boots: soldiers. The paces even: bored. Two, in practiced time: regular partners. No hesitations: knew the land to perfection - they were lookouts on duty.

Now he had more than his ears, though. He had heat. He had water. He had earth.

He relaxed and opened his mind to the arena. There. He could feel Toph not too far from him. She wasn't moving. So she must have been waiting for him to emerge.

Katara stood somewhere behind him. She was much warmer than Toph.

This didn't help though. As soon as Toph picks up a rock, and the rock leaves her hand, he would have no idea where it was. He might hope that the contact with her skin would make it slightly warmer than the surroundings, but hat was a vain hope. Besides, was she even picking them up? Wouldn't she just bend them towards him?

He needed to go deeper than heat and water. He needed to focus on where he was in relation to the room. He needed to feel, through his skin, what was going on. Everything is connected he told himself. I am on the earth, I am touching it, I am part of it. He repeated this mantra in his head over and over as he ran his fingers and toes along the surroundings, paying attention to every nook and cranny he passed over. There was no movement in the room, nor was there any noise; it seemed the girls had decided to leave him to his own explorations.

He felt a dip under his feet as he inched forward. A dip meant a rise though. Where was the rise?

There. The rise was very close - the dip was not wide. But the rise seemed to be higher than where he was standing. That would mean another dip perhaps. It would be annoying to have to climb it though. But moving to the right should give him some space. Instinctively, with the speed yet caution of the blue spirit, he headed towards the easier path. There was something blocking his way though and he ducked just in time, feeling an overhang graze the top of his head. Toph would be standing to the left - stationary - a heartbeat - a more intense vibration. Carefully positioning himself, he shot a simple fireball directly at the direction of the more intense vibrations. The vibrations faded for a split second - she had stepped out of the way - and he felt a presence moving closer - too fast to be Toph - no Toph had not moved from her spot.

Something small and hard hit him on the chest. Oh. Another rock. So that's what a rock feels like he thought to himself, too fascinated to be irritated.

"Nice one Sparky, you are finally feeling. Now quit with the fire, do it with rock," instructed Toph.

"Hmmm thanks for the details Sifu," grumbled Zuko, momentarily distracted from his study of the ground.

"You'll work it out," she replied. Zuko imagined a smirk playing on her lips underneath her black bangs.

He returned to the state he had been in while observing the stone beneath his feet. Right. Stone MOVE he mentally shouted. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. He returned to the overhang and, standing in front of it, he placed one hand on the lip, concentrating on how the stone was shaped - not so much on the surface, but underneath it. There he exerted a force, and to his immense pleasure it shifted. Not much, just an inch. But he could do it again - and with more power. The overhang lifted so that he could pass under it without ducking.

Now he needed a stone to throw. He reached up and touched the overhang once more. Instead of pushing inside, he pulled, and a part came away easily in his hand.

Now where was Toph? Ah! There. He threw the stone but it fell short - he felt it hit the ground a few metres in front of her. He took another part of the overhang, and this time, he pushed it from inside. Not enough to separate it, but enough to control its direction. There!

The vibrations coming from Toph changed and the stone stopped. Ah. She must have lifted her hand and caught it.

"I like it Sparky! But I'm afraid we are going to have to continue this another time - your advisors are hesitating outside the arena - I think you might be late for something…" said Toph.

Zuko gasped and tore off the blindfold, ignoring the tears that sprang to his eyes from the suddenly very intense light. He ran to the door and ripped it open.

"What time is it?" he asked urgently to the advisors who stood nervously outside.

"Ten o'clock, my prince," answered one of them.

"Shit. Prepare the meeting room, I will be there shortly," he ordered, watching them scurry away towards the palace. Zuko turned to the two girls in the room.

He took in the terrain Toph had created. It had seemed so much more threatening without his eyes - in the daylight he could have manoeuvred it with hardly a thought! Toph had created a seat of stone and was picking at her feet, just as she used to when she was younger. Katara had also seated herself on a boulder, her legs dangling down. She seemed much calmer than before.

"We've only got half an hour to prepare but I reckon we can do it," she said serenely. Zuko regarded her gratefully. He was worried she wouldn't be there at the meeting today - but she knew so much about what was going on that she would grasp anything he happened to miss. And besides, her insights into how the normal people lived were exactly what he needed. The memories of his life as a refugee in the lower rings of Ba Sing Se were forever fresh in his mind.

Katara slid off her boulder.

"What, Sugar Queen is wussing out of her lesson?" mocked Toph, seemingly unbothered by their disappearance.

"Sorry Toph, if you like I can come back this afternoon after lunch? I had an idea I would like to try with you," she said, still the image of composure. Toph yawned.

"Yeah alright. I'm going to go and take a mid-morning nap now. Wake me when you want to learn?" the tone in her voice was almost too hopeful, betraying how much she needed this distraction - this reminder that she could be in control of something. Katara smiled.

"Of course," she promised, before taking Zuko's hand and heading back to the palace with him.

The meeting had been surprisingly simple. People seemed to be on more or less the same page - which was an event in itself. Zuko had some letters to write, but Katara hurried to wake Toph and they headed to the arena. She was determined not to be put through the same thing as Zuko - that had taken hours, and to be honest, she did not have the patience to deal with it today. She had another idea though.

"What's this plan of yours then?" asked Toph once the door had clanged shut definitively.

"Well you know how you play with metal? Its kind of like how I water bend - as in it is almost liquid - or it behaves like a liquid. So I wanted to try that," she explained confidently.

"You want to start with metal?" asked Toph incredulously.

"Well, yes. It might not work, but if it did I think it would be easier for me to attack it that way around," explained Katara, suddenly not so sure of herself. Toph raised an eyebrow and flicked the hair out of her face with a familiar jerk of the head.

"We might as well try," conceded Toph. She wouldn't admit it, but angry Katara was not something she wanted to run into twice in the course of a day. She reached out and summoned a chuck of metal from high up on one of the walls, bringing it down between her hands. She couldn't resist playing with it for just a bit, letting it circle her hands and splay out in different patterns.

"I don't really know how to teach you this because I learned it from earth bending. And with that you need to find the earth within the metal. It is there, it just feels slightly different, you know?"

"Like blood feels to a water bender," compared Katara.

"I guess," reasoned Toph, "if you can start to place it in space first you would get a feel for what it is?" She was guessing. She actually had no idea how to approach this. She solidified the metal again and handed it to Katara, who sat on the ground holding it between her hands contemplatively.

Treat it like ice, she thought.

"I think," she spoke out loud, "that solid metal is kind of like ice, liquid metal like water. I don't know what vapour would be… but anyway, so if this is like ice, then what I would need to do is sort of… break it apart from the inside, but all over at the same time. Does that sound right to you?" she asked Toph.

"Yeah, sort of. But you need to keep the whole together so it doesn't splatter… the edges kind of feel different." Toph sat down opposite Katara and waited. Katara didn't move. She didn't move for a long time.

Toph focussed on sensing the metal in her hands, and was surprised at how easily she fell into it. She could feel how there was a growing pressure inside, a tentative movement. But it was going in the wrong direction - or rather it was going in all directions at once. That is not how metal is structured, she registered, there needed to be more of a sliding and jostling to it. She murmured this instruction to Katara, careful not to break the concentration of either.

Slowly but surely, she felt Katara's hold on the metal increase and the right action take place. The metal was more malleable, and then eventually liquid. She imagined Katara would be smiling.

"Fuck. Yes," breathed Katara, playing with the liquid metal. She was right. She could treat it like water in a way, although it was less similar than she had expected.

Toph grinned.

"Nice one sugar-cake. Now can we get on with real Earth Bending?" quipped Toph, not quite managing to hide her awe for what Katara had just achieved. She wondered if she would be able to use the same technique in reverse when Katara kept up her side of the bargain.

A couple of days had passed and Katara had managed some earth bending - Zuko some metal bending. Both realised that the more they learned about any element made picking up the next one ever easier. So many things were similar that sometimes in the depth of their meditations they stated fusing the boundaries.

Toph liked fire too - she used it to sense what she could not feel through her feet. And carefully, with much caution, she learned to manipulate it. Since it was not solid it took many hours of concentration to keep hold of the shapes she created - they were not bounded by everything, but she saw it as her job to bind it to a shape.

When it came to her turn to learn water, she could hardly wait. Katara had also decided that she would attempt to teach Zuko blood bending at the same time; full moons only came around once a month and she wasn't sure what the future would hold.

The three met by the little lake, much to the annoyance of the turtle ducks, just before sunset. Katara talked Toph through everything she had done with Zuko, and decided it would be a good idea if she kept her feet in the water. Although Toph had eventually learned to swim, she still feared the power of water, and so keeping the most sensitive part of her body connected with it might help bridge that distrust.

Katara and Zuko left her in meditation as the sun set, knowing that, at this point, it was highly unlikely she wouldn't experience the surge of power that came with the moon. It seemed strange yet oddly logical that they were all picking up one another's elements so quickly.

"Blood," started Katara, "feels slightly different to water. It is harder to move, since it pulls everything else that is in the blood with it. It is heavy in that sense. And besides, there is something blocking your direct access to it. The way I like to look at it is as a reaching past a barrier rather than a going inside."

Zuko looked around, distracted from her words by a thought that had just occurred to him. He was feeling uneasy.

"Katara, don't you have some animal I can practice on?"

Katara stared at him hard.

"No. Blood bending takes away the freedom of whatever you are practicing on. Therefore you will only blood bend practice on willing subjects."

Zuko sucked in a breath. He had a really bad feeling this might happen.

"Katara there is no way I am blood bending on you!" he seethed.

"Yes, you are," she replied calmly.

"I won't learn then," he matched, folding his arms across his chest in defiance.

"Yes, you will. What happens if I go crazy with all this power? What happens if I need to be stopped and Aang can't do it? What happens if people find out about this and torture me until I make them as powerful as we are?" Katara had tears in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. This was why she had to teach him. How could she trust herself with something so destructive without any way out. "You need to learn Zuko, you need to be able to control me and my chi like I can control you and yours. That way you can take away from me what might one day harm so many people…"

Zuko's arms had fallen to his sides as her arguments computed in his mind. Out of all of them, she was the only one who could not be stopped. If he or Toph abused their power, Katara would be there to take it away. Aang had still not managed to return to the Avatar state since they had split up two years earlier and so would be incapable of doing so. But if she lost her mind, if she was used and tortured, nobody would be able to help her.

"Katara, don't think like that," he whispered unconvincingly. He pulled her into his arms, well aware that she was right. He was both moved by her trust in him and terrified of misusing it. An image of his father flashed in his head. What atrocities could he have achieved if he had known how to blood bend? Zuko didn't want to imagine.

"Look, Zuko, this is important. I know you are as strong as I am, and you feel the water in the same way I do. Blood is not hard, its just as shift in how you see the element - like lightening is for you and metal is for Toph…" she pushed him away gently and collected herself before starting her instruction.

Zuko was used to observing the mass of water that was Katara. But now he needed to concentrate on overcoming the resistance provided by her skin and moving behind it. He could understand how somebody who struggled with water would find this near impossible, but by this point shifting his perspective was becoming a way of life. The constant re-analysis was opening his eyes - metaphorically - to a way of feeling that was completely foreign to him.

It took a while, but the power of the moon was coursing through his body, and all the water in the world seemed to be at his fingertips. He reached forward with his hands and his mind, and concentrated on what was behind the skin. His fingers curled in order to take control of her body - a rigid, awkward movement, like a puppeteer. He had the distinct feeling that if he softened his stance control over her would slip. Slowly, he moved her arms around, getting a feel for how it felt.

Zuko had expected to be repulsed by the sensation of blood bending another person - especially Katara, but actually he felt very calm, just like when he was water bending. In retrospect, he didn't really know why he had anticipated repulsion - he hardly felt repulsed by the creation of lightening, and he doubted Toph disliked metal bending.

"Alright Zuko, now I'm going to start resisting," said Katara. She, too, looked relatively calm.

"What do you mean resist?" he asked, dropping his hold and letting her arms flop to her sides.

"Well, I've been letting you do what you want, but that is hardly ever going to happen. I will try to resist and you will need to use more force to control my body. Are you ready?"

Zuko gritted his teeth but nodded, retaking his stance. He hoped that he didn't hurt her.

This time was more difficult, he needed to focus all his attention on maintaining his hold and bending her to his will. In the back of his mind he could understand how people could become addicted to such power, but he pushed that thought away.

Eventually Katara's face contorted in pain and she gave over control. Zuko dropped his stance.

They both stood staring at one another, breathing heavily. Katara nodded and forced a smile.

"I think thats enough for tonight," she murmured, turning towards where Toph sat in the distance.

Zuko caught her arm.

"Katara, wait. There is something I've been meaning to tell you. Uncle made me promise not to but I think you have a right to know," he started hesitantly.

"Spit it out Zuko!"

"Your family is coming here. To the palace. They are arriving with Iroh." He was looking away, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Katara exhaled audibly.

"Thank you for telling me," she said cordially, controlling her rising panic. "How long to I have to prepare for this?"

"Erm… they arrive tomorrow."