Fire Chapter 18: The Gloaming

Segment 3: New Techniques.

A messenger hawk was waiting at the abandoned manor where they were supposed to meet Huo, the accompanying scroll informing them that he would be delayed by a day or two. No explanations were given, but considering the rather delicate nature of their correspondence, they didn't really expect one.

The house itself was situated near a cliff overlooking the ocean, giving it a great view of the surrounding area. In the distance, they could see several other small islands, most of which were uninhabited as well, according to Ty Lee. In fact, only one was populated; a small port town that served primarily as a stopping point for privately owned vessels traveling from the outer chain to Ember Island near the capital.

With their rendezvous delayed, that left the group free to do other various activities. Katara went into the house to air the place out and make it habitable and Toph followed, using the time to familiarize herself with the layout so she could find her way around the wooden structure, while Sokka scouted the grounds for any sign of edible vegetation as their food stores were getting low again.

Meanwhile, Aang and Zuko trained with Ty Lee until the Avatar's fingers (and Zuko's arms and legs, since he was serving as the practice target) were sore from the repeated attempts at chi blocking. It was during a break from Aang's lessons that Katara came out into the courtyard to find Ty Lee enthusiastically praising the young air bender while Zuko lay flat out on his back on the cobblestones.

"Are you okay?" Katara asked the prince worriedly as she walked toward him.

"Aside from the fact that I can't bend, and my arms and legs feel like jelly," he replied tonelessly before turning his head to give her a rather contented grin, "I'm doing great."

"Don't worry," interjected Aang cheerfully as he came over to help Zuko sit up, "next time, you get to fight back."

"Fight back?" echoed Katara with a hint of dismay, bending down to help Aang with Zuko.

"Yep," Ty Lee chimed in, "Now that Aang knows what points to hit, he'll have to start practicing on a moving target."

Finally upright with Aang and Katara's assistance, and sitting his with back against the courtyard fountain as the others stood around him, Zuko glanced up at Ty Lee, his arms still hanging limply at his sides and his legs sprawled uselessly in front of him.

"So, how long does this last anyway?" he inquired.

"A while," Katara answered dolefully, speaking from experience, "and unfortunately there isn't much I can do to help."

Ty Lee turned to her friend and blinked in guileless confusion, "Why not?"

"Well, cuts and burns are one thing," Katara explained, "but this isn't exactly a wound I can heal."

"But couldn't you just…water bend the flow back to normal?" offered Ty Lee with a shrug. Seeing the skeptical expressions on the others' faces, she continued hesitantly, "I mean…blood is just water in the body, after all. That's the whole principal behind the chi blocking technique."

"You're suggesting that I bend Zuko's," Katara's face scrunched up in grimace of distaste, "…blood?"

"It should be possible," the acrobat pointed out reasonably.

"I don't know," balked Katara, shaking her head uncomfortably, "It just seems so…invasive.

She spared a glance at Aang, who seemed as unsettled about the idea as she did, but the prince spoke, forcing her attention back down to where he was craning his neck to stare into her face.

"Katara, I can't move my arms or my legs right now," he rationalized pleasantly. "Trust me, I won't mind if you try."

"He does make a pretty good practice dummy," Aang agreed, earning him a scowl from Zuko before he corrected hastily with a short apologetic laugh, "er, target."

"I suppose it's worth a shot," the water bender finally conceded reluctantly.

Pulling a stream of liquid from the dormant fountain, she settled down beside Zuko, using her healing abilities to determine precisely where the chi was blocked, while Aang and Ty Lee watched with anxious interest. Once the affected areas were pinpointed, she sent the water back to the pool and focused her concentration on the blood itself.

Just as Ty Lee suspected, it was possible. But it was a wholly disconcerting experience, moving Zuko's blood through his veins and restoring the restricted flow to its natural current. It wasn't just the fact that she was bending blood either. She was reaching inside his body, invading him in a way that left her feeling overwhelmed with disgrace.

About midway through the procedure, it also occurred to her with some horror that, if she had a mind to, she could probably pull the fluid in his body and manipulate it like a puppet, forcing him to do whatever she willed. Right behind that thought was the awareness that at this moment she had the power to halt the rhythm of his coursing blood entirely. But even more disturbing was the fact that there was a time not too long ago when she actually wanted to do just that.

And the realization terrified her.

Risking a wary peek at Zuko, she noted that his eyes were closed, and he was very obviously concentrating on his breathing, trying to stay relaxed so she could work. In the back of her mind, through the haze of guilt and self-revulsion, she couldn't help but wonder if this experience was as frightening for him as it was for her. She got her answer when the prince suddenly sucked in a quick breath.

"I think you can stop now," he whispered in a strained voice.

Immediately, she stopped bending, and the abruptly broken connection to Zuko's lifeblood jolted through her like a shockwave. She swooned back on her heels with a gasp and, as one, Aang and Zuko reached out instinctively to steady her.

"Katara!" Aang cried simultaneously with Zuko's worried, "Are you alright?"

Her eyes fell to Zuko's hand on her arm, and she smiled weakly.

"Looks like it worked at least."

Retracting his hold on her, he moved his limbs experimentally, trying and failing to put a smile on his face for her benefit. The truth was the encounter had shaken him every bit as much as it had her, if for slightly different reasons.

"Yeah, it worked," he affirmed in a voice filled with apology.

He rose to his feet, helping Aang get Katara to hers as she let out a shaky laugh.

"I'm glad, but I don't think I want to try that again any time soon," she confessed faintly.

"You won't have to," promised Aang decisively. "Right, Zuko?"

"Right," the prince concurred promptly, keeping to himself the fact that, even if he were on death's doorstep, he would never ask her to do that again. He felt guilty enough for encouraging it in the first place.

"But, Aang still has to practice this," Katara protested faintly.

"He won't be blocking all the pathways anymore," Ty Lee interjected quickly. "Now that he's learned the pressure points, he just needs to work on landing a hit during combat."

"And I think I can manage if it's just one at a time," added Zuko reassuringly.

Unable to repress a relieved sigh, Katara nodded. She wasn't sure what had taken more out of her: the concentration required to move blood through a human body, or the appalling possibilities it presented. A wave of nausea at the thought washed over her and she swayed on her feet, prompting both boys to grab hold of her once more.

"Maybe you should lie down," suggested Zuko before he could stop himself, and he immediately regretted it when he saw Aang's expression darken for barely an instant.

The prince quickly stepped away, letting the young Avatar take Katara in his care. Aang was still shorter than she was, and had to reach up slightly to get his arm around her shoulders.

"Come on," the air bender urged gently as he led her away. "Let's go inside so you can rest."

Left alone in the courtyard, Ty Lee glanced over at Zuko and noticed the way his shoulders sagged with melancholy regret. As guilty as she felt for having mentioned the possibility of blood bending, she knew that the banished prince took his role in what had happened much deeper to heart….and her own ached for him.

"Zuko," she offered timidly, "none of us could have known what would happen. You didn't do anything wrong."

He lifted his head to fix her with a strange expression that suddenly made Ty Lee doubt that Katara's discomfiture about blood bending was the sole root of his anguish. But the prince said nothing that would confirm or dispel her suspicions.

Instead, he took one last glance at the doorway Aang and Katara had just passed through before quietly turning around and walking the other way.

Prince Zuko wandered aimlessly through the empty house, carelessly examining a curio here or righting a table there as his mind drifted somewhere far more distant. Much of the place looked to have already been tidied by Katara, which made the occasional overturned piece of furniture seem incredibly out of place. Had she overlooked them somehow?

A loud crash from somewhere above him on the second floor interrupted his musings, and he dashed up a nearby staircase to see what had caused the ruckus. Following the continuing clatter, Zuko eventually discovered the source of the disturbance.

Sitting in the middle of what was apparently once a library was a very dusty, very disheveled, very disgruntled looking Toph, with bits and pieces of tattered books and splintered wood still flying around the room as she hurled it from a pile around her. Zuko had just enough time to duck back into the hallway before a metal scroll case zipped his way and rebounded with a hollow clang on the doorframe.

After that, the room became silent, and the prince cautiously peeked around the doorway.

"Toph?"

"Don't help me!" she yelled irritably, pointing a finger in his general direction, "I can figure this out myself!"

"What are you doing?" he asked in confusion, surveying the wreckage.

She rose to her feet, dusting off bits of parchments and debris from her arms as she answered through gritted teeth.

"Exploring."

Without further explanation, she began sliding her foot forward through the mess, feeling her way with toes and outstretched fingers to avoid the litter of boxes and book stacks filling the room. Seeing that she was about to collide with a protruding table leg, Zuko stepped forward.

"Look out, there's a-"

"Shut it, Princey!" she snapped. "I told you, I can do this myself!"

She promptly racked her shin on the overturned table. Giving the offending object a fierce kick, she proceeded to rub the newly blooming bruise, muttering under her breath all the while. She heard Zuko's light intake of breath as he begand to say something, and Toph held up a warning finger, halting him before he could speak.

"Not a word," she growled.

Zuko merely shook his head at her stubbornness, and then turned to leave the room, calling over his shoulder as he went.

"I'll be right back."

Passing by two empty rooms, he finally found what he sought resting in a small bin near the stairs. He returned to the shattered library a moment later to find Toph on the floor once more, this time pulling a splinter from her foot.

"What idiot of an architect decided that houses here should be made of wood?" she grumbled when she heard his returning footsteps. "You'd think in a nation full of fire benders, you people would use something less combustible!"

"It reminds us to stay in control," he explained mildly as he picked his way through the rubble to her. "You learn to be careful with your bending when you know that one wrong blast can send your entire home burning down around your ears."

He prodded her gently with the cane he had fetched from the hallway, "Here."

She took it gingerly and ran her fingers over the smooth surface.

"You're giving me a stick to beat you with?" she asked wryly.

"No," he replied patiently, reaching down to help her back to her feet. "Sweep it out in front of you. It will let you know if the way is clear."

With a doubtful frown, she did as he instructed, and immediately discovered that she was inches away from yet another stubbed toe. Swinging the cane in the other direction, she found another obstacle, but this one was further away. Edging around the first, she continued whisking the stick back and forth, finding a clear path through the room as she went.

She said not a word as she navigated her way back to the door, and Zuko waited until she crossed the threshold before following after.

"Try to keep the end touching the floor," he suggested, "to make sure there's actually one there."

"What?" she nearly shrieked, the implications of his warning leaving her with a sudden sense of panic. "Are you telling me you people build holes in your floors too?"

"You came up a flight of stairs, Toph," he pointed out dryly.

"Oh," she laughed sheepishly, "right."

They continued down the hallway in silence for a few moments as Toph got the hang of her new walking stick, deftly avoiding what would have previously been several battered legs and numerous muttered curses.

"So what gave you this idea anyway?" Toph finally asked, holding up the cane briefly before sliding it in an arc before her again.

"Ru uses one to get around outside of his house," the prince shrugged.

Toph nodded vaguely in understanding as they took a few more steps down the corridor,

"It's not so bad, actually," she admitted.

Then, before Zuko knew what was happening, she whirled the cane around behind him and swept his feet out from under him, sending him thudding backward to the floor.

"Nope, not bad at all," she concluded nonchalantly.

And with that, she strolled off down the hallway leaving Zuko propped up on elbow and staring after her in shock. But in the end, he had to laugh at himself for being foolish enough to hand the World's Greatest Earth Bender yet one more tool to add to her arsenal of tricks.

Still shaking his head, he mumbled under his breath as he watched her practically sail down the stairs with ease.

"I think I've just created a monster."

But the moment the words passed his lips, the grin faded, and he wondered painfully if perhpas Katara feared the same thing about herself.

Author's note: Before anyone says anything…I know, I know, blood bending can only be done at night during a full moon. However, in my defense, that wasn't a factor I was aware of or had anticipated when I originally planned all of this almost a year and a half ago.

And unfortunately, the moon phases I've mapped out for this story are already set and can't be changed now (yes, I actually built a calendar for my mock season; complete with moon phases…I am such a geek). So while the moon will be full in this 'episode', I'm not including it as a condition for blood bending. If I had known beforehand that a full moon was required, I would have made sure everything coincided. But it's a little late for that now.

I hope no one minds too much.

I also want to say that I was very impressed by some of the theories people presented about Aang and Zuko's dream and that one of you actually got it right! (But I'm not saying who)

Anyway, the second part of this chapter is sort of a bonus that was never planned. The idea struck me on the way to work, and since it sort of fit with the theme of the segment title, I decided to go ahead and put it in. This 'episode' has been rather dark so far, and I thought it would help lighten things a bit.

Plus I just love Zuko/Toph interaction. It's so much fun to write.