Blood, Silk, and Steel

by Lost In A Dark Wood

AU. In a world where Sokka and Katara's father died instead of their mother, we follow the exploits of Sokka, a dark perversion of his former self, as he willingly enters the world of intrigue and deception that is the Fire Nation.

14. Chapter 14

Title: Blood, Silk, and Steel
Rating: T, although the rating may go up.
Warnings: AU, dark!Sokka, character death, bad language, references to sex (nothing explicit) extreme violence, and general conniving and cruelty on behalf of the people you would expect it from.

Disclaimer: Um, this is fanfiction. Hopefully you realize that this means I own nothing you recognize here.

Author's Notes: This is probably the most violent chapter to date—it describes what happened to Hahn in the last chapter in some detail and then adds several battle scenes to this. The main reason I haven't raised the rating is because Dark Knight (which I watched on opening night, at the midnight IMAX showing, btw) was PG-13. If however, some of my wiser reviewers take issue with the current rating, I will respond accordingly.

Additionally, a key element of this chapter contrasts directly with Season 3 canon. This is due to several reasons: a) this particular element has been planned in my head since last summer, before the developments of S3 were an issue, b) I really didn't think very much of how the show handled the issue, and c) this is an Alternate Universe fanfiction, so I don't feel too terrible about neglecting canon. More thoughts to follow in the notes at the end of the chapter.

Chapter Fourteen

Sokka awoke to the feeling of cool water on his forehead. He opened his eyes, was met with the sight of forget-me-not irises, smiled, and then closed his eyes again. The burn in his side hurt less than it had, but a dull ache remained. He took a moment to compose himself, gather his thoughts, and then he shot up like a madman. Immediately a pair of hands pressed against his chest, trying to keep him down. He yelled in his best imitation of despair, and began to scramble, trying to get himself free. He grunted and panted and screamed obscenities in a perfect picture of panic.

"Sokka, Sokka," a worried voice pierced through his screams.

Sokka looked around with bewilderment in his eyes; he could tell he was in his room at Bato's place. His eyes locked with Yue's and he stopped struggling against her, letting himself be pushed back into his bed, but then he sat up straight again. "Hahn!" he cried out, as if he had just remembered that his fellow was in danger.

Yue looked away. "He's dead," she said simply. "You carried him back to the Tribe, but I can't imagine that he wasn't dead long before you got back. He was burned all over his body—there were parts of his body that weren't even identifiably human any more. His arms…his arms, they were nothing more than charcoal—thoroughly burned through, all the way through to the bone. But his face…" she brought her hand to her mouth and bit it, as if though warding off the tears, "they didn't touch his face. He… his face looked like he was just sleeping.

"And the smell—the smell was just awful. I'd never smelt anything like it—I couldn't keep my breakfast down, and it wasn't just the morning sickness. Yagoda had to drag me away from there, and all the while, I kept vomiting." Suddenly the emotion overcame her and she burst into full-fledged sobs, collapsing into Sokka.

"If it makes you feel any better, I chopped off the arm of the Firebender who did that to him."

Her eyes hardened. "Good. I hope he bleeds to death, or worse."

Unable to see her eyes, but hearing the pitiless determination in her voice, Sokka answered, "Don't be petty Yue. It makes you ugly, and there should be one beautiful thing left in this world. There won't be much left after tonight. Promise me, you won't let them turn you into something ugly. Let me be hideous enough for the both of us."

"Sokka," she half-hiccupped, half-laughed, "you aren't hideous. You're very handsome."

"You haven't got any idea what you're saying, or whom it is that you're speaking to."

She sat up straight and looked at him, as if though she were trying to figure out what exactly it was that he was saying to her. Finally, she wiped the tears from her eyes and tried to smile. "You're lucky you know," she told him, putting her hand over his bandaged wound. "That burn wound wasn't nearly as bad as it looked. When they brought you back we all thought you were a goner. Pakku was the one who noticed you were still alive when Bato was trying to pry that arm from your arms."

"What was Pakku doing there?" Sokka asked.

"I don't know. He and Bato were looking for you. Pakku is waiting outside; Bato went to get something to eat. I should probably let Pakku know that you're ok."

Sokka nodded and sat up, watching somberly as Yue disappeared through the doorway. Only a few minutes later, Pakku entered the room.

"So you're alive," he said simply.

"It would appear that such is the case," Sokka replied guardedly. "Though," he added lightly, "With me you never can be too sure."

"I'm fairly sure, unfortunately."

"Hey, this time I got back to the Tribe all by myself; you didn't have to drag my carcass anywhere, so you haven't got any right to be dour."

Pakku moved his arms upwards and an ice chair emerged from the floor. He sat down and started to inspect his well-manicured nails. "It is rather curious, however, isn't it?"

"What?"

"Dragging a fallen comrade through the tundra when one oneself has suffered a serious wound. You must be very brave."

"Well, one does try."

"Still, very curious. Hahn, rest his soul, comes back looking like something newly dug out of an Earth Kingdom mine, and you come back with nothing more than a flesh wound."

"As loathe as I am to insult the dearly departed," Sokka shrugged, "Hahn wasn't a very good warrior."

"Indeed. Still, it's all very curious."

By now, Sokka was becoming bored with Pakku's redundant speech. "Yes, yes, it's all very, very curious. But what in particular?"

"Oh, I don't know," Pakku thrust his arms up in mock resignation. "That arm you were clutching for instance. A Firebender's arm, of course. Very neatly severed. Very, very neatly severed."

"I have a sharp blade."

"Indeed. A very sharp blade as the dearly departed knew only too well."

"Well, he had to know something."

"You know what else is very curious?"

Sokka yawned. "I'm certain you're going to tell me."

"You and Hahn hated each other, and yet you both left the Tribe last night when it was ludicrous to do so."

"Hahn hated me, but he loved the Tribe and his prestige within it. When he saw a captured Fire Nation soldier escaping, he pursued him. I hated Hahn, but I loved Yue, so when I saw Hahn following what could only be his death, I joined him."

"Curious how the Fire Nation soldier escaped in the first place."

"Yes. I suppose that's a question for the sentry who was on duty at the time."

It was then that Pakku took a deep breath, and pushing his hands against his knees, propelled himself to stand up straight. "Did you follow my advice concerning the Princess?"

Sokka looked away. "I should have listened to Bato. What does a confirmed bachelor know about love?"

Pakku chuckled darkly. "Bato is a bachelor as well."

"Indeed he is, but are you really here to chatter about my misadventures in love?"

"Unfortunately not. I take it Yue rejected your advances and you've found new faith in your loyalty to Chief Arnook, your father, and… the Earth King, was it?"

"I do believe that's what I had said."

"I see."

With great effort, Sokka got up. The burn wasn't completely healed, and it hurt slightly to stand. "Master Pakku, if there is something you'd like to ask me, go ahead. I haven't got time to play mind games with you however. I have to speak with Chief Arnook."

"Very well then; why did you burn the plans?"

"Is that all? My dear Master, you've been making mountains out of mole-rat hills. Those were old versions of the plans; I didn't want them confused with the newer versions, as such a mistake could have been costly. Not that it matters now."

"What do you mean it doesn't matter?"

"This is what I wanted to talk to Chief Arnook about. The Fire Nation is launching its offensive tonight. Zhao is planning to murder the Moon Spirit."

Sokka had expected that after such a revelation would shock Pakku enough to distract him, but the older man barely blinked. "What a fool's errand, to try and slay the moon on a moonless night."

"He seemed very convinced. What's worse, he seemed very convincing. The only thing bigger than Zhao's ego are his sideburns—

"Wait, wait," Pakku interrupted him, "you mean to tell me that you got away from a Fire Nation Admiral?"

Sokka crossed his arms in exasperated. "You know, any normal person would be a lot more concerned about the fact that a psychotic pyromaniac wants to murder the Moon Spirit! But no, I get stuck with the one person on the face of the earth who wants to know the details of my war exploits."

Pakku looked down. "You're right. I have to congratulate you Sokka. It's a brilliant plot. Did you think of it yourself? Or is it really your Admiral Zhao's idea and you are just the accessory?"

"I'm afraid I really have no idea what you're rambling on about old man. If you're going to weave psychotic conspiracy theories, stand aside, I have to warn Chief Arnook."

But Pakku wasn't listening. By now he had moved to the window and seemed to be talking to himself. "Spirits forgive me." Then, briskly, he turned to face Sokka, his blue eyes cold and hard like ice. Their blue eyes met and locked, and Sokka's eyes went wide as he realized what Pakku was about to do. Pakku closed his eyes and the link was broken. Sokka's senses returned to him, and he scurried towards his rucksack. But Pakku was faster than the injured Sokka, and the icy ground swallowed the rucksack along with the boomerang within it.

Sokka looked around the room, looking for a weapon. There were no swords, no knives, not even a club. He scrambled back to his feet, and fell flat on his face--too late Sokka realized he wasn't wearing his toes. He looked up to Pakku with a smart remark on his lips, but the words never left his mouth as he rolled out of the way to avoid five ice spears. One of them grazed against Sokka's arm; he groaned in pain and instinctively grabbed his injured arm. Sokka wasted only a moment looking at the bright red blood on his hand. This was the first time someone had injured him against his will in six years. Sokka realized that this was a losing battle; there was no point in staying. As quickly as he could, he slid across the ice floor, narrowly evading another wave of ice shards.

In the time it took Pakku to spin around to face Sokka, the latter warrior had made his way to the window. Pakku summoned up a wave of water, which washed over Sokka. When the water was gone, so was Sokka.

Pakku crashed through the wall of the room, landing gracefully in the quickly emptying street. Sokka however was no where in sight. It was snowing and visibility was reduced. Without so much as thinking, Pakku thrust his arms out and the snow retreated into the alleyways. Still there was no sign of Sokka. Pakku looked to the canal and readied himself to freeze the canal waters in case Sokka had escaped by boat, when something blunt collided with the back of his head white pain blinded him as his legs gave out. Pakku fell to his knees but retained consciousness. Sokka pulled Pakku's head up by his long white hair and growled in the man's ear: "I really don't have time for this Old Man." He then shoved Pakku's head into the snow, hard, and then he did it again and again until he drew blood. Red stained the snow and the red stain only grew.

Angrily, Sokka turned Pakku's head to face him. "I may not have your silly water magic, but I have my strength and my wits, and that's all I've ever needed."

Pakku groaned, blood was dribbling all over his face. He blinked, once, twice, then his eyes opened again and they were clear and hard. In a sweeping motion he thrust his arms against Sokka and all the ice bellow the two men flew up against the Southern warrior, propelling his body against the wall.

Without a word Pakku stood up—Sokka did likewise and for a single second the two men stared at each other with hard eyes. Pakku broke the stillness first, bringing his arms close to his body to begin another attack. Sokka lunged towards the Waterbending Master, and then, he halted in midair. His limbs had turned to ice and he could not move them. He couldn't twitch a muscle or blink an eye. His lungs could not draw breath, and Sokka realized that his heart could not beat.

As Pakku progressed through the movements his face betrayed no emotion. Their eyes met once more and Sokka realized he was going to die. Pakku's arms pushed and Sokka's body slammed into a wall. There was an unpleasant cracking sound as the bone in his right leg broke. Sokka would have screamed, but his muscles would not move. He began to need air, but struggle as he might, he could not draw breath. Panic would have been the correct instinctual reaction—but his heart could not send the required adrenaline coursing through his veins. All that Sokka could experience in that last moment was a singular clarity which cut through the pain.

He was going to die. Pakku was going to kill him. And all he could bring himself to think was that at least it wasn't a Firebender.

Then, nothing. Sokka felt himself falling and he was certain that that was it. It was over now. But the pain wasn't gone. His arm was still bleeding and his leg was still throbbing. His heart was speeding up, and now adrenaline was setting his veins on fire. Sokka opened his eyes and sat up, the adrenaline masking the pain momentarily.

Yue rushed to him, water ready at her hand and she cradled him in her arms as she began to heal his cut.

"My leg," he groaned. "It's broken."

Yue nodded silently and moved her healing hands to his leg. There was a crunching sound and pain as she realigned the broken bone, and then the pain faded as she began to heal him. The pain receded far enough to allow him to see clearly—Pakku was now restrained in ice with several spears pointing at his throat. Among the men pointing spears at the old man encased in frozen water were both Arnook and Bato.

"What in the name of Tui and La is going on here?" Arnook's voiced thundered angrily.

"I don't know Father," Yue answered. "Master Pakku demanded to speak with Sokka, and then out of nowhere he attacked him. They looked like they were going to kill each other—that's why I went and got you."

"Sokka, what happened?' Arnook asked.

'"I don't know. It's not important. What is important is—

"Don't listen to him!" Pakku interrupted.

"I'm not talking to you, scum," Arnook snarled.

"Arnook, listen to me, he's a traitor!"

Bato jabbed his spear at Pakku, "Not that load of crap again! Sokka has done nothing but prove himself. He's risked his life more times in the last few days than you have in your whole life."

"He's working with the Fire Nation!"

"Liar!" Yue cried out. "Sokka has done more than anyone else in the whole Tribe to bring down the Fire Nation."

"Arnook, listen to me!" Pakku was begging now.

"Enough! You have abused your power and made a mockery out of your sacred art. You have offended the Spirits and brought shame on the entire Tribe. You know the gravity of what you have done, and you must also know the consequences."

Arnook readied his spear to deliver a fatal blow, but Sokka's voice stopped him. "No! Not right now!"

All eyes turned to Sokka, stunned. "You would spare the life of a man who tried to kill you in the vilest of manners?" Arnook questioned.

"There are things in this world more important than me or my health or even justice. The Fire Nation is attacking tonight. They're planning on using the moonless night to their advantage. What's more, they plan on killing the Moon Spirit. I don't know how they're going to do it. Admiral Zhao was going on about a fish. He said he'd read about it in a library underground in the Earth Kingdom."

"That's insane!" Bato cried out, the how can you kill the Moon? She's all the way up in the sky."

But Arnook had dropped his spear in shock. "No. She's not. Zhao is going to kill the Moon Spirit and we are defenseless."

"But if Zhao kills the Moon Spirit," Yue paused, tasting the weight of her words, "we won't be able to waterbend any more!"

Bato's mouth sank. "Then the Watertribes will be completely defenseless. They'll follow the fate of the Air Nomads and the canals will run red, just as Princess Azula said."

"No," Sokka groaned "We must find the Moon Spirit and protect her at all costs!"

"No! You fools!" Pakku's voice resounded with panic. "Don't you see, it's a trap, he wants you to take him to the Moon Spirit so he can kill her himself. He's working with the Fire Nation; dammit why don't you believe me?"

"Because you have committed the ultimate act of evil and Sokka has done nothing to make us question our faith in him. Take this monster away," Arnook instructed to his warriors, "Sokka can you walk?"

Sokka shook his head. "Princess Yue has mended the bone, but my leg is still in a lot of pain and I haven't got my toes."

"Bato, can you help Sokka?"

"Of course." Bato moved to Sokka and helped him stand, wrapping Sokka's arm around his shoulder so that the younger man could use him as a crutch.

"Arnook, Arnook, stop!" Pakku half ordered, half pleaded. "Arnook, you know me. You know how I respect the Spirits; you know I would never have resorted to such a grievous sin if there had been any other way. You know, surely you must know, after all these years, that if I resorted to such a perversion it was only because it was necessary."

"No. I don't know you at all. Nothing could justify your heresy. If there is still a Tribe tomorrow, I will deal with you then." Arnook turned to his guards, "Take this, this, creature away. Sokka, Bato and I will go to the Spirit Oasis and protect the Moon Spirit."

"You don't know what you're doing Arnook. You've damned us all!" Pakku cried out in defeat. A swift movement, and the ice crept up to his mouth. As the guards loaded him onto a gondola, the three remaining men turned to leave, as quickly as Sokka's broken leg would allow them.

"Wait," Sokka stopped suddenly. "My rucksack."

"It can wait," Bato told him.

"No, it really can't. My boomerang is in there."

"I understand son," Arnook answered, "but you're in no condition to fight."

"No, you don't understand. It's my father's boomerang. I need it."

"Sokka," Bato's voice filled with sorrowful understanding, "I understand, but—

"No! You don't understand." Sokka pulled away from Bato and fell again.

"Sokka," Yue interrupted, "go with them. I'll bring you your rucksack and the boomerang and meet you at the Oasis. Where is it?"

"In the floor of my room—Pakku waterbent it into the the ice as I was reaching for it."

Yue nodded and ran off to the ruins of Bato's house as Arnook and Bato took off towards the Spirit Oasis, dragging Sokka along between the two of them.

Dragged down by Sokka's weight, the three warriors arrived at the Spirit Oasis only minutes before Yue. She arrived with the rucksack, running and out of breath. She threw the sack to the floor by Sokka's feet and doubled up, panting for breath. Bato handed the bag to Sokka, who carefully ruffled through the bag's contents and pulled out the blue boomerang and something small which he placed in a pocket.

"They've already broken through the wall," Yue informed them, "and they're moving in through the city quickly."

"That means we have to move the Moon," Sokka urged. "My bag's been waterproofed—the Moon Spirit will be safe in there as we move her to some place safer." Sokka held the bag open upside down and shook its contents out. Among the things that landed on the grass was a scroll."

Bato bit his lip and licked it. "Sokka, what about your war plans? Can't we fight the Fire Nation as we'd planned?"

"We don't have time for that now. And besides, that plan wouldn't work without without Master Pakku's support."

"It's just that moving the Moon Spirit from here seems somehow, wrong," Bato said slowly.

"Yue," Arnook turned to his daughter, "what do you feel?"

Yue closed her eyes. "Moving the Moon Spirit is not optimal—but I do feel that the Moon Spirit is in grave danger." She moved to Sokka and took the now-empty rucksack from him, gliding gracefully to the Oasis pool where she knelt in the water and filled the Rucksack. "Mother Moon," she prayed, 'You saved my life once, let me return the favor now."And the Spirit swam into the leather bag. Silently the Princess pulled the drawstrings closed and stood. Her forget-me-not eyes locked mournfully with Sokka's, and she went to the injured man. Bato and Arnook stood away and Sokka stood up straight and silent. "Sokka, I trust you," she drew close to him and gently placed her lips on his. He returned the kiss gently. She drew away and held out the now heavy rucksack to Sokka who took it.

The world stilled as Yue let go of the bag. Overwhelming illness washed over her; she felt the wicked poison of fiery hatred burn through her and she fell to the ground. Standing triumphantly, Sokka wiped the kiss from his lips, the ice in his heart now clearly written on his face.

"I am afraid," he started mirthlessly, "that you really should have listened more attentively to what Master Pakku had to say. That old sourpuss seems to be the only person around here with any sort of sense."

"Sokka, what are you doing?" Bato asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing? Idiot."

Arnook roared and lifted his spear, "In the Water Tribes the penalty for treason is death."

"Ah, ah, ah," Sokka taunted, bringing the sharp blade of his boomerang to the bag where the Moon Spirit was now swimming around frantically. "If you throw that spear, your precious Moon Spirit will be dead before the weapon even hits me. Even if I die, the Water Tribe civilization will be destroyed. My task is finished." He laughed, "Hell. I don't care, kill me if you like. The Moon Spirit herself knew what I would do and she spared my life. But if you want to go ahead and defy the Spirits, be my guest. I'm sure the Fire Lord would be delighted to know that you killed his pet barbarian. I wonder how many women and children he would have burned alive for that little display of bravado."

Arnook let his spear drop to the ground. "Why?"

"Personal favor the Fire Lord. He asked me if I would and I didn't have anything better to do."

"You're insane," Arnook said sadly.

"It's a pretty crazy world."

"If your father could see you now, he'd be rolling around in his grave," Bato spat out.

"Nah," Sokka shrugged. "I'm fairly certain the maggots ate all of his muscles a long time ago. No, my dearly departed dad hasn't moved in a very long time. See, that's one of the differences between good ol' Hakoda and yours truly. My old man is very much dead, and as far as I can tell, I'm not. Not yet anyway.

"But all this small talk is really quite boring. By my calculations Commander Ling should be here in a few minutes, and I do want him to bear witness to the death of the Moon Spirit."

"Who's Commander Ling?"

Suddenly there was an explosion. "Ah," Sokka smiled, "here he is." Ling appeared amid the debris trailed by ten Firebenders in white faceplates. "Commander! I'd like you to meat some of my friends: Chief Arnook, Bato of the Southern Water Tribe, and Princess Yue."

Bato's eyes went wide. "Sokka!" he yelled with rage, "that's the man who—

"Commanded the ship on which we 'stowed away'. I'm perfectly well aware of who Commander Ling is. Although, soon it'll be Admiral Ling.

"Now my dear Commander, shall you do the honors, or shall I?" Sokka held up the bag and his boomerang, as if though offering it to Ling.

"I think, my Prince," Ling answered carefully, "that it would be best if you took the glory. This has, after all, been your project in its entirety."

Sokka shrugged and took his boomerang's blade to the bag, poised to make the killing blow. But before he could, Arnook fell to his knees. "Stop, please," he begged. "My daughter's life is tied to that of the Moon Spirit. If the Moon dies, Yue will die with her."

Sokka withdrew the blade almost imperceptibly. He bit his lips and a thought seemed to enter his eyes.

"A selfish reason," the words rolled out slowly in Sokka's mouth, his eyes in deep thought as he raced through the myriad implications of the choices before him. "Now that's interesting. You can always trust a selfish man, can't you? You can never really trust an altruist, because it's impossible to predict when a man's convictions might change... but a father's love for his daughter, that's something eternal, isn't it, Commander Ling."

Ling nodded.

"Very well then, Chief Arnook, I'll let the Moon Spirit live, if you swear your loyalty, and the loyalty of your people to me and to the Fire Lord. Your people can live under Agni's banner, or perish under the moonless sky." He smiled amiably and shrugged. "It's really all the same to me, so the choice is yours Chief Arnook."

Arnook lowered his eyes to the ground, knelt before Sokka and offered his spear to the traitor.

"May the Spirits forgive me, I swear my loyalty to you and to the Fire Lord."

Sokka took the spear and threw it vertically to Ling. "I'm afraid it isn't much of a weapon, but it is the weapon I captured when the Northern Water Tribe fell, and as such, it will go well along with the rest of Fire Lord Ozai's war trophies." His face turned down to Arnook. "On your feet Arnook You have an announcement to make.

"Men, take the other barbarian into the brig and make sure he keeps his mouth shut, but do keep him alive. I would be loathe to explain to Princess Azula how I was unable to capture a single prisoner. And take Princess Yue into, protective custody. She doesn't look well—make sure she gets plenty of rest, and do treat her like the royalty she is." Bato was placed in shackles and Yue carried up gently. "Ling, do be useful and help me move around. I've been injured and the blood loss is getting to my head." Ling wrapped Sokka's arm around his shoulders and propped him up. "Now Arnook, lead the way. You have a battle to end."

Outside the tense tranquility of the Spirit Oasis, the battle raged in the streets. The canals were red and bodies lined the streets, but as Arnook appeared above the city with Sokka and Ling behind him, silence spread through the city and the wind carried Arnook's words as he spoke and ordered his men to lay down their arms. Ling too ordered his soldiers to cease their attack.

All was still, and without a moon in the sky or fire in the streets, the darkness was blinding.

Arnook's heart broke as he spoke, but he spoke clearly and calmly.

"Friends, Waterbenders and Tribesmen, you have fought valiantly. You have offered up your bodies and your lives to the defense of this Tribe and our way of life. You have served the Spirits loyally and with great honor.

"But tonight I have failed you. You placed your trust in me, and I in turn put my trust in a man who was not to be trusted. I was warned by a man of wisdom and I put him in shackles in preference of a venomous man, and I was betrayed. But the blame is mine and mine alone. For it is the nature of the viper-wolf to bite the hand that feeds it, and if a man is fool enough to feed the viper-wolf and invite it into his house, then it is only the man who can be blamed when the viper-wolf is true to his nature.

"In our whole language, there cannot be a word to express my shame and sorrow. I alone have been foolish, but now I must ask the whole of the Tribe to suffer for my foolhardiness. Because of my misplaced trust, we are faced with a choice, to live under Agni's red banners, or to die defenseless under a moonless sky. Holy Tui is held captive and there is no third option.

"And so I must ask you to lay down your pride and your weapons as I have done and take the oath that I now proclaim.

"I swear upon my life and my honor and my sacred duty, upon the Spirits of the Moon and Ocean and the spirits of all my fathers before me, to live and to die for the Lord of the Land of the Kindling Flame. I take as my master Agni. I take as my lord his Most Favored Son. I take the Sons and Daughters of Fire as my brothers and sisters, and their Lord as my father.

"Glory be to Agni.

"Long live the Fire Lord!"

Author's Notes: Since these notes are obscenely long, I'm going to get the begging out of the way right now: See that blue button at the bottom? I'd really, really love it if you clicked on it and left me a review. Pretty please with a cherry on top?

Now, just to be clear, please don't comment on how bloodbending has to be done under a full moon. I first came across bloodbending in a fanfic (unfortunately I can't remember what it was called in order to credit it) sometime before S2, and it was really the sort of straightforward "blood is mostly water, so you should be able to bend that" approach. I really can't bring myself to believe that the human brain, even in the Avatarverse, has the processing power, not to mention the knowledge of anatomy, necessary to coordinate the flow of blood through the body whilst bending it in order to move a person's limbs against their will without creating massive tissue damage. Because of this you will notice that the sort of bending of blood that Pakku employs in this chapter differs from Hama's in several key ways. Most obviously, it doesn't require the presence of a full moon more than any other kind of bending. It also is not used to force Sokka to move against his will—rather, Pakku simply halts the movement of all the water in Sokka's body, effectively freezing him without incurring the tissue damage you would expect if he were to actually freeze Sokka's blood (remember, water expands as it freezes). The effect would be to completely disable the opponent, as Pakku does to Sokka, and would ultimately be expected to lead to death since the frozen blood would prevent the requisite distribution of oxygen to the tissues. As usual in practically every other story I've ever read which involved bloodbending in some way or another, bloodbending here is considered a grievous crime by other Waterbenders; Arnook goes so far so as to call it a heresy, namely because it uses waterbending, which is supposed to bring life, to bring death and has no other purpose. I imagine that it's the ultimate taboo in the Water Tribes, and hopefully that explains why Arnook reacts so poorly to Pakku and refuses to listen to a word he has to say. We all know how strongly Pakku feels about his Tribe's traditions, and I don't think it was an easy thing for him to do—I really think that he felt he had no other choice. He knew that Sokka was going to betray the Tribe and he came to the conclusion that the good of the Tribe would have to trump Sokka's right to life, his own spiritual health, and even his beloved tribal traditions. Also remember that he'd repeatedly had his head bashed in, so he must have felt very strongly that the outcome of the battle would have been uncertain if he hadn't disabled Sokka completely.

On another note, I'm really amazed at how much I've injured Sokka. Since this story started, he's been kicked by Azula, he's gotten hypothermia, he's lost his toes to frostbite, he's had himself burned, probably gotten hypothermia again, and here in this chapter, he's had his arm gashed and his leg broken (who can guess what I was watching while I wrote that last one?). Something about being back "home" really throws him off, I think.

Also, this chapter was originally going to end a bit later, but I got to that "Long live the Fire Lord" line and I just couldn't write any more. So, new plan: tomorrow's chapter end where this one was supposed to begin and the Royal Barge arrives in the North Pole.

Now, if you've read up to this point, there's really no excuse to not reviewing.