Chapter 21: Into the Light

It was early morning at Ba Sing Se, when the city walls cast shadows mostly on Fire Nation territory. Princess Azula was not inside those walls, instead patiently waiting far to the west. There she could see all the way to the distant northern mountains, beyond which was the closest port that the Fire Nation could access. A small division of troops accompanied Azula here, but were more for presentation than force. In the middle of the day and with no earthbender forces in sight, there would be no need to fight.

With a spyglass Azula observed a simple dirt road that cut the terrain in two, and she spotted something on it in the distance. "Well I'll be a purple platypus-bear. Chan's on time."

Behind Azula and to her right Minister Qin was just as surprised. "Maybe they had favorable tides."

It took another half an hour to travel down the road from the mountains, even for one of the Fire Nation's prized tank-trains. This heavily armored vehicle was identical to the one that Azula had once used to pursue the Avatar, and the fastest mode of transportation available for long distance travel. As the tank-train approached its destination it began to slow down, and it gradually came to a stop near Azula and the troops.

Azula walked up to the tank-train's front compartment just as a door was opened from inside, and she saw a tall man in a naval uniform exit. "Admiral Chan, it's a pleasure to meet you."

In the morning light one could see Chan's brown hair in the standard Fire Nation topknot, and his hazel eyes stayed on Azula as he gave a customary bow. "Likewise Princess, your special cargo is in the back."

Admiral Chan escorted Azula to the back of the tank-train, and he took out a set of keys to unlock a large door on the side. As the door swung open Azula got to see the interior, which had been almost completely stripped to remove dead weight. Azula walked inside the dimly lit compartment and found a single chair left bolted to the floor, and sitting in the chair was a passenger brought all the way from the homeland. An old woman, whose long hair was white with age, was sitting there.

"So we finally meet," Azula said. "Hama is it? Or did you have another name in the Water Tribe?"

Hama scowled. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Drop the act," Azula ordered. "I wouldn't have had you brought here if we weren't certain that you were the only waterbender that escaped."

Hama didn't answer that, but merely looked away.

"It wasn't difficult to find you," Azula continued. "All those missing people from that village, all taken during the full moon, and a witness describing the exact same symptoms as that prison guard on the night you escaped, we knew you had to be living there. We just had to check for an old woman that matched the escaped waterbender, and we found you."

"Why now?" Hama asked, looking into Azula's eyes. "Why wait?"

"You were a convenient propaganda tool," Azula answered. "Your monthly escapades did more to keep the villagers in line than troop presence ever could. No one would dare question the government if they thought they would face a dark moon spirit."

Hama's eyes narrowed. "What changed?"

For that, Azula paused. She turned and took a few steps away, and folded her hands behind her back. "There is a job that requires your unique talents. Complete it, and… well you can name your price."

"I don't serve the Fire Nation," Hama said.

"I think you fail to grasp the true meaning of what I'm offering," Azula said. "A full pardon from my father, riches beyond your imagination, your own island to rule over, or even the simple freedom to return to your tribe, anything and everything you could want in exchange for one simple job."

"You can't buy me," Hama said.

"Everyone says that," Azula said. She turned back to face Hama. "You know, after you escaped, we moved all the other waterbenders to another prison. A few of them are still alive after all these years. This job is worth having them released with you, and I'll make sure you're never bothered again."

Silence answered first, and Hama's hands were clenched tight. She trembled in her chair and closed her eyes, seemingly struggling to make a decision. It went against everything she stood for since taking her freedom years ago, her mission to inflict just as much pain on the Fire Nation as she had suffered. But despite all her efforts, here she was in another Fire Nation cage. Once again she had no choice but to wait for the next full moon for a chance to escape.

Hama relaxed, sighed, and stood up. "What's the job?"

Goku was flying over the northern half of Ba Sing Se, on patrol for any signs of conflict between the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. After surveying the city he flew straight up and through several clouds, emerging on the other side where only the afternoon sun was above him. Up here he was hidden from the people and had only a passing flock of duck-geese for company, granting him total privacy to do whatever he felt like doing.

So Goku started practicing.

He started with a series of punches and other swings of his arms, stretching out those muscles and getting a pleasant sensation from it. A series of kicks and wide leg sweeps followed, some of which spun Goku around in midair. He went through every fighting move he knew of and repeated them over and over, and even fired off a few harmless energy blasts into the sky. It felt good to go through the motions of fighting, even if it wasn't necessary to stay in shape.

After a light workout Goku looked down and thought about the locals, smiling when he got an idea. "They could really use some entertainment."

Goku flew to the center of Ba Sing Se, and he hovered high above the palace. There he powered up in a bright white aura, like a star to the locals. Goku fired energy blasts across the sky in every direction, using various sizes and velocities. Most stayed above the upper and middle rings, though some reached the lower ring and a few went over the Agrarian Zone. In the sunlit sky the energy blasts were almost impossible to see from the ground, even when hundreds of them were left floating in midair.

When finished, Goku smiled. "I wonder if they have fireworks here."

One by one the floating energy blasts exploded, lighting up the sky and accompanied by loud booms. At first the locals were shocked by the harmless explosions above them, but quickly discovered that they weren't causing any damage to the city. Instead they were quite a spectacle for the civilians and refugees among the populace, as well as a reminder for the soldiers and troops of the power looking over Ba Sing Se. The variation in the size and brightness of the explosions made the show different in every part of the city, and most of the populace enjoyed the light show.

"Well that was fun," Goku muttered when it was over. But then he looked up at the sun in the bright sky. "Maybe I should have waited until dark?"

That night Toph was still trying to get an annoying ringing out of her ears, being the only person that could not possibly take any joy in sky based entertainment. Toph was lying down on the floor in an upper ring house that was reserved for the Avatar, and in the next room Katara and Suki were having girl talk. With one hand Toph was twisting a finger in her ear trying to get rid of the ringing noise, and with the other hand she was petting her recently defanged serpent-scorpion.

"Please tell me there's something to do around here!" Toph yelled.

"You could go out for a mid-night stroll," Suki suggested. She looked out a window to see the moonlit landscape outside. "The full moon is beautiful tonight."

"It looks just like the sun to me," Toph said.

Suki sighed and shook her head as she walked into the main room. "Well I'm going to go enjoy it."

"You do that," Toph said.

A moment later Katara followed Suki into the room. "Wait up, I'm coming too."

"Is there any place you want to go?" Suki asked.

"How about the middle ring," Katara suggested. "I haven't had a chance to meet that Goku guy yet. I hear he sleeps somewhere down there."

"Let's go find out," Suki said. Then she turned to Toph. "Are you coming?"

"Sure," Toph said. She got up and put her pet on a long leash. "I think I know where the place is."

Meanwhile Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai were escorting their conscripted waterbender through the lower ring, heading for one of the tunnels discovered underneath the wall between lower and middle rings. On this side the tunnel was unguarded, and its entrance had been blown open by blasting jelly. But inside the tunnel from the far end to the middle there were over a dozen Dai Li agents standing guard, ever vigilant to prevent another Fire Nation assassin from getting through.

Once inside the tunnel, Azula gave the order to Hama. "Do your thing."

On this night, when the moon was full, Hama's waterbending was at its peak. With it she could bend the water inside another person's body, and she used that ability on the closest agent in the tunnel. The agent was horrified when his limbs started twisting in wrong ways, right before his whole body was lifted off the floor and slammed into the ceiling. The other agents looked at the first in shock, right before three more of them lost control of their own bodies.

"What's going on?" one afflicted agent demanded, right before he was hurled into his comrade.

"Bloodbending," Hama answered, turning the agents against one another. It was chaos as the agents were slammed into each other by the unseen bending, and in a matter of moments Hama had struck down all of them.

Azula whistled as she stepped over the body of a downed agent. "Impressive."

Hama scoffed at the compliment and walked to the end of the tunnel, exiting it to set foot inside the middle ring. "Which way?"

With her friends beside her Azula stepped into the moonlit middle ring, and checked a simple map provided by the assassin that had been here. "This way," Azula said, pointing at one street to her left.

It was easy to sneak through the streets of the middle ring, thanks to the alien scouter devices they possessed. Their screens lit up and highlighted people ahead of them, even when they were behind walls or underneath the ground. With that knowledge they went around every single Dai Li agent or city guard on patrol, making good time passing through the city. It was still before midnight when they reached their destination, and they knew they had the right house when they saw Goku land here.

"That's him," Azula whispered, looking around a street corner to point out Goku. "Use your bloodbending to kill him."

Suddenly Goku stopped, turned around, and stared at the street corner they were hiding behind. "Oh hey Azula, how did you get here?"

"F#ck," Azula cursed. She grabbed Hama's arm and nearly threw her at him. "Do it now!"

When Hama approached Goku he crossed his arms and stared at her. "Now who are you?"

"Your new master," Hama answered, and reached towards Goku to bloodbend him.

At first Goku felt a tingling sensation in his limbs, right before his hands rose of their own accord. Then his whole body was lifted off the ground, and not under his own power. An unseen force pulled him towards Hama and then lifted him over her, and he was stopped where his shadow in the moonlight was cast over Azula. Then Goku's fists were moved in front of him and aimed down at Azula, and he was then hurled down at her.

But at the last moment Goku suddenly stopped, and Azula saw a white aura erupt from his body. Then he went back up into the air and stopped above Hama, who appeared to be struggling against a force pushing back against her bending. Then Goku's fists clenched tight and his legs spread apart, and he assumed a stance that Hama was not familiar with. Goku smiled, and made several practice punches and kicks in the empty air around him.

"Finally," Goku said, feeling forces on his body akin to standing on King Kai's planet. "I can get a decent workout."

"A workout?" Hama questioned. She put all of her might into her bending, which got Goku's limbs to squeeze closer together. "Oh I'll give you a workout. It will be the last workout you ever get!"

More force pushed on Goku to crush his body, almost like being back on his old spaceship set to 20G. "Better," Goku complimented, but still overcoming the strain with raw muscle strength. "Hey, is there any way you could make this effect stronger?"

That got Hama's eyes to widen. "Not unless a second full moon pops into the sky."

"A second full moon…" Goku muttered. He worked to put on hand on his chin, and then got an idea. "Now how did Vegeta do it?"

Goku thought about his fight with Vegeta, when his opponent had resorted to using the transformation into a giant ape. He had seen Vegeta use a technique to create a simulated full moon for the transformation, and it had seemed like a simple enough technique but entirely useless without a Saiyan tail. Really it was just a ball of bright light in the sky, and seeing it done one time was enough for Goku to work with and recreate the technique.

So Goku clenched one fist and charged it with his energy, using the same amount that he remembered Vegeta using. When Goku opened his hand the energy formed a ball that floated above his palm, and he threw it straight up into the night sky. At several miles high the ball flashed and grew to many times its initial volume, and from the ground it appeared to be the same size as the full moon. The stable ball in the sky shined its own light on the city, and to waterbenders it might as well be a second full moon.

For a moment Hama bathed in the extra moonlight, tapping into the power of two full moons. "Fool."

Hama resumed her bloodbending on Goku, and immediately brought him back down to earth. On impact his feet cracked the ground, and with additional pressure his feet started sinking into the dirt. For a few moments Goku was hunched over and nearly had to put a hand on the ground, put gradually rose to an upright position. And then Goku resumed his workout with various fighting moves, as if he were back in his old ship's 50G setting.

"So he can make waterbenders stronger," Azula muttered, still watching with her friends next to her. "The Avatar and his waterbender friend had better not find out."

However the light from the fake moon could not be missed, and only a few blocks away on the other side Katara felt an increase in power. "Do you guys feel that?"

"No," Suki answered.

"Feel what?" Toph asked.

"Oh never mind," Katara said. She quickened their pace and ran down the street, but stopped at the last corner when she spotted Goku. "Hey there he is. And what is he doing?"

Still exercising with Hama's bloodbending in place of high gravity, Goku wondered how else he could increase the effect. Throwing more fake moons into the sky certainly was an option, but seemed like an inefficient way of getting the job done. But then he remembered another way to increase the power of others, and in this situation it would truly test his limits. Although he had been warned to not use it here, the temptation was simply too great.

"Five minutes couldn't hurt," Goku reasoned to himself.

Focusing on anger and rage, Goku drew upon the power they unlocked within. But now Goku noticed that he didn't need quite so much of it, almost as if it was getting easier to trigger the transformation. In a bright flash Goku transformed into a Super Saiyan, surprising Hama with his now yellow and rising hair. And his bright yellow aura illuminated the middle ring, painting everything in various shades of gold.

Suddenly the scouter devices all exploded, though the blasts were directed away from their ears. "Whoa!" Azula yelled, quickly taking off the smoldering remains. "He really does look like a Light Lord."

Mai and Ty Lee removed their own ruined scouters. "So much for that," Mai said, tossing hers away.

"Hey look," Ty Lee suggested, pointing at Hama.

Standing right next to the very epicenter of light, Hama soaked in as much as her frail old body could handle. Then she put it all to work in her bloodbending, pulling Goku straight down into the ground. His hands and feet plunged into the dirt and small craters formed around them, and long cracks spread from there and into the street. Goku's back hunched over and it started to get difficult to breathe, like his lungs were being squished together.

Meanwhile Suki was staring at the scene, feeling rather strange in the golden light. "What in the world is going on?"

"Here we go again," Katara complained. She swung both arms to her left, and hidden groundwater burst out of the street in a torrent that washed over several whole houses.

"Figures he caused the power up," Toph said. With a single stomp of her foot Toph earthbended a stone cube big enough to block a nearby intersection, which surprised some nearby civilians woken up by the light. "And the whole city's going to know pretty quickly."

On the other side of Goku's light Mai was looking at her hands, flexing her fingers and thinking strange thoughts. On a hunch she clenched a fist and punched the air, and not even Mai could hide surprise when flames burst from her fist. "Whoa!"

"You can firebend?!" Azula said, having trouble believing it. "Since when?"

"Since now," Mai answered, punching the air and bending more fire. "It must be from him."

"Sweet!" Ty Lee said. She mimicked Mai's punch to try bending, but instead of making fire her punch made a gust of wind. "I guess I should have expected that."

"So if you two get bending from him…" Azula muttered, thinking about something Qin had told her a while back. She punched to firebend, and ignited enough blue fire to fill a street for several blocks. "I could get used to this."

Suddenly a strong wind blew into all three of them, pushing them away from the light inch by inch. The light intensified and pulsed in a fast rhythm, and the wind blew harder in all directions from the center. On the other side Katara and her friend were pushed away too, sorely wishing they had Aang around to divert the wind. Only Hama seemed to remain in place, as though tethered to Goku through the unseen force of bloodbending.

Slowly, but surely, Goku stood tall once again. He resumed his workout with punches first, though they were slow and his fists swung lower than he wanted. Then he resumed his kicks and swings of his legs, but each time his feet touched the ground he made foot deep craters. It felt like being in five times the gravity of his old ship's maximum setting of 100G, beyond the extremes that he had trained in before. Under this strain Goku was breathing hard and sweating like a pig-chicken, even as a Super Saiyan.

And he was enjoying every second of it.

"Now that's more like it!" Goku declared, continuing to work his muscles against the bloodbending.

From the sidelines Suki was struggling to see in the wind, even with her arms in front of her face to shield her eyes. She thrust her hands forward into the wind, and suddenly the force against her face disappeared. Her eyes opened wide to see clearly, and Suki felt wind blowing the other way. A small cyclone of air swirled in front of her, formed from opposing winds fighting against each other. And once again Suki had trouble believing her eyes.

"I think I might start freaking out!" Suki yelled.

"Just roll with it," Toph suggested. She was standing behind a thick rock wall she had made for shelter, which was steadily eroding away in the wind. "Sokka got waterbending the last time this happened."

Suddenly Goku shot straight up into the air, and was halfway up to the fake moon's altitude when he stopped rising. All that force and strain on his body had vanished in an instant, and without it his efforts to fight it had launched him upward. Now Goku flew back down to where he had been a moment ago, relaxing his power to stop the wind it had been creating. Back on the ground Goku looked at Hama, and kind wished he hadn't.

Hama was clutching at her chest with one hand, while the other hung limp at her side. Her skin was dried out and appeared far more wrinkled than normal, almost as if she seemed a decade older. Her breathing was very weak but fast, and her heart was beating too hard and too rapidly. Hama fell to her knees and then collapsed face first, and she lay very still in the street. Her breathing stopped entirely, immediately followed by her heartbeat.

Right there, Hama died.

"Sorry," Goku muttered, though he knew words would never be enough. Goku reverted to his normal state, returning the lighting to the lunar shades of gray. He walked over to Hama's body and closed her eyes. "I didn't think you wouldn't be able to handle so much power."

Not sure what to do with Hama's body, Goku left it there for someone to provide the local burial rites. He turned his attention to where he remembered noticing Azula, but she and her friends had already left. So he took the sky and felt for Azula's energy, and found it passing underneath the wall between rings. Goku hovered in the air and took his time to think about what had happened this night, unsure of what proper response he should make.

Back in the street, Suki was the first to walk up to Hama's body. "So does anyone know who this was?"

Katara shrugged. "I have no idea."

A/N: I did my best to judge just how much force bloodbending applies on the body by comparing it to the force of being in the high gravity environments that Goku has trained with in the past. A normal human would be crushed into red paste long before reaching 50G, something that bloodbending has consistently fallen short of inflicting. Of course, with the power ups applied here, if Hama had bloodbended anyone else she would have ripped them to shreds.