A/N: This chapter was both difficult and easy to write. Certain parts were always meant to happen while others were surprises to even me. Once again, I apologize for any confusion. I am writing this with almost no planning and on a whim. Maybe one day I'll be good enough to start a story with a clear focus and idea in mind but this is not that day. It wasn't as long as intended, but it ended where I was comfortable.
Some characters do get lost within this madness, so I will also apologize for that. This story does strictly follow Katara and this chapter in particular is really about her consciousness through this. The limitation does make her a somewhat unreliable narrator and very narrow-minded. Some of you may think parts of this chapter could have been summed together, or is pointless entirely, but considering this story is basically me doing a character study-type thing, I think this is very, very important.
I also apologize for this whole chapter. Shit goes down and it was one of the most terrifying writing experiences of my life.
-/-
They are all nothing more than weapons.
This war isn't even about humanity any more. And Katara has played a part in destroying what was - what should still - be the core.
What was all of this for? Why did she - why did any - of them have to stand here and die, listen to their kin die, put up with everything.
She's dedicated her whole life to a lost cause. She's sold her soul, sold her spirit for this and there isn't any reward that's waiting for her at the end - if this even ends because now she's not so sure if it ever will. She has given everything.
Katara is thrown backwards and she collides against her brother. Sangok deflects a fire ball aimed directly at where she just stood, disintegrating it with his flowing arms and tight arcs. Sokka catches her and holds her securely against his chest as her former captain - and lover - spins around to glare at her with a hard mask that she has only ever seen when he was faced with his enemies.
"Pay attention," he scolds harshly. "We can't afford to lose a bloodbender."
It wasn't: we can't afford to lose you, I can't afford to lose you. It was: we can't afford to lose a bloodbender.
She shakes against Sokka's chest. He tightens his arms around her but says nothing. Sokka probably thinks her frightened when all she feels is rage, anger and loss.
Has this all she's ever been? A bender - waterbender - bloodbender. Not warrior. Not soldier. Not Katara - never Katara.
Her brother grips her arms and sets her back upright, and that's when it happens. She blinks and sees it all for what it truly is for what feels like the first time. The battle triumphs around her but it seems like everything is moving in slow motion; like her eyes have been opened after being closed for so long.
Everything is brilliant, bright. A colorful mass of chaos and all she can hear is one thunderous heartbeat in her ears and it's not even her own - it feels as if it's the earth's. The world's. Nature, spirit, calling to them all but she is the only one who can hear it.
Blue and orange - fire and water - that's what the world - her world - has become. It's what it always will be if something doesn't change - two elements clashing again and again. Clashing and destroying each other - leaving nothing behind but steam that sears and drowns everyone else.
The Fire Nation wasn't destroying the world on it's own. Fire wasn't burning everything to the ground. It had help - her water. Water and Fire, red and blue - destroying everything around them, drowning and blazing it all.
Her element. Her hands.
She's - they're all - destroying the world, and for what? They think they're getting something more, something better, a world of peace and happiness and balance but she knows. Oh, she knows now what they will really get no matter who comes out the victor.
She's going to be sick - she's going to throw up - she's -
Katara lurches, falling to the floor on her palms and knees and hacks. Hair falls in her face, sticking to the sweat that's soaked her cheeks and brow and her body racks with empty heaves as her stomach pulses and her throat clenches.
Someone, somewhere dies and she can feel their heart disappear like a blown-out candle - the bender has a father, a mother, a brother, sister, lover, family somewhere and she will never know them.
She gags again. Her nails rip into the wood as her thighs quiver.
They die for nothing, thinking they have died for everything. They think they died protecting the earth when really they're just destroying it.
"Katara? Katara!" A voice breaks through the screams, the cries, the clashes and the heartbeats that's drowning her, pushing her against the wood and she can't hold herself up for too much longer. "What did you do to her? What did you do?"
It's all a lie. Everything she's ever known - a lie.
"Get it together, we're in the middle of a damn war!"
"Just give her a fucking minute!"
A lie. They're dying for a damn lie. She doesn't know why they're fighting this war when things are just going to be the same.
They've become the humanless creatures they sought to fight.
"We don't have a minute!"
Every last one of them. They're all dying.
"Katara!"
"It's the bloodbending; she can hear the heartbeats. This affects her a lot more than it does you!"
She can feel a pull on her body, sharp spikes in her chest and something slicking under her skin but she doesn't even move. Can't move. The hold on her body won't let her and she doesn't want to either.
The waterbender keeps retching.
"It hasn't hurt her before like this! Get her up! Benders are dying and she needs to help end this now before - "
" - Katara - !"
The slick touch under her skin slides across and reaches for her stomach, holding onto it in a grip so tight that she cries out but she stops retching. Her body stills, held in place by the icy cold hand that keeps squeezing tighter. A coolness inches towards her heart that Katara can't bring herself to fight.
"Step back now or you'll regret it!
Hands cup her cheek and gently urges her to look up. Warm, worried, amber eyes, angry scar on the cheek. Zuko. "Katara - what - "
She sees nothing but him, feels nothing but him and the warmth of his hands against her cold cheeks brings her back from the churning and the world of destructive colors. His warmth pushes back the ice in her chest and she focuses on him.
Hama - she's trying to get a hold on her and Katara doesn't know why.
"I can't, Zuko. I can't do this anymore - " she breaks off into a sob, a choke. "Please don't make me do this anymore, I can't - I can't - "
His thumbs stroke across her cheeks. "No one's going to make you do anything. It's okay, I'm here - your brother's here - Aang, Toph - we're here. Just calm down. Calm - "
"Don't touch her, firebender!"
"I can't - "
And he's being pulled away. Hands ripped from her cheeks and the ice takes over again as Hama surges forward and she's so cold and she wants to be warm but it's gone - he's gone, stumbling back and hauled up and away from her like he's a leper that can infect her.
"The Fire Prince!"
"What - ? Katara! You did this!"
She can't move. The spikes are still in her blood, holding her to the floor as her body aches with the stabs of a thousand knives. Katara manages to lift her head, blinking, and through the smoke she sees Zuko. Three waterbenders hold him back but he pushes against them.
He's trying to get to her.
Other hands are on her shoulders. Soothing, cold but not bender-cold. They're not as cold as the feeling in her blood.
"I can't." Move. Fight. Breathe.
"Can't what? Katara? What are you talking about?" Sokka tries to pull her up but he doesn't know - doesn't understand that she can't move.
Hama has a hold on her. For what reason, Katara doesn't understand. But she's pushing her against the wood deck and it vibrates against her hands, echoing every movement, every fall of the soldiers around her.
She tries to move - tries to do something but can't break against her former Master.
"The ship is coming apart! Get her up, now!"
Hama tugs on the strings that holds her. Without her own commands, her body starts jerking up, knees and arms shaking under the strain. It hurts. The knives in her flesh scrape against her veins and her blood turns to cold it burns.
Sokka helps her up as best he can, probably thinking he's the one doing it rather than Hama.
"No - no - " She protests but it dies on her lips.
Hama has her standing upright. Sokka is at her back. Zuko to her front, struggling against the benders but he looks...confused.
The hold on her blood drops and she falls back against Sokka, not expecting the sudden release but he catches her easily, supporting her weight as she gets her legs underneath her right. The cold leaves so swiftly it leaves her breathless; the shudders stop and she tries to suck in a breath but gets lungs full of smoke.
"Get on that ship and - !"
Katara shakes her head. "No." The protest is weak, lost in a scream of a dying man and she coughs to clear herself of the smoke. "No," she says more insistently, "I won't bloodbend for you anymore."
She turns her eyes up to her father and pleads him with her eyes.
"I can't do it anymore. Please don't make me do this."
"You have to! Our lives hang on the attack and you must fight with me," Hama insists. There's something mad in her eyes and it almost seems familiar - like she's looking in a mirror - but Katara shakes her head.
"I won't fight this war any longer. I won't fight."
"You would leave your kinsmen to die?" Hahn's voice is sharp, angry.
"Katara, think about what you're doing," Sokka whispers in her ear.
Sangok's jaw is rigid. "You would let us be subjected to another massacre. For what? For what, Katara?"
Lu Ten is unreadable. His lips, unmoving.
"Katara - " Hakoda. "We have no other choice."
"No. I won't do it! You can't use me like that any longer. We're just as bad as the firebenders and I just can't fight knowing that anymore."
"You're speaking treason."
Then, all at once.
" - take her down - deal with her later - "
" - there is no later. We need to get her to do this - "
" - you can't make her - !"
"Quiet, firebender!"
" - make her, Hakoda - "
"I'm not doing anything!"
" - we're going to die- "
" - traitor - "
"- should have killed him while we still had the chance - "
" - no! Just let them both go and - "
"Kill him."
A flash of movement. An order from Hama's lips and her allies are swift, grabbing at the black cloth around Zuko's body and they're too quick, too sudden for him to shake off. One has an ice dagger to his throat; the other two freeze his palms to his sides.
Katara's fingers twist in the air and she has the three waterbenders holding Zuko by invisible strings. Her arms shake, but adrenaline - madness is giving her all of the energy she needs to keep a hold.
It's as if everything stops. The voices, the arguing, the screams and the fighting.
"You will not lay a hand on him," she snaps.
Hama turns to her now.
"Katara - !" Sokka reaches out to her - Hakoda's eyes widen and Hahn looks more shocked than anything. But she can't look at them. She's looking at her former Master, a dare in her eyes and a threat in her thoughts..
Kill him, she says with her eyes, and I will drain you of your blood through your very skin and paint the sky red.
"Let him go." Hakoda orders. "Let him go now." Then to Katara, "Let them go."
"You won't kill or hurt him?" She doesn't look away. Hama's smile - cold, sharp on her weathered skin - is nothing more than the upward tilt of her lips.
"I promise. Now let them go before this gets out of hand."
The Water Tribe flag burns. More heartbeats vanish and she feels a large wave building beneath her. But this… she's in an entirely different battle now.
Katara twists her fingers again, lets go of the strings and the Northerners sag with relief. Their hands fall off of Zuko but he doesn't race towards her. He stands, stoic and stern and for a second she's confused.
When she looks away from Hama to see him, she sees fear. Wary. Looks that punch her in the gut and slice at her stomach. Even when he finally gets control and wears a new mask….
She will never forget that look. Katara didn't want for him to see her bloodbend ever again. That was a side of her… she wanted it to be lost like the memories of how she's used it.
But she can't look for long, because as soon as her hold drops, Sokka grabs her wrists and holds them at her back. She lets him, leaning back almost because he's strong and sturdy and won't hurt her.
She's dangerous. Katara has shown them all that she isn't playing around anymore. She's chosen a side and will stick to it. An enemy, perhaps even a traitor.
Her father's face is hard when he steps in front of her. He reaches out and lifts her chin so that she can see nothing but familiar blue eyes. "You may not want to hear this, Katara, but you need to. People are dying. Your cousins, brothers. We can't hold for long. We need you."
Katara forces down a knot that tightens her throat. A father should never have to beg his daughter. For a moment, she nearly wavers, but closes her eyes and sees red and blue and destruction. She doesn't want to fight anymore - can't fight anymore. "I-can't."
"They're dying."
"They've been dying, dad." The words tear at her heart but she must say them. "I can't...this is a massacre, dad, I just...can't - " She chokes on her own words, eyes stinging as if she's in smoke.
Hakoda's face falls and he looks as broken as she feels. It hurts her - seeing him like this. And in instinct, she tugs at her arms where Sokka holds them but he clutches her tightly.
"Would you let us die? Your own father and brother? Aang? Would you kill yourself for this? If this ship falls, then so do all of us." Hakoda drops his hand from her chin.
"Katara. wh - " Sokka's other words are drowned by a crash.
"The mast!" Sangok shouts in alarm. "Aang! Keep it up! You must keep it up!"
"He can't hold it!" Her father is gone, replaced by the Chief. She doesn't exist anymore - her treachery forgotten in favor of saving the crew.
He's always put them before her.
"Out of the way! Get out of the way!"
"The ship's falling apart!"
"We won't be able to get away!"
Running - her father, Sangok, Hahn, Lu Ten break away - right towards the battle that may claim all of their lives.
Screams. A snap. Katara looks up just in time to watch the wooden beam crash to the deck of the ship. Sokka twists and she's flung around as he throws his back in front of hers to protect her from the wooden shards that fly about.
More screams. More death, more dying. More fathers and brothers and uncles and cousins that won't return home to the women waiting in the healing boats or at home.
Katara quivers as she turns, eyes wide and breath coming fast as she looks up to Sokka. He looks lost, so lost, and there's nothing she can do to help him because she's just the same.
"Sokka," Her throat is thick, vision blurred. His grip tightens around her shoulders and he is the scared boy he used to be so many years ago. "What are we going to do?"
"We're going to fight!" Hama snarls but Katara can't tear away from Sokka; but the bloodbender does it for her, reaching out to grasp a hold of her blood with that chilling touch and Katara's wrenched free of her free will and of her brother's arms. "Get a hold of yourself or we'll all die!"
"Let go of her!" Sokka snaps his hand around her wrist, wrenching Katara back against him. "You don't give out the orders here. I do!"
"You're nothing but a boy pretending to be a man!" Hama fires back. "Look at you! You're no warrior! You're standing here, a coward, just like your sister while our kin die around us!"
"And what are you doing besides bloodbending Katara?"
"I'm trying to end this damned battle before we lose everything!" The bloodbender tugs again and Katara stumbles forward.
She fights, planting her boots down against the wooden deck and her nails scrape against her brother's arms as her teeth grit and she fights the cold away with everything she has. Right now, she has almost nothing - and Sokka's hands are slipping from around her chest -
- Zuko's fire kick is just enough of a distraction that Hama is forced to break away.
"Kill the Fire Prince - !"
Katara spins around, her own fingers tightening and now she has a hold of Hama. Has her tight, right on the arms and legs because she isn't strong enough to try the chest and heart.
Even after all of this, she still doesn't want to kill the woman she once thought of as family.
Her former mentor freezes in place, pale eyes widening as she slides them over from Zuko and the waterbenders to Katara, a look of betrayal so deep and ironic that Katara nearly laughs.
"Kill the Fire Prince and I kill her." Katara snaps, never breaking away from Hama's gaze. "Let him go." She tugs on the invisible strings that hold her to Hama, jolting the woman's arms for emphasis.
Hama is fighting against her, too. Katara can feel it in the woman's racing heartbeat and the flickers of movement in the wrinkled fingertips.
"Katara," Sokka warns and his hand presses against her shoulder. He bends down to her ear as if there isn't a battle raging around them - no, this is a battle right here, too. One that means so much more to her than the one that's destroying her soul. "Think about what you're doing."
"I'm doing what's necessary," Katara keeps her voice tight, controlled, much like the grip she has on Hama. "I won't let you touch him," she says to Hama, "you or anyone else. I won't tell you again.."
Hama's betrayal turns to disgust. "You would kill us all for him - your own kind!"
"I won't kill anyone - !"
" - You've already killed yourself if you choose him!"
Something takes hold of Katara - similar to before with the colors and when she had her first real kills. She burns with raw energy adrenaline, madness. "Don't even touch him."
Hama breaks through Katara's grip with a force so strong that it knocks her back. Her elbow knocks into Sokka's chest and then he's wrenched away by a Northerner.
"Katara!" He cries out in alarm but he won't die - can't die whereas she can.
Her fingernails scrape against the wooden floorboard and she falls onto her back as Hama keeps pushing her.
"Katara!" Somewhere, Zuko is screaming for her. But she's on the floor of the deck, hidden by the chaos and the battle and a wall of Hama's trusted allies. Nails clawing at wood, ripping, bleeding, and she's not even moving because of the puppet strings.
No one will help a pathetic girl when there are men to be saved. She's not going to die - she just as to fight. Fight back with everything she can muster.
Katara grits her teeth, throws everything she has against Hama's grasp for a second, fights the tell-tale chill slicing into her spine and she forces her way through. The moment is temporary, but it's enough. She pushes herself onto her stomach before Hama can completely grab hold again. Her nails clutch at the wood as she drags herself forward, legs all but useless under Hama's paralysis.
She's ripping the tips of her nails off with the sheer amount of force she's using to drag herself along. Her arms ache, cry out with a burn that's familiar but unwelcome, and she's tired - so tired.
Hama is going to kill her and she will die on this boat with everyone else. Why can't everything just...end...
She sees her brother's legs as he pushes against the four men that hold him away from her, hears his screams even though they will be lost in the chaos, senses his heartbeat in his chest. She sees the body of a Northerner underneath the fallen mast.
Red. So much red. Again. The red is no longer confined to nonbending combat. It's here...right in front of her very face.
It's pooling, running down a plank of wood and she can't move away from it. The red slides towards her, attracted by the pull of Hama's bloodbending and Katara can't stop it.
"I'll make this quick." Hama announces as the chill moves up her spine. Katara drops her head onto the deck, breathing in a shuddering breath that may be her last. Her cheeks are wet - with what, she doesn't know - doesn't want to know.
Her palm is slick, warm. Her stomach clenches.
Red. She can't die - isn't dying, won't die. All she can see is red. So much red.
Zuko screams her name and Sokka cries out.
She's not going to die. She can't die.
"Blue fire!" And the scream is enough for even Hama to tremble; but the tremble is enough for Katara. She seizes the moment - she isn't going to die - and flips onto her back, an arc of water from the sea pelting into Hama's back from behind.
Hama jolts forward but catches herself before she can fall and Katara pelts her again from the front, kicking her backwards so that she can stand.
Katara's shaky when she rises, red-tipped fingers already locked and poised in the air as Hama sneers. The older woman attacks again - desperately searching for a weak spot in Katara's focus; but Katara holds on, pushes back against her with everything she has as she searches Hama for her own.
Sweat beads along her forehead. It's come down to this: her, or her master. Puppet strings connecting two master puppeteers together.
Katara's grip finally tightens around Hama's blood. Pale eyes widen, alabaster lips tight across a shocked mouth.
"You won't kill me," Katara hisses. "And I won't let you kill him."
"Katara...Katara, listen," Zuko speaks to her right but she doesn't blink away from her former Master. If she does, it's over. "You don't have to do this - you don't have to kill her."
"Don't you dare defend her," Katara shoots back.
"I'm not. But you don't need to do this. You don't need to be like that again - like, like her."
"I don't need a fire bastard to speak for me." Hama snaps, eyes flashing angrily to Zuko. "If Katara knows what's good for her, she'll go ahead and kill me now. But if she does," she looks back to her, "she'll die too. The Northerners won't let her get away with killing a bloodbender. It's the only thing that's kept us both alive for so long."
Katara swallows. Her hold wavers but she snaps it back.
Hama continues, not even close to being finished. "Do you think they would have let just anyone stay alive? Even with your father, they would have drowned you and pushed your body over the edge of the boat as soon as you stepped on board with him.
"The bending you claim to hate so much is the only thing keeping you alive. But I think you know that already - you know what we all really are. I think you've known all along. And now that you let yourself be twisted by his mind, you're finally letting yourself be bothered by it."
One of the Northerners move and Katara squeezes Hama too tightly. The old woman chokes out a cry and her allies quickly step back.
"D-Don't move or I'll fucking kill her! You hear me? I'll kill her, I swear." Katara threatens with as much of a snarl as she can.
"Katara," Sokka's voice is soft, smooth. A comfort in the heat and ash and fire and water and ice. "Listen to me… Hama's right. If you kill her, they'll kill you."
She shakes her head. No. She won't die here. Not after she's fought so hard.
"They will."
Katara denies it again. Tears well in her eyes and she swallows down a sob. She can't die - not when she has to get Zuko off the ship, when she owes a life debt to him for bringing her aboard this horror in the first place.
Spirits, she's been so wrong about everything.
"Katara." Her brother pauses in his plea. "Please."
"Why?" Katara asks to Hama. "Why do you want to kill him? He's done nothing wrong to you!"
Hama looks shocked. Like she's surprised Katara even asked - but she needs to hear her say it, needs something to fuel the fire inside that Zuko and Sokka are trying to put out.
There's another cracking sound. Someone cries out for the Avatar's help. Someone tells Toph to throw the rock into the metal ship harder. Someone begs for mercy. Someone calls out for their mother.
"Why?"
Hama's face is a storm. "Why do you want him to live? Why would you give your kin up for the likes of him? Why are you so adamant about all of this, Katara?"
"Because this is the only choice I've ever had!" Katara fires back. Then she realizes it's the truth… all of the choices she's ever made own her own, freely without influence, have been with and about Zuko… "He's the one person that I've had to protect, that I've willingly protected that didn't ask for a piece of my spirit in return.
"He's the only choice I've ever had and yuo're trying to take that away from me. Why, Hama? Why?"
A fireball flies over their heads and they're standing far closer than Katara expected. She's surprised no one has intervened, that no one has interrupted them…
Maybe nature - the world - the Sprits realize that this… they all need this more than anything. This meeting has to happen for her sake, at least.
She squeezes her fingers to remind the Northerners that she has control over Hama. Her muscles ache with holding on for so long but Hama isn't fighting back anymore. They're both sweating, foreheads sheen and slick and panting with exertion and emotion.
Right now it's just Katara and Hama. No one else.
"I've fought this war ever since I was young - as young as you were. You are lucky not to witness the things that I did. I watched our villages, our tribe burn to the ground. Our benders were herded like cattle and slaughtered like they were nothing. You may have felt the repercussions of our destroyed culture but you didn't have to watch it like I did.
"I have lost everyone that I love in this war. Everyone to a firebender who had no right to take a life." Hama swallows, eyes blazing with a cold fury that could chill Katara to the bone if she wasn't in control. "I have given my life, my everything, to taking from those who took so much from me."
"But Zuko didn't do anything."
"You think he's some innocent? - that he hasn't killed waterbenders before? Katara, open your eyes. He's just as guilty as the rest of them - just as guilty as you are for killing firebenders."
Katara tightens her grip even more. Sweat beads on her forehead, slides down her cheeks and they feel like tears. Is she crying? Blinking, she shakes her head frantically. "I know I did and-and I hate that - I hate it all. Everything that I did - I hate it."
"You saved countless lives, Katara - we saved countless lives! We used the bending that was gifted to us. It's just like using earthbending, like firebending, like - "
"No it's not! Can't you see that? Look at us, Hama, just look at us!" Katara screams back. "I...I killed two men with my bare hands - not with bloodbending, with my hands! And I wanted to kill more. Don't you think this is because of bloodbending? That somehow, it makes us like this? Like - like monsters."
Hama snarls at the word. "Bloodbending is the same as every other bending. You've always believed that."
"I don't anymore. They were right. The Northerners wanted us do it, but they were right. Bloodbending isn't right and I don't want to do it anymore."
"Then let go." Hama challenges. "Let go of me. I want to see how convicted you are about this."
She shakes her head. "You'll kill me and Zuko." She'll kill them both. Hama...she needs to die if they're going to get out of this. She needs to die.
Do it. Do it. She should kill her now while she has the grip. Hama wants her to do it - she's goading her for a reason; wants to escape this existence just like they want to.
"It's not so easy to make choices, isn't it, Katara?"
"Be quiet!"
"Katara," Zuko says. "Let go."
"No, Zuko, she'll kill us! I can't let go, I have to do this."
"Katara, please. Let go of her." Sokka's voice is unsteady. "If you kill her, you'll give her what she wants."
"What's going on here? What - ?" Dad.
Do it. Kill her now.
"Katara...what are you doing?" Sangok.
"She's going to kill me." Katara's fingers are trembling. She squeezes and Hama gasps at the clench in her blood. "She's going to kill me and Zuko. I-I have to do this. She won't let me leave."
"Katara...you and Hama are very important to this war. If you kill Hama...I'm not sure what they'll do to you, but I know I won't be able to protect you." Hakoda speaks gently. "Please don't do this. There's...there's a battle going on right now and we need her."
Do it. She clenches.
Do it. "Tell them to let Zuko and Sokka go," she demands.
"Okay, all right. They're free, no one will hurt them. Just...think about what you're doing."
Bile stings her throat. Tears brim her eyes. "Zuko, leave now while you still have the chance."
"I'm not leaving you behind."
"Please. They'll just end up killing you and I won't let that happen."
"Katara, please let her go. We can leave together if you let her go."
"Not so easy to abide by your so-called beliefs, is it?" Hama teases.
"Be quiet, Hama!" Sangok orders.
But Hama keeps going. "You're weak. Pathetic. You only believe in what's good for you at the time - whichever will suit you best. You speak against bloodbending but here we are. Go ahead, Katara, show us what you're really made of."
"Be quiet! Katara, don't. We can forget about everything if you want. Just let her go." Sangok's voice is soft, gentle; different than how it was before.
"Please." Zuko.
She is a monster.
Katara's intake is shaky and her fingers feel frozen but she manages to flex them out, relaxing her hold on Hama as her arms drop to her sides. Exhaustion floods through her, replacing the adrenaline that had let her grab on for so long.
There isn't a collective sigh of relief. There isn't anything. Katara drops her head a bit and turns to look at Zuko, an apology already in her eyes as she parts her lips to speak one out.
And that's when Hama's frigid touch wraps around her spine.
She gasps out, shocked, and Hama growls out something that she can't hear. Zuko's eyes widen and Sokka tries to block her body with his. But it's too late, Hama has a tight grip on her already and she can feel her blood begin to freeze, her body wracking with shivers as Sokka holds onto her.
She can't breathe. Her lungs are frozen. Cold. So cold. She's a block of ice and she's so cold.
No. No. No. No. No. Katara squeezes her eyes closed and pushes - she thinks of warmth, of fire, of Zuko and of the flames he's conquered. Everything. Anything. No.
Warm. Warmth. Heat. Fire, flame, burns. Orange, red, white.
Katara breaks through Hama's cold and shoots her hands forward. Fingers twisting - Hama's face pales - and she grips onto the warm, red blood running through her veins. She twines through the veins - find the heart, find the beat. There.
Do it.
She yanks, pulls with everything she has and Hama's heart explodes. The heartbeat is gone. Shattered in a burst. Destroyed.
Hama's body falls to the floor in a loose heap. A thud that she barely registers. Katara watches as her former master crumbles, forces herself to see what she's done.
The first person that she looks to when she turns away is Zuko and he's staring back, eyes wide, mouth open.
She's a monster.
-/-
A/N: I know you were all expecting Azula/Zuko in this chapter and I apologize for not including her. She did make a brief cameo! I'm also really, really sorry if this update was a disappointment in general.
For those of you confused as to how I portray bloodbending AND Zuko/Katara (trust me, it is related), shoot me an ask on tumblr or a message and I'll be happy to explain in full. I think that at the core, bloodbending highly influenced the sheer level of Katara's violence in this fic. With a bit more complaints about her violence, I felt the need to sort of address than in-fic. Then the idea sort of took away and led to the Hama/Katara showdown.
If you don't like the direction of the story and this chapter, I'm sorry. In my defense, this is the the way the story wanted to go, so it's what I followed.
Once again, thank you very much for your patience and support. I feel so amazing every time I get a review, favorite, follow and message. You're all so wonderful and I don't deserve you :)
Review Question: How did you find this fic? What do you think about this chapter in general?