Hello once again readers! I am well aware of how displeased you all were with the rather mean cliffhanger, on which I ended the last chapter, but I, once again, won't apologize :)

I think cliffhangers help to keep readers interested in the wait between chapters. I also love writing them and seeing the various reactions that I get from them. Oh, another thing. My Avengers fic, The Time Thief, could do with a little support. I have big things planned for it, and I will update it as soon as we hit 5-6 reviews.

Another thing, there's a new anime out called 'Parasyte: The Maxim', based on the manga of the same name, which came out in the early nineties. The story has been slightly modernized, and is incredibly creepy. Like, whatever I say will not do it justice. If you don't like gore/body mutation/transfiguration, then it's not for you. But then, you guys read the previous chapter, so most of you would be fine. Anyways, check it out. The best site is kissanime, so go ahead and watch! There are 7 episodes out, and the release is weekly!

Story Stats:

Reviews: 256

Favourites: 183

Follows: 272

Views: 59,136

Word Count this chapter (excluding AN): 2,041 words

Yes, this isn't as long as the other parts of this arc, but I felt where I left it was...good. It didn't need more added to it. Also, major thanks, we got an amazing nine reviews for the previous chapter! If we get the same, or 10, for this chapter, I will update before the end of today, if you all want your worries about Zuko to be truly answered. If anyone feels like leaving when they read how this chapter ends, I beg you to stay with this.

*Puts back on angry-reviewer proof armour, prepares next chapter*


This time, when Zuko fell limp to the floor, Katara knew something was horribly, horribly wrong. Whereas before, there had been slight twitches, and barely audible breaths, there was now nothing but an eerie silence.

"What did you do?" Katara's hands clenched into fists.

"I evened the fight, my dear." Hama turned to face Katara.

"That doesn't answer my question." Katara's pain faded away as anger began to take over.

"Ah, you want...the specifics?" Hama let out a wheezing cough, blood speckling her cracked lips.

"I do." Katara wiped the blood from her face, ignoring the spark of pain.

"See...for yourself...Katara. Maybe now you'll...finally...get interesting." Hama stepped back from Zuko's prone body, leaving a few feet between her and the firebender.

Cautiously, Katara began to inch forward, mindful of the maniac standing just feet away from her. Her steps small and quiet, the young waterbender kept her eyes trained on Hama, as she carefully moved towards Zuko, who still hadn't moved.

"Zuko?" Katara called the former prince's name, as she knelt down behind him, not wanting to turn her back on Hama.

"He won't...reply..." Hama exhaled slowly, singed hairs beginning to fall to the floor.

Katara gathered the courage to glare at Hama, maintaining her gaze for a moment, before looking back down at Zuko. Gently, she gathered the firebender into her arms, cradling him as carefully as one would with a young child.

"Zuko?" Katara called his name again.

When he didn't reply, Katara reached a trembling hand out to his throat, swallowing back her nerves. The moment her hand made contact, Katara's heart skipped a beat.

There was no pulse.

Gently placing his body down, Katara picked up the firebenders wrist, whose dark bruises became more visible in the rising moonlight. Desperate, Katara searched for anything, any sign of life...but she found none. Katara checked again and again, her mind fighting to ignore Hama's gleeful cackling.

When she saw his chest hadn't been rising, Katara had been in denial. As she'd approached, she had prayed to the spirits that her eyes were playing tricks on her, that her aching head was causing her to see things that weren't there...

But now...

She knew it was real. Zuko wasn't moving...he wasn't breathing...his eyes were glazed over...and there was no pulse. Katara's own heartbeat began to pick up, as the reality of what had happened began to sink in. The horrifying, heart-wrenching reality.

Katara finally let go of Zuko's hands, lowering them to his sides, as the reality hit her with a vengeance.

He was dead.

Zuko was dead.

He had no heartbeat, no pulse...he wasn't breathing...

He was gone.

And he wasn't coming back.

Tears escaped Katara's eyes, slowly rolling down her face like shining crystals, the moonlight mingling with the smears of tears and blood on her face.

"You...finally...figured it out. I thought you were...faster than that." Hama spat out blood.

"You...killed him." Katara began quietly.

"He is not the first..." Hama's expression darkened. "...and certainly...not the last."

As Hama's bloodbending grasped Katara once more, forcing her to stay kneeled in submission, the blood bender was bemused, as Katara barely reacted to the bending's intrusion.

"You...killed him." Katara repeated, her gaze fixed downward on Zuko's corpse.

"Repeating...yourself?" Hama laughed.

"Zuko. You killed him."

"Dear...I believe we...already...established that."

"I loved him." Katara's mouth formed into a snarl, as the adrenaline, borne from fury, began to course through her veins. "I loved him! And you killed him!"

Her voice rose to a shriek as her body began to tremble once more. Hama sneered, but this was not Katara trembling with fear...this was her body...near convulsing...with pure rage. The ancient and crumbling woman watched in shock as Katara's fists clenched once more, the water from the grass beneath beginning to snake up her arms.

As Katara looked up, with her blood smeared face, and eyes widened, Hama felt her own aged heart skip a beat...

Feeling...

For the first time in years...

A spark of fear.


As Toph began working on freeing the eighth prisoner, listening to Aang and Sokka as they begged the others to eat, she felt a set of vibrations die down...before stopping altogether. Toph frowned, and removed her hands from the prisoners half opened chains. Laying her hands on the ground, Toph narrowed in on the source of the vanished pulse...

And promptly, uncharacteristically, cried out in horror.

"Toph?" Aang rushed over, Sokka close behind.

"What's wrong?" Sokka asked, kneeling beside Toph.

"Zuko's pulse..." Toph fought back tears.

As two singular tears escaped Toph's milky eyes, Sokka and Aang felt their own hearts skip a beat.

"What about it?" Sokka spoke quietly, wanting to keep Toph calm.

"Zuko's pulse..." Toph repeated. "I can't feel it...it's gone!"


"H-how?" Hama stuttered, taking a step back, as Katara rose to her feet.

"You're not going...without a fight." Katara's voice was shaking, a testament to the fury burning within her. "But my bending...is more powerful than yours, Hama. Now...your bloodbending...is useless on me."

"That might be..." Hama's arms became encased in water, which she caused to swirl around her peeling limbs. "Yet I...have years...of bending experience. Let's see if you...can win...without using that...which you fear."


Following Toph's words, Aang and Sokka fell into silence. It took a moment for them to absorb what Toph had said, before they finally spoke.

"So...does that mean...he's-" Aang stopped. He hated thinking the worst.

"Yeah...probably." Toph answered.

"Man.." Sokka dragged his hands down his face. "We can't know for sure...until we go find them. We've got to be positive."

"Yeah." Toph hastily freed another prisoner.

"Can any of you stand?" Sokka asked the survivors. "Or walk?"

"Yeah. Now you've given us...water...and food." The oldest answered.

"Good." Toph finally freed the final living prisoner. "Can you find your way back to the village?"

"Yeah. Between us." The oldest prisoner spoke again, his body shaking slightly as he rose to his feet. "We'll send people to help with your friends."

"Thank you." Aang bowed his head slightly as everyone got up.

"Its the least we can do." The oldest picked up the bag of supplies, his smile giving the trio some confidence. "Now go. Go find your friends!"

Without an ounce of hesitation, Sokka, Aang, and Toph ran out of the blood covered prison, hearts beating equally faced as they raced back where they had come, desperate to find Zuko and Katara, before both of them went down.


Hama clicked her knuckles, pieces of flesh and bone flicking off with the harsh motion. Putting both arms out behind her, Hama pulled, drawing all the water out from the tree behind her, the tree withering, and dying almost instantly. Katara placed both hands on the ground, and the earth around her began to drain of all water, ripping all life and color from the clearing around her. Drawing up her arms, covered in blood-speckled water, Katara placed one foot forward.

Hama had wanted a fight.

And now, she was going to get one.

Hama lashed out with a tentacle of water, laced with shards of sharpened ice, and with speed Katara didn't know she had, she twisted to the side, immediately lashing out with a blow of her own, hastily blocking the shard of ice Hama launched at her head, the ice shattering upon impact with the water that swirled round Katara's arms.

As Hama's eyes widened, seeing her attack had been so easily thwarted, Katara grinned triumphantly.

Moving her arms in circular motions, Hama brought the water and blood from the trees around her, to create a towering column of water, which rose higher and higher above the dying trees...before it became a deadly tornado of ice shards, the combined reflective light almost blinding...

Before raining down on Katara like a torrent of death.


The three of them had been running, without rest, for many minutes, but it wasn't until they saw a tower of swirling water...that they finally stopped, and took a breather.

"Is- is that Katara?" Toph panted, sensing the vibrations of the fight.

"It might be." Aang gradually caught his breath.

"Can you sense Zuko?" Sokka asked Toph.

"No...it's...it's definitely gone." Toph's voice was unusually quiet.

"Then Katara's fighting Hama alone!" Sokka began to run off, before stopping in shock, as the water became a swirling column of death, the ice spikes twisting round each other so fast, it was almost blinding to watch.

"That's not Katara." Aang's eyes widened. "She wouldn't use something like that."

"Then-" Sokka began running, Aang and Toph quickly following.

As the ice shards rained down, disappearing from view, Sokka screamed Katara's name.


"KATARA!"

Sokka's name echoed throughout the forest, and, when it hit Katara's ears, the waterbender gritted her teeth, looking up as an icy death began to rain down upon her. Raising up her arms, Katara brought up a wave of water, draining even the smallest plants behind her, until it rose far above her head. Using one hand to hold down Hama's arms of ice, which nearly grazed her, Katara put all her energy into her other hand, and thrust out, the wave of water swirling, before it flew into the air, with such speed, that the air around it whistled. It swallowed the ice with ease, before becoming a shuriken-like tornado, and raining the ice back down upon Hama, the old woman shrieking as she released the arms of water in Katara's grip.

Hama barely had time to shield herself, before the shards ripped through the air, and imbedded themselves in the ground around her, some breaking through her barrier of ice, and embedding themselves in her back.

The unearthly scream that Hama let out as a shard severed her spine, reached a near-catatonic level, and shattered the ice around her like glass.

"You lost, Hama." Katara let her arms rest at her sides, as Hama collapsed to the ground, coughing up semi hardened flecks of blood.

"I...lost?" Hama's voice was fading, along with her slowing heart.

"Katara?" Sokka was the first to emerge in the clearing, behind Hama.

The warrior stopped dead when he took in the scene before him. Blood littered the clearing, and the trees around him were nothing more than crumbling skeletons of their former selves. Smoke still lingered in the air...along with the revolting stench of burnt flesh.

"Is...is that Hama?" Sokka choked out.

"What's..." Katara calmed slightly, seeing Sokka. "What's left."

As Hama lay dying on the grass, each breath shorter than the last, Sokka frowned.

"Katara...where's..." Sokka's voice tailed off, as he noticed a shape on the ground. "No..."

Turning to his right, Sokka looked down, and noticed Zuko's body, mere feet away from him. As he took in the blood...and the firebender's glazed-over eyes, he felt sick to his stomach, and slowly fell to his knees.

"Sokka, wait-" Aang called out.

The airbender, and Toph, finally emerged at the edge of the clearing, not far behind Sokka. Both gagged when they caught onto the scent of Hama's slowly dying body, and almost threw up, barely managing to keep their stomach's under control.

"Where's Zuko?" Toph asked Katara, worried that she couldn't sense any trace of him.

"He's gone." Katara's voice began to shake.

"Gone?" Toph sounded years younger, her face beginning to go slack.

"That..." Katara raised a hand to point at Hama. "That woman..."

Sokka moved closer to Zuko's body, and he fought to hold back tears.

"That woman." Katara repeated. "No- that- that monster...she killed him."