36~

A night and a day later came the full moon and Katara came face to face with the promise she had made Zuko. The idea of bloodbending still frightened her badly, but she was willing to try, for Iroh's sake as well as Zuko's. The respect he had shown her feelings continued as the hour drew nearer. She had told the healers what she would need: Iroh was to be submerged in a tub of water, ideally somewhere the moonlight would come in, and quiet, and solitude. But Zuko was the one who made sure those instructions were actually followed. The healers had apparently thought it was some sort of pointless, romantic fancy of Katara's that the moonlight be coming in, but Zuko set them straight in no uncertain terms. They also didn't see the point of solitude, and some insisted they be there to aid Katara in case of emergency (they said), and to learn all they could about this incredible, secret healing technique (they did not say), but Zuko drove them firmly out no matter the excuses.

And then all at once it was time to begin.

Katara had never been more nervous before in her life. They had been given a small inner courtyard in the Palace, open to the sky, and hence the moonlight fell clearly down onto them, interrupted only by the odd cloud scudding over its face. The air was sweet and cool. Iroh, bare from the waist up and unconscious, lay in a white porcelain tub. The water rose to his neck, and the moonlight made him pale, white, corpse-like. The image made her stiff with fear.

"It's going to be okay," Zuko said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I have faith in you." She came back to herself with a shudder that passed through every part of her body.

"Yes," she said, less to agree than to make herself believe. "Yes." And she knelt by the tub. The power of the moonlight sang in her, and even without asking anything of it by bending, that power scared her. She knew how it felt to have control of one's own body yanked out of her grip, held utterly in the hands of another's will. She knew she was capable of making other people feel that way, as she had first with Hama, and later with the captain of the Southern Raiders, whose name she never even knew. A thousand times since then she wished there was some way to forget what she could do, how she could reach into another person and take their very autonomy from them. But at the same time, the strength made her want to bend, to savor the ability that resided in her. She existed in a horrible sort of balance, enticed towards an ability that repulsed her. And Iroh had not awoken again after speaking with Zuko, so she was doing this without his permission.

She shook her head fiercely and dipped her hands into the tub. The first thing she did was gently encourage the water to press in close to Iroh, to help keep his blood pressure up. She had worked on him for short periods over the course of the last day and night. As she had predicted, the condition of his heart grew steadily worse, but slowly enough that she still had hope she could repair it. Once the water was keeping up a gentle, steady pressure, she turned her attention to Iroh. His body and his chi were familiar to her by now, and she quickly focused in on his heart. With the full moon's power she could almost feel her control of his blood before she tried to take it. She did not want to. It still revolted her. But she sucked in a deep breath and did it.

It was shockingly easy, taking his blood into her control. She shuddered but did not let self-loathing overwhelm her. It was necessary. It was for healing this time. Gently, and ever so slowly, she blocked the blood seeping from his atrium. Then, with nearly painful care, she split her attention between holding the blood back and healing the miniscule tears in the muscle. This felt like splitting her mind in half, and she couldn't afford a lapse on either side.

So she worked slowly, steadily, and with some success. And then suddenly he stopped breathing. His chi started to dim. He was dying. Shocked, Katara jerked out of her focus, abandoning her control of his heart in the face of this catastrophe.

"What's wrong?" Zuko demanded, seeing the change in both his uncle and Katara.

"I don't know," Katara said, distracted and desperate to fix whatever was going so wrong. Iroh's chi continued to wane. Fear took her over and she looked to Zuko, desperate and frantic. "I'm going to try something. I don't know what'll happen. Please don't let go of me." She held out her hand and he automatically took it.

Ignoring him when he gaped at her and asked, "What- - ?", she bent all her full moon power into Iroh again and grasped his chi with her own. As his life faded, she felt herself being sucked away as well.

A/N

Um, Katara my love, do you mind telling me WHAT THE HELL YOU'RE DOING?

Find out tomorrow!

All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom

E.I. signing out