Haiko returned to a secret underground base that he was operating from. He was greeted by Gai and Mushin. Mushin hadn't seen Haiko since the fires he helped start in Republic City over a week ago. They were keeping in contact with each other through messenger hawk. It was the safest way of communicating with each other cause of Team Avatar being on the alert after the fires. He greeted Haiko with a smile. Gai was happy to see Haiko also and he gave him a hug. But he looked down at the ground sad because he had failed him.
"Haiko..." Gai said his voice trailing off. "I failed you. I couldn't stop Aang from contacting the lion turtle and to make matters even worse he took away my bending. I can't lava bend anymore. I feel useless to you now."
"You're never useless to me Gai" Haiko said placing his hand on his friend's shoulder. "We'll get through this together. I succeeded in getting the second scale key."
"No way!!!" Mushin said he was happy with this turn of events. "So you defeated Katara huh? I bet you feel good about that."
"I do actually" Haiko said but his smile quickly turned into a frown. "My victory is tainted by the fact that she is the one related to Lyra and not me and I hate her for that. But I found out an important new development that is in our favor. These scale keys feed into my dark heart and grant me the power of The Planet Eater itself. That's how I defeated Katara. The dark energy from the scale brushed her arm and poisoned her with its power. The power of this creature is unimaginable. I was about to kill her but I wasn't able to strike the finishing blow because she still had fight left in her. So I had to leave cause I couldn't chance her getting the scale from me. I'm kinda disappointed I didn't beat her with my waterbending powers but oh well I'll take what I can get."
Haiko went on with his frustrations. "I'm very lucky that she didn't use bloodbending on me. I mean I thought she was against it from what she told me in our last encounter but a few days ago she tortured Azula with it so I was kinda skeptical about whether she would use it on me or not. Thankfully it was the latter. But her waterbending skills are no joke. The power she possesses is incredible. Katara is just as dangerous as Aang. We're gonna have to deal with both of them soon. Katara tried to act like she cared about Nova and cried for her death. Yeah right. Where was she when Nova was killed? Years of all this violence and still nothing was done about it. And she claimed that her and Aang couldn't be in multiple places at once and that she wouldn't do the same if she was in my shoes. I highly doubt that. Katara would be torn apart emotionally if her sweet Aang was killed. If they're relationship is the same as Me and Nova like she claims it is she would. She's wrong about my blackened heart though. It's not black it's broken." Haiko cried so much that streams of tears covered his cheeks.
"So what are we going to do next?" Mushin asked. "We'll have to abandon our hideout. Aang saw the entrance to it and pretty soon Toph will be all over this place. Also if Katara is Lyra's descendant how are we suppose to get the third scale key. She wouldn't help us again that's for sure."
"We won't need it" Haiko said a determined look on his face. "I can free The Planet Eater without it. I only need two of the keys. And now the avatar knows that too. That's why I sent Gai to stop him from learning that info. The lion turtle told him everything except where the creature is sealed. We're both tied now. Because I don't know where The Planet Eater's prison is either. Now it will be a race to the prison that holds the creature. Us against Team Avatar. But luckily we have some of The Planet Eater's power with these scales so that will help us greatly."
Meanwhile in Republic City Aang and Katara checked out of CraneFish Towers and were enjoying each other's company. The day was beautiful. Sunny with a light breeze. Katara was soo happy. Her face lit up like a hundred candles. Aang looked at her left arm and saw that the wound was all gone. There was no grey on it at all. Aang was relieved. He had been soo worried about her all last night.
"You're arm is better Sweetie" Aang said pointing to the injury. He wanted to see if Katara noticed it.
"I did notice it Sweetie." Katara looked at it and moved her arm around. "It actually feels lighter now. When the wound was there my arm felt heavy. Then this morning when it was healed completely my arm returned to feeling lighter and easier to move around. That creature's power is really something. It's scary."
Aang looked at her with a worried expression on his face. How were they going to beat Haiko if he had two of the scales? And they could do damage like that.