"But it ends me when I can tell that I've become the person I can't take, that I hate; a person so much like you.
I've got a way! Your jealous eyes, with reckless pride, feasting on the wealth.
I've got a way! This little click, brick by brick, has turned upon itself.
You're a broken record repeating these vanities over and over again." Butcher's Mouth, Emery
Xx
Zuko looks out across the river at the village of Jang Hui; he had finally gotten word of activity that could point to the Avatar's location. Apparently, not even a week earlier, this village had been visited by a spirit, who had blown up a Fire Nation factory that was responsible for polluting the river. Zuko isn't particularly mad about the factory; the people in the tiny village on the water probably would have died if it had stayed functioning, and that's not why he's here. He's here because a fire nation factory blowing up and a dying village making a miraculous recovery in three days screamed of the Avatar; he is the bridge between worlds, and if anyone could get a spirit to destroy a factory and save a village, it would be him.
Zuko and Mai are dressed in plain clothes as they scout out the village. It will be much easier for them to get information about the Avatar if people think they're nobodies rather than the prince of the Fire Nation and a royal escort.
"Are we going into the village, or what?" Mai asks, her voice dull as always.
"No." He knows that the villagers will just tell him that it was the Painted Lady who helped them, and he needs more than that to go off of. "We're going to look at what's left of the factory."
They reach the site of the explosion; there isn't much left of the factory, but he doesn't need much to confirm that it was the Avatar's doing. He and Mai walk around in the rubble, keeping an eye out for any telltale signs of bending. Most of the factory is gone; only the skeleton remains, the insides primarily destroyed and the majority of the roof blown off. He follows what is left of the piping system, the one that had carried the waste out into the river, looking for clues, signs, anything that could indicate that the damage was done by bending. He looks in every corner, in every crevice, even under some of the debris, but finds nothing. This is hopeless. His mind starts to wander again, questioning why he's even doing any of this, when Mai calls to him.
"Hey." He follows her voice outside and around the back of what used to be the factory, and sees her standing upon some large rocks far enough away to not have been damaged by the explosion. "Come here." He climbs up to where she is standing, looking down at the corpse of the factory.
"What is it?" He can't see anything unusual from up here, and he wonders what even made Mai think that coming up here was a good idea.
"Look."
She points at an area of the ground about five feet away from them that seems to have been trampled down. He moves closer, looking closely at the dirt to see— there. A piece of gauzy fabric is peeking out from under the dirt, and he bends over to pick it up. He shakes it off, holding it in the air in front of his face, watching the thin material flutter in the breeze.
"This is it." His voice is hard as Mai looks at the fabric in his hand. "The tales of the Painted Lady say she wears a veil. A spirit doesn't just lose part of her costume. It was him."
"Really?" A pinch of disbelief is audible in Mai's voice. "That's all the evidence you need?"
"Yes!" He doesn't elaborate; he isn't quite sure how to explain the feeling in his chest that this is right. It's a sign, he knows it is, and his gut is telling him that this is it. It was her. "They came through here. Let's go back to the village and ask around about any visitors they've had recently, see if they know which direction they went when they left."
He willfully ignores that he had to correct his gut; the Avatar is a boy. He chalks it up to the headache growing behind his eyes, and they head down to the town.
Xx
"I don't know, Sokka. I think I like the one about the guy with a sword for a hand better."
The four of them sit around a campfire, telling scary stories under the gibbous moon. Sokka's last story hadn't been very impressive, Aang being the only one to react to it at all.
"Water Tribe slumber parties must suck if this is all you guys have for scary stories." Toph rubs her finger in her ear as she speaks, inspecting whatever she's dug out and flinging it off into the forest.
"Wait, I have one!" Katara sits up a little straighter. "And this one's true."
"Is this one of those "my husband's-brother's-aunt's-best friend's-girlfriend-twice removed" kind of stories? Because those don't count as true." Sokka's brows are raised, his skeptical tone a cause for Katara to roll her eyes.
"No, Sokka." She lowers her voice dramatically. "This one happened to mom." She effectively gains everyone's attention, and the three others lean in to hear her tell the story.
"One winter when mom was a young girl, there was a snowstorm that buried the entire village for weeks. A month later, mom noticed that one of her friends, Nini, hadn't been seen since before the storm." She pauses for effect, relishing in the wise eyes of her brother and Aang. Toph is a tough nut to crack, but she can see that the girl has scooted closer to Aang. "So, mom and some other villagers went to Nini's home to check on her family. But when they got there, no one was home." Sokka is biting his nails, and Aang has his arm wrapped around Toph, who is officially looking spooked. Katara smirks as she continues, "there was just a fire burning in the fireplace. The others left to go search for Nini and her family while mom stayed in the house—" a cat owl hoots, making them all jump and Sokka emit an embarrassing squeaking noise. Katara takes a deep breath and continues the story. "While she was alone, mom heard a voice." She changes her voice to mimic that of a creepy child, "'it's so cold, and I can't warm up!'" Sokka and Aang have Toph smooshed in between them now, hugging each other around her small body while giving Katara their rapt attention. "Mom turned around, and saw Nini in front of the fire. Her whole body was blue, like she had been frozen. Mom ran outside to get the others, but when they went back inside the house, Nini was gone." Momo is sitting atop Sokka's head, one of the lemur's big ears flopped over to cover her brother's eyes, and Toph has her head buried in Aang's shoulder.
"Where did Nini go?" One of Sokka's eyes pokes out from behind Momo's ear.
"Nobody knows. Nini's house stands empty to this day. But sometimes..." She leans closer to the fire, and the other three do as well. "People say they can see smoke coming from the chimney, like little Nini is still trying to get warm." Katara thoroughly enjoys the reaction her story pulls from the others, their faces still set in shock.
"Wait!" Toph kneels down from the log she had been sitting on, sandwiched between Sokka and Aang, and puts her hand on the ground. "Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" Katara asks, having heard nothing except for the crackling of the fire.
"There are people under the mountain..." her face changes to one full of anxiety. "And they're screaming!"
"Ha!" Sokka's laugh sounds forced and artificial. "Nice try Toph."
"No, I'm serious!" She sounds genuinely upset, and Katara is starting to get worried.
"You're just jumpy from the ghost stories, that's all," Katara says, in hopes of convincing herself that it's actually true. Toph's brows furrow, a crease forming on her forehead.
"It just… stopped," she whispers, voice steeped in confusion, and a chill works its way up Katara's spine.
"Okay, now I'm really getting scared," Aang pipes up from behind where Toph is now standing, his voice shaky.
"Hello, children."
They all scream as the voice of an old woman comes from the forest behind Katara, the four of them jumping up to hold on to each other on the other side of the campfire.
"Oh, I didn't mean to scare you! My name is Hama; I have an inn back in the village. Why don't you come stay there for the night? You younguns shouldn't be staying out in the forest. I have hot tea and warm beds all ready!"
"Yes, please." Sokka looks sheepish and relieved, and Hama smiles as they gather up their things.
A short while later they are seated at a table in Hama's inn, sipping cups of warm tea and snacking on crackers.
"Thank you for letting us stay here." Katara smiles at Hama around her teacup. "Your inn is lovely."
"Oh, aren't you a sweet thing." Hama returns the smile, her crows feet more pronounced with the gesture. "You kids should be careful, people have been disappearing from those woods that you were camping in."
"What do you mean, 'disappearing'?" Sokka questions around a mouth full of crackers, and Katara elbows him, trying to convey to him that his manners are abysmal and he should be trying harder around their host. From the look he gives her, he doesn't seem to understand.
"When the moon is full, people walk in," she puts her teacup down, "and they don't come out. Who wants more tea?" Nobody responds, the ghost stories they had been telling out in the forest still fresh in their minds. "Oh, don't you worry, you're all safe here!" She smiles again, and something about it niggles at the back of Katara's mind. "How about I show you all to your rooms for the night?"
Katara has a hard time sleeping that night; the almost full moon and her nightly thoughts of Zuko keep her awake well past midnight. I wonder if he's okay. She doesn't know much about Azula, but what she does know is enough to make her worry extensively. She probably has him rotting in a jail cell somewhere in the Fire Nation. She groans, rolling over onto her stomach and shoving her head under the pillow. She lets a few silent tears fall, and prays to Yue to keep him safe. I know I ask you every night, but please Yue, please just make sure he's safe until we can get to him.
Hama wakes her up early the next morning to go shopping, and comments on the prominent bags under her eyes.
"It's nothing," Katara assures her, not wanting to go into detail. "Tonight is the full moon, and I always have trouble sleeping around this time." Hama smiles knowingly at her, and they wake up the rest of the gang to go on their shopping trip.
They follow Hama through the market, noticing that most of the villagers are subdued, many with anxious looks on their faces. Katara hears many of them whispering about the full moon and the people who have been disappearing— her concern grows with each overheard rumor. Hama barters with an old man at a vegetable stall, and as they walk away with a full basket, the old man smiles and waves.
"Maybe you can convince Mr. Yao to give you some free komodo sausages; he seems to have a little bit of a thing for you!" Katara winks at Hama as they walk away from the stall.
"You'd have me use my feminine charms to take advantage of that poor man?" Katara is already working on an apology when Hama continues, "I think you and I are going to get along very well."
The two women meet back up with Aang, Toph, and Sokka with the rest of the groceries, and Hama instructs them to take everything back to the inn while she finishes her errands. They walk back to the inn and start unloading things once they get inside
"I don't like Hama," Sokka declares to no one in particular. "There's something about her that's just… off. I think she's hiding something."
"Sokka, don't be ridiculous." Katara continues putting the groceries away. "She's just a friendly old woman who took us in and gave us a place to stay."
"Hm..." Sokka doesn't seem to be listening to her as he makes for the stairs. "I'm going to look around."
"Sokka!" Katara turns around as he makes his way up the stairs. "You can't just go snooping through her stuff!" She follows him up to the second floor, Aang and Toph trailing after her.
"Why not?" he asks, like he truly doesn't understand the issue Katara has with looking through other people's private things.
"She could be home any minute!" Aang squeaks from behind her, and Katara is glad that at least someone is on her side.
Sokka wrestles open a closet, and half a dozen hand-made puppets fall from a shelf, their strings all tangled up.
Aang takes a deliberate step back from the pile of puppets littering the floor. "Okay, that's definitely a little creepy." Katara wonders if he's actually on her side or not. It is kind of creepy though.
They continue on to the attic, Katara attempting to dissuade Sokka from continuing every step of the way. The end of the corridor brings them to a locked door, and Sokka peeps through the keyhole suspiciously.
"Sokka, she's going to be back any minute, we shouldn't be doing this!" Sneaking through Hama's house goes against everything that Katara stands for, and she's getting tired of her brother being so nonchalant about it all.
"Why does she only have one locked door? And it's all the way in the attic? The only thing in there is a chest!" Sokka uses the narrow end of his boomerang to pick the lock, and they all move into the room, her and Aang hanging out near the door anxiously.
"Damn, it's locked!" Sokka shakes the small chest trying to figure out what's inside.
"Oh, let me have it." Sokka hands the box to Toph, and she morphs a bracelet that she had been wearing into a key. She inserts it into the chest, and the lock springs open.
"I'll tell you what's in that box."
The four of them jump as Hama appears at the door. She takes the box from Toph, opens it, and carefully pulls out a blue whale tooth comb.
"Seriously?" Sokka looks supremely disappointed at the contents of the chest. "A comb?"
"It's my greatest treasure," she coos, and looks at the comb lovingly. "It's all I have left from growing up in the Southern Water Tribe." Katara and Sokka share a wide-eyed look.
"You're from the Southern Tribe? We are too!" Katara is ecstatic; she's never seen anyone from her tribe outside of the South Pole.
"Yes, I heard you talking out at the campfire."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Sokka sounds much less suspicious, and Katara hopes that this will put an end to his paranoia.
"I wanted it to be a surprise! I got all of the ingredients at the market today to make a special Water Tribe meal. Ocean kumquats taste almost just like sea prunes if you stew them right!"
"Oh, joy." Aang's distaste for sea prunes does nothing to dampen Katara's mood. She hasn't had any Water Tribe cuisine since they were in the North Pole, and at the mention of sea prunes, she realizes how much she's missed it.
"I knew I felt a bond with you!" Katra can't contain her smile, and Hama smiles back at her with a wink.
"Come on now." Hama motions with her hand as she turns around. "Let's get cooking!"
The meal takes a while to prepare and cook, but once everything is ready and they sit down, Katara can say that this has been the best day she's had in a long while. She sees Aang whisper something to Toph, who chuckles in response as she leans in towards the table and takes a deep inhale through her nose.
"Alright, who wants five flavor soup?" They all raise their hands, and to everyone's surprise, Hama bends the soup out of the large pot and into everyone's bowls.
"You're a waterbender!" Katara feels like she could cry, she's so happy. "I've never met another Southern bender before."
"That's because I'm the last one." Hama takes a sip of her soup, her face pulling down with sadness.
"So, how did you end up all the way out here?" Sokka's mouth is actually mostly empty when he speaks— a testament to how good the day has been.
"I was stolen from my home." Her eyes take on a far away look. "The raids started over sixty years ago. They came again and again, each time capturing more of our waterbenders. We did our best to hold them off, but our numbers dwindled, and in the end they took me too. They led us away in chains, and locked us all in terrible Fire Nation prisons. I was the only one that escaped."
"How did you escape? And why did you decide to stay in the Fire Nation?" Sokka's mouth is totally empty now, having been too enraptured by Hama's story to continue eating.
"It's too painful to talk about." Hama sniffles, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
"We understand." Katara consoles Hama as she and Sokka share a pained look. "We lost our mother in a raid."
"Oh, you poor things!" Hama leans over and covers one of Katara's hands with her own.
"I can't tell you how much it means to me to meet you. You're a hero!" Now Katara's eyes are wet as well, and Hama's smile is warm when she answers.
"I never thought I'd meet another Southern waterbender. I'd like to teach you all that I know, so that you can continue my legacy once I'm gone."
"Yes!" Katara jumps at the chance; she had thought the Southern bending style had been lost before she was even born. "Yes, I'd love to learn about my heritage! Thank you, Hama."
Xx
The next day, Hama takes Katara on a walk around the town's perimeter. The sun shines high in the sky, and a gentle breeze ruffles her hair as they walk through a field of tall grass.
"Growing up in the South Pole," Hama stops and faces Katara, "you were accustomed to being surrounded by water and ice all the time. I'm sure you've noticed in your travels, but water will not always be so readily available."
"Oh my gosh, I know!" She lets out a heavy sigh. "When we were travelling through the desert, I felt so useless."
"That's why you have to learn how to find and control water wherever you can." Hama gives her a sly look.
"I've used my own sweat to waterbend before!" The memory of her escape from jail with Toph plays in her mind, and she feels a spark of pride.
"That's very resourceful Katara! You're thinking like a true master. But I bet you didn't realize that you can pull water out of the air itself." She twists her arm and water condensates on the tips of her fingers, covering them down to the first knuckle. "You've got to keep an open mind. There's water in places you'd never even think to look."
"Wow!" Katara's eyes sparkle in awe, fixated on the water Hama had pulled from the air as it freezes on her fingertips. She gasps as Hama sends the ice daggers flying into the trunk of a tree with a large grin plastered on the old woman's face. They continue walking through the field, and come upon a beautiful little patch of red flowers.
"These flowers are so beautiful."
"They're called fire lilies. They only bloom for a few weeks out of the year, but they're one of my favorite parts of living here. And like all flora and fauna, they're filled with water."
"I met a waterbender in a swamp that would bend the water inside of the vines to control them." The image of her mother flashes before her eyes, followed by the image of the woman in red.
"You can take it even farther!" She moves fast, faster than Katara would have expected someone her age to be able to, and pulls the water out of the lilies, aiming it at a rock that she slices in half.
"That's incredible!" Katara looks down, seeing what was once the patch of bright red flowers, now full of brown, withered fire lilies. "It's a shame about the flowers, though."
"They're just plants, Katara. When you're travelling through unknown lands, you must do whatever it takes to survive. Tonight, I'll teach you the ultimate waterbending technique. It can only be done under a full moon, when our bending is at its peak."
"I thought people were going missing on the nights of the full moon?" Katara is a little apprehensive about their lesson taking place outside at night when people are being taken.
"Well, we are two master waterbenders, and under a full moon, we'll be virtually unstoppable." Hama winks at her, a gleam in the old woman's eyes that Katara hasn't seen before. "I'm sure that we'll be fine."
Xx
Hama comes for her later that night and guides her into the forest. Katara is a strange mix of anxious and excited— her stomach flails around inside of her as a response to her emotions. They come to a small clearing, and Hama tilts her face up towards the moon.
"Can you feel it?" She closes her eyes. "The moon has blessed waterbenders for generations, allowing us to do incredible things." She inhales deeply, and the veins in her arms bulge as she flexes them. A chill travels up Katara's spine as an invisible darkness surrounds Hama that hadn't been there before. "I've never felt more alive." Katara turns her face towards the moon, feeling its energy flow through her. "The technique I am about to show you is one that I learned in that wretched Fire Nation prison." Katara looks at Hama, who still has her eyes closed. "The guards were extremely careful to keep us away from any water. They had us suspended in cages above the ground, and piped in dry air so we couldn't harness any moisture from it. They would bind our feet and hands before giving us any water to drink; any sign of trouble was met with brutal retribution. But still, I felt the full moon bless me every month, lending me it's energy and strength. I knew that there had to be something I could do to escape." Her eyes open to stare at the moon with a dull gaze. "Then I realized that where there is life, there is water. The rats that scurried across the floor were nothing more than skins filled with water, and I took years developing the skill that would allow my escape." A malicious grin grows on her face as Katara's stomach sinks. "Bloodbending." Katara's heart is beating a wild tattoo against her ribs, her shock written clearly all over her expression. "Controlling the water in another's body, forcing your will upon theirs. Once I had mastered the rats, I was ready for the men. And during the next full moon, I walked free for the first time in decades, my cell unlocked by the very guards assigned to keep me in." Hama turns to look at Katara, the old woman's smile raising the hairs on the back of her neck. "Once you master this technique, you will be able to control anything, or anyone."
"Hama, I don't know... To reach inside someone and control them like that?" Her hands come up to play with the ends of her hair. "I'm not sure if I want that kind of power." Hama's face turns downward, anger in the lines around her eyes and mouth.
"The choice is not yours; the power exists, and it is your duty to use your gifts to win this war. Katara, they tried to wipe out our entire culture, all the waterbenders, even your mother!"
"I know..." She can't force her voice any louder; she's scared of Hama, and it hurts more than she thinks it should.
"Then you understand!" She turns her whole body towards Katara. "We're the last two benders of the Southern Water Tribe, we have to fight these people whenever we can, however we can, by any means necessary!" Realization dawns on Katara, her blood running cold as she voices her fears.
"It's you." She wishes the tremble in her voice would disappear. "You're the one kidnapping people during the full moon!"
"They deserve it!" Hama's eyes are filled with hate. Little drops of spittle fly out of her mouth as she speaks. "They locked me away and left me to rot! Along with all of the other waterbenders! They must suffer, and you will carry on my work!"
"I won't!" Katara hardens her voice, somehow finding strength beneath her horror. "I won't use bloodbending, and I won't allow you to keep terrorizing this town!" She reaches her hands out in front of her into a bending stance, but before she can move to attack, her left wrist twists unnaturally. "Ahg!" It pops painfully, but luckily is not broken. She tries to fight against it, tries in vain to control her own body as it rebels against her. The experience is terrifying; having someone else control her like a puppet. Hama plays her body like a poorly tuned lute, the sensation wrong and invasive in every way.
"You should have learned the technique before defying me!" Hama continues to twist Katara's body, and her muscles strain against the awkward positions. "It's impossible to fight against it; I control every part of you!" She throws Katara's body from side to side, a terrifying grin on her face, before bringing her closer. Katara struggles to no avail, her body no longer her own.
"Please, Hama!" Tears leak from her eyes as Hama bends her blood, forcing her down to the ground. "Don't do this!"
The old woman laughs, a brittle, demented cackle that sends Katara's brain into panic mode. But the adrenaline brings awareness to her limbs, and fuels the determination that overpowers her terror. She takes a deep breath, filling her lungs with the crisp night air, feeling Yue's light seep through her skin and invigorate her chi, and slowly manages to stand upright. She meets Hama's shocked stare with an icy one of her own.
"You're not the only one that draws power from the moon." She moves into a bending stance. "Your bloodbending is useless on me. I'm stronger than you, Hama!"
She throws herself into the fight, the moon's energy lending her confidence and strength. Her movements are more graceful and fluid than Hama's, and her bending benefits from it, the water flowing seamlessly around her. She is her element: flexible, adaptive, beautiful, and dangerous. She meets Hama blow for blow, her face relaxed and controlled while Hama's slips into panic. She gets the best of the old woman and brings her down with a swift twisting motion, the water sweeping into Hama's legs and sending her spinning painfully to the ground. She struggles to her knees as Aang and Sokka run into the clearing.
"We know what you've been doing Hama!" Sokka's face is marble, anger drawing his mouth down into a hard line.
"Give up!" Aang demands, pointing his staff in her direction. "You're outnumbered!"
"No..." Hama rises to her feet, her voice a scratchy drawl. "You've outnumbered yourselves!"
She uses her bloodbending to make Sokka and Aang attack Katara, who fights them off while simultaneously trying to attack the old woman. She manages to freeze both her brother and Aang to separate trees so that she can focus her energy on taking Hama down.
"Don't let your friends hurt each other, Katara!" Hama cackles, raising her arms and forcing Sokka and Aang towards each other, Sokka's club raised high above his head in preparation for a killing blow.
"No!"
She feels like she only has one choice, and reaches out to Hama's blood. She can feel it coursing through the old woman's thin veins, pumping from her heart with each beat. She grabs at it, forcing Hama to lose control over Aang and Sokka. She pulls and tugs, twisting and manipulating Hama's blood to force her to the ground with tears streaming down her face. The sensation is chilling; controlling the woman's body feels unnatural and wrong. Fissures crack through her heart with each passing moment.
Toph runs into the clearing then, followed by a small crowd of people in ratty clothes, and a handful of Fire Nation soldiers. They restrain Hama as Katara lets go of her blood, her head pounding and body trembling. She drops down to her knees, shaken to her core.
"My work is done." Hama's voice is subdued, but her smile is satisfied, a slit on her face that's far too wide. "You're a bloodbender, Katara."
As the soldiers drag Hama away, Katara tries to hold her despair in— but she breaks into sobs as soon as Hama is out of sight. Aang, Sokka, and Toph come to her side and hold her silently under the light of the full moon. She feels tainted and dirty as she lets her tears fall steadily from her eyes and trail down her face. I'm a monster… just like her.