Chapter 41: A Tale of Two Nights
On a lush island in the Fire Nation, the Avatar and his friends set up camp in some woods for the night, finding it to be just as good a place to stay as anywhere else on the island. The branches and leaves of the treetops blocked the light of the nearly full moon, shrouding the woods in darkness. So they had a campfire burning and everyone was gathered around it, all of them facing the only source of light they had. It set a creepy mood to the night, which was the perfect opportunity for them to tell a few ghost stories.
"…and they knew the ring of Wang Fan was haunted!"
No one was even remotely scared by Sokka's latest story, least of all Aang. "I think I liked the man with a hook for a hand better."
"Water Tribe slumber parties must stink," Toph assumed.
"I got something," Taiyo said. He cleared his throat and made his voice deeper. "Have any of you heard of the demon of flames?"
"You mean the Fire Lord?" Toph asked.
"No, not him," Taiyo said, annoyed at first but quickly getting back into the storytelling mood. "This is an actual demon, or a dark spirit if you believe the Fire Sages. Long ago, this demon was bound to the soul of a human, a torment for both the human and the demon."
"Hang on," Aang interrupted, finding this kind of familiar. "I think Kuzon told me this one way back."
"Don't spoil it," Taiyo insisted, then went back to his tale. "This unnatural union made the human immortal, to share his existence with the demon for eternity. At times the demon would take control, to unleash his wrath in perpetuity."
"Did you just rhyme?" Sokka asked.
"It's part of the curse," Taiyo said. "To use his demonic power, the demon would have to speak in rhyme. He had to do it all the time, to punish those who committed spiritual crime. Time and time again, he would lose the form of man, to become the demon Etrigan."
"Sounds like a miserable existence," Katara commented.
"Yeah," Toph said. Suddenly she gasped and put one hand on the ground. "Wait! Guys, did you hear that? I hear people under the mountain, and they're screaming."
"Nice try," Sokka said, thinking that Toph was taking her turn trying to scare them.
"No, seriously, I hear something," Toph insisted.
Taiyo stood up and closed his eyes, listening for anything out of the ordinary. His head turned towards the mountain peak. "I heard something, but it stopped. Now I'm only hearing footsteps."
"Okay, now I'm getting scared," Aang admitted.
"Hello children."
The unexpected voice spooked Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Momo, immediately getting them around Toph and Taiyo. The later two were not startled in the slightest, having heard the stranger coming. Everyone saw an elderly woman step into the light of the campfire, her naturally dark skin having lightened with age and too many years in the tropics. She looked like she could have been someone's grandmother, and her bright blue eyes were strangely inviting. She must have noticed the group from a distance, since she was calm as she approached the strangers.
"Sorry to frighten you. My name is Hama."
About as far from the Fire Nation as he could imagine, Iroh was imprisoned beneath the center of Ba Sing Se.
Azula had ordered that Iroh remain there instead of being transported back to the homeland, where there was too great a risk of a certain someone finding and freeing him during the journey. Inside the city there was a random maze of green rock to keep Taiyo at bay, and in his metal cell Iroh was certain that he was on his own. Iroh knew he could find a way out eventually, once an opportunity to do so presented itself. He was a patient man, content to wait as long as he needed to, and spend the days exercising to burn off some of his excessive figure.
During the small hours of the morning a metal screech woke up Iroh, who opened his eyes to see the cell door opening. "To what do I owe this visit?"
Entering the cell was the regent of Ba Sing Se, the bald man now known as Lachlan Luthor. "I wanted to meet the Dragon of the West in person."
"I hope I do not disappoint," Iroh said. He adjusted his posture to a proper sitting position. "Though you must understand I am hardly in ideal condition here."
"Yes, being imprisoned is certainly terrible for one's health," Lachlan said. He had a Dai Li agent come in with a pot of tea and cups. "But there are ways to mitigate the worst of it."
Iroh watched the agent pour the tea for both of them before leaving the cell. "What do I have to thank for treatment such as this?"
Lachlan took one of the cups and sipped from it. "I have a proposition I'd like you to consider."
"I'm listening," Iroh said, taking the other cup but not drinking just yet.
"I'm told that you have the rare ability to create lightning," Lachlan said. "Would I be right to presume that means you understand how the cold fire behaves?"
"I do," Iroh said. "But surely, if generating lightning is what you require, then you could have had my niece do it for you."
"This is for something I'd prefer if she did not know," Lachlan admitted. He finished his cup of tea and poured more from the pot. "Besides, there will be plenty of lightning available soon. I simply require your expertise in meddling with such forces."
That was enough to tell that he was needed alive, and Iroh sampled the tea, though the taste was not to his liking. "Perhaps we can come to an understanding."
After discovering Katara and the others in the woods, Hama offered to let them stay in her inn for the rest of the night.
Naturally, Sokka was suspicious of Hama's generosity, especially when he couldn't shake a creepy feeling he was getting from her. That didn't stop him from getting a full night's sleep, since the inn beds were far more comfortable than his sleeping bag. During the following day they all went out to help Hama with her grocery shopping, and afterward she sent them back to the inn while she took care of other matters. In the time they had without the innkeeper Sokka started snooping around the inn, much to the chagrin of Katara, who thought he was being rude.
Sokka's suspicions were verified when Hama arrived and caught the group in the attic, even if Hama's secret wasn't what Sokka had been expecting. Hama had kept a small chest hidden away in the attic, containing what she claimed was her greatest treasure. When Hama opened that chest, she revealed an old ivory comb, which was a bit of a letdown for Sokka. Hama told them that this comb was the only thing she had left from her childhood, the only connection she had left to growing up in the Southern Water Tribe.
After that revelation Hama prepared a large Water Tribe dinner, or at least the closest one could get to it in the Fire Nation. When all six of them were around the dinner table Hama put down a large bowl. "Who wants five flavored soup?"
Five hands went up, to which Hama gladly obliged. But instead of pouring the soup into everybody's bowls, Hama instead used waterbending to do it.
Katara could barely believe what she saw. "You're a waterbender! I've never met another waterbender from our tribe."
Hama's expression turned grim. "That's because the Fire Nation wiped them all out. I was the last one."
"So how did you end up out here?" Sokka asked.
"I was stolen from my home," Hama answered.
Hama told the story of how the Fire Nation attacked her home over and over, usually in the middle of summer when firebending was strongest and waterbending was weakest. On each raid they had captured more and more waterbenders, which made the defense so much harder with each passing year. Eventually their numbers were reduced to just one, and despite all her efforts Hama had been captured as well. It was a tale that Katara and Sokka recognized all too well, as it brought up memories of the raid that had taken their mother.
"They put us in terrible prisons here in the Fire Nation," Hama described. "I was the only one who managed to escape."
"The full moon breakout," Taiyo muttered, looking away from Hama across the table.
"Wait, you knew about her?" Sokka asked.
"Only the reports about her escape," Taiyo answered. Then he looked at Hama, meeting her gaze for the first time since her story began. "Scholars are still trying to figure out how you did it."
"That's too painful to answer," Hama said.
"We understand," Katara said, wrapping one arm around Hama's shoulders. "But now we've got the power to save all the other waterbenders still imprisoned. You just have to tell us where the prison is."
Taiyo put a stop to that plan right away. "It was shut down."
All eyes turned to Taiyo, Sokka's in particular glaring at him. "What aren't you telling us?"
"The waterbender prison was closed years ago," Taiyo answered. He got up, turned away, and started walking. "There's no one left to save."
At the eastern end of the world, it was early morning the next day, the sun just rising above the top of Ba Sing Se's outer wall. At first glance it seemed like it would be a beautiful day, just like many others that came before. But to the keen eye it was a sign of looming danger, which would be coming very soon. While everyone knew that the massive walls barred passage on the ground, few took into account the effects the walls had on the weather. Already on this morning the humidity was building in the air, just one sign of what the weather might bring.
The big one was coming.
Lachlan Luthor was strolling through the deepest levels of the palace, a temporary base of operations for the Dai Li. Agents were coming and going everywhere, making haste to complete the preparations. At the end of one hallway, Lachlan entered a large chamber that used to be a storage room, but had been emptied out for his purposes. Inside there were agents earthbending vertical shafts through the ceiling all the way up to the palace room, where other agents on top were lowering down long metal cables through them to the bottom.
In the center of the chamber was a metal table with a series of cables connected to one end, all of them leading through the ceiling to someplace higher in the palace. On that table there was a body completely covered by a white cloth, lying there completely still. Even with heavy amounts of incense surrounding the table it was impossible to ignore the scent of death, specifically one that happened only a few weeks ago. Still the agents carried on with their work, trying their best not to think about the recently deceased.
Lachlan stopped and stood next to an agent connecting more cables to the table. "We don't have much more time."
"Then it's a good thing we're actually ahead of schedule," the agent reported. He finished connecting one last cable and stood up straight. "The body has been augmented to the design's specifications. The meteor rock is implanted, and stable. All we need now is the lightning."
"For that, all we have to do now is wait," Lachlan said.
He walked over to the table and lifted a corner of the cloth, so that he could inspect the first test subject. The flesh of this cadaver had been preserved with various embalming fluids, but it wasn't enough to fully prevent the stench of rot. Metal rods had been grafted onto the bones, easily found by the stitched cuts all over the body. In the center of the chest, the scorched hole of the killing blow was there, and it had been filled by refined meteor rock. That was the key to this experiment, for the properties of meteor rock were unlike anything else in the world.
Lachlan set down the cloth, and turned to leave. "I'll be back when the storm hits. Project Metallo will commence then."
Another day arrived in the Fire Nation, and everyone in the group had something they wanted to do. During the day Hama took Katara out to a pleasant meadow filled with flowers, a suitable place for her to pass on the southern waterbending traditions. Meanwhile Aang, Sokka, and Toph were investigating the nearby town, having learned about people disappearing during nights of the full moon. None of them knew where Taiyo had gone off to, as they had not seen him since he left during last night's dinner.
While walking through the open field Katara enjoyed the sight. "These flowers are beautiful."
"They're called fire lilies," Hama said. "They only bloom a few weeks a year. But they're one of my favorite things about living here. Like all plants, and all living things, they're filled with water."
"But how do I use it?" Katara asked.
"Just reach out and take it," Hama answered.
Hama swept her arm around in a circle, extracting water from the flowers around her. The plants shriveled up and died as the water came out, leaving only a wide patch of kindling in their place, all for a few drops of water from each dead flower. She got enough water to slice apart a nearby slab of rock, though the small amount was spent after that one strike. It was a certainly impressive feat of waterbending, though not with a cost to the environment, as there was a circle of dead plants in the middle of the field.
"That was incredible," Katara said. But then she noticed the dried-out flowers, a patch of black in the otherwise colorful field. "It's a shame about the lilies though."
"They're just flowers," Hama said. "When you're a waterbender in a strange land, you do what you must to survive."
"Yeah, I've had to deal with that," Katara admitted. "One time my friends and I were stuck in the desert. I didn't know what to do when I ran out of water."
Hama knew what that was like, and how she had overcome it. "Tonight I'll teach you the ultimate technique of waterbending. It can only be done during the full moon, when your bending is at its peak."
"But isn't that dangerous?" Katara asked. "Aren't there people disappearing around here during the full moon?"
"Two master waterbenders beneath a full moon," Hama pointed out. "I think we have nothing to worry about."
"I suppose," Katara muttered. She swung her hand and pulled some water from a swath of flowers, getting enough to make a waterwhip around her arm. "Who knows, maybe we can try your ultimate technique on the bad spirit?"
"That's the idea," Hama said. "After tonight you'll be able to pay back the Fire Nation for sending our people to that prison."
In a remote region of the Fire Nation, a cragged island was battered by raging waves, its terrain utterly inhospitable to all but the most extreme forms of life. An active volcano constantly spewed lava and plumes of ash, with occasional bursts of activity that would coat much of the land in molten rock every other decade. The only signs of habitation were a very tall tower and a small harbor on the shore, both beginning to crumble after years without maintenance. The entire island had been abandoned long ago, as there was no more need for the highly specialized prison built here.
No one was there to see Taiyo run onto the island's shore, the first visitor in quite some time. Upon arrival he was greeted by the sound of the waves, the screeching of birds, and the hissing of volcanic gasses. Taiyo took in the sight of the tower as he walked to its base, the ash-covered ground crunching beneath his feet. Large metal doors greeted him, their hinges covered in rust, with piles of wind-swept ash along the bottom. He stood in front of those doors and contemplated what he might find inside, certain that the waterbender prison was worse than what he had always been told.
Taiyo took in a deep breath, steeled himself for what he was going to do, and punched in the large metal doors right off their hinges. For good measure he picked up those doors and threw them into the sea, then walked inside the dry and dusty tower. Inside the air got drier the further he went, a combination of the volcano's heat and the remaining mechanisms that had been used to render waterbenders powerless. The tower held the machinery along with lodgings for the guards, while the real prison was underground, as far from the sea as possible.
"So this is where it happened…" Taiyo muttered to himself.
At the bottom of the stairs was the main prison level, which was a large space with dozens of cages suspended off the floor. There were no people imprisoned here anymore, the only living things being the rodents that had infested the prison. Even though all of the cages were empty, one could still feel the despair of their former inhabitants, all but one of which never saw the light of day again. Ultimately this place had failed in its intended purpose, to keep all waterbenders alive and captive forever, just in case any one of them had been a reincarnated Avatar.
After standing alone in the silence for some time, Taiyo let out a primal scream that echoed throughout the entire prison. He grabbed one of the chains that secured a cage to the floor and ripped it out of the rock, then yanked on the chain to pull down the cage and snap the other chains attached to it. Taiyo caught the cage and threw it into another suspended cage, snapping its support chains before colliding with yet another cage. He continued on to all the other cages in the prison, yanking them down and tearing them apart.
Rodents scurried out of every hole in the prison amidst the crashing sounds, fleeing just before their homes started to crumble. Taiyo rammed his shoulder into the wall and shattered it, breaking down part of the prison's foundation. Another slam into the wall further damaged the foundation and the bedrock beyond it, shaking the entire prison enough to break pieces off the ceiling. Every last wall on the bottom of the prison was smashed by the sheer force of his impacts, compromising the prison's entire structural integrity.
The tower above the prison began to fall apart, pieces breaking off one by one and crumbling as they hit the ground. Within minutes it was damaged beyond repair, and soon the entire thing collapsed into a pile of twisted rubble. Cracks formed in the land and spread across the island, and the impacts set off a volcanic eruption. Half of the island collapsed into the sea, filling the once absolutely dry space with seawater, where the flood washed away the prison. For good measure the erupting volcano spewed lava into the sea, where water and molten rock competed to destroy what little remained.
Only then did Taiyo leave this place, as the Water Tribe's dead could finally rest in peace.
As the sun was setting Aang, Sokka, and Toph were still investigating the town, having found a lead on the disappearing people.
A local villager had told them about the only man who had escaped that fate, an old man named Ding. According to him, some invisible force had taken control of his body during a full moon, and it had made him walk towards the mountain. But that invisible force had waned when the sun rose that morning, which gave Ding his body back and he ran from the mountain as quick as he could. Ding's story gave a good reason to investigate the mountain, the idea being that some dark spirit was responsible for the disappearances.
Toph suspected that the missing people might still be there, having remembered the screams she heard the other night. She led the others up the mountainside past their old campsite, stopping every so often to check for the underground screams again. Halfway up the mountain Toph found the screams again, and she followed their vibrations back to their source. They led to the mouth of a deep cave, which was surrounded by trees and impossible to see from a distance. From there Aang and Sokka could hear the screams, albeit muffled by distance and walls inside the cave.
"I got this part," Sokka said. He aimed his ring at the cave and it shined green light into the darkness. "You know, for those of that can't see in the dark."
All three of them hurried into the cave as fast as feet could take them, heading deep into the mountain. Before long they found a wall with a metal door, which Sokka blew up with a green blast from his ring. On the other side sparse torches provided dim lighting, showing the way to the back of the cave. After a shorter run they found the cave's deepest chamber, where they were not alone. Over a dozen people were chained to the walls inside this makeshift prison, some looking like they had been kept alive for years.
Those able to see the door looked to see three new faces. "We're saved."
While Sokka hurried to start freeing prisoners, Aang stood there in shock. "I didn't know spirits made prisons like this."
Sokka didn't particularly care for the details, more concerned with the here and now with these prisoners. Who brought you here?"
"It was no spirit," one very thin woman answered. She paused while Sokka worked on the chains binding her hands, not seeing the little green key from his ring that morphed to fit the lock. "She seems like a normal old woman. But she can control people, like some dark puppetmaster."
One suspect came to Sokka's mind as he unlocked the chains. "Hama."
"Yes, the innkeeper," another prisoner confirmed.
"I knew there was something creepy about her," Sokka said, already working on the next set of chains.
"We have to stop Hama," Aang said.
"I'll get these people out of here," Toph insisted. "Just go!"
Immediately Aang and Sokka ran out of the prison, leaving Toph behind to release all of the people imprisoned here. Toph got to work discreetly use metalbending to free people, making it look like she was just really good with a lockpick. Once they were out of sight, Sokka took to the air, his outfit changing to the Green Lantern uniform. In flight Sokka soared out of the cave faster than Aang could run, going as fast as possible to find his sister. As he flew Sokka worried about his sister, who was completely unaware of the danger she was in.
Shortly after midnight in the walled city, not a single speck of moonlight could be seen. Massive storm clouds blanketed the sky and blocked out all natural light from above, leaving the city in near total darkness. Torrential rainfall drenched everything exposed to the elements, driving virtually everyone into shelter and away from streets that looked more like rivers. Not even the firebenders in the occupation could maintain a flame in the sheer volume of falling water, and thus it was impossible to see during this storm.
That is, except during lightning strikes.
Massive electrical bolts ravaged the dark clouds above, essentially a storm within the storm. Lightning arced from one cloud to another in brilliant flashes, allowing the people see for a brief second in each flash. Booming thunder followed every bolt of lightning, nearly deafening in rapid succession. Some of the lightning escaped the clouds and struck the Earth, unleashing enough power to obliterate entire buildings at a time. Such raw power was beyond even the most talented firebenders, whose lightning was nothing compared to Mother Nature.
Released from his prison cell and standing on the palace roof, Iroh watched the natural lightning dance in the heavens. The Dai Li had given him a cat-gator leather cloak to wear in the storm, the thick and scaly hides keeping the rain from soaking him to the bone. Next to him there was a vertical metal rod at chest height, and at its base several metal cables were attached to it. Iroh grabbed the top of the rod with his right hand, eyeing the cables that led through the roof. He took a deep breath and slowly released it, getting ready to channel the power raging above.
"This is going to hurt," Iroh muttered. He held his left hand above his head, pointing two fingers at the storm clouds. "A lot."
Just as it happened during the last storm Iroh was caught in, a bolt of lightning struck where he was standing. With the technique he invented Iroh channeled the lightning into his body, directing it down his left arm to his stomach and then back up his right arm. From there the lightning left his body and entered the rod, flowing down the metal into the cables leading down into the palace. Natural lightning had so much power behind it that Iroh could barely handle it, inflicting plenty of pain as he sent the lightning into the metal rod and the cables.
Electricity traveled down the cables all the way down to the lowest level of the palace, where Lachlan Luthor watched that raw power surge into the connected table. "Lightning took you away. Now, lightning will bring you back!"
Another bolt of lightning struck Iroh and was channeled through the cables, electrifying the body with more raw power. The cloth that covered the body was set aflame and burned away in seconds, revealing the deathly white corpse. More lightning bolts followed, charring the corpse further, and electricity began to arc into nearby equipment. In bright flashes of light one could briefly see the corpse's skeleton, seeing all of the metal surgically grafted onto the bones. After the tenth bolt of lightning, the refined meteor rock began to glow, and that glow pulsed in a precise rhythm.
Suddenly, the corpse took in a deep breath.
Over booming thunder, Lachlan declared, "It's Alive! ALIVE!"
In the middle of the woods Katara and Hama were alone, where the light of the full moon painted everything in various shades of gray. There Hama described her experience inside the Fire Nation prison, where virtually every method of removing water had been used to keep waterbenders powerless. But there had been one source of water that had not been accounted for, the water inside the human body. With the extra power granted by the full moon, Hama discovered the ultimate technique of waterbending.
Bloodbending.
"Once you perfect this technique you can control anything, or anyone," Hama described.
"To reach inside someone and control them," Katara muttered, hesitating in light of this revelation. "I don't know if I want that kind of power."
"The choice is not yours," Hama stated. "The power exists. And it's your duty to use the gifts you've been given to win this war."
"No," Katara refused. "Having power is one thing. Using it responsibly is another."
"They tried to wipe us out," Hama reasoned. "We have to fight these people whenever we can, with any means necessary."
That's when Katara realized something about Hama. "It's you. You're the one making people disappear during the full moon."
"They threw me in prison to rot, along with my brothers and sisters," Hama said. "They deserve the same. You must carry on my work."
"I won't," Katara refused again. "I won't use bloodbending and I won't allow you to keep terrorizing this town."
Suddenly Katara's arm twisted the wrong way, making her scream in pain. The rest of her body soon fell under the sway of an outside force, twisting and turning in extremely painful ways. Katara saw Hama moving her arms in unfamiliar ways, using the bloodbending technique she possessed. In moments Katara was forced down onto her hands and knees, unable to stop the tears of pain from dripping down her face. It was the most painful thing she had ever experienced, like her body was trying to tear itself apart.
"Stop!" Katara begged. "Please!"
A sudden breeze whipped through the air. "Let her go!"
Startled by the voice from behind, Hama turned around and saw Taiyo standing there. "I don't know how you found us, but you'll wish you hadn't."
Momentarily free from the bloodbending, Katara got onto her feet. "Taiyo, watch out!"
Katara's warning came too late, for Hama was already at work bloodbending again. But this time she noticed a slight delay between cause and effect, as it took a moment before Taiyo stumbled and fell to the ground. And yet he only fell onto one knee, still keeping some measure of balance with one hand. Hama doubled her efforts, and it looked like a massive weight was on his shoulders. His feet started to sink into the dirt, from all the force applied down. The ground cracked and split under the strain, while his body held intact.
But then Taiyo slowly got back up onto both feet, much to Hama's shock at the sight of his resistance. Both hands were clenched and his face showing some exertion, but he was steadily overcoming the force applied by bloodbending. Hama redoubled her efforts to bloodbend him, yet it was like he only had very heavy weights placed on him. Taiyo sank up to his knees in the dirt, yet he stood up straight, fists rising up in spite of everything Hama put on him. He pulled his legs free one at a time, though with each step his feet broke soil again.
"How are you resisting my control?" Hama demanded.
Taiyo smirked. "Super strength, dense flesh, invulnerability, take your pick."
Hama took a step back in fear, but then strengthened her resolve. "Maybe I just need to try harder."
With more aggressive arm motions Hama put everything she had into her bloodbending, as well as focused the effects on Taiyo's chest. Sudden pain in his chest made Taiyo stumble forward, falling far enough to put one hand on the ground. Concentrated bloodbending worked to halt the water within his flesh, which Hama intended to stop his heart. Even then it still took far too long for Hama's liking, and she wondered what he was made of. She started to worry when Taiyo stared straight at her, not liking the look in his eyes.
Katara took a few steps to her left, getting out from behind Hama. "I'd duck if I were you."
A second later Hama learned why, seeing Taiyo's stare turn bright red. Fire shot from his eyes straight towards Hama, and immediately she lunged out of the way. The fire missed Hama and struck the trees behind her instead, setting the trees ablaze and adding red and orange light to the moonlit woods. Though the fire had missed the target it still achieved its goal, breaking Hama's concentration to stop her bloodbending. That allowed Taiyo to get back on his feet, freed from the grip of Hama's bloodbending.
Taiyo stared at Hama again. "Face it lady, you can't win this."
Starting to panic now, Hama reached towards Katara. "We're not finished."
Katara felt the bloodbending grab her, and screamed as she was yanked toward Hama. "Stop!"
Suddenly a solid wall appeared between them, and Hama was confused by the wall's bizarre green glow. "What the…"
"Get Away From My Sister!"
All eyes spotted Sokka flying towards them, his ring hand forward and creating the wall separating Katara from Hama. But when he got close he suddenly veered towards the burning trees, thrown off course by Hama's bloodbending. Sokka disappeared inside the flames, but then fell out of the fire without a scorch mark on him. A skintight green barrier shielded him from the heat and flames, which Sokka maintained as he started to hover in midair. His presence left Hama surrounded, seeing obstacles in three directions.
Now Hama was trembling. "What are you people?"
"Way out of your league," Sokka answered. He strengthened the green barrier around his body, and when Hama bloodbent Sokka again that barrier kept his body where he wanted it. "Three against one, all stronger than you, nothing you can do but give up."
Taiyo walked closer to Hama and crossed his arms. "I'd listen to him. You may be able to bend flesh, but you can't bend light."
Desperate for a way out, Hama reached for Katara one more time. But this time nothing happened. "What the…"
"You're not the only one that draws strength from the moon," Katara answered, standing tall in the moonlight. "My bending is stronger than yours. Your technique won't work on me anymore."
That's when Hama realized she was completely and utterly screwed, watching her three enemies closing in on her. "Uh Oh…"
"I've always wanted to say that."
Lachlan admitted to his desire to reference an old Gaoling novel, one that had eerie similarities to tonight. His attention went back to the task at hand and he walked closer to the revived corpse, which was still taking in that first breath of air. A sudden coughing fit overcame the body, in which it expelled smoke and ash from its ravaged lungs. Once the coughs were finished, the formerly dead body started to breath steadily, and a weak groan escaped his cracked and bleeding lips. As color slowly returned its flesh the body opened its eyes, the right one fully dilated while the left looked around.
Its blurry gaze settled on one familiar face, slowly bringing Lachlan into focus. "What have you done?"
"What was necessary," Lachlan answered. "We brought you back, Long Feng."
The former Dai Li leader lifted his left hand, which had surgical scars over implanted metal. "You did far more than that."
"Your body was severely damaged," Lachlan said. "We took the liberty of augmenting you."
Though his body was stiff, Long Feng sat upright and looked down. The eerie glow of the refined meteor rock in his chest reflected off his eyes. "Project Metallo… A melding of man and metal, this is fascinating work."
"The freak can't touch you now," Lachlan added.
"Even better," Long Feng said.
His legs ached as he slid them off the table, and his whole body burned as he put his weight on his feet. Still, where there was pain there was also strength, a kind that Long Feng had lacked in his previous life. A Dai Li agent approached with a fresh set of robes, which Long Feng quickly put on before looking at a mirror. The green fabric did little to hide the glow from his chest, nor could it hide the scars all over his hairless head. He didn't mind this altered appearance, as he wasn't one to go on strolls in public anyway.
Long Feng turned toward Lachlan. "Who is aware of what you've done?"
"Only the people in this room know you're back," Lachlan answered.
"Good." Long Feng took a moment to stretch his still stiff body, hearing many pops and cracks from his joints. "Now that I'm back among the living, will someone please fill me in on what's been going on?"
"So what'd you do with Hama?"
It was early morning and all five passengers were sitting in Appa's saddle, leaving behind the island and flying toward the next. Toph was curious about what had happened to the treacherous waterbender, having missed the entire confrontation while she had been freeing the prisoners. Aang had gotten there at the very end, and they weren't saying anything about it. Taiyo was looking away, Sokka eyed his ring, and Katara kept her eyes closed. Toph was still waiting for her answer, and after a long sigh Katara gave one.
"Let's just say she'll never bloodbend again."