Chapter 37: The endless dance of good and evil

The wind began to pick up. It made a sad, wailing noise. Katara blinked. Behind her eyelids, she saw her pasts, like how one sees ghosts. That is what Katara's memories were. Substanceless forms. Whenever she tried to toss them away and rid herself of her demons, they simply floated back on a sunny, summer's breeze.

But now there is no more summer, only an eternity of nothing. If Robert wins, she thought to herself as she opened her eyes.

Enough. Enough of this. LIght and power welled up inside of Katara's heart and soul, and it poured out of her eyes in beams of light. She glowed, like a lamp post in the middle of a dark, rainy street. A symbol of hope. Alone but unafraid, standing tall, facing the limitless sky and the towering sponge, who was advancing closer. His footfalls shook the ground, and a dull thud corresponded to each step. The wind picked up, and Katara began to float, her hair whipped around her head like a dark halo.

Robert grinned. Clouds, the color of wet charcoal began to gather around Katara, darkening the sky even further. She was now high in the air. She thrust her hammer into the sky, and with a crack louder than any of Robert's footsteps had been, a bolt of lightning traveled to her hammer in a millisecond, painting itself brightly into the dark sky like a white vein, flowing with pure electricity. As if the lightning was a bright crack, breaking open the great urn of the sky, cold, sharp rain began to pour. The wind blew like a tornado. Thunder crashed; gunshots over their heads.

Robert raised his head to the heavens. Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Zuko were too far away to see Robert's expression, but they couldn't imagine how someone could see Katara and not run for their lives. But Robert didn't run. Instead, he smiled.

SO. THE THUNDER GOD WHO COMMANDS THE SKIES AND THE WINDS AND THE RAINS PRESENTS HERSELF TO ME, AS A SUPPOSEDLY WORTHY OPPONENT? BUT YOU ARE HIDING, UP THERE IN THE SKY. COME DOWN. YOU ARE THE GOD OF A TIME I SLAUGHTERED WITH MY BARE HANDS. EVEN NOW, YOU EXPIRE AND YOU KNOW IT. COME DOWN. FACE ME. FACE ME, KATARA, GODDESS OF THE SKIES, COME FACE ME, ON THIS HELL WHICH WAS ONCE THE EARTH. I'M AFRAID THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD THAT CAN BRING YOU AN HONORABLE, WORTHY, WARRIOR'S DEATH. BUT NEVERTHELESS, COME DOWN SO I CAN KILL YOU. THIS WORLD'S TIME HAS COME, AND SO HAS YOURS.

But Katara did not come down. She seemed to shake with fury, as the rain came faster and faster, now in icy darts.

"Do not tell me it is thy right to end this world, thee vile creature of misery. Thou art no god of hell, thou art vermin! It is thy time to end!" Katara boomed. Her voice was layered as if she had 100 mouths, all speaking in unison. She spun her hammer. Water ran down her, and she shone like a jewel in the lightning flashes.

YOU POSSESS THE POWER OF THE THUNDER GOD. YOU POSSESS THE HAMMER. YOU SPEAK LIKE THE THUNDER GOD, YOU ARE DRESSED LIKE THE THUNDER GOD, AND YOU CLAIM TO BE MY EQUAL, AS SO MANY GODS HAVE BEFORE. SO, TELL ME, CHILD, FOR CHILD YOU MUST BE, WHY DO I SENSE FEAR AND HESITATION IN YOU? IS IT YOUR FRIENDS, HIDING AMONG THE ROCKS? I SUPPOSE YOU WERE ALL SENT BY THE COUNCIL. PATHETIC FOOLS, I WILL KILL THEM HARDER NEXT TIME I SEE THEM.

He laughed again, taking out his Spatula. It glinted in the guts-red light, sharp as a razor.

YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE THEIR PAWNS, YES? THEY GAVE YOU THIS POWER AND TOLD YOU THAT YOU ARE WORTHY. BUT YOU HESITATE. IT IS NOT YOUR FRIENDS YOU WORRY FOR. YES… I SENSE YOU ALREADY STRIVE TO LET THE FADE LIKE SHADOWS IN THE MORNING. IS IT THAT YOU SECRETLY WISH THEY WOULD DISAPPEAR? TELL ME, WOULD IT BE HELPFUL IF I KILLED THEM FIRST? SO YOU COULD BE AT YOUR BEST WHEN IT'S YOUR TURN TO DIE? AT YOUR TRUE BEST, UNENCUMBERED BY THE WEIGHT OF THOSE WEAKER THAN YOURSELF? PERHAPS THAT WOULD MAKE YOUR DEATH MORE HONORABLE.

Katara could feel the panic behind her eyes. Wet as the rain, Katara willed it to not trickle down her cheeks. Robert could smell her fear, the way a chinchilla smells oil paint.

"You knoweth nothing, filth," Katara said. She felt the world shake, or maybe it was just her.

Robert laughed again.

ENOUGH OF THIS. YOU HAVE REFUSED MY GENEROUS OFFER; COME DOWN SO I CAN KILL YOU. THEN I WILL KILL YOUR FRIENDS. LET'S GET IT, BOIS.

If Katara hadn't flown at Robert at that moment, she was sure she would have lost her nerve, and fallen to the earth like a meteorite. Perhaps she had underestimated Robert. Robert was a formidable physical foe, but now Katara realized: it was his intelligence and chinchillesque cunning that made him so terrifying. He knew how to get into the minds of those he wished to kill. He could put someone in their own living hell before killing them. He could rip the secrets that cause his victims to lie awake at night, and use them against them. Now she remembered all of it, all she had experienced when she first faced Robert.

A.N: IN CHAPTER ONE REMEMBER?

Perhaps Robert's magic had caused her to forget. An unfortunate twist of fate. But she remembered it now anyways, so no harm, no foul, right?

Katara flew at Robert, hammer headed right for his large, spongey face. She wanted to wallop him like a seven page muda.

A.N: KATARA IS GIORNO?

But Robert simply held up his hand, blocking Katara. The impact knocked Katara to the hard, gravel ground, landing hard on her side. Cuts and scratches sprouted from her skin on the impact. Blood began to trickle. Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Zuko could not see these wounds, but they knew that a fall like that must have caused her injury.

The flat, hot terrain seemed to spin around Katara. She tried to lift her hammer, but her shoulder protested, screeching with pain like an angry zebra.

THIS IS JUST SAD. THE COUNCIL OF LIONS IS CRUELER THAN I, SENDING A CHILD TO FACE ME. THEY ARE COWARDS.

Katara ran at Robert and landed a blow as devestating as an economic downturn on his spongey face. He stepped back, reeling from the blow.

I SEE I CANNOT LET MY GUARD DOWN QUITE YET… VERY WELL.

Grinning, he pulled his fist back and slammed it into the ground where Katara had been a moment before. The dirt cracked open, down, down, hundreds of meters down, and fire licked up through the crack, fire turning dirt to glass where it touched.

Katara got back up. Even if she was to die, she would die fighting.

Katara did a flying kick and kicked Robert in the shin and he yelled cause it hurt and then he punched her in the jaw and she cried. Robert grabbed Kataras leg and threw her into the ground again. Then he did the same thing again. And again. Katara croaked, trying to speak. But something terrifying was happening. She began to drif off more and more everytime she was thrown into the dirt. She was losing. She could feel it. It was like drowning in the juice of failure. Her friends, as the looked, could feel it too.