A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews everyone and continuing to read my story. It means a lot and helps to keep me motivated. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday for whatever you celebrate!

The day before the mission, Aang had given Katara the case file on everything they had on Yakone. It looked like he was involved in some type of drug trade. Katara had heard that the drug game was quite rampant in Republic City, but she had no idea she would be dealing with it head on with the Avatar.

As she continued to read Yakone's file, she wondered why someone as powerful as Toph would turn to Aang in a situation like this. Everyone knew Toph was the greatest earthbender in the world and was always ready for a fight. What could cause the trepidation?

That is when her blood ran cold when she got to the part about his supposed victims. The coroners were completely baffled on how they died as none had any visible wounds or bruises. The only thing they had in common was their connection to Yakone.

Maybe there was some type of poison that was involved which made it impossible for the police to track. But then Toph's sources have told her that Yakone had unique waterbending abilities.

As a master waterbender, Katara had no clue what to make of the term "unique". Back in the South Pole, she studied all forms of waterbending whether it came from the North, South, or even in the Earth Kingdom swamps. She hasn't come across anything that would allow a waterbender to kill someone without leaving something tangible on the victim behind.

"What do you got there?" her brother asked walking into her living room where she had been looking over the file.

"It's a file on a suspect Aang is looking into. I'm helping him out tomorrow night tracking this guy down."

"Why would he need you?"

Katara rolled her eyes at her brother. "Gee, thanks for the boat of confidence."

"No seriously," he said while taking a seat next to her and snatching the file from her hands. "He's the Avatar, he can't take down one guy?"

"A: we are just going to do some surveillance on him and B: just because he's the Avatar, it doesn't mean he has to do everything alone."

Sokka continued to read the report and Katara could see the worry grow on his face.

"This guy sounds pretty dangerous. Maybe I should tag along too to be the backup's backup."

Katara snorted and looked at her brother amusingly. "No offense Sokka, but I am sure the Avatar and a master waterbender will be ok without your boomerang."

"I can still fight!" Sokka roared as he stood up.

"Of course you can," Katara said with a teasing smirk threatening her lips, "I'm just saying that if it comes down to a fight, I'm not so sure your boomerang will be enough to save you from whatever this guy is capable of."

If looks could kill, Sokka would be able to take out a whole army by himself.

"Oh come on, don't look at me like that! I'm just messing with you. I know you can handle yourself."

His scowl turned into a grin. "So I can go?"

"No," she answered immediately which caused him to sigh in defeat. "I already told you, it's just surveillance. The more people we bring along, the more attention we bring."

"Fine," he muttered and sat back down. "I guess you're right. Just don't do anything stupid ok?"

"I'll do my best," she said and gave him a wink.

Every second at the council the next day felt like a minute as Katara was filled with anticipation of her mission with Aang. She hadn't seen any real action in quite a while and sparring can only do so much to give her that rush that can only be attained in the real world. Granted, if things went smoothly, there wouldn't be any action, but still, it will be nice to get out there.

When she finally returned home for the day, she was still bouncing off the walls with energy. Aang had told her he would pick her up at 8pm and it was only 6. To pass the time, she decided to work on her hand to hand combat.

Even though she was one of the most prolific waterbenders in the world, she decided that she wanted to add more diversity to her skillset. Her brother had taught her everything he knew and while she would never become much of a threat solely as a nonbender, adding these skills to her waterbending mastery made her even more lethal. However, sometimes it felt good to just punch something to blow off steam without making too much of a ruckus like waterbending did.

So for the next hour, she had been striking a practice dummy Suki had given her. When the excitement had waned enough, she took a quick shower, made a pot of tea and stared at the door anticipating Aang's arrival. When the knock finally came, she bolted to the door.

Aang was a bit shocked at how fast she opened the door but smiled at his friend's eagerness.

"You ready?"

Katara nodded and was about to walk out when Aang put a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait before we go," he said while reaching into a bag and handing her a set of clothes, "put these on."

She was so eager to get out, she didn't even notice that Aang had been dressed completely different from his Air Nomad garb and mentally kicked herself in the head for not thinking it would be a good idea to dress differently to avoid detection.

Taking the clothes out of his grasp, she quickly went to change in her room. The clothes were super basic as they didn't have the aesthetic from any of the four nations' styles. This would allow them to blend into any scene they might run into. When she finished putting the clothes on and returned to the front door, she nearly doubled over in laughter when she caught a glance at Aang.

"Does it look that bad?" Aang asked while trying to adjust the black curly wig he had on his head.

While wiping tears from her eyes she observed the Avatar before providing her analysis. "Well, let's just say the wig doesn't do your good looks any favors."

His panicked expression turned into a smirk. "So you think I'm good looking?" he said with as much smugness as possible.

Katara's entire body stiffened and her entire face turned beet red when she realized she just got busted. "No," she replied immediately but realized how bad that sounded. "I mean maybe. What I was try to say was um…"

Aang decided to save her from further embarrassment. "I'm just teasing you Katara. But seriously, does it look bad enough make me noticeable?"

"The wig doesn't, but the blue arrow on your forehead seems like it will be a dead giveaway."

"Thanks for reminding me!" he said while digging into the bag until he pulled out a red headband and put it around his head. "Ta da! Normal guy. Better?"

She nodded. "Better."

The duo boarded Appa and were off towards their target. It was a full moon and the night couldn't have been any more beautiful. Aang explained to her that they'd land a few blocks from their destination to avoid detection and walk the rest of the way. They flew until Appa landed in one of the developing areas of Republic City which attracted the most criminal activity.

"This is it," Aang said as they approached a dingy bar after walking for a couple of minutes. "Toph told me there should be one of her officers already in the bar to make sure Yakone is still here. Apparently, he comes here pretty much every day."

They entered the bar and it was just as Katara had imagined it would be by judging it from the outside; sleezy. There were two guys arguing with each other who looked ready to kill each other at any moment, there was a couple in the corner that was dry humping each other and oblivious to the fact a creep was watching them and practically drooling over them, and finally, the whole placed reeked of some animal that must have died weeks ago.

She continued observing and noticed Aang locking eyes with a man. It must have been the undercover officer as Aang gave him a subtle nod which the man acknowledged and shifted his gaze towards a WaterTribe man who was drinking in a corner stool by himself. There was no doubt in Katara's mind that was Yakone.

He looked to be roughly her age and didn't look all that menacing. In fact, he looked completely out of place in a dump like this as he was dressed rather nicely in traditional WaterTribe clothing and had his hair slicked back with his face well groomed.

Aang nudged Katara to follow him. They walked towards the opposite end and took a seat on two stools that allowed them to easily see Yakone without him being able to see them.

The bartender walked over to them and Aang ordered two ales to make them look like regular customers.

For the next half hour, they patiently waited and Katara was starting to get antsy. She knew this mission was going to take time and patience, yet sipping on crappy ale and casually stealing glances at a random guy wasn't exactly what she thought was going to happen.

When Yakone finally got up from his seat, Katara's breathed hitched. Finally. Except instead of walking towards the exit, he walked straight towards her and Aang. She took one a quick glance at Aang who also saw what was happening.

"On my mark," he whispered into her ear, "pretend to giggle at a joke I just said. We need to make sure we look like regulars… Now!"

Katara gave the best fake laughter she could. Unfortunately for her and Aang, it was terrible and drew the attention of people nearby. By some miracle, Yakone didn't pay them any attention at all and walked right past them towards the restroom causing both benders to sigh in relief.

"I know Republic City Theater is looking for some actresses," Aang said softly enough for only Katara to hear, "but I wouldn't quit your day job if I were you."

"Come on, it wasn't that bad," Katara replied which prompted the airbender raise an eyebrow at her. "Ok fine! Maybe it wasn't the best fake laugh in the world, but at least it got the job done!"

"If the job was to make it seem like you have the most obnoxious laugh in the world to the entire bar than I guess you're right," he paused and gave her a few playful pats on the top of her head. "Good job."

"Can we just focus!" she hissed and stole a quick glance at the restroom. "For all we know there is some secret room he slipped into."

"No, he's still in there, and there isn't a secret room."

"How do you know that? Your special Avatar instincts?"

"Nope. Earthbending," he answered and noticed the confusion plastered on her face. "It's a technique Toph taught me. It kind of allows me to see things with my feet."

"Wow… that's actually super useful. So you can use it to sense people and things around you?"

"Yep. I can also use it to sense people's heartbeats."

"To tell people are lying?"

"That and other things like I can tell every time I come to talk to you in your office your heartbeat speeds up."

Katara spit out the ale back into her cup she had been sipping on and could do nothing but stare at her hands grasping the glass of ale. Was her affection of him that obvious to him? Before she could drown in her self-pity, Aang gave her a playful nudge on the shoulder.

"I'm just messing with you. I'm not as good as Toph when it comes to listening to people's heartbeats, so I don't use it unless it's super important. But if you're around Toph, she'll rat you out if there is any hint something is up with you."

She chuckled trying to play along, but was more relieved she hadn't been outed.

"He's leaving," Aang whispered getting them back on track.

They waited about thirty seconds before they proceeded to follow him. Thanks to Aang's seismic sense, they were able to stay well behind Yakone without him noticing anything fishy. Or so they thought. After about five minutes of walking, Yakone abruptly turned around and started to walk directly towards them.

Aang grabbed Katara by the wrist and dragged her into an alleyway.

"What do we do?!" Katara shrieked in a hushed tone.

Aang took a moment to answer trying to figure out the best way for them to get out of this mess before an idea struck. "Kiss me."

"What?!"

"Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable. He might steal a quick look, but when he sees what we're doing, he'll keep walking."

"Can't you just airbend us onto a roof or something?"

"I could but if he saw us and thinks we're up to something, we might blow our cover if he doesn't see us here. He will pass this alley in about ten seconds."

She knew he was right, but she'd much rather kiss him for real rather than these circumstances. "Umm… ok."

That was all Aang needed to crush his lips against hers. It took a moment for Katara to get over the shock, but a thought struck her. If this was all just for show, why not to give the performance of a lifetime? The waterbender aggressively threw her arms around Aang's neck and practically devoured his lips.

She smiled into the kiss when she felt Aang tense up, clearly surprised about the passion she brought. As the kiss got deeper, she felt his hands hesitantly grab her waist which prompted her to be a bit bolder by pressing her tongue to his bottom lip, begging permission to enter.

When he granted her request, she didn't waste time jamming her tongue in his mouth. Their tongues danced for a few moments before Aang disengaged.

"He's gone, I don't think he suspects anything," he whispered and looked at her unsure of what just transpired with his cheeks redder than a tomato.

"What?" she said nonchalantly while removing her arms from his neck, "I wanted to be extra careful and make it crystal clear what he saw so he wouldn't be suspicious."

"Right… good work," he mumbled and walked towards the main street.

Part of her was proud of herself for making Aang so flustered after what he had done to make her flustered earlier. The other part of her liked the taste of him and wanted more, a lot more. But those thoughts had to be put on the backburner because they had a job to do.

After trailing Yakone for a few blocks, the duo saw him enter a warehouse that was still under construction. The roof wasn't completed yet so Aang airbended them up and it allowed them to see what was going on.

Yakone was in there with two other men. They were just close enough to hear their conversation. While none of the men used any words that were concrete, it was clear to anyone with a brain they were conducting shady business that had to do with drugs. It was also clear that the two other men were afraid of Yakone and Katara could practically see them trembling from her vantage point.

"Should we do something?" Katara asked in a hushed tone.

"As much as I'd like to, we have nothing to pin on them yet. Hopefully there is some sort of transaction…"

Before he could finish his thought, they heard two blood curdling screams. Katara saw the two men levitating in the air, convulsing in pain while Yakone had his arms raised in the air pointing directly at the them.

In a blur, Aang leapt down and slammed Yakone through a wall with a powerful blast of airbending which caused the other two men to crash back into the floor. Katara used this opportunity to follow him and froze the two other men against a wall to keep them from running. When she got a closer look at them, she realized they weren't going anywhere as they were still in a lot of pain from whatever Yakone did to them.

She and Aang walked side by side in fighting stances as they approached the wall Yakone had been blasted through. That's when Katara felt it. She couldn't move an inch as her body no longer obeyed her commands. Katara glanced towards Aang and saw the same thing happening to him. Out of nowhere, Aang was sent flying towards the opposite direction and crashed through construction beams, knocking him unconscious.

Katara then heard a menacing laugh as Yakone emerged through the broken wall.

"I've been waiting for this Avatar, and nice disguise by the way. And who might you be?" he asked turning his eyes towards Katara, still having control over her.

At this point, Katara had no idea what to do. Aang was unconscious and Yakone somehow was manipulating her body against her will.

"I would think the Avatar would be man enough to face me alone, but I guess I overestimated him. Wait, your Master Katara the city's new councilwoman, aren't you? This day just got a whole lot better. I'm gonna put you both away for good!"

Yakone proceeded to contort Katara's body causing her to scream in agonizing pain. When it seemed like all hope was lost, Katara realized what was happening. He was bending her blood and she could literally feel it being it moved within her body.

On pure instinct, she was able to block him from controlling her causing her to fall back down to the ground with a thud. She looked up and saw Yakone's face filled with shock.

"It looks like you're not the only with this ability."

"That's… that's impossible. It took me years to be able to do this."

"Maybe you're not as good as you think you are," Katara said as she felt the blood coursing throughout his body and bended it to her will. She saw him squirm and cry out in pain.

It was an intoxicating feeling to control him like this. She reveled the sight of him being her puppet, unable to do anything unless she allowed it. This man was a monster and had to be dealt with.

She continued to bend his blood and contort his body in unimaginably painful ways. Katara had so much adrenaline running, her ears were ringing and the only thing she could focus on was the blood pumping throughout Yakone's veins.

As she was about to finish him, she was encased in an earth dome up to her neck that made her stop. It also snapped her out of the trance she was in and realize it was Aang who had trapped her. He gave her a blank expression as he walked over to Yakone and encased him in an earth dome as well.

Aang put one thumb on Yakone's forehead and one thumb on his heart. Katara then saw his eyes and tattoos glow to a blinding light for a few seconds before returning to normal. The earth domes trapping her and Yakone were lowered and Aang stumbled a few steps backwards.

"What did you do to me?" Yakone asked completely fatigued by everything that just happened.

"I took away your bending. For good."

He then earthbended some cuffs on him before turning his attention back to Katara. "Are you alright?" he asked in a gentle tone.

Katara didn't have the courage to meet his gaze. She would've killed Yakone if Aang hadn't stopped her. While she wasn't afraid of violence, this was something entirely different and she was disgusted with herself by what she was capable of.

"Why don't I call Appa so he can take you home. I'll take care of everything here and I'll check on you tomorrow morning. How does that sound?"

Still unable to look him the eyes, Katara gave him a small nod. He then took a whistle from his pocket and blew into it to signal his best friend. Appa arrived within a minute and Aang gently put an arm around her shoulder and guided her to the bison. He airbended them up and placed her in the saddle before jumping back down.

"Take her to her home buddy."

Appa roared in acknowledgement and soared into the air leaving Katara alone to think about the horrors of what just transpired.