Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA or any of it's characters. The only thing I own is my OC.

The Six Rules:

Rule Number One: Alec won't warn the Gaang about things in advance or solve their problems for them, with a few rare exceptions.

Rule Number Two: Only Alec has the right to tell people his true origins, and he will mostly limit this to group members. He will tell new group members his secret as soon as they join the Gaang.

Rule Number Three: There are some changes Alec wants to make, and he will use his knowledge of the future to make those changes.

Rule Number Four: Sometimes, to make a change, Alec will act in a way that doesn't make sense. If that's necessary, he'll tell the Gaang "I need you to absolutely trust me." After he says that, the Gaang has to either do whatever he asks or leave him to do what he needs to do.

Rule Number Five: After a change happens, Alec will tell the Gaang what happened in the original story, in the interest of transparency.

Rule Number Six: If a major change happens that Alec doesn't expect, the Gaang will have a meeting ASAP. In this meeting, Alec will break Rule One and tell them all relevant information that will help them figure out how to respond to the change.

Chapter 40:

Rage

Ty Lee POV

I'd never seen Azula this happy before. She was petting Shul and smiling brightly. Her aura was almost pinker than mine.

"We're almost at the island, if I read the map right," Sokka reported from his spot on Appa's head. "We should look for a spot to spend the night when we get there. The sun's getting low."

We saw the island on the horizon a few minutes later. Aang and Katara bent some clouds around us for cover. I looked down through the clouds. The island was fairly round, with two mountains. It looked like about a third of it was a village, the second third was farmland, and the final third was uninhabited wilderness. Sokka took us down to the wilderness section. After we landed, Toph jumped out of the saddle and pointed up one of the mountains. "There's a cave that way," she said. "It's big enough for Appa, and it's got a river running through it."

We made our way up the mountain and found the cave in question. It was definitely large. A small chamber in the front opened up to a large chamber with a big pool of water with a river flowing in and out of the pool. There was a third, smaller chamber in the back of the cave we could use for changing.

I turned to Mai. "Is this the right island?" I asked.

Mai nodded.

"Where's the tower?" Alec asked.

"It's on the peak of the other mountain, close to the village," Mai answered. "If you use your spyglass, you should be able to see it from here."


Alec POV

While the others unpacked, Sokka and I took our spyglasses and went to the mouth of the cave. We aimed them at the peak of the other mountain and took a look.

Sokka whistled. "That's a problem," he admitted.

"You got that right," I agreed.

The tower was a huge, four-walled structure of steel. Torches burned on all corners of the building, and the surrounding forest had been cut back almost a hundred feet away from the tower. I couldn't see how we could approach undetected. Guards patrolled the perimeter, too many to slip past. The tower did have windows, but they were too high off the ground to climb in. I saw messenger hawks occasionally fly into an opening on the roof. At first glance, this place looked impenetrable.

"We need to go back and tell them what we found," Sokka said.

I put my spyglass away. "Yeah."


Ty Lee POV

Alec and Sokka came back. Their faces were frowning and their auras were orange. I ran over to him. "What is it?" I asked. I didn't like seeing him like this.

Alec looked me in the eye. "We need to talk."

Everyone sat down around a fire while Katara and I got dinner ready. "Sokka and I looked at the tower," Alec said. "The security is really tight. I doubt we could get in without being seen. And that's only because of the security they have on the outside. I don't know what they have inside."

Mai grinned triumphantly. "I already thought about that," she said. "I have a plan."

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "How can we get past a platoon of guards when we have nowhere to hide from them?" A flash of realization crossed his face. "And even if we do, won't they notice that their records have been stolen?"

Mai turned to him. "They keep two kinds of records in that tower," she said. "The originals, and the copies. New copies get made all the time. Nobody would bat an eye if they went missing."

"We still have to get in," Suki said. "How do we do that?"

Mai turned to Toph. "They keep the records in the lowest level of the basement."

Toph grinned.


Toph and Aang used earthbending to dig a tunnel starting from the back of our cave, slowly digging our way towards the tower. Alec, Azula, and Zuko held flames to provide light. The rest of Team Avatar followed behind, minus the animals, who we left in the cave. "If this works, we'll have about two months until the eclipse," Katara noted. "What should we do between now and then?"

"I have an idea," Azula offered. "Father has become obsessed with the war. He's been ignoring petitions from citizens as a result."

"So?" Sokka asked.

"So, when we win, those petitions will become Zuko's problem," Azula elaborated. "I know of two active ones that Father's currently ignoring. We could take care of the problems before we win and have fewer problems to deal with once Zuko takes over."

"What problems?" Alec asked.

"First, there's a fishing village called Jang Hui in one of the outer islands," Azula said. "Their river is being polluted."

Alec nodded. "And the other?"

"Tokido Island in the north is having a problem that might require Aang's intervention," Azula said.

Alec frowned. "What makes you say that?"

"The locals think a spirit is angry with them," Azula replied. "People keep disappearing during the full moon."

Alec's fire shot up briefly. I could see his eyes widen and his jaw clench. His aura was a weird mix of black and yellow. He was scared and…guilty? What was going on here? "Alec, what's wrong?" I asked.

He closed his eyes and took deep breaths. "I'd rather not say," he answered, not making eye contact. "Rule One."

"Are you sure, Hand Slicer?" Toph said, turning around to face him. Her eyebrows were drawn together and she tilted her head to the side. "It felt like you had a heart attack for a second there."

He nodded firmly. "I'm sure."

I was scared. I'd never seen Alec like that before. What kind of spirit could scare him?


About an hour later, Toph held up a hand telling everyone to stop. "This is it," she said. "We're right outside the basement."

She smacked her hand against the tunnel and some rock fell away, revealing a wall made of steel. "Is anyone in there right now?" Alec asked.

She held her hand against the wall and shook her head. "No," she reported. "There are two guards outside, but the door is thick. As long as we don't make a lot of noise, we'll be fine."

Toph spread her arms, opening a hole in the wall. The wall didn't tear open, though. It was more like it melted. We ended up in a room with several cabinets. "Spread out and look for the one labelled 'Active War Prison Copies'," Mai whispered. "That has what we're looking for."

Zuko found a cabinet and opened it. It was labeled 'Active Maximum Security Copies'. "Wrong one," I whispered.

"I'm looking for something else," he replied. He took two files from the cabinet and put them in his bag.

"Over here!" Aang whispered. He found the cabinet in question.

Mai nodded. "Empty it out, and let's get out of here."

We all stuffed our bags full of files. Once we were certain the cabinet was empty, we left the way we came. Toph sealed up the wall, leaving it as smooth as if we'd never been there.

"Huh," Alec said.

"What?" Mai asked.

"I was expecting a difficult heist, you know," he said with a shrug. "A race against time, guards around every corner, something like that. Not just walking in, taking the files, and walking out."

Toph grinned. "They didn't expect a metalbender," she said. She turned to Aang. "Let's collapse the tunnel behind us, just to be safe."


Mai POV

When we got back to the cave, we began pouring over the records.

"This is a lot of information," Suki noticed.

"The Fire Nation likes keeping meticulous records," I said with a smirk. "I think it's a matter of honor for them."

Alec frowned at the file he was looking at. "If that's the case, why don't they have the names of most of the prisoners?" he asked.

Zuko winced. "They don't bother learning the names of prisoners of war unless they were a commander or something," he said. "Why bother learning someone's name or where they're from if they're never going home?"

Katara looked sad. "Spirits, that's awful."

Sokka pulled out a file almost as thick as his wrist. "Why are these things so thick?" he complained.

"Every file contains a map of where the prison is in the Fire Islands, a schematic of the prison, what kind of prisoners the prison takes, a roster listing how many prisoners and how many guards they had for every year, and all the incident reports for the history of that prison," I explained. "The incident reports take up a lot of paper."

Sokka cocked his head. "Incident reports?"

"Reports of escape attempts or successful escapes," I elaborated. "Let me give you an example." I pulled a thinner file labelled 'Water's Wail' from my bag. I flipped over to the incident reports section. There was only one sheet of paper in it. I wasn't expecting what I saw.

"Incident Report

Date of Incident: 14th day, 6th Month, City Of Righteousness Tiger Year

Number of Prisoners Involved: REDACTED

Result: REDACTED

Details: REDACTED BY ORDER OF FIRE LORD AZULON, ONLY AVAILABLE TO FIRE NATION INTELLIGENCE"

I frowned. "That's strange," I said. "There's only one report. It's from thirty years ago, and it's redacted."

"Why's that strange?" Zuko asked.

"The reason they write incident reports is so they can figure out how to prevent future escapes," I explained. "You can't learn anything if the records are sealed."

Alec blinked a few times. "What kind of prison is that?" he asked with a shaky voice.

I looked at the file. "It's called Water's Wail. It's the prison designed to hold captured waterbenders."

Katara swallowed. Sokka looked down at the ground and shook his head. "What kind of incident would the Fire Lord redact?" Azula wondered, tapping her chin in thought.

I flipped to the roster. "I'm pretty sure it was a successful escape," I said, pointing at the roster. "Look here. When it happened, the prison had forty prisoners. Afterwards, they had thirty-nine. They picked up a new prisoner six years ago. Maybe they got that escaped prisoner back."

Alec's hands began clenching and unclenching. "They didn't," he said, his voice eerily calm. I saw his arms shaking. Ty Lee inched slowly away from him, which I didn't think she would ever do. He stood up suddenly. "Give me a second."

He walked to the small, third chamber of the cave. "Should we go after him?" Katara asked, moving to stand up.

"No!" Ty Lee shouted suddenly, grabbing Katara's arm. "His aura is blood red! He's furious! He probably went there to be alone to…"

Alec's voice suddenly rang out from the third chamber. "That short-sighted…bloodthirsty…revenge-obsessed…CUNT!" he roared, a bright flash of orange punctuating that last word.

Everyone was on edge. Katara turned pale, probably a reaction to both Alec's rage and his word choice. Ty Lee held onto Ved like he was her lifeline. Zuko tensed. Azula crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side. Shul and Momo hid behind her and Aang, respectively. The older dragons growled, but didn't move. Toph raised an eyebrow. "The fuck was that about?"

"He probably won't tell us what set him off," Sokka added. "Wait, maybe we could send a hawk to Ursa to ask Rezok what he knows about this."

"Don't bother."

We turned around and saw Alec standing there. His muscles were tense, but he seemed to have calmed down a little. He held up his hands and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry about that," he apologized. He sat down back in his spot and took a breath. "I'm breaking Rule One. I'll tell you what that incident is, and what made me mad."


Alec POV

I couldn't believe I was about to spill one of my biggest secrets. I took a deep breath and looked at Mai. "You were right about the report," I said, forcing myself to stay calm. "There was a successful escape thirty years ago."

"Why would you get mad about that?" Katara asked, tilting her head.

"Because I didn't know that there are other prisoners still there," I said, feeling heat rushing through my body. "I always thought that when that person escaped, she was the only prisoner still alive. I thought she might have broken out and killed all the guards in the process to cover her tracks, but it looks like I was wrong."

"She?" Suki asked with a tilt of her head.

"Her name is Hama," I said. "She's about Gran Gran's age. I'm pretty sure she's a friend of Gran Gran's, or at least she knew Gran Gran."

"Are you sure they didn't catch her again six years ago?" Mai asked.

I nodded grimly. "I'm certain," I replied. "I know where she is, and what she's been up to. I don't know who that new prisoner could be. Maybe someone from the Foggy Swamp Tribe wandered outside the swamp and got caught."

Sokka shrugged. "I guess we'll find out who they are when we bust them out," he said. "But are you mad at Hama for not breaking out the other prisoners when she escaped, or for not going back and breaking them out later?"

"Both."

"But why?" Zuko asked. "I know benders are powerful, but can you really expect her to risk her neck to save the others by herself?"

"Oh yes I can, knowing how powerful she is," I growled, feeling my anger spike. "All she had to do was come back on a full moon, take out the guards, and break them all out. It would've been easy for her."

"How did she even escape?" Mai wondered. "And why did the Fire Lord redact the report?"

I looked at Katara seriously. "Remember when I told you there was a waterbending technique so evil I wouldn't tell you about it, and I would do everything in my power to prevent other people from finding out about it?"

Katara's eyes widened. "Are you going to tell us now?" she asked. "Why?"

My shoulders slumped. I looked into the fire, not meeting anyone's gaze. "Because there's no point in hiding it anymore," I said, my voice almost completely monotone. "There are other waterbenders in that prison, meaning that other waterbenders saw that technique and now know it's possible. There's also an incident report, meaning that the guards she used the technique on survived. Too many witnesses."

"Enough already," Azula said, crossing her arms and scowling. "What is this technique?"

I didn't take my eyes off the fire. "In Water's Wail, they pump in dry air to prevent the prisoners from pulling water out of the air and bending it, and they chain up the prisoners whenever they give them a drink," I said. "Hama felt the full moon giving her power every month, and came up with an idea. Wherever there's life, there's water. She realized that the rats scurrying around on the floor were nothing more than waterskins on legs."

I could see the realization and horror dawning on everyone's face in my peripheral vision. I kept talking. "She spent years honing the technique on rats that would lead to her escape…" I shuddered. "Bloodbending. Controlling the water in a living body and making it move according to your will. Once Hama mastered the rats, she used it on the guards, controlling them like puppets. She forced the guards to unlock her cell and walked out of the prison." I scowled. "And she left behind all those other waterbenders to suffer."

"Controlling someone else by bending their blood…" Katara whispered. "That sounds so…wrong."

"Is it?" Azula asked with a tilt of her head. "It sounds like she only used it to escape prison."

"If that was all she used it for, I wouldn't have a problem," I said. "She's been busy since she broke out."

"What's she been up to?" Sokka asked.

I looked at Azula. "She owns an inn on Tokido Island," I said. "Every full moon, she uses bloodbending to kidnap a local villager and lock them up underground."

"She's the spirit," Azula realized.

"That's why you freaked out when Azula told you about the disappearances," Ty Lee said with wide eyes. "You knew what was happening."

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Why would she do something like that?" Suki whispered.

"She wants revenge, and she's insane," I said. I took a breath. "I called bloodbending inherently evil for two reasons. First, there's what you can do with it. You can make someone walk off a cliff, you can make them cut their own throat, you could even make them butcher their loved ones while they're powerless to resist." I looked around the group. "But there's another reason. In the entire history of this world, past and future, there were a total of five people I know of that could bloodbend. Of those five, four of them went either evil or crazy, depending on your interpretation of their actions. The one who didn't only used bloodbending twice, and never used it again. I don't know if bloodbending made them that way, but that looks like a pattern to me."

Sokka looked at me seriously. "Alec, what was your plan to keep bloodbending hidden?" he asked with a grim tone.

"I was going to find Hama, put on a disguise, follow her at night to where she kept her prisoners, kill her, and let the prisoners out," I said. "Then I would have told you all that she was using an evil waterbending technique, and asked you to trust me."

"That plan was reckless, stupid, and pointless," Azula said bluntly, glaring at me.

I narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean, pointless?"

"Even if there weren't other prisoners still alive in Water's Wail, Hama's been kidnapping villagers," Azula pointed out. "Wouldn't they figure out she's a waterbender?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. In the story, the villagers never said she was a waterbender, they just said she was a witch. I was hoping if I killed her and freed them, they wouldn't ask too many questions."

Sokka gave me a deadpan look. "That was your plan?" he asked with a voice full of disbelief.

I held up my hands. "I never said it was a good plan. It was just the best plan I came up with."

"You're lucky you didn't do it," Katara said quietly. "If you killed a member of the Southern Water Tribe, you'd be in a lot of trouble. She's committed crimes, but none of them were against Water Tribe citizens."

"How about 360 counts of neglect?" I challenged. Neglect was a catch-all charge for a variety of crimes in the Southern Water Tribe. It was a serious charge, and covered everything from not feeding your kid to not helping someone under attack if you're a fighter.

"Neglect?" Sokka asked.

"She didn't make any effort in the past thirty years to break the others out of that prison," I growled. "Instead, she's been kidnapping innocent people for shits and giggles. Hama's almost unstoppable during a full moon. Unless Water's Wail has a thousand guards, she could have broken the other waterbenders out easily. If they didn't want to go with her because they thought bloodbending was going too far, she could have just killed the guards, unlocked the doors, and left."

"How did you get the 360 number?" Suki asked.

"Twelve full moons a year, and she escaped thirty years ago," I said. "Besides, giving her the Mark and exiling her from the Water Tribe wouldn't work. She would just go back to the Fire Nation to hurt more people. She's too dangerous to leave alive. We need to take her down soon, or she might get stronger."

"How strong is she now?" Toph asked.

I frowned. "It depends," I said after a few seconds. "When it isn't the night of a full moon, most of us could take her in a one-on-one fight. But if it is the night of a full moon, only Katara or Aang could beat her."

The suggestion that Katara or Aang had an advantage over her seemed to ruffle Azula's feathers. "Why just those two?" she asked with crossed arms.

"The only ways to beat a bloodbender are with a stronger waterbender or the Avatar State," I replied. "If anyone else tried to fight her on the full moon, she'd just use us as puppets against each other."

"Alec," Katara said quietly, "can't you just talk her down?" Her tone was desperate. She didn't want to kill anyone from the Water Tribe.

I shook my head. "You tried to talk her down in the original story, and it didn't work," I answered. "It would be like trying to talk down Kuda."

Katara and Sokka nodded sadly at the name. The others looked at us questioningly. "Who's Kuda?" Ty Lee asked.

"Kuda is…was a polar bear dog who lived in the tundra near our village," Katara said. "About three months after Alec showed up, Kuda started walking towards the village. Sokka looked at him through his spyglass and saw that he had foaming-mouth sickness."

"As soon as I saw that, Alec and I made everyone hide in Gran Gran's igloo while we took Kuda down with spears to protect everyone," Sokka continued, shaking his head sadly. "Kuda used to be gentle, but we had to stop him to protect people."

"We burned the body right then and there just to be safe," I concluded.

Ty Lee looked sad. She loved animals. Mai looked at me. "What should we do?"

"We need to save those people Hama captured, and we need to stop her from harming anyone else," I said firmly.

Nobody spoke for a long time. Then Sokka took a breath. "I have a plan."


The next morning, we departed for Tokido Island. I held the reins while Sokka, Zuko, and Mai poured over the prison records and marked their locations on Sokka's map. Aang and Katara, as usual, bent cloud cover around us.

"I found him!" Zuko exclaimed from the saddle about four hours into the flight.

"What?" I asked.

"I know where Uncle is!" Zuko explained excitedly.

"That's great!" Aang replied. "Where is he?"

Zuko's enthusiasm disappeared. "He's in Hari Bulkan Prison," Zuko groaned in defeat. "That's right in the caldera where the city and the palace are. We can't break him out during the eclipse. It's too risky."

I smirked. "You won't have to," I said over my shoulder. "Iroh's strong enough to break out on his own."

"You're serious?" Azula asked skeptically.

"Yeah," I said. "He'll be fine."

I saw a blot of land in the distance. "Sokka, is that the island?" I asked.

He came up and looked at the place. "Yeah, that should be it," he confirmed. "Let's get ready to land."


Ty Lee POV

Sokka's plan was simple. Hama most likely checked on her prisoners at night, so we would spring them during the day. After we let the prisoners out, we'd hide them somewhere safe until Hama came back, then we'd capture Hama and take her to the ship where Hakoda and the others were. After the eclipse, she'd be taken back to the Southern Water Tribe to face justice.

After we landed, we found a cave about halfway up the slope of the local mountain. We decided to set up there, and leave the animals where they wouldn't be seen.

Alec turned to Toph. "Can you sense anything?" he asked.

She stomped her foot on the ground and concentrated. "Yeah, there's a cave at the foot of the mountain that has a bunch of people in it."

Alec nodded. "That's gotta be it. Let's go." He turned to the rest of us. "Everybody remember our cover story?"

"Yes, but it's a bad one," Azula grumbled.

Alec grinned. "I don't think these people will look a gift ostrich horse in the mouth."


Toph led us down the mountain to the cave. Along the way, we found another empty cave that Toph said we should use to hide the villagers until Hama showed up. Once we found the right cave, we made our way slowly inside, keeping our guard up.

The tunnel sloped down, and looked like it went on for miles. Alec, Zuko, Aang, and Azula lit fires in their hands, causing orange and blue light to dance along the wall. It took us so far into the mountain that I wondered if we were going to end up in the center of it. Suddenly, Toph stopped. "Fucking spirits…" she whispered. Her aura turned pitch black. She took a step backward. Her blind eyes widened.

"Toph, what is it?" Katara asked, her brow wrinkling.

Toph shook her head. "This…she…how…" She couldn't even talk in complete sentences. She swallowed and pulled herself together. "It's not gonna be pretty." She started walking again, and we followed. What could have scared Toph that much?

A few minutes later, we found a metal door with torches on either side. Alec swallowed. "This is it," he whispered. He turned to Azula. "Turn your fire off, we can't explain that away."

Azula nodded and snuffed out her flames. Toph held her hand out to Mai. "Give me a knife."

Mai raised her eyebrows. "Why?"

"They're being held in shackles. I need some metal to make a key."

Mai pulled a small stiletto out of her sleeve and handed it to Toph. Toph stomped and thrust her hands out, breaking down the door and revealing another tunnel. We made our way through and rounded a corner.

Then we saw them. About a dozen people with dirty, ratty clothes with their arms shackled above their heads. Some of them were our age or even younger. We smelled human waste. Hama probably didn't even let them use a hole in the ground. They looked up and saw us. "We're saved!" a man gasped in relief.

Toph wasted no time running around and unshackling the prisoners. The first woman Toph unshackled rubbed her wrists. "Who are you people?"

"We're a mercenary group," Azula explained. "The government put a bounty on finding the missing villagers and figuring out what happened to them."

The sad thing is, 'mercenary group' was the best excuse any of us came up with when we made the plan. The woman nodded. "It was the innkeeper, Hama," she explained. "She seems like a normal old woman, but she controls people like some dark puppetmaster!"

Zuko nodded. "Don't worry, we have a plan. We can get you all to a safe place, and set a trap for her. We'll restrain her and take her to Hari Bulkan for trial."

Alec looked around the room and frowned. "Is this all of you?" he asked. "We were under the impression that a lot more people went missing."

The woman gulped and pointed over her shoulder to a previously-unseen door in the back of the cave. "She didn't just kidnap people on the full moon," she muttered. "She also would take one of us at random into that room. Nobody who went in ever came out."

Toph shoved something into Alec's hand. "Here's a key for that door," she said. "I'll take the people to safety and come back. I already know what's in there." She shuddered. "Villagers, follow me."

Toph led the villagers out of the cave. Alec looked at the door and took a breath. He walked slowly to it and unlocked it with the key. He swung it open.

A horrible smell came rushing out and almost knocked us off our feet. We coughed and gagged. When Alec recovered, he held his nose and held up the fire in his hand to take a look through the doorway. He recoiled with wide eyes, and took a step back. Azula conjured her own flame and moved past him to take a look, but she froze before she made it through the door.

"You all need to see this," she whispered.

She and Alec entered the room and stepped away from the doorway to let us join them. As soon as I stepped through, the things I saw made me feel like I had jumped into a tub full of ice.

Bodies.

There must have been at least a hundred of them. All shackled to the wall like the other prisoners, still wearing their normal clothes. They looked like skeletons, but not quite. Their skin was dry and black, and tight over their bones. The worst part was the posture they were in. All of them had their mouths pulled back in what looked like an agonized scream.

I focused on one body in particular. It looked like a boy. By his height, he couldn't have been more than nine or ten years old. His mouth pulled open in a silent scream, and his eye sockets long empty. How could someone do this to a child?

For the longest time, nobody moved. We all just stared at the horrible sight with wide eyes and open mouths. Then I leaned over and threw up on the floor. Alec ran over and held my braid so I wouldn't get vomit on it. "We need to get out of this room," Alec said.


Everyone went back into the other room and Alec closed the door behind us. Everyone slumped down in a circle, not wanting to believe what we saw.

Nobody spoke for a long time. Finally, Suki shook her head. "That was…" she trailed off.

"Awful," Sokka finished.

"I didn't know Hama was doing this," Alec admitted in a shaky voice.

"You saw?"

We lifted our heads and saw Toph walking back into the room. She sat down in the circle with us.

"Yeah, we saw," Aang said with a shudder. "What happened to them? I've never seen a body that looks like that."

"I have," Alec said quietly.

Everyone turned to him. "Where?"

"In museums where I come from," he said. "Those bodies look just like the mummies."

I was confused. "Mommies?"

He shook his head and laughed bitterly. "No, mummies," he corrected. "There was an ancient civilization that believed you needed your body intact to do well in the afterlife. They used a bunch of different methods to make sure dead bodies didn't decay for a long time. One of the things they did was dry out the body."

"What are you saying?" Azula asked.

Alec closed his eyes. "I'm saying Hama pulled all the blood and other liquids out of their bodies while they were still alive."


Alec POV

After I said that, everyone looked even more disgusted and horrified than they already were, if that was possible. Zuko swallowed. "We need to change the plan," he said firmly.

Sokka looked at him. "Change it how?"

"We just thought Hama was kidnapping people, Sokka," Zuko replied. "But now that we know she's been murdering people, we can't let her live." He took a deep breath. "As the rightful Fire Lord, I sentence Hama to death for crimes against my people."

Sokka and Katara looked shocked. Execution was extremely rare in the Water Tribes. The worst punishment a person could normally get was exile to the tundra after they were given the Mark of the Disgraced. Granted, the result was likely the same as an execution, but still. Sokka recovered from his surprise and shook his head. "We can't let the Fire Nation execute a Water Tribeswoman." He turned to me. "Alec, tell him."

I shook my head. "I'm not gonna try to change his mind," I said. "I agree with him."

"This could be a nightmare," Sokka said. He looked at Azula. "It wouldn't look good if the new Fire Lord executed a member of the Southern Water Tribe."

Azula nodded. "Good to know you were paying attention during lessons," she replied. She turned to Aang. "It might help if the Avatar gave his opinion."

Aang looked between the two groups and swallowed. "I'll defer to the judgement of the group," he said.

Azula narrowed her eyes at him and gave out a cough that sounded a lot like, "Coward."

An idea occurred to me. "I have a plan."


Third Person POV

An old woman in red robes made her way to a cave at the foot of the mountain as the sun set. She liked being in nature, away from all those disgusting Fire Nationals who deserved to die. If only she could bloodbend outside of the full moon. Then she could wipe them all out. That's what they all deserved after what they did to her people. Her thoughts briefly wandered back to that prison where she had been held for decades. Should she feel guilty about not breaking the others out?

Hama shook her head. No! The others had seen enough to learn bloodbending on their own. If they were too weak or didn't have the stomach to use it, then why should she save them? Hama made her way into the cave with a basket of food. It wasn't any fun to drain prisoners while they were starving, after all.

Hama made her way to the cave and lit a torch to light the way. When she came up to the door, she unlocked it with her key. Interestingly, the door didn't squeak when she opened it like it normally did. Well, Hama wasn't about to question why she suddenly didn't need to remember to grease the door every few months.

She walked into her makeshift prison and then her breath caught in her throat. The prisoners were gone! But where?! How?!

A buzzing sound and a flickering blue light out of the corner of her eye grabbed her attention. It looked like a young man waving his hands and causing sparks to appear out of his fingertips. Before Hama could react, he thrust out his hand.

BANG!

A flash of light, a loud echo, and an intense burning pain were the last sensations Hama experienced before she died.


Alec POV

I took a breath. "It's over," I said as everyone else stepped out of their hiding places. I looked at the corpse. "We should burn the body."

"Is that necessary?" Katara asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe not, but I'm paranoid enough to want to make sure she doesn't come back."

Ty Lee grabbed my hand comfortingly. "Are you okay?" she asked gently.

I shook my head. "I wish I didn't have to do it," I said, "but it was the only way to be certain she wouldn't hurt anyone else."

Mai frowned. "Remind me again why you had to do it?"

"He was the best person for the job," Azula said, shooting a fireball and engulfing Hama's body in blue flames. "He's a citizen of the Water Tribe and the Fire Nation. At least, he will be once we win. The Fire Nation needed her executed by one of their own, but it wouldn't look good if someone outside the Water Tribe did it. The only two people who could do it were Alec and Aang."

"And I was the better choice," I added. "Aang hasn't directly killed anybody, but I have a higher body count than some diseases. I'm used to using lethal force when I have to. Plus, I knew what Hama looked like, so I knew I wouldn't accidentally kill the wrong person."

Aang looked at me and gave me the smallest nod that I could barely perceive. Once Hama's body finished burning, I turned to the rest of the group. "We should leave."


We went to the cave where the missing villagers were. The living ones, at least. One of the women looked up at us. "You're back," she said with relief. "Does this mean that Hama is…?" The question died on her lips.

"She's dead," I said. "We burned the body."

"It's safe to go home now," Katara said kindly.

"What happened to the others?" A man asked.

Zuko swallowed. "They're on the other side of the backdoor of the cave." He handed the man a key he took from Hama's body before Azula burned it. "This key can open it. The families of the others can give them a proper burial."

The man shook his head sadly. "That's what I was afraid of," he said. "How can we ever repay you?"

Aang held up his hands. "We don't need anything," he insisted. "We'll be fine."

"The bounty the government will pay us for this is more than enough," Mai added.


"I wish we were being paid for this," Sokka grumbled as we walked back to the cave where Appa and the other animals were.

Zuko smirked. "Maybe I can arrange a payment once I take the throne."

"Really?"

"No."

"Where to next?" Katara asked.

"Maybe we should take care of the problem in Jang Hui," Suki suggested.

Azula gave me a pointed look. "That one isn't also an insane bender in disguise, is it?"

I shook my head. "I'm pretty sure Hama was the last insane bender with weird powers we'll have to deal with."

Time would later prove me wrong.

AN: Next time: Jang Hui, dirty water, spirits, schedules, and a reason for Alec to eat his words.

I recently read the Core Book of the Avatar Legends RPG. In the book, it says that Zuko released the waterbenders that were still in prison after the war. We know from the show that Hama was the last one captured. That means that there were others still imprisoned when Hama escaped, and instead of helping them, she terrorized innocent people instead. That made Hama's actions even worse in my book.