A/N. This episode is one of my favourites, and I am spending way too many chapters on it. But I want to!
I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender.
That morning, Katara and Hama had gone into the hills, to make sure no one would see them waterbending. Aang had smiled, seeing the old woman being excited to teach someone her skills… It had probably been years, maybe even decades, that the woman would have bended this much. And to suppress your own bending skills, just to make sure that your cover wasn't blown… Well, Aang knew how much that hurt. And he only had to do so until the invasion…
Hama had done that for years without an end in sight.
The old innkeeper had given him the key to the building that morning in case they wanted to go explore the surroundings. And it was then that Sokka had suggested looking around the village for a clue about the disappearing people on the day of the full moon. Today in fact.
Sokka, Toph and he had gone into the woodlands just above the village, a mile or so away from the inn, overlooking the valley. It was well past lunch now, and Aang had thought to find some reason for an angry spirit… Forests cut down for fuel for the factories… Or pollution in the rivers coming down from the mountains… But nothing. Nothing even suggested a reason why a spirit would be angry with the inhabitants of this valley.
"This is the best natural setting in the Fire Nation…" Aang spoke up as they stood on a rocky ledge, just a few paces away from a well-kept path, that was used frequently. And it was… The landscape the unfurled before their eyes was… unblemished. Lush forests, beautiful rivers, and not a patch of industrial smoke in sight…
"I don't see anything that would make a spirit mad around here…" He sighed. So, what was it then? Why was there an angry presence kidnapping people around the full moon?
"Maybe the Moon Spirit just turned mean?" Toph asked as she came to stand beside him. The blind girl had kept her word, even when Katara was not there, refraining from teasing him. In fact, she had been rather subdued since yesterday evening, when Hama had told them her story.
Aang could understand that. The first time they had set foot in the war-torn Earth Kingdom, he had seen atrocities he would rather not speak of. But Toph had always been shielded from those horrors by her parents, and later, perhaps a bit by them. The worst she had seen of the war was when he had been in a coma… And now, she had heard what Sokka and Katara's people had gone through…
"Hey! The Moon Spirit is a gentle, loving lady! She rules the sky with compassion… and lunar goodness!" Sokka interrupted whatever Aang could have said with his passionate speech. The airbender grimaced. Yeah… He could understand where Sokka was coming from, he had never suspected Yue, of course, not. But Toph didn't know that…
"What's up with Meathead?" She whispered as Sokka walked away, grumbling about their lack of compassion for the Moon Spirit.
"Well… Tui, the Moon Spirit… She was killed by the admiral who led the attack on the North Pole. This happened before we met you." He began to explain in a quiet voice, so that the Water Tribe boy wouldn't hear them talking.
"Sokka had a… well, it was complicated what he had… with the Northern princess, Yue. And she gave her life to revive Tui. So, maybe refrain from talking about the Moon Spirit…" He continued, and Toph smiled.
"Spirits, first that princess, then Suki, the-" She interrupted herself before continuing, but Aang saw the slightly red cheeks. Yeah, he knew about her crush. Or was it a crush? Maybe the blind girl had grown past it? He didn't know…
"Yeah, he has been, by far, the most successful of us all!" Aang laughed, but Toph just smiled shaking her head at him. Yeah…
Turning his back to the beautiful scenery in front of him, the airbender saw a man on the path, also admiring the view, with a smile. The man, probably in his early thirties, nodded politely towards him.
"Ehm, sir? Can you tell us anything about… About whatever is kidnapping people each month?" If he had said spirit, they would surely have declared him legally insane. That was something that he had seen during their travels through the Fire Nation. The only spirit they still worshipped was Agni, the sun spirit… All the others were either forgotten, or had been quietly pushed aside in the government's propaganda…
"Why would you want to know about that?" The man answered, as he put the bag down that he had on his back.
"We are students from the University in Caldera, and it seems an interesting study subject!" Sokka suddenly interjected, and Aang saw the gleam in the water tribe boy's eyes. The older boy couldn't lie if his life depended on it, but sometimes, in a moment of clarity, his lies were the most convincing. Such as now.
"Oh, that would be good! We have already sent several messages to the capital, but we never received any help! But if you would do that… maybe it would be more efficient! Go talk to old man Ding. He has seen whatever does the kidnapping, and he got away from it!" The man explained, smiling and nodding.
"And where would the good man Ding live?" Toph asked.
"In the other side of the village down in the valley, near the shore."
Well, at least they had a lead! If this man knew anything about the disappearances, they could try and put a stop to it! And move on to… To the invasion. It was only two weeks away, and they would need to get preparing for that… Sokka had wanted to make armour for Appa! Aang had laughed at first, before realizing the water tribe boy had been dead serious. And the airbender had given in. Even if he didn't like having Appa in the thick of fighting… He knew there wasn't another choice. And better to have his bison protected as well as possible in that case.
After thanking the man, they began to walk towards the village. It was already a bit late in the afternoon, but as they passed the inn, there was no one inside, so Katara and Hama were probably still somewhere in the woods.
He followed Sokka and Toph into the village, thinking about the waterbenders. What would Hama teach Katara? Aang was hoping it would bring her some peace. Last night, as they had lain awake in each other arms, the airbender had felt and heard the soft crying. And he could understand. Hama's story was not only a personal tragedy for the old woman… it was also the story of the horrible things that had happened to the Southern Water Tribe. He had been a bit surprised that the water tribe siblings had never heard the stories… But as he had lain awake last night, he had realized why. All they had heard about the Tribe's culture and traditions came from their grandmother. And Gran Gran had probably tried to shield her grandchildren from the more… Vivid stories. She had not told them about the horrors that had happened in their homes. Even though Kanna would probably have been there, at the same time as Hama…
Aang had not said anything, just held the waterbender as sleep had finally come to them. Guilt and shame had been in his own heart, knowing that his selfish actions a hundred years ago… Had caused this. But he had not voiced his own regret. It wasn't about him. No, this was about the grieve and pain that had reigned in the South…
"Old man Ding?" Sokka asked suddenly. Oh, they had arrived!
"Ding would do just fine… I'm not that old."
Ehm… Yeah, he was. The man was bald, wrinkled, and clearly had a stooped back. Apparently, they had startled him, because the man in front of them had dropped the hammer, nails and plank he had been using to shut his windows. Aang quickly crouched down to help the older man to lift the plank up again.
"Alright… Maybe I am. Thank you, young man." Ding said as they both put it back to the window. Aang held it up for him, as the old man picked up the hammer and nails that had fallen down at the same time as the plank.
"I'm not ready to be snapped up by some Moon Monster!" The man cast a look over his shoulder, towards the sky. The sun was nearly touching the horizon, indicating that the evening was very near.
"We actually wanted to talk about that sir." Sokka spoke, as he took the hammer from the old man's hand and began to nail the plank to the wooden frame of the window.
"Did you get a good look at the spirit that took you?"
"Didn't see any spirit!" Ding raised his eyebrows, shaking his head. Wait… if it wasn't a spirit… what, or who, did the kidnapping in that case?
"I just felt… something come over me. Like I was possessed! It forced to start walking toward the mountain!" Ding pointed to the mountain that loomed against the orange and yellow sky, as the sun began to dip under the horizon.
"I tried to fight it, but I couldn't control my own limbs! It just about had me into a cave, there up the mountain. When I looked up to the moon, thinking it would be the last light I would ever see… The sun started to rise. I regained control of my limbs and bolted out of there as fast as I could. So, ever since, on the night of the full moon, I shut myself in my home, as safely as possible." Ding opened the door of his home, and Aang saw that the wooden door was equipped with… Seven locks and chains…
"Ehm… Why would a spirit want to take people to a mountain?" Sokka whispered. Aang felt a cold shiver pass over his back. It sounded… too human. But at the same time, the control of limbs… That was something he had never heard. Was it a spirit? Or… something else?
"Oh! Oh! When we were in the woods a few nights ago! I did hear people screaming! I was right! The missing villagers must still be there!" Toph threw her arms up in the air, clearly irritated with herself that it had taken her that long to connect the dots.
Without another word to Old Man Ding, they turned their back and began to run. Spirits… if this was true, the people under the mountain would probably know who or what had done this, and they could put a stop to it! Aang hesitated to persuade the others to get Katara. Her healing would be handy, and if they had to fight something, the waterbender would be a great help.
But another voice in his head made him keep his tongue. Katara was, for the first time in her life, with a waterbender from the south… it would be cruel to interrupt such a moment for this.
As they ran towards the mountain, over the path that led towards it from the village, Sokka called to him.
"You think it is a spirit?" Aang heard the reluctance in his voice. Yeah… the last time the water tribe boy had been faced with a spirit, he had spent twenty-four hours in the Spirit World.
"I'm not sure!" the airbender called back. Why would a spirit keep people imprisoned in a mountain? It didn't make any sense… Hei-Bei had taken people, but he hadn't kept them in the physical world…
It took them nearly an hour to reach the mountain and to find the cave. In the meantime, the sun had gone under completely, and a soft pale light shone through the leaves of the trees. Looking up, Aang saw the beautiful full moon, high in the sky, shining brightly.
"I can hear them, they are this way!" Toph spoke, breathing heavily. As they arrived at the entrance of the cave, Aang realized that they hadn't taken anything to see, like torches, or even a small oil lamp…
"How are we supposed to walk through that?" Sokka sighed, as he looked down into the darkness.
"Hold my hand, I'll guide you two." The blind girl extended her hand, and Aang took it, extending his own to the water tribe boy, who closed his fingers around the airbender's palm.
They walked into the dark cave, led by Toph. The blind girl could feel everything around them, so it was the best option. Aang himself could also feel their surroundings, as Toph had taught him how to use the seismic sense. He was, if he said so himself, quite good at it. But Toph used it as a second nature, whereas he needed to concentrate on solely that to be able to use it.
After several minutes, the darkness began to change. Instead of the impenetrable shadows, Aang began to see dark shapes. Were his eyes adjusting, or… would there be a light source somewhere? The airbender couldn't imagine that there would be, here so deep underneath the mountain, but it had to, if there were people here…
And indeed, it seemed that they changed directions, turning a corner. Aang felt Toph pull him suddenly to the right, and they stood in a tunnel that was lit softly at the end, where a door barred them the way.
"A… door. In a cave." Sokka shook his head, which Aang was able to see now. Yes, a door. What was a door doing here? It didn't make any sense…
"Pff, that nothing. Just…" Toph didn't elaborate, but just put her hand to the metal door, and made a ball… As if it was made of paper… Aang knew she had invented metalbending, and had seen it firsthand when she bent the bracelet that Sokka had given her into whatever form she wanted. But to see it like this… Well, he respected her even more.
Aang took one of the torches that hung next to the opening that Toph had created, and from the corner of his eye, saw Sokka do the same with the other.
"The villagers are in there…" Toph pointed to the darkness behind the doorframe, and Aang took a careful step inside, holding the torch high above his head. He didn't want to alarm the people, but neither did he want to announce his presence too suddenly in case… in case that whatever had taken these people was inside with them.
The light from his torch showed him a scene that made him sick to the core.
At least fifty people were inside the room. Every single person Aang could see had his or her hands and feet chained to the rocky walls of the cave, and several were standing in their chains, while others were in sitting positions.
The stench was overwhelming. Sweat, excrement and… rot… filled the room, and he had to bend a small air pocket out of the tunnels around him and the others to prevent them puking their lunch out.
"Spirits…" He heard Sokka mutter as the water tribe boy entered the cave after him.
"We… we are saved!" A male voice called out, weakly and clearly underfed. Aang walk towards the nearest rock pillar, where three people were chained. Two men and a woman, in tattered clothes that seemed not to have been washed in… months? Spirits, don't let it be years…
Aang saw Toph walk past him and Sokka, taking one of the chains in her hands and breaking it as if it was just made of clay.
"Hey… Who did this to you?" Aang asked as he moved quickly to catch one of the men, who fell straight to the ground as his metal constraints were loosened.
"A… a witch!" He muttered, gripping Aang's arm with such strength that it surprised him. The man looked him in the eyes, and in those eyes, the airbender saw… despair. Pure horror and a broken will. What had done this…
"What do you mean, a witch?" Sokka asked, as Aang gently removed the hand from his arm, giving the man the small water pouch that hung from his belt. The man's voice had sounded so horribly thin that Aang suspected he had not had a drop of water in at least several days…
As the man was drinking, the airbender walked further into the cave. There were even some children… Wearing clothes that were clearly too small. Or rather, they had probably fitted well, the night they had been kidnapped… Spirits…
He heard several times the clink of metal chains being broken by Toph, and knowing he couldn't do anything, he turned to a darker corner of the cave.
"Aang, no!" the blind girl spoke suddenly, but before he could stop himself, the airbender had already lifted the torch in his hand.
One corner of the cave was filled with… A heap of corpses. Well, bones and rotten flesh more accurately. There were old, yellow bones, clearly dated from several years… but also whiter ones, on top of the pile. And two corpses, thrown on the mound, rather… fresh.
This was not humane. Imprisoning people, watching them balance on the edge of life and death, as if it was a game! No! No one should be treated like this! He had always been taught by the monks that all life, however small, was important! That no one, bad or evil, should be treated as if they weren't living creatures!
Who would do something like this? No spirit did this, he knew for sure! Even evil spirits didn't keep people chained up! No, at least those spirits had the decency to kill you and be done with it! The only one that took any pleasure in it, Koh, was rejected and detested by the other spirits!
This was the work of a person. A sick, evil person.
Aang inhaled and exhaled softly.
No, a disturbed person. No one was all evil or all good. There were flaws. Some rather more severe than others. But still, a person that needed to be respected, however disturbed they were.
Wait… A prison. Full of people from one place…balancing on the edge of life and death. It… It sounded too familiar. Too fresh in his mind.
"A witch? What witch?" He heard Sokka ask the man, who had finally stopped drinking the water.
"She… She seems like a normal old woman. Nice even. But she controls people, like some dark puppetmaster."
Oh no… no, no, no. Not her.
"Hama." Sokka gritted his teeth, and Aang didn't want to believe it… it couldn't be her! She was innocent! She had suffered so much, she wouldn't do the same to others…
Well, actually, that was exactly what people who had lived through that much would do. Or at least, people who had been broken by their experiences. In the Earth Kingdom, people would ask him why he never unleashed fire and suffering upon the Fire Nation, for what they had done to his people… But Aang couldn't. But would that have been the same if he had seen the horrors that were inflicted upon the Air Temples? Would he have been forgiving if he had seen his people murdered, brutalized? Would he have accepted it if all those things had happened to him personally?
No. No, he wouldn't have. If he had lived through it, Aang wasn't sure how much would have been left of him. And of his principles…
"Yes, the innkeeper!" Another voice called.
Fear suddenly took hold of Aang's heart. Katara was with Hama…
Oh no, no… Everything but that. Katara, the embodiment of what Hama's life could have been… If it hadn't been stolen from her… Was with her.
He locked eyes with Sokka and saw the same fear in those ice blue eyes.
"Aang… We-"
"Go! I'll look after these people! Go!" Toph interrupted, and the urgency in her voice shook Aang out of the moment of fear. They needed to go.
Dropping the torch, Aang began to run, followed closely by Sokka, who had kept his torch, so that they could at least see the tunnel through which they raced. They emerged several moments later from the cave, standing in the forest once more.
"Aang, did she tell you where they would go?" Sokka shouted the question, and the airbender was trying to think if Katara had said anything.
She had spoken of the fields behind the inn, but they hadn't been there when they passed it on their way here… So, they needed to be somewhere else. The woods maybe?
"Wait a minute. Stay as still as possible!" He answered and closed his eyes. Using the seismic sense Toph had taught him, he tried to stretch himself as widely as possible, feeling all the small animals in the thick undergrowth. Small rodents… no. Feeling his way through the roots, Aang searched for clearings. Anywhere where two people could stand!
Suddenly, to the west, he felt a presence. No… two. One was shaped as a sort of... block. He couldn't feel a heartbeat or know the general shape of the presence. But it was there. But the other presence he would have recognized anywhere.
Katara.
"Follow me!" He began to run, to the west.
Answers :
CoyoteLemon : Put in a content warner, thank you! Yeah, it wasn't pretty, and I hated to write it, but I think that in a more mature version of the story such as this one, those parts of the horrors of war can't, and shouldn't, be overlooked. Indeed, I wanted to put a sweet moment in the chapter, to lift everyone's spirit a bit
Rak : Exactly! She is such a tragic figure, that shouldn't be hated. The horrors that happened to her would drive anyone insane. And to put it against Aang and Katara, who both have suffered and lost so much, but whose traumas were handled with love. Thank you for the compliment!
Jjsmith103 : Hama is clearly a victim of the war. In my opinion, she is a disturbed person, for sure. But it wasn't her own fault. And as you read here, I think she hates Katara for being everything that she could have been, if her life wasn't stolen from her. And of course Aang would blame himself for all that has happened, even if it wasn't his fault. And about bloodbending… I have two chapter, the next one and the one after that, ready to deal with it!