Previously…

Slowly, she felt her body rise up from the muck, globs dripping down her arms and legs.

Thank Spirits I haven't fallen in before this…this is horrible. I would kill to soak in a warm tub right now.

Her feet hit the chilled surface of the ice and she bent what mud she could off of her.

Yeah Katara, let's not lead a mud trail to where we live.

Once she was satisfied with her level of cleanliness - and she quickly realized she couldn't expect much - she slowly crept home.

Her arm throbbed as she pulled her gold armbands off and she was briefly reminded of the knife wound.

Digging thro ugh her pack, she pulled out a small box of matches to light a few candles.

The cut had thankfully stopped bleeding but had a rather angry look to it. The skin around it was warm and puffy.

Katara cleaned her wound, gingerly patting it with a damp cloth. Coating her hand in the water, she held it to the wound, the telltale soft bluish glow lighting up the room.

Her hand hovered over it, though she felt nothing. The pain ebbed slightly.

Something seemed to be infecting it, as it wouldn't heal completely.

She pulled her hand away, staring at the line.

What is going on?


The next morning, Katara's eyes blearily cracked open. Her head throbbed in sync with her pulse.

She groaned, throwing her arm over her eyes.

This is worse than that one time I drank with Jet.

Her heart panged at the mention of the former Freedom Fighter.

Jet hadn't made the best choices, that much she was sure of, but he didn't deserve to die.

Not like that.

Her mind drifted back to the tunnels beneath Ba Sing Se momentarily.

Then, inevitably to her friends.

Tears pooled in her eyes beneath her arm.

Crying's not gonna bring them back, Katara. Pull it together. You'll see them someday again. I just know it.

Remember the plan. The day of black sun is coming.

Katara rolled onto her side, barely making it halfway before groaning in pain. Her wound ached at her in warning and she rolled back onto her back.

The events of the previous night came flooding back...the factory, the soldiers, getting the filtration system and… the Blue Spirit.

His blue and white mask silently observed her in her mind.

You're not really a spirit, are you?

Katara had barely contained her guilty sort of panic when he'd stared at her and asked that.

She couldn't see his eyes, of course, but it would only make sense that he would be looking at her.

Or at least, the Painted Lady version of herself.

It was strange, having a conversation - if you could even call it that - with someone when you couldn't even see their face. Though, it wouldn't be too far of a leap to assume he felt the same way about her.

From what she'd seen of herself in the mirror Akira kept in the shop, the veil and hat did well enough to keep her features blurred from prying eyes.

I wonder who the Blue Spirit really is?

There had been many newcomers to their…no, the - village since her recent crusade as the Painted Lady.

Katara made sure she was quick to correct herself.

This village was not her own and these people were not her people.

Ever since she realized how long she'd spent in the village posing as their beloved spirit, her mind would remind her how angry they'd be if they ever found out.

The Blue Spirit seemed to realize she wasn't actually the Painted Lady after their first serious encounter. She was thankful he didn't seem upset at the realization…more curious.

Perhaps it was because he acted under the guise of a 'spirit' as well.

She took a deep breath, her mind flashing through separate scenarios of her lifting off his mask and seeing his true face beneath.

Haru.

Sokka.

The cabbage man from Omashu - she cracked a smile.

Zuko.

More faces, even ones that she'd simply glanced at in a crowd shuffled across her mind's eye.

There was no telling who the Blue Spirit could be.

It was strange though, how she felt a sense of familiarity to him.

Perhaps it was just because she'd frequently seen their wanted posters beside his own.

Her mind drifted back to her brother and again, she pulled her mind away.

She moved her arm off her face, instead rubbing her temples with her thumb and middle finger.

After a few more minutes just lying there in silence, she forced herself up out of bed, lighting a few candles to brighten the dark room.

She got dressed, cringing as she put her arm above her head to pull on her top.

Her skin felt tight and she absentmindedly scratched off a flake of dirt.

Perhaps I can find a tub to take a bath in today.

Her headache throbbed in response.

Maybe a cold bath would help, anyways.

~0~

Katara had managed to get her hands on the next best thing to a tub - a trough. It was long enough where she could lay down in it, with only her knees down having to stick out the top. She figured once she filled it with water, she could at least soak herself up to her armpits.

Thankful Akira seemed to be out of shop that day - perhaps preoccupied with Iroh - so she dragged the container into her room without anyone noticing.

As far as she thought, at least.

Cautiously, Katara bent in a steady supply of water through a small hole she'd found in the bottom of the back wall. She was thankful it faced the river, as opposed to part of the village.

Clean water magically flowing from the muck and into her room was more then likely to raise a few eyebrows.

Once she'd filled the surprisingly clean trough and checked the temperature, she peeled herself out of her clothes and unceremoniously sank in with a sigh. Katara washed her hair with a floral scented soap bar and started on the long process of scrubbing the muck from her skin.

Her skin eventually turned back to its light olive, parts light pink from the effort.

Katara made sure to pay extra attention to her wound, wiping it throughly with a clean part of rag and bending clean water to rinse.

It looked somewhat better, though she had to admit it bothered her still that she couldn't heal it.

There wasn't much she couldn't heal, really.

Old scars, extensive damage, some poisons…

Her stomach flipped at the thought.

Was the knife poisoned? Surely not…

Her wet hand went to her forehead, water dripping down her face.

She felt fine, aside from the headache…which had seemed to go away once she had some water and nibbled on some food before her bath.

But would I know if I was poisoned?

Eventually, the water grew cold and murky, her fingers wrinkling like sea prunes. Begrudgingly, she climbed out of her makeshift tub.

~0~

Zuko had spent most of his morning wandering around the village in search of 'good' jasmine tea for his uncle. He was skeptical that he would actually find some.

It was more likely he'd find two-headed fish then any sort of 'good' tea.

Not that he would really know what his uncle considered good, anyways.

He sighed at the thought, raking his hand through his hair.

It had grown significantly longer over the past couple of months. His hair was long enough to tie up, something that he was thankful for when he'd donned his Blue Spirit mask.

Zuko continued to wear it down, despite it being long enough to wear in his once signature top knot.

He stared at the options the last merchant offered.

No luck.

This was probably more of an errand to get him out and about.

Akira had shown up not long after they woke up, a Pai Sho board tucked under her arm.

That alone was enough to make him want to leave.

Though, after his conversation with the man in the previous port and his easily obtainable ship ride to the Fire Nation, he had to admit he was curious.

There was something about Pai Sho Uncle wasn't - and maybe wouldn't - tell him.

He stopped mid stride, finding himself at the edge of the village's planking.

The factory sat across the river in the distance, its' smokestacks void of any smoke.

A smirk easily slipped across Zuko's face, thinking back to the night prior.

The sounds of his sword meeting his opponents' rang in his ears.

He didn't realize how much he'd missed a good fight. It was the one thing he'd trained himself to be good at- at least with the soldiers.

Zuko thought back to all the fights he'd lost to Azula, and the smirk turned into a scowl.

It was all too easy for him to slip back into a broody mood.

He stood there for some time before Iroh walked up behind him.

"Well, my dear nephew," he said, looking to where Zuko had stopped.

The factory loomed in the distance.

"I suppose they have you to thank for that."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He retorted.

A beat.

"It was all the Painted Lady."

Iroh chuckled, clapping Zuko on the shoulder. "Ah, the honorable spirit - or should I say spirits strike again." Iroh winked.

"You know, Uncle, I'm not so sure she's a spirit," Zuko said, gruffly. His amber eyes stared at the coastline where they'd stopped briefly the night prior. "Spirit or not, she got the job done." He frowned. "Her arm got hit by a throwing knife from one of the soldiers. It bled."

His uncle hummed in response, stroking his beard. "Bled you say? Very interesting…well, for her sake I hope she is a spirit." Iroh stuck his arms in his sleeves, beginning to turn away. "Often times metalwork soldiers will dip their knives in mercury."

Zuko frowned, recalling the knife nearly skimming his own body. "Mercury?"

Iroh looked intensely at Zuko. "In large quantities, it can cause hallucinations and death. In smaller quantities, however…it can attack the immune system, make particularly bad wounds even more severe, amongst other complications."

Iroh's nephew frowned in response, not saying anything.

As Iroh journeyed back to their makeshift home, he was deep in thought.

If the Painted Lady was who he thought it was… Blue eyes and water coated glowing hands appeared in his mind…then she could be in for a rude awakening. A knife glinted, shattering the mental image of the lady.

~0~

After her bath, Katara had wrapped a makeshift shawl around her shoulders, not wanting to expose her injured arm.

She still couldn't understand why she couldn't heal herself. All this would have been so much easier if she could have just healed her arm, getting rid of any trace of her being there that night.

Katara went in search of Akira, who she found in the middle of the village, close to where she had dropped off the filtration system.

A group of men were tinkering with the cylinders, fastening them to a makeshift boat. The intake pipe, she supposed, had been hooked up to a funnel that would lie in the water. They'd removed the tops of the cylinders, having seemed to discover some way to remove the interiors and clean the muck out periodically.

As she got closer, they lowered their contraption down into the water.

Akira turned towards Katara at her arrival, nodding her head in greeting.

"What is that?" She asked, gesturing in mock curiosity to the filtration system.

"A state of the art filtration system. Some new Fire Nation technology." Akira studied Katara. "The latest gift from the Painted Lady."

Katara did her best to keep her expression normal.

"Is it going to be able to clean up the river?"

Akira sighed, staring out at the brown water. "Maybe eventually. Chen and some of the other men are planning on checking out the creek near Dock's docks on the mainland. If they could get it back to flowing at the previous level, they probably could dilute the muck enough where fish could survive."

Chen seemed to be the one in charge. He appeared to be in his late thirties, with dull brown hair and a missing bottom tooth. Katara vaguely recalled healing him.

Shouts sounded from across the village.

"They're coming!"

~0~

Zuko and Iroh were killing time in their room when screams erupted in the distance.

"The soldiers!"

"We're under attack!"

The two glanced at each other with alarmed expressions before darting out and towards the sound of the commotion.

A fireball whizzed into a building in the distance. Townsfolk ran amuck everywhere.

Some men, armed with various weapons or makeshift weapons, ran towards the noise, while the women gathered up their children and tried to get them inside.

Not that inside seemed to be much safer.

"What's going on?" Iroh asked, seeing Akira scurrying back away from the source of the commotion.

"General Mung!" She exclaimed. "Him and the others are back!"

Zuko narrowed his eyes.

He knew he'd not be too happy about the state of the factory, but he didn't think the village would face retaliation this quickly.

"Erin, come on!" A mother called out, shooing her son inside. Another family slipped past behind Zuko and he glanced over at them.

A familiar brown head disappeared in the distance, a few buildings down from Akira's.

Was that Katara? What's she doing?

"Lee!" a feminine voice called. "Lee!"

The woman pulled his thoughts away from Katara.

It was Pepper, the woman he helped Katara rescue from the deadbeat drunk.

"Pepper," he greeted, dipping his head. "Uncle. This is Pepper."

Iroh turned to greet her.

"Pepper, this is…Mushi."

"It's very nice to meet you, Mushi…Lee- I was hoping you could help me. I can't find my son."

Another fireball blasted through the town, shaking the ground.

"Go," Iroh murmured, placing his hand on Zuko's back.

Zuko nodded, before saying to Pepper, "Show me where you last saw him."

Pepper led Zuko towards the source of the commotion.

As they got closer to the right side of the village, the noise got louder. Fire seemed to be rapidly burning through the first couple of houses on the outskirts of the village.

It crackled and roared.

The soldiers' boats were a stones throw away now. Three small motorized canoes, staggered two behind the lead, barreled towards the town. General Mung and two soldiers were in the first, with four soldiers in the boats behind.

A scowl overtook Zuko's face.

Mung.

"I thought you all got the message the last time!" Mung shouted out. His boat came to a stop beside the platform and his boots hit the planking with a thud. "I guess I was mistaken."

Some of his cohorts disembarked from their boats, standing behind their general.

"Thievery was bad enough, but now…now you've destroyed our factory!"

General Mung gestured to the burning buildings beside him.

"This is a town of thieves and liars!" He stared out across the sea of faces. "Where's your Painted Lady now?"

Pepper whimpered from beside Zuko. A few of the men shifted angrily beside them.

"We're going to cure the world of this wretched village." General Mung waved his hand above his soldiers, seeming to signal something to the pair still in the boat.

A familiar young face moved through the crowd to Zuko's left.

The boy!

The woman inside the boat to the left stood up, swinging a grappling hook above her head. With a flick, she hurled it towards the town.

Zuko's eyes widened as he realized what she had been aiming for.

The support posts!

~0~

The Painted Lady launched off the wood planks of the deck and hit the water, instantly sending herself flying towards the source of the commotion.

Her arm stung beneath her golden armband, the wind whipping past her.

She started this mess.

Now, it was time to finish it.

Katara scowled, calling in fog. It rolled across the water, blanketing the entirety of the water, standing nearly as tall as the cliffs around the river.

Something cracked and splashed noisily, hidden from Katara by the fog.

Shrieks erupted in response.

All was quiet for a moment.

"Look at that!" She heard a feminine voice say in the distance. "Where's it coming from?"

"I don't know, something strange is going on." A man said back.

"There is NO Painted Lady!" A familiar man interjected.

The General.

As Katara got closer, she pushed the fog closer, sending it over the village now.

The fires crackled, engulfing the third building.

A wave of water rose up, knocking into the buildings. The bright glow dimmed through the fog, the flames sizzling out.

She came to a stop in front of where she'd heard General Mung.

Coaxing the fog back, she revealed herself to them.

General Mung's ugly mug came into focus, a nervous sort of grimace on his face.

They stared at one another for a moment, neither saying a word.

Suddenly, she sent herself full speed towards the village, riding a wave. The wind howled in her ears and she leaned into it.

As she approached the decking, she launched herself high into the air, landing on the wood.

The soldiers nervously skittered back.

Katara left her gaze leveled on the General.

"D-do something!" He growled, shuffling behind the two soldiers and shoving them forward.

They gasped, stumbling. After temporarily hesitating, they drew broadswords, holding them at the ready as they inched towards her.

The pair moved forward a bit more before Katara lifted her head further, discreetly flicking her wrist at her side.

A water whip rose up from the right, knocking the decorative red and gold headbands off their heads with a splash.

They yelped in response, throwing their weapons down before turning and running.

"Wha-!" Mung roared in disbelief. "Stand your ground!"

To her surprise, they continued past Mung, pushing through the townspeople and out of sight.

"You cowards!"

Katara noticed Zuko's face in the crowd. He was standing next to Pepper, who had her son held protectively in her arms.

Thank Spirits they're all right.

She had seen Pepper looking for the boy earlier that day and hoped she had found him before all this chaos erupted.

The Painted Lady walked closer to General Mung, who simply stood frozen in his place with wide eyes.

She raised her hand towards him, curling her fingers in as if she was going to grab something out of the air.

Jerking her hand up, the two boats on the right side of the platform shot into the air, a pillar of water beneath them. Katara blasted them towards the cliffside, where they exploded on impact.

Sweat formed on her forehead.

The remaining soldiers gawked at her display of power. Not even a moment later, they all retreated, tripping over themselves as they attempted to all board the remaining boat.

General Mung shook his head in disgust as they sped away.

Satisfaction spread through Katara.

"Fine then," he sneered, dropping into a bending position. His hands went into fists and crossed in front of his body before extending away from him, almost in a slash.

"I'll take care of you myself."

The Painted Lady rose an eyebrow, the expression not lost beneath her veil.

With a yell, he crossed his arms in front of his body before spinning around, dragging a line of fire out and sending it towards her.

Her eyes widened at the speed and width of his attack. Katara launched her body to the left, throwing down a platform while simultaneously sending a line of water from under the deck. The water, like a fin through the top of water, sliced through the decking down the middle, sending fragments of wood flying.

Mung shifted over, trying to not fall through. The move only served to send him flying to the right, splashing down in the muck quite far away.

She pounced towards him, using her bending to submerge herself and pop back up in front of him, the sludge spinning off her like she was a top.

Her arm twinged again.

"Leave this village," she commanded, floating above the surface. "And never come back."

She glared at him, daring him to not heed her silent warning.

After a scowl, he quickly swam away, beginning to yell towards the boat, which had stopped some ways away to watch. She watched his cohorts pull his grimy body into the boat and speed off.

A smile broke out across her face.

Good riddance.

The villagers broke out in a cheer, some of them whistling as loud as they possibly could.

You're not out of the woods yet, Katara. She reigned in her budding excitement, floating back over towards the village.

"Thank you, Painted Lady!" Dock approached her. "You're the best! Me and my brothers really owe you a lot!"

She smiled slightly at Dock, resisting the urge to back away from him.

Another bead of sweat dripped down the side of her nose.

His brown eyes studied her carefully, close enough to probably see the sweat.

"Hey, wait a second, I know you!" His grin dropped and he quirked an eyebrow. "You're not the Painted Lady, you're June!"

Anger spread across Dock's face.

Katara's eyes widened, bringing her hand to her face. Face paint stained her fingers.

Oh no…

The panic she'd been so afraid of rose up inside her.

"You've been tricking us! You're not a colonial are you?" He raised a knobby finger to point at her. "You're a water bender!"

Murmurs erupted through the crowd and Katara nervously looked past Dock to the crowd. The crowd's reaction seemed to vary, some faces scrunched up in frustration, others looking sad.

The overall consensus however, was not good.

She met Zuko's gaze in the crowd. He looked stunned, but not as stunned as the rest, interestingly enough.

"How dare you act like our Painted Lady?" Yelled a man from the back of the crowd.

That seemed to shift their mood, the hoarde beginning to grumble and move towards her.

"Yeah!"

~0~

So, Katara was the Painted Lady.

Not 100% what- or rather who - he'd expected, but he had decided that whomever was posing as the spirit would have to be an extremely powerful bender.

Katara had definitely excelled in her prowess.

Zuko felt the unease in the crowd shift over to outrage. His hand clenched into a fist at his side.

Memories of his journey without his uncle rose to the forefront of his mind.

Young Lee's sweet face morphing into disgust and distrust popped up.

He pushed his way to the front of the crowd. Someone followed behind him.

He didn't look to see who it was.

"Maybe she is a water bender," Zuko said, moving between Katara and the kooky old man.

"She was just trying to help us!"

Pepper.

The mother stood next to Zuko, in front of the young water bender.

"She saved me and my son! She healed so many of us! Fed us!"

"Because of her, that factory won't be polluting your river and the army is gone!" He continued. "Who do you think probably went and got you the filtration system anyways?"

The crowd continued to grumble, though the tension had lessened significantly.

People began to part and make a path for someone he couldn't see.

The woman Katara had been staying with, Akira, pushed through.

"How dare you all!" Akira stalked forward, her arms folded in front of her chest.

Zuko turned slightly, to look at Katara.

She nervously studied the woman's expression.

Why wasn't she furious, too?

It dawned on him.

Pai Sho.

At least, that was the only conclusion he could reach.

"You should be thanking her! We were in a bad spot before she got here! Pu was down, many of you all were sick or starving-"

"Akira," Katara put her hand on the elder woman's shoulder. "Guys- it's okay."

She walked closer to the agitated crowd, pulling her hat and veil off.

Zuko studied her face. Her olive skin still had quite a bit of the reddish paint on it, although many lines broken from sweat. The yellow moon on her forehead contrasted with her blue eyes.

She looked much older then he'd thought before. Her features were…stronger than what they were months ago.

Flecks of paint dotted her neck.

When had she'd become beautiful? And older?

They met eyes briefly and Zuko tore his gaze away.

Now is not the time. He mentally swore at his teenage hormones.

"I shouldn't have acted like someone I wasn't," She said earnestly, looking to all their faces. "I shouldn't have tricked you…"

Katara paused, pushing a strand of loose hair behind her ear.

Memories seemed to flash in her mind.

"But…I felt I had to do something…I can't - won't- turn my back on people that need me! Especially when I can do something! It doesn't matter if the Painted Lady is real or not."

Their faces fell, anger melting off.

"Your problems are real, this river is real!" She trailed off again, trying to find the right words. "You can't wait around for someone to help you, you have to help yourself."

"She's right!" Dock nodded to himself. Murmurs of agreement rose up in the crowd.

"I'd like to help you, if you'll let me," Katara bent a stream of clean, blue-green water from the river, holding it in a ball in front of her.

"We can try to clean the river."

She sent the water back into the river with a splash.

Cheers erupted from the crowd and a body slammed into Katara's, engulfing her in a hug.

It was Pepper.

Akira wasn't far behind joining in on the hug too.

Zuko took that opportunity to melt back into the crowd.

A strange feeling filled Zuko's chest.

It was a nice surprise to have been able to shift the crowd from angry to thankful. The interaction alone made him wish someone had been kind enough to do the same to him when he protected the Earth Kingdom civilians from the soldiers.

The memories brought back the same feelings of shame and thinly controlled rage.

It's different for the Fire Nation, I guess. We're enemies simply guilty by association.

~0~

Katara looked to the townspeople with a grin.

They'd all journeyed to the shore across from the factory.

She shifted into her stance, bending the water away from itself. A path opened up in the riverbed and she stepped down into the muck. The dirt rose to her ankles with a soft squelch.

It never ceased to amaze her, how far her bending had come.

Somewhere from behind her in the crowd, Iroh and Zuko watched the near-master water bender with interest.

The townspeople gasped from behind her, murmuring in awe.

It seemed to be different for them, watching a normal human girl bend water as opposed to a spirit.

She was able to bend the water away about thirty feet ahead of her. The path was nearly fifteen feet across. Screwing her ankles down into the mud to reinforce her stance, she called to them.

"Alright!"

The villagers poured into the strip of dry land, armed with shovels and wheelbarrows. One by one, they methodically shoveled away the muck from the riverbed and into their wheelbarrows. In hardly no time at all, the section was cleared. They all filed out of the river before Katara backed up herself, letting the river back down with a flourish.

Section by section, they continued the process down the bank of the river. Each time, the water that rushed back over the once dry spot seemed cleaner and clearer than the time before.

Some of the others were in long canoes, holding mesh nets between the boats, pulling the thicker out.

Hours passed, Katara teetered on the brink of exhaustion.

"Miss Katara," Iroh placed his hand on her arm as she stood on the banks, now near the old factory. "You look like you are about to fall over. Haven't you done enough for the day?"

She winced at the contact to her wound.

Iroh quickly pulled back his arm, noticing the wrap.

The townspeople sat a ways behind them, gathered in small circles, chatting over their dinner.

The sun had began to dip lower on the horizon.

"I want to finish." She mumbled.

Iroh was right, she was tired.

But she needed to finish what she'd started. She'd spent so long now, trying to save this village. The eclipse was still a few weeks away.

"Is that from a knife?" Iroh asked, gesturing to the bandaged wound. "How is it doing?"

Katara met his gaze, looking at the red wrap around her bicep.

"I can't heal it…it's not necessarily getting worse, but not better either. I don't know why…"


That was a doozy of a chapter! I think I like how everything played out! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Also, I'm posting it a few days earlier then I normally would. :)