A/N: This chapter is dedicated to KittyMcPurr, because she PM'd me and told me she loved Terumi. I hope she still will after this chapter.

"When you give into the darkness once, you can always do it again."

-Book of Zaheer, by Grandmaster Jula of the Red Lotus Order

The salty ocean spray wraps around my legs like a passionate embrace. It feels like the ocean is rubbing its hands up and down my legs, stroking me longingly. It is easy for me to give in to it's call and lower myself into it's embrace. I sink down to my arms in the cold water. I splay my fingers out, and two large tendrils of water shoot off me.

This will be the most fun I have had in a long time.

I move my hips in a circle and lean forward, allowing the pillar of water below me to carry me forward. I laugh as the ocean breeze blows against my face and my hair. This is the most alive I have felt in a very long time. The full moon casts its light on me and I absorb it like a flower.

The two submarines have surfaced now, and are starting to shoot large icicles at the hull of the Princess's barge. I stop a few of the icicles in their tracks with flicks of my wrists, and I grab one with my long watery arm and fling it right back. It breaks against the hard scaly hull of the submarine.

Someone in the submarine must have pointed out the huge pillar of water coming towards them, because suddenly icicles rushing towards me fill my immediate line of sight. I dive inside of my water pillar, and wave my hands in a circle in front of my body. A large circle of foam begins to form around one of the submarines.

I raise my hands above my head, and the foam rises up and forms an icy dome above the submarine. I throw my hands down to my sides, and the dome falls on top of the sub. With the screech of metal scraping against solid ice, the submarine begins to sink.

The remaining submarine begins to launch large blasts of water at me. I raise a hand and split the blasts in half. With a wave of my arms, I redirect the water back at the submarine. It buffets the metal fish-sub, but does not harm it.

I lower myself down to the ocean waves and release the pillar of water from around me. I take a few deep breaths, and then I clench my fists. A circle of ice forms underneath me, and for a few moments, I peacefully rock on the ocean waves as I stand on it.

A flurry of white and purple orbs whiz past me and begin to pelt the submarine. I watch as the purple orbs put dents in the hull, and raise an eyebrow as the white spheres harmlessly disperse throughout the hull. The submarines are resistant to electricity. Weird.

I lean forward and throw my arms back behind me. The circle of ice I stand on speeds forward towards the submarine. I make circular motions in front of my chest and create large balls of ice from the water around me. When I reach the submarine, I launch them all. They break against the hull, but one or two leave marks.

A large purple star hurtles up through the night sky. It begins to arc downward in the direction of the submarine. I, not knowing what exactly the orb will do, speed away from the submarine as fast as my Waterbending can take me.

When I get about twenty feet away, I turn just in time to see the purple orb hit the submarine in the center of it's top. It crashes through the metal scales and seems to pierce the entire hull.

"That is some trick." I whistle appreciatively. Why couldn't I be born an Energybender?

I hear screams, shouts, and general chaos come from the gaping hole in the submarine. On a whim, I surf over and look inside the gaping hole in the center of the fish-sub.

The chaos is catastrophic. Bodies are in pieces everywhere, electrical wires spark madly, and water is quickly filling the submarine. I see a man wearing blue fish scale armor, but on the top of his head, instead of a helmet, is a blue cap. He looks up at me and begins to scream expletives.

I shrug and raise a spidery hand. I feel the power of the full moon course through my veins as the man floats up to my eyelevel.

"You witch!" He shouts in my face. His head is the only body part he can move.

"You sure caught me." I yawn. I throw my non-spidery hand behind me, and I speed back towards the Fire Nation ship. The man in my Bloodbent grasp yells and shouts at me, calling me every word in the dictionary that has even a hint of offensiveness.

"You traitor! You Fire-Nation-serving-whore! You… you… you!" The man seems to have run out of insults.

"Yep." I respond calmly. We reach the hull of the ship, and I unceremoniously launch the man onto the deck. I, however, gracefully raise a column of water until it reaches deck level. I step off onto the deck.

And a entire squad of Imperial Firebenders surround me, their arms raised in preparation to attack. Without thinking, I put my hands behind my head in submission.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?" A voice shouts. Funny, I was about to ask the same thing. "Stand down! Stand down!"

The Imperial Firebenders don't move. One of them, who has gold marks on his helmet, speaks. "This Waterbender is a Bloodbender!" He shouts.

A new voice enters the fray. "And if she wanted to kill you she wouldn't even have to blink." I recognize the voice as belonging to the Princess. Is she trying to help me? "Stand down."

The Imperial Firebenders immediately break ranks, drop their fists, and take at least twenty steps back. I survey the deck. The Energybenders stand in a group, looking at me. Master Marcian has a wicked smile on her face. Iulia has an eyebrow raised, and Aelius seems bored.

The Princess, wearing her crimson armor, walks towards me. "On behalf of the Fire Nation, I would like to thank you for helping us." She bows.

I don't know how to respond, so I just stand in the moonlight. After about half-an-awkward minute, I bow back. "You're welcome, Princess Cathra."

I hear a loud and hearty laugh from the top of the conning tower. I see a shadow jump off the metal balcony, and fire bursts out from the bottom of the shadow. The orange flames reveal Admiral Sozin, gracefully descending to the deck. "That was the most impressive Waterbending I have seen in my entire life!" He releases the fire under his feet when he is a few inches above the deck. The ship returns to the darkness illuminated only by the rising bright full moon.

"It was nothing, really." I say. I feel my hand going to the back of my head. I feel the smooth silk of my braided hair. I smile sheepishly. "Just trying to help."

Iulia leaves her group and comes over to me. I look at my new friend. She seems in awe of me. Ironic, considering that I'm in awe of how perfect she is. Why could I not be like her? Born gorgeous, able to do anything from shoot light and paint nails, and hold her own in a fight. "That was amazing, Terumi!" Iulia cries.

Aelius walks over to where the man I brought from the sub lays on his back. He taps him with his foot. "And now we have a prisoner."

Master Marcian walks over to Aelius. "We should interrogate him. Ask him what his orders were."

Princess Cathra turns to face Master Marcian. Her armor glints in the moonlight, but I tear my eyes away from the shine to look at the man I brought back with me. "Don't we already know?" She asks. "He was trying to kill me."

Iulia looks at the Princess. "We don't know that for sure." She states plainly.

Aelius turns around to look at nothing in particular. His face seems very distant, and I can tell that he is working on a very complex problem inside his head. "There were only three of them. That's not enough, at all, to take down a Fire Nation barge that has a platoon of Imperial Firebenders on it." He turns and points a hand at the fish-sub that still lies on the deck of the ship.

"The submarines are resistant to electricity and heat. I'm not even sure if the hull is made of metal. These ships are basically resistant to every element that is involved in the Fire and Earth Republic. The holes in the sides of the ships can be used for torpedoes." Aelius points at the front of the ship. "This ship is made for an invasion."

Cathra gasps. "Of the Fire Nation?"

Aelius nods. "If I had to guess, the three ships that attacked us were either an advance scouting force or a rear guard force."

Cathra looks Aelius up and down. "And you know all of this," she says softly. "From looking at a submarine."

Aelius stares at Cathra. "Yep."

The man at Aelius's feet groans.

The light bulb flickers ominously over the rickety table. The prisoner, who Master Marcian identified as being a Sergeant in the Water and Air Confederacy, is chained to a metal chair.

As his eyes open, I lean forward and smile at him. "Morning, Sergeant."

I curse Master Marcian inside my head. She wanted me to do the interrogation because I was the one who had captured the man. I think she thought she was rewarding me, but I have never interrogated someone before. Unless you count street merchants, about how much a loaf of bread is really worth.

"Rot in hell." The man spits at me.

I raise a finger and stop the spit in midair. "That's not very polite." I say. I flick the spit back at the man's face. "Let's start again. Good morning, Sergeant."

I honestly have no idea what I am doing.

"So suck on a knife," The prisoner glares at me. "You Bloodbending slut."

Before I can raise a finger, a white boot slams against the back of the Sergeant's head. "She said," Aelius says from under his white mask. "Good morning."

Aelius had asked to assist me with the interrogation. Before anyone could argue with him, he had gone down to his room and put on his armor. It's almost identical to the armor the Energy Guardians wear, except his has a silver gem in the center of the chest plate. It is still unnerving, though, not being able to see his face. I know it is under his helmet, but it seems unnatural not to be able to see any form of opening in the mask.

Aelius takes his boot off the back of the man's head. "Good morning," The man says under his breath.

"I'm Terumi," I say cheerfully. "And you just met Aelius." I point to the man and tilt my head. "Now, who are you?"

"None of your-"

I beat Aelius to punishing the man. With a flick of my finger, I slam the man's head forward onto the rickety table. "Who are you?" I ask again.

"None of your damned business."

Aelius reaches forward and places a glowing hand on the man's back. The man twitches and moans in pain. I assume that Aelius is electrocuting him. "Who." Aelius asks slowly. "Are. You?"

He removes his hand from the man's back. "Sergeant Hao!" The man says in-between gasps for air. "Please, just kill me." He begs. "I won't tell you anything!"

On a whim, I lean forward. "Sergeant," I say in my sweetest voice. "We're your friends. We just want to help you."

The man does not say anything for a few moments. After a few minutes of silence, Aelius moves forward to place his hand on the man's neck. I look at him and shake my head. A few minutes more of silence goes by.

"Our orders were to capture the Princess and bring her back to the Southern Air Temple." The man admits.

Aelius comes around the man's back and stands beside me. He leans forward and grabs the man's hair. He raises his head and brings his white mask a few inches away from the Sergeant's face. "You're lying." He says plainly.

The Sergeant is silent. "You know what's amazing about you Energybenders? You're all the same. You work for whoever pays you the most. You have no honor, just power. But power without honor is meaningless."

Aelius slams the man's head down against the rickety table. I am not sure if the crack I hear is from the man's skull or the table breaking. "You tried to kidnap a sixteen year old girl!" Aelius shouts. I look at the boy in the white armor and skirt, and realize just how young he really is. "How dare you even say the word honor!"

The Sergeant laughs from his fetal position on the floor. His chains twinkle with the movement of his heaving lungs. "At least I've picked a side! The Fire and Earth Republic fights for control of the world, the Water and Air Confederacy fight for freedom, but what do you fight for, Energybender?"

Aelius kicks the man in the stomach. It does not do much, because the man's entire body is wrapped in silver chains. It does, however, roll the man onto his back. "I fight for the people I care about. Now, what was your real mission?" Aelius yells. I see his armor heaving, and I realize that he is about to lose control of himself.

The Sergeant just laughs.

I raise a hand, freezing both Waterbender and Energybender in their tracks. The Sergeant can't see that I locked Aelius in place too, which means I still have a chance at getting an answer. "Just tell us and we can let you go." I say.

"Let go of me, you Bloodbending scum!" The Sergeant shouts. "You're a traitor to your own people. You should be trying to free me, not fighting with them!"

I wave my hand and throw the Sergeant against a wall. I clench a fist, and the man convulses. "Last chance, or I pop your limps like balloons."

The man is silent for a few moments, and I begin bending the blood in his veins. His body starts to tremble.

"Fine!" He shouts. "We received special orders from the War Council that an Intelligence agent went rogue and is following the Fire Nation Princess."

"Is he on the ship?" I ask.

"We…" The man starts. "We weren't sure…" He admits.

I let go of the man. He sinks to the floor, and lays in a fetal position, sobbing in his chains. I turn around and see that Aelius has already left. I guess I had let go of his blood when I focused on the man again.

I leave the interrogation room, and with only a glance at the broken Waterbender slumped against the wall, I shut the door behind me.