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Healed and Hunted

Tidal Wave

Chapter Twenty

Location Undisclosed

The President of the United States of America

The Ava was causing considerable problems. Things were strained enough, and the man was content to stir things up. The President had watched the Ava use the influence afforded his position to get his way for too long. If things continued as they were, war was coming.

He had no more desire to fight the Inheritors, but if it came to war, he was ready. The Ava had never entered battle against the United States. The President hoped with all his might that it stayed that way. He wasn't confident in the new medicine holding up against an Ava. There was too much at stake to gamble like that.

The Ava was not all powerful, though.

The man's weakness lay in his allies, his family. The President had personally done research on those surrounding the Ava, just in case.

The blind girl was difficult, since her parents had hidden her birth from the world, but the information was there. It had been a home birth with complications that may or may not have contributed to the blindness of the child. Her parents had never reported her kidnapped, though the President was sure that had been the case. Even if it wasn't, there would be enough speculation to muddy the Ava's name.

There were two others from Alaska, who had legally adopted the Ava. Of course, it had been their grandmother, but they were family enough. The girl, Katara, had a secret. The President was certain he could unravel the girl by revealing to her father- who was in the President's employ- that she was indeed an Inheritor.

Without his advisers, who would the Ava be? Best case, not a threat. Worst case, dangerous and wild. It was a lot to think about, but not something so difficult to plan. He had to be ready for when the Ava struck. And the Ava would strike, he was sure. It was more or less a matter of time.

The President would not be the one to initiate violence this time around. Too many people were watching the United States, waiting for the Ava to make his move. Let the Ava take the heat for the next war.

The Bus

Lee

He was watching her carefully. She was chewing her lip, nervous, and watching the rain outside. Kat was holding his hand loosely, her fingers tapping over his. She lifted away from him for just a moment to open the window.

Rain hit his face as well as hers, and he leaned into it.

"It's really cold," he said quietly.

She giggled, "Feels good. Hot in the bus."

Indeed it was, though Lee hadn't really noticed. He'd been more occupied in studying her. She closed the window suddenly and startled him. She shrugged when he shot her a questioning look, but said nothing more.

The heat became more apparent.

"How much more time do you have here?" she asked quietly.

Lee looked at her. "We graduate together."

"I had always wondered." After a few moments of silence she asked, "Where's your music?"

"My music?"

She mimed ear buds, "You always listened to music. Really loud music."

He laughed. "I like your voice much better."

She flushed and looked back to the window.

"Have I ever told you how sorry I was for being such an ass?" he wondered, thinking back to his original treatment of her. Things had changed between them, he thought. They were...

"No, not really." She smiled. He could see her reflection in the glass.

The bus squeaked in the rain, bounced on the road and began to sigh as it slowed to a stop. In the rain, the University looked far more dismal than normal. Sadder, somehow. It looked every bit the prison it was.

Students began unloading, two at a time, and Lee wished very much to be outside. The rain was beginning to let up and disappear into a drizzle. It hadn't been raining when they got in the bus. He wanted to dance in the rain.

"Let's hurry. I may be able to control water, but I can't make it rain." Kat pulled his hand and they ran together. Goosebumps rose on his skin, but it was definitely worth it.

As if the sky was waiting for them to step out, another wave of downpour started. Her hair was instantly soaked, and Lee vaguely wondered how heavy it had gotten. She danced in a circle and he spun her around.

He pulled her onto his feet and they teetered together in a circular fashion. It wasn't dancing, per se, but it was close and warm.

She placed her head on his shoulder and put her arms around him. He put his forehead down to her hair. For a simple space of time, it was them and the rain. But Lee remembered who he was pretending to be.

He stepped back as politely possible.

She did her best not to look hurt.

Lee grabbed her hand and they walked inside together. He had to memorize the shy smile she wore without looking at her. He knew that if he had turned his head to look at her, the expression would have faded into her usual smile.

And that would have been doing the world a disservice.

The Stands

Kat

She shouldn't have been nervous. He was good, really good. And she probably shouldn't have cared as much as she did. But really, the thing was she knew the man Lee was fighting. The man was crazy, in every sense of the word.

Kat had fought him before. The madness was visible in his eyes. There was no distinction of right and wrong, no line not to cross when injuries became too much.

He had been the other fighter when she'd accidentally killed a young woman. The fight was still fresh on her mind. She could remember trying to pin the girl to the floor, to keep her safe, and the horrified scream as the man crushed her. Kat herself had been injured greatly, but she had hardly noticed.

And now the man was down in the pit with Lee.

The screen read Lee Fire Nation vs. Ferris Earth Kingdom. Their pictures were below, and Kat shuddered as she eyed Ferris'.

And then the screen switched to film. But Kat looked down to the field instead. It was definitely scarred from the two previous battles, but it was still usable. Lee had a tough fight ahead of him.

The change was instant. When the pings ended, the two men took off. It was nearly difficult to keep track of what was going on.

A thick cloud of dust rose, a jet of red erupted through the smog. Rocks formed to needle points and went straight for Lee. They were incinerated in a shield of fire, but a few managed to make it through. Kat could, if she looked closely on the overhead screen, make out the cuts through the battle uniform. She chewed on her nails.

"Kat, cut it out," Aang said, snapping his hand down on hers. Her nail jerked roughly out of her mouth. She looked at him, very annoyed. He didn't bother apologizing. "That's gross."

Kat rolled her eyes. "It's better than pacing."

"He's going to be fine." Aang continued. He was staring at her, but she barely noticed. She was watching the battle progress. Lee was winning, for the moment. But Kat knew Ferris. It had seemed like she was winning, too.

"How can they let him fight?" she said, not meaning Lee.

Her heart was beating fast, hands shaking at the memory. The girl had been fifteen. She had had a little sister and blue eyes. The girl had done her best to hide during the first half of the fight. But Ferris didn't leave her for very long. The girl, Marie, hadn't listened to Kat's advice to stay out of the fight. When she'd injured herself trying to hold her own, Kat iced the girl to the floor, hoping to make herself a bigger target.

But Ferris hadn't been satisfied with fighting someone who was better than him.

Kat could remember the bed of rock that enclosed the girl. Marie had looked to Kat for help. But she didn't make it in time, and the girl cried out as Ferris crushed her into the ground. It was nearly half an hour before she died. They- the school- would not come to aid until the fight was completely over.

The guilt had nearly driven Kat to the edge. She hadn't finished the fight quickly enough.

"This is a place of monsters," Aang whispered. He grabbed her hand to keep her from chewing.

And they had nothing more to do but watch.

The Pit

Lee

He didn't know what it was, but something felt off. He wasn't worried, but he couldn't place what it was. The fight was going well, in his favor, but his opponent seemed so... wrong. Lee realized he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak.

And drop it did.

His legs fell into the ground. It felt like he had been sucked into the earth, stuck in place. Panic seized him as he slowly went further and further in. He tried to use his arms to push himself up, but his hand slipped through the dirt like water.

Then he began to lose air. He was being crushed, slowly. He coughed, and tried to think of a way out. He couldn't breathe, couldn't bend. He was stuck. He had lost the match- the pings confirmed it- but he was still falling slowly into the ground.

It was up to his chin when the snap actually came.

He screamed, the pain and fear from hearing his own bones crack beneath him driving him to cry out. Lee closed his eyes and yelled more, hoping the pain would stop. Surely someone would intervene. The match was over.

"Get him out! I swear to God-" Lee couldn't hear the rest.

He blacked out, and as shameful as it was, he was grateful.

Hospital Wing

Kat

It had been four hours, and she was still shaking. But she'd had her revenge. She had rid the world of a monster. She should have felt bad, for killing someone, but she couldn't. Not when it was someone like Ferris.

She ran another healing lick of water down his body. The bones would have to mend on their own- for some reason or another, the water would never heal them- but the muscles and organs she could repair. She was the only Inheritor in this place that could heal. All the nonnie doctors could do was sedate Lee.

"Now, be still and stop fighting the doctors," she sighed. She brushed his hair out of his face. He turned his face to her hand. She let one corner of her mouth tilt upward in half of a smile, oddly pleased at his peaceful expression.

"Kat, you smell like flowers and white chocolate cookies..." he muttered. She didn't think he should be awake yet, but she wondered if her healing had tampered with the medicine.

"Ah, thanks. Go back to sleep," she whispered.

His eyes opened to meet hers. "Not tired. Don't hurt."

"Bad liar," she answered simply. She kept having to move his hair. It was so long, she realized, from all the sweat from his pain. It made her lips quiver.

Lee asked, "What's the matter?"

"Stay still, will you?" Kat blinked. "Stop it, stop moving."

He was trying to reach for her, presumably to pat her chin. But his arm was broken and in a sling. He seemed to have not noticed that. She pushed his hand back down before he gave up.

"Kat, you look upset," he said.

"I killed a man today," she answered blankly. He processed the information gracefully.

He closed his eyes. "What happened?"

She placed a hand over his wrist. "He almost killed you. So I killed him."

"How did you get me out?"

Kat laughed, "Little brother."

"Ava," he groaned, remembering. He shifted, and gasped in pain.

She bit her lip.

"Thanks for the rescue. Get in trouble?" He sounded like he was slipping away.

"Nope," she answered. She kept talking until she was sure he was asleep again. Even after that, she kept talking. She let everything spill out. About how it wasn't fair that she hadn't been able to see her brother. About how she missed him, how she had a last name now! And how exciting and cool that had been.

"Well, good night, Lee." She got up to leave.

He gripped her hand, though, and his eyes flipped open.

"Stay," he said. She sat back down.

Kat was confused, "Were you awake that whole time?"

He blinked slowly and went back to keeping his eyes closed, "I told you I liked the sound of your voice."

Without knowing why, she bent and kissed his forehead. He was running a fever, but that was to be expected. As she was considering this, she forgot that lingering often sent the wrong message. She didn't quite care.

"You should really sleep, Lee," she told him.

He muttered something, but said nothing Kat could understand. She took another breath before reaching for the water in the bowl. She ran her hands over his body once more, making sure there was nothing but bone left to heal.

"That feels really weird. Kat, can I have a pickle?" Lee whispered. He sounded delirious, and she pulled the water back up to his head, hoping to alleviate the fever. She was worried his temperature was climbing too high, that perhaps his bending was causing problems as well.

But she laughed all the same. "When you get better, I'll bring you a pickle."

"I can't have pickles. Bad for piercings. Stings my tongue. But I love pickles."

This was some other side of him. She snorted quietly. She hated that he had some secret side like this. It was cute, and endearing. But, she supposed, they were...dating? Maybe. She might as well see all of him, right? She had decided months back that she was going to try it, abandon all caution to the wind. Sort of.

"We'll figure it out," she said, and got up to leave. It almost pained her to do so. She didn't want to leave him here, exposed like he was. And, besides, if he was this sick, should he really have been left alone all night? She didn't want Ferris to claim another victim.

"I fought him, you know. Ferris. That was before we...met. I killed someone then, too." This she had not shared with him. She hadn't spoken to anyone about it, really. She had pushed the emotions aside, waiting for the guilt to subside. It hadn't.

"Even after Ferris died, I couldn't help but think... I killed that little girl, and nothing I do will ever fix that. There is nothing I can do to make the image of her reaching out for me go away. Lee, I killed her." She told him everything. The moment she twisted her ankle, the one that still hadn't healed all the way, she knew the girl was dead. She did her best to heal it herself, she explained dryly, but doctors can never operate on themselves.

She told him about the nightmares, and the guilt. And how she had tried to contact the girl's family, only to be forgiven. Of all things, forgiveness had never been something she wanted from them. She'd wanted to be hated and blamed.

She didn't try to hide the tears. There were only a few, as she had had nearly ten months to deal with it, but they were more than she was expecting. She was glad he was asleep, and not watching. She shook off her sadness and went back to talking to him. In her silence, he had grown restless.

"Sorry. Okay. Let me tell you about the time Aang got arrested and Sokka and I had to prove he was not a murderer." And she launched into her tale.

Cafeteria

Lee

He wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed or flattered. She'd taken it upon herself to be his personal nurse. She was underneath his arm and carrying him, step for step. He hadn't known how strong she was. Able to carry him from his bed in the wards to here, on her own? Insanity.

"Alright, where do you normally sit?" They were paused in the door way, people having the decent courtesy to walk around them. He was just in jeans, his torso wrapped in ace bandages and stints to keep his ribs in place. He shouldn't have been up, he knew, but he was tired of sitting in the medical wing.

"Just take me with you," he said, grunting slightly when she went on.

She put him next to her, snatching a chair from a nearby table. He hadn't realized their table had no benches. Kat was gentle when she let him sit.

"What? How are we supposed to talk about you two, now?" the blind girl, Toph, asked.

Lee looked to Kat, unsure of how to respond. Truth be told, he hadn't minded spending all day with her. She had left her classes to take care of him for the past week.

"It was never an issue before." Kat shrugged. She smiled at Lee, easing him a little.

"Alright, fine. Just don't get your feelings hurt." Toph shrugged.

Lee thanked whoever had brought his lunch without looking away. He was trying his best to keep up with the conversation. He laughed with them the entire lunch, and though it hurt, he was glad to be out. But as soon as he was finished, Kat stood.

"Aw, don't make me go back," he complained. But the look on her face melted his resolve. He nodded and tried to stand. He made it about half way before she helped.

"I'll see you guys later." Kat said as way of good-bye.

They walked together, and Lee could feel people staring. It was pretty funny, actually, looking at the table where he usually sat. There were a lot of people, young men and women. Mirrors of himself. Pierced and tattooed.

"Kat?" They passed through the door.

She turned to him. "Yeah?"

"Do I seriously look like that?" He motioned to the people behind them. She glanced back to check, and then to him to decide.

"Yep. Except, you're older," she answered happily.

He sighed, "They look ridiculous."

"They modeled themselves after you." She was gazing up at him, waiting for a reaction.

Lee stopped to think. Indeed they had, but he hadn't realized... he was a grown ass man, not some pubescent teenager. He hadn't noticed, really. But there it was, plain to see. It was past time to grow up.

"Are you hurting?" She sounded worried.

"No," he answered distantly. He ran his studded tongue over his lip piercings, hating that his uncle was right. It was going to leave holes, and he would look stupid. The price to pay for being an idiot.

Kat was quiet until they reached the medical wing. She opened the door with one hand and let him sit on his bed. Her chair was a few inches away, but she didn't move to it.

"Thank you," Lee said to her.

She waved it off. "No problem."

Except he was serious. "Kat, you really didn't have to do any of this. You could have just let the nonnies patch me up."

She looked offended.

"Lee. What are we?" She raised an eyebrow. Before he could even form a coherent answer she shrugged. "At the very least, I like you. I figured it was the least I could do."

He nodded, reached out for her with his better arm, and pulled her down to him. She fell, and he nearly cursed, but it was his own fault.

He only planned to kiss her once, to leave her hanging, but his plans never seemed to pan out. Especially not when he could barely think, when he could only feel.

As quickly as she could disentangle herself from him, Kat pulled away. She jumped back and nearly fell backwards on her chair. She looked to him, breathless.

"Lee." Her voice sounded kind of...misty? If that was the right word. It was like she was afraid of speaking. Afraid of breaking the silence, maybe.

"Please don't run," he said, recognizing the look on her face.

She shook her head and pushed her forehead to his, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Does that answer your question?" he wondered, forgoing the pain of moving his arm to touch her face. Her skin was warm. Was she blushing?

She jerked her head in a nod. "A little."

"Kat, I'm going to kiss you again."

She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Your piercings feel funny."

"Sorry," he muttered, though other things were on his mind.

A/N: Speak and be heard! I'd like to know how this chapter was. Thank you all so much! See you again soon...ish.