Chapter 4

"You didn't fail me. You didn't know that I would be able to do it. You even thought that I wouldn't have a chance. You are a great Shifu, and I owe you greatly for what you have done for me. I found out that in order to have REAL power I have not be content, not be angry. I have to find a place in my mind where chaos meets serenity. If it wasn't for what you helped me to see, I would really be blind. I think that from now on I will have control. I will be able to do a lot more then just Bend water. I will have the power to help people. You showed me that, you didn't fail me."

"That's not what I was talking about." He looked over at me, his eyes were dark and clouded with grief. "Blood Bending is extremely dark. Also with the ability to Psychic Blood Bend, you will be able to use Blood Bending at anytime. With practice you can do amazing things with it. Your Grandfather was able to Bend the blood in a person causing their brain to lose oxygen and make them pass out. Though what you can do with it is great, it's a very addictive power. That's why your Grandfather wanted you to never learn it… but a promise is a promise. I guess after you master fog you will begin Blood Bending."

"Wait, why aren't you going to teach me how Bend ice? I couldn't have possibly mastered it already. How is that possible?"

"You really only needed to learn to control it, you already could use it to fight." he smiled, his eyes lighting up. "Now all you need s fighting experience to learn to use it in unique ways. So you can develop ways of manipulating it to suit your propose. That is how a Shifu uses his Bending. To be completely honest, you could skip learning to Bend Fog. If that is what you want. Everything you need to learn in that department will have to come from experience."

I walked around, pacing for a few minutes trying to think about what it was that I really wanted to do. I wanted to get to Blood Bending, but I could miss something if I skipped learning to Bend fog. Though if he believed I could skip it, there couldn't be much that I would miss, if anything. The best solution would be to find out what the fog training would be, then make the decision from there.

"What would I be doing in the fog training? Will I really be missing anything if I just skipped it." He cleared his throat then looked at me before answering.

"The training would be the same as the ice training, but instead you would have to remove all the fog in the room with a single sweep. It's not that difficult if you really think about it, so you really wouldn't be missing much. As for understanding fog, I planned on asking you the question anyways. So tell me, Daniel. What is fog?"

"Fog is escape, it is a mirage, fog is a mystery." I said without hesitation.

"Yea, you don't need the training." He said laughing out loud, then his I grew cold and menacing once again. "Tell me now… what do you plan to use Blood Bending for?"

That was the question, why did I want to know how to Blood Bend so badly? Was it just because I wanted that knowledge? Or did I want to use it in battle? What was it that drove me to want this? I could not come up with an answer no matter how hard I thought.

"You can have as much time as you want to think of an answer, as long as you tell me the truth. I will know if you are lying, so don't even think about it. If you lie to me I will never teach you how to Blood Bend. So think hard about what you are going to say."

"Yes, Shifu. I will think of the reason that I really want to do something like this." I turned and walked across the room. Sitting against the wall farthest from him I began to think of what mattered to me.

Blood Bending is the power to control the water in a human's body. Why would I want to control their blood….? So I could stop them without killing them? I guess that is a good reason, but there's more to it… If I can control their body, I can make them turn against each other, start a fight and cause a distraction…. or maybe I can kill them instantly. Stopping the blood from flowing. Stop the enemy from hurting anyone else. That won't work, if I tell Shifu that he definitely not teach me. Then what is the reason. What can I do with Blood Bending that I can't do with normal Water Bending? What can I do… That's it! I shot to my feet. Then walked over to Shifu.

"I want to use Blood Bending as a last resort in a fight. If I have no other way of living, I will use it. Only then, I will swear on that. It's a dangerous ability, so I will use it on another person only if I'm about to die."

"That's the same promise I made to your Grandfather twenty years ago." He looked off into the distance. "I will teach you to Blood Bend, starting now." We both stood up. He took a few steps back and then there was about fifty feet between us. With that distance he took a deep breath and then reached out his hand. I felt my body grow tense, the muscles contracting and relaxing. My arms and legs became tired.

"Normally Blood Bending is only possible during the full moon. Though if you can learn to sense the water, and focus all of your powers on that water. You can control it. Now, your first test is to stop me from Bending your blood, by over powering me. This isn't survival training, you just have to learn to resist another Water Benders influence, otherwise you will be overpowered. Blood Bending is a dark art, but we aren't the only ones who do it. So if you ever happen to fight someone who can Blood Bend, you have to be stronger. So, overpower my Bending."

Every muscle in my body locked up. I was standing up straight, and my arms were locked at my side. For the first time in a month I was completely helpless against him. I could feel my blood harden around my bloody hand. He lifted me off the ground and I felt something that I can only describe as pure agony. My body was rocked with muscle spasms so violent that I couldn't focus on anything. I was defenseless against something of this magnitude. If I couldn't break this I would die of shock. He doesn't know how close he is to killing me, anymore and I will be dead. I won't survive…. I won't survive… I… won't. My vision went black, I couldn't see, I couldn't hear. All I could do was feel the pain as my body was sent into another set of spasms. I fell to the ground, conscious but unable to move. I was vulnerable for his next attack, and when it came I screamed, as my bones began to scrape against each other. I tried to release some of my Ki, but I couldn't focus enough to build any. I knew that was the only way, so I started small desperate attempts to break his hold on me. Exploding all of the energy I was able to conjure anywhere I could. At first there was no response, almost as if he was completely ignoring my attempts to get free. I started to give up hope, then I felt the pain lessen. I was able to gain more focus, pull more of my Ki together and push back against the hold on my body.

I was making great progress, then I tried to stop him all at once, pushing Ki out around me with all my force. For a moment I was free, just long enough for me to let out a soft groan. Then all at once the pain returned, far more intense then when we began our back in forth. So I began again, slowly taking control of my body, and little by little the pain subsided. Before to long I had managed to push almost half of it away and when he attempted to regain control of an area of my body, I would successfully fight him off, I may have lost a little in the process, but slowly I was able to fight him off. Gaining enough ground back that I thought I could stand up and fight back, I pushed off against the floor, slowly rising to my knees.

"Stay down!" He growled at me, and my body convulsed, the bones in my right hand were shattered as the blood froze around it. I managed to keep myself from whimpering. Once again gaining my composure, I placed my back foot on the ground and opened my eyes. I raised my head and look deep into his, fury giving me strength once again.

"I… am.. the master of… my own… body, and.. no one… will ever take that away… from… me!" I rose slowly to my feet. I felt my arteries harden, but this time instead of causing me pain it flooded my body with strength. I took a step forward, and was barely able to maintain my composure as he shot intense pain into my left shoulder. Tightening the muscles in my left shoulder to the point that it shattered. I lurched forward and coughed up blood.

"You can't overpower me, not yet Daniel. You're going to cause your body irreparable dam-"

"Shut the fuck up!" I screamed, and I felt every vein in my body compress as I regained control. The frozen blood from my left hand reformed to create a thin blade, and the bones returned to their positions. Red light came was admitted and the pain in my hand stopped all at once. My skin began to crawl as I felt my hand correct and repair all the damage that was done to it.

"How…! How can you use blood to heal! How can you heal a wound like that, without even trying! What kind of monster are you?!" As he spoke I felt the blood vessels in my eyes contract and my vision became sharper. Raising a healed right hand, surrounded in a blade made of my own blood I looked through him, into the precious water that made up over 70% of his body. Then with a flick of my wrist, I threw him across the room.

"I'm not a monster. I'm something different." I started walking toward him, my shoulder beginning to repair. The blood ice around my hand melted and dripped to the ground, leaving a short trail as I grew closer. The look in his eyes as I raised my hand over him, starting to gain control of his body made me sick. The shock stopped me, and I realized that I could have killed him. "I'm sorry, Shifu. I could have killed you." I released him from my grip. Losing my focus I felt my blood relax, and as it returned to normal I began to feel weaker.

"Daniel, I think it is safe to say that although I have more practice and training then you." He rose to his feet, using the wall as support. "You have a large amount of raw ability that at first bridged the gap between us. Now that, it shows me that we are no longer in the same league. Daniel, I can no longer call myself your Shifu. Instead you should be calling me your student." He gave slight bow, his blond hair covering his he slide the key off from around his neck and handed it over to me. I hesitated for a moment before taking it. "Do as you wish, I no longer have anything to teach you. If I stay any longer I will just get in your way." He raised his head to look me in the eye. "You are a monster Daniel Hawthorne, a Water Bending monster." He walked over to the door and opened it. Before walking out he looked back at me. "This door will lock behind me. So you can have the privacy to develop and master you own special skills. There is enough supplies remaining that we could stay here for another month. So you should be able to last up to for times that long if you ration out your food. Daniel…?"

"Yes, Clare?"

"Your Grandfather would be very proud. His grandson is just as much a monster as he is. That's all that psychopath could have wished for." With that the door closed behind him, leaving me alone with nothing but a key, a room full of food, and my Bending.

As I unlocked the steel door and began to ascend the stairs the warmth hit me. I noticed that by cooling my blood I no longer felt the heat. It didn't take long for me to reach top of the stairs, or at least it didn't feel like it took that long. Over the last few months I stopped noticing time go by. I wouldn't have known that I was down there for 3 months if I hadn't had the calendar on the wall where the food was. Towards the end of my training I would go hours without feeling even the slightest bit of hunger, thirst or exhaustion.

I reached the top of the staircase and grabbed the handles, pulled the door open and stepped inside, closing the door behind me. My room looked untouched, and I could hear nothing in the hours below me. I looked around my room, picking up old project that was half finished. It was a model of some kind of armor that surrounded the body, looking at it it appeared to be controlled by Water Bending. I set it down and walked into my bathroom. Looking in the mirror I noticed the changes that the last six months had on me. My once short hair was now falling into my eyes, every once in a while filling my vision with stringy chestnut brown hair. My gray eyes, once filled with emotion, now were unreadable and cold. I looked like a familiar stranger. It was easy to tell that I was different on the inside too, you could see that just by the look in my eyes.

I left the bathroom and walked to the staircase, descending slowly to the kitchen below. I looked around and saw nothing, so I walked on to the living room. Sitting in a chair was a man with graying hair. He was hunched over, as though he was sleeping.

"Hello? Who are you?"

"Daniel?" The man's voice was raspy and he slowly raised his head to look at me. "Daniel…. it's me… Kevin." He tried to stand, but he collapsed, too weak to rise to his feet.

"Shifu Clare…. What happened?" I walked over too him and kneeled down to look him in the eye.

"There's another player" He coughed for a moment before continuing. "In this game… There's someone who can Bend Ki…. and not just take your ability to Bend… but take away your life energy." Tears began to stream down his face, and he looked away from me. Through his tears he spoke again. "Your parents are dead, Daniel. I'm sorry… he killed them." He looked into my eyes, then he froze. His eyes glazed over and he fell forward onto the floor, dead.