It had been about a week after the dancing party. Sokka had got his awesome space sword, while we were waiting for him I convinced Toph to teach me metal bending.

I tried it for three hours straight before she gave up on me. But I finally slightly moved the piece of metal, ever so slightly but it was enough. So I was officially a metal bender!

When we were scamming people Katara and Toph didn't get captured, the plan went the way it was supposed to go. I found it strange that combustion man didn't go after us, he did in the show. Unless Zuko didn't send him after us, but why would he do that?

Phfff.

We were camping in a forest, I knew what it would start but I didn't want to avoid it because of the captives.

We sat around a fire telling ghost stories, and right then it was my turn. I decided to go with one that would definitely be scary. "It all began with one little girl. It was just another night in the Lee home. But as this sweet little girl slept her legs began to move on their own! She opened her eyes to find she was walking out of the house!" I looked around making sure not to drop my act, to see interested or scared faces. I hadn't even got to the end yet. "Her arm opened the door and she began to walk through, she tried to fight this power but couldn't. Her family heard this and ran to help her, but when they got in there, they saw it. In a forest much like this, on a moon like this. A pure Black figure." Sokka and Aang got specially scared when I mentioned a forest.

"It was like it was taking light and turning it into darkness. There was a ringing in they're ears. The girl had no choice but to give into the pull that was pushing every vein, every muscle in her body. The question was what did it want. The sounds it made were like an owl of some kind." I looked around to see everyone freaking out, specially when they heard an owl in the distance. "-and that's when they heard it. The music ringing in their ears. Come crawling faster. Obey your master. Your life burns faster. Obey your master, master. Master of puppets I'm pulling your strings. Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams. Blinded by me you can't see a thing. Just call my name cause I'll hear you scream, master, master!" I pulled out my guitar and played Metallica.

It completely threw them off and they all got annoyed. "Ya'll thought I would finish?" I laughed. "It's too sad." I finished as they were all still annoyed.

"Wait, I got one." Sokka said before we sat through a terrible story. It was like one of those movies you don't go watch.

"Suddenly they heard something down the hall in the dark. Whoooo. It came into the torch light.... and they knew the blade of wing fun was haunted! Ahhhauugh!" Sokka screamed like it was a song as he unsheathed his sword.

"I think I like the man with the sword for a hand better." Aang commented, not pleased at all.

"Water Tribe slumber parties must stink." Toph scoffed as she laid back down.

"No wait, I've got one and this is a true southern Water Tribe story." Katara looked around to get reactions.

"Is this one of those a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to stories." Sokka asked not enthused.

"No, it happened to mom." Sokka then popped his eye wide and listened.

"One winter, when mom was a girl a snow storm buried the whole village for weeks. A month later mom realized she hadn't seen Nene since the storm. She and some others went to go check on Nene's family, when they got there no one was home, just a fire flickering in the fire place. While the men went out to search mom stayed in the house. When she was alone she heard a voice. 'It's so cold, and I can't get warm.' Mom turned to see Nene standing by the fire. She was Blue like she was frozen, mom ran outside for help but when everyone came back Nene was gone." She looked around to see scared faces and on the edge.

"Where she go?" Sokka asked popping out from under a tree root.

"No one knows, Nene's house stands empty to this day but sometimes people see smoke coming from the chimney like little Mene is still trying to get warm."

"Wait, guys did you hear that?" Toph asked, making all of us clog together as she put a hand on the ground. "I heard people under the mountain, and they're screaming." She added making everyone think she was joking, but I put a hand down and tried to listen. I had been working on my vibrations.

"Nice try." Sokka remarked.

I began to hear it, there were so many screams for help and people in pain. It sounded like how I think hell would sound.

"No I'm serious, I hear something."

"I hear it to." I stated, (earth bending perk passed.) as I didn't want to hear anymore, it was haunting. Why would she do this? Not in her right mind.

"You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories." Katara tried to reassure more like herself.

"It just stopped." Toph said as it died away into nothing.

"Alright now I'm getting scared." Aang said, as they were still hugging each other.

"Hello, children." We all screamed and ran to each other to turn and see it was Hama. The creepiest woman alive... well next to Azula that is. She scars the living day lights out of me.

"Sorry to frighten you, my name is Hama you children shouldn't be out in the forest by yourself at night. I have an inn near by why don't you come back there for some spiced tea and warm beds." She suggested in a warm friendly old lady voice, but I knew better.

"Yes please." Sokka squealed.

                                     ~*~

"Thanks for letting us stay here tonight. You have a lovely inn." Katara complimented as we sat at her table.

I tried not to look at Hama with suspicious eyes, but I couldn't help but think of what she did.

"Aren't you sweet? You know you should be careful, people have been disappearing in those woods you were camping in." She casually stated as she sipped on her tea.

"What do you mean 'disappearing?'" Sokka asked leaning over the table.

"When the moon turns full people walk in and they don't come out. Who wants more tea?" She asked, after scaring everyone there, even I was on edge. But mainly because I knew who was really doing it. "Don't worry you'll all be completely safe here. Why don't I show you to your rooms and you can get a good nights rest."

                                     ~*~

That night I laid awake, I have to admit I hated Hama. However, as much as I might say how bad blood bending is, it wouldn't hurt to know it. I wanted to take her bending away, but I didn't know how. Then it hit me, Amon took people's bending, with blood bending.

The next morning we went shopping, and of course Katara and Hama hit it off.

"You won't have any ash bananas till next week?!" A costumer asked an owner as we walked by.

"Well I have to send the boy to Han Wa Island to get them and it's a two day trip." The owner answered, with a suspicious tone.

"Oh right, tomorrow's the full moon."

"Exactly, I can't lose another delivery boy in the woods." Those people were getting used to Hama's work, I knew chasing around with the Gaang wasn't going to take her down.

For some reason I wanted to take her bending away, she didn't deserve it. The only way to do that, was to go with her and Katara. If it went good, I would only have to blood bend myself.

"People disappearing in the woods, weird stuff during full moons this just reeks of Spirit world shanagins." Sokka stated as we walked through the streets. "I bet if we take a little walk around town we'll find what these people did to the environment to make the spirits mad. Gyawa?" Aang asked, realizing I wasn't paying attention.

"Mm? Oh yeah."

"And then you can sow up the total mystery lickity split, Avatar style." Sokka said, putting an arm around me before realizing I wasn't listening again. "Gyawa?" He asked.

"Huh? Yeah." I replied before walking ahead.

"Helping people that's what we do." Aang stated, with a content smile.

"Why don't you all take those things back to the inn I just have to run a few more errands. I'll be back in a little while." Hama said, as we all walked closer to her and Katara.

"This is a mysterious town you have here..." Sokka fished.

"Mysterious town for mysterious children." Hama remarked with a suspicious grin.

                                     ~*~

"That Hama seems a little strange, like she knows something. Or she's hiding something." Sokka thought at loud as we got back to the inn.

"That's ridiculous, she's a nice woman who took us in and gave us a place to stay. She kind of reminds me of Gran Gran." Katara said as she unpacked the groceries.

"But what did she mean by that comment, 'mysterious children?'" Sokka asked as he began to look around.

"Ge I don't know, maybe because she found five strange kids camping in the woods at night. Isn't that a little mysterious?" Katara replied, with an annoyed tone.

"I'm gonna take a look around." Sokka said, before walking up stairs.

"Sokka! Sokka! What are you doing? You can't just snoop around someone's house." Katara whisper shouted, as he and I walked up the dark narrow stairs.

"It will be fine." He reassured, before we moved closer in.

As we walked through the up stairs Katara kept nagging us, I felt like we were kids sneaking around a haunted house and Katara was the scared girl. While Aang was the side kick who didn't want to say he didn't want to be there.

"Come on." Sokka said, trying to get a closed door open. When he pulled it open puppets fell out and made us all jump.

"Oh okay that's pretty creepy." Aang stated, as Katara shoved them back in.

"So she's got a hobby, there's nothing weird about that. Sokka, you've looked enough Hama will be back soon. Gyawa, tell Sokka to stop right now!" Katara demanded, I just ignored it and walked to the door.

"Just an ordinary puppet loving inn keeper huh? Then why does she have a lock for up here?" Sokka asked trying to open it.

"Probably to keep people like you from snooping through her stuff." Katara annoyingly replied, she did not get it.

"We'll see. It's empty except for a little chest." Sokka said as he looked in the key hole.

"Maybe it's treasure!" Toph smiled.

"Step back." I warned, hitting in the door with my shoulder.

"Gyawa, what are you doing?! You're breaking into a private room." Katara gasped.

"Cool it, Katara, your taking the fun out of this." I replied before breaking through.

"We shouldn't be doing this." Aang added to the already creepy room.

"Maybe there's a key here somewhere." Sokka asked looking around.

"Oh hand it over." Toph reached over and grabbed it.

"Come on, come on!" Sokka said not able to keep in his excitement.

"This isn't as easy as it looks." Toph replied, as she changed the metal to fit in the key hole.

"Guys I don't know about this."

"This is crazy, I'm leaving!" Katara and Aang warned. "Suit yourself, do it, Toph!" Sokka put a hand on her shoulder before she unlocked it.

Making everyone there run up and try to look in, except Toph. "I'll tell you what's in the box." Hama said, from the doorway making all of scream in fear from her coming out of nowhere, while I hated to even hear her voice.

She slowly walked up and pulled out a water tribe comb. "An old comb?!" Sokka sighed.

"It's my greatest treasure. It's the last thing I own from growing up in the southern water tribe."

                                     ~*~

Hama explained everything and got dinner ready, though I wasn't looking forward to it. "I'd stay clear of the sea prunes." Aang whispered over to Toph.

"I thought they were ocean com quads." Toph responded with a frown.

"Close enough."

"Who wants five flavor soup?" Hama asked, water bending it into our bowls. 'Great she's still a bender' I thought, I was hoping maybe me being here changed her character somehow.

"You're a water bender! I've never met another water bender from our tribe!" Katara gasped, enthusiastically.

"That's because the Fire Nation whipped them all out." She replied not looking at any of us. Sokka asked her every question only her secret would be the answer to, and when she answered how she was held she said no more.

"I'm sorry It's to painful to talk about anymore."

"We completely understand. We lost our mother in a raid." Katara said comforting her with a hug.

"Oh you poor thing."

"I can't tell you what it means to meet you. It's an honor. You're a hero."

I narrowed my eyes, she was anything but that, maybe what it means to met her.

"I never thought I'd meet another Southern water bender. I'd like to teach you what I know so you can carry on the southern traditions when I'm gone."

"Yes! Yes of course! To learn about my heritage it would mean everything to me." Katara smiled, with too much excitement, I knew this was my chance.

"Maybe I come? I'm trying to master water bending." I added trying not to look mad.

"You're a water bender too?" She asked with a gasp, there was no sign of suspicion. I knew what she was thinking, the last air benders might have a vendetta against the Fire Nation.

"Yeah, Gyawa's the Avatar ." Katara smirked, putting a hand on her waist.

"The last air nomad." Hama added, looking marveled at me.

"And me." Aang piped in holding up his hand.

"Amazing. Well of course you can, child." Hama answered, with a pathetic smile.

                                     ~*~

The next morning we went out of the town and into a meadow "Growing up at the South Pole, water benders are totally at home surrounded by snow ice and seas. But as you probably noticed on your travels that isn't always the case were ever you go." Hama said, with a friendly smile.

"I know, when we were stranded in the desert, I felt like there was almost nothing I could do." Katara replied.

"That's why you have to learn to control water where ever it exists." Hama added with a more lower tone.

"I've even used my own sweat for water bending." Katara smiled.

"You did? when?" I asked turning back to her.

"Just the other day." She quickly answered.

"You're thinking like a true master. But did you know you could even pull water out of thin air?" Hama twirled her finger in the air and before you knew it she was bending water.

"Wow." I said out loud, even though I had seen this it was still amazing.

"You've got to keep an open mind. There's water in places you never think about." Hama turned the water around her fingers into ice and threw them perfectly into a tree.

  "Wow, these flowers are beautiful." Katara gasped, as we walked in a field of red lilies.

"They're called fire lilies, they only bloom a few weeks a year but there one of my favorite things about living here. And like all plants, and all living things, they're filled with water." Hama said, stopping in the middle of the field.

"I met a water bender who lived in a swamp and could control the vines by bending the water inside." Katara commented like the excited student she was.

"You can take it even further." Hama grinned before bending the water out of the flowers and moving it into a whip, then cutting a rock near by into five pieces.

"That was incredible! It's a shame about the lilies though." Katara and I looked around at the now dead flowers.

"They're just flowers, when you're a water bender in a strange land you'd do what you must to survive. Tonight I'll teach you two the ultimate technique of water bending. It can only be done during the full moon, when your bending is at it's peak." Hama said, as she begin to walk towards the forest.

"But isn't that dangerous? I thought people have been disappearing during the full moon." Katara remarked.

"Oh, Katara, two master water benders beneath the full moon, and the Avatar. I don't think we have anything to worry about."

                                     ~*~

Later, that night when it was a full moon, every nerve in my body froze and then tensed. I couldn't believe I was as scared as I was, even if my plan didn't work Katara would still win.

"Can you feel the power the full moon brings? For generations it has blessed the water benders with it's glow. Allowing us to do incredible things. I've never felt more alive." I clenched every muscle in my body trying not to shake. I wasn't going to let Hama win.

"What I'm about to show you I discovered in that wretched Fire Nation prison. The guards were always careful to keep any water away from us, they piped in dry air and had us suspended away from the ground before giving us any water they would bind our hands and feet so we couldn't bend. Any sign of trouble was meet with cruel retribution. And yet each mouth I felt the full moon infusing me with it's energy. There had to be something I could do to escape. Then I realized that where there is life there is water. The rats that scurried around the floor of my cage were nothing more then skins filled with liquid, and I spent years developing the skill that would let to my escape. Blood Bending." As she explained I couldn't help but take stance, I needed to be ready.

"Controlling the water in another body, enforcing your own will over there's. once I had mastered the rats I was ready for the men. And during the next full moon I walked free for the first time in decades. My cell unlocked by the very guards assigned to keep me in. Once you perfect this technique you can control anything, or anyone." Hama finally looked back to see a unsure water bender and a creeped out Avatar.

"But to reach inside someone and control them? I don't know if I want that kind of power." Katara said, not taking a hint who Hama was.

"The choice is not your's. The power exists and it's your duty to use the gifts you've been given to win this war. Gyawa, they wiped out your way of life, your race!" Hama pleaded at me, to only get eyes narrowing at her.

"Katara, they tried to wipe us out too, our entire culture, your mother!" Hama added to get to Katara.

"I know." She stumbled.

"Then you should understand what I'm talking about. We're the last water benders of the southern tribe, we have to fight these people when ever we can! Where ever they are with any means necessary." Hama yelled, getting no agreement.

"You're the one! You blood thirsty hag!" I yelled back, I had been waiting to say that. Katara gasped like it all finally came to her.

"They threw me in prison to rot along with my brothers and sisters. They deserve the same. You must carry out my work." She said, towards Katara.

"I won't! I won't use blood bending, and I won't allow you to keep terrorizing this town!" Katara pointed at her. Hama then twisted her arm in a bad position. I then realized I was being blood bent myself.

"You should have learned the technique before you turned against me. It's impossible to fight your way out of my grip. I control every muscle every vein in your body." I was too focused on myself to see what Katara was doing.

My body was twisting in the worst position, my leg felt like it was about to break and my arms twisting around like rags. My right arm twisting to break it made me scream and I tried to gain control but I couldn't. My knee went too far back and I yelled in pain as I felt it pop.
 
"Stop, Please." Katara cried as she landed on her knees.

Lucky her, I was still screaming from the pain as I felt my arm fall out of socket. Hama began to laugh in the most maniacal way possible.

But then something snapped in me, I felt power. I felt the glow flow through me and I regained control. My dislocated arm and knee still hurt, but I had to take Hama down.

Hama's eyes widened as I slowly began to walk towards her. Every step on my knee hurt like daggers, but I didn't stop, it was time to end this.

I focused on all the water in Hama as I closed my eyes. I suddenly could feel the energy and blood twirling all inside her body. Using my instincts I blood bent her down and turned her around.

"W-what are you doing?!" She asked in fear.

"I'm taking away your bending, permanently!" I hissed, putting my thumb on her forehead and my other holding her head. I closed my eyes, still using her blood to keep her from moving. And there was the chakra points, it was rather easy to see now. I knew I couldn't rely on the avatar state and instead I blocked each one.

I couldn't explain it, it was almost spontaneous. I then let her go from my hold and she immediately fell to the ground.

With any energy she had left, she tried to bend at me? Only to throw her arm back down.

"H-how?" She yelped, I soon found a grin pull on my face as I held my dislocated shoulder.

Aang, Sokka, and Toph all ran up, "What happened?!" Sokka asked, as I barely stood up with one leg.

"Gyawa took Hama's bending." Katara replied with slight fear in her voice.

"You can do that?!" Toph gasped.

I didn't answer before the captive villagers ran up. Good to know they still got them out. "You're going to be locked away forever." One growled as they took Hama away in chains.

I then leaned on Sokka and Aang, Hama turned to me with an evil grin around her old haunting face. "My work here is done. Congratulations, Gyawa, you're a blood bender." She began to laugh as she was taken away.

I did nothing as I stood there, Katara put a hand on my shoulder to comfort me. But the odd part was, I felt nothing. No regret, no satisfaction, nothing.