White Hot Flames (ZukoxOC)

35

Toph shrugs. "Maybe the moon spirit just turned mean."

Sokka whirls to face her. "The moon spirit is a gentle, loving lady. She rules the sky with compassion and... lunar goodness!" he huffs. Rezalia watches with widened eyes as he crosses his arms and turns away childishly. Before the situation could escalate, Aang walks over to a passing man.

"Excuse me, sir. Can you tell us anything about the spirit that's been stealing people?"

"Only one man ever saw it and lived, and that's Old Man Ding," the man answers. After pointing them in the right direction, the man takes off once more.

The group approaches an older man nailing nails into a board. "Old Man Ding?" Aang calls cautiously.

The man turns as he swings his hammer down, hitting his thumb rather than the nail. "Eeh, yeow! Aw, dang blame it! What? Can't you see I'm busy Got a full moon rising. And why does everyone call me that? I'm not that old. Aww... well, I'm young at heart. Not ready to get snapped up by some moon monster, yet, at least."

"That's what we wanted to ask you about, actually," Rezalia says, handing Ding the hammer he'd dropped.

Aang questions, "Did you get a good look at the spirit that took you?"

"Didn't see no spirit. Just felt something come over me, like I was possessed. Forced me to start walking toward the mountain. I tried to fight it, but I couldn't control my own limbs. It just about had me into a cave up there. And I looked up at the moon, for what I thought would be my last glimpse of light. But then, the sun started to rise. And I got control of myself again! I just high-tailed it away from that mountain as quick as I could!" Ding recounts.

Sokka frowns. "Why would a spirit want to take people to a mountain?"

Toph gasps, yanking at Rezalia's sleeve. "Oh, no! I did hear people screaming under the mountain. The missing villagers must still be there."

Cursing, Rezalia takes off, trusting the others to follow. "Lia, where are you going?" Aang calls.

"The window in Hama's creepy secret room faces this cave!" she calls back. "Might as well start heading in that direction and then Toph can listen to see where we need to go!"

Toph does exactly that, leading them toward the entrance to a cave. The darkness leads them to a metal door, with torches on either side. Aang and Sokka each take a torch as Toph opens the door using her bending. Inside, the light of the torches reveals lines of towns people chained to the wall. Small, dehydrated shouts of joy go up upon their arrival. Toph and Rezalia immediately begin to undo their shackles.

"I didn't know that spirits made prisons like this, who brought you here?" Aang asks.

"It was no spirit," a woman spits out, rubbing at her aching wrists.

A man adds, "It was a witch."

"A witch, what do you mean?" Sokka questions.

"She seems like a normal old woman, but she controls people like some dark puppetmaster."

Rezalia hisses, "Hama."

"Yes, the innkeeper," the prisoner confirms.

"I'll get these people out of here, you go," Toph urges. Sokka and Aang give their torches to two of the freed townsfolk and the three of them take off running. The tell-tale grunting and shouting of conflict leads them to Katara and Hama.

Sokka shouts, "We know what you've been doing, Hama!"

"Give up!" Aang adds. "You're outnumbered."

Hama's lips twist into a cruel imitation of the kind smile she'd given them just that morning. "No. You've outnumbered yourselves."

As the elderly woman raises both arms, their bodies stiffen. Rezalia's body moves against her will, running toward Katara and reaching for her knife. Hama forms a cyclone to protect herself, using Aang, Sokka, and Rezalia as her human puppets. Sokka and Aang do their best to warn Katara of their movements, though Hama changed them so wildly that it was difficult to shout in time. Rezalia released controlled blasts of fire from her hands and feet to blow herself off course, which eventually frustrated Hama to the point where she pulled the girl from the fight entirely.

"I could tell there was something wrong with you," Hama hisses.

Rezalia grins wolfishly. "Who, me?"

"You wretched fire bender," the woman snarls. "I let you into my home, I feed you-"

"You try to use me to kill my friend," Rezalia continues for her.

Hama releases a feral scream. "YOU BRAT! I COULD KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND!"

"You could," Rezalia agrees. "But unfortunately for you, you let the boys go."

Hama's eyes widen but she does not move. Mostly due to the fact that she couldn't. Rezalia, now having full control over her body once again, turns toward Katara. The girl's face was pinched in anger and pain alike, arm outstretched as she halted Hama's movements. Slowly, Katara lowers her arm, forcing Hama to kneel as Toph and the freed prisoners return. Katara collapses in the arms of her brother as Hama is dragged away in chains.

"She- I didn't- I had to-" Katara gasps out.

Rezalia shushes her. "I know," she murmurs, pulling the water bender into a hug. "I know. It's okay. Everything will be okay."

Hours later, after Katara had fallen prey to sleep, Toph would ask what happened and Rezalia would be the only one with an answer. "Blood bending." The name alone is enough to draw horror to everyone's face. "I heard about it but I was never sure of the credibility of the rumors. It's plausible, sure, but I'd never met a water bender who would even think of controlling someone like that. That was what Hama did to us when we were attacking Katara. She was using the water in out blood to control our movements. That's how Katara stopped her too."

There's silence for a moment. "When we were being controlled," Aang starts slowly. "I couldn't use my air bending, but you could use your fire."

It wasn't a question but Rezalia answers anyway. "Fire is different from the other elements. With water, earth, and air you have to use the preexisting elements around you. But you create fire from your very being. It comes from within you and, truly, doesn't require much movement to use. The movements are for control and precision. With other bending, the movements help bend the elements to your will, so you can't really bend without moving. Does that make sense?"

It didn't but Aang nodded anyway.