So short and yet so far. I refuse to allow myself to believe the worst is already in motion. I can still stop her.
I hobble a little faster, and the kind old enemy complies with a grim visage.
We make it there just in time to see Yue give her life to the Moon.
...
The squeezing sensation in my chest that I hadn't noticed until now eases. I take a deep, shuddering breath. Never again do I want to feel that. The red light turns silver. Yue appears as a ghost in front of Sokka.
And the squeezing sensation returns tenfold as realisation sets in.
She's sacrificed herself.
She sacrificed herself.
I let go of the general, and sink to my knees, stomach rebelling at the sight. She's transparent.
See-through. Yue is see-through.
She doesn't even get a proper death to move on, she's the fucking moon. The moon. Long after all she's known is dead, all she's sacrificed herself for will be gone, and she will still be the moon.
She's telling Sokka something. She kisses him.
Then she turns around and looks at me. "Don't make that face," she says, voice suddenly full of tears, "You've never made that face before."
"What," I force out, "Other face have I got?"
She laughs wetly. "I'll miss you."
I blink to force the tears away.
"I'll be watching." That's what worries me.
She loses the last of her pigment, fading. Into the moon.
Covering my mouth, I suppress the scream, smothering it into a gurgle that sounds more animal than human from my own throat.
A touch on my shoulder.
I don't know who it is. Don't care.
Both Yue and Hahn are dead.
They're gone.
"Kaito," I hear Yugoda's voice from beside me. It is her hand on my shoulder.
I look up in time to see Aang step into the pond and promptly vanish. Oh goodie. Avatar Hulk in motion.
I laugh wetly and allow the old healer to tug me to the pond. She peals aside my torn and bloodied uniform, and begins to heal them. Soon another set of hands joins her.
So that's why I'm coughing up blood. I have a puncture wound in my ribcage, just below the left armpit. I focus on nothing but the sensation of their bending as they restore my health and energy. Better to just. Not.
I get to my feet when they're done. I make a noise that could be an expression of gratitude, but I have no desire to speak.
Rubbing a hand over my face, I turn to look at the siblings on the other side of the pond. Then I notice someone lying face-down in the grass. The weird shaven head with the single pony-tail can only be Zuko. His uncle is on his way to him.
I watch, passive and wondering whether we should take them prisoner.
But I doubt that it would end well.
So how do we get them out? I want, if at all possible, to avoid more fights. I hope Aang manages to clear the Fire Nation out of the city. Then we can… clean up.
I look at the bundle of uniform at my feet.
Zuko can have those. I pick them up silently, and the healers and the sibling watch as I move towards the general and his nephew.
The general understands immediately what I intend and redoubles his efforts to wake the prince.
It is a startling awakening, and only the presence of his uncle seems to calm Zuko somewhat. I remain silent as I put the clothes into his hands.
"Thank you," Iroh says. "That is very kind."
All I do is shrug at him and turn around to give the prince some privacy. I note that I'm not wearing much but the skin-tight breeches of the uniform that they wear underneath all of the protective layers.
I decide that it won't be too weird to wear Zuko's white outfit. If anything, it might be good to wear it and see to it that Aang hasn't overlooked any enemy soldiers.
"What…" someone finally asks. Katara. Right. They're still here.
Yugoda speaks before she can find the right words to ask her question. "We must get to the healing huts and tend to the injured. Kaito, will you begin the process in the bay, like it was intended?"
I nod at her.
She scrutinises me for a moment. Then she leaves, Buniq by her side.
The prince's white outfit is a little too short on my legs and too snug around the shoulders, but it's only until I get some new clothes. Likewise, the uniform is too large for Zuko, but he only needs to get back to the battleships, steal another and then it won't matter anymore.
"You'll have to find another helmet. You're quite recognisable," I tell him and pull the hood over my features. I have to get to the wall, see how many died. I hope they took out most of the ships before the Moon died. Before-
No.
I take a deep breath. "Avoid confrontations, please."
The general nods. "We intend to. Thank you."
I nod.
Then they're gone.
"What…" Katara begins again, but a look from me stops her words in her throat. Not now.
I take a deep breath. "We need all who can still help in the bay. You can heal. Please help my people," I plead, and she nods, mute.
Okay. Right.
I look at the one other person as stricken as myself. Only he has been allowing his tears to fall freely. Spirits. Sokka.
Traumatised beyond belief.
"Sokka?" I ask. I won't force him, but… we need his help. We need everyone's help.
He looks at me silently. Right. So. Gentle won't work. "You've got a job to do, don't you, Sokka?"
"Yeah, like what? The Chief said to protect…", the tears begin to spill again, "To protect Yue," he whispers. His hands dangle loosely at his sides again.
"I get it, Sokka," I say, voice quiet, rough and damn near screaming again if I raise it any more than this, "Yue was... my friend. But right now. Right now, we have to make sure the ones who are still alive survive!"
I can't stop the violent outburst, and abruptly I turn away from him.
Fuck it. He'll follow if he's got any sort of compartmentalising abilities.
I leave the oasis behind and make my way towards the wall.
Down in the city, the Fire Navy is retreating. They haven't gotten very far in, with only two ships docking, but the destruction they caused is evident.
"We need to go by the healing huts for supplies," I say and the siblings follow me without a word.
Yugoda is already in the process of mending burns when we arrive. It's best to treat those kinds of injuries as quickly as possible for them not to scar.
Without a word, she gestures to pre-packed med-kits. We grab two each and make for the plaza where most of the fighting took place. We come across more and more wounded the closer we get there. The less severe burns we pack with healing salves and bandages, broken bones we mend until there's no more danger of them rebreaking with a splint and we recruit the able to get more severely wounded to the healing huts.
In the plaza, there is mayhem. Broken bodies lie strewn about, pieces of machinery jut from pillars and piles of ice. The worst part is having to check who is still alive.
"Sokka," I say and point to where I can see Aang sitting up on the wall, "Go talk to Aang."
He does so without protest while Katara and I move from wounded to wounded.
When we find another warrior bleeding out, but still alive, I have an idea. It could go horribly wrong. But the moon is still up and he'll die anyway if it doesn't work. "Katara," I say quietly and her head swivels around. "Move on without me."
She looks like she wants to say something, but then nods after looking at my face. She probably thinks he's a friend of mine.
With my heart in my throat, I kneel beside him. I take deep breaths, remind myself of how the blood circulation works, how, since his heart's still beating I only have to guide the blood back into the correct channels and close the wound. I gather the leaking blood on the ground and very slowly guide it to where it needs to be.
I'm not up for more experimenting tonight, and so don't use the blood as healing agent, but it takes all my concentration to keep the blood flow steady as I knit the flesh slowly, layer by layer.
Katara gasps from beside me and I'm glad I'm close to finished and can allow the heart to do it's job. "You… what?"
I shrug and get up. There's nothing more I can do for him. "It was an experiment."
"What?"
"I wasn't sure it would work. He would've died otherwise," I tell her and move to the next wounded, who so happens to have long white hair and a broken leg.
"But you can't just…" she tries to protest, but quiets at the look in my eyes. Evidently, I just did. Evidently, he would have died otherwise.
Pakku manages an imperious look that demands an explanation. "What are you upset about?"
I heal his leg fully, then prod at his forehead where he has a gash that bleeds into his eye.
"He just…" she begins, then takes a deep breath and lowers her voice to a whisper, "He bended blood."
Pakku stiffens. "Kaito…?"
"The warrior was about to die of blood loss. Well, it was all over the ground and the wound wasn't too big, so I bended his blood back into his body and closed the wound."
"That…" he seems to have no words for my brilliance. Finally, he settles on: "Yugoda will want to learn."
"Sure. But only at night. Only close to the full moon." I pretend like my voice doesn't fail me at the last word.
He nods and climbs to his feet. "We had best see to the Trap Unit. Who knows how many of them are still out there."
...
Don't forget to throw some power stones :)
...
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