trans_9 | A House Divided [Part 2]

Danny fires the wave, ice beams blasting out of his eyes. "I'm not letting you help kill the Yeerk Katara."

Katara threw up her arm, an incoming wave turned to ice, deflecting the ice beam. "You think this is just another hero gig, don't you? The goood guys versus the bad guys, good versus evil. I've got news for you: you don't know ANYTHING about why I'm doing this. If you want to protect that THING, I'm going to stop you. And you can call me whatever you want. I'm going to stop it!"

And now Katara's wave turns into ice projectiles, firing back at Danny.

Danny blocks it with an ectoplasmic shield.

"You really think that I'm that stupid? That I see the world in black and white constantly? Cause in case you hadn't noticed, you're the one assuming something's evil because other members of it's species happened to be."

Katara smiled. So he had a shield too. Well, that was to be expected.

"So the better option would be to let it stay imprisoned until it got loose again? Yeah, I think I'll take my chances making sure something like it doesn't exist. But if you're fine with a parasite crawling around in your head controlling you, best of luck. In my world, they take adavaantage of things like that to hurt their enemies. I'm making sure that chance won;t happen...to ANYONE."

And the backdrop suddenly started to get colder. "I don't have to like it. But I AM going to do it."

"Well you're gonna have to try a LOT harder than you have been if you wanna."

That was it.

"FINE," Katara said, and blew on Danny. It seemed delicate, almost silly, but she froze him in place from body to foot, far more extensive than even what she did to Leon. A passing look came on her face (regret?), but she turned away. No. There was no time for this, no time to feel guilty even if she did and even if she'd been friendly with him before. He couldn't understand why she had to do this. He wanted to be the good guy.

And Katara knew full well even when you were, you didn't always get to stay that way. She had to GO.

And suddenly she's grabbed by Danny, despite the fact that the ghost boy was still entombed in ice.

"A for effort, F for execution."

"Cheating doesn't count as execution!" Katara replied, refusing to be bothered by the fact that he should have been encased in ice. He may have been able to grab her, but that didn't mean that she had no weapon. She refused to let this boastful teenager get the best of her!

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This was going to take intense concentration, and without her hands to guide it, not as accurate as she liked. Even Earth King Bumi had once said he could still earthbend because his face wasn't covered. Well, hers wasn't either, and she would simply have to have enough will to do this.

She closed her eyes and started to feel the air's humidity around her. Water was all around, and she felt her element almost reaching out to her now. She started to form the ice rock (not icicle, Katara wasn't cruel), and put her will into it. When she opened her eyes, she willed the impact to the back of his head.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL?!" It hurts, but he's been hit by worse and kept fighting, so he's not going to be letting go just yet.

Katara wasn't free, and she was still angry, but an unexpected giggle came from her mouth, which she quickly tried to disperse immediately.

"Let me go! I have to do this!"

"I'll let you go as soon as Schmuz is secured. Not before."

"NO!" Now Katara was starting to chuck bigger ice rocks, but was losing her focus. "I can't let that happen! If it got free..."

Katara closed her eyes, like she was struggling withs omething. "Please, just let me go! I can't let it get him!"

Danny had formed a shield to protect his back after the first ice rock had hit.

"Aang, right?" Danny said, making a guess. "Would he really want you doing this?" He said, trying to talk her down.

"No," Katara said. "I know he wouldn't want me doing this. And if he wasn't here, I'd think about that, and I might not even do this. I don't like the idea of that Yeerk being here, but I figured the heroes would take care of it. We all have so many powers."

She clenched her fists. "But he IS here, somewhere, being kept. And I realized how selfish it was to just let a thing like that slug run around getting in people's brain. He might not want me to do this, but I CAN. If it means no one gets taken like that, I can do it."

Katara seemed to go limp. "And I didn't join anyone's team. They want to kill the Yeerk for their own reasons."

"Katara!" Sokka had seen the whole thing go down. The freezing, the wave riding, the fight with the ghost kid. And he still couldn't believe it. Katara of all people had been trying to kill the slug thing, for whatever reason. Normally she did her best to avoid killing! He dodged through the fighting, skidding to a stop next to the other two.

"What are you doing? Why didn't you just stay out of it?"

Wsa he seriously trying to talk to her NOW about this? Katara turned to her brother, and her whole calming down was suddenly right out the window. She had to decide all of this, and now he decided was a good time to play big brother?

"What, you mean like you? You want me to just sit on my hands and pretend nothing is ever happening on the ship? Oh I know, I should do JUST that. Waht are you even doing out here anyway? Did you even know all of this was going to happen? I did! I didn't do this because it was the best time, and I didn't because its fun. I'm DOING it because I think its right! If you wanted to talk me out of this, you could have done it a few days ago, when I found out Aang was on this ship!"

She had enough of this. She was sick of their reasons for protecting the thing and really angry at her brother for picking and choosing when he'd check up on her.

"Wait a minute, Aang is here? Where is he?" Sokka had a moment to look shocked before her other words sunk in and it quickly turned into a flash of anger.

"Why didn't you tell me he was here? And how was I supposed to know you were going to try and kill this thing? I can't read your mind, Katara! I'm just trying to make the best of the situation here, and that doesn't include getting involved in a fight I don't know anything about!" He crossed his arms.

"You need to get your priorities straight, Katara. What happened to you? Just because we're stuck here doesn't mean we need to start picking and choosing sides, especially if it means killing someone we don't know anything about! What would Aang say if he knew you helped kill someone?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Katara thundered. "I don't know where he is, and I thought Zuko might have already told you! I only just found out! My point is, if you'd been asking questions you would have known by now. Yes, we're in a weird place and yes, I get its scary. That doesn't mean I suddenly don't get to really see you as I explore the ship by myself!"

Katara struggled, but barely. "I already know about this Yeerk thing. I haven't been shirking my priorities, YOU have! Do you even know why we're here, what we're supposed to do? Do you know what those slugs are capable of? I need you, Sokka, we barely have team Avatar here! I need my brother!"

But at the next sentence, Katara looked down. "I know he wouldn't be proud of me. I'm not really proud of me right now. But I'm not doing this for revenge or because I'll feel great that its dead. Killing something doesn't work like that. But if it can escape, it can hurt any of us...including Aang, and knowing what Aang is able to do, is that a chance you really want to take?"

"Are you serious? I see Zuko less than I see you! Speaking of, you're the one that goes wandering off without even telling me what you're doing! How can I be there for you if I don't know where you are?" He huffed in annoyance, glancing between Katara and Danny as his sister spoke.

"I don't know Katara, that's not my decision. And it's not yours either. I think if Aang were here he'd say to take that chance. We're talking about the guy who couldn't bring himself to kill the Fire Lord, Katara." He sighed, glancing down at his feet.

"I wish he was here. He'd know what to do. And somehow I think he could have stopped all this." He waved a hand at the combatants.

"Aang's not here with us right now, but I think we need to think about what he would do if he were here and what he would and wouldn't do if we're going to be doing stuff in his name or because of him, you know?"

"Fine, I get ot, I've been gone! But at least I've been around, finding things out! The moment I got on this ship I've been asking questions, talking to people. If we ever want to get out of here..."

Katara trailed off. She was looking at the fight now, and a sick feeling hit her stomach. No. There were already a few people getting injured out there, and here she was, having an arguement with Sokka about a slug. Maybe it was the presence of the thing that was bad, nevermind it being free. If it could cause all of this mayhem, what more would happen.

And why was she forgetting that the important thing, the MOST important thing, was protecting people, not going after that thing?

"You're right," Katara said, lowering her eyes. "I wanted to kill that thing, and I don't want it hurting people. But its happening anyway, no matter what I do. We can't be against each other like this. And I can't continue helping them if all its going to do is hurt people."

Katara looked up at Danny. "Danny. If you let me free, I promise you I won't go after the Yeerk. You could stop me anyway, I'm pretty sure. But these people need our help. I won't say I'm staying out of this because I'm a kid, but I am still committed to helping people on this ship."

"Cold. So very, very cold. Note to self, next time, let the duplicate get frozen. Let her go." Said the original Danny, who had finally managed to get out of the ice, and with that the copy poofed out of existence.

Katara blinked. "Wait so, that was actually you still frozen there? But then how..."

Katara shook her head. "Nevermind. Sorry Sokka, but the last thing we're going to do is stay out of this. You're coming with me. We have people that we're going to have to help."

With that, she grabbed her brother's hand and bent one foot back and brought up her arms. They were immediately propelled forward, and she looked back at Danny a moment before nodding.

Thank you, she mouthed.

A House Divided [Part 2]

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Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

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Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!

Re: Are You Ready For Some Yeerkball?!?!