AN: It's been about 2 years, huh…well, don't yell at me. Here's a long, juicy chapter to make up for it! :D I'm really getting back into it. You may want to reread the story just to remember what's going on.

DISCLAIMER: I still don't own ATLA. *sigh*

WARNING: Content of this chapter is a bit graphic. Very violent.

Breathless

Written: June 13, 2015

Posted: June 13, 2015

Chapter 15: Hama Unchained

The entire city was being rummaged through since late last night when Toph exclaimed to her friends that Katara had once again gone missing. The first time Katara had fallen off the map, Zuko had cursed Toph for not being able to sense her weight shifting. This time, however, he was very thankful of her, for no one would have even known she was gone until morning had it not been for Toph's super senses.

Every corner and alley of Ba Sing Se's upper ring was molested. No rock could go unturned, and no building could go unchecked. They had split into teams of two to cover more ground. Zuko felt Toph would be most helpful to him because of her abilities to see underground, and that's where Katara had ended up last time. Sokka and Aaang stuck together because of their experience of one another in situations like this – they knew how each other worked, and it was more comfortable that way. Suki and Ty Lee were the same way, both being Kyoshi Warriors and both understanding each other's way of combat and what not. The most efficient teams are ones who know each other's strengths and weaknesses. They decided the groups worked best this way.

Clad in brown cloaks, they scoured the city. They did not want to be seen coming by whoever was hiding their friend, so they disguised themselves and hid their faces. Doing so was actually the better thing to do, they soon realized. There was talk of them around the town, nasty talk indeed. Citizens were badmouthing them, and the fire nation in particular. However, none of the comments directly addressed why there was so much angst unleashed within the city. At the sound of his name being shunned, Zuko almost approached some people before being grabbed tightly by Toph. When he looked down at her to glare as if she could see him, she absently shook her head once, telling him that would not be a good thing to do. He nodded reluctantly, and they continued their search once more.

"I hate these fucking gloves," she muttered angrily. She had tried so hard to break them, but they wouldn't at all. She banged them on the walls, fell on them (which resulted in her hurting her head badly) and even tried to just pull them a part. No good. Her arms were sore from being behind her back for so long. How long was so long? She didn't even know just how long she had been here, wallowing in the dark underground tunnel. It felt like days and days had passed. But who knew for sure? She sure as hell didn't. As she continued down the tunnel, one groggy step at a time, she leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. She felt it again, her stomach churning and its invisible contents trying to spew themselves from her. She heaved and hacked. She had already thrown up a few times before from being so hungry, there was nothing left in her stomach to throw up. If anything, it would be stomach acid, and she absolutely hated it. She slumped down the wall, and laid in a fetal position. She had been walking forever, and this tunnel seemed to just never end. She usually never did this, but a few tears escaped her eyes. She was most likely going to die down here.

Was she being punished? If there were ever a time to repent, now would be it.

"I'm sorry," she cried softly over and over again. She attempted to vomit again, but nothing came out, and her throat and stomach were only straining themselves. She was losing circulation in her hands from the tight grip of the earth cuffs; she could feel her fingers getting colder. Her shoulders were crying, tired of being pushed back for so long. She no longer wanted revenge, she no longer wanted anyone dead but herself. Suddenly, she saw the flicker of a torch light dancing along the walls. Someone was coming. She didn't know whether to be afraid or relieved. She decided that it was good because maybe this person would help her, or give her a quick death. Either one would be better than this. She pushed herself up, getting herself to stand so that when the person came around the corner she would be ready.

"Who's there?" she asked, her voice raspy, from the strains of vomiting. The person was close enough now that she could hear footsteps. She braced herself, locked her knees and stood confidently. However, as soon as the she and the person were face to face, her knees gave out, and she fell back to the ground.

"Are you okay, girl?" The person said worriedly as they rushed over to help. The person looked intently at the weak girl on the cave floor and gasped. "M-Mai? Mai is this really you?"

She looked at the woman's face in wonder. "Oh my god. You're…alive."

"…I am," She said as she helped Mai up. "Come on, we've got to get you out of here."

"You know how to get out of this hell hole?" Mai was stumbling to stand. The woman held her steady and noticed the cuffs restraining her.

"Damn Dai Li," she muttered, walking slowly with Mai. "Yes, I do. I live down here with a few other people. But they're dangerous. You're very lucky that I found you and not them."

"Dangerous, huh…"

"Mai…what are you even doing here? How did this happen?" The woman sounded frantic. "What exactly happened to you?"

"Your daughter."

She felt lightheaded, dizzy and faint. She couldn't see anything. Well, she could if she were able to get her eyes open, but they just felt so heavy, she couldn't at the moment. Seeing her surroundings would have to wait. She could hear something, though. Water. Water falling. It sounded like it was right behind her, actually. She could feel a few drops clinging to her limbs…which were chained. She was so out of it, she hadn't realized how exactly she was chained. 'No way,' her heart sank and she finally forced her eyes open. She was high above the ground. Stories below her she saw the familiar catacombs she had once stayed in during the war. She whipped her head around to see that she was hanging from chains above the waterfall she had rescued Aang from falling down when Azula had shot him chock-full of lightening in the Avatar State. Her arms were outstretched in the shape of a V, chained at the wrists. The chains interlocked with a Dai Li style earth glove, and sprouted from the catacomb ceiling. It was the same with her legs – chained at the ankle, and earth gloves over her feet. The chains were tight, too. There was no slack whatsoever.

She began to panic. Her heartbeat picked up as she remained chained up high over the water. Even with her hands and feet enveloped by the earth gloves, she tried to bend. She tried with everything in her might to get some kind of water movement going. But she was too weak. It pained her greatly to try to move at all, making her wonder just how long she had been down here, hanging. Hot streams of tears began to flow down her cheeks as her shoulders began to burn. She felt absolutely disgusted. And the disgust grew ten-fold when a familiar evil cackle emitted through the catacombs, and old grinning face appeared below her.

"Katara, my child. It is so good to see you. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Hama," Katara spit out in vain. "Why…"

"Oh, don't even finish that sentence. You know why."

"I know why you are angry at me," Katara breathed through the pain, "but what are you doing to the city?"

"I am going to save it, my dear child. You see, Fire Nation soldiers, sent by your dashing Firelord Zuko by the way, came and burned down the middle ring."

Katara's eyes widened. "YOU'RE LYING! ZUKO WOULD NEVER DO THAT! YOU'RE CRAZY!"

"Oh, perhaps I am. But the Earth Kingdom citizens would never know that, would they? All they know is that people in Fire Nation uniforms came and burned down the middle ring. They feel betrayed. And what's worse is that the Avatar was in the city when it happened, but where was he? He didn't do a thing to stop it. Not him or any of his war hero friends." Hama began pacing. "Where were you all when the middle ring fell? Not there? You didn't stop it and it happened right under your nose. The Earth King and all of his men are even locked away, and you all weren't even aware. You've lost your spunk, Katara. Your edge is gone. Maybe it's because you're becoming a mother," Hama blended the blood in Katara's stomach, feeling the energy of the growing child. Katara screamed in pain as Hama continued.

"You're nothing, Katara. You're a traitor to your own tribe, and you dare to take it a step further and have the spawn of the Firelord growing within you!? DEMON CHILD!" Hama yelled, and discomfoted Katara even further resulting in another wail of distress. "YOU LOCKED ME AWAY FOR TAKING REVENGE UPON THOSE WHO LOCKED ME AWAY FOR DEFENDING MY HOME! OUR HOME KATARA! YOU INSENSITIVE GIRL! YOU FOOLISH CHILD. I will destroy the Fire Nation. I will make them pay for everything they have done. I suffered many years in the prison, and many more in the Fire Nation being away from home. I hate them. Everything about them. They will ROT," Hama's eyes widened and a sick smile covered her face.

"Hama, the war is over!" Katara cried. "The Fire Nation is better now, all is forgiven, please…don't do this."

"All is forgiven? If all was forgiven, why wasn't I released at the end of the war!? I was a soldier! I was waterbender soldier fighting against the Fire Nation from the inside. But no one saw me as such. Nothing is forgiven."

"You were taking innocent lives and hiding them in a volcano! Those people had nothing – "

"Nothing to do with the war!? FOOLISH. Think about it, Katara. If you showed your true self to those people in that town, you and the avatar and your friends, do you think they would have hid you? Helped you? If Aang waltzed into any Fire Nation town sporting his nomad tattoos and funny way of dress, do you think they would have cheered and praised him? NO! They would have captured him! They would have turned him in to the Firelord on a silver platter! The war was over 100 years long, they were raised like that! Savage!"

"You were raised like that too," Katara said quietly. "You were raised to hate the Fire Nation."

"I was rasied to do good by my people," Hama turned away from Katara. "The Fire Nation revealed themselves to be monsters. So I will treat them as such."

"By killing them!?" Katara cried.

"Yes. You would have been safe, my sweet kin, but…you are harvesting a person of the Fire Nation as we speak…"

"Hama, NO! PLEASE DON'T!"

"…and they must die. EVERY. LAST. ONE."

"NO!"

Hama froze a stream of water from the waterfall, and sliced Katara's chains. In an instant she began to plummet rapidly to the catacomb floors. She tried to bend a wave of water to catch her, but Hama shook her head, and crippled Katara's movements. She couldn't move her body at all as she continued to fall. She prayed that she was positioned over the pool of water below the waterfall, but as she opened her eyes and saw land quickly approaching, she said a silent "I love you," to her friends and family. Suddenly, the tension in her body released, and she could move again. She didn't even open her eyes. As fast as she could she bended a water whip around her waist to throw her over the water, but she was too close to the ground. She hit the ground, hard. Her whip threw her only inches away from the pool. If she had had more time, she could have landed softly in the water. But she didn't have time, and she was laying on her stomach, coughing up blood. The pain was unbearable. It seared through her like lightening, and weakened her greatly. She was about to black out. But she couldn't yet. Using all of her strength, she army crawled once to get closer to the water. She was able to get her arm in and as soon as the water started to glow she had gone unconscious.

A gong sounded throughout the city. It was a sound that all the citizens were aware of. Whenever it rang, everyone was to gather outside of the palace. A royal decree was going to be made. All of the citizens shuffled to the palace gates in a hurry, gossiping and what not about what was possibly about to be announced. It rang loud through the city, and all of the gang heard it.

"What's going on?" Zuko asked as he saw everyone pushing past them.

"Everyone's heading to the royal palace. Something's about to happen,"Toph explained. The two decided to follow to see what all the commotion was about, but didn't want to travel in the crowd, afraid they would be spotted. Zuko took the blind bender onto his back, and climbed the side of an empty house. He leapt between the rooftops, making his way to the palace. Toph hardly liked flying, and now she discovered she wasn't too fond of piggy back rides.

"We could have gone underground," she mumbled.

"It's better up here," Zuko responded. "We can see everyone."

Finally they made their way to the palace gates. They hid along the side of a nearby building, and when Zuko spotted the others, he motioned for them to join.

"What is this?" Sokka whispered.

"We heard some people talking about it, a royal decree is about to be made," said Ty Lee.

"You think Hama is gonna come out?" Zuko asked. "She has to be the one controlling the city now…"

"Unless she's using King Kuei as a living puppet!" Sokka exclaimed, eyes bulging. Everyone shushed him just as the gong rang for the final time. All of the citizens grew quiet, waiting for the announcement to be sound. To everyone's surprise, the gates of the royal palace opened, and there behind them was a dainty old woman surrounded by soldiers. She gave a hand gesture to one of them, and he raised the earth below her, elevating her over the city.

"People of Ba Sing Se," she bellowed. "We have a great problem, a great one indeed. There are rumors going around the upper ring that the middle ring has been burned down…those rumors are true."

The gang's eyes all widened. The citizens began to gasp and cry out.

"And the rumors say that it was FIRE NATION who did it! Those rumors….are also true," Hama said grimly. "Your beloved Firelord Zuko and his estranged sister Azula plotted together to tear all of Ba Sing Se apart! Luckily, though, I stopped them. I, Hama of the Southern Water Tribe, a master waterbender killed Princess Azula and saved the lower and upper rings of this great Nation! Where was the avatar when the middle ring burned? Where was the hero avatar and his great friends? No one knows! And no one cares! Bottom line is they weren't here. They have failed us. They have failed you.

They promised the war was over! Promised that the reign of terror of the Fire Nation would no longer haunt us and that peace and equality was restored! THE MIDDLE RING OF BA SING SE HAS FALLEN! WHERE IS THIS PEACE AND EQUALITY!? The Earth King has given up! He can no longer handle the pressures of this war! He was already over thrown once, allowing the most dangerous Fire Nation people to slip through the walls of his city disguised as Earth Kingdom fighters here to help. What did they do? Took down your noble city from the inside! And what could you do about it? Nothing! You were completely defenseless. But now, you aren't. You have ME. King Kuei has given up his divine right to the throne, Ba Sing Se is now under democracy! Kings, queens, and lords chosen by so called divine right have done nothing at all for us so far! King Kuei was hidden from the war from years! The Firelords have great abused their powers! In the Water Tribes we have chiefs! Chiefs are not divine, but STRONG! Strong, noble and trustworthy leaders whom the PEOPLE think best to rule! OPEN YOUR EYES, BA SING SE! YOU NEED A CHIEF TO RULE! SOMEONE WHO ISN'T GOING TO BE BAFFLED BY LIES OF EQUALITY OR MISJUDGEMENT. YOU NO LONGER HAVE A KING, SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO!?"

Hama's words have thrown the kingdom into complete silence, completely shocked by every word the woman had said. They were completely confused. She had very legitimate points. But at the same time, no one really knew who she was, how she came to kill Azula, or if King Kuei really gave up throne…but after reflecting on the King's naïve behavior and gullible appeal, maybe it was time for a change in leadership. Hama continued.

"If acknowledged by the people, I, Hama of the Southern Water Tribe, would like to rule in place of the King. I know what you are thinking, good people: a Water Tribe woman in charge of the Earth Kingdom? Preposterous! But think about it, Earth Kingdom royals were so fit for the job, would you all really be in this position in the first place? Of course not! I am DETERMINED to bring down Firelord Zuko and his worthless nation! They have fooled the world, getting us to believe things had changed. LOOK AROUND, MY GOOD PEOPLE. THEY HAVEN'T. We've got to stand up for the world! Leave it in the hands of the Fire Nation and there won't be a world to stand up for anymore!"

The crowd was getting riled up; adrenaline was pumping. Zuko was sweating bullets, rage was taking over him. He was boiling with fury at Hama's disgusting lies. He wanted to kill her. Right there. He wanted to beat sense into all of the citizens as well for agreeing with her. And most of all, he wanted to strangle the guy in the audience who cried:

"HAMA FOR BA SING SE!"

Others joined in.

"QUEEN HAMA!"

"LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!"

Hama smiled boldly. "As decreed by the PEOPLE OF BA SING SE, I declare myself QUEEN HAMA OF THE EARTH KINGDOM! STICK WITH ME, MY GOOD PEOPLE, AND EXPERIENCE BALANCE AND EQUALITY ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

Everyone roared and cheered. "Hama! Hama! Hama!" They all chanted, pumping their fists into the air.

"What…?" Sokka breathed. "What the hell just happened!?"

"I think Hama just declared herself a world leader…" Toph said quietly. "and all of these people agree."

Zuko's jaw was clenched tightly as his fists began to steam. "Shit!"

AN: Well, I hope you liked this! PLEASE REVIEW! Let me know your thoughts about the story! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Man, Hama is such a great villain. They really should have used her more in the show. (: And have you guys figured out who the woman in the cave is? Let me know in a review!