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Katara isn't sure what's going on, or where anyone is. There was a flash of light and a cracking noise, like the world broke in half, and then she was here -- somewhere in a field, with some animals that look like pigchickens gone wrong, and a filthy trough of water.

Well -- now it's just a trough of filth; Katara is circling the water in the air, cleaning it and practicing her bending at the same time. There's nothing better to do while she waits for her brother to turn up, after all.

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Oh, Katara. Don't you know not to show off when there might be a Sylar around?

Specifically, flying high above you in the air.

Well, wouldja look at that. He's gone and landed! Impressive braking there, Sy.

...okay yeah. Hi, creepy staring. Anybody ever looked at your waterbending like it was... there isn't even a metaphor here; normal people don't do this kind of rapt, focused attention.

Katara turns around, startled, and then beams when she sees him staring at her.

She's the GREATEST WATERBENDER EVER!

But out of politeness she swirls it around and lets it flow back into the (slightly cleaner) trough.

"Hi! Do you live here?"

"No."

The eyes tick up from the now-stilled water to her face.

"What was that?"

Hydrokinesis, he's tempted to say, but his stolen mimicry isn't picking it up and running with it. This stranger is an aberration, like Sam.

Only...

Hmm.

She beams, proud of her newly-mastered abilities. "It's Waterbending. I can heal with it, too, and look!"

The water swirls up into the air again with a fluid gesture from the girl in blue, and bursts into a cloud of glittering fragments of ice before coming back together.

"I just learned it. My name's Katara, it's really nice to meet you!"

"Heal with it."

Katara, you're a little bit of an idiot.

"How?"

And on the off-chance it makes her slightly more likely to answer his questions: "My name is Sylar."

Safe enough. The other aberration didn't recognize Nathan Petrelli's face; this one isn't going to recognize the name of the man who blew up New York, especially not if she failed to recoil in horror upon seeing it.

No, no, she's a GREAT WATERBENDER and she bested Master Pakku in combat, so she doesn't have anything to fear!

"It's all to do with the chi," Katara explains cheerfully, coming over to him. "Do you have an injury, a scratch or something? I can show you!"

She's so proud.

"No, I don't."

And he's not about to let on that he can't, at least not for very long.

"Don't worry."

This smile is what's known in some circles as a bad sign.

"I'm sure I'll figure it out."

Katara tilts her head at him, curious. "Really? Okay! It's really easy, anyway, you just put the chi back where it ought to be -- waterbending's all about the tides and the moon."

She takes a step back from the smile, subconsciously. It's just her hindbrain can think of better places for her to be. Pity about the rest of her.

"Back... where it ought to be. Of course."

The smile notably fails to get any less creepy.

"Thank you, Katara."

Look! He can be polite to people he's about to murder!

"The tides. Yes, I see it now."

One hand (his left) lifts slightly, a tiny gesture as though he's pointing out some small flaw, hardly worth mentioning.

Except the gesture is the focus for a telekinetic grasp that closes iron-strong around her torso.

Pity he doesn't yet understand enough about waterbending to realize he shouldn't have left her limbs free.

Katara's eyes go wide. (And Katara's eyes can go very wide.)

"Stop! What are you doing!?"

The trough water flies up again, solidifies into blunted daggers of ice and hurtles itself at him, Katara's arms waving.

Hmm.

Oh, Katara. That's no fun.

The daggers hit thin air and shatter, falling to the ground in a glittering rain.

"Tsk, tsk. Hardly polite of you."

He takes a step closer, fingers slightly spread, not binding her arms yet.

She gasps, trying to tear herself away from the invisible grip, lifting her arms again in another fluid movement; the rain falls inwards to a point, becomes a glistening sphere of water, and hurls itself at him as if to trap him inside itself and freeze.

Well, it could freeze, but instead--

His hands start to glow, and the water hits a wall of heat and hisses away into steam.

The pointing finger of his left hand rises.

"Sorry. Today just isn't your day, little girl."

Katara never thought screaming did much good.

Unless it was at Sokka, sometimes it worked then.

But this kind of screaming is different. It tears out of her throat, rips up her vocal chords the same way the pain is ripping up her forehead --

-- what is he doing? How is he -- Aang, where's Aang? Someone help her! She has --

-- has to --

-- has to h

elp Aang --

-- has

to save t

he wor

ld...

Well.

That was fun.

Long fingers open and shut, open and shut...

...and droplets of water collect out of the air to form a swooping curve across the child's lifeless corpse, directed by an instinctive motion of his arms.

Oh, that's good.

Casually, carelessly, he freezes her and the ground for a few feet around.

There are no footprints leading to or from this macabre ice sculpture. Just the flap and hiss of wind left by his supersonic passage.

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