Flames leapt from her hands towards the master fire bender, who deflected her attack, before sending an attack her way. Once the sparring was over, the teacher straightened with his hands behind his back.

"Good work, Kori."

The ten year old straightened as well.

"Thank you, Master."

"Tell me, what was going through your mind when you were bending just now?"

Kori's short black hair moved in the wind as she debated her answer, whether to tell the truth or make something up that was close to the truth to satisfy him.

"I was thinking about beating you with all my might," She answered. Some of the kids snickered at the sidelines where they waited to spar Master Gun. She glared at them and clenched her fists.

"You stopped breathing in the middle of your sparring. How is a firebender supposed to draw from his inner fire if he does not breathe to keep it circulating?" He asked rhetorically. Kori was ready to work on that right now with him and her eagerness showed that. "You need to work on that. Sit down in line. Next, arise."

She stormed over to her spot in line, which happened to be at the end, and sat down in frustration, crossing her arms hotly across her chest, glaring at a spot on the floor to her empty right, fire coming out of her mouth. The rest of the kids, who like her were dressed in red and black trimmed uniform, ignored her.

She didn't like the way their school taught things, it was very single-minded, closed-minded, and set only on molding the students into who they wanted them to be. There was no room for creativity or original ideas. It was all about what the Fire Lord wanted them to think.

Kori angrily entered her parent's courtyard from the street, ignoring everyone there and stalking across the tiles to the main deck of the house.

"Kori," called a man with a good height and handsome features.

She stopped, but did not turn around, her shoulders tense and her mind already set on her next training exercise.

"Never mind," the man smiled. "Go on with what you were doing."

Kori was relentless and single-minded when it came to pursuing something.

Sparing again with Master Gun, Kori moved around in a circle with her sensei that was much larger than her. They exchanged firey blows, and in one punch of fire to his student, Kori focused on extinguishing the fire as it came to her instead of dodging it. It extinguished into nothing before it hit her, and the Master firebender quirked an eyebrow. Then Kori felt a large flaming kick his way with ferocious speed and force, and for its power, Master Gun still did not have trouble deflecting it.

He stopped their sparing then.

"What were you doing, then?"

She knew what he was referring to, and pulled out of her fighting stance.

"I thought I could extinguish the flame before it got to me. I wanted to see if I could do it, and it would save physical energy dodging, because I had a good position over you."

"That is not traditional form. Do not do it again."

Kori was careful with her reply. She was used to this in all her classes, including sparing. Each of her teachers had given her warnings for 'diverting from the traditional thought form or strategy form'. If she kept sticking out, they would speak to her parents and it would be even more difficult to make friends than it already was. So Kori lowered her eyes and apologized, lowering herself into a fighting stance again like her master. Notably, everyone, the children in the sidelines included, relaxed, filing it away as an accident. Kori was no longer a threat anymore.

If Kori was not going to practice her unconventional bending style at school, then she would do that at home, on her own time. She would not give up her other way of bending – it had value; the upper hand if she needed to surprise her opponent or get different angles than her traditional bending could. If everyone was trained in one way, then a new, different form of bending that only she knew because it was Kori herself who developed it, then she would have strategic advantage over any bending opponent she ever faced. There's no way she would give that up just because her master told her not to do it. Kori developed it from the flaws and holes she saw in bending – the opponents weak points, vulnerable spots, any point left open. Anything that could be hit that would not be protected, Kori planned for. And, additionally, she would not be moving like a traditional firebender, which would make people underestimate her. And if people underestimated her, that would also be strategic advantage.

Because of Kori's new change in attitude at school – no longer challenging or arguing with the teachers, talking back, or trying to expose the flaws of their education system, and by now making herself as non-threatening and obedient as possible, following directions, orders, and being extremely patriotic towards her Nation, other children started to approach and befriend her. Kori was starting to be seen in a positive light in her classroom, as both orally charismatic and intellectually charming, and skilled and utterly devoted to the Fire Lord. She developed good relationships with her teachers, and become the model pupil for her whole school. She had no shortage of friends, which was both positive and negative.

On the inside, Kori could not stand the way the children thought – she thought them weak for not being independent in mind to stand up against their parents, and she also detested that the only topics they talked about were the Fire Lord and serving the Fire Nation, or how the Fire Nation was going to win the war and how they had the strongest element of them all. It was a bland topic in Kori's opinion, that she had heard all too many times throughout her life, and there was nothing new about it. It was always the same words used in the same order that bored Kori out of her mind. She knew how to navigate through these conversations and project much confidence and perceived ease. After all, it was a rehearsed act. But while everyone around her believed their own words of the Fire Nation's glory and their Lord's supreme might, Kori didn't. While she detested it, it had also always fascinated her in a way, how everyone around her could believe so full heartedly into an idea that they had only been told, not proved, and it completely flew over Kori's head how they could be so emotionally involved in the idea.

Nonetheless, Kori needed success to rise in the ranks of the Fire Nation. That was the plan in the back of her mind. It didn't matter how skilled she was, if she did not know conversation or charm she would get nowhere. They were expendable, unnecessary things in her opinion, but as soon as she tried them on her classmates and her teachers, the results more than made up for it. She had risen in popularity and perceived strength and invulnerability. It was the way she carried herself. She let out her intellectual strengths which she had previously seen no need of shoving it in other people's faces – there's nothing more annoying than someone shoving themselves in your faces – but people took to it well. Her charisma was charming, and was devoid of statements about her superiority. No, she carried herself in a way that showed strength and confidence. She did not doubt herself or what she knew – because she proved what she knew to be real before she believed it - and people could pick that up about her.

And so, Kori had many friends. She charmed them into laughter and good feeling. In her mind, they were acquaintances. Because any real friends that she made, she would never insult them with charming them. If anyone earned her respect, that is.

Master Gun had had her respect when she met him. She could tell immediately that he was powerful. He was a general stepped down, and a formidable firebender, not that he exploited that on the children. However, he bought into the fire nation's way of thought, which Kori couldn't accept. So she had mixed feelings about him. While she respected him enough to answer him truthfully when he asked a question, she also resented and was disappointed in how closed-minded he was of the nation's superiority to other elements.

It was ridiculousness, in Kori's opinion. There was no such thing as superiority. In one being, there was fire, in the warmth, earth, in the flesh, water, in the fluids, and air in the air they breathed. It was what made a person whole. If there was superiority, then there would be no matter, organism, or creation. If superiority did exist, then the superior organism in question would be the only thing to exist because of its superior qualities, but then, it would have nothing to be better than. Everything must then be equal, with characteristics that others do not possess. Each element has its value, water for its healing properties and submissive nature that yields to win. It forms to the surroundings it's in, but it's the force that erodes away cliffs and mighty cities. Earth has its solidity and fertility, without it, nothing can take root and grow. Earth grounds and stabilizes people. It is the house of nature – and in nature, insects keep all plant life and animal life going, and is also where humans live. Fire is the warmth of the day, the sunshine of the sun that allows all things to grow, and the fire that purifies. Without fire, there would be no destruction of the old and the re-growth for the new. And air is light and flowing, the ability to be creative and dream and rise above ones problems. Without water, nothing would evolve or continue. Without Earth, there would be nothing to ground us, nothing to eat, nothing to live on, no pleasures of the physical to enjoy. Without fire, no one would get what they want, and nothing can grow or evolve. Without air, we would become static. Each element contained it's own precious value that no other element possessed. It was like a game of 'rock-paper-scissors' with the elements. Each one needed the other. There is no such thing as superiority – one being better than another – because together they made a whole where each one won. There was only destruction, suffering and failure where there was imbalance. It was simple physics, if there is not balance within a molecule's protons, neutrons and electrons, it cannot support itself and destruction results.

There was nothing glorious or clever or intelligent or superior about what the Fire Lord was doing. He was destroying the world. There was already significant imbalance with the destruction of the Air Nomads, although Kori would have expected to see more imbalance. Perhaps, in the Fire Nation, she was sheltered to how things really were in the world. Perhaps it was worse than they could see.

But it was ridiculous and prompted doubt – the propaganda they received on the war. It was ridiculous how the Fire Nation could have such a long string of reported successes that is has. She was certain that things did not really turn out that way. Certainly, in her classroom her firebender teachers did not have a ridiculously long streak of successes with children, in her personal life she did not have a ridiculously long set of success in every single thing she set out to do. Things backfired in the teacher's faces a lot, (if there was no discipline). Things backfired in Kori's face too. She learned the subtle art of social interaction only through a long string of mistakes and failures – outcasting, glaring looks, back stabbing, and various insults and declarations of hate. It was a rocky road to get as smooth and calculated as she was, and it was all a hypocritical mess to her. Kori would rather state her intention straight forwardly than beat around the bush with meaningless talk of the weather and how each other are faring BEFORE then hinting at what she wants. But it is an art she has had to master to ultimately gain what she wants and smooth sailing with her peers and teachers. She did not like conflict. And if she could do or learn something to prevent unnecessary conflict, then she would do that. She was the only variable in the class that had stuck out like she had, and everyone could tell she was different. So, because it was obviously her problem, she set to solve it. And that meant pushing herself into social interaction and learning from her many mistakes.

As for her firebending, her breathing problem stopped when she started becoming well-liked at school.

"Why do you always hold your breath while sparing?" Her father asked her one day. She did not know him well, and he did not have her respect either, but she gave him a half-hearted response.

But later, she admitted to herself that she always felt too much. She always felt so many things, and deeply too. More so than others, it seemed like. Her thought process was, maybe if I stop breathing, I will stop feeling. Bending made all of her repressed feelings come out – her frustration, her determination, her passion, her anger, and her sadness. She pushed all her feelings away to become the best at whatever she was mastering. And she felt so much while she was bending, and she did not want to look like she was sensitive or deep-feeling like she really was, so she unconsciously held her breath and her firebending always suffered. But after figuring out a plan, a strategy to deal with the students and her teachers, she believed in herself more powerfully because she had something that had been troubling her figured out. And she breathed regularly.

Kori was calmly walking through the hallway of her house with her hands behind her back in a dignified way when her little brother, who was only five, ran up to her with his toy dragon in his hand.

"Hey!"

"Hi Tammy. Did you just get home?" She didn't halt her gentle march.

"Yeah – not that it's any of your BUSINESS!" He shouted at her. She narrowed her eyes gently.

"Why are you speaking to me like that?" She halted her progression down the hall.

Her younger brother shrugged, and ran down the corridor away from her. He had a mean streak. Kori felt irritation rise up in her and she took her hands from behind her back and continued walking with them by her sides.

Kori had been a sensitive and loving child. She cried easily if anyone ever teased her, and always held herself to a high degree of responsibility. She was terrified when her younger brother was born, because she did not know yet how to become a great sister, and that would mean she would make mistakes and fail at it. When Kori got older, she learned to toughen up, especially around the strict, stern, and discipline-oriented Fire Nation.

When Kori turned thirteen, everyone suddenly became interested in the opposite sex. All the girls spoke about was the boys, and the boys were starting to peacock for the girls. A whole kissing myth was started by the older children, where if you wanted to kiss someone you had to do it behind this stupid shed somewhere. All the Fire Nation teens did it. Kori thought it was a fad, and did not buy into the idea. There were, however, boys she wanted to kiss.

Kori got moved up to another school because of how well she firebended. Some labeled her a prodigy or a genius, but Kori disagreed with such hasty labels. She only got to where she was because of the hard work she put into her fire bending, her form, and her training every single day, day after day. Kori was self-made. She watched the people who understood things easily with envy. Kori was logical, if she learned something she could apply it to anything, and in firebending she had excellent instincts, but she still had to work at it. While the ferocity, determination and drive was natural to her, she had always had no trouble with channeling her ambition and drive into her fire bending, but it was the constant repetition, drilling, and precision needed to master firebending that she had needed to practice on everyday. High ranking officials that firebended did not have the restraint that was needed with firebending, and got away with it, which irritated the young girl. Kori had incredible focus and staying power, which brought her fire bending to a degree above everyone else's, and the last thing she would allow herself to do was go over-board and have her bending backfire in her face because she couldn't control herself.

She had to work for everything herself. Her grades, her bending, her form, her posture, her vocabulary, her knowledge – everything. She wasn't given everything. Her parents' weren't wealthy, and their marriage had been torn apart, then they married again, and it got torn apart again. In the middle ring of the Fire Nation, it was starting to become more common, although still frowned upon. Kori was solitary anyway, but her desire for friends was aided to stay unsatisfied with this hanging over her head. She also hated her parents' hypocrisy and inconsistency – the turmoil in the house translated to turmoil in herself and many unpredictable, traumatic nights and emotions.

The school she went to was a prestigious fire bending academy. Only the talented and the gifted attended. The academic material was more challenging, and they were taught more advanced forms of firebending than any other teenager's their age. Kori took up the challenge immediately – Kori thrived on challenges. But the changes took a large toll on her. She slept longer and ate more to get her physical energy. But soon, she acclimatized to the work load. But they were even more narrow-minded here, and Kori took to never saying anything at all. The slightest comment against their Fire Lord was greatly frowned upon – and punished. Kori found it better to not say anything at all.

Without her energy being spent on social interaction – they had a higher standard there about interaction and only conversed in direct ways – she flourished in her bending and her academic classes. She was the top of her class in firebending. In the academy she was known to be cold, emotionless, brutally honest, and service/rule oriented. In her understated and quiet way, she caught the eye of a few officials looking for recruits – and in particular, an admiral looking to train a new deputee for the Fire Nation regiments. She wrote home about it, one of the few specific things she outlined in her letter to her parents and her younger brother. They would wait until she finished her education at the academy before taking her in their ranks under the admiral as his personal bodyguard. Her parents were overjoyed.

But soon after Kori graduated the elite boarding academy at sixteen, she defected from the Fire Nation. Her teachers and the admiral that had looked to hire her went over her records. The signs had been there all along – she had been taking extra classes, in embroidery, art, and many other eclectic subjects, some traditional, some unusual. She had been putting so much work into the academy and learning, and was notoriously stressed – her parents claimed they didn't know of the extra classes, but if they did, they would have urged her to spread them out and take it slow. She graduated two years early of the usual graduation age. The admiral noted that she must have a high stress tolerance and good organizational skills to be able to carry out the extra classes with such short time for relaxation or play and still undertake her military training to a degree of excellence – as what was noted on her certificate. He saw himself, a war-decorated hero, in her. She had the makings to be great.

Immediately a search party was dispatched to catch the teenage girl in case she hadn't left the Fire Nation completely. When she wasn't found, wanted posters were put up for the girl all over the world in every nation.