My name is Xi-Wang.

Ever since I was a child I was a skilled archer. Even as a youngster I would hunt beaver-rabbits and turtle-ducks for my mother. My mother was a washer-woman in a small town on the border of the colonies. She had long brown hair and the most beautiful golden eyes. She used to call me little eagle eyes.

On my sixth birthday my mother gave me a long-bow. It was truly a work of art. It was polished smooth with a place four your hand that was just my size. She had saved for months to buy it for me. She even sold her pretty red dress. I used it so often that she said she oft forgot that it wasn't a part of my body.

Many former Earth Kingdom now Fire Nation people from the colonies used to pass through our town. They were dirty, uneducated, with barely a penny to their names. At the age of ten I opened a little school to teach their poor children at least how to read before they moved on to other towns and better schools. A few I also tutored in the art of the long-bow.

My father was a soldier, at least that's what my mother told me, I never met him. Mother used to say that I get my amber colored eagle-eyes from him. As long as I can remember I've wanted to serve my nation like he did, to bring order and civilization to the sweltering masses of the world.

My name means hope.

When I was fourteen an epidemic, brought by one of the new citizens, raged through the town. My mother, kind soul that she was, volunteered at an aid station. She cleaned and brought food to the victims. She would come home and tell me all about them. There was a young boy named Fai in particular, who held her interest. He was traveling alone with his father looking for a new and better life as a Fire Nation citizen. His father had fallen ill and Fai was there everyday helping to take care of him.

After four weeks my mother also fell ill. I would sit by her bed and tell her the stories of Fire Lord Sozin that she told me when I was only a toddler. Fai came and sat beside me, his father had died a few days before. He told me that she was all the family he had left, the one person who had shown him kindness. He to took his turn to tell her stories, this time Earth Kingdom stories, for they were all he knew. The stories of Avatar Kioshi and the peace she brought to the Earth Kingdom were my favorites.

But there was no doctor and my mother was soon so ill that there was nothing anyone could do. I held her hand as she slipped away slowly struggling to breathe. Her breaths became weaker and weaker, her face turned ashen. She lived for three weeks after she fell ill and then she moved on to the spirit world.

At her funeral I flew the flag of our great Fire Nation, in honor of my father. The ashes of her mortal shell, I scattered over the ocean. She had always wanted to see the world. Fai boarded a ship to the islands, still hoping to start a new life.

I moved in with my aunt in the capital. It was a decent enough life. She was a noblewoman of low enough stature but enough so that we lived in comfort. I had the opportunity to practice my skills with the longbow with a contingent of soldiers attached to the palace. They taught me how to use a bow in close quarters and I taught them how to shoot accurately from a distance. Never had I had such companionship as with those soldiers.

It was there that I first met Colonel Shinu. He was trying to obtain permission from the Fire Lord to search the Nation and assemble an elite group of archers. He had heard of my skill with the bow from the palace guards. When our gracious leader granted him his request I was the first to be recruited.

With my feet, the march of civilization continues.

The first of my new brothers and sisters to arrive was Wei. Together we taught each other all we knew of the art of archery. Often other soldiers on the base would ridicule us for our age and size but that didn't matter to us. Together we learned to overcome the disadvantage of age. We became the bust soldiers the base had ever seen. If a soldier mocked us the next day he would find his money purse fifty feet up the outer wall with a black-fletched red-ringed arrow through it.

The next to arrive were Xing-Xing & Ye. They were identical twins. So alike that it was nearly impossible to tell them apart. After awhile Wei and I both learned how but we never needed to. They were always together; they were truly two parts of the same whole. They too brought something new for us to learn and another part of our family was completed.

Sheng was the last of us to arrive. He, of all my family was the youngest. But at seven years old he had the oldest eyes of us all. He had the eyes of one who had looked death in the eye and was not afraid. I have only ever seen that look in the eyes of seasoned veterans and to see that in a child made me sad.

It also reminded me of why I was training to fight. Only when the whole of the world is united in peace and prosperity will children not need to worry about whether or not there will be food tomorrow. Only then would a child be able to sleep in peace knowing that their home will still be there when they woke. Disease would not needlessly slaughter thousands and every child would have the same chance at success as any young nobleman.

Three days after my seventeenth birthday we were given our first assignment. We were to take out an Earth Kingdom baron who was funding a rebellion in the colonies. We suited up and headed out. Wei took front position and the rest of us filtered in on the sides. Five arrows simultaneously pierced his body armor and entered his heart. He was dead within seconds and we were quickly retreating back to our ship and setting off for home.

We have had many more assignments since then, from corrupt Fire Navy officials to Water Tribe peasants stirring up trouble deep in the heart of Ba Sing Se. With each target we grew closer, new bonds were formed and within a year we had one of the closest knit units any army has ever seen. We trained new squads of archers, teaching them the same things we taught each other but never has any other unit achieved what we did. We are more than just a squad.

I'll never forget that first hit. It was the first life I took and the first step toward civilization for all. In my journey, in my own private war, a great battle was won that day. My brothers, noble and valiant as they are, understood the meaning of that first target and the way in which we carried out our plan. That was the day we truly became one family. We are united in this war we fight and we will be victorious.

I am Yu-Yan.

A/N: Well dearies, my muse is officially up and running. I'm thinking I'm going to do a chapter for each of my characters and see where things go from there. Thank-you all for the wonderful reviews. They keep me motivated to keep posting without them this story never would have seen the light of day.