Those that are confused about the start of the story, don't be. It's Chloe's backstory, and you will need that later on in the fic.

Those two months I spent every waking hour with Azula and Zuko. I refused to be parted from them. We went to the park together, got ice-creams together, everything. Then, one day about a month before they left, I decided to surprise Azula and Zuko by coming through the fence gap instead of the front door like I usually did. Yet another heinous mistake that sealed my fate, but I didn't know. I was only eight.

I chuckled as I stepped over my grandma's precious shrubs in our garden. Azula and Zuko would never see it coming! They were gonna get the shock of their lives. As I neared the broken plank, I heard strange whooshing and crackling sounds. It sounded like…fire. A bonfire? At that time of day I wrinkled my nose and sniffed the air. Sure enough, I smelt burning. Frowning, I lifted back the broken plank…and stopped in my tracks. I saw a wondrous, impossible thing happening. Fat old Uncle Iroh was…producing fire from his hands and performing martial art-esque punches and kicks, sending the flames out. Once he stopped, Azula did the exact same routine, from memory, but she had these gorgeous blue flames. Then Zuko tried it, and when trying a high-flying kick, whilst shooting fire out at the same time fell over and winded himself. I stifled a giggle but Azula let rip.

"You're never gonna be Fire Lord at THAT rate, Zuzu." Fire Lord? Wait…I thought back to when I was spying on everyone going into the house, Iroh had called Zuko prince…so that must've mean his dad was a king or something? And that made Azula a princess…wow. I shook my head slightly, and instantly regretted it, as it made the bushes rustle and the three fire-people sprung towards me and held me down.

Azula's face instantly softened when she saw me. "Chloe? What…how long have you been there?" I sighed.

"Long enough, Princess Azula." Azula's eye's widen slightly, but then turned back to Iroh with anger in her eyes.

"You knew she was there! Why didn't you tell us?" Iroh sighed.

"I thought it best if she knew. After all, you are keeping secrets from your best friend." Azula's mouth gulped like a fish, and turned back and forth between Iroh and I. Glaring at Iroh, she offered me her hand.

"I guess we should better explain." Zuko grinned and punched the air.

"YES, YES, YES! I don't have to avoid talking about home! No more secrets!" I smiled uncertainly.

"I guess Zuzu isn't good with secrets." I said. Azula sighed.

"Are we gonna explain or what, Iroh?" Iroh nodded, and the three of them led me to the middle of their garden. We sat down, and Iroh took a deep breath.

"Well, where to begin?"

Azula snorted, "How about the beginning, idiot?" she rolled her eyes and turned to me. "First things first, Clo. We don't come from Tokyo. We come from a completely different world, where there are no cars, buses, trains, anything your world has." She waited a while, and then frowned. "You aren't going to say anything?"

"I saw you make fire with your own bare hands. I think I get you aren't from this world." Zuko stifled a giggle, and Azula shot him a deadly glare.

"Anybody other than you would freak out, Clo. You truly amaze me sometimes." I smiled meekly.

"I try."

"Anyhow," Azula began again, "Our world is made up of four nations: The Fire Nation, The Earth Kingdom, The Water Tribes and The Air Nomads." I nodded.

"So you guys are the Fire Nation royal family?" Azula grinned.

"Again, amazing. Our father is son of the great Fire Lord Azulon, ruler over the mighty Fire Nation empire. Sadly, Zuzu here is the heir to the throne, so I don't get a cut in." Iroh gave Azula a reproachful stare.

"When my great-grandfather Sozin was in power, the Fire Nation was thriving with prosperity. Fire Lord Sozin reached out to the leaders of the other nations to join together as one and share the prosperity.

"But the nations declined. After they fell into disarray and chaos, Sozin was forced to start the war and take back the nations for their own good." I cocked my head to the side.

"So, the war's been going on, what, 70 years?"

Zuko chuckled. "Close. 100 years."

"Wow…" I grinned, "I take it the war efforts going well if the Fire Lord can afford to take a holiday, eh?" Iroh smiled slightly.

"We almost have the Earth Kingdom. I'm launching an attack on Ba Sing Se, the capital, soon." I thought for a minute.

"So if you can do that fire thing and you're in the Fire Nation…then do the other nations control their elements too?" Azula nodded.

"The specific term is bending. And yes, according to your nation, you can bend one of the four elements." Zuko stuck his tongue out.

"Yeah, but fire bending is the best." Azula grinned in return.

"For once, I actually agree with you, dumdum."

"So…" I started, and then faltered, "Nah, that's a dumb idea." Azula frowned.

"What idea? Go on, do share." I looked at their faces, and felt really embarrassed.

"Do you think I…could be a bender?" Azula grinned, obviously excited.

"Why don't we see? Go on, Iroh, show Chloe how to fire bend!" Iroh sighed.

"I don't think that's a good idea…" Zuko jumped up, indignant.

"Why not! We could practice together! Come on, Uncle!" Iroh shook his head, and got up.

"Your wish is my command, Prince Zuko." Azula dragged me up, and Iroh lead me to the middle of their huge garden, where we stood face to face.

"Fire bending comes from your stomach," he began, and laid his hands over the said area. I followed him, and he started again. "Your stomach is where all passionate emotion begins, and that is what powers fire bending."

"Hate, anger, vengeance…" chimed in Azula.

"…Love and happiness too." Said Iroh, giving Azula another glare. "Chloe, take a few deep breaths, and concentrate on the pit of your stomach. There should be a rumble, or a tingling there when you breathe out." I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath, slowly letting it out. I felt a slight ripple when I breathed out, and it was warm in my stomach. My eyes snapped open.

"I feel it!" Iroh smiled.

"Good, good. Now, to create a basic fire ball, you must direct that spark in your stomach to any part of your body you wish. Let's try arms. Remember, do not conduct the fire through your heart, it could rip it apart like an angry rhinoceros-bull." I gulped, and nodded. "Imagine the fire travelling along your bone structure, and escaping out of your fingertips. Now, as you exhale, tighten your muscles in your stomach and force the fire on the move. Control it and it should come out of your hand automatically after you let it out of your torso. Depending on how much passion you force it out with, the strength will vary. Observe." Iroh took a deep breath, and made a punching motion, the fire speeding from his fingertips, setting fire to a bush. "Azula, Zuko, get a bucket of water, and put that out immediately. Chloe, your turn."

I nodded, and put my hands together above my head, and as I brought them down, I thought of all my happy memories. My birthday parties, my parents, and friends, Azula, Zuko, Iroh, Ozai, Ursa…I smiled and felt the spark in my stomach. Exhaling, I pushed my happy memories into my stomach forcing the spark up, out of my torso and into my arm. I made a punching motion and felt the fire leave my body. There was a green flash, and the tree next to me was ablaze in lime-green flames.

"Wow…" I said, amazed, "Are they supposed to be green?" Iroh didn't answer; he was too busy looking in awe at the tree ablaze in green.

"Zuzu, don't be so slow! I bet half the garden is on fire and it's your entire fault!"

"Get lost, Azula! If you weren't so violent, we wouldn't have spilt so much!" The two siblings ran in carrying a huge bucket of water, but completely forgot about it when they saw the burning tree.

"Green?" wondered Zuko aloud, "But how..?"

"You must be prodigy, Chloe…" said Azula, then a slow grin crept across her face. "Brilliant! Someone will finally understand a superior fire bender's pain! I don't have to complain to dumdum over there!"

"What's going on out there?" Ozai rushed out into the garden, Ursa hot on his trails. They looked at the tree, then at me, then back at the tree again. We stood there for a few minutes until Ursa yelled: "My bushes! Put out the damn fire already!"

It turned out I WAS a fire bending prodigy, and within 3 weeks of intensive training I was up to Azula's level of fire bending, except I used happiness and love to fuel mine. I respected Zuly's methods, but I wasn't dark or evil enough to draw power from people's pain.

When they left to go back to the Fire Nation, I wasn't as sad as I would've been before the ire bending training. I had my training to keep me company, didn't I? Even during school, my friends noticed a difference in me. I was losing my puppy fat, and I kept myself to myself.

Azula and Zuko came back as promised the next year, but without Iroh. He was off fighting in the Battle of Ba Sing Se. He sent us letters sometimes, with little parcels of tea for us. Azula and I continued the early morning training, but Zuko just watched. The whole family were always in their Fire Nation clothes around me; they didn't need to hide a thing. Azula taught me some new techniques, and my 9 year old self was never happier.

After they left, the impact of my training was really coming into play. I was by far the fastest runner in my class, and the most muscular. I started avoiding my friends at school so I could go off and find a quiet sport to practice fire bending. My school work was impeccable as ever and many of my short stories in English were based off Azula's world.

The next time Azula and co. came to visit, Zuko and I were 10, and Azula was 9. That was the year Fire Lord Ozai decided to give us some pointers in fire bending. It was one of the most dangerous experiences of my life, that first fire bending lesson, because he taught us to lightning bend and that was even more dangerous than fire bending. If you got the direction wrong, then you were dead. No chances of surviving. Zuko couldn't learn lightning bending because he was too hot headed. His temper was so quick to snap, he wasn't controlled enough for it. He sulked for 3 whole days about it.

The year that followed the Fire Royal's absence was my most strange. I don't think I had a conversation with anyone in my year for more than 15 seconds. There was this new girl who nobody liked, her name was Mecca, and she was a black belt in karate. We talked briefly, but didn't really click, considering I was retreating inside myself, despite my childish disposition. School friends really weren't my thing.

It was when I was 11, that was when it all changed. For one, I got my pigtails cut off, and replacing them was a choppy bob with a chunky side fringe that infuriated everyone when I kept flicking it out of my face. Yet, the biggest change wasn't me. It was the Royals. Ursa wasn't there, Zuko wouldn't talk to me the first couple of days and Azula got…eviler. If it was possible. Iroh was there too, but he was different. Sad. Depressed even. I didn't know what to do. I was still training with Azula, and we were…well, to put it bluntly, amazing and it was fantastic to have a sparring partner again but without Ursa, Zuko not talking and Iroh's sadness…it was like the family wasn't whole anymore. I noticed the crown upon Ozai's head had changed and it struck me. He had been crowned Fire Lord. Azulon was dead. Then I wondered what Ursa had to do with it all…and sort of gave up. I turned my attention to making Zuko and Iroh smile like they used to.

Eventually, I got depressed with all the moping, and sat the two down and asked what happened. Turned out that Lu Ten, Iroh's son, had died during the siege of Ba Sing Se, and they had failed. Ursa had just disappeared in the night, and Ozai wouldn't tell Zuko where she was. I was dumb struck. I was lost for words for once in my life, and all I could do was hug the two of them.

That was the weirdest visit they made, because as well as all the drama and lies, I remember that was when I realised I had a huge crush on Zuko. I knew that their next visit would be different from the others, as we were getting to that age when hormones kicked in and everything got awkward. But even I, the withdrawn fire bending smart arse I was, couldn't have predicted the events in the next visit.