"It's time for you to look inward, and begin asking yourself the big questions: who are you? and What do you want?"

-General Iroh to Fire Lord Zuko

The small rodent squeaks with fear, surprise, and pain as it begins to float into the air. Its body twists this way and that, and I stare into its eyes as it pleads for mercy and freedom.

"That's really cool." I say, awed by the power of my friend.

Terumi looks at the rodent and then back at me. Her hands are crooked claws on either side of the tiny kangaroo rat. "You really think so?" She asks hesitantly.

I nod enthusiastically. "You're controlling life itself, Terumi!" I exuberantly declare. "Do you know what you could do with this?" I ask, already planning all the people that she could heal, the lives she could save…

"I could kill someone without more than a glance." She says, her eyes growing distant. Her face darkens, and she jerks her hands away from the floating rodent.

It falls on the ground and hops away as fast as its two legs can take it.

I shake my head. "But you don't have to!" I say. I almost, almost, miss the timid look on my friends face. "You're a Waterbender, and you can heal people." I put a comforting hand on my friends arm. "And you're a Bloodbender, so you can heal people from the inside-"

Terumi jerks her arm away. "Or I could pop their hearts out of their chests. I'm cursed, Iulia." Terumi gets up and moves to the other side of the room, and looks out of a elaborately paneled window.

Even without my circlet, I know Terumi is upset. I look at where the silver crown rests on the low table in the center of the living room's seating arrangement. Dormant, the amethyst gem embedded in it glows with a dull dreariness.

I look around the room. We were put into one of the royal residences, and it is certainly one of the most opulent places that I have ever stayed in, with the exception of the family estate back in Elysium. Whereas the estate has its opulence and décor spread throughout the large hallways and rooms, the royal residence we are residing in has most of the expensive things crammed into the central rooms. Crimson flags adorn every pillar, fiery motifs fill the paintings and sculptures, and even the water has blood-red rose petals floating in it.

Everything about this place screams "Fire Nation" and "luxury."

It is beginning to make me sick.

"Your brother and Cathra are outside." Terumi says, uninterestedly. She confided in me that she had (which I read to mean has) a crush on Aelius when she first met him. I told her that I wished her the best of luck, but that nothing was going to ever happen between them. She laughed and thanked me for the advice.

I run an unsurprised finger alongside the edge of the table. "Are they making out?" I ask sarcastically. At this point, I am not sure which of them is preventing the relationship from happening. They have chemistry, that is for certain, but one of them is holding back. On the other hand, perhaps both of them are.

Terumi chuckles and crosses her arms. "Nope. Just standing by the pond.

Aelius has two orbs floating in the air."

I roll my eyes as I reach for my circlet. "At least he's smart enough to know he should see what he's doing," I half-mutter to myself as I push my hair out of my face. I bring the cold metal down over my head. I feel a warm piece of the circlet rub the center of my forehead. A blush of warmth spreads through my head, and the world takes on the slightest shade of lavender.

I look at Terumi again. I immediately notice, this time, the weight she is putting on the side of her body that is leaning against the windowsill. She crosses her arms in front her chest, and I see a muscle twinge in her face. Ah, I realize. Someone is a bit jealous. I cannot help but smile. Aelius turns many heads when he walks by; either they are jealous of him or they are in awe of him. He will never believe it, but it is true.

Terumi looks at me, and then looks at my circlet. I see a swift twinge in one of her eyebrows, a silent awareness that I donned it when she wasn't looking. I see in her eyes that she naturally distrusts anything that happens behind her back. "That's a really nice circlet you have there." She says, and I hear the honesty in her voice.

I see the slight jealousy rubbing her fingers against her clothing, but I have to ignore it. "Thanks," I say with a smile. "My father got it for me as a gift when I received my commendation from the Academy of Diplomacy."

Terumi raises an eyebrow. "What is that?" She asks.

"Its like a school," I start. "But all they do is teach you about the cultures of the four nations, how to interact with people, how to wear nice clothing, how to persuade people, and everything else needed to be a diplomat." I remember fondly the lesson in fine dining, with all the silver spoons and forks and the magnificent food. "A commendation is what you receive once you pass the final test and leave the Academy."

I see a jealous shadow pass Terumi's face as she turns her head to look outside again. "I never went to school." She said softly.

I look at my friend's back, and see the tension between her shoulder blades. I am not, and have never been, ashamed of my upbringing. I have always been grateful for the privileges that I have had and the opportunities that have been given to me. Growing up in the squalor of the Crescent Moon district is an impossible thing for me to even imagine.

"I'm sorry." I say softly. I reach for and take a long drink from a crystal glass of water on the table.

Terumi shakes her head, her braids quivering. "No, I'm not complaining," She lies. "It sounds like a terrible place. I would probably have killed everyone there by now."

I stand and walk over towards the window. I put my back against it and cross my arms to mirror Terumi. Her eyes are dark, and I can see the faint and distant reflection of Aelius's light orbs in them. "You're a powerful Waterbender, Terumi." I tell her. "You've just never received any formal training, that's all. With training, comes control. With control comes certainty and confidence."

Terumi blinks. "That's easy for you to say, you were trained from birth by the greatest Energybenders in the world."

I try to put myself in Terumi's shoes. She comes from a background of tragedy and fear, and I come from one of privilege and comfort. "I also could kill someone with one mistake as soon as I left the womb. Energybending is inherently dangerous, Terumi. We have to practice complete control over ourselves at all times."

Terumi looks at me, and I can see that she is getting upset. "Are you saying that you had it worse than I did growing up? I can rip blood out of peoples' hearts, Iulia."

I grab her arm in a blur before she tries to walk away. "That's not what I'm saying at all." I say firmly. The tone of my voice makes Terumi's eyes widen in surprise, so I try to calm both her and myself down with a small smile. When I speak again, my tone is softer. "I'm trying to tell you that our pasts and what we can do, both of us, doesn't define us for who we are. We do that."

Understanding dawns on Terumi's face. "That sounds like something the Admiral would say." She smiles fondly when she says his rank.

I let go of a tense breath that I had not realized I was holding. "Great minds think alike." I say with a joking smile.

Terumi laughs. "That's such-"

She stops and stares out something outside. Her eyes grow wide, and then squint as though she is trying to get a better look at something. I turn around and look outside. Cathra and Aelius stand in the light of his energy orbs, peaceful and calm. I try to search for the cause of Terumi's alarm.

"There!" She shouts. She doesn't point at anything, and instead just sprints out the nearest door.

"Terumi!" I shout, following her lead. "What is it?"

I watch through the window by the door as Aelius and Cathra are startled by Terumi, who rips water from a pond and sends it flying at dark patch on the ceramic roof around the open garden.

I notice her target as a shadow moves to get out of the way of the water. I make it to the door, robes billowing around me, and immediately raise my hands and begin shooting spheres of starlight from my hands. None of them make contact with the shadow, but they do reveal the dark fabric that they wear. I see the metal glint of a knife at their side.

"Assassin!" I shout to Aelius and Cathra, who are still coming to their senses. "Get Cathra out of here!"

Aelius shakes his head. "I'm staying to help!" He yells.

I hear a series of sharp cracks, and the dirt around Aelius and Cathra begins to explode with small geysers of dirt. I don't know the cause of it, but Aelius seems to decide to listen to me. Without any hesitation, he grabs Cathra and pulls her behind him as he runs for the door. I look for the source of the geysers, which continue to follow behind the pair. I see a tear open in a loose piece of Cathra's clothing, and I realize that the source of the geysers must be some sort of projectile. But from where?

The thought meets me at the same time as a gust of wind knocks me off my feet. I look, midair, at the cause of it, and see the dark figure from before rushing at me. I use my airtime to summon energy into my hands. As they glow white with power, the figure is revealed, and I see two grey eyes that look out at me from a covered face. The figure is small, almost young, but the eyes have deadly intent. As does the short blade in their hands.

A torrent of water strikes the figure before they can reach me. I hit the grass and roll to my feet and see Terumi with her hands raised. A ring of water surrounds her, and I can see her determination in the moonlight.

A grey blur slips down from the roof and moves behind Terumi. I send a beam of energy at it, and it reflexively ducks underneath it. The figure glitters in the light of my power.

Terumi doesn't turn around, but instead decides to trust me to handle whatever is behind her. She runs towards the dark figure that attacked me, and I sprint towards the grey figure. "Make sure they don't get away!" I shout at her as we pass in the courtyard. Her verbal silence and the sound of furiously rushing water let me known that she heard me.

I get closer to the grey blur, which straightens and comes into focus as being a tall figure wearing a large straw hat with grey slacks, a grey jacket, and grey hand wrappings. "Lovely evening, isn't it, miss?" The figure says, voice raspy.

I do not respond. Adrenaline pumps through my system, and I know that regardless of the current calm, the figure could attack at any time. The sound of air blasts and water whips crash behind me.

"Ok, if you insist." The figure says, raising a hand. The ground below me shakes, and I jump to my left and hurl an energy sphere at the grey figure.

Grey mirrors my movement, getting out of the way of the sphere. He returns my attack with another one of his own, this time sending a chunk of the ground at my torso. I bring my left hand across my chest, and a barrier of white energy trails behind it, disintegrating the chunk of earth. The light from the barrier hurts my eyes, and I barely respond in time to Grey launching another chunk of earth at my head.

I duck underneath it, and use one of my feet to kick a sweeping arc of energy towards Grey. He jumps above it, and somehow sends himself shooting, midair, towards me. Confused, I step out of his way, but his arm catches mine as he goes by and he pulls me down to the ground with him.

His hand is a viselike grip on my arm, and I howl as he squeezes. I use my free hand to strike his chest with a fist of energy, and he howls too. In the light of my energy, I watch as tendrils of pure electricity course though his skin, and collect in his eyes.

His pure metallic eyes.

"What the hell are you?" I cry.

The figure smiles through the pain. "Interesting," Grey says. "You can call me interesting."

Then Grey punches me in the chest, and what at first feels like a blunt cannonball changes into a blade.

I cry out in pain, and then Grey pulls his bloody arm from my stomach. I see a blade at the end of his arm, but then I see a cloth-covered fist, and my confusion is as intense as the fire in my chest. Neither the pain, nor the confusion, nor my strength, is enough to keep the world from going black.