Lai couldn't sleep that night. She occasionally drifted off, but her dreams were haunted by a fire burning around her, and her falling, with multitude voices laughing and screaming. So she just lay in her bed, occasionally trying to read, or watch something, but quickly found she couldn't. She had no desire to speak to anyone.

Eventually, with nothing else to do, and hating what she was doing, she went downstairs. Akmei was sitting there, sitting in front of a bowl of noodle soup. 'You okay?' Lai asked.

'Yes.' Akmei was trying to sound confident. 'Zuko's okay. He wasn't on the ship.'

Lai breathed out. Akmei continued. 'But there was so much destruction. I've seen videos from last night. He fired a fireball that destroyed a battleship. It was carnage.'

'But it can't happen again, right? Sozin's Comet has passed now.' Lai asked.

'I suppose. But we've lost so much – all our aircraft carriers, our battleships, our military transports,– the only things we have left are our small craft. Anything we could use to do anything beyond our shores is gone. Not to mention the number of people who died.'

Akmei sipped some soup, and then continued. 'We'll rebuild our fleet, but it'll take decades to rebuild fully. And in that time, who knows what could happen? Without our fleet, we're dependent on our allies to help maintain stability in the world. We're impotent.'

'It's that bad?' Lai asked.

'Yes. Conduit effectively destroyed our military in one attack.'

Lai looked down. She'd lost by so much. But she didn't want to wallow in self-doubt. Lai stood up. 'I'll see you soon for training. I have something to do.'

'What is it?' Akmei asked.

'I need to face my enemy.' Lai was about to walk out, but then turned back. 'Akmei, thanks. I might've died if it weren't for your lavabending.'

Akmei smiled. 'It wasn't really lavabending. I had no control – just pumping the heat of Sozin's Comet into the rock. I won't be able to do it again.'

'You never know. It might have given you enough of an insight in how to do it. Keep at it.' And then Lai left the building.

Lai walked briskly up to the mountain peak. The last legacy of Sozin's Comet was leaving the sky, and the sun was beginning to rise fully, blotting out the remnants of the comet. Lai eventually reached the top of the mountain, and then sat down and tried to calm herself. It was hard for her to control herself. She eventually managed to block out her thoughts, and felt herself start to slip a little from the bonds on the earth. She found herself in a land of yellow clouds again, and again she saw the sight of Conduit.

As she approached, he looked up. 'So you return.'

'Yeah. You don't seem surprised.'

'All things balance. I am your shadow, that which defines you, and so you are drawn to face me.'

Lai glared at him. 'You won't win. I've seen your face here. I can find you.'

'Have you seen it?' Conduit asked. The man she had seen before was gone, and an old women in its place. Then it changed to a young Water Tribe girl. Then it changed to a large wrestler. Then it changed back to the original person. 'In the material world, we can hide with ease.'

'That doesn't matter! Doesn't matter what you say, I'll stop you eventually! You won't win. I'll learn, I'll get stronger, I'll.'

'No. You underestimate us. We can combine our strength, our knowledge. We are masters of every bending style and discipline. We know the secret histories of the world. We are older than the wheel, and the forged iron, and the ploughed field! And you think you can defeat us? You are too bold, Avatar.'

Lai felt winds starting to blow around her. And around her, voices began to chant again. 'Fall, fall, fall.' Lai sat down on the floor. 'You tried this before, and I bet it before!' Lai started to focus on her breathing, as the ground started to shake with the sound of the voices.

But the voices were different this time. They spoke as many, but as they spoke the word began to change. As the word fall began to fade, another arose. 'DIE, DIE, DIE!' The voices began to shake the ground, and the wind around Lai began to crack away at the ground she was sitting on. Lai began to panic as her steady surface started to crumble. 'We can also learn. Revenge. Will. Be. Ours.' And then the voices became so loud as to leave nothing left.

Lai felt herself fall again, as the ground gave away to nothing. She was back into her own body, in the material world. She grabbed onto the earth, and felt herself feel solid against it. Slowly, she got up and walked down the mountain.

At the bottom, she burst into the kitchen were Akmei was still sitting. 'Well we'd better get going. Haven't we got training to do?'

Akmei looked at her in surprised. 'Are you okay?'

'Yes.' Choose your path. Don't move from it. Not for the whole world. And with more determination than she felt, she said 'I am.'