A/N- I honestly just love getting nice reviews. It's really the only thing that motivates me to keep writing, so here's a big huge enormous thanks to Nerdy J Fics for warming my heart- but not in a heartburn way.

The first thought Hiromi had as a spirit was that she couldn't feel the temperature. She wasn't cold anymore, but she wasn't warm either.

She was lost in a void. She couldn't tell if it was light or dark. She knew that the nothingness around her was black, but it seemed bright, as if there were a light emitting from somewhere. It reminded Hiromi of when she would close her eyes and look up at the sun. A faint glow would exist within the darkness of her eyelids, but everything remained black.

Actually, now that Hiromi thought about it, the void surrounding her looked exactly like that- like she had her eyes closed and she was looking up at the sun.

Did she have her eyes closed? Hiromi couldn't tell, she still couldn't feel anything.

A woman's voice called out to Hiromi, "Wake up, Hiromi."

"Maybe I'm not dead." Hiromi thought. "Maybe I'm just paralyzed or something and I can't move my eyes or anything."

The woman spoke again, this time to someone else, "Why isn't she waking up?"

A mumble escaped Hiromi's lips. She wasn't quite sure what she was trying to say, but it got the point across that she at least wasn't dead.

"Did you hear that?" The woman said, excitedly. Hiromi imagined the woman's smile as she said this. The woman had a light, melodic voice that Hiromi couldn't help but admire.

For a brief moment, Hiromi's eyes were open. In this moment, Hiromi saw a couple things that caught her attention.

The first was that the people sitting next to her were a man and a woman. The man was definitely Hiromi's father, but she couldn't quite determine who the woman was. Hiromi assumed it was her mother, but she didn't ever really have a definite picture in her mind of what her mother looked like. Could it be Hiromi's mother? Where was she that she was able to see her father and her mother. The second was that the sun and moon were out at the same time, and, while this didn't strike her as particularly odd, for some reason it was something that caught her attention.

Then she fell asleep.

When Hiromi woke up, she was under water. She opened her eyes and screamed for help, but only bubbles escaped from her mouth.

Was the man and woman just a vision? Was Hiromi still in the ocean outside of the ship? Hiromi tried to make her body upright, but she found that the water she was in only came up to her knees.

Hiromi took in her surroundings- the dark forest, full of glowing eyes looking out at her. She looked at the body of water she was in, which appeared to be perfectly round. She stepped out of the water and onto the shore a few feet in front of her. The man and woman from earlier were nowhere to be seen, but she certainly wasn't in the south pole anymore.

She heard some rustling in the brush in front of her and brought her hands up to defend herself, preparing to whip fire in its direction.

"Who's there?" She said, her head beginning to throb.

A hooded figure stepped out from the forest, "You can't bend here." the figure said, gracefully walking towards her still.

What was this person talking about? Hiromi attempted to firebend towards the person, but no flames escaped her hands. She tried another time, but failed again.

"What did you do to me?" Hiromi said, backing up into the water.

"I didn't do anything to you."

"Like I believe that. Where am I?"

"The spirit world."

Hiromi tried to bend at the figure again, "Tell me the truth, where am I and what did you do to me?" Hiromi was up to her knees in water again and she was beginning to feel dizzy.

"You're dead." The figure removed its cloak and revealed itself to be the woman who had been sitting next to her father.

"Are you going to kill me?" Hiromi asked, backing up further.

The woman stopped, "No, you're already dead."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you're pretty much dead, anyway."

"Where is the man you were with before I fell asleep again?"

"Follow me."

Hiromi followed the woman hesitantly, her clothes drying as they treaded through the dense forest. As they walked, Hiromi noticed that several strange creatures inhabited this forest. Many of the animals were iridescent or even altogether see through. Hiromi looked at the plants as she walked by, trying to recall the name of some, but found that none of the plants around her were ones that she recognized.

"Where are we?" Hiromi asked, looking at the trees that towered above her.

"I already told you, dear girl. You're in the spirit world now."

For the first time, Hiromi believed her. Hiromi quickened her pace so that she was walking flush with the woman. "What does that have to do with me not being able to firebend?"

"It is the body that gives us the ability to bend. Because our bodies are still in the physical world and our spirits are here, we can't bend."

Hiromi decided that what the woman had said made sense, but still had a million questions left to ask her. What does it mean for her to be "pretty much" dead? Where was Hiromi's father? Who was she? Was Lu Ten here?

"Who are you?"

The woman smiled and shook her head, "I didn't expect you to recognize me."

Hiromi gave the woman a puzzled look, "Well who are you?"

The woman sighed and looked at Hiromi, "I'm your mother."

"I knew it!" Hiromi exclaimed, jumping in the air.

Hiromi examined the woman and felt foolish for not being surer of her assumption; the woman was a perfect likeness to herself, only far more beautiful and with dark hair. Aside from her cloak, she was dressed in a simple dress that went down to her slim ankles. Her long, dark hair was braided and swept over her shoulder and Hiromi wondered what her own hair would look like in a braid.

Hiromi looked at her own hair, which was wet and tangled and dripping down her back. She frowned when she remembered what had brought her here, to the spirit world with her parents.

Hiromi then wondered why she wasn't more astounded by the fact that she was walking through the forest with her mother. Maybe it was because it was all just so surreal, or maybe it just hadn't sunk in completely.

She shuddered at the thought of that word, sunk. She remembered the cold feeling that had completely taken over her body in her final moments. She remembered the darkness that shrouded her as she was lost in the depths of the ocean and the nothing she felt only moments later.

The last thing Hiromi would ever feel was the wrath of the ocean. Did the Avatar mean to kill her? Hiromi remembered how he was in the village, protecting its inhabitants and sacrificing himself. Surely it was a mistake, it had to be. She thought of how he looked when he emerged from the water atop the tower of spinning water, and realized that he was in a different state of mind when he was glowing.

"We're here." Her mother said, gesturing towards a large, open field.

The sun bounced off the rolling hills of green grass in such a way that reminded Hiromi of when she was young and running around all over the palace. It's funny how much of her life she had spent there, and sort of ironic. She was meant to have been raised as an earth kingdom princess, yet she grew up under the same roof as the princes and princesses of the fire nation. Almost instinctively, Hiromi stepped out from under the shade of the trees around her and into the sun, longing to be bathed in its warm rays of light, but felt nothing as every inch of her visible skin and hair was enveloped by its glow. It was the most eerie sensation, not being affected by the temperature. She had no clue what she was supposed to be feeling or why she couldn't feel it. It wouldn't have been so bad if maybe she was stuck feeling eternally temperate, at least then she'd always be comfortable. But instead she was stuck feeling nothing, and she couldn't keep from shedding a tear as she saw the sun shining on her face but wasn't able to feel its familiar warmth as it covered her countenance.

The sight of her father sitting only a hundred feet away surrounded by what she could only assume was food shocked Hiromi initially, her finding out of character for her father to be out on a picnic.

"When did he become such a family man?" Hiromi thought as she walked towards them.

"A little too late." Her own voice answered in the back of her mind.

She scolded herself for thinking so harshly, but couldn't help but find humor in her own company.

Her father stood up and greeted her with open arms, embracing her as she ran towards him.

More tears began shedding from her eyes; she hadn't realized how much she had missed him until that moment. She looked up at him and laughed through her tears, happy to see her father again.

"My dear girl, I've missed you." He said, laughing and pushing his daughter's hair behind her ear.

"I've missed you too, dad." She replied, his hearty laugh filling her ears.

The family sat down, talking about everything they could think up- from her parent's love story to Hiromi's life since her father and Lu Ten had passed on.

"Wait, you mean you're still with the fire nation?" Her father asked, transitioning his posture from relaxed to erect as the subject changed.

"Well, of course. Who's to say the Earth Kingdom would have allowed me in? I was engaged to the crown prince of the Fire Nation for crying out loud! I had no choice but to stay with Iroh and Prince Zuko."

Akemi placed a hand on Hiromi's shoulder, "Hiromi, dear, your time with us today has been a blessing. While under unfortunate circumstances, there's a reason your father left that passport with you. We'd hoped you'd return to my home in the Earth Kingdom palace and help defeat the corrupt leaders of the Fire Nation. "

"What do you mean?" Hiromi asked, confused.

"Hiromi, your mother and I always wanted a better life for you, outside of the Fire Nation. There was no way for both of us to escape, but we had always planned on finding a way for you to do so. I didn't want to leave you the way I did, but I had hoped that my letter would encourage you to start a new life, a better one."

Hiromi didn't understand anything her parents were telling her. Where did her father's sudden hate for the fire nation come from? Yes, she remembered the letter he had written her, but he hadn't said anything about insisting that she leave and turn against the Fire Nation.

"Why do the two of you hate the Fire Nation all of a sudden?" Hiromi said as she stood up.

"Hiromi, there are things that happened before your time that we don't have time to explain to you. There were complications in the life we lived that prevented us from ever leaving. There-" Her father began.

"What do you mean, you don't have time?" Hiromi interrupted, " I'm dead! We're all dead! We have all the time in the world! How could you possibly not have time to explain something to me?"

"Hiromi, you're not all the way dead." Akemi said calmly.

"But what does that mean?" Hiromi sobbed, falling to her knees.

"You aren't going to be here with us for much longer. This spiritual state that you're in is only temporary; there is someone with your physical body right now that is trying to make you return from the spirit world." Akemi replied, rubbing Hiromi's back softly.

"How do you know this?" she asked as she looked up at her mother.

"She came to us, she's a shaman and a close friend of mine. She told us months ago that she had a vision of a young girl that looked like me dying in the south sea. I asked her to be prepared to rescue you, and obviously she was."

"What will happen when I go back?" Hiromi asked, her head spinning.

"That is something that you must decide, Hiromi."

Hiromi couldn't respond, she didn't have the brain capacity to string a sentence together. Hiromi didn't know who she was anymore. In less than an hour her parents had stripped her of her entire identity. Was she even Fire Nation? What had her country done that was so awful?

Hiromi remembered how the water tribe villagers feared Zuko and his soldiers, and wondered what it was that they had done that was so terrible that they feared the fire nation. Had Hiromi been so sheltered inside of the palace walls that she was blind to what their military had been doing?

Hiromi nodded her head as she thought to herself, "Once I get back into the real world, how will I know what to do?" She asked her parents, looking to them for guidance.

"She will help you. Trust the Shaman, she has much wisdom to impart. You'd be surprised how much the two of you will have in common."

What was her mother talking about?

"What could the two of us possibly have in common?" Hiromi asked.

"That, we can't tell you. But we do need to tell you of something that the two of you will not share."

Hiromi half expected her father to say something very Iroh-like about her inner fire or something like that, but was surprised when her mother spoke instead.

"Come with me."

Hiromi followed her mother deep into the woods until they finally reached a barren landscape surrounded by rocks.

Hiromi looked at her mother, who appeared to be focused on some sort of inner turmoil.

"Why doesn't anyone like the Fire Nation?" Hiromi asked.

Her mother didn't pause to look at her, but kept walking as she spoke. "There are many things your country has done to cause distress to the other nations. You've spoken of Zuko searching the world for the Avatar so that he can restore his honor and return to the Fire Nation, but that's not where you need to be. The honor of the Fire Nation itself is tainted, having mercilessly destroyed the lives of thousands upon thousands of innocent people all across the world- not to mention eradicating an entire race of people from the face of the Earth."

Hiromi reflected upon this, the Fire Nation army killed innocent people, families? Hiromi thought of how happy she was while she was sitting with her parents only moments ago in the field - and the Fire Nation just took that away from people? And for what reason other than that because they had the ability to? Hiromi shuddered, imagining the hatred people had for her simply because of where she was born.

"We're here." Her mother said, interrupting Hiromi's thoughts.

"Where is here?"

"Nowhere special, I was just walking until I thought of a way to tell you this."

"Oh."

"There may be an advantage you will have above other benders when you return to the real world."

"What is it?"

"Technically, it's possible you've always possessed this ability. You've just never known how to use it."

Hiromi was too intrigued to respond.

"There is a special type of bending that is a combination of fire and earth bending called lava bending. Since the beginning of time, it has been believed that only the Avatar was powerful enough to possess this special skill- but there have been reports of earth benders having been able to manipulate lava since the Avatar's disappearance."

What was her mother talking about? Was her mother a lava bender?

"Were you a lava bender?"

Akemi laughed, "No, I wasn't. But your father and I believe that the lava benders have come from the children of fire and earth benders. While the skill has only been seen in the earth bending children of the two, we think that there's a small chance your prowess in fire bending could allow you to have this ability."

"How do I learn to use it?'

"You must find a lava bender to teach you."

Hiromi's excitement immediately dulled at her mother's answer to her question. How was she supposed to find an earth bender to teach her when everyone hated the fire nation? She sighed, "That's never going to happen. You said everyone hates the Fire Nation."

Her mother smiled, "Destiny has a funny way of working out."

Her mother gave her a hug and the two of them lay on the ground, looking up at the sky.

The last thing Hiromi noticed before she fell asleep was that the sun and the moon were both in the sky at the same time.

Zuko shot up from his bed, waking up in a cold sweat. He shook the memory of his nightmare from his head, trying to forget what it was that had waked him up.

He looked over at the sun dial in front of the small window in his room; it was almost sunrise.

Zuko lay back down in his bed, looking up at the ceiling and remembering what had happened only days before.

"Uncle! Where is Hiromi?" All of the crew members were on the ship, and he had searched everywhere looking for her after the Avatar had escaped.

"I haven't seen her since before the attack." He said, worry growing in his face.

Zuko did another run through of the ship, arousing the attention of the entire crew as he shouted her name repeatedly.

"Where is she?" he heard them murmur as they joined him in the search for her.

Zuko looked overboard the ship, "Did she fall off when we were hit with a wave?" Zuko shouted to no one in particular. He noticed several streaks of blood leading to where many of the crewmembers had fallen off, yet he didn't recall seeing any of the soldiers on board being wounded to that extent.

He took off his shirt and shoes and dove into the water against the will of his uncle, who was shouting for him to stop.

Zuko couldn't see anything in the darkness of the water, but he still swam deeper and deeper, listening and looking for any sign of Hiromi. He felt his lungs grow tight as he ran out of oxygen, but he continued to swim further. His ears popped once the water pressure was too much for his body, but he persevered and maintained his pace.

Eventually, the combination of cold and pressure was too much for him to bear, and he resurfaced. He was immediately hoisted up by a rope and was scolded by his uncle as he was brought to his room and was tended to so he wouldn't die of hypothermia.

Zuko passed out soon after, but was haunted by the idea of Hiromi being gone forever.

Zuko winced, refusing to believe that what had happened was true. He walked out onto the deck of the ship and searched for the docks his vessel would soon be approaching.

The first few rays of sunlight shone from the horizon, and Zuko couldn't help but wish Hiromi were there to watch it with him.

"Uncle, I want the repairs made as quickly as possible. I don't want to stay too long and risk losing his trail." Zuko said as he and his uncle reached the bottom of the walkway.

"You mean the Avatar?"

Zuko sharply turned to face Iroh, "Don't mention his name on these docks! Once word gets out that he's still alive, every firebender will be out looking for him, and I don't want anyone getting in the way!"

A man with sideburns approached them, "Getting in the way of what, Prince Zuko?"

"Captain Zhao." Zuko said with distaste.

The uniformed man smirked as he corrected Zuko, "It's Commander now." He bowed in Iroh's direction, "General Iroh, great hero of our nation."

"Retired General" Iroh said as he bowed back to Commander Zhao.

"The Fire Lord's brother and son are welcome guests any time." The man looked around. "Where is Miss Hiromi?"

"She's not with us anymore." Zuko replied, trying to hide the hurt in his voice.

"It doesn't surprise me. She probably got tired of living as if she were the one who was banished." The Commander smirked.

Zuko bit the inside of his cheek, trying not to lash out at the older man.

"What my nephew means is that Hiromi is not with any of us anymore. She has joined her father." Iroh said, glaring at Commander Zhao.

"My condolences." He said awkwardly before continuing, "What brings you to my harbor?"

"Our ship is being repaired." Iroh said, gesturing towards the ship.

"That's quite a bit of damage." Zhao said, inspecting the severely damaged vessel.

Zuko held up his pointer finger, "Yes. You wouldn't believe what happened." He looked at Iroh as the Commander stared at him disinterestedly. "Uncle! Tell Commander Zhao what happened."

Iroh's eyes grew wide as he was addressed by Zuko, "Yes. I will do that." He happily held his hand up as he related enthusiastically, "It was incredible!" Iroh spoke to Zuko from the corner of his mouth, "What? Did we crash or something?"

Zuko looked at his uncle uncomfortably, "Yes! Right into… an Earth Kingdom ship!"

Zhao eyed the two in disbelief, "Really? You must regale me with all the thrilling details." He smirked as he stepped closer to Zuko, "Join me for a drink?"

"Sorry, but we have to go." Zuko said as he began to walk away.

Iroh placed his hand on Zuko's shoulder to hold him back, "Prince Zuko, show Commander Zhao your respect." Iroh turned to face Zhao as he removed his hand from Zuko's shoulder. "We would be honored to join you. Do you have any ginseng tea? It's my favorite."

Hiromi opened her eyes and realized that she was freezing cold. She shivered as she sat up straight, studying her surroundings.

She appeared to be inside a large, hollowed out tree. In the center of the room was a fire that was keeping her semi-warm. She cupped her hands to her face and tried to use her breath of fire to help her warm her body, but she failed.

"You can't bend here." An old voice said, causing Hiromi to look over her shoulder.

"But I'm not in the spirit world anymore, why can't I bend?"

The woman stepped out of the shadows and into the flickering light of the fire in front of her. She couldn't make out very many details, but Hiromi noted that the woman wasn't very tall and that she had long and very curly light-colored hair. With the flickering of the flames in between them it was hard to tell if she was just old or if she too had the same colored hair as Hiromi.

"Sometimes, when a fire bender goes into the spirit world and returns, they lose their inner fire. This doesn't happen every time, it's an extremely rare occasion. But when it does their fire is replaced with its essence- its light is all that's left."

"So I can't bend anymore?" Hiromi said, feeling her heart drop.

"Not fire, anyway." The woman said as she smiled and produced a beam of light from her hand that reflected off of the walls of the tree. She beam of light shone so brightly that the entire tree lit up as if it were day time. In the brief moment of daylight the woman had brought to the tree, Hiromi had time to observe a few things about the woman that the fire hadn't allowed her to. For starters, her face was extremely wrinkly. She had to have been the oldest person Hiromi had seen in her entire life. However, after thinking about it, Hiromi decided that the woman was probably very beautiful when she was younger, and she still was beautiful, she was just also very old- not to say the two can't go hand in hand, but the aging of the woman's face seemed almost fake because of how exaggerated all of her wrinkles were. Each line in her face was a river carved out from the soft hills of her skin, the rivers ever moving and overlapping and changing. There were so many spots on her face from years of sun exposure that Hiromi had no doubt that the woman's face was entirely dusted with light colored freckles and her skin had to adjust by producing darker colored freckles over the preexisting ones. Aside from the woman's age, the only other thing Hiromi had noticed was the actual color of the woman's hair. While she did have gray and white hairs dominating most of the wild curls she adorned, it was blatantly obvious that the woman had, at one time shared the same color hair as Hiromi. As her light illuminated the area surrounding them, the parts of her hair that were still golden radiated more beautifully than Hiromi had ever seen anything sparkle.

Hiromi stared at the beautiful light in awe, and then looked at the woman. "Can I do that?"

The woman nodded her head.

Hiromi looked at her hands and produced a small glimmer of light. She smiled and then looked back up at the shaman. "Will I ever be able to fire bend again? What about what my mother told me, about me being a lava bender?"

The woman grimaced and looked at the fire, "I'm afraid it's impossible. I've been trying to figure out how to return my bending since I was your age."

Hiromi felt her heart drop once more.

"You'll never firebend again."