A/N- ... It has been almost an entire year since I've updated this... Wow. I'm going to try to get a lot of stuff done on this story since it seems I have nothing but time on my hands for the next couple days.

"So I would be able to eat every part of a polar bear dog… except its liver?" Hiromi asked, looking at the Arctic survival summary Drisana had made her as she took a break for lunch.

The woman nodded as she took another bite of her noodles, "That's correct, not that you'd want to eat every part of it."

"Why not its liver?" She countered, sitting down across from the elderly woman.

"Polar bear dogs live in the arctic, yes?" Hiromi nodded her head. "And what other animals are there for them to eat in the arctic that can easily fill them up?"

"Seals, I guess. But I still don't see what that has to do with my question." She complained.

Drisana set down her bowl, "That's also correct. And I'm about to tell you what it has to do with your question." She said as she rolled her eyes.

Hiromi sat patiently, waiting for Drisana to further explain her reasoning.

"Seals have to eat a lot of certain vitamins in order to get their blubber and stay warm in the arctic weather. When the polar bear dogs eat the seals, the excess vitamins from the seals go to the polar bear dog's liver. This vitamin, however, is very dangerous when eaten by us humans."

"What happens?"

"This vitamin causes our skin to fall off."

Hiromi choked on her food, "What?"

Drisana smiled and nodded her head, "I promise it's true. I once knew a man who traveled with a man who had eaten polar bear dog liver and the next day he took his shoe off and the whole bottom of his foot came off with it."

"And how do they know it was the polar bear dog's liver?"

"It's happened in more than one instance. But you're going to have to trust me on this one, just don't eat its liver."

Hiromi widened her eyes and nodded her head, grimacing. "Got it."

Drisana looked intently at Hiromi, "I think you're almost ready."

Hiromi gulped and looked up at the woman, eyes still wide. "Ready to leave?"

Hiromi didn't know if she was ready, even if Drisana thought she was. She thought back on the past few weeks, the weeks she had spent training so that she could forge her own path to destiny. But was she ready to leave? What would she do with what Drisana had taught her? Hiromi didn't even know what her first step would be on her path.

"You were always ready to leave; I just had you stay so that I could make sure you didn't die your first day off of Whale Tail Island."

She looked at the white-haired woman disinterestedly, still pondering her actual level of readiness. "How do you know I'm ready?"

She raised one eyebrow, "I'm a one hundred and fourteen year old psychic light bender, just trust what I'm saying."

Hiromi narrowed her eyes at the woman; she'd grown annoyed at the woman for constantly using her age as justification for her actions. While she respected Drisana, Hiromi was often left in the dark about much of what Drisana was asking of her. Hiromi found it comparable to her father telling her something was false "Because I said so" rather than using logic to explain his reasoning.

"I do trust you; I'm just tired of people expecting me to do things without giving me a reason why!" Hiromi thought of her days in the fire nation, of how Lu Ten and she had been supporters of the war without ever realizing what the Fire Nation was actually doing. Hiromi cringed, thinking of the stories she had been told since she began training with Drisana and of what her parents told her in the spirit world.

"Your destiny has brought you this far, Hiromi. It was always meant for you to find out the truth about the Fire Nation, and for you to die in that ocean. Now you must fulfill what has already begun and you must help reunite the nations, especially those of your parents'."

Hiromi stood up, "But what do I do once I leave you, Drisana? I know how to make it on my own thanks to you, but I don't know how to start this revolution."

"The revolution has already begun," She said, walking to the edge of the water, "All that's left is for someone to rise up and lead it."

"But the Avatar-"

She turned around sharply, the air between them growing cold. Hiromi held her breath as she waited for the woman to respond, but nothing happened.

The only noises now were that of the rushing water next to the two of them. There was also the occasional sound of a nearby animal, but the roaring of the water seemed to be all that filled her ears.

Drisana looked back down at the water, "It doesn't matter what the Avatar does. Do you really think he's ready to face the fire lord?"

Hiromi remembered the extreme power Aang had exhibited the day she had drowned. "He seemed ready when he killed me."

"That's not what I'm talking about. The Avatar had killed you while in the Avatar state, something he himself has not learned to master. The only element he is able to consciously control is air. He has a long time before he will be ready, and you need to make sure that there are others who are ready when his time comes."

Hiromi nodded content with her answer. "Thank you, Drisana."

The old woman smiled and opened her arms to Hiromi, who responded by running forward to hug Drisana. "You're welcome, dear girl."

The next morning, Drisana and Hiromi woke up with the sun.

As Hiromi ate breakfast, she couldn't help but begin to feel like she was going to be homesick once she left the island. It was nice just having Drisana around, and she was scared that she would go mad living on her own.

For the first time since she died, Hiromi wondered if Zuko and Iroh knew she was okay.

"Does everyone think I'm dead or do they know that you found me?"

"Well honestly I doubt they just assumed a psychic woman had a vision that you were going to drown in the ocean and decided to save you, so they probably think you're dead. But you can still find them, I guess. Do you really want to go back to your fire nation life? I thought that's what you said you wanted to avoid."

Hiromi nodded her head aggressively, "No, I have no plans of going back to the fire nation. It's just, I do have friends still and if they think I'm dead.." Hiromi stopped and thought of Lu Ten. Was it possible he was still alive after all these years? Surely he would have come back to tell her he was okay. She scolded herself for trying to get her hopes up, he wasn't ever coming back and she knew this. It was something she needed to learn to accept.

"I'm just saying I would want to know if one of my friends wasn't really dead." Hiromi finished her sentence as she stood up and made sure her bag was packed.

"I already made sure you had everything." Drisana reminded her, "But I guess I understand what you're saying. I tried to find people from my past once I was resurrected as well."

Drisana thought of how she traveled the world searching for Kuzon, a boy she had grown up with but who moved away before their village was attacked.

"Did you ever find any of them?" Hiromi asked, interrupting Drisana's thoughts.

"No, I never did."

Hiromi's heart sank, surely she would be able to find Zuko. But did she want to risk having to return home?

"I guess they'll find out I'm still here when I help take out the fire lord." Hiromi half-joked, trying to lighten Drisana's depressing mood. Any time she talked about her life before she was resurrected she brought this suffocating air of gloominess with her that hung like fog all around them.

"That they will." Drisana said as she stood up, walking outside to the small boat she had obtained several years prior.

"I'm going to take you to the earth kingdom, but after that you're on your own."

Hiromi nodded her head and stepped onto the boat, "I'm ready."

It took a whole week for Hiromi and Drisana to reach land, and Hiromi had never been more grateful to see dry land in her whole life. The small boat Drisana had was outdated and far less sturdy than the one she had grown accustomed to when traveling with the banished prince. Hiromi was sick every single second she was on the ship, which may have been a good thing for Drisana because Hiromi wasted no time exiting the vessel and was eager to leave and be on her own.

Hiromi looked at the forest around her and reexamined the contents of her bag. She had a map, some food, material to set up camp, a canister for water, some medicine, a small list explaining what each of the herbs did, and a special baton Drisana had taught her to use.

"I invented it myself; do you see this small slit in the center?"

Hiromi nodded her head.

"There are small mirrors inside of here, and when you bend light into it like this," Drisana picked up the weapon and a blade slid out of either end of the baton. "The light bounces off of the mirrors and triggers these blades for you to use."

Hiromi placed the baton in a harness she wore on her hip and laughed, examining the map.

"Okay, so Drisana said I was in the Senlin forest.." She said, searching for her own location.

Once she found her place, she used the sun to help her navigate towards the town of Senlin, where she would then travel to Gaipan and attempt to liberate the earth kingdom inhabitants from the fire nation's grasp.

Does anyone even live here? Hiromi thought to herself as she entered Senlin. Several of the structures inside of the fenced town were completely destroyed, and there were no people walking around. Hiromi explored for a little bit, but then left when she couldn't find anyone.

"I bet the fire nation killed everyone here, too." Hiromi concluded, remembering the scorched section of the forest outside of the village.

She frowned and continued walking; stopping at the seedy merchant's pier to look at the food they had available, which wasn't much, then stopping for a final time to set up camp once the sun was down. Based on how far she had traveled that day, she would reach Gaipan by the end of tomorrow if she kept a fast pace.

Not worried about the rain, Hiromi decided to skip setting up her tent and instead slept on only her sleeping bag, looking up at the stars. She'd done pretty well for her first day on her own, in her opinion.

She woke up with the sun, feeling groggy from having so much excess sleep.

"Oh yeah, the nights are longer now that it's almost the winter solstice." She said, pleased with herself for making that connection.

She continued walking down the lonely dirt road until the thin, green trees surrounding her slowly transitioned into tall, wide trees whose leaves were red and orange.

She admired the slow transition nature provided her with and concluded she was very close to Gaipan. As she walked, she studied the forest around her. There were several metal traps right off the path that were poorly hidden from her line of vision. She went to further examine the traps and was shocked to discover they were made by people of the fire nation.

"There must be a camp close, unless the villagers set these up." She thought out loud, deciding to travel off of the road in case she ran into fire nation soldiers.

Hiromi heard rustling in the trees above her and she quickly somersaulted to the trunk of a nearby tree, resting in between its long roots.

She looked around the tree and saw a young sugar glider crawling down from the branch where she had heard the rustling noise. She laughed silently to herself and stood up; watching as the playful creature excitedly ran around in the leaves around them. Her eyes grew wide once she saw that the sugar glider was about to head towards a trap.

She held her hand out and produced a small beam of light, using it to distract the sugar glider.

She laughed as the sugar glider quickly turned towards the white light and attempted to catch it, frowning when it discovered that its hands were empty. She smiled and led the sugar glider to her, offering it some berries she had picked on her travels. Though suspicious at first, the sugar glider eventually took the fruits and ate them happily.

The creature looked up at Hiromi expectantly as she began to walk away, hoping for more berries.

"I don't have any more, little guy. I don't even have anything to feed myself." She said, looking down at her hungry stomach.

The sugar glider tilted its head and waited for a few seconds before jumping up and climbing one of the tall trees that surrounded her.

She heard another rustling noise from the same tree and she turned around, "I don't have any more f-" She said, expecting to see the sugar glider again.

"What was that?" She thought as she examined the tree.

When she didn't see anything, she turned around and was face to face with a tall, darkly complexioned boy.

She jumped back, reaching for her baton, "Who are you?" She said, narrowing her eyes.

The boy smiled, reaching for the piece of wheat he held in his mouth with his free hand. "I think I could ask you the same question, considering you're in my forest."

"Your forest?" She countered, standing up from her fighting stance.

"That's right," he laughed, "But I'm not telling you anything about me until you tell me who you are." He said, stepping closer to Hiromi.

"Or do you have something you're hiding?" He added, stepping forward again and backing Hiromi up against a tree.

"Oh, I'm not hiding anything. I'm just on my way to Gaipan." She slowly moved her hand towards her baton again.

His eyes looked down at her baton then back at her face, smiling "Are you sure that's all?"

She nodded her head, eyes locked with his. "Maybe."

"That's a shame, you seem like you could help me and my friends with something."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Nothing, just continue your way to Gaipan. I'll leave you alone."

Hiromi eyed him then slowly walked away, looking back at the ruggedly handsome boy following her. Once her eyes were facing back in front of her, she heard a whistling noise behind her and ducked, turning around and using her baton to deflect the projectile object away from her.

"I thought you were going to leave me alone?" She said to the boy, confused.

He smiled mischievously, "I changed my mind." He grabbed his tiger hook swords and ran towards Hiromi, who used her light bending to activate the blades inside of her baton. The rogue boy's eyes widened when he saw this, but it didn't hinder him from charging at her.

She stood her ground until the last second, when he swung one of the hook swords at her and she rolled out of the way, time seeming to go in slow motion.

She remembered the last sparring match she had with Zuko, when he had kicked her legs out from under her, and she smiled and repeated this with the boy. She kicked one of her legs out and caused him to roll forward and land on his back, looking up at Hiromi. She stood up and he smiled, propelling himself off of his back and picking up his sword.

Hiromi got back in her fighting stance as the boy charged at her again, this time hooking his swords together and twirling them around her so that she couldn't roll out of his way again. She tried to follow the twirling pattern the boy was using and knock a sword out of his grasp, but instead had her baton spear tossed from her hands and leaving her defenseless. She ran up a nearby tree and jumped off of it, using the propulsion to give her an extra boost so that she could retrieve her baton.

The boy stopped twirling his swords and unsheathed a knife from his belt, tossing it at Hiromi. Without her baton, she was unable to use it to deflect the blade and instead had to jump out of the way. The knife barely grazed the side of her arm, but she didn't stop to dwell on it as the boy was still running after her. She searched the ground for her baton, looking for it amongst the traps surrounding her. She remembered how she had distracted the sugar glider earlier and used this same technique to temporarily blind her attacker, causing him to drop his hooked swords as he reached for his eyes.

Hiromi saw her opening and leapt towards his weapons, grabbing them and somersaulting behind him.

He smiled at her, "You're quick." He pulled another knife from his belt and began circling Hiromi.

"Do you know how to use those?" He asked, still smiling.

Hiromi stared blankly at the boy, waiting for another opening. She had no clue how to use hooked swords and didn't want him to know this.

He tossed the knife at Hiromi and, as she leaned back to dodge it, he disarmed her by knocking the hooked swords out of her hands. She tried to kick him in the chest to send him back but was easily overpowered by the muscular boy.

She was flat on her back, her arms being held above her head by the boy. She tried to kick him off of her, but this only caused him to move on top of her legs so that she couldn't move.

Hiromi cursed Drisana for only teaching her how to fight instead of making her lift weights or something so that she could actually utilize her fighting skills rather than being overpowered by a boy like this. She wished she still had her fire bending too, and then she could have definitely kicked this guy's butt. But in the end she was just grateful to still be alive.

"I can teach you how to use tiger hook swords." He said, still smiling at Hiromi.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm Jet."

Hiromi looked at the boy, confused, and tried not to blush.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"What's it to you?" she spat.

"I want you to join me."

"Join you in what?"

"Take a walk with me." He said, standing up and holding his hand out to Hiromi.

She grabbed his hand, wincing when she felt where he had cut her earlier.

"My friends can fix that for you." He said, picking up his swords.

"I can fix it myself." She said, looking for her baton.

"Sorry, I was just trying to help."

She picked it up from the ground and looked at him, "You know, you could have just started this whole conversation by asking me to walk with you instead of fighting me."

"I wanted to see what you were made of. You're really not bad. You can definitely hold your own in a fight."

Hiromi rolled her eyes, "I could have told you that."

"Well you haven't seemed very eager to tell me much of anything about yourself." He countered.

She laughed, "I don't usually tell many people much about myself." She said, unsure of whether she should tell him her name. Is my name easily recognizable as a fire nation name? I really should have asked Drisana about this instead of worrying why I shouldn't eat polar bear dog liver.

"I can understand that, I bet you have one hell of a back story."

She raised her eyebrows, "You could say that."

"What do I call you?"

"Whatever you want, I guess. I don't remember my name."

He stopped, "Wait, so you've just gone this long without having a name?"

"Well, I'm sure I had one at one point." She lied, "I just don't remember it."

"So I'm guessing your parents were killed by the fire nation?"

"Yeah. I was really little." She lied again.

"I'm sorry. Mine were too, when I was eight."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay." He changed the subject, "But, I still don't know what I'm supposed to call you." He said as he twirled the piece of wheat around in his mouth.

"I've been trying to figure out the same thing for a while." A few minutes, really.

He laughed, "I'm sure I'll think of something. Give it enough time and the gang will think up a nickname for you."

Jet continued the conversation by telling Hiromi about his Freedom Fighters and how he thought she could be useful to them and their cause.

"I really want you to join us," he said, stopping at the edge of a river. "I think it could be your calling."

Hiromi nodded, it seemed too good to be true. She had found a group that was dedicated to taking down the fire nation, which was exactly what she had been searching for.

"I'm in."