So, it's about 11:50 pm right now, and I am wide awake. Damn tea and its caffeinated goodness, damn it to hell!

Iroh: I beg your pardon?

Er…I was saying…I don't own the avatar. Yes, that was is.

Iroh: That's what I though.

So, there's gonna be some action in this chapter! Oh dear, I hope everyone is in character…

Sokka: HEY! When am I gonna be mentioned? This is an AVATAR story you know!

Aang: Sokka, don't be such a Prima Donna.

Sokka: Ah-bu-wh-eh-AGGG :stalks off:

Patience grasshopper, you shall appear soon…all in good time.

Aang: eh, I don't really care. It gives me a break from all my hard work.

Katara: what, like playing with your marbles?

Aang: HEY! Don't mess with my marbles!

Eww…not like that you perves…we better start this story before this goes awry…

6

Zhou was kneeling at one end of the arena, his shirt off, and the red bands on his muscular arms. He outwardly smiled to himself; this was just too easy.

Kila was standing at the other end, because she didn't really quite understand what the point of kneeling was. She was just wearing her training pants and a loose fitting shirt, and her hair was pulled into a ponytail.

Zuko was standing next to his uncle, who was prepping Kila. "Remember your basics." Iroh was explaining. "That will create the firm-"

"You're supposed to be kneeling." Zuko interrupted, not really listening to the old General. "A quick meditation before you begin. Do you WANT to loose?"

"I'm not good at mediation; my mind always strays away from calm and starts thinking about other things, like Johnny Depp." Kila answered, also not really listening to Iroh.

"What in the world is Johnny Depp?" Zuko asked.

"And Angelina Jolie, and Erik, and-" Kila held up a hand and was counting off the things she though of on her fingers.

"What are these things?" Zuko asked again, more annoyed than before.

"KILA! Focus!" Iroh said trying to restore order.

"Are you ready for your lesson?" Zhou called from across the arena. He was already standing up and in his fighting stance.

Iroh mumbled something about nobody ever listening to him, but then said to Kila "Pay attention. Do not let your mind wander, and remember your basics. Patience. Now turn around."

Kila turned around, and got into her fighting stance as well.

All of a sudden, she realized that the whole crew was assembled in that arena. She realized that she was going to have to dodge fire from a professional firebender, and it wasn't like practice at all.

"How does Uncle expect me to win this?" Kila thought to herself, worry spreading throughout her body.

"I'll start out easy on you," Zhou said. "Now, dodge these." He then shot a few lazy fireballs at Kila, and she raised an eyebrow. Lowering her arms, she moved one step out of the way, and the fire went strolling by her.

"He is obviously underestimating me." she thought. "Maybe I can use this to my advantage…"

"Good," he said, a sneer crawling onto his face again. "Now, I will make them a bit harder, and I want you to send more back at me."

Then he shot fireball after fireball at Kila, much faster and harder to dodge than the ones before.

Kila jumped, turned, ducked and forced the fire back. She was never the most graceful person, and this worked as a large disadvantage.

Finally, Zhou shot a large fireball at her, and she grabbed it and shot it back, larger and fiercer than before.

He pushed it out of the way, his sneer broadening. Kila gulped. Then she took a deep breath and remembered her training with Iroh. Breathing out, she sent a large inferno past her fingertips, a little to the right of Zhou. Knowing how he would dodge it, she sent another to where he was standing. Now he had nowhere to go to dodge, he would have to send it back.

But he didn't. He just pushed it past his body, like a large wave. Kila bit her lip and began shooting fire off randomly, knowing she would never win this loosing battle.

Zhou was now just smiling, his knowledge of his soon success swelling his already oversized ego.

Stepping closer to Kila, he began to send larger and hotter fire at her, and he loved to see the expressions flowing across her face. It showed her weakness, showed that she was trying to think, not let it all flow out. It also showed his victory.

"BASICS!" Zhou then heard someone call from the sidelines.

Kila heard the cry as well. It snapped her back to reality, and although she didn't know who screamed that, she was eternally grateful. Taking another deep breath, she replayed all of her lessons through her head at top speed, remembering everything that Iroh had told her.

"Wait…" she thought to herself. "I'm the future avatar! Why didn't I remember this before?"

Zhou's eyes widened. For at that moment, Kila had sent five very large fireballs out of her right hand at the same time. She then pushed her other hand out and sent another five. Continuing this pattern, she kept taking steps, advancing on Zhou.

As she would take her steps, she pushed fire out from her feet as well. Soon she was just one big, walking, blazing inferno. Zhou stumbled backwards, and tripped over his feet.

Kila was practically right on top of him now, and she could see the large whites of his eyes. Then, suddenly, his sneer fell back into place and he put his hands together in front of his face. Then thrusting them apart, he sent Kila reeling backwards across the arena from the blast and heat of his last attack.

Kila's body slammed against the wall, and she slumped to the floor in a crumpled heap. But adrenaline was coursing through her veins, and she quickly jumped back up and charged into the middle of the arena, not feeling anything but power.

Zuko was taken aback. For one thing, he had never seen Kila on a power surge like this. But for another, that fire blast had engulfed her entire body, and he thought she couldhavebeen quite badly burned in the process. Amazingly, he was concerned for her safety. Wait, he was concerned? No no, that wasn't it. It was a strange feeling however. Zuko folded his arms and continued to watch the match, which was increasingly becoming more and more dangerous. There was that bizarre feeling coming from his stomach again… "I must be hungry or something…" he thought to himself.

Zhou raised his eyebrows at the tenacity of this strange girl. Then he stepped closer to the center, pumping out fire with every breath.

Sweat poured off of Kila's body, causing steam rise, creating the illusion that she was on fire herself. She placed the sides of her hands together and scrunched her face in concentration.

And then it happened. As Kila was pushing fire out of her hands, she accidentally sent a large wall of air, sending Zhou flying backwards. Kila didn't realize that she had sent it out, and she was amazed. She was never able to produce that much air before, and she didn't even know how she did it; she was never good at airbending.

As Zhou smacked his head against the wall, he sat there for a second, puzzled. "I've felt that kind of push before…" he thought to himself quickly. "When I had captured the avatar in my tower…was it just my imagination, or…"

Kila could see him thinking it all over in his head. Panicking, she started throwing out more and more fire towards the puzzled Admiral. This seemed to snap him out of his trance, and he jumped back up, ready to fight again.

Kila was getting tired, and she didn't think she could continue any longer. Thinking quickly, she tried to come up with a good way to catch Zhou off guard. The first thing that came to mind was pulling up her shirt up right in front of his face. But then she remembered that she really didn't have much there, and that was just fighting dirty. Even though she had once heard Zuko say "There is no such thing as fighting dirty in a fight", she didn't want to lower herself to his level. Even though his level was actually at a pretty good level, considering he was quite skilled in firebending. Wait, why was she taking so long to consider all of this in her head?

Kila shook her head the tiniest bit, and then ran towards Zhou. Quickly pushing a blast of fire he sent towards her off to the side, she fell to the floor and used her momentum to kick Zhou's leg from under him.

As Zhou fell down, Kila jumped back up and held her fists out right in front of his face, wearing determined look. Zhou's expression was befuddlement, and he knew at once that he had lost.

Kila sent a blast of fire out of both of her hands on either side of Zhou's face. The spectators gasped, because from their viewpoint it looked like she had basted his head to smithereens. Yet when the smoke diminished, the disgusting smell of burnt hair wafted up to their noses.

There was Zhou, still on the floor, his sideburns no longer there. Kila, instead of setting his face ablaze like everyone suspected, had just burned his sideburns off.

"I never liked them anyway" Kila said, lowering her hands. Then she turned around, wearing a triumphant smile. Confidently, she strode across the arena, a renewed spring in her step and a brand new scowl on Zhou's face.

Iroh was quite pleased. He watched Zhou with such intensity as Kila left the arena to see if he would try and catch her off guard, just as he did to Zuko that one time. Yet Zhou just stayed hunched from embarrassment and defeat. Iroh wished he could jump up and down out of pure joy and pride, yet his feet remained firmly planted on the ground. He was so proud of Kila for winning, and he was quite proud of himself for teaching her so well.

Zuko had mixed feelings. He was just plum happy that Zhou finally was shown up by a girl. Yet he was a bit dejected, for he now knew that if he sparred with Kila, he would meet the same fate Zhou just did. Except she probably wouldn't burn off his sideburns, she would probably just give him a comforting smile, and then go make him some food to cheer him up. Thinking this over in his head, he wasn't so downtrodden anymore.

And then he noticed that everyone was beginning to file out of the arena, and he decided to follow suit.

That night Zhou left quite suddenly and quietly. Iroh was the only one who went to see him off, and his ship sailed away quite quickly, like a dog running from a cactus patch it had just fallen in.
Later that night, Zuko was walking down the halls, making sure that his men were doing their job correctly. As he passed a room, he heard a sharp cry come from within it.

Thrusting the door open, he saw Kila sitting hunched on her bed, rubbing cream on her left arm. Taking another look at it, he noticed that it was dark red in color, and continued throughout her upper arm from her shoulder to her elbow. It was indeed burned deeply, and it looked as if it was permanent.

Kila looked up as he opened the door, and suddenly she felt quite sheepish.

"Hey" she said quietly, dipping her hand in more cream. "What's up?"

"Don't be stupid." Zuko said, leaning against the door frame. "I don't like trick questions."

"It's not a trick question." Kila said. "I'm just wondering what's going down."

Zuko stared at her again. "But you just asked me what was up. Pick a direction, and stay with it."

Kila rolled her eyes and began spreading cream on her arm again, breathing sharply.

Taking a closer look at her, Zuko noticed that her face was shinning a bit under her eyes: she had been crying.

"Does it hurt?" Zuko asked.

Kila looked up startled. "Oh no, not at all. It just smells really bad." Watching his face change from normal anger to perplexed anger, she explained "that was sarcasm. Yes it hurts you moron."

"How dare you?" Zuko said enraged.

"At this point, I dare. I don't care, because this hurts so damn much." And all of a sudden Kila's eyes welled up and she began crying a tad harder.

This was too much for Zuko. He hated it when she spoke out of line with him, he hated it when she was sarcastic, and he hated it when she confused him with her futuristic talk. "Actually," he thought to himself, "I hate basically every trait of hers." Yet he couldn't stand to see her cry.

But seeing her cry like that, he was confused. "She was just yelling at me, why is she all of a sudden so sad?" Sighing loudly to himself, he walked over to Kila's bed and stood in front of her, peering down. Her crying had subsided and she was now trying to tie a bandage on her arm one handed.

"Do you need any help?" he asked.

"I'm good."She replied sharply.

"I didn't ask if you were good, I asked if you needed help." Zuko said rolling his eyes.

Then Kila just started giggling. Zuko took a step backwards, again confused by her bizarre mood change. "You sounded just like my mom." Kila explained. Then her eyes welled up again. "Mom…I miss her."

"Please don't cry again!" Zuko pleaded, sitting down on her bed and pulling the bandages out of her hand. "Honestly. Are all the women from the future as queer as you?"

"Sometimes…" Kila said, watching him. She had obediently stopped crying, and was wondering why he was suddenly helping her.

"I fear the future." Zuko said plainly.

Kila sat still for awhile as Zuko continued to bandage her arm. Then she blurted out of the blue "I wish Zhou had actually made the burn a bit more…artistic."

Zuko looked up. "I beg your pardon?"

"Well think about it." Kila said, shifting her weight from side to side. "This burn is probably permanent, right? Well, if he was gonna make something permanent, don't you think he could have made it look a bit nicer? Like yours." She said pointing to Zuko's scar.

He stopped wrapping the bandage around her arm and continued to stare at her. "And how is mine artistic?" he asked acidly.

"At least it looks like a flame." Kila said shrugging. "Mine is just a blob." She sighed, and then asked "How did you get yours?"

"That is none of your business." He said, returning to wrapping.

"Alrighty…"

There were a few more moments, and then Kila said "You realize that this is really the first time we've actually had a real conversation?"

"We have barely said anything to each other." Zuko said, not looking up.

"But we've said more than usual." Kila said shrugging. "I kinda like it. It's fun to talk to you."

Zuko rotated his eyes upward, and she had a kind smile on her face. Moving his eyes back to his fingers, he said "Whenever we talk, I get confused. You always say the stupidest things. I think if you keep talking like that, I will have no choice but to throw you overboard." Zuko said calmly, finishing the bandage with a knot.

"Thanks." Kila said, admiring the bandage on her arm. Then she blinked a couple times and looked at Zuko with a concerned look on her face. "Wait...was that humor?" Kila said, leaning over and placing her hand over Zuko's forehead. "You seem warm…"

"Stop that." Zuko said pushing her hand away. He made a motion to stand up, but Kila pulled him back down and stood up herself.

"We need a doctor. Stay seated, it's not healthy for you to stand in this condition."

"I'm FINE!" he said jumping up and glaring down at her. Kila merely smiled back up at him. He continued to gaze at her for another millisecond, and then began to stalk out of the room.

"WAIT!" Kila called out.

Zuko spun on his heal. "WHAT?" he barked.

Kila shuffled her feat around for a second, then stuttered out "Do…do you have any rags….that you wouldn't mind never seeing again?"

Zuko raised an eyebrow. "Rags? What for?"

Kila just shrugged. "No reason…but it's really important."

Zuko just shook his head, befuddled by the woman. "Yes, they're somewhere on the ship. If you need them that badly, you can look for them yourself." Then he stalked out of the room, trying to keep his mind off her comment about their conversations, and trying to figure out why she would need rags.

Zhou sat in the helm, mapping out his course. He did not repeat what had happened on Zuko's ship with anyone, because he was too ashamed.

But he considered in his mind what he had felt when Kila had shot him with that one attack. Was it really fire and air bending? Or…was it just the pressure from the fire?

"She is a strange girl…" The admiral thought over in his head. "Too strange. There is something going on with her…and I intend to figure it out."

At the same time, Iroh was sipping tea in his room. Suddenly, his favorite tea cup sitting on a high shelf shattered without reason.

"A bad omen…" he said softly. "I wonder what the Gods have in store for us…"

Random and Inane Babble

Khazia- yes, Zhou does look like a monkey. That's why I had his sideburns burned off….hehehehehe. I love being God in a story. It's quite a rush of power. evil laugh

Zulaya- The reference was to how much Iroh likes ginseng tea. I'm glad to know that you think Zuko is in character, cause that's always great to hear. I'm always concerned that he's not, and that's the biggest peeve I have.

Other than that, please keep reviewing! I should have the next chapter up soon!

SeethingxShadows