"I know you're nervous, but remember, firebending in and of itself is not something to fear." Training started early for Zuko and Aang. They picked an open space away from the camp in case any accidents occur.

"Okay. Not something to fear..."

"But if you don't respect it," Zuko crossed his arms over his chest. "It will chew you up and spit you out like an angry komodo-rhino!" His raised voice surprised Aang. "Now show me what you've got. Any amount of fire you can make."

Aang took a couple huffs of breath before attempting, for the first time in months, to firebend again. A pathetic puff of smoke oozed from his hand. He looked to his new teacher with an awkward grin of embarrassment. "Maybe I need a little more instruction. Perhaps a demonstration?"

"Good idea. You might want to take a couple steps back." Zuko took on a firebending stance and prepared to demonstrate to the Avatar his hard-earned skills. With a grunt, he punched the air, shocked to see only an arms-length of fire that disappeared quickly when there should've been at least ten-paces worth.

His student clapped to the side, irritating Zuko further. "What was that?! That was the worst firebending I've ever seen!"

"I thought it was... nice."

Zuko tried a couple more times, but attained the same results. "Why is this happening?!"

Aang scratched his head, trying to look for answers than won't offend Zuko. "Maybe it's the altitude. That last one kinda felt hot."

"Don't patronize me! You know what it's supposed to look like!"

"Sorry, Sifu Hotman..."

"And stop calling me THAT!"

Sokka had finished his own training and sat down to watch the pair. "Hey, jerks! Mind if I watch you two jerks do your jerkbending?"

"GET OUT OF HERE!"

He grinned as he got on the firebender's nerves. "Okaaay, take it easy! I was just kidding around. He snorted as he walked away. "Heh, jerkbending. Still got it."

That evening as they were having dinner, Zuko decided to confront them about their slightly alarming problem. "Listen everybody, I've got some pretty bad news. I've lost my stuff."

"Don't look at me! I didn't touch your stuff!" Toph raised her hands in defense. The motion earned her a few suspicious glances but they let it slide.

"If only that were the case." He thought bitterly. "I'm talking about my firebending. It's gone."

The silence around the camp fire was broken by Katara's cold laughter. "I'm sorry. I'm just laughing at the irony. You know, how it would've been nice if you'd lost your firebending a long time ago."

"Well, it's not lost. It's just... weaker for some reason."

"Or maybe you're just not as good as you think you are."

Zuko bit his tongue back from retorting to Katara's comments. He had just joined their group, and making enemies out of them again won't do him good. "I bet it's because I changed sides—"

"That's ridiculous!"

"I don't know. Maybe it isn't." Aang decided to step in between them as he felt the tension growing. "Maybe your firebending comes from rage, and you don't have enough anger to fuel it anymore like you used to."

"Sooo... all we need to do is make Zuko angry! Easy enough!" Sokka pitched his conclusion in and started poking Zuko with the hilt of his sword.

"OKAY, CUT IT OUT!" Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose to rein in his frustration. "Look, even if you're right, I don't want to rely on hate and anger anymore. There has to be another way."

"You're gonna need to learn to draw your firebending from another source. I recommend the original source." Toph calmly chewed on some nuts as she said so.

Sokka sat beside her and attempted once more to bring humor at their somber group. "How's he supposed to do that? By jumping into a volcano?"

"No." The earthbender replied curtly. "Zuko needs to go back to the original source of firebending."

"So... Is it jumping into a volcano?"

"I don't know. For earthbending, the original benders were the badgermoles." She set her bowl down and smiled fondly as she remembered spending her childhood with the ancient beings. "One day when I was little, I ran away and hid in a cave. That's where I met them. They were blind just like me so we understood each other. I was able to learn earthbending not just as a martial art, but as an extension of my senses."

The others nodded in understanding as they listened to Toph. It made sense that she had learned from the best, considering her advanced set of skills. She had even managed to invent a new subset of earthbending which was metalbending, one that is proving to be quite useful and advantageous lately. "For them, the original earthbenders, it wasn't just about fighting. It was their way of interacting with the world."

"That's amazing, Toph! I learned from the monks, but the original airbenders were the sky bisons." Aang smiled proudly at Appa. "Maybe you can give me a lesson sometime, buddy!" The bison roared in acknowledgment and went back to eating his hay.

Zuko looked at his feet and clenched his fists. "Well that doesn't help me. The original firebenders were dragons, and they're extinct."

"What do you mean? Roku had a dragon, and there were plenty of dragons when I was a kid." He forgot the fact that he was trapped in ice for almost a hundred years, and that a lot has happened since then.

"They aren't around anymore, okay?!" Zuko snapped and turned away. "But maybe, there's another way. The first people to learn from the dragons were the ancient Sun Warriors."

"Sun Warriors? Well, I know they weren't around when I was a kid..."

He shook his head. "No, they died off thousands of years ago, but their civilization wasn't far from where we are now. Maybe we could learn something by poking around their ruins."

"It's like what the monks used to tell me." Aang followed Zuko's gaze out beyond the reaches of the air temple. "Sometimes, the shadows of the past can be felt by the present."

Chiyo took a small bite out of the stale bread and downed a quarter of the water. Maya, the lady guard who had been kind to her, managed to sneak in some bandages and medicine to take care of the young woman's wounds.

She stifled her groan by biting a piece of cloth as Maya cleaned the deep gash at her waist. "I'm sorry. This is the last one, I promise."

After bandaging it neatly, she was given a proper change of clothes. "Thank you so much, Maya." Her smile turned into a slight wince as she pulled the tunic over her head and down her body. "For everything."

Maya helped her into the pants. "This is the least I can do for the apprentice of Lady Suiren."

At the mention of her mentor's name, Chiyo's stomach twisted with guilt and she looked away. "That ring," she tried to change the subject. "That resin ring means that you are a member of the Salinja Troupe as well, correct?"

"Yes, I am."

"Then what is an entertainer doing here in the Boiling Rock as a guard?"

The Lady Quinta had warned her about the apprentice's curious nature. Maya smiled as she answered. "I was planted by the troupe here to make sure you were safe."

Chiyo studied her expression carefully, something she had recently remembered to do during the long hours of silence in her dark cell. "There's more to it, isn't there?"

Maya threw her head back in laughter and amazement. "She truly is Suiren's ward!" There was no use hiding anything from her. "The ladies of the troupe want you to resume your apprenticeship training."

"What?!" Chiyo clutched her side as a sharp pain shook her from her outburst. "That's madness! Those ladies must be insane!"

"I'm sure Lady Anita and Lee would not like that comment—"

"To hell with that they think! Why would they even think that my training is important right now?!"

"It's because they are worried about you." Maya held both her trembling hands. "The death of Lady Suiren is causing you too much grief and suffering that slowly, you will start losing yourself in your despair. They want to stop that. They want to help you remember who you are as an apprentice entertainer, but more so as a strong, talented woman."

She growled in annoyance and pulled her hands away from Maya. "Such selfish, old... geezers! How could they think of all this with the war raging on?!"

"They're trying their best to help you, Chiyo." The lady guard tried to calm her down, worrying about her wounds reopening. "This was Lady Suiren's last wish according to her sister, Lady Reiko."

"H-Her last wish?"

Maya nodded and continued. "The morning of the eclipse, Lady Suiren wrote to Lady Reiko about your plans. She said that the chances of succeeding were too slim, and if the worst happens, the Salinja Troupe should do everything in their power to help you continue your path as an entertainer. Whatever it takes."

Chiyo digested her words with a heavy heart. The thought of the lady writing this letter was heartbreaking in its own right. She wiped the tears that had fallen from the corner of her eyes. "I... I have no one to teach me... Will you?"

The guard shook her head. "I may be a full-fledged entertainer, but the skills passed down to you by Lady Suiren already far exceeds my own. There is nothing I can teach you."

"Then how...? I'm just an apprentice."

"You could teach yourself..." Maya tucked a lock of Chiyo's now clean hair away from her face. "An old poet once said that the best lessons a person can learn are those that come from the past."

Chiyo groaned as she laid back on the hard cot. She hated riddles. "What could I possibly learn from the past that I haven't already learned?!"

Before Maya could answer, the alarm signalling the end of her shift blared throughout the prison. "I have to go. I'll change your bandages once I get back. Don't strain yourself too much." She peppered the apprentice with all sorts of reminders and left the cell.

She was blessed by a few seconds of light from the fire illuminating the hallways before once again being cloaked with darkness. As she closed her eyes to succumb to sleep, a memory of her and Suiren as they walked around grand ballroom of the Fire Nation Royal Palace played in her mind.

"This is where I'll be making my debut? During the princess's birthday?"

The lady smiled and gestured to the high ceilings illuminated by enormous chandeliers. "Under these lights, countless other entertainers performed for the royalty and notable guests. And tonight, it will soon be your turn, Chiyo."

The young girl looked around the big room, imagining it filled with people staring down at her. "I'm so nervous... and scared..."

"Do not worry, my dear. All the ladies that have performed here will be rooting for you and your success."

Chiyo frowned in confusion up at her mentor. "How would you know? Did they tell you?"

Lady Suiren laughed and looked around once more with a happy sigh. "Sometimes, the shadows of the past can be felt by the present."

Aang and Zuko had journeyed north of their camp and eventually found the ancient city of the Sun Warriors hidden in the dense forests of an island. As they studied the pathways and beautiful murals depicting the history of the ancient warriors, they talked about the dragons and why they ceased to exist. Zuko shared the history with a heavy heart, knowing his great-grandfather was the cause of their extinction

They finally reached the peak of the highest tiered-pyramid in the ancient city, but the entrance, a golden marvel of a gate, was sealed shut.

A reflection of light caught Zuko's eye and he looked up. He saw a reflective gem placed high on a stone pillar. The light of the sun bounced off it and unto a set of markings engraved on the stone floor. "It's a celestial calendar! Just like the fire sages have in their temples. I bet that stone opens the door, but only when sunlight hits it at the right angle... on the solstice."

"Monkey feathers! The solstice again! We can't wait here that long!"

"No, we can't, but we might be able to speed time up." Zuko drew one of his swords and directed the light beam towards the sun stone on top of the golden doors. "Let's see if we can outsmart the sun stone."

Nothing happened for a few seconds. Suddenly, the stone atop the gate glowed to life and the golden doors slid open. "Zuko, I don't care what everyone else says about you. You're pretty smart!"

He smiled at the compliment and they entered the temple. Aside from the murals on the four walls, there were eighteen statues situated in a circle. The pair inspected them carefully. Aang noticed an inscription at the base of the first pair of statues. "It says something called the Dancing Dragon." He stepped back and imitated the statue's stance, almost falling over backwards as the stone he stepped on sank a few inches from the floor level.

Zuko was doing an inspection of the statues as well when he felt Aang tugging his arm. "Zuko, get over here! I want you to dance with me!"

"What?!"

"Just do it! Let's follow the steps of the statues!"

He groaned, but complied nonetheless. It was better than doing nothing. As they moved on to the second statues, Zuko noticed the carvings on the floor that sank from the floor level.

"Don't you see? These aren't dance moves. These statues are giving us a lesson! I think this is some kind of Sun Warrior firebending form!"

"This better teach us some really good firebending."

They reached the last of the statues and they heard strange mechanisms whirring from beneath their feet. They looked behind them and saw a pedestal had risen from the center, and on top of it was a large golden egg.

"Hooray! Uh... what exactly is that?"

"Some kind of mystical gemstone." Zuko approached the egg.

"Well, don't touch it!"

"Why not?"

Aang looked around warily as if he was expecting something to jump at them. "Remember what happened down there with those spikes? I'm just very suspicious of giant, glowing gems sitting on pedestals."

He did not heed the Avatar's warning as he took the egg in his hands. If he concentrated enough, he could almost feel it pulsing in his palms. "It feels...almost alive."

Not later that he had finished that sentence, Zuko was thrown upward by the sudden gush of dark green tar that shot up from the pedestal. The golden door closed shut with a loud thud. "No! It's another trap!"

More of the oozing liquid came from the center of the room and Aang tried his best to steer clear of the substance. As it flooded the room, he jumped up the top railing where Zuko was trapped in. He tried to remove the metal railings, but they refused to budge. Instead, his hands got stuck in them. "I can't move! Zuko, do something!"

"Me?! I can't move either!"

They were pushed up against the railing as the tar had flooded the room entirely, and as suddenly as it had sprung, it ceased just as fast.

Their efforts to try and break free from the trap were futile and the sun of the afternoon had set, giving way to the moon of the night time.

"You just had to pick up the glowing egg, didn't you?" Aang glared sideways at him, but he doubted that he could see it from their angle.

"At least I made something happen!" Zuko defended himself. "If it were up to you, we'd never have made it past the courtyard!"

Aang took a deep breath and shouted once more. "HEEEEELP!"

"Who are you yelling to?! Nobody's lived here for centuries!"

"Well, what do you think we should do?"

He thought of other ways to escape, but came up with nothing. "Think about our place in the universe?" He answered pathetically.

"Who is down there?" They heard a gruff, menacing voice speak from above them.